It had been an exhausting mission. They were all worn out, and seeking ways to relax. Naruto would have been perfectly happy flopping to the ground and going to sleep, but the shopkeeper kept poking him with his broom so he had to get up.

All were relieved when Sakura finally remembered the location of the hot springs Ino's team had found on their own mission in the area just a few weeks before. The team immediately trooped out to the isolated location in the woods that Sakura led them to.

Naruto promptly fell asleep again and slipped under. Sasuke watched the bubbles stream up with a slight curiosity. When they stopped, he turned away, disinterested. Kakashi shook his head in exasperation and reached over and hauled Naruto up again so his head was above water once more. He was still sleeping as water streamed out his nose and mouth. Sasuke was still ignoring him. Kakashi rolled his visible eye, causing Sasuke and Sakura, who was looking over her shoulder from the smaller, connected pool she was lounging in for privacy, to wonder why he still had his mask on despite having shed the rest of his clothes.

Sakura attempted to be subtle in her attempt to peek at Sasuke, but she wasn't. She turned away again extremely quickly when Naruto awoke and stood up. Inner Sakura griped loudly about it being the wrong boy who'd stood, and why did Sasuke have to sit so the water came up to just below his nose? Not that his nose wasn't adorable, it was just that that was visible every day, and an opportunity like this only came around once in a lifetime, and—

"Man, am I beat!" Naruto proceeded to stretch out sore muscles, and Sakura, disgusted, proceeded to ignore that pool altogether. Naruto noticed and deflated slightly. Mentally, the secret plan he'd codenamed "Seduce Sakura with My Sexy Muscles" was scrapped. Sasuke snorted at him.

"You're only tired because you have to use half your chakra to do even the smallest thing. I'm surprised you can walk around without using it all."

New secret plan: Tie up Naked Sasuke and Feed Him to the Fangirls.

Naruto glanced around to see if there was any rope nearby. Unfortunately, there wasn't. There also weren't any towels.

Sasuke noticed around the same time.

"Uh, Kakashi-sensei, did we bring towels?" asked Naruto. Sasuke buried his face in his hands. He already knew the answer.

Kakashi shrugged. "I'll guess you'll just have to drip-dry until you're dry enough to put your clothes back on and walk back to town. Better get started."

Naruto immediately started complaining loudly as Sasuke silently hauled himself out of the water to begin the process. Sasuke favored Naruto with a deep glare and a command to stop being such a baby about it. Naruto promptly shut up and glared back. He had a small thought that their glares might be a tad more effective if they weren't stark naked.

Sakura had also noticed by now.

"Sensei, there aren't any towels!"

"You'll just have to do what the boys are doing. You might try jumping up and now to speed things up a bit, you know."

After giving Kakashi a series of horrified looks that turned to disbelief that turned to hopelessness that turned to resignation, Sasuke and Naruto started hopping lightly up and down in place, studiously avoiding eye contact.

Sakura averted her eyes.

"I think I'll just put on my clothes while I'm still wet."

Naruto and Sasuke stared at her in horror.

"Yeah, but what am I supposed to do? This is the only set of clothes I brought for this mission!"

Sakura wrinkled her nose. "Okay, I can understand wearing you clothes twice on a short mission. But what about underwear?"

Naruto rolled his eyes.

"Come on! A good pair of underwear can be worn for four days—forwards and backwards, and then inside out both ways."

Sakura stared at him in horror.

"That's disgusting!"

Sasuke gave her a pointed look. "This is why you always have too much luggage on long-distance missions. You bring along too much underwear."

Which made it clear that Sasuke also subscribed to this theory. Sakura was swamped with images of Sasuke in dirty underwear, which were very, very bad and very, very good at the same time. Kakashi sighed nostalgically.

"Ah, to be young and filthy again. Reminds me of little kids playing in mud puddles. Cute, really."

Sasuke glared. "What, do you bring extra luggage too? You don't need that much underwear…"

Kakashi interrupted him with a wave of his hand.

"Actually, I wear boxers. And those are like shorts, so the usual rules of how often you have to wash underwear don't apply."

Sasuke and Naruto stopped to absorb this.

"I…I never realized that before," said Sasuke thoughtfully.

Kakashi smiled happily behind his mask. "Well, that's my job as your teacher, after all. Passing on knowledge to the next generation."

Sakura was disgusted. Unfortunately for Kakashi, she also made an important discovery.

"Sensei! You have a towel and you were hiding it?"

"Oops."

-…-

Kiba was relaxing with Akamaru outside the small place his team had decided to stay the night at. He was just wondering if Kurenai could be talked into letting him have some sake (not likely, but hey, he could dream, couldn't he?) when Sakura sprinted past in nothing but a towel.

She was closely followed by Naruto and Sasuke, who were both buck naked and shouting at the top of their lungs for her to give up the towel. Right on their heels was Kakashi, who was naked except for his mask and headband and was bellowing in an outraged voice for the return of his towel.

After they passed, Kiba and his dog sat silently for a few long moments. Then Kiba got up and went inside. It was time for bed.