Things for Kakashi and his team had gone awry all morning. Sakura being in a particularly foul mood for whatever reason, (Kakashi would like to blame Mother Nature and the late Hokage for leaving him with such a beast of a girl to train) had hit Naruto almost enough times in the head to leave the boy with near permanent brain damage. Pleading with Gai to once more train with his dysfunctional team, the two jounins quickly formulated a plan that had the two boisterous team-mates separated and doing some form of training before Naruto lost anymore blood and the vein on Sakura's forehead threatened to explode.
The late part of the morning left Tenten setting up traps with Naruto, Neji fighting all out with Sauske, and Sakura showing Lee techniques on how to mould chakra.
Things had finally calmed down to where Gai and Kakashi felt relaxed enough to casually spar with one another and hold a conversation about Kakashi's on-going dilemma.
"I see your cherry blossom has quite the fire of youth," Gai spoke over the clash of their kunais. Kakashi nodded wearily.
"She does have quite the temper," he acknowledged as he parried Gai's oncoming advance. Gai round-housed him and he easily dodged. "Tell me, is this normal?"
Gai couldn't help the smile that spread across his visage. The look on Kakashi's face easily spoke volumes of how he felt completely lost and helpless in the world of powerful young kunoichi with anger management issues. Kakashi resorted to deflecting in group training exercises with Gai just to try and mitigate any violent outbursts by the pinkette's brutish behavior. A certain swell of pride rose up in Gai for his one and only female student. He couldn't have asked for a better girl to train. Tenten was bright, gifted, determined, well disciplined and didn't let things like hormones get in the way of her training or advancement in her field. She was respectful of her teammates and herself, and treated him, her sensei, with an honored reverence that nearly made him cry the first time she bowed to him after their first training session as a team.
Gai deflected a clean swipe of a well-placed shuriken to his chest. He knew this to mean that Gai was taking too long to answer him, and that Kakashi was impatient for a reply.
"A phase to be sure," he responded confidently and it seemed to ease the concern he perceived in Kakashi's exposed black eye. He followed it up with a statement that he wasn't quite sure was true, but as the intent was to console his friend, he didn't think it would hurt. "Any girl would have acted out that way if she had been insulted the way that Sakura had. Perhaps it might teach Naruto to behave in a more gentlemanly manor in the future."
Kakashi only nodded a reply back as he jumped forward with a frontal assault, attempting a two-footed kick to Gai's chest that the man dodged with a simple grace.
"Thanks again," Kakashi spoke in a low, casual voice to his friend. As unlikely as it was to receive any kind of gratitude from the silver-haired jounin, Gai had been hearing Kakashi thank him more and more lately. The stress of having a bunch of hellion misfits for a team was finally getting him to reach a breaking point in his psyche.
"We can do the same thing tomorrow," Gai simply offered instead of a "you're welcome."
Kakashi nodded once again gratefully, and the two jounins stopped their spar to round up the rest of their troop. "Friday we have a mission for a week out in Iwa."
Kakashi nodded again, fully understanding that Gai would not be around to alleviate any potential hazards that his team might bring about at that time. He would have deal with the havoc that ensued on his own in Gai's absence.
"That's it for today!" Gai's booming voice resounded as he cupped his hand around his mouth so that Tenten and Naruto could hear from the far training field where they were huddled together. The Uchiha and the Hyuga came in, both panting and half singed, only acknowledging each other's accomplishments with a half a chin nod each. Gai motioned for Lee and Sakura, who looked in better spirits, over from the rock they were perched upon. Both were smiling as they walked up, and Lee started filling in his sensei about all of the wonderful things that Sakura had shown him about the chakra system and forming chakra in the palm of your hand. Sakura preened at his flowery words and even let Lee continue to sit by her and show him a bit more pointers as they searched for their water bottles.
Tenten and Naruto were the last to arrive, as they needed the extra time to dismantle their traps and pack up their gear. Ebullient as ever, Naruto bounded up to the group with Tenten alongside him, and an armful of trip wire and dummy tags in hand.
"Man, Tenten, I had no idea you knew so much about explosives and weapons! If your boobs weren't so big, I would have totally mistaken you for a guy!"
Kakashi saw visions of orange and black cloth covering the ground, saturated in blood. He quickly grabbed Tenten with one arm below her shoulders from behind, and held her close to his chest before she could attack her would-be target.
Gai was able to catch the glint of metal flashing in the instantaneous movement. If he had blinked he would have missed it. Tenten held completely still, as per her training from here sensei when a fellow shinobi did such a thing. Kakashi leaned down and whispered in her ear.
"I think Naruto has suffered enough today. Let's just let this one go in the spirit of camaraderie, okay?" If Naruto's brain got addled again by another piss-pounding, he was sure that he would get reported to the authorities for child abuse.
"Gai Sensei!" Tenten hollered over her shoulder, "Why is your perverted friend restraining me?"
Gai tried very hard to hold back the smile that threatened to split his face in two. He scratched the stubble on his cheek and tongued a canine instead. "Kakashi," he cleared his throat, "You should probably let her go now."
Tenten had gone stock-still under Kakashi's grip with a look that simply stated that she was not amused. Clearly, the weapon's mistress was ticked off. Everyone had gone silent to witness what would happen next. Sauske and Neji exchanged cocky looks as this had the makings for a very entertaining next few moments. The two boys folded their arms over their chests and sat back against a tree to observe. Sakura and Lee looked alarmed with big eyes, and Naruto, realizing his folly, tried to correct his mistake by sputtering an apology quickly and hiding behind his peers.
"Not until she calms down," Kakashi reasoned, "I would hate to see Naruto get skewered. I think he has been through enough already today."
"Kakashi," Gai tried his hardest to keep a stoic face at this point, "It's not Naruto we have to worry about getting skewered." Gai slowly approached him and put a hand on Kakashi's shoulder just as the copy-nin felt the pressure of a tanto threaten to end his manhood.
"Oh!" Kakashi breathed out suddenly as he released his grip on the kunoichi. With another quick flash of steel, the tanto was nowhere in sight. The only thing before him was a less than happy kunoichi stepping back to gain her distance from him.
"Natuto!" Tenten called over to him in a professional manner. The boy timidly peeked around Sakura, his makeshift shield.
"Yes, Tenten-chan?" he bashfully grinned.
"Don't use up all those demo tags. Tomorrow I can show you how to set up traps that even a Sharingan user can't spot." Tenten gave a death glare to the silver haired ninja as Naruto erupted in whoops and hollers from behind the pink haired kunoichi. He jovially jumped up and down in the air pumping a fist and bragged about how he would one day snare Sauske-teme in The Greatest Trap Ever Know To Man.
Tenten made her exit between the two jounins to grab the rest of her gear and head off the fields.
Rubbing his chin thoughtfully, Gai slung his arm around his shoulder. "You know, perhaps you should see to someone about that temper of Sakura's. It has made you unquestioningly paranoid about the temperament of others."
"Hai, hai," Kakashi conceded, as Gai led the bewildered copy-nin off the fields. One thing was certain; Kakashi thought as he rubbed his arm where it had crossed over Tenten's chest, Naruto's assessment of Tenten was spot on. That, and he couldn't help but feel a little bit threatened by her last comment to Naruto.
(o)
A/N: I wrote this with no story line plot whatsoever. I just thought it was funny and that I would share it with you. Happy readings my friends!