A Step Back

"C'mon this way!" Naruto yelled to his teammates, "Just a little farther! You'll see it's awesome!"

Crossing her arms, Sakura grumbled "I don't know how one training field can be that much better than another..."

"Hn," Sasuke voiced in agreement as he let his eyes wander around the path they were taking. He didn't trust Naruto to get them back to the village, they'd been wandering out here for the better part of an hour and Sasuke was beginning to doubt his blond teammates sense of direction.

Stopping just beside some vines and sprouting trees, Naruto scratched his head and turned to them. "I-" he frowned. "I think this is the spot, but..."

"Did you get us lost Naruto?" Sakura grumbled as she came up beside him. "Remember what I said would happen if that was the case?" She reminded him with a threatening edge to her voice; arm winding up past her shoulder.

Stumbling a step back, the blond shook his head. "It's not that!" He yelped. "No, I mean, well," he gestured for them to pear into the clearing. "It's all dirt and before it was all green like no one used it and-" he leaned in and whispered "I don't recognize those guys."

"What?" Sakura murmured, anger forgotten in favor of peaking past the saplings.

Sasuke joined her and Naruto after a moment, his own curiosity stimulated too much to ignore. Peering in, he saw a girl just shy of Sakura's height with brown hair and markings on her face that reminded him of Kiba's...but what was even more odd was the boy that was with her. A kid, his hair as dark as his own, but wearing goggles much like Naruto had before they graduated from the Academy and when this odd kid turned whilst talking animatedly to the brown haired girl on his back was a-

"Who the hell are you?" A voice from behind them demanded.

All three jumped.

It was a boy. But what horrified and shocked them all was just who he looked like. Just like their sensei.

"Are you related to Kakashi or somethin'?" Naruto demanded.

Sasuke could have hit him then, but Sakura did it for him as the smaller boy in front of them raised an eyebrow and said "I am Kakashi."

Pupils dilated, Sakura grabbed her teammates wrists and laughed nervously as she said "Maybe we should go-"

Kakashi snagged Naruto and with both eyes (how odd, how strange) curved them upward into a mocking smile. "I don't think so," he told them. "You can stay until Minato-sensei comes. I'm sure he'd like to know why you were spying on his students."

"I don't know what you're implying, but it's not what it looks like!" Sakura insisted as he and Naruto stood in a dumfounded sort of silence. How was this their life? A kid version of their teacher right in front of them talking about his sensei.

Their fighting caught the attention of the two other from the training field and suddenly, the brunette girl and goggle-wearing boy were behind the three. "Who are these guys, Kakashi?" The girl inquired.

Eyes sliding away from their faces, Sasuke could still feel that their teacher was watching them even as he spoke to the girl. "I don't know. They were watching you two as I came up."

Turning to the boy beside her, the girl exclaimed "Really! Oh wow, Obito and I didn't even notice..."

And the boy, Obito, nodded vigorously.

"I noticed," Kakashi replied and their was something like disgust and superiority in his voice.

Sasuke found he didn't like that.

It seemed Obito didn't care for it either because his face turned red and he yelled "You don't have to talk to us like we're idiots, you know!"

"Hush Obito, I'm sure he didn't mean it like..." the brunette tried to placate. "Right?" She questioned as she looked to Kakashi with eyes that begged for him to say yes.

Their boy sensei nodded. "Of course, Rin," he answered and the girl smiled as she turned her back. "See? Now why don't we get back to the field to wait for sensei?"

Kakashi's gaze was smug as he continued to hold a staring contest with the Obito boy and if Naruto hadn't begun to complain about Kakashi's grip a brawl might have broken out right in front of them.

Letting Sasuke's blond teammate go, Kakashi told them, "If any of you try and runaway, I'll kill you."

Sasuke hated it, but he found that he believed his child-sensei.

And so, the two boys and girls went into the field where Rin was waiting and wringing her hands. "You don't think he's gotten called away on another mission, do you?"

"If that was the case, he'd have asked Kushina to come," Kakashi answered from where he was sharpening a kunai.

Obito smirked and said "You know, you were late today! Not me!"

Their boy sensei's brow twitched "I had to lose Gai on the way," he explained.

"Oh Kakashi..." Rin sighed. "If you humored him once in a while I'm sure he wouldn't be so...enthusiastic."

The boy only snorted and Obito rolled his eyes before looking to them. "You're an Uchiha, right?" He asked Sasuke.

"Yes..."

Squinting, he got in real close and said "y'know, I don't think I've ever seen you before! You kind of look like Mikoto, one of the Clan Leader's wife..."

Sasuke didn't know what to say to that and so stuck his hands in his pockets and turned his head as he mumbled "Hn."

Obito turned to his fellow Uchiha's teammates. "He doesn't talk much, does he?" He inquired.

Sakura laughed and Naruto snickered.

"No, not usually," Sakura answered for Sasuke.

Rin smiled and commented "We have our own silent-type as well..." her eyes moving to Kakashi as he continued to studiously ignore them as he kept an eye on them at the same time.

Before she could say more than that, though, another presence came to life and when they all spun around they saw it was a blond man that looked very much like Naruto. A faint smile on his face, he said "Sorry about being late guys, the Hokage wanted to see me..."

He spotted Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke then. "And who are you kids?" He inquired.

"They were spying on Rin and Obito, Minato-sensei" Kakashi told his teacher.

"We were not!" Naruto grumbled. "We were just going to use the training field but you were here already!"

Rolling his eyes and giving a good laugh then, the man, Minato-sensei, nudged them away from his students. "I believe you kids," he told Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura. "You can go."

He leaned in very close then and with a quick glance to his students whispered; "Don't mind 'kashi, okay? He's was just watching out for his teammates!"

"Ah, sure," Naruto agreed for them all.

As they made their hasty retreat, Sasuke said to Sakura and Naruto. "His sensei was wrong, Kakashi doesn't cares at all about his teammates."

Worrying her lip, Sakura mumbled "I-he seemed to like Rin okay..."

"Are you kidding!? He was a jerk!" Naruto shouted.

Sasuke had to agree even as Sakura argued differently with Naruto. From the way their boy-sensei had behaved, he'd say he didn't like or believe in his teammates at all...but that seemed wrong. He was the one told them how important teammates and teamwork were, so, how could he say that if he hadn't liked his own genin teammates?

It was a conundrum and if Sasuke were a different person, he may have asked the adult version when they saw him again, but he wasn't going to and instead would simply try and figure out for himself what had changed between this boyhood version and the one they knew now.

"It's the village!" Naruto cried happily. Running ahead a bit he turned back and laughed, "And it's our village too!"

Sakura frowned at the blond. "You're sure about that?"

"Yeah! See that's Kiba over there!" And it was, Sasuke saw.

It was a curious trip they'd taken together and it had raised so many questions that he'd never felt needed asking before. Most of all though, he was just glad they were in their time. With the Kakashi who believed in teamwork and didn't look at them as if they were idiots all the time.

I don't quite know if I'm happy with this, but I wanted to do something from Sasuke's pov more or less and after a while of writing, this was my best work.

What do you guys think? Is it good? Bad? Okay?

Thanks very much for reading and please review!

If you liked this, you may also like:

And I Struggle: "Getting the sharingan did not in fact make Kakashi's life any easier. Actually, it might have made it even harder."

Or

Back to Days: "Sasuke makes Naruto eat a bug. Funnily enough, Kakashi remembers that Rin made Obito do the same once."

P.S. If you have time, I'd greatly appreciate if you could vote on the poll I have on my page as well!