I don't own anything or make any money off of anything Naruto.
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The hot spring sun beat down on the three genin, once again waiting for their notoriously late sensei. Sasuke twirled a kunai in his hand, randomly changing its direction, in an idle way that seemed cool and bored at the same time. Irritated, Sakura had given up on ogling for the moment to berate the energetic blonde that seemed happy chasing a grasshopper around.
Naruto made the final pounce, successfully catching his little green target, when a puff of smoke directly in front of him threw his balance off. With a soft thud he hit the ground, then looked up to the masked nin with one deceptively cheery eye showing.
"Yo!" he called out, giving the group a small wave.
Naruto quickly got up and dusted off his backside. "Eh, you're late again, Kakashi-sensei!"
"Oh?" Their jounin teacher had the audacity to look surprised. "Am I?"
The dark headed boy scoffed, looking once again out to the road away from Konoha as Sakura crossed her arms rather expressively. "Honestly, sensei," she scolded maternally. "Why give us a meeting time you can actually stick to?"
Without reason, Kakashi did not give his usual excuses of "An old lady needed my help" or "I got lost by the marketplace". Instead, he fought the urge to touch the eye under the hitai-ate and answered, "Must be a bad habit I picked up in the last war."
The exuberant boy in orange turned away, starting ahead of the group while yelling back, "Most people have glorious war stories, you just have bad habits!"
The other two followed, but Kakashi smile did not fade. In fact, as the bells quietly chimed within his pocket with his even steps, it reminded him that he carried more of his best friend Obito then just the gifted eye, even if it was bad habits.