So...my first Naruto fic...
read and review!
Kakashi had never quite been sure why Sandaime decided to try foisting a bunch of brats on him in the first place. He didn't like children really, and most certainly wasn't the best of role-models out there. Hell, the only person less suited to a team might be Anko. But Anko was...well, Anko, and that wasn't entirely her fault either he supposed.
At least all the other jounin's getting kids were mostly sane, and Gai did fall into that category, no matter what most people thought. A few ANBU missions certainly could have done worse in any case, and Gai just couldn't be gotten rid of. That counted more than most things to Kakashi. If anyone said that Gai was the only one who cared about the "rivalry" between the two shinobi, they obviously were missing something, most likely aided by the little pornographic novels and laconic smiles, or the almost crazed speeches about the SPRINGTIME OF YOUTH! But that's what they were for, so Kakashi decided that was a good thing. Yes, a very good thing when enemies pried at all the little cracks in a person.
But in any case, Kakashi had simply failed the lot of the little bodies playing pretend and got on with his life. Had any of the teams shown the least bit of potential, maybe he might have messed with them a bit longer, but then again, maybe not. He wasn't sure how he felt about protecting more people and he wasn't going to put undue effort into finding out if he didn't need to. He liked his routine just as it was thank you, though the parts where he almost got killed on a regular basis could do with a bit of improvement. But those days when the ceramic mask went on and he was running with a pack of more faceless creatures, he might even say he liked the almost dying. Huh, maybe that's why the Sandaime was insisting. The old man would do something like that.
So this brand new genin team was nothing new. They were even worse than some of the others he'd seen before. That Naruto kid was a god damned pain, Sakura fauned, and Uchiha Sasuke badly needed to find a hobby that made it impossible to angst. The parallels weren't perfect, but they weren't pleasant either. In fact he was surprised when they passed his test, and even more surprised to find that he didn't mind so much. Some days it felt like he was poking at an old wound when he watched the three of them and some days he felt positively old. But again, it's not like he really minds all that much.