Ah, so I'm quite...shocked by the reception. I mean, really, I expected this to be untouched. Thank you, to anyone who bothered to touch this at all.

If you haven't really deduced yet, then this story is going to be split into arcs. Sentinels of a Childhood Long Past focuses on the things that created what he is...later in the story.

This is kinda AU Canonverse, because I'm altering small things other than the already obvious large changes. And note that this is kind of like another Japan, so seasons and "color changes" (as you'll see below) will not take place in the exact times that they actually do in the Japan that we know. I'm still retaining some traditions though, like the Five Sacred Festivals of ancient Japan.

{sentinels of a childhood long past}
of flame and trails of ash

Holding a hitai-ate in his hands seemed so unreal, simply a dream to him just two weeks ago, and now he was standing in the sunlight-flooded forest, back ramrod straight in blatant disbelief of the events that had just unfolded right before him. But, they had happened. And that was amazing.

He hadn't passed the written portion of the exams for all his hopelessness in paying attention to lectures, and he hadn't passed the practical portion either because only the gods knew why he was still beyond recall at making a bunshin.

So, it was quite a miracle to be holding a hitai-ate right now with no strings attached—Naruto even pinched himself a few times just to make sure that he really wasn't dreaming on the whole thing.

Quite frankly, Iruka had to pinch himself too, because he had just seen a mere Academy student—and not just any Academy student, but Uzumaki Naruto, the dead last, the braindead loser, idiot of the village, but he knows he's digressing as the list continues so Iruka returns to his original point—perform what seemed like an A-rank technique that was created by Naruto himself, since he's never seen something of that sort in Konoha, and where else could he have learned it from? Not exactly everyone was whipping wind and liquid earth around so easily.

It was truly fantastic, really, because here was a boy with little to no chakra control, not nearly enough to even make a simple bunshin, the same boy who had vandalized practically every single building in the village, and the same who was bad at everything except for eating ramen and pranking. (What if this were an entire prank right now? Iruka had thought, but he shoved that evil thought aside immediately.) But this was also the same boy that the Sandaime had personally pulled him aside for, just to tell Iruka that there was more than meets the eye to him, the gaki and all of his immature tricks. Power? Iruka had asked, but the Sandaime had only smiled and walked off with a shake of his head.

The boy had surpassed all expectations, and he felt an enormous surge of pride in him, because Naruto was going to become a great shinobi someday, a shinobi molded into shape by experience and the fierce determination that Naruto already possessed.

The Will of Fire was a truly amazing thing, Iruka marveled as he carried a tired and sleepy Naruto back into the village. The other chuunin would laugh at him and make annoying jibes at him for promoting a kid as "hopeless" as Naruto, but really, Iruka could not care less right now. The air and forests around him seemed even more like home than ever with Naruto here—birds sang clearly, leaves danced freely, and the fire burned brighter than ever before. He was injured, tired, and high on jubilance, so really, nothing that could happen right now would bother him at all. Life was peaceful for the time, and he had learned to enjoy it.

Imagine everyone's horror to find the bakemono sitting in the same room as the other genin when he had evidently failed the exam. Sakura walked into the room and was horrified to find that irritating germ sitting near her Sasuke.

"Hey, baka, move! I want to sit next to Sasuke-kun!" The weirdo gave her an affronted glance, but moved aside before Sakura could lash out. With an upturn of her nose, she slid into the seat, completely ignoring the germ that her parents had warned to stay away from countless times.

Then it got her—why was he here in the first place?

There were whispers in the back of the room, and though she only caught a few, it was enough to tell her that he had somehow passed on special circumstances, and really, that did not make her happy at all. Why should he, of all people, be allowed to receive special treatment when special treatment was so abhorred in this village?

Well. He was never one to follow the rules anyway.

So, Sakura proceeded to charm Sasuke-kun and that...that thing just suddenly jumped up and— and got right— got right into his face. Mr prince! Sakura was thinking, Cha, this baka needs to learn how to treat people better than him!

Then, some kid pushed him, and...well…

Sakura used the rest of the hour to erase that image from her mind.

Permanently.

Kakashi was expecting to fail this team too, and his suspicions were even further supported by the behavior he had observed from his peephole in the 'nindo' sign on the classroom wall. Honestly, this team had even less hope than their predecessors.

Reluctant and completely uninspired to carry through with his job, Kakashi traipsed down to the memorial stone, and before he knew it, it was time to go collect his "team", if one could even call them a team. Two more hours, Kakashi decided, but then remembered that specific gleam in the two boys' eyes. Both horrified, but the blonde one had looked considerably misted over. Then the fangirl...dear god…

Three ticking time bombs, jammed into a compact arrangement, and expected to work together with a messy convolution of kiddy crushes? Not fun at all.

Suddenly, his job just got a lot harder.

So, Kakashi resigned himself to one hour, and by the time the one hour was up, he found himself getting walloped in the head with an eraser. Powder in his already pale hair, he cheerily informed the three of his dislike for them, much to their groans of protest and indignant shouts.

At least the dislike was mutual.

"Likes, dislikes, any hobbies, dreams possibly." Kakashi did realize that he possibly needed more questions to ask next year, but these usually did the trick, so he went with it. "You first, blondie."

The Uzumaki kid stared at him curiously upon being addressed like this. There was wonder and a warm glow of happiness on his face, making the question that Kakashi knew he had wanted to ask back painfully obvious. Why aren't you calling me bakemono? was what Uzumaki had probably wanted to ask. Dear lord, the kid looked like his father. Kakashi could sense himself relaxing under this kid's scrutiny—a strange, platonic affection had come over when he realized— Hey, I actually want to protect this kid.

"Uzumaki Naruto!" the kid yelled, and the spell was momentarily broken as Kakashi shifted slightly in anticipation of the kid's answer. "I like ramen! I dislike the three minutes it takes to cook and really mean people. Hobbies? Eh...training, you know? And in the future?" The kid grinned widely before finishing with a loud, "I'm gonna be the Hokage! The best one ever." The kid looked so euphoric, it was making Kakashi itchy from the positive vibes. Sakura gave the boy a demeaning glare and Sasuke snorted. Then, all euphoria momentarily fell as he looked down at the ground where a few leaves were settling.

"And...I like nature. And the wind. I also dislike...hatred. It—it ruins people, you know?" Kakashi could see the seriousness in his eyes and just how well the boy understood hatred, and really, that hurt. It did, because here was a boy of 12, not exactly a shinobi, talking about the negative force as if it had accompanied him his whole life, and considering his position as a jinchuuriki, it probably has. Sasuke bristled on the sidelines, and Naruto's eyes glazed in sudden fear as he looked back down at his feet and moved his hand to rest over his heart, as if trying to ward off some unseen force.

But it had all passed in a millisecond and only the most observant person could have seen what had just happened. Kakashi knew full just what hatred could do to people, and he had a long list of completed missions that had stemmed from people hating one another to remind him. So, to ease the tension, Kakashi moved on to the next person in line.

As expected, the pink-head was absolutely infatuated with the Uchiha and probably did not care much for becoming a shinobi at all. Disappointing, really—the girl's intelligence was a gift.

"What I like…hm…" a glance at Uchiha, then, "My goals...hmm…" another glance and a blush directed at Uchiha, then "What I dislike…" The girl's high voice descended to a low growl as she bit out "Na-ru-to", punctuating each syllable distastefully. Uzumaki's bright smile faltered a little as some of the earlier sadness seeped into the blue of his eyes again.

A fangirl of one teammate, and a hater of the other—this bunch displayed less and less compatibility with each second. Disappointed, Kakashi moved his attention to the last person.

...and he was let down once more.

I'm sorry I might not pass your son, Sensei, he had thought to himself as he took the long route back to the Jounin Standby Station, because honestly, he was sorry, because this kid had potential and so did the other two, but there was nothing he could do to unlock them until he was actually their sensei.

But this kid seemed volatile enough—maybe he'd surprise him.
—In fact, he had no doubts that he would.

Two bells jingled merrily in his hand from red strings. (Threads of fate, Kushina would have called them. In fact, Kakashi was quite certain that Minato had taken two strands of her hair and weaved them in.) Sakura, intelligent as he knew she was, had immediately pointed out the fact that only one would pass the test. Kakashi was mildly pleased, both at the fact that she had discovered the "meaning of the test" (as far as they could see, anyway) and had not discovered the only true purpose of the test.

"Precisely", he had said, and after delivering the remaining rules, the three scattered. Or, well, two.

Naruto stood right where he had been, crossing his arms and assessing him carefully, and with those blue eyes, that spiky yellow hair and careful stance, Kakashi's resolve failed. Because for a fleeting moment, for the second time in that same day, Kakashi had felt his own sensei staring back at him, and that sent him back to the pit of grief he could never escape, again.

Shaking himself out of the self-cast illusion, he faced the boy with a smile and jingled the bells on his hip with his hand tauntingly. Without any further thought, the boy raised his hands to form a sign and—

KAGE-BUNSHIN NO JUTSU! and really, Kakashi was slightly taken aback. The kage-bunshin wasn't a trick that the Academy taught to students. Kakashi himself had not learned it until a year after he'd graduated. That didn't matter though, because the blondie still hadn't caught the concept of teamwork. A few kicks and turns, and soon, all the clones were popped, and only one figure remained standing. The boy charged at him with a sudden burst of speed, and in seconds, Kakashi had him pinned down in the dirt, clouds of dust billowing around them.

"Rule number one, never charge dir—" Kakashi had begun, but then the boy smiled, and popped. A clone? Kakashi was absolutely delighted and also disappointed at being thwarted by a clone. Where the real one was, he couldn't know, so Kakashi grabbed his book, and waited for the next victim to come out. May as well, he decided, because they weren't about to catch him off guard anytime soon.

Naruto, slumped over in a pile of leaves, did not understand what this strange man was getting at. What was he getting at? The man certainly didn't expect any of them to get the bells successfully—really, a jounin? What were his chances? Even the guy didn't try (and he wasn't), Naruto wouldn't be able to get a bell. Was he intentionally trying to fail them?

Riled up and resigned to a fail, Naruto slumped down against a tree. He took a heavy sigh and tried to think, but no sufficient plan would come to him, so he closed his eyes and meandered himself through his surroundings subconsciously.

A light tap on his head, and Naruto jolted up, fearing that their 'sensei' had caught his actual hiding place after the clones had all been disseminated. Except...there was no human presence anywhere near him. Sasuke and Sakura were off on the other side of the clearing and the man was still sitting in the middle of the field, that cocky bastard.

A leaf, a red leaf, fluttered down from his hair to meet his hand, an anomaly among its green siblings. The color change was early this year. The seventh moon had just shown, and the first color change of the seasonal year usually occurred near eigth. At long last, autumn was emerging out of the dwindling summer, a time of work coming out of the season of laid-back rest. Summers in Konoha were always strangely short, anyway.

A trail of ants emerged from the bushes and then split into two paths, one leading to another bush and the other leading to...a stag beetle. The trail to the beetle suddenly formed itself into a blob and lunged at the beetle. The stag beetle clicked its pincers, but that did deter the ants, who swarmed the beetle at once. A thought occurred to Naruto as he watched the stag beetle squirm under the tiny insects' wrath.

What if the bastard doesn't want us to defeat him individually? because none of them could individually defeat him. Naruto threw a hand up to his mouth to restrain himself from audibly gasping as inspiration struck him. One ant against one beetle would surely lose, but together…? Maybe this will work.

Naruto raised two fingers to his lips, ready to perform his signature summoning whistle, while envisioning the flabbergasted looks of awe that Hatake would have on his face when they got the bells.

Watch me, world. I'm going to prove myself, because this can work, and this will work.
—Just watch me.

Sasuke was getting really annoyed by now, because not only was Sakura whimpering like an underdeveloped pup by his side and totally giving away their position, the dobe, the insufferable idiot, had disappeared to nowhere after the last clone had popped. Sure, it was clever and all, but did that gain them a bell? Or anything? No.

Cut it out, Uchiha. This is no time to be a drama queen. Sasuke curled his lips distastefully because he had a reputation to maintain and this was not the time to go bitching on everything. So, he turned his attention to the jounin instead. Hatake was still sitting on a tree stump reading that ridiculous book of his, but his whole body was unnaturally still. It's not like he really needed to, Sasuke realized, but it was a way to let them know if he was on guard or not, and it was part of his test too, to see if they could pick up on the subtly dropped hint.

Or so he hoped, because this guy did not seem to be relaxing anytime soon.

Sasuke had contemplated throwing the prepared shuriken in his hands, just to see if he could get a rise out of the jounin, but logic and sensibility told him no; he couldn't afford to waste any weapons on hand. He spared Sakura another glance, just to see how the girl was doing, and honestly, she was holding herself together quite well, despite being frightened as a kitten.

Sasuke jerked his hand up, ready to throw the shuriken, thinking I hate this just when a bird landed on his shoulder. 'What the hell' was what he wanted to yell because he was not a fucking tree branch, but he decided better of it and looked right to Sakura, who had stopped her pathetic sniffling and was staring in shock at the identical canary on her shoulder. The birds simultaneously bent their heads down, and at once, their thoughts all connected.

At this point, Sasuke really wanted to curse because this was going too far if the jounin had done this, but then it dawned on him that Sakura was thinking the same thing, and how in the world would he have known that if he couldn't hear her thoughts? Except—he could. One look at Sakura and he knew that the same held true for her. They looked at the birds perched upon their shoulders with wide, expectant eyes and another stream of thoughts flowed into their own.

Look, the point of this exercise isn't beating him—god help us if it was. Teamwork's the goal here, so we gotta work together, you know?

Sasuke almost leapt out of the bushes in surprise, because why was, this, this voice in his head? He knew whose it was but since when could he perform a jutsu as perfect as this one? Communication within the thoughts, aiming for a better unity among team members in a battle, with no flaw, because he was as aware of his surroundings as always and this tapping into the subconscious had not affected that awareness at all. Surely, this couldn't— this couldn't be the doing of—

Naruto? he tried tentatively, and sure enough, his own thoughts echoed into the mind chamber, projecting itself into seemingly, all three of their minds. Sakura's voice echoed the sentiment, though in an arguably more vulgar fashion.

Get a hold of yourselves! We need to work together to get those bells. Actually, damn those bells, he just needs to see us work together! We need to pull our shit together and work like a team. Sakura, you take his left and I'll take his right. I'm on the other side of the clearing. Sasuke, when he's distracted with us, hit him with your fireball thingy and I'll throw something in too.

Wait, how do you know about my fireb—

Shut up and get on with it while he's still there! The birds will remain on the borders but our thoughts will still be connected as long as I still have them under my command.

How will you add something into the mix if I don't know what you're doi—

Nevermind that! Sakura, you haven't said anything, so you understand, right?

Y- yes.

Kay, for Team 7, alright? Let's go! Sasuke, still under shock, agreed quickly, though he still couldn't fathom how the hell his stupid teammate had managed something like this except there was no time to think. Sasuke had no choice but to follow, seeing as it probably was the best plan. He looked to Sakura reluctantly, who nodded back at him meekly. God damn it, Sasuke could feel the dobe's insufferable smile from all the way across from Naruto's position.

Let's go.

So from the bushes, Sasuke focused on accumulating his chakra into his chest and Naruto and Sakura leapt out into the clearing from their respective sides. Sasuke could see the jounin's eye crack open a little, his mouth give a slight 'oh?' of amusement. In the process of dealing with Kakashi, Naruto was avoiding getting hit anywhere, and so was Sakura, but they both tried their best to keep Kakashi's attention away from anywhere else except for them. But then, the jounin managed to get the dobe who only avoided completely crashing into the ground with a slam of his hands into the ground beneath him. Sasuke wanted to curse. The shock that must have traveled up Naruto's arms would make his arms effectively useless for the next minute or so, and it wasn't like that hit was very hard to dodge anyway. Sure enough, Naruto operated with only kicks from then. At last, the jounin stumbled a little when Naruto gave a surprise lash in the back of his legs that Kakashi had only managed to avoid in the final second.

Now, Naruto's voice echoed into his thoughts, and without further thought, he jumped from his hiding and released all of the chakra he had gathered into his lungs, and—

"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!"

Sasuke was taken aback at hearing a yell end at the same he had released the fireball, and a sense of failure crashed down on him as he saw a similar sized ball of slicing air rush to meet the fire. And then he realized that both were accelerating towards each other...with the jounin in between. Another realization shook him when it dawned that it was Naruto casting this jutsu, and another realization when he recognized the ball of air as wind, and wind added to fire…

Hey. This could work.

The sounds of firecrackers met with the high pitched whistles, sharp as knives, and the fire exploded in the center of the clearing. By the time the fire cleared away, a ball of water at the nucleus of the clearing became visible and… Kakashi was sitting in the center. A thread of water connected the ball to...was that Naruto?

"You let me catch you in this water sphere," Naruto stated, staring at the jounin with barely-contained excitement.

"Well, I would have been burned alive otherwise, since you went through the trouble or cursing the ground beneath us when you let me hit you. I couldn't get underground." Kakashi gave an affronted look at the three. "Put me down, would you?"

Naruto beamed as he dropped his hands from the sign, causing the sphere to lose its shape and dumping the jounin unceremoniously onto the ground, effectively dousing him in water. Hatake stood up and gave all three of them, who were each stationed on one vertex of the triangle around him, an appreciative look.

"Not bad, you guys. You guys caught me while I was using half-power." Sasuke watched carefully as the jounin scanned the forest around him. "And, you three have somehow managed to effectively obliterate four entire rows of trees around the perimeter of this clearing." Sasuke smirked as Sakura winced at the damage. Naruto simply continued to stare at the jounin with a huge smile.

"So, what's the judgement?" Naruto asked loudly.

"I am still in possession of both bells," the jounin declared. And sure enough, the two bells were still hanging loosely from the red strings attached to his belt loop. Sakura flushed in irritation and Naruto began to splutter like a fish without air. All three of them knew, knew without Naruto having to tell them anything, that somehow, in some way, this teamwork thing was the answer, because it was just— right. At that, Sasuke decided to chip in, seeing as he was the only calm one left.

"Well, this genin test sure has a lot of purpose then," said Sasuke, scoffing. Kakashi gave him an amused look, prompting him to continue. "Really, three not-yet genin trying to defeat a jounin? We would have no shinobi at all at this rate. Konoha would literally be the size of a leaf if that were true." Sasuke kept his glare fixed on Hatake, but he could see Sakura shift and open her mouth to say something. Good, Sasuke thought. She saw her chance and took it.

"Besides, no jounin would be made a sensei if the particular candidate really expected three shrimps to get a lobster," Sakura added tentatively.

"Yeah, that's totally true, y'know!" Naruto piped up.

All three of them observed the sensei with bated breath as they awaited his next words.

"Well, what would you say you guys are?" This question caught Sasuke completely off guard, and it seemed to catch Naruto and Sakura too. Sasuke looked to Naruto who looked to Sakura who looked to both the two of them, and their faces all lightened a load as one yellow bird each settled on Sasuke's and Sakura's shoulders, and three separate voices resonated in all their heads at the same time.

A team.

And that's what they told Kakashi.

Gai had been slightly put-off this morning when his three cute (okay, maybe not all of them were too cute because Neji was as cute as a porcupine with its needles up your posterior and Tenten was just plain scary) genin showed up for training, seemingly distracted.

"What is toiling in those young minds of yours today, comrades? Such unyouthful things such as distraction should never have to coexist with the flames of training great youth!" Gai had yelled out excitedly after he had noticed that all of them were performing slightly rustier than before. After all, it was a goal of his to figure out those enlightening minds of his cute (again, not so cute) genin. (He later weaseled out of Lee that Neji was being even more unamiable than usual because his cousin was taking the genin test with her sensei today, and that put everyone off. Gai figured that he'd have to beat some sense into Hyuuga sooner or later.)

On a slightly less related note, it was also a goal of his to get Kakashi to eat some dango with him, Asuma, Kurenai, and some of the other ninja from their class for once. And god, this goal had been successfully flouted time and time again for over an entire decade now.

So imagine Gai's initial shock when Kakashi had actually bothered to spare a glance at the three jounin that were chatting jovially over dango when Gai had called out his name.

Imagine Gai's utter disbelief when Kakashi actually smiled pleasantly and walked over to the table. For the first time. Ever.

Gai decided right then and there that his life was complete. (And then revoked that thought later when he decided that he still had his cute —again, not really—genin to teach.)

Kurenai set down her teacup quickly, sloshing a little over the side, to avoid completely dropping the entire thing in shock, while Asuma's unlit cigarette prompting fell to the table as his mouth went slack for a moment. Despite being the most alarmed, Gai was still the first to speak up.

"Yo, Kakashi, have you finally tapped into your great flames of youth! I am so proud of you, my eternal rival!"

Asuma, seemingly recovered from his mental failure, snorted, "Flames of youth? His appearance can put that fire out any day now." And sure enough, Kakashi was still drenched and dripping water from head to toe—his hair was lying the flattest any of them had ever seen and the wood surrounding where Kakashi had rested his elbows on the table was darkening from the water.

"So," Asuma began carefully. "How did the three peons do?" At this, Kurenai looked up at Kakashi curiously, intent on finding out the results. Even Gai, exuberant in his pestering, fell silent and looked to his rival in utter concentration.

With a sudden serious expression, Kakashi set down his book and faced the three, and quite unexpectedly broke into his ludicrous smile again. "They passed." Gai slumped back with a sigh of relief. "With flying colors." At this, all three leapt to attention again. Hatake Kakashi, praising genin? Flying colors? (But quite frankly, they could see why just from their secluded friend's drenched state.)

Gai did not know what to think. Before he realized, he was blurting out, "Who are you, and what have you done with my hip rival? To impersonate is neither hip, nor youthful!"

Kakashi continued to smile away and responded, "They met my expectations and more." The room regained a higher seriousness when he followed it with, "I just wonder if they can keep it up." On that serious note, the jounin stuck his hands back into his pockets, stood up, and left.

A strange emptiness lingered in the wake of his departure.

Kurenai looked to her two seniors. "He was actually impressed by those three? Amazing, I thought they were a haphazardly thrown-together time bomb." Asuma nodded thoughtfully.

"I wonder what sort of geniuses they must be to pass his test." He leaned back and picked up another dango stick from the tray. "Now that I think of it, I don't recall him ever mentioning, even once, what his test is about." A thoughtful silence settled upon them when Gai suddenly jumped up into his trademark nice guy pose.

"I shall go in pursuit of my friend and eternal rival to ask about his cute" (any monster that can drench Kakashi like that shouldn't be too cute, so he quickly took that back in his mind) "little genin!" And with that, Gai sped up to catch up to Kakashi, leaving clouds of dust behind.

And really, he thought, these genin would be good. They could become Kakashi's precious people, after he had lost so many and he could finally lighten up a little and participate in some of the (admittedly stupid) competitions that he always challenged him too. Yeah, he grinned. This could really be—

—good.

Kakashi, in his normal ritual of talking to Obito, was feeling more lighthearted than he had in ages.

The days preceding genin team selections were absolute hell, and he sure wasn't exaggerating, because in the course of those dragged on nights, he was mercilessly hounded by dreams and nightmares of the past genin he had tested, flashing images of them standing, ready to finish each other off. Nightmares of Minato sensei and his blinding cheer, nightmares of Rin dying in his arms, nightmares of Obito—gone, nightmares of his own cracked team and how those fissures had widened so quickly, of how those fissures would lead to him being the only one left on the team that had made him so happy, no matter how much he had refused to acknowledge that.

But, alas, it was too late now because all was gone and all was done—his old teammates were dead, and he was horribly, achingly alone.

Except... now, now there were people to care for. People to love. And those kids had actually acted like a team. He couldn't be sure exactly how they had gotten their act together so quickly, but they had—and that was all that had mattered for the test. Any later holes in teamwork could somehow be mended—Kakashi would personally see to that task with utmost, painstaking meticulosity—but he doubted if their teamwork could far apart like his had, because had seen their faces so clearly. Drenched, soaked to bone, and not really humiliated at all, Kakashi had watched the three smile at him in some sort of connected pride, look at one another, and how they had nodded to each other in some sort of affirmation, then looked at him again with those birds on their shoulders and their words…

"A team."

"Maybe...maybe redemption isn't too far off, Obito." Obito's large smile and ridiculous goggles, huge dreams, philanthropist lifestyle and an undying fire to help his comrades had probably led to his own death, and Kakashi respected his old friend for that just as much as he regretted how they had never truly became a team.

I got pegged as a sensei again this year, you see, and I was honestly a little trepidatious at the thought of testing almost-genin again, really. Do you remember me telling you about those little monsters three years ago? Trying to finish each other off, that couldn't do. Then the overprotective nii-san the next, and some other team I don't even remember after them. None of them lived up to your legacy, and that was disappointing. The team this year was supposed to be the biggest hazard ever, but look. They did this to me. If you ever taught me anything aside from the importance of comradeship, it's how to never underestimate people—

—was what he really wanted to say out loud. But he was Kakashi, and was typically even more reserved than normal shinobi. But he knew Obito would understand.

So in the end, he had an obsessive fangirl, a genius avenger, and a dead-last idiot for a team and a family, in addition to his already quirked up jounin associates. But the fangirl had a good mind for strategy, the avenger was an awkward ball of fluff just waiting to be prodded and freed, and the idiot might not have been that much of an idiot after all. In fact, far from an idiot.

Perhaps, oh how he wished, perhaps…

...he could finally start putting his inner demons to rest.

"I am pleased to say that Team 7 has passed and will be ready for D-rank missions as of tomorrow."

Hiruzen shifted his quill to make way for the lit candle and tin of wax. Truthfully, he was not only pleasantly satisfied with this turnout—in fact, he was overjoyed. Sakura had always shown aptitude, the Uchiha could rediscover new morals, and Naruto was just special. Then there was Kakashi-kun and his constant dreariness, broken-down bits tucked behind a swatch of black cloth. But his loyalty was unswerving, and his dedication never-ending. He could help those kids, and in turn, the kids could work miracles for Kakashi's heart.

"Oh? That's very good news, Kakashi-kun. How do you feel about your new team?" The jounin in front of him straightened from his bow, having recognized the tone as one indicating conversation.

"They're—" Hiruzen inhaled slowly on his pipe in anticipation of his answer. "—very, very good."

"Really? Elaborate, if you will."

Another hesitation. "Well, their skill sets complement one another very well. Uchiha is quite adept at picking things up and Sakura could bloom terrifically with some training and numerous considerably-sized dollops of motivation. Naruto… well." Hiruzen halted his careful handling of the slowly melting wax for a moment to scrutinize his student's student's...student.

"You're not hesitating because of the Kyuubi, I hope." Kakashi's eyes widened and scrunched up into a humiliated smile at the sudden insinuation.

"Maa, I've nothing against his furry problem, Hokage-sama," Kakashi replied earnestly, with a touch of exasperation, waving his hands in disconfirmation. "Really, no. I simply paused because…" Another hesitation, Hiruzen noted.

"Because— well, he's special. And odd in a good way, I suppose. And...I'm not entirely sure. It's just that…" Hiruzen watched as Kakashi slipped back into his separate world of thought.

"You were saying, Kakashi-kun?" Kakashi snapped back to attention.

"Ah, yeah. Naruto...well, something's different about him." Kakashi gave his ridiculous eye smile again at Hiruzen's sharp look of questioning. "Like, around him, everything feels... sharper? Fuzzier? Warmer? I feel more in tune with everything around me while he's nearby, and perhaps the fuzziness is just sensory overload, but I feel like hugging animals, and—" Hiruzen watched Kakashi freeze up upon realizing what he had just said.

Kakashi coughed indiscreetly before continuing. "Well, the point is, I just feel like the world's a better place around that kid, and that peace actually exists. I do not know why, or how, and I'm sure it's not just me because I saw with my own eyes—well, eye—how those kids had interacted. They flanked Naruto like he was the natural leader of it all. And I bet you, they should not have been acting like that on their first assignment with each other."

Just then, a streak of yellow darted through the window, prompting Kakashi to grab a kunai from his holster and drop down into a defensive stance immediately, only to realize that it had landed on Hiruzen's shoulder and was only a—

"Ah, another bird." Hiruzen stroked the bird's neck as their thoughts connected for a brief moment. "Crane," he called out, and an ANBU by the door behind Kakashi raised her head to confirm her attention. "There's a thief straggling by our village borders. Go take care of it. Dismissed." The ANBU dipped her head and departed silently.

Hiruzen looked to Kakashi, who had already discarded his mask of indifference not long after the conversation started. Kakashi was staring at him with questions written all over his face.

"Minato's son is an interesting one, isn't he?" Kakashi began to nod his head, and then stopped.

"Wh-what?"

"Look after him, will you? It's the least we can do."

"Affirmative, Hokage-sama." Hiruzen smiled graciously at the man before him.

"You're dismissed too. I assume you want to test them further tomorrow instead of going out for a mission? You'll need your sleep." With one last questioning look at the bird that Hiruzen knew Kakashi had recognized somehow, the jounin dipped his head too, and departed.

He slunk back into his chair and set the candle aside, taking the tin of hot, gooey green wax into his hand. Dripping it onto the paper in front of him, he took the stamp that was engraved with Konoha's seal and embossed it in the still-gooey wax.

Hiruzen took one last look at the paper before setting it aside. Four faces, three young ones lined up under an older one, looked right back at him with wide smiles and dreary grimaces.

Team 7, he pondered as he blew out the candle, watching the sun disappear behind the horizon in a blaze of bleeding reds. This is going to be a dynamic new generation.

And he truly believed it.

As the last sparks of the candle fizzed out and the smoke entwined artfully with the feathers of the yellow bird that was probably soaring back to its home, nothing could convince him otherwise, if the bird itself was any proof. Team 7 had just embarked on its great journey, yet Hiruzen could see the living legends in them already.

Life was like the candle and its smoke, after all. A brilliant, lasting flame of glory, remembered by the endless trails of curling ashes, somehow finding its way into every story. Some flames burned brighter, and some trails lingered longer.

And somehow, he knew that the epitome of flaming brilliance was right in front him.