Chapter 2

(Wednesday, 9:31 A.M.)

"Asuma-Sensei, how much longer do we have to wait out here?"

The bearded Jounin opened one eye lazily staring up at the young blonde kunoichi. Ino was irritated and seemed to always have a knack for showing it. Asuma sighed inwardly, propped up only by lying against one of the gigantic support beams to the entrance gate.

"Ino, we'll get started when everyone is present. In the meantime rest a bit. We all had to wake up earlier than usual anyway..."

She scoffed, folding her arms in an impatient sort of way. "Figures Billboard-Brow's team would be late anyway. Probably waiting for her to put on all that make-up so her forehead doesn't shine. I'm sure Sasuke-kun would've been here hours before if . . . and then . . . so . . . . . "

Asuma tuned her out, exhaling a long trail of bluish-gray smoke from his cigarette as he stared upward at the sky. It was going to be a beautiful day at least. He turned sideways and chuckled a bit, spying Shikamaru copying his posture against the other support beam. It figured. the kid was lazy as hell, but an undiscovered genius. An untapped resource for Konoha. He scratched his beard and returned his gaze to Ino, so as not to be rude, and pretended to be highly interested in her mundane chatter.

". . . and she's SOOO ugly. I don't know why she'd EVER think Sasuke-kun would even show the SLIGHTEST interest in her..."

"WHAT WAS THAT INO-PIG?!"

Both of his hazel eyes opened, and he smirked as he sat up putting out the cigarette butt in the brown dust that surrounded him. A cat-fight? Over the Uchiha kid? He watched the two kunoichi cast death glares at eachother, tension building, eyes twitching. He stood up in case he had to hold Ino back and watched as Naruto landed from a nearby tree standing behind Sakura.

"Come on Sakura! You can kick her butt! Just like you did in the Chunnin exams!"

"THAT WAS A TIE!" Ino screeched, fists clenched with rage.

But all tension was broken as Sasuke entered the clearing at a casual pace with the usual "not really interested" look on his face. Asuma smirked as both Sakura and Ino did a complete personality change, swooning in a chorus of "Helloooo Sasuke-kunnn" Naruto made a disgusted face as if he'd just eaten week-old macaroni. Sasuke looked indifferent to their calls of hello and walked silently toward the gate, staring toward the forest. Shikamaru walked casually up to his Sensei and whispered.

"Do we REALLY have to deal with this for a week? Sasuke and his fan club are very troublesome..."

"Yes we do Shikamaru." Asuma nodded, pulling another cigarette from his vest. "The Hokage has ordered it and we must follow orders... no matter how troublesome they are..." He gave Shikamaru a wink as he lit up the end of the cigarette with a jutsu he had learned for breathing small amounts of fire. He then stuck it in his mouth and watched as Kakashi unintentionally copied Sasuke and walked slowly into the clearing.

Shikamaru whispered again "What's eatin' him?"

Asuma shrugged with a worried expression on his face. "I don't know... but I'm going to find out." The others, having seen all of Team 7 arrive, all stood up and began to gather their things for the journey. Asuma approached the defeated looking Jounin warily and put a massive hand on his right shoulder. "Kakashi are you alright? You don't look as... energetic... this morning." He offered a small smile.

Kakashi's lazy gaze met Asuma's and he began to speak.

"Hey Asuma... yeah I'm fine... I just had a rough morning." Kakashi smiled, and even though it was covered by navy blue fabric Asuma could tell it wasn't authentic. "Well why don't you tell me about it?" Asuma asked. "We've been friends for a long time and if you ever need to talk about anything I'm here for you..."

Kakashi was hesitant... he didn't really want to tell Asuma about his dream... or the hallucinations. It was nothing to worry about right? Right? He felt more like he was asking himself that... things just had seemed off that morning... perhaps it was a good idea to tell someone...

"Well Asuma, it's just I don't know... this the 13th anniversary of Obi---"

"WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING?! WE'RE READY TO HEAD OUT! COME ON!!!"

Anko Mitarashi came to stand between the two Jounin, her brown coat flapping in the wind as if she were some tan bird. "Kakashi, we were supposed to set out about 40 minutes ago and thanks to you the mission is jeopardized!!! It may be nightfall by the time we reach our destination now!"

Kakashi looked downward, with a kind of defeated look and muttered "I...I'm sorry..."

Asuma looked toward the violet-haired kunoichi. "Awww c'mon Anko, give the guy a break... he's had a rough morning..."

"And he'll have a rough rest of the day too if we don't head out now!" Anko gave Asuma a steady glare and started walking back toward the gates along with the rest of the group.

Asuma shifted his backpack on his shoulder, easing it a bit so as not to cut off circulation. He looked to Kakashi and muttered "Geez is it that time of the month already?" chuckling.

WHAP!

Red spots flooded the Jounin's vision as he rubbed the back of his black-spiked hair. He turned his head glaring. "Hey who the... what was that for?!"

Kurenai Yuuhi gave him a steady glare. "That comment was uncalled for! Don't be so sexist! A woman can be angry when she's not on her period!"

"But moreso when she's on it." Asuma smiled, wrapping his fingers in hers. "Aww c'mon Kurenai I was just joking. Kakashi seems a little down. I thought it might lighten him up!"

Kurenai looked over at Kakashi with a concerned look. "You ok Kakashi? You do look a little under the weather today... at least I think you do. That mask hides everything."

Kakashi offered pity laughter for their jokes. He didn't want to be rude, but he just wasn't in the mood for comedy today. "Well that comes with the uniform... "

Asuma laughed a bit too hard, his cigarette falling to the ground. "Ahhh damn. Now I have to light up another one..." Kurenai glared "Oh NO you don't. We're trying to have a baby right now and the last thing I need is the essence of your cancer sticks!" Asuma gave a pained look but accepted defeat... for the moment. "Well Kakashi if you need to talk we got all week! This is going to be a long walk... so if just talk about it when you feel the need, yeah?" Kurenai nodded in agreement with Asuma, standing close to his massive build. Kakashi looked into both of his friend's eyes and nodded in agreement. It was nice to know people cared...

"And don't thing YOU'RE off the hook for that period comment! See how far you get with me today Mr. Sarutobi." She quickly unlatched from him and walked swiftly ahead, rejoining with Anko. Asuma let out a lame "Hey..." as she left, then looked back to Kakashi smirking "Women!" He then jogged ahead to try to beg for forgiveness...

Kakashi DID laugh at this, and it felt good. He needed a good laugh. He thought he could shrug this dark ominous monkey off his back by this time, but it seemed to be latched on. He figured it had probably set up house until the day was over, considering what day it was. The funny thing was it had never lasted this long. He was usually able to set his mind to other things (usually the Icha-Icha books he carried around so often. They were an excellent distraction) but today something seemed off... as if he were experiencing deja vu but it hadn't quite happened yet. "Uggh... I should start eating breakfast more often..." he mumbled to no one in particular and continued trailing behind the others at a leisurely pace.

(Wednesday, 10:53 A.M.)

Kakashi lugged his hefty pack, which felt as if it gained 2 pounds by the minute, as he finally leveled off from his upward climb. His party had reached the foothills, and now they were edging along an old path along the mountainside, looking over the wilderness. He paused for a second to take it all in, trying to spot Konoha within the woods far below, but to no avail. It's many jutsu's had proven strong as there was no sign of the Village Hidden In The Leaves.

Naruto had noticed his Sensei's lack of enthusiasm and had slowed down from the others to try and chat with him, and perhaps cheer him up. Unfortunately, Naruto wasn't exactly a therapist so the conversation was entirely one-sided and mostly consisted of subjects such as ramen, becoming Hokage and how to defeat Sasuke once and for all. Kakashi replied with unenthusiastic "uh huh" 's and kept mulling over his awful nightmare and his guilt over Obito... and the odd feeling that still had not left him. It was still there... and felt stronger than ever, as if it were amplifying the closer he got to... he got to what? What was coming?

". . . and then Sasuke will cry because I'll be the one getting all the attention! You hear me Kakashi-Sensei? Are you even listening, tebayo?!"

"What? OH... yes, sorry Naruto." He gave a weak smile.

"Kakashi-Sensei... are you sure you're alright? You're acting awfully strange... what's bugging you? You're not even annoyed at my usual conversation..." Naruto, put one hand behind his blonde hair and gave a nervous laugh.

Kakashi chuckled. "I'll be alright... I think I'm just overstressing myself over things that shouldn't matter... your sensei is silly that way."

Naruto nodded solemnly (a rare occurance) and spoke. "Well Kakashi-Sensei if you ever need to tal---"

AAAGGGGGHHHH!!!!

Kakashi's eye went wide "That was Sakura's scream..."

The group had disappeared from view from rounding a corner on the ridge. Both shinobi sprinted to save their comrade... what danger had befallen them now?