A Dream Senpai

Tenzo stood before his Senpai, flanked by the rest of his ANBU squad. He'd been in the organisation for three months now and his terror of the Wolf was yet to decrease. There was something about putting your life in the hands of a man who, with barely a thought, could permanently take it that unnerved the recruit. All ANBU were killing machines: mechanical, deadly, that was the idea. But Tenzo had the vague suspicion that killing machines who laughed with such unashamed, enchanting superiority even as they arrived three hours late for a dawn mission briefing and flattered you into paying for ramen every single time were to be feared for an entirely different reason. Killing you wasn't the only thing an ANBU like that could do on a whim. Tenzo had pledged his life – heart and soul – to his Senpai, and was now seriously wondering if he'd ever get any of those things back.

He snapped to attention, remembering his surroundings in time to catch the beginning of his Senpai's next sentence.

"Okay," said Kakashi, "it's a very simple system. If you do badly I get to give you a punishment."

The ANBU Captain smiled, with the self-satisfaction of one who'd had a job to do and had done it well. Still, there was a lingering hint of expectation in his gaze. Slowly, Tenzo raised his hand – hoping like hell that he hadn't missed anything important. Kakashi gave a slight inclination of his head. It took the recruit several seconds to realise that this was all the acknowledgment he was going to receive, as well as the only way to gauge his Senpai's attentiveness.

"Um… what if we do well, Senpai?"

Kakashi's smirk made Tenzo blush and it was all he could do not to look away.

"If you do well," the ANBU Wolf met each of their eyes in turn before settling on Tenzo, the only one who'd managed to hold his gaze. "If you do well, then you get to give me a reward."

Oh Gods, that smile!

"That hardly seems fair!"

Tenzo looked around, trying to identify the source of this outburst, before realising with horror that it'd come from his own treacherous mouth. 'ANBU must always treat their superiors with respect, only then will they come to receive respect in kind.' Damn it.

"Clearly someone wants their punishment already." An Uchiha might have missed it, but Tenzo could've sworn he saw Kakashi wink.

If he'd been blushing before, then whatever colour Tenzo was now was off the visible spectrum. But he still refused to take his eyes off his Senpai's face, not yet realising that he couldn't have if he'd tried.

"I'm sorry, Senpai," Tenzo squeaked from somewhere within his own personal cloud of infrared shame.

The Captain's face grew stern. "What did I tell you is the first rule of making a mistake, Tenzo?"

As his humiliation deepened, Tenzo felt that perhaps the right answer would set him on the path to redemption.

"You said, 'True ANBU never apologise. They face their errors by accepting the consequences of their actions and resolving not to make the same mistake again.'"

This time, Kakashi's smile was purely canine, more demonically wolfish even than the blood-red face painted on his discarded ANBU mask.

"In that case," Kakashi responded, with a grin that chilled Tenzo to the bone even as he felt his skin burn, "you are going to accept your punishment right now and learn not to speak out of turn in the future, unless, of course, you want to be punished again."

"Yes, Senpai," Tenzo's voice was barely even audible to himself, and his eyes finally fell from Kakashi's painfully, mockingly perfect face.

With his sadistic grin never once fading, Kakashi stepped forward. The rest of the group melted away. The Captain stood before his subordinate, as unstoppable as blood from an open wound. He placed his hands on Tenzo's shoulders. Then gradually, moved them to his waist. And then lower…

Yamato woke up.

The first thing the ANBU did was curse his alarm clock, and not just because it'd managed to go off half an hour later than the time he was sure he'd set it for. The second thing he did was try to remember what the hell he'd set the alarm for in the first place. Shit! Kakashi. He scrambled out of bed.

The final thing Yamato did was to suppress all lasting memory of that thankfully incomplete dream. This took a little longer. But eventually he felt sufficiently composed to face breakfast with his Senpai. Besides, surely the Copy-Ninja was the one man for whom maintaining punctuality wasn't necessary. If you could rely on one thing, it was that however late you were to a meeting, Kakashi – even if he'd organised it – would be at least an hour later. They'd arranged to meet for breakfast, but Yamato was already mentally picking out what he wanted from the lunch menu.

It was only when he arrived at the restaurant, twenty-three minutes later than their agreed time, that Yamato remembered one other detail pertaining to his Senpai's erratic time-keeping. In all the years they'd known each other, Kakashi had never once been late for a meal with him. Shit!

"Ah, Tenzo. I think your food might be getting cold."

Kakashi sat there in the dull glow of the late morning sun; he raised two fingers in a lazy salute. Yamato stared at him, even as he felt himself dying inside.

"Y-you ordered for me?"

Yamato crossed over to his Senpai's table, trying not to inadvertently shed ten years' worth of life experience as Kakashi's cool, condescending eye rolled over him. The ANBU cleared his throat.

"That was hardly necessary, Kakashi. I'm sorry I'm late, but considering the number of times you've kept me waiting in the past, I felt I was due a lie-in."

The cowering recruit inside Yamato uncurled from his permanent ball of shame long enough to glare at the ANBU's shrinking conscience. 'You just set your alarm clock wrongly; you haven't been standing at your best friend's grave since dawn. Besides he's never kept you waiting when it counts.'

The Copy-Ninja shrugged off Yamato's brisk response and gave an easy smile. "I always know what you like to eat in the morning."

In a flash of pain and pleasure, Yamato's dream came back to him. He sunk into the chair opposite Kakashi and began to pick at his tepid food, trying to pretend that it wasn't exactly what he would have ordered if he'd been given the choice.

Their meal progressed as it always did. Reminiscences and pleasantries were passed back and forth and Yamato had long since abandoned his attempts to get Kakashi to call him by his current name. He'd never admit the real reason why the name Tenzo made him feel so uncomfortable more than a decade after it'd first been assigned. And he knew Kakashi would never admit that this was exactly the reason why he still used it. Gradually, their charade of a meeting came to its final act.

"Thanks, Tenzo. That was really wonderful."

Kakashi slowly, gracefully slid the bill over to Yamato's side of the table. During the course of the meal, the ANBU's guilt over his lateness had somewhat abated, and seeing as Kakashi was the one who'd ordered, he really felt that his Senpai should be the one to pay. He opened his mouth to protest –

"Just kidding." Kakashi's eyes curved up into twin crescents and his chuckle made Yamato grip the edge of the table. "I think after all these years it's about time I start acting like your Senpai. After all, you've come a long way since that clumsy, wide-eyed brat first stumbled into my life and made it all so complicated."

"Yes, it's so much simpler now, right, Senpai?" Yamato gave him a sidelong glance and Kakashi, without turning his head, smirked.

The ex-ANBU placed a few coins on the counter and turned to walk away. Yamato kept pace with him. The Copy-Ninja grinned and Yamato had another flashback.

Kakashi ignored the rhetorical question in favour of a more pertinent one. "Your place or mine?" his voice was noncommittal.

"Actually," Yamato began slyly, "I thought we might go to that old training ground, out in the woods, where our squad used to gather to benefit from the pearls of your wisdom."

There was a glint in Kakashi's opal eye. Yamato wasn't playing the coy Kohai today, and he knew that the Copy-Ninja was trying to work out what was going to happen next. Suddenly the perennial target was calling the shots.

Kakashi shrugged and the spell broke. "Why not? I always like reliving the good old days."

Yamato smirked and followed his Senpai all the way, as if he would've been lost without him. It was just the two of them in that rustic old clearing. Clouds were gathering overhead. There were wolves in this stretch of woodland, Yamato knew, but never once had he seen one here when Kakashi was around. There can only be one alpha male in a forest, and beneath even the most battle hardened wolf is a dog that knows when to run away with its tail between its legs. But, take that another way, inside every cowering dog is a wolf who, one day, will bare its fangs whether it ought to or not.

Kakashi gave a wistful sigh and sat himself down at the base of a tree. Yamato remained standing.

The Copy-Ninja looked up at him. "I have some good memories of this place." He smiled. "It's funny: all those life and death missions, all that fire and brimstone, and at the end of it all, this is what I remember most."

Yamato's face held all the nonchalant concentration of a tiger about to pounce. "Yeah, I was thinking about that just last night. I think some of the most valuable things I learnt in the ANBU, you taught me right here, Senpai."

His former Captain, mentor and life-long role model gave a short, insidious chuckle. "That may well be true." He patted the ground beside him. "So, are you joining me or not, Tenzo?"

Yamato paused for a moment and then moved to stand with one foot either side of Kakashi's outstretched legs. Realisation lit up the Copy-Ninja's face like a red dawn.

The ANBU looked down at his Senpai. "No," his voice softened, "I think I'll stand."

Maybe, just maybe, the Copy-Ninja blushed. Then slowly, Kakashi placed his hands either side of his student's hips. He leaned forward…

And in his sleep, Yamato smiled like a wolf.