Flashback

Insert Naruto OST Song Here - Self explanatory ain't it?


Evening

Kakashi slowly opened his eyes only to be greeted by the green leaves that blew blissfully in the wind above. He rubbed his eyes and propped himself up on his arm; looking around he saw that everyone else was still asleep save for one boy with orange goggles who was up in the trees scanning the area. Looking at his arms Kakashi noticed that they were wrapped up in bandages and they didn't burn. He moved his fingers and bent his elbow, feeling only tiny stings but other than that he felt okay.

"Kakashi?" a voice rang through the young boy's head.

He looked at the direction the voice came from and he saw that Obito had finally noticed that he was awake.

Jumping down from the tree above, the young Uchiha decided it to be a good idea to hug the Hatake boy.

Kakashi's eyes narrowed dangerously and Obito, realizing his mistake, attempted to back away, but alas he was slammed down onto the ground before he could even move.

"Remember that deal we had where you didn't touch me and I didn't bother you?" Kakashi questioned the young boy.

"Yes I remember," Obito groaned. After standing up the Uchiha dusted himself off and gave Kakashi an annoyed look. "It's kinda rude to slam down someone who was just happy to see you were awake."

"I never asked you to be happy that I was awake." Kakashi decided to go over the contents in his bag so he sat down and laid everything out. He counted his remaining kunai, shuriken, and wire. "There's nothing to be happy about. We failed the mission and that village is practically a burning heap by now, courtesy of our little friend sleeping over there," he said, pointing towards Seiichi.

The boy had his back propped up against the hard bark of the tree with a kunai tightly grasped his hand. Well at least the boy was careful, even in his sleep.

"Oh yeah about the mission. What the hell happened?" Obito asked with a curious look on his face.

Kakashi looked at the boy and sighed. Listening to their surrounding there was nobody around. "Alright than if you need to know this is what happened."


Flashback

Kakashi kept vigilant as both he and Seiichi traveled through the mines of Heiwana sōgen, watching as the villagers worked with chained arms and legs. Deprived of their freedom they worked with grime filled faces, it was obvious they were being forced. Those on top were being blackmailed with the lives of its members below. Husbands, sons, wives it didn't matter who they were; they were all shoved into the tight tunnels and forced to work.

This sickened him but he wasn't completely sympathetic. Didn't these people know that there was war going on. They were supplying the enemy and even if it was unwillingly it was still unacceptable to the young boy.

Both he and Seiichi were garbed in standard Iwa chuunin uniforms they had stolen from a pair of guards they ambushed earlier. Thanks to their timing and a perfectly executed genjutsu from Reiko, they were in. Obito was on standby ready to jump in if there was an emergency but everything was going smoothly. All they had to do was escape the underground mines unnoticed and report back.

As far as Kakashi was concerned it was a successful mission. Walking through the tunnels, despite Kakashi's hardened mind from training as a shinobi he couldn't bring himself to look at the people again. How long had this been going on? From the looks of it these villagers must have been down here for days or weeks maybe, and Konoha only found out about a few days ago. It just didn't seem right at all.

Taking in a deep breath he looked towards Seiichi, but the boy didn't seem fazed by the display. His face was completely neutral and if Kakashi didn't know better he might have thought that the boy didn't care about villagers.

Luckily for them they hadn't run many Iwa shinobi and the ones that did pass by didn't bother checking them. Alright, that was it they were getting out of there now. Everything was weird and he had a bad feeling in his gut.

From Kakashi's mental picture of the map in his head they were approaching the exit soon . Of course with his luck, the unexpected happened . A young girl no older than 14 collapsed on the ground from sheer exhaustion, but she was soon hauled back up by a nearby Iwa shinobi. From the looks of him he seemed like a high ranking chuunin. The Iwa shinobi grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and seemed to spit in her face as he spoke.

"How dare you laze around. We have a quota to make and yet you're trying to relax. Maybe you need to be taught a lesson. An example to all of you Leaf bastards!" he shouted the last part. "You! Come here and take this kunai. I want you to kill this girl in front of all these lazy workers. That ought a give them a little incentive to keep working!" the man said pointing the drawn kunai at Seiichi.

Time seemed to freeze as the man pointed the kunai at Seiichi expecting him to outright take it and kill the girl. Seiichi's hands shook and shockingly enough the hardened shinobi didn't notice. When Seiichi didn't look like he was going to move the man shouted at him to hurry.

"Hurry up. We have no time for dramatics!"

His movements seemed normal but to Kakashi they looked as rigid as stone. The boy walked towards the Iwa shinobi and took the kunai that was handed him. He looked at the girl and his breathing seemed to quicken with each second. 'Seiichi come on. Kill the girl and let's go,' Kakashi thought. While he was against killing the villagers he had to take the mission into account. If Seiichi didn't kill that girl right now they would be exposed and the mission will be compromised. Kakashi watched coldly as Seiichi raised the weapon but where he aimed it almost made Kakashi wish he had brought Reiko along instead.

Instead of killing the girl the boy had instead stabbed the man who gave the order in the chest. The kunai seemed to slide right through the man's armored vest into his chest as it made a sickening sound of blade sliding through flesh. Clearly surprised by the turn of events the man could only watch as the kunai went as deep as the hilt before Seiichi let go of it making the man stagger backwards.

He backed to the wall where a pickaxe was soon buried in his head splattering blood everywhere. A rogue prisoner had seen the clear opportunity and before they knew it all of the trapped villagers began rioting.

Luckily for them the villagers focused their attention on the other guards leaving them an avenue for escape. Kakashi and Seiichi took of through the tunnels killing any guards that came across their paths simply not caring that they were exposed. When they finally made it to the entrance which was in the forest Kakashi quickly scanned the area, noticing that ninja were already getting into positions.

Seiichi didn't notice it but to Kakashi it was as clear as day. Explosive tags lined the entrance of the cave and before long they were ignited. Kakashi, thinking quick on his feet, tackled the boy away from the cave, shielding Seiichi as the caves' entrance exploded with Kakashi taking the brunt of the damage.

With dust everywhere they were unseen and seeing the opportunity Kakashi gave orders to the boy still on the ground. "Get out here and make sure not to lead them to Rin or Obito. Shake them off and meet back at the rendezvous," he spoke loud enough since only Seiichi was here. Popping a soldier pill into his mouth he managed to ignore the intense pain his body was in, so he propelled himself into the trees hoping the boy had followed his orders.

Flashback end


Confrontment

Kakashi finished explaining what happened. He omitted his main thoughts from the story because Obito had a different outlook on things and because he didn't feel inclined on fighting the boy with the injuries he had.

"I guess it couldn't be helped right? Killing the girl would have been the wrong thing to do so I guess I can forgive him," Obito said with a soft smile on his face.

"Well I sure as hell won't!" shouted a feminine voice.

The two boys turned their heads and looked at the now fully awake Reiko. Kakashi guessed she was either awake the whole time or she woke up in the middle of the story.

"I can't believe he sacrificed the mission over one life," she said angrily.

Kakashi of course agreed with the girl but her outburst didn't sit well with Obito seeing as the boy bounced up.

"You're telling me it would have been fine if he had just killed her?"

"Of course! He had no right to compromise the mission!" she yelled back. Her eyes drifted towards her cousin who was somehow still sleeping throughout the argument. "That idiot's been nothing but trouble for me."

Choosing this as the right time to intervene Kakashi spoke up. "I know how you feel Reiko and I agree but try not to let personal issues cloud your judgment." He managed to defuse the situation entirely somehow because Reiko went quiet and so did Obito who for some reason was looking at Kakashi warily. Deciding that the boy was being weird Kakashi chose to ignore it.

"So if you guys are finished arguing can I cut in?" a strange voice alerted them all.

Kakashi instantly went on alert, but before he could anything chains shot from the ground and tied him down, preventing him from moving.

Looking around he saw that everyone else was immobilized including Seiichi who was still sleeping. What? A figure dropped from the trees above and landed in the middle of the group. She had long red hair that looked extremely familiar to the young boy.

"K- K-" Obito stuttered.

"Kushina-san," Kakashi finished.

The young woman smiled playfully at the two boys. "I thought we agreed that you would call me senpai Kakashi."

"I don't see you as a superior. Why are you here?" he asked with a stoic look on his face.

"Well we came here along with a team from Konoha to assist you on the mission; however you guys seemed to mess things up, so we had to clean up everything." Kushina replied still retaining that playful look on her face.

"Hn," Kakashi let out.

A second ninja came from above and Kakashi recognized her as a genjutsu specialist Kurenai Yuhi. "Kushina-sama, are we ready to go now?" she asked. She looked exhausted for some reason.

"After that boy stops pointing weapons at me," she said a serious look dawning on her face. The chains on Kakashi disappeared along with the others. A poof sound drew his attention to where Seiichi was and he couldn't help but smirk. The boy was pretending, which meant he most likely heard the earlier conversation.

The real Seiichi appeared in front of Kushina, his hands filled with kunai. "Sorry. I didn't know if you were an enemy or not." He placed his weapons back into his pouch and apologized again.

Reiko had a surprised look on her face, most likely from her cousin's little show of skill, but she recovered.

"Before you guys ask any questions we gotta head back to Konoha. Minato is actually in the village for once and I'm not gonna let him escape this time," she said dashing into the bushes, Kurenai falling in line behind her.

Now that he was recovered, Kakashi trailed after them while the others followed.

Survival Examination

After what seemed to be a few hours, Kakashi snuck a glance at the cousins and noted that they were keeping a safe distance from each other. Obito was still looking at Kakashi warily but again Kakashi chose to ignore it, not wanting to deal with the now that were almost home.

Everything that happened today flashed through his head as he attempted to sort through it all and come up with an answer. He went over the list in his head. A difficult mission was assigned to chuunins, everything was going smoothly until it went downhill, Gari, Kushina showed up claiming she finished everything, and now they were going to Konoha like everything was dandy. No something was obviously up and before long Kakashi drew together a theory.

Everything up until Gari was a genjutsu via Kurenai. The village sent the team as a test. Who they were testing exactly was blurry. It could have been a test to see whether or not he was ready to be promoted to Jounin, a test from the Uchiha clan for Obito, or it was to see if Seiichi and the Hara clan could be trusted.

He studied Kushina who still had that joyful look on her face. Although he was good at acting emotionless, she was good at acting...emotional. Now that he had everything figured out, all that was left was to get to the village and get answers.

When they finally made it to the village the sun had already dawned and they were all winded, especially Kurenai who Seiichi ended up carrying. Kakashi guessed that having to make such a convincing genjutsu and running all the way to the village was tiring.

"All of you should probably get some sleep. I want all of you at the Hokage's office 6:00 am sharp for your report." she announced. She used a shunshin and left the group with an awkward silence.

Luckily, no one felt obliged to talk so they all went separate ways, except for Seiichi and Reiko who were still keeping a safe distance from each other. He already did his part back in the forest so there was nothing else for him to do.

In all honesty he kind of wished someone was there with him when he was walking home. He may prefer to be alone but sometimes it was good to know that someone you know is with you. When he made it inside his comfy room he locked his windows which he forgot to do before leaving. Great, that meant someone might have sneaked in to his room. Not wanting to deal with anything else he plopped himself in his bed and before long sleep overtook him.

Kakashi stood still in front of the Hokage's desk along with the others including Kurenai and Kushina. Everyone managed to make it on time including Obito. Kakashi looked around and noted that Minato wasn't there and he didn't know if that was good or not.

"Well than now that you're all here I'd like to hear your report," the old man voiced.

Kakashi stepped in front of everybody and prepared to relay everything that happened on the mission to the Hokage.


A/N: Yeah sorry for not updating in a long time. I had finals last week and I had to go to a debate tournament so my schedule was pretty jammed at the time. I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I'd like to thank my new beta, Soraya the All Speaker, for betaing my story. Read and Review.