Chapter 4 - A New Leaf
Kakashi was having a really bad day.
It hadn't been enough that he was once again being forced to test yet another set of useless, immature Genin. Oh no, he had been tested and trialed, all because some high-strung elder thought that he wasn't good enough.
It had been tough, he wouldn't deny it. The tests had been specifically designed to target his weaknesses and grind him down.
Even now, sat in the Hokage's office, he could feel his sweat soaked clothes sticking to his skin and he could still feel his muscles burning in rebellion.
He had endured. He had pushed through it all, like he always did.
He survived. That was his blessing and his curse. No matter what, he always survived.
"You passed," the Hokage spoke with a neutral tone. Sat to his left was Danzo, one of the elders who advised the Hokage. Just as Kakashi had suspected.
"Of course," Kakashi replied and did not even bother to lift his head from the book that he was reading. "I am an elite Jounin for a reason."
"Indeed. Danzo?" The Hokage spoke as he turned his attention to Danzo.
"Very well," Danzo replied as he stood and Kakashi watched as the bandaged elder left. Had there been some sort of agreement between him and the Hokage? Well, it didn't matter now. He had proved himself better than Danzo's little games.
"Can I go now?" He asked, his tone almost petulantly, not that he cared how he sounded.
"No, Kakashi, I want you to put your book down and listen to me," the Hokage spoke with a tone that brooked no argument.
Kakashi was many things, but he wasn't a fool. He would antagonise just about anyone on any day of the week. He would even sometimes mess with the Hokage at times. But when his commander demanded his attention, he gave it wholly.
He placed the book in his lap and stiffened his body to attention.
"At ease, there is much I wish to tell you," the Hokage spoke as he lit his pipe and took a great drag of the tobacco smoke. He was stressed and angry; his face would never show it but Kakashi had known the Hokage for a very long time; he could read him by how many breaths of smoke he took in before speaking.
"Yes indeed, I have a couple of issues that you may be able to help with," the Hokage spoke before he took in another lungful of smoke. It was at this point that Kakashi realised just how much trouble he was in.
"As you have no doubt gathered; Danzo has once again attempted a ridiculous power play. You were to be tested and had you failed, you would have been his to mold and train. I have to be honest, Kakashi, I had little faith that you would complete these trials. I allowed them to go ahead, do you know why?"
Kakashi was confused and tipped his head to show it.
"Because I thought, for one irrational moment, that Danzo might be able to provide you with the motivation you require," the Hokage spoke in answer to Kakashi's unasked question. "It's clear to me now that he only intended to break you down so that he could mold you in his image."
Kakashi was allowed to dwell on that fact for a short while as the Hokage breathed in the soothing smoke.
"Of course, none of that matters now. You passed, you proved me wrong. The harsher path was avoided and things can go on as they were before. Of course, that leads me onto the next problem," the Hokage spoke, his words punctuated by clouds of tobacco smoke. "You fully intended to fail the Genin assigned to you out of hand, didn't you?"
"I was going to make them take the bell test," Kakashi shrugged. Forget the fact that he never intended for a team of Genin to understand the meaning behind that exercise from the start.
The Hokage, it seemed, was aware of this, and let out a smoke filled sigh.
"The future of the Leaf is tenuous. We are coasting on the image of our past victories, limping along and crippled by the blows that fate has dealt us. True, we have tentative agreements with the Mist, the Sand, and a deeper connection with the Waterfall, but what if they saw past the illusion of strength that we show the rest of the world? Would they still stand by us then? We need a new guard, a way to make that illusion a reality," the Hokage explained, his tone slow and considered.
"The Jinchuuriki, the remaining Uchiha. A girl who wishes to become a sealer. These three alone, if trained properly, could be the forefront of that ideal. Think of what it could do for the Leaf if the right hands were to shape their future."
"So why hand them to me?" Kakashi spoke immediately, unable and unwilling to swallow the retort.
"Why should Kakashi of the Sharingan teach the only remaining Uchiha? Why should the pupil of Minato Namikaze teach his son? Why should someone who learned sealing at the hand of the Fourth Hokage and his wife give advice to someone deeply interested in the art? You have so much to give, Kakashi, so much. I believe that they would flourish under you," the Hokage told him, utter faith in his voice.
Yet Kakashi was still not convinced.
"If they are so important, why not train them yourself? Everything you say about me is mostly true of you. I might know a thousand techniques, but you invented over a thousand," he replied, his tone more childishly petulant than ever. Even he knew that he was pushing his luck, but he wanted to avoid this responsibility with all of his heart.
Yet the Hokage gave the idea credence, as if it were the first time he had heard such a comment, and stroked his chin in thought.
"Train them myself, you say? But then how would I deal with the duties of Hokage? I am a busy man, Kakashi," the Hokage spoke, yet a look on his face showed that he was giving the idea thought.
Kakashi blinked once, and then twice. Could he work this? Only if he thought of a way for the Hokage to do his work, without Kakashi himself getting involved.
There must be a way, something obvious, something right under his nose.
For some reason, the image of the dossier on Naruto swam in his mind; "Capable of creating over a thousand Shadow Clones without tiring…" it had read.
Wait, there it was! An idea so simple, so beautiful that he was almost worried that it was too good to be true.
"Shadow Clones," Kakashi let out carelessly.
"I beg your pardon?" The Hokage replied as if he hadn't quite heard him.
"You could leave a Shadow Clone here to do your work. No-one would touch it and so long as you made a new one every day, it'd never run out of Chakra. That way you could train the Genin to your heart's desire, while your clone does all the work here. There's your solution," Kakashi spoke, perhaps a little too proud of the idea.
The Hokage leaned back and closed his eyes as he considered the idea deeply.
"Kakashi, you're a genius," he spoke after an almost too-long pause. "Why, it's the perfect idea. However; the teams are already set, which means that I can only train these Genin as your assistant."
There it was; the bad news that Kakashi had been waiting for. What had his father always said? 'If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.'
"The more I think on this idea, the more merit it holds in my eyes. This way, I can keep an eye on you as well as the Genin," the Hokage spoke, a bright excitement coming to him as he considered the idea further. "Oh yes, this is a grand opportunity. Come, Kakashi, we have much to prepare!"
Kakashi watched as the old Hokage stood, seeming to almost regress in age ten years at the prospect of being able to help train Genin once more after all of this time.
What sweet hell had he just unleashed?
/~X~\
Lilacs rested on a lonely grave.
Gekido had nothing to say. He had never been able to open up like Shirane did, to speak out loud all of his hopes and fears and achievements as if their mother's spirit might be listening.
He envied Shirane's faith, envied her belief that their mother smiled down on them from above. He could never bring himself to imagine it. He was afforded no such solace.
There was no point questioning why, begging for guidance from one who could no longer answer. He was his own guide now, and the guide of his precious little sister.
Speaking of the scamp, he had made a promise to Shirane that he would rest today, but he had ended up breaking it and had walked all the way out here to the cemetery.
All he could do was return home and hope that Torami would not rat him out.
He let out a sigh as he turned to leave.
Torami was totally going to rat him out.
A warm wind picked up petals of lilac and carried them away to parts unknown as Gekido walked away.
/~X~\
Shirane looked up from her book.
The three Genin were still waiting for their Sensei to arrive and Naruto was starting to twitch. Shirane wondered if he had ever been made to sit still for so long.
Sasuke, in stark contrast, seemed at peace with proceedings and stared off into space with his usual blank expression.
"That's it!" Naruto shouted as he stood up and slapped the table. "Our Sensei's going to get pranked."
Shirane rose a judgmental eyebrow but could not keep the smile from showing on her lips. If their Sensei wanted to be late then he could deal with a little prank, surely?
Naruto took one of the chalk dusters and placed it over the sliding door so that it would fall down on the head of anyone who opened the door.
"Is that all?" Shirane asked him, disappointed with his apparent lack of imagination.
"Yep. Sometimes, simple is best," Naruto spoke with a wide grin. "Besides, I bet that you couldn't think of anything better with what's in the room."
"You bet, do you? Alright then," Shirane replied, unable to resist a challenge.
She closed her book and placed Torabi carefully on top of it before she ran to the back of the class room and grabbed the bottle of superglue, several sheets of paper and a pair of safety scissors. She walked back to her seat - because one should not run with scissors - and pulled a small pot of special ink as well as a brush from her pocket. She pushed her mother's book, Torabi and all, into Naruto's space and sat down.
The first piece of paper, she cut into two equal parts and set them in front of herself. The other pieces of paper she had Naruto tear into little pieces as she dipped her brush into the ink.
Bringing one of the pieces of paper that she had cut out in front of her, she began to carefully draw an elaborate design.
The two most basic styles of sealing were linear and circular. Circular allowed repeated actions to be made while Linear allowed actions to happen one after another.
These were for beginners and more complicated seals forewent them entirely, in favour of much grander styles. Storage seals, the design that Shirane was attempting to make here, were based on the Linear style.
What this meant was that they were simpler to draw and design, and relied more heavily on lines than symbols. It took ever so slightly more Chakra to activate them, only the smallest of differences, but to Shirane's low Chakra pools such differences were important to note.
"What are you doing?" Sasuke asked with a frown as he watched Shirane's brush glide over the surface of the paper as if it were a skater on ice.
"I am making a storage seal," she told him brightly, glad that he had taken an interest in her work. "If you look here, this part is a 'receiver,' it catches a pulse of Chakra and directs it along the line. This is then brought to this, which is the release mechanism. The storage mechanism is also contained here, however the Chakra pulse from earlier is blocked off from it. We don't want to try storing and releasing something at exactly the same moment. Trust me. It gets... Weird.
"Anyway, I still need Chakra to activate the storage mechanism, but since we have blocked it off from the receiver, we need a manual input which I will... just... draw... there, you see?"
Sasuke nodded, although he had a markedly confused look on his face. Nevertheless he made an effort to chip in with this thoughts.
"So... That lets you store something in there by feeding it Chakra manually? And then you can release it remotely?" He asked her. Naruto had finished tearing up the paper and had come to look as well.
"Yes," Shirane explained with a smile, keen to keep Sasuke interested. "Although, I still have to be relatively close to the seal to set it off. I could make it more sensitive but then there's a chance that it will set off if someone just passes by it, just because of their Chakra's natural pulse. It is possible to tune a receiver to your own Chakra signature, at least, I've heard of people doing that, but I haven't figured out how to do that quite yet."
Unlike Sasuke, Naruto had nothing to add, and simply admired the beautiful pattern that Shirane had made. He was even more amazed when Shirane opened the bottle of glue, pressed her fingers to what she had called the manual input and poured the glue straight onto the paper.
The stream of glue disappeared into the seal as if the very paper had swallowed it up.
Naruto let out a gasp of amazement and Sasuke's eyebrow rose about a quarter of a millimeter at the sight of it.
As quick as a flash, Shirane had copied the seal onto the other half of the paper and soon the mountain of scraps that Naruto had created also disappeared, swallowed by a seal.
"I am going to put a mark on this one, here," she spoke and pointed at the seal with paper in it. "This will delay the Chakra pulse slightly. This will mean that Sensei will be splattered with glue before he gets showered with paper," she told the boy and basked in the warm glow of the attention that they were giving her.
Once she had a sufficient attention-tan, she stole some of the sticking tack from behind a poster and used it to stick her seals to the ceiling.
"You're both ridiculous," Sasuke uttered as he turned his attention back to the front of the classroom.
"What, are you saying that you could not do better?" Shirane said as she stuck her tongue out at him, too caught in the moment to care that she was being childish.
Sasuke looked, for the barest of moments, as though he might accept her challenge. It was not to be, for at that moment the heard footsteps outside.
Shirane rushed back to her seat and assumed an image of angelic innocence that only little girls were capable of.
A man opened the door and stepped into the room.
He was a tall and slender man, with a tight and well trained body and windswept silver hair. Any other defining feature of his body was hidden from view and even his face was mostly hidden away, his Leaf headband covering his left eye and a mask covering his mouth and nose.
As he stepped into the room, the chalk duster fell onto his head with a dull thud, before it bounced onto the floor with a rattle.
"You guys..." The man spoke as he brought himself further into the room.
Unfortunately for him, he had placed himself right under Shirane's trap.
With a quick and excited handsign from the young girl, the release mechanisms of the seals activated and the man found that he had more to worry about.
A bottle's worth of glue poured down over him with a hideous slopping sound, followed by a torrential downpour of plain white confetti. He was covered in an instant - from head to toe - in paper.
"... I think I loathe you," he told them, an utterly bemused expression on his face.
"Are those storage seals? Fantastic! Simply fantastic," another voice came as a much older man walked into the room.
"Hello, young Genin," he said to the three of them. "I must simply apologise for how late we are. We had to prepare some things and rather lost track of time, I'm afraid. In any case, you may call me Sarutobi-sensei and I will be assisting Kakashi, helping him to train you."
Sarutobi was an old veteran. Like Kakashi, his hair was a spiky silver, though more likely due to age than natural birth. He wore old fashioned Ninja clothes, designed to make one disappear in a crowd of civilians and leaned heavily on a walking cane.
Shirane felt something strange, as if she knew Sarutobi from somewhere, but the Hokage was the only person that she knew whom was that age. There were similarities between the two of them, but Sarutobi was clearly his own man. Torabi too had felt something and stirred from his sleep.
Kakashi whispered something into Sarutobi's ear and though his mask stopped Shirane from reading Kakashi's lips, she was able to catch snippets of Sarutobi's reply.
"No... if... finds out then... accused of favouritism... Just let me... most fun... in years(!)" He whispered back.
Shirane could not make heads or tails of what Sarutobi was saying. Favouritism? Who would he be favouring? And who would be accusing him? The Hokage?
Before she could even begin unwinding the whole conspiracy theory that had exploded in her mind, her attention was forced to her right as Naruto spoke up.
"Our Sensei's an old man? That sucks!" He protested, his voice full of petulant childishness.
Shirane almost felt like slapping him for the rude remark. Sarutobi was a veteran whose standing alone, never mind his seemingly lovely attitude, demanded respect.
However before she could so much as give Naruto an angry glare, Kakashi gave him an answer.
" I am your Sensei. Sarutobi has offered me his assistance and expertise," he told Naruto directly, before he turned his focus back on the paper that covered him and tried to get it unstuck.
A marked silence filled the air as Naruto looked down at his feet, seemingly ashamed with his own outburst. This lasted a short while until Sarutobi clapped his hands together and smiled at each of them.
"Introductions are in order, I think? Well, let's go with the old standard, shall we? I'd like you all to tell me your names, your likes and dislikes, and your dreams for the future," he told them. He had a wonderful speaking voice that captivated them easily however none of them were willing to speak.
Kakashi was picking paper off of his clothes, Sasuke would try his level best to speak last and Naruto was still embarrassed with himself. There were no volunteers here.
"Sensei? Sir?" Shirane asked as she rose her hand. "Could you perhaps give us an example? We three know a little bit about one another, but nothing at all about either of you."
"Well put, you're quite right, my girl," Sarutobi told her as he gave a nod. "A good point in deed. Very well, I'm Sarutobi, I like and love my children and my grandchildren, but I also like sardine fish balls and Hijiki seaweed. I very much dislike arguments and pickled fish. My dream is to build a brighter future for the Leaf."
It took Kakashi a few seconds to notice that the proverbial torch had been passed to him, and another few seconds after that for him to speak.
"I'm Kakashi," he drawled, his arms hung loose by his sides. "I suppose, I like... Well, I don't really dislike anything. My dream for the future... That's a secret."
One could have heard a pin drop in the silence that followed Kakashi's speech. Sarutobi rolled his eyes and turned to Kakashi.
"Oh for heaven's sake," Sarutobi said, giving Kakashi a look of utter contempt. "This is Kakashi Hatake, a Jounin of the Leaf. He likes reading and dislikes writing reports. His dream is to own a signed first copy of a book written by his favourite author."
Kakashi had the decency to look down in shame from the look that Sarutobi had given him. The elder sighed and turned back to the Genin.
"Ladies first," he asked Shirane politely as he gestured at her.
"Hello, I am Shirane and this is Torabi," she spoke as she lifted Torabi off of the book and into their line of sight.
"Stop it, I'm tired," Torabi whined as he dangled from Shirane's grip.
"I like my brother, and pie. I would say that... I guess I dislike loud noises? Or really high pitched sounds? In any case, my dream for the future is to surpass my mother as a sealer and become the greatest Kunoichi in the Leaf."
"Very good, Shirane," Sarutobi told her before he moved on.
Both Naruto and Sasuke shared their versions, with Naruto exclaiming once more, how he would become Hokage. Surprisingly, Sarutobi had given an enthusiastic thumbs up to this, although Kakashi had rolled his eye.
Then Sasuke had sent a chill down Shirane's spine by uttering his dream in a tone that was so full of dark emotion that she could not help but shiver. He might have only been twelve, but he was serious about his goal.
"Can you really think of nothing that you like, young Sasuke?" Sarutobi asked him, the question coming in a tone that was so genuinely curious that Shirane felt compelled to answer, even though it had not been directed at her.
"Come on, just one thing. A girl you fancy? A food you like more than any other? Music? Theatre? Even if it's something small or silly like your pillow." Sarutobi continued. Shirane noted how he had moved past Sasuke's murderous goal and was trying to have him focus on small details about his life.
Sasuke closed his eyes and bowed his head in a nod.
"I... I suppose I like the smell of dust after rain... and... tomatoes. I don't like being disturbed when I'm thinking. Is that better?" He asked, a slight edge of frustration entering his voice.
"Much better, thank you Sasuke," Sarutobi said, every one of his words genuine. Not a single note of his tone was condescending or patronising, and Shirane could not help but wonder how he did it.
"Well then, I leave the rest in the hands of Kakashi," Sarutobi said as he sat down in Iruka's chair.
"What? Oh, right," Kakashi's attention had been elsewhere and the transference of power had temporarily caught him off guard. "So, basically, you're not quite Genin yet."
Shirane and Naruto let out a simultaneous cry of protest, and pointed at their headbands. Kakashi held his hand up to stop them from shouting.
"All Jounin have a right to not train a Genin team. For this purpose, it has become a tradition for Jounin Sensei to test their prospective students before deciding to train them," he explained.
This calmed Shirane down. It was only fair, she supposed, to let the Jounin choose whether to train Genin or not.
"I will give you another hour to prepare yourselves for the test I will give you. It will be for the rest of the day, so prepare accordingly... or whatever. One piece of advice; don't eat, you'll be sick. Meet me on training ground three," Kakashi told them before he disappeared in a whirlwind of leaves.
Sarutobi let out a sigh and mumbled quietly to himself. "Who does he think he's kidding? Everyone knows that you won't be sick if you give your stomach about an hour to rest."
He noticed that the three Genin were still sat there and waved at them with a smile.
"I'll see you in an hour. Don't forget, training ground three," he reminded them before he walked out of the door in a much more usual manner.
Naruto was gone almost immediately. Shirane could be forgiven for imagining that he had jumped out the window with how fast he had run.
"Do you need anything, Sasuke?" She asked him and noted his expression. He had started showing more emotion. Not much, just little flashes every now and then. Still, it was better than a pure blank slate.
"I'll be fine, thank you," he replied with a polite tone.
Shirane watched him leave and pet Torabi's head as she considered her own next move.
"I might have to ask you to do some work," she told him.
"That's okay. I'll do anything I can to help you, Shirane," Torabi replied.
She scooped him up along with her mother's book and walked home, her mind filled with ideas of what she might need to bring to this test.
/~X~\
Shirane was late!
How had she let this happen? She was normally so on top of time. She just had to hope that Kakashi wouldn't fail her because of this one little slip up.
She had sent Torabi ahead. He could run like no-one else when he really wanted to, and thus was the best kind of summoning animal to send messages ahead.
She made it to training ground three and found Sasuke and Naruto standing there already.
Sat on a stool with Torabi resting in his lap was Sarutobi.
"Sorry I'm late, Sensei," Shirane bowed and plucked Torabi away to stand next to her.
"Good, we're all here," Sarutobi said with a gracious smile.
"Wait, where's Kakashi-sensei? If he's late again, I'll scream," Naruto asked and looked around as if the man might be hiding nearby.
There was nowhere to hide, unless he was somehow beneath the ground. They were stood atop a hill with nothing to hide behind or under anywhere around them.
Sarutobi's smile became a sinister little grin.
"Kakashi is hiding somewhere in the Leaf. His test for you is this; all three of you must have found him by sunset. If none of you, or only one or two of you find him then you all fail. He has been given two handicaps to make this fair - first; he cannot use Ninjutsu or Genjutsu to hide himself, however he may use Taijutsu or old fashioned Ninja techniques that do not require Chakra. Secondly; he may not leave the Leaf, hide underground or hide anywhere a Genin would be disallowed. Do you understand?" Sarutobi told them.
Naruto nodded and geared up to begin, however fell flat on his face as Sarutobi stood up and spoke.
"Hang on a moment, I'm not done yet. I'm afraid that my feelings were rather hurt by Naruto's comment about my age, so I've decided to test you too. If you want to look for Kakashi, you first have to get past me," Sarutobi spoke.
He was old, frail and looked as though he might fall over should the wind blow too hard. Yet Shirane felt a pressure from him, a deep pressure that told her to fight or flee. She opened her mouth, but no words would come.
Sasuke too seemed to have been afflicted and though a kunai had appeared in his hand, he could not bring himself to move.
In the end, it was Naruto who broke the spell.
"I'll take your test then! I'll prove that I'm the man who will one day become Hokage," he exclaimed.
Sarutobi pointed his cane at a line that had been cut into the earth behind him.
"Get past this line and you're free to go," he told them.
Naruto did not waste a moment and threw himself immediately at Sarutobi.
Shirane never even saw what happened. One moment, Naruto's fist had been heading towards Sarutobi's face, the next he was thrown back with considerable force.
Sasuke was next to try. His fighting style was lighter and faster than Naruto's, perhaps he could get a hit on the old man?
Despite Shirane's faith in him, he was swept aside just as easily. Neither of them would be so easily dissuaded and they attacked Sarutobi over and over.
Shirane knew that she had to do something. She could not just watch Naruto and Sasuke get knocked flat over and over.
An idea formed in her mind and she ran between the two boys as quick as she was able. Sarutobi had no more difficulty with three of them than he had with two and flicked Naruto away. Sasuke was thrown back by the blunt end of Sarutobi's cane and now Shirane was alone.
But that was fine, she had a plan. Sarutobi had hit Naruto and Sasuke in the chest with a straight blow so she preemptively dodged to the left.
In that movement, the bells in her hair rang and in that tone she laid a Genjutsu. It was a simple thing, intended only to knock him off timing for a moment. She would never be able to fit more than a sleeping Genjutsu in the tone her bells made, but it was enough for now.
She flitted around Sarutobi's left side, aiming for the line. However, before she even saw him move, she felt an impact deep in her stomach and was thrown back to the ground.
"Taijutsu," Sarutobi proclaimed, tapping his cane against the ground.
Shirane stood up and wiped the mud off of her face.
"If we can not go through him..." She began.
"Then we'll just go around him," Sasuke spoke, finishing her sentence.
"Break!" Naruto shouted and each of them ran in a separate direction.
Sasuke, his hands a blur, threw a single fireball technique at Sarutobi to distract him whilst Naruto had summoned a horde of clones, perhaps in the hope that he would be lost among them. Shirane had no such tricks and simply fled as fast as she was able towards the line.
Sarutobi dodged the fireball with utter calm. Then, with a simple hand sign, he stamped on the ground.
The ground itself rose up against the Genin, first collapsing under their feet and then catapulting them away with a spire of earth.
"Ninjutsu," Sarutobi intoned as he watched them stand.
"And Genjutsu."
Shirane didn't even have time to recover as Sarutobi's immense power washed over her, consuming her mind and taking away her senses.
She pushed against it, pulsing her own Chakra against it. The power was overwhelming, consuming. Just how powerful was Sarutobi?
In her mind, she saw horrible things. She saw Naruto lying against a tree, his blood stained against the bark. She saw Sasuke, his mouth open in a scream, his eyes plucked from his head.
Her own fear had been turned against her.
"Torabi, bite me!" She cried out against the darkness in her mind, hoping her partner would here.
Shirane was rewarded with a sharp pain in her left hand and with the sight of the open sky. She let out a breath that she had not known that she had been holding.
Both boys required two hard slaps to be brought back into reality. If Torabi were not there, what would she have done? That was something to consider later. The power of Genjutsu was truly fearsome.
"I have an idea," Naruto spoke, to the surprise of everyone listening.
Shirane scooped up Torabi and nodded her head.
"What?" Sasuke asked him.
"You two get ready to run. I've a special technique that's super effective on powerful Ninja," Naruto grinned and rubbed his finger beneath his nose.
"Okay, I trust you," Shirane told him and stood beside him.
It took Sasuke a moment longer to decide but he too soon stood at Naruto's side.
"What do you plan to do now?" Sarutobi asked them.
"I'm going to show you something special! The technique I used to defeat the Hokage!" Naruto told Sarutobi, his finger pointed squarely and a look of determination in his eyes.
Naruto made a hand sign that Shirane had never seen before and a visible Chakra built up around him. What fearsome technique could he be using?
"Behold!" Naruto spoke as the smoke around him cleared. "Sexy technique!"
As per Naruto's instruction, Shirane had started running already, but saw well enough what Naruto had done.
In his place was a sixteen year old girl with the body of a Goddess; long slender legs, child bearing hips and sunshine blonde hair that was held up in pigtails.
Sarutobi never stood a chance.
"What was that?!" Shirane growled as Torabi struggled helplessly against her vice like grip. They were all stood together, way over the line - Sarutobi face down in the dirt as if he had been hit by the most powerful technique that there was.
"Like it? It's a secret technique I invented," he smiled with pride.
"You have to admit, it was effective," Sasuke spoke.
Shirane looked between them. She could not believe what she was hearing.
"Boys," she decided. "I do not think I shall ever understand your kind."
"The feeling is mutual, I assure you," Sasuke replied.
"Shouldn't we be looking for Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked as he looked between the two of them.
"I know we have to find him together, but we should split up. We only have a couple of hours left before sunset," Shirane said.
"But how will we know if somebody finds Kakashi?" Naruto chimed in.
"Have you got a seal for communication?" Sasuke asked and turned his attention to Shirane.
"No, I had not even thought about the idea," Shirane admitted. "Okay, if you find Kakashi, you bring him straight back to Sarutobi. The rest will meet back here right before sunset. Does that sound good?"
"It's the best we're going to do for now," Sasuke spoke in agreement.
"Yeah, let's do this!" Naruto exclaimed and set off immediately. Sasuke followed suit and ran off in a different direction.
Shirane tried to imagine where Kakashi might go. The library, the book stores, perhaps the restaurants? Or maybe she should try and find his house? She could always ask around to gather intel, but she did not want to end up on a wild goose chase.
Her feet carried her to the first places she had thought of; the library. Then the bookstore. After an hour of running around the commercial district, looking in every store she was starting to get frustrated.
"Someone just said Kakashi's name," Torabi spoke with a voice full of certainty.
"Where?" Shirane asked him, her trust in his ears beyond certain.
"That bar stall," he told her, pointing his paw.
Shirane ran up and held him up to the side of the wall as if he were an empty glass.
"Please, tell me what they are saying," she asked him in a hurry.
Torabi nodded and began to transmit immediately, whispering to her the conversation that was going on inside.
"... the hospital every single day, you'd swear he lives there!"
"Didn't you know? He's visiting someone. Apparently someone who was close to him. Why are you talking about this any way? It's depressing. I came here for a pint, not Kakashi's sob story."
"Sorry, I just saw him going back there not so long ago. I just thought it was weird..."
Shirane could hardly contain her glee and hugged Torabi close to her chest.
"You are brilliant, you know that?" She told him.
"Praise me more, mistress," Torabi purred happily.
"No," Shirane replied in a flat, monotone voice.
She stood, turned and ran as quick as she was able. They had, perhaps, another hour before the sun went down and Kakashi might still try to escape.
"You wait out here, Torabi. I want to be around as fast as I can. Keep an eye out; if Kakashi comes out alone, you follow him. If we come out together, you go to Naruto and Sasuke and tell them to meet me on the hill. Okay?" She asked him, placing him beside the doors of the hospital.
"I'll do my best, Shirane," Torabi spoke and sat in place in a self-important manner.
Shirane knew she could trust Torabi to do his job right. All she had to do was locate Kakashi.
She had first thought to avoid the receptionist but then an idea popped into her head and she walked straight up to the desk.
"Can I help you?" The bored young receptionist asked as she looked at her nails.
"I'm looking for Kakashi Hatake. The Hokage wants to see him," Shirane invented.
"Fine, I'll just call him over the P.A," the receptionist spoke, and reached for a large and clunky microphone.
"No!" Shirane let out, and the receptionist gave her a funny look. "If he goes back to the Hokage on his own, they might think I didn't do the job and then I won't be paid."
Shirane was not the best actor in the world, but the expression she gave now of an embarrassed little girl fearing for her job struck a chord with the receptionist.
"He's in room 746 on the third floor," she told Shirane quietly.
Shirane gave her a mouthed 'thank you' and walked off towards the third floor with a power walk. Even with everything that was at stake she did not want to run in a hospital.
She was rushing so much that she very nearly missed the room entirely.
Inside was Kakashi.
On the hospital bed lay a woman. She was slim and tall with dark brown hair that had been cut, not professionally but with care. She had a very plain face, no blemishes but no beautifying definition to it either. There was a blue, rectangular tattoo printed across each of her cheeks.
She was hooked up to all kinds of scary machines that must monitor her condition and make sure that she got the sustenance she needed. A Leaf headband lay atop the heart monitor. It looked as though it hadn't been touched in a very long time.
"When I saw you three," Kakashi spoke as Shirane stepped into the room. "I nearly ran away on the spot. It was like looking at my own team all over again. I don't want to do this again."
Shirane looked around the room, she did not know what to say.
"You have picked nice flowers. My mother used to like Lilacs too," she told him, trying desperately to change the subject.
Kakashi fell silent. He barely seemed aware that Shirane was in the room. However when she opened her mouth, he cut across her with his own words.
"Her name is Rin Nohara. She was my teammate and she was there for me through everything. But during the war, she was hit by a lightning technique and I was too slow to save her. She fell into a coma. She's been in a coma for over a decade," he told Shirane.
Kakashi was in deepest darkness. He had lost hope.
Hope.
Could Shirane give him that?
"We will help you. Me, Naruto, I will even convince Sasuke somehow. You are going to train us, right? Then in return, we will help you," Shirane spoke and reached out her hand with a voice full of conviction.
"What can you do?" Kakashi asked, his eyes on the hand of a twelve year old girl.
"I do not yet know," she admitted. "But there is a solution in this world, and we are going to find it, together."
Kakashi faltered, naught but uncertainty in his face.
"What if I fail again?" He spoke, his inner fears coming out in a hushed whisper.
"I will not let you," Shirane told him and stared up into his eyes. "You train us and we will motivate you to train hard as well."
Kakashi looked up at the ceiling and breathed in, then out again. When he spoke again, his voice had returned to its usual tone and volume.
"You've found me, let's head back," he told her and picked his book off of the chair. He gave Rin one more glance before he walked out with Shirane and closed the door.
"Do you promise?" He asked her quietly.
"On my soul, the sun, and the stars," she replied.
And he found that he believed her.
/~X~\
"I am back," Shirane announced as she approached her teammates with Kakashi in tow.
The moment Sasuke saw her, he thrust Torabi into her arms as if he were handing her a bomb.
"What did you do?" She asked Torabi, however it was Sasuke who answered.
"I'm just not good with animals. I always feel like I'm holding them wrong," he explained.
"You're all back," Sarutobi spoke with a clap of his hands. "And just in time too. Kakashi, will you do the honours?"
Something had changed in Kakashi's demeanour. He stood tall, his hands held behind his back and when he spoke it was clear and deep.
"You all did well to get past Sarutobi and you worked together to find a solution to the challenges presented to you. For these reasons, among others, I am happy to announce that Sarutobi and I will be your Sensei." Kakashi told them.
"Congratulations, Team Seven," both Kakashi and Sarutobi said together.
/~X~\
Author's Notes;
I went on a well-being course. All it did was make me tired, but hey I got £20 out of it.
This is my thing, I hope you like it. If there's any suggestions you'd like to make or anything you like or dislike, please tell me.
Now that Team Seven is together, how will they fair? What trials will they face together? With Sarutobi, the indomitable Ninja on their side, how will they be trained to face the enemies that lurk in all directions?
All this and more, next time on Fire and Lightning