Enjoy. And the adventure will start up soon. Probably in the next chapter or the one after that.
Once Kakashi arrived to greet his grumbling students, his headache started up again. Blaming that problem on Naruto was easy, since the boy had a loud mouth that he believed could wake the dead. Surprisingly that belief had not happened yet, but Kakashi supposed it was only a matter of time before Naruto did.
He glanced around and noted that Sai must have gotten back early from his mission. The clueless artist had no social skills and did not know anything about tact but he was learning from his experiences with Team Seven. Sai reminded him of Sasuke, especially in the looks and voice department despite their different personalities. But obviously Sasuke resented the fact that Sai was an attempt as an replacement and usually ignored him unless an insult was thrown Sasuke's way.
"I couldn't find my way here," Kakashi responded in a lazy voice as he pulled out another one of his infamous excuses. He prepared himself for their outbursts but that didn't stop his headache from increasing its painful feelings.
He explained today's endurance training and settled back against a solid maple tree a few feet away. Kakashi was in no mood to teach anything new and the last image he saw before falling asleep was Naruto and Sasuke arguing about who knew what?
Sakura's green eyes turned to plead with her teacher to stop the fight that was sure to commence, but he was too busy snoozing away the day.
She rushed over to the boys and they all shuffled toward him to listen to his soft easy breathing. Even Sai stood up from his seat on the grass and gently put away his sketchbook to see what his superior was doing. He stared at the sleeping form and glanced at Naruto whose eyes were twinkling with delight.
"I think he fell asleep," Naruto stated, blinking his laughing blue eyes as he studied the sight before him. He held his chest as he tried stifling the laughter that was just begging to be let out.
"Obviously dobe," Sasuke mocked as he used the old nickname. Naruto resented the insult and clenched his fists in anger. Sai silently watched and was about to pipe up with a comment that they would have taken as an insult, but Sakura swiftly intervened.
"Don't start you two," Sakura fussed as she thought of a nice little plan, "If he wakes up, we might never get another chance like this."
Startled the rivals stopped and stared at the sleeping Kakashi. Naruto grinned and tried controlling his twitching hands. Sai looked on, bafflement on his face as he noted the sudden stop in their arguments. Was this one of those enticing ways that females seemed to always have handy? Or was it because of the fear that this particular female could easily beat them senseless for it was highly unlikely that Sakura owned that particular brand of charm.
"What are you suggesting, Hag- I mean Sakura-Chan," Sai asked, correcting his slip up and glancing at Sakura and noting the sudden tightening of her gloves. She calmed down slightly and breathed out peacefully as she glanced over at her Sensei and narrowed her eyes.
Scooting closer and stepping to the side, Sakura brushed back her hair as it gently caressed her cheek. Sleek fingers touched the soft silk mask and ever so slowly, she slipped her fingers around the edges of the dark mask and gently pulled.
But the edge of the other side caught underneath his forehead protector and prevented Sakura from pulling any further than an inch. With her other hand, she gently pushed the headband a few inches upward and just as she was about to continue her descent, a long arm shot up and stilled her progress with a few long fingers that rested around her wrist in a firm grip.
Sakura sucked in a sharp breath at the quick alertness and released it in a long drawn out sigh when she realized it was only a reflexive action. Her tense teammates relaxed and she whispered to the others," Even asleep, he's quick."
Naruto groaned and he and Sasuke pried the Copy Nin's fingers away from Sakura's wrist but paused in horror when the sleeping figure moaned in pain.
"Memories, can't . . . Forget," Kakashi whimpered out in obvious agony in his tortured sleep, "It hurts so much."
His dark brown eye blinked open and groggily Kakashi fastened his focus on the three faces in front of him. He relaxed his grip and let go of Sakura's wrist. Sakura rubbed her wrist distractedly even if Kakashi-Sensei had caused no pain. Sasuke let his hands rest in his pocket while he stared straight ahead arrogantly toward his teacher as if he had done nothing wrong. But Naruto was avoiding Kakashi-Sensei's eyes and looked towards the others to figure out a reasonable excuse. Sakura warned him with her eyes to stop fidgeting and Naruto immediately straightened and stared straight ahead as well.
"What were you guys doing?" he asked with a slight stern voice that made the three ninjas flinch in guilt. Sai just stood there, his facial expressions showing a sense of bemusement. Kakashi crinkled his eye and smiled softly at their amusing reactions to his words. He still hadn't lost his touch.
Stumbling backwards, they mumbled their pitiful excuses that challenged his own, and scampered off to finish up their training. Chuckling dryly, Kakashi pulled out his book and reread Chapter three and four.
Hours passed and at last, he decided that today's training had lasted long enough. Hastily he slipped his book back into his kunai pouch, and stepped toward his team in slow easy strides that wouldn't jar his head too much.
Keeping his hands in his pockets, Kakashi addressed them and dismissed them. He vanished in a poof of smoke, and the three glanced at each other. Silently they left, each shuddering when remembering the words Kakashi had let escape from his dream that seemed more like a nightmare. . .