When Team Seven returns they are, surprisingly, none the worse for wear. The hint of worry that had spread through those in the know eased off. For a village not at war, the loss of a team of fresh genin would have been a hard hit– especially when this team boasts the last Uchiha (and the jinchuuriki).
There are some who'd doubted their sensei's decision to leave the kids behind when he went to get back-up, but it looks like it worked out for the best. The genin seem to be completely fine, so this is enough for most shinobi to let it go – it isn't really any of their business, after all.
When Shikaku happens upon them as they enter the Hokage tower he is also a little relieved, they are his son's age after all. But he also takes note of the three ninja from Otogakure being dragged into a different direction, the T&I department no doubt, and his mind automatically starts considering the possibilities of how they managed to survive.
So when Team Seven enters the Hokage's office for their debriefing, something not uncommon after a mission gone wrong, the Nara follows.
The Hokage looks at him with the barest hint of surprise on his face and Shikaku shrugs casually, "I'd be interested in hearing this as well."
From the corner of his eyes, he notices that Nakamura looks nervous and files that away, knowing it could be for any of a great number of reasons.
Sandaime-sama motions for the jounin to start and the man gives them a succinct report of the situation: they'd been attacked unexpectedly by hostile ninja within Fire Country's borders. The Oto team had proved too much for Nakamura to handle, but he's fast so he'd decided on getting back-up from Konoha, drawing the shinobi away from his vulnerable genin.
Not an illogical plan, but as a strategy it was deeply flawed when it becomes apparent that the jounin had continued on to Konoha even when it became clear that the pursuers were no longer on his tail.
"You didn't worry that they might turn back to go after the genin instead?" Shikaku wonders out loud.
Nakamura looks uncomfortable beneath his gaze, "There wasn't much of a choice – engaging the three would have led to failure. I took the best chance we had."
The Uchiha scowls and Uzumaki looks about ready to jump in and says something when the pink-haired girl lays a hand on his arm and shushes him before he even opens his mouth. Their sensei ignores the byplay of the kids completely – he doesn't even glance at them.
Neither the Hokage or Shikaku comments on any of this and instead they let the man continue his report.
The jounin had arrived in Konoha during the early hours of the morning and Shikaku makes a mental note of that too – that the shinobi who claims to be fast took far too long to reach their village.
He wonders if the man had actually rested for part of the night - while his genin were in danger. The Nara keeps his face blank in spite of his thoughts.
After arriving here Nakamura had reported that his genin were in danger and requested back-up, which had been granted in the form of a chuunin team.
They'd retraced the jounin-sensei's steps, found the trio not too far from where he'd left them and found the Oto shinobi unconscious and tied up. With this the jounin concludes his report.
Shikaku notes that the man had said nothing of injuries or a lack thereof – an oversight? Had the genin even been checked over by a medic-nin yet?
The Hokage nods agreeably, his face giving nothing away, and turns to the three teens, "Please report what happened from the moment you were attacked."
To Shikaku's surprise it isn't the dark-haired boy or the jinchuuriki who takes charge here, no, it's Haruno who steps slightly forward to, somewhat shyly, give her report.
It's even more surprising that the boys let her.
"Well, Nakamura-sensei left- to draw the attacking shinobi away. He told us to find a place to hide and wait for him, so we did. Sasuke-kun found us a good spot and we set up traps."
"Awesome traps," the enthusiastic orange-clad ninja couldn't seem to help but add. Next to him, the Uchiha rolls his eyes. Haruno clearly tries to stay professional and ignores her loud teammate.
"We didn't have any food with us, because sensei had it, so we… uh. Ate berries. I knew which ones are alright for eating… so," she sounds a bit hesitant while she tells them this.
They all, very carefully, do not look at each other. In fact, Naruto looks rather embarrassed as he lets his eyes trail up to the ceiling. Shikaku theorizes that either, or both, of the boys had tried catching rabbits, fish or birds and failed at their pursuit.
"But, the Otogakure shinobi returned, they found us," she continues bravely, "The traps worked, a little, but… not enough."
No, genin-made traps wouldn't be nearly enough against a trio of shinobi that their sensei had estimated at jounin level - though it's possible that Nakamura overstated their skills just slightly to save his own pride. That would still make them high-chuunin level ninja and unlikely to be deterred by the traps of a green genin team.
"We'd only just gotten to our feet after hearing one of the traps go off and realised that we were under attack when another shinobi jumped in and, uh, took them down," she was silent for a moment, before adding, "Really quickly."
"He totally kicked ass, believe it!" Naruto inserted enthusiastically, "And he's a Konoha shinobi too."
Sasuke shook his head, "He's a nukenin, Dobe."
"Well yeah, but a nukenin from Konoha," the blonde returned as if that was the thing that mattered most.
"A nukenin?" Shikaku wonders, genuinely startled - that's a highly unexpected source for a rescue.
Considering the situation, that these genin had actually survived the encounter, it couldn't have been one of their more dangerous, and insane, missing nin such as Orochimaru.
But, if this was a Konoha nukenin strong enough to take down three jounin or high chuunin as if it was nothing… that doesn't leave many possibilities. In fact, his first guess would be Uchiha Itachi. The genius had become a mentally unstable S-ranked ninja with an immense kill count, but it was still a possibility that he'd gone out of his way to save his little brother's team. He had left the boy alive that night, after all.
He scrutinizes the other Uchiha and doesn't see it; this child has been swearing revenge against his brother for years and he's currently showing no signs of frustration, anger or even fear.
So, skill-wise that really only leaves… "Hatake?"
He'd taken notice, as jounin commander, when two of his jounin had reported a run-in with the dangerous nukenin on a mission. Thankfully, the ex-ANBU Captain had let them go without much damage. In Raido's words, the other shinobi had just been toying with them, but the end result had remained the same and his soldiers were still alive.
Then, months later, the missing-nin had aided two of their chuunin for no discernible reason. The second of these instances was far more surprising than the first. He could understand not killing old comrades when there was really no reason to, but why help when it gained him nothing?
It was puzzling enough that Shikaku has been keeping an eye on reports of the S-class nukenin. And when he started looking he found that the name came up more frequently than any other shinobi previously of Konoha - because it seems that Hatake stays mostly in, or near, Fire Country. And though the Nara can't find a pattern, exactly, in the missions that the silver-haired shinobi took other than that many of them were protection missions, he did notice a trend in what was missing.
The very few assassinations that are ascribed to the nukenin were all, as far as the Nara could ascertain, of enemies of Konoha. This could, of course, be a coincidence, but it's still significant data.
Then there are the rumours. Word had spread that Hatake doesn't kill children and is more likely to assassinate the person requesting the mission than the target. The truth of this is, of course, not validated, but persistent rumours are generally based on something – either on truth or deliberate misinformation and he can see no motive for the second of these.
Which is why it would make sense, in a way, if it was Hatake who saved them. Genin might officially be adults, but most people, even shinobi, don't actually consider them as such.
The Haruno girl shakes her head at the name he uttered, but before she can speak Naruto interrupts, "Nu-uh, he's called Kakashi-sensei."
"Sensei?" The Hokage repeats, with true incredulousness visible to any who could discern it from the slight widening of his eyes and the way his voice raises just slightly.
Shikaku doesn't know whether to commend the brat for managing to actually break through the Sandaime's calm mask, or to suggest that the Uzumaki leave the shinobi force entirely, because there is clearly something lacking in the survival instincts of the enthusiastic boy - 'Kakashi-sensei'…?
Their actual sensei starts incoherently sputtering next to them, clearly at a loss for words and the Nara revises his earlier thought into kicking this jounin out instead, because a genin can be excused, but had their teacher actually travelled all the way back to Konoha with them without even inquiring how his charges managed to capture the three enemy nin?
With a mental shake of his head he dismisses Nakamura to the back of his mind and puts his full focus on these, surprisingly interesting, genin instead.
"He taught us tree climbing," the Uchina surprisingly defends his teammate's words, with a hint of stubbornness and perhaps a 'subtle' dig at their actual sensei.
"And how to catch fish," the pink-haired girl adds, likely in the spirit of honesty. Ah. Fishing then, the part of his mind not currently running through nonsensical mental loops of 'Kakashi-sensei' absently observes – had Hatake watched them fail at it before? Had he been watching the genin even before they were attacked?
"And he totally kicked ass," Uzumaki Naruto repeats, as if this is definitely the most important point, "I'm going to become a completely kick-ass ninja too and then I'll become Hokage and-"
"We know, Dobe," the other boy cuts him off, having more than likely have been subjected to the same rant plenty of times.
Sakura clears her throat – he imagines she tries do so pointedly but isn't quite there yet. "After he took down the ninja, he made a fire and taught us how to catch fish," she explains a little more chronologically, "We- uh. We fell asleep after dinner. When we woke up, he was still there and shooed us off to the river to catch breakfast."
"And then he taught us how to climb trees without using our hands," Naruto throws in, exuberant about this fact, "I'm great at it."
Haruno sighs but nods in agreement, "That's pretty much what happened."
"I see," the Hokage nodded, though from the baffled tone their village leader clearly didn't see why. Shikaku didn't either but then nukenin, and Hatake especially, seemed to do things for the hell of it sometimes. Seemed to – he wasn't certain if insanity, along with a fondness for children than somehow went unnoticed in Konoha, was a satisfactory explanation in this case. The information gathered so far seemed to point to something deeper – but what could Hatake, as missing nin, be working towards?
"What happened after that, Haruno-kun?" The Sandaime prompts.
"Uh, well, after we all succeeded at tree climbing, this dog walked up-"
The blonde interrupts once again; "A talking dog, Jiji."
Sakura nodded, "A talking dog," she repeats, sounding a little nervous, embarrassed perhaps? Well, it would sound ridiculous to those who don't know anything about summoning and Haruno is a civilian family. The only ninken she'll have come across would be Kiba's dog and from what he heard from his own son, that one can't talk. At least not yet.
"The dog, uh, told him that Konoha nin were coming, so he left after that."
The Sandaime nods and sits back in silence for a moment as he considers this, running his hand over his chin, then he asks, "Can you think of anything else? Something he said or did that any of you think might be significant?"
Haruno taps a finger against her lips, the Uchiha merely crosses his arms and looks away and the Uzumaki... The Uzumaki yells out the first thing that comes to mind; "He said that we can call him Kakashi-sensei because he's teaching us stuff – like how to be a completely kick-ass ninja like he is!"
The Hokage sweatdrops and Shikaku fights the urge to sigh.
"Hokage-sama?" Haruno asks after a moment of silence, "Why do you think he helped us? Aren't missing nin criminals?"
"Hmm…" the Sandaime said, looking thoughtfully at the trio in front of him, "It's hard to tell what goes on in another person's mind – especially that of a missing nin. Didn't you ask him this, Haruno-kun?"
"No," she replies, looking down with a small blush, "I uh- didn't ask."
Well that both was and wasn't surprising. It's a rather childish thought, not to question your own good fortune because you think that if you challenge it, it might turn ill instead. But when it comes to the whims of a dangerous nukenin, it might actually be a sound strategy not to poke the sleeping bear.
"Is Kakashi-sensei really a criminal, Jiji?" Naruto asks earnestly, and Shikaku frowns. It's rather worrying how fond Konoha's jinchuuriki is of Hatake.
"He's a missing nin, Naruto-kun," the Hokage informs him gravely, "You do understand this, don't you?"
The Uchiha speaks up then, "What did he do?"
Everyone falls silent for a moment – ANBU secrets and classified information regarding traitors is not something to be thrown around, especially in front of a jounin-sensei and his genin team.
""Was there anything Hatake said about this?" the jounin commander asks, because he's genuinely curious, "Did you ask him?"
"He just said that there were 'reasons'," Haruno replies thoughtfully, "and that they don't matter now."
Some might consider that useless information – too general a statement to really mean anything. But Shikaku marks it as another puzzle piece, because this is neither a brush-off nor a justification. Vague yes, but then perhaps vague enough that it might be honesty – because why be vague about a lie? And why would a missing nin share his honest reasoning with a genin team at all?
"What did he do," the Uchiha repeats, pushing this – likely due to his brother, "Did he murder people?"
"He betrayed and abandoned the village," the Hokage replies calmly, telling them basically nothing.
"So he didn't kill anyone?" the blond asks quizzically. "Oh, did he steal something? Was it something cool?"
"He didn't steal anything, Naruto-kun," the Sandaime returns and Shikaku could applaud the man's patience with these kids, "and he didn't murder anyone, Uchiha-kun."
They are still young, and new to world shinobi inhabit, still more likely to jump to the bolder scenarios with no idea how things worked in the shadows of ANBU and where the real danger lies.
And of course, their leader's answer wasn't a good enough one for the overly enthusiastic brat; "But then why is he a missing nin? Can't he come back? Then he can be our sensei and we'll be the most awesome team ever!"
"You already have a sensei!" Nakamura says, fully indignant like this is a slight that he can't let go, "I assure you, a missing nin does not make a better sensei than a loyal jounin from the Leaf."
Shikaku wonders if the man is trying to convince the team, the Hokage or him.
"Of course, Nakamura-san," Sandaime calms the man in a way that could be considered patronizing but considering the situation, the fact that Konoha's jinchuuriki (and a kid that the Hokage is personally fond of) seems to be at risk of being foolish enough to run off with a missing nin, Shikaku is surprised that the Hokage even bothers.
"Very well, I will consider your report and we will discuss this situation again tomorrow. Until that time, Team Seven is suspended from further missions. Get some rest."
"And Naruto-kun," the older man says seriously, "Missing nin are very dangerous. They are the kind of people who went back on their loyalty towards our village and broke the trust that was put in them. Do you understand?"
For a moment it looks as if the boy will protest, but Haruno elbows him and gives him a look. So the Uzumaki stays silent and then, with a thoughtful, almost defeated look on the boy's face that seems completely out of place, he finally nods.
Then his expressive face shifts again, into determination, "I understand, Jiji!"
Shikaku is pretty sure the kid doesn't understand at all. Hatake is turning out immensely troublesome – if the jinchuuriki was to leave Konoha it would make them look immensely weak. It would be even worse if another village managed to get their hands on the boy. And for Uzumaki's sake… well, Naruto had already been manipulated by a traitor once, to steal the Forbidden Scroll, and that was bad enough. None of them wanted the kid to go through something like that again.
"Dismissed," the Hokage says and the Nara is probably the only one here who can hear the underlying tiredness. He's reminded once again that this man had already retired from the post many years ago, before the death of the Yondaime forced him back into the seat.
He nods at their leader and lazily follows this unexpectedly interesting Team downstairs.
They step outside the Hokage tower and Nakamura takes off without another word. The Nara frowns, after the previous conversation and the worrying information brought to light in it, he would have expected from any of his jounin to at least discuss this with his students. It wouldn't have been necessary amongst jounin or chuunin, but these are genin – clearly they needed further guidance. Troublesome.
"What about you, Haruno-kun?" Shikaku asks.
The girl turns her head to look at him, confusion on her face, "Eh?"
He shrugs with lazy nonchalance. "Well, Uchiha-kun suspected murder, Uzumaki-kun thought Hatake stole something – why do you think he became a missing nin?"
He isn't sure why he asks, why it matters, they are just children after all – green genin. But there's something about these three - perhaps Hatake saw something in them, some sort of explanation that he can't exactly put his finger on.
The pink-haired girl falls silent for a long, thoughtful moment before finally speaking up. "I think," the young girl starts slowly, "I think that maybe he got really tired. He sounded sad, when he said that there were reasons."
She looks up at him, green eyes troubled, "Do ANBU have to… to kill a lot of people, shinobi-san?"
His eyes don't narrow, his head doesn't twitch – he is too practiced to give himself away in any way, but despite not showing it, his focus sharpens. "ANBU, Haruno-kun?"
"Hmhm," she hums in agreement, "He said he used to be an ANBU Captain. He looked… I don't know. Upset?"
Shikaku blinks, wondering why on earth Hatake would share that – though it's not like the man has any reason to keep Konoha's secrets now.
"So, do they?"
Then he figures that if she asked, well, she's technically an adult. He's not about to go into detail of course, but there's absolutely no point in lying to someone who is already part of the shinobi corps. Besides, knowing how dangerous Hatake is might make them more cautious.
"ANBU carry out the darkest and most dangerous missions for the sake of our village. Sometimes those are assassinations. Do you think ANBU is why Hatake betrayed the village?" He uses the word 'betrayed' purposefully in the hope that reinforcing that fact often enough it will somehow make its way through the jinchuuriki's thick skull.
The girl bites her lip, "I don't know, shinobi-san, but I think that maybe…"
She trails off and glances at her teammates who are both watching her as well, "Well, I don't know."
"Maybe what?" the jounin commander pushes – because he needs more information to solve this, to figure out motives and strategies.
The young girl looks away from his piercing eyes, looking instead at the village gates they can see in the distance, "I think… that maybe he has a lot of regrets."
Shikaku frowns and stays with the trio a moment longer – all of them silent, thoughtful. Even the Uzumaki is quiet, his voice at least – the boy's body seems to be trembling with an energetic emotion or a loud exclamation barely held back.
He glances at the children one more time before leaving them to it. It is an interesting situation, yes but also tiresome. He half suspects that Hatake was just fucking with them all. And those kids…
He lucked out with Shikamaru - imagine herding any one of these three troublesome brats.
A.N: I feel that the debriefing was not spectacular at all, haha. Turned out way more boring than I thought it would be. Mostly I just dissed the 'replacement' – even though I was writing as Shikaku and not Kakashi. His jealousy is infecting me too.
I liked doing an outsider perspective though, and trying to put 'subtle' hints about the kids keeping secrets. Did you get the part where Sasuke shut Naruto up before he could say something about how after he becomes Hokage Kakashi would be able to come back?
