.6. The B-Ranked Mission
"Well then, everyone." Minato smiles at the six chunin standing in front of him and his wife. The two have gathered their teams around in front of their house for an announcement. Minato can barely keep his smile from growing at the thought of his next words as he looks the group over.
As always, Kakashi pays attention to him, probably wondering if a new mission is going to be coming up. Next to him Rin is watching Minato, listening to the blonde but not really paying as much attention as Kakashi is. Obito, however, doesn't seem to be paying attention at all. The Uchiha seems to be glaring at Kakashi every now and then, sometimes switching his glares towards Hiro who is standing next to him. Hiro sticks out his tongue at Obito before casually leaning against Fuji who snickers softly as Obito splutters, before the twins pay attention to Minato again. Shinra is simply staring at Minato, focusing much like Kakashi is. Surely they are all called here for a good reason... right?
"We have a mission for all of you... A B-ranked mission none-the-less." Minato says cheerfully enough, wrapping an arm around Kushina's shoulders as his wife leans against him.
This is enough to make Obito finally pay attention to Minato. "Really?" The Uchiha asks. Though they're chunin, most of the missions they receive is C-ranked. Minato always mentions that for more B-ranked missions, team work is veryimportant... something their team just plain-out lacks. But to do a B-ranked mission with another group... He wonders if they had to do the training with Kushina's team some weeks ago for this kind of situation.
"Yes, a B-ranked mission." Minato verifies, nodding lightly before pausing.
"Erm... Sensei, exactly whatis the B-ranked mission?" Kakashi questions, tired of Minato dancing around the subject. However, it's the combination of the constant pauses and the location combined with his teacher's situation that tips him off ever so slightly... He glances at Shinra as she shifts lightly, noting that her eyes are drawn on the building behind their teachers with a sort of awareness which tips him off that she might have the same idea about this 'mission'...
"Why, you six get to help us move to another house of course!" Minato says cheerfully enough. Though, if he were to be honest, you can't call that a B-ranked mission... or even a C-ranked, really. But he thought it was the best way to get the chunin teams to be together without rousing suspicions. All he really needed to do was pull a few strings with the 3rd~ Besides, the guy owed him after losing last week at their weekly game night.
Kakashi face-faults ever so slightly and the slightly blank look on Shinra's face indicates that indeed, she was thinking the same as Kakashi was... and they were right. Considering there's a little one on the way... (Naruto, his name would be, right?) it's only logical that the Namikaze family would need to move to a bigger place.
"Eh! That's it! Sensei, that's not a B-ranked mission at all! That's a D-rank!" Obito objects, the words finally hitting him.
"Now, now, Obito." Kushina smiles at the Uchiha. "Surely that doesn't mean you refuse... right?" She raises an eyebrow and although the red-head is smiling, Obito gets the feeling that no, it's not a good idea to actually... reject.
"I never said I was going to reject the mission..." He mutters half-heartedly, scratching his cheek lightly. Sometimes he just reallypities his teacher... Imagine having to live with mood swings. 'Sensei is a better man then I'll ever be... unless...' His eyes shift to Rin. 'It would be alright if it's her...'
From next to him he hears Hiro snort and a quick glance at the other shows that Hiro is looking straight at him, a grin on his face. Obito flusters brightly. "Don't read my mind! Teme!"
"Eh? Even if I'd be able to do that, there's no way I'd want to read yourmind." Hiro snickers, shaking his head lightly. "Your idiotism might latch on to me, you know?"
"Why you..." Obito growls, digging his heels into the ground a bit more, ready to strike. He honestly wonders who he dislikes more at the moment... Oh-so-perfect Kakashi who is oh-so-much better at everything... or Hiro who just keeps taunting him, making fun of him... and worst of all... flirting with hisRin!
"Let's keep it calm, guys..." Rin tries, placing an arm on Obito to prevent the Uchiha from jumping up and attacking Hiro.
"Of course, if it's you who's asking." Hiro comments, smiling charmingly at Rin before turning his attention back to Fuji.
Obito lets out a feral growl but his reply is cut short by Minato whacking the back of his head lightly. "Ow! Senseiiii!" He whines, rubbing his head.
"Now, now... No more stalling and get to work, alright?" Minato comments while Kushina fastens Hiro (who had started laughing after Minato whacked Obito's head) with a look. Hiro calms down quite fast.
"Now, as all the things need to be packed and moved, we'd best get started soon. Some minor things are already packed, and a few heavier pieces of furniture will be moved by some moving nin tomorrow... but let's not make them do all the work, right?" Minato says cheerfully. "Now, I'll be pairing you six up in three teams so that you can work together on the heavier items and accompany each other with the lighter ones..."
It is then, that Kakashi reallyfeels a sense of doom... and again, his feeling is proven right.
"Ah! Remember the teams we had when you all had to team up for training? Let's do the same teams!" Minato says cheerfully as if he just came up with it, but Kakashi knows better... He narrows his eyes at Minato lightly. 'Stop trying to match me up, sensei...' He thinks, hoping to get the message across. However, Minato only smiles back as if to transfer the message; 'I have no idea what you're on about~~'. To say that Kakashi finds it a tad annoying would be an understatement...
"No! I wanna be paired up with Rin, damnit!" Obito objects, pointing at Minato.
"Now, now, Obito. You can be with Rin some other time." Minato comments casually, ruffling Obito's hair.
Obito scowls slightly, watching Hiro stand next to Rin.
"Don't worry, Rin! I'll take care of all the heavy stuff so don't worry about a thing." Hiro comments cheerfully enough, throwing an arm around the brunette girl's shoulder.
Rin eyes him for a bit, not too sure what to make of the gesture before responding with a cough. "I'm a ninja too, you know..." She huffs, shrugging his arm off of her shoulder.
"Ah, I meant that in the nicest way possible, princess." Hiro chuckles, stuffing his hands into his pockets casually as he leans back slightly.
"P-Princess?" Rin blinks slightly, flushing ever so lightly. She can't recall ever being called such...
"But of course~" Hiro says charmingly enough. "And thus you should act as such, right? So by all means~" he removes his hands from his pockets to make a casual sweeping bow to her. "Let your prince carry the chairs and tables, will you not?"
"Eh... S-Sure..." Rin murmurs, eying the twin a bit weirdly. The guy is just so weird that he doesn't make any sense to her... 'Princess...' A small smile appears on her lips. 'If only Kakashi would...' But she shakes off that thought fast enough. That's something which she knows will neverhappen... Damnit.
It is by sheer willpower (and Minato grabbing his shoulder) that Obito does not jump in and attack Hiro out of the blue, beating the guy up until his face is just as black as his hair. "Sorry, Obito. The other one is your partner." Minato says cheerfully enough, pushing Obito towards Fuji who doesn't even bat an eye over his brother being all over Rin.
Obito settles for glaring at Fuji instead whom just eyes him before raising an eyebrow. "I didn't even doanything." Fuji scoffs, rolling his eyes.
Huffing, Obito crosses his arms over his chest.
Kakashi barely manages to suppress the sigh that wants to slip out as Minato not-so-unobviously pushes him to stand next to Shinra. He honestly wonders just why, why, his teacher seems interested in trying to pair him up with Shinra.
Sure, the girl could be called 'pretty', he's not blind so that's quite obvious. It's just not anything he's interested in... Then again, the whole dating concept isn't anything he's really interested in. That aside, even if he doesn't feel anything for her in thatway, it makes more sense to him if Minato would try to pair him up with Rin... At least he knows her, and it's obvious she's attracted to him. But no, instead he gets stuck with a girl from another team who seems as interested in him as he is in her... He wonders why Minato and Kushina don't just give up.
That aside, from the few times they've been pushed together he noticed that she is a decent enough ninja. She's not weak, but doesn't seem too strong to him either; just the average. She seems to be on the same wave length as he is with multiple situations, which was proven a few minutes ago when the two of them seemed to realize what was going to happen (not that they could do anything to change it...), but still.
This time, Kakashi doeslet out a sigh, glancing down at her hand where the ring they had received from Minato is still placed around her finger, much like his own ring is. 'I wonder what these things do...' He finds himself wondering before shaking his head. 'I'll just look them up or something... Yeah, I should do that.'
"Well then! Let's get this mission started..." Minato utters before starting to place the teams in control of several rooms and telling them all to what house to take the things. He will be waiting at the new house to put everything away while Kushina will remain in the old house to help out in case there are any questions...
The moving itself goes relatively fast. Several hours later the six chunins are exhausted, surrounded by boxes which are placed around them while the other boxes are already put in the rooms they go to. Obito and Hiro had to be pulled apart several times, but all in all everyone got off with very little scrapes and bruises.
Kushina sits down on the chair that Minato kindly put down for his wife in which she lowers herself, resting her feet with a small content sigh. A happy smile is on her face as she glances around. Sure, the furniture and items still need to be put in place, but she can already see how it will look...
A nice spacey living room with a kitchen attached to it and a hallway which has some stairs leading up. Upstairs there are three rooms and a bathroom. Of course, the biggest room is the master bedroom for her and her husband, while the room opposite them shall be for Naruto. She smiles at the thought that it will leave a room empty for anotheraddition to their family...
"So... is anyone hungry?" Minato asks, looking over the six chunin after a few minutes of rest. He is immediately met by sounds of agreement, showing that yes, everyone is very hungry. "Well then... Who to send..." He lets his baby-blue eyes roam over the group and Kakashi just knowswhat's going to happen...
"Ah! Kakashi and Shinra could do it~" Minato says cheerfully enough. "Kakashi will keep allll the perverts away~"
Kakashi snorts. Yep. He knew it. "She's a ninja... she can go on her own, right?" He snorts, noting that Shinra is rolling her eyes. Perverts would probably worry about her then she about them...
"Now, now, Kakashi... It's either Shinra or Obito." Minato grins at him.
"..." Kakashi just eyes his teacher. He knows when a battle is lost...
"Well, get to it, you two." Minato comments, making shooing motions with his hands. "In the mean time, we'll put everything down in a way that we can all sit down comfortably by the time you two are back." He smiles.
Kakashi and Shinra let out identical sighs before eying each other for a few seconds as they walk out of the door to get to Ichiraku ramen for their dinner. Unlike Kakashi, Shinra keeps her eyes on the other nin as the two walk in silence. For a few minutes Kakashi is able to ignore this before turning his head to her with furrowed brows. "What." He comments, scoffing lightly.
"Just thinking." Shinra comments casually, barely blinking and still not turning her eyes away even after being caught (though she did little to hide it).
"About me?" Kakashi questions, raising an eyebrow at her. Considering he seems to be the focus of her attention that seems to be the most logical explanation to him.
"I guess..." She shrugs lightly before finally turning her eyes away from him and to the road.
"Hm?" Kakashi questions as he raises his eyebrow higher. "You guess?" Surely that's a question which you can only answer with yes or no... Either you think about someone, or you don't.
Shinra shrugs again as she turns her eyes to the sky. "Until a few weeks ago our teams had never met... even though our sensei's have been married ever since we've both been in genin teams... Suddenly we see each other all the time... Suspicious..." She explains to the other.
Kakashi blinks slowly. 'I think this is the most I've ever heard her say.' He thinks before forcing his thoughts back to the matter at hand. 'Well, at least I'm not the only one who noticed.' He tilts his head to the side. "We're being set up."
"Hmhm... We're always being sent out together with no one else around."
"Ah, but this time there issomeone else around." Kakashi points out.
"Hmhm... I guess you're teammate isn't that good at stealth..."
"No, he's not." Kakashi agrees, sighing. He feels like he's been sighing a lotlately. Though the fact that Shinra said teammate and not his teacher or anyone from her own cell shows that Shinra was obviously able to sense who it was... Well, not that it's that hard since it's Obito, but still. It reminds Kakashi of when the two teamed up and won the rings. She was able to sense Minato even before he, Minato's prized student, did.
If Kakashi were to make a guess, he would say that Shinra is probably good at chakra control as she seems to easily pick up chakra signatures. However, she doesn't seem to be a healer like Rin who always carries a small first aid pack with her; he has spotted something like that on Fuji. This leaves him to wonder...
"What area do you specialize in?" He asks, quite bluntly at that. Of course, he has already found out shortly after meeting her that she specializes in trapping people, but surely that's not all? Even the Nara's who are known for trapping people in their kagemane's have their IQ going for them.
Shinra seems a little put off by the question, especially since it follows right after a discussion on how they're set up before shrugging lightly. "Stealth, I guess..." She muses. Unless the other decides to become a nuke-nin she doesn't really see any harm in letting him know. They're bound to be put together more often anyway so it might be easier to know about each other's abilities.
"... Stealth?" Kakashi repeats, wondering if he's heard right. Her steps are normally heavier than his own due to the heavy skirt she has so it's no wonder he finds it hard to believe.
"Hmhm... Stealth and genjutsu."
"Ah..." At least the genjutsu makes sense to Kakashi. With her lack of speed she'd easily be caught if not for a way to make sure that the enemy won't see her. It's also something that goes along well with stealth making that part a little easier to believe as well. "Alright."
Shinra doesn't bother asking about Kakashi's specialties; everyone knows about him. The two enter Ichiraku, ordering the ramen they know their team members will want.
Outside of Ichiraku, Obito is lurking in the bushes with a slight scowl on his face as he clutches his camera. 'Damn you, teme... Just do something already so I can make a picture and show it to Rin...' He thinks, gritting his teeth lightly.
Though his prank on Kakashi some time back went a bit... wrongfor him after Kakashi found out that no, it was not Shinra trying to get close to him but that he had simply henge'd into her, it did show some effect up until the point where Kakashi started thinking rationally again.
Originally, Obito had hoped that those moments would stay with Kakashi and develop into somethingon which the chunin would act upon, but no such luck. Apart from talking to each other, the two kept a fair amount of distance even when walking next to each other. To say it pisses Obito off would be an understatement.
"Ah, this is useless." He scowls, getting up from the bushes and plucking a few stray leafs out of his hair. He honestly doubts that anything will happen while the two bring back ramen to the new Namikaze residence, especially since they'll probably want to hurry up to keep the ramen up.
With a small huff, the Uchiha hops onto a roof before starting to make his way back to the others and to wait for his food. Besides... he'd rather get the yelling on his disappearance over with beforeKakashi returns and is there to witness it...
Kakashi and Shinra return with four bags filled with ramen not too long after Obito returns to the rest and easily hand out the bowls to everyone.
"So, how was the walk for you two?" Minato asks cheerfully enough in between slurping his ramen. He is answered by two shrugs at which he can't help but chuckle ever so slightly. At least a casual shrug is better than glares or blank, uncaring faces. "That good, hm?" He comments at which Kakashi merely rolls his eyes.
"No comment, sensei..." The gray haired chunin huffs softly as he places down his empty ramen bowl.
"You should really take some more time with eating..." Rin comments while pointing her chopsticks at Kakashi. "It's not good for your body if you just glob everything down." She huffs softly.
"Then fix me up when I get sick." Kakashi snorts before leaning back.
Rin flusters slightly before ducking her head. She thinks about Kakashi, laying in bed sick, with her sitting on a chair next to his bed and nursing him better. A blush stains her cheeks pink before she quietly returns to eating. 'I wouldn't mind that...' She thinks to herself.
"Hehh~~ You can fix me up when I get sick too~" Hiro coos at Rin, leaning towards her ever so slightly.
"... Eh?" Rin blinks, looking up.
"LIKE HELL SHE WILL, TEME!" Obito interferes, jumping up in his seat which causes the ramen to spill onto his lap. "GAH! HOT! HOTHOTHOTHOTHOT!" He yells, starting to run and jump around while patting his lap.
Immediately, Hiro clutches his stomach as he starts laughing at the Uchiha, Fuji chuckling next to him. Rin is instantly up, getting water for Obito while Kushina takes him to the bathroom so he can change out of the pants.
A few minutes and an icepack later has Obito sitting with a towel around his boxers, looking at his empty bowl mournfully. "The food..." He sighs, the empty bowl in his hands.
Wordlessly, Shinra reaches over and dumps half of her remaining ramen into his bowl before sitting back again. It was her team member who caused this, so... she feels a little responsible.
"Ah, thank you." Obito blinks a few times at her before grinning. 'Whoa... First interaction.' He'd actually been pretty sure she was just ignoring him with how they never interacted.
Kushina can't help but smile lightly at the action. 'She's really doing better... I guess this entire thing is slowly being effective after all...' She thinks. For a while she had actually been wondering about that, no matter how perfect the plan had sounded at first. But little by little Shinra seems to accept the people in Minato's team. Kushina can only hopes that in due time they can all call each other friends... well, everyone except for Obito and Hiro, probably. That would just be wistful dreaming.
Rin glances at her own bowl of ramen. Surely, Obito dropping his ramen was his own fault, but he's still her team member... With a sigh she reaches out and places some ramen into Obito's bowl as well. Fortunately she and Shinra both have pork ramen, otherwise it could've turned out... nasty.
"UWAA! RIN!" Obito grins brightly at the brunette who smiles at him.
"Don't drop it again." She warns.
"I won't! I won't!" Obito's grin brightens even more before happily digging in, same with Rin and Shinra.
Once everyone is done eating and the mess has been cleaned, everyone starts departing one by one. The twins cheerfully hug Kushina and wave at Minato before walking out. Their steps and the swinging of their hands are done as if they are each other's reflection; a perfect mirror of each other.
The next one to leave is Rin who remembers that she promised her mother she'd buy a few apples at the grocery store, sending her out in a rush since the store will close in less than ten minutes.
Kakashi and Shinra both move towards the door after saying goodbye to their teachers. The two walk with their usual distance between them, falling into a somewhat comfortable silence. Of course, a certain yellow flash interrupts this comfortable silence...
Minato pops up behind them, wrapping his arms around both their shoulders. "Come, now! You two live near each other, don't be strangers! Talk! Be friends!" He grins, sending Kakashi a not so subtle thumbs up, before shoving them towards each other's lightly as he disappears again.
Shinra stumbles a little, not having expected this. Due to their close promixity and reflexes, Kakashi grabs onto her shoulders to hold her up straight to make sure she won't fall on top of him and send them both crashing down.
There's a flash but neither of the two really notice as Shinra recovers her footing. "Thanks... Your sensei is weird." She comments.
"Yeah..." Kakashi shakes his head as he drops his arms before the two start walking back into the general direction of their houses again. This time, they wordlessly decide to cut the distance a little short as they do not want a repeat of what just happened...
And once again, the silence between them is comfortable once more.
Oooooh my God. I am SO sorry for the long wait! ...Truth it, I got an Xbox not too long ago, together with DOA4 so I've been... erm... (cough) occupied? n.n;;
I have the feeling I dragged things out a bit too much in some parts of this chapter... what do you guys think?
Also, the DA [can be found on my profile under website] now has a poll as well, featuring the question;
Do you think Kakashi and Shinra should get involved romantically?
A) Yes! ( =n_n= )
B) I don't really care much. ( v.v )
C) Erm, no. ( =_= )
If you have a DA, please take a minute of your time to share your opinion on this matter by voting... and if you don't have a DA, you can also leave a review... or both if you're that into it, haha. I'd appreciate if you could also motivate your answer, but you don't have to if you don't wish to do this.
There is no guarantee that the most voted will actually happen in this story, but...! It will greatly influence some art pieces and stories that link to this one. So no, your vote will not be useless.
Here for the replies to the anonymous reviews~
narutofan- Thank you very much! n.n I'm probably not going to change the canon since the canon fits with the ideas I have for this story, but I might make a "What If..." story or one shots at a later date in which I will change various things just for the heck of it. It will probably be in the same set-up as this story is; a bunch of one-shots tying together.
Lovegaara - Thank you! n.n And indeed, Shinra does not appear as a member of Team15, but that is because it's the Team15 of the 'future' so to say. Shinra is the Jounin leader of that team. Akihiro, Mizure and Kenji are her genin when Shinra grows up. This will be around the same time Kakashi has his own team. At first I started out with creating that team and it was mostly after the whole creation process was thought out that I delved deeper into when Shinra was younger and got to know Kakashi. I should probably set up some sheets for 'Team Kushina' as well, though. Just to make this all fit. If Team15 appears, then this will be in a completely different story, loosely linking to this one. Also, that would be in a different comic then the one I'm (VERY slowly but surely...) working on.