Story: Making Arrangements
Rating: M
Author: CrownsofLaurels
Beta(s): CrystallineX (who catches all my typos, major plot holes, and sleep-deprived errors) and Ladywinterfic (who has been a BIG help with characterization and plot development).
Chapter Six: Task Masters
Summary: Enter Kakashi stage right.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, I write this for fun and am not paid for it.
Chapter Six: Task Masters
Kakashi reluctantly admitted to himself, as he returned to the village through a seldom-used back gate, flaring his chakra as a courtesy to the ANBU prowling the sector, that maybe, just maybe, he was getting a little too old for this type of thing.
Pakkun trotted lightly by his side. "Good to be home," the pug muttered.
"Ah," agreed Kakashi.
"You smell tired," the dog stated.
Kakashi said nothing, slouched with his hands in his pockets.
"Well," said the dog with a snort, "I'm tired. And these paws aren't getting any younger. I expect bones and a belly rub when you get settled."
Kakashi merely nodded and kept walking, raising his hand in a slow wave as the summons poofed away.
Kakashi was tired. For every year that he gained, his respect for Jiraiya, the Sandaime, and the Godaime increased. To be able to operate as well as they could at their age…it was the little things that he was beginning to notice which were frustrating. He might still be faster than ninety percent of the ninja he encountered, but his speed with hand signs was just a few seconds slower than it was in his mid-twenties, no matter how hard that he tried to increase it. When he used his sharingan, it drained him of energy just the tiniest bit more quickly every year. When he received a hard strike to his left leg, his femur was just a little more likely to crack and a little slower to heal each time (as it had been since he shattered it on a bad mission when he was eighteen).
But this was his village.
This was his profession.
He fought alongside honorable colleagues and fought for his precious people. And if taking these missions meant that his kids didn't have to do so for another year or so, then that's what he would do. After all, this was the job that he had trained for since he'd taken his first steps toward his father. It was the job that he had accepted when he'd graduated from the academy at thebage of five. It was the job that he'd completed, mostly successfully and certainly exceptionally well, for the past twenty-seven years.
He was a front-line, top-of-the-line shinobi, and he was damn good at this job.
He was also smart.
And practical.
He knew that ninja of his caliber, with reputations like his and with talents as in demand as his own…those ninja didn't live long. The Tsunades and Jiraiyas of the world were rare and lucky. The much more common tales belonged to those like Sakumo, and the young Hyūga boy. They were the tales of those who burned brightly and quickly, vanishing with barely a sputter. He was lucky to have made it to 32, and he would be even luckier to see 33.
He was a man who had resigned himself to the fact that his own story was coming to an end.
He'd made a certain peace with that.
After all, he didn't harbor any great, unfulfilled ambitions. While it was flattering to know that if something happened to the Hokage, the Village trusted him to pick up the role long enough for Naruto to grow into it, it was an obligation that he'd really, really, rather live without experiencing.
And at her current rate of progress, Kakashi believed that it wouldn't be much longer before his favorite blonde knuckle-head was ready to take on the role, and give Tsunade-sama a well-deserved break. The past few years had brought him unexpected brushes with death and glimpses of the people he had once loved. Though the encounters were brief, each additional one was yet another wound to his heart.
It was terrible when one realized that they had far more loved ones listed among the dead than the living and Kakashi had been unfortunate enough to count himself among that number at far too young of an age.
His most recent evaluation with the Psych. Division (after he'd successfully 'missed' it for two months) diagnosed him as depressed.
He didn't really believe that; in his opinion, he was reacting fairly logically to his situation. He certainly wasn't looking to die, or even to harm himself, and it wasn't like he would go as far as to say that he was looking forward to death. Death was just another event in life, one which no longer scared him the same way it did when he was a younger man. He just thought of it as something that might be, well, peaceful. That was the word he'd given to the Psych. ninja when Shizune had escorted him to the appointment with Tsunade's signed letter ordering the copy ninja to answer honestly.
He didn't think that was a bad thing at all.
His eyebrows twitched slightly as he recalled other details of the appointment.
His counselor had worried that the jōnin didn't find things in life enjoyable anymore.
Which was just ridiculous.
Kakashi found many things in life enjoyable.
He enjoyed reading Icha Icha, though there hadn't been any new novels in the series since Jiraiya had died (and wouldn't ever be, for the same reason). Kakashi had yet to find a worthy replacement for the series, but he was looking for one. That is, he was looking for a new series every couple of months when he had some time to relax in between missions.
He enjoyed his missions, although not the really risky ones that had been the bulk of his workload lately; nobody really liked those unless they actually did harbor a death wish.
He enjoyed spending time with his genin squad…who, admittedly, were chūnin now and had busy schedules which didn't allow for all of them to get together as often.
He enjoyed plenty of things.
He was not depressed.
Kakashi blinked, realizing that the chūnin taking in completed assignment reports at the mission desk was trembling slightly at the aura of irritation that Kakashi had been unintentionally radiating.
"Ah," said Kakashi apologetically, smiling with his visible eye. "I was thinking of how much I enjoyed life."
"R-right," stammered the chūnin, unconvinced.
Kakashi shrugged. "Jōnin 009720 reporting in from a solo mission, successful, no injuries, no need for immediate debriefing."
The professional address snapped the chūnin to attention. "Oh, good then." Checking his clipboard for notes, the chūnin pulled the appropriate paperwork from a pile and handed the forms to Kakashi. "The completed mission report is due in the next three days, as per routine. Upon delivery of the report to the mission desk, it will be reviewed by the attending supervisor to determine if it meets acceptable standards. Upon approval, you will be given your pay ticket, which may be redeemed at any time up to six months after its issue."
Kakashi nodded along absently, chūnin were required to give the same speech to every ninja returning from a village. The variations were few and often only changed if something went wrong during the mission that required a debriefing. Kakashi had this speech memorized by the time he was six, and by this point in his career had heard it over a thousand times.
"Also," added the twitchy young man, "My notes say that you've been assigned three months of furlough and that Hokage-sama has requested you report in to her personally within a reasonable time frame."
Kakashi narrowed his eyes. "I didn't request furlough."
The chūnin shrugged, "Well, it's been assigned to you. And the note has some handwritten additions," said the man with a straight face, "'Tell that one-eyed hooligan that 'reasonable time' means I expect his lazy ass in my office within a day—barring loss of legs.'"
The chūnin stared blankly at the copy ninja, who let out a slightly aggravated, "I see."
Kakashi folded the forms and slipped them into the inner pocket of his vest as he turned and ambled toward the Hokage's office. Normally, he'd go home and sleep for a day or so, make some visits to a couple of well-known rocks and then get around to answering the summons when he felt like it. However, he rather thought that maybe this furlough thing was some new form of punishment. Hopefully Tsunade-sama would be off guard enough by his timely attendance that she'd repeal it, or at the very least, shorten it.
No one stopped him as he went further into the administration building, brushing shoulders with tense assistants, getting a distracted nod of acknowledgment from the jōnin commander, and taking an alternative route when he spotted Anko coming down the hall finishing up a stick of dango.
"Sensei!"
He didn't mind taking a few minutes to catch up with this particular person, and he slowed down accordingly.
"Sakura-chan, you look well." That was a lie, but he'd found that sometimes it was best to lie to women. Sakura's hair was half-pulled up in a sloppy ponytail, frizzy strands escaping showing that she'd been pulling at it anxiously recently. She was a bit paler than usual and had dark circles under her eyes. She'd obviously tried to cover it up with some powder, but she'd been rubbing at her face and undone her disguise. Her eyes had an odd shine to them that ninja only had after taking a soldier pill one too many... or drinking fifteen cups of coffee within the past twenty four hours, Kakashi thought wryly, noticing the steaming mug that she was trying to balance on top a pile of heavy medical text books.
Sakura ignored his comments and hefted the heavy tomes in her arms to rest a bit of the weight on her hips. "Are you back from your mission? You look well. How long have you been here? No injuries right, of course not you would tell me, right? I mean I could heal them, but I have a test tomorrow morning, it's a practical and I need a bit of chakra—"
Kakashi put up his hands, "Breathe, Sakura-chan."
"Oh," she said, "Right."
Kakashi held up his hand and started counting off on his fingers. "Fine, just now, uninjured, good luck on your test—it'll go well." Kakashi paused for a moment, reflecting. "Yes, that's it."
"Good," Sakura nodded, determined. "My test will go well. But I have to study. Gotta go now, see you Wednesday afternoon." Sakura's words echoed over the walls as she marched past him down the hall, "Looking forward to it!"
"Later!" Kakashi said, returning his hands to his pockets. He had no idea what she was talking about, but the pink haired teenager was already turning the corner, a muffled "move it" and the startled squawk and stumble of a career paper ninja dropping several pounds of paper coming from the opposite direction the only reminder of her presence.
A sigh came from behind him and Kakashi turned to look at the entryway of the Hokage's office, to which he had nearly managed to arrive unmolested.
Shizune leaned in the doorway with an amused, indulgent expression on her face. Catching Kakashi's eye, she said lightly, as if sharing an inside joke, "I don't think Tsunade-sama has ever had an apprentice more likely to expire from an overdose of caffeine. The girl already has more credentials than any medical ninja can claim in any of our eight bordering countries, and she still pushes herself to absurd lengths."
Shizune meant her words to be teasing, but Kakashi felt his heart constrict a bit with the unintended reminder that his 'kids' really weren't kids anymore. They were all grown up now, with their own fearsome reputations and awe-inspiring accomplishments.
"Did you need to see Tsunade-sama," asked Shizune, mildly concerned. "Nothing went wrong on your mission, did it?"
"No." Kakashi, "But I was informed that I needed to check in with her."
"Well, you've caught her at a good time, I'm heading out to get some lunch but she's only signing pay tickets at the moment, just go on in."
Kakashi strode past the woman quietly, knocking on the wooden frame to announce his entrance since the Hokage's bowed head and slouched posture indicated that she wasn't paying too much attention to the occupants of her office at the moment.
The Godaime flicked her eyes up briefly then looked back at her papers, only to snap her head up at him and stare at him intensely moments later.
Kakashi bore with her awkward glare until she broke it off, muttering under her breath and opening a drawer, pulling out what looked suspiciously like some betting score cards.
"No," she said roughly, "No. No. I didn't win anything today so what the hell is wrong with you?"
Kakashi remained nonchalantly slouched in the doorway. "I'm just reporting to your office, as requested Godaime-sama."
"No, seriously," said the Hokage, "Did you kill the wrong target or something? Are you going on strike?" She peered at him suspiciously. "You didn't run into an orphaned princess and abandon the mission objective to save her again did you?"
Kakashi smiled with single visible eye, "I believe that one turned out in our favor, eventually." The copy ninja shrugged, "nothing is wrong, Tsunade-sama, I'm just responding to your summons."
The blonde glared at him a bit more, then pulled a mission scroll out from a drawer on her desk As she grumbled under her breath, "Fine. Whatever, just give a girl some warning," she waved Kakashi into the office.
"You responding in a timely fashion feels like a sign of the end of days." Tsunade tossed the scoll to the man. "Whatever," the woman casuaully relaxed back into her chair, settling in for a lng conversation. "I have two assignments for you."
Kakashi nodded, catching the scroll midair, examining it in his hands and moving to open it.
"Wait on that one for a second." Tsunade irritably waved at him to stop opening the document before giving a put-upon sigh. She ran a hand over her face tiredly, "I need you to get your three favorite problems up to snuff for the jōnin exam."
Kakashi blinked in surprise. "Aren't they already…?"
"No." Tsunade said bluntly. "Yes. Kind of," she leaned back with another sigh. "There are issues," Tsunade grimaced, "issues with each one of them actually. I am thinking about asking them to take the exam early next year."
"That far off?" Kakashi frowned. "They're already capable—"
"It's a council issue," Tsunade said, cutting off the jōnin. "Among other things." Tsunade spared him a look which implied that 'other things' could not be completely articulated at this point in time, but elaborated to a certain extent upon her words. "The Uchiha isn't allowed to apply for jōnin until he's officially off of his probation."
Kakashi nodded knowingly, stepping closer to her desk to take a chair, realizing that this was going to be a longer conversation than he had originally anticipated.
"It was only because Naruto made herself a pain in the ass," Tsunade paused before thoughtfully amending, "a more significant pain in the ass than usual, that he was allowed to take the last chūnin exam. The Council is still worried about him advancing too quickly."
Kakashi just gazed lazily at the woman, eye half-lidded and looking like he wanted to do nothing more than to go take a nap.
Tsunade ignored the man's (probably) feigned nonchalance. "Of course, if Uchiha keeps behaving, he'll be off probation in a matter of months. I know the council is planning on dropping a shit ton of missions on the boy's shoulders, partially because he hasn't been taking any and he's fully rested but also because they think a busy Uchiha is not as dangerous as an Uchiha with time on his hands."
Kakashi privately thought this was a wise philosoohy which should be applied to all the members of Team Seven, excluding himself, of course, and nodded along to the Godaime's words as she continued.
"There might be some truth to that line of thinking, but you and I both know that the boy does better with goals, if he is actively working toward an achievement of some kind. If the Uchiha thinks he's just being used as a workhorse, he's going to get frustrated." The Hokage gave the jōnin a level look, as if she was expecting him to protest her next words. "And he's going to get frustrated no matter what because I'm putting my foot down on assigning him work above his official rank. The earliest I can get the council to consider advancing him to jōnin is through the exams next spring. I want him to know that and be working toward that."
"I can understand the dilemma with Sasuke," said Kakashi slowly, "but how does his situation justify postponing Naruto's and Sakura's advancements?" After all, Kakashi thought, the next exams would be this fall, why make the girls wait another half a year for a well-deserved promotion?
Tsunade shook her head. "They're all tied together in a way," she narrowed honey-brown eyes at the copy ninja. "I blame you, you know. Currently the only people willing to spar with Uchiha are his former teammates and Gai's student. No one else will touch him, it's like he has a plague."
The woman sighed and pushed her hair out of her face. "He's finding it very hard to readjust to village life, or at least, he's finding it hard adjusting to socializing with his peers. I'm not sure the brat was ever well-adjusted to village life. The only time he interacts with others is when he trains by sparring with his former team mates. But with all of you busy on missions, that doesn't happen frequently. I'm hoping by encouraging you to work together he'll become more social."
Kakashi just hummed, expression veiling his personal opinions, which were along the lines that the four had been forced to work together for almost a decade now and Kakashi had seen no improvement.
Then again, it wasn't like Kakashi's social life was anything to write home about either.
"On the other hand," Tsunade continued, "There is my apprentice. Who is so busy working herself to the bone that the jōnin exams are literally the last thing she cares about. If she was left to her own devices, I'm not sure that she'd ever take them. She's working primarily at the hospital now, where being a jōnin won't get her any other privileges than a pay raise." Tsunade shook her head sadly, posture loudly saying 'what can you do?' in a very resigned sort-of way. "Her medical licenses give her access to most of the jōnin-rank classified medical texts. She doesn't want to take on a genin squad and if someone shows promise as a student she'll be able to take them on as an apprentice despite her rank of chūnin."
Kakashi suppressed a shiver as he envisioned a small army of Sakuras taking over the hospital. He'd rathernnot return wounded from missions tobbe cared for by creatures who knew almost all his exit plans and favorite places for hiding banned literature.
"Additionally," the Hokage continued reluctantly, "if a medic-nin of her caliber is needed on a mission then she's going, no matter her rank. I just don't have enough highly capable medic-nin who are also jōnin that I can be picky in my assignments. But if I tell her that she's taking the exams next spring and give her a training schedule to adhere to, she'll take the damn thing."
"And Naruto," Kakashi drawled questioningly, wanting to hear his leader's analysis regarding the final member of his trio.
"She's kind of just got caught in the whole mess," admitted Tsunade. "But it's not like she's going to complain, in fact, I'd say she's excited about guaranteed training time with the other two. She could go ahead and take the upcoming exam this month if she wanted, but I'm afraid the council would fail to approve the assignment the first few times and I'd have to override their decision on her third exam."
The woman let out a scoff, "Their main concern is her youth, and what they view as a lack of maturity, despite how many times she's shown herself to be one of the strongest ninja of our village."
"The next spring exam is just a little under a year away and I'm hoping the council will have resigned themselves to the inevitable by then and pass her with her teammates."
Tsunade tapped the tabletop in irritation. "Or maybe they'll just finally die."
Kakashi bit back a snort. They wouldn't be that lucky.
"Sounds like you've thought this through then, but why have I been drafted into this mess and put on furlough for a month?" Kakashi inquired, tone bored despite the inquisitive nature of his words.
Tsunade rolled her eyes and started to sign the large stack of pay tickets in front of her as she talked. "Uchiha is still on probation for the next few months, he can't use most of his techniques unless he's being supervised by you or someone else that has volunteered to be on his approved list of babysitters." Tsunade shuffled some papers, dryly adding, "As you can imagine, it's a very small list."
"Just myself, then?" Kakashi asked.
"And Gai." Admitted the Hokage.
Kakashi wasn't completely surprised, but it was still a pleasant feeling to know that Gai was doing what he could to look out for his kids when Kakashi couldn't himself.
"If they are actually going to improve, they're going to need to experiment and use some of their more dangerous abilities. And no matter how smart they think that they are, you still have a couple things to teach them."
"I think you overestimate my capabilities as a teacher," the jōnin stated calmly.
Tsunade snorted, "Bullshit. Stop selling yourself short, I don't have time to soothe your ego today. I need you to work with Sakura on her affinity. She has one, but she's completely ignored honing it and doesn't know a single doton technique. Fix that, and make sure she's comfortable using it defensively in battle situations. Likewise, Sasuke and Naruto could use some elemental training. Sasuke relies heavily on chidori and derivatives of the attack. While its fancy and effective, I want you to teach him some more lightning release techniques to play with and see what he can come up with. Also," Tsunade sighed, "I hate to ask you this, but the boy's likely to wind up recruited to ANBU eventually, make sure he knows what he needs to know to get his missions done and keep sane."
"As for Naruto," Tsunade rubbed her temples, "where to start?"
"You aren't pleased with her rate of progress," Kakashi asked, slightly confused.
"I wouldn't say that," Tsunade paused, trying to gather her thoughts. "She just has so much to learn and I don't have enough time to teach it all to her. I'm handling training her in politics, but the council is being fussy and fighting my decision to announce that she's my successor. I don't intend to step down for a few years yet, but I think it would relieve some tension if there was a public acknowledgment regarding who will be following me. There were some close calls in the war that led to sticky situations, I don't want to leave the Village in that mess if something unexpected happens in the next few years before I officially retire."
"What would you like me to teach her?" Kakashi relaxed a little knowing the source of Tsunade's concerns.
"To start with, she needs advanced fūinjutsu training. She's only paid it absent-minded attention at best, and with her circumstances she just can't keep relying on others to master the field for her. Besides, I'd like to see if she has any of Minato's talent in the area. From what I remember of my conversations with Jiraiya, he intended to but never began teaching her about the subject. See what she knows and what you can do to bring her up to speed. You know more about the subject than the average shinobi, and if she shows true talent with it I can take up teaching her once she's exhausted your knowledge. If she ever does."
Kakashi nodded. "That will take more time to accomplish than what I can give in an afternoon group sparring session."
"Then give it to her," Tsunade stated, tone conveying that she wouldn't be accepting excuses regarding this matter. "There aren't enough fūinjutsu masters left, if she's got talent we teach her, even if its slow-going."
Tsunade pushed aside her paperwork and locked eyes with Kakashi. "Do you remember her mother's chakra chain technique?"
Kakashi blinked, "I saw it once or twice."
"Naruto is convinced she didn't inherit the ability, but I'm not so sure that she just hasn't figured out how to manifest it. Kushina's chakra control wasn't any better than Naruto's that I recall, I'm not even sure that Naruto has tried to use her chakra that way. The way she threw it around in the war though," the Hokage trailed off, mind lost in old memories. Blinking her eyes, she focused on the jōnin in front of her and pushed forward, "it just seems like she ought to be able to do it. See what you can try with her."
Kakashi narrowed his single eye. "Any other miracles you'd like me to pull out of my pockets?"
Tsunade gave him a sharp look, but only said, "Now that you mention it, she only uses wind attacks. See if she's got a second affinity, if she does, then tell her teammates to keep hush about it. Train her in it, but tell her not to reveal it on the exam. Its good for a Hokage to have a few trump cards to play when needed."
Kakashi stood, slouched easily before the Hokage's desk, but internally he felt like cringing. This was a long wish list and suddenly 'almost a year' didn't seem like a lot of time. "You mentioned a set schedule."
"Yes," said the Hokage, not looking up from the documents that she was signing. "Every Wednesday and Saturday afternoon, one o'clock, Training Ground Three. I've gone ahead and taken the liberty of booking that field on those dates for a year's time. You'll be paid jōnin teaching wages for your hours and you can request a supply budget through the proper channels if you feel its needed for something. You'll still be receiving missions, and if you are out I'll assign someone else to supervise them at that time. Any questions?"
"Furlough." Kakashi said bitterly.
Tsunade smiled, "Not my fault. Your councilor over in Psych. demanded it, said you were working yourself too hard."
Kakashi scoffed, "I'm fine, Hokage-sama—"
"Good, because you don't have the time completely off. I expect you to get started with your team this week, and you'll have plenty of time to start working with Naruto separately on fūinjutsu. Also, I've got another job for you in that scroll."
Kakashi looked at the paper in his hands, almost having forgotten about it, preoccupied with the Hokage's previous announcement. "And it is?"
"Something you can do here, at home, while you're technically on furlough, since I know you wouldn't know what to do with three months of free-time if it jumped out of a box and bit you on the ass."
"What rank," asked the copy ninja, ignoring the Hokage's jibe.
"A," said Tsunade seriously, "but only because of how highly classified the information is. I don't expect anything too dangerous to occur on this assignment. I don't expect you to be involved in any physical confrontation at all, actually."
"Oh?" Kakashi turned over the scroll, intrigued. "What is it you need me to do?"
Tsunade set down her pen and rested her head against her intertwined fingers, watching the jōnin with serious, steady brown eyes. "I need you to track down the remnants of ROOT."
Kakashi stopped unfurling the scroll. "That hasn't been done yet?"
Tsunade grimaced. "Unfortunately, it's just not been a priority and we've been heavily overbooked since the end of the war. That, and I need someone with a certain level of intelligence to sort through the information I have and it needs to be someone I trust. You were my top choice and you've been busy." Tsunade cleared her throat. "With the recent jōnin exams, we'll finally have enough ninja to support our regular mission load, and I can spare a few people to take on 'in-house' assignments like this one, which have been pushed to the backburner, so to speak."
"You couldn't assign it to ANBU?"
Tsunade shook her head, "I need someone who can think and has a certain awareness of history and intimacy with classified events. I don't have anyone currently in ANBU old enough to remember certain events that might be important, or who is capable of making the deductions you can make. I have boxes of information I need you to sort through. I want to know who is left alive from the organization and what they are doing. And I want to know where the old meeting places were and make sure that all experiments are ended and all equipment is confiscated. I'm terrified of missing someone like Kabuto, who could escape and carry out their own agenda due to a brainwashed loyalty to Danzo that didn't end with the man's death. Will you accept?"
"Of course," Kakashi agreed, any threat left behind by Root would eventually harm the people he cared about most, "I'm surprised you felt that you had to ask."
"I know I play the role of benevolent dictator well, but there is still some free-will in this Village," Tsunade said sarcastically. "I'm reminded that I need to remedy that every time you or your crew of misfits enters my office."
"My crew of misfits?" asked Kakashi, amused as Tsunade dismissed him from her office with a wave of her hands.
I take back all the times that I've previously said this statement, This is the stupidest thing that I've ever seen you doing.
Shut up, Naruto hissed at the overgrown mammal sealed inside of her, This flirting stuff is harder than it looks.
Naruto had already given up on the face paints, which had been tossed unceremoniously into a box under her bathroom sink. Currently, she was eying herself in the mirror, trying to get used to her new sleeping clothes and practicing some of the poses that Ino claimed were "practically magic."
"I feel ridiculous," she said, deflating and watching as her reflection mirrored her slumped posture of defeat. "How the hell is this supposed to be sexy? I just feel cold and awkward." Naruto trounced to her bed, knocking the target doll that she had made in the likeness of her sensei long ago off the bed in a huff.
I don't understand why you are under the impression that clothes are at all necessary to the mating process.
"Oh my God," cried Naruto, bolting upright in the bed, "Please tell me you aren't going to be 'aware' of anything that happens between me and…well, any guy ever?"
Silence greeted Naruto's surprised cry.
Kurama! Naruto thought loudly and frantically.
Eventually she could feel his rumbling response. I will endeavor to turn my attention elsewhere when certain situations arise, but you must know that anything which…excites your chakra, pulls me to awareness of your circumstances.
Naruto's jaw dropped in horror as she fell back onto her pillows and covered her eyes with her arm. "I hate my life."
Next Week: Chapter 7 – Practice Makes Perfect
(AKA: Sasuke Always knew his Teammates were Crazy)
"What are you two doing?" the words came slowly, from the deep familiar voice, tone suggesting that the answer might not be something he actually wanted to know.
