Disclaimer: Just noticed I never wrote one of these :P all characters are the property of Kishimoto and this is purely fanfiction and is written to entertain. Hope that's enough, on with the chapter!
Kakashi and Obito were roaming around the campsite having just finished eating their lunch. Minato had already been gone for four days and Rin was only seen out of the medic tent on mealtimes. She usually told Obito and Kakashi what she was learning enthusiastically and would then retreat back to her tent the second she finished eating. Due to that, Kakashi and Obito found themselves in each other's company most of the time. Kakashi enjoyed that time immensely, not because they did anything fun, but due to the fact that he could spend time with Obito without appearing out of character. They settled into a sort of makeshift routine in which they would spend the morning going through their individual katas then switching to endurance training until lunch came around. After having lunch, they would wander around the camp aimlessly just relaxing, killing time and digesting their food. After that they would train solo but in the same area, have dinner, take a quick bath in the lake and finally sleep.
"I hope Minato sensei comes back soon," Kakashi commented putting his hands inside his pockets and slouching a bit.
"I know what you mean," Obito nodded in agreement "There is nothing to do here but train, it's way worse than missions!"
"Nothing will ever satisfy you," Kakashi snorted.
"That's because only exciting things interest me," Obito retorted.
"What was that?" Kakashi asked suddenly having heard the sound of a tree breaking.
"Let's check it out," Obito suggested already jumping on a branch above and masking his chakra in case the sound came from enemy ninja.
"If they were enemies, someone must have found them already since I doubt they would've have made so much noise otherwise," Kakashi thought as he bounded after Obito his senses on the alert.
"It's just people training," Obito relaxed his stance. Kakashi stood beside him and looked down at the scene below, true enough, there were two Konoha ninja training. One of the two men was tall and had straight black hair that he had tied back in a ponytail. He was running through a series of various high level taijutsu moves against the trees around the area. The other had short spiky brown hair and was currently drawing three arrows and then shot them simultaneously at three different targets around the area. They all hit dead-centre and the man smirked in satisfaction. Kakashi had seen enough taijutsu to last him a lifetime thanks to Gai so he decided to observe the bow user. On the other hand, Obito who was currently focusing on his taijutsu was captivated by the taller nin who had just broken down a tree with a quick a powerful kick.
After a minute, Kakashi decided to make his and Obito's presence known so he jumped down from the tree he and walked towards them. Both men stopped training and turned to face their intruder, "You shouldn't train so loudly because enemy nin might hear," Kakashi stated.
Obito walked beside Kakashi and nodded his acceptance, "Yea, we came here preparing to fight!" he exclaimed.
"Don't worry, we have seals around at a hundred meter radius that block all the sound we make, you just entered their boundaries," the taijutsu user informed them.
"What if an enemy nin walks inside the seals like we did," Kakashi pointed out.
"The scouts will stop them before they get close enough," the bowman snorted "if not, the camp would be informed of their presence by the lack of a report and our friend back at camp would've sent us a clone or something."
"That's true," Obito nodded.
"What are your names kids?" the taijutsu user asked.
Obito made to answer but Kakashi cut across him, "Shouldn't you introduce yourselves first before asking others to do that same?"
"Seeing as how you were the ones that interrupted our training, I say we can skip the formalities," the bow user retorted.
"Fair enough," Kakashi nodded.
"I'm Uchiha Obito and I'm going to be one of the greatest Uchiha that ever lived!" Obito declared.
"Hatake Kakashi," Kakashi said indifferently rolling his eyes at his teammate's introduction.
"An Uchiha and the Hatake," the bowman smiled "Interesting."
"Not really," Kakashi shrugged "care to introduce yourselves now?"
The bow user snorted at the reply where as the taijutsu smirked "The Konoha rumor mill begs to differ, I'm Mitsuru and this is Shiro."
"Can you teach me how to make that triple shot?" Kakashi asked with interest.
"You can't do it unless you already have skills with a bow in general kid," Shiro replied "Come back in a few years."
"Besides, aren't you already learning how to use swords?" Obito reminded him.
"What's one more weapon," Kakashi said ignoring both the comments and made to take out a sealed scroll. It was mandatory in ANBU to have various sealed weapons on one's person, unless you didn't know how to use them. It was also required to practice using them every now and then so one didn't lose their ability with the weapon. Since Kakashi was a close-mid fighter, he rarely used a bow. In fact, the only time he uses one is when he wants to launch an exploding kunai at a building or group of people from a vast distance. But he still knew how to wield one and although he couldn't perform skill shots with it, he could hit a target with accurate precision.
After being asked to retire from ANBU 'to preserve his sanity', Kakashi had already grown into the habit of carrying them around with him even though he rarely used them. He summoned his standard bow and tested out the ropes to make sure they were still useable.
"I'm guessing you taking that out means you know how to use one well," Mitsuru asked and Kakashi nodded.
"But I've never seen you use a bow before," Obito commented confused.
"Just because you haven't seen me use on before doesn't mean I can't," Kakashi retorted "So, can you tell me how to do it?"
"Well if you don't use it regularly you're probably not skilled enough," Shiro noted.
"But I am," Kakashi stated confidently while Obito blinked in surprise not truly believing that Kakashi was proficient with a weapon he never uses.
"Let him try a shot" Mitsuru said when he saw his teammate about to comment.
"Fine," he sighed "If you can hit a bulls eye from one hundred meters then I'll teach you."
"A hundred?" Obito exclaimed. Sure it wasn't that huge running distance but it was if you were trying to shoot from that range.
"Can I get two shots to test my bow first?" Kakashi asked nonplused.
"Tell you what kid, I'll give you three," Shiro smirked in reply.
"And if I get it you'll teach me?" Kakashi asked for clarification disregarding the degrading reply. He waited until Shiro nodded in acceptance before he started moving away a hundred meters. Once he cleared the distance, he turned around to face the target.
Following basic bow wielding, he stood perpendicular to the target. Before drawing his bow, he stood still and attempted to calculate air resistance. There was a very small breeze coming from the east at around eight degrees. Kakashi drew the bow that was a bit stiff from not being used a lot but Kakashi didn't mind since he was used to using a stiff bow. He aimed it and tilted it to the left a bit to account for the small air resistance; he took a deep breath and then let the arrow fly as he exhaled. It hit above the bulls eye a mark a few centimeters by 30 degrees.
"Not bad," Mitsuru said and Shiro shrugged in reply while Obito muttered something about overachieving geniuses.
Kakashi observed his shot before taking out another arrow and he redrew his bow. This time however, he took into account his previous shot before launching his arrow. This time, the arrow landed in the centre of the red ring and Kakashi smirked satisfied.
"Would you look at that, the kid can use a bow!" Mitsuru smiled.
"Amazing," Obito said quietly "But he never uses it, so how?"
Kakashi walked over to Shiro and tilted his head in a questioning manner.
"A promise is a promise I guess," he sighed.
"I thought we were going to have a taijutsu spar today," Obito reminded him.
"It's not every day you can learn something from a bow expert," Kakashi informed him "We'll spar later."
"Spar with me kiddo," Mitsuru said before dragging a stunned Obito to the other side of the area "Shiro never has a taijutsu spar with me and I don't want to watch him teaching the brat how to do some fancy bow work."
"Idiot," Shiro muttered as he watched his teammate shout rules at the unsuspecting Uchiha, "Anyway, let's start by teaching you how to grip three arrows at once since the bow isn't handled to support three arrows."
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It was well into the evening when Kakashi and Obito made it back to camp. Obito was covered in dirt and was sporting a couple of bruises and a split lip. Kakashi, on the other hand, was unscathed since learning how to use a bow isn't a dirty business. Kakashi was ignoring Obito's grumbling and opted to stare at the clear sky as he reflected on what he had learned today. Although he couldn't hit three targets with a hundred percent accuracy, at least he could do considerable damage when they landed close enough.
"Minato sensei!" Obito noted happily and Kakashi stopped in his tracks and looked down to find his sensei talking animatedly with Rin. "Oi! Minato sensei! Welcome back!" Obito called to him loudly before running towards him.
Minato looked down him with a smile on his face which disappeared quickly when he spotted Obito's bruises, "What happened?"
"Training," Obito replied. Rin grabbed his arm and forced him to sit on a rock and started taking out the needed medical supplies. Minato turned to Kakashi looking for some answers.
"That wasn't me," Kakashi stated indifferently.
"It was your fault!" Obito exclaimed while Rin was patching him up "If you hadn't gone and insisted to learn stupid bow tricks this wouldn't have happened!"
"And I told it isn't everyday you find a bow expert," Kakashi said for the sixth time.
"Why you need to learn that triple shot or whatever doesn't make sense you never use a bow anyway!" Obito yelled causing some people around them to turn and look at the screaming Uchiha venting his anger.
"You never know when I might be forced to use one," Kakashi replied "Besides, it's the only long distance fighting method I have."
"Aren't you always bragging about how great your sneaking skills are so, if you are as good as you say you are, you don't need long distance skills," Obito ranted.
"I know that such a thing won't happen to me but unfortunately, I have the unstealthiest ninja as a teammate so I might be dragged into a long distance fight," Kakashi snapped.
"I'm not that bad at stealth!" Obito exclaimed jumping to his feet much to Rin's annoyance.
"Yes you are," Kakashi said as if stating a concrete fact.
"Minato sensei, I'm not bad at sneaking, right?" Obito asked his sensei for backup.
"Well you're not an expert but you're not bad either, I'd say you're average," Minato replied smiling.
"See!" Obito said triumphantly.
"Sensei is just being nice," Kakashi retorted.
"He wasn't!" Obito said scandalized.
"Was," Kakashi replied.
"Was not," Obito came back.
"That's enough you two," Minato chuckled.
"Was," Kakashi whispered quietly that only Minato heard him and he shot him an amused look.
"On another note, since when do you use a bow, Kakashi?" Minato asked. The people that were watching shook their heads bemusedly before going back to their own conversations.
"We learned it in the academy," Kakashi reminded him.
"Only the basic basics," Minato replied.
"Just because the academy curriculum is substandard doesn't mean I have to restrict myself to their teachings," Kakashi pointed out.
"So you taught yourself?" Rin asked as she finally moved away from Obito having healed his injuries.
"No, my dad taught me," Kakashi stated proudly "He said shinobi should be able to use all types of weapons since you never know what you'll be stuck with. Or at least familiarize yourself with them so you know how the enemy is going to use them."
"That's good advice," Minato nodded.
"As much as I'd love to hear about the jerk's training, how were the frontlines, sensei?" Obito asked ignoring Kakashi's glare.
"Things are pretty even right now," Minato stated truthfully.
"Which means the war will take a long time to be settled," Kakashi frowned turning back to his sensei and decided to simply ignore Obito for the time being.
"Better than it ending badly for Konoha," Minato said.
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Kakashi woke up in the comfort of his own bed. Team Minato came back yesterday and were given a two-day break before they were back on duty. Despite how important border patrols were, even with the occasional skirmish they were boring as hell. As Kakashi started preparing breakfast, his thoughts turned to his sensei and his rising fame. Although his sensei never divulged any information about his work on the frontlines, the rumors had already started to spread all across Konoha. Apparently, Konoha was outnumbered four to one in the last skirmish, and Konoha was losing. That was until the Yellow Flash arrived at the scene and managed to pull off an impressive and relatively quick victory over the Iwa ninja. With the ways things were going, Kakashi wasn't surprised that his sensei became Hokage right after the war. He represented hope for Konoha and everybody respected him. Orochimaru stood no chance.
Kakashi was half way through his breakfast when he heard on a knock on his door. Pulling away from the table with an exaggerated sigh, Kakashi walked to his front door and looked through the eye hole. His sensei was leaning on the rails that separated the apartment complex hallway from the street below.
"What can I do for you, sensei?" Kakashi asked opening the door.
"You busy?" Minato asked not moving an inch from his spot.
"I was going to meditate later," Kakashi informed him.
"You are way ahead in that regard, I'd prefer you train physically," Minato commented "but for now, I need you to come with me."
"Why?" Kakashi asked suspiciously.
"To see the Yamanaka," Minato replied knowing there was no need to elaborate further.
"Already?" Kakashi asked in surprise. He knew that his sensei would worry about the dream when he told him, it was written all over his face, for good reason of course. Kakashi implied that he had seen facts he had never known before, adding in the fact that he mentioned that he appeared a bit older; it was a cause for worry since people usually dreamed about the present or far future. But he didn't expect an inquisition this soon.
"Just for reassurance," Minato replied at ease.
"If you say so," Kakashi muttered before heading back inside. He grabbed a grey sweater to throw over his t-shirt and put on his sandals before rejoining his sensei. He quickly locked the door behind him and followed Minato onto the street.
"I've been meaning to ask you, how good are you with a bow?" Minato asked his student who was trekking behind him.
"Pretty good," Kakashi replied indifferently.
"Why don't you use one in battles then?" Minato asked curiously.
"I guess I was focusing on using and mastering the skills that coincide with my style of fighting," Kakashi shrugged.
"And how would you describe your style?" Minato asked his eyes still on the road ahead.
"Shouldn't you, being my sensei and all, know more than me?" Kakashi challenged.
"I want to know what you think," Minato nodded.
"Why?" Kakashi asked.
"That's for me to know," Minato told him.
"Uh huh," Kakashi mumbled while kicking a small rock "I guess I prefer sneaking whenever I can. If someone engages me, I'd use a blend of ninjutsu and swords. Mostly ninjutsu though."
"If ninjutsu interests you why not learn that from an expert instead of swords?" Minato kept the questions coming.
"I can teach myself ninjutsu," Kakashi replied.
"And the principles?" Minato interjected.
"Read," Kakashi answered simply.
"I'm assuming you learn ninjutsu during most of your free time?" Minato said rhetorically and Kakashi nodded. "What would you say your level is?" Minato inquired.
"What's with all the questions?" Kakashi asked annoyed not sure what his sensei was looking for with all these questions. Kakashi hated not knowing.
"Wondering whether to recommend you for the jounin exam," Minato replied casually.
Kakashi halted in his tracks, "What? I'm eleven! Who'd take orders from me?" Although that's what he complained about, Kakashi was worried for other reasons. "If I were to move up the ranks earlier, the elders might get interested and set me up for a different plan than the rest of my generation. I'd probably end up even more isolated than before and chances are they'd remove me from Team Minato. If that happens how am I supposed to protect Obito and Rin and help them become the best they can be. I don't care about the rest but I need to stay with Team Minato," he thought frantically although his face betrayed no emotion.
"First of all, you're turning twelve in two months," Minato reminded him "And besides, since when do you care about what others think. I still hear jokes about how I supposedly trained you to chew off lower leveled ninja who don't listen to you despite your age. Your threats are rather entertaining and you have made yourself quite the reputation." Kakashi didn't say anything trying to figure out the best way to decline. "What's wrong? I thought you'd be excited," Minato said and stopped and turned to face his student.
"I don't want to be put on a different team," Kakashi said honestly after a short pause.
"That won't happen till the war is over, and you said it yourself, the war looks like it'll end later than what we would like," Minato reassured him.
"You sure?" Kakashi asked hesitantly. Inside however he was relieved. If being a jounin right now didn't get him moved to a different team, then it would be the perfect opportunity to show off some skills. In the past, with the war at its climax, teams were kept mostly the same as to ensure that at least a modicum of teamwork was happening.
"I am sure," Minato nodded seriously.
"Well in that case, I'll destroy everybody in the exams," Kakashi smirked "I've been hiding a bit of my skills ever since my father was disgraced. I didn't want to draw attention to myself and that was easier to do by downplaying my talents a little. Of course, I couldn't suddenly become mediocre so I only revealed enough to make sure that people still see me as a genius but nothing more." Kakashi was pleased with how he made the best out of the opportunity and hopefully this way, he won't have to hide most of his skills and at the same time he won't draw the wrong kind of attention.
"Even from me?" Minato asked shocked.
"Well no, but I didn't reveal everything," Kakashi informed him "I just stuck to a few things that's all."
"How much did you hide and how strong would you say you are," Minato asked inquisitively.
"I didn't hide that much, sensei. I just didn't use a lot of my ninjutsu arsenal and I never needed to use my sneaking skills fully. As to how strong I am, I don't know exactly," Kakashi told him "After all I lack experience."
"Approximate," Minato ordered him with a kind smile.
"Definitely low jounin level," Kakashi replied "Maybe mid-level jounin."
"I see," Minato nodded "I'll spar with you once we finish with this dream ordeal. I swear you are becoming more difficult each year."
"But I'm worth it," Kakashi replied cheekily getting rid of the small tension that built up.
"Keep telling yourself that," Minato chuckled.
"You'd be bored without me," Kakashi insisted "Between Obito and I, we might even come close to creating the level of chaos Kushina san does!"
Minato laughed out loud and ruffled Kakashi's hair, "Not even close."
"Be careful sensei," Kakashi warned ducking away from his sensei's hand "she might hear you."
"She loves causing chaos so she'll take it as a compliment," Minato smiled widely "Ah good, we're here. Let's get this over with so we can discuss you hiding your skills. You aren't off the hock yet."
"Do we have to?" Kakashi whined as they approached the Yamanaka complex "I don't want to have a heart to heart conversation about meaningless things. I trust you completely it's just that it's hard to break habits."
"You're not getting out of this one," Minato told him "But good effort."
"Welcome, Minato sama, Kakashi kun," a teenage blond said "We've been waiting for you, this way."
Kakashi prepared himself once more to trick whoever tried to decipher his dream. He has been changing a few things by adding some scenes he made up that occurred at another place, like Obito's journey to the cave and the interrogation of Rin. Hopefully, with him out of the picture, they'd be more inclined to believe that he can see into future events and hope it won't think it's some fancy scientific reason and dismiss the dream. He had one shot after all.
Luckily, he had trained how to protect his mind from a Yamanaka and working with them helped him understand how their jutsus worked. The way they extract information from the mind is by looking through a person's sorted information. When a human being experiences something, he stores it away in a sort of file, for example 'Konoha', 'Family', 'Ninjutsu', 'History' and so on. The one extracting the information had to choose a file and rifle through it till they found what they were looking for. Kakashi had stored his altered 'vision' in the makeshift 'Dreams' file. That was only possible through lots of meditation and recounting his finished version many times while commenting that it was a dream over and over again. It was tedious and it was hard to keep remembering the events that led to his best friend's death, but he knew it would be worth it if it worked.
Minato and Kakashi were led inside a huge hall that only had two doors leading to different rooms. One was labeled 'Head of the Yamanaka' while the other was a bathroom. The hall itself was large, and various reclining sofa chairs were strewn around the place, each two facing each other, one for the reader, the other for the one being read. The centre was occupied by a large dome like structure that secured those who were not here on their own free will. Attached to that dome was a tank filled with gas that was, as Kakashi knew from his days in interrogation, a heavy sleeping gas.
"Minato," a middle aged man came up to them once he saw them enter the building, "it's great to see you!"
"It's great to see you too, Shinjiro," Minato shook hands while smiling "Thanks for seeing us."
"Of course, it's not a problem;" Shinjiro replied "I'm curious myself." At those words he turned to Kakashi and fixed him with an intense gaze.
"Hatake Kakashi," Kakashi introduced himself never breaking eye contact.
"Let's get started then," Shinjiro nodded and led them towards the Head's office, "Akaya sama is also interested and has decided to conduct the reading himself."
"That would be appreciated," Minato thanked him as Shinjiro knocked on the door and opened it after hearing the come in.
Kakashi entered last and closed the door behind him. He looked around the room and noted that it was pretty simple. There was a desk with two chairs in front of it, two bookshelves, two red reclining sofas facing each other on the corner and some plants to give the room some color.
"Thank you Shinjiro, I will brief you in after we have finished, make sure nobody disturbs us unless it is an emergency," the man Kakashi guessed to be the pre-mentioned Akaya said. Shinjiro bowed before leaving the office once more.
"You might want to sit down, we have a lot to discuss before we start," Akaya pointed to the two chairs in front of his desk.
"Thank you," Minato replied as he and Kakashi sat down.
"So Minato san, Shinjiro tells me you are here because you are worried about a dream your student had," Akaya started "May I ask why you are concerned?"
"Yes," Minato nodded "when Kakashi described the dream, he mentioned it being very clear, around two or three years in the future, he had knowledge of things he never knew about and he wasn't always present in the dream. Some of these can happen in dreams, but I've never heard about all happening in the same one. He also mentioned that it felt real and I felt that with all of these things combined, it was a cause for worry."
"Do you agree with Minato san, Kakashi kun?" Akaya asked turning to Kakashi.
"What Minato sensei said is true but I wasn't worried about the dream in that regard. I was more drawn in to the events of the dream rather than the way it played out. I am just here because he told me to and I trust Minato sensei," Kakashi replied.
"I see," Akaya hummed thoughtfully "have you had the same dream again?"
"Yes," Kakashi nodded "but not in the same way as the first time. It was less lucid."
"Have you had similar dreams?" Akaya asked.
"No," Kakashi shook his head.
"Alright then, let me explain what we'll be doing to today," Akaya said "We are going to sit on those sofas over there and I want you to relax as much as you can. I will then place my hand on your forehead and put you to sleep. The more relaxed you are, the less of a headache you'll have once you wake up. I will then find the dream and Minato san and I will watch it and hopefully we'll write it off as an exceedingly vivid dream and nothing more. Is that acceptable?"
Kakashi turned to his sensei for show and nodded only after he received one himself. Five minutes later, Kakashi found himself drifting off to sleep and then he knew no more.
I hope you like it! I know nothing much happens in this chapter but this is a buffer between the border patrol and what's to come. Without them the story will become hurried and I don't want that. Next chapter will be a big one so bare with me =P
To my Reviewers:
Prescripto13: Thank you for reviewing again :3 To answer your question, Minato did consider the fact that that elders see Kakashi as a weapon when he took a young genius as his student, but he doesn't agree with that agenda. Minato wants to make sure Kakashi is prepared to face whatever challenges that await him but make sure he still enjoys his childhood. As another child genius, Minato wants to ensure that Kakashi excels and lives his life =D
Yungsun: thanks for the review! If you like how Kakashi bluffs to Minato then be ready for more because Kakashi still has more covering up to do.
quiltedcat: If you love the seer thing then you'll enjoy the next chapter =D Thanks for reassuring me about the action scenes because I always worry whether they come out right!
Rika24: We are one step closer to the reactions so just hold out for one more chapter. I hope you like what I do with that and that I don't disappoint you. About the dream part, great minds think alike ;) Hahaha okay that sounded a bit arrogant but you know what I mean :P
Elise: Thanks for the kind words! As you requested, I moved on to the next chapter before revising chapter 1. The next chapter is something to look forward to so I think I'm going to stall rewriting it again :P Team Minato will definitely be awesome! Give them a few years and the other nations won't know what hit them
Vsasseranbuninjafromkonoha/ Katsumi-phoenix: Thanks for reviewing in the first place so need to apologize for being late! 3 I'm glad you liked it and hope you like this one too =D
Lyndana: You saying my writing has improved that much made my heart swell so much! THANK YOU! I've been working real hard and taking every review and comment into account to try and better my writing so to hear that made me so so happy! You made my day you really did!
You guys are the best! Till next time and always wishing you the best.