[A/N: I'm really sorry it took me so long to update! I'm actually posting this unbeta-ed so you can get it faster. We are within just a couple chapters of the end of Part I, then I will repost edited (and often much improved) versions of the chapters while preparing Part II. Stay tuned!]

Chapter 29: Off Again

While Sasuke often 'happened' to wander past the Hyuuga compound in the days that followed, Hinata was never alone so he didn't get a chance to speak to her again. Kiba offered to give her a letter, but that just sounded like something out of a tragic kabuki play (and Sasuke knew a good deal about these, having been in several). Besides, even if he had thought of anything to write, it would have only gotten Hinata in trouble if someone else had found out.

Team 7 continued to meet every day for practice, even without Kakashi there. Thankfully, even the same old practice never got boring with Naruto around to think of something insane. The three of them were still puzzled as to the reason for Kakashi's sudden excursion, however, and usually ended up trying to figure it out. While Sakura held to the theory that he was secretly married to some girl in a foreign country, Naruto and Sasuke agreed that he was more likely on a less romantic covert mission. Why he had gone instead of somebody else was a complete mystery.

When he heard that his 'Eternal Rival' had abandoned his team, Gai offered to train Team 7 along with his own students. Sasuke had never properly met Team 9's teacher before, and it was an interesting experience, to say the least. However, the idea of having to be near Neji in a situation that could potentially lead to combat was not one that Sasuke thought was wise. Fortunately, Naruto and Sakura weren't in favor either, although for different reasons. Apparently Team 9's training regimen was known and feared throughout the village. From what fighting Lee had been like, Sasuke could guess why.

Shikamaru did come and train with them a few times, when he wasn't with his own team. It certainly helped. Still, there was only so much a group of rookie genin could think up when left to themselves, and ten days later they had about run out of ideas for making their training interesting.

"So," Naruto said, dangling by his knees from a branch of one of the trees surrounding their training field, "what do you want to do?"

"Nothing Naruto, it's too hot," Sakura moaned, fanning herself with a tattered piece of paper she'd found in the grass as she sat against the trunk of the same tree. Her pink pigtails hung limply and her bangs were clinging to her face.

Sasuke wasn't taking the sudden heat wave very well either. While he had been in Suna before coming to Konoha, that had been in the spring, when it wasn't as hot. He had never been in the south during the summer before; during the Chuunin exams it hadn't been that bad, but right now it was sweltering and stickily humid. Naruto was the only one of them who had any energy, but then he had always had more energy than them.

"Well, if you don't want to train, maybe we could go to Ichiraku's," Naruto suggested, letting himself drop from the tree and flipping in midair to land on his feet.

"I don't see how you can eat so much ramen, especially in this heat," Sasuke said. "Do you have miso broth instead of blood, or something?"

Naruto started to laugh, then suddenly froze as his blue eyes got wider than Sasuke had thought humanly possible.

"What?" Sasuke asked quickly.

"Is something wrong?" Sakura said, putting down her makeshift fan and pulling out a few senbon.

"No, no," Naruto said, grinning innocently, "It's just that Sasuke had the best idea ever! A ramen IV would be awesome, you know?"

Sakura blinked in surprise, and Sasuke shuddered.

"Well, well, what's all this?" someone said from the branch Naruto had just vacated.

Sakura promptly unleashed her senbon before turning and blushing. "Kakashi-sensei! I'm so sorry! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Kakashi replied, waving down at them, "Although that's more than I can say for my poor book...the library won't be pleased, but at least it's readable. That was an admirable display of split-second reaction, which is more than I can say for you two—" Kakashi's gaze transferred to the two boys disapprovingly.

"Sorry," Naruto said. "I was trying to figure out how you could get ramen noodles to go through an IV."

"I was trying not to think about the same thing," Sasuke added, suppressing another shudder.

"...Right..." Kakashi sounded like he didn't want to think about it either. "I won't ask. Well, seeing as I was more than a week late for our training, I suppose I should make up for it. Anyone for ice cream?"

That suggestion met with unanimous approval, upon which Team 7 headed for the nearest ice cream stand. Sasuke thought that this must be as much for Kakashi's benefit as theirs, as the Jounin's vest was quite familiarly dusty. Kakashi must have been in Suna, or at least Wind Country, during his mysterious absence.

"So what's all this for?" Sasuke asked, looking down at his pistachio ice cream but not biting into it yet.

"What, I can't be nice to my students?" Kakashi protested. He hadn't removed his mask, but some of his vanilla ice cream disappeared every time no one was looking his direction.

"Sure, you can be nice," Sasuke said, "But this is a little past that. Are you trying to make up for something you're going to do?" Such as instigating a brutal new training regimen to make up for Team 7's 'time off'?

Kakashi's visible eye widened slightly before going back to its usual lazy expression. "You wound me, Sasuke," he sighed, gesturing dramatically with his ice cream. "Oh, sorry, Sakura-chan," he added, as the girl yelped when a few melted drops struck her bare arm.

"Hey, so where were you anyway, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto demanded. His orange sherbet was almost gone already. "You just vanished, you know, it was really wierd!"

"Naruto, it's probably secret," Sakura pointed out between delicate licks at her chocolate ice cream. "You shouldn't ask."

"No, no, it's all right," Kakashi said. "To be honest, I wasn't even on a mission, I just took some of the leave I've been passing up. I was looking for Tsunade."

"Tsunade-sama?" Sakura said, instantly interested. "Why?"

"Who's Tsunade?" Sasuke asked.

"Tsunade is the last of the Sannin," Kakashi explained. "Jiraiya wants to ask her to be the Hokage, but he hasn't been able to find her yet so I thought I'd have a go. Didn't have any luck, but at least I was able to rule Suna out. Now, Sasuke, are you going to eat the ice cream you're alleging I'm bribing you with, or are you going to just let it melt all over your hand?"

Sasuke looked at his ice cream again and quickly began licking at it before it all fell out of the cone.

He could still remember when the last time he'd had ice cream had been, even though it was certainly very long ago. It was back when he had been very little and Itachi had attempted to put him in a civilian school for the first time. The first day had been miserable, since not only had he been new, but far behind the other children and obviously poor.

By the end of the day he was ready to cry, even though he tried to hide it when Itachi arrived; his brother thought this was important so Sasuke would suffer through it to please him. Itachi had of course seen through Sasuke's pretense, although he had refrained from saying anything. Later that afternoon, as they had to walk through the market square to get to their cheap hotel, Itachi had quietly handed him a chocolate ice cream cone. They had been forced to leave that town before the weekend was over, but Itachi had begun tutoring him a bit before trying to send him off to school again.

Thinking back on it, Sasuke knew that in their precarious financial situation at that time it must have been a sacrifice to even purchase a simple treat, even though he had thought little of it at the time. He had merely assumed that his adored older brother could do everything, and thinking back that wasn't all that far from the truth. He hadn't realized until much later, though, that Itachi must have given up a great deal himself to ensure Sasuke's relative comfort.

"Ah...Sasuke? Earth to Sasuke?"

"Oh, sorry," Sasuke said quickly. "What were you saying, Kakashi-sensei?"

"I said, I've got another C-rank mission for us now that I'm back," Kakashi repeated.

"Hopefully it won't be as bad as the last one," Sakura muttered.

"What was that, Sakura-chan?" Kakashi asked, raising his visible eyebrow.

Naruto cut in before Sakura could repeat her statement. "I think she means that it had better be better than that time in River country where the princess nearly got killed."

Sasuke half-choked on his ice cream and promptly cursed himself for being so obvious. He should have seen that comment coming! Kakashi was looking at him oddly now, so Sasuke muttered something about brainfreeze and prayed that he would buy it.

Fortunately Kakashi had more to say and therefore paid little attention to the interruption. "Don't worry...this won't be anything like that. Anyway, we're supposed to leave day after tomorrow. I'll let you off of training tomorrow so you can get ready."

"Where are we going, Sensei?" Sakura asked.

"To the Land of Iron, carrying the mail. It's rare for bandits to attack, but the weather can get nasty in the mountains this time of year so make sure you're prepared. Well, I'm done," Kakashi finished, setting down his inexplicably empty cone and standing up. "I'll see you three later," he said with a casual wave before ambling off with his hands in his pockets.

"And there he goes again..." Naruto muttered. "Doesn't he like us anymore?" The blonde's tone was facetious, but Sasuke could see the hurt in his friend's expression and wondered why he would think that way.

"Don't be silly, Naruto," Sakura scolded, but her voice was gentle and Sasuke had a feeling she sensed Naruto's depression, too. "We're almost Chuunin—really, you or Sasuke might be already, they just haven't announced the results of the Exams yet. Kakashi-sensei shouldn't have to babysit us all the time."

"I guess that makes sense," Naruto said, sounding somewhat mollified. "Hey, do they have instant ramen in the Land of Iron?"

"If you start off on ramen again, Naruto, I'm leaving," Sasuke said firmly.

"Aww, but—"

"I'm serious."

"Heathen."

"Fanatic."

Naruto shrugged dismissively. "So, Sasuke, what'cha going to pack?"

Sasuke frowned at the question. While he had more possessions now than he had ever had before, there was little that would be suitable for a trip to the snow-bound Land of Iron. Maybe he could borrow something of Kiba's. "I'll need to think about it," he said.

"I've got a jacket you can borrow!" Naruto announced cheerfully, for once successfully managing to guess what Sasuke was thinking.

"It's orange, right?" Sasuke demanded.

"Well, yeah, but..."

Sasuke sighed. "I appreciate the offer, but I really think Konoha can only manage one traffic-cone orange ninja at a time. You don't want to blind anyone, do you?" he asked with mock seriousness.

Sakura giggled as she bit down on the end of her ice cream cone, and Naruto took advantage of Kakashi's absence to scoot closer to her. Although Sakura pretended to be annoyed, she didn't do anything to make him back off, and by the time Sasuke stood to leave Naruto was practically sitting on the counter in front of her. They looked quite happy in each other's company, and Sasuke almost felt a little jealous.

[A/N: It is a tad short, I'm sorry.]