Tenzo Is Done: Four Days Later

Date Posted: 10/13/16

Word Count: 1666

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fluffpenguin: Kakashi was the POV character in the previous chapter. :) So, the 'rich, coming from you' was his thought directed at Badger/Tsuki. Considering in the last arc, Tsuki didn't give a crap about the team's reputation and almost started a brawl with Hana in public... Kakashi's not impressed with her whole 'these sorts of things embarrass the whole team' bit.

This chapter continues the Tenzo Is Done arc! This one won't be so long as the others. XP Let me know what you guys think in the reviews! Do you think Tenzo was overreacting, or is he in the right?

~Penelope

"Has anyone seen my arm-guard!?" Hana shrieked, rummaging through her storehouse of a locker and unloading all sorts of bric-a-brac everywhere. A box of unused kunai spilled over the floor with a chorus of clanks. A canteen hit the floor at Hokamaru's feet - would've hit his toes if he hadn't jumped away with a rather explicit curse. Kakashi himself moved his head a few inches to the right in order to avoid a flying box of mold-ridden dango.

"Hey, who's turning in this last mission report?" Otter asked, halting in his after-duty routine.

"I can't find my arm-guard!" Hana reiterated.

"Report, Kakashi-taichou's responsibility," Badger said from the other side of the room, somewhere behind Kakashi while the latter withered at the prospect of paperwork.

"Yeah, he has no one to pawn it off on now," Itachi added, and Kakashi gave his youngest comrade a wounded look. The Uchiha was usually so sympathetic…

Unfortunately, he had a very good idea why they were all in this mess, but he was reluctant to say anything out loud, since it would make him indirectly responsible.

"Watch where you're throwing this stuff!" Hokamaru objected as he dodged a tissue box that came flying toward his face.

Itachi, forced to walk through the line of fire between them to reach his locker, ducked under a stray sock and hopped over a group of tumbling books.

Unfortunately, not even a highly trained Sharingan could predict the movement of something inanimate, and he stepped down on a book corner. He faltered, flailed, only to be caught by the Hyuga next to him.

"Look, you even managed to trip an Uchiha!" accused said-Hyuga.

"SHUT UP!" Hana pulled her head and arms from inside her locker and whirled, her ever-present anger swelling in her green eyes. "I'm about to leave on a mission and I can't find my gear!"

"Well, where did you leave it last?" Kakashi tried to think of where she'd tossed the thing last time she unloaded after a mission, but found most of the details a little fuzzy. He was never good with specifics, unless he was really trying…

"I don't know!" the kunoichi in question whined, deflating. "I've never had to keep track before! They're usually waiting for me in my locker."

"Have you looked in your locker?" Badger deadpanned.

"I JUST DID, MORON!" Hana chucked a spare sandal at the other female member of Team Ro, who deflected the blow with her forearm without flinch. "They're not here!"

"Are you telling me that you just toss your stuff after every mission, and it just magically appears in your locker for next time?" Hokamaru gave her and her locker an appraising look. "That doesn't make any sense."

"Are you calling me a liar!?" Frog waved an accusatory finger in the Hyuga's face. "Look, I don't know how it happens, only that it does but now it hasn't and I'm missing some of my gear!" She clenched her fists, looking to the ceiling. "If I don't find it, then I'll be forced to decline my mission!"

"Sheesh," Tsuki droned. "Just pick up a spare from the equipment office before you leave."

"But…" Hana's furrowed eyebrows twitched. "But it's my arm-guard… we've been through thick and thin together! I can't just replace it!"

"You can for this one mission," said Kakashi, tired of hearing her voice ring in his ears. For a woman, she sure could be loud, and honestly, he was starting to feel sheepish enough as it was. He didn't need her obliviousness adding to his buckling conscience. "You can work on finding it again when you get back."

"Oh, of course you'd be so calloused, taichou!" she blurted, back to her anger. "You go through gear like a player goes through girls!"

"Wow…" Hokamaru muttered.

Kakashi sighed. "Don't you think that's overkill?"

"It is not!" Hana snarled. "You have no appreciation for the things that allow you just to do your job every day!"

"We're digressing…" Itachi said with an inconspicuous cough, earning a blip on Frog's radar. She rounded on him with a ferocious scowl.

"NOBODY ASKED YOU, MARMOT!"

This coaxed even Itachi Uchiha into a dry, unimpressed expression. "Still not the same thing as a weasel."

Vein bulging in her forehead, she threw her head back and shrieked. "I. DON'T. CARE!"

"Obviously," Tsuki sighed, sprawling on the bench to Kakashi's right.

Kakashi took in the members of Team Ro as the locker room descended into further chaos. Frog continued screaming, at Tsuki, then at Hokamaru, then at Itachi, and even at Suzume, who'd remained by his locker as to avoid being noticed by the furious kunoichi. Hokamaru and his sarcasm didn't help anything, and even the generally quiet Itachi had been pulled into a ridiculous argument about marmots.

He couldn't help the weary sigh that swelled in his lungs. Some team we are. Look at us.

"What is going on here?"

The booming baritone caught everyone off guard, seeing as they'd all been too concerned with Hana to remember to keep their senses outstretched and honed. Kakashi felt a pitch of disappointment - in all of them, himself included. How much more dysfunctional could they get if they couldn't even feel someone coming into their own locker room?

He turned around to follow the others' gazes, and found himself staring at the collar of a fellow ANBU - a tall one. And he was close. He glanced up, and discovered a blank-faced mask he knew quite well.

"Panther," he declared, mostly for his own benefit. His brain was still catching up to everything. The fact that it needed to catch up at all was a testament to his stress level. He needed a nap… "You're back."

The scruffy blond removed his mask, revealing the alarmingly delicate face behind it. Mo Akarui let his gaze rove over those gathered in the locker room, his violet eyes hooded by his thick blond lashes. When that gaze returned to Kakashi, the latter got the feeling Mo had already put things together in his mind.

After all, there was still one member missing.

"Did I miss something?" he asked, deep voice even and without accusation.

"You were gone for two weeks," said Tsuki, in the same manner Tsuki ever said anything. "Of course you missed something. Be more specific."

Mo sighed, and Kakashi braced himself for the insightful question to come. He was right to do so.

"Is Cat on a mission?" the tall man said.

The entire room went silent.

At length, Kakashi decided he ought to be a man and speak up first, but Hokamaru beat him to it.

"Cat's being a crybaby, that's what he's doing," the Hyuga said with spite. He folded his arms over his chest. "He got over-sensitive and he's been pouting for four days. He hasn't even shown up in the mornings to help time my jogs."

Mo's eyebrows rose. "That's a while… What's this he got 'over-sensitive' about?"

"They were just teasing him." Tsuki folded her arms behind her head. "Nothing to get so upset over. He certainly doesn't have to shun us…"

By the way Mo's eyebrows twitched, Kakashi knew he wasn't convinced. So it surprised him when his next reply lacked any added pressure.

"I see…" The team medic left it at that, and moved to push past the obstacle currently blocking his path.

Kakashi slipped his hands into his pockets and stepped aside to let the older ANBU pass him by. "I was going to track him down today, actually. Hopefully, to clear some things up."

Mo nodded as he approached his locker, unstrapping his armguards and setting them in his locker. "That's a good idea."

Hokamaru started sniggering, drawing Kakashi's gaze to him. Feeling the Hatake's stare, he tried to quiet himself - tried being the key word - and gave the Copy Nin a pointed look. "Gonna go end this lovers' spat?"

Kakashi was fully prepared to respond in kind with a casual affirmative, but when Team Ro's oldest member glanced suspiciously over his shoulder, his words swelled with guilt and rather than flow with their usual finesse, they stuck in his throat instead. He wound up choking on them, and managed to turn it into an awkward clearing of his throat.

When he'd gotten a handle on himself, he sent a level but pointed look in the Hyuga's direction. "Funny the first time, Liz. Not so much the second."

White eyes narrowed with a frown. "Wha…?"

Before he could be questioned anymore, Kakashi turned on his heel and headed for the door. He forewent changing completely from his uniform. He'd switched jackets and left his Wolf mask in his locker, so that would be enough for now.

"Wish me luck," he offered with a half-hearted wave, before abandoning them to their questions.

Tenzo had been gone long enough. Hana wasn't the only one who had missed his absence, as loud as her reaction was compared to the others. It probably was time he stopped hiding in the locker room and did something about it.

More than that, he didn't want to spend more time than he had to under the critical eyes of his senior. Eyes that reminded him that he really should have made this effort sooner. Like, perhaps right after the offense was made.

Mo Akarui was the oldest of them at 28. Despite being a valuable part of the ANBU Black Ops for almost 14 years, the man was stable and strong, got along brilliantly with people, had a side job, a house, and still found time to take care of his grandmother. He was the tantamount of what an operative should be.

So to have that kind of role model eyeing him with distrust hit a bit closer to home than he would ever admit.

And if he was truly honest with himself, he was really starting to feel that empty space Tenzo had left behind.