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Kakashi had frozen with shock…...What?
"Sas…" Sakura was staring at him, an expression akin to relief and gratitude.
"We're forfeiting," he repeated, his glare suddenly landing onto Naruto.
"Y-Yeah but—" Naruto had tears in his eyes, but he wiped them with his sleeve and plastered a smile on his face. "YATTA! WE'RE QUITTING 'COS YOU'D HAVE BEEN A LAME SENSEI ANYWAYS! BELIEVE IT!"
Kakashi's mouth opened like a gaping fish, then he closed it, opened it to say something, and nothing came out.
That mask is making it look weird! Sakura couldn't help it, Sasuke's announcement, Naruto's insult, and her sensei's reaction; she erupted into a fit of giggles. "I knew—" she managed out, "You'd say that."
His orange book fell into the grass with a thump. He ignored it, choking out a whispered, "Why?"
"Because we're in this together?" Sakura answered when no one bothered to. In their eyes, they were done with Kakashi. Sakura was too, but the good-girl inside her couldn't help but explain.
Kakashi looked at Sasuke. "What about killing Itachi?"
"YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO SAY HIS NAME!" Sasuke yelled in rage, moving to attack Kakashi with the intent to kill. Sakura easily looped her forearms around his arms and held him back as Sasuke struggled. She had enough practice with Naruto.
Kakashi looked mildly worried. Looks like you still want your revenge, disturbingly, I can't fathom why you're willing to quit as a genin…"Alright then, what of that certain someone?" he corrected himself dryly.
He was met with a glare as Sasuke was released from her vice-grip. "For a Jounin, you're a complete idiot."
Kakashi's eye twitched, but he held himself back, wanting to hear what the Uchiha had to say.
"If I passed without them, I'll be slowed down by worse teammates. Better them than anyone else, Ex-Sensei."
This time Sakura was holding Naruto back from Sasuke. Apparently Naruto had a better speech in mind.
"You have potential," Kakashi retorted calmly. "How about one-on-one training? No teammates to slow you down."
Sasuke hesitated.
"Hey, we said no!" Sakura yelled as she released Naruto. "You're trying to drive us apart! Leave us alone!"
"YATTA! IT WON'T WORK DUMBASS BALDY!"
Sasuke looked at her, and his resolve tightened. He looked back to Kakashi, and…snorted. I want to be there when Sakura revives my clan. I want to be the first to see them. "None of it is worth losing for your shitty private lessons," he eyed the dropped Icha Icha volume pointedly. "And the dead last of the class would never let me live it down," he added with a forlorn sigh and mock regret.
"OI!" Naruto was torn between happiness and outrage.
That prepubescent exclamation attracted his attention, and his eyes landed on his Fourth Hokage's son. "What about your dream of becoming Hokage?"
Naruto was undaunted. "When I become Hokage, I'm gonna become Teme's Hokage, so I'm not gonna abandon him today when I'm not s'posed to abandon him when I'm Hokage!"
And for a moment there, if he saw past the goofy grin and orange attire and whiskered rounded face, the child wasn't Naruto anymore, and Kakashi could feel his heart freeze, and his fingers refused to twitch.
Minato-sensei?
'Don't worry, Kakashi, Obito, Rin, you can count on me. I'll become the Hokage and end this war.' Minato had promised him before flashing off to a battlefield of a thousand Iwa shinobi.
He blinked, and the illusion was gone.
He struggled to find something to turn them against one another. He needed to get Minato-sensei and Naruto out of his head. Anything involving his old team, his old life.
He strugged for words, and when he grasped them, it all came out desperately, akin to an insane person's ramblings, all towards the only person in the group with no relation to his life. "Sakura, what about you? You're sabotaging a very important mission just because you want to be with your friends. Ninja don't always get to work with their favorite people. You're being selfish; they're not going to die from not passing with you. It's one thing to abandon a teammate to their deaths, but it's another to abandon a mission just because your teammates aren't sharing it with you." He was twisting the purpose of his bell test and they knew it.
He chose the wrong distraction.
Sakura pushed the rim of her glasses, and they glinted against the sunlight. "This isn't a mission, Sensei. It's us deciding our futures. Think of it this way; if you had to choose between an extra year at the academy to be on the team with the people you trust, or the chance to start your career early with people you might not trust, which is the better one?"
Bookworms. You're calculating this from a mathematical perspective. Kakashi bristled in rage and a hint of fear. His mind has gone entirely blank.
He never knew why she did it. She wasn't sure why either, maybe because her words were reminding her of Obito-kun's lesson, maybe she just missed her old mentor, maybe the wind was blowing too hard into her eyes, maybe her hair was too unkempt and long, maybe, maybe.….Regardless, she reached over her head and pulled her orange goggles over her eyes.
And then it all came back. He saw a flash of orange goggles.
Kakashi couldn't believe it…
He couldn't…
"Those who break the rules are scum…"
Was this the first team to figure it out? To see what teamwork is really about?
"But those who abandon their friends are worse than scum."
He couldn't stop himself. He stared straight at Sakura, and shouted, "You're late again! Do you know how much trouble that caused us?! You wasted our valuable time waiting!"
"Eep!" Sakura flailed instinctly, "I'm sorry! There was an old woman, she dropped her groceries so I helped her pick them up!" Then a look of confusion washed over her face, realizing how that came out of nowhere.
Kakashi's single eye went wide, and his Sharingan activated behind his headband scanning her again and again, for any telltale signs of anything he could find out, answers, maybe, chakra signature identities, perhaps. Anything that would reveal itself to him.
"Uhh, Sensei? You're being a creep," she said as her face reddened, a hand impulsely rubbing the back of her head sheepishly.
His eyes convulsed at her movement, and a few seconds as her face turned redder, and redder, until it was deeper than the shade of her hair…
It was so eerily like his dead teammate's more embarrassing moments…
Tentatively, as though she might disappear, and still fascinated, he whispered desperately, "Obito?"
He must have imagined it, as it made no sense, but Sakura gave an ear-splitting groan and a shout of 'Not again!'
Sasuke and Naruto looked at their interaction with the some amount of confusion.
But none of it mattered. Obito was back from the dead. Reincarnated.
Kakashi found it beyond amusing, he felt some water trick down his face from behind his eyes, sogging his mask. Should have known you were too stubborn to die.
He walked right over and ruffled Sakura's hair.
"Heey!" She tried combing her hair back in place with her fingers, a disgruntled pout on her face that also resembled his dead teammate's. "Oi, sensei, your hand is cold!"
"Heh. Heheh. Really?" His eye curled as he pivoted to leave. "In any case, let's get some ramen at Ichiraku's, all of us. My treat,"
"YATTA!" Naruto fistpumped the air at the sound of it, "Wait, what?"
"Oh, by the way, if it still concerns you," Kakashi said, snapping the three brats to attention. "You all pass."
"WHAT?!"
Unlike Sasuke and Naruto, Sakura had a petrified expression on her face. "How'd we pass?" Is it because of my resemblance?
"Teamwork." He smiled, "you're the first squad that succeeded. The others did exactly what I said, and fell into every trap. They couldn't think for themselves. A ninja must see through deception." He paused. "Although, you ruined my fun before it began."
Kakashi reached into his pouch and pulled out a third bell, holding them together. "Is this better?"
. . .
. . .
Three stomachs growled.
"Oh alright," he relented, "ramen first."
The two lunchboxes laid forgotten as they went to their favorite bar.
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