Minato and Kakashi return from their B-rank. She ambushes them at the gate by jumping on Minato's back. He nearly bursts out of his skin and luckily does not stab her for it. He thought about it—he definitely thought about it.
"Honōka," Kakashi scolds, "you can't do that to any shinobi returning from a high stress mission."
She frowns at Kakashi from her place hanging off Minato's neck.
"Minato-san feels pretty serene to me. Not a ripple on the pond." She knocks on his head. He feels almost blank, in fact.
"Probably because you splashed all the water out with your surprise attack."
Minato clears his throat. His heart is beating really fast—she can feel it through his back.
"In all seriousness, Honōka-chan, probably don't do that again? Or, at least, don't conceal your chakra when you do?" A deep, shuttering breath. Some of his color returns. "I had no idea it was you… where'd you even come from…?"
"Oh, it worked then?"
Kakashi and Minato share a wary look. What worked? They silently worry.
"Aren't you supposed to be resting?" Kakashi distracts.
"Me and Obito got into a spat, you could say, and an Uchiha-oji-san made us go to the hospital. Tsunade-san treated us and gave me the go ahead to train again, 'lest you make beating your friends to a pulp a hobby'."
Kakashi's eye twitches.
"What did Obito do?"
"He called my taijutsu style stupid. Twice."
Kakashi thinks about it, and nods.
"Understandable."
"Wait, wait. Back up. What 'worked'?" Minato asks. He gestures to Kakashi and they both start walking. Probably to the Academy and the Administration Building. Honōka adjusts her grip and continues hanging off Minato.
"Me and Sensei had a discussion about sensor-nin. Nidaime-sama's book featured in it. Thank you for letting me borrow it, Minato-san."
He hums his acknowledgment. Kakashi gives her a look to get on with it.
"Every sensor-nin has a sensory-field which determines how far they can sense. When the sensory-fields of two sensor-nin interact they become aware of each other. To avoid this, there are two options: suppress and conceal your chakra to a degree that the other sensor-nin cannot detect… Or expand your own sensory-field beyond the enemy-nin's."
Kakashi frowns, working that one over in his head. Minato gets it, or doesn't get it, faster.
"I'm sorry, I don't get it. If I'm inside your sensory-field, I'm interacting with it, therefore I should still feel you presence."
"You do—all around you. Therefore, there is no point of reference."
"…"
"Oh! Oh! Honōka-chan, that's genius!"
Kakashi turns and walks backwards, looking rather critical of his sensei's outburst.
"If your sensory-field is outside mine, on all sides, there is no way for me to determine which direction you're actually in. I can't determine the center point of your sensory-field or where you would be when there are no bisections between the two fields. On top of that, because it feels like chakra coming from all directions, I'm more likely to mistake it for ambient chakra. Kakashi, it's like being nose-blind!"
Understanding lights his eyes, but then he's frowning again.
"I get the sensory-field thing. But doesn't that just mean that other sensor-nin are not aware that there's a stronger sensor-nin in the area? They'll still be able to detect Honōka's chakra signature if she's using chakra—and it must take a ton of chakra to make a sensory-field bigger than anyone else's."
"Actually, expanding a sensory-field is less about using more chakra and more about having greater concentration. So, Honōka-chan can probably expand her sensory-field quite far—especially while she's motionless like she is now." Minato chuckles, pointing his thumb back at her. "As far as her chakra signature goes… what does it feel like to you, Kakashi?"
She's not surprised that Minato's been teaching Kakashi some basic sensor abilities or improving his chakra awareness. It's very important in live battle situations. However, she's confident this is something Kakashi has no chance of emulation, or even understanding.
"…How?" he asks.
Minato grins, excited. She thought he would be—jealous, maybe.
"Honōka-chan seems to have mastered the Second Hokage's existence elimination technique."
If anything, he feels… happy for her. It's a pleasant feeling.
"But how does it work? You can't just make yourself feel like nothing. Usually, there's a lacuna—a void—something that feels off… Honōka just feels like everything else."
"Everything else, huh? That's a good observation, Kakashi. That's exactly what the Second Hokage's technique is built upon. You see, there's an ambient frequency all around us; a hum, if you would. It's ever present, so you naturally tune it out, or it would likely drive you crazy! Honōka-chan is matching her signature to that frequency, and unless you can focus on everything else, at the same time, you won't be able to discern Honōka-chan's presence from the rest."
Kakashi considers.
"Why isn't it driving Honōka crazy?"
"I find it relaxing. It's louder than everybody else."
"And there's the famous drawback. Nobody can sense Honōka-chan while she's using this technique, but neither can she sense anybody else."
She smirks. She said it was louder—not deafening.
"Tora-sensei is manning the mission desk, and Hokage-sama is not in his office."
"…" Kakashi side-eyes her, like she might suddenly bite or starting raving like a lunatic. "Minato-sensei, can that hum thing really drive you crazy?"
"Rude! Just you wait. Tora-sensei's going to tell you Hokage-sama is out or some tripe. And then we're going to the Jōnin Standby Station to wake him up."
Kakashi and Minato feel mutinous. They're probably plotting how to get rid of her before she gets them all on the Hokage's post-nap bad side.
"Tora-sensei never mans the mission desk." Kakashi argues, deciding to rationalize the situation away instead.
"Are you questioning a future S-rank sensor-nin?"
"S-rank?" Kakashi snorts. "Says who?"
"Orochimaru-sensei."
She feels Minato gulp.
"You're high on 'ambient frequency,'"
"And you're a sore loser."
They glare at each other.
"Um, guys? Please don't fight. I'm in a kind of delicate position if either of you—" he means Honōka, "—draw weapons."
Kakashi backs down, if only to placate Minato's wobbly nerves.
They reach the Administration Building and enter the mission desk room. Tora-sensei balances on two legs of his desk chair, looking utterly bored.
Kakashi turns in the mission report scroll while radiating irritation at Honōka for being right.
"Ano," Minato begins, already uncertain. "We have a verbal report for Sandaime-sama as well. Is he in?"
"Is it urgent?"
"Well, yes, but also no?"
Tora-sensei fixes Minato with an impatient stare. He's a chūnin, one rank below Minato, but also a full decade older.
"Is it or is it not urgent?"
"No?"
"Come back later. Sandaime-sama is busy with something else."
A very bland excuse. Honōka was hoping for something with more 'umph' to it. But Tora-sensei is Tora-sensei.
She drops down from Minato's back.
"Let's go to the Jōnin Standby Station. I have a plan."
Tora-sensei's eyes bug out upon seeing her.
"No!"
Kakashi and Minato jump.
"No more plans! I'm sick of you and your little friends' bullshit plans—and no plans allowed in the Jōnin Standby Station—at all!"
She purses her lips. Well, that was… dramatic. She grabs Minato's sleeve and Kakashi's arm warmer and pulls them along after her.
"Tora-sensei is just a little upset that I taught Obito the bubble blowing jutsu and how ghost wire traps work. But don't worry, he's not actually that upset."
Tora-sensei does not leave the mission desk room, but his yelling follows them down the hall. He yells after Minato, imploring him to be the Yellow Flash Konoha needs and to not fall for the 'little delinquent's dimples'. Rude. She wishes she had dimples like Sensei's.
By now, Kakashi and Minato are sweating bullets, real and metaphorical.
"Um… Honōka-chan, I don't think Tora-san was 'just a little upset'… maybe a little—"
"Hysterical?" Kakashi offers.
"I was going to say agitated, but hysterical works too."
She laughs and continues leading them to the Jōnin Standby Station. If they really didn't want to know her plan, they'd be gone already.
"Dimples," Kakashi scoffs.
"They are hard to say no to, aren't they?" Minato says.
She lets them into the station and marches up to the stove where there's a conveniently empty pot and sturdy metal ladle.
"Honōka-chan, don't—"
She bangs them together with everything she has. The ladle breaks after the third strike. A napping jōnin on a patched up couch flies off and sticks to the ceiling like a startled cat. And simmering chakra floods the station from the direction of the bunk rooms.
Kakashi hides behind Minato.
"Now you've done it, Honōka!" Kakashi says. "Honōka?!"
She's gone with a lingering giggle, leaving the three of them to deal with the wrath of Sarutobi Hiruzen post-nap.