Author's Note: Thank you all who've left reviews! I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far. This poor chapter got a shuffled to the back burner for a while. I skipped ahead to flesh out the next few chapters and suddenly realized that I had completely neglected to finish (and post!) this one! Oops.
Chapter 13
Minato smiled as his team went their separate ways upon returning to the Hidden Leaf. Their latest mission had been a success. What pleased him even more was the change in Kakashi over the past few months. The young chunin appeared to have taken the lessons Minato had tried to teach him to heart. He was allowing his teammates to work with him rather than leaving them behind. They were finally becoming a cohesive team. It wasn't perfect and at times he still fell back to his old habits, but there was definite improvement.
Minato knew it had been a hard lesson for the proud and stubborn boy to learn. But he had learned and was making a concentrated effort to incorporate it into his missions with his team. Minato was extremely proud of him. He made a mental note to tell his father the next time he saw him. When Kakashi wasn't around, of course. The prickly little genius could get strangely touchy over the oddest things. Like being praised to his father. After some of the disparaging comments he'd heard about Kakashi himself from other jonin, Minato wasn't surprised the boy was defensive.
In spite of the doubts he had secretly harbored when the Hokage had asked him to take Kakashi onto his team, Minato was glad he had done so. The boy could still be tetchy and obstinate but had shown he was willing to listen and learn and adapt, even if it was difficult for him admit that he needed to. Minato aspired to the Hokage's seat himself one day. If he couldn't even get his student to understand the importance of teamwork then he had no business being Hokage. How could he hope to lead a village if he couldn't even keep his team in harmony?
Grinning, he made a mental note to tell Kushina of the teamwork they had shown on this last mission. His wife had been nothing but supportive and encouraging even when he was plagued with doubts. She had never once doubted that he would find a way to get through to Kakashi. She'd be pleased to hear she had been right. As usual, he thought, amused.
"Hey, Kakashi!" Guy cried enthusiastically as he ran up to the other. "Long time no see!"
"I've been busy," Kakashi said. "I heard you made chunin. Congratulations."
Guy beamed. "Thanks! In celebration, I have a favor to ask."
"I'm really not up to any challenges today," Kakashi said, hoping to head off Guy's enthusiastic continuation of their rivalry. He had just returned from a solo mission and was looking forward to going home and going to bed. He knew his father was still out on his own assignment. Kakashi had vague recollections of his father being gone for long stretches of time when he had been very young, fighting in the Second Shinobi War. He did not recall the grim expression on his father's features that he now so often wore. Though Sakumo had never voiced it out loud, Kakashi knew he was worried that he and his peers would be sent into battle.
Kakashi wasn't sure how he felt about the prospect himself. He had killed - he had been a chunin for five years after all - though he had never been in a full scale pitched battle before. As the Third Shinobi War dragged on, some of his peers had begun expressing frustration at remaining in the village or only being assigned missions well within the Land of Fire's borders. Kakashi was in no hurry to go to the front. Sakumo spoke little of the time he had spent at war other than to express his disgust at it, to state that he hoped his son would never see and experience the horrors that he had. Seeing his father's expression darken, his eyes go cold, had been enough to put Kakashi off of any foolish notions of wartime heroics. If what he'd seen and done affected his father so deeply, he suspected he was better off never experiencing it for himself.
Guy was speaking again. "I don't want to do a challenge today."
"Are you feeling okay?" Kakashi asked, concerned. He was convinced something must be terribly wrong if Guy didn't want to engage in some sort of challenge in their rivalry. Kakashi couldn't have cared less about it, but Guy was emphatic about keeping score. Considering their contests ranged from taijutsu to races to eating contests to rock paper scissors the score really wasn't indicative of anything but it was extremely important to Guy so Kakashi went along with it.
"I'm fine," Guy said, brushing Kakashi's concern aside. "I was wondering…"
"What?"
"Well… I heard you can perform the summoning jutsu. Will you teach me how?" Guy asked in a rush.
Kakashi was surprised by the request. Guy was capable of using ninjutsu, albeit not much and not well. His ninjutsu skills were so poor that he tended not to bother using it at all in favor of his very formidable taijutsu.
"I can show you the jutsu. But it's not easy," Kakashi cautioned. He didn't want to get Guy's hopes up only to be dashed when he couldn't perform the complex jutsu. "It's pretty high-level ninjutsu…"
"I don't care! I want to try! Please, Kakashi!"
"Okay." Kakashi couldn't say no in the face of Guy's enthusiasm. He wasn't sure the other boy would even be able to perform a summoning jutsu. He'd have to let him find out the hard way. He'd learned that once Guy had his mind set on doing something, he wouldn't give up the idea until he succeeded, even if he failed a hundred times. His perseverance was one thing Kakashi had always admired in him. What Guy lacked in talent he more than made up for in sheer determination.
"Thanks, Kakashi!" Guy's face broke out into a huge grin.
"Not tonight, though," Kakashi said before Guy could get too excited. "I just got back and I'm going home to get cleaned up and sleep."
Guy's expression dimmed, then brightened again. "Of course! We can't have you at anything less than your best, my eternal rival!"
"I'll meet you tomorrow morning outside Hokage Tower."
"I'll be there at dawn!"
Kakashi sighed. He was an early riser but he was certainly not going to get up before the sun for this. "How about a somewhat more reasonable hour?" he said. "Like after breakfast at least."
Guy waved a dismissive hand. "See you tomorrow!"
"Not at dawn!" Kakashi called after him as he scampered off. Kakashi shook his head as he headed towards home. There was no doubt that Guy would be waiting at dawn.
Kakashi arrived at their appointed meeting spot the following morning to find Guy waiting impatiently for him.
"Kakashi!" Guy cried, face breaking out into his customary grin. "It's about time you got here! I've already done five hundred push-ups, three hundred sit-ups, and another two hundred finger push-ups waiting for you! What are the hand signs? How do we start?"
Kakashi held up a hand to slow Guy's rapid-fire questions. "First, we'll have to figure out what type of creature you should summon," he said.
Guy's brow furrowed. "Why can't I just call the same one you do?"
"Because dogs are a bit different. They'll only appear as puppies if you're young. Besides, I still have their scroll." He had been practicing summoning his pack of ninja hounds without using the summoning scroll for the past couple of years. He could manage it almost all of the time now. He still carried the scroll with his gear, just in case. It wouldn't due to need his hounds and be unable to call them while on a mission or when he needed them most. It was a bit irritating to have not completely mastered the jutsu yet, but Kakashi knew his limitations. His father had explained that it would take a lot of time and a lot of practice before he wouldn't ever need the scroll. He was still proud to have gotten as far as he had with it. Not many eleven year olds could boast to having an entire pack of ninken at their beck and call.
Guy looked disappointed. "Oh. Well… what animal should we try, then?"
"Let's go see what contracts are around," Kakashi said. They headed towards the Hokage's library. The chunin in charge of the library frowned at them as they entered. Kakashi smiled benignly at her, the picture of perfect innocence. He was here often enough that the staff all knew him and knew he was permitted access to all but the forbidden jutsu scrolls and books. She eyed Guy for a moment, then waved them past with a warning look.
A few minutes of searching the shelves turned up a niche in which scrolls containing summoning contracts were kept. Kakashi pulled them out and began reading the labels. Guy was bouncing on his toes in excitement beside him. Kakashi quietly warned him to calm down or they'd risk getting kicked out.
"Let's see…" he murmured absently as he sorted through them. "tiger… wolf…. bear…"
"Those all sound really cool!" Guy exclaimed. "Come on, Kakashi! Let's try one!"
"Wait!" Kakashi said. "We want to make sure we get it right." Privately, he was trying to find the least dangerous creature he could. On the off chance that Guy was actually able to summon something he didn't want it to be powerful enough to cause too much harm. The summoning contract did not mean that the summoned creature had to obey the summoner or that it was under their control. They were still intelligent creatures and sometimes resented being summoned by shinobi. Summoned creatures had even been known to kill those who had summoned them. Those scrolls were kept with the forbidden jutsu for a reason. Even a more benign creature could still cause trouble if they weren't careful. "Here we go! How about this?" Kakashi said triumphantly, holding up a scroll.
Guy took it from him. His smile faded as he read it. "A tortoise? How lame!"
"No, it's perfect!"
"How so?" Guy challenged. Kakashi wasn't one to make fun of him, unlike many of the other kids. But he didn't see anything not lame about a tortoise as a summons.
"Think about it," Kakashi said. "You had to work hard to get to where you are, right? But you never gave up and kept working. Slow and steady. Just like a tortoise!"
Guy considered Kakashi's words. He knew how hard he had to work better than anyone. And when Kakashi put it like that… maybe it did sound kind of cool after all. "Alright," he agreed. "Let's try it!"
"Not in here!" Kakashi took the scroll back and tucked it into his shirt as they left the library.
They headed to Guy's house, the new chunin not wanting others to see what they were up to. Guy had endured years of his peers' mockery over his lack of ninjutsu and genjutsu. The first time he had met Kakashi the other boy had been dismissive of his attempt to enter the Leaf Ninja Academy. Once he had been accepted Kakashi had been the only student who didn't sneer at him in class.
Guy had been more than a bit in awe of his genius classmate. He knew Kakashi was the son of the legendary White Fang of the Leaf and it was soon apparent that he had inherited much of his father's skill. While the other students mocked him, Kakashi mostly ignored him. Guy had fixated on the other, determined to become good enough to challenge him. He had lost his initial challenges to Kakashi spectacularly. Yet he continued to challenge him, convinced that his hard work had to pay off.
And it had. Guy was now usually able to hold his own against Kakashi in taijutsu and he often won some of their more unconventional contests. Somewhere along the way they had become not only rivals but friends as well.
Once they were situated in the yard, Kakashi pulled the summoning scroll from beneath his shirt. "First, you have to sign the contract in blood," Kakashi explained. "Then each time you want to summon, you need to cut yourself. Just a little bit," he added hastily, seeing the other boy pale. "Then you need the correct hand signs. Boar. Dog. Bird, Money, Ram." He formed the correct signs as he spoke. "You have to lay your hand flat and channel chakra through it. The more chakra, the larger the summons. Like this." He bit his thumb and wove the hand signs, placing his hand on the ground. Pakkun appeared.
"Hi, Kakashi!" he said in a surprisingly deep voice for such a small creature. The ninja hound had grown and matured in the years since Kakashi had first learned to summon him. "Whatcha need?"
"Just showing Guy how summoning works," Kakashi explained.
"Oh. Well, if you don't need me for anything..."
"You can take off. Thanks, Pakkun. See you later."
"I wanna try!" Guy exclaimed as the pug disappeared. He bit his finger and signed the tortoise scroll. Frowning in concentration, he wove the hand signs Kakashi had shown him. He placed his hand on the ground, channeling his chakra through it.
Nothing happened.
He looked over at Kakashi. "What happened?" he asked.
Kakashi shrugged. "Dad told me it doesn't always work at first. Sometimes it's a matter of not enough chakra. Or the hand signs are off. Or the creature isn't available. Or something."
"You're saying I can't do it?"
"No. You may just have to keep trying until you figure it out. Maybe someone else had summoned the same tortoise already."
"But the scroll was in the library!"
"Once you've become proficient, you don't need the scroll on you any more. It's possible for more than one person to summon the same type of creature, sometimes even the same creature itself. If it's already been summoned it can't be in two places at once now can it."
"I guess not…" Guy was trying to hide his disappointment. He knew his taijutsu was second to none but at times he did wish he had more skill with ninjutsu or genjutsu. He could break a genjutsu – it was only a matter of concentrating and releasing a focused burst of chakra. But he couldn't cast them at all. His ninjutsu was weak at best. He knew and accepted that was just how things were. But that didn't mean he didn't occasionally envy Kakashi. It seemed that the other was good at everything he tried. Guy knew that wasn't fair and that Kakashi trained and worked hard, too. But he did envy the natural talent he possessed at times.
"Give it another try," Kakashi encouraged, seeing Guy's disappointment when his summoning failed. He had no idea if Guy would be able to summon or not but he had seen him overcome seemingly impossible odds before through sheer effort and determination.
"What were the hand signs again?" Guy asked, wanting to be certain he had them correct. Kakashi showed him. Eyes narrowing in concentration, Guy tried the jutsu again. Nothing appeared. "Dammit! What am I doing wrong?"
"I told you it was high level ninjutsu," Kakashi said. "It's going to take some practice. You don't use ninjustu much, so let's start there. Lemme see your hand signs."
Guy scowled a bit. Just because he didn't use ninjustu didn't mean he didn't know how to form a proper sign. Though, he conceded, Kakashi may have a point and the other boy was willing to help him. He forced down his annoyance. He knew Kakashi didn't mean to come off as condescending; he wouldn't be here if he didn't want to help. Guy nodded and they walked through each sign, Kakashi making minute adjustments to them as they did so and he tried again.
Dai returned home to find his son and Kakashi Hatake sitting in the yard, a scroll spread out on the ground between them. He heartily approved of Kakashi as his son's friend and rival. The boy was a bit odd, perhaps, with his face hidden and his entirely too serious manner. Yet he had been a good and loyal friend to Guy and was always well-mannered. Curious as to what the boys were up to, he strode over and crouched down beside them.
"Hi, Papa!" Guy greeted.
"Hello, sir," Kakashi said politely.
"What are you two up to?" Dai asked cheerfully.
"Uh… it's a summoning jutsu," Guy said hesitantly. He bit his lip, worried that his father wouldn't approve of his attempting to learn the ninjutsu.
"Oh?" Dai asked, eyebrows raising. "That's a high-level jutsu, isn't it?"
"Well… yes." Guy's face set in determination. "But I'm gonna learn it! I'm not giving up until I can summon!"
Dai beamed and patted both boys on the head. "Good! With the power of youth, nothing is impossible!"
Kakashi smiled. He liked Guy's father. He was so different than anyone else he had ever met. He was always cheerful and ignored the opinions of others who mocked him. He was still a genin but it never seemed to bother him that he hadn't advanced in rank over the years. He encouraged the rivalry between himself and Guy, knowing that it pushed his son to challenge an opponent of Kakashi's skill. At the same time, he was always welcoming of Kakashi, greeting him with a broad smile and asking about the boys' most recent contests, equally pleased no matter who won, encouraging the loser to continue working hard and embrace their youth. Kakashi may not have always understood Dai's passion about youth but he did enjoy his cheerful enthusiasm.
"It's nearly lunch time. Kakashi, you'll be joining us, yes." It wasn't really a question.
"Thank you," Kakashi said, knowing that arguing would be pointless. He suddenly realized that he was getting a bit hungry. They had been so wrapped up in working on the summoning jutsu that the morning had slipped by without them noticing.
"After lunch I challenge you to a race around the village!" Guy said to Kakashi as they rolled the scroll and headed inside. "We've been sitting for so long that I need to work out all my pent-up youthful energy!"
Kakashi was heading home for the day when he caught sight of Guy sitting on the riverbank alone. Sensing something was wrong, he made his way over. Guy glanced up, the turned his attention back to the water, tossing a stone into it absently.
"What's wrong?" Kakashi asked as he sat beside Guy. The other boy usually greeted him enthusiastically with shouted challenges and cheerful talk about youth. His subdued posture had Kakashi concerned that something terrible had happened.
"It's nothing," Guy said quietly.
Kakashi frowned. "Hey," he said, nudging Guy with his shoulder. "C'mon, what happened?"
Guy was quiet for a few moments, tossing rocks as he gathered his thoughts. "We got new team assignments today," he began.
"Don't tell me I'm stuck with you!" Kakashi said in mock-horror. It elicited a tiny smile that quickly faded.
"No. I'm teamed with Genma and Ebisu."
"Eh, they're not such bad guys. You could be stuck with worse."
"I know. It's not that. It's… well… Papa always takes such low-level assignments. I've seen him a few times around the village recently… I guess I never realized before… That's why so many other shinobi are always making fun of him…" He paused. "And today, while we were meeting our new team captain… I overheard…" Kakashi was silent, letting Guy speak at his own pace without prompting. Whatever had happened, it had clearly upset him badly. Guy glanced at Kakashi. He had gotten fairly good at reading the other's expressions despite the mask. All he could see was genuine concern, no judgement, no mocking. He took a breath and continued. "Papa was… begging. Begging, Kakashi. Begging not to be dropped as a shinobi." Guy tossed another stone into the stream. "How could he humiliate himself like that? That's not what youth is about."
"Isn't that how he raised you? I don't think there's a cooler shinobi out there. There's no one quite like your dad." Guy looked at him sharply but there was no guile in his voice of expression. Kakashi was generally honest, meaning exactly what he said. Kakashi smirked. "Besides, if it wasn't for your dad, you'd have never challenged me and I wouldn't be ahead by two points right now."
"Not for long!" Guy crowed. "I've been practicing and I'm gonna beat you next time for certain! In fact, let's go right now!"
"Don't get overconfident," Kakashi cautioned, matching Guy's grin as they got to their feet and headed for a training field.
Note: The final scene is adapted from Shippuden episode #419, "Papa's Youth".
