AN: I feel so sorry for anybody who follows my stories. Every chapter starts with an apology coz I'm the shittiest updater ever. Just know that nothing of mine is abandoned, no matter how long it's been since I updated it.
Kakashi was amused. It seemed like this teaching thing was going to be more fun than he'd thought; already he had managed to create a scene cheesy enough to be in one of Jiraiya-sama's books.
He leaned back against the railing that enclosed the roof of the Academy, seemingly lost in his little orange book. In actuality, his eyes were trailing over words that he pretty much had memorized, while his ears listened out for the thumping of little genin feet.
Soon enough, the door to the roof crashed open, and Konoha's resident Jinchūriki stumbled out. Her teammates were seconds behind her. All three of them were sending burning glares of resentment Kakashi's way.
He waved back.
The interviews that followed weren't at all surprising; Naruto was a loudmouthed brat, Sasuke was a moody brat, and Sakura was an obsessed brat. And did he mention that they all hated each other? Well, Naruto hated both of them, and they both hated her. Not that the relationship between the other two was any healthier.
Kakashi really had his work cut out for him with these three.
The bell test didn't go any better; they barely scraped through by the skin of their teeth. Kakashi wasn't entirely sure if it was just because the three of them didn't get along in the first place, which made them working together all the less likely, or if it simply hadn't occurred to any of them to team up.
He didn't know which one was worse.
Ah, well. Naruto's natural puppy-dog eyes had prevailed, and they had passed, in the end. Even if sharing food was Kakashi grasping at straws to allow them a pass.
"Ne, ne, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto piped up behind him. "Where are we going?" Apparently she had forgiven him for that little kissing incident.
Kakashi glanced back, smirking at his reluctantly curious (Sasuke) and impatient (Naruto) genin. "Maa, Naruto-chan, can't you just wait and see?"
She skipped up to walk at his side, shaking her head furiously. "Tell meeeeeee, Sensei!" She pleaded, pouting up at him with big blue eyes. Kakashi held in a snort – that was definitely a practiced expression.
"NARUTOOOOOO!" Ahh, that was his other lovely little kunoichi-in-training. "STOP HARASSING SENSEI!"
"Shut up, Bubble Brain!" Naruto shot back, suddenly walking backwards as she turned to argue with Sakura. "You wanna know just as much as I do!"
Sighing, Kakashi tuned out the girls' high pitched voices, returning his attention to the little orange book in his hand. The walk from the little red bridge to Training Ground Two took almost twenty minutes, a journey interspersed with the shrieks of preteen girls, the occasional 'Hn's of a mood avenger, and Kakashi's own poorly hidden snorts as he eavesdropped on his genins' spirited conversation.
He wondered if he should maybe put a stop to all that arguing…
Nah. Forcing them to get along wouldn't help anything – they would just have to get used to each other.
"You're late, Kakashi!"
He sniggered. That was a familiar sentence.
Before he could reply to the aggravated shout though, a little blonde blur had gone racing past him, shrieking her lungs out.
"Kibaaaaaaa! Shikaaaaaaa! Chōjiiiiiii!"
Kakashi watched on in amusement as his student ran towards three of the male genin who were waiting for them, bowling straight into their waiting arms and sending all four of the to the ground. So, she didn't hate all of her classmates.
Just the ones she'd been stuck with.
"Hey, Naru-chan." The largest boy, obviously an Inuzuka, grinned nonchalantly at the girl who was somehow sprawled equally over each of the three boys. His ninken yapped beside them.
"Good to see you, Naru-chan." That was the Akimichi boy, smiling cheerily and holding his – miraculously – full bag of chips out to the side of the pile.
"Troublesome as ever, Naru-chan." And there was the Nara boy, sighing tiredly into the golden hair covering his face.
Naruto scrambled to her feet, hauling the Nara up with her. "I missed you guys!"
She received three fond smiles in return for the sentiment, even as the Nara spoke exasperatedly. "It's only been a day."
Deciding to leave the genin to their own devices (and observing the way that Sasuke was blatantly ignoring his old classmates, leaning against a tree that was a far away from where Sakura and another blonde girl had just started arguing as he could get), Kakashi sidled up to Asuma and Kurenai where they had been observing their own genin.
"Anything interesting so far?" He muttered, eyes still conspicuously on his book.
Asuma snorted. "Nah. Typical kid behaviour; my three knew each other already, and the boys are pretty friendly with Inuzuka, but nothing really stood out until you guys got here."
Kurenai nodded. "Hinata-chan is very shy, but she and Shino-kun seem to be getting along quite well. Kiba-kun ditched them as soon as he saw the other boys, but it's only been one day."
"Hmm," Kakashi hummed thoughtfully. "My three have very unhealthy feelings for each other."
Asuma's second snort was drowned out by a shout of surprise. Naruto, who had been huddling with her little cohorts, suddenly barrelled over, flinging herself at the burly shinobi. "Asuma-ji-chan!" She shouted, arms wrapped tightly around his waist. "Where have you been?!"
Well. The Sandaime hadn't said anything about this.
Kakashi and Kurenai both eyed Asuma questioningly. He grinned sheepishly back, patting Naruto's little blonde head. She detached herself quickly, standing back and staring at Asuma with narrowed eyes.
"Where the hell did you disappear to?!" She demanded.
Asuma raised his hands defensively. "I didn't think you would remember me, Naruto-chan. I haven't seen you since you were what, eight?"
Naruto nodded furiously. "Jiji said you were busy." The quotation marks were almost visible. Kakashi was strangely proud.
"Naruto-chan, how do you know Asuma-sensei?" He butted in, not bothering to contain his curiosity. By now, the remaining genin had also gathered around, evidently just as lost as the jōnin.
"Ehh, I met him aaaaaages ago!" Naruto cried exuberantly. "At the Tower! And I was really surprised, coz I didn't know Jii-chan had a son."
"What?" The little Yamanaka girl that Sakura had been arguing with stepped forward, hands on hips and a demanding frown on her face. "Naruto, how could you not know that your own Grandfather had a son? And how are you even related to our sensei?"
Asuma was the one who answered – wisely, in Kakashi's opinion. Naruto looked supremely offended, and was probably about to start a shouting match. "It's okay, Naruto-chan," Asuma smiled over at the shorter blonde. "And Ino-chan, we're not really related. Naruto-chan is on friendly terms with my father, which is why she calls me her uncle."
Ino raised a finger to her lips, a thoughtful gesture that would likely draw a fair bit of attention when she grew older, Kakashi thought amusedly. "But Asuma-sensei, you said yesterday that your father is the Hokage."
Kakashi waited with barely hidden glee as the realization crept over all of the genin's faces.
"Whaaaaaaat?!" Sakura and Ino erupted at the same time.
Naruto stuck her tongue out at the other girls. "Bleehhh! That's what you get for being stuck up cows back in the Academy and not listening to me!"
"Why you!" Sakura launched herself forward, clearly looking to swing her clenched fist directly into Naruto's head. Kakashi caught her easily, not even looking up from his book. He wasn't reading it, of course, this was far too hilarious a situation to only pay half-attention to, but he did have a reputation to uphold.
"Maa, maa, calm down kids," Kakashi chuckled, still holding onto a struggling Sakura. "Let's just get on with it, shall we?"
That was enough to gain the genin's attention; Naruto stopped her taunting, and Sakura's enraged writhing calmed enough for Kakashi to feel comfortable putting her back on the ground. All nine of the new graduates were loosely congregated around the three jōnin, in some semblance of order.
And by order, Kakashi meant that the genin were all standing in front of the right sensei, but somehow nowhere near their own teammates. Team Seven, being in the middle, had Naruto squashed between her three friends from the other teams, Sakura glaring at Ino, and Sasuke hovering around the back, with the little Hyūga girl and the Aburame boy.
Exchanging glances with his fellow sensei, Kakashi just knew that these little brats wouldn't be making anything easy for him.
Sasuke could barely contain his impatience. He was finally, finally, a genin, able to start doing more intense training and learning to become stronger, and he was stuck here, once again forced into interaction with his annoying classmates from the Academy.
Currently, Sasuke was sitting between the dobe and the Hyūga – probably the safest place for him among the kunoichi, even if Naruto was an aggravating failure of a ninja.
At least she didn't have a crush on him.
"Right!" Yūhi Kurenai, as the female jōnin had introduced herself, clapped her hands sharply. "I suppose everybody wants to know exactly what we're doing here?"
There was a chorus of agreements.
"It's simple, really. The three of us are all new jōnin-sensei, and we all attended the Academy during wartime. We thought it might be easier on all of us if we could get a general idea of what the Academy taught you, and where you're all at." Kurenai explained, smiling gently.
"Does that mean we get to spar?!" Naruto shouted eagerly, almost deafening Sasuke.
On the other side of the dobe, Kakashi chuckled lightly. "No, Naruto-chan, no sparring. Not yet, anyway."
The girl settled back with a pout, arms crossed huffily. Sasuke rolled his eyes. Their sensei had already seen what they were capable of, during the bell test. This was… Information gathering.
"Ano, so what exactly do you want to know?" Sakura spoke up, shyly twirling a strand of pink hair around her finger.
Asuma grinned, a cigarette in between his teeth. "Anything you guys wanna tell us. Favourite subject, best subject, all that kind of stuff."
Ah. Sasuke blinked, taking in the mischief glimmering in the male jōnin's eyes. That was why all three teams had been gathered together for something as simple as this; all sorts of truths would out themselves, with nine new genin eager to show off.
"Why don't you start us off, Sakura-chan?" Kakashi said languidly. "You don't have to go in-depth, just give us a basic overview." He eye-smiled at them all and Sasuke had the oddest feeling that if his one eye were open, it would be gleaming in an extremely sinister way.
The pinkette blinked, darting a quick glance in Sasuke's direction. Sasuke determinedly didn't let on that he'd noticed it; what was the girl even looking to him for? He didn't know her answers to the jōnin's questions (nor did he particularly care, to be honest).
"Weeeell, I guess my favourite subject at the Academy was a tie between history and ninjutsu practise," she shot a glare at Yamanaka, who'd made a snide comment about her 'oversized forehead matching her oversized brain'. "Because they were both really interesting! My least favourite was probably taijutsu practise, and," green eyes flicked nervously towards Sasuke, who once again ignored her. He already knew what she was going to say, and he didn't care (beyond what it might mean for the team, and therefore, his own training). "It was also my weakest class."
Kurenai clapped her hands together, smiling softly at the pinkette. "Well done, Sakura-chan! Thank you for being honest." The girl's face lit up in pleasure at the praise. "And now it's Naruto-chan's turn, yes?"
Sasuke sighed. This was going to take forever. When would the real training start?
Later that night, Kakashi was lying flat on his back atop his single bed, wondering if he had made a mistake in accepting this assignment. Child-minding was exhausting. He hoped to god that it was some kind of first day excitement that'd had his brats so energetic today, but in the deepest part of his soul, he knew it was wishful thinking.
They were only just getting started.
AN: There we go! Pointless fluff? Some semblance of a start-up plot? Who knows. But it's definitely something. Don't give up on me!
- Kelly