"Let the other villages fight over the land. We will rule the seas, rivers and lakes, and grow rich and fat off the trade."

– Byakuren, First Mizukage of Kirigakure, also known as the Optimist

-O-

Come to the Hokage tower immediately, the note had said. The word 'immediately' was underlined three times. After some thought, Kakashi crumpled it up and threw it aside. A flick of chakra burnt it to ashes before it reached the ground.

He meandered through the village, browsing the market stalls at the roadside. There were stacks of fresh fruit, racks of shirts and trousers, toys for kids and grownups, tools for every job Kakashi could think of and several he couldn't, fresh food, stale food, mouldy food, and all manner of trinkets. Kakashi bought a bag of grapes and popped them into his mouth, one by one, while he strolled towards his home.

After a bath and a change of clothes, he felt much more relaxed. A quick sip from a bottle of rice wine, and Kakashi was ready to deal with the bureaucracy.

From his roof, it was only a few short hops to the centre of the village. He entered from the roof of the tower, throwing a sarcastic salute at the sloppiest of the four ANBU guards. Kakashi relaxed as he felt the man's glare on the back of his neck.

The Hokage's office was packed when Kakashi slipped in through the door. Hiruzen didn't pause his briefing. "The new date for the Chunin Exams has yet to be decided, but Suna is unlikely to commit to anything in the next four weeks. It is also possible that a different village will be hosting."

Kakashi sidled over to Asuma. "What's going on?" he asked. Jounin whispering around each other was considered very rude – it was less distracting to the others if he just spoke up.

"Orochimaru tried to assassinate the Kazekage. Tsunade has returned to Konoha in order to bolster our defenses."

He blinked in surprise. That posed half a dozen new questions, but they could wait. "Shame about the exams, though."

The corner of Asuma's mouth twitched into a miniscule frown, which was as much agreement as Kakashi was likely to get.

"...and I will give further details as they become available. For now, it is imperative that we not put strain on our relationship with Suna, and remain vigilant – as always – in case Orochimaru attempts to strike at us as well. Dismissed."

Kakashi would have been one of the first out the door, but Asuma shot him a sidelong look. I want to talk to you. Kakashi slowed his steps, acknowledging the bearded man's request. He filtered out the body language of the other jounin around them; no doubt there were a dozen similar conversations going on, but he didn't care to learn the details.

Guy and Kurenai drifted over to join them. Kakashi raised an eyebrow at Asuma, who ignored him. The four jounin left together, not speaking, but Kakashi could tell by their body language that they were waiting for Asuma to explain.

"Exams moved, huh?" Guy broke the silence. "Shame."

"Oh, you were going to enter your team?" Kakashi needled away. After so many years, it was something of a game for them.

"Well, they've worked hard. I give them ten years before they surpass me, and two before they surpass you, at the rate they're going."

"I hope you've got someone else to teach them maths, then. You see, two is smaller than ten, so you've got the numbers the wrong way around."

"We get it, you two don't like each other," Kurenai interrupted. "Now can you shut up?"

They were in a fairly empty corridor by then, so Asuma got to the point. "Things are gonna go downhill pretty soon. If Orochimaru was able to get close enough to the Kazekage for them to fight, odds are they planned a meeting."

"There's nothing Sand could want from him that needs a face-to-face meeting, though. Unless they're looking to move against either us or Earth. Lightning is too far away and Water has nothing they could use." Guy's voice was grim.

"Clearly the deal fell through, whatever it was, which buys us some time. But there's more. Zabuza's planning another attempt at taking over Mist. Team Ten ran into him in Wave, but he fled after a short fight."

Kakashi frowned. "There's no reason for him to be there. Wave is empty."

"Flip that around. Wave is empty, so why would he want to go somewhere like that? He wants somewhere away from other ninja, where he can plan and build his forces," Kurenai said. "And there's only one reason the Demon of the Bloody Mist could have for building an army."

"It's not much to go on."

"I appreciate you playing devil's advocate, Kakashi, but this is more warning than we got before the last war. Besides, I'm not the only one who thinks so." Asuma looked him in the eye. "Tsunade came back to Konoha. And you're a damn fool if you think it was because she wants to be here."

"So what do you propose?" It was Kurenai who spoke up, but they were all thinking it. It was in moments like this that Kakashi was reminded of Asuma's heritage. This was truly the Hokage's grandson.

"We get ready."

"Some of us are already ready," Kakashi butted in. "But, sure, for some of us it'd be a good idea."

Asuma shook his head. "This is more important than status games. You're the one, out of us four, who's slacking the most."

Kakashi wasn't going to take that. "I–"

"This time, think before you talk."

They moved in the same instant, hands blurring forward, but Asuma easily caught his fist. Kakashi ducked the returning knifehand but a quick twist and pull on his trapped arm laid him out on the floor.

Guy stepped out of the way of their grapple, pulling Kurenai back as he went. Kakashi flipped himself up and at Asuma, then deliberately went limp. He felt rather than saw Asuma's surprise at the manoeuvre.

The lack of leverage on his arm forced Asuma to block rather than deflect him, and Kakashi pulled his hand free. He stuck his feet against the wall and they traded blows for a few seconds before Asuma backed off.

"You used to be stronger than me. What happened?" Asuma wasn't even slightly out of breath, which pissed Kakashi off.

He blinked once, slowly. "I spend too much time having fun, and don't murder enough."

Kurenai threw a questioning glance at Guy. He whispered to her, but Kakashi caught it anyway. "He thinks he's being sarcastic, but that's actually the truth."

"Not good enough, I'm afraid," Asuma said, brow furrowing.

He grabbed Kakashi by his flak vest and slammed him against the wall – or rather, he tried to. Kakashi twisted, slipped his legs under him and crouched on the wooden panelling, hanging parallel to the floor, then immediately backed away from a straight punch.

Physical scuffles between jounin were common – sometimes a way to establish a pecking order, sometimes just to make a point, and occasionally as a twisted form of flirting – but Kakashi hadn't had anyone choose to tangle with him since he left ANBU.

An unlit cigarette trailed from the corner of Asuma's mouth. Kakashi plucked a splinter from next to his sandal and pretended to flick it forward, but Asuma didn't so much as twitch. He'd always been a stoic bastard, but this was obnoxious, even for him.

Then Asuma darted forward, and Kakashi was hard-pressed to counter the flurry of blows that followed. He was a hair too slow to dodge a grasping hand and ended up back on the floor, one leg folded under him.

Kakashi's headband still covered his Sharingan, but he didn't need it in order to predict Asuma's next moves. He braced himself for a blow to the face that never came. Instead, the blunt end of one of Asuma's trench knives caressed the side of his neck.

"Pathetic." It was Kurenai who broke the silence, half a minute later, and Kakashi didn't look at her as he stood up.

Asuma's face was iron, the slightest glint in his eye all that revealed his nerves. Kakashi held his gaze for a moment, then turned away. Sweeping across Guy, he caught the twinkle of unshed tears and that was too much. Kakashi walked away without a word.

He stalked out of the tower, barely noticing people scatter out of his path. There was a faintly red patch on the side of his neck, the slightest tint to mark the place he'd been hit. Kakashi tugged the collar of his vest up, hiding it.

The first place he went was his regular bar. The last thing he wanted to do was stop and think. And so he crawled into a bottle, and drank and drank until he was curled up on the floor. After decades of fights, his body was almost immune to pain, but his ego had become incredibly fragile to compensate.

And so he raced towards oblivion as fast as possible.

Kakashi woke up a few hours later, his mouth tasting of death. He staggered to his feet and formed a set of seals, purging the remaining alcohol from his bloodstream. He grimaced as he sobered up. There were suspicious damp and sticky patches on his uniform. He spat into the corner, ignoring the glare the bartender threw him. She wouldn't dare say anything, not to one of her best customers.

Slinking through the shadows, Kakashi made his way into his small apartment. Apart from the two large and open windows, it was exactly like those around it – no traps, no hidden caches of weapons, no secret rooms or hidden escapes.

He didn't need them.

After collapsing into bed, it took scant seconds for him to fall asleep, and barely any longer – or so it seemed – until he woke up. It was fully dark outside, but a sixth sense had alerted Kakashi to a slightly deeper patch of shadow slinking into his bedroom.

He dragged his headband up, and the shadow stopped. Kakashi knew exactly what Asuma would be seeing – a single red eye, seemingly suspended in mid-air.

They leapt forward in the same instant, Kakashi reading the whisper of cloth against skin to duck under Asuma's grab and hammer an elbow into his gut. He flung the man into the wall behind him, following it up with a pair of slaps to the face. Asuma blocked the second one, but Kakashi knew he'd be nursing a nice black eye the next morning.

Served him right.

Now they circled each other, Asuma wary and Kakashi triumphant. A step – a kick – Kakashi moved past Asuma and pinched his ass as he went. He'd treasure the memory of Asuma's surprised squeak forever.

Neither of them was aiming to kill, so the real prize was humiliating the other.

And that meant it was Kakashi's fight.

He shut his left eye and stepped backwards, melding against the black patch that was his wardrobe. Grabbing a half-empty bottle of scent he'd used to train his dogs to track, he strafed his target. Asuma wouldn't be able to see him without the telltale red light of his eye, and that meant he couldn't dodge or even fight back. The barest touch of moving air was all the warning he'd get.

The edge of Kakashi's foot brushed against a discarded jacket, and he slid it along the floor, straight to the other side of the room. The slithering sound of it hurtling over the floorboards was enough to send Asuma into a defensive stance, and Kakashi darted along in the shadow of the noise. Right after Asuma's straight punch went through the air over his jacket, Kakashi snapped his Sharingan open. He sprayed a fine scented mist over Asuma's face, getting half a burst into his open mouth.

The effect was instantaneous. Asuma fell back, spitting and pawing at his mouth.

Fresh blood and old meat filled the air, a cloud of death and decay. It forced its way down their windpipes, clawed at their memories, tore through years of psychological scars. Even if only for a moment, Kakashi felt the weight of the past; the accumulated guilt and bloodlust hit like an avalanche.

Without his mask, Kakashi would have been hit almost as hard as Asuma, who was dry-heaving. As it was, the layers of cloth served two purposes – they absorbed the worst of the stench, and they hid Kakashi's feral grin. Without his teeth shining white in the dark room, it was easy to take Asuma down and tie him up.

Afterwards, Kakashi waited for his victim to stop hyperventilating. The smells would stay for a while, he knew. He'd definitely need to clean his apartment, and probably relaunder all his clothes, but it had been worth it.

Kakashi lit up a cigarette and wafted the smoke into Asuma's face, hoping it would snap him out of it.

"You fight dirty," Asuma said, sounding impressed. He grinned up from the grimy floor of the apartment, blood trickling from a split lip. "Even for a ninja, that blood smell stuff was filthy."

Kakashi shrugged. "I'm surprised you've forgotten just what I'm capable of."

"I still don't think this is anywhere near your limit. Seriously, you need to sort yourself out. I should be dead."

"Well, I try not to kill fellow Konoha ninja, especially when they're not a threat." Job done, the cigarette was pinched out and slipped into Asuma's pocket. Kakashi made no move to untie him, though. Perhaps, he considered, he was slightly annoyed at being woken up.

Asuma laughed. "I'd argue with that, except I'm not really in a position to. But I think my main mistake was thinking the night favoured me."

"You're really clumsy in the dark, you know?" Kakashi sniped. In fact, Asuma was impressively silent, even for a jounin, and they both knew it. On the other hand, Kakashi was feeling rather petty.

"Any chance you could untie me?"

"I'll think about it."

-O-

Kakashi woke up in a good mood. Asuma's ropes were empty, as expected – it was almost impossible to keep a competent ninja tied up for more than a few minutes. At least he'd left a wad of cash to cover the cost of cleaning the flat.

Rather than another breakfast of meal bars, Kakashi found a street stall down the road that sold hot meat buns. He was ravenous and crammed three straight down his throat, wrapping another pair in greaseproof paper. He'd eat them on the way to meet Team Seven.

His team.

It was still a strange thought, but he was getting used to it. One more – one last – time he had a team to protect.

Naruto was trying to show off, clowning around and attempting to do a somersault. Predictably, he fell over halfway through. Sakura tried to copy him, with much the same results, and they flopped onto the grass together. Sasuke smiled rather than join in their laughter, then executed three perfect somersaults in a row, finishing with a little flourish.

Something had put a spring in his step since yesterday, Kakashi saw. Or perhaps someone. Either way, he couldn't be bothered to pry.

"Let's get going, daylight's wasting!" he called, and the three genin sprang to attention. "We're going to do some light exercise and then take a mission in the afternoon."

Kakashi led them in laps of the village walls, gradually picking up the pace until they were staggering along, panting for air. He noticed, full of shame, that he was breathing heavier than usual. That wouldn't do.

"Take ten minutes to rest." And Kakashi ran, ran as he hadn't run in years, a desperate sprint that pushed his legs past their limits. The air scorched his lungs, scoured his mind, scorned his pain.

When he'd finished, he leaned against a tree near his genin, trying to get his breathing back under control. It was a harsh reminder of just why he'd stopped training so hard. He wandered over to Sasuke, who was ducked behind some bushes and getting his sweat-drenched hair back in order with a red comb.

For a moment Kakashi was tempted to tease him. Instead, he silently slipped away and interrupted Naruto and Sakura, who were watching a caterpillar eat a leaf. Their heads bumped together as they startled, and Kakashi smiled a mischievous smile behind his mask.

"That's enough of a break! Let's pick things up a bit, really get some improvement showing." There were so many things Kakashi wanted to teach them, but he knew that they weren't ready for even a fraction of it. Honing minds and bodies was the place to start.

On the next lap of the village, the genin were carrying heavy stones above their heads. Kakashi followed, carrying a tree-trunk and pretending to swat it at Naruto every time he fell behind.

"Hey, Sasuke!" a girl called, and Kakashi spotted Team Ten leaving via the main gates. "We're going on a mission, it's really exciting!"

"Asuma," Kakashi greeted. Asuma nodded back, and Kakashi kept running. He almost missed the faint whisper of a large man jumping off a patch of grass, despite listening for it. The trunk spun in his hands, and Kakashi rammed the end into the airborne Asuma.

Kakashi's face exploded with pain. Through a cloud of splinters, he saw – and narrowly avoided – an oncoming fist.

Blood streaked down his face, so he flicked a few drops at Asuma's eyes, using the distraction to get close and personal. Kakashi grabbed Asuma's jacket and hurled him into the loamy forest floor, taking the opportunity to slide a pair of explosive tags under Asuma's vest.

Then he reeled, completely blindsided by a kick to the head. Asuma was up again, but Kakashi's eye couldn't focus properly. He raised his headband and took a glancing blow from a follow-up hook, trying to throw a fist in response. Asuma grabbed him and slammed him into another tree, uprooting it.

Kakashi switched with the tree trunk, trying to establish distance. His bloodlust was rising, and he was tempted to simply detonate the tags. It would be one way of re-establishing his authority, he knew, but killing the Hokage's grandson would probably be a bad move.

Then again, he was seriously annoyed.

"Bastard!" Naruto yelled from behind him. Kakashi grabbed his arm as he ran by, swinging the genin around and gently tossing him back to his team-mates.

"Calm down, Naruto. It's just an old acquaintance of mine who doesn't have any social skills."

Asuma grinned, brushing wood chips off his vest. "I'm the guy who's better than your teacher."

"You're the guy who their teacher just spared," Kakashi corrected him. "You're getting on my last nerve, and it's the one that decides whether to trigger the tags on your shirt."

Asuma froze. Then, without taking his eyes off Kakashi, he slowly and carefully peeled off his vest. Trembling fingers reached down, peeling the tags off and dropping them to the ground. He stepped away, keeping Kakashi in his sights the entire time.

"Team Seven, scram. Do more exercises or something. Team Ten, move two hundred yards down the road and wait for me there," Asuma ordered. Kakashi's team waited for him to confirm the order before they moved, and he smiled.

"Don't slack off, or I'll know," he warned. "Now go on, I'm in no danger from this muppet."

As soon as they were alone, both of them dropped the act. They stood a few steps apart, voices monotone.

"Pull something like that again and I will make you regret it even more than you'll regret today," Kakashi bit out. "You want me to raise my game, and I will, but right now you're manoeuvring me into a corner where I can either back down and bend the knee, or eviscerate you. You should know me well enough to realise I don't back down."

"You've got a lot of talk, but you're not really backing it up," Asuma countered.

Kakashi smirked. "Two to one, so perhaps it's you who's all talk."

"Perhaps it is. I've got a mission; when I get back I'll be stronger. We'll continue this then."

Kakashi watched Asuma's retreating back as the jounin leapt away. He felt tired all the way down to his bones. This wasn't a challenge that would be over anytime soon.

He raced away, pushing himself, and catching up with his team.

-O-

"No."

The chunin behind the desk frowned at him. "I'm sorry, but those are the guidelines. You can, of course, take your team on a B-ranked mission if you like, but it's really not recommended."

"You don't understand," Kakashi said. "I want a C-rank for my team and a B-rank for me. Two missions, not one."

"I can give you a C-rank as well as a B-rank mission, but you need to go on both of them, unfortunately. None of your students are approved for leading a C-rank or above mission, and so you can't send them to do one on their own." The man behind the desk was visibly uncomfortable, but had the look of someone braced for a light bollocking now in order to avoid a more hefty one later. Kakashi knew he wouldn't get anywhere on that front.

"In that case, I want an A-rank for just me. Something fast and clean." The codewords for 'local assassination' slipped right past the three genin in the room. "And we'll do a C-rank all together afterwards, alright?"

As they left the mission office, Kakashi led the team towards a nearby street vendor. "I'm going to be gone for a few days, and I'm relying on you three training hard without me."

"Can't we have a day off?" Naruto asked. The other two didn't say anything, but Kakashi could read their expressions easily. They looked hopeful and relaxed - or at least, as relaxed as they ever got nowadays.

He wiped the expressions off their faces with a single sentence. "I'm thinking of entering you into the Chunin Exams."

Before Naruto could start bouncing off the walls, Kakashi gave him a stern look. "The Chunin Exams are dangerous. For every twenty contestants that enter, one will die and one will receive a career-ending injury. Plenty of people end up with a less serious, but still significant, disability. There's three of you, which means three times the opportunity for something to go wrong. Even then, it doesn't sound that dangerous to you, I'm sure. But some of my friends have lost students to the exams.

"I'm not entering you unless I'm completely sure you're all properly prepared."

"We're definitely ready for this, you gotta let us compete for sure!" Naruto shouted. "It's the next step towards Hokage, after all, and-"

Sasuke interrupted him. "We're not ready, and most of us," he threw a look at Naruto, "recognise that. But we will be ready by the time the exams come around."

Kakashi smiled under his mask. "And that's what I wanted to hear. I hope you all understand why you can't afford to slack off while I'm away?"

"In that case, why are you leaving? Isn't training us more important than an extra mission?" Sakura asked.

To avoid the truth, which was something Kakashi wasn't really ready to admit to himself, let alone anyone else, he cast about for an excuse. "I'm covering for another jounin, and he's agreed to teach you a few tricks in exchange. It'll be good for you to get some practice in with a new sparring partner and to learn a new perspective from a different teacher."

Now all he had to do was find a jounin who owed him a favour, and he'd be free to cut some poor bastard's throat as an excuse for a few days of training in the wilderness.

"For now, we're doing more physical training," he ordered absentmindedly. "I want you to be able to run all day and fight all night, then run all day again."

-O-

Kakashi slunk out of Konoha an hour before dawn. The gates weren't open yet, but as a jounin he had no problems slipping over the wall and bypassing the patrols. They wouldn't flag his scent as suspicious and he wanted to get the actual mission part of his excursion over with as quickly as possible.

The target was some merchant or other who'd likely pissed another merchant off enough for a lucrative assassination contract to be lodged with Konoha. Kakashi didn't particularly care; in this, at least, he was a professional.

There would be some sort of defence, hence the difficulty assigned. Worrying about that could wait until he got more information about the merchant's location. Kakashi preferred not to memorize the names of his targets.

Asuma was... being surprisingly difficult. Kakashi still wasn't sure whether the man's stated aim – to get Kakashi back into form – was his real motivation. It made sense, but surely in that case Asuma would be backing down now Kakashi had stomped on him a little? If Asuma made another move, Kakashi would go after him indirectly, he decided. Some sort of humiliation, coupled with the sort of attack that would seem a mild annoyance to anyone watching, but really sting its target. Kakashi wondered if he could pickpocket Asuma's cigarettes and mess with them somehow. Or would it be better to go after them before Asuma bought them? Could he strongarm or bribe Kurenai into helping him?

As a last resort, he could always look for blackmail. Airing out the old grievances between Asuma and the Hokage could be misconstrued as treason, but there were sure to be other skeletons he could dig up.

Trees sped past as he tore through the upper canopy, following old and little-used paths from before the last Shinobi war. Most of the route he wanted to take was overgrown and therefore slower than the main tree roads, but the unpredictable branches and trunks kept him alert and focused on his surroundings.

It took a few hours for his instincts to fully return – by the time that dodging low-hanging branches and darting around unexpected obstacles was second nature again, Kakashi was already near the first stop on his mission. The caravan camp he was heading towards lay beside a river, and the gleam of sunlight on water was already visible. He'd ask around, figure out where the target was going next, and then intercept him somewhere.

Assuming Kakashi played his cards right, he could be finished by the next evening. After that, he had another three days at least that he could use for training.

He wondered how his team was doing without him. They'd have started training by now, he knew. Perhaps they were missing him?

-O-

A/N: I'm back, I guess. I can't promise that I'll be updating regularly from here on out, but I'll definitely try (for whatever that's worth – this site is rife with dead stories, and nobody starts a story by saying 'I'm gonna abandon this partway through').

Chapters from here on out will be from a single character's perspective, for the most part. The constant jumping around wasn't really doing anything useful, and mostly covering up a few weaknesses in my characterisation. As a corollary, chapters will be shorter. As a corollary of that, chapters will be more frequent.

I'm really interested in getting feedback on my interpretation of jounin dynamics. Let me know what you thought, even if it's just 'I liked it' or 'It was awful'.