"So, let me get this straight," the words are choked out around barely concealed laughter, "you've been stalking us for a week because you wanted to ask if we'd do a joint training session with your team?"
"I was not stalking you," Kakashi argues but it's weak and even he knows it.
"You were following us around, lurking around corners, watching us through windows. How is that not stalking?" And, yeah, Asuma's not even trying not to laugh anymore.
"Do you want to do the joint training or not?" He asks through grit teeth. Why, why is this week hell bent on his embarrassment? He hasn't done anything to warrant this much lost dignity, surely?
"I think it's a wonderful idea," Kurenai, bless her, cuts in before Asuma can continue on with his teasing remarks. "They've all had a bit of time to grow, now, and it's good to not get comfortable in your sparring patterns. You can develop bad habits that way."
"And you have been spending too much time with Guy," Kakashi drawls because that is exactly something the taijutsu expert would lecture in that overly-enthusiastic way of his.
"Well, when he can't find his best friend, he tends to get lonely," Kurenai remarks back without losing any of the sweetness from her smile and Kakashi barely holds back a wince because, yeah, Asuma hadn't been the only one he'd been avoiding lately.
Refusing to feel any more guilty than he already does, seeing as that's what got him into this mess in the first place, he presses on as if she hadn't said anything at all.
"My team has training in the mornings that usually lasts until mid-afternoon and then they take their missions. Anytime after three is good. I could probably pull them on one of their days off, too, they wouldn't complain, but I can't clear out an entire day of training. They'd revolt."
And he wasn't lying when he said that. If he tried to tell them "no training" they'd tie him up and leave him for dead, genin versus jounin or no.
Even Asuma was looking at him disapprovingly for that. "You can't take away one of their days off, are you crazy? If I tried something like that Ino would straight up murder me. And Shikamaru would help her hide the crime without a trace. Even Chouji would probably be mad enough that he wouldn't try to stop them."
Kakashi wasn't touching Team 10's dynamics with a ten foot pole.
"My team probably wouldn't put up too much of a fuss, though Shino would recite the rule book on mandatory days off from memory, Kiba would complain all day about how he was strong enough not to need extra training and Hinata would just give us a Look."
"A 'Look'?"
"She's very good at looking disappointed in you. She probably learned it from her father, though hers is much more effective, if you ask me."
Yeah, not touching Team 8's, either.
"Just trust me when I say it's fine, so long as it's not taking away from their morning training, yeah? I already have some ideas of what we can do. Have you started teaching them how to tree walk yet? Because there's this version of ninja tag that I came up with..."
Kakashi carried on explaining, expertly ignoring the funny looks the other two jounin instructors were giving him. They could judge him all they wanted now but he'd seen great results and, in his opinion, that was all that mattered.
Either way, the other two teams were in, and Kakashi's mission had been a success. And if a little extra training now saved them later down the line?
Then it was worth the embarrassment of being called a stalker, even if he'd never admit as much out loud.
(Or admit to his kids, even on pain of death, that it wasn't the first time his friends had called him such and most likely wouldn't be the last.).
.
.
The moment she was told about the group training, Ino had been ecstatic. Sure, it meant dealing with Forehead and those losers Naruto and Kiba, and sure she'd have to put up with timid Hinata and Shino's gross bugs, but she'd also be able to spend time with Sasuke-kun and, in her mind, that made everything worth it.
Oh, how she wished, even now, that she'd been put on a team with her beloved. But she'd known from the start how unlikely it was, no matter what her heart yearned for.
(She'd only tried to talk her father into it the once. She was so used to his inability to tell her 'no', especially when the puppy dog eyes came out, and she'd even used a bit of tears for good measure. Still, he'd shut her down instantly and refused to budge, even as she devolved into a full-blown tantrum over not getting her way. Later on, once she'd calmed down, he'd sat her down and explained why it was so important that the InoShikaCho live on through them.
She hadn't understood, not fully, but she'd realized that no amount of fuss she put up would change anything.
Didn't mean she was at all happy about it, though.)
Being on a team with glutton Chouji and Sloth Shikamaru was going about as well as she'd figured it would. Neither wanted to train, ever, and would much rather nap and snack on a hillside or a rooftop somewhere. And Asuma-sensei was too laid back to really put his foot down and had instead resorted to bribing Chouji with food, who would then turn pleading eyes on Shika until the other boy reluctantly dragged himself up to his feet.
And Ino loved the both of them, okay, she'd grown up with them and they were practically her brothers in all but blood at this point, but that didn't change the fact that she wanted to punch them both in the face literally every day.
And so, yes, she was looking forward to seeing - and training with - Sasuke-kun more than she'd looked forward to anything in a long time. But could she really be blamed for that?
Being able to rub Forehead's nose in how much she'd improved since graduation was really just a perk. The pinkette might have managed Kunoichi of the Year but Ino was a Clan Kid and, now that she was officially a part of the shinobi ranks, Asuma-sensei wasn't her only teacher. Maybe it was unfair, and absolutely petty, but she'd been burning with a low-key anger ever since the class rankings had been announced.
Sakura was smart, even Ino could admit as much, but that's all the girl was. Smart. She didn't have stamina or dexterity, didn't have a large chakra reserve, didn't have strength, didn't even have great aim. So, how? How had Sakura become the best kunoichi of the year? How?
(Deep inside, Ino knew. She knew it was because the Academy focused on the basics and, if nothing else, Sakura was textbook perfect at those. Even if she couldn't keep it up for long. Even if she couldn't use them to win a taijutsu match. The fact of the matter was, when it came to academics, Sakura had always been better.)
So, yeah, Ino was excited. And she continued to be excited right up until Team 10 reached the small clearing in the forest they were all meeting in and laid eyes on Team 7 for the first time in a month.
To say that she was speechless would've been an understatement.
Because it wasn't just the new looks (though, that was definitely part of it. Sakura had chopped off nearly all of her hair! Naruto actually looked like a person and not a walking eyesore!) but the way all three genin were huddled together, heads bent in discussion, and not a single insult or dirty look seemed to be passing between them. When one spoke, the other two listened. There was no posturing, no preening.
If she didn't know any better, Ino would think they'd been a team for years, not just a few weeks.
Hell, she'd known Shika and Chouji since they were in diapers and even they didn't get along that well. Far from it.
So, what the hell was going on?
Rattled, Ino fell back on her best defense, her arrogance and her love for the Uchiha heir.
"What's this? Spend a few weeks with him and suddenly you think you're best friends, Forehead?" She sneered as she finally announced her presence. And maybe her words came out a lot more harsh than was necessary but she'd never handled being thrown so off balance very well. It was a flaw, she knew it, her father knew it, they were working on it.
"Oh, hey, Ino-pig," the pinkette greeted pleasantly, seemingly not at all bothered by the Yamanaka's tone. "You guys are kind of early. Team 8 shouldn't be here for another ten minutes, at least."
"And I'm sure it'll be another thirty after that until Kakashi gets here, at least," Asuma-sensei drawled, amusement clear, as he leaned against a tree a few feet from the rest of them and lit up a cigarette. Ino, even a bit dazed as she was, couldn't help but reflexively make a face at him for it. She'd get him to quit, so help her, if it was the last thing she did. She refused to spend the next however many years they were a team smelling like tobacco, damn it!
"If he knows what's good for him, he'll be here right on time!" Sakura chirped, sunny smile stretching her face, and Ino suppressed a shiver because what? Had Teacher's Pet Sakura just cheerfully threatened her team's sensei? In front of another adult?
Naruto was snickering and even Sasuke-kun wasn't trying to suppress his smirk.
Ino took a moment appreciate just how attractive that sight was before wondering at when the Uchiha started showing more emotions than scorn, boredom and smug superiority. Which were all great looks on him! But she'd been pretty sure that was about the extent of the boy's emotional range.
Oh, sage, was this Forehead's doing? Had they been bonding? Were they getting closer together? Had they gone out to eat together, spent off-days together? Did Sakura make Sasuke smile?
Was Ino losing? Again?
"Don't worry about it, 'ttebayo!" Naruto's voice cut in before Ino could spiral down into a nervous breakdown. "Kaka-sensei knows that this is important and he knows better than to cross an Uzumaki when things are important!"
"Oh, my god," Asuma-sensei breathed, looking torn between hilarity, horror and awe. "It was you! You're the one that dyed his hair red!"
Ino glanced back at her teammates, to see if they were seeing what she was seeing. Chouji was munching on a bag of chips, no surprise there, and looked a little intrigued on what was going on but mostly just interested in his food. Meanwhile, Shika, at least, looked fully engrossed, eyes bouncing from person to person. There was a line forming between his brows in obvious concentration as he tried to work out just what was happening. The fact that he hadn't yet spoke volumes.
Shikamaru couldn't be assed to find the motivation for most things but if there was one thing he absolutely hated (or loved, Ino had never really worked that out) it was a mystery. Because with his intelligence, not much was one. There were things he wasn't supposed to know, mission details he wasn't allowed to be privy to, and that didn't bother him. But a mystery like this staring him straight in the face?
He wasn't letting this one go until he'd uncovered the truth.
Naruto had puffed his chest out in obvious pride at Asuma-sensei's accusation and hilarity won out as their teacher broke down into undignified laughter, barely holding himself upright against his tree.
And that's when the guy she presumes is Team 7's sensei appears in the clearing, hair singed and smoking while the rest of him is, conversely, soaking wet and takes a running leap at the three genin, who don't even hesitate before launching themselves into the trees behind them, their laughter echoing behind them.
"Get back here you little monsters! I won't forgive you for this! That book was an autographed first addition!"
Ino kind of misses when things still made sense.
.
.
When Kurenai-sensei had first told them about the joint training with the other teams, Kiba hadn't been too concerned about it.
It had seemed fairly obvious that Team 8 was going to win. Shikamaru might've been a problem if he could actually work up the motivation to plan anything, but Kiba highly doubted even Ino's incessant screeching could accomplish that. And he could admit, if only to himself and Akamaru, that the Uchiha bastard was one to look out for, definitely, but he figured his other two teammates would drag Sasuke down enough for it not to matter all that much.
Not that he didn't like Naruto! The guy was cool enough, most of the time, but that didn't change the fact that he'd been Dead Last in their class for a reason.
So, he'd walked into the clearing with the rest of his team confident in their eventual victory. Seeing the shape Team 7 was in, scuffed up and bruised - and... smoking? Yeah, that was definitely smoke coming from Naruto's jacket - he'd been even more assured. Shocked, because all three of his former classmates had had one hell of a makeover since the last time he'd seen them, but assured.
When it had been revealed that they'd be playing modified children's games he'd been pissed - they weren't kids, what the hell? - but if anything that'd just made him more smug. There was no way they could lose now! All three genin of Team 8 were practically made for this!
Which was why Kiba was so annoyed when, an hour and a half later, they still hadn't found Team 7.
It had taken over thirty minutes to find Team 10, which he chalked up to Shikamaru using enough of his brain to find a good place to nap. He'd figured they'd be the hard ones to find and Shino and Hinata had agreed, which was why they'd searched for them first.
But now they'd been essentially running around in circles and still nothing!
"I don't get it!" Kiba growled - literally, the longer this was taking the more animalistic he was feeling. "How the hell are they doing this? It's impossible! We're talking about Naruto here!"
Hinata looked like she desperately wanted to argue but even with whatever weird crush she had going on even she had to admit that he was right. In the end she did nothing more than duck her head in a silent nod.
"I agree," Shino's usual monotone had a distinctly frustrated edge to it. "Why? Because Naruto has proven himself to be extremely loud at all times."
"Did they leave the training grounds? That weird scarecrow guy said it was against the rules!"
"I-I'm sure if they did, Kurenai-sensei w-would've told us." Hinata glanced around, the veins around her eyes bulging as she activated her Kekkei Genkai. Like all the times she'd tried before, she deactivated it a moment later with a silent shake of her head. Still nothing.
Shino's bugs hadn't found anything either, even though he had them scouting around. Smell could be blocked pretty easily, Kiba and Akamaru both knew that thanks to their Clan training, but there was usually something, if only whiffs too subtle to do much with.
But no, there was absolutely nothing. He just didn't understand. How were they blocking all three of them? How were they staying silent enough for so long that they couldn't be found? How the hell -
"And that's time!" The cheerful voice of Team 7's weirdo of a sensei called out and Kiba cursed loudly, barely restraining himself from lashing out at a nearby bush. The walk back to the clearing they'd started in was a silent one. When they arrived, all three teachers were standing to one side while Team 10 lounged on the other but there was still no sign of Naruto, Sakura or the Uchiha bastard. "Alright, my clever little genin! Time to come out now!"
Between one blink and the next, three more bodies appeared within the clearing. Kiba was just glad he wasn't the only one to flinch.
"That was so boring!" Naruto whined immediately but didn't even bother to hide the grin stretching wide across his whiskered face.
"Hn."
"It was good practice, though! Patience is one thing we all tend to lack if we're not hyper-focused on something."
"Still, that was a challenge!"
"How - " Kiba spluttered for a second. Because they hadn't landed in the clearing. They hadn't arrived. They'd already been there. And it looked like no one, not even their sensei, had realized until they'd shown themselves. Though, if he looked closer, he realized scarecrow-sensei didn't even look surprised. "How the hell did you do that?"
"That would be because of these!" Naruto lifted his arm with a flourish, showing off what looked like a seal on a small square of thick paper. "My newest masterpiece!"
"But - But there's no way! There's ways around seals like that! And besides, Hinata couldn't find you either! No way were you blocking us out!"
"Well, duh, only an idiot would try to block the Byakugan instead of finding a way around it. And nothing is more obvious than the absence of something. I'm smarter than that, dattebayo!"
"Just say it plainly, idiot. They're not going to understand otherwise," the Uchiha sighed, rolling his eyes and turning away, seemingly done with the whole conversation. If Kiba wasn't so interested in answers to his questions he'd be taking way more offense to that.
Still, priorities. If he left this clearing without knowing what exactly Naruto had done, his mom would kick the shit out of him and he wouldn't even be able to blame her.
"Shut up, Teme, I was getting to it!" Naruto huffed before focusing back on them and taking on a tone Kiba had never heard from the other boy before. It sounded like he was... trying to teach them? What the hell? " Like I said, the absence of something is obvious. If we'd blocked everything - smell, sight, sound, chakra - you'd have noticed pretty quickly there was a... hole, I guess. A nothingness. So, instead, I came up with this little beauty!"
The seal was displayed again with an even more extravagant flourish, though the blond didn't hold it still long enough for Kiba to pick out more than a few spirals and scribbles. Not like he'd be able to make heads or tails of it anyway. Fuuinjutsu had never been one of his interests - far too boring.
"Instead of blocking, it blends and covers! Instead of three humans, you might as well have been looking for three trees! Because that's what we would have seemed like to you while we were wearing these."
"That... seems highly improbable," Team 10's sensei cut in, seeming stunned and unsure.
Naruto just shrugged at him, unconcerned with the doubt. "It worked, so obviously not. I wasn't sure it would at first but, eh. They didn't turn us into actual trees so I was gonna take it as a win either way."
"That was an option?!"
"What the hell, Dobe?!"
"Don't be such babies! We're all fine! It's fine!"
The scarecrow-sensei sighed, his one visible eye crinkling up into a smile as the three quickly devolved into a three-way brawl, seemingly forgetting about the rest of them. "Aren't they just the cutest little genin you've ever seen? So violent!"
The fighting was actually probably the most normal thing Team 7 had done this entire afternoon. And they weren't even doing it maliciously! Even from here he could see the way they were all grinning - even Sasuke! Kiba hadn't even known that the bastard's face could do that!
"That doesn't explain how it could hide them from the Byakugan," Kurenai-sensei cut in when it became obvious that no one else was going to. Her eyes flicked over to Hinata's hunched form for a moment. "And that's kind of important to know."
Naruto paused, barely reacting as Sakura pinned him in a headlock while Sasuke grabbed hold of his arms. "Oh, well, I can't tell you specifics but basically everything alive has a chakra signature and so I just made ours resemble a tree's? It wasn't too difficult, really, you just have to know what you're mimicking."
"B-But - " Hinata squeaked when Naruto's eyes landed on her, her face becoming an alarming shade of red, and Kiba was sure that she'd either stop or pass out on the spot. He couldn't help but be proud when she barreled on instead. "B-But you'd h-have to know exactly w-what they l-looked like. Th-The chakra s-systems. I w-would've been able t-to t-tell fake ones."
"But I do?" Naruto seemed to be trying to tilt his head, but Sakura's continued grip on his neck made that impossible. How was he still talking like they were all sitting down for tea and not like his teammates had him pinned down tight? "Know what they look like. Obviously. Otherwise I wouldn't have been able to trick you."
"I think she means how, Naruto," Sakura explained as she finally released her hold, seeming to give up since she wasn't getting the response she wanted. "She's worried because you found a work-around for her Kekkei Genkai. I know you don't want them to know what the seal is, specifically, but it'd be a good idea to at least tell them how."
"Oh! Well, that's because of my own Kekkei Genkai! Kinda? Except it's not really? That's the best way to explain it, though. I can sense chakra, too! Mapping it is a little more difficult but I'm getting better, especially when Teme here helps me with it!"
"Tch."
"Uzumaki have always been known for being chakra powerhouses but we also tend to be pretty chakra sensitive, too," he went on cheerfully, barreling right over his teammate's scoffing. "It doesn't always manifest in the same way and it can take a bit of an outside nudge to... 'awaken' the ability, I guess, which is why I sucked so bad with it before I got some decent training."
"So, you're saying anyone with a good sensing ability and a bit of imagination could make a work-around to one of Konoha's oldest Kekkei Genkai?" Asuma demanded, carefree slouch nowhere to be found, and the tension in the clearing practically skyrocketed. Almost everyone present was either a Clan kid or a high ranking shinobi and even Kiba wasn't arrogant enough to dismiss a threat like this.
But Naruto just continued to blink at them with that stupid, blank look of confusion on his face, like he couldn't understand why they were all freaking out about this. Kiba knew the guy was an idiot but this was ridiculous! Surely, he could see why this might be a bit of a concern if it got into enemy hands?
"I mean, that plus a completely instinctual grasp on master level fuuinjutsu? I'm pretty sure not even the Sanin would, though. They're good, master level for sure, but they don't have that extra... extra that's needed to really make great seals. So, like, keep the weakness in mind, I guess, but it shouldn't be an issue on a level like these seals."
How he managed to say all that so matter-of-factly, without even a hint of his usual over-the-top boasting, Kiba couldn't even begin to say. Didn't mean it didn't still piss him off, though. "Are you claiming to be better than the Sanin? You? Dead Last Naruto?"
"In this, yes," there was a sudden chill to his voice, an edge Kiba recognized from whenever his clan was insulted for any reason. "I'm an Uzumaki. Fuuinjutsu is literally in my blood." And then he shrugged, carefree once more. "But I'm willing to submit the blueprints to the Hokage if it'd make you feel better."
Gods, Kiba despaired, where the fuck did normal go?
.
.
"I think that was a resounding success!" Sakura cheered as they made their way, tired and dirty, through the streets. The sun had begun it's decent awhile ago and everything was bathed in burning orange, shadows growing deeper by the minutes as lights slowly flickered on. It had become such a common sight, the four of them marching onwards, covered in grime from head to toe, long after any other sane genin would have called it quits, that the crowd just bustled on around them now. Hell, most weren't even sparing Naruto a glance let alone a glare.
Progress.
"You mean the fact that literally every single one of them looked like they were having an aneurism as we left?" Kakashi-sensei asked dryly, nose buried in his book. When they'd revealed that they hadn't actually destroyed his book (this time) the man had gotten uncomfortably close to breaking down into tears.
"It builds character."
"Some people just want to watch the world burn," Sasuke told Kakashi solemnly, doing an impressive job of keeping a blank face as his fellow genin broke down in to hysterics at the delivery.
"Well, it got their attention, didn't it?" Naruto asked once he'd calmed down enough. "They're gonna think about how good we've gotten. And they're gonna wanna catch up. That's what this whole thing was supposed to be for, right?"
"Yes, fine," Kakashi-sensei agreed with a sigh. "A resounding success it is."
.
.
A/N: Okay wow hi
It has been... awhile lmao sorry about that. Saying that life has been hectic would be an understatement, as I'm sure all of you know. This year has been insane.
I've had a bunch of this written for pretty much months now and it almost got to the point where I just said "fuck it" and posted half of it just to get it out. But inspiration finally struck tonight and I just went with it. It probably sucks and you can probably tell exactly where I picked up from but whatever. It is what it is and I'm tired of looking at it. I'm throwing it into the void and moving on.
Next chapter I'll try to start the Wave Arc. No promises on when that will be but if the pattern holds it probably won't be soon. Sorry.
Anyway, I hope you're all doing good and staying safe! And I hope me posted this gave y'all a little bit of positivity. Thanks for reading!