Sunlight is just beginning to trickle over the hills when he sets off for the training ground the next morning. The buildings cast long shadows which keep the grass damp with dew, and he's tempted to walk in a zigzag pattern just to avoid the damp and the irritating, itchy feeling of wet grass sliding against his shins. He doesn't though, because how would he ever explain that?
There are people waiting ahead of him, but his attention is immediately drawn behind them, to what looms above the training ground. Everything else fades into the background - nothing else exists for that moment - as he gazes in awe.
Trees.
Giant trees, smaller trees, even mid sized trees.
They stare impassively down at him, tingling the chakra at the edge of his senses with a feeling of deep, interminable knowledge. For the first time he wonders why Root trains underground, when there are places like this on the surface. Master Danzo had had trees brought underground for him to work with, but he's never really been able to test his skills properly. Perhaps that's about to change.
He remembers why he's here when he realizes that one of the figures in front of him is waving in his direction. When he approaches, he sees that it's a man and a woman, standing by a wooden fence.
"Morning," the man greets him. "I'm Haruto, this is Mai. Nice to meet you. You must be our new team member, Kakashi mentioned you'd be joining us today."
"Yes," he agrees.
"Kakashi's late, of course. He's always late," Haruto tells him cheerfully, seemingly unbothered by the fact that his team captain is apparently unable to tell time. "There's no point in turning up early, you'll just end up wasting your time. Of course, you don't want to be late either, because he's got a way of turning up exactly when you think he won't. I have no idea how he does it. This one time, I had stopped to grab coffee, and..."
He continues to relate the tale for several minutes, though it seems to contain nothing of value aside from the fact that their captain is apparently psychic. The woman, meanwhile, is leaning against a fence post and staring at the ground by her feet. She barely acknowledges Haruto, but gives 17201 a curious look, and when Haruto pauses for breath she takes the opportunity to ask.
"So what's your name, then?"
Her voice is low and quiet, but it carries all the same. He scrambles to think for a moment - shit, what had he told Kakashi - before it comes back to him.
"My name is Tenzo," he replies, "but in Root I am 17201."
She's surprised enough to look him in the eye. Even Haruto doesn't seem to know what to say to this. An awkward silence descends among them, though he's not quite sure why. There are other people from Root in Anbu, right? Don't they give out their numbers? Maybe he should stop doing that.
"Maa, all here and getting acquainted? That's good," Kakashi says, startling all of them by appearing from nowhere and acting as if he'd been there all along.
"Let's get started, then." Their captain wanders over to a nearby railing to lean against it. "Tenzo, come here, I want to show you something."
Is he allergic to standing upright, that he has to lean against everything nearby? Master Danzo says a good shinobi should always stand ready to act. Surely that has to slow his reaction time?
"Tenzo!"
He jumps. Right. Tenzo is me. I'm Tenzo. "Sorry, captain."
"Most people are a bit slow on their first day," Haruto says cheerfully from beside him. "Though I remember when I first joined, I was sparring with my captain (not Kakashi then, of course) and I knocked him flat on his back! Remember that, Mai? Oh, you hadn't joined then, had you? That's right. Anyway..."
"Haruto!" Kakashi says. He sounds just a little bit impatient. "Let's go, we don't have all day."
The rest of the morning passes in a blur. Kakashi drills them in exercises for offensive and defensive maneuvers, first using the standard scenarios and then breaking into variations that Tenzo has never seen before. He finds it difficult to keep up, especially when he isn't sure what the correct response is to each situation. A couple of times he has to give up entirely and just react on instinct. He must get it right, though, because Kakashi doesn't rebuke him.
Kakashi doesn't really talk to them at all, in fact, just barks orders and waits for them to get on with it. Tenzo's used to a more explicit method, where mistakes are remarked on immediately and repeated mistakes are punished - severely. But maybe this is a grace period - it is the first day, after all. He resolves to work twice as hard tomorrow.
Staying on his toes all the time helps keep his mind from drifting to darker places. Because whenever Tenzo has time to think, he can't stop himself from glancing around, looking over his shoulder to see if someone's watching him. He knows that yesterday was just his imagination - it would hardly be the first time - but that feeling of dread is just too strong to shake.
At midday they break for lunch and Haruto leads them all to a ramen stand. Tenzo remembers eating at one once a long time ago, before he was first brought into Root and after… well. The aromatic scent of noodles and meat brings back more good memories than bad.
"My treat," Haruto says as they sit down. "As a welcome for our new comrade." He raises his miso in Tenzo's general direction. The other two mimic him, and Tenzo clutches his own bowl awkwardly, not sure what to do with it. They complete the strange ritual by taking a drink, which is at least something Tenzo can copy.
The afternoon proceeds in a similar manner to the morning. There are other Anbu around them training as well, though everyone keeps a healthy distance. The ground they're using is on the edge of the training area, half hidden from the Anbu barracks by the tall trees. Every now and then, Tenzo glances up at those scarred, battle-hardened trunks and feels chakra spark in both hands with muted anticipation.
When the sun has dipped low enough that the forest's shadows reach all the way across the field, Kakashi calls a halt. Tenzo takes a minute to catch his breath and wonders again, with more exhausted frustration this time, why Root trains underground. There's so much more room up here and it takes so much more energy to cover it all. It really doesn't prepare you very well.
"Tenzo!"
He glances up to see Kakashi approaching. "Yes, captain?"
"Very good," Kakashi grins. "I only had to call you twice that time."
So he's still getting the hang of this name thing. This is a lot of new things to take in for one day.
"Sorry, captain."
Kakashi waves one hand in a manner which could either mean he's annoyed or he doesn't care. Tenzo hasn't quite figured that out yet. "Never mind. We need to talk about something."
He glances around, but Mai and Haruto have already left and it's just them standing in the field. No one else is close enough to hear what they're saying.
"I'm told you have a unique ability," Kakashi says carefully, and for all he's slouching over Tenzo suddenly gets the feeling that it wouldn't slow him down at all. "A combination of earth and water chakra that allows you to control wood."
"That's right," he says, not really sure where Kakashi's going with this.
"It was a secret in Root, I suppose. Was anyone aware of it, apart from Danzo?"
He shakes his head. "No, captain."
"Are you planning to do the same in Anbu?"
"Yes, captain." He might be new, but at least he knows better than that. Master Danzo was specific when he said that the Mokuton should be a closely guarded secret from everyone, even teammates. He's surprised that Kakashi knows, actually.
Kakashi is still watching him with that cold intensity, as if he's trying to determine whether or not Tenzo is his enemy. "I see. I wonder how you plan to keep that kind of secret from the people fighting next to you."
Tenzo stares back at him dumbly, wondering if this is a threat or a command. If Kakashi orders him to reveal the Mokuton to the rest of the team, in direct conflict to Master Danzo, what is he supposed to do? Is this some kind of test?
After a moment Kakashi sighs and then drops one hand onto his shoulder. Tenzo manages to stop himself from flinching, but it's a close thing. Root instructors don't touch without inflicting pain, and true shinobi don't flinch from it. So he waits for the inevitable sting from Kakashi's fingers and hopes it will be lightning and not fire, because burns take so much longer to heal.
Nothing happens.
"Think about it," Kakashi says, and steps away.
Tenzo blinks and reaches up to touch his shoulder, tapping it lightly at first, and then harder. It still doesn't hurt.
"I assume you haven't tried working with a real forest before," his captain calls from the other side of the field, where he's perched in the branches of a small oak tree. "Why don't you try it out?"
He has been waiting all day for this, after all. If Kakashi wants to play mind games, so be it.
It turns out that trying to control multiple trees is a lot harder than one at a time (who'd have thought?), and three days later he hasn't made much progress. Tenzo tries to practice, he really does, but between his Anbu duties, and only being able to use his Mokuton when no one else is around to see it, and not reshaping the forest - because people tend to notice when trees they've known their whole lives suddenly change shape - he isn't getting very far.
Fortunately, nobody seems too concerned with this. Kakashi hasn't mentioned it since that first day, and he hasn't heard anything from Master Danzo yet either, though he's sure it's just a matter of time. Nobody else cares because, well, nobody else knows.
So he counts his lucky stars for the reprieve, and focuses on doing his job in Anbu.
Mostly this seems to involve various kinds of guard duty. The target changes, but their system doesn't: they work in pairs, switching out every six hours. Tenzo's partner is always Kakashi, and he doesn't talk much (for which Tenzo is grateful - he isn't sure he'd be able to handle Haruto for more than one shift). Six hours on and six off leaves just enough to eat, sleep and train, so the time goes pretty quickly.
Guard duty is pretty much the staple of Anbu life - in fact it's pretty much the staple of life as a ninja in general, especially now that the wars are mostly over - and Tenzo had already expected to spend most of his time doing it. In Root they were prepared to guard all kinds of different targets, ranging from the Hokage himself (they would practice this using Master Danzo as a stand in) to merchant convoys to buildings to entire towns. He had thought himself prepared for anything, which is why he is surprised when, on the third day, they're given a completely different kind of target: a 5 year-old boy.
Haruto groans when they're told, and spends the next five minutes complaining that this mission is both (somehow) 'really mind-numbingly boring' and 'way too much work'. Mai doesn't say anything, but her lips tighten in a way that might suggest annoyance, if Tenzo knew her better. Kakashi tells them all to be quiet and get on with the job, even though only one of them is actually saying anything.
Tenzo isn't sure how much guarding this child can possibly need, seeing as how he's too young even for Root and not living inside any kind of test tube. The boy does live in some kind of communal home that is inhabited by numerous other children. Tenzo likes it - there's food and other children and it's above ground. Is this how children normally grow up? It seems nice, and there are no needles involved, at any rate. He lifts a hand to press over the back of his neck subconsciously.
The child - Tenzo hasn't heard his name mentioned yet, and at this point he doesn't want to ask: it seems like he's just supposed to know, and yet he has the strangest feeling that people just don't want to say it - the child apparently doesn't want to spend time with his housemates. So for the first few hours he and Kakashi trail the boy all over the village: skipping stones over the river, climbing the trees outside one of the clan compounds, then into the marketplace. He's easy to follow: his bright orange jumpsuit stands out wherever he goes, but no one seems to pay any attention to him. When he takes fruit from one of the stalls behind the merchant's back, Tenzo expects Kakashi to do something (that is stealing, right? Stealing is still a thing above ground?) but maybe children are allowed to do this, because his captain does nothing. Doesn't even react, in fact, which leaves Tenzo with an ever growing list of questions and no one to ask about them.
The kid doesn't stay very long in the marketplace, but he does slip a couple of roughly painted explosive tags onto some barrels of sake before he leaves. Tenzo watches in disbelief, sure that this time, surely, Kakashi will do something. But he just follows the boy across the rooftops, leaving Tenzo to scramble after him, even as the tags go off below them and cries of shock echo up from people who are no doubt now soaked in sticky rice wine.
At this point Tenzo is wondering if maybe their job isn't to protect the boy, but to protect the village from him. Especially when he returns to the compound building from earlier in the morning - which was apparently a scouting mission since the kid is now painstakingly placing more tags (and not all of these are explosive, so Tenzo is starting to worry about what these ones will do) along the underside of the windows.
Kakashi is ignoring all of his pointed glances, so Tenzo fidgets in place until the boy moves on to some oil barrels stacked along the fence surrounding the courtyard. This is not good. An oil fire could set the whole village ablaze.
Tenzo leans over cautiously. "Captain..?"
After a moment, Kakashi lets out a long suffering sigh. "Wait here," he says softly, reluctantly pushing himself up. "Don't lose him."
He slides gracefully down the hidden side of the roof and vanishes into the wooden houses lining the street. Tenzo watches him go, unsure what his captain is planning to do, and wondering if he is expected to do something should this mini pyromaniac decide to set off his fire hazard before Kakashi gets back.
For long, tense minutes he watches as tags are carefully attached to each barrel, and then for a second - just for one second - he turns away to see if Kakashi is finally coming back. But the street is empty. And, when he turns back, so is the courtyard.
Fuck.
Where is the boy? Tenzo frantically scans the area, praying that he is just temporarily concealed by a barrel. Or a plant. Or a shadow.
No such luck. He tries again, only this time searching for a chakra signature. For a five-year-old, the boy has an impressive chakra signature. But he can't sense that, either. How can a child - even a shinobi child - disappear like that?
Tenzo feels panic rising hot and frantic, and struggles to clamp down on it. No one can think while they're panicking, he needs to stay calm; but Kakashi's only order was 'don't lose him' and oh look, he's done exactly that. Root isn't going to take him back. If he can't survive in Anbu then they'll send him back to… back to the cave where…
He grips the roof tiles with both hands and tries to get his breathing under control. One hand instinctively rises to cover the back of his neck.
Think, Tenzo, think. Why can't you feel his chakra? He can't have gone that far.
The sound of many voices carries, jumbled and indistinct, from the marketplace.
If it was surrounded by other chakra…
He leaps down from the roof and hurries towards the closest group of people, ducking around walls and trees and buildings and just generally trying to keep out of sight while at the same time looking everywhere for a glimpse of that distinctive orange jumpsuit.
And there he is! Just for a moment, before he disappears through one of the low windows of a large building. He pulls it shut behind him, but there are a lot of other windows along the building's outer wall.
Tenzo hurries towards it, but doesn't pay attention when he steps out of the shadows and almost collides with two people who come around the corner at that moment. He manages to get out of the way in time, but bumps into an older woman walking the other way. Apologising hastily while walking backwards, he only just avoids a second collision with someone else.
"Careful," A voice says next to him. "Didn't your mother ever tell you to look both ways before crossing the street?"
"No," Tenzo replies automatically, turning to look at the speaker. A slim boy with curly black hair - it takes him a minute, but Tenzo recognizes him from that first day in Anbu. The one he'd accidentally struck with a hardened fist. Tenzo hopes he isn't holding a grudge over that. The boy looks cheerful enough, but he's spent too much time in Root to be trusting of appearances.
"Really?" The boy asks surprised, and Tenzo is tempted to ask what he means, but his target is getting away again and there isn't time for this. At least he can get some information before rushing in blind.
"What building is this?"
"This one?" The boy's eyes follow the direction his hand indicates. "Uh, I've never been in there myself, but my friend told me it's a weapons storehouse."
The village has a weapons storehouse with open windows and no guards? What is wrong with these people?
"Are there guards inside?"
"I… don't know? Why, are you planning to rob it?"
"My target's inside."
Tenzo doesn't wait for a reply. He has all the information he needs, and dashes towards the building. A startled yell follows him.
"Wait, what target?!"
There's no time to lose now. He doesn't bother answering, just goes straight for the open window next to the one he saw the kid enter. He peers into the room inside, and on finding it empty, shimmies inside and drops soundlessly to the floor. There aren't any weapons in the room, which is a little strange. In fact, the room is completely empty.
His target isn't here, but there's only one door leading out of the room. It opens into a wooden corridor, but there's no one here either, which is pretty lax security for a weapons' storehouse in Tenzo's opinion.
There are a few doors in the corridor, but only one of them has sound coming from behind it. It's the door furthest from him, and he runs toward it with single-minded determination, never stopping to think about the fact that he is really only supposed to be watching, that he isn't supposed to reveal his presence to the target at all. The only thing on his mind right now is that place, and the needles, and the slow drip, drip, drip of water. There's no way he's going back there.
So he tears the door open and is three steps inside before he looks around and sees where he is. And who else is there. Because the kid with the orange jumpsuit is nowhere in sight, but there sure are a lot of other people. Important looking people, seated around a low table, with way too much paperwork for this not to be a secret meeting of some kind. All of them are staring at him, with mixed degrees of shock, horror and indignation.
An older man, seated at the head of the table, rises slowly to his feet. Slow fury is gathering in his face. Tenzo thinks he looks a little like Master Danzo, and takes a deep breath to stop himself from passing out.
"And who do you think you are, young man?"
#####
Inside Anbu headquarters, Kakashi strolls into a large room, both hands casually stuffed in his pockets. He's supposed to be finding the Hokage, to tell him that Naruto is up to his old tricks again, but a summons like this is not one he can ignore.
There's a man and a woman inside, both of them old and wizened in the way that implies strength and iron will, but not necessarily wisdom. They are the leaders of Anbu, and Kakashi deliberately doesn't bow, but he does lower his eyes and wait for them to speak first. He may not be their biggest fans, but it's not like they're Danzo Shimura, after all. They deserve some respect.
Neither of them look impressed by his subtle concession. The woman speaks first.
"Well, Hatake. You have a new team member, correct? How is he working out?"
"As well as can be expected, considering it's only been a few days," Kakashi replies, wondering how much they know and if the Hokage knows they know it. He's certainly not about to volunteer anything.
"He comes from Root, does he not?" The man asks. "He is competent, then?"
"Yes," he agrees. What the hell is this all about?
"Then you would consider taking on another new member?"
Kakashi freezes. Another new member? And they're asking him to consider it, which means that he can refuse. In fact, they're expecting him to refuse, even want him to refuse it, because otherwise this would have been an order.
"Who would this person be?" he asks cautiously.
The woman sighs, tapping her fingertips together deliberately. "You have perhaps heard that we recently accepted an… Uchiha... into the ranks of Anbu. Very few of our teams are able to accept such a shinobi. We thought that, given your own… association… with that clan, that you might consider it."
Kakashi is torn between admiration of how much disdain she manages to convey without any inflection in her voice at all, and thinking that the Uchiha would probably prefer any scion of their clan to leave Anbu rather than be placed under the command of Sharingan Kakashi.
Or maybe that's the plan.
Either way, there seems no good outcome here. He already has his own personal headache - who requires a lot of his time - and adding another potentially unstable element to an already precarious situation is asking for trouble. He has no idea how Tenzo would react to an Uchiha, but he doesn't think it will be good. Haruto will ask for a transfer. Mai - actually Mai won't care. Probably. Maybe. Anyway, why risk it?
So he'll decline politely, and stay well clear of whatever political quagmire is going on here.
Or he's about to. But they're interrupted.
The shinobi who bursts through the door bows quickly to the leaders, but addresses Kakashi.
"Excuse me, sir, but they need you right away. At the Hyuga compound, sir."
"Why?" Kakashi asks, in no hurry to throw himself into the mouth of the beast (or in this case, the Hyuga).
The shinobi tells him.
"Tenzo did what?!"
Half an hour later, Kakashi has pacified the head of the Hyuga clan by assuring him that Anbu is definitely, 100% not spying on his clan, talked down a bunch of angry shinobi who are more than eager to come to blows, and dealt with numerous other complaints by completely ignoring them.
He's anxious to get away and find out what exactly happened, and he's also not keen on leaving Tenzo alone with the rest of the team for any length of time - partly for their safety but also because Haruto's long winded lectures are not going to help anyone, much less this socially retarded boy. And what was Tenzo thinking, in the first place, barging into the Hyuga compound's meeting room like that? Kakashi's pretty sure he said "stay there" and wasn't gone for more than a few minutes.
He's also burningly aware that he should never have left the kid alone in the first place. No matter how much the Hokage wants to test his loyalties.
When he finally escapes, he finds the rest of the team waiting for him outside the compound. He can hear Haruto's voice before he sees them, half way through some edifying story about a ninja who couldn't track a target and was kicked out of Anbu to become a civilian. Tenzo is staring at the ground, countenance wooden, but Mai glares at him when he approaches. It's her way of saying 'where the hell have you been' and 'what took you so long'.
Kakashi grimaces at her in silent apology and interrupts Haruto without compunction. "You two, dismissed. Tenzo, with me."
Mai and Haruto vanish without argument. Tenzo follows him silently, head down and eyes hidden.
Kakashi's house isn't far, and Tenzo looks a little startled when he unlocks the door, pausing first to undo the wards guarding it. He waves the kid inside; Tenzo is hesitant, but does what he's told without complaint.
Once inside, Kakashi slumps onto his couch and gestures for Tenzo to sit. He has to repeat the gesture several times before the kid realizes what he means and gingerly perches himself on a wooden chair next to the dusty kitchen table.
"So." Kakashi taps his fingers along the back of the couch. "How about you tell me what happened?"
The kid swallows, glances up at him for a second and then firmly fixes his gaze back to the floor. "I interrupted a clan meeting."
"So I heard," Kakashi says wryly. "I meant, why? I thought I told you to stay put?"
"You did, captain. I made a mistake."
"Okay. I was really hoping to get some more details than that, you know."
Tenzo's eyes dart up to meet his again for a second. "Captain?"
Kakashi sighs. Is this some kind of anti-interrogation training that Root has? "What happened after I left?"
The kid hesitates. "I was watching the target, like you said captain, but he had explosive tags and I wasn't sure… that is… I turned to see where you were, and when I looked back… he wasn't there."
"And then?" Kakashi prompts.
"And then, I was looking for him, and I met… I mean… I saw him go through the windows of that building, so I followed him."
"Why did you go into the building? Why not wait for him to come out?"
"I thought… I thought it was empty."
Kakashi frowns in confusion. "Why did you think it was empty?"
"I thought it was a storehouse."
Why would he think that? Did someone tell him that? And who? "Why did you think it was a storehouse?"
Tenzo swallows again. "I just thought it was."
They go back and forth a few more times before Kakashi gives up. It doesn't look like Tenzo was actively spying for Danzo. It does look like he's covering for someone, but whether that someone was malicious or not he can't tell. Clearly it's going to take more time before the kid will trust him.
Probably because he's scared. Kakashi hates the way the kid can't even look at him, like he's waiting for the blow to fall. The same way he flinches just the tiniest bit whenever Kakashi (or anyone else) gets close, or goes to touch him. Kakashi hates Root. He hates them a lot.
There's no point in questioning the kid further. It's just a pointless form of torture for both of them. Kakashi waves a hand in dismissal.
"Go on, then. Go home, get some rest. I'll see you tomorrow."
Tenzo looks up then, like he can't believe his ears. Kakashi isn't sure if he'd expected physical punishment or to be sent back to Root. Maybe to him they're the same thing. "Captain?"
"It's fine. You're not in trouble." He's getting soft. He shouldn't be caring so much about some kid who probably won't be able to overcome whatever programming Danzo hammered into him anyway. "Go on."
Tenzo drops into that horrible Root bow, on one knee with his forehead almost pressed to the floor. "Yes, captain. Thank you."
And then he's gone, which is good because Kakashi really couldn't have looked at that any longer.
He drags himself into the kitchen and picks through his sink for the least dirty cup, filling it with water and taking a deep gulp.
The nausea doesn't go away. Neither does the guilt.
#####
Safely back in his Anbu barrack room, Tenzo locks the door, grows an extra two doors on the inside of it just to be safe, and curls up in a ball on his bed. He closes his eyes and wills his hands to stop trembling, even as he curls one over the back of his neck. It doesn't work.
How could he have been so stupid? Lost his head so completely during a mission, embarrassed himself - and consequently his team, Kakashi and the rest of Anbu - in front of a group of village elders. Very angry village elders. He still can't believe he's still here, that Kakashi has given him a second chance. Maybe he'll change his mind.
Either way, Tenzo has already used up any good will he might have had. One more mistake and this will all be over.
Drip, drip, drip… The water sounds as clear in his memory as it had then.
He takes a deep breath and rolls over onto his back, rubbing his eyes and staring up at the ceiling. Who was that boy, anyway, the boy with the curly dark hair? And what does he have against Tenzo specifically, to give him such bad information? It's almost as if he'd set Tenzo up for this exact situation, deliberately. Maybe he's still angry about their first meeting, when Tenzo struck him. Nevermind that it was an accident, or that he wasn't even hurt.
But so what if he is still angry about it? Tenzo should have known better than to trust anyone - hasn't Root and Master Danzo hammered that into him already? From now on, he won't let his guard down again. He will rely only on himself.
At least he knew enough not to mention that whole incident. There's nothing Master Danzo hates more than soldiers blaming other people for their mistakes.
And he will work twice as hard to make up for this. He will not be sent away. He will not be sent back.
So the next morning, Tenzo gets up extra early. He hurls himself through his morning routine - clothes, shower, food - then practically runs out the door and down to the training fields. Hardly anyone is here at this hour - in fact, not even the sun has put in an appearance yet. The village is silent, while the woods are just beginning to stir with those pre-dawn flutterings as birds start chirping and unseen animals rustle in the bushes.
Another time, Tenzo would have been distracted by the almost other-wordly calm. Today he puts it out of his mind, and runs himself through a punishing routine that includes every training regimen he can remember.
By the time he's done, he's exhausted and sweating, and he decides he can take a moment to watch the sun finish rising over the forest. The rest of his team isn't here yet - they won't be here for a while. He has time.
He's staring out over the forest, idly watching the wind blow trails through the leaves and tuning out the sounds behind him from the few Anbu who are actually up at this time of the morning, when he's startled by a hand suddenly gripping his arm.
Tenzo reacts instinctively, seizing the offending wrist before it can do any damage, hooks one leg around the fence post for support and twists his body to send the culprit flying over his hip and crashing to the ground. He does it without losing his balance too, which he's rather proud of.
It feels like deja vu when it's that same boy sprawled on the ground in front of him, dark curls tangled around his face. He doesn't bother getting up either, just rolls onto his back and glares up at Tenzo aggrievedly. Is he here to gloat, Tenzo wonders, or to find out if his plan had worked?
"Do you assault everyone you meet, or is it just me?"
"Only the people who try sneaking up behind me," Tenzo says. Why he thinks that would be a good idea to try on a shinobi is beyond him.
"I called out to you!"
"I didn't hear anyone calling me."
The boy grins, propping himself up on his elbows. "Well I don't know your name."
"How can you call out to me if you don't know my name?"
Tenzo sees him roll his eyes impatiently. "I called out… to you… just not by name."
"Then how am I supposed to know it's me you're talking to?"
"I was right behind you!"
They glare at each other for a moment, and then the boy huffs and pushes himself into a sitting position.
"I'm Shisui."
"Okay." Tenzo files the name away for future reference. Shisui stares up at him expectantly.
"So are you going to tell me your name or not?"
"It's Tenzo," he says, pleased that he feels no hesitation this time.
Shisui wrinkles his nose. "Just 'Tenzo'?"
Tenzo's glare comes back in full force, aimed at boring a hole through the other boy's skull. He's discovered recently that people tend to get nervous and jittery when he glares at them, but it seems to have no effect on Shisui. Typical.
"Do you have a problem with my name?" Tenzo demands icily.
Shisui raises an eyebrow. "No… do you have a problem with it?"
"Why would I have a problem with it? It's my name!"
"Exactly," Shisui says matter-of-factly, as if it made all the sense in the world. "If anyone was going to have a problem with it, wouldn't it be you?"
"No it wouldn't!" Tenzo retorts. "You're the one who… who..."
"...who what?" Shisui laughs at him, and Tenzo can feel his face flushing with mortification. What's wrong with this boy? There were people who made fun of him before, back in Root, but no one's ever been this direct about it.
"..Good morning," A voice says behind him, and Tenzo hastily leaps from the fence post to face his captain, who looks a little perplexed. He can hear Shisui scramble up off the grass to his feet.
"Captain." Of all the days to be early.
Kakashi looks from him to Shisui, who is still covered in grass, and back again. "I didn't know you two knew each other."
Tenzo doesn't know what to say to that, which seems to happen a lot with Kakashi. Fortunately, Shisui has no such trouble.
"We joined Anbu on the same day," he replies cheerfully, hopping over the fence to stand next to them.
"Hmmm." Kakashi looks at him consideringly. "Shisui, right? Uchiha Shisui. Did they assign you a team, then?"
"Not yet, sir."
Kakashi hums again, and for a few moments actually appears lost in thought. Shisui darts a confused glance at Tenzo, who only just stops himself from shrugging in reply. He has no idea what's going on.
"Speaking of…" Shisui says after a moment, "I really should be going..."
He backs away slowly until Kakashi comes out of whatever trance he'd been in and waves a hand in farewell. Shisui grins and takes off across the field.
"Nice to see you, Tenzo!" he calls back over his shoulder.
And what does that mean, Tenzo wonders grimly, watching him go and trying to think of the worst possible thing Shisui could have taken out of their interaction. He didn't even mention that clan - the Hyuga. Or maybe Kakashi turned up before he got a chance.
Tenzo glances up cautiously at his captain, half worried that Kakashi will have had second thoughts overnight about keeping him on, but the man only gives him a half smile and gestures for Tenzo to join in a spar. Tenzo sighs (quietly).
Why is everything so confusing?
#####
Kakashi creates a shadow clone, sends it off to put his team through their paces, and retreats into the branches of the largest oak tree he can find to do some serious thinking. Propping his legs on a branch and his back against its large and comfortable trunk, he draws a kunai and absently twirls it between his fingers.
He's still recovering from the shock of seeing Tenzo - Tenzo, his monosyllabic, rule obsessed, socially abysmal and constantly paranoid timebomb-just-waiting-to-explode - talking to a boy his own age and laughing. Or at least one of them was laughing. Laughter was definitely involved. Certainly the most animated Kakashi's ever seen him.
He's heard a lot about this Shisui. Different stories, from different sources; but enough, at least, to feel some pity for the boy. He knows a little about suffering for your parents' mistakes, after all.
The team can't be more than four people. Someone would have to leave.
He is not considering this. Not at all.