Kakashi didn't know what he had expected. He sometimes forgets that his smallest (not youngest) student is a Nara.
When Kakashi tried to antagonise his students in an attempt to motivate them after demonstrating the tree walking exercise, the young Nara only glared at him balefully with a sigh and made short work of walking up the tree with a slouch reminiscent of his heritage.
When Kakashi told Naruto and Sasuke that at this rate Shikaoi would be able to become hokage and was stronger than the last Uchiha, his two students only stared at him dubiously.
"That would be too much of a drag," Shikaoi drawled. "Obviously, I don't have as much chakra as an Uchiha or an Uzumaki, so it is easier for me to control my reserves."
"Naruto, you have more chakra than that. And Sasuke, your channeling too much. You just need to gather enough to stick, without splintering the bark. What our dear sensei has neglected to mention in his demonstration is that you need to feel the tree with your chakra, so concentrate," Shikaoi told his teammates. Kakashi noted that something was off with his student.
The boy had a far off look since he had awoken after the fight with the Demon of the hidden mist and Kakashi didn't know what caused it.
Initially, Kakashi had seen his old team's ghosts in his students, but quickly discovered that his initial analysis wasn't as simple as he had thought.
Naruto wasn't Obito, Sasuke wasn't him and Shikaoi wasn't Rin, nor Minato-Sensei.
Sure, Naruto seems to share his personality with Kakashi's late teammate, but there was traces of Rin and Minato in him, if one were to look closer.
The same could be said about Sasuke and Shikaoi, as well.
The last Uchiha wasn't blinded by hatred and revenge as he had initially believed. If anything it seemed that Sasuke believed that there was more behind the massacre, than he had been led to believe.
Shikaoi's influence on his friends was easy to miss, but it was there. Subtle, but just as evident in the way the Nara patiently explained the theory behind the exercise.
No, Shikaoi wasn't his sensei, he wasn't even his father, Shikaku. Shikaoi wasn't anyone, but Shikaoi and Kakashi was starting to realise that he couldn't keep pretending that his team was the same. He couldn't keep lying to himself, so when he told Zabuza about his students, "the best young fighter of the hidden leaf village," and the "number one knuckleheaded ninja" Kakashi proudly patted his pouting student like one of his ninken before stating, "of course you shouldn't forget one of the brightest minds in the hidden leaf. Our very own number one Shikaoi Nara."