Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

I went back that night less than confident and apologized to Kakashi for being so childish. After accepting my apology he told me that he didn't believe Haku would try to hurt me, and I felt compelled to tell him the other reason I realized I had lost it and left. He listened as I told him about Parker. He was sweet about it, saying comforting things, he also told me he was glad I fought back like I had. We kept talking, probably until dawn as I think I saw the sun shining through the window lightly as I shut my eyes.

A few hours later, when I woke up, Kakashi was gone, but he left me a note to meet for practice. This meant he was "getting lost on the road of life", or visiting Obito. Figuring he would not want to be disturbed I went to the practice fields, meeting up with the team. After about half an hour they began to complain about Kakashi being late, twenty minutes later they noticed I wasn't complaining with them, and asked why.

"Have you guys ever wondered what he does to be late every day?" I asked them.

"Well, yeah," Sakura admitted, obviously curious as to whether I was going to tell them the answer to this great mystery.

I only partially disappointed them. "He's visiting an old friend that he misses quite a bit," I told them, standing, "and because we have already wasted about an hour of practice, what do you say we start without him?" All three of them seemed to like that idea.

"Me and Sakura!" Naruto called out.

Sakura looked at him, then at Sasuke, and whined, "I want to work with Sasuke though!"

"But, but, Sakura, we'll make a great team," the cute, but immature fox child complained. Sasuke just rolled his eyes. For once in my life, I had to empathize with Sasuke. There was one way to solve this.

"If we're going two-on-two," I spoke loudly to drown out Naruto and Sakura's bickering, "who would you like to work with Sasuke?"

He first looked at me like I'd sprouted wings, than grinned as what had been asked sunk in. "You," he said, the grin morphing to a smirk as the other two caught on.

"WHAT?" they shouted, both turning their heads quickly in our directions. "WHY?" (Can you say 'whiplash'?)

"She didn't try to decide for me, so I'll work with the person who gave me a choice," he explained.

Sakura gave me a death glare, to which I shrugged, and Naruto rejoiced at having gotten his way. While they were thus distracted, I looked at Sasuke, who nodded and we vanished into the trees. Our games had begun.

About an hour and a half later, making it two and a half hours after practice was supposed to have started, Kakashi appeared. Of course he appeared right between Naruto and I as we were about to go head-to-head. As we were feet away from clashing, Kakashi's appearance caused us to skid, both of us collapsing on our butts in unison to avoid running into our sensei. He looked between both of us, noted Sasuke and Sakura's whereabouts, and then shrugged.

"Looks like you don't need me to train," he said, and I could tell he was trying not to laugh at me and Naruto for having fallen for his sake. "Keep going then."

'He expects us to just pick up again?' I thought to myself, slightly irritated before I realized that this was just our teacher's nature, and I gave it up. Standing, I looked at him and answered, "You kind of killed it by popping up right in the middle of everything."

"Well, forgive me," he said sarcastically, "and whose idea was it to train alone anyways?"

"Alone meaning without you?" I asked back.

"Exactly," he agreed.

Naruto answered for me, "Hers." He obviously didn't have a problem condemning me.

As I was about to point out that he was dead for doing that, and that I had to live with this man, Sasuke and Sakura appeared. A few seconds after that it was agreed that I was the sole conspirator in the plot to train without Kakashi. Although Sasuke did admit to agreeing to the idea without thinking about how Kakashi would feel about it before said sensei could turn on me. A moment after that Sakura begrudgingly agreed, which was nice even if it was only because Sasuke had said something. I was rather stunned, but glad at Sasuke's out of character support, so I smiled at him in thanks, and he nodded in return. Turning back to Kakashi, I explained we had gotten tired of waiting for him to start practice. He grinned, which I could recognize by that point, and nodded.

"You three are generous to speak for her," he said, for at that point Naruto had spoken out as well, "but I really wasn't going to get mad. It's a good thing you all decided to take the initiative for once." I breathed a sigh of relief, and then he continued. That's rarely a good sign. "I do need to talk to you Caruh, however, in private."

As I walked over to him, I noticed the other three return to doing nothing, just like we had been doing before the unauthorized training began. Without a second glance, Kakashi jumped into the trees a little ways, and I followed him. When he stopped, about fifty meters away from our little clearing, Sarutobi Asuma, sensei of Cell 10, was waiting there.

"I thought you wanted to talk in private," I said, confused.

"When I said 'in private' I meant without Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto because they are not your team anymore, if that is what you want."

"Huh?"

Kakashi's eye told me it was confession time for him, a confession he was not about to like. "I am your guardian and as there were no other teams that needed a third member, I thought it was a good idea to keep you by my side. Also, I had another reason for keeping you around... to keep you out of the Chuunin exams."

He had good reason not to want to say that. "You wanted to keep me out of the Chuunin exams?" I snapped.

"Well, yes, I didn't think you'd be ready, but-"

Asuma cut in, "There is a team that needs a third member now. I need you to join my team, now that the exams are near, to get used to working with Shikamaru and Ino beforehand so they can enter."

That made sense, but Shikamaru and Ino? "What happened to Choji?"

"He's sick."

"Sick? You shouldn't need me for a few weeks and the Chuunin exams if he's just sick."

Apparently Asuma didn't want to admit it, so Kakashi spoke up, "He got severe food poisoning, Caruh. He'll be out for at least a month, possibly a month and a half."

Who'd have thought? Choji, beaten by food? Oh, the irony.

"So, will you?" Asuma asked, sounding nearly desperate. He had a lot of faith in Shikamaru (with good reason) and Ino (…no comment). So, I needed to start training with them as soon as possible so we could work together as a team.

I looked at Kakashi, and decided to let go of my irritation for the second time that day, before turning back to Asuma with my decision. "It would be an honor," I nodded.

He was clearly pleased with that answer, and he motioned for me to follow him as he jumped off.

Kakashi smiled as I moved to jump after him. "You're ready," he said, before returning to his own team. The compliment gave me quite a different feeling from how I had been around him, and I decided to thank him that night, maybe over a nice home cooked dinner. With that on my mind, I followed Asuma, my new sensei, to meet my new team.

I will try to get both chapters of the mission out by tomorrow afternoon so you aren't left stuck with a cliff hanger, but I can't promise!