Chapter 2: Training
Naruto ran to greet Sakura and Sai, who were already talking quietly together by the trees surrounding the training grounds.
"Oi, Sakura-chan! Sai!" He shouted, still loudly even as he neared them. "Any idea what Captain Yamato and Kakashi-sensei have in mind for our training today?"
"I think Captain Yamato mentioned something about sparring-" Sakura was cut off as Naruto leaped and shouted.
"Alright! I've been looking for a chance to beat your super-strength, Sakura-chan! I've been practicing for this!"
Sai smiled, "It'll be a fun exercise for me to find the pieces of your body scattered throughout the training grounds once Sakura's punch has shredded you, Naruto-kun."
Naruto momentarily shut up and looked both reproachful and confused at Sai, while Sakura snickered behind her hand.
"Looks like you've finally got a handle of your patience training, Naruto. Keeping that mouth closed for so long must be a difficult task, I'm impressed." Yamato came into view, clearly understanding and grateful that he had come in just as the blond ninja's excitement had taken a pause.
Naruto and Sai argued for a while longer about whether Naruto could beat Sakura in a sparring match while Yamato made himself comfortable sitting against his favorite tree (a wide hornbeam maple). Sakura sat near enough to have a conversation, but not so close that it was uncomfortable for either of them.
"Can we start today's training with you instead of waiting for Kakashi-sensei?" She asked quietly, careful not to let Naruto hear her question, knowing that he would pounce on the idea immediately, regardless of whether Yamato had a good reason for waiting.
"I would say yes," he started, "but he seemed distracted when we talked last night and never actually gave me a definitive answer of how we'd be training today."
"I understand," Sakura said, sighing inwardly. "I just wish he'd be on time when he tells us to show up. I could have been working with Tsunade-sama, or gotten the books I keep meaning to find in the library."
"Trust me, I know how you're feeling, but we just have to be patient with him. He doesn't always do this on purpose, I do think that most days he intends to be on time." Yamato's voice was somehow gentle and frustrated at the same time.
"Why does he keep doing it then? To give all of us patience training? It's really unprofessional, despite the fact that he's a legendary shinobi."
"Well, I would say that those are things you should ask him yourself, but he would never give you an honest answer. So, all I'm going to say is that he gets trapped in his own head quite a bit, lost living in the past or wishing for the past, and then the present just gets kind of pushed aside until something so, well, big comes along that it forces him out of the past." Yamato stopped, seeing Sakura attempt to comprehend what he said. He could see she was lost and didn't get it. He really didn't either. So, he laughed to lighten the load a little, "Once you spend three weeks on a surveillance mission alone with him as your partner, you'll understand better. Understand him better. The tardiness is a part of that."
She returned his laugh, "You spent three weeks on a surveillance mission with him?! That must have been rough!"
"Ha! You could say that, it was definitely enlightening to say the least, but he has been possibly my closest friend as well as senpai since then." That was the truth, that mission was near the beginning of his ANBU years, and he and Kakashi had found themselves spending increasingly more time together after that mission ended. It was an odd combination, but somehow the two of them really worked together for a while, as comrades and supportive friends (at least as supportive as two emotionally wrecked and distant young adults could be). Then that incident happened…. Yamato shook himself to stop his mind from going there, and joined Sakura's gaze back towards Sai and Naruto who were now discussing something from one of the Sai's books about friendship.
"Yo" came a familiar disinterested greeting.
Speak of the devil, thought Yamato.
"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto had seen the poof of smoke and was now running towards the trees. The greeting was soon followed by a boatload of questions about the training for that day.
"Easy Naruto, it's going to be very taxing work," said Kakashi lightly.
"Well, what is it?" seemed to be the general idea behind the questions that came from the young shinobi at exactly the same time.
"I've hidden three scrolls which contain each individuals' objectives for the training. Each of you has to find one scroll and achieve those objectives while you all work together to find Pakkun, who is in hiding with a scroll that you need to return to me unscathed. Captain Yamato will keep an eye on the nine-tails' chakra, I will observe all you and I will know who does not achieve their objectives. Understood?"
Sakura and Sai nodded, while Naruto had another question.
"So, no fighting? Just tracking to find Pakkun? This training is so lame! You've gotten even lazier, Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura's fist hit Naruto over the head.
"You don't even know what's in the objective scrolls, we might still have to fight each other or accomplish training goals specific to someone else! All sensei said was that we have to achieve the objectives, it's not going to be that easy, you idiot!"
"Right as usual, Sakura, there is much more to your individual instructions than simply to work together and find Pakkun." Kakashi said, sounding rather tired despite it still being early in the day. Yamato caught on to the tone quickly, normally Kakashi sounded bored; sounding tired was another story. He waited until the three young shinobi disappeared through the training grounds before confronting him.
"Did something happen this morning?"
"Nothing out of the ordinary," replied Kakashi, flipping open a familiar brilliantly orange book.
Yamato sighed lightly, but otherwise let it go, he might have been reading too much into that tone; maybe Kakashi just hadn't slept well the night before, he did have a history with nightmares, most shinobi do. Yamato leaned more heavily against his maple and looked up toward the sky, but still careful to have a figurative eye on the nine-tails' chakra. Kakashi took a seat on the ground near him and seemed to have his attention trained on his book.
"You haven't turned the page, Senpai," Yamato softly accused, "deny it all you want, something is bothering you."
Kakashi sighed and snapped the book shut, obviously the pretense wasn't working for this man who knew him so well.
"I didn't deny that something was bothering me," he clarified sarcastically. "I just denied that anything had happened this morning, which, as I said, nothing did."
"Fine." Yamato was used to the sarcasm, as well as his beating around the bush. Talking to Kakashi about anything unrelated to missions was often harder than talking to a tree.
"Just not interested in reading Icha Icha today then? Want a comic? There's nothing suggestive, but I think they're still pretty entertaining."
Kakashi just shot him a warning look. Yamato decided to ignore it.
"How about The Very Hungry Caterpillar? Oh wait, if you think about it the right way that one's really dirty. Hmm, so is The Poky Little Puppy… I guess every book is about sex when you put your mind to it. I'm sure you could even find the innuendo in mission briefings. Get it? Imagine going to Tsunade-sama's office to be de-briefed and she actually–"
"Is there something you want, Tenzo?" Kakashi cut his sentence off with a snap. Less because he was worried about Tsunade-sama's reputation and more because he knew how raunchy Yamato could get when he was trying to get under Kakashi's skin.
"I guess I can find Rainbow Fish then, it'll attempt to teach you a lesson about sharing," he continued seemingly without really answering Kakashi's question until he emphasized the last word and met Kakashi's uncovered eye directly.
"That is a story about playing nice so you can have friends, I don't see how it's relevant here."
"It's also about how sharing both physical objects as well as feelings and experiences make you feel better."
There was silence for a few minutes as they stared at each other. A shout from Naruto in the distance caused them both to jump a little and look towards it. Yamato quickly reach out with his senses to make sure the nine-tails was still secure. It was, Naruto probably just got hit by Sakura again.
"Why should I 'feel better'?" Kakashi's response was so quiet, Yamato would have missed it if a breeze had blown by.
Shit, he's back in that place, thought Yamato. That place was a bad place. It was the place that had led to that incident, the one Yamato made himself stop thinking about just a few hours earlier. Maybe it was just that time of year. He sighed and carefully moved closer to Kakashi. The copy ninja didn't make any attempt to move away or discourage the interaction, so Yamato went for a direct approach. He moved to sit on his knees immediately in front of Kakashi, put his hand on the other man's knees, and shoved his own face into Kakashi's line of vision.
"Because you're an incredible person who's training the man that is going to be the hero of this village for many years to come. You can't give up on Naruto. Or Sakura. Or even Sai now, for that matter. You always say it yourself that their generation has to surpass us; how are they ever going to surpass you if you don't teach them how?"
"I never said anything about giving up on them. Why should anyone care about how I feel otherwise?" Angst-y Kakashi wasn't his best look, but it was his safe fallback since it got most people out of his face. Most people, the person currently in his face, however, took that as an invitation to move closer and plant a kiss on the only part of his face that wasn't covered in mask.
"You're a better teacher when you feel good on the inside. Plus, you distract me when you get all depressed like this and then I can't concentrate, which leads to a whole host of other problems I can list for you, if you want, but I know you just want me to shut up and move out of your face so you can wallow or something. That's not happening though, Senpai, unless you want me to go tell Gai that you're dying to continue your rivalry battles with a sit-spin competition."
"You wouldn't," said Kakashi, looking up with, Yamato noted, a certain spirit back in that eye.
"You know I would," Yamato responded. He did draw back from being so close in Kakashi's face though, and resumed a position with his back against the tree. The two were noticeably closer together now though, as their shoulders barely touched. Kakashi never would have admitted it, but that touch made all the difference in the world.