Kakashi: Teacher

Kakashi let himself into the Hatake compound in the early hours of the morning and made a beeline for the kitchen and the contents of the fridge. The mission had gone smoothly enough and with a bit of luck he would be able to spend a day or two with his wife and children before being sent out again. The village was somewhat shorthanded after Orochimaru's attempted invasion but not as severely as it could have been and nowhere near as badly as it had been after the Kyuubi attack. Indeed, the main problem currently occupying the upper echelons of the village was the Sandaime's steadily declining health.

Sarutobi-sama was in the hospital and weakening with every passing day, poisoned by Orochimaru and the Kusanagi. The hokage slept most of each day to conserve his strength and woke only for a few hours at a time to deal with urgent or highly confidential matters of state. So far he had stamped a large number of high-ranking missions, confirmed the promotions to chunnin of Haruno Sakura, Nara Shikamaru and Uzumaki Naruto on the strength of their performance in the chunnin exams and nominated Senju Tsunade as his successor, provided she could be found within the next month. Kalashi wasn't sure who the hokage's second choice for the position of Godaime was, and wasn't sure he wanted to. He was on the list but really didn't want to have to run the village; caring for his family and team was hard enough and politics was, in the words of Nara Shikaku and his son, troublesome.

More controversially, the Sandaime had negotiated with Ame-chan so as to put Uchiha Itachi in the advisory seat that had belonged to Shimura Danzou and signed off the old war-hawk's execution. The one-armed shinobi's death had been private, overseen by Morino Ibiki, Nara Shikaku in his capacity as Jounin Commander and the ANBU squad leaders, as had his body's destruction and the interment of his ashes, in the interests of having him sink quietly into obscurity. Itachi's position adjacent to the council was justified by his intelligence, experience of recent events outside the village, proficiency as a shinobi and education as former clan heir to the Uchiha, but Kakashi suspected the real reason no-one had managed to protest the so-called honour the kinslayer had been awarded was that the position was void of true power.

Itachi could advise policy and offer his opinion, but could not act to undermine the hokage as Danzou had done. As a servant of his clan Itachi was banned from acting against his clans' best interests, acting for personal gain, owning property, marrying and disobeying his clan head. The Hatake considered the seal binding the younger genius to be barbaric –as did most of the rest of the village– but recognised that this was one of those seldom-invoked clan customs that was not banned because everyone felt anyone who got caught had it coming. It also handily prevented the villagers from attacking the former nukenin as his punishment was sufficiently humiliating to satisfy even the most bloodthirsty. The ninja of Konoha more pragmatically recognised that Itachi was too broken after slaying his clan to survive in the village forces without clear and firm boundaries that protected both him and his comrades: crimes against Itachi were counted as crimes against his clan head and Hatake Amemaihana was gaining a bit of a reputation as being terrifying but fair. Kakashi was somewhat impressed by the subtlety his wife had employed in establishing herself in the village hierarchy without outright antagonising anyone. Well, Danzou had been an exception.

Having eaten, Kakashi had a quick shower and crawled into bed next to his wife. Hopefully he'd get a good long sleep before being needed again.

He was shaken awake far too soon by an apologetic manservant, one of the ones his wife had been given as a wedding present by her uncle the yamikage.

"My apologies, Hatake-sama, but you have a guest," the short, dark man said regretfully, "and he insists the matter is of utmost importance."

The Copy-nin groaned but stumbled out of bed and let himself be steered towards the bathroom where a steaming bath had already been run. "Who is it?"

"Jiraya of the Densetsu no Sannin, Hatake-sama."

Kakashi paused on the threshold of the bathroom. "Tell him I'll be down presently and see to it he is served drinks and something to eat."

"Hai, Hatake-sama."

Kakashi washed quickly, dressed and wandered downstairs into the public part of the house, absently channelling chakra out through his feet so as not to set the nightingale floors squeaking. He'd managed to sleep for seven hours, not bad but nowhere near enough to make up for the four days of three-hour-nights he'd suffered through on his last mission.

"Jiraya-sama?" the jounin said as he slid open the door of the main receiving room.

"Kakashi-kun! Done well for yourself, haven't you?" the large, jovial shinobi said affably. "A fancy house, a beautiful wife and children running around the place, all in under a year. You certainly don't waste time when you've set your mind on something, do you?"

The silver-haired jounin inclined his head, wondering absently where Minato-sensei was. Likely at the local park with the younger Uchiha children. "Why the visit, Jiraya-sama?" he asked. "I only got back this morning."

Ah, er, well," Jiraya looked a little embarrassed. "I've been looking for young Naruto, but he's proving rather elusive."

Kakashi leant against the door jamb. "What do you need my blond student for?"

"Sarutobi-sensei asked me to check up on him while I was here; I would have trained him for the chunnin exam finals but he never showed up," the toad sage admitted. "From what I saw of the third exams though he's nothing like sensei described."

"Naruto's very good at masks," Kakashi agreed; "a product of his childhood no doubt." Jiraya winced. "He is still cheerful and friendly, but only in the presence of those he trusts. A shame really, but there you go."

"A fuuinjutsu prodigy too," the white-haired sage said. "Did you steer him in that direction?"

"Me? No;" the Copy-nin admitted easily. "He's largely self-taught. Got hold of some Uzumaki fuuinjutsu manuals and just blossomed. Amazing really and he's got a real aptitude for it." Kakashi paused. "You still haven't told me why you want to see my student, Jiraya-sama."

"I was thinking of taking him on as an apprentice," Jiraya said after a short silence.

Kakashi smiled a little dryly. "He'll turn you down; politely but still. He's not so starved of attention to take the first offer coming his way and you'd never earn his respect. No offece Jiraya-sama, but you're openly perverted and Naruto despises that in a person. He's very mannerly and respectful of women."

Jiraya sagged. "I feared as much," he muttered.

"You'd be better off asking Sasuke," Kakashi added absently; "True he can't sign the toad contract but he's getting interested in the espionage side of things and doesn't mind working hard at those things that don't come so easy, like Ijutsu. He'll never be a medic but he's learnt a thing or two. He's best at ninjutsu and strategy, followed by taijutsu, but he listens to his team-mates and is determined to learn even those things that don't come naturally, like psychology and negotiation. His fuuinjutsu is abysmal but he is determined to be at least capable of recognising the basics and practices relentlessly. A tad obsessively, to be honest, but at least it's being channelled healthily now."

It was even the truth: Sasuke had proved he was willing to work just as hard as Naruto on those things he found unexpectedly challenging and had recently shown an interest in what was involved in obtaining and managing a network of informants. It was, in fact, the only area of the ninja arts other than taijutsu that the young Uchiha had ever shown an interest in independent of his team-mates. Sasuke's interest in genjutsu was spurred on by Sakura's brilliance in the art and his ninjutsu proficiency was driven by his memory of his parents and Naruto's massive chakra capacity. His interest in Ijutsu was cursory, nothing more than wanting to be able to patch himself back up if necessary, and his painfully slow inroads into the complex world of fuuinjutsu was maintained solely by Naruto's brilliance in that area. Taijutsu however was something Sasuke loved and was good at and the intelligence side of things was something he'd come to recently and seemed fascinated by.

"The young genius?" Jiraya seemed sceptical.

"He works hard," Kakashi reiterated firmly, defending his student. "I've beaten most of the arrogance out of him and having a jinchuuriki for a team-mate has ensured he knows his own limits very well indeed. He might struggle without his team for a while but he is dedicated, observant and had learnt patience. A bit on the quiet side, but that's not all bad." The Copy-nin sighed. "If you don't want to take my word for it then feel free to approach the two of them, but don't expect anything other than polite scorn from Naruto: He knows you're his godfather and takes a dim view of people who shirk their responsibilities."

"I was chasing down Orochimaru!"

Kaksahi shrugged. "He is of the opinion you could have paid someone to look after him." He had nothing else to say to Jiraya and needed to hand in his written report of the mission.

After handing in his report at the hokage's tower Kakashi set out in search of his student. Since he was awake he may as well catch up with them while he had the chance. Especially since he hadn't seen them since the morning after the exams.

"Kakashi!"

"Jiraya-sama." The jounin paused while the tall, white-haired ninja caught up with him. He wondered what Jiraya had to say that hadn't come up in their previous conversation.

"Naruto needs to be kept safely out of the way-"

"Is this about Akatsuki?" the Copy-nin interrupted.

"How do you-" Jiraya answered his own question: "Itachi."

"He did mention it," Kakashi admitted, "but he wasn't the only one." Konan of Ame had taken the time to have a long, private chat with Kakashi before taking her leave after the wedding; the blue-haired kunoichi had taken a shine to Naruto and seemed rather ambivalent about the methods her kage was using in his pursuit of peace. "I was told the safest place for Naruto to be was within range of my wife; apparently my koi scares people." The cyclopean jounin paused thoughtfully. "Considering Itachi calls her sempai, I'd say here was safest, at least for now."

"Villages aren't the best places to learn dangerous and obscure jutsu, Kakashi," Jiraya said cooly," nor are they good places for jinchuuriki to practice using their power. As a chunnin he will be sent out on missions which will place him in danger. He needs to get to S-class as quickly as possible in order to defend himself against Akastuki."

"He's also a highly capable fuuinjutsu user, so I doubt he'll be sent out of the village all that much," Kakashi countered, "and I'm sure he'll be strong enough in a year or so to justify a short training trip abroad or a few long-term missions out and about. I reached jounin while based in the village during a war, so I'm sure my most diligent student will do just as well. Besides, should it prove necessary I'm sure Ame-chan would be happy to supply a bodyguard from her clan, considering he is being officially fostered with her. She sees him as her son, you know."

"She mentioned it," the toad sage muttered, looking down at his hands. "Kakashi, are you sure?"

"My wife may not be a kunoichi but she is a formidable foe," the younger jounin said firmly, "and I'm no pushover either. Naruto's upbringing all but guarantees he will decline to learn from you and makes him likely to reject leaving the village for any stretch of time, but feel free to offer. Sasuke would accept, though he would never offer you more than grudging respect for your skills rather than your person. He's a bit of a purist, is Sasuke."

"Why would Sasuke accept?"

Kakashi sighed. He felt very old for his twenty-seven years. "Sasuke wants, more than anything else in the world, to be recognised as an accomplished ninja in his own right; he wants his clan to be second to his own infamy rather than the other way around. He also wants to be useful, indispensible even, to the people who matter to him. Naruto recognises Sasuke as a person and barely ever mentions his clan, so Sasuke wants to be capable enough that Naruto will turn to him for anything he cannot do himself. Sasuke also feels he owes Naruto, making being useful to Naruto all the more imperative. Sasuke would likely learn all you could teach him and everything else he could possibly acquire along the way –provided he could see the utility in it– in order to repay Naruto and support his dream."

"So he is loyal, then."

"To his team, indubitably. To Konohagakure…" Kakashi trailed off. "None of the people on my team have any particularly outstanding reason to be loyal to Konoha, which is why I am trying to give them more reasons. They are loyal to me, and I am loyal to the village. That should be enough for now."

"You think I would antagonise your blond bratling," Jiraya said, changing the subject.

"I know you would, Jiraya-sama," Kakashi replied blandly, "and like Kushina-dono, Naruto is rather enthusiastic in holding onto grudges. Sasuke is more pragmatic, if not really much more forgiving."

"I'll consider it," Jiraya muttered.

A/N: Yep, it's been a while but this is a difficult bit for me, as I have to tie up various ends and set up the next arc. As you can see, there will be fairly major differences.