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14. Vegetables

Minato felt somewhat like a squashed mix of vegetables the day after.

Not only had he woken up in a room that wasn't in his house (or his sensei's, for that matter), he had woken up in a different place than he had fallen asleep at. He could vaguely remember waking up very early in the morning and going to the toilet, but instead of returning to the couch in the sunlit, warm living-room, he had moved rather automatically and half asleep to Kushina's bedroom. It was a good thing her bed was large – at least he had just sunken down on the edge of the bed – but he cursed himself silently for having slept next to and in the same bed as Kushina without even noticing. And shirtless, too.

Or maybe it was a good thing he didn't notice, maybe things could have been even more awkward if he woke up and she was still lying next to him. When he woke up, Kushina had already gotten up and made breakfast. Minato spent a long time working up the courage to lift himself up from the bed; not only because it would be rather awkward to meet Kushina outside the room, but because he knew of experience that he would feel rather horrible sitting up in a condition like his.

The morning had also ended up slightly awkward due to the fact that not only Kushina was sitting on her morning-sunlit, breezy balcony, but an unmistakably pregnant Mikoto as well, and she had been very surprised (and very curious to know why) to see him emerging from her bedroom, looking slightly as though he had been beaten a hundred times over. Though Kushina had tried to explain why he had to stay over, she couldn't entirely explain why he had been sleeping in her bed, nor could he.

And though the sight of warm breakfast was indeed very tempting, he left in a puff of shame rather than smoke to take a shower and get changed before the meeting at the Academy.

At two thirty he stood outside the academy, feeling nostalgia rushing to him. Children were standing outside, coming out one by one after finishing their exams, talking happily to their friends and family, wearing their new, shining forehead protectors. Minato was standing by the fence with several other Jounin, most of whom were wearing the usual shinobi uniform of Konoha; Minato, on the other hand, found his usual pair of sweatpants, bandages and singlet slightly more comfortable in the hot spring air, and still hadn't started wearing the uniform. Though he had brought his weapons, including his swords, and was wearing the forehead protector as well.

"Big lot who passed this time," Kousuke said from beside him, dressed in his usual leather jacket and boots. "Let's hope they're not all morons, I heard they're going easier on them because Hokage-sama needs them to start off early."

And sure enough, as the next half hour passed, more children left the academy, all wearing their forehead protectors with big, satisfied smiles on their faces. At last, the Hokage came out, signalling for the jounin to step inside. They left the fence, and it was easy to tell that the new genin had completely overlooked the number of jounin who had been standing nearby, watching them; several of them jumped, either of surprise or with a hint of awe, going silent and looking at them with open mouths. Minato's eyes lingered at a boy who stood by the wall, all alone and with a rather expressionless face (he seemed to be the only one who wasn't surprised by the jounin's presence). It was easy to see – the resemblance was unmistakable – that it was Hatake Sakumo's son.

The reason why the boy was standing alone made it feel as though a hand was clenching at Minato's chest. Hatake Sakumo had committed suicide three years ago, found lying on the floor by none other than the boy who now stood there in his presence.

They walked along a corridor (Minato was sure it had shrunk during the eight years that had passed since he graduated), and entered a meeting room. Settling down by the long table, the Hokage called for silence, though most of the jounin had already turned to him and given him their attention.

"You may have noticed how many genin left the academy today," he said and received several nods. "I must admit that we are facing difficult times, seeing as we were one of the countries who suffered most from the war. There's no doubt our hostile neighbours have better opportunities of regaining their strength, and therefore I'm taking precautions. More students than usual graduated this year, so I set my trust on you to train them well. Many of them would may not have graduated had the circumstances been different."

He took out a long list of names, set up in three and three.

"I spent some time setting up potential teams based on their previous test results. As the individual students have graduated or failed I have made adjustments and crossed out names, and here's the outcome of this."

He started listing up the teams, starting at team one, and gave each team leader bits of information about their assigned teams. Kousuke was leading team three, consisting of two troublemakers and a very skilled and engaged one, saying that the difference in personality should be used as an advantage to get the troublemakers on the right track. Kousuke accepted the team with a determined nod, but looked as though he wondered how on earth this was going to go.

Finally, the Hokage turned to Minato.

"Minato, you're the leader of team nine," he said. "First of all you'll have a trainee medic-nin on your team, Nohara Rin. She seems promising, and will also be good to help you with Uchiha Obito, who's a rather clumsy and forgetful boy. Though your biggest challenge will be Hatake Kakashi, Sakumo's son. You shall know that he is extremely skilled, a prodigy close to the level you were when you graduated. He also already passed the chuunin examination, but under special circumstances. This means he has the skill and right to do more difficult tasks, but his grade is unofficial. They're all nine, so they are even younger than you were when you graduated, but I assume you'll lead them well."

Minato nodded, slightly taken aback at this piece of information. So he had been assigned Hatake Sakumo's son … Though he felt rather pleased with being able to control the situation of the boy; had someone else been assigned him he would've only pondered on how he was doing.

When all teams had been announced, the Hokage put the list down and looked at them all.

"Your teams will be here at nine o'clock on Monday morning, waiting to be picked up in different classrooms. I wish you all good luck."

And with that, the meeting was over.

"Sakumo's son, huh?"

Kushina picked up a cooked carrot with her chopsticks and ate it thoughtfully. They were sitting on the porch of Jiraiya's house in the afternoon sun, eating ramen from Ichiraku's that Kushina had bought. Minato was telling Kushina about the team he had been assigned.

"Yep," Minato said, taking a sip from a cup of green tea. "And a trainee medic-nin named Rin, and an Uchiha."

"Really?"

"Yep. Uchiha ..." he checked the paper he had been given during the meeting, "Obito."

"Wow, you've got some team," Kushina said. "A prodigy, an Uchiha and a medic-nin?"

"Apparently, Obito's a bit of a kid," Minato said with a sort of apologetic smile and showed her the picture of the boy. "Clumsy and forgetful, according to Hokage-sama."

"A clumsy Uchiha?" Kushina said as though she couldn't believe it.

Minato shrugged. "We'll see."

"You two'll suit nicely together," Kushina said with a grin. Minato gave her an expression full of dejection.

"For the tenth time," he said, and Kushina sniggered. "I'm sorry I burst into your bedroom, I had apparently no idea what I was doing. Plus, beds have always been more comfortable than couches."

"True," Kushina admitted. "I'm surprised you couldn't handle alcohol better, though."

"Nah, just sake," Minato shrugged. "It's not like I drink that often, anyway."

Two days later, Minato was again facing the doors leading to the Academy hallway. Kousuke was standing outside a classroom when he entered, and waved Minato over.

"Your team is inside here, too," he said very lowly, pointing at a list on the wall. The door was opened just a few inches so they could eavesdrop at the class.

"What's going on inside?" Minato asked in an equally hushed voice.

"Their teacher just left, so they're waiting," Kousuke replied, listening to the genin inside who were muttering to each other as more jounin turned up and listened curiously at the door with them. "None of them have been picked up yet, though."

And as though both he and the genin were thinking among the same lines, they heard a boy call out louder than the rest.

"Where are they, anyway?"

"It's not nine o'clock yet, Obito," a girl replied hastily. "The teacher said nine o'clock."

"It's only in, like, one minute," the boy, Obito, replied in what sounded like an impatient tone.

"Like you're always right on time," another boy said irritatedly.

"I didn't ask for your opinion," Obito replied sourly.

"Oh, please don't start fighting again, you two," the girl said worriedly. "If we're supposed to be a team we have to be able to cooperate -"

"Why do I have to listen to what that -"

Minato sighed.

"Is that your team?" Kousuke asked, and Minato nodded. "They're up for a pretty bad start, aren't they."

"Not on my watch," Minato said, and he stepped over to the door and pushed it open. Silence fell immediately over the classroom at the sight of the seven jounin who came walking in, and Minato noticed that several eyes lingered on him as he walked along the wall, forming a line with the other jounin; apparently, words of his growing inter-village-celebrity had reached even the Academy.

As he stopped, the other jounin waited for Minato to speak first, since he had been the one to lead the line. He decided to speak with a slightly raised voice.

"Team nine," he said, looking over the small crowd of genin, who were sitting in groups of three and three. He missed out on the fact that some of them looked disappointed, but it was impossible not to notice the black-haired boy, wearing goggles and a blue and orange outfit, suddenly standing up with a gleeful look on his face.

"That's you, I presume?" he said to the boy, who nodded and left his seat accompanied by the boy he had seen standing alone two days before and a brown-haired girl with a kind expression. As they walked towards the door to leave the classroom, Minato turned and stopped for only a moment.

"You two better start listening to her," he said to the boys; both looked slightly taken aback. Rather pleased that they had been caught ranting to each other and that he had taken them by surprise, he almost smirked as he turned back to the door again.

It was as though his first words to them had given him all the respect in the world. He led them outside towards a place where they could talk without interruptions, and as he did so, they walked perfectly silently behind him, as though worried they might get scolded if they said anything at all. Though as he settled on a railing by the riverside and the three of them lined up, very insecurely, in front him, he looked at them with a warm grin.

"So!" he said happily, clapping his hands once as though beginning to work on a fun challenge, and the three of them jumped of this sudden movement. "Let's introduce ourselves. Take a seat."

They sat down on the long row of bench seats running along the river, looking at him with anticipation written in their faces.

"Let's start with the girl, shall we?" he said, turning to the only girl present.

"Uhm, what should I say?" the girl asked uncertainly.

"Well, you can start with your name," Minato suggested. "Your age, what you like, what you dislike, your ambitions, things like that."

"Okay, well, I'm Nohara Rin," said Rin. "I'm nine years old, and I like strawberries and friends, but I reeeaally dislike tsukudani. And my ambition is to become a medic-nin like Tsunade-sama!"

"Good," Minato smiled. "Next."

"I'm Uchiha Obito!" Obito said excitedly. "I just turned ten, like, not even two weeks ago. I like friends, too, especially some people," and then he cast a gloomy look to his left, where the silver-haired boy was sitting expressionless, "and I dislike others."

Minato observed him for a moment.

"And your ambitions?" he then asked.

"To one day become one of the strongest Uchihas in the clan!" Obito said, switching moods again.

Kakashi made a snort, but before Obito could open his mouth and ask him what his problem was, Minato raised his voice.

"And what about you?" he asked Kakashi, ignoring the increasingly bad atmosphere between the two boys.

"Hatake Kakashi," the boy said without any excitement noticeable – nor any smile, but it would have been hard to tell, anyway, seeing as he was wearing a mask. "Nine years old. I don't really dislike things, but I hate people who act like trash. I like reading. And my ambitions are to fulfil my role as a shinobi and become strong."

"All right," Minato said. "I'm Namikaze Minato. I recently turned eighteen, so I'm not as old as you may have thought, really. I like reading as well, and I try not to dislike too many things. My ambition is to one day become Hokage."

He slid off the railings.

"Well, now that we've introduced ourselves, let's go have our first training session."

He pointed behind him where, on the other side of the river, fences were placed around a large training field.

"You're gonna teach us new techniques already?" Obito asked, clearly both surprised and excited by this news.

"Not exactly," Minato said, at which Obito's face fell a little. "Let's play a little game of tag first."

He had to give all three of them credit for being able to look so genuinely confused.

"Come on."

He led them to training field three, opened the gate and walked past the three wooden posts he remembered Jiraiya had taken him and his team to during their first training session. Turning around at them, he brought something from his pocket; something that made the unmistakable ringing noise of -

"Bells?" Rin asked in confusion.

"Try to take these from me," he said and held up two bells for them to see. "Do it before noon, or all three of you will be tied up to those wooden posts until I decide what to do with you."

"What to -" Rin began, but was interrupted by Obito.

"That's it?"

Minato smirked.

"That's it," he said. "But don't think it'll be easy."

"You're joking!" Obito exclaimed, and receiving a gasp of surprise by Rin, he charged.

But before he could so much as touch the bells, Minato had disappeared.

"Charging face-to-face is a good way to find out your opponents counter-attacks," Minato said, crouching on top of one of the wooden posts behind them; they turned around and their faces turned into that of confusion again. It looked rather cute.

"But," he said, reappearing behind Obito with a kunai resting by the boy's throat. "It may also kill you."

Even Kakashi looked deeply impressed for a boy who didn't show many expressions.

"How did you do that?" he asked.

"It's called the Hiraishin technique," Minato replied, still keeping the sharp kunai against Obito's throat. "It allows me to transport to places where I've placed a certain seal. If you had looked more carefully around you, you would have seen the seal on this kunai behind Obito, which I dropped before I moved to the wooden posts."

He made a seal with his free hand.

"Figure out the best way to counter me and take the bells. You have until noon."

And once again, he disappeared.

Minato stood straight, the sun shining at his neck. The two bells were casually being thrown in the air and caught again with his hand, though he paid little attention to them. He was staring down at the two genin and the unofficial chuunin in front of him, his face looking like that of a person who tried to decide which garbage can to throw his garbage in; he looked considering, yet the choices he had were not giving him any joy.

The three kids were tied up to the wooden posts, covered in scratches, dirt and expressions full of anticipation and, Minato was certain, fear.

"Do you know why you were given this task?" Minato asked.

They were silent for a moment.

"To test our strength?" Obito tried.

"Not entirely," Minato replied, shaking his head.

"To test our intelligence?" Kakashi followed up.

"Still not the right answer."

While Minato continued throwing the bells in the air, the three kids looked as though they were thinking hard. Minato then sighed.

"It is a test made to see whether or not you meet the qualifications to become shinobi."

Obito's jaw dropped.

"But what about the academy exams?" Obito complained. "All those tests we passed - we graduated, didn't we?"

"Theory and basic techniques are not enough to become good shinobi," Minato said, looking at them sternly. "There's much more to it. This task is made to see who can continue the life as shinobi, or -" he caught the bells one last time, "who will be sent back to the academy."

The three of them were completely lost for words. Rin looked as though she thought this was highly unfair, Kakashi just looked shocked, and Obito opened and closed his mouth, apparently trying to find the right complaints.

Minato crouched beside them. Then, he smiled.

"But no worries, you've passed."

"Huh?" slipped out of Kakashi before he could stop himself.

"But," Rin said, now looking more confused than ever. "We didn't even touch the bells."

"Listen, you three," Minato said; Obito closed his mouth again, concentrating hard to catch every word his team leader was saying. "Kakashi, you have more skill than I expected, but don't look at your comrades as though they're in your way. Obito, the same to you. I know it's important to be acknowledged, but you're trying too hard to be recognised; you barely gave any of the others time to act before you charged on your own. Rin, you're an intelligent girl, and if it weren't for you, all of you would have failed. I warned you at the academy that you should start listening to her, and you better start taking my warnings seriously. You were lucky she managed to persuade you into working together."

He stood up and started untying them from the posts.

"The most important thing to a shinobi is teamwork. Remember that. The success rate of a mission depends on it."

"But, sensei," Obito said, though not in a complaining voice. "You've always gone on missions alone, right?"

"Not always, but I have," Minato replied, finishing untying Rin. "The reason why I've been working alone is because I can, not because I found it more convenient for myself. Working in teams makes it easier to make difficult choices, get missions done quicker and get out of missions alive."

"Alive?" Rin asked horrified.

"Yep," Minato said, crouching down beside them again; they had been too occupied listening to him to stand up. "Not many weeks ago, I was on a mission on my own. I ended up in a very difficult, very dangerous situation. Had my comrades not been there to help me out when I got out of there, I would have died that day."

Rin gasped once more.

"What sort of dangerous situation was it?" Obito asked, his expression still rather dumbstruck.

"I was supposed to stop a single man from entering our country," Minato said. "But instead I was ambushed by about a thousand enemies."

Silence fell over them again, where they all looked at him in awe.

"That's why working as a team decreases the mortality rate of missions," he continued, and turned with a smile towards Rin, patting her head. "And that's why we're lucky to have a medic-nin in our team."

Rin blushed, but looked pleased.

"So this test," Kakashi said. "Was just to see if we could work together, as a team?"

"Correct," Minato said.

"But what about those who don't really suit together?" Obito asked, trying and failing to hide the fact that he was really asking why his rants with Kakashi had not caused them to fail. "Wouldn't that be unfair to them?"

"As a shinobi, whether or not you like your companions have nothing to say on missions. If you're able to work out plans and strategies and fulfil them to your best ability, your teamwork will work fine. Though it's best if you get along well, too," he added, now looking at them with a crossed sort of smile.

"Sensei, did you catch the bells?" Rin asked curiously.

"I did," Minato smiled. "But that wasn't the reason why my team passed."

He stood up, clapping his hands together again.

"Now, who's up for ramen?"

And their faces – even Kakashi's, although a little unwillingly – lit up again.