"You are hereby relieved of your duties as ANBU and will assume a new position."
"Yes, Hokage-sama."
"You will become a jonin-sensei."
"…what?!"
"Here are your new genin students." Sarutobi handed Kakashi three Academy files. "They have graduated two years ahead of schedule in an effort to stay together as a team. I think you'll have a good influence on them."
"A team? That's unusual. It's not another iteration of the InoShikaCho clans coming together, is it?"
Sarutobi had a disturbing glint in his eyes. "No, nothing like that. I think you'll find these three to be very … unique."
Kakashi had a bad feeling about this. When he opened up the first file and saw Uchiha Sasuke's mutinous face staring back at him, he knew he was right. He shuffled through the others, seeing a pretty little girl with pink hair and the third was-
"Minato-sensei's son? Why?"
"Kakashi, I'm surprised at you. I thought that maybe you would want to see the boy." Kakashi flinched minutely. If he had wanted evidence of his failure to protect his sensei every day, he would have sought out Naruto sooner. He stared at the photograph, seeing ghosts. There was barely any Uzumaki in the boy's face; the blonde hair and blue eyes were a punch straight to his gut.
"Regardless, the Council has requested you as Uchiha's instructor, for obvious reasons. His Academy instructors have indicated that he becomes very belligerent when separated from Naruto-kun and Sakura-chan. Nakajima has credited them for his recovery after Itachi … happened."
"Are you sure that he is? Recovered, I mean. Something like that doesn't just go away."
Sarutobi looked at him knowingly but only said, "Those two have been very good. Sakura-chan is especially gifted with him. Naruto-kun is more likely to punch first, but sometimes that works in its own way."
"So I have an emotionally troubled boy, a jinchuriki brawler and a soft-hearted girl? How do you think I could possibly help them?"
"I think you'll be surprised, Kakashi. You meet them tomorrow. Try not to be too late."
Kakashi stared at Obito's name carved into the stone. He didn't notice the sun moving overhead, didn't notice the hours he has spent in silence, just standing and remembering. He traced the characters of Obito's name, of Minato's and Rin's.
"Looks like Hokage-sama has decided that I would be more useful as a jonin-sensei."
Kakashi swears he can hear Obito laughing at him.
"This is clearly a terrible idea. I don't know what he was thinking."
Now he knows Obito is laughing at him.
"Minato-sensei, your son is on my team. I can only hope I could be as good to him as you always were to me …
I'm sorry I never met him before or even talked to him. Naruto looks so much like you. He goes by Uzumaki now, you know? Kushina-san would be so proud."
Kakashi stepped away, giving their names a last lingering look. "I miss you. I hope I see you soon."
He shunshined toward the Academy, three hours later than the appointed meeting time.
Kakashi slouched toward the classroom where he was to meet his genin. A harried chunin with a scarred face had pointed the way, scowling at the time. Kakashi just smiled and the other man had pointedly turned and left.
He slid the door open to see a kunai headed at his face. It was snatched out of the air by an pink blur and thrown at a blue blur that ran across the desks to toss it at the blonde boy bouncing up and down in the corner. He assumed this was Naruto.
"Ahem." The boy caught the kunai and whipped around in an instant, eyes wide. Kakashi saw a seal tag hanging from the weapon and asked, "Uh, is that an exploding-"
SPLAT.
Naruto was still wide-eyed, but now he was also covered in ink from head-to-toe. The Uchiha snickered while the pink-haired girl (Sakura, he recalled. Her parents certainly were unimaginative) had burst into full-blown laughter.
"Naruto, you lose again!"
"Aw, c'mon, Sakura-chan! That's not fair, that old guy distracted me!"
Kakashi was about to protest the "old guy" comment when Sakura continued, "Doesn't matter! A shinobi must always be alert to his surroundings. Therefore, you lose!"
"Ah, hello? I assume you're the three I'm supposed to teach."
The three children now looked at him with varying degrees of "yes, obviously" written on their faces, though Naruto's expression was harder to read under all the ink.
"Ah, well. My first impression is … I hate you."
Both Naruto and the Uchiha scowled while Sakura burst into peals of laughter again.
What a strange girl.
Kakashi leaned against the railing as Naruto stripped off his shirt and tried to wash the ink of his face and hands at the outdoor faucets. Sakura and the Uchiha stood away from his splashing, all of them watching with slight disbelief as he managed to get water everywhere.
"Sasuke, take off your shirt."
"What? No!"
"Sasuke, I know you're wearing at least two, probably three shirts, for some reason known only to you. Just give Naruto one of them."
He crossed his arms and frowned mulishly. "He's the one who lost. Why do I have to suffer?"
"Sasuke …" Sakura sighed. She stood there, hands on hips, staring at him with such a look of disappointment that Kakashi himself nearly felt guilty enough to offer up his own shirt.
"Hn, fine." Sasuke took off his outer shirt to reveal an identical one underneath. "Just … stop looking at me like that."
She beamed at him and threw the shirt at Naruto, who had been carefully using the backside of his old shirt to dry off. It landed on his head.
"Hey!"
"Get dressed, Naruto. I'm sure our respected sensei has more important things to do than wait for us." Sakura winked at Kakashi and laughed again, lost in her own private joke. Sasuke and Naruto shared a look and shrugged, used to her weird behavior by now.
The three of them trooped over to the stairs leading to the atrium. The boys naturally flanked Sakura, with Naruto on her right and Sasuke on her left. She sat down several stairs up from the ground and stretched out her legs, while Sasuke and Naruto chose to sit one step below her, close enough to touch.
Interesting formation. They move like a unit and don't even seem to notice.
"Let's start with introductions. What you like, hate, your hobbies and your dreams. Or something like that. You, pinky, go first."
She looked surprised and vaguely annoyed. "Pinky, really? Why don't you go first, sensei?"
"Maa, that's fine. I'm Hatake Kakashi. I have no intention of telling you my likes and dislikes. As for my dreams …" he looked up at the sky. "I have few hobbies."
Naruto muttered, "So basically we only learned his name."
Sakura laughed again. "Sometimes that's all you need." She gave him a thumbs up and a blinding grin. "Yosh! You are Gai-sensei's Eternal Rival, Copy-Nin Kakashi!"
If he were a lesser shinobi, Kakashi would have fallen off his perch on the railing. As it was, he slightly stuttered, "Gai … sensei?" Now that she mentioned him, he thought that the black leg warmers he had noticed on her earlier may in fact be ankle weights.
Naruto answered him. "Yeah, he's that weirdo in green spandex that Sakura-chan works with sometimes. I joined them once for sparring." He shuddered dramatically. "Never again!"
Sasuke grunted in agreement.
"You two are just missing the springtime of youth! Gai-sensei is a very accomplished jonin, you know. He's also going to be very excited that I am on Kakashi-sensei's team." She sparkled at him merrily, still channeling her old teacher.
With a slowly growing sense of dread, Kakashi tried to move the conversation onward. "Enough of that! Introductions, now. We'll start with you instead, blondie."
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto! I like cup ramen, my team and making traps! I hate waiting for anything." Sasuke and Sakura both rolled their eyes at this. "My hobbies are training and going to the library with Sakura-chan! My dream to become Hokage with my best friends at my side."
He's certainly grown up to be interesting.
Kakashi pointed at the Uchiha. "Now you."
"I'm Uchiha Sasuke. I like training, my team and gardening. I dislike most everything else. I have an ambition that I have no intention of leaving a dream: I will find my brother." Sakura put her hand on his hunched shoulder and he slowly lost the hunted look in his eyes. Naruto's grin had faded into a thin, determined line.
Not what I expected. I suppose the Hokage was right about their influence. Still, "finding" his brother leaves a lot to chance.
"And the last, pinky."
"I'm Haruno Sakura and you'd better use it now that we've been officially introduced, Kakashi-sensei!" She scowled at him and he had vague thoughts of a snarling kitten. "I like training, my team, reading and politics." Naruto made a face at the last. "I hate snakes and anyone who would try to hurt my boys. My hobbies are fuinjutsu and shogi. My dream is to protect my precious people." With this, she ruffled first Naruto's hair and then Sasuke's.
Naruto was visibly pleased at the touch and Sasuke moved away from her hand and turned his head, but Kakashi could see the small upward quirk of his lips.
They get along so much better than my old team. The bell test won't be difficult for them. I'll have to change it up if I want to get out of this.
"Now that we're all acquainted …" he ignored Naruto's mutters about how they already knew each other, "tomorrow we will start with a special mission!"
He had expected excitement, from Naruto at the very least. He seemed to be the most excitable one.
Just like Obito …
Instead, the three of them just stared at him blankly.
"Guys? Special mission?"
"We're genin. You can't take us on special missions, even if you are Copy-Nin Kakashi. We know the mission rankings."
Kakashi grumbled to himself inwardly. This must have been what it was like to teach me. I'm so sorry, Minato-sensei. This is not the cute baby team I was expecting.
He allowed his demeanor to sharpen and said, "Special in that it will be survival training for all of you. Meet me at the east bridge at 7 and don't be late!" He ignored their disbelieving stares at that and grinned as maliciously as he could through a mask. "And don't bother eating breakfast. It won't last long."
With that, he left them in a swirl of leaves, intent on catching up on his Icha Icha reading.