When Time Stops
Chapter 13: [Enter Teammates]

Authors note:

There may be a little confusion as to what time period exactly the Time ninja are from and just to clear it up a little bit, they live in a time long before the ninja nations were developed, but after the great tailed beasts roamed the land (I think ive heard that before, maybe i read it in a fanfic or something? idk haha)

Kakashi had trained hard in the years since he had been taken by Pungarh and Leobwin. He trained everyday, with our without Naruto, as the blond had become increasingly busy, spending more time at the Hokage tower. Whenever Naruto wasn't busy at the tower, however, he trained Kakashi or they went on missions together, though they were never gone longer than a day. Tsunade had decided to let Kakashi join other teams on missions, in some half-assed attempt to teach him teamwork, since Naruto had been too busy to do so himself. None the less, Kakashi pushed himself no mater what he was doing. If he was running errands, he would get it done faster; picking up fallen branches, he would carry more; learning a new technique, he wouldn't stop until it was mastered. He had started to treat every mission, whether is was a simple D ranked mission in the village, or a C ranked mission fighting bandits, as if it were a life and death mission, crucial to the survival of himself, his team, and to the general wellbeing of Konoha. He followed the ninja code strictly; it had not failed him so far in his life and proved to help him in difficult situations when he had no one else to turn to. His sensei always teased him that he was far too serious for his age. The only time the blond didn't complain about his serious demeanor was on the training field, where Naruto was constantly pushing him past his limits in order to grow.

Kakashi panted, finding it hard to catch his breath, breathing through the tight fabric over his face. Beads of sweat dripped down the side of his face, soaking his mask and making his breath moist. He coughed, wiping his arm across his forehead.

"Keep trying, Kakashi!" Naruto encouraged from his seat on a tree branch above as he watched Kakashi and the boy's three clones attempt to crumple leaves using his lighting nature chakra, just as Kakashi had taught him all those years ago.

Kakashi held the leaf in the palm of his hand, staring at it with irritated, determined eyes. He had not been able to influence it yet with his chakra, even using this unconventional method of training with clones. Even simply making so many clones repeatedly was taxing for him. It always amazed him to see the sheer number of clones his sensei could create. He often wondered how Naruto had the capacity to hold and use all of that chakra. He clapped his hands together, the leaf securely between his palms, focusing his entire mind and body towards the task.

Naruto smiled softly, watching his young sensei work so hard to learn to manipulate nature. Kakashi had changed since the time when he had first started caring for his young sensei. He had grown up; he lacked the smiles, the laughter, and the carefree attitude of a child. Kakashi had become far too serious for his age and quite pessimistic too. He often worried about it - worried that he had caused Kakashi to change in this way by not being around enough. It seemed he was always busy, training and learning, or sitting in meetings and discussing Konoha's future. After a moment more of watching his young sensei, he turned back to his work, which was balanced precariously on his lap. He diped his brush into a small vial of ink and carefully painted a seal onto one of the specially made kunai he was holding. His father had used kunai in his jutsu, he had learned from Tsunade. Thus far he had been successful in jumping to places around the village where he had placed seals, such as the Hokage tower, his apartment, the training feild, and Ichiraku Ramen. His ability to transport himself across town in a flash had made his busy, hectic schedule just a little bit easier to manage, but he still struggled with working his jutsu into a usable form that he could use during combat, something he hoped the special kunai he was working on would fix.

Naruto felt, rather than saw, a presence appear a few feet away from where Kakashi was training down below, but ignored it after discerning that the person was no threat to them. Worried that stopping would cause him to mess up the careful strokes of the seal he was painting, he ignored the presence and focused on his task.

"Sensei," Kakashi called a moment later, staring up at his teacher from below, beads of sweat rolling down his face only to collect in his mask.

"Hm?" Naruto hummed, making the last mark on the seal with painfully slow care. When the mark was finished he set the brush down and held the kunai up in admiration, eyes shining, "Ah, there! What do you think Kashi?" He smiled and looked down to the silver-haired boy, who stared back at him with a serious and annoyed expression. Naruto glanced to the presence which had joined them and sat crouched near Kakashi. Naruto smiled, "Bird-san," he called to his friend, easily identifying the familiar ANBU of Konoha. He carefully closed his books and stashed his materials away into his pouch, jumping down from the tree and landing lightly in a crouch next to the two. "What brings you here?"

The ANBU stood after being addressed, ignoring the usual glare aimed at him from the young genin due to his presence, "The Hokage requests your presence."

Naruto sighed loudly and grinned, "How did she ever get along without me? Thanks, Bird, I'll head over."

Bird nodded, "Until next time, Naruto, Kakashi-kun," and disappeared.

"Will you be alright training by yourself for a while, Kashi?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi's glare was turned towards his sensei now that the bearer of bad news had left. "You promised to train with me today."

Naruto smiled, the smiled that Kakashi could tell was fake. The blond reached out and ruffled Kakashi's hair, "Sorry, Kakashi, we'll train together a different day, I promise. I'll see you tonight for dinner at Ichiraku Ramen, though, okay?" Naruto smiled one last time at his disappointed and angry looking young sensei, feeling a pang of guilt as those accusing and hurt grey eyes bore into him. He quickly ran through his jutsu and disappeared before either of them could say another word.

Kakashi crossed his arms and stared at the spot his teacher had been only a second ago. He yelled suddenly in frustration, grabbing a rock near his foot that was nearly as big as his fist and threw it without warning at one of the clones of himself. The clone looked surprised for an instant before he disappeared in a puff of smoke, Kakashi absorbing everything he clone had learned and felt. He looked at the leaf in his hand, which seemed no worse for wear than when he had started training. He stuffed it into his pocket and started towards the village, his last clones disappearing with a pop behind him.

"Granny!" Naruto yelled suddenly appearing in the Hokage's office.

Tsunade smiled and looked up to the blond, not at all startled at his unexpected appearence. Naruto had hardly touched a door since learning his lightning jutsu. She easily set aside her impending paperwork pile of doom and gave her full attention to her young successor in training.

"What did you need me for this time?" Naruto questioned, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. "I promised Kakashi I would train with him today and now he's mad at me." Naruto frowned, unintentionally pouting a little bit despite his age. "He won't stop glaring at me with those eye - you know the ones, right? - the look that says he'll never forgive what you're doing."

The hokage smiled, she knew the eyes Naruto spoke of all too well. "Good news then, because starting now you two will have plenty of time to train together."

Naruto snapped his head up, eyes sharp, "Are you firing me?"

"Oh no," Tsunade laughed, "Not at all, but you'll be taking a little break from your duties of Hokage-in-training for a while and you will be getting the final two members of your genin team today." The busty blond leaned back in her chair, watching the shocked expression slowly play out over Naruto's features.

"You're finally assigning me a genin team?" Naruto walked up to Tsunade's desk, his interest perked.

"Mhmm," she nodded, smiling.

"How do you think Kakashi will take it?" Naruto started suddenly, "He's had me to himself as his sensei for two years, and now he's suddenly getting teammates..."

"Kakashi will do fine," the Hokage reassured the blond whom she had grown to see as a son, "for him, getting teammates means he will be able to go on more missions and spend more time training with you. It's a good step forward in the direction of becoming a stronger ninja."

"True," the blond agreed, his gaze flicking towards outside, seeing a messenger hawk be sent off and fly towards the edge of town.

"In addition to that," the Hokage continued, leaning forward and opening a drawer to pull out a pristine, blank form, "Depending on how well he does with his new teammates, I thought he might like to take the chunin exam at the end of this summer, if you think he is prepared enough." She handed the paper to Naruto, who accepted it slowly and scanned over its contents. "Don't worry about that right now though, your new recruits should be finishing up at the academy any minute now."

"Right, I'd better get going then." Naruto folded the form and tucked it into his vest pocket. "See you later old lady!" The blond grinned cheekily, disappearing with a handseal before the scroll thrown his way had a chance to hit him.

Naruto perched himself in a tree next to the class in which Iruka was lecturing his graduate students. He remembered the lecture well, as if he had been graduating from the academy only yesterday. His academy teacher's words were inspirational and encouraging to him back then and he had held on to them throughout his ninja career. "Starting today," his teacher had said, "you are the weapon of Konoha. Today you become adults and will soon put your life on the line to protect your village and the people who are important to you. Today, your life begins and starting now you will work to become the strongest ninja Konoha has ever had." Naruto chuckled at himself. He couldn't quite remember the rest of the lecture. He was sure that his mind had trailed off, imagining what it would be like to be the strongest ninja of Konoha - to be the Hokage. It seemed like he would reach his goal of becoming Konoha's important person after all. He pulled his special kunai out from his holster, looking over the seal he had carefully painted on it just a short time ago He carefully preformed a series of hand seals and pressed his palm against the seal on the side of the kunai, activating it with a small display of blue light. "I guess this is as a time as any to try this out."

Iruka proudly finished his speech, the same one that he gave to each of his graduating classes in hopes that he would inspire them all to be the best ninja that they could be. He pulled his eyes away from watching his excited students squirm in their seats and down to the clipboard in his hands. "I will begin to assign you to your teams. When I have finished, wait here until your sensei comes to get your team."

"Hai!" the class chorused loudly.

"Team 1 will be led by Aburame Shino. The genin that will join this team will be -" Iruka stopped short when a kunai crashed through the window next to his desk, shattering the glass. Iruka shielded his head from the flying glass as his students screamed in surprise. When he looked up, a certain blond troublemaker stood before him, arrogantly posing in front of the class, right next to the kunai which has stuck itself into one of the wooden floorboards

Iruka fumed, his face growing red with anger. "NARUTO!" He yelled, just like he had nearly everyday when the man had been in the academy.

The newly graduated academy student stared at the blond ninja with awe and curiosity.

Naruto turned to his teacher casually, walking to the older man and slinging his arm around the teacher's shoulders. "Iruka-sensei, It's been a while, huh? I'm here for my team." He smiled, happy to see the man again.

Iruka's blood boiled inside of him, he crossed his arms, trying his best to bite his tongue. "That window is coming out of your paycheck."

"Yea, yea," the blond laughed, waving the window away. "Who are you gonna give me?"

"That wasn't a 'cool' move, Naruto; you're only showing your genin how reckless and childish you can be." Iruka grumbled under his breath, as he flipped through his roster.

"We'll see about that, Iruka-sensei."

Iruka smiled and shook his head. He could hardly stay mad at his blond former-student. Naruto always made him smile, no matter what kind of trouble he created. "Let's see, Hideaki and Tana, you will be on Team 10 with Naruto."

"Yes! A boy with red hair near the back of the class jumped up to his feet, "the badass sensei is mine!"

Naruto grinned at Iruka, wiggling his eyebrows, silently rubbing in his victory.

Iruka could only roll his eyes at Naruto's tactics.

Naruto walked back to his kunai, picking it up. He briefly inspected it for damage, quickly stowing it away in his holster. "Team 10," he addressed, speaking loudly over the entire class. His demeanor changed, suddenly serious, "Meet me on the roof in 2 minutes - don't be late," he ordered right before he vanished with a quick hand seal.

"Wha-?" The tall red head in back voiced, wondering how his new sensei had vanished. His green eyes scanned the front of the room. Hisshort red hair was uncombed and messy still from the nights slumber. He wore a loose-fitting green tank, standard blue ninja trousers, leg wraps and sandals.

"Iruka-sensei!" Tana spoke, standing up. She had short black hair, held beck by her new ninja forehead protector which she used as a headband. She wore a pristine, long-sleeved, white tunic, navy fabric tied around her waits, paired with navy leggings that stopped just above her knees, and open-toed ninja boots. Her pupils were white, a symbol of the Hyuuga family's kekkai genkai, but her voice was controlled and confident as she spoke over the entire class. "Why is it that you only assigned our team two members?"

"You will be meeting your other teammate shortly, now, go or else you'll be late for your first meeting with your team!"

The two ran down the stairs, and slid out the door, running as fast as they could down the school hallways.

"Where are the stairs to the roof?" Tana called to her teammate as they ran.

"Hell if I know!" the redhead yelled back, searching around furiously for some sign of stairs.

"Now," Iruka continued, clearing his throat after after his students finally calmed down from the commotion from the two genin and their sensei had made, "Where was I..."

"Ah, you made it just in time - it was down to the last seconds." Naruto greeted, sitting on folded legs on the edge of the rooftop.

The two genin fell to their hands and knees at the top of the stairwell, panting and trying to catch their breath. "I didn't even know there were stairs coming up here." Tana gasped, her short black hair blowing out of her face with each labored exhale.

"Of course there are stairs. Come, sit down," Naruto motioned to a small raised concrete block in front of him, the one he and his teammates had gathered on when meeting their sensei for the very first time. Your other teammate should be here soon."

Tana and Hideaki glanced at each other.

"Our other teammate," Hideaki asked cautiously, "who is it?"

Tana nodded in mutual curiosity, "Iruka only called the two of us, why isn't our other teammate graduating from the academy as well?"

Naruto smiled, absentmindedly waving his hand around as he spoke, "Well, your other teammate is already a genin. He's been my only student for a little while now."

Hideaki perked up, "He must be strong then! I knew I was on the strong team." He crossed his arms, smiling smugly to himself.

"Yes," Naruto agreed, "he is quite strong for a ninja his age."

Just then, Kakashi landed lightly into a crouch on the rooftop next to the three of them, having jumped from an adjacent rooftop. Kakashi stopped short, spotting the familiar redhead boy, his childhood nemesis from his academy days.

Hideaki stood, his face a look of utter horror, pointing accusingly at the silver-haired boy. "YOU!"

"He's my teammate?" Kakashi asked incredulously of his sensei. Naruto nodded sheepishly. Kakashi stood slowly, crossing his arms and steeling his expression. "Hideaki? Weren't you supposed to graduate last year since we were in the same second year class together?"

"Shut up!" Hideaki shouted in anger, eyebrows furrowed over his blazing green eyes.

"Wait you two know each other?" Tana asked, surprised at the turn of events.

Kakashi nodded.

"Sensei!" Hideaki called, turning to the blond, "I thought this was the strong team! This shrimp isn't strong enough to be on my team!"

Kakashi raised an eyebrow, wondering sincerely how Hideaki thought he was stronger than himself. "I should be asking that of you."

Hideaki growled. "You bastard!"

"Now, now," Naruto smiled nervously, jumping to his feet and walking between the boys, "Let's just calm down a bit. Kakashi, don't make matters worse, and Hideaki, Kakashi has been training with me for two years now and is not the same person that you knew at the academy. Not to mention, your file says you graduated with the lowest marks in your class and failed to pass your genin exam the first year around."

Hideaki harumphed, looking away.

"We're all teammates now, so lets put our grudges behind us and start fresh," Naruto finished, unperturbed by Hideaki's angry mumbling.

"Just stay out of my way, dead last." Kakashi said finally, shoving his hands into his pockets.

Hideaki turned his head, eye flashing to Kakashi, piercing holes through the boy's brain.

Naruto scratched the back of his head, looking at the two boys and hoping they would eventually get over their issues with each other. "Let's al meet up for dinner, Ichiraku Ramen at 8 o'clock, okay?" He suggested to the bunch, "I'll explain your genin exam and we can all get to know each other over a nice bowl of ramen - my treat!" The blond waved, forming a seal and disappearing before any of them could refuse.

Kakashi turned and walked towards the stairwell.

"Wait up, Kakashi!" Tana called, scrambling to her feet and jogging after the boy.

Hideaki reluctantly followed after his new teammates, trailing behind them.

"I'm Tana," She introduced herself, walking next to him and smiling.

Kakashi cast a sidelong glance at her, but said nothing.

She pursed her lips, looking away awkwardly, "So, what is this 'genin exam' that Naruto-sensei mentioned?"

"I don't know; I didn't have a test." Kakashi replied shortly as they exited the academy, past the student that were meeting their new teachers. Kakashi fished out the leaf he had stuck in his pocket from earlier that morning. He stared at it, pinched between two fingers, examining its structure, as if that would help him at all in learning to use his chakra element. He had been working at it for a few weeks now and still he couldn't manage to effect it in the slightest.

"I've got to go." He said suddenly, stuffing the leaf back into his pocket.

"Huh? Where?" Tana asked, hoping she could use the time until dinner to get to know her teammates a little better.

"To train."

"Can we come?" She asked hopefully

"No."

Tana frowned, coming to a stop in the middle of the road as they watched Kakashi continue on down the street. "What a jerk."

"Tana, you wouldn't want to train with that shrimp, anyway. Trust me, I know him; he's a selfish asshole." Hideaki spoke next to her.

Tana gave him a doubtful look. "Even so, he's already been a genin for a while now, he must know a lot of things that we don't know yet." Tana took off down the road, jogging after Kakashi and leaving Hideaki stammering.

"But he's just a little kid! What could he possibly know?!" He called after her.

Tana looked back, shouting over her shoulder, "We wont know unless we go and see!"

Hideaki huffed, shaking his head, "This is so stupid..." He ran after Tana, quickly catching up and trailing Kakashi with her. They followed him to the edge of Konoha to the training grounds. They squatted behind a rather large bush directly under a tree that was near the opening to the field, watching Kakashi who had stopped in the center of the field.

Kakashi preformed several seals, summoning three shadow clones. The three clones walked to a bush, each picking a single leaf and returning to the center of the field. Kakashi breathed heavily, feeling the tax on his body after summoning so many clones. It never ceased to amaze him just how many clones his sensei could summon without being effected in the slightest. He cracked his neck to each side, and closed his eyes, focusing on the flow of chakra through his body as he held the leaf between his two palms.

"Clones? Hah! What's he going to do with a few stupid clones and a few leaves?" Hideaki jeered.

"Hush!" Tana turned to the redhead and snapped, whispering harshly, "You're going to blow our cover." She quickly looked back over the field, making sure they hadn't been found out. "I really do wonder what he's doing, though."

"Well, it doesn't look like anything except wasting our time."

"Either that," Tana countered, "or it's something advanced enough that we don't even know about it."

Hideaki tsked, rolling his eyes and leaning back against the tree trunk.

"Byakuugan," She spoke softly, activating her kekkai genkai.

"Woah!" Hideaki exclaimed, watching her eyes.

Tana's face turned to an expression of surprise.

"What is it?" Hideaki questioned, crawling next to her and looking over the field himself, as if he could see what she saw.

Tana smiled, "That's so cool - his clones aren't normal clones. They're each molding their own chakra separately from each other."

"No way.." Hideaki breathed, "That's so...cool, I guess." His own admonition of Kakashi's coolness disturbed him and he shoved the thought away, hoping that by ignoring it he would forget it ever happened. "Well, what are they doing?"

"I'm not entirely sure..." Tana admitted, frowning, "They're molding their chakra into the leaf."

"To the leaf?" Hideaki dead panned, "That's stupid. What does he think will happen by putting chakra into a leaf. I guess he's a stupid shrimp after all."

The two waited there for nearly half an hour and Kakashi had continued to do the same thing, dispelling his clones once and creating three new clones.

"This is boring, let's get out of here." Hideaki spoke up, chewing a a weed he had picked from the ground while watching the clouds. He glanced languidly over to Tana who continued to watch their silver-haired teammate with great interest and a slight scowl on her face. "If you keep scowling so much your face will be stuck like that forever."

Her face immediately relaxed and she turned to him, sticking out her tongue.

Hideaki laughed once to himself. "Common, lets go," he pushed himself up into a squatting position, looking to Tana expectantly.

Tana shook her head, looking towards Kakashi and his clones. "I want to figure out what he's doing with those leaves."

"It doesn't matter; we're not learning anything by watching. I'm going home." He stood, sticking his hands in his pockets and walking back towards Konoha.

Tana sighed, finally releasing her kekkai genkai. "Wait!" She called after him.

Hideaki paused, turning and watching Tana run up to him. His eyes glanced up and for an instant met one of the Kakashi's eyes, locking for several seconds, before Kakashi looked away, focusing again on his leaf. Hideaki squinted, his eyes lingering on the younger boy for a moment longer before he looked back to Tana.

She smiled and they walked back together.