"What are you thinking about?" Rin said as she joined him on the balcony, giving her back to the sky.
Kakashi didn't answer, gazing out at the afternoon streets of Konoha. The usual din of people bustling about filtered by the rustling tree canopies hewed into buildings. From his view, a queue was forming outside a sweets shop adorned with a rust-coloured banner that undulated in the breeze.
"Nothing, really," he finally said. His hands hung over the edge of the railing. Then he broke his trance to acknowledge her, "I heard Tsunade-sama was looking for you."
"Yeah," she said, prolonging the word. "She wanted me to join the war medic team she's taking to the border. She's been harping on it ever since she heard my team has been going on missions without me. I declined naturally."
"Why did you do that?"
"She only takes an interest in me because of the Reconstruction jutsu. The Hyuuga Healing Force has also been pressing me for that reason. I managed to shut down their advances when I took a team last year, and now it's all started up again. There's apparently a competition between the two to see which one can get to me first."
"Why not relent? There's a lot of good that can come from applying your skills to the medical sphere."
Rin waved his words away, scrunching up her face in distaste. "You know that's not why I created that jutsu. I hate all the notoriety that comes with it. Besides, you're changing the subject. Something's bothering you."
Kakashi frowned, irritated at how good she was at picking him apart. He took some time to select the right words, twirling a leaf he'd plucked out the air between his thumb and index. "I've been thinking of the village systems' inception…"
"Yeah?"
He blew out a breath, feeling overcome with gloom, "It's useless to have this conversation."
"You can't stop now, Kakashi."
"Alright, alright. Think about this: when we become ninja, we forfeit a happy life and a happy end to that life. We bare our jugular veins to the assault of missions day in and day out. We are meant to be machines, hired to kill for a high enough price.
"When our leaders created the village system, they did so with the intention of making a world where children would be sheltered and allowed to flourish in peace... Yet here we are, nearly a century later - surrounded by war and enlisting twelve-year-olds, teaching them to forfeit their happiness and turning them into profitable killing machines."
Rin stewed on the words for a bit, her chin dipped and shadow outlining the moon of her face. "Are you critical of our system of shinobi as a whole or the fact that we're using children?"
"Let's say it's the latter, do you not agree?"
"I don't think I do," she said, a fact which surprised him. "We're not clipping the wings of young children when we enlist them as genin - at least, that's not always the case. Some of them don't have families or a figure to guide them. Some of them are searching for a purpose and would find themselves with much worse company. Some of them grow up hearing stories of heroes, wanting to be like them, and we give them a chance to actualize those dreams."
"Obito had a dream. Something about becoming Hokage? Look where it got him."
She fell silent, no doubt blindsided by the comment. He felt a pang of guilt for having brought it up, but was relieved when she chose not to press him on it.
"I don't have the answers, Kakashi. I try my best to protect my team from the worst of a shinobi's life, and I leave the rest up to the powers that be. Until something fundamental changes about the world, we will never see children that are allowed to simply flourish - that are innocent of killing and don't have their futures cut short - in our lifetimes."
He nodded, closing his eyes and savouring a brief zephyr. "I told you this was a pointless conversation."
"Not really. This tells me why you fail all your teams." From the position of her voice, she had turned towards the balcony.
"You know why they fail."
"Mm, that test is particularly hard. You're giving a new team's exam tomorrow, aren't you? That's what this is all about."
He blinked, standing straight, stretching out his arms which had begin to fall asleep. "Whatever you want to think of it. I haven't figured it out myself."
Her expression changed as a familiar bunch entered the queue at the sweet shop. "What are the chances your streak changes with this team? Sensei's son is on this one."
"Can I be honest?"
"Hm?"
"Next to none."
.
"What did I say?" Kushina stole a look back at him, a murderous intent outlining her rising red hair.
"I'm not holding her hand," Naruto hissed. "Not here in public! That's way too embarrassing."
"See, brother, its not too embarrassing for mom to beat you in public. Maybe think about that," Aka said, a devilish smile on her frustratingly adorable face.
"You shut up," he snapped. "Why can't you stop wandering off every few minutes? You were the one that suggested we get dango!"
"Tell your sister to shut up one more time Naruto-"
"Now, now, Kushina," the annoying old toad geezer interrupted cautiously. "There's no need to get-"
"Apologize to your sister. Right now!"
"Why am I the one apologizing? Didn't you hear what she said to me?"
"I was ignored... " Jiraiya said dejectedly. Aka patted his arm as consolation.
A few minutes later, Naruto was pressing a bruised cheek with one hand, holding his red-headed baby sister's hand with another, and trying to gulp dango without the use of his hands as both of them watched Kushina vehemently refuse Jiraiya's attempts to pay. Eventually, it ended up getting violent with parts of the sweet shop being demolished and several of the other customers scrambling for their lives, so Naruto and her moved a safe distance away and continued devouring their dango. The situation worsened as two police officers got involved to physically restrain Kushina, but both of them backed off almost immediately to not sustain lethal injuries. Aka looked hopefully at the last purple piece of dango left with Naruto and begrudgingly he stuck it into her mouth. Arrests were underway however they were let loose after both Jiraiya and his mother got on their knees and apologized to the shopkeeper for the damages and promised never to visit the shop. The police officers also forgave the felony of noncompliance and resisting arrest though Naruto felt as though they were simply too afraid to deal with his mother at this point.
On their way back, Jiraiya said, "I hate chivalry."
.
Sasuke came to a teetering stop on a residential roof when he heard a voice call out from below. He searched the street and spotted Izumi dressed in official police force attire, waving him down.
"What?" he called out but descended, so he was a bit closer.
"Hey, Sasuke! How's-"
"Itachi?" he cut in.
"I was going to ask how's your school going," she finished. "I heard you've got the genin exams tomorrow."
"We already did them," he said and pointed to his forehead protector. "Any idiot can do the clone jutsu."
"Oh, yeah, of course," she said laughingly. "Anyways, how is Itachi? Have you seen him around?"
"Nah, he's too important to have a family now."
An obnoxious sound cut their conversation, "Where the hell do you think you're going without my permission?"
Another kunoichi dressed in the same uniform came into view.
"Anko-san... " Izumi said weakly. "I don't need your permission to do anything. We're partners and you're only a few years my senior."
Anko swung an arm around her neck and then with a mischievous grin said, "Nope! Wrong answer, slave."
Sasuke was about to run off before her attention snaked towards him, "And who're you?" Then she nudged Izumi with her head, "Oh, is he that one's brother?"
From the look on Izumi's face, Anko would soon be turned to ashes if she kept running her mouth. Sasuke resisted the urge to roll his eyes until they got lost in their sockets. Was it supposed to be a secret?
"So, how is that infamous brother of yours, by the way? Look at him stealing all the spotlight while we're standing here doing ten-hour shifts in this kind of heat."
"Infamous? What is he infamous for?" he asked, his lip quirking down.
"Oh, you'd know! Infamously good-looking? Infamously aloof? Infamously mysterious and broody?" she said with a vile squeak and an attempt at cuteness that could be classified as a war crime. "Mustn't it suck being brothers with someone so awesome?"
Izumi gaped at her.
Something awakened inside Sasuke then.
A desire to kill people.
He chose not to act on this desire for now. Too many witnesses. Too high-stakes. He would revisit the idea later in favourable circumstances.
"H-Hey, where are you running off to?" Izumi shouted as he turned his back to them.
"I have better things to do with my time than waste it on the likes of you," he spat and turned tail. He ripped through the rooftops, ears hot with anger.
Itachi this. Itachi that. He couldn't take two steps outside his house without being bombarded with people asking about his brother.
To hell with them all, he thought, trying to deaden the fire rising in his throat. To hell with every one of them. Like I give a crap.
.
"Tch, he can get so foul when angry. How could you say all that?" Izumi asked, wrenching her arm off her.
"Ahahahahaha! Look at him go. He's so pissed. He'll probably bash his head somewhere." She wiped a stray tear from her eye, "Ah, I love tormenting kids."
"You're a terrible person."
.
"So tomorrow will be your first day as a ninja?" Her mother asked as she set the fish on the table, a hair of concern laced in her voice.
"Uh-huh," Sakura said absentmindedly, her book propped between the her legs and the table, her head hanging in as she tried to keep herself from losing her place.
"You're really taking it all the way, eh?" her father said.
Sakura nodded.
She slapped her book shut as soon as she saw her mother making a dive for it and dropped it onto her lap. "When your father asks you a question answer it properly," her mother huffed, even more annoyed now that Sakura had thwarted her attempts to extract her book. "And how many times do I have to tell you to stop reading at the table?"
Sakura looked up at the ceiling then back at her parents. Her palms smoothing the worn-down cover beneath the tabletop. She made her voice louder with some effort, "I've already told you so many times. I want to be a ninja."
"It's a dangerous lifestyle," her father warned. "You could even get killed, you know. We've never had a kunoichi in the family."
"But you agreed to send me to the academy. What was the point of all that training? I can't be forced to back out, now."
"We understand that," Mebuki said, taking Sakura's hand in hers, "and no one's forcing you to. But we want to let you know that we talked with the instructors. If any circumstances arise in the future, you can back out. You've got so many talents that can be of use to the Leaf. If everyone became a ninja then the world would stop turning."
Sakura nodded, trying to ignore the dread creeping into her gut. They'd talked to the instructor? Would word get out that her parents had confirmed she could drop out if things got too hard? Would she be the laughingstock of the class tomorrow?
She hesitated, her eyes flitted down and then she said, "Thank you, mom, dad."
"Of course," her mother said and kissed the top of her head. "We just want to protect you. You don't know what the world is like yet. You're so fragile."
She swallowed hard. They were right. Of course, they were. But it being so blatantly stated by her parents a day into becoming a real ninja left a huge, gaping wound. Sakura was glad that her bangs proved useful in shielding her eyes from her parents.
Her fingers - now moistened with sweat - curled around the edges of her book as she, in spite of her weakness, continued to grasp a childish dream.
Hello, all! Thank you for reading and forgive the occasional grammar error. I'm not a 100% sold on parts of this chapter, but I didn't want to wait any longer. As always, please offer feedback; I can handle (almost) anything.