Title: Are You Ready?
Chapter: 15 – Headway
Author: Killaurey
Rating: T
Word Count: 3,870
Summary: AU. Sakura gives up on Kakashi as a teacher after Team 7 falls apart. Too bad fate, enemy ninja, and sheer bad luck have other plans.
Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me. It's Kishimoto's and I just play with it. Part 15 of ? Unbeta'd.
Discretion. Circumspection. Timing.
It's a fact that, in the first few years of any Yamanaka's life, they are never left unattended by elders in the Clan. Babbling toddlers have no concept of secrecy and the clumsy, flailing motions of learning to roll over, sit up, stand, walk and then run… that clumsiness is replicated in the way their minds reach out, gleefully, looking for the next shiny, incomprehensible bauble to explore.
And, like any child, they can easily cause harm in their explorations—both to themselves and to the unaware people whose minds are within reach.
Ino's not a baby, or a toddler, and while she's not full-grown yet, she's considered an adult in the eyes of the village, if not in the eyes of her Clan. She knows the value of keeping secrets and she knows how to say a million things while saying absolutely nothing at all.
Yamanaka tend to either be too chatty or too quiet but it's the same thing, in the end, it's just a way to draw lines between what they should say and what they could say. Ino talks because she likes talking but it's a tool, too, and one she's been drilled in for her whole life.
So she doesn't say anything as Hatake-sensei stalls, scolds himself for stalling, and then stalls again. She's never lost her family (and her mind shudders away from that) or her home so she can't really figure out how to help him—if he even wanted her help. Sometimes people don't want help with the things that hurt them.
Ino struggles with understanding that too.
Growing up, there's always been someone around to help her when she's needed it and, in return, she's always helped those who've needed it back. That's just how family works even though Ino's old enough to know that it's not how families work for a lot of people.
Including Sakura.
"What are we going to do first, Hatake-sensei?" she asks, figuring a solid goal might be the thing to get them moving. "Are we going to get the lay of the Main House first or should we just enter and start cleaning room-to-room and search as we clean?"
She hears his disdain for himself, the flicker quick resentment that he's not better than this, and the firm thought that he hadn't brought them here to clean.
"What do you think, Sakura?" Ino continues blithely, before all of those conflicting thoughts sort themselves into words.
Sakura glances between her and Hatake-sensei, her green eyes dubious. "Well," she says hesitantly. "It's much nicer to search when things are clean… but I don't know if I want to spend our time here cleaning either…"
What do you want me to say?! Sakura's inner voice demands.
Ino shrugs back at her. It doesn't really matter. There's no right or wrong answer here, just something to push them forward instead of walking in endless stalling circles.
"I guess we can just see what it's like?" Sakura offers. "And make our decision then?"
"Sounds good to me," Ino says, since it is, and Hatake-sensei is moving again.
"Besides," Sakura adds, "it's going to rain soon."
Ino laughs. "You won't melt!"
"Maybe I will!"
They bicker, cheerfully, as they wind their way through the over-grown trails and paths of the Hatake estate and while Hatake-sensei doesn't say anything, he also doesn't try to stop them, and Ino can tell that he's at least a little bit amused.
And he's also a little surprised to realize that he knows them well enough to know when they're really arguing and when they're just… entertaining themselves.
"Oh!" Ino says, as they round a corner. "Hatake-sensei, do you think there's any chance the summoning scroll is outside in the gardens?"
The idea just occurred to her and, from the way Sakura stops and looks around in the gloom, it's just hit her too.
"Because of the dogs?" Sakura says. "Maybe they buried it?"
Hatake-sensei is also looking around and while she can't read his expression, Ino is pretty sure that he's never thought about it either. "I suppose we can't rule it out," he says, sounding a little nonplussed at the idea.
"Would the jutsu you taught us work here?" Sakura asks. "Or would we have to… dig… everything up?"
Sakura doesn't sound enthused by that and, honestly, neither is Ino.
She makes a face. "It's going to take us a lot longer than a week if we've got to dig," Ino points out. "Though I guess with the client here, a change in mission parameters isn't out of the question."
"I'll think about it," Hatake-sensei says. "We'll look inside first. If it's not in the Main House, we'll figure out the best way to move forward then."
Ino giggles. "Do you know digging jutsu, Hatake-sensei? Or would we have to hope some shovels are still intact?"
"A cruel sensei like me would make you do it with your hands," he says, curving his visible eye into a smile. There's no sting to his words. He's joking just like they are. It makes her happy to feel that.
"If that happens, I want hazard pay," Sakura says, as lightning cracks across the sky. "Also, unless we're staying outside, I'd like to get inside before we get soaked!"
"Are you sure you're not made of sugar?" Ino asks, though she, too, picks up her pace. Ino doesn't really want to have to spend the afternoon cleaning while she's damp and chilled to the bone thanks to rain either.
No one here would care about what her hair would look like but she'd care about that too. Ino keeps her mouth shut on that, though, since Hatake-sensei isn't huge on catering to vanity. It's just not practical enough for him.
"You're both made of salt," Hatake-sensei declares, before Sakura can shoot back with a retort. "If the scroll is out here, it's survived worse than a rainstorm. We'll check inside first. Come on, that's enough."
Everything will be fine.
Inoichi is absolutely, completely certain of this. It's a bit in convenient that his daughter has chosen a path that deviates from the one he'd gently set her upon from before she was ever born, but he's sure it will all work out.
Sometimes the paths that go off the well-known trails are the ones most interesting to follow.
And Satsuki would have approved.
She never had been as keen as he had been on the idea of generation upon generation reprising the same skills and teamwork, always looking for something different, something that might work better. Of course, she'd been a second generation kunoichi without any long traditions to fall back on and she had been incredibly prideful in her own determination to carve her own path.
The idea of ancient traditions holding personal relevance to her family, and, in time, her daughter had been something she'd never considered when Inoichi had first asked her out.
She'd said no when he'd asked her the first time. A year later, after working out of the same camp, she'd asked him, and it had been history from there.
Inoichi smiles faintly.
His wife is long dead, but Inoichi still misses her ferociously. She'd be proud of her daughter for choosing a path that was right for her and supported a friend's journey at the same time.
Inoichi is also proud of his daughter.
He hadn't expected the request for a transfer but then he also hadn't expected the entire situation with Hatake. Had Hatake been the same one who had ruined his Team 7, then Ino would never have asked. He would never have approved either.
Nor had she chosen to change teams out of spite.
He wouldn't have approved of a transfer for a reason like that either. Petty squabbles and ugly arguments were part of teamwork and it was, frankly, better for them to fight it out and become stronger for having done so than intervening when Shikamaru's choice had been a one-off.
A pattern of being left behind would be a different situation altogether. Inoichi has read the reports and the mission parameters that Shikamaru had been given and while he would have made different choices... he has the experience in forming teams and making them work that Shikamaru hadn't.
He sees Ino's side of things, but he doesn't disagree with Shikamaru's choices made under pressure for a mission a bunch of Genin should never have been on in the first place.
No, it shouldn't have happened the way it had but it had and there's no point in trying to rewrite the future with the present's pen.
Nonetheless, Inoichi is glad that Ino will be out of town for a little while. He can feel her-even when he's not trying, he always knows where his daughter is when they're both in the village and it's a comfort to them both, usually, but her upset weighs heavily on him and if he can iron out the worst of the Clan drama while she's gone...
Well, it will only benefit the both of them. Hatake was not entirely wrong when he mentioned that Inoichi was coddling his daughter. He is, but not to weaken her. He wants her strong and he won't interfere with her relationships with her peers... but he will handle those who really are old enough to know better.
He goes looking for her with his mind and can't find her.
Hatake hadn't told him much about the mission they were going on and Inoichi hadn't pried, knowing good and well that should he really want to know he'd be able to get his hands on the mission brief. Instead, he was trusting Hatake, the weird, out of time version that was determined to do better.
Ino wanted him to stay. So did Sakura.
As a parent, he wanted the more competent teacher to remain. As a shinobi of the leaf... it was more complicated. This Hatake Kakashi didn't belong in this time and Inoichi was on the team meant to figure out how to send him back and retrieve their Hatake Kakashi. Inoichi prided himself on being very good at his job.
He also prided himself on being a good father.
Navigating the thin line between the two halves was an... interesting task.
He did wonder where Hatake had gone with the girls though. He'd followed their progress, tracking Ino's mind, and then they had abruptly... disappeared. Had it not been for the tangled anticipation and apprehension he'd gotten from his daughter right before they'd gone he'd have been concerned.
As it was, he was intrigued.
They hadn't been near any of the gates out of the village but at the same time they were no longer in it.
The spirit of my request, he thinks wryly, if not the letter.
Whatever it was, it suited both of their purposes. He'd take it.
And for now, I might be the only one who does. Well, he's an old hat at getting his way.
And this is for his daughter, which is even more incentive.
Inoichi hums a little as he bends his head over the arrangement he's working on. It's a civilian order, nothing dangerous, but it's a point of pride to make very arrangement look as good as possible. They might make most of their money through their poisons but the flowers are part of their aesthetic.
When Shikaku and Chouza show up, Inoichi stays with the flowers, knowing they'll let themselves in and come find him. This is different from the more formal meeting they'd had a few days ago in the greenhouse, where the boys had been allowed in, and many of the adults in the Clans who were in the village too. Ino had had so many mixed feelings on being excluded from that meeting but Inoichi still thinks it was for the best.
"Hey," he says, carefully winding a sprig of baby's breath into his work as the door to his workshop opens and his teammates come through.
Tonight they're at the shop, rather than the greenhouses, and that alone makes this less formal.
"Good evening," Chouza says, taking a bench to sit on while Shikaku heads straight for where Inoichi hides sake.
He doesn't usually drink while working but sometimes he does.
"Where did you send your daughter?" Shikaku asks, curiously not judgementally, once he's poured them all a drink. "It's driving Shikamaru mad."
"No idea," Inoichi says cheerfully. "I asked her sensei to take them on a mission out of town for a week. He obliged. I haven't looked into the briefs."
He keeps his thoughts about how he doesn't think they actually left the village to himself. The whole point was to make everyone believe she wasn't here. She's unreachable for the moment and that is the important part of what he'd wanted.
Shikaku hums thoughtfully, sounding a little amused. "You trust that man?"
"Has anything been figured out about his condition?" Chouza asks.
That's an interesting question. Inoichi does a sweep for minds before he answers that.
"He's Hatake Kakashi, through and through," he says, picking up a slim set of clippers. "He's just from the wrong time. We're pretty certain at this point that he's been swapped with himself. I'm not involved in the attempt to decipher the jutsu that would have managed to do that, except peripherally, but they're leaning towards a bloodline limit because it happened in the heat of battle and didn't require set up. As for if we can send him back..."
Inoichi falls silent for a moment, thinking about what to say next.
"We're not sure if it's possible at this point. It's been nearly a month since he showed up here and attempts to reach our timeline's Hatake have failed thus far." He smiles faintly. "Of course, playing with time is always a mess."
There's a good reason most jutsu don't do that. They play with the perception of time, trick the mind into thinking things are faster or slower than are actually happening... but actual time travel is a different thing entirely.
"He's both physically and mentally healthy and has been cleared by the Hokage for duty." He looks up to find both Shikaku and Chouza watching him and finishes with, "Hatake Kakashi has always been a loyal shinobi of Konohagakure no Sato. He remains so, just a little out of step with time."
Shikaku sighs. "But as a teacher?" For your heir?
The second question goes unsaid but not unasked.
"I am keeping my mind on him," Inoichi says mildly. "After all, it's not as if the original Hatake was any good at teaching."
"It's interesting that this one is," Chouza rumbles thoughtfully. "He's how many years out of step? What happened in those years that..."
Ruined him?
"He's about six and a half years out of time," Inoichi says. "And we don't know what changed. We're looking into it. So far the major change was that he left ANBU."
Shikaku scoffs. "No one is more functional in ANBU than out of it."
"It is more structured," Chouza points out, as Inoichi shrugs, carefully trimming an extraneous bud off a stem. "Maybe that's the difference? Jounin don't really have structure unless they make it themselves. Chuunin are more controlled."
And Genin are literally babysat by their Jounin-sensei.
"Maybe," Shikaku allows, though he continues in what Inoichi thinks of as his devil's advocate voice with: "But being a Jounin-sensei is more structured than either ANBU or Jounin. Wouldn't have becoming a teacher helped him in this timeline then?"
"Not if he was forced into it," Inoichi observes. "And he's been failing teams for years. He doesn't want to teach. That it turns out his younger self is a good teacher doesn't change that."
Chouza frowns a little. "And he had two... problematic students with personal ties to his triggers. I'd probably be a bad teacher if I had been put in his shoes, with his background."
None of them had ever been Jounin-sensei. They were too useful elsewhere.
"Now, instead of being forced into something where he has to face his traumas every day... he's training a civilian born girl and a clan heir he has no personal ties to. And he's doing it to make the best of a bad situation. It's a different set of circumstances."
That could be it. It could be something as simple as that. Inoichi doesn't yet know but he will, eventually. There's nothing that he's ever wanted to know that he doesn't learn eventually.
"Either way," he says, "that's the story of Hatake Kakashi for now. If I thought return was imminent for the original Hatake, I wouldn't have allowed Ino to switch teams. Sarutobi's a poor enough teacher but he's not actively out to kill them."
The three of them are quiet, then, as Shikaku and Chouza drink and Inoichi works on his flowers.
On paper, Sarutobi Asuma had been a good match. He was steady, a solid Jounin, independent but loyal to the village, and had some knowledge of previous Nara-Yamanaka-Akimichi teams. His skills dovetailed nicely with theirs.
But they had not counted on him being lazy.
And even for their three clans, it would have been a complicated matter to turn down the Hokage's son as a Jounin-sensei.
They'd expected Ino to have to counter-balance Shikamaru, as she was too driven and he was too lackadaisical, and Chouji was the balance for both of them, a calming influence because they were both high strung and quick to judgement. They were very alike, in many ways.
(And both would deny it ferociously.)
They had not expected that Ino would have to try and balance out her sensei's laziness as well or that Sarutobi would lean into training Shikamaru's intelligence at the cost of the entire team's fieldwork. Of course, Shikamaru would rather play shougi. Of course, Chouji would rather eat yakitori than train.
And, of course, Ino hadn't been able to be a proper balance when three had been weighed against her. No matter how clever and driven and outspoken she was, she was still a Genin, a thirteen year old, striving against a Jounin's inertia.
And a girl.
It shouldn't matter, but it does.
"Well," Shikaku says, "Shikamaru doesn't want to change sensei. It doesn't particularly matter for him, now that he's made Chuunin, since his assignments are going to be more skill-based and less team-based. Not sure if he's realized that yet or if he assumes it's just a temporary measure until Chouji's full healthy again. He will be learning more, whether he wants to or not now. Otherwise he'll just be another dead Chuunin."
The words sound cold, like Shikaku isn't talking about his son and heir, who he loves deeply, but Inoichi knows better.
Shikaku sounds cold because otherwise he'll get too heated.
"In that aspect, his first mission as a Chuunin was good for him. He understands that being in charge needs more than brains now. And that not being strong enough, good enough, could land him with dead comrades." Shikaku downs his latest drink and pours another. "And friends."
Chouza makes a distressed sound. It was his son that nearly died. Shikaku flashes an apologetic look his way.
"Chouji hasn't asked what will happen to Team 10 yet," Chouza says slowly. "He's mostly been focused on his own recovery and on the emotional upheaval caused by this situation. I'd like to get his opinion before making any decisions about his future as a Genin."
Inoichi nods.
With Ino on another team and Shikamaru as a Chuunin, it's going to change a great many things for Chouji, once the fallout settles.
"Personally," Chouza continues, "I'm against asking for him to be transferred to Hatake Kakashi's Team 7. It would be an easy fix to make a viable team and it would calm a number of rumours, but while it's under… new management now and Ino-chan seems to be doing well, I feel it would be a poor fit for all three Genin involved. Chouji's very hurt by Ino's betrayal, and he does blame Haruno for it, though he's trying not to. Pushing the three of them together would only exacerbate their problems."
"And no chance of Ino being returned to Team 10, is there," Shikaku says, though it's not really a question.
Inoichi shakes his head. "None," he says firmly.
If there had been, he never would have allowed Ino to tell Team 10 of the transfer. Especially not in public. Before that, they could have passed it off as a temporary situation while Chouji healed. There were many such temporary arrangements as the village worked on putting itself back together and finding the new normal.
"If our original Hatake is returned to us, that might change," he adds. "Otherwise, no. Ino is thriving for the first time since graduation."
"This is going to snowball," Shikaku says, a warning in his voice. "It always does when someone dares to make waves. Other Genin are going to realize that they don't have to stay with teams they don't work optimally with now. It's not supposed to be about getting along."
"That's true," Inoichi agrees. "If this was just a personality clash, it would have been a different outcome. But this was a training problem and Ino found a way to fix it for her. Every Genin that wants to transfer is going to have to find a team that's willing to take them, convince the sensei to take them, get permission from their parents, and speak with the Hokage about why they want to change teams. I think there will be less changes than you expect. It's a lot of work for a Genin to switch teams, especially when it's initiated by the Genin themselves."
"The worst part is going to be the talk," Chouza murmurs. "People are already asking what was wrong with her team. Everyone knows that Ino-Shika-Chou teams are supposed to be rock-solid."
They usually are.
"So we blame Sarutobi," Inoichi says. "The Sandaime has passed. Tsunade-sama, as Godaime, has no reason to shield Sarutobi the way the Sandaime would have."
"And people say I'm cold," Shikaku murmurs, but he laughs, a harsh sound. "Between that, Ino's friendship with Haruno, and Shikamaru already being a Chuunin, once we get our Clans on board with the story, it should be manageable. Even Chouji's long recovery helps in this case. A healthy kunoichi can't be seen just sitting around just waiting for training. It's impetuous, her jumping teams, but then…"
"Ino is, I know," Inoichi says, and he loves and fears it in about equal measures. He desperately hopes it doesn't get her killed some day. "Are we agreed, then?"
"Yes," Chouza says.
Shikaku shrugs a little. "Sure."
"Alright," Inoichi says, with relief in his voice. "Then, onto the next matter of business. In-Clan damage control."
"I might just drop a couple of them out windows," Shikaku grumbles. "Back-talking brats… some of them are way too old to be acting the way they are too…"
"Names, Shikaku," Chouza says, amused. "We can't fix it without names."