"I'll turn in everyone's reports," Minato said, collecting their scrolls as each of them moved to sign in. "We won't be meeting for training for a couple days at least. I want everyone to focus on getting some rest. Especially you, Kakashi. Be careful with that leg."

Kakashi just huffed and dropped the pen back down on the desk. "Sure."

"We should get something to eat," Rin suggested. "Especially if it'll be a couple days before we meet up again."

Obito nodded eagerly. "That's a great idea, Rin-chan!"

Minato hesitated, glancing down at the scrolls and considering his injured student. "I'm not sure that—"

"We could get ramen, and you could invite Kushina-san," Obito cut in.

"I'll meet you at Ichiraku," Minato decided, looking around at his two students. He paused. "Did Kakashi already leave?"

The two of them startled. Rin sighed. "We'll find him and meet you there. He shouldn't be too hard to find, I think." She exchanged a look with Obito and winced. "I hope," she amended.

"Okay." He ruffled Obito's hair, knocking his goggles askew, and said, "If he doesn't want to join us, don't push him too much, 'kay? Be patient with him."

"Yeah, yeah," Obito said, fumbling to fix his goggles. "Of course not. Who do you think I am, Sensei? I'm always patient with Bakashi."

That didn't inspire confidence.

Minato left before he could decide to stop them.

"Hey, pretty boy."

Minato jerked himself out of his yawn and stopped in his tracks. When he looked ahead, he found Kushina leaning against one of the pillars just outside Hokage Tower, arms crossed and a smirk playing about her lips. Instead of her shinobi uniform, she was wearing a long sundress that showed she was both off-duty and wanting to do something other than lounge around her apartment. He grinned and hurried to close the distance. "I was just about to come looking for you," he said.

She matched his grin and pushed herself away from the pillar and into his arms. "Were ya, now?"

"Dinner?"

"Perfect. I have lots to tell you."

"Ah." He faltered. "With my students," he amended.

"Hmm. Well, I'll save some of it for latter, then, dattebane." She hopped up on her tiptoes to peck a kiss to his cheek. Then she grabbed his hand and started dragging him down the street. "Ichiraku?"

"Of course."

She did an excited skip mid-step. "Okay, biggest thing first. I have a student! I'm a sensei!"

He thought through when Academy graduations should be. "A genin?" he asked, confused. "You got an apprentice?"

She flushed a bit. "No, not an apprentice. I don't know that I could handle that. That's not— Okay, you know Obito?"

"Obito?" Minato echoed. "Uchiha Obito? My student Obito?" He was trying his best to maintain a straight face, but he couldn't quite fight off the smirk tugging at his lips. "No. I've no idea who that is."

She slugged him in the arm, flushing. "Shut up, dattebane!"

He laughed. "Okay! Sorry, sorry!" He held out his arm, grinning when she stepped into his side to walk closely with him. "What about Obito, then?"

"Right." She rubbed at her flaming cheeks. "So he's got a little sister."

"Kyoko? You're teaching Kyoko?"

"You know her?" she asked.

"Yeah. Obito loves to talk about his family, but Kyoko is the only one of the twins I've met. She's nice. Smart, from what I've know."

"Verysmart. And either an easy crier or I'm really just the most awful person Tsunade coulda picked."

"Crier?"

"I made hercry!"Kushina wailed, pulling away from him to cover her face. "Kami, I coulda died. I still don't know what I did, Mina, but it took like five seconds for me to make her upset. I'm theworstteacher."

"I'm sure you're not," he soothed. "What are you teaching her?"

"Sealing," she muttered.

"You'regreatat teaching that. You taught me, didn't you?"

She pinned him with a pouting glare. "Don't patronize me."

"I'm not!" he said, putting both hands up.

"My favorite two customers!" Teuchi called, interrupting their conversation. "What can I get you?"

"Ohayo! Miso for me, salt for Kushina," Minato said, bumping her shoulder before sitting down. "Thanks. My students should be here soon." As Teuchi moved to start on their ramen, Minato turned back to Kushina. "How did you end up teaching her fuuinjutsu?"

"We're here! Sorry, sorry! We're here!" Rin gasped out as his students all stumbled to a stop.

Well, his students plus one.

"Kyoko-chan," Minato greeted, glancing sidelong at Kushina to find that she was already regarding her new student with a beaming smile. "Did Obito grab you? I'm sorry if we interrupted anything."

"We didn't interrupt anything," Obito muttered, claiming the stool right by his sensei. "She and Kakashi weretraining."He said the last word as if it was something terrible.

Minato blinked. "You two train together?" he asked, looking towards his youngest student.

Kakashi had his shoulders hunched and didn't look at him even as he and Kyoko claimed stools next to each other. "Sometimes," he conceded.

Rin looked anxious as she looked between her two teammates. Then she gave Minato a tired smile. "They were both at the training ground where we found Kakashi. I invited Kyoko to come along."

"Thank you, Rin-chan."

"Ohayo, Kyoko-chan!" Kushina finally burst out.

Kyoko nodded to Kushina, cheeks dusting just a little pink and her neutral expression slipping into sheepishness for just a second. "Ohayo, Kushina-sensei."

Obito snapped around to look at her. "Sensei?" he demanded. "What do you mean sensei?" He turned to Kushina. "Did you get a team, Kushina? Didja?"

Kushina barked a laugh. "Absolutely not! No, I'm filling in for Jiraiya as Kyoko-chan's fuuinjutsu teacher."

As Rin and Obito rounded on Kyoko in surprise—Kakashi, though, continued to stare aimlessly at the menu—Minato noted how Kyoko shifted back and glanced out at the street. He took pity on her and rushed to redirect. "Go ahead and order. Let's not make Teuchi stand there all day."

Teuchi laughed. "What can I get for you all?"

As Obito launched into his order after only the briefest continued hesitation over his sister, Minato glanced at Kyoko just in time to see her and Kakashi exchange an unreadable look followed by her giving a small shrug and Kakashi's shoulders hitching in a near-silent laugh.

Huh. Well it was nice to know Kakashi had made a friend.