The long chair was comfy, and he sank further into its welcoming warmth. The little window showed him one black-haired boy, meeting three other people. A man with fluffy, light dandelion hair, a girl with distinctive purple rectangles marking her cheeks cutely, and a boy with white hair, crossing his arms.

Yellow light emanated from the window and lit up the only two silver-haired figures sitting around a fire. One of them spoke first, face full of wrinkles. His eyes showed a melancholy, "Who would have thought that you and I would both die so young?"

"Though, not as young as your mother."

"Father, I had always wanted to ask you something."

The man turned.

"I wanted to ask why you, the White Fang of the Leaf, would choose to willingly ignore the village code to abandon a crucial mission to save your comrades. You knew if you choose to let them die no one would condemn you. Instead, you were dishonored, and committed suicide."

The silver-haired man turned to the fire, "Made me so bitter."

"I see," The older man replied, both turning to see the fire dance before their eyes, "Seems like you had your fair share of troubles too."

"You know what, Father? Now I realize you did what you thought was right. You know what the consequences would be, and you choose your friends' lives over the code."

"And I'm proud of it."

The older man wobbled, "Thank you, son."

Ban awoke to Ichigo's hand wiping away sweat from his forehead. His frowning face was the first thing he saw as the morning light began creeping into the room. Coldness wrapped around his frame as he tasted the stale air.

"Not dying?" Ichigo tried to lighten his worry with the question.

Ban smiled at the obvious answer, "I'm… not?"

"Then if you're not, get up!" Ichigo grabbed the ends of the futon, and suddenly the cold wooden planks touched his back and forced him upright. He grinned and shoved fabric into his arms, "We have to get up!"

"Hurry hurry!" The little beam of morning joy pushed Ban step by step, blurs of Ichigo's 'hello's and 'get out the way!' until he was pushed into the small bathroom. The door slammed shut behind him.

Ban looked down at what Ichigo shoved into his hands earlier.

… he was going to have to pretend there was a towel in that pile, wasn't he?

He gritted his teeth and got it over with. After they cleared their breakfast away, he asked, "What do we have to do today?"

Ichigo stretched as they walked under the sun, like a cat bathing in its warmth, "I think the old man said he wasn't coming today, right?" As if something popped, he brightened, "Oh… does that mean we can play outside then?"

"We still have to go to the store to pick up the food again."

Ichigo laughed, a joyous freed laugh, "Man, I don't miss laundry duty at all!"

"I do."

"That's because yours was easy."

"It was."

With that, the two left the orphanage gates and once again, ventured into Konoha. Ichigo navigated around where they needed to be. It was nice to see his usually directionless friend finally gain some sense of wind and find his way around. Ban stood aside and allowed himself to be led through more detours than necessary.

"This should be the park, and then… you turn here."

Ban clapped as they stood in the familiar park, "Wow! You remembered, 'Go?"

"I did!"

His eyes shone like a child anticipating praise from their parents. And with eyes as wide as a kitty's, Ban could only follow through with what he wanted, "That's great! That was so hard to do. Thanks to you, we don't have to get lost anymore!"

"Yeah! I saved both of our asses right?"

"... At least you don't use that kind of language in front of the Shinobi-sama,"

A familiar signature of crackling thunder under rain entered. Ban resisted the urge to turn to look at him or else he would be offended that he was discovered and that would destroy his fragile ego-or something like that.

"What language?"

"Gah!" Ichigo screeched as he whipped to Kakashi, now furious, "You scared me!"

"I didn't," The boy with the languid air that suggest he could not care less crossed his arms, "You were just too distracted to notice me. I didn't even try to hide."

"Hello again, Hatake-san."

The other took a long look at him before, as if bestowing a great privilege, "You can call me Kakashi."

"Me?" Ban pointed to himself in disbelief.

"Oi! What about me?"

The other turns to him, and he could see 'bug' quickly run through Kakashi's eyes. He sneered, "Not you."

"That's cheating!" He prickled up like a cat, charging up an attack the same way he was charging up a lunge, "You're picking on me! Let me call you by your name too, damn it! You can't steal my best friend-"

Kakashi rolled his eyes and began walking.

"Hey, where are you going?"

Kakashi continued on his path, going straight for a tree. Ban's word of caution died when he planted a foot on that tree and simply continued his way up, despite the fact that he was literally sticking to a tree trunk. Kakashi was now parallel to the ground.

"Hey-Hey! That's totally not fair!"

Kakashi made his way onto a tree branch and just stood there.

The other screamed from below, "Come down here!"

Comically, Ichigo also tried to climb the tree that was void of any low-hanging branches, leaving him looking like a particularly legless centipede. He was just writhing against the bark as Kakashi judged from above.

Maybe this is how they're bonding.

"Hata-er-Kakashi-san, can you come down?"

"Why don't you come up?"

"'Cause we can't. Now, do ya want to play with us or not?"

He spat and rolled his eyes in one, "You guys are weaklings."

"Of course, we are. We're-" Ban paused. They weren't the same age, were they? "I'm four. He's four."

"I'm four too," The boy in the tree spat with disgust, "You can't even use chakra?"

Ichigo defended himself from where he sat at the base of the tree, "Hey! The old man just told us what it was, alright?" His hand waved around, "He didn't let us do anything yet!"

The boy snorted but nevertheless did a demonstration as he walked vertically down the tree. He stopped midway and stuck himself there, crossing his arm. "Like this." He seemed to turn his nose up a bit, prideful at what he was able to do.

The blue sheen solidified in a little film on the soles of the boy's feet. He willed his blue sheen condensed around his stomach to also cover his feet.

He trudged nearer to the tree to give what the boy was doing a try. Looking at the tree... just a little bit of blue sheen wouldn't be enough for him to stick to it, right?

It seemed like glue. And like glue, there would be a lot needed if he wanted to stick to the tree. So he moved a perfect amount towards the soles of his feet.

The bark exploded off the tree as soon as he placed his foot on it.

"Too much chakra," The boy walked down the tree to stand on solid ground instead. Ban nodded as both he and Ichigo watched.

Again, he moved the blue sheen away from his stomach and towards his feet. Just now, he was able to somewhat weigh how much power the blue goo had, so he was reducing the blue sheen to his estimate.

Surprisingly, the tree didn't explode. His one foot stuck to the tree, and he did the same to the other one, soon having both feet planted to the tree. "Like this?"

The 'teacher' nodded with approval.

It was certainly weird to not have gravity pull him down. As a member of standing straight-on-ground for a whole longer, it was painful for him to try to keep his head vertical.

Meanwhile, Ichigo stared at him in wonderment before snapping out and requesting, "No fair, Ban! Teach me how to do that too!" His eyes shone at the prospect of defying gravity. Ban smiled back, stepping down to help his friend do the magic trick as well.

Since Ichigo wasn't able to see the blue sheen, could he just use his hand to manually move it to his foot?

"I mean you can..." When Ban's hands touched his friend's blue sheen, he felt him.

The blue sheen did not feel like water. It felt like a layer of simmering, comfortable sunlight. Ichigo's toothy grin came into mind, protective like a little shield, just enough for the two of them to hide under. The shade under the shield felt like absolute shade, sometimes a little overbearing since no air was allowed to come in. Suffocating? Caging? Aren't you my friend?

"Ban?"

His eyes met Ichigo's concerned ones.

His hand was still on his arm.

Ban blinked twice, before trying to move the translucent film, but it didn't budge. Well, more like he couldn't touch it. It was just trying to move air. He could swish it back and forth, but the area would just reform when his fingers left.

"Oh, you can't," Ban's soft reply came. Ichigo pouted but nevertheless accepted the outcome, and the third boy just stared at the strange interaction.

"Did you just try to move his chakra?"

"I tried to move the blue thing."

"The blue… thing?" Kakashi narrowed his eyes.

"Erm…" Kakashi's look was setting off his alarms, but Ichigo didn't look the slightest bit alarmed. He answered, "Yes."

Kakashi blinked, before nodding off, "If it's chakra, you can't move that for other people. It's really hard to do it. That idiot will have to become aware of it and move it himself."

"What are you doing?" Ichigo voiced fear-laced at the fact that Kakashi came near him. HIs hands were already thrown in an attack position as Kakashi rolled his eyes and plopped himself on the ground.

"Follow me, dimwit."

Ichigo did. His face scrunched into confusion as nothing happened.

"What are we doing?"

The other's eyes roamed Konoha as he turned away, unable to bear the face of stupidity, "Feeling chakra, duh."

Kakashi closed his eyes and held still. Ichigo tried to copy his position but cracked one eye open to watch the other. After seeing that Kakashi didn't move anymore, he settled down and closed his eyes.

Ichigo's blue rippled, and the surprise fluctuated his chakra.

"Do you feel it yet?"

"Yeah!"

"You can move it when you're more aware of it. Keep doing it on your own, and maybe you'll good enough for me."

Ban sat down with his knees pulled up, "Thank you, Kakashi-san."

The boy turned away again, "It's nothing."

"Hey!" The boy jumped up into an excited stance, "Since you're our friend now, gimme all you know about chakra!"

"Ichigo! You can't just demand him!"

"I can! He's friends with us for a reason."

He bowed to the boy, "I- I'm sorry about his behavior, Kakashi-san."

"I placed too much faith in your manners," He growled, but otherwise didn't seem to mind.

Ichigo riled up, "Insult me with all the smart words and sentences you want. In the end, the only thing that matters is that I understand you're insulting me!"

Kakashi rolled his eyes again before he began explaining again to Ichigo. Ban tested out his new skills, climbing up and up and up until he could see the sun peeking out from the branches above-free-

"Don't go up there. The branches can't sustain our weight," Kakashi called out below, Ichigo still at the base of the tree. Ban nodded, eyeing the thin branch. So the branch had to be able to bear their weight for them to stick onto it?

"Can you stick to walls, Kakashi-san?"

"Walls are more dangerous than trees and water."

That's a no.

Ban got down to help Kakashi help Ichigo.

A little while later, Kakashi looked out to the sky and said, "Bye."

He then left the two, Ban waving goodbye while Ichigo called, "See ya later!"

They played together in the park for some more time, Ban trying to get Ichigo to stick to the tree. By the time they had to return back, Ichigo still had nothing, while Ban climbed the three as demonstration for about five times.

Maybe they can ask Shinobi-sama later.

That evening, they met the man again, with another story. They didn't get to tell him about the boy they met. Something was strange in the air, like the person they were meeting wasn't the same person before.

"The shinobi world is separated into large continents." Ichigo cut in, "What'r continents?"

"They're land. Separated by seas."

"What'r sea?"

"Sea is ocean," Shinobi-sama replied curtly, clearly eager to move on the topic. He didn't care if they learn. He wanted to talk. Ban leaned to whisper, "Really big river." Ichigo nodded along.

"Each continent, land, is governed by a Daimyō-"

"What about the Hokage?"

Shinobi-sama picked up smoothly from the intrusion, "The Hokage is a kage. A leader of a large and powerful, capable village. There are only five hidden villages, Hidden Leaf, Hidden Sand, Hidden Cloud, Hidden Rock, and Hidden Mist. The rest are…" He paused to arrange his words, "Useful."

He looked at them, imparting another one of his lessons, "If there is something useful, and you cannot use it. Destroy it." His eyes met Ban's, so he finished his sentence, "... Because your opponents could use that against you."

A glimmer lit in the man's eyes, "... Will use that against you."

"The land is divided into Land of Fire, Earth, Iron, Lightning, Snow, Sound, Water, Wind, and Sky. The Five Great Shinobi countries are: Fire, Water, Earth, Lighting, and Wind. Of course, there are also those weakling countries that try to make themselves a country." He spat disgust, mocking, "Every war, they'll come begging us to let them help, so that we can be indebted to them later."

Ichigo listened, enraptured and unminding of the language, the hatred, "As the saying goes, even a worm will turn. Never underestimate your opponents!" Shinobi-sama's tone changed, both straightening up like he was sending them into battle, "There is no mercy on the battlefield. There is no such thing as an innocent shinobi."

"They all have blood on their hands."

He looked at them.

"You will have blood on your hands," Only Ban flinched.

The lesson goes on a little more about how the system works. The lands are each governed by the Daimyō and they hire those from the hidden villages to do their work. Ban reconnects it back to a previous lesson about the village's founding, and he Shinobi-sama clarifies that the forming of the hidden village had a different purpose that what it serves now.

Shinobi-sama gazed at the stone faces, evening light illuminating first, second, and half-finished third faces of the Hokage's. "When Hashirama-sama founded it, it was for peace. The dream was for no children to have to be sent to the battlefield." His eyes… softened. "That dream is still a long far away dream."

"Only Tobirama-sama was able to settle what structure he could, fragile and flawed as they might be."

His eyes looked into their again, "Those dreamers can dream. Those actually capable of doing things are the ones who should run things."

Ban nodded along to his lament.

After the story, they bid the man farewell; as usual, he left without one. They washed up for dinner and went to bed. They weren't able to tell Shinobi-sama about the Kakashi they met in the park at all.