Guruko had more energy than she'd ever known him to have originally, but she supposed he was a puppy here. A barely trained one, at that. Kakashi was finally taking a break after a couple hours, and Guruko was enjoying his new freedom from learning commands by splashing in the mud along the bank of the lake. Pakkun was watching him from the engawa with sleepy disappointment. He was close to Kyoko's side, enjoying the occasional ear scratch.

She had a book open in her lap; Kushina had foisted it on her at one point with the insistence that it could explain complex aspects of sealing better than she ever could. Minato had laughed when she'd shown it to him. Then he'd assured her that it was helpful but that Kushina was definitely underestimating her teaching abilities. Having experienced years of Kushina's teaching, Kyoko had to agree.

"Progress?" she asked, looking over Kakashi where he'd laid out on the grass on his back. Guruko was snuffling at his hair, tail whipping about so quickly that it was a blur.

"Some," Kakashi groaned out. "Pakkun, you could at least help."

"The process is for you as much as it is him," Pakkun said, not even opening his eyes. "You've never done training solo before. It's good for you."

Kakashi scoffed and muttered something under his breath. Kyoko resumed scratching behind Pakkun's ears. She'd never thought before about how Sakumo must have been the one to train Pakkun; after all, the ninken had been around since Kakashi had been in the Academy.

"Kakashi, are you okay?"

The new voice make Kyoko jump. Kakashi, however, just tilted his head back to squint at the newcomer. Minato was at the corner of the house, frowning in concern.

"He's taking a break from training Guruko," Kyoko said.

Minato's stare snapped over to her. He blinked. "Oh, hello, Kyoko-chan." He looked miffed. He glanced at the puppy that was now nibbling at Kakashi's fingers. "Guruko?"

"My new ninken." Kakashi sat up, rubbing at his eyes and then dragging Guruko into his lap. The puppy had just realized someone new was there and was yapping in Minato's direction. "Why're you here?"

"The rest of the team is supposed to be resting today," —he glanced at Kyoko again— "and it's been a while since we've done a one-on-one training session. And, well, I know you'd expressed interested in a certain jutsu of mine before."

Kakashi straightened a touch. "Rasengan?"

"I brought balloons."

"I've already done the balloons. I'm good at it, actually. Not perfect, though."

Minato paused halfway through pulling a storage scroll out of one of his kunai pouches. "You've done it?" he asked. He sighed. "Kakashi, you . . . ." Then he stopped whatever he was going to say and shook his head. "At least tell me you were being careful."

"Of course. Kyoko was always here to heal me if I needed it."

Minato looked towards her again. "I knew you two train together, but I didn't think about how much."

"Kakashi can't be trusted to train without me," Kyoko said, closing her book.

Kakashi blew out a hard breath, finally getting to his feet. "I can show you my rasengan, and you can still help. I haven't mastered it. It's shaky."

After one more look at Kyoko, Minato nodded and moved to join Kakashi. They spent the next hour going over the jutsu, with Minato guiding him through using the balloons to fine tune his chakra. Kyoko returned to her book—joined by both Pakkun and Guruko—though she kept an ear on the training. Which she meant she heard it when Minato gave a sharp inhale and said, "That's enough. You'll need to limit chakra usage there a few days."

Kyoko looked up and then shifted to get out a storage scroll. "I brought more balm," she told Kakashi. "And I can bandage it."

He made his way over, trailed by Minato. After he'd nudged Guruko out of the way, he sat and turned his hand palm up on his knee. Minato lingered, and Kyoko focused on her work. As she secured the end of the bandage, he said, "Keeping what we worked on in mind should mean it doesn't do that to you in the future. We polished up your shaping, and that was what was causing the chakra damage."

"You have the chakra control rasengan needs," Kakashi mused.

Kyoko blinked. Minato looked just as surprised as she felt. "I can't afford to risk chakra burns limiting my chakra use, both for the Exams and for iryo-jutsu."

"True." Kakashi yawned beneath his mask and leaned back against one of the posts on the engawa. "Later, then."

"Hi, Kyoko-chan," Shisui greeted with a grin when she got home. "Tousan says we're getting you and Obito battle-ready."

"Battle-ready?" she asked, stumbling after him as he dragged her towards the couch by her wrist. Her attention went to the tea on the table first and then to the empty plates. "Did I miss something?"

"Not too much," Kagami said. He had Obito's kunai laid out in front of him, and he and her older brother were sharpening them. "There's more cheesecake in the kitchen, and the tea is still hot. How was training?"

"I didn't do any training," Kyoko said, stepping for the kitchen only for Shisui to rush to get the food ahead of her.

"I thought you were at Kakashi's," Obito said.

"I was. Thank you, Shisui." She took the plate from him and then knelt beside the low table. "He was training his new ninken, and I was reading one of the books Kushina-sensei gave me. I didn't want to wear myself out for tomorrow."

"A smart choice," Kagami complimented, leaning over with a fork to steal a bite of her cheesecake.

"So you two just," —Obito scrunched up his nose— "hung out?"

She bit her lip, glancing from him to their father. "Yeah. We're friends."

"Oh. Right." He put his hand out. "Gimme your kunai. I'll sharpen 'em."