Shifter_Master

Inside the Hidden Leaf Village. |Shifter_Master & EasilyAmused|

“Now now, no need to be rude Naruto.” The silver haired ninja said as he sat down on his chosen post, his nonchalant demeanor entirely unruffled “This is my friend, and former colleague, Airi Mae” He explained as he gestured to her “She is a retired Chunin, and she opened her bakery after the hospital stint that caused her retirement” his tone was light, if a touch melancholic, as he explain the basics of who Airi was. “I offered her the chance to come along to today’s training as something of a secondary point of view for me.” He finished smoothly giving his students a moment to think about what he said.

As an incredibly experienced Ninja, one who has ran the gamut of jobs from D ranks to unlisted Black ops, Kakashi was nothing if not an expert of self-control. He had been through war, natural disasters, and had lost nearly everything that was important to him. To surprise him could easily be considered a career defining moment for he had encountered it all in one way or another.

All of that serves to highlight just how important the surprising and brief flash of longing that Kakashi had felt at his student’s accusation that he and Airi were dating. The masked Nin hadn’t really had many relationships of the romantic sort, the price of being a prodigy, but now the idea had been formed about such a thing happening between him and Airi. Kakashi carefully placed that idea off to the side, fully intending to examine it later but he couldn’t deny that he was drawn to the concept.

“And no, we are not dating Naruto” Kakashi added as the blond genin opened his mouth to say something. Kakashi noted and dismissed the sense of loss that came with the statement, not wanting to get caught up in the implications just yet. It was the same reason he noted but put aside Airi’s reactions, after all it could be simple embaressment.

Naruto just pouted at being shot down before he could speak, but quickly went back to grinning.


“What do you mean by secondary point of view Sensei?” Sakura asked her head tilting in curiosity as she split her attention between Airi and Kakashi trying to understand what he meant.

“It put it simply I have been training mainly jonin, with the occasional chunin, for the entirety of my teaching career. You lot are my first genin team, so to make sure I don’t overlook something I’ll occasionally have Airi dropping in on our training” Kakashi explained with an eye smile as Sakura nodded in understanding.

It wasn’t his first plan, neither was it his second plan, really he had decided it just barely on the spot. Still he had a good feeling about it, so long as Airi was alright with his sudden improvisation. Plus It would help her get back in to the swing of things easier when she was more easily able to get back in to training, and give him the chance to snoop around without being as suspicious.

"I don't get it" Naruto said after a moment

"You are such a dope" Sasuke sighed "Basically he got someone less used to being a ninja then him to point out all the things that he is so used to doing that he forgot that they weren't taught at the academy"

"Oh"

Inside the Hidden Leaf Village. |Shifter_Master & EasilyAmused|

He can't turn it off, ever, so he covers it to mitigate the Charka loss as much as possible. At least that has always been my understanding of the situation. There could be some pain involved as well due to it being an implant.

Inside the Hidden Leaf Village. |Shifter_Master & EasilyAmused|

'Sall good

Inside the Hidden Leaf Village. |Shifter_Master & EasilyAmused|

Still on his back I would assume, after all she did ask not to be dropped.

Inside the Hidden Leaf Village. |Shifter_Master & EasilyAmused|

Kakashi nodded his agreement to Airi’s assumption that Naruto might take the painting lessons to the opposite extreme and instead paint more graphic graffiti across the town, and in truth was completely fine with that possibility. After all he was curious just how many people realized just what Naruto had gotten away with and wouldn’t be very surprised if no one caught on to the realization that the kid had slipped past Jonin and Anbu to desecrate a national monument, in broad daylight, wearing neon orange, and the brat didn’t even know how to stick to walls using Chakra yet. “Here is to hope we can succeed where even Iruka has failed” was all he had to add.

He just replied with a soft smile at Airi’s soft thank you, glad that his message was received loud and clear. He also absently noted that it was the second time she had blushed with in the past twenty minutes, but he would put that aside for later, when he was out snooping to figure out more about those ‘Issues’ she was having.

“Oh, don’t apologize” he jovially as they neared the meeting point he told his team earlier “If not for you I would likely be even later, I lost track of time remember?” he said with a tilt of his head, knowing full well that he would be just as late, if not more so, tomorrow.

With a burst of speed Kakashi covered the last stretch of their journey in the blink of an eye. Rather than appearing in front of his team, he instead was at the top of one of the trees overlooking the memorial stone. Around which his new team waited.

Naruto was pacing, obviously frustrated and grumbling insults under his breath, and would occasionally send a glare at Sasuke, which was promptly ignored by the Uchiha. The dark haired genin had chosen to lean up against one of the posts and was busy scanning the nearby trees, hoping to catch a glimpse of their elusive Sensei. Sakura was less obvious in her frustrations, she was sitting down at the post next to Sasuke, but the twitching of her eye told Kakashi all he needed to.

He let out a small sigh of disappointment at his team, but didn’t hold it against them really; they would learn to make better use of their time while waiting for him, eventually. Instead he jumped down from his tree top vantage and landed on the unoccupied post. “Yo” he said evenly with a little wave to his students.

“YOU’RE LATE!” Was the the shouted replies from not only Naruto but Sakura as well. Sasuke just leveled a glare at Kakashi, which was summarily ignored.

“Yeah, Sorry about that, I lost the key to my house and had to get a replacement” he said sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his neck.

Inside the Hidden Leaf Village. |Shifter_Master & EasilyAmused|

An unrepentant shrug and nod was the masked ninja’s response to the accusation that he didn’t have a plan. It was true enough at the moment; he would build a plan after he built up some trust with the team. “Most plans don’t survive contact with Naruto from what I hear anyway” He added as his excuse, which could be true considering so few people could catch the prankster if he didn’t want to be found.

An eye smile was given in response to being called out at his blunt antics; a small part of him relaxed as well as she took his question in stride, glad that it wasn’t a touchy subject for her. Passingly he wondered if it had ever been, but dismissed the thought as he paid attention to her answer.

“A Medic, huh?” he said thoughtfully “It is a noble aspiration, and too few ninja have the patience to pull it off” he said softly ignoring the phantom pain in his covered eye “And honestly, of the ones I have worked with, those that had a specialization change after an injury tended to be the better ones as well so I’m sure you would do great” he explained. His tone was still soft but it carried the great amount of respect he held for the medical corps. He had been tempted to become a medic after the loss of Obito, but then… Rin… Kakashi just didn’t have the hands for it, not after that.

Kakashi wasn’t blind to the longing Airi had, and once again he was keenly away that she was shying away from something. Though now he had a few more clues as to what it might be, as well as a few ideas as to whom he would be able to get the information from.

Shaking his head lightly to clear away all the excess thoughts “Don’t mention it” waving the thanks away with a gesture “and that would be appreciated, I even have a good idea on how to bribe him to be a good student for her” he said with a chuckle thinking of how Naruto might want to learn more about
Sealing considering how it had impacted the young boy’s life.

“In return let me know if I can be any help with any of those factors, hmm?” he added with a look. One that many of his teammates were used to, it was the one that said that they were in this together, no matter what “this” was.

Inside the Hidden Leaf Village. |Shifter_Master & EasilyAmused|

“A good book deserves to be savored” Kakashi stated haughtily as he slowed his tree hopping down to a genin equivalent speed. “And I did hear about the movie, rumor has it they are trying to get Yukie Fujikaze to play the female lead” he said with enthusiasm at the prospect of them getting such a famous actress to be a part of the series, seemingly oblivious to Airi’s internal debates.

The truth was a different matter however, as given their close proximity it was rather difficult for Kakashi to not notice his friends behavior. He could feel the extra heat that radiated from her face when she buried in to his neck. He could easily tell that what she had asked him wasn’t what she had originally wanted to from the tonal shift as she asked. There were a hundred other subtle clues that Kakashi could pick up on that told him she was nervous about the topic she nearly brought up.

If it had been anyone else Kakashi would have simple ignored their behavior, or directly called them out on it, but Airi was one of the very few people he could call a friend. Because of that he would let her bring it up when she was comfortable. That didn’t mean he wasn’t going to try and find out anyway, perish the thought. He was one of the most skilled ninja in the village, being noisy came with the territory. Airi being his friend just meant he wasn’t going to drill her for information, wouldn’t stop him from taking a third or fourth look over all of her actions to try and piece it together from those however.

“As for training…” Kakashi started before he realized a flaw in his original training plan. He was used to training other Anbu, or helping out newly minted Jonin, not Genin. He didn’t voice said realization however “I’m going to start working on group cohesion for the first half and cool down with personal training. Not going to worry about any particular structured plan at the moment.” As he explained his very impromptu training plan, he was working on breaking down his normal training regime for lower ranked ninja. He would worry about tailoring it to each of his students when he had a better idea about where they needed work; after all it’s not something he could learn when he was playing around with them during the Bell test.

‘You have started to get soft Inu’ He thought harshly, it was twice today that he had slipped up. Once with his daily schedule and just now with not realizing that he wasn’t treating his mission of training his team with the focus it deserved.

“What about you?” Kakashi asked dragging himself out of his self-depreciative thoughts, he would have time for those later “Have you ever thought of picking training back up?” he wondered casually. He knew that after she got out of the hospital her drive to be a kunoichi had crumbled, but that was years ago. Granted they tended to avoid the topic, but he was curious and it could be what she was nervous about.

Inside the Hidden Leaf Village. |Shifter_Master & EasilyAmused|

“Good to hear you bakery is still doing well” Kakashi replied “I would guess that the constant order from the academy are the reason for the upswell, lots of new Genin are now earning a paycheck and have had to smell your deliveries every few day” he added, the glint of satisfaction in his eye going unnoticed, after all he might have had something to do with the orders starting up in the first place, not that anyone was aware of that.

“I’m willing to try your baking recipes, but you’ll have to get someone else to test your new curry” Kakashi said as he waived waved at few Chunin as he passed them by, they just stopped and stared at him as he bounded across the roof tops, mainly because of the fact he had a civilian on his back. He still recalled the first time he had tried one of her new recipes’, she was fantastic with baked goods but it was more of a tossup with her other culinary attempts, at least until she had time to revise those recipes.

“As for a vacation…” he trailed off for a moment as he ran a quick review off all the places he had been in his life. “South isn’t too bad this time of year, you could also try for a trip to the hot springs in Hot Water” he offered. Konoha had peaceful connections with Yugakure, as did most of the Shinobi world for that matter, due to the fact that they were a prime tourist attraction because nearly all of their villages’ boasted fantastic hot springs. Not that Kakashi even got much of a chance to partake, seeing as he had never taken a vacation, but he had been through their land on a few occasions. “Still if you’re looking for sun, only place that gets more than us is Wind granted that is because they are a dessert”

He just hummed noncommittally at the last developments that Airi brought up. He was never sure how to respond when parents were brought up considering he never knew his mother and his father… Well it was never a good idea to dwell too much on him. “That reminds me, I need to find someone who can teach Naruto how to paint better” he said off handedly “Might be able to get him to calm down a little”

“As for me nothing all that exciting or new on my end, other than the fact that a team finally passed the Bell test, which means I’ve got my first Genin team to train” he explained as he moved off the roof tops and in to the trees “But you knew that already” And it was more or less true, since being removed from the Anbu and placed back in to the Jonin roster there hadn’t been many things of note that he could talk about “Oh! The new Icha Icha came out recently” Other than his beloved book series that is.

---

Back at the academy Kakashi’s clone was reading through the various notes and old tests that his new students had taken and it was beginning to realize just how much work he had ahead of him. The notes on Sakura were exactly as the dossier had led him to believe. Sasuke’s was more or less the same; though it praised him more than the veteran Nin felt was justified. Naruto’s on the other hand, told a very different story.

Leafing through everything, it seemed almost as if the other instructors had tried to sabotage the blond genin, which considering Mizuki had turned out to be a traitor, might not be too far of the mark. His physical test scores were fine, outside of the atrocious taijutsu stance the kid had; it was in the academic side of things that Kakashi noticed the most issues. It almost seemed like Naruto had no idea about the basic concepts about Ninjutsu, chakra theory, or any of the theoretical side of being a ninja, that or a serious literacy issue. Kakashi wasn’t sure what was worse to be honest.

Running a hand through his hair the clone quickly set about making a copy of all the relevant paper work he had found. The original would want to review all of this in more detail when he had time, but it was not now, considering he had technically broken in to the records.

‘To think, getting lost on the road of life actually turned out to be useful’

Inside the Hidden Leaf Village. |Shifter_Master & EasilyAmused|

Kakashi didn’t even break his stride as Airi latched on to him from her jump, thought he did roll his eyes at her choice of actions. “I shall do me level best to see that you don’t fall” He replied as he deviated from just following the hallway and instead headed to the nearest window. Since he wasn’t going to be walking there was no reason to bother with heading to the doors.

He quickly opened his chosen exit and almost immediately was on the roof. He took a moment to make sure his orientation was still correct before he turned and started bounding towards Training ground three. He also made sure that Airi was securely held in place via subtly use of Chakra, he wasn’t planning on going his top speed, not even his cruising speed, but he knew that it was still faster than she had gone in quite some time.

“So” Kakashi started after settling in to his easy pace, it would get them there in a ten minutes or so “How has the past while been treating you?” He asked casually, figuring he could use this time to fill in the gaps that had happened since they had last had a chance to talk. It would also serve as a decent distraction from the proximity, not that Kakashi was shy or unopposed to it. It was just nearly impossible to not notice Airi’s scent while she was wrapped around him, just as it was nearly impossible to not notice how soft she felt.

Inside the Hidden Leaf Village. |Shifter_Master & EasilyAmused|

A countdown had started in Kakashi’s head after he mentioned the time he was supposed meet up with his team. Everyone who knew Kakashi knew he was late to everything, nearly without exception. The difference, and the reason for the countdown was-

“WHAT!? TEN? TEN AM?!? Kakashi it is ELEVEN THIRTY!”

Airi was the only person to still give him a hard time about it. And that always made him smile, a true and honest smile, which was never the less hidden behind his mask. Everyone else he knew had given up chastising him about it even the Hokage only ever grumbled about it occasionally. He figured that no one felt like doing anything about it because his overall reliability when it came to missions, one of the few things he was prompt for, but she never let him get away with it if she had any say about it.

It was why he always made sure to see how she was doing occasionally; she was the only person who seemed to care about him as a person, or at least that was how he saw it. Guy was his Eternal Rival yes, but only in regards to being the best ninja. Sarutobi cared for him, probably, but he cared for all of the ninja under his command. That was as far as most of his friendships went, comrades-in-arms, even Airi started out that way, but things had changed after she retired, possibly even before that.

Still, he was rather out of the loop, when it came to the goings on in her life.

The masked nin let offered no resistance as his friend went to yank on his ear. “Would you look at that, so it is” he said lazily as he glanced at the clock scratching at his chin as he did. Thinking about it a moment longer he stood up and made a single Shadow Clone, making sure not to have the smoke obscure him as he did so. With a nod his clone ventured off to get the copies he was intending to get, after all no reason to not get them since he was here.

Turning back to Airi he ran a hand through his silver hair and attempted to look sheepish “Well it seems to be that I lost track of the time” He wasn’t fooling anyone, but the tradition was to be upheld none the less “Guess I should head out to meet up with them, you’re welcome to join me, if you want” he offered as he half turned to the door, hoping she would, even if only for part of the way there. After all he hadn’t had a chance to talk with her in some time, and this was the perfect opportunity to do so.

The fact that it would mean he would be even later in meeting up with his team since he would be walking was merely a side benefit.