avocado_love | Fic: Teach Your Children Well (Chapter 3)

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Fic: Teach Your Children Well (Chapter 3)

Sunday, July 11th, 2010 09:24 am

Title: Teach Your Children Well
Pairing: Eventual Kakashi/Iruka
Rating: PG-13 (This chapter)
Warnings: Depiction of character death in an alternate, future timeline.
Summary: What difference can one man make? After Madara’s final attack, Kakashi finds a time-travel scroll. Now he’s team seven’s sensei again. This time, he’s going to do things differently. Time travel fic.
Word Count: 4,050+ (This chapter)
Author Notes: Based on this prompt for the KakaIru Fest, (check it out for great prompts!) I have asked and received permission to post it separately from the fest.
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2
*****

Note: Sadly, Iruka doesn't make an appearance in this chapter. There is Gai, though.

~O~

Kakashi meandered his way to the bridge overlooking the creek in Training Ground Seven exactly three hours and forty-five minutes after he said he would.

"You're late!" Sakura and Naruto yelled.

The jounin paused in his step, smiling under his mask at a sudden wave of nostalgia. Ah, memories. "Late?" He looked around, guileless. "No I'm not."

"Lair!" the two yelled again. Sasuke grunted his agreement.

Completely unaffected by the three fuming genin, Kakashi ambled over to them, tucking Icha Icha Paradise safely away in his hip pocket. Sakura had her arms crossed and was giving him the exact same look disapproval her adult-self used to have as his assistant. Sasuke was feigning indifference, leaning on the railing a little apart from the other two, hands in his pockets. Naruto, meanwhile, was fairly vibrating with pent up energy.

There was a new look about the boy: Iruka must have taken Naruto clothes shopping in the early morning, because Naruto was sporting new sandals, dark trousers without any rips or tears, and a new jacket – still a blinding orange, Kakashi noted, with an internal sigh. Well, not all battles could be won in a day.

"Maa," Kakashi said. "I was just over there the whole time." He pointed over his shoulder to a stand of thick bushes just visible behind a bend in the creek.

Naruto scowled up at him. "What? But… Why were you over there?"

"Why not? It was very nice," he said, sincerely. "And quiet."

"Kakashi-sensei," Sakura began, and again Kakashi had a flash of the woman she had one time become. Especially when her eyes were narrowed with annoyance. "Your instructions were to meet us on the bridge. How were we supposed to know you would be off hiding somewhere else?"

"Well, did you even bother looking for me?"

"No, because you said you would be here."

"Ah," he said, tipping his head back to look in the middle distance. Somewhere, among the leaves of the trees, he could hear the rough voiced caw of a crow. "That's interesting."

There was a long pause as the genin traded glances with one another. Finally, Sasuke broke and asked, "What's interesting?"

He shrugged. "That you three would assume people, especially shinobi, come and go by a set pattern. That you would agree to a meeting place, and then not check your surroundings for possible ambush spots, traps, or places were you can be observed." He put particular emphasis on the last word.

Sakura's hands flew to her mouth. "You were watching us? This whole time?"

He had: Observing Naruto's boasting, Sakura trying to flirt with Sasuke, and Sasuke trying – and failing – to ignore both of them. It wasn't nearly as interesting as Sakura clearly feared it was. However, it had been informative: he was now sure that the team dynamic remained more or less the same as the timeline before. So far.

"Hey! Hey!" Naruto exclaimed. "That's not fair! You mean you were sitting over there that whole time, reading that nasty perverted book," he scowled, "when you could have been training us?"

"Oh, I don't think it's fair, either," Kakashi sighed. He sat himself on the wooden rail, resting his chin upon his hand. "I was promised a group of genin, ready and willing to be trained. Instead I got three lazy students who would rather sit at the bridge and talk for hours instead of being proactive about their training."

Sakura and Naruto both exclaimed, "Sensei!" and Sakura put her hands to her hips, sea-green eyes narrowing.

"You're saying you wanted us to find you," Sasuke said, flatly. "This was another test."

Kakashi gave a grudging nod to the Uchiha. When it came to looking underneath the underneath, he had always been the quickest on the uptake. His natural ability to observe small details had been part of his genius, and part of why he made such a deadly opponent.

"I see no reason why training should be given, instead of earned," he said, with a shrug. "Your enemies will not give you a time or a place where they will be. It's up to you, as shinobi, to discover what information you can ahead of time, and use it to arm yourselves."

The three students scowled at him, probably realizing this meant a lot of wasted time on their parts. Well, it was sure to be good practice for them. Kakashi curved up his eye into an arch. "Don't worry, I promise to at least be somewhere in the training field… for awhile."

"Tch," Sasuke grunted.

As if on cue, Naruto grinned and, bouncing on the balls of his feet, declared, "Just in the training field? And we can use traps and stuff?" he waited for Kakashi's nod, then grinned. "Yosh! That'll be easy! I'll find you first, and get trained first!" He threw a triumphant glare at Sasuke.

"If you can find me," Kakashi corrected then added, with false modesty, "I'm very good at being late."

~O~

"Hypothetically speaking," the Kakashi began, afterwards, as he led his students from the bridge and back towards the main field. "Let's say you've received a mission from your Hokage is to track and eliminate an enemy shinobi who has been hiding himself in a group of civilians. How would you identify your target?"

"Observe the movements of the group. Learn what the individuals schedules are, their favorite places, and see who stands out," Sakura said, in a nearly textbook repetition of an academy lecture.

"Set a trap for him!" Naruto exclaimed, probably thinking of the simple rope traps he had been caught in yesterday. "Then, when he falls for it, you can come in and get him! BAM!" He punched one fist into his open hand.

Sakura rounded on her teammate. "Idiot! You have to know which one is the shinobi before you can set a trap for him."

"Then you set one which only goes off on ninjas," Naruto answered, as if it was the simplest solution in the world. He grinned, wide and foxy. "Then BAM!"

"Naruto is closest to the answer," Kakashi said, forestalling Sakura as she opened her mouth to argue. "Although he's not right."

Sasuke rolled his eyes at his two teammates. "Tch. Just sense for his chakra. If he's hiding himself in a group of civilians, his developed chakra system will make him stand out."

Kakashi nodded. "Exactly."

He had taken them to level, grassy spot in the field, and, folding his legs gracefully, sat crossed legged on the ground. His students followed suit, arranging themselves in a semi-circle around him. "Most shinobi are able to shield their chakra signature to one degree or another by the time they are chuunin. However, not many are able fully pass themselves off as civilians. The stronger one is, and the more chakra reserves they have, the more difficult it can be." He hadn't been able to play 'civilian' since he was eight years old. At least, not to anyone with a great degree of sensitivity. "Now, who here can already sense the presence of other ninjas?"

Sasuke nodded his head. Sakura shook hers and Naruto just looked confused.

Kakashi's smile was acid under his mask. He suspected Sasuke already could, but that his range was more limited than he had ever let on. Why else did he need a sensor-type like Karin? The sharingan probably made up for the rest of the lack.

"It's not unusual for genin not to be able to sense others right out of the academy. As you continue to develop and control your own chakra," Kakashi continued, "you will eventually become more sensitive to the presence of it in others."

But Naruto still had not lost that look of confusion on his face. "… chakra?"

"Idiot!" Sakura snapped again, this time whapping him over the head with her fist. "How did you even graduate?"

The boy curled up rubbing his head. "Owww… Sakura-chan! How am I supposed to remember? That was forever ago, already."

"Tch. Dobe." Sasuke grunted.

Kakashi sighed. Picking up a pointy stick, he drew a quick outline of the human body in the hard soil, drawing figures in it as he spoke. "Chakra is the result of melding physical and spiritual energy." He paused, reminding himself how thick the boy was at this stage, and added blandly, "It makes your jutsus work."

Instantly, the boy's face lit up. "Oh! Yeah! Yeah! The yellow stuff. Why didn't you say so, Kakashi-sensei?"

Yellow…? Kakashi shook his head and went on. "As I said, your sensitivity will increase as you use and develop your own chakra reserves… but there are a few techniques I've learned to speed along the process."

That got the attention of his students. All three leaned forward in anticipation.

He curved up his eye at them, letting the suspense draw itself out. Then, "First, we hold hands."

Sakura immediately took one look at Sasuke and blushed so fiercely her cheeks matched her hair. Naruto looked torn between excitement at holding hands with Sakura and mounting horror that he would also have to with his teacher.

Sasuke, on Kakashi's other side, just stared at him in flat refusal. His dark eyes flicked to the side pocket where Kakashi normally stored Icha Icha Paradise. "You said you were hiding behind those bushes all morning. Were you reading that book?"

Kakashi smiled again. "My hands are clean." (As if he would do such a thing with gloves on anyway…) He grabbed hold of Sasuke's hand in a firm grip and allowed the petty part of himself which still remembered the smell of the burning village to take pleasure in how the boy flinched. Naruto, too, was hesitant, but seemed intent on not allowing Sasuke to show him up. He joined hands.

"Close your eyes," Kakashi directed, then led his students through several breathing exercises designed to quiet the mind and increase perception.

"Your body is an empty shell, a container for your physical and spiritual power," he intoned. "Visualize your own chakra within this container. Some see it as a point of light, some as an inner fire or a well spring. Focus on this image. Let it fill your mind."

He heard Sakura take a sharp breath and felt her chakra signature waver slightly in surprise. The academy curriculum taught students how to manage their chakra only through seals and control exercises.

The accessing it this way for the first time was… startling.

Kakashi also felt Sasuke's chakra grow brighter and dim again as the last Uchiha found it and experimented slightly. Only Naruto's stayed the same – his reserves gleamed like an ever-bright star to Kakashi's senses.

He allowed his team a few minutes quiet before speaking again.

"This is your own natural chakra, so you should already be familiar with the feel of it. You have your chakra visualized, but now you need to learn to sense it in others. For this exercise, you will need to gather some chakra into your hands."

Naruto's palm immediately grew hot to the touch and Kakashi squeezed it sharply in warning. "Not too much. You will burn someone that way."

Naruto gulped, but his hand immediately cooled.

Kakashi continued, "Concentrate on the feel of the chakra beside you, how it is different from your own. Everyone has a slightly different signature. Learn how your teammate's chakra feels to you and memorize it. With enough practice, you will eventually be able to tell where your teammate is from a distance, and if someone is attempting to fool you with a henge of him or her."

He cracked open his eye as he spoke. Sasuke was sitting, back ridged and blank faced. Sakura, too, had a look of focus. Naruto on the other hand was red-faced and bearing down so hard it looked as if he was trying to lay an egg.

Naruto opened his eyes, looked around wildly to see if he was doing it right. Then, finding Kakashi watching him, he quickly shut his eyes again.

"Problems?" Kakashi asked, mildly.

"No!" Naruto lied, and then squinted up his face. "Only… I don't get it. Are you talking about the white stuff? That's you, sensei?"

"Moron," Sasuke muttered. "You're just looking at his hair."

"Teme!" Naruto squawked, opening his eyes to glare at the other boy. "No you're wrong, because Sakura-chan's chakra is a pretty kind of green and she doesn't have green hair, does she?"

Sakura somehow managed to roll her eyes, even closed. "Sasuke-kun is right, Naruto. You're not doing it right."

Privately, Kakashi agreed with Sakura and was wondering if this was too much for Naruto, too fast. He was a little… dense. Yet something in the boy's rambling caught his attention. Yellow… white… green…

No… That was impossible.

"Naruto," he said, "take Sasuke's hand and tell me what you see."

Both boys shot him poisonous looks before shifting their gazes to glare at each other. They took hands with only the utmost reluctance and, Kakashi suspected, squeezing each other's hands far tighter than necessary.

"Red," Naruto announced, after a minute's concentration. Then added, "A really ugly red."

Kakashi stared at the boy. It couldn't be…. Surely, he hadn't kept this ability to himself in the first timeline? No, Naruto was the type to shout his powers from the rooftops. He held nothing back. Then again, Kakashi had not tested his students this way last time. And Naruto still had to be explained the memory transference ability of Kage Bunshin even years after using them…

"Sensei?" Sakura asked.

He let out a long breath and shook his head in bemusement. "I have a theory, but first, there is one more thing I want to try." Kakashi took several small white squares of paper from his vest. He passed them around. "This is a special type of chakra paper. By infusing your chakra into it, you will be able to find your elemental affinity."

He held up a square between two fingers and after a moment's concentration it crinkled up. "My elemental affinity is to lightening," he said, then gestured around. "Now you try it."

Sasuke's paper blackened and burned away. Naruto's split in half and Sakura's crumbled into nothing.

"Lightening is often associated with the color white," Kakashi explained, to their confused glances. "Sasuke, your affinity is to fire – red. Naruto, yours is wind – yellow. Sakura, earth, which is often paired with the color green."

One by one Sasuke and Sakura turned to look at Naruto who just looked confused again.

"No way," Sasuke said, flatly, still staring at his teammate.

"Yes," Kakashi agreed, and if he were not the consummate professional he was, he would have smacked Naruto upside his thick head. Just on principle. "Naruto has the makings of a natural chakra-sensor. He can already sense elemental affiliations."

Naruto blinked. "So… that's good, right?"

"It is. With time and practice you will be able to detect the presence of other people from great distances through their chakra. If you know natural element ahead of time, you can guess which jutsu they'll use and prepare. It will give you an advantage."

"… Really?" Naruto grinned at his sensei and laughed, pumping a fist in the air. "Yeah! This will make me stronger. I'm one step closer to becoming the next Hokage! Believe it!"

And Kakashi took note of how Sasuke's jaw tightened – almost imperceptibly. The Uchiha didn't like being shown up in any way, especially not to a dead-last. Then again, that was no surprise. A person with Sasuke's ambitions craved power and was jealous to see it in others.

He let Naruto celebrate for another few minutes before holding up his hand for silence. "We will continue training tomorrow… if we get an early enough start."

"You mean if you actually show up on time," Sasuke grumbled.

Kakashi curved his eye up at him. "That will depend on how well you apply today's lesson, won't it?" Then he dug around in his back pocket, eventually pulling out a scroll. "Afternoons will be used for completing missions. I have taken the liberty of stopping by the missions desk and picking this one out especially for you three. I think you'll find it… suitably appealing." With that, he tossed it lightly into the air.

Sasuke was quickest to snatch it, and with Naruto and Sakura crowding close, he unrolled it. His left eyebrow gave a twitch. "It says we're to help with the dinner rush at Nageto's Sukiyaki Restaurant…" he trailed off, then peered closer, almost as if he couldn't believe it."Peeling vegetables?"

"As I said," Kakashi replied, grinning behind his mask.

~O~

Let it not be said that Hatake Kakashi did not appreciate the value of a good D-rank mission. He'd certainly had his own share of them as a genin (the entire year of it), and during his first experience with Team Seven, had assigned them liberally. One never knew when you would be called upon to infiltrate, say, a high-class restaurant posing as a kitchen-worker. And Kakashi could now say, after three hours sitting on the sidelines reading his book while monitoring his team, that if push came to shove Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke could reliably pass themselves off as amateur line-cooks.

His students – glaring at him, and with Naruto still picking bits of potato-skin out of his hair – did not agree with his assessment.

Kakashi only smiled and told them to meet him at the training ground at eight o'clock in the morning, and to bring extra towels. He then teleported away.

A cool evening had fallen over Konoha, bringing with it a crisp breeze from the east. Kakashi walked the parameter of the main market square; hands shoved in his pockets and pretending to be lost in his thoughts and not notice the crowd, all the while scanning and marking out faces and comparing them to his mental list of the population.

It would do no good to draw attention to himself by accidently mentioning someone who he remember as died, when they had not yet in this particular timeline.

"DYNAMIC ENTRY!"

Kakashi froze mid-step, his visible eye widening ever so slightly.

There was blur of green – a blinding flash of teeth – and Gai stood before him, unrepentantly tacky, overenthusiastic, and whole.

Kakashi had brought a pastel colored get-well card, and a copy of a corny adventure novel he'd once read on a whim, and now thought it might suit Gai's taste. They both sat on the night-stand – the only bright spot in the bare hospital room.

"…We could arm wrestle?" Kakashi said, tentatively into the awkward silence. "Assuming your arms still work, of course."

Guy snorted through his nose. "Now I know things are bad when you start issuing challenges."

"Heh." He rubbed the back of his head, sheepishly, knowing he had been caught. The truth was, Kakashi did not allow himself to be drawn into anything he didn't want to be drawn into… as much as he had ignored the taijutsu master, the rivalry had kept him on his toes.

And now, if only to draw out Gai again – hear an echo of his booming voice – he didn't mind so much lowering himself to actually proposing a challenge.

"You lead me by two points," Kakashi said, watching his friend out of the corner of his eye for any reaction. "It eats away at a man."

"Later, perhaps, my rival." Gai turned his attention to the view of the small, well manicured courtyard; the only bit of green visible through the hospital window. The silence dragged on into long empty minutes.

"Sulking like this isn't very youthful, you know." Kakashi said at last, a tad harshly. He would much rather have Gai mad at him than this blank… nothing. "Why isn't that little clone of yours here, threatening to end his life if you don't walk again or something?"

"My adorable student would have made just that pact, but I could not allow it," Gai replied, flatly. It was odd and put up the hairs along the back of Kakashi's neck because it was… well, Gai. "He now trains a new genin team. He is… still so youthful, and I—" he cut off his speech with a shrug, swallowing, and Kakashi got the sinking feeling those weren't Manly Tears behind Gai's eyes. "I'm old, Kakashi. And broken."

"Maa, don't start that. You're making me feel old."

"The wasting jutsu hit me from behind – a most Cowardly Act," Gai said. "But it doesn't change the facts: I can't feel anything from my mid-chest down. I can no longer be a shinobi of Konoha."

And Kakashi found he had little to say to that. He didn't consider himself nice guy by nature, and knew for a fact his social skills weren't in his repertoire of genius. He had no idea how to comfort the other man, and lying and false optimism was distasteful.

So he sat and silence, and so did Gai… still staring out the window.

It was the last time Kakashi spoke to him. He had been called out on a long mission, and came back to the news that the Green Beast of Konoha had ended his life. Kakashi had not asked for the details – his father's own suicide still too painful of a memory to touch – and was almost pitifully grateful that Gai had arranged it in a way that Kakashi wasn't the one to find the body.

Maito Gai's name joined the others on the memorial stone, and Kakashi made sure to talk to him, every day.

"—And I am Thrilled to hear you have at last accepted Three Adorable Students as your Protégés! We must pit Them Against My Team to see who is truly the Village's most Hip and Youthful Sensei!"

Realizing Gai was still talking – and had been for some time – Kakashi blinked and forcefully made himself lean against a nearby wall; projecting an air of casualness as if it were his lifeline. "I'm sorry, were you talking?"

"Ah!" Gai immediately jumped into nice guy pose #12, his teeth flashing brilliantly in the sun. "You are so Hip and Cool, my Rival! Fear not, for I Will Beat You in this next Challenge. You lead By Only ONE Point, and I cannot—"

"Hmm. What are the terms?"

Guy nearly staggered in shock, and Kakashi watched him, amused. He should have thought of this tactic before. Then again… well, things had been different.

"You're actually accepting a challenge? Without more persuasion?" Gai nearly gasped, but then straightened, and now his grin was so wide it was nearly blinding. "I Knew My YOUTHFUL Vigor would One Day Rub off on you!"

"Yes, yes," Kakashi said, with the same tone one would use mid-yawn. "Terms?"

"To Walk up The Top of Hokage Mountain using just their Hands. Whoever gets there first Shall be Declared The Winner!"

With a long suffering sigh, Kakashi pushed himself against the wall. And with one glance to judge the distance from the market to Hokage mountain, he nodded.

~O~

Next: Fangirl crushes are very troublesome.

Note: Just a quick explanation about my decision to have Naruto as a natural chakra-sensor. For the purposes of plot, I really wanted someone to develop this sort of talent for the team. Sasuke was the most logical choice, but I had to put him aside because Orochimaru would have surely discovered that sort of latent talent in canon, and trained him up it in. Then, he wouldn't have had to put up with Karin. Sakura was the NEXT logical choice… but really, it seems like chakra-sensoring is more or less a feminine talent in the manga and since Sakura is already a medic (another occupation traditionally assigned to females on the teams), I just couldn't bring myself to do it. So, Naruto it was. My excuse is he didn't know he was in the canon timeline, and just assumed everyone sensed different color chakra like he did. And he never tied it to different elemental affiliations because… well, he's Naruto. ;D

Thank you all for the feedback! It's great to see how worried I've made some of you over Sasuke's future. Whahaha.

Current Mood: devious

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