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Pairing: Eventual Kakashi/Iruka
Rating: PG (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: 3,100+ (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 | Chapter 3
*****
Note: Thanks to Hotspur and Schwarztkd for helping me brainstorm through this chapter. :D
Kakashi spent the next morning very pleasantly – reclining on a high branch of a tree on with his copy of Icha Icha Paradise.
Every few minutes or so he flared his chakra, using himself as a homing beacon. He was sure he felt had the presence of several ANBU a few training fields away this morning, and no doubt chakra spikes would be driving the more sensitive of them crazy, but no one could complain if it was for training. At least, officially.
He could hear his students crashing about in the underbrush below; looking for him, presumably. They were doing a poor job of it. Clearly, they could feel he was somewhere nearby, but not a one of them had bothered to look up…
Kakashi had just reached chapter six (Where the heroine, Eiko, first realizes her mysterious repeat client in the brothel is not all that he seems…) when Naruto’s triumphant voice was heard at last.
The boy staggered from between two thick bushes, a leafy twig sticking from his hair. “There you are!” he yelled, pointing upwards. “I found you, Sensei! Sakura! Sasuke! I found him! He was being lazy up in a tree!”
“Finally!” A much harried looking Sakura came into view, brushing her dress free of leaves. Sasuke walked, neat and clean as always, in from the other side.
Then there was an awkward beat as all three genin looked expectantly to their teacher. Kakashi read on, uninterested, and turned the next page.
“Well?” Sasuke said at last, and Kakashi gave himself a mental pat on the back for getting the last Uchiha to initiate conversation on his own so early in the day. “You said we would start training once we found you.”
“Saa,” Kakashi sighed, regret heavy in his voice. “Unfortunately it has become so late I only have time to train one of you today.”
"WWHHHAAT?!"
Coolly ignoring his students' protest, Kakashi snapped his book shut and tucked it safely away. “Let’s make it interesting. The first to climb this tree and reach me will be receiving training today.” He paused, noting how both Sasuke and Naruto tensed as if readying to simply leap up to him, “But you will not be allowed to use your hands.”
“What?!” Naruto scrunched up his face, then stared at his hands for a moment, then up again at the tree. “How are we supposed to do that?”
Sakura's face brightened. “Wait! I’ve read about this in the academy textbook. Ninja with superb control can use their chakra to walk straight up buildings or trees—Sasuke-kun!”
Sasuke had launched forward before she had even finished, clearly intent on being the one to receive training for the day. His chakra glowed blue under his sandals as he leaped – but Kakashi could see it was too much, too powerful. The heel of Sasuke's sandal cracked against the trunk, splitting bark, and the entire tree shook with the impact. The boy was repelled back, but tucked in mid-air, executed a back flip and landed again in a graceful crouch.
Just as before, Kakashi thought, leaning out in exaggeration from his branch, as if surveying the damage to the tree: the trunk now sported the perfect imprint of a shoe. “Sakura had the right idea,” he said. “But my, my Sasuke-kun. You used far too much chakra—“
He stopped as Naruto let out a war cry of his own and ran straight at the tree. His foot slipped and Kakashi repressed the urge to wince as the boy fell back again and hit the ground with an audible thump. “As I was about to say,” Kakashi drawled, looking on as Naruto rolled around on the ground, clutching his head in pain. “The key is moderation. Too much chakra and you only break the bark. Too little and you fail to stick all together.” He looked to Sakura. “Care to try?”
The girl visibly hesitated, but then brought her fingers up and a brief pose of concentration. Then she ran at the tree at full tilt. Kakashi's experienced eye caught a slight misstep as her feet stuck to the trunk and held – most likely out of surprise than anything else. She had recovered by her next stride, though, and her momentum carried her the rest of the way.
"I did it," she breathed, so quietly Kakashi wasn't even sure he was supposed to overhear it at all. Then Sakura whooped, louder, fist in the air. "I did it!"
Kakashi simply curved up his eye and moved aside to let her sit down.
"Yeah! Now that's the girl I put my faith in!" Naruto crowed. "How did you do that, Sakura-chan?"
She only grinned a reply at him, her eyes were seeking Sasuke.
The last Uchiha stood to the side of Naruto, jaw tight and fists clenched to his sides. He said nothing to Sakura and looked away from her, fuming.
Sakura practically wilted where she sat, and Kakashi let out a silent sigh. To borrow the phrase, her crush on the Uchiha was… troublesome. Well, that was partially what he had planned to tackle today. The seed of doubt he had tried to plant with yesterday's genjutsu still needed watering.
Kakashi leaned forward on his branch, curving his eye up at the two boys on the ground below. "It looks like Sakura outdid both of you." He paused for a moment, letting that particular dagger sink deeper. "She will be the one to receive training today." He reached into his pocket and flung out two kunai to land at Sasuke and Naruto's feet. "You will be able to join us… if you manage catch up."
******
Kakashi sent Naruto and Sasuke to walk up trees on opposite sides of the training field. During the disastrous mission to Wave, he had been under a time constraint – he'd only counted on a few days until Momochi Zabuza recovered from his near-death experience, and so had used Naruto and Sasuke's competitive nature to force themselves to improve faster.
This time… well, it would be easier in the long run for Naruto not to form that bond with his rival.
Speaking of bonds…
"Follow me," he said to Sakura, before leading her to a small swampy pond sitting in a low place in the field. Kakashi made sure not to so much as pause at the edge, but continued walking upon the water's surface until he reached the middle. He turned to find Sakura staring at him, wide-eyed from the bank.
Never underestimate the power of a cool first impression.
"This is the next level from the tree exercise," he explained. "Water walking is significantly different than tree walking."
"Yes, Sensei."
Sakura winced as she placed her sandaled foot on the scummy water. It sunk in and she jerked back to the bank immediately. "Kakashi-sensei, can't we do this somewhere… cleaner?"
"Maa…" He scratched the back of his head and pretended to think about it. "I considered taking you to train in the bathing pools, but I'm not sure they'd let me into the woman's side. You'd have to join me in the—"
Sakura let out a sound that was half gasp, half mortified squeak. "No! Nevermind. This is – I'll be fine."
She approached the pond again – this time her sandal made a distinct squelching sound in the soft mud. Sakura bit her lip, looking over her shoulders back towards the line of trees; more specifically to where Sasuke had been left training. Her determination seemed almost to leech right out of her. "But if I fall into the water, I'll get dirty…"
"Then it's important you don't fall in, isn't it?"
"But Sasuke-kun will see me get muddy. He—"
"Is not here." Kakashi cut in, letting threads of steel creep into his voice. "He is, no doubt, training furiously with no thought of you whatsoever."
She gasped. "How can you say that?"
Because the only time Sasuke had thought of Sakura was when he had deliberately taken a pause from helping to destroy Konoha to disfigure her.
Kakashi eyed this version of his former assistant coolly. "Why do you want to be a kunoichi?"
She instinctively straightened under his gaze. "Sasuke-kun is so cool, and I—"
"Sasuke came afterwards. Why did you enroll in the academy?"
The girl's brows knit for a moment, and then she dropped her eyes. "When I was young, my mother took me shopping at the market. On our way home a man stopped us and tried to steal our groceries. He had a knife and he shoved my mother down and… and I was so scared, but then a kunoichi came and chased him off. She was only a genin, but she was already so strong…" Sakura trailed off and lifted her chin. Her eyes met Kakashi's. "When we got home I asked my parents to enroll me in the academy. I wanted to do be strong like the one who had saved us. To help people."
Kakashi let her last sentence ring out in the air between them for a long moment. Then he took a deliberate step back on the water's surface in clear invitation for her to join him. "In order to walk on water," he said, "you must provide a steady flow of chakra to your feet. This exercise is especially vital for you as you have the least stamina out of your teammates. If you do this exercise on a daily basis you will be able to build your reserves."
He wasn’t imagining the new spark of interest behind Sakura’s green eyes. Balling her fists to her sides, she nodded once, as if to herself, and stepped onto the water.
And promptly sank up to her knees in filthy pond water. “Eeeee! Sensei!”
****
It took nearly the entire afternoon for Sakura to learn the trick. By the time she was able to wobble out to the middle of the pond – arms spread for balance – she was muddy from waist down; her red dress nearly stained black from a combination of brown goop and green algae. There was another smear of mud on her forehead where she had brushed her bangs away from her face with a dirty hand, but she was grinning – panting and triumphant.
Kakashi eyed her approach over the top of his book. He had taken advantage of the warm sunny day to stand out in the water, ignoring the several large fish which had taken to nipping where his pale toes poked out from his sandals and nearly unbalancing him twice – not that an inexperienced eye would be able to tell.
“Your left leg is a half centimeter shorter than your right,” he observed. “Compensate for it.”
Sakura nodded and her next few steps were noticeably steadier. “It feels a little like sliding across a frozen puddle in winter.” She eyed Kakashi’s feet, the large fish circling under, and his casual stance with more than a little jealousy. “How do you stay so steady, Kakashi-sensei?”
He crinkled his eye at her. “Practice.” And with that, he made a lazy, one-handed swipe at her with his book, intending to whap her upside the head.
Sakura gasped and fell awkwardly to the side to avoid the blow, arms pinwheeling. It was a lost cause and she would have gone under, but for some instinctual reaction which made her channel chakra to her hands. Her palms struck the surface of the water and stayed there just as if she had landed on firm soil.
Sakura blinked in surprise and levered herself back up – well out of his arm’s reach, Kakashi noted, with amusement.
Once she was standing straight, she fixed the jounin with a glare. “That wasn’t very fair at all, Sensei!"
“Just testing your reflexes,” he replied, with a breezy wave of his hand. “You were the only one not to attack me during the bell test. I wanted to test your taijutsu skills.”
“… Right here?” she asked, arms still spread for balance. It was clear she was doing everything she could just to stay up.
“Maa, you never know when a fight will be taken to the water.” Or when a certain bridge builder lies about the risks in a mission…
Sakura hesitated again, throwing one last long look over her shoulder at the trees. But her eyes weren’t filled with longing – she seemed to be simply checking to make sure Sasuke wasn’t there to watch in case she slipped and fell into the pond. Then, just before Kakashi had about decided to force the issue by making her defend herself, she launched at him with an efficient side-kick.
Their sparring session was short: Sakura had none of Sasuke’s innate talent, nor did she have any of Naruto’s sloppy bad habits. Kakashi barely had to expend any energy to defend himself, of course, but noted that she had seemed to have mastered the academy basics.
Mildly impressive, considering she had no shinobi family to practice against.
But it was no more than a few minutes before Kakashi called for a halt. Sakura’s chakra levels were minimal at this stage and she was nearly bent over double with her hands on her thighs, panting. The toes of her sandals had slipped under the water line and the large koi underneath seemed to be circling more hopefully.
“You did well,” he granted and gestured to the muddy bank. “We will continue this tomorrow, before your next mission.”
“Yes, Sensei,” she gasped, and would have collapsed the moment she reached solid ground if he had not caught her elbow and guided her to sit and rest for a minute.
As it was, he felt more or less obligated to escort her home. Jounin-sensei’s were mostly allowed any training regiment they thought necessary up to and including the cruel and unusual, but Kakashi knew he couldn’t afford to be put under the Sandaime’s watchful eye if one of his student’s fainted in the street on the way home.
Sakura’s family lived in a pretty little cottage in one of the new parts of the village, rebuilt after the Kyuubi attack. Mrs. Haruno answered the door and took in the sight of her pale, exhausted, mud-soaked daughter in the presence of an unfamiliar masked man and immediately set her eyes to kill.
Kakashi returned their glare with a look of complete indifference.
“Mom, Kakashi-sensei taught me how to walk on water today,” Sakura said. Her voice was a wisp of its usual self, but her grin was wide enough to light her entire face.
Something very deep, hidden, and small glowed briefly in Kakashi’s heart. It came and went too fast for him to identify.
“Oh? Is that so?” Sakura’s mother said, then she turned to Kakashi with a much kinder expression and bowed. “Thank you, honored Shinobi-san.”
He simply shrugged a reply, and it was only when he was halfway back to the training grounds did he realize that Sakura hadn’t mentioned “Sasuke-kun” the entire trip back. Perhaps the tiny seed had begun to sprout, after all.
Kakashi smiled very slyly to himself, underneath his mask.
****
He half expected to find Naruto passed out from falling halfway up the tree and hitting his fool head too many times. But either not pitting him against Sasuke had caused him not to push himself as hard, or the ground was simply softer here than Wave country, because Naruto was still at practice, and greeted him with a happy yell.
The boy did have a bruise or two, but it was nothing that the Kyuubi wouldn’t have completely healed in a few hours. Naruto’s progress was slow: the cuts of the kunai reaching only just above the height of Kakashi’s head.
He sent him off for the day after a, “Well done,” and a reminder that training began again at eight in the morning (or whenever they managed to find him, first).
Then Kakashi ambled off in search of his third student.
He found Sasuke leaning, arms crossed, against his tree as if he were waiting for his sensei’s arrival. He had managed to make it further up than Naruto – although not by very much. His highest cut was only struck halfway up the trunk.
“Good,” Kakashi intoned, not particularly caring. “We’ll meet at the training grounds again at eight. You’re dismissed.”
The last Uchiha didn’t budge. He narrowed his eyes. “What were you teaching Sakura?”
“Advanced chakra control techniques,” Kakashi replied.
“Teach me.”
Kakashi curved his eye. “No.”
The boy grit his teeth, using shoulders to push of from the bark. “Why not?”
There were a number of reasons why not, the most pressing being that Kakashi simply didn’t like wasting his time. There was much use in teaching new tricks to a soon-to-be- dead boy.
He only replied, “Because I said so,” with another eye-smile.
“I can learn both exercises at the same time,” Sasuke insisted. He stepped forward, every line in his body tight, hands into indignant fists at his time. “I can learn faster than the others.”
“Will you?” Kakashi murmured. And then it occurred to him – in a round about way, that he didn’t have a memory of Sasuke asking for additional training before. Then again, it any training that the boy wanted had been freely given – including Kakashi's own Chidori.
Well, he wouldn’t be making that mistake twice.
He saw a flicker of hope in Sasuke’s dark eyes – he had misread Kakashi's inner reflection as hesitation.
“I was the number one rookie in the academy," Sasuke pressed. "I'll make it worth your while to teach me. I'm strong and I need to become stronger."
Stronger and stronger, until his quest for power leads him to abandon the village. Turn his back on his village and declare war on his own comrades.
"Your needs mean nothing to me." Kakashi's heard his own voice as if from a strange distance. Cold and flat. The boy's eyes widened a fraction. He seemed unsure.
Kakashi's weapon-pouch had three dozen shuriken, fourteen razor sharp kunais, two bundles of chakra wire and one pad of chakra paper. He didn't need any of it. From this distance, he could kill Sasuke with his bare hands.
It took an effort of will for Kakashi to turn away. "We'll meet with the rest of Team Seven at eight."
And with that, Kakashi walked off into the gathering darkness, feeling the Uchiha's eyes drill into his back well until he was out of sight.
*****
Next: Now that Naruto and Sakura have had their chapter in the spotlight, I guess it's Sasuke's turn… ;D (Will Kakashi remain cold towards him? Team Seven's first mission is coming up, and Sasuke's neck is literally on the line. Whahaha. Stay tuned!)
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Also... "he could kill Sasuke with his bear hands." I don't think Kakashi-sensei has ... bear paw hands. ^^;;;;
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Yeah, and Kakashi isn't quite done yet. whahaha. Well, some things should really be cleared up by the next chapter. I know this way of thinking isn't something he can sustain... Well, not without a little death on Sasuke's part. :P
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Kakashi, straighten up! Tsk tsk!
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Cheering for KakaIru goodness soon, but I don't mind the lack of it lately since the story has a very logical progression. ^^ And because I know it's coming up. XD
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Awesome chapter, can't wait for more!
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Oh man. I dislike Sasuke greatly but you are making me worry and feel bad for him.
GO SAKURA! :D Yay for Sakura centric training!
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Crazier.
"Jounin-sensei’s were mostly allowed any training regiment they thought necessary up to and including the cruel and unusual"
HAHAHA <3
I really liked how you wrote Sakura. And Naruto, of course.
As to Sasuke... I don't know. Why didn't Kakashi consider telling Sasuke the truth about the Uchiha? I mean, sure, killing him now would prevent his part in the past-future. But Itachi... wouldn't it be worth it to not let Itachi die in front of Sasuke's eyes and messing with his head 'till the end? *feels the most sorry for Itachi in the whole mangaverse* Besides, now that Kakashi has the past-future's knowledge of the Akatsuki, Itachi doesn't need to stay in it anymore, does he?
Oh, and one more thing. Are you going to have Kakashi relearn his jutsu? Like his own mangekyou sharingan?
Thanks for the chapter!
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Sakura love!!! I adore how you had Kakashi train her (we could only wish Kishimoto cared enough to do the same in the manga). You've got his sideways but caring manner down pat.
Sasuke... wow. That's got to be hard for Kakashi, knowing the terrible things Sasuke could be capable of... will he do something about it with his death? Or will he take the risk and try to change Sasuke now? That's a growth point for Kakashi too. I wonder if Iruka being more involved with Naruto now (by having him live with him) will have some influence on Kakashi's choice there. The Wave Country mission is still coming up soon. Kakashi KNOWS Zabuza and Haku will be there - knows their abilities, what they will most likely do. How will he handle that differently? *glees* This is an exciting story and I'm very much enjoying it. I hope you can get to more of it soon.
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This was a wonderful moment:
“Mom, Kakashi-sensei taught me how to walk on water today,” Sakura said. Her voice was a wisp of its usual self, but her grin was wide enough to light her entire face.
Something very deep, hidden, and small glowed briefly in Kakashi’s heart. It came and went too fast for him to identify.
Your Kakashi is fascinating. It's interesting to see how he's altering his actions towards people, and how there are echoes of the past and future in how he sees his team.
I'm looking forward to seeing more. ♥
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I'm not sorry about how cold Kakashi is treating Sasuke though I kinda think he deserves it; I never liked him but I'm sure you can make a smooth transition for him too ne? Looking forward to the next chapter!=)