The Gathering IV: Kakashi Kakashi
Kakashi was in a strange mood. He'd been getting funny looks all day. Most of that was Gai's fault for changing the rules on him at the last minute. Usually
when they had a competition the loser, if it were Gai, had to complete a ridiculous amount of repetitive endurance exercises. If Kakashi were the loser, he had
to witness Gai's triumphant posing and listen to him for ten minutes before he could safely leave without being followed. A loss meant he had at least a week
before he'd be challenged again. A win meant he had a day or two. It was a coin toss as to which was more painful, being challenged often, or having to put up
with Gai spreading word of his proud win to everyone he met for a week straight. Kakashi had settled on an even mix of the two. He'd never expected Gai to
suddenly demand he perform some penance for his loss. Wasn't putting up with him punishment enough?
Obviously not. Gai had won their competition to see who could blind the most birds with a smile. He'd won by a very large percentage given that Kakashi had
still been standing in place, staring at the insanely enthusiastic man grinning in flashes at the sky over their heads, when Gai had reached whatever number of
blinded birds he'd set up as the goal for the match. Something was very wrong with the world. Kakashi was sure of it. Gai had problems, yes, quite a few of
them, but he'd never thought up a competition as disturbing as that. And when he'd asked the still grinning man where he'd gotten the idea, Gai had laughed
boldly and complimented him for being so modest about his wonderfully creative thought process.
Whatever had broken in his one-sided rival's head, it meant Kakashi had spent the better part of the day drawing strange stares from anyone in Konoha who
recognized him. Which was everyone over the age of fifteen. He tried to console himself that it could have been worse. Gai had picked out a 'dashing' look that
was 'gloriously perfect' for him. At least it wasn't green spandex. Considering the alternative, Kakashi supposed he should have been relieved that 'dashing'
translated into nothing more than black and gray, a too loose coat, and clunky awkward shoes. He still wanted to know where the clothing had come from, why
Gai had suddenly decided to penalize him for losing, and why he'd insisted he remove his hitaiate.
Kakashi hadn't gone along with the last order. He had a lot of patience when it came to Gai, more than most people, but he had to draw the line somewhere.
The more people who looked askance at him, the more he wished he'd drawn it at the coat and shoes instead of the forehead protector.
Even the kids were staring at him. He'd barely gotten back from the training area Gai had picked for the day when he found himself being pointed at,
whispered about, and actually stalked by kids ranging from six to ten years old. Really little kids. Not even genin. The ones accompanied by parents were
hushed immediately, a few women blushing and flitting smiling glances at him, one man grimacing and cuffing his boy over the back of the head before
dragging him in the other direction. And Konohamaru, the only kid Kakashi actually recognized, since he'd been so depressed and sullen since the funeral,
was actually stalking him with a pair of scruffy looking sidekicks, all the time bristling and sending him deathglares until he rounded on them and they scattered
like clumsy little leaves.
Then there was Asuma, who'd passed him on the street, done a double take, and asked if he'd already finished with that locked room plan. What did that
mean? Kakashi might have considered asking if he hadn't spotted those three kids sneaking in his direction again, very badly hidden by what looked like an
upsidedown cardboard box with rocky camouflage and eyeholes poked in it. That was the breaking point. He'd taken to the roofs then with the intention of
avoiding populated areas for the rest of the day.
Sakura caught him two rooftops down, huffily demanding whether or not he'd finished with Sasuke, because he was going to be expecting her, she should
have been there an hour ago, and why did he have to get Shikamaru to help him drag Naruto over there, anyway, when she was more than enough to pound
some sense into the idiot, really. She didn't give him a chance to even consider asking for clarification for the bizarre complaint. Kakashi stood blinking slowly
at her as she threw her hands up, growled in exasperation, and went off grumbling under her breath about how she should probably go back and get those
flowers after all, and how she just knew Ino was overcharging her and that was the only reason she'd have told her about that lazy Shikamaru and stupid
Naruto, and how did Ino hear about it so quick anyway, yeah people talked, but Ino always ended up hearing everything the second it happened and that just
wasn't natural.
It was then that Kakashi realized something really was wrong with the world, or at least, something was really wrong with Konoha. And he had an idea it wasn't
Gai's quirky fashion sense to blame for it all. The stares, maybe. Asuma, no. Sakura...yeah, no telling with her. Whatever it was, he wanted it over quickly, as
painlessly as possible. He should have known better. Whatever it was, it involved his team. Pain was inevitable.
Despite his thrown state of mind, he reacted the moment he felt Naruto's, or rather, Kyuubi's chakra explode. As strangely as the people he'd seen were
behaving, he didn't want to imagine the sort of panic that would spread when the villagers recognized that energy. So he didn't knock Naruto out the second
he saw him alone, wild, without a single enemy in sight to warrant the chakra he was emitting. He went with his instinct. Something was wrong, the kid was
freaking, better to go along with him than to risk a confrontation right above populated streets. He took him to the hospital. And then he stood back and
watched the male members of his team greet each other.
It was amusing and disturbing at the same time. That unrestrained energy puttered out the second they arrived in Sasuke's room. Naruto took three running
steps toward Sasuke, who flinched and almost cringed back against the open window, and then they both froze and started in on each other like nothing was
weird when, clearly, a lot of things were weird at the moment.
"D-dobe. What the hell's wrong with you?" asked Sasuke. His voice was too loud, his eyes too wide and wary, and he looked like he would have backed up if
he hadn't already been standing against the wall.
"Shut up, stupid Sasuke-teme," Naruto sniffed. He stopped advancing, but his arms were still a little too high, his eyes a little too shiny, and his face twisted
into a happy scowling mess.
Kakashi coughed on the sudden urge to laugh. Naruto had almost hugged him. Everyone in the room knew it, but the two boys were doing their damnedest to
pretend otherwise. He didn't know what was funnier, Sasuke's cornered, horrified expression, or the way Naruto was trying so hard to act like he wasn't
relieved to the point of grinning or crying or both at the same time.
"Well," Kakashi drawled, "It's nice to see you two getting along so well."
Naruto jerked and shot him a startled look that turned into a squinty eyed stare. "What's with the outfit...?"
Kakashi felt his face twitch beneath his mask. He ignored the question and gave his student a pointed look. "Naruto, wh-"
Naruto jumped as if he'd been pinched. "Oh! Lee! Kakashi-sensei! Something's wrong! Really, wrong - someone's attacking or something and there's three
that-"
Kakashi started to cut him off, but Naruto stopped on his own. Stopped as suddenly as he'd started. It was as if his throat had closed up and choked the words
halfway. He froze, his face turning ashy white, and then he let out a low moaning noise and his expression twisted into one of pure misery.
"T-two," Naruto groaned, in a thick voice, his eyes flying to Kakashi's. "Two! At the same time! Two more - just now! How could it could happen to two of them
at once! Who's that's strong...? Kakashi-sensei..."
"Naruto," Kakashi started, seriously worried now. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Maa," an identical voice murmured from the open window, "this is awkward..."
.-.
Kakashi was in a good mood. Things had gone much easier than he'd thought they would after his first run in with Iruka that afternoon. It was disturbing to see
the wary resentment in those eyes, the almost frigid way Iruka had held himself. As if they weren't even friends, much less lovers. He hadn't planned on that
when he'd sought the familiar man out. It just seemed natural that his first stop - after leaving a note for Gai to find - be a visit to Iruka. They were both
together in the same place again. If that wasn't a sign of entwined fates, he didn't know what was. True, Iruka hadn't greeted him as familiarly as he liked, but
he could fix that. The kiss told him it was only a matter of time before they got together. More time than it should have taken, yeah, but still, just a matter of
time. He knew for a fact that all Iruka had to do was return that favor and they'd be set for life. Fate was funny that way.
The kids were funny, too. He'd decided this was the place to harvest his group because he was already here - Iruka, too, which was a nice perk. His guess had
proven perfectly accurate, which was only natural given his skill and experience. This place was ripe with young talent. And they all knew him so he didn't even
have to try very hard to get them alone with him. Not that there hadn't been a few hiccups along the way.
Shikamaru had managed to not only catch him off guard, but he'd actually been forced to negotiate with the kid. That was rather embarrassing. He'd have to
hold his end of the bargain, too, or Iruka would kill him later. Assuming he didn't kill him the second he went home anyway. But he wasn't going to think too
much about that.
Neji had nearly gotten him caught. That was something he should have been expecting from the tense, wary way Iruka had looked at him earlier. Ninjas. Even
the young ones could be twitchy and suspicious. Didn't like to be touched, which was unfortunate because it was so much easier to grab and bolt than it was to
chase down and tackle in a hospital hallway where anyone might happen to see him. Twitchy suspicious kids were hard to keep hold of, too. He was more out
of shape than he'd realized.
But aside from those two, he hadn't encountered any real resistance. The people here weren't the friendliest lot, but they were much better than those Sand
guys. He'd almost lost an arm grabbing that one. Demons. One more thing he hadn't really planned for, one more thing that worked out better than he'd hoped
for. He'd popped over there as soon as he was done with Lee, tried to surprise Gaara, and nearly had his fingers amputated by the kid's
auto-sand-shield-thing. He definitely hadn't planned on that. Luckily for him even paranoid twitchy ninja kids were still just kids underneath it all. Gaara had
recognized him, been calm enough to let him drop a few names - Lee, Sasuke, Naruto - and he'd calmed a lot more when he heard the last one. Calmed
enough so he caught the little marble Kakashi tossed to him. Kids and shiny trinkets. It never failed.
And then he'd come for the last two only to find that, who'd have guessed, he was already with them. Awkward. Yeah, this was awkward. He'd expected to have
trouble with the last ones, which was why he'd saved them for last. Naruto's demon had noticed him earlier. The energy the kid had let off was more than
enough to encourage him to flit over and grab Gaara next instead of Sasuke. He'd meant what he said to Asuma about those two. Loyalty was very important.
Not to mention part of Shikamaru's terms were that he not take one before the other. Really, that genius kid was kind of annoying.
But none of that mattered now. He lifted a hand in greeting and winked at the identical man standing across the room from him with a calm, "Yo."
Naruto flinched and gaped, Sasuke stepped back, and Kakashi shoved his forehead protector up and off his left eye. Across the room from him, Kakashi did
the same thing with his blue cloth band. The two sharingan's spun and locked and Kakashi smiled widely and stepped into the room.
"I guess the game's up," he sighed, enjoying the way he was staring at himself. "I've come for the children. This one first."
He raised a slow hand in Sasuke's direction, almost grinning when the boy tensed as if he planned to counter rather than avoid. Naruto's reaction was better,
probably because of that demon he had. Kakashi reminded himself to commend the kid for that later, for not trying to fight something unknown.
"Get back!" Naruto yelled at Sasuke, shoving him away from the Kakashi look-alike. "He can kill you in a second, teme!"
Sasuke glared and started to shove Naruto off, only to wince when the look-alike flicked something in his hand and a hot sensation tightened around his wrist.
Naruto froze at the same moment, both of their eyes dropping to the silver metal locking their wrists together.
"Guess you don't have handcuffs here," Kakashi smiled at the two boys. "Don't worry, once you get used to working together, I'm sure we can take those off. In
the meantime..."
He reappeared across the room, crouched behind the two stricken boys and dropped his hands on their shoulders before they could do more than flinch. He
took one moment to nod at Kakashi before he took them, "I'll be right back. Don't go anywhere."
.-.
PART 5
.-.
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