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“ Again ?” Inoichi asked, dismay making him speak without thinking for the first time since he became a genin.
“You were asked for specifically. You’re the first team that didn’t lose the kid, and the first one that didn’t end up crying in their debrief in over a year,” the desk nin said. “He can’t really be that bad, can he?”
Even Chouza gave him a dirty look for that one.
Hatake Kakashi was famous for being the son of the White Fang. He was infamous for being the worst D-rank in Konoha history. Kakashi was a four-year-old terror, with more brains and more skills than should possibly be allowed to fit into such a tiny body, and he was hell-bent on using all of it to drive his genin babysitters into an early grave.
One of the worst parts was that whenever his father was around, the Hatake brat was the most well-behaved child in Konoha. Inoichi got the impression that this difference wasn’t out of any sort of fear or deceitfulness, it was just that Kakashi respected his father, and nobody else. Which honestly, Hatake Sakumo was one of the best jounin in Konoha so that was almost fair. It just made it very hard for those permanently scarred by the kid’s shenanigans to convince anyone else of the magnitude of his terrifyingness. Inoichi was at least glad that he hadn’t been around when Kakashi was still learning to tree-walk. It was harrowing enough knowing he could pop out at him at any time from any angle with who knows what unpleasant substance, or setting off who knows what diabolical trap, he can’t imagine what it was like when the kid was liable to fall from the ceiling, leaving the hapless genin to explain to the White Fang that they’d allowed his son to crack his head open and die on his floor.
The jounin sensei never helped with babysitting. Allegedly this was so that their genin could learn independence and responsibility. In reality, Inoichi was absolutely certain, it was because they didn’t want to get outsmarted by a four-year-old.
Unfortunately, Ino-Shika-Cho turned out to be slightly more successful at Kashi wrangling than any of their peers.
“This,” Shikaku said mournfully, “is why you should never put effort into anything. If you do a hard job well they make you keep it.”
“We should have cried,” Inoichi said.
“I’ll go get eggplant,” said Chouza.