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(I don't own any characters etc etc)
Kakashi was walking behind his genin team, reading his book. They were heading back to Konoha from a three day long mission that had been a success, in that they both accomplished their goal, and Sasuke and Naruto hadn't broken anything on the other.
So, the fact that his three new genin were actually getting along was both expected and surprising for Kakashi.
He turned his attention briefly away from Icha Icha and eavesdropped...monitored...the genin.
"It's going to be so much fun!" Sakura squealed.
"I know!" Naruto agreed. "And it's all summer!"
"Hn," Sasuke said. "As long as we win."
Kakashi frowned under his mask. What were they talking about?
He sighed, figuring he would find out sooner than later. At the very least, they were moving forward as a team since the Land of Waves mission, even though it was still very recent. He'd take any positive signs of teamwork.
As it would happen, he didn't have to wait long.
Sakura turned back towards him. "What do you think, Kakashi-sensei?"
"What do I think about what?"
His team paused and glared at him.
Oh, he thought, there was nothing quite so delightful as three angry genin!
"The summer shinobi competition! The big sporting event, duh!" Naruto shouted.
"The what now?" Kakashi asked, at a loss.
Sasuke rolled his eyes and passed him a scroll.
Kakashi began to read it as his team talked about it.
"Since the chuunin exams got cancelled because of whatever it was," Sakura explained, "Konoha decided to organize the summer shinobi sports competition, for the first time in a while. Didn't you do it when you were younger?"
Kakashi shook his head. "Maa, I had a rather...unique...childhood, Sakura."
"Not even as you got older?" Naruto asked. "I mean, look at your hair, you're like, what, eighty? You've been around for forever!"
Kakashi glared at him, and the blond put his hands on the back of his head and smiled.
"Heh, just kidding, Kakashi-sensei! You're probably only sixty five," he muttered.
Kakashi sighed and turned his attention back to the scroll. All shinobi could, and should, participate, on teams. Genin teams and their jonin sensei were, naturally, already to be their own teams, and participation was mandatory. Chuunin and jonin could pick their teams. There would be a number of events throughout the summer, and points given to each team. Obviously, the better a team did in an event, the more points, and prizes would be awarded to the top scorers at the end of the summer.
The genin continued to discuss the event on the walk back, including when they went to turn in their report.
Kakashi silently thanked Sasuke for writing the report, and they stood in line in the missions office.
Naruto had placed them in their former teacher's line, and Iruka greeted them with a big smile.
"Welcome back! How was your mission?"
Sakura and Naruto began to talk to Iruka about it, with Sasuke nodding along and chiming in here and there.
"And we're starting to plan for the big summer event!" Naruto concluded.
Iruka smiled. "Glad to hear it! It should be a lot of fun!"
"Don't forget to pick your second adult," the Hokage said, as he resumed his seat behind the missions desk workers, having moved briefly to look at a scroll.
"Yes, Hokage-sama!" the genin said, and Kakashi titled his head, curiously, unsure of what was being referenced.
But, rather than ask, he accepted a D-rank, in-village mission from Iruka that his team would tackle after a day of rest tomorrow, and dismissed his team.
____
Kakashi forgot about the Hokage's reminder until he was supervising his team de-weed an elderly couple's large garden.
To his surprise, the genin were fairly focused.
Naturally, this alerted Kakashi to danger.
He listened more closely to them; they spent the day discussing the summer shinobi sports competition. Again.
"Maa, what's so important about this? It could just get in the way of training," Kakashi commented when they had stopped for lunch.
"Sensei!" Sakura shrieked. "This is a big deal! It's a new way to train, and to learn new techniques---"
"And to win! Big!" Naruto added.
Sasuke sighed. "Since the chuunin exam is cancelled, this is the important event of the summer. And since we have to participate, we might as well win."
Kakashi shrugged. "Big deal, what is it, games of tag and who can skip a rock the farthest?"
His genin glared at him.
"Did you even read the scroll we showed you?" Sasuke asked.
Kakashi shrugged again, and Sakura dug in her bag and pulled it out to read aloud.
"It could consist of shinobi events such as capture and evade; jutsu tests; aim and accuracy; chakra control; and collect and hide intel. And summer sports like swimming and running. And ones that combine the two, like obstacles courses. Plus teams are judged throughout the summer on teamwork and how much fun they have. All five members of genin teams must be involved equally."
She nodded and rolled up the scroll.
"This is going to be a long summer," Kakashi sighed. "Wait, five members of a genin team? I haven't heard about us getting anyone new, and no one has graduated from the academy..." he said, rubbing his masked chin in thought.
"Sensei!" his team groaned.
"Don't you ever pay attention?" Naruto complained. "Genin teams have to have another adult, a chuunin or jonin, to balance it out. So we need to pick another adult."
"Or the only adult," Sasuke muttered, glaring at Kakashi, who gave him a trademark eye smile.
"Fine, fine," Kakashi said. "So who's the lucky teammate going to be?"
"Well," Sakura said, drumming her fingers in thought, "someone who would be good at these events, though this is only an idea of what there could be, not a definite list."
"But how do we even know who's available, then?" Naruto asked. "They could all have been taken while we were out of town!"
"Dobe," Sasuke said. "You clearly didn't read the rules either. Genin teams get first pick, then after we've all signed up, chuunin and jonin can form their teams. That way genin have the most to choose from."
"What about one of the strong clans?" Kakashi posed. "Yamanaka, Nara, Inuzuka? I'm on good terms with them."
The team shook their heads.
"I doubt they'd go against their own for this," Sasuke sighed. "The other genin teams will have claim to them."
They sat in silence while they finished their lunches.
"There's the gate guards we've seen a few times," Sakura suggested. "They could be good?"
"Or someone on active patrol," Sasuke posed. "The more they're on the roster, the better shape they're likely in."
"But it has to be someone that would get along with us," Naruto sighed.
The group was silent once again.
"Wait!" Naruto said, jumping up. "I've got it! Iruka-sensei!"
The other three exchanged a look.
"What?" Sakura asked.
"Yeah! He'll be perfect!" Naruto said. "We're three of his favorite students, and he's strong in a lot of areas!"
"He does have good chakra control," Sasuke acknowledged. "And aim."
"And planning skills, and teamwork," Sakura agreed. "And he stays up on his training."
"Plus he does the regular things like swimming and running all the time!" Naruto said. "He loves us, he'll be perfect! Believe it!"
They turned to Kakashi.
"What do you think, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked. "You've talked with Iruka-sensei outside of just getting mission scrolls, right?"
"I have," Kakashi sighed. "But is he...okay...for this?" He was met with confused looks and scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Well, his back....you know..."
Naruto shook his head. "He's good now, he's recovered and he's been training again! Everything seems good!"
The genin all nodded in agreement.
"Great! We can ask him when he finish this!" Naruto said, and to Kakashi's surprise, no one argued with the blond.
If anything, Sasuke and Sakura quickly finished their lunches and cleaned up, heading back to work without prompting by Kakashi.
____
Kakashi supervised his team for the remainder of the task, his thoughts straying to the chuunin sensei.
"You've talked with Iruka-sensei outside of just getting mission scrolls, right?"
Sakura's question played through his mind over and over.
He had talked with Iruka here and there. Nothing significant before becoming Naruto's jonin sensei, and then just a few times since.
Well, Kakashi had also talked with Iruka while he was laid up in the hospital after Mizuki's attack, but he doubted the sensei remembered that.
And then there was not too long ago, after the chuunin exams had been announced (before they were cancelled/postponed due to concerns in other countries). Iruka had certainly not minced words in front of the Hokage and others about his concerns about Team 7 entering the exam.
It had not been the nicest exchange between Iruka and Kakashi. What had he said to the younger man?
"They're no longer your students, they're my soldiers now."
Kakashi shuddered slightly, it had been a rather callous thing to say.
Still, Iruka had been willing to test them and had apologized, and they seemed on...fine...terms now.
Kakashi sighed. But would they be able to work on a team together? For the whole summer?
And were the genin just idolizing their former teacher? Surely they'd rather have a jonin rather than an academy/village-based older chuunin?
Kakashi posed just that to his team as they walked to turn in their report (thanks to Sakura), but they disagreed.
"Iruka-sensei it is!" Naruto said. "He'll definitely want to be on our team!"
"He'll be one of the best for planning for the unknown as a team," Sasuke added.
"Sasuke-kun, that hurts!" Kakashi groaned. "I've been called quite the genius, you know. And I've made a career out of planning for the unknown."
"But as a team of different skill levels like ours," Sakura suggested, "and different events, some of which are more...fun...than strictly shinobi..."
"It will play on Iruka-sensei's strengths," Sasuke finished.
"Plus, with all of us combined, we'll be unstoppable! The top spot will be ours!" Naruto shouted, drawing the attention of passersby.
Kakashi shook his head and followed them to Hokage Tower, where Naruto frowned when they didn't see the ponytailed teacher.
"Iruka-sensei was supposed to have a shift here, now," he moaned.
As soon as they got to the front of the line, Naruto asked the desk worker about the missing teacher.
"Oh, Iruka?" the man asked as he reviewed their report. "We sent him off early, it's been a slow day. I think he said something about going for a swim?"
The genin thanked him and as soon as the report was accepted and stamped, took off running.
Kakashi sighed and followed them.
"At least they're working as a team," he thought to himself, as they raced around the village, following Naruto's lead.
Soon enough they had come to a lake and stopped to catch their breaths at the edge, near a neatly folded uniform and towel.
"I knew he'd be here!" Naruto cheered, pointing to the lake. "Iruka-sensei!"
They followed his gaze and saw a tan figure doing graceful strokes in the water. The man paused and looked in their direction, and Naruto waved.
"We want to talk to you when you're done!"
The genin happily sat under the shade of a tree to wait for their former teacher to finish, and Kakashi sat above them in the tree, half reading and half watching the man.
It wasn't long before Iruka headed back towards them, and Kakashi watched the man approach them, water running off his body as he came out of the water.
Iruka squeezed water out of his ponytail as he greeted them.
"Hello everyone!" he said with a smile, as he grabbed his towel and began to dry off. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"We wanted to ask if you'd be on our team for the summer competition!" Naruto said. "Will you?"
Iruka laughed and ruffled Naruto's hair. "I'm flattered. But is that okay with everyone else?"
"You'd be great!" Sakura said, and Sasuke nodded.
"I think we have a better shot of winning with you," he said.
Iruka smiled, and moved his gaze up to where Kakashi was in the tree.
"And you, Kakashi-sensei?" he gently asked.
Kakashi felt the weight of his gaze and shrugged. "If the kids want it, who am I to argue?"
Iruka's eyes lingered on him solemnly for a moment, before he smiled and looked at the genin again.
"Well, count me in!"
The youngsters cheered and began to make plans as Iruka dried off and put his uniform on again.
Kakashi dropped down from the tree and put his hands in his pockets as he followed the others back to Hokage Tower to sign up.
As they neared, Iruka hung back and fell in step with Kakashi.
He rubbed the scar on his nose and blushed slightly.
"Ah, Kakashi-sensei," Iruka began. "Are you sure you're okay with this?"
Kakashi looked at the younger man. "Why wouldn't I be?"
Iruka gave a tight smile. "We...didn't exactly get along when I made a fool of myself about the chuunin exams."
Kakashi shrugged and gave Iruka an upside down eye smile. "Tsk tsk, sensei. I think we both realized the error of our ways, and I'd hope we can move past that. After all, we'll be a well-rounded team with lots of strengths if you join us. After all, I've heard good things about your chakra control and planning skills."
Iruka didn't need to know that Kakashi had heard it from the genin, nor did the genin need to know that Kakashi was using their words. He just needed to secure a good second in command for this.
Iruka gave him a genuine smile. "Good, I'm glad. I look forward to working with you!"
Kakashi blinked at the happiness that radiated from that smile and silently followed the others to submit their team paperwork.
Afterwards they went to Ichiraku's to celebrate, and Kakashi was also largely quiet there, listening to the genin discuss the possible events and Iruka chime in with suggestions and memories from when the last time Konoha had this event. Iruka also shared stories he had heard about previous times, as due to outside circumstances it wasn't held regularly.
They eventually all said their goodbyes and departed to their respective homes, where Kakashi reflected on the new event and teammate.
He thought about Iruka's swimming, and vivid memories of the man's powerful strokes surfaced in his mind.
When had he used the Sharingan to record Iruka?
Before he could answer his own question, the sight of Iruka walking out of the water played in his mind, in perfect detail.
Water streaming off his tan, toned body, glistening in the sun. Clearly the teacher kept up with his training as the kids said, as the muscle definition did not lie.
And the swimsuit, even as modest shorts, did nothing to hide the results of workouts for the lower half of the man's body.
Kakashi blinked, thinking about the man's happiness at joining their team and committing to work with them for the summer.
"Oh," he said to himself, different thoughts running around his head. "This will be quite the interesting summer."