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Shikako is being followed today. It started this morning during her training with Anko, as she noted a third chakra signature hidden in the trees near them, and continued throughout the afternoon as Shikako walked across the village doing errands. It's a pretty proficient tracker, too, leaving neither hide nor hair to be heard or seen all day, and if she couldn't sense their chakra, she probably wouldn't know she was being followed.
The fact that she is being followed is actually neither surprising nor concerning to Shikako: not surprising because she is still a pretty suspicious person in the eyes of both the clan and the village who would probably merit being tracked more often if they had the resources for it; and not concerning because this particular chakra signature is one of the most familiar ones to her in all the world, even in its current state.
Her tail decides to finally reveal himself while she's browsing a weapons stall for fresh supplies. A scuff of a sandal announces his presence as he materializes in her peripheral vision a few yards away. Shikako, who has been diligently pretending not to have noticed him following her all day, glances faintly in his direction and then goes back to the rack of assorted kunai in front of her. They're of mediocre quality, but might be the best she'll be able to get, considering wartime constraints.
Kakashi has a medical eyepatch over his injured eye, but he's wearing his full jounin uniform. Shikako wonders whether he's been put back on active duty already. He's standing with his hands in his pockets in a light slouch, although not the strict posture quite the full casual stance she was accustomed to seeing from him in her old life either. (Then again, since Obito is now not dead for Kakashi to adopt the personality traits of in posthumous hero-worship, he may now never become the lazy sensei she knew.)
"I didn't need your help," Kakashi announces, not looking at her. Shikako had kind of suspected this conversation would happen one way or another, but she's a little pleasantly surprised that he’s not more angry about it. This seems more like a token protestation.
“Well, you had it anyway,” she replies mildly, picking up a kunai to examine so that she can give Kakashi some space away from her gaze. “And both of our missions were completed successfully, so that seems to have worked out well.”
Kakashi crosses his arms and huffs, so maybe that was the wrong tack to take. Glancing over at him again, Shikako adds, “If I see comrades in need, I’m not going to not help them, if I can.”
This young Kakashi’s face is so much easier to read, even though it’s still covered in a mask. His emotions are much less hidden. He’s still not happy, but he seems thoughtful, now; conflicted. Shikako looks away from him again and back to the kunai. This one has a crooked blade, like it’s been bent and hammered back into shape, but the balance is still true.
There’s a long moment of silence.
“...Thank you,” Kakashi says at last. The words seem difficult to say, but they’re genuine. Shikako smiles.
“You’re welcome,” she says, and she means it.
She’s approached next by Minato, about a month and a half later. (Although with as busy as the man is kept, that’s probably about as soon as he had a chance to talk to her.) He too appears during her training time with Anko, but he’s polite enough to do so openly, hanging around the edge of the training field until Shikako sets Anko to the task of practicing assorted weapon throws and comes over to talk to him.
“Hey,” says Minato. “I wanted to say thanks properly for helping my students on that mission.”
“It was no problem, Namikaze-sama,” Shikako replies. She’s gotten better about talking to living legends since she started travelling between dimensions, or she might have found it intimidating to talk to the future Yondaime - who by all accounts is (and was) an incredibly shrewd shinobi, despite the easygoing persona he exudes. He smiles warmly at her, and it’s genuine, despite how shrewd she knows he is. (The man must have incredible compartmentalization, she reckons.)
“Still,” he says. “Even though they’re not genin anymore, I wish I could be there to look out for my students more often, especially out in the field.”
“Yeah, I get it,” Shikako says, glancing across the training ground to where the small form of Anko is diligently practicing her throws. “They’re still too young.” Minato’s mouth turns wryly and he inclines his head. It’s not, strictly speaking, a politically appropriate opinion for a ninja to have during wartime, but it’s true and they both know it.
There’s a moment’s silence. Shikako knows that Minato has something else he wants to say.
After a moment, he admits, “About that, actually. I have something to ask you.” At Shikako’s questioning look, he continues, “That barrier technique you used was really incredible. Is it your own invention?”
“Yes,” says Shikako, thinking a little guiltily (and a little worriedly) about that file waiting in the bottom of the To-Do-Never drawer in Nara R&D. It looks like that might be about to see the sun soon after all, for better or for worse.
Minato tilts his head at her. “My student Rin is a medical nin, and learning something like that could be invaluable in helping her save lives. What do you think about the possibility of teaching her how to do it?”
Well. Minato Namikaze asking her to teach one of her techniques sure isn’t something she could have possibly imagined, even if she could have foreseen that she would end up stuck in the past with him.
“Well…” she says slowly. “You know some Fire Release techniques, right? I’ve been meaning to find a way to teach Anko some of those. Maybe we could make a trade?”
“Whoaa, Rin-chan! That’s awesome!” shouts Obito as he jogs onto the training field. Rin waves at him from inside her Bubble Barrier, grinning although she can’t actually hear him from in there. Shikako, who’s pretty much satisfied with her inspection of the bubble by now anyway, signals her to let it down.
“Hi, Obito-kun!” chirps Rin as Obito comes running over towards them. “Isn’t it great? I can use this in the field next time I need to heal someone!”
“Good job, Rin,” Shikako tells her approvingly. The girl is a quick study, and she has an acceptable eye for detail and a steady hand, enough so that Shikako has felt pretty confident teaching her how to draw the seals for herself. Hypothetically, they could be drawn onto Rin’s hands like Anko, but… it seems rude to draw things onto other peoples’ students without asking. (Minato has not been in the village to ask about it, which means he has also not been around to hear about the fact that Shikako’s technique is, in fact, a seal she had invented herself. Shikako is putting that conversation off as long as possible.)
“You can use that and healing chakra at the same time?” Obito goggles in awe. “Rin-chan, you’re so smart!”
Rin blushes a little at the praise. “It’s not really that hard, Obito-kun. I bet you could learn to do it too.”
“Activating a prepared seal is pretty basic,” Shikako agrees reasonably. “It’s the preparation of the seal that’s the tricky part.”
There’s a loud, disgusted “UGH” of agreement from under the tree, where Anko has been set up with a portable desk and some kanji to painstakingly copy. She had wanted to participate when Shikako was teaching Rin to make seals, but she still has a long way to go with her calligraphy before Shikako will let her advance to making anything exciting. To her credit, though, she hasn’t thrown anything in frustration yet.
“Here, Obito-kun, let me show you!” Rin says, grabbing Obito by the hand (which causes the tips of his ears to go pink). She proceeds to take out one of the Barrier Wall tags she had prepared already, and start talking him through using it. Shikako hovers for a moment, supervising, but Rin seems to have things under control, so she goes and stands by the tree next to Anko instead.
After a few moments of the two of them huddling together, Obito announces, “Okay, here goes. Barrier Wall!”
The tag flares, and a translucent barrier shimmers into the air in front of them. Obito crows in delight.
“Ha ha, wait until my next spar with that Kakashi jerk!” he announces. “He’ll never see this coming!” He does a couple of kicks and punches into the air behind the barrier, while Rin puts her hands on her hips, smiling wryly.
Anko, who has her elbows on her now thoroughly ignored kanji practice, frowns at him. “Aren’t you guys supposed to be teammates?” she asks.
“A little competition between teammates can be helpful, Anko-chan,” Shikako explains to her, repressing her own smile at Obito’s antics. “By testing each other and trying to catch each other off-guard, you test the limits of your techniques and abilities in a safe environment. And by driving each other to constant improvement, you all become stronger as a team.”
Anko is wearing a quiet little frown on her face, and Shikako is suddenly confronted for the first time with the realization that, because of her, the Anko of this universe will never have the experience of being on a genin team. It would have been under literally the worst sensei possible, true, but Shikako still feels kind of bad about that.
“Of course, this doesn’t only apply to genin teams, although they’re one of the most common types here in Konoha,” she continues as smoothly as she can. “But you will be part of many teams in your career as a ninja, some short-term and some long-term, and the principles of teamwork apply in all of those. Competition through sparring is one of the first and most important ways that you will make each other stronger.”
“Yeah,” Rin chimes in unexpectedly. “You can spar with us, for example.” She smiles encouragingly at Anko. Shikako privately thanks her lucky stars for what a good kid Rin is. With emotional intelligence like that, she might actually be able to make a functional unit out of Obito and Kakashi after all.
Anko perks up noticeably. “Really?” she asks.
“Sure, kid!” announces Obito, posing with his hands on his hips and grinning down at her. “Not that you’ll stand a chance against a full chunin like me. I’ll have to go easy on you.”
Anko doesn’t reply to that with words, just with a battle cry as she springs up and towards Obito, flinging a handful of senbon that clatter off the barrier and make him yelp in undignified surprise. Shikako rescues the writing desk before it can be knocked totally flying, and seals it away along with the worksheets for another day.
And if she's mentally taking notes about how Obito's stance could be improved, well... maybe she's getting used to this whole sensei thing, after all.