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“So, what do you want to do today?” Kakashi asked over breakfast. They were eating outside at a café down the street from Hokage Tower. The sky kept getting bluer as the morning progressed and the temperature rose. It was shaping into the kind of spring day where the very air seemed to be alive with life. It flowed into your lungs like water and made you buoyant. The sun shone, warming the spots that grew almost too cool in the light breeze.
Mei smiled. She’d been hoping to ask Kakashi this for awhile and at last they had the time and opportunity. “Teach me to tree jump.”
Kakashi paused with his pastry halfway to his mouth. He lowered it, much to the chagrin of the passersby. The small crowd had been loitering for far too long at the magazine stand across the street, waiting to see the Hokage eat. The Sixth Hokage, seemingly ignorant of the disappointed village-folk, was puzzled. “What do you mean? You already know how to tree jump. I’ve seen you do it.” He punctuated the statement with a slight of hand trick that allowed him to dispatch the pastry instantly. Disgruntled mutterings grew among the nearby people as their former Hokage suddenly began to chew.
Mei shook her head, mouth full. She swallowed and said, “I know I can but it’s smoother when you do it. I want to be able to do it like a native Leaf ninja.”
Kakashi had a childish urge to make a certain joke but he resisted. It was bad enough that the woman at the next table looked scandalized by Mei’s speech. After a few seconds of observation, the woman went from looking appalled to frowning disapprovingly at Mei. Kakashi’s eyes narrowed the tiniest bit. Then a wicked smile crept into place behind his mask. In a cheerful voice he finally responded to Mei, “alright, if you insist. I’ll show you how we do it.” He winked knowingly at the woman behind Mei. Said woman choked on her breakfast.
After they finished their meal in the empty café, Kakashi took Mei to one of the larger training grounds.
“I don’t really know what I’m going to be able to show you Mei,” Kakashi said as they stepped up to the wooded area. “It’s just holding onto the branches to make sure you don’t fall off. It’s easier than water walking and you do that very well.”
“I live on an island so I would hope so,” Mei deadpanned. “It’s just,” Mei jumped into the nearest tree and Kakashi followed suit. She landed on a thick branch next to the trunk. He chose an offshoot of that branch that swayed with his weight but did not break. She turned and saw the leaves waving at her. She pointed at him accusingly. “See, that’s a perfect example. I would have never chosen that branch!”
Kakashi looked down at the bough he was crouched on. He glanced back up at Mei, “why?”
Mei waved her hands, slightly frustrated. “Because it’s too thin! It could have broken. I might have fallen right off!” Kakashi stood up straight on his branch and bounced his weight by bending his knees. The bough swayed with the pressure but did not break. Mei was not amused. “I could melt the branch off you know.”
Kakashi shrugged. He hopped from his limb to Mei’s main branch. “Did you ever climb trees Mei? I mean before you learned chakra manipulation.”
“Not really,” Mei replied, thinking about it. “Most of the trees in the Mist have moss growing on them. Trees were usually something to hide under when it rained.”
Kakashi nodded. “Climb this one,” he nodded at the tree they were standing on.
Mei planted a foot on the vertical trunk.
Kakashi coughed, “I meant without chakra.”
“Oh,” Mei said and blushed. “Right.” She looked at the tree again, searching out an available branch. She looked in vain. All of the branches were out of her reach and she assumed that chakra-enhanced jumping was also off limits.
“You can try climbing down as well if you like, but no jumping,” Kakashi said. As he spoke, he stepped out onto the thinner branch that he’d perched on earlier. Balancing on the center of the bough he walked out onto it. As he got further and further out onto the branch’s thinning network of twigs, the limb bent more and more under his weight.
Mei’s eyes popped. “What are you doing?!” She asked, slightly alarmed. As she watched the branch bend down, Kakashi walked even farther out onto it, impossibly far. As he neared the end, his gait became a trot and then he ran off the tips of the leafy branch which by this time had touched right to the ground. As Kakashi stepped off of it the bough bounced right back into place, shaking a few leaves off as it did so.
Kakashi turned and looked at Mei who was like a statue up in the tree. “Now you try.”
“You used chakra,” Mei protested. “You must have.”
Kakashi shook his head. “All it takes is balance and know-how and you have both. It’s the same as climbing the tree.”
“You used chakra,” Mei insisted, shaking her head.
Kakashi smiled up at her. “Even though I learned to climb trees after I learned chakra manipulation, I still know how to do it without chakra. My reserves are only average, as you know. On some missions the difference between success and failure could be my ability to do such things with the minimal amount of chakra or none at all. I learned; I practiced.”
Mei looked at the distance to the ground skeptically.
“Try shimmying down the trunk,” Kakashi suggested.
“In a dress?” Mei countered.
Kakashi raised a silver eyebrow. “I asked you what you wanted to do today. Today you wore a dress. I don’t see how this is my fault.”
Mei’s eyes narrowed at him and she sniffed. Without another word, she positioned herself to one side of the branch she was standing on. Awkwardly she clung to the tree and hung herself off a bit. She looked down to scan for a foothold. Kakashi stepped closer to the tree to get under her. “What are you doing?” Mei asked huffily.
Kakashi’s dark eyes widened in mock innocence. “In case you fall.” He held out his arms, “I’ll be here to catch you.” He cocked his head a little to one side. “Although I can’t deny that I’m enjoying the view.”
“Take care or I might ‘accidently’ fall on you and break your pretty face,” Mei growled. She was grasping the branch she’d been standing on as her feet probed for holds below. Her left big toe located a knot and she used that for balance when her hand slipped. She tried to use chakra to catch herself but the branch was already too far away. She was free-falling, long hair streaming out above her, and a single gasp later she’d landed.
Pervert or not, Kakashi did catch her. He bent his knees to absorb the momentum and instantly tilted Mei back onto her feet. “You alright?”
Mei nodded, taking a breath. She brushed her hair out of her face. It was usually terrifying to just fall. Usually, in their line of work, they were forcefully thrown into something or kicked down. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d simply fallen down. Free falling took longer and the suspense was what had really startled her. Her brain had been in a constant cycle of, I’ll hit now, no, I’ll hit now, no, for what seemed like an eternity.
Mei looked at the tree. Kakashi walked toward it and began to free climb. He fit his fingers and hands into the gaps in the bark, pushing and pulling himself higher up the trunk. She watched his hands, the way he moved. Her mouth fell open and she said, “you’re reading the tree.”
Kakashi turned and looked at her, hands still pressed into the notches of the bark in front of him. “You could put it that way.” He slid back down as Mei approached. She put her hand to the bark, seeing the possibilities. “It’s not difficult; it’s just knowing how to do it. All it takes is some strength, which you have, and practice.” Mei grasped a lump of bark high above her head and pulled herself up. “Of course different trees take different techniques but you won’t have to free climb everything. This is just to show you how to pay attention.” Mei’s feet were at Kakashi’s eye level now so he also began scaling the tree.
Before Mei was even aware of what she was doing, she was even with the branch she’d leapt to earlier. She glanced over at it in surprise. She then adjusted her climbing until she could grasp the large branch and pull herself onto it. It felt like climbing onto a barrel. The round surface was solid underneath her and Mei stood up, triumphant. Kakashi joined her seconds later and they shared a smile.
“Now,” Kakashi said. “As far as choosing a branch to jump to…”
They spent the rest of the morning going over the signs of disease and rot in trees, how much pressure branches of certain widths could take, and chakra usage when pushing off. The more Kakashi thought about it, the more information he realized he took for granted when he tree-jumped. Mei didn’t have any of this knowledge or experience and had been wasting energy jumping too far or too often to avoid branches that, although were perfectly acceptable, she thought were too dangerous to use.
“The rest is just applying what you’ve learned,” Kakashi explained.
“Like we’ve been doing?” Mei asked, smirking. Of course, during the entire lecture, they’d been jumping from tree to tree to tree. Mei was certain they’d jumped on every tree on the grounds at least twice already.
Still, Mei felt she was getting the hang of it. She saw the trees as moving, living things, even though they were mostly stationary. They could move in their own way and she moved with them and through them. She weaved amongst the leaves and branches like an eel weaves through the water. She simply hadn’t looked for the rhythm before.
“I asked you what you wanted to do today,” Kakashi began again, teasing her.
“I know I know,” Mei cut him off. “But how about some lunch? I’m famished.”
“Lunch it is,” Kakashi said jumping down to the ground. “Then you can ask me what I want to do.” There was a hopeful note in his tone.
Mei laughed in the spring air but gave no other response, her mind already in overdrive. The last Hatake had been attempting to get her to read a certain book series for weeks. Thus far he’d been so impressed with Mei’s evolving and elaborate excuses that he’d let it go. Kakashi smiled to himself as he snaked his arm around her waist for a half hug. Mei had other ideas however and leaned into his side. They stood there for a moment in the middle of the forest and held each other.
Mei inhaled through her nose and sighed out the breath. The green around her was almost overpowering. “Is spring here always like this?”
She looked up at Kakashi and met his eyes. He wasn’t looking at the forest but was staring at the green of her eyes instead. “Not always,” was all he said.