Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

A/N: Bwahahaha! Look what I have! Too bad it's not a great chapter, but I'm back in the swing of it now Next chapter should be up relatively soon!

Kakashi woke at the last hour of darkness. His hand ached and stung where the tiny shards of glass were still imbedded in his knuckles, and he flinched as he performed the hand seals to teleport him to his own apartment.

Not that it was much of an apartment, of course. Kakashi appeared in front of a saggy, patched couch that happened to be the only bit of furniture in his living room, aside from a bookshelf of Icha Icha novels. Instead of taking the twenty steps to his own bedroom, Kakashi stretched himself out on the ancient sofa, pulling a ragged afghan over his naked body and falling asleep once more.

It was a natural process for Kakashi, who tended to return from his missions in a state of utter exhaustion. He would strip down in his living room, leaving his clothes where they fell, and fall into a light coma for a few hours before waking up to do it all again. It was simply something he did, a habit formed out of his constant state of aloneness. In all honesty, he couldn't remember the last time he had actually slept in the bed.

Unfortunately, he had barely slept twenty minutes when he felt a cold, wet sensation on his nose. Instantly he was on his feet, clutching a kunai hidden in the depths of the old couch. He came within a hair's breadth of slicing off the tip of his own nose before he crossed his eyes and found himself looking into the twitchy feelers of one of Tsunade's summons.

"Ugh," Kakashi mumbled, plucking the little slug off his face with the thumb and forefinger of his left hand. He may be a jounin level ninja, but creepy, crawly, slimy things still grossed him out a little. "What the hell are you doing here?"

The slug twitched its feelers and said nothing.

"I don't know why I asked, I know what you're doing here...you nasty little bugger...ugh, go back to your mistress," Kakashi told it. It wiggled its feelers once more, almost in a chastising manner, before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Kakashi went to the bathroom to wash his hands and find a clean pair of boxers, wondering what it was that Tsunade could want with him at this hour of the morning. I'm not going back to the fucking hospital, whatever she says, Kakashi resolved, as he stepped into a pair of reddish colored shorts, She'll get over it.

He hadn't yet obtained a new hitae-ate, but it didn't particularly matter. His Sharingan eye was still tightly bandaged over, and he found himself a little wary to remove the dressing. He let his thick hair flop over the patch instead as he tugged a new mask into place. He finished getting dressed and tried to perform the hand seals again, but his hand had swollen and stiffened up in the nearly half hour since he'd last performed the jutsu. Kakashi decided to take the lazy way out and walk.

He stepped out of his apartment, taking care to lock the door behind him. He may not have much, but his collection of Icha Icha novels were reason enough for him to lock his door. He tucked the key into a deep pocket of his vest and set off down the hall. His one eye was still heavy with sleep, and he picked another lazy means of transportation: he stepped into the rickety old elevator and leaned against the wall as it shuddered downward, relishing the few moments he was allowed to close his sleepy eye.

By the time he set off down the path that would take him to the Hokage's tower, dawn was only just beginning to think about breaking. It was still dark, but the darkness was less heavy. A few early birds chirped sporadically, as if they weren't particularly awake yet, either.

Kakashi's mind remained relatively blank as he walked along, hands tucked tightly in his pockets, slouching down and away from the outside world. It had taken him many years to master the art of not thinking about anything at all, but what else had he had to do in the years between the death of his first team, and the training of his second?

Since Sasuke left, Kakashi was having to re-learn his ability to think of nothing. His novels distracted him a little, as they always had, but Sasuke's name drifted across his mind more than any other. Naruto came and went some, Sakura's less since she was still in town, but Kakashi considered Sasuke to be his most recent, most telling failure…and oh, it was hard not to dwell on failures.

Kakashi managed to keep his mind blank up until the moment he reached the double doors at the base of the Hokage's tower. There, just laying his hand on the doorknob, was the chuunin teacher Umino Iruka.

What the fuck?! He's alive? Kakashi's mind exploded in disbelief, and he rubbed his eye with the heel of his left, good hand to make sure he was seeing what he thought he saw.

Iruka had just pulled the door open when he looked up to see Kakashi, standing in the middle of the path and staring at him.

"See something you like, Hatake-san?" Iruka asked. His tone was such that Kakashi hadn't the slightest idea if the Academy teacher was being serious or sarcastic.

Kakashi went with his usual noncommittal, "Hn," and walked the rest of the way to the door, which Iruka held open for him.

"Thanks," Kakashi mumbled, and started for the steps that would lead to Tsunade's office.

To his utter bewilderment, Iruka followed.

"Did you find a slug on your face a few minutes ago, too?" Iruka asked, in what Kakashi assumed was an attempt to generate small talk.

"Yeah," Kakashi replied, and left it at that, despite his curiosity to ask how the hell Iruka had come back from the mission to Sound alive. They started in on the second flight of steps.

"Wonder what she wants with us," Iruka mumbled. He seemed to be talking to himself, so Kakashi made no reply. They ascended the last flight of steps in silence.

Iruka bowed to the guards—Kakashi inclined his body slightly—before entering the Hokage's office.

Tsunade sat at her large desk, looking as if she hadn't slept in days. Her clothes were disheveled, her hair rumpled and unkempt, and there were blue shadows under her heavy-lidded eyes.

"Hatake, Umino, thank you for coming at such an early hour—even though one of you shouldn't even be out of the hospital yet," she added, giving Kakashi a pointed look.

"Of course, Tsunade-sama," Iruka bowed once more.

Once again, Kakashi only inclined his upper body. He shrugged at Tsunade's statement.

"Sit down, please," Tsunade gestured absently to the two chairs in front of her desk.

Kakashi and Iruka obeyed, taking their seats beside one another and waiting patiently for Tsunade to begin her explanation.

"Hatake, Umino, I would like you two to take a good look at one another," Tsunade sighed heavily. "For you two, and you two only, will make up the team that I will send to the Sand country."

Kakashi's eye narrowed and shifted to Iruka, who was gazing patiently back at him.

"Do either of you have any objection?"

"I do what is best for Konoha, Hokage-sama," Iruka shrugged. "I will work with anyone."

"Hn," Kakashi grunted. "You may as well send me alone."

Tsunade smiled mysteriously, but Iruka's expression did not change in the slightest. In fact, it seemed as if he hadn't even heard Kakashi's words.

"Hatake, was it not you who said that Umino would not return from the mission to sound alive?" the Hokage asked.

"I said it," Kakashi acknowledged, "Apparently I must eat my words. Raidou and Genma must have decided it was a lost cause."

Kakashi saw Iruka flinch slightly as he spoke. Tsunade did the same, and took a deep breath to give Kakashi the news.

"Raidou did not return from the mission, Hatake."

Kakashi felt his throat clench just a little, felt the water in his good eye rise ever so slightly. Genma and Raidou had been the closest things to friends that Kakashi had had around Konoha.

"How…" was all Kakashi managed to say.

"This is where I will let Umino take over," Tsunade nodded her head in the chuunin's direction, and Kakashi turned his gaze there as well.

Iruka was hunched over a little, with his hands over his eyes. Slowly, he regained his composure, and his voice took on the emotionless tone of a shinobi reporting the details of a mission.

"Genma, Raidou and I set out just before sunrise yesterday morning. We didn't make it very far before we were ambushed by two kunoichi, easily jounin-level. Genma and Raidou took to them, but there was a third shinobi lurking about, also jounin level. Higher, if it were possible. He was huge. I've never seen a man so tall. I fought him using taijutsu for a long time, until he teleported and we began battling with shuriken, kunai and senbon. I used bunshin to collect more weapons for myself when mine were gone, but Genma accidentally hit one of them. Thinking it was really me, he called out. I came down to cover him and the huge ninja aimed a kunai at my chest. Raidou blocked it with his hand, and then all three of us were fighting him using taijutsu. Eventually, he got the chance to perform his hand seals, and the trees began to fall. After that it was all I could do to keep up with Raidou and Genma. Unfortunately, Raidou was trapped under a falling tree. We couldn't save him. We returned to Konoha afterward."

Iruka hung his head, covering his face with his hands once more. Kakashi only stared with his one eye wide in shock.

"That, I believe, is explanation enough, Hatake," Tsunade remarked in clipped tones. "Umino has proved himself to be a very capable ninja. I know things you don't, Hatake," she snapped, as Kakashi opened his mouth to protest. "The two of you will begin your training with one another today. I will be there to supervise. In a week, maybe a few days more, you will set out to Sand together in order to gain an audience with Gaara. The purpose of this audience is to determine if Kankuro is, in fact, being held by Orochimaru. If this is so, then we must encourage Gaara to join forces with us against Orochimaru. It may, in the end, mean war…"

Tsunade's eyes drifted slowly away from the two of them as she contemplated the concept of war.

"Do you…do you want me back in ANBU, Hokage-sama?" asked Kakashi.

"Not right now," Tsunade replied, and began to distract herself with the paperwork on her desk. "Get out of here, and meet me at the training field around ten. We will train for two hours, take an hour for lunch, and then return to train for two more hours. There will be a break until six, and then you shall both return to train until eight. Understood?"

Iruka and Kakashi both nodded. Tsunade dismissed them, and the two ninja left together.

On the way down the stairs, Kakashi, for once in his life, was unable to keep his mouth shut. "What did Tsunade mean when she said she knew things I didn't, Umino-san?"

Iruka looked at him quizzically, as if trying to recall exactly what it was Tsunade had been saying. "What do you mean, Hatake-san?"

"When she was talking about you being a…er, capable ninja. She said she knew things I didn't, about you I'm assuming." Kakashi explained. His voice sounded strange to his own ears.

"Oh, that," a strange half-smile crooked Iruka's gentle features into something sharper, harsher. "Don't worry about that, Hatake-san. Before this is over…you will understand. See you at ten, then."

Iruka turned away to head in the opposite direction of Kakashi as the two of them passed through the doors of the Hokage's tower. Kakashi lifted his hand in a sort of half-hearted wave, still feeling thoroughly confused. He felt as if Tsunade and Iruka both knew something he didn't—and that wasn't a feeling that Kakashi was accustomed to.

As Iruka made his way toward his own apartment, he cursed his ill luck at having to be stuck with Hatake Kakashi as a partner. He could have cheerfully hit Tsunade with a clever array of taijutsu, he was so angry, but of course it would do no good.

Hatake and I are the natural choice for such a mission, Iruka thought, turning his eyes toward the newly risen sun . Oh, Anko would consent to go of course, but with Orochimaru involved it's risky to send her. Kurenai would never leave Asuma's side, as sick as he is, and Genma's in no shape to do anything. Gai…well, according to Tsunade, Gai is suffering a little short-term memory loss as a result of that knock on his head. How unfortunate, I'd almost rather go with Gai…

Iruka took the stairs up to his apartment two at a time. His stomach was growling with a vengeance, and he intended to cook himself a good breakfast before it was time to train with Hatake.

After all, Iruka grinned cheerfully, I do owe him for all those negative things he said about me.