WARNINGS: This chapter contains a panic attack at the end, right after the interaction between Panther and the Hokage. If you want to skip that just message me and I'll give a brief summary of what happens so you're up to date but don't actually have to read through that.

Welp. I'll admit it. I have failed in my original goal. This story was my first attempt at a mostly crack fic and while I've made sure to keep up the humor… well… I think I failed. Still love this story and will definitely continue it but I had to face the facts! I'm just too drawn to the drama! Angst is just too darn tempting! I'll have to try again at some point. Ah well, enough of my bemoaning, on to the good stuff!

lunardusk: Thanks for the vote! And the lovely comment, you're very kind :)

Argetlam16: I really like your comment, thank you for doing so! Your vote has been tallied! The winner is showcased in the chapter below!

Leah. .10: Fate is a difficult thing to tamper with, yes! Thanks for the vote, and for taking the time to review. I appreciate it!

DKG-Racoma: Uzumakis were pretty good sensors, aside from their already phenomenal seal works. That will pop up later. I've added your vote; the final result is in the chapter below. Thank you for your input; I'll keep it in mind!

FollowingTheRivers: I'm so glad you like them! I adore how the General's team is turning out (since they really just kind of write themselves at this point, haha). The Ninken will be awesome, I adore them! Can't tell you what'll happen yet though ;). Vote taken and tallied! Thank you so much for the review!

BlankCanvas624: Phew! Okay, I thought I was going a little crazy there for a minute. Like the new name, by the way. Hmmm, that cherry on top drives a hard bargain. You shall see soon! For Butterfly, he doesn't have revenge on the mind, but he is still very proud. Them Hyuugas you know? But I hold out hope that he'll weasel his way into everyone's hearts, dumbassery or not. Thank you for commenting on Biwako, I was nervous about writing her since we know so little about her. Your comment really helped alleviate some of those worries, so I appreciate it. Kakashi is going to be the worst kind of troll. Obito and Rin will be making an appearance soon, but not in this chapter. You'll see why by the end. Thanks so much as always my dear! You're fantastic!

Maimai: Added to the tally! Thanks for voting friendo!

Dazai-san: The poor boy just got his first bit of 'screen time' and he is already being buried. Asuma has a ways to go, that's for sure (not that Kakashi will help that). Thanks as always for reviewing my dear! You make me smile!

JustQuokka: Vote has been tallied! Thanks for adding to it! And aww, jeez, you're making me blush. I'm glad you like it so much; I hope I continue to provide you with quality reading! Thank you for taking the time to review and vote!

blades: Dude. Duddette. Other form of being that is comprised of pure niceness! Seriously, your comments are always so nice and seeing someone so interested in my story is uplifting in so many ways. For the summoning, regardless of what may or may not happen, Pakkun and the others will always be there. It just wouldn't be right otherwise! And, uh, I'm not gonna lie, you're pretty dang close on the bakery idea… You're too good at this! Thanks for reviewing as always friend; I really, really appreciate it!

Guest: Laziness would mean you would never comment, which means you are Superior lazy! And very nice, thanks for the vote!

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That One Secretary: Love your username! Your OC sounds awesome, I would love to add them in! I was actually hoping for some home base healers, so yours matches up perfectly! Do you mind if I message you about them or would you prefer for me to ask through these responses to reviews? I let you know before the first chapter they show up in, so you can make sure I didn't royally mess up the personality or anything. Crane and Raven would get along great, both due to the poisons and, well, they're birds! Thanks for the super kind review; I'm psyched to see you enjoying it so much!

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LN Tora: D'awww, thanks! It's really nice of you to say (write) so! Humor is my best go-to for when things get too angsty, glad it keeps reeling you in! Kakashi will troll everyone. Like everyone, everyone. Thanks for the vote! The result is in the chapter below, I hope you like it. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to review!

Guest97: I agree, I'm kind of failing at the crack part *sweatdrop*. Glad I've still got the humor up to par thought! Thanks for the vote, and the kind review!

Lady Phoenix Fire Rose: Hello dearie! Thanks for reviewing! I agree about the past/future tens usage. Once Kakashi has adapted more he'll start using past tense without getting confused about it. Thanks for the vote! The result is in the chapter below, I hope I did it justice. I'm obsessed with time travel stories too, to be honest. Love 'em to bits! And avoid sleep deprivation! Sleep dear Lady, sleep!

WesternBird: Haha, I love the swimsuit calendar idea! Can you imagine them all wearing their swimsuits but over their uniforms? Because why the heckity heck not! This idea is too funny, would you mind if I had it pop up at some point? Probably involving trollkashi as the start of it. I'm glad you like this story so much, and you always leave such nice reviews! They make me grin! So thanks again for the smile friend!

Let us get started! Voting time is over and the results are showcased in this chapter! For those of you who feel disappointed that your choice wasn't picked, don't worry! There will be future opportunities for the other teaching options to step in!

Please Enjoy!

-00-

Chapter 12: Team Bonding, Evil's Plans… PANIC!

-00-

"Come in," Hiruzen called absently, one hand stroking his beard as he read through the papers on his desk. His attention shifted immediately to his guest when they walked in.

Namikaze Minato bowed his head respectfully and saluted.

"Minato-kun," Hiruzen smiled warmly. "It's a pleasure to see you. Have you already finished your mission?"

"Yes Sandaime-sama," the blond man straightened. "I was told to come see you today."

Hiruzen tapped his desk thoughtfully. "Oh? By who?"

A clear set of unease settled on Minato's shoulders. He had been expecting the Hokage to know. Wasn't he the one who sent her to speak to him?

"By Panther, sir."

"Oh!" the Hokage exclaimed. "That's right. And honestly Minato-kun there is no need for such formality when we speak. If you are going to be my future successor then you can call me Hiruzen."

Minato gapped, his brain grinding to a halt. "Your… your successor?" his voice came out with a slight squeak.

"Of course. That was your goal wasn't it?"

"W-well, yes but, I mean," he stuttered, desperately attempting to recollect himself. "Isn't it a bit early to be a talking about that? I haven't even proven myself worthy of the title yet!"

Hiruzen snorted. "Right now you're just about the only one that has actually even tried. Successfully, that is. The only other options I've got right now are either self-absorbed fools, completely uninterested, or too young. Besides, you are the best successor I could hope for Minato-kun. You hold all of the qualities necessary to lead this village down a good path."

The normally levelheaded male was flushed in the face of such high praise.

"I- that is a high honor," he bowed his head once more. "Thank you."

"It was only the truth," Hiruzen leaned back in his chair, entwining his fingers beneath his nose. "Now, back to what I wanted to speak to you about. I understand you have been worried about young Kakashi-kun as of late."

Minato shook his head to clear it. He could think about his ambitions for the future later. "Yes, especially after Panther visited me a few days ago. Is he alright?"

The light in the elder man's eyes dimmed a bit. "As well as he can be. I have a few things I would like to speak with you about in regards to him, but first I have a question."

The future Yondaime Hokage tilted his head curiously. Hiruzen sighed softly when a flash of an older, more mature Minato flashed over the one standing before him. He was so young, and with such potential.

"How do you feel about teaching?"

-00-

Crane tensed up after sensing someone hovering above him. Cracking his eye open he sighed at the one-eyed cyclops child smiling down at him.

"Good morning Crane," Kakashi chirped, fully dressed and ready for the day.

"…Good morning Hatake. What do you want?"

Stepping back from the tall man's bed Kakashi waited until he was sitting up to answer his question.

"I am meeting my new teacher tomorrow morning and I wanted to get them something from the market. It shouldn't take too long. Would you mind going with me?"

Crane yawned, turning away so he could rub his eyes behind his mask. He would need to check with Panther about revealing his face to the child later. It would be a pain to share a room with someone that was unable to know his identity. The boy would find out eventually, and he had proven to be surprisingly capable at keeping secrets.

"I have nothing besides my regular morning training, so long as we are back before noon," he ran a hand through his hair to work out the tangles that had formed while he slept. "Why are you getting them a gift?"

Kakashi eye smiled at him, hands tucked innocently into the pockets of his cargo capris. "To show my appreciation for them taking me under their wing."

Crane leveled him with a blank stare, sure that the boy would at least be able to see his eyes enough to catch the emotion behind them. "If that is your standard reasoning then why is it that none of us received a gift?"

Kakashi looked amused. "You want me to get you a present?"

"No," Crane rolled his eyes, twisting his legs off the side so he could stand. "I just don't believe your reasoning. Not that it is any of my business if you do not wish to tell me. Go grab something for breakfast, I will join you as soon as I am ready."

Kakashi gave a casual shrug, heading for the door. "Want me to grab you something?"

Crane thought about it. "Toast will do, for now, I will eat after training. Here." He tossed his empty water bottle to the boy, who caught it easily and tucked it under his arm. "Fill that up as well, if you don't mind."

"I don't. See you down there."

Crane hummed in agreement, checking over his knives as the door clicked shut. Hatake had seemed... off. Tense. Perhaps just nerves, in the face of meeting a new stranger that would hold a decent amount of control over his life. Perhaps something else.

He would have to keep a close eye on him.

-00-

"Perhaps you should offer to teach him," Panther threw out as a suggestion.

"You think he would want to?" Bear perked up immediately, his voice reaching a higher pitch in his excitement.

Panther nodded.

"That would be great!" he cheered. "I wonder how much he knows already? You said he was talking about dumplings and pies, so the basics at least. That saves time and we can skip right to the good stuff then. Oh, but what if he feels overwhelmed and gives up when it gets more difficult? Although he doesn't seem the type, but five-year-olds tend to change their opinions fairly often, right?"

Panther let his chatter wash over her as they traveled through the halls. He had come to grab her before she could forgo breakfast again and she told him of what she had discovered about Hatake the day before.

Speaking of Hatake, she wondered what tomorrow would bring. They had a shorter training session today, due to a request from the council, but afterwards she would be going over what his new schedule would look like now that Namikaze was going to be his teacher.

An hour before sunrise Hatake had approached her office, told her he wanted the blonde to be his teacher, and escaped back to his room as though afraid he would say something he regretted if he stayed.

She wasn't sure if she should be surprised by his choice or not. On the one hand, Hiruzen had made a valid point about the child's hero worship towards Namikaze. Any child would throw themselves at the chance to be trained by someone they thought so highly of. On the other hand, Hatake had seemed extremely off-put by the idea when she had first brought it up. No, perhaps 'off-put' was too strong of a phrase. Uneasy would suit his reaction better. There was something holding him back but she wasn't certain it had as much to do with his father's death as Hiruzen predicted.

Bear suddenly stepped in front of her, walking backward as he crossed his arms. "You're not even listening to me are you?"

"Bread is too difficult for children just starting to learn," she varied her pace to trip him up. "Try dango."

Bear kept up with her, step for step. "Dango huh?" he tapped his chin. "Those could work. There's a lot you could do with just one that would teach you other methods for baking later on. Good idea Panther."

Rabbit and Butterfly turned the corner ahead of them. Bear moved to face forward once more so Panther took a larger step, stretching her leg so her foot could hook around his ankle and trip him.

Bear gasped, betrayed, and barely stopped himself from crushing his two team members beneath him.

Butterfly had hopped away the second he saw the large man start to turn. Rabbit had, for some reason, seen Bear open his arms (to catch his balance) and gone in for a hug. Bear laughed and returned to embrace, fully engulfing the small woman in his arms as he shifted his feet further away from their General.

"Hi Rabbit," he greeted happily.

"Hello Bear," she chirped, pulling back to greet Panther as well. "Hello Panther. Biwako-sama was wondering if you got her message."

"I did," she replied, coming to a stop next to Butterfly so she could use him as a shield if Rabbit attempted to hug her. "It's being taken care of."

"I'll let her know," Rabbit gave a quick salute. "Butterfly and I are going to the market today, is there anything either of you need?"
Bear thought about it, tapping his mask as he did.

"I rarely see you three apart when you are all here. Where is Crane?" Bear wondered.

"He took Hatake out earlier and hasn't returned," Butterfly huffed. His interactions with their youngest member had been less… tense lately but that did not mean he liked the child yet.

"Maybe we'll run into them," Rabbit shrugged.

"Without our masks?" Butterfly pointed out.

"Well, he is our teammate. We're going to have to trust him eventually."

"He is a child. Skilled or not, our identities are top secret for a reason."

"I know that, but we know who he is already. It would only be fair."

"That's only because he is so small Tiger has to design a completely new mask instead of just giving him one of the ones from storage. Fairness has nothing to do with it."

Rabbit stepped closer to him, poking a finger into his chest while she glared up at him. "Oh, I know exactly how you feel about 'fairness', Hyuuga."

"Ouch," Bear stepped between them. "On a lighter note, would the two of you mind grabbing some more flour and eggs while you're there? I'm almost out."

Rabbit perked up as though nothing had happened. "Of course! Would you like us to grab some more Mirin as well?"

"Sure, I'm planning to use what I have left soon anyway," the large man shrugged.

Butterfly sighed heavily. "Do you need anything Taicho?"

"String. Six different colors except black, seven yards of each."

The three of them gave her an unnerved stare, which she ignored.

"…Okay," Rabbit rocked back and forth on her heels nervously.

"Be back by noon," Panther warned. "The Council has requested our presence at today's meeting. We will be escorting the Hokage there once all of you have returned."

Rabbit tapped the chin of her mask thoughtfully. "It's always worrying when they ask for all of us," she said slowly, eyes narrowing. "Is Kakashi-kun joining us?"

"No."

"Hm," she hummed before shrugging. "Okay then. We'll try to hurry. Let's go Butterfly!"

Butterfly sketched a quick bow to the two older members before hurrying after her.

Bear sighed heavily. "This is going to be a pain, isn't it?"

Panther didn't bother responding. The truth was clear enough without her pointing it out.

-00-

Grabbing the child would be easy enough. Thanks to Danzo-sama's careful manipulation, all of the General's team would be at the Council meeting for the next two hours. As long as they could make it past the rest of the standard Anbu members and to the fourth floor then the child would be defenseless.

"HEYOOOOO!" a body crashed violently into the wall next to them, making them jump.

"Um, h-hello Bee-san," they stuttered out as the woman straightened up with a wide grin. It fell slightly at the sight of the hole she had left in the wall.

"Uh, you won't, you know, tell anyone that was me right?" she looked around conspiratorially to make sure no one else was around.

"M-my lips are sealed," they mimed zipping their lips over the surface of their mask. "D-did you need something?"

They sighed internally when she threw a friendly arm over their shoulder, automatically flexing and making the crisscrossed scars along her arms stand out across her skin. This would take up more of their time but they couldn't risk her getting suspicious.

"Yeah actually," she shook them back and forth a bit. "I was wondering where you've been lately. Panther said you came back days ago but when Turtle and I went looking for you we couldn't find you anywhere."

They gave a soft chuckle. "N-no offense meant to you or Turtle-san b-but I kind of wanted to, uh, s-sleep. Y-you know, rest up?"

Bee huffed. "That's what Turtle said, and ouch! How can the two of you be so mean?!"

"S-sorry Bee-san."

She waved it off, slowly retracting her arm with a sigh. "Nah, don't worry about it. I get that I can be a little over excited sometimes. But hey, you've had a few days now so we can totally hang out again! Turtle made this little game board to replace the last one after I broke it the first time we all played together. We should try it out!"

They stepped back a little, ducking their head sheepishly. "M-maybe another time Bee-san. I-I was actually planning on working on my ch-chakra control today."

"Aw man," Bee sighed dramatically, scratching the back of her head. "You know, I was really hoping Turtle was wrong this time."

They shrugged helplessly. "S-She rarely ever is Bee-san."

"Yeah," she seemed disheartened. Rolling her head backward she let out another, more somber, sigh before calling out. "Turtle, you were right."

They turned their head, expecting to see the lazy Anbu turning the corner and almost failed to dodge the punch suddenly flying their way from Bee the second they started to move. Ducking under the fist they flipped away only for Turtle to come hurtling down from where she had been hiding above them, slamming her feet firmly into their stomach as she landed on them.

Choking as all the air left their lungs they slid the poison covered senbon they had tucked up their sleeve into their hand and stabbed it towards Turtle's ankles. The lanky woman rolled off of them, kicking her foot out to knock them back when they flipped up onto their feet.

Turtle yawned, slowly stepping back to join Bee in blocking the way upstairs. She stood so that their backs were turned towards each other; shoulders deceivingly slumped while Bee brought her fists up in front of her with small crackles of light dancing across her knuckles. "So," she unsheathed her tanto that had been hanging from her waist, "where is the real Deer?"

Instead of answering they placed their hands together and jumped up to the ceiling, placing their palm on the surface and forcing the concrete to shatter so they could climb up.

They glanced down just once, catching sight of Turtle curling her fingers around the straps of Bee's vest to hold her in place when the small woman made to go after them.

That was… suspicious. But they had a mission to complete regardless of any traps in their way. Failure was not an option.

There was no one else on the way up to get in their way, which made the hairs on the back of their neck start to rise, but they could very clearly sense the child in the rooms above. Forgoing the stairs entirely they ducked into the room right below their target and went up.

The silver-haired boy looked down at them with an eyebrow raised. "Ah," he realized as they reached out for him. "So this is what you were talking about."

A dagger cut through their arm, pinning it to the floor below.

The last thing they saw was the man with the Crane mask looming over him while Rabbit and Butterfly played a card game on the opposite bed next to the meditating General herself.

-00-

Panther tapped her fingers slowly over the curves of her arms. There had yet to be any word from Bear, which meant the Council meeting was going as it usually did. Pointless bickering over problems they all wanted someone else to solve for them. Danzo was most likely looking down at them all with a conniving smirk, believing the shadow clones of the Hokage, herself, and her team to be the real things. She tempered the sense of eagerness she felt at seeing his face once he realized something was wrong.

"I do have a few things to take care of," Hiruzen muttered next to her, mentally going over the rest of his schedule for the day.

"This won't take long."

The man across from them began to stir, his shoulders tensing when he realized he was restrained.

The Hokage stepped back further into the shadows of the room as Panther stepped forward. She took note of the dull stare being sent her way from their captive. Unsurprising, given the amount of brainwashing he must have been put through for who knows how long.

The man moved his mouth as though to bite down on something, his eyes widening when he realized what was missing.

Panther threw the suicide pill on the floor in front of him, crushing it beneath the heel of her boots. She would have taken his tongue as well if that would have actually done anything to circumvent the purpose of the seal that had been engraved on it. That had been an… interesting discovery.

His eyes followed her, waiting for her to speak. Even if she could have, she didn't need to. He already knew what she wanted to know. Reaching into the pouch attached to the strap of her vest she pulled out a small, square piece of paper with an intricate seal designed into it. She only had four of them (six originally). They were gifts from Jiraiya a few years back, and she hated using them unless she had to because she had yet to figure out how to replicate them. Placing it on his forehead she activated the seal, observing how his eyelids froze mid-blink and his pupils no longer followed her as she moved.

Essentially frozen in time.

With a small crook of her finger she motioned for the other guest in the room to step forward. Yamanaka Inoshia was a small woman, often dressed in delicate looking kimonos, though one would never underestimate her for it once they saw her eyes. The harsh slant of her thin eyebrows and narrow shape of her eyelids gave off an intimidating glare, paired with the lethal looking blade strapped to her back ensured that most people gave her a wide berth. Her waist length blond hair moved with her as she stepped forwards.

"The cursed seal should not affect you while my seal is active," Panther explained as they got into position. "If anything starts to feel wrong pull out immediately. Is there anything I need to know?"

Inoshia closed her eyes, focusing herself. "No. You will merely be observing. If anything catches your eye let me know and I will focus on it."

"Understood."

Hiruzen watched from the sidelines as the Yamanaka and General began picking through the brain of their captive. When the Council requested for the entirety of the General's Team to be present at the meeting today he knew right away what Danzo was planning. Unfortunately for his old friend Hiruzen hadn't even needed to warn Panther before she realized something was off. It was a simple matter of having both himself and her team members create shadow clones to go to the meeting in their place. The only one that was actually there was Bear. Now they had an entire hour before the meeting ended and Danzo began to grow suspicious.

Thirty minutes later Inoshia hunched in on herself, breathing heavily. Hiruzen smiled nervously when a soft, eerie sound began to echo from Panther. He wished she would laugh without the mask on.

"I'm assuming you found something interesting," he commented, stepping forward to help Inoshia to a chair around the outskirts of the room.

"I have a plan," she signed smoothly and he could picture the sadistic smile painted on her lips behind her mask.

Hiruzen offered Inoshia some water from the flask Panther insisted he always keep with him ("What if you suddenly find yourself without a readily available, untainted water source Hiruzen?"). "I'm not sure I want to ask. What does this plan entail exactly?"

She twirled, twirled, around to face them fully, hands flowing fluidly. "Danzo and his pathetic Root will no longer be a problem, but I need to set some things ups first. First of all, I need Hatake out of the village for a few days."

His eyebrow hiked its way up his face. "I remember you being very adamant about him not leaving the base, let alone going past the walls."

She waved the comment away. "I've changed my mind. He needs to be away for a time, but no one can know that he is gone. Do you have any small missions you need done?"

He laughed, shaking his head fondly. Inoshia was silently sipping at the water, eyes flitting between the two curiously. "I have a few that need to be done, you can pick through them after you explain to me what you want to do."

"Very well. Yamanaka-san I would also like to have you involved with our next step."

Inoshia bowed her head respectfully. "Of course General. Whatever you need. What should we do about him?"

Panther walked purposefully towards the door, not bothering to look back at their captive. "Leave him. That seal won't last for much longer but I will have someone from my team look after him while we prepare."

Hiruzen offered his arm to the small woman, helping her stand. "Are you okay to move Inoshia-chan?"

"Yes Hokage-sama," she brushed down the wrinkles in her light blue kimono before moving to follow Panther out the door.

Hiruzen grinned as he moved to follow after them. Things were coming along nicely.

-00-

Holy shit.

"Hello Hatake-kun," Minato smiled warmly, bending down to be at the child's level. "My name is Namikaze Minato. I've heard a lot about you."

Dear Kami, he was not ready for this.

The tall blond held back a worried frown when the boy looked up at him. Their eyes met for a split second but it didn't seem as though Kakashi was actually looking at him. Through him would be a better way to describe it.

"It is a pleasure to meet you," Kakashi responded almost robotically, brain rapidly shifting between 'high-speed disaster' and 'numb abyss'.

'He must be nervous,' Minato realized. 'The Hokage did mention he had difficulties meeting new people. Let's take this slow then.'

With a small shift of his arm Minato gestured towards a large tree lining the clearing of Training Ground Seven. "How about we take a seat and get to know each other a bit more? We'll be spending a lot of time together after all."

"Of course."

Kakashi turned on his heel and walked slowly, almost restrained, to the tree before sitting down and crossing his legs. His back was straight, wrists resting on his knees. Minato joined him, sitting directly across from him so they could maintain eye contact. Well, so they could maintain it if the boy would actually manage to look him in the eye at all.

"Let's start off easy," Minato gave a welcoming smile. "My name is Namikaze Minato. I am a Jounin and I enjoy training, learning, and spending time with my beautiful girlfriend. What sort of things do you like to do?"

It was amazing the man could not hear how loudly Kakashi was screaming in his head in a desperate attempt to hold himself together against the torrent of thoughts and feelings that were washing over him.

"My name is… Hatake Kakashi," he gritted out, sweat dripping down the side of his temple. He couldn't think. The Minato in front of him kept switching out with the one he had found, lying in a puddle of both his and his wife's blood as they curled around their son protectively. He was smiling.

"I like to read."

The jolt of pain in his head made him blink, vision clearing slightly. "…I like to read."

"And train."

"And train."

Minato smiled encouragingly, leaning forwards to hear the mumbles escaping him better.

"I hate ignorance and poison ivy."

"I hate ignorance and poison ivy."

Minato felt his smile tick up in amusement at the last part.

"I look forward to working with you."

"I look forward to working with you."

Minato made sure to keep his shoulders slumped down to make himself seem smaller, the smile never wavering. "I look forward to working with you as well. Well done, Hatake-kun. Would you mind telling me everything you already know about chakra manipulation? I'd like to see where we should start."

Kakashi focused on breathing, blocking out every sound around him except for the echo of his exhales in his lungs and the stern, sharp voice in his head. Mindlessly repeating everything the voice told him to, time began to pass quickly.

"I see," Minato hummed thoughtfully. "You have a good grasp of the basics already. That's good. It means we can skip a lot of the introductory understanding and move onto applying that knowledge sooner. Is there anything else you think I should know? Any questions?"

"Not right now."

"Not right now," Kakashi breathed out.

Minato felt the corners of his eyes wrinkle, his sympathy shining through. "Alright then. I think that is enough for today. I mainly just wanted for us to meet and understand what kind of people we were to help training along once we actually start. If you don't have any more questions we can end our session here for the day."

"I have no questions."

"I have no questions."

Minato withheld a sigh. Hopefully, the boy would open up more to him once they got deeper into their training. The Hokage had warned him that Kakashi would be shy; he just hadn't quite expected this level of reclusiveness. "Then we will meet back here in a few days. Would you like for me to walk with you back to the village?"

"Stand up."

Kakashi rose to his feet, knees locking once they were straight.

"No thank you. I will see you in a few days Minato-sensei."

"No thank you," Kakashi kept his gaze on the ground. "I will see you in a few days Minato-sensei."

Minato blinked at the rather casual use of his first name. Perhaps he was making more progress than he thought! "Goodbye Hatake-kun, have a good day!"

"Turn around and start walking."

Kakashi turned on his heel and began a slow tread out of the clearing. Minato watched him go, only standing himself once the boy was out of sight.

"Oh man," he rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "I have to start planning."

-00-

When the child fell to his knees the moment he was out of Namikaze's sight Crane leaped down from his position in the trees just in time to stop him from hitting his head.

"Hatake," he called firmly, tapping the boy's pale, sweaty face. "Hatake, look at me."

Crane scowled as his breathing picked up from barely audible to choked gasps. He was having a panic attack.

Sensing around to make sure they were alone and would stay that way Crane moved over to the nearest tree and made his newest teammate lean against the bark. Guiding his legs so that they were tucked to his chest and wrapping his arms around them, Crane gently nudged his head until it was lowered over his arms. He was glad it had been cold enough to warrant the use of his cloak today. Slipping the large black cloth off his shoulders he covered Hatake with it so the boy was covered entirely.

Then, as evenly as a pendulum in a clock, he began to count out loud. "5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30…"

It was only when he had gotten to 575 that a small voice began to count with him. He stopped at 700.

"Hatake," Crane called, keeping his voice soft and calm. "I am putting something underneath the cloak. Would you mind grabbing it?"

Not expecting an answer he pulled out a small square from the pouch on his left knee and tucked it under the cloak, making sure to keep as much light as possible out.

The cloak shifted.

"What does it feel like?" Crane asked.

There was a long, stilted pause.

"…Smooth. Like rubber."

"I see. Does it have a smell?"

A hesitant sniff. "Peppermint."

"Good. What is my name?"

The pause this time was even longer, but Crane had experience with this and was easily able to pass the time by thinking about the ingredients he would need to stock up on soon.

"…Crane."

"Yes," he affirmed. "Right now it is a quarter after noon. I plan on going to Training Ground Zero to reaffirm what Panther taught us last time. I believe our teamwork can be even more beneficial, to the both of us, if we had more time to learn each other's way of fighting. Would you like to join me?"

The silence was shorter this time. "Sure."

"Excellent. When you are ready to go, hand me back my cloak. Until then, I have a few strategies I would like to think through before we leave, if you wouldn't mind giving me a moment."

"Go ahead."

Crane settled back, gaze never leaving the lump against the tree. A few minutes later it started to move and he closed his eyes.

"Hey," Hatake stood next to him; cloak folded and draped over one arm. His singular eye was clear, expression reverting to his normal deadpan. "Not that I don't mind sitting here all day, but didn't you want to train?"

"Ah," Crane stood, brushing off the dirt clinging to his uniform. "Yes, thank you for waiting. Shall we?"

"Yeah."

Crane stayed ahead of him, senses curling backward to make sure the boy was stable. Hatake was truly a member of the General's team now, since guiding them through panic attacks had somehow become a thing he was responsible for with his fellow teammates. Although he hadn't thought he would be doing something like this until after a few missions with Hatake. Not that he was one to judge, he had his first panic attack in the middle of a mission with Panther. That was a shame he would never quite get over, no matter what any of the others said.

"Hey," Hatake called out, drawing his attention. "Thanks."

Crane merely inclined his head and continued on. His views on their young teammate were still up in the air but there would be no judgment for today. It would be wrong to look down on a child for something grown men and women did when their situations became too much for their brains to handle. Besides, Hatake was showing an astonishing level of potential Crane had talked himself into not seeing before. Not 'General's Team' level, not yet, but he was beginning to realize that there was a much bigger picture being built around them. Until he had more pieces to the puzzle he would treat Hatake as a teammate, first and foremost.

Besides, Panther would kill him if anything were to happen to the boy on his watch.

-00-

'Thanks Kurama.'

"Fuck off. Don't talk to me."

'...I forgot the gift.'

"Ugh."

-00-

And done! In the poll Minato came into first with a resounding 24 votes! Kushina had 20 and the alternates had 3 all together. Thanks for all of the feedback guys! I appreciate it! If you find yourself with some free time let me know what you thought! What would you have liked to see if your vote had been the one picked?

Next chapter; Danzo... might have a bit of a problem on his hands.

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed!