IV. take your time (keep on fighting)

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Kakashi lands on the balls of his feet in front of the memorial stone, close to over-balancing because he got worked up and now his chakra is fluctuating dangerously again. Great, just what he needed. He should not have used any jutsu at all, but where would he be if he was always sensible?

When he looks up, it's the chiseled name of Uchiha Obito that catches his eye. The reminder roots him to the ground. "They aren't ready!" The voice of the chuunin academy teacher reverberates in his head, red in the face because he's slightly desperate and very mad. "They are too young! They are fresh out of the academy!"

Kakashi understands him, even while he disagrees: He's been their teacher for the past few months, and their capabilities have grown leaps and bounds. He considers that the chuunin probably knows, that Team 7 probably told their old teacher what their new sensei had been doing with them — but his kids are also the opposite of subtle. The chuunin teacher might not have believed them, might've thought they were overconfident, exaggerating their own capabilities. Because Team 7 is ready. He thinks he proved that sufficiently by making them do a Border run in three days, telling them the average was two. It was barely that for ANBU squads, regular chuunin teams usually took the whole week.

Kakashi pauses, considers. Maybe regular shinobi took it as a taunt? Or a cover-up. And both Naruto and Sasuke already have a reputation. He should have thought about the consequences first, before he drilled into them the stamina of ANBUs. It is very hard to hold them back, though, even Sakura is a power to be reckoned with; and he would absolutely hate, despise, holding them back in the interests of politics.

He looks to the right, further down, where there's sensei. He doesn't want his team to be caught of guard— or be too slow in a moment of desperation, ever. He knows most people don't have value for his team, don't realise what kind of knowledge there is in his three puppies fresh out of the academy— the only one they reluctantly fear and admire is the Uchiha. What they fear about Naruto isn't him, it's the kyuubi, and what they fear about the girl is nothing at all. They'll never see them coming.

Kakashi looks into the sky, so that the water can't run down his cheeks and mess up his mask. The sky is blue and clear, and he does not want— he can't— if they continue being genin when the war breaks out, he will have to abandon them. Hopefully, they will make it through the exams. He can't think about what he'll do to keep them in sight, otherwise.

The Root operative that had been following him since his confrontation with the academy teacher, leaves, finally. Kakashi breathes in, breathes out — and then checks his chakra levels. The meditating had been sufficient. He creates a bunshin that follows the operative out. He's got that much chakra to spare, hopefully.

There's no need to let up on Danzo, just because Orochimaru is the more likely candidate on planning an invasion. Maybe he'll wait and swoop in once everyone is distracted with fighting the obvious enemy.

Then, Kakashi remembers his actual mission from the Hokage, curses, because this means his chakra is going towards purposes other than healing again, and creates yet another bunshin to follow around Danzo, and redirects his attention to the delegation from the Kazekage.

Kakashi is busy shovelling food into his starved stomach in the ANBU cantina— the Hokage's mission meant shadowing the Sand delegation upon their arrival in Konoha, and they hadn't given him time to eat — when Hayate drops in on him. It's a split-second decision to not pull any kunai. Hayate nudges his shoulders, then drops into an open seat at the table.

"Can you tell me what you did with your genin?" Hayate asks without further ado. "I need to do the same thing to my chuunin squad." With a fluid gesture his katana falls down next to Kakashi's bowl of rice and beans. It is dripping with a red viscous substance.

Kakashi swallows, then sniffs the air. "What were you doing with that poor katana?" he asks. It's not blood, even though that would be the simpler explanation by far.

"Whoops," Hayate says, and picks up the katana with a disgusted grimace. The viscous fluid seems really rather sticky. Kakashi eats another couple of spoons full of beans while he waits for the explanation. "I was in T&I, Ibiki needed someone for intimidation."

Kakashi arches his visible eyebrow. "And they sent you?"

"I can be intimidating!" Hayate protests, immediately insulted. It only manages to underline Kakashi's point. "Anyway. Your brats met Sand's jinchuuriki, and almost started a fight in the middle of the village."

"So?" Kakashi says, and shovels another handful of rice into his mouth. If there really was an emergency situation, Hayate wouldn't sit so calmly in his chair. "They didn't, obviously."

"Still," Hayate says. "You had them like, what? Three months? How did you make them learn the entire set of ANBU handsigns? I was—" he pauses, searching for an appropriate word, and coughs instead. After a while, he continues with, "—Surprised, when your girl started cussing me out for my late response."

Kakashi follows the rice with plenty of beans. Testament to Hayate's long standing acquaintance with Kakashi — he doesn't stare at the food vanishing behind a black mask with no indication of his mouth.

"Not one peep out of her mouth, too. You couldn't really tell she was holding two conversations at once, at all."

Kakashi shrugs. "Fast learners." He doesn't tell Hayate that he suspects Sakura is just as mentally unbalanced as his other two puppies— and he probably doesn't want to know either. "What'd they do to the Sand delegation?"

"Oh, it went peacefully," Hatake waved his hand. "They just got the attention of the Kazekage's children. They are quite vicious. Have a confirmed kill count higher than you."

Kakashi snorts.

"Everyone has a higher confirmed kill count than taichou," Tenzou says, and vaults over the window sill. "He's an undercover operative, how high do you think they want his official kill count to be?"

"It's at three, right?" Hayate asks.

Why is that a thing he needs to know? "Most of my confirmed kills are Konoha ninja," Kakashi says through his beans and rice.

"Oh," Hayate says, and leaves it at that.

There's silence in the kitchen, as Kakashi empties the last of his bowl.

"Well," Kakashi says, "this was terrific. Let's do it again sometime." He throws his bowl with precision onto the precariously balanced tower of dishes sitting in the sink — the person who makes it fall is the person responsible for doing the dishes, and in the last fifteen years, Kakashi had to do the dishes just once. The tower wobbles a bit, but ultimately holds.

"Wait, taichou!" Tenzou calls after him, and then follows him out of the window. "Have you seen the roster for the chuunin exams?"

Kakashi has not. Kakashi cares not. Kakashi wants to go hide on top of the Memorial and never come out again, but instead he sighs and turns to Tenzou. "No," he says. "What about it?"

"You are not on it," Tenzou says. Kakashi musters him. He looks earnest as always, probably the only ANBU to wear his uniform straightened (and probably the only ANBU to know where their official iron was).

"I have a team entering."

Wordlessly, Tenzou pulls a scroll out of his breast pocket and hands it to Kakashi. It's an order recalling every de-activated ANBU for duty. It is ingenious. It doesn't fit into either Sarutobi's or Danzo's usual action plans. He scans it, quickly. There's no loopholes to exploit.

"That bastard," he says, feeling like kissing Shikaku. "That complete and utter shithead."

"Will it get you on the roster?"

"No, but it'll be even better." Tenzou looks confused, so Kakashi deigns to explain, "I have a team entering, I can't be seen influencing the outcome by running checks— I can, however, pursue an intruder, which is really all I need."

Tenzou is quiet. Then, he says, "I thought you wanted to watch over your puppies."

Kakashi grins at him. "Like I was watching over you the entire time during training?" Tenzou looks away at that, but Kakashi is relentless, "You were even younger, if I recall. Had more purposeful training, perhaps, but they've been on their own for a long time, you shouldn't underestimate either Naruto or Sasuke."

"The girl, then," Tenzou says.

"Nah," Kakashi says. "I thought I taught you better than this, really. Underestimating a girl? No, Sakura has— she knows more than I do about regulations and history and how your brain works than I do, and I have a fucking Sharingan. Her weaknesses are purely physical, and Sasuke. She won't have a problem against a normal genin. If I could only make sure that they will only meet normal genin…" He drifts off. "Have you told Anko," he asks flatly.

"She's proctoring the exam," Tenzou says.

It would be the perfect answer, if Kakashi hadn't taught him exactly these kind of evading techniques. He waits him out. Tenzou shifts.

"No, I haven't told her. She'd…freak out about it."

"Yes," Kakashi says patiently, "and you would want her to freak out when you can be there to mitigate the results, not in the middle of a possible invasion, where freaking out and running out to kill him while make her dead." He heavily implies the 'Idiot' but doesn't say it out loud. Then, as a natural conversation stopper, he pulls out his brightly orange book of infinite wisdom, and ignores everything around him.

The day of the chuunin exam dawns, and Kakashi is at the gate triple-checking the visitors, even though he has a feeling that nobody will be coming through the front door. He can't really quantify the feeling, after all.

"Do you really think someone will try to invade Konoha during this shit?" Kotetsu asks. He gets hit by Izumo in reply, which Kakashi will take as an appropriate answer.

"You know I was wondering the same thing, actually," Kakashi says, and looks at the trade delegation from the Daimyou of Sand, and there's more people there than from the entire village of Grass even though it's their first time competing in a chuunin exam, and this should be an event. "You know what, I think I forgot Anko's bento in the oven!" and he vanishes before anyone can complain.

He does get Anko a bento, because it makes the perfect excuse, and also is just plain funny. Anko is in the room with the delegates, watching over the exam from outside, and it makes it even better. He meanders into the room as if butter won't melt in his mouth, holding out his wrapped bento box. "You forgot lunch at home, honey," he says, and abruptly, there is a palpable silence.

Anko stares at him, frozen in perplexed amazement.

He jingles the box, and watches the Grass delegation. There's three people there. The jounin sensei, and two other people. Kakashi doesn't recognise them. It's all sorts of suspicious, and he can't believe nobody noticed.

Ibiki is in the exam room, though, and Anko doesn't know shit about politics. Shikaku is managing the jounin commander duties. Even so, this is blatantly obvious. To obvious for a trap?

Kakashi bows before the delegates, "Very sorry to interrupt."

Danzou snorts, and the Hokage looks amused. Anko less so. He manages to sign a quick, "Mission compromised, play along," and hopes there's no other ANBU in the room with knowledge of that particular slang sign.

"Of course," Anko says grouchily, out loud, and takes the offered bento box. When he extends his chakra senses, she feels prickly.

The Grass delegation is masking their chakra, which is only sensible in a foreign village and the first sign that they know what they are doing. Kakashi doesn't give up yet, though. He knows that Orochimaru—possibly Danzou, too—have long been pushing the boundaries of what is possible. So he does, too. He touches the masked chakra with refined white chakra, to get a sense of what is masked. None of them have particular dense chakra, very unimpressive for the only representatives for a village this new, one that manages to contain a jinchuuriki if Jiraiya's accounts were to believed.

It's more and more likely that the genin Grass has sent are not what they seem to be. He apologises again for the interruption, blaming his sense of time, and expressing the hope that the foreign representatives won't look down on Konoha for having such a flakey jounin — it flusters especially the Sand delegation, who have had the most dealings with Kakashi the Friend-Killer, as he's known in some of the Bingo books.

Anko follows him out of the room.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" she tells him, angrily.

"Mah, mah," he says, "I was only bringing the bento I swear!" Meanwhile, he is signing— 'Grass delegation possibly compromised,' so that potential listeners can't hear.

Anko pauses, then continues with a less believable anger, "I told you to not bother me when I'm working!" It's underscored with, 'Continue mission?'

'Do not engage with enemy,' Kakashi replies, and says out loud, "But I missed you, honeyboo."

Anko glares at him, and hisses, "I'm working now, but I'll take it out of your hide later."

"Is that a threat or a promise?" Kakashi asks, and winks with his uncovered eye. 'Beware the snakes.'

Anko rolls her eyes, cracks her knuckles, and goes back in to cow-tow the officials before leaving to proctor the exam. Kakashi loiters around the entrance some more, trying to decide if it's worth it to go back in and inform the Hokage of his suspicions, but he has no solid evidence, only circumstantial clues, certainly nothing on which to build an attack.

He checks his chakra, and it is very low—certainly not enough to go toe to toe with Orochimaru of the Sannin. He will need some sort of boost towards that. Contemplating the likelihood of the ANBU medical centre refusing him any sort of soldier pill, he pauses, and then decides to run to the Akimichi places. He knows some of them, and can probably convince them of his dire need than he can the general shinobi hospital.

"This is a terrible plan," Pakkun grumbles. Kakashi has acquired his soldier pills, and he'll be running on fumes, but hopefully they'll last until his students are out of the trice-cursed exam. He doesn't disagree with his summon. It is indeed a terrible plan.

"Do you have a better one," Kakashi says, but only because it is expected of him.

Pakkun snuffles instead of replying properly. "If they find out, you contacted your genin, they will be disqualified for the next one, too."

Kakashi shrugs. He doubts the Hokage —or Danzo— will let him keep impressional youths for that long. He thinks the plan was always to get them for six months, and then have someone else take all the credit for their individual talents. Neither of his puppies will ever fit into a proper team dynamic. They do fit into his, so maybe the Hokage banked on him growing attached. "The next exams will be held in Kiri anyway. There's no way they'll let me go there." Or the nine-tailed fox, for that matter.

Pakkun grunts. They continue watching the premises of the exam— plenty of dejected looking teams are already leaving, but there's no sign of orange, yet.

"Here they come," Kakashi says, and nudges his dog summon forward. Hopefully, his genin will get the message. Then, he whips out his trusty bright orange book, and heads to a populated area to get himself an alibi.

Notes: Any bets on the date of the next installment? [hysterical laughter] tbc