True Mastery

BEING A SHINOBI

Hiruzen was not very surprised when Kakashi entered his room and put his sword on the table. He was not very surprised when Kakashi put a letter of resignation on the table. He was, however, slightly surprised, when Kakashi fixed him with a gaze and said, "Gimme the brat."

"Which brat, Kakashi?" Hiruzen asked, knowing fully well which brat Kakashi meant. He was the youngest surviving member of Obito's family.

Kakashi waved his hands. "I'll take both of 'em."

"Both?" the Hokage asked, eyebrow raised. "Do you mean adoption, or as a sensei?"

Kakashi thought for a bit. "As a sensei. Sasuke has one cousin, I think? And I don't want to take in someone who has survived on their own for so long, and then force them to adjust their lifestyle." Perhaps that wasn't a good decision, but Kakashi felt that he had done pretty well on his own, and that adult presence would've been tedious. A case of sour grapes, no doubt, but it made sense to him.

"You realize that it's around half a year more until they graduate?"

Kakashi paused.

"I've seen their records; can't they take an early exam or something?" He really didn't want to wait for half a year. Making others wait for half a year, sure, but even he couldn't spend six months at the hospital. Or at the memorial.

"They could, yes, but there are no free genin right now that could be put on a team with them as the third member."

Kakashi frowned. "None? What happened to those tiny ones? The ones in the Genin Corps?"

Hiruzen coughed. "The Genin Corps... you mean, the same Genin Corps that was disbanded five years ago?" Looking at Kakashi's "Eh??" face, he added, chuckling, "I'm sorry to inform you, that was disbanded five years ago."

"We could totally make a team of two people. They're best friends, I hear, they would be a great duo", Kakashi suggested.

Hiruzen sighed. "You will not let this go, will you?" He was the Hokage, and yet, it seemed to him that people didn't really respect his decisions anymore. To Konoha ninja, he was like the grandpa that sneaked them candy when their parents had told them not to have any, which was why, to foreign ninja, he was like the stranger that gave them candy, that is, not to be trusted.

Kakashi shook his head solemnly from side to side.

Hiruzen let out a long breath. "Fine, I'll sign the papers."

"Great!", said Kakashi, as he began skipping away. Hiruzen barked after him, "Bring me the paper, Kakashi, and I swear, if you're late about it..." He let that threat hang in the air. Kakashi continued skipping, and started whistling too.

Once he was gone, Hiruzen sighed again. "Owl", he said, and Yoshimura the Anbu dropped down from the ceiling.

"Yes, sir?"

"Send Iruka here. If he's taking a class, you take the class." Any other day, that would have been great. An Anbu was generally more knowledgeable than a Chuunin. However, that day also happened to be the first class of the new recruits from the orphanage. And Anbu weren't very well known for their people skills.

This was not going to end well.

"Grapes, grapes, grapes", Naruto muttered under his breath, doodling absentmindedly but furiously on a piece of paper. The piece of paper in question was an exam paper, which they were supposed to solve in the class, but when Suzume-sensei had tried to remind him to solve the paper, he had yelled "GRAPES" at her so hard that her glasses fell off, and then gone back to doodling.