Red (Kakashi Hatake x Might Guy)

Chapter Ten

Kakashi Hatake sighed as he walked to the gates of The Leaf Village, his student, Sakura Haruno to his right and Might Guy as well as his students, Rock Lee, Neji Hyuga, and Tenten were to his left. Being around his soulmate after the encounter they'd had the day before was nervewracking, and he feared that the older man would try to take his mask off again, but he ignored that fear.

He watched as all of the kids went to greet Gaara, standing behind with Guy. Of course, Lee being the closest to the Kazekage was the first to speak.

"Gaara! How have you been?" The excitable teenager spoke, walking up to the redhead. Despite Gaara being so stiff in nature, he offered a small smile and bumped fists with the boy in green before responding.

"I've been well. How are you all?"

"I'm great! It's amazing to see you again!" Lee beamed, and it was impossible to miss the soft grin that Neji was currently suppressing at his soulmate's enthusiasm as he crossed his arms over his chest and continued to watch the two friends interact. "Maybe we could get some training in when we're in The Sand Village-"

And then, Kakashi's eyes went to Tenten, who had paused and cut her teammate off, turning to Gaara. The girl's brown eyes were blown wide, and she looked taken aback. To Kakashi's knowledge, she hadn't found her soulmate yet, but the look that had crossed her face was one that Kakashi had seen a million times- realization, and it was aimed at Gaara, who she stared at in wonder.

"You-" Tenten interjected herself, taking in a sharp breath before weakly pointing at the Jinchuriki. "Your name's Gaara, right?"

Gaara paused, looking just as stunned as Tenten was, and the air felt tense and silent. Kakashi couldn't remember them interacting at the Chunin exams, maybe seeing each other and nothing more. Plus, with the One-Tails having controlled a lot of Gaara's mind back then, he wasn't necessarily sure if the redhead would've had enough consciousness or mental stability to recognize a soulmate- Naruto had seen Hinata just fine, but still... There weren't studies or anything done on how the soulmates of Jinchurikis were affected by it or vice versa, so he didn't have much to go off of. Apparently, though, both Naruto and Gaara had been able to find theirs.

The look on Gaara's face might've been the largest form of emoting that Kakashi had ever seen the redhead do- but then again, seeing your soulmate for the first time was understandably shocking, as both the discovery of someone you were supposed to spend the rest of your life with and the newly found ability to see color were life-changing by themselves, let alone together.

"That's odd, um- I've seen you, miss, but we haven't formally met, and I... Hadn't seen and heard you talk to me until now, I don't think."

"I'm Tenten," At that moment, everyone else seemed to realize what had happened. Sakura's eyes went wide as she raised a hand to cover her mouth, and Lee and Guy both went to speak- probably about to say something obnoxious about youthful young love- when Neji grabbed them both by the back of their collars, pulling at them a bit to urge them not to ruin the moment. "Finding my soulmate in front of everyone like this is kind of embarrassing, ha..." Tenten trailed off, nervously eyeing everyone; Gaara, Lee, Neji, Guy, Sakura, and finally Kakashi before her gaze fell on Gaara again. "We can talk later, yeah?"

"Sure..." Gaara answered, shaky but clearly trying to keep his composure as he addressed Lee again. "Lee, about your offer to train, I'd like that, and..." Blue eyes were trained on brown once more, and Kakashi couldn't help but feel secondhand embarrassment course through his veins.

'These two are both so terribly awkward.'

"Neji, Tenten, and Sakura could come, too!" Lee offered, beaming with joy, and Sakura and Tenten both nodded.

"Definitely."

"Hm..." Neji smirked, seemingly satisfied with the situation. "Sure."

"So, what exactly is the plan?" Tenten questioned, looking over at Guy and Kakashi.

Since their mission was to protect the Kazekage and they were in charge of the team as a whole, Guy and Kakashi had met up earlier that morning to make a plan in case anything happened.

"We're going to escort the Kazekage to The Sand Village. If everything goes according to plan, a sandstorm will hit right when we get there, so we'll be staying there for an extra day or two, and then we'll head home. If anything happens and someone tries to attack, which I doubt... If it's possible, Tenten, Neji, and Lee will take Gaara and escape- continue on route, while Guy, Sakura, and I will stay behind and apprehend whoever it is," He explained, looking over at Guy for a moment. They'd decided that since Guy's team was whole and had worked together regularly, they could protect Gaara without any issues, and they could fight whoever dared to attack as a team without any issues. Sakura would be back up, and she could also heal any injuries they got since she was becoming skilled at Medical Ninjutsu. "Then again, that's just a hypothetical- I doubt anything will actually happen," Kakashi finished, pretty sure that no incidents would occur... To be honest, he would be surprised if any regular, average ninjas or robbers attempted to challenge a team with The Kazekage, The Blue Beast and his student, the student of Lady Tsunade, a skilled Hyuga, a weapons expert, and himself, but he also knew that surprises were often inevitable on missions like this.
So, he was prepared.

"I can protect myself," Gaara reiterated what was already common knowledge, but then sighed, crossing his arms and allowing his eyes to fall shut for a moment. "But I understand, and I know you're all capable. So, I'll go with your plan if the rest of you are fine with this."

Everyone nodded in agreement, and with that, Guy spoke.

"Alright, then! Let's head out."