The Windmill Turns Both Ways

Past

Team 7 was getting out of balance, and Kakashi knew it.

Some might argue it was doomed from the start.

But there had been a moment before the Exams when everything seemed to be going well. The spark he'd seen in them had grown. They finally felt on track.

Then Orochimaru disrupted everything. He planted a seed of discontent that just might tear the team apart if something wasn't done very soon.

So the day after Tsunade's inauguration, Kakashi finished his solo mission in record time and called a team meeting for the very next morning. He had no solid plan yet for re-establishing the team's camaraderie, but some group training would be a start.

Kakashi arrived at the designated training ground. He looked up from his book and frowned. Any hope that they'd bonded while he was gone flew away the moment he observed the scene in front of him.

Sasuke was sitting underneath a tree, arms crossed and face like a steel door, glaring in the other direction. Sakura sat near him, but not so near it would force him to move. When she saw Kakashi, she stood up, dusting grass off her shorts. The third and loudest member of his team was nowhere to be seen, which was somehow the most conspicuous part of all of it.

"Kakashi-sensei, you're late," Sakura said, though without the indignation she usually put into it. She looked pleadingly at him and then looked back at Sasuke.

Kakashi sighed. Rather than reconnecting with one another, their rapport seemed even worse than before. He had only been gone for a day and a night. Had they managed to have a huge falling out while he was gone?

He looked at Sasuke, who stoically ignored him. Even though Tsunade had deemed Sasuke physically fit enough to be released from the hospital, she had suspended Team 7 from doing missions until Kakashi could evaluate their readiness to return to action.

Which is what he planned to do today. The problem was, it would be difficult to asses his team with only one and a half of his team members present. (Sasuke honestly didn't look entirely there.)

"Yo," he said with practiced laziness. "Where's Naruto? You three didn't have a fight, did you?"

"No, sensei," Sakura said, sounding confused. "I haven't seen Naruto since we said goodbye after Tsunade-sama's inaguration. Have you, Sasuke-kun?"

"No," Sasuke said shortly. "Knowing him, he probably mistook the place. Or the day."

Kakashi closed his book and slowly tucked it into his back pouch. "Neither of you saw him yesterday, at all? Even though all three of you had the day off?"

Sakura crossed her arms. "It is kind of strange. He's an idiot sometimes, but I don't think he's ever been later than you for one of our meetings, right, Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi considered. "I'll go check at his house. If it takes me longer than half an hour for me to drag him back here, you're both dismissed, but expect to hear from me again sometime today."

"Okay," Sakura said, while Sasuke gave an eloquent snort.

Kakashi hesitated, wondered for half a second if it would be better just to wait, but then turned away from the training ground set off toward Naruto's apartment.

He took to the rooftops, brows knotted together in consternation. It really wasn't like the knucklehead to skip a team meeting, especially since it had been so long. Kakashi knew better than anyone how eager Naruto was to get back to doing missions.

In a matter of minutes he was at Naruto's front door, tapping languidly. He jabbed at the doorbell a couple of times, hearing it buzz within the apartment. He waited a few minutes, but there was no response.