Stumble [Rewrite]

Interlude

A/N: So, school's starting and I'll let you guys know this straight up. I'll try to keep up my weekly updates as consistent as possible, but I'm not promising anything. Things might come late especially since I'm in a sport for the fall season (August to October).

Also, I've already outlined the rest of this story.

If everything goes according to plan...

There will 14 chapters left after this one, or something along the lines of that.

::

"So... Sachiko was that man's daughter? How did you meet her?"

"After, you know, that happened and I killed him, I tried to look for help and I found her. She was waiting for her dad to come home and when I told her he wouldn't be back, I promised her... I promised her that I'd take care of her. But I didn't."

"It's not your fault. She wasn't your responsibility."

"She was. I broke a promise, Kakashi."

"Everyone breaks promises sometimes. One day, she'll understand."

...

"I hope she does."

::

Naruto leaned forward, laying a scrutinizing eye on his sensei for a good few seconds. "So you said you're sorry, right?"

"Yes."

"And she accepted it 100% no joke, right?"

"Yes."

The boy considered the answer. When Sakura showed up for team practice the day after Kakashi started acting weird, he was so excited that he dropped the weapons he was working with to jump into his best friend's arms. She, of course, caught him and held him bridal style as he babbled on about how much he missed her. Sasuke came at a much more casual stride and shoved Naruto's face aside to ask how her mission was and if she was okay.

Kakashi's eye twitched when Naruto crossed his arms and huffed. "I don't believe you."

"I will make you run two hundred laps around the village," he said. The boy's expression suddenly morphed into one of saccharine exuberance—fear dancing at the back of his gaze—and scurried back to where his friends stood.

"It's so awe-awesome that you guys made up, dattebayo!" Naruto stammered. He quickly tried to divert the conversation elsewhere. "So do we have a mission? Huh, sensei? That's why we haven't started training yet, right?!"

Kakashi extended a scroll that Sasuke took, the latter throwing the man a look that too was wary about the sudden disintegration of Sakura's suspension, and it was opened for the three genin to read. "We have been on a mission to run errands for the owner of-"

"Oh! This is gonna be easy!" Naruto exclaimed. He didn't notice the miffed glare aimed in his direction for the interruption. "We just gotta do stuff for Mari-san!"

"At Magenta? Why didn't he just ask us to do it for him when we were finished with training?" Sasuke asked.

"Guess he had the funds to spare," Sakura hummed. "It says we have to be there in... fifteen minutes? If we run now, we can make it through our normal way instead of using the main road."

The three of them nodded in unison and closed the scroll. Kakashi watched, silently intrigued, as Naruto took the sleeve of his uniform and began to drag him across the red bridge alongside the other two.