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Chapter 8:Checkup

Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "Where's Keimei? She's supposed to be here as well."

Keimei? Sasuke wondered for a second before realizing that it was Naruto's name.

The house had been as quiet when he woke up this morning and when he had left, and he had sensed the dobe's chakra signature in the apartment the whole time, but didn't care to knock on her door. After his morning routine and breakfast, during which the dobe still hadn't appeared, he had made his way to the Hokage Tower alone – if you ignored his ANBU escorts, that was.

"She was still in her room when I left," he answered monotonously.

Tsunade frowned. "You could have woken her up," she said, obviously displeased.

"She's a shinobi, she should be able to keep appointments on her own," Sasuke said, his tone frosty.

Tsunade's frown deepened. "You live in the same house, the least you could do is knock on her door to wake her up. You're married to her now, the least you can do is start treating her like a friend," she said, and muttered, "not that you deserve a friend like her… I hope she didn't take the news too hard… have to send someone to check on her later…"

The Hokage massaged her temples with one hand as she rifled for a piece of paper on her desk with the other. Sasuke had heard her even though she had been talking softly to herself, and again wondered what it was that could keep the dobe quiet for a whole day.

"Have you chosen a sensei, Sasuke?" the Hokage looked up at him.

"I have," he answered.

A vein throbbed on her temple, but she asked in an even voice, "And your choice of sensei is?"

"Kakashi," he said.

Tsunade nodded. "I thought so. He is the obvious choice since he has the Sharingan and has had ANBU training." She stood up and walked to the window, opened it and stuck her head out. "Come in, Kakashi."

The silver-haired jounin hopped in after the Hokage.

"Sasuke," he greeted with a wave of two fingers as he put away a blue book. Sasuke just regarded him with his expressionless face.

Tsunade dropped back into her chair. "As expected, Sasuke has chosen you as his sensei, Kakashi. As such, you'll be off regular jounin duty until Sasuke is deemed ready to fight at Itachi's level, until Itachi is dead, or until I say so. You know what to do, Kakashi. The training schedule is up to you, but I want weekly reports." She narrowed her eyes at the jounin. "And I want them on time. Or no more Icha Icha."

Kakashi looked hurt. "Aww, Tsunade-sama, you don't have to threaten my precious Icha Icha!"

Tsunade leaned back and crossed her arms. She gave him an exasperated look. "You're like a small child, Kakashi. Now get going."

"Hai, Tsunade-sama," he said with a happy eye crescent, bowed, and walked out the door with Sasuke following.
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Kakashi leaned against the middle log as memories washed over him. They were in Team 7's favourite training area, where he had given them their first bell test. He shoved his hands in his pockets and looked skyward.

"What level do you place yourself at, Sasuke?" he asked his former-turned-current student.

"Jounin," was the answer.

Without warning, Kakashi attacked him, and they engaged in a furious taijutsu battle mixed with kenjutsu and ninjutsu. Kakashi didn't have his old ANBU katana with him, so he had to block Sasuke's Kusanagi with a kunai. They blew flames at each other, set water dragons on each other, and flew at each other with high speed.