「 Second Time Around」

「 chapter three」

Izuna grinned and ran after him, slowing down once he reached his teammate's side. It felt nice to be a child again.

====

When they returned, Minato and Rin were already there, the former eating peacefully and the latter wringing her hands nervously. When they walked in, Rin flinched and turned red with embarrassment.

"Kakashi!" Rin jumped to her feet and quickly bowed. "I apologize for my outburst! I-I was just really mad and didn't think about what you were thinking and I didn't mean what I said-"

She stood back up, eyes searching her younger teammates face. "I'm just-I'm really sorry, Kakashi."

Rin was hunched over more than usual, and an air of exhaustion still hung around her. Of course Rin would be exhausted, she had spent the whole day running around and healing the two of them. Their female teammate, quiet but always confident, looked nervous as she glanced between the floor and Kakashi.

With the closer glance of a trained shinobi, Izuna noticed the slightly red tinge to her eyes. With a jolt, Izuna realized that she had been crying and turned to Minato. The yellow-haired shinobi had his eyes trained on Kakashi as well, but they flickered to him as if promising an explanation.

Kakashi only looked mildly surprised before responding. "It's alright, Rin. I acted out of line as well. I apologize."

Rin, to her credit, managed to keep the incredulity out of her facial expression as she quickly beamed and invited the two to sit down next to the fire beside her. Rin took Izuna's right and Kakashi sat at Izuna's left. Minato sat in front of them, a hidden smile on his face as he watched his team converse.

====

A few minutes later, Izuna's teammates were passed out, both taking each shoulder as Izuna became increasing more irritated. Minato didn't help, laughing silently at the Uchiha's situation.

Izuna scowled at his sensei, motioning with his eyes to get them off. Minato finally set down his soup and gently laid down Kakashi on a makeshift pillow. With his left hand finally free, Izuna gently laid down Rin as well.

"So." Minato raised an eyebrow to Kakashi. "I figure things went well?"

Izuna nodded. "Just brought up some ideas he seemed to appreciate." When Minato remained silent, Izuna continued. "The Will of Fire." And the Curse of Hatred, a tiny voice in his head piped up, but Izuna buried the voice away.

Minato nodded in approval. He turned to Kakashi and sighed. "I don't want to talk about Kakashi behind his back...but I suppose it's time for you to know as well."

Izuna remained silent as Minato recounted the story of Kakashi and his father, Sakumo. When Minato finally finished, Izuna's eyes were dark.

"..." Izuna thought about what to say. "I could never speak for Kakashi...but I believe Sakumo-san was extremely admirable. I'll repeat what I told Kakashi. To break the rules makes you trash, but abandoning your friends makes you even worse than trash."

Izuna looked up defiantly, as if daring Minato to argue with him. Minato stared, there was a fire in the young shinobi's eyes, and suddenly, his dream of becoming Hokage didn't seem so far-fetched anymore.

Then Izuna grinned mischievously. "Uchiha approved. Nothing is better than that."

Minato blinked before starting to laugh. "Is your sensei Uchiha approved?"

"Not yet." Izuna deadpanned. "Uzumaki Kushina-san is, though."

Minato clutched his heart in mock hurt. "And I thought we were getting along!"

"Kushina-san is a lot more scarier than you, sensei." Izuna shuddered when he remembered his once off-chance encounter with Uzumaki Mito. Not many things scared the proud Uchiha, but he was not ashamed to admit that any female Uzumaki had the ability to strike fear into his heart. As a spitting image of the late Uzumaki heiress, Kushina was bound to be as frightening as Mito.

Minato rubbed his head before admitting with a sigh that his student was right. Still, he was the teacher, so he quickly ushered his student (with what he hoped was a strict tone, but his amusement made it seem more like exasperation) to bed.

Izuna snickered but complied anyway, claiming the edge of the cave closest to the fire. Minato smiled before returning to his spot outside the cave, keeping watch over his team for the night.

Unbeknownst to them, a certain silver-haired prodigy had been listening on their conversation, an unreadable expression on his face as he faced the wall.

====

Kakashi was a light sleeper, so as soon as Minato moved him from his spot on Obito's shoulder, he woke up. However, instead of moving, he decided to stay still and see what the duo would say.

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, he noted as Obito had given their sensei a basic summary of what happened in the woods. He mentally thanked him when he didn't mention his apology. He also noted how Obito left out the Curse of Hatred in his explanation.

He tensed up again when Minato spoke next. "I don't want to talk about Kakashi behind his back...but I suppose it's time for you to know as well."

As well? Had he told Rin as well? He wasn't particularly angry, but he had been the one who wanted to tell his team. 

The cave was completely silent besides Minato recounting the tragic story of Hatake Sakumo. After he finished, the silence was deafening. He wanted nothing more than to turn around to see his teammates reaction.

Since when had he cared so much about what other's thought? Maybe it was Obito's sudden change in personality. Or maybe it was the moment they shared in the woods, where he felt that Obito truly did understand. He could've stopped the conversation anytime, could've woken up and moved. But Kakashi sat still, holding his breath as he waited for his teammate's reaction.

Finally, after a deafening silence, Obito spoke. "I could never speak for Kakashi...but I believe Sakumo-san was extremely admirable. I'll repeat what I told Kakashi. To break the rules makes you trash, but abandoning your friends makes you even worse than trash."

Kakashi's eyes widened. He had expected him to say something that like...but to hear it from his mouth was something else entirely. The whole village had ostracized his father to the point of suicide, so hearing someone approve of his actions...

Maybe his father hadn't been wrong all along.

Maybe...maybe it was him who had also fallen victim to the hatred that spread around Konoha.

Kakashi, finally content and comfortable, closed his eyes to sleep, pointedly ignoring Obito's next comment (really, when had the boy been so proud of his clan?); the next day would be a long one.

No one in the cave would know truly what would happen the next day.

a/n: welcome back guys.

it hasn't completely been a year..........

hope u guys haven't died or forgotten about this book, cuz i definitely did. kinda cut it short cuz i got a sudden burst of inspiration and its currently 3am and i have a psych test tmr that i did not study for :D

do not know when the next update will come, but hopefully soon. plot will be starting soon. as in plot, i mean izuna's famous older brother. do stay tuned.

until next time ! (hopefully not a year this time)