The uniform Kakashi rarely replaced no longer fitted him. He glowered at it, sitting in his bedroll, and kept staring at it until Sasuke stirred from his sleep.
Izumi and Kakashi had discussed what to do with the pup while the other two trained. Kakashi had been informed about Jiraiya's interference, and since there wasn't much to do about that Kakashi didn't bother. Would have been nice to know from Jiraiya himself though, instead of from Ebisu, the jerk.
But Jiraiya was his favourite author of all time, so he could get away with that without too much hassle.
It had been decided that Kakashi would take Sasuke out to train, (even though Tenzo kept complaining, saying Kakashi was almost fifteen weeks along and shouldn't be out in the wilderness) and even learn to use Chidori once he and Izumi discovered Sasuke had a Lightning chakra nature. The thought made him feel anxious, because Chidori had been used on Rin-
But no. Sasuke had a chance to use it to protect people. He didn't have to be a murderer like Kakashi. He could be so much better.
"Why are you glaring at your clothes?"
He glanced back, seeing Sasuke stretching out his limbs and brushing the sleep from his eyes. Kakashi grimaced at his predicament.
"My uniform won't fit anymore..."
"None of it?" Sasuke frowned.
"I can't zip up my jacket. All that fits me right now are my trousers." Kakashi groaned. "Why do babies have to grow so much? Why can't they just pop into existence?"
Sasuke snorted, as he got dressed into clothes that actually fitted him. Lucky. "Would make repopulating the clans so much easier."
"Yeah! Instead I have to grow one." Kakashi gestured to his stomach. "And I have never had a sweet tooth, but now all I crave are sweet things. I don't get it. All these hormones are driving me crazy! And now I have to wear civilian clothes or see if there is a pregnancy uniform?"
Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Oh no. The horror."
Kakashi huffed. "I like my uniform."
"You could easily buy something more comfortable and stylish." Sasuke snorted. "Maybe something in green or blue?"
"Stop judging my fashion sense." Kakashi wrinkled his nose. "It makes you sound too grown up."
"Says the guy who uses 'thousand years of death' on people. You did that to those bandits we fought a couple of days ago. It's probably why you're not getting any mission and are stuck with me."
That had been funny. The look of sheer terror on the bandits faces when they realised one of their own had been scarred for life.
"That's because you're my student, and the only accessible one at that. The other two, well, Sakura is being mentally and possibly physically scarred by Izumi, and Naruto is learning to control his chakra."
"Yeah, kinda interested to see what happens to them both," Sasuke admitted. "Izumi is Izumi, and Naruto is with a Sannin of all folk." Sasuke smirked. "But we're learning the one and only technique you haven't copied. I'm excited to use that."
"It is handy, but you also have to be quick on your toes, as well with your processing of it." Kakashi frowned. "Imagine if you were in the middle of a charge, and the enemy had some kind of teleportation technique. They could easily throw one of their own men, or one of our teammates into the attack."
"So we're working on my reaction time, as well as boosting up my speed."
"Exactly. Your Sharingan helps with that of course, but good to keep up your natural abilities too instead of relying on one thing." Kakashi smiled, but paused when he felt a flicker of familiar chakra brush over him.
He peaked out his tent to find Tenzo had left him some civilian clothes and a note to make an appointment at the uniform designer's office once they were back in Konoha again. Kakashi smiled and changed, smoothing out the hoodie and trousers. He did let out a trill when he spotted the old Hatake symbol on the back of the shirt.
Sasuke smirked at him, and Kakashi flushed.
"Let's go get food?" he hurriedly suggested.
"I heard you trill," Sasuke teased. "You do realise now that I've heard that I'm going to lord it over Naruto and Sakura, right?"
Kakashi groaned. "They'll be listening for a trill now..."
Sasuke gave him that smug grin and walked out the tent. "I'll cook breakfast, Kakashi sensei."
Little shit.
.::.
"Hello, Izumi!"
Izumi paused at the green blur that charged up next to her. Guy beamed as he jumped down the last of the steps to get down beside her. She was waiting for Sakura outside the hospital. After all, why the hell would Izumi want to back inside that hell hole any time soon? Izumi had been in there far too much for her liking this year alone.
"Are you here to visit someone? I thought your kiddo was away with Kakashi!"
Izumi nodded. "He is, but Sakura wanted to visit Lee and Naruto."
"Naruto?"
"Yeah, Naruto got put into hospital. He's been asleep for a while now." Izumi shrugged. "I was just dropping her off here."
"Y'know, at this rate you and Kakashi might be training up Lee's future rival!" Guy laughed.
Izumi grinned. "That would be a sight to see, Sakura vs Lee. Although, I don't know if she's over her rivalry with Ino yet."
"Having a rival is a passionate affair! But there is room for more than one, you do realise." Guy winked.
"Yet your only rival is Kakashi..." Izumi said dryly.
"What Kakashi and I have goes beyond mere rivalry! We are destined to eternally fight each other in an epic struggle-"
"You play rock, paper, scissors, and not even with the real thing..." Izumi pointed out. "Why do you guys use your hands?"
Guy paused. "You and Sasuke haven't been using real rocks, papers and scissors, right?"
"Of course we have. Why wouldn't we?"
"Right... I'm just going to go back to Lee and pretend I just didn't hear that."
Izumi smirked at Guy's back as he left. It was actually amusing how people still fell for that. Of course Sasuke and her knew the real rules, they just liked messing with people by pretending they didn't.
.::.
He's our mate. We can take him. Take him back because he is our Omega and Omegas are supposed to be with their mates, especially their Alpha mates.
Gaara stared down at Lee, the voices insisting it's his right to take Lee back to Suna. Where their Omega belonged. With them. Gaara growled lowly. That was right. Lee couldn't stay here. They were going to attack the Leaf so his mate needed to be with him where it was safe. Lee was recovering from the poison and was their Omega. He wouldn't put up much of a fuss. He'd listen to his Alpha. Listen to his mate and partner. Gaara didn't even really need to explain himself, right?
Sand coiled gently around Lee's form, binding him. Lee didn't stir.
But then Gaara couldn't move and he was punched in the face.
"What the hell are you doing in here, bastard?" Sasuke Uchiha's teammate, Naruto, snarled.
"Take it easy!" Shikamaru Nara hissed. "I'm using my shadow possession jutsu, so when you're whacking him, you're whacking me to."
"Oops, sorry!" Naruto apologised, but returned his attention to Gaara. "What are you trying to do to Lee?"
Gaara wanted to crush these morons. They were in his way. He was only here for his mate.
"He's my mate," Gaara said. "That means he's mine and I'm his."
Shikamaru grimaced. "It doesn't work like that. You aren't allowed to just take him. You're trying to kidnap him. He's asleep so he has no consent."
"So?" Gaara had no idea what the problem was.
"So what? You can't take him anywhere!" Naruto spat.
.::.
Sakura and Guy arrived at the same time. She had spotted the frozen sand in Naruto's room and sprinted back to Lee's. Thankfully though Guy made Gaara stop before Shikamaru and Naruto could be murdered in cold blood.
Gaara eyed Lee before finally stepping out. "I will kill you," he hissed. "I will kill you all, and nothing will stop me."
Sakura shivered and swore she needed to drown him in the biggest water attack she could muster the moment the match started. Yeah, hopefully before he crushed her with his sand. Hinata had told her about what she and her team saw during the second exam when Izumi had been training both of them.
Hinata had told her that Gaara stank of death and blood.
So Sakura would need wash his stench away.