❈—20:: Team Training [I]

"Kakashi," I say, "please put down my teammate."

"Okay," the jōnin agrees, and promptly dumps the bound and gagged Naruto on the hard ground.

Sakura winces in sympathetic pain. I let out a slow, controlled breath.

On the ground, Naruto keeps wriggling, trying furiously and unsuccessfully to get loose.

I walk up to the boy.

"You bastard," Naruto screams as soon as I pull the sleeping hat from his mouth. "You kidnapped me."

"Kidnap is such a strong word," Kakashi says. "Try to think of it as an… enthusiastic wake-up call."

Naruto goes red in the face with rage. "I don't need a wake-up call from you, that's what I have an alarm clock for," the boy yells, his incessant struggling keeping me from effectively undoing the knots keeping him bound.

Kakashi nods agreeably. "True, but when it didn't ring, I figured that as your sensei it was my duty to help."

"You kidnapped me before it could ring!"

Kakashi makes a thoughtful expression. "Well, I don't know about that," he says. "I kidnapped… er, I mean, stepped in at 06:55. So when exactly was your alarm supposed to ring?"

"You told us to meet at seven," Naruto snarls, in a tone that implies, with all the confidence in the world, that it should be obvious what time he would set his alarm for.

My hands, busy trying to undo Naruto's bonds this entire time, still.

"Wait, hold on," I say as realisation dawns on me. "You set your alarm for seven? A.M.?"

"Wait, he what?" Sakura asks behind me, walking forward to join the conversation.

The bound blonde has the temerity to give us a look like we're being weird.

"When else was I supposed to set it?" he asks.

'The nerve of—'

"Seven was the time to meet, you idiot," Sakura growls, "not wake up!"

Naruto rolls his eyes.

"Please, everyone knows that things never start at the time they tell people to show up," Naruto says, imparting on us his great wisdom. "I mean, look at yesterday, you said we should meet at seven, but when I showed up at 07:30 you guys were just sitting around drinking tea."

"WE WERE WAITING FOR YOU!" Sakura roars.

Naruto blinks. "Oh," he says finally, like so many things in the world suddenly make sense. "Well, um, you can't blame me for—"

"Naruto," I cut in before he can go any further, "just shut up."

Fortunately (for him), he obeys, sulkily, but he does.

With Naruto finally still, and the vast amounts of irritation I have to work with, Naruto's binding doesn't last long.

As soon as he's free, Naruto gets to his feet, and though he shoots nasty looks at Kakashi and mutters angrily about the state of his pyjamas, he doesn't start anything.

Good.

I focus on Kakashi.

"Why are we here?" I ask.

Kakashi hums thoughtfully, tapping his chin with a finger.

"That's a big question, Sasuke," he says. "There are those, of course, who believe that there is a Supreme Creator, who sculpted the world from water and the ashes of an erupted volcano. They say that he made us in the image of—" Kakashi pauses when he sees our very unamused expressions.

"Fine," he relents, "we're here for training. Happy?"

"Ecstatic," I deadpan.

"What kind of training?" Sakura asks.

"One-on-one for today. Tomorrow we'll see if we can't polish your teamwork."

Sakura looks relieved. But then she must realise that, having a one-on-one session with Kakashi means getting his undivided attention, and the relief vanishes.

Unaware of his teammate's inner worries, Naruto asks: "When are we gonna go on missions?"

"When I feel like it," Kakashi responds.

"What? That's no fair," Naruto complains.

Kakashi shrugs. "Well, since I'm unfair I could just not teach you the cool wind jutsu I was planning to?"

Naruto scowls at the jōnin. "I can tell you're trying to manipulate me, you know?"

"And I can tell it's working," Kakashi says.

Naruto pouts, but doesn't disagree.

Without any handsigns (that I can tell anyway), two perfect copies of Kakashi shimmer into existence on either side of him.

'Are those…'

"These, as I'm sure you already suspect, are shadow clones," Kakashi says, confirming my suspicions. "The reason they appeared without the smoke you're used to seeing when Naruto does it, is because I made them without wasting a single drop of my precious chakra."

Sakura suddenly looks much more interested.

"Sasuke," Kakashi continues, "go with him." He points at the clone on his left. "Naruto, him." Clone on the right. "Sakura, you're with me."

Wordlessly, we split up, following our assigned… Kakashi, I guess.

For one moment, I feel a flash of irritation that Kakashi has left my training in the hands of a clone, but then I shake it off.

These clones are not like the ones from the story, and even if they are, it changes nothing.

All I need from Kakashi is his knowledge. And if a clone can give me that, then that's fine by me.