Chapter 4:___A prodigy's View___

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Hatake Kakashi was not someone known for his patience.

Prowess, sure. Innate genius, of course. Strength and potential, indubitably.

Patience? … Well, he could admit that he needed some work on that.

Which was precisely the reason why he had dreaded the very moment he found out that he was on a team with Uchiha Obito, the loud-mouthed, always-late, presumptuous, lame, annoying, black-sheep, and downright idiotic dead last.

And he still did.

Whether it was a matter of staying quiet, arriving on time, doing something—anything right, the boy always had a way of irking Kakashi.

Sometimes, he would struggle immensely to maintain his aloof facade. And it was all Obito's fault.

Today was one such day. The dead last always had a habit of being late to missions, even when Minato specified that tardiness was not an option.

Now, this time Minato had told Obito to arrive an hour earlier (therefore making sure that he would be right on time, as he was customarily exactly one hour late), just to give Team 7 that much-needed cushion of time. Sadly, today seemed to be the day where Obito went above and beyond his idiotic-idiosyncratic habits.

The silver-haired Chūnin looked up at the rising sun, ignoring the nervous side-glances from his female teammate and the exasperated sigh from his Jōnin-sensei. It was almost noon, and there was still no sign of their teammate. His eye twitched.

"Minato-sensei." The blond man looked up from a scroll he had taken out while waiting. "The idiot is almost two hours late. Can we just go without him?"

With a tired sigh, Minato closed the scroll and shook his head, earning him a scowl from Kakashi.

"No. This is a team operation, and if Obito isn't here, then we need to go find him." The blonde turned back towards the direction he knew Obito's house was situated and mumbled under his breath. "He's never been this late…"

Kakashi supposed that he wasn't meant to hear the blonde's mumbling, but he replied anyway. "But he's always been late. Because he's Obito. He might be taking advantage of the fact that you never really scold him for it, sensei."

Minato gave an easy shrug as he readjusted his backpack. "I don't think Obito is that kind of person, Kakashi. Let's go check on him, though, he might've gotten himself in trouble." He began walking at a slow and seemingly relaxed pace, but not without the hint of tenseness.

"Yes, sensei," both Kakashi and Rin chorused, falling into step behind the man.

When they were within fifty meters of the Obito's house, Kakashi wrinkled his nose as the faint smell of smoke accosted his senses. It wasn't the smell of barbeque or a fireplace.

There was a faint smell of wood, but it was not strong enough to be identified as a nearby forest fire.

He sniffed in the air a few times to identify the source. No, the smoke had a chemical smell to it, fumes from paint and scorched cement…

Wait, what?

His head whipped around to Minato, who had frozen in place with wide eyes.

Suddenly, the blonde darted forward and Kakashi followed with Rin closely behind, their eyes fixed on a growing cloud of smoke situated right above a certain street.

A certain apartment complex. Where a certain Uchiha boy lived.

Despite himself, Kakashi found that a sickening worry had made its way into his stomach, settling like a leadened rock.

Obito was stupid, but surely he wouldn't have ended up in the fire? He was a Shinobi, and he would've been able to escape from a small house fire…

Right?

As they neared the burning building, the group of three were mortified to find that it truly was Obito's apartment complex that was the source of the flames. If the boy really was in there, then there was no doubt that he would have trouble escaping without the use of Body Flicker Technique, Flying Thunder God Technique, or a technique similar to those Jutsu's.

The flames had fully engulfed the old and decrepit building, turning it into a splendid display of bright yellow and orange dancing with the searing heat and charged air.

Kakashi's eyes narrowed. The air. There was no doubt. It was faint, but there was the smallest hint of chakra, an amount too minimum to identify, surging through the air.

It originated from the growing flames, and it was obvious then that the fire was not simply a domestic house fire, but the result of a jutsu.

He turned to Minato to voice his opinion, but before he could so much as open his mouth the man had disappeared in a flash of gold and dark green. Alarmed, Kakashi turned to Rin, who looked equally surprised.

"What… What is he doing?" He turned away to face the flames, his fists balling up in frustration. "We should have used a Water Release technique to douse the flames, at least!"

Rin grabbed Kakashi's arm just as he was about to head into the burning building himself, her eyes wide and distraught.

"Sensei, he—he probably had a reason. Kakashi, I'm worried, and I can't… I can't sense as well as you, o-or sensei. Is Obito—" Rin muttered in shocked.

She didn't need to finish her statement. Before, Kakashi already reached out with his senses, trying to find the smallest hint of the familiar, if not annoying, presence.

He hadn't felt the boy's presence, and almost sighed in relief—that is, until his sensei appeared beside them, carrying a bloodied, charred, and almost dead boy in his arms. The only details identifiable were the boy's messy mop of black hair, and the picture frame he protectively held in his chest.

Without another word, the two students grabbed onto Minato's arms and disappeared in a flash towards the Hospital.

It was a hideous sight.

In order to operate on Obito, the nurses had to remove the splintered frame from the boy's hands.

It was painful and excruciating to watch, as some bits of the metal had been soldered to his skin, and the charred remains of the epidermis made vile cracking noises similar to the splintering of wood as the nurses peeled it away.

Ultimately, the rest of Team Seven had been sent outside to wait.

It was four hours later that Minato had finally left, but not to rest. He went to investigate the site of the fire, to try and find the reason behind it.

Kakashi had informed him of the chakra he sensed, but it was an unnecessary reveal on his part since Minato had already noticed the detail himself. (Of course he would. He was their sensei, after all.)

When Minato returned, he shared with them the fact that there was no explicit sign of a third party—information, that Kakashi did not like, as that meant that the one responsible was either extremely good or it was just Obito who had gone and done something stupid—and that Rin and Kakashi should go home. Neither of them took particularly well to the suggestion.

"What?" Rin started, worry laced in her voice. "No! We can't! Not yet, Obito is still in there—"

Minato held up a hand to stop her. "It's late, and you two have had a long day. I need to stay and take care of a few things."

"Why? Why do we have to leave? The nurses haven't kicked us out, and it's fine that we—" Kakashi reached out to grab his teachers arm, but quickly stopped when Minato winced. His eyes narrowed dangerously. "… Minato-sensei, are you injured?"

Rin looked up at her sensei in alarm, causing the man to chuckle nervously. "I'm fine, Kakashi, really…"

The addressed Chūnin paid no heed to Minato's prevaricating words and tore the sleeve, revealing the blistering skin. Rin gasped in horror, and Kakashi glared at Minato.

Minato simply looked remorseful at his now-torn sleeve. "I only have a few of these left and it's my favorite shirt…"

His muttering went ignored. "Why did you charge in there?" Kakashi asked, the tension in his tone rising with his voice. "You shouldn't have done that! What if you hadn't been able to make it to Obito in time? The only reason why you made it out was because you had probably placed a Thunder God mark on the ground or on one of us, but you charged into the fire without even a little preparation!"

Minato's brow furrowed. "Kakashi, there was little else we could do, and Obito was—"

"But you charged in recklessly!" Kakashi fisted his hands gripping his pants. "We should have used a water release! It was too dangerous for you to—"

"I acted as I should have, Kakashi," Minato replied evenly, quickly cutting Kakashi off before he became more incensed. "The building was in less than perfect condition as you saw, and extinguish the fire with water would've undoubtedly made it collapse on itself. With Obito still inside."

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Thank you for reading this story.

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