Sasuke, Sakura, and Ino, the three scrabbling genin of Team 7, gathered at the edge of a small lake just outside of Konoha proper. They were not happy with their sensei's instructions.
"It's late and we already did the tree walking exercise. Do we have to learn to walk on water as well?"
Kakashi resisted the urge to slap his forehead as Ino's whining reached critical pitch.
"Yeah, they're both chakra building exercises, aren't they? If we already know one, why do we have to learn the other?" Sakura added.
"I concur. When are you going to teach us something useful, Sensei?" the last of the terrible genin trio, Sasuke Uchiha, suddenly felt compelled to speak out as well.
The masked jounin bit back a groan. He must have royally pissed off some divine personage to be forced to teach these three runts. Sure, he had heard that Itachi's younger brother was a real piece of work, but this was just ridiculous.
"Enough!"
All three genin jumped back at their normally calm instructor's harsh tone.
Kakashi roughly rubbed his temple in annoyance. "I'm both your teacher and your superior, so you will listen to me and you will obey me! Do I make myself clear?"
Frightened nods answered the former ANBU captain.
Kakashi sighed and rubbed his temple again.
Shit, I shouldn't have yelled. Now what am I supposed to do? Kakashi, contrary to what most of his female associates thought, was not a bad guy and was actually quite mellow. But he was once captain of an elite ANBU team, which did require occasional toughness on his part to ensure discipline.
Maybe I should call it a day. The one-eyed jounin was trying to think of a way to salvage this situation when he heard his students gasp. Following their wide-eyed looks of awe, the jounin turned around.
A shinobi decked out in ANBU gear was walking—no, strutting—toward them. The water parted before him with each step. Kakashi watched from behind his mask. How cute. The ninja was not only channeling chakra to keep himself afloat, but he was also spreading some of it laterally before him to displace the water. It was not a terribly difficult technique to pull off, but making it look that good definitely required some exquisite chakra control.
"Kakashi-senpai," declared the figure with a slight, formal bow.
"Yo, I'm not in ANBU anymore."
"Alright, Kakashi-sensei. Your students?" Haruto asked, nodding at the kids. He held back a smirk as the genin looked at him in awe. Although Sasuke was quick to adopt his classic nonchalant demeanor, even he was notably impressed at first; as he should be. Haruto had perfected his water walk to something akin to an art form.
"That was so cool!" Sakura gushed as Ino nodded enthusiastically in kind. Suddenly, the two girls were most eager to learn to walk on water; that was until Sasuke decided to open his mouth.
"So what? What's so useful about being able to walk on water? I would rather spend the time learning new techniques."
Because the mighty Uchiha was always right, both girls naturally reneged on their previous enthusiasm and declared once again that they did not want to learn the exercise.
What?! Ok, sure, young people were a flighty and fickle lot in general, but this was ridiculous. Haruto turned to Kakashi to see the former ANBU looking up at the sky in exasperation.
"I wish I didn't have to pass them," muttered the jounin from under his breath.
Haruto guessed he meant the post academy genin test. Poor guy. Wanting to aid the man, who used to be the teacher of his teachers, the disguised blond stepped forward.
"What are your names?"
The question surprised the three genin, but they recovered quickly.
"Sakura Haruno."
"Ino Yamanaka."
"Sasuke Uchiha."
Haruto surveyed the trio before focusing on the girl with the long, cascading hair. With eye defying speed, his hand reached forward and snagged several strands of blonde hair.
"Ow! What did you do that for?" Ino yelled angrily, fuming in silence when the shinobi proceeded to ignore her. The girl was, however, smart enough to recognize that this man was from ANBU and thus had her completely outclassed.
"Contrary to what you believe, chakra control isn't just an excuse used to bore rookie genin out of their minds. It can be a powerful weapon in and of itself." The masked ANBU held his hand out. The nearly three feet long strands of hair suddenly curled themselves into the shape of a very small, but very sharp yellow dart. Haruto then flung the makeshift weapon at one of the smaller nearby trees, causing half of its length to be embedded into the tree trunk.
Kakashi arched an eyebrow in interest. Now, the demonstrated technique was not particularly hard to do in principle, but imparting the right amount of tensile strength into keratin fibers was no small feat. But that was not all. Cracks originating from the embedded dart raced vertically and laterally across the surface of the tree trunk. Soon after, the tree toppled over with a loud thud.
"Wow!" Not even Sasuke could withhold his astonishment.
"No flashy or complex hand seals needed; just excellent control of chakra. You need to understand that chakra is all around you. If you can truly control chakra, then you can control practically anything and everything."
That was not exactly true, but if it took a little white lie from the tough looking ANBU to motivate certain genin to take their training seriously, then a little white lie was what they were going to get. The young prodigy was actually very satisfied at how well his stunt worked. He had not been sure he could get the tree trunk to snap.
"But before you can do any of that, you first need to be able to do the chakra enhancing exercises, such as walking on trees and walking on water. Flawlessly, in your sleep."
"But why do we need to learn both, ANBU-san?" Sakura asked most hesitantly. It was not as if she doubted the ANBU's words. How could she after his unbelievable demonstration? But she was curious why Kakashi insisted that they learn both. Kakashi turned an attentive and expectant eye on the new guy. This ninja was definitely full of surprises.
"That's a good question. The tree walk tests your basic ability to control and direct chakra, namely at your feet. As that is the hardest area to gather chakra, once you successfully complete this exercise, you shouldn't have any trouble gathering chakra at any other part of your body. Tree walking, however, is rather simple since the surface that you are concentrating your chakra on is solid. Water walking is one step up in difficulty because the surface is fluid. You need to constantly feed chakra into the water to keep from falling through. Does that answer your question?"
A thoughtful Sakura nodded. Curiously, all three genin were very quiet and were, by all appearances, attentive to the lesson. Kakashi was duly impressed and just a tad bit jealous that this guy managed to waltz in and win his students over so quickly.
"Well, that covers everything for today. Be sure to get plenty of rest for tomorrow. We're going to try for a C-rank mission. Before you leave, be sure to thank the nice mister…" The jounin sensei turned questioningly to his companion.
"Genji is fine."
Kakashi's one eye went wide.
"Thank you, Genji-san. Bye, Sensei!" The girls declared sincerely, while Sasuke grunted something similar.
Eager to return home, the genin quickly departed, leaving Kakashi and a disguised Haruto.
So this is the one. Armed with this new info, the famous copycat reassessed the ninja before him. His stance, his posture, and his voice, which carried the words of someone supremely confident of his own abilities, all reminded Kakashi of another intrepid and brilliant young ninja from the past. Dark thoughts swirled around the copycat nin's mind. On the other hand, Itachi was never one to take the time to impart his knowledge and wisdom to those weaker or lesser than him, was he?
Maybe he'll be different, Kakashi hoped.
"I mean no offense, but are you certain that they're ready for a C-rank mission, Sensei?"
The one-eyed ninja secretly glowered. Great, even this newbie was thinking poorly of his team.
"I think they'll do fine," Kakashi responded confidently.
But it was hardly the same as a "yes, I believe they are ready" reply. Haruto remained skeptical. On one hand, ninja missions were tricky affairs in general. He, of all people, knew how wrong initial briefings and intelligence could be. It was also not unusual for missions to be ranked incorrectly. On the other hand, Kakashi was an experienced jounin and a former ANBU captain to boot. Who was he, a rookie member of ANBU, to question someone of his stature? In the end, Haruto chose not to press the delicate issue.
"Thanks for your help, but I'm guessing that you didn't drop by just to chit chat with my students," Kakashi finally queried.
"No, of course not. I wanted to pass a personal message about a mutual friend." Kakashi arched an eyebrow. Mutual friend? Since leaving ANBU, the only people he kept in close contact with were Tenzou and…
"Yuugao?" asked the jounin with concern.
Yuugao had disappeared two weeks ago while on a classified mission. It must have been very important because he had not heard a peep about either her or the mission since.
"She's fine now and recovering at the hospital, but complications arose during the mission. I wanted to inform you so you can pass the message along. If you or her other friends plan to visit her, you'll first need to be cleared by either Tenzou or the Hokage."
Kakashi was now definitely alarmed. Haruto detected the shift in posture and quickly responded.
"I can't speak on the matter right now. If you wish to learn more, you'll need to ask the Hokage himself."
The copycat ninja blinked. This really was serious then and most likely not in a good way. He also remembered how ANBU Team Gamma seemed to have disappeared as well. Yep, not good at all.
"I understand. I'll pass the message along. Thank you, Genji."
"You're welcome, Kakashi-sensei." Without further ado, the Special ANBU disappeared in a flurry of leaves.
"You girls should get home before your parents come looking for you," Kakashi commented.
The double high-pitched squeals and rustling of leaves told the Sharingan user that he had correctly identified the eavesdroppers. He realized that his students could be quite sneaky if they so chose. Heck, they might even make it as ninja if they were willing to take their roles more seriously.
Maybe Genji could help me with that. Who knows, maybe he could finally catch a break and read some of his precious Icha Icha Paradise. That last thought plastered a patented perverted smile across Kakashi's face.
"Come to daddy, Icha Icha…"