Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

(This chapter is, as of right now, unedited. I had to rush to work, but I wanted to get it up before I had to go. I will post the corrected version as soon as I can. I also wanted to get it up before I decided to delete it and start from scratch.)

It took roughly 20 minutes of walking around aimlessly before they caught the delicious scent of cooking meat. Following the trail they found themselves in front of a building full of large windows with a sign hanging off the side proudly displaying it as Yakiniku Q.

"Maa, shall we eat here," Kakashi asked his students; the answering growls of their stomachs the only reply he need, as he swung the door open for them to pass through.

The moment they stepped inside a waitress approached them, "How many in your party today?"

Kakashi caught the quick glance the young woman made towards their headbands; it was easy to to tell that the affiliation with another nation made her uncomfortable. "Four."

The waitress nodded and, with a brief "please, follow me," she lead the small group over to a booth behind a rather rowdy genin team from Konohagakure. Or at least, the girl was rowdy, shouting about how the boys were too lazy and that it was no wonder that nobody was interested them. She was constantly turning to the larger boy beside her (An Akimichi perhaps?), trying to knock his food away, while raving about calories. She was certainly a little spitfire; she reminded Kakashi of a much louder version of Temari.

The boys themselves didn't seem to care much what their teammate was saying, seemingly perfectly content to ignore her. The chunky one too busy dodging the girl's attempts to foil his meal while stuffing meat into his mouth; it was mildly impressive how much he could fit in his mouth at once, especially since he was taking it right of the grill and it had to have been piping hot. While the other young boy, his head in his arms, simply looked like he would rather be taking a nap than dealing with the blond girl's incessant yammering.

It was the older man that was with them that really caught the silver-haired man's attention. The man, like the children surrounding him, was wearing his own headband that signified him as an active Konohagakure shinobi - most likely the Sensei of the genin. His body, though slouched in a relaxed posture, held a hint of tension since the Sunagakure team came into view. An unlit cigarette hanging from his lips as he watch them from the corner of his eyes.

Something flashed across the rugged man's face at the sight of Kakashi. Recognition? No, the sand Jonin was sure he had never crossed the other's path before, he didn't exactly have the type of face that was easy to forget.

Kakashi's gaze flitted away from the back to the waitress, this woman had been trained how to deal with foreign shinobi, strategically placing his group near people that could help subdue them and reduce damage if they decided to make a seen. Though, Kakashi thought, he doubted any of them would be able to deal with Gaara if the youngest of the sand siblings decided to make a ruckus.

Forcing his muscles to relax, Gaara was starting to notice his unease, he slid into the booth next to his 'brother.' The container of Shukaku gave him a long look, which the dark-eyed man chose to ignore in favor of pulling out his favorite book once the waitress scurried away with the promise of bringing them something to drink.

"Must you read that now," Temari ground out, eyebrow twitching.

Kakashi gained an affronted expression, attention fully on the bright orange book in his hands. "What's wrong with it?"

"What's wrong with it," his oldest student repeated incredulously. "It's vile, that's what's wrong with it!"

The spikey-haired man merely hummed in response, already to absorb in the book to pay the genin much mind and leaving Temari fuming, she opened her mouth to argue further, but a look from Gaara quickly put an end to her protests.

There meal went with little incident, if one choose to ignore Temari trying to set his book on fire with her gaze alone and the Konohagakure shinobi's constant vigilance and attentiveness to their persons. It wasn't long until he was corralling his students out of the restaurant, eager to get away from the stares of the Konohagakure Shinobi, giving a brief nod of acknowledgement to another Leaf Village Jonin, who had the most ridiculous haircut and largest eyebrows that the silver-haired man had ever seen, on the way out whom was about to enter the establishment with his own three students. They didn't get far before the heard a loud voice bellowed after them.

"ETERNAL RIVAL! LET US HAVE A YOUTHFUL CHALLENGE ONCE AGAIN!"

Kakashi startled looking at the vaguely familiar, green blob with huge eyebrows rush towards them, unintentionally taking a step back. "…Do I know you?" He asked as his youngest student tensed, eyeing the stranger warily. Temari and Kankuro fidgeted nervously when they noticed there brother's rigid posture.

"Of course!" The blob shouted as he slid to a stop in front of the Sand Team. He was close enough now that they could make out the large nose and bowl cut. "It is I, Might Gai, your youthful rival." He pointed to himself, teeth giving a pang of light.

Kakashi blinked slowly as the other man's students came up behind him. "I'm sorry, I don't think we have met."

"Gai-sensei, do you know this man?" Gai's mini-clone, green spandex and all, asked the older man.

"He is my Eternal Rival. We used to have the most glorious and youthful challenges!" The man announced throwing his arms up in excitement. It appeared like he was going to go on more of tangent, but he trailed off, eyes narrowing. "Rival, why are you wearing a Sunagakure Hitai-ate?"

"Maybe because he's a shinobi of the Sand Village," Temari snarked seemingly getting over her fear of Gaara briefly in the face of such a ridiculous character.

Gai glanced at her before turning his back to their sensei. "That is impossible, my Eternal Rival is a shinobi of the great Konohagakure!"

"Listen," Kakashi said slowly, being to feel uncomfortable with the man and the twinge that he kept getting that he should /know/ him. "I think you have me mistaken for somebody else."

"No, you are certainly Hatake Kakashi," Gai said. Kakashi twitched a bit at the mention of his first name, he didn't remember introducing himself to the other. Gai continued, stepping closer, either not noticing the other's unease or choosing to ignore it. "Do you not remember our hot blooded challenges?"

The silver-haired man opened his mouth to respond in the negative again when a sharp pain flashed through his skull. He hissed, placing a palm against his forehead in an attempt to alleviate the pain. Gaara's dark-rimmed eyes narrowed further as he moved more securely in front of his Niisan ready to protect him from the unknown threat. Sand started to whirl around his feet. Temari and Kankuro took a few steps back, while the leaf shinobi eyed the child, muscles tensing.

"…Acorn?" Kakashi mumbled softly.

The older green clad man's face turned bright red before he seemed to slump (making his three student's startle at his un-youthful display) . He quickly perked back up, throwing his head back with a loud, rambunctious laugh. "You do remember!" He took a step closer. Kakashi tensed, hand dropping back to his side.

"Don't come any closer to Niisan," Gaara practically growled, his sand becoming more agitated.

"Niisan?" Gai questioned confusedly as he wisely took a step back from the irate genin.

"It's alright, Gaara," Kakashi said as he placed a hand on the young boy's shoulder in an attempt to calm him. The redhead glanced back at him as if to verify that his Niisan was truly okay before the mini sandstorm ceased motion. Kakashi shifted his attention back to the small group of Leaf-nin. "Listen, I really think you got the wrong person."

When it looked like the other man was about to interrupt with more insane claims, he held up his hand. "It's true that my name is Kakashi, but I've always been a shinobi of Sunagakkure." He didn't know why, but he felt a rolling in his gut as he said that.

"Sensei, can we leave these weirdos now?" Temari spoke up, arms crossed and glaring. "I'd really like to go take a bath."

The Sunagakure Jounin nodded in agreement, noticing the approaching chakra of the man he had seen in the restaurant. He gave the bushy-browed man before him one more once over before he ushered his students away. When he looked back briefly, before being lost in the crowd, he noticed the two older Konohagakure shinobi staring after him, lips moving in silent conversation.

… What was going on?

A/N: Man, it has been so long (Over a flipping year!) since I have updated this story and for that I apologize. I really hope this chapter makes up for it, at least a little bit. I tried to add more detail to this chapter, but I am not sure if I went a bit overboard or not with it.

Thank you all for your continued support and patience with this story and all my others.

P.S. - If you would like to be a beta reader for this story, or any of my others, please send me a PM! I am looking for someone that can help me catch any grammatical errors that I miss, for which I am sure there are a lot, to bounce ideas off of, and to make sure everything makes sense and everyone is in character.