Team Seven

Kakashi didn't exactly volunteer to become a jounin sensei. He had failed every genin team assigned to him, until, finally, he passed one (because there was something about these three brats).

They were good enough kids, but just kids. The pink-haired girl was book-smart but no good in the real world, not to mention a bit of a fangirl, amusing as that sometimes was. The Uchiha was too arrogant, a loner, and full of anger. Sometimes Kakashi saw himself in this boy, how he used to be before Obito – the parts of himself that he hated most. And then there was sensei's son. Loud, brash, stupid, wearing that orange eyesore and begging for attention. And it was easier, so much easier to look and see a hopeless loudmouth than to actually pay attention to that determined spark in those blue eyes (Minato's eyes).

So he showed up a few hours late, and told himself that it was good for the brats to be left on their own for a while. And he taught them a few things and picked a crappy D-rank, eye smiling at their quibbles and complaints. And then he had gotten bored and decided to give in and take the brats on a C-rank, because why the hell not? Let's see how they do.

Because while Kakashi wasn't one to brag, he was one of the top-ranked shinobi of his village. Listed in every country's Bingo book as the Copy-nin or Sharingan Kakashi with quite a few cautions tacked on, because he had earned his reputation many times over. In the village he may have been known as a lazy pervert, but outside of it, their enemies spoke his name with a hateful respect (or just plain fear).

So when those two chuunin brothers from Mist appeared and he had gotten the first sign that this mission wasn't as easy as it should have been, he wasn't too worried. The blond brat got that glint in his eyes again and made a stupid speech that, despite it's corny-ness reminded him so, so much of the man he had respected (and loved) above all others. And Kakashi wanted to see more of that, and yet never wanted to see that again (because there was something painful about it, and yet something that made him proud). He wasn't sure which of those two reasons made him decide to continue – whether he wanted to see Naruto rise up in the face of adversity, or whether he wanted to see that courage stamped out.

It didn't matter either way. They had continued.

And suddenly, Hatake Kakashi had found himself outmatched.

Caught in that water prison he had lost all of his usual aloofness and arrogance. Because for the first time in a long time he'd been not just apprehensive but truly, deeply afraid.

He was trapped.

And he was going to see those brats (his brats) murdered before his eyes.

Because he had failed. Again.

He had failed and gotten his team killed (those kids that looked to him like he had looked to Minato-sensei) and all he could do was hope against hope that maybe, maybe they would run away, survive, because he couldn't bear to lose his teammates again and if they didn't. If they were killed and somehow, somehow he got free, he wasn't even sure if he would rage, rage and kill the damn bastard, or whether he would stand there and just let it all end (please let it all end).

And they didn't run. Even scared little Sakura was determined to stay, because the one damn thing he had bothered to teach them was to never leave a teammate behind.

His fault.

And then Naruto, stupid, brash, Naruto came up with an actual plan. And Sasuke, arrogant, loner Sasuke worked together with him flawlessly. And those two damn brats managed to set him free.

So he shelved all his previous emotions (panic, guilt, pain, rage, desperation, helplessness, utter fear) away behind his mask and gave it everything he had because he had to get his kids out of here, had to get them safe.

He didn't allow himself to collapse until he was certain that Zabuza was long gone.

After waking up he seriously considered pulling out. Leave Wave to it's problems, forget the mission, he wasn't going to let his team get killed (not again, never again).

But he was in no condition to walk away. He was in no condition to walk anywhere. Not until he got his strength back. And Zabuza would need at least a week to recover as well. He had time.

So they stayed. And Kakashi wanted to grab those little brats and wrap them all up in blankets, dump them somewhere soft and fluffy and summon his dogs to guard them and sit on them and keep them there. Then he could sit on the window sill, or in the next room, read his book and listen to the most creative curses and rants his cute little students could come up with.

Instead he taught them how to use their chakra to walk on trees.

And a part of him (a big part) still wanted to leave, but he was a shinobi first and foremost and danger was a way of life for them and those kids (his kids) were good kids.

Naruto was still as loud and as stupidly stubborn as ever, but his heart was even bigger than his mouth and the blonde swore to that little boy that he would become a hero. That determination to prove himself coupled with his desire to change the troubles that plagued Wave (to change the world) was something that Kakashi didn't ever want to see disappear (stamped out), no matter how much it didn't mesh with the life of a shinobi.

And Sasuke still glared at Naruto, looked jealously at Sakura when she managed the exercise so much faster than him, but Kakashi could remember that this boy had managed to put that rivalry aside when it truly mattered (otherwise his team might have been dead dead dead) so he smiled and left them to it because it made them want to get better, get stronger so much quicker (they would need that strength because they were shinobi and this was their life).

Then there was Sakura, who had finally managed to get one up on the boys in a real-life situation. Sakura, who didn't make loud proclamations or set herself impossible goals, who didn't train herself to exhaustion with a single-minded determination. Instead the girl talked to Tsunami, helped her with grocery shopping and saw, more than the boys, that Wave was filled with desperate and hungry and hopeless souls.

And while Naruto shouted about being a hero and freeing Wave, and Sasuke smiled smugly because he desired a fight and a chance to prove his worth as much as the blond, Sakura, cowardly little Sakura who didn't like fights at all, turned those soft, emphatic eyes towards him and said that they needed to help these people.

Somehow the time snuck by, and without every consciously making a decision they ended up facing their previous enemies once more (because Kakashi was always late and for a moment he thought he was too late, too late to save Sasuke, and he might have lost Naruto too, to the same red fire, the same demon that had claimed Minato-sensei) but they won, they lived, and their enemies (but really, Gatou was the enemy) died.

The reality of shinobi life, as he told his team. Tools and killers and arbitrary deaths.

But Naruto refused to accept this reality, and that fire filled his eyes, not the red fire that came with rage and vengeance and hate, but that blue, blue fire born of love and hope and determination – the will of fire that had burned so brightly in his parents and for a moment Kakashi believed. Believed like he had believed in Minato and Kushina, who had saved him while his grief and guilt for Obito and the darkness of ANBU was swallowing him up inside.

When they finally reached the gates of Konoha, all of them healed and whole and happily seen off by the bridge builder and the villagers of Wave, Kakashi almost wanted to forget and continue as if nothing had happened (because he was good at that, at pretending and living inside a mask).

But he knew that Sakura still had nightmares of watching helplessly as he was drowned or Sasuke was ripped apart by bloodied senbon, or as Naruto was swallowed up burned by a living red flame. He knew that Sasuke was still straddling that edge between hate and friendship, between rage and protection and that Naruto had grown up not just as an orphan, but as one who was hated and thrown aside like trash.

His kids, his brats, his team.

And he knew he couldn't, wouldn't fail them again.

Because if there was something that Kakashi guarded, hoarded, protected it was what he considered his own.

And life would never be the same.

And those brats. His cute little team – they would never know what hit them. If there was one thing he was going to teach his kids (his team) it was that if they were going to be stubborn and refuse his orders when he told them to leave him behind, he was damn well going to make sure that the three of them were strong enough together to back him up.

You made your choice, my cute little genin. Team Seven leaves no-one behind. So be it.

If his eye smile was a little sadistically amused, well his brats were already terrified enough.

Because the first morning after returning to Konoha, Hatake Kakashi showed up five minutes early.

A.N. I've been reading a lot of Naruto fanfics lately. I love time travel fics, strong Naruto, or strong Sakura, but most of all, I love the few gems I've found which feature close friendship and growing strong together. Actually, what I love most in a fic is a good characterization and character interaction. :P

I think my favourite two Naruto stories at the moment are:

Naruto: Myoushuu no Fuuin by May Wren and The Lives Worth Saving by cywsaphyre.

Pity neither has been updated in a while, but then again, I've got no room to make any accusations in that area…

So, lovely people! I would love to hear some recs for this fandom, because finding the good stuff isn't always easy. A longish, well-written fic is preferred. But I wouldn't mind hearing your own Naruto favourites, even if it's completely different than the fics I just mentioned.

And if you now any story with the premise I just wrote, than that would be awesome. 'Cause I always write what I want to read.