Same Old

Kakashi sits and Kakashi reads, and nobody dares to see that he has not turned the page in over an hour.

The meeting is anything but quiet, because the Jounin are all talking about Naruto, and because Tsunade is yelling at anyone who so much as straightens their papers. Coffee is drank but not by Kakashi, and predictably Tsunade's mug flies towards the door when someone knocks.

He has long since stopped paying attention to whomever speaks, and so he is neither listening nor reading, and he is probably just a waste of space. His chair is stiff and he doesn't slouch, and nobody cares to ask why.

Outside, the sky is dark.

Sakura slips into the room and he thinks he is the only one that notices; she stands with her back to the door and a hand on the knob, her lips pursed.

Kakashi does not have time for this, and perhaps that is the problem with him – that he never seems to have enough time. Less than politely, and almost silently, he excuses himself from the meeting and pushes past Sakura, since he knows that nothing has been accomplished through arguing yet anyway, and since he knows Sakura will tell him later should anything important develop.

He heads for the training grounds and enters section seven when he arrives.

Though the other teams don't have a regular area, it is well known that Team Seven (or what remains of it) does. At first Naruto had insisted that section seven be theirs because it was their right by name.

After Sasuke left, Naruto began to tell anyone who asked (and nearly everyone who didn't) that they couldn't switch sections now, because if they did and Sasuke came back, he wouldn't know where to look.

Everyone who listens nods their head politely at him, resisting the urge to call him a fool and tell him that they will never elect him as Hokage.

Is Naruto really the fool here?

No, Naruto is as far from fool as they come. People think Naruto is stupid, that he doesn't know anything and doesn't realize what goes on, but they're wrong, and he does. Underneath an awkward, uncouth layer hides the most mature young man Kakashi has ever laid his eye on.

When he thinks about it, Sakura's training is coming along nicely too…or at least, he would permit himself to say so if he actually knew. Sakura has been under Tsunade's tutelage for longer than he cares to remember.

Sometimes, on days like this when it looks like it will rain and Kakashi is alone, he thinks his students blame him for abandoning them, and blame him for never having enough time for them.

Sasuke had left for power, Naruto had left for Jiraiya (though he's back now and they are hardly on speaking terms with eachother), and even Sakura herself had traded the copy-nin in for one of the Sannin.

It's almost laughable, how each of the Sannin now holds the puppet strings over Kakashi's students, and how he, the designated puppet master, has absolutely no control over them anymore.

He climbs into a tree and plucks his dirty orange book from the depths of his pockets, and again he stares blindly at it, ignoring the words and even forgetting to giggle at the naughty pictures.

Silently, he wishes he had drank some of the coffee at the meeting, or at least thought to pour some over himself. God only knows he could have used the shock to stop him thinking.

He thinks a lot now, about things he shouldn't and about things he promised himself he wouldn't.

Eventually when Sakura tracks him down and finds him hiding in the branches with a book he isn't reading, he snaps back into the real world, staring down at her.

She waves and says something about Naruto being considered to take Tsunade's place, but Kakashi doesn't listen (not really), because he had already known that though he hadn't been paying attention earlier.

After a while, Sakura becomes bored with the lazy nin's lack of attentiveness, and slides her gloves on over scarred hands, preparing a fighting stance.

As lethargically as ever, Kakashi tells her he does not have time to train her, not today. Again, this is one of his problems…that he is so predictable and so neglectful.

He smiles down at her, a piteous smile meant for someone half her age, and attempts to send her away by scooting his hand through the air, but she does not budge, and stares back at him expectantly.

For a good twenty minutes, he is content with letting her stare, and even stares back.

When it begins to rain, he pockets his book and bids her Goodbye, and she growls out a farewell to him too.

The raindrops hit him square in the face as he walks home, and inwardly he considers the fact that he is walking the same path as always, and that, isn't this the same old tune?

Sakura stops asking him to train her, and it begins to rain more and more frequently.

Konoha is seeing sad days.

(Or maybe it's just Kakashi.)

Fin.