Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, and neither does my dog.

I really wanted to have a fun little update to commemorate my puppy's first birthday. (Today.) I thought it would be fun to have something with the ninken in it... but I don't have one of those on hand. So I hope you get some enjoyment about this little, humorous piece involving Kakashi and his team. (So does Kova.)

Even When He Wins

R. Winters

The four of them sat around a table at Koyoya Diner. They'd long since finished their meals, and were nursing cups of tea as they engaged in one often overlooked aspect of training.

"Sensei," Obito spoke up, frowning down at the paper in front of him with a look of extreme concentration, "What's a synopsis?"

"That's just a summary of what happened, Obito," his teacher replied easily, plucking another small cake from the plate that had been moved in front of him due to the papers filling the rest of the table.

The boy frowned. "Then why doesn't it just say that instead of synopsis?" He asked grumpily, putting pen back to paper and continuing with the form.

To Obito's left sat Rin, her page half full of carefully written kanji. She paused, frowning in thought, "Were there twelve or fourteen nin, sensei? I forgot…"

"There were fourteen," the blond answered, licking a bit of frosting from the tip of one finger.

On his left, Kakashi shifted in his chair, white head coming up and a frown in his eyes. "You said there were twelve."

"No, no, I'm pretty sure I said there were fourteen," the Jounin insisted.

Kakashi's eyes narrowed. "You said Obito got four of them, Rin got two, I got three and a half—" he rolled his eyes at that, "And two of them got away. That's not fourteen."

The Jounin grinned, "Ah, you're forgetting the two that were carried away by wild birds."

"Wild birds?" Obito echoed, pen stilling with a worried look on his face, "Did you really say that? I forgot completely…"

"Of course I said it," the man insisted, "You three just don't listen well enough."

Rin sighed, "He didn't say that, Obito."

"Sensei, you shouldn't change your story in the middle of things," Kakashi lectured unhappily, "We'll be here all day if you keep doing that."

The Jounin raised an eyebrow at his youngest student, "I see you haven't started yours yet, Kakashi."

The boy shrugged with disinterest. "I'm waiting for them to finish so you can't change the story anymore." He looked at his teacher darkly, "Besides, sensei, I already know how to write mission reports. This is stupid."

"It never hurts to practice your penmanship," the man pointed out.

"You're not practicing," Kakashi grumbled, "If you did, maybe it would help you not to change your story every five minutes."

"He doesn't change it every five minutes," Rin put in, "It's more like every three minutes."

"Now, now," the blond interceded in his own defense, "You shouldn't say such mean things to your sensei. If you listened to the whole story the first time I wouldn't need to add anything."

"I'm not being mean to you, sensei," Obito said.

"That's right, Obito," the Jounin seemed a little mollified, "At least I have one student who respects me."

Obito grinned devilishly, "Well, I didn't say that, sensei."

The Jounin sent the boy a glare and pointedly snatched up another cake from the dwindling supply on the serving plate. A minute or two later he returned attention to his students. Obito and Rin had dutifully continued their tasks, but Kakashi was still leaning back in his chair, refusing, for once, to do anything. He sighed.

"Kakashi, you should get started now, too."

The boy shot him a bland look. "I already know how to write reports, sensei," he repeated.

"I know that," the man agreed, "But you could still use some practice. Besides, we can use it to show Rin and Obito how to repair their mistakes."

Kakashi looked down at the papers in front of him unhappily

"Come on, Kashi-kun," his teacher wheedled.

The eleven-year-old scowled, eyebrows drawing together and lowering over his mask. "I'm not a kid, sensei, don't call me that."

The man thought a moment, then smirked. "If you work on your report, like I told you to, maybe I'll stop humiliating you in front of your teammates."

"It's stupid," Kakashi repeated unenthusiastically, "It isn't even a real mission, sensei. This is just a waste of resources."

"It's practice," the Yellow Flash corrected.

The boy shifted again and looked at him. "I really have to do this?"

The man stared back at him for a moment, then nodded decisively. "Yes, Kakashi."

Kakashi sighed, but reluctantly picked up a pen and began to fill out the mission report.

The table was pretty quiet after that, the silence only interrupted with the occasional question from Obito or Rin and the Yellow Flash's further embellishment on the mission. Soon enough, all three young shinobi were finished, handing their reports to their teacher to find out how well they'd done.

Rin's was neat, as expected, with only a few words here and there scratched out with a single, neat line. Her teacher only skimmed through it, but he nodded his approval.

"Good," he complimented, then pointed near the end of her synopsis, "Although, you forgot to mention the part where two starving bandits try to steal Obito's wallet on the way home."

Rin frowned at him, "Sensei, you added that part after I already finished."

The man chuckled good-naturedly. "It's fine, it's fine," he dismissed, "Just remember to include all relevant details from the time you leave the village to the time when you return on a real report."

The girl rolled her eyes and nodded.

Obito's report had surprisingly good handwriting, the Yellow Flash thought. The scribbled out characters detracted a little from its appearance, but otherwise the twelve-year-old's report was very readable.

"Good job, Obito," he said, skimming through the writing a little, "You have really neat handwriting—the Chuunin who sort these things will love that."

The Uchiha blushed a little. "Aunt Mitoko teaches penmanship to all the kids," he murmured self-consciously.

The man nodded. "It's important to have good penmanship," he said amiably, "It reflects well on you. Think your wording out a little more before you write, though, so you won't have to cross so much out."

The boy nodded in agreement, too pleased by his teacher's compliment to be disappointed with the correction.

At last, the Jounin picked up the final report. There were no words crossed out on Kakashi's, and the wording was all accurate and concise—where the man could make it out. He had to squint to read a few of the sloppy lines, and the ink blotches where Kakashi's pen had lingered too long or struck the paper too hard made it look even less professional. Still, he'd seen worse.

The Yellow Flash smiled at his youngest student, who was looking at the table instead of him. "You did good, too, Kakashi. Straight to the point without getting caught up in the details."

Obito leaned towards him, "Let me see!"

Before the Jounin could even think to stop the boy, Obito was gifted with an eyeful of the sloppy writing. His mouth dropped open in surprise and he turned to gape at his younger teammate.

"Kakashi has bad writing?" He asked in shock.

The white-haired genius slumped a little more in his seat and didn't look at his teammate, clearly embarrassed.

"I think you mean poor penmanship," the Yellow Flash corrected, causing his dejected student to slump a little more.

Obito laughed in delight to find something he could do with better than his cocky teammate, "I can't believe it! The genius can't write!"

Kakashi scowled across at him. "I can write," he grumbled, "Besides, penmanship isn't a very important skill for a shinobi. I can make twice as many clones as you can."

"Well, at least my penmanship reflects well on me!" Obito retorted.

Rin watched the two boys with increasing worry—if they kept on like this, it wouldn't be long until they resorted to violence.

Kakashi, however, surprised everyone when he visibly relaxed, leaning back in his seat again, a smirk just barely evident on his masked face. "You're right, you do have better penmanship than me." Obito lit up in triumph, but didn't have a chance to crow at his victory before Kakashi continued, "From now on, you can do the mission reports instead of me."

Obito's open mouth made no sound for a moment. He closed it, opened it again, then closed it once more, frowning in thought. The Yellow Flash gave up on his battle against laughter and turned his attention to trying to stifle his chuckles behind one hand. Even Rin was forced to snicker as the entire situation was turned around.

Obito scowled and reached towards his report, still in front of his teacher, "Sensei, give that to me! I want to do it over!"

Still laughing, the Yellow Flash let him have it. "Don't forget to add ink blotches this time, Obito-kun," he said between laughs.

Obito turned red at the comment, but didn't reply, scribbling sloppy notes on a fresh sheet of paper. They were still more legible than Kakashi's.