Following Tradition

Characters: Kakashi, Obito, Rin, Minato, Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, random cat

Setting: pre-Shippuden timeskip

"You're late, Uchiha," Kakashi growled at his team mate, who hurriedly adjusted his orange goggles.

"Well, it's not my fault! You see, this old lady's cat got lost again, and I, being the nice shinobi that I am, decided to help her find it! You can be so insensitive to the needs of the elderly sometimes, Hatake!" Obito explained, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world that helping the elderly was more important than being punctual.

"It took you two hours to find a cat?" Kakashi sneered. "I always knew you were a worthless shinobi. No self-respecting ninja would take that long to track down a cat."

"It was a sneaky cat!" Obito exclaimed defensively, crossing his arms.

Rin gave him a sympathetic look and gestured discreetly at Obito's right eye. "Ano, Obito—"

Unfortunately, Kakashi comprehended her gesture before Obito did. "Whatever! I can still see the sleep in the corner of your eyes. A shinobi who is tardy jeopardizes both his mission and his team mates!"

"That's enough," Minato interjected. "I'm sure that elderly woman was happy to get her cat back, wasn't she, Obito?"

Obito lifted his goggles and brushed the yellow crust out of his eye. "Yes she was, sensei!"

"How late will I be this time, old friend?" Kakashi murmured. He stared at Obito's name on the war memorial. "Twenty minutes? Two hours? I took up using your excuses, you know, but I seem to have run out. The old woman's cat sneaking away is my favorite, but I think my genin are catching on."

As always, no response. He stared at the memorial, heedless to the passage of time before finally thinking about his awaiting team.

Kakashi sighed, measured the time by the sun's position in the sky, and disappeared in a poof of smoke.

"You're late, sensei!" Naruto howled, pointing an accusing finger at Kakashi.

Smiling, Kakashi raised his hands defensively. "Sorry, sorry, I was helping an old woman with her lost cat."

"For two hours?" Sakura shrieked. Apparently, two hours of personal time with an impassive Uchiha and a hyperactive Uzumaki did nothing to quell her anger. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Out of the corner of his eye, Kakashi could see even Sasuke's eye twitching slightly. He couldn't help but gesture at it, and Sasuke only scowled in return. "That excuse is getting old," Sasuke griped.

"Yeah, seriously! What kind of a useless sensei needs two hours to find a cat?" Naruto added rudely. "What's wrong with you?"

Under its headband, Kakashi's Sharingan twinkled with mirth as he defended himself against Team 7's endless assault.