Youthful Endeavors

"He's so small!" Naruto exclaimed in what he probably thinks is a whisper for the fifth time in as many minutes.

Rolling his eyes, the jonin-well, he's probably already been downgraded to chunin by this point-turned on Naruto and the girl he was talking to. "We get it Naruto, I'm a kid." He sighed, a whistling sound coming out from behind his hastily fitted mask. Stupid gaps. Stupid baby teeth. Why do they even have baby teeth? Why can't they just keep the same teeth for their entire life? It would save him from embarrassments like this, anyway.

The woman on the left of the blond ninja bit her lip. "He's knows you're a kid...it's just-are you sure you're seven? You look really tiny..." She murmured.

Looking to his bare feet, Kakashi scowled behind his mask. "Once Sai gets back with clothes that actually fit, I won't." He replied. It's probably not true, he'd been pretty small until puberty and they were going to figure it out eventually.

"So does this mean our team is out of commission-or you are at least?" Sakura questioned as she got up to get a drink from the pitcher on the end-stand next to Kakashi's hospital bed.

Eyes slipping over his students and to the window, he spies the Hokage's tower and began to wonder how long this would take to fix. "No, if they really need me I'm available. I was a chunin at this age, I can handle difficult missions just fine."

"What! No way!" Naruto yelled. "How can you be a chunin even now?!"

Kakashi's brow furrows. "Genius, duh," he quipped.

Sakura fumbled with the straw in her water. "I can't imagine someone so little actually going on missions and not dying..." turning to the window, she remarked, "Maybe I'll talk with Hokage, I don't know how well things would go if you went on a mission in this state..."

Dropping his face into very tiny hands, the boy huffed a breath. He's beginning to remember why he had such a sour disposition at this age, no one takes a kid seriously-no matter how skilled.

"I'm back!" Sai called walking in with a bag in hand.

Slipping off the bed, Kakashi held out his arms. "Good, hand them over."

The youth looked down. "You hardly come to my chest, how old are you supposed to be again?"

"I'm seven, now give me the clothes."

"Right, here." Sai agreed, dropping the bag into Kakashi's grubby fingers.

"Finally!" The boy muttered, heading for the bathroom just left of the room.

"Are you going alone?! Is that even safe?" Naruto shouted, standing up from the couch.

"I'll be fine!" And he is. He knows more techniques and ways to use a kunai than even some of the most experienced ninjas. Shaking his head, he locked the door of the bathroom behind him and began to rummage through the clothes. He tossed a few articles aside (what was Sai thinking?) and eventually ended up with some blue pants, a black shirt and sandals that look like-even now-will be a bit too big for him. He growled lowly to himself, no mask. Tugging at the one clipped back with pins, Kakashi decides it won't do.

Looking about the bathroom, he caught sight of a cupboard above the toilet. His first instinct was to simply reach toward it, but that's quickly squashed when he saw his stubby fingers. Clambering up on the toilet he can graze the door just enough to open it; after doing so, he spied a roll of bandages and made a half-way pleased noise as he batted at it. It took a couple tries, but the bandages did fall from the shelf and into his waiting hands. Shrugging off his clothes, he dressed quickly and hurried to the bathroom door.

His fingers stop on the door knob. He's fine. Well, besides being about twenty-five years too young...after a beat, he came to the conclusion that it isn't reason enough to stick around in a hospital room with his team who are probably just going to gawk at him some more. Skittering back to the toilet, he hopped on top and leaped to the window just a foot away. His fingers grasp at the ledge and he heaved himself up and out. Tumbling out the window, he realizes that it's a two-story drop into a couple of trees below. He remedy's this new information with the fact that he's done stuff like this tons of times, he'll be okay.

Thank you everyone for reading and pretty please review!