Chapter Text
The air was thick when Team 2 returned from their month-long mission to Sunagakure.
It was only summer nights like these that if one listened close enough, they could hear the sound of shrine bells carrying from the West District of the leaf village.
Older people thought of it as an omen to any who heard it outside the village gates.
Civilians and shinobi had stopped listening years ago.
Shizuo Ishida trudged along the dirt road with a small brown pack around her shoulders, sporting new bruises and cuts along the side of her face. Her comrades Saburo and Renzo were both in similar conditions. Their clothing was torn in some places where attacks had landed, but no injury made the journey home any more difficult.
"If we hurry, maybe Lord Fourth hasn't left his office yet." Saburo noted, flipping through a new edition of a Bingo Book their teacher had purchased from a traveling vendor.
"If we hurry, maybe they won't cut our pay in half just for being 4 days behind schedule!" his brother remarked with his arms stretched out over his head.
Saburo's brow twitched and Shizuo already knew where this was going.
"If you didn't get distracted by every squirrel in the forest maybe we wouldn't have to worry about pay cuts!" He shouted, a vein pulsed at his temple.
Shizuo sighed, glancing back at Saburo who now had his brother by the neck shaking him in every direction while his book had been tossed aside.
"This happens every mission, and every mission they don't take out anything but medical." She murmured, turning her focus towards their teacher who had retrieved the thrown book and was trying to hide an amused smile from the fight before him.
Idiots. Shizuo turned back to the gates.
"Fight each other at home. Shizuo is right, they'll run the medical bill up if you continue to strangle him like that Saburo." Obito gave a long sigh.
"It's a waste of energy anyways," Saburo grunted as he released his brother, "He's like a damn roach."
Renzo coughed relentlessly before springing back into his prior demeanor.
"Of course bro. Getting rid of my style would be terrible for this little town wouldn't it." He jeered, rubbing at the sides of his throat.
"Teacher, I may not stay for the Team debrief. I'm pretty sure my father had a meeting set up for this evening with the priests, so I have to hurry home after we see Lord Fourth." Shizuo spoke up.
Two guards sitting above waved to the Team as they passed through.
"That seems fine." The Jonin replied, his feet slowed as he watched the taller guard jump down from his post to land in front of them.
"Hey! Obito and Team Zero. Glad you made it back unharmed. The Hokage told us you'd be coming through here pretty soon, he's been waiting at his office if you're wanting to clock out quickly." Said the guard. The students all nodded, the feeling of their beds calling to their sore bodies.
Renzo's stomach growled. He had ran out of snacks about 2 days into their mission.
"Alright, thanks for the heads up Kotetsu!" Obito answered before turning his attention back to the girl, "That's fine. I'm sure we'll get called out again somewhere so let's meet at Training Ground 1 in the morning."
Obito began walking again, this time ahead of them. With the village walls around them, he didn't have to linger in the background anymore.
"Sounds good to me. Hey, isn't that Kotetsu guy still a Genin? Why hasn't he gotten promoted yet?" Renzo whispered, cupping his hand over his mouth as he leaned towards Shizuo.
"Same reason we haven't probably." She muttered back before following after the Uchiha. Saburo clicked his tongue as Obito returned his book to him with a warning glance to not throw things or choke his brother again inside the village.
"I'm glad we haven't been promoted, it's more paperwork than missions, and Renzo you don't exactly do well with... well... any kind of work that involves paper really-"
"Besides his homemade bombs." Shizuo interjected.
"— besides his homemade bombs of course." Saburo repeated, dodging a rock that nearly landed in his face.
Obito chuckled listening to his students babble on about ranks and missions.
He enjoyed listening to their opinions, even when they were a bit off. Kotetsu has been a Chunin for a long time. He thought to himself.
The group continued on through the village for about 12 more minutes, stopping only to get some kind of snacks for Renzo's void of a stomach, before they finally arrived at the Hokage's tower.
"Alright, when we go in there, don't mention the bandits. We handled it, nobody died, and I'd rather not spend the next hour listening to paperwork complaints. Now...what have I always said about fights like that?" One brow raised as he waited for his students reply.
"If nobody writes it down, it never happened," Saburo answered automatically.
"Dead bandits don't file complaints," Renzo added.
"Avoid paperwork whenever possible," Shizuo finished.
Obito ran a hand over his face and grimaced. "No..."
"Oh! What they don't know can't hurt them!" Renzo offered proudly, "See? I knew there was another one."
A few moments of silence passed between them. Obito swore he could hear shrine bells from somewhere in the distance.
"Actually... just let me do the talking when we get upstairs okay?"
-
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The team stood quietly before Minato Namikaze.
This batch of students had grown quickly over the past year. Too quickly, some days. Even now, dust-covered and bruised from a month in Wind Country, the three genin stood with the same sharp stillness the Hokage had seen in ANBU operatives twice their age. It was impressive.
It was also a little unsettling.
"I'm glad to see you were successful in your mission. Medical supplies are needed in that area. Sato is the furthest from any trading hub and hidden village after all."
"It would be beneficial to station a sort of command post in that area. There's a lot of abandoned shops where criminals tend to hang out." Shizuo said, careful not to mention the bandits they encountered.
"I'll see what I can do. We've been looking for new places to put our new Jonin in. That may be a good place if crime is on the rise." Minato replied, writing down a few notes in the folder he had opened in front of him,"I'll be sure to let your father know. If I don't you'll remind him won't you?"
Obito's mouth formed a flat line as he watched Shizuo nod before looking at the floor.
"Yes sir."
Minato smiled faintly as he signed the last page of the report, though he didn't miss the way Shizuo avoided looking up.
"So," he said glancing toward the genin, "what was everyone's favorite part of the mission? Anything else you'd like to tell me?"
"The food," Renzo answered immediately. Saburo rolled his eyes.
"You complained the entire time, and I'm pretty sure he meant something important. Not your list of top ten eateries."
"Because sand gets everywhere! Even in the wooded areas surprisingly," Renzo shot back with a glare, "and you don't know what he's asking. Maybe he'll take Naruto and Kushina the next time he gets vacation leave."
Shizuo's dark look disappeared instantly and a smile broke across her face at that. Saburo pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose before turning back to the Hokage.
"The only thing I can think of coincides with what Shizuo has mentioned.It wasn't really my favorite considering how creepy it was, but there was a weird rumor about people in cloaks looking for old shrines out near the main road."
Obito's expression didn't change.
Minato's pen paused slightly against the paper. "Shrines?" he repeated.
"Oh yeah!" Renzo exclaimed, "and actually Lord Fourth this totally does have something to do with food. An old lady selling the best pork skewers said she saw them and they all moved the same way. Like they practiced it before hand or something."
"Is this before or after she chased you off for not paying the right amount?" Shizuo asked flatly. "I think I remember her saying they were almost too tall."
"Yeah but they did call that lady Blind Baku. Her condition is the reason they needed those medical supplies to reach the village remember?" Obito spoke up finally, wondering if a derailed debrief about stolen skewers would be enough for Minato to dismiss them.
"For someone who's supposed to be blind she still caught me stealing some skewers."
Silence fell on them instantly.
Renzo's cheeks turned red and he scratched the back of his neck before waving his hands in front of him.
"Well-Well I mean caught me trying to get skewers for my meal!" Renzo stuttered out.
Obito sighed into his hand, for what felt like the hundredth time since they got in the village.
"Renzo, you told me you bought those."
"Technically he did." Shizuo chimed, "The first two."
The Fourth Hokage let out a hearty laugh before he closed the file in front of him.
"Well, Team Zero..." Minato asked half-afraid to hear Renzo's explanation, "why do they call you that again?"
The students looked between each other before Saburo cleared his throat. "Because we all sound the same Lord Fourth."
There it was again. Popping up in weird instances. One moment they were arguing over stolen skewers and paperwork. The next, the four of them stood in complete silence before his desk, shoulders squared and expressions carefully blank like operatives waiting for orders. They had never really broken their stances, even when the conversations became silly and their facial expressions changed. Still a bit unsettling if one thought about it enough.
Minato hid his concern behind a small smile. "Ah. I see it now. Well then, Team Zero that's all I have for today. Good job and get some rest."
The students immediately relaxed and gave each other approving glances before Obito motioned toward the door and the three genin followed without hesitation.
"Alright then, we're off." He called, his mind already fixating on that new bottle of sake he had purchased on the journey home.
"Obito wait, there's a few things I wanted to discuss with you before you go. You kids can wait outside if you want to. It shouldn't be too long." Minato assured.
"I'll catch up with you guys tomorrow. Goodnight Lord Fourth." Shizuo bowed before running out the door. Her foot steps grew fainter before Saburo spoke for himself and his brother.
"Us too. See you tomorrow, Teacher." Saburo's goodbye quickly dissolved into another lecture about talking too much as the twins descended the stairs. As the door closed on its own, Obito turned his focus back to his former sensei.
"They're quite a team," Minato said with a quiet laugh. "I'm proud of them."
His gaze drifted briefly toward the closed office door. "Though... I think they practiced that formation longer than they practiced the actual report."
Obito groaned softly, "And they still messed it up." I'm just glad they didn't mention the bandits.
Minato smiled at his expression, though it faded slightly after a moment. "They trust you. That's the best thing we can ask from Jonin squad leaders."
The office settled into a small silence.
"Maybe a little too much," Minato added gently.
Obito's expression shifted almost immediately he had disapointed him somehow, "Lord Fourth-"
"I'm not criticizing you," Minato interrupted calmly holding his hand up, "Honestly... I understand it better than most people probably would."
That made Obito pause.
"They're capable," Minato continued. "Far more capable than most genin their age... but sometimes when they stand in front of my desk, I forget they're children for a second." Obito looked down quietly.
"Peace time doesn't erase the habits we picked up during the war, especially for shinobi like us." Minato murmured.
The Fourth Hokage stood to his feet and walked around his desk, resting his hand on Obito's shoulder.
"Mostly everyone has gone for the day. We can talk as we go down."
The two continued down the stairwell side by side.
"What do you think about the Chunin exams Obito? Are they ready to give it another swing?" Minato asked, his hands in his pockets as they arrived at the 3rd floor of the tower.
"Maybe. They're skilled enough."
"Hm." Minato awaited a better reply.
Obito let out another breath. "They still act like idiots half the time."
"Remind you of someone?" His Teacher smiled, eyes closed as they began down another flight of stairs.
How does he do that and not fall? Obito thought before he spoke up again. "Yes, but you saw them in there."
"I saw children pretending to be soldiers. I see it everyday at the academy. I see it in my own son sometimes."
"It's just the way of the world. Some get in with it and others don't." Obito answered, wondering why his teacher was saying such things.
"Maybe." Minato replied thoughtfully. "Back to these Chunin exams... you'll never guess what I heard today."
Obito inwardly groaned at the tone in Minato's voice.
"What now?"
"Kakashi already signed Team Seven up for the exams," Minato smirked.
Obito blinked. "Already?"
"I sent them on to Wave a few days ago actually. I think it should toughen them up a bit, it was an escort mission." Minato said.
Obito sighed quietly, "Your point?"
Minato glanced sideways toward him as they descended another flight of stairs.
"Why have your team stand like ANBU if they're just genin?"
Obito stayed silent. Unable to think of a retort. Minato's expression softened almost immediately.
"Just think about it, and be careful with them." The two reached the tower entrance. Standing face to face now. "Being a sensei's harder than you thought it'd be, huh?"
Obito let out a quiet laugh through his nose. "Something like that."
"Go home," Minato said warmly. "Kushina threatened to lock me out if I stayed late again. See you next time."
With that the man he had known as teacher all his life turned and disappeared.
"Why not just run home if you're that worried." He murmured to himself.
Obito lingered outside the tower for a few more moments, pondering on the Hokage's words. Konoha had quieted while they talked. Lantern light flickered softly beneath the evening sky, warm against the stone roads still holding onto the last of the summer heat.
"It's never been easy." He answered Minato's final question.
That bottle of sake coming to mind once more.
Somewhere in the distance, shrine bells rang again.