Konoha : Naruto's playground

Kakashi gulped as he and his team entered Konoha through the large gates at the main entrance. He wasn't looking forward to this at all. Nodding to the two Chuunin on gate duty, he addressed his team.

"Shisui, Anko, we have a report to make. Don't even think about escaping Anko." Said Purple-haired Jounin pouted. Damn! And she was so close too!

Collectively, the three sighed. It had been three days since leaving Lightning Country and the Sandaime had definitely heard about the two incidents by now. There was simply no way that Fire's spies wouldn't have picked up on what had become common knowledge throughout the Shinobi world. The worst thing, however, was that Kakashi didn't have a clue where the blond-haired troublemaker was at the moment. It wasn't of Village importance, certainly, but he just knew that the Sandaime wouldn't be happy with some of his decisions once he had submitted his report.

Sighing again, he lifted his head to stare with his single eye, at the sculpture of his Sensei's head. If only Minato-Sensei was still Hokage, there wouldn't be any of these problems at all! Kumo and Iwa would still be hiding in their respective rabbit holes, too scared of the hunter that would rifle their heads off if they even made a single move. No, Konoha had definitely lost much of the prestige it had built up since its inception. The quality of Shinobi had slowly declined after the Kyuubi attack, and now the Uchiha clan were almost completely obliterated too. They needed more youth like he had been, more youth like Shisui and Itachi. More youth like...

Like Naruto.

With a start, Kakashi realised just where his spiralling thoughts were leading him. Shaking his head he turned back to regard his team.

Anko froze mid-step just as she was turning the corner. Damn! That was so close! Kakashi had been so caught up in his thoughts that she almost escaped!

"ANKO!"

"Hai, hai."

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"...And so that's how we ended up in Kumo. Needless to say, as soon as we had the opportunity to ditch the Kumo contingent, we escaped and made great haste for the border." Kakashi lifted a single finger to scratch the small amount of nose peeking out of his face mask. That sounded reasonable!

Honestly, to Kakashi, even he knew that the entire tale was absurd. And apparently, so did the Sandaime if Anko's snickering was anything to go by.

"So you're telling me...that you travelled from Iwa to Kumo for the sake of a prank?!"

OK, it was CRAZY actually!

"Hai, Hokage-sama!"

When it doubt, use protocol.

Sarutobi sighed. He knew he was too old for this job!

"Do you have any idea where Naruto-kun currently is?" Kakashi almost cringed at the boring gaze that drilled through his very being. This was a reminder for him that the Sandaime was still a military leader. He hated leading his team.

"No Hokage-sama. He did fly off roughly in the direction of Suna, but he could have easily changed course after we lost sight of him." Kakashi glanced to the side, and the sight that greeted him only furthered his suspicions that Anko knew that Naruto was going to ditch them. She was slightly hunched over, her arms clutched in an 'X' over her abdomen and her purple bangs covering her eyes and much of her face. The silver-haired ninja could tell she was laughing by the silent tremors wracking her body. He really REALLY hated having Anko on his team!

"Kakashi, are you telling me, that you allowed a Konoha Civilian, Uzumaki Naruto no less, to go towards Suna without stopping him?! Why did you even AGREE to such madness in the first place?! You are a Jounin team leader! You have years of ANBU service under your belt! Doesn't it seem illogical to follow an 8 year old to wherever he wants to go?!"

Kakashi stared at the floor. He had no answer for that. The reason he had agreed was due to Naruto stealing his 'Icha Icha' book. He didn't understand what had caused him to react like that. Was it out of love for the boy? Impossible, he hardly knew him. Was it out of respect due to his burden? Kakashi didn't think he treated him any different to anyone else he ever met, Maito Gai could attest to that! So was it out a feeling of kinship, that the Jinchuuriki understood what it meant to fight in their world?

Maybe.

But one thing was for sure, he was never going to say that aloud, come hell or high water!

Luckily, Shisui seemed to have the same thoughts.

"Hokage-sama, if I may. Naruto is harmless as he is now. He may get into trouble, but I think he has enough experience to get himself out of it at this point."

Hiruzen placed his gaze firmly on the Uchiha survivor, and Shisui began to squirm under the intense scrutiny.

"Do you have any idea, how Iwa and Kumo are reacting to these events? I'm sure the Tsuchikage will be raging about the death of a Shinobi from his ranks as well as the many that you incapacitated. From Kakashi's report, they know your identities. As for Kumo, we've already had a missive from their council demanding an explanation for why there were Konoha Shinobi bypassing their border and why their Raikage's face looks akin to one of Suna's Kabuki actors on a bad hair day!"

Anko didn't hide it this time, her gut was bursting and she needed to vent.

Shisui chuckled at the memory as the purple-haired Mitarashi dropped to all fours and began beating her fists on the floor. Kakashi refused to look his village leader in the eye. Just how were they meant to respond to that?

"Aha, AHAHA...Ah...H-Hokage-sama. N-Naruto's n-not here at t-the moment, so there's no point in discussing this with us."

Sarutobi sighed for what must have been the thousandth time that day. There was nothing he could do. Politically, it was Kakashi's job to save Naruto in that situation and following wasn't too bad as they had finished their mission earlier than had been expected. He couldn't punish his Shinobi for doing something like that in the time they had been allotted. They had accomplished their mission and so they weren't really at fault here.

"It seems I will just have to inform the Raikage of the same response you gave to his Jounin. I just hope there won't be a war due to your actions."

All three Jounin stood to attention at the Sandaime's words. It seemed that their debriefing was coming to an end.

"You're dismissed."

The three turned to leave.

"Oh, and Kakashi? Why in the world is the back of your hair dyed pink?!"

The room went deathly silent.

Kakashi blanched as the other occupants turned to stare at his head. He bolted full-speed, for the safety of his apartment and the presence of a bottle of shampoo.

That night, Uchiha Sasuke had a very hard time sleeping. Every time he tried to get some sleep, a fresh wave of loud laughter would wash over him.

Whose idea was it to place the upper ninja recreational area next to the Uchiha District?!

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