The Undesired Second Chance

Chapter 23: Game for a Game

"No," corrected Kakashi, his tone sounding as worn as his patience. "Nine isn't divisible by six."

Obito scowled at his paper. "Why not?"

"What do you mean 'why not'?!"

"I mean 'why not'!"

"Because it isn't!" he exclaimed, throwing his hands up in frustration.

That was, quite possibly, the most animated Axel had ever seen the typically unemotional—or at least unemotive—young ninja. Assuming, of course, that one doesn't count any scenes from the anime. Which he certainly doesn't; adult-Kakashi and mini-Kakashi are clearly two very different people.

Which was a little odd, come to think of it. The two characters in question—the same person, just one young and one old—were incredibly different from one another, almost to the point that they might as well be polar opposites. Axel certainly couldn't picture mini-Kakashi showing up to a team meeting even five minutes late, let alone five hours.

Obito, yes: it was easy to imagine him running late to everything.

"But nine and six both have three in em', right?"

"I mean, yes—"

"So they should be divisible!"

One fist pressed to his forehead, as if to stave off an oncoming headache. Kakashi answered, "That's not how any of this works."

Before Obito could continue on with the completely unnecessary and unhelpful argument over basic math functions, Rin gently whapped him with a rolled up piece of paper. He gave her a pitiful glare for her trouble, but she was unbothered.

"You can only fit one six in nine, Obito," she tried to explain. "One six is just six. Two sixes is twelve, and that's already three more than nine."

He looked completely lost. "What do all those other numbers have to do with anything?"

Axel hadn't been planning on saying anything—largely content just sitting back and watching the kids work things out—but he decided this might need some simplification. "What is six plus six?"

"Uh, twelve?" Obito paused, processing, and then his eyes went wide as something clicked. "Oooh— 'two sixes', and... right. Okay, that kinda makes sense. But, like, eight is divisible by four, and they both have two in them so why doesn't that work?"

"What about eight and six?"

There were another few seconds of silence as Obito actually took the time to think that question through, then he groused, "Why must six cause so much trouble?"

"It's not six's fault you're such an idiot," Kakashi grumbled.

"Shut up, Baka-kashi!" He scowled. "It's not like you were any help."

This led to another bout of arguing, but this time it was even more unnecessary and unhelpful than earlier.

Sitting between her bickering teammates, Rin looked to be both amused and annoyed. She spoke up before things could get too heated, hands raised placatingly but with a hard edge that threatened a good smack if she was not listened to. "Guys, calm down. Calling each other names isn't going to get anything done!"

The two boys stopped squabbling, seeming to (reluctantly) agree that she had a point.

"What do you suggest we do, then?" asked Kakashi, somewhat testily.

She looked vaguely stunned: clearly she hadn't quite thought she'd get that far. "Take a break, maybe?"

"Yeah?" Obito liked the sound of that. "What should we do?"