Yellow Shadows

YELLOW SHADOWS 03 - Diplomatic Dinner

Those unfortunate enough to be roped into the dinner - Minato, Shibi, Kakashi (the tall one, despite his best efforts) and Naruto - henge themselves into more appropriate attire for the night. Or, everyone but Naruto switches out of their masks and uniforms (Kakashi-sensei henges his black mask into another black mask), while Naruto flounders around with the henge and achieves nothing more than a slightly less orange version of his jacket.

"I've seen you transform into fuma shuriken before," Kakashi-sensei remarks, hiding a Tenten-worthy amount of kunai up his sleeves.

"I know!" Naruto huffs, gathering together his chakra for another try. "But that was all of me. Transforming just a bit of me is dumb."

Little Kakashi, who's standing back with Chōza and all but sparking with pre-teen angst, scoffs at this. "A full transformation should be harder than a partial one."

Kakashi-sensei doesn't look over. In fact, after their initial greeting, the two Kakashis haven't exchanged a word at all. Kakashi-sensei doesn't seem particularly bothered by his younger self, but Little Kakashi has been avoiding eye-contact so vehemently that even Naruto's noticed.

"For anybody else, yes, but Naruto has too much chakra," Kakashi-sensei says, and if he had his book out, he'd be peering over it now. "Then why don't you transform all of you, Naruto? Just make yourself similar enough that the queen won't notice."

That's... not a bad idea. "I could've thought of that!" Naruto insists, transforming into an almost identical copy of himself. He darkens his hair and increases his height (just a little bit), and then conjures up formal wear for the meal.

"Keep the whiskers, she'll have noticed them already," Kakashi-sensei suggests, prompting Naruto to henge again. "And that's not - d'you even know how to tie an obi?"

"Uhh."

Chōza steps in and adjusts the obi while Kakashi-sensei is busy sighing.

"I'm not familiar with your clan marks," Chōza says, his eyes smiling as he considers Naruto's whiskered cheeks. "But it would be such a shame to cover them. They connect us to our families. The queen should know that we bear them with pride."

Distantly, in that place only Naruto knows, the Nine-Tails starts to laugh.

"Uh - yeah, yeah! I have a clan. Totally. They're all - like - super great!" Naruto lies, hoping Kakashi-sensei has suddenly developed mind-reading powers and can hear his cry for help. He hopes it isn't too obvious that he looks anywhere but Minato. "I'll tell the queen all about it."

"It's best if we don't discuss the future any more than necessary, Naruto," Kakashi-sensei says, and Naruto's brain screams THANK GOD!!

"Agreed," says Minato, and maybe he heard Naruto's plea too. "Shibi and I can carry most of the conversation tonig -"

Shibi coughs once.

"- err, well, I can carry most of the conversation. I'm the most up-to-date with diplomatic concerns in Wind anyway. Although," and here Minato laughs, rubbing the back of his neck. "I'm sure you're both very knowledgeable, being from the future -"

"Why don't you remember any of this?" Little Kakashi butts in, glancing at his one-eyed counterpart just long enough to direct his ire. It's an awful amount of ire for someone so small. "You're me, aren't you?"