Second Time's The Charm

Chapter 13

"You know, you're a special kind of jounin."

Kakashi stirred slowly in the make-shift bed. Opening his eye, he looked to his surroundings. He was in a room... Huh. He didn't remember getting here.

"I guess I over did it with the Sharingan." Kakashi thought, trying to sit up, but falling back down instead.

Then he remembered. He woke up to someone talking to him. He turned his head again and saw one of his students leaning against the wall: Kanoko.

"What?" Kakashi asked.

Kanoko kept her eyes close before saying, "I said you're a special kind of jounin..."

A warm feeling grew in Kakashi, believing his student was paying him a compliment.

"...It certainly takes a special kind of stupid to allow your student to get poisoned, get trapped in a cage made of water, have to rely on your students to bail you out, and then later pass out due to chakra exhaustion while the threat has yet to be neutralized. And that's all in the first week of being a jounin instructor." Kanoko finished in a flat, uncaring tone, and arms crossed.

Kakashi felt like he just received several kunai to his back.

"So hurtful..." Kakashi thought.

Then he jerked up. Last he remembered, he had faced Zabuza in a battle of water jutsu. After nearly finishing him, a Mist ANBU Hunter Nin attacked Zabuza, finishing him off. Kakashi even remembered checking his pulse. What did Kanoko mean by, "the threat has yet to be neutralized".

Kanoko opened her eyes to stare at Kakashi, "The hunter nin. He watched the entire fight from the shadows. If his real interest was Zabuza's death, he would have intervened when the odd of us winning were at its lowest: When you were caged."

Kakashi looked at Kanoko with narrowed eyes, "How come you didn't tell me there were other threats in the area?"

Kanoko shrugged, thinking, "I was a little busy cleaning up your mess."

"Brat." Kakashi thought, deciding against further arguing with his student. It was pointless anyways and there were bigger concerns.

At this moment, Naruto and Sakura came in. "Sensei! You're awake!" Naruto spoke loudly.

After sitting down, Kakashi-sensei explained to them and Tazuna's family about Zabuza's likely survivial. Naruto, of course, was happy by this news – as only he would – because it meant he had another chance to take Zabuza down.

"Sensei you said that we need to prepare quickly, but how are we going to do that, when you can barely move?" Sakura asked, concerned.

Kakashi's eye turned into a smile and said, "Well, I can still train you."

Sakura jumped up and yelled, "Hold on! A little last minute training is not going to help us last against someone like Zabuza! We have to be reasonable about this!"

"It's like... Only the women are sane ones in this timeframe... Well, except for Yoshino... That's always debatable." Kanoko thought, a small smile forming on her face, thinking about her family.

"I wonder what they're doing right now..." Kanoko thought, gazing out the window, ignoring her team's ramblings.

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"What a drag..." Shikamaru said, walking down Konoha's streets, looking for a certain building.

"I wouldn't worry so much... *munch* *munch* Shikamaru. It's just a C-ranked mission." Choji said walking next to his best friend, munching on some chips.