"Oh hey, Jiraiya-sensei and Kakashi." Minato greeted us in one packed room of an inn, where two black-haired boys—one with medium-length and the other one who was close to being bald—were sleeping with loud snores.
"I'm sorry, alright..." I said with a sweatdrop, but it was to no avail; Minato simply gave me an emotionless smile in return.
"Those two..." Jiraiya, on the other hand, sighed with his eyes gazing at two sleeping teens, "You've done well, Minato."
A ninja must be alert at any moment. When your job is to kill, you must expect yourself to be killed as well, and those two boys seemed to have forgotten such a rule. Even after our entrance, they were sleeping soundly.
No wonder Minato stood out. Blonde hair, good-looking, much more talented, and well-minded as a shinobi.
"...How did those two become ninjas in the first place?" From my eyes, they didn't fit to be ninjas.
"War."
One word from Jiraiya was enough to get me to understand.
"Get some sleep as well, you two. Starting tomorrow, we are leaving the Tanzaku Quarters."
"Kakashi is coming with us?" Minato asked as he struggled to prevent his lips from curling up.
I saw it already, buddy.
"For two weeks, he will accompany us, training with the three of you."
"Let's get well, Minato." I grinned while holding my fist out to Minato.
"Of course," Minato met my fist with his,
"...Kakashi."
Really?
__________
Early in the morning, Jiraiya was fully packed up, ready to move. Minato, on the other hand, was trying to fight the sleepiness as he packed his belongings. Two other boys were blinking their eyes on top of the same bed, having just woke up.
As for me?
"...You remind me of someone."
Ignoring Jiraiya's remark, I was on a handstand, running all across the room upside down. With the use of chakra, even the walls and ceiling served as a platform for me, allowing me to conduct a challenging physical exercise.
This has already become my daily routine every day, prior to going out for a work at the construction site.
Try to bring an 11 year-old who has more strength than I do. I bet that you won't find any.
"Yes." Agreeing with Jiraiya's words, Minato nodded, "He surely is 'youthful.'"
There seemed to be something that Jiraiya and Minato knew that I wasn't aware of.
"Ahhhhh!" Then, one of the black-haired boys shouted with his finger pointed at me, who was now doing a handstand on the ceiling, "Who the f*** is this freak?!!"
"How rude." I said in a monotone as I continued my exercise. I, on purpose, did it right above the two of them, and I was quite sweaty at the current moment.
Hehe, my sweat dripped over the two, making them jump out of the bed immediately. Well, my act surely was enough to wake those two up completely.
"Morning, Hanami and Saru." Minato waved at the two, but he was ignored.
"Jiraiya-sensei, who's this kid?!" The buzz-cut nearly-bald dude, Saru, shouted with his fists clenched.
"Yuck yuck yuck!!" The other boy, Hanami, was busy rubbing his arm, the place where my sweat dropped on top of, on the blanket.
"His name is Akashi." Jiraiya explained with a shrug, "He'll be traveling with us during this mission."
"But—"
"It's too late for a thorough explanation. You two were asleep, after all." Jiraiya said with evident annoyance on his face, "Get ready already, you brats."
"Yes, you two should get ready quick. The rest of us are ready." Minato nodded with an eye smile, and his agreement with Jiraiya's statement seemed to have invoked disdain from those two.
"Yeah," Finding the situation quite amusing, I dropped down from the ceiling and added on, "please get ready already. I'm sick of working out in this room while hearing the pig-like snores."
Hanami and Saru's faces turned red and their body shook from the humiliation.
Watching as they quickly packed up their stuffs, Minato and I secretly bumped our fists from the back.
"Am I forgiven now?" I whispered to Minato.
"What's there to forgive," Minato whispered back, "Kakashi?"
__________
Currently, we were at the edge of the Tanzaku Quarters, ready to leave at any moment. Jiraiya has just received a message from the village apparently, and told us to wait here until he returns. With nothing else to do, we talked.
"""You're 11?"""
Minato, Hanami, and Saru all said with shock.
"But..." Minato placed his hand on his head, "He's the same height as me, who's at 14..."
"This prick... no wonder he's so annoying." Saru snarled at me, who shrugged back in response.
"Even younger than Mina, eh." Hanami clicked his tongue, before saying with an annoyed expression, "What did Mina call him? Kakashi? There. From now on, you two are Kaka and Mina."
"Us two are 16. You get that? Respect your seniors." Saru huffed with his hands pocketed, before turning away from the two of us.
"Us two are 16. You get that? Rrespeuct your seuniours~." I repeated Saru's words with a comical tone, causing Saru to shake in anger.
Watching as Hanami and Saru distanced themselves slightly away from us, Minato and I looked at one another for a second, before,
""Hahahahaha!!!!"" Exploding in uncontrolled laughter.
"Shut up, Kaka and Mina!"
Man, I've rarely been this childish before in my life, but I got to say, it felt good to behave like this once in a while.
"Your dream has been achieved." Minato gave me the thumbs-up, "Just as you wished, they are calling you Kakashi now."
"Kaka doesn't equal Kakashi." I replied with a chuckle, not bothered by this petty matter anymore. I realized at this point that no matter what I tried, Minato's tendency to call me 'Kakashi' will continue for a long time; there was no point arguing against it.
Swoosh! Then, in front of us, Jiraiya appeared with an unsightable speed,
"All right, time for chit-chat is over. Let's get going."
All of us responded with a nod, and kicked off the ground.
The generic ninja-way of dashing from tree to tree has begun, with all of us traveling at a blurry speed in the eyes of the civilians.
And as we were doing so, Minato, Hanami, and Saru looked at me with yet another shock. Why?
I was matching their speed without any use of chakra at all.
"Yep, totally the same as that man." Minato muttered to himself, to which I didn't bother paying attention to.