For the umpth time, the Uchiha boy brought out his pocket watch from his jacket's inner pocket and checked where the large hand leaned to and he all but gasped in alarm when the clock hand inched closer to the seven, indicating it was 7:00 am, mere seconds away from the appointed time he was to meet up with the rest of his teammates and his sensei.

Wasting no further time comtemplating over the matter in a doomed outlook, Obito sped up his flight with a boost of chakra and jumped from the branch he landed on, to do a fumbled somersault in the air. Hurriedly tucking his arms, head, and legs into his body and coming out of it just in time, before landing on the ground in a roll-tumble, without the grace of a member born into the prestigous Uchiha Clan.

As Obito did so, a cloud of dust picked up with him by his over-exaggerated roll and he coughed on it in a fit, before asking in a timid voice, "Am I late?" His voice gave way to his uncertainty and Obito swatted helplessly at the screen of dust in his face. He grimaced, though, when the dust settled and covered his clothes and although it seemed juvenille to do since he was now a full pledged ninja, Obito cursed Kakashi under his breath for making him miss his breakfast, because he woke up late again thanks to his stupid alarm clock not going off at the appointed time he set. So that for once he wouldn't be late for their group assignment. .

Sighing like this wasn't worth it, Obito settled back down on the ground, and rubbed at his Sharinganless eyes with his knuckle. Unfortunately for him, during his acrobatic stunt, some grains of the sand got trapped into his eyelid and it was beginning to hurt. So, he took out his eye dropper and squeezed a few medicated drops under and above his lid and blinked. His eye began to water as he kept his lids shut and when he opened them, Obito blinked a few times for good measure before the sand finally came out. A bother no more. Too bad it wasn't that easy with Kakashi, he mumbled to himself in fantazied glee but knew only to take it at face value.

Instead, Obito let out a sigh of relief and pulled his goggles over his eyes to protect them further from any more aerial particales. He then hung his head and stared at the ground, waiting frantically yet furiously for his condemnation made by the white-haired boy, each and every morning.

But when the reprimand never came and Kakashi didn't yell YES at the top of his lungs, like he usually did, Obito gledged a glanced up and realized that that particular teammate was missing, "Hey, where's Kakashi?" he observed, while getting himself up from the ground. Dusting himself off, Obito walked over to stand before Rin and his sensei, whom were quietly observing him in a bit of an interest and concern.

Rin was the first to speak, "When did you realize he wasn't here?" Rin asked, giving Obito an eye as her pretty light brown brow curled up in wonder of her teammates lack of attention this morning.

Obito looked Rin over and then shrugged, replying without enthusasm, "Well, Kakashi usually complains when I'm late," he explained, not going into much detail, since it was self-explamentory. Afterall, they all knew him by now but there were times when he wanted to surprise them all and jarr things up a bit.

"Kakashi is with his father," spoke up Uzumaki Arashi, blandly, interrupting his two present students from coming up with their own conclusions. He took a step towards them but stopped when Obito rolled his eyes at him and Arashi tilted his head to the side in wonder.

"Again?" groaned the Uchiha boy, "What's the deal?" Obito went on, agitated, "Why does Kakashi get out of team missions and we don't?" complained the Uchiha boy, a morsal of envy locked in by his tensed shoulders.

Rin was bewildered how Obito just talked back to their sensei like that and how her sensei didn't seem to mind, "Obito, stop being rude to sensei!" she exclaimed in a shriek, her knuckles whitening as she stood her ground and tried not to do anything stupid. Like whack both of them over the head to regain their senses.

Arashi turned to Rin, a warm smile on his bronze face, "Rin, that's not necessary. Obito isn't trying to be rude, he's just concerned. That's all," he waved off, wanting to defuse the throw of words before they began bickering back and forth feverntly.

Besides, it wasn't like Obito to mean any harm. Arashi knows how over-excited the boy gets and how to counteract it.

'Con-' Rin gaped at her sensei but turned quickly back to Obito in a whirl and thought about it. She silently assessed and agreed with her sensei, before dismissing her earlier comment.

Afterwards, the fight left her and Rin finally relaxed in the presence of Obito and her sensei, without the added company of her crush, Kakashi. In where she alone was trying to defend his honor, as well as keep her team intact, without her crushes needed appearance to keep them together.

Obito's cheeks reddened from being talked about and he stuck the jut of his lip out in a pout. To differaint what was said by his sensei and agreed from by his, Rin, Obito folded his arms across his chest and oozed of hatred for being referred that he cared anything for that curd, Kakashi.

Arashi's azure eyes grew slightly and he pondered over Obito's behavior, before cracking in a wide smile, deciding and replying softly, "Kakashi has been given special permission from the Third Hokage to accompany his father on certain missions," he began but feigned in telling the rest, with the shake of his head and a guilt in his voice that wasn't there, "but I shouldn't really be speaking much about that since-" he lied again, finding it very amusing how his one student reacted as he did this. Depriving him of the rest of the story by beginning than faking a guilty consciouness for sharing that tidbit of information to their ears, like it had been an erroneous injustice.

After all, what was a team if you didn't share certain intelligence with the rest of the members?

"Oh." That caught Obito's attention, "What kind of missions, sensei?"

"Obito!" began Rin, flabbergasted, "Didn't sensei hint he couldn't tell you!" she all but waved her hands up in the air, losing her relaxed contingence.

Arashi smiled wider, thrilled by the reactions he was creating but sombered immediately and explained the rest in a neutral voice to Obito, "Their missions aren't really different from our own, except," he stopped mid-explanation, thinking carefully so they would understand better, "Kakashi is allowed to leave the fire country to accompany his father," he said in the end, partially telling the truth. As a temporarily Anbu, he could not add.
By right, the missions Kakashi were given and shown, will be degrees more difficult in level than what they were given but the Hokage had assured him it would never be over S ranking.

With this continuous war, he could see why this was necessary for Kakashi to learn fields he otherwise wouldn't be introduced under their teams present status. After all, Kakashi was an exceptional boy as well as a prodigy,. Under his father's guidance and protective eye, he was sure Kakashi would excel and come back to them as little as scathed as possible yet matured and ready when the time was right and he could name the Hatake boy a jounin. As well as knew member of the anbu squad, while under his leadership.

"Gee, that sounds more fun than our own," complained Obito.

"Well, in time, we will also have assignments that branch out in those distances but for now,..." paused Arashi, reflecting and remembering his times with his sensei and his teammates, smiling at their agitation and want for more of an adventure but being denied until they grew in experience.

"Yeah, yeah,...we get to do all the boring stuff." grumbled Obito, letting out a sigh of defeat.

"Obito, stop speaking disrespectively to sensei!" growled Rin, ready to smack him over the head but stopped.

"Rin,..." Arashi shook his head at her, saying it was alright and not to act on her intuition. A present smile on his lips.

"But-" she objected but faltered. Falling under his instruction and let out a huff of air as she did as her sensei wanted.

Arashi closed his eyes, thoughtfully, "Obito is allowed the freedom of speech like you or Kakashi are but to sum it up what you were saying Obito, why yes." He opened his eyes and stared teasingly into his students shocked face by his blunt answer.

Obito fell over and Rin started to giggle behind her hand at Obito's humorous reaction. As for Arashi, he smiled fondly down at his 2 students and took out the duty mission scroll that had been handed to him by the Third Hokage from his pouch this morning. Opening it, he cleared his throat and began describing what was on their duty agenda for today.


To be continued,...





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