At the end of all things, there is a waiting room.
It's fairly typical, as these things go. Thin, scratchy carpet. Fish tank with still fish. Old gossip magazines. Incredibly uncomfortable chairs. The low buzz of a television or radio or something somewhere else, words indistinguishable. No windows, no clock, no door, and the receptionist's desk was shuttered.
This one's a bit special, though.
After a few more moments Kakashi shrugs and starts pushing forward, moving faster and faster, no longer on the defensive.
"It's a nice day for a swim, isn't it?"
Sasuke digs his heels in and closes, trying to keep Kakashi at least moderately close to the nearest traps.
...Retreating past one might be better, and he'll do that if this fails.
"So tell me how the water is, eh, Naruto-kun?"
All of a sudden, he's behind the boy, grabbing the collar of his shirt and the top of his pants to lift and throw him into the river.
He does not flail, but does re-angle himself to fall better into the river, resurfacing quickly and starting to swim - and he's going to have to learn water walking at some point, this is embarrassing -
'Naruto' does not groan -- he needs to trust that Sasuke has got this and will get to land himself -- signals 'Raizume' and immediately starts running at Kakashi.
They've done this a million times before, usually with his mum or other family members, but still --
She falls into the rhythm of it easily, wind in her hair, and this is fun, like ganging up on the older Inuzuka -
She times her attack to land alongside her teammate's, remembering to use Raizume's style instead of Naruto's at the last second.
He is forced to take out the hand that was reaching for his book to parry 'Raizume' as he dodges 'Naruto'.
Being Naruto comes nearly second nature to him, he knows exactly what he would do now. He pushes forward, unrelentingly, and tries to make Kakashi focus on him so 'Raizume' can attack his back.
"You're not gonna get us so easily! Watch this!"
She picks up on 'Naruto's' goal, leaping at Kakashi's back as hard and fast as she can.
(Sasuke gets to shore - his aim isn't good enough for ranged without risking hitting the others, and he doesn't know their rhythm well, so he'll have to hang back for an opening.)
Kakashi almost seems like he's actually trying, as he ducks to avoid the attack on his back and pushes out to leg sweep the one in front of him.
To a sharp-eyed observer, he appears somewhat overextended.
He slides into an opening the fake 'Raizume' leaves - either on accident or on purpose, he can't tell with Naruto - and does his best to stab Kakashi.
'Naruto' shifts slightly to accommodate Sasuke and also bends down so --
The best murder attempts are group murder attempts!
(She might be overchanneling Raizume.)
Rawr, take this Kakashi's legs!
Kakashi is very mauled.
-And then he disappears in a puff of smoke and branch clatters to the ground in the space previously occupied by his body.
He's standing in a tree, reading his book. He's not even trying to hide.
He pulls the bell out of his pocket and gives it a little shake, not looking up from his book.
Hmmmm Raizume's usually bossy but they'd agreed to let Sasuke lead but she really doesn't actually like him that much even if they're now friends. Also he doesn't seem to be saying anything.
"Naruto, focus," she says, "Let's get him."
Even though that technique's such cheating.
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