Seven- Naruto

Spirals- you're never as far from the center as you think.

1. Jiraiya is teasing Tsunade about her breasts (or rather, her lack thereof) again; Tsunade is punching Jiraiya; Orochimaru is trying very hard not to laugh at his teammates' bickering, even though he very much wants too. Sarutobi-sensei is shaking his head and pinching the bridge of his nose, eyebrow twitching fitfully. Jiraiya is hitting the ground several feet away with a shout; Tsunade is still screaming about stupid perverts; Orochimaru is hiding his smile behind his hair. Sarutobi-sensei is shouting at all three of them to stop fooling around.

Eventually, the four of them have lunch, and Jiraiya finally succeeds in making Orochimaru crack a smile without hiding it. Tsunade saves Jiraiya from choking on his ramen, and Sarutobi-sensei congratulates all of them on their good teamwork. This is the way things should be.

2. The third hokage is sending his best jounin after the man who had once been his student; all but two do not return. Tsunade holds Jiraiya, only maybe they hold each other; they're both still bleeding and it's hard to tell. It's not enough that they were sent to kill him but failed- they couldn't even bring him back.

3. Jiraiya is slowly teaching the boy who will become the fourth hokage how to sit still and *listen* for once, god damn it. All he gets for his trouble is a bouncing blond ball of excessive energy chanting "Hokage, hokage!" over and over and *over* again. He suddenly understands why Sarutobi-sensei went gray at an early age, and finally appreciates that he was born with white hair.

4. Kakashi is practically spitting on Obito in scorn, Obito is trying to hide the fact that he's crying again, and Rin is ignoring both of them in favor of just about everything else. Their teacher is seriously considering strangling all three of them, but he hides this with a smile and chides his students gently for not working together. Kakashi is quoting rules in that soft, angry voice he sometimes uses on his team, Obito is scrambling for his eyedrops, and Rin is staring longingly at Kakashi's back when he ignores her. Their teacher wonders why he didn't take Jiraiya-sensei's advice when he was a child and become a short-order cook instead of a ninja.

Obito still can't make Kakashi smile, or get Rin to acknowledge his existence when he isn't bleeding, but his teacher ruffles his hair when he shows up late to training again and he thinks that maybe this ninja thing isn't all bad.

5. The fourth hokage is sorry that he cannot help Uchiha Obito unlock his sharingan, sorry that he can't pound some sense of compassion into Hatake Kakashi's head, sorry that he ever made life hard for Jiraiya-sensei, and sorry that he can't spend more time with his wife. He's sorry he wasn't there to follow Obito when the boy went after Rin and sorry he couldn't stop Kakashi from losing himself.

When the fox-demon razes most of his village to the ground, he's sorry he won't be there to watch his son grow up, but he's not sorry he sacrificed his life to save his home.

6. Kakashi is surprised that his latest group of genin brats actually passed his first test. They don't seem to like each other, but there's a sort of respect in their eyes when they look at each other, and that will do for now. First there should be trust: all other things spring from that. They yell at him when he shows up three hours late and he ruffles their hair- the blond one first, because he needs the affection, the dark one second because he needs to lighten up a bit, and the pink one last because she's probably the most well-adjusted of the three (which isn't saying much), and the least likely to attack him when he does it.

Maybe this teaching thing isn't all bad.

7. Naruto is challenging Sasuke to another match, Sasuke is ignoring him again, Sakura is yelling at both of them to pay attention and start training again, and Kakashi is reading his newest dirty novel, splitting his attention between his book and his students' antics. Naruto is hitting the ground several feet away with a thump, Sasuke is screaming about dead-last idiots who get in his way, and Sakura is having a conversation with that scary voice in her head. Kakashi-sensei is having the time of his life.

Eventually they stop for lunch and Sakura manages to get Sasuke to crack a smile by teasing Naruto about his ramen fixation. Sasuke saves Naruto from choking on his ramen while Sakura pretends she *isn't* trying to calculate the mechanics of getting ramen to spew out of one's nose. Kakashi-sensei is still reading his dirty books, but his visible eye is focused on his team, and it is smiling.

8. When the fifth hokage sent four genin and a newly inaugurated chuunin after Sasuke, she knew deep down that she didn't expect any of them to return. Watching them recover, she realizes that even deeper than that, she knew they couldn't have done anything less.

They couldn't bring him back, but they aren't broken yet- and maybe, this time, there is still some hope for the future.