Chapter Text
The weather bows to no man, or so they say. Looking at the sky, Kakashi is inclined to believe it.
It had been decently nice when they’d set out this morning, but it’s certainly not now. Bright, clear afternoon blue is slowly but steadily going overcast, and the clouds are the dark, ominous grey of an incoming storm. He’s hoping they’ll beat that back to Konoha, or at least only catch the edge of it. It’s wet enough from all the rain they’ve already had, he doesn’t want to deal with any more of it.
The more pressing concern at the moment is the fact that Naruto and Sasuke have been arguing for hours. Sakura’s been sick of it for almost as long. She’s taken to walking at the back, arms crossed, so that she doesn’t get asked to weigh in. Wise strategy, if you ask him. He’s stuck at the front, which means in their line of vision, which means every so often one of them, usually Naruto, demands he throw his weight in on his side.
“Sensei,” Naruto whines, right on cue.
Kakashi heaves the most put upon sigh he can. It’s pretty put upon. He’s had occasion to practice all day, after all. “Yes, Naruto?”
“Sasuke’s breathing on me!”
Kakashi sighs again. It hits a new personal record for put upon-ness. How delightful. “I’m not going to tell Sasuke not to breathe, Naruto,” he says, keeping his tone on a tight leash so he doesn’t accidentally scold him before he means to.
“But he’s breathing on me,” Naruto presses.
Kakashi hears Sakura scoff from the back of their little group. She’s officially his favorite of his genin.
“Then don’t walk next to him,” Kakashi suggests, his voice edging into passive aggressive sarcasm.
Naruto clearly doesn’t notice it. “But I’m talking to him,” he argues, like he doesn’t even realize how oxymoronical that is. He probably doesn’t.
Kakashi would sigh again, but he’s not sure it would have any effect. Naruto clearly can’t take a hint, and Sasuke remains unaffected by anything but the most severe disapproval, which isn’t really warranted in this case.
“Well then, you’ll have to deal with him breathing.”
Naruto grumbles, and pouts, and shoves Sasuke.
For a second Kakashi thinks Naruto shoved Sasuke into him, because his footing goes suddenly uncertain. The lack of any impact throws that theory out the window though, and the reality of the situation becomes quickly apparent when all three of his genin shout in startled panic.
The reason his footing is uncertain is that the ground is literally sliding out from under them, the side of the little hill they’re walking along moving rapidly downward as gravity and the last few days of rain finally take their toll on the land.
Even without the accompanying adrenaline rush, the screaming is enough to sharpen up his focus. Sakura gets out of the way fast; she’s at the back of the group, which it turns out is good for her not just because it helps her avoid the arguing, but because she’s already about clear of the mudslide when it starts.
He’s glad for that. He’s only got two hands, and good as he is he’s not sure how he’d rescue three genin from a mudslide on such short notice. He’s not sure how to rescue himself, honestly, can’t even get his feet under him for longer than a moment or two. That’s more than either of the boys are managing though, so he grabs them both. He catches Naruto by the arm and Sasuke by the back of his shirt and does his best to reel them both back in toward him.
Sasuke reaches out for a branch, but his hands snap back toward his chest and he curses. Kakashi spares a brief moment’s thought to wince in sympathy. If that’s the only injury they get out of this with, though, he’ll take it. Though he’s not sure. Naruto is screaming, but he’s been screaming, so Kakashi can’t tell for certain if he’s hurt or not.
They hit solid ground hard, hard enough that it knocks the breath out of him and he lies there dazed for a beat. Sasuke does too, going quiet with a thump and a crack that Kakashi really doesn’t like the sound of. He’s not unconscious though, still moving, so he puts that aside for later, especially because Sakura, somewhere above them, is shouting at them to move. It’s advice he’s inclined to take, given she can see the whole mess better from her vantage point than he can from in it, so he gets up and moves.
He gets the three of them out of the mudslide sans any help from Naruto or Sasuke, which is on the bottom of the list of things he’s worried about right now but he’s saving it to rib them over later.
“You okay?” he asks when he’s half caught his breath, aimed at Sasuke first because he saw him catch his hand on that branch. Sasuke, who’s sitting there dazed and covered in mud, his eyes blown wide in an uncharacteristic expression of panic.
Not good.
“Sasuke,” he says, sharper. The boy’s attention snaps to him. “Where are you hurt?”
“I hit my head,” Sasuke says, which is about what Kakashi was afraid of. A beat. “And my hand.” He holds up his hand, muddy and skinned. It’s wet enough that Kakashi’s not worried about water, so he pours out his canteen over it to get a better look. Sasuke’s a kid still, he’s got little hands with fine bones. Nothing seems broken though, just badly scraped up, so he wraps it and lets that go. There’s not much he can do for a concussion in the field, unfortunately.
“Naruto?” he asks then. Naruto looks up at him, eyes wide in a very characteristic expression of panic.
“Yeah,” he says. “I’m good. I think I hurt my ankle.”
A quick examination turns up what Kakashi, in his admittedly inexpert opinion, would deem a sprain. He’s certain at least that Naruto also doesn’t have any broken bones. Small mercies.
“You probably shouldn’t walk on it,” he confirms. Bad luck; that’s going to slow them down getting back, and he really doesn’t want to delay getting real medical attention for Sasuke. Can’t exactly be helped, though.
Sakura drops down to join them then, and Kakashi stands up from his crouch. The air all leaves him again when he does, adrenaline-hidden pain revealing itself now that he’s sure no one’s irreparably injured. He takes a deep breath, which doesn’t help a drop with the pain as the inflation of his lungs jostles his apparently damaged ribs.
“Kakashi-sensei?” Sakura asks, eyeing all three of them but particularly Sasuke.
“Ribs,” he explains breathlessly. “Cracked, I think.” He tilts his head, injecting a bit of levity into his voice. “Nothing broken.”
Still, he’s not looking forward to walking days back to Konoha with cracked ribs and a concussed genin. Definitely not in this weather. He eyes the sky warily. It’s no darker than it was a few minutes ago, but it’s certainly not a promising sight.
“Everybody up,” he says. “Sakura, can you help Naruto?”
She nods rapidly, clever enough to comprehend that at the moment she’s the only one who’s not hurt. “Yeah, I got it.”
It’s not going to be a pleasant walk home, he knows, but they’ll live.