Chapter 11
Keigo's birthday had come and gone peacefully, just a little get together with his family and team.
Fourteen years old.
In recent years he had grown a lot, becoming almost as tall as his father. His hope was that sooner or later he would be able to tower over Tenzou.
Despite Keigo's various complaints and attempts at persuasion, Tenzou did not change his metal plate style for hitai-ate.
Shikaku-sensei had remained the same apart from the two scars that now marked the side of his face, Keigo remembered all too well the day he got them.
His father was still hokage but living in the tower they were all able to see each other much more than before.
The one who made the most changes like Keigo was the not so little Naruto anymore.
The three-year plague terrorized the tower and everyone who worked there. Keigo was his biggest financier and alibi in case their father found out about their pranks.
After being woken up by the Naruto tornado that morning, like every morning, Keigo headed towards training ground seven, his team's meeting point.
As always he was the last to arrive with sensei already lying under a plant and Tenzou doing Tenzou things.
"Now that we're all here, no training today, we've been called to the tower" Shikaku-sensei yawned as he began to walk away.
"Now that I'm here you say it, huh? You know, that we have to go where I live.." Keigo complained with a stunned face.
"As if you wouldn't be bored waiting for us" Tenzou replied.
Waiting for them at the tower, in his office, was the hokage.
In formation in front of his desk Keigo, Tenzou and Shikaku waited for orders.
'What kind of super secret mission does dad need to explain the objectives to us in person?' Keigo thought to himself.
"Your team has been active for three years" Minato began, "much longer than it was designed for thanks to your admirable results"
Keigo hoped that what he was thinking was wrong, oh how he hoped.
"But now your individual skills are needed elsewhere in the village, which is why team Shikaku is disbanded outright as of now"
Keigo couldn't believe his ears.
"Shikaku you will fully resume the role of jounin leader, Tenzou and Keigo from today you are promoted to jounins and you will be contacted in the future for missions or tasks that require your skills" Minato concluded.
Keigo didn't know what to do, say, or feel. Tenzou dragged him out when he failed to get out on his own.
Shikaku-sensei had brought them to his house for lunch.
Everyone was sitting around the table in silence, even Shikamaru who, despite his young age, had understood that something was wrong.
Yoshino was fussing over the two boys who were still in shock.
"I thought this moment would come sooner or later, this team wasn't made to last but to bring out the best in you two" Shikaku said "Now you are the best that can be found among the active forces and it would be a waste to keep you together"
"But we still have so much to learn" Keigo replied, coming out of his trance.
"It's true, I'm not saying that you're done learning but that everything you could learn from being on a team has been learned" Sensei explained.
Keigo didn't say anything but he didn't need to, his face said it all for him. Sadness, pain and anxiety, emotions that he also saw reflected on Tenzou's face.
Shikaku placed a closed wooden chest in front of his students and gestured for them to open it.
They did it together with trembling hands. Inside two pairs of earrings.
"Every member of every Ino-Shika-Cho formation wore earrings like these. Each member has never been part of any other team other than the formation. I am the first in almost fifteen generations." Sensei told "you boys are just as important, if not more than my old team and that's why I chose to give you what always united the past teams".
"Aww, look Tenzou, sensei got all sentimental for us" Keigo snickered.
The sad air dissolved at Keigo's joke.
When he and Tenzou were seen leaving the Nara compound that afternoon they were both sporting new earrings and bright eyes.
After a couple of days without receiving any news about his new duties, Keigo was bored.
he decided to go and bother Tenzou. now that he had his own apartment Keigo was determined to camp there.
In recent years their relationship had improved a lot compared to their first meeting. Keigo still remembered, he was a ten-year-old boy angry at the world but ultimately scared because his mother had recently died and he had a little brother he had to take care of, and the normal silent Tenzou had seemed too lame to him.
Now that he understood his way of interacting with others, Tenzou had become his best friend, he knew everything about him and vice versa. They completed each other.
Keigo spoke tanzou listened.
Keigo acted tenzou stopped him before he killed himself.
The apartment was empty when he arrived so Keigo sat down at the table with a drink he had taken from the fridge waiting for the owner's return.
When Tenzou returned from a visit to the supermarket he found a not very unexpected guest asleep at the kitchen table, hand still holding a bottle.
With a sigh he put away the food and with a well-placed kick to the shins he woke up the snoring Keigo.
"I wasn't sleeping sensei" Keigo shouted, still half asleep. "Very funny" he said once he fully woke up.
"You haven't received anything yet either?" He asked.
"Nothing" Tenzou replied.
"I was thinking we could-, oh don't be so surprised, I actually use my brain every now and then" Keigo said to Tenzou who looked at him with a surprised face.
"Obviously I won't say anything now, since someone doesn't believe in my thinking skills"
"No please continue your majesty, king of tactical thinking" Tenzou replied with a half smirk.
Keigo stuck his tongue out but continued anyway.
"Well I think Shikaku-sensei misses our presence so much that we could stick up all these shots of our faces in his office so he doesn't feel alone"
A package of more than a hundred photos was slammed onto the table. Tenzou didn't want to know how all those prints had been developed but that didn't mean he wasn't already digging glue out of a drawer.
For old times' sake, right?