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depressedhatakekakashi · 1 year ago

Text

Alabaster Blizzard

Words: 4,822

Pokemon AU: Snow

Characters: Hatake Yua (OC), Mifune, Hatake Kakashi

@alumort

Blizzards could begin without any warning.

All her life Yua had been warned of the risks of blizzards whipping up out of nowhere and blocking her path home. She’d listened to stories of children who’d gone missing and were never found again, listened to all of her father’s instructions on what to do if she ever found herself caught in a blizzard, and prepared.

As warden of the Alabaster Icelands, there was no one better prepared to deal with a blizzard if one happened. She and Mamoswine had gone searching through the bitterly cold winds and fought through blinding walls of snow that refused to vanish no matter how far they walked.

She’d dug fellow clan’s men out of the snow and bundled them up in blankets for the ride home without a second worry because she knew they would be safe.

She and Mamoswine would get them home safely no matter what challenges they had to face to do so. But even with all their skills they didn't always succeed.

There had been funerals held for those who’d been found too late, or who hadn’t been found at all. Still, they continued searching almost every blizzard and Chiyo had once told her with great pride that she had one of the highest success rates she’d ever seen.

Yua would be lying if her own pride hadn’t swelled a little when she heard that, but she’d tried hard not to show it. Arrogance was a part of her personality but it was unnecessary to show it to others.

After years of acting as warden alongside the Pearl clan’s warden, Mifune, she’d begun to think there was no challenge she couldn’t face, and it was at that moment when her confidence swelled a little too much that the world decided to challenge her.

“Kakashi,” her eyes scanned over the small room full of children. It was where the clan always went when there was a really bad blizzard. The perfect place to keep everyone safe, and yet no matter how much she looked she couldn’t spot her son anywhere.

He wasn’t huddled among the group of kids playing marbles, or hiding in the far right corner beside the bookcase reading.

He wasn’t anywhere to be seen.

“I don’t think I saw him come in,” Chiyo’s words pierced straight through her heart, knocking the wind right out of her lungs. “Yua-“

“What do you mean?” she demanded, struggling to keep her anger at bay. “He was playing with the other children. He was supposed to be in the village with everyone else. What could he have gone!?”

Chiyo opened her mouth to answer, but no words came. For once in her life she was speechless, and Yua was left with a terrible sinking feeling in her stomach.

“Yua,” Ayame, her old childhood friend, stepped forward. “I’m sorry. I was watching Kakashi, but I turned my back for a second and when I looked back he was gone. Before I could even think of searching for him the Blizzard rolled in.”

“Gone?” her voice cracked, worry seeping into her words. “Gone where?”

“I’m not sure,” her friend looked away from her, ashamed to meet her eye. “I saw him and the other boys playing with an Elekid that had found its way into the village, but neither of them was there when I looked back.”

The sounds of the room faded into the background. All Yua could hear was the pounding of her heart in her ears.

Kakashi was gone. He was missing during one of the worst blizzards of the year, and she wasn’t even out in the field ready to search for him.

“Yua!” A hand came down hard on her shoulder and yanked her out of her spiraling thoughts. “Go!”

There was no need for a second order. As soon as she heard the word leave Chiyo’s mouth she was gone.

The cold bitter wind slammed against her body, but she pushed through and dragged her way forward until she found her Mamoswine lying just outside the perimeter of the clan's little village.

“Mamoswine!” She called out, her voice oozing panic. Seeming to sense the trouble that abounded, Mamoswine waited just long enough for Yua to pull herself up onto her back and yank her scarf up over her mouth and nose before standing. “Out! To the field! We need to find Kakashi!”

In all their years together Yua had never seen her partner move as quickly as she did today. Perhaps it was because Mamoswine could feel her fear in the way she clutched the fur on her back a little tighter than normal, or maybe she’d heard the panic that laced her words when she’d spoken.

Either way, Yua was thankful for her partner's quick actions at the moment. There wasn’t a single moment they could waste away in their search.

The Alabaster Icelands were known all over the region for the wide variety of ice-type Pokemon that could be found there. Many members of the Pearl clan had expressed interest in exploring the islands to meet new Pokemon, but Mifune had always cautioned them to avoid the area.

As wonderful as the Pokemon were, the weather was deadly for anyone who was ill-prepared.

“You alright?” he called out to Bisharp as the wind cut through his jacket as if it wasn’t even there.

A low, steely cry was the answer he received. Bisharp’s discomfort was evident in the way its voice tilted a bit lower than usual, but otherwise, it did nothing to show that it was incapable of moving forward. An impressive feat given they weren’t even supposed to be outside in this weather.

If it hadn’t been for the small Snover who’d gotten separated from its parents, the two of them would be safe in their cabin waiting out the blizzard. Mifune would have a nice warm cup of tea in hand, Bisharp would be perched beside its favorite window watching the blizzard whipping up snow just outside their cozy home, and everything would be good.

Instead, they were stuck outside trudging their way through heaps of snow toward the nearest cave, building, or whatever cover they could find to keep themselves safe from the weather.

“Lord Avalugg must be loving this weather,” dragging his feet through the snow, he squinted when he saw something ahead of him. A small shadow that could easily be a Pokemon, but which didn’t seem to move with the same confidence as anything which was used to the harshness of the climate. “Bisharp!”

His partner surged forward, cutting through the wind as if it were little more than a branch that broke easily under the sharp slice of Bisharp's cold steel arms. Running after it, he grunted when the wind crashed against his chest and forced him to stop after only two short steps.

Taking a moment, he focused on the feeling of the wind around him. When it died down, he stepped forward. If it picked up again, he stopped. It was a tedious task, but Mifune approached it with a calm head, just as Yua had taught him when he first arrived at the Icelands.

“Don’t try to move when the wind is against you,” she’d instructed while offering a hand to help him up off of the ground after he’s been knocked onto his butt. “Even if there is no blizzard, the wind here is unforgiving. Listen to it and move when it tells you to move.”

Finally, after pausing to allow the wind to push past him five more times, he reached his destination.

“Bisharp,” he called out, his Pokemon turning to him just as he stepped up to its side. “What is it we’ve fou- Oh!?”

Moving its body, Bisharp allowed Mifune to see the small figure that it was currently shielding from the wind. A young boy, no older than five if he had to guess, huddled up in a giant white coat with the diamond clan symbol on the chest and a tiny bundle of brown fur clutched against his chest.

Thinking quick, he dug into his side pouch and retrieved the Celestica flute which he’d been gifted when he was given the position of Lord Avalugg’s warden. Pressing it against his mouth, he placed his fingers over the holes in the exact way Yua had shown him and blew.

The high pitched note rang out through the air, its beautiful sound dimmed by the howling of the blizzard winds but Mifune had no doubt it would reach its target. With that completed, he stuffed the flute back into his pouch and shrugged off his jacket. “Here,” he threw the jacket around the young child’s body and scooped them up into his arms. “We’ll get you home, I promise.”

Beside him, Bisharp straightened itself up and looked skyward as a familiar cry rang through the air.

“Lord Braviary is on the way,” he spoke softly, his arms tightening around the child as he waited for help to arrive. “We’ll get you somewhere safe.”

The wind crashed against his body, forcing him to take a step back so that he didn’t fall over. Just as it began to pick up, threatening to send Mifune and his new companion flying, a large mass swooped down in front of them and blocked the wind.

“Lord Braviary!” He called out, smiling when the bird tilted its head. “I apologize. I know I’m not supposed to call you unless it’s an emergency, but…well,” opening his arms, he watched as Lord Bravery leaned in to get a closer look at the child he was holding. “We need to get them somewhere safe!”

Not one to waste a moment, much like its warden, Braviary around and lowers itself just enough for Mifune to crawl onto its back. “Thank you!” He called out as he crawled onto the Pokemon’s back. “Bisharp!”

His partner answered with a low cry and began running ahead. Once Mifune had a good grip on Lord Braviary’s feathers, the Nobel Pokemon spread its wings and lifted off of the ground. Before flying into the sky, though, it swooped over Bisharp and grabbed it around its body using its giant claws.

Although he expected some resistance from the wind, Mifune realized quickly that Lord Braviary was flying as smoothly as it always did. There was no resistance at all, as if it was flying with the wind, rather than against it.

“Don’t try to move when the wind is against you.” Yua’s words repeated in his mind and Mifune couldn’t help but laugh at his own nievity. Where he’d assumed her words had come from her own wisdom, he now realized she had learned it from someone else just as he had.

Or rather, something else.

The bitter cold was something Yua was used to.

Her bones had acclimatized to the constant winter weather when she was a child. Sometimes when Mifune or Sakumo commented on her lack of proper winter clothing she liked to joke about how her blood had turned to Ice when she was only fifteen years old.

Yua lived and breathed winter. In all of her life she’d never once found herself complaining about the cold weather, until today.

Today, her bones ached.

Her fingers screamed in agony as the wind lashed against them, drying out the tender skin so much that she could feel it beginning to crack. If she didn’t get somewhere warm soon she was likely to parish.

“Mamoswine-” She tried to tighten her hold on her partner’s fur, but her fingers screamed in agony at the smallest movement.

A loud screech tore through the air at that moment, and without a thought, Yua turned her gaze skyward. There, hovering high above her, just within sight, was a mere shadow of a Pokemon. It was a Pokemon that she knew, though. A Pokemon that she could recognize without ever having to lay eyes on it.

The Nobel Pokemon Braviary. The Pokemon which she had been tasked to care for since she was only thirteen years old.

“What…” Sitting up, she watched as the Nobel Pokemon swooped down in front of them just low enough for Mamoswine to see it easily and began turning to the left. “You…you found him…”

For the first time since she and Mamoswine had begun their search, Yua felt a spark of hope igniting in her soul.

There was no explainable reason for why she felt that way. It could have been anyone that Lord Braverary had found, and it was simply leading her to them so that she could care for them until the Blizzard cleared up.

This wouldn’t be the first time the Nobel Pokemon led her to someone in need, but everyone else in the Pearl clan had been accounted for and other than Mifune there was no one outside of her clan in the Alabaster Icelands.

Even Team Galactic researchers didn’t dare wander into the Icelands. As reckless as they could be, they didn’t dare go past the border between Cornet Highlands and Alabaster Icelands unless they were accompanied by someone from the Pearl clan, and even then it was rare.

That left only two options.

Lord Braviary had either found Kakashi in the snow fields and taken him somewhere safe before going to find her, or Mifune had injured himself and was in need of medical attention.

She hoped it was the first one, but either way, her aid was needed.

“Mamoswine, Follow Lord Braviary!”

Doing as she was told, Mamoswine quickly turned herself to follow after the Nobel Pokemon, and finally, Yua felt the wind relenting. It was still cold and bitter, whipping all around her, but it no longer assaulted her head-on.

“Right,” she snorted, recalling one of the first lessons she had learned from Lord Braviary when she was still young. “Never walk against the wind. How stupid of me.”

It was no wonder her hands ached. She’d focused so much of her attention on searching the snowy ground for any signs of her son that she’d forgotten to pay attention to where they were going, and instead of allowing Mamoswine to lead the way she’d tried to control the direction in which they headed.

Her fears had clouded her judgment, and even now when she’d realized her mistake she knew it would happen again.

For anyone else, she would keep a clear head. The lessons she’d learned from the clan elders and Lord Braviary would lead her just as they always had and she would find whoever it was who needed her aid.

Kakashi was a different story, though.

Yua couldn’t keep a clear head when it was her son’s life in danger.

She couldn’t recall the lessons she’d committed to memory when all her mind would focus on was the crushing fear of losing her precious scarecrow.

“Please…” she whispered, her eyes glued on Lord Braviary’s back as they made their way through the blizzard. “Please be alright.”

Children were usually rambunctious. They loved to run around, play, and make as much noise as possible. That was what Mifune had noticed whenever he found himself interacting with the Pearl clan.

Their children always seemed to have endless amounts of energy even when they were feeling under the weather.

“Here,” he held a granola bar out to the child and watched as he examined it. “I have not poisoned it, I promise.” Rather than taking the offering, though, the child simply pulled Mifune’s jacket tighter around himself and buried his face into the fur collar. “You are rather stubborn, aren’t you?”

“Pree,” the little bundle of brown fur, Eevee, stood up from her spot and nudged her nose against her partner’s leg. “Pree!”

The plea was clear to Mifune even though he’d never interacted with the tiny Pokemon before. Eevee was begging her partner to take the offering. To eat something after the terrible experience they’d just gone through.

Even with his partner’s cries calling out to him, the boy continued to sit there with his face buried into Mifune’s jacket, staring up at the Warden with curious black eyes. A stare that reminded Mifune of a particular friend of his.

“So,” pulling the offering back, he settled into his spot. “What were you doing all the way out in the fields? Shouldn’t you have been in the village playing with the other children?”

Lifting his head, the boy lowered his eyes. “I was playing,” he whispered. “A Pokemon joined us. I started following it around and when I looked up again I was outside of the village.”

A stray Pokemon leading a child away from the village. It wasn’t unheard of, but usually when cases like that did occur the Pokemon stuck around long enough to either lead the child back to their village or the child would never be seen again.

In this case, the Pokemon seemed to have abandoned the boy.

“It got scared,” the boy continued. “When the snow started blowing and it became hard to see it ran away. I tried to run after it but I couldn’t keep up.”

“And then you were trapped,” Mifune sighed. “It was lucky for you that Bisharp and I were in the area. If we hadn’t found you-” Bisharp cried out, silencing the terrifying words that Mifune had almost spoken aloud.

“Lord Braviary would have,” the boy insisted with a passion he hadn’t shown at all before. “Mother is always telling me about how amazing it is. How it can fly through the harsh blizzard winds and find anyone it’s looking for.”

“Lord Braviary?” Mifune shook his head. It was true that the Nobel Pokemon was amazing, and without its aid, the two of them would have been forced to trek through the harsh blizzard wind searching for cover. Calling on his friends respected Nobel had been helpful in getting the young boy to safety, but it seemed that he’d been fed stories that painted an even better picture of the great Nobal than what was true. “Lord Braviary is fantastic, but-”

“No!” the boy snapped. “No buts. The only Pokemon better than Lord Braviary is Mother’s partner, Mamoswine!”

Mother’s Mamoswine.

Suddenly, a lot of things made sense.

The boy's cold attitude had seemed strange, but now Mifune was faced with memories of an equally cold teenage Yua who had tried her best to ignore him for the first month she’d known him.

Nothing on the boy's face looked at all like Yua, though with the lower part of his face hidden by a large green scarf, it was hard for Mifune to tell exactly what he looked like, but his personality seemed a picture-perfect copy of her.

“Kakashi?” A familiar voice called out, causing both boys to turn their attention toward the cave entrance where they were greeted by Yua’s towering figure standing in the center of the entrance with her partner Pokemon just behind her. “Oh, Kakashi-”

For the first time since he’d come to the Alabaster Iceland, Mifune found himself watching as Yua ran passed him without a single concern and scooped her child up into her arms. If he squinted he was certain he would see tears of relief falling from her eyes, but he refrained.

It would be rude of him to pay so much attention to detail when his friend was no doubt experiencing one of the most terrifying days of her life.

“Mom…”

“Shush,” she whispered as her arms tightened around the boy's body.

Averting his eyes, Mifune stared out of the cave and watched as the snow blew by. A personal moment between mother and son was the last thing he wanted to infringe upon with his presence but there wasn’t much choice in the matter.

“How did you find us?” he heard the boy ask.

“Lord Braviary,” Yua answered, her usual calm returning to her voice. “I’ve been searching for hours. Where did you run off to?”

“I-I’m not sure. I was following the Pokemon-”

“Elekid,” Mifune’s ears perked up when he heard fondness in Yua’s words. His eyes stayed focused on the blizzard outside, but it was impossible for him to block out the conversation happening right beside him, and if he was being honest with himself he didn’t want to. It was a nice change to hear such softness in his friend's voice. “You wanted to learn about it, didn’t you?”

“Yes…”

“You-” pausing, Yua released a small, restrained breath. “You really are your father's son, Kakashi.”

“And yours.” Mifuhne winced when he realized the words he’d been thinking were spoken out loud, and in an instant, Yua’s attention turned away from the son she’d no doubt been worrying about since the start of the blizzard and focused on him.

“And me?” she asked, an amused expression greeting Mifune when he dared to look her way. “And what are you doing here? I thought A Dimond clan warden would be smart enough to get himself to safety before the blizzard hit?”

A jab. Playful with a hint of seriousness.

Her way of asking him a question she didn’t dare speak out loud.

Are you Injured?

“I was helping a lost Pokemon,” he explained, waving a hand over his body to show her that there were no injuries on him. “Bisharp and I got caught in the Blizzard, but we were lucky enough to find him,” he nodded toward the young boy who was still being held tightly in Yua’s arms. “Lord Braviary helped us to get here.”

“So you used it,” she smiled. “The note I taught you?”

“Well, Lord Avalugg would have been helpful as well, but it would have taken us longer to get to shelter.”

“Lord Avalugg still would have gotten you to safety,” she argued. “But- thank you. For finding him.”

Looking between the two of them, Mifune couldn’t help but smile. It was rare for him to get a glimpse into Yua’s life outside of her duties as a Warden. Her personal life was wrapped so tightly into herself, protected from the rest of the world, that he barely knew anything about her childhood or even the things she did when she wasn’t with Lord Braviary.

What he knew about her was her love for books, her incredible kindness, and her fascination with bringing her favorite tea everywhere with her so that she could have a cup wherever she was, which she always offered to share with him so long as he agreed to make it.

“Mom?” the boy called out, his eyes focused solely on her. “He’s Diamond clan.”

Looking back at her son, Yua offered a kind, comforting smile. The type of smile she usually reserved for those moments when she’d offer Mifune a warm cup of Tea during a late night outside watching the stars, or for those fleeting moments when she’d tell him about the family he never got to meet.

At least, he’d never gotten to meet either of them until today.

“He is,” she confirmed. “But he’s special.”

Mifune covered his mouth, barely containing the laugh that threatened to escape his throat at his friend's words.

“Special?” the boy asked, his eyes darting over to Mifune and examining him for just a second before returning to his mother. “How?”

“Well, you see,” releasing her grip on her son she sat back and placed her right forefinger against her lips while a thoughtful expression settled onto her face. “It’s…an interesting situation.”

“Like you and dad?”

Both Mifune and Yua cringed at those words. “No,” she answered swiftly. “No, your father and I are a couple. As strange as some view our relationship, we’ve been together for years.”

“And, you two?”

“We’re friends,” Mifune answered when Yua failed to answer with her usual swiftness.

“Friends, yes,” Yua confirmed. “Mifune is a Warden, like me.”

The boy narrowed his eyes and seemed to think over the information he had received before opening his mouth to speak. “If he’s your friend, why haven’t I met him before?”

A better question had never been asked, In Mifune’s opinion.

“You…well…” glancing back his way, Yua sighed. “Neither of you are going to accept any answer I give, are you?”

“No,” they answered in unison, both of them looking at each other when they’d realized what they had done.

“Of course not,” Shoulder’s sagging in defeat, Yua settled into her spot. “Well, we have some time before this Blizzard is finished. A perfect opportunity to fix that, don’t you think?”

Staring at each other, Mifune and the boy said nothing. Mifune because he had no idea where to even begin since he hadn’t even realized Yua had ever been with child, though now that he knew her mysterious disappearance six years ago made a lot more sense.

“Let’s start with names,” Yua suggested with a cheerful smile. “Mifune, this is my son, Kakashi.”

Kakashi. Scarecrow.

Once before Mifune had heard his friend's lover’s name and joked about how it meant ‘crops’ and now he was faced with the terrible realization that his cool, romance-loving friend was a terrible jokester.

“Hello,” the boy, Kakashi, waved to him as his Eevee jumped up onto his lap. “Dad says you’re nicer than mom.”

Bringing a hand up over his mouth, Yua tried her best to hide that smile that stretched across her lips but failed spectacularly and simply shrugged her shoulders when Mifunhe raised an eyebrow. “Is he wrong?”

“You are nice,” He sighed. “But…given your rather cold approach to other people, I find it…difficult to argue. One question though.”

“How does he know about you when you haven’t met him?”

“That would be the question, yes.”

“Is it so hard to believe that I speak to my husband about my closest friend?”

All night Mifune had been cold. His fingers had ached under the relentless attack of the wind crashing against him, and even in the safety of the cave Lord Braviary had taken them to he still hadn’t managed to properly warm up without his jacket.

Those few, simple words from Yua instantly chased away the cold, though. His heart swelled with warmth and immediately spread throughout his body, easing his aches and removing all traces of cold from his body.

It was as if he had found a fire to sit himself down beside, except instead of flames to warm his body it was love.

The love of his friend telling one of the most important people in her life all about him, and him in turn relaying that information to their son.

“Ridiculous,” pushing herself to her feet, Yua took a few short steps toward Mifune and leaned forward so that her face was now mere inches away from his. “You should know better.”

“You’re not exactly the most open person I’ve ever met,” he argued. “It seems only natural that you would keep that information to yourself.”

Reaching out her left hand, she extended two fingers and gently tapped them against the side of Mifune’s head. “Just because I don’t tell the whole world about my life, doesn’t mean I don’t talk about it,” she responded with a tender smile. “The whole world doesn’t need to know. Only my most precious people do.”

My most precious people.

A smile stretched across Mifune’s face as the words swirled around in his head.

Straightening herself up. Yua looked over at her son as he huddled back into Mifune’s coat. “Oh, and Mifune?”

“Yes?”

“Thank you,” she whispered, that same fond expression that she’d worn when she first entered the cave returning to her face. “For finding him. I don’t know what I would do-”

“Do you have tea?”

“What?” she looked back at him with confusion in her eyes.

“Do you have tea?” he asked again. “You’re always carrying some in your pouch, right?”

“Well, yes. Of course.”

“Then we should make some,” he smiled. “And we can wait out the blizzard while you tell me all about your family.”

“Are you sure you want to hear those stories?” she asked. “There’s a lot of them.”

Jabbing a finger toward the cave entrance, he smiled. “And there’s a lot of time. Besides, who would pass up the opportunity to hear about ‘Crops’ and ‘scarecrows’?”

Yua threw her head back and laughed. A bright, carefree laugh that he knew would never be repeated in front of others. A special treat just for him and Kakashi when no one else could hear her.

Throughout the years Mifune had experienced many blizzards in the Alibastar Icelands, but none were as memorable as this one. Regardless of whether the blizzard took an hour or an entire day to pass, Mifune could officially chalk this up to the best blizzard he’d ever experienced.

He only hoped that a blizzard wouldn’t be required for him to finally meet his old friend’s husband.

#Hatake Yua #Hatake Kakashi #General Mifune #Pokemon AU #Legends Arceus AU #AU-Tober #AU-Tober 2023

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wind-becomes-lightning · 2 years ago

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Homecoming v.2

...get it.. because the first chapter of my long form sayuri fic is called "homecoming" and this would be version 2... funny... no you dont get it.. thats ok...

Day 6! :) Uh, I had sooo much on my mind for this one and i shortened it quite some so it wouldn't get out of hand. But there is sooo much still in my brain that will never come out. Classic "In my head AU"

Blink and you miss it reference to @depressedhatakekakashi's Yua because when I thought of this scenario and where Kakashi possibly could have gone, she would not leave my mind.

Uchiha Sayuri is this bitch

Role Reversal Au (but not like a total role reversal, Sayuri still has her scumbag father)

Rated M (there is mention of domestic abuse in here)

4116 words

for @narutoocshipweek Day 6: Role Reversal.

On an Anbu mission out of town Sayuri stood face to face with a ghost.

She didn’t need more than one look to realise who she had stumbled upon, the hair silver grey and white as it used to be, the uncovered eye lazy and disinterested. He was tall now, yes, stronger, larger, but he was still the same. No matter how many years she hadn’t seen him, she still felt hot now that she was back in his presence.

That Hatake Kakashi hadn’t died wasn’t a secret to her. In fact, she hadn’t thought him dead the moment he had run away. Kakashi was not a shinobi of second class. He had been Jounin at the age of 12 and not for no reason. No, Sayuri hadn’t believed what people had told her that he had died when he ran away from his shame and anger and disappointment. Neither had Rin, for what it was all worth. All of them had strongly believed that he was still alive somewhere, holding on, doing whatever it was that took his mind off things. But as years passed many lost their belief, even Gai after a while thought it must have been true. If Kakashi were still alive he would have sent them a message by name, he would have to have a reputation. There weren’t many people with sharingans running around.

But Sayuri had always known that he was still alive and around somewhere. At least since the mark on her wrist appeared and branded her. Soulmates were a weird concept that she could not wrap her head around until it was suddenly there. Three little symbols on her 14th birthday marking his name on her left hand. She couldn't exactly tell people that she knew he was still alive. Also because part of her wished to never see him again after everything, Rin dying, Kushina dying….. She didn’t feel like explaining this to him.

Running from him forever however just put her right here in this place with him. He was wearing armour, his hair long and pulled back in a tiny ponytail not unlike the way his father had worn it when he had come back from whatever place he had travelled to that had kept him from Konoha as long as it did. Back when he appeared with a child but without a wife and refused to talk about the circumstances. Sayuri of course had not yet been born back then, but her father had complained about it often enough.

Kakashi’s eyes shot up as if he could feel her stare on his face and their eyes met for the first time in almost 10 years. His were still as grey as ever and hers were the signature black that the Uchiha genes provided. He nodded and Sayuri nodded back. What else was there to do? She slid over to his table and sat down on the opposite side without asking if it was alright with him, placing her Anbu mask on the table next to her.

“Your mask is a dog”, Kakashi stated without introduction or hello or other conversation starter. “That’s a fun twist of fate is it not?”

She didn’t feel like telling him that it was a Hound, which was yes, a dog, but bigger, and that yes, she had picked it because she had remembered his dog pack back from when she was young, instead a million other questions swirled around in her mind. And though she should have maybe asked “Where were you?” or “Why didn’t you message us that you were alright?” or “What the hell are you wearing?” The words she settled on were more personal and expressed a deep pain in her heart that she had maybe always felt, but that was definitely bubbling to the surface now.

“Why did you leave me?”

This was probably not the right thing to ask, seeing as Kakashi hadn’t left her personally. He had just left their village, their teachers, their friends -one of whom happened to be Sayuri. But it felt like a direct slide to her, now that teachers and friends had died or moved on, she could not help but feel angry and disappointed at it. Here he was, all grown up and healthy and happy from the looks of it and that stung more than she could admit out loud.

Kakashi waved to the barman and he brought two sake cups to place before either of them. He drank the entire cup before he spoke, throwing the long hair into his face. He wasn’t wearing a hitai-ate anymore, but his sharingan eye was covered by a thin bandana bearing rune-like symbols that Sayuri had never seen. He sighed deeply: “You must have known I was still alive out there.”

Not a reply to her question, he was just evading what she had accused him of. Of course, he was aware she had known he was still alive. Sayuir’s eyes darted to her left wrist that was at the moment covered under her thick black gloves and then to his hands, which too were behind gloves. If she had his name it meant that he had hers. At least theoretically.

“You could have contacted me”, she now said and the words were bitter on her tongue. Kakashi just shrugged and leaned back in his chair. “I did not think I had anything to say”, he replied and sounded like a spoiled little child.

Sayuri took her own sake cup and drowned it down, filled it and downed it again. “Gai thought you were dead”, she said bitterly. “Does that mean nothing to you?”

“You could have always told him.”

He must have known well enough by now that the soulmate marks were only visible to oneself, and, at least that's what the legend said, to your soulmate. So Sayuri had tried and failed to inform Gai about Kakashi’s wearabouts, had told him she was sure he was still out there, without mentioning her mark, but Gai had always assumed she was just telling him things to please him. “You don’t have to lie to me, Sayuri. It is ok. I am quite fine.” It had been a hopeless case. Even though he’d been away, there was no way Kakashi didn’t understand that.

“Oh yeah, that would have been so easy, you got me”, she spit out and moved her head away. “Still, I thought you’d be more interested in knowing how we are all doing.”

She noticed that he was wearing a tiny Hatake symbol on his frontal plate. It reminded her a little of the Uchiha crest her father wanted her to wear underneath her ANBU armour plate as if it made a difference. She had objected of course, to no avail. Everybody in ANBu was supposed to know which clan she belonged to first and foremost. IT was disgusting actually.

“I was. But I don’t think I could have just returned after I was away for so many years. Don’t you think they would have asked questions?” Kakashi said and he was obviously right. Had he returned after he was declared dead he could have been seen as a threat to the village. Especially if his answers about where he was and why he didn’t give notice were unsatisfactory.

“But then again, I’m not sure Minato-sensei would have done that to me”, he continued musing. “He did have a soft spot for me anyway… I assume MInato-sensei did end up becoming Hokage, right?”

Of course, Sayuri laughed which gained her a confused look by her opposite, he did not know that they died. Why should he? But that also meant he was in a place so cut off from the outside world that he hadn’t heard about the Kyuubi. He must also not know about Rin, about the other changes in the world. It was so hard to believe that he was away so long and so thoroughly that he missed the death of two of his most important people.

Sayuri emptied another cup of sake. That was three in quick succession and she was well on her way to getting blackout drunk. Maybe that was the only way she could deal with this situation right now, she thought. “Minato is dead. So is Kushina-sensei and….” Her voice broke before she could name Rin.

Kakashi’s eye went wide, she could see him breathe in and out below his mask. “Died?” His voice was quieter and he copied her and emptied a cup of sake. Who knew how many he had had at this point.

“When I was 13, yes. The nine-tailed fox attacked the village and killed both of them. They left behind a baby son”, Sayuri explained and remembered that night. The screams, the chaos, the specific instructions that they were not allowed to help the fighting shinobi. She had just recently joined ANBU on Kushina’s encouragement and felt utterly helpless and horrible. And then the persecution of the Uchiha made her father even more unhinged than he already was…

“You know if you’d contact me once you saw the burn mark on your wrist, then you’d maybe know about them dying”, she said in anger and tapped with her finger next to his left hand. Kakahi pulled the hand away as if she had burned it and frowned: “I was not able to contact anybody at that age. I’m sorry to hear of their death….”

He really seemed like he meant it. “Whatever”, Sayuri said. “Their son looks exactly like Minato, he keeps the village on its toes. Not that I could take care of a child - can’t even take care of myself…”

It was weird sitting there with him and drinking sake cup after sake cup with a long lost friend. The guy she used to crush on when she was younger and more naive. He looked so similar to the version of him that had been dominating her mind, but he was so different. The lines around his eyes were deeper and his facial structure was more mature. Also his voice, of course, his voice had dropped down and was now naturally vibrant, filling her ears and echoing off her insides. He looked good, well fed, well grown, not a mess like she was. And that, above all, pissed her off.

“So you have been doing well for yourself, huh, have enjoyed some fruitful years”, Sayuri said coldly, gesturing to his belly as if there was any fat there to make fun of. It was a petty thing to be mean about, of course and untrue on top, but she felt petty.

Kakashi shrugged his shoulders: “You Uchiha have always been a major pain in my ass, really. It was so quiet with none of you around.” Now he was being petty back at her.

“Oh yeah?! Well you have my brother’s sharingan eye, so show a bit of respect to my family!” Sayuri screamed a little louder than really necessary. Kakashi pulled a brow and she could read the question on his face before he even said it. No Sayuri’s connection to her family had not deepend, no she still despised the fact that she had been born into the Uchiha clan. Using them to win an argument was stupid. Idiotic. Childish.

It was even worse because now people’s heads turned over and put Kakashi into their lenses. A shinobi running around with a sharingan eye for the taking was not usual, especially if they weren’t actually part of the Uchiha clan. Sayuri could clearly feel the eyes of all of them aimed at their table and could sense the killing intent polluting the air.

“Let’s go into my room”, Kakashi hissed quickly and grabbed her, before she could stop him from it. She had just about time to grab her mask before he dragged her up the stairs into a small room with a tiny futon and a kimono folded over a bamboo chair. At least that answered the question that she hadn’t asked and showed her that he did not always wear this weird armour outfit.

He let go of her hand and she laughed a little cruelly: “Can’t you defend yourself anymore? Did the last ten years make you weak?” Kakashi turned his head, it was a little red with anger. “I didn’t want to cause a scene, something you should understand or not? Anbu squad leader Dog” Kakashi said back and a shadow fell over his eyes.

“Hound, actually.” Sayuri shrugged her shoulders theatrically: “Wouldn’t have surprised me if you had not been able to do something about them. You don’t at all seem like the person you were when you were a child.” She looked up and his icy glare met hers. “I mean except the part of you not caring about your friends and comrades. You were good at that already when you were ten.” She grinned a lopsided grin and knew she was now dangerously close to crossing a line.

“I do care about my friends and comrades,” Kakashi growled between gritted teeth.

“Ohhh, well if that would be the case, why didn’t you send a message? At least to me?”

“Why do you think you are entitled to have me message you? Why do you think of all the people that I trusted, you were the one I would tell where I went and what I did? You were only a pain in my ass most of my childhood, “ Kakashi’s eyes now were alight with a fury that ignited her own.

Without saying a word she ripped her arm protection off her arms and pulled her gloves down. All of it fell to the floor with a loud clunk and she pushed her wrist into his face: “Because of this! Because I felt like you would want to talk to me about this. Was this nothing to you?” The skin below her left wrist was burned in like the tattoo on her left arm. Three tiny symbols were visible right beneath it and it had Kakashi’s name on it. He looked down on it and stretched his left hand. Then he looked up at her arm.

Sayuri was full of bruises, it was the way she was. Her missions took a toll on her and she was clumsy when she was distracted. Kakashi touched the arm, let his thumb run from her wrist to her elbow and up her arm to her sleeves. He was surprisingly gentle when handling the wounds and his first direct touch in many years made her blush against her will.

“Who did this to you?”, he asked with a grumble and picked up her other arm to inspect her bruises. She bit her lower lip. There was this inclination to lie to him. It could have been so easy- she lied to her subordinate Tenzo all the time about it. The reality was embarrassing and terrible and a little hard to admit to herself. But somehow she couldn't bring herself to lie to Kakashi specifically. She squirmed: “I came home late recently”, she explained. “He did not like it.”

“You father?” Kakashi asked and his eyes went wide again. He grabbed her wrist so that his thumb hung over his own name. “He is still hitting you?” Sayuri nodded, though she did not look in his face. “You should be stronger than him now, right?” he seemed genuinely angry on her behalf, “Why don’t you put a stop to this?”

Sayuri tried to get out of his grip but he held onto her even tighter: “I don’t know! He is my father. I have nobody else. Maybe - Maybe - Maybe I deserve this..” She bit her tongue at the last part. She knew she’d said too much.

He seemed like a slow erupting volcano: “You don’t deserve this. He should not do this. I’ll- I’ll get him to stop…” She laughed a cold unforgiving laugh as a reply: “And how? You don’t even want to go back to the village. You could have helped me long ago, but it did not matter. Rin didn’t matter, Minato didn’t matter… Obito didn’t matter…” She dragged the last name out and knew she was hurting both of them by calling it.

His face went white and then red with anger. He stepped forward to press her back against the closed door. “Well I’m trying to help you now, am I not?”

“Don’t you think that's a little late?” she spit back.

“Sage, do you ever shut up?”

“Could ask you the damn same.”

They stared at each other, the air between them sizzling with electricity. He was still holding her wrist with his name under his fingers. Sayuri was breathing heavily now as if the air had suddenly gotten unbearably humid, which was so unusual for the country they were both in at the moment. She stared up at the grey eye and the bandana, and looked into the face of the man who used to be a boy that was her friend. Now he was just… Well, she did not know who he was.

Her fingers found his own left hand and without breaking eye contact she undressed his glove and let it fall to the ground. There were some new scars around his hands, from sharpening swords or kunais or whatever he had been doing, but when she looked down she could see the three symbols engraved there. Her heart jumped a little when she saw it was her name, even if she had known it before. Maybe deep down she’d still be scared that she was somehow misunderstanding this whole soulmate thing.

Strangely mirroring him she let her thumb run over her own name, gently holding his wrist between her fingers. Kakashi let her do this and watched her from overhead. Neither of them spoke for a bit, the fight seemingly on hold like they had both been put in a daze. Soulmate marks were odd and seemed to evade proper research. Nobody knew where they came from and why they appeared and disappeared. And nobody knew what incredible power they held once they were unified next to each other.

There was a pull right behind her ear, as if it was dragging her head upwards. Something magnetic was forcing Sayuri closer to him and she let it happen, let herself get dragged into his orbit. Kakashi too seemed to be pulled in by the gravity and he let go of her wrist to move finger mechanically up to his mask. They looked at each other one moment and Sayuri was confused and insecure and felt the weight of everything crushing and disappearing around her, but the next moment her eyes fell shut on their own and she just let whatever was happening happen.

Once as kids they had kissed, or rather, Sayuri had kissed Kakashi as a fun prank. It had been so long ago that she’d forgotten most about it other than the embarrassment she had felt after she’d done it and his shocked face. This was not like that time. It was like they had always done this, as if they had kissed each other a million times before this one. It was so easy, so intuitive and it felt like coming home from a long mission. Kakashi pushed forward into her and she let him, a little dazed at the taste of all of it, the encompassing feeling of melting away under the touch of someone else.

They got dragged underwater like in a spiral, hands grabbing each other greedily and fast as if there was sudden hunger involved. The leftover glove dropped and Sayuri who did not know how to get the armour off let her finger get guided by his hands until she figured the clips and slings out, while his mouth explored her cheeks, her neck and her shoulder. Neither of them spoke much other than affirmations and sighs and names. The world ceased to exist and there was only them and their pull to be as close as they possibly could.

Every of his touches felt like a flame moving up her skin, each of his kisses left a little bruise behind that did not sting like the others did. He was careful with her injuries, she found more and more scars on his body. Wherever this body had been in the last ten years, Kakashi had definitely looked after it even when he was injured. There were so many questions that needed answers, but right at this point she just let herself be undone by him. Maybe she should have been angry still, but she found herself unable to think and feel anything but the greatest desire.

Kakashi held her steady when they were done, both on their backs on the floorboards. They hadn’t walked to the futon that was not far from them and had instead stayed on the hard ground, unable to make it one more metre for more comfort. The wild feeling had not yet passed completely, but Sayuri could feel her breath calm under his embrace, could feel herself ease into the crook of his neck. It was like this place had always been her place and in some way this might be true. After all, they had been branded soulmates.

“Come with me”, he whispered into her ear suddenly and she opened her eyes to turn to him. She had pulled the bandana from his head and let his hair fly down over his face in her frency, but he had kept his sharingan eye pressed shut all through it. It made her smile to think that he felt like this moment was too private to share with Obito, no matter how much Kakashi must miss him.

Sayuri reached her hand forward and ran her fingers through his hair: “Come with you, where?” She still had no idea where he had lived most of these years and he had not told her about it.

“I was in the Land of Iron” Kakashi explained and Sayuri moved away from him a little. The samurai land? Getting in there was surprisingly hard and usually foreigners were killed on sight. If he had lived there for so many years he must have been very lucky. But on the other hand this would explain why he missed so much of the world news. The samurai were notoriously against engaging with the outside world. “Turns out my mother is still alive there” he continued.

“Y-your mother..” She blinked at him. It worked with the stories she had heard of Sakumo staying away for a few years and suddenly returning with a son and no woman to show for. Maybe she’d stayed there. Maybe she hadn’t been permitted to leave.

Kakashi nodded: “Yes, she was there. I travelled around on my own for a while and then I heard rumours. I did some searching and finally found my way into the Land of Iron, which was very dangerous of course. She protected me though as soon as I found her.”

Not surprising that his mother would be a strong, independent warrior, Sayuri thought and her mind’s eye showed her her only far long gone memory of her mother. “She will protect you too if I bring you, I swear.”

“I’m not sure… I have responsibilities and… subordinates… and Gai…” Sayuri thought of Tenzo, her number two, who was like a brother to her and all the others that had been in her graduating class. If she would also disappear suddenly it would just open old wounds again. She squirmed away from him a little more, though his hand kept hold of her hips.

Kakashi smiled and she saw the kindness in his eyes: “If you want to contact them, we could do that. You could write them all about this, if you want. As long as you leave my mother out, at least for now.” He put his forehead against hers. “I just want you to be safe from him.”

Sayuri touched her own arm and let her own fingers run over the bruises. Her father would probably not care if she’d disappear. He would assume she had died and feel better because of it. Her friends however would surely worry, no matter how worthless she sometimes thought she was. She looked up at Kakashi and knew that he was sincere with what he was saying.

Maybe this was her destiny. They had been marked as soulmates after all. She leaned up to kiss him and he held a hand against her cheek.

“Fine. Let’s go home together.”

#fanfiction things #oc: sayuri #narutoocshipweek2022 #naruto oc ship week 2022 #like sayuri is also the one who killed rin in this scenario #in my head both kakashi and obito saw it happen but kakashi was too far away to she WHO did it #so he just has the mangekyou but he doenst know that it was here #this could lead to future issues #also makes her guilty as hell #and thats why she got into anbu just like kakashi would have anyway #after that incident was when he went to the land of iron #thats not mentione dhere but that was sort of my idea #meow #yes im uploading this early because nobody reads these anyway so the timing does not matter #does a little dance

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