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depressedhatakekakashi · 5 months ago

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A New Friend

Prompt: Cats and Dogs/Safety

Words: 5,063

Characters: Hatake Kakashi, Pakkun, Bull, Bizuke, Tenzo

Hatake Kakashi was a name known worldwide. It was a name that caused fear among shinobi, and which was always followed by whispers of a thousand jutsu and the Sharingan.

At least, that’s how it used to be.

People still spoke about Kakashi, often, but never with the same level of fear.

These days when Kakashi heard his name being spoken in public it was usually followed by the words Sixth Hokage. There was still a hint of fear in some of those voices, but it was usually a name spoken with respect.

Respect for a man who’d once been a great shinobi, but now felt like little more than a glorified paper pusher.

“Halfway done,” Bizuke noted, a cheerful tilt in his voice as he nudged another piece of paper off the top of the pile, so it floated perfectly down onto the desk right in front of Kakashi. “And it’s only been an hour. You’re getting good at this, pup.”

“Speaking of getting good,” picking the paper up, he waved in toward Bizuke. “You’re becoming my number one helper.”

“Number two,” Pakkun called from his spot on the other side of the desk, his head perched on top of the pillow Shizune had bought for him so that he was, in her words, ‘comfortable while helping Lord Sixth get his work finished’.

“I don’t see you over here helping me conserve energy grabbing paperwork.”

“So much energy waisted reaching up and grabbing a piece of paper,” Pakkun responded with a tired grunt. “One would think you’d have more energy to spare without that stupid eye-“

“Pakkun…”

“Sorry, without the Sharingan,” the pug corrected himself, though Kakashi couldn’t help but notice the way he rolled his eyes as he did so. “why do you even need us here? All we do is sit around.”

“Would you be doing anything else back in the grasslands?”

Flopping over onto his back, Pakkun stuck his feet into the air. “Basking in the sun,” he answered with a happy sigh.

“Running around in circles chasing each other,” Bizuke added.

“Oh, taking a dip in the river!” Bull pipped up, his head lifting off of the ground while the other five hounds that had huddles around him in the corner of the room groaned.

“All of which you can do here,” Kakashi reminded them. “Konoha has a river.”

“It’s not as cool as the one back home.” Bull huffed.

“And there’s lots of space to run around.”

“With people everywhere,” Bizuke whined. “We’ve been kicked a few times by accident just trying to have fun.”

“And,” nodding toward the window he watched as all eight hounds turned their heads to look. “there’s lots of sunshine here. Too much, in fact.”

“That’s the problem with the sun in this office,” Pakkun sighed. “there’s no middle ground. Either it’s full blaze boiling hot, or there’s no sun at all.”

“I don’t control how the sun moves in the sky.”

“No, you don’t.” dropping onto his side, Pakkun sighed when Kakashi reached out and snuck a finger behind his left ear. As soon as he began to scratch Pakkun’s paws started kicking out in excitement.

“and here I thought you all liked to keep me company.”

“We do,” jumping around the pile of paperwork, Bizuke plopped himself down in front of Kakashi and gave one short bark when he reached out with his free hand to pat his head. “it’s just…not as fun.”

“As?”

“Before.”

Kakashi chuckled. “Trust me, you’re not the only one’s who think that,” retracting both of his hands he turned around in his spot and stared out the window overlooking the village.

Over the years Kakashi had done a lot of missions. He’d been one of the most active shinobi in Konoha’s short history, and now all he did was sit behind a desk filling out paperwork, attend meetings he honestly wanted nothing to do with, and went on short trips to other villages once every two months for Kage summit meetings.

It was a far more sedentary life. One which he still hadn’t grown accustomed to even after seven years.

“I wish I wasn’t stuck here,” he whispered as Bull got up from his spot and trudged toward him with all five other hounds following right behind. “there’s a lot of other things I’d rather be doing.”

Placing his head on Kakashi’s lap, Bull stared up at him with a look Kakashi knew all too well.

“You want to go for a run?”

Bull’s tail began to wage as soon as ‘Run’ left his mouth.

“Alright,” with that decided, Kakashi gave Bull one quick pat on the head before pushing his chair back toward the desk and standing up. Once he was up he locked his hands together and stretched them over his head, groaning when his back gave a satisfying pop. “We can race to the house, how does that sound?”

On cue, Pakkun’s tiny feet landed on Kakashi’s shoulder. “Is Gai home?”

“Of course,” Kakashi confirmed. “Which is great for you because I can’t be out too long. I still have-“he glanced back at the pile of paper on his desk. “All of this to finish today, plus a meeting this afternoon with the elders,” his least favourite part of the job. “Ah, anyways,” focusing back on the hounds he grinned. “I bet as soon as we show up Gai will want to go for a run with you.”

“Yes!” Bizuke hopped off of the desk and made a beeline straight for the window. “come on! We can’t waste any time.”

With more excitement than such a tiny body should be able to contain, Bizuke jumped straight out of the open window onto the ledge outside and immediately turned back to look at them. “Come on!”

“Bizuke,” Kakashi chuckled as Shiba, Urushi, Akino, Uhei and Guruko followed Bizuke’s lead and hopped out of the window one after another.

“What are you waiting for, pup,” Bizuke insisted. “Gai’s waiting for us.”

“And I’m as excited about that as you,” Kakashi agreed, though his excitement wasn’t quite as obvious as any of the hounds. “But that window won’t fit Bull. He has to go the long way.”

“Oh…”

“It’s ok,” dropping a hand onto Bull’s head, he lifted his other hand and gave the other six hounds a thumbs up. “You go ahead. We’ll catch up in no time.”

Uhei covered his mouth with a paw and snickered. “Is that a challenge, pup.”

Turning his back to the window, Kakashi waved them away. “Not a challenge,” he spoke as him and bull made their way toward the door, Pakkun still standing happily on his shoulder. “A promise. It’s easy enough to catch up to you.”

Pakkun groaned as soon as the words left his mouth. “Stop it.”

Glancing back at the window, Kakashi watched as all six dogs headed off in different directions, his challenge clearly accepted. “Bull, Pakkun, you ready?”

“Sometimes you really are the worst, pup,” Pakkun sighed as he jumped off Kakashi’s shoulder and bolted out the door.

“And the best,” Bull added, making no move to leave Kakashi’s side. “Should I stop the others from getting home first?”

“Don’t stop them,” digging a hand into his pocket, Kakashi grabbed one of the dogs treats he’d made sure to keep after initially summoning the dogs and tossed it to bull who wasted no time in catching and devouring it. “Just…hold them back a little.”

Once his treat was gone, Bull nodded his head. “On it.”

With his new goal and a treat to power him up, Bull bounded through the door. Kakashi’s secret weapon to ensuring that he wasn’t the last one home, and thus wouldn’t have to succumb to the hound pile that they all loved to treat him too whenever he lost one of their races.

Not that he had any sort of problem being jumped on by a bunch of adorable hounds who wanted to drown him in slobbery kisses.

Really, he just didn’t want them to have bragging rights over him. Not after all the work he’d put in over the years to improve his speed so that he didn’t lose to them every single time they had a race.

Sending Bull ahead to slow down the other hounds proved to be a waste of Kakashi’s efforts and a good treat. Not because Bull didn’t deserve that treat, or even because he wasn’t trying.

It just turned-out Bull didn’t need to help with distractions today because the other hounds were plenty distracted without him.

Akino was the first one Kakashi had found, his tail tucked between his back legs and head bowed as he received a scolding from Teuchi that no doubt had something to do with the spilled ramen Kakashi could see on the ground just behind Teuchi’s feet.

A responsible dog owner would go over and apologize for what had happened.

Thankfully, Kakashi was not the hound’s owner but rather their summoner and could simply ignore what was happening in front of him in favour of getting ahead of Akino in the race. Whatever he’d done to upset Teuchi was his issue to deal with.

Next was Bizuke, who didn’t seem to be in trouble with anyone but whom Kakashi spotted swimming laps around the Konoha river chasing after a duck. Kakashi wasn’t too sure what Bizuke wanted to do with the duck once he caught up to it. Whether this was all just a fun game he’d decided to partake in, or if he was trying to catch himself a mid race snack.

Either way, it was not Kakashi’s problem, so he continued forward while making a mental note to talk to the hound later about disturbing Konoha’s wildlife.

Uhei and Guruko were running around the training field in the centre of Konoha’s marketplace. Their barks had been what alerted Kakashi to their presence, and wanting to ensure that they were alright he decided to take a detour to check on them. Thankfully, the two of them seemed fine.

Unfortunately for them, they also seemed to have been spotted by Ibiki who was now using them to help his students improve their speed. That was Kakashi could gather, at least, as he sat on the fence watching the three genin tumbling after the two hounds. Hovering around just long enough for Ibiki to spot him, Kakashi waved cheerfully toward his friend before continuing his way.

There was no need for him to stick around now that he knew both hounds were safe and happily running circles around some new genin. It had been years since any of the hounds had someone new to test their speed against, and he wasn’t going to be the one to ruin that fun for him.

Running was important to the hounds.

Embarrassing bright eyed genin who assumed they’d have no issue catching them was an absolute necessity to their health.

Kakashi had almost reached his house and was confident that he’d managed to beat at least four out of his eight ninja hounds in the race, when something else caught his eye.

A tiny speck of white tucked away behind some boxes. Completely hidden away from civilians who were more concerned with their daily shopping and the current village gossip, but impossible for Kakashi to miss.

Coming to a stop, he turned toward the small stack of boxes that sat just outside the BBQ place that Asuma used to frequent with his students and examined it closely. The speck of white that had originally caught his attention seemed to be gone, but Kakashi knew that it wasn’t far away.

If he was patient and calm, it was likely to come back.

And it wasn’t long before his patience was rewarded.

On the left of the stack of boxes a small head poked out, white fur with a small speck of grey in the centre of its forehead. A cat, and one that had been living on the streets for quite a while judging by the small patches of dirt he could see on its head.

“Hello,” he smiled, chuckling when the scared anime ducked back into hiding. “Ah, I see how it is,” stepping forward, he stopped right in front of the spot where that tiny head had popped out and lowered himself into a squat. “Come on out, I’m not going to hurt you.”

Slowly the head came back out and bright green eyes stared up at him with a fearful expression. “It’s ok,” he promised, extending a hand out for it to sniff. “I’m a friend, I promise.”

Slowly it inched out of its hiding spot, its tiny skinny body becoming visible to Kakashi as it stretched its neck out to sniff his hand.

“You’ve been out here a while, haven’t you?” he watched as the cat sniffed each of his knuckles before finally accepting his offering and bumping its tiny head against his hand. Extending his fingers, he ran them over the cat’s tiny head. “You must be young. Under a year at least, which means you were probably born out here.”

Not an uncommon occurrence. Growing up Kakashi had seen his fair share of stray dogs and cats on the streets, though they were usually well cared for by the people who would happily offer them food and cuddles if they were to walk up to them while they were out enjoying their day.

Nowadays it was a little harder for people to notice strays. Partially because more people had moved to the village, causing it to grow to be twice the size of what it was when the fourth great shinobi war ended, and partially because there were more buildings and piles of goods and objects for animals to hide behind.

“You look like you could use a bath,” he expected the cat to back up at the word, and possibly even hiss at him. It wouldn’t be the first time in his life an animal had venomously opposed being washed with soap and water.

Akino was venomously against baths and often needed to be held down by Kakashi or Gai while the other one sprayed him down.

The cat didn’t back up, though. It just sat there staring at Kakashi as he pet it.

“Mmm, what do you think?” he asked, wondering what people would say if they saw the Hokage kneeling in front of a pile of boxes talking to a cat. Not that he cared too much about other people’s opinions, but he was certain it made for a rather interesting sight. “I have nice warm blankets at my house, and we can pick up some cat food on the way. Or, I could make some grilled fish for dinner.”

At the mention of grilled fish the cat lifted its head against his hand and let out a soft, happy meow.

“That sound good?” he couldn’t help but chuckle. Hatake Kakashi, Hokage of Konoha, making a grilled fish dinner for a stray cat.

Gai was going to tease him about it all night.

“Well,” retracting his hand, he turned it over, so his palm was facing skyward and watched the cat. “You want to come with? You can even lay on Bull’s head if you want. He’s a giant cuddle bug.”

Watching as the cat seemed to contemplate his offer, Kakashi chuckled when let out a tiny sigh before walking straight into his hand. He didn’t need to hear the cat speaking to understand what it was saying.

All animals, big or small, loved to cuddle. Even the most vicious animals in the world loved a good cuddle if it was with the right company.

“Trust me,” lifting his hand he watched as the cat’s tiny body relaxed into his hold and its little legs dangled in the air while it continued to stare up at him with those big soft green eyes. “You’re going to love it at my house. My husband has the softest lap, and there are tons of places around the house to hide away if things get over whelming. Everyone gets their own special meals too, though I guess this means I’m going to have to learn how to make cat appropriate food now.”

There was a lot he was going to have to do. First on the list was picking up all of the things required to ensure his new friend was healthy and well cared for. A simple task that involved one quick visit to Hana and a stop at the pet shop.

The downside was even with all the distractions that had pulled the hounds attention away from their race, it was unlikely that he was going to win. Even bull wouldn’t be able to distract all the other hounds from getting home before Kakashi did.

He would have to give them extra cuddles and treats, but as he stared down in those soft green eyes that looked up at him with cautious wonder, he knew it was a loss he would happily accept.

A simple race home. That’s all he’d planned on.

Get the hounds out of the office, allow them to stretch their legs, have lunch with the most beautiful man he’d ever laid his eyes upon and who’d, by some miracle of the universe, had agreed to marry him.

It wasn’t a lot.

At most he should have been gone for an hour before rushing back to his office to complete the pile of paperwork sitting on his desk for him.

That was not how Kakashi’s afternoon had gone, though.

Instead, he’d spent the last three hours getting his new friend checked up by Hana and then running around the village collecting all of the items she’d listed out for him as necessities for taking care of a cat.

Items that he had assumed would all be at the pet store, but instead had been scattered throughout the village.

A cat tree and litter box had been exactly where he’d thought they would be. In fact, they’d been the first thing he saw as soon as he stepped inside of the tiny shop that had been a part of Konoha’s market since he was a child.

The fresh fish for home cooked cat meals were of course not there, but rather at the food market where the shop keeper had made sure to talk up his latest supply of crane meat that had arrived from Kumo.

Next, he’d gone to the vegetable market to pick up some eggplant and other necessities. Items that weren’t necessarily for his new tiny friend, but which he knew the house needed if he wanted to make everyone a delicious, healthy meal when he finally arrived home tonight.

Once his arms were full of bags and he was certain he’d finished running around the village searching for items, he turned down the road and prepared to make his way home when a familiar voice rang through the air.

“Lord Sixth!” His skin crawled at the sound of the honorific, and before he could even turn to face the man who so rudely called out to him in a crowded street where all eyes were now on him, he could feel their presence directly behind him.

A heavy, overwhelming presence.

“Tenzo…”

“Don’t call me Tenzo,” his friend shot back, a refrained anger in his voice.

Standing straight, he lifted the front of his left foot and did a full one hundred and eighty degree turn so that he was staring into those wide, froglike eyes. Eyes that would scare a weaker man, but which earned his friend a bored sigh. “Don’t call me, that.”

“You are the Hokage,” Tenzo reminded him, as if it was possible for him to forget. “And as Hokage you’re supposed to be in your office right now speaking wi-“

Tenzo’s words trailed off as his eyes scanned over Kakashi’s body. His eyes stopped on his left arm, where in the bag full of fresh fish Kakashi’s new friend sat happily chewing on a salmon treat that the shop keeper had given him after watching Kakashi try and wrestle him away from a large chunk of salmon that he was determined to devour before Kakashi had an opportunity to cook it up.

“Is that-“

“A cat?” Kakashi finished for him, a smile stretching across his face as he watched Tenzo reach out and offer his hand to the happy cat for a sniff test. “I found it hiding in some boxes on the way home for lunch. I was just going to get it checked-up by Hana and pick up a few things before heading back to the office,” he held up both arms to show off the rows of bags he had hanging off them. “But gathering everything took a bit longer than I had planned.”

“A bit?” Lifting his eyes, Tenzo stared at Kakashi with the most unimpressed glare he’d ever seen on his friend’s face. “You’re an hour late to your meeting with the elders. Shizune’s in your office right now trying to keep them from making a scene in the village.”

“You should let them,” the glare shifted from unimpressed to annoyed at those words. “Really! If you let them cause a scene their blood pressure will skyrocket. Shizune’s always saying to Sakura that if she doesn’t keep her temper under control, she’ll die an early death due to high blood pressure.”

“If you’re hoping they’ll kill themselves, I hate to be the barer of bad news but if that was going to happen it would have happened when they first got news that you were going to be the new Hokage.”

Kakashi hated to admit it, but Tenzo was right.

Homura and Koharu were just too stubborn and inconsiderate to do him the favour of dying so he didn’t have to deal with them anymore. Lord Third was even more inconsiderate for being the one to make their placement as Konoha’s elder’s a lifetime position.

Even if he wanted to change the system, he had to wait for them to die unless he was willing to fight the fire dynamo, the elders, and countless others in the villagers who were content with the system the way it was.

“Well, I guess in that case I should go rescue Shizune,” holding his arms out toward Tenzo, he smiled. “Think you can deliver these to the house?”

“Do I get to take the cat too?”

“No,” taking the hint, the cat jumped out of the bag at that moment and climbed its way up Kakashi’s arm onto his shoulder. “But you can send the hounds back. They can keep him company while I’m stuck listening to the elder’s complain about the latest batch of changes I’ve decided to implement.”

That was the extent of the meetings he had with the elder’s these days. Either they wanted him to make changes, or to ‘keep to tradition’, or outright forget about the changes he was trying to implement because they were ‘too much too soon’ according to the two of them.

It never worked, though.

Regardless of how many times they stormed their way into his office demanding he change his plans and have some respect for the traditions of Konoha, he wasn’t about to slow down. Naruto was going to be ready to take the job from him in just a few years and Kakashi wanted to make sure he had good grounding to start on.

If that meant going down in Konoha’s history as the worst Hokage ever because of his push to turn Konoha into an economic village, rather than a village based soly on the strength of its shinobi, he was willing to take it.

“Oh, and tell Gai I��m sorry,” he added while transferring the bags into Tenzo’s hands. “I planned to spend lunch with him, but time got away from me.”

“As if that’s new,” Tenzo huffed. “Should I tell him to meet you at your office after for dinner? Knowing you, you forgot to eat at all while running around the village.”

On cue, Kakashi’s stomach growled loud enough that five people walking by them immediately stopped to look.

“Ya,” he chuckled. “Both of you, actually.”

Tenzo raised an eyebrow. “both of us?”

“Both of you swing by for dinner,” he clarified. “bring Sushi.”

“You want me to interrupt a date with you and your husband?”

“A date?” scrunching up his nose, Kakashi huffed. “it’s not a date. Lunch would have been a date, and it would have come with cuddles from the hounds, but I missed out on that,” something he’d have to make up to his husband tomorrow when he no longer had to worry about gathering supplies for the latest addition to their family. “No, this is just a hang out. Besides,” lifting his now bag free left hand, he pointed at the tiny white kitten sitting happily on his shoulder. “I know you want to get to know him. You’re a sucker for cats.”

“I-“Those large, frog like eyes widened in surprise. “You can’t just say that out loud, Senpai!”

“Don’t call me Senpai,” he clarified. “And why not? It’s true. The same can be said for Gai and his turtles, or Naruto and frogs, or-“

“You and dogs?”

“Well…yes,” he confirmed, though it felt weird hearing dogs as his chosen animal. It wasn’t dog’s specifically he liked, but his hounds. Other than them, he loved all animals equally.

Even tiny white cat’s hiding in piles of boxes.

“Six O’clock,” he clarified with a cheerful wave to send his friend off. “With Sushi and my husband.”

“You’re going to get your work done?”

“As much as I dislike my work at times, when have you ever known me not to complete it?”

He could tell Tenzo was thinking hard about it. The way his eyebrows furrowed toward the centre of his face, and that firm concentrated look that he always had when he was thinking deeply about something were a dead give away.

It didn’t worry him, though. His friend could complain all he wanted about his tendency to be tardy and his carefree attitude, but if there was work to be done Kakashi would make sure that it was completed.

Upon realizing this, Tenzo’s shoulders slumped and he let out an exhausted sigh. “You’re right,” he admitted, narrowing his eyes into a glare when Kakashi smiled. “don’t give me that. Your work might get done but you always manage to make it twenty times more stressful on me.”

Well, yes,” Kakashi confirmed with a cheerful note in his voice. “If I didn’t do that, what fun would anything be?”

“Fun?”

As soon as he saw the scary eyes coming out, Kakashi knew it was time for him to make his exit. So, with one last wave goodbye and a quick scoop of his tiny friend off his shoulder and into the safety of his hands, he made his exit.

Tenzo’s anger filled screamed chased after him as he jumped toward the nearest rooftop, but he disregarded them. Tenzo would get his opportunity to scold him later. It would be a welcome changed from the endless droning of the elders that he was about to subject himself to as a requirement of his duties as Hokage.

“Interesting, isn’t he?” he smiled down at the tiny cat now sitting in his hand while the wind blew through his hair. “don’t worry, you’ll get to see a lot more of him. He’s part of the family.”

A tiny, almost inaudible ‘meow’ was the only response he received.

“Kind of like a little brother,” he answered the question he’d assumed was being asked. It was the first question the hounds had asked him after they’d been introduced to Tenzo, after all.

‘What’s his role in the family?’

“And you’ll love Gai,” landing directly on top of the Ramen shop, he glanced behind him. Tenzo was no where in sight, so he clearly hadn’t upset him enough for him to chase after him, which was a good thing today. He’d left him in charge of all of those things he’d collected for his new friend, and he didn’t want any of it to go to waste because he’d decided to bully his friend.

Even if Bullying Tenzo until he exploded at him was one of his favourite pass times.

“Oh, but I forget,” glancing back down at the cat, he grinned. “I haven’t given you a name yet.” Staring up at him with those giant green eyes, the cat said nothing. He simply sat there in Kakashi’s hand waiting. “How about… Haru?”

The cat simply tilted his head and continued to stare at him.

“Right, terrible name. Well, I could call you Sakura. You have green eyes like her, but who knows how she’d take that,” the image of Sakura throwing one of her bone crushing punches straight into his stomach popped into his head, and immediately he dismissed that name. The last thing he wanted was a hospital visit because he’d accidentally insulted his precious student. Ever since he’d lost the Sharingan he’d found himself spending a lot less time in the hospital, and he was happy to keep it that way.

“Maybe, Yuki?” Hearing the new name, the cat closed its eyes and meowed in an affirmative, almost cheerful way. “Yuki,” he tested the name out once more, a smile stretching across his lips. “Ya, that’s perfect. Well, Yuki, what do you think about hanging out in my office while I deal with the elders?”

Another meow, this time a bit softer but no less cheerful in its tone.

“Great,” lifting his eyes back onto the path in front of him, he bent low and jumped toward the next roof. As the wind rushed against his face and Yuki’s tiny claws dug into his arm for support, he couldn’t help but smile.

His goal of beating the hound’s home may not have been achieved, but for once he didn’t feel disappointed in himself. He hadn’t failed to catch up to them, but rather he’d gotten distracted by something that was almost as exciting as being jumped on by eight excited blood hounds.

Something that he was certain the hounds would adore almost as much as he did.

#Kakashi Birthday Bingo 2024 #Kakashibirthdaybingo2024 #Hatake Kakashi #Tenzo #Mentioned Kakagai #Kakashi’s Ninken #Pakkun #Bull #Bizuke

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depressedhatakekakashi · 8 months ago

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A Sharable Gift

Words: 4,496

Pairing: Kakagai

Prompt: Sweets

(Picture drawn by the ever fantastic @jventureart who was kind enough to entertain my silly ideas 🥰🥰🥰)

All is quiet.

Just like yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that. Everywhere Kakashi looks he’s greeted with stillness. It’s a vastly different reality from the one he’d existed in just a few short months ago.

Here there were no enemies to dispatch. No secret scrolls to retrieve for the ‘good of the village’, or enemy shinobi trying to infiltrate the village.

Everything around him was quiet, and he hated it.

“Kakashi!” The window below him slammed open and Kushina’s voice shattered the silence. In an instant Kakashi had jumped from his position on the roof ledge down to the balcony, his eyes searching the area for whatever it was that had caused Kushina to come searching for him.

When he didn’t spot anything that could be considered dangerous he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Kushina-Senpai,” he tried to keep his voice calm, not wanting to give away just how much her sudden appearance had shook him. Once he’d managed to calm his nerves just a little he opened his eye and focused his attention on the woman now half hanging out of the window with a proud smile on her face. “is something wrong?”

“Here!” without even the smallest display of embarrassment at her actions, Kushina pushed her hands out toward him. Sitting in her hands was a small green box with a brilliant scarlet bow wrapped tightly around it. “take it.”

Settling back onto his heels he stared at the object. “What is it?”

“A box,” she snickered when he glared at her with his one good eye. “Sorry. It’s chocolates!”

“Oh,” his lips pulled downward into a frown. “Uh, thank you but I don’t really like sweets.”

“No, you…” leaning further out of the window she transferred the box to her left hand and used her right to brace herself. “here,” she pushed the box out toward him. “Look at it before you say no.”

Knowing a lost cause when he saw one, Kakashi reached out to accept the box. As soon as he gripped the box Kushina released her hold and settled back into the apartment. The smile stayed cemented on her face while her eyes gleamed with excitement.

If Kakashi were anyone else he’d probably feel happy at the gift. There would be feelings of warmth and comfort swimming around in his chest at the knowledge that Kushina had thought of him when she spotted something, even if it was something he wasn’t really going to enjoy.

Kakashi wasn’t anyone else, though. He was Hatake Kakashi, and all he felt was a slight annoyance at having his peaceful watch interrupted by a panic filled moment followed by a pointless gift being shoved into his hand.

“I don’t-“

“Turn it over,” Kushina insisted, turning her hand over in a small gesture to show Kakashi exactly what she wanted him to do. “Then maybe you’ll understand why I thought of you.”

Refraining from rolling his eyes, Kakashi placed his other hand on top of the box and slowly turned it over. As soon as his did he noticed the picture on the back. A small photograph of the boxes contents.

“Are those…” Those feelings of warmth he’d thought about earlier suddenly bloomed inside of his chest.

“Little chocolates shaped like paw prints,” Kushina confirmed, her smile growing so bright that Kakashi could see the sun shinning off of them. “I know sweets aren’t really your thing, but I thought you would get a kick out of the shape.”

His eye lingered on the picture, taking in every little detail of the paw print shaped chocolates. If he had to compare them to any of his dog’s he’d say they looked the most like Bizuke’s. Small, soft, and packed full of too much sweetness.

“But, I-“ dragging his eye away from the box her focused on Kushina once again. “I appreciate it, Kushina-Senpai, but I don’t think I’ll be able to eat them.”

Many people thought his aversion to sweets was simply a dislike, but it was more than that. Sweet foods hurt his mouth. They made his tongue feel like it was being assaulted with flavour until it hurt, and that pain never went away.

“You don’t have to eat them,” Kushina continued to grin. “You could share them with someone else. Maybe someone you like?”

Kakashi tilted his head, his eyebrow arching up toward the sky. “Someone I like?”

“Ya,” Kushina insisted. “Maybe a girl you like,” she giggled when Kakashi scrunched up his nose. “Or a boy? Or maybe…” turning her eyes skyward she lifted her right hand and began tapping her forefinger against her chin. “Well, Someone important to you. Someone you like spending time with.”

A face popped into Kakashi’s mind immediately. A familiar blinding smile that exuded kindness in a world so full of cruelty. The one person he found himself drawn to even when he wanted so desperately to push the rest of the world away from him.

To protect the people around him from the curse of knowing him.

“That one,” blinking, he focused on Kushina once more. Her smile had somehow grown so wide that her eyes crinkled at the edges. “The one who just popped into your mind. Go share those with them.”

“I will,” he promised, his mind already thinking of all the places he might be able to find his friend. “After Minato-Sensei returns.”

Kushina rolled her eyes. “I do not need your protection,” she sighed, pushing herself up and away from the window dramatically. “But I know you’re not going to listen to me if I tell you to go, so fine. Minato should be back in just a bit so you won’t have to wait too long.”

With that she turned her back to him, officially closing the conversation.

As she walked away, the window still hanging open between them, Kakashi glanced back down at the box sitting in his hand. “Thank you.” he whispered, jumping back up toward the roof as Kushina turned back toward him.

Landing right back where he’d started, he set the box down on the roof beside him and turned his attention back to the surrounding area. However long it took his Sensei to return home from his duties as Hokage didn’t matter, he would keep the apartment protected until the moment he was released from his duty by the man who’d set him upon the task of watching over Kushina.

Even though his body itched to grab the box and make a break for it, he stood firm. There was almost nothing that could take him away from his duty. Not even the thought of that brilliant smile greeting him.

His heart pounded a little harder in his chest as he thought about that smile and the cheerful, energetic voice that would fall from that mouth. The warmth he’d felt blooming in his chest earlier returned, and for the first time that day Kakashi couldn’t wipe the smile off of his face, and there was a part of him deep down inside that felt guilty for smiling.

For the first time since his hand had pierced through Rin’s chest, there was something that he could look forward to. Some one he wanted to see.

Rin and Obito were both buried six feet under the ground because of his mistakes, and here he was smiling like an idiot because he had some chocolates to share with his best friend. He had no doubt that Kushina’s goal in giving him the little box of chocolates was to give him a reason to smile, but now that he was he couldn’t help but feel like he was doing something wrong.

Like enjoying his life was some sort of crime when both of his teammates were unable to do the same.

“Idiot...” the smile dropped off of his face, but that warmth continued to linger in his chest. “I’ll just give them to him. He’s better off without me sticking around anyways.”

That was the plan. As soon as Minato returned home he would rush off to find his friend, present him with the gift that Kushina had given him, and go off to do his daily training. There was nothing else to do.

No matter how nice it felt to think about sharing the treats with his friend, it simply wasn’t something he had any right to do. Not when it was his fault that Rin and Obito weren’t there to enjoy their own sweet moments of life.

Not a moment had been wasted when Minato returned home. Kakashi had seen him coming from where he was position on the roof, Shibi walking at his side chatting about something important judging by the serious look on his sensei’s face.

It was rare for Kakashi to see anything but a smile plastered across his Sensei’s face.

Yet, as soon as they reached the front door and said their goodbyes, that smile was back. It was as if nothing had been wrong at all.

His Sensei was home, and just like that all of his worries melted away in an instant.

Deep down he wondered if there was someone like Kushina for him. Someone he could come home to one day. Who just the thought of seeing again would wash away all of his worries and bring a smile to his face.

“Kakashi,” a flash of yellow sped through the air and stopped directly in front of him, his Sensei’s cheerful eyes focused on him. “Mission report.”

“Not much happened,” he began, the hairs on the back of his neck standing up on end but not a single thing on his face giving away how much his Sensei’s habit of just appearing in front of him still bothered him. “Kushina-Senpai has spent most of today at home baking, though she did go out for a walk around one in the afternoon and had lunch at Ichiraku before spending some time with Mikoto-san.”

As he spoke Minato nodded his head, his smile only growing as he listened to his wife’s daily activities.

“Good,” reaching out a hand he plopped it down on top of Kakashi’s head. “Good job today. You can head out now, i’ll take care of everything from here.”

Usually Kakashi would argue. He’d insist upon providing more information about his mission, or request some training even though he’d become accustomed to being told that his Sensei had other important things to do and ‘trusted him to take care of his own training now’.

Today, though, his hand reached out for the box of chocolates Kushina had given him earlier. As soon as he had a good grip on them, he was off. His Sensei left standing on the roof watching as he sailed through the air toward his new destination.

“I’m just going to drop it off,” he reminded himself while the wind blew through his hair, that warm feeling he’d experienced when he first thought of who to share the chocolates with returning like a flame reignited from a spark of fire reaching the smoke it gave off when it had been extinguished. “Now,” scanning the area below him, he searched for that bright green jumpsuit in a sea of plain clothed civilians. “Where could he be?”

“Sorry,” Emi-san had smiled at him when he arrived at the Dango shop, not even bothering to wait for him to vocalize his reason for being there. “He just left.”

His shoulder’s dropped. Not only had he missed his friend, but it was becoming obvious that the old woman who ran the dango shop had come to associate him with Gai. Which wasn’t particularly surprising given he rarely ever went to the shop without his friend, and when he did it was usually to pick up dango for him since it wasn’t a treat he often sought out for himself. It was still strange though. To have someone read him so easily while other’s considered him one of the most difficult people in the village to read.

Not wanting to dwell on the idea that someone in the village was able to read him like an open book, he focused instead on gathering information in hopes of locating his friend quicker. “Do you know where he went?”

“I think he said he was going to train,” she answered. “I could hear Genma and Ebisu trying to convince him to take a break, but you know how Gai is. He wouldn’t listen.”

There was fondness in her voice when she spoke. The same sound he recalled hearing whenever Kushina would speak to Obito, or how his father spoke to him when he was still alive, but with a hint of something he wasn’t quite familiar with.

The closest thing he could think of to describe it was a grandmother speaking of her grandchild, but that wasn’t something he understood well enough to confirm. After all, he’d never met any of his grandparents. Neither had Gai as far as he knew.

“Well, thank you,” digging into his pocket her pulled out his wallet and pulled out enough Ryo for two sticks of dango. “here,” he held it out to here. “For Gai’s dango tomorrow.”

“Not for today?” she asked, her hand stopping midway toward the fresh sticks of dango she had standing up in her display.

“No,” raising the hand with the box of chocolates, he showed it to her for just a moment before lowering it back to his side.

“Well, in that case,” pulling her hand back she reached out to retrieve the ryo from him and tucked it into her till. “I’ll make sure he gets that dango tomorrow. You’d better get going now. He might just decide to run laps around the village for training.”

“Thank you, Emi-san,” he waved before turning on his heel and heading back out of the little shop. Searching through the village for his friend hadn’t been in his plans when he woke up that morning, but he had a goal now. Something he wanted to achieve before he returned to his empty home and tried to lose himself in the book that he’d chosen during his last visit to the village bookstore.

Gai had not gone for a run through the village. That much was clear when Kakashi arrived to training field B, just beside the Academy, and saw his friend using one of the training field dummies as a punching bag.

“You know,” he dropped down by Gai’s side and ducked just in time to avoid being punched in the side of the head when his friend whirled around and struck out at him. “You keep this up and they’re going to have to replace the dummy earlier than usual.”

“Rival!” forgetting about his training for the moment, Gai threw his arms open and wrapped them around Kakashi’s shoulders. “I wasn’t expecting to see you today. Are you finished guarding Kushina-san for the day?”

“Naturally,” Kakashi responded with a cool tone, ignoring the way his heart hammered in his chest as that weird mixture of scents that could only be attributed to Gai filled his nostrils. There was a hint of that sweet smell of dango mixed in with the overwhelming smell of grass, and if he was anyone else Kakashi might have allowed himself to bury his face into his friends shoulder and drown himself in the scent.

He wasn’t anyone else, though. He was Hatake Kakashi, Student of the Fourth Hokage.

As much as he wanted to lose himself in that comforting, sweet smell he couldn’t. It would look bad on him and his Sensei if anyone saw them.

“Here,” he lifted his hand to show Gai the box of chocolates he’d been waiting for hours to share with him. “Kushina gave me these, but they’re chocolates and, well-“

“You’re not a big fan of sweets,” Gai finished for him, a giggle following the words that fell so easily from his mouth.

“Right,” pushing his hand out toward Gai he jiggled the box. The sound of chocolates bumping around inside rang between them. “Here. They’re for you.” Gai stared at the box but made no move to take it from Kakashi. “Gai-“

“Kushina gave them to you,” he stated. “You shouldn’t just give away a gift.”

“She told me to share with you,” Kakashi huffed, keeping to himself the exact words Kushina had said to him. All he would gain from telling his friend that would be another bone crushing hug and a whole lot of tears that would be guaranteed to draw any passing citizens attention to them. “So, here.” This time he tried to shove the chocolates into Gai’s hand, but his friend simply shoved them back.

“Sharing means we eat them together,” Gai insisted, his smile gleaming in the sunlight and that warm feeling blooming inside of Kakashi’s chest once again. “We can sit down and share them if you’d like.”

Kakashi was about to accept the invitation, his emotions getting the best of him in the moment, when Rin and Obito’s faces suddenly flashed in front of his eyes.

Haunting pictures of the friends who weren’t there to share those chocolates with them. The friends who didn’t have the opportunity to enjoy something as small as a sweet treat all because of the mistakes Kakashi had made.

Mistakes that had cost them their lives.

“I can’t,” he whispered, his fingers tightening around the box. “I haven’t trained yet today so I really should get on that.”

The smile dropped off of Gai’s face and immediately Kakashi felt like he’d done something horribly wrong. Like he’d stolen the very light from the world by upsetting his friend, or that he’d deprived Konoha of the most beautiful thing within the village walls.

He shook his head, willing those thoughts out of his head. How they’d even gotten there was beyond him.

When had his bond with Gai shifted from friendship to something more? Something that made him feel so warm whenever he was in his friends presence, or even just when he thought about him. When, in all the years that he had known Gai, had he allowed himself to feel something so deeply profound while Rin and Obito were unable to experience those same feelings?

“You’re dwelling,” Gai sighed, his eyes staring a hole into Kakashi’s very soul. “You know they wouldn’t want you to do that, right?”

“You don’t know that.”

“I do,” Gai snapped, and for the first time since they’d met Kakashi found himself taking a step back from his friend. Not out of fear, but out of shame. “they were your friends, Kakashi. Our friends. They wouldn’t want you to keep punishing yourself for something that’s not your fault.”

His eyes drifted toward the ground. “It was my fault,” he muttered under his breath. “if I had just-“

“Stop it,” the sternness in Gai’s voice cut through him like a tanto. It wasn’t unheard of for Gai to get angry, but it was rare for him to get angry with Kakashi. No matter what he’d done over the years his friend had never lost his temper with him. Never cut him off in the middle of a sentence because he was upset with him. “I know you want to blame yourself. I understand it’s easier to do that than it is to admit that you weren’t at fault, because if you’re not at fault than someone else has to be and you don’t want to put the blame on anyone else, but their deaths are not your fault Kakashi.”

The words reached him, but Kakashi refused to let them in.

Refused to believe that there was any truth to them, because if what Gai was saying was true even though deep down he wanted so badly to believe it. To absolve himself of the blame and move on with his life.

It wasn’t possible though. Every time he thought back to Obito and Rin’s death all he could see was his mistakes.

His failings.

His inability as a leader and a friend to protect them in the way that he was supposed to.

“You are…” looking back up at his friend, Kakashi felt his heart breaking when he saw the sadness in his eyes. A deep hurt that dulled the brightness that usually shone in his eyes. “do you really believe that, Kakashi?”

“What?” he asked. “that I failed to protect my friends or that I am a failure as a leader?”

“That you deserve to be punished for the rest of time because of your mistakes.” the words were spoken so softly, but they struck right at Kakashi’s heart. He couldn’t bring himself to absolve himself of the guilt he carried deep in his heart, but Gai’s words reminded him of the things his father had always told him whenever he made a mistake in his training growing up.

‘You don’t dwell on it. You pick yourself up and try again.’

The words echoed in his memory. As a child he’d always wondered why his father had repeated those words to him whenever he became frustrated with his lack of progress or insulted himself over the mistakes he made.

He had made mistakes. He’d failed his friends when they needed him and those failures had cost them their lives.

That was a fact he would have to live with for the rest of his life, but that didn’t mean he had to close everyone else out. That he wasn’t allowed to open his heart again and make new friends, or maintain the bonds he already had.

Straightening himself up he refocused his attention on Gai. “You still willing to share?” he asked, pointing at the box of chocolates clutched in Gai’s hand hovering at his side.

A smile cracked across Gai’s face and in an instant he reached out to grab hold of Kakashi’s hand and began dragging him toward the wall that surrounded the training field. There was no words of confirmation that he would share, but Kakashi didn’t need to hear them.

That bright, blinding smile and the excitement that exuded off of his friend as he led him to the wall and let go of his hand so that he could jump up, landing effortlessly on the top of the wall, was enough to tell Kakashi that he was in fact still willing to share.

“Come on, Rival!” Gai called down to him as he dropped onto the butt so that his legs were dangling over the wall into the training field. “before I eat them all on you!”

That warm feeling that had engulfed him earlier returned once again. His heart hammered in his chest, and as he stared up at his friend Kakashi couldn’t help but smile. “Ya,” he chuckled to himself. Slipping his hands into his pant pockets he bent his knees and jumped upward, landing directly beside Gai with ease.

“So cool,” Gai whispered, his eyes wide as he stared up at Kakashi.

Rolling his eyes, Kakashi dropped down beside his friend so that one leg was situated under him and the other was hanging over the edge just like Gai’s legs. Once he was comfortable he stared down at the training field. It wasn’t too far up, yet he couldn’t help but feel like he was sitting on top of the world. “Hey, Gai,” looking over at his friend he smiled when he saw him staring back at him with a wide, goofy grin. “I’m sorry.”

“For?”

“Making you wait,” he answered, his heart pumping a little bit faster when Gai turned his gaze up to the sky and laughed. “I’m serious.”

“I know you are, Rival,” lifting the box of chocolates between them he turned his head and smiled at Kakashi with such joy that he was certain it could outshine the sun itself. “I don’t mind waiting, though. As long as you never forget that I’m here.”

Covering his mouth, Kakashi barley managed to contain the laugh that ripped its way out of his throat. “Forget?” he asked. “Gai, there is nothing in this world good or bad that could get me to forget about you.”

As soon as the words left his mouth Kakashi realized what he’d done. He’d unlocked a moment for Gai to start crying and talking about the ‘beauty of rivalry’. A conversation which he wasn’t necessarily opposed to having, but which he would rather avoid if he could so that he didn’t have to deal with the emotions that were bound to flood him if Gai tried to hug him in his overly emotional state.

Just as the first signs of tears began to form in Gai’s eyes, Kakashi reached out and snatched the box of chocolates out of his hand. “Here,” he insisted, pulling the box open and tossing the lid onto the ground behind them. Now that they could access the chocolates he held the box back out to Gai. “eat the emotions away.”

Reigning in his emotions, Gai glanced into the box and quickly picked out his chocolate. As soon as he had plucked it out of the box and gotten a good look at it he lifted it toward the sky and stared at it as if it was the greatest treasure in the world. “It’s a paw print!” he announced loud enough for the entire village to hear.

Watching his friend, Kakashi smiled as that warmth he’d been feeling spread out across his body like a blanket being wrapped around him. He wasn’t sure what exactly it was about Gai, but that ‘what’ didn’t matter too much to him.

All that mattered was how he felt in Gai’s presence, and the answer to that question was very simple.

Safe.

He felt safe. Like nothing in the world could go wrong as long as he was at Gai’s side. Most importantly, he felt as though his heart was safe. Even if the world around him was burning to the ground he would still have Gai.

No matter what, Gai would always be at his side, and that knowledge was comforting.

“Kakashi?” blinking, he refocused his attention on Gai and smiled when he saw him staring at him with big round eyes full of excitement. “Let’s have a competition!”

Rolling his eyes, Kakashi plucked a chocolate out of the box and set it down between the two of them. With one hand now free, he grabbed his mask just over the bridge of his nose. “after,” he insisted. “for now let’s just enjoy this moment.” Pulling his mask down he plopped the chocolate into his mouth and swiftly returned his mask to its place, which did nothing to hide the way his visible eye scrunched up in dissatisfaction as the chocolates sweetness overwhelmed his taste buds.

Perhaps, if Gai allowed him to, he’d leave the rest of the chocolates for him to enjoy.

#Kakagai #Teen Kakashi #Teen Gai #Fic #Kakagaiweek2024 #Kakagai Week 2024

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