#finally finished something for obito week!

[malifiquemakes]

You can't go home anymore.

For @obito-week, (the end of) clan customs; tragedy.

[raikirikiri]

obito kamui-ing into kakashi’s apartment every night to use his sharingan to subtly control kakashi’s dreams. it depends on his mood. sometimes he makes kakashi dream of team minato, all happy and alive, especially when he’s feeling cruel or merciful. those two feelings tend to blend together for him during his akatsuki days. but those dreams leave both kakashi and obito empty and melancholic the morning after and over time, they become less and less frequent in obito’s catalogue of dreams he gives kakashi. when he’s feeling kind, not merciful but kind, like the boy he used to be, he’ll give kakashi happier dreams, ones that won’t ache in the morning. playing with his hounds, silly rival challenges with gai, drinking with tsunade, training naruto. the mornings after those dreams, kakashi is lighter, happier and more open. he isolates himself less and seeks out the people he considers friends. obito sort of hates himself and kakashi the next day but, again, over time, that hatred sort of goes away and gets replaced with an annoying sense of fondness and pride. every time he feels proud of making kakashi’s days less miserable, obito gags just a little bit.

but perhaps the most important dreams obito plays with are the nightmares. around the kyuubi attack, around the anniversaries of team minato’s individual deaths, the week leading up to sakumo’s suicide. those dreams are the ones obito is most wary of. it confuses him when he wants to turn those nightmares into something completely different, something that would take away kakashi’s pain and anxiety. he never does, because part of him thinks kakashi should always be hurting, especially around rin’s death. but when he knows kakashi is dreaming of sakumo, obito is a little more understanding. he can’t completely shift the nightmare, he doesn’t want the asshole to get too suspicious, but he does his best to take away the feeling of guilt. he tries to lessen kakashi’s burden when it comes to his father, and when it comes to minato too.

after a few years of meddling with kakashi’s subconscious, obito starts inserting himself into dreams. his adult-self. he doesn’t know why or how or really remember the circumstances that made him want to in the first place. but he does. he puts himself next to kakashi on a beach in the land of waves. he puts himself in the pastures of the land of rice kakashi likes to let his hounds run around in. he puts himself on the other side of naruto when kakashi is eating with him at ichiraku. he never interacts, not really but he’s there in kakashi’s periphery. he makes himself forgettable and unrecognizable but there enough for kakashi to feel a little mournful in the morning and obito to feel a sense of longing.

obito wishes there was more he could do with kakashi’s dreams. he wishes he could manipulate them into turning kakashi against the village. he wishes he could make himself into a konoha jounin in real life. he wishes he could be more for kakashi than a blurry specter in his dreams. but obito has his role to play and kakashi has his. he needs kakashi to continue to be himself. for all he longs and wants, he has a plan and he will follow through so when kakashi does finally eternally dream, obito can be there. he can be there and kakashi will be able to see him and hug him and love—

obito will finish the plan. he’ll make kakashi dream forever. even if all he desperately wants is to be there with kakashi during the waking day

[mdrarw]

DAY 7: Akatsuki, mask

yay I finally finished something for @obito-week! I barely had time this week, but I'm glad I still got something out (and only 2 hours late for his birthday!)

[cool-thymus]

Team Minato Week 2023: Day 7: Inappropriate Use Of Ninja Techniques / Babysitting

I'm offering you a tiny story that fits both prompts for Day 7 (kinda :D) The illustration is done by my dear @maireyart <3 (thank you again!) The editing and missed-commas-recovery by @professor-of-naruto (i appreciate it sm)

***

Tap-tap.

Obito raised his head from the book. He glanced at the window first. No, nothing there.

Tap-tap.

The scratchy noises were coming from the hall. “He taught them to knock, huh? Clever,” he thought, remembering the last time Kakashi’s ninken appeared in their apartment unannounced; the havoc, the awkwardness. Grinning, he carefully got up from his chair and tiptoed out of the room, making sure that his teammate was still fast asleep. The dogs made him uncomfortable. He always expected some snarky comments or criticism, even though he personally didn’t wrong them in any way. When he slid the bedroom door back behind him, three ninja dogs were standing in the dark hall with Pakkun, who had a scroll attached to his back.

“Is Boss inside?” asked Pakkun. “Oh. Hey… you guys!” Obito whispered with a smile trying to be friendly. “Could you be quiet? He’s sleeping and…”

“We have a message for him. Let us in, Bito!” said the little grey one with a smirk.

“It’s Obito, Shiba,” rumbled the biggest of the pack.

“I know that! But I bet Bito here can’t even remember our …” 

Obito didn’t let him finish. “Shhhhh! Guys, please, keep it down! He was released from the hospital, like, yesterday. He needs rest.” The dogs stopped bickering and lowered their heads. With a little more confidence Obito addressed Pakkun: 

“What’s the message?” The pug let him take the scroll while glancing at the bedroom door, worried. Obito briefly studied the insides of the scroll and then exhaled with relief “Oh, that. We booked this mission a while ago, for extra cash, y’know. It’s a piece of cake, I can go alone.”

To that the dogs rolled their eyes and made it look like Obito said something ridiculous.

“Oh, great, genius! Go alone!” growled Urushi, turning to leave.

“Yeah, thanks for ruining our day off, Bito!” joined Shiba. “Whose turn is it this time?”

“I say Bull should go. He’s never on Bito-sitting duty, that oversized softy!” replied Urushi as the three ninken headed outside.

“I don’t mind. Obito is nice.”

Obito had expected mockery, but their reaction confused him completely. “Huh? What are you guys saying?” But the ninken had all already left the hall except for Pakkun, who was standing behind Obito with his paw softly pressed against the bedroom door. He took a moment to think things over.

“Come on, kid,” he said in a reassuring tone. “Never have you ever gone on a solo mission alone; since your very first one. But you didn’t hear it from me.” He winked at Obito and followed his pack outside.

Dumbstruck, Obito was left alone with the open scroll in his hands. It didn’t take him long to puzzle things out. The realization hurt his pride at first (what kind of shinobi was he, if he’d never noticed the dogs tailing him!) But quickly the hurt was replaced by a very tender feeling growing in his chest and spreading warmth up to his cheeks. He cracked the bedroom door open and looked at the figure on the bed. Kakashi was sleeping peacefully wrapped in blankets with his nose tucked between the pillows. A couple of moments passed before Obito finally slid the door close, a warm smile never leaving his face.

@teamminatoweek

[sleepysnk]

a/n: hey guys! sorry for the long wait. i haven’t had much motivation to write for the beach recently, but i had this finished so i am finally updating! it’s hard to believe that the story will be finished soon. i can’t believe it lmao. i hope you guys enjoy and thank you for your patience!

pairings: obito uchiha x fem!reader

warnings: modern au, college au, mentions of anxiety, some angst, mentions of alcohol consumption (?), protective konan (as per usual).

The Beach: Chapter Thirty

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Disoriented.

That’s the only word that felt appropriate at the moment. Hell, it was the only word that could describe how you were feeling. 

When you finally awoke the next morning, you were lost. You weren’t sure as to why you felt so.. anxious? Your stomach felt like it was in knots, and your heart was racing rapidly inside of your chest. However, you had zero recollection of the previous night. You didn’t know why you felt so sick, but it alarmed you. There were so many questions you had asked yourself. How did you get home last night? You had no idea how you ended up in your bed that morning. You were even wearing the same clothes you had left in. Did you get drunk?

You sat up in your bed. The light from the outside was basking into your room, leaving a soft glow to it. You wondered what time it was, but you couldn’t find your cell phone. Deep down, you were hoping that someone didn’t take it or something. 

However, you soon realized that it was in your back pocket. 

Reaching backwards, you pulled out your cell phone. The screen lit up, causing your eyes to squint from the harsh blue light rays. The time on your phone displayed that it was ten o’clock in the morning. You were probably hungover or something. You only really slept in if you drank the previous night, but you wondered what you had to make you blackout like that. Maybe you had some Pink Whitney or some extra shots. What you did know was that you were still very tired.

Though, there was something else that was odd to you on your phone. 

You had an immense amount of notifications. It ranged from missed phone calls to missed text messages. There were even a few voicemails you had, and it confused you. If you were drunk, surely someone made it known that they had taken you home, right? 

Then why the fuck was Konan in those missed messages?

It started to panic you. There were many questions starting to appear inside of your mind. Who took you home last night? How did you get here? What happened after you left the party? It made you feel sick, because you had no answers for any of them. You were certain Konan was at the apartment, so you’d have to ask her what happened. Frankly, you had no idea what was going on here, but you knew you’d have to message all of your friends to ease their worries about you. 

You quickly stood up, heading towards your dresser to change out of the clothes you were wearing. You needed to find something more comfortable, because you were so over the one you had on now. 

You pulled out a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. It soon hit you that you still had your makeup on from last night. It made dread rush through you at the realization. You weren’t exactly in the best mood to deal with the possibility of a breakout, so you’d definitely have to clean yourself up once you sorted out this issue with Konan. 

Once you were changed, you opened the door to your bedroom. 

The apartment was quiet, almost too quiet. It made you wonder if Konan was even awake yet. She always had the worst experiences when it came to hangovers. Maybe you’d make her some breakfast and a nice smoothie to make her feel better. After all, she had been dealing with your mess for the last couple of weeks. It’s the least you could do to make up for all of those late night conversations and tear filled evenings she had dealt with. You wondered what she might be in the mood for. Eggs? No, that’s a little too nauseating. Maybe some fruit and some toast would be good. 

You turned the corner and almost jumped out of your skin when you saw Konan sitting at the dining table. She had a cup of coffee in front of her and her phone in her hand. She seemed to be mindlessly scrolling through her apps, because she didn’t notice you at first. 

“Hey..” 

Your voice broke her out of her thoughts. Konan’s eyes left her phone and were placed onto you. You weren’t expecting her reaction, but she suddenly rushed towards you and embraced you into a big hug. “Jesus, (Y/N).. you scared the shit out of me last night.” she sighed with relief, her hands caressing your back smoothly. 

Your arms went to wrap around her waist. You were kind of confused by her reaction, so you figured that you’d ask her about it. “Konan..” you started, “Of course I’m fine, why is everyone so worried about me..? Did I get too wasted last night?”

She then pulled away, her eyebrows knitting together almost immediately. Her facial expression started to worry you. Why did she seem like she was pitying you? “Do you.. not remember? You worried me like crazy last night! I didn’t think he’d be there, but he was!” she replied, placing her hands onto your shoulders. 

The mention of a he made your blood turn cold. It hit you all at once, and the memories from the previous evening suddenly flooded into your brain. You understood it all now. You knew why you felt so anxious when you woke up, and it made you sick knowing that this happened all last night. How could everything go so south within hours? All you wanted to do was have some fun with your friends to get your mind away from the thoughts you had been having the past few days. However, it didn’t seem like anything could go right for you these days. 

You weren’t even sad anymore. If anything, you were more frustrated at the fact that Itachi was back and trying to make a move. You had spent so much time trying to rebuild yourself from what he had done. For him to come and destroy that made you so upset. You could never forget what happened that night he cheated on you. He made you feel so insecure and you practically despised every aspect of yourself. It was hard for you to trust any man who wanted to speak with you on a romantic level. That’s mainly why you chose to make this semester about you and you only. However, things didn’t exactly go your way, and now you were dealing with two different issues. 

Though, Obito wasn’t the biggest problem now. It was Itachi, and you had to figure out what to do with him. 

Your eyes settled on Konan who was genuinely worried about you. She lost you that night and she later found out your ex-boyfriend was there. It made her sick knowing she wasn’t there to intervene. “I remember now..” you muttered, “You have nothing to feel bad about, Konan. I didn’t think he’d be there either, but I’m fine.”

Konan stared at you with disbelief. How could you feel fine with all of that on your plate? Seeing your ex-boyfriend at a party after all he had done must have sent you over the edge. “(Y/N).. please, don’t lie to yourself. I know how much Itachi bothers you and it’s okay to not feel okay with him being around.” she stepped towards you, her eyes seeming serious. 

You let out air through your mouth. All of this didn’t feel real at all. You weren’t sure what you were supposed to do. You didn’t know what to feel or how to react to this sudden intrusion in your life. Itachi had been MIA for months since your breakup. Why show up now? You wanted to know, but you could never face him. The thought of his face in front of you made your stomach twist with knots. “I’ll be okay, trust me.” you tried your best to sound confident, but Konan could sense the uneasiness in your tone. 

She was about to respond, but the sound of a knock on the door made her pause. 

Who the hell could be here? 

You and Konan both exchanged glances with one another at the sudden arrival of a stranger. You decided to go towards the door to see who it could possibly be. There was a chance that it could have been Deidara or Sasori. The two were both at the party that previous evening, so maybe they were stopping by to check in on you. You weren’t opposed whatsoever, but they usually gave you both a heads up if they were going to come by. 

Stepping towards the door, you shifted the small metal peephole cover that was on top of the hole. 

Your eyes grew wide when you saw who was behind the door. It wasn’t Deidara, nor was it Sasori. It was actually the exact opposite. The sight of him standing outside your door caused your heartbeat to spike rapidly, and you had no idea what you were supposed to do. Many questions began to surface inside of your mind. How did he know where you lived? Why was he here? What was he going to say? Should you open the door? Fuck! This was going to tear you apart!

“Konan..” you said. “Someone’s here.”

Konan’s eyebrows knitted at your words. She didn’t like the tone of your voice. You sounded worried. She wondered if it was possible that Obito was here. He knew where the two of you resided, so it wouldn’t be much of a shock if he was standing right outside the door. 

Only question was.. who was there?

[depressedhatakekakashi]

I'll be there to Catch You.

Words: 3677

Pairing: Hatake Kakashi/Maito Gai

@kkgweek

For: @kakashihasibs who came up with this brilliant idea <3

Training

The sun was beginning to sink behind Hokage’s monument, painting the sky a brilliant orange as a final goodbye before disappearing for the night. Usually, Kakashi would be sitting somewhere high enjoying the view.

He loved watching the sunset more than anything. It was calming. 

A setting sun meant that his day was done. He could go home, clean up, and relax.

Today, however, he was standing in the middle of the training field just outside of Konoha’s walls. Somehow Gai had convinced him to have a spar right after lunch, and that spar quickly turned into a training session that lasted for the rest of the afternoon.

Now the sun was setting. 

The day was ending, and Gai looked exhausted.

“I think it’s time to call it quits,” he commented, noting that Gai was beginning to sway a little. “You need to get home and eat.”

“No!” Throwing an arm out in front of himself, Gai presented him with his signature thumbs-up pose. “I can keep going, Rival. I assure you I am in peak condition.”

With each word he spoke, Gai’s face got a little paler. His knees began to buckle under him, but he was able to recover before he fell face-first into the dirt. “You don’t look good, Gai,” he sighed. “Come on, we can spar again tomorrow after our teams finish training.”

He’d rather not train with Gai twice in a row, but if it would keep his friend from overextending himself and ending up in the hospital it was a worthwhile offer to make. 

“One more spar,” Gai insisted. “I still have energy left. I’ve never felt b-”

Alarms went off in his mind when Gai cut himself off suddenly, and not even five seconds afterwords stopped falling from his lips Gai’s knees buckled under him. Kakashi’s body moved without warning. Rushing forward, he turned his back to Gai at the last second and braced himself for impact.

Gai’s body crashed against his back, nearly knocking him down with the sudden weight. If he hadn’t prepared himself, he would have eaten dirt and Gai would never have heard the end of it.

As it was, though, everything was fine. Gai was safe, and that was what mattered.

“You really are-” he turned his head, sighing when he noticed that Gai’s eyes were closed. “Something.”

 With no other option, Kakashi slowly lowered himself down, careful to keep Gai resting against his back as he moved. Once he had one knee resting against the ground, he reached back and wrapped his arms around Gai’s legs. It took him a moment to adjust his arms properly, but once he was certain he wasn’t going to pick Gai up and promptly drop him on his head, he stood up.

“Home time,” he whispered, already beginning his walk back toward Konoha. “And don’t worry. I’ll take a long way.”

It was better that way. 

Gai got enough crap from the villagers. He didn’t need them seeing him in this state and adding that to the list of things they made fun of him for.

Kannabi Bridge

Team Minato was due back soon. That’s what Choza-Sensei had said.

He hadn’t told Gai much, but he’d smiled that soft supportive smile of his, ruffled his hair, and told him to head over to the gate to greet his eternal rival. So that’s what Gai had done. 

Without a second thought, he’d said his goodbyes to Genma and Ebisu and runoff. Though he didn’t know how long he’d have to wait for them to arrive, he was excited. Kakashi and his team had been gone for almost a week now and he just couldn’t wait to see his friend again.

Perhaps he would ask him for a challenge or invite him out for lunch. No doubt Kakashi would be hungry after such a long mission. Rin and Obito could even join them. He never minded having them around even if Obito was always trying to pick fights with him. 

“I bet their mission went smoothly,” he chattered to himself as he came to a stop just a few feet in front of the large gate where Kakashi’s team would be arriving soon. “Kakashi’s first mission as a Jonin. It must have been perfect!”

He couldn’t wait to hear all about it. Kakashi was sure to have stories to tell, and while he might not think that he was amazing, Gai would be sure to correct him. Even if Kakashi tried to shrug off his compliments he’d just repeat himself again and again until his friend understood.

Just as he always did.

“Oh!” His back straightened when he saw silhouettes in the distance. There were three that he could see clearly, but he did not doubt that the fourth member of the team was right behind them. Most likely Obito dragging his feet, pouting because he’d had to listen to Kakashi’s orders.

He always had such an issue recognizing Kakashi’s talent. No matter what his eternal rival did, Obito was sure to be there insisting that he could do it better, and while Gai had to admit that the Uchiha was a skilled shinobi in his own right, he was simply no Hatake Kakashi.

None of them were, and that’s what made Kakashi so amazing. The perfect Rival to push him into becoming a stronger shinobi. 

“Gai!” Hearing his name, he straightened up and narrowed his eyes. Focusing a bit harder on those three silhouettes. One was taller than the others, so it had to be Minato-Senpai. The one on the right had their hand extended up into the air, waving at him. No doubt Rin, based on the voice that was calling out to him. 

That meant the one in the middle was either Kakashi, his man of destiny, or Uchiha Obito. 

A smart person might have hung back and waited to see the outline of Kakashi’s mask to confirm his identity. At the very least, a smart person would call out to him. Ensure that they weren’t about to run straight at the wrong person.

Gai was not considered a smart person, and he wasn’t about to start acting like one. 

Rushing forward, he headed straight for the person in the middle. Fully prepared to wrap his arms around Kakashi and congratulate him on a successful mission. Except, the closer he got to the group the more unsettled he felt.

Something was wrong.

“Gai,” Rin smiled at him, but there was no joy in her eyes. All he could see was sadness. “It’s good to see you.”

“It’s good to see you too,” he whispered, dragging his eyes away from her and focusing on Kakashi. “How did the mission go? Did you complete your task?”

Silence.

Not one of them would look at him, or even speak to him.

“Rival,” his eyes zeroed in on Kakashi’s left eye. Although it was mostly covered by his headband, which had been awkwardly pulled down over it, Gai could still make out the edges of a scar. An injury that his rival had no doubt sustained in their epic battle. “Are you-”

Before he could ask his question, Kakashi’s right eye began to close and his body fell forward. Reacting quickly, Gai stepped forward and held out his arms, catching his rival before he hit the ground.

“Sorry,” Minato-Senpai stepped up to his side and laid a hand on his shoulder, smiling when he glanced up at him. Like Rin, there was no real joy in his expression. All Gai could see was Sadness. “Could you get him to the hospital, Gai? I need to head straight to Lord third.”

“Yes,” he nodded, not needing to be asked twice. “But.” turning his eyes towards the area behind Kakashi, he frowned. There should have been a fourth person with them. Obito should have been walking behind, ready to pick a fight as soon as he saw him.

Just as he always did.

“Rin will explain,” Minato-Senpai promised, sparing a look towards the Kunoichi. “You two just get Kakashi to the hospital. He’ll need a nice long rest after this mission.”

His fingers curled into the fabric of Kakashi’s shirt. There were so many questions he had to ask. Things he needed to know, but which he knew he couldn’t. If Minato-Senpai was in a rush he would simply have to move forward and do as he was asked.

Rin would answer his questions.

She’d be able to tell him where Obito was, and why his Rival was in such rough shape.

He only hoped that the answers she had for him were kinder than the ones running around in his mind. 

“We’ll get him there,” he promised, kneeling down and slowly turning himself around, careful not to let Kakashi fall as he situated him onto his back and wrapped his arms around his legs. “I promise.”

Battle

The battle was over, and Gai was certain that he had won. Not just in terms of defeating his enemy, but in his latest challenge with his eternal rival, Hatake Kakashi.

There was little chance Kakashi had of beating him this time. He’d successfully taken down thirteen of the enemy shinobi and he’d only needed the fifth gate to do it.

“That settles it,” he declared proudly, standing over the unconscious body of his final adversary. “There’s no doubt I’ve won this challenge, Rival which means that our score is now 45-44 in my favour.”

He expected an off handed comment from his rival or a protest of some sort. After all, they hadn’t told each other how many enemies they had taken down already. Kakashi could accuse him of assuming it was his victory and then snatch it away from him, like the cool-headed Rival that he always was.

What he got instead, was silence.

Turning his head, he grinned when he saw Kakashi standing there at his side. There was blood splattered all over the front of his uniform, mostly their enemies judging by all of the bodies laying at his feet, and an empty expression in his eyes.

The smile dropped off his face as realization struck him.

Without thinking, he rushed to Kakashi’s side and wrapped an arm around his front, stopping him from crashing face-first into the ground. “You always do this,” he whispered. “You must take better care of yourself, Rival.”

There was no response.

No sassy come back, or apologetic laugh. Kakashi didn’t make a single sound as Gai tugged him against his body and placed his other arm around his back for support. 

“It’s alright. I’ve got you.” Leaning Kakashi back a little, he moved his arm away from his chest and manoeuvred himself cautiously. It took a bit of work, but once he could slide his arm behind Kakashi’s knees, he lifted him into his arms and shifted his other arm up to his shoulders so that it was supporting his head. 

Once he was certain that Kakashi was well supported, he turned his back to the battlefield and headed straight into the trees with one big jump. 

“We won,” he spoke, unable to stand the silence that lingered over him in Kakashi’s absence. “The mighty Duo of Konoha won another fight, and it was spectacular.”

He hadn’t been able to catch much of what Kakashi had done in the fight. That was one disadvantage to fighting back-to-back. There was never an opportunity to watch his rival work.

To see him tearing through the enemies' ranks. Guarding his back against anyone who would dare to try and attack him from behind. 

What little bits of his Rival’s fight he had been able to witness, however, was spectacular. Every move that Kakashi made was calculated. Even those enemies who were quicker on their feet had difficulties keeping up with him. They would stumble over themselves trying to land a hit.

Attempting to take down Hatake Kakashi, The Genius Shinobi.

None of them had succeeded of course. How could they when they were facing off against his Eternal Rival? There wasn’t a single person in the world who could defeat Kakashi.

If there was someone like that out in the world, they would have to get through Gai first to even have a chance at it.  

“You can rest now,” he smiled when Kakashi shifted in his arms. His body relaxed as if he could hear Gai’s words. “I’ll get us home.”

“Home.” Kakashi sighed. His head dropped to the side, resting against Gai’s chest as the Taijutsu master sailed through the air, jumping from one tree branch to the next. 

“That’s right, Rival. Home.”

Back where they would be safe.

Where they wouldn’t need to fight again. Not until their next mission, at least.

The one place where he could be sure Kakashi would always be alright. 

Sick 

Shinobi didn’t get sick.

If they were unlucky enough to fall victim to an illness, they ignored it. Missions wouldn’t wait for them to recover and pay only came when they had completed mission scrolls showing success.

The only way to keep a Shinobi out of the field was a severe injury or an illness that knocked them out so hard they couldn’t even get out of bed.

Of course, there was an exception to every rule.

Today’s exception was Maito Gai.

The man who could barely stand on his own, and who had already face-planted against his apartment floor after getting out of his bed.

“Come on,” Kakashi eased him to his feet, holding an arm around his waist so that he didn’t fall again. “Back to bed with you.”

“No bed,” Gai muttered, a distinct lack of energy or ‘youth’ in his voice. “Need to train.”

Kakashi snorted. “In your condition? You’d be lucky if you made it two steps out the front door.”

There was a muffled protest. Words that Kakashi couldn’t quite make out, and didn’t care to try. 

“You need to sleep,” he insisted, shifting them around towards the bed and manoeuvring himself So that he could lay Gai down slowly. Without just Chucking him into the bed like he would with anyone else. “Pushing yourself is just going to make it worse.”

“No,” getting a sudden surge of energy, Gai threw an arm out and spun back around, forcing Kakashi to follow and secure his arm around his waist so he didn’t fall face-first into the floor again. “A shinobi cannot rest. Rest means falling behind on training and-“ he stopped speaking suddenly, his face turning a brilliant shade of green that Kakashi knew all too well.

Taking a step back, the copy ninja cringed when his partner doubled over himself and emptied the contents of his stomach onto the floor.

“This is going to be an all-day adventure, I see.”

Kakashi sighed, already making plans in his mind on how he was going to apologize to his students for missing out on team training.

Training which he was already three hours late for and was now going to have to send someone else to take care of, which meant that his students were never going to let him hear the end of it. They were always extra bratty when he dared to skip training, regardless of the reason he gave them.  

“Urge,” watching as Gai straightened himself up, Kakashi braced himself to move at the drop of a ryo. “See, Rival? I feel good as new.”

Kakashi could only shake his head. “You feel better because you just threw up all over your floor, which I’m going to have to clean by the way,” he was already dreading that job. “And you still look like death. Now lay down before you-”

Gai lurched suddenly, his eyes rolling to the back of his head.

Jumping out in front of his partner, Kakashi braced himself for impact and grunted when Gai’s body crashed against his. “You feel good as new, huh?” he shook his head, wondering just how far Gai would have pushed himself if his body hadn’t shut down on him.

Knowing his luck, Gai would have gone all out on his day. The man had never really learned how to relax, and there was nothing that he did that he only committed half of his efforts to.

It was all out or nothing for Maito Gai.

“Well, at least now you’ll rest.” he slipped an arm across Gai’s back and guided him back towards the bed, careful not to step in the pile of vomit lying on the floor at his feet. 

“Tomorrow,” he whispered as he eased Gai back into the bed. “We’ll train tomorrow. One day of rest won’t be the end of you, I promise.” 

Once Gai was laying down, Kakashi set to work on draping his blanket over him and making him as comfortable as possible. A task he wasn’t obligated to undertake, but which he was determined to complete. If only so Gai could have just a little relief in his time of suffering.

“There,” he smiled, straightening himself up when he was finished. “Now you can sleep, and I can-” his eyes darted to the side, catching a glimpse of the pile of vomit still sitting on the floor behind him. “I can take care of clean up. After I contact someone about Team Seven’s training. But who?”

Asuma would probably complain if he asked him to join their two teams together for one morning, but he’d do it in a pinch. Kurenai would be a lot more cheerful about the last-minute job, but she’d also be nice to his kids.

They wouldn’t know what to do with someone nice. Sasuke was too angry at the world to accept kindness, Naruto would melt at even the smallest compliment and Sakura…

Well, she was the only normal one but he had no doubt she’d start calling Kurenai her favourite Sensei. It wasn’t worth the risk.

“Genma.” he decided, confident that the weapon’s expert would be able to handle his team’s bullying and would be deemed uncool enough that he wouldn’t steal any of the respect his cute little students had for him.

What little of it there was.

With that decided, he set to his next task. Informing Genma of his new responsibility. After that, he would take care of the mess Gai had made, and then maybe he’d make lunch. 

Something simple that his partner would be able to keep down. So he didn’t have to clean up any more messes later.

“You rest,” he smiled down at Gai, chuckling when the man turned onto his side and wrapped an arm around the small turtle stuffy that he kept in his bed at all times. A gift that Kakashi had won him at a festival in their youth. “I’ll take care of everything today, Rival.”

Over Worked

A Hokage’s job was never-ending.

There were meetings, endless piles of paperwork, events that required the Hokage’s presence, and smaller more personal meetings that were somehow more important that the bigger more official meetings.

All day Kakashi spent sitting behind a desk, and yet at the end of the day, he felt drained. More exhausted than he ever had after a mission.

By the time he made it home, dragging himself through the front door, the only energy he had left was conserved for getting himself to bed.

Anything more and he would collapse in his spot.

“Rival!” A cheer rang through the air as Gai came wheeling around the corner from the living room, a grin stretching across his handsome face. “You’re home.”

“I’m home.” those words never failed to make him smile. After years of feeling lost and alone, he had a home. A place where he could relax and unwind. Where he was safe.

“How was your day?” His eternal rival asked, rolling towards him. 

“It was- not something I want to talk about,” Gai’s grin somehow managed to grow even wider. “I’m ready for bed.”

“Bed does sound good,” coming to a stop right in front of him, Gai opened up his arms to him. “But I was thinking we could watch a movie.”

“A movie?”

Gai nodded his head, excitement written plane across his face for any idiot to see.

Even a tired, hokage-level idiot.

Not wanting to ruin Gai’s excitement, Kakashi opted for a solution that would give them both what they wanted.

“You watch the movie, I sleep,” he suggested, sighing when Gai narrowed his eyes. “I’m sorry, I don’t think I can stay up.”

“I don’t expect you to stay up,” Gai huffed, wiggling his fingers while Kakashi tried to piece together what he was trying to get at. “Come on, Rival. You’re usually quicker than this.”

One more wiggle of his fingers, and a warm, inviting smile, and Kakashi was suddenly struck by what Gai was trying to say to him.

Let yourself fall. 

I’ll catch you. 

“Gai…”

“I’ll keep you company while you sleep,” his partner grinned. “Now come on. I’ve been wanting to see this movie for weeks, but I was only just able to get my hands on it.”

Taking the hint, Kakashi took a step toward Gai and promptly collapsed into his arms. It only took a little effort on Gai’s part to manoeuvre him onto his lap, and as soon as he had Kakashi took advantage of the new position and nuzzled against his neck. 

“Home,” he whispered, too sleepy to concern himself with anything but immediate sleep.

Gai’s laughter vibrated in his throat, tickling Kakashi’s bose lightly. “Yes,” he agreed, maneuvering his wheelchair around the small hallway and heading straight back to the living room. “You’re home, Rival. It’s safe.”

Sleep was already sinking its claws into him, but before he allowed it to drag him down into the darkness for the rest of the night Kakashi lifted his head just a bit and pressed a kiss against Gai’s cheek. 

“Goodnight, Gai.”

As his eyes slid closed, he was certain he caught a glimpse of a tender gaze in Gai’s eyes.

“Goodnight, Rival.”

[recklesswriter]

I'm sorry for being so MIA on here, guys! I think I've said it before, but I have a bad habit of forgetting I have a tumblr until I go to update one of my stories 😅

Anyway, I'm happy to say that after 2 years of it going untouched, I'm finally feeling inspired to write the last chapter of With Friends Like These. I've written half the chapter in the past week, and I'm hoping to get it finished and posted within the next two 😁

Here's the first scene of the chapter given to you early, since it's been so terribly long:

Sasuke runs faster than he’s run in his entire life.

The soles of his shoes slap loudly against the stone floor, the sound bouncing and ricocheting off the walls of the narrow corridor. There’s a sharp, stabbing pain in his side, in the space between his ribs, but he ignores it and pushes forward despite the lack of oxygen he’s managing to pull through his lungs. Despite his pounding heart, a part of it still screaming at him to turn around and go back.

Back to where Kakashi is fighting—his extreme skill and experience rendered practically useless against the likes of Obito Uchiha. There’s no way Kakashi can hope to best him, not without Sasuke to back him up.

He's going to die.

Sasuke bites the inside of his mouth, hard enough to taste blood. He wishes, just for this moment, that he could go back to when he was seventeen—back to when he didn’t care about anyone except his brother. It would be easier, that way. It would hurt so much less.

Sasuke owes Kakashi so much—for everything he’s done for him. But Sasuke has always been selfish, and so once again, he chooses Itachi. He’s always chosen Itachi over everyone else, even when Itachi hasn’t chosen him.

I’m sorry, Sasuke thinks. And prays, by some miracle, that his sensei survives.

He forces the guilt away—shoves it somewhere deep down in his chest where it can no longer influence thoughts and decisions. Instead he focuses on the desperate pull in his chest that is somehow guiding him. The one that’s blaring his brother’s name at him like a siren—

Itachi, Itachi, Itachi, Itachi—

Something has happened. Itachi is hurt somewhere, is dying, and Sasuke can’t explain how he knows this but right now he doesn’t care. All that matters is reaching him.

Sasuke refuses to lose him again. He can’t.

He skids sharply around the corner as he reaches the end of the hallway. He catches a flash of blonde hair and blue eyes widening, but he’s running too fast to stop himself in time—he collides with the person in front of him, a brutal smack followed by a surprised yelp, and both of them are knocked to the floor.

Sasuke catches himself on his elbows, wincing as the impact reverberates through his entire body. He blinks his vision clear.

Deidara is on the ground across from him, also blinking and grimacing in pain. “Ow! What the hell, man? Watch where you’re going!” He glances down at his arm, which got scraped up by the fall and is now bleeding sluggishly. He looks back up at Sasuke with a glare. “Look what you did!”

He shoves his bleeding elbow into Sasuke’s face. Sasuke shoves it away. “Where’s Itachi?” he demands.

The other Akatsuki member scowls at him. “'I’m so sorry, Deidara, for knocking you over. Are you alri—‘”

“Just tell me where he is! The two of you went off together to find Konan!”

“Yeah, and we split off from each other! Like I want to spend anymore time than necessary with that asshole! Seriously, what the hell—”

With a scowl, Sasuke pushes himself to his feet. He ignores the new soreness throughout his body. “Which direction did he go in?”

Deidara looks ready to snap at him again, but he looks at him and something on Sasuke’s face must give away the seriousness of the situation. The indignation flickers, replaced by uncertainty and concern.

“Why? What's happened?”

“I don’t know, but he’s hurt—badly, I think.”

Deidara pushes himself off the floor, wincing slightly and brushing off his black and red cloak. “How do you know?”

“I just do. Which direction?”

Deidara looks unhappy with that answer. Most likely he assumes Sasuke is lying and not wanting to explain, rather than the truth that he genuinely has no idea how he knows. He just does. But Deidara presses his lips into a thin line and nods.

“Alright. Come on, this way. We’ll find him.”

They turn around and begin going in the direction that Deidara just came from. They don’t run, like Sasuke was earlier, and Sasuke has to bite down on the desperation that makes him want to snap at the other man to hurry the fuck up. But they’re walking at a quick, urgent pace, Deidara’s longer legs causing his paces to be bigger than Sasuke’s. Sasuke is forced into something near to a jog.

“What happened to you?” Deidara asks.

Sasuke frowns. “What?”

“Your clothes—they’re ripped. They weren’t before, so it’s not from fighting with Sasori. Did you fight someone else?”

Observant of him. Sasuke clenches his jaw. “Obito knows.”

Deidara’s mouth drops open, panic in his eyes as he jerks to a halt. “What? Oh fuck—”

“Which is why we need to find my brother now! Okay? Because Obito knows he’s a traitor—he knows you are, too—”

“Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck. This is all your fault, Uchiha. You’ve dragged me into your shit—"

“Me? You’re the one that attacked Hidan!”

“You killed him!”

“Because of you—!”

Sasuke cuts himself off as they round the corner. His breath leaves him, a sharp, choked gasp sucked through his teeth. His feet come to an abrupt halt as the blood in his veins turns to ice.

Beside him, Deidara freezes as well. Eyes wide. “Shit. Is that…?”

Deidara’s eyes are locked in the center of the room, where a broken, misshapen shape is barely visible in the dark. It’s Kakuzu, his body so shredded and disfigured that he’s barely recognizable. A bloody heap of flesh, surrounded by scorch marks and discarded weapons that tell tale of a battle.

But Sasuke—

Sasuke looks right past the sight. His eyes are on another body, a bit further into the room and more to the left. His Sharingan swirls to life, allowing him to see clearer in the darkness. Dark hair—purple, bloody fingernails against the gray stone floor—

Itachi.

It takes a second for him to fly across the room, for him to fall to his knees by his brother’s side. Something thick and wet immediately soaks through the fabric of his pants—blood, from the deep wound that’s sliced through his brother’s chest. The metallic, coppery scent is heavy in the air.

“Nii-san,” Sasuke says. “Nii-san!”

Itachi’s face is deathly pale. He doesn’t respond to Sasuke’s voice. Sasuke’s hands shake, his heart hammering painfully against his ribs, as he pulls the ripped fabric of the Akatsuki cloak back to get a better look at where the blood is all coming from.

He remembers two fingers against his forehead. Dragging a line of wet blood down his face.

(Forgive me, Sasuke. But this is it.)

No. No, no, no, no.

He’s on his side. One of his arms stretched out, fingers smearing blood against the floor, like he was trying to drag himself forward. Sasuke shifts his brother’s body slightly, his head lolling against Sasuke’s folded knees. There’s blood on his lips, and it makes another spark of panic go off in Sasuke’s chest.

Deidara drops down next to him. “God. Is he dead? Who did this to him? Kakuzu?”

There’s actually a thread of something close to fear in the blonde’s voice. Curious, considering how many times he’s expressed a desire to kill Itachi himself. Deidara cares, despite how vehemently he denies it, and any other time Sasuke would never let it go without comment—but right now it barely registers.

His trembling fingers shove Itachi’s hair aside to press against his neck. He finds a pulse there—slightly too slow, but undeniable proof of life.

Sasuke releases a breath. “He’s alive. For now. Help me stop the bleeding.”

“With what?” Deidara demands. “I don’t carry a medical kit with me! Fuck, fuck, fuck—"

“Shut up,” Sasuke snaps. Deidara’s panic is only making his worse. The momentary relief that Itachi is alive is quick to fade, the previous fear returning as he takes stock of the situation—of Itachi’s injuries, probably too serious for them to treat even with the proper supplies.

Sasuke strips off his Akatsuki cloak. He balls it up and presses it to Itachi’s chest in a pathetic attempt to stem the blood flow. “Who here knows medical ninjutsu? Anyone?”

Deidara grimaces. “Sasori.”

“That’s all?”

“It’s not usually an issue! Konan knows a bit of battlefield surgery, I think—Leader-sama, too—but this might be too much even for that. And we still don’t know if Ane-san’s managed to get him on our side, so he might be trying to kill us too…”

Great, Sasuke thinks. The only person with the capability to possibly save Itachi’s life in time is the same person that Itachi kicked through one of Sasuke’s portals less than half an hour ago.

He takes a breath. Looking down at his brother and resisting the urge to flinch at the blood on his lips. Unless Itachi bit his tongue or sliced the inside of his mouth on his teeth, that blood meant internal bleeding. Likely a punctured lung.

He brushes the bangs from Itachi’s face. “It’s okay,” he says shakily. “You’re going to be okay. I won’t let you die again, I promise.”

He turns his head to look at Deidara.

“I’m going to retrieve Sasori. I need you to stay here with him while I do.”

Deidara’s mouth drops open. “Wh—Me? No way!”

“It’ll only take a few minutes. I’ll be right back.”

“But what if he dies?!”

“Then make sure he doesn’t!” Sasuke yells back. Leaving his brother is the last thing he wants to do—but unless Sasuke can get him help, there’ll be no saving him. All Sasuke will be able to do is sit here and hold his hand while his life slowly fades away.

No. Itachi will live this time. He has to.

Deidara grimaces. He looks down at Itachi’s bleeding body, then back to Sasuke. “Okay, okay, fine! Just—hurry the hell back, you brat!”

Sasuke slides out from under his brother. His bloodstained hands, holding the wadded-up cloak tightly against Itachi’s chest, are replaced by Deidara’s. He stands up, pushing his hair out of his face and the rings in his left eye whirling as the power activates.

A portal opens up in mid-air. Beyond, Sasuke can see miles upon miles of desert—the same plane of existence where he trapped Sasori. Taking one last glance at Itachi, sending up a prayer, he steps through the portal and leaves the two of them an entire dimension away.

His feet land in the sand. The portal closes behind him.

[cyhyr]

There's Happiness Here, Chapter Three

Fandom: Naruto

Rating: Not Rated

Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/OFM, Hatake Kakashi & Umino Iruka, Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka, Minor or Background Relationship(s)

WC: ~8935

Warnings: Choose Not to Warn (Because I don’t know yet what I will need to warn for)

Additional Tags: One Night Stands, Accidental Pregnancy, Identity Issues, Miscommunication, Panic Attacks, Unrequited Crush, Co-Parenting, Hatake Kakashi is Not Okay, but he’s doing his best, Cheating, Minor Character Death, Endgame KakaIru, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Hatake Kakashi-centric, One-Sided Relationship

A/N: I'm Alive! It only took mentally checking out of my job and deciding that work is the ideal place to write to get me to finish this chapter lol I didn't achieve everything I wanted to cover in this chapter, but it was already getting so long so I decided to stop and save it for the next one. Hopefully Chapter Four won't take (checks when I last updated) seven months to finish.

Read on The Archive

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~

Kakashi paces around the nursery, bouncing his son gently in his arms and patting his back. Ren grizzles tiredly, but Kakashi shushes him and tries some more to get the little boy to settle. He glances at the clock; just about one o’clock in the morning. Kakashi’s no stranger to sleep deprivation, but there’s something different about this kind of situation, of knowing that there’s every chance that Ren could sleep for only ten or twenty minutes before waking up again. 

That’s what the books say, at least. It hasn’t happened yet. Actually, Ren has been very good about sleeping between two and three hours at a time, which is what the doctor said was right on target for a three-week-old infant. 

Ren finally closes his eyes and gives one last sleepy whimper, and then Kakashi feels his body go lax in his arms. He doesn’t stop pacing for another five minutes or so, before going over to the crib and gently laying the baby down. He stays leaning against the crib rail for a few moments longer, watching his son sleep in the deep hours of the night.

Getting to experience this little miracle is worth the sleeplessness. He only wishes Minato, Rin, Obito, or even his father could be here with him.

~

“Kakashi-kun?”

“Yes?”

“Ren needs his diapers washed. I’ll fold and put them away, but could you…?”

Kakashi nods. “Does he have any clean ones left? Is it an emergency?”

Shizukana hums. “I think he’s down to four clean ones.”

He goes and gets started right away. If Ren does one thing well at nearly two months old, it’s soil his diapers. They go through clean ones so quickly, Kakashi has almost considered purchasing more for the changing table. Shizukana tells him not to, though, that he won’t need as many changes as he gets older and so the extra diapers will be a waste.

Regardless, he is pre-washing shit off of the dirty diapers in the bathroom when he hears Ren wake up crying in the nursery. He nearly drops what he’s doing and goes to his son when he hears Shizukana coming up the stairs, saying, “I’ve got him!”

He relaxes and goes back to the pile of diapers.

~

Shizukana told him to go and take some time out of the house, and so Kakashi is sitting on a tree branch in the park waiting for the three hours that she asked for to pass so he can go home and play with Ren again. He’s finally getting to the point where he can interact with toys and books, albeit slowly, and Kakashi finds himself delighted by each new discovery his son makes.

He’s been staring at the same page in his book for almost half an hour when Iruka happens to wander by and slump down onto the bench just below his branch. What a happy coincidence—

Except, Iruka doesn’t look particularly happy at all.

“Yo, Sensei,” Kakashi says, hopping down to stand in front of Iruka. Somehow, he manages to startle Iruka, making him jump just the tiniest bit before sighing.

“Kakashi-san, I didn’t see you,” he says. “I’m sorry. Are you having some baby-free time?”

Kakashi chuckles and shrugs. “At the demands of my co-parent, yes. She said I was hovering, that she wanted some time with just her and Ren.”

Iruka cracks a smile. “Somehow, I can see you being the hovering type.”

“I will take that as a compliment,” Kakashi grins. He watches as Iruka’s smile slowly fades and he becomes more thoughtful, staring at the ground between them. “Is something troubling you, Iruka?”

“Oh! No, nothing you need to concern yourself with!” Iruka waves his hands frantically. “I’m just thinking, and it’s a bit heavy, but really, I’ll figure it out.”

Kakashi hums. “If your thoughts are heavy, it’s best to let someone else help with them. If you feel like talking, I’ll listen.” He sits beside Iruka and stretches his arm out along the back of the bench, and if that happens to put his hand within reach of Iruka’s nape, well… that certainly wasn’t his intention. He sits there and waits until Iruka decides whether or not to say anything.

And eventually, he lets it all out.

Gods, has it really been that long? Is Naruto already eight years old, that Iruka would have him in his Academy class? Minato and Kushina have really been gone for eight years.

And Iruka doesn’t want to teach the jinchūriki. He’s having a hard time separating the boy from the Fox. He’s trying, he’s trying so hard, to look at his student and see anything other than the creature that killed his parents, among so many others… 

“I don’t think I can do it,” Iruka sighs. “Maybe I’m not cut out to be a teacher after all. Mizuki was right—”

“I think, of everyone in this Village, if anyone can reach Naruto, it’s you.” Kakashi sighs, wishing things were different, that Yondaime hadn’t died, that Kushina hadn’t lost control of the Kyūbi, that Sandaime hadn’t put a taboo on speaking about the circumstances of Naruto’s birth. “Actually, if anyone’s to reach Naruto, I really, truly hope that it’s you.”

“What—Why?!”

“Because you’re kind. And, gods, does he need that kindness, after the hate the Village has raised him with.”

Iruka turns to face him, slack-jawed and incredulous, and Kakashi gives him a soft smile in return.

“You would be good for each other, I think.” Kakashi feels a wave of melancholy as he continues, “if he’s anything like his parents, I think you could truly help him in so many ways. And don’t think I don’t notice that you need someone to dote upon.”

Iruka scoffs, but it turns into a laugh. “‘Dote’? Really? I have Mizuki, y’know—”

Kakashi shrugs. “And yet, my point stands.”

They sit together quietly for a little while, until Iruka sighs and stands up. “Thanks, Kakashi. I… I still don’t feel particularly ready to teach him, or to be around him, but I will do my best to try.”

“By even trying, you’re already doing better than the majority of the Village,” Kakashi murmurs. “I need to get home. My three hours away are almost up.”

~

Ren’s favorite place to fall asleep is on Shizukana’s chest, specifically when she’s rocking him in the nursery with the curtains closed. After the first feed of the day, some tummy time—as Shizukana calls it—and a chance to stop and slowly move through a board book so that Ren can truly take in and look at the pictures, she and Ren tend to rock and rock and rock. One of Kakashi’s favorite places is the doorway of the nursery, just to watch her and Ren rocking. He leans on the doorframe and smiles as she sings to him, some kind of lullaby that he doesn’t recognize. 

Then again, Sakumo wasn’t the type to sing to Kakashi, nor was Kakashi the type to sit still and let himself be lulled in such a way. 

She smiles back at him from across the room and pauses in her song. She wouldn’t do that if Ren weren’t already asleep. Kakashi watches her shuffle him in her arms so that her hand is free to sign, “Need rest. Can you take a watch?”

Kakashi nods and signs back, “Want me to take him?”

Shizukana shakes her head, and stands up, moving to lay Ren down in the crib.  He continues to watch them both while she strokes his face a little bit to get him to settle back down, and then moves aside so that she can leave the room and close the door behind her. Kakashi stops it from fully closing, so that he can better hear when Ren wakes up.

She whispers, “He’s been up since three-thirty this morning.”

Kakashi winces. Infants shouldn’t be awake for more than six hours, let alone closer to ten. “I’m sorry,” he matches her volume. “I’ll wake you for dinner?”

“Yes, please. Thank you, Kakashi-kun,” she says, and leans up on her toes to kiss his cheek. 

He lets her, doesn’t flinch away. It doesn’t bother him like it would have a few months ago.

~

The summer ends and Kakashi has to return to active duty. He spends his last night off-duty holding and rocking Ren as much as possible; Shizukana smiles at them from the door whenever she passes by, and doesn’t once stop him from doting on his son or ask him to let her hold him instead. Kakashi passes him off only a couple times throughout the day, either to eat or use the restroom, but other than that he spends the whole day with Ren, memorizing his weight and his giggle. He reads story after story, plays with each and every rattle and twisting toy they have. 

It’s not enough.

Four months is not enough time to have with his son. 

The summons come early the next morning, before dawn, and Kakashi is pleased that the operative taps lightly on the window of the nursery, where he is standing over his son’s crib watching him sleep. He waves the operative inside, and they carefully lift the window and creep in to stand beside him. Weasel slowly takes off his mask and smiles down at Ren.

Kakashi whispers, “Do you like children, Itachi-kun?”

Itachi nods. “I remember when my brother was this small, taichou. I hope, someday, I can also have a son as sweet as yours.”

He preens inwardly, and then steps back from the crib. “You have orders?”

“Yes,” Itachi puts his mask back on, and Weasel continues. “A Meet and Greet with Ishigakure. We’re to meet atop the Hokage Tower at 0600 for further instruction.”

Kakashi hums his understanding. “Let me gear up and let Shizukana know I’ll be gone. Do we have a time estimate?”

“No, taichou.”

Ah, well. Kakashi waves Weasel away, back out the window, and goes to put on his ANBU armor. He peeks in on Shizukana, sleeping peacefully in her own room, and decides to instead leave her a note on her nightstand. 

And before he leaves, he leans over the side of the crib and pulls down his mask, giving Ren a quick kiss on his little forehead. “Be good for your mother, please,” he whispers, and then he steps out through the window and runs to the Tower to meet his team.

~

For the first time since entering ANBU, Kakashi proceeds through the mission with a healthy measure of caution. Of course he looks out for his subordinate, but this time he also doesn’t take any unnecessary risks himself. 

Anytime he thinks about doing something remotely reckless, he remembers his son waiting for him at home, and it quells the urge immediately.

The mission is completed, and he and Weasel head home.

He enters back into mission rotation, retains a team he hand-selects who all work well together. When he’s in the Village, he trains with his team on twelve-hour shifts, and the rest of the time he spends at home watching Ren grow.

When he’s in the field, Hound takes charge of the team and commands them with a firm hand. After three months back in rotation, not one single person from Team Hound has suffered a major injury. Minor scrapes and bruises are healed easily with standard-issue balms and chakra-infused bandages, and only once did Owl get hurt badly enough to warrant a night’s rest on the trail home, but she was fine by morning with Otter’s medical expertise.

Kakashi reminds his team, every time they go out into the field, to remain vigilant; that just because they’ve had a good streak, doesn’t mean their luck won’t spontaneously run out. They all understand how serious he is about this, and the only one who will even slightly joke about being reckless is Otter.

Cat is very quick to nudge Otter with his elbow to have them be quiet, to save their jokes for the trail.

~

The first flurries of winter have dusted the ground outside when Kakashi comes home from another mission. He slides in through his own bedroom window, removes his armor and locks away his weaponry, and then grabs a towel to go and shower off the grime of travel. Normally he would do this at the ANBU barracks, but today he’s just sweaty, as his mission had been simple reconnaissance and he hadn’t battled anyone at all. 

He barely makes it to the bathroom, though, before hearing Shizukana call out to him from the nursery. “Kakashi-kun? Are you home?”

He sighs. “Yes, I’m going to shower and then I’ll check in with Ren.”

She squeals, and the door flings open. She lights up when she sees him, and his stomach drops to notice it; but she goes on and says, “Come here first, please! It’s important, I promise, and you don’t wanna miss it!”

Kakashi follows her back into the nursery, feeling like she might be overreacting—

Ren is sitting on the floor beside the crib, kicking at a small pile of toys around him and blowing bubbles. He looks up when Shizukana and Kakashi enter the room and smiles like the sun is out, then turns around and grabs onto the crib, pulls himself up onto his feet, and then tries to take an independent step towards them both.

Shizukana cries and coos, “Oh! His first steps! I just wanted to show you that he was beginning to cruise!”

Kakashi watches his son take one step, then two, and then fall forward flat on his face. Neither he nor Shizukana are close enough to catch him, nor do they react in time to stop it from happening. Ren lifts his little head and wails, and Shizukana immediately goes to pick him up and comfort him, rubbing his nose and face and making shushing noises to try and calm him down. Kakashi, instead, remains still.

His son just walked. At… eight months? It feels too early. His son was born only eight months ago. Surely he’s still too little to be walking, yet!

“Kakashi-kun!”

“Yes?”

Shizukana sighs. “He took a hard fall. I have to take him to the hospital to get checked over. Could you hold him for a minute while I get changed?”

Kakashi takes his son, and then says, “No need.” He steps over to the window, opens it, and makes Otter’s call whistle. He steps back a bit, just in time for Otter to flicker into place at their windowsill. Shizukana gasps, startled, but Kakashi gives her little attention and motions for Otter to come inside.

“Aww,” Otter says, slipping through the window. “Is this little Ren? He’s got a pair of lungs on him, huh?”

“He took a tumble and landed on his face. Could you give him a once-over, please?”

Otter nods. “Sure, sure. Babies aren’t my thing, usually, but anything for this little one.” Otter hovers a glowing green palm over Ren’s face and throat, using their other hand to lift up their mask so that Ren can see their face. They grin down at the baby, and ask Kakashi, “How’d he fall?”

“He was trying to walk and tripped.”

“Oh? Walking doesn’t usually start until eleven months. I thought the Hatake baby was about eight or nine…?”

“Eight. And yes, that’s what I thought as well.”

“Well, he is certainly Hatake,” Otter chuckles. Ren’s cries die down until he is only barely sniffling, and then Otter says, “There you go, Ren-kun! All better! You did so well!”

“Any breaks?”

“Nah, just a little bump on his nose,” Otter says, poking Ren on the very tip of his nose and making the little boy giggle through his drying tears. “It likely just startled him more than anything. Although, seriously, with babies you can never be too careful. If he had fallen backwards, definitely call any medic on duty, not just me, okay? That can get real serious real quick. But this time, his little tiny hands likely slowed his fall just enough that he didn’t get injured,” Otter finishes, reaching for and lightly grabbing Ren’s hands and waving them in time as they spoke. Ren giggles some more.

Otter steps back with a smile. “I gotta get back on my patrol. See ya, taichou.”

Kakashi nods. “Thank you, Otter.”

They replace the mask over their face and slide back out into the Village.

Shizukana, at the door, seems to finally unclench. “What the fuck was that?!”

Kakashi blinks at her and asks, “What was what?”

“That—you—you can’t just—!” She groans and stomps across the room and takes Ren from his arms, fussing over him and curling herself around him. “Does that ANBU even know how to treat children? Does she—”

“They,” Kakashi instantly corrects her.

“—have any experience with children?! How can we trust her diagnosis and—”

“Their.”

Shizukana scowls. “Stop interrupting me!”

“Stop misgendering them,” Kakashi says firmly. “Otter—Awaki Rakko is their name—is a medic on my team. They’re one of the most accomplished medics of our generation, and yes, they do have experience with children, as they have three much younger siblings. You have knowingly trusted them with my life for months now, I should think that we can trust them with Ren’s face in a moment such as this.”

Shizukana’s scowl deepens. “You can’t make those kinds of decisions unilaterally without discussing them with me first,” she says lowly. “This is my son, and I—”

“He is our son,” Kakashi corrects her again, “and I have just as much say in his healthcare as you do. I trust Otter inexplicably, and I should hope that you could extend that trust to me if not to them.” 

Ren sucks on his thumb, leaning on Shizukana’s shoulder. Kakashi waits for the tension to ease, secure in his stance that he did the right thing for Ren.

She eventually sighs. “She—Sorry, they just startled me, I think. And… I’m sorry, Kakashi-kun, but I grew up very sheltered. Rakko-chan is a friend of yours?”

He frowns. “In a sense, yes. Rakko is a trusted ally. Any of the ANBU are, but particularly those on my own squad have a loyalty to me, personally. I’ve worked with Rakko for a couple of years now, and I would trust them not only with my own life—which I have, on multiple occasions—but with yours and Ren’s lives as well.”

“Then… okay. I’ll… I’ll try to do better by th-them. For you, Kakashi-kun.”

Kakashi nods. As long as she can try, for Ren’s sake, he’ll accept it. He ruffles Ren’s hair as he passes them to go and finally take his shower.

~

Kakashi stops counting the months as part of the year, but as pieces of Ren’s life that have passed. Ren is nine months old, and that means it’s almost March. He’s so small, and yet he manages to get into everything that isn’t locked away or put up high. Kakashi consults with Shikaku on what to do to stop Ren from getting at something that could hurt him, but the older man just chuckles.

“Kakashi, if a baby wants to get something, only their height and physicality will stop them. You can’t reason with a baby. Save that sort of thing for when he’s two or three and can understand the concept of no.”

He spends a weekend with Shizukana Ren-proofing their house, particularly the living room, nursery, and kitchen, where Ren spends the majority of his time. He’s fairly certain it’s not perfect, but he gets down on his hands and knees and crawls around at Ren’s height to see what else they could do to prevent their son from getting into trouble once he decides to try walking again.

Shizukana is happy with their work, and makes a nice dinner for them to share. They trade off turns feeding Ren, back and forth until more rice is in his stomach than is in his hair. Kakashi offers to clean up from dinner if Shizukana would like to give Ren a bath and get him ready for bed. 

“Thank you, Kakashi-kun,” she smiles. “Would you like to join us for a story in a little while?”

He hesitates. Listening to a children’s story sounds awful, to be honest, but if it gives him more time with Ren… “That sounds fine. I’ll be upstairs in fifteen minutes.” “Perfect!” She gathers the sticky, rice-covered baby, and leans up to kiss Kakashi on the cheek. He lets her, again, but doesn’t let her linger like she clearly wants to. 

He makes quick work of the kitchen and dishes, sweeps and mops the floor underneath Ren’s chair, all the while listening to Ren’s sweet laughter echoing from the bathroom just above him. Gods, he loves this boy with everything he is, but he just… he can’t find that same affection for Shizukana. 

He’s not stupid. He knows that she’s infatuated with him, that their living together fulfills a fantasy in her mind. At some point he needs to sit down with her and reiterate that they are co-parents and roommates, nothing more. And this talk needs to happen sooner rather than later, before she forces his hand in such a way that ends up with her hurt. He likes having her here; the company is, strangely, nice, and it’s much easier to protect both his son and his son’s mother when they live in the same house as Kakashi. 

He turns the water off and puts the last dish on the rack to dry, and is heading upstairs just as Shizukana is calling down to him that they’re ready for storytime. 

Kakashi turns into the nursery and grins as Ren crawls over to him and uses his trousers to pull himself up to standing. He uses one hand to hold on and with the other makes a grabbing motion upwards and a giggle-grunt-cry. Kakashi leans down and picks Ren up, sighing as his son snuggles into his neck and coos at him. He sits down on the floor in front of Shizukana’s rocking chair, and places Ren on his lap so they can both listen to the story.

Ren is very good at sitting still for stories, especially when he lets Ren hold onto one of his fingers and chew on another. He’s starting to cut teeth, which is good for his development but must be hell on Shizukana’s attempts to continue to breastfeed him. How long does a baby need breastmilk, anyway? He’s already eating solids and drinking watered down juice with meals.

Shizukana makes odd sounds that have Ren giggling, moves the book around from side to side and up and down to have him follow it, all the while reading the book upside-down and backwards so that Ren can see the pictures the whole time. Kakashi does his best to follow her lead and also interact with him in the same way, leaning him to each side and bouncing him in his lap in time to the rhythm of the words. Ren seems to enjoy his efforts, and Shizukana grins at him from above the book.

“The end! Okay Little Man, time for bed!”

Ren flops around and giggles as he tries to “hide” under Kakashi’s arm. He and Shizukana play peek-a-boo around Kakashi’s limb for a minute or so until she scoops him up out of Kakashi’s lap and nuzzles him. Kakashi stands up and waits for her to place Ren in his crib, and then he leans over and runs his fingers through his son’s hair. 

“Good night, Ren,” he says softly.

Ren babbles back at him. There are no discernable words yet, but it can’t be long, now… right?

~

Kakashi blinks at his assignment for the day, and looks up at Hawk for clarification. “What is this about?”

Hawk shrugs. “The jinchūriki has a new adult he’s latched onto, and Umino doesn’t seem to mind. Hell, from what I’ve seen, he’s encouraging it.”

“And we don’t trust Umino to keep himself safe?”

“Umino’s a chūnin,” he scoffs. “And not even an active duty one at that. Heard he was too soft for missions.”

Kakashi frowns. Iruka has his faults, but Sandaime has since entrusted a class of students to him, and the Village’s children are its prized possession. Sure, the Academy is staffed with chūnin, but they’re all very skilled chūnin; a few in particular he’s run missions with as ANBU alternates. The chūnin of the Academy are those who could test for tokujō or jōnin, but refuse to do so; either because they enjoy teaching or because Sandaime knows that if they were to rank up the Village would place them in the field, away from where they are most useful.

He leaves his gear and mask in his locker and heads out in his jōnin uniform. There’s every chance that Iruka already knows that he has a revolving guard, but if Kakashi has to spend the next twelve hours around him, he’d rather Iruka be fully aware of it. He makes his way across the Village quickly, landing silently on Iruka’s balcony at precisely 0630 for the hand-off. Kakashi nods and waves to Cobra up in the trees overlooking the building, and then walks around to the front door and knocks.

Through the door, he hears some grumbling and stumbling, and a very faint, “Naruto, stop leaving your stuff in the hall!” He can’t help the grin that comes with the understanding behind that statement, and is still smiling faintly when Iruka opens the door.

“Oh, Kakashi-san,” he says, startled. “It’s a bit early for a visit.”

Kakashi’s smile falters. “Is your heat not working?”

“Huh?” Iruka fiddles with the sleeves on his shirt. “Oh, no, it’s fine. I haven’t changed yet, actually, and I just like to sleep warmly. Is there something I can help you with?”

Kakashi shrugs. “I’m actually your guard for today.”

Iruka sighs. “Ah.” He steps aside to let Kakashi in, and more quietly continues, “the other ANBU are really good at what they do, truly, I just—”

“You’ve been vigilant,” Kakashi says. “It’s perfectly fine. We don’t tend to hide inside the Village, so that the citizens know what we look like and can tell the difference between an enemy and friendly ANBU.” Iruka’s apartment is cozy, lived-in and slightly chaotic in a way that suggests a child lives here. 

“Right. Um, do you need anything from me today, or just…?”

“You can go about your normal routine,” Kakashi says. “I just felt odd tailing a friend for twelve hours without at least telling you that I’ll be doing so. If you’d rather I leave you alone, I can absolutely do that instead—”

“Oh, it’s fine! Whatever works best for you!” Iruka grins. “Ah, make yourself comfortable, I need to finish getting ready. And getting Naruto ready,” he adds as an afterthought, walking down the hallway to the bedrooms. He gives the second bedroom door a knock as he passes it, and then disappears into the main bedroom.

Kakashi takes the chance to look around a bit more. There’s a bookshelf of old scrolls and texts along one wall, and beside it another bookshelf of casual reading books and fiction novels, some of which he recognizes. He takes one of the scrolls off of the shelf and tries to unroll it, but it’s sealed tight and keyed to a specific chakra flow. Curious, he thinks, as he sets it back in its place.

The casual books are of a wider variety, ranging from simplistic children’s stories at the bottom of the shelf, to a small collection of non-fiction cooking and gardening books around waist-height, and at the very top Kakashi finds two pristine adult novels—Icha Icha Innocence, and the other of a similar genre, but from a different author. Kakashi flicks through Icha Icha Innocence, but the spine is stiff and the pages are still thick and stick together a bit. Iruka has never read it, which is fine because he really should read the other two in the series first. 

“Iruka-sensei says those books aren’t for company.”

He turns and blinks hard. Gods, but Naruto looks so much like Minato, and yet he has that sweetness to his face that Kushina always had. The boy stands at the cusp of the hallway and the living room, scowling with his hands on his hips; in this way, he almost looks like Iruka, trying to be stern. Kakashi has to remind himself not to laugh. 

The book goes back up on the shelf. “Certainly not for children,” Kakashi agrees. 

“Who’re you?” Naruto asks.

“A friend of your sensei’s.”

“Why are you here so early?”

“Visiting with a friend and making plans for the day.”

He narrows his eyes. “Why do you smell like dog?”

Kakashi chuckles. “You can smell me from across the room? I’m impressed.”

Naruto opens his mouth to ask something else, but from down the hall Iruka calls, “Naruto, stop bothering Kakashi and go make yourself breakfast.” He grumbles a bit, but trudges off to the kitchen anyway. Iruka emerges from his bedroom, and Kakashi catches a glimpse of another figure rummaging around in the room before the door closes behind him.

Ah, yes; the boyfriend. Tanaka Mizuki. There are some… interesting theories, within the daily guard reports, regarding Iruka’s long-term boyfriend. Kakashi’s in no position to speculate, today, though. 

Iruka grins as he passes, still tying up his hair as he walks to the kitchen. “Would you like breakfast as well, Kakashi-san?”

“No, thank you. I have to remain alert in case of emergency,” he explains quietly, so as not to disturb Naruto. Although, with the gusto and decibel that Naruto eats, it’s unlikely he would hear anything unless it’s shouted directly into his ears. He stands guard by the window while Iruka grabs himself something to eat, and stiffens when he hears footsteps coming down the hallway from the bedroom—

And then he remembers to relax, that he’s to respond to threats from outside the home, threats that could ultimately harm Naruto. Unless Mizuki makes a move against the jinchūriki, or Iruka makes a formal report, he’s well within his rights to do whatever he’d like behind closed doors. 

Mizuki stops in the doorway of the kitchen and gives Kakashi a nasty look—curled lip, narrowed eyes, twitched hands and stiffened shoulders. He makes his way over to Iruka and wraps his arms around his waist from behind. Kakashi picks up the whisper Mizuki hisses into Iruka’s ear with a little bit of chakra flow to enhance his own hearing; “What the fuck is Hatake doing here?”

Iruka answers back softly, “Naruto needs a guard. Please don’t do anything rash.”

“I’ll do what I like,” Mizuki murmurs, and nips Iruka’s ear. Kakashi groans inwardly and turns aside, turning his gaze back to Naruto. 

Iruka weaves his way out of Mizuki’s arms and asks Naruto, “Are you ready to go?”

Naruto nods and runs off down the hall, and comes back quickly with a small backpack on his shoulders. “Ready!”

Mizuki spins Iruka around and kisses him, and Kakashi herds Naruto out of the room and shoos him to the genkan to put his sandals on. He stays just outside the kitchen so he can still respond to any emergencies, but his stomach turns to hear Mizuki and Iruka making out less than three meters away. It’s awful, but it’s part of the job. Maybe something will attack and Kakashi can get Iruka and Naruto out and leave Mizuki to it.

They eventually leave, and Kakashi walks beside Iruka as Naruto runs ahead through the streets happily. He says nothing else to Iruka the whole way to the Academy, but cannot help his smile whenever Iruka calls out, “Naruto, too far,” or, “Naruto, back here please.” It’s how he imagines Minato would have spoken to the boy, and he’s glad that Iruka managed to open his heart in this way.

~

Kakashi can’t help but notice how well Ren cruises around his nursery, walking on steady, firm feet and strong legs. And yet, his son refuses to try to walk on his own again. 

He’ll cry and reach for his parents, begging to be carried everywhere. Shizukana coddles him, of course; Kakashi is certain she doesn’t notice that Ren is perfectly able to walk, he just seems to not want to. Not that Kakashi himself is complaining, either.

Anything to give him an excuse to cuddle his son is a good thing. He might find himself concerned with Ren’s development if this persists, but the way that Ren gives him sloppy kisses on his cheek and neck after he picks him up can’t be a bad thing for now.

~

Kakashi is asleep in the nursery, his arm hanging over the side of Ren’s crib and his hand laying atop his son’s tiny back. He’s been drooling on his arm for some time, his mask pooled around his throat with his face turned away from the window. It’s certainly not a comfortable position to sleep in, but better than not sleeping at all due to a screaming, crying baby. 

He snaps to instant alertness at the warming of his ANBU tattoo on his arm. A quick glance out the window shows shadows leaping across the rooftops in the barest light of early morning; hell, most people would still consider this nighttime. All of them are heading towards the same place—the Uchiha Compound. 

Kakashi’s not allowed there. The Uchiha were gracious enough to let him keep Obito’s eye, but refused further contact or training in its usage. 

The tattoo begins to burn, and the Village’s chakra alarms trigger. Konoha is locked down. 

Kakashi scoops up Ren as carefully as he can, swaddling him as he walks down the hall to Shizukana’s room. She’s awake now and mostly alert, woken by the chakra alarms. “Kakashi—”

He places Ren into her arms. “Downstairs, now.”

“What’s going on?”

“I have to go, and you need to stay,” Kakashi says as he makes hand-seals and summons his pack. The dogs appear alert and ready for orders, immediately reading Kakashi’s emotional state and how agitated his chakra is. He sends Urushi and Guruko upstairs to gather his gear, Akino and Shiba to go ahead and report in for him, and Uhei and Bull outside to patrol the fenceline. 

“Pakkun, Bisuke, you two will stay with Shizukana and keep her and Ren safe,” Kakashi says, lifting up a trapdoor in the kitchen. Bisuke hops down first and sniffs around, and Kakashi looks at her expectantly.

She shakes her head. “When did you have that installed?”

“Not important right now,” he says. “Please, something attacked a clan tonight. I have to go. Go down there, stay hidden and stay safe, until I come back or I send someone to collect you.”

“I could just go to my parent’s!”

“Shizukana,” Kakashi snaps. “This is not a time to argue. Ren is a clan child. A clan was attacked. I will explain anything you wish to ask of me, later. But please, for now, I need you to simply do as I say and protect our child.”

She hangs her head and noses at Ren’s hair. The baby is still sleeping. “How.. will I know it is you? Or someone you’ve sent?”

Kakashi thinks, and then whispers in her ear, barely speaking at all, “The password is Whirlpool.”

Shizukana nods, kisses his cheek, and then carefully hops down into the hole, using chakra to cushion her landing so that Ren wouldn’t wake. Pakkun nods to him, and then follows her down. Kakashi waits until they have a lamp turned on, and then closes the trapdoor and covers it with the mats. Turning around, Urushi and Guruko stand at attention in the doorway to the kitchen with all of his ANBU gear, and he’s quick to change and equip himself properly, rote and habit pushing him through where his hands want to stop and shake.

He doesn’t want to leave Ren. 

Ren is as well-protected as he can be.

And yet, he doesn’t want to leave Ren.

But he has a duty to the Village.

“Ready, Boss?” Guruko asks.

Kakashi hesitates once more. “Urushi, stay behind and guard the house with Bull and Uhei. Guruko, with me.” 

Then, he bolts off into the dawn to learn what happened to the Uchiha.

~

The Village remains quiet and on lockdown for almost a month following the Massacre, with only select teams being allowed to leave and come back. Kakashi’s squad is on Bunk, as Itachi was part of his squad, and so his whole squad is under investigation while each member is individually vetted and cleared for duty. Kakashi volunteers to undergo Yamanaka interference first, as the squad Captain, and ends up bedridden for the following day and a half to recover from the interrogation. 

Inoichi is good at what he does, but he’s certainly not gentle.

It’s while he’s resting and recovering, and stuck at home for the month, that Shizukana decides to put Ren on more and more solids and to supplement with formula and milk instead of breastfeeding. Kakashi asks her once, and she blushes and says, “Well, I know that breastfeeding is supposed to help you… y’know, lose the baby weight, but I need to be able to start getting back into fighting shape! And I can’t do that with, um,” she grabs her chest and shrugs, giggling lightly.

Kakashi then blushes lightly, nods, and leaves her to it. Ren is close to a year old now, and it’s almost time that he’s weaned anyway. 

~

The Hokage calls for him one day, and he sighs and contemplates getting geared up in ANBU armor before going if only so he doesn’t have to come home before leaving again. In the end, though, he simply leaves in his regular jōnin uniform, because he wants the excuse to return home and see Ren again before going out. 

Sandaime is on the roof of the Tower when he gets there, smoking his pipe and looking out over the Village. “Come, beside me, Kakashi.”

Kakashi comes to stand almost beside him, although he does maintain a respectful distance and a step behind. But Sandaime waves him forward, “Closer, closer. This talk is nothing bad, I assure you.”

He clamps down on his chakra, ready to spike in his anxiety, and steps forward to stand beside Sandaime.

“I’ve been Hokage for a long time now, Kakashi. And I’ve seen many things, heard many different pleas from friends and family members of my ninja. Yet, what I was asked today is something different from much of what I’ve experienced.”

Kakashi stands still, waiting for the old man to go on, because he knows he will, eventually. Indeed, he needed to only stop for a puff of his pipe before he continues, “My son, Asuma, and two of his friends, Gai and Kurenai, came before me today, on your behalf. They have pleaded with me to remove you from ANBU.”

Silently, Kakashi berates his friends for getting involved. What could they say to Sandaime to convince him that Kakashi himself couldn’t—?

“They say that, if Itachi couldn’t make it in ANBU for a year without breaking, what’s to stop you from breaking soon, too? Gai reminded me that you’ve been a part of ANBU for almost ten years now. Is that correct?”

“Yes, Sandaime.”

“A decade of experience within the Ops, that cannot just be thrown away,” he says. Another pause to smoke. “I have reconvened with the other Elders on my council. They also agree that removing you from your post would be a detriment to our Village.”

“I understand.”

“And yet, there is an Uchiha boy who lives. The jinchūriki will need guidance and control. And you are our only active shinobi who still has the sharingan.”

“I… no longer understand,” Kakashi says slowly.

“Naruto and Sasuke are eight years old now. In four years, they will likely be genin.” Sandaime turns to look at him. “In four years, the council has agreed that you will take the two of them, plus whichever third student will fit best on their team, and become their jōnin sensei. Until then, you will continue to serve in ANBU. The last year before you leave the Ops, you will take teaching classes to learn to be an effective teacher.”

Kakashi’s mouth goes dry. A… teacher? Him?

Four Years?!

“This is your new mission. Do you accept it, as part of your duty to Konohagakure?”

Ren will be five years old. How much will he miss by then? But then… Ren will only be five years old. He’ll have so much more time—as a jōnin sensei, he can stay in the Village for much longer, training his team. Teaching them. He will be home with Ren to watch him grow up. It… it’s what he’d initially wanted.

But not for Four Years.

“I accept. Thank you, Sandaime.”

~

Step-Push, Step-Push, the wind glides past his ears and stings, bright and cold, against his open eye. He can hear Cat, Owl, and Otter in formation behind him, following his steps to minimize footprints. They may not be able to trick the best chakra sensors out there, but they can at least keep mundane methods of tracking from working so well. 

They’re so far north, there’s still snow on the branches in early May. 

And gods, it’s May. Kakashi has mere weeks to finish this mission and return home or else he’ll miss his son’s first birthday. He wasn’t stupid enough to promise Shizukana that he’d be back for it, but he wants to see his son spit all over his cake, make a mess of himself trying to eat it, run around with a silly hat on or maybe a sweet onesie that declares him the birthday boy.

He stops. His squad stops in the trees behind him. Cat comes to his right side.

“Our mark is in that village,” Kakashi murmurs. “Orders are to take him alive. Scroll-seal as needed, he’ll live through transit.”

Cat nods and signs back to Owl and Otter, and then leads Owl off to one side of the village while Kakashi and Otter go the other way. They both maintain their distance from the building where their mark supposedly frequents, where Owl and Cat went to, and keep watch from there.

Of course, no watch with Otter is complete without a horribly invasive question. They nudge him lightly and ask, “Did she get the shot like she said she would?”

Kakashi feels his face flush under his mask. “She takes a pill every morning. I checked the package, and it is signed and legitimate.”

Otter tsks. “Shots are better, especially if she plans on going back on active duty.”

“I’m not sure if she does,” Kakashi muses. Owl swoops into the top-most window, and Cat follows. “At least not until he’s older.”

“That’s fair, I guess. Personally, I like the shot. But I also don’t want kids,” they say much quieter, barely a whisper. “Not that I’ll have to worry about it, but… shit happens.”

Kakashi tilts his head aside a little at Otter, hoping for a further explanation, but they’re not forthcoming on any more details. And he won’t push. They’ll tell him if they feel ready. They both go back to studying the village’s rooftops, waiting for Owl’s and Cat’s silhouettes to grace the skyline. It’s an anxious few minutes, made worse by Otter nearly vibrating in place beside him, but he recognizes Cat’s spiky hair pop up, followed by Owl’s flowing ponytail, and they both begin to flicker over to the rendezvous point. Kakashi taps Otter’s elbow to signal that they’re leaving, too, and they all clear out of this cold village.

Cat confirms that they got the mark. Otter fusses over whether either of them need healing, which both Cat and Owl deny.

“Owl took a kunai to the shoulder, but her armor blocked most of the blow,” Cat explains. “We’re fine, and should get going. It took us nearly a week to get up here, and if we’re lucky, a week to get back.”

Owl nods. “This way, Hound won’t miss his little boy’s birthday!”

Kakashi winces. “Not here, and not too loud outside the Village.” He continues, signing, Secret.

Owl signs back an apology, and the squad takes to the trees once more. Kakashi lets Cat take the lead for now, and instead follows up at the rear until they leave the snow and cold.

~

Kakashi enters the house through his bedroom window, as is his routine. He will do whatever it takes to avoid having Ren ever seeing him in his ANBU gear, for the rest of his time in the Ops. That sort of fear is not something he ever wants to see on his own son’s face, and certainly not directed at himself. After he’s showered and changed and feels human again, he slinks out into the house and down the stairs where he can hear Shizukana and her parents chatting in the living room. 

He’s still not exactly on great terms with Kame Kousuke and his wife, Nao. But they visit at least once a week, he knows, and Ren adores them. He has to develop some sort of relationship with them eventually. They are, afterall, his child’s only grandparents.

“Oh! Kakashi-kun! You’re home early,” Shizukana gasps with a smile, standing up and leaving the kotatsu to come to the doorway and greet him. “I thought your mission was—”

“S-rank, Shizu-san,” Kakashi reminds her. “The details of which are still not to be discussed around those without the proper clearance. Yes, even a timeline.” He bows respectfully to both Kousuke and Nao, and greets them individually. They only give him a frown and a nod of acknowledgement back, but it’s more than he was honestly expecting. 

“Sorry, Kakashi-kun,” Shizukana says. “But really, it’s just my parents. They would never—”

He holds up his hand. “You have no idea the kinds of things people will say when under torture, and I pray to each of the gods that Ren’s grandparents never have to find out their own limits. There is nothing else to discuss, S-rank details are confidential for a reason and I’m sure O-jiisan can appreciate that.”

He glances over to the two parents, and sees, for the first time, the barest hint of a smile in Kousuke’s eyes, even if it doesn’t show on his mouth. Shizukana, however, crosses her arms and huffs. Kakashi sighs and pulls her in for a hug to placate her. 

“Where’s Ren?”

“Oh,” she smiles, leaning into his side and pulling him around the kotatsu. “Come here, right there, that’s it.”

Around the other side, playing with blocks at Nao’s side, Ren was just hidden by his grandmother’s profile. Shizukana gets their son’s attention. She turns him around and points to Kakashi, and Ren’s face lights up in a bright grin.

And then he stands.

And he walks. Confidently, strong legs and arms up for balance, feet tap-tap-tapping on the mats as he giggles across the length of the room. Kakashi feels like this moment goes on forever before he crouches down in time to pick up his son and swing him into the air, spinning and cooing.

“What a big, strong boy! Look at you go, how long has he been walking like that?” Kakashi exclaims.

Shizukana giggles. “He’s been practicing for about a month, but I think he wanted to wait until he was sure of himself before he really tried again. He walked over to greet my parents this morning when they came over, and so I was really hoping that he’d do it again for you.”

“A month?” Kakashi asks, his happiness scattering a bit. He’s only been on this mission for two weeks. And before that, his Squad was still on lockdown. How did he miss this?

Nao nods. “You have a strong son there, Hatake. Yearlings don’t tend to walk so confidently, not in my experience.”

“He has another trick up his tiny sleeve that he’s been working on,” Shizukana says excitedly. She holds out her arms and Kakashi passes Ren over to her. They sit back down at the kotatsu, and Shizukana holds up a piece of fruit for Ren to take. “Ren, what is it?”

“Foo!!”

Kousuke chuckles, “He’ll need to work on his diction, but he certainly has the spirit.”

Kakashi looks on in wonder. “Talking, too? What other words does he know?”

Shizukana grins so wide and takes Ren’s hand. “Ren, who’s that?” she asks, pointing across the table.

Ren looks up from his fruit, smiles at Nao, and says, “Baa!”

All four adults coo and sigh. Shizukana points to Kousuke next and asks, “Who’s that?”

“Jii!”

Kousuke chuckles. “That’s Jii-chan to you, mister.”

Shizukana then turns Ren around and Ren’s smile grows ever bigger. He’s caught onto the game and leans forward to plant a sloppy kiss on her cheek, and says, “Mama!”

“That’s right, sweetie! So smart, Ren!”

Kakashi can’t help but feel left out, but he doesn’t want to push it. If Ren doesn’t have a word for him yet, it’s his own fault for not being here. But Ren turns to Kakashi, crawls across Shizukana’s lap and into his own, and bounces on his thighs while giggling for a moment and then puts his tiny palm on Kakashi’s cheek.

“Kaka!”

His heart drops. He’s away so much that his son knows him only by his name. 

The joyous mood in the room sours, to the point where Kakashi himself can feel it. He keeps playing with Ren while Kousuke and Nao make their excuses to leave and Shizukana sees them to the door. He can hear them whispering harshly to each other, and if he would bother to enhance his hearing with a bit of chakra he could probably make out what’s being said. But they wouldn’t be whispering if they wanted Kakashi to hear them, and so he’ll give them their privacy.

Shizukana eventually comes back into the living room and sits down beside him, and he lets her take Ren and put him back with his toys for a while.

“I’m sorry,” she says. “I didn’t realize that he had picked up on my calling you Kakashi all the time.”

He sighs. “I’m sorry I’m not home more often to correct the situation.”

Her face crumples and she crosses her arms like she’s about to say something that’s going to make Kakashi feel worse about this situation, and he doesn’t need that right now, not after coming off a mission.

“I need you to try and curb this quickly, before Ren calls me that in public. Please.”

“If you could just get a village-bound—”

“Shizukana,” Kakashi stops her, “I told you already. I have four years, and then I will be mostly homebound. Until then, the Hokage will not let me leave ANBU. Stop asking me to abandon my duty to our Village.” He sighs and continues, “Regardless, we both know that it will mean more coming from you than from me. You’re his mother, and he’ll take his cues from you. Please, I need your help with this.”

Still pouting, she turns her face away from him. He can see her shoulders draw up to her ears, one of her tells that she’s upset. He tried to soften the snap with a compliment on her role as Ren’s mother, because she is a fantastic parent to their son, but she has to drop this issue about him getting a different assignment. Four years.

He tries a different approach. “Please,” he asks quietly. “Imagine if he’d called you Shizu instead of Mama.”

She stiffens and turns halfway back to look at him through her bangs. “That does sound awful,” she whispers.

He nods. “If it had happened, I would have called you mama, for him, every day for the rest of our lives if that’s what it took for him to change his language. Please, can you give me the same grace?”

She leans up against his shoulder, and Kakashi wraps his arms around her. Another one of her tells—this one, however, is a sort of apology. “There’s no guarantee,” she says. “Oftentimes, when a baby decides a word means something, getting them to change it is like moving a mountain.”

Kakashi sighs against her temple and says, “That you’ll try and give it your best attempt is all I ask.”

Ren sees his parents snuggling together beside the kotatsu and toddles over to them, falling into Shizukana’s lap and snuggling, too. Kakashi gathers them both in his arms and sighs, because if having Ren means having Shizukana, then he can admit it’s not a terrible package. He certainly wouldn’t have been able to do this parenting thing on his own. Ren would have been taken as a ward of the Village, and Kakashi would have been lucky to see him once a month.

This arrangement comes with its own challenges, of course. Shizukana is infatuated with him and he still doesn’t get to see Ren as often as he’d like. And then, of course, there’s the hopeless crush he’s nursing on a certain sensei… 

But here, with Ren giggling in Shizukana’s arms, getting raspberries blown on his cheeks, and Shizukana’s own warm weight against his side… he could be happy here anyway.

< Previous | Next >

Tips appreciated 💛

[narutoandanimearemyheart]

FAVS IN NARUTO

Hey guys! I currently have a Madara fan fiction in the works right now! It’s called “Crimson Red” and it’ll be posted in about a week ish or so, so look out for that, I’m more than halfway finished it, I’m just stuck on this one part and I want to write it well and accurately so I’m not going to rush it. While that’s in the making I’m just doing something fun to keep my followers engaged, and maybe this can lift someone’s spirit, or someone else wants to do something similar to this, they can as well. So without further ado, here are my favourites in Naruto.

FAVOURITE CHARACTER/SHINOBI

Hashirama Senju. At first I was sort of lax about him, I thought he was a cool character, then for a while I actually didn’t him like him a whole lot, but then I started liking him again and read more things about his character and realized that he was actually a very nuanced character, he’s not pure good or “pretending to be good and is secretly a horrible and evil person” he’s a very nuanced character, just like how Madara is, and while he’s made mistakes and has flaws, at the end of the day he is someone who valued peace, and really did want to make a safer and better world for others. He’s my comfort character for many personal reasons, and I’ve grown to really really like his character, he isn’t perfect and I know that. + On a non deep level, his jutsu and elemental style is really fascinating, and just his power set in general. Why are so many things in the Naruto world explained with through the use of “Hashirama Cells” just what type of human being was this man exactly. Also his relationship with Madara is something it took me months to get over(when I say get over I mean not get instantly sad whenever I think of how their friendship turned out.)

FAVOURITE KUNOICHI

Definitely Kushina Uzumaki. For me people don’t delve into how sad her backstory and life actually was. She was taken from her village and the only home she ever knew to have a literal tailed beast sealed inside of her, and the only clan member she had living in the village had to die for her to become the nine tails. She was bullied for the color of her literal hair as a young kid, and even got kidnapped. Then she lived a very restricted life, where she was barely allowed to move around and was under strict surveillance at almost all times and barely had any freedom. Then some time between that she found out her village was destroyed and her home and possibly friends and some family might’ve been killed in the attack, with some being scattered all over the world, then when she finally gets peace and is happy, she gets killed by a kid she once wanted her own son to become. Moving in to a lighter note, I enjoyed the similarities between her and Naruto, and think that she’s a very strong and powerful kunoichi. She would have been a great mother and IS one of the best mothers in the show, possibly even THE best period.

FAVOURITE VILLAIN

He’s hands down my favourite villain in Naruto, and one of my favourite characters as well. He is a very close second to Hashirama. He’s also my favourite Uchiha. When I was reading the manga I literally sped through it just so I could read the war arc, and see him and Hashirama. I really empathized with his backstory and how all of his brothers were killed, and his own clan voted against him to be Hokage of the village. I also used to have a big crush on him, but I really enjoyed the way that Kishimoto wrote him. His relationship with Hashirama really sent me on an emotional rollercoaster, just thinking about the two of them last year made me feel so sad with the way things ended up. He was done so dirty by Kishimoto because he wrote his death horrendously. He deserved a better end than that.

FAVOURITE AKATSUKI MEMBER

Obito Uchiha is my favourite akatsuki member, but Konan could give him a run for his money, as I really like her a lot too. The way that he manipulated the akatsuki, and the Shinobi world, pretending to be Madara Uchiha only to be revealed as Obito Uchiha, then we have an entire backstory as to why he is doing all of this. He’s a perfect example of the Broken Hero trope in fiction, and a fantastic villain in the anime/manga, especially with his parallels with Naruto. I also enjoy his Tobi persona, and his moments with Deidara.

FAVOURITE JUTSU

I could not choose between the Shinsuusenju and the Susanoo. These two are my favourite jutsu’s and with the level of power they might even count as summonings. The scale that Hashirama’s shinsuusenju is on is genuinely incredible, the size it has, and the power and chakra he has to have to wield it, and summon it is insane, this jutsu made the nine tails, the most powerful of all the tailed beasts look tiny in comparison. Moving on to the Susanoo armor the skeletal design is just so visually satisfying to look at? The concept is rather creative in my opinion, like giant chakra armor in the form of a skeleton? Not only that but it can tank some serious hits(unless it’s Tsunade) but yeah a perfect Susanoo is even more amazing than just a regular Susanoo. Both of these are extremely overpowered and based on Gods. They are hands down my favourite jutsu’s in the show.

FAVOURITE SUMMONING

The Sannin Deadlock summoning is my favourite, also tied up with the moment that Naruto shows up with the toads during his fight against Pain/Nagato.

FAVOURITE CLAN

The Uzumaki. I also really like the Senju, but mostly because of Hashirama and Tobirama. I just find the Uzumaki Clan so interesting. Their prowess in sealing jutsu, like come on, I want to know which Uzumaki invented the reaper seal jutsu and made a deal with literal death. + The adamantine chains are incredibly powerful, if Kushina on her deathbed was able to summon the seals to contain the nine tails then who knows what else those seals could do with an Uzumaki at their peak, and I really wish that Naruto used the chains more. Also the fact that they are so embedded with Konoha due to their relationship with the Senju is really interesting, their clan logo is on the back of the konoha jackets, and yet their clan is barely ever brought up unless it’s for plot purposes.

FAVOURITE DOJUTSU

The Sharingan is definitely my favourite dojutsu, because of of its design, its abilities and how it can vary from Uchiha to Uchiha. Though I will say the way that people earn the Sharingan is kind of scary, which is why I stay firm that I'd rather be a Uzumaki, but would I like to be WITH an Uchiha yes. Just not BE an Uchiha. I think that it’s a very powerful and cool dojutsu, I’d like to have it(without the trauma + bad eyesight + possibility of going blind)

FAVOURITE KEKKEI GENKAI

Wood Release. It’s my favourite Kekkei Genkai, I know that the Sharingan is a Kekkei Genkai as well, but I’m just counting it as a Dojutsu which it also is. As for why I like wood style, it’s an extremely rare kekkei genkai, Hashirama is the only person to have this wood release naturally. It’s incredibly powerful, like incredibly powerful and versatile, Yamato was strong with it, but it’s obvious that due to various factors, Hashirama is the “perfect wielder” of it due to his cells. It’s incredibly adaptable and strong enough to hold back tailed beasts, and you can do quite a lot of things with it, a WHOLE LOT of things with wood release. But yes I’d say my favourite Kekkei Genkais are Wood Release, Sharingan, and the Byakugan. For the Byakugan, I think that the fact that you can see various miles away, with a 360 range is pretty cool. The byakugan is pretty underrated especially when compared to dojutsu’s like the Sharingan and Rinnegan, but it doesn’t gain much attention other than in the Chunin exams arc in the OG Show, and The Last movie. But back to Wood Release, definitely my favourite.

FAVOURITE TEAM

This might be “basic” but yeah, my favourite team is team seven. Yes they barely had screen time together ALL FOUR OF THEM in Shippuden, but I really enjoy the dynamics they have, Kakashi with all of them, Sasuke and Naruto, I just really enjoy watching the them together and reading about them in the manga, I really would’ve liked to see more of the three of them in Shippuden, though that’s not the route Kishimoto wanted to tell his story, but he’s, they are my favourite team in the anime/manga.

FAVOURITE ARC

My favourite arc is the war arc, solely because of the Konoha founders and the history of Konoha. Plus Madara was a very good villain and the reveal of Obito as Tobi was interesting as well. The dynamics were interesting and there was a lot of lore. I’m a nerd, so I really liked the lore parts of the series, + the relationships between the characters and how they interacted together.

FAVOURITE SENSEI

Yes Minato is my favourite Sensei, though we didn’t see too much of how he trained his students, he seemed to be a rather diligent teacher. Also I just wanted to put him on this list in some category- While he made some rather questionable parenting decisions, he was a good Hokage and a good Sensei to his students(if only he got there sooner when Obito was about to be crushed by that rock), then he might still be alive.

FAVOURITE HOKAGE

Hashirama again. I already explained this one. He’s my favourite character in the show(though Madara could lowkey give him a run for his money in that position, Madara is a very close second) and when he’s in a category he’s gonna come out on top for me.

FAVOURITE OF THE 5 KAGE

Tsunade. Shes my favourite out of the five Kage, I loved her in the fight with Madara. Her backstory is very well written, and I also just like her power set, it’s very satisfying to watch her and Sakura literally break the earth with just punches. In my opinion she’s a well written character but often brushed over compared to Jiraiya and Orochimaru.

FAVOURITE JINCHUURIKI

Naruto is one of my most favourite characters in the show. I actually had a crush on his character for a while, until I moved to the Uchiha’s 🤦🏾‍♀️ 😂

As a protagonist he might be your “typical” shounen protagonist but I think that as a character he has good motivations AT THE END of the series. He has a lot of growth over the series and goes from “I want to become Hokage so everyone can recognize me” to “I want to protect my friends and bring peace to the world making it a better place”

FAVOURITE SHIP

Minato and Kushina had the best and healthiest relationship in the show. Their dynamic together is so wonderfully written, and the way that they both die together is heartbreaking. I’d love to know more about them, or have a full manga series written about Minato and Kushina and animated.

CHARACTER I WISH WE KNEW MORE ABOUT

Mito Uzumaki. She’s the first ever jinchuuriki in history, she sealed the nine tails within herself BY HERSELF, and we don’t even get a flashback of her sealing the nine tails in herself, and barely know anything about her backstory, her relationship with Hashirama, how powerful she was, and who her descendants were except for most likely Tsunade and Nawaki. Another reason why I’d love an anime about the Konoha founders so we could delve deep into how it was in the warring states era.

FAVOURITE TAILED BEAST

I personally really love Kurama’s design. He’s the strongest of the tailed beasts, and the most feared out of them. I enjoy watching his relationship with Naruto grow and develop over the series. Yes he was a villainous character in the show, but I think he was well written.

FIRST CRUSH

He was my first ever crush in Naruto when I first started watching it a few years ago. Then I switched to Neji for a few months, then after that I switched to Naruto for a while, then finally Madara. But yes I think he was very well written and had a lot of good motivations, in my opinion he was never a villain in the anime/manga, the real villains were the Elders, mainly Danzo. But I thought he was very cool, and I liked nonchalant “dark” male characters.

FAVOURITE THEME SONG

Haruka Kanata. The only theme song in both shows that I have never ever skipped. This song is so good and so underrated, I wish more people talked about it like how they do with blue bird and silhouette. I’m also a fan of rock music and electric guitars so that’s also a major reason. + I like the way that the singer vocally expressed the lyrics in the song.

ALL CRUSHES

Naruto’s picture is wayy bigger than the others cause the format is odd, but anyway this is in chronological order from left to right. But yes the order is Sasuke, Neji, Naruto, Madara, and Obito. You may be sensing a pattern when it comes to the characters I like, it’s either dark emo guys, or golden retrievers. There’s no in between.

BIGGEST CRUSH

He wasn't my first crush but he was most certainly my biggest crush, this all started because of an edit I saw of him, he had me in a chokehold for a year and a half. I still like him not as much, but still a lot.

ALSO

I’m seriously thinking about what if someone made a “What If” series about Naruto. Just think about it. What if Madara became the first Hokage and not Hashirama. What if Obito never got crushed by a rock? What if the Uchiha’s were never segregated from the Village, thus resulting them plotting a coup d’état and getting taken out by their own clan member who was ordered to by the elders. What if Sasuke never left the village. What if Izuna never died? The list could go on and on. But for now we can just read fan fictions.

Anyway I hope you guys got to sort of know me better as a Naruto fan!

Have a great day and keep your eyes open for crimson red!

[saberlibrary]

Saber presents…

31 Days of Ficmas by Saber!

Starting on December 1st and ending on December 31th, I’ll be posting a fic per day – Holidays themed.

All themes (and characters) are listed below, but since I’ll write the stories as the days passes, warnings won’t be added until the fic is up!

What you will find? Fluff, smut, crack, and a sprinkle of angst.

I hope you can enjoy this beautiful season with me. <3

Reblogs are appreciated. ^_^

STATUS: FINISHED / NOT COMPLETED

Day 1 – Ice skating with Katsuki Bakugou

An ice skating night with your boyfriend ends with a nosebleed and a contusion. (796 words, fluff)

Day 2 – Picking the perfect tree with Obito Uchiha

Obito Uchiha, an exiled war criminal, doesn’t understand why you’re so obsessed with a tree. (807 words, fluff)

Day 3 – Having a neighbor rivalry with Satoru Gojo

You and your neighbor keep bickering about who has the most beautiful Christmas-decorated house in the street. (1.3k words, fluff)

Day 4 – Decorating the house with Kento Nanami

Kento Nanami indulges your love for Christmas and helps you decorate your shared house because there isn’t a thing he wouldn’t do for you. (1k words, fluff)

Day 5 – Being Santa’s prettiest Elf with Toji Fushiguro

Toji Fushiguro takes his son to meet the local Santa, and one of his elves catches his attention. (824 words, smut)

Day 6 – Meeting a pretty stranger with Kakashi Hatake

You’re feeling down after all your Christmas plans got canceled when a dog wearing elf clothes jumps on you. (1.1k words, fluff)

Day 7 – Seeing snow for the first time with Ryomen Sukuna

Your long-lived boyfriend doesn’t see the big deal about snow. (465 words, fluff)

Day 8 – Singing in a choral with Suguru Geto

In a world filled with curses and tragedies, Suguru Geto hears the most beautiful voice of his damned life when he least expected to. (629 words, angst)

Day 9 – Traveling to see your boyfriend with Megumi Fushiguro

After years of online communication, you surprise your boyfriend by showing up at his door to celebrate Christmas together. (560 words, fluff)

Day 10 – Missing your partner with Levi Ackerman

With the Holidays coming, you can’t help but miss your husband, who’s away on a mission. (333 words, angsty)

Day 11 – Going on vacation with Kento Nanami

You and your lover, Kento, decide to spend the Holidays in Malaysia. (329 words, fluff)

Day 12 – Losing something valuable with Levi Ackerman

You lose a bracelet that means a lot to you a few days before Christmas. (707 words, fluff)

Day 13 – Breaking up with Satoru Gojo

You break up with the love of your life a few weeks prior Christmas. (1.2k words, hurt/comfort)

Day 14 – Getting stuck in a cabin with Megumi Fushiguro

After a ski trip with a group of friends, a snowstorm traps you and the only person in the group you barely talk with, Megumi Fushiguro. (1.6k words, smut)

Day 15 – Baking with Itachi Uchiha

Itachi doesn’t know how to bake. (headcanons, fluff)

Day 16 – Getting caught under the mistletoe with Yuji Itadori

Trying to find a way to confess to the guy that you love, you find yourself under a mistletoe with him.

Day 17 – Bringing light to your loved one’s lives with Kakashi Hatake

Kakashi Hatake is a busy man. When he spends the day in his office on Christmas Eve, forgetting what day it is, you decide to show up with something.

Day 18 – Understanding others' feelings with Dabi

Dabi hates Christmas and becomes gloomy on the Holidays, so you show him he can have a good time even though it’s his least favorite day of the year.

Day 19 – Meeting a nice barista with Megumi Fushiguro

The barista who had to work at night on Christmas Eve finds himself interested in the only person at the café.

Day 20 – Fake dating your best friend with Yuji Itadori

You bring your best friend to your family Christmas party, pretending he’s your boyfriend so your crazy aunts won’t bother you further.

Day 21 – Meeting his family with Shoto Todoroki

Shoto Todoroki finally gathers the courage to introduce you to his family.

Day 22 – Having to work on Christmas Eve with boss!Tomura Shigaraki

Tomura Shigaraki, your torment and boss, forces you to work on Christmas Eve. But of course, he’s there, too.

Day 23 – Dancing alone on Christmas night with Satoru Gojo

You and Satoru enjoy Christmas in your own way, with the lights out and in silence.

Day 24 – Exchanging gifts with Ryomen Sukuna

Finding a gift for the King of Curses – and receiving one in return – feels like a binding vow.

Day 25 – Receiving a letter from your lover

On Christmas day, you receive a letter.

Day 26 – Christmas morning together with Obito Uchiha

You wake up to a delicious smell and your loving, devoted, and caring boyfriend.

Day 27 – Christmas traditions with Itachi Uchiha

All the things you and Itachi do on Christmas, year after year.

Day 28 – Gathering between friends with Yuta Okkotsu

You and your friends gather together to celebrate the Holidays, but Yuta is anxious to have a moment alone with you.

Day 29 – Escaping from your home with Dabi, pt. 1

Your best friend and roommate don’t like it when you hang with Dabi, you always listen but on New Year’s Eve, things are about to change.

Day 30 – Having a blast on New Year’s Eve with Dabi, pt. 2

You break free from who you were – with Dabi by your side.

Day 31 – New Year’s Kiss with Yuji Itadori

After an amazing night with your best friend, you decide you will kiss him before the year ends. But you only have a few minutes left.

[kiigan]

ㅤSo Shisui does know. Which... is perhaps not surprising. Who, in the entire shinobi world, has not heard about the Uchiha massacre and the psychopath who was responsible for it? Even in passing, he might have heard rumors and tales and gossip; Itachi may have been officially pardoned by the Hokage, thanks to Kakashi's kindness and understanding, but many villagers still don't trust him and probably never will. It's something he has accepted, and that he does not hold against them. It's far more kindness than what he believes he deserves.

ㅤBut this leaves him stuck between a rock and a hard place. There is no way he can avoid talking about it, nor would he want to - Shisui, yes, this man right here who somehow clawed his way out of the Otherworld, Shisui deserves to know the complete truth about what happened. With every sad and gruesome and fucked up detail. And then he deserves to have his own opinion about it, and decide what to do and how to react. And... if that includes hating Itachi for his actions, then so be it. At this point, stalling is only delaying the inevitable.

ㅤ«You do not need to promise me anything... you don't owe me anything. I made you a promise, that night - I promised I would find a way to finish what we started together. That I would find a way to avoid another war, to bring peace back to the village and to the clan. And I failed to do it.»

ㅤEven the war. That much wasn't Itachi's responsibility […or was it? could he have done more to prevent Obito's plan?], but it still happened and Shisui still has to look at the consequences of it, now; the houses being rebuilt, the new graves in the cemetery, more children that were traumatized or maimed or who lost all their loved ones. Almost like it'd been the gods telling them to stop being arrogant and punishing them for it, to stop trying to decide the fate of humans because the two of them were just as powerless. But, yes, he's stalling. Taking in a deep breath, he finally opens the gates to let out that terrible torrent of furious water.

ㅤ«After you-» died, that's the word, but Itachi still can't bring himself to say it, «-...after you left, your letter was found. Not many people believed it, however... especially within the clan. How could it be that our best shinobi suddenly decided he wanted to just give up on everything? Many blamed me for it, because I was the last person who'd seen you alive.» Which had been the cherry on top of the cake, of course; most clan members had already been angry at him, for openly opposing the coup. Shisui's death was only the perfect excuse to convince even more of their own that Itachi couldn't be trusted. That he was siding with the village, and not with his own people.

ㅤ«I can't say for sure, but I think Father believed it as well. Or, at the very least, he accepted that I could not be trusted to do what he wanted. And after that... some weeks later, Danzo himself promoted me to captain. He assigned me my own team and requested that I kept Sugaru with me, because, according to him, it was for my own safety.» Bullshit. Absolute bullshit. Even back then, Itachi had not believed a word about it. And only the gods knew the amount of self-restraint it'd taken to not murder that bastard every time they would cross ways in the lockers room or the office.

ㅤ«Nothing else changed much. Tension continued increasing, both sides antagonizing one another... some incidents started happening with the Police Force, officers that were attacked for no reason and officers that were too violent when doing their job. The Lord Third kept promising he would talk to Father about it, to discuss a peaceful resolution, but it never went beyond words. There was always something in the way, some event that required attention, some sort of excuse. Which, I imagine now, were Danzo's doing for the most part. And then-»

ㅤAnd then, that dreadful night. The thought alone brings a pang of physical pain to Itachi's chest, like his heart is breaking to a million shards all over again; but he brings a hand up to absently rub at it over his shirt, and forces himself to continue.

ㅤ«...It eventually reached the point where Danzo ran out of patience. He left the Hokage out of the decision and came to me on his own, to offer me a choice. There would be no stopping Father or changing his mind, he said, and if I chose to side with him then I would die along with everyone else. He would have his ROOT Division exterminating the clan, with no one to be spared. However... if I chose to do it myself, if I accepted to bear that responsibility and took it away from Konoha, then I would be allowed to save Sasuke's life and keep him alive.»

ㅤThe rest shouldn't be hard to guess, truly. Shisui, better than most people, knows that there is nothing that Itachi won't do for his little brother. Not so little anymore, a man grown and powerful and fighting his own demons, probably taller than both of them by now - but still that same baby, that little warm bundle that Itachi loved to carry everywhere and that would scream from the top of his tiny lungs whenever someone who wasn't his big brother tried to pick him up. Feeling his tears silently rolling down his cheeks, Itachi wipes them away with a sleeve and turns around to face Shisui again.

«...And so I made my choice.»

That image of him washed in the blood was so grotesque so surreal. but they never planned this… these two innocent boys had to carry the weight of adulthood. Someone aside looking at this unfolding would say Itachi is a mass murderer a monster a child killer. So skinny with wrists fragile like a young bird's wings. Murderer! The older boy is taller and bulkier yet still skinny, hiding the murderer. No one could understand their story just looking from afar. Shisui had a very hard childhood yer a bit better than Itachi, he had a very loving father. His mother died giving him to this world. Shisui never again wanted to celebrate his own birthday after discovering the truth. Kagami was almost always away, leaving Shisui in his guardian's care. But that still was not his father even when they got along wonderfully.

Itachi there is no ROOT, there is nothing but dead bodies left behind me. They wanted my eyes Danzo wanted my eyes he never trusted me. He wants to protect the village in his own way. He wants that seat- Those were the words Shisui wanted to tell Itachi before he fell but he could not, there was no time. And now? He has time to say everything, yet he can not...he doesn't know how. Anxiety and pain mix and prevent him from speaking, an adult man with the soul of a boy.

He used to watch the same clouds from the top of the Hokage mountain as he is watching now. A yellow, red, and orange mix of colors clashes together to form clouds that swim over the blue sky. He can see the same sky looking over Itachi through the window, yet Itachi never again shall know the sky.....

He used to swim in the same moonlight waters, but the Naka river will never again wet his feet or feel his lips drinking from the surface. Yet, children will be born again, they will be brought home and new life will defeat death. Shisui lost his path before him, his future snatched away. And now given back he has no idea what to do with it?

Shisui's eyes were not black anymore, it was rich red like blood. Red like a sword just after it cuts down the first victim. Shisui didn't mean to sound so hard but something could not be stopped, and he had to start this subject sooner or later. Only rumors he heard, he needed answers from Itachi, from the one who committed the murder.

"I have lost everything, we have lost everything. In the end, we lost even our own lives, damned to live like shadows in this fleeting world. I have lost my mother and my father my pride and my honor because of the greed one man has, greed that never can be quenched. You saved innocent by killing our own innocent clan members. For what? To see the village paint us as betrayers to see them paint you as a deranged prodigy that killed his own to prove his skills? While Hokage did nothing to prevent it! He could not stop one MAN!"

He is angry and no one could blame him this is anger speaking through the face of Uchiha Shiusi, that side only Itachi is allowed to see.

"I will save you the same as you saved Sasuke. But I can not promise you anything. I can not say what in the future may happen. I can not promise that I won't leave. Promise means nothing if my fate decides to take me away again. I can only promise to be here as long as I am allowed. I know now that I live on borrowed time that she may take away. I need...I need you to tell me the truth I want to hear it from your"

[kidsinsaturn]

Hi love..I know you said you would do requests until you were feeling better.

By the way I hope you do! And get well as soon as possible if you aren’t..! But I wanted to ask this before I forget it again!

Awkward sex headcannons for Itachi,Shisui and Obito

awkward sex headcanons

[🗼] hahah this is such a fun request !!

characters: itachi uchiha; shisui uchiha; obito uchiha

genre: nsfw

warnings: gn!reader

..

..

..

-ohh baby boy itachi is so flustered at the beginning of your sexual relations !!!

-ok I know it's not exactly an awkward thing, but he is awkward

-it's most likely that you are his first time in everything: kiss, partner, sex; so he doesn't really know what to do in most situations or how to act

-you might be waiting for itachi to move a finger once your legs are wide open for him to shove in, but he is just looking at your pussyy,,, it's his first time seeing a coochie so he doesn't know what to do lmao

-he is also very quiet at first, not daring to try dirty talk or even talk at all, so it could be a bit awkward just you making sounds and itachi is just thrusting his hips without even sighing oh god

-but that's just at the very beginning,, then he is a lot more experienced, open, and he already knows what to do, he picks up really quickly so this phase just lasts about two weeks depending on how many times you fuck

-so now that your relationship is established and everything, I can't think of many things that can make sex uncomfortable

-if we are on the regular Naruto setting, then itachi might suffer a bit from his illness when he fucks you:(( he tries not to cough or make you unpleasant but he sometimes can't help it

-OKAY but this aint angsty shit ok so let's continue with the random hc,,, itachi may finish a bit quicker when you are wearing lingerie ok

-this mf loves lingerie and he might just cum in his pants the moment you walk in with your little panties on; itachi can't simply help himself, he won't even try to take it off you and before you know it, itachi is fucking you against the nearest wall

-he looks so funny when he is all desperate hah a

-shisui my only love

-you already know I think this guy gets hard just from making out with you hajsks so his dick stays as hard as from the beginning while you are having sex

-shisui can't help it ok, he feels so hot the moment you breaths are mixed and when you finally connect your lips, he can feel his pants tightening

-his balls might as well enlarge sometimes, his blood rushes not only to his cock but also to his balls, making them so fucking heavy

-this bitch ends up with a huge bulge once you stop making out, he feels so ashamed and disgraceful especially if you are out in public

-he might ask for a jacket to cover up pfff lmao

-shisui is also very talkative during sex, more if he is overstimulated because he can no longer control his corporal movements

-you might get irritated by his voice by the end because of how much shit he talks about lol but he has a nice, sexy voice when he is all horny

-dirty talk is also something he really likes and he tries to include it as much as he can during your intercourse, but sometimes he says shit too out of context that isn't simply for the situation lmaoo

-shisui is a sex machine ok, that's my hottest take on him, so most of the time, he lasts about two or three rounds, and he won't care if you no longer resist

-of course if you ask him to stop, he will, he isn't an asshole he loves you

-BUT the way he can manhandle you when you all drained off is so sexy yet shameful for you because you seem like some sort of doll and depending if you like those things you might like it or not

-shisui is also someone who enjoys being all naked while having sex, that's why he doesn't try public sex as much because he sweats a lot and he wants to take off all his clothes to feel fresher

-it doesn't matter if you have most of your clothes on though, but for him, he prefers to always be naked, not that you mind of course my boy has a great physique

-haha obito my little butterfly

-of course this guy has so many awkward sex headcanons !! he never felt the touch of someone !!

-first off, he is getting hard the moment you step in the room,, especially if you are dressed up for an occasion or for him ??? he might even explode in the spot

-obito is so awkward initiating a sexual conversation lmao yes you guys might know each other for years and he has touched and seen all your body but he still feels so sheepish saying sexy things

-some things he says might be so fucking random and they make no sense and you don't even know if he is trying to get you to fuck or just asking you some random daily questionnaire

-"did you use that lotion we have in the bathroom?"

-my goood obito pff

-in the most desperate case, he might search in wikihow how to flirt with your partner of three years

-aside from the weird awkward conversation you had before sex, fucking with obito is so hot and good

-he might fool you with the weird shit he does because when he is in bed with you, he is a complete beast

-he knows how to use his body right, but that doesn't erase the fact that he might cum in the first seven minutes ok !!

-his libido is actually quite high, but he still cums very quickly because he can get very aroused and horny from just seeing you haha

-obito feels a bit embarrassed though:( like you havent even had a single orgasm and he is already spilling his load

-sex can get a bit awkward from there because obito doesn't really want to continue but he still does to make you finish at least,, he is really good at it of course so he doesn't feel bad no more

-obito is a baby so he might feel a bit emotional after sex and he might even cry lmao so pls console him and be with him

[r4senshurik3n]

a/n: Week three of the series, ughhh who doesn't love this guy... idgaf if he's toxic or whatevs he still hot asf. I'll be turning this into two parts since I couldn't finish it up in time due to my german finals! but no worries it'll definitely be out.

Warnings: Short Nsfw scenes, pregnancy, talks of abortion, infidelity, obsession.

Prompt: "I won't let you get rid of it, it's my child too whether you like it or not."

Uchiha Obito, the Godaime Hokage. A successful and influential man, with connections all around the five nations, the first Uchiha Hokage. All the while you were just his secretary, who was at least a decade younger than him, such a pretty little thing who had men wrapped around her finger without even knowing. And he refused to be one of those men. 

But even he couldn’t help but fall for your charms, maybe even lust for you as you walked around with that shy smile on your face, your white blouse barely leaving anything to the imagination and that black pencil skirt just hugged all the right places, but Obito couldn’t let this happen it was wrong when he had Rin, his wonderful wife and his kids waiting for him at home.

And so why was he here now in his office with his secretary bent over the desk, grip on her neck tightening as he sped up his strokes, your moans and the squelching noises of your cunny filling up the room. He was close to his high, with the way your insides were gripping him he could barely get a word out before he spilled his seed into you then pulled out and placed sweet kisses on your back as both of you panted.

Both of you couldn't help but feel guilty whenever you saw his wife or children. But it didn't stop Obito from wanting to be in your presence, even more, working long nights in the office simply to have more time with you, and things in his home were heated when Rin noticed one of your underwear in his coat's pocket. He despised how she was always nagging him; their relationship wasn't what it used to be. Sex with Rin was dull.  Having to get himself off to the thought of you in the bathroom all the while his wife slept soundly after barely a round.

Obito wished you were his wife instead, you always listened to his insight rather than trying to argue with him because you respected the idea that he had more experience considering the age gap. He liked how you were amazing with kids and how you would smile around them every time the both of you went to the academy for monthly inspections. All of these and many more things led him deep into an obsession, an obsession with you.

---

As his hand goes beneath your top, chilly fingers softly brushing against your flesh, he gently grips your face again, kissing your lips with passionate desire. The kiss evolved into a series of other kisses, soft and tender, on your jaw, on your gorgeous neck... he ultimately discovered your sweet spot and the softness vanished. teeth scraping on it as he left a purple mark on your skin-

For the nth time this week, you could feel the bile rise to your throat, all the while Obito looked at you with his eyebrows furrowed in confusion at your sudden stillness. You couldn't help it and ran to the bin beside the desk and puked up all of your breakfast.

You wiped your chin with the back of your hand, as you panted. Obito leaned down towards you, “Are you okay [Name]?” You nodded, he crossed his arms across his chest, “No, you’re not okay, what’s wrong [Name]?”

Sighing you spoke up, “I've been feeling sick these past couple of days it's probably just a stomach bug or something..” He placed his hand on your shoulder, a worried look on his face.

“You should get checked, [Name] this could be serious.”

“B-but..”

“No buts [Name], I’ll give you today off to go get a check-up.” Obito placed a kiss on your lips before he went to sit at his chair, “Tell me if anything’s wrong okay?”

You only nodded before heading out. 

God, what you had was definitely more than a stomach bug.

[just-puddding]

Team Minato week day 3- Any au/ any swap/ crossover

They set camp at the dead of the night.

By the time they had finished setting everything up and having dinner it was already well past midnight.

Rin was putting off the fire and checking their trails while Minato made sure everything was in check and Kakashi and Obito were just done fighting about…

Something

Minato doesn't actually know just what they were fighting about, all he could tell is that they were fighting and angry enough to still be visibly mad at each other

Minato sighs deeply, watching Obito put his tongue out at Kakashi behind his back while Kakashi left to sulk somewhere else

When he signed up to be a instructor, Minato had hoped it would be something lighter than the war, he just wanted to look after some children and bask in the lighter missions–

–but Kakashi and Obito are driving him crazy

Ever since they'd officially became a team a few months ago there wasn't a single waking hour where Minato wouldn't have to put up with them being insane

Kakashi usually found himself above petty fighting– usually he'd just bluntly insult people and then ignore them– but he seemed completely incapable of letting anything Obito said go

And with Obito's pride and temper…

Rin is no help, either. She usually just watches them fight and then makes it worse by adding her own thoughts on what we they were talking about–

Minato can hear Kushina laugh at him from all these miles away

Minato frown-pouts, fighting an imminent headache as he watches Kakashi climb up the small hill they'd settled beside to sit on a log by himself

He threw a look back at Rin, who shrugged. Minato wordlessly pleaded her to go talk to Obito so he forgets whatever it was and everything goes back to normal and she smiles before shooting a thumbs up and going after him

Maybe she is a little helpful, Minato thinks guiltily, promising to pay her back in his mind as he hesitantly climbs to go meet Kakashi

Minato sees him looking up at the sky, and feels a pang of worry hit him– Kakashi wasn't usually that upset about their fights but this time he was clearly bitter

Slowly, as if not to scare a skittish animal, Minato takes seat besides him, silently scooting closer

Neither of them speak, Kakashi doesn't even acknowledge him, but he also doesn't send him away and Minato takes that as an invitation to suit himself

"So" he says, finally "What are you doing here all by yourself? Minato smiles, refraining himself from placing his hand on Kakashi's shoulder, since he knows he wouldn't appreciate it.

Minato doesn't fully expect Kakashi to answer, especially when the boy doesn't bother to take his eyes away from the sky, but after a beat of silence Kakashi whispers

"I'm staring at Mom until she vanishes Obito away" Minato's smile falters, and he is forced to bite his lips so he doesn't laugh, inappropriately so.

He shouldn't find it funny, honestly, it's probably concerning that Kakashi would wish for Obito to disappear just because of an argument but from what Minato has observed that's just how children are.

So instead of laughing, Minato coughs, readjusting himself on the log so he can follow Kakashi's eyes to whatever it is he's looking at

"You're staring at your mom?" He asks conversationally, Kakashi only hums in response but Minato is happy to just look at the night sky together

He notes where Kakashi's gaze goes "the moon?" Kakashi makes a sound of affirmation "yes" he confirms "that's mom"

Minato's lips form into an indignant smile as he looks back down at Kakashi, still peacefully looking at the astros and has to keep himself from chuckling "that's your mom?" Kakashi nods decisively

"Father said so" Kakashi states, sounding completely convinced of himself. Minato's humour breaks a bit as he looks at his student then back at the moon

"She's beautiful" he settles for, not having the heart to tell Kakashi his father hadn't meant it literally. Kakashi hums back at him again, this time sounding very pleased

"They were arguing about whether cats or dogs were better and I told Obito I liked squirrels more, but if i had to choose i'd pick dogs. He got worse."

is what Rin says when Minato asks if she'd gotten anything out of Obito and Minato takes it back, she's not helpful at all!

"Why did you tell him that!?"

Rin shrugs "I told him to suck it up and go to sleep, so he's laying down now. i think he's still mad" Minato shuts his eyes tightly and counts to ten

Oh god

Rin peeks an eye open, curiously peeking at her younger teammate as they laid down on his floor together

"Why do you always do this?" Rin whispers, as if they might be heard, despite being alone in a house surrounded by nothing but the woods

She pouts when she can't get a quite good look of Kakashi, turning her head slightly to stare at him laying down beside her, basked in moonlight

"I don't want to float" Kakashi says, dismissively. Rin tilts her head, that makes sense. Rin thinks she'd also rather not float constantly, if she could help it.

She nods to herself, turning back over to lean on the ground, closing her eyes. Rin deduces it must be quite inconvenient to have to anchor yourself to the ground so you don't go out flying all the time.

They stay in silence for a moment, then Rin breaks it again, her previous thoughts raising a question "why do you only do it on full moons, then?"

Rin had noticed when they would have missions during the full moon, Kakashi would not sleep, instead passing the night in blank so he could use his chakra to anchor himself to the earth

To think of it, Kakashi always has a little bit of chakra on his feet, connecting him to the ground. Rin realizes it is quite odd, but odd is something she's used to, so it doesn't bother her

Kakashi hums, unmoving from his spot "the pulls gets stronger during the full moons" he explains and Rin nods solemnly "i see" she answers, she supposes that makes sense

And then they fall silent again, moonlight filters through the window and illuminating the wooden floorboards, Rin is happy to our bask in the moment for a while

This time it takes a few minutes of the pleasant silence before Rin's mind is flared with another question;

"Can I see you float?" She whispers conspiratorially, awkwardly, Rin does not float herself, nor does she know anyone who does, so she worries it might insensitive to ask

If it is, though, Kakashi makes no show of it as he only takes a moment of silence before asking, curious rather than affronted "why?"

Rin shrugs, opening her eyes back again and trying to adjust them to the light "i've never seen anyone float before"

She's seen some Shinobi jump really high and far, or some delay their landing for quite some time since Shinobi have better grip of themselves in the air but she can't call that floating

Kakashi doesn't say anything, but Rin's eyes are drawn to him when she hears him shuffle around.

Excited at the agreement, Rin pushes herself to her elbows, watching as Kakashi gets up and stops to stand languidly

Rin gasps herself into sitting abruptly as Kakashi releases the chakra from his feet and they begin to leave the ground, sending Kakashi slowly hauling into air

"Wooow!" She delights, clapping her hands together in praise as Kakashi lifts higher and higher.

then she quickly moves to get up and stay beside him, suddenly worrying he might float up too high and become unable of coming back down

Maybe that's why he didn't want to float, Rin muses

"Are you okay, hold on–" she reaches her hands out to grab Kakashi's, grasping it firmly so he won't float further

Rin Marvels in the way the moonlight reflects from under Rin as Kakashi's hair and clothes continue to float higher and sway with the breeze. It's quite an incredible ability and she is glad Kakashi was sharing it with her!

"Woah" Rin lets out as Kakashi's pulls abruptly strengthens and her feet lift off the ground, "I'm floating now, too" she Snickers in good humour, looking back down as the ground as it becomes ever slightly more distant

"I think it might be better if we stopped now" Rin comments, worrying that they might both get stuck in the roof, or perhaps may float out the window

Kakashi nods slowly, trying to weight his body and with the confirmation Rin tugs at his hands harshly, pulling them both down so she can put her feet back to the ground

It takes a few moments of team effort but they quickly manage to back up further enough from Rin to anchor herself to the ground and lightly pull Kakashi to his feet

As Kakashi grounds himself, Rin lets go of his hands with a kind smile "that was nice, thank you" Kakashi shrugs

Much later, after they once again lay their back on the floor to rest, looking at the moonlight, Rin finally bemuses "why do you float?" She didn't know anyone else who did, but perhaps it's an unheard of kekkei genkai

Kakashi hums, looking lazily at the moon through the window "my mother used to float" Rin nods pleasedly, that checks out

Obito has always liked the plains, they're beautiful and easy to navigate, they make him feel very small, but in a good way, with how they visibly stretch over miles and miles and Obito liked to pick at the weeds and flowers that graced along them while he travelled

He also specifically liked the plains they were traveling besides of, Obito's team had already passed through here quite a few times for missions and Obito always loved it when they did

The flowers are really beautiful and Obito likes the hills, especially the ones here, where the sky is so open you can see millions of billions of stars just by lying down, it's beautiful!

Stargazing is nice, Obito likes stargazing. In The list of things That Obito does not really like, (which isn't, frankly, very big to begin with) though, is wolves.

Particularly wolves that want to kill him. which is pretty much every wolf.

So, understandably, when he catches a chorus of howling off in the distance, Obito ups his guard, and when that howling multiplies he stops in his track, alerting his team to his discomfort

"Uh, guys–" Obito mouths nervously, gulping as the howling seems to come closer and closer to their merry band

His team stops to patiently– not very patiently in Bakashi's case– stare back at him

Obito's eyes frantically dart back and forth "haha, what do you think they're howling at?" He tries to joke and then definitely does not shriek when a wolf peeks in from a bush

It cautiously tilts its head before deciding to come out of the bush, walking straight towards then and Obito freezes, not even having the peace of mind to arm himself

He shakingly watches as the wolf comes closer, bringing in several other wolves, and goes slowly towards Bakashi

It's always Bakashi

Obito gulps as the wolf gets up and close with his teammate, sniffling him and walking around in circles while more and more of it's friends join in

He expects Kakashi to sunshin himself away, or attack the wolf, or do anything, but Kakashi does nothing and when the wolf puts it's snout to Kakashi's hand, he lets him

Frantically snapping out of his trance, Obito picks a Kunai and charges in between his stupid teammate and the creature, keeping a defensive stance, ready to attack

The wolf only tilts his head, as if judging him, then sits himself comfortably again and starts howling, right over Obito to Bakashi. It's always Bakashi

"Agh, guys! What is it doing!?" He shuffles nervously, gagging as more wolves surround them and sit themselves down, joining the chorus

"Guys?" He asks, frantically eyeing between Rin and Minato, but they do nothing, everyone in his team does absolutely nothing as Obito and Kakashi are about to be mauled by man-eating wolves

Obito feels a really big one plop down by his leg and turns around wildly "don't–"

Kakashi finally reacts, only to pull Obito's hand back "stop it, you idiot" he huffs annoyedly "you can't threaten them"

"Threaten them?" Obito snaps around to stare at Kakashi affrontedly, what the fuck is wrong with him!!? "Are you insane!? They're threatening me! Us!"

But Kakashi ignores him, dropping his bag to the grass "he's right, you should probably not agitate them, Obito" Obito sends sensei the same affronted gaze, then Rin, who just smiles "they'll probably leave soon"

Crazy! they're all crazy! Especially Kakashi who's–

"W-wha wha– what are you doing!? Kakashi! Oh my god!–" Obito draws his kunai back in surprise as Kakashi comes closer to the first biggest wolf, crouching down in front, arms wide open

"Kakashi, you can't" he tries to step closer but Kakashi rudely raises a hand stopping Him "shut up" he states blandly

Obito steps back, indignant "shut up? You– oh, oh my god!?" Kakashi hugged the wolf, Kakashi hugged the wolf, kakashi is hugging the wolf!

How is he the only one that sees a problem with this!!?

Obito watches in horror as Kakashi lets the wolf rub itself against him, ruffles it's fur, scratches it's ears, then lightly bumps their foreheads before switching up to the next wolf

Obito has to be hallucinating

Kakashi continues the weird ritual with each one of the wolves as they stop howling and go to line up and hound next to him, then when he sees he's gave attention to all of them he stands back up, swatting dirt from his clothes to the ground

Kakashi shakes himself slightly, picks up his bags, nods at the wolves and when Obito hopes this might be over and left behind only as something for him to think about instead of sleeping, says, delusionally "I apologize, but I have follow them to the cliff"

He doesn't explain why he has to follow a bunch of wolves to a cliff, or how he knows that's what they wanted, if it was what they wanted at all–

And yet "is there anything we can do for you, Kakashi-kun?" Is all sensei has to ask about it, Of all questions "huh?"

Kakashi shakes his head, adjusting his bag and letting a wolf that's almost the same colour as his hair rub it's snout against his leg

"Can we come with you, then?" Obito gaped like a fish "huh?" Kakashi seems to think over it for a while, then look at his wolves for confirmation, then he nods at Rin who does a little clap

"Great!" It's not great, it's not great, they should be taking Kakashi and hightailing it by now, what are they doing?

What are they doing? Is all Obito can think as he's dragged along through the plains with a pack of wolf and his insane teammates to the edge of a cliff

what are they doing?, is all he can think, paralyzed and Kakashi once again drops his bag and goes to stand at the very brink

Kakashi is a single shove away from falling and Obito worries, but he signals them to stay back, so he obligues

The wolves join him and then…

They just start howling again, at the moon this time.

Kakashi stands in the middle as more and more of the wolves arrive around him and join their creepy little chorus

The scene is almost cinematographic, and Obito is in awe despite himself, as Kakashi's hair flutters under the moonlight and he stands in a sea of oddly docile monsters

Bakashi has always been so. fucking. Weird.

Obito stands there, with Rin and Sensei and they watch and wait for minutes, 10 or 15, before Kakashi finally quietens the wolves, softly bidding them goodbye

Then he walks past them, urging them to come along like nothing had happened and none of them ever speak of it again.

"I see you are stalking my brother again" Zetsu appears without warning beside him, Obito doesn't even wait for him to finish before moving to defend himself "I'm not stalking him! I'm just watching so i can gather information for–"

Zetsu's words register to him and Obito whips nos head around immediately, his neck almost cracking, to stare holes into Zetsu's grinning face "YOUR FUCKING WHAT!?"

"My little brother" zetsu says delightedly, looking at Obito as if he's stupid "i believe he was your teammate, yes? 'bakashi' as you say"

No fucking way.

Obito's jaw hits the floor and he's left grasping at straws "are you kidding me?" Zetsu has to be making fun of him

"Hmm, not indeed, he's a child of mother Kaguya, as am I" Obito's mouth opens and closes without him saying anything

Kaguya? Like the children's tale Kaguya? Kaguya as in–

"LIKE THE MOON!? THE MOON IN THE FUCKING SKY!?"

[depressedhatakekakashi]

Kakashi Week Day 1- Jutsu Creation

Pairing: Kakagai

Words: 1927

AO3

@kakashiweek

No longer having Obito’s Sharingan was a loss. A disadvantage that left Kakashi more vulnerable. Unable to fight as well as he had during the fourth great shinobi war, and incapable of being made the new Hokage of Konoha.

That’s just a few of the rumours that Kakashi had heard whispered around the village since his appointment as Hokage. Judgements that had been a part of his life since his father had been shunned when he was a child. Forever growing and changing as the years went by.

Except for this time, there was no truth to the rumours.

The things being said about him were factually wrong, and the only people who believed them and passed them onto the next person were civilians. Those who had no real idea how chakra worked. Who didn’t know what a strain on his chakra reserves the Sharingan had been?

They would know better of course if they saw Kakashi in action. If they just happened to pass by the training field near the Hokage’s residence at moments like this. When Kakashi was in the midst of his daily training, his Anbu guards were hidden away in the tree lines watching over him as always.

Just five minutes of watching Kakashi would tell them everything they needed to know about just how the loss of Obito’s Sharingan had affected him. How much more he could do without the Sharingan constantly eating away at his chakra reserves, even when he wasn’t using it.

Then of course, if too many people were watching he wouldn’t be able to train with the same intensity. Creating a new Jutsu was always a dangerous activity. Not knowing exactly what it was he would get as a result meant that he could accidentally end up hurting someone who was a little too close when he made his next attempt. Plus Kakashi just wasn’t someone who enjoyed being watched. Anbu operatives he could forget about. It was their job to go unnoticed, even if he could still feel their presence. But civilians didn’t know how to hideaway. They’d stand out in the open gawking and whispering among each other. Disrupting his concentration.

It was better than he was able to focus. He’d be able to get it right faster if he was able to keep working uninterrupted. That was, of course, if he managed to get anywhere at all.

“It’s still not right,” Examining the mud wall that he had produced, Kakashi sighed. The goal was to create something stronger than the standard mud wall Jutsu. Something that would be able to withstand more abuse without breaking down. Yet no matter how he changed the hand signs that he weaved, or how much Chakra he tried to focus into the Jutsu, nothing had changed yet. It was a larger mud wall Jutsu, and the dogs that appeared in his Jutsu specifically were still present, but other than that it was still made of the same weak material. “Maybe if I try it one more time and focus a bit more chakra into it. I’m sure with just a little bit more effort…”

There were at least three more solid attempts left in him before his chakra reserves became dangerously depleted. Not quite putting him in danger of being bedridden with chakra exhaustion, but enough to put him on his ass for the rest of the night and tomorrow if he pushed a little too hard.

“Two more tries,” he decided, turning his attention back to the wall that he had already created. When he brought forth the next one, this one would crumble apart under the strain created when the new one was formed underneath it. He had already seen so many of his attempts crumble away as if they were nothing.

A constant reminder of why he was trying to create this new Jutsu. To build a stronger wall that would hold more strain. One that would keep standing, even if he tried to build another wall under it.

“You look like you’re thinking hard,” Turning his head, Kakashi felt all of the pent-up stress washing out of his body at the sight of that stunning, toothy grin that Gai always had on his face. “Genma said you’ve been training since lunchtime. I think it’s time for a break, don’t you?”

Gemma, the traitor. He was going to have to have a talk with his friend about telling about him Gai.

“Mah, you act as if I’m about to collapse at any moment,” reaching his hands up into the air, he stretched his body up towards the sky and watched as Gai maneuvered his wheelchair over the grassy field towards him. “Speaking of relaxing. You haven’t been-“

“You know me, Rival,” Gai cut him off, his smile only growing when Kakashi narrowed his eyes. “Just because I require a wheelchair to get around now, doesn’t mean there aren’t things that I can still do to challenge myself.”

Of course. He should have known that there would be nothing that could stop Gai from doing what he wanted, even with a broken leg that would never heal again. It only made sense that he would find new ways to challenge himself, and so long as he wasn’t straining his injured leg Kakashi didn’t care to stop him. After all, that was Gai. Never giving up no matter what obstacles he may face in life.

“One more try,” he offered, smiling when Gai levelled him with a doubtful look. “Just one more, I promise. And then we can go grab something to eat. How does that sound?”

The look that Gai gives him in return is a cross between doubtfulness and pride. An interesting combination, but judging by the fact that Gai was locking his wheels into place and relaxing into his chair he could assume that the deal was made.

Which meant he had one more attempt. One final try to make even the slightest amount of progress. To prove to himself that he wasn’t just wasting his time on this endeavour and that a new powerful Jutsu could be created if he just kept at it a bit longer.

Turning to face the wall he had just created, he took a deep breath and began to focus his chakra into his hands and imagined the wall that he wanted to create. One was made out of a stronger mineral. Something that could handle the abuse rained down on it from an attack striking it constantly.

In his mind, it was a beautiful mixture of purple and green. Jagged and sharp to touch and solid.

A Jutsu that could protect his village. That would keep all of his friends safe, no matter what attack it had to hold off. So that he never had to see someone he cared about die again or…

His eyes darted back towards Gai, lingering on his leg for a moment.

A Jutsu to protect his precious people.

“One more try,” he reminded himself, focusing his attention back on the training field and digging his heels into the ground. “You can do this, Kakashi.”

Gai, Naruto, Sakura, Tenzo, Sai, Sasuke. The list of people he wanted to protect was endless, and while some of them could do the job infinitely better than him he still wanted to try. What good would he be as Hokage if he couldn’t even protect his precious people?

The hand signs were easy enough to weave. Already cemented in his memory from the multiple tries he had made before this. In the blink of an eye, he had finished weaving the signs and slammed his hands down against the ground, his eyes glued on the space in front of him as a giant wall rose from the ground to protect him from an imaginary foe.

It was mud. Still, just mud.

“Damn it.”

“It looks stronger than before,” hearing Gai’s voice getting closer to him, Kakashi turned his head to the side and watched as his best friend wheeled up to his side. “Your hard work is paying off, Rival!”

It was amazing how Gai could look at anything and see success. Even with the biggest failures, he could find something to celebrate. The smallest bit of success to focus on, while Kakashi dwelled on the failure.

“It’s just mud,” resting a hand on his hip, he glared at the wall in front of him. “Nothing has changed.”

“Sometimes looking at the bigger picture makes you miss the small victories,” Rolling further ahead, Gai stopped directly in front of the wall and reached out to tap his finger against a small portion of the wall. A spot where, if he focused hard enough, Kakashi could see the smallest glimmer of purple. “It may not be much, but it is an improvement. Don’t you agree?”

Waiting for Gai to lower his hand, Kakashi slowly reached out to touch the wall. Almost not believing what his eyes were seeing, he expected to feel the mud. brittle and flimsy, but effective for a short period. What he felt instead was a solid rock-hard surface. Not jagged, but stronger than mud could ever hope to be. “Since when are you the insightful type?”

“Well, someone has to pick up the slack when you’re too busy being down on yourself,” giving his head a shake, Kakashi dropped his hand back down to his side and turned to face Gai. “Ready to grab something to eat now?”

“That sounds amazing,” He could continue his training in the morning after a nice long rest. For now, he could enjoy some downtime with his best friend. “on one condition.”

“Kakashi…”

“No, hear me out,” Gai would probably think he had lost his mind, but it was worth a shot. “We should have an eating competition.”

Gai’s jaw dropped open. “Did you just-“

“Don’t tell me you’re not up for it,” doing a one hundred eighty-degree turn, Kakashi gave Gai a playful wave. “Come on. I bet I can beat you no problem.”

His teasing was met with a triumphant shout. One that could easily shatter the windows in a building, if they were close enough to one. “I’ll win this challenge Rival, don’t doubt it!” He proclaimed with the same pride and enthusiasm that he always had when it came to their challenges. “And once I do I’ll be ahead of you in points once again!”

“We’ll be tied,” Kakashi corrected him as he started to make his way towards the exit. “You keep forgetting about the Sushi eating competition!”

“This will be a rematch of that then! And I’ll prove to you once and for all that I can beat you in anything!” The sound of Gai’s wheelchair moving behind him brought a smile to Kakashi’s face. One that he could only explain with a single word. Relief.

Relief that he hadn’t had to say goodbye to another friend.

That he didn’t have another name to look at in the memorial stone.

For that, he would gladly have another hundred challenges without complaint.

“I will win,” Gai’s voice called out to him. A blinding smile greeting him when he looked over at his friend. “I can promise you that, Rival.”

“Well, If you do then I’ll just have to spend the whole night working on my Jutsu,” He decided, chuckling when Gai’s eyes went wide. The use of his impossible punishments not going over his head, even when they came from Kakashi’s mouth. “After all, I can’t let you beat me at everything.”

[candyopala]

Stuck in his ways, Chapter 4

Chapter summary:  Y/N sees too much. Both try to act normally but they just can’t help themselves, these two are too stubborn for their own good.

Words: 1.5k

AO3

Please reblog or like if you enjoy <3

“Dude! Put on some clothes!”

Y/N’s screams of embarrassment are enough to get Obito out of his sleepy state and into a frenzy around the room for something he can cover himself with, even though the room is dark and both can see very little. Enveloping all of his body and head into some big blankets from his bed, the Uchiha finally screams back: 

“The fuck you’re doing here?! Aren’t you supposed to be on the hospital? Are you some sort of maniac?”

“Look who’s talking, it’s Mr. Creep Uchiha! Give me a break, like I even wanted to see you like that”

Yeah, kinda.

“What are you even doing in my house? How do you know where I live?”

 “Calm down, my answers are: I came in to annoy you, I ran away, I might be maniac but not a maniac, you people live in the same part of town, it was easy. Satisfied?”

“Not at all.”

The bundle of blankets sits down on his bed and a small opening appears, revealing a big pout, almost child-like. Some light from the window beside his bed comes across Obito’s figure, and Y/N takes this as an opportunity to peek at the left side of Obito’s face, since a cloth mostly covered it on their previous encounter. This side, different from the other one, has no scars in it, only his left eye is missing, indicated by his eyelid being closed shut.

Damn…

“Ahem, so… aren’t you going to put on some clothes?” 

“Did you just say you ran away from the hospital?”

“Technically”

“Huh?”

“They told me I had to stay awake for 24 hours ‘cause I might have a concussion, and since I had no one to sign me off and take care of me, they wanted me to stay there. So I ran away”

“To my house?”

“Do I know anyone else in the village? No. Besides, you owe me one, after all, this is all your fault” She says pointing at her head. 

 Obito falls back on the bed, squirming lazily, clearly too sleepy for all this. A few seconds pass before he lets out a big sigh and says: 

“Get out of here so I can change, ok?”

“Oh no, what a shame, I totally wanted to see you naked again” Is all she responds, albeit ironically and completed with an eye roll. 

Again, kinda wanted to see some more

She then leaves Obito alone so he can change into something and to stop those furtive thoughts. A few minutes later out comes the Uchiha wearing battered sweatpants and an old T-shirt that barely fits him anymore.

“Are you coming out wearing that?”

“Coming where?”

“To the ramen booth, of course”

“It’s almost four in the morning, dumbass”

“So? It’s three thirty and I haven’t eaten since lunch, come on!”

“It’s not even going to be open at this hour”

“I checked before coming here, It’s open 24/7”

“Fuck…”

He gets back into the bedroom again to change into something more presentable, not that there would be anyone to see him.  

~”~  

They reach Ichiraku’s ramen booth in silence, Obito still half-asleep and Y/N poking him with her sheathed sword. After sitting down and ordering food for them both, Obito breaks the silence: 

“Why did you even bring that?”

“What? You? Well, you seem like you need some change of environment, you’re too grumpy for you age. I mean, I know we’re both probably reaching our thirties this next half decade, but you’re too-“

“The sword, I meant the sword, dumbass”

“Stop calling me that, creep! Anyway, I brought it because we’re training later”

“Over my dead body”

“Well I better go fetch my special shovel, ‘cause it’s happening”

Obito takes another good look at the sword. Simple model, all black with some decoration on the end. After a closer look, he also notices the Nara clan symbol etched very discreetly at the end, making him realize this is one of the famous traditional swords from the family, only the most notable members are allowed to use it. This raises even more question about the girl in his head, since he knows for a fact that Y/N is nor a Nara or has been a member from the leaf all her life.

“Where did you get that? Aren’t those rare?” He says pointing at the blade on her back. 

“My-… A good friend gave it to me”

“Willingly?”

“What sort of question even is that?”

“Uhm, sorry, talking to people isn’t my thing”

“I’ve noticed.”

“… Alright…”

“It’s fine. Just stop implying that I’m evil all the time, it’s not very nice”

Obito is thankful that the conversation is cut by their ramen being served. He is not all that hungry, but he could never refuse a good plate of ramen. Y/N also munches enthusiastically, ending her dish in record speed. She looks at him again, staring at his left side, making Obito remember that he forgot to put his eyepatch before leaving. 

“Oh my…” He says exasperated while covering his missing eye “I forgot to put on my eyepatch, I’m sorry for making you see this”

“See what? Calm down man, there’s literally nothing to hide there; it’s just your face”

 “A fucking hid-“

“A perfectly normal face. And stop pretending you don’t know you’re attractive, it’s annoying”

Obito needs to hide ASAP. To say his face went red is an understatement; he looks like a tomato from ear to ear. The last person that said anything nice about his looks was his grandma, and lord knows she passed away a hell of a long time ago. The best next thing he can do is to change the subject: 

“So, anyway, do you like the village so far?”

“Yup, climate is nice in this part of the country and the people have been so nice to me, well, almost everyone” She winks after her last statement.

“Hey! I was just messing with you, think about it as ninja hazing.”

“Well, I literally passed out of chakra exhaustion”

“I wanted to ask you about that, as in why the fuck did that happen?”

“Well, I went a little too far ‘cause I was annoyed with you”

“But you only did about one or two jutsu, basic ones at that”

Before responding, Y/N orders another big bowl of pork ramen. She then continues: 

“My chakra reserves suck, actually. I might be fast and good with the sword, but I understand very little about jutsus since I never had any formal training” 

“Sorry, but how did they promote you immediately to chunin if you don’t know the basics?”

“One: my reputation as a merc. Two: an old favor.”

“An old favor?”

“Yup.”

“Care to elaborate?”

“Not really.” She says after she finishes the bowl of ramen. 

“…”

“C’mon, let’s go have a walk. And you’re paying, of course.”

“What? Why?”

“You owe me one, remember?”

Fuck my wallet right? I might as well forget about this week’s ice cream store visit. 

Both walk around the village for the next couple of hours, showing the sights and main places to Y/N and talking very little. Obito, in all his grumpiness, does not know how to hold a conversation after what she said to him in the ramen place. Him and attractive in the same sentence, how absurd that sounds to him! Assuming she must be messing with him, he gets grumpier and grumpier by the minute. 

When they reach the main square, Obito shows her the Hokage monument: 

“So this is the first, Hashirama Senju; the second, Tobirama Senju; the third Hiruzen Sarutobi; the fourth, my sensei, Minato Namikaze; and right next to him… me”

“You mean, in the future, right?”

“Yes”

“Alright, just checking if you are still in touch with reality”

“You’ll see, I’ll be the next hokage”  

It is about seven o’clock when they finish walking around the whole perimeter, and Y/N seems, rightfully, bored. She then signals that she wants to head home, so Obito accompanies her there, even though there is no need for that. 

“So this is my place. I guess I’ll turn in. It’s close to 24 hours anyway, so I think I can manage on my own”

“You sure? I mean… you understand”

“Yup, it’s fine. And hey, sorry that I dragged you out here”

She turns around, opens the door and starts to walk in, but before she can do that, Obito grabs her arm quickly and pulls her in close. Too close. At this distance, he can clearly see some sun freckles starting to form, when he closes into her eyes he notices he needs to back off a little. Taking a step back, the Uchiha clears his throat. He looks away and digs his hand into his pocket, fishing out a leaf bandana.

“Here, forgot to give you this. Take good care of it”

“I will, sir” Y/N responds while jokingly making a salute. 

Obito rolls his eye. This one thinks she’s a comedian, how funny.  

“Meet me tomorrow at the training grounds ok? You have the day off, Kami know I need some rest too. Bye”