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gravityunforgiven · 4 years ago

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Right Where You Left Me (Kakashi x OC)

Pairings: Kakashi x OC, Jiraiya x Tsunade, Dan x Tsunade

Synopsis:

She was the daughter of a Legendary Sannin, He, a son of a disgraced shinobi. Fate brought them together but life tore them apart. Will they be able to take control of their destinies and find their way back to each other?

...Or will they be another victim of the cruel shinobi world they are both a part of?

Chapter Three

She was barely three when their paths first met. She had his attention for about ten minutes then that was it for the first meeting. It was because of her age and her last name. The Senju clan, nowadays, was only seen or heard in their history textbooks. Now there was one standing right infront of the class.

This is new. He remembered thinking.

They never really interacted because he was a chūnin a week later. She didn’t really notice his departure either. All she knew was the. class celebrated for something and the boy with the scarf was gone.

She stayed in the academy until she was six. She was hardly at school in her first year and the teachers didn’t question it. She was still young after all. She can take her time. She spent most of her days that year in the Medical Division of Konohagakure. She can learn ninjutsu from a lot of people but there was only one person to learn medical ninjutsu from.

Their paths crossed again when she was nine. Her mother just left. Jiraiya was knee-deep in his travels and she was stayed with her master, Inoichi Yamanka, before she moved to her own apartment. The Senju compound was too big for to live in alone.

Minato was teaching her a jutsu when the team he was leading arrived. This time he was able to introduce himself.

“Kakashi Hatake.” He said, almost too impatiently.

“Nice too meet you.” She replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

She stayed with them for the rest of the afternoon then tagged along for a couple of B-Rank missions. They never talked more than what was needed. Rin became good friends with her. Obito was amused to see the girls braiding each other’s hair.

Minato, along with Inoichi Yamanaka, took her under their wing. They said she was special.

More than me? He so carelessly thought back then.

He wouldn’t realize until years later that she was so unique she became dispensable.

Because of her training with Minato, Akira became close to his-then girlfriend, Kushina. Kakashi saw how close they became they were almost like sisters.

Akira became a permanent figure in Kakashi’s life. They mostly ignored each other’s presence but he got so used to seeing her in the takoyaki shop he half-expected her to be there everytime he walked by. She wasn’t always with friends, most of the time she ate there on her own, in the same spot every single time.

That was until Team Minato was pulled into a mission. When they came back, she was nowhere to be found. At first no one was really bothered. After all, they were all shinobis and when duty calls, they go. But then weeks turned into months and still not even Akira’s shadow was seen. Rumors began spreading in the ranks about her whereabouts. Some says she was in a long term mission in the Land of Rains, others say she was captured and was being held and even Kurenai, who was like her older sister, together with the rest of their batch had no idea where she was or if she was in a mission. He heard Asuma talking about how he asked the Third Hokage about Akira, however, much to their dismay, his lips remained shut and he simply dismissed his son from his office.

Finally, Rin gathered her courage and asked their own sense if he knew anything about this. Minato fought with himself for a while. It was classified information but seeing the look from his students even Kakashi was enough him to give in. He made them swore to never breathe a word of what he was about to say.

“She joined the ANBU Black Ops.” Rin gasped. Obito’s jaw hung wide open. Kakashi who always seemed to be unfazed struggled to keep his cold composture together. They didn’t see that coming. Not in a million years. Kakashi remembered how her name was so fitting for her. She was always so...bright. She was like the sun on a beautiful day. Wherever you go, or whoever you are she will always graze you with her presence like the rays of a sunlight. She lacked the darkness necessary to be an ANBU. She was the complete opposite of those people.

“The Third Hokage allowed it?” Obito asked. Lord Third treated Akira like his very own grand-daughter. After all, she was the daughter of one of his legendary students. It was only fitting that he looed after all while her mother was unavailable.

“ No. He didn’t.” Minato replied.

“ She joined The Foundation.”

—————

He didn’t see her again until Rin’s death. Once, he had asked Minato why Akira was always sent on dangerous missions. Missions they usually were not allowed to do until they were further into their career. This took Minato by surprise. He didn’t know Kakashi had been observing the girl since he usually ignored her presence and vice-versa. The time the two would acknowledge each other is through their relentless bickering due to the fact that no one wants to admit they’re wrong and often times than not, it ends in a full-blown fight between the two prodigies.

Minato eyed the silver-haired ninja. He was usually not bothered by anything that doesn’t have to do with abiding with the rules but the look on his face was clear enough for Minato to realize that this was not the case.

“Being unique isn’t always good.” Minato started.

“You know she uses Wood Release right?”

Kakashi silently nodded. That was common knowledge in the village. Even in the neigboring lands, her reputation preceded her.

“Villages seek power to protect their lands. Right now, Akira is one of the greatest threats to their lands that’s why we train her as hard as we possibly can. A lot of people wants to hurt her and use her for their own good. They want to use one of our own against us.” He remembered Minato saying.

During Rin’s funeral, he caught only a glimpse of her from where he stood by the trees. She was at the back despite being a close friend of Rin’s. She stood silently and kept her eyes firmly on the floor. Kakashi wouldn’t have recognized her if it weren’t for her golden hair that stood out among the sea of dark colored heads. She’s so different. Everything’s changed so much. After a few hi’s and hello’s, she was once again gone. But despite the dark hole Kakashi fell into, for some reason, the girl with the blonde hair never completely left the his mind.

—————

The first time she actually talked to him first, he just joined the ANBU under the Fourth Hokage’s Command.

“I guess we’re teammates now.’ She said removing a wolf-shaped mask. He looked up from the bench he was sitting on in the locker rooms.

A grin was plastered on her face.He immediately recognized her voice though it’s been years since he last heard it. She was twelve and he was just about to turn fourteen that day. But they were so much older and wiser than the kids their age. They had witnessed so many deaths to be called children.

It was the burden of being one of a kind.

They now worked often with each other since they are now both under the Hokage’s command. Gone were the days of bickering and throwing insults at each other. He now knew the burden of being an ANBU. He wondered how much worse she had to do while under Lord Danzo’s command. How many had she killed? Can she even count it at this point?

Minato, after being named Hokage, recruited Akira back from The Foundation to his own a little too quickly than the elders were comfortable with. But the Yondaime Hokage was adamant to have Akira back on his care knowing how much the irreversible damage The Foundation can cause to a person.

Even now, the changes in Akira’s disposition was easily seen by those who knew her before her time in the Root. She still smiled and laughed like she did before but her eyes no longer had the same shine they had before. She tried to hide it. But Kakashi wasn’t so easily fooled. She was just glad he never said a single word about it.

Kakashi and Akira were placed on different teams. She was already leading a group of three people twice her size when he joined but every now and then, when the circumstances call for it, they will be paired together. An unspoken rule was formed between the two. As the only living members of Team Minato (though she tagged along for only a couple of missions) they were to protect each other as best they can.

Though she didn’t need much protection, Kakashi kept an eye on her for old times sake. Just like a few years earlier, they didn’t really talked much during their time in the ANBU. He was too busy wallowing in his guilt and she was kind enough to leave him in in his own knowing it was what he wanted but not exactly what he needed. All she could do was keep an eye on him and make sure he knows that she was there if he needed her.

Their relationship didn’t change from what it was during the time of Team Minato but this time, they treated each other with the utmost respect. They were comrades now. Though the rules of the ANBU stated that the mission comes first, they both knew they had each other’s back. After all, among their classmates, the two of them are the only ones who understood the loneliness of being an ANBU.

Of being truly and utterly alone.

—————

He knew she was brave. She had proven it time and time again. He had seen it from their time together when they were younger, they had heard stories from the older shinobis who had worked with her, and he saw it again every time they were paired in a mission. There was no question that she was brave but that night during the Kyūubi Attack, he was almost certain she too was looking for an easy way to just die. He had a good reason. Unlike her, he was dispensable. He had no one. All he had was the nightmares that haunt him at night. The faces of his fallen teammates and the cold body of his father playing again and again like a broken record every time he closes his eyes. That was all he had. If he dies, people would mourn, yes, but they would move on and go about their life. They would eventually forget and he would always remain the ninja who killed his friend to others.

He had no real purpose. He doesn’t have anyone left to protect. Or to live for.

She was different. She was loved by everyone. She was alone most of the time but she still had Jiraiya who comes and visit every now and then. She had a purpose. She had a reason to live.

Or so he thought.

They were placed inside a barrier the night of the Nine-Tails Attack. The elders said it wasn’t their fight. They have to sit this one out so they could live another day.

Kakashi looked around the group that they have formed. Most of his former classmates were on the front of the pack together with a few other shinobis their age but as he scanned the crowd, he quickly realized Akira was not among them.

He knew she took her first day off in months today. She had deliberately worked during her time off in order to gain more experience and training. Kakashi always thought how Akira seemed to always seem to act as if she was running out of time and how she wouldn’t take rest until she was forced to by the injuries she acquired during her missions.

This time was no different. She came back from a mission in the Land of Lighting only a couple of days ago and if it wasn’t for the direct order from the Hokage to take a break, she would have been out for another one by this time. He was unusually aware that she was hardly in the village these days.

It was a few minutes later when Akira’s figure emerged from the woods. She stopped dead at her tracks halfway into the clearing. A look of confusion was visible on her face as she scanned the scene ahead of her. What the hell?

Kakashi watched as Akira stopped dead in her tracks and stiffened as she took in the scene in front of her. For a moment, their eyes met and almost instantly, the look of confusion was gone in her face replaced with outrage.

She shoved the two jonins on her either side then she was on the run back to the village. Her path was quickly blocked by more leaf shinobis assigned to keep the younger ninjas safe.

“Lady Akira, please.” Shinku Yuhi, Kurenai’s father, pleaded.

“What do you think you’re doing?!” She spatted back. Her eyes were full of rage. This isn’t where she’s supposed to be. She should be where the fighting is, not kept away from it. This isn’t what she’s been training for.

“We’re just followi-“ He wasn’t able to finish his sentence because Akira was on him. pinning him down with earth style.

Kakashi and the rest of the group inside the barrier couldn’t do anything but watch as Akira battled five jōnins at once. Their mouths hung wide open as they saw firsthand Akira’s proficiency in using the wood style. The group, excluding Kakashi, had never seen someone use wood style in person. Despite the common knowledge that Akira was a wood style user, she only uses it as a last resort knowing that it would only gain more unwanted attention in terms of her capabilities. She usually relies on other nature transformations as much as she can.

This was the first time for most of the people in the clearing see someone use wood style and handle it with such finesse and ease as well. They thought that her skills was on full display that night but Kakashi knew how much she was trying to hold back. He knew she would have defeated them if she wasn’t being as cautious as she is in making sure to not harm any of her comrades and if she wasn’t still recovering from her recent injuries.

Eventually, Akira was outnumbered by the seven jōnins who fought with her and they tackled her to the ground. Her cheek pressed on the dirt as they tied her hands behind her back and made sure she could not weave any more signs.

She could see her classmates staring at her in shock. They haven’t really seen her in action as she didn’t officially join any team after graduation. They had no idea what she can do. Or what I’ve done.

Once she was in the barrier Kurenai quickly untied the younger girl’s hand. Akira was still half a foot shorter than herself but she seemed so much older already.

Akira relentlessly pounded on the barrier. Her right hand was still bandaged but her hits did not falter.

“Listen, I know you have your orders but it doesn’t include me! I can help capture the nine tails with wood style! Don’t you understand that?!” She was practically screaming at her superiors standing only a fees feet away. She was trained to fight. To save the village. To not let anyone get hurt, to help the Hokage the best she can. That was what they drilled into her brain growing up. There was a reason she had all these abilities and she should use to help others. Being stuck inside a barrier wasn’t part of any plan.

“Lord Third specifically mentioned you, Akira.” Shinku replied. Akira was confused. She was the protector not the one who needed protecting. She would gladly lay her life for the billage but now, they’re asking her to sit back and watch the village burn just so she could remain safe?

“Akira, stop.” Kurenai was barely able to grab her arm mid-punch to keep it from colliding with the barrier once again.

“Damn it!” She gave the barrier once last hit and turned around. She didn’t saw it but the rest did as the barrier flickered and for a moment, a crack appeared from where punched the barrier.

Her abilities were one thing, her raw power were another.

“Just calm down, will you?” Kurenai was on Akira’s heels as she made her way to the back.

“Lord Third must have a reason of he wanted you here, Akira.” Gai chirped in attempt to help Kurenai calm the still seething Akira.

“Orders are orders, Akira. We can’t do anything about that.” Kakashi says. He wanted to fight as bad as she does. He knew Minato was out there fighting the kyūubi and having them in the field would be a great help for the village. Kakashi secretly hoped Akira could somehow break them out of this bubble so they could fulfill their duties instead of being forced to watch as the nine-tails burn their village just because they were not old enough.

“You know I don’t care about orders, Kakashi.”She snapped right back at him. She followed orders because it was the right thing to do, but unlike him, she had no problem on breaking it when push comes to shove.

Akira had already decided what she needed to do when Kurenai noticed. “No,no. Don’t even think about it.” Kurenai had grabbed Akira’s arm and gave her a stern look. She can’t do this.

“You can die.” Akira didn’t need any reminder. She was aware of the risks she as taking but she couldn’t care less about that right now. There were just some things that had to be done no matter what the consequences were.

“Only one way to know.” She said, already performing the hand signs for the jutsu. She’ll deal with the consequences for her action later, for now, she’ll do what she knows is right.

“Ghost Transformation Jutsu!” Akira’s body fell on the ground as her soul ascended. She was engulfed in a white glow as the others watched in awe. She didn’t waste any more time and disappeared in the sky like a shooting star to the direction of their village. She didn’t know if she can comeback to her body as she hadn’t mastered the jutsu yet and Inoichi had strongly discouraged in practicing without his guidance. She still haven’t got the right skill and the possibility of her being stuck in this form until her death was much greater than she would like to admit.

Kurenai watched as the girl’s body fell onto the ground as her soul left her body and into the night. She barely caught Akira’s head before her body collided on the soil. She was well-aware of the fact that Inoichi had barred Akira in practicing this jutsu without his guidance proving that the jutsu was more dangerous than what Akira could handle at the moment. It was no simple technique that could be undone in a matter of days. They were talking about life and death on this one.

The people outside the barrier were also alarmed of the what Akira had done. They were former comrades with her father, Dan, and they were well aware of the implications that came in using this jutsu. Even with Akira’s huge chakra reserves, she could still potentially ran out of it if she wasn’t careful of her actions.

They soon realized Akira was not being careful at all as blood soaked through her shirt and the land beneath her darkened from the massive amount of blood leaving her body.

No one knew what happened but a loud explosion was heard from where they were and the next thing they knew, Akira was just bleeding on the ground.

Kakashi was quick to react and firmly pressed his hands on Akira’s wounds on her midsection. There was just so much blood oozing out of her wound despite the pressure Kakashi was putting on. Kurenai was nearly in tears as she held the smaller girl’s head in her lap.

“It’s the jutsu.” Kurenai said when Kakashi’s clearly worried eye met hers. “Whatever happens to her soul also happens to her body.”

She was unconscious for two weeks. People wondered if another name was to be added in the already long list of the people who lost their lives that night.

What happened with her, the Third Hokage was the only one alive who knows.

Next Up: LOTS of Kakashi fluff.

Ask or Reblog for a tag!

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grimmjowkurosakidrake · 4 years ago

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Losing

Summary: Part four of my Time travel fic: The end is were we begin

Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke, Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Itachi & Uchiha Sasuke

Lenght: 2,118 Words

Warnings: Some angst, mentions of the curse of hatred as well as mentions of Sasuke not feeling good enough for Sakura.

Quick disclaimer: This chapter was commissioned by the always great @birkastan2018 who actually helped me to fix my grammar and turning points on the fics!! on my commissions blog @witcheswritings !

Previous Itachi and Shisui are waiting for them at the gates of Konoha when they come back. Both are genuinely smiling as they prepare to greet Sasuke and his team.

Back in his timeline, Itachi only wore his Anbu uniform or simple training pants coupled with the customary high collared shirt most of their clan wore on a regular basis. Itachi was never carefree about anything and his clothes were no exception.

Sometimes, if he puts his mind to it, Sasuke can remember with vivid clarity how his older brother used to like sweets but didn’t eat them as much as he should; how he liked festivals but rarely attended any; how he enjoyed playing with the cats roaming around the compound but wasn’t able to spend time just wandering around their home.

Now Itachi has his own cat. A fat, old, female cat named Hime that never plays with him but always purrs when he strokes the sides of her face.

Now, Sasuke can always find his brother drinking tea and eating dango at his favorite shop when he’s not at the compound or the police precinct.

Now he wears colorful and comfortable yukatas almost everyday.

Today he’s wearing a silk, bright blue yukata embroidered with beautiful designs of delicately embroidered gold half moons and waves.

By his side, Shisui is wearing his Anbu uniform. But seeing their placid smiles and the way his cousin’s hand rests on Itachi’s shoulders without care, Sasuke can appreciate how happy and free they’ve become ever since they ended the ongoing feud between the Uchiha and the rest of Konoha.

Sasuke smiles at them, but otherwise tries not to overreact at the sight of his beloved brother (he still has his pride after all). The days of following his brother around like a puppy are supposed to be behind him.

Naruto is not quite as prideful.

“Itachi-nii!” screams the blond, eagerly running in the direction of the older Uchiha. He looks small next to the two imposing young adults, though not nearly as malnourished as he looked back in the day. His clothes fit him now and his once bony wrists aren’t as delicate. He’s healthy, not as raggedy looking as before.

A good family can do that to you. And Naruto’s not the only one who is different. Itachi’s eye bags aren’t as prominent even if he still has wrinkles to show for the years of sleep deprivation he suffered in the past. Shisui’s smile is just as cocky as he remembers, even with the black eyepatch he wears now after Danzo stole his eye from him.

Sometimes, even Sasuke can admit that his own smile is different than before. His eyes are softer now; they’re not as sharp and full of hatred. The smiles he can offer now are more genuine than the smiles he could offer to his wife back in his timeline.

Thoughts like this never fail to consume him with guilt when he remembers the brother who put his happiness over his own health, the friend who obsessed over having him near even at the cost of the goals that helped him overcome his neglectful upbringing, and the girl that loved him even when he couldn’t love himself.

Even when he couldn’t return her love like she deserved.

This is why he can’t go back. This is why he can’t ever regret what he did.

This is for the best. This is how they will be happy.

“Naruto!” Shisui excitedly plants both of his hands firmly on the blond’s shoulder. “First mission, huh? Did you grow taller?” Naruto beams proudly at this, straightening his back to try and show off his full height.

Which is ridiculous, because he’s still shorter than even Sakura. His head still doesn’t reach Shisui’s collarbones, but Sasuke can see what his cousin means.

Waves represents a turning point in the life of the boy who will become Hokage one day. The moment he stopped being just a rambunctious orphan child running amok through the village that despised him and started to become an actual shinobi.

One who’s seen death, mourned the loss of a dear friend, and even if it was for just a moment - one who’s been made aware of his own weaknesses.

One who’s witnessed the horrors of the shinobi world firsthand and still decided to come back stronger and as eager as ever to become the leader of an entire shinobi village.

The same could not have been said for Sasuke, back then. Waves for Sasuke was nothing but another point of proof that he was weak. It just gave him another reason to train harder.

The thought of training has him considering their female teammate. Seeing Sakura now, she actually looks smaller. Perhaps she feels shy in the presence of the Uchiha clan heads, maybe uncomfortable at being the only one who doesn’t know Itachi or Shisui. As smart as she always is, he’s sure she’s noticed the familiarity between Naruto, Kakashi and his family.

Or, maybe she’s just ashamed of her lack of growth back in Waves.

After all, she couldn’t do anything other than watch as her teammates risked their lives fighting an S-class missing-nin, standing in the sidelines with the man they were supposed to protect.

Sasuke then decides he can’t hold back when it comes to her growth.

He loves her just as he did back in his timeline and he wants her to be happy. He is planning to become a man worthy of being introduced to her parents as a loving boyfriend, and not the traitor who whisked her away from home one day.

Kizashi didn’t like him, Sakura’s mother didn’t either and Tsunade absolutely loathed him.

According to them, he was cold, cruel and not worth a loving bright girl who would do anything to see him happy. In fact, the only two people who ever supported their blooming relationship were Naruto and Sakura herself.

He’s working on loving her more openly now. But the psychotic, still cursed on love and hatred part of his soul, needs her to become stronger, less vulnerable.

Sasuke is an Uchiha, after all, and a part of his soul still carries the curse of hatred. He knows he couldn’t take it if he lost her somehow.

He wants her to reach her full potential. He needs her to become the woman able to break mountains, to receive a katana to the gut and just regenerate around it.

Her death would destroy him, just like Rin’s death destroyed Obito. He needs to make sure that doesn’t happen.

“Ah, Itachi-sama, Shisui-san” drawls Kakashi, referring to his former Anbu protégés with the formality their titles deserve.

Even when his voice doesn’t sound as respectful, and his eyes planted on his obvious porn book show everything but interest in the two men.

“Kakashi-senpai,” smiles Itachi pleasantly, “Please, just call me Itachi. I’m not the head of the Uchiha right now, just a brother interested in his younger sibling’s first mission.”

“Yeah!” hollers Shisui with enthusiasm. “But who would have thought that little Sasuke would end up on a genin team with his best friend, our former Anbu senpai and…” He stops, gaze falling right on Sakura.

There’s confusion in his eyes. Sasuke understands, as she doesn’t resemble any clan in their village. She could be a foreigner, but no Hokage would allow an outsider to be on a team with the heir of the Uchiha and the Kyuubi child.

So Sasuke makes the introduction. “This is Sakura Haruno. The one who always beat me at written exams back at the academy.”

Itachi smirks knowingly at his words.

Those were some dark days for him. When he thought his experience as a Shinobi back in his own timeline was enough to get him perfect grades and yet he was being bested time and time again by a little civilian girl.

He brooded quite a lot.

Shisui never paid much attention to his childish mood swings though, so he’s not aware of his little cousin’s Academy rival. “Haruno? I’m not quite sure I recognize that clan…”

“It’s a civilian family,” she answers, her small hands holding onto the edges of her dress. “My parents run a bakery. They opened it when dad couldn’t advance any further up the shinobi ranks.”

Sakura blushes from her neck to her ears when the older man’s eyes don’t leave her even after that shameful disclosure.

“The Haruno bakery? Just a few houses down from the Yamanaka flower shop?”

She silently nods.

“Oh!” Shisui grins widely in recognition. “They have great curry bread there!” He sighs dreamily as if thinking of those savory buns, which eases Sakura’s nerves.

“You must be very skilled,” adds Itachi, “to be put on a team under Kakashi Hatake.”

“Not really,” sighs the pink haired girl dejectedly. “I’m just lucky.”

Naruto scoffs. “Don’t say that, Sakura-chan!” he cries, forcefully cradling Sakura’s face. His lack of respect for any kind of personal boundaries are well known to everyone. “Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei are lucky to have us! I mean, look at us, we fought one of the seven swordsmen and we won! We should be celebrating! Right?” He looks between the Uchiha men and his teacher.

“Of course!” agrees Shisui, easily excited and always hungry. “How about we go out to eat something? Our treat, to celebrate little Sasuke’s first mission.”

“I shouldn’t.” Sakura hesitates with uncertainty in her green eyes. “I should be training,” she says as an afterthought, as she peeks at Sasuke. “I couldn’t do anything to help on our mission.”

“That isn’t tru-” Naruto tries to object, but he’s swiftly interrupted.

“She’s right.”

Naruto fumes at their teammate’s sharp response, but Sasuke holds firm with his own cold stare before turning to Sakura. “You need to train more. We may not be there the next time you face enemies as strong as Zabuza and Haku.”

Sasuke knows he’s not planning to leave her. But what comes after the Uchiha massacre was stopped is uncertain terrain.

The Akatsuki, Madara, Obito, even Orochimaru are more of a threat than they were before because now they’re unknown elements. Sasuke doesn’t know how his actions thus far have changed this timeline going forward, and he can’t leave Sakura’s life at fate’s hands.

“Foolish little brother,” sighs Itachi. “Training after a mission, tired and disheartened won’t do her any good.” He moves near the girl to place a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Come on, Haruno-san. Even if you’ve lost, you’re still alive and that’s all that matters. You should eat; you could use the energy.”

“We didn’t lose, though” corrects Naruto, crossing his arms and closing his eyes in confusion.

“Sakura-chan did,” clarifies Shisui, his usually flirtatious expression now serious, “She couldn’t help her teammates, because she wasn’t strong enough,” he states bluntly. “Isn’t that right, Sakura-chan?”

He’s smiling, but it’s not a particularly nice nor friendly smile.

“I did,” she realizes. “I did lose.” But then, with greater resolve, she steels herself and bows to her team. “I’m sorry Naruto, Kakashi-sensei. Sasuke-kun! I won’t fail you next time!”

Naruto grins widely and Kakashi smiles through his mask, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck. Probably mourning the misfortune of being assigned such passionate young children as his first genin team.

They always crash and burn after all. Time and time again, both love and passion had only proven to be followed by tragedy.

Sasuke just hides his face behind his bangs, still not sure how to react when it comes to the brilliant, resilient girl he’s only now getting to know.

“But for now we eat,” interrupts Itachi, guiding Sakura and her teammates towards Konoha’s shopping district. “We eat, and afterwards we will assess our weaknesses and our strengths.” He smiles while walking towards a spot they’re all familiar with. “After that, we’ll sleep, make sure to get a good night’s rest, and then tomorrow we train.”

Naruto hoots enthusiastically when they arrive at Ichiraku and enters immediately with Shisui, followed by Itachi and Sakura.

But Kakashi and Sasuke linger outside the curtains of the ramen shop. “That was some wise advice from a former Anbu captain,” he muses, while placing a gentle but firm hand on his student’s shoulder. “We would be equally wise to take it.”

Sasuke considers this as they enter the now crowded shop. He sees Naruto grinning happily as he’s served his first bowl of noodles. At his side, Sakura is smiling at his brother like she used to smile at Ino before their falling out.

Maybe, he thinks, sitting by Naruto’s other side and accepting the pair of chopsticks his best friend offers...

Maybe they’re right.

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I hope you liked the fic and speacilly hope @birkastan2018 liked it <3

#sasusaku #Sasuke Uchiha #Sakura Haruno #Naruto Uzumaki #Kakashi Hatake #itachi uchiha #shisui uchiha #time travel fic #the end is where we begin #commission #taking commisions #commisionwork

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kusunogatari · 4 years ago

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[ ObiRyū October | Day Eleven | Barbeque ] [ @abyssaldespair ] [ Uchiha Obito, Suigin Ryū, Hatake Kakashi, Nohara Rin, Jiraiya, Uzumaki Naruto ] [ Verse: Best Years of Your Life ] [ Vulgarity ]

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It’s become a bit of a tradition. The last day of Summer break, before everyone heads back to school, there’s a neighborhood get-together for all of the students, no matter their grade. Hosted at the largest house on the end of the street (which also happens to have an in-ground swimming pool), it’s one of the most anticipated days of the year, even though the day after is rather depressing.

The parents might even enjoy it more than the kids at that point, gaining their school year freedom with their kids shipped off for each weekday.

Though she used to be more into the participation aspect, as a senior in high school now, Ryū is pretty much part of the planning and executing committee alongside her father as hosts. The day before, she helps in pre-preparing all of the food for the barbeque, ensuring the pool is up to snuff and stocked with toys and supplies, and tidying up the yard to place all the outdoor furniture.

“How’s it looking out here?” Jiraiya asks from the porch.

Ryū, down below, is hosing off the dust from all of the lawn chairs. “Good! Almost done! How’s the menu? Do we need to get anything else?”

“We’ve got enough hamburgers and hotdogs to feed an army!” he replies with a signature grin. “Add in the chips and dip, the beans, and the drinks, and we’re good to go. I got a bit more than last year just to be sure. We can always have leftovers for a day or two!”

“Sounds good to me!”

“Pool partyyy!”

Seeing her little brother come flying out the back door, Ryū manages to drop the hose and scoop him up, twirling to help with his momentum. “Not until tomorrow! And you know you can’t go in the pool without your water wings, Naruto! It’s not safe!”

“But I wanna swim!” the four year old rebukes, cheeks puffed in indignation.

“You can! Tomorrow. I thought you were helping Dad in the kitchen, huh?”

“That’s boring,” the little blond mutters. “I don’t wanna make food, I wanna eat it!”

Ryū just laughs. “But you have to make food before you can eat it!”

“Nuh uh, that’s adults’ job!”

Grey eyes roll. “Well you’ll have to cook when you’re an adult, then. And you better learn how before then, huh? Or you won’t know how!”

Still struggling in her grip, Naruto grunts and drops the subject. “Lemme down!”

“Do you promise not to go in the pool?”

“Yeah, I promise!”

“Okay. Go back inside, it’s almost dark.”

Clearly displeased, he nonetheless follows her orders, dragging his bare feet the whole way.

She sighs, then looks over her handiwork. Seems everything on her list is done. The plastic furniture will dry overnight, so she shuts off the hose and then closes the cover on the pool. One last sweep, then inside she goes to help with dinner.

“Excited for tomorrow?” Jiraiya asks, still in the kitchen.

“Yeah! But I’m sad it’ll be the last one for me…”

“Nonsense! You can still participate while you’re in college, kiddo. And then you’ll just be one of the adults dragging your kiddos over, hm?”

Ryū gives him a look. “Getting a bit ahead of yourself, aren’t you?”

“What, I’m not allowed to tease you about grandkids?”

“You don’t need any for a while, you’ve got Naruto to worry about!”

“And he’s gonna need some kiddos to play with!”

She groans, bringing out more supplies from the fridge. “Oh my gosh, Dad…”

He gives a booming laugh. “You’ll get baby fever one of these days. Just do me a favor and finish college first, that’s all I ask.”

“I haven’t even dated anyone yet,” she counters, grinning.

“Much to my disappointment. I haven’t gotten to give anyone the tough, intimidating dad talk yet! I’ve been practicing!”

And so the banter goes as they cook, finishing and calling Naruto down for dinner. After dishes are done, Ryū retreats to her room and her computer. Social media is little more than everyone groaning about heading back to class, and seniors in particular being “so done” with high school already.

Scrolling through her feed, Ryū smiles softly at a post from Rin. Seems she and Kakashi went to the beach today, if her selfie is anything to go by. She’s already confirmed they’re both coming tomorrow. Technically Rin lives a few streets over, but...best friends get to bend the rules. And Kakashi is a few houses down. Then there’s some younger students, like grade schooler Itachi and his little brother Sasuke, who’s best friends with Naruto. Quite a few of his soon-to-be classmates tend to come over, too. Ryū often has to corral them all herself, the self-appointed babysitter.

Rin teases her about it and her mother nature. “Sure you don’t wanna be a daycare worker or something? You’d be great at it! Kids love you.”

“Not sure my energy levels could survive it,” she’d countered with a grin. As much as she likes kids...they’re a ton of work. She gets enough of that handling Naruto whenever she’s home to deal with her godbrother.

Otherwise her feed is just the typical, and Ryū soon abandons it for a bit of game-playing until bedtime. Already she’s prepared for both tomorrow and the day after: the last first day back of high school.

But it still takes her a little while to fall asleep, thinking it all over. Despite Jiraiya’s reassurances otherwise, something still feels really...final about tomorrow. Another stepping stone she won’t be able to come back to. Another year ending, and one beginning.

Either way, she can’t stop the passage of time.

Come morning, she wakes groggy, her lying awake meaning a slow start. No one is supposed to arrive until noon, so at least she has some buffer before having to handle anyone beyond her dad and brother. Breakfast is slogged down with many a yawn before changing into her outfit for the day.

Given there’s going to be swimming, she puts on her suit first: a longline bikini top and a skirt over the bottom piece until she actually decides to take a plunge. Her hair she ties up in a tail, a few shorter locks framing her face alongside her bangs.

By then, she’s finally fully awake, heading back downstairs to help Jiraiya with the last few finishing touches.

“How’s it looking down here?”

“So far so good! You got a lot done last night, thanks.”

Smiling at the praise, Ryū then glances up at a familiar voice. “Rin!”

Grinning ear to ear, the little brunette rushes into the yard, hopping up to cling to her taller friend. “Hiii! Hope you don’t mind that we’re early?”

“Not at all!” Holding Rin up, Ryū just nods to Kakashi rather than wave. “I can’t get over how tan you are. How many times did you go to the beach this Summer?”

“A few,” Rin replies coyly, letting herself be put down onto the grass. “Look, even ‘kashi has a bit of a tan line! And he’s always pale!”

Sighing lightly at his girlfriend’s antics, Kakashi lets her do as she pleases, lifting his sleeve to show the slight change in tone beneath it.

Ryū just laughs. And is then promptly cut off by Naruto running and crashing into Kakashi head-on.

“Oof!”

The girls giggle, Naruto throwing a slew of questions at the teens. As some of his late father’s favorite students at the high school he taught at, Rin and Kakashi are rather close to the little Uzumaki.

“Look how tall you’re getting, Naruto!” Rin praises, scooping him up. “You’re almost as tall as me, aren’t you?”

“He’s got a ways to go yet,” Ryū replies. Rin may be short, but not that short.

“You must be eating your vegetables like I told you to, huh?”

The blond sticks out his tongue. “No way!”

From there, once noon strikes, people begin filing in. All of the neighborhood children and their parents arrive, the large rear yard filling. Ryū opens the pool and it floods with splashing and squealing kids, all watched over carefully by a rotating squad of adults.

Ryū bustles around helping, distributing food and drinks while checking to make sure no one is missing anything. In between, she chats with others from her class, all smiles.

But eventually she notices something seems...off about Rin.

“Hey, you okay?”

She jumps a bit, turning to Ryū sheepishly. “Well, I uh...I might’ve invited somebody.”

“That’s okay! They not here yet?”

“No...I’m afraid he won’t show up...he seemed kinda on the fence about it.”

Ryū’s head tilts curiously. “Too shy, or…?”

“Yeah. And he, um…” Rin bites her lip. “...it’s kinda hard to explain. He’s not very...popular. He tends to butt heads with people sometimes…?”

“Uh, okay…” Ryū can’t help but hesitate. Is this going to cause any problems, or…?

“Maybe he won’t come. I was hoping he would so he could try and ease into things, y’know?”

“Is he new?”

“Well, no. But he had to change schools for a while.”

Something starts to click in Ryū’s head. “...wait...you mean Obito? The one who got in that accident?”

“Yeah! He’s been in a, um...a different school since he fell so behind after the wreck. And it...didn’t go well. Apparently it was pretty rough…”

“...I see…”

“But he’s able to come back this year to graduate with us, if all goes well! So I wanted him to come and sort of...reintroduce himself, you know?”

Ryū nods. “That’s fine.” She remembers that kid, vaguely. Ryū had mostly hung out with Rin back then, mostly only catching glimpses of him back when he’d try to woo her friend. But, well...Rin’s got a boyfriend now, so she doesn’t have much to go off of.

“Just, um...he’s a little rough around the edges now, if...you catch my drift. He had to be, after dealing with all those jerks.”

“Well, so long as he doesn’t cause any trouble, I don’t mind. Let me know if he shows up, and I’ll -”

“Oh! There he is!”

Jolting, Ryū follows Rin’s pointing finger to a figure coming down the sidewalk. His posture is slightly hunched, dressed in an outfit that makes her want to start sweating. Full pants, full shirt...he’s got to be dying! But as he gets closer, Ryū gets the feeling she understands why.

A myriad of scars pepper one side of his face, and she can see them go down under his shirt. Probably from the accident, then...he must want to keep them covered up. His posture is defensive, as though he expects to be attacked at any moment. And when he meets her eyes, there’s a weight behind his gaze she can’t identify...but immediately sympathizes with.

“Obito!” Rin calls in greeting, moving to the fence. A few people stop at her voice, looking to the newcomer uncertainty. “Hey, hey! Remember her?”

Ryū follows, feeling a bit unsure. “Hey,” she greets, flashing a tentative smile.

“This is her house! Remember what I was telling you?”

Obito’s eyes flicker over the property, and Ryū feels a sudden surge of self consciousness.

“I remember,” he replies, tone a bit awkward.

“It’s been a long time,” Ryū offers, trying to be friendly. “I’m glad you get to come back this year! I’m sure a lot of people miss you.”

“I doubt it.”

The girls exchange an awkward glance.

“Well...feel free to come in, if you’d like! Dad’s still barbecuing if you’re hungry. He’s a really good cook.”

“Oh please, we all know you prep the food and he just cooks it,” Rin laughs.

“Well, still!”

“...Obito?”

All three of them pause as Kakashi steps up.

“...Kakashi.”

“I...didn’t know you were coming.”

“Rin invited me.”

The couple exchange a look, and Ryū can’t help a small grimace. Seems that particular decision wasn’t discussed.

“...didn’t know that either,” Kakashi replies coolly.

“Didn’t know it was your business who she talks to.”

“So, uh -?” Ryū tries to cut in, only to be drowned out.

“I like to know who my girlfriend talks to, sure. That a problem?”

“Kakashi, please,” Rin murmurs. “Let’s not do this now, okay? Obito’s free to be here. Ryū said so.”

The boys stare at each other a long moment.

“...you’re right. Enjoy the party,” Kakashi then relents before an arm around Rin’s shoulder steers her away.

...well that was awkward.

Nervously itching her arm, Ryū mumbles, “...sorry about that…”

“It’s not your fault,” Obito retorts bluntly. “He’s always been an asshole. Not sure what Rin sees in him.”

“...guess we all have our reasons.”

“I can leave if you want.”

“Wh-? No! Please stay,” Ryū cuts in, her expression falling. “...really, it’s fine. You’re more than welcome here. If Kakashi’s going to be an ass, then...let him. But don’t let that turn you away, okay?” She softens. “...I know it can’t be easy coming back here after so long, so...maybe it would be good to sort of...take today as a test run…?”

Obito sighs, hands in his pockets. “Not sure it’ll make any difference. Everyone’s got their opinions already.”

“...maybe so. But, if it means anything...I’d like to get to know you again.” She offers a smile. “It’s been a long time, and...we didn’t know each other that well before. Maybe this is a good excuse to...try again?”

He looks her over suspiciously before softening a few degrees. “...all right.”

Her smile grows. “Okay! Hungry?”

“...yeah, a little.”

“Come on, we’ve got a whole barbeque going. It’s really good!” Ryū opens the little gate into the yard, letting him through. “So, hamburger or hotdog?”

“...hamburger, I guess.”

“Okay - we’ve got a whole bunch of chip types, too. And beans! We go all-out every Summer for today, so take as much as you want!”

As they approach the table where Jiraiya is serving, Ryū notices a momentary look on Obito’s face: one that says he’s far hungrier than he’s letting on.

...it makes her hesitate, a suspicion growing in her mind. But for now, she lets it slide. “Dad! Got a fresh burger? We’ve got a new arrival!”

Jiraiya looks up. “Sure! Just a minute, almost done with another wave!”

“You can pick all your condiments in the meantime,” Ryū offers with a smile.

A bit hesitant, Obito takes a plate and sheepishly prepares a bun. A mountain of chips follows, along with several scoops of beans.

Watching from over the top of the grill, Jiraiya exchanges a knowing glance with his daughter.

“Ryū, you want to eat? You’ve been running around all day!”

“Okay, sure. One more for me, then!”

“Coming right up.”

Taking up her own plate, Ryū stacks it high. She has indeed been busy up until now. Then Jiraiya gives them each a patty.

“Enjoy!”

“Where do you want to sit?”

“...uh…” Obito glances around.

“We can sit along the poolside if you want and put our feet in! It’s such a pretty day...and all the little kids are out now, so we shouldn’t get splashed!”

“...sure.”

Ryū leads the way, slipping off her sandals and sitting along the pool’s edge. Feet lazily kick through the water. Beside her, Obito kicks off his sneakers, rolling up his pant legs slightly to do the same.

“That’s better, huh?”

He doesn’t reply. Seems he’s too preoccupied with his plate full of food. Obito scarfs it all down like he hasn’t eaten in days. Teenage boys tend to have voracious appetites, but…

Well, she was going to try and talk to him, but...he’s clearly got other priorities. So Ryū goes ahead and eats too, watching as Kakashi and Rin, and Asuma and Kurenai start a water battle. The girls sit on the boys’ shoulder, trying to topple one another over.

“Gonna join in?”

She gives a start at the sudden question. “Huh?”

Obito nods to the pool, chewing another bite before swallowing. “You’ve got your suit on, right?”

“Oh...well, um…” There’s a sheepish pause. “I don’t...have anyone to play that with. But I might swim a bit after my food settles.”

His brow furrows at her answer, but he doesn’t rebuke. “...so how long have Rin and Kakashi been a thing?”

“...two years now, I think? It...took a while. According to Rin, Kakashi was worried about dating affecting his grades and time to work on school stuff.”

Obito scoffs. “Typical. He’s still top of the class anyway, right?”

“Er...yeah. Always has been.”

That earns a sigh. “Mister perfect...gets the girl, gets the grades…”

Unsure what to say, Ryū glances down sheepishly to her plate.

“Heads up!”

Jolting, Ryū barely has time to shout in surprise as Rin and Kakashi’s tower falls toward them. Rin tumbles forward, but Kakashi slams back against them. Water rushes over the pair of them with shocked gasps.

“God damn it, Kakashi!” Obito yells, struggling to his feet.

“It was an accident, Obito!” Kakashi counters, already crossing back to the other side of the pool and ignoring him.

“I’m soaked! You stupid -!”

Looking up at Obito’s strange, sudden silence, Ryū gasps - he’s gone rigid, clearly having some kind of attack. Balance lost, he topples head-first into the pool.

“Obito!” Slipping in over the side, Ryū finds a grip under his arms, hauling his head back above the water to let him gasp for air.

Immediately, the others react. Kakashi and Asuma help lift him up to the concrete walkway around the pool, Ryū turning him on his side in case he needs to cough up any more water. Fishing around in his pockets, she finds what she thought she’d find: a sealed pill bottle. Thankfully it was closed tight enough no water got in. She fishes out a tablet, stuffing it into Obito’s mouth. “Swallow!”

He does so with a little difficulty. And after a painful minute, his body starts to relax.

By then, several adults including Jiriaya have gathered around, the latter looking gravely serious. “Let’s get him inside and dried off.”

As the rest of the teens linger in the pool, shocked, Ryū follows in her father’s shadow. In another room, he trades Obito’s soaked clothes for some spares of his own, throwing the rest into the dryer. Obito is then laid on a couch to regain his head.

Ryū sits right beside him, brows pinched with worry. Her hands fiddle subconsciously with the bottle.

Slowly, color comes back to his cheeks, breathing regulating. His foggy gaze refocuses, and it turns to Ryū. “...h-how did you -?”

“I, um...I-I’d like to be a nurse, so...I read a lot of medical junk online,” she admits softly, a bit sheepish. “So I kinda...knew what to look for. It’s a good thing you had these on you.”

“...good thing you knew what to do with them,” he sighs, head rolling back to stare at the ceiling.

“...you okay?”

“...I will be. Thanks for, uh…” He pauses awkwardly. “...saving my ass.”

“Of course...I’m just glad you’re all right.” After a moment, she hands him the bottle, which he keeps clutched in a hand. “...is that...because of your accident?”

A gusty sigh escapes him. “...yeah. Happens randomly, but...especially when I get stressed.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. Not your fault.”

“No, but...I still feel bad. Maybe I...should have let you go home.”

His eyes flicker to their corners at her. “...I’m glad I stayed.”

In turn, she looks up from her lap in surprise.

“Well...hopefully I won’t be too stiff tomorrow. I tend to get locked up after one of these…”

“Maybe you can call the school and -?”

“They don’t care. I’ll be fine.”

“...but -?”

“It’s fine. I’ll live.”

Given all she’s learned (and guessed) about Obito today, Ryū feels her heart clenching for him. The poor guy… “...well, if you need any help, just let me know...okay? I’d be happy to.”

“...thanks.”

By then, the day begins to wind down, and guests start filtering back out the way they came. Near the end, Rin and Kakashi come in.

“...you okay?” Rin asks, wringing her hands.

“Fine.”

“...sorry about all that,” Kakashi mumbles.

“Wouldn’t kill you to be more careful,” Obito counters with a glance.

Kakashi has no rebuke.

“Well, we’ll...see you guys tomorrow,” Rin then offers, still looking nervous.

“Bye guys.” Ryū gives a little wave, watching them go.

“I should head home, too.”

“You sure? Can we give you a lift back?”

“No, I -”

“I’d be happy to. It’d save you the walking.”

“It’ll be good for me to stretch my legs.”

“You won’t, um...there’s no chance you’ll relapse on the way?”

“Probably not.”

Ryū nibbles her lip. “...can I...give you my number, and you can let me know you make it back in one piece?”

“My phone got soaked.”

Oh. “...do you have a landline at home you can call from?”

He gives a huff of a laugh. “Stubborn, aren’t you?”

Her cheeks tinge pink. “...yes.”

“All right, fine. If that’ll stop your mother henning, so be it.”

Ryū walks with him out to the road, watching him like a hawk. “Be careful on your way.”

“Will do. Thanks for the food.”

“...thanks for staying.”

He nods, giving a salute before heading down the sidewalk.

After a pause, Ryū calls, “See you tomorrow?”

Obito stops, looking back. “...yeah!”

A small smile pulls at her lips. Well...maybe today wasn’t a total disaster.

Phew, just barely got this done. Weekend was busier and more exhausting than I figured, so this is...late :’D But better late than never. I wanted to base this in Obito’s bully verse, but idk if I really wrote it well kjdfdkjhg so forgive me, I’m not very learned in writing that kind of thing lol I guess otherwise I...dunno what else to say? I’m very tired :’D Thanks for reading!

#obiryū october #abyssaldespair #uchiha obito #suigin ryū #hatake kakashi #nohara rin #jiraiya #uzumaki naruto #best years of your life [ au ]#vulgarity //

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prongsisabadger · 4 years ago

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Songs for the Heartbroken: That’s What You Get

AO3

FF.net

Prologue.

What is the scariest thing in the world? If people say whatever first comes to mind, we would probably end up with answers like heights, spiders, or maybe even death; but there are definitively things in this world that are scarier than that. The ones I particularly find most terrifying, are people. Of course there are different types of people that are terrifying in their own particular way, but here, I'll only write about one of them.

People who love. This might sound a little stupid to some but bare with me and allow me to explain. The word 'love' has now lost its essence from the amount of times we've heard it said with astonishing lack of sentiment. But I am not referring to an eleven-year-old's version of love when they first confess to their crush; nor am I speaking about those words guiltily spat between ground teeth or stuttered in the spur of a moment for lack of a better thing to say. I don't mean those many whispered 'I love you's of someone who just cheated on their significant other.

No, what I fear is much more profound, raw, animalistic even. What I feat is a person who disregards their own life in order to whatever or whomever they love. Those people have a purpose and will do anything to see it through. Just like a parent protecting their child, a soldier fighting for a cause they believe in or anything that can inspire such passion in a person's heart that the consequences of their actions go beyond one's imagination. People with a mission and the will to lay down their lives to accomplish it; those are the people who scare me the most. It's men and women with this kind of drive and determination who bring down nations, who are able to destroy anything in their path; capable of building relationships, entire lives and tear through them with savage violence and not an ounce of hesitation.

But the most frightening part of it is not what they are capable of, it's the fact that you never know who they are until its too late. You might have known that person your entire life and never had contemplated the possibility. Anyone can be one of these people, one of those who love too much; and you'll never know until it's too late, not even if that person is you.

That is the moment these people will stun you the most, when you find that you yourself are one of them, unsuspicious even to your own consciousness, until you realize that you would be willing to do the unthinkable to protect what you love. When you realize, that after all, those things that once seemed so terrible are not anymore, and that if it means safety, then you don't mind doing them anymore. Not even if it means you will lose your humanity in the process.

I have only seen such drive in someone other than my brother and me, and it took me quite some time to realize it too. I knew Shisui and I were special in some way other kids in the clan were not, that was at least until I met Itachi. The heir to the Uchiha leadership seemed like nothing special when we had first been introduced, he was serious, pensive even beyond what would be considered normal for a four year old. Even I with the extensive training (it was extensive, ok? Cut me some slack I was four) I had been put through at that tender age, was not as stuck up as he was. Turns out it wasn't because he felt superior to others, as most people outside the clan thought, he was just very insightful and preferred to assess the situation before taking part in it.

His father, the Uchiha clan head Fugaku, was insanely proud of him, and he had reason to. Itachi was a prodigy in every sense of the word, excelling in every ninja art at a very young age and showing more promise than any other child in Konohagakure no Sato. But what no one expected from the quiet prodigy, was the fact that he was one of these people; one of those who love too much.

My childhood had been good enough considering the times we were living in. I had grown up within the safe walls of the Uchiha compound, caging me in for six years until I would be allowed to enroll in the academy, keeping me from seeing much of the village and even less of the world. Not that this was uncommon, after all I was a child; but it was at that young age that life started shaping itself around me, and events that would be shaping my future, started taking place.

"But onii-chan, I already practiced shuriken jutsu and kunai this morning! Why can't you teach me more taijutsu?"

Ah, the innocent, peaceful days when my only concerns were regarding my training. For some reason, even if I was a spoilt brat most times, my brother managed to somehow keep his cool; he was good with children like that, even if he was only two years older.

"Akane, your taijutsu is nearly perfect; you're the only one who could give Fugaku-sama's son a run for his money. Your other skills need honing too, you know?" I pouted. I used to do that a lot back in the day, so much in fact that Shisui had become immune to its effects, unlike our grandparents.

I took the weapons basket my brother handed me and once again, turned to face the target hung on the sole sakura tree in our garden. It had become a routine with the passing of the years, after our parents died in the war, Shisui had decided to take my training upon himself; since our grandparents were too old (and in my oba-chans case, too reluctant) for the task. So ever since I could stand up straight, Shisui had attempted to give me the knowledge he had acquired over his few years ahead of me. So far, he had been succeeding, and with my upcoming entrance exam in two years and Shisui's eventual graduation, we tried to spend as much time together as possible.

All of this led to a very strict training schedule we followed almost religiously. Before Shisui left for the academy, we would do a series of stretches and warm-ups, followed by our daily morning spar. And when I say spar, I mean a four year old attempting to pose a challenge to her seven year old brother. Anyway, Shisui would leave for class after breakfast and a bath, and I would get stuck with obaa-chan and the chores for the rest of the morning. Cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, doing the futons, I hated it all; but I did it without complaining or slacking off for obaa-chan's sake.

After that, I would help jii-chan at his shop in the Uchiha district market. He was a blacksmith, one of the best among the clan, and I had always loved watching him turn raw iron into the fine pieces of art that were considered his blades. Most customers were members of the clan, but every now and then came people from other parts of the village; and since I rarely stepped out of the compound, these were the most interesting days.

The bell hung on top of the front door chimed, snapping me out of my reading induced trance; I marked the page I was reading and put the book under the counter. Chakra control was a very important part of shinobi lifestyle, and I'd taken to read it's theory after a rather long rant Shisui had gone on after being under graded at the academy. The chunin sensei had obviously been in the wrong, so I was determined to, when the time came, point this person in the right direction and avenge my brother. No one looked down on Uchiha Shisui without facing the wrath of his younger sister, ever.

I let go of my still unborn plan for vengeance as I saw one of my favorite cousins enter the shop.

"Obi-niiiiiiii" I screeched as I jumped down from the stool behind the counter and made my way to him as fast as my short legs allowed me.

I only stopped a few feet away when I saw he wasn't alone. Embarrassing Obito-nii in front of his friends would not do. I would have loved to force the air out of my cousin with all the force a four year old could put into a hug, but apart from embarrassing him, I would put a blemish in the spotless name of the Uchiha with such childish behavior. So before I could give jii-chan a reason to scold me, I bowed down at the waist and tried to put the best impression of 'shinobi Shisui' on my face.

"Obi-chan, Onii-san, Onee-san; welcome to Uchiha Fuko's armory. What can I do for you?"

The girl behind my cousin cooed as silently as she could to try and not hurt my pride; while the silver haired boy simply acknowledged me with a slight bow of his own. Meanwhile, Obito smiled proudly and held his held high, probably showing off, with a light blush on his cheeks.

"Mah, Akane-chan, no need for formalities, this is just my team. This is Rin, and The gloomy bastard is Kakashi, I call him Bakashi though, It's more fun that way." The last part he whispered, shooting me a cheeky grin.

My cousin had always been quite easy to read, but the fact that a four year old could tell he was extremely pleased, spoke volumes. When Obito was pleased about something, he tended to boast, a lot; thus providing me with a semi-reliable information source; one just had to know where to look. That was how I came to know they were due another mission the next day, which delighted me in a way only Shisui knew. I had always been almost morbidly interested in anything shinobi, so this new information summoned a wave of curiosity and enthusiasm that I could only just hide.

"So you need more supplies for your new mission, is that right? Should I get your usual order of kunai, shuriken and fire conducting wire? Or will you need something else? I heard things are getting rough out in the battlefield."

I tried to hide my curiosity as best I could, Obito might have been a bit naïve, but I had heard about a silver haired prodigy before, and didn't want to get caught red handed trying to collect information. Thank goodness, he seemed to think I was interested in the subject, or at least making polite conversation; because he gave no signs of being onto me. Meanwhile both Obito and Rin looked amused by my 'playing adult' and had bright smiles on their faces as well as their full attention on me.

Ever since I had first started speaking, I'd found that different words and expressions, got different reactions out of people. Shisui, being the ideal shinobi trainee, had wasted no time in helping me hone that skill. He said information gathering and manipulation were key abilities for a shinobi to have; but that should only be used on the enemy. Of course, being a four year old, my 'enemy' was whoever happened to have what I wanted. In this case, Obito-nii and his team.

Obito put his hands on his knees and crouched to my height in order to address me. I, on my behalf stood straighter at attention, like my brother had told me when being addressed by a superior.

"That, Akane-chan, is classified information." he said slowly, clearly with the intention of letting my brain take in the new word; but I had been in the same room as my brother when he studied, it wasn't completely foreign to me.

I nodded rapidly and took a step back to address the other two, obaa-chan would have my head if she heard I was impolite to customers; and she would sure flip if she knew said customers were friends and comrades of the Uchiha.

"Rin-san, Kakashi-san, were you two looking for anything in particular? Our shop has quite the reputation for our work with chakra conducting metals." I said and made my way behind the counter to look for my cousin's usual order.

I struggled a bit with my yukata when I tried to climb the ladders and reach the top shelves behind the counter; but I managed to avoid breaking my neck and look at least a bit like I knew what I was doing. Traditional clothes were very restricting, when movement was concerned, but it sure looked good on a shopkeeper.

"That's the reason we are here actually, Uchiha-san. Both Kakashi and me are in need of chakra conducting blades." Answered the girl politely, the gleam of amusement still present in her eyes.

The other boy, on the other hand, who I was now certain, was the last member of the Hatake clan, stood silently to the side. He was eyeing up a tanto that was being displayed on a shelve to the side. He had a good eye, if I was being honest. The blade was not just beautifully decorated, displaying a wolf pack in the hunt on the side; but it was also of the finest quality my jii-chan had ever been able to make.

"I am no expert in that specific area," I said climbing down and placing my cousin's order on the front desk. "Would you please excuse me while I fetch my grandfather?"

When the lone kunoichi nodded, I smiled as sweetly as I could. Turns out Fuko Jii-chan was done with his orders for the day; so when the customers left, with their personal needs satisfied, I was allowed to go home and wait for Shisui.

In the afternoons, my brother would tell me about the lessons he had had that day or even a story if he had one about his classmates or teachers. After that, he would oversee my chakra training for the day. On this special discipline, I struggled more than was considered appropriate for a member of the Uchiha clan. Shisui worked hard to encourage me and hide his concern, but even if I was four, the disappointment whenever the leaf fell from my forehead, was still present in my eyes.

I tried really hard not to get discouraged, my brother was making a huge effort, and giving in to despair would be like throwing it all away. I didn't care if the clan thought of me as a disgrace; I just wanted to make my brother proud, to make him acknowledge me as a capable individual, someone worthy of being his sister.

I panted hard, trying to regain my composure, as my brother sat cross legged in front of me; leaf still firmly chakra-bound to my forehead.

"Nii-san, this isn't working!"

I wasn't trying to be ungrateful, not at all, but there was clearly something I was doing wrong; and it wasn't only compromising my training and hindering my development, it was making me a burden for Shisui. I never wanted to burden my brother, ever.

"Maybe Obaa-chan is right, maybe I'm no good-"

"Nonsense" Shisui never showed his frustration, not when it came to me; but for some reason, whenever I mentioned the issue with Obaa-chan he seemed really bothered by it. "If you want to be a Shinobi; that is what you will become. It makes no difference if you develop slower than everybody else in the clan. You will not be a career bride if you so clearly don't wish to."

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes before standing from his place on the training ground floor.

"I don't care if I have to train you myself. We will make an outstanding kunoichi out of you, Akane-chan." Shisui offered me his hand with a tired smile and waited for me to take it.

I couldn't help but hug him once I was on my feet. I knew he meant every single word he had said, he always did; and the fact that he so clearly had my future in consideration, showed me just how much he cared, and how lucky I was.

"Thank you Nii-chan, you are the best."

Shisui smiled right back at me and crouched, offering me his back. It had become almost a ritual; whenever we would be done with afternoon training, Shisui would give me a piggyback ride back home.

"Everyone deserves to live their own lives the way they want to, to make their own decisions and learn from their mistakes. No one is the same, Akane, and even if you don't agree with them, you should respect the path they have chosen."

The usual buzz surrounding the main road in the Uchiha compound was noticeably absent as we made our way through; it was to be expected since business was a lot less in the evenings. Very few people could be seen roaming around, and the few shop keepers that usually worked late were now closing up their stores.

"what if someone makes a bad decision, Nii-chan?" I asked quietly, noticing that I had no need to raise my voice above a whisper for him to hear me. The atmosphere around us was very calm and gave off a sense of warmth and comfort that I didn't want to break.

"Then you can do nothing but accept that it is the path they have chosen for themselves; and that they will have to face the consequences no matter what. Just make sure you never enforce those consequences out of spite, anger or vengeance, Akane. If someone has to atone for their sins, then let yourself be guided by your sense of justice."

Not entirely sure about what he had just said, I decided to just nod and let my head rest against his shoulder. I would later in life realize what he had meant back then; when friends and family would turn into criminals if only for a series of bad decisions.

#fanfiction #naruto #uchiha #oc #itachi uchiha #naruto uzumaki #deviation from canon #shisui uchiha

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raendown · 5 years ago

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Sort of an entry for the @kakashirarepairs Bang Event. Doesn’t actually fit either of their themes but it gave me a push to write this sequel I’ve been saying I would for like two years so I ran with it.

Also tagging @madakaka so my wife doesn’t yell at me. xD

Pairing: MadaraKakashi Word count: 7149 Rated: T+ Summary: Sequel to Chapter 88 of the Soulmate Story Collection. After countless years of waiting Madara has finally found the soulmate he was always meant for and once again begun the process of aging. But more importantly he has a chance now to experience the honor - and the challenges - of watching Kakashi grow in to a man.

Follow the link or read it under the cut!

KO-FI and commission info in the header!

Ages Turn (You Were Always Perfect)

12--

Obito’s surgery was going well and it looked like there was a large chance of a full recovery – or as full a recovery as was possible when half of one leg and a portion of the same arm were missing. Kakashi knew this only because he overheard the nurses gossiping with the assistants popping in and out of his own surgery.

It was strange being awake for this and Kakashi rather wished they would just knock him out or something. The light was too bright on his retinas, his body was nearing chakra exhaustion, and they had discovered he was unable to deactivate the Sharingan currently under inspection. He understood, however, that the medi-nin needed him to stay awake so that he could answer their questions. Not to mention they probably also needed him to stay awake to deal with the seething mass of sulky protectiveness lurking in one corner of the surgical theater.

Kakashi was still barely able to wrap his head around the fact that he’d found his soulmate. It was incredibly hard to continue staring at the people examining his eye and not let his gaze drift continually over to where Madara stood, ragged and wild, like a savage beast contained within a human shape. He was tall and even his chakra itself was loud and heavy yet Kakashi had seen a layer of gentleness in him when he’d been pulled in to the man’s embrace for the first time. Right now there was little of that gentleness as he hovered menacingly, giving the impression of a pacing cat even while staying perfectly still. His eyes followed the movement of every person near Kakashi in a silent warning that one single twitch in the wrong direction and he would act. Violently.

He appeared to be making the medical staff nervous, which Kakashi thought was rather unprofessional of them. Really, if they didn’t do anything wrong then they had nothing to worry about. Did they think themselves so incompetent?

It took another hour before he was declared as patched up as possible. Rin distracted herself from worrying about Obito during that time by basking in the praise for her field transplant, lapping it up like a purring kitten. Kakashi supposed it must be nice to have the focus on herself for once. Usually she allowed either of her teammates to stand in the spotlight and it wasn’t until today that he’d thought to wonder if she had ever minded. The moment his head was free Kakashi turned his own attention at last to the man waiting impatiently in the corner. As soon as their eyes connected Madara was moving, seeming to float across the floor as though he were a part of the gathering evening shadows. When he reached Kakashi’s side he lifted one hand, gently tracing the edge of soft white bandages.

“Are you still in pain?” he asked. Kakashi shook his head.

“I’m fine.” Madara narrowed his eyes and Kakashi huffed with as much attitude as he still had the energy for. “Fine. I have a headache but it’s not bad. It’s just because I’m so tired.”

“You should rest, Precious One.”

Kakashi’s face threatened to burst in to flames, red spilling over top of his mask. “I’m not precious!”

“You are to me,” Madara said, unrepentant even as Kakashi blushed harder.

“Well…that’s…anyway I can’t rest. I have to make sure everything goes fine with Obito.”

Madara hummed in a way that said he wasn’t particularly interested in Obito’s fate himself but that he would happily wait for anything that was important to Kakashi. The younger looked down at his fidgeting hands, baffled. They had only just met. Sure they were soulmates and even he could feel the instant connection. But to be called precious? He couldn’t imagine being precious to anyone. Even kind Minato-sensei surely saw him as a bother more often than not, or so he assumed. He’d spent enough time pushing everyone away from himself he was honestly surprised to still find himself with any friends at all.

Kakashi tried not to think about it too hard, concentrating instead on the wonderful feeling of freedom when he was finally allowed to escape the surgical theatre. Madara trailed after him as he wound through the hallways and settled down beside him when he plopped inelegantly on to one of the benches in the waiting area outside the room where Obito was being tended to. His body was tired and clambering for rest but Kakashi had only just confirmed that Obito was his friend. He wasn’t about to abandon the other boy now. Maybe leaving wouldn’t have been quite the same as abandoning him but it would have felt the same and so he stayed.

Still, it only took ten minutes for the events he had gone through to finally catch up to him all at once. Before he even had time to realize what was happening Kakashi was slipping down in to blank unconsciousness, falling sideways against Madara’s shoulder as he gave in to exhaustion at last. Madara smiled down on him more gently than most would believe him capable of. Not wishing to disturb the lad, he wrapped one arm around his tired soulmate and simply held him tightly, reaching over with his other hand to close the jaw which had fallen comically open when he slumped over without warning.

Waiting was something Madara was more than familiar with. He had done his fair share of it over the past several decades and yet he found that he had just enough patience to wait a little more. Finding his soulmate was a blessing he had long given up on and he was happy just for the chance to sit here and observe the lad.

To his eyes, Kakashi was the most perfect creature he had ever laid eyes on. Silver hair the color of the moon, skin so pale he feared it might turn translucent if it got wet, and the beginning of what would surely be a jawline to kill for once he grew in to it. From the short time they’d had together he had already seen enough hints that the boy’s personality would keep him delightfully on his toes as well. He could already tell that he would never be bored. All in all, even after only one day Madara was already confident that the wait, long as it had been, was entirely worth it.

He would need to find a way to make Kakashi understand that. The poor lad didn’t seem to have a very high opinion of himself, something Madara intended to rectify as soon as possible.

Perhaps five hours had passed by before anything significant happened. Energy sang through his veins and Madara was tingling with the need to move yet he remained as still as possible, not wanting to disturb the precious gift still dozing against his shoulder. Despite the demands of his own body he was still just a little disappointed when Kakashi was awoken by the opening of the surgery doors.

Kakashi was upright and wide awake in an instant when he spotted the doctors coming through the door. It took Madara gripping his arms to keep him upright, however, since his knees threatened to buckle with sheer relief once he heard that everything had gone well. The doctors gave them the number of Obito’s recovery room, side-eyeing Madara in a worried manner as they did so, and Kakashi took off down the hall the moment they had finished speaking. Perhaps a hundred years ago Madara might have remembered his manners and thanked the doctors for their service. At the moment, though, the only thing which mattered to him was the boy rapidly disappearing down the hallway.

13--

Life in this future world was confusing. Madara might have been alive and well for the past several decades but he hadn’t bothered to peek in on the rest of humanity in any significant way for most of them – and he certainly hadn’t bothered to examine how day to day life might have changed.

There were so many new gadgets to play with that his soulmate merely took for granted. It took more than a week before Madara caved and asked what the white box was that seemed to prepare food in mere minutes. Kakashi called it a ‘microwave’ and started explaining something about radiation and energy transfer but Madara stopped him when he was uncomfortably reminded of his best friend’s little brother. It hadn’t helped that Kakashi sort of looked like Tobirama, his hair just a few shades darker.

Some of the other new inventions were incredibly useful, however. Madara particularly enjoyed the television box in the living room. Not so much for himself but mostly because it kept Kakashi entertained and perfectly still for hours at a time, leaving him easy pray for fingers that wanted to play with his hair or idly sketch the profile he made against the sickly artificial glow of the screen. Sometimes if he was very lucky Kakashi would fall asleep watching some terrible show and Madara would be treated with an opportunity to curl up beside him on the couch and sleep with that soothing chakra right next to his own where he could reach out when the nightmares woke him in the night.

One piece of what Kakashi called ‘technology’ that Madara absolutely did not like was the doorbell. Loud and clangoring, Madara hated the sound of it but he hated even more the horrors that always followed. Rin he didn’t mind, a calm and respectful young lady who seemed to understand how much he detested having their time together interrupted. Obito was annoying yet survivable, his brash nature offset by the periodic waves of gratitude that still popped up even now a year after Madara saved his life.

But the green one. It was the boy in green that had Madara shuddering every time his voice sounded over the incessant ringing of that hated hidden bell. For the third day in a row Madara clapped both hands over his eyes to block out the noise and glared balefully at the entrance to the apartment they shared. As a registered citizen of Konoha once again he would be within his right to make a noise complaint. It would be against his own apartment and Kakashi would be the one to get in trouble as the only name on the lease but surely he could bribe someone in to letting that infernal beast of a child suffer whatever punishment was due.

“KAKASHI MY RIVAL! LET US TEST OUR STRENGTH ON THIS GOOD DAY!”

“If he shouts any louder I’m getting him a muzzle,” Madara grumbled, arms folding more and more tightly to his chest as his body sank lower on the sofa. Beside him, Kakashi only smiled.

“He’d probably take that as a challenge to yell just as loud with it on.”

“Ugh.”

On the other side of the door Gai banged his fist again and cried, “I HAVE THE MOST YOUTHFUL CHALLENGE FOR YOU!”

“I should get this over with,” Kakashi said.

“No.”

Looking over at him in amusement, the boy actually had the gall to smirk. “Aww, what’s the matter?” You gonna miss me while I’m out slinging boulders or whatever dumb thing he wants us to do?”

“Yes,” Madara admitted simply. “I always miss you when you are not here with me.”

“O-oh, um, okay. Well. I’ll try not to be away too long, I guess.” Kakashi flushed and practically leapt off the couch as though if he moved fast enough he could outrun his own emotional responses. Madara let him go without any further protests despite the fact that all he wanted to do was call the other back and spend the day alone together.

In general that was the only thing he ever wanted to do.

He could hardly be blamed, though. Kakashi was his soulmate and in the year since they had finally met he’d come to the conclusion that the universe really did have a good reason for making him wait so long. He would have waited another hundred years if he needed to if Kakashi was the prize at the end – although he would eviscerate anyone who dared call the boy something so demeaning as a mere prize. The point was that they were well matched in his opinion and they would only become more so as more years passed them by.

Still only thirteen years old, Kakashi held no sexual or romantic attraction for him. Madara was more than aware that many adults in the village had worried about that but the very idea was laughable. He was a child! What draw could there be for a man finally allowed to grow to twenty-one years old in a child who hadn’t seen even a quarter of the years that he had? No, the only attraction Madara felt was a bone-deep pull that told him Kakashi was precious.

Watching his soulmate leave to spend time with someone else was as hard today as it was every day but it had already been more than twelve months since they found each other and Madara was long used to the necessity of that pain. Kakashi was a young thing and desperately in need of socialization. As much as Madara wished he could, he knew he couldn’t make up for an entire social circle and so he watched with sad eyes as the boy slipped out the door to spend time with that green beast of a stretchy human. If he were so inclined he knew he could have gone along but Madara had seen quite enough of the outside world already, most of it filled with darkness and disappointment.

He was much happier to while away the lonely hours here in the place his beloved soulmate called home, watching shows on the television box that he didn’t understand and waiting patiently until the missing piece of himself came home again. Kakashi always came home again.

16--

Three years was more than enough time to find a job and what better employment for a man of Madara's skill than to rejoin the shinobi ranks he had once commanded. So thought the walking sunshine known as Namikaze Minato, at least.

Lifting one eyebrow in blatant disinterest, Madara considered throwing the contents of his teacup in the man’s face for the sheer pleasure of watching him scream. All that stopped him was knowing this over-bright perpetual smile was somehow precious to his soulmate and that Kakashi would give him a lecture to end all lectures if he hurt this man. For as many times as he had courted with danger in his life Madara had no intentions of angering his soulmate again.

The last time he’d gone without any hugs for a solid week, not an experience he wanted to repeat.

“I am content with my place,” Madara stated firmly, knuckles white to retain their grip on the cup he was very carefully not throwing at anyone.

“You could be so much more than content,” Minato insisted. “You could serve your village again. If the history books are right then the village was your idea in the first place, an idea no one had ever dared to entertain before. Wouldn’t you like to protect it?”

“Did he really say that?”

“I’m sorry?”

Madara's grip loosened and his eyes grew distant, cup lowering to rest gently on the table. “I’m surprised Hashirama would have told anyone that. He was always fond of forgetting that an idea was not originally his. How odd…to be the subject of a history book. Suddenly I feel very old.”

“You are old,” Kakashi chipped in as he entered the room, heading straight for the fridge without bothering to greet either of them.

“Now, now, that wasn’t very nice.” Long used to his role as father-figure, Minato shook one finger in reprimand. Kakashi blithely ignored him and continued pouring himself a glass of juice.

With a deep breath Madara shook away the ghosts of his own past. “Whatever I am, I am no longer a shinobi.”

“Once a shinobi, always a shinobi,” Minato countered. “It’s in our blood.”

“Not mine; not any longer. I served my time already, Yondaime-san. When the first buildings were raised I pledged my allegiance to the first Hokage and I did my duty protecting this dream we crafted together. So many years later I should think you would be thrilled by my decision to take a seat on the council instead of insinuating that it isn’t enough.”

“You input is invaluable, there’s no one who would disagree–”

Madara cut the man off before he could go in to anything else with a sharp, “Excellent. Then it’s settled, I will continue to enjoy my retirement and a life that is finally not reliant upon any sort of conflict. You will go back to the office that was built for a bigger man than you and bother me no more about this.”

Across the room, Kakashi sighed.

“Bigger man than I?” Minato asked in a quiet, serious sort of voice. Madara was the opposite of scared.

“Hashirama was much taller,” he replied airily.

Clearly he hadn’t fooled the other man but to call him out for such a petty insult would only make Minato look even pettier. He made the very smart decision to drop it instead and turn to catch Kakashi’s attention for the real reason he’d come, something he needed clarified from the last mission his protégé had come back from.

After he had what he needed Minato declined any offers of staying for tea. He left boisterous goodbyes, his usual humor returned, and Madara made sure to stick his tongue out at the man’s back as he went out the door. Then he jerked as a pale hand swatted him upset the hand even as another one set a glass of juice down in front of him. Kakashi was rolling his eyes when Madara looked up at him with a baleful expression.

“What?” he demanded.

“Can you be a little nicer?”

“No. I don’t like him so I don’t have to be nice to him.”

“He’s the Hokage,” Kakashi pointed out. “And he’s my sensei – well, before you started teaching me he was.”

Madara looked away. “He steals attention from you that could have been mine. And time. And affection. I don’t like any of them. You should spend all of your time with me, obviously.”

He didn’t really mean that – well, not entirely. It would be nice to have Kakashi all to himself at all times but he understood that wasn’t healthy. And he could tell Kakashi knew that he didn’t mean it when the only reaction he got was a roll of one gray eye and a bony hand reaching up to tangle in his hair.

“Possessive bastard,” his soulmate accused him.

“Of you? Yes. You’re clearly the superior being above all others, can you blame me for wanting to keep you all to myself?”

Kakashi laughed and the sound cracked high and low unevenly. Neither of them commented. He was getting so big, taller than Madara already which truly wasn’t fair. Watching him grow in to the man he was always meant to be was a bittersweet sort of honor that Madara usually chose to reminisce on when he was alone. But in moments like this when an unexpected touch left him relaxed enough to lower the very last of his guard he couldn’t help but let his mind return to the one thing that had been on his mind ever since a few months before when Kakashi had finally found it necessary to learn how to shave.

What would it be like when he grew in to adulthood and wanted his independence? How many years did Madara have left before the only precious person in his life discovered the draw of romance and sex, before he fell in love and wanted a place of his own to nurture a new kind of bond? The very thought was as terrifying as it was thrilling. Of course he would want nothing more than for Kakashi to be happy.

But what of the bond he had spent nearly a hundred years waiting for? Madara looked up at the young man who it seemed only yesterday had been a child and wondered. He wondered how much it would hurt when he was no longer the most important thing in Kakashi’s life.

And he wondered if he should start keeping his declarations to himself that Kakashi would always and forever be the most important part in his own life, that he had been years before they ever met.

19--

Madara had a problem. Generally in the case of social issues he tended to sneak out of the house when Kakashi left on a mission and find a moment to shamefully demand that the young Rin explain to him what he should do in certain situations. Neither he nor Kakashi were very good at people things and they were both lucky to have someone patient enough to deal with the two of them, though both had sworn her to secrecy.

This time there would be none of that and without that avenue of clarity Madara found himself at an utter loss for what to do. He couldn’t bring such a sensitive issue to anyone else – didn’t even have anyone else to bring it to – but that left him with only the horrible option of figuring this mess out himself and thus he was brought back to the same conclusion every time he tried.

He had a problem. A big one.

With each year Kakashi grew older and taller, smarter and stronger. All of this he had noticed since the first day and had no problems with. It wasn’t until late in the year after Kakashi turned nineteen that Madara's traitorous mind thought to notice that his soulmate had also grown rather handsome with the years gone by. Considering that he had started aging again once they met that would make him exactly eight years older than Kakashi. Governments and courts the world over had been ruling since his own era that the time spent without aging did not make one older, only more experienced, but it wasn’t something he had thought to look in to in all the time he’d been living here in the current age. Would those around them find it wrong of him to grow attracted to Kakashi now as he grew in to adulthood?

More importantly, would Kakashi think him wrong? The idea that his own beloved, the other half of himself, the better part of his soul, could ever find something in him truly disgusting was not something he wanted to dwell on for long. Yet it seemed that he could think of little else these days.

The attraction hadn’t really started as an attraction. It had started as a comment overheard from a stranger passing them by, a young woman with little enough shame that she felt the need to comment loudly on the curve of Kakashi’s rump. Madara had glared at her until she fled and thought to himself absently that the shape of Kakashi’s rump was nowhere near as important as the shape of his beautiful heart – although he did have quite a pert little bottom. Just an innocent thought, a mere observation, but after he had noticed once he couldn’t help but notice again and again until he was forced to crawl out of his bed one night and spend a few hours sitting on the cold tile of the bathroom floor, stolidly refusing to touch the problem that had risen in his pajamas.

Sitting awake that night had been the first time he realized he was developing what some might call a crush. A ridiculous term – what he felt for Kakashi could never be reduced to something so simple – and yet it was painfully apt as well. He was sure that if Kakashi ever found out about these new feelings he would balk and Madara would indeed be crushed.

Obviously there was no point in twisting himself in to knots over whether or not Kakashi might feel the same but oddly that was not the most difficult part of the whole situation. Rather it was the feeling that he was lying somehow by keeping this information to himself. Since they met he had been entirely honest in all facets, answering any questions Kakashi had about himself, sparing no detail even when it probably would have been healthier to do so. Now his secret burned under the bones of his ribcage. Worst were the quiet nights like tonight when Kakashi suspected nothing, leaning in to him for a bit of contact and playing absently with the tips of his fingers while they both watched television.

Madara wanted to take his hand back. He wanted to weave their hands together. He wanted to blurt out everything that was on his mind. He wanted to stay silent, bury the feelings down where even he could forget them. Inside his head was such a muddle he almost missed it when Kakashi spoke.

“What was that?”

“It’s just so obvious,” Kakashi repeated. “I don’t know why no one else can see they’re in love!”

“Who?”

“Them!” As he gestured the television screen focused in on two characters caught in a moment of ephemeral almost before someone else blindly interrupted them.

Madara cleared his throat. “You think they’re in love?”

“Duh! I mean, are we even watching the same show? They belong together!”

“Maybe they do,” Madara whispered. He determinedly kept his eyes focused on the screen to watch one of the characters get pulled away with the man she had agreed to marry several episodes ago. “But maybe it just isn’t right.”

Kakashi immediately went off on a rant about how love was always right but Madara tuned him out. It was too painful to listen to when he had no idea if Kakashi would hold to that value if he ever had it tested by discovering Madara's secret. Something things were better left to the land of make-believe. And some secrets were better dealt with by simply letting them be, he decided.

He was falling in love with his soulmate. Whether that love was ever returned was in another’s hands now and Madara would have to be grateful for what he had even if he never had more. A hard fate but, as he had ever believed, Kakashi would always be worth it.

22--

After so many decades it felt strange to bleed again. Of all the many times he had contemplated what it be like to join the battlefields once more Madara had always assumed that it would be just like picking up an old habit, that the burn of pain would be just as easy to ignore as it had been in his prime.

It was not.

Having a sword pushed through one’s chest was never a pleasant experience but although he could say this was not the first time he had suffered such grievous wounds he could say it was the first time he had screamed. Pain flood his senses until all he could think were two singular, overwhelming thoughts. ‘I am going to die’ and ‘but Kakashi cannot’. Despite the conviction in that second thought it was harder to bring his rusty skills to bear than he imagined it would be. His arms were lead and his legs were shaking. Vision tunneled and ears hearing the ring of battle as though from underwater, it took only one more blade sinking in to the flesh of his shoulder for Madara to go down.

What a titan of history, he couldn’t help but scold himself, to fall in the first battle he joins since the fifth decade of his twentieth year. All those years spent locked away in a cave by himself had taken more of a toll than he thought. Sparring and exercise were no substitute for the true chaos of a real fight. He should have stayed with the other council members when the alarm sounded to warn of an attack on their western gate; his pride and his body would have both been spared a wound.

Nothing could have prepared him for the sound of Kakashi’s own scream as he leapt down from a nearby rooftop only to see his soulmate slumping to the ground with silver shining amongst the blood pouring from his body. And it was a lot of blood. Madara understood that his thoughts were beginning to scatter due to the loss of it all but he couldn’t help wondering if the last time he had taken a similar injury produced this much blood or if it only looked like so much because he was already covered in the lives he had taken today.

Strong hands lifted his head, soft lips against his forehead, and Madara opened his eyes to discover that he had drifted for an undetermined amount of time. The men who overwhelmed him lay in pieces to one side and Kakashi knelt on the ground with him, both eyes wide open with tears gathering in the corners.

“There you go,” his soulmate murmured in broken, choking syllables. “Hey, no, keep your eyes open. Don’t you dare. You can’t die the day before my birthday. That’s just the height of rude.”

“Always been rude,” Madara managed to get out with blood bubbling his words. A quiet sob escaped Kakashi’s lips before he wrestled himself back under control.

“Not to me. Never to me. Stay awake, come on. You’re not allowed to die.”

Madara found it in him to smile. In the arms of a loved one had never been the way he thought he would go but it was definitely much better than most of the other ways he’d pictured. Through the confusing mixture of burning and numbness he could feel Kakashi’s hands holding pressure on his wounds and pulsing chakra in to him with the brute force of someone who knows only rudimentary healing.

“You just have to hold on for a little bit more. Rin is coming this way, she’ll save you. Rin can save anyone. She has to. She has to save you.” Kakashi paused to swallow and Madara wanted to close his eyes but he didn’t want to look away from the beauty above him. “You can’t…you can’t go. I didn’t have enough time.”

When he opened his mouth Madara found there was too much blood to speak loudly enough for the other man to hear him from so far away. He gestured with one dripping hand and Kakashi bent immediately. Mentally apologizing for the stain, Madara pressed a kiss against that pale cheek he could trace the shape of with his very soul.

“Every day,” he whispered, “was a gift, my Precious One”

“Then stay awake and let me give you more gifts, damn it! No no no no no! Hey! Wake up! Hey!”

When the last of his strength gave out Madara did not fall unconscious immediately. His body slumped, his eyes closed, and no matter how he screamed at himself in his own mind he had no fight left in him to tell Kakashi that he was alright, that this was the best death he could have asked for. Instead he was forced to lie still and listen to his soulmate scream for a help he seemed to think was coming. Madara wished he could close his ears to the sound even as he cherished what he thought were the last words he thought he would ever hear his soulmate say.

23--

“I hate you.”

Despite the venom in those words it was hard to believe in them when Kakashi voice came muffled against his chest, the length of that wiry body pressed against his own in what Madara assumed to be one of the rickety hospital beds. That certainly looked like a hospital room ceiling above him when he opened his eyes.

“Somehow I doubt that,” Madara said, filled with wonder that he was able to say anything at all when the last thing he remembered was steel through his chest. When, he wondered, had he agreed to reverse their roles? Always it had been him fretting over the day he would lose Kakashi. It had never occurred to him as a possibility that Kakashi might lose him first. The entire idea of death itself has stopped occurring to him altogether, likely a symptom of such a long life and probably something he should talk to a professional about.

He wouldn’t. But he probably should.

“No, I really do hate you. You’re a jerk.”

“What else is new?”

“I almost watched you die.” Kakashi’s voice warbled and it awoke something feral in him that wanted to fight whatever it was that had hurt this man. Except it was him. He had done that. “You owe Rin such a big thank you. I’m sending her a fruit basket every day for the rest of her life. She saved yours.”

Madara blinked at the ceiling, still a little fuzzy. “My fruit basket?”

“No! She saved your life you idiot!” Kakashi’s face was tear streaked when he came in to view, Sharingan covered but both eyes sporting deep circles underneath. He was frowning. Madara's concentration slid away from whatever they were talking about to concentrate entirely on the tragedy that was the fact of Kakashi frowning.

“You should smile,” he mumbled. Contrary to what he was hoping for, Kakashi frowned deeper.

“What part of ‘you almost died’ should I be smiling about?”

“Dunno. Like your smile. You’re very pretty.” When Kakashi’s eyes widened Madara's did too. “Oh I didn’t mean to say that. Don’t tell Kakashi I said that!”

Silence hung deep and heavy between them for a few moments.

“Alright. I won’t tell me. You must be incredibly high right now; I suppose they do have you on the good stuff. Rin said you might be a little funny when you woke up.” His soulmate sighed and ran a hand through his hair, greasy in a state he only ever reached after several days without a shower.

“It’s a secret,” Madara insisted.

Kakashi dropped his hand and cocked his head to one side. “What, that I’m pretty? I would have said handsome but…”

“No, everybody knows that!” Madara declared vehemently. “It’s a secret that I think so too. Don’t tell. I don’t want you to know because that’s…is it bad?” Were he sober he would have been utterly mortified of the small hesitance in his voice, the lack of surety that had haunted him in the first few months after they met each other when he questioned every so often if Kakashi truly wanted him there.

His question was met with a bewildered gaze. “Why would it be bad if you think I’m attractive?”

“Because then you would know.”

“Know what?”

“That I love you.”

“Of course you love me. We’re soulmates. I love you too, obviously.”

Madara's heart leapt inside his chest with such vigor the heart monitor beside him went wild. “You love me too?” he asked breathlessly.

Before answering Kakashi narrowed his one visible eye with what looked like a great deal of concentration. As he waited Madara couldn’t help but be very nervous. Why was he not answering? Finally he sat back with a curious little hum and shook his head but before Madara could experience heart failure he muttered under his breath.

“Something tells me we’re not having the same conversation at all but I can’t say how. All you said was that y-…oh. Oh you said…Madara…you love me.”

“Yes but you can’t tell!”

“No I mean you really love me. Like you’re in love with me!”

“Obviously!” Drugs clouding his mind, the loneliness of the caves barely more than a decade behind him, Madara let slip what was probably the most pathetic sound he had ever made as the isolation and the yearning came back to him in a terrible rush. “Of course I’m in love with you! I waited so long for you and then you were there and you were perfect and I already loved you like a part of me but then you grew older and you got tall and handsome and it’s not fair! You shouldn’t get to be everything I ever wanted if I can’t keep you!”

Kakashi gaped at him.

“W-why won’t you get to keep me!?” he cried.

“Because you’re going to fall in love with someone else and make me go away!”

After nearly a solid minute of more flabbergasted staring Kakashi closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Then he let it out and drew in another one. Madara recognized the technique he had taught his partner a long time ago for keeping himself calm when his emotions threatened to overwhelm. Only once Kakashi deemed himself calm enough to talk again did he open his eyes again and pull his face in to a semblance of a serious expression.

“That is the absolute stupidest thing you have ever said. And you once tried to convince me that wearing anything other than a fundoshi as underwear was a dishonor against my ancestors. Madara I love you too. Of course I love you too.”

“But you don’t–”

“Yes. I do. I don’t just love you, I am in love with you the same way you are in love with me. I would very much like it if you stopped sleeping in your own bed and slept in mine. I would love it if you could be sober so we could make out and be gross right here in a hospital room. Get the picture?”

Madara furrowed his brow and gave that some thought. If Kakashi was in love with him too that would solve every problem he had. For the first time in his life he would be completely happy. His smile may have been a little lopsided when it spread across his face but he was still a bit too loopy with sedatives to care very much. All that mattered to him was that Kakashi was smiling back and that Kakashi loved him.

“I like that picture,” he murmured. “You know something? You…were worth waiting for.”

“Was I?” Kakashi asked teasingly and sounding strangely out of breath.

He nodded enthusiastically to make sure his point was not refuted, not understanding that he was being teased. It felt very important that Kakashi know how grateful he was that he hadn’t given up and taken his own life. Sure he’d gone a little crazy and it had taken a while to smooth out some of his more feral edges, reintegrating him back in to society had been an adventure for every poor soul he came in to contact with for the first half a year, but in the end he’d had Kakashi and it was more than everything he had ever dreamed of.

Chuckling a little, Kakashi pulled himself a little farther up the bed so that their faces were close enough for him to count all the barely there freckles that danced along the line where his soulmate usually wore a mask. Madara liked the mask. He liked that such a beautiful face belonged only to him. The freckles were so distracting he didn’t think to question why they were getting closer and closer until-

They were kissing. Already foggy and muddled, Madara's drugged up mind emptied even further until all that was left was the perfect silence – the perfect moment of completion – of their first kiss. He whined shamelessly when Kakashi pulled away, not ready for the moment to end, and was immediately pulled in by the sound of happy laughter filling the room around them. He could live without another kiss for a few moments just to listen to that laughter. Such an incredible moment felt as though it should be marked with some kind of grand words but as he wracked his brain Madara could think of only one thing to say amidst the empty joy.

“Happy birthday,” he said. And then he was confused when Kakashi’s laughter only grew louder.

“Maa, my birthday was three days ago. You’ve been asleep for quite some time.”

“Oh. But I like your birthday. You always get older and you’ll never know what it is to wait. That’s…I’m glad that you don’t have to know that.”

At last the laughter quieted as Kakashi subsided to gift him with a very soft look. “So am I.”

“I’m very tired. Do all injuries feel like this in the future?” Madara tried to squirm but it felt as though his body were made of lead, heavy and sinking down in to the mattress. “I can understand why you don’t like hospitals.”

“You should go back to sleep. We can talk about this again when you’re not high and you actually have a chance of remembering the conversation.”

Madara nodded obediently even as his hands reached out to pull Kakashi down for another lingering kiss that made both of them give matching purrs, though his was slightly more feral. Some habits were hard to break even after eleven years of being properly socialized again. He didn’t really notice how hard the drugs were hitting again until a snort of amusement broke through and he realized that they were no longer kissing but his eyes were still closed. Trying to open them again felt like a battle when he tried and for the first time in his life he decided that he could surrender without a fight.

Something soft brushed against his forehead, a kiss of benediction, and then Kakashi’s voice whispered in the space above him, soothing him down in to the dreams that called so enticingly.

“I love you,” his soulmate whispered. “Sleep now and I will still love you when you wake again – and every day after that too.”

He couldn’t be sure if it was the sedatives or his own imagination but Madara almost thought he could feel Kakashi curling in to him once more to rest there with him. The nurses would be angry to find them like that. He didn’t care. With Kakashi watching over him it was even nicer to let go of reality for a little while, safe in the knowledge that no dream could possibly be as beautiful as what he would find when he woke again.

A future with Kakashi growing older and building a life together. For a man who had lived the same day again and again and again year after year growing old sounded like a grand adventure; he couldn’t wait to experience it with his soulmate at his side.

#rae writes #kakashi rare pair bang event #madakaka #madara #kakashi #fanfiction #soulmate collection #soulmate au

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myaekingheart · 6 years ago

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21. The Secondhand Sharingan

read the scarecrow and the bell on ao3

index | from the beginning | < previous | next >

It needed to be perfect. No matter what, it needed to be perfect. Rei pounded her fists against her desk and cried out, scrapping yet another piece of paper. “It’s hopeless” she whined, launching it into the waste basket at the other end of the room.

“Someone sounds stressed” a voice called from the doorway. Rei peered up to find Grandma Teiko shuffling nearer, a soft smile on her face. “What’s got you feeling so down, huh?”

“It’s nothing” Rei replied, turning her back to the old woman. Grandma Teiko raised her brows and leaned on her wooden cane. It took but a few moments before Rei groaned and turned back to her grandmother, spilling her guts. “Kakashi was promoted to jonin and I want to give him something special but I can’t for the life of me figure out what! But it needs to be perfect. I can’t have him thinking I don’t care about him by giving him something useless and cheap.”

“I see…” Teiko replied. She thought a moment before urging Rei to follow her. She led the young girl to her chambers, someplace sacred and solitary. Access to Grandma Teiko’s room was like stepping foot in a temple. There were strange windchimes and other ancient artifacts hanging from the ceiling, and tapestries displaying long forgotten myths cluttered the walls. There were a handful of trunks piled into the corner, all locked up tight with keys that didn’t exist. “I think I have something you may find satisfactory in the gift department” Teiko said, shuffling toward a mid-size trunk and popping it open by some strange magic. She rummaged around inside of it, tossing things this way and that, before pulling out something balled up in her fist. “Try this on for size” she said, then held open her hand to reveal a tiny silver ring.

“What is that?” Rei asked, scrunching up her nose.

“It’s called a kakute. This one in particular is very special. See this symbol inscribed on it?” she replied, pointing to a kanji word printed on the front.

“It says ‘love’” Rei read. “Grandma Teiko, where did you get this?”

“Let’s just say I have acquired a lot of things over the years from various people of sentiment” she said coolly. “This one, however, is very special indeed. And I think it’s just the sort of thing Kakashi would appreciate.”

Rei stewed over that word printed on the front. Love. A burning feeling rose in the back of her throat, and she suddenly felt feverish. She didn’t feel as if she had the right to use that word in front of him, and yet she remembered the days of their youth, back before everything went to shit, when he would call her by a name not unlike that word. She didn’t know what it meant then. She still didn’t know if she comprehended it now. Whatever it was, she doubted Kakashi even meant it. If he did, he wouldn’t have distanced himself so much over the past few years.

“What good is this going to do, though?” Rei asked. “It’s just a stupid ring. That’s like the kind of thing grown-ups give each other.”

“A little maturity never hurt anybody” Teiko scolded. “Besides, it’s more than just a ring. Perhaps you’d know that if you spent a little more time paying attention to the things in front of you.” Before Rei could roll her eyes and groan, Grandma Teiko slid the thick ring over her middle finger and displayed a set of sharp spikes on the underside right beside her palm. “Nobody said jewelry couldn’t be deadly” she chuckled. “Poison these bad boys up and the enemy won’t ever know what hit him.”

Rei blinked a moment, now trying to reevaluate her opinion on the thing. Maybe this was an appropriate present, after all. She could stand to give Kakashi a weapon, especially one as discrete as this. She could see him appreciating it. And if he liked it enough, maybe he would let her back into his life, stop ignoring her, and things could go back to the way they were. Or at least as close as possible.

Truly, the only reason Rei even knew of Kakashi’s promotion was from hearsay. She caught wind of a few instructors talking about him in the halls, and then overheard that Rin girl discussing it with that Uchiha boy at the dango shop one afternoon.

“Obito, this is super important! You need to figure out what you’re going to give Kakashi” she insisted.

“Oh, yeah, as if you already have your present figured out” Obito groaned.

“Actually, I do! I just have to pick up a few more things and then it should be good to go! I’m making him a medical kit in case he ever gets hurt” Rin explained.

Rei cursed under her breath and shook her head. There was something about the way Rin talked about Kakashi that really irked her. Pfft, a medical kit, how stupid, she thought to herself though deep down she knew it was a smart move. She had already suffered her fair share of injuries and she wasn’t even a genin yet.

When Rei knocked on his front door later on, there was no answer. She slammed her forehead against the wall and groaned. Why don’t you speak to me anymore? She couldn’t understand what she had done wrong. Ever since Sakumo’s death, he wanted nothing to do with her. She couldn’t decipher the link.

As she laid in bed that night, she stared at the kakute ring on her dresser and tried to slow her heartbeat down. Time was moving way too slowly, and no matter how hard she tried she could not fall asleep. Her mind leapt back and forth between positive and negative outcomes. She just wanted to hear the damn answer already. She wanted to hand Kakashi the little box, watch him open his gift, and see the light fill his eyes for the first time in years. For him to wrap his arms around her and thank her and call her that endearing name from when they were younger. Her stomach groaned. She was desperate.

Her alarm meant nothing. She had overslept anyway. Not surprising, seeing as she could scarcely fall asleep the night before, but still. Her head pounded as she raced down the street, the little gift box bouncing in her pouch. Perhaps fate was on her side. Perhaps she would be lucky. Perhaps she still had time after all. Her mind spun with possibilities, clouding her awareness until she whammed straight into a boy bounding into the intersection. They both fell backwards into the dirt.

“Watch where you’re going, idiot!” Rei shouted. She did not have time for this. The boy pouted and brushed his clothes off, but as he stood up there was an inkling of familiarity in his eyes. He extended a hand to help her out.

“Hey, don’t I know you?” he asked. Rei reluctantly accepted his offer, launching herself to her feet, and brushed the dirt off her own clothes. She recognized him soon enough. Obito Uchiha.

“Don’t you have a squad waiting for you right now?” Rei asked. Obito’s face went pale. He rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment.

“I got a little held up” he replied with a sheepish grin. An old woman not far behind shuffled into her home with an arsenal of grocery bags.

“You went out of your way to help her?” Rei asked. Obito nodded. Wow, he’s a lot more public service than I expected, she thought.

“Well, I am a chunin now so it’s my duty to help out everyone in the Hidden Leaf, even if it’s just carrying a lady’s groceries” Obito explained. Then, in a much sourer tone, “I mean, not that anyone cares.”

“Oh?” Rei asked, cocking a brow.

“Yeah, apparently nobody gives a damn that I made a chunin since Kakashi became a jonin. Rin had everyone meet up in the park a few days ago and I thought it was just going to be me and her so I bought her flowers, but it turns out she just wanted to figure out what everyone was gonna get Kakashi instead” Obito explained, eyes turning deadpan.

There was one phrase in particular that really captured Rei’s attention, however. “You like that Rin girl, don’t you?” Rei asked.

The Uchiha boy’s face went bright red. “Y-you don’t know!” he shouted.

“Just a question, jeez, calm down” Rei replied. “Is she your girlfriend or something?”

“I wish” Obito sighed. “But the only person she seems to have eyes for is stupid Kakashi.”

The minute the sentence dropped from his lips, Rei’s heart leapt into her throat and she clenched her fists at her sides. So it was true, then. She had heard the rumors, she had seen the way Rin looked at him, but hadn’t heard anything official. Now that she did, she felt like she was going to be sick.

“I guess that explains why Kakashi wants nothing to do with me anymore” Rei pouted. In retrospect, she knew this did not mean that Kakashi liked Rin back but Kakashi didn’t seem to care for Rei very much anymore and therefore why wouldn’t he prefer Rin? She seemed ideal anyway. Obito liked her well enough, and she seemed to be popular among her peers. Why wouldn’t he prefer her over Rei?

For a moment, Obito stared at her suspcicously, confusedly, trying to put together the pieces, until it finally clicked in his head and a sly smile touched his lips. Poking her on the forearm, he then leaned in and asked her, “You like Kakashi, don’t you, Rei?”

Now it was Rei’s turn to blush bright red. With a gasp, she whacked Obitio on the head and recoiled. “And what would it matter to you if I did, huh?” she shouted back. Her mind flickered back to the present in her pouch, of the symbol engraved on it. She almost didn’t want to give it to him now. It was too much. It sent a message she wasn’t even sure she identified with.

“So wait a second, let me get this straight: I like Rin but Kakashi always gets in the way. You like Kakashi but Rin always gets in the way” Obito surmised.

“You Uchiha are super intelligent” Rei replied sarcastically.

“Hang on a second” Obito said, swatting at the air. “I think I may just have an idea where we can both get exactly what we want.”

“Oh?” Rei asked. “I’m listening…”

As she watched Obito run off that morning, Rei suddenly felt a lightness in her that she hadn’t felt in years. Perhaps there was hope after all. She patted the pouch on her waistline to feel the little present she was carrying and for once she knew she had made the right decision. Now was not the right time. Her and Obito had concocted a brilliant plan and when that was fulfilled, then would be the perfect moment to give Kakashi his gift. But there was nothing she could do until they returned from their mission. Until then, Rei had no choice but to wait.

The Battle of Kannabi Bridge proved to be one of the most pivotal battles of the Third Shinobi War. Talk of Team Minato’s success rang through the village, constant chatter of how this could turn the war in Konoha’s favor. And then there was the matter of Obito.

“I’m sorry, you said what?” Rei asked during lunch. Naru, the blonde, nodded dolefully.

“I heard he was crushed to death by a bunch of boulders!” she explained, sound effects included.

“That’s ridiculous, where did you even hear that?” Rei asked.

“Here and there, a few people have talked about it” Naru replied. “And also from Rin.” Rei’s face turned bright red. Rin.

Without even finishing her lunch, Rei stood up and dumped the rest of her bento in the trash. “Tell sensei I won’t be coming back this afternoon” she demanded.

“But that’s the third time this month! He’s going to suspend you!” Naru called after her.

“I don’t care! I have something far more important to do, okay?” Rei shouted back, rushing out of the schoolyard and down the street. Her heart was pounding. She had no idea where she was going to go or what she was going to do when she got there, she just knew more than anything that she needed to find Kakashi. The little box with the kakute ring inside bounced in her back pouch as she ran.

The first place she looked was, obviously, Kakashi’s home, but no one answered. She ran down every avenue afterward, every side street, scanning every face. She heard whispers from passerby about the battle, the war, the Uchiha boy who died. It was nothing they hadn’t heard before. This was war, after all, and Konoha was short on manpower. Shinobi were bound to lose their lives. But this? This was too much. He was just a kid. A kid who she had made a pact with.

By sundown, she had scoured the entire village to find nothing. She collapsed on a nearby bench gasping for breath, pressing the heels of her hands into her eye sockets with a desperate groan and wiping the sweat from underneath her bangs. There were only so many places Kakashi could have disappeared to, unless he had already been sent off on yet another mission. If that was the case, she was essentially screwed. She would’ve been better off giving up completely. Before she could go home, however, she desperately needed to catch her breath. She closed her eyes and tried to steady her breathing, draping her arms over her eyes to block out the glow of the sun.

Her mind began to wander aimlessly, swaying to and fro like a dreamy drunkard tightroping a fence. She heard Obito’s voice in her head, mingled with her own, playing out conversations that would never happen. She envisioned him running down the street toward her house, knocking on her door with a mischievous grin. She would let him inside and they would sit by the river mapping out the details of their plan. He would ask Rin to meet up with him and Kakashi, but Kakashi would never show. Instead, he wouldn’t even get the notice and Rei would swoop in and capture him before he could ever find out. Rin would be disappointed, yes, but Obito would have her all to himself. And with Rin occupied, Rei would Kakashi all to herself. They would ensure their paths never cross and they would have a wonderful afternoon together, two separate pairs. And during that time, Rin would discover just how much she truly cared about and even belonged with Obito, and Kakashi would be reminded of what exactly he had abstained from all those years. He would look at her with light and happiness again like before Sakumo died, and they would fall back into the grass and identify the shapes in the sky. Everything would be exactly as it once was.

“I hope you know how dangerous it is to sleep in public places” a voice then called from above. For a moment, Rei almost mistook it for Obito himself. She had to remind herself that she was no longer dreaming. Obito was dead.

She blinked and propped herself up on one elbow, rubbing her eyes with the other. The sun had gone down and now a streetlight glared above her, brilliantly bright. “H-Hello?” she called out to the phantom voice. A rustling in the trees and then, dropping down before her, was Kakashi Hatake.

“What? Did you get kicked out of your home or something?” he asked, arms crossed. There was something different about him, or perhaps it was just the lighting. The left half of his face was clouded in the natural darkness.

“No, I was out looking for you! Where have you been, Kakashi?” she exploded. She hadn’t expected to be quite so angry as she was, but now she was whacking him hard on the shoulder and somehow fighting back tears.

“I’ve been busy” he shrugged. “We should get you home.”

“Kakashi, wait!” Rei protested, grabbing his wrist. He glared back at her, almost offended, and that’s when she noticed it. His headband was covering his left eye. Something wasn’t right.

“Your parents are probably contacting the police trying to find you right now” he replied. “You need to go home.”

“Not yet! I want answers first” Rei demanded. She tried to match the intensity in his stare but she lacked power. “W-what happened…to Obito?”

The question clearly struck something within Kakashi. He pursed his lips beneath his mask and tried to keep his face neutral, though this was not a topic he wanted to talk about right now. “Obito is dead. He pushed me out of the line of fire and was crushed by some boulders” he explained, voice detached. This was nothing she didn’t already know but hearing it straight from Kakashi’s mouth left a particular impact on her.

Rei shook her head. “I mean, what happened?” she asked. She wasn’t sure if her message would get across but she prayed Kakashi would understand. She just couldn’t wrap her brain around it.

“Sometimes people die on missions. The life of a shinobi is dangerous. A lot of things are put on the line” Kakashi explained. He could see her line of vision wading toward his left eye, covered by his headband. He clenched his fist. “And sometimes we lose things out of our own control.” A hard lump rose in Rei’s throat and for a second, she felt like she was going to be sick. She envisioned Kakashi on a battlefield, blood dripping down his face, bright red. His eye nowhere to be found. And then, before she could protest, he tucked his thumb underneath his headband and ever so slowly tugged upwards. A nasty, jagged scar scraped down from his forehead to his cheekbone, still raw. His eye creaked open. All she could see was red. Sharingan.

Her parents said nothing to her when she retuned home that night, and she was incapable of saying anything to them. That night, she laid in bed for hours staring at her ceiling knowing full well that if she moved, she was going to be sick. Her hands were numb and tingling and nothing felt real. It was almost as if she was trapped in some sort of sickening genjutsu she couldn’t release. Kakashi had a sharingan. Obito was dead. Everything was falling apart and nothing would ever be the same again.

As the days wore on, more and more news had circulated the village about Kakashi’s mission. They gave him strange looks as he perused the village, the ninja with the secondhand sharingan. It was the same as when Sakumo died all over again, questions and contemplations about how, exactly, such an eye was acquired. Even in the schoolyard, she’d hear whispers of it passed between kids who didn’t even know Kakashi’s name. She tried to swallow back her anger as best as she could, but it was one morning in particular when she reached her breaking point.

Yuruganai Natsuki sat at the kitchen table staring dully ahead sipping his tea. Hana glanced to him every so often but it was clear he was thinking deeply and she knew better than to disturb him. “It just makes me sick” he finally said.

“I know” Hana whispered. Rei pressed her back against the wall as she listened intently.

“He just still wasn’t good enough, was he? A fucking prodigy and he’s still not good enough” Yuruganai growled, clenching his fist against the table. “Sick. It just makes me sick.”

“How sure are you that he really did it, though?” Hana asked quietly. Her husband shot her a fiery glare.

“What other story is there? It all adds up and you know my math is never wrong” he insisted. “The Uchiha are dirty bastards but they’re powerful. The only thing stronger than the sharingan is the byakugan but clearly he couldn’t get his hands so easily on one of those. The Hyuga would slice his head off if he tried anything. But the Uchiha? He had connections.”

“That still doesn’t explain things very clearly, love” Hana replied. “I just can’t understand how a sweet boy like Kakashi would do something so vile.”

“He’s a shinobi. You’d be surprised” Yuruganai replied. “I would know. Besides, you know what happened with Sakumo. If you ask me, that’s when everything got fucked up. Sakumo just couldn’t follow the damn rules, he was too kind to be a shinobi. He killed himself and traumatized his kid in the process. And now he’s hellbent on becoming everything his father’s not, even if it means killing a comrade for the sake of gaining more power. I wouldn’t put it past him. Kakashi is not stupid. He’s perhaps too smart for his own good. I don’t trust him. I don’t trust that kid one bit.”

By now, all the blood had rushed to Rei’s face. How dare he say such things? He didn’t know a damn thing. But then again, Rei didn’t either and deep down she knew that. Kakashi wouldn’t explain anything to her. He likely thought it was none of her business, or perhaps they were wounds he preferred not to rip open. But Rei deserved to know. Her plans were now ruined because of this and she wanted answers. Instead of growing closer to Kakashi, it felt like he was shifting steadily further away. And now here was her father, tarnishing her best friend’s name with petty speculation. She couldn’t stand to listen to it. Balling her fists up, she burst into the kitchen and began pounding against her father’s back, screaming at him to shut up and that he didn’t know anything. Hana clasped her hand over her mouth and cried, begging her daughter to stop. Yuruganai rose with fire in his eyes, towering over her, and gripped her tiny little wrist hard. Her tear-stained cheek stung for the rest of the day.

“I heard you had a difficult morning” a creaking voice called from the porch. Rei huffed and stared in great focus at the tree in front of her, hitting it with purpose and power. She said nothing. Grandma Teiko smirked and hobbled down onto the lawn, whacking her cane against the trunk so as to get her granddaughter’s attention. “I think it’s time we had a little talk.”

As much as the young girl loved her grandmother, Rei was really not in the mood for a philosophical spiel this afternoon. However, Grandma Teiko would not take no for an answer. She motioned for Rei to follow her around to the lake at the back of the house.

“Look at this water and tell me what you see” she asked.

Rei cocked a brow and replied “Water?”

“No, look closer” the old woman said with a roll of her eyes. Rei leaned in hesitantly toward the surface, catching her reflection warped and rushing. Before she could say anything, Grandma Teiko knelt down and splashed her granddaughter square the in the face.

“What the heck was that for?!” Rei shouted.

“I’m teaching you a valuable lesson” Teiko replied.

“No, you’re getting me all wet and wasting my training time” Rei countered.

The old woman shook her head. “You focus so much of your energy on training your body, you forget to train your mind” she said. “And now seems like a very appropriate time for a lesson in mental gymnastics.” Rei still didn’t understand where she was going with this. She pulled the bottom of her shirt up to wipe her face and sunk down into the soft grass of the riverbank. “When you see this water, what do you see inside of it?”

“I don’t know, fish?” she replied.

“Yes, more than anything we see fish. But what kinds of fish?” Teiko asked.

“I see a lot of minnows.”

“Yes, many of the fish here are minnows. But what else?”

Rei shrugged. “I don’t know, do I look like a piscatologist to you?”

“I’m surprised you know that word.”

“I read a lot.”

Grandma Teiko chuckled and shook her head. “Perhaps you don’t need to hear an old woman ramble on then. I’m sure you can just find this all in a book.” She rose to turn away, but Rei grabbed onto the hem of her kimono.

“Wait a second” she said. “Keep talking.” The old woman raised a brow but pleasantly obliged. She knew reverse psychology was always the most successful tactic, especially on someone as stubborn as Rei. Over the course of that afternoon, she quizzed her granddaughter on the different types of fish and what made them unique, and the way they interacted with other wildlife like birds and turtles. All of it seemed incredibly pointless, as did many of Grandma Teiko’s speeches initially, but after a while Rei began to understand what she was getting at. Each species was representative of a clan in the village, and each clan had their own special abilities and purpose. When one species wants what the other has, however, that’s when the natural order of things falls to the wayside. “We must stay aligned with what we were created for” she had said. Rei thought back to Kakashi and his new sharingan, to what her father had said that morning. Would he really have lied to her about the manner in which it was obtained? Would he really go so far as to kill his teammate to gain the power of the Uchiha? She hated the fact that she would never know the truth. The only ones who really knew what happened were the people who were there firsthand, but one of them was dead and the other surely wouldn’t sit there and spell it out for her. She didn’t dare question Minato Namikaze on the subject. She didn’t even really know him, save for passing glances in the village and in the rare event that he stepped foot in the academy. There was only one other person who she could turn to for answers, though she knew deep down she would’ve rather not.

“Hey! You’re that girl who lives next door to Kakashi, right?” a bright and cheery voice greeted. Rei chewed her bottom lip with arms crossed and nodded. Rin Nohara grinned and patted the seat beside her in the dango shop. “What was your name again? I’m afraid I didn’t catch it the last time we met!”

“Rei” the redhead said bluntly.

“That’s so pretty!” Rin replied. “Like a ray of sunshine!”

Or a deadly stingray, Rei thought. “Listen, I don’t have a lot of time right now” Rei began, lying, “but I needed to ask you something.” Rin scooted closer, proving she was all ears. Why does she have to be so damn nice? Just makes it that much harder to hate her, Rei thought. No wonder Obito had a thing for her. And (she was sure) Kakashi, too. Sucking in a deep breath, she then asked, “What exactly happened at Kannabi Bridge?”

“Oh…” Rin replied, voice laced with uncertainty. “Well, I’m afraid I can’t tell you everything. You see, I was captured and put under a genjutsu, so anything that happened between then and when Kakashi and Obito rescued me, I wouldn’t know anything about.”

Rei waved her off. “I don’t care about that” she replied. “Just tell me about…you know, the incident.”

“Incident…?” Rin asked.

“Yeah, you know. The one the whole village is talking about.”

“Y-You mean…about Obito…?” she asked slowly. Rei nodded. Rin was clearly uncomfortable with the subject. After all, she didn’t particularly want to revisit the death of her best friend. But Rei pressed onward, desperate for answers. “Well, he was crushed by a boulder. He pushed Kakashi out of the way and…and then he asked me to implant his sharingan into Kakashi. I guess something happened while I was captured, and Kakashi’s left eye was severely damaged. Obito had forgotten to give Kakashi a present for becoming a jonin, so right before he died he decided his sharingan would be his gift.”

So he didn’t steal it after all, Rei thought. She knew Kakashi had to be more respectable than that. The mention of presents and his jonin promotion reminded her of the kakute in her pouch. She pressed her hand against it, unsure if she still wanted to gift it to him or not. She wasn’t quite so sure he would appreciate it now. Besides, it wouldn’t be of any use to him anymore. He now had something far more powerful at his disposal.

“You know the things people are saying around the village, right?” Rei asked. Rin eyed her suspiciously, unsure if she knew what she was talking about. Rei continued. “I guess everyone thinks Kakashi killed Obito himself and stole the sharingan. Like he wanted the power or something.”

“That’s terrible!” Rin exclaimed. “Kakashi would never--!”

“I know” Rei replied. “It makes me so sick. Makes me want to punch someone until they’re black and blue, or gauge their eyes out and see how they like it.”

“That’s…dark” Rin said quietly. “You really care about Kakashi, don’t you?”

“What?” Rei asked, rolling her eyes. “He’s alright, I guess.” No matter how hard she tried, she was incapable of keeping herself from blushing.

Rin sighed and rested her chin in her hands. “I think he’s the most talented shinobi to ever exist. He’s so cool and he’s great at everything he does. I can’t believe I was lucky enough to be on his team.”

Oh, shut up, Rei thought to herself. She huffed and stood, briefly thanking Rin for her help but saying she needed to get home. Rin grinned at her and waved, saying she’d see her around and calling her by name as if speaking it would help her remember. Rei’s cheeks burned the entire jog home.

She spoke to no one as she slipped inside and retreated to her bedroom, collapsing onto the bed. She had finally gotten the answers she so desperately sought after, and yet it didn’t make her feel any better. Speaking with Rin made her feel like she needed a shower. Even worse, she knew that just because she knew the truth behind Kakashi’s sharingan didn’t mean the rest of the village did. They would continue to say vile things about him. Trying to set them straight was pointless. Why would they ever believe some tiny, buck-toothed kid, anyway? Rei had no power here whatsoever. She rolled onto her stomach and reached for the kakute in her pouch. She turned it over in her hands, running her finger along the engraving. Love. She envisoned the way Kakashi would react upon receiving it, had she the guts to give it to him. She was afraid she wasn’t quite so brave any longer. Every time she closed her eyes, all she saw was red. That eye haunted her, that secondhand sharingan. Kakashi was a completely different person now, the kind who would not be grateful for a stupid gift from a weak child he used to babysit. She shoved the kakute into her desk and slammed the drawer shut, then curled up in bed and silently began to cry. A piece of her inside felt as if it was dying. The Kakashi she once knew no longer existed, and he never would ever again.

#kakashi hatake #rei natsuki #the scarecrow and the bell #naruto #naruto oc #fanfiction

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elenathehun · 7 years ago

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The Hyuuga Clan: what not to do

So I promised a separate post on the Hyuuga Clan plotline after I wrapped up the Chuunin Exam arc, and as promised, here it is. It’s been a long time coming, so let’s get started, shall we?

To recap the Hyuuga Clan plotline, the whole thing starts when Neji and Hinata, previously introduced separately earlier in the Chuunin exam arc, face each other in the preliminaries. It’s an unpleasant, vitriolic match: Neji brutalizes his cousin in the course of their fight, and comes damn close to killing her. The only reason Hinata doesn’t die right then and there is due to the intervention of the Leaf jounin-instructors. Fandom often attributes this to Naruto’s support, but I would argue that’s unfair to Hinata; in one of the few self-motivated acts she does, she tells Neji he’s wrong about her, about the world, and most importantly, himself—which enrages him to the point of going for a killing blow.

Anyway, Neji is thoroughly unlikeable, and Naruto swears he’ll cut the other kid down to size during his match with other boy. Blah blah blah, take a month-long break, time to fight. As becomes usual for Naruto’s villain face-offs, they fight and Neji monologues: he explains why he’s so angry at Hinata (and the Main House) even though they’re family. Essentially, the Branch house of the Hyuuga all have a seal on their forehead that destroys their eyes upon death, ensuring their valuable bloodline limit can't be stolen. That actually sounds really cool except for one thing: it's also used as a method of brutal control by the Main House, who have the ability and knowledge to manipulate the seal's destructive capacity to inflict agonizing pain on those who bear it. Moreover, Hinata and Neji aren't just people from the same clan—they're actually first cousins—and considering their respective fathers are identical twins, you could make a very strong case for them being closer to half-siblings than anything else.

Neji is angry for two reasons, one abstract and one personal. The abstract reason is this: Neji is a gifted prodigy in his clan's techniques, but because he's part of the Branch House, he's unable to get the training and, yes, recognition he deserves as a Gentle Fist prodigy. Hinata is only average in the abilities the Hyuuga value—namely having advanced control over her bloodline and the combat skills to go with it—and if Neji's father had been born first instead of her own, their lives would be unimaginably different. The personal reason is that ten years ago, Neji's father was sacrificed to appease some politically powerful bloodline thieves, who attempted to kidnap Hinata, presumably because she was young, had a good pedigree, and also had a womb. Long story short, Naruto beats Neji up and tells him to "cheer up emo kid!". The story doesn't end until Neji reaches some kind of catharsis with his uncle, Hinata's father, and decides he too will live free like a bird, blah blah blah. Yay! Story concluded, right?

Fandom didn't think so, and rightly so! Konoha is revealed to have a large, politically powerful clan that is essentially enslaving a least half (and perhaps more) of their own population, and using it for unspeakable reasons. Leaving aside Neji's sort of weaksauce resolution, Hinata, meek and unmartial, has a younger sister who is strong in all the ways she isn't; Just like with her father and his brother, will she have to brand her younger sister to maintain the right of absolute primogeniture?

And make no mistake, that is the real issue at the heart of the Hyuuga clan. Everything else is just window dressing. Even ignoring the stupidity of the Hyuuga sacrifice—Really, Sarutobi? Really?! —the Hyuuga story always had more holes in it than good swiss cheese. As I mentioned in my re-read summary post for volumes 11-13, the combination of "sealing most of the family" and also "preventing the sealed kin from learning the full extent of the Gentle Fist" only makes sense if the Hyuuga were alone in the wilderness, but in a village setting where the vast majority of sealed Hyuuga are supporting village operations, it sounds like a bad deal for the Leaf, since they're only getting half-trained soldiers in return for allowing the Hyuuga to live within their walls. The entire purpose of Neji's story is just a clumsy way to highlight the injustice of absolute primogeniture as a method of both advancement, inheritance, and simple justice in traditional society.

I don't think it's an exaggeration that the "Clan Hyuuga eats its children" genre of stories was one of the more popular family-centered tropes in fanfiction in the pre-Shippuden era. The sand sibs and Uchiha brothers might have had more written about them, but not by much. How Hinata, Neji, and Naruto would grapple with the Hyuuga Clan's outdated social norms was the focus of a lot of stories and there was a lot of expectation about how Kishimoto was going to resolve this issue in part 2. Now that Naruto has come to an end, we can all throw up a little in our mouths, because it's clear Kishimoto thought he already had.

Any of Hinata's character growth in part two comes from her relationship to Naruto; Neji dies sacrificing himself for her and Naruto, which seems damn empty given that we never see the cousins reconcile or really interact all that much. Hanabi is a non-entity. The Hyuuga Clan, as of Chapter 700, is still presumably sealing and oppressing the majority of its members. The only way to understand this extremely unsatisfactory turn of events is to see it as an intersection of two unpleasant trends in Naruto: women are always secondary to men in terms of character development and plot importance, and villainous motivations are tailor-made to whatever the hell sort of lesson Naruto is supposed to impart to them as the hero of this story.

Women, in Naruto, are almost always secondary to the men they are related and associated with. Mito only shows up in context of her husband, never mind that she was apparently a master in her own right; like Sakura's relationship to Naruto and Sasuke, even the relationship between a man and his wife is secondary to the strong bond between her husband and Madara, his "best friend". Kushina, again, was another cool character who could have been very interesting...except that she was immediately subordinated to her husband's plot, and then later her son's. Kurenai's griefs and plots are centered around Asuma and Shikamaru; Sakura had the glimmerings of her own story, but it was always shoved aside for the Naruto and Sasuke thing. Rin is probably the worst example; she literally only exists to traumatize Obito and Kakashi with her death. Hinata is just another character in that tradition.

For the sake of argument, separate Hyuuga Hinata, clan heir from Hinata, Naruto's love interest. Just pretend there are two girls with that given name in Naruto—actually, let's make it even easier. Hinata the girl is Naruto's love interest; Hinata the clan heir is a boy. Hinata the boy isn't a bad person, but he's shy, meek, unassuming, and not very good at combat. He is a constant disappointment to his father, who wanted a child much like Hinata's cousin, who is everything Hinata isn't: strong, capable, and ruthless. In a different world, his cousin Neji would be clan heir—except their family practices absolute primogeniture as a method of inheritance. Neji's father is younger than Hinata's father and was thus forced into the lesser branch family and blocked from ever inheriting. Hinata has a younger brother, as well, who is also better than Hinata in all the ways that matter to their family, and one day, Hinata will have to brand his younger brother and cast him aside, all to uphold their tradition. Hinata is despised by his cousin (and maybe his brother) because they both know they are better than him, but because of their family's stupid rules, they are forever subordinate to the lesser. But Hinata has his own skills: in a family with eyes that see nearly everything, save for one specific blind spot, Hinata has the gift of seeing just what they lack. Can Hinata find a way to prove that might does not make one right? Can he show that it's not strength of arms that makes a good leader? Can he find a way to unite his broken family, and right the injustice they have perpetuated among themselves?

That's an interesting story, isn't it? But Kishimoto wasn't really interested in writing a story about why absolute primogeniture is stupid; he wasn't interested in writing a story about what makes a good leader and how to grow up to be a just one, either. Hyuuga Hinata, clan heir, was extraneous; that whole facet of her character could have been a separate one-shot character who just showed up in Neji's villain arc like so many others, given her importance as clan heir after this point.

Now that Naruto's over, it's obvious the whole horrible Hyuuga clan background was just another tragic villainous past for Naruto to defeat in a stupid fight. It's infuriating because it's literally is a schoolyard fight—it's not exactly a demon trapped in a little boy, or the survivors of a brutal foreign war finding the only way to protect themselves is destroying everyone who opposes them. Kishimoto didn't have to write a caged bird seal plotline; he didn't have to make the Hyuuga so brutal to their own kin. Neji didn't even need to try and murder his cousin, just beating the shit out of her would have been enough. The whole thing could have been written as a simple family drama about the unfairness of absolute primogeniture, no seal needed, just the weight of "we've always done it this way". Kishimoto wrote it for the explicit purpose of first making Neji horrible and cruel, then revealing, like all the rest of Naruto's villains, why he is deserving of pity for his "terrible" deeds.

Ultimately, Kishimoto wrote the Hyuuga the way he did because he's almost incapable of writing a character who does bad things without having a sad past; and he's incapable of that because he's a lazy writer who doesn't want to go through the work of actually writing interesting characters. The entire Hyuuga family plotline is the sort of manipulative asspull I hate in both professional and amateur writers, the sort of crutch a weakling uses to pass over another character’s flaws. Hinata, in this story, only exists to show how fucked up Neji is because of her father's actions. She certainly never gets any resolution to her father treating her poorly, or the fact that her cousin tried very hard to kill her in public view. The central tension in the Hyuuga clan is between Neji and Hiashi, which is why the arc closes with Hiashi apologizing to Neji, and then Neji deciding to make his own way in life despite the seal, like his father did.

And Hinata, who is despised for weakness by her father; who is nearly killed for having the temerity to point out Neji's own blind spot; who is physically weak, but has the glimmers of a character stronger than both her cousin and father combined, if only Kishimoto had been interested?

Like Mito, and Kushina, and Rin, and Kurenai, and Sakura, and Anko, and yes, Karin, and every other goddamn woman in this manga - like them, she's only a prop in someone else's story. And in turn, that other person's story is just a prop for Naruto to defeat on his way to becoming a hero.

#critical reading #reading is emotional #fuck you kishimoto

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kusunogatari-a · 6 years ago

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[ Return ] [ @abyssaldespair ] [ Uchiha Obito, Suigin Ryū ] [ Death mention ] [ Verse: White Hands of Healing ]

The summit isn’t for a few days. In the meantime, he has Danzō’s every move watched, waiting for the time to act. Logic tells him it can’t be until after the summit. After he makes his intentions known. Surely the coward will flee, try to make it back to Konoha…

But he won’t be making it back.

Sasuke is eager to exact his revenge upon part of the council that condemned Itachi. Obito will allow it. But this particular battle is one he’ll have to have a hand in. Danzō, after all, has a debt to pay to him, too.

For every blemish he left upon Ryū’s flesh, Obito will give him ten in turn...until he’s little more than a mangled mess of gore. The councilman has been a target for quite some time, given his method of operations. But never did Obito think the prospect would be so eagerly awaited.

Getting into the meeting isn’t easy. Testing Sasuke’s abilities for what’s to come, Obito lets him blaze a trail, but as always, the younger Uchiha is stubborn and too short-sighted. Nearly turned to dust by the Tsuchikage, it’s Obito who pulls his unconscious form to safety, addressing four of the five Kage in a moment he’s waited for for years.

Of course Danzō has fled, knowing of Sasuke’s intentions. But it’s his the coward had best be wary of.

As expected, they refuse his ultimatum...and he declares war, fading into his own dimension to find Karin tending to his accomplice. From there, it’s a matter of hunting the false Hokage.

They find him on the samurai bridge. Obito makes short work of his Root underlings - as much as he wants to make them pay as well, he decides to take them as insurance. Tossing them into his dimension...he then turns his attentions to Danzō.

Sasuke may not like his interference...but he’ll leave the councilman alive enough to let the younger Uchiha have his fill of violence.

Between the pair of them, Danzō stands no chance. With a rather spectacular finish...the bastard dies at last. Taking the body with intent to harvest Shisui’s eye, Obito leaves Sasuke to finish up. The eye, however, is destroyed...a pity. Kotoamatsukami would have been useful. And before he can head back to Ame to tie up Konan’s loose end and retrieve the Rinnegan at last...Zetsu reports that Sasuke is in trouble.

And of course, the trouble happens to be none other than his previous team. Including friend-killer Kakashi...and the Kyūbi.

Despite his intentions to leave the past in the past and look toward the perfect future...there’s still a stirring of resentment in him at seeing Kakashi. The man - boy - who killed Rin. Took his hope. Led him to this path.

And yet maybe he also has something to thank his teammate for.

But now is not the time to confront him - Obito is sure it will come during the war. For now, he takes a rather addled-looking Sasuke back to receive Itachi’s at-first refused eyes. Something must have happened during his absence to change the teen’s mind.

Once the operation is over, and Sasuke has little more to do than heal...it’s then he’s confronted by Kabuto...who reveals he knows he’s not Madara. An unexpected hiccup, but...to keep his plans in place, he agrees to the man’s terms, tentatively agreeing to work in tandem. It might work to his advantage, though...he’s far from happy someone has the power to revive the old bastard. With that settled, and finally finding a moment to himself, Obito decides to make one last stop before returning to Ame.

He told her he’d come back when the deed was done.

...he can only hope she’ll be more whole than when he left her.

Though he’s only been there once, Obito makes the jump to the ruins of her home village on his first try. Today, the valley is foggy - so much so, he can barely see ten feet from his face. A gentle rain pours, soaking into the shoulders of his cloak as he follows the worn road. Ahead, yet unseen, he can sense her chakra. Though still muted from its previous vibrance, it’s brighter than before. A small hope sparks in his chest.

As the manor looms from the mist, the weather seems to lift ever so slightly. Coiled nearby, keeping a watchful eye, is a rain-dappled Suigin. A silver orb moves in its socket to look to him, but she offers no comment.

Sitting along the edge of the front first floor balcony, dressed in a downy grey yukata with bare feet hanging from the edge, is Ryū. A cup of tea is held in hands atop her lap, gaze distant as she looks lost in thought. Though not quite as gaunt as before, there’s still an odd frailness to her frame, a heavy exhaustion in her posture.

And then she sees him.

Slowly, eyes widen. Unfurling from her melancholy like a drying bloom given water, Ryū brightens as much as her body will allow. A hand sets her tea aside upon the engawa, and - without anything else holding her back - she finds her way to her feet with intentions to run.

Intentions which, apparently, she can’t quite yet achieve.

Before she can collapse, Obito flickers to her side, earning a soft sound of surprise as he simply scoops her from her feet. Arms find a tentative hold around his neck, and pale cheeks flush a pretty, startled pink. “O-oh!”

“You should be resting,” he murmurs, giving her a look.

Her head ducks sheepishly. “...I know. I just...got ahead of myself.” Softening, she burrows her brow to the crook of his neck. “...I missed you so much…”

“...and I, you.”

Without a word, Suigin rises with a rustle of scales, stalking off into the trees and leaving the pair alone.

“...I think she’s giving us a little privacy,” Ryū giggles wispily.

Obito gives a hum in reply, taking her previous seat and keeping her atop his lap. Even so, his grip is careful. “...how are you feeling?”

“Much better. Still...a little shaky, but I’m doing well. Suigin-sama has been very...attentive.”

At her tone, he perks a brow.

“...maybe a little stifling,” she adds, giving a demure smile.

Another hum. Now that he’s here...he’s not sure what to say.

In the silence, Ryū lets her eyes fall, expression following suit. “...she and Fubuki told me what happened. What you did. And...I wanted to apologize.”

...he’s so stunned, he can’t muster the words to refute her.

“I know I must have worried you so badly. They told me you came for me. I...I knew you would. I just...clung onto that, and waited, and -!”

“Ryū.” Obito cuts off her rambling with the single syllable. He cups her cheek, still tinged yellow from a fading bruise. Only a few small scars mar her face - one along a brow, another through her top lip, a burn along her jaw. But no matter their size, they still bring a weight to his chest. “...there isn’t a damn thing I want you to apologize for. Nothing. It’s me who should be begging your forgiveness. I let this happen, I -”

Her head shakes in his hold. “...we both knew there were risks. And I don’t want you to feel guilty, Tobi. I knew what could happen, and I kept on anyway. I was willing to take that chance. Because...I don’t think there’s a pain anyone else could give me that would be greater than losing you.”

A lump in his throat cuts off any retort.

She gives a soft smile. “...please don’t feel bad. I told you before - I’ve had more happiness with you than I have the rest of my life before meeting you. And to me, that’s worth any price. Did shishō tell you about...about the numbing?”

“...she did.”

“I hardly felt a thing! Only...well, only when my chakra would run out. But they were usually almost finished by then. I just had to pretend so they wouldn’t catch on. So really, it wasn’t that bad.”

He gawks at her. “...you were tortured…! Ryū, you -!”

“I was. But I just knew I had to be patient. I had to wait them out. Because...I knew you’d find me.”

“If not for me, they’d never had taken you at all…”

“...true. But Tobi -”

“If I knew there’d be no consequences...if no one else would ever find out what we had, and condemn you for it...it would be best for me to leave.”

Ryū’s face goes slack. “...b-but…”

“...but...there’s no turning back now. And I have to take responsibility for this. This, and anything else that might happen because of me.”

“Tobi, I -!”

“And,” he cuts in, tone losing its edge and lowering. His hand guides her forward until their brows brush. “...maybe despite my logic...I don’t want to let you go. Selfish, isn’t it?”

“If that’s true...then I’m just as guilty,” is her murmured reply. “Besides...hasn’t this all been rather selfish from the start…?”

Obito can’t help a soft snort. “...I suppose you’re right.” Silence falls for a time, the pair of them simply taking in the presence of the other. But eventually, he can’t help but ask, “...how are you, really?”

“...I’m tired,” Ryū admits. “More tired than I’ve been in my life. Suigin-sama says it’s from the toxin. It’s meant to keep the victim physically weakened. And since I missed the next day’s antidote when you brought me here, it did a bit more damage than it had been doing. But she says I just need rest.”

“...and your wounds?”

“Almost all mended!” Shifting, she rolls up a sleeve, baring a myriad of marks. “...she had to work fast, so...the scars are a bit more noticeable than they could have been, but I don’t mind. It’s just tougher tissue.”

Hesitantly, almost as though afraid he’ll reopen them, Obito gently grips the limb and brushes a thumb over the blemishes, raised and ragged from the rest of her skin. A lump settles in his throat he has to swallow before speaking. “...was anything broken?”

“No...everything was more superficial. I...don’t know how long I was there, but they must not have reached that point before you came.”

He gives a curt breath, but doesn’t retort. “...you should be able to go back to Konoha soon. The man who did this is dead.”

To his honest surprise, she doesn’t really react. “...I see. Dan..zō?”

“Yes. Leader of an unofficial group of ANBU-level shinobi. And temporary Rokudaime, while Tsunade is comatose. Given that his operations weren’t sanctioned by the village, I’m willing to bet no one else knew of whatever accusations were made against you. In a few days, we’ll see about getting you back home.” Of course, the little house had been in shambles, torn apart by Ryū’s struggle against Root. “...we’ll have to find an alibi for you. Perhaps claim a kidnapping you’ve since been saved from.”

Her brow furrows. “...what about the shinobi under his command? Will they tell anyone about me?”

“...I don’t know. Root officer loyalty is mostly forced, though a few were truly devoted to the man. Given how things are going...I’m not sure they’ll have time to bother with you. With Danzō dead, there’s going to be enough for them to deal with. And if things look dour...you can always come back here.”

“...I guess so.”

Another pause falls between them, each lost in their own thoughts. Obito still can’t help but question if his presence will do more harm than good...but for now, he has a debt to pay, regardless of her refusal. Sighing heavily, he embraces her more fully, practically enveloping her. “...I’m just so glad you’re alive...”

Pinned against his chest, Ryū softens. “...I’m all right.”

“No, you’re not.”

“...but I will be.”

He only gives a curt hum in response.

“...can you stay very long…?”

...he shouldn’t. If the war is to begin, he needs to eliminate Konan, and take back the Rinnegan. “...for a little while. Not long. I have something pressing to attend to.”

“Oh…”

“Besides,” Obito replies, letting his tone deepen slightly. “You’re still healing. I don’t want to hurt you…”

Cheeks flare red, giving his chest a reprimanding slap. “T-that’s not what I meant!”

He chuckles, hardly feeling her beratement. “I’m teasing you. But yes, I can stay - only a little while. Is there something you wanted?”

“Not...specifically…” Ryū avoids his eyes. “...I just...don’t want you to turn around and leave so fast. I miss you…”

Still hearing the exhaustion in her tone, Obito thinks for a moment before suggesting, “...how about a nap?”

“But then you’ll leave while I’m asleep.”

“And then I’ll be back again soon.” He’s going to be busy...but maybe one last time before things pick up. Just to be sure she’s on the mend.

That she’ll make it to the end.

“...okay,” is her quiet reply, giving another squeak as he stands with her in his arms. Already knowing the way, he takes her to the manor’s master quarters and sets her along one side of the bed. Unable to stay for long, he only shrugs out of his cloak before laying atop the sheets beside her, curling protectively.

Ryū gives a quiet giggle. “Are you my turtle shell…?” she asks, clearly addled.

He snorts against her hair, allowing a hint of a smile. “...I suppose I am.”

“Mm…” Already she’s fading fast. “...then...nothing can touch me…”

“...nothing at all.”

It’s not long before Ryū concedes to sleep, body eager to rest. Even so, Obito lingers a while longer, slowly tracing over whatever scars he can reach as rain hums against the manor.

In a way, now...they match. But no matter the scarred skin, to him, she’ll always be beautiful.

Eventually, he pries himself away, giving her one last kiss upon the temple and watching her lips curl. He takes up his coat, moving back down the stairs only to see the sage, again in her human guise.

“Fubuki has just returned from Konoha. Tsunade has awoken.” Eyes glance as though able to see her student through the ceiling. “...tomorrow, I will take Ryū back and weave my story to the Godaime. Hopefully my presence will deter the bastard’s followers from bothering her further. But surely there is more for them to worry about.” She looks back to him, gaze unyielding. “...apparently...a war has been announced by a masked man of Akatsuki.”

Obito stares back, having no reply.

“...I will tell her nothing. I cannot know if she will learn more herself. To me, the only thing that matters is your debt...I will not dash at her happiness. At the very least, this will likely make her a far lesser priority, so long as no one seeks to use her as leverage. I will attempt to undermine their suspicions of her connection to you alongside our alibi. Perhaps that will be enough to dissuade them.”

“...thank you.”

“If you seek her again after tomorrow, you’d best go to Konoha first. She will likely be there, unless I find threat enough to take her back. Should something else go awry...you know where to take her.”

“I do.” After a pause, Obito swallows his pride and gives the beast woman a deep bow. “...thank you for doing what I could not.”

Suigin considers him. “...I suppose I must say the same.”

Rising and giving a curt nod, he phases back into his other dimension. Determination clenches fists at his side. He’s almost there.

“...to Ame, then.”

OKAY so I actually got this done in...relatively good time, woo! Dunno if anyone will really notice beyond Meg and angel, but I took down the drabble ‘Reality’ cuz...I’m a dumb and mixed up the order of Konan’s death, and Danzō’s. So it was in the wrong spot, AND because of Stolen being canon now, I have a few details to change in it anyway. So the next post will seem a bit familiar, but with changes! It’ll be up as soon as I get the edits done~ As for THIS one...it’s a wee bit short, and maybe a bit tame compared to the one before =‘D But Meg was right, it was good to have some follow up, especially leading back into Reality once I get that revamped. So this is sort of an intermission drabble. There’ll be more in the repost, I promise lol And I guess that’s...all there really is to say? Not much left to this, I think. Ryū, in WHoH, doesn’t really have much involvement in the war. Especially now that she’s a little hecked up. So we might, depending on what Meg wants to do, go from Reality to...the tentatively last one? We’ll see! Tho something tells me someone doesn’t want it to be over, me included xD *skips off to finish my edits*

#abyssaldespair #uchiha obito #suigin ryū #death mention #white hands of healing [ canon verse ]

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depressedhatakekakashi · 4 years ago

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I’m big sad this week can I please get some kakairu fic or HC I don’t care I just wanna talk haha but it’s kakashi falling in love with iruka because he’s just so thoughtful to kakashi specifically. Say, kakashi is always late because he’s got to eat and sleep and water his plant and feed the strays behind his complex and he’s (chakra) exhausted the works.

No one ever notices (besides gai ofc but they’ve been friends forever) but then he meets and becomes friends with iruka. And iruka notices. Iruka will take a subpar report from kakashi after hard missions and just give him a Pat on the shoulder and a smile, he will drop by with extra bentos to keep in the fridge and take off without a second thought since he was dropping off bentos (that he bought we know that man can’t cook) at narutos anyway. Gets kakashi a water globe for his plant so he doesn’t have to worry about him on missions.

But the thing that really does it for kakashi the holy shit I might love this man moment is when kakashi is dragging himself home after a super hard mission that went over by weeks and he goes to feed the strays behind the complex and finds iruka feeding them hunched over in this dirty dark alley feeding dogs what looks like his dinner for the night shift and.. is that the new icha icha from the release he missed in his hands?? Iruka got it for him since he was gone and knew how much kakashi likes them and that’s it kakashi is in love now thank you

//here’s to a hopefully more enjoyable, relaxed week coming up :)

AO3

It wasn’t unheard of for a mission to go on longer than it had been planned. Things happened, changes had to be made to the attack plan, sometimes the team. There were a variety of reason’s for a missions to take an extra few hours, or a day or two more.

But a week?

Only the worst missions went overtime by a week.

The one’s where the information was poor, or sometimes even completely wrong. Where the mission lead had to stop and fix up the plan in one or two areas, but had to start completely from scratch.

And just his luck, he had been the mission lead. The poor bastard who had to rethink the mission from scratch when it turned out that they had been lied to by the person who had come to them wanting ‘help’.

What they really wanted, apparently, was a chance to present some unsuspecting leaf shinobi to Some IWA shinobi in waiting.

Luckily for them, Kakashi was quick to realize that things were out of place and even quicker to come up with a new plan. One that only needed him and Gai, and an extra week of waiting time.

It worked in the end. Of course it did.

After waiting for the enemy to finally let their guards down, Kakashi and Gai were able to make their way into the camp they had made for themselves and get the scroll they had been sent for. One they had thought was just used as a trick to get them there, but found out through some careful spying on Kakashi’s part did actually exist.

Now they were home.

Aching and tired, but home.

Seeing Gai off, Kakashi headed straight for the little ally behind the apartments he lived in. Nothing called out to him quite like a nice shower, and a long nap in bed, but he had to check up on the strays before then.

Poor things hadn’t seen him all week, and he’s certain there’s no one else who feeds them. Most of the other jonin simply pick a favorite and take them into their apartment, or leave food out for them on the window ledge.

Kakashi took care of the rest of them.

“Here we go,” hearing a familiar voice, Kakashi stopped just before the entrance into the alleyway, unsure why exactly his heart was beating so fast now. “Eat up. You’ll get to see your favorite tomorrow. He just had a long mission and he needs some rest. But I have no doubt he’ll be here to see you as soon as he can.”

Peering around the side of the wall, Kakashi felt a warmth spreading in his chest when he saw Iruka. Sweet, kind Iruka. Kneeling down and pouring dry food into the bowls Kakashi had set out months ago.

"He does a lot for this village, you know," Iruka continued, and Kakashi couldn't help but linger and listen. "One of Konoha's top Jonin, so he's always going on missions to protect the village, gather information, help people out. There's a lot for him to do."

Leaning his shoulder against the wall, Kakashi smiled to himself.

For a few months now Iruka had been helping him out. Noticing little things about him and providing information or objects to make his life just a little bit easier.

A water bulb for Mr. Ukki so he didn't have to worry about going on missions and killing his only plant.

Bento boxes that he promised he bought from a store when he noticed Kakashi hadn't eaten that day. Not because he couldn't cook for himself, but because sometimes life just got too busy. There was soo much to do that often he'd find himself forgetting to feed himself while he tried to finish mission reports, or plan out training exercises for his students.

Kakashi hadn't thought about it much then. Simply thanking Iruka and moving on with his life.

But now, standing here listening to Iruka gush about him to the strays while he fed them in Kakashi's absence. Kakashi can't help but feel something deep inside of his chest.

Something he can't quite explain. It's warm and fuzzy, and it makes his heart skip a beat whenever Iruka continues talking, but he doesn't have a word for it. It's not something he has ever felt before.

"So be nice to him, hmmm?" Iruka continued, chuckling when one of the dogs barked. "I know he has to be gone a lot, but I'll take care of you when he's out of the village. I promise."

Poking his head around the corner, Kakashi chuckled when the dogs saw him and immidiatly started to bark, forgoing their food to run over to him instead for pets.

"K-kakashi," Iruka stood up, clearly caught off guard by Kakashi's sudden appearance. "I...how long were you standing there?"

"Mmmm, long enough I think," Kneeling down, he started to pet each of the dogs while keeping his eyes on Iruka. "I didn't know you made a habit of looking after Jonin's life responsibilities while they were gone, Iruka-sensei."

"I-" It was sort of cute seeing Iruka all flustered. with wide bright eyes and fingers that wouldn't stop pulling at his uniform sleeve. "I don't usually..."

"Well, I need some rest," Giving the dogs one more head pat he stood up and smiled. A warm, soft smile hidden under his mask. "But, since you've done so much for me I should pay you back."

"Oh, no you don't have to," Iruka waved his hands in front of himself franticly. "I was just- i wanted to make sure-"

"How about dinner?" Kakashi had a calm look on his face, and his voice was as bored sounding as ever. To an untrained eye, he likely looked like he was simply inviting a friend to go out.

Internally, though, he was freaking out.

His heart was hammering in his chest, going so fast that it actually sort of hurt. His stomach was a mess of knots and butterfly's, and his brain was going five hundred miles a minute. Thinking up all the ways Iruka could reject him, and screaming at himself for even making the offer like a love sick idiot.

Love.

That was the word he had been looking for earlier.

Minato-sensei had described the feeling to him years ago. When he was younger and confused about the way Obito acted around Rin, or why Rin was always trying to get close to him.

He was in love, and out of everyone his heart could have chosen, it went with Umino Iruka.

"That sounds nice, actually," Iruka whispered, glancing down at the ground while running a hand awkwardly through his hair. "Umm, where would you like to..."

"I'll make it," he smiled, now determined to make the best first impression. "My apartment, tomorrow evening. And don't worry about the dogs, i'll make sure to feed them before dinner."

He doesn't wait for a response. Disappearing into a whirlwind of dust he make's his escape. Desperate to get back to his apartment and collapse onto his bed and scream into his pillow like a twelve year old whos crush just called them 'cute'.

#KakaIru #I hope this makes you feel a little better :)

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hiruma-musouka · 8 years ago

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Also, 27.) "Can we go someplace high so I can jump off it?" for Shishui and Obito, please?

[AO3 link] - Summary: In which a change of events both improves and worsens Obito’s quality of life, some people are alive who wouldn’t be, and family is great (except when you have a hangover).

“GOOD MORNING!”

Obito flails out of a dead sleep atthe LOUD, tone deaf squall. Heart pounding, he blindly flings a kunai at thedoor, frantically shoves himself up…

…and with an undignified scramblefor his sheets falls right off his bed with a thud.

Shisui snorts.

“You… bastard…” Obitogroans, head throbbing and stomach threatening to rebel as his massive hangovermakes itself known past the intense throbbing in his bad side. Thank thefucking kami he had gotten caught in his sheets and flipped over when he slidoff the mattress like a moron. At least this way he only had to deal with hisnormal level of chronic pain in addition to the hangover and embarrassmentinstead of the crippling agony that would have come with landing on his rightside.

Crippling. Obito snorts bitterly,wincing as it sets off the ache in his nose from hitting the floor boards. Notthat he could feel it much past the boss summons trying to smash their way outof his skull.

God, why the hell had he drunk so much again?

“Are you alright?” Shisuicalls out, a laugh hiding in his tone as his head peaks out carefully frombehind the door frame. The younger shinobi plucks the kunai out of the woodnear his cheek, and Obito gives him a dirty look and flips him off.

“Why the fuck are youhere?” Obito rasps through his parched throat, shifting carefully onto hisback with a hiss as his hip and knee lock up. “And while we’re at it, howdid you get past all of my traps again, you little shit?”

“C'mon cousin, give me somecredit for being a jounin,” Shisui says, friendly grin softening as Obitocringes slightly at the sound of his voice and brings up a hand to rub gingerlyat his temple. The sixteen-year-old’s eyes flicker briefly over his twistedscars as Obito forces his locked up muscles to unwind, but the only emotion hecatches on Shisui’s face when he squints over at him is a good-natured sympathyrather than the pity, disdain, or infuriating dismissiveness so common amongtheir fellow shinobi.

Not that that’s going to save Shisuifrom the revenge and massive trap upgrades that Obito is going to implementafter this. His traps are one of the few shinobi arts he still has full accessto and he is NOT going to have someone just dance right past them!

“You are only a jounin,”Obito says, already plotting alterations as he throws his left arm over hisface to block out the light spearing through his eyes, “becauseMinato-sensei has a quota to meet for Konoha’s ranks and he decided to skip theportion of the jounin requirements that cover good sense and appropriatedecision making skills.”

“Well that’s rude,” Shisuiremarks idly. “It certainly explains a lot about our comrades, but there’sstill no reason to take your bad mood out on me. I only dropped by tosay happy twentieth birthday in person since no one invited me to thebar yesterday and by the time I found out and arrived you were already well onyour way to pickling yourself. Speaking of which, nice life choice there:getting involved in one of Gai’s challenges.”

Oh riiight, Obito thinks belatedly, fuzzy memories of green spandex,silver hair, and sake jugs dancing through his mind, THAT��S why I drank somuch last night.

… He really needed to stop lettingcompetitiveness and low-key resentment influence his life choices.

Obito runs his tongue over histeeth, scars pulling slightly as he screws his face up, abruptly aware of theaftertaste of vomit, alcohol, and fried chicken. Or maybe it’s just that heneeds to stop making any decisions at all if he’s frustrated or annoyed andalcohol is already involved. They never end well. The fuck up with the Aoba andhis crows comes to mind. The massive argument with Bakashi and his martyringguilt complex is another.

Yeah… maybe switching out the alcohol for Anko’s fruitycocktails would be a better choice and to hell with anyone’s teasing.

Hell, he probably didn’t even manageto beat Kakashi even if he did match Gai drink for drink because Bakashiprobably cheated again by stealth dumping his drinks into other people’sglasses or something. Rin is going to give him that look when she comesaround and—

Oh.

Oh fuck. RIN!

“So you do remember theend of last night,” Shisui affirms with a grin as Obito makes a horrifiedgurgling sound and attempts to sink through the floor in abject, mortifiedhumiliation. “I’d sort of wondered if I had lost that bet because youseemed remarkably aplomb for a guy who’s just drunkenly hit on his childhoodcrush. Again. For the fifth—”

“Shisui, I swear on ourancestor’s ashes that if you don’t shut up,” Obito threatens, voicemuffled through his hands and yet noticeably high pitched, “I will haveyou assassinated. I am Minato-sensei’s glorified fucking secretary and Ihave the sharingan: I will forge his signature and have them dump you deadin a river somewhere!”

Shisui throws him a slightly unsurelook over a smile. “You know it’s kind of concerning how you default totreasonous murder when life pushes your buttons wrong. I’d like to emphasizethat I had nothing to do with you failing to serenade—” Obitogroans “—your crush.”

“I don’t have a crush onRin,” Obito says flatly, watching the ceiling and debating about slamminghis fist into his knee so he can be overwhelmed with the much more palatablephysical agony instead of the mental agony of sake-tinged recollections.

“That’s not what the entiretyof the bar thinks.”

“Fuck.”

“Although Rin was very kindabout turning you down again, if it makes you feel better.” Shisui offers.

It did not make Obito feel better.

“River, Shisui. River,”Obito threatens darkly, wincingly remembering Rin doing the same kind butsubtly immovable speech to let drunk-him down that she had done the lasttime he’d started regaling the room with her virtues.

He doesn’t have a crush on Rinanymore. He really, really doesn’t. Rin is like… the brilliantly kind andcapable sister figure Obito had always wanted, but he’s not really one forromancing close sister figures because he’s not a noble or a Hyuuga.It’s also really hard to maintain any sweet feelings for the person who unyieldinglyforces you through regular physical therapy. But it’s genuinely not hisfault that she’s practically perfect in every way outside of that or thatdrunk him always feels the need to explain that to the idiot people who don’tproperly appreciate her and he really needs to stop doing this!

Oh god this is going to be awkward.Nobody ever believes ‘I don’t have a crush anymore, I just think she’sperfect.’

(Perfect aside from her shitty tastein emotionally unavailable guys that is, but Obito’s opinion there is prettymuch never wanted.)

“This is probably a bad time tomention that pretty much everyone was still there when you started rambling,isn’t it?” Shisui asks rhetorically.

“I need someplace high so I canjump off it,” Obito despairs wholeheartedly, already imagining the shithe’ll get for this as various assholes come through the Hokage tower formissions and reports. Fuck his life.

“Someplace high huh?”Shisui considers thoughtfully, making Obito pause to eye him warily at his toneof voice. “Alright, I’ve got an idea. Come on, get up and let’s go getbreakfast so we can leave.”

“No,” Obito refuses,stomach rolling at the thought of food.

“Up, up, up!” Shisuichives, smart enough not to come in reach of Obito even as he grabs Obito’s legbrace off the table and drops it on his chest.

“I said no!”

Shisui takes a deep, exaggeratedbreath and Obito flinches, covering his ears just in time before Shisui startssinging the most horrendously mangled version of Happy Birthday that a humanhas ever croaked out.

“Alright, alright, shutup!” Obito cracks, shoving himself up with a dirty glare and ignoring theway his right shoulder crackles.

Shisui abruptly stops caterwauling.“I’ll go make something for us then,” he offers, casually strollingtowards the kitchen.

(There are days Obito really, reallyhates his relatives.)

“I cannot—” Obitogrunts, climbing a few more steps and hiding a wince “—believe you draggedme up to the top of the Hokage mountain, for fuck’s sake, Shisui!”

“Your language is prettyterrible for someone who spends a lot of their free time helping kids,Obito.” Shisui meanders along the path ahead of him, always just farenough away to keep out of immediate strangling distance while still going slowenough that Obito can keep up without pushing it. Not that either of themacknowledge that that’s what Shisui’s doing since the teen is doing a decentimpression of casually appreciating the beauty of dawn falling upon thevillage.

(Dawn. Dawn, that little shit.Obito hadn’t passed out until at least three in the morning. He’s not hungoverlike he’d thought: he’s still drunk.)

“Would you just get to thepoint?” Obito forces out, breathing through his nose in a controlledpattern. They finally level off at a platform nearby the First’s head and Obitotakes a moment to really appreciate the beauty of flat ground no matter howgrating it is that this is what he’s been reduced to since Rin and Kakashipried him out of that cave in years ago.

And then he sees the orange thingon the ground and forgets about being bitter.

“What is that?”Obito asks, honestly curious as he shuffles forward next to a grinning Shisuito get a better look. It’s looks like a gigantic kite almost except moretriangular rather than diamond shaped and with a wooden frame extendingdownwards to prop it up from the ground. A set of ropes and cloth hang downbehind the horizontal bar in what looks like a harness and Obito shifts ontohis left foot for better balance as he reaches forward to run a finger over theKonoha symbol emblazoned on the middle of the tautly stretched tarp.

“It’s called a glider,”Shisui offers. “I and a few other people may or may not have seen them ona hypothetical mission in the mountains nearby a place whose name mighthave four letters and start with 'Ku’. You hang underneath it or supportyourself with both arms on the bars and then throw yourself off something tall.Air thermals support the wings and your weight and will let you stay airbornefor hours if you want, provided you don’t screw up and panic. Isn’t itawesome?”

“Where did you even getone?”

“We made it!” Shisuigestures to it proudly. “And by 'we’ I mean that Tenzo grew the frameafter I kept talking about it and then Yugao banished me from sewing the clothon because apparently I cannot be trusted to stitch evenly.”

“And it really works?”

“Absolutely. So, do you want totry?” Shisui waits, looking over at his cousin while Obito considers it,curling and uncurling the stiffened fingers of his damaged hand. “Youwanted to throw yourself off something and this is gonna be a lot more fun thanwalking all the way back down the mountain and going home.”

'Especially since you can’t landwell enough to use Shunshin.’

Obito frowns at the unsaid words andrubs the back of his sore head before mustering up a smile. “Alright.Yeah. I’ll give it a go. Although,” he adds, roughly slapping the side ofShisui’s arm with a pointed look, “if I crash or someone shoots me down,you’re explaining this to everyone. Including the medic-nin andRin.”

Shisui’s grin falters a bit.“That sounds… fair.” A pause. “Please don’t crash though.Seriously. Tenzo might cry.”

Obito huffs a weak laugh at theblatant exaggeration, eyes squinting painfully against the ambient light.“Just help me into this thing, Shisui.”

[AO3 link]

#uchiha obito #uchiha shisui #naruto #sentence prompt meme #fatcatsarecats #asks #my writing #prompt fill

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kuriquinn · 8 years ago

Text

Underneath the Underneath [1/?]

Summary: As observant as he is, it take Kakashi years before he realises he's in an actual, adult relationship.

Disclaimer: This story utilizes characters, situations and premises that are copyright Masashi Kishimoto, Shueisha, Shonen Jump and Viz Media. No infringement on their respective copyrights pertaining to episodes, novelizations, comics or short stories is intended by the author in any way, shape or form. This fan oriented story is written solely for the author's own amusement and the entertainment of the readers. It is not for profit. Any resemblance to real organizations, institutions, products or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. All fiction, plot and Original Characters with the exception of those introduced in the books, manga, video games, novelizations and anime, are the sole creation of KuriQuinn and using them without permission is considered rude, in bad-taste and will reflect seriously on your credibility as a writer. You will be forced to juggle geese until you drop dead should you be found plagiarizing.

Warning: Spoilers for pretty much everything up to Chapter 699.

Canon-Compliance: As close to canon as fanfiction can possibly be. With a few personal additions :P Takes place during Part I, Part II and the Blank Period.

Fanon-Compliance: Takes place several years before An Inch of Gold and Unplanned.

AN: OC alert! There is an OC in this story! Ohmygosh! Okay, so I have had a lot of interest in my OC, Manako, over the past little while, and I got a few requests here, on AO3 and on tumblr to start showing her relationship with Kakashi a little more. I had been meaning to wait until once I finished with all my SasuSaku headcanon stuff, but then I thought, why not write it now? Kakashi and Manako's relationship happens entirely off-screen so as not to interfere or impose on the canon, so I can write a few pieces every now and then for those of you who are curious. I hope you enjoy!

Author’s Note2: In case anyone was not aware of this (and I’ve mentioned it several times), Kakashi and Manako are about 9-10 years apart in age. They meet several years before the Naruto series begins and slowly build a friendship. Despite the fact that this is a universe with different age appropriate behaviours and expectations than our own (for crying out loud, they have twelve year old kids fight to the death and massacre their families), and that for the vast majority of human history age differences and relationships at younger ages have always exists, with or without consent, I have gone out of my way to ensure that nothing physical or intimate happens between the two until Manako is 18 years old (legal voting age in Japan, in many place in Japan, legal age of consent as per Tokyo’s Youth Protection Law). There has been an ongoing trend across many fandoms lately to demonize any relationship with a large age-gap or where one partner is a teenager on the cusp of being legal. Interestingly enough, these same people have no problem with a 17-year-old girl being stalked by a 100-year-old vampire just because he looks like a 17-year-old boy. Go figure.

In laymen’s terms, if you’re one of those holier-than-thou, morality-police, purity-wank douchenozzles that think authors should censor their work to protect your delicate sensibilities from being exposed to stuff that happens in real life…kindly step out of my section of the sandbox and go play elsewhere.

This is the politest I get about it.

“Ah! Kakashi, my venerable rival!” Maito Gai declares with his usual pomp, pointing one finger straight in front of him, while his other hand remains hidden behind his back. “Today is the day when we settle our longstanding, noble contest!”

Kakashi raises his single visible eyebrow at the digit two inches from his nose. “Is that so?”

“Yes! You see, as I was enjoying my balanced and revitalising morning repast, I heard a foreigner mention a competition from their land! The honourable and youthful pursuit of juggling geese!”

From behind his back, Gai produces a tiny gosling that blinks up at Kakashi and honks in puzzlement.

Kakashi returns that blink. Behind him, he hears Kurenai and Asuma stifle chuckles.

“That’s a goose,” he says eventually.

“Well-spotted, you keen-eyed animal, you!”

Kakashi counts to three in his head, and then points out in as reasonable a voice as he can manage, “Isn’t juggling geese a little cruel?”

“Nonsense! Our Konoha poultry is the hardiest of the land!”

That’s not what I…what even…?

There are so many logical, well-thought out arguments against this, and yet Kakashi knows from experience none of them will suffice. And so, he pounces on Gai’s ridiculousness in the hopes he can dissuade him for once.

“If the purpose is to juggle geese, shouldn’t there be more than one?”

Gai’s elated expressions holds for several seconds longer, and then his shoulders slump and he glares into the distance.

“Damn you, Kakashi, with your cool logic!”

Well, that was a narrowly avoided spot of—

“Fear not! I will return with a gaggle of goslings for us to test our juggling acumen!”

And he speeds off, leaving Kakashi holding the goose.

“Well…” Asuma begins.

“That’s certainly an interesting way to begin the morning,” Kurenai adds.

Gai hurries back, snatches the confused bird, and disappears again. Kurenai shakes her head. “Is it just me or does he get more high-spirited every day?”

“It’s not just you,” Asuma assures her. “The man could tire out the gods…”

Kakashi sighs and glances at the sky; the sun isn’t even at its zenith yet.

This is not how his routine is supposed to go.

Not that he ever consciously planned to have something as mundane as a routine. As a general rule, shinobi avoid having those, being that they are trained to expect the unexpected. However, over the years since he moved up the ranks in Konoha, a certain procedure has emerged nonetheless.

Every morning he rises before dawn and visits the cemetery, standing before the Memorial Stone to pay respect to his fallen comrades. Depending on his mood he may simply spare them a few words, or perhaps he’ll spend an hour or two in silent remembrance of Obito, Rin and Minato-sensei. Afterward, he heads to Hokage Tower to see if there’s anything Lord Third intends him to do.

It’s been almost a year since the Hokage removed him from active duty with ANBU, as well as mandatory therapy and instruction to readapt his teaching methods for genin. Eventually he will be assigned his first genin squad, but for now he’s simply on the village duty roster. Still, the missions Lord Third assigns him are always for the best of the village.

In any case, he has a lot more recreational time than he ever did before. Privately he thinks the old man is hoping he’ll use these newfound free periods to socialise more, but at this point in his life, Kakashi isn’t keen on seeking out friendship. As a child he didn’t like the idea of mingling with other people, and as an adult he is even more socially hesitant.

It’s not exactly easy to make friends when every person you’ve ever cared about died and everyone else holds you responsible for it.

Still, in spite of his reluctance, he has forged some connections within the village.

First and foremost, there’s Gai, whose presence in his life was insisted upon by their respective fathers. By now, the taijutsu master is so much of a habit for Kakashi that he’s not quite sure what he’d do without him. No day is complete without one of Gai’s ridiculous competitions, though Kakashi tries to avoid them until the evening for simple conservation of energy.

In the past few years, he’s also found himself in the company of Asuma more and more often. Kakashi is pretty sure the man has been ordered by his father to keep an eye on him, which would be annoying if Asuma were less interesting. The Hokage’s son is well-learned and well-travelled, and his stories fill the silences that would otherwise be awkward.

Then there’s Kurenai, who goes wherever Asuma does these days, and Yugao. She’s the only one of his former ANBU squad that he speaks to with anything resembling regularity, if only because she’s been going on fewer mission since she and Hayate started spending more time together. Tenzō, when he isn’t off on missions, will invite Kakashi for a drink or a meal (and then they both spend the evening trying to nonchalantly trick the other into paying for it).

He tries not to think of Itachi Uchiha at all.

“Are you actually going to juggle geese?” Kurenai asks, her mouth quirking upwards at Kakashi.

Asuma chuckles again. “That sounds like it would be messy…”

“Maybe I’ll be assigned a mission and be able to avoid him,” Kakashi groans.

“I don’t know – it looks like he’s coming back,” Kurenai points out, staring out into the distance.

Kakashi doesn’t need to be told twice.

Without really looking, he dives through the door of the nearest shop, just in time to avoid Gai’s triumphant return – now balancing half a dozen geese in his arms.

Peeking through the corner of the nearby window, he watches as Gai—upon realising Kakashi is nowhere to be found—begins to demonstrate exactly how one juggles geese to a bemused Kurenai and Asuma.

Kakashi sighs and slumps down, pressing his head against the wall. It’s going to be a while before he can slip away. Maybe there’s a back entrance somewhere—

“Unless you’re looking for a way to blow shit up, you shouldn’t be here,” a bored voice says from somewhere behind him. “My boss doesn’t like loitering.”

Kakashi looks up, noticing in the process that his chosen hide-out is one of the many surplus and supply stores in the village. The smell of ink, paper and gunpowder fill the air, and when he takes notices of the walls he sees row upon row of specialty parchment—the kind for explosive tags. He glances across the sales floor, for the first time taking note of the girl reading a book behind the check-out counter. She’s familiar to him, although in the second-hand kind of way that everyone in a small village is familiar, so it only takes a moment to place her.

Twins are rare in such a small village, and Manako Inuzuka is identical to her sister Hana. Brunette and dark eyed, with a solid-looking medium frame and a languid, unselfconscious bearing he doesn’t see in a lot of girls her age. She lacks the distinctive Inuzuka facial markings, which is odd considering she’s the child of the leader, but somehow she manages to look just as fierce.

Kakashi occasionally has business with Hana—sometimes his ninja hounds require urgent medical care, and she’s set to take over the village’s veterinary practice—but he has never spoken to Manako beyond a few random, forgettable encounters. He doesn’t expect this one to be any different.

Except, then his attention falls on the book she’s reading.

The book which happens to be the next installment of his favourite series.

The one he has been desperately waiting on for the last six months.

“That’s the latest Icha Icha novel,” he says.

“It is.”

“It’s not even supposed to be out for another month.”

“And yet, here it is,” Manako replies, turning a page.

“How did you get your hands on this?”

“I know a guy.”

He begins to approach the counter. “Can I know a guy?”

“That depends—are you into bondage?”

Kakashi does a bit of a double-take at this, opening his mouth and then closing it again as he studies her. She and Hana were in Itachi’s year, which means she can’t be more than fifteen or sixteen years old.

She has to be messing with him.

Even so, he’s not entirely sure what to say to that. At his silence, she finally looks up, considering him with a critical eye.

“Oh. You’re him,” she says, and Kakashi waits for the usual qualifier—he knows the things people whisper about him: cold-blooded, friend-killer, traitor’s son. But then she adds, “You’re Pakkun’s pet.”

“Pet?” he echoes, surprised and disbelieving.

“Sorry. That’s how the dogs talk,” she says, though she doesn’t sound or look very sorry, turning her attention back to her book in a clear dismissal. “I mean to say you’re his human.”

He’s not sure that’s much better and gets the sense that she’s mocking him.

“Your sister is a lot more polite than you,” he says, which sounds immature and over-simplistic, but he’s still a bit caught off balance and doesn’t know what else to say.

She doesn’t seem ruffled by the comparison at all.

“So I’m told.”

Again, her words drip with dismissal, and Kakashi is inclined to take the hint. He turns back toward the shop entrance.

Except –

He turns around. “Out of curiosity—”

“No.”

He frowns. “You don’t even know what I’m going to ask.”

“You’re not getting my book.”

“I’d pay you for it.”

“But then it would not longer be my book,” she says, and then glances up, lowering her voice conspiratorially. “I’m possessive and materialistic like that.”

Kakashi resists the urge to pout, but only because he is a grown-ass man and a jōnin and feared by half the shinobi world.

“Surely there’s some arrangement we can come to?” he suggests, trying to sound smooth and casual and not like a slavering fanboy.

“You’re that desperate for cheesy romance and long drawn-out sex?” she raises an eyebrow at him, and he feels his cheeks warm beneath his mask because does she have to be that blunt about it?!

“Well what’s your excuse for reading it?”

“I have two X-chromosomes,” she retorts, and then crosses her arms. “And didn’t you hear? Long. Drawn-out. Sex.”

His cheeks flooding with even more colour.

“Should you really be reading that sort of thing?” he asks, a little tightly. “It’s not exactly…”

“Oh, but if it was a teenaged boy it would be alright?” she counters. “Talk about double standards…”

“I never said—”

“I have just as much right to read it as you,” she shoots back. “And if you think about it, it’s kind of creepier when it’s an old guy like you doing it.”

“…Old?” Kakashi demands, voice cracking a little in astonishment.

“Well, with that hair of yours,” she shrugs. “Easy mistake to make.” He stares at her in reply, and she smirks. “See? It’s not nice to generalize about someone’s age.”

Kakashi decide right then that it’s time to leave.

Juggling geese is suddenly a much less challenging prospect than any more absurdist conversation with this…person. He doesn’t even ask about the back entrance, and is almost on the point of opening the door again when—

“I guess I could make you a deal.”

Kakashi pauses, the sudden image of himself reading his beloved, long-book at the end of a tiring day. It’s been so long…

“I’m listening,” Kakashi says, turning back.

“I need someone to field-test my specialty explosive tags,” she tells him. “But Old Man Third won’t let me hire a genin squad. Something about legal issues or child protection or whatever.” She makes a dismissive hand gesture. “None of the chūnin are allowed to, either, ever since the last time some moron didn’t read the labels and blew off a testicle.” Kakashi’s cheeks rapidly lose all earlier warmth. “And most jōnin are pretentious pricks that think their missions are more important than functioning equipment, so...”

Kakashi’s eye twitches. “Noted.”

“But I’ve heard you’re moderately intelligent, and apparently, you’re fast too, so here’s what I want—you come by every so often and try out my specialty tags, then come give me feedback, and I’ll hook you up with this book.” Kakashi is about to say that seems like an awful lot of work for one book, and then she adds, “And any others that my contact sets me up with.”

“You’re making literature seem a lot more clandestine than it is,” he accuses.

“Not all of us are elite ninjas. Some of us have to make our fun where we can,” she replies. “Are you in or out?”

Kakashi turns the offer over in his head.

The whole thing sounds an awful lot like responsibility, or even worse, accountability, and unless the well-being of the village is at stake, he tends to avoid both.

However, on the other hand, he’s heard from others that Manako’s incendiary devices are top quality, and that she doesn’t limit her work to simple explosives. Which could prove useful in situations where he doesn’t feel like expending effort.

And he really wants to read the book.

It’s telling that the only considerations he have pertain to his own laziness and guilty reading pleasures.

“Alright, it’s a deal,” he says.

“Good,” she agrees, nodding in a businesslike fashion. “But you’re still waiting until after I finish reading it.”

Which causes Kakashi’s shoulders to slump because how did he not see that coming. He can predict the moves of enemy ninja before they even consider making them, and this girl outmaneuvered him with a single sentence.

She smirks at him, black eyes dancing. “Of course, if I didn’t have to cut my break short lugging boxes around and doing actual work, I could probably finish this in the next hour…”

He shoots her an unimpressed look.

“Do you actually think I’m that desperate?”

“I think you just promised to carry out potentially dangerous field testing that could possible get you blown up just to get a chance to read the book. Damn straight I think you’re desperate,” she declares, black eyes dancing. “So either you’re really bored with your life, or really weird.”

She looks him over again, and he gets the sense that this time she is actually studying him, because her eyes linger on his mask.

“Weird,” she concludes, and nods to herself. “Which is good. We’ll be friends.” She then closes the book, holding the place with one finger and pokes another in his face. “But no sex, okay? I don’t want to deal with sad puppy-dog eyes when I break your heart.”

He can’t help his jaw dropping at either implication.

“Now get to work. There are crates of blank scrolls in the back that need to be stocked up here,” she says, going back to her reading. “And if you don’t do a good job, I’m calling out spoilers.”

Which is how Kakashi Hatake, elite jōnin of the Hidden Leaf, finds himself stocking shelves for the next two hours, wondering what exactly he has gotten himself into.

つづく

I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Comments and constructive criticism are much appreciated, and very motivating—and if you enjoy my writing, check out my original stories as they are posted on patreon!

栗

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#friday fic requests #naruto fanfiction #hatake kakashi #Kakashi Hatake #inuzuka manako #manako inuzuka #humor #first impressions #first meeting #original character #behind the scenes #spot the reference

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raendown · 7 years ago

Link

Pairing: ObitoKakashi Word count: 1930 Soulmate au: The one where you have a stripe on your wrist that shows what color your soulmate's hair currently is

Follow the link or read it under the cut!

Chapter 108: Obito/Kakashi

If someone were to ask Obito what his soulmate’s hair color was he would likely react with a dramatic rolling of the eyes. How the hell was he supposed to remember what the original color was when it had been changing every few months since before he could remember?

His soulmate almost had it down to an exact schedule. Nearly without fail Obito would wake up on the first of the month, every third month, and the stripe surrounding his wrist would have taken on a different color to signify that someone out there in the world had dyed their hair yet again. It wasn’t even an original idea – lots of people dyed their hair just to check when they thought they had found their soulmate – but he thought his so-called other half was taking things just a bit too far.

When Obito was thirteen his soulmate took a liking to the color red, spending the entire year cycling through different shades from deep ruby to almost orange. The year after that they had swung wildly from purple to yellow before spending half the year trying out different shades of green. It became almost a game between him and his best friend Rin as they took bets with each other on who could guess what color would show up next on his wrist.

He never expected it to turn silvery white.

In his nineteenth year Obito woke up to the scarring on his wrist which signified that his soulmate had passed away, their color removed from his wrist. Barely able to force himself out of bed that morning, he wondered if they had been older than him or younger – not that it mattered, they would still have been much too young to die. He made it all the way to Rin’s house before he started to cry and rage, angry at the world for having taken a part of him away before he ever got the chance to explore it, to love it. His best friend didn’t fully understand – it hadn’t really been all that hard to find Konan with such an uncommon natural shade of hair – but she tried her best to be comforting and he appreciated that.

Going on with his life was hard as he tried to get used to the fact that his other half was no longer out there waiting for him. For a long time he relied on his friends to get him out of the house and keep him occupied. It worked for a time – until the day when things went wrong.

Nearly four months after he woke up with a scar upon his wrist Obito woke up in the hospital with scars in many other places as well. It wasn’t his fault that the roads were so icy but he was just as glad that there had been no one in the car with him when he careened off the bridge; at least no one else had gotten hurt. The hospital was as boring as it was chaotic, despite how that seemed like it should be impossible. He wasn’t the only victim of the surprisingly harsh winter and with the hospital nearly running out of beds none of the nurses had time to stop and chat with a lonely boys whose grandmother couldn’t make the trip across town every day to visit.

Eventually he was moved in to a shared room with a coma patient whose father did manage to visit every day and Hatake Sakumo became Obito’s only entertainment as his body slowly recovered from the breaks and punctures he’d sustained in the accident. In respect for the other boy’s privacy Sakumo never fully opened the curtain which hid his son from sight, but after a few days Obito felt as though he knew Kakashi almost as well as himself. He knew every award that Kakashi had earned as school and in his gymnastics competitions. He knew Kakashi had a mouth on him so smart that he had trouble holding down a job when he continued to sass the customers. He knew about the collapsed building which had nearly taken Kakashi’s life and he knew that Kakashi – like his own soulmate – liked to dye his hair so often that many people had no idea what his original color was.

The day before Obito was scheduled to be released in to his own dubious care, Sakumo showed up at the hospital with a tearful smile and several cans of colored hairspray.

“Hey old man,” he called gently. “What’s with that face? This is a no-cry-zone, remember?” Sakumo chuckled wetly and nodded, setting his bag down and coming over to ruffle Obito’s hair.

“Ah, you are correct young one. How rude of me.”

“Damn right it’s rude. You can’t just go making rules and them breaking them yourself. So what’s with the waterworks, eh?”

Returning to the bag he had set down, Sakumo retrieved several cans of hairspray, one of red, one of black, and another of blue. “It’s just a bad day for me, kiddo, that’s all. It’s been four months today since my boy went in to the coma and I suppose I just…miss him. They had to cut off all his hair when he came in but it’s finally grown back the way he liked it and I thought…I just thought…he always liked to wear color. Said it would help him find his soulmate someday.”

“Oh.” Nibbling on his lower lip, Obito absently stroked the silvery scar on his wrist. “Yeah, my soulmate used to wear color all the time too.” Sakumo raised one eyebrow at him.

“Used to?”

“They died. Before we could meet. I woke up one day and all I had was the empty color.” He shrugged and tried not to seem too bothered, although the wound was still rawer than the physical ones littering his body. Sakumo frowned sympathetically.

“I’m so sorry, young one.”

Obito shrugged again, eyeing the hair paint with interest. He’d never painted his own hair before, preferring to leave the wild color changes to the stripe on his wrist, and he wondered how he would look with some of that red. Or maybe the blue; he’d always looked good in blue.

“Well…let’s cheer ourselves up, shall we? Would you like to help? I’ll need a steady lookout. Don’t think the nurses would take too keenly to me coloring up one of their patients.”

Sakumo offered him a grin that was at least somewhat close to his usual cheer and Obito returned it tenfold, scrambling over the edge of his bed and using his crutches to stump over and peek out into the hallway. Once he called the all clear the older man nodded and began to shake up the three cans he had chosen. Then he pulled back the privacy curtain all the way for the very first time and Obito nearly crashed down to the floor in shock.

Kakashi had grey-white hair the exact same color as the stripe which ran around Obito’s wrist. Sakumo beckoned him over and Obito went, drawn like a magnet to the silvery strands resting like a halo around possibly the most interesting face he’d ever seen. From Sakumo’s stories he knew that underneath the eyepatch was the empty socket where Kakashi had lost his eye but the scar above and below it was unexpected. His chin was sharp and his cheekbones fit to cut glass. His skin was so pale it looked nearly see-through. Looking back and forth between them, Obito could definitely see the family resemblance in the two Hatake men.

He held his breath as Sakumo raised the black hairspray, combing fingers through the comatose boy’s hair until he had separated a small chunk and isolated just the tips.

“We never did more than solid dye jobs before. I think he’d love a head full of different colors, don’t you?”

“Yeah,” Obito breathed, leaning closer. “Go on, do it!”

The older man chuckled at his eagerness and followed orders, letting loose with the spray can to paint the strands between his fingers black. Obito very carefully did not look down. He promised himself that he would not look down until it was over, until he could be sure. Instead he kept an eye out as he was supposed to, checking the doorway frequently to make sure no one was coming in to disturb them. When he wasn’t playing lookout he was staring at the teenager in the bed with awe. He was…beautiful. A little wasted away from lying in a bed for four months straight but still beautiful.

Finally Sakumo set down the last canister and took a step back to admire his handiwork. Only the tips had been painted but they were a splotchy riot of red, blue, and black with his pretty silver roots shining from underneath. The pillow behind his head would probably need to be thrown out and his thin hospital gown was also stained beyond salvation but they had both been sacrificed to a good cause.

“Well now. I think he’d have enjoyed this.” Sakumo traced a slightly blue thumb down Kakashi’s cheek. “Wouldn’t you son? Yes, you would have liked this very much.”

Obito took a deep breath, checked the doorway one more time, then steeled his nerves and looked down at his stripe before he could stop himself. His gasp drew Sakumo’s attention, leaving both of them gaping in shock. Around his wrist where once there had been nothing but what he took for silver emptiness there was now a ring of red, blue, and black in equal thirds. He’d been right. Kakashi was his soulmate.

He’d been sitting right next to his soulmate for days on end and never ever known.

“But that’s…you…oh Obito, my boy.” Sakumo hurried around the bed to engulf him in a hug. “My son’s soulmate! You’re my precious Kakashi’s soulmate! I had no idea! Oh what a story to tell him when he wakes up!”

“Uh-huh. When he wakes up.” Obito blinked rapidly to clear his watery eyes as Sakumo pulled away and took hold of his upper arms, meeting his eyes directly.

“He will wake up. Don’t you doubt him for one second. He might be the most stubborn person I’ve ever met and late for almost everything but he has never let me down before. Kakashi will come back to us, Obito.”

“Okay.” He’d never heard his own voice sound quite so small before but it earned him a second hug so Obito didn’t even think of complaining.

The two of them did end up getting scolded by a nurse who came in five minutes later and found out what they’d done to Kakashi’s hair – and the bedding around him. Neither of them could even pretend to be sorry, however, and the woman left in a huff after reprimanding them quite loudly. After she was gone Obito stumped over on his crutches to sit on the side of Kakashi’s bed with Sakumo, holding the other boy’s hand while Sakumo wrapped an arm around his shoulders, beaming down at him with so much pride he could see echoes of the parents he had lost when he was young.

“We’ll just have to wait right here for him, won’t we?” Sakumo said. Obito smiled without ever looking away from Kakashi’s face.

“Yeah. Just try and keep me away!”

“He’s worth the wait, I promise.”

“You’re his dad; you have to say that,” Obito teased. Then he bit his lip and whispered, “But I bet you’re right.”

And so he waited.

#soulmate collection #rae writes #obikaka #obito #kakashi #sakumo #fanfiction #naruto shippuden

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raendown · 7 years ago

Link

Pairing: ObitoKakashi Word count: 3048 Summary: Kakashi's style of communication leaves a lot to be desired. It also leaves a lot of room for misinterpretation. (Read: Kakashi can't flirt for shit)

Follow the link or read it under the cut!

Speaking Clearly

In Obito’s defense, any person in their right minds wouldn’t have taken it as a compliment. All he could be blamed for was momentarily forgetting that Kakashi was not actually in his right mind. Ever. He was ten and the other boy was coming up on nine and most of their interactions tended to end loudly with frequent violence.

“You’re not totally useless,” Kakashi mumbled after he had beaten the older boy in the fourth spar in a row. Obito puffed up indignantly.

“What’s that supposed to mean!”

“It means you’re not a complete idiot; you have at least some use.”

“Hey screw you too, Bakashi!” Obito hitched up the sleeves of his jacket, ready to go in for round five.

He was confused when Kakashi threw both hands in the air with a grumpy mutter of, “Ugh! Never mind!” When his teammate stormed off all he could do was tilt his head to one side and blink in confusion. Kakashi was weird sometimes but Obito could usually tell what he’d done to piss the guy off. This time he had no idea.

Two years didn’t really change much between the two of them except perhaps add a little bit of distance and some new things to tease each other about. Kakashi made fun of Obito for constantly outgrowing his clothes and leaving his limbs hanging out. Obito retaliated by making fun of Kakashi’s lack of any growth spurts, leaving him forever the shortest on their team. Minato-sensei did his best to put out the fires that sprang up as they constantly rubbed each other the wrong way.

It was at twelve years old that Obito hit a milestone all shinobi must but few enjoy: his first kill. Only years later would he own up to the fact that it had actually been an accident. Really he had tripped and twisted himself as he fell, rather than executing a backwards roll to avoid a blow as it might have looked to the others. As his body went back and the enemy came forward, Obito’s arm came across at just the right angle to open the woman’s throat. He caught her look of dismayed shock for a split second before arterial spray covered the lenses of his goggles and he was left staring wide-eyed as a splatter of blood.

Rin was the one to lend him a handkerchief so he could shakily wipe the mess of his face. Minato-sensei rubbed his back and asked him in a steady voice if he was alright. It was nice to be treated so gently in that moment because Obito felt a little like glass that had cracked, weakened all over with the possibility of shattering at just the wrong touch.

“Well. Apparently your goggles are good for something after all.”

“Kakashi!” Minato-sensei clicked his tongue. “Now is not the time.”

“What? I was just saying–”

“Don’t be so mean, Kakashi!” Rin jumped in to defend her friend as well, adding her tsk to their sensei’s.

“I wasn’t!” Kakashi protested.

Rin only shook her head and gave him an exasperated look of disappointment. Kakashi growled in frustration and stormed off to throw himself down on the ground at the far edge of the clearing. No force on earth could get him to admit it but anyone could see that he was pouting. However, none of his teammates paid him the slightest bit of attention as Rin and Minato tended to the quivering Obito – and therefore none of them managed to see the way Kakashi craned his neck to see if their efforts were working.

Thirteen years of age brought Obito two things, a new appreciation for life and a friend he hadn’t even known he already had.

No one was sure which was the bigger miracle: that Kakashi managed to adapt so quickly to having a Sharingan implanted in his head or that the medical staff were able to repair Obito’s body enough that he would regain full function of all four limbs. Of course, he would live the rest of his life with horrific scaring over nearly 50% of his body, but even he agreed that it was a small price to pay for the ability to continue on with the path he had chosen in life. His career as a shinobi would be slowed only by his recovery time.

Jaws had dropped all across the village as the story spread about how Kakashi and Obito had both tried to sacrifice their lives for the other, especially whenever they were spotted around town bickering just the same as they always had. Despite the fact that Kakashi appeared glued to Obito’s side as he slowly stumped around on his crutches, and although they had both acknowledged the other as a true friend at last, that didn’t mean that either of them had magically changed personalities overnight.

“You got something to say about my face!?” Obito growled at his friend one day after Kakashi had stared at him for much too long in silence. Not intimidated in the slightest, Kakashi huffed.

“Hn. You got some of it in my face.”

“Maybe I’ll just take that eye back then!”

“Just try it, Stumpy!”

Obito hollered and leaned on his good leg so he could lift his crutches to swing them at Kakashi’s head. The younger boy simply skipped nimbly out of the way and snorted in amusement. A more childish person his age would have danced around to taunt the other boy, showing off his mobility, but Kakashi had been striving to be seen as more adult since he was five years old and thought of himself as above that sort of behavior.

So instead he simply stuck his nose in the air, trying not to be obvious about the careful tilt of his head which allowed him to still keep his one eye cracked open so he could keep a watch on Obito.

“Whatever,” he shrugged. “You don’t look at all that different to me so its fine, isn’t it?” The older boy flared and waved his crutches even more wildly.

“Are you trying to say I was already ugly before I got these scars? Stupid Bakashi! Why do you have to be so mean! I’m injured; you’re supposed to be nice to injured people!”

“That – I didn’t say that!”

Obito wasn’t listening. He continued to yell and gripe even long after Kakashi had dropped his face in to his hands with exasperation and hurried to walk ahead of his friend, out of hitting range. By the time they arrived at the dango stall where they were supposed to be meeting Rin both of them were scowling and she wondered what they could have possibly fought about in the three minute walk between here and the hospital.

At the ripe old age of fifteen years old Uchiha Obito achieved something that many in his clan had often told him would likely be impossible: he had achieved the rank of jōnin. With the war over field promotions had become less common and he’d had to take the exam like everyone else. Last year he had failed the psychological component but this year was different. This was the year that he made people look at him with respect.

Obito preened and blushed for the entire first hour of the surprise party his friends threw for him, thinking to himself that he couldn’t possibly imagine a single way for his night to get better. His own sensei, now the Hokage, had been the one to bestow him with his new rank. His former classmates, now trusted comrades, were all gathered around him at his favorite BBQ restaurant. Rin sat on his right side and Kakashi on his left, both of their thighs pressed tightly to his own as though if they only squished hard enough the three of them could become one single person. What more could a guy wish for?

For some reason, however, his own accomplishment was not what was on his mind now. Dinner had been finished a while ago and around the table there were several people just finishing dessert. Small groups held different conversations but Obito wasn’t contributing to any of them and neither was the younger boy to his left. Strangely, it was Kakashi that was on his mind.

It was something that he had begun to notice only a few months after the incident at Kannabi Bridge and still persisted to this day. Kakashi, he had noticed, only ever sat on Obito’s left side. He wouldn’t really have thought it odd were it anyone else; with his left eye missing, it was common for a lot of people to instinctively place themselves in his blind spot. That was what comrades did. The only trouble was that Kakashi kept his left eyes covered as well to reduce the chakra drain from the implanted Sharingan and standing on that side left himself at a disadvantage as well. It would have been safer for him to stand on the right where he would be able to watch out for himself.

Displaying an uncommon amount of patience, Obito waited until everyone had left and he and Kakashi were walking home together as they usually did, then he blurted out his question with no thought for graceful phrasing.

“Why do you always stand on my left side?”

“Because you’re blind on the left side,” Kakashi answered promptly. Obito scrunched his nose.

“Yeah well so are you,” he pointed out. “Wouldn’t it be better for you to be on the right where you can see?”

“That would leave you open to attack.”

Obito huffed. For a genius, the other sure was being dense. “Sure but now you’re leaving yourself open to attack instead.” Kakashi only shrugged.

“I’m the stronger shinobi so it would be easier for me to survive an attack to my blind spot.”

“Are you calling me weak!? I’m a jōnin now! I’m just as good as you are, you stuck up prick!”

With no further promoting Obito threw himself in to a long rant about how he hadn’t given up on his dream of being Hokage someday and how he was going to make Kakashi kiss his hat when that happened. He was so busy yelling that he never noticed the defeated sigh his friend gave, nor heard the tired murmur of, “That wasn’t what I said at all.”

At seventeen years old Obito’s life changed. Of course, his life had already undergone several large changes that had each seemed equally world-stopping at the time. Like all the others, he never even saw this one coming until it crashed down upon him – quite literally.

Bickering with Kakashi wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. To be perfectly honest if a day passed him by without a least one tiny spat with the younger teen Obito usually felt a little off kilter, like he had misplaced something. So walking home from a week-long mission, covered head to toe in dust and with Kakashi buzzing in his ear about something or other, he felt more ordinary than anything else. That didn’t stop him from snarling back when Kakashi implied something particularly offensive.

“Do you purposefully mishear me?” Kakashi demanded as they took a short cut through the alley behind their favorite teahouse. “That – wasn’t – what – I – said!”

“Of course it was!” Obito retorted. He was so used to the noise of disgust the other boy made that his brain filled in the visual of Kakashi throwing his hands in the air without even looking. He never expected for his shoulders to be shoved, turning him about to face his friend.

“No! It wasn’t! You never listen properly, Obi-brat, I was trying to say something else!”

“What then? How the hell was I supposed to take that other than you implying that I’m still slower than you at using jutsu?”

“You – I – would you just – oh for kami’s sake!”

In his wildest dreams Obito never could have predicted Kakashi’s reaction then. He flinched as the straps of his pack were grabbed in a tight grip and his body was shoved back against the wall of the alley. Expecting Kakashi to hit him in the face, he closed his eyes instinctively and braced for impact because as offended as he was he knew the other was actually right. He still wasn’t as fast with his hands as his teammate was.

Half a second later his eyes snapped back open in shock, staring hard at Kakashi’s closed eyelids and trying to process the fact that Hatake Kakashi was kissing him. Actually it was more like ravishing him. For some reason he couldn’t seem to make himself move, either, and so he simply stood still and let himself be thoroughly kissed by his best friend.

Amazingly, he could even see a line of deep red scrawled across the top of Kakashi’s mask when his friend finally pulled away, panting and scowling despite his blush.

“That is what I’ve been trying to say for fucking years now but you just don’t listen! You always misunderstand me and take what I say the wrong way! Baka! Brat! Too stupid to see your own best friend is in love with you! Why do I even like you?”

“You’re…you’re…EH!?”

“All I said was that your hand movements hadn’t improved as much as I thought they would. It was a simple observation, all I was trying to do was offer to help, and all you heard was an insult! Kami you are so freaking dense sometimes it makes me want to scream!”

“Hnngg!?” Obito frantically tried to locate his tongue and remember how to speak so he could say something – anything. He’d never heard Kakashi say so much at once nor speak so passionately about something, not unless he felt very strongly about the subject. Considering his choice of words for describing his feelings, it was apparent that he felt more than just strongly about this.

“I’ve been trying to get this in to your head since I was nine years old but all you ever think I’m doing is being mean. Is that all you see me as? A mean person who just insults you all the time? I try to help! I try to offer you compliments! But nooooo Uchiha Obito wouldn’t see a compliment even if it stripped naked and slapped him in his stupid face! Do you get it now, then? Huh? What about if I got up on the roof of the Hokage Tower and shouted it for the whole village to hear? Hey everyone! I’m in love with Obito and he’s never even noticed! It’s fucking awesome!”

Finally, Obito snapped. If his tongue wasn’t going to listen to him than he was going to have to let his actions speak for themselves. Not giving himself any time to second guess, he reached out and took hold of the straps of Kakashi’s pack like the younger boy had done to him, dragging him back in and cutting off the flow of words with a frantic kiss. Since it was only the second kiss he had ever experienced in his life, he really hoped he was doing it right.

Even if he wasn’t he had a feeling that Kakashi didn’t mind all that much. The sixteen year old let out an honest-to-kami whimper as he fell silent, using his body to press Obito farther in to the wall and framing his face with two pale hands. He was blushing even harder than before by the time the kiss was finished.

“Uh, sorry about that,” he murmured, ever so slowly stepping back. Obito raised his eyebrows.

“Yeah that was weird.” Kakashi’s entire body froze in place and Obito panicked, hurrying to correct himself. “No not the kiss! The kiss was awesome! Totally down for that! Just the yelling I mean, that was weird.”

“Really?” It was strange to hear Kakashi say anything such a small voice.

“Of course!”

“By ‘totally down’ do you mean you…I mean…could I…uhm…we…I know you always had a thing for Rin…don’t want to come between anything…”

Obito stared in awe as Kakashi slowly shrank down in to himself more and more the longer he continued to stammer. Just the fact that he was stammering at all was enough to blow the older teen’s mind, but the shyness threatened to overload him completely. If there was one thing Kakashi was not, it was shy. Although it took almost a full minute and his friend looked nearly ready to turn tail and run by the time he did, Obito finally got his brain back on track enough to speak again.

“I got over Rin years ago,” he pointed out softly. “So maybe we could, erm, go on a date sometime?”

“Really!?” Kakashi’s head snapped up and even through the mask it was obvious that his jaw had dropped with shock.

“Uh huh.” Now blushing himself, Obito shuffled his feet. “You could kiss me again first, though. I mean, if you want to or whatever.”

“Oh. Yeah. Sure.”

Despite his words, at first Kakashi only manage to stand there while the two of them stared at each other awkwardly. They were both blushing fiercely and it only worsened when he finally plucked up the courage to slowly lean forward, touching his masked lips to Obito’s much more gently this time. Either he gained confidence quickly or simply lost himself in the moment, but whichever it was it only took a few moments before he had brought their bodies close together again, standing well inside Obito’s personal space so their hearts were nearly beating against each other.

“So,” Obito murmured against his friend’s mouth. “This is kind of hard to misinterpret.” Kakashi huffed out a laugh.

“Took you long enough to get it,” he complained lightly.

“Not my fault. You are obviously terrible at flirting.”

“Maybe if you didn’t jump to conclusions so easily–”

“You better shut up and kiss me again right now or I’m gonna start another fight and ruin the moment. Less bitchin’, more kissin’.”

Kakashi had to take the time to laugh first but he did listen for once in his life. Obito figured he could be satisfied with that for now.

#rae writes #obikaka #obito #kakashi #fanfiction #naruto shippuden

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raendown · 7 years ago

Text

Chapter 71

Today’s chapter for the Soulmate Collection is for @miramise (who tumblr refuses to allow me to tag...)

Ah well. I love MinatoKakashi and this pairing needs more wholesome stories!

Under the cut or on AO3!

Pairing: MinatoKakashi Soulmate au: the one where when one person eats something their soulmate can taste it if they lick their lips

Kakashi was aware that many people were under the impression that he did not like sweet things, and also that it was mostly his fault for telling them as much. The truth of the matter was that he very rarely craved sweet things because he got his fill of them so often from his soulmate. The bond they shared was constantly flooding his mouth with the taste of chocolate or dumplings or strawberry Pocky. Kakashi got to enjoy all the flavor and none of the calories and he kind of enjoyed the way it worked out. His metabolism wasn’t half as active as most people thought it to be just by looking at how skinny he always was.

At the moment Kakashi was lying on his back with his arms tucked up behind his head, licking his lips under the mask that hid them to enjoy the flavor of the candy his soulmate was currently tucking in to. He was supposed to be watching over Naruto as the eleven year old played by the river and if asked he would protest that he was. He just wasn’t paying as close attention as he could have been. Naruto had learned how to water-walk from his father three years ago and if he fell in the river at this point then Kakashi thought it was more likely to be on purpose than by accident.

“Kakashi-nii! Look what I found!”

He looked away from the clouds to see his young charge running up the hill towards him, something in his hand glinting in the sunlight. Naruto stumbled to a halt in front of him and grinned his overwide Uzumaki grin, the one that always reminded Kakashi of the boy’s mother. Then he held out his treasure with a hint of pride.

“I found it in the weeds!”

“Ah, one of your dad’s kunai! Good find, Naru-chan.” Kakashi’s eyes turned up in a smile as he ruffled the young boy’s hair. “Let’s go show him!”

Naruto let out a whoop and dashed off towards the Hokage tower. Kakashi hauled himself upright and followed at a more sedate pace. Sometimes he tried to imagine what his life would have been like if he hadn’t had Minato and Naruto. It was likely that he would have fallen in to the darkest pits of personal hell, swimming in self-hatred over the things he had done. He thanked kami every day that Minato had not decided to sacrifice himself to save the village the night his wife had died.

The nine-tails had escaped in the moment of her death and Minato had admitted a long time ago that he gave some serious thought to sealing half of the demon fox’s chakra within himself using the Reaper Death Seal. Kakashi would forever be grateful (and feel slightly guilty for it) that he had instead sealed the entirety of the beast within his newborn son.

He wasn’t entirely certain what his life would have been like without the two sunshine blonds in it but he was certain that he didn’t want to ever find out. Many people in the village had started calling him Naruto’s second father because of how much time he spent with the Namikaze family. Kakashi pretended he didn’t hear them – pretended that it didn’t make him preen every time they said it. He loved Naruto like the boy really was his own son. And he loved Minato more than he had ever found the courage to say. Still, that didn’t mean he was going to force himself in to their lives in a role he had no business filling.

His charge beat him to the Tower, unsurprisingly, and had already crawled over the desk to fling himself in to the Hokage’s lap by the time Kakashi walked in to the office. Kakashi licked the taste of chocolate off of his lips and grinned, wondering how fast his friend had had to move to hide away the treats he wasn’t supposed to have at his desk.

“Dad! Guess what we found!” Naruto shoved the rusted, muddy kunai under his father’s nose. Minato leaned back and crossed his eyes trying to see it. Then he grinned.

“Ah.” He chuckled. “Picking up your old man’s trash, eh Naruto?” His son laughed and Kakashi shook his head.

“Would you like to join us for lunch? You seem hungry.” He smiled calmly under Minato’s suspicious look.

“I don’t know how you do that,” the older man grumbled, “but yes, of course. I would never pass up an opportunity to have lunch with my two favorite guys!” He waited for Naruto to hop off his lap before standing and shrugging out of his haori.

Kakashi tilted his head curiously. “You don’t know how I do what?”

“I don’t know how you always know when I’m hungry,” his friend said. Kakashi lifted one eyebrow.

“Because you start snacking on sweets when you get hungry.” His statement received a half-hearted attempt at an affronted look.

“Wha-! Who said I was snacking on sweets?”

“You were just eating chocolate…”

Minato gaped at him, then whined, “How did you know that? Can you smell it?” In return, Kakashi gave him a look that questioned whether or not all of his faculties were still working.

“Smell it? I don’t need to smell it when I can taste it!”

“You what!?”

The haori fell from his fingers two inches too early, missing its hangar and slumping in to a pile on the ground. Minato didn’t seem to notice or care. He stared at Kakashi with his eyes bugging out of his head while the younger man looked back at him in utter confusion.

“What are you getting so upset about?” he asked. Minato twitched.

“What do you mean you can taste it? Kakashi that would make you my soulmate!”

“Well…yes. Probably because we are soulmates. Always have been?”

“We, uh, we what now?”

Kakashi rocked back on his heels, ignoring the way Naruto’s head back bounced back and forth between them like he was watching a tennis match. “You didn’t know that?”

“You did!?” Minato countered. Kakashi huffed.

“Of course I did! I can see what you’re eating! We’re together all the time! Do you mean to tell me that you never put two and two together?” He’d known since he was a child, for kami’s sake! How could this man not know that his soulmate had been right there in front of him this entire time when Kakashi had figured it out almost two full decades ago?

Minato flailed wordlessly for a few moments, too overwhelmed to make the words go. Then he gave vent to a strange wordless shriek. “No! I didn’t know! How could you have known this entire time and not said anything?”

“I thought you knew, obviously!” Kakashi’s exasperation was punctuated by Naruto’s snort, drawing both of their attentions to the boy.

“Dad’s pretty loud. If he knew, wouldn’t he have said something? He’d be talking about it all the time.” It said something that Naruto, of all people, would call his father loud. Kakashi hummed and crossed his arms contemplatively.

“I suppose you’re right,” he admitted. “I guess I just thought that it was one of those things you just don’t talk about, you know?”

“Why wouldn’t dad want you to talk about it?”

“Well, I mean, he loved your mom, right?” Kakashi shrugged. “He doesn’t love me. At least, not like that. Which means that even though we’re soulmates our relationship is platonic. So really we’re just very close friends. I figured he was avoiding the subject to spare my feelings or something like that.”

The Hokage’s jaw seemed to drop lower and lower with each sentence he spoke until all of the shock building up in his expression began to leak out as disconnected half sentences. “I don’t-? You’re my-? We’re just-? You think-? But you-? Guh.” Finally he deflated with a large exhalation of breath. “Can we just go to lunch?” he asked faintly.

Kakashi shrugged and led them out, feeling uncomfortable. He’d had no idea that Minato had no idea. That the older man was just realizing their situation now left them both in an uncomfortable position, especially since Kakashi may have given him just a little bit too much information on his side of the equation.

The three of them were painfully quiet all through their meal at the ramen stand. Kakashi kept his head down and refrained from looking at the man he had long since considered his best friend. There might be ten years between them but neither spent half as much time with anyone else as they did with each other. Kakashi spent so much time at the Namikaze household that Minato had joked more than once that he should just move in and have done with it.

And there had been times when Kakashi had seriously considered the offer. It would be nice, after all, not to go home to an empty apartment. There was always only one thing holding him back: that was the house where Minato had loved Kushina, the house in which he still loved Kushina. Her memory lingered in the very walls and Kakashi knew that he did not belong there. Not when his heart longed to take his place at the other man’s side – not when Minato did not want the same.

He felt more out of place than ever as the three of them headed back there after lunch, Minato sending a clone back to the office to continue chipping away at the never ending mountains of paperwork still waiting for him. Naruto headed straight to his bedroom at a look from his father, leaving them alone in the living room. Kakashi stood next to the couch with his hands deep in his pockets and his shoulders up around his ears like he was trying to tuck in to himself and be as small as possible. He hadn’t felt unwelcome in this home since Rin and Obito’s deaths, when he was young and scared and hurting, wondering if his sensei would blame him for things he had no control over. Now he hesitated to sit, feeling like he should ask for permission to make sure it was allowed.

“So…” Minato stood with his weight on one foot, his face still covered in the bewildered expression he had worn since they left the Hokage Tower. “I’m having trouble wrapping my head around a couple things here. We’re soulmates.”

“Mhm.” Kakashi nodded, trying to shove his hands even deeper in to his pockets.

“And you’ve known about this for how long, did you say?”

“I figured it out a couple of years after you were assigned as my sensei. We usually ate the same thing when we had meals together so it took a while.” He shrugged and looked at the wall as he spoke. “Then when Obito and Rin were put on the team we started going on missions and I could see you eating while I was on watch. Every time you ate I could taste whatever was in your hand. It wasn’t a hard leap.”

“I never even considered…” Minato ran a hand through his hair. “I would apologize for being so dumb this entire time except you mentioned you thought that I had known?”

With a small nod, Kakashi said, “Yes, I did.”

“And you thought that I just didn’t want to talk about it?”

“Yes.” He held his breath, praying the older man would spare him the indignity of a confession. His hopes were dashed by the pink rising in Minato’s cheeks.

“Because you thought I was trying to spare your, ah, feelings.” The blond cleared his throat, looking as awkward as he always did when trying to talk about emotions. “What exactly are you feelings?”

Kakashi looked down at his feet and shrugged, saying nothing.

“That’s not an answer.”

“Well I don’t want to answer.”

“Kakashi do you…I don’t know how to ask this…”

“Yes.”

Minato blinked, pausing with his hand half raised. “What?”

Kakashi sighed and turned his head to one side. “What you were trying to ask? Yes.” Minato stared at him, utterly still, until he seemed to flutter with his entire body, dancing back and forth between the balls of his feet.

“Oh my god you’re in love with me.”

“Okay, yeah, let’s just say it out loud then! That’ll make me feel better!” Kakashi glared at the spot of floor his eyes were trained on, annoyed but unwilling to look up.

“Since when!?”

“Does it matter?”

“Of course it matters!”

“A long time. It doesn’t matter.”

“It does!”

“Doesn’t!”

“Okay stop!” Minato held his hands up, palm out, and closed his eyes for a moment. “This isn’t getting us anywhere. Just…Kakashi, you’re really in love with me? You’ve really had feelings for me and not said anything because you thought I…you thought I would just prefer to sweep it all under the rug?”

Kakashi looked up at last, only to cringe and look away again, unable to stand the sight of those big blue eyes. “You loved Kushina very much,” he said quietly. “I would never dishonor her memory like that and I would never push myself on you like that. I understand that you don’t see me the same way. I thought you knew how I felt but never addressed it because it was kinder. We could both pretend it wasn’t there; you would never have to outright reject me.” He twitched when Minato took a few steps closer, instinctually trying to back away only to find an armchair blocking his way.

“Oh Kakashi,” Minato said, reaching out to take gentle hold of the younger man’s elbow. “I did love Kushina. But that doesn’t mean I have no room in my heart for anyone else. I’m allowed to fall in love again. And your feelings in no way dishonor her memory.”

“Do you have some sort of medical condition that forces you to be kind about everything?” His companion might be awkward about dealing with emotions but Kakashi was prickly. He’s first reaction was usually to snark and snap until people backed off. It was a defense mechanism that usually ended up with him being alone. Luckily the Hokage had many years of practice dealing with him.

“Did you really think I would want you to suffer in silence?”

“Quit being so dramatic.”

“Kakashi,” Minato quieted him with only his name spoken in a firm tone. Kakashi looked up and, this time, managed to hold that heavy gaze. He held still as a tan hand took hold of his chin. “Many people go their entire lives without ever finding their soulmates. I can’t believe I’ve had mine sitting right under my nose for almost half my life and didn’t even know it.”

The younger man continued to say nothing. He wasn’t sure there was anything for him to say anyway. This entire conversation was mortifying and he wished he could just go. He didn’t expect anything good to come of it. Surely their relationship would be strained after this and he wondered if it would take a long time before things went back to a semblance of normal.

When Minato shuffled a little closer again Kakashi tried once more to step back. His ankle thudded against the armchair behind him and he stumbled. His backward momentum was halted when Minato used the grip on his elbow to pull him forward, straight in to a solid chest and holding him there as the hand on his chin raised his face a little higher. He made a low noise of protest but Minato only smiled softly and shook his head, refusing to let him go.

“Silly man.”

Kakashi opened his mouth to say something and then choked the words back because suddenly they were kissing, lips pressed together in a slow, sweet embrace that stole the breath from his lungs. He groaned in surprise, body melting forwards and eyes falling shut. Minato caught him, the hand at his elbow winding around his waist and holding him tightly while the other tangled in his hair. The kiss was chaste, barely more than chapped lips pressed against each other with slow, almost hesitant motions, but it burned through him like wildfire, purifying, reducing him to cinders and leaving him newborn in the ashes.

He was left too stunned to move when Minato finally pulled away, separating them by a mere couple of inches. The older man smiled at him and leaned forward again until their foreheads rested brow to brow.

“Wha-” Kakashi started to ask, cutting himself off with a blush when his voice cracked. He cleared his throat and tried again, “What was that?”

“It’s like I said,” Minato chuckled, “I have room in my heart for more than one person. You are my best friend, Kakashi. And my soulmate. What reason could I possibly have to turn you away?”

“But you don’t…you…” Kakashi floundered, trying to make his stuttering brain work. “But why did you kiss me? You don’t feel that way.”

“Oh? And how do you know that?” Minato asked with a grin, his eyes bright and warm.

Kakashi huffed. “You certainly didn’t seem very receptive earlier,” he said. His half-hearted annoyance went ignored and Minato cooed and pressed a second kiss to the corner of his mouth.

“Well pardon me for being in shock Mister Keeps-It-All-Inside.” One more kiss to the opposite corner of Kakashi’s mouth, then he straightened with a slightly more serious smile. “I want this. I want us. I’m so sorry you had to wait this long for me to get a clue but I promise to do whatever I can to make it up to you.”

“Can you check my neck for me? I think I have whiplash.”

“You can’t just let me have this one nice moment?” Minato slumped, rolling his eyes yet unable to entirely hide the fondness in his expression. “You don’t have a single romantic bone in your body.”

His exaggerated despair and Kakashi’s answering smile were both cut off by a loud victory cry from the doorway and the small orange blur that suddenly bolted in to the room. Naruto plowed in to them from the side, latching one arm around either waist while his head fell back to let out another crow of triumph.

“That means Kakashi-nii really will be my other dad!” the boy shouted. “That’s so cool, ‘ttebayo!”

Minato laughed, his cheeks turning pink again. “Who called Kakashi your other dad?”

“Uh, everyone?” his son replied. “Where have you been?”

“Oh. I...well that’s…oh.” Minato’s blush deepened but he looked pleased and Kakashi had to turn his head to hide his own darkening cheeks.

“So now we can be a family for real, right?” Naruto asked, his eyes wide and shining, his smile bright. Minato chuckled and pulled both his son and his soulmate in for a tight group hug.

“Of course,” he murmured. “Of course we’re a family.”

With his face tucked in to the older man’s neck, Kakashi smiled. He had spent a long time being so close and yet so far from where he really wanted to be. Now he had been handed everything he could ever possibly have wanted and he couldn’t describe the feelings - the sensations - in his chest. All he could think was that happiness tasted sweeter than any of the candies that Minato so loved to eat.

#soulmate collection #rae writes #minakaka #yonkaka #minato #kakashi #naruto #fanfiction #naruto shippuden

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