#and he was in a way alone since naruto had the advantage of having kushina's chakra sealed in him

[hraishin]

naruto had kushina to help him get the kyuubi's chakra but killer bee didn't have anyone but himself and his desire to be there for his brother

#like as much as bee was strong he was a child when he went through the process of getting the hachibi's power #and he was in a way alone since naruto had the advantage of having kushina's chakra sealed in him #he makes me so emotional i love bee so much actually #killer bee #naruto #syd rambles

[purple-possibilities]

Like Father, Like Son

Rating: Teen

Warnings: mentions of death, mentions of prostitution, like slightly dark? Gritty maybe is a better descriptor, Naruto world taken seriously.

Length: 1888 words

Pairing: MinaKushi, Minato’s Canonical Dad x Minato’s Canonical Mom

Genre: romance, drama, slight angst (we know how these two ended up), crack taken seriously

Summary: the story of Minato’s parents, and how that influenced Minato’s decisions, and his courtship of Kushina. Inspired by this post about Minato being extra.

Like many children in ninja villages—and truly, just children in general, since the Warring States Era and the formation of the Ninja Villages—Namikaze Minato is an orphan. His father was a self-taught ninja from a small village on the boarder of Kaze no Kuni, while his mother was a kunoichi from Tsuchi.

Though Minato's parents had died when he was young, he was old enough to remember them. He was old enough to understand why his parents were forced to hide away from their home countries, old enough to know when and why he had to hide and lie.

He was old enough to understand why tousan had to escape in the night while he and kaachan had to flee in the cover of tousan's sacrifice distraction.

He was old enough to understand why he and kaachan had to lie about their ninja training when they immigrated into Konoha with forged papers so realistic that not even Konoha's infamous T&I, or their renowned Yamanaka clan could tell the difference.

He was old enough to understand why kaachan was forced to work in the way she did, why strange people would spend an hour or two, or sometimes even the whole night behind the door to his mother's room, why she made him leave when some specific visitors stopped by, why he eventually came home to find her laying in bed, blooms of red and shocks of shiny white against her cold, still skin.

He was old enough to remember it all—to want to change it all, one day—but his mind would always take him back to one specific memory.

His most precious memory of all.

The love in his parents' eyes.

Minato could recite the story word for word, with how much his kaachan told it—how much more she would cling to the words after tousan was gone.

Kaachan was from Iwagakure, having sworn her life to the Tsuchikage and the Tsuchi no Kuni daimyou as a kunoichi of the Rock. Touchan truly had no allegiance—his skills had come from a talent with chakra and a necessity for self-defense.

So when touchan had seen a group of Suna-nin abducting a woman, he did what any good man would do.

He saved her.

Touchan had followed after the Suna-nin in secret, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Touchan was not sure he could defeat the two Suna-nin on his own, but he knew that with the help of the right environment and a few tricks, he could come out victorious.

With his wind chakra aiding him in both speed and his strikes, touchan caught the first nin completely off guard. As the second nin—the one holding kaachan—noticed his partner listing to the right—before the dead body could hit the ground—touchan had just as swiftly eliminated the other, catching kaachan in his arms.

Unwilling to linger at the scene, touchan carried kaachan away, until it was safe for them to stop. When touchan untied kaachan's binds, she couldn't help herself.

Kaachan pulled touchan into a kiss.

It was in that moment that kaachan fell in love with touchan. Both were alone in this cruel ninja world. The shinobi nations were in the midst of the second Great Ninja War. People were dying left and right, hundreds every day.

Who would miss one kunoichi? Who would recognise one self-taught man from the edges of Kaze no Kuni?

Who would give up on the chance of happiness, love, and family, when the world had taken so much from them?

He remembers asking his parents how they knew they were in love after just one meeting.

His mother always answered, “A selfless act of kindness in a cruel world is a rare thing to be treasured. When you find that, especially when you're alone and hopeless, it's easier to leave behind the entirety of your harsh, unfriendly life for even just a single moment with such a person."

When Minato asked his touchan, his father always answered, "There is not much kindness in this world, not much any single person alone can do to fix that. We work hard, we may try to help others, but that's not going to get any one man very far. Kaachan has a fire in her, a toughness, a resilliance which cannot be crushed. She is fierce in her mind, body, and soul. As a man forced to grow and survive on his own, I know just how valuable, and how rare those traits are. I had desperately craved for companionship, for a family, and your mother has the strength and resilliance to ensure our story will be longer than most."

At the time, Minato didn't truly understand what either of his parents meant. But as an orphan, as a boy all alone, who had witnessed the worst of the world and wanted to make it better, who had his world stripped from him in a place that should have been safe, with the weight of his parents sacrifices on his mind and the desperate urge for a family once more...

Minato fell in love.

All he knew about love was what he'd seen from his parents. With no advice, no one to turn to, Minato did the only thing he could:

He emulated the fond, much told memory of how his parents fell in love with the percotions, strong-willed, resilliant Uzumaki Kushina.

And like a blessing from beyond, like a gift from his absent parents, Uzumaki Kushina—who had only ever glared and grumbled at Minato before then—had fallen in love with him.

It hadn't been hard to use the shadow-clone jutsu and then henge them into Kumo-nin. It wasn't hard to find Kushina all alone, after tricking the ANBU who followed her with a genjutsu laid out by Uchiha Fugaku's sharingan.

It wasn't hard for Minato to gently disable (but not disperse!) his own clones, to catch Kushina in his arms, to take her to "safety" (as if she were in any danger at all).

It wasn't hard to attract her heart and capture it—not with his boyish good looks, his patience, and most damning of all—

Kushina's lonliness and desire for connection.

With her home village destroyed and Mito-sama recently deceased, there wasn't a better time for him to put his ploy in motion. Maybe to a civilian that might seem callous, but to a ninja, that was just smart planning.

What did it matter if he was using her grief and loneliness to his advantage? His company would heal that for her anyways.

(Besides, it was his grief and lonliness which drove him to do it).

Minato would grow up to be a lot of things: a hero and a curse, a soldier and a leader, a husband and—just briefly—a father.

Minato would not go on to share the story of how he got Kushina to love him with his son. Minato would instead go on to emulate his father, sacrificing himself in the hopes of giving his child a shot at a better life.

But that was for later. In this moment, in the shoddy comfort of the bachelor apartment allotted to orphaned ninja-in-training, Minato put the pieces of his plan together.

Minato was old enough to retain memories of his life before Konoha, before his parents were taken from him, but only one memory stood out.

And so he remembered.

And so he took the past and made it his present with dreams of the future on his mind.

Fun Facts!

I imagine Minato's mom to be blonde like he, Naruto, and Deidara are, while his dad has red hair similar to Kushina and Gaara. His mother's hair was smooth and straight while his father's was spikes like Minato and Naruto.

The ninja who killed Minato's father were sent after his mother for desertion. Another Iwa-nin had caught sight of her and reported back to the Tsuchikage. The nin were sent to kill Minato's parents but were instructed to bring Minato back alive in case he was useful. I kind of puts Minato's massacre of those thousand Iwa-nin during the Third War into a new light...

Fugaku only agreed to help Minato because when he initially refused, Minato accused Fugaku of not being able to do it. Fugaku, like a certain other Uchiha we know, was desperate to prove himself. Minato didn't tell Fugaku about his plan, he just dared Fugaku to trick the ANBU.

Minato had to practice with his clones for weeks to be able to fight them without them "popping." He ended up having to use a seal on them to make them more resilliant. It was his first time working with fuinjutsu, and what sparked his love for it. Kushina's interest only heightened his own.

Yes, Minato's dad only went along with kaachan's feelings because he was lonely and she was strong. Relationships have been built on less. He was a very pragmatic man. He did genuinely fall in love with her though.

When Minato and his mom immigrated to Konoha, she had to pretend to be a civilian with no ninja training to avoid suspicion, and be offered asylum as a Hi no Kuni refugee. As a foreigner (even one posing as a Fire Country citizen) and with the growing number of refugees, it was hard for her to find a job, so she became a prostitute. She was killed by a nin who was triggered and experienced a panic attack/flashback. He fled the scene after, and ended up letting himself get killed during his next mission. The case of her murder remains unsolved—not that the police did much investigating. There were more pressing issues to deal with at the time.

The harsh life Minato lived—as a fugitive and then a refugee and orphan—is what led him to want to be Hokage. He wanted to save people from the pain he and his parents suffered.

Kushina's spirit (and declaration to be Hokage) is what attracted Minato to her. His father's words of finding someone strong and stubborn enough to survive in this cruel ninja world is what made him decide she was the one for him.

Kushina is dumb. So dumb. Didn't catch on even once. Fell for the plot hook, line, and sinker. Even when, years later, Minato shared the story of how his parents met with her, Kushina did not piece his plan together.

Due to Minato using "Kumo"-nin to carry out the abduction, he made their already poor reputation in Konoha worse. This was further exasterbated when real Kumo-nin actually tried to kidnap Hinata.

Minato sacrafied himself that night when Kurama was unleashed on the village, because all he could think of in that moment was the way his father sacrificed himself to save Minato and his mom. It clouded his judgement from more logical options, like, I don't know, not casting a suicide jutsu to trap half a tailed beast in his minutes old son and his soon to be dead body.

Kushina was delirious from pain meds, having an tailed beast extracted from her, and her own hotheadedness. It was a bad mix.

In the end, Naruto learnt that rescuing a girl is the way to her heart, following the Namikaze family tradition of courtship.

AN: So, uh... This got darker than I thought. The post that inspired this was so cute too. I wrote this a few weeks ago on a night I was too busy for this bs and yet it would not let me rest until it was released. I wrote this after being challenged prompted by @books-n-guns, as crack is my apparent specialty (we been knew, I know. After the LeeKaguya fic I think I solidified my place in this fandom). I hope you enjoyed it!

#namikaze minato #uzumaki kushina #minakushi #naruto #just a little piece i wrote #sibi writes

[inrainprose]

17. Azukiarai

First – Prev – Next  – Masterpost  

They take the way back to the train station – “it will be faster,” Karin says, and Sasuke doesn’t ask why they didn’t ride it to come here then, because Sasuke knows to pick his battle. She deems him suitably punished for his mishap of the previous day, so there is no need to dwell on it.

Just when they’ve crossed the bridge back to the city’s side, she receives a call. Sasuke imagines it’s a question of habit – the foxes are unbothered by the portable phones. They carry them on their person every time they go out like the humans do, while just looking at one gives him a headache. The one landline they have at the temple rarely rings and even more rarely calls. He can’t deny it’s pretty useful though.

“Yeah, what is it? Yeah, we’re heading back now. Again? Don’t you ever have enough? Yeah, yeah, fine, I’ll go. You better have the bath ready when I come back! I know I am. Bye.”

She pockets the phone and her demeanor is different when she turns back to Sasuke. It’s subtle, not so much a physical change as one he can just feel, as some tension and leftover worry leave her body.

“Do you like dango?” she asks him, and doesn’t wait for an answer, strolling toward the many shops and kiosks lining the streets around the bridge. He is starting to dislike being dragged around without having a choice or a thing to say, but then again, what else can he do? He is dependent on the foxes’ hospitality – it’s not like he could roam the city on his own.

Well. He could.

They stop at a tiny café, with only an elderly woman serving drinks and sweets with shaky hands at the counter, and a child squatting in the back, washing dishes. They sit at one of the few tables outside.

“Naruto wants me to bring him some. They’re his favorite in the whole city.”

She seems in no hurry though, as she orders two tea and two sticks of an-dango for them both – or so he hopes – while asking for a few more to be boxed up for take-out.

Sasuke hears a sound.

He tries to pinpoint when he has heard it before. It’s clear despite the noisy street, a rattle, like someone washing rice or…

Beans. Red azuki beans.

He cranes his neck to peek inside the small shop. Looking more closely, the child is bony and crooked, with big eyes and misaligned teeth, and it’s not a child at all.

It’s an azukiarai, a bean washer, bent over their basket to wash their azuki beans. The sound carries across the shop and into the air around them, but Sasuke supposes the humans can’t really pay attention to it.

He’s seen a few before, but they are known to be shy, solitary creatures, living deep in the mountains and forests where they are rarely heard and even more rarely seen. To find one here, casually washing their beans under a tap is jarring, to say the least.

The old woman goes to the yokai, grabs a handful of beans from the washing basket to prepare more past for the dango. The azukiarai lets her, mouth widening in a toothy smile.

“What… what are they doing here?” Sasuke asks, pointing at the child-yokai. Karin seems completely unbothered by the sight and only shrugs. “What do you think? They work here.”

Apparently he is supposed to content himself with that explanation. His discontentment must show on his face - the girl huffs in exasperation.

“The old woman needs help. The bean washer needs beans to wash. It works out.”

The woman is very old indeed, probably with poor eyesight and hearing, and both unbothered by and open to the supernatural, as old people tend to be. It does work out.

Sasuke munches on a dango, pensive. It’s true, they are very good, the perfect texture and just enough sweetness. Itachi would love it, Sasuke thinks. He wonders if it’s due to the old woman’s skills or the azukiarai working their will into it. Probably a mix of both. Despite witnessing first-hand the life led by the kitsune here in Kyoto, he had never considered that yokai could be that much… involved in the human words. To the point where they could be dependent on each other. A part of him rebels at the idea, as he can’t imagine what humans could possibly bring him and his family except for troubles and frustration.

But it works out. The azukiarai cranes their neck to grin at Sasuke. Sasuke awkwardly smiles back before biting into his dango.

“Don’t do that again.”

He chokes on a mouthful. Was he not supposed to eat? Karin rolls her eyes.

“Don’t ask him to change.”

Ah. He supposes that is what she meant to tell him from the start. Naruto and Karin bicker and fight constantly, but she’s furious now on his behalf, that anyone would dare hurt him.

Sasuke finds it endearing. Family ties are something he can relate to and understand. Though he could do without the threatening edge to her voice.

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m not the one you should say that to.”

He huffs. He is well aware of that, but she’s the one who’s here now.

“He can talk as much as he wants, do you hear me? If you don’t like it, just don’t hang out with him.”

“That’s not it!”

He recoils at her scalding look and his own outburst. He doesn’t like to lose his temper, but she’s testing him.

She sighs, forcefully smoothing down the sharpness of her anger. She could almost pass for sympathetic.

“We don’t have any unfair advantage over you. It wasn’t any easier for us, at the beginning. It was harder even, since we were alone.”

“What about Kushina?”

Karin’s gaze grows distant, lost in some memories not so nice to revisit.

“She didn’t find us right away.”

She doesn’t elaborate and he doesn’t ask despite his curiosity. It’s obviously a sensitive subject and she already said more than he thought he would get from her.

He can’t deny he finds the foxes’ company tiring, but he’s also aware Naruto is not at fault, nor is she. Sasuke can endure. He can make the effort.

“I’ll do better.”

“Yeah, you do that,” she snarls, but seems to feel a little guilty right after. “Thank you for your help today,” she adds in a mumble.

It’s progress enough for now.

#yokai student exchange au #yse #yse au #naruto au #update #a long one this time! #i'm running out of written chapters lol #soon update are gonna get even slower :) :) :) #life is tough

[naruto-v2]

Kakashi

With Minato’s inheritance and all the ANBU jobs Kakashi was taking, Kakashi was determined to let Naruto live a satisfying childhood. If he wanted something, Kakashi would save up for it. If he got hurt, Kakashi would find revenge. Kakashi finished up his daily training and wiped his forehead. His eyes widened slightly as he found the sun starting to set. Last time he checked, it had been the crack of dawn. Kyo, their assigned ANBU caretaker, was going to scold him again for forgeting to eat. Kakashi gritted his teeth at the thought of that man. Just like everyone else, Kyo did only the minimal amount of things to keep Naruto alive: a plate of food each meal, make sure he is not attacked or provoked (Meaning no training with other kids, only with certified teachers, if they even bothered) , housekeeper duties, and the basic allowance each month. If Kakashi was not there, Kyo most definitely would have settled with a cup of  instant ramen each meal, killing the boy soon enough with all its MSG and lack of nutrition. It was Kakashi who taught Naruto transformation jutsu so people would stop taking advantage of him, and it was him who bought Naruto all the paint he needed to satisfy his creative needs. So Kakashi must live on, for the boy.

After eating dinner with Naruto, and making sure he did his night routine of showering and brushing his teeth, Kakashi retreated to his bedroom. Just as he closed the door, his breath caught in his throat: his hands and arms were  covered in blood again. Working in the ANBU for so many years, he’s been hardened to it. At least, he would like to think he is. He could smell the coppery tang and it made his lungs icy. He choked down a sob as he bolted through the window to the bathhouse. 

It didn’t come off no matter how hard he scrubbed.

It had only been a few weeks since this last happened. His hands stung at every stroke now and new blood trickled down his hands. Even after hours of scrubbing, the blood stuck stubbornly to his hands. Kakashi yelled in rage and pressed down harder even though subconsciously he knew it could not come off.

Suddenly, large hands took the sponge from him. Kakashi stiffened and got into a defensive stance, ready to kill the intruder to relinquish his sponge. But he recognized the blond that peered down at him: Minato.

“You’re bleeding,” Minato murmured gently. Kakashi felt a stab of pain through his heart but ignored it.

“The blood won’t come off Sensei...”

“It’s not real, remember? You’re just imagining the blood is there. Though, your scrubbing has opened the wounds you created last time. Please, Kakashi, seeing you do this hurts me.” Kakashi let his arms fall limply at his sides as Minato helped him was his hair, like they always did. He watched with a slightly disconnected gaze as the damp, silver strands stuck to his cheeks, dripping water onto the rest of him.

-----

Kakashi first met Namikaze Minato when he was four, just after he started at the Ninja academy. He was a prodigy and father often took him on missions. This time, however, it was an A rank and required a team effort. Kakashi first noticed the strange brilliance of his golden hair and the warmth of his smile. Just like father, he was a respectable, strong, and kind man. Unlike father’s other teammates, Minato allowed Kakashi to sit with them as they planned for their mission. As always, father treated him as an equal even though Minato looked much younger that him. Not many ninjas were as old as father, which made Kakashi proud because it meant father was an exceptional ninja, surviving even to his age.

Kakashi had bowed and smiled back at the stranger because his father always emphasized the need to be polite. He knew father would praise him for it later.

People always boasted how he was born a natural at everything. But their words meant nothing compared to father’s, and Kakashi knew his prowess was mainly due to his field experience. Kakashi had always thrown himself enthusiastically into the Samurai training sessions with his father just to spend more time with his role model.

Father had even made sure to come to his graduation after two years despite being really busy, gifting him his own sword. Dad was so proud, which made Kakashi happy too.

He was too young to go onto a normal genin team, but Kakashi liked it better this way. He trained with one of Dad’s friends, getting stronger and better. By the time he was nine, Kakashi got to test for Chuunin. And he passed. He was the best. The greatest!

And then Dad failed.

 -----

 Minato knows how to comfort him. How to make him feel less worthless.

“Stay with me,” Kakashi whispered desperately. Of course, he knew Minato was not one to abandon him, yet something felt of. Kakashi dismissed it. Nothing else mattered when Minato is putting him back together piece by piece, mending him together with his comforting words. All Kakashi can do is hold on tightly. He needs them. He needs Minato.

“Please,” Kakashi whispered. 

He didn’t know what exactly he’s asking for. To be held? To be reassured? To die?

At some point, his sharingan eye, Obito’s eye, had begun to cry.“Shh.” Minato stroked his white hair soothingly as Kakashi leaned onto him.

-----

 Kakashi stood at the living room entrance, staring at father sitting at the edge of the porch. Father had never looked so weak before, father had never failed before, father was supposed to be the one everyone admired. Kakashi grimaced as he felt his father’s shame weigh on the air.

Father only got worse. Kakashi tried not to care. He ignored the other Chuunins gossiping about Dad and that failed mission, about how he was a disgrace to ninjas and if he went on another mission, he would make the same mistake. When the mounting pressure got too heavy to bear, he committed suicide. When Kakashi saw the sword sticking out of his bowed back, he vowed to live strictly by the ninja code.

That was the same year he was put on a team. Kakashi hated them. They were too slow, too weak-hearted, too stupid. Obito didn’t know how to shut up and he and Rin would flirt at every off chance they got. Kakashi didn’t need a team, especially this team.

But it was headed by Namikaze Minato, one of the best Jounins in the village. So Kakashi decided to tolerate it for a while and see what would happen. He might just learn something useful.

-----

Kakashi had always been a master at time management, cramming as much productivity as possible into every minute of his life. Books, television, friends were all useless. He studied enough to pass, said enough to avoid enemies, and rested enough to be healthy and alive. Yet, after the nine tailed fox’s attack, time has become muddled and confusing.

“Easy,” Kushina murmured softly as she placed a gentle hand on Kakashi, who had begun gasping for breath. It's all Kakashi can do not to jerk away and scream. The blood was back.

Kakashi’s nerves are too ragged to think properly, so Minato caught his wrists, giving him a moment to realize the blood was just red hair.

“Easy,” Kushina repeated quietly and, for a moment, Kakashi is terrified that he’ll see pity in her gaze. But he doesn’t. He sees concern and love, the same look a parent would give their child.

Kushina’s soft hands cupped his face as her thumbs brushed away the tears. He can’t help but lean into her chest as he closes his eyes. 

He’s here. He’s with them. He’s fine. He’s fine.

-----

The first time he was dragged home with Minato, much to Kakashi’s displeasure, Kakashi did not take much liking to Kushina. Just like the dullard Obito, she was loud and brash and did stupid things. And he was fine that she disliked him back. But after he had left for the bathroom and come back, he found her gazing at him with a strange gentleness that ignited rage within him. He told her boldly that he hated the way she talked.

Annoying. Stupid. Too compassionate.

He hated the soft way everyone looked at him despite his efforts to appear brash and cold. Obito, Rin, Kushina, and even the man he respects. Kindness was what got you killed on the field. 

Kakashi glared at them as they laughed and chatted lightly. He leaned against the wall, arms folded over his chest, and watched as Obito and that woman made fools of themselves while Rin giggled and Minato-sensei beamed.

His chest tightened. Maybe he did want to be a part of this...

Content. Happy.

Kakashi hated these feelings.

-----

But he ended up loving them didn’t he. He ended up relying on them. And look where he is now, back at square one. His loved ones are all dead.

Dead…

He lightly touched his face to feel the porcelain mask, dragging him back to reality. Kushina and Minato faded from his sight. He was hallucinating again. How much enhancement pills had he consumed last night?

He feels no heat from these apparitions, yet he continues deluding himself. Sometimes he tries to grab onto them, unwilling to let go. Don’t disappear… Don’t leave me alone again...

“Stay,” Kakashi whispered to nobody in particular. His heart pounded out of control and he vaguely considered sleeping pills. Those were harder to get as you had to be prescribed them by the doctor. But he knew they would find out about his nightly intake of enhancement pills. And they would take that away from him too, wouldn’t they.

His dead eyes unfocused again as he slipped into another memory.

---- 

When Kakashi became a Jounin, he had expected this. His friends had thrown him a party. Obito had patted him on the back, saying that it was about time his skills were recognized. People commended him for his youth, being only thirteen and having this title. Kushina, however, was angry, and protested against his promotion, saying that he was too young for those missions. Her words seemed idiotic to him. If you were strong, then no matter the age, you should be allowed to prove yourself.

Kakashi’s first mission as team leader wasn’t exactly easy but he had confidence in his skills. He would show his father he could do better than him. That he was worthy of the title of Jounin even that young, despite Kushina’s displeasing words.

But the mission went to hell faster than he could cope. He lost an eye and, soon after, his team too. 

Kakashi had failed. Rin and Obito were never coming back. Dead. Dead. Dead…

Dead like father, lying on the floor, surrounded by his own blood and with his own sword jutting out of his belly.

When Kushina sat beside him at the hospital and reached over to touch his hand, Kakashi broke down for the first time. Tears poured from Obito’s eyes.

----

Kakashi glanced at the watch he always carried. It was no help, it was already two in the morning, meaning time had eluded him again. When had he arrived at the bath house? Eight pm, he was sure of it. His wrinkled hands dragged the towel over his body and he stood to head home. 

Before going to bed, he swallowed another two pills to quiet his growing discomfort. 

Feeling the familiar rush of adrenaline through him and pinprick of pain, Kakashi murmured their names, one by one, like a prayer. When the rush died away, he drifted into an uneasy sleep.

----

There was no celebration for making it into the ANBU. Kakashi stood in front of the memorial in his uniform to show Obito and Rin. Obito and Rin beamed at him in his mind and that made Kakashi smile because it was painful and he didn’t want them to see his suffering.

When he met Morino Ibiki and got a painted mask, he was elated. A new name, a new story. Maybe he could let go of the past… But when he got back from his week-long mission, the hallucinations only worsened and every once in a while he found himself covered in blood.

The smell of blood made it all seem real, sickening him and making him vomit. He would spend the night trying to scrub it off, until he would collapse with exhaustion and hope the next mission would keep him occupied.

Not long enough. He slipped and fell deeper and for a few weeks, he managed to forget them until he’d returned. He almost dreaded coming back to Konoha. Coming back to Naruto, his brother, the son of his dead parents. He tried to think of them as Minato the Hokage and Kushina the former Jinchuuriki, . Sometimes he managed.

Kakashi never managed to forget the blood and the screams and torturing a lone ninja for information he desperately needed. It filled him up in the quiet of the night, when the boisterous little boy rested.

When it finally became too much, Kakashi found himself at the memorial, letting who knows how much time escape him.

----

Kakashi didn’t remember waking up or doing his morning training. All he remembered was standing over a man, twisting his arm out of proportions. “Don’t touch Naruto.” He growled out. He vaguely recalled the man shooing his brother out of the library, calling him a demon brat. It clawed out Kakashi’s heart to hear that.

“It’s all right,” Minato murmured as he ruffled Kakashi’s hair. Kakashi let go of the man to see Naruto scurrying away. He looked back to glare one last time at the man, pale and shaking with fright.

“You’re okay,” Kushina echoed from behind him.

He was tired. So so tired. But he must live on to protect Naruto. He must ensure Naruto becomes a great shinobi and leaves his legacy before Kakashi can finally rest in peace. Minato’s last mission- protect Naruto- he will honor it to his dying breath. Kakashi reluctantly placed his fingers on his white hound mask to anchor himself. The images disappeared as they should.

That night, Kakashi cornered Naruto again to apologize for scaring him. When Naruto finally nodded, accepting the apology, Kakashi made sure the ANBU caretaker made adequate food for his brother before heading off to get some fresh night air. He saw how Naruto flinched as he neared the dining table, eyes looking everywhere but at him. He will let him sleep on it; Naruto will forgive him tommorow. He always does. At least he’s safe. Kakashi felt a sense of pride as he thought of the strict schedule he set up for Naruto to ensure he would never be in danger. It made sense to Kakashi: stay indoors between 7am to 6pm unless supervised by someone trusted, which so far only included Kakashi himself. 

Nearing ten pm, Kakashi slipped back into the apartment and checked up on Naruto. He had buried his face into his spare pillow, hugging it to his chest tightly. He’s safe.

Kakashi flopped down wearily onto his bed in the master bedroom he and Kyo shared. He had given the separate bedroom to Naruto for privacy and so he can personalize it. Their apartment took up the entire top floor of a building in Konoha, allowing it to be rigged with the distortion seal, making it seem this floor does not exist. Early on, Kakashi had trained Naruto on to use the small open air courtyard to slip out from above without much detection. 

Kakashi turned his head to gaze out the window. A ghost of a smile danced on his lips. Even in death, Minato was always watching over them from the Hokage’s momument.

From outside the window, you could see the seventh hokage, Minato Namikaze, in all his glory, watching over Naruto and him. 

It still pained him, but he knew it would get better in time. Maybe. For now, two pills, and restless sleep.

#headcanon #naruto #fanfic #fanfiction #naruto uzumaki #kakashi hakate #anbu kakashi #kakashi #anbu #family #angst #depressed #pills

[raendown]

@letliv3 You will take it and you will like it because this is your fault.

Pairing: MadaraKakashi Word count: 3745 Summary: In which Obito helped found the village, Madara was a member of Team Minato, and Kakashi gets lost down a few different paths in his life.

Follow the link or read it under the cut!

KO-FI in the blog header!

Building Our Own

Kakashi was pretty sure he didn’t like Madara. Pretty sure. There were times when it was really difficult to stay inside his shell and hate the world because watching Madara – barely taller than himself yet filled with enough attitude for the whole village – face off against the taller, brighter, unsuspecting Minato-sensei was always the highlight of his week. Knowing the two of them had so much in common did not mean Kakashi wanted to make friends with the other boy. He didn’t need friends to become the greatest ninja this world had ever seen and restore his family’s honor.

Anyway that Gai idiot followed him around too much already. His non-existent friend quota had been filled, thank you very much.

It was still kind of hard to ignore Madara. The boy refused to not be seen but he wasn’t obnoxious about it. There was just something magnetic about his competence even at such a young age, the confidence in every move he made, even the spiky stupid mess of his hair. Most of the Uchiha that Kakashi met had beautiful smooth hair but Madara seemed to have skipped that gene; his hair stuck straight out from his head in stiff spikes reminiscent of Kakashi’s own locks. Yet another thing they had in common and could have commiserated about together – if he had time for stupid things like friendship. Which he did not.

Much to their sensei’s despair, Madara didn’t seem all that upset that one of his teammates refused to bond with him. The majority of his concentration went to edging a few words about his precious baby brother in to every single conversation ever. None of them had ever met Izuna but after less than a month of being a team they all could have probably picked him out of a crowd and recited at least ten different points of trivia about him off the tops of their heads.

And that right there was the one thing that truly set them apart, the one bit that stopped Kakashi from allowing himself to at least like the boy, even if only from afar. Where Kakashi had lost everyone he ever loved Madara still had someone, even if it was just a useless little brother. He still had someone to care about, someone precious, and besides that he had a clan that treated him like absolute royalty. Apparently Madara was a direct descendant of the great Uchiha Obito, founder of their village and betrayer of the Shodaime Hokage. Kakashi didn’t really see why he got to be venerated for being related to a traitor when others were shunned for the same thing but the one time he had tried to question it Minato-sensei had hushed him and Kakashi felt his heart grow a little bit smaller.

So Kakashi stayed small and quiet and spent the hours he wasn’t training with his team training in private instead. He would grow bigger, stronger, and someday he would be the one to show Madara his back. He would be the one that others watched from afar.

He would restore the honor his father had lost. Only then would his life be worth something.

-

“Your father’s honor is not your own.”

Madara’s words left him reeling, adrift and unsteady where he had always felt solid logic underneath his feet. Kakashi waited for the world to stop spinning before baring his teeth behind the mask that hid them.

“What would you know about it?” he snarled. Madara scoffed.

“I’m descended from the biggest traitor this village has ever seen but does my clan care about that? No. They care that I inherited his strength. Haven’t you ever heard the phrase ‘innocent until proven guilty’ before?”

“At least you have a clan! Don’t talk like you know me!”

“Of course I know you, dumb ass.” Everything Madara said was always said with confidence, as though it was an absolute immutable truth. It made refuting him very difficult sometimes because the way he spoke made Kakashi want to believe.

He resisted because clearly no one else should have a say in his situation not when they weren’t the ones living it.

“I will restore my father’s honor!” he began. He got no farther in to his rant before Madara rolled his eyes and interrupted.

“There’s nothing to restore, he’s dead. We build our own honor. And you have plenty of that even if you’re an asshole. Take the stick out of your ass and wake up. You’re Kakashi, not Sakumo. You can’t fix his mistake any more than I can. He didn’t even make one!”

“He – what?”

Kakashi sat, stunned, and listened to the entire fifteen minutes of Madara’s rant about how true dishonor was in abandoning your comrades and how the entire concept of their village itself had been founded on the desire to protect one’s comrades. Apparently the history books left out quite a bit of information about Uchiha Obito’s life before he abandoned Konoha; Kakashi never knew it was him that had named their fledgling settlement or him that had come up with the idea in the first place as a way to protect his own precious ones.

All through the boy’s impassioned speech he remained silent, soaking in every word like a message from on high, and when Madara finally stopped to pant angrily, kicking at a nearby tree stump, he cleared his throat with more awkwardness than should have fit in to his twelve year old body.

“We should find Rin,” he murmured. It was the best he could do for an apology. Madara narrowed his eyes, probably trying to determine whether or not he meant that, then nodded decisively.

“Good to see you got your head out of your ass. Damn right we go find her. No more of this ‘the mission is more important’ bullshit, alright?”

“Yeah…”

“So what are we waiting for? Aren’t you supposed to be mission leader? Lead on, jōnin-taichou!”

Amazed that his teammate still trusted him to do so when he had only just a few minutes ago suggested abandoning Rin to her fate, Kakashi nodded and closed his eyes to think. “My summons will be able to follow her trail more easily than we can.”

Kannabi Bridge went on to become the mission famous as a long-awaited turning point in the war, the incident that finally gave them a clear advantage to end things in Konoha’s favor. For the ones who carried it out, however, it was memorable for a different reason. The mission to Kannabi Bridge was the day they finally – finally – became a true unit, the day Madara brushed that chip off of Kakashi’s shoulder and offered the hand of friendship instead.

It also became the day Kakashi would look back on and realize he was completely and utterly screwed.

Of course he would fall in love with his best friend. Of fucking course.

-

ANBU suited him a little bit too well but that was fine. Everything was fine as long as he had Madara there with him, eagle mask covering his face and endless black hair spilling around it like a cloud of death. He wondered why they bothered with the masks sometimes. Both of them were entirely too identifiable by their hair alone so really all the masks did was add a bit of extra dramatic flair.

Shaking his head, Kakashi forced his attention back to the task at hand, pushing just a little more speed out of his tired legs. The two of them had run countless missions together since becoming true comrades, both in the name of Team Minato and as the perfectly matched pair they were now in ANBU, but never had they run a mission this important before. It was only the second time Rin had been captured and already it was starting to feel like a pattern. He wondered which idiot had been the one to decide this time that she was the weak link in their band of comrades. Rin was many things but she was not weak.

As evidenced by the carnage that came in to view when they finally found her. More than half of the bodies that lay dead around her were decorated with perfectly normal wounds, their flesh opened by blades and the extra clean sort of cut that could only come from her weaponized medical jutsu. The rest had been mauled as though by a hungry beast – and a beast she looked, right then.

Her pretty brown eyes glowing red and her entire body bubbling with a sickly green cloak of pure poisonous chakra, it was hard to tell whether or not she recognized them at first. A low growl rumbled across the space between them and the two young men shared a look before hastily removing their masks.

“It’s fine now,” Madara attempted a soothing voice. “They’re dead.”

“Don’t,” she warning when he tried to take a step towards her.

“It’s just me, it’s just Madara.”

“Shut up! I know who you are, dummy!” The growl in her words cracked and hiked to a whine that Kakashi recognized all too well. He’d raised eight dogs on his own; he knew what a wounded animal sounded like. “I can’t go back with you. Not like this.”

Unfortunately neither of them had been born with an ounce of tact. Kakashi snorted. “Can and will. Haven’t you heard the rumors, Rin-chan? We’ve had a beast living with us the whole time and I’ve never seen Kushina-nee bite anyone’s head off yet. Well, not literally. She’s scary but she’s not out for blood no matter what the monster trapped inside her wants. She can help you.”

It was a terrible thing to see in a friend, that broken light of hope too small to be believed in. Kakashi inched forward, saddened when she flinched away but determined to reach her, and when her bubbling chakra burned his skin he refused to show any sign of pain.

“Come home. If we can survive Madara for this long then we can survive you. He’s more of an animal than anyone.”

His friend’s offended screech broke the tension and Rin’s startled laugh was a balm on all their souls, just enough of a positive emotion to push the beast in her belly down. The effort left her exhausted but Kakashi caught her and Madara took point to protect them both as they turned for home, wearing a pout still but it was a very cute pout so Kakashi only teased him a little bit. It was good to be together.

-

“That’s a big fox.”

“Your observations are as astute as ever,” Madara’s voice drawled from behind his shoulder.

“We have to fight that big fox? He’s just a big scary dog. I don’t wanna hit a dog, Dara-chan!”

“Stop calling me that!”

Kakashi smiled briefly to see Madara stomp one foot. Fifteen years old and he still hadn’t grown out of the habit. Then he turned his eyes back to the carnage in front of them when Rin touched down at his other side.

“Isobu says that Kurama isn’t acting like himself,” she reported. “Something must be controlling him.”

“Right. Let’s found out who, shall we?” Kakashi narrowed his eyes, all traces of amusement gone from their little trio of death as they all pushed off the Hokage monument they had been perched on to make their assessment. Team Minato, as they still sometimes thought of themselves, were not the first line of defense in any fight. They were the ones who ended the fight.

When they found the man controlling the Kyuubi he was much older than they might have guessed – ancient, in fact. The fact that he could still move the way he did seemed to be due to the fact that one entire half of his body had been reconstructed with an unidentified white substance that reformed and reattached itself when injured, healing faster than they could hurt him. And that wasn’t even the part that made the fight difficult. No, that was the fully formed Sharingan in his one good eye, an abomination that enraged Madara.

It took all three of them to bring him down, one unit moving perfectly in sync. It took Isobu and Susano’o and eight dog summons. It took everything they had but in the end Uchiha Obito lay ancient and exposed at their feet, screaming his impotent rage and crying out revenge against a man who had never truly wronged him.

“Senju Hashirama is dead,” Kakashi muttered in exhaustion, kicking away a severed limb still trying to crawl back to its host. “You should be too. Hold still and let me fix that.”

“He abandoned me! He will pay! The world will pay! I will have what I am owed! The perfect world, don’t you see? We could all live in the perfect world!”

“Something tells me your perfect world would not be like mine.” With his blade raised Kakashi shook his head in pity. “The world owes you nothing. Those who go back on their word like he did are trash, that’s true. But those who abandon their comrades? People like you who break bonds, you’re nothing but scum. Goodnight, Uchiha Obito, I hope you find rest.”

“Poetic,” Madara noted, watching as Kakashi impassively drew a blade through their defeated enemy’s throat.

“Maa, I didn’t mean to be.”

Rin groaned and sat down on the bloody grass. Then she fell over backwards with a sigh of relief. “Well that wasn’t what I wanted to do with my Tuesday,” she said.

“Any chance one of you can sense how Minato-sensei is doing with the Kyuubi? I’m fresh out of chakra.” Very gently, slowly so as not to jostle his sore body, Kakashi lowered himself down to join Rin. Madara snorted at them both.

“Your reserves are pathetic,” he pointed out. “The Kyuubi’s chakra has been split but I can still feel Kushina-nee. It would seem sensei was able to seal the beast in to two places at once. Very interesting.”

Both of the two on the ground made soft noises of curious agreement but investigating would have to wait. Just knowing their precious ones were alive was enough for now. Everything else could be left until after they had recovered the feeling in all of their limbs, possibly until after they had slept for a week. They had gone head to head with a legend today, after all. That definitely deserved a nap.

Madara wandered over to perch next to Kakashi, brushing something out of his hair without seeming to realize he was doing so. As much as he didn’t seem to want to admit it he was just as tired as the other two. Kakashi held his breath and allowed gloved fingers to trace the shape of his jaw.

“You took a lot of stupid chances today,” his friend murmured. Kakashi nodded.

“So did you.”

“Hn. Dumb ass.” His piece spoken, Madara’s eyes rolled back in his head and his body gave in to the exhaustion he’d been trying not to show. Unfortunately when he passed out he flopped down across the other two, who both grunted in surprise and then wriggled in dismay to find themselves trapped, lacking the energy to roll the idiot off of them.

Rin was the first to give up, flopping back down to the grass with a sigh. “You know for a second there I thought he was going to lean down and kiss you.”

Then she laughed as best she could at the redness of Kakashi’s face and the disconnected syllables gurgling out from behind his mask.

-

Twenty years old was a terrible age all of his friends were at least one year older. Twenty years old meant that all of his friends could drink while they oversaw the chūnin exams here in Suna but all he could do was sip soda and watch. What was the point of such a high drinking age anyway? And who had ever heard of a shinobi being denied a drink? He’s been getting served back home since he reached jōnin at the age of twelve.

Actually that probably wasn’t a high point and Minato-sensei should probably make sure that practice wasn’t still being followed. But his point still stood!

Kakashi felt cheated when his decision to go out with his friends in the hopes of watching them all make fools of themselves ended with sitting in the corner of a dusty Suna club watching over the ladies’ purses while Madara snoozed next to him. He’d really been hoping Madara would get drunk and do something stupid. Or maybe that he would get absolutely blackout drunk and do something completely out of the blue like, say, decide to make out with the comrade who’d been silently in love with him for almost a decade now.

Life was so unfair.

Jerking his elbow in to the other man’s side at least got him the amusing reaction of bleary eyes jerking open and an angry expression. He muttered something too but it was impossible to hear of the thumping music so Kakashi shrugged and shook his head, completely unrepentant. Madara scowled deeper and leaned over to put his lips right next to Kakashi’s ear.

“I said, you’re a dick. I was trying to sleep until we can get the hell out of here.”

Kakashi pushed away the urge to shiver and shouted over the music. “So let’s get out of here.”

Rin and Anko both tried to wheedle them in to staying when Kakashi wound his way through the dance floor to give them back their purses but he skipped free of their reaching hands and hustled back to Madara’s side. Stumbling outside was heaven on his ears, stepping passed the barrier of excessive noise and in to the blessed silence of the desert at night. Both of them groaned with relief and rubbed at their aching heads as they hurried away, ignoring the judging eyes of the club’s bouncers, eager to get back to their hotel rooms and just relax. Neither of them were really the sort to enjoy this stuff anyway. A nice homey bar would have been more their style but it had been Rin who invited them out so it had been her choice of venue.

Madara’s steps were surprisingly steady for someone who had pounded back enough alcohol to fall asleep in that blaring chaos. He wove side to side a bit whenever something interesting caught his eye but for the most part he didn’t seem too dizzy and Kakashi felt cheated all over again that he wasn’t needed to heroically offer his shoulder as support.

“Where are we?” The sudden question made him furrow his brows.

“Uh…Suna?”

“No! I mean I don’t recognize this street.”

Stopping to look around, Kakashi bit his lip. “Huh. You’re right. I think we’re lost.”

“That’s fine. As long as I’m lost with you.” Madara shrugged and continued on while Kakashi’s feet stumbled to a halt, one hand pressed against his chest to sooth his suddenly racing heart.

He glared as best he could and hoped the darkness covered the blush on his face.

“You can’t just…say stuff like that.”

“Oh. Shit. You’re right.” Confusingly, Madara looked embarrassed as well to realize what he’d said, clapping a hand over his mouth and sending a guilty look out the corner of his eyes.

“Wait. I know I’m right but why do you think I’m right?” Kakashi asked.

“Cause I don’t want you to know that I like you!”

“Maa, of course you like me, we’re best friends…”

Now frustrated that he wasn’t being understood, Madara stomped his foot and turned to shake a finger under Kakashi’s nose. “No! I mean like like you! Love like you! Don’t misunderstand me! I swear sometimes you do it on purpose because you know it annoys me and–”

His friend continued to rant but most of it washed over Kakashi, who had of course heard this lecture a hundred times and more. Well, except for the part where Madara was apparently in love with him, that bit was new. And mind-blowing. Life-changing, really. It took a while to sink in that Madara didn’t seem to realize what he had just confessed, either because he was too drunk or because nothing else ever mattered when he’d found something to be irritated by.

Why Kakashi found that cute was a mystery.

He did finally shut up when Kakashi kissed him, though. Actually, to be fair, he did make a few aborted attempts at speaking before finally giving in and kissing back, one hand fisting in the front of Kakashi’s vest to keep him in place. When they slowly pulled apart he licked his lips and fell immediately back in to a scowl.

“The mask, you idiot,” was all he said. Kakashi scrambled to pull it down out of the way.

“You want–?”

Madara’s answer was another kiss. And it turned out he was right, it was definitely better with the mask out of the way.

Someday, when he had eventually recovered his scrambled wits and picked himself up from the puddle of goo he could feel his body melting in to, he would need to say thank you. Not for the kiss, although the kiss was good enough on its own to warrant starting a diary just to describe it and Kakashi very much hoped they could do this again. Preferably every day from now on. But eventually he would need to impress upon Madara how grateful he was to have the other man in his life, how important it was that Madara had never abandoned him even when he was a young child with a terrible weight on his shoulders that he should never have been carrying in the first place.

Eventually he would need to say that he owed everything he was as a person to Madara.

But not now. Right now he pressed forward slowly to bury his fingers in long thick hair and cling to the one person he had been striving for since long before he had ever acknowledged it.

My honor is my own, he thought as they stumbled against the front of a nearby shop, his thoughts going back to a moment between them half a lifetime ago. And I owe my honor to you, who showed me how to believe in it. How to believe in us.

#rae writes #madakaka #madara #kakashi #fanfiction

[silverfootstepswrites]

Butterfly [23]

summary Thinking of you.

When autumn finally approached in Konoha, the town seemed to let out a sigh of relief. Old Man Sarutobi made promises of the delicious sweet potatoes that would come from his field soon. People began pulling their heavier blankets and sweaters out of storage. And while it was still hot during the day, the nights brought a hint of the cooler weather to come.

Sakura deflated the plastic pool in her backyard. Actually, Naruto came over to push all the air out of it. And she treated him to ramen for dinner to show her thanks. 

Her phone stayed busy as friends updated her on the start of the figure skating season. The qualifiers for the Junior Grand Prix were already underway. The Challenger series would be starting in a couple weeks. It was a fresh start for all the skaters, with everyone gunning for the top spots. Especially now that she was gone, that opened up a spot on the podium for ladies’ singles events. 

Several publications reached out to her for comments on the upcoming season. She ignored a majority of these emails. But she did respond to a select few, stating that she looked forward to see how all skaters would continue to develop both themselves and the sport as a whole. Her comments were published less than 24 hours later. The fervor with which fans tweeted about her surprised her a little. But it also made her smile to know that she hadn’t been forgotten yet.

The only people in town who seemed to match Sakura’s excitement was the Namikaze family. Every free moment of the day, Naruto was on his phone. He refreshed the ISU’s website obsessively, keeping track of everyone’s scores and rankings. 

“If anyone breaks your records, I’m going to die, Nee-chan,” Naruto told her one day. Sakura rolled her eyes. 

“Then you’re going to die every year. World records get broken all the time. Heck, even I did it a bunch of times,” Sakura replied. 

“11 times,” Naruto reported. 

Sakura eyed him. “I wish you’d apply some of those memorization skills to your schoolwork. Like why can’t you memorize stuff for history that way, Naruto?” she sighed. She had been the witness to Kushina’s nagging when he had gotten a 43 on his last history test.

“No way. Kakashi-sensei’s class sucks,” grumbled Naruto. Kakashi, who had just finished making copies, overheard this. 

“You suck,” Kakashi retorted. And he hit Naruto on the back of the head with the stack of handouts as he walked past.

Rubbing the back of his head, Naruto griped. “That’s abuse! You saw that, right, Nee-chan?” 

“I didn’t see anything,” replied Sakura. 

For Kakashi’s birthday, the teachers surprised him with a party in the faculty room. Shizune baked the cake while Kurenai made Shikamaru and Asuma help her decorate with banners and balloons in bright colors. When he entered, Sakura and Lee doused him with confetti that stuck to his hair and clothes for the rest of his classes. 

Tsunade treated everyone to drinks that night. And Kakashi, extremely hungover the next day, expressed concern that he might not live to see another birthday at this rate. 

And yet a week later, they all found themselves at Genma’s bar again to celebrate Shikamaru’s birthday. Of course, Kiba came out to join them once the clinic closed. And everyone screamed with laughter when he told the story of how he and Shikamaru had gotten their heads stuck in a fence when they were kids. 

“Sakura nearly ripped my head off trying to pull me out,” added Kiba, clapping his hand onto her shoulder. She didn’t respond as she continued to devour all the edamame in front of her. 

“She even cried because she was worried we’d be stuck there forever,” Kiba went on, shaking her a little harder. Shikamaru sipped at his beer, casting wary looks at Sakura, measuring her flat expression. 

“And remember that time I got my tonsils removed and you thought that meant I could never talk again?” 

That was the last straw. Sakura turned and began slapping him on the back and shoulders. He continued to laugh even as he yelped. 

“Nara! Save me!” Kiba whined.

“Die alone, dude. I wanna live,” Shikamaru retorted, cheek in his hand. 

“Some things never change,” sighed Kurenai. She watched with a wistful expression as Sakura caught Kiba by the back of his shirt. Her fingers seized the skin of his upper arm, twisting. He howled. Asuma and Kurenai winced in unison. 

Orochimaru leaned toward Itachi. “Now, don’t be scared, Uchiha-sensei. Inuzuka-kun is the only person I’ve ever seen suffer at Haruno-kun’s hands this way,” he told him.

Sakura looked up. “Right, Orochimaru-sensei? He’s just so annoying!” she agreed. And she dealt Kiba a slap to the back. Kurenai and Asuma winced again. 

“But you love me, Haruno!” Kiba interrupted, who slung his arm over her shoulder again. Scowling, Sakura shoved him away by the cheek. 

“Okay. Since I love you so much, I guess you’ll forgive me if I tell everyone the story of how you accidentally broke into your neighbor’s apartment in college,” Sakura announced. 

The drinks continued to flow as the night went on. Their voices grew louder and louder. Faces turning red, fingers shiny with the oil from the karaage Shizune dropped off from the kitchen. Gaara took advantage of a rowdy moment as Tsunade told a particularly funny story. He crouched down between Shikamaru and Sakura’s chairs. They leaned in to listen to him. 

“I don’t mean to be rude, Nara-sensei. But my son is probably waiting at home with dinner,” Gaara whispered. Shikamaru flapped a hand at him. 

“It’s fine. It’s fine. Go ahead, Sensei,” Shikamaru assured him.

“Yeah. Escape while you can. You don’t want to have to sit through Asuma-sensei’s-” Sakura added, her eyes drifting back out to their coworkers. And to her horror, Asuma had pulled his shirt up and found a marker to draw a hideous face on his stomach. He began dancing around, twisting the face into even more grotesque shapes. Shikamaru put his face in his hand. 

“Well... that. Gross,” Sakura finished. Sighing, she turned back to Gaara.

“Go on. Tell your son we say hi,” Sakura urged him. Grimacing, Gaara made a swift escape under the cover of Asuma’s horrific party trick.  

It wasn’t until Genma kicked them out of the bar that they finally decided to call it a night. Asuma and Kurenai each draped one of Lee’s arms over their shoulders to take him home. Kakashi went with them, waving a noodle-limp arm at Sakura. 

Sakura turned to look at Kiba sitting under a streetlight. He swayed back and forth, hiccuping. Every once in a while, he leaned back, like he might fall over. But he managed to jerk himself back upright each time. 

Hand on her cheek, Sakura sighed. She looked at Itachi and Shikamaru who stood on either side of her. 

“If we leave him here, will he die?” she wondered.

“He might be attacked by a bear,” Itachi suggested. Shikamaru nodded.

“Or a tanuki,” agreed Shikamaru. 

When Sakura turned her head to look at him, Shikamaru scowled. 

“No,” Shikamaru said, refusing to look her in the eyes. Lips puckering together, he shook his head. 

“....Nara...” Sakura uttered. 

His shoulders dropped. He let out the world’s longest sigh before he muttered, “Fine.”

Shikamaru bent down. 

“C’mon, you lump,” he grumbled as he hauled Kiba to his feet. Kiba’s eyes opened. 

“YO! Shikamaruuu! It’s you! Happy birthday, man!” Kiba slurred out, a goofy grin stretching his mouth. Shikamaru looked over his shoulder to glare at Sakura. She blew him a kiss in return. 

“Ugh. Let’s go, you drunkard,” Shikamaru ordered as he pulled Kiba in the direction of his house. 

“Make sure she gets home okay, Uchiha-sensei,” Shikamaru called over his shoulder. 

“Noooo! Tell Sakura-chan to come party with us!” came Kiba’s fading protest. 

“Shut up, man,” Shikamaru retorted. 

As they walked on, their silhouettes and their voices disappeared. 

Sakura looked over at Itachi. He had been badgered into having a few extra drinks by Tsunade. His face was a little rosy, but he was far better off than Kiba was. 

“Shall we go?” suggested Itachi. 

One of Sakura’s favorite things about moving back to the countryside was the quiet. Which she promptly shattered when she tripped over a bump in the road. Itachi managed to grab her hand before she fell face-first into the dirt. Her knee hit the road, but she barely felt the sting.

She opened her mouth to say ‘thank you’. Instead, a laugh spurted out of her. Itachi helped her to her feet. But she grabbed onto his shirt, laughing like she had never laughed before. And that only became funnier when she realized that he was laughing too. 

“You’re drunk,” he chuckled. 

“You are too!” she pointed out. 

His hand closed around her upper arm, setting her the right way on the road. 

“Come on,” he said, pulling her along at a pace that was neither too fast or slow.

“Okay,” she heard herself answer. 

Head spinning with shochu, Sakura watched the stars spin past above her. The sky was a big blue canvas with the diamond stars embedded into the fabric. She wondered if she could get someone to cut her a few yards to make a new skating costume. And that was the last thing that lingered in her memory when she woke up the following morning. 

Sakura sat up in bed, rubbing at the back of her head. The inside of her mouth was dry. Her right knee hurt a little. She rubbed the back of her hand over her cheek. Let her hand flop back into her lap. Smacking her lips, she looked around her room. 

The clothes she had worn yesterday lay in a pile by the door. Drunk Sakura usually had the courtesy to put them in the hamper. But since the hamper was currently overflowing, Sakura wasn’t too annoyed with herself over that. Her phone rested on her nightstand. The screen lit up to let her know that she had unread messages. 

Overall, it was a quiet Saturday morning. Just the chirps of the birds outside her window and the faint hum of the air conditioner running overhead.

As she opened her mouth to yawn, a scream came out instead. Because one extra memory from last night decided to soak back into her brain. 

Standing at her front door, she had grabbed Uchiha Itachi by the face and said, “You know, you’re actually really handsome.”

Sakura threw herself back on the bed, limbs flailing. She threw her pillows on top of her face. And then her covers. Maybe if she suffocated to death, he would completely forget what she had said with her stupid, drunk mouth. 

She called Ino, who generally was less of a mess than she was. And Ino scoffed. 

“You were both drinking that night, right? He probably doesn’t even remember it,” Ino stated. 

Sakura poked her had out of her fortress of blankets and pillows. “You think?” she asked. 

“Yeah. He probably forgot it already. Just chill,” Ino assured her.

“You know, you told me that I was handsome the other day,” Itachi said on Monday. It was in the morning, almost as soon as she set her bags down in the library. 

Sakura covered her face with her hands. 

“You have the wrong person. That wasn’t me,” she responded. 

“Really? Because I’m pretty sure it was someone named Haruno Sakura who said that to me. I hear she works here,” Itachi went on. He took a couple steps toward her, hands in his pockets. Sakura peered through her fingers at him. 

“Yeah, that’s not me. She died,” insisted Sakura. 

She lowered her hands. Because when she had glimpsed his expression between her fingers, he had been smiling- not in a mean way. He still was. 

“Oh. That’s a shame. I wonder what happened,” Itachi sighed. 

“I hear she got eaten by a bear,” Sakura replied in a flat voice. 

“She must have some horrible friends who didn’t walk her home,” quipped Itachi in response. A snort slipped out of her. She tried to cover it up, failing miserably.

Itachi rested his hand on the counter. 

“Now you won’t feel as awkward about it. Right?” he said. 

Sakura didn’t respond. She huffed out an angry breath through her nostrils. It wasn’t like any of this was his fault. But it didn’t stop her from being annoyed.

“Although, I have to be honest with you,” Itachi added. She looked at him. 

“I was very flattered. My heart went just a little doki-doki. I’m not used to being hit on by a celebrity like you,” he uttered in the most serious tone. Biting her lower lip, Sakura turned away from him, arms crossing across her chest.

“You’re smiling,” Itachi guessed.

“No, I’m not,” Sakura insisted as she smiled even harder.

“Man, I wish Haruno Sakura hadn’t been eaten by a bear. She’d never treat me like this,” sighed Itachi. 

She burst into full-bellied laughter.

#writing #itasaku #butterfly

[darquedeath4444]

Ivy

Chapter TWENTY FIVE

Namikaze Naruto had grown up surrounded by amazing people.

His father is Hokage and his mother is one of the last living Uzumaki. His Jounin instructor is Sharingan no Kakashi while his other teacher is Jiraiya of the Sannin. Itachi is the prodigy of the generation while Shisui is just as famous in his own right.

And of course, while he will never admit it out loud, there is Sasuke, his childhood best friend, who he thinks is probably one of the most amazing people out of all of them.

Naruto had found out about the years long infiltration mission from Sasuke himself and he will never admit that he had cried the night of his friend's departure, of frustration and anger.

He knows Sasuke had suffered since the massacre of his clan and he knows that there are evil people out there who want to take advantage of the gaping hole in his friend's chest in some twisted way and he didn't think it was fair that the village too, was taking advantage of someone who was trying to take advantage of it.

He knows Sasuke had willingly agreed to the mission, because he had been there whenever his friend grew too tired to pretend to be whole and fell apart, and he knows that a purpose will be what keeps his friend together, and if that purpose was to sneak into the hideout of one of the most dangerous criminals, he would do it.

He knows all this, but that does not mean he likes it.

Naruto spends his days smiling and hanging out with his friends and doing missions but all that really goes on in his mind is a countdown towards Sasuke's next mission report and particularly, that messy note attached to it written for him, and after all this time, all the insults and unspoken words of encouragement exchanged on paper, he will be seeing him. In person.

When Naruto had learnt that Sasuke would finally be pulling away from Orochimaru, he had been ecstatic. He had stormed into the Hokage’s office and demanded and begged and pleaded that he be put on the team that went after him.

Tsunade had raged and ranted for a while about privacy and doors but she had soon agreed; it wasn't like she had been planning to not put him on it.

Soon, Naruto finds himself at the gates of Konoha with Itachi, Shisui, and Shikamaru standing around him. Kakashi and Neji, along with a few other skills shinobi stand a little behind them as a backup squad. In a way, it was a team consisting of the best of the best, because even Naruto understands that you can never be too prepared against Orochimaru.

A small crowd had gathered at the gates. Everyone who had been their classmate and had graduated with them is there. So is Sai, his current teammate, as well as his parents, Minato and Kushina.

Tsunade stands in front of them all, hands on hips and a firm expression on her face. "Remember, your mission is to initiate contact and make sure he's okay. You know, both eyeballs and not half eaten with a snake stuck down his throat."

Itachi narrows his eyes and the woman scoffs, idly waving away the subtle glare. "I will leave any other judgment to you, Uchiha." She glances at Shisui. "Itachi." Shisui pouts but Tsunade ignores that too. "You are to receive a full report in person and brings back with you anything Sasuke may have managed to salvage from the snake's base." Tsunade then takes Itachi to the side and whispers a few last orders. Naruto strains his ears and picks up 'Kaguya...girl...'.

He frowns. Did Sasuke get himself a girlfriend named Kaguya?

He isn't given much time to ponder this, though, because they are soon ready to depart. Naruto flies out from within the walls alongside his teammates.

It feels too soon when Itachi decides to set up camp for the night. The moment they are settled, the Uchiha gives them a run through of the information he had received from Tsunade.

"Sasuke's defection would have been yesterday," he begins. "So it will be no surprise if the news has already traveled to Orochimaru's other hideouts."

"We'll have to be wary of Oto shinobi," Shikamaru notes. "We don't know how much they know, but if they even suspect Sasuke's loyalty still lies with Konoha, I'm sure they'll expect us to try and initiate contact."

Itachi acknowledges the Nara's words with a nod and continues. "Sasuke may be traveling with a few companions," he says. "We will approach without hostility and we will let Sasuke explain the situation to us first."

"Companions?" Shisui asks. "Oto friends?"

Itachi's gaze darkens. "If they are of any threat, we will dispose of them."

"What if they're Sasuke's friends?" Naruto asks.

Itachi hesitates and Naruto pushes on. "I bet if Sasuke hasn't gotten rid of them yet, he likes them, right? Maybe they were his only friends in the snake's lair."

He is really glad that Sasuke seems to have found someone in Orochimaru's place. Of course, his position will be irreplaceable, but he is glad that Sasuke hadn't been alone all this time.

He stops listening to Itachi after a while, because it really isn't his job to think. This time, his job is to hug his friend and be the first to welcome him home.

Chapter TWENTY SIX>

<Chapter TWENTY FOUR

#Ivy #naruto fanfiction #naruto #itachi #sasuke #kaguya is commonly a girl's name #naruto does not know that it's a surname in this case

[avenger-hawk]

Had Naruto or Itachi the saddest and tragic past?

Sasuke’s past is the saddest, also because it has a traumatic impact on his present, that the ending didn’t solve at all. 

Back to your question (thanks for asking btw), Naruto and Itachi’s pasts are very different so their personal tragedy is different.

(Long post ahead. some anti-Naruto rants because of how he’s written in the ending, anti-Konoha) 

I explained Itachi’s tragedy, or better, what it represents, here and here.

Naruto never got to know his parents, who sacrificed themselves, Kushina to protect him, Minato to protect him and the village. They both trusted Hiruzen to protect their son, believing that the old asshole would keep him safe from the villagers’ hate. He was shunned and hated, he asked Hiruzen about their parents but received no answer, he craved for a family, or friends, or just a little attention, for which he pulled pranks and did anything even to get scolded. It’s a terrible, sad and lonely childhood, with no one around to tell him what’s right or wrong, to teach him stuff, to cook and care about him.

Such life surely affected his personality, making him incapable of paying attention at the Academy, this incapable of being a decent shinobi at first (probably because he was too excited about being around other people, kinda like puppies), incredibly self-centered, only able to relate to those in which he sees a little of himself, because he has been his only reference, literally, for years. Such things affect him forever, even when someone actually was there for him, like when Iruka took him under his wing (but still he wasn’t always around), and then Kakashi (but most of his attention was for Sasuke, and even more of it was for his own struggle) and then Jiraiya, who loved him dearly, and who should have been there for him since the start.

Like the average shounen protagonist, he’s all talk and no real ideal beside lots of nakama and proclaimed bonds, becoming Hokage and random “let’s all be friends” (which is more like “y’all be friends with me”) and “I’ll make things better when I’ll be Hokage”. Which he didn’t do, despite having promised Sasuke.

My in-universe explanation (besides the shitty writing of the ending and everything after) is that he craves attention so much, because he has been deprived of it for so long, that he is addicted to it, and he’s incapable of taking unpopular decisions that would make him look bad in people’s eyes, be it villagers or comrades. After all, he wanted to become Hokage because it’s the one who has the most respect and attention, because it means finally being acknowledged, not being ignored or shunned or looked upon anymore.

He’s a victim of the system, whose way of coping was to be accepted by the people and the very system. It’s a very common thing actually. Many of those who are bullied prefer becoming part of the majority who bullied them, instead of getting revenge over them. Sasuke is another victim of the system, but being an introspective person and an independent thinker, he didn’t chose to be assimilated and accepted into the system, instead he chose revenge first, then he chose to learn about it, and then to change it. If only he succeeded, instead of being manipulated and belittled because of it.

Naruto had a chance to change it when he became Hokage, even before, having become a hero admired by everyone, instead he used the old coping mechanism, being accepted by everyone. And in doing so he is no longer a victim, but part of the oppressing system that fucked up his life and Sasuke’s, and many others’.

Itachi’s path follows the opposite direction instead. He’s born in an elite clan, son of its leader, he’s a prodigy whom everyone praises and admires. He could have had everything, but he was caught between the Uchiha and the village, he became a tool for both and his life became a living hell, with only his little brother as his ray of light, but also the one he needed to protect at all costs, for whom he sacrificed the clan, his honor, his future.

Looking closer, he was born in an elite clan but he was exposed to war at 4, he was horribly traumatized by it, so much that he dreamed of peace and he studied the past of the village in order to understand how to achieve it, and being the genius that he was, he had a Hokage-like mind already during his childhood. (I mean, looking at Hiruzen’s shitty ruling, Tsunade’s initially promising but then weak one, Kakashi’s canon nothingness and Naruto’s crap, maybe some past Hokages had childlike stupidity but yeah). Despite his entering Anbu at 10 and becoming captain at 13 he was still young so Danzo took advantage of that, and of his love for Sasuke, manipulating him into slaughtering the clan or he would have had it done himself, killing Sasuke first. Itachi trusted Hiruzen, so he was completely lost after Shisui’s death and the old fucker not doing anything to stop Danzo. 

So he took that mission and killed the Uchiha clan and ensured Sasuke’s safety in the village, being branded as a criminal and losing his honor, joining Akatsuki and still protecting the village from afar, since, without him inside it, they’d have attacked Konoha earlier.

Itachi was a victim of the system indeed, he suffered for years, both in Konoha and outside, after the massacre, only living with his resolve, to be alive until Sasuke would kill him and have his revenge. He was willing to never tell Sasuke the truth so he’d only hate him and not the village, so that he wouldn’t have a negative image of the clan. Unlike Naruto, who chose to side with the majority, he stood alone, to defend the greater good (not the shitty village ruled by assholes but the concept of the village and world peace, and the future) but most of it all to protect his beloved brother. He stood alone even when he defeated Edo Tensei by himself, even though Naruto and Killer B, and then Sasuke, fought by his side. He was a victim even though he was very active and he took his decisions well knowing their consequences and meaning. 

In this aspect Itachi’s story has more in common with Minato’s than Naruto, whose story has more in common with Sasuke’s, both boys being victims of a system they knew nothing about, while Minato and Itachi acted actively within it, and even though they wanted peace, they had to do what they had to do, sacrificing themselves and the one they loved the most, thus putting them in a painful future even though they would have never wanted it.

#itasasulove #uh this was long. guess my pattern is writing the general context first then going into detail and replying #anti/konoha #not really anti but still I'll tag it as #anti/naruto #vivalarevolution #vivalarevolution: a love that is more than love #vivalarevolution: not crazy but desperate #vivalarevolution: in his defense

[elizatellsthestory]

Homecoming

Fandom: Naruto

Pairing: KakaSaku

Rating: Gen

Prompt: Same Age Au

Summary: After the Third Shinobi War ends, Sakura vows to never see her friends suffer again and leaves to pursue an apprenticeship with Tsunade. Upon her return, she’s more than happy to show off everything she’s learned to her oldest friend.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of characters. I am making no profit off of this and am only writing it for my entertainment.

A/N: No lie, the hardest part of writing this was deciding which characters get to benefit from me ignoring canon and which don’t. I went back and forth over who gets to live and who doesn’t forever. Well, that and the logistics of a Same Age AU are more difficult to get around than I expected. And fight scenes. Fight scenes are hard.

I’d also like to thank everyone for being so welcoming to me. Writing for a new ship is always nerve-wracking, and you guys have been lovely :)

Unbeta-ed.

[ao3] [fanfic]

Sakura sniffed and rubbed the tears from her eyes. This time, she’d managed to keep from crying long enough to get to her secret hideout instead of breaking down in front of the mean girls at the academy. They didn’t used to pick on her so much the year before, but now that her best friend had graduated, there was no one to stop them. The only thing that had kept them at bay before was their respect and admiration for the class prodigy. Things had been different back then. Really different.

Sakura’s sniffles began to quiet, but tears still streamed down her cheeks for a completely different reason as she thought back on the change that had overtaken her friend. She barely saw him now that he had not only graduated, but been promoted to chunin. He was always out on missions or training all the time. Not to mention, on the rare occasion that he was home, he avoided everyone. He had become so quiet and serious ever since Sakumo’s passing…

“You know, if you spent as much time applying your book knowledge to your training as you did crying, they wouldn’t have a reason to make fun of you.”

“K-Kakashi,” Sakura stared wide-eyed over at her friend who had seemed to appear out of nowhere. She quickly rubbed her tears from her eyes, feeling guilty for crying at all in front of him when he’d suffered far worse than she had.

“Ninja shouldn’t allow themselves to be so overcome with emotion,” the silver-haired chunin lectured as he settled beside her, bringing his knees up to his chest and settling his arms around them. “People only get hurt when that happens. Channel your feelings into something productive like training so you can be better than them. They won’t make fun of you if you’re leagues ahead of them.”

Sakura blinked, digesting everything he’d told her, then pouted and looked at the ground. “Easy for you to say.” Her fingers began absentmindedly pulling at the flowers in the field they sat in. “You were born leagues ahead of everyone else. I’m just-”

“Clever.” Sakura’s green eyes shot back to the boy beside her whose own charcoal gaze was fixed out in front of them. “You’re clever, Sakura. Use it to your advantage.”

A small smile began to grow on the six year old girl’s face. “You really think so?”

Kakashi’s eyes slid over to her, and even though she couldn’t see the lower half of his face, she knew he was giving her an exasperated look. “Well I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t mean it, would I?”

Sakura’s entire expression lit up, and all previous negative thoughts were banished from her mind at her friend’s encouragement. “Then I’ll do my best!” She clenched her small fists in determination and grinned at the boy only to be met with a flower—that was very clearly freshly picked from the wildflowers around them—in the face.

“Its…an apology.” Even with the mask in place, Sakura could see a light blush dust the silver haired boy’s skin. “For not being around as much,” he elaborated.

Gingerly, Sakura lifted the flower from Kakashi’s fingers and held it to her nose. It was a plain looking flower, but it was beautiful in color. It almost matched her hair perfectly. “Well, it isn’t a very good apology since I saw you pick it just now,” she teased him with a grin, “But I accept.”

“If you don’t like it, I’ll just take it back,” Kakashi huffed more gruffly than a six year old ought to be capable of.

“No, it’s mine now,” she giggled and held the little flower far away from him. Even if his ego was a little bruised, Kakashi couldn’t help but smile at the sight of his best friend happy again, especially when there were so few things to be happy about.

…

Sakura smiled to herself at the memory as she made her way to Konoha’s gates for the first time in three years. It had been so long ago when her drive to better herself began. Graduating from the academy and being lucky enough to have Uzumaki Kushina as her Jonin Sensei pushed her even further, but it was the war that banished all thoughts of childish worries like her hair color or forehead size from her mind. It was the war that forced her to grow up before her age had even reached the double digits.

Despite Kakashi’s warning that she was too emotional, it was never something Sakura had managed to outgrow. If anything, she clung to it as a reminder of her humanity. A reminder that she wasn’t just a tool or a nameless shinobi to be lost on the battlefield.

Every death was a pierce through the heart, but none hurt more than the death of Uchiha Obito. Over her training under Kushina and her friendship with Kakashi, she’d come to know Team Minato well. Though he’d started out obnoxious, the spirited Uchiha had wormed his way into being one of her closest friends along with the rest of the team, and as if Obito’s death wasn’t a blow enough, seeing Rin and Kakashi’s reactions made it hurt all the more.

It was that day that Sakura decided she couldn’t stand to watch any more of her loved ones suffer. From that day forward, she spent all her free time studying or in the hospital learning from the medic-nin there, and when the war ended, she appealed to the new Yondaime to set out on a solo mission.

Sakura still remembered the morning she left. The streets had been quiet when she’d left home. She hadn’t expected to see anyone on her way out, but when she reached the gates, Kakashi and Rin were there waiting for her even though she hadn’t told them when she’d be leaving.

“Kakashi? Rin? You guys didn’t have to see me off,” perplexed, Sakura came to a stop in front of her closest friends.

“We don’t know when you’ll be back. We wanted to wish you luck on your travels,” Rin’s smile shone as bright as the early morning sun. The brunette’s enduring optimism was something Sakura knew she would miss during her journey.

“You could still come with me you know. You have as much to gain from it as I do,” Sakura tried. As excited as she was, she had to admit, traveling alone in search of Lady Tsunade of the Legendary Sanin was a daunting task.

“Mmm,” Rin shook her head decisively, “My place is here.” Sakura didn’t miss the way Rin’s brown eyes flitted quickly to Kakashi then back. “I’ll have to wait for you to teach me your new tricks when you come back.”

“So you’re really leaving then?” Kakashi spoke in a way that got across exactly what he thought of her journey. After so many years of knowing him, Sakura prided herself on how well she could read him, and right now she could tell that despite knowing it was the best course of action, he didn’t want her to go.

“You’re the one that pushed me to be the best. Don’t tell me you’re going to try to stop me now,” she laughed lightly to hide the thick emotion that crept through her voice, because despite knowing it was the best course of action, a part of her didn’t want to leave either.

“No. Just…be careful.” Kakashi’s voice softened in the way it always did when she knew he was being especially sincere. He didn’t want to lose another friend anymore than she did. A lot could happen while she was on the road.

“I will. I’ll come back stronger than ever. ‘Kay?” She smiled reassuringly at him then pulled him into a tight hug before he had the chance to pull away. “This is something I have to do. Don’t do anything stupid while I’m gone.” She pulled back and turned to Rin before Kakashi could see the reluctance to leave in her eyes. She couldn’t give him the chance to change her mind. In a way, Obito’s death had brought the three of them closer. It made it all that much harder to leave the two of them behind.

“Take care of him for me, Rin.” The girls embraced tightly. “And you take care of yourself too.”

They parted and Sakura took a deep breath as she stared at the road just beyond the gates. “Well. I guess this is goodbye.”

…

And now, three years later, she was returning home. The gates came into view, and Sakura could feel a giddiness within her. An extra burst of speed, and in seconds, her feet were touching Konoha soil. She couldn’t hold back the enormous grin from her face as she wandered through the familiar streets.

“Eh? Sakura?” A voice pulls her attention from near one of the stands in the marketplace. It took her less than a second to identify the owner of the voice as Rin. Though she’d grown, she still looked almost exactly the same as she had the day Sakura left. The only thing that gave Sakura pause was the blonde little boy holding onto her friend’s hand.

“R-Rin?” Sakura could do nothing but point in shock at the little boy who couldn’t be more than two. There was no way he could be her kid. Rin was only sixteen, maybe seventeen just like Sakura. There was just no way.

“Huh?” Rin followed Sakura’s finger to the small boy beside her, “Oh! Right. You left before Kushina was pregnant.” She guided the young blonde over to the pink-haired kunoichi and bent down to the boy’s level. “Sakura, meet Naruto. Naruto, Sakura. Sakura was one of your mom’s genin students, Naruto.”

Sakura’s eyes softened as she looked at the boy. She’d already been gone when the Kyuubi had attacked Konoha, but she’d heard about the casualties. When she’d heard about Minato’s fate, she’d wept for Kushina. For a while, she’d thought about returning early, but Tsunade had talked her out of it. “It’s nice to meet you, Naruto,” Sakura squatted down and offered her hand to the boy with a smile. “Hopefully I’ll be seeing more of you around.”

“I’m watching him today while Kushina’s out on a mission,” Rin explained only to be interrupted by someone loudly calling her name.

“Rin! Riiiiiiin! Where’d you go?”

Sakura’s eyes widened at the familiar sounding voice. Her heart seized in her chest. “But…that’s not…that’s not possible,” she murmured to herself and stood just in time for the unruly, ebony-haired boy to come into view. The entire right half of his face was disfigured and scared while the left eye was covered by a bit of fabric that dropped down from his hitai-ate, but his identity was unmistakable. He even still wore that idiotic pair of orange goggles on top of his head.

“Obito!” Rin turned and waved him over. “Over here! Look who’s back!”

The next thing she knew, Sakura was being picked up and whirled around by someone she’d long thought to be dead.

“O-Obito? But you’re- How are you-?” Her feet touched the ground again, but she couldn’t stop staring at the man in front of her.

“Oh…I guess no one told you, huh?” He paused and scratched the back of his head sheepishly. “I’ve been back for a year now. It’s a long story th-oof,” He glanced over when Rin poked him in the side and looked meaningfully at Naruto who seemed to be held rapt by every word the older boy was saying. “Thaaaat we can fill you in on later because it is inappropriate for young ears, mmhmm,” he nodded sagely. “Yeah. That’s what I was going to say.” The two year old’s disappointment was palpable, and it took everything in Sakura not to melt at the cute pout on his face.

“Have either of you seen Kakashi around?” Sakura changed the subject, finally having shaken off her initial shock at seeing Obito alive. “I should probably let him know I’m back now that I’ve run into the two of you.”

Obito and Rin glanced at each other. Subconsciously, Rin’s hand went to rub her right shoulder as though it pained her. Just like that, the entire atmosphere changed.

“Guys…you’re scaring me…” Sakura’s smile dropped immediately, and a look of worry took it’s place.

“Oh no! It’s nothing like that!” Rin put her hands up quickly to calm Sakura. “It’s just…he might be…different…than when you last saw him. He’s taken,” she glanced at Naruto again, “Some things hard.”

“Yeah, and being in Anbu for the past three years hasn’t exactly helped his cheerful disposition,” Obito added. “If he’s not out on a mission, he’ll probably be at the cemetery.”

…

True to Obito’s word, when she found Kakashi, he was standing somberly in front of Minato Sensei’s gravestone, and he looked like he hadn’t moved from there in a while.

“I see you’ve finally outgrown me.” Sakura moved to stand next to him. Her eyes softened as she looked at the name engraved on the stone in front of her. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here,” she spoke again after a moment, “It seems I’ve missed a lot in my absence.”

“No, it’s better that you weren’t here. I know you. You wouldn’t have given up until you found a way to be there with him and Kushina Sensei. And then were would we be?”

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I wanted to learn so that we wouldn’t lose anyone else.” Sakura bent down and brushed a hand over the cold stone, trying not to let her voice waver.

“Death…is a part of the shinobi’s way of life.” Kakashi’s voice sounded hollow. “I should know.” He’d lost count of how many people he’d killed in cold blood as an Anbu alone. How many had it been since he’d become a shinobi? Death followed him more than anyone else he knew. His mother, his father. Even if Obito was alive now, Kakashi had thought him dead for two years, and he’d carried that burden. He’d almost been responsible for Rin’s death, and she still had the scar just above her heart to prove it. If Sakura hadn’t left the village when she did, there was a part of him that wondered if she’d have suffered by his hands too.

“It doesn’t have to be as prominent a part as it has been,” Sakura stood with a determined look in her eye. “I’ll see to that. I’ve talked to Lady Tsunade, and now that the war’s over, I’m going to resume her petition to have a medic-nin on every squad. That way we can minimize casualties as much as possible.”

“Having a medic on the team might not do anything,” Kakashi sighed tiredly. “Rin was on my team when Obito got hurt. It could just hinder mission efficiency. Medics aren’t allowed to fight on the front lines, and defending them would just be a distraction from the mission. They would slow the squad down. I know you know that. Lady Tsunade made the rules herself. It’s better to just put together the best team for the job and get in and out as quickly as possible.”

“In a war, that makes sense, but as long as the medical ninja are trained in combat as well as medical ninjutsu, there shouldn’t be a problem for individual missions. Kakashi,” Sakura’s eyes sparkled with sincerity and passion as she addressed him. He could tell she believed what she was saying 100%. “Fight me. Fight me and then afterwards, you can honestly tell me whether you think it’s possible or not. You’ll see.”

“Sakura, I’m not going to-”

“Fight me.”

Kakashi sighed. “I’m not going to get out of this, am I?” One look at Sakura proved she wouldn’t be dropping this any time soon. “Fine. But I’m not going easy on you. Meet me on the third training ground.”

In the blink of an eye, he was gone, and Sakura took a brief moment to smile triumphantly before body flickering away as well. She had to admit, she was excited by the prospect of going up against him. His skills had always seemed so far out of reach to her, but now she was sure that she could give him a challenge at the very least if not give him a run for his money.

The second she appeared on the training grounds, she was deflecting a barrage of kunai. Leave it to Kakashi to start the sparring session without any warning. He’d always been very serious when it came to his training.

By the time she’d either dodged or deflected all the kunai, Kakashi was nowhere to be seen. She knew he’d already be long gone from where the kunai had come from. Now, where is he?

Closing her eyes, she focused on trying to find his chakra signature only to catch a wisp of it coming from exactly where the kunai had. She snorted to herself. As if she’d fall for such an obvious trap. Even before she’d left Konoha, Kakashi had been able to control his chakra well enough to mask it to a point where it was nearly undetectable. The traces she was getting were way to strong for it not to be a trap.

“Sakura…” A shadow appeared from within the woods where the chakra signature was. Ever so slowly, Kakashi hobbled out, covered in blood. “H-help.”

“Now you’re just insulting me, Kakashi,” Sakura rolled her eyes and formed the release sign. As quickly as it had come, the genjutsu faded away. Immediately, Sakura turned on her heel. In the blink of an eye, her fist was coming down on Kakashi, who had used the distraction to sneak up behind her. The second her fist made contact, he disappeared in a poof of smoke, leaving behind a thoroughly shattered log.

“You’ve gotten stronger.” His voice seemed to come from all around her. The hair on the back of Sakura’s neck stood on end, and she couldn’t help but feel like he was playing with her.

“If you think I’ll be that easy to beat, you’ve got another thing coming,” she spoke to the air, trying to buy herself time to locate him. She just needed to land one solid hit on him to put him out of commission. She had to use the surprise of her new strength to her advantage while he still didn’t know the full scope of it. Failing that, if she could just do something to prevent him from forming signs, she’d stand a far better chance at actually beating him.

“Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu!” Volleys of small fireballs hurtled towards Sakura, all of which she dodged with ease thanks to Tsunade’s relentless training. Before her feet even touched the ground, she’d thrown down a smoke bomb and disappeared into the forest under it’s cover. She needed to find a way to lure Kakashi closer. She was a close range fighter. If he stayed as far away as he was now, nothing would be achieved.

Kakashi landed on a tree branch at the edge of the woods as the smoke cleared. He’d admit that Sakura’s evasion skills had greatly improved, but that wasn’t enough to prove that she wouldn’t get herself killed by accompanying squads on dangerous missions.

The woods around him were completely silent. It was just as well. A shinobi who couldn’t conceal themselves properly could only achieve so much. His sharingan eye roved the area, searching for any sign of her chakra.

It was the sound of metal that drew his attention. Quickly, he whipped out his own kunai to deflect those coming straight for him. By the time they’d stopped coming, little white pieces of paper were fluttering the air and littering the ground around him. The thunk of a kunai landing near him pulled his focus, and his eyes widened at the sight of the explosion tag. It took him no time at all to put two and two together.

By the time the explosion from the hundreds of tiny tags rocked the forest, he was far above it. His eyes narrowed at the flash of pink in the trees above him. He’d always questioned the lack of stealth it afforded her. Backflipping, he landed on a branch not far away. There was no shadow, he realized. And his Sharingan hadn’t picked up any chakra signals from where the flash of pink had been. She was trying to distract him.

“Clones don’t work on me, Sakura. I can see right through them,” he called. His eyes shifted around him.

“See through this!” Kakashi’s eyes widened as Sakura boldly hurtled towards him from the front, fist raised. She’d gotten much faster than she had been the last time they’d worked together.

He raised an arm to block her punch. “That won’t do any-” His words where cut off. The punch connected, sending an incredible pain up his arm while his entire body was thrown backwards and through a tree from the force of the punch. What strength… He skidded to a stop on the ground, and Sakura was already there, poised to bring her heel down on his sternum. This time, he only barely managed to avoid her in time.

He jumped away, taking stock of his arm as he did. There was no doubt about it, she’d managed to break the bone, and he had the feeling she could have done much worse if she’d wanted to. Even now, he winced at his own movement, he was sure she’d managed to break some ribs when she’d sent him through that tree.

As soon as her foot came in contact with the earth, Sakura bounded away, leaving a crater in the ground. That had been her only chance to take him by surprise with her strength. Now that he knew, he’d plan accordingly. At least she’d eliminated the possibility of being attacked with ninjutsu for now.

“Why don’t we call a truce for now?” Sakura’s stance relaxed at the sound of Kakashi’s voice. “You’ve proved your point, and I don’t really want to fight with this many broken or bruised bones unless I have to.” She could practically hear the weary smile hidden under his mask.

Immediately, Sakura’s expression went from battle ready and serious to a pleased smile. “Told you,” she singsonged as she walked over to him, and Kakashi let his body sag against a tree where he’d sat down.

“I might have been…a little presumptuous.” It was hardly his fault. He’d always been taught that medic-nin weren’t fighters but support members.

“You’ve always been arrogant like that,” she teased him and settled next to him. Her hand lit up with green chakra and rested over his ribs. Slowly, the pain began to fade away. Regardless of the quip about his ego, Kakashi couldn’t help but stare at her with admiration as she began to speak again. “Their training may take a little longer, but I have no doubt that with the proper training and diligence, we can have a whole sect of medic-nin capable enough to hold their own during missions.”

Already, she had finished with his ribs and was moving onto his arm. Even if he generally avoided the hospital and medical attention from anyone other than Rin, he knew that most medic-nin weren’t so quick in healing. He’d always known Sakura had incredible chakra control, but this was truly on another level. “Sakura,” he drew her attention away from the details of how she’d go about proposing an educational system for medic-nin.

“Hmm?”

“You’ve come a long way.” Once again, Sakura’s face lit up into a smile, and it occurred to Kakashi, that he’d missed her. He’d missed how emotional she was and how he could practically read everything she was feeling through her expressive eyes. He’d missed having his best friend since childhood around. A selfish part of him wished she’d never left. “It’s good to have you back.”

“It’s good to be back. And I don’t plan on going anywhere anytime soon, so you’d better get used to me sticking around, ‘kay?” She finished healing his arm, and patted it, remembering the expression on his face when she’d found him standing at Minato’s grave.

Yes.

She planned on being around for him for a while to come.

#kakasaku #kakasakumonth #kksk fic #kakasaku fanfiction #kakasaku fic #I'm so tired but I was determined to get this done tonight #parts of it just didn't want to be written #fanfic