Hey everyone! In the last weeks, I've been watching more and more Naruto, and then I read more and more Fanfictions...anyway, this popped into my head a few days ago and I wanted to write it out. Hope you like it!
This plays after Team 7's trip to the wave country, but before the Chuunin exams. This is a VERY minor AU, simply because I needed someone who knows Kakashi well and is still alive, and I could only think of Gai. So they know him, all right?
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
Memories
Written
--
Kakashi sat in front of the memorial, just as he had done on almost every day in the last years. Normally he would have to meet his team soon, but not at this day, he had given them the day off. And besides, when was he ever on time to meet them?
"You know Obito, my team reminds me more of ours every day. We've got the loudmouth, the silent one, and the temperamental kunoichi," he said quietly, looking up into the sky. He smiled sadly under his mask as he remembered the old days with his team; Obito, Rin, and their sensei, who had later become the Yondaime.
"Let's just hope they don't end like we did, ne?" he said, touching the forehead protector that covered the Sharingan.
And if he hadn't been drifting in memories, he would have cursed himself for not noticing the person that quietly jumped away.
--
Actually, Sasuke had only wanted to train with his Sharingan, but he hadn't expected to see his sensei sitting at the memorial. He smirked slightly when he realized that Kakashi hadn't noticed him.
'And he calls himself a Jounin?' he thought, but the smirk slowly faded when Kakashi started to talk quietly.
'Obito? I know I've heard or seen that name before…' he frowned, trying to remember…
Flashback
A seven year old Sasuke sat at the kitchen table, fingering a Kunai and watching as his mother washed the dishes. After a while, his mother sighed. She turned around.
"Sasuke-chan, you know your brother is busy. I'm sure he'll help you with your training on another day," she told him gently. Sasuke frowned, but at his young age it looked more like a pout.
"He never has time Kaa-san," he complained. "He's always on missions or locked in his room!"
His mother chuckled.
"You shouldn't train so much, you know. One day you'll get seriously hurt," she scolded him, but she was smiling.
"But I've got to train, Kaa-san! I'm an Uchiha!" He said, as if that explained everything.
"Not all Uchihas are this mad about training, you know," she told him.
"Name one," Sasuke challenged her. And as she opened her mouth, he said, "And I mean a boy, Kaa-san," and she closed her mouth again and thought. After a few moments, she smiled.
"Wait here," she told him as she stood up and left the kitchen. Two minutes later, she returned with a slightly dusty photo album.
"Don't tell your father about this," she told him, as she turned the pages, searching for something. "He doesn't like all this 'sensitivity' as he calls it. In here I've got a photo of every deceased Uchiha I knew."
"So whoever you want to show me is already dead?" Sasuke asked, frowning.
"Hai," she said. "He was K.I.A." Sasuke winced slightly. Killed In Action, huh?
"Ah, here he is!" his mother smiled and showed him a photo. The grinning boy in it had untidy, spiky black hair and black eyes. He wore a black outfit, with some orange, and around his neck he wore black rimmed goggles with orange glass. He wore a Hidden Leaf forehead protector.
"So…who is he?" Sasuke asked, studying the photo.
"He was Obito Uchiha, your cousin, even though he would be fourteen years older than you if he was still alive," his mother smiled sadly. "He was such a lively boy. He wasn't too well liked however since he played a lot of pranks." Sasuke nodded, still staring at the photo.
"Yumiko (let's just say that's the name of Obito's mother) has more photos of him, but this is enough for me to remember him." Mikoto said. Sasuke nodded again, still staring at the picture.
"Ne, Sasuke-chan, what would you say if I helped you with your training?" She smiled. Sasuke gave her a doubtful look.
"Don't look at me like this, Sasuke-chan! I was a rather good Kunoichi myself, if I can say so!" Sasuke gave her another look before he smiled.
"Okay," he said.
Flashback end.
'Obito isn't a very common name…could it be?' Sasuke thought.
'…nah.' And he left as silently as he had come.
--
A few weeks later, Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke went home from another lame D-rank mission (Naruto and Sakura had asked Sasuke whether he wanted to walk home with them, and he had only replied with 'Hn' so they had taken it as a yes). Kakashi had disappeared as soon as they had finished the mission.
"Is it only me, or has Kakashi-sensei been a lot more quiet lately?" Sakura asked. "I mean, more quiet than usual."
The two boys couldn't help but agree. Kakashi had been a lot quieter. He hadn't even read that strange book of his (remember, they don't know that it's a perverted book) for quite some time, instead staring into nothingness.
"Do you think something is wrong?" Sakura pressed on. Sasuke shrugged.
"Maybe we should ask someone?" Naruto asked.
'Did Naruto just make an useful comment?' Sakura thought, then answered. "But who? It would have to be someone who knows Kakashi-sensei well…" she broke off as Naruto grinned. He then did something that looked creepily like the 'Nice-guy pose'. Sasuke and Sakura stared.
'Oh Kami help us' Sakura prayed. 'Anyone but Gai-sensei!'
--
After an hour of searching the village, they found Gai.
"So what is it that you wish to ask me about my great and eternal rival Kakashi?!" he said loudly.
"Do you know why he's been so quiet lately? Ne, ne, do you?" Naruto asked, equally loud. Sasuke and Sakura took a few steps back.
'Grr, Naruto, SHUT UP!' Inner Sakura yelled.
"More quiet? Oh, my eternal rival does this every time his day of birth is near, it is nothing that should lower your flames of youth!" Gai said.
"His birthday? When?" Sakura asked.
"In three days, youthful students!" Gai answered. Sakura frowned.
"Well, then could you maybe tell us…"
--
"I say we give Kakashi-sensei something for his birthday, dattebayo!" Naruto said, as they sat at Ichiraku's.
"Didn't you listen, dobe? Gai-sensei said that he wasn't too fond of presents," Sasuke said, rolling his eyes. Naruto growled at the insult, but Sakura interrupted him before he could hit Sasuke.
"I think Naruto's right. Maybe we could give him something that reminds him of us? A photo album maybe? We could put lots of pictures of us in it, I made many of us!" Sakura suggested.
"Hn," Sasuke said. It wasn't very informative for an outsider, but Sakura and Naruto knew him well enough to know that he didn't have anything against the idea.
"Then it's settled! We'll make a photo album!" Naruto said loudly. "Oi, Sakura-chan, can you help me with that, cause I never made one before!"
"All right," Sakura said slowly. Then she turned to Sasuke. "Is that all right with you Sasuke-kun? We'll give the album to you afterwards and you can stick a few pictures into it, okay?"
Sasuke nodded. At that moment Teuchi and Ayame (the owner and his daughter) came with three bowls of ramen.
"Enjoy!" Teuchi said as they placed the bowls in front of the three Genin. The trio each took a pair of chopsticks.
"Itadakimasu!" they said and began to eat. Well, except Naruto: he seemed to shovel it in.
--
Three days later, Kakashi dismissed Team 7 after training. He planned to go home, lock himself in and wish for the day to finally end. No, he did not like his birthday very much. But he couldn't do so for two reasons.
a) as he turned around, he could clearly see Kurenai and Gai coming towards him. He knew at that moment that they wouldn't let him lock himself away, but instead force him to sit together with all the other jounins. Oh joy. Not. He might have been able to escape, but that was when
b) happened. His own team stopped him. Sakura in front, Sasuke and Naruto behind her. Sakura had her hands behind her back.
"Happy birthday, Kakashi-sensei! Dattebayo!" Naruto yelled, far louder than he would have had to. Kakashi was surprised that Sasuke, who was standing next to him didn't insult him. Wait, how did they even know that it was his birthday?
"We were worried because you had been so quiet so we asked Gai-sensei," Sakura said apologetically. Kakashi could sense that Gai and Kurenai were near. Sakura continued hurriedly:
"Anyway, we just wanted to wish you a happy birthday and…here," she blushed, and pushed a brightly coloured package into a startled Kakashi's hands. Before he could even open his mouth, they had disappeared.
"My eternal rival, we have come to take you to the other youthful jounins!" And again, before he could say anything, he was dragged away, the package in his hands.
--
Kakashi supposed he was lucky that the other jounins knew that he didn't like his birthday very much, and so they hadn't decorated the Academy's staffroom (where everyone had gathered). Under those who turned up were Ebisu, Asuma (smoking), Anko (who nearly impaled him with a Kunai), the Sandaime himself, Iruka, and of course Kurenai, Gai, and Kakashi himself. Well, at least there weren't too many…
…What slightly got on his nerves however, was that everyone was urging him to open his students' present. No, of course, he WASN'T annoyed, and his fingers were NOT itching towards his kunai pouch, and he did NOT feel the need to use one of the Fire Jutsus he had seen Sasuke use once. At least that's what he told himself.
Normally, Kakashi was a very patient man. But even he could not withstand the torture that the other senseis were.
"Okay, FINE, I'll open it!" he said loudly (Because he did NOT yell, oh no, he didn't). "Happy now? Seriously, I bet you are worse than Ibiki and his interrogation methods!"
He saw that Iruka was a bit embarrassed, and he did NOT care that Anko was grinning while the others were smiling. Damn them.
Kakashi placed the thin, quadratic, and colourful package (pink, with an orange ribbon, no doubt Sakura and Naruto had wrapped it) on his lap, and started to unwrap it VERY slowly. And he didn't enjoy to see the others' impatient faces, and of course he wasn't smirking under his mask.
…A dark green leather-bound (does that word even exist?) book fell onto his lap. On the cover was written in dark grey writing Happy birthday, Kakashi-sensei.
"Aw, how cute," said Anko, smirking. "They made an album,"
Iruka chuckled. "I don't think I want to know what Sakura and Naruto did to convince Sasuke" he said. (If you only knew…)
"Fine, I opened it, will you leave me alone now?" Kakashi snapped, trying to pack the album away.
"Wouldn't it be such a shame to leave this album unopened?" Sarutobi asked. 'Damn you, you manipulative Hokage' Kakashi thought, as his uncovered eye twitched. He looked around and smirked under his mask. He started to do a few hand signs without anyone noticing.
"Oh, I have to agree," he said cheerfully. "I'll open it,"
"This is the way, my eternal rival!" Gai said, doing his nice guy pose, and shortly blinding everyone with his sparkling teeth.
"Gai! Close your mouth!" Ebisu said, because not even his sunglasses were able to counter his teeth completely. Kakashi did his last handsign.
"—at home," he finished smirking slightly. And he disappeared in a swirl of leaves.
"Damn teleportation justsu," Asuma cursed.
"And we nearly had him too. What a pity," Sarutobi sighed.
--
At his apartment, Kakashi sat down on the couch. Finally he was away from them. But he had to admit, he was curious what kind of pictures his team had put into the album…
He opened it. On the first page, there was only text written with a pink pencil, so it wasn't very hard to guess that Sakura had written it.
Dear Kakashi-sensei,
I have to start because I promised to help Naruto and he doesn't have the slightest idea how to make an album.
Firstly, Happy Birthday! I can't believe you didn't tell us though, if we hadn't asked Gai-sensei we wouldn't have known! But Gai-sensei also told us that you didn't like presents so much, so we decided to give you something that would remind you of us. Naruto and I mainly used photos of the team, but we aren't sure what Sasuke-kun will put in here.
Anyway, I hope you like it,
Sakura.
Kakashi smiled slightly as he turned the next few pages. There were a few photos of the whole team together, some of Naruto and Sasuke arguing (more like Naruto yelling at Sasuke, while Naruto was being held back by Kakashi), and a few of Sakura alone. Then there was another page with text, this time in orange. Kakashi didn't even need to look at the scribble Naruto called handwriting to know that it was him.
Dear Kakashi-sensei,
Happy Birthday again, even though we probably told you that already.
The dot was more of a line, that went to the side of the page.
Gomen, Sakura-chan just hit me. Anyway, I've put some photos of us and especially me in here too (Imagine how much they'll be worth once I'm Hokage!). I'd really want to know what Sasuke-teme is going to put in here, could you show me? Cause I'm pretty sure that teme doesn't have many pictures of the team and I don't know what else he could put in here.
Naruto, the next Hokage, dattebayo!
The next few pages were covered with photos of the team again, but quite a few were with Naruto alone; in front of the Ramen stand, or another where his face was painted red and white (Kakashi raised an eyebrow at this) (A/N: You can see it at the beginning of the second episode). Kakashi had to chuckle at the last one; ninja or not, Naruto would always be a prankster.
But now he was getting curious. Neither Naruto nor Sakura had any idea what Sasuke would put into the album. Kakashi was sure it wouldn't be a photo of himself; he doubted the young Uchiha even had made any photos of himself after the massacre. And he would rather pierce his eyes with senbon needles before he would stick in photos of himself as a little kid. Kakashi turned the page. He had to chuckle while reading it; of course Sasuke would try to hide he cared.
Kakashi-sensei,
I'm sure we already wished you a Happy Birthday, because the dobe wouldn't be able to keep his mouth shut if his life depended on it.
I'll have you know that if it wasn't your birthday I wouldn't have agreed to this. Also I wouldn't have done what I had to do to get these stupid pictures. Seeing as Sakura and Naruto have already stuck in enough pictures of us; I wasn't going to add more.
Sasuke
P.S. You really shouldn't talk to yourself, even if you think you're alone.
P.P.S. Your official data and documents might be secure, but not everything is stored away in the Hokage's top secret files.
Kakashi raised an eyebrow. Somehow Sasuke had managed to make him thoroughly confused.
'Oh, well, what better way to find out then to look,' he thought, and turned the page.
His visible eye widened, his breathing fastened and his brain went on stand-bye for a few moments.
Grinning and looking at him were photos of a boy with spiky, black hair, and black eyes. In the first picture, he was grinning into the camera, black rimmed, orange goggles on his forehead, and his hands holding a brand-new Hidden Leaf forehead protector in the air.
In another picture, his face and clothes were covered with multicoloured paint, and in even another one, he had one arm slung around a masked, silver haired boy and the other around a sepia-haired girl with two red markings on her face. Kakashi saw the Uchiha district in the background.
'Obito,' he thought, and lowered the album. And slowly Sasuke's writing made sense to him. Kakashi must have said Obito's name to himself once, and Sasuke had traced the name back to the Uchiha clan. In the clan's archives he had found information about Obito, and how he had been on a team with Kakashi and Rin.
…And to find the photos, he would have had to enter the houses of his dead relatives.
Kakashi closed the album and leant against the back of the couch. He smiled. He had tried to hide his birthday from Team 7, but in the end, they had managed to give him one of the best presents he had ever received. Kakashi yawned. What a crazy day. He would have to thank his team the next day.
Kakashi fell asleep with the book still on his lap.
--
The other senseis were crowded around the Hokage's crystal ball.
"So that's what was in it," Anko smirked.
"Did Uzumaki really hand in that picture with the face paint?" Ebisu asked. Sarutobi nodded.
"And we know that Sasuke's at least a bit over the massacre, if he went into the houses, right?" Iruka asked. They heard sniffles and turned around. Gai stood there, anime tears falling down his face.
"It is so lovely to see their flames of youth burn with such a passion," he yelled. The others just rolled their eyes.
"Okay, no word to Kakashi, understood?" Asuma asked and everyone nodded. All the senseis disappeared in swirls of leaves, so that only the Hokage remained.
'How many more surprises will you bring us, Team 7?'
--
So, how did you like it? Was it good?
I'm not sure if the characters are a bit OOC, I hope they aren't.
PLEASE REVIEW!!