A/N: This game, though really it's more of a self-imposed challenge, is where I have a list of AUs- that I actually got from various Alternate Universe tags on AO3- and I try to come up with ideas for everything on that list. That's it.
If you want to give me an AU to try to come up with an idea for, that's fine but keep it short like a tag: Space Pirate AU. If you want to treat these like prompts and write something for them, that's awesome- go ahead and have fun, just mention where the idea came from.
The List: Pirate, Pet Store, Library, Science Fiction, College, Small Town, Voldemort Wins, Shipwrecked, Thieves, Bar/Pub, Mutants, Sentinels & Guides, Barista, Wizards, Demons, Daycare, Supernatural Elements, Daemons, Nomads, Summer Camp, Urban Fantasy, Past Lives, Not Human, Civil War, Post-Apocalypse, Psychics, Superheroes, Medieval, Creatures & Monsters, Guardian Angels, Shapeshifter, Road Trip, Temeraire Fusion, Penpals, Childhood Friends, Gods & Goddesses, Jurassic Park, Spirit Animals, Video Game World, Pokémon, Animal Hybrids, Monsters, Divergent Fusion, Dog/Animal Shelter, Alpha/Beta/Omega, Fantasy, Space, Afterlife, Children, Earth, Family, Criminals, Actors, Food Service, Hackers, Mental Institution, Purgatory, Psych Fusion, Animal Transformation, De-Aged, Purge Fusion, Vigilante Group, Pandemic, History Divergence, Soulbonds, Apocalypse, Magic, Homeless, Imprinting, Borrowers Fusion, Magical Girls, Cruise Ship, Spirited Away Fusion, Twins, Circus, Cats, Assassins & Hitmen, Reapers, Roommates, Famine, Alien Invasion
.
Not Related AU
.
Sakumo was going to be a father- keyword: was. There were very severe complications that lead to his wife dying in childbirth, double whammy in that she gave birth to a stillborn. He deals with his grief- and bitterness, honestly, because he can't help thinking that her death (her decision to keep the child despite the knowledge that the birth would kill her) was for nothing- by throwing himself into work, by becoming a living legend that spans across the Elemental Nations.
Kakashi is an orphan, was dropped off at the orphanage as a baby (decided to rename himself 'Kakashi' because he really liked the Henohenomoheji faces), who still goes into the Academy at a young age but doesn't graduate until a year after he originally did because, while he's still a mini-genius, he doesn't have a shinobi father to help him.
They meet because, due to graduating later, the timing is off for Kakashi and Minato's not there to claim him as a student and no one is really willing to take on a tiny little six year old genius of an orphaned Genin that just a bit off and doesn't have a team so Kakashi ends up shuffled around from jōnin to jōnin, doing D-Ranks and getting advice but mostly training himself.
Then Sakumo, on medical leave with strict orders to take it easy, is assigned to Kakashi as his stand-in jōnin-sensei of the month.
Sakumo never had anything to do with Genin, had actively avoided them in fact because he kept thinking about what-ifs (what if the child survived? would they want to be a ninja? would they be a shinobi like him or a kunoichi? would he have corrected their stances as the learned their first kata? would he have shown them how to take care of their weapons? would he have taught them to track? would he have passed on his summons to them?) and hated that none of that would ever be.
When he's assigned to Kakashi, Sakumo's equal parts angry and bitter but mostly he's fucking terrified at being responsible for the tiny little genin (terrified of failing again because that's why he always took Solo-missions these days).
He deals with this by being distant and cold, by being harsher on the genin then he should be- and he, the part that remembers fondly his time at the Academy when he was a chūnin and filling in for a teacher, hates himself for it but fear is a powerful thing- but the genin, the tiny little six year old genin that the jōnin have been passing along like a broken kunai, takes it without complaint. And just- keeps. Going.
Throwing everything into correcting mistakes- even things that aren't mistakes but spiteful criticism targeting things that genin aren't even expected to know yet, let alone be proficient in.
And that-...that means something.
On Kakashi's part, he's used to being alone- used to not having anyone. The closest he's gotten to having someone was an Orphanage Matron and an Academy Sensei but that passed because Kakashi didn't cause mischief so the matron needed to pay attention to the other children and Kakashi was smart so the Sensei paid attention to the students who were struggling. And that's fine, Kakashi's used to not being anyone's priority- used to being sidelined by louder, slower and more troublesome kids because he knew how to behave, because he never needed help learning things, because he was quieter then the rest (but, then, why talk when everyone would listen to someone else first?).
Kakashi's alone and it's fine, he's used to it (he will never talk about the night after getting his headband where he curled up beneath his blankets and hoped to finally, finally have someone because everyone knows about the strength of the bonds from genin team. will never speak of the despairing, frustrated tears that came when the night after finding out that he'd have no team, that no jōnin-sensei wanted him.) and he refuses to keep him from being a good ninja.
Sometimes though...sometimes Kakashi just wants to scream, to cry and rage at the jōnin- at the Hokage himself- and ask Why? I graduated just like everyone else! Why don't I have a team? Why can't I have a Sensei? What's wrong with me!? Why am I not enough?!
He doesn't, though, because he's no one's priority so no one would listen to him anyways so all he can do is get stronger (to try and become a renowned ninja so that, at least when he died someone would morn instead of being a name carved into the memorial stone and forgotten by the time the next name is added).
Kakashi can't help the hope that comes when Hatake Sakumo is assigned to him because the man is a living legend (and he can't help hoping that maybe, maybe-) and then he can't help wishing to have never met the man. Because people always say how kind Hatake-sama is, even by civilian standards, and it's swiftly apparent that Kakashi is the exception to this legendary kindness.
(There's something wrong with him, he realizes, because why else would the legend- the hero said to show kindness even to enemy shinobi- hate him so?)
Fine. That's fine, Kakashi has gotten this far on his own, he doesn't need anyone to coddle him. All he needs is to learn how to be a better ninja and Hatake-sama, for all that the man isn't at all what he'd expected or hoped the man to be, is a resource that he can use.
Kakashi has a month to learn all he can from a legend, he's not going to let hurt feelings get in the way of that.
Civilians tell him how much he looks like Hatake-sama, make inquiries on if they're related and Kakashi always politely redirects the conversation elsewhere. They're not related, he's sure, but even if they were it wouldn't matter because it would just mean that whatever is wrong with Kakashi was severe enough that his own family abandoned him.
They're not related and Kakashi wishes it would stop being brought up.
.
Sometimes Sakumo looks at the genin and feels as if his breath has deserted him, as if his heart was torn from him because the boy looks so much like him that he's can't help but grieving anew. Sometimes, in those moments when the little genin looks at him in silent question of did I do alright? before catching himself and looking away, Sakumo let's himself imagine all the things that could have been.
They're not related but sometimes Sakumo catches sight of their reflections as the walk together and he wishes that they were.