Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and possess no relation to any of its affiliates.
[Revised: 7/11/2018]
Prologue
It'd been one long week and Kakashi Hatake was feeling exhausted.
"Hi!"
One long week of paperwork and disappointment. A familiar week, year in and year out. Rejecting a team of fresh graduates came with a certain amount of printing and signing. Time he'd rather spend drinking or killing.
"Hello?"
Then when he finally makes the time to visit his friends...
"Are you okay mister?" The voice was high-pitched but not loud, though still grating slightly on Kakashi's relatively sensitive ears. He glanced down and examined the kid yapping his ears off. Pale blond hair, exceptionally light blue eyes...
Oh, this one.
"What are you doing back here, kid?" Kakashi muttered, plucking his copy of Icha Icha Violence from his breast pocket. Here was the memorial stone.
"You've been gone for a while," he said glibly, tilting his head to the side. "Were you out on a mission?"
"No."
"Coming up with some new ninjutsu?"
"No."
"Can you help me please?"
"N-" Kakashi paused. "Help with what?" he asked, closing the book he was hardly reading anyway and kneeling down to eye-level with the kid. There was something familiar about him, but with his memory, everyone's familiar. The kid visited the memorial a lot, and talked nonsensically to him just as much. From this, he knew the blond was an academy student, probably on his first year, 8 or 9 years old.
"I, uhh.." he stammered, not expecting the sudden scrutinizing. He gulped, and raised a leaf Kakashi hadn't noticed him holding. "I don't know how to do this."
"To do what?" Kakashi asked, eye crinkling in amusement. He had trouble unlocking his chakra, probably. Leaf sticking was the initial step to molding chakra in the academy.
"W-well, it's meant to stick to my hand, so I can wave it around-" he proceeds to do just that, while holding the leaf tightly, "and it doesn't come off. Buuuut I don't know how." He grinned weakly.
Kakashi hummed. "What did your teacher say you were doing wrong?"
The kid blanched, "he didn't help! He was busy with the other kids and I don't think he saw me." He muttered something under his breath, but Kakashi uncharacteristically missed it.
"Okay," Kakashi shrugged, standing back up to his full height. "Channel your chakra and I'll see if I can't tell you what you're doing wrong." He discreetly cast a genjutsu to cover his adjusting of his headband.
"Okay, thanks!" The kid grinned, placed the leaf on the palm of a hand and stared at it determinedly. His eyes scrunched up, he started frowning, and Kakashi was a bit put off. "I just don't get it," the blond shrugged, stopping his attempt and looking up towards the oddly focused man he enlisted to help him.
"Hello?" The kid sensed deja-vu. "Are you okay mister?"
"Uh," Kakashi spoke, adjusting his headband back into place. "Who are your parents?" he asked languidly, "what's your name?"
The kid shrunk back into himself. "Err, I-I don't have any parents."
"Ah." An orphan then. But...
"Anyway! The name's Naruto Uzumaki!"
Now that just changed the game completely.
Ra-ta-ta-tap.
"None at all?" Hiruzen Sarutobi mused, tapping his fingers on the thick desk overlain with various papers and documents from his place in the decorated wooden chair behind. The smoke escaping his wooden pipe shaped and curled into a question mark floating above his head.
"Well," Kakashi started, "he has something, but it's not..." he glanced towards the blond he'd taken with him to the office. "It's not chakra, and he hasn't unlocked it yet. But it seems like it behaves as chakra, in a way." Kakashi shrugged, "a Hyuuga would have a better idea, but it isn't-" he glanced sharply into the Hokage's eyes, "it isn't like that chakra at all, not even as much as it should be."
The Hokage narrowed his eyes at the blond, humming deeply. Kakashi casually curled an arm about the blond's shoulders, feeling oddly protective. The kid didn't feel the need to shy away.
"Is everything okay?" The boy under scrutinization asked quietly, looking at his feet. "I'm sorry if-"
"No," Hiruzen interrupted kindly, "you've done nothing wrong. Something has just come up is all, Naruto. Thank you for being here, I'll take you out for ramen later today, okay? But you have to be patient for now, alright?"
Naruto smiled broadly, "okay jiji!" Kakashi chuckled and the Hokage's eye twitched at the remark. Old man indeed.
"Rabbit," Hiruzen called, waving towards a cast-iron plant sitting by the door. Instantly - to Naruto's eyes - a figure dressed in a black jumpsuit and white vest, face hidden by a mask painted with whiskers and adorned with a triangular nose seemed to materialize besides the Hokage's desk, facing the leader with their arms clasped behind their back.
"Hokage-sama," the feminine voice intoned. Naruto thought that whatever just happened was awesome, and that he too wanted a rabbit.
"Give it a look," Hiruzen asked. "Naruto, try to channel your chakra again, it might help."
"Yessir!" Naruto grinned. He had held on to the leaf - he'd had it since morning and it'd turned into habit to keep hold of it when the grey-haired man dragged him off - and now placed it back onto his palm and focused just as intently onto it as before. Unfortunately, he had no idea how chakra worked and nothing really happened.
"Ah.." the ANBU gasped lightly. "I don't understand," she explained simply. The Hokage was drumming his fingers along his desk again and the sound of it broke Naruto's concentration.
"For the sake of it," Hiruzen started, eyeing Kakashi, "let's pretend it's chakra. Help him unlock it like it's usually done. Rabbit, keep watching, we might learn something." The two nodded and Naruto squinted at Kakashi.
"How's it usually done?" Naruto asked.
"Well," Kakashi replied, "I'll give you a bit of chakra and usually that lets you get a feel for it, and it'll let you know what you're looking for. After that, it's easy."
"I kind of get it," Naruto nodded, "let's do it!" He was cute, but Kakashi couldn't help the thought that at his age, he was already a murderer... well, that was random.
"Alright, give me your hand and really focus on it," Kakashi instructed, the child quickly obeying. "Ready?"
"Ready." Directly after saying it, Naruto felt his hand warm up. It was very strange, and suddenly an alien sensation seemed to shoot through his arm and the warmth suddenly subsided. "Woah..."
"That's not right," Kakashi muttered, flicking his hand as if trying to throw something off.
"If I may, Hokage-sama," the ANBU asked quickly, motioning towards the blond who seemed rather intent on examining his arm. Receiving permission, she quickly stepped forward and took the hand from the blond, who was startled but didn't otherwise pull away.
"Are you doing it too?" Naruto asked, blinking.
"I am," she answered easily. This time, Kakashi adjusted his headband to observe the procedure.
Hidden by the mask, the woman's byakugan observed closely. Her chakra went through her arm, into her hand, pushed into and around his hand, around his arm... and it was promptly deleted. His own not-chakra reactively ground against hers and the two cancelled each other out. This was not how a jinchuuriki's chakra was meant to operate, not in the slightest.
Kakashi made his own, similar observations, and the two promptly explained what they'd seen to the Hokage as best they could. Afterwards, the Hokage dismissed Rabbit and returned to drumming his fingers along the polished desk.
"I know exactly what's happened," the Hokage sighed, rubbing his forehead drearily. "I just... didn't think it would have this effect."
"Can I still be a ninja?" Naruto asked quietly, having cottoned on throughout the impromptu meeting that something was wrong with him. Even he could notice that.
"I believe so," Hiruzen smiled, "but you won't be going to the academy anymore."
"Wh-what do you mean?" Naruto stumbled, "but if I don't go to the academy how can I be a ninja?! Jiji, I want to be a ninja!" Kakashi moved a hand to Naruto's shoulder and squeezed, telling him calm down. He had a feeling... he was pretty sure he was right when the Hokage made eye-contact.
"Kakashi-" Hiruzen began.
"Alright..." Kakashi sighed, "I'll see what I can do, but I need to know what's wrong with him." With his son. Kakashi had never met Naruto before today, or at least; hadn't known he had met him. The boy was an orphan who didn't know his parents, and it was - simply put - a bad idea to paint the politically-valuable child as such by tailing him. As well, he simply didn't have the spare time to go around looking, and it would've opened the boy up to scrutiny if he'd been asking around.
And then, well. Kakashi wasn't ready to adopt a child; and that's what he would have had to do, if he met a homeless baby in the guise of two of his best friends. It was strange that it didn't click the first time he saw the boy.
Anyway, he regretted it.
"I'll meet you at Ichiraku's, Naruto," Hiruzen said, shooing the blond out of his office. When he left, the Hokage relaxed and let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. "It's serious."
Kakashi felt his heart sinking. "How serious?" The room was quiet, and the question echoed.
"Shinigami serious." That was pretty serious.
"During the sealing?" Kakashi hazarded a guess. Minato summoned the god of death himself in order to seal the Kyuubi. It was even more impressive than the rumor that he slayed the beast.
"How much do you know about the god of death, Kakashi? Or really, how much have you heard?" The Hokage asked, leaning back in his chair and casually refilling his pipe using a supply of tobacco hidden in his desk.
"I know next to nothing," Kakashi freely admitted. It wasn't really a topic worth studying - until now, evidently. Hiruzen motioned to a chair in front of the desk that had been neglected, and Kakashi dutifully sat in it.
"They say - or so Minato explained it to me - that the god of death, this 'Shinigami' is the antithesis to life. In this context, chakra is synonymous with life. Before his sacrifice - bless his soul, as sacrificed as it is - Minato bequeathed to me.. a concern." The Hokage breathed evenly, and Kakashi realized just how much it was all concerning him when he found himself internally cursing the old man for pausing.
"The universe is filled with balance. It is because of this, that the Shinigami must be so powerful; he is the counter-balance to all other gods, all life on this plane of existence... to chakra. A soul, an assuredly powerful soul at that, was only enough for a single act of exchange. For Minato, that was enough," he stared hard, sternly into Kakashi's eyes. "Nobody in this room is to speak a word of this outside of it."
"O-of course," Kakashi breathed. The hidden guards need not respond.
"The seal was designed for more than to merely hold the Kyuubi," Hiruzen chuckled. "My successor is... was, a genius. Do you know about the Uzumaki bloodline?" Kakashi nodded. "What you may not know, is what makes them particularly good hosts," the Hokage smiled. "Their chakra, or in Naruto's case; something we might call 'anti-chakra' - odd as it is that it turned out that way - carries interesting properties. Their bodies are long-lasting, regenerative, sturdy... yet, incredibly, their coils remain impressionable. Particularly, they're good at adapting. Obviously, this is very useful for jinchuuriki." Hiruzen quite enjoyed a role as story-teller, and Kakashi eagerly hung onto his every word.
"The seal was powered entirely by the shinigami. Any interference by any chakra of any means would be... deleted, under the perusal of the Shinigami's energy. This includes whatever pittance of chakra a baby may hold." That is to say, Naruto did have chakra; but for less than a day out of the womb. "Minato - who I might like to remind you was a prodigy in fuinjutsu - created his seal with this in mind. The only energy present within the child was that of the Shinigami's, and through some bizarre method I can scarcely begin to understand; Minato's seal instructed it to populate his son's coils, to grow and be produced by a baby."
Silence.
"That is..." Kakashi tried to say.
"It's insane," Sarutobi muttered, "we can only attribute the boy's survival to his ancestry."
"Wasn't the Kyuubi attack unexpected?" he asked instead.
Sarutobi hummed, returning to drumming his fingers and enjoying his pipe. "We both know he was worried about the Kyuubi escaping during labor. Well-founded. He was prepared for the worst case scenario, and that's why he was my successor." As well as predecessor, unfortunately.
"Then, Naruto carries with him..." Kakashi struggled, "the chakra of.. the shinigami?"
Hiruzen nodded. "Sounds quite powerful, doesn't it? But I assure you it's debilitating by its own nature. He will never be able to heal another, he will never be able to cast genjutsu, he will never be able to sense chakra, and perhaps most of all; he will never be able to utilize the Kyuubi. This is just off the top of my head."
"Then why would Minato-"
"Because it is quite beneficial, regardless." Sarutobi answered easily. "We might not know what to expect, but Minato was a genius and he sacrificed everything to give his son every advantage he could get."
"Yet..." Kakashi wondered, "it's a death sentence if he runs out of chakra, isn't it? The Kyuubi's chakra won't be repelled and it will melt him from the inside out. His body hasn't adjusted to its presence, because it hasn't been exposed, right?"
"I can't stress that enough," Hiruzen nodded. "You're to teach him, under standard pay. Work with the academy to figure out a time-table, it may be for the best to have him remain at the academy if only to take the theoretical classes. I'll also give you his address."
"I thought I was finished with students just earlier today," Kakashi chuckled somberly, standing from the chair and stretching.
The Hokage scribbled Naruto's address onto a stray notepad, ripped off the page and gave it to the jounin while standing up himself. "I've got a ramen stand to get to, so I'll leave you to it. Look after him Kakashi, you know how important it is."
Kakashi bowed deeply. "Of course, Hokage-sama."
Inspired by gaunt444's 'Anti-Chakra Challenge' 5 years ago. I hope I can do it some justice.