Rating: PG

Pairings: None

Spoilers: Some Kakashi background again

A/N: First of all, thank you to everyone who reviewed! It's really encouraging to see that so many people are enjoying the story, and that some have come back.

Secondly, in keeping with the idea that everything was the same for Kakashi up until the three year time skip that I have created, there is now a huge gap between when Obito died and the beginning of my story. This means I get to create background. I've stuck to what I know about Kakashi as much as possible, but I have marked the story as AU so to avoid spoilers I didn't look into it too much.

Also, there is angst. You have been warned.

Summary/Snippet: "To answer your question, Kakashi," the Hokage spoke up, receiving the attention from both jounin, "he hasn't been named yet." The copy-nin was beginning to have a bad feeling about this. Sandaime could not possibly be suggesting what he thought the old man was saying.

Disclaimer: I really wish I owned Naruto. Why? Because that would mean that I had lots of money.


Fire in Your Eyes

by Psychick

Chapter 3: Naming

Things went smoothly for the most part after Yoshino-san left. The baby did wake up soon after but this time there were very few tears, which were easily stopped with the leftover formula the jounin heated up, and he fell asleep again soon after. Kakashi was able to finish cleaning up his house as much as possible, make his own supper, wipe his kunai and shuriken down, and put the playpen together with minimal frustration before heading off to sleep. On Yoshino-san's advice, the jounin kept the infant in the same futon that he slept in. This turned out to be an excellent idea as he was woken up at least three times during the night to take care of various demands from the boy.

When Kakashi awoke for the last time it was on his own terms, but he found that the hour was about mid-morning, much later than he was used to getting up. Since the baby was still sleeping soundly the copy-nin picked him up and placed him in the playpen in the living room so he could make breakfast and set about planning his day. His promise to find out the infant's name was foremost in his mind and most likely Sandaime-sama wouldn't be too busy to refuse the jounin if he simply walked in. If worse came to worse he could speak with the Hokage while the old man was in the genin assignment office. Afterwards he would have to pick up the monthly check he would be receiving for his own expenses, spend a few hours training and then….

Then what? He wasn't taking on missions anytime soon, which meant he wouldn't be leaving the village. There was no traveling to do, no reporting in to a client, which left him with a lot of free time in the afternoon. There would be some time were he would have to take care of the infant obviously, but what other things could he do around here? There was the occasional get-together of chuunin and jounin, he knew, but he had never been very sociable, spending most of his time involved in making himself a better ninja. Plus he had a feeling he would feel very, very weird carrying around a baby in front of all of his fellow shinobi.

Said infant had woken up, if the fussing from the other room was any indication, so the Kakashi took a bottle of formula that had been prepared from his fridge, heated it, and brought it over.

"Yo," he greeted the baby as he carefully picked the boy up. "I guess you're hungry, huh." Sure enough, as soon as the rubber nipple hit the blue-eyed infant's lips he greedily sucked his meal down. "You aren't going to give me anymore trouble like yesterday, are you? Because I don't think I can stay completely sane if you do. Why don't we make a truce? You keep the crying to a minimum and I become your eternal slave. This way I get to keep my sanity and you get fed. Agreed?"

Blue eyes roamed around the room, never focusing on any one object for more than a few seconds, and a quiet sluck, sluck sound as the boy drank was the only answer Kakashi received.

"Right, I'll hold you to that then."

After they were finished with the feeding routine, which did not involve any surprise spit-ups this time, the jounin set about gathering extra diaper supplies, an extra outfit (he still had to get rid of those dark green ones), and a pacifier from the boxes, another bottle of formula from the fridge and the light green blanket from the floor, placing them in his backpack. There was a sling for carrying the baby in that wrapped around his shoulders and back. It was the easiest way to carry the infant, but it put weight on the left side of his ribcage and even switching to the other side didn't lessen the pain of his fractured ribs much. He made sure to take a couple of painkillers and added 'see a med-nin' on his to-do list.

The whole thing took a good chunk of time, and Kakashi set out much later than he had planned. It was annoying, but he made up his mind to keep the backpack prepared ahead of time from now on and start getting ready early when he had somewhere to be.

"Yosh," he said, stepping out the door and locking it, "let's go."

The sights and sounds of Konoha, as the silver-haired ninja set off at a brisk pace, were paradoxically somber and uplifting at the same time. The banging of hammers on rooftops could be heard, and shouts from the foreman echoed around the town as the villagers all pitched in to help rebuild homes and apartments. It was one of the points about Konoha that secretly made Kakashi more proud of his home village than almost anything else. People were willing to give up their time and energy, gaining nothing in return, to help out their neighbor when things got really rough.

Yet as he glanced around with his uncovered eye, there seemed to be a heavy cloud that had settled over everyone. The stores that usually bustled with shoppers were all closed, and any greetings that were thrown his way were half-hearted, an unusual sight for the normally friendly people of the Hidden Leaf Village. Children ran back and forth across the jounin's path, but none of them were playing games or laughing. Instead, they all carried boxes of nails, tools, or small planks of wood from one district to another as needed.

If anyone thought it was strange that a hitai-ate wearer carried an infant, they never mentioned it. The teen reasoned that they would have more important things on their mind, but it didn't make him feel any less irrationally self-conscious. He was halfway to his destination before he realized that his pace had quickened unintentionally, and forced himself to slow his steps. Getting himself worked up over little things like this was not going to be helpful to anyone.

A small whimper had him looking down at the infant hanging around his chest. The boy had been about to fall asleep again, but Kakashi's jostling had woken him up slightly. "Sorry, kiddo," he apologized while shifting the sling to make sure it was secure. "You can close your eyes again. I'll be more careful, promise." The infant's soft breathing quickly evened out at the silver-haired teen went to continue on his way. As he looked up he noticed a man, wearing saw-dusted clothes as well as carrying a toolbox and several two by fours, giving him a strange glance. As soon as their eyes met, the carpenter looked away sheepishly, but Kakashi had already deciphered it's meaning.

He supposed it was a little weird that he would talk out loud to the infant in the streets, but it actually seemed natural to the copy-nin. Yoshino-san had made a lot of cooing sounds and attempts at coaxing the boy yesterday afternoon, and Kakashi had picked up on that habit during the night. The truth was the teen had spent so much time living on his own that it no longer bothered him to realize that he occasionally spoke out loud to no one. There wasn't much distance between that and speaking to a person who couldn't answer you.

Finally, he reached the main office of the Hokage. An ANBU stood guard at the door, announcing the presence of the Sandaime better than any sign would. After an attack on the village, it was typical for the Hokage to have an entourage to ensure he would be safe from any enemies who thought they could finish off the weakened village. Some claimed that it was really unnecessary—a Hokage was the strongest shinobi in the village after all—but in reality the Sandaime couldn't be watching his back every minute of the day as he finished up paperwork, strengthened their defenses, and saw to it that the townspeople could rebuild their homes as soon as possible. Although the irony of the situation did not escape Kakashi, as he was about to walk into the room with the vessel of the very being who had taken the life of the last Hokage with out any protest.

The masked woman did not stop him, however, and after giving a polite knock and receiving an invitation to step in, he opened the door.

"Ah, Kakashi. What perfect timing. I've just finished explaining things to Rin."

The brown-haired medic-nin turned towards the doorway and faced her comrade, giving him a weary smile. "Hello, Kakashi."

He gave he a nod by way of a greeting and turned back to the Hokage. "If I'm interrupting anything I can wait outside."

"No, no," Sandaime-sama waved it off, "Rin has already finished giving me the reports from the hospital and I didn't really have any more to add."

"I'll let you two discuss things then." The girl said with a polite bow to both of the men.

"I won't be long. You might as well stay for this," Kakashi told his former team member. "Hokage-sama, I promised Yoshino-san I would come in as soon as possible and ask. What's the boy's name?"

Rin perked up at this for the first time really seeing what the silver-haired teen held in his arms. "Is that…is that him? Can I… I mean do you mind if I…?"

He hesitated. If Sandaime-sama had told Rin everything, then she knew about the Kyuubi. She didn't seem angry, so it was probably safe to let her approach the infant. More importantly, he reminded himself, it was okay for her to approach him. They may have been distant to each other, but there was no bad blood between them over everything that had happened and neither had ever said that avoiding each other was for the best. But a small part of the copy-nin still balked at being so close, unreasonably afraid for the med-nin's safety. Nothing will happen, he mentally scolded himself, we're in the Hokage's office. Tell her it's okay.

He was a moment too late.

"I'm sorry," Rin stuttered, "I shouldn't have asked, that was—he's probably sleeping and…"

"I'm sure," Sandaime-sama interrupted her, "that Kakashi is simply wondering how you will react to him. Not everyone is willing to accept these things so easily and it is his job to protect the boy." The pointed looked the jounin received was a bit annoying. Yes, thank you, I'm scum for hating a baby. I get it. However, it got him out of having to admit the real reason for not answering the medic-nin, so he didn't push it.

"It's alright Rin. I don't mind. He'll probably sleep right through it anyway." The girl approached eagerly and her face became much more animated at the sight of the small child. She stroked the boy's cheek gently with one finger and cooed over his tiny features. It must be a woman thing, Kakashi decided, as cooing was much different than simply conversing in his mind. Their brains must be wired to speak in high-pitched voices around children. Why? Please tell me it's not an important developmental stage.

Sandaime smiled at the picture before him. Rin had reacted as he had expected her to when he relayed the story of the Yondaime's fate. Tears for her sensei, and anxiety for the life of his young descendant. The fact that the demon fox lived on in side of the child did little more than to surprise her, before she questioned the reaction of others. It had been a very medic-like response, concerned about the life rather than the revenge. It was unfortunate that her openness of emotions had never made the impression upon the copy-ninja that he had hoped.

"To answer your question, Kakashi," the Hokage spoke up, receiving the attention from both jounin, "he hasn't been named yet."

Kakashi waited for some elaboration and did not immediately ask the obvious follow-up question, simply because he thought he had misunderstood. Who hadn't been named yet? he wondered. Surely not Yondaime's son. He couldn't live his life with people simply referring to him as 'boy.' Of course there was a name. But then who didn't have a name?

"Who gets to name him? Why didn't Sensei name him, or his mother?" Rin was apparently in on this secret person's non-identity. Maybe they're talking about another orphan?

"Yondaime and his girlfriend did not wish to know the gender of the baby until he had been born, and it is my understanding that they had only managed to create a list of names before the attack. As both parents are unavailable, that list has essentially been lost leaving someone else to decided on an identity."

The copy-nin was beginning to have a bad feeling about this. A very bad feeling. Sandaime-sama could not possibly be suggesting what he thought the old man was saying. Silently he begged to an unseen power that his suspicions not be confirmed. Unfortunately, the jounin went unheard.

"I thought it best that Kakashi be the one to name him, as you will be taking care of him for quite a while."

"Really?" asked Rin, sounding surprised and turning to the silver-haired teen. "That's great! You'll have to think of something really good. And you'll probably want to give him a name Sensei would approve of, so it will have to be somewhat original. This could take a while, my mother told me she and dad argued forever before deciding on my name. I guess you won't have that problem though, will you?"

"Yeah. Great. My choice."

Sandaime raised an eyebrow at the shinobi. He had thought, from Kakashi's somewhat protective stance as Rin had come nearer to the infant, that there would be no more resistance from the ninja. His expectations were too high apparently, as the expression on the jounin's face showed. "You are not happy with my decision," he stated more than asked.

"I'm not thrilled, anyway."

"We could always let Rin decide on a name I suppose," the old man offered. "It's up to you. The care of this child is completely in your hands, so you will have to choose one way or the other."

Kakashi, however, had stopped listening at "let Rin decide." It was out of the question. If Rin were allowed to choose the name then he wouldn't be able to refuse her if she wanted to be more involved in the blue-eyed infant's life. She would use it as an excuse to try to get close to him again, and that couldn't happen. If he was going to keep his promise to Obito, if he was going to protect her, she had to keep her distance until things were under control. They had proven that two years ago. Even after all this time, on his best days, nothing had changed since then and on others he was worse.

"No. I'll do it. I'll pick the name," he announced firmly, his voice more confident than he felt. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Rin's face fall, and he was halfway to quashing the guilt it caused before stopping himself. Emotions are okay. Don't let them control you, but don't push them away. It was still guilt though, something he had never been good with, and when he started to feel sick his mind reacted to protect him, erasing the feeling.

Damn it. Damn it, Obito.

"Well then, if that's settled and there's nothing else from either of you, you are free to go."

A memory stirred and Kakashi realized he should probably report it. "There is one thing, Hokage-sama. Yesterday, we came across the—" He stopped, remembering the ANBU stationed outside. "Is it safe to discuss…that?"

Sandaime nodded and the teen continued, "Yoshino-san and I came across the seal yesterday. I'm not entirely sure—my sharingan can only see so much—but I think the Kyuubi was trying to break the seal and overtake the infant. Its chakra wasn't very strong. The seal is still completely sound; it hasn't cracked at all. I only needed to give it a push with my chakra and it backed off, but until then it causes the boy a lot of discomfort. That seems to be the only side effect."

The news was troubling. If the Kyuubi could affect such a strong seal even at this early stage then there was no telling how much damage it would be able to do later on, or how long the seal would last. Hopefully there was enough time for the demon and human chakra to adapt to each other. This being the case, then there was a chance they could save the boy's life if the seal ever did break, however they would only be given the opportunity to do so if Kakashi could prove that the Kyuubi would not influence the boy. And if the seal did break before the two chakras assimilated, the infant's body would be destroyed from the inside out.

But the Sandaime was getting ahead of himself. There was the possibility that this was just the last vestiges of the fight, a final resistance from a demon not used to being tamed. Too many 'what ifs' and not enough answers. They would have to wait and see.

"Watch for this kind of thing again," he ordered after some thought. "If it gets worse, or better, report back to me immediately. If we want make sure the problem is contained, we must be prepared. We will respond as much as possible. Nothing further. Dismissed."

"Yes, sir," came the reply, and both jounin bowed politely and exited. Rin, being the last one out, closed the door and copy- and medic-nin stood there facing each other. Kakashi knew he should just walk away, that talking to Rin would only lead to trouble, but she was still someone important to him and ignoring her seemed like the wrong thing to do.

"So… I guess you'll be heading back to the hospital then."

Rin shook her head. "Not quite yet. I'm actually on a four-hour break right now. We've been healing people non-stop since the attack and there are still plenty more patients, but I need some sleep or I'll be useless. I'm on a twenty-four hour chakra ban as it is."

The teen looked at his friend more carefully and noticed that the weariness from before had returned to her face. She was exhausted, probably from an adrenaline rush that had died down once she left the med center and a full day of healing. Four hours wasn't going to be enough to completely revitalize her, especially since the meeting with the Hokage had probably cut it down to three, but she would be able to keep going for a day or two more before she really had to quit.

"Go home and sleep," he ordered before turning around and walking away, past the ANBU still standing guard. If they kept up a conversation the brown-haired girl would be wasting time that could be used to take care of her body's needs.

Unfortunately, this didn't stop her. "Kakashi, wait. Kakashi! Can't we just walk together? It won't hurt to talk." The jounin sighed as he came to a stop. If he kept on going she would only follow him until he answered her. She was willing to keep her distance only until he breached the gap, and then she couldn't be shaken off no matter what he tried to do.

"Rin, you can't do this. You'll be needed to help with patients later. I have other things I need to take care of. Get some re—"

"How about getting some ramen?"

The silver-haired jounin whirled around to face his companion. Rin's face was very open, pleading, desperate for him to agree, yet he couldn't help but look at her with a small amount of incredulity. "Rin…you hate ramen. There aren't any ramen stands nearby and most places are closed right now anyway. Give it up and go home."

"Why?!" she yelled at him. "Why are you still avoiding me? I get that you won't acknowledge my feelings because of Obito. I get that. I promised I wouldn't act on them. But why won't you let me be your friend? Why won't you let anyone close? Weren't you going to protect me? How can you do that if I never see you?"

She had started to cry during her outburst, and even the ANBU was looking a little uncomfortable at being—literally—in the middle of the argument. "It has nothing to do with your feelings," Kakashi tried to explain. "You know I can't…the mission. I still haven't—"

"That was two years ago! It was an accident! We were both to blame! The only reason I joined another team was because you were still in the hospital! You can't argue your way out of this one Hatake. We just need to get back together, work on a few low-rank missions, build our teamwork back up—"

"There was no teamwork, Rin!" he shouted, the volume of his voice rising and his anger surfacing. He tried pushing it back, controlling it a little, but it was no use. She couldn't see, she wouldn't realize why they had to separate, she was blinding herself to it all and it made him furious. "There was no teamwork! Anyone could have seen it! We weren't fighting the enemy-we were fighting each other! How the hell can we get our teamwork back? There was never any damn teamwork to begin with, and it was my fault! I know it was my fault, I know I was acting on my own. I know I have to change it, I know I have to fucking control myself! I know all that so just stop ask—"

"WAAAAAAAAAAAA! Wa-waAAAAAAAAAAA!"

"Fuck!" the teen swore. He had forgotten that the infant was sleeping and now he was in serious trouble. If 'guilt' was the emotion he had trouble letting surface, 'anger' was the one he had the most trouble suppressing and the one least helpful to the current situation. He was lucky that it was most likely the boy had just been upset. The jounin didn't think his chakra control would be even remotely stable right now, and Rin was both forbidden from using hers and no better off, emotion wise.

He just had to calm down. Yoshino-san had said that he couldn't manage that then he couldn't expect the same from the baby. Just breathe. Just let some of the tension go. If you let it go first, then he'll stop crying. Breathe, breathe…

"Can—should I help?"

"No, damn it," Kakashi snapped at the med-nin. "Shit, I didn't mean…Rin, I have to do this myself. I have to take care of him; I can't let everyone else do it for me. I can handle it."

"All right," she whispered, stepping back and wiping away her tears. She hadn't meant to break down like that. She was just supposed to convince Kakashi that they needed to talk, but her exhaustion was creeping up on her and making her more emotional. If she used this time to calm herself, she might be able to salvage the situation. The real reason she wanted to spend some time with him really had nothing to do with their fractured team, but everything was getting mixed up in her head and she had bypassed that completely.

She watched as Kakashi closed the one eye that wasn't covered by his forehead-protector and steadily relaxed, despite the bawling that was coming from his charge. When he seemed to have reached a more tranquil state, he started rocking the baby and shushing it, walking from one side of the hallway to the other. It was a very bizarre image. The copy-nin had proven to be many things—aggressive, confident, arrogant, loyal, calculating, and violent even—but he had never really shown a gentle side. It was nice to see, and Rin began imagining what he would be like when the blue-eyed infant was older and could respond to the jounin. Maybe taking care of a child would be good for Kakashi.

When the boy had calmed down enough that Rin felt she could interrupt, she tried to convince her friend to spend time with her again. "I know you don't want anything from me right now, but that's not what I'm asking for. I just want to talk. I need someone to talk to, and you're the only person who can really understand. Please, Kakashi. Just…just one bowl of ramen, that's all I'm asking."

The silver-haired ninja sighed, and rubbed a hand down his face. "You really want to do this, don't you? Fine. But that's it. And not just because of…us. Anyone can see you need sleep. You shouldn't even be up right now."

Rin let out the breath she had bee holding in as the other boy turned his back to walk out. He was in a good mood.

She turned to the ANBU and quickly apologized, "Sorry for that. I'm sure we made you uncomfortable." The woman waved a hand, as if to say it was no problem, but in reality it showed how big of a scene the two had made. If she really didn't mind, she wouldn't have twitched a muscle.

"Hurry up, Rin," Kakashi called back to her in annoyance. The medic-nin smiled a little and chased after him. They may not have been a team for quite a while, but the older teen always seemed to fall back into the role of leading when they were around each other.


Four years ago, only a few months after Obito had died, Yondaime had been chosen for the position of Hokage. Everyone knew that it had been his dream, and his students and friends couldn't have been happier for the Yellow Flash. The resulting celebration had taken place at a ramen stand where the blond man had proceeded to down a ridiculous amount of food. However, his promotion meant that his workload and responsibilities increased dramatically, and it was too much to expect him to deal with the village problems and finish mentoring a jounin and med-nin. Kakashi was reaching a level that surpassed most ninja of his caliber with the help of the sharingan and Rin's medical training was becoming more intense. On top of all this, the end of the Third Great Ninja War brought about a need for delicate politics between hidden villages, and "delicate" was not something normally associated with the Yondaime.

The end result was that the two teenagers were given missions together, but frequently with a team leader and/or a third team member that they hadn't worked with before. Kakashi did not adapt to this well. He tended to give only the bare minimum of cooperation with any one who hadn't gained his respect, and his respect was not easily gained, as Obito had proven while he was alive.

Obito's death, or rather, the events leading up to his death were not without their mark on Kakashi either. The silver-haired ninja had taken the Uchiha's words to heart, as he began to change his beliefs that emotions were not unnecessary and was determined to keep his promise to protect Rin. It was possibly the worst combination of convictions that the jounin could have come up with for himself.

Beliefs that are spawned from large events witnessed in one's childhood and carried throughout his or her life are difficult, if not impossible, to change over night. Kakashi was no exception. His father's suicide had left a scar on the boy, and for five years he pushed away his emotions to become a better shinobi, a better weapon. The conclusions he had come to about the cause of his father's death were only reinforced every time he successfully completed a mission to the point that it suppressing his feelings had essentially become second nature.

So it was that his first issue, trying to let himself experience the emotions that he had suppressed, had him struggling for months. Many people commented that conversations with him were often the most interesting experience they ever had during that time, as the jounin would appear to be completely uninterested in anything when suddenly his expression would change with no warning. Without any lead up to his outburst, people had no idea if he would react badly or not and some of the older, more cocky ninja often provoked him to get some entertainment out of it. Eventually Kakashi got fed up with this and it resulted in an outburst of anger that seemed to open the floodgates.

Controlling the emotions became his next hurdle. Relaxing and enjoying things wasn't so much of a problem when he was on his own because it was usually Rin, who he had asked for help, who had to drag him out to do something that didn't involved training of one sort or another. It was the more negative emotions that he had no experience dealing with that proved the most difficult. Kakashi tended to lash out when he didn't know what to do.

Adding to all of this was task of protecting Rin, which had several consequences. To Rin it was almost a guilty pleasure at first. She knew he was doing it because of Obito, and she was also aware that Kakashi wanted her to forget about any other relationship than comrades in the field. But she was also a fourteen-year-old girl and romantic emotions and notions were not so easily cast aside; it was nice to have the guy she cared about rescue her in pinch. Then, after about a year, she got into serious trouble and sustained an injury that would take some time to heal. She would live, but to Kakashi that wasn't enough. He hadn't been there, hadn't protected her and he felt both guilty, as if he himself had caused the wound, and that he had failed Obito. Rin had never bothered asking which emotion was the one that had him losing his lunch right in front of her when it became too much, but from that point on his protection became something of a burden.

The copy-nin started trying to leave her out of anything that seemed even remotely dangerous which, as a ninja, pretty much meant everything. He had taken on a lone-wolf attitude, essentially accomplishing whole missions by himself and his medic partner began to resent him for it slightly. She was a competent kunoichi, or she wouldn't have made chuunin, and not being allowed to do her job had her reacting by doing the exact opposite of what he ordered occasionally. This only increased his fear that he wouldn't be able to protect her, which was another emotion he still struggled with and turned into anger. The possibility of an argument between the two friends escalated to the point that missions became endangered.

It was two years after Obito's death that everything came to a head. They had been given a mission where nothing was without risk and Kakashi had been made team leader with hesitance from the Yondaime. The jounin had insisted that he was capable, and the fact of the matter was that it was true. His completed-to-failed mission ratio was still excellent and his teams rarely came back with any major injuries. The deciding factor, however, was the undeniable truth that there was no one available who was better than the copy-nin at the time. Yet, when they reached their destination, he again gave Rin the task with the least amount of risk.

Maybe if they hadn't argued before leaving the village. Maybe if her mother hadn't confronted her about her choice of career again that morning. Maybe if it hadn't been that time of the month. Hell, maybe if everything had happened two days before, or the weather had been better, she wouldn't have stepped out of line. But it hadn't and she did and the resulting injury, not easily treated but possibly life threatening, was too much for her partner.

Kakashi snapped. He did a lot of damage to the enemy but with no regard to himself or anyone else, and it was only thanks to their third teammate that any of them got out alive. As it was the brown haired girl spent three weeks recovering and the copy-nin two months plus a mandatory psych evaluation ordered by the Hokage himself. He was deemed fit to return to duty by the time he was out of the hospital, but it was three more weeks before he could be considered for any serious missions and Rin was assigned to another, more permanent team long ago. She tried to visit him several times but after the first one, where he declared it safer if she stayed away from him, he refused to see her. Since then, their separate schedules kept them from even passing each other on the street too frequently. She had made another attempt around the third anniversary of Obito's death when they had not-surprisingly run into each other at the memorial stone, and she was more persistent that time, trying to get him to talk about what happened, but he pushed her away again with the same excuse and eventually her efforts fell by the wayside.


That had been several months ago, and today was the first time Rin had really talked to him since then. He was pretty sure that his resistance to her was only weakened because of recent events. Despite that, neither of them said a word for the first half of the trip to Ichiraku's. Kakashi hadn't actually asked if that was her intended destination but considering she really did hate ramen it was only reasonable to assume she meant it to be somewhat symbolic. Sitting at Sensei's favorite stand, eating his favorite food with his kid while she tried to have a meaningful conversation with what was left of their team...classic, emotional Rin.

The medic-nin followed by his side while he played with the infant. The blue-eyed boy hadn't gone back to sleep after his outburst and while Kakashi had been shifting the sling around to keep the weight off his ribcage, his hand brushed past the baby who had seized the opportunity to grab the jounin's pinky. He had tried pulling his hand away but, as the kid had shown before, he had a pretty strong grip and no desire to let go. The teen had resigned himself to waving his hand around pointlessly, which actually turned out to interest the boy.

"You two seem to be getting along well," Rin commented.

"Mmm. Something like that," was his response. The brown-haired girl was never really discouraged by his lack of enthusiasm, but she wasn't encouraged by it either. Silence reigned for another few steps.

"Things in the hospital are really crazy right now. Well… that's a bit obvious isn't it?" She gave a nervous laugh. "But we've managed to save a lot of the critical patients. Not everyone. But a lot of the people we didn't think would make it are fighting hard to survive. It's a little frustrating though. You have to take care of the patients who are in serious condition first, right? But at the same time the others want treatment too, and they keep trying to convince you that they need help. You have to send them away, even when you want to treat them. It makes things hard."

That was something to which Kakashi couldn't have responded even if he wanted to. Those were the kind of decisions you had to make as a medic or a ninja. Personally, the jounin thought the people who weren't about to die were morons. What did they expect after a large-scale attack? Shinobi healing and medics may have seemed like magic, but even they could only do so much. It was why he hadn't gone to the hospital right away when he knew his ribs were broken. As long as he didn't do anything that could endanger his lungs he'd be fine, and when things calmed down he would get them healed completely.

"Oh! I just remembered," Rin exclaimed. "I saw Gai-kun in a recovery room. He needed some minor surgery but he's fine now. I think he said something about healing up in a week or he'd run around the village 200 times."

"Gai is an idiot." The silver-haired ninja declared. "If he's not running around yelling about the springtime of his youth in three days, something really is wrong with him. Until that happens, don't worry about him." The ramen stand was in sight and it looked as if Ichiraku was handing out meals to workers who had taken a break from rebuilding, so Kakashi couldn't excuse himself on account of it being closed. Wait. Gai? There was something about Gai that I had to take care of. Gai…Gai…

"Ah! Gai!"

The medic-nin looked at him and jumped at the conversation that seemed to be taking place between them. "Something wrong?

"The green one-piece outfits. I forgot to throw them out. I have to remember that when I get back home." Rin gave him a puzzled look, apparently misunderstanding whose green outfits he was referring to. "Never mind. Let's just order." They greeted Ichiraku and his wife, who squealed over the arrival of new baby and brought her five year-old daughter out to meet them. Ayame was shy and hid behind her mother's skirt despite encouragement, so to spare the poor girl her father admonished his wife about ignoring the customers. The woman's enthusiasm brought up the question of the name of the baby again leaving Rin and Kakashi to begin brainstorming, with Kakashi having the final say.

"Takeshi."

"Are you serious? That's so…common. He needs a real name, a unique name. It's too bad he's not a girl. Then you could name him Sakura."

"How is that original?"

"It's not, but at least its pretty. Takeshi is just plain."

"Okay, how about Aoi?"

"That one's obvious, too, Kakashi. You can't name a kid off the color of his eyes, even if they are really bright. Maybe Akira? It means 'bright', so you've got the same premise just not as apparent. Plus, it really fits if he turns out to have the same hair color as sensei."

"I don't know. Akira reminds me of that cocky bastard from the academy who thought he was a taijutsu master, or something. I don't think he even graduated."

"Umm…Haruki? Isamu? Kaito? Masaru? Naoki? Osamu?"

"They don't really sound good with his last name. Except maybe the last one. What does it mean?"

"Oh, that's right, I forgot about the last name. Uh I think it means 'order' or 'restraint' or something. Or maybe it's 'discipline'?"

"It doesn't sound like anything Sensei would think of anyway."

"Thank you for waiting," the ramen chef said as placed their bowls before them. Rin had actually ordered beef ramen, although Kakashi had a feeling it was more because she had been the one to suggest it than a sudden fondness for it. The jounin had freed his hand from the infant's grasp long ago, but he couldn't really eat over the kid without the risk of hot soup dripping on him, so both shinobi ended up moving their noodles around more than anything. The narutomaki bobbed up and down in the miso as Kakashi poked at it and he was quiet while racking his brains for more names.

"Sensei… his funeral," the Rin spoke up quietly, "Sandaime-sama says they're having his funeral in two days."

The abrupt change in topic had the copy-nin faltering and he didn't have a chance to respond before Rin had gone on.

"He's really dead, isn't he Kakashi? Sensei, he's really gone. I still…I still have a hard time…Did you see his eyes? Right before he…right before…it was like he knew he was going to die, but…I don't know…I didn't know how! I couldn't do anything. I couldn't even try. He didn't have any wounds, there was no blood, he was just gone!" Tears started streaming down her face for the second time that day. "It was worse than Obito. At least Obito…Obito was still alive when we were with him. We talked to him before he was gone. But sensei…It's so pointless! What's the use of being a medic if I can't help my team? What's the point of learning how to save people who can't be saved?"

Kakashi sat stunned at this sudden revelation. "Rin…I'm such an ass." Kakashi had needed to push aside his sadness and anger at the Yondaime's death to take care of the baby. But of course Rin, the medic, the one who spent most of her time learning how to treat the people she cared about, of course she would have been affected by only being able to announce her mentor's death.

"I need someone to talk to, and you're the only person who can really understand."

Rin hadn't been trying to get him to open up. She had been looking for someone to support her, a shoulder to cry on, and he had tried to brush her off, push her away, he had yelled at her.

"I'm sorry, Rin. I'm really sorry. God, I feel so stupid."

What should he say? What should he tell her? What could he tell her that wasn't a repeat of everything she had just said?

"Kakashi, promise me. Promise me you won't do anything stupid anymore. Please, just don't…don't do anything that I can't fix. I can't…we're the last two. It's just us, and I don't want to lose you, too. I swear I'll be a friend, I'll be just a comrade to you if you promise not to get hurt like that. If you promise not to…not to die like that. Promise."

"Take care…of Rin…"

He couldn't. If he kept his promise to Obito, he couldn't promise Rin that he wouldn't do everything to save her. If he gave his promise to Rin, he couldn't guarantee his promise to Obito. But wasn't he already hurting Rin? Wasn't he already breaking his promise by avoiding her?

This is a mess. What do I do? I don't know how to fix this. There aren't even any guidelines to follow. How do you reconcile what you feel and what you need to do? How, Obito?

Dad… what should I do?

"I'm sorry, dears, I don't mean to interrupt, but I think the poor boy is getting restless," Ichiraku's wife intruded into his thoughts with her (slightly nosy) observation and then offered, "You might want to see what he wants before he gets too cranky and you can't calm him down."

"She's right," said Rin, quickly composing herself in the face of catastrophe and wiping away her tears. "He might be hungry. Do you have something to give him?"

"I just gave him something to eat," Kakashi exclaimed. "He can't possibly be hungry again. I was going to save the bottle in the bag for lunch time, if we were out that long."

"You'd be surprised," the ramen chef spoke up from where he was stirring a pot in the back. "When Ayame was just born, my wife was so busy taking care of her sometimes I pretty much ran the place by myself. Kids eat a lot when they're that young."

The silver-haired teen sighed. "Crap. All right, Rin do you mind holding him? I—I don't want to drop him while I'm getting the stuff…" To late he realized that Rin could probably grab it for him but she had already moved to take the baby in her arms, and as she lifted him up she bumped her arm against the copy-nin's side.

"Ow! Damn it! Ow."

"Young man, you shouldn't swear around children," the woman behind the counter admonished in a way that brought the image of wooden spoons to mind.

"Kakashi," the medic-nin said hesitantly as she reached out one arm to push lightly on his injury, "tell me you aren't walking around with broken ribs."

"It's not a big deal. I was going to get it fixed today." He swatted her arm away and swung his backpack around to open it.

"It is a big deal. You could have punctured a lung!"

"I said I'm fine. The hospital couldn't have taken me anyway, you said it yourself. Here," he shoved the bottle at her so he could put his bag back on. "It should be okay for him to drink right now. I think. They can drink cold milk, can't they?"

"I swear, men are such idiots," the brown-haired girl huffed.

"You said it missy," answered the ramen wife.

"Hey!"

"I'm starting to wonder if it's okay for you to take him. If you really can't handle it, I wouldn't mind. I'm sure my mom would love to help out as well." Rin tipped the formula bottle in the direction of the blue-eyed infant's mouth.

"You can't," Kakashi snapped a little, feeling suddenly worried at the prospect of having the kid taken from him for some reason. "You're needed at the hospital. You won't have the time. I'm capable of taking care of him." Rin stared at him a little before acquiescing with a secretive smile and tried to get the baby to drink some more. He would put his lips around the nipple as if he were about to drink, sometimes taking a sip or two, but then turn his face away and scrunch it up.

When his whimpers began turning into tears and he started to squirm in frustration, she turned back to the main guardian, who had started to eat some of his own meal. "He doesn't seem to want this. Does he need a change?"

The jounin turned to her, "No. I'd be able to tell, trust me." He tapped the side of his nose. "Maybe we should try that pacifier thing, I haven't use—wait. Did you say change?"

"Uh…yeah?"

Kakashi groaned. "Not now. This is a really bad time you stupid bastard," he hissed before looking around to make sure there were no shinobi around who would recognize what he was about to do. When the coast seemed clear, he reached for the boy and began to peel the clothing away to get to his stomach. Sure enough a bright orange swirl was apparent on the baby's torso.

"What are you doing?!" Rin whispered as she moved to shield the mark from civilian view. "You should wait to do this until you're somewhere safe. Not out in the open. How are you going to keep it a secret otherwise?"

"I'm not going to wait," he whispered back. "You have no idea what we went through yesterday before we figured this out. He shouldn't have to suffer through it again." The copy-nin pressed his hand against the spiral and gave a quick burst. His control was better this time and no red mark was left behind as the seal faded. "I already checked for other ninja in the area, and most civilians wouldn't know the difference if we lied to them. It worked on Yoshino-san."

"Yoshino-san?" asked the med-nin in what she hoped was a casual voice. The silver-haired teen had mention the person before, but Rin had never heard of her.

Kakashi rolled his eyes, "Don't get jealous. She's just the mother from the north district who helped me out. She's the only other person who's seen it." The two of them quickly set about fixing the infant's outfit, and Rin tried with the bottle again to cover up the fact that anything had happened. The kid wasn't really interested in it, but his whimpering and kicking had stopped, so the teenage girl simply held him while Kakashi went back to finishing his ramen.

"Everything turn out okay?" asked Ichiraku with a smile a few seconds later. The copy-nin wondered if the chef had taken note of their unusual behavior, but both he and his wife had been engaged in a lively conversation with some new customers. It was most likely the man was simply being friendly.

"Yep. Problem solved."

"Good to hear. Well then, finish enjoying your meal. I don't want to think my cooking is unappreciated, eh?" he gave a hearty laugh and walked back to his stove.

Kakashi took another bite and pushed the narutomaki around in his bowl as he chewed. This was going to be a much bigger problem than he had originally thought. The seal was strong enough to cover the weak chakra movements of the fox right now, so there was no way to predict when something was about to happen and the baby's cries were no more distinctive than when he had a normal problem. The jounin would have to figure out a system of discretion if he were to keep this under wraps. As he thought, the narutomaki began to twirl around in his bowl when he pushed it, the swirl pattern spinning around and around. He stared, letting the optical illusion draw him in.

Twisting, turning, twirling, swirling, spiraling…spiraling? Spiral…the seal…goes with his last name…something Sensei would approve of, so it has to be original…ramen is—was his favorite dish…Rasen…no…narutomaki…

"Naru…to?"

"What?" asked Rin, looking up from playing peek-a-boo with the boy.

"The name…Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto."

The medic-nin frowned a little, "Are you sure?"

"It's original," Kakashi defended his choice, "and it fits. It meets all of the criteria."

Rin shrugged, "Well, it is your choice." She tickled the boy on the stomach. "Uzumaki Naruto, huh? You know, it kinda grows on you. I like it."


A/N: As a reminder, Please don't tell me how this doesn't match Kakashi's background, or give me spoilers as to what his background really is. Any other critisim about anything revealed before the first Sai/rescue Sasuke arc is fair game, and I welcome it.

To head off the other type of review I will undoubtly get:
For those of you who don't like Rin/Kakashi → I'm sorry for the annoying apparance of it. If you look at my headings you will see, however, that this is a No-Pairings story. I just needed someone like Rin for the plot and there is no denying that they were teammates and that she had feelings for him, so there is bound to be some history.
For those of you who do like Rin/Kakashi→ I'm sorry if you were misled. If you look at my headings you will see, however, that this is a No-Pairings story. I just needed someone like Rin for the plot and there is no denying that they were teammates and that she had feelings for him, so there is bound to be some history

Lastly, The next chapter may come out a little later than two weeks from now. Finals are coming up in three weeks and I really need to start studying, plus I have a paper due as my English final, so FYE will probably be pushed down on my things-to-do list. I promise to continue, I'm having a lot of fun writing this, plus the next chapter is the beginning of where I really wanted to be with this story.

Please review, ask questions, make criticism, whatever. Just let me know you're out there!