The Ryouken Bakery was one of Naruto's favorite places in Konoha – rivalled only by Ichiraku's. He ended up there almost every day after class, and Kakashi, the owner, was the coolest. He used to be an ANBU captain, which Naruto only knew because he'd technically known Kakashi since before he'd retired from ANBU. Naruto would sit on a counter in the back kitchen and do his homework and talk about class while Kakashi made bread in all shapes and sizes and one of Kakashi's shadow clones minded the shop. Kakashi would help him when his homework got confusing. Sometimes after the bakery was closed for the evening, they went over to one of the training fields, and Kakashi would help him with his taijutsu and shuuriken aim. With his friend's help, Naruto's grades had slowly improved until he was mid-ranked in his class instead of hopelessly dead last.
Naruto had never had a big brother before, but… he thought that this was what it was supposed to be like.
Kakashi had been expecting to catch a fair amount of flak for basically quitting to become a baker, and there definitely had been some. The Council had had conniptions. Some of his fellow shinobi and a number of civilians had expressed their distain about him switching to the reserves at such a young age. The surprising part had been just how supportive a large number of people were. Gai had actually cried joyful tears on him despite Kakashi's best attempts to get away. (They still sparred at least twice a week when Gai was in the village, and Gai still considered Kakashi his rival whether he was semi-retired or not, because apparently taking care of his mental health just made him an even more worthy opponent. Kakashi didn't even bother trying to understand.) Iruka had been surprised when he'd first told him and then just shook his head and sighed, "I really should have expected that," with a smile. Then he'd helped Kakashi put up his new shelves.
Most of Kakashi's regular customers were shinobi. The Akimichi clan had a standing weekly order as did the Inuzuka clan. There were even a handful of ANBU who occasionally stopped in after their patrols and made purchases using hand code before heading back to their ANBU base quarters. (They were generally referred to him by Tenzou, who had taken over leaving 'cursed bread' around the ANBU base and spreading the rumor of the vengeful baker's spirit with unexpected zeal. Apparently Tenzou had developed a taste for pranking his comrades. It was an unexpected turn of events, but Kakashi thoroughly approved.) Civilians wandered in and out – some more than others. Kakashi's bakery was developing a reputation for quality.
Kakashi couldn't remember ever feeling this content before in his entire life. Part of him missed the adrenaline and challenge of missions, but he didn't miss the killing, didn't miss the blood coating his hands. And even if he had missed it, it was all worth it just to hear Naruto's enthusiastic greeting every day when he arrived after the Academy let out.
If the Sandaime and the Council would let him, Kakashi would definitely have stolen- er, adopted Naruto by now, because a ten year old living on his own ought to be illegal. And he was speaking from experience. His sensei's son was far too good for this ungrateful village, and Kakashi's customers had quickly learned that any unkind remarks they made directed at Naruto would get them kicked out of the bakery with extreme prejudice. And if the customer in question was a shinobi, the kicking would be very literal. No one could throw somebody out a door quite like a wrathful ex-ANBU captain. Kakashi didn't care what anyone said about him, but Naruto was out of bounds.
The bell over the bakery door jingled, and Kakashi glanced up from the book he was reading. He was out front for once while his shadow clone minded the ovens.
"Really, kid? A bakery?" Jiraiya stepped through the door. "When both your entry and Hound's disappeared from Kiri's Bingo Book, I thought you had been killed in action."
Kakashi closed his book with a decisive snap.
"Not dead – just not on active duty anymore."
Jiraiya's eyebrows shot up.
"You switched to the reserves?!"
"Yes," Kakashi told him coolly. "Two years ago now. Which you'd know if you stopped in Konoha more than once a decade." A bit of an exaggeration, but Jiraiya wasn't exactly Kakashi's favorite person at the moment.
Jiraiya either missed his dangerous tone or chose to ignore it.
"You're not even thirty, yet! That's way too young to be on the reserves! You have a duty to Konoha. What would Minato say?!"
And that was a low blow even for Jiraiya. If Kakashi hadn't had a vested interest in his bakery not becoming a smoking crater in the ground, he probably would have been tempted to go after Jiraiya with a chidori or, at the very least, pulled some kunai out of the weapons pouch he had never stopped wearing. Instead he stood up from his stool and leaned his hands on the counter, radiating killing intent.
"I think he'd say, 'Why is my ten year old son living in an apartment by himself, sensei, instead of with his godfather?'"
Jiraiya flinched slightly.
"I'm Konoha's spymaster. I couldn't take a little kid on the road with me – it wouldn't be safe!"
"He doesn't even know your name," Kakashi snapped. "Couldn't pick you out of a line up if he tried. Even if you couldn't take him in, you could have stopped by the village every once in a while and at least talked to him! That would have been enough!" He could tell that his words had made a palpable hit. "You were the only person the Sandaime's orders didn't apply to, and you're a seals master. Nobody would have questioned you spending time with the village's jinchuuriki. It wouldn't even have been the first time you had taken in war orphans! You were just too much of a coward to take any responsibility."
Jiraiya glared at him.
"I wouldn't go throwing stones in glass houses if I were you, Hatake."
Kakashi glared right back.
"I was a suicidal, fourteen year old ANBU operative with orders from my Hokage not to approach Naruto until he was at least four years old so no one would suspect that he was really Minato-sensei's son. Besides," the door bell jingled, and Kakashi quickly slammed a lid on his killing intent, "I haven't been in a glass house in a while."
"Hey nii-san!" Naruto called cheerfully, peering around Jiraiya. Kakashi's heart still sort of melted every time Naruto called him that. "Who's the old geezer?"
Kakashi raised a challenging eyebrow at Jiraiya. Jiraiya turned to look at Naruto. His expression was wistful and pained, but his mouth remained firmly shut.
"Nobody," Kakashi finally said, staring Jiraiya straight in the eye. Jiraiya looked away. "Just a customer. Come on, Naruto, I'm closing up early today. We can head over to Training Field 3 and do some taijutsu practice." Kakashi really needed to get out into the fresh air to clear his head a bit.
"Training before homework? Yeah!" Naruto cheered.
"Could you go in the back and tell the shadow clone that he can disperse after he's taken the last batch of bread out of the oven? I'm just going to finish helping this man."
"Sure thing!" Naruto darted through the curtain into the back.
Kakashi turned back to Jiraiya.
"Is there anything else I can help you with?" he asked levelly.
Jiraiya's shoulders slumped a little, and he sighed.
"No. Take care of yourself, kid. And… take care of him, too." Jiraiya turned and left in a rustle of coat, and Kakashi had to squash the urge to shout at him some more. At this point, it wouldn't help anything. If Jiraiya was still too lost in his own grief to act like a godfather, nothing Kakashi could say would change his mind.
Kakashi never used to have the patience for teaching people things. When he was younger he honestly hadn't understood why people didn't just get it the first time they were told. He didn't know how to break explanations down into smaller pieces or approach concepts from different angles, because he'd never needed to. Baking had taught Kakashi a lot about how to not be instantly good at things, which meant that Kakashi was much better at helping Naruto than he might otherwise have been. Naruto took more after Kushina, who had been a brilliant and gifted kunoichi but not a prodigy. But being a prodigy wasn't always a good thing as Kakashi could personally attest. What Naruto didn't possess in natural talent he made up for with grim determination and tenacity.
Kakashi ruffled Naruto's hair when he finished the kata they'd been working on without any hesitations for the third time in a row.
"Good work." Naruto beamed. "Let's head back to my apartment and get some supper."
Naruto's eyes widened.
"Your apartment? Really?" He'd never been to Kakashi's apartment before. Kakashi nodded. Naruto grinned but then frowned. "Iruka-sensei told me that any time you use your kitchen for something that isn't bread related you set it on fire."
"That's a gross exaggeration. What Iruka-sensei actually meant to say is that you should always leave jam making to the professionals." Kakashi had nearly lost an eyebrow to that little incident and had had his hot water cut off for three days for the scorch marks it had left on his kitchen ceiling. Long story short, the next time some hopeful ANBU tried to special order jam-filled doughnuts, Kakashi was charging double and getting pre-made jam. Naruto didn't need to know that though. "Besides, I was thinking we could get takeout."
"Let's get ramen!"
Kakashi wasn't even remotely surprised. He had absolutely no doubt that Naruto was going to grow up to beat Kushina's record of twenty-eight bowls of ramen in one sitting. At ten, he could already manage five. Kakashi was pretty sure that it was some sort of Uzumaki kekkei genkai.
Naruto started rubbernecking the instant Kakashi opened his apartment door. He looked like he was trying to memorize every detail at once in case he didn't get another chance.
"Put your bag on the table, and then I'll show you where I keep the chopsticks," Kakashi told him as they toed off their shoes by the door.
Naruto bounded into the living room, depositing his takeout bag on the table and spinning in a circle to get a better look at everything. Kakashi shook his head with a smile, put his own bags down, and then headed into the kitchen with Naruto following close on his heels.
Kakashi was digging through a drawer in search of two pairs of matching chopsticks (how? How did he have so many chopsticks that didn't match?!) when Naruto piped up,
"Hey, Kakashi-nii, is that your gennin team?"
Kakashi straightened up to find Naruto pointing at his old team photo.
"More or less, though we were all chuunin when that was taken."
"You were so short!" Naruto laughed. "And-" He paused, squinted more closely at the picture, and then screeched at an ear-bleedingly loud volume, "OH MY GOSH, YOU WERE TAUGHT BY THE YONDAIME?!"
Kakashi waited until the ringing in his ears had subsided before responding. It was okay – he probably hadn't needed that eardrum anyway.
"Technically Minato-sensei was still just a jounin when he taught me, but yes."
"That's so. Awesome." Naruto was up on tiptoe trying to get a better look at the picture. "He's my hero! What was it like to be taught by him? What was he like?" he asked eagerly.
Kakashi blinked. The Sandaime had forbidden him from telling Naruto about his parents, but he'd never said anything about not regaling Naruto with stories about Kakashi's chuunin team and their sensei and their sensei's girlfriend. Hel-lo loophole. All he had to do was not mention Kushina's last name or the fact that she was a jinchuuriki, and he was home free.
"Come on," Kakashi grabbed his team photo and Kushina's picture off the windowsill and then pulled four chopsticks out of his drawer at random – they ought to work well enough whether they matched or not. "I'll tell you all about him over supper."
Naruto's eyes practically glowed with excitement. He dashed back out to the table and sat down so quickly that his chair slid a few inches across the floor sideways.
"Looks like we're having a family dinner, sensei," Kakashi murmured quietly, and then followed after Naruto at a slightly more sedate pace. The pictures were set in a place of honor in the center of the table. Once they both had a takeout container of ramen in front of them, Kakashi started, "You can't really talk about Minato-sensei without also talking about Kushina, the Red Hot-Blooded Habanero. They were together pretty much the entire time I knew Minato-sensei-"
Kakashi had never seen Naruto pay so little attention to a bowl of ramen. Over the next two hours, Kakashi talked himself practically hoarse. It barely even scratched the surface of everything he wanted to tell Naruto about his parents, but that was all right. It was a start, and he had time.
A/N: If Jiraiya had been around for when Kakashi was still in ANBU, he would have been part of the pro-bakery camp, but he missed all that and I think that this was also a fair amount of his own guilt talking.
Since I forgot to mention it last chapter, "Ryouken" means hound or hunting dog in Japanese (unless Google has been lying to me again). Kakashi decided that calling his bakery anything scarecrow related would sound weird.
