Second Sight
Chapter Twelve
There was a little snowman in front of Shimenawa's door. He seemed to have taken the Sunday off; when he answered Obito's insistent pounding he proved to be dressed in warm sweats and slippers, and was carrying a book under his arm. He blinked quizzically at Obito as the young man came into sight, hoping this wasn't going to be bad news.
"Obito...?" he ventured, raising an eyebrow.
"Sensei!" Obito gasped, just about keeling over as he tried to catch his breath. It was at least a full minute before he was able to do more than stammer Shimenawa's name. But by the time he recovered enough to plead for Shimenawa's help, someone wearing just loose pajama pants and a cloth mask that covered his nose, mouth, and neck padded up behind the doctor to join them. The stranger was a little bit taller than Shimenawa, with black hair that seemed to get lighter at the roots, the strands trying to defy gravity despite being damp. Obito could only begin to imagine the things his hair would do once dry.
"Who's your guest, Sunshine?" the stranger asked as he absently ran his hand through his hair, trying to get it to dry faster. "Isn't he a little bit old for you? I mean, well, a little bit of a teasing smile found its way into his voice at that, "Too old to be visiting doctor-you. Don't worry, I know he's not your type."
Obito fell silent and gaped.
"O-- that-- wha--" Shimenawa stopped, took a deep breath, and glanced back to give the stranger a very exasperated glare. "Kumo!" Looking back toward Obito, it only took a single glance to tell what the young man was thinking; Shimenawa waved a hand at him, shaking his head frantically.
"No-- Obito-- it's nothing like--" He jerked a thumb back toward the man behind him. "This-- he's an old high school friend of mine and... What was the matter, anyway?" The young doctor stopped to blink, frowning a little. "Where's Kakashi?"
"I'm hurt, Sunshine," came Kumo's pout as he slung an arm over Shimenawa's shoulders, "I thought we were past hiding our relationship." He lifted a not entirely black eyebrow then, looking between Obito and Shimenawa.
"Is someone missing?"
Obito managed to hold back his complete and utter mortification long enough to remember why he had come to begin with, that Kakashi had been missing for the past hour give or take, and he nodded quickly.
"Sensei! Kakashi, uh, well," he cast Kumo a wary, uncertain look, "We were playing in the snow and he did that, uh... that thing he does. And he disappeared. And he's been missing for an hour or something like that and I know you can still do that... finding people thing. So I was hoping you'd come and, uh... find him."
Shimenawa raised an eyebrow, hoping the old friend standing beside him was too tired to cotton on to the strangeness of Obito's phrasing. That thing he did... that would help him hide in white snow... was he in fox form, then? This was going to be a pain, to be sure. At the same time, the doctor breathed a sigh of relief that it probably wasn't anything worse than a simple misplaced kitsune. Unless Kakashi had gotten himself caught in an animal trap or something...
"All right," he said, ducking out indignantly from under Kumo's shoulder and giving Obito a nod, "let me grab my coat and some real shoes and you and I can go look." He phrased it carefully. Hopefully Kumo wouldn't mind just hanging out here for a while... it had been a long time since the two of them had seen each other, but the other man had been doing nothing but traveling lately; the extra rest could be some good to him.
"Hey, you guys going to look for someone missing?" Kumo grinned faintly. He might have caught on to Shimenawa suggesting that he stay behind, but he rather liked being where the action was and he couldn't really fathom why Shimenawa wouldn't want him to go with. He was quite certain as one of Konoha's elite soldiers and having been in service for the past five, ten years, he was a little bit more qualified to find someone lost than a pediatrician and a delinquent.
"I'll come with. I do have several years of tracking experience if you haven't forgotten. What are we looking for? Friend? Boyfriend? Pet cat?"
Obito choked slightly on his own breath at that, casting Shimenawa a helpless look as he tried really hard not to admit to himself that Kakashi was practically all three.
"Um..." Shimenawa scratched his head, looking a little sheepish. Logically there really wasn't any reason a normal person would deny Kumo's help -- but explaining Kakashi, not to mention his own method of finding the boy, was going to be a headache. Kumo had always been an easygoing, open-minded sort of person, but secret ninja skills and kitsune and four-thousand-year-old reincarnations were sure to stretch even his credibility. "He's Obito's roommate... Oh, this is Matsudaira Obito--" The doctor gestured toward the snow-covered boy still standing outside his doorway. "You're not dressed, though," he added with a sudden flash of inspiration as he looked back. "We really shouldn't waste any time..."
"Who needs clothes when there's someone in need?" Kumo laughed as he looked around so he could at least slip his shoes, "This is nothing compared to that one time I was stationed up north and the boys thought it would be fun to toss all my clothes off the side of the mountain. Ever gone running naked through snow looking for your clothes? But I'm getting off track. Which way did you lose your boy-friend-cat?" As Obito had neglected to answer him, Kumo simply made sure to cover all his bases.
The boy in question had resorted to staring dumbly, before he managed to muster a pouting sort of glare at Shimenawa that accused him of having a strange lover-friend-thing who was keeping them from finding Kakashi.
Shimenawa had given up halfway through the other man's speech, and was now rummaging through the front closet. "Oh, for god's sake, at least take a coat," he told the other man exasperatedly, flinging a spare one at him before quickly tugging on his own and moving to step into his shoes. "Obito, can you lead the way?"
"But-- but-- but!" Obito managed to sputter as Kumo nonchalantly slipped on the coat that was tossed at him. He still was really uncertain about bringing a (really strange) random stranger with them to see Kakashi, old high school friend of Shimenawa-sensei's or not, but there seemed to be no helping it. Obito decided not to be too concerned as long as Shimenawa wasn't, and he really couldn't stay away from Kakashi any longer. He was already really worried and so, swallowing, he nodded quickly before turning back in the direction of his apartment.
"Back here!" he waved at the few dozen square feet of space behind their apartment building when they arrived, feeling even more nervous and worried when there was still no sight of Kakashi.
"I don't know what happened. I was just-- we were just playing and... and he just disappeared," he finished lamely, barely remembering not to say that Kakashi had turned into a fox shortly before disappearing.
"Okay," Kumo nodded, scanning the area without really knowing what he was looking for, "Anyone care to describe what we're looking for to me?"
Shimenawa glanced uncomfortably between Obito and Kumo for a moment, and finally decided, well, he was just going to have to acquiesce. God, this was a mess. But... they really could use Kumo's help, and it wasn't going to help anybody at all if they gave him the wrong description.
"Um, well... don't look at me too weirdly when I say this, but..." The young doctor scratched his head sheepishly. "Either a white-haired boy bundled up with a scarf," he looked toward Obito to confirm whether Kakashi had been in his usual winter wear, but the other boy appeared to be too busy gaping at him to respond, "or, well, a white fox."
For the most part, Kumo seemed to take it decently well, at least for now. Scratching the back of his neck, he looked around the clearing.
"You pulling my leg, Sunshine? I didn't think you even liked foxes," he mused. Being the good sport he was, he was fully willing to play along, though something about all this just didn't quite sit right with him. Shimenawa had never been a practical jokes kind of guy (practical jokes were more Kumo's turf), and both the baby doctor and his boy seemed genuinely concerned that this Kakashi was missing. Either a fox or a boy, huh? Well, maybe things would make more sense once they found Obito's pet boy, Kumo firmly decided.
"Alright, then. Watch a master at work," he grinned, took two steps, and then did his tracking by the book.
"Let's see. There are animal prints here. Boy body shapes here. Huh, I was right on the mark, wasn't I?" he observed to himself aloud and Obito turned quite red in response, "There were definitely two boys here and a fox..." Kumo's eyes narrowed as he watched the boy-tracks stop abruptly and turn into fox-tracks. This was definitely weirder than he was used to.
"...your Kakashi isn't even lost. He ran off that way chasing a rabbit."
Shimenawa blinked. "...He did?" the man said incredulously, looking off in the direction where Kumo was turned, trying to feel for that familiar chakra. Did Kakashi chase rabbits...?
He felt something rather familiarly foxy in the distance -- past another snowdrift, in a rather forlorn grove of dead trees. He frowned thoughtfully for a moment before nodding to himself, walking past Kumo.
"Maybe we should take a look in that direction then," he said, glancing toward Obito nonchalantly.
"He better be dead," Obito grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest as he stalked toward the direction Kumo had pointed. He had almost given himself a heart attack because Kakashi had no attention span and had gone off to chase rabbits? The thought alone made Obito want to break things.
"Ah, young love," Kumo admired as he followed, no less confused but also no less cheerful about it. He was tempted but did not give into the urge to comment on the beastiality undertones of this whole matter, because it was still a little too weird for him to joke about.
Shimenawa just gave both of them a sheepish sort of smile as they made their way across the snow toward the treeline. Kakashi's presence was definitely getting stronger -- actually--
"Was that a snowshoe hare?" he frowned as a white shape, close to invisible, disappeared behind a nearby snowdrift. A second later, it had all happened a little too fast to properly follow -- the rabbit hopped forward halfway into their line of sight, and a slightly oversized fox with fur matching the snow nearly perfectly had burst from inside the snowdrift to pounce on it. The squirming rabbit let out a terrified squeak; Kakashi didn't do more than nip at its ears before letting it get away -- he wasn't hungry and it was the chasing that was the fun part, really.
...hey, there were people. He blinked slightly, taking in the familiar scents as he shook some snow off himself, looking around. There was Obito and Sensei and...
...And.
He stared up at Kumo with both mismatched eyes, and took a slight step back.
"Kakashi?" Obito asked as the fox stepped away from them, looking between Kakashi and Kumo with a puzzled expression, "Hey, I'm sorry we brought someone random and weird but he's cool and everything so you don't have to run away!"
Kumo himself, meanwhile, was trying to absorb all of the new information. How Obito talked to Kakashi as though the fox were indeed a person, for example. And how Kakashi seemed to understand. And what was an arctic fox doing in temperate Konoha? And its eyes were two different colors. It definitely wasn't a normal fox.
"Don't worry, Kakashi, he's a friend of mine," Shimenawa said, trying his best reassuring smile, crouching down next to the fox and offering a hand as if to carry him. This was normally the part where he'd encourage Kakashi to take human shape again, but, all things considered... "Let's go back to my place, okay? You must be freezing after being out here so long..."
But Kakashi wasn't really paying attention anymore. The Sharingan looked right through the man standing in front of him, tomoe spinning wildly; he blinked and he was a boy again all on instinct -- he knew the soul standing in front of him -- he knew this man and this man was--
"Daddy," he whispered, stricken and suddenly very cold, as the dojo flashed before his eyes.
"...what?" Kumo and Obito gasped almost in unison as Obito gaped at Kumo and Kumo gaped at Kakashi. Kakashi abruptly turning into a boy was unsettling at best, and then-- had he just called Kumo 'daddy'?
"Hey," Kumo managed, still trying to recover himself, "I know I did some pretty crazy things in high school and while I was in the ninja academy but... I don't think I managed to knock anyone up, I don't think. Did I have sex with a fox lady? You'd think I would've noticed something like that. Was I really drunk? Hey, Sunshine, why didn't you stop me from going off with a fox?"
Shaking his head still, he stepped forward and knelt before the boy, tugging down his mask as he did so.
"You... you do look an awful lot like me," he murmured under his breath, reaching out hesitantly to touch Kakashi's silver locks, "Even your hair..." His expression was slightly hurt but mostly baffled as he turned his head to look up at Shimenawa.
"What've you been hiding from me, Sunshine? And... why?"
As Kumo looked back at him, bare face lined up next to Kakashi's, Shimenawa had no clue how he could have failed to put the pieces together. They could almost have been twins, save for a longer, more aquiline turn to Kumo's nose; a little more pout to Kakashi's lips; the crimson eye. They hadn't seen each other for a long time, though, and they'd been high school friends -- Shimenawa hadn't exactly been looking for reincarnated members of the Hatake clan in his freshman class, and Kumo hadn't helped matters, dying his hair black with his Gothic friends and always wearing the facemask ("it's ninja tradition, and it looks cool!" he'd always protested), though now that Shimenawa thought about it that really should have been even more of a red flag --
"I..." He gaped, feeling momentarily lost for words. This was not how he'd been expecting his day to go when he woke up this morning. "I didn't..."
His half-coherent words were cut off by Kakashi's quiet whimper. The kitsune had curled into a ball, snow-encrusted tail wrapping around his legs, shaking from more than the cold as he stared down toward the ground. His anxious expression had faded into complete blankness.
Obito stumbled forward when no one else moved, all but shoving past Kumo to get to Kakashi. He felt protective, felt terrified, felt inexplicably angry at Kumo for doing this to Kakashi even though it wasn't anyone's fault. He dropped to his knees beside Kakashi and tried to find a way to hold him, hands lingering helplessly in midair.
"H-hey, Kakashi," he whispered, settling for lightly setting his hand on Kakashi's shoulder, "What's wrong? I mean, he's not... he's not really, I mean, he looks a lot like... but... Kakashi? Please say something, Kakashi?" Obito's voice caught the way it did shortly before he began to tread the thin line between unease and hysteria.
"Sunshine, do me a favor as a friend and fill me in," Kumo spoke to Shimenawa quietly under his breath as he stood and backed up, pulling his mask back in place, "You didn't know before. That's fine. You know now. Tell me."
Shimenawa took a deep breath and reached up to rub at his temples a little. "...You're never going to believe me," he murmured back, shaking his head a little. "Give us a bit to get Kakashi calmed down, all right? And we'll head back to my place. This is a conversation I'd rather have where it's warm."
He moved to crouch down next to Kakashi in the snow again, pursing his lips as he too reached out to the boy. Knowing what Shimenawa knew, it didn't take a genius to figure out why Kakashi would be disturbed by the sight of Hatake Sakumo.
"Kakashi?" he said gently, cupping the boy's face in his hand. "Kakashi, can you look at me?"
Kakashi gave another quiet whimper at the touch, but other than that, it didn't really register. He had to be quiet. And stay still and... because... because he had then, and they weren't going to stay if he moved his hands all the insides were going to come out and then Daddy wouldn't get up so he had to wait and wait and
"Kakashi," Sensei's voice insisted.
"They'll come out," he mumbled, shaking his head a little, folding his arms tighter around his knees. "Don't move..."
"Kakashi, everything's okay," Obito forced out, trying to put things in perspective, trying to think of what he would say to himself. It was almost the same, he imagined, him and Kakashi that day and Kakashi and his dad. Too late, too much blood, too little left to ever be okay again. What could he say? Nothing could make those images, those memories, any less harsh than they were. Everything wasn't okay, and yet...
"Will you come back? With me, please? It's me. You still know me, right...?" There was a hint of true fear in Obito's voice then, that Kakashi wouldn't remember him because where he was right now, Obito didn't exist yet. "It's Obito. Let's go together, okay?" Clumsily, Obito managed to find Kakashi's hand and he gripped it tightly, pressing a kiss into his palm the way he had before, back when they first met again.
Kumo watched this all in silence, seeing how badly damaged Kakashi was. What could have happened to that boy...? And... the way Shimenawa refused to answer him made it fairly clear that he was, somehow, the boy's father. Which was a bit funny to Kumo in spite of all the seriousness, because as far as he remembered he had mostly if not entirely slept with other guys. And Kakashi looked at least as old as him, though perhaps a few years younger. Then again, there was the whole fox thing. He really wanted to find out what was going on and he had the feeling that maybe things would progress better if he made himself scarce, since he seemed to be the cause of the problems.
Carefully, Kumo stepped back into his own tracks to keep the snow from crunching a few steps before he disappeared from view altogether. There was a candy bar he had been coveting all morning anyway. The rest of them could find him enjoying it back at Shimenawa's place when they managed to get things together.
Shimenawa registered the other man's departure, but made no indication of it as he sat there, soothingly stroking Kakashi's hair. Undoubtedly Kumo had picked up on at least an inkling of the reasons behind Kakashi's present state -- he was a smart guy and a kind one, and removing himself from the premises was probably all he'd been able to think of in the way of doing something to help. ... Or this had triggered some memories. For Kumo's sake, Shimenawa hoped it was the former, not the latter.
Kakashi, for his part, had gone from mostly-blank silence to whimpering a little more, which was probably a good sign. He gripped Obito's hand very hard, breathing raggedly as if he were about to cry; but nothing came. Daddy... Daddy was... no, Obito was--
A moment later he whipped his head around to stare at the other boy, eyes very wide. Sensei's hand paused against his hair.
"Kakashi...?" Obito breathed, relieved that Kakashi was at least responding. He held his breath in case, because he had no idea if this meant Kakashi was going to get better or worse, but almost anything was better than Kakashi retreating into himself like that. He didn't notice Kumo leaving, but there was very little in his world outside of Kakashi right now.
"Are... are you okay? Are you ready to come home, Kakashi?"
Kakashi sat there shaking for a second longer, and took a deep breath, and swallowed. Expression calming just a little bit, he looked at Obito and hesitated, and gave a shaky nod. There wasn't... this was now and that was then, and there wasn't, and he wasn't and... where was he?
"...W-where...?" He uncurled himself a little bit, glancing around, before attaching himself to Obito's side. He wanted to -- to touch. And be touching and. And there hadn't even been a man there, had there, yes there no. His head had put the man there and that was all, wasn't it? But the Sharingan had. But. He didn't. He.
"He went back to my house," Shimenawa told him gently, rising and brushing the snow off his legs.
...Oh.
Kakashi's eyes widened a little.
Obito wound his arms around Kakashi, giving him a tight squeeze before helping his friend to his feet.
"Want to..." Obito stumbled over his words and he drew in a deep breath before trying again, "Want to do your fox thing, Kakashi? I'll... I'll carry you home." He would have been afraid that perhaps Kakashi might not be able to be coaxed to turn back but Obito wanted to be a little selfish just then, wanted to cuddle Kakashi in his arms until everything was better again.
"Mm..." Kakashi laid his head against Obito's shoulder, and a moment later there was a rather snow-covered fox hanging there, little claws clinging to Obito's jacket. Obito quickly wrapped his arms around Kakashi's wriggling little body before he fell, snuggling into the soft fur. Kakashi curled his wet tail around his body and pressed his nose against Obito's encircling arm; and then Shimenawa was beckoning them, and they started back toward home.
-----
The house was quiet when they walked in the door. Shimenawa took off his shoes, dumped his coat in a corner of the doorway, and turned back to smile at his two boys, ruffling Obito's hair a little. "I'm going to make some hot chocolate, so you two get some towels and get yourselves warmed up, okay?" he said, waving them toward the bathroom. "You can borrow my stuff if you need a change of clothes, of course." He smiled again at Obito's affirming nod, and promptly took himself off to the kitchen, smile replaced by a sigh as he walked through the doorway. Oh, he was not looking forward to this.
"Hot chocolate, Sunshine?" Kumo was already in the kitchen, now dressed in just pants, mask, and an apron he had dug out of one of Shimenawa's closets, ladling hot milk from a simmering pot on the stove. He filled three mugs and soup bowl because he hadn't been able to find a fourth cup, then spooned generous amounts of hot chocolate mix into each before stirring the powder in.
"You're too predictable," he sighed fondly as he walked back over to offer his poor, overstressed and overworked old friend a mug to call his very own.
"Cheer up, Sunshine. I made you some of my infamous deep fried cookies too."
Shimenawa could only blink in surprise for a moment before giving his friend a grateful smile, accepting the mug and taking a seat at his kitchen table. "You were busy then," he observed cheerfully, wrapping his cold hands around the wonderfully warm mug of cocoa.
"...Sorry about all the commotion," he ventured after a moment, with an apologetic, slightly hesitant smile. "I'm used to those two so I don't think about it much, I suppose, but they can certainly be a handful."
"Used to them?" Kumo shook his head at that, returning to the counter to balance two mugs, a plate of cookies, and a bowl in his arms. "I thought you looked a little skinnier and off color, Sunshine. You have to take better care of yourself before you get to nag me anymore." He nodded toward the living room where he assumed the boys were and gave Shimenawa a slight searching look before asking, "You ready to go out there yet or would you like some heart attack cookies and some more sympathy from me? I admit I'm more curious about this than I was about whether or not our art teacher was really stashing hallucinogenics in his desk, but my curiosity can wait. You look like you're about to..." ...break down "...have a cookie, Sunshine. Won't do your body much good, but it does wonders for your soul."
Shimenawa was one of those scary happy people for Kumo, hence the nickname. The one kid in the world high school never got down, and probably the only person who'd kept Kumo from destroying himself in one way or another. Shimenawa'd gotten him to quit smoking, quit taking drugs, almost managed to get him to quit drinking, and managed to keep the sharp pointy things and nooses at bay and out of Kumo's hands.
The only thing he hadn't managed to get Kumo away from was the army, but Kumo wasn't dead yet so he figured Shimenawa had played his cards right. So all of this? Deeply unsettling for Kumo. Who was watching out for his Sunshine when his Sunshine was too worried about those kids out there to take care of himself?
Shimenawa accepted one of the cookies with a laugh, sipping at his slightly cooled-off hot cocoa and then taking a bite. They were as heavenly as ever -- and man, had it been a while. Kumo wasn't generally the cooking type even when he was around to do it. "Mmmmm. I can actually feel my arteries clogging," Shimenawa declared with a sage nod, feeling... very glad his friend had come around yesterday. Even if it meant that he was now going to have to give an unspeakably awkward explanation.
"...I sent the boys off to get themselves dry," he informed the other man, and nodded toward a chair. "So we have some time to ourselves." Looking down thoughtfully at his mug of cocoa for a moment or three, he laughed again quietly, shaking his head a little before he paused to take a sip.
"Though, I'm... really not sure where to start," he confessed.
"Beginnings are a good place," Kumo mimicked Shimenawa's sagely doctor voice as he set down the two mugs and the platter of cookies on the kitchen table. He held the bowl of hot chocolate in one hand and two incredibly unhealthy cookies in the other. (Shimenawa really didn't need to know, but among Kumo's list of ingredients for the cookies were things like lard and the fancy slightly expensive chocolate that was 90 fat.) "How I managed to spawn and not know and how you managed to be around my kid so much and not realize he's mine would be cool too. Is he really... I mean, well... is he really mine? And... how did he recognize me? And why was he so terrified?" There were about a few thousand more questions running amok in Kumo's head, but Shimenawa was only one man and Kumo had to acknowledge that, so he held back the rest and waited.
"Um. Well, as to whether he's your kid... yes and no." Shimenawa frowned down thoughtfully at his mug, turning it around slowly between his hands.
"...You know all those times you've talked about people reincarnating and I've given you weird looks?... It wasn't because I didn't agree with you," he confessed wryly. He didn't look over at Kumo as he took another sip of his hot chocolate.
"You've never actually had any kids this life, at least that I know of. But Kakashi... remembers you from a previous one, I think," he murmured, glancing over to give his friend a sheepish smile. Of course he did more than think, but he certainly wasn't the expert on everything that might have happened to Kakashi over the past several thousand years.
"...knocking up a kitsune-lady in disguise in a former life is a little less creepy, I guess," Kumo managed, taking a bite out of one of his cookies because now was definitely the time for comfort food. "So, then... am I actually his dad or do I just look like his dad or what? And how did you get mixed up with him? Them? What? I just confused myself."
"...Um. Well."
Shimenawa looked over at the other man, and reached up to scratch his head a little embarrassedly. He guessed there was nothing for it. And, really, if there was anyone who had a right to know, it was Kumo.
"I've actually... never told anyone this before, but." He smiled awkwardly. "Um. Also I'm going to sound completely crazy, but, that is to say..."
Except as he got there it sounded so completely ludicrous that he wasn't sure how to say it.
"...You're army..." He glanced away, fiddling with his half-eaten cookie. "Do you remember hearing in history, or reading about somewhere, maybe, or whatever..." God, this was embarrassing. Even Kumo couldn't possibly believe him. "...a certain Hokage? Name of Yellow Flash?"
"Sure I do," Kumo gave Shimenawa a puzzled and slightly suspicious look, "I might've never paid much attention in class, but one thing I was good at was watching people, and Yellow Flash is the guy you turned three different colors for when the teacher covered the Fourth Hokage. You were slightly less off color than when they discussed the Third Hokage's death but slightly more than when we covered all the other guys on that hunk of a rock behind the city. What's the baby face who looks like he was your mom have to do with anything?"
"...Um."
He paused. There really was nothing for it. The whole rest of the unbelievable story basically started from here.
"I'm him," Shimenawa confessed, with a very sheepish grin.
"You..." Kumo trailed off, giving Shimenawa a rather skeptical look now, "You're playing with me, right, Sunshine? The freaky fox thing and the past life thing I can take but... my little Sunshine? Kid I saved from getting duct taped and left in the stairwell? Kid I used to fish out of his locker after the seniors locked him in? The Fourth Hokage? No way."
Shimenawa's smile turned apologetic again, and he set his cookie down on the table as he pushed his chair out, rising from his seat.
"Yeah, I know... I'm sorry I never said anything before, but..."
He didn't even make any seals. One moment he was standing next to his chair, and a second later, there was a tiny gust of wind in the kitchen, and he was perched on the edge of the table next to Kumo's seat as if he'd always been there.
"It's not the sort of thing you figure anyone will ever believe, y'know?" he said with an abashed sort of grin.
It was only through years upon years of grueling training a field work that Kumo managed to keep himself from spilling his hot chocolate everywhere as he jumped back several feet.
"God damnit!" he swore, hugging his bowl to his chest, "You know better than to sneak up on me, Sunshine! Trigger happy, remember? Trigger happy." He shook his head, feeling a strange sort of hum in the back of his mind as he began to speak again.
"I still hate it when you do that!"
Shimenawa blinked. Still...?Ah well, there were more important things to dwell on right now than whether he had ever snuck up on Kumo before. "Er, sorry about that," he said, scratching his head as he hopped down to the floor again, "should've thought to warn you." For the sake of the other man's pride, he chose not to mention that there was no need for him to worry whether Kumo might have attacked him or not. Shimenawa was sure his friend had quite enough to absorb without any further reminder that his happy-go-lucky high school buddy was also an ancient, powerful Hokage."...Anyway." He paused a moment to let Kumo breathe a little, and returned to his own seat, trying not to make any sudden movements. Kumo's startle reflex was more violent than he remembered, and he wondered grimly for a moment what the other man must have gotten himself into, fighting out on the army's front lines. "I know it sounds insane... besides my jutsu and my looks, I don't really have any good way of proving it. But... he's me. I'm him." The doctor shrugged. "I'm a reincarnation, but I've known since I was born... there's never been a time when I didn't remember.""Kakashi and Obito..." He nodded toward the kitchen door. "They were students of mine, in that life, before I became Hokage."
Kumo managed to settle himself again two more cookies and half his bowl of hot chocolate later and he relaxed again, trying to sort out all the new information in his head.
"Okay, Sunshine. You always were a creepy kid, so let's say you were the Hokage and Kakashi and Obito were your team. And I'm... am, was, whatever. Kakashi's dad. With you so far. Now what in fuck's name did I do to that boy for him to look at me like I locked him in a closet and fed him chicken bones his entire childhood?"
"...Well."
Shimenawa took another long sip of his cocoa, expression uncomfortable.
"The version of you in that life.." He phrased it carefully, wanting very much to separate Sakumo-of-then from Kumo-of-now. "He... he died very suddenly. Kakashi was extremely young at the time... he didn't have any other family, either," the doctor explained, misrepresenting the problem entirely and feeling awkward, but definitely not guilty about it. Kumo was a good man and... just did not need to know. "It affected him... very strongly. He had nightmares about it all the time as a young child." Shimenawa's countenance was sober as he nibbled at a cookie.
"Running into you so suddenly probably just brought it all crashing down on him again..." He smiled a little sheepishly. "And, well, he's um, not the most stable person even on his best days, so."
"...ah," Kumo responded simply, not really knowing what to say. Those were the times, he supposed. It was one of the main reasons he had no plans of settling down this time around. Death was way too likely of a possibility for him, and he didn't like the idea of leaving anyone behind to be too sad. Except for, well, Shimenawa was kind of a fluke. And now that had all changed for him.
"Huh. I always knew I'd be a shitty dad," he finally shrugged as he brought his now empty bowl to the sink, absently washing it before setting it on the drying rack. It was probably the first dish he'd washed in at least a few years. "Anything else I should know about, Sunshine? Kind of feels like you're still holding out on me."
Well, Kakashi becoming a reincarnated millennia-old kitsune came after you, he's watched Obito die more times than I want to think about, and also, you killed yourself. Shimenawa gave his friend another wry, sheepish smile as he reached up to rub at his temples. He was going to have to break out the aspirin soon.
"There's a few more details I could go into, but at this point, I'm afraid the more I say the more confused I'm going to make you," he said, shaking his head with a short laugh. "I'm really sorry to spring all this on you so suddenly. I can't imagine what you must be thinking right now."
"Me? Don't worry about me, Sunshine," Kumo reassured, offering his friend a comforting squeeze on the shoulder, "I'm sure all the headache and woe and whatnot will come later. Right now I'm just busy being relieved I didn't knock up a kitsune during one of my drunken fits." He grinned in an agreeable manner then, deciding that his old buddy needed cheering up more than he needed to be confused right then, so he thoughtfully tapped his finger to his lips, hoping to distract Shimenawa from his grave, serious worries with far more frivolous ones. Such as the very high possibility that Kumo would suck Obito into his dark eating habits and both of them would die within the year of full cardiac arrest.
"I wonder if the boys could use some of my fudge tempura. And you, too. We all need cheering up. Fudge tempura is great for cheering people up."
It seemed Kumo's methods of assassination had become far more subtle.
"...Fudge tempura?" That was a new one on Shimenawa, and he turned to blink disbelievingly at the other man for a moment -- before frowning and glancing toward the kitchen doorway.
"Speaking of the boys, they're taking an awfully long time... I'd've expected Obito to be in here demanding his hot chocolate by now," the doctor murmured, rising and stepping out to go see what was up. "Obito? Kakashi?" he called as he walked into the living room."We're here, Sensei," Obito replied rather softly for him, curled up on the couch with Kakashi snuggled up against him. They were mostly dry and dressed in clean pajamas, a small, thin blanket draped over their legs. Kakashi still looked rather out of it and Obito was doing his best to keep his friend calm and somewhat lucid, gently rambling about ramen and crane games and how red beans were highly superior to green beans.
Kumo was lingering by the kitchen door, peering in, not quite daring to come out for fear of upsetting Kakashi but at the same time unable to stay away. For reasons unbeknownst to him, looking at Kakashi made him feel a sort of... heartbroken pride. As though he was unspeakably proud of the boy, but deeply grieved for the fact that he was able to be unspeakably proud of the boy. Not that that made any sense, of course, but it was what he felt.
Shimenawa had to smile a little at the scene, and he turned back around to go grab the remaining mugs of cocoa out of the kitchen. "I'm afraid it's not really hot chocolate anymore, but, it's chocolate?" he said with a sheepish smile as he walked over to set the mugs on the coffee table for his boys to get to at their leisure.
"Um, our friend made it," he said quietly, giving Obito a slightly helpless grin.
Leaning over them, he gave both boys a firm hug, ruffling Kakashi's hair a little as he pulled away. Sometimes it was very hard to believe they were the age they were -- Obito occasionally acted all 18 of his years, and Kakashi... well, who knew what you were supposed to act like when you were three-thousand-and-change, but -- at times like this it didn't feel very different at all from when his kids had been kids, way back then; throwing snowballs or splashing water or initiating the occasional food fight, camping out under the stars together, sleeping over at his house. The only thing that could have made this scene more perfect would be to have Rin sitting in the armchair reading one of her girly romance books. She certainly would have giggled at the idea of Obito and Kakashi curled up cuddling the way they were now.
"How are you? Feel better?" he asked Kakashi, stroking his hair fondly.
Kakashi nodded, looking a little shy -- perhaps a little embarrassed, Shimenawa amended. He'd been the same way as a child; the Yellow Flash had always been able to tell when the boy's nightmares had run toward his father, from how angry he got at himself after he woke. Shimenawa supposed the embarrassment must be as much a reflex as the pain by now.
After too much longer, he rose from his spot, turning away toward the kitchen again to leave the boys to their own devices. He still had another friend to see to.
