After his father died, Kakashi didn't want to care about anyone. He learned the hard way that when the person closest to you dies, it tears your heart into shreds, and if you decide to pick the pieces up and put your heart back together, your heart would simply be torn open again.
That slowly started to change when he was put on a team with Rin and Obito. Rin, with her stupid fangirl crush and her stupid caring eyes, constantly asking for him to work with Obito. Obito and his stupid habits, always showing up late, bragging about how he was going to become Hokage one day. Minato-sensei, always watching them, letting them work their own problems out. Sure, it caused more than one fight when he didn't intervene, but Kakashi had come to realize in his ripe old age of 28 that Minato-sensei had let the fights happen on purpose. Team Minato had to work their own problems out without their sensei's help, and little by little, fight after fight, they did. Kakashi (although he never admitted it out loud) began to grow fond of Obito's loud, obnoxious speeches about how he'd never give up and how he'd be Hokage, and even though Obito's late tenancies drove Kakashi mad, soon Kakashi found himself growing amused at the absurdity of Obito's excuses. The Uchiha's Taijutsu was nothing to laugh about, either, and Obito never did learn how hard Kakashi pushed himself just to stay ahead of the Uchiha, while pretending he was that way naturally. Before he realized it, Kakashi Hatake found himself viewing Rin and Obito as more than a team. He realized: They were his friends.
Then, one after the other, Team Minato's members died. First Obito, and then Rin. He had asked to be put in the Anbu, and Minato, now the Hokage, had sadly authorized Kakashi's move into the darkest branch of the shinobi, only able to watch as his student threw himself into mission after mission. After the Hokage had died, Kakashi began truly yearning for death. His one hope had been Itachi, and Kakashi set himself on the path of training Itachi to take over Team Ro. Then, everything changed on the day he met Aiko.
Her team had been ambushed, and while Itachi was taking his revenge on the enemy shinobi, Kakashi was inspecting the bodies to see if any Leaf ninja were still alive. Upon finding the girl barely alive, he had intended to skip over her, but she had latched onto his forearm, her hand cutting itself on the metal. Kakashi had paused, wondering why someone would cling to life so hard, even when they were so close to death, when Itachi appeared. Upon seeing his kin, he had insisted that they take her back to the Leaf.
Once they got her to the hospital, the medics were unable to pry her grip off of Kakashi, barring cutting off her hand, and they had drug Kakashi with them to the surgery room. Lord Third had to come to the room in order for Kakashi to be able to give him a debriefing.
... ... ...
Kakashi sweatdropped.
Aiko had woken up, and her first words were...somewhat surprising.
"Who the fuck are you?!"
He sighed from behind his Anbu mask. "Would you mind letting go of me, now?"
She glanced down and her face grew red as she let go hastily.
"Than-" Kakashi stopped in the middle of both thanking her and rubbing his wrist. He looked down, surprised, to find the metal bent around his forearm.
Son of a-!
He pried the metal off, and both he and Aiko simply stared as his wrist hung limply at an angle that it was not supposed to bend in.
Itachi glanced it at the commotion, simply shaking his head and heading to find a free medic.
... ... ...
"Please?"
"No." Kakashi said, his voice firm, even in the face of the...rather cute...pouting girl.
Itachi sighed. Although not an Anbu yet, he was well aware of the strict code that the Anbu followed, and he was expected to be going into the Anbu in a couple years, anyways.
"What Anbu-san means to say is he'd be delighted." Itachi said, and Kakashi's head snapped in his direction, his eyes behind his Anbu mask glinting dangerously.
Aiko beamed at them both as Itachi accepted her invatation to cook Kakashi dinner as an apology for breaking his wrist and bracer.
Itachi noticed Kakashi's glare and mentally shrugged. He'd take Kakashi's wrath over Aiko's pouting any day.
... ... ...
Five years. Kakashi spent five years with that family before Itachi massacred the Uchiha. He had found out everything about them, how Aiko and Shisui's parents had died in the Third Great Ninja War, and with a jolt of guilt, that Obito had been their older brother. When he found out this fact, he almost backed out of the deal altogether, prevented only by Itachi and some very...threatening threats.
"I'll burn the entirety of your Icha Icha collection and make sure Jiraiya never writes another one again!"
...Bastard...
The first night he had gotten...very drunk, courtesy of a mischievous Aiko, who wanted to see what he looked like underneath his mask. Itachi and Shisui, putting two and two together, decided that they wanted to be nowhere near a drunk Aiko and drunk Kakashi and vacated the premises with all due haste. It was a good thing, too, because Aiko did indeed get Kakashi's mask off. Among other things.
He had panicked when Aiko told him she was pregnant. He had tried to explain that he could well and truly die at any moment in the Anbu, saying that it was best for the child to be adopted and spared that pain. She had been hurt, very hurt, but she tried hiding it. Due to Lord Third, a very protective Shisui, and Toru and Shenba, Ibukai was over at Aiko's for every moment that he could. Kakashi was drug into his life, kicking and silently screaming, but drug in all the same.
When the Massacre occured and he found Ibukai alive in the closet, he had cried his eyes out, wrapping his arms around his son. Frantically, he had searched for Aiko, but to no avail. He held out a hope that she had somehow escaped, and was in hiding, but that hope diminished with every passing day.
Ibukai had lost his memory, and Aiko was gone. However, Toru, who had mentored him in his Anbu career, had actually encouraged Kakashi to take a Genin team, and against his better judgement, Kakashi had agreed.
Several years later, he had watched as his team owned the Chuunin exams, and although his son had lost his final fight, he had watched with surprise as Ibukai's chidori was formed, the lightning colored crimson.
Just like Aiko's.
...One day, I'll talk with him. One day, he'll know what that power truly is.
After Kisame's and Itachi's attack on the Leaf, he had awoken to find Ibukai in a near-death state. If Tsunade hadn't of been able to heal his son...Kakashi had no doubt he would have done anything and everything he could to track down and obliterate the two responsible.
However, Ibukai had recovered, and Kakashi was able to take a very relieved break in the arms of the woman who had been stalking him for several years: Anko Mitarashi.
He had been worried, at first, that he would be betraying Aiko's memory if he loved Anko, and it had taken a long time to come to the realization that no, he wouldn't be betraying his first love. Instead, he would be continuing on with his life and honoring her memory by continuing to train Ibukai, raising him to be a loyal Leaf shinobi.
His shock in finding out that 1: Itachi was simply following orders and 2: Aiko had aided him, broke Kakashi more than he let on. He had spent years believing Itachi had betrayed the village, and he had hated the missing nin for Aiko's disappearance and assumed death. Now, there were far more pieces in play in this game of shogi than he had originally realized.
His gut burned with his new-found hatred of Danzo, and he silently swore to bring the Warhawk down, no matter what it took.
"Kid has a plan." Anko said from where she stood next to him, both of them gazing at the memorial stone in the hours following Ibukai revealing the truth behind the Massacre. "Just follow his lead, Kakashi. I think my team will surprise you with what they're capable of." Her gaze softened. "You have to wonder how much those three know, huh? They work well and they're quick to adapt, true, but do you ever feel like, I don't know, your students know something you don't?"
Kakashi thought about his team. Ever since the Wave, they had gotten their shit straight, and Team 7 was rapidly becoming one of the strongest teams in the Leaf. He wouldn't be surprised in the least if they ended up in the ANBU one day. Naruto and Sasuke argued less and were becoming an unstoppable duo, and they had improved greatly since they went with Jiraiya to retrieve Tsunade. Sakura had started training to be a medical nin, and her strength was nothing to snort at, either. As for them knowing something he didn't?
"Not my team. They do surprise me with what they're capable of achieving, though." He finally said.
"How strong do you think they are?" Anko asked.
"As strong as they need to be." He replied.
"...Huh?"
He met her gaze. "They have always pulled through every mission, every enemy encounter. They always have each other's backs, and they don't give up and they don't back down. I don't actually know how strong they are, because they simply are as strong as they need to be to get through whatever obstacles are put in front of them."
She looked back at the memorial stone. "They're really something are they?"
"Indeed they are."
Sequel Link: Not Enough Time: s/12966689/1/Not-Enough-Time-Nothing-But-Time-Sequel
