"So…" Naruto said, after they'd sat there for some time in silence. "You wanna do anything?"
A sap and a spade have a rapidly derailing conversation.
.
Minato tries fishing for answers. He doesn't get very far.
Also, September shenanigans.
.
.
.
"Kama," Minato said quietly, after Sakumo left for his office. "Can we talk?"
Naruto's attention immediately snapped to them. Kakashi rather wished he wouldn't be quite so obvious about it.
"Of course, Minato-sensei," he answered. "Naruto, I'm fine."
"Hmm," said Naruto dubiously. "You know, I don't know why everyone's so high-strung. I promised Sakumo-ojisan I'd make sure everything's alright."
"You've also made it very clear that you're emotionally compromised," Minato pointed out with a slight frown.
Naruto arched an eyebrow, looking exactly like Kushina when she was about to get into an argument, and tilted his chin higher. "And everyone else isn't?"
Minato narrowed his eyes. "You've known him for, what, a few weeks at most? Isn't it rather hasty to give him unconditional trust so soon?"
"It's not that simple," Naruto muttered. "Besides, even if he actually turned out to be a threat or whatever – which he most definitely isn't, but even if – you know I won't let anything bad happen to the village."
"And what about yourself?" Minato asked sharply. "What if you get hurt instead?"
"He won't hurt me," Naruto smiled. "I know he won't."
Minato's gaze flicked to Kakashi for a moment, catching the brief flash of guilt in his eyes. Naruto sensed the sudden chill in the air, and whirled around to glare at Kakashi.
"Don't you even start," he hissed, suddenly furious. "A mere chakra burn from a training accident does NOT count!"
Even Minato was startled by the abrupt change. "Naruto—"
"And besides," Naruto barrelled on, ignoring him. "You were the one who burnt yourself first! So how is it a big deal if I get one as well while we're trying new stuff while training? I thought we already went over this! Why are you still being all—OW!"
Kakashi winced, as did Minato, and the three of them stared at Kushina, rubbing their heads where she had whacked them.
"Kindly shut the fuck up," she said, glowering at them all. "You trio of idiots. You've all got a point here – well, Kama not so much – and that's why you're all idiots. But especially Kama."
Kakashi gave her a wounded look. "Kushina-san…"
She was unmoved. "Now, shoo. I'm sure whatever Minato wanted to talk to you about wasn't too awful. Right, dear?" She raised her eyebrows at Minato, who sighed.
"Yes, dear."
"Good!" She dragged Naruto off to the study room before he could protest, and Kakashi was left to face Minato alone.
Minato motioned for them to sit, and Kakashi did so after a brief moment of hesitation. The earlier awkwardness had returned, and each was quietly observing the other.
Minato was the first to break the silence. "Did you ever manage to complete that jutsu?"
"Ah – no, not really," Kakashi said. "I never did get around the tunnel vision problem."
"A pity," Minato said. "It was quite an impressive jutsu, especially for how young you were back then. I thought it had great potential."
"Naruto seems to think we can make something of it yet," Kakashi said lightly. "His confidence is… rather compelling."
"Is that how you both got chakra burns?" Minato's tone was very dry. "That would explain a lot."
"It was related to that, yes," said Kakashi, sheepish. "Chidori is not a particularly forgiving jutsu to experiment with."
Minato gave a small wince of sympathy, and they fell into silence again.
Kakashi considered his options, then decided to try for a different tactic. "Sensei," he said abruptly. "You seem troubled."
Minato raised an eyebrow. "I wonder why."
"It's not just my reappearance, is it?" Kakashi met his gaze, thoughtful. "My father, though he does not look it, is getting on in years. Unless you've somehow gotten worse in these eighteen years, I doubt there is a better candidate."
Minato's expressions had always been difficult to read, but Kakashi was no longer a child. There were nuances he could now see, subtle signs that had quite eluded him in the past.
His former teacher sighed, and looked away. "It was a risk, assigning the three of you that mission. I thought I would be able to intervene if things ever got out of hand… clearly, I was wrong."
Kakashi smiled mirthlessly. His team had been promoted in wartime, and none of them had been ready for the level of responsibilities thrust upon them. Himself least of all.
"Don't be ridiculous," he said flatly. "They needed you on the frontlines. And besides, how would we have gotten through if you hadn't drawn the enemy's attention?"
"I should've explained to you what the kunai was actually for," said Minato. "Then you could've—"
"We were very far from safe territory," Kakashi pointed out. "Your Hiraishin was key to turning the war in our favour, and its secrets were even more important than the mission."
"There were still thousands of things I could've done differently," Minato insisted, and Kakashi felt an uncanny sense of déjà vu. "I had not even realised that anything was wrong, until…" He stopped himself before he could say more, mouth pressed into a thin line.
Kakashi considered pushing him for a clearer answer, but somehow doubted that it would succeed.
"I put the needs of the many above the needs of the few," Minato finally said. "And you paid the price for it. I don't know if I can do such a thing again. When your father heard the news, he…"
Kakashi felt suddenly very cold.
"We all made our choices," he said, stiffly getting to his feet. "There are no perfect solutions, Minato-sensei. Not even from you."
Unable to face him any longer, he turned and fled back to Naruto's room.
"You're getting predictable," Kakashi said, as Naruto slipped into the room soon after.
"Doesn't bother me," Naruto shrugged. "So… wanna talk about it?"
"Perhaps not now," Kakashi said vaguely, glancing at the door. Naruto took the hint and reactivated the privacy seal, then joined Kakashi in sitting on the bed.
"It's strange," Kakashi said softly. "I can't remember if Minato-sensei was ever that uncertain."
"The Limited Tsukuyomi doesn't create a perfect copy," Naruto pointed out. "Sometimes, people are different in ways you least expect them to be."
"And yet they're so much like the real thing," Kakashi murmured, closing his eyes. "It's so easy to forget it's not real."
"Are things only real if you can prove them to be, though?" Naruto wondered, then blinked and shook himself. "Argh, what does that even mean?"
"I had thought…" Kakashi trailed off, realising that he shouldn't complete the sentence if he wanted to come out of this conversation with his eardrums intact. Naruto eyed him suspiciously for a moment, wondering what he had been about to say, but let it go.
Kakashi heard a thump from the living room, followed by a curse. He looked inquiringly at Naruto, who grinned.
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot to tell you. You do know it's September, right?"
"I had guessed it to be so, yes," Kakashi said slowly. "Why?"
"Oh, you know!" Naruto looked at him. "September! Your birthday?"
Kakashi just stared at him.
"Apparently we missed it by a couple days, but Mum wants to have a belated birthday party before we leave for the mission," Naruto said cheerfully. "So she's gone out to buy cake, and I'm helping her set things up with Kage Bunshin."
Kakashi tried to stand, but Naruto yanked him back down. "C'mon, it's too late to stop her now. Sakumo-ojisan's coming over later, so it'll be just the five of us. I got to celebrate Mum's birthday the last time round, and it was pretty fun."
"I suppose there's no stopping either of you, is there," Kakashi sighed. He didn't even like sweet things.
"Nope!" Naruto said, entirely unrepentant. "But hey, look on the bright side. At least we didn't try to spring a surprise party on you."
Kakashi blanched.
.
"So…" Naruto said, after they'd sat there for some time in silence. "You wanna do anything? It's a bit boring, not being able to go out, and Dad's writing his mission report – so basically, you're stuck with me."
Kakashi looked at him, and very slowly raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, shut up!" Naruto shoved him, rapidly going scarlet.
"But I didn't say anything," Kakashi pointed out.
"You did with your – your expression!" Naruto tried to whack him with the pillow, but Kakashi snatched it away. "I was thinking of training! Training!"
"Ah, is that what they're calling it these days?" Kakashi said lightly, and watched as Naruto's face quickly matched the colour of his mother's hair. "Back in my day, we would call a spade a spade…"
"YOU'RE A SPADE!" Naruto hollered, yanking the pillow out of Kakashi's hands and pummelling him. "AHHHHHHHH! I DON'T KNOW WHY I EVEN PUT UP WITH YOU!"
He whacked Kakashi a few more times for good measure, knocking him onto his side, then flopped on the bed. "Honestly…"
Kakashi's back was shaking slightly and Naruto pulled at his shoulder, alarmed. Kakashi shook his head, but at a more insistent tug, rolled over to face him.
The realisation hit then, and Naruto stared.
Kakashi was laughing.
His eyes were tightly shut, and he had a hand over his mouth to muffle the quiet chuckles. Naruto watched him in wonder as the laughter gradually grew louder, almost taking on a hysterical edge as Kakashi tried and failed to compose himself.
He didn't know what else to do, so he put his arms around Kakashi's back and held him close.
"I didn't know spades were so funny," he said, and felt Kakashi shake his head again.
"They're really not," he whispered, and Naruto smiled as he felt Kakashi's arms wrap around him in return.
"You're such a weirdo," he announced, as though he hadn't known it all along. "But I like you that way."
"Sap," muttered Kakashi, and Naruto laughed.
"At least I'm not a spade!"
Kakashi sat through the birthday celebrations in a daze. It was a simple affair – Naruto and Kushina, despite their enthusiasm, knew him well enough to avoid going too overboard. And yet their earnest desire to make him happy was so obvious in all the preparations they'd made, that Kakashi could hardly bear to witness it.
Every dish at dinner had been something Kushina knew he liked, and it tasted exactly as he remembered. Kakashi couldn't bring himself to speak, but Naruto and Kushina chattered on as though everything was normal and had always been. The others spoke little, but it was already a drastic improvement from the stilted silence of that morning.
There was a cake, because of course there had to be a cake, but it was only lightly sweetened and he was allowed to get away with eating just a small slice. Naruto happily helped himself to two, which Kushina frowned at but allowed, as they had to finish it all before the next day's departure.
Kakashi suddenly realised that he couldn't remember the last time he'd celebrated his birthday.
He knew his father must have made a big deal out of it, in the early years, and yet he could not recall any specific occasion. For the longest time, the clearest memory he had of his father was also his last.
Had he really been alive for thirty-one years?
Back in the real world, his father had been dead for twenty-five. Years and years for Kakashi to forget, stolen time that neither of them could ever regain.
He could feel Sakumo looking at him. Wondering, perhaps, if his son's miraculous return would prove to be a blessing or a curse.
It should've been enough, to have met his father in the in-between realm. It should've been enough, to have seen his teacher one last time during the Fourth War. Even Obito, for all his crimes…
In the end, Kakashi had been glad that they could still part as friends.
It had been luck which had spared him from being caught in the Infinite Tsukuyomi. Kakashi had been glad of it, back then. He still didn't know if he could've lived with himself after, had he let the false world entrap him.
And yet, there he was.
Naruto's hand brushed his, and he blinked.
"Are you sure you don't want another slice?" Naruto asked lightly. He was almost done with his share of the cake, and there were crumbs sticking to the corner of his mouth. He smiled at Kakashi, but his eyes were serious.
"I'm quite alright, thank you," Kakashi smiled back. "It's not good to overindulge."
"Pshhhh, one little slice of cake isn't going to do anything," Naruto answered after a brief pause. "Besides, cakes are meant to be enjoyed. It's not like I eat it every day."
"No," Kakashi said dryly. "That would be ramen."
Naruto's smile widened into a grin. "Have one more bite, then," he said. He held up his fork to Kakashi, a generous chunk of matcha sponge cake speared upon the prongs.
Kakashi paled and took a step back. "Oh, no, I really—"
Naruto stepped forward. "C'mon, you never eat cake! So it can't hurt to have just a little bit more?"
"Um, no?" Kakashi said weakly, casting a quick glance over at the other three in the room. Kushina looked amused, Minato stunned, and Sakumo rather bewildered.
None of them seemed likely to save him from his current predicament.
"But why?" Naruto kept advancing on him and Kakashi kept backing away, until his legs hit the back of the sofa and there was no way to escape without getting a huge smear of cream across his mask.
Kakashi glared at him. Naruto smiled blithely back.
"Why are you doing this?" Kakashi hissed. Minato was making choking noises again.
"Payback for earlier," Naruto answered slyly. "I'll let you off the hook if you eat the damn cake. Deal?"
Kakashi narrowed his eyes.
"Really," Naruto said later that night, still in disbelief. "Really. I still can't believe you actually caused a power outage just so I wouldn't be able to see your face."
"It was only for one second," Kakashi said, crossing his arms. "And it was your fault in the first place."
"I can't believe you got away with it, too," Naruto said, then cast him a sideways glance. "Can you teach me how to do that?"
"Hmmm," said Kakashi dubiously.
They all turned in early in preparation for tomorrow's mission, but Kakashi found it difficult to fall asleep.
Minato and Kushina had been startled when the lights abruptly went out, but his father had remained calm. He had even laughed, afterwards, when the lights came back on and Kakashi was grimacing slightly at having a mouth full of cake. Kakashi had heard the short, quiet chuckle, and seen the familiar look of fond exasperation on his father's face.
It was only then that he realised he had forgotten the sound of his father's laughter.
He knew his father had changed greatly after his mother's death, but he had been too young to remember her. And so he had also been too young to remember what his father was like, before he'd lost her.
Even as a child, he had understood that her death had left his father forever altered. Sakumo had tried and tried to be strong for his son – and he had been a loving father, indulgent of Kakashi's whims and patient with his numerous failings. He had smiled often, but rarely laughed.
In more recent times, Kakashi had occasionally wondered if he would've handled heartbreak the same way his father had done.
It was a relief, at least, that he still had his fail-safe.
.
.
.
Breakfast was so awkward that Sakumo ran away after, lol.
.
"Back in my day, [...]" - KAKASHI YOU ARE NOT OLD, STOP PRETENDING TO BE. Also, lmao Naruto.
.
"YOU'RE A SPADE!" - for all you folks making hoe jokes in the earlier chapters. ;)
.
Re:cake conversation - Naruto thinks Kakashi should quit thinking so hard and just enjoy the moment. Kakashi has doubts.
.
Also uhhh that last part got a bit morbid, huh. Oops.