WHAM!
The green wooden door to the Hokage's office flew open, making some of the various trinkets stationed on those tall, surrounding shelves jump.
"Wassup!" Uzumaki Naruto greeted as he sauntered into the room, and Kakashi barely looked up from his work, having long been used to the atrocious mannerisms of his former student. This meant it was ten o'clock already, as the kid usually ran up here around this time, often after a routine research session with Sasuke. And by research sessions, he means stalking jounin shinobi to try and copy their jutsu, of course - what were you thinking? Kakashi mourned, remembering the rights and freedoms he once had. The positively lovely, carefree life of trolling genin, chunin, and sometimes jounin in his free time as a half-insane, ex-Anbu pervert abusing his prodigal shinobi abilities. That was before all these - these, repsonsibilities, had come along.
"Yo. Sensei."
The Hokage lifted his head from the mission reports, and looked carefully at his student, scrutinizing Naruto's face. A scrunched up expression that had always told Kakashi of Naruto's impatience, and impending frustration. Tap. Tap. Naruto's foot unevenly beats the carpeted floor of the room, but he hasn't raised his voice or complain loudly. This showed growth and improvement. Good, good. How long until he can dump this job on this kid, Kakashi ponders?
"Sensei?" Naruto asks after the long silence, suddenly wearing a worried expression, all previous boredom gone. "Did something happen?"
Ah. He was worried that someone he knew had been KIA, which is (probably) true because everyone in this village knows, or has at least interacted, with everyone else, and with one fourth of the population being shinobi who go on dangerous missions every week… Of course, assuming that someone you care about has died is drastic, but anything else isn't worth a call and a serious announcement from the Hokage.
"Hm." Kakashi hums.
"Oh, good." Naruto relaxes, but then remembers something, "Sensei, me and - Konohamaru and I are going on a trip to that new hot spring town next week. Is that a good time to cash in our saved up vacation days?"
Kakashi looks out the open window, regarding the trees and peaceful village, and confirms, "Probably, Suna is steady nowadays, and we're outsourcing more lower-client missions to them. You know I can never guarantee, though."
"Yeah." Naruto replies with a nod, and with that, the conversation falls silent again. His teacher's gaze is still unmoved from the window. After about a minute, Naruto pipes up again,
"So, sensei?"
Kakashi is not surprised by what he sees when he glances back at his student. Naruto's eyes ask a question which they have not given up on during the last few weeks. His hands stay bunched up in his pockets, yet the tension his student has is carefully contained, now just beneath the surface, waiting for Kakashi's answer.
Answer to what? To a request Naruto had made which turned Kakashi's memories and subsequent emotions on their head, in his head. It is only years of trust, respect and intimate understanding that has made his student wait this long for his decision. A decision which takes his duties as a Hokage and clashes them with an inconsistent, jumbled loyalty to another man who once stood in his place, and made the same decision. Here, he could still recall Namikaze Minato's features and map them out over Naruto's outline, he could see his former mentor move, smile, and mutter those words like he did in this very office seventeen years ago,
"Kakashi, I have decided to transfer you into Konoha's Anbu Division."
Did Minato make the right choice? Anbu was a place for, as they called it, true shinobi. It was a place for killing machines who slept and woke regardless of time, place, or food. A place where those who made it in - lived to die alone in a nameless Kiri ditch, days away from Konoha. And those who walked away, if any did, had never truly lived again, dragged down by the despairing mental grasp of their past, because of - well, how big the commitment is. The difference between signing up to be a green-jacket Konoha shinobi and signing up to become an Anbu, is that while both require you to risk your lives, becoming an Anbu asks you to give up your humanity. In a Black Ops squadron, a shinobi ceases to be human. The moment you put on the symbolic bone-white mask, you cease to have an identity. You cease to have family, friends, if you still have them. You exist as a droid of the state, a powerful, efficient tool, entirely committed to the security and geopolitical influence of Konoha no Gakure. Becoming an Anbu means giving up what makes you human, knowingly, and willingly.
Naruto lacks not the darkness, for no shinobi can lack the will to end a life, when their and their comrades' lives depend on it. Naruto lacks the meaningless, suicidal mindset of a potential Anbu recruit. Minato's son is an international war hero, a symbol with a perfect (shonen anime-arc perfect) background and awe-inspiring story. He's a friendly, seemingly unsophisticated person, whose origins any civilian not of nobility can relate to, and yet is honed and nuanced by years of crucial and quick-witted decision-making. A perfect symbol, bright on the outside (sorry Sandaime), competent on the inside.
There.
Kakashi's decision was reached, and as he looked up at Uzumaki Naruto, determined to make the right choice, the lingering images of his past, along with Namikaze Minato, faded, and lifted from his shoulders.