A/N:
*the next part will be in the OCs POV; alternating POVs won't be regular (for the most part, everything will be in the OCs POV), but I figured an outside perspective worked better in this situation
anyway, this is my attempt at writing an OC-Insert
eventually, i'll write something purely canon, but I made the OC on a whim, became obsessed, and then churned out like 5 chapters within 2 days, so here we are
(also, im fully aware that there's no image for this fic rn. the site isn't letting me upload anything. rip.)
hope you enjoy!
Kakashi knows that his genin team is doomed to fail from the very beginning.
He, first and foremost, is the last person who should be given a genin team.
That doesn't stop the council from deciding to saddle him with one, of course. He's an elite of Konoha, and in their eyes, that means that he'll be fantastic at teaching the 'next generation of prodigies.'
He wonders, sometimes, if they're just getting on in their age or if they've just always been that incompetent. Then he looks at their wrinkly, bitter faces and thinks that it's probably both, and then some.
It's not the first time they've tried to throw a group of students at him and expected him to churn out the second coming of the Sannin - which really seems like a counterproductive goal, considering how they ended up - but it's the first time that he's being forced to pass them.
Given their politically sensitive nature, he's not exactly surprised about that little detail. That, however, doesn't mean he won't complain.
It might not have been so bad, had any of them been anything close to normal . But no, he's given a tiny, angrier version of his younger self, Kushina's incarnate in Minato's skin, and a spoiled little boy who's probably never been told 'no' in his life, and who was thrown into the team at the last minute.
Maybe the last one's a little harsh, considering that the boy did manage to pass all the tests he was given, but he's seen the arrogance of the Shahou clan in person and he was not a fan. And, even if the kid does turn out to be an odd duck, he'll just be another reminder of Obito.
It's like they're trying to unearth his trauma. He's fairly certain that his therapist would agree that all these reminders are bad for his mental health, if he ever actually bothered to see them.
But he digresses.
What's really important is that, with a flight risk, a loose cannon, a possibly annoying unknown on his team, and a man whose 'teaching credentials' had to do with whipping ANBU - people who were already elite - into shape (plus a free space), he's fairly certain that he's hit a Team 7 bingo.
Avoiding all of those black cats clearly hadn't helped his luck, and he doubts anything he does will break the apparent curse on Team 7, either. Not even Minato-sensei could keep his team together. He doesn't hold out much hope for being any different.
With all that being said, he'd be an idiot for wasting a chance to piss off a group of 12-year-olds, and Kakashi Hatake isn't lauded as a genius for nothing.
Kakashi is almost hurt by Naruto's frankly pathetic prank - at least considered to the ones he'd heard about in passing, where the blond had gotten even given ANBU the slip every now and then - when an eraser bounces harmlessly off his head, a light burst of chalk dusting his hair.
He then promptly notices the lack of laughter ringing off the walls, and immediately goes on guard. His eyes flick towards the eraser that sits at his feet, and he immediately notices it's too-dark coloring and minor undercurrent of chakra.
It does not save him from his glittery fate.
Kakashi blinks languidly, eyelashes sparkling, and watches as Naruto falls over cackling. On his left, Sasuke blinks in minor disbelief, though looks reluctantly amused. On his right, watches on with a bored expression.
"Hmm… how shall I put this," Kakashi drawls, shifting his weight. "My first impression of you all… is that I hate you. Meet me on the roof in five minutes."
He disappears in a swirl of glitter and leaves, and spends the next five minutes leaning against a railing, glistening in the sun and trying to work out whether or not Naruto had ever shown proficiency with seals before.
Given his lineage and pranking history versus his lack of talent in academics, it could go either way. Then again, he doubts it's that difficult for a genin to make a cross between a storage and explosion seal. He knew how to make them back when it was just him and Minato-sensei, and he's not even all that good at seals.
Perhaps predictably, Sasuke is the first one to arrive on the roof, squinting when he sees Kakashi standing there, still covered from head-to-toe in glitter despite his attempt at cleaning himself with several wind jutsus. The next to arrive is Naruto, who, in a surprising show of self-control, tries to stifle his snickers as he takes a seat in front of Kakashi. A full minute after the blond comes Renji, who barely looks at Kakashi before sitting to Naruto's right.
Kakashi barely resists the urge to roll his eyes in response to their reactions. "Now," he says, "I'd like you all to tell us a little about yourselves."
Naruto's face scrunches up, and he tries not to think about how he'd seen Kushina make that exact expression before. "Like what?"
"Aa, you know," Kakashi replies, waving his hand carelessly and giving off the air of someone who knows what they're actually doing. "The usual. Your favorite thing… What you hate most… Dreams, amibitons, hobbies. Things like that."
Naruto looks even more confused by his explanation, if anything. Kakashi knows, immediately, that while he may look like he could be Minato's smaller, whiskered clone, he ended up with little of the man's brains. A good thing for Kakashi's mental health, for sure, but probably not so great when it comes to the team's survival.
"Why don't you go first, huh? We don't even know who you are!"
Kakashi immediately takes note of Naruto's quick glance towards Renji and the constipated expression that briefly crosses Sasuke's face, but chooses not to mention it. "My name is Hatake Kakashi," he offers with obviously-false cheerfulness. "I don't feel like telling you my likes and dislikes. My dreams for the future are none of your business... As for my hobbies... I have lots of hobbies."
Sasuke's expression becomes increasingly murderous as he speaks, and Kakashi smirks freely underneath his mask.
"That didn't tell us anything," Naruto says, almost accusing.
"Didn't it?" Kakashi asks without interest. "Why don't you go? Show us how it should be done."
Naruto bounces back quickly. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto, you hear?!" he announces, and even Renji twitches at his volume. "What I like is instant cup ramen! What I like even better is when Iruka-sensei treats me to ramen at Ichiraku's! What I hate is the three minute wait it takes to boil ramen!"
Kakashi stares at him blankly, absently wondering if he's about to start waxing poetry about ramen. It wouldn't be the first time he's been forced to listen to it, or even the second, third, or fourth. Kushina had really liked ramen.
"My hobbies are…," Naruto says, winding down, "Uh… Pranks and practical jokes, I guess."
"...I see," Kakashi says before he can begin to spiral. "The emo one."
Sasuke's glare darkens, though he doesn't comment on his assigned nickname. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are plenty of things I hate, but I don't see how that matters, considering that there's almost nothing I do like. And what I have is not a dream, but an ambition. I plan to restore my clan, and kill a certain man ."
Kakashi wonders if Sasuke thinks he's being subtle. Considering that someone had allowed him to pass his psych evals without so much as a note on his file despite his clearly fractured mental state, the answer is an unfortunate ' probably .'
While Kakashi is a little embarrassed for the boy, he also has to shake off his unease. Sasuke is almost worse than him at this age, and he knew what had to happen to snap him out of it. He does not want to see anything like that happen again - not even if it could make him 'mellow out' a little. Knowing what happened to his brother does not help the issue in the least.
"Eyepatch," he says after a few moments, breaking the awkward silence. The white-haired boy - who'd apparently lost use of his left eye in a training accident when he was younger, which Kakashi isn't sure if is proof of his (or his family's) incompetence or something else - straightens slightly in response.
"I'm Re—Shahou Renji," he corrects, causing Kakashi to raise a brow. The boy doesn't seem to notice, or doesn't care. "What I like…" He hesitates, briefly, then crushes Kakashi's hopes that he might actually say something normal. "That's unimportant. The same goes for my dislikes, hobbies, and dreams."
If Kakashi hadn't been specifically taking note of his body language, he'd have missed the way Renji tenses, and the way his eye flicks towards his teammates.
He allows his gaze to slip towards the center of the group with a hum. "Right. I believe we all understand each other." Not. "So now I can tell you about what we'll be doing tomorrow. The first thing," he adds, "That we'll be doing as a team."
"Our first real shinobi mission!" Naruto says excitedly, leaning forwards with sparkling eyes. "What is it?!"
Kakashi allows his eyes to curve upwards. "A survival exercise."
Naruto immediately stops shifting in place. "Eh? Survival exercise?"
"Yep," Kakashi replies chipperly. "Oh, but it won't be the same as what you've done in the Academy. In this exercise, you'll have to survive against me ." None of the genin comment on his appearance or make a remark that would showcase their arrogance, to his surprise.
Instead, Naruto huffs. "What kinda exercise?"
"Oh? Are you sure you want to know?" Kakashi asks, beginning to weave a genjutsu. Judging by the way Renji's eye briefly widens, he notices first, followed quickly by Sasuke. "I wouldn't want you to chicken out."
"I'd never chicken out!" Naruto insists, even as he shivers. "Tell us!"
"Aa… well, if you insist," Kakashi says, projecting carelessness. "Of the twenty-seven members of your graduating class, only nine will actually become genin. The rest will have to go back to the Academy." Once again, his eyes curve into crescents. "Which means that this test has a 66% failure rate."
He chuckles as Naruto's sputtering echoes throughout the air. "See?" he teases, "You're chickening out already."
"We— we are not !" Naruto shouts, slamming his hands onto the ground. "We've already been through hell! What about our graduation test?!"
"Oh, that?" Kakashi asks, faux innocently. "We just wanted to eliminate all the hopeless cases from the ranks. The ones who are left are just the kids who showed the most potential. Nothing more, nothing less."
"Say what?!"
"That's how it is. I decide whether you pass or fail," Kakashi says, offering a half-shrug. "Anyway, we'll meet at the designated training spot at 5am. Bring your ninja gear." He pushes himself off the railing, turning around. "That's it. You're dismissed." Then, after a moment he adds, "Oh, tomorrow you better skip breakfast, or else you'll throw up." He offers a cheerful finger salute to the prospective genin, as if he hadn't just dropped a verbal explosion tag on their heads. "See you!"
And with that, he disappeared in a swirl of leaves.
(And sadly, glitter.)
A/N:
Kakashi: "It is now day three of being covered in glitter. Every time I think it's gone, it comes back. It is in my bed sheets, my books, my clothes. I am beginning to fear that it will never come off."
Iruka, after several hours of teaching at the Academy, followed by overtime at the mission's office, and having no idea why a man he's talked to roughly two-and-a-half times in his life is venting to him: "That's rough, buddy."
just some things to note:
1.) The OC isn't a grumpy, second Sasuke. You'll see that in his POV in the next chapter, along with (fairly obvious) hints in this one.
2.) The OC isn't from Konoha, but from the Capital. This'll also be explained a bit more in the next chapter.
3.) There'll be a little learning along the way, for both characters in the fic and readers. I thought it'd be more interesting if some things were revealed gradually, and hopefully I don't regret that decision ;,D
4.) If you see any resemblance between this fic and another SI-OC, that could honestly be the case because I've read dozens of them by this point, eheh
5.) When the story really starts, chapters will be longer than this
6.) This will go over canon, but due to the obvious lack of Sakura (WHO WILL BE ADDRESSED LATER), things will be different, and I'm hoping to make some OC missions so it's not just an awkward rehash of everything that happened before
anyway, I loved writing Kakashi in this chapter and I hope I did his character justice
apologies for the long note, and thanks for reading :)