Yes, another chapter!
I felt like posting a double this time (don't get used to it) :)
Usual warnings apply, although this chapter is a lot lighter (again, don't get used to it ahahahah)
Thanks to everyone for your support and to my awesome beta!
Enjoy!
Chapter 8
[baby time skip]
Kakashi was casually walking in the streets of Konoha. He had just handed in his report to the Hokage and was enjoying the first hour of his 48 hours time off. He lazily greeted the few people he knew as he leisurely strolled towards the Namikaze household.
It had been a few days since the meeting in the Hokage's office. Kakashi had felt absolutely broken after that debrief. He had barely gotten any sleep at all that night, surrounded by his dogs after he'd felt Naruto leave the flat. He hadn't chased after him. They both needed time to process things. Naruto more than anyone.
Naruto… Kakashi couldn't even fathom what his brother must be feeling. He had searched for him the day after the meeting in the office, but he had quickly understood that Naruto didn't want to be found, although he knew he was in the village. Kakashi had requested an easy mission from Minato in order to clear his head for a few days.
Now that he was back, he was hoping they would be able to grab lunch together like they almost always did after a mission. They had briefly met at the flat before Kakashi headed back out for his report. Naruto had acted as if nothing had happened, only telling him that he was going to meditate for a little bit before lunch. They'd agreed on a small eatery they had been meaning to check out. Truth be told, Kakashi wasn't sure Naruto would show up at all. He was relieved to feel his presence approaching. The younger man quickly reached him and fell into easy steps with him.
Once seated at a small table with bowls of steaming curries in front of them, Kakashi broke the silence.
"-How was meditation?
-All right. I could sort out a few things.
-A walk down memory lane, uh?
-You could say that, yeah. I feel more grounded, more centered now.
-So you remember everything?
-No, it was just a light session. I just followed my thoughts wherever they were going, both here and there. When I focus on a feeling, I can remember. But with the seal as it is, I'm not comfortable going deeper for now.
-Uhuh. Still going blind, then? I've gotta say, you're remarkably high functioning for a stranger. Very unsettling.
-Well, it's not exactly as if I wasn't remembering anything. I am. But it's more like an awareness rather than really knowing things. You know, just like you don't remember every single moment of your life, right? Just particular memories and general things flowing together.
-Hm, that's true enough.
-Though it did feel great to relive a few memories!
-Oh?"
Naruto chuckled. Kakashi was happy and relieved to see him act as his usual self. He had no doubt they would eventually talk about the darker topics, but for now, he was happy to see this happy version of his brother.
"-Yeah, remember that time we managed to sneak into Dad's office and rig his chair with powder bombs?"
Kakashi snickered at the memory. He'd been on ANBU guard duty in the office when Minato had triggered the trap. His old sensei's lightening quick reaction had been the cherry on top: the Hokage had sprung into a defensive position with bright pink glittery hair. Kakashi could still hear the repressed sniggers of the guards in the room. That had cost them pre-genin Naruto babysitting duty for three days but Minato had been unable to truly hide his own smile once the initial fright had passed.
"-Oh, I remember that! Took him three days to wash off the color. And the Daimyo was visiting him the next day! I had to swap shifts with Hawk because I couldn't stop laughing.
-Did you? I never knew that!
-You were what, 10? I couldn't exactly tell you about the meeting.
-Oh man! I wish I could have seen the Daimyo's face when he first saw Dad!"
Naruto laughed as he imagined the scene. Kakashi's sniggers doubled as he thought about the faces Minato could pull when Naruto was involved.
"-What?
-I just remembered your old man's face that one time. You were still just a baby and your mother was still in the hospital. Your dad was receiving a lord from the Daimyo's court. They were meeting about some funding or whatever. You were still sleeping in the office at the time. So you were sleeping, and you pooped in your diapers. You should have seen Minato-sensei trying to keep a straight face as the smell just spread into the office!"
Naruto burst out laughing, savoring the scene his imagination conjured up at Kakashi's words. It took a few minutes for the laughter to die down. Both men relished the humor of the scene, genuinely letting themselves relax and enjoy the moment.
"-Oh! Oh! The time you helped me paint the Hokage monument?
-I didn't help you paint it.
-You knew what I was doing and you didn't stop me, same difference.
-Strategical delay in apprehending. I wanted to see how far you could go before someone noticed.
-Pretty damn far, I'd say! I got to Sandaime! Although I did manage to paint the whole set on the other path. You should have seen Sandaime-jiji's face! He set three ANBU teams on me.
-Really? How long did they take to catch you?
-They didn't, Iruka-sensei did.
-Iruka? Umino Iruka?
-Yeah, he was my Academy instructor there. Caught me in two hours."
That was interesting. Kakashi knew Iruka Umino. He was as decent jounin, very handy with traps. Kakashi had had a few missions with the younger man. He remembered being rather impressed with the nastiness of his traps. Kakashi briefly wondered what had happened for him to become Academy instructor in his other life.
Kakashi managed to hide his surprise at the revelations with a genuine smile. He hadn't expected Naruto to speak so openly about his other life. But the fond smile he could see on his face was a sight for sore eyes.
After what Naruto had told them in the office a few days before, Kakashi had struggled to move past his brother's pain. Seeing him smile so openly at memories soothed Kakashi's worries. Whatever had happened to hurt his brother, there had also been some good in that life.
"-How old were you?
-Hm, eleven? Twelve? I can't remember exactly. It was just before graduating."
Kakashi couldn't help but be impressed that Naruto had managed to evade ANBU detection for several hours at that age. His Naruto had managed to do so pretty young too, but not without help and only after training for a few weeks as a genin.
He nodded and quickly fell back on the safer topic of this life before the mood could shift. He was enjoying seeing Naruto happy and was unwilling to change that just to satisfy his curiosity about his other life.
"-Your father almost had a heart attack when he noticed. I remember you getting an epic punishment, no? Cleaning it without any chakra at all.
-It was worth it, though. And I distinctly remember you throwing kunais at me the whole time, you jerk!
-Blunt kunais, Naru-chan. I had to make sure you could handle your own in the field."
Naruto scoffed but his lips quickly pulled into a fond smile regardless.
"-My ass, you were just frustrated because whatshisface was out of town.
-That had nothing to do with that.
-Oh, really? It had nothing to do with the fact that we walked in on you guys getting frisky the day before? I swear, I haven't seen anyone bolt that fast ever again."
Kakashi groaned, embarrassment still rising in him years after the facts. He had been twenty four at the time. He had come back from a three-weeks patrol mission just the day before. His mission partner, a chuunin a couple years younger, had been teasing Kakashi the whole duration of their mission. Kakashi had managed not to act on it during the mission, but had pretty much ordered the chuunin to come find him when they would be back in the village. He hadn't really expected him to follow through with it. He'd been nicely surprised at the knock on his door.
They had been busy taking each other's clothes off when Kushina and ten-years-old Naruto had walked into the flat, making them freeze instantly. Her surprise had quickly morphed into devious mischief and her smile had been purely predatory.
"-Well, well, Kashi-chan! What do we have here? Should I make food for one more tonight at dinner?"
Her voice had been sickly sweet, her eyes sparkling with amusement. The chuunin had bolted out of the flat quicker than Kakashi could blink, a vague excuse about a mission on the other side of the country ringing in the air. Kakashi had later learnt that he had run straight to Minato's office and requested just such a mission. He had left before sunrise the next day.
Naruto had been laughing his head off before bolting out of the flat himself as Kakashi promised to squeeze his little neck if he snickered just one more time. Needless to say that had not made Naruto stop laughing. Or Kushina.
Kakashi narrowed his eyes at Naruto now still laughing in the booth, curry half eaten. He waved his spoon threateningly at Naruto.
"-We said we wouldn't talk about that. Ever. I couldn't get laid for months after that!"
Naruto burst out laughing, incapable of keeping it in.
"-For real?" He managed to say between laughs. "Oh, this is priceless! Ahahah"
"-You little shit!
-Ahahah, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," his tone of voice and soft laugh indicated that he was anything but. "Did you ever see him again?"
"-Hm? Yeah we had a few missions again together.
-And?" Naruto wiggled his eyebrows.
"-And nothing, you twat, he wouldn't come near me."
Naruto fought another wave of laughter. Kakashi managed to do a half decent job at shrugging as casually as he could, clinging onto the last of his dignity.
"-What about you?
-Hm, what about me?
-Discovered any embarrassing story you would rather have forgotten while meditating?"
To his surprise and satisfaction, Naruto blushed. Kakashi smirked.
"-Wait, don't tell me," the Copy-nin thought for a few seconds. "Was that the one with that girl, Tenten?
-What?!" Naruto closed his eyes for a few seconds, focusing on the prompted memory. "No, Tenten was fine."
"-Hm. The girl from that mission we went on in Snow?
-No. How many times do I have to tell you? Nothing happened with her on that mission. I don't think so, at least."
"-Right, there was definitely no sound coming from your room that time."
Naruto frowned for a moment, trying to bring up the memory. It suddenly came to his mind, springing up as if from a lifetime ago.
His blush deepened, to Kakashi's satisfied amusement. He now remembered that mission very well. It had happened only a few years before, when he was nineteen and still a chuunin. Kakashi had replaced Asuma as team leader for the diplomatic mission as he was the Yondaime's student and representative, and Asuma had asked to stay in the village for the birth of his son. The guide they had been assigned in Snow country had been the same age as Naruto, and they had hit it off from the start. She was very pretty and wasn't shy about liking Naruto. However, nothing had happened with her, despite what Kakashi had been claiming since the end of the mission.
Naruto mumbled something around a spoonful of warm curry.
"-What was that, Naru-chan?
-I said it wasn't her," he grumbled.
Kakashi felt his eyes widened in surprise as he processed the information. He laughed at Naruto's sullen and embarrassed expression.
"-Was it not? Oh, this is brilliant! So just who were you making those noises with then, if not her?"
Naruto simply focussed back on his curry. His ears were completely red. Smelling blood, Kakashi thought back on that time before laughing.
"-Oh! Oh! You got yourself tangled in some shadows!
-Shaddup!"
Kakashi laughed harder, not even trying to repress his hilarity.
"-Is that when you guys started?"
Naruto sighed and managed to bring his bright red blush to a more healthy pink color.
"-I guess, yeah, that's when we first… you know."
Kakashi chuckled but calmed down enough to nod at Naruto. It was no secret to him that his brother and Shikamaru sometimes stumbled into bed together. They were not really a couple, but after difficult missions or sometimes just because, they could be found together.
Kakashi never judged them for it. It was rather common for shinobis to have that kind of fluid relationships with team members. A life of danger and death tended to put things into perspective. Shinobis and kunoichi alike tended to be less picky about their partners than civilians. Sex was a lot more about trust and respect than anything else. Shinobis were raised as soldiers, without clear distinction between males and females in terms of physical or mental capabilities. This tended to blur the lines a lot more efficiently than traditional civilian gender roles. Ninjas typically were more openminded regarding gender and preferences. Ninjas also typically put a lot more difference between sex and love. Those were two very distinct aspects of human interaction.
Kakashi knew that Naruto in particular paid no attention whatsoever to a person's gender. Not that he himself did, but he was generally more at ease with men rather than women. Kakashi sometimes reflected that this might have something to do with being in contact with men way more often than women in his line of work.
"-Were Shika and you also sleeping together, in your other life?"
Kakashi almost winced as soon as the words were out of his mouth. He had spoken without thinking. For all he knew, Shikamaru could have been killed. He could almost physically feel the shift in Naruto's mood.
"-I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked.
-It's okay. It is part of me too, I can't push it aside all the time. No, Shika and me never got together over there. He was with someone else, and honestly when I got old enough to consider dating there was no time for anything with anyone. I uh..."
Naruto blushed slightly again. His voice was soft when he spoke next, but there was no trace of pain in it, to Kakashi's surprise.
"-I never really… you know."
Kakashi's eyebrows shot up but he quickly schooled his features back into a more neutral expression. He didn't want Naruto to clam up.
"-Really?" He asked softly.
"-Well not exactly never. There was those few times with Sakura but it was never really… I don't know, serious? Meaningful? I mean, it was meaningful but it wasn't like we were in a relationship or anything. We just... we were at war, you know? I did sleep with a few other people. But like sleep sleep, not sex sleep. It was just… Having someone next to you, you know?"
And Kakashi did know. He could remember the war. He had been too young at the time, and more than half way out of his mind with grief for the last leg of it, but he could remember others. People who would simply need a warm body next to them and arms around them as they slept for a few hours. He could remember ANBU missions he had been forced to get back to a few years after Minato had pulled him out.
He could remember needing that warmth himself on dark nights when home was so far away. He could remember the need for flesh and skin and an adrenaline fuck when they'd been too close to death and loosing himself into someone had been the only way to prove that he was still there. And he could remember just sleeping. How much having someone to simply sleep with would change things when the missions became too long, too hard.
Kakashi did know, but tensions had decreased again and Dog had simply become a guard a few days a week again. Naruto had been on the front lines for years, from what he had told them. Sleeping comfortably would have become a luxury for him. Kakashi wouldn't be surprised to learn that sleeping partners would have become very precious people on the battlefield. He briefly wondered who Naruto had slept with when he had needed to feel human again.
Intend on shaking off the gloomy atmosphere he could feel building, Kakashi exclaimed:
"-Wait, does that mean you need to have the Talk again?"
Naruto coughed around his mouthful of curry, his breath wheezing in his throat. He shot a dark glare at Kakashi.
"-I am not going through that again, thank you very much. Once was enough! That is not a memory I'll try my best to recover. And before you ask, no I don't need to loose my 'pleasure virginity' again, or whatever stupidity you were about to spew off.
-Pleasure virginity? Are you bringing such nonsense up because you have a need for it?
-You asshole!
-Why, Naru-chan, how rude. Here I was, simply trying to make sure you were all right. I was about to offer my services as a wingman.
-I don't need your help to get laid, you bastard!
-Well, that's good to know," came an amused masculine voice next to them.
Naruto startled and turned around, eyes falling on a tall man with an amused smile on his face.
"-Genma!
-So, Naru-chan," Genma said in his teasing voice as he pushed Naruto further into the booth so he could sit down, "what was that about you getting laid? Are you getting some and not telling us?
-Fuck off, old man. I'm not telling you shit.
-Ah, dry spell, uh. Sucks to me you!"
Naruto puffed his cheeks but let himself get lost in the easy friendly banter with the two older men. He could feel the weight on his chest getting lighter with each burst of laughter. This felt great.
He liked Genma. The man was always a good laugh and he could vaguely remember many epic nights spent at the flat simply sharing jokes, drinks and embarrassing stories. Naruto reflected that Genma was a little bit like another older brother, or rather like what having a cousin would feel like.
During the war, the older man had been a strong support, both mentally and strategically. The assassin had valued the time he had spent with Edo Tensei Minato about as much as Naruto himself had. After Minato had disappeared at Orochimaru's death, he had confided in Naruto that Minato had been like a second father to him. They had become very close after that.
Genma had survived the war, but he had lost his sight and his left arm. He had been sent to Kumo to heal about a year before the end of the war, and Naruto hadn't seen him since. He missed him.
When Naruto and Kakashi had finished eating, all three men casually headed back to the shared apartment. They spent the rest of the afternoon simply discussing, going over the theory for a new jutsu Kakashi had been trying to create, and simply relaxing while they could.
Naruto felt absolutely amazing in the easy atmosphere. He let himself settle into comfortable habits around the two older men who'd been there his whole life. Being on this path was such a balm on his soul.
A few hours later, Kakashi found himself reading on the sofa, enjoying the peace and quiet after Genma's departure a while earlier. Naruto had gone off to shower and bed right after his departure, tired but content with his day.
Naruto had looked much better since coming out of his meditation that morning. A lot less frazzled and about to fall apart. There was absolutely no doubt in Kakashi's mind that he had changed, but at least, it didn't feel like the blonde was a ticking time bomb anymore.
It was disturbing, seeing Naruto, interacting with him, yet knowing that his brother was actually someone very different than before. Naruto claimed to have some knowledge and memories of this path here, but it was more like passive knowledge. Considering he was fresh out of the battle field, Kakashi wouldn't be surprised if he purposefully blocked out the memories of his life here. It would easier for Naruto to keep his emotions under a tight leash until things settled down.
Kakashi had no doubt that despite the obvious and genuine joy and love he could feel from his brother when around their family, the blonde was still very much operating as if he was on a mission. That was what Kakashi would do.
The silver hair jounin wasn't sure how he felt about his brother's other life. Naruto was such a positive person, a ray of sunshine. He was a strong jounin, potentially one of the best in the village, but he had always had a kind of innocence about him that made it easy to forget it. As weird as it felt, Naruto was now a leader, a Kage who had to lead an army through what was possibly the bloodiest war in history. Imagining him as a Kage of such caliber was unsettling, to say the least.
In Minato's office, it had been plain in Naruto's tone that he had struggled with his appointment as Hokage at nineteen. Kakashi wondered if he had ever resented the position. He couldn't imagine having such responsibilities so young.
After a couple more chapters of his book, Kakashi felt a brush of energy coming from Naruto's room. He frowned. Since coming back from his mission, Kakashi hadn't been able to feel anything from Naruto when he was asleep. He put his book down and focused for a few seconds.
There, another fluctuation. It was subtle. He doubted he would pick up on it if he hadn't been actively searching for it. Kakashi felt the hair on his arms stand. There was a pressure building up. Barely there, like when the weather was about to change, undetected unless one paid attention to it.
Kakashi stood up and called out Naruto's name as he approached his door. He didn't get any answer. He put one hand against the door and felt a tingle of repressed energy. He hesitated for a moment, but another, stronger lick of energy made him open the unlocked door.
As soon as he stepped in, he was taken in a whirlwind of sharp chakra. He could feel it burning and freezing on his skin, building up like static before thunder. In his bed, Naruto was asleep, groaning in pain and muscles spasming up.
Kakashi looked around him. Seals, on all the walls and the door. Some looked damaged, as if corroded. He cursed. Had that been going on since his return? That had been why he couldn't feel anything: Naruto had sealed off his room! Stupid, bull-headed fuuinjutsu master!
The energy was building up faster and faster. It wouldn't be long before it became unstable. He needed to wake Naruto up and fast. He called his name but the blonde didn't even react. He didn't dare use chakra for fear of adding to the increasing amount of energy in the room.
Slowly, carefully, Kakashi approached Naruto, still calling his name. Once he reached the bed he braced himself, sharp wind pulling at his clothes and tearing paper-thin cuts into his hands. He tensed his muscles, ready to back away in a blink. Every instinct in his body told him to back away, but never would Kakashi be able to leave Naruto when he was suffering.
He raised his hand to touch Naruto, and his world exploded.
Sharp, blinding pain exploded in his upper left chest and the back of his skull. Wind lashed out around his arms and legs. All he could see were the blue blue eyes drilling into his own, cold as stone, before a flash of realization made them widen. Panic instantly flooded into his ears with a flow of "Nonononononono".
