WARNINGS: general canon traumas, references to sex pollen in conversation
#
Rin was never clingy before. Kakashi doesn't let it bother him.
He was never late before. Obito wasn't kind of evil before.
Rin had died, and while she's supposedly had time in death to get past that…
Trauma is rarely so easy to deal with.
"You want to talk about it?" he asks, once they're in the apartment.
Rin looks at the ground, flushing. "It's not… I mean…"
He drops on the couch and pats the seat next to him. "Sit."
She does, and her back stiffly straight until Kakashi puts a hand on her shoulder, arm wrapped around her, and gently tips her over. She lets him do it, collapsing against him.
They've cuddled more in the last week than they every did when he was a teenager.
"Dogs?" he offers.
"No thanks," she says, fingers digging into the fabric of her shirt, eyes fixed on a point not here. "It's… no."
"Okay," Kakashi says. He pets her hair, and though she stiffens at first, it works. She relaxes minutely, in stages, and slumps further against him. Boneless.
"It's… complicated," she finally says. "I love Obito, we were best friends before, even if I didn't feel the same way about him as he did about me, but I know… what he's done. What he would do, and… when I heard you were with him, even though things were calm…"
She twists the hem of her shirt, breath catching. "He… he ripped your eye out mid-battle, once."
Kakashi does not flinch.
It's a near thing, but he doesn't.
"Well," he tries, "It's rather rude to take back a gift, but it was his eye first?"
She glares at him.
It's… unfortunately, it's too cute to be intimidating. He grimaces anyway. "Sorry, I'm just… gallows humor. Coping."
"I know," Rin says. "But I've seen him at his worst. Not as much as Sakura-san and Kanna-san, but enough. The big moments. And I love him, I do, but… he was in a bad place. He might still be. And a lot of his anger was aimed at you, for years, and leaving you two alone…"
"You were worried he'd pull that sort of thing again," Kakashi summarizes.
"You can't reliably use Kamui yet," Rin insists. "And until you can, he has the advantage, and if he decided he wanted to hurt you—"
"Kanna would have noticed," Kakashi says, and he squeezes Rin into his side. "I can hold my own long enough. They were only a few blocks away."
"I know that!" Rin protested. "I just—it got to me anyway."
"Yeah," Kakashi sighs. "That sort of thing always does."
#
The next day goes pretty much as predicted. Most of the people 'in the know' end up in the Hokage's office, discussing Obito's visit and what that might mean for their plans. Shizune, Yamato, and Anko aren't there, but they're the only ones really missing. Kurama asserts that the 'friend' looking after Itachi is probably Hoshigaki Kisame. Kakashi is the only one surprised by this.
"They're Akatsuki partners," Shisui tells him, voice low. "Itachi and Kisame, I mean. And I think Obito trusts him?"
"More than anyone else in Akatsuki," Rin confirms.
Huh.
Obito's best friend right now is Hoshigaki Kisame.
Maybe they don't define it that way, but it sure is what he's hearing.
Wild.
Out of the corner of his eye, he notes that Shisui is standing behind Rin and has his head resting on top of hers. His arms are even wrapped around waist, and Kakashi wonders if there's something burgeoning there for a moment. They're about the same age, even with adjustments for time spent dead. They've got similar life experiences. They're both sweet kids.
He abruptly remembers that, as of the last time they discussed such things, Shisui had been emphatically gay, and death likely hasn't changed that.
So. Friendship it is.
(Or Shisui's just making fun of her for being short, but one does not preclude the other.)
By the time the meeting lets out, they haven't actually made much progress. Still, Kakashi's done his part and nobody's having a breakdown. This feels like something of a miracle. It's an admittedly low bar, but hey. They've passed it.
Sakura holds true to what she said and ends up going to the hospital to do paperwork. Kakashi gets pulled away by Inoichi and lets that just… happen. It's conveniently timed. It works out well enough for everyone.
It's the 'after' that Kakashi isn't sure what to do with.
He's technically still on medical leave. Most of his friends are busy. Going to the memorial stone would be… weird, just like this entire week. Chores and errands have been run. Training is only going to hold his attention for so long…
Well.
It's still something.
He can figure something out while he trains.
#
Kakashi still has more than a few hours left after he's done training, so he cleans up and ambles through the town. Part of him says 'there's a future where this was all destroyed,' and forces him to pay attention. The smell of the spices from the curry shop lay heavy in the air. The sound of merchants from the stalls in the farmer's market assaults his ears in a familiar, almost calming way. Children, mostly civilians, trip underfoot as they play some game he doesn't try to untangle.
It could all go away in a moment, supposedly.
"HEY!"
Kakashi lifts his head and doesn't let himself stumble as a teenage girl slams skull-first into his ribs. He doesn't even push away the hug for a few seconds.
"Hello, Hana-chan." He pats her on the head until she lets go.
"Kakashi, Mom's been telling me to drag your ass to the compound if I have to," she informs him. "You should go visit her. She's going to bite your face off."
"Sounds fake."
Hana slugs him in the shoulder. It doesn't really hurt, but he flinches exaggeratedly anyway. There's a proud glint in her eye, so he thinks he did okay.
"You smell angsty," Hana informs him.
"I'm a pit of terror," Kakashi says. "Also, 'angsty?' Really? I'm not fifteen."
"Coulda fooled me."
"I'm going to throw you in the river."
She sticks her tongue out at him. "Boring, you've used that like eight times."
"And how many times have I followed through?"
"Like half of them, but that's not the point," Hana dismisses. "You smell angsty. Stop it."
"Uh-huh. And how do you suggest I do that?" Kakashi asks. Well, he drawls. He's been doing that more, lately. It gets a lot of people looking like they want to strangle him, which is always fun.
"Come train with me and Shin," Hana demands, grabbing his hand and walking backwards. He lets himself be dragged along. "You haven't taught me any cool tricks in forever."
"I have a life, you know," Kakashi says as drily as he can. "And grown-up friends. And missions."
"And you also have a pair of annoying teenagers who will bother you for hours in pursuit of cool ninjutsu," Hana asserts. "Let's go, man."
"You're fifteen, don't you have a teacher to bother for this?" Kakashi asks plaintively. "I'm sure I've met your team."
"I don't know how to tell you this, bud," Hana says, continuing to drag him towards a training field, "But my teammates have somehow managed to come under the impression that you're 'cool,' so if I bring you to training, I can either ruin your reputation, or bolster mine. Either way, I win."
"That's a terrible reason to bring me to training."
"Well you weren't exactly listening to the basic logic of 'you're a badass and I wanna learn something cool,' so I had to go with a backup reason."
"And where's Shin in all this?" Kakashi asks.
"Trying to show Minami-chan how to use a sword," Hana tells him. "It's not going well."
"What kind of—"
"She almost stabbed Ryūga a few hours ago," Hana says. She shakes her head in mock-sadness. "But she didn't, so I didn't even get a chance to practice my medic skills."
Kakashi rolls his eyes. She's trying so hard.
"You should be more worried about your teammates getting stabbed," he says. "But sure. I'll show you something. I have some free time anyway."
"Great, because Shin said you've been moping and I believe him," Hana says.
"Snitch."
Hana grins brightly at him. "Sakura said that snitches get dango."
Kakashi struggles to not roll his eyes again. It takes some effort. "Does this mean you'll be getting dango for Shin?"
"Nah, because I'm doing him a favor by kidnapping you."
"I'm twice your age—"
"Not really."
"—and agreed to come because I was bored, that is the polar opposite of kidnapping," Kakashi points out.
"It was a kidnapping," Hana affirms.
Kakashi gives up.
#
Kakashi accompanies Shin back to the Uzumaki house, and they open the door to Yelling.
Capital letters and everything. Yeah. Romaji. That's how much Yelling it is.
"—COULDN'T KEEP THEIR OWN FUCKING BROTHER FROM PULLING THIS SHIT, SO DON'T TELL ME ABOUT THE 'GREAT AND MIGHTY' SAGE!"
"We're home~!" Kakashi calls out in the fraction of a second of silence, and there's a choking noise as Kurama cuts off whatever he was about to say.
Kanna pops halfway around a hallway corner, blinks, and says, "Please tell me you didn't hear most of that."
"Something about a brother," Kakashi says. "And then the Sage."
Kanna's mouth presses into a thin line. "Right. That's… I'm sorry you guys had to hear that."
"Is there a problem?" Shin asks carefully.
"I… nothing you need to worry about," Kanna says. Her voice is too tight. "Tensions are running high. Kurama and I were blowing off some steam by yelling."
Shin doesn't look convinced. Kakashi's still not the best with kids, but he's gotten enough practice now. He puts a hand on Shin's shoulder and squeezes just enough to get the kid to look up at him. Kakashi doesn't smile, because that won't help here, but he does meet Shin's stare with his eye. "It's official work. Above your paygrade. I'm in on it, and trust me when I say the source of stress in this case is being worked on by a whole lot of people, and you really don't need to worry about it."
Shin blinks at him, and then darts a glance at Kanna.
She looks like she's swallowing glass.
"Hey," Kakashi says, and squeezes Shin's shoulders. "Different people have different ways of coping with things. Kanna and Kurama get loud and angry at each other, but that's because they know they'll move past it after they're done. It's not the healthiest outlet, but those two have a system set up."
Probably.
They're in each other's heads, so it's inevitable, right?
"It's like verbal sparring," Kakashi says. He's grasping for straws at this point. "It's a way to handle stress that only works if both parties agree to it beforehand and know their limits, right?"
That works.
Thank fuck.
Shin nods slowly, looks back at Kanna and Kurama, and then says, "I'm going to go take a shower, Aneki. Sorry for not knocking. I hope your… S-rank conundrum is handled soon."
He disappears up the stairs, and Kakashi ambles forward until he's crossed the invisible barrier he knows is there, and Kanna's hit the right privacy seal.
"So," Kakashi says, dropping into an armchair. "How much did I just lie to this kid?"
"Not much," Kanna says. She grimaces and runs a hand down her face. "You pretty much hit the nail on the head, but I hate when the kids catch me blowing up like that."
"I can imagine why," Kakashi says mildly. "Can I ask what sparked this off and if I should actually be worried?"
"Fucking Zetsu," Kurama grumbles. "What else?"
Kanna waves a hand at the bijuu. "What he said. We've figured out something about tracking, we think, but it's not easy, and for all that we've had years to work on sealing to deal with him, it's… still not a sure thing. No way to run tests."
Hm. That sucks.
"And you two are… good?" Kakashi hazards, motioning awkwardly at the vague space between Kanna and Kurama.
Kurama snorts. "Yeah, we're good."
Kanna makes an odd, half-hearted grunting noise. "We're something alright."
"Have you ever considered not being a cynical bitch?" Kurama asks, casual as anything.
"Have you ever considered not being a massive piece of shit?" Kanna asks back, just as innocent.
"Have either of you ever considered therapy?" Kakashi adds brightly. "You need it."
"I want to say 'you're one to talk,' but you've apparently actually been going to therapy," Kurama says. "That said, so has Kanna. Point's moot."
"You haven't," Kakashi points out.
"I'm an immortal being of chakra, my mind doesn't work like yours," Kurama near growls.
Kakashi wonders if he should press the point.
Probably not.
"Anything I can help with on the stress front?" Kakashi offers in Kanna's direction. "Sparring partner, maybe? I may not be an S-rank, but I can hold my own if you don't go Jinchuuriki-mode or use your chains."
"Two limitations for me and none for you?" Kanna asks. She's taunting him. He's not opposed. "Didn't know you were that scared of me, pretty boy."
Kakashi shrugs. "I'll hold back my Sharingan, because that's my only way to combat anything involving a bijuu, and I have ideas about the chains but…"
"None of them are fit for a spar against a comrade in arms?" Kanna guesses.
"Well, yeah. I don't want one of us to accidentally kill the other. Sakura would be pissed."
Kanna laughs at that. "Maybe some other time. I'm actually drained from the mess in the labs earlier. We had to evacuate half the floor."
"What happened?" Kakashi asks. "If it's not classified."
"Some idiot released the sex pollen."
Wh—
What.
Ah.
That.
"What?" Kakashi finally manages to squeak. It's not a very manly noise. He's a little embarrassed about it.
"Fuckwad in one of the other labs released the sex pollen," Kanna says flatly. She flops onto Kurama's shoulder and is miraculously not dislodged. "It hit the vents and infected three rooms before someone realized it was spreading, because some jackass forgot to reactivate the filtration seals after the last cleaning."
"You have sex pollen?" Kakashi asks, not a little bewildered.
"I mean, not me," Kanna dismisses. "That's Miyako's division, so her people are the ones that got hit, but it means she's losing half her team for however long it takes to get out of their systems."
"Is someone getting fired over this?" Kakashi asks carefully.
Kanna makes a face. "Unclear. It's being investigated. For all we know, the pollen got out because of a faulty lid or something. We're definitely checking on the seals, though, because that's just as likely to have been sabotage."
Fun.
Kakashi doesn't want to think about what R&D is doing. This is very much out of his comfort zone. Subject change imminent.
Why do they even have sex pollen?
"I didn't know you were already back at work," Kakashi says. "I thought you were still on medical leave like the rest of us."
Kanna shrugs. "I didn't end up with a new dependent."
"For once," Kurama says, low and under his breath and still not enough to avoid Kanna hearing.
He does avoid the absentminded flinging of a chakra chain, though.
"You have five kids and picked up three of them on missions," Kurama snaps at her. "There's a point!"
"That you didn't have to make!"
"Eat shit!"
Kakashi coughs pointedly, and the Uzumaki settle.
(Does Kurama even count as an Uzumaki? He's taken the name, so… maybe.)
"Anyway, since I wasn't the one that almost died or put into a position of having to suddenly restructure my life around a new person, and have an office job instead of field missions, my leave ended earlier than the rest of you," Kanna explains. "Honestly, it's… mostly paperwork."
"Good for recovery," Kakashi agrees. "I'm surprised they're not tagging me back in yet."
Kanna gives him a look that is probably best described as 'pitying.'
"Hatake," Kurama sighs, shaking his head, "You stupid motherfucker."
"Rude."
"Your leave is threefold and you know it," Kanna says. "New dependent, psychological instability, and your job doesn't keep you in the village, which is relevant since we absolutely need you at the drop of a hat for Moon's Eye bullshit."
"Okay but, hear me out… that can't last forever," Kakashi says. "What if it's months before we can make a move?"
"Reverse summoning," Kanna says. She points at herself, "I'm good at this, remember?"
He does.
"And maybe this time it won't lead to blood in the cupboards!" Kurama enthuses. Sarcasm suits him, and Kakashi resents. He resents so much.
Kanna rolls her eyes. "Whatever. Kiri's still a fucking mess, but I felt Tobi pop over this morning so with any luck, he's thinking about ending the genjutsu at the center of said mess."
"You can sense that far?" Kakashi asks. "I mean, the genjutsu part. I believe you on the part about sensing him visit."
Kanna blinks at him, and then points at Kurama. It's a little awkward from their current position, but most things are. "Bijuu-based status checks."
Convenient.
Kurama reaches up and pulls Kanna's head down to his lap. He pulls her glasses off, digs his fingers into her hair, and runs his nails against her scalp like they really are cousins who've managed to build up something of a relationship. Kakashi wonders how long that element's been around. Maybe it's new, but there's also a solid chance he just… missed it.
It's cute, though. He smiles behind the mask.
"And the kid?" Kurama asks, so low that Kakashi isn't sure he was meant to hear.
Kanna closes her eyes, hands coming up in a loose sign at her chest, and tenses for a moment. Kurama brushes her hair back as she does her thing, and smirks when she relaxes.
"Happy, in his own way."
"What kid?" Kakashi asks.
Kanna opens her eyes to look at him, squinting a little. Myopic as hell, that one. "I didn't tell you about Suigetsu?"
The name is vaguely familiar. "Probably not since you opened up about the time-space situation."
"Mm." She considers it for a moment, closing her eyes again. "I was on a team, as a teenager, with three dudes. Sasuke, Juugo, and Hozuki Suigetsu. We did the whole 'travel the continent, almost die for each other thing' for a while. I can keep an eye on Sasuke and Juugo here, but Suigetsu is… he doesn't know me, and as long as his brother is alive, he's happier in Kiri. If things go well with your personal megalomaniac, then I don't have to worry about Mangetsu getting murdered, and Suigetsu doesn't need my help."
He processes for a moment.
"A Hozuki," he says, slow and careful. "That was the one you punched through the head when he pissed you off, right?"
"Right."
Huh.
"Do you miss him?" Kakashi asks.
Kanna opens her mouth to answer. Closes it. Furrows her brow in a frown. "As much as I miss anyone else from then, I guess. I wouldn't get anything out of a friendship with this version, though, and he doesn't need me. He's not the same person, so it doesn't really matter."
Fair.
Kakashi catches a flash of orange out the window, and cranes his head to see. Naruto's holding a big bag of birdseed, and Juugo is carefully opening the chicken coop to let Naruto in without letting any chickens out. It's not a particularly harrowing process, but Naruto's expression shows that the kid is taking this chore very seriously. Knowing the kids as he does, Kakashi's pretty sure that it's less about the chickens or doing a good job, and more about the fact that the first time Juugo smiled at Naruto, it had been so soft and small that Naruto had run off to cry about it.
Kakashi still wasn't sure what that was about, but Naruto's dedication to making sure Juugo's pets were all as well cared for as possible was endearing as hell.
"Juugo's teaching 'em about how to brush out the rabbits, too," Kurama offers. "Naruto ends up petting them for hours, sometimes. It's… damn, what's the term?"
"Sensory stimulation for the ADHD," Kanna says. "Kid gets halfway to meditating sometimes."
Kakashi watches them out the window, watches as Juugo talks to one of the chickens and carefully deposits the hen into Naruto's arms, watches the kids talk to each other with fond smiles and pinched-brow concentration, watches and marvels at the fact that, because of the utter miracle Sakura and Kanna pulled off, Naruto gets a family.
#
Kakashi takes the rest of the day to check in on the kids. He's entrenched in their lives now, and he's been so focused on Rin and Obito and that entire mess these last few weeks that he's a little out of the loop. He doesn't stalk them, but that's mostly because he doesn't need to. They just tell him things.
Naruto's still hanging out with Kiba as often as not, and the friendship with Shikamaru and Chōji has only grown stronger. They have a tendency to merge with Karin and Sai's little group when Shikamaru is there, because Sai is friends with Ino, and the ShikaInoCho kids are raised as close as cousins, and it's not like Shikamaru shies away from playing board games with whoever asks. Given that Sai, Karin, and Shino are all liable to sit down and play a round of whatever comes to mind, this means that Shikamaru gets bounced back and forth between the two groups.
He doesn't seem to mind, so long as they don't make him actually move between groups.
Kakashi only barely pays attention to Whatever The Fuck is going on between Karin and Ino; he's still not sure he wants to know, but the vibe he gets is 'stalemate,' so he lets it go. Karin's attention is more embroiled in talking seals with TenTen, or harassing Neji.
(The Hyūga are vaguely on Kakashi's periphery, always, but with Neji he actually gets an idea of what's going on in real time. Not the details, necessarily, but emotions are easier to read on an Academy student then on his fellow Jounin or ANBU members.)
Juugo spends time with the Oto brats, some of which are finally coming around on the whole 'therapy to understand that Orochimaru's cult was actually high-key abuse' front, and he apparently gets along well with Rin, which makes Kakashi's heart twist in ways he doesn't entirely want to process. Shin's got Hana and his team and Torune and Fuu, and it's… it's good.
A bunch of broken kids, raised by some less-broken kunoichi and a bijuu and sometimes Kakashi himself… and it's good.
It's just good.
He doesn't want to lose this balance.
#
The next day, he has to take a deep breath before he knocks on the door.
It opens.
"Hey," Sakura says, with a smile that looks so kind he almost misses how nervous she smells. "We've got the house to ourselves for a few hours. No eavesdroppers."
"Aa," he says. "Let's… yeah. Let's talk."
This shouldn't be this terrifying.
(It is. Sage help him, it is.)