A/N: Chapter 3, mostly from Kakashi's point of view.
Version 2.0 (April 2015). Changelog: modified dialogue a little to keep characters in-character. Modified mention of the two Councils oft mentioned in fanon,
Child of the Fox
The afternoon sun was glaring down on the buildings and residents of Konoha. The village bathed in the fiercest glare the sun could dish out, and everyone felt the heat resulting from the ferocity of its gaze.
That is, everyone except for the handful of individuals currently gathered in the Hokage Office. The person who held the title that granted the office its name saw the thermal distortions in the air and was exceedingly glad that his office had climate-controlling seals. The rest lamented the fact that they had to leave the cool air soon because this was not supposed to be a lengthy meeting. Just confirm whether the teams assigned to them passed or failed and then go back to their respective residences, desperately trying to keep cool on the hottest day in the past five years.
"Alright, everyone," the aged Hokage said to the seven jōnin in his office. There would have been nine but team 5 was failed yesterday because it was obviously not going to work out and the other was Kakashi. Sure, the man had improved since he taught at the Academy, but it was still unlikely he appeared within an hour of the scheduled meeting time. "Test results," he declared, deciding not to wait for the tardy jōnin. "Gemna?"
"Team 1 fails."
"Raidō?"
"Team 2 passes."
"Aoba?"
"Team 3 passes."
"Kō?"
"Team 4 fails."
"Kunugi?"
"Team 6 fails."
"Kurenai?"
"Team 8 passes."
"Asuma?"
"Team 10 passes."
"Sorry I'm late, bratlings held me up," a not-so-apologetic voice sounded from the windowsill. The few that bothered to look towards him, which did not include the Hokage, saw that he was clutching his orange book to his chest like one would cradle a royal baby. A few eyebrows rose to meet hairlines at the sight, what had happened to make him stop reading it?
"Glad you could join us Kakashi, and within twenty minutes of the planned starting time too," Hokage-sama said with a Glare that let Kakashi know Hokage-sama was more displeased than usual for his tardiness. Behind his mask and headband, Kakashi frowned. He could feel in his bones the amount of work he was going to need to do was going to go up sharply sometime in the near future. "Team 7?" Hokage-sama asked pointedly.
"Team 7 passes."
Hokage-sama allowed his eyes to widen, and the sound of Asuma's unlit cigarette striking the floor could be easily heard in the aftermath of Kakashi's announcement.
"Are you alright, Kakashi?" Asuma asked hesitantly as he bent to pick up his cigarette. It was well-known that, following his mandatory stint as a teacher, he had sworn never to teach anyone below chūnin ever again.
"Care to share the details, Kakashi?" Genma asked before he could answer. "I'm curious what your brats could have done to make you accept them as your students."
Kakashi seemed to shrink in on himself, heightening the curiosity of the seven jōnin and one Hokage in the room. "It was horrible," he uttered in a terrified voice while clutching his book even tighter to his chest. "They ganged up on me and threatened the precious!" he said, yelling somewhat hysterically at the end.
"They got their hands on your smut and got an Uchiha-backed threat to burn it?" Kurenai asked with a raised brow.
Kakashi nodded vigorously with a maniacal look in his eye. Kurenai snorted. "Remind me to buy lunch or dinner for them one of these days."
"Tell me," Hokage-sama ordered, lighting his pipe. "This I want to hear."
He didn't overly want to, but it was an order from Hokage-sama and defying orders, technically any order, from Hokage-sama was treason and could see him in prison for the rest of his life or executed. Likely execution; he knew too much.
He nodded reluctantly, and started his tale.
– – – – That morning – – – –
He stepped into the clearing that was training ground seven at exactly 0800, two hours later than he had told the three to meet here. This was to impart upon them a small measure of the art of patience – his files said that none of the three were particularly adept in that field –, and to allow for one of them to get a bright idea and use what he'd taught them yesterday to set up traps. Even if the traps available to them were merely basic traps involving wires, levers, and perhaps pressure plates, sometimes they were enough. Gari, former jōnin of Iwa and ex-leader of the Demolition Corps, found that out himself when a simple wire-kunai trap had pierced his skull during a routine hunter-nin mission that had come across him somewhere in Nami.
Granted, he was severely weakened from multiple elemental dragons and distracted because of the Chidori hurling at him, but it was a simple wire-kunai trap they'd managed to set during the early stages of combat that dealt the killing blow. The basics sometimes truly were the best, and he thanked the little monsters at the Academy for reinforcing that, even if he never wanted to see them ever again in this life or the next.
If they'd asked around they'd know the basics of the bell test since it was used by his teacher, his teacher's teacher, his teacher's teacher's teacher and his teacher's teacher's teacher's teacher – in order, Minato-sensei, Jiraiya-sama, Sandaime-sama, and Shodai-sama –, all of them having taught team 7. He doubted they had though, they were genin after all. With this information in hand, though it was not guaranteed he would use the same test as his teacher before him, they would have time to prepare accordingly. Let it never be said that Hatake Kakashi was unfairly stacking the deck against friendlies. Well, more than it already was by this being an experienced war-veteran jōnin versus three fresh genin, even if one of them displayed skill he shouldn't have had by walking down the side of the Academy yesterday.
Even with that taken into account, this batch didn't look all that promising, much like the last two Hokage-sama had tried to foist off on him in between missions. Two of them, the self-proclaimed avenger and the harpy hadn't noticed his presence yet, while the third was in a meditative state and doing interesting things with leaves. His fingers were outstretched and splayed out wide enough for a leaf to spin rapidly on each fingertip in alternating directions along its length axis. Another leaf lazily spun inside the palm of each hand in the same manner that he had originally used for Rasengan practice, and yet another leaf hovered, perfectly still, over the back of his hand.
It was, truth be told, rather impressive. It certainly was enough justification for the other two to miss his entering the field even if they really should have been more alert. The sole pair of blue eyes, though they had recently taken on a shade of amethyst purple that reminded him so much of Kushina-sama, flashed over to where he was standing before returning to the leaves and a strange sensation of pride surged up within him. Something seemed off about him, though, but he couldn't place it and he was not keen on exposing Obito's Sharingan because of a genin, even if it was sensei's son. Pushing those thoughts aside, he re-focused on the team before him and was not impressed at all, much the same as yesterday. Just in case, he had prepared the paperwork requesting sensei's son as his apprentice if this team failed for whatever reason, though he didn't think the consequences of that would be pretty. He not only had the village Jinchūriki, but the last of the loyal Uchiha – read: natural Sharingan –, plus the daughter of a former Councillor, who lost his life evacuating civilians to the shelters during the Kyūbi attack. Haruno Kizashi had, as a matter of fact, been posthumously made the first official Councillor after the Citizen's and Shinobi councils were created as official governmental institutions after the Kyūbi attack, in order to aid Sandaime-sama in getting the village back on track. Before that, the people the now-legitimate councils represented had just been individuals with more power than Hokage-sama could safely ignore.
He walked to a spot directly behind broody and pinky and clapped his hands. It was honestly quite embarrassing that he had to clap his hands, but he reminded himself that they probably didn't know that channelling chakra to yours ears made them sharper. Not on par with an Inuzuka's natural state, but you could hear all but the lightest of footsteps within fifty metres. He was even not walking on the grasstips – another useful control exercise, that – so that he'd have footsteps in the first place.
Broody and pinky jumped up, startled, and he had to restrain himself from laughing. Genin were so easy to scare it was hilarious. Naruto simply responded by dropping the leaves where he sat, probably thinking that his silent amusement, projected through a smirk, was hidden, but it wasn't. It would be best to be cautious, though; pranksters were devious trap-layers, as Iruka had displayed time and again. He was just glad that the kid wasn't capable of fūinjutsu, and suppressed a shiver at the horrors that could erupt when the kid was. Luckily, sealing required his permission to be taught if he accepted them – another argument in favour –, unless the kid found some adult Uzumaki somewhere. He rated that occurrence as extremely unlikely, since Kushina-sama had disappeared and the rest was dead to the best of his knowledge.
Deep within his mind, he was already planning a holiday should that ever happen. Perhaps to Yugakure? He'd heard that the hot springs there were of excellent quality, as were their women, their booze, and with his record of S-ranked missions he had literally millions stored away. ANBU life may not be the most healthy to the mental state of their operatives, but it certainly was to the coffers of said operatives.
"YOU'RE LATE!" pinky screeched, and he silently cursed his Inuzuka grandmother. Such tones were no longer crippling as they had been in his youth, but they were very annoying still. The genes had somehow skipped his father, retaliating by appearing within him at the same strength as an Inuzuka trueborn. It pissed Tsume and her parents off something fierce at the time since he could not be made an actual Inuzuka because he was technically the Hatake Heir, and adopting Heirs was not something that was done. That was the same reason Naruto had not been adopted, since he was technically the Uzumaki Heir, and the Uzumaki were technically royalty back in Uzu no Kuni. Technically, as their fiefdom didn't exist anymore after the Uzushio massacre. Kurenai-san had found a loophole and made him a ward of the Yūhi clan, rather than adopting him into the Yūhi.
He noted that he wasn't the only one that was finding the downsides to enhanced sensory perception. Sure, broody had ringing ears because even to normal ears that sort of volume was horrible to the eardrums, but Naruto reacted like he himself had reacted when faced with that sort of volume for the first ten or so times. Which is to say, mild helpings of sakki.
Interesting, that. As a genin, he shouldn't have noticeable sakki even if he was sensei's son. Perhaps the Kyūbi? There were also the implications regarding his auditory sensitivity that he could abuse during the test, but he brushed the thoughts aside for now to give the trio his patented eyesmile.
"Sorry about that, I had to help an old lady cross the street."
Ah Obito, if only you knew that your bullshit excuses were used to such effect against the next generation of shinobi. You would be beaming with pride before you took Naruto aside and treated him to ramen. As an aside, what is it with pranksters and ramen? Kushina-sama loved the stuff, Iruka loves the stuff, Obito loved the stuff, and I've personally guarded Naruto as he wolfed down fourteen bowls of the old Uzumaki special so it's fair to say he loves the stuff as well.
His random thought train would have continued had they not been derailed by pinky.
"LIAR!" she screeched. Truly, screeching was the proper adjective for her voice.
He decided to mimic Naruto and aimed a small amount of sakki her way, which shut her up and shut her up good, since small for him was not-so small for a genin.
Aaah, blessed silence. He stopped emitting sakki and grabbed the two bells from his belt and watched as the three pairs of eyes followed the bells' journey through the air ashe waved them in front of himself. "This test is simple. Your objective is to get these bells from me before this timer, which is set for two hours from now, reaches zero.
"The catch is, of course, that there are only two bells, and three of you. Whoever doesn't get a bell gets sent back to the Academy. In addition to the humiliation of not getting a bell, I will tie the loser to a tree and offer lunches to the other two."
Only two stomachs rumbled and he frowned slightly in disappointment and deeply-buried pride – he wasn't supposed to have favourite as a sensei, after all – that sensei's son hadn't followed his recommendation and skipped breakfast.
"I thought I told you to skip breakfast, blondy," he drawled, piercing sensei's son with a glare.
Said son snorted. "Yeah, but it wasn't an order, rather a recommendation. As it wasn't an order I was under pressure to follow I didn't, and I wouldn't have even if it was. Not to mention kaa-chan would flay me for forgoing breakfast."
Kaa-chan? But the body of Kushina-sama had disappeared and was never recovered. Did he somehow stumble upon her somewhere? And if so, where? He had been informed Naruto disappeared following graduation – he had written Kurenai-san a note mentioning 'secluded training' – but the barrier monitoring team had not noticed Naruto leave Konoha, after he got them to talk using a signed order by Hokage-sama. If his secluded training was with Kushina-sama – which it had to, given the mention of 'kaa-chan' and his absolute refusal to see Kurenai-san as anything other than 'nee-san' – then Kushina-sama had to have been in Konoha the entire time. Which was absurd. The Great Purge would have detected her four years ago, as the sensor-nin scoured the entire village so that any and all ninja and civilians could undergo a Yamanaka scan. The only other option – until his mentioning a mother – was that Kushina-sama was dead and the body burned, like what happened to sensei and to all ninja that died and were brought back no matter their identity.
Note to self: take Naruto aside afterwards. If Kushina-sama survived I want to know.
"Dobe," broody said, his tone rather biting but with an undercurrent of something he couldn't really place.
"Yes, teme?" sensei's son replied somewhat more coldly than Kakashi personally thought sensei's son had ever talked, but that could easily be attributed to the current situation being rather stressful, as well as any emotional changes having a person Naruto could call 'kaa-chan' in his life could bring. It had the same undercurrent to it, and he felt fairly confident at his identification as the
"You don't have a mother," broody replied bluntly. Kakashi winced a little at the lack of tact that was shown, and readied himself to intervene when he saw Naruto bristle a little before settling down. He did suppose it was a valid question. As far as anyone knew, Naruto was an orphan.
"Obviously I do, because otherwise I wouldn't be here right now," Naruto said with a deadpan expression. "But to actually answer your unspoken question... Circumstances changed and my mother was returned to me," he said, a grin appearing on his face.
While outwardly calm, inside Kakashi reeled from the information. Kushina-sama is alive? He forced that thought and the emotions and questions it brought to a corner of his mind; he could interrogate sensei's son later.
"So yes," he said, getting the test back on track. As much as he wanted to, tests did not administer themselves. "There's a thirty-three percent failure rate guaranteed," he said, and watched as Naruto's eyes lit up in triumph. Had the kid made the connection? Had he realized the key to success?
Only time would tell. "Now, I want you to come at me with everything you've got. Jutsu, weapons, intent to kill, the works," he said with an interested glance at the sword worn upon the back of sensei's son. It seemed impractically long for his frame, but who was he to judge?
"But sensei, we could hurt you," pinky said. He scoffed a little at her misplaced concern.
"If you can," he said with an eyesmile, "then I'll tender my resignation. I wouldn't be much of a jōnin if three fresh graduates could seriously hurt me outside of incredibly divinity-backed miraculous luck."
Pinky at least had the decency to blush. "Ready, set... go," he drawled and activated the timer.
Pinky and broody scattered. Pinky was in the bush at the edge of the clearing – even if he couldn't sense her, her pink hair gave her away –, broody was deeper into the forest, but neither was suppressing their chakra to stop others from detecting them. Yet another thing he'd have to teach them.
Naruto, on the other hand, surprised him. He grabbed the hilt of the sword on his back which caused the sheath to dissolve in a fine watery mist. He briefly wondered how resheathing the blade would work before he had to block the blade with a kunai.
Naruto had swung the sword with surprising strength. He estimated that he had to use a fifth of his strength to keep the blade at bay, though there was a nick in his kunai that essentially reduced it to scrap metal in his opinion. Ninja of his calibre demanded perfection in equipment and even scratches were sometimes reason enough to scrap the kunai or shuriken entirely because the balance was off.
He might as well try and get some use out of it. He threw the kunai at a speed that Naruto should be capable of barely dodging and watched as the blond did nothing of the sort. The knife plunged into his shoulder, and the blond was shrouded in smoke.
Kakashi was reluctantly impressed. He hadn't even noticed that the Naruto he'd been speaking to was a shadow clone. The alternative, smokeless and sealless shadow clone creation under his watchful gaze, was utter madness. Even he, with all his experience creating shadow clones to do tasks ranging from fūinjutsu to grocery shopping still required the seal, though he didn't have to vocalize and created copies without smoke.
That left the question of where Naruto actually was. He hadn't felt... oh. Cheeky little brat couldn't suppress his chakra so he saturated the entire forest area surrounding the clearing in training ground 7 with his chakra so his wouldn't stand out from the ambience. It was far from ideal, but it worked. Very few sensors knew what natural chakra felt like, and most of them were in Konoha thanks to the aid of Jiraiya-sama, so they would have no way to tell if the forest naturally had that signature or not. It did imply knowledge of how sensors worked – knowledge that was guarded heavily – or just spoke of paranoid caution. He was inclined to go with the latter.
He gave them a while to make a plan, and decided to have some fun while he was at it. He reached into a pocket and felt the chakra signatures belonging to pinky and broody tense. His sense was nowhere near the level where he could feel individual emotions and the reason for such, like Mito-sama was capable of according to the stories, but he was skilled enough that he could feel their general mood if they were close by. Whether they were happy, sad, tense, relaxed... that sort of thing.
Where those emotions came from was a blank, whether it was attained vengeance or a won lottery, but in this case he could make a good guess. He felt their signatures change again when he whipped out Icha Icha and picked the story back up from where he had left it the previous day. He giggled as he thought, Naughty Kimiko-chan, very naugh-
He could hear the air displacing rapidly behind him with the characteristic swish of a thin object moving at high speed, and ducked under the blade sweeping horizontally through the air above him. In his motion, he lashed out with a foot towards the likely source of the swing and was rewarded with a solid hit and the distinctive sound of air being driven from someone's lungs.
"Not bad, blondy," he drawled. "But not good enough."
The scowl on his face as he retreated back into the brush was hilariously adorable. Absently, he noted that Naruto had been taught the grass-tip walking exercise. He really needed to speak with him about his teacher. If nothing else, he needed to know so that they could synchronize their training.
He decided to put away his precious Icha Icha and get some action into the field. The sooner this test was over, the sooner he could put in the paperwork to make his honorary younger brother his apprentice. Broody would likely be the hardest target of the two, so that meant pinky had the dubious honour of being first. What did her file say about her again?
Ah yes. Sasuke Fangirl and in possession of some form of MPD where the second personality seems to be far more mature and combat-capable, but the triggers, if any, are unknown. Taijutsu below-par, though in possession of bouts of Tsunade-like strength in her punches, genjutsu slightly above-par, ninjutsu practically non-existent outside the Academy Three. He nodded to himself, that would be easy enough. He frowned as the chakra that felt like mud, indicating Water and Earth affinities without the possibility of Wood, move away. He knew it belonged to pinky, but where was she going? A few moments later he had his answer. She was moving towards the object of her affections.
He performed a quick Shunshin to a tree ahead of her along the path he projected she would take and leaned against the bark, whipping out his precious while he was at it. With his precious in hand he giggled like a schoolgirl; it gave him the perfect cover to keep an eye on pinky and her actions. He felt her stop close to him. Eventually, she moved away slowly. Curious, he looked over and saw her tip-toeing out in a manner reminiscent of that bunny-starring cartoon they'd been showing on the television lately.
Bugs Bunny or something like that. It had its moments.
He briefly exposed his Sharingan to cast an illusion. He would have cast this one the standard way, but he was not good enough with illusions to do them silently like Kurenai-san unless he used his eye, and this particular illusion worked best when silent. Lightning jutsu, on the other hand... but that was too drastic. He did not want to kill a fellow Leaf inhabitant.
He watched as pinky looked to her left and screamed before falling unconscious. His illusion cancelled itself and he was informed that she saw broody dying in front of her. He chuckled sadistically and continued walking, switching his thoughts to his next target, conveniently identified by the illusion he had just cast.
Time to deal with broody.
He was an Uchiha, and his file mentioned that he had once said that he 'wasn't a kid anymore'. Taken to its logical conclusion, that meant that, at the very least, he had C-ranked shurikenjutsu and a Katon: Gōkakyū under his belt. Perhaps even the Phoenix Flower? Itachi also had the Dragon Fire technique and a whole lot more at the same age as broody was now but as he had once heard his fellow ANBU say 'Itachi is fucking bullshit'. More than once, he agreed.
He heard the swishing sound of weapons flying towards him at a relatively high speed for a genin, but chose to pretend being locked in thought. The weapons nailed his side and their thrower smirked... only to lose that smirk when he replaced himself with a log.
Kakashi resolved to do this more often; the expression of a shocked Uchiha was priceless. It was a shame he couldn't imprint it into memory with his Sharingan. Broody realized he had just given away his position and fled, but he was faster and blocked him.
"Where do you think you're going, broody?" he asked.
Broody froze before he smirked the Uchiha Smirk©.
"I'm different from those two," broody said.
Kakashi raised an eyebrow. Smug pride, arrogance... It was like Fugaku reborn. Considering it was his son and this kid had wanted to impress his father before broody's older brother went mad and killed all of the Uchiha that weren't broody's older brother, broody himself, and Mikoto-san, though the latter would never use chakra again in her life, that was entirely possible.
He'd have to break it from him. "Why don't you prove it? By, say, getting a bell?" he said in a tone that never failed to drive Fugaku mad the few times they spoke.
It once again proved effective on his son. With a yell, broody launched himself forward, forgoing any and all precautionary matters. His taijutsu assault, truth be told, was rather impressive for a fresh graduate, even if said graduate was mostly lost to rage. He had obviously been training in the Interceptor Fist favoured by many Uchiha, modified for Sharingan use, with a smattering of Dragon and Tiger Zodiac styles thrown in to offset the current lack of his clan's famed eyes. His speed and coordination were somewhere around mid-high genin, though he left himself wide open when he struck. He impressed Kakashi enough that he let him get close to the bells.
To actually get the bells he needed to be a) be more stealthy and/or cunning, b) be a lot more skilled, or c) coordinate with the others. He grabbed the outstretched fist after a dodged punch and threw him over his shoulder. To his credit, broody recovered fast. Broody put his hands together and flew through a set of handseals at mid-low genin speed, ending on a Tiger seal. Kakashi responded by putting his hands in a modified Ox and waited for the fire jutsu to be launched and block line of sight.
"Katon: Gōkakyū no jutsu."
A large fireball, approximately similar to what Obito was capable of back in the day, was launched towards the jōnin. It was large enough to hide his entire body, so he responded by creating a quick shadow clone and going underground.
Being underground, through either the Underground Fish Projection or the Double Suicide Decapitation that he was currently using, never ceased to be strange. It was comparable to a strange mixture of earth and water with the properties of neither, though he supposed it was somewhat similar to mud. You had to visually confirm the location of your target before you went under, and thus the path you had to travel to them with this jutsu unless you were adept in sensing. He was more adept than most, but that only showed how little sensing actually was taught.
He moved underneath broody and grabbed an ankle before pulling him underground at the same time that he emerged. The effect, when done swiftly enough, was very much like a Kawarimi. The end result was broody being stuck up to his neck in the earth while Kakashi stood above ground looking at him. "Doton: Shinjū Zanshū no jutsu.
"Being different does not mean you're better," he said seriously, trying to impart a lesson he was sure wasn't getting through to the kid. "There's always someone better, always someone stronger, and always someone faster than you."
Leaving broody in his natural state, that is to say brooding, he went to find the last person on this team... blondy. Uzumaki Naruto. Sensei's son.
He didn't have to search for long. Within seconds he heard the swishing of a blade once again, coming from his right this time. Not in the mood to waste more equipment blocking, one very expensive high-quality kunai was enough, he ducked. "Maa, Maa, so spirited," he drawled upon seeing the third part of this team, though using the word implied a cooperativity between its elements that was currently lacking.
The gritting of teeth was his only reply. After a few more swings of his sword, it was apparent to blondy that he was not going to hit his future sensei. He put his hands in a modified Ox after placing the sword back on his back. The sheath coalesced from water in the atmosphere around the blade. Very curious, that. He'd have to ask about it later.
"Kage Bunshin no jutsu."
Kakashi raised an eyebrow, though none could see it because he wore his hitae-ate over them. A quick count told him that there were at least sixty clones surrounding him. Sensei's son was not even putting on a show of being winded. By the Sage, just how much chakra does he have?
He made a note to himself to work on chakra control with the blond. Starting big would be best. Lava flows, waterfalls, that sort of stuff.
Dispelling the clones was almost insultingly easy, they didn't draw their swords and their taijutsu was... sub-par, to say the least. As he found out after the smoke from the last clone had dissipated, they weren't meant to be good. They were intended as a distraction.
Broody was gone along with Naruto. No doubt the pair were having a good pow-wow on how to get the bells, hopefully with the third member of their team included. He channelled chakra to his ears, and listened intently as the forest became alive, for want of a better word. He could hear the far-off birds, the buzzing of insects, and the gentle sound of the calm river nearby that were otherwise sufficiently halted by the trees to be below normal human detection. He let the sounds of nature fills his ears, and eventually picked up human voices. He homed in.
".. a jōnin, Sasuke-teme. How are we, not even genin, supposed to deal with him?" the first voice said. That had to be Naruto, no one else at the Academy called broody that according to his files.
"As much as I doubt Naruto-baka's intelligence, Sasuke-kun, even a broken clock is right twice a day," the second voice, obviously female, agreed.
"Hn."
Aah, Uchiha. Ever so eloquent. That one said 'alright, alright, you've got a point. So what?'
"How much wire do you have, Sasuke?" Naruto asked.
"10 metres."
"We can work with that. Sakura, didn't you have that C-rank genjutsu you picked up from Mizuki-teme?"
C-rank genjutsu? Her file didn't say anything about it. Then again, it was apparently taught to her by Mizuki, who was a traitor and therefore often didn't commit actions to paperwork. This could be... interesting. He also would have to grill Iruka if he knew about this. The likelihood of it was low, because the man was a stickler for detail, but he could have simply forgotten to include it in the file.
"I do."
Kakashi cut off chakra to his ears. They had the beginnings of a plan and teamwork, all that they needed to do now was to show that they actually worked together. He pulled out his beloved Icha-Icha and continued reading about the very mature exploits of Kimiko-chan, the brown-haired princess from Sora-kyu before the city fell into disrepair.
Fifteen minutes later, with only ten minutes left on the clock, they struck. He vaguely heard pinky say Genjutsu: Narakumi no Jutsu before the jutsu's trademark leaves swirled around him. Hordes of Gai clones started to materialize in front of him, with none behind him. It was obvious that that was where they wanted him to go, so he instinctively broke the genjutsu and turned around as he put Icha-Icha back into its portable shrine. He was willing to do a lot to see what the brats had planned, but he wasn't about to suffer through hundreds of Youthful Challenges.
He soon found himself back in the clearing where this entire test had begun, and he could spot the wire that was obv... actually rather well hidden for genin, most chūnin, and even some of the jōnin. Must be Naruto's work. Let's see what happens, shall we?
Still acting as if he was in the throes of the genjutsu pinky had cast on him earlier, he tripped the wire. Several kunai and shuriken came flying at him from all directions, and he dodged them all with contemptuous ease, though the last one forced him to jump lest he lose his legs.
While in mid-air, broody came out of the bushes with his hand clasped in the Tiger seal.
"Katon: Gōkakyū!"
Nothing a replacement with a nearby log couldn't solve. Though, the particular log he used to swap with was rather conveniently placed close by and in plain sight...
And yes, another trap. Kage Bunshin, this time. In a massive cloud of smoke, thirty clones appeared. During the scuffle that, quite honestly, had Kakashi performing at a far higher level than he originally expected against fresh graduates – reaching high-genin at the end –, he lashed out with a kunai against three clones, and they responded by sliding underneath him, leaving the clones behind them to suffer a kunai to the gut. Two seconds later the sliding clones joined their brethren and dissolved into smoke courtesy of kicks to the spine, and the next wave of Naruto clones pressed forwa-
DRIIIING
Time was up. They were not all that half-bad at the end, all told. Pinky used her limited arsenal to guide his movement, broody forced a replacement to a convenient log close to Naruto, because no-one likes to be on the receiving end of a fireball, who used his clones to disorient him so he could be separated from his bells. Had he chosen a log that wasn't the most convenient one, however, the entire plan would've gone up in smoke. A little extra spent chakra beat getting caught in an ambush. Nor did Naruto get the bells that were still joyously jingling on his belt. Regardless, they had shown that there was something here that he could work with. Something here that could make them a team Konoha could be proud of. Now, who to tie to the tree...
Pinky appeared from a bush, and Naruto completed the trio a few seconds later.
"You weren't utter failures at the end," he started to say blandly. "But you didn't get the bells, so..."
"I beg to differ, Kakashi-sensei," Naruto spoke calmly before he could flicker and tie Naruto to the tree, and held out two bells. Kakashi looked down and distinctly saw two silver bells hanging from his belt. They poofed into smoke as he was watching.
"Kage Bunshin plus Henge to disguise two clones as your bells. The two clones, now bells, were placed on your belt the instant my clones got the actual bells by sliding underneath you," Naruto calmly explained, and threw one bell each to pinky and broody. Not bad, it seemed Anko encouraged him to keep his sleight of hand abilities.
"You'll be the only one to go back to the Academy now, you realize that Naruto?" Kakashi said, trying to unnerve the blond. When it failed to work, Kakashi wondered what other ace sensei's son had up his sleeve.
"Not exactly," Naruto continued in that infuriatingly calm voice. He reached into his pouch and withdrew a very familiar book. I'm so proud of you Naruto! YOU HAVE JOINED THE ICHA-ICHA EMPIRE!
"Contrary to what you may or may not be thinking, Kakashi-sensei... this is your book." Kakashi's eye widened and he frantically reached into the pouch where he kept his precious. He knew he should have drawn a storage seal for his precious inside his pouch! "Sasuke?"
"Hn," broody grunted. His hands flew through a very familiar set of seven seals, ending on Tiger. He inhaled deeply, but stopped there. The sole visible eye of Hatake Kakashi widened in horror. They wouldn't!
"Pass us or the book gets it, sensei," Naruto threatened.
"You pass!" he yelled out maniacally. He flashed forward at speeds that would make sensei proud and snatched the precious from the hands of the blasphemer.
He swiftly retreated to the edge of the clearing, cradling his precious in his arms.
"Don't worry, the bad men won't be able to get you anymore," he said softly to the precious, gently caressing its divine verdant form. "Meet me here at 0800 tomorrow. Ja ne!"
In a swirl of leaves, Kakashi went home. He had a storage seal to graft.
– – – –
"... and that's all, Hokage-sama. I immediately went to fix a fatal flaw exposed to me by Team Seven. The storage seal took only ten minutes," he finished, his voice slightly hoarse.
"And why do you not carry it inside the storage seal right now, Kakashi?" Kurenai asked, steadfastly ignoring the Hokage making a note that looked suspiciously like 'storage seals are a good idea'.
"Because the precious needs comforting!" he yelled in return. Kurenai palmed her face, grumbling to herself.
"Naruto hasn't let up on his deviousness, I see," Hokage-sama said with a chuckle. "You're all dismissed, except Kakashi."
In a series of synchronized swirls of leaves, all jōnin that had been given leave left.
Hokage-sama sighed and appeared to age fifty years while Kakashi was watching. Kakashi blinked a few times in rapid succession. It was not often that Hokage-sama let his age show in his demeanour. Hokage-sama made the handsign that told the ANBU guarding him that he wanted to be left alone with his guest. Four leaf-filled swirls later, the office was empty except for Hokage-sama and himself.
Kakashi frowned when Hokage-sama ran through a short sequence of handseals and activated the privacy seals. This could not possibly be good.
"I did not want to unduly pressure you before you had passed your team, Kakashi, but now that it has I have no more excuses to keep pressure off you," Hokage-sama began in a voice that matched his demeanour. It was a voice that spoke of having lived too long, of being worn out, and he had only heard it once before; on the night Hokage-sama re-took the mantle after Minato-sensei had sacrificed himself to seal the Kyūbi. Kakashi wanted to speak, but a look from his leader stayed his tongue.
"I am old, Kakashi-kun, and tired. I do not expect to live out the decade whatever happens. Unfortunately, there are several large problems left in the village. Until recently, Naruto-kun being a high-level flight risk was one of them, but thanks to the efforts of Anko-chan and Kurenai-chan, along with a revelation two weeks ago this is thankfully no longer the case."
"Does this revelation have to do with Naruto's mentioning a 'kaa-chan', Hokage-sama?" Kakashi asked.
"It does. I don't doubt that you're going to talk to him about it and you're going to be pleasantly surprised. I won't say more on that. To get back on track, you still have the flight-risk that is Uchiha Sasuke, even if Mikoto-chan has already made progress on reducing that," Hokage-sama said.
Kakashi nodded. "He seemed rather more willing to cooperate with Naruto's plan than I thought an Uchiha would be." The kid wasn't forced at kunai-point to work together with the other two, after all.
"Mikoto-chan tells me Fugaku had been training him in politics before the Massacre," Hokage-sama said. "However, Team Seven will not be your only struggle in the coming months. It is time for me to once again retire as I should still be, but the person I want to pass the mantle to is too young."
"Naruto," Kakashi said firmly. It was not exactly a secret that Hokage-sama had been grooming Naruto to take over as Godaime.
"Indeed," Hokage-sama agreed. "However, even disregarding Naruto-kun's lack of age there is his lack of experience. As he is now, Naruto-kun cannot take over as Godaime. In a decade and as Rokudaime, however..."
Kakashi saw where this was going and his mind went into overdrive. Successors were generally selected through apprenticeships or the jōnin pool. There were only a few candidates that fit either. Naruto, himself, Asuma, Gai, Jiraiya, and Tsunade. Naruto was too young an inexperienced despite being a semi-official apprentice to the Hokage, Gai was...
Kakashi had no doubt Gai had the right mentality to become Hokage, but feared what a Youthful Hokage would do to the village. If Gai accepted, of course. He might as well claim that the holding the office of Hokage would dampen his Youthful flames or something along those lines.
Asuma was not interested, as was Jiraiya, and hell would have to freeze over before Tsunade would set foot in the village again let alone hold the office of Hokage.
That was not mentioning ex-shinobi candidates, but they were even worse than a Godaime Gai. He shuddered to think what would happen to Konoha under a Godaime Danzō.
That really left himself, as none of the other jōnin were even remotely close to being ready for the life of a Kage. Kami-sama save me. "You want me to take over as Godaime," Kakashi said bluntly.
"Indeed," Hokage-sama confirmed with a nod. "But as you are now even you are not an acceptable candidate. You have stagnated, Kakashi-kun. Inu was a solid S-rank shinobi worthy of being my successor, but Hatake Kakashi has been a middling high A-rank shinobi. See to it that this is rectified."
Kakashi nodded.
"If necessary, break Haruno Sakura. Your team is meant for heavy combat and right now she's a liability."
Kakashi hummed. "I think a lot of what's wrong is her dieting in a misguided attempt to keep her figure. Perhaps I'll introduce her to Anko-san."
Hokage-sama nodded. "Do whatever you think is wise or necessary, Kakashi. Just get all three to a point where they can dominate the chūnin exams coming to Konoha eight months from now. I've got a bad feeling in my gut whenever I think of them, and my gut feelings tend to be correct."
Kakashi nodded. "I can do that," he assured his leader. "Permission to leave, Hokage-sama?"
"Granted."
Kakashi left in a swirl of leaves. His blond student owed him answers and he felt in his bones that they were not going to be short ones.
– – – –
Kakashi found the object of his search not even five minutes later furiously enjoying a ramen binge. He silently took a seat next to him, his mind remembering the little fully-blond ball of sunshine gorging himself on ramen. Naruto started a little at his actions before he turned to face him.
"Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said with a nod. "For a moment I thought you were Kurenai-nee coming to drag me from the Divine Noodles."
He sniggered a little at Naruto's name for ramen. "Nothing so cruel, Naruto," he assured sensei's son. "Once you're finished, I want to speak with you. One miso, please."
"Alright," Naruto replied evenly after finishing his bowl, the porcelain bowl immediately being replaced by one filled with shrimp ramen. "What about?"
"I want to talk about a few things with you, including this 'kaa-chan' you mentioned," Kakashi said as Ayame placed a bowl of miso before him. "Thanks," he said with an eyesmile directed her way.
"Alright," Naruto said as he started on his last bowl for the day. "I know a private place where we can talk. I'll send a clone ahead." He placed his chopsticks on the counter and created a clone that swiftly took off.
A short while later the two left behind two empty bowls of ramen, one of them patting his full stomach.
"Where to, Naruto?" Kakashi asked. When Naruto still had not answered his question a minute later, he aimed his sole uncovered eye on the blond and found him zoned out.
Naruto shook his head as focus returned to his eyes. "Training ground 43, behind the waterfall, sensei."
There's something behind the waterfall at 43? This was news to him. He placed a hand on the shoulder of his student and the pair vanished in a swirl of leaves.
They reappeared in the same way a few metres from the waterfall in question.
"I'd prefer a warning next time, sensei," Naruto grumbled as he created a Kage Bunshin and handed the clone some money. Oops.
"Maa, maa, don't be so stressed Naruto," he said with his customary eyesmile even as he handed the clone enough money to pay for his own bowl.
"Whatever," the blond said with a shrug. "Follow me, and don't touch any of the plants. Bad things happen to those who do."
"Plants?"
"You'll see, sensei. Now come on," Naruto said with a motion of his hand to indicate the silver-haired shinobi should follow. Kakashi looked on in surprise as Naruto stepped on the water and walked on as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
Note to self: scratch water-walking for sensei's son.
Kakashi projected a screen of chakra above his head to prevent the waterfall from drenching him, earning a soft grumble from his student.
"Welcome to the garden, sensei," Naruto said a moment later with a sweeping wave of his hand.
Kakashi was silent. His sole visible eye was wider than it had ever been. The plants in this garden seemed literally out of this world. He recognized something that was likely a mutation of the Kusa-native strychnine, Iwa-native almonds farmed extensively for their cyanide content, castor beans commonly found in the mists of Mizu no Kuni, and several plants he was sure had some sort of demonic origin. Other plants were more... foreign.
At least, he didn't think the red-green-blue-yellow-pink-black plants with a geometry that hurt his eye just from looking at it could be found anywhere outside this garden.
– – – –
In the Southern Lands, a seven-tailed fox tending a lavish garden sneezed, sending otherworldly butterflies scattering everywhere.
– – – –
With awe evident in his eye, he numbly followed the blond while trying to take in as much of the garden as he could. More than once, he had to remind himself that his student had warned him that touching these plants was a seriously bad idea.
"Kaa-chan!" aforementioned student yelled. "I'm home! I brought a guest as well!"
"I'm in the living room!" a voice yelled from inside the house the appeared in the distance. Kakashi nearly jumped. That voice... That was... his thoughts screeched to a halt. How?
Watching warily as Naruto opened a traditional shogi door, Kakashi followed his favourite non-adult into the house. His eye fell on the woman sitting on the couch with a cup of tea that smelled absolutely delicious and so very much like the flavour Kushina-sama favoured. It was then that he took in the features of the woman, who had since turned her head to gaze upon the guest in their not-so-humble abode.
He noticed her red hair. Her lithe frame with generous bust. Her amethyst eyes locking onto his sole black one, sparkling with unrestrained mirth and joy and... affection? The roundness of her face that had always been a very sore topic in combination with her hair. He remembered some of the beatings she dished out to enemies in the field as well as stories from bullies at school that called her 'tomato'. He saw the near-motherly affection from her eyes directed his way.
"Hello, Kakashi-chan," she said, her voice reflecting what her eyes told the world.
This can't be! Kushina-sama is dead!
He put his hands together in a Ram seal and pulsed his chakra multiple times in an effort to break the genjutsu he was sure was cast on him. When her visage didn't waver in the slightest even after his strongest pulse, he leapt at her with a kunai in hand, snarling like the dogs he had been working with for a long time. He was pinning her to the seat before she or Naruto could react, and pressed his blade to this impostor's throat. He eye narrowed, and he could faintly hear Naruto choking from the amount of killing intent he was releasing. Despite this, the woman remained utterly calm and collected.
"Who are you?" he demanded, his eye and voice promising death should the answer not be satisfactory.
"I am..." She coughed and turned to the watching blond. "Cover your ears Naruto, or you will never have use of them again," she ordered Naruto with a threatening glance to back it up. Startled, Naruto covered his ears with his tails and hands.
Kakashi frowned a little. Tails? And this woman that looked like Kushina-sama had them as well. He mentally slapped himself for not noticing the tails before.
What in the nine Hells was going on here?
The woman leaned in as much as the knife pressed to her throat allowed her, and softly whispered to him, "Kushi-kaa."
His sole visible eye widened.
"You know we won't mind if you call us Mina-tō – hehe – and Kushi-kaa, yes?" Kushina-sama asked when Obito and Rin had left the house.
"With all respect, Kushina-sama, I couldn't possibly call you something that intimate after all you've done for me," he'd replied seriously. "Nothing but the most absolute respect will."
"Mū, don't be such a downer, Kashi-chan. No one's going to die because you broke propriety inside this house," she said with a whiny pout. "We're not going to be mad if you call us your parents, Kashi-chan."
Nobody but her and sensei had ever known of that name. He had even managed to keep that memory a secret from the Yamanaka a few years ago. The hand holding the blade shook. "H-How?" he stammered, before calling upon ANBU training to compartmentalize his mind. He could break down later. Like, say, when sensei's son wasn't there to witness it. He had an image to maintain.
Her eyes turned sombre. "That is a long story, Kashi-chan," she replied. He dropped the blade and half-staggered back into a conveniently placed chair. "It starts nearly a century ago..."
– – – –
"So to recap: you were born a human with a crippling disease, a prayer by your parents was listened to and you were bonded with Inari-sama's oldest daughter and became the new Kyūbi. Later, you assumed a human guise and went back to Uzu a few days before it was destroyed, after which you ended up in Konoha looking like a human child and enrolled in the shinobi program. Nearly two decades after that, after you'd given birth to the Hanyō Naruto and sealed his demonic blood, a masked man claiming to be the Uchiha Madara appeared and mentally tortured you until you went berserk, after which you were sealed into Naruto by Minato-sensei?" he asked incredulously. It was an outlandish tale, but Naruto acted as if it was true and the few times he guarded Naruto when he was younger told him that Naruto had a nose for bullshit.
"Pretty much," she confirmed. "Though there is one glaring error in your recap."
"Which is?"
"He didn't claim to be Uchiha Madara, as far as I could tell he was Uchiha Madara."
His jaw met the floor. "How?"
"I don't rightly know," Kushina-sama replied with a tail scratching the top of her head. "But his and Hashirama-nii's clash back in the Valley of the End killed rather a lot of my charges; we were fond of the plain that became the Valley. I memorized Madara's chakra then and the man that appeared before me twelve years ago had the exact same chakra."
Kakashi shivered involuntarily, desperately trying not to dwell on this. An immortal Uchiha Madara was the stuff of nightmares. Before he could ask if Sandaime-sama knew, a temporarily forgotten voice called out.
"Kaa-chan," Naruto said from the third piece of furniture in the room, startling both of them. Three eyes turned towards him.
"Yes, musuko-kun?"
"I just realized something odd," he said with a frown. "Earlier, when I first swam to this place, you told me about grandfathers, great-grandfathers, and great-great-grandfathers, all of them confirmed Kitsune." Mother and son tilted their heads in unison. "But when you told me your story a few days later, and just now to Kakashi-sensei, you said you were bonded to Inari-sama's, the First Fox, oldest daughter. How does that work?"
A second tail joined the one already scratching the vibrant red hair belonging to Kushina-sama as she adopted a thinking expression. After a few minutes of thought, she said, "I don't honestly know, musuko-kun. I thought of a few ways in which it can happen, but without conclusive proof I can't tell for sure."
Naruto nodded, his curiosity satisfied for now, and turned to Kakashi. "So, sensei, you said you wanted to talk to me for more reasons than just my mentions of kaa-chan."
Kakashi nodded. "I did," he said. "But most of that related to your training. I'll need to coordinate with Kushina-sama so that my training team 7 doesn't conflict with your training under her." He flashed his student his best eyesmile.
Kushina-sama rounded back on him. "That's right, you had kawaii genin now! Tell me about them!" she demanded in a happier, more excited version of the same tone she'd used when she asked of Obito, Rin, and himself who'd stolen the cookies from the jar when they had stayed over after a training session with Minato-sensei. The tone that demanded an answer or else.
"There isn't really that much to tell, really," he said with a shrug. "Pinky, Haruno Sakura, is a stereotypical civilian graduate, one of the three leaders of the Uchiha Sasuke Academy Fanclub, though she does have a useful c-rank genjutsu in her repertoire. Broody is Fugaku's second son, and appears to be basically him reincarnated but with an oath to kill his brother."
Kushina-sama blinked. "Haruno?"
"Yup," he confirmed with a nod. "She's got pretty good chakra control, but her pool is... tiny. Truth be told I'm surprised she had the chakra for the Hell Viewing Technique."
"Huh. Pink hair, larger-than-average forehead, MPD, scarily intelligent when circumstances call for it?"
He shrugged. "Can't say much about the intelligence, but the rest fits."
"She's got the intelligence," Naruto assured them both.
Kushina-sama started giggling. Kakashi turned to Naruto for an explanation, but saw that his eyebrows were raised as well. "Oh this is priceless!" she exclaimed. "To think that her line was reduced to a single Uchiha fangirl!" She wrapped her tails around herself and started rolling on the floor, deafening them both with the volume of her howling laughter.
"What do you mean, Kushina-sama?" he asked curiously. Waiting patiently for a reply, he watched as the next handful of minutes the sounds of unrestrained joy coming from the ball of humanoid fox filled the room.
"Part of the reason the Northern Fox Clan settled in Hi no Kuni instead of somewhere else was because of the presence of the Haruno," she said when she had calmed down, and he had to slide his jaw back in place with an audible click. "Of course, they weren't called the Haruno back then, but I kept an eye on that line regardless until I was sealed inside Naruto-kun."
"Why?" he and Naruto asked in unison.
Kushina-sama grinned the same fox-like grin he often saw adorning the face of sensei's son whenever they found significant amounts of humour in a situation. "That would be telling," she said brightly.
Kakashi and Naruto looked at each other with deadpan expressions. "Very helpful, kaa-chan," Naruto said dryly.
"I know. So," she said in an obvious attempt to change the subject. "You said something about training synchronization?"
He nodded absently. Despite his best efforts, his mind was still off-kilter from the earlier stream of revelations, and it must have showed somehow. Kushina-sama had always been able to read his face without fault, seeing even the deepest hidden emotions.
"Naruto, leave us," Kushina-sama ordered. Naruto nodded.
"I'll be in the garden, working on my bladed kata," he replied as he stood up and walked out of the building.
After he had left, Kushina-sama placed herself on the couch next to him. The next thing he knew, she had wrapped her arms around him and soon followed up with her tails. Feeling the motherly warmth she radiated, the part of him that was still an emotionally stunted twelve-year-old in desperate need of parental affection took over and he leaned into her embrace.
For the first time since his father committed seppuku, Hatake Kakashi cried.
– – – –
Nami: Wave. In this case Nami no Kuni, or the Country of Waves, is meant.
Chidori: Thousand birds
Rasengan: Spiraling Sphere
Sharingan: Copy Wheel Eye
Shunshin: Body Flicker
Katon: Gōkakyū; Fire Release: Great Fireball
Genjutsu: Narakumi no Jutsu; Illusion Arts: Hell Viewing Technique.
Ja ne: See ya (approximately. It's slang for 'see you later', which I understand as stated outside brackets)
Wakatta: Understood/ I understand.
Kawaii: Cute
Sakki: Killing Intent
Seppuku: Ritualistic suicide (also known as Harakiri). One takes a short blade, usually a tantō, and slices one's own stomach open from left to right without flinching. The ritual is completed by then reaching inside oneself and removing one's own bowels before dying, again without flinching. Also performed by making the initial cut and then having a second chop off the head of the person committing seppuku.
– – – –
A/N: I've always felt that illusions should give some feedback when they're dispelled so that the illusionist can use what the illusion displayed to further their assault. For genjutsu like the Hell Viewing, which is an auto-suggestive illusion of your worst fear according to the wikia, I consider this behaviour practically a necessity.
As for the scene at the end, this universe's Kakashi was a lot closer to Minato and Kushina than he appeared to be in canon. I don't think that people who had their parents ripped away from them, especially those who aren't very capable of processing their emotions in the first place, stop craving parental affection of some sort (though I obviously can't say for sure as my parents are still happily among the living). With his ties to Minato and Kushina much closer than they ever were to his biological mother and father – both of them dead before he was six – I don't think the scene is unlikely as written.