"I'm back—"
Kakashi freezes in the doorway of Minato-Sensei's living room. On the couch is his teacher, but he isn't alone. Kushina is on it too. They are both flustered and their hair mused; Minato's shirt is off and Kushina's skirt is hitched up to an indecent height, further confirming Kakashi's suspicions of what they'd been up to. Minato pulls the red throw blanket he keeps on the back of the couch down to cover Kushina's lap and stands up.
"Kakashi!" he exclaims, a shaky, bashful smile on his face. "I wasn't expecting you back so soon…"
He sighs and turns away to go to the kitchen. It isn't the first time he's walked in on a couple and, really, this time is a lot better than the occasion where he'd gotten an eyeful of Asuma's ass. Putting down the scrolls he'd gotten on the table, he turns around to find Minato straightening his shirt, which he'd put back on when Kakashi wasn't looking. "The archives wouldn't let me take as many scrolls as I wanted," he explains. "Not even when I told them you asked for them." He frowns. "They also kept hovering when I tried to look at some others." Kakashi clambers into one of the chairs tucked beneath the table and complains, "It was annoying."
Minato sighs and runs a hand through his hair. "Sorry," he says. "I'll come with you next time," he replies. "Maybe they'll let you take more if I assure them I really am using you as my gopher."
Opening a scroll and beginning to read it, Kakashi shrugs his shoulders. "Maybe," he echoes. Even if they do, he doubts they will stop hovering in the archives. He'd almost forgotten how irritating it is to be a genius six-year-old. People expect too much and too little of him at the same time. Kakashi is starting to feel less bad about how much of a brat he'd once been to people. He'd had good reason when this is how they treat him. As he reads, Minato continues to stand in the kitchen, watching him.
He puts the scroll down. "You can go back to Kushina," he tells him. "Just… Maybe go to your room?"
Minato flushes bright red. "Er," he mumbles.
"I don't think so, kiddo," says Kushina walking in. Minato jolts when his girlfriend brushes her fingers over his shoulder. "You kind of killed the mood," she tells him. "Doing grownup stuff isn't half as fun when you know there's a little kid in the next room."
He rolls his eyes at her. "Then everyone would be only children."
She glares at him half-heartedly before saying to Kakashi's teacher. "Next time, let's hang out at my place."
Minato nods. "Sure," he says. Then, a hopeful look passing over his face, he suggests, "Why don't you stick around? I was going to start on dinner after Kakashi came home anyway."
Kushina smiles. "Yeah, okay, who am I to turn down a free meal?"
Minato returns her smile with a grin and grabs her hand. Ushering her over to the table where Kakashi is reading, he pulls a chair out for her and urges, "Sit." Kushina does and his teacher says, "I'll make some tea." He turns around and goes to pick his well-loved (and dented) white kettle from the stove and fills it with water from the kitchen's tap. "Do you want some too, 'Kashi?" he asks.
Kakashi shrugs. "Alright," he agrees. A comfortable silence falls over them for a minute or two before Kushina places her arms on the table and leans closer to Kakashi. He looks at her out of the corner of his eye, wary, but not yet annoyed.
"What'cha studying, 'Kashi?" she asks.
He sighs. "Don't call me that," he chides.
She pouts. "You let Minato call you 'Kashi," she whines.
Minato, who is in the midst of steeping the tea, snickers. He glowers at his teacher. "He's… Sensei," replies Kakashi.
"And I'm his girlfriend," argues Kushina.
He exhales through his nose and resolves to ignore her. Arguing with Kushina is futile, he remembers now. She's possibly even more stubborn than her son. For another minute, there's silence, but when Minato brings over mugs of tea for them, Kushina asks again, "You didn't say, what are you studying?"
Minato pauses above Kakashi and he deliberates how to answer the kunoichi. He's looking for a way to return to the future, but, obviously, he can't admit to it. Instead, Kakashi tells Kushina, "I saw an interesting seal on mine and Sensei's last mission. I'm seeing if I can't find it in our archives to learn more."
Kushina lights up and behind him, Minato shuffles away toward the fridge. "You like seals, huh?" she says. "I'm pretty good at them, you know!"
Kakashi does know. "I think they can be interesting," he replies. Seals are not his favorite subject to study, but it's something he has dabbled in and probably always will.
"Maybe if you draw it for me I can help you?" she suggests smiling at him.
Kakashi deliberates over the kunoichi's offer. He is doubtful she will know it, (he had triggered the seal in a tome recovered from the Land of Sound, which, currently is known as the Land of Rice Fields). In the end, he decides to agree. The worst that will happen is she doesn't recognize it at all. Getting up, he goes to retrieve paper and ink from the next room to draw the seal from his memory for Kushina.
When he comes back, she watches, curious, as he paints a slightly shaky version of what he'd seen and activated. While she studies it with a slightly furrowed brow, he sips at his tea. In the background, Minato begins to put ingredients into the soup stock he has boiling on the stove. "Where was your last mission?" she asks them.
"We delivered information to an outpost near Kusagakure," answers Minato.
The valley between her brows deepens. "Really?" she says. "This doesn't look like something typical to Grass, you know…"
"Oh?" says Kakashi, leaning in closer out of interest.
She nods. "In fact, this reminds me of something from places north of us, like the land of rice fields or even the land of snow." Kushina snorts. "It'd be really weird for it be from snow, though, they like to keep to themselves."
"Strange," lies Kakashi.
She looks at him. Then over at Minato who is focusing intently on stirring the soup he's cooking. "Is it?" she asks.
He keeps his cool under her sharp eyes. "Mah," he whines. "What else would you call seeing this near grass?"
"Minato," she calls out, making him jolt. "Did you see this seal yourself? Or just Kakashi?"
Minato mumbles, "Um…"
While his teacher scrambles for something to say, Kakashi realizes he may have underestimated teenage Kushina's knowledge on seals. "You know what it does, don't you?" he demands.
She shifts like she's preparing to attack and Kakashi doesn't waste a moment. He gets across the room and behind his teacher. "Kushina," Minato pleads, "calm down, we can explain everything."
Kushina slowly does. "You better," she huffs.
Once she sits down, Minato takes Kakashi into his arms and brings them both to the table. He doesn't like it in the least but understands that it's a measure to protect him while they explain. Kushina is far less likely to try anything drastic if doing something to Kakashi could also hurt Minato. When they are sitting at the table, Kakashi in Minato's lap, they begin.
"I'm Kakashi from the future," he tells Kushina, who blinks.
Her eyes wander to the seal. "I… It did that?" she asks. "I know this part means something about replacement," she says, pointing at a part of the seal. "And this," she continues, tapping another bit, "is a reference to a far distance."
Kakashi is surprised she believes so readily. He'd had to tell Minato that he knows after his seventh birthday he will be put on a team with Obito and Rin, as well as other things he shouldn't be aware of before Minato trusted his word.
"Yes," he says. "If you'd like proof, I can tell you a few things I probably shouldn't know, but do."
Kushina looks at Minato. "You believe him?" she asks.
Minato's fingers, which rest beneath Kakashi's arms, tighten. "Yeah," he admits. "I, uh, remember when I talked about how I'm going to have to break it to Kakashi he's going to have genin teammates soon?"
Her lips twitch. "And I told you to do it soon. He needs to get his sulking over with before he meets them if you're going to have any hope of them getting along even a little."
Kakashi frowns at her, then looks up at his teacher, who's cringing. "He not only knew he's going to be on a team but their names. He also was able to tell me some other little stuff that he shouldn't know…"
Kushina laughs and Kakashi, feeling it is safe to, squirms out of Minato's hold to go check on their dinner. Thankfully, it's fine. He tries to get up on the counters to pull the bowls out of the cupboards, but Minato yells, "No, Kakashi!"
He pauses and looks at him. "It's fine, Sensei," he says. "I'm even using chakra on my feet."
Minato still gets up and comes and plucks him off the counter. "It's bad manners," he scolds. He then takes out the folding stool kept in the space between the stove and fridge. "Use this when you want to help."
He glowers and Kushina giggles more from the table. "How old are you really then?" she questions.
"Nearly thirty," answers Kakashi as he climbs up the stool to accomplish the task he'd given himself. When done, he hands the bowls off to Minato and huffs, "Happy?"
His teacher juggles the bowls to one hand and ruffles his hair. "Very," he answers before he starts to put the soup in the dishes for them to eat. "Go put your scrolls away. The archives won't be happy if we return them with food on them."
Kakashi grumbles under his breath but does as he's told. Kushina's eyes follow him the whole time, sparkling with mirth. "That old, huh?" she says. "And you let Minato boss you around?"
"He's sensei," says Kakashi simply. He'd shared a lot about the future with his teacher, but he really doesn't want to do that right now with Kushina. He thinks she might cry when she hears what happens to her, Minato, their son, as well as her friend Mikoto and the rest of the Uchihas.
Kakashi isn't good with crying young women.
She smirks. "That's cute."
"I'm not," he snaps.
Kushina isn't put off, she reaches over and pokes him in the cheek. "Sorry to break it to you, 'Kashi, but you are."
"Ugh," he complains, letting his chin fall on the tabletop.
She chuckles into her hand and Minato puts their bowls of soup down in front of them. "We'll get you back home soon," his teachers assures him. "Though I can't promise if we're there, Kushina won't call you cute still…"
Picking up his spoon, he nods. Honestly, he hopes Kushina will be there to call him cute. It'd be better than her not being there at all. "Thanks, Sensei," he says.
"You're welcome, Kakashi," he replies.
Kakashi pulls down his mask and the three of them begin to eat, falling into lighter conversation where Kushina and Kakashi tease Minato and they discuss the mission Kushina will be going on in a few days.
Thank you all so much for reading and let me know your thoughts!