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Naruto was three when the Hokage finally stopped turning a blind eye to Kakashi’s visits. “The boy will be fine.” The Hokage’s voice was calming but he had a sharp glint in his eyes. “Slipping in to see Naruto-kun won't help the boy. There has already been a leak of information, we don’t need for him to be a larger target.”
And the fact that Naruto was still young enough that he won't remember means nothing to this decision, of course. Kakashi kept his head down, letting Kisuke’s false subservience speak for him.
The Hokage blew a puff of smoke at him, “Your skills have been in high demand, think it over on your next mission.”
***
His next mission had Tenzou (Tessai, his soul whispers) try to kill him.
****
Tessai stepped out in front of Kisuke. His heart pounded at the thought of being stopped at this point.
“I like your cloak”
What?
***
Kakashi told Tenzou that he had spared the other man because he would make a good ally.
And that was true, but Kakashi rather doubted that was the whole truth.
****
When Kakashi had stayed away for 3 months (while in the village, which makes it closer to 5. Apparently, the time spent out on missions doesn’t count), the Hokage rewarded him with a rotation as his guard. That had been a mistake, thought Kakashi, as he watched the third shopkeeper and the fifth person that day shout at Naruto. Kakashi’s fingers turned white around his kunai as he held back the urge to rend and tear the shopkeeper while bruises formed and faded on Naruto’s arm, from the man dragging him out of the store.
Apparently the Hokage agreed with his assessment. Or maybe just didn’t approve of Kakashi’s reactions (Kisuke had been told many times that he specialized in cruel and unusual punishments).
Either way, he is being sent on back-to-back missions, alternating between the ANBU and the regular forces. The village is long past the point where they need the reputation of Copycat Kakashi being so present.
***
ANBU Team Ro had been wrapping up their report of their latest mission: Delivering a Princess from the land of Snow to safety, when the Hokage indicated for them to stay. They waited as another ANBU team arrived, about to head out for their own mission.
When the Sandaime saw that they had arrived, he set down his pen. “Both teams shall receive your next assignment in two days. For now, Team Ro, rest up. Team Circle, stay to receive your updated mission parameters.”
Team Ro bowed before exiting the Hokage’s office.
They headed back into the barracks, preparing to switch back into their everyday wear. As the rest of the team headed off though, Anbu Ram stared Anbu Hound down. “Don’t you have something to do?” Their gaze lay pointedly on Hound’s side that had only stopped bleeding through its bandages two days ago.
“Ah, yes.” Anbu Hound said, his gaze turned to the direction of the Memorial Stone. “Thank you for reminding me.”
Hound quickly ran from Anbu Ram’s growls of a frustrated medic-nin.
***
The good thing about the back-to-back missions, Kakashi thought as he slipped into Naruto’s room still in his ANBU mask, was that no one expected him to spend what little chakra he has, to make a clone.
He wakes to the ruckus of Naruto being sent to his room, the boy screaming out his questions of unfairness.
After a minute, he pouts and turns around to mope in his bed when he spots Kakashi, who raises a finger to his lips just in time.
“Inu-nii!” Naruto’s cry died out into a loud whisper. Without a second thought, the boy pounced on him. His arms automatically wrapped themselves around Naruto, pulling him away from the wound on Kakashi’s side.
Looking down at the boy curled up in his arms, Kakashi felt his tension ease. His pack was safe (Ichigo was safe), no one was going to hurt or take Naruto without Kakashi stopping them. Tenzou (Tessai?) had guard duty tonight and wouldn’t say anything (Sometimes Kakashi felt a hint of guilt at using Tenzou’s regret like this, but he pushed it aside).
Naruto snuggled deeper into Kakashi’s arms. “Teach me?” He asked just like he did every time Kakashi visited.
“In the morning.” Kakashi promised.
Ichigo had always had problems with Kido with his too large reitsu pool. He wasn’t going to let Naruto face the same troubles if he could help it.
Naruto cheered that he had finally agreed.
“Morning.” Kakashi stressed again, “In the morning. For now, sleep.”
****
Kisuke was leaning forward against the counter of his shop, expounding on the details of his latest invention to Ichigo, when Inue-chan came in. Kisuke ignored the bitter feeling swelling in his chest, continuing to prattle on about the newest features that his new communicator had.
Ichigo rolled his eyes and placed a hand on Kisuke’s arm as he went over the new emojis that he had added. Alright, Kisuke acknowledged, he might have been going a bit overboard. He had mentioned that emoji 3 times already.
Ishida-kun burst through the door. “What are you still doing here?” he demanded, “Kurosaki! You need to get back to your house. Your sisters---”
Ichigo jumped up and body-flickered back.
Kisuke stood back and watched as Ichigo and Rukia faced off against the hollows holding the Kurosaki twins. He had to hold back a giggle at Ichigo-kun’s face at Rukia’s explanation. Really? Could the girl have chosen a more confusing way to put it?
He steps forward, teasing words on the tip of his tongue but Isshin blocks him.
“You are not needed. He is my son; I know what is best for him and you are not it.”
Kisuke opens his mouth to argue when he spies a Hollow behind Isshin. Isshin, who can no longer see Hollows. Kakashi strikes the Hollow, his hand going through his chest.
Isshin shakes his head, “See! All you do is bring death. My son deserves better than a killer like you.”
Kisuke would argue, but the Hollow turns into Ichigo.
Obito’s voice echoes in his head, “Why Bakashi? Why did you kill her?”
****
His eyes flew open. Naruto was still nestled in his arms asleep. Even with natural chakra reinforcement his arms were numb, but the pain was worth it.
The clone had been dismissed sometime in the night, returning some of his chakra to him. Going over the memories revealed that Gai had tried to challenge him again before the clone had dismissed itself, and he sighed at the thought of Gai chasing after him for reassurances later.
Careful not to wake Naruto, Kakashi sent some chakra through his arms to wake them up. Unfortunately, his efforts were in vain, and Naruto started shifting awake. A brief glance out the window told Kakashi that if he wanted to teach Naruto anything today, he would need to let the boy wake up. He had already gained a reputation for being late but there was a limit to everything.
“Wake up sleepy head,” Kakashi started to stretch his arms, causing Naruto to grumble. “Didn’t you want me to teach you? If you don’t wake up now you won’t get anything.”
“No!” Naruto bolted up. “I wanna be a really awesome Ninja like you!”
Kakashi hummed as he looked Naruto up and down. The boy tried not to squirm under his gaze.
“I do think that you are ready for this.”
“Yes, I am!”
“Normally I’d expect you to be able to get this in a week, but since you are still so young, you can have two.”
“No! I can do it in one!”
“Are you sure? This is a tough one.”
“I can!”
“Then it is time for you to learn…This!” Kisuke placed a leaf on his Anbu mask.
“What? I thought you were going to teach me somethin’ Awesome!” Naruto grumbled.
Kakashi held back a laugh at the boy’s glare. Ah, truly the joy of teaching.
“Ah, my young student, this is just the first step in the ‘super awesome’ jujitsu I am going to teach you. When you can hold ten leaves while charging me, then can you learn the next step.”
“Why can’t you teach me it now?”
“With great power comes great responsibility,” Kakashi smoothly ripped off a popular quote he remembered, “And it’s too strong a technique to leave in just anyone’s hands.”
“You can trust me.” Ichigo’s face overlapped with Naruto’s for a moment.
“I know,” It came out softer than he intended, “but responsibility is something that’s better to grow into.”
Naruto’s eyes bore into his. After a long moment Naruto nodded, “Alright. Show me again?”
***
The next ten minutes before Kakashi had to leave had Naruto running around chasing after the leaves that his chakra had blown away from him. Well, at least he wasn’t exploding them.
***
When Team Ro returned to the Hokage’s office they were not the only team there. Most of the ANBU were there.
Kakashi grit his teeth behind the mask as he received his orders. He was to oversee the security measures for the village, because the Uchiha weren’t good enough (Obito’s image— “Those who break the rules are trash"---flickered in front of his eyes) for the Hokage.
No, the police had been discouraged from patrolling the streets and the ANBU were supposed to watch over Konoha as well as keep an eye on the visitors .
This was too close to the pointed whispers that Danzo had tried to whisper in his ear after Minato-sensei’s death. Three quarters lie, one quarter truth. Kakashi knew that it shouldn’t remind him so strongly of Aizen; they were Shinobi, and it was the best way to lie. Kisuke had loved to use that method.
Anbu Hound hesitated a moment after they had been dismissed, giving the Hokage a glance before jumping out the window.
***
Kakashi was doing a challenge with Gai, when the Sandaime sent him an invitation for lunch. Gai cried at the thought of their bonsai sculpting challenge being suspended yet again but waved him off.
“It’s good to get out of the office,” The Hokage said as the two of them wandered the streets, heading to lunch. “It’s been too long since I have had the chance to catch up with everyone.”
“Minato-sensei used to say that sometimes a fresh perspective is the best way to break out of a fugue.” Kakashi volunteered, not saying anything about the Sandaime’s runaway students and son.
The Sandaime hummed.
Kakashi’s hands itching for something more to cover his face. Where was a good fan when he needed one?
“Here we are,” they had stopped in front of the ramen place that Kushina would bring everyone. “Let’s head in.”
***
It wasn’t until they finished lunch and were heading out that the Hokage stopped with the small talk.
“Would you join me in talking to some old friends?” The older man’s eyes were heavy as he turned to face the direction that held the Memorial Stone.
“If you don’t mind my company.”
The walk to the monument was quiet, both of them lost in their thoughts. Even when they reached it they remained silent, each with their eyes on their respective names. Eventually though, both of them found themselves looking at the same name.
“What do you think of the plan?”
Kakashi glanced over to the Hokage before his eyes slid back to Obito’s name. “The drastic change of Uchiha patrols for the treaty signing is an interesting idea.”
“Peace can only come when both parties work towards it.”
“And there is an increase in patrols during festivals. So many things going on, more eyes are better than fewer.”
The Sandaime grimaced, “I’d rather not risk pointing the Uchiha out, if it is not necessary. Them or the Hyuuga.”
“‘Not risk…’” Kakashi turned to face the other man, “Why are we doing this if you don’t trust them not to make a move while signing the peace treaty ?”
“Because there has been enough blood already.” His reproving glare at Kakashi, sent shivers up his spine.
“That’s not…” Kakashi shook his head, “What I meant was, why are you doing the signing here? Why not do it in a neutral city?”
The Hokage turned his gaze back to the monument, a rueful look on his face. “Because they don’t want to deal with the complications if it falls out either.” Kakashi wondered which name the man was looking at as he spoke. There were too many possibilities to guess.
“More eyes are better than fewer,” Kakashi repeated himself, “Sometimes a fresh perspective helps.”
“Thank you for escorting this old man around.” The Hokage dismissed him.
“It was my honor.” As Kakashi rose from his bow, he saw that the Hokage’s eyes were on Niidaime’s name.
***
Anbu Hound was the first to hear it, as he was anxiously keeping his eyes peeled for any signs of trouble.
Team Ro had been one of the teams responsible for guarding the signing. Since then, they had been guarding the Hokage as he led the Kumogakure party through the streets of Konoha to see the festival.
The more time passed as he waited for their team to be replaced, the more the urge to check up on Naruto kept bubbling up in him. This was precisely the type of atmosphere that prompted mobs to go after Naruto. So when he could make out the faint sounds of screaming through the noise of the crowd he signaled his team to a defensive position.
Slowly, the civilians noticed the disturbance and parted, letting Kakashi see the on goings.
Another team had already gotten to it, but there was one of the Kumo escorts being dragged away from Naruto and another child and bleeding heavily.
The Hokage turned to the Kumogakure Jounin Commander next to him. “Shall we see what that was about, now?”
The man gritted his teeth but agreed.
As Team Ro’s replacements arrived, the Hokage sent Hound an annoyed dismissal. With permission, Kakashi slipped out to check up on Naruto.
***
Fortunately, Naruto was bursting with excitement at his daring rescue and the details flowed from his lips.
“The bad guy was making off with the Hime and I couldn’t just let him do that! So I tried to stop him but he was going too fast. Then I remembered your leaf sticking jutsu, so I tried to stick myself to him,” Naruto paused here for a second, “It didn’t work very well at first, but it did slow him down.”
Kakashi had to hold back his reaction at the thought of Naruto learning tree walking on the kumo ninja.
“But then I got it right, and no matter how fast he ran I didn’t budge! And then there was another of the masked people, who came and took the kidnapper away, and then Hime’s family came and brought Hinata home.”
Kakashi bumped their foreheads together, “You did well today, Naruto. You protected Hinata-hime.”
With wide eyes, he looked straight into Kakashi, “You helped me. You taught me the leaf trick that stopped him.”
Images of Ichigo flashed through his mind but he brushed them aside, “But you were the one to do the leaf trick that saved the day. You saved the day.”
Naruto’s cheeks turned a pink tint, and he hid his face into Kakashi’s neck. Hei stroked Naruto’s hair as the excitement of the day caught up with the boy. He fell asleep still nestled in Kakashi’s arms.
This little adventure would make looking after Naruto both easier and harder, Kakashi mused. Ichigo had always been one to run head first into trouble and it seemed like Naruto was no different. He found that he was rather looking forward to the changes Naruto would bring as he grew up.