Chapter Text
<Kakashi>
Kakashi had honestly forgotten what Akira's summons were like. He'd forgotten that some of them were aloof, some were haughty and some, like the tiny thing that had just bit his ear, could be downright chirpy.
Rubbing his ear, he scowled at the tiny falcon sitting on his knee and preening its wing like it was completely innocent. “Did you really need to do that?”
The little falcon paused and looked at him, head tilted. “Yes. Kira said to make sure you knew to come on time. He said he heard you like to be late and why are you still sitting here?”
Kakashi sighed. “You're on my knee.”
The falcon clacked its little beak and hopped off onto the tiles of the roof he'd been practically camping out on the past week of off duty days. It was the best spot he'd found in the two weeks of Naruto living with Akira and had a decent view into their backyard. He was impressed by the work the pair had been doing in the last week. Meditation and the beginning of taijutsu learning. The peals of laughter from Naruto was almost a balm against his nerves, easing the anxious stress of not being near.
He was focusing that on the kid and very much ignoring the way he wanted to stand at Akira's back when he was out in the village and at the mercy of civilian and shinobi stares.
“If I go, will you leave?”
The falcon stared at him and flicked its little wings. “Maybe! Are you going now? Do I need to bite you? Oh! I can peck you on the way!”
“No pecking, or biting. Just…go?”
Why couldn't the blonde have gotten one of the aloof birds as a bonded? Why did it have to be this tiny thing he remembered always being burrowed into messy blonde locks?
“Fiiiiiine. I will go. But don't be late! Kira wants to talk and he felt sad so you have to cheer him up and not be mean like you used to be!”
Kakashi rolled his eye and stood up, tucking away his book of the day and ignoring the indignant squawk as he jumped from the roof. Yeah, he definitely remembered the annoying little bird correctly. At least it wasn't the peregrine who enjoyed plucking his kunai from the air while he trained.
Akira was sitting under the willow tree, back against it and head tipped back. It exposed his throat in a way that made Kakashi anxious and warm all at once. Anxious, because that was a very delicate area to be so openly shown, and warm because the man didn't seem bothered by exposing it to him which meant he didn't feel threatened.
“Namikaze,” he greeted, watching as blue eyes opened and lazily blinked at him.
“Hatake. You came.”
Kakashis frowned at him. “Why wouldn't I?”
“Well. I did somehow manage to chase you off. Figured you would ignore Miko.”
Ah, what was the little falcon's name. “I don't think anyone can ignore that ball of feathers.”
Akira laughed, light and only a touch hoarse. “She's good for annoying people, I suppose.”
“She bit me.”
Blue eyes lit up in amusem*nt. “Really? I'll need to find her a treat for that one.”
Kakashi gave him a flat stare. “Please don't.”
Akira grinned at him. He seemed lighter, happier, less burdened by years of torture and imprisonment. He couldn't help the way his eyes traced over the silvery lines of dozens of scars, all thin and all proof of an expert touch. The growl building in his chest was harder to push down when he could smell Akira's scent, the need to protect and tear into the ones responsible painful to ignore.
Still. The blonde was relaxed and his storm scent carried traces of amusem*nt, no hints of pain or fear. It was…enough.
He really should go look at his family's scrolls.
“So,” Akira said softly, smile fading away. "Can we be done with the avoiding now?”
Avoiding? Ah. Right.
“I thought I was doing what you needed me to do.”
“I didn't want you to…stay away, at least as far as the houses nearby is staying away. It's strange, for me, to have you suddenly care, to want to help. It's been pointed out that I may have overreacted and I can acknowledge that. Besides, I really do want to introduce you to Naruto. He deserves to hear more about his parents and I…I could use a hand. A friend.”
Kakashi watched as Akira tugged at his hair and slumped back against the tree. He still looked better these days but there was an odd note to his scent that lingered and made him want to wrap the man up in a blanket. Loneliness. Sharp and fleeting but heavy.
“I would like to meet him,” Kakashi admitted as he stepped forward and sat down next to Akira, close enough to bump their shoulders together. This close, the smell of storms was all around him and something in his chest relaxed. “Looked like he's coming out of his shell.”
Akira flashed him a smile, warm and bright. “He is. Give him a chance and he'll chatter away about absolutely anything. Reminds me of Kushina. But then he'll go quiet and focus and suddenly there's a tiny Minato determined to figure out the secret of chakra control.”
Kakashi's heart clenched at the names, and his nose picked up on the sour scent of sadness. They were the same in their shared grief. “So you've started training him.”
“He wanted to. Honestly, I don't see why not you know? He needs the time to learn now so that when he's older the…extra chakra won't impact him as much. And he…he wants to be a protector, Hatake. He wants to learn to be strong so people won't get hurt like I did. I don't have the heart to explain why he can't stop situations like mine. I wasn't meant to survive, after all.”
That was the source of Kakashi's issues surrounding the Hokage and the Elders. They had chosen to send a shinobi of Konoha on a suicide mission. It wasn't something the village did. Ever. The Sandaime had done it out of anger and grief and he admitted his wrongdoing and was trying to make up for it. The Elders, however, didn't seem to show the same remorse in any capacity. Homura was potentially getting there, the man seemed genuinely concerned for Akira's mental health.
Kakashi sighed and tipped his head to the side as he regarded Akira. “I'm glad you didn't die.”
A wry smile tugged at the blonde's mouth. “Sometimes I wanted to and sometimes I did die. But I'm glad I made it back. I have a clear purpose in life and I intend to be around to see Naruto make it to sixteen. Then, there will be no more secrets.”
“What do you mean?”
“His jinchuuriki status will be told to him when he graduates. When he turns sixteen he'll finally get to know the full truth about his own parents. Do you know how hard it is to not point at the Monument? How weird it is to convince a kid that yeah, sure, the big stone face of the Yondaime might have a vague resemblance to his father but the same could be said about the Nidaime's?”
“I suppose that's the only positive in a short length of office.”
Akira let out a dry laugh and thumped his head back. “At least I'll be free to tell him his mum was a jinchuuriki as well. Once he finds out.” He grimaced and closed his eyes. “He's becoming aware that his chakra is different. Told me yesterday that he can feel something behind his core. Asked me what it was and I had to tell him I couldn't say. He took it to mean I didn't know, that if I wasn't worried, he didn't need to either.”
Kakashi ran a hand through his hair and bumped his shoulder into Akira's, blue eyes slitting open. “Don't stress about it. Minato's seal is strong. Jiraiya-sama said there was no need to worry about it.”
“I'm not…worried, about the seal. I'm worried about how Naruto will react. The civilians all treat him like some kind of demon and half the shinobi still give him filthy looks unless I'm with him. Then they give me those looks. The other half are people who know who he is, who his father was and just how dangerous it would be to push a child jinchuuriki. Nobody sees him for himself except maybe his friends.”
“Friends?”
Akira shrugged and leaned a little of his weight against Kakashi. It made something deep inside settle in content. “Two of his classmates. He talks about them a lot and apparently they always sit with him and share their lunch together. I…assume that means friends. Naruto wasn't sure when I asked him. He was genuinely confused by the concept and I'm hardly the right person to explain it.”
Kakashi nodded slowly. He could only place that label on two people, if he was forced to and with one he had been forced to. Gai could be persistent. “Short of him asking them, I'd say assuming so is a good idea.”
Akira groaned and rubbed a hand over his face. “I don't know what the f*ck I'm doing! I don't even know how to explain friends! I'm going to f*ck up my nephew, f*ck up the last thing in this world of my own family because f*ck if I know what being a normal six year old is like!”
“He's not…exactly normal,” Kakashi pointed out.
Blue eyes flashed silver lightning, narrowing. “He's not a war kid like us. He's not growing up knowing death the way we did. Kami, he's not even growing up with the expectations either of us had! He's not expected to be a genius prodigy and he's not expected to perfect a kekkei genkai and he's definitely not expected to act the part of the perfect weapon and kill whoever the f*cking Hokage points him at-mmph!”
Kakashi sighed, hand clamped over the blonde's mouth, chakra sealing his glove to Akira's skin. His storm scent was shot through with something like fear, sharp and cold. “Stop. You're spiralling. Freaking out. Whatever. Just stop, Akira.”
Akira glared at him, chest rising and falling rapidly, puffs of air against the back of his glove from flaring nostrils. Those incredibly blue eyes were almost glowing, flashing silver. He could feel the touch of Akira's chakra, rolling over him in whispering shocks. It sent shivers down his spine, instincts sitting up, some part of him lost in bliss and perfectly content to just bathe in the storm wrapping around him.
“You're right,” he said quietly. “Naruto-kun doesn't have to grow up with a war outside the gates. He has to grow up scorned and hated for a reason no one can tell him until he becomes a shinobi. He's never had any expectations from people except the ridiculous idea he'll rampage as the damn fox. He's not like us, yes. But he's not a normal kid either. Until now, until you, he's never had anything normal. Stop doubting yourself.”
He removed his hand carefully, watching the storm in those blue eyes calm down until Akira blinked and they were back to normal. His lips were pressed together, scars imprinted in white slashing over them. His breathing had calmed down and he didn't look wild anymore.
“Okay,” he muttered. “Overreacted, right?”
“A little. But understandable.”
Akira sighed and slumped over, thunking his head onto Kakashi's shoulder. “This is why I need someone like you. You're not afraid to tell me to shut up when I go...like that.”
“Keigo-sama can't help?”
“No. Clan crap. I can go visit him but every time he's come here results in the Elders getting pissy about him being near Naruto. Is this you saying you don't want to help?”
Kakashi gave in to the impulse and rubbed his masked chin over soft blonde locks. “I want to help. I want to be here. Naruto is…he's…pack, I think.”
Akira was too.
He didn't want to admit that out loud.
Akira hummed and Kakashi was pretty sure he wasn't aware of the way he pushed his head up into the chin rub. “Pack, huh? So Hatake have those traits as well. Naruto will probably get a kick out of it, especially if you summon your ninken for him. I think he might have Kushina's enhanced smell as well. He's mentioned that I've lost my dog smell.”
Kakashi blinked at the way the other man took the idea of Hatake instincts in stride, as if it was nothing at all. It wasn't like he knew much himself, no one was around to teach him and he'd avoided the old family scrolls tucked away in the Hatake house.
Which was precisely six houses diagonally away from here.
“So. I can come round and meet Naruto as myself? Or do you want Wolf?”
Akira pushed himself up and twisted around. His blue eyes were sharp and serious but a faint smile tugged at his mouth. “Really think I'd make you come as Wolf? No, Hatake. I want Naruto to meet his father's student, the person he might have grown up with. I want him to meet and know you.”
His throat felt a little tight, grief briefly making his chest ache at the idea of what could have been. He met those incredible blue eyes and forced his voice to be steady. “Okay. Call me Kakashi then.”
The smile that curled over Akira's lips was soft and honest, his eyes warm. “Akira then. Guess Kushina has finally gotten what she wanted.”
Kakashi let out a small laugh, leaning his head back. “Only took us fifteen years.”
—-------------------------------
<Akira>
Somehow, having Kakashi standing beside him in the Academy's yard made it easier to bear the weighted stares of civilian parents. The other man may have been younger by a few years but he was almost a head taller and had a well known moniker that even these soft bodied men and women knew. It was a little hard to ignore the mask, tilted hitai-ate and fluffy silver hair. Add the droopy eye that met the stares with indifference and you had a deceptively relaxed shinobi.
Sharingan no Kakashi. Copycat.
It amused Akira.
The doors opened and tiny children poured out, running and screaming with little high pitched voices. Naruto, as always, was at the back, walking beside the two boys Akira thought might be his friends. He still wasn't sure. He'd never had childhood friends, had only found them when he joined ANBU and he was pretty sure that differed.
“That's a Nara and Akimichi,” Kakashi pointed out.
“Shikamaru and Chouji. Those are the two I mentioned.”
Kakashi hummed and tilted his head. “You could be right. Observation wise, they seem to be friends.”
Akira relaxed more into his lean against Kakashi's side, privately enjoying the way the man's lightning sparked against his senses.. “So, we can confirm it for him?”
“I'd just let him discover it himself.”
Sighing, he nodded before a smile spread over his face as Naruto raced over, bouncing around milling kids and parents. Bracing himself, he still allowed the small body to knock him back a half step. “Hey, Naruto.”
“Ojiisan!” Naruto grinned up at him, chakra vibrating in excitement. “Shikamaru asked if I can come over tomorrow after class! Can I? Pleeeeease!”
His smile grew into a grin as he put his hand on top of the messy blonde head. “Oh? Of course you can. That sounds like fun. Sleepover?”
“Mhmm!” Naruro nodded enthusiastically. “He said we'll be in their garden so we can watch the stars and listen to stories!”
Akira grunted as Naruto scrambled up his body, still chattering about his invitation, arms automatically wrapping around him as a small nose bumped his own. He watched in amusem*nt as the kid stopped mid sentence to sniff cautiously. Tiny eyebrows formed an adorable frown as Naruto sniffed again.
“You smell like dog again,” the blonde boy said slowly. “Too much. And why do you smell like a different storm? Go back,” he muttered.
Akira smiled gently and plonked his forehead into Naruto's. “Remember how I explained the dog smell wasn't me?”
“You have birds. Not dogs.”
“Mhmm. There's a person I want you to meet. He's the one with dogs. Ninken, actually. Remember the difference?”
“Ninken are like shinobi and should be respected,” Naruto recited carefully. “Like Akamaru?”
“A little different.” Akira leaned back and turned to Kakashi, who had been watching them with an amused creased eye, a smile barely shifting his mask. “Naruto, this is Hatake Kakashi. Your father was his sensei.”
Naruto's eyes widened and he leaned towards Kakashi, hooking his legs around Akira's waist and peered up at the taller man. “You knew my dad?”
Kakashi hid the pain and grief Akira knew he was feeling remarkably well and bent down slightly to meet Naruto's eyes. “I did. I met him a little younger than you are now.”
Naruto blinked and whipped his head back to stare at Akira. “Five. You said you knew someone who became a shinobi at five.”
Akira smiled, a warm feeling curling in his chest. Naruto, despite what other people seemed to think, was a smart kid and he paid attention to what was said with a surprising focus. “I did.”
Naruto looked back at Kakashi. “You have to tell me stories. Ojisan tells me stories about dad and mum and he's started telling me about being a shinobi so you have to as well.”
“I can do that,” Kakashi said softly.
Naruto bounced in Akira's arms, a satisfied grin making his cheeks bunch up and the whisker marks curved. “Okay! So, you tell me stories today and tomorrow I get to stay at Shikamaru's and oh! Ojisan, can we do the leaf thingy today? You said I could try!”
“I did, and we can. Kakashi can stay for our training and dinner if he'd like?”
Kakashi's eye closed into a smile, his cheek bunching under the mask and Akira could make out the way his lips had shifted into a smile. “I would love to.”
“Yes! Okay! Tell me what dad was like to you? Ojiisan says that when he was my age he didn't see dad a lot cos he was busy being an awesome shinobi and if dad met you younger than me than-wait! But you're like old!”
Kakashi leaned back, eye wide and Akira had to hide his face in Naruto's hair as he broke into silent laughter. Lightning sparked in Kakashi's chakra, jumping around erratically.
“I'm not old.”
“But you have old people hair!”
“I was born with it!”
“It's grey!”
“I'm younger than your uncle!”
“Eh?!”
—-----------------------------------
<Naruto>
Naruto liked this new person with his fluffy grey hair even if all he could see was one eye. He smelled like dogs and like a different kind of storm, no rainy smell but sharp and zappy. His voice was nice too and he didn't even pause when Naruto climbed up to sit on his shoulders, just kept walking towards home.
He made Akira happy.
Akira's blue blue eyes stayed open and his smile was big and his body wasn't all bunched up like he usually was when they walked home. He didn't even look at the people who sent them bad looks or talked low about them.
So Naruto liked Kakashi because Kakashi was nice to him and made Akira smile.
He also told stories. Like the first time they both met.
“I was in the year below Akira in the Academy,” Kakashi told him as he held his knees and let him kick his feet against the green thick jacket thing he wore. “So we never met in classes or practice. I was also very much not interested in friends or people outside my class. I still heard about the kid who was forced to stay an extra year, but I thought it was one of the much older kids. We didn't meet until your father introduced us about a month after we graduated.”
“You were five?”
“I was. Akira was eight. There wasn't any team openings so we both became apprentices.”
Akira looked up at Naruto and tilted his head. “Remember the difference?”
“Uh huh,” Naruto nodded and tugged on Kakashi's hair.
And then he was being told how Kakashi was jealous of how proud his dad was of Akira and how the two didn't get along at all, how they competed and how their training was different. His dad tried to teach Kakashi about working with others and Kakashi just thought Akira was stupid but then he learned how Akira was being trained in just fighting and all the sneaky shinobi stuff Naruto really wanted to learn.
He decided he didn't like Kakashi as a kid. He liked him as an adult though.
When they got home he raced through the house and plopped himself down on the engawa and bounced as he watched Akira collect a handful of leaves. “So what do I do?”
“Remember how we've been practising focusing chakra in one place on your body?” Akira sat down in front of him and put the leaves down between them. He picked one up and pressed it to his nose, dropping his hand but the leaf stayed in place. “This is the same idea but you need to let out a small amount, just enough to make the leaf stay stuck to you. Skin is the easiest place to start and especially your palms, since it's easy to direct chakra there.”
Naruto huffed and picked a leaf up. “But I always lose the chakra. Or it goes bamf!”
Kakashi crouched down beside them and Naruto froze. He'd forgotten the man was there. His one eye watched Naruto warmly before he turned to look at Akira. “I can help if you'd like.”
Akira shrugged and the leaf fell off his nose. “I don't mind. Honestly the Sharingan's ability to see chakra might be useful. I can feel when Naruto's chakra swells too much but it's…difficult to gauge much else.”
Naruto leaned forward and met Akira's blue blue eyes. "What's a Sharingan?”
“Ah.”
Kakashi shrugged his shoulders and sat down in that weird way Naruto had noticed shinobi do, like they were made of water and not bones. Akira had said it was because they were taught to move smoothly, no sharp movements and because some shinobi used what he called agility, which was something like speed and moves.
He'd seen Akira and his shishou do something called sparring in the front yard. They moved so fast it was hard to watch, just two people who became like water and never even hit each other.
He wanted to be like that.
“Well,” Kakashi said as he turned his eye on Naruto. “The Sharingan is a doujutsu, a kekkei genkai that uses the eye. Do you know what that means?”
Naruto nodded, grinning at Akira. “Ojisan told me about his! A kekkei genkai is like a thing in a family! It's special to them and no one outside the family has it. If a doujutsu is for the eyes, does that mean Ojisan had one like that?”
Akira raised his eyebrows and tilted his head weirdly to the side. “Why do you think that?”
“Well,” Naruto wiggled and twirled his leaf in his fingers. “When you showed me yours, your eyes went all lightningy.”
“I…they did?”
Kakashi put his chin in his hand and nodded slowly. “You didn't know?”
“No? My eyes were never affected before, at least to my knowledge.”
“I like it,” Naruto grinned at Akira. “It's like you have a storm in your eyes!”
Akira blinked and held his hand out, sparks of lightning dancing over his fingers and his storm smell got stronger. Naruto watched as his blue blue eyes flashed, tiny lines of silver like blinking lights. He dropped his hand and looked at Kakashi who nodded slowly.
“Huh. They named it Arashime,” he said quietly. "I thought it was because I'm always the centre of any technique I use. It's not a doujutsu though. There's no visual component which is important for a doujutsu based kekkei genkai.”
Naruto pouted and huffed. “So it means it's just a cool side effect?”
“It is,” Akira smiled at him and plucked a leaf up. “Now, how about we try this the same way I know your mother learned it, hmm? You have her chakra reserves and Kushina had a lot of trouble with control herself.”
Naruto bounced in place. He was like his mum!
Akira laid the leaf on his palm and held his hand out. “Your hands are easier to start with. Can you guess why?”
“Because the chakra pathways are more used to having chakra in them?”
“Basically. Since the pathways are more developed in your hands, pooling chakra in one place is more natural. If you focus on letting it coat your palm, the leaf will be able to stick to your skin. Too little and the leaf will fall off, too much and it will be forced away.”
“Oh like a magnet?”
“Kind of. You have to find a balance and it can take time. Kushina sometimes complained about learning all of this. It took her a long time to learn how much she needed and to keep it at the right level took a lot of concentration.”
Naruto frowned at his leaf and laid it on his palm. His chakra always felt like a wild thing under his skin, too slippery to hold and not always doing what he wanted it to do. But Akira had been really proud of him and said he was doing a great job and that always made him feel warm and happy and made him wanna try even harder. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes and fell into the wild warmth. He stayed away from the part that felt like hot anger. Akira said he didn't need to be afraid of it, that one day he'd be strong enough to not be scared but Naruto didn't like the way it felt so angry.
His chakra swept around his body, slowly becoming thicker down his arms and in his hand. He stuck his tongue between his lips and focused super hard on where he could feel the leaf, wanted his chakra to sit there and hold it and-
He snapped his eyes open as it all went bamf off his hand and watched sadly as the leaf, all black and burnt, fluttered away.
Kakashi let out a sound and Naruto looked at him and stared. His hitai-ate was pushed up right, and his other eye was open. There was a scar that ran through it, all jagged and painful looking and his eye was red red, with little black things in it. It was weird and cool and was that this Sharingan?
“I can see what happens once the chakra leaves his body. There's definitely too much coming out but it's the shape that causes the problem, I think. It's not flat, more pointed.”
Akira hummed and picked up another leaf and put it in Naruto's palm. “Do you understand what he means, Naruto?”
Naruto frowned and nodded. “The chakra has to be flat. Like…like a layer on my skin? But I didn't do that so it went pointy?”
Kakashi's eyes both curved and the grey one looked all warm and happy, like he was maybe proud? “Exactly. Learning this means figuring out how to shape your chakra. It naturally wants to come out of your body in a point, so that's it's focused. You have to try and smooth that into a tiny thin little layer right against your skin.”
Naruto glared at the leaf and closed his eyes. He was gonna get this and be amazing at it and then he'd get to see Akira's eyes go all bright and happy and hear him be proud and give him those warm and safe hugs!
The leaf burned again.
Naruto stared at it.
Oh he was gonna win!
