Sakumo
When Kakashi was a child, he had a bit of a problem with biting.
Furniture, plants, toys, his fathers fingers, his own fingers— nothing was safe.
It was impossible to stop, almost instinctive, and it felt like every time Sakumo managed to keep him from fitting something new in his mouth, he'd turn around only to find Kakashi had discovered something even more dangerous to try and cram between his teeth.
Don't even get Sakumo started on all the times he'd had to stop Kakashi from eating actual, raw meat. After the third time of finding his son standing on the shelves of an open fridge to try to reach up and steal the slab of beef meant for dinner, Sakumo began to lock the fridge.
Unfortunately that only lasted as long as it took Kakashi to have someone show him how to pick locks. Dammit, Tsunade.
That at least had taught Sakumo a truly valuable life lesson; That there was no greater hell than trying to keep an eye on an over-active, shinobi prodigy toddler who knew how to pick locks.
Sakumo, fast approaching the end of his rope, consulted the Inuzuka; Kakashi's late mothers clan. But the only answer they could give them was a shrug and an all too amused "Good luck."
Apparently, their children usually grew out of their biting phase at around 2, and Kakashi, now well into being 5, had taken after his mother very little to begin with. Whatever compelled Kakashi to bite wasn't because of their clan.
Sakmuo, painfully unaware of the Hatake's history and reputation as a wild clan, and not able to remember his own biting phase he'd only outgrown in his early teens, was forced to improvise.
So, sporting several silver bite scars all along his hands and arms, he introduced Kakashi to his very first mask.
It worked surprisingly well. Most of the biting was done on pure reflex, so with the mask in the way, Kakashi was forced to take a moment to actually think over what he was about to do— and stop himself.
Most of the time, anyways.
Still, at home the boy had an ever growing collection of things Sakumo approved of him gnawing on. Honestly, Sakumo would take literally anything over coming home to find Kakashi halfway through trying to chew through the leather bound handle of a kunai.
Never again.
Sakumo did his best to impress on his son why all the biting was bad. He'd hurt himself, he'd hurt someone else, he'd end up swallowing something he shouldn't and getting sick, it was frowned upon socially; The list went on.
Kakashi, ever serious and always one to take his fathers words as gospel, nodded along every time Sakumo explained this to him. Only to seem to forget it in just a few minutes, when he spotted something new that he just had to know what it would feel like to bite into.
That was, at least, till some sort of incident in his school.
Kakashi, by then 6 and already about to take his exams to become the youngest chunin in Konoha's history, came home quiet and sullen.
"Tou-san," Kakashi started, then stopped.
He scuffed his sandals against the floorboards, a frown tugging at his lips as he played with the mask bunched up around his neck.
"Tou-san," Kakashi tried again, looking up at his father with upset eyes. "is all my biting... that weird?"
'It is weird.' Sakumo did not say. 'I worry for you, what others might think of you. Of the jokes you might hear if you continue to do this when you're older. You're so strong, so mature for your age, I don't know why you can't understand this one thing.'
But he knew that his son would not be able to understand this for the genuine concern it came from. That he would no doubt focus only on the confirmation that it was odd. Might even take this as some sort of understanding that his father agreed with mean things he might have already begun to hear.
So instead, Sakumo sat down on the tatami mats, motioning for Kakashi to join him. The boy did, crawling into his lap and burrowing into his uniform blacks.
"It's not the best, Kakashi." He said simply. "But a lot of people have... quirks about them. Especially shinobi, and especially clan shinobi."
Kakashi perked up a bit, looking hopeful. "Is biting a clan thing then?"
"Ah, well—" Sakumo hesitated. "Not exactly. The Hatake don't have much of a bloodline."
Probably.
Sakumo... really wouldn't know. By the time he'd been old enough to learn anything of the clan, they'd all been dead. But he was normal, wasn't he? So Kakashi would be too.
"You know your mother was an Inuzuka." Kakashi nodded. "Well, sometimes their babies will bite a little more than usual, even once they're a bit older."
"...How much older?" Kakashi asked, and again, Sakumo hesitated.
"Ah, well... about 3 or so, usually."
"So I am weird."
"Not weird, Kakashi. We all have bad habits we need to break."
Kakashi looked away, shrinking further into his father's chest.
"Whatever."
That night, when Sakumo asked if Kakashi wanted to finally cook up that steak he'd been so eager to eat all week, his son scoffed and shook his head.
Sakumo raised an eyebrow, amused. "Really? You were so excited for it I thought I'd end up finding you trying to swallow it whole in the middle of the night again."
Kakashi made a face, but couldn't hide the embarrassed pink that crept up his cheeks. He still tried to, tugging his mask back up— not that it helped much when the blush climbed high enough to be seen over it.
"I changed my mind, I don't wanna eat any meat."
Sakumo set down the chopping board he was in the middle of taking out.
"You don't want to eat any meat?" He echoed, and Kakashi rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, I changed my mind."
"Really, Kakashi?"
The only reply he got was a huffy "hmph" and a cold shoulder, the red glow at the tips of his ears giving away the fact he was still blushing.
Sakumo rolled his eyes, and opened the fridge back up to see what else they had to cook.
Kakashi would get over this, he was sure.
The only issue was that he didn't.
Over the next few weeks, Sakumo did his best to bait Kakashi into eating some sort of meat dish.
Stir fry had the beef picked out, tempura was stared at suspiciously and cut into before being eaten only if it was a vegetable, bowls of stew were left empty save for chunks of meat left mockingly at the bottom, and steak was refused all together.
He even tried just cracking a few extra raw eggs into a bowl of ramen, only for Kakashi to eat around it.
"Kakashi you need to eat protein." Sakumo tried, exasperated.
"No I don't."
"Yes, Kakashi, you do."
Sakumo expressed his concerns to that sensei of Kakashi's— Minato. A good boy, if a little off in a way some shinobi tended to be. A bit too friendly to be anything less than carefully well practiced, the kind of gentle that took conscious effort to maintain.
A good boy who worked very hard to keep at being good.
Minato had the oddest expression pass over his face when Sakumo voiced his worries, somewhere between dry fondness and understanding.
"Ah, so that's why."
"Why...?
"Oh, sorry. It's just— when Kakashi introduced himself to the team, he said he disliked stupid people and meat."
Sakumo snorted. That definitely sounded like his son.
Minato rubbed sheepishly at the back of his neck, promising to do his best to help convince Kakashi to open his diet back up again from his end. Sakumo gave him a pat on the shoulder and a smile that sent the poor boy stumbling off a little red faced.
Poor thing. That Uzumaki girl was going to eat him alive.
And then, the mission.
Thoughts of getting Kakashi to eat meat were replaced with the shame and guilt that so constantly plagued him.
One night, consciously trying to reach back out to his slowly distancing son, Sakumo tried joking with Kakashi on if he'd found anything new to chew on lately.
"Ugh." Kakashi made a face, clearly embarrassed. "I'm not a baby, Tou-san. I don't chew on things anymore and I don't wanna chew on things anymore, it's gross."
Sakumo should be proud, should be happy for his son. Finally, the lesson had sunk in. Instead, he felt... odd.
His Kakashi was growing up. There'd be no more teasing about the newest stick he'd gnawed through and was now furiously trying to hide. No late night scramble to keep him from eating the raw chicken in the fridge. No having to fight to pull sharp objects out of Kakashi's hands before he could break a tooth or slice his lips on a blade.
It should be a relief.
Instead, it almost felt like a loss.
Maybe... Kakashi really didn't need him anymore.
It was that thought that followed him to bed that night.
That same thought that entered his mind as he looked down at a tano in his hand the very next day