"A Gen-Jutsu…" a quiet release of these words under his breath.
Kakashi and Team Ro were on their way back from a 2 month mission when they were ambushed near the border of the land of fire. The first group they could decimate, but this left two teammates injured. He, as their leader, decided to continue their path so they could get proper rest in the village. A mistake because apparently this wasn't the only group waiting for them in their familiar borders. Despite being close to Chakra exhaustion, he summoned his nin-ken. Pakkun was sent to Konoha for reinforcements and the remaining were to search and hold off their pursuer. That's when his team dropped to the ground and did not move anymore.
He turned around to face the attacker while pulling a soldier and a chakra pill out, revealing his Sharingan to dispel this strong gen-jutsu. While his teammates slowly got back their consciousness and to their feet, he jumped the first two nuke-nin. Confident the rest was held back by his nin-ken. While he was able to deal with the Gen-Jutsu nuke-nin fast, his team was able to dispose of the other’s and the body of his opponent additionally. To relieve them, two new groups of Anbu units joined them. When the forest around them went dark.
Another one, he thought and even more powerful he concluded as it was just building up around them. Was he the only one who could see it? He ignored the questions of his teammates when he used another soldier pill, fully knowing the risks and directed his remaining Chakra into his Sharingan, to release that jutsu even before it was completed.
He was prepared to fall unconscious, to fall painfully to the ground and not to move for a few days. Instead a numbing pain in the back of his skull rose up, blinded him and he held himself against a tree not to fall. A medic nin was next to him guiding him to the ground and he heard questions on what happened when the battle started, the remaining nuke-nin group had caught up to them, no sign of his nin-ken or Pakkun. And he was on the ground completely useless, he heard something of internal bleeding and felt the medical jutsu on his head. Wearily he blinked his right eye open to look into a worried focussed face of his medic-nin. "That bad…?" Surprised about how weak he sounded and how broken his voice was. "Please stay silent, the reinforcements are taking care of the enemy and I have to stabilise you to transport you back to Konoha." It was that bad… he closed his mouth and asked himself where and how Pakkun was. But he could not muster the strength to ask for them, possibly for the better. The last thing he saw was a large green presence when he fell unconscious, hoping this wasn't an enemy.
The next time he woke up it was very familiar surroundings, the first thing he noticed was the disinfect smell and the white walls. Additionally there was a green presence here as well, in the form of Maito Guy who was at his side holding his hand. Much more pleasant awakening than usual he had to admit. "You are in the hospital, it's been two weeks since you sent the alarm to Konaha for reinforcements. Your team is already recovered and doing smaller missions. Two Anbu units died during the eradication of the nuke-nin groups which followed you. The rest has recovered as well." Could not say how much he appreciated that Guy ran him through the important information he would have asked first. Two dead, not great but it could have gotten a lot worse. That Guy did not say anything about himself in that report and told him he did not want to know the details yet, feeling much too tired and exhausted to worry about his recovery. "Pakkun..?" Even if he was not able to, Guy must have seen him, but he got only a confused look back. He sighs, feeling the blanket over half of his face flutter when he looks around for his equipment to find the summoning scroll in his clothing. In the end he had to rise up a bit to reach for his anbu uniform, ignoring that Guy wanted to stop him and the medic-nin entering the room. Grabbing the scroll after a bit of searching through his clothing he bit his thumb and used the small amount of chakra he had to summon Pakkun at least, making sure his most trusted nin-ken was alright or at least recovering. Using the summoning and nothing happened, he tried again, nothing… again and again and again until he passed out, his mind full of panic falling deeper into the darkness.
The next time he awoke he wasn't alone either, it was Sensei Minato on his bedside…Hokage Minato by now. "Don't move please Kakashi. You suffered a severe brain injury and you are still recovering." He nodded and stayed where he was, even when he was helped drinking some water. "What happened?" "Better for you to tell me, you came back from the successful mission being pursued by nuke-nin and your team reported their version to me already. If you feel up for it please tell me your version of things." He did not feel up for a mission report but he thought that was the only reason Minato was here, lately he had been very busy in his role as a father of his own son Nauto and of course Hokage. Despite being the last person alive on his team 7m there was no time for him and being 2 months away from Konoha did not change the level of interest his mentor seems to have in him. It did not surprise him, people around him usually tend to die, so it was better for others to keep distance and he more willingly stepped away if he was unwanted.
“There is not much unique insight I can add to any mission report of my team. We were on the route back and my team was hit by a strong genjutsu, which I dispel immediately. Due to the length of the mission, everybody including myself have been close to chakra exhaustion already and I send my nin-ken to hold off the attacker and to request reinforcements from Konoha. We fought off the first group until reinforcements arrived and another even bigger gen-jutsu I felt building up. So I focused the rest of my chakra into the sharingan and…" "What happened to your nin-ken?" He was thrown off by this question, didn't the Hokage just wanted a mission report from him? What relevance did this piece of information have to him? "I don't know" he answered finally and truthfully. Minato sighed loudly and moved himself to hold his hand: "I don't know how to break it to you… but they gave their life to hold off a group of Nuke-nin on their own."
That was exactly what he had feared after none of them had shown off with the reinforcements or the enemies, for now he could just nod and take in the information about his trusted partners. While he was deep in his mind, it must have been some time passed, the next time he registered the room around him, was it evening again. But he just closed his eyes to fall into another exhausted, but restless round of sleep.
The next time he woke up, a medic-nin was present at his bed. Now he got curious about the constant presence next to him or he was just lucky. “Still bad?” He asked while still having his eyes closed, the doctor did a whole step back, apparently startled by his words. Not the intention, not going to apologise. Opening one eye to look at the person standing next to him. “Mr. Hatake…” “Kakashi please” he was 11 years old, despite him being an Anbu, he was far away from having full grown adults calling him ‘Mr’. “Kakashi, glad to see you awake, you had us worried.” “Define us” he shot back faster than he was able to hold himself back on saying anything. Without seeing it, still having his eyes closed, he heard a smile out of the doctor's voice now. “I know Guy Maito, Kushina with her Baby son and Hokage Minato have been in your room at least once per day to check up on you.” “Did I die?” That was for him the only logical reason those made that much effort to check on him while he was not even able to answer. “No, but your injury is nonetheless very severe and even if you recover soon, there will be some physical therapy necessary to be functional.” Only good news here, functional, does not mean healthy. “Any lasting damage?” “That’s what we find out as soon as you can stay awake long enough.” Woah, he was really half dead if they can’t even diagnose him unconscious. “Anything we can test now?” “Yes, can you please move everything?” Everything, he felt the blanket being lifted from him and it was immediately cold. Slowly he moved his head and neck, all fine here, shoulders, good, hands and arms, yes all fine. Hip and legs needed assistance to get up to have enough space to move. So the doctor stood directly at his side to hold him up and as requested, fine being able to move those as well.
But then, out of nowhere, his hands both flinched like he had touched an electrical cable. With wide eyes he stared at those and was the only one surprised by this. It was freaky, a requirement from a very young age to have his body and chakra under control. He slowly started to panic as another involuntary flinch took place. “We do not expect that to last, this is likely a reaction to the strong medication we had to give you to keep you alive. Please make sure over the next few days to observe your own body carefully and alert a doctor as soon as you find anything does not work. No matter how small this is, please do not keep anything to yourself, because this can mean that we release you and not die from another bleeding into your brain.” Taking deep breaths to keep himself calm and not panic, he listened carefully, nodded dutifully, until he was lowered to the pillow again. But he was already busy scanning his body for anything that might not be ‘functional’ as the doctor put it, but he could not find anything until he fell back asleep again.
The next time he was awake, Minato was at his bed again, a fact which confused him even more than before. “Did the Hokage duties lessen since the last time I was awake?” Was the first question leaving his lips, again before opening his eyes or thinking through. This was not how he was, he kept things for himself, even forever, in most cases suffering from it in the meantime. The loud thumb let him conclude Minato held something in his hands and dropped it. “I am not sure what you mean Kakashi and good morning.” “It’s a rare sight for the Hokage to spend so much time at the bedside of just one single ninja in his village.” He opened his eyes, something was really wrong now, since he was completely unfiltered and Minato's shocked look confirmed that he was not really acting himself. “Please just ignore my words, Minato-sensei.” “No, no, you are talking now, so we are talking. What is going on Kakashi?” He should not have said something, he should have just kept my mouth shot and nothing would have happened. Here we are. “Your duties over the last few months, including the lack of any involvement in your personal life, indicated to me very clearly that I was now just a ninja like anyone else in this village. Which is how it’s supposed to be.” Minato's look changed very fast from shocked to hurt, but he continued: “you have a family now and enough to do, then sit around in my room watching me sleep. And that’s alright, I am good with fulfilling my duties, I should not linger on the time we’ve spent in a team and as Sensei and Student. This does not become an Anbu unit, which is leading its own team.” The pillow moved next to him, within a blink of an eye Minato was on his feet, came over to his bed and had his hands left and right from his face. After a moment of silence, both of them just stared at each other's eyes. Minato to determine if he was serious and himself intending to show clearly that what he said was completely honest. The door opened, neither of them paid attention to it, at least until Kushina shouted, still standing at the door: “Minato Namikaze! For your own health, I hope you are not threatening the patient!” Minato shook his head but did not move, Kushina came over, lay a hand on Minato's shoulder and looked at him now. “How are you feeling Kakashi?” “I think… something is wrong, I am… unfiltered.” Kushina blinked a moment, looking from Minato back to him. “What did you say?” “I… the truth.” “So you finally told him he treats you like someone whom he does not know, instead of the son we’ve included in our family” and now it was on him and Minato to stare at Kushina. She sighed loudly: “you two, really. Yes, this was obvious and yes I know Kakashi was hurt. I hoped you would be adult enough to realise this.” She looked at Minato at this, both sighed now and he couldn’t resist to grin. “Those are the most powerful ninja in the village and the Hokage Ladies and Gentlemen, we are creating disaster and failing at communication.” She laughed, Minato started to laugh, he smiled.
For a while silence crept into the room, while he was thinking about what happened, Minato properly thought about the last few weeks and Kushina seemed to be just annoyed by the both of them. “So while you two are continuing to talk now, I am going to see your Doctor about your new behaviour okay?” “How is Naruto?” “Fine, he is with Sarutobi for the next three days. I wanted my turn in taking care of you as well and Konoha's lightning was not able to have the responsibility for his own son! For two days!” She threw her arms in the air, Minato blushed and she left the room.
“So… Kakashi… I am sorry.” “That's all… I am used to it." There was his honesty again. Minato looked disappointed: “I apologise, the only thing I can say is that I am just human and lost sight of what's important. Not only my family, but you as part of my family. I am sorry.” He was… moved by those words and the only thing he could do was hoping for a better relationship going forward. “So, about your nin-ken. Did you try to summon them again?” “No, I was afraid.” They both have been taken back by his pure honesty, but Minato just moved on and held the scroll out to him. This time he had enough chakra, and did not hesitate to try and try and try and fail. They were really gone, forever.
“Kakashi, we are going to work on this together, you and I. And Kushina, with Naruto. I’ll be here for you, for real and not leave you alone with this. Step by step we are getting you back on track and where you want to be. I am not going to leave you alone again, promise.”
And for the first time ever, he did not feel alone. The therapy, physically and mentally, was exhausting and caused him to extend his stay in the hospital twice. But Minato held on to his promise, when he was ready to quit all the medical stuff and just go back to a mission, there was always someone in his room waiting. Minato, Kushina, Naruto (only with either of his parents), Guy, sometimes Tenzo and Tsunade. None of them got tired visiting him and always had something to report. Time had passed since he landed in the hospital and when he was released, Minato brought him into his home, instead of going back to his empty flat.
On the medical side, the honesty was permanent damage, he would always blur out what he wanted to say, too much damage was done by the exhaustion in dispelling two such strong Gen-justus. But there could be much worse, he wasn’t meant for any undercover missions anytime soon, the rest had to deal with the situation. He stayed with Minato and did a few smaller missions, just to test if his… the new brain was dealing with those situations correctly. But everything went smoothly and he delivered the mission without any errors, back to his old form, nearly. Wouldn’t it be for the very awkward conversation he had all around, positive and negative.
One night he woke up to one of many nightmares, of Rin this time again, Minato bursting into the door made him throw a Kunai at him, just not being used to having someone around.
The next morning they had a fight about processing past trauma and more psychological therapy was now on his schedule, as well as new Anbu missions.
On one of those, he blurted out how proud he was of his Team Ro, which he led for a short time now and still accomplished a lot. This halted the whole mission, since everybody else froze. With an annoyed sigh he reminded everybody of him not being able to hold back his words anymore, this resulted in a group hug. Which was a new level of awkward, an Anbu team in a group hug in the middle of enemy territory. This wasn’t the first time and will not be the last time this would happen, after the 4th time he just got used to it and started to enjoy the pure happiness in the chakra of his teammates. Which likely was shown in their faces as well, but not visible due to the masks.
Another one of those Anbu missions ended with all of them exhausted and slightly injured, so they returned to the Konoha village a bit earlier than planned, still with a successful mission. There was Guy waiting for him: “Rival! Let’s have a competition!” Without missing a beat he said: “Guy, I really, really like you. But now I am tired, exhausted and your voice is a Kunai in my ears, not welcome and very painful, for clarification.” Even the gate guards stared at him now, but he got so used to those awkward situations that he could shrug them off. What he could not dismiss was Guy now directly in front of him with tears in his eyes. For a moment he thought he hurt Guy with his comment, until he was hugged tightly, enough to press the remaining air out of him and nearly made him collapse then and there.
Not much more words were spoken as he was brought to the hospital by Guy and his team following them. Returning to rest and sleep to Minato's House, which he still lived in and still not one more sound came from Guy. At least until the next morning, where he was woken up and they took a walk. They talked, totally honestly, for the first time he was sure, since they met each other and Guy befriended him. Looking back at this, as adults you would say they decided to become a couple, but Guy was far too young and he was still far too hurt to let love in his heart. That didn’t stop either of them from spending more time with each other, walking around, talking, enjoying each other's company, much more than just competition, fights and training. Most of those times they spend away from the village, away from memories, away from responsibilities and away from decisions they would have to make going forward. How close he got to Guy, they kept to himself, neither of them were sure what kind of reaction this would get them.
The next few years, while he recovered even from his brain injury against expectations, have been rather unspectacular. Between missions as Anbu Leader with his Team Ro, helping Kushina raise Naruto, Minato supporting at his job and spending the remainder of his time with Guy, there wasn’t much time to think and breathe. But he wasn’t an idiot either, he understood that Minato not only involved him in his job to involve him in the Hokage life, no, he was currently being prepared. He didn’t object to it too much, Minato was young and would stay in reign for a lot more years, it was just politics that he had to do this. It was not very realistic for him to take on the Hokage role anytime soon.
One evening a few days after his 14th Birthday, he lied to Minato to get out of a meeting, to be able to spend time with Guy. Unsure if Minato allowed him because he believed the lie or because he saw through the lie, giving him some time for himself. After catching up on Guy’s recent Chu-nin Missions, they lay down on a hill, just staring at the stars and his head began to spin.
Some things he picked up, some talks in dark corners of the Anbu unit and a large number of failed missions for the Anbus slowly raised some questions in him. It took him nearly the whole night to put the puzzle pieces in place, as he rose from his place in an instant, the sun wasn’t up yet. “Guy!” Who just woke up from a deep sleep and looked panicked around. “Guy! Wake up!” “What… What's going on? Are we attacked?!” “No, Guy, the Anbu units! They are going to be eradicated! At least the ones not loyal to Danzo! It just came to me, we have to do something about this!” “We…?” “Yes Guy, I need you at my side, we are a great fighting team and I am confident throwing accusations like this will not end well.” He rose to his feet and looked at Guy expectantly, but there wasn’t any movement in the face of his most trusted person. “Kakashi, think about it again, think about your position and what might happen to your future when you say something like this.” “Guy, I do not care about my position. Lives are at stake! My team! People I know! I will not stand around and idle when I could have stopped it. I rather be wrong and getting banned, that let anyone else die when I can prevent it!” Guy looked at his eyes and rose to his feet, but instead of starting to walk, he hugged him. “I will be with you, every step you take, I am your team now.” His hands gripped Guy’s shoulder tightly before he was released and they turned, to return to the village. On the way he turned to Guy: “did you managed to work out the technique to fight against a sharingan user?” “Yes! I did! I perfected it even.” “Good we will need it.” Guy looked at him confused: “do you plan on fighting Uchihas?” He didn’t answer.
The first walk in the early morning, he had to go alone into the Anbu quarters. Lockpicking was a hobby he picked up during his therapy hours, keeping his fingers busy without overclocking his brain had been one of the important things to do for him to recover. Breaking and entering was one of the things coming natural to him, as well as moving hidden while in plain sight. Being Minato's student gave him years of practice. His goal was Danzos office, Guy was right in one sense, doing such accusations without any proof was just suicide, for him and more importantly for Minato. Unseen he reached the office and it was to his luck empty, scanning his surroundings with the Sharingan thoroughly, making sure nobody was nearby. To his luck, neither Itachi nor Susiu seem in the compartment for the moment. After some concentration he found Danzo in Minato's office, just perfect, everything was set. Entering the office didn’t require any chakra, he used manual lockpicking for that, saving his chakra for important situations. Fast scan of the place, dismissing the mission reports scattered everywhere, he was looking for a safe or a hidden compartment. Something useful, he spent far too much time doing this until he checked on Danzo's position, but he was on the way back. His heart started beating faster, taking a deep breath, he just had a few moments to leave. With his Sharingan looking around suddenly indicated a scroll well hidden. Seeing the chakra of a few Anbu units near the office revealed it. In an instant, he just grabbed it and left. Whatever he wanted to do, he had to do it now fast. Getting outside was easy and grabbing Guy to sprint to the evacuation bunkers behind the Hokage faces in stone. Not reacting to the questions asked, he released the scroll and scanned fast through the contents. Which made his world freeze for a moment. This was not the full plan, this was not everything, but this was more than enough of what he needed.
Next step, rushing with Guy into Minato's office, which was empty now, luck was not on his side anymore. He activated his sharingan and looked around. Then he sighed, Minato was in a meeting with the Fire Nation Government, including the Elders. He made a fist while he thought about what to do, the scroll clenching tighter to look at Guy. But Guy seemed to have read his thoughts already and smiled, nodded. So they went along and without knocking bursting into the door. While the space for Danzo was empty, there was another empty chair on the table, a rare sight. Was he supposed to be there? Didn’t Minato want to invite him or could he just not locate him on time? Questions for later, maybe, hopefully.
Everybody in the room stared at him, most of them with anger or disgust on his actions on their faces. Minato looked worried now. “Kakashi, why do you interrupt this meeting?” He took a deep breath, had not realised that he had held that, he looked around the table into everybody's eyes, making sure everybody was listening to him until he locked eyes with Minato. “Danzo is planning to eradicate the Uchiha Clan with the use of Itachi. After intentionally sending understafffed Anbu teams into difficult mission, reducing their numbers until they are able to prevent the genocide of this clan.” One of the Civilians on the table started laughing, the Elders smiled, but he kept his seriousness, even if it was difficult in this situation. More than anything else, it was more important to save lives, with all the resolve he had left keeping his eyes locked with Minato. It felt like an eternity had passed until Minato moved again, he stretched his arm out in his direction. Homura looked at Koharu and then to Minato: “you can’t take this seriously Hokage Minato.” No answer or any word was spoken while he walked with Guy at his side around the table and handed him the scroll. Minato unfolded the scroll, finding out this was seemingly empty. Before anyone else could do something, he added as an explanation: “you can only see the contents, if you have an Sharingan.” “Then why is Danzo in the possession of such a scroll?” He opened his mouth and closed it again, he had the answer, but it was something he kept secret, even before Minato since he owned the Sharingan himself. Minato looked at him critically but agreed this wasn’t the best place to argue about that, so he sent one of his guards to catch Fugaku. “When this is true, he will be interested to hear this and having a witness does not hurt. While we wait, Kakashi, why do you do this now? Here?” A moment long he hesitated, Minato smiled: “please be honest, this is vital now.” He looked at Guy, receiving a reassuring smile. He collected his thoughts for a moment until he slowly started to explain, focussed on Minato and not looked at anyone else in the room.
“Last night I got some peace and quiet, it was the first time in the last few month…'' Here was the moment Minato looked hurt, one of the reasons he hesitated, didn’t want to give his dad the feeling he was treated in a wrong way. All his responsibilities were important, but relaxing and being calm he could only do in those few moments with Guy. “... over the last few weeks I heard talks in the Anbu quarters with a lot of failed missions and a number of teams not returning. My own team was set onto some very difficult missions we barely made out. I’ve listened to those talks, I’ve experienced it, but I didn’t think of any of it yet. Even in times without war, missions can get more difficult. Shisui and Itachi, I found out, haven’t been on any missions lately and we talked about that… around a week ago. Minato, we discussed that more than once in the last few weeks Danzo missed sending Anbu Guards for the Hokage protection, without providing a reason. And checking the recent mission reports of the Anbu units, not only Itachi and Shisui have been the only Uchihas being left out of missions, while this personnel is desperately needed.” Despite Fugaku entering the room he didn’t stop. “Specifically, Uchihas have been taken out of teams right before they have been sent to near impossible missions and in most cases, nobody else came out alive. The situation in the village with the Uchiha Clan is always critical due to their size and numbers inhabiting this village. Increasing this with raising anger by leaving Uchihas deliberately out of mission where they have been needed. Additionally alienating them from their teams by sparing them. This is intentionally expands the rift between the Clan and Uchiha, maybe causing the revolte to break out and using this as a gateway for the genocide he planned for a long time now. Using one of the most prestigious Uchiha Anbu units he has and putting it to save the rest of the village.”
The laughing had died, there were no smiles in the room anymore, everybody looked at him and was very serious. Fugaku was handed the scroll by Minato finally. Before the Hokage said anything he added: “please confirm that the scroll is in fact not empty when read with a Sharingan. Those seem to be orders in Danzo's Handwriting for Itachi to eliminate the Uchiha clan and how to do that.”
The room went silent early as Fugaku looked to him and down to the scroll with his Sharingan. Minutes passed while Fugaku not only read but seemingly digested the new information in his hands. “Young man,” Fugaku finally said, looking directly at him: “You have been very brave and I do not have words to show my gratitude and how impressed I am by your actions, young men.” Another deep breath, this time relieved, Fugaku could have played him here as well, but cooperation was beneficial for everyone. “Kakashi, one thing you have to explain, how can Danzo read this? Much less writing, he is not in the possession of a Sharingan.”
Under his mask he bit his lip and turned his head around to look at the floor. “Apologies Fugaku-sama, but it’s not my intention to point such an obvious fact to you all out.” Minato and Fugaku exchanged looks, Minato looked at him: “since when do you know?” “Since I entered the Hokage office for the first time with Danzo present, after receiving my Sharingan.” “Why did nobody else notice? We have a whole clan full of them.” “Why would anyone else activate their Sharingan in Danzo's presence, who never left the village in the last 5 years. I can not deactivate it… tending to see different things than anyone else.” The silence in this room filled his mind slowly after his words. “How did he even get one Sharingan?” He shrugged at that, no idea was the answer he could give, it wasn’t like they did a count on Uchiha Clan members who activated their Sharingan. More specifically, those who activated their Sharingan and died. Fugaku sent a guard to catch Itachi and Shisui, wanting them here to listen in on this. Nobody in the room objected anymore to anything that was going on, which relieved him even further, they did not only believe him, they understood action was needed.
While Itachi and Shisui positioned themselves hidden in the room, they awaited Danzo. By now the scroll was gone, saved and protected in the archive. Fugaku and Minato had talked silently to each other, more guards had been called and were now present. He was advised to stand behind Minato with Guy never moving from his side. Fugaku smiled at him while he got lost in thought, nervous of the outcome while not showing this. Both Uchiha Anbus have not been told the details, just to be ready, there wasn’t enough time because Danzo was nearby already. His hand wandered into his pocket to clutch one of the Kunais Minato had given him for his unique technique, it reassured him to do the right thing here, whatever would come next. Danzo stepped into the room and took his seat without paying attention to anyone in the room. The Anbu Leader's eyes went darker when seeing Fugaku in the room, but he didn’t say anything to it, just watched Minato expectedly. After further silence, he asked, already annoyed: “Is there a reason the meeting has paused I should be aware of?” “Yes” was Minato's short answer, looking at himself, then to Danzo again, to Fugaku. The latter activated the Sharingan and nodded, then Danzo tensed in his seat visibly. “Kakashi is correct, again” he clarified the ownership of Sharingan, until deactivating his own again. Danzo was ready to fight or flight, he didn’t move, because he was the centre of attention now. “Hatake boy, all those years you kept your mouth shut like a tame puppy and now, now you blurt that out? Disappointed as usual.” Nobody reacted to that, nobody took Danzo seriously at those words, his own words confirming the secret they shared for the last 5 years. Minato was deep in thought, possibly trying to solve this situation in a peaceful manner, but he himself didn’t believe it was an option at all.
“Why do you want to use Itachi to eradicate the Uchiha clan? Of all people?” He blurted out and the attention of the room was with him again, you could nearly grip the air in the room, such an intense mood was present. “Why do you let your boy spout nonsense again Minato? It’s a shame that the Hokage role has been diminished that much since you trained him. It’s said.” “That’s not an answer” it was Fugaku asking his question now. Danzo looked at the Uchiha leader and grinned. No other words were spoken until he attacked Minato. Himself, Guy, Shusui and Itachi were on him before any of the other guards could even make a move. Himself protecting Minato with his whole body, instead of just blocking the attack. Something they would talk about later, he was sure, but now, a fight broke out.
The limited space made it difficult for anyone to move and the fight took longer. Due to a team attack, he was able to cut down the badges on Danzo's Neck and his shoulder, already revealing half a dozen Sharingan under that. The fight escalated in a full on battle after this, some Anbu units loyally supported Danzo. But the more the bandages were released the less support he got from his own units. More and more Ninjas of Konoha caught attention of the fight, assisting the fight in supporting the Hokage. Not only Minato was part of the fight, Kushina didn’t put any lesser efforts in this fight than her husband. Only a short moment he had to ask himself who is taking care of Naruto right now, but more pressing matters were in front of him.
Specifically, his chakra running out and Danzo building up a Gen-jutsu. Involuntary he shuddered in the middle of another team attack with Guy, which they had to break off because his timing failed. His hands were shaking, panic, panic attack he deduced fast. Don’t have time for that, he scolded himself but was just frozen in the middle of the battlefield. Looking at the other Uchiha Clan members, most of them were busy balancing out the Sharingans of Danzo. “Itachi!”
He shouted out, desperate, Guy at his side worried, Itachi looked at him and understood the message. Holding onto Guy for support, he focussed the remaining Chakra in his Sharingan, but then he was hit hard, Itachi as well. Shisui helped Itachi up, but he couldn’t move and they were running out of time.
“You both! We distract him!”
He looked at Shisui and Itachi, both nodded, he looked at Guy and directed his remaining chakra instead into his legs to be more proficient with thai jutsu. Mostly just to be able to keep up a bit with Guy, which still failed due to his exhaustion. On the fly he had to learn to fight against an opponent by looking only at their feet, avoiding the Sharingan. But if he was one thing, then it was being resourceful and learning new jutsus/techniques fast. This was one the reasons he got his nickname. He felt the dispel of the Gen-jutsu, his brain fog caused by panic cleared with it. Using his attention to the situation now to come up with a plan.
Guy didn’t need much instruction and assisted him getting Minato's attention, this worked well without many words either. Minato had an idea what he wanted to do and was on board. So they joined some Jo-nins in the next attack, while Guy swooped in with a distraction, landing Minato's Kunai close enough to Danzo for both of them to do a jump.
Yes, while he learned the Flying Thunder God Jutsu in theory a while ago. But actually using it was another level of skill. Minato landed and was ready to go, he needed a few seconds, nearly too long to recover from the jump to use anything. Fugaku came in clutch and was able to distract Danzo enough to give him the time. Minato's Rasengan hit Danzo in the chest while he was able to summon Chidori and landed a hit in Danzo's neck.
Both of them, Danzo and himself, went straight to the ground and hit the floor hard. The last thing he saw before losing consciousness was the lifeless face of his opponent. His brain filled with hope of success in this matter allowed him a long restful and calm sleep.
The next thing he knew when waking up was, his head was fine, it was dusk and he was not in the hospital. Which made him immediately more awake, just to hear the slightly fainted but clearly distinguished voices from Minato, Kushina and Naruto. Seems to be dinner time. So he was safe, slowly he rose to his feet and took a sip of water next to his bed. Steady he made his way downstairs to stand in the doorframe and watch the family unfold before his eyes. Naruto was throwing his vegetables around, Kushina tried to stop him while Minato made a game out of it to catch it on time, put it on the plate just for it to be thrown again. Kushina and Minato sighed at that, Naruto let out a lot of squealing and laughter. He could not resist smiling under his mask, there were definitely worse things to wake up to. Naruto froze and jumped from the chair when he spotted him. Before he could stop him, he was tackled to the ground in a hug. Shocked gasps in the background and more chairs moving, the yellow ball of happiness was pulled from him and scolded by Kushina. While the other more adult yellow haired men helped him to his feet and onto a chair. He just waved the concerned face of Minato off, he was fine, much worse had hit him than a 5 year old. More food was bought and the next time was only listening to Naruto on the details of what he had done in pre-school and what “ninja-things” he had learned already.
After Minato brought Naruto to bed with a story, the time he spent in the shower, they got together with Kushina as well in the living room. “Before you ask, I feel fine. How much time has passed?” “Two days, you didn’t miss anything, the Anbu units are under my command.” He nodded, it was good not to have slept for too long. “More importantly, nobody is severely injured, there are some recovering in the hospital still, nobody died during the attack” added Kushina which eased much more his posture and mind.
“One question I have to ask though, how did you got your hands on the scroll?” He hesitated and Minato caught up on that immediately: “please, you can tell me everything. I will not judge you.” “Lockpicking was one of the things I picked up after my brain injury, so I didn’t have to use any Chakra to get into Danzo's office and could leave the seals intact. After some looking around with the Sharingan, the scroll jumped at me… in a way.” “While I do not approve the method, I understand your actions and I am glad to you did what you did.” And there he was immediately judged, Kushina noticed it as well and gave Minato a push. The Hokage looked confused until he sighed: “Kakashi, thank you for breaking into Danzo's office, you saved a lot of lives and this village from a big catastrophe. Please never take my words diminishing how impressed I am by you all the time and how much I appreciate and love you as my son. What I want to do is for you to think of a solution to a situation you can apply when you are in my role as well. This is what I meant by the method.” “He is still a child Minato! You can’t judge him on adults!” “Something even I tend to forget '' he added that himself took the looks of Minato and Kushina for that. It was sometimes easy to forget himself, that he was a teenager still and adulthood was years ahead of him. “Please Kakashi” added Kushina now: “please never get the feeling you can’t tell us anything, you are our son and we will be here for you, whatever happens. We will support you, whatever you are going to do and we will not leave you. Never.” Minato nodded and now it was on him to cry. They just sat in silence for a long time, enjoying each other's company and warmth. Minato was the first to stand up and get them something to drink, the Hokage expected to sit here for a while and he was not able to disagree with that.
After they talked about the hospital, the injured, Naruto and Kushina's work. They went briefly over the political situation, but this was the shortest topic of them all. “So… Kakashi, when are you going to introduce Guy to us as your boyfriend” Kushina asked with a smile, Minato choked on his water and his own face went red. “Kushina, you don’t even know if they are together! They might just be friends. And you can’t just ask something like this.” “Why not? You are treating him like an adult all the time and it’s really obvious that Kakashi spends his timeouts with Guy all the time. Right?” Slowly he nodded, something he never told anyone either and he could for the life of him not explain how Guy could hold this information for all those times. But he did and this showed him even more how much he could trust Guy, not only with his life. “We are… together… if you want to put it like this, for a few years now.” That’s where Minato and Kushina dropped their glasses. “What?! Why didn’t you tell us?!” “I knew it, Minato! You owe me a weekend babysitting!” He himself had not the slightest idea how this could get more embarrassing from here, but it did. “Why did you keep him a secret?” At this question he looked directly at Minato, Kushina looked confused but the Hokage realised very quickly what he meant without saying it. Minato saves Kushina a kiss as he gets on his feet, just to kneel directly in front of him now. “Kakashi. You are who you are, the person you love and trust is not disqualifying you for anything in life.” “You always tell me to behave like a Hokage candidate not to embarass you.” Minato looked hurt at that, but he just got a kiss on his forehead. “I do and you know what? Loving Guy and telling us that, is still behaving like a Hokage candidate.” He had no words after that, Kushina hugged them both and they sat in silence for a long time, sipping the water on the table.
After his short recovery period, his mandatory check on everyone, specifically Guy, he was back in the Hokage office for his duty.
“Kakashi, good to see you.” “Minato-sama, we are living in the same house.” He just received a smile as an answer. “I have a specific task, not a role for you. Just for you and this is not something new. This was discussed and planned for a long time, but Danzo always voted against it. This problem is now out of the way, the elders approve of you and your actions more, so this was agreed upon.”
“Okay, what do you have in mind for me? There isn’t a promotion possible from Anbu Leader to my knowledge.” “You are leaving the Anbu units.” He was taken back by that statement: “did I do something to…” “Kakashi, this is not a demotion or a punishment, I want you to be a reconnaissance unit for Konoha.” “A what?”
Minato smiled wider: “a reconnaissance unit. Not only have Anbu units died a lot on missions recently, we are after the war but we have a large amount of casualties on the route back to Konoha, across all ranks.
Now I’ve decided to do something about that and this is going to be your task.
You are not going on active missions anymore, in turn you will be available 24/7 in case a team returning from their mission in the borders of the land of the fire needs support.” He raised his eyebrows at this, but stayed silent for now.
“It took so long because this is changing the role of a Konoha Ninja, you are not getting paid per mission, you are getting a salary per month, as long as you do this role. You are included in any relevant bounties if that’s coming into play during a rescue.” “So… I save lives, pay, whenever I am needed and stay in the village for the majority of the time?” “Yes, this about sums it up and you salary will be…”
“I take the role.”
Minato smiled again, but this time, happy. “I am glad Kakashi. The program is new, so I will for the time being direct any help request via Falcon directly to you, please make sure to divert requests which are outside of our borders to me. I know I can trust you with that. Everything else you can take off. There is a very easy jutsu I’ve developed which creates an alert, including a chakra signature to follow. We are currently teaching that to all relevant teams, the Anbu units are going to make aware of that from tomorrow on and all others ranks are following. It will take some time until your personal alert is going to work, so I ask you to keep an eye on both.” “You can trust me Minato-sama.” “I know I can and I am proud of you, to take this responsibility on.” “Thank you for the trust in me to fulfil this role.”
Since there was nothing else that seemingly needed to be said, he activated his Sharingan to search for Guy. Minato looked confused until he understood and smiled, watching his protege climbing out of the window.
“Oh, one more thing Kakashi. You have to think about a new group of summoning companions. They will be vital for communication and messaging in your new job. I know this is hard, but I wouldn’t ask you to do that, if it wasn’t important.” He halted at that, replacing Pakkun, even after all those years was not even something that had come into his mind yet. They died, he still felt this loss and there was nothing that could replace them. But he was mature enough to understand the reasoning, so he nodded and left the office.
It took him only a short moment to find Guy on the training ground, so he sped as fast as he could over the roofs, into the forest, jumping over branches to reach him. He had to tell him, he had to tell him now. Paying attention to anything other than Guy himself in his vision, arriving at the place he jumped right onto him, expecting to be catched, but they tumbled, fell over in a hug and he let out a small giggle at that.
“You should pay more attention to your surroundings”, he advised, still with a grin on his face, his arms around Guy while both of them were laying now in the grass. But he just looked at a completely shocked face, that was unusual. The first time he paid attention to his remaining surroundings, there was a person behind him clearing his throat loudly to get his attention. Slowly he turned his head and understood that he had bashed into an active training session between Guy’s Team and their Sensei. The visible part of his face went full red and he stumbled to his feet, scratched his head: “apologies Akimichi sensei.” He got a laugh in response, from Sensei and Guy’s teammates. The latter got finally back to his feet and into formation again. Akimichi continued: “as we discussed, next week the teams are going to be restructured and since we don’t have any further information, we are treating this as the last session. It was an honour working with you all and I know you all become great Ninjas.” “THANK YOU SENSEI!” The team replied in a chorus and he felt really bad now to have literally jumped in and interrupted it. Sensei Akimichi looked at him now: “I think you two have things to discuss. I wish you a nice afternoon.” “Apologies and Thank you.” “No need to, this was a good opportunity, I had no idea how to lighten this day up even a bit. Your entry just missed a bit of thunder.” With a wink the Sensei was gone, the team members left shortly after, leaving him with Guy alone. Both standing there, faces blushed in the deepest red and much longer silent than he wanted.
After they spent time lying in the grass in more silence, it was Guy which started with: “so… what news do you bring?” “I am leaving the Anbu units.” Without him being able to blink Guy jumped to his feet to stare at him: “WHAT?! Why? What happened that you got punished? And why are you smiling?” After he pulled Guy down into the grass again, he took his mask off and gave him a kiss. It was not common for him to show Guy how much he felt for him, but now it felt necessary. Guy, red in his face, which was a pretty contrast to his green jumpsuit, only slowly calmed down enough for him to explain the new role he had gotten.
“That’s great! That’s… I can’t believe Kakashi! This means… it means…” Guy seemed stunned, not too stunned to pull him in a crushing hug and spend the next 20 minutes to list all the things they could do now. Since they both had more time in the village likely. And admittedly, most of the things sounded really nice. But spending time with Guy was the best thing of all possibilities.
After this they sat around in silence for a while longer, until he began to talk again: “let me know how the restructuring of team goes and what they assign you to now.” “Kakashi, I do not want you to interfere with that, they assign me where I will be needed.” “You need to be doing the Jo-nin exam by now.” “I… actually thought about registrering after asking the Hokage directly…” “I support you in that.” “You would?!” “Of course I would. You are a great ninja Guy and I will help you prepare you for the exam.” “But I do not want to…” “I will not tell you what the exam is about, but there are things you specifically need to prepare and be aware of to be able to compete with other ninjas who can use gen and nin-jutsu. This is just fair.” “I love you Kakashi. And I will succeed in the exam. For you, myself and the power of youth” the last part of this sentence was shouted into the sky, while the noise hurt his ears and he boxed Guy into the side for this. He promised one thing silently, he would make sure that everybody got a fair chance in this village. Starting with Guy was not a bad thing.
The next few weeks he juggled his new tasks, helping Kushina with Naruto or Minato with his Paperwork, next to spending time with Guy’s training and exam preparation. Minato had without hesitation agreed to sign Guy up for the Jo-nin exams. Then there were his actual tasks, the reconnaissance, which in the first month made a huge impact on the survival rate of ninjas. Four different Anbu teams he was able to save from the brink of death, several Jo-nin groups arrived in Konoha less injured than expected and even helped guard an Akademie excursion safely back to the village. Every mission had to have detailed paperwork, since he was not paid by mission anymore, but he didn’t mind that. Each saved life was worth the additional 3 pages in writing as soon as he left the village. Busy periods with lots of tasks for him were balanced by calm and quiet times, where he could focus on tasks in the village and for the first time in his life, recover. Not only physically, but as announced, more therapy was on his plan as much as he was able to attend. They met up twice a week, more if desperately needed, which was more than once the case. Each team he saved gave him nightmares of his own team he failed to save, but he could not run around blaming him for that for the rest of his life. He had so much more to live for.