Naruto wants all the smoke.

Minato-sensei… your kid is a blonde little piece of shit… Kakashi thought as he tried to kill Minato’s son. He took a deep breathe, his cool facade needed to be maintained. 

“Unfortunately, I’m not the romantic type, but I’m nearly 100% sure that I saw Romeo and Juliette on Naruto’s bookshelf… post-its with annotations in it and everything!” Kakashi thought, thinking that he’d finally managed to get the genin back.

Naruto just shrugged, “I guess we’ll never know… Kakashi-sensei,” Naruto called out to his sensei, “Shall I compare thee to a piece of bird shit? Thou art more white and more ill-fated, Rough pieces do coat the branches of Sakura trees…” Naruto went on to quote Shakespeare, God knows how he knew it all. 

Sakura was pissed at the vulgar language, Kakashi was both amused by the creativity and pissed at the smooth recovery, and Sasuke, frankly, didn’t give a shit. 

Kakashi was dedicated to getting Naruto to freak out, he knew exactly how to push the buttons of the others, but Naruto was always so composed…

“Okay, my cuties,” he loved Sasuke and Sakura’s faces curl up in disgust, Naruto just kept staring off into the distance, “Today, we are changing up the pace, the Chunin Exams are coming up, I’d like you to be better prepared, so for the next 3 months, our training will be much more specialized. We will be having one-on-one discussions about where you would like your training to be focused today, who would like to go first?”

Unsurprisingly, Sasuke raised his hand up instantly. Kakashi prepared himself for the onset of verbal vomit about killing his beloved older brother, Itachi.

“I want to become strong enough to destroy Itachi.” Sasuke started on his Itachi tangent again. Blah blah blah, Itachi this, Itachi that, that’s all Kakashi ever heard from him. 

“Okay, Sasuke, what would you like to do to improve yourself as a ninja?” Kakashi inquired.

“Teach me your strongest jutsu.” Sasuke said, serious as a heart attack.

Kakashi just about fell over, no way I’m teaching this twirp the Chidori.

“Hard pass, how about taijutsu lessons?” Kakashi suggested. 

“If you don’t teach me the jutsu, I’m going to use the Uchiha fortune to buy out all the Icha Icha publishing company and cancel the series.”

“Deal.”

Naruto applauded Sasuke in his head, he wished he could pull that card, but Naruto was so broke it wasn’t even funny…

Naruto kicked back against a shaded tree while Sakura took her turn to talk to Kakashi, he dozed off, their conversation very boring to him, mainly consisting of her wanting to impress Sasuke, but he perked up when he heard her talk about medical ninjutsu, little Mrs. Sasuke Uchiha had a personality outside of loving Sasuke! Holy fucknuggets, what a discovery!

Kakashi listened to Sakura ramble about how amazing she thought Princess Tsunade was and how she wanted to follow in her footsteps, it was touching really, too bad she was nowhere to be found, probably out gambling or something. Maybe he could convince the Hokage to bring force Tsunade back… that idea has some merit to it, the real problem would be getting her to come back though. Tsunade was one stubborn bitch. 

Naruto was dozing on the ground when he heard footsteps approaching him, right as they got to him, he sat up and straightened up his hat from over his eyes so he could see who it was. 

Kakashi sat down next to Naruto as the two of them stared off into space. 

“What would you like to work on Naruto?” 

Naruto thought about it for a second and pulled out the bingo book he had that he studied in his free time, he handed it to Kakashi.

“I circled every Konoha shinobi, and a couple others, who have something that I’d like to learn from. There are five people in there circled.” With that, Naruto walked off. 

Kakashi sat up late that night… Naruto had circled five people, Minato-sensei, not shocking, everyone wanted to be him, Tsunade, which was a little surprising, Jiraiya, and one that really surprised him was Killer B, his technique involved his Tailed Beast, Naruto shouldn’t know that he houses the Nine-Tails… should he?

He spent a good hour looking for the last person, he didn’t even bother looking at his page, no way it was him, Naruto hardly knew him.

He decided he should just ask the boy. He was straightforward. No, he wasn’t, that was a lie. Naruto was about as straightforward as a romance novel when the two main characters get together in the first chapter… not straightforward at all. 

He shushined into Naruto’s apartment nonetheless, he arrived to an empty apartment, he saw a note on the counter addressed to.. Kakashi himself??? That’s wild… How did Naruto know  that Kakashi would go to his apartment???

Little did Kakashi know, Naruto writes a note and leaves it on the counter addressed to Kakashi every time he leaves his apartment, knowing that Kakashi likes to drop in and surprise people, he visits Naruto quite often, always unannounced, but usually, pretty welcomed, Naruto secretly loves the company. He’d never admit it though.

The letter read:

Kakashi-sensei,

I’ve gone to Training Ground 6 to train, it’s 6 o’clock now. I’ll be returning at 10. You can wait if you like. 

Naruto

Kakashi was gobstopped that he’d become predictable. He decided he’d just wait Naruto out, it was like 9 anyways, he pulled out his Icha Icha and read until he started feeling drowsy and decided to dose off as he waited. 

Naruto arrived home after a refreshing training session, his head was nice and cleared again, he even smiled at some of the villagers that glared at him as he passed. 

“I can’t write one song that’s not about youuuuuuuu….” Naruto sang in his head, thinking about ramen and training. 

He pulled out his keys and walked into his apartment, not really all that surprised to see his eternally late sensei on his couch, what surprised him more was that he was asleep.

He decided to let him sleep, no pranks this time. God knows, the man needed it, Naruto was always out late training back before they got assigned their genin teams, so he recalls always seeing a familiar white haired ninja standing in front of the memorial stone, just staring at it. Naruto figured that the man probably didn’t sleep much, he wasn’t judging though, Naruto was a raging insomniac. 

He made some chamomile tea, which he read in a book, was good for sleep, and picked Kakashi’s book up off of the ground. 

After he had everything set up, he leaned over into Kakashi’s ear and said, “This is for the D ranks.”

He then proceeded to give Kakashi a wet willie. 

Kakashi shot awake and swatted Naruto’s hand away instantly, little shit. He found that he was covered in a light blanket and his book was placed on the table next to the couch along with a cup of tea. Chamomile by the smells of it. 

“Naruto, fancy seeing you here, what a pleasant way to wake someone up.” Kakashi remarked, sarcastically.

“Indubitably.” Naruto said with a straight face. 

There was silence.

More silence.

No one was saying anything.

Naruto loved making people uncomfortable with silence, he was more than used to sitting in awkward silence, so he just waited for Kakashi to talk.

Another 5 minutes, Kakashi takes a long sip of his tea, maintaining heavy eye contact. Then he nearly choked when Naruto held his stare intensely. 

He cleared his throat. 

“So I was reading the bingo book you gave me–” Kakashi started, “I found four of the circles, Killer B, Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Mina– I mean the Fourth Hokage. Did you miscount?”

“No.” Naruto said, knowing Kakashi wouldn’t be able to find the fifth circle.

“Care to elaborate?”

“No.”

Kakashi wasn’t prepared for such a frank answer, but he stood up and got ready to leave, Naruto stopped him.

“I was kidding, check page 151.”

Kakashi grabbed the book out of his pocket and opened it up to the page. It was him. Kakashi’s page was heavily circled in bright red, it looked like the page was worn too, like Naruto had been studying it, there were watermarks and small little tears and a lot of dog ear marks. 

“It’s me.”

“Yeah. It’s you.”

Kakashi was shocked. Minato-sensei’s son wanted to be like him? He was Naruto’s idol? Kakashi simply couldn’t believe it. Naruto couldn’t be him, he could be so much better. Kakashi was nothing but scum, the dirt of the world. 

“Maaa~ stop joking around Naruto, who is it, really?” Kakashi knew that there was no was that was true. 

“Okay, fine, it’s in this Bingo book, page 72.” Naruto handed him another book as he spoke.

Kakashi was filled with relief as he realized that maybe Naruto didn’t want to be like him, a piece of shit who let his teammates and sensei die. There was also a small part of him that was disappointed, but he didn’t want to admit it. 

Kakashi opened to page 72. It was… him again. Except, he was older this time. The last one was when he was 14, this one is when he was about 20, after all of the death that surrounded him. Naruto would have been pretty young. 

“It’s me again… is this a joke, Naruto?” Kakashi glanced up at the tiny genin in front of him.

“No…” 

Kakashi glanced up at Naruto. Naruto seemed… anxious. For the first time, Naruto didn’t seem so cool. Kakashi was filled with a range of emotions, pride at being someone Naruto could be proud of, sorrow that he wasn’t the man that Naruto thought he was, happiness that he could do something for the boy that did so much for the village, and so many others. 

Kakashi just stared at Naruto for a good minute, Naruto meeting his stare with his shoulders square like he always does, they flashed with disappointment then, Kakashi was a bit confused as to why Naruto seemed so hurt until Naruto quietly said, “You know, what? Forget it…” 

He took the books from Kakashi and tucked them away neatly into his bookcase. 

He then started towards the door, grabbing his hat and keys on the way out.

“Hate to be rude, but would you mind seeing yourself out?” Naruto said, acting like nothing happened. He closed the door behind him.

Naruto shut the door and calmly walked towards the training grounds. He had shown more emotion there than he had since he was eight and learned he housed the kyuubi. 

He got to his training ground, his blood was rushing and his hands were twitching. 

Naruto punched and punched and punched, not making a sound, not even as his hands were bleeding. Not even as he started to feel a disconnected pain in his right hand that only grew as he continued. 

He went to punch again until a gloved hand grabbed his wrist. His knee-jerk reaction kicked in and he kneed the person who grabbed him in the stomach, whoever it was, blocked him with ease. 

“Naruto.” It was Kakashi.

“‘Sup.” Naruto stayed cool, it hurt like a bitch that Kakashi obviously didn’t want him as his protege, but that was cool, he would move past it like he always had. 

He heard Kakashi draw in a breath to speak and he just stared him down, preparing to be berated for having hope of being accepted. But then the unexpected happened. 

Kakashi pulled him into a hug. 

Naruto flinched at first but then drew a shuddering breath and returned it. He hadn’t been hugged in years, he certainly didn’t expect it from Kakashi, a man who is praised for his cool attitude.  

“I don’t think I deserve to be someone you look up to, Naruto.”

Naruto sighed, hummed and said, “Why?”

“That’s a story for another time.” Kakashi said and Naruto didn’t push. 

Naruto hummed and after a moment said with a smile that didn’t come anywhere near his eyes, which were filled with concealed sadness.

 “Well, until given a reason otherwise, 151 and 72 will always be my favorite page.”

Kakashi felt like shit, he made this boy feel unwanted, the village already did that, Naruto didn’t need any more rejection, he was about to say something until he saw Naruto’s hands. 

“Christ Almighty, Naruto.” Kakashi breathed out. He grabbed the boy’s hand and saw it covered in blood, then gently pushed on his knuckles and Naruto instantly winced and tried to hide it. If he hadn’t known the boy for so long, he wouldn't have even been able to tell. 

“It’s nothing.” Naruto snatched his hand back, but Kakashi was ready for that and grabbed both of his knuckles and inspected them.

“They don’t seem broken, but they are incredibly bruised.” Kakashi wrapped up his knuckles and bandaged them. 

Naruto still seemed a little colder towards him than before, Kakashi sat Naruto down on a bench near the training grounds.

“Naruto,” Kakashi started. The boy was staring off into space again, trying to ignore Kakashi.

“Naruto, listen to me.” Kakashi said, firmly. 

Icy blue eyes snapped to Kakashi, filled with pain, betrayal, and something that absolutely killed Kakashi, understanding. Obviously, Naruto thought Kakashi was rejecting him, based on his reaction, and he feels that it makes sense to be rejected? That he deserves it?

“Naruto, I want to teach you. I would teach you everything I know right now if I could,” Kakashi heard Naruto suck in a breath, “I’m sorry I made you think the wrong thing, you are quite the anomaly, you deserve so much better than me, so much better than anyone in this village.”

“No, I don’t…” Naruto quietly mumbled. 

“What?”

“I deserve what I have now. Nothing.” Naruto snapped. “Stop lying to me.”

“Naruto.” 

He looked up.

“You don’t deserve this.”

Naruto shook his head.

“You do not deserve this treatment.”

“Stop lying to me.”

“I’m not lying, you deserve so much better.”

“No–”

“Naruto, you deserve nothing but the best.”

“Stop it–”

“Not until you believe it.”

Naruto turned away from Kakashi.

Kakashi grabbed his shoulders. 

“Naruto.”

He looked right into Naruto’s soul and said, “You don’t deserve it. You are not defined by what the villagers say.”

It was like a dam broke in Naruto’s mind. The cool and calm boy had tears starting to well up in his eyes.

“I don’t?”

“Not even a little bit of it.”

Naruto started to reach out to Kakashi and he pulled his sensei into a tight hug and started crying for the first time since he was very young. 

“I’m proud to be your sensei, Naruto.” Kakashi said, roughly. 

“Thank you,” Naruto said in a shaky voice, they both knew what he meant. 

Thank you for accepting me.

Thank you for believing in me.

Thank you for seeing me.