Chapter Text
After Wave, Naruto has trouble sleeping.
He keeps seeing Sakura and Sasuke dying in his dreams. For the most part, it's Sasuke, littered with senbon and dying in his arms, but he also sees Sakura on the road, bloodied and torn by the two missing-nin that jumped them at the start of the mission. He sees Kakashi-sensei slowly suffocate in Zabuza's water prison.
By the sixth night of interrupted sleep, Naruto, with panic still in his throat and his hands shaking, glances toward his lackluster supplies and makes a decision in the midst of his own fear. He chops apart a few shirts, visits one of the few stores that allow him into their walls in the morning, and spends his last ryo from before the Wave mission on a sewing set, stuffing, and faux-fur in a comfortingly familiar shade of silver. All of it, he knows, is overpriced by virtue of his presence. Rent was due the other day, and he should save this until the funds from the Wave mission are dispensed.
He doesn't care.
With his mind still spinning over his nightmares, Naruto clutches his shopping bag close to his chest and putters home with drooping eyes. The work that follows is tedious and hard, but Naruto doesn't give up. He threads the needles as many times as it takes to get a good enough knot, and he binds pieces of fabric together until they start to take a vague shape.
Naruto rubs his eyes. As he carefully fills the stuffie, he realizes he missed a spot, and the stuffing starts spilling out the leg. Groaning, he backtracks to fix it.
Eventually, the stuffie takes the form of a fat, plush version of his sensei, and for the first time in over a day, he manages a wobbly smile. He isn't dumb. He knows Kakashi didn't ask for them as a team, and he knows his sensei probably thinks he's annoying, but despite that, his sensei's strength brings him solace and ease. Maybe the older man thinks Naruto is obnoxious, but he still lets Naruto hold the back of his flak jacket when he needs comfort. Sensei would rather read his gross porn novel than train them, but he still ruffles Naruto's hair when he does a good job.
Kakashi comforts him.
"Kaka-sensei," Naruto whispers, patting the stuffie's silver hair in a similar way his sensei does to him. His anxious heart settles. "He doesn't look a lot like you, but that's okay, ne?" Pulling it into his arms, he sighs. The soft pressure against his chest, like a hug if Kakashi-sensei had no arms, makes the tight sensation in his ribcage go away. "I think you're perfect, 'ttebayo."
A glance at the clock steals away the peaceful moment as he realizes he's late for training. Darting for the bed and swiftly tucking in Plushie-sensei, Naruto crams things into his backpack and sprints out the door. A heartbeat later, he cracks it open to poke his head back in with a smile. "Bye, Plushie-sensei."
That night, he sleeps the soundest he has in a week. The stuffie is here to stay.
Naruto keeps him close when he hangs out at home, placing the approximation of his sensei across from him at the table as he studies from a scroll. When he gets frustrated with the words and sick of sitting still, he drags it into his arms, the stuffie's back to his chest and his chin buried in its silver hair. "Words are hard, sensei," he mutters. After a beat, he quietly admits, "I don't know all the kanji, 'ttebayo. I know I'm supposed to, and I know Iruka-sensei would be disappointed if he knew, but there's just so many. Mah, you'd probably be disappointed, too."
Plushie-sensei, predictably, doesn't answer.
"Sakura and Sasuke would think I'm more stupid than they already do, and you're literally a genius, dattebayo. You're kinda weird, maybe a little lazy, but you're super smart and strong, and you know a lot of cool jutsu. You always keep us safe, sensei."
Sighing, Naruto turns back to the scroll and flattens it out a bit, running his finger over the character staring him in the face. He doesn't get it, so he skips ahead to the next one he recognizes, doing his best to infer meaning in what came before it. Naruto takes hours simply parsing out the lesson inside, and by the time he makes it through once, it's time for bed. So, gathering up the length of the scroll and tucking Plushie-sensei under his arm, he heads for the bedroom to change into his pajamas.
A few more days pass, and Naruto idly wonders if Plushie-sensei gets lonely while he's out training, and he decides maybe another project might be in order. This one doesn't need to be as big, maybe as tall as both his hands, and without his nightmares nipping at his heels, he takes more time to design it. Soon enough, a gangly version of Kakashi-sensei, adorned with the man's infamous eye-smile, takes shape.
"There, sensei," Naruto chirps, resting the noodly version of Kakashi between Plushie-sensei's stubby legs. "Now you won't be lonely."
It doesn't take long for Naruto to decide his plants need a Kakashi to protect them, too. This one needs to be wooden or metal to survive outside. Before long, a carved wooden dangle that fits in his palm hangs on the hook of one of his vine supports. His painting skills aren't the best, but it's still recognizable, and the image of a tiny Kakashi using chidori on a beetle makes him happy.
They're silly and childish. Naruto knows that. He still can't bring himself to care. Instead, he shows Plushie-sensei and Noodly-sensei the new addition to their ranks, Exterminator-sensei.
Naruto skips off to training the next day with a beaming smile on his face and some pep in his step. Kakashi-sensei is, as usual, unfashionably late, and he wastes no time unleashing them upon Konoha's D-ranks and sticking his nose in his book. Naruto rolls his eyes as the jounin pretends to ignore them and sets to work. Sakura and Sasuke follow shortly behind.