Chapter Text
“Watch it!"
Sparks flew an inch from Naruto’s face, the clang of colliding steel rang through the air as the kunai Kakashi had thrown knocked the ones the enemy had sent Naruto’s way off course.
“Where’s your head at, Naruto?” Kakashi asked as the two of them leapt into the trees to catch up with the rest of their team.
“Why are we retreating? We can take them.”
It had been a while since he’d had a good fight. The escort mission they were returning from had been completely uneventful and boring, and Naruto had a hell of a lot of energy left to burn.
“I’d rather avoid picking a fight with an unknown enemy if we can help it. If they follow us over the border into the Land of Fire, then we can fight them.”
“Yeah, okay, you’re right,” Naruto groused.
Kakashi landed close to Naruto on the next tree branch, reached over, and flicked him in side of the head. “Stop pouting,” he commanded him as he jumped to the next branch, the affectionate lilt to his voice unmistakable despite his authoritative tone.
Naruto rubbed his head, glaring at the back of Kakashi’s even as his mouth insisted on smiling.
“Jackass,” he muttered.
“I heard that!”
“I meant you to, asshole!”
Kakashi looked over his shoulder at him, his eyes crinkling at the corners like they did when he smiled. “Now Naruto, is that any way to speak to your captain?”
“It is when my captain’s being a dick.”
Naruto’s smile widened out into a grin at the sound of Kakashi’s bark of laughter.
“Insubordinate little shit.”
Naruto opened his mouth to retort, but Shikamaru interrupted him when he called over his shoulder, “Would you two give it a rest already?”
“What?” Kakashi asked, his voice the kind of nonchalant innocence that only he could achieve. “I’m just trying to teach my bratty little student here.”
“You sound like Granny Tsunade when you call me a brat, you know,” Naruto said, battling his laugh when Kakashi clutched dramatically at his chest at the insult. “And who the hell are you calling little? We’re the same height!”
“I’m clearly taller,” Kakashi said airily.
“It only looks like it cuz your hair’s all sticky uppy and shit.”
“Sticky uppy?”
“Shut up! You know what I mean. Whatever. Your hair doesn’t count toward your height, dumbass.”
Kakashi laughed again, sounding delighted even as he cried, “You’re so mean to me!”
“I’ll stop being mean when you stop deserving it.”
“Do they always bicker like this?” Shikamaru asked Sakura.
She sighed. “Lately, it’s all they ever do.”
“I’ve read,” Sai said from where he ran beside Ino, “that trading insults can be a way of flirting with a prospective romantic partner.”
“We’re not flirting,” Naruto insisted, a little thrill of panic churning in his gut.
Because, in all honesty, he was flirting. He’d been flirting with Kakashi for a while now, for months, ever since he’d been dared to do it by Konohamaru during an ill-advised game of Truth or Dare.
The game was long over, but once he had started flirting with Kakashi, he’d found himself unable to stop. It was fun, exhilarating. And it helped him to release some of the longing he’d harbored for the man for the last five years.
Kakashi didn’t know how he felt. And he never would because there was no way in hell he’d ever see Naruto as anything other than his bratty student, and Naruto would be damned if he risked the easy friendship he’d developed with his former sensei. But despite his obliviousness to Naruto's hopeless love for him, Kakashi rose to the bait every time, trading barbs with Naruto as if they had always been equals circling around each other in this strange little dance of theirs.
And if Naruto dreamed sometimes of mischievous dark eyes and flashing silver hair, no one had to know.
Or at least they wouldn’t as long as Sai kept his big mouth shut.
“Why do you still read those books anyway? You’re already dating Ino. Don’t you know how things work by now?”
“Don’t listen to him, Sai,” Ino interjected, throwing Naruto a smirk. “Just because some people don’t know how to read, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t.”
“I read!” Naruto protested, his indignation masking his relief at having successfully changed the subject.
“The menu at Ichiraku’s doesn’t count,” Kakashi teased.
“He doesn’t need to read that,” Sakura chimed in. “He’s already got it memorized by now.”
“What, is this dogpile on Naruto day?”
“Well,” Kakashi said cheerfully, “it is a day ending in ‘y’ so…”
He laughed again as he dodged Naruto’s attempt to jab him in the shoulder, and fuck, he loved it when Kakashi laughed. He loved it even more when he was the reason.
He was so fucking pathetic.
They reached the village at around midnight. Seeing that the light was still on in Tsunade’s office, they stopped there to give their oral report, then made their way back outside.
“See you guys later,” Chouji said with a wave.
Shikamaru yawned, then pulled out his lighter and a cigarette. “I should be going too.”
Everyone else said their goodbyes, leaving just Naruto and Kakashi standing together in the road.
Naruto didn’t want to leave just yet. He wanted more time with Kakashi. It was so hard to get the man alone. There were always people trailing after Naruto as he walked around the village these days, making total privacy almost impossible, and Kakashi could be a slippery bastard when he wanted to be, disappearing on Naruto at random, probably just to fuck with him.
Before he could figure out an excuse to keep hanging out with him, Kakashi nudged Naruto’s arm with the back of his hand, and gestured with his head for him to follow. “Let’s go.”
“Huh? Go where, sensei?” Naruto asked, falling in step beside him.
“Ichiraku’s is open 24/7 now, isn’t it? Let’s eat. My treat.”
“Wait, really? But you never offer to buy me Ichiraku’s.”
“Well, you seemed so disappointed that we didn’t fight those bandits. So I thought I’d make it up to you. Unless, of course, you had other plans?”
“No, no,” Naruto said quickly. “I don’t have any plans.”
He winced internally at the overeagerness in his voice. He should have been better at this by now. He’d loved Kakashi since he was sixteen. How in the hell had he gone this long without figuring out how to be normal around this stupidly sexy, smart, beautiful…
Kakashi’s eyes crinkled at the corners, the faint outline of his mouth tipped up, and Naruto could swear he felt his sanity slipping, because how could this man be so perfect when he couldn’t even see half of his fucking face?
If Kakashi thought Naruto’s behavior was weird, he didn’t call him on it. He just nodded and kept walking, his hands going into his pockets.
“Then let’s go eat before you start going through ramen withdrawal.”
Naruto moved to catch up to him then knocked his shoulder into Kakashi’s.
“You making fun of me, sensei?”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.”
Kakashi woke up with a jolt late the next morning. He stared up at the ceiling, unsure what had woken him so suddenly. With a sigh, he closed his eyes again, intent on getting more sleep, and…oh…right…that would do it.
As soon as he closed his eyes, the last moments of his dream began to play again before him, Naruto leaning in close enough for Kakashi to feel the heat of his breath fluttering over his face, to see the way his beautiful blue eyes darkened with desire. He watched that last scrap of distance disappear between them as Kakashi swayed forward to kiss him.
Kakashi opened his eyes again with an annoyed groan. This was getting ridiculous. Wasn’t it bad enough that he spent all his waking hours thinking about Naruto? Now he couldn’t even sleep without pining over him?
Should he start avoiding him again? No, that never worked. The last time he’d tried, Naruto had simply hunted him down and yelled at him in the middle of the street for disappearing on him. And then he’d held him hostage at Ichiraku’s until Kakashi had bought enough rounds of ramen to make it up to him.
It had been awful because all Kakashi had been able to focus on was how adorable Naruto was when he pouted, how happy he’d been to be near him again even as he scolded him, the way his heart squeezed at the sight of Naruto’s excitement when the first bowl of ramen was placed in front of him…
No, avoiding Naruto would be counterproductive. It would only make him love him more. Of course, he didn’t think there was anything that could make him love him less either. He’d tried. Once he’d realized what he was feeling he’d tried so hard to stop it. Because there was no way in hell Naruto would ever be interested in dating him. He was only twenty one and had beautiful people his age throwing themselves at him every day. He could have anyone he wanted. Why would he ever look Kakashi’s way?
And how could Kakashi even want him to? He’d been Naruto’s teacher. He’d met him when he was a child. He shouldn’t see Naruto as a romantic option. But he did. He did, and he hated himself for it, hated himself for the pangs of jealousy he felt when one of Naruto’s admirers claimed his attention, hated himself for looking for every excuse he could to be near him, to touch him, to tease him. Like last night.
He groaned again at the memory of Sai’s observation that he and Naruto were flirting with each other. Naruto wasn’t, but Kakashi certainly was, and he couldn’t seem to make himself stop. It was just so easy to lose his self-control when he was with Naruto, so easy to give in to the odd little dynamic they’d fallen into.
With a sigh, Kakashi sat up, giving up on sleep entirely. Twenty minutes later, he emerged from the bathroom, a towel draped around his shoulders to catch the water dripping from his hair. He was surprised to find himself in near total darkness, save for the scrap of light that emanated from the bathroom and cut across the floor.
He walked to his open window and stuck his head out. The clock told him it was ten in the morning, but it might as well have been nighttime with those thunderclouds blocking out the sun. Everything outside was still, as if the world was holding its breath. There was no bird song, no chirping insects, no rain. Even the wind refused to blow.
Funny, he could have sworn that the weather was supposed to be sunny today. And it seemed a bit too early in the spring for such a big storm. But maybe he was misremembering. Given how love-addled his brain was, that was a distinct possibility.
He shrugged and closed the window to block out the impending storm and went about getting dressed.
Kakashi was making breakfast when the world went white for one dazzling instant. A whistling whine pierced the air and then there was a booming crack so loud he wouldn’t have been surprised to discover the world had been snapped in half. The ground pitched violently beneath him, dishes toppling off the kitchen counter and smashing against the floor. He crouched down on instinct, covering his head as shards of glass exploded into his apartment from his shattering windows.
He wasn’t sure how long it took for the world to stop shaking. When it finally did, he rose to his feet and gingerly picked his way over his glass-strewn floor to what was left of his window as startled screams began to reach him from the street below. The clouds were already disintegrating overhead, though Kakashi could neither feel nor see any wind that could blow them apart. What he did feel was static sparking in the air, raising the hairs along his arms and the back of his neck. Had that been a lightning strike?
“What the hell was that?”
“Lookouts in our observation tower, as well as our meteorologists have indicated that the explosion from this morning was indeed a lightning strike.”
Naruto stood at attention in Tsunade’s office alongside Kakashi, Sakura, Hinata, and Shikamaru. The afternoon sun shone brightly through the blown out windows, the sky so blue that he could hardly believe there had been a storm at all.
He’d been fast asleep when the explosion had rather unceremoniously lurched him awake and dumped him onto the floor as glass rained down around him.
What a shitty way to wake up. And he’d been having a great dream too.
Well, I, for one, am glad you got woken up. If I have to watch another dream of you and Kakashi making out, I’m going to vomit.
Hey! It’s not my fault! I can’t control what I dream about, you know! And you can’t vomit anyway!
You wanna bet?
No. No he did not.
I swear to fuck, if you hurl when you’re inside me, I’m gonna make you regret it!
Something nudged his foot, pulling him back into the present moment. He looked down, then up at Kakashi, who was standing next to him. He raised his eyebrows at him questioningly.
“Kurama’s being a dick,” Naruto whispered.
Kakashi’s eyes sparked with amusement at that, and Naruto forced himself to look away, putting his hands in his pockets to resist his desperate urge to touch him, to lean into his space and get drunk on the rainy scent of him.
He was so gone on this man it was ridiculous.
Tsunade looked up from the report she’d been studying. “Only one lightning strike was observed, after which the storm immediately dissipated.”
Kakashi hummed in acknowledgement. "It was a lightning style jutsu, then?“
“Yes, that is what we suspect.”
“The question is,” Shikamaru interjected, “what was the target?”
“That is precisely what I want you to find out. Kakashi, you will lead this mission. You are to locate and investigate the site of the lightning strike and render aid to any civilians if necessary.”
Kakashi nodded. “Understood. Well,” he turned to the rest of them, “let’s get going.”
“Right!”
It wasn’t until the next day that they found the site of the lightning strike at the edge of the Land of Fire. They were about six miles away when Hinata spotted it.
“I see it,” she said. “We’re getting close.”
“What are we looking at here?” Kakashi asked.
“There should be a village a few miles away from here,” Shikamaru said. “Maybe there were witnesses.”
Hinata didn’t speak for a moment, but when she did, her voice was soft, just barely audible over the wind whistling past them as they leapt through the trees.
“I see no village.”
They continued on in silence, that pronouncement hanging over them like a storm cloud until finally, Hinata held up a hand, signaling for them to slow, then jumped down to the ground
The rest of them followed after her, stopping when she did at the edge of the tree line.
There was no village, just as Hinata had said. In its place was a crater almost the size of the Leaf Village. Gouged into the ground was an intricate network of jagged grooves branching outward from the center of the crater. Splintered, smoking tree trunks littered the ground, as well as odd rock formations that jutted from the ground like coral in a waterless reef.
“Any signs of life, Hinata?” Kakashi asked, his voice breaking their collective shock.
“No. I don’t see any bodies either. If there were people here, I think they may have been vaporized.”
Kakashi sighed. “We should- Hey!”
Naruto had taken a few steps forward to get a closer look, and was about to take another when Kakashi grabbed him around his middle and yanked him back. The two of them stumbled backward until Kakashi hit a tree and stopped their momentum.
He turned his head to look at Kakashi, whose arms remained tightly wrapped around him. He wasn’t looking at him. He was staring with narrowed eyes at the crater in front of them.
“What is it, sensei?” he asked, trying and failing to keep the breathlessness out of his voice.
He shouldn’t be so affected by this. Kakashi touched him all the time. But that fact didn’t stop his heart from racing or his mind from fixating on the press of Kakashi’s body behind him, the heat seeping into his skin, the strength of the arms holding him in place.
Luckily, Kakashi didn’t seem to notice how flustered Naruto was.
“The ground is still electrified,” he told him. He tugged up Naruto’s sleeve. “See?”
Naruto looked down to see the hairs on his left arm standing on end. He hadn’t even noticed.
“But how is it still electrified? It’s been a whole day. And why is this ground safe when that isn’t?”
“I don’t know.”
Kakashi released him and ruffled his hair, his hand lingering for a moment on the back of his neck before he moved away and closer to the others. Naruto thanked all the stars in the sky that everyone else was so focused on Kakashi that they didn’t see him blushing.
“Sai, I want you to get an aerial view of the strike zone, as well as the immediate area. Take Hinata with you. See if there were any survivors.”
They made it back to the Leaf the next morning and immediately reported to Tsunade’s office. After that, they were all swept up in a dizzying flurry of meetings with what felt like half of the village. When they finally emerged from Hokage Tower, it was well past midnight.
“I still think we should get Sasuke back here,” Naruto said as he and Kakashi walked down the street. “He can summon lightning. He might know how this jutsu works.”
“I don’t disagree with you.” Kakashi sighed, “Unfortunately, it’s not up to me. We’ve advised Lady Tsunade. That’s all we can do.”
“Yeah. You think we’ll have to advise her tomorrow? If I have to sit through another meeting, I think I’m gonna lose it.”
Naruto smiled at the sound of Kakashi’s low chuckle. “You’ll have to go to even more meetings when you’re Hokage, you know.”
“Don’t remind me.”
All the meetings and documents and political bullshit…the closer he got to being Hokage, the less certain he was that it was what he wanted. He wanted to protect the people he loved. He wanted to protect the village. But he wasn’t sure if he could do that from behind a desk better than he could in the field. He was a fighter. He wasn’t a politician. And he didn’t think he wanted to be.
He hadn’t told anyone about his doubts yet. He wasn’t sure he ever would. Everyone assumed he’d be Hokage one day. Everyone wanted him to be Hokage. Just the idea of disappointing people made him nauseous. So did the idea of going back on his word.
A ninja is one who endures. Enduring the life he wasn’t sure he wanted for the sake of the village was his duty as a shinobi, wasn’t it? Tsunade didn’t want to be Hokage either, but she had been for almost a decade. He could do it too. He could…probably. Maybe?
Whatever, he wasn’t going to worry about it now. That was a problem for future Naruto. Present Naruto had his own problems to worry about.
As he, Kakashi, and the rest of the team had made their way from the strike zone to the village, Naruto had finally come to a decision, a terrifying, incredibly stupid decision. He was going to ask Kakashi out. He knew by now that there was no getting over this man. He’d already tried. But maybe…maybe he didn’t have to. It was a long shot, but still, Naruto never backed down from a challenge. And if he didn’t try…he didn’t want what ifs haunting him for the rest of his life.
He’d start small, ease into it and see where it went. And he already had a starting point in mind.
Naruto had noticed a sign for a new bookstore’s grand opening on his way home from eating Ichiraku’s with Kakashi, and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to hang out with him. He loved books, after all. He knew very well that Kakashi would live in a bookstore if he could. He’d watched the man basically set up shop in a number of different bookstores during downtime after missions over the years.
“Hey, so, um…”
“Hm?”
“Well, so, there’s a new bookstore that’s opening tomorrow and, and I was kinda wondering if maybe you’d wanna check it out…with me?”
Kurama’s laugh rumbled in Naruto’s chest. Smooth.
Shut it, asshole!
He willed his heart rate to slow, his nerves to settle, and hoped beyond hope that Kakashi couldn’t see him blushing. Hanging out with Kakashi was something he did all the time these days. And while he’d made the decision to pursue him, Kakashi didn’t know that yet. So why was he so nervous?
Kakashi tilted his head at him, his eyebrows lifting. “A bookstore?”
“Yeah. I dunno,” he said with a shrug that was likely not nearly as nonchalant as he’d wanted it to be. How did Kakashi do that? How was he always so calm and cool? “I thought it could be fun.”
Kakashi studied him for a moment that felt like an eternity. Naruto was about to tell him to forget he’d asked when he finally spoke, “What time?”
“Uh…” Wait. He was gonna say yes? Holy shit. “Maybe…ten thirty?”
“Give me the address and I’ll meet you there.”
“Yeah. Cool. Sounds like a plan.”
Naruto gave him the address, then they parted ways. And Naruto smiled all the way home.
Kakashi was losing his mind.
It was eight the next morning and he was pacing across the length of his apartment, caught in a thought spiral he couldn’t escape.
This couldn’t be a date, could it? It couldn’t. He spent time with Naruto nearly every day. This would be no different. But it didn’t feel platonic either. The way he’d asked him…he wasn’t sure he’d seen Naruto so flustered before. He’d avoided eye contact, his fingers had fiddled with the hem of his jacket, and he’d blushed and stammered and…
The closest Naruto had ever come to acting like that—as far as Kakashi was aware—was when he first met Koyuki Kazahana during their mission to the Land of Snow, and a few times with Sakura when he’d had a crush on her. But now, now he was doing it with Kakashi. And…that couldn’t mean what his mind desperately wanted it to mean, could it?
Did Naruto even like men? Kakashi wasn’t sure. He’d thought once that his attachment to Sasuke might have been similar to Kakashi’s with Obito, and that hadn’t been platonic, on Kakashi’s part, at least. But Sasuke was dating Sakura now, and Naruto hadn’t seemed unhappy about it. If anything, he’d been annoyed it had taken them that long to get together. So maybe Kakashi had been wrong about Sasuke and Naruto’s dynamic. In which case, he had no evidence to suggest that he might not be straight.
Still…maybe…these last months…could it be possible that Naruto was flirting with him after all? And if he was…if he was…
Kakashi groaned and let himself flop down onto his bed. He was being ridiculous. He was thirty five for fuck’s sake, so why was he acting like a love-struck teenager?
Maybe because you’ve been struck by love.
“No shit, Hatake,” he said out loud.
He wasn’t any good at this sort of thing. Meaningless, no-strings-attached sex? That he could do. But love? Relationships? He’d never done it before. He’d probably find some way to fuck it up. And losing Naruto…that wasn’t something he could bear. Better to be his friend than nothing at all.
He shook his head. There was no point in fretting about this. Nothing was going to happen. He’d act natural, go to the bookstore, and enjoy being near Naruto. And he’d do those things without embarrassing himself. Somehow. Hopefully.
He told himself that over and over until suddenly it was ten twenty and he was going to be late.
After fussing with his hair for a bit, he climbed out of his still glassless window and hauled ass toward the bookstore. He was late for almost everything, but he didn’t want to be late for this.
When he arrived there right at ten thirty, Naruto was already leaning against the wall off to the side of the bookstore’s entrance.
When he spotted Kakashi, his blue eyes widened in surprise.
“You’re on time.”
Kakashi couldn’t help but smile at him. He looked beautiful. He wasn’t wearing anything special, just a hoodie and rolled up sweatpants. But the way the sun glanced off his golden hair, the intensity of his gaze, the easy grace of his movements when he pushed off the wall as Kakashi approached, were mesmerizing.
Then he smiled back at him and it took all of his will power to keep from reaching out to touch the edge of that smile, to see it bloom on Naruto’s face up close and personal, to kiss him and find out what it tasted like.
Instead, he feigned nonchalance like he always did, hiding behind his mask. “I take bookstore visits very seriously.”
“No kidding.” Naruto opened the door and moved to the side to let Kakashi through. “Weirdos first.”
“You’re calling me a weirdo?” Kakashi asked incredulously as he allowed Naruto to usher him through the door.
“Uh huh.”
“Pot, meet kettle.”
“No way. I’m totally normal, you know.”
“Normal’s doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence.”
“Says the porn addict.”
“Says the demon twink.”
That drew Naruto up short. He blinked at him, a smile spreading across his face. “What the fuck did you just call me?” he asked, his voice shaking with barely suppressed laughter.
The words had slipped out, but he couldn't regret it in the face of Naruto's smile. So he doubled down and said archly, “You heard me.”
Naruto lost his battle against his laughter then. “A fucking…demon twink?” he choked out. “What the fuck, sensei?”
Kakashi just grinned at him as Naruto laughed, triumph rising in his chest. This was what he lived for, making Naruto smile, making him laugh. The sound made him feel love-drunk and wild, and so alive that his body could barely contain him.
It took a while for Naruto to calm down. Once he did, he sent a heatless glare Kakashi’s way and said, “Asshole. I can’t believe you called me a demon.”
“I notice you’re not fighting the twink allegation.”
Naruto shrugged, a playful light shining in his eyes. “That’s cuz that part’s true.”
So Naruto did like men. If he did, then maybe…No. Best not to go there. He wasn’t sure he could keep himself calm if he did, and he wanted to play it cool.
All that went out the window, though, when he caught sight of the romance section a minute or two later. It was massive, and in the center was a shelf filled to the brim with the latest installment of his second favorite series, with a sign that read: Deluxe Edition Signed by the Author!
“No way!” Kakashi cried, hurrying over to the shelf and picking up one of the books. “She never does book signings!”
She was famously reclusive, dropping new books without warning before retreating from the world again. There was usually a two year gap between books, but the last one from the series had only been published eight months ago.
“I can’t believe this is out already. This is amazing! Now I can finally find out what happens to…”
His sentence trailed off when awareness danced over his skin. He turned to find Naruto smiling at him. The sight made his heart catch in his throat, because he’d never looked at him like that. The fact that he was smiling wasn’t strange, of course. Naruto smiled all the time, and Kakashi had spent a pathetic amount of time cataloguing each one. But there was a softness to Naruto’s expression that Kakashi wasn’t sure he’d ever seen before.
“You happy?” Naruto asked him.
His voice was just as gentle as his eyes, and Kakashi could feel the warmth of it melting his heart.
Of course I’m happy, he wanted to say. I’m with you.
But he didn’t say that. No, instead he opened his big mouth and blurted out, “Is this a date?”
Well, so much for playing it cool. He should have known better than to think he could hold out against those lovely blue eyes and that beautiful smile and-
“Would it be okay with you if it was?”
Kakashi blinked at him in surprise. He couldn’t have heard right. He couldn’t have. Because if he had…if he had…
His brain took off, reevaluating every single interaction he’d had with Naruto in the last few months, so fast that it made him dizzy. He’d thought he’d been reaching this morning when he’d been consumed by the idea that this could be a date. But now, his pie-in-the-sky theory was proven and suddenly his relationship with Naruto looked decidedly un-platonic.
“You’ve been flirting with me.”
Now that he said it out loud it was so painfully obvious that he almost smacked himself in the forehead for his cluelessness. That playful antagonism, the constant teasing, those cheeky smiles of his, the way he sought Kakashi out when they were both in the village, the way he found excuses to touch him…Naruto wasn’t just being friendly. How had he missed this?
Naruto’s smile turned playful and Kakashi almost died at the sight of it, because what business did any person have to be this beautiful?
“Took you long enough to notice.”
Kakashi nearly choked on his own hope.
“Why…why have you been flirting with me?”
“To get in your pants.”
He said it so casually, as if it was the most natural thing in the world for the living embodiment of the sun to tell his former-sensei-turned-friend that he wanted to fuck him.
Meanwhile, Kakashi’s mind was going haywire, unable to process this new information because Naruto was flirting with him. He liked him. He was actually interested in him. How the fuck had that happened?
Naruto crossed his arms and leaned back against the bookshelf behind him, his head tilting to the side, his smile turning into a heated smirk. “You stopped breathing, sensei.”
Had he? Dammit, he had. Kakashi took a breath, trying not to lose his mind at the sound of Naruto’s answering laugh.
His expression took on a smug quality, smug and something else, something that looked very much like the same hope hammering in Kakashi’s own chest. “Do you like me, Kakashi?”
Yes. Yes, he did. He liked him so much that he could hardly think of anything else. He liked him so much that he would gladly live the rest of his life by Naruto’s side if only he asked. There were reasons why Naruto should be off-limits, but none of them mattered in that moment. Kakashi wasn’t strong enough to resist him. For once, he didn’t want to be.
“I-”
“Kakashi Hatake,” a stern male voice interrupted.
Kakashi turned to find an Anbu operative in a boar mask standing a few feet away.
“Um. Yes?”
“You must report to the office of Lady Tsunade immediately.”
“Is something wrong?” Naruto asked.
“That I cannot say,” Boar said, sparing Naruto a quick glance before focusing back on Kakashi. “I am to escort you there now.”
“Right. Okay.”
It took everything in Kakashi to tamp down his annoyance at the interruption. Though he supposed it was his fault for thinking that he could have a peaceful day with Naruto in the midst of an ongoing incident. Given that he was the captain of the team that had first investigated the matter, it was really only a matter of time before he was called in to advise Lady Tsunade again.
Kakashi looked back at Naruto. “I’m sorry we didn’t get to finish our conversation. Can we talk later?”
“Yeah. Yeah, we can talk later. Just come find me.”
“Alright. I will.”
The energy in Tsunade’s office felt off the moment he arrived. Tsunade, Shizune, and Shikamaru looked as grave as he’d ever seen them. And they all stared at him like he was the star of the show rather than one advisor out of many.
Unease prickled at the back of his neck, but he managed to keep it out of his voice when he said, “You wanted to see me, Lady Tsunade?”
“Yes.” She slid a picture across her desk for Kakashi to see. “Do you recognize this man?”
Kakashi stepped closer and studied the picture carefully. It was a bit grainy, but he could see a stocky man with a shock of blue hair and a jagged scar running along the line of his jaw. He was certainly distinctive, but Kakashi had never encountered him.
“No, I don’t. Should I?”
“It appears,” Tsunade said slowly, “that this is the man responsible for the lightning strike. His name is Kaito, though he was sometimes called the Storm of the Stone.”
So that was what he looked like. He’d heard of him during his days in the Anbu, but his entry in the bingo book hadn’t had a picture back then. The lack of visual information on him hadn’t mattered for long though. He’d only been in the bingo book for about a year before news of his death made its way to the Leaf.
“I know the name, but he was supposed to have been killed years ago.”
“It seems that he faked his own death.” Tsunade looked down at her file. “After that he kept a low profile. There were no sightings of him until now.”
“If I recall correctly, he never did anything at this scale when he was still active. How do we know he’s the one who did this?”
“Because the man he works for told us.”
“The man he works for?”
Tsunade pulled out another picture and pushed it toward him.
“His name is Tengan. He’s just claimed responsibility for the incident. Do you know him?”
Kakashi shook his head. “No, I don’t.”
“How about him?” Tsunade asked giving him yet another photo.
“No. Who is he?”
“Tengan’s cousin. He was a shinobi from the Land of Lightning. And if the information Tengan has given us is true, it seems that you’re the one responsible for his death while you were in the Anbu. Shikamaru, could you?”
Shikamaru, who had been standing at the side of the room next to a TV on a rolling cart, nodded and pressed the power button.
Static filled the screen for a few seconds and was then replaced by the image of a man sitting behind a desk. Tengan.
He had a brutally handsome face, all angles and sharp lines as if he had been carved from stone. His jet black hair stood in sharp relief against the pallor of his skin where it fell artfully around his face. He stared into the camera, leaning forward to place his elbows on his desk and perch his chin on his clasped hands, the jeweled rings on his fingers flashing against the light as he moved.
Then he smiled, though it looked more like a baring of teeth.
“Greetings, Lady Hokage,” he said, his voice deep and resonant like the rolling of thunder. “My name is Tengan, the founder and ruler of the Land of Graves.”
“Land of Graves, huh?” Kakashi muttered. “Not exactly subtle.”
“I apologize for the business at your border. As a new nation, it was necessary to show the world our strength. And now that we have, we can discuss important matters on equal footing.”
Kakashi felt his hands balling into fists. This man needed to die.
“Twelve years ago, my little cousin was tortured to death by a lunatic you harbor among you. I’m sure you want peace with the Land of Graves, but there can be no peace without justice. Hand over the murderer, Hatake Kakashi of the Leaf, so that justice can be served, and you will have peace. Refuse, and you will face our wrath.”
The video cut there and static filled the screen again.
Kakashi stared at it for a long moment. So this was about him? Hundreds of innocent people had been murdered just to get at him? The thought made him nauseous, but now wasn’t the time to lose his head.
He took a breath, swallowed back is anger, and turned his gaze back to Tsunade. “I don’t remember his cousin.”
“Are you saying you didn’t kill him?”
“No, I’m not saying that. It’s entirely possible I did. I had to torture a number of shinobi in the field when I was in the Anbu.”
“How many of them died?”
“All of them. Most didn’t die as a result of the torture itself, but some did.
“How many?”
“How many died under torture?”
“Yes.”
“Less than ten, more than five.”
“I assume that the torture was necessary for the success of the mission?”
“Yes, and for the safety of my team.”
Tsunade nodded. “We’re pulling the files for all your missions that year. Hopefully that will give us more information.” She sighed and leaned back in her chair. “You are to stay in the village for the time being while we figure this out.”
“Understood, m’lady.”
“You’re dismissed.”
Kakashi awoke late the next morning to the sound of knocking. He rolled over and opened his eyes to find Naruto perched on the ledge outside his window, the knuckles of his bandaged hand still resting against the wooden window frame. He blinked blearily at him for a moment before he remembered where they’d left things the day before. And then he remembered that his hair probably looked ridiculous and he was in his pajamas—a sleeveless undershirt and old, overlong sweatpants that were ragged and worn at the hem—and here was Naruto, all confident and gorgeous, and this wasn’t the first time Naruto had seen Kakashi waking up in the morning, so why the hell was he freaking out about it???
He sat up, feeling self-conscious, one hand trying to force his hair into compliance, his stomach twisting in nervous knots.
“Naruto.”
His voice was rough with sleep and not nearly as nonchalant as he’d wanted it to be. He could tell by the amused light in Naruto’s eyes that he could see it, how nervous he was. Heat crept along his neck, up to the tips of his ears, and he was sure that Naruto saw that too, if that smug edge to his smile was anything to go by.
“Hey, sensei.”
There was something about his voice, the soft intimacy of his tone that made his breath stutter in his chest. And there was that look again from the bookstore, the gentle warmth that made his heart squeeze.
“Can I come in?”
“Uh…yeah. Sure. I…um.” He got to his feet and pointed toward the bathroom. “I need to go to- I- I’ll be right back.”
With that, he fled to the bathroom, trying with all his might to keep from combusting from the mortification of it all. He closed the bathroom door behind him and leaned his forehead against it.
Well, this was where he lived now, in exile in his own bathroom, a prisoner of his own awkwardness. Maybe he should fake his death and go into hiding. That seemed better than facing Naruto ever again.
He groaned internally. Why are you like this?
When no answer to that question presented itself, he sighed and went about washing up. Then, after a pathetically long time spent psyching himself up, he emerged back into his apartment proper.
He found Naruto in the kitchen leaning against the counter and munching on an apple.
How could he be so self-assured all the time? And why did he have to be so sexy doing it? It simply wasn’t fair.
Naruto’s eyes met his, then slowly moved down his body. He was checking him out. He was really…he was…Kakashi’s face went hot again as the weight of his attention settled over him, as electric want chased after Naruto’s gaze and crackled over his skin. His eyes moved back up and met Kakashi’s again. Then he gave him a slow smile and took another bite of the apple.
Oh, he was in trouble. He needed this man. Desperately. He wanted him so badly that he felt half mad with it, this longing that pulsed through his body on every heartbeat. He would go mad if he couldn’t have him. He was sure of it.
After an eternity and an instant of charged silence, Kakashi took a steeling breath and walked closer, drawing on every ounce of nonchalance he had in him when he said, “Stealing my food now, are you?”
Naruto shrugged. “You’re the one who’s always all, ‘You can't survive on ramen alone' and shit.”
“Your impression of me is getting better.”
Naruto grinned. “I’ve been practicing.”
“Should I be worried about that?”
“Probably.”
Kakashi shook his head then passed Naruto to get to the fridge, reaching up to ruffle his hair as he went. He laughed when Naruto swiped at his hand. “You’re so weird.”
“We’ve been over this. You’re way weirder than me, you know.”
He scoffed. “You sure about that?”
Naruto considered that for a moment, then smiled again and said, “No.”
Kakashi smiled back, leaned against the fridge so he could face him. “I’m sorry I couldn’t spend more time at the bookstore with you.”
“No worries. We can always go again. But that actually reminds me.” He reached his free hand into the front pocket of his hoodie and pulled out a book. “You looked really excited when you saw this yesterday, so I got it for you.”
Kakashi’s eyes went wide. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“I wanted to,” Naruto said, his smile gentle again. “Think of it as a consolation prize for having to leave early.”
Kakashi reached out and took the book, his fingers grazing against Naruto’s, sending an electric zing up his arm. He looked down at it, traced his fingertips over the spine.
“Thank you, Naruto,” he said, looking back up at him. His voice was soft when he said it, because something about this moment felt fragile, it felt like the beginning of something more.
And Naruto must have felt it too because his voice was just as soft when he said, “You’re welcome, Kakashi.”
It was rare for Naruto to call him only by his name. For years, he’d been Kakashi sensei or sensei. So hearing his name and only his name from Naruto’s lips. It felt different, a good different, a terrifying different, a different he wanted more than he’d ever wanted anything before.
“I’m sorry our conversation got interrupted yesterday. And that I didn’t come find you after my meeting with Lady Tsunade. I…had a lot on my mind.”
“Is everything okay?”
“I’m not sure, to be honest.”
“Wanna talk about it?”
“I don’t know if I can. But that’s not what I want to talk about right now anyway.”
“What do you wanna talk about?”
“Yesterday at the bookstore, you asked if I like you.”
Naruto nodded, his eyes going so unbearably soft that Kakashi could barely stand to look at him, because who had ever looked at him like that before? “Yeah, I did.”
“I-”
A series of loud knocks on the door rang through the apartment, startling them both out of the bubble they had built around themselves.
“Kakashi Hatake,” a woman’s voice said through the door. “You’ve been summoned to speak with Lady Hokage.”
“Again?” Naruto asked. “What the hell is going on?”
Kakashi sighed. “These guys have the worst timing in the world. I’m sorry, Naruto. Can we talk later? I promise I’ll come find you after I talk to Lady Tsunade this time.”
“You won’t have to. I’m coming with.”
“You’re…I don’t know if you can do that.”
Naruto shrugged. “It’s not like they can stop me. Besides, I’ve been shadowing Granny Tsunade on and off for the last year, you know. I have the clearance.”
“You don’t need to waste your day on this.”
“It’s not a waste, I’ll be with you. And besides,” Naruto continued, as if his last sentence hadn’t just sent Kakashi’s heart spinning into the stratosphere, “I wanna know what the fuck is going on. Would it bother you if I came with?”
“No,” Kakashi admitted. “But-”
“Then I’m coming.”
“Okay.” He hesitated, then added, “Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Kakashi went to change into his usual shinobi uniform, hoping it would make him feel braver. It didn’t, but Naruto’s encouraging smile did as they went with their Anbu escort to Hokage Tower. It made no sense, but with Naruto at his side, he thought that maybe, just maybe, things would work out.
No one was very pleased with Naruto for tagging along with Kakashi and the Anbu escort. Even Granny Tsunade seemed to be annoyed. She didn’t try to kick him out though, probably realizing that he wasn’t going to leave even if she ordered him to.
They were all gathered not in Tsunade’s office, but in a conference room a few doors down. Sitting at the large table in the center of the room were Naruto, Kakashi, Tsunade, Shizune, the Elders, and the heads of the major clans. Along the walls stood an assortment of shinobi from various departments, specializing in foreign affairs, intelligence, and kekkei genkai research.
If they were just going to let all these people in here, why was everyone so annoyed he was there? He was getting a lot of looks, ranging from confusion to outright hostility.
He ignored them all. He wasn’t here to make friends. He was here to figure out what the hell Kakashi had gotten roped into.
He snuck a look at the man in question, who was sitting beside him. Kakashi looked…anxious. Normally, he would have had his arms crossed over his chest, or he would have put his elbows on the table and perched his chin on his hands. But right now his hands were folded neatly in his lap. His back was ramrod straight when Kakashi typically slouched. He was tapping his foot, which he only did when he was worried. And as he stared straight ahead Naruto could see that his eyes were a bit unfocused, as if he was lost in thought.
Naruto shifted a bit closer then reached out and took one of Kakashi’s hands under the table.
That seemed to snap him out of his musings. His foot stopped tapping and he blinked, turning to look at Naruto with questioning eyes. He just smiled and squeezed Kakashi’s hand. After a moment of hesitation, he squeezed back, the outline of his mouth tipping up into a tiny smile.
“Alright,” Tsunade said from where she sat at the head of the table, “now that all necessary personnel are present-”
“-and some unnecessary personnel,” one of the Elders—he could never remember their names—said with a pointed glare at Naruto.
He flipped her off under the table with his free hand and smiled at the sound of Kakashi’s soft laugh. He squeezed his hand again and Kakashi squeezed back, and Naruto was starting to feel a bit giddy, despite the obvious tension in the room.
He’d never held Kakashi’s hand like this. It was nice to have this contact with him, to touch and be touched. And he wanted more.
He was sure now that Kakashi liked him back. If that moment in the bookstore hadn’t convinced him, then their interaction that morning had confirmed it. He’d never seen Kakashi look at anyone like he’d looked at Naruto, with that wide-eyed reverence, with longing. He wasn’t sure how he had missed it. Nor was he sure how he’d been so convinced that his feelings for Kakashi were one-sided given the way he’d matched Naruto’s energy during these last months of flirting. But whatever the reason, he’d definitely figured it out now.
“As I was saying,” Tsunade said, frowning at the Elder, “let’s get started.”
"First,” Shikamaru said, inhabiting his dual roles as head of the Nara Clan and advisor to Tsunade, as Shizune began handing out folders of documents to everyone sitting at the table. “I’ll lay out the facts we’re dealing with. A few days ago, a man named Kaito, summoned a lightning strike that decimated a village just within the borders of the Land of Fire. There were no survivors of this attack. His is the first image you’ll see in your briefing materials. The second is of the man he’s working for: Tengan. He has installed himself as the ruler of what he calls the Land of Graves.”
“The Land of Graves?” Naruto muttered under his breath. “Is this guy for real?”
“Unfortunately,” Shikamaru said, giving him a wry smile, “he is.” He nodded to an intelligence adviser, who pushed a television on a cart out of the corner of the room and positioned it at the head of the table.
“We received a message from this Lord Tengan claiming responsibility for the attack and…stating his terms.”
“His terms?” Naruto asked.
Shikamaru sighed. “Just watch.”
So they did, Naruto’s skepticism transforming into anger and then into abject horror as the video played.
“Hand over the murderer, Hatake Kakashi of the Leaf, so that justice can be served, and you will have peace. Refuse, and you will face our wrath.”
Yeah, no, fuck that.
“So we’re gonna kill this fucker, right?” Naruto asked as soon as the video was done.
“Unfortunately, it’s not that simple,” Shikamaru replied.
“Why not?”
“Well, first of all, as of now, we have no idea where the Land of Graves is.”
“Is there a deadline?” Chouji's dad asked from where he sat further down the table next to Ino.
“There is,” Tsunade said, folding her hands on the table. “We must give them our response within the next three days.”
“How do we even give them a response if we don’t know where they are?” Tsume Inuzuka asked.
“Through the daimyo of the Land of Lightning,” said Shizune.
“Wait,” Naruto said, “I don’t get it. Why him?”
“Well, that’s the other problem,” Shikamaru said with a sigh. “It seems that Lord Tengan is the daimyo’s younger brother. Which means that the man Kakashi tortured and killed was also related to the daimyo.”
“Is the daimyo supporting Tengan?” Ino asked.
“It appears so.”
“So, what? Are we just supposed to hand Kakashi over?”
“It’s not the first time the village has been forced to make such a decision,” Hiashi Hyuuga said softly. “My own brother was sacrificed similarly to appease the Hidden Cloud. Their daimyo at the time involved himself as well, reducing our options until there was only one.”
“But we have an alliance now.”
“An alliance that must be preserved.”
“Not by letting them kill Kakashi!”
“Naruto,” Tsunade said sternly, “if you can’t be calm, I’ll have to ask you to leave.”
“You can ask all you want, Granny, I’m not leaving.”
“Naru-”
“Kakashi’s a war hero. He’s supposed to be the next Hokage. If the Land of Lightning can say they’ll leave the alliance over this, can’t we say we’ll leave the alliance if they try to make us give up Kakashi?”
“We may not have a choice,” Ibiki said.
“There’s always a choice! We just need to be brave enough to make it!”
Shizune turned her gaze to Kakashi. “What do you think, Kakashi?”
For a long moment, Kakashi didn’t answer, until finally he asked, “Does it matter what I think?”
Silence descended upon the room, a few shinobi at the table squirming uncomfortably in their seats. Many of the people standing along the walls suddenly became very interested in the conference room’s floor and ceiling.
Tsunade was the one to break the quiet, saying, “Of course it matters what you think.”
“Really?” Kakashi asked, his voice light, but with an acerbic edge. “Well then, I’d rather not be tortured to death.”
"We don't know for sure that's what they'd do," an analyst standing against the wall said.
Kakashi gave him a look. "Well, they're not going to throw me a party."
“What if giving yourself up is the only way to protect the Leaf?” Hiashi asked.
Kakashi opened his mouth to speak, but Naruto beat him to the punch. “What’s with everyone? Why are you just accepting this? We need to fight, dammit!”
“We just got done fighting a war,” another analyst said quietly. “People are tired. Based on our talks with the other Allied Nations, they wish to prevent another war at all costs.”
“What, so we’re supposed to just give up? That fucker may be the daimyo’s brother, but he also murdered a whole fucking village on our territory. That’s a fucking declaration of war whether we want one or not. We should tell the Cloud that they have to take care of this guy or we will, cuz he took out hundreds of citizens of the Land of Fire. We’re the ones who should be looking for justice, not the Land of Graves, not the Land of Lightning. Fucking us! And if they won’t do it, we use our sensory and reconnaissance units to find the Land of Graves and I’ll go kill that bastard myself!”
“Is that something the sensory department can handle, Ino?” Shikamaru asked.
“That depends. If he’s established a hidden village or has amassed a large group of shinobi, then we might be able to detect the concentration of chakra. But if he has a small group, then that would make it much more difficult.”
“We cannot forget,” the male Elder said gravely, “about the deadline. If we fail to meet it, another village will be at risk.”
“Which is why we need to hurry up and find this motherfucker and take him out before he tries to hurt anyone else.”
“And risk the alliance in the process?”
Naruto glared at the Elder who had just spoken. “If the Land of Lightning breaks the alliance over this, that’s on them.” He looked away from the Elder to scan the room, to look as many people as he could in the eye when he said, “The whole point of the alliance is to create a better world and, and stop the cycle of hate that caused every war we’ve had to fight in. We’re supposed to be building a world where we don’t betray each other like this. If we sacrifice Kakashi, then there’s no fucking point to any of it.”
Another silence descended upon the room as everyone absorbed his words.
Then Shikamaru said, “I agree with Naruto.”
“So do I,” Chouza said with a firm nod.
“Me too,” Ino chimed in.
Others in the room agreed, while others remained unmoved, but the stalemate was broken when Tsunade nodded and said, “I agree as well. We’ll need to move fast, but it’s not time to give up yet.”
Naruto sat back in his chair, relief flooding his body. He glanced over at Kakashi, who was looking back at him. Kakashi squeezed his hand.
“Thank you,” he said softly.
Naruto smiled at him. “You’re welcome, Kakashi.”