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When Kakashi was eleven, Obito tripped him. There was a possibility it was an accident. The strap to Obito’s sandal may have had a tear in it. And the tear may have led to the strap being ripped completely off, causing the sandal to become loose. Then, mid stride, Obito’s sandal may have slid off his foot and directly in Kakashi’s path. Thus, causing said tripping.
And if Kakashi may have landed in a large patch of sand burrs…well, that wasn’t exactly Obito’s fault, now was it? When Kakashi stood up, the entire right side of his unruly silver hair was embedded in a proverbial rat’s nest. He was furious. The shuriken Kakashi threw at Obito barely missed his head, putting a slight scratch in his obnoxious goggles.
Somehow Kakashi managed to finish the mission with a mass of spiky balls tugging at his scalp. The Lord of the small village laughed when he saw the tight matting in Kakashi’s hair, the blood coating the strands as the spikes cut into the sensitive skin of his temples. It was Minato-sensei who offered the first reprieve of the mission: a stay at a hot spring.
By the time the team got to their rooms, Kakashi was working on a tension headache. The constant, nagging pain of the sand burrs’ sharp thorns ripping through the tender skin of his scalp was hard to ignore. They were stuck to the fabric of his Konoha headband, keeping it askew and constantly falling in his eyes. After what felt like the millionth time Kakashi pushed his headband out of his eyes, Minato-sensei put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
“Let’s go see if the owners have anything that can work those burrs out, ‘Kashi.” The nickname, which was really started by Kushina and adopted by his sensei, was said in a lower tone. One usually reserved for when Kakashi was struggling through nightmares and loneliness. The young boy guessed that this qualified as him struggling.
With his ears tinged pink at the softness shown by his sensei, Kakashi glanced over at his teammates. Just to make sure they weren’t listening, they weren’t judging. Instead, he saw Obito looking at the ground, rubbing the back of his neck in that sheepish way he got when he was caught doing something idiotic. Rin was digging through her bag, pulling out clothes and personal hygiene products that were in her way. Figuring Obito had tried to, horribly, flirt with the oblivious Rin again, Kakashi just sighed and turned away. The knot in his hair pulled, tugging sharply at his temple. A burr scratched the tip of his ear, making it burn.
Frustration at a boiling point, Kakashi pushed himself inside the bathroom door. Once inside, he stood in front of the large mirror and glared at his reflection. He looked ridiculous. A mass of tan and brown, tinged with a hint of deep red, clung to the side of his head like a growth.
There were murmurs outside the bathroom door. A quiet conversation between his teammates. Kakashi was so frustrated, so tired and sore and angry, that he couldn’t bring himself to care what they were saying. Bringing his hand up, he tried to grab at one of the sand burrs. The thorns bit into his fingers as he tried to pull it free from the strands of hair. All he succeeded in doing was pulling the strands, causing the other burrs to dig in deeper. Another burr, one that looked closer to the surface, caught his eye. Fingertips already sore from the first burr grabbed at this one. Kakashi tugged sharply, hissing through his teeth at the pain, as he ripped the burr free. It came away with several pieces of silver hair stuck to the thorns.
It went on like this for several minutes. Picking and choosing which burrs to try and pull out with mixed results. The large mass was digging into his scalp more and more with each frustrated pull. Fresh blood dripped down the side of his temple, behind his ear, down his neck. Kakashi could feel the burn behind his eyes, the tightness in his throat, as his frustration built to a crescendo. Tears were threatening to spill, but he refused to let them. Kakashi was a ninja. A chuunin. His hair had always been long and wild. Granted, training took over simple luxuries like styling his hair or getting it trimmed, but he was a professional. Things got stuck in it all the time. Kakashi usually just…pulled them out and moved on. But these weren’t like having leaves and twigs buried in. It wasn’t like that time he accidentally got honey in it and had to spend several minutes washing it out with soap and hot water. Or, Kami forbid, like the gum that found its way in his hair in the academy. He had no choice but to cut that out.
Wait.
With a shaking hand, Kakashi reached down to his tool pouch. His finger caught in the ring of metal at the end of his kunai, pulling it out of the sleeve with a metallic slide. The metal of the kunai glinted in the fluorescent lights. Dark eyes flickered between the kunai and the huge mass of sand burrs buried in his thick hair. He would look ridiculous after, Kakashi already knew. One side of his head shaved down to the scalp and the other side untouched. But the burning pain and sharp thorns make it feel almost worth it. He could stand looking bad for a few months if it meant the constant thrumming pain would be gone.
His hand was still shaking as he slowly brought it up to the mass of burrs. The metal was centimeters away when a soft click was heard. The bathroom door slowly opened and a dark head of spiky hair peeked inside.
“Um…hey, Kakashi?” Obito’s voice was small, meek, as he spoke. Something twisted in Kakashi’s gut as he turned his head toward the sound. “So, um, Rin said that sometimes the sand burrs come out if you use, like, conditioner or oil?” An arm joined his head, holding out a bottle of baby oil as a peace offering. Very slowly, his dark eyes flicked up, as if assessing what mood Kakashi was in. They widened when the kunai being held close to the mass of burrs registered in Obito’s mind. “Wait, no!”
When Obito pushed himself into the bathroom, Kakashi dropped the kunai in surprise. It clattered to the floor between them. Obito let the bottle of baby oil drop carelessly on the counter, eyes wide as he took in the mess on Kakashi’s head. Fingers twitched as his hands were still held out, as if he wanted to touch but was afraid to.
The silence sat there, heavy between them, as Kakashi felt the burning behind his eyes intensify. Was Obito going to make fun of him? Laugh because of how ridiculous it looked? Laugh because Kakashi couldn’t pull them out by himself? Instead, Obito’s widened eyes closed and the boy took a deep breath. When he opened them again, Obito looked determined. Then, more gently than Kakashi had ever known the boy to be, he reached behind Kakashi’s head. He felt the headband slowly get untied and oh, so gently pulled free of the mass of burrs and hair.
“What are you doing?”
Kakashi didn’t trust easily, Obito knew that. He didn’t know why, exactly, but he knew enough. Enough to understand what he was asking was huge to Kakashi. Asking the boy who never trusted anyone to suspend his disbelief and trust that a teammate wouldn’t want harm to come to him. So, with his voice as gentle as possible, Obito just answered, “helping.”
“Helping?” Kakashi parroted back, confused. He watched, with trepidation, as Obito grabbed a towel off the rack and laid it over Kakashi’s shoulders. Lifting one corner, he dabbed at the blood still trickling down Kakashi’s temple.
Obito was a lot of things. Loud. Brash. Arrogant. Clumsy. But he was never gentle. Never soft. But here, in the harsh fluorescent lighting of a hot spring bathroom, Obito felt different. Kinder. Quiet. Patient. “Yeah,” Obito’s voice was still gentle. Kakashi couldn’t decide if he hated it or not. “Just…look, I know this is my fault. And this whole mess looks painful. I mean, you’re bleeding. I just want to help you get the burrs out.”
With eyes full of uncertainty, Kakashi’s gaze flicked all over Obito’s face. Looking for any lies, any misinformation. But…he found nothing. Nothing but concern. It almost mirrored the concern Kushina would give him anytime Kakashi came to her door after dark, trying to hide how hard he’d been crying and how scared the nightmare had left him. With a resigned sigh, Kakashi let his head fall forward. “F-fine. But just because I can’t see them properly to get them out on my own.”
Taking the answer for the olive branch it was, Obito set to work. The sound of the cap popping off the top of the oil was loud in the quiet of the bathroom. He drizzled the oil in Kakashi’s hair, watching it drip down and soak into the huge mat of burrs. As he gave it a second to completely soak through the mat and soften the thorns, the boys heard the soft click of the bathroom door opening again.
With a stool in one hand and a cardboard box in the other, Rin pushed the door open with her hip. After setting the stool down behind Kakashi, she studied the mess in his hair, tilting her head in curiosity. “Wow,” she breathed out, “it’s really in there, isn’t it?” Then, with a nudge to his shoulder, Rin directed Kakashi to sit on the stool. “This is going to take a while. Even with both of us working on it, there’s a lot of them in there. Might as well make yourself as comfortable as possible.”
The weird energy and tension that was in the room before just popped under Rin’s words. She always did have that ability, that kind aura that broke through nervousness and anxiety. The cardboard box was placed on the counter before Rin pulled the top off. Inside laid the blue latex gloves she always carried around. The boys were always getting hurt enough for Rin to need a stockpile of them. There were at least three boxes in her pack at all times.
“Gloves?” Obito asked, eyebrow raising in confusion. “It’s only oil, Rin.”
“Thorns, Obito,” Rin said, pointedly tapping the burrs now softened in oil, “between the gloves and the oil, we won’t get our fingers scratched up when we roll them out.” Said boy breathed out an ‘oh’ as she explained. “Watch me first. Pick a burr and gently roll it towards the ends of the hair. Get the looser ones first. Then we will work on the more matted ones. With luck, we can get most of them loosened up enough we won’t have to cut any of this hair.” Then, with a pat on his shoulder, Rin leaned in closer to Kakashi’s ear. “We will try to make this as painless as possible. But tell us if it’s too much or you need a break, okay? No being brave.”
From a young age, shinobi were trained to sit still for hours. No fidgeting. No movement. No words. Patience was a virtue that each and every shinobi had beaten into them. Kakashi was patient. He could sit still for hours waiting for a mark. Studying patrol routines. He could sit in rain and snow and storms. But he had never sat still while two people tugged relentlessly at his hair. His already tender scalp was red and angry. He knew they were trying to help. He knew this was the only way to rid himself of the sand burrs. But it still hurt. The headache was back, a nagging pain that thrummed in time with his heartbeat. Over the last hour, Rin had twisted him in a multitude of positions.
Hold your head up.
Tilt it to the side.
Can you lean back for us?
Every movement Kakashi made caused the pain to get worse. The frustration led to the burning behind his eyes, the tightness in his throat. Rin was so focused, so fixated on his hair, that she didn’t notice. It was Obito, whose position allowed him to see more of Kakashi’s face, who noticed the redness around his eyes, the tension in his jaw.
“Um…hey, Rin, can we take a break? It’s been an hour, at least. I need to change my gloves and we should apply more oil, I think.” Obito was grasping at straws, trying to find a way to get the fixated girl to step away.
The girl looked up. “A break?” As subtly as he could, Obito tried to draw her attention to Kakashi. “Yeah, let me go grab us some water. We have been at this a while. Put more oil in while I’m gone, ‘kay, Obito?”
It wasn’t quite what Obito was expecting. He thought he would be sent out so Rin could do her big sister routine, forcing Kakashi to open up and face his emotions. Instead, the girl bounced out of the room, leaving Obito alone with a Kakashi who was nearly in tears. What was he supposed to say? How does he make this better? How does he stop the tears from happening?
He took in the burrs still in Kakashi’s hair. They had it down by half. Just the tighter pieces at his temple and by his ear remained. They were the worst. This was where the scalp was scratched up, bleeding and raw. The whole area, about the size of Obito’s fist, was angry and red. The blood was down to a drip every now and then, but Obito felt it was only because the oil acted as a coagulant in a way. Probably was blocking the worst of it from flowing. Kakashi’s shoulders were heaved up, his head low as if trying to hide. The whole situation had to be horrible, the pain had to be nagging and frustrating.
Hooking his finger in the cuff of his glove, Obito pulled the oil-laden latex off his hands. “We got most of it,” Obito began. He never felt right in silence. It always sat like a heavy weight around him. “With some more oil, these should pop right out.” The glassy sheen of Kakashi’s eyes was steadily getting worse. The redness surrounding them getting more pronounced. “I, um, I think just a little while longer.” His whole face was red, now. The glassy sheen culminating into tears. “Kakashi, I-” Just as the first tear fell, Kakashi let out a choked sob. In an attempt to cover his face, Kakashi brought both hands up. A hand brushed against the oil soaked hair that was hanging limp on his towel covered shoulder. As soon as his fingers touched the oil, the tears flowed faster.
“Get out,” Kakashi bit out, pushing an oil covered hand against Obito’s shoulder, trying to force him out.
Stumbling backwards, Obito caught himself on the wall. “What? No! Kakashi -” Another shove, this time with both hands. “Stop it!”
Although he was a couple inches shorter, Kakashi was not weak. Lean muscles hid more power than most eleven year olds should have. The third shove pushed Obito against the wall. “This is your fault, you moron!”
“I know!” Obito yelled back. He grabbed at Kakashi’s arms, hands gripping around his wrists. “I know it’s my fault, Kakashi! I’m trying to help. I’m trying to make it better!”
“Make it better?” With his face mottled red and tear running tracks down his face, Kakashi was a sight. Furious. Frustrated. Seething. Whether through stupidity or just purely being stubborn, Obito didn’t let go of his hands. “It’s always you. You ruin everything. I hate you!”
For one brief second, Obito’s face twisted in pain. His hands slackened around Kakashi’s wrists. “I…I just…wanted to…help.” He’d heard Obito’s voice in many ways. He’s heard it all the way from happy to angry. But he’d never heard him sound so…sad. So small. His hands fell from Kakashi’s wrists. The lack of touch suddenly burned. “O-Okay. I-I’ll…I’ll go.” There was still a wobble to his voice. Tight and watery. Obito’s eyes burned, the tears forming in the corners.
Taking a step to the side, Obito backed out of Kakashi’s personal space, towards the bathroom door. As he turned, he saw Rin standing in the doorway, eyes wide and holding three bottles of ice cold water. The tears built faster, running a river down his cheeks and dripping off his chin. Shoving all three bottles in the crook of her arm, Rin wrapped her free arm around Obito’s neck and pulled him into a hug.
“He doesn’t mean that.” She said, voice echoing in the stillness of the bathroom. “Tell him, Kakashi. You don’t mean that.” Obito opened his mouth to say something, to tell Rin that Kakashi was right, that it was all his fault, but didn’t get a chance. “He’s in pain. He’s lashing out. But he does not hate you.” Something was stuttered out, Kakashi trying and failing to make a complete word leave his mouth. Nothing could be heard through the sobbing. “You boys need to stop your knee-jerk reactions with each other. Yes, Obito caused you to trip into the sand burrs. But he didn’t plan for this to happen.” She pulled Obito out of the hug, grabbing his shoulder and forcing the boys to face each other. “He’s in here, helping you get them out. Like a teammate should.” Setting the waters down on the counter, Rin pulled Kakashi into a hug of his own. With her free hand, she reached back and gripped Obito’s sleeve. “We are all we have. From the moment we became a team, we became a family. And family stays together. The good ones do, anyway. And I’ll be damned if we are going to splinter apart because you two have too much testosterone and not enough brains.”
That wasn’t Rin’s words. Those were Kushina’s words parroted back at them. Both boys exchanged looks before giving each other a small nod. Again, just like before, Rin’s ability to pop the bubble of anxiety worked its magic.
With that, Rin announced they had to get back to work. The flow of tears lessened as each burr was slowly massaged from silver hair. The small garbage can was full of oil slicked burrs and strands of silver hair matted with blood. But, eventually, the last burr was removed. The hair was thinner on that side, but not enough that it could be noticeable at first glance. It was good enough. With gentle hands, Rin and Obito worked together to later shampoo and conditioner in his hair, body bent over the sink as the water ran pink to blissfully clear. Then, with hair still damp, Rin massaged antibiotic cream in the scrapes and reddened skin, even on the tip of his ear.
When they left the bathroom, Kakashi finally free of the stinging, burning pain of the burrs, Minato-sensei had conjured up a whole feast for the starving pre-teens.
It wasn’t until later, after a dip in the hot springs and bellies full of good food, that Kakashi found himself alone with Obito. The suite they were staying in had three bedrooms. One for sensei, one for Rin, and one for the boys. As they laid out on their futons, Kakashi watched Obito fidget around on his mat. Really, he had no choice but to watch Obito fidget around. Laying on his right side wasn’t an option with his scalp angry and raw. Laying on his back meant the pillow rubbed against his ear, which also hurt from the burrs. So, only Kakashi’s left side remained, which meant he faced Obito straight on.
With his sleep clothes on, no obnoxious orange goggles, no Konoha headband, Obito almost looked like a different boy laying next to him. He had settled on his back, one arm behind his head and the other on his stomach. The hand of the latter slowly scratched into the fabric of his sleep shirt. No arrogance. No boisterous attitude. Just mind numbing silence as the day's events replayed between them.
The way Obito’s face crumbled when Kakashi told him…that…kept replaying. Throughout dinner. Throughout the hot spring. Especially when Minato-sensei made Obito laugh. Kakashi still remembered.
The ‘I hate you!’
The tears.
Guilt gnawned at his gut, making his stomach churn. He didn’t apologize. Couldn’t, at the time. He was too busy sobbing like a baby over his hair. Then Rin swooped in, made everything settle down in that calming way she had. She broke the tension, but didn’t force Kakashi to stop crying and apologize. The hand under his pillow fisted the fabric in his hand. All he had to do was open his mouth and tell Obito he was sorry. That’s all. But the words were stuck in his throat, blocked from coming out.
The other boy must have thought Kakashi was sleeping. He hadn’t looked over, even glanced in that direction, just stared at the ceiling. With just the moonlight shining in, Kakashi could only see Obito’s face bathed in a pale yellow glow. He was so absorbed in his thoughts, he almost missed Obito bringing the hand up off his stomach and wiping at his eyes. The wetness of the tears shimmering in the pale moonlight. Of course Obito was still upset. Of course hearing that a teammate hated him still hurt, even hours later.
Kakashi could do this. Rin was right, family needed to stick together. Kakashi knew how bad it hurt when family didn’t stay together. So, with his teeth gritted in determination, he finally forced out, “I’m sorry.”
Obito must have really thought he was sleeping, if the full body jerk meant anything. He turned his head, mouth open in surprise. “W-What?”
“I…I’m sorry. I didn’t…mean it.” Kakashi scratched at his cheek, a little embarrassed. “Rin was right. But I never actually, you know, apologized.”
At some point, Obito had sat up. The moonlight hit his face just right so that Kakashi could see the tear tracks shining on his face. He’d been silently crying for a while, it seemed. “Me, um…me too. Being sorry, that is.” He rubbed at the back of his neck, head angled down sheepishly. “I promise I didn’t mean to make you trip into those sand burrs. I didn’t even know they were there.”
“I know.” Kakashi watched him wipe the last of his tears away, no more tracks taking their place. “They were hidden in the weeds. It…it wasn’t fair of me to yell at you. I had a headache and the scratches were burning. And then the Lord of the village laughed at me. I was frustrated. But that’s not an excuse to be mean for no reason.”
Obito huffed out a laugh. “Nah, you had a reason. It’s just…I mean, we usually, you know, pick on each other. But we never actually…” He trailed off before shaking his head and trying again. “We say a lot of shit to each other. But I never hated you. I always thought we were friends. Rivals. Friendly rivals? Does that make sense? Not the kind of rivals that sabotage each other. We don’t do that. We push so the other keeps trying, keeps getting better. Or, at least, that’s how I always saw us.” Then, with another shake of his head, Obito tacked on, “sorry, I’m rambling.”
Kakashi sat up, sitting with his legs crossed on the futon. “I don’t have a lot of friends.” It hurt a bit to admit that, but Kakashi made that a reality. He was standoffish, pushed people away, made it so people didn’t want to be close. “But Rin…and you…I’m starting to realize maybe friends aren’t so bad to have. Neither is a ‘friendly rival,’ I guess.”
With a laugh, Obito leaned back, hands braced on the futon behind him. Then, with a more serious expression, Obito’s dark eyes met his. “Are we…are we good?”
“Yeah,” Kakashi said with a small smile. “We’re good.”
The team started home in the morning, after more antibiotic cream was smeared into the side of Kakashi’s head. The scratches were scabbed over, the redness calmed greatly, by the time the Konoha gates came into view. It didn’t stop Kushina from mothering Kakashi into embarrassment.
“Ya know, ‘Kashi, I could trim your hair down a bit. Make it harder for things to get tangled in it.” Kushina said, carding her fingers through his thick mess of hair on the non-injured side. “Accidents can’t be avoided, but if an enemy would have knocked you into those sand burrs, the same thing would have happened.”
Minato-sensei put a hand on Kakashi’s shoulder. “Kushina cuts my hair. She’ll take care of you.”
The three kids exchanged glances, neither looking totally sold on the idea of the headstrong woman being able to cut hair. “Um,” Kakashi gave Kushina a placating smile, “let me think about it.”
“Your call, ya know,” Kushina said with a shrug.
Her attention was immediately drawn to Obito, who, in Kushina’s opinion, was standing ‘way too close to Rin’ and proceeded to make the boy blush and squirm. Rin just giggled, hand held over her mouth in an attempt to lessen the embarrassment Obito was about to go through. Minato-sensei tried, and failed, to reign his wife in. The yelling and Obito’s embarrassment was a loud enough distraction that no one noticed Kakashi taking a step backwards just to breathe.
Kakashi reached up, fingers absently combing through the side of his hair that had caused so much trouble. It still caught on the healing scrapes, tender enough to remind him every time he touched it. After making sure Obito’s face resembled a tomato, Kushina’s eyes found Kakashi’s again. She had a knowing glint in her eyes as she watched Kakashi fuss with his hair.
"...Don't," he muttered before Kushina could circle back around with the scissor idea.
She laughed anyway. "I wasn't gonna say anything."
"You were thinking it."
"I absolutely was."
Obito snorted loud enough for everyone to hear.
"Oh, so now you're laughing?" Kakashi shot back.
Obito rubbed the back of his neck, entirely unrepentant. "Little bit."
Kakashi rolled his eyes, "...Idiot." The word lacked any real bite.
Obito's answering grin came easily, as if he'd recognized the difference.
Minato-sensei smiled to himself but wisely kept quiet. By the time they reached the village proper, Obito had somehow convinced Rin that he could absolutely outrun Kakashi once his head healed. Rin insisted that wasn't the point of the conversation that they were having, but Obito insisted it was. Two seconds later he was sprinting down the road with Rin chasing after him, laughing the entire time.
"Get back here!" she called.
"You'll never catch me!"
Kakashi watched them disappear around the corner in a blur of black hair and orange goggles.
For a moment, he considered following at his usual measured pace. Instead, with a sigh that sounded suspiciously like amusement, he took off after them.
"Obito!"
"What?"
"When I catch you..."
"You have to catch me first!"
The sound of their bickering drifted through the village streets until it was swallowed by the bustle of Konoha.
Years later, Kakashi would remember the mission for the sand burrs, the headache, and the blood caught in silver hair. But when he thought of it, those were never the first things that came to mind. He remembered gentle hands. Rin's arms around both of them. And the quiet realization that somewhere between an accident and an apology, Team Minato had stopped feeling like an assignment.
It had started feeling like home.