#teamminatoweek2022

[ami-neve]

For @teamminatoweek

Day 7: Welcome Baby Naruto

N.b. the quality is low but try to click .. maybe it gets better..

[animetrashmuffin]

For @teamminatoweek Day 3 prompt any AU (everybody lives)

[plinkcat-gif]

“when the waters calm, clarity comes.”

@teamminatoweek day 2: jinchuuriki!! discussions of rage in the mindscape + a future compromise

they are so important to me actually

[bansenshukai]

@teamminatoweek Day 3: Any AU (Post-Kannabi, everyone lives)

(i would recommend viewing on a desktop, it's not really meant for a small screen)

[wind-becomes-lightning]

What the f- is an Isekai..?

This day is THE DAY. I'm so excited to share this overly long stupid fun crossover fic with you guys! It was so much fun to write and I really really hope someone else can get as much pleasure out of reading it.

for @kirpyee & @enevera, who always mix nart and jjk on my timeline (which I love) (also vera read this story before anyone else and was very supportive when I had my doubts.)

Naruto (Shippuuden) x Jujutsu Kaisen Crossover

Hatake Kakashi / Uchiha Obito & Gojo Satoru / Geto Suguru

8075 words

Ao3 link [x]

for @teamminatoweek Day 3: Crossovers.

Nobody can really explain how it happened, but somehow Hatake Kakashi and Gojo Satoru, both in the middle of important battles, switch bodies.

The last thing he remembered was Obito gripping him tight and pulling him into the kamui dimension where he had fallen hard on his head. He had expected kamui to look barren and empty, nothing but blocks of grey, but when Kakashi opened his eyes he found himself in a vibrant city. High rise buildings and neon lights. He did not know how he got there or where he was.

He shook his head out to get rid of the headache and then pulled himself onto his legs and realised that he was no longer wearing his usual comfy sweats that he had gone to war with. Instead he was wearing soft black pants that looked like they belonged to a suit. When Kakashi took a closer look he realised his legs were also less muscular as they had been and now long and thin. He turned his head to the side and found a building with big windows in which he could see himself: He was in a completely different body.

Genjutsu, he thought immediately. Obito had done something that had put Kakashi under a powerful genjutsu that made him imagine he was… whoever he was now. The man in the mirror was tall and wore full black, a sort of uniform. His hair was whiter than Kakashi’s usual hair was and even though the windows were a step or two away it was clear that the eyes were crystal blue. Kakashi had never seen anything like it before.

Around him a battle was taking place. Several people swirled and ran from him and jumped over top of him. The things being fought were big and scary looking, but not in animal form like the Bijuu. They were deformed, loud, babbling creatures, crawling all over the high rise buildings of the city in front of him. Kakashi had never seen such a bright city before and only ever laid eyes on high rise buildings in the dead city of Amegakure. He wondered silently how much imagination Obito must have had to make such a place up to trap him in.

Before he had another moment to contemplate his situation, a dark figure attacked him directly, throwing one of the misshapen creatures at him. Kakashi saw it coming instantly even though he had not been looking in that direction and on instinct dodged the thing flying towards him. He felt that his tall, lanky body was a little harder to navigate, but whoever the person was who’s body he was inhabiting was very skilled anyway.

Laughter echoed through the street and Kakashi looked up to see another man standing not far from him. His hair was hanging down in black strands over his shoulders and for some reason he was wearing the outfit of a monk. At least he knew it was the outfit of a monk, Kakashi realised with relief, so not all things in this world were different from his own world. 

“What’s that? Have you forgotten your own abilities?” the guy’s voice roared over to Kakashi. “You know you don’t have to dodge things for them not to hit you.” 

Kakashi in fact, did not know that he didn’t have to dodge things. He put his back up straight and looked down to the long, slender fingers of the guy whose body he was now. All he knew was that these eyes, the piercing blue’s that he’d seen in the window, were even sharper than the sharingan was and opted him to react quicker to whatever was happening in the corner of his eye.

“I do not know how this ability works in fact,” Kakashi said out loud. “I don’t even know which ability this person is supposed to have.” He wiggled his hands.

The monk raised a brow. He seemed as irritated as Kakashi felt. This was an overall bizarre situation he had suddenly fallen into and he didn't quite understand how to fix it again. He knew he needed to get back to his own dimension, fight and defeat Obito to make sure the next generation could grow up safe and peaceful, but he didn’t know how he had gotten here and so he didn’t know how he could go back.

And his head hurt. His eyes radiated a power and pain that he had never felt from the sharingan eye. It was like his chakra was being drained by the second, only that he did not have chakra. What Kakashi could feel flowing through his veins was a very different power, much stronger and it seemed connected to the eyes. In wonder he touched the man’s chest and hair and in his jacket pocket he found a blindfold. Made sense, Kakashi thought. With eyes draining you like this you needed them to be covered up most times.

“What the fuck are you doing?” The monk bellowed in amusement. “Have you also forgotten how you look, Satoru?” 

Satoru, huh? That must be the name of the guy in whose body he was stuck in. There was no way out but go forward, try to get this situation resolved so he could get back to Obito. So he decided to just be honest: “My name is not Satoru.” The voice that came out his mouth sounded not as deep as his usual one, but the tone somehow sounded arrogant. He continued: “My name is Hatake Kakashi, I am a shinobi from Konohagakure.”

The monk’s mouth fell open and he stood there frozen for a moment. “What?!”

– –

This was the greatest thing that had ever happened to him and he was bouncing on his feet just looking up and down his own body. Somehow, just a moment ago, he had still been in Tokyo, but now just a blink later, he was here. It had taken Satoru literally 10.2 seconds to figure which story he’d been isekai’ed into. When they’d been younger Suguru had talked about nothing but “the big three” and Naruto in particular and as such Satoru had a vast knowledge of the world and its characters.

The green vests, the gloves, the freaky hair, everything. How interesting! This was Kakashi! The copy ninja! And he was in his kamui dimension, real, with blocks and everything, just like in the anime! Satoru just about could stop himself from clapping his hands together in excitement. It all was so real. Who would have thought something like that was actually possible? 

When he looked up and found the man standing opposite of him, a grim look and black hair wild all around his face, Satoru’s heart took a little leap. “Uchiha Obito!” he exclaimed. “In the flesh!” Which led the other man to open his eyes in surprise and take a step back, like he was suddenly creeped out.

Obito looked exactly like he had in the manga. Satoru fumbled for his pocket, but could not find his desired smartphone in it. These large, puffy, Jounin vests had nothing that could be useful in its thousands of pockets, just scrolls and shuriken. He cut himself immediately on one of the sharp objects because he was not used to being without his cursed technique.

He clapped his hands together and walked from side to side: “I mean that is cool. It is like an isekai in here!” Obito raised a brow and Satoru could read the confusion in his face. Well, the characters in the isekai never knew they were characters in the story, only the character who had been inserted into the story knew. This was Satoru’s responsibility. 

“I’m Hatake Kakashi!” he said out loud, to explain himself. “Renowned copy ninja from.. That place with the little leaf on the metal band!” He tapped to his head and took the hitai-ate off just to realise there was no tiny leaf on it this time. Right, there was something about the war that he had forgotten.

To Obito it must have seemed like Kakashi had lost his marbles, because he spoke very quietly when he replied: “Yes… that- .. yes you are Kakashi…” 

Incredible! Satoru’s eyes lit up with the realisation that Obito had the same voice as the voice actor in the anime! It was like his assigned voice! Amazing! Outstanding! He thought of what he could ask Obito about, but got distracted by the way his left eye felt. He was very much used to an eye that drained its user, Satoru had two of them all his life, but this eye had something special about it. When he concentrated it spun away over him and it seemed like his opponent’s movements were a little slower. Very practical.

“Wow, this eye drains you huh?” He said out loud and closed his left eyelid. “Very cool, but not surprising that Kakashi keeps it covered most of the time.” 

Obito replied with a “Huh?” to that assessment.

When he focused hard enough, Satoru could also feel the flow of chakra in his veins. Clearly Kakashi knew what he was doing and his body was working on autopilot. He wondered if he still remembered any of the symbols that you needed to sign to get a jutsu to happen. After all Suguru, nerd extraordinaire, had shown them all to him.

Now thinking of Suguru, he could feel a sting in his heart when he remembered how he had left the situation. Tokyo and more importantly, his students were in grave danger and needed his help. He had waited long enough to take care of the Suguru problem, because he had let his own feelings get in the way, but it was finally time to get rid of it. And while being in an isekai was fun and exciting, especially in the world of ninja, he had to return to finish his own tasks.

“Hey, hey, hey Uchiha”, he said and snipped his fingers towards Obito, who still seemed utterly baffled by the sudden change in Kakashi's behaviour. “ Can you tell me which part of the story we are in?”

Obito’s eyes flashed like a threat: “What do you mean with that?”

Satoru sighed and put a hand into his hip. There was no way around it, he had to explain who he was. “You know, Obito, in my world “Naruto” is a popular manga. All the young people my age have read it. I personally have not, because I am more of a fan of the classics like Sailor Moon or Digimon or anything that is about romance, but my best friend-”

“Nothing you are saying makes sense,” Obito spat back,“Kakashi, are you under genjutsu?”

Genjutsu? Right, that was a thing that existed in this world. Well, it would be hard to convince Obito of the fact that he was nothing more than a fictional character the goth girls liked very much. But something told Satoru that he would be able to get out of this situation if only he knew at which point in the story he was. Maybe he needed to fix something to be released, if that was the case he needed to fix it quickly to get back to Suguru. 

“Did he take your heart seal yet?” Satoru started and waved with a hand. “I mean, Kakashi. Did he take that seal yet?” 

Obito blinked. His face had suddenly turned very white: “I- How do you know I wanted him to do that?”

“Because I read it in the manga, stupid,” Satoru laughed. Well technically he had not read the manga, but he had heard enough about it to know it well enough. Plus he had by chance seen the episodes that took place in kamui, mostly because Suguru was always saying that “this was the best part” of the entire show. Then and now Satoru had just assumed it was because Suguru liked both Kakashi and Obito and would have loved for them to make out a little. Not that this would ever happen on television.

Honestly, Suguru had a point in a way. Those two characters were clearly in love with each other, but parted before either of them could say something about it. “Seriously man,” he said and sighed a little again. “Now that I’m here you should totally listen to my advice and just confess your feelings…” He stopped moving his feet up and down and let his eyes fall to the sandals.

“If you don’t do it soon, it might be too late and you don’t want it to be too late, because that’s not very good.” He almost added on “I speak from experience”, but the words wouldn’t quite come out. Instead he watched his own toes in the sandals under him. How impractical must these shoes be while fighting? How had Kakashi not lost a toe yet? Why had nobody pointed out how ugly and unfashionable they were?

Obito growled. The voice came deep out of his throat and the anger in it got Satoru excited. “I don’t know what you mean with ‘confessing’” Obito said calmly, but clearly enraged. Oh, if only he had his own powers, Satoru thought, fighting a real Uchiha would have probably been a treat.

– –

“You are Hatake Kakashi?” The guy laughed. “The Anime character? Very funny, Satoru.”

Kakashi did not know what an anime was and how he was supposed to be a character from it, but clearly this guy knew him from somewhere. This Satoru guy was apparently aware who Kakashi was too. Maybe they had switched bodies? Maybe Satoru was now with Obito in Kamui while Kakashi was here. Was that a mangekyou ability he didn’t know of? It seemed unlikely, but then again Kakashi didn’t know everything about his eye.

Instead of asking one of the many questions in his head he just repeated himself: “Yes, that is my name. Apparently that seems funny to you.”

Now the monk stopped his laughter and instead frowned. “Don’t be ridiculous”, he said. “What kind of animal summons does Kakashi have, huh, tell me.” He was testing Kakashi now, but at the same time he was also moving closer inch by inch.

“I have dog summons”, Kakashi said. “I have the scroll to call them right here...” He touched his right chest and realised that he wasn’t wearing his normal vest. He was in a uniform. His scroll wasn’t there.

The monk didn’t seem convinced. He approached closer and let out a laugh again: “That wasn’t a very hard question. Additionally you could have just quickly google’d it. Satoru, I know you have that expensive phone in your pocket.”

Phones were something Kakashi knew about, though he had never seen one in a pocket, but what the hell was google supposed to be. “One of them can talk”, Kakashi tried to offer as information but the guy waved it away: “Everybody knows that.” 

Apparently Kakashi was well known in this part of the world that he had never seen.

He was now very close to Kakashi, taking small steps forward as if he was expecting Kakashi to jump on him the moment he came too close. At the same time he seemed like he was really interested to be closer, so he kept going forward. Finally he was an arms reach away and used his right hand to move it ever so slightly towards Kakashi’s body. Kakashi thought he might hurt him, but instead he just lightly touched Kakashi’s sleeves and then immediately shot back

“You let me touch you,” the monk murmured. Kakashi nodded in confusion. What was so bad about touching someone else on the sleeve? This prompted the guy to look away to talk to himself about something that sounded like “Innate cursed ability” whatever that was supposed to be.

He then looked up directly into Kakashi’s double eyes and grinned wide. “Right,” he started. “You are Hatake Kakashi from the shonen manga “Naruto”, okey. I’m Geto Suguru” 

Naruto? Manga? Kakashi had heard the word manga before, it was a kind of comic book young people nowadays read in Konoha, but “shonen” was a new genre to him. “What does Naruto have to do with that?” He asked more to himself than Suguru.

His opposite laughed a little and shook his hair out of his head. It seemed like he had finally started believing what Kakashi was saying. Geto shrugged his shoulders and said: “I guess Isekai do exist, huh.” 

Kakashi didn’t know what an Isekai was, but it didn’t sound like it was a very good thing to experience.

“Tell me”, Geto said and Kakashi noticed how much he tried to sound as if that was a very casual question and not one he had been pondering for years, “which one of the dudes you are frequently paired up with are you actually into? The - uh- green one, the teacher one, the ANBU sweetheart or the murderous one?”

It took him a minute to realise what the question was about and most of all whom the question was about. It had been easy to identify Gai and Iruka, but to figure out who his ANBU sweetheart was supposed to be… He’s had much too many when he was younger. 

The murderous one though, he turned the idea over in his mind. “I am not into Obito”, he said and didn’t sound as convincing as he had wanted to sound.

The monk laughed again: “So the murderous one. Good choice. I was always a big fan of the two of you.” How could he have been, Kakashi wondered, but then again Geto had previously mentioned a manga called “Naruto” which he apparently read as a kid, plus he had known Kakashi and Obito just by name alone. This all seemed very odd.

“Well you better hurry to tell him your feelings because..- well that depends.. Where did you see him last?” Geto asked with a grin.

Kakashi wanted to test his idea even further: “He dragged me into Kamui to separate me from my comrades.” He narrowed his eyes and watched his opponent's reaction. Just as he expected Suguru nodded knowingly: “Well you really should hurry then.”

“Hurry for what?” Kakashi asked and felt a little shiver when the other man started laughing and waving his hand.

“You’ll see.”

Kakashi put himself up to full height, which was very tall, now that he could measure himself against another person. He tried to look menacing enough to stop Geto from laughing, but he didn’t know how to look menacing when in the body of a guy who was thin and not muscular. “Say, Geto-san” he began overly friendly, “Am I a character in a book in this world?”

– –

“So you are saying I am a character out of a comic book?” Obito put the facts together slowly. His eyes were widened in horror at the realisation and Satoru couldn’t blame him. Being nothing more than a narrative foil to a main character must be hard. Not that Satoru knew what that felt like as he was always any story's main character.

He decided to give Obito a little space and started walking around the Kamui dimension, taking everything in that he could. It was so similar to how it had looked like in the anime, which made sense, but was almost scary. He found a surface that mirrored a little and looked at his face. With a whistle he said: “Woo, I’m handsome.” He touched the scar on his left eye and then went with his hand through his hair.

Kakashi was injured at the front and Satoru could feel the pain, though he didn’t seem to mind so much. He wasn’t used to pain in his normal life, so feeling it a little now was actually exhilarating. He felt the pouch at the side of his leg and opened it up. Kunai were neatly stacked inside, ready to be pulled out and used at his convenience. He took one out and swung it around his finger. “Wow, you actually use these! Amazing! Just like in the show!” 

Obito grunted not far from him and so he turned his attention to the Uchiha. His hands folded over his head, Obito breathed heavily as if he was having some kind of panic attack. Satoru felt for him and snapped with his fingers in a vain attempt to diffuse the tension: “Oi, can you do that thing… with the wood? And I don’t mean that wood, I mean the one in your arms.”

The Uchiha looked up and the anger was written all over his eyes, while a large wooden spike that Satoru had completely missed was hanging out of the palm of his hands. It seemed like something behind Obito’s eyes was turning and he readied himself to kill this person that had taken over Kakashi’s body any second now. Satoru couldn’t help but smile and realise how weird that was with the mask on. Many people wanted to murder him after they met him first, it was his style.

He sighed and went with his hand through his hair again. As fun as all of this was, winding Uchiha Obito up and to see him boil in his own emotions, Satoru needed to get back. His own narrative foil was waiting back in the real world for him and his students needed him. He didn’t know how much time had passed since he made it into Kamui, he did not know how Isekai rules worked in the first place. Shouldn’t this only get triggered when he was run over by a giant truck?

“Right, ok, we need to figure this out”, he said out loud, a finger tapping against his chin around the seams of the mask. “I’ve never seen an isekai to the end, so I don’t know how one gets out of it.” Obito squinted at him. “You know.. Isekai? Well it is a story genre in which the main character gets reincarnated in their favourite game or show or book or media of choice. They are awfully popular among the younger students who didn’t get raised on the classics and according to my best friend they are a crime to humanity.”

Obito looked at him as if he was the weirdest person he had ever encountered. Maybe he really was. “What the fuck is Ise-”

“And they are awfully formulaic, you know? The main character is always so overpowered and has all the girls and I don’t care, because I already have that back home you know? I don’t need that. So I’m mostly bored when they are on and don’t pay attention. I’m more of a shoujo kind of person, you know? I need that sweet hand holding romance and “Oh my god will he give me his Line number” conversations. I know you get that.” Satoru snapped his finger at Obito again, who had his mouth hanging open as if he was going to lose his mind any second now.

Clearly, Obito was not going to be of help in this situation, mostly because he still needed to digest that none of his “deliberate choices” in life had been quite as deliberate as he thought they were. Satoru had to fix it himself, as much was clear. He tapped his finger against his nose and tried to remember as much as she could from the story of Naruto. Suguru had been a huge fan and talked about it constantly, though it sometimes felt like he was more angry at it than praising it.

Satoru thought back to the afternoons in the Jujutsu School when they would be laying side by side on his bed and Suguru was talking endlessly about his favourite manga and the magazine they all were published in. Just bathing in the memory made Satoru feel warm on the inside, a warm feeling of nostalgia and pain that he was all too familiar with. Even after all these years it was still hard to understand why these innocent days had to end and now he had been put into this difficult decision to end the life of the only person he wanted to save above anyone else.

“Well at least Kakashi and I have that in common”, Satoru mumbled and bit his lower lip. “We both have to kill someone we love.”

Obito lifted his head: “Who does Kakashi love?”

– –

It was like someone had just stabbed him even though nobody had touched him. Kakashi felt like his head was spinning. This was all a little much to take in for one evening. “So, Obito will die?” Kakashi could not explain why the confirmation of that made him feel so sick, when not so long ago he was still very determined to be the one to kill his old friend.

Suguru put his head to the side and threw Kakashi a look that couldn’t be read as anything else but pity. “Yes”, he said with a grin. One of the creatures crawled along his shoulders and he summoned a sort of ball out of thin air which he threw in the air and caught again.

“If you love him you should probably tell him as soon as you can.” Geto’s voice had changed into something less excited and more arrogant. He clearly now felt like he was being superior to Kakashi, who to him was nothing but a fictional character with no own choices. 

Kakashi on the other hand felt rather peaceful at the realisation that nothing he had ever done had been preventable, that it had been all written out for him. He just needed to go along with the story in which he wasn’t even the main character and eventually he would reach the end. He just wished that Obito didn’t have to die for that.

“I also would very much like for you to return my best friend to me”, the monk said with a grin. “We have unfinished business here.”

In the corner of his eye Kakashi could see all the windows of a high building scatter. He looked back to Geto and his lopsided grin. “Why are you doing this?” Kakashi waved with his hand around. “Causing all this destruction in this world.”

The smile on the monk’s face froze in place and then it turned into a frown. His eyes darkened. “Because there is so much here that needs fixing and it could do with a complete new start. So we’re tearing it down to correctly build it up”, he explained, brows furrowed.

“Ah,” Kakashi said with a grin and found that grinning came easy with this body, “You remind me a lot of Obito. You once were a naive kid that the world didn’t treat kindly and now you want to destroy it.” 

By the way Geto’s eyes widened, Kakashi could tell that this was not something he had wanted to hear. For him, Obito must be nothing but a villain in someone else's story and to be compared to that surely wasn’t a pleasant experience. Kakashi knew he was pushing, but to figure out how to get back he needed to know more: “Are you close with me? I mean, the person I am? Satoru…?”

This made his opposite visibly uncomfortable. Geto squirmed a little, but then frowned. It was pretty obvious that he prefered not to talk about it, even though he had brought up the unfinished business not even 10 minutes ago. 

“You and Obito”, Kakashi said now to push just a little more, “are very similar. What you want is to improve the world that you suffered in, that others suffered in, but your methods of doing so are very misguided.”

It looked like he was stretching a rubber band very thin. Geto’s eyes darkened a little more. “What do you know? You are a fictional character. You are not real, nothing you do is real”, he spat back.

Kakashi waved the answer away unbothered. “Does this Satoru, who is your best friend as you say, see it as his task to make sure you can not reach your goal?” he asked, even though he could already read the answer on the other person’s face. 

“I guess he would like to believe so.” Geto now sounded as if he was pressing his teeth together in an attempt not to snap and attack Kakashi again. 

Getting an opponent riled up so that they would spill information was one of the easiest tactics of an ANBU operative, it surprised Kakashi that Geto didn’t know that from the narrative he had read. Or maybe his temperament was already so heated up that he had forgotten everything about it.

“So the guy I'm stuck with and me, we have more in common than just the odd hair colour and the powerful eyes,” Kakashi said with a shrug. Dramatic shrugs also seemed easy in this specific body. “But what do I know, I’m just a fictional character.”

He could see that this was the boiling point. Anger was written all over the monk’s face. “If you are so similar”, he spat out, “then I would suggest telling Obito your feelings instead of just letting him walk away.”

– –

Satoru gave Obito a heartedly pat on the shoulder, which the other man let happen without as much as an angry glance. “I think you already know the answer to the question.” 

Technically Satoru did not know who Kakashi was in love with, in the other world, there were quite some contenders for this title, but he wanted to get this isekai situation cleared up and somehow he felt like this was the way to go. Maybe it was some fairy tail “they-need-to-admit-their-feelings” thing that one found in romance novels.

He was definitely right about Obito, as much was clear. Obito’s cheeks had visibly flushed and his hands were shaking. When he saw Satoru’s face and the grin in his eyes, he growled deep in his throat and let a mokuton spike grow out of his palm to hold it against the other man's throat. The gesture drew blood and Satoru whistled a little. Uh, this was much more fun than it should be.

“I don’t care what Kakashi feels”, Obito said through gritted teeth. “I don’t care for him.”

Satoru laughed and waved with his right hand. “Sure you don’t. So when I do this..,” he curled a finger under the seams of his mask and pulled it down over his chin..”and lean close..” he did as he said, “and whisper quiet words into your ear, it will garner absolutely no reaction.” Obito mumbled something, a little distracted by Kakashi’s sudden unmasked face right in front of him, so he did not notice until Satoru was right at his ear.

“I love you”, he breathed and Obito fell over his feet backward.

This was just too much fun, if only he could record all of this with his phone camera to show it to Suguru when… well, some time when they could share things with each other again.

Obito put his hands into fists: “I don’t want you to say things like that out of his mouth!”

He sighed deeply. “Well maybe Kakashi does not actually love you,” Satoru shrugged his shoulders, “He has tons of admirers as far as I am aware. But you clearly love him and since I’m stuck here with you and I don’t know what else to do and your insecurity is kind of amusing, I will let you in on a secret.” He leaned forward, made a “psst” sound and then whispered: “You will die, soon actually, so if you don’t tell him he will never know.”

Clearly, these were not the news Obito wanted to hear. He breathed in heavily and stared at Satoru, but he did not attack him again or say anything.

“So there are your options,” Satoru yawned a little, the mask still hanging under his chin, “You can tell the person you love that you love them or you can go to the grave bitter and alone and without ever being honest with yourself.” He heard his own mouth speaking the words to Obito and knew he was talking to himself. It was something he’d never been good with and he had realised that way too late. 

He walked up to Obito again: “And believe me, not being honest with him or yourself won’t make either of you happy. It will just make the inevitable end so much worse.” Satoru thought of Suguru and how long he had put off killing him. Maybe it had been fear or regret or shame over not having been open with him from the beginning. Maybe if he’d been able to express what he felt to Suguru when they were younger, if he’d been able to explain how important their time alone together had been to him…

“I’m not in love with him!” Obito spat out.

Satoru shook the memories away and found the grin again: “Right, right, sure. Tell me, how many years have you been watching him? Like, I’m just saying, this is a friend to enemies to lovers thing, rivals and all - of course you are in love. It is kind of required in this situation to be in love a little at least. I can tell you that, I speak from experience.”

Obito shook his head. He needed more convincing, Satoru thought. He put one arm around Obito’s shoulder and drew him in, just like he sometimes did with Nanami to annoy him. It was a little harder in this body, as Kakashi was not quite as tall as Satoru was used to, but the move was still very effective. Obito’s ears were clearly red. 

“Great. If you are not in love with him, I’m sure you wouldn’t mind at all if I just came up to you like this and kissed you?”

– –

“So that is what makes you so mad that you have to destroy this city? The fact that he wasn’t honest with you?” Kakashi thought this comment would push Geto over the edge, but instead it just made him pause for a second, as if he couldn’t believe what the other person had just said to him.

Kakashi could understand that it was something that Suguru saw as important. Being dishonest about feelings never got anyone anywhere, this was easily shown by the way Sasuke had taken in recent months. But was Kakashi dishonest with himself? Because if there were unspoken things between him and Obito then yes, it would probably be wise to address them, especially if their fate had already been decided. He could feel the sting burn when thinking about Obito potentially being dead again, so close after he had just returned to life.

He weighed his head: “Maybe you are right and there are unexplained things between Obito and me. Maybe we should absolutely address these things, especially if he were to, as you claim, die soon. Because taking these feelings to your grave only leads to resentment and resenting the person you care for the most clearly only leads to..” He made a general gesture to Suguru and the destroyed city around him. “..this.”

It did not seem like Geto really liked hearing a lecture from Kakashi, especially not out of his former friend’s mouth. He was breathing heavily by now, nostrils flared. Kakashi wondered how he would feel if his favourite Icha-Icha character would come to life in Obito’s body and tell him something about the importance of romance and affection. The image in front of his eyes did amuse him, with Obito acting all femine and pouting just like Yuri-san did in the novel, but then ultimately Kakashi settled on that it wouldn’t feel very good to meet a character you loved that way.

Love and affection, huh? It’s not like he didn’t  want those things and it was not like he couldn't imagine finding them with Obito. It was just that they had been apart for so many years and would need to build a new life together, if even. And now it seemed like Obito was not long for this world, so would they even get the chance?

“I don’t know if I could tell Obito that I love him, as you advise me too, because I don’t know if I do, “Kakashi finished his trail of thought. “I hardly know him now. Back then, when we were children and around each other a lot, maybe I had a crush on him back then. Because he was a person, a version of himself, that I envied and adored to equal measure. But now? How do I know who he is now?”

He took a step forward closer to Geto, who was still frozen in place. “I wonder if that is the same for this Satoru person. That he couldn’t tell you his feelings earlier for some hang up or another and now he can’t tell you anymore either, because the version of you that you are now is not the version of you that he fell in love with.”

“I don’t-” Geto stopped himself in the middle of the sentence, as if his tongue couldn’t catch up with his thoughts fast enough. The frown on his face was loosening a little and he seemed to genuinely consider what was said. Kakashi took the opportunity to take another step forward closer to him.

“And I’m not saying that both of you could not love that new version of each other, or that Obito and I could not learn to love this version of ourselves. But I assume that probably takes a lot of work and especially time, time which Obito and I just don’t have. At least according to what you told me. You on the other hand could talk to Satoru about this, clear the air, and then move forward from this point on '' Kakashi's eyes were involuntarily dragged down to see Geto’s slightly shaking hands. He didn’t have time to analyse why he could see something so small so well.

“To get all of that, though, you first have to be open and tell this Satoru that this is what you want and no amount of destruction or death can stop that need of yours. You’ll always be bitter about it until you face it head on. The hole in your life will not be filled if you fight pain with more pain.”

Obito was similar, Kakashi thought. He too obviously felt betrayed and hurt by what had happened to him, to Rin and the world in general. He’d been a naive kid, which Kakashi had always liked about him when they were younger. Kakashi was scarred and tired of doing anything but the biggest duty and Obito had been hopeful and excited for his future, as a kid ought to be. This was why his fall had been so much deeper, his derealisation so much more destructive.

It was not like Kakashi couldn’t understand this need of Obito’s or Suguru’s to make the world right with violence. There was so much going wrong that needed fixing in his own world and maybe in this one too, but it was just not right to do it by inflicting pain on others. Pain would never be rectified with more pain. Revenge was just a breeding ground for more revenge.

“You have to find a middle ground”, Kakashi said and meant Geto and Satoru as well as Obito and himself, “There has to be one between the two of you. If he is like me then he probably doesn’t think you are wrong in all regards, but he just doesn’t approve of the methods you are using to fix it. Maybe this world has done him wrong like it has done you wrong and he just wants to set it right in a different way.”

Suguru laughed: “Ha! Satoru has always been perfect. He was literally born the perfect person. Nothing bad ever happened to him. He would not know how I feel.” A light crossed his eyes and then they darkened again.

“Well if you know my story, then you would know that I know a thing or two about people who are seen as perfect,” Kakashi was now also quietly laughing. Not loud and boastful like Geto had before, but more to himself. He shook his head then: “And I can tell you they rarely really are perfect.”

Kakashi was now very close to Geto, his head towering over the other man’s. He was not used to being so tall, while Obito was a little taller than him as far as he could gather, Tenzo and most of his other friends were smaller. But some of his students had lately reached his height and if they were still growing they would soon outgrow him. 

He looked down on the man in front of him, who was shaking his head in disbelief: “This world would not be better suddenly just because Satoru would hold me and tell me how he feels.” Geto was spitting on the ground next to them. “Literally nothing would change. Nothing would improve.”

“Maybe”, Kakashi laughed a little again. It seemed rather easy in this body, without a mask, to laugh to yourself. “Yes, maybe it would change nothing, but it could help you resolve your own narrative foil, would it not? Maybe that would change something anyway.”

He didn’t know what he was doing, but before he could think about it too much he had already pulled Suguru closer, wrapped his long arms around his shoulders and dragged him in. The other man did not resist or say something and so Kakashi let his head, Satoru’s head, fall forward on Suguru’s hair and pressed a kiss against it. 

Suguru’s breath hitched.

– –

Obito didn’t resist at all, in fact, he just stayed frozen in place. Satoru curled his finger under Obito’s chin and pulled it upwards to draw himself closer. It wasn’t as elegant as he was used to as Kakashi’s fingers were much thicker than his own, but he could make it work. He couldn’t believe how easy it was, how easily the Uchiha let himself get led like that.

Wow, Satoru thought. Obito actually let him do this. He wouldn’t have expected that. He couldn’t help but wonder what Obito might taste like if they actually kissed. After all, he had kissed many people in his life, from different places and different countries and origins, sexualities and genders, but he had never kissed a fictional character before, so what would that be like? Would Obito taste like paper and ink? Would it be the “real” thing?

Finally, when Satoru was only millimetres away from his face Obito finally snapped out of whatever trance he had been in. “Stop!” he screamed and “Don’t-!” Though he was clearly panicking about all of this, he stayed close to Satoru and did not wriggle himself out of the arm that was still slung around his shoulder.

“How long have you been in love with him, huh?” Satoru couldn’t help but revel in his success. He had reached his goal of melting whatever ice block had engulfed Obito for many years and gotten a very clear reaction out of him. Maybe that was after all the way to get this isekai curse lifted. True love’s kiss or something like that.

Obito was clearly scrambling to find the words, maybe even the thoughts, to explain what was happening to him. His face was now bright red, from cheeks to ears, but he still kept the embrace up. “I don’t know,” Satoru could hear him mumble and many other words that seemed to make no sense. “Watching.” “Grave.” “Amegakure.” “So much lightning.” Finally he seemed to find his voice again and with it his face moved back into its usual frown: “Not that it matters who I love or whom he loves. The world is about to be reborn. We don’t need to be together now, we can be together in the dream - forever.”

“Ah~” Satoru sang a little and patted Obito on the back again, “No, my friend, you won't make it that far. As far as I remember Kakashi is also not in the dream - for some reason that is not related to you - or maybe it is? I don’t remember - anyway. You will die. So I would suggest kissing the hot ninja man now before that happens, because you won’t have a chance afterwards.”

Obito blinked and bit his lower lip in thought. He reminded Satoru of Suguru in this way. Suguru had been good at pouting when they were younger, especially when he talked about one of his favourite manga storylines not going the way he wished. It was funny to think of that now that Satoru was trapped in such a storyline.

How many times had Satoru let an opportunity to kiss Suguru go by? All these times in which they’d been close to each other, hands slung into one another, laughing or talking or fighting about this and that. He had wanted to do it many times. What had made him so scared to take the leap? Maybe if he had been more brave things would be different now, maybe Suguru could still be by his side. Maybe he wouldn’t have to kill him.

No, Obito should not regret something that Satoru regretted. Not if there was still hope. “Who knows,” Satoru said with a smile, “Maybe you can change the narrative. After all I wasn’t here to chat you up in the original Naruto manga was I? We might have created an alternative timeline, you know? If you just tell him how you feel, if you guys - I don’t know - smooch a little, maybe the future will be brighter?” He paused for a second and then added: “I can only repeat myself in saying that you shouldn’t let such a situation slip by.”

There was a light in Obito’s eyes now and as Satoru looked down he could see the red of the sharingan turn into the black of his normal eye colour. He’d rarely seen anyone that had eyes as dark, but that wasn’t surprising when a person was created with ink mostly. Obito was now heavily breathing as if he was reaching a conclusion. 

“I have the seal on me still. The one Madara placed on me,” Obito said and stared forward. 

Satoru waved the concern away with a flick of his hand: “I’m sure both of you will find a way to remove that safely. I think, honestly, that both of you could do anything you wanted together, even learn how to forgive, how to change the world, as long as you are open with one another and most of all, as long as you do it together.” He realised that he had spoken about Suguru himself more than Obito and Kakashi, but the argument was solid anyway.

Obito nodded and Satoru wanted to exclaim some triumphant sentences to celebrate his continued success, but when he saw the look in the other person’s eyes his throat dried up. Obito was staring at him, right into the face, but he wasn’t really staring at him. Instead he was looking at Kakashi’s face, every tiny corner of it, as if he was trying to map it out in his mind. Satoru was weirdly embarrassed by the intimacy of it.

They were almost the same height, and Satoru realised it again now. Kakashi and Obito could bounce their foreheads against each other if they wanted and from there all they needed was a little gravity and a little bravery to fully find each other. Maybe there was something Satoru could do to help them along the way, he thought. So he closed his eyes slowly as a provocation to Obito and kept them closed. He could only hope that Obito would get the hint and just do it already.  Don’t be a coward, Satoru thought.

Obito wasn’t. He closed the distance between them just a heartbeat after Satoru had closed his eyes. Their lips touched, soft and wet and Obito, to Satoru’s surprise and delight, did not taste like paper and ink. He tasted like the real thing.

– –

Four pairs of eyes opened and blinked into the face that was staring at them. They all recognised one another at the first glance.

[maiikawriter]

Do not stand

By my grave, and cry—

I am not there,

I did not die.

-Clare Harner - Immortality

When I saw a verse from one of my favorite poems was a @teamminatoweek prompt, I had to do this. Trying a different style here.

[teamminatoweek]

Wrap up 2022

Thank you all for your contributions! It was sooo cool to see all your works! <3 And in case I missed any, don’t be shy to contact me. Late contributions are always welcome, but I recommend you to tag me, because I won’t check the hashtag #TeamMinatoWeek2022 forever. Since the event was such a success, I’m positive we can do it again next year. Woop woop! It was in fact so successful that I can't tag everyone due to a tag limit of 50, but I try to tag everyone at least once. Go here for the prompts and rules 2022.

If you are interested, I have some other event blogs: @polyam-naruto, @tobiizuweek, @hashimitoweek and @minakushiweek. Would love to see you there!

Day 1

Where the Gods do not help by @centralnart (prompt: alternate prompt)

Teaching by @maiikawriter

Big Brother Obito by @wind-becomes-lightning (prompt: found family)

Found Family by @kirpyee

Found Family/Teaching by @puddding-with-three-ds

Found Family/Teaching by @depressedhatakekakashi

Teaching by @akamikazae

The disadvantages and advantages of friendship by @silent-silver-slip (pronlts: found family & teaching)

Day 2

Jinchuuriki by @wind-becomes-lightning (prompt: jinchuuriki & hiding/running from the enemy)

Breathe by @sunstaar​ (prompt: jinchuuriki)

Jinchuuriki by @kirpyee

Jinchuuriki & Running/hiding from the enemy by @puddding-with-three-ds

Hiding/running from the enemy by @professor-of-naruto

Devil, you call me by @centralnart (prompt: jinchuuriki)

Day 3

Medic Kakashi by @depressedhatakekakashi (prompt: any AU & role swap)

What the f- is an Isekai...? by @wind-becomes-lightning (prompt: any crossover, jujutsu kaisen crossover)

The Surprise Panel by @spellcasterlight (prompt: any AU)

Any AU by @maiikawriter (Stranger Things crossover)

The Crash by @depressedhatakekakashi (prompt: any AU)

Any AU by @kirpyee

Any AU by @bansenshukai

there are times / when i will need you by @centralnart (prompt: alternate prompt)

Little Reflexion by @viatorix (prompt: any Crossover)

Any AU by @animetrashmuffin

Day 4

When we are older by @wind-becomes-lightning (prompt: (platonic) soulmates)

Queerplatonic relationship(s)/(platonic) soulmates by @puddding-with-three-ds

(platonic) soulmates by @kirpyee

alternate prompt by @maiikawriter

Otters are an Endagered Species by @eyeles-writing (prompt: queerplatonic relationship(s))

every me, every you by @centralnart (prompts: (platonic) soulmates, queerplatonic relationship(s))

Fireflies by @the-stoned-ranger (prompt: queerplatonic relationship(s))

You don't have to carry this alone by @ silent-silver-slip (prompt: queerplatonic relationship(s))

Day 5

Father & Son by @wind-becomes-lightning (prompt: resurrection)

Sacrifice & Resurrection by @puddding-with-three-ds

Sacrifice by @kirpyee

the righteous wrath of an honorable man by @centralnart (prompt: sacrifice)

With magic at our hands by @ silent-silver-slip (prompts: resurrection & sacrifice)

Day 6

Mirror Image by @wind-becomes-lightning (prompt: Sharingan)

Sharingan/Summons by @puddding-with-three-ds

Rose Colored Glasses by @akamikazae (prompt: Sharingan)

Sharingan by @professor-of-naruto

Summons by @kirpyee

Day 7

A Name by @wind-becomes-lightning (prompt: Welcome Baby Naruto)

Alternate Prompt by @okay-hamlet

Cooking by @maiikawriter

Welcome Baby Naruto by @ami-neve

Finding Home by @silent-silver-slip (prompt: alternate prompt)

Love dawns in the kitchen by @silent-silver-slip (prompt: cooking)

[sunstaar]

Breathe

Team Minato Week Day 2: Jinchuuriki

Word Count: 2,5k

Warning: mentions of death

Summary: Breathing used to come easy to Nohara Rin, but it no longer does. With a newfound companion inhabiting her body and lightning-shaped scars decorating it, nothing seemed to be the way as it once had been.

Against Rin’s chest, her heart beat rapidly, each thump feeling harsher than the one before did. With each deep breath, she took, the speed of the organ did not lessen by much and kept a similar pace, not even changing much as she breathed out steadily. Once or twice every few minutes, her breath hitched in her throat so the necessary air no longer flooded her lungs, and Rin felt like a fish would on dry land.

Just last week, breathing had come as easy to her as it had always been, a process she subconsciously has done before she had even been able to form memories of her own. Breathing had never been something Rin had put much thought into, never something she meticulously analyzed to understand the almost automatic process behind it. Save for the times she had assisted panicked breathing of friends, family and patients, helping them come down and earn their composure again, not much thought never went to overthink breathing.

Now, it was something she sublimely struggled to do as it became something intentional.

The change had come swift and sudden, totally unexpected. How could she have predicted her situation, after all? There had been no way for her to know, to see it coming.

Most importantly, however, it turned her life completely around. Nothing would ever be the same as it had been before, so Rin already knew.

Not even the memories of that day she could forget.

The sensation from mere days earlier remained engraved in her thoughts, stuck in her mind as a ghostly shiver coming to haunt her hour after each hour again. Against her chest, it brushed lightly, faintly caressing her skin before it vanished again. In the shape of lightning, the feeling moved across the mark left behind by the incident, the now scar burned into her skin underneath the layers of bandages. From one middle point, the lightning sprouted from the left side of her chest all the way toward the right side, decorating it in a more or less fascinating manner.

As intricate as the scar was, as much it burned against her skin day by day. An almost sickening reminder of what happened, what Rin had done to herself under pressure.

Never would she blame her silver-haired teammate for her own actions, for the choices she had made at that moment.

Rin could vividly remember how she had felt at that moment, she could still feel the exact emotions coursing through each inch of her body as she stood surrounded by the darkness, a foreign weight pressing against the inside of her body. When, approximately an hour earlier, she had come to, fear had been the first thing she had felt. An overwhelming amount of it had left her mind dizzy and sent her thoughts spiraling, promptly becoming indecipherable.

When beginning her studies to become a Shinobi, she would have never expected something like that to happen. Not to the girl she had been prior to the incident.

Now, Rin felt like a different person.

Shakily, the brunette breathed in deeply before releasing a steady breath. In the exact place where her scar lay, the memory of already experienced pain reawakened with a harsh sting, one that had her sucking in a breath immediately after.

The moment Kakashi’s fist sunken into her body, time had completely stopped for the brunette girl, and Rin would give anything to never have to relive the moment again.

Kakashi …

What she had done to him, the mental trauma she must have put him under hurt her to think about. He did not deserve the weight she brought down upon his shoulders, more for him to be burdened to carry on his own. Barely thirteen years old and Rin had been the one to bring such a strain upon him, for Kakashi to deal with yet another death of a teammate.

Had it been selfish of her? The thought lingered in her mind as a constant, left unanswered. She had been too afraid to speak it around anyone, to even mention it.

Was there even a clear answer to it?

At that moment, panic had taken her entirely over, and had left her limbs trembling before a determined expression blossomed on her dirtied features. Just the slightest bit her legs had shaken as she ran toward her teammate, his striking silver hair easily visible even among the chaos reigning. When he had awakened his signature jutsu and a thousand birds had begun chirping, she instantly knew.

Rin had whispered his name as his fist impaled her, going right through her skin, passing her muscles, and bones, and brushing past her heart before coming out on the other side of her. His skin must have been soaked in her blood, painted crimson as the cold air caressed it.

Kakashi … I’m sorry, she had meant to say, but the words had never come out.

The tears she had cried had entirely not been for herself. They had been for her best friend Obito, the first one of the team of three to die.

Next, she cried for Kakashi and for what she had done to the poor boy. What she did was not something one did for the boy the supposedly loved. It was entirely unfair of her to push him into an experience he did not ask for, to use him for her plan. It was unforgivable what she did, for her to force his fist into her body, to force him to aid her in her own death.

She cried for Minato-sensei to come to their aid, to please save her. Rin had deeply wished for a flash of yellow to appear on the battleground and to take out all enemy nin, to come to their rescue in the last moment before her eyes fell shut.

Kushina-san, Rin had wished for the woman to be there and speak uplifting words as she always did.

Yet, there had been no one but Kakashi and herself to suffer under her kidnapping and the actions resulting from it. So the tears streamed down her paling skin and the purple marking decorating her cheeks, leaving behind track upon track as evidence of her suffering.

Kakashi … I’m so sorry!

Death had been something she had chosen to accept and welcome, a fate she partially brought upon herself. At that moment, Rin had been convinced that next, she would fall into the open arms of death, that once the obsidian had fully enveloped her falling and invaded body that her eyes would flutter shut. Peace would wash over her and hold her close, until finally, her suffering would end.

All she wanted was to not be used as a weapon of mass destruction, one that was chosen to unleash one of the nine-tailed beasts upon her village, upon the place where she had grown up, her home.

Rin had fallen as a hero and awoken as a girl, no longer the sole inhabitant of her own body.

She was a Jinchuuriki now, the captor of the three-tails.

“My name is Isobu.” The tailed beast spoke up from within her, reminding her again of something it had already told her once.

Rin shut her eyes tightly and breathed in again, hoping to calm her erratic heartbeat down by at least a little. “Right,” She then spoke softly, her voice coming out as barely a whisper. “I’m sorry, Isobu, I forgot.”

Surprisingly enough to her, during their short amount of time spent together so far the tailed beast had been nothing but nice to her, if not a little timid to even reveal its name to her. After it had been sealed within her, the cry it let out did not sound angered by her being its host, but rather by the circumstance both of them had been forced into. For the duration of her suicide plan, it had not even made one comment, it had not dared to interrupt Rin in what she had been about to do.

Only when her world had turned black, Isobu had spoken to her.

“We are going to be alright.” With his words, a wave of tranquility washed over her and became the last thing she remembered before falling into a long slumber.

Then Rin had awoken in the hospital much to her surprise with tubes upon tubes stuck into her body to keep her alive, only the steady beeping of the heart rate monitor from beside her keeping her company. That had been at least until the tailed beast spoke up from inside her, its words coming out both timid and hesitant.

“I don’t understand,” Just as much as she had been confused, so had been the tailed beast apparently. “We died when you sacrificed yourself, did we not?”

How Rin had wished for the tailed beast, for Isobu, to have an answer to the question. Yet, it did not.

“I don’t understand either.” She had thought. Despite never speaking the words aloud, Isobu had heard.

With wordless communication between herself and the new inhabitant of her own body came another struggle: difficulty breathing.

When Rin had first awoken from her slumber, her throat had felt as dry as the desert of the Sunagakure. However, she had not even been able to as much as reach for the glass of water she spied on her bedside table as the next moment the flow of air cut off, leaving Rin struggling to even get in one breath. Immediately, her hands had come to claw at the already raw skin of her throat, scratching again and again while her face turned red as a result of the lack of oxygen. It was as though she had forgotten how to breathe, how the simplest of actions was executed.

Once, it had been so easy and natural and now, she struggled.

Bitterly, Rin had thought that that had been the moment she would die. Not when she had chosen the countless lives inhabiting the village above her own, but instead when she had survived said attempt and awoken in the hospital.

How pitiful, to say the least.

“Focus,” Came a slightly panicked voice from inside her. Isobu’s emotions seemed to almost entirely mirror her own. “Think. Stop panicking, you need to think about breathing, girl. Think!”

As Kushina had later explained to her, upon becoming a Jinchuuriki, Rin had taken on some of Isobu’s traits. “Since the three-tails and yourself-”

With a hoarse voice, Rin had been quick to correct: “Isobu. Its name is Isobu, so it told me.”

Kushina faltered in her explanation, but the continued on as though nothing had happened. “As Isobu’s Jinchuuriki, you, or more specifically your body, has adapted to some of Isobu’s traits. That could explain what you need to adapt to how you breathe, y’know.”

In the end, the two of them had settled on the explanation that Rin’s lungs had adjusted so much so, that most likely she now had the advantage of being able to stay longer underwater than the average human being could.

“That’s what I think, at least,” Kushina had said with a thoughtful tap of her finger against her chin. “It could be possible at least. According to one of the nurses, your lungs did undergo a change. Whether Kakashi’s chidori is the reason for it or Isobu, I can’t tell you.”

Kushina was not a medic, after all. Rin was, and yet, she felt so helpless in the situation.

“But what is the most important, Rin, is that you don’t let this entire situation overwhelm you, alright?” Kushina’s smile was so comforting, the girl thought. “I know that it can be a bit … much? What helped me through it was relying on those who I love, to not let it get to me as much as it probably should have. You are a strong girl, Rin, especially for making the decision that you did. So be strong, be as strong as you have always been and always will be.”

Rin wasn’t sure why her sensei’s wife was so optimistic about her recovery.

“Kushina-san-”

“-Kushina-nee, if you must.”

The small laugh Rin felt harsh against her throat, but came out lighter than she expected it to. It seemed as though there were things in her life that did not change,  after all.

“I can’t do this alone,” Rin confessed in a timid tone. Within her, her newfound inhuman companion let out a hum in agreement. “I’m just, scared. What if I can’t do this?”

On top of her own smaller one, Kushina’s hands felt as though they would protect her from anything to come her way. “You can and you will, Rin. It’s a big change you have to get used to, being a Jinchuuriki is not easy, admittedly. But for every step along the way, I will be here for you. I won’t leave you to do this alone, y’know!” After a beat of silence, the redhead added, “Minato and Kakashi, too, they are your team. And if he were here, Obito would also support you. He would want you to not give up and live, Rin.”

Kushina was right, Obito would want her to keep fighting. He would cheer her on as he did time and time again, stand by her side through every challenge and obstacle that may come her way. The same she had always done for him, stand by his side through every harsh weather, through rain and thunderstorm to be there for her best friend, her other half she had already lost so young.

How Rin wished for Obito to be here.

The sob that pushed past her lips came out choked, “I miss him, Kushina-san. I miss him so much.”

How she wished that Obito had never died that day in the cave, his body crushed underneath rocks too for them to be lifted by mere children. She just wanted her best friend back.

Kushina was quick to lean forward from her position seated on the hospital bed, her arms coming to wrap around the body of the young girl, bringing her into an embrace. With a soothing voice, the woman spoke, “I know you do, I know.”

It was when Rin realized, that there was someone who understood how she felt, and the struggles she was facing. In this, she wasn’t alone.

She was quick to bury her face into the redhead’s shoulder as the tears cascaded down her cheeks, effectively soaking the woman’s dress. “Ku-Kushina-nee, pl-please don’t lea-leave.” Rin begged in a broken whisper, speaking the words against the material of the dress.

Kushina pulled the girl only closer. “I won’t, I promise you,” She whispered and pressed a small kiss to the top of the brunette’s head, before holding her closer again. “You have to breathe, Rin, can you do that for me?”

Rin was so scared and yet …

“You heard her, Rin, breathe. Calm yourself down, you can do it.” Isobu spoke up. His voice held comfort to it, one she found herself quickly succumbing to.

… she could do it, because she wasn’t alone in this.

Breathing may no longer come as easy to Nohara Rin as it used to, nothing would ever change the fact. But at the same time, she knew that as long as she held onto her remaining strength and fought against every obstacle standing in her way, one day she would get used to what her life had turned into.

Until then, Rin just had to breathe.

[centralnart]

“We don’t know if you’ll ever be able to go home. The seal is impossible to correct, even for me.”

Rin Nohara, the Three-Tails jinchuuriki.

(Team Minato Week 2022. Day 2: Jinchuuriki)

:)

[eyeles-writing]

Otters Are An Endangered Species

| read also on ao3

⭐︎Word Count:  3328⭐︎

⭐︎Pairings: Hatake Kakashi/ Might Guy/Umino Iruka, Nohara Rin/Uchiha Obito⭐︎

⭐︎Content: Found family, confrontations, and some domestic fluff.⭐︎

⭐︎Description: There's something up with Kakashi, Rin, Obito, Guy, and Iruka. They're a little too close for Minato's understanding, and the man is more than determined to figure out what exactly is going on.

This post is made for Team Minato Week 2022 (@teamminatoweek) and follows Day 4′s prompt of queerplatonic relationships. Thank you so much to the people behind Team Minato Week 2022 for organizing this!! I hope you all enjoy <3

Otters are an endangered species.

Sea otters, despite being community animals, spend a large part of their days alone - they forage for food alone, they plunge under the water alone, and they escape predators alone.

Shinobi, similarly, are an endangered species.

From the moment a ninja enters the academy, they are presented with nothing but the cold truth: At any given moment, you must be prepared to die for your village. In the event of a natural disaster, you need to bring children to safety and shield civilians from falling chunks of volcanic ash. During an attack on the village, you take aim and fight. You put yourself between your people and the enemy - you die for your village, or you live to be a traitor.

Sea otters gather into groups together during the evening to rest. Scientists aren’t exactly sure why this happens - is it because it’s easier to spot predators when they’re together? Do they groom each other and provide aid to one another in dire situations?

The sea otters are just lonely, perhaps.

The sea otters gather because they spend 12 hours of their day in constant vigilance, never taking their eyes off the enemy. The animal dives into the water and drags itself along the ocean floor, eyes darting across the sand in hunt of its next meal. It finds a clam, or an octopus, or a snail, and it wastes no time. The otter aims, takes its shot, and fires - whether or not that otter gets a meal is completely dependent on its ability to hunt. To kill.

When the battle ends, the shinobi often don’t have homes to return to. Sure, they have leased apartments and estates and campsites to rest at, but there is no home involved. There’s no meal cooked with love, with appreciation. They don’t come home to a warm smile and a house decorated with years of memories. Oftentimes, a shinobi enters their home to a weary smile and a “thank god, you’re alive.”

The shinobi gets lonely.

At night, the shinobi gather at Ichiraku Ramen. After a rigorous battle, another day of convulsing and meaningless brawls, the ninja gather in the one spot where they feel a community has grown. They share sad smiles together and rarely discuss their missions - not because of confidentiality, but because the last thing they want to remind themselves of is the horror that they witnessed mere hours before.

Ichiraku Ramen is one of few locations where a group of shinobi can call home. There are no shaky breaths and teary-eyed children. Packed bags don’t lay at their feet with a heartbroken soulmate at the door when a shinobi is at Ichiraku Ramen. There is no fighting, no bloodshed, and no tears.

There is, however, a home.

The warm meal is pleasant after a long mission containing only food pills and malnourishment. Surviving on the bare minimum for a week, only to come home to a giant bowl of the most delicious ramen you could imagine, is one of the few horrendous joys in a ninja’s life. There’s nothing like it.

Minato Namikaze first suspected something when he found his students, accompanied by a variety of classmates, sitting on the concrete outside of Ichiraku Ramen for the fourth night in a row.

“We’re just hanging out,” Kakashi had said, “there’s nothing weird about it.”

“Yeah, don’t go makin’ it weird, Minato-Sensei!” Obito interrupted, pointing at his teacher in a huff. His goggles, as they always did, slipped off his head during his movement and fell to the floor. They’d been well-worn over the years and no longer stretched to fit Obito’s head, a sign of the boy’s aging.

“I’m not making anything weird,” Minato laughed, “I just don’t get what’s going on with you all lately.”

“A couple friends hanging out is nothing weird,” Iruka butted in. He glanced over at Kakashi and Might Guy, who were leaning on each other against the building behind them. He used his foot to playfully tap his friends feet.

“Ah, maybe I’m just getting old, then.” Minato smiled at the children - who couldn’t even be called children anymore, having come of age and were no longer under the teachings of their former superior. Well, if Minato wasn’t Hokage, that is.

When Minato had left, the group had burst into laughter.

“Minato-Sensei is totally going to freak out once he knows!” Rin giggled, leaning into her boyfriend’s shoulder as Minato had turned the corner a few blocks down. Obito smiled and leaned into her, still finding the sensation to be hauntingly calming even after dating for three years now.

“You think so?” Guy questioned. Kakashi shrugged, and Obito nodded enthusiastically.

“Minato-Sensei freaked out when he found out that Rin and I were dating, remember?” He said.

Minato had launched into a major lecture about dating while being a shinobi - Rin interjected to remind Minato about his very relevant wife that he started dating during his Junin years. He continued on and made the two lovers promise that they would use “an appropriate amount of protection and preventative measures” during any time of intimacy. The lecture lasted a total of 47 minutes and, in summary, one of the most awkward experiences of Obito’s life.

Rin remembers the look on Minato's face after she had told him that they dated for six months before telling him. The look of betrayal, surprise, and confusion fighting for dominance on his face was nothing short of hilarious. “Let’s pray that kid of yours doesn’t inherit your aloofness!” Rin laughed, brought to tears in amusement.

Kakashi scoffed. “He only freaked out because he thought you were going to get pregnant and end up with a baby at 17.”

The group laughed, and the night continued on. They stayed there until the shop had finally closed, and then they all parted ways - Kakashi, Guy, and Iruka went to do some late-night grocery shopping together, while Obito and Rin headed back to their shared apartment space for the evening.

Two weeks later, Minato spotted his favorite youths laying in the grass together at the training grounds. He was doing his morning walk around the village and spotted the familiar strikingly-silver hair peeking up out of the grass. He instantly headed over to find Obito, Rin, Kakashi, Guy, and Iruka in the most interesting pile he’d ever seen.

Kakashi was laying in the grass with his arms behind his head with his entire lower body covered by the body of Might Guy. His body stretched across Kakashi and Iruka, who was laying parallel to the ninja. Guy’s face was buried in his right arm, while his left gently clasped Iruka’s own right hand. About two feet to Kakashi’s right laid Obito, who was laying on his spread jacket and had his left arm over his face, shielding his eyes from the incoming sunlight. Rin was at his side, taking up the majority of the jacket space, with her face buried in the side of her boyfriend. Obito was making a gentle snoring sound, while Guy made a noise that could only be described as sixteen motorcycles exploding in weird intervals. His snoring was loud, obnoxious, and somehow being slept through by all 4 of his companions.

“You lot sure look busy,” Minato said. Obito snorted awake, which disturbed Rin and caused her to groan as she shifted away from him. Kakashi simply shrugged and responded as if he was expecting his ex-teacher to show up.

“We just trained for three hours, we’re taking a nap break to regain energy.”

Minato scoffed. “Is there a reason that you all had to nap on each other?”

Guy rolled over, groaned, and gave Minato a thumbs up. “A teammate who sleeps alone is a teammate who is destined to a life of solitude and sadness! Group napping activities not only increase team bonding and motivation, but it also provides an assurance of safety in case of an oncoming threat!”

A smile formed on Minatos face, glad to see that Guy’s mood had, as always, not been dampered.

“We were just getting to sleep,” Rin complained, “I wish you didn’t interrupt us like that!”

Obito yawned and sat up. A rush of dizziness caused him to hold his head in his hands for a moment as he craved stability. “Yeah,” he said, “I was just getting to the good part in my dream!”

Kakashi scoffed faintly as he sat up to match Obito. “What, were you and Rin finally trying out that position-”

“ANYWAY,” Iruka cut in, “thank you for waking us, Lord Fourth. It was about time we got back to training, anway.”

The man hummed in confusion and parted ways with the group, grumbling to himself about how they were most certainly up to something.

Minato had spent the rest of the day digging into the lives of his former students and their associates - he looked through school records, family records, social media posts, and even their taxes to figure out what exactly those kids were up to. It was when he found a lease agreement for all five of them that he pieced it together.

“Can you just tell us already?” Kakashi asked. He quickly became tired of the game that Minato was playing - the man was determined for the kids to tell him up front, but they all knew much better than that.

Kakashi had years of training in the ANBU. He was out now, sure, but the ideals drilled into him surely never left. There was no way he was going to break.

Rin was one of the strongest ninja in the group - she had plenty of experience in interrogation and knew exactly what strategy Minato was using. She was going in the direction of being a medical ninja for the interrogative teams, it was no surprise that she was not the first to break.

Might Guy was, admittedly, a weak person. He didn’t enjoy lying to people, and he believed that friendship and teamwork was the key to winning any fight. The fight between his heart and mind, however, proved difficult the moment that he started sweating bullets after Minato confronted the group. However, Guy was also physically strong - he bit his lip during the entire discussion so he would be in far too much pain to speak, therefore destroying his ability to break.

Iruka was indifferent. He never took any active steps to hide the truth from Minato, or anyone for that matter - he lived his life the way he wanted to and, in any moment of confrontation, was usually the one to rip off the bandaid and call it good. Iruka had taken a glance at his companions, however, and saw the look of determination on their faces. He saw the blood pooling on the bottom of Guy’s lip and decided that he, too, would play the game. Iruka was not the one to break.

Obito Uchiha was a stellar ninja. After he developed his Sharingan, he learned indispensable information that trained him in becoming a better and more determined ninja. He stopped skipping class and began showing up early to his team meetings - he was motivated this time. He studied for hours to better his skills as a ninja, determined to one day become the village leader.

During those many hours of study contained no lessons on secrecy, unfortunately.

Obito broke thirty minutes into the confrontation.

Minato stared at the group and had been silent for twelve minutes at that point.

“I know that you are all hiding something from me, and I just want you to admit it.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Sensei.” Rin smiled innocently, an irritated twitch at her lip telling Minato that he was beginning to break her down. He smiled to himself.

His eyes turned to Obito, who was still sweating bullets. The boy hating lying and disappointing his sensei more than he wanted to keep a secret, it seemed. Minato took a step toward the ninja and leaned down to look at him at an equal level.

“Obito, if you tell me what it is, I won’t be mad.”

Kakashi had glanced to his left and saw the tears watering in Obitos eyes, desperate for a release. Quickly, Kakashi reached across Rin to push his hand over his teammates mouth.

“Obito, no-!” Kakashi cried out, but it was too late - Minato had seen Kakashi’s movement coming, and preemptively stuck his arm out to block it.

“ME AND RIN AND KAKASHI AND IRUKA AND GUY ALL GOT AN APARTMENT TOGETHER AND WE LIVE TOGETHER AND WE DIDN’T WANT TO TELL YOU BECAUSE WE THOUGHT YOU’D BE MAD-”

The group bursted into a series of groans at Obito’s confession, certainly disappointed that he broke after a mere thirty minutes.

Minato stood with his hands on his hips and smiled in satisfaction. “You admit it!” He exclaimed, and Guy instantly leapt to the floor to beg.

“Please forgive me,” Guy cried, “I didn’t want to hide the truth from you, but I-”

“I’m not mad!” Minato said, and both Guy and Obito went quiet. Rin furrowed her brow in confusion.

“You’re not…?” She asked, and Minato shrugged.

“You’re just living together! Look, I’ve grown up too, you know?” He flashed his de facto children a confident smile. “I get that you guys can’t stay kids forever. I trust you to make good decisions, okay?”

Iruka smirked. “Does this mean you’re okay with me and Guy dating Kakashi?” He asked, as if to poke the proverbial bear with a proverbial stick.

Minato’s eyes went wide, and he felt his heart drop into his stomach.

The next forty five minutes was spent in the Hokage’s office as the group struggled to stop Minato from pacing in circles around the room. He mumbled to himself before stopping to exclaim words at the group, only to then return to muttering in circles. Rin dragged him out of the pattern and had to yell at him in order to push him out of his thoughts.

“MINATO-SENSEI!” She yelled, and he stopped in his tracks. “Calm down!”

“How can I be calm?!” He asked. “Three of my students are dating and nobody bothered to tell me!”

“HEY,” Obito interjected, “I’d like to clarify that I am NOT dating Kakashi!”

“Yeah, it’s just a queerplatonic relationship.” Kakashi shrugged and watched as the look of confusion on Minato’s face only contort further.

“A- a h-wha?” He stuttered.

“A queerplatonic relationship,” Iruka repeated Kakashi’s words. “It’s when two or more people share an intimate relationship further than what most would consider friendship.”

“Like… Like leasing an apartment together?” Minato asked, puzzled. Guy nodded enthusiastically.

“EXACTLY!” He exclaimed. “Look at you, Lord Fourth! You learn something new every day, huh?”

“We’re basically all married to each other, to put simply,” Kakashi said. “In a way that isn’t romantic or sexual in nature.”

Minato contorted his face further. “Wait, so you’re getting married?”

Everyone in the room sighed.

It took another forty five minutes to explain to Minato what exactly a queerplatonic relationship was - he struggled to comprehend a level of intimacy beyond platonic and romantic, and every sentence spoken was accompanied by a series of questions from the man that lead to a rabbit-hole of discussion. Eventually, though, the group had decided that Minato had a basic enough understanding of a queerplatonic relationship to move on for the evening.

Minato had excused the five, but paused right before they were about to exit the office.

“I have just one more question for you,” he said, and each person looked back. He wore a small smile on his face and his voice was far softer than normal.

“I know it’s been years since I’ve been in charge of you all,” his eyes glanced over to his former students, who were looking at him with patient eyes, “and I want to thank you for letting me in on this. Even if it was… unintended.”

“What’s your question?” Rin asked, hands clasped and resting on her chest.

“When did this all… happen?”

The group glanced at each other. Kakashi made eye contact with Iruka and Guy, who were smiling fondly at a distant memory.

It was just after Guy had become a Jonin, Iruka remembered. He watched the two rivals argue in the distance over something trivial - likely fighting over who was in the lead for their little matches, or which one of them was going to pick the next challenge. Iruka leaned against the brick academy wall and sighed distantly, which caught the eye of Kakashi.

Kakashi glanced over at the glare in his vision - it turned out to be the headband of one of his best friends, Iruka. He beckoned the boy over and smiled at him gently, drowning out the still-arguing-Guy in the background.

“Do you guys want to go on a date with me?” Iruka blurted out, a blush creeping onto his face, and both Kakashi and Guy paused.

Minato watched as Rin and Obito glanced over at the three standing across from them in the doorway. Rin smiled fondly at the memory in her head, while Obito watched the sparkle in her eye.

A year ago, Rin and Obito had stumbled upon Kakashi laying in the grass with his two boyfriends - Iruka and Guy. What began as a midday nap turned into an evening of conversation that eventually molded into a discussion about the future.

“I dunno,” Rin sighed as she looked toward the sky, a setting sun in the distance casting a ray of purple across the clouds. “I’ve always envisioned myself living in like, a community, instead of just my husband.” Her grip on Obito’s hand tightened. “Like, with friends and family, you know?”

“That sounds like a queerplatonic relationship,” Iruka said, and Kakashi nodded. Obito hummed. A minute of silence followed as everyone let the words settle in. Queerplatonic.

“Well, aren’t we all kinda in one of those anyway?” Obito asked, puzzled.

Everyone, silently, thought about it for a moment.

“...Yeah,” Kakashi stated plainly after a few seconds of silence. “I think we are.”

“It’s true, we do everything together,” Guy agreed. Iruka nodded.

“And we were just talking about buying a farm together in the future,” Rin giggled. She looked over at Obito, who was giving her a goofy smile. She tilted her head at him, as if to say “Well? What do you think?”

“I mean, as long as I don’t lose you to that stuck-up loser, I guess I couldn’t care less what you call it!” He decided, throwing his arm around his girlfriend. Rin laughed and felt herself melt into his arm, heart fluttering in content as she realized what had just happened.

Minato felt a full-fledged grin come to his lips as he realized that all of his kids were now reliving the memory of their first realization.

“Nevermind,” He smiled, “save it for your wedding!”

Obito blushed, and Rin giggled.

“We’ll see you later then, Minato-Sensei!” She smiled, and Minato nodded.

“Goodnight everyone, get home safe, alright?”

The group slowly exited the room until only Kakashi and Minato remained. He turned to his former teacher for just a second. “Goodnight, Sensei,” he said. Minato smiled.

“Goodnight, Kakashi.”

Otters are an endangered species.

Sea otters, despite being community animals, spend a large part of their days alone - they forage for food alone, they plunge under the water alone, and they escape predators alone.

The sea otters are just lonely, perhaps.

Shinobi are a recovering species.

These ninja spend a large portion of their day either on the battlefield or in isolation - when they return from a days work of injury and hardship, though, they’re confronted with comrades. They find themselves lost in allyship and appreciation. An unbreakable bond is formed, and the ninja in question finds themselves spending more time ordering ramen at Ichiraku than dreading their next mission.

The shinobi will be okay.

[just-puddding]

Team Minato week day 1- found family/teaching

Minato catches a right hook before it strikes him, right as the man jumps over a kick meant to throw him off balance.

They both leap away from eachother before clashing again and Minato almost gets takes an ugly punch his abdomen because he got distracted by Kakashi being sent flying a few feet back from a kick flat against his face

"Shit" he murmurs, grasping the enemy's wrist and using it to throw him against a tree, relieved that Kakashi managed to catch himself on his feet and engrave a kunai to his attacker's calf in response, instead of just getting blasted to the ground.

Minato doesn't even think about it before he charges forward to catch the nin that attacked Kakashi by the midriff, and tackle him to the ground.

The man buckles under his grip as Minato snatches Kakashi's kunai and drives it into the man's torso, cleaving it deep before diving it back again

"Kakashi" he says, catching the sight of his student by the side of his eyes "if you have something in your mouth you better spit it out before you choke" Minato advises, catching how Kakashi seems to be curling his mouth oddly under the mask

Kakashi hesitates, long enough for Minato to jump to his feet while the man he was fighting earlier gets up, before he nods his compliance and pulling his mask down

"Aaah!" Minato gasps, almost missing the man's throat as a tiny tooth goes flying out of Kakashi's mouth "or not!" Oh fuck.

Minato reaches him just in time to pick Kakashi, and his teeth, up and bring him out of the way from a fire jutsu that Kakashi was about to try to counter "hold on" he whispers to Kakashi, placing him down and quickly turning around to shield himself from a wave of kunai and shuriken

"Uh" Minato fumbles on what to do for a second, afraid he might lose the tooth accidentally "okay, Kakashi, listen" he tries

"Take this" he rushedly grabs Kakashi's hand and shoves the tooth in it "and make sure not to lose it" he clenches Kakashi's hand tightly around the thing, getting up on cue to a kick to his side and spinning , sending the man back "I'll take care of him"

Kakashi didn't look happy. At all

Ignoring that fact, though, Minato picked up a kunai from the ground and leaped toward the missing-nin, both of them clashing against each other

"Why." the man flinches as Minato engraves the kunai into his shoulder and Minato takes the momentum to grab his head "uh, well– hold on" he cracks the man's neck, heaving as he watches him fall down to the grass with a thump

Last one. It's fine. This is fine

He sighs as Kakashi approaches him, settling beside Minato and watching the corpse with an... Intense glare. Kakashi crosses his arms "i could have dealt with him in my own if you weren't so worried about a stupid teeth" he grumbles

Minato strains a smile, snorting despite himself "yeah, i know"

Kakashi huffs, making an small affronted gesture "you always do this." Minato only smiles– it's not untrue "why do I have to keep it, anyways?"

Kakashi stared up at him intently

Jumping on the change of subject, because he doesn't want to have to explain to Kakashi that he doesn't feel comfortable putting a 6-year-old At risk so he can 'get a feel for it', even if Minato does try to take it easy during missions to give Kakashi a chance to fight on his own (before he inevitably breaks in worry) Minato just hums

"well" he mouths "they say the first fallen teeth is the mark of a great warrior, and if you keep it will bring you fortune on your career as a Shinobi"

at least that was what most Shinobi in minato's immediate circle said, Minato knows that some clans have different legends about it and if he's not wrong civilians traditionally give their first to a loved for good luck

Kakashi seems unimpressed by his explanation, though, and his smile too, as he just loudly huffs "that's stupid, sensei" ouch

"This isn't even the first anyways" Kakashi mutters under his breath, looking back down towards the missing-nin, and Minato mourns not being there for the first "we should dispose of them"

Minato blinks, then looks down too, "oh, yeah, right" he chuckles "if we do this quickly we'll be back by noon, we're very close so I doubt anything else will happen"

The mission was a fairly simple C-rank. they were supposed to escort a group of wandering story-tellers that'd been touring around fire to a civilian village off west, but ended up getting ambushed by a few missing-nin holding a grudge on Konoha on their way back, an hour or two from the village. Unlikely it would happen again

Kakashi nodded absentmindedly, shoving his teeth down into his weapons pouch before he bent down and poked at the missing-nin's wound, sending blood spilling out

Kakashi curls his nose "they smell gross" he complains and Minato nods sympathetically, shuffling for body-scrolls "i imagine they do"

He pulled one out with a 'there!' and moved to bend down besides Kakashi, "i'll let you have the next one" Minato promises as he unwinds the scowls, looking placating to Kakashi

"Sure" the kid huffs, kicking off a jutsu to clean up the blood, well, not exactly a jutsu as much as technique

Kakashi bought chakra to the palm of his hands, molding it to take on a water nature so to soak up all the blood from the wound and grass into his chakra, then turning it back and dispersing it

It was a trick Minato was quite proud of him for, Kakashi had started using it a few missions back and it had been very helpful in cleaning up so far

Minato smiles as the blood vanishes and Kakashi gets up to move on to the next body, not waiting for Minato to seal this one first

Kakashi, as Minato learned, is trying to teach himself to use different chakra releases from his own, that being lightning and earth, and has so far proved himself to be quite good at it.

He already managed water (and dabbled in fire), although he complained that he can only keep up the molding for a few seconds at a time before it breaks, unlike natural chakra molding that can hold up for a few minutes, maybe an hour if you're a master.

Still very impressive Minato muses, watching Kakashi crouches before the big guy that'd attacked him earlier. most people can't use chakra natures besides their own.

Minato laughs softly to himself, finally starting to walk towards the boy as he remembers the time Kakashi had asked him to teach him wind release, which turned out to be the nature Kakashi struggles the most with

When Minato gets close enough, he tries not to laugh as he shoves his hand down into Kakashi's hair to mess with it

Kakashi makes an offended little sound of surprise, his shoulder shooting up as he crumples under Minato's hand

Minato remembers feeling really guilty that day for laughing when Kakashi lost control and sent the leaves he was practicing with flying all over the place, accidentally cutting his hand in the process

Kakashi almost drops the water back down on impact, but catches himself and throws Minato an indignant look that finally breaks him (which only makes Kakashi look more indignant)

"Let's go to ichiraku's when we get back, okay?" Kakashi tilts his head, then shrugs, knocking Minato's hand off of his head, looking back at the body "sure, whatever"

_________________________________________

I really wanted to make something for team Minato week, but I kept trying to come up with something and still didn't manage to make anything i was super happy with!

But! I still really want to participate because I really love them a lot, ya' know? So I decided to post some of what I have as drabbles instead of a fic, with some silly sketches to accompany them (kinda of rushed ones)

So, uh, yeah! Team Minato week baby!!

[spellcasterlight]

Hi Bold Bandicoot Anon! 😊

I’ve never written Rin before so thank you for this request!

Hope you like it! ✨

The Surprise Panel

@teamminatoweek - Day 3 Prompt: Any AU

SpellsAUBingo - Tile 13: Comic Book Shop AU

Warnings: Modern Day Alternative Universe. Alternative Timeline. Minor Mentions of Major Character Death.

Story Link: [Ao3🔗]

Ao3 ✨ | WIP Game Always Open ✒️| Ko-Fi ☕

[plinkcat-gif]

what could have been

@teamminatoweek day..i’m not sure: sacrifices

this piece was initially gonna be much darker but i’m glad it wasn’t dssjdkf

couldn’t choose a lighting + the background :3

[silent-silver-slip]

The last piece I wrote for @teamminatoweek for Day 4: Queerplatonic Relationships. It doesn’t focus on the QPR as much as I wanted it to, which is usually my jam lol, but it’s done and now it’s up.

Synopsis:

There are times in life when things get heavy; when exhaustion sinks its claws into you. It's in those times, that you can only hope you have good friends. Thankfully, Kakashi has some very good friends.

[wind-becomes-lightning]

Father & Son

Day 5, leggo. This was uh, a better idea then what I did with it! Someday some better author will take this and write something better with it, because .. im very not happy.

Kakashi & Sakumo

3732 words

mentions of suicide and suicidal thoughts (damn it sakumo!)

Ao3 link [x]

for @teamminatoweek Day 5: Resurrection

Hatake Sakumo gets the Edo-tensei treatment and Kakashi learns he has some things left to say.

As if the battle wouldn’t already be hard enough against Madara and his hordes of White Zetsu, the shinobi alliance is also faced with enemies that are reanimated loved ones or legendary ninja with special abilities. That this is done on purpose to rile up the hearts and minds of the alliance fighters is obvious, but doesn’t make it any less easy to deal with. Additionally, most of them are also very skilled fighters and their time in the grave apparently did not diminish their abilities.

So Kakashi is just done sending Zabuza and Haku back to their well earned rest, when a breathless and sweating shinobi of his squad, originally from Kumogakure, stops in front of him. “Kakashi-taichou”, he breathes heavily, putting his hand into his arms. “I ran here as fast as I could…” Kakashi almost drops the sword he is holding when the other man tells him the news.

It isn’t the greatest choice to abandon his current spot with his squad and run into the opposite direction, but Kakashi knows this specific reanimated person was his to deal with, they were animated to deal with him as well. Maybe their clash has always been coming. It doesn’t take Kakashi long to catch up with another group of shinobi fighting a mix of Zetsus and reanimated people that Kakashi all together does not know. He only knows one of them, or used to know him.

His hair is as long as it is in Kakashi’s memory, hanging in a ponytail over his left shoulder. The sleeve of his undershirt is swaying in the wind while his right hand is holding the tantou that should actually lay at home in Kakashi’s apartment. The eyes are as dark as the eyes of any other reanimated person so far, but Kakashi can still make out the light in them that he has missed so much over the years. His father is right in front of his eyes, Hatake Sakumo.

Kakashi stops for a second before jumping into the scene, something inside of him hesitates just a little to take the leap. Technically, his father and him had a good talk not that many months ago, in which they talked at length about their time together, their time apart and his mother. But here Sakumo is again, swirling and dancing around opponents by a force that is not his own.

Finally, he puts himself together. The leap comes easy once he has jumped and he lands right behind his dad, who swirls around to try and attack him with his tantou. Kakashi has the kunai out fast, spins it in his finger so he can defend himself and push his father back. They are a mess of legs and hands fighting each other before either of them says a word. Kakashi is convinced though that he can see a light cross his father’s eyes.

“You came”, Sakumo says when they separate long enough for him to talk. “I knew they wanted me to fight you specifically, but I thought you might be very busy.” Flattery, Kakashi thinks but he just lifts his eyes slightly: “You are my responsibility.”

Technically, Sakumo has always been Kakashi’s responsibility, at least most of Kakashi’s life. When he was small maybe his dad had been there to be the one who shouldered all the burdens of the family, but as soon as Sakumo took his life all of the family burdens had moved on to Kakashi where they still reside. 

Sakumo laughs: “Yes, I figured you would say that.” A pull to his body forces him forward, his fingers weaving signs to infuse a jutsu into the knife. Kakashi hasn’t really seen his father fight, at least not at full force, so he resorts to only dodging at first, who knew what the old man had in his sleeve.

“You’re great”, Sakumo notes with unmasked admiration. “You are strategizing how you can counter my chakra nature and you can do that even in your weakened state. You’ve really become such a great shinobi. I always knew you would be.” 

A shuriken passes by Kakashi’s ear and he turns around to let his eyes find Sai on stand-by with his scroll for sealing. Sakumo doesn’t seem like someone that can just easily be trapped via a shadow possession jutsu or mind transfer one either, this would need to be a decisive victory and it needed to be fast.

“Thank you. You’re not so bad either for someone who has had no training in 25 years”, Kakashi gives back with a wink and then quickly forms an earth wall to shield himself from an incoming white lightning. So his father also has the lighting nature, he thinks and realises he never knew. There is just so much about him that he didn’t know ever.

“Can’t you tell me what your abilities are, so that I could take you down?” Kakashi asks and he ignores how his heart feels when Sakumo smiles back at him. His father used to have this very proud way of looking at him, as if Kakashi was the most important thing that had happened to him. But if Kakashi had been the most important thing that had ever happened to Sakumo, why did he … The thought spiral was always the same.

His father has no issue defending his legs as they find him. “I think you should be able to figure this out yourself, Kakashi. This is a teaching moment! Something I never got to do for you” Sakumo smiles and lets Kakashi's ankles go.

Somehow, this innocent comment sends something in Kakashi’s mind off. “Well, you could have. You chose not to.” He notices his voice is colder than he expected it to be.

Father and son stare at each other for a moment, Kakashi takes the time to press his left eye close to save more chakra. Sakumo’s eyes darken a little, but when he talks again the smile on his face is lopsided and thin: “I’m sorry about that, son. You are right of course.”

Kakashi turns a kunai in his finger and presses out a: “It is okay, dad. It is in the past.” But he feels in his heart that the resentment is still there. Sakumo jumps forward again and their weapons meet in the air, loud noises echoing off the tree trunks around them. Once they are close to each other Sakumo says: “Is it really?” And Kakashi nods so quickly that he doesn’t even have time to consider it.

For years he has gotten so good at burying the feelings about his father deep down. At first he used to hate Sakumo for what he had done to himself and to kakashi. The resentment had driven him into the deepest hole of grief he had ever found himself in and in the end only his friendship with Obito and Rin had pulled him out. Then he had for years tried to forget his father. Not look into the mirror to see how similar his face was getting, how their eyes were the same.

Eventually, just a few years ago, he had settled on accepting that his father had troubles, that living had been hard for him and he hadn’t seen another way. That didn't make it better, but at least it gave Kakashi a possibility to turn the page, to finally leave the chapter Sakumo behind him. Then their fireside chat had happened and Kakashi found himself open to forgive.

Still, seeing him now here, laughing, chatting, fighting, praising his son, Kakashi can not help but feel that bitterness again that he felt as a child. If only Sakumo had been a little stronger, a little more resilient for his son, then they could have always been together like this, but instead Kakashi had to survive on his own for all of life.

“I don’t think it is fine,” Sakumo deduces from just watching Kakashi’s movements. It is basic knowledge that fighting another shinbi opens up more information about them and neither Sakumo nor Kakashi ever really could fight each other. “I think you are mad. You should be mad.” Sakumo throws a kunai infused with lightning and Kakashi defends it with his own.

He puts his hands in his pocket and slouches as he tends to do: “I’m not a child anymore. I was mad then, I am fine now. You did what you had to do.” It's wrong to say it that way, but he says it anyway.

“Don’t you think I was being unfair to you for leaving the way I did? I would not blame you if you were”, Sakumo mentions and Kakashi gets the feeling that his father intentionally tries to rile him up. Maybe they do have the same self destructive tendencies, well his father had killed himself after all.

But Kakashi is not in the mood to play games, what he needs to do is get his father in a chokehold so he can be sealed. The more he looks into his face, the more he misses their time together and the more memories flood back in. Kakashi is good without his father, he’s made it so far, he doesn’t need his childish feelings to come back now.

“I’m good. We should send you back to - mom though don’t you think.” Kakashi can’t help his voice dying before he mentions his mother, who he never got to meet. Sakumo too stops in his tracks at the word coming out of his son’s mouth. The edo tensei seems rather odd like that, it allows the reanimated person to regain complete consciousness over their body if they could get their own memories back. 

Sakumo shakes himself and for a moment it seems like he broke the seal, but then he goes back into an attacking stance. “I would love to go back there,” Sakumo says, “Tell her how great of a person, a leader, a hero, her son has become.” They clash once again. “How proud we are of him. He had to do so much on his own.”

It is bait. Kakashi can smell the bait. His father is fishing for an anger reaction. But Kakashi learned how to deal with these emotions long ago. He doesn’t need them anymore. On top of that he has trained himself not to get angry easily, so his father might try, but he would not get far by provoking him.

“I can’t imagine how hard it must have been, and you did it all so well, grown up so strong and -” Sakumo’s sentence was cut short by a galloping lion who had tried pinning him down. 

Kakashi looks over to Sai and shakes his head at him. No, they probably would not be able to seal Sakumo like they had others before him. Not only is he a much more skilled shinobi and hard to pin down, but also Kakashi doesn’t want to see him on the ground like this for some reason. The idea that his father would be held down by two big animals, even when drawn, just makes him feel uncomfortable.

But then again everything concerning his father makes him feel weird. Including the smile on his face, the hair in the wind, the way he speaks so casually. Until their talk by the fireside Kakashi had completely forgotten his fathers voice and while it was now from months back on his mind, it shook him nonetheless to hear it again now. And the words he was saying…

“Kakashi”, Sakumo says with a smile, “It is alright to be angry at me, you know. I’m angry at myself. I abandoned you. I was a coward.”

“You were a hero, the village shouldn’t have treated you the way they did” Kakashi replies and it feels like he is just repeating what he told himself for years before this. After all, it isn’t a lie at all. The village should have treated Sakumo, who objectively made a good choice that saved lives, better. But did that justify leaving a five year old behind? “You had it hard”, he adds quickly.

Sakumo steps forward, as if he is now in control of his own body, as if he is willing his own body to move when he shouldn’t be able to. He is just about an arms-length away from Kakashi when he stops and says softly: “But you had it hard too. I left all the problems I had accumulated up to you. It was a selfish move through and through.”

Kakashi looks up to his father for the first time for real. Before he can hold back he is already asking the question that's been on his mind for years: “Did you even think about me? Was I on your mind that… that day?” He feels like a child.

“Yes and no,” Sakumo replies. “I thought of you and assumed you would have a better future without me around. I thought of myself mostly though, how I just couldn’t take the stares anymore. I didn’t want to meet anyone or see anyone or talk to anyone anymore. I tried not to think of you too much, because it might have changed my mind.”

Kakashi breaths out sharply now, something deep inside him quivering as if he feels a little sick. His father continues: “I thought if you don’t have to see me anymore, if nobody has to see me anymore, then it would be alright. I thought you’d be relieved.” His voice is breaking as he says the last part of that sentence.

It’s that voice quiver that hits Kakashi the hardest. He can feel his heartbeat against his chest, the childish pain that he’s been burying coming up like lava through a hot volcano. When he speaks his voice is angry and shaking: “But it was not alright. Instead of you they stared at me.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Sakumo says and lifts a hand to put it on Kakashi’s shoulder. Kakashi doesn’t know where the sudden urge to be bratty comes from, but he pushes his fathers’ arm away and takes a step out of his range. HIs fingers are shaking now.

“You say you thought of me, but then you also say you thought of yourself first. That’s just not what parents should do. You left when I needed you and I had to be by myself. I was only 5! I was too young to understand why you did what you did and I needed a caretaker. You didn't even consider that because you were so held up in your own issues. And maybe you should have considered that, as you were my parent. My only parent.”

Sakumo’s arm slumps down, but the smile stays on his face. When Kakashi looks up his father was still looking at him. “You are right. I should have,” Sakumo says calmly.

They seem polar opposites. With Sakumo smiling calmly through the onslaught of accusations and Kakashi getting more and more angry the more he was saying. As if all the things he had held back as a kid and a teenager now broke out in one big storm.

“You know I had to organise the burial and the wake on my own. I had to stand and listen to others talk down on you day by day when I was young. It took me years to find myself again, maybe I never have until now.” He stops for a moment to bring his thoughts together. Then: “I always admired you like a god. My personal hero. And when you left me I think it was such a personal betrayal that it took me until meeting Obito to remember that.” 

His fathers mouth opens, but Kakashi answers the question before it can be asked. “Obito was my teammate. We were four. But now there is only me left. Do you understand that? I lost everything I had when I was 14 and you weren’t there. When Obito was crushed to death or Rin was impaled or the fox killed my teacher. You were not there and you should have been.”

Sakumo smiles and nods: “I agree with you. I’m sorry.”

“As- as if an apology can just set it right. I understand you know, Dad, I’m over it. I’m an adult and holding onto childish resentments is just making your life harder than it should be. That doesn’t mean that at the time it wasn’t incredibly hard. The way I took might have made me strong, but I would have endlessly prefered not to have to take it in the first place. Do you know they say I should be Hokage?”

Kakashi does not know why he tells his father this. Especially since the discussion about him being hokage tires him so much. He doesn’t see himself as a leader at all, even if they’d made him commander in this war. 

“Is that so?” Sakumo asks and steps forward towards Kakashi again. “I can see why. They all seem to listen to you and admire you very much.” He makes a gesture to the people around them. Kakashi looks around him to see people from his squad squaring off against Zetsu one one side and the sealing squad standing ready for him on the other. They all look as if they are awaiting his instruction with bated breath. Kakashi doesn't like when people stare. He looks away.

He’s being childish. As if his father’s appearance made him five years old again.

“I was in ANBU for ten years. It made me a person I hated, but for that time I didn’t want to be myself. My fave always reminded me of you and my eyes always reminded me of Obito and I wanted to be neither. I just didn’t want to be at all. Dad, in those times, I thought often of just following you.” Kakashi has never admitted that truth about himself out loud.

Sakumo steps forward and this time Kakashi lets him touch him. His father pulls at his sleeve and draws him in. It isn’t a hug, but they are very close to each other now. “But you did not”, Sakumo whispers in his ear. “Because you are a more noble, stronger, less selfish shinobi than I ever was.”

They are standing there together, body to body. Kakashi is taller than his father, he realises. “I wanted to be angry at you when we talked last time,” Kakashi says. “But I was just so happy to see you again.”

“Yes, I was also happy to see you again”, Sakumo replies and draws Kakashi a little closer still. “I am happy though that you were honest to me now. I think you can only forgive and move on if you face those feelings. Wouldn’t you agree? What would you tell the students you love so much?” 

Kakashi chuckles: “Yes, I would tell them exactly that.”

For a while they just remain like this, then Kakashi asks: “When did you break the seal that bound you to the shinobi that reanimated you?” For a while Sakumo’s body has done exactly what he wanted it to, no show of any unwanted attacks. “Oh, pretty early on. I just wanted to fight you a little. I thought that would be interesting”, Sakumo explains and tucks in a “Sorry.” He seems a little embarrassed.

“Your verdict?” Kakashi grins now too, just under his mask.

“Oh, you’re perfect. You’re everything. You’ve always been everything. I should have known that 25 years ago.” His father’s hand bumps lightly on Kakashi’s shoulder.

His words somehow make Kakashi choke up and he has to avert his eyes. He is in a war after all. This kind of emotional manipulation is exactly why Sakumo has been revived in the first place. 

“I think you should let them seal me,” Sakumo says as he finally draws back from their embrace. Kakashi looks up at him and squirms. Somehow the idea of his father disappearing again makes him uneasy, even if it is the right step. No, it is better this way. His father was dragged back to this world against his will and deserves some rest.

Kakashi looks up and smiles: “If you so wish.” 

Sakumo steps back and gives Kakashi the opportunity to call Sai in. The boy walks over slowly, looking from the older man to the younger version of him. It is then that Kakashi realises suddenly how similar they look. He is almost as old now as Sakumo was when he died, of course they look similar. 

“Kakashi-sensei?” Sai asks carefully and it is Sakumo who answers with a little laugh: “Would be very nice of you if you could send me back to my wife, I have kept her waiting long enough.” 

After nodding his head to Kakashi and getting the go ahead, Sai summons his sealing animals that jump forward to crawl on Sakumo. Kakashi doesn’t like the look, exactly like he expected he wouldn’t, but his father is smiling above it all. 

“I’m so glad we got to talk about this,” he says and sounds genuine. “I always felt like you deserved to yell at me a little. I’m glad you did. You’re such a good kid.”

Then, suddenly, as if a gush of wind had picked up, Sakumo’s hair started scattering in tiny pieces of paper. Sai noticed immediately and his jutsu dispelled into black ink that fell on the ground around him. Somehow Sakumo had been released by himself, maybe by the feeling of having closed a chapter that was still unresolved. 

Slowly paper was flying off, piece by piece. Kakashi stepped to his father again, so close that he could talk quietly to him only. “Please give my best to mom,” he said. “I can’t wait to see you again soon. Both of you.”

Sakumo, who’s lower half had all but disappeared at this point, bumped his head into Kakashi playfully again: “Don’t let it be too soon.” Then he looked up and added: “Oh there is something I should have told you back then that I couldn’t.”

“What is it?” Kakashi asked.

“I love you.”

With the next gush of wind, he was gone again.

“I love you too, Dad,” Kakashi said into the empty space in front of him.

[maiikawriter]

A little KakaRin food for @teamminatoweek Day 7: Cooking 🍳