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Chapter Text

When Kakashi first learned how to braid hair he had barely been 5-years-old. 

He had just gotten home from the academy and despite the fact he hadn’t even been attending for a year, he was set to graduate in a few short months.

If he wasn’t away on a mission, his father always made sure to pick him up once lessons let out. Unfortunately that wasn't the case today. Sakumo had gone on assignment the day before and wasn’t to return until tomorrow morning so Kakashi had just decided to walk home alone. Even though he was young, he was fully capable of taking care of himself. At least that's what he believed. His father for some reason still disliked leaving him alone for extended periods of time so he tried to do it as little as possible. Kakashi had done everything he could to change that mindset but it had held strong so far and showed no signs of change.

When his house came into view, Kakashi instantly noticed the lights on in the living room. Some might have been concerned, seeing lights on in a house one knew should be empty, but Kakashi just fought the grin that tried to appear on his face as he sped up into a run. Tou-san must have finished early. Kakashi thought as he quickly came up the pathway. He knew it had to be his father. While he supposed someone could potentially have broken in, the seals Sakumo had surrounding their property would make it very difficult. Not to mention there were very few stupid enough to even try breaking into the home of the legendary White Fang. Upon reaching the door, Kakashi was quick to unlock and close it behind him.

“I’m home!” Kakashi called into the house in greeting as he took his shoes off by the entrance. He heard his father call back as he hung his backpack up.

“We’re out here!”

We? Kakashi frowned slightly at his father's choice of words but still quickly made his way to the back deck where Sakumo was.

When he got there he saw his dad was sitting back on the porch with his feet hanging over the edge. There was a glass of something Kakashi probably wasn’t allowed to have in his hand and sitting across from him was-

“Ay! There’s my favorite little Hatake pup!” Jiraiya-sama's obnoxious voice loudly greeted, the older man smiling broadly at the sight of him. He reached over to ruffle his hair but Kakashi quickly dodged the hand with an annoyed huff. He wasn’t a child, so Kakashi didn't understand why the man insisted on treating him like one. Jiraiya, much like Sakumo, was stretched out leaning back lazily with a white bottle sitting by his side, entirely unperturbed by Kakashi’s dismissal.

“What are you doing here?” Kakashi demanded sending the toad Sannin his best glare. His father just got back and already Jiraiya was trying to steal him? Kakashi's look didn't seem to be very effective as Jiraiya just laughed at him completely unintimidated, his father however didn’t share his amusement.

“Kakashi, don’t be rude! Apologize and say hello properly.” Sakumo ordered giving him a stern look. Kakashi looked over at him with a pout but Sakumo didn’t budge, merely lifting an expectant eyebrow. He always had been rather big on manners and Kakashi's use of them. Or more specifically his lack of use of them. Kakashi -predictably- lost the brief battle of wills and finally glanced back at Jiraiya who was still watching them, mirth in his eyes.

“…Sorry. Hello, Jiraiya-sama.” Though his apology was clearly insincere, Sakumo still gave a satisfied nod and promptly reached over to pull Kakashi up into his lap. Sakumo could never stay upset with him for more than a second. Kakashi yelped at the unexpected movement, immediately beginning to squirm in protest while Jiraiya let out a huff from where he sat across from them. Thought what he could possibly have to be annoyed about was a mystery. Kakashi was the one being pushed around in his own backyard here.

“What’d I say about calling me ‘Jiraiya-sama’? Is that anyway to talk to your God Uncle?” He complained as Kakashi finally succumbed to his fate of being held and settled in his dad's arms. Something he certainly didn’t secretly enjoy. Definitely not.

“S’not a real thing.” Kakashi mumbled, wrapping his arms around his dad’s neck. No matter how many times Jiraiya said otherwise, a 'God Uncle' was not a real title. kakashi even looked it up in the library once not that the proof stopped the man. Jiraiya squawked indignantly at Kakashi’s comment as Sakumo adjusted his iron grip to be less constricting so Kakashi was more comfortable.

“You don’t need to be blood to be family, Kashi.” Sakumo chided lightly, the argument a familiar one. Kakashi didn’t answer instead playing with his father’s long ponytail. He didn’t know why but he’d always been comforted by the feeling of Sakumo’s soft hair. He briefly wondered if he would look just as cool with long hair. Maybe I should grow it out...

“You were later than usual today. I was a little worried when I got back and you weren’t home yet.” Sakumo commented interrupting Kakashi’s ponytail musings. Guilt instantly gnawed at his stomach as his fiddling became distinctly more nervous. He had been rather late. He usually came home at around 3:15, but it had nearly been 4:30 by the time he came through the door.

“I got invited to play a game of kick the can after school. I didn’t think you’d be home until tomorrow." Kakashi explained, his unease making his words come out a bit quicker than what would be considered normal. "Sorry, Tou-san.” Kakashi added on quietly as he would typically ask permission before going anywhere that wasn’t school or home. Largely because he knew how much his father tended to worry when he didn’t know exactly where he was. Sakumo shifted again so he could properly look at his face and Kakashi pulled his ponytail with him as he moved so it laid over his dad's shoulder. He didn’t look mad, but it could be hard to tell sometimes.

“You were out playing?” Sakumo asked, sounding legitimately surprised at the idea that Kakashi was capable of such a thing. Rude. “That’s great! I’m glad you’re having fun with your friends.” He expressed with genuine joy, smiling at him and Kakashi just pouted back. He wouldn’t exactly call them his friends but he didn’t correct it on account his dad didn’t seem to be upset at him for being late. “Though if you want to stay out late again just let me know beforehand, yeah?” He said and Kakashi nodded as he absently twirled a piece of Sakumo’s hair around his finger. Jiraiya watched the interaction with a thoughtful expression, uncharacteristicly quiet. Of course it was as Kakashi thought this that Jiraiya decided to ruin the moment.

“Ne, Kashi do you know how to braid hair?” Jiraiya asked abruptly out of nowhere. Both Hatake proceeded to shoot him matching confused looks. “That thing you’re doing with his hair.” He tried to explain, the statement punctuated with a vague gesture at Kakashi’s hands. Kakashi immediately froze self-conscious and Sakumo quickly laid a reassuring hand on his head in response.

“What about it, Jiraiya?” Sakumo asked defensively in a way that clearly suggested a threat if Jiraiya didn't speak carefully. Jiraiya sensing this was quick to put his hands up in a placating manner.

“Nothing! It’s just I could show you how to braid it if you want to actually do something with it?” He directed the end at Kakashi who in turn tilted his head at him, curiosity officially piqued. Sakumo however looked at him skeptically.

“And since when do you know how to braid hair?” 

“Since Tsunade bet me 500 ryo that I couldn’t.” Sakumo rolled his eyes at his friend at that as Kakashi eyed the long white hair still clutched in his hands. Braid it? Kakashi had never really tried to actually do anything like that before. He just liked running his hands through it. Which really only succeeded in occasionally detangling it. 

“…How do I do it?” Kakashi asked reluctantly unable to stop his curiosity and Jiraiya grinned at him as he promptly sat up straight swinging his legs over the edge of the deck. He patted his leg invitingly and Kakashi hesitated briefly.

He looked up at his father for silent permission who in turn shrugged in a vague ‘do what you want’ kinda way. After pausing for another second Kakashi crawled off his dad's lap and went to sit with Jiraiya. The moment he was within arms reach Jiraiya pulled him to sit in his lap similarly to how his father had earlier. Kakashi huffed annoyed but otherwise held still. He had known it was coming, so it didn't bother him too much. Jiraiya then pulled his own ridiculously long ponytail over his shoulder, nearly hitting Kakashi in the face. 

“Ok, first you gotta separate it into three parts like this.” Jiraiya began, taking a small section of his hair and dividing it into three strands as he explained. “Then you just cross ‘em over each other like this.” He repeated the action a few times and sure enough it began to look like a braid. The process was surprisingly simple. Jiraiya then took a slightly bigger section and passed it to Kakashi. “Here, now you try.”

Kakashi took the hair into his hands and tried to part it like Jiraiya had. Jiraiya’s hair was much more coarse than his dad’s and not nearly as soft, but it was still soothing to mess with. Once he had it parted, he started to cross them over each other like he had seen. His was much messier than the one Jiraiya had done, but you could still tell it was a braid. He frowned at the sloppiness of it as Jiraiya leaned over him to examine it.

“Hey, that’s not too bad for your first time. Keep at it and you’ll have it down in no time.” Despite the praise Kakashi had already undone the braid and started again. It looked slightly better the second time, though it still had quite a few strays.

“Ya know, if you wanna practice I bet your dad's hair would be a lot nicer.” Jiraiya stage whispered into his ear conspiring, Kakashi instantly looked over at his dad to see the man already shaking his head.

“Hey now, I never agreed to that.” The protest did not deter him as Kakashi got up from Jiraiya’s lap and walked back over to where his dad was sitting. “Kakashi look I just don’t think braids are really the look I wanna go for.” Sakumo tried to reason as Kakashi blinked up at him. It tragically failed. Kakashi then moved to sit willingly on his father's knee and proceeded to give him puppy dog eyes, the same kind he'd learned from Pakkun. Kakashi could see the moment Sakumo's resolve died as he let out a deep tired sigh. “Fine, but just this once ok?” He conceded and Kakashi nodded eagerly as he got up to move behind him.

Sakumo moved so that Kakashi had clear access to his hair as he carefully removed the band keeping it up. Kakashi took a deep breath as he meticulously began parting and crossing over the hair. Jiraiya watched with an easy relaxed smile as he took a long drink from the bottle at his side. It appeared the Sannin was fully unrepentant about having set Sakumo up as Kakashi’s braid Guinea pig.

After about five minutes of intense focus, Kakashi had successfully managed to make a fairly neat braid. He grinned in self-satisfaction as he tied it off with the previously discarded rubber band, stepping back to admire his work.

“All done.” He declared and Sakumo reached back to feel the long braid, dragging his fingers down it.

“Huh,” Sakumo huffed in surprise and for a moment Kakashi was worried he was upset. The worry didn’t last as Sakumo quickly continued. “Good job.” Kakashi stood up straight at the compliment, right before he let out a large yawn. Both adults turned to stare at him for the action and Kakashi felt heat rise to his cheeks. He hadn’t realized how tired he was. Sakumo let out a light chuckle before looking at him with a knowing smile. 

“You didn’t get a nap today huh?” He guessed and Kakashi’s face turned even more red as he puffed his chest out.

“I’m fine, shinobi don’t take naps.” Kakashi didn’t whine, he didn’t. Sakumo simply shook his head fondly as he stood up and dusted himself off. Jiraiya just silently began picking up his glass and bottle without being asked.

“You’re not a shinobi yet Kakashi.” Sakumo corrected as he reached down and picked Kakashi up, propping him on his hip. “And even if you were, you're still young. You need your rest if you want to grow up strong and healthy.” He lectured as Kakashi futilely attempted to pry himself free. When it came to his health, Kakashi knew there was no real point in fighting it. This knowledge didn't stop him from trying anyway. Sakumo paid him no mind as he carried Kakashi back to his room so he could sleep for a bit before dinner. Jiraiya just laughed softly at the scene as he put the sakè they had been drinking away.

Despite what he had said, It was not the only time Sakumo had his hair braided.

Chapter Text

Despite the fact Sakumo had said it was a one time occasion, Kakashi braided his hair many times after that. Besides, Kakashi knew his protests were largely for show as Sakumo was willing to do anything that made Kakashi happy.

At least he had.

When his father passed, he had no reason or desire to braid anything else and so no one knew of his hidden skill.

Until he was put on Team Minato that is.

He was 6-years-old when Minato suddenly put him on a team with Obito and Rin. At first, he hadn’t been happy when Minato told him he was placing him with two fresh graduate teammates, but he became more open to the idea when it was pointed out he would need a team if he wanted to take the Chunin exams.  So Kakashi tolerated their presence for the time being.

He had now been on the team for nearly 7 months, they had taken the exams and to no one's surprise Kakashi had been the only one to pass. Since their team now consisted of two Genin, a Jonin, and a Chunin they could finally take on higher ranking missions. Well they could not that Minato-Sensei ever did. Much to Kakashi’s annoyance the man believed it would be best for them to take things slow, so they more or less did the same glorified chores they were doing before.When Kakashi tried to reason with the man on the subject, he was only ever given the same answer.

“A mission is a mission, Kashi-kun” 

Yeah, pulling the weeds out of some crabby old man's yard. Some mission.

His only saving grace was that he was at least still getting plenty of training. Though he wasn’t all that grateful for it at the moment. Konoha was going through a rather intense heat wave and they had been outside running training drills since 8:00 that morning. It was now 2:00, and the heat was starting to get to them.

They had stopped running drills about an hour ago and were now stuck painting some fence that some rich snob couldn’t be bothered to do themselves. Obito had long since abandoned his jacket and Kakashi had taken off his arm guards and sleeves in an attempt to cool off. An attempt that did next to nothing as he was fairly sure he could feel himself getting sunburned. Minato had been doing everything he could to keep them all hydrated, bringing them cold water bottles and letting them take breaks. It would almost be bearable, if it wasn't for the fact Obito would not stop complaining. 

“Ugh, it’s too hot for this!” Obito exclaimed for what Kakashi was sure had to have been the hundredth time, at least. And no he wasn't exaggerating. Rin paused from where she was painting her side of the fence to give him a sympathetic smile, though even she looked like she was getting exasperated. Prolonged exposure to Obito would do that to anyone.

“It’s not so bad Obito-kun." Rin blatantly lied. "At least we’re working together!” She attempted to look on the bright side but it was clear even she didn’t believe what she was saying. Oh joy. Kakashi thought bitterly, taking a moment to send a frustrated glare at his Sensei who was watching them from a little ways away. He attempted to voice every single annoyance he currently felt with his eyes alone.

Minato just smiled apologetically in return, clearly not getting the hint. “Rin’s right, while it’s true there’s not much physical or mental training you can get from this, you can always use it as an opportunity to train your teamwork.” While they didn’t agree on many things, all three of them spared a moment to share a flat look of disdain. Minato always brought up ‘Teamwork’ when he didn’t have a good reason for them to do something. It stopped working sometime around the 5th time.

“If it’s about teamwork why aren’t you helping?” Obito demanded spinning around with his hands on his hips, uncaring of the fact the paint brush was still in his hand and he had just gotten white paint on his pant leg. For once he might actually have a point. Kaakashi thought in silent agreement as Minato hadn't really done any painting since they started. Before Minato could answer him a hawk flew above their heads letting out a loud familiar cry.

All four of them looked up as it passed over them. You’ve got to be kidding me. Kakashi thought as the three snapped their attention back to Minato-Sensei who was already rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. They all already knew what he was going to say.

“Sorry guys, I have to leave." He started, though Kakashi didn't think he sounded all too apologetic. He was probably glad to just get away from Obito's insistent whining. Kakashi envied him. "But! I promise to treat you all to lunch once I get back.” It was a clear bribe to placate them. It failed. “Be good, make me proud.” And with those parting words he Raijined away.

The three of them stood silently staring at where Minato had just been for several minutes before one of them spoke up.

“…this sucks” for once Kakashi found himself in complete agreement with Obito. 

“Shut up, Obito”

They continued to paint the fence in relative silence for about 15 more minutes -this time with added silent plotting of what to do to their Sensei when he dared to show his face again- before Rin abruptly let out a loud sigh of frustration. Both Obito and Kakashi turned to look at her in surprise at the noise. Rin was the last of them to be upfront with her displeasure at something so hearing it was a bit surprising. 

“What’s the matter Rin?” Obito asked concern clear in his voice. Kakashi wasn’t so obvious though he did listen for her answer. He had been mostly kidding before but maybe Obito really had broken her patience. 

“Ugh, It’s my hair!" She huffed which was probably the last thing either of them expected her to say. "It keeps falling in my face and making my neck hot. Plus I keep nearly covering it in paint.” She ranted as she roughly tucked her hair back behind her ears. Obito just frowned in confusion.

“Why don’t you just put it up?” Though it could have been the heat, Kakashi swore he saw her face grow red at the question.

“I’m no good at that. My moms always the one who puts my hair up for me.” She admitted shyly. “I can barely make it stay in a ponytail on a good day.” Kakashi raised an eyebrow unimpressed at her revelation. 

“You can’t even do a braid?” Kakashi questioned, not understanding how such a thing could be considered difficult. He knew they weren't on his skill level but he hadn't realized it was by quite so much. Rin’s face flushed in embarrassment as Obito’s grew red for a completely different reason.

“Oh like you know how to do a braid, Bakashi!” Obito screeched with a glare, always first to defend Rin no matter the argument. He was fairly certain Rin could go rogue and Obito would still defend her actions until his breath gave out. Kakashi just glared right back at him sticking his nose up in the air.

“I can.” He stated matter-a-factly as Obito let out a ‘pfft’ in disbelief. Rin however immediately lit up at the statement.

“You can? Can you do mine for me?” Both boys stopped mid squabble to blink shocked at her. The request had been unexpected and also a tad abrupt. “Please?” She added on as though that would make him more inclined.

“No.” Kakashi refused point blank, he hadn’t braided anything since his dad died and he didn’t intend to start again now. He felt a little guilty as Rin’s face fell in disappointment, but his guilt was overshadowed by annoyance as Obito promptly got up in his face. 

“You jerk!" Obito oh so intelligently shouted at him. "Don’t worry about him, Rin! I bet he just doesn’t want to admit he doesn’t know how.” Obito stated confidently, his words doing little to comfort Rin. They did however succeed in agitating Kakashi’s already short temper.

“I can too!” He yelled back defensively, the heat making them both far more irritable. Obito didn't hesitate to fan the flames as he crossed his arms and huffed with superiority.

“Oh yeah? Prove it.”

Kakashi huffed furiously as he glared down the far to smug Uchiha. Kakashi was too mature to fall for such an obvious attempt at baiting him. 

“Fine!" Kakashi shouted and perhaps he wasn't as immune to Obito's taunting as he liked to believe.

"Rin, come sit over here.” Rin perked back up as she quickly moved to sit cross legged on the grass where Kakashi had directed her. Kakashi was practically seething as he stomped to sit on his knees directly behind her. He was no longer thinking about any apprehension or unpleasant memories he had before, all he cared about right now was making Obito eat his words. He went to put his hands in her hair before abruptly stopping as he realizied there was something in his way. “Take off your headband.”

“Oh, Right! Sorry.” Rin apologized as she swiftly took her headband off to lay it across her lap. Kakashi didn't answer her and instead gently started running his hands through her somewhat sweaty hair to get some of the tangles loose. Rin’s hair wasn’t nearly as long as Jiraiya’s or even his dad, ending right at her shoulders, but even still he felt his frustration ebb away as he moved his hands through her silky smooth hair. Obito watched him run his hands through her hair, silently stewing in what was probably jealousy. Kakashi skillfully ignored him as he started to part Rin’s hair into three sections. He had gotten much better at braiding since Jiraiya had first taught him. He was finished within a few minutes and all her hair was neatly tucked into a small braid without any fly aways.

He examined it for a moment before tying it off with a rubber band he hadn’t bothered to remove from his pouch. (It had nothing to do with the fact he had gotten into the habit of carrying them around in case Sakumo let him mess with his hair) “There, all done.” Kakashi announced in self satisfaction. Obito marched over so he could see the back of Rin’s head and glared. Rin in turn reached back so she could carefully run her hands down the braid. 

“Wow, that's much better! Thank you, Kakashi-kun!” She expressed before turning around and giving him a quick hug in gratitude that he wasn’t fast enough to dodge. Obito sneered at him as he crossed his arms as if Rin's actions were his fault. Rin simply grinned at them both as she stood up dusting the dirt off her skirt. “Now I can focus on finishing the fence. Right, Obito?” Obito finally peeled his eyes from where they were attempting to bore into Kakashi’s head and gave a reluctant shrug, never able to ignore her. 

“Yeah I guess” Kakashi rolled his eyes at the obvious reluctantcy in that agreement as he stood up as well before all three of them went back to painting the fence, only one of them in higher spirits about it. 

They finished painting the fence just after 5:00 as the sun began to set. They were all thoroughly exhausted and officially done with the heat. Obito didn’t even bother finding a tree to sit under and just flopped onto his back in the grass like some kind of sweaty starfish. Kakashi and Rin were far less dramatic, lowering to sit on the grass normally. They were so exhausted they almost didn’t notice when Minato suddenly reappeared in front of them.

“Oh! The fence looks good. Great job you three.” Minato-Sensei praised as the three of them sent him matching dirty looks from the ground. None of them felt like getting up to do it properly but Kakashi felt the message still came across. Minato's eyes scanned them, taking in the smudges of white paint across their clothes before he paused on Rin. “Hm? Rin did you do something to your hair?” Rin finally gave him a genuine smile as she shook her head.

“Kakashi did it for me, didn’t he do good?” Rin carelessly sold him out and Minato immediately snapped his attention to Kakashi who avoided his gaze at all costs. He was, not for the first time, grateful for his mask.

“Is that right?” Minato mused and Kakashi could hear the smirk in his voice. Obito huffed in annoyance as he bounced up from where he was splayed on the ground to stand by Minato.

“Enough about Bakashi, you said you’d buy us food!” Minato laughed lightly at the aggressive reminder, ruffling Obito's hair as Rin stood up affronted on everyone's behalf.

“Obito don’t be rude!” She scolded and Obito cowed down slightly at her tone. Kakashi, now the only one still on the grass, promptly stood up a good few feet away.

“Ah, it’s alright Rin. Obito’s right, I promised you guys a meal.” Obito immediately brightened back up at Minato's agreement as though completely forgetting he’d been upset mere seconds ago. Truly he had the mannerisms of a goldfish. “What’d you guys say to some barbuque?” Obito and Rin nodded enthusiastically as Kakashi very slowly attempted to walk away unseen before he could be forced into it. He barely made it two steps before Minato grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him to his side. “It’ll be a team dinner.” Minato put purposeful emphasis on the word team and Kakashi didn't have to look to know there was likely a matching look being sent his way. Obito snickered at his failed escape as Kakashi glowered.

Figures.

Chapter Text

Since the first incident with Rin two years prior, she had somehow tricked Kakashi into braiding her hair for her many times for numerous reasons.

“Kakashi-Kun, will you do my hair? It's in the way of my aim.”

“Kakashi-kun it’s so hot, will you put my hair up?”

“Kakashi-kun, I tried to do it myself and now it’s all tangled, will you fix it?”

He was convinced most of the time she was just making it up so he’d do it for her. Still he felt pity for her complete incapability to do it herself so he obliged her. If he happened to also find it extremely relaxing and had missed being able to do it, that was his business. There was however an unfortunate consequence to their arrangement. Now that Rin had been walking around with freshly done hair, it had somehow got around that he had been the one doing it. He complained to Jiraiya about it once and he had said something about a woman’s inner communication circle. Regardless of how the other girls found out, they’d all been trying to bribe him to do theirs too ever since.

His current irritation was one Kushina Uzumaki. 

“But why not? You do it for Rin-chan all the time!” The fiery haired woman complained loudly and Kakashi sighed from his place on the carpet. He was studying a scroll over at the Namikaze residence while he waited for Minato-Sensei to come back home. He’d spent a large portion of time there ever since his father passed so this wasn't unusual. He even stayed the night occasionally in the guest room. Though at the moment he was regretting his decision to come to dinner tonight.

“I don’t do it all the time, Kushina-san.” He corrected and she promptly whipped around from her place beside him to bop him lightly on the head.

“Kushina -nee- san” She corrected pointedly and Kakashi rubbed a hand against his head as he sent her a glare. “And you do do it all the time, you did it just yesterday!” Heat rose to his face as he tried to instead focus on the scroll in front of him.

“It was 87 degrees out and we were doing an obstacle course. It was a team exercise, it was to our benefit she didn’t have to worry about something as trivial as her hair.” He defended very reasonably and she scoffed, scooting closer so her shoulder bumped his. She leaned over him to get a better look at what he was reading and he huffed annoyed as some of her hair fell into his face. 

“If you braid my hair I’ll explain this seal you’re studying behind Minato’s back.” He stiffened at her words as she turned back to smirk at him. He had asked Minato-Sensei to teach him this particular seal earlier that week but he had told him he thought he was too inexperienced to learn one of that level. Which had been absurd because it wasn't as if it was even a particularly dangerous one. The only risk was a small explosive feedback should it be done incorrectly. So, when he refused, Kakashi decided he would just figure it out himself. He pulled the incriminating evidence closer to himself as he avoided looking at her. She was really making it very difficult to ignore her.

“I’m not doing it behind his back, I just didn’t tell him.” Kakashi was absently aware he had just more or less defined doing something behind someones back. At his poor excuse Kushina merely hummed.

“Mmhm, so then you don’t care if I ask him about it?” He snapped his attention back at her to give her a shocked stare at the obvious threat. She wouldn’t. He took a moment to look at her smug posture and the glint in her eyes. No, actually she would. He frowned, sending her his fiercest glare. She didn’t seem intimidated. Pity. 

“…you’ll teach me the seal?” He clarified and she nodded enthusiastically. “And you won’t tattle?” Kushina grinned at him and gave another nod. He sighed deeply in defeat as he eyed her ridiculously long red hair. I guess I have no choice. “I’ll need a hairbrush.” Kushina needed no more prompting as she shot up and went to run down the hall.

“I’ll go grab it, wait here!” She ordered and Kakashi carefully began rolling up his scroll and putting it to the side. Kushina came back much too soon, thrusting the brush into his hands before sitting cross legged in front of him and pulling all her hair behind her. He paused as he took in her unruly locks. Kakashi hadn’t worked on hair this long since Jiraiya. Her hair brushed the ground when she sat on the floor and his fingers twitched in slight excitement irritation. He had to move to sit up on his knees since their height difference made it hard for him to reach the top of her head. When he finally touched her hair he paused in shock at just how fluffy it felt.

That was…not what he anticipated. He expected Kushina’s hair to feel coarse and rough judging off its messy nature. Instead it was soft and gave off a natural poof Kakashi hadn’t seen on anyone other than himself. It was also incredibly thick. He took the brush and gently started the process of brushing through her hair, making sure not to pull too hard. She leaned into the feeling as he worked out the knots and tangles.

“What kind of braid do you want?” Kakashi asked after a moment of not really uncomfortable silence. She craned her head back slightly to try and lift her eyebrow in surprise at him.

“You know how to do different ones?” He was slightly offended at her genuine shock. After all, braiding hair wasn’t exactly rocket science. He put his hands on the sides of her head to force it back straight, annoyed as he answered.

“Yes, I can do a three strand, a french, or a loose plait, which one do you want?” After two years of periodically braiding Rin’s hair it was only natural he would pick up a few different styles. Doing the same basic one got boring after a while. Kushina put a finger to her chin as she thought for a moment.

“What’s a loose plait?” She questioned and Kakashi resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

“It’s the same as a regular braid but loose.” He explained poorly, irritation coming through his tone, and she hummed attentively. Minato-Sensei will be home any minute so I need to finish this quickly. If he spent too long doing her hair they wouldn't have time to go over the seal which would mean he did it all for nothing.

“Sounds pretty.” She decided and Kakashi nodded, doing a final run through with the brush before starting to part her hair. As he did she reached over to pick up his discarded scroll and opened it up with a thoughtful hum.

“Let’s see here…" She mused to herself as her eyes scanned the paper. "Ah, there! Ok so what you gotta do first is..” She began explaining the basics of the seal as Kakashi realized this would probably take longer than he thought. He felt a familiar calm wash over his body as he crossed the strands of hair over each other. Maybe he should agree to braid Kushina’s hair more often, she certainly had a lot of it. And it would give him something to do the next time Minato inevitably left them alone together.

About 15 minutes later, Kushina had a long messy braid that ended at her waist and Kakashi finally knew how the security seal worked. 

It was then Minato finally walked through the door to see Kakashi tying off the end as Kushina quickly folded the scroll back up before he could see the contents.

“Oh, so you finally convinced him to do it huh?” Minato asked amused as he glanced at Kushina's new hair. Kushina gave a happy affirmative and Kakashi scowled at his teacher at the implication.

“She didn’t convince me to do anything!” He argued indignantly, standing up as he did so, and Minato was quick to put his hands up in surrender. Kakashi only did it because he wanted to. Kushina moved her newly done braid over her shoulder as she pulled out a compact mirror to look it over.

“Of course not Kashi, anyway you did great! You look beautiful Kushina.” Minato said far too sincerely and they both flushed at Minato's praise for two entirely different reasons. Kushina stood up, brushing imaginary dust off her skirt before she walked over to embrace him. He was quick to hold her back, though he looked a little confused.

“I’m so glad you like it Minato.” She started and Minato froze at her tone. She was being mockingly sweet which was never a good sign. He was proved right as she pulled away with a smirk. “Cause we were just thinking how lovely you would look with your own hair done, isn’t that right Kashi?” Kakashi glanced up at her in brief confusion as Kushina gave him a conspiratorial wink. He let a smirk over take his own face as he nodded quickly in agreement. Minato looked between his two menaces as he backed away from his wife.

“Hold on now I never said-“ Kushina cut him off with a meaningful look, trying to communicate something with her eyes that Kakashi didn't catch. Whatever it was clearly worked as Minato gave a defeated sigh, moving to sit on the spot Kushina had just vacated. “Alright, alright, but nothing to extreme ok?” Minato conditioned and Kakashi didn't hesitate to give another quick nod as he moved behind his teacher. Minato felt his exasperation disappear at Kakashi’s rare childish glee. Kakashi sat behind him running his hands through his messy blonde tufts as Kushina beamed from above them.

“Well, I’m gonna go finish dinner, have fun you two!” She called with a giggle disappearing into the kitchen. Minato rolled his eyes but couldn’t bring himself to truly feel annoyed. After all anything that got Kakashi to loosen up and have a little fun was well worth a few tangles.

Chapter Text

Six months.

It had been six months since the dreaded Kanabi bridge mission tragically cut the life of Kakashi's teammate short and Kakashi had been taking every chance he could to try and train his newly acquired Sharingan.

He was only partially succeeding as most days still ended with him passed out in a training field somewhere. Minato had been getting busier and busier, nearly everyone knew he was the number one in running for the Fourth Hokage. Rin had been working long shifts at the hospital so he didn’t see much of her either, but that was fine. It gave him more time to train uninterrupted.

Or it should have had it not been for a certain green spandexed youth. 

“Ka-kashi!” Gai called out as he ran onto the training field Kakashi had been working on, entirely uncaring of the fact he was clearly interrupting. Kakashi sighed as he briefly entertained the idea of shusining away and pretending he never saw him. Too late. Gai had already reached him and began his daily rant of the ‘springtime of youth’. That’s what Kakashi got for taking too long.

“Look Gai, I’m kinda busy right now.” He cut him off before Gai could truly get underway and he responded with a pout. A genuine pout. As if he was a toddler and not 13. Of course because it was Gai, he didn't stay quiet long.

“Today is the day you agreed to engage in a Youthful Challenge with me! It has been exactly one week since I last asked you and I have not bothered you once!” ugh. Kakashi had completely forgotten about that particular arrangement. He had bet Gai that if he could leave him to his training for a full week, with absolutely no interruptions of any kind, then he would do another challenge with him in return. He never expected him to actually be able to do it. He just wanted to get rid of him for a little while so he could focus. He sighed again as he reached to pull his hitate back over his eye. 

“Fine, but make it quick.” Gai grinned at Kakashi’s reluctant agreement as he bounced on the balls of his feet. “Are we doing Rock, Paper, Scissors?” Kakashi asked, silently hoping the answer was yes if only so this would end quickly. Gai just frowned and rapidly shook his head because of course not.

“No, we should do something more invigorating, it is my turn to choose our challenge!” Kakashi already felt exhausted at his friend's enthusiasm. He had no idea how Gai managed to make it look so effortless.

“What did you want to do then?” He hadn’t meant to snap, but if it had bothered Gai he didn’t show it. He tapped his chin thoughtfully as if he hadn’t considered that far ahead before his eyes lit up, an idea clearly being born in his mind. Well this can't be good. Kakashi thought as Gai's ideas were rarely something Kakashi wanted anything to do with.

“I got it! Why don’t we have a challenge involving that hair trick you're so skilled in?” Kakashi stared at him, disbelieving trying to see if this was maybe Gai’s idea of a joke. He found nothing but sincerity. 

“...Gai, please tell me you’re not challenging me to braid something right now?” He shouldn’t be this exasperated at only 10-years-old. Then again Gai shouldn’t be this weird at 13. Gai merely nodded eagerly in face of his dread, either legitimately oblivious or choosing to pretend he was. 

“Yes, that! It is truly a most impressive skill! Kurenai-chan and Rin-chan both say so.” It was clear reason wasn’t about to work on him (not that it ever had) so Kakashi tried a different approach. He'd be having words with those two later. 

“Gai, do you even know how to braid?” Kakashi started, as he had yet to see Gai so much as brush his hair let alone style it. “And even if you did, who would we do it on? We don’t really have access to an impartial judge.” Rather than being discouraged by Kakashi's attempt to pick his idea apart, Gai simply beamed as he puffed out his chest. 

“All the more reason for this challenge! I will catch up until I am on the same level as you! It is my goal as your Eternal Rival!” Of course it is. “And we will perform it on each other! We’ll have Genma-kun determine the winner.” Gai stated confidently and Kakashi resisted the temptation to ram his head into the nearest blunt object. Mostly because the nearest blunt object was Gai himself. 

“Neither of us have hair long enough for braids.” He stated flatly, a last ditch attempt to get him to change his mind, but Gai was nothing if not determined. It would almost be respectable if it wasn't so annoying.

“It will make it all the more challenging! What say you my rival? Do you accept?” Let’s just get this over with. It was clear Kakashi wasn't getting out of this so he gave a nonchalant shrug and a small nod. Clearly Gai wasn’t letting this go so he had no choice.

“Yeah, fine, but after this I have to get back to work.” Gai cheered in victory as he promptly dragged him to sit under a large tree in the center of the field. Kakashi carefully moved to be across from Gai as he smiled at him excitedly. 

“Shall I go first?" Gai asked, already moving to sit behind him. Kakashi sighed again but nodded nonetheless. He knew from experience that it would go faster if he just went along with it.

“Don’t pull too hard, I’m still connected to it.” He warned as an afterthought as Gai placed his hands in his hair. Kakashi didn't know what Gai knew about hair but the atrocious bowl cut did not inspire confidence. Kakashi found himself leaning into the touch anyway as Gai moved his hands through his hair.

He had always loved it when his father used to rub his head when he was younger, though he would sooner die than tell anyone that. After 17 whole minutes Gai sat back and declared him finished. Kakashi went to put a hand to his hair only for Gai to snatch it away. 

“No! You’ll mess it up!” He was pretty sure there was nothing he could do to make whatever Gai did worse, but he put his hand down anyway. Gai huffed proudly as he moved to sit in front of him instead. “Let’s see you beat that my Rival!” Kakashi rolled his eyes at his truly ridiculous friend as he quickly started brushing his fingers through his horribly tangled hair.

Gai’s hair was only slightly longer than his own, the ends of it tickling his shoulders, but it was far more rough as Kakashi fought to try and smooth it out. Maybe this was why he only ever had a bowl cut? That way he would never have to go through the pain of trying to actually tame it. He pushed the thought aside as the tension left his shoulders as he began to try and part Gai’s hair. He somehow managed to get it separated into two very tight french braids with more than a few fly aways. There wasn’t enough hair to tie it off but it should be tight enough that it would stay on its own. 

“I’m done.” Kakashi announced and Gai promptly sprang up and dragged him along by the arm before Kakashi could blink.

“Excellent, we must go to Genma at once so he may declare a winner!” Kakashi didn’t know how he felt about walking around in public when he still didn’t know what kind of mess Gai had created on his head. Not to mention Gai himself looked ridiculous though he supposed no one would think much of that. He didn’t get a chance to protest as Gai had already started leading him through the streets, intent on heading to the Dango shop Genma and his friends often frequented. “Genma-kun!”

At Gai’s obnoxiously loud voice, Genma -as well as everyone else in the shop and quite possibly the village- turned to look at them. Kakashi shrunk in on himself as he positioned himself to stand a bit more behind Gai. He didn’t appreciate being the center of attention. Genma was sitting at one of the front tables having lunch with Asuma and Kurenai so at least they didn't have to go far into the restaurant.

Upon the three catching sight of them, Kakashi watched as Kurenai immediately tried to stifle a laugh and Asuma nearly choked on his tea. Encouraging. Kakashi thought dryly as Gai came to a stop right in front of Genma’s seat. To his credit, Genma was the only one who didn’t look like he was about to dissolve into giggles at the drop of a hat. 

“....Is this that challenge you wanted me to judge?” He asked hesitantly after a moment of Gai doing nothing but stand there. Gai quickly nodded, yanking Kakashi forward so he was in clear view. Kakashi sent the older boy a glare for the manhandling but Gai just carried on.

“Yes! Which out of the two of us have the more youthful braids?” Genma’s lipped quirked up ever so slightly as Asuma began coughing violently into his arm. Kurenai rubbed his arm sympathetically but she was biting her lip to stop her own laugh. Kakashi felt his face heat up as Genma took his sweet time examining the two ‘hairstyles’. He’s taking forever on purpose. Kakashi thought, convinced Genma was enjoying this just a little too much. Kakashi forcibly resisted the desire to duck back behind Gai. He wouldn't give Genma the satisfaction.

“Definitely Gai’s, I’m not really sure what’s going on with your hair to be honest.” Genma directed the last part at Kakashi and he glowered in response. Gai let out a small cry of defeat as he finally released his arm.

“Gah! You have bested me again, my Eternal Rival!" Gai cried, throwing his hands up in a truly dramatic display. "I must not let this failure deter me! I will go and run 1000- no, 2000 laps around the village! Until I am-” Gai continued his rant as he sprinted out of the shop to do some self imposed consequence leaving Kakashi with his three very amused friends. And he used the term 'friends' very loosely.

It was then he caught a glance of himself in the window across the street and got the full view of Gai’s work. He had done about a dozen tiny 3 strand braids messily all over the top of his head, making his hair look like a big mop. Honestly why did I expect anything else? 

Asuma snorted as he buried his face into the table and Kakashi sent him a glare on principle. 

Chapter Text

Kakashi was fairly sure this had to be the most utterly boring meeting he’s ever had to sit through.

No, wait that’s not quite right. Kakashi mentally reconsidered as he once had to attend a meeting about clan affairs as a clan head. Apparently you still count as a clan head official even if you’re the only member of your clan. So it wasn’t the most useless meeting he’s had to endure but it was definitely a close second.

He was currently sitting in the back row of an academy classroom where all the village Jonin were attending a review briefing about the village security measures. This wouldn’t be a problem in theory, except the village protocol hadn’t hardly changed at all in nearly 20 years and they’re forced to attend these bi-yearly.

He had had them memorized before he ever even reached Jonin rank. Honestly he had had them memorized before he reached Genin rank. Now that Minato-Sensei was Hokage it was up to him to run these briefings and Kakashi had hoped it would have made it more bearable to hear coming from someone he respected so much. 

It didn’t.

He was trying very hard to look like he was paying any level of attention to the words coming out of his Sensei’s mouth but he wasn’t sure how well he was succeeding. He wished there was at least one engaging thing he could focus on so he wasn’t left to his thoughts but he couldn’t seem to find one. Unless one was to count the bird handler two rows in front of him who was wearing far too much perfume and irritating his nose. Not to mention he had places to be after this. 

He had been in the process of zoning out, trying not to think, when someone subtly tossed a folded piece of paper onto his desk. He glanced down at it as he attempted to see who had thrown it. He didn’t wonder long as he looked up and remembered Kurenai had taken the seat directly in front of him and was looking a bit too innocent. He had half a mind to just chuck it back at her but decided to read it first.

I’m bored.

Wow. Insightful. It was definitely worth reading that.

He huffed in annoyance, picking up his own pen that had remained untouched -honestly no one actually took notes at these things so he didn’t get why they bothered- and scribbled back a reply.

You should be paying attention.

He quickly folded the paper back up before carefully flicking it back onto her desk. The man sitting next to him sent him a dirty look but Minato was none the wiser so that was all that really mattered. It wasn’t like any of the Jonin here thought highly of him anyway. Thinking that to be the end of it he went back to aimlessly staring towards the front of the room waiting for them to be dismissed only for the paper to come hitting him in the chest a second later. He glared at the back of Kurenai’s head but she had already turned back around and was pretending to take notes. As if anyone would buy that. He opened the paper back up and sure enough she had written another message.

As if we don’t already know this stuff. I’m dying up here, will you braid my hair so I have something to keep me focused?

What? She wanted him to braid her hair? Over the years Kakashi had braided the hair of just about all the girls (and Gai but we don’t talk about that) in their group at least once, Kurenai included, but he had stopped completely since Rin died 9 months ago and he had been put into Minato’s personal ANBU. Why is she doing this now? Even if Kakashi wanted to, this was hardly the place.

He sent her an incredulous look even though she couldn’t see it and in response she simply flung her long black hair onto his desk. He was not just here to provide her with entertainment. He quickly reached forward to shove it back but she just replaced it again. More people were giving him dirty looks now and if Kurenai kept this up they would gain the attention of the front of the room and Kakashi was not about to be scolded just because Kurenai couldn’t stay focused. When she moved to write yet another note he suppressed the urge to growl and took her hair into his hands if only to stop her.

Fine. He started combing through her hair but he wasn’t as gentle as he typically was out of pure spite. If she noticed she didn’t let it show as she continued to act as though she were the very picture of a professional. It irked him to no end and just when he considered tying it into a giant knot and letting her deal with it he had a different idea.

After he got the Sharingan he had taken to using it to memorize and copy small things as practice. One of the things he found worked best was when he had been trying to copy someone’s writing in town and had ended up learning a fishtail braid from the woman across the street instead. After that he picked up quite a few more different styles and would always go to try them on Rin, per her own request. She loved seeing the different ways Kakashi found to do her hair. She had even planned on letting it grow out before he…

Stop. Not here. He shook his head slightly in an attempt to clear it as his hands became a bit less steady as he parted Kurenai’s hair, ignoring the spots of blood he swore he could see on them. This wasn’t the place to get caught up in his emotions. If Kurenai was going to be annoying then he was going to make this as difficult as possible for her to undo later. Kakashi proceeded to start parting her hair into five parts. Five strands were a bit harder for him but hopefully that would just make it worse for her. He was aware he was being incredibly petty but it was her fault for distracting him. 

He could feel his aggravation fading and the shaking in his hands subsided at the repeated motion of crossing the hairs over one another. Kurenai’s hair was actually very nice to touch, it was fairly soft and smelled like cherries, though not too much that it set off Kakashi’s sensitive senses. Due to the fact he kept pausing to make sure he hadn’t been caught, it took him longer than it normally would have as he finished after nearly 20 minutes. Kurenai didn’t seem to be bothered as the meeting was drawing to a close. Kakashi huffed as he tied it off before flinging it over her shoulder. He couldn’t help the satisfied smirk as the end smacked her in the face.

“…and remember to have your form signed before you leave. Dismissed.” Kakashi was quick to start heading out of the room at Minato’s dismissal but he didn’t get far before Kurenai snagged his arm. What now? He spun around to give her a proper glare, to her face this time, only to be greeted with a smile.

“Thanks Kakashi-kun! You really helped me out.” The scathing comment he had been planning to make died in his throat as his face flushed red at her praise. Instead he just huffed and shrugged her hand off.

“It’s nothing.” Kurenai didn’t dim at his dismissal and he wondered if she would feel the same gratitude when she tried to take it out later seeing as how he made it as tight as he possibly could. The thought granted him a small smile as he left the academy to go to the Yamanaka flower shop. After all, he did have other places to be. 

Maybe Rin would like some white lilies today.

Chapter Text

When did my life come to this?

That was Kakashi’s main thought as he watched as his three little gremlins got into their 5th fight this morning and barely restrained a sigh.

They had only been a team for about two months and they were already constantly at one another's throats. It felt as though every little thing led to an argument. They had managed to fight about things Kakashi didn’t even realize were objectionable. He had hoped after the whole mess with the Land of Waves mission they would have finally started to settle down. They didn’t.

So far they’d managed to argue about what their mission was (cleaning the river), who was being more annoying (it was ALL of them), who had picked more trash up (it was Sakura), and if it was hot or not (it was nearly 90 degrees). He turned to see what had started the latest debate to see Sakura was absolutely soaked, Naruto was rapidly apologizing, and Sasuke was calling him an idiot. Great. Why did the Hokage think putting me in charge of children was a good idea again? For someone with a title like 'The Professor' one would think he would make more thought out decisions. 

Kakashi was actually beginning to feel bad for all those times he provoked Obito. Truly I didn’t understand your pain, Sensei.

“Naruto! Look what you did!” Sakura screeched enraged as she glared furiously at the shorter boy, unintentionally bringing Kakashi’s attention back to the mess at hand. She had a few leaves and a bit of mud clinging to her head that she hadn’t shook out yet which made her look all the more disheveled. Naruto quickly put his hands up in surrender as he justified himself.

“I’m sorry Sakura-chan! I didn’t mean to hit you, I was aiming for him!” He punctuated this stellar defense with a sharp point towards Sasuke, who answered with a glare at the blonde.

“Moron, can’t even aim right.” Sasuke jeered, which was entirely unhelpful, and Naruto practically growled at him. 

“I can to-!”

“Look what you did to my hair!” Sakura cut the argument off, throwing her trash basket to the side. Kakashi was somewhat impressed at the fact none of it spilled. Sakura however just ran her hands angrily through her hair and huffed. “It has mud in it now!” Before she could send Naruto flying across the water in retaliation, Kakashi jumped to stand in between them. 

“Alright, that's enough you three.” He ordered as he stood easily on the surface and Sakura fumed from beside him. “Honestly, we could have been done with this hours ago if you all would stop squabbling with one another.” He meant it too. There was no logical reason this job should be taking them over three hours.

“But Sensei! Look what he did!” Sakura emphasized her point by pulling her hair in front of her face to show him as if he couldn’t see it. “He ruined my hair! I don’t even have time to go home and fix it so now I’m stuck like this.” Naruto winced back, genuinely apologetic and Sasuke just scoffed at them both. Kakashi sighed again as he resisted running a hand down his face. Sakura was right about one thing, they had missions until 3:00 today so she really couldn’t go home. New plan.

“Ok, here’s what we’re gonna do.” Kakashi started and they all turned to stare at him, Sakura crossing her arms in annoyance, Naruto looking generally upset, and Sasuke seeming frustrated by everyone simultaneously. “Sakura, you go sit by the bank and I’ll fix your hair. Sasuke, Naruto, you two finish here.” Despite the ridiculously simple direction, they all of course immediately began to protest, struggling to be heard over one another.

“But Sensei-“

“That’s not fair-“

“He’s the one who-“

Kakashi silenced them with a firm glare and a raised hand. They quieted down but were clearly still not happy. Which if anyone had the right to be upset it was him. He actually had more important, more interesting, things he could be doing. But no.

“If you two had been focusing on the task at hand instead of trying to one up another, this wouldn’t have happened.” He lectured the two boys first and foremost as their rivalry was what started this. Naruto looked away, properly scolded and Sasuke merely grunted doing the same. Sakura still looked unsatisfied at the situation as a whole which he thought was fair.

“Come on” Kakashi directed, gently nudging her back towards the shore, confident his orders would be followed and she went with one last dirty look at her teammates. 

They walked back to the grass and Sakura huffed as she plopped down on the ground. She sat with crossed legs as she started trying to pull the mud from her hair. Kakashi followed with far less fuss and took a seat beside her. After a minute or two of silence she looked at him with a tired sigh.

“You don’t actually have to help me, Kakashi-Sensei. I know you’d rather just go back to your book anyway.” Well that’s rather presumptuous. Kakashi thought, slightly offended. “Besides I don’t know what you could really do.” She said the last part under her breath clearly not intending for him to hear it but really she should know better than that by now. 

“Actually I was just thinking I’d put it up in a braid so it wouldn’t bother you until we were finished.” Kakashi offered helpfully and Sakura stopped what she was doing to blink at him, surprised.

“You know how to braid hair?” One of these days Kakashi would figure out just why everyone seemed so shocked by that. Instead of voicing this he nodded at her.

“A shinobi often has hidden skills.” He explained only half joking and she looked at him doubtfully.

“Yeah but it’s usually not that.” Rather than answer her, Kakashi just gestured for her to turn around. Suspicion was dripping off of her very being but she complied after a moment’s hesitation. Once she was sat with her back to him, he moved so he could grab her still wet hair. It had actually been quite a few years since he’d done this for anyone, but he was confident he remembered enough.

“What kind do you want?” Sakura leaned back to look at him with a raised brow at the question, he met her eyes unmoving as he waited for an answer.

“….Anything you can do I guess.” She gave up after a moment and he nodded gently combing his hands through her pink locks. 

“Let me know if I pull too hard.” She gave a tiny bob of her head as Kakashi took off her headband and carefully removed any traces of mud he could see. Due to the warm weather she was already almost dry which made parting her hair fairly easy. Her hair was about the same length as Kurenai’s so he had a pretty good idea of which styles would work.

Originally he had planned to put it in a quick three strand and call it a day, but that had been before she decided to doubt his ability. Shameful really, questioning a superior like that. Kakashi  thought as he parted her hair into the necessary sections. He decided he would do a french fishtail as it was complicated enough to impress but not so much it would be too time consuming. He moved calmly and efficiently, asking every so often if he was hurting her.

He finished in about 8 minutes and was tying it off when Naruto came and dropped his now full trash basket down on the grass with a dramatic huff.

“Ugh, why do people throw so much garbage in the river anyway?” Naruto groaned, more than a little sweaty. “It’s ju- Hey what’s that?” Naruto broke off his complaints, rudely pointing at Sakura’s head as she reached back to feel it. Kakashi watched as she froze when she felt the neat braid.

“Wow, Sensei, how’d you learn to do that?” She asked, trying to pull the braid in front of herself so she could get a better look. Kakashi shrugged loosely in response not about to actually explain as Sasuke joined them, setting his own basket next to Naruto’s though not as roughly.

“Just something I picked up over the years.” He brushed off and glanced over to make sure the river had actually been cleaned properly. He didn’t doubt their ability exactly but he had seen Naruto’s room and feared they had different definitions of what passed as clean. “Hm, good job you two.” Kakashi gave once confirming their job. Naruto blushed at the praise and Sasuke just gave a ‘Hn’ at him. 

“You look real cute like that Sakura-chan!” Naruto complimented, always quick to change the subject whenever he felt uncomfortable. Usually compliments from Naruto weren’t received well, but Sakura just smiled almost shyly, one of her hands fiddling absently with her bangs.

“Really? I haven’t really had my hair done since I was a kid.” Kakashi very politely refrained from pointing out that she was only 12 and definitely still a kid. It would only lead to more arguments and he had already hit his limit on bickering Genin for the day. Possibly for the rest of his life. Naruto rapidly nodded and Sasuke stared at her with a great deal of skepticism. What’s that about?

“This is something you just ‘picked up’?” Sasuke demanded, reaching forward to hold Sakura’s hair as he scowled doubtfully at his teacher, Sakura blushing deeply at the close contact. Kakashi raised his eyebrows in challenge to his tone. Evidently the skepticism had been for him.

“As a matter of fact, it is. Do you find that hard to believe?” His face clearly said yes, he did, but rather than say that Sasuke just scoffed and crossed his arms. There was something about the way he eyed Sakura’s hair that gave Kakashi pause. Is he…jealous? 

“I think it’s neat!” Naruto spoke suddenly, breaking Kakashi out of his musings. “Can you teach me how to do that, Kaka-Sensei?” Kakashi gave him one of his eye smiles as he stood from his place on the grass. Figures Naruto would be the one to want to learn that. Funny kid, that one. Kakashi would be lying if said he didn't find it endearing though.

“Maybe later for now we still have to go catch Tora the cat for Lady Sunako.” His smile widened at the three groans of pure agony he received in return.

I take it back. Being a Sensei was a good idea.

Chapter Text

After that first instance at the river, it was as if Kakashi had opened the floodgates.

Sakura had taken to asking him before practically every mission or training session to braid her hair. He found it was much harder to refuse her than it was Kushina or even Kurenai. It was like Rin all over again, she looked too upset if he said no and it made him feel too guilty. That being said, he had started to just do her hair the moment he showed up to their meeting, not bothering to wait for her to ask. He would often explain what they were doing while he put her hair up, it was more efficient that way and it seemed to make her happy enough.

He had started showing Naruto how to do a few basic styles in their downtime per his request and while he never taught Sasuke anything, he caught him watching him with his Sharingan a few times, though he always acted like he wasn’t.

Kakashi would be lying if he said he wasn’t a little disappointed when Sakura decided to keep her hair short after she was forced to cut it during the Chunin exams. Not only because he could no longer braid it, but he also missed how easy it made spotting them in a crowd. Kakashi would just look around until he saw the sea of bubblegum pink. Though if he’s being honest, Naruto was pretty easy to pick out on his own so it wasn’t the biggest loss. 

Lately during their food breaks, the boys had even been giving Sakura little braids on the side of her head. It made her look adorable in Kakashi’s very unbiased opinion. He was surprised the first time Naruto asked Sakura if he could try what he’d learned and she actually agreed. He was a little less surprised when Sasuke started joining in a day later. Anything one did the other was quick to follow, that was just a fact. Not that either of them would admit it, but regardless it was nice watching them get along even if only for a couple minutes. So all in all he was fine with going back to putting this particular skill on the back burner where it was likely to stay. 

Or he was until their annual group training session.

After the Chunin exams they all decided it would be mutually beneficial for them all to get used to fighting both with and against each other. The Sand attack had really opened their eyes to certain gaps in their students training.

Kakashi was currently lounging with his back against a tree as he watched his team face off against squad 8 and Team Gai against squad 10. The Sensei's didn’t actually need to contribute much for a group spare so they were all just standing off to the side supervising to make sure no one died. Kurenai and Asuma were leaning against one another on the grass in a truly disgusting display of affection and Gai was of course hurling words of encouragement relentlessly towards his team. Kakashi was content to just watch.

That is, he was just watching until he saw Sakura nearly fall off her perch on a fairly high branch after one of Shino’s bug attacks came a bit too close to her. Well I think that’s enough of that. Sakura was usually more careful than that so the display was an obvious sign they were getting tired and needed a break. 

“Yo.” Kakashi called into the field, straightening up from his slouched position. The fighting from all sides paused at his voice and he tried not to let his satisfaction at that show too much. “It’s time to break for lunch.” Shikamaru didn’t hesitate to flop back onto the grass at his words, his teammates following in a far less dramatic fashion. Team Gai nodded and went to retrieve their respective bento boxes from their bags. His own squad however was as always, argumentative little brats.

“But Sensei! We were about to win!” Naruto whined and while Sasuke didn’t speak Kakashi could tell from his scowl that he agreed. How sad is it that I can differentiate his scowls? Kakashi shook the offhand thought from his mind as Kiba quickly rebuked the statement.

“In your dreams maybe!” Before a true squabble could break out, Kurenai decided to chime in from her place next to Asuma.

“Kakashi’s right, you all should take a break before you exhaust yourselves.” She chided, not bothering to get up or really even sit up. Kiba looked like he was still ready to argue but was stopped by a gentle hand on his sleeve.

“Come on Kiba, let’s eat.” Hinata urged softly, Kiba grumbled loudly but went to sit with her and Shino anyway. Kakashi turned back to his own team to see Sakura had already started pulling the boys to sit with her under one of the shadier trees. 

Sakura, truly you are a saint. Kakashi thought fondly as he watched her lead them. With the kids all eating he leaned back against the tree and pulled out his book. Gai finally stopped his shouting to sit down next to Asuma, and Kurenai started passing rice balls around. 

“Want one Kakashi?” She offered him one of the ongiri and he saw as his team not so subtlety looked over at him. He’d clearly have to give them yet another lesson on stealth if that was the best they could do. He made blatant eye contact as he held up a hand.

“No thanks, I ate earlier.” He declined cheerily and they all quickly looked away from him in clear irritation. He huffed a light laugh at their antics and went back to his book. Really he needed to find out who had started all those ridiculous rumors about his face one of these days. Asuma and Kurenai gave him some odd looks but she shrugged after a moment and offered it to Gai instead.

The four of them sat in comfortable silence until Ino suddenly came running up to them. Kakashi didn’t pay her any mind as he continued reading, she was probably just asking Asuma a question or something similar. It was then he felt a light tug on his shirt.

Kakashi glanced up to find the blonde girl not by Asuma but instead smiling shyly at him. He raised a confused brow at her as she retracted her hand. “…Can I help you?” He asked after a moment of her awkward shuffling. He casted a glance at Asuma to see if he knew what had gotten into her but he was watching the interaction just as curiously.

“Well, I was talking to Sakura the other day and I couldn’t help but notice she had her hair done. Like done up really well into this really cute little braid, ya know?” Ino started as she idlely twirled a piece of her hair around her finger. “And she can’t do her own hair to save her life so I asked her who did it for her and she said it was you.” She was looking off to the side now a faint pink dusting her cheeks, obviously trying to feign indifference. “Anyway I was wondering since you’re Asuma-Sensei’s friend and you’re kinda like our teacher in a way, I wanted to know if you could well…” She trailed off as she scoffed her foot into the ground, Asuma looking far too amused for Kakashi’s liking. 

Scratch that they all looked too amused. 

“Do you want me to braid your hair?” He asked her point blank and she rapidly bobbed her head up and down in poorly concealed excitement.

“Yes! Uh- I mean, yes please.” Asuma, being the cruel teacher he was, snorted at her poor cover. Ino sent him a dirty look Kakashi chose to ignore as he put his book away in his pouch. Clearly he wasn't getting back to reading. He gave Ino what he hoped was a somewhat reassuring smile as he nodded.

“Sure, sit down.” He agreed to her request for a number of reasons, the biggest being that if he somehow ended up hurting her feelings, Gai and Asuma would kill him. Kurenai would probably help them cover it up too. Ino didn’t question his motives, seeming to forget her frustration with her Sensei as she flopped down onto the grass sitting cross legged. Kakashi sat down just behind her as she took her hair tie out. 

Ino had cut her hair during the Chunin exams as well but it was a fair bit longer than Sakura’s, already going past her shoulders. Unlike Sakura, Ino was trying to grow her hair back to how it had been before. “Is there a certain kind you want?” Kakashi questioned as he gently took her hair into his hands. Ino tapped her chin in thought before shaking her head, forcing Kakashi to move his hands with the motion to avoid pulling on her hair.

“Something pretty.” Well that was a bit vague but he supposed it would work. Gai abruptly laughed loudly and Kakashi paused to cast him a dry look. Somehow he had a feeling it was at him.

“You do not have to worry about that, Ino-chan! Kakashi’s work always looks very good.” Kakashi felt his face heat up at the extremely unnecessary praise. He was trying to irk him, Kakashi was sure, there was far too much mirth in his tone for it to be anything else. Had there not been children present he would kindly tell Gai where he could put that opinion. Instead he promptly looked away to focus all his attention on Ino’s hair.

“Just let me know if I pull to hard.” He mumbled as he started parting her hair. He thought Ino would look nice with a pull through braid, plus it was fast so she wouldn’t hold her teammates up.

He was very aware of the way his friends were watching him with varying degrees of subtlety. At least they're more subtle than the kids. Though with his kids that wasn't very difficult. He carefully carded his hands through her hair as he felt the tension in his shoulders ease. It was a fairly simple style so he was done within a few minutes.

“Finished. How’s that?” Kakashi clarified as he tied it off. Ino quickly pulled a compact mirror out from somewhere and moved her hand along the braid as she examined it. After a moment she grinned and nodded satisfied.

“It’s perfect!” She praised and Kakashi couldn’t help but feel he had passed some kind of test. “Thank you Kakashi-Sensei!” She proceeded to turn and give him an extremely awkward side hug, well awkward for him at least. In his true social inept fashion he ended up just patting her on the head. She didn’t seem to mind his stiffness as she quickly pulled away and stood to go back to her team. At some point the kids had all moved to sit in more or less of a big circle so they could socialize. Something Kakashi never would have done on account he didn’t even talk with his own teammates. Upon Ino’s return she was quickly swarmed by the girls.

“Hey, you changed your hair!” Tenten pointed out immediately as Hinata and Sakura flocked around her. Sakura looking distinctly more annoyed. 

“Did you ask Sensei to do that?” At Sakura’s knowing demand Ino gave her a smirk, shaking her head purposefully so her braid would swish. She looked more than a little smug.

“Yup.” She confirmed, purposefully popping the ‘p’ obnoxiously. “Why, you jealous?” Sakura bristled at Ino’s taunt and let out an irritated huff.

“As if! He does mine all the time. Ya know, since he’s my Sensei.” Kakashi was starting to think he may have just unintentionally fueled their strange rivalry. 

“You don’t own him!” And how did this fight become about him? The two girls continued to bicker as Tenten rolled her eyes at them before returning to her lunch, apparently no longer interested in the conversation. Hinata however was still looking closely at Ino’s hair. She seemed to be examining a strand of her own hair, a focused expression on her face.

Kakashi felt someone nudge his foot and he glanced over to see Kurenai giving him a pointed look. … .What’d I do?? He raised a brow in question but she only gave an annoyed huff before jerking her head towards the meek girl. Obviously she was attempting to convey a message somehow though Kakashi didn’t have a clue as to what it was.

What-? oh. “Mah, Hinata-chan, if you ever grow out your hair I’d be happy to do yours too.” Judging off Kurenai’s proud smile he had guessed right. The genin in question quickly grew a deep shade of red as she shook her head rapidly.

“Oh no, Kakashi-Sensei! You don’t have to do that.” She assured quickly and Kakashi waved a lazy hand.

“It’s no trouble, besides it wouldn’t really be fair for me to offer it to Ino and not you.” At his reassurance she seemed to calm slightly but was definitely still blushing. He nodded satisfied that situation was handled before redirecting his attention to the still squabbling girls. Somehow Sakura had dragged the boys into it and they were now carefully braiding the sides of her head as she glared smugly. Naruto looked happy for the excuse to exercise his new skill and Sasuke just looked annoyed. Though he often did. Kakashi just shrugged, pulling his book back out as he ignored the chaos in front of him.

If it got out of hand then Kurenai or Asuma could deal with it.

Chapter Text

Kakashi had never been one to openly admit his feelings. He’d been like that since he was young and many people, teachers, peers, and the occasional student, had tried to get him to be more open but it never really took. That being said just because he wasn’t one to say them, didn’t mean he didn’t have them.

In other words he was feeling more than a little lonely.

Naruto had only just finished year one of a two year journey with Jiraiya, Sakura spent practically all her time studying with Tsunade, and one could only guess where Sasuke was at this point. This left Kakashi with very little to do. In an attempt to fix that, he had taken to accepting any missions he could and then spent any additional time training. With his students all growing exponentially in strength he didn’t want to become a hindrance.

The only time he wasn’t training in some way was when he had weekly lunch with Sakura. Though she has had to cancel on him more than once. He didn’t blame her, after all why would she waste her time with him when she could be learning from the best? He was very proud of her for prioritizing. 

For some reason his decisions didn’t seem to sit right with his friends. They kept coming around to bother him about ‘taking a break’ and ‘remembering to eat’ as if he shouldn’t be doing everything he could to make sure he didn’t fall behind. Even Tenzou had visited him a few times. It was obvious they didn’t, or more likely couldn’t  understand so he did his best to just avoid them.

Of course since the universe loved making his life miserable, it backfired horribly. 

Kakashi had been walking through town back to his apartment for a quick shower and probably some caffeine after spending the whole morning trying to strengthen the stamina on his Sharingan. He unfortunately made the mistake of walking past the dango shop Gai, Asuma, and Kurenai had been having lunch at and was immediately forcibly dragged to come and join them before he could protest. 

“You should try the mitarashi ones, Kakashi.” Kurenai offered waving one of her dango sticks near his face. Kakashi stared at it in distaste as he leaned back slightly. I know she knows I can’t stand sweets. He thought bitterly, glaring the offensive treat down. 

“I really don’t have time for this. If there’s nothing else you need, I’ll be going now.” Kakashi dismissed attempting to stand from the table. He didn’t make it far before Gai snatched his arm and pulled him back down into his seat.

“But my friend, you haven’t eaten anything!” Gai protested and Kakashi had to physically stop himself from elbowing him in the gut. He was more mature than that. He settled for a glare as he roughly shrugged his hand off him.

“I’m not hungry.”

“If you don’t want food, then perhaps we could do a challenge or-“

“No. I already told you, I don’t have time.” Kakashi cut him off a bit more harsh than he intended. He was done indulging this, he knew they meant well but he’d already spent too long here. He was fully intending to leave too when Kurenai decided to speak up.

“Good afternoon, Hinata-chan.”

….Huh? Kakashi stared at Kurenai who simply smirked back at him. Very slowly, he turned to the side where sure enough, Hinata Hyuga stood. She was fiddling with her hands awkwardly and seemed uncomfortable at having everyone’s attention drawn to her. Kakashi understood the feeling. Though currently he just wanted Kurenai to stop looking so smug. 

They all knew Kakashi wouldn’t start a fight in the presence of one of the kids, and that’s what would happen if he insisted on leaving. He had been told he was stubborn but few people knew that the rest of them could be just as bad. Asuma once literally sat on him to stop him from trying to train while sick with a bad fever. If anyone needed to be stopped it was him. Though Kakashi had been 15 at the time so Asuma probably wouldn’t do something so dramatic now….probably. Kakashi forced the sour look off his face as he offered a strained smile to Hinata. 

“Hello, Hinata-chan.” He greeted, careful not to sound annoyed. Kami knows what would happen if he somehow made her think he was upset at her. She finally seemed to snap out of her nervous haze to give him a shy smile.

“Hello Sensei's, am I interrupting?” She returned with a respectful bow of her head. Kurenai smiled kindly, shaking her head.

“No not at all, would you like to join us?” Kakashi sent her as seething of a look as he could using his peripheral. She’s trying to trap me into staying. Jokes on her, it wasn’t going to work. He knew her tricks and he would not be fooled. Hinata quickly shook her head while she waved her arms in front of her.

“Ah, no thank you Kurenai-Sensei! Actually, I wanted to ask Kakashi-Sensei something.” Kakashi paused his escape plans at that, raising an eyebrow. He hadn’t really associated much with the meek girl so he wasn’t entirely sure what she would want from him. Most every other time she approached his team was to talk to Naruto or Sakura. With his attention on her she grew red in the face, her fidgeting becoming worse. “Well, um” she stumbled around her words, looking anywhere but his face. “Are you busy right now, Sensei?”

Yes. Was Kakashi’s immediate thought but he wisely didn’t voice it. He didn’t want to send her away the first time she asked him for something. He may not be the best with kids but he’s not a total ass. “No, I was just taking a break. What can I do for you?” He asked kindly, very carefully keeping all irritation from his voice. She spared him a quick glance as she straightened up just slightly. The others were watching the interaction with attentive eyes. 

“Oh! Well you probably don’t remember, but a few years ago during one of our training sessions you had braided Ino-chan’s hair.” She started, clearly forcing herself not to mumble. It was a habit Kurenai had spent a lot of time trying to break. It was obvious the girl struggled with confidence. Kakashi blamed Hiashi. “Afterwards you said something to me, do you remember that?” Kakashi paused, searching his mind for the memory. He had only braided Ino’s hair a few times and those occasions weren’t often in Hinata’s presence… Oh! He suddenly understood why she had chosen to approach him.

“Ah, yes, I promised to braid your hair if you ever grew it out. Is that what this is about?” Her face somehow managed to get even more red as she gave a somewhat jerky nod.

“O-Only if you’re not busy.” She shakily tacked on. He mentally sighed at this stellar turn of events. It was clear he wasn’t going to be able to leave. Deciding to get this over with, he kicked Gai hard in the leg as he simultaneously shoved him with his shoulder.

“Scoot over.” He ordered dryly, Gai sending him a mock hurt look as he complied, moving down the bench. Once there was sufficient space, Kakashi swung his leg over the side so he was sitting in more of a saddle position. He gently patted the space in front of him as he gave Hinata an eye smile. “Take a seat.” She stood hesitating for a moment before obeying taking a similar position to sit in front of him. The bench was a bit crowded with Kakashi’s back now pressing against Gai’s side but it wasn’t too bad. “Is there something specific you want?” He asked once she was settled in her seat. She shook her head as she gently moved her hair over her shoulders.

Her hair had gotten quite long in the two years or so since he’d made the offer, now going a good bit past her shoulders. Apparently it grew fast, who’d have guessed? He moved to run his hands through her hair to start smoothing it out but found it wasn’t really necessary. Hinata had possibly the silkiest, smoothest hair he had ever seen. He briefly wondered why she ever cut it to begin with.

Seeing as how she hadn’t given any preference he decided to go with something a bit different then he usually did. The style was called a waterfall braid and he had only done it once before and it had been for Kushina. Suffice to say it had been a long time ago. Even so he began gathering a section of her hair to start braiding it across her head. 

“Ya know Kakashi, this’ll be a nice skill to have if you ever get a girlfriend.” Asuma suddenly stated out of nowhere. Kakashi completely froze what he was doing, turning to give him a look that could kill. If he had a free hand to pull his headband up, he might actually do so. Asuma was giving him a very stupid smile. He felt Hinata stiffen in front of him so huffed before resuming his work.

“Want me to teach you? You know, for Kurenai.” The embarrassed sputtering he received was incredibly satisfying.

“Now hold on-“ Asuma tried to defend himself as both him and Kurenai became completely red. Kakashi never understood why they got so flustered when someone commented on their relationship. They had been together for years and literally everyone knew it. Asuma abruptly cut off as a very small giggle sounded through the air. They all turned to stare at the raven haired girl who had a hand pressed to her mouth, the picture of innocence.

Kakashi grinned as he moved to braid down the other side. She was a sweet kid. In all honesty he didn’t know much about the Hyuga, other than she seems to have a very obvious crush on Naruto. Well obvious to everyone that wasn’t Naruto anyway. Once he was finished he carefully tied it off in the middle at the back of her head. “I’m done.” 

“Wow Hinata, you look great!” Kurenai praised as Hinata gently ran a hand across the sides of her head. “Want to borrow my mirror?” Kurenai offered, producing a small red compact. Hinata blushed gratefully with a small bob of her head as she accepted it.

“Yes please, thank you Sensei.” Kakashi awkwardly watched as Hinata examined her newly done hair. Her cheeks were a light dusted pink as she smiled. Her silence quickly started making him concerned. Maybe he should have given her something a bit more traditional, after all he had left a good portion of her hair down which he usually wouldn’t do. “It’s beautiful.” She breathed after a few moments. Kakashi was relieved she seemed to like it, she clearly had been waiting a while if she actually remembered such a small conversation. It’d be unfortunate if she waited so long to be disappointed.

Hinata returned Kurenai’s mirror before standing up from the bench to face him. “Thank you very much, Kakashi-Sensei.” She spoke sincerely before giving him a low and grateful bow. Kakashi did his best to put off an air of aloofness as he waved her off.

“Mah, it’s nothing.” Kakashi heard Asuma snort from across from him and he graciously ignored it. He then stiffly cleared his throat before standing himself. He wasn’t wasting this opening. “Anyway, I’ll be leaving now. See you around.” His friends sent him some looks but he didn’t pay them any mind. In the same way Kakashi wouldn't start a fight in front of the kids, neither would they so they were forced to let him leave. Hinata just nodded, standing straight, giving him another smile.

“Right, of course! Thank you again for your time.” She bowed her head once more before she walked off a bit faster than a normal pace. 

Kakashi chuckled quietly to himself as he finally made his way back to his apartment. Weird kid.

Chapter Text

Kakashi sighed tiredly as he let his eye slip closed as he relaxed into the cool grass beneath his back. He was pretty sure if he stayed long enough he would melt into the earth.

He was in training ground 3 taking a much needed break from the back to back missions Lady Tsunade had been sending him on as well as his own relentless training. He had hoped things would have quieted down by now but the world was never so merciful. 

Usually when he needed a break he’d stay in his apartment reading, maybe summon a few dogs, but it just so happened to be one of nicest days they’d had in weeks and he found it a waste to sit inside. So at the risk of people he decided to soak up the sun at his favorite training spot. He had a few hours to kill until he had to actually train and he intended to spend them exactly like this.

Or he did until he heard the unmistakable sound of someone running towards him at full speed.

He mentality groaned as he cracked open his eye to glance to the side. Sure enough, sprinting right at him was a green spandexed menace. How does he always find me? Kakashi thought tiredly as he willed himself to sit up, not dedicated enough to actually stand. Honestly it was kind of impressive. Upon closer inspection he could see Gai wasn’t alone. Is he…carrying Tenten on his shoulders? He squinted his eyes as Gai got closer. Yup. He is.

“Ka-Kashi!” Gai boomed, his voice echoing across the field as he came to an abrupt stop in front of him. Tenten wobbled from her perch at the sudden stop and had to grip Gai’s shoulder to avoid falling. Kakashi could now also see Neji and Lee panting slightly from where they had clearly run to keep up. “I have finally found you!” Kakashi sighed as he resigned himself to whatever it was Gai wanted him to do. He had already blown him off the last three times. Anymore than that and Gai would convince the others something was wrong with him.

“Unfortunately.” If Gai cared about Kakashi’s dead tone he didn’t show it as he carefully set his student back on her feet. Now that he could get a proper look at the girl he noticed her hair, which was normally up into two large buns, was loose, cascading down her back. It was much longer than it looked. 

The disheveled kunoichi glared up at the man as she dusted off her clothes. Gai paid her no mind as he beamed down at them all. “I am in need of your unique skills!” He proclaimed and Kakashi gave him a skeptical look. There wasn’t much Gai would come to him for that he wouldn’t just try to do himself whether or not he actually knew what he was doing. Before he could question him, Gai placed his hands on Tenten’s shoulders to move her to be in front of him. “Tenten’s hair tie snapped and she didn’t have another one. And you were the first person that came to mind to fix it for her!” 

Kakashi blinked up at him silently questioning why he was even surprised at this point. Neji sighed loudly from his place beside him and cast Kakashi an apologetic look. “I’m sorry about this Kakashi-Sensei.” He started and he sounded legitimately sincere. “I tried to stop him but he just grabbed Tenten and started running.” Of course he did. He waved off the young boy's apology, instead choosing to incline his head towards his self proclaimed rival. It wasn't his fault after all. No one could truly stop a Maito from doing absurd things. It was a fools errand.

“Tenten broke her hair tie and your first thought was to run around until you found me? Rather than, I don’t know, just get her a new one?” Gai frowned at his question as though he was genuinely confused as to why he would think such a thing instead and Kakashi quickly remembered who he was dealing with. “Nevermind. Tenten would you like me to fix it for you?” Best to just get to the root of the issue when it came to dealing with Gai. 

Tenten finally stopped sending her sensei dirty looks to turn and look at Kakashi. She gave him a suspicious stare as she crossed her arms over her chest. “I can fix it myself if I could just run home to get a hair tie.” She said and Gai was quick to shake his head.

“Nonsense! Kakashi is very skilled in this and we don’t want to waste precious time by going back when we already have what we need right here!” Kakashi had much sympathy for the two normal members of Gai’s team. It’s a waste of time to go to Tenten’s house but not to find me? There was no point in voicing this as he knew he would only be ignored.

Lee, being just the shorter version of Gai that he was, was quick to announce his agreement. “Gai-Sensei is right, Tenten! We should handle this as quickly as possible so that we may return to our youthful training.” His words were so heartfelt and genuine Kakashi was starting to worry whatever it was that made the Maito’s what they were was contagious because there was no one else that would talk like that. If that was the case they all should be on high alert. He didn’t think the village would survive an army of Gai’s running around. I don’t think I could survive an army of Gai’s. Kakashi corrected a second later.

Tenten scoffed, flipping her hair over her shoulder and Neji just made a face so devoid of emotion Kakashi was slightly concerned. After a moment Kakashi awkwardly cleared his throat before trying again. “Right, so then, Tenten?” She looked back at him and with an encouraging nudge from her teacher she sighed before she sat down in front of him. She automatically put her back to him and gently moved her hair over her shoulders.

“I’ve seen you do the others hair before so if you could do anything that would keep it out of my face that would be great.” She wasted no time skipping straight to the point as she took off her headband which Kakashi respected.

“Not a problem.” He said as he carefully parted her hair down the middle. Her hair was very long, going all the way to her hips, and it was fairly thick. It was no wonder she preferred to keep it up and out of the way. He decided to do two Dutch braids since that seemed to better fit her style. As he started braiding the first half Gai sat down in the grass to watch, his two students following closely. He couldn’t help but notice how Lee leaned in to look almost uncomfortably closer. He acts like he's never seen a braid before. 

Kakashi ignored it best he could as he tied the first one off and switched to the other side. Tenten’s hair was very well kept, with practically no split ends and a soft texture. He quickly finished tying off the second before moving them both to rest over her shoulders. “There, all done.” The moment the words left his mouth Lee was up in Tenten’s face reaching up to touch her hair as she ran a hand down one of the braids.

Well better her than me I suppose. Kakashi thought, though Tenten didn’t actually seem to care about the invasion to her personal bubble. Must be normal for him then. “Wow, Sensei,” Lee breathed as he examined Kakashi’s work, Neji inched a bit closer to see as well but he was much more mindful of her space. “This is truly a most impressive skill!” Lee praised and Kakashi gave a shrug in response. Gai grinned smugly as he nodded in agreement. Tenten meanwhile pulled out one of her summoning scrolls and quickly got out a small handheld mirror before rolling the scroll back up.

Huh, that must be handy. Whenever he needed to take extra things on a mission he just made the kids carry it. She looked herself over before nodding and giving him a bright smile. “This’ll be perfect, thank you Kakashi-Sensei.” He returned her smile with one of his own though one couldn’t actually see it. 

“Don’t mention it.” He thought that would be the end of it and Team Gai would be on their way to do whatever training it was that they do -probably scale a mountain backwards while blindfolded or something- when Lee latched onto his sleeve.

“Please Kakashi-Sensei, can you do mine?” He asked eagerly and Kakashi’s brain did an imitation of a record scratch. …Eh?

“Eh?” Kakashi’s mouth voiced his thought without his permission. Neji and Tenten both gave him looks but Lee either didn’t notice or didn’t care.

“Please.” Lee reiterated clasping his hands together as he did.

“Lee, your hair isn’t nearly long enough for that.” Neji helpfully informed him but Gai just wagged a finger at him.

“Not quite Neji, Kakashi has done hair just like his before.” It didn’t go unnoticed by Kakashi that Gai didn’t mention it had been his own. Kakashi would also argue that what he did to Gai's hair barely qualified as an actual style. Neji looked doubtful but didn’t say anything more. I thought you were in a hurry? 

“Uh, sure Lee-kun.” Kakashi agreed, rubbing the back of his neck after a few moments of the kid’s pleading looks. “But it probably isn’t gonna look as nice as Tenten’s.” He warned but Lee was in no way deterred and happily took the spot Tenten vacated. Kakashi carefully brushed through his hair with his hands and he got a horrible sense of deja vu as he more or less just duplicated what he had done for Gai all those years prior. His hair even has the same awful tangles. 

And just as Gai had, Lee looked utterly ridiculous. “It’s done.” Kakashi said with some regret and Lee quickly bounced back over to Tenten. 

“Tenten, may I borrow your mirror? I wanna see!” The girl in question grimaced at his appearance but still handed the requested item over. Lee took it and excitedly looked to try and see his head. The two French braids Kakashi had done were tight enough to nearly pull on the skin of his forehead. Despite this Lee positively beamed as though he had just been handed the greatest gift in the world. “It is very stylish!” Lee proclaimed clearly delusional and Kakashi saw as Tenten facepalmed and Neji just shook his head.

At least he’s happy? Honestly Kakashi wasn’t sure what to make of this situation anymore. He barely made sense of it in the first place. Lee abruptly turned to jump onto Neji ignoring the boy’s immediate protest. “Friend Neji, you should join us in this new team style!” Neji roughly shoved him off as he leaned back as far away from his overzealous teammate as he could.

“Absolutely not. I refuse to participate in something so ridiculous.” He refused point blank and Lee psychically deflated. Neji looked a little guilty as he glanced at Tenten for help but she was apparently no better.

“Actually, Lee might be onto something Neji. I bet you’d look great with your hair done up.” She mused as she reached forward, pulling Neji’s hair upwards experimentally. He lightly slapped her hands away and scowled. Gai seemed to think this was a great idea, because of course he did.

“A wonderful idea! Truly comradery at its finest.” If anyone other than Gai had said it, Kakashi would’ve sworn it was sarcasm. I don’t think Gai has a sarcastic bone in his body. Kakashi thought a little fondly. Neji still shook his head in blatant refusal. His teammates flanked his sides, each hanging off of one of his arms guilting him with their eyes. He stayed strong for another two minutes before he let out a long defeated sigh.

“Fine. But I’m not doing anything extreme.” Lee cheered happily as Tenten laughed. Kakashi couldn’t help but find it a bit amusing himself. They really were an odd group, though he supposed many said the same about his own team. Still, it was very obvious they cared for each other. Lee moved so that Neji could take his seat and Neji gently undid the bandage that kept his hair in place. “I apologize for them again.” Neji expressed side eyeing his friends with a look of disdain. They’re cute kids. Kakashi mused though they weren’t technically kids, them being about 14 or 15 if he recalled. 

Kakashi huffed a laugh as he carded his hands through Neji’s hair. “There’s no need, I’m more than used to Gai related antics at this point.” Kakashi assured and he heard Tenten muffle a snort behind her hand. Neji’s hair was much like Hinata’s in that it was one of the silkiest things Kakashi has ever touched. He briefly pondered what it was the Hyuga were putting in their shampoo. He decided it would be best to do something simple not only for Neji’s sake but since he also had to work around his headband. Though no one mentioned it, they all were aware why he preferred to keep it on. It didn't take him long to put Neji’s hair into a neat three strand braid.

As soon as he was finished Lee threw an arm around Neji’s shoulders with a cheer. “Friend Neji, you look very cool!” He complimented and Neji’s face colored as he shrugged his arm off. He quickly stood up, stepping away from their huddle to cross his arms on the side.

“Whatever. Gai-Sensei, shouldn’t we be getting back to work?” An obvious attempt at a subject change but Gai nodded shooting up from his place with a proud smile. His eyes seemed to be glistening with unshed tears as he admired his students. 

“Yes of course! We must celebrate your new youthful style!” He exclaimed and Tenten didn’t bother resisting a groan from where she was still sitting on the grass. “We will go and run 100 laps around the village! And then we will practice our new training formation!” Lee bounced up to join his mentor as he nodded etuhastically. 

“Yes, Gai-Sensei! May we start now?!” 

“Of course!” Without another word the two began to sprint off into the distance leaving the remaining three in their dust. Tenten groaned again and Neji huffed before offering her a hand up.

“Come on Tenten. They’ll never stop if we don’t go after them.” She gave him a miserable look but still allowed him to pull her to her feet. Before they ran to try and catch up, Tenten paused to give Kakashi a quick bow.

“Thanks for your help, Kakashi-Sensei.” She told him gratefully and Neji inclined his head a bit in agreement. Before he could reply they both turned to run after the wayward duo leaving Kakashi once again alone in the field.

Well. Kakashi thought as he slowly laid back onto the grass. That happened. 

Chapter Text

Kakashi was exhausted.

This in itself wasn’t exactly abnormal. He was almost constantly out doing ANBU missions so sleep was somewhat rare to come by, especially since when he did sleep he was haunted by memories of the past more than not. Even so, he could safely say that staying up for over 56 hours straight while fighting off enemy nin and simultaneously trying to protect your three teammates was a very special kind of exhaustion. 

Team Ro had been tasked with a routine search and retrieval mission of some scroll that had been taken from one of the Leaf’s bunkers outside of the village. The perpetrators had killed the three shinobi guards when they stole it so they had been told to approach with caution. There had only been about 8 or so of them and they hadn’t even been from one of the major villages so it really shouldn’t have taken too long. 

Unfortunately one of them had possessed some kind of weird clan trait that allowed the user to shoot off these beams of light that only affected the intended target. Long story short they spent most of the fight blind and the only reason they all didn’t get set on fire was because of Kakashi’s borrowed sharingan being able to see through it. Despite that Genma still ended up taking a nasty hit so they had to hightail the two day trek back to the village with no breaks the moment the scroll was back in their possession.

Which led to now, Kakashi sitting on an incredibly uncomfortable hospital bench with Tenzou barely conscious next to him.

He wasn’t all that worried since the doctor already assured him the wound wasn’t actually as bad as they had thought and Genma would be fine but he still didn’t feel comfortable leaving until he could see him. He had tried to send the others home but only Raidou had actually listened to him and he was pretty sure the only reason he had was because he still had mission work he had to do early the next morning.

Tenzou had insisted on staying with Kakashi despite orders. Almost makes me miss when he thought my word was law. Kakashi paused to think about it a minute longer before shaking his head lightly. No it doesn’t. While actually being listened to was nice he much preferred when Tenzou spoke his opinion rather than blindly following commands. Tenzou had come a long way from the perfect soldier he had met three years prior. Kakashi was suddenly pulled from his thoughts when a warm weight fell on his shoulder. 

He turned slowly but didn’t make it far before he got a face full of brown hair. Looks like he finally lost that battle with sleep. Kakashi thought in mock exasperation. He wasn’t surprised Tenzou fell asleep seeing as how he was all but sprawled out on the bench leaving Kakashi with only the end to sit. Usually he didn’t like close contact but he’ll admit it was a bit different when it came to him. Asuma said it was because Tenzou was younger and Kakashi is a sucker for kids but he politely told him to shut it. In reality Kakashi was just happy Tenzou felt safe enough to fall asleep around him. Not so unlike himself, the kid had some trust issues. He wanted to blame it on the years of brainwashing from Danzo but he didn't want to discredit the Orochimaru experimentation. He was sure they were both equally responsible.

He felt Tenzou’s head start to slip so he carefully shifted so that his head would fall into his lap. He sat still for a moment as the kid resettled but Tenzou resumed his near silent snores without waking. Well in truth they might not actually be snores at all and could very well just be slightly loud breathing. Kakashi’s heightened hearing could make it difficult to tell sometimes.

Now that the kid was so close, Kakashi could make out the rugged state he was in. Tenzou had several twigs and leaves caught in his hair from where they had sped through the treetops and it was more than a little tangled. It was an…interesting look for sure.

Kakashi clicked his tongue unimpressed as he began to pick the muck out of his hair. Honestly all this hair and he doesn’t even take care of it. Kakashi hadn’t actually asked Tenzou about his choice to keep his hair long and briefly wondered if it hadn’t been a choice at all and he actually didn’t like it. He paused from where he was detangling to consider it. He wouldn’t be all that surprised, Tenzou hadn’t even had control of his name so why would he have control of his hair?

Kakashi pushed it aside and decided he would have to bring it up with him later. As he continued his self appointed task he realized how nice Tenzou’s hair actually was. From a distance it looked rough and occasionally a bit mangy but it was actually pretty soft. And thick. Very thick. It was as he realized this in his tired and bored state that an idea was born.

I shouldn’t. Kakashi mentality reprimanded as he finished clearing Tenzou’s hair before carefully laying it to the side. He’d be peeved. He reiterated but still his hands twitched towards him. Well...I’m sure he’ll forgive me. 

He very slowly began to part a section of his hair into two small parts at the top of his head and began twisting them together as he moved down, gathering more hair as he did. The style was called a rope braid and was fairly easy and hopefully wouldn’t wake Tenzou up before he could finish. He finished in a few short minutes and reached his second obstacle. Getting a hair tie from his pocket without disturbing the sleeping teen on his lap. Very carefully, Kakashi lifted his hips so that he was hovering just over his seat so he could slowly make a grab for it. Once it was safely in hand he relaxed back against the bench. 

Tenzou stirred.

Kakashi froze, perfectly still even going as far to quite his chakra. After an agonizingly long few seconds Tenzou settled back down without another sound. Kakashi let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding as he finished tying off his work. He doesn’t actually look too bad. Kakashi thought to himself as he absently ran a hand through Tenzou’s bangs as he slept. They stayed like that for another hour or so until a man wearing a white coat came bustling up to them.

“Are you here for Genma Shiranui?” He asked and Kakashi gave a curt nod as Tenzou startled awake, sitting up instantly. The doctor gave a quick apologetic glance realizing he woke the boy before he continued. “I’m Haruki Makoto, I just finished treating him.” Kakashi placed a gentle hand on Tenzo’s elbow as he rubbed his eyes clear of sleep.

“Hello, I’m Kakashi Hatake, Genma’s squad leader. How is he?” Kakashi asked and Haruki gave him a kind smile.

“Oh he’s just fine, I expect he’ll be back on his feet in no time. He’s awake if you’d like to go in and see him.” The doctor assured and Kakashi nodded gratefully as he stood. 

“Yes. Thank you.” Tenzou was quick to stand beside him as Haruki bowed politely before excusing himself. Kakashi gave the brunette a smile as he inclined his head towards the hall. “Shall we?” Kakashi checked and Tenzou gave a single nod. Must still be tired. They should finish this quickly so he could get Tenzou to a real bed. They made their way to Genma’s room and Kakashi opened the door to let them in.

Genma was leaning back on the bed with thick white bandages around his head and torso. Despite this he still somehow managed to have a senbon hanging from his lips. Where did he even get that? Kakashi knew from experience that hospital staff always confiscated all weapons. He had a feeling Genma wouldn’t tell him even if he asked. Upon their entry Genma looked up to give them a smile and half wave.  

“Hey guys, I woulda thought you went home.” Genma greeted as Tenzou closed the door behind them and Kakashi walked forward to lightly clap him on the shoulder.

“Yeah well I tried but he wouldn’t listen.” Kakashi punctuated his words by jerking his head towards Tenzou’s direction who pouted back at him. 

“I didn’t want to leave when you were gonna wait here, Kakashi-Senpai.” Tenzou argued and it was then Genma actually looked at the younger boy. Kakashi could see the exact moment Genma’s eyes fell on his hair. Genma’s lip twitched up as he very obviously fought a smile, Tenzou of course noticed this and gave him a confused look in response. “…What?” 

“Oh nothing,” Genma denied and Kakashi had to turn away from him to stop his own grin. He blamed the lack of sleep. “Nice hair, Tenzou-chan. It’s a good look for you.” Tenzou frowned deeply at the honorific before his brain caught up with what Genma had actually said.

“Eh?” He said eloquently before quickly reaching up a hand to his head. He froze when he made contact with the carefully twisted braid. He pulled it to the front of his face with a look of pure confusion. Because he was a nice Senpai, Kakashi didn’t laugh when Tenzou turned to him for answers with a truly hilarious expression, but it was a close thing.

“Sorry, but I couldn’t resist.” Kakashi admitted and he watched as the confusion morphed to a glare of betrayal. “You fell asleep and your hair was filthy.” Tenzou went red as he huffed angrily before crossing his arms.

“S’not my fault.” He mumbled under his breath as he avoided eye contact with the two elder shinobi. He heard Genma snort a laugh and Kakashi sent him a warning look. Tenzou was still pretty bad at understanding the man’s teasing nature at times. More than that he definitely still needed more sleep so they shouldn’t antagonize him too much. They could do that tomorrow after a full nights rest. Kakashi crossed back over to stand beside him before gently nudging him towards the door.

“C’mon, it’s late and I’m tired.” Kakashi said and Tenzou gave a jerky nod before briskly walking out of the room. Maybe I should make it up to him later. Kakashi thought fondly as he breathed a light laugh. Before he left the room he looked once more at Genma. “Are you alright for now?” He checked as Genma gave him a signature smirk and nodded.

“I’m fine. You should go home and sleep. You look awful.” Ah leave it to Genma to keep me humble. Kakashi rolled his eye but nonetheless left the room. He was slightly surprised to find Tenzou still waiting for him in the hall. He’d almost thought he stormed off to HQ without him.

He was gently trying to undo the braid and smooth his hair back out without making it a tangled mess. It wasn’t going well. “Want a hand?” Kakashi offered and Tenzou gave him a dirty look but still dropped his hands with a huff. Kakashi understood the silent invitation and carefully began undoing it while running his hands through his hair to smooth it out. It only took a minute and Tenzou stepped away from him the moment he was done.

“…Thanks.” Tenzou forced out, still blushing but a bit less severely as they walked out of the hospital together. Kakashi gave him an eye smile as he fell in step beside him.

“No problem.” They didn’t speak again the rest of the walk back to the ANBU headquarters but Kakashi could tell Tenzou wasn’t truly upset. 

Kakashi may have even done it a few more times after that, but no one would be able to prove it.

.

Chapter Text

Ow.

Was Kakashi’s first thought, his head throbbing as he blinked awake. He immediately snapped his eye closed again as he was nearly blinded by the harsh light that greeted him. There was a strong scent of bleach and sterilizer in the air that made him feel kind of sick. He didn’t open his eye again but he could take a guess as to where he was.

Hospital.

He couldn’t exactly remember the details of how he ended up here but he knew he had been practicing with the Sharingan when he had started feeling dizzy. He reached a hand up to his head to find someone had put a bandage over his left eye, probably to keep him from opening it when he woke up.

Sh*t. He opened his eye, slowly this time, and tried to scan the room. I had been with Genma. Genma, while a great sparring partner, was also a snitch when he thought it necessary. He wouldn’t be surprised if he had been the one to take him here and then left to get Minato-Sensei. 

He seemed to be alone in the room for now which was all the better as he sat up on the bed. His head was killing him and there was a general ache throughout his body but he could worry about that later. For now the main priority was getting out of this room before Sensei or whoever else could show up. He hadn’t barely so much as glanced at the window before the door swung open.

“If you even think about it I’ll make sure you’re in here for more than just some minor chakra exhaustion.” Tsunade warned him as she marched forward to be beside his bed.

He froze as he looked up at her angry expression. I didn’t even know she was in the village. It would be his luck though. She clicked her tongue at him utterly unimpressed before she placed a cool hand against the left side of his face. “Honestly you’re lucky I was doing a shift when Genma brought you in.” She lectured, confirming his suspicions. Lucky is not the word I'd use. In fact Kakashi would be willing to say he had never been lucky a day in his entire life.

“M’ fine.” He mumbled trying to lean away from her hand. She frowned and pinched his ear so he’d hold still. He did if only because he knew she wasn’t afraid to hit him should he continue being difficult.

“You’re not fine. You’re wearing your body down faster than it can recover and if you don’t stop you’re gonna cause permanent damage.” She snapped, stepping back to cross her arms over her chest. Kakashi looked away, electing to glare at the wall instead. He didn’t need her lecture. He knew his own body and what it could handle.

Kakashi heard her sigh before coming to sit at the edge of his bed. “Look, I’m sorry about Obito.” He instantly spun back around to stare at her the moment the name left her lips. Tsunade didn’t seem to care as she pressed on. “I may not have been there, but I know he wouldn’t want you using this gift to send yourself to an early grave.” The words were harsh and Kakashi found himself forcibly blinking away unwanted tears. It doesn’t feel like a gift. He cursed himself for even thinking it.

She was right, he knew she was, but it didn’t make it any less frustrating. “I have to learn to use it.” He managed to say and he heard Tsunade sigh again. He looked up to meet her eyes as he continued. “I promised I’d protect her.” He didn’t have to specify who he meant. They both knew there was only one person he could be referring to. It had only been a few months since the Kanabi mission and he still hadn’t made the progress he needed to. His body wasn't built to handle the power of the Sharingan so training it was like swimming against the current. He felt a hand drop on his shoulder and had to remind himself not to shove it off. 

“I know, but you can’t protect anyone if you’re dead, Kakashi.” The truth hurt, but Kakashi needed to hear it. At his downcast expression Tsunade gently nudged his arm. “You’re going to figure it out. You’re a smart kid, you just need to go about it in a smart way.” After a moment he gave a small nod in understanding and she smiled approvingly. Now that he actually looked at her appearance he noticed how tired she looked.

The Sannin had been all but run ragged since the start of war. Her hair, usually kept into two loose pigtails, was pulled into a single hair tie and was practically falling apart with stray hairs falling in front of her face. Kakashi snapped out of his musings as he suddenly remembered another pressing concern. “Tsunade-sama, how long have I been here?” She raised an eyebrow at his abrupt change in the subject but looked down to check her watch anyway.

“A little over an hour. Minato will probably be here soon depending on how fast your friend is.” He winced realizing she’d seen right through his intentions. She smirked at his misfortune and lightly ruffled his hair before he could dodge it. “Relax, I’m sure he’ll only micromanage you a little.” It was a pretty lie and they both knew it. She laughed at the flat look he sent her and it sent more loose hairs falling in front of her face. He found his eyes focused on them.

“Can I braid your hair?”

“What?” What. Kakashi’s face became completely red as he abruptly looked away. I hadn’t meant to say that outloud! He blamed the chakra exhaustion and whatever pain medication they had given him for his slip.

“Nothing. Forget I said anything.” He desperately wished that the bed would swallow him up so he could be put out of his misery. Tsunade tilted her head to the side eyeing him curiously before breaking off with a lighthearted chuckle.

“Ah, so you’re the reason Rin’s been running around all dolled up.” She deduced and he felt his face get impossibly redder. Even with the mask there was no way she didn’t see. Just as he was considering making a run for the window regardless of the consequences she undid the tie in her hair to let her blonde hair fall. “Well let’s see it then, hmm?” He twisted around to blink up at her surprised but she only moved to put her back to him. “I was gonna have to redo it anyway so this just saves me the trouble. Don’t mess it up.” There was a light warning in her tone but it was enough to shock Kakashi to move onto his knees so he could reach the top of her head.

He was still fairly thrown by what was happening but he knew better than to pester her with questions after she already ‘explained’. So rather than voice the many thoughts rushing through his head he gently began moving his hands through her hair to undo any tangles. Tsunade sat perfectly still as worked so he knew he couldn’t have been hurting her. Her hair was longer than Rin’s but not nearly as long as Kushina’s, so he had a pretty good idea of what to do. 

He carefully parted it down the middle before dividing it into three to begin crossing them over each other. He decided to go with a fishtail since she would need something that kept her hair out of her face so she could work. He had done this kind a few times before so he was confident in his ability to make it neat. After about ten minutes he had completely finished and used her discarded tie to keep it together. “I’m done.” Kakashi announced and he sat back nervously as she felt around the back of her head. 

After her self examination she stood up to ruffle his hair again. He squawked indignantly and made a swipe at her hand but she was already pulling it back before he could. “Not bad pup, I can see why Rin makes you do it so much.” He was about to correct her that Rin didn’t make him do anything and it was entirely his choice when the door slammed open for the second time in the last hour. This time however, the cause was much worse.

“Kakashi!” Minato-Sensei exclaimed, rushing forward, immediately running his hands over Kakashi, checking for injuries. Kakashi sighed but allowed his teacher to do as he wished. When he found no broken bones or actively bleeding wounds he put his hands on his shoulders to look Kakashi in the face. “Genma told me you collapsed in the middle of a training spar. What happened?” I did exactly what you told me not to do. Is what Kakashi didn’t say but before he could come up with a plausible excuse Tsunade spoke up.

“He overused his Sharingan and gave himself a minor case of chakra exhaustion.” Tsunade sold him out heartlessly and Minato frowned deeply at the silver haired shinobi in front of him. To think he had actually just helped this woman.

“Didn’t we just discuss this?” He asked with clear tired exasperation in his voice. Kakashi cowed back at the tone, electing not to answer since he didn’t really have a good excuse.

“If he has someone to watch over him the next two days or so, he’s cleared to leave.” Minato nodded absently at Tsunade's instructions as he unnecessarily helped Kakashi off the bed. 

“Of course, he’ll be staying the week with me.” Minato announced with a tone that said it was not up for debate and Kakashi didn’t even try to argue. He'd negotiate his release once Minato had calmed some. Tsunade smiled as Minato wrapped his arm around Kakashi’s shoulder to begin leading him out of the room.

“Good. I don’t want to see you in here again.” Kakashi knew a threat when he heard one so he just nodded obediently. He didn’t thank her for treating him though. She had still betrayed him so she didn’t deserve his good manners. She seemed satisfied and waved a hand to dismiss them.

“C’mon,” Minato mumbled, gently nudging him towards the door. “We can talk more at my place.” Great. Can’t wait.  

Chapter Text

Jiraiya had been given one very simple job: Watch Kakashi until Sakumo came back.

Easy enough.

Sakumo would only be gone for a little over a day, usually Kakashi would’ve been fine on his own but apparently the kid had developed a fever right before he had to leave and Sakumo being the overprotective parent he is, refused to leave him alone. For once the Sannin had been given some time off which left Jiraiya, unfortunately, available.

It wasn’t that he didn’t love the kid, but he couldn’t exactly bring a five-year-old on his typical night off. Sakumo had warned him in vivid detail what would happen if he somehow corrupted his son. After what felt like hours of Sakumo giving specific instructions on the medication Kakashi should take at what time and when he should be going to sleep he finally convinced him to leave before his squad left without him. Honestly Jiraiya thought exasperated. That guy needs to seriously loosen up. 

Now it was just Jiraiya and the sniffly child sitting across from him. Suffice to say he was less than pleased at his father deeming it necessary for him to have a ‘babysitter’. You and me both kid. Still whether he liked it or not entertaining the boy was now his responsibility.

“So uh, you wanna watch a movie or something?” Jiraiya was rewarded with an impressively flat look considering Kakashi was still half buried in the blanket wrapped around his shoulders.

“I want to go outside.” He demanded bluntly and Jiraiya resisted face palming. Of course Kakashi would want something unreasonable.

“Sorry no can do. Your dad gave me strict instructions that you’re supposed to rest.” He denied him and the boy responded with a deep pout. Great, I already upset him and Sakumo won’t be back till tomorrow. Kakashi’s moods were to say the least, unpleasant to deal with.

“I would still be resting if I was just sitting on the porch.” Kakashi argued and Jiraiya shook his head. “Please? …Uncle Jiraiya?” Jiraiya froze at the title. That brat. He’s trying to manipulate me. They stared at each other, neither saying a word before Jiraiya let out a tired sigh. Kakashi grinned knowing he’d won.

“Fine, but they’ll be absolutely no training ya got that?” He punctuated his statement with a sharp point. Kakashi quickly nodded standing up, letting his blanket fall to the floor.

The kid, though young, was an absolute training junkie. He already had the skills of a genin despite being a few months off from being able to graduate. That being said it was extremely difficult to actually get him to sit still, especially without his dad there to meditate. Largely because his dad was just about the only one Kakashi deemed worth listening to.

Kakashi ran forward to shove his sandals on before going out to the backyard. Jiraiya followed after him but he made sure to grab the coat Kakashi hadn’t bothered with. It was the middle of Fall so it was fairly cold outside. Probably how he got sick to begin with. When he joined him on the porch Kakashi was already sitting down, kicking his feet over the edge. He looks happier…maybe this won’t come back to bite me. Jiraiya grinned as he delicately flopped the jacket over the young Hatake’s head.

Kakashi squawked as he pulled the garment off his head to glare at the Sannin. Jiraiya responded by gently ruffling his hair as he sat next to him. “It’s too cold to be out here in just your pajamas. Your dad’ll kill me if he comes back and you’re somehow worse.” He was only half joking about that last part. Sannin or not, Sakumo was downright scary when it came to his son.

Kakashi pouted up at him as he put his coat on properly. “…m’ not sick.” He mumbled and Jiraiya had to try very hard not to laugh. He shouldn’t antagonize him if he didn’t want Kakashi to be an absolute terror later.

“Sure. You get ten minutes before we go back in.” Jiraiya conditioned and Kakashi gave a small nod. The kid really was easy to deal with compared to any other children Jiraiya’s been around. Asuma was far less negotiable. They sat in a comfortable silence until Jiraiya felt a small tug on his sleeve. He turned to see Kakashi giving him innocent doe eyes, which of course immediately set him on edge. Kakashi playing innocent couldn’t possibly mean anything good.

“Can you show me that kunai move you did last time you were here?” Yup. Nothing good. “You promised you’d teach me how.” He added giving a full forced puppy dog look. Sakumo had insisted on Kakashi not wearing his mask until he was less congested since he was paranoid he wouldn’t get enough air so it made the look all the more effective. 

“No. Sakumo was very clear that you were under no circumstances to train.” Jiraiya told him using his best no nonsense voice. It was a tone he learned to develop while training Minato. Something about genius prodigies. Kakashi didn’t let up as he inched himself closer so that he was more or less leaned against his side. “Besides I made that promise before you got sick.”

“But it wouldn’t be training if I just saw you do it, would it?” Kakashi pointed out as Jiraya eyed him skeptically. “I just wanna watch.” Well…I don’t see the harm in letting him watch. Jiraiya thought as he slowly stood from the porch. Besides, I can't really blame the kid. It is a cool move. 

Kakashi perked up as he saw Jiraiya walk to the center of the yard, producing six kunai, three in each hand, as he did. “Alright now watch closely cause I’m only doing this once.” Jiraiya smirked as he widened his stance and crouched down.

The Hatake estate was ideal for training, with several targets spread through the yard among other things. In small quick movements he threw three of the kunai towards his desired target, almost the moment they left his hand he jumped up into a flip. While mid air he carefully launched the other three. He heard the distinct thud of metal hitting wood as he gracefully landed back on his feet. Sure enough when he glanced up he had hit all three targets and the kunai had embedded directly into the ring of the first three.

The move didn’t actually have much combat use and was more a party trick he used to impress women. Still the silver haired pre-genin was quick to run to his side to get a better look. “Pretty cool huh?” Jiraiya jeered, lightly nudging him. He had to admit he took a special kind of pride in impressive the usually so uncaring child. Kakashi nodded, turning up to look him in the eyes.

“Can I try?” He must have been able to tell his answer from his expression because Kakashi was quick to continue. “Just the jump? Without the kunai.” Kakashi bargained, clearly restless. Jiraiya couldn’t help but feel a little bad. He knew Sakumo had probably kept the kid in bed the minute he found out he was sick, it was no wonder he was eager for some exercise.

He debated just how risky what he was about to do was. “ If I agree you have to come back inside and take the medicine your dad left you.” Kakashi’s face scrunched up with clear disgust. The Hatake were known for their heightened senses, primarily their hearing and smell. Few people know that ability extended to their taste. This was the main reason Kakashi was such a picky eater. 

Getting him to take his cold medicine had been the biggest thing Jiraiya was dreading about tonight as he knew the kid wouldn’t make it easy on him. A little bribery won’t hurt, right? Kakashi bit his lip thinking the offer over before giving a short nod.

He stuck his hand out with the utmost professionalism that a five-year-old could have. “Deal.” Jiraiya huffed a laugh as he shook the proffered hand.

“Alright, do you need me to explain how to do it?” He checked and Kakashi quickly shook his head as he widened his stance and crouched down just as Jiraiya had. The kid learns quick. He was starting to think he’d been wrong to think Sakumo had purely been a doting parent all those times he bragged about Kakashi’s ‘natural talent’. He stepped back to give him room as Kakashi shot his arm out as though he were throwing invisible knives before he flipped up into the air. 

He’s done more complicated moves. Jiraiya assured himself, an uneasy feeling settling in his stomach. He’ll be fine. Kakashi swung his arm again as he was upside down before he came to a fast landing.

Or it should’ve been a landing. It was instead more of a very rough crash.

Jiraiya froze as Kakashi collapsed the second his right foot met the ground at an odd angle. He curled up with a cry of pain, gripping his leg towards his chest. “Kakashi!” Jiraiya yelled as he ran to kneel beside him. Kakashi had his eyes screwed shut as he struggled to take in even breaths.

His foot already looked horribly swollen.

“Sh*t” he cursed, reaching for the injured foot. His hand had barely so much as hovered over it before Kakashi yelped attempting to move away from him.

“D-Don’t” Kakashi choked out, letting his eyes open if only so he could see what Jiraiya was doing. Jiraiya felt his heart sink when he saw the unshed tears. Double sh*t. Kakashi didn’t cry. The only time Jiraiya ever remembered was from when the kid was barely three Sakumo had been summoned on a mission with him. Definitely not since he got accepted into the academy. 

He spared a look back down to his ankle and winced. It looks broken. He didn’t get a chance to linger on the thought before Kakashi let out a slight whimper. “I’m sorry” his voice came out wet and it just made Jiraiya panic more. “I got dizzy and messed up.” Dizzy? Of course he got dizzy. He has a fever, you moron. Jiraiya mentally berated himself as he placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.

“Don’t apologize,” he ordered, forcing his voice to stay calm. It wouldn’t help for Kakashi to know how much he was freaking out after all. “It was my fault. I shouldn’t have let you try while sick.” Kakashi’s pained expression became confused as he gave a slight shake of his head.

“But I was the one that-“

“You need medical attention.” Jiraiya cut him off as he very carefully scooped him up off the grass. Kakashi let out a cry of pain at the movement so Jiraiya cast him an apologetic smile. “C’mon, you’ll feel better once we get to the hospital.” And just like that all h*ll broke loose.

The second the word ‘hospital’ left his tongue Kakashi began screeching and struggling to be put down. He was so thrown by the sudden shift he nearly dropped the kid, only years of training saved him.

“No!” Kakashi screamed as he pushed against Jiraiya’s chest with all his strength. “I don’t need to go to the hospital! I’m fine!” Jiraiya tightened his hold as he stood to begin walking back through the house so they could leave through the front.

“Kakashi, your ankle looks broken. You need to see a doctor.” He tried to reason with him. Kakashi was a genius after all, surely if he explained he would see why this was necessary. 

“No!” Or not. Kakashi’s struggles only became stronger when he shut the front door behind them. “I hate it there! It’s too loud and it smells!” Kakashi was fully crying now though Jiraiya couldn’t tell if it was from fear or from how much he was jostling his injured leg. Jiraiya barely had time to readjust his hold when Kakashi tried to bite his arm.

“Hey!” The kid may practically be part dog at this point but he still knew better than to go around biting people. Kakashi just stared at him pleadingly as tears rolled down his face.

“Please, I’ll be good, I promise.” He was all but begging and it made Jiraiya feel like the scum of the earth. Kakashi suddenly stopped moving and buried his face into his chest. “Don’t make me go.” He barely heard the muffled words but it was enough to destroy what was left of Jiraiya’s resolve.

“Alright, alright we won’t go to hospital, ok?” Jiraiya comforted, rapidly running a hand down Kakashi’s back in an attempt to slow his crying. The only indication he got was a small nod against his chest. “But you still need to see a doctor.” Before Kakashi could go for meltdown round 2 Jiraiya specified. “I have a friend who can help. She’s not far so just hold on ok?” Kakashi gave another nod as he pulled his face away to try and wipe at some of his tears as he fought to take in deep breaths.

I only hope she’s not too drunk to help me. With that last thought in mind Jiraiya started running down the familiar road.

Jiraiya was panting slightly when he finally caught sight of the old wooden house of the last surviving Senju. Kakashi had calmed somewhat but was still in a considerable amount of pain, he needed to deal with this as fast as possible.

Seeing as how Tsunade was also good friends with Sakumo, he knew she had met the kid more than once. What he didn’t know was whether or not she actually liked him. Jiraiya was fairly certain she’d help either way but her bedside manner would be greatly affected depending and he really didn’t want to upset Kakashi more than he already was.

“Ar-Are we t-there?” Kakashi stuttered out through clenched teeth and Jiraiya gently resecured his hold.

“Yeah we’re there.” He slowly walked up the front steps while taking a look through the window. Lights are on. She was home then. That was good because if she wasn’t then he really would have had to drag Kakashi to the hospital and that would have upset everyone. He moved to hold Kakashi in one arm as he reached up to knock on the wood five times consecutively. He heard a crash and a few muffled curses through the door before it was roughly swung open.

Tsunade froze as she took in the sight of him and the still crying Hatake before she turned a fierce glare on Jiraiya. “What did you do?” She demanded, reaching forward to run a hand through Kakashi’s hair. She frowned at the heat coming off his skin. Oh good. She does like him then. 

“Why do you assume it’s my fault?” Jiraiya mostly said it out of habit. He was perfectly aware this situation kinda was his fault. She glared again as she moved to let them in the house. Jiraiya was comforted to see she was walking straight and steady so she couldn’t have had too much to drink yet.

“Because it’s you. ” Ouch. That one hurt. Kakashi moved so he could face Tsunade as she led them to her living room.

“S’not his fault.” He mumbled and she paused where she was to raise a brow at him skeptically. “I fell.” Well that’s a bit of an understatement but ok. Tsunade frowned at that as she stomped forward and began prodding her hands across him.

“Fell? From where? What hurts?” Jiraiya let himself sigh at the question he knew was coming but still dreaded hearing.

“He fell wrong after a flip….I think he broke his right ankle.” She stopped what he was doing to give him a flat stare.

“A flip? Jiraiya, he's clearly sick.” She said as if she was explaining something extremely obvious to someone very dumb. Probably because in her mind that’s exactly what she was doing.

“I know, look I’ll explain more later will you heal him?” That was the more pressing issue. She gave him a dirty look before sighing herself.

“Of course I will. Put him on the couch.” She instructed roughly and Jiraiya was quick to comply. Once Kakashi was safely deposited on the sofa Tsunade bent down and raised a glowing hand over his swollen foot. She clicked her tongue irritated as she gently moved her hands around. “You’re very lucky the bone wasn’t displaced, otherwise I would have had to set it.” She scolded and Jiraiya was surprised to find it was directed at Kakashi instead of him. “You shouldn’t be trying things like that when you’re not at your best. The greatest shinobi know their own limits.” She continued and Kakashi looked down in shame.

It was no secret Kakashi wanted to be a shinobi. It was his life goal to someday surpass his father. Jiraiya found himself frowning at the harsh words. Kakashi may have made a mistake but he was still young. Before he could interrupt Tsunade spoke again.

“But” she started in a much kinder tone than she had been using previously. She didn’t continue until Kakashi had hestitanly looked at her again. “You’re smart and I know you won’t do it again, will you?” Kakashi rapidly nodded as he reached up to wipe a few stray tears from his face. She nodded at him satisfied before straightening back up. “Good. Now wait right here, I’m going to grab something to splint your foot.” The moment she was out of the room, Kakashi nervously turned to look at Jiraiya who had more or less collapsed into an armchair nearby.

“Um, Uncle Jiraiya?” Kakashi called quietly as though he were afraid someone was listening in. Jiraiya forced himself to send him a smile.

“Yeah, kid?”

“Do you think Tou-san will be mad?” No. Was Jiraiya's first thought. I think he’s going to be homicidal. Rather than share that lovely thought he waved a lazy hand and leaned back in his seat.

“Nah. At least not at you.” Kakashi didn’t seem fully satisfied with that answer but he didn’t have time to ask again before Tsunade was back with her medical bag.

She kneeled down beside him before pulling out the necessary supplies to make a foot splint. Kakashi was as always creepily silent as she wrapped his ankle. Once she was done she grabbed one of her discarded throw pillows and placed it under his foot. “It’s better if you keep it elevated.” She explained when Kakashi looked at her curiously. That finished she huffed as she turned around to sit on the floor with her back against the couch. She then reached forward to pull open a drawer on her coffee table and pulled out…a bottle of Sake? I don’t know what I expected honestly. 

They sat in complete tense silence for several minutes, only being broken when Tsunade took a drink. Kakashi fiddled anxiously with his hands until he rested his eyes on the back of Tsunade’s head. Then as though some fearless entity had possessed him, he reached forward and touched Tsunade’s hair. 

“Oi!” Tsunade exclaimed, spinning around just as Kakashi snatched his hand back, a dark blush on his face. Tsunade’s hair for once was down, laying loose over her shoulders.

“S-Sorry!” He apologized and the two Sannin stared at him in equal confusion. Seeing this he embarrassedly explained himself. “I didn’t mean to.” Tsunade gave him a weird look but slowly turned back around. Kakashi however went back to twitching his fingers around. Jiraiya watched him closely in concern. 

I’ve seen him do that before…Ah! He remembered where had seen it but now he had to somehow convey it to his less than happy teammate. She seemed to be mellowing out as she took another long sip. Jiraiya very gently nudged her leg with his foot and she sent him a glare. 

“What?” She mouthed at him and he did his best to subtly gesture towards the room's youngest occupant. She glanced at him quickly before turning back like Jiraiya was crazy. He rolled his eyes annoyed. 

“Hey Tsunade, why isn’t your hair up?” Both Tsunade and Kakashi looked up at him with confused and irritated expressions respectively.

“Because I had just gotten done with a shower when you started banging on my door.” She snapped and Kakashi shrunk back at her tone. Alright not a great start but it’ll do. 

“Hey Kakashi, why don’t you put it up for her? You remember how right?” Kakashi instantly grew red and Tsunade turned to look at him surprised.

“You learned how to do hair?” She asked, all frustration leaving her voice, replaced by genuine curiosity. Kakashi gave a tiny nod after she stared at him expectantly for a few moments. 

“Just a braid though.” He clarified and she huffed a light chuckle.

“Aren’t you a talented little pup.” He frowned at the nickname and was clearly going to voice a protest when she ruffled his hair and turned her back to him. “Well let’s see it then.” 

Jiraiya grinned as he watched Kakashi freeze completely as he eyed Tsunade’s long blonde hair. As though giving him an invitation, Tsunade pulled it up so it laid more on the couch. He didn’t need more prompting as Kakashi sat up and carefully took hold of her hair. Jiraiya watched closely as Kakashi’s face pinched in concentration as he gently began separating and crossing the hairs over one another.

He’s gotten better since I taught him. When Kakashi finished he held the end with one hand so it wouldn’t fall apart. “Do you have a tie?” He asked quietly. Tsunade didn’t answer and just reached into her pocket to produce a small black hair tie and hand it over. He tied the braid off and leaned back against the couch. “Done.” 

Tsunade pulled her hair over her shoulder to examine the very neat and a bit tight three strand braid. She smiled fondly before standing up from the floor. “Not bad kiddo, maybe I’ll let you do it again sometime.” Kakashi predictably blushed as he turned his face away. This only made her laugh as she moved to put her now empty bottle back in her kitchen.

“You two should get outta here before it gets much later. I could tell he still has a fever.” There was a warning in her tone that Jiraiya has learned to refer to as her ‘doctor voice’. It was not to be ignored if one valued their life. Seeing as one did, Jiraiya nodded standing up to pick Kakashi off the couch. He yelped at the movement but Jiraiya knew it wasn’t from pain this time. Tsunade did too good of work for that.

“I can walk.” Kakashi mumbled but made no move to try and free himself and actually wrapped his arms around his neck, Jiraiya snorted at that as he bounced him up and moved him to be propped on his hip.

“Yea, I don’t think so.” He saw Tsunade peek out from the kitchen to watch them leave and gave a small wave in thanks as he did. She didn’t reciprocate but he hadn’t expected her to. “C’mon, I’m gonna be in enough trouble as it is without you missing your bedtime.” The angry protests he got in response were almost enough to distract him from whatever Sakumo would do when he came home tomorrow.

Almost.

Chapter Text

It had been two weeks since that day in the field when Ino had asked Kakashi to braid her hair for her. While Kakashi had thought the interaction a little strange at first, he had been glad that it had at least made Ino so happy.

That being said, he hadn’t really thought it would have a repeat performance as Kakashi didn’t actually see her much outside of their occasional group training sessions.

He had been wrong.

Exactly 16 days after the first occurrence, Lord Third had asked Kakashi to go and deliver a scroll to Asuma. 

Now Kakashi had no idea what was in said scroll, but he was 98.9% sure that it was personal and not village related as if it had been the man would have simply ordered one of his many ANBU to do it. He didn’t really love that the Hokage was essentially using him as a mail man but he wasn’t about to refuse.

“Yo, Asuma,” Kakashi called as he finally found the training field Asuma and his team had been using. The man was standing at the edge of the field while he watched the young Ino-Shika-Cho practice their formation. At hearing his voice, Asuma turned to see as Kakashi approached him.

“Kakashi,” Asuma greeted and Kakashi didn’t miss the way his eyes quickly looked him up and down for injury. They’re such worry warts. His friends didn’t always have to look so concerned every time he opened his mouth, it wasn’t like he only talked to them when something was wrong. Just….most of the time. “What’s up?” Asuma continued when his visual check showed no immediate damage. Kakashi resisted the urge to roll his eyes and instead just pulled the scroll from his pocket.

“Lord Third asked me to deliver this to you.” Kakashi explained as Ausma took it from him and opened it up. “Don’t know what it is though.” Kakashi gave a loose shrug as Asuma looked it over and it was at this point Team 10 seemed to finally notice his presence.

“Hey, it’s Kakashi-Sensei!” Ino announced to her teammates, freezing in the middle of their halfway completed maneuver to point towards him. Choji and Shikamaru stopped as well, following her gaze. Kakashi gave a small two fingered wave in response to their staring in an attempt to make it less awkward. 

This was apparently the wrong move as Ino took it as invention to promptly abandon her training and run towards him, her teammates slowly walking behind.

“What are you doing here, Sensei?” Ino asked once she’d reached him and Kakashi just gave her a reassuring smile with his eye. She didn’t seem unhappy that he had interrupted them.

“Oh, nothing, just giving something to your teacher.” Kakashi easily brushed off, mentally rushing Asuma to hurry it up with his reading so that Kakashi could leave. Asuma did no such thing however and instead just sighed, gaining the attention of all four of them.

“Is something wrong, Asuma-Sensei?” Choji asked concerned, face already pinching with worry. Asuma didn’t answer for a second, just rubbed a hand against his forehead before looking up at Kakashi. Oh no. 

“Everything’s alright.” Asuma assured but there was something about the look he was giving Kakashi that he did not like in the least. “Probably.” 

“Probably?” Kakashi repeated incredulously, sure that whatever Asuma was about to say was going to be bad news for him specifically. Asuma however ignored him and instead turned to address his little gremlins still looking at him with varying levels of concern.

“I have to go report to the Hokage.” He informed and immediately Shikamaru raised a brow.

“What for? You have a mission?” He pressed and Asuma just shook his head.

“No, nothing like that. It probably won’t take more than an hour, two tops.” Nothing too bad about that… So why the look? “Kakashi, you can supervise their training for a bit, yeah?” There it is. 

“We can just wait for you to get back.” Shikamaru offered and Kakashi was quick to nod his agreement. Yes they can. So there is no reason for me to be here. Despite the glare Kakashi was sending Asuma over the kids heads, the man still refused.

“Nonsense. You three almost had it, besides Kakashi is a great instructor.” Asuma may have said this like a compliment but Kakashi was not so fooled. This guy is trying to stick me with his work. The audacity. Everyone knew that was Kakashi’s move.

“Actually Asuma, I-” Kakashi started to speak but Asuma had the nerve to just cut him off.

“Anyway, I’ll be right back.” Oh no you don’t! Kakashi was already moving to attempt to physically stop Asuma’s escape but unfortunately the Genin(and Chunin) were in his path so he wasn’t fast enough. “Thanks, Kakashi!” Oh you sonnova- It was too late as Asuma disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving Kakashi alone with his three students.

For a moment there was silence.

“Um, Kakashi-Sensei?” Choji spoke up after Kakashi just continued to stare after where Asuma had been several minutes after he left. Kakashi tore his eyes away enough to look at the Akimichi to see him giving him big concerned eyes. I’m going to do this, aren't I? Kakashi thought, resigned and heaved a deep sigh in defeat as he turned to address the team that wasn’t his responsibility. 

“Alright, fine.” He would just have to exact some kind of retribution against Asuma later. “Let’s get this over with.” 

One quick explanation of their formation later and Kakashi was guiding them through it from the sidelines as they ran through the paces. Asuma was at least right about one thing, they hadn’t actually been that far off from getting it themselves. They just had a slight problem with their timing that Kakashi easily corrected. It took them less than 20 minutes to successfully complete it for the first time.

“Hey, it worked!” Ino cheered, pumping her fist in the air as she laughed. Choji was quick to join her, smiling as he offered her a high five that she returned. Shikamaru just groaned like an old man as he stood up from where he had been kneeling to use his shadow jutsu.

“I can’t believe we didn’t figure that out sooner.” Shikamaru huffed, frowning but Kakashi just waved his hand.

“You probably would have given another couple hours or so.” Kakashi assured but Shikamaru just gave him a dirty look. It reminded him a bit of Sasuke but Kakashi wisely kept that to himself as he smiled. “Anyway, great work you three, but I really have to-” Kakashi started to dismiss as he had done all he needed to but Ino interrupted him.

“Wait!” She called, moving to grab his arm to stop him. Unnecessarily might he add as he had stopped the moment she spoke but he still allowed her to hold on to him. “Can you do me a favor really quick before you go? Pretty please?” She was giving him puppy dog eyes and it had Kakashi crumbling. One would think he’d be immune to such things seeing as he was a bit of a pro at using them as a kid but one would be wrong.

“What kind of favor?” Kakashi asked suspiciously, not agreeing just yet. Ino was looking at him with that same faux innocence Sakura always used and he had learned never to trust it at face value. Ino however just gave him a pleasant smile as she answered.

“Would you braid my hair again for me, please? You’re really good at it.” Eh? Kakashi found his brain temporarily stalling as he processed the request. She…wants me to braid her hair? Again? After what happened the first time Kakashi had just thought she had asked simply to spite Sakura. Yet here she was asking again, his pink haired student nowhere in sight.

“...I suppose?” He hadn’t meant for it to come out so much like a question but oh well. If Ino noticed she didn’t care as her smile only widened and she quickly took out her hair tie. 

“Thank you! You’re the best, Sensei.” I feel I’m being manipulated somehow. Kakashi thought, narrowing his eyes but still moving to sit in the grass behind where Ino had already sat. Shikamaru and Choji looked at each other before they both shrugged and sat as well.

“Any preference?” He checked as he started carefully running his hands through her hair and she just hummed in the negative.

“Mm-mm!” 

He inwardly sighed but still began the task of sectioning off her hair into three parts, starting with the left side. He was bored and really didn’t have anything to do so he figured he might as well have fun with it if he was going to do it anyway. 

Ino always had her hair up in a ponytail so he decided to just play off that. He finished the first Dutch braid, carefully holding the end of it towards the middle of her head. Hmm…I don’t have any hair pins. He looked around and saw Choji and Shikamaru watching him intently. I suppose Genin will do. 

“Choji, come here.” Kakashi ordered and Choji jumped slightly, looking at him surprised. Kakashi just continued to look at him expectantly until Choji moved to sit on his knees beside him. “Hold this here.” Kakashi instructed, carefully arranging Choji’s hands to keep the braid together.

“Your hands better be clean, Choji.” Ino snipped, without turning around, which Kakashi appreciated. It would have messed up his work.

“They are!” 

Kakashi ignored the two for now as he moved to duplicate the same braid on the right side. He finished fairly quickly before taking the braid back from Choji and bringing them both together at the center of the back of her head and pulling all the hair that was left into a neat ponytail.

“All done.” Kakashi announced and immediately Ino reached her hands up to feel the sides, shaking her head a bit so her hair would swish. 

“Hey it looks pretty good, Ino.” Choji commented and Ino spun around so she was sitting facing them.

“Thanks, Kakashi-Sensei!” She moved to quickly wrap her arms around him but this time he was more prepared for it so he didn’t tense. She pulled away a second later and while she was still smiling, there was now a determined look in her eyes. “Hey, Sensei? Would you mind showing me some?” The question was said casually enough but it took Kakashi off guard.

She wants me to show her how to braid hair? Odd. He thought she already knew how to do her own hair. Maybe it’s limited to ponytails and buns? Or she just wants to know specifically what I did?

“How is he supposed to show you? You can’t see the back of your own head.” Shikamaru scoffed and Kakashi saw the moment Ino’s eyes lit up with danger. 

Kakashi had seen that same look on Kushina years ago and it never ended well. Before Kakashi could even try to vacate the premises for his own safety, Ino had already pounced onto the Nara boy before he could blink.

“Hey-!”

Shikamaru yelled, trying to get away but Ino was faster, reaching around as they wrestled and pulling the tie from his ponytail and making his hair fall down in his face.

“Ino!” 

“I’m glad you asked, Shika,” Ino completely ignored any and all protests as she managed to maneuver herself behind her friend, planting her hands on his shoulders and shoving him towards Kakashi. “Cause’ I was thinking we’d just use you.” She was smiling but it wasn’t a nice smile. 

“No way!” Shikamaru vehemently denied, shaking his head and coincidentally sending his hair further in front of his face. Ino was not deterred in the slightest by his refusal.

“Come on, please?” Ino switched gears, quickly continuing when Shikamaru looked like he was still going to say no. “You owe me , remember?” Oh? Kakashi was a little interested to see where exactly the Yamanaka was going. 

“What are you-“

“You know what I’m talking about.” Ino interrupted Shikamaru’s half formed question. “The thing with Asuma-Sensei’s-“ From the way Shikamaru’s eyes widened Kakashi was willing to bet he did in fact know what she was talking about. Whatever it was must have been bad if it involved Asuma.

“You wouldn’t.” Shikamaru cut her off before she could reveal his supposed secret. A shame since Kakashi kinda wanted to know what he did. It appeared the others' nosiness was rubbing off on him. Choji clearly already knew as he watched the two with mild interest, munching a bag of chips. 

“Shika, I think you’ve known me long enough to know that I would.” 

“Maybe I should just go…” Kakashi started to stand up only for both kids to shout at him.

“No!” Well alright then. He sat back down.

“No, it’s fine.” Shikamaru reiterated this time at a normal volume and with tight calm. “You can show her or whatever.” Alright now I’m curious. Kakashi suspiciously eyed the Chunin as he moved away from Ino to sit in front of him. Shikamaru then calmly pulled his loose hair over his shoulders so it went down his back as Ino moved to sit beside Kakashi. Kakashi hesitated in actually touching his hair just yet.

“Are you sure this is okay with you? Because I-“

“Yup. It’s fine so just show her something.” Shikamaru dismissed, obviously trying to change the subject and get the attention off whatever shady act he had been involved in. Kakashi obliged -for the moment- and began the task of detangling the Nara’s hair.

Shikamaru’s hair wasn’t as silky as Ino’s but it was still surprisingly well kept. He supposed it made sense considering how his mother was. Kakashi didn’t exactly know Yoshino well per say, but he had met her numerous times over his life and he had heard the way she got onto the two Nara men. Kakashi was sure if not for her that neither of them would look nearly as put together.

As he continued his task, Ino leaned over to Choji to whisper something in his ear. Kakashi smirked beneath his mask as they exchanged words before Choji reluctantly sighed and took off his headband, letting his hair spring up in all directions. Ino was unaffected by his sour mood as she gleefully started running her hands through his hair, intently copying Kakashi’s movements.

Kakashi found himself privately amused at the thought that she was technically copying the ‘copy ninja’. 

“Do you want me to show you something specific?” Kakashi asked and Ino just shook her head. “Alright then, I’ll go slow.” With that he began properly parting Shikamaru’s hair into sections. 

He had a feeling the kid wouldn’t want to match Ino so he began dividing the hair on top of his head into parts to start braiding. A multiple front braid was one of the many hair styles he learned when was semi-regularly doing Rin’s hair. When he did Rin’s he would usually do three braids and just pull the rest of the hair into a bun. For Shikamaru, he made the braids smaller then just pulled it all into his typical spiky ponytail and called it a day. Since he was going purposefully slow it took about 20 minutes.

“Finished.” Kakashi said, carefully straightening out the ponytail. Ino was also finishing up, very carefully tying off Choji’s -much messier- hairdo. It was slightly crooked but the actual braids were relatively neat. “Not bad.” Kakashi complimented and Ino beamed. Shikamaru alternatively reached his hand up to try and feel what Kakashi had done.

“Do I look as ridiculous as you?” Shikamaru directed at Choji and Ino glared at him for the slight. 

“I kinda like it!” Choji said, shaking his head back and forth so his hair swished much like Ino had. This seemed to appease Ino as she smiled at him.

“You should! It looks good, Choji.” Ino assured and Choji seemed happy enough as he tried to find a way to wear his headband over the new hairdo. “Thanks for showing me, Kakashi-Sensei. You’re great at this.” She reiterated once more and Kakashi just hummed. Kakashi half suspected Ino only wanted to learn so she could try and one up Sakura. Which he supposed she would be since Sakura was really bad at it. He had tried to show her but it had only ended with nothing but matted knots. 

I should probably leave. Kakashi thought but made no moves to actually do so as he watched the three converse. Unfortunately he had already resigned himself to waiting for Asuma. And wait he did.

It wasn’t until about a half hour later that Asuma finally returned to the field. He smelled distinctly of tobacco so clearly whatever Lord Third had wanted had been enough for him to feel the need to ‘unwind’ as he often put it afterward. As Asuma approached the four shinobi still sitting in the grass, he looked surprised to see Kakashi still there. He took one look at the three kids newly put up hair and that surprise quickly turned to amusement.

“Get held up?” Asuma asked knowingly and Kakashi gave him a dirty look as he stood up. The kids didn’t bother doing the same.

“We got our formation right!” Choji informed his sensei happily and Asuma gave him an approving smile. 

“Good work, I knew you three could do it.” Asuma praised and while Shikamaru huffed in annoyance, there was a light blush dusting his cheeks. It once again reminded Kakashi a bit of Sasuke. “Thanks for helping out, Kakashi.” Asuma said like he hadn’t essentially ditched him with them. 

“Mah, it was nothing.” Kakashi dismissed easily, casually closing the distance between them. Asuma looked reasonably skeptical of his pleasant demeanor considering he knew he had done wrong and Kakashi was not the quickly forgiving type. “Oh, but I did want to tell you something before I go,” Kakashi paused, expectantly holding his hand out towards Asuma. After a second of suspicious staring, Asuma very slowly extended his arm towards him. Like he thought Kakashi might bite. Kakashi rolled his eye at his hesitation and snatched his hand the rest of the way.

Kakashi then used his other hand to carefully place the four cigarettes he’d gotten off of Shikamaru into Asuma’s open palm. After their very incriminating conversation, Kakashi had subtly grabbed them off of the kid when he was doing his hair. 

“You should really keep better track of these.” Kakashi chided, clicking his tone disapprovingly. Immediately all the color drained out of Shikamaru’s face, Ino and Choji not looking any better as they stared at the evidence. Asuma quickly put two and two together as he rapidly looked between the cigarettes and very guilty students.

Did they really think they could discuss something like that and I wouldn’t look into it? Kakashi thought, shaking his head lightly as he stepped away. They may not be his kids, but he wasn’t about to get killed by Yoshino because Asuma couldn’t keep track of his bad habit. Shikaku was more than able to cover her crimes too.

“Later,” Kakashi called, giving a two fingered wave as he walked away, leaving Asuma to deal with his own mess. He hoped it was troublesome. 

Now to find my own team before they plan a mutiny… He was already a few hours late, so… Plenty of time.

Chapter Text

“Hound!”

Kakashi didn’t bother identifying who had called out the warning as he quickly spun around and jabbed his tanto forward just in time to impale the rogue nin that had been about to cut his head off.

They had been away from the village for two days now on a mission to deliver some top secret orders to a squad stuck near the Land of Water border. They were finally on their way back when they were ambushed by a group of rogues.

There were only about six of them, but for a three man squad like theirs it was more than enough to give them trouble. At least four of them were Jonin level. Kakashi wouldn’t be so worried if he didn’t have the kids with him. He missed the days when he was always the youngest on mission, it was far less stressful. For him anyways. He’s sure his elders felt very differently.

“Weasel, on your left!” Kakashi ordered and Itachi instantly responded, turning to his left and charging his opponent. Kakashi nearly had a heart attack when said opponent swung his blade at Itachi’s face. Itachi skillfully ducked under the slash, moving quickly to stab the man in the stomach. With that the only one left was the one currently fighting Tenzou.

Correction: was the only one. Kakashi mentally noted as Tenzou’s justu encased the other in wood before crushing him. It made a truly disgusting sound that Kakashi chose not to dwell on.

“Everyone alright?” Kakashi asked, closing his Sharingan and looking his two younger teammates over. Neither looked hurt but it could be hard to tell sometimes.

“Yes, Sir,” Itachi reported dutifully, always the perfect picture of a professional. 

“I’m fine,” Tenzou said, though he wasn’t looking at Kakashi while he answered. No, instead he was staring intently at Itachi’s head. “Um, Weasel, I think he got your hair.” 

Eh? Kakashi instantly checked and saw Tenzou was correct. It seemed while the rogue had missed Itachi’s face, he had gotten his hairband. Itachi’s hands shot up to his head as he felt his now loose hair. 

Kakashi couldn’t see his face but he could still tell the kid was behind the mask as he felt the damage. 

“Don’t worry, it looks like he didn’t get much of your real hair.” Kakashi tried to assure as Itachi’s hair didn’t look particularly chopped, just loose but Itachi merely grunted.

“I don’t have a spare hair tie.” He mumbled, pulling his hair over one shoulder. Itachi then gave a little huff of dissatisfaction before moving to begin cleaning up the fight. Tenzou also moved to help and after a second of watching them Kakashi joined.

They had all the enemy bodies sealed away in less than ten minutes and were ready to set out again. Kakashi was about to give the order when a noise sounded in the quiet forest.

Specifically the noise of Tenzou’s stomach growling.

“You hungry?” Kakashi asked knowingly, not needing to see his face to know Tenzou was blushing. The teen of course rapidly shook his head.

“No!” Tenzou denied much too quickly, clearly embarrassed and Kakashi laughed. He didn’t see what was so embarrassing about being hungry, Tenzou should’ve just said something.

“C’mon,” Kakashi said, moving into a slight run, not speeding up until the two began to follow him. “There’s a safe space up ahead we can break for some dinner.” 

“We don’t have to do that Senpai.” Tenzou denied, not slowing his speed. “We’re close to the village.”

“We’re over four hours from the village and that’s if we sprint the whole way.” Kakashi corrected immediately. “And we haven’t eaten in eighteen hours, even I’m hungry. We can stop for twenty minutes.” In truth Kakashi wasn’t that hungry. He regularly went long periods of time without eating while on missions, but Tenzou and Itachi were still growing. They picked up enough of Kakashi’s bad habits as it was.

They ran for another half hour or so before they reached the small clearing Kakashi had been talking about. Kakashi didn’t hesitate to summon his ninkin and have them scope out the area while Tenzou and Itachi made a small fire. It didn’t take long before the ninkin declared the area safe and Kakashi dismissed them with a word of thanks and went to settle in between his two kohai.

Already, Tenzou had begun depositing rations between them. It was nothing special, just some standard protein bars but it was more than enough to tide them over until they could go home. As always, Kakashi finished his food first while Itachi and Tenzou took their time to actually chew.

Kakashi was content to just patiently wait for them to finish eating in silence when he noticed Itachi continuously shoving his hair over his shoulder with growing annoyance. Since they had to take their masks off to eat, his frustration was much easier to spot.

“Everything alright, Itachi-chan?” Kakashi asked, not bothering with codenames since, as previously mentioned, Itachi had his mask off. The younger boy turned to look at him, face pinched in irritation, but he nodded nonetheless.

“I’m fine, Kakashi-Senpai.” Itachi dismissed easily but Kakashi merely raised a doubtful brow. “I’m just not use to having my hair down is all. It’s merely inconvenient, I can ignore it.” Itachi explained after another few seconds of Kakashi staring. Kakashi hummed in acknowledgement, eyeing Itachi’s long black hair. 

Now that I think about it… Kakashi silently mused, looking at where Itachi’s hair stopped just past his shoulders, falling into his face without his hairband to hold it at bay. I don’t think I’ve ever seen his hair down. It looked longer this way.

“Would you like me to fix it?” Kakashi offered before he could really think about it and Itachi blinked at him surprised. He wasn’t the only one as Tenzou was now fully watching them with interest. Well can’t take that back. Kakashi thought, deciding he might as well double down since he’d gone and said it. “Your hair I mean.” 

“That’s…not necessary.” Itachi said slowly, looking Kakashi over with a critical gaze. Clearly he was trying to figure out just what Kakashi was playing at. Which was probably fair. Kakashi took the refusal easily, simply shrugging.

“Suit yourself. But it’s probably going to keep getting in the way on the run back.” Kakashi pointed out and he heard Tenzou snort from behind him.

“Don’t fall for it, Itachi-kun.” He warned, stage whispering as he leaned towards the younger. “He just wants an excuse to braid your hair.” Kakashi didn’t hesitate to smack the back of Tenzou’s head for that particular comment, most definitely not blushing beneath his mask. Itachi however just cocked his head to the side in thought.

“Braid…?” He repeated, a cautious curiosity in his eyes. Kakashi gave him a smile with his eyes as he nodded. Tenzou just rubbed the back of his head as he sent Kakashi a dirty look that Kakashi pretended not to see.

“Yes, I used to do it for Tenzou back when he had long hair.” Kakashi explained taking great joy in the immediate affronted protests that came from his other side.

“Not by choice!” Tenzou argued, his blush fully on display for all to see. Kakashi just feigned ignorance as he waved a hand.

“Details.”

Tenzou just went into a whole different spiel of embarrassed sputtering at that and Kakashi huffed a laugh under his breath. Itachi merely stared at him with an inquisitive expression that made Kakashi feel slightly seen through.

“I could do it though.” Kakashi once again offered, continuing before Itachi could respond. “It would keep your hair out of the way until we got back anyway.” That seemed to actually appeal to the preteen as he paused.

“You don’t have to, I’ll keep up.” Itachi said but Kakashi could tell he was tempted. His hair being down must really bother him.

“I wouldn’t have offered if I didn’t want to do it.” Kakashi corrected and it was the final push Itachi needed as he gave a slow nod. Kakashi promptly moved to sit behind him, Itachi allowing him to gather his hair.

“Only if you’re certain you don’t mind.” Itachi reiterated and Kakashi resisted the urge to roll his eyes. The way the kid acted, one would think someone died every time someone did him a favor.

“I don’t mind.” Kakashi spoke drily and Itachi didn’t protest again as Kakashi began to run his fingers through his surprisingly silky hair. Huh. Itachi’s hair really was just as nice as it looked. 

Since they did actually have to make it back to the village at a reasonable hour, Kakashi decided to just do a fast dutch braid as he parted Itachi’s hair. He finished in under 10 minutes, pausing only to retrieve a hair tie from his pocket and neatly tie it off.

“There.” Kakashi said, gently tossing the braid over Itachi’s shoulder. Immediately the Uchiha ran a hand down it, a thinking expression on his face. “Better?” Kakashi checked after a second of Itachi not speaking and he seemed to snap out of his examination to look at him.

“Yes, thank you.” Itachi expressed, a polite smile on his face. It didn’t stay long as a second later Itachi put his mask back on and stood up to begin putting out the fire. In the time it had taken Kakashi to fix Itachi’s hair it seemed the younger two had also finished eating which meant they no longer had any reason to stay. Which was just fine with Kakashi, he was more than ready to be back home.

“Huh.” Tenzou voiced, drawing both their attention as Kakashi finished dousing the flames with a water jutsu. “How come his doesn’t look stupid?” He asked, gesturing towards the back of Itachi’s head and Kakashi was reasonably offended.

“Excuse you, my work never looks stupid.” Kakashi corrected and Tenzou just rolled his eyes at him like the insubordinate little brat he was as he too put his mask back in place. Itachi just huffed what sounded suspiciously like a laugh as he shook his head. Kakashi felt himself smile at the sound as he replaced his wooden mask as well and gestured for them to begin running. Getting Itachi to loosen up whatsoever was a near impossible task so Kakashi took great pride in the small gesture.

The three of them continued moving in relatively comfortable silence, a few words spoken between them every so often until they finally made it back through the village gates. They paused only very briefly at the front security before continuing onto the ANBU headquarters.

“You two can go ahead and turn in for the night.” Kakashi dismissed as he put away his things into his locker. “I’ll handle the debrief and writing mission reports can wait until we’ve had some sleep.” Kakashi quickly added on before Tenzou could voice his protest. Tenzou closed his mouth with a pout but didn’t argue as he put his mask up.

“But are we not supposed to report in as a squad?” Itachi asked, mask already off and Kakashi easily waved him off. Technically yes. Kakashi thought but out loud merely shrugged.

“As an ANBU captain I can report in for us all.” Kakashi not quite lied. He wasn’t really supposed to but Lord Third generally looked the other way. He’s pretty sure the old man just didn’t care at this point. Thankfully for once neither of them tried to debate with him which he took as a win. Especially since they definitely knew the exact regulations.

“ You voluntarily doing extra paperwork?” An annoyingly familiar voice spoke up, entering the conversation despite not being a invited into it. Kakashi turned to glare at where the younger boy was hovering on the end of the lockers on principle. “Never thought I’d see that.” None other than Uchiha Shisui continued and Kakashi just huffed.

“I’ll have you know I always do my share of paperwork.” Kakashi corrected, as it was true. He always did his paperwork, it was turning it in on time that his problem occurred. He’d been developing a late habit over the years that only got worse and worse with each new loss he experienced. He didn’t feel particularly inclined to address the clear psychological aspects of that particular problem. 

“Shisui?” Itachi asked, far less annoyed by the older Uchiha’s presence and more confused. “I thought you wouldn’t be back until tomorrow.” Kakashi had also thought that as that had been what Genma had told him but of course Shisui would make it back in time just to annoy him. Shisui however didn’t answer Itachi, instead zeroing in on the boys head. Or more specially his hair. 

For a moment Shisui didn’t speak, merely looking at Itachi’s hair, then Kakashi, and back again.

“Huh, I thought Genma-san was kidding.” Shisui mumbled and Kakashi mentally decided to track Genma down for a fight at a later date. For now he was too tired to properly retaliate. “Looks good, Itachi-chan!” Shisui complimented when he was done being surprised by Genma’s apparent honesty and Itachi promptly broke into a furious blush.

“I just needed it out of my face.” Itachi mumbled, very clearly embarrassed and Kakashi found it endearing. The kid hardly ever showed any genuine emotion so it was a nice change of pace. “Kakashi-senpai was just kind enough to help.”

“Mah, it was nothing.” Kakashi dismissed immediately before Itachi could twist it into some type of obligation once more. Shisui seemed content to ignore both of them though as he moved to gently grab Itachi’s hair and examine the braid.

“You should leave it in to show Auntie Mikoto.” Shisui eventually suggested causing Itachi to look at him curiously. Or at least he tried to, he couldn’t really turn his head properly to do so with Shisui still holding his hair.

“Why?” Itachi asked skeptically, but Shisui only shrugged.

“Because she’d like it.” He explained simply. “You know she loves your hair.” From Itachi’s expression Kakashi was willing to bet he did in fact not know that. 

“Hey,” Tenzou spoke up for the first time since Shisui’s entry, closing his locker as he tapped Kakashi’s shoulder. “If you really have the debrief then I’m just gonna go.” He excused, his desire to help Kakashi earlier apparently being overshadowed by his desire to escape the current social interaction. Because above all loyalty, Tenzou was first and foremost an introvert.

“Go ahead,” Kakashi granted only somewhat amused by Tenzou’s awkwardness. If any of Kakashi’s own friends were there, they would’ve pointed out how Kakashi was by far the most socially awkward person alive. But they weren’t here so Kakashi just smiled and Tenzou rushed out of the room while Shisui and Itachi continued to talk. 

Not the worst plan. Kakashi thought as he too prepared to leave. Shisui and Itachi had all but forgotten everyone else as the two of them changed topics from missions to family in a matter of seconds so they didn’t even notice as Kakashi quietly slipped out. 

Kakashi was glad Itachi at least seemed to have one legitimate ally he trusted in his clan. He was a good kid who was unfortunately more than a little alienated due to his skills, something Kakashi could understand. With Uchiha tensions so high to begin with, it was good Shisui was looking out for him.

Too bad it was only a few months later that it no longer mattered.

Chapter Text

“Kakashi-Sensei!”

Kakashi paused at the booming shout of pure panic, clearly originating from somewhere beyond his office door as he carefully set down the form he had been signing.

The call raised alarms for several reasons.

The first was that no one -at least no normal person- would go around screaming in the Hokage’s mansion unless it was truly dire circumstances. And seeing as how he didn’t see the village burning down outside he safely assumed that wasn’t the case.

The second, and far more important, was that the voice had called him ‘Sensei’. Not ‘Lord 6th’, not ‘Hokage-sama’, ‘Sensei’. Which meant that the call was very likely from one of three people and seeing as how the person was attempting to single handedly break the sound barrier that meant it could actually only be one person-

“Good morning, Naruto,” Kakashi greeted pleasantly as his student nearly tore his doors out of the wall from the force he used throwing them open. 

“Kakashi-Sensei, it’s an emergency!” Naruto cried, bursting into the room as Kakashi’s security detail tried in vain to stop him. Kakashi did the kind thing and raised a hand to dismiss them before Naruto accidentally hurt them somehow.

“Sounds like it,” Kakashi agreed, carefully looking over his disheveled student. It was as he did this that he noticed Naruto hadn’t actually come alone. Held gently in his arms was none other than Himawari, Naruto’s precious 4-year-old daughter. Why on earth Naruto would have brought her here couldn’t possibly be a good thing. But Kakashi elected to ignore it for the moment as he continued. 

“It better be a pretty big one too for you to be coming in here like this when I’m only eight weeks away from finally retiring.” Kakashi was careful to make sure Naruto heard his not so thinly veiled threat without frightening Himawari. He succeeded if the way Naruto winced was any indication. 

Whatever crisis was happening, was only two months away from being entirely Naruto’s problem. Which meant it had better be life and death if it couldn’t wait and Kakashi had to deal with it when he was so close to being released from his Hokage shackles. Naruto knew good and well how long Kakashi had waited for this and the consequences that would occur if anything derailed it. Tragically, Naruto didn’t back down and instead nodded as he came towards his desk.

“It is,” Naruto readily assured and while Kakashi wasn’t sure if he believed it, he knew Naruto certainly did. He was sweating and pale with nerves, something that would have concerned Kakashi if it was anyone else. “You’re the only one that can save me.” ‘Me’, meaning whatever it was only put Naruto in danger. Which meant he more than likely did something stupid and didn’t know how to fix it. This is going to be a whole thing isn’t it? Kakashi thought as he sighed deeply in tired resignation.

“What happened?” Kakashi asked and Naruto practically sagged in relief at his silent agreement to help him. Naruto wasted no more time as he explained.

“Alright so you know how you haven’t been assigning me that many missions since I’m being inaugurated soon?” Naruto started and already Kakashi didn’t like this story.

“Yes…” 

“Well because of that Hinata’s been working some shifts at the hospital so I’ve been staying home with the kids.” Naruto rambled, pausing to shift Himawari to his other arm. The girl didn’t make a sound as he did which Kakashi absently noted as slightly odd for the talkative child. “Which has been going great! But then this morning I was making the kids breakfast while they were in the other room playing and I guess they started fighting and- well, um…”

“The point, Naruto?” Kakashi prompted when Naruto stalled for words.

“There was an…incident.” Naruto finally gave the incredibly ominous answer and Kakashi quirked a brow at him.

“An incident?” Kakashi was starting to get both annoyed and concerned at Naruto’s inability to just tell him what happened. Naruto sensed this and moved to gently set Himawari to stand on his desk.

“It’s easier to show you.” Naruto sighed and before Kakashi could question him, he reached up and plucked Himawari’s bucket hat from off her head. 

And for a moment, Kakashi just stared.

“… How?” Kakashi finally managed to say after almost a full minute. Out of all the things he was expecting, this was not on the list. 

“I only looked away a second!” Naruto instantly defended, immediately lowering his voice when Himawari flinched. “I ran to check on them when I heard them start arguing and when I got there they were fighting over some toy. I told them to stop, so Boruto let go and then Himawari fell into their crafts table and-“ Naruto stopped his rapid sputtering to take a breath. “And then that happened.” Naruto finished, gesturing to Himawari’s hair. And what a sight it was.

Paint. There was paint all over the little girl's head. Pinks, reds, blues, and all other kinds of colors created a chaotic rainbow through her once black hair. The paint also seemed to have hardened her hair to stick out in all kinds of gravity defying angles. It was an incredible sight. Himawari herself however looked one word away from crying and was refusing to look up from her shoes. 

“Did you try giving her a bath?” Was the only question that seemed to come out as Kakashi stared, unable to take his eyes off the colorful catastrophe. 

“Of course I did!” Naruto snapped, more than a little defensive. Kakashi didn’t feel bad. It was an extremely valid question considering he was talking to a kid who once thought shampoo was just a scam for soap companies to sell you more soap. “All it did was get it off her skin.” Naruto continued, stressfully using a hand to aimlessly fuss around the spikes that took the place of Himawari’s hair.

“After that, I dropped Boruto off with Sai and brought her here.” Kakashi was starting to feel slightly sympathetic at just how tired he sounded. “Well that is, after I finally got them to both stop crying.” Naruto said and Kakashi tore his eyes away from Himawari’s hair long enough to give him a look . 

“Both of them?” Kakashi could understand why Himawari would cry but not Boruto. Naruto however looked at him like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Hima was crying because it was sticky and Boruto was crying because he thought he hurt her.” Ah. He supposed that made sense. Kids were easily upset. Naruto then seemed to give up his pointless attempt at tidying Himawari’s hair to re-focus his eyes fully onto Kakashi. “So can you fix it so Hinata doesn’t kill me?” He was practically begging, clearly desperate. “Please?” Naruto tacked on and Kakashi just sighed again as he finally stood up. Fine. 

“Shikamaru!” Kakashi called out, Naruto flinching at the unexpected noise. 

“What are you-?” Naruto started to ask, looking vaguely betrayed but didn’t get to finish before Shikamaru came through the door.

“You called for me?“ Shikamaru asked as he walked into the room. He stopped dead in his tracks when he caught sight of the situation, his eyes zeroing in on abstract art currently adorning Himawari’s head. Immediately his mind drew a conclusion as he turned to his childhood friend. “What did you do?” Shikamaru asked, sounding for once completely lost. 

“Nothing!” Naruto defended in clear offense as he quickly pulled Himawari’s hat back onto her head. As if Shikamaru would forget what he just saw if it was covered. As if anyone could forget it.

“Shikamaru, you are to tell no one of what you saw here.” Kakashi ordered, ignoring them both as he moved out from around his desk. “I’m stepping out to take care of something, if anyone stops by while I’m gone, I want you to handle it.” That was apparently more than enough to distract Shikamaru from his Uzumaki related questions.

“Seriously?” Shikamaru groaned, sounding for all the world like he was an annoyed 12-year-old genin again. It made Kakashi smile beneath his mask. “You had three different meetings scheduled for today. What am I supposed to tell them when they ask where you went?” Shikamaru made an excellent point. Unfortunately for him, those meetings were a contributing factor for why Kakashi was willing to drop everything to assist Naruto right this second.

“You tell them that I’m away on official, but highly classified, village business.” Kakashi excused easily, waving off Shikamaru’s protests before he could voice them. He then gently moved a confused Naruto out of the way so he could very gently poke Himawari’s shoulder. She responded by very slowly glancing up at him through her eyelashes. Her cheeks were still red from when she had cried and that was enough to make Kakashi feel genuine sympathy. “Don’t worry, your dad can fix that right up.” Kakashi promised, hoping his years of practice at trying to reassure children would finally pay off. Thankfully for once it actually seemed to work as Himawari gave him a tiny smile.

“Really?” She asked hopefully, voice soft and Kakashi smiled at her with his eyes. 

“Of course,” Not. Is what Kakashi did not say. Obviously if Naruto could fix this himself he would have, but right now Himawari needed to believe he could so that’s what Kakashi told her. And believe it Himawari did as her tiny smile turned into a grin. Naruto didn’t hesitate to join in as he scooped her off the desk.

“Yeah, so cheer up, ok Hima?” Naruto said as he gently tossed her up and caught her again. He was rewarded by her light giggles as she hugged his neck. Shikamaru was not nearly as amused as he glared over at them as a whole.

“Come on,” Kakashi said as he moved towards the door. “We need to hurry if we want to keep this from Hinata.” The reminder of their impending deadline had Naruto all but running out of the room, Himawari in his arms. Kakashi was quick to follow, but not before saying one last thing.

“Seriously, if you tell anyone about this I’ll personally ensure you’re put solely in charge of the next Kage meeting and all of their horribly unreasonable demands.”

And with that final threat, Kakashi left.

“Alright, so this is worse than I thought.” Kakashi deadpanned as he stared at Naruto’s once white bath. It appeared that the first attempt at cleaning Himawari’s hair resulted in an array of colors staining the porcelain.

“I know!” Naruto hissed, keeping his voice down so as not to alarm his daughter who was waiting for them just beyond the door. “Somehow color kept coming out while still staying in.” Naruto’s voice grew more bewildered as the sentence went on and he just stared at the tub with empty eyes. 

Ok, so this is clearly a later issue. Kakashi thought as he moved past the stained bath for the moment. “Show me what you used to wash her hair the first time.” Kakashi instructed and Naruto nodded as he reached over and picked up a singular neon green bottle. Kakashi was already beginning to understand why this attempt failed. Kakashi took it from his student so he could read over the label and resisted a sigh.

“Naruto,” Kakashi started calmly as Naruto nervously watched him. 

“Yeah?”

“This is a three in one, no tears, children’s shampoo.” He deadpanned but Naruto didn’t seem to understand the clear issue with that.

“What’s wrong with it? It’s what we always use for the kids.” Naruto defended, sensing Kakashi’s silent judgement. Kakashi just rolled his eyes as he set the bottle down.

“Nothing, just show me what stuff Hinata uses.” Naruto gave him a dirty look, but still pointed up to the assortment of bottles neatly lined up on their shower caddy. Yeah those look expensive. Kakashi thought as he started shoving them into Naruto’s hands. 

“Uh, are you sure? I think Hinata has this stuff shipped from the Hyuga district and I don’t-“ Naruto started to protest but Kakashi just gave him a flat stare.

“What will upset Hinata more: that you used up some of her fancy hair products? Or that you let her daughter's hair turn into a crunchy Mohawk of cheap -but surprisingly durable- paint?” Naruto shut his mouth and took the shampoo. 

Roughly ten minutes and nearly half a bottle of conditioner later and Kakashi and Naruto were finally making progress.

“Exactly how much paint did you give your children?” Kakashi asked as even after the fifth wash the water still ran brown with the combination of colors. What is in this stuff? Kakashi had seen house paint that didn’t hold up as well as this. Whatever it was could not possibly be suitable for children’s use.

“It was a new set, alright? I didn’t think they even knew how to open them without help.” Naruto said, mumbling the last bit as his hands got caught on a particularly difficult clump of paint infused hair.

“Boruto can!” Himawari helpfully informed, shifting to look towards her dad and forcing him to move the sink’s hand nozzle back so as not to accidentally water board her with it. They currently had a bit of a precarious set up, Himawari sitting on some books stacked on a kitchen chair that was then carefully balanced back so that her head could rest against the edge of the sink while they both scrubbed away at her scalp.

“Hold still, baby,” Naruto instructed, gently tipping Himawari’s head back up. “We’re almost done.” Kakashi wasn’t so sure about that but he didn’t contest it as he put some more shampoo into her hair for Naruto to rinse out while Kakashi combed through it.

Kakashi just about cheered when the water finally ran clear.

“Start drying her hair.” Kakashi ordered, shutting off the water as Naruto helped Himawari sit back up. Once she was, Naruto used the towel wrapped around her shoulders to start patting at her hair. Kakashi instead chose to focus on the sink, flipping the water back on to full heat to wash away any remaining color in the sink. He wanted to prevent it meeting the same fate as the tub if possible.

“Did we get it all?” Naruto asked after a moment, slowly moving the towel away from Himawari’s still damp head. Kakashi made quick work of his task so he could return his attention to the two Uzumaki. When he did, he took a moment to closely examine the little girl's hair.

“Hm, not quite,” Kakashi regrettably revealed, carefully moving his hand through Himawari’s hair to show Naruto the three spots of clear red that still remained. Something about the pigment was stronger than the others and had managed to stain like a dye. Thankfully it seemed to only be on the very ends of only a few pieces near the nap of her neck. “It’s alright, I can trim it off and no one will even be able to tell.” Kakashi promised and Naruto looked relieved as he nodded. “Just get me some scissors.” The moment the word left his mouth, Himawari suddenly sat up with full attention.

“Scissors?” She repeated, pronouncing the word slightly off as she stumbled over the double ‘s’. She looked fearfully at her dad as he moved to go grab the requested item, patting Himawari’s head reassuringly as he did. A habit Kakashi feared may have been inherited from him. “You gonna cut it?” Himawari asked as Naruto returned, handing the nicest pair of scissors they had to Kakashi.

“Only a little,” Kakashi answered, too busy examining the stains to realize how her lip wobbled. “But you won’t-“ Before Kakashi could finish his sentence with ‘notice’, Himawari did something unexpected.

Which is to say she promptly started to bawl. 

Instantly Kakashi became panicked, taking a large step back from the screaming child as Naruto rushed to pick her up.

“Hima, what’s wrong?” Naruto asked kindly, gently bouncing her up and down in an attempt to soothe her. She didn’t answer beyond an array of hysterical babble that didn’t even resemble real words. Despite this Naruto still looked back towards Kakashi with understanding. “She said she doesn’t want it cut.” He explained and Kakashi found himself raising a brow.

“Did she?” Kakashi asked skeptically and Naruto gave him a glare for the comment. He opened his mouth like he wanted to expand on how Kakashi’s input was making him feel at the moment but wasn’t given the chance before Himawari strung out another incomprehensible sentence.

“She says it’ll make her look ugly.” Naruto translated once again and Kakashi was only 75% sure he wasn’t just completely making things up. Regardless, they had a problem if they couldn’t get her to calm down. “You could never look ugly, Himawari.” Naruto corrected first but it seemed to fall on deaf ears as she continued to sob. If this continues, Hinata will come home before we’re done.

Now Kakashi was not afraid of the sweet Hyuga that his student had married, but even a revered shinobi like himself knew to be wary of a protective mother. And with Himawari crying as she was, he feared Hinata may come to the terrible conclusion Kakashi was somehow to blame.

“What if I promise to make it pretty?” Kakashi voiced the question before his brain fully caught up with his mouth. There was a hitch to Himawari’s cries as she very slowly pulled her face from her Dad’s shirt, hiccuping as she struggled to look at him. I got her attention. Kakashi noted, smart enough to know he wouldn’t have it long he continued. “I’ll trim the red bits off and then braid it into a crown.” Kakashi wasn’t entirely sure where the idea came from, but he was grateful for it nonetheless.

“A crown?” Himawari repeated, a tiny fist coming up to rub her still wet eyes. Kakashi knew all it would take is one poorly chosen word to set her off again. Naruto was also staring at him with shocked curiosity. Obviously his student hadn’t expected Kakashi’s offer.

“Well a braid crown, but yes.” Kakashi confirmed, not wanting her to get the wrong idea. He had a feeling the kind of crown she was thinking of was not possible to create out of hair, at least not hair as short as hers. She still seemed interested as her tears finally slowed.

“…ok” She finally gave the quiet permission and Naruto was quick to reassure her.

“Sensei’s never done a bad braid.” Naruto tried to reassure, giving his daughter a bright smile. “Trust me, you’ll love it.” He promised putting more pressure on Kakashi which he felt was unfair. 

Still Kakashi picked up the scissors and trimmed the few little stained red bits out of Himawari’s hair. She flinched when she heard him snip the scissors but with Naruto holding her hand she thankfully stayed still. Kakashi then grabbed one of the many combs they had set out and gently brushed out her hair looking for any remaining spots he missed. There were none. Which meant all he had to do was make Himawari’s hair look suitably done so she would be happy and he could leave.

He delicately began gathering the hair near the nape of her neck, pulling it all together as he started forming a braid that wrapped around the bottom part of her head. It took him a minute and several bobby pins but eventually he had it secured in place. It looked good enough so Kakashi stepped back from the girl with a smile.

“All done,” He announced as Naruto quickly lifted Himawari up and into his arms.

“You look great, Hima-chan!” Naruto told her earnestly and she gave a tiny smile as he hands touched her head. 

“Really? I wanna see!” Himawari asked and Naruto looked at Kakashi who sighed but gestured for him to follow him back to the bathroom. Once they got there Kakashi picked up a hand mirror when they got there and angled it to show the reflection of the mirror on the wall above the sink, giving Himawari a full view of her hair. 

Kakashi watched as her little hands felt around her head with a toothy little grin. She was truly an adorable child. Which considering how Naruto and Hinata looked as kids is no surprise. Naruto looked visibly relieved when Himawari smiled at him. 

“I like it!” She chirped happily and Naruto smiled right back as he gently set Himawari on the ground and cast a look towards the still stained tub. He winced.

“What do we do about that?” Naruto whispered to Kakashi like Hinata would suddenly appear out of thing air. Himawari was now skipping out the hall and down towards her room saying something about getting her tiara. Kakashi sighed as he looked at the stained mess of a bath.

“You take Himawari and go pick up Boruto.” Kakashi started as first and foremost Naruto needed to go get Boruto before Hinata got home. “I’ll take care of the tub and any paint stains left in the kids room.” 

“Are you sure Sensei? I mean, it’s a lot -“ 

“I can handle it.” Kakashi interrupted Naruto’s half formed concern and placed a comforting hand on his student's shoulder. “Go get your daughter before she gets into more paint, and then go pick up your son.” Naruto opened his mouth, then paled as he just remembered his 4-year-old daughter did just run down the hall unsupervised. He promptly ran out with a curse and a “Thanks, Sensei!” called behind him.

Kakashi huffed a small laugh as he turned back to the slightly black tub with a few vibrant colors mixed in. 

Hopefully Hinata is out late. 

Four and a half hours later, Kakashi had finally purged all the paint from every surface in the house. The tub was actually almost suspiciously white.

Naruto had come back with Boruto and Himawari and both kids were happy, clean, and blissfully free of unnatural colors.

Naruto was anxiously getting the kids ready for bed while Kakashi made them dinner. Mostly because Kakashi felt a little bad for using all of Hinata’s fancy hair products and was hoping this would be a bit of a peace offering. 

When Hinata did finally come home, she was just tired enough from working at the hospital to not question it too much when Kakashi waved at her from her own kitchen.

“Welcome home, Hinata-chan.” Kakashi said casually as he finished stirring the ramen he made. It may be a tad simple but it’s not his fault that’s the only dish he knows for sure his student likes. 

“Oh, hello Kakashi-Sensei,” Hinata greeted politely, slight confusion creasing her brows. “I didn’t know you would be visiting today.” Neither did I, yet here I am. Kakashi thought but didn’t say.

“Ah, well I was taking care of some business nearby and thought I’d visit some of my favorite students.” Kakashi lied as Naruto and the kids emerged and quickly ran to greet Hinata with a much louder “Welcome Home!” than Kakashi was ever capable of giving.

“How was your day?” Naruto asked as he pulled away from the hug he had pulled her into. 

“It was busy, but I got to have lunch with Sakura so that was nice.” Hinata said with a smile, bending down to hug Boruto and Himawari also. 

“I got to see Uncle Sai and play with Inojin!” Boruto beamed as he spoke entirely unprompted. Hinata didn’t seem too suspicious of that thankfully as she kissed Boruto’s head. 

“That’s great, baby,” Hinata paused to pick Himawari off the ground as she straightened back up. It’s when she did this that she seemed to finally notice her hair. “Hm? Himawari, who did your hair?” Hinata asked, the hand not supporting her daughter reaching up to gently feel Himawari’s hairdo. Himawari giggled as she shook her head back and forth to show it off.

“The Hokage did!” Himawari said with a helpful point in Kakashi’s direction. Hinata’s eyes snapped over to him in an instant and Kakashi very carefully kept a straight face as he gave an easy smile.

“I had some time to kill.” Kakashi excused with a calculated shrug. Hinata’s eyes scanned him for a moment and Kakashi swore she could see through him even if the byakugan wasn’t active. 

“Do you like it?” Himawari asked unintentionally saving Kakashi from further explaining. Hinata’s smile returned immediately as she looked back at her daughter and nodded.

“Of course I do, you look beautiful.” Hinata said honestly and it made Himawari beam. Naruto was quick to wrap an arm around his wife back and start guiding her towards the kitchen while Boruto went on about a story.

Kakashi was perfectly content to wait approximately 22 more minutes before making his polite escape right before Hinata noticed her empty shampoo bottles stacked in the trash.

Chapter Text

“This had better be important.” 

That was how Kakashi chose to start this particular conversation as he glared tired eyes at his old student. Sakura in return gave him a strained sheepish smile. 

Now this is what some might consider a very hostile way to start a conversation.

And to that Kakashi would say good. 

Because right now it was five in the morning, otherwise known as why-am-I-conscious-o’clock and Kakashi felt like death from being up the last two nights. So hostility is appropriate. Naruto had officially been inaugurated as Hokage exactly three days, eight hours, and forty-seven minutes ago. And somehow, Kakashi is still getting called all hours of the night. By Naruto, by Shikamaru, by Shizune, and now by Sakura.

“We really appreciate you coming, Sensei.” Sakura emphasized as she quickly ushered Kakashi inside. Kakashi went with a long suffering sigh.

“Just tell me what emergency you called me for.” Kakashi was sure his voice sounded just as exhausted as he felt. Sakura nodded and led him down the hall and to the kitchen where a messy haired Sarada was sitting in a chair with an impressive pout. But what drew Kakashi’s attention more was Sasuke who was standing off to the side with a scowl to match. 

Well that can’t be great. Kakashi thought as Sakura came to stand beside her husband and daughter. Sasuke sent him a look as he used his hand to uselessly try and smooth out a tuft of Sarada’s hair. It didn’t help. Sasuke’s fingers just got stuck in the mess too.

“I told you we don’t need his help, Sakura.” Sasuke grumbled the moment he laid eyes on Kakashi even as he struggled to untangle his fingers from Sarada’s hair. Sakura rolled her eyes as she reached absent hands to her daughter's hair, gently trying to smooth it out and failing. She did succeed in freeing Sasuke though which was something.

“And I told you I was getting him anyway.” Sakura snapped back as she gave up on Sarada’s hair and instead just rested her hands on her child’s little shoulders. Sarada in turn tilted her head and gave Kakashi a curious stare. It was strangely suspicious and it reminded Kakashi far too much of a 12-year-old Uchiha genin. 

They really did used to be so cute. Kakashi thought mournfully as he sighed and looked at his once-precious-now-monstrous students.

“What exactly did you two need from me?” Kakashi asked rather than address the little girl giving him the stink eye. Suddenly Sakura seemed sheepish and Sasuke…embarrassed? Kakashi didn’t often get to see Sasuke with such an expression nowadays. It took very specific things to embarrass Sasuke.

“Well, yesterday we were both showing Sarada some old photo albums.” Sakura started casually enough. “Mostly just some pictures from our genin days.” Sakura continued, as she stepped away to grab a worn photo album from the counter, clearly placed there earlier. She flipped it open and laid it on the table in front of Sarada’s seat. The page she left it on showed a couple pictures. Most just normal everyday moments from their rookie days.

Team 7 having lunch with Team 10, Team 7 at a festival over in the land of Tea, etc. but in the top corner was a photo of Team 7 simply having a break after a training session. Kakashi can tell they’re at training ground 3, the four of them are just sitting on the grass, water bottles and food around them. Kakashi saw nothing of interest or note about any of them.

“And?” Kakashi prompted when Sakura hesitated in finishing her words. Sakura rubbed the back of her neck absently as she pointed to the picture of them in the training grounds. Specifically, Sakura was pointing to herself.

“She saw my hair and wanted it done on herself. See, we were going to get a family photo taken today and she really wants to look her best.” Sakura explained and now that Kakashi looked closer he could see Sakura’s hair was up in the photo. It was just after the Chunin examine but before Sasuke left the village so Sakura’s hair was pretty short but still Kakashi had managed to twist a little braid into her hair. So Sarada saw this old picture and wanted her hair braided? Kakashi supposed that made sense. Sarada’s a little girl. Little girls like things they think make them look pretty, at least from what Kakashi understands. What didn’t make sense is why they called him.

“Anyways, we were sorta hoping since you’re the one who did it for me if you’d consider doing it for Sarada?” Sakura finally asked and Kakashi found his eyebrows meeting his hairline.

They called me this early for braids?

“Alright, I can see why you would need my help,” Kakashi said as he gestured to Sakura. Sakura couldn’t do a braid to save her life. Kakashi had tried to show her multiple times and it only ever ended in truly impressive knots. He determined it was in everyone’s best interest that Sakura just stop trying after he had to cut a chunk out of Naruto’s hair after one of Sakura’s botched attempts. “But you should be able to do it just fine, Sasuke. I literally taught you.” Sakura may be a lost cause but Sasuke had actually done quite well. He picked it up fast and he and Naruto had practiced on Sakura often. There’s no way Sasuke forgot how, he had used the Sharingan to learn in the first place(though that had been more so he could learn it faster and one up Naruto).

Sasuke gave him a scathing glare as the faintest of blushes dusted his cheeks.

“Everything you taught me was back when I had two working hands.” Sasuke snapped impatiently. “I’d like to see you do it one handed.” Sasuke huffed and Kakashi paused and thought it over.

“Fair enough.” Kakashi eventually conceded with a loose shrug as he stepped over to the youngest Uchiha. He supposed it would be very difficult to do most braids with only one functional hand, his non dominant one at that, though Sasuke had pretty much trained his right hand to do everything sufficiently at this point.

Sasuke still grumbled but he and Sakura both moved to the side as Kakashi gave a friendly smile to Sarada. 

“Hello,” Kakashi started politely, giving a small wave as he stopped just beside her chair. Sarada blinked at him and Kakashi swore she sized him up and down before she spoke.

“Hi.” Sarada greeted simply and while she didn’t smile she also didn’t scowl which Kakashi had half been expecting. It’s what Sasuke would have done. Then again Sakura would have given him a polite smile so he supposed this was the middle ground. “Mama said you’re the one who did it?” Sarada asked carefully, pointing at the picture and Kakashi gave his best smile with his eyes.

“Yes. Would you like me to do yours?” Kakashi asked bluntly, not wanting to drag this out more than necessary. He wanted to go home and sleep as soon as possible. Hypothetically he could leave now, but he was already here and he wasn’t fond of the idea of upsetting Sarada and in turn angering her terrifying mother. Sarada finally gave him a tiny smile as she nodded shyly. 

“Yes, please,” She spoke softly and Kakashi found his irritation all but gone. She really was precious. Then again, she was 6-years-old(basically 7 if you asked her) so of course most of what she did was adorable. 

“I’ll need a hairbrush and some hairpins.” Kakashi directed at Sasuke and Sakura as he gently began untangling Sarada’s short hair with his fingers. She held still better than Himawari had, not squirming as Kakashi worked. 

“Sure thing!” Sakura quickly agreed, running out to go and get the requested items. Sasuke huffed like he was greatly inconvenienced by the world as he leaned against the counter and watched Kakashi.

“Will it take long?” Sarada asked, tilting her head back a little to look at Kakashi through her bangs. Kakashi gently angled her head straight again as he spoke.

“No. It’ll only take a couple minutes.” Kakashi answered as Sakura returned with a hairbrush, a comb, and some hair clips. “Please hold still for just a bit and let me know if I pull too hard.” Kakashi instructed her as he took the brush and began carefully parting her hair. She did as asked and Sasuke continued to glare at him the entire time. Kakashi imagined the Uchiha was rather annoyed that he couldn’t fulfill his daughter's request himself, especially since he had the knowledge of how, just not the hands.

Kakashi allowed for Sakura’s pleasant small talk about the hospital or playdates to fill the quiet as he began braiding a tiny section of hair across the side of Sarada’s head, Sasuke giving an occasional grunt when his wife directed the conversation his way but for the most part was silent. 

Sarada’s hair was quite short so it hardly took Kakashi any time at all as he quickly grabbed one of the little hair clips Sakura brought(this one was white with what looked like a little sakura blossom on it)and snapped it into place so it it held the hair neatly up. Kakashi had her bangs out and pinned it to wear it went up above her ear and halfway behind her head. It was simple, but it was cute which he hoped would satisfy the little one.

“All done,” Kakashi announced and near immediately the little girl hopped off the chair and skipped out of the room. Kakashi was left standing there confused as Sakura huffed a laugh and followed after her, Sasuke following much slower. Kakashi followed if only so he wasn’t left in the kitchen alone.

Apparently, Sarada had run off to her room where a pretty little mirror stood atop her tiny desk. Everything in the room was so…small. It pulled at Kakashi’s insides. At her age I had already graduated from the academy and was applying for the Chunin exam. Kakashi thought as he watched Sarada examine her hair carefully in the mirror. Kakashi was glad children no longer had to rush to grow up like he had been forced to. Sarada’s generation was one born into a time of peace and Kakashi intended to do everything in his power to keep it that way.

“Do you like it?” Sakura asked as she came to stand behind Sarada. Sarada prodded the braid a second more before nodding.

“Yes,” She spoke simply before turning to look straight at Kakashi and give the tiniest smile that made Kakashi’s heart melt. “Thank you, Hokage-sama.” Kakashi was pretty sure he had never once heard his title said with such a tiny little voice. He didn’t bother correcting that he wasn’t actually the Hokage anymore. He was willing to let it go just this once as he smiled at her kindly.

“No problem at all, Sarada-chan.” Kakashi said easily even though he had been mentally bemoaning how much of a problem it was less than an hour ago and Sarada’s little grin grew as she got back and rushed back to her father, instantly pulling at Sasuke’s arm. The action took Sasuke by slight surprise as he stumbled half a step towards her with a grunt.

“Daddy, we have to go get our picture taken now!” Sarada declared eagerly, Sasuke sighing as he allowed Sarada’s hand to wrap around his. To think this kid was ever considered an enemy of the state. Honestly, watching him allow a tiny little girl to yank and pull at him one would never know he was once a technical member of a technical terrorist group however briefly.

Time really does change a lot. 

“Thank you so much for your help, Sensei.” Sakura interrupted Kakashi’s thoughts and Kakashi waved her off easily. He’d been getting countless calls to handle all manner of different village crises or council bickering for days so really a little thing like this was a welcome reprieve.

“Mah, it was nothing.” Kakashi shrugged, smiling beneath his mask as Sasuke finally caved and reached down to scoop his daughter up one handed. She laughed in response, throwing her arms around his neck to stabilize herself.

“We should go before it gets busy.” Sasuke said, clearly wishing to end this interaction and pretend it never happened in the first place. BecauseThe First forbid that Sasuke Uchiha ever ask his Sensei for something. Normal things really. 

Sakura gave him a dirty look but Kakashi only rolled his eyes and obliged as he gave Sakura a polite bow of his head.

“I should be going anyways.” To bed. I should be going to bed. “I hope you three can get a nice picture.” He was sure they would. Sakura was naturally photogenic, Sarada was adorable, and Sasuke looked the same no matter what so they were basically guaranteed a good portrait. 

“We will,” Sakura said, eyes bright as she returned his bow and began walking Kakashi to the door. “Thank you again Sensei, it was nice being able to see you even though it’s early.” Sakura continued and Kakashi found he couldn’t be too annoyed at the early wake up call when she put it like that. 

“Don’t mention it.” Kakashi waved her off once again, but this time he gave her head a quick pat as he passed. She didn’t even bat him away as he left. “I’ll see you all soon, I hope?” He checked and Sakura was quick to nod.

“Yes, Naruto and I were trying to plan a team dinner sometime soon to celebrate his inauguration.” Sakura confirmed, glancing briefly at Sasuke. Her eyes held warning. Sasuke wisely didn’t contest it as he gave a single nod.

“I’ll be in town another few days.” Sasuke said which was as close as ‘yes, I’ll see you soon’ as Sasuke was capable of giving. Sarada in turn seemed thrilled by this statement as she smiled and hugged her father tighter. Sasuke allowed it easily and Kakashi swore he saw his eyes soften in real time. Kakashi smiled at the little family one last time before he finally left with a small wave and promises to see one another soon.

Words could never express how happy having all his precious students back together once more made him and he could only hope it always stayed that way.