Chapter Text
A distinct numbness gave way to a pull.
The pull felt, in a way, familiar, similar to his Limitless yet also in a way distinctly different. More importantly, the distinct numbness, the feeling brought on by being locked away, placed into some stasis, melted away, his ears hearing it shatter before he found himself ending up somewhere new.
Satoru found himself in a place he knew he couldn’t get to without his Limitless, to which his mind jumped to the familiar pull of his Min-chan’s teleportation technique, remembering the excitement in the child’s sparkling eyes at his attempt at mimicking his good old Uncle Sato’s Limitless technique.
It was genuinely lovely to experience his powers from another person’s perspective, particularly that of a young child. However, he did explain to Min-chan that there was a definite difference between his Limitless technique, only to congratulate a crest fallen child on managing to create something not only better, something that had been thought to be lost.
“I’m so proud to be a member of the Hatake clan in this lifetime instead of a Gojo,” he thought to himself as he said, “Huh. That felt like Min-chan’s…”
He’d been in the cave, surveying the place, taking everything in, Rikugan looking up yet seeing everything, that he was somehow trapped in a cave with three small brats, two of whom stared at him in a wide-eyed manner that disinterested him. At the same time, he was entirely and utterly interested in the child vomiting onto the cave floor that he totally wasn’t trying to give some space to and totally wasn’t trying to ignore the embarrassment of.
Except said child didn’t have the same common decency to give him some personal space, coming flying at him with a kunai in his hand, killing intent clearly there, and a growl that—
“I definitely love being a Hatake,” Gojo cleared in his head, grabbing the child’s wrist as the Hatake baby with his same ability for some strange reason failed to penetrate his Limitless. Only, there was one part he didn’t like. “Eww. Why is it the baby Hatake’s puke got through, of all things?”
One of the other children gasped out, “Who?”
“Haven’t you kids heard of Konoha’s Blue Eyed Demon? Huh. Interesting.” Only, he didn’t have time to think of that at all as Baby Hatake’s own Limitless decided to kick in, throwing them away from each other. He heard the distinct snapping of bones, and not his own, which made him worry about his baby Hatake, but he was determined to claim the poor pup regardless of what anybody said.
But—
“Kid. Your use of Limitless. Ugh.”
“Hatake-san?” The girl tried to be polite, deciding he was the best person to ask questions of, which was rather wise given the hole in the cave ceiling he and baby Hatake had managed with their clash of Limitless.
“Hatake-san?
“Hatake-san? Kakashi’s the only Hatake?”
So now he knew his baby Hatake’s name, but didn’t get a chance to think about that much when there was an obvious enemy outside of the cave that he needed to take care of, so without hesitation, he popped up using his limitless power, and he didn't hesitate.
In his previous life, he held back, but in this life—
In this life, he got to use his powers to protect the things he cared about, shit be damned, and people feared him in a very different way, a way that he’d managed to make a name for himself once he got going as a shinobi, so much so that part of the reason he was sealed away wherever he’d been—
And they definitely recognized him, the Blue-Eyed Demon of Konoha, who was in other nations’ books as “flee on sight,” not that ever did anybody any good, as he took each one out with ease, though—
“A bit rusty,” he said, returning to the children, seeing the boy still on the ground, shaking while the two children stared in awe at the power of the limitless.
Which he used without hesitation to toss the obnoxious little boy who looked to be of the good old stick-in-the-mud Uchih clan up and out of the hole, which resulted in a grumble from the child and some mild cursing while the girl—
He waved, giving her his best disarming smile, and lifted her far more gently, setting her on his shoulder temporarily while he waited for the Uchiha brat to peer down. Then he used Limitless far more gently in a way that resulted in the boy panicking amusingly as he reached out to grab the girl’s hand.
“Rin!” the boy called out, not that Gojo had any plans to remember the girl’s name despite the way she looked down at his baby Hatake in worry, only to nod her head and use the Uchiha brat as a ladder for getting out, leaving the baby Hatake with him, which—
More vomit, with the adorable thing passing out in his arms as he left through the hole in the roof, cradling him. Nor did he expect another kunai to try to breach his Limitless, though he figured the person in question got so close so fast and with such ease—
“Baby Hatake’s got one of Min-chan’s seals on him, but that burst of limitless might has sent Chakra through it, huh?”
“Sensei!” Obito called out.
Min-chan stiffened, then, “Sato-san?”
“Not…”
“Kakashi!”
“Maybe now isn’t the time to tease Min-chan?” Satoru thought to himself, allowing Minato to take his baby Hatake away as he grinned ear to ear. “Well, nice to see you again, too, Min-chan!”
“Sensei,” the little girl said.
Mentally, Satoru frowned. “Right. Min-chan must be these kids' Jonen sensei, but then why wasn’t he with the brats?”
“Everyone grab onto me, so we can get to a safe place to regroup,” Minato said, resulting in the two brats latching onto his sides and Satoru reaching out to grab Minato’s sleeve, resulting in a squack from the Uchiha brat.
They landed in a clearing, near some large rocks, where Minato gently set Kakashi down. “Rin?”
“Got it!” Rin said, using…
One of Satoru’s eyebrows went up. “Oh. So maybe your name is worth remembering. Medical ninjitsu at your young age? Impressive, child. Definitely worthy of my baby Hatake’s team.”
The Uchiha brat, though, was useless, just standing there with his arms crossed, glaring at him.
Satoru decided to glare back, lifting the cloth covering his eyes to do so, which resulted in a very startled gasp.
“Sensei. I’m not sure what…” Then Rin stopped. “Does Sato-san know?”
“What?” Minato asked, then turned. “Sato! What did you do?”
“Our…”
“About Kakashi’s kekkai genkai?”
“His what?” Minato squacked out, and then—
The poor kid, the Hatake bastard, was opening up baby Hatake’s eyes, looking horrified.
“Hey. Didn’t Sa…” Satoru tried asking.
Only, Minato held up his hand. “Not another word, Satoru. You and I? We’ll talk about the state of the Hatake clan later. Got it.”
Which of course didn’t sound good, but then, neither did baby Hatake having a kekkai genkai that was supposed to be so rare that there was no way Sakumo could have known another Hatake child would end up with the kekkai genkai.
“Minato’s eyes show glimmers of it,” Satoru thought to himself. “As do some other pups, but they never awaken the actual thing. Their eyes are just special. Wonder what would have happened had you actually awoken Rikugan. Would they have accepted you as different, born out of wedlock, as you were a child?”
Not that Minato wasn’t accepted, but who his actual parents were—that was kept under lock and key, let it come back to bite the pup later on.
But then maybe—
“Sensei? Who is he?”
“Never mind that,” Gojo said, frowning, asking the question that had really bothered him. “What’s a jonen sensei doing so far away from his baby chicks, Min-chan?”
This earned him a definite glare from Minato, who wasn’t his cute, adorable Min-chan anymore, making Gojo wonder how much time had passed. “These two are Chunnin, and Kakashi is Jonen.”
“How is that any of his business?”
Gojo let out an irritated sound at the Uchiha brat’s word. Rin frowned. “How should we proceed, sensei?”
“It’s for Kakashi to decide when he comes too, Rin.”
“Who cares about a stupid bridge!” the Uchiha brat finally decided to be useful.
Rin frowned, while Minato looked at him. “A stupid bridge? A stupid bridge, our enemies can bring their supplies across, Obito.”
“I don’t think Kakashi should continue,” Rin said, moving to splint his wrist, startling Minato. “So I’ll try to convince him to let you, me, and Obito go there while he stays with Hatake-san.”
Minato didn’t look happy. “What are his injuries?”
“There’s the kekkai genkai,” Rin said. “Bruised ribs and elbow, while his wrist on the other side…” She frowned. “The next best thing to convincing him is making sure it’s properly splinted, because…”
“Stupid Bakaashi.”
“Not nice,” Satoru chirped, hands in pocket, but from the sounds of things and the look on Minato’s face. “Damn, kid is stubborn and will work right through it.” He looked around. “There’s nothing Minato can do as he’s not exactly in charge, the kid is, though if the kid is as overwhelmed by Rikugan and Limitless…”
So he decided. It was a simple matter, given that he knew the lay of the land, could figure out what bridge they were talking about, be there, destroy the bridge, and return before anyone knew.
Except that Minato noticed.
He’d returned in time to hear Rin telling Minato there was a limit to what she could do to heal the boy’s wrist, making Satoru glad he’d gone ahead and finished the mission, because who said finding long-lost Hatake to finish one’s first Jonen mission was against the rules?
And things looked headed in the right direction, only for his baby Hatake to wake up screaming, on top of Minato being distant in a way that made Satoru uncomfortable. The screaming—that was even out of poor little Rin’s depth, but as Minato and Rin both thought—
“The mission…”
“Done and dusted,” because there was absolutely no way he was letting his baby Hatake, the one person within his lifetime to have the same power as he, go and do something stupid, as he knew he himself was prone to do.
The Uchiha brat really didn’t like him, and Minato didn’t like the fact that Satoru took charge, but, “You know I can get there faster than your hi-jindo-sei,” and he left, leaving Minato glaring at the nickname.