Chapter Text
The Third Shinobi War had taken countless lives across it’s timespan, Kakashi had experienced the loss of war first-hand. It had been brutal, with the death of his father and the death of his beloved teammate Obito Uchiha, but Kakashi had been determined to revise everything he’d ever known and believed after Kannabi Bridge, Obito’s dying words striking something deep within his chest.
Minato-sensei had recently been inaugurated as Hokage, and his first declaration was that he would do everything in his power to end this war, which is why Kakashi and Rin had been deployed to destroy some cargo on the border of the Land of Water.
It had gone wrong.
Kakashi had noticed too late how the enemy Kiri shinobi herded them into a clearing. They had swarmed Kakashi, overwhelmed him, and he could do nothing when they grabbed Rin and took off. Kakashi had managed to take down 5 Kiri shinobi, but it wasn’t enough.
It was never enough.
Kakashi had searched and searched for Rin, summoning his ninken to track the girl, but all his leads led to naught. The last time Kakashi felt this helpless was when he failed to save—
When Obito sacrificed himself.
He knew deep down that he had to leave, stop this tirade. He had to complete the mission, but he made a promise to Obito before he died and Kakashi felt vile at being unable to keep it. He was running dangerously low on chakra, but he didn’t, couldn’t think of anything other than finding and saving Rin.
He gathered with his ninken at the centre of a giant clearing, tears threatening to spill at his pathetic display of tracking. “Bull, check the perimeter again. It’s impossible that they’d have taken her so far in such a short amount of time. Urushi, I want you to retrace our steps, find at least something- a new lead- anything!” Kakashi barked out, his orders second nature to him. “Pakkun, follow the most potent scent and the rest of you please try to do something!”
The small pug, Pakkun, regarded Kakashi with a forlorn look. “Boss, we’ve been at this for ages, we’ve ran every lead to its end. We aren’t gonna find her.”
His other ninken perked up with their own sympathies, sad eyes gazing up at him, Kakashi could almost scream at his own helplessness. He fell back into a sitting position and tugged at his hair in a panic. The sheer emotion was overwhelming him, the talking was too much, the scents were too much, everything was too much. A wretched sob escaped his lips and Kakashi felt his ninken climb around him, trying to give the panicked boy at least some semblance of comfort.
It had taken 1 hour and 47 minutes (yes Kakashi had counted) for Rin to make her reappearance. A shrill scream in the distance, followed by a yell of his name. Kakashi shot up from his place on the floor where he had been sitting, trying not to give in to his depression for the past hour.
The Kiri shinobi revealed themselves first, two dozen of them jumping from the trees and entering the clearing. Kakashi didn’t think, he moved. Slicing through the Kiri shinobi was laughably easy; saving Rin was his top priority, but he knew that right now he had to focus on conserving as much chakra as possible.
He focused on taijutsu and kenjutsu to preserve his rapidly dwindling chakra pool, meeting the Kiri nin’s swords with his own tanto and fists. They weren’t high rank, as was evident by their sloppy movements, but their sheer numbers made up for their lack of skill. The prodigy quickly found himself overwhelmed by the amount of them.
Three nin to his left, two to his right, one in front of him with another quickly approaching. Kakashi quickly jumped back and made the hand seals for the signature Uchiha fireball technique with haste. The Kiri nin had no time to react to the release of the technique, six of them burning to a crisp with a scream of agony. Kakashi almost lost his balance from the drainage of chakra, his vision a blur.
It was then Rin broke through the trees and sprinted into the clearing. From where Kakashi stood, his sharingan could see the tear tracks down her face, dozens of Kiri shinobi following hastily behind her. She looked at him, her face crumpling into what Kakashi believed was relief, and swerved herself towards him with all her might.
It might have been the worst time then, for a Kiri shinobi to jump forwards, blade in hand. He was aiming to kill but fortunately, the man overextended, and Kakashi lit his Chidori.
Then in the corner of his peripheral, he saw her. With a scream, Rin prepared herself to jump in front of his Chidori, relief and resignation coating her features.
Kakashi panicked. With a gasp, he drove his Chidori to the ground.
And Rin ran right past him.
His mind was whirling a million miles a minute. Why would Rin try to jump in front of his technique? Why was Rin running faster than he had ever seen before? Why was Rin running away from him? Why was Rin leaving him—
The squelch of a sword impaled his chest. Ah, he had forgotten about the battle.
His Chidori fizzled out, and Kakashi coughed in a daze. He stumbled, and distantly he heard a cry of pure despair. Everything burned, his chest, his chakra, and most importantly, his sharingan eye.
Kakashi hit the floor and promptly fell unconscious.
—
“ashi… Kakashi? Are you awake?”
Kakashi’s eyes blinked open blearily, a blob of yellow dancing around his vision.
Minato-sensei—
The mission, he failed. Rin.
Where was Rin?
Kakashi choked on a sob, raspy voice coughing out, “I failed the mission. Minato-sensei, I failed-”
“Don’t worry about that right now, Kakashi. Can you tell me what you remember?”
“I don’t know. I- I don’t-”
Minato-sensei suddenly took him into an embrace. “Shh, it’s okay. You want me to explain what happened?” Kakashi nodded. “Your mission was somehow leaked to the enemy villages, Kiri took Rin. They- they sealed the three-tails inside of her, it was rampaging on the village for an hour. I’m sorry Kakashi, she didn’t make it.”
There was a brief pause, silence filling the room. The air was tense, thick with grief, and then the dam that the silver-haired boy had carefully built up broke. Kakashi sobbed, clutching at his teacher like he was his lifeline. Minato-sensei whispered reassurances, but it didn’t help, nothing would help.
“A mysterious shinobi brought you here, he had a sharingan pattern I didn’t recognise. He demanded the nurses save you. Do you know who it was?”
“N-no-”
“It’s okay, you don’t have to answer any more questions, it’ll be okay.”
As it turns out, Rin had been kidnapped by Kiri to turn her into a nuclear bomb on Konoha, in an effort to weaken them during the climax of the war. She had three seals on her:
The Four Symbols Seal - a fuuinjutsu that sealed the tailed beast inside Rin, it was purposefully weak, missing important components ensuring that the tailed beast could escape. There was an additional time component added onto the Four Symbols Seal that Kushina had assumed was the countdown for the release of the beast.
A Cursed Heart Seal - a fuuinjutsu on Rin’s heart that completely prevented her from doing anything but the will of the seal, which in this case, was running directly towards Konoha.
A Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal – a fuuinjutsu to prevented Rin from being able to speak of the seals that had been painted on her body.
After Kakashi had avoided killing Rin, she had run to Konoha against her will and unleashed the three-tails on Konoha. His panicked decision to botch Rin’s suicide attempt led to the death of hundreds, if not thousands of others.
The beast had run rampant on the civilian district mostly, but the Yamanaka and Inuzaka had taken very heavy losses.
After an hour of the beast’s rampage, with Kushina giving her all to control the beast with her chakra chains, Minato and Jiraiya had managed to seal the beast into a newborn baby that had been swept from the arms of her poor mother, who had cried out Sakura’s name.
Kushina mourned her pink tufts of hair that were slowly being replaced by the silver of the three-tails. Such a unique and beautiful colour, Kakashi considered it a shame to lose it.
—
Unfortunately, the Sanbi attack would not end up being the worst catastrophe to ever hit Konoha. Seven months following the cataclysmic three-tails rampage and four months after the Third Shinobi War had officially been declared over, the Kyuubi had attacked.
The number of losses that the Sanbi attack had caused were incomprehensible. The official death toll had ended up being just over 2000, most of which being civilian deaths. For this, the Kyuubi attack could not compare.
However, the Kyuubi attack, whilst having less deaths and less damage, had its own impact on Konoha. It had taken the lives of Minato Namikaze, their beloved Hokage who had served just shy of a year in office, and Kushina Uzumaki, his wife.
Kakashi had been crushed when he arrived at the scene, holes punctured in the bodies of the two people he viewed as parents. It was a sight no one should ever have to see, but Kakashi was no stranger to loss.
It had been a week since the attack, and countless people had visited Kakashi, barging themselves into his apartment to try and talk to him. He didn’t respond to them, the sounds of their ramblings were distant to him, voices filtered out by the war going on inside his head.
Emptiness was a feeling Kakashi had become intimately aware of in the past week. The loss of his father, then Obito, then Rin, then Minato-sensei and Kushina. Obito’s words rang deep within his mind, and Kakashi couldn’t help but feel like the scum of the earth for failing so many of his important people. He had felt detached from the world around him as these self-deprecating thoughts swam through his head, the only thing binding him to the present and preventing him from drifting away was one of Minato-sensei’s shirts, long since lost its scent, but still a comfort nonetheless.
He heard shouts and a slam of a door, but it was foggy, like he was underwater. In a way, Kakashi supposed he was, drowning in his own emotions that he’d been unable to control.
A blur of purple invaded his vision, but his eyes were unfocused. She was saying something that Kakashi didn’t care to hear, but he could see her anger as if it was radiating from her in waves. Her hand flew forward then, in an effort to grab his shoulder, but Kakashi reacted with the speed that was unexpected to both of them considering his usual unresponsiveness.
He gripped a kunai from under his pillow, made a grab for her wrist with his other hand, and jumped out of his bed, promptly holding his kunai to her jugular.
“Kakashi, put the kunai down,” the blur mumbled, “it’s me, Yuugao.”
His vision came back to him in a wave, Kakashi dropping his kunai onto the floor with a clatter. He pulled at his hair, stumbling back onto the bed and staring at his hands. Kakashi had tried to kill her, what was wrong with him? Yuugao didn’t dare touch him again, she seemed guilty at even trying it in the first place. They were silent for a while, Yuugao allowing Kakashi to gather his thoughts at how he’d almost killed his friend.
“The Sandaime is back in office. He’s put a gag order on everyone. Nobody is allowed to discuss Naruto’s jinchuurki status or his heritage. He’s been in the orphanage because the Hokage isn’t allowing Mikoto Uchiha to adopt him. The girl, Sakura, has been wheeled off by Councilman Shimura, God knows what for. Some special jinchuuriki training or something.”
Kakashi regarded her with a disgusted look. “She’s not even a year old.”
Yuugao nodded, “I’ve spoken with Naori-sensei, she told me that Mikoto thinks you are the only one that would be able to adopt baby Naruto. From what Genma has seen at the orphanage so far, the matrons have taken to spitting on him and even withholding food when he cries. I’m not sure about Sakura, nobody seems to be interested in her, the unfortunate reality of not being the Yondaime’s blood relative, I guess.”
“So, you and a bunch of other shinobi have congregated and decided that I’m going to adopt two babies?” Kakashi spat, “I can’t protect anyone. Not my friends, not my family, and not even myself. What makes you think I can raise two kids?”
Yuugao practically hissed at him, “don’t get pissy with me, Hatake. I can’t tell you I understand what you’re going through because I don’t, but you are the only person who has a chance to give these kids a better life. Don’t waste it because you’re wallowing in grief, unless you want to add something else to your growing list of lifelong regrets.” Yuugao was merciless with her words, every sentence a twist of the knife that had lodged itself into Kakashi’s heart. He looked at the floor in shame and before he could respond with the apology that danced on his tongue, Yugao had already walked out and slammed the door in her anger.
It would have been easy, to lay back down and drift once more, drowning in his pain and sorrow. It would have been easy, but it also would have been cowardice.
Kakashi pushed himself up from his bed and trudged his way towards the shower. His routine was as bleak as always, washing, brushing his teeth, getting dressed, all the while fighting with a strong urge to just get back into bed. He didn’t bother eating, heading straight to the Hokage tower, disregarding the complicated glances civilians and shinobi alike were shooting towards him.
“How can I help you?” the receptionist asked, not even looking up from her papers.
“I’d like an appointment with the Hokage,” Kakashi said.
“The closest available appointment is three weeks from now, is that to your satisfaction?”
“I’m Kakashi Hatake, and it’s regarding the jinchuuriki.”
The receptionist paled, looking up from her papers then. “Then go right on up, he’s not in any meetings at the moment. Sorry for the delay, Hatake.”
Kakashi nodded, making his way up to the office before knocking and entering. The Sandaime regarded him with a sad smile. Ignoring the Hokage’s summons was a mistake admittedly, but the older man seemingly understood the boy’s grief especially considering he himself was now a widower.
“Kakashi, I’m sorry for your losses, the Kyuubi was a great tragedy. Is there something you need? A mission? ANBU will be happy to hear of your return.”
Kakashi took a deep breath in, willing himself to speak, “I want to leave that behind me, Sir Hokage. I want to adopt Naruto and Sakura.”
The Sandaime’s eyes widened slightly, subtle enough that anyone less perceptive would have not noticed. He quickly masked his expression however, the gentle smile sliding off his face, transforming his face into a wall as hard as stone.
“I’m sorry, Kakashi. It’s simply too dangerous,” he said, his eyes narrowed in warning.
“I know that- I know its dangerous. But they have nothing and no one, to leave them to rot away in an orphanage is no different to spitting on Minato-sensei and Kushina’s graves!” Kakashi’s voice began raising slowly, the grief hitting him in the worst of ways. “They gave their life to protect Naruto and the village, we cannot repay them by doing this to their children! It’s- it’s treason!”
“Choose your next words carefully, Kakashi. Grief has made you unstable, your headspace means you are not fit to be raising a child, especially with a case as delicate as Naruto’s and Sakura’s. There’s also the matter of your age, a boy of fourteen cannot be trusted to raise two babes.”
Kakashi’s shoulders slumped, heavy breaths wracking his form. The Sandaime’s sad smile once again graced his face, “I will do my best to ensure the children are well cared for, Minato’s legacy will prevail. Go home, Kakashi.”
The silver-haired boy took that as what it was, a clear dismissal, and promptly body flickered out of the Hokage office. It would seem that Mikoto Uchiha’s theories were wrong, and Kakashi would be unable to easily gain the rights to adopt the children. But he dragged himself out of bed, forced himself to stop swallowing himself in the jaws of grief, like hell was he going to give up now.
He would need a plan.