Those Mistakes We Make

Chapter 4: Hatake Kakashi


The first time Hatake Kakashi saw Naruto Uzumaki (The one Uzumaki he ever liked, since Kushina-san as sweet as he was, had taken Minato-sensei’s attention from him and Rin), he was too shocked to see his former sensei’s corpse to actually pay attention to the crying infant nestled in the man’s limp arms.

He had been fourteen at the time, and his sensei had meant everything to him.

“He looks like Minato-sensei,” had smiled Rin as she held the dozing baby afterwards. “Though the eyes are Kushina-san’s definitely.”

Kakashi didn’t listen, he kept his eyes ahead as Yondaime Hokage’s funeral continued. Little Naruto opened a lazy eye and stared too, as his father’s and mother’s coffins were lowered onto the ground.

Sandaime Hokage had approached them after the service, his eyes grim.

“I will need to place Naruto-kun on an orphanage,” he explained as he extended his arms towards the baby. Kakashi just nodded, not really caring, but Rin had narrowed her own eyes, her lips set on a thin line.

“You will do no such thing, Hokage-sama,” she snapped, her arms curling possessively around Naruto. “Minato-sensei and Kushina-san would have liked for Naruto to be taken care of by someone who could love him like they did…”

Kakashi knew Rin’s expressions by heart by then, and the little twitch in her eyes, the way her fingers curled, told him something he didn’t like would happen.

He gave a hesitant step backwards, ready to bolt before it was too late.

“… that’s why Kakashi and I will take care of Naruto-chan!” she declared. Sarutobi’s and Kakashi’s eyes widened.

“Are you sure, Rin-chan?”

“Positive,” she said firmly. “Kakashi?”

The silver haired boy stared at her, then sighed.

“I guess we can… how difficult can it be?”

Some people always said that words damned humans. Kakashi, never the religious type, didn’t believe such a load of bullcrap. However, the moment Sandaime Hokage had left them alone with little Naruto, he understood that his own nonchalance had damned him.
Rin put the baby in his arms and declared she had to clear some things at her own home, since she was moving in with Kakashi to take proper care of Naruto.

“I can’t just leave the poor thing with you at night and just hope for the best, you are too careless, you might flush him down the toilet or something,” she said.

Kakashi had not thought of that option, though it seemed promising. Of course he didn’t say so outloud or his team mate would have skinned him alive.

She left promising to come back in just two hours.

As soon as the door closed, Naruto opened his sky blue eyes, stared at Kakashi’s covered face and decided he was a monster, he took a very deep breath, considering he was almost a newborn, and did what any other child faced with a monster did…

… He started crying.

In a desperate, almost heart breaking, ear splitting way only a truly frightened baby could cry.

Of course, had this been Rin’s apartment her elderly neighbors would have peeked in by now and since the old ladies loved little children they would have readily volunteered to help the poor fourteen year-old currently losing his hearing.

However, this was Kakashi’s single-shinobi complex. Therefore, instead of homely grandparents coming to worriedly check on the noise, other shinobi just threw kunais and shuriken at his door to state their point.

Shut the kid up.

He looked down as little Naruto continued to cry, hiding his eyes behind his pudgy hands.

“Stop crying,” he said seriously, but Naruto just cried harder, the monster’s voice making his presence even more real in his two month old mind.

Kakashi growled then, his eyes narrowed.

“Shut up,” he tried, he had learned while training his nin-dogs, that simple short orders worked best for small and stupid animals.

Naruto, however, didn’t even understand short orders.

His wails gained momentum.

“You really earned yourself a date with Mr. Toilet, you brat,” he muttered at last, as he began to tire. Naruto ignored him completely, still hiding behind his hands.

Just as Kakashi was ready to throw the baby into the toilet and be done with it, his doorbell rang.

Rin couldn’t be back so early, and Hokage-sama announced himself at least two hours prior any visit.

Curiously, the teen opened his door and was greeted by a hard shoe on his nose.
He staggered, instinctively holding tighter onto the wailing baby.

“WHAT THE HELL IS THAT NOISE, KAKASHI YOU BASTA-“ an enraged Anko growled as she high kicked the boy’s masked face. Then, she noticed the baby in Kakashi’s arms and blinked, all aggression gone from her body.

“You… have a baby?” she asked.

Kakashi nodded, a hand nursing his injured nose.

Anko tilted her head.

“So, who’s the father?”

Kakashi blinked.

“Shouldn’t you be asking who’s the mother?”

“Nah,” Anko shrugged. “You are such a girl, of course I know who’s the mother,”

The boy glared at her.

“I’ll kill you, Anko.”

The girl laughed outloud and pulled the little boy from Kakashi’s arms, nestling it carefully in her own.

“There there, little one, see? Kakashi is just a big clown, nothing to be afraid of,” she shushed, her fingers playing with the baby’s wispy hair.

Naruto stared at her for a moment, she had defeated the cloth monster. She was a good woman. Slowly, his little hand reached for Anko’s fingers as he cooed.

Kakashi scoffed.

Anko grinned.

“He just likes girls better,” she said, tickling the boy’s chin.

“Actually I think Kakashi-kun’s mask scared the poor thing,” another voice hissed jovially. Both teens turned to greet the newcomer. Naruto’s eyes were wide.

“Orochimaru-sensei!” grinned Anko. “Look! Kakashi’s got a secret child!”

Orochimaru smiled.

“I wondered where Naruto-kun was staying, I should’ve known you and Rin-chan would have volunteered to take care of him,” he mused, running a pale hand over the baby’s rosy cheek. Naruto cooed at him, tangling the man’s long hair into his tiny fist.

“I think he likes you, Orochimaru-sensei,” laughed Anko. Kakashi was about to hand the baby over to the man with Naruto started looking around, now calmly, and his blue eyes focused on him.

“Gaah,” he gurgled, stretching his hands towards him. Suddenly Kakashi felt a smile tugging at his face. Apparently Naruto had realized, from his new vintage point, that the cloth monster had a human behind it, and that human seemed nice enough.

Anko awed mockingly and Orochimaru’s eyebrow seemed to twitch in annoyance as Naruto had not chosen him.

Kakashi immediately wrapped his arms around the baby and held him close.

Naruto’s little fists played with his mask, staring intently into his face, the human was nicer looking up close and his cloth monster was funny, soft.

He liked this human definitely.

With a contented sigh he snuggled onto the boy’s shoulder, yawning.

All that crying surely took lots of effort.

Anko grinned.

“I knew you were a good mother inside, Kakashi,” she mocked.

“Anko-chan,” Orochimaru smiled. “Let’s go, your teammates are waiting for us.”

“Sure, sensei, see ya Kakashi!” she waved, running towards the training fields. The older man spared Naruto-chan another cold gaze before waving too and disappearing.

Kakashi unconsciously tightened his hold onto the baby.

Finally he was alone again.

Naruto tugged on his mask, his eyes wide.

Kakashi looked down.

“Are you hungry?” he asked, walking to his kitchen. The teen didn’t know it yet, but the months, however brief, he spent with Naruto and Rin would be the happiest he would remember for all times.

It was six months later, when he had gotten used to Naruto’s hand curling on his own and Rin’s leg over his own while he slept, that Danzo-sama from the council irrupted into his apartment with an official scroll, taking away all rights Kakashi and Rin might have to Naruto’s custody.

“We are Minato-sensei’s students,” Rin argued, her eyes furious. “It’s only natural, and quite legal for us to take care of his son!”

Danzo had smiled then, his yellow teeth gleaming.

“That is correct, child, but I’m afraid to inform you that this baby is not Yondaime-sama’s,” he had said calmly, his eyes set on the frightened toddler.

Several Anbu grabbed both teens while the old man ripped Naruto from Rin’s arms.

“Don’t worry, you two, he will be taken care of at one of Konoha’s orphanages. Who knows, maybe he might even get adopted one day!”

Kakashi continued to struggle even after they had knocked Rin unconscious.

The following years both visited the baby often, helped to clean him up when the orphanage staff curiously “forgot” and made elaborated plans to slip toys and treats to little Naruto while no one watched.

They even planed to marry as soon as they had the legal age, just so they could adopt the blond.

“I don’t love you at all,” Rin had said firmly. “This is all for Naruto-chan.”

Kakashi had been a little offended, but he agreed wholeheartedly.

Rin died two weeks afterwards. A mission gone wrong the anbus claimed.

Kakashi doubted it, somehow.

He grew bitter, left the anbu ranks and got himself a job as a gennin instructor.

He never managed to pass a team.

So he was left mostly alone.

Naruto was kicked out of the orphanage.

Lack of space, they claimed.

Kakashi scoffed and made sure they received all orphans from the nearest villages, just to get them squeezed in without a problem.

Suddenly, one day, he passed Uchiha Itachi, the current village prodigy.

The black haired boy was holding a shopping bag, a teddy bear, and a cone of ice cream.

Something very normal for the Uchiha brat, right?

Absolutely not.

Itachi stared at him for a second, his eyebrows raised.

“These,” he said without even bothering to greet Kakashi. “Are for my little brother, Sasuke.”

Kakashi nodded, not really wanting to point out that Itachi was walking away from the Uchiha compound and, considering the heat, by the time he went back there would be no ice cream left for Sasuke.

If the Uchiha had a girlfriend and was too embarrassed to point it out, he would not bother the boy.

Kakashi had then turned to leave the boy alone when a shrill voice cried happily:

“ITA’NIICHAN!” and made him freeze.

A six year old Naruto was running full speed towards them, his eyes alight and full of joy as he embraced Itachi’s waist, a bounce in his step.

Itachi grinned.

“Hello, Naru-chan,” he greeted, kissing the boy on the forehead.

Kakashi fumed.

“Itachi-chan… is this…” Kakashi asked. The black haired boy glared at him.

“This is Uzumaki Naruto,” he stated coldly. “My fiancé.”

Naruto then looked at Itachi.

“But, ‘niichan, I asked Hokage’jiji and he said boys cannot marry other boys!” he protested.

Itachi smiled at him.

“We can turn you into a girl, Naru-chan, don’t worry.”

Naruto paled a little, and muttered under his breath that he didn’t want to lose his wee, but Ita’niichan had to be right, he was a genius after all.

Kakashi knelt by Naruto’s side.

“So, you are Naruto, huh? Nice to meet you, I’m Kakashi.”

Naruto stared at him nervously before hiding behind Itachi. Kakashi blushed at how adorable Naruto-chan was being.

“Ita’niichan said I can’t talk to strangers,” the little boy whispered.

“But I’m not a stranger, am I? Itachi-chan?” the silver haired young man grinned.

Itachi gritted his teeth.

“No, Naru-chan. Kakashi-senpai is not a stranger, he is a senpai,” the boy sighed.

Naruto stared at Kakashi in awe, how had he missed those wide blue eyes.

“I’ve never met a senpai before!!”

The lie was bitter in his tongue before he even sprouted it.

“Well, now you have, Naruto-chan, I’m glad to be your first senpai ever met.”

“I’d rather be your friend than your senpai, Naruto-chan,” the teen smiled. Even when he had felt so cold and dead inside during all those years it was enough to see naruto happy and the paternal warmth he had cultivated with him as a baby came back with a vengeance.

Naruto’s blue eyes were so wide and his cheeks glowing with excitement. Kakashi felt like putting a ridiculous but fluffy costume on him like he had seen some parents do, but controlled himself.

“I’d love that, senpai!” Naruto laughed and wrapped his chubby arms around Kakashi’s neck. The older teen was delighted to know that his little adoptive son was still a loving boy, even if he was accosted by Uchiha Itachi and…

He stopped all expression as he remembered that Itachi had introduced Naruto-chan as his fiancée.

He stared at the younger teen.

“So, you want to marry Naruto-chan?” he asked calmly, his hand curling possessively around the boy’s back. Itachi’s eyes narrowed.

“Naruto,” Itachi said. “Why don’t you go ahead home and I’ll meet you in a moment?”

Naruto pouted, not liking the idea of being alone when he was supposed to be playing with Ita’niichan.


“You won’t leave me waiting, will you?” he asked, his eyes full of sadness. Itachi immediately knelt by his side and embraced him.

“Of course not, Naru,” he whispered. “I’ll only be here for a few minutes, you won’t even notice.” Giving another kiss to Naruto’s forehead, Itachi bid him goodbye, handed him his ice cream and watched him go sullenly home.

“I’m waiting,” Kakashi growled. Itachi shrugged his shoulders.

“Kushina-san signed Naruto off in marriage to me, even before he was born,” he explained. “We’ve been engaged for years now.”

Kakashi shook his head.

“There is no way the council will allow it,” he sighed, his eye downcast. “They stripped Naruto of titles and inheritance, Rin and I were raising him, as Minato-sensei’s students, but they took away his everything, and we had no right to keep him. If you stay with Naruto so openly, you will be in danger too.”

“I don’t care,” Itachi interrupted. “Naruto and I are engaged, when we are of age we will get married whether you, the whole Uchiha Clan or the Council oppose, I don’t care!”


Kakashi blinked as the boy’s Sharingan spun wildly, his killing intent clear.

“Calm down, Itachi, he’s just a kid, he doesn’t understand your feelings,” he tried to sooth, not much successfully.

“SHUT UP!” Itachi roared, attacking him with a kunai. “HOW COULD YOU UNDERSTAND THIS!! IT’S IN MY HEART!! INSIDE OF ME!! WE ARE MEANT TO BE!!”

Kakashi’s eyes widened before he spun around Itachi and knocked him unconscious.

Something was definitely wrong with the young prodigy if he reacted like this to something as childish as “You can’t marry your childhood crush,”.

“I’ll better take you home, Itta-chan,” he sighed as he took the black haired boy in his arms.

Mikoto greeted him at the door, her face pale and worried as she saw her unconscious son.

“What happened?” she asked in concern. Kakashi laughed embarrassedly.

“I think I rubbed him the wrong way, and we fought because of it,” he explained apologetically as Mikoto guided him towards Itachi’s bedroom.

“Did you two argue again about Anbu issues?” she asked tiredly. It was almost common for Itachi to get home bruised after another quarrel with Anbu Heroe Kakashi.

“I’m afraid this time I mocked his…” Kakashi paused, staring intently at Mikoto to size her reaction. “… his prior engagement”

Mikoto froze.

“You shouldn’t have said that, Kakashi-kun, he will never forgive you,” he whispered then, her voice cracking ever so slightly.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow.

“What happened exactly?” he asked as he laid the unconscious teen on his bed. The woman sighed.

“Itachi had many dreams during his childhood, one of them was to marry Kushina-chan, I think she was his first childhood crush,” she explained sadly, her eyes set on her son’s face. “Of course Kushina-chan married Yondaime-sama, and Itachi’s heart was broken. Kushina-san was a great woman, so kind. So she offered Itachi her first born, as a joke, I would guess, Itachi was only five, nothing to be taken too seriously, of course he jumped at the chance.”

“So, he decided he was engaged to Kushina-san and Minato-sensei’s first-born,” Kakashi surmised. Mikoto nodded, a grim smile curling her lips.

“He is a good boy, too loyal for his own good, he stood by Kushina-chan as she gave birth and held her son while she gave her last breath,” Mikoto sighed and tucked a strand of black hair behind her ear. “Even after Kushina-san, Yondaime-sama and Naruto-chan died, he keeps his promise inside of him, he never looks at any kunoichi, he doesn’t even indulge in anything at all, he lives and breathes to remember his ah… fiancée, as you can imagine.” The woman’s eyes laid once more on her son’s closed eyelids, and she followed the path of her eyes with her fingertips. “I even think the pain of such loss was what activated Itta-chan’s Sharingan, though I have no proof, when I thought Sasuke-chan was going to get his Sharingan it turned out to be a fluke.”
Kakashi’s interest was peaked.

“Sasuke was going to develop his Sharingan?” he asked curiously. “He’s only six.”

Mikoto nodded.

“He came home with his academy teacher, something about him molesting another classmate, his eyes were so furious, I thought I saw his Sharingan, still in its early stages, but Sharingan nonetheless, but as I blinked it was gone…” she sighed heavily. “Fugaku and I are concerned, both our kids are acting so odd, it’s like I don’t know them anymore.”

The teen frowned. Something was amiss.

“Mikoto-san, I’m really sorry but I must leave now, I have another gennin team to test and..” he began, but the woman just smiled at him and pecked his forehead.

“Don’t you worry, Kakashi-kun, and remember you are always welcomed here, ok?” she said sweetly. Kakashi nodded and disappeared with a poof of smoke.

Once outside, he ran at top speed towards Naruto’s apartment, where he would be currently waiting for Itachi to arrive. Inside of his analytical head, the one that had made him such an important ninja, the one that had gotten him the title of genius, ideas and scenarios mixed together in complicated patterns giving sense to the nonsensical and the impossible became plausible with just the information Mikoto Uchiha had provided for Kakashi.

Itachi wasn’t just loyal to a childhood promise, he was obsessed, he hadn’t even told his mother that Naruto-chan, Kushina-san’s son, was alive and well.

Certainly the Uchihas would have adopted the boy, as Mikoto and Kushina-san had been such good friends.

Naruto wouldn’t have to live in the slums and eat cold food and look after himself at such a young age.

Yet Itachi had chosen not to reveal this information to his parents. Why?

Was he really that obsessed with little Naruto?

And what about Sasuke, his younger brother?

Something inside of him told him this “classmate” that Sasuke had been found molesting at the academy was none other than Naruto himself. He didn’t know why, he didn’t know how he knew, but he knew.

There were only two connecting factors between Itachi’s obsession with a child too young to understand love and marriage and Sasuke molesting a fellow student.

Naruto and the Sharingan.

Silently, he sent his thanks to Obito once again, since he now had the tools to discover what happened to the Uchihas around little Narto.

Slowly, almost hesitantly, he reached the boy’s window and perched himself there. Naruto was sitting comfortably on his bed, licking his ice cream and periodically staring at the front door, surely he was waiting for Itachi, still.

With a trembling hand he removed his headband, releasing his own burrowed Sharingan…

And gasped.

Gone was the little boy he thought of as a son, the same he had tried to flush down the toiled when they met, the same he had looked after and cared for and almost wished he could adopt.

Naruto suddenly was a heavenly sight of loveliness, so painfully beautiful. So perfectly innocent there, sitting in his bed, licking his ice cream in such a sinful way.

Kakashi had to cover his nose just to think about that little tongue caressing his skin naughtily.

“What the fuck is wrong with me?” he hissed to himself, hurriedly covering his Sharingan.

Shaking from shock, he looked back up.

Naruto remained there, still waiting.

He was still innocent.

He was still pretty enough to pass as a little girl.

But Kakashi no longer felt the desire to make him his own.

“It’s the Sharingan,” he whispered in sudden fright. “The Sharingan makes them want him.”

It was an astounding revelation, specially when one considered that this was a defenseless six year old and was surrounded by almost a thousand of trained shinobi, all Sharingan equipped.

All dangerous to him.

No wonder Itachi held so desperately to his childhood promise. It was the only certainty he had to a future where he could have what his mind told him he desired.

No wonder Sasuke had molested little Naruto (there was no doubt in his mind that it had been Naruto, now) his body reacted unconsciously to his mind’s desires, even if he’s too young to understand it himself.

Gods, what would happen should the Uchiha Clan as a whole found out Naruto-chan was alive?

“I can’t let them hurt him,” he whispered to himself. “I can’t let them.”

As fast as he could, he ran towards Hokage Tower, he had to leave in order to find a cure to whatever was ailing them all Sharingan users, if only to protect Naruto from harm.

He wasn’t obsessed like the others. He didn’t love Naruto.

But the kid was the closest thing he would ever have to a son.

He would find a cure for all Uchihas, he would save Naruto.

It was his duty.

As he came back to the village 5 years later, empty handed and frustrated, he realized he shouldn’t have left at all.

For all his years searching for a cure for all Uchihas were really a waste of time, since all Uchihas save for two, were dead.

Kakashi felt frightened at the wave of relief and almost contempt that ran down his spine. Naruto was safe.

But maybe he wasn’t as unaffected as he had led himself to believe.

To Be Continued.

A/N: And that’s Kakashi’s chapter! I know most of you wanted KakaNaru to be a romantic …. Whatever. But I don’t know… to me Kakashi is almost like Naruto’s Daddy!Pervert!Boyfriend (in that order of preference) so I thought it would be better to leave Kakashi more as a parentally obsessed figure than another suitor, poor Naru-chan has enough already as it is, don’t you think?

Now, as for next chapter I think I will leave you with a little spoiler-ish title. Hope you don’t kill me and review as enthusiastically as you have done till now. I will have the next chapter by Wednesday or Thursday, I think

Next Chapter: Code 00258 – Uchiha Project UNIT 0001: Salvaged Anatomic Intelligence.