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Kakashi keeps half an eye on his students while they double-check their supplies for the day. Sakura dutifully packs a pair of water bottles. Sasuke tops his off at the fountain, and Naruto stands there waiting patiently. It's their third week of D-ranks in a row, and none of them have quite gotten the hang of doing them together yet.
For one thing, the villagers aren't so receptive to two out of the three members of the group, which only singles Sakura out from the boys more in her eyes and makes her feel worse. Kakashi doesn't have to think very hard about why the boys are so ill-received.
Not that Sasuke tries very hard.
Naruto, on the other hand, couldn't put more of his heart and soul into it if he tried, but he still gets nothing in return—sometimes worse than nothing. Kakashi nearly took Konoha by storm the other day when one villager refused to serve the boy lunch after they had given Sasuke and Sakura their meals only moments before. Naruto may be a genin now, a shinobi, but not everyone sees things that way. Kakashi tries to console himself with the hope that it won't always be like this.
It doesn't work.
So, morose in thought and blank in countenance, Kakashi leads them to their first D-rank of the day. They finish in a couple hours, so Kakashi takes them to the next.
Seeing as he showed up a couple hours late to the mission desk this morning, it's already almost lunchtime by genin standards, but it seems like his three cute little students aren't hungry yet, content to keep working, so when they finish their second job, he pokes along the cobblestone path to the third and waves them along to meet with the client.
"Kakashi-sensei?"
"Yes, Naruto?"
The blond-haired boy flushes a bit, but admits, "I need to pee."
Kakashi glances around the property, wondering how this became his life all the while. He's not a parent, and yet, here he is, managing bathroom breaks for unruly genin. "Over behind that tree should be fine. Run along, but try to be back before Sakura and Sasuke are done meeting with the client."
"Hai!" Naruto blurts, and zips off.
The speed with which he disappears makes Kakashi wonder how long he's been holding it to keep up appearances in front of his teammates. For all his bluster, Naruto can be remarkably shy.
Sometimes, he's so much like Minato-sensei that it hurts.
Admittedly, things haven't been the easiest for Kakashi since being handed his sensei's son as a genin. One wrong look can send his mood into the gutter in a heartbeat, but he can't show that to Naruto—not to Sasuke, not to Sakura, not to anyone. So, he doesn't. He hides behind his mask and a cheerful eye-smile even as his heart squeezes so tightly in his chest, he fears it may stop entirely.
"Kakashi-sensei, we're ready to start," Sakura pipes up, glancing around as Sasuke steps up behind her. "Where's Naruto?"
"Bathroom. He'll be behind you both shortly. Go ahead and get started."
Only, before the two of them get very far at all, there's a violent crack and a shrill scream that sounds more animal than human. "WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT THE NEXT TIME I CAUGHT YOU ON MY PROPERTY?!"
Kakashi moves in a flicker, appearing at the corner of a small tool shed near the tree he'd directed Naruto to. Behind it, in the field they only moments ago agreed to work, stands their client with a whip in hand, but it's what lies beyond the man that sets Kakashi's blood on fire.
Naruto lays on the ground, a hand pressed over the right side of his face while he wails in a way Kakashi has never heard from the boy. Blood trickles from his ear, and his hitai-ate lies a few feet away.
When the man lifts the whip for a second strike, Kakashi flickers again to stand over Naruto, kunai up and his stance spread. "Raise that against him again and you'd better be prepared to raise it against me," Kakashi snarls. It's not a tone he imagined he would ever take with a client, especially one from Konoha, but it seems not everyone has let their grievances fall to the wayside. "Just what is it you think you're doing?"
Sakura and Sasuke catch up then, Sasuke standing shoulder to shoulder—well, shoulder to hip—with Kakashi in defense and Sakura kneeling beside their teammate.
"I warned that brat!" the client hisses. "I warned him when I caught him in my garden that the next time I caught him on my property, I'd make him regret it!"
Naruto keens pitifully behind them, and Kakashi risks a glance over his shoulder. Naruto isn't a crier—hasn't been for a long time. It never did him any good, so it says something about the pain if he's sobbing this way now. He looks even worse up close. The snap of the whip definitely burst his eardrum judging by all the blood leaking down his neck, and Kakashi can't see much of his face, but the sympathetic wincing from Sakura tells him it's bad enough. If Kakashi could, he would storm into the Sandaime's office and demand the gag order be lifted, because this shouldn't happen. It should never have happened.
"Let me see your face," Sakura prods.
"No. Hurts."
Kakashi would bet it does, but he turns his attention back to their client. "Warning or no warning, you can't assault Konoha shinobi, especially ones you've just contracted to work for you."
"I didn't assault a shinobi-"
"Yes," Sasuke says, his tone icy as he holds out Naruto's hitai-ate. "You did."
The man sneers. "Well, if I had known he was a part of the contract, I'd have demanded another team!"
Kakashi holds his temper to keep from maiming the man, but only just.
"Oh," Sakura breathes, and if Kakashi isn't mistaken, she gags, too. "Naruto...."
Kakashi risks another glance, and what he finds makes him sick to his stomach. There's a very distinct curved corner cut into Naruto's brow, a gouge from his hitai-ate despite the fabric buffer between the metal plate and his skin. What should be the solid line of his brow doesn't look right. He's surely concussed. The impact fractured or broke his eye socket judging from the dark bruises already forming, and his cheekbone below is much the same. His right eye is squeezed shut, swelling and puffy. Tears leak from the corners and blood from the lower lid.
"You could've killed him," Kakashi growls. "Like it or not, this is a crime against the Hokage's shinobi, and you will face the consequences. Sakura, Sasuke, arrest him. I'll take Naruto to the Leaf Hospital."
He doesn't stick around to hear the protests, though they are loud in nature, as he scoops up his poor student and cradles him close. While only genin, Sakura and Sasuke are more than capable of handling a civilian arrest. Naruto whimpers and clings to him, one hand pressed over his bleeding ear as he sobs.
Meanwhile, Kakashi burns. His chakra roils under his skin, lightning threatening to crackle to life at the first sign of further danger.
"S-Sensei?"
"I'm here, Naruto," Kakashi murmurs, flickering the both of them ahead as far at a time as he can. "Just breathe. It'll be okay. We're nearly there."
"Kakashi-sensei, I-I'm sorry."
"Why are you sorry?"
Naruto turns his head toward Kakashi's voice, clearly unable to hear him well if at all with his right ear. He sounds terribly disoriented. "H-He was right. I was there once before, but I noticed h-his squash had a blight a-and I was trying to treat them, but he caught me-"
Kakashi hushes him then, his heart aching. "Don't apologize."
Under all the yelling and boisterous confidence, Naruto is such a gentle kid, and all anyone offered him in return was hatred. Kakashi holds his genin a little tighter as he lands on the hospital path and darts inside. The medical nin don't waste any time, a fact he's grateful for, but it leaves him quite suddenly with nothing to do but wait.
After all the years staying away, all the years hardening his heart in ANBU, Kakashi thought he might've taught himself to care less, but he was wrong.
He was very wrong.
After filling out the proper incident forms, describing in detail the cause of Naruto's injuries, he waits for several hours. The damage hadn't been pretty in the moment, but Kakashi wagers it was even worse than he thought below the surface.
"Kakashi-sensei?"
He turns, pausing in his pacing and finding his students walking through the doors. "Sakura, Sasuke. Any trouble?"
"A lot of screaming and yelling, but Inoichi-san said he'd handle the rest at T&I."
Kakashi breathes a sigh of relief. Inoichi would see what happened and be able to place blame accordingly. "And you two? You're both all right?"
"Yeah. We're all right," Sakura replies.
"Hn."
"But.... Sensei?" Sakura ventures, and Kakashi already knows what question will come from her mouth before she asks it. "Why did he do that to Naruto? Why was he so angry that Naruto was there?"
Sasuke crosses his arms and turns away, pretending for all the world that he doesn't give a shit about the answer, but the ear he keeps tilted Kakashi's way says otherwise. He's heard Naruto whine and complain, yell and holler, fight and flounder, but Kakashi doubts either of them have ever heard Naruto cry like that. Kakashi hadn't. He didn't want to.
Kakashi sighs, unsure what to tell them. "It's complicated."
"Is it the same reason why everyone makes such a big deal about him being around other kids?"
Both Sakura and Kakashi look to Sasuke then, though for entirely different reasons. The young Uchiha tosses a glower over his shoulder, barely turning more towards them. It's then that Kakashi realizes he's still holding Naruto's hitai-ate, the bloodied article clenched tightly in his grip. Despite his attitude, Sasuke does care.
"What?" Sasuke snaps. "Like it's hard to tell?"
Well. He has a point there. The villagers haven't exactly made a secret of their dislike for the young jinchuriki.
"I haven't noticed anything-"
Sasuke bares his teeth with a growl. "That's because you and every other girl in our class are too busy fucking stalking me to see anything!"
Sakura flinches back, tears welling in her pale green eyes.
Ah, young love, Kakashi laments. So tedious. At least it gives him something else to think about. "Mah, mah, my cute little students, let's not fight while we're waiting for word on Naruto."
Sasuke scoffs, but he doesn't reengage, which is about as good as agreement with the stubborn boy. Sakura wrings her hands together, likely contemplating an apology of some kind—a ridiculous notion. If she should apologize to anyone, it's Naruto, but they're barely more than children. What else should Kakashi expect?
You could teach them, a little voice tells him, and Kakashi stubbornly pushes it away. It sounded suspiciously like sensei, and that pool of guilt isn't one Kakashi feels like falling in right now.
He already feels guilty enough for letting this mess befall his sensei's son.
Not only that, but today's events lead him to wonder what other horrors Naruto experienced at the hands of the villagers. Kakashi already knows a number of things, a number of reports from his fellow ANBU, but the wounds of Naruto's treatment run deeper than he thought if they're willing to whip Naruto simply for being present.
"Sensei?"
"What is it, Sakura-chan?"
His pink-haired genin wrings her hands a little more. "Sensei, Naruto's.... His.... His face was-" Sakura breaks off, tears welling up for a second time as she gags into the back of her hand. "It was sunken in-" Another gag stops the words as she thinks back on it.
"I know," Kakashi murmurs, resting a hand on top of her head.
"How hard would he have had to hit him for that?" Sasuke asks, blunt even in the face of Sakura's growing queasiness.
"Actually, not that hard," Sakura croaks. Her tears fall, but, thankfully, her stomach contents remain where they are. She clings to the facts as well as she can to keep her center. "The tip of a whip breaks the sound barrier at around three-hundred-fifty meters per second, a little less, but.... It's really traveling faster, because the sound comes from the waves being compressed, but... a good whip wouldn't need much force behind it to-... to-"
Kakashi tucks her face into his side when she folds her arms around herself.
Sasuke mutters, "So, you were serious."
"About what?"
"That guy could've killed him."
Knowing there's no point in lying, Kakashi agrees. Naruto is strong, in part thanks to the Nine-Tails, but any other genin—hell, any regular person—wouldn't have been conscious after such a strike. High-ranking chuunins and jounins could, but that's only because they learn to reinforce their bodies with chakra.
Sasuke's knuckles turn white around Naruto's hitai-ate. He says nothing else.
They aren't really friends, not that Kakashi knows of, but they share a certain understanding of one another on a level neither want to share; they're lonely children with no one to care for them.
"Team 7?"
They all turn, and Kakashi recognizes the head medical nin easily enough from his various stays in her ward. "Keiko-san. How is he?"
"Given the report the nurse shared with me? I'd say he's very lucky."
"I realize."
Keiko narrows her eyes at him, then turns. More than likely, she believes he's infected his students with his awful hospital habits. She's never been able to keep him in his bed, though not for a lack of trying. "Follow me."
Kakashi does as he's told, not wishing to incite her wrath.
Sakura and Sasuke both trail behind him. Kakashi walks slouched, hands in his pockets, and prepares himself for what may await him. They arrive in less than two minutes, and Kakashi steps through the sliding door.
Still and quiet, Naruto lays in the bed. His forehead and majority of the right side of his face are bandaged to protect his recently-healed injuries.
"Damage?"
Keiko hums, glancing down at her clipboard. "Shattered eye socket, frontal bone, fractured parietal, eye trauma, burst eardrum, and a grade two concussion." She approaches the bedside, adjusting the edge of the thin hospital blanket and fixing the tape holding down Naruto's IV. "We cleared up the worst of it with medical jutsu, but when he wakes up, you can expect some disorientation, blurred vision initially in his right eye, and at the very least, ringing in that ear. He shouldn't wake for another few hours, but call for a medical nin when he's coherent and we'll determine if there's any hearing loss to contend with. Is that clear?"
"Is hearing loss a concern?"
The question comes from Sasuke, and Keiko glances at him with a reassuring look. "It's doubtful, but one can never be too careful."
Sakura asks softly, "If there was, would he have to quit being a shinobi?"
"Not necessarily," Keiko replies. "Even if he did suffer hearing loss, it wouldn't be severe enough to merit a forced retirement. Like I said, the worst of the damage has already been cleared up."
Sakura breathes a sigh of relief, and a flicker of hope blooms in Kakashi's chest. All these weeks, he's wondered what she would do if Naruto were really in trouble, because all he's seen from her with regard to the blond is complete disregard, annoyance, and both physical and verbal abuse. Sasuke, too, loses some tension along the line of his shoulders, and he turns more fully toward Naruto as if emboldened by the medical nin's words. He doesn't like what he sees; that much is clear. However, he doesn't look away again.
They do have the potential for teamwork—to really care for one another. The bell test proved it. It's just getting them to act on it and do so consistently that's their problem. Kakashi feels terrible for even thinking it, but this event might help in the long run. Trauma-bonding is real.
And, he thinks as he steps around the side of the hospital bed and brushes a hand over the unbandaged side of Naruto's face, I'm not exactly exempt from that, either.
He will never forget Naruto's cries.
Naruto, more than likely already having burned through the sedatives, nestles closer to his touch with a low noise and cracks open his eyes. The one that was bleeding before squints shut at the first presence of light, but the other opens farther. "Mm. Sensei?" he murmurs.
“Hello, Naruto.”
Keiko-san makes a noise of surprise. "He's awake?"
Sasuke and Sakura patter up to the opposite side of the bed.
Since they're on the side left unbandaged, he hears them coming just fine and turns his head. For whatever reason, likely heart-twisting in nature, what he finds makes tears well up in his eyes. "Sakura-chan, Sasuke.... You're here?"
Sasuke crosses his arms once more and clicks his tongue. "Dobe. Of course, we are."