From a rational standpoint, Seiko Hatake was the best kind of subordinate one could have. She did not take days off, she did not lose any records or scrolls she was given, she rarely ever stood up from the desk, let alone climbed the stairs to bother him.
Complaints about her were many, but they were always vague, meaningless things. She was rude, she was apathetic, she didn't speak with respect to people who were older or of higher rank.
Her coworkers-- when they were around, spoke highly of her. Chobee said he wished his nieces were as sweet as her. Tonbo wasn't around much, but he liked her. And hell, Yakumi was the one who'd hired her, even if her clan circumstances meant she'd ditched the tower soon after for the field.
He often left his shadow to hide in the footsteps of her dog as it watched the incoming and outgoing traffic. A safety measure. The minute the dog's shadow crossed another, he could grab them, lock them down. Kill them from a full storey away, no eyes needed on the target.
He doesn't really need to work. All he needs to do is guard.
It's something he'd discovered early on. It's not really necessary to work. A lot of Nara laziness is a carefully cultivated lie. It's hard to relax when you can't stop thinking. But some of it isn't. Shadows are strongest in twilight. You only really need to be awake for the five minutes that count, and the rest is just... waiting.
His gaze drops to the dark pouch resting on his desk.
If he'd planned ahead he could have given it to Seiko before the short funeral ceremony, and then never had to think about it again. But he hadn't known her father was dead until the morning she showed up, because she'd come to work the day after he died. The records only move so fast.
So it was too late.
He'd had to go get the pouch from the Nara clan storage, so everything was slow. And then he'd had it.
And then months passed.
Biter wears Seiko's black ribbon the same way he wears Seiko's forehead protector and Seiko's vest and Seiko's sword. Perhaps he still wears the ribbon because Seiko's hands aren't steady enough to untie it without help, and she won't risk cutting so close to her dog's throat.
She's basically given up on any paperwork that requires more of her than either a checkmark or an illegible signature. All of that lands on him, now.
He'd not used the Shadow Imitation Shadow Bind Technique on her during her "chunin exam". That was his personal variation of a clan technique not even permitted to be taught until you were a jounin.
The Hokage had been testing him as well, after all.
Restraint. Control. Judgement.
He had passed, but in the end he had still failed to see what she was so afraid of. He can only see it now that she is no longer afraid. No one had thought The White Fang would kill himself rather than simply re-devote himself back to the battlefield. Re-earn his honor.
But she had.
She'd been terrified.
And, slowly, she'd relaxed. But never by that much. There was a futility in it. She couldn't always be with him, so she could only hope that he would center himself. Because there was nothing else she could have done.
He could have done something, though.
He could have left his shadow in Sakumo Hatake's. It wasn't a difficult thing to do, to be shadowless while you wait. If she had only--
There is a knock on the door.
"Ensui." Seiko's voice is flat and tight. The flatness is inherent. The tightness is from pain, since she must have walked up the stairs. "I've got more stuff to drop off."
The funeral pouch vanishes into his seals.
"Come on..." Ensui drawls, dropping his feet from where they'd been kicked up over the desk back down to the floor so he can crack the door open. "You better not be handing me a calendar again."
Seiko steps past him to drop the pile of reports onto his desk. They plop down right over the imprint his shoes had made on the previous top of the pile.
She's put on another growth spurt. A few inches. Or maybe it's just that her gray hair is spiked more than usual? Since she doesn't wear her chunin vest.
No. It's not that.
Growth has stretched out the scar tissue that covers her wrists, elongating them alongside her. He hadn't noticed at first, but with time comes closer observation. It's not actually scar tissue from one wound. It's two wounds. The deeper one snarls right over the wrist joint. The one that looks like someone yanked a giant fish hook out of where it had been caught in her bones.
And on top of that one, the ragged sword slices that run from practically mid forearm to over the top of her hands, stopping just short of her knuckles.
The cut is deeper on her left arm than her right. Obvious, from how she has scars on both arms but only one of them still feels.
Seiko Hatake used to be left handed.
The shadows in his mind paint an inky picture. She'd done the first cut with her already damaged wrist, shaky but proficient. No long term damage.
And then she had had to hold the blade in her off hand, one already shaking and bleeding heavily from the wrist wound.
Fighting a Suna puppet-master when they have strings on you is suicide. She'd made the right choice.
"Quit spacing out," Seiko says. "You're not busy."
"Seiko-chan," Ensui says. He opens a new gum packet, pops it in his mouth. "How long do you think you'll be working in this place?"
One of the things he doesn't know about Seiko is if she can still use the Body Replacement technique. She didn't use it in their fight. He's seen ninja with injured legs pull it off before-- it should work fine.
No, perhaps it's... a hand seal issue? Has he ever seen her go for a technique that needed more than simply slapping her hand on the ground? If he were to fight her again, the first thing he'd need to do is lock down the dog. Biter is where her mobility comes from. Shadowbind the dog, and then--
"Until I quit," Seiko says. "Whenever that is."
His endless chain of thoughts crashes to a halt.
"You can't quit. We don't have replacements."
"That's not my problem," Seiko says, even though it is, since it's her who's doing more work. "I'm just answering your question. I'll be here until the war's over. I don't want to go fight."
That's the type of answer that explains why her former teammate acts up so much whenever he's forced to come here. If she were in ANBU, an answer like that might get her killed by her own teammates for disloyalty.
Other than her disloyalty, she'd have been a great agent. He's supposed to be recruiting for them as well...
He's got ANBU casualty records in one of his seals. Somewhere. Maybe he can start pushing the upkeep for those onto Seiko as well. Most of the records come straight to him from the team captains before being passed up to Danzo Shimura and the Hokage-- though both of them also have separate reports that go straight to them. So it seems kind of pointless.
"Looks like you're stuck here for a while then," Ensui says. He'd been fourteen when the second war started, and now he was eighteen and they'd started the third. Jounin betting pool says that this one'll be even longer than the last, and the Jounin Commander is his uncle. He's got the inside scoop.
He should've put more money down on five years, but it had felt a little too depressing at the time. More fool him for letting that stop his hand.
She's staring at him. Or more accurately, staring past him. Not a person prone to meeting someone's eyes, Seiko.
"You don't usually linger up here," Ensui says.
Is she going to ask him for something? She never does that.
"I'll be in the hospital for my annual check in. You'll have to cover shifts until I get back."
...
There's an odd twist inside of him.
"That shouldn't take more than a day. You can take a day off without coming up here and telling me."
Mockery in the gaze that doesn't meet his.
"Last time I was in for three days. You going to be fine with that?"
Three days?
Shock drags his inquiries out of the twilight of his mind and into the air.
"A check-up shouldn't take that long."
Biter growls around her feet, a low thrum. That dog doesn't like him very much. Or maybe it's the stairs that piss him off. She never seems to mind it, but she's not the one responsible for catching herself when she misses a step, is she?
And she has missed steps.
"Mine do."
Seiko turns to leave, conversational goal achieved.
The shadows always crawl around the corners of his vision, even when he's not actively controlling them. Careful, careful.
"Seiko-chan."
When she turns to look back at him, for one second her blank hostility is lost to a more genuine confusion.
"Yes?"
"You can do wall walking. Why don't you just walk down the side of the building, instead of taking the stairs?"
Seiko looks at him. Then slowly, exaggeratedly, looks down at her bad knee.
"Pain disrupts chakra cycling," she says, voice slow like she's speaking to an idiot. "And Biter doesn't like wall walking."
It kind of sounds like the second point has higher priority. Though, what does pain have to do with anything? Just ignore it. They have pills for that, don't they?
Or at least. ANBU do.
Ensui pops the bubblegum he'd been blowing and gets started on another bubble.
"We're technically under the Intelligence Division, so I'll see if I can grab one of their people for a bit. That's how we used to get Tonbo." The Analysis team is... rather busy, though. Maybe T&I has someone sitting around.
Their headquarters aren't directly in the tower, but instead down the street a bit. At least, that's where the building that's got the jail cells is.
"That's fine then." Seiko gives a sharp nod, and shuts the door behind her.
Is it?
A sharp knock on the door of his apartment deep into the night wakes him more thoroughly than his much battered alarm clock ever could.
"What is it," he snaps, badly hidden killing intent not at all concealed by the way his sleep tangled hair keeps falling in front of his eyes.
A blonde woman only a year or so older than him stares back, rectangular glasses firmly in place across her nose. She bows to him politely, hands clasped.
"I'm Nono Yakushi, a senior med-nin," she says. She's not wearing a jounin uniform, but to be at that rank, she'd have to be one. "You are Seiko Hatake's jounin-sensei, are you not?"
He isn't.
It's revolting. Having that level of responsibility--
"What if I'm not," Ensui mutters.
"Then we would have a problem, Ensui-san. Because Seiko's only other registered contact is her brother, who isn't in Konoha currently. So I would be in quite the dilemma."
What a useless little brat. Though it's more than likely Seiko deliberately picked a window where he wouldn't be present to go to the hospital-- she's got access to chunin missions. She knows where he is.
His hands tighten behind his back.
"She's fine, right. It was just a routine check in."
He doesn't like the way she smiles at him.
"Why don't you come with me, Ensui-san."
....
Seiko is sitting in a wheelchair when he gets there, boredom plain on her face. The leggings she usually wears are rolled up to show the knee she's always limping on, while both of her sleeves are pushed up to let a Hyuga med-nin stare into her chakra networks with fascination.
What was the midnight wake up all about? She's fine.
Seiko raises an eyebrow when she sees him.
"They gave me a pill that numbs all pain," she says to him, eyes a little dilated. "I told them I could just do the whole thing standing up in that case, but they insisted on the wheelchair. Useless thing, there aren't any ramps in this place. Do they expect Biter to pick the whole thing up?"
Ensui blinks, taken aback by the rapid fire commentary.
"Please stay still," the med-nin who'd been staring at Seiko's knee mutters. "Do you think draining poison is easy? It's practically a part of your bloodstream by now."
Poison!?
"Someone poisoned you," Ensui says, voice flat while his paranoia spikes. Saboteurs? In the village? What if--
"Yeah, by Chiyo Poisontongue," Seiko says, eyes still blankly roaming the room. "I've got one of her needles in my knee. The needle's not coming out without my joint coming with it, so they do this whole clown show instead. Well, they didn't use to. This seems new."
It's funny. There he'd been saying that if only she'd told him one problem she had, he could have done something, and now she has told him of a different problem he can do absolutely nothing about.
Why is he even here? He narrows his eyes at Nono.
"This has nothing to do with me."
She smiles back at him, eyes out of focus behind her glasses. Wait.. that chakra... this is on him for not paying attention. ANBU Designation: Lizard.
"If we'd realized the poison would retain its potency for so long we could have done more..." She says, voice regretful. "But there were many poison related injuries during the second war. It seems that the power Sasori of the Red Sand wielded against our troops didn't come from nowhere."
"This still has nothing to do with--"
"Seiko-chan hasn't been very communicative with us about her encounter," Nono says. "We were hoping that you knew more... though it seems like that was a false hope."
There's a weird sound.
A hacking, coughing thing. In the wheelchair, Seiko is bent forward, wheezing with laughter.
"You already know," Seiko says, voice slurring from the drugs she's under. "It's written on my skin. It's in my hair. Nosy bastards. Strung us up on hooks and made us dance." Her voice slows down into a croon as she stares down at her dog. "But they couldn't get you, Biter. Bit him, chewed him, spit him out."
There's a smile on her face that he's never seen before.
He remembers, suddenly, Biter's ability to bite into shadow and have it hurt the real thing. Would that work on puppets? Could that dog bite wood and chew flesh?
"They just want the poison," Seiko whispers to her dog, loud enough that everyone in the room can hear it. Her wrists don't shake, but her hands still hang stiffly, unable to close properly as she attempts to scratch Biter's ears. "Good thing Dad didn't survive the first attempt, or this place would have made him do it again." She pets the dog's nose. "Isn't that right, Biter? Who's a good boy."
Biter howls.
This is--
"I'm her jounin-sensei," Ensui repeats, a heavy sense of disbelief in his heart even as he speaks. "I'm... responsible, here."
"Ensui-san?"
Every single ninja in the room stops moving as the shadows shiver under their feet.
Ensui carefully picks Seiko up, flinching at the giggle she makes as he does so.
"I think she will recover better at home," he says, voice firm.
Then he jumps through the window, the dog fast at his heels.
Kakashi's new room is kind of small. That's okay, though, as it's just somewhere to sleep. No long hallways that are always getting dusty, and the line to hang his laundry is just outside the window, instead of way far out in the yard, for some reason. And it's right next to the training grounds!
He doesn't even understand what the other chunin complain about. Who cares that there's no kitchen set up? Seiko didn't cook anything good, and-- and Father couldn't cook anyway!
But anyway. It's going to be two years since he became a genin. He hadn't wanted to mention it to Seiko, but his old jounin-sensei-- he'd died. So that's why he'd gotten a replacement.
...
Gaku-sensei had been a good guy. He should've brought Kakashi with him on that mission, so then--
Kakashi takes a deep breath and begins to do his morning pushups. He can't fall behind. He can't be weak. He's going to meet his new jounin-sensei today! He's done his research, this time. Minato Namikaze's jounin-sensei was Jiraya the Toad Sage's jounin-sensei, who learned from the Hokage himself.
He has been given a great opportunity. It's finally time for him to get out into the war. He just needs to show that he's ready. That he's not like the rest of his family. That he wants to be out there. Serving Konoha.
He's been told to report to training ground seven.
Carefully half an hour early, Kakashi debates whether it would give a better impression if he slipped into hiding, only to emerge when his instructor arrived, or to remain perfectly visible, so as to make sure he knows Kakashi got here early--
His cheeks flush a little as he hears Seiko's mocking laughter in his ears. He doesn't need to try so hard. It will be fine.
...
He's late. No, maybe it's Kakashi who got the location wrong. Or the date is wrong. Or he just missed something. A test? Is it a test? But he's already a chunin, he shouldn't need to take one. But it wouldn't hurt to reinvestigate the area around the main open space. That's just being proactive, which is good.
When you look underneath the underneath, that's when you're safe. Otherwise, all you see is--
A slight shadow in the bushes.
Kakashi whirls, hands shuriken spinning in his hands as a tall, yellow-blonde young man trips on a root and stumbles his way into the clearing.
"That came out of nowhere," he says, hopping a little before settling down as he sees Kakashi. "Oh, wow... you're tiny."
He is not.
Kakashi bristles a little.
"Kakashi Hatake, Chunin!"
There's a trace of a wince across the man's face.
"Hey, there," he says. "I'm Minato Namikaze. I've never taught anyone before, so I'll be in your care, okay?"
He gets a stiff nod from Kakashi for his troubles.
"You just need to get me on the battlefield," Kakashi says. "I can take care of myself."
Minato does not look reassured.
"Well!" he says, clapping his hands together. "If it's a mission that will get us really understanding each other, then a mission it is! Let's head over to the mission desk and get--"
"No."
There's something tight and frantic in Kakashi's chest. There's no need to go all the way over there, right?
Minato tips his head.
"No? Is there something--"
"There's nothing wrong," Kakashi says, very rapidly. "I didn't know you also got your orders from the mission desk."
Minato laughs.
"Oh, is that it? Yeah, wartime missions are given by the Jounin Commander, and sent directly to the recipient instead of using the medium of the desk. But I've been given a mo-- well, definitely at least a week away from the frontlines to pick you up!"
A week...
"Then we should just train," Kakashi says, determined. "If you want to. Sir."
Sensei? Should he be using Sensei?
Minato stares at him for an uncomfortably long time before nodding.
"One of my buddies is also on leave for a bit. She's also a jounin-sensei! We can go do joint training with her group!"
Joint training isn't... It's much more efficient to train alone.
But it's not the mission desk. So Kakashi just nods.
He shouldn't have agreed to it.
"Minato!"
The friend Minato had been referring to was Uroko Kurama, a dark haired lady who gives Minato a weary smile as he approaches her.
"It's good to see you, Uroko," Minato says. "It feels like it's been years."
"It probably has been," Uroko sighs, pushing a strand of hair out of her face as she stares down at Kakashi. "Oh, it's the youngest Hatake. You've made chunin already?"
Behind her, Hoheto Hyuga stares out with dark eyes. He's wearing a chunin vest as well, but he doesn't seem happy about it at all. Or maybe it's just Kakashi who's making him unhappy.
The last time Kakashi ever saw him was when he'd picked a fight with Seiko and somehow lost, and then Seiko had never talked about him again. Father had also never talked about his teammates...
But before all that, Kakashi has vague memories of Hoheto and... the other guy... Sometimes being at the house. There's a picture of the three of them in Seiko's room. They'd used to play cards in there and then lock him out when he tried to see what was going on.
"Around four months ago," Kakashi responds after a bit of a delay.
Had it only been a few months ago...?
Everything had seemed so bright.
"Oh, Hoheto just got his last week!" Uroko says, voice bright. "He really went above and beyond the call of duty."
Hohteto's lips curl into a cool sneer.
"Promotions are promotions," he says. "It doesn't matter what you did to get them. Even if you didn't do anything."
"Now, now," Minato starts. "That isn't--"
Kakashi's eyes narrow.
Is he implying Kakashi didn't earn--
"You must have crushed someone who was already injured," Kakashi starts talking before he can really register what he's saying. "As far as I know, that's how you deal with all your problems."
Rage flashes behind Hoheto's eyes, cool disdain sliced clean away. That's right, just start making a hand seal and Kakashi can show what he's made of.
But he should have known the type of people who Seiko had used to like.
"Oh yeah?" Hoheto whispers, the taunt clear in his white eyes. "She always called you a genius. You must have used that superior mind of yours to figure out the best way forward was to abandon your famil--"
There's a kunai in Kakashi's hand before he knows it. And Hoheto smiles, the veins around his eyes growing obvious as he smoothly shifts into the stance of the Gentle Fist.
"Eight Trigrams Sixteen Palms," Hoheto states, hands smoothing beginning to glow with a green chakra.
Kakashi smirks. He can handle something as weak as that. He darts forward, covering the disadvantage from fighting a taller opponent. The edge of his kunai begins to spark, as he focuses for his own counter.
"Lighting Release: L--
A far more intense smell of ozone flashes through the air as Minato materializes between them, spinning so that one leg trips Hoheto while his hand grips Kakashi's wrist. There's a slightly worried look in his eyes, like someone who thinks they might've forgotten to take their drying laundry back inside before it rains.
The gap between their ability....
"That wasn't very nice, Kakashi," Minato says, lifting him up by the wrist to dangle a few inches above the ground as he keeps his other eye on Hoheto. "We are supposed to support our fellow ninja."
He'd made him look bad in front of Minato!
"He started it," Kakashi says, sullen.
"Kakashi." Minato's voice is hard. "Fights begin not with actions, but with words. You both-- and, in fact, all ninja of Konoha-- have earned your promotions honorably."
He doesn't know.
Kakashi's stomach sinks as he nods.
"I understand," he says.
But he doesn't understand, and he sees that same thing in Hoheto's sardonic eyes. He doesn't understand how Seiko, who hasn't left the village since even before the current war even started, earned her promotion.
Minato sighs.
"Well, we all learned something today," he says, and cheers right back up as if nothing happened. "Looks like we should catch up another time, Uroko."
Uroko sighs as well, giving Kakashi a meaningful look.
He looks away.
"Yeah, that's for the best. We should meet up sometime the next time Kushina has some time off!"
Kushina? Who's that?
Kakashi keeps his curiosity firmly sealed for the five minutes it takes to distance themselves from Hoheto's gaze.
"You seem to know a lot of people," Kakashi says.
Minato laughs.
"Is two people a lot? Though I guess you're right, I do know a lot of people! I like to keep in touch. It's easy to start drifting away from people when you're no longer a genin...But it's important to know the people you're working with. Konoha is separate from our rival villages because we are more connected! That's what makes us strong."
It hadn't felt like his father was connected to the village.
"If you say so," Kakashi says.
Minato ruffles his hair.
"I do."
Kakashi crosses his arms. He's too old for someone to do that to him.
"Hey, since you didn't want to go to the tower to pick up a mission for us, I'll go do that before we meet up tomorrow. Got it?"
Kakashi freezes.
"I'll go."
"Huh? You don't have to."
Nice going, genius. What's next? Going to burn down the house?
"I'm going with you."
Ever since the war started, Kakashi has only ever seen Seiko sitting alone at a long desk wide enough for three people to work comfortably. Biter always sits in front, dark eyes watchful of all who enter even while Seiko's own remain dull and indifferent.
She wears her hair longer than he does, sloppily tied back in a low ponytail, and she doesn't wear a mask. So, sitting there, at that desk, she always looks
Like their father.
Her hands both rest on the desk, awkwardly clawed. Even as he watches, one of her fingers does an awkward little spasm as she reaches for an already prepared mission scroll.
"Hi there!" Minato says cheerfully. "I'm Minato Namikaze and this is my new teammate, Kakashi Hatake. We're just looking to help out the village a little while we're on downtime."
Seiko raises an eyebrow at Kakashi.
Kakashi hunches his shoulders a little.
"Not a lot of in village missions for jounin at your level," Seiko says, ignoring Kakashi completely. "I know the guy who's organizing all the outer guard rotations if you want to do that instead."
Gate guarding. He'd rather die.
"Just give us a D-rank, already," Kakashi mutters. "You've already got it in your hand and everything."
A crinkle at the very edges of her eyes. Not the normal ones, an extra one. The one that says she's laughing at him.
"A young Might Gai has been going through my whole D-rank roster at a lightning pace," she says. "They're going to have to put him out in the field just to make sure there's any left for the rest of the genin."
He can't be worse at something than Gai.
"I'll show him what lightning looks like," Kakashi says.
Seiko snorts and tosses it to him.
"Okay, genius. Let's see you design a jutsu capable of constricting the space-time continuum."
Kakashi glances down at the scroll.
Babysitting. Three hours.
"Seiko." He can hear the whine in his own voice.
Minato intervenes, carefully taking the scroll out of Kakashi's hands.
"Wow, taking care of triplets! How exciting! This is going to be great."
Kakashi spares a second to look up at Minato, incredulous. He doesn't appear to be joking.
"I love kids," Minato says sheepishly. "They're so cute."
He can see the snide joke beginning to form in Seiko's head before her lips even start to move. He grabs Minato's arm and frantically drags him back out of the room before she can say one more thing to his new teacher.
"We shouldn't go back in there," Kakashi says, definitively.
Minato just blinks his eyes down at Kakashi.
"No? But she seemed so nice. And she looked... hey, now that I think about it... was that your cousin, Kakashi?"
Kakashi stares back up at him, blindsided.
"No. That's my sister."
...
"We have to go back in there," Minato says. "We should invite her on the mission or something!"
"We can't do that."
Kakashi can't go back in there. He hasn't gone to visit Seiko once since he left.
"Huh? Why not?"
It feels like his mouth isn't under his own power.
"She's always exaggerating her injuries so she doesn't have to do any work."
"Her injuries?"
Kakashi can hear Minato's voice rising, but he can't stop talking. He's had no one to talk to. He needs this man to understand.
"And she's got this slow limp, but I've seen her run. Most of the time she just doesn't. And she's strong enough to beat Hoheto, but not strong enough to even spar with me!? She may have some wrist problems, but she-- she can still hold a sword!"
Dead silence.
"Kakashi..." Minato says, voice slow, bright eyes hooded.
Then he shakes his head, and his smile returns to normal.
"I'm glad you told me this, Kakashi. Let's head over to complete the D-rank, okay? The whole three hours."
That's right. The mission comes first.
Kakashi blinks a little, himself a little uncertain about the words that he'd just said. Hopefully Minato didn't take them too seriously... It's all in the past. He and Seiko don't have much to say to each other these days.
"Okay."
He watches Minato take a left.
...
"Minato...Sensei," Kakashi says. The word is weird in his mouth. "That's the wrong way."
This is his village. These are his familiar streets.
No noose hangs behind Seiko's desk.
He will be strong enough to redeem their name.
A/N: I'm quite fond of Seiko's secondary cast, if you can't tell.
