Chapter Text
The third time Kakashi met the spirit, it was during a mission that went sideways and ended with his team getting tossed overboard in the middle of a storm.
Genma cursed and spluttered, swimming like a dog as he tried to keep his head above water. “We’re gonna drown out here!” He yelled, before getting submerged by a jolting wave.
It felt like his bones were getting crushed just from the force of pounds and pounds of water crashing down on him. Kakashi’s eyes rattled in his skull, but he could barely make out the sound of a flock of albatrosses in the distance. They weren’t that far away from the land, they could make it, and the crying sounds of the birds made his heart pound. If he could just get everyone close enough to the coast, they would survive.
Renewed with the promise of shore, he swam harder, dragging Kurenai behind him as best he could. She’d been thrown overboard first, tied down with heavy metal weights around her ankles as the pirates they’d been sent to deal with jeered. She was already half drowned when he’d managed to cut the ties, the metal sinking into darkness as the sea roiled around them. Kakashi tried to keep her face out of the water as much as he could manage while getting tossed around.
Genma yelled something about seeing land, when fins popped out of the water around them, a trio that cut towards them. Relief rushed through him when he saw how the backs of the fins curved inwards. Something large and powerful slammed into Kakashi’s side, pushing him towards the beach and from where he could barely make out Genma, something similar happened to him.
The dolphins bullied them several more yards until they dispersed, leaving them to swim the rest of the way onto the shore. Kakashi pulled Kurenai up the beach, his feet sinking heavily into the saturated and loose sand, coughing heavily. He dropped Kurenai on her back, knelt beside her and gave her CPR until she gasped and threw water out of her mouth. Genma sluggishly climbed up the sand behind him, flopping down next to Kurenai.
Familiar tanned feet stepped into view and a firm hand pet his soaked hair, pulling it out of the way of his face.
“I found you again,” Umino said softly, standing above him, gorgeous brown hair floating in the air as if underwater. “With companions this time. You’re lucky that I was here, I’d hate to have lost you.”
Umino pulled at his arms, tugged him up onto his unsteady feet, and corralled him into a strange circling dance, laughing like a bell, like the melodic shifting of ice on a lake’s shore. Kakashi winced as his pounding head spun and his broken ribs ached.
“Dance with me,” Umino cajoled, leaving Kakashi feeling sun-warmed, “I’ve been waiting for you. You’re like an albatross, always wandering on the land, but always returning to me.”
“I can’t, I’m hurt,” Kakashi whispered, uncomfortable with being dragged around by a spirit while his teammates coughed up water behind him.
“If you let me, I could help you,” Umino promised, “But you must give me the prize of your entire name.”
“I can’t do that,” Kakashi said, “I don’t think now is the time.”
Umino raised his brows, shook his head, pulled Kakashi into another set of moves that the man tried to copy as best as he could while exhausted. It never paid to upset a spirit, let alone a spirit who had helped his team.
“You are concerned for your teammates?” Umino asked, “They will be fine, I made sure of it. A free gift, but only for you.”
The spirit rested a hand on the side of Kakashi’s neck, something that made him shiver from battle fried instincts as much as vague arousal. Umino watched him with his deep brown eyes and pulled him into an embrace. Kakashi sagged into him, distantly ignoring Genma asking what was going on, and took a deep inhale. The spirit smelled as wild and free as the sea behind them.
“I must leave now,” Umino said abruptly, fickle as any other spirit, “but I will give you this boon. If you keep it on you, I’ll find you faster next time.” He gave Kakashi a beautiful shell, orange like the burning sun during a sunset and Umino kissed him, all mist and salt and power through his mask. Kakashi raised his hands to either cup his cheek or tug him away, but the gorgeous man dissolved in sea spray and foam.
A large, angry sounding albatross dragged Kurenai further up the beach to avoid the encroaching tide and Kakashi snapped out of daze to attend to her.
--
“You know we have to report that there’s an ocean spirit who is obsessed with you.” Kurenai said conversationally, putting her wraps up to hang on tree branches to air dry.
Genma snorted from where he’s busy trying to start up a fire from the dubiously wet wood they managed to gather, “Only Kakashi would have a spirit stalking him.”
--
The fourth time that Kakashi met Umino, it was in a mangrove swamp along the southern border. He was crouched on the thick roots of a mangrove, staring down into the brackish water, trying to catch something to eat when Umino appeared, crouched on a neighboring root, head tilted and watching him.
“I’m trying to fish,” Kakashi said instead of greeting the man. Somehow the man was bright even under the thick canopy of the mangroves, all glorious sunkissed skin that seemed to glow from the inside out.
“Oh,” Umino smiled, then dipped his hand into the water. The brackish water didn’t even quiver when he reached into it, physical material that bent to the spirits will. A long, spotted gar nibbled at him, tried to bite some of the rings on his fingers before swimming into his cupped palm. Umino pet it with his other hand, then grabbed and pulled it out with both hands. The gar fish flexed and twisted, fighting to be released, its long snout opening and closing with snaps. It fought until the spirit thanked it, tightened his grip, and broke its spine.
Kakashi shivered, knowing that he could easily be the gar if Umino ever got tired of him.
“Here,” he smiled.
“Thank you.” Kakashi said, gratefully accepting the fish.
They settled together, Kakashi cleaning and gutting the fish before cooking it over a small fire that Umino had made. He ate it quickly, sealing the leftovers in a storage scroll, and they settled together side by side, staring at the fire and listening to the lazy fluxes of water under them.
Umino tilted his head, reaching towards him with confidence, “May I kiss you again?”
Kakashi stared at him, felt his Adam’s apple bob with his swallow, and whispered, “Yes.”
The spirit looked delighted, crawled closer, and shut his eyes while he tugged Kakashi’s facemask down. Their teeth clacked together, but Kakashi moaned into it anyway, grabbing at Umino’s loose hair when the spirit deepened the kiss. He crawled into Kakashi’s lap, all thick, muscular thighs as he chased his desire for Kakashi. It felt hot and dangerous just like the sudden retreat of ocean from the coastline.
“Do I get to know your name, now?” He asked when they parted, teasing and light, the sweet caress of the sea breeze diluted into a voice.
“Yes,” Kakashi said huskily, his hands digging into Umino’s hips, “Kakashi. You can look at me, please.”
“Kakashi,” he laughed and blinked his eyes open, “You are so strange.” As if he wasn’t the definition of peculiar. “I am called Iruka, and I watch over my flock.”
“The albatrosses?”
Iruka bobbed his head, “They gather where I walk the shore and I keep them safe as they mate. I feed them and keep them warm.”
Kakashi nodded, tilting his head when he realized he couldn’t hear any of the strange bubbling noises of the birds, “Where are they now?”
“Ah, mangroves are not my territory,” he said, “I am on borrowed time. My birds are wandering as they usually do, using the currents to explore. Albatrosses mate for life, you know. Is love not strongest when you can let them go and know you will meet again?”
“Yes.” Kakashi said again, bouncing Iruka on his lap, rubbing his erection against the spirit.
And the spirit looked at him, amused, and said, “I like that you’re making assumptions.”
--
The fifth time he met Iruka, he had a mission to accomplish.
“I don’t understand,” He said, “What you do to me.”
Iruka smiled, “I like to call it making love.”
Kakashi flushed, brightly and aggressively, almost dropping the pink seashell he’d found. “That’s-“
“I’m sorry,” Iruka said, not sorry at all.
“Every time I see you, I feel like I can’t breathe,” Kakashi said instead, holding out the shell towards Iruka, feeling childish for offering a sea spirit such a silly token. The pleased look that Iruka made soothed his nerves. Iruka cradled the shell like a treasure.
“Do you know what you are promising?” He asked, brushing his fingertips over the ruffled shell. A chorus of albatrosses screamed in the background; their massive wings opened as pairs faced each other.
“Come home with me,” Kakashi asked suddenly, forgoing his planned speech, grabbing at Iruka’s hands. “There’s a pond where my home is. I could make it larger, as large as you could ever want. I’d turn it into saltwater for you.”
“An Umino for a Hatake,” Umino sighed, and it sounded like the receding of the tide, “A sea and a field.”
Kakashi worked his jaw, holding sun warm hands in his own, “I don’t understand.”
Umino smiled at him tenderly. “A sea and a field,” he repeated, “land and sea, and a shore in-between. A shore where they meet, where they always meet.”
“You can never come back with me,” he murmured. His heart cracked as he forced himself to accept that they’d never be together.
Iruka sadly shook his head, his hair subdued as if he was in stagnant water. The spirit stared down at their hands, as if he could memorize the way their hands looked and felt together. The birds started bubbling again behind them, wings large and held open. Pairs of albatrosses stood facing each other, as some of them screamed and bubbled. Soon, they’d all go their separate ways until the next time they gathered together with Iruka. Something clicked in his mind.
“Albatrosses mate for life,” Kakashi said quickly, heart beating rough and wild.
“They do,” Iruka smiled, threading their fingers together, “They wander freely and separately until they are brought together again. Fidelity and freedom, the things I give to you.”
“I’ve always been your albatross,” Kakashi realized, cupping Iruka’s cheek. “And I give those things to you, too.”
The answering smile was like the breaking of the dawn.