Chapter Text
“Friends don’t let friends do stupid things alone.”
~Unknown
Snapshot-Age 7
Itachi ended up being right after all, Kakashi thought as he picked Naruto up from school. The boy had to say goodbye to a small crowd of children before he and Sasuke could slip away.
“Kakashi-nii! You’re back!” Naruto barreled into him, or at least tried to. He was still so small that Kakashi just caught him and swung him around once.
“Yes I’m back. I told you it would only be a week or two,” Kakashi said, setting him down and nodding to the other boy. “Sasuke.”
“Hn,” Sasuke responded as Naruto snorted.
“Good to see you too,” Kakashi said with a wry grin. “How is everyone?”
“Itachi-nii is on a mission. Shisui-san and mother are doing well.”
“I see, and how is your training coming?”
“We’re beginning work on the katon jutsu and chakra control.”
“Good. Now we just need Naruto to learn control.” Kakashi gave said boy a pointed look.
“He he, well Anko-nee says I probably won’t be blowing myself up at least,” Naruto said with a chuckle and scratched the back of his head in embarrassment but Kakashi wasn’t worried about it. When they had started learning control techniques in school Iruka had gotten worried enough to speak to Kakashi about Naruto’s issues.
One look with the Sharingan had told Kakashi all he needed to know. The Kyuubi’s presence had managed to enlarge an already huge chakra system. They were working on his control at home, but he would always have more chakra then he would know what to do with.
“Glad to hear it. Let’s hope that applies to our house too. Anyway, I’m exhausted so do the two of you think you can amuse yourselves?”
Naruto huffed and Sasuke rolled his eyes.
“What?”
“We’re not babies anymore Kashi-nii. We can take care of ourselves. And anyway, I know you still have the ANBU watching us,” Naruto retorted.
“If you know then you should know not to intentionally lose them. I have them there for a reason Naruto,” Kakashi chided. While they had been fortunate enough to not have another run in with Tobi yet, Kakashi didn’t believe for a moment that he or Naruto had been so easily forgotten.
“Whatever.”
They walked the rest of the way in silence, and Kakashi headed straight to his room to unpack and rest.
“Hey Sasuke.”
“Hnn?”
“Remember what that kid at the playground was talking about?”
“Yeah, what of it?”
“Wanna check it out?”
“Are you sure you want to do that? Kakashi-san already said not to.”
“Since when do we care what the adults said? Or are you scared?”
“I’m not scared baka.”
“Well then let’s go aho.”
“Fine. Escape plan Cat.”
Naruto nodded and they both began discreetly gathering up their ninja tools, including kunai pouches and ninja wire.
“Aren’t you going to change your clothes?” Sasuke asked. Naruto glanced down at the orange shorts and white tee shirt, and shook his head.
“We’ll be alright. It’d give us away if I do change, since I only wear dark colors when training these days.”
“Alright, let’s go then.”
The two of them headed out into the backyard and began an impromptu spar, using it to head into the forest. Once there they started darting in and out while laying traps behind them. Naruto grinned as the first ones went off.
“I love how we always get the newbies. Anko’s right, they really do need the extra help,” he whispered to Sasuke, who grinned in return.
“Ibiki kept complaining about them too, or at least that’s what Sai said last time we were there.”
“Man how can you get along with that creep?” Naruto grumbled. Because their caretakers worked together, the three were often thrown together in an attempt to socialize. That plan had backfired pretty spectacularly when Naruto’s and Sai’s personalities had exploded against each other. It seemed Naruto was only able to tolerate one arrogant friend at a time, which meant Sasuke was the one to talk to him when they were stuck together.
“I put up with you don’t I?” Sasuke retorted. Naruto just rolled his eyes in response and focused on getting away from their escort.
A few minutes later they burst from the tree line and continued towards the main gate. When they got close they darted into an alley and made sure it was empty.
“Ready?”
“Hell yeah! Henge.”
“Henge.”
Where the two boys had once stood, now were two teenagers with brown hair and brown eyes. They wore civilian clothes based off of the travelers that frequently came through the gates. Sasuke peered out of the alley and saw a group of travelers getting heading out.
“It’s our lucky day baka. Let’s go.”
“I’m not a baka, aho,” Naruto muttered, but he still fell in behind Sasuke quickly. They easily slipped out the gate with the group, waiting until they were out of sight before turning off the path.
“Man that was too easy,” Naruto said with a grin.
“Hn. Let’s get going. We still have to make it back before dark or we’re dead.”
“Like we’d get caught. We’re going to be amazing ninja so there’s no way we’ll fail at anything.” While he tried to sound confident Naruto couldn’t help but be a little nervous. If Kakashi ended up coming to find him, there’d be hell to pay. “Come on, the graveyard should be this way.”
Sasuke nodded and the two trudged through the forest, keeping the wall to their left and just barely in sight. They also made sure to keep the henge up in case anyone spotted them, though they modified it to look closer to a ninja’s uniform.
“Ugh, where is this place,” Naruto groaned about an hour later. “We’ve looked everywhere.”
“Are you sure they said to go left baka?” Sasuke growled back, just as irritated.
“I’m positive. It was outside the gate, go left and follow the wall. It should be right here.”
“Well well well, look what we have here,” a new voice said from the trees.
“Seems like we have some brave ninja that thought they would come play hero,” a second voice said.
“We should teach them a lesson.”
Sasuke and Naruto went back to back, but that did little to save them. Soon both were flying into trees and their henges fell apart.
“Aww the heroes are just ickle babies. I wonder how much we could get for the two of them. They’re both so very pretty,” the first voice said.
“You can’t have us,” Sasuke said as he got to his feet.
“Yeah, we’re not going anywhere,” Naruto added with an arrogant grin.
“Apparently we didn’t hit them hard enough the first time Kaido. Let’s try again,” the second voice said.
The exchange lasted longer but not by much. Once again the boys were thrown back into the foliage and this time they were slower getting up.
“We won’t go down so easily,” Sasuke bit out as he held his side. Naruto pushed himself up with a wince and moved over to Sasuke.
“Aww look Teito. They’re trying to protect each other, how sweet,” Kaido said in a syrupy voice. “Makes you just want to tear them apart in front of each other.”
“Why don’t we play a game?” Teito said. “We’ll pick one of you to kill, and then we’ll take the other with us to sell.”
“That’s a wonderful idea. Hmm, who should we kill? The blonde one is very pretty, but so is the dark one. And look how defensive he is of his friend.”
“That decides it then, we’ll kill you,” Teito said as he appeared behind Naruto. A swift kick sent Naruto flying towards Kaido, who caught him with a knee to the stomach.
Naruto gasped with pain and briefly passed out until a jolt of electricity brought him back. Sasuke was charging one of the older ninja but the only thing Naruto was aware of was the red color of Sasuke’s eyes with a single black tomoe in them. He started to struggle, wanting to help his friend, but pain arced through him again and darkness swallowed him. His last thought was that he was going to get his friend hurt again and there was nothing he could do about it.
When Naruto awoke again he found himself staring at a white ceiling. It took him a few minutes to recognize it as the hospital and a few more minutes to remember why he was there. Once he did though, he struggled to get up and move. The monitor next to him beeped rapidly as panic coursed through him.
Sasuke! Where is Sasuke? He had to find him and that was all that was important to him.
“Naruto, calm down. Naruto!”
Kakashi’s voice cut through his panic and suddenly he could hear other voices around him along with his own ragged breaths.
“Sasuke-“ he managed to get out as he tried to breathe.
“He is safe and sound,” Kakashi said as he tried to settle Naruto back down. “I’m sure you’ll see him later today, but he’s at school right now.”
“School?”
“Yes, school. His injuries were minor overall, though he did end up with a broken rib or two,” Kakashi told him patiently. “You, on the other hand, ended up with half your ribs broken plus severe internal damage from a few raiton jutsu. Which is why, my adventurous little pup, you will stay here until the medics release you and you will not argue with them or your ANBU guard. Do I make myself clear?” Kakashi’s tone bordered between pissed off and ‘going to kill you’ angry and Naruto couldn’t help but flinch.
“I’m sorry Kakashi-san,” the blonde said, blinking back tears. He didn’t want to cry but he hated that he had not only worried Kakashi, but that he had endangered both Sasuke and himself. “It was really stupid and I’m really really sorry.”
Naruto continued his mantra of apology as tears did roll down his face and Kakashi just sighed before gathering his pup into his arms.
“I won’t say it’s alright, because it isn’t, but both of you are alive and that is the important part. You really worried everyone, especially me,” Kakashi told him with another sigh.
“Please don’t hate me,” Naruto said in a hoarse whisper while pulling himself closer against Kakashi’s vest.
“You know I could never hate you,” Kakashi whispered back fiercely. “That doesn’t mean you aren’t grounded for life though. I think you shaved another ten years off my life, baka puppy.”
‘I thought I was going to lose you,’ went unsaid but Naruto felt it in Kakashi’s strong hold and the panic he had felt relaxed. He and Sasuke were both alive and Kakashi was here, which meant everything would work out in the end, even if he was grounded indefinitely.