Work Text:
“Duty”
In the hindsight, they should've expected this, Kakashi thought with a deep sigh, looking at the mess in front of him.
The mess in question was a bag, currently sitting on top of the document pile on his desk, the content spilling out because of the open zipper - clothes, rations, ninja scrolls and a stupid amount of knives.
Just a few moments before the bag was attached to Yamato, who was on his merry way out of the village's gates.
If not for Naruto - currently still attached to the man and pouting like it was going out of fashion - Yamato most possibly would be far away by now.
Luckily, the kid felt clingy today and so, Yamato ended up dragged all the way back to the Hokage tower.
Along with sour faced Sasuke, who somehow got involved in this mess, but looked like he preferred to be anywhere but here.
Kakashi knew the feeling oh so very much.
“I think you forget to tell anyone you are leaving for a mission,” he started. “Or to pick up that mission in the first place.”
“For whatever reason the mission I'm on wasn't recorded,” Yamato replied calmly. “With all that work, must have slipped your mind.”
Kakashi groaned.
“There's no mission, official or not,” he said. “And I can't just let my shinobi wander wherever they want to go.”
“Oh this is definitely not something I want to do,” Yamato smiled tightly. “But you are letting him go and I can't just stand idly by.”
"I still don't understand why you're doing this," Naruto sighed deeply, shaking his head in frustration. "You don't need to!"
"Someone has to and yes, there is a need for such precautions," Captain Yamato stubbornly replied. "We all know who we are talking about."
Kakashi blinked, squinted and then pinched the bridge on his nose with a pained wince.
The three of them were in the Hokage office. Kakashi was donning the hokage robes - wrinkled and looked like he slept in them more than once already - and was seated by the desk, barely visible from behind the mountains of papers and scrolls piled on top of the wooden surface.
"You are giving me a migraine," he declared.
"Then give up," Captain Yamato bowed slightly. "You know I'm not going to change my mind."
Kakashi sighed painfully once again.
They were arguing about the topic for at least a few hours now, since the very moment they caught captain Yamato trying to sneak out of the village without having a permission.
"You're aware that disappearing like that would make you a missing nin, yes?"
"Of course," Yamato nodded. "However I feel that my quest is of utmost importance and I don't feel that pushing it onto anyone else would be fair."
Kakashi loudly sucked the air in.
"Define fair."
Yamato looked away, at the city visible behind the window.
Konoha was still looking odd and unfamiliar, building still bare and very basic; there was no time to properly rebuild everything after Pain decided to turn the entire place into a smoking crater, so only a few buildings of utter importance were build with bricks and stone.
The Hokage Tower because it was a symbol and the morale of all needed something to tower over them, the Konoha Hospital - now bigger than even before, with additional wings slowly getting all the equipment Sakura's new ideas needed and the Academy, also much bigger now - currently serving both as a place to teach and as a place for the children to sleep while the adults were occupying the wooden barracks created in the time of emergency.
The rest of Konoha was growing steadily, buzzing with life, humming with people working their hardest to turn the ruins into something much more stellar than they remembered it to be.
"I was of absolutely no use to my comrades in the time of need," Yamato admitted softly. "More than that. My abilities were used to strengthen the enemy and caused many deaths. Good people died because I was unable to help out."
"That wasn't your fault," Naruto argued. "You couldn't known, nobody could!"
"It happened," Yamato shrugged. "And I feel I need to repay this debt somehow. This mission isn't going to be enough, but it is a start."
Kakashi looked like he was torn between smacking his head against the wall and grabbing Yamato and using his forehead to beat up a hole in the wall, right in between the portraits of the previous Hokage’s.
Naruto shared the sentiment.
What Yamato wanted to do was just... unfair. To him and to Kakashi, who was faced with a situation where he was forced to either condemn his friend or let him torture himself.
"You want to go and spy on Orochimaru," he said slowly. “But you don’t want to have anything to do with Orochimaru! This doesn’t even make sense!”
"Someone need to keep an eye on him," Yamato repeated. "We all know who... what he is."
"He promised," Naruto muttered.
"And you want to believe him?" Yamato arched his eyebrows.
Kakashi did so too. Sasuke merely observed the exchange, face blank and almost bored.
Naruto groaned.
Things were... odd right now.
There was peace but it didn’t felt like it, the tension closer to the time before the Kage summit than the times of his childhood and Naruto wasn’t sure what to do with that.
"We all were criminals in each other countries and something needed to be done," Kakashi sighed. "Otherwise the peace would fall apart in a matter of hours after Kaguya was defeated."
Therefore all the Kages quickly, hastily figured out that the only choice that would give the alliance a chance to survive was an amnesty offered to everyone who helped in the fight.
Which included Orochimaru, landing them in the current situation.
"He's not stupid," Sasuke interrupted from his spot in the dark corner next to the window. "He knows Naruto and I are able to beat him in seconds, so he will not try anything."
"How you can be so sure?"
"I know him," he replied with a small shrug.
"That is not enough," Yamato said sternly. "Even if he plays nice with Konoha, he might still look for another way to realize his plans..."
Kakashi rubbed his temples.
“So, I have a choice. Either I call this little act of madness a mission and let you go or I need to go get my Hunter nins ready because you're going anyway.”
Yamato smiled tightly.
Kakashi swallowed a groan.
That idiot was a friend and was doing it all because he was a good person, way better than Kakashi even was and honestly, everyone would probably feel better if a certain excuse was made but..
But he couldn't risk it all just to feel better and he was certain that Orochimaru would make sure to take the whole world with him. Hell, it wasn't very plausible, but they were talking about Orochimaru here.
“Sensei!” Naruto gasped. “We can't… Captain isn't a criminal!”
“He just admitted willingness to become one.”
“Hey, Sasuke ran away too! And even to the same guy and he's not-”
Sasuke coughed and elbowed Naruto under the ribs.
The boy yelped in protest.
“You're really not giving me any choice, are you?”
“Are you going to arrest me?”
“You would simply break out and do whatever you have in mind anyway,” Kakashi sighed heavily.
“I'm glad you understand, senpai.”
“I don’t, “Kakashi replied dryly. “But I don't want to chain you up.”
“Some people would call it favoritism.”
“Some people should know better than open their mouths, especially all things considered.”
Sasuke huffed and make an awkward motion like he wanted to cross arms on his chest, only in the last moment he remembered he couldn't do that, so he ended up awkwardly flailing.
“Your mission is to secure an outpost at the northern border of the Land of Fire,” Kakashi declared with an exaggerated, defeated sigh.
“And outpost?” Yamato blinked. “Are you planning to… I don't need other people!”
“But I need a way to punish some of mine,” Kakashi grinned. “That looks like my chance. And before you disappear - under any circumstances you are to interact with the target. Something is up and I want you right here, giving me a well detailed report, understand?”
Yamato looked like he wanted to argue some more. Kakashi almost could hear it: how other people didn't need to be dragged into this mess, how he was going to be enough, how setting up a camp would be too suspicious…
Yamato didn't say a thing.
Instead he bowed, deeply enough to hide his face and then shunshined away.
“ Before I change my mind, huh?” Kakashi snickered.
Naruto chewed on his lip and stayed miraculously silent, but his other student had some things left to say.
“ You sure it's a good idea?”
“It's not you I'm letting of the leash, Sasuke.”
“This is not what I'm asking about,” Sasuke rolled his eyes. “And you know this. Stop dodging the question.”
Oh it was a horrible, terrible decision, definitely. But his other choice was literally chaining the poor man to the wall, which was even worse.
“Don't worry, I'll send a team his way. I'll give them a picnic basket and a blanket and it's going to be great.”
It wasn't, but one could dream.