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Kinoe sees her every night in his dreams - a girl no older than thirteen with purple markings on her cheeks, tears in her eyes and blood streaking down her chin. Her mouth moves, but he can't hear what she says, and that alone is enough to tell him that this is not his dream.
Still, he wakes from it gasping for breath, tears burning in his eyes. It's the first dream he's ever remembered having, and even without sound it had felt so real, like something that had actually happened.
He thinks about asking Danzo about it, but from what he's heard from older members of Root the dreams are something you share with your soulmate. If that's true, does he really want to tell Danzo?
In the end, he decides against it, and despite the horrible sadness they makes him feel, he begins to look forward to his dreams and this connection that he shares with someone else.
---
Kinoe is fourteen when he learns that the girl he's been dreaming about is named Rin Nohara, and that she was killed by her friend Kakashi.
At first he doesn't make the connection, too caught up in the details of what happened to her to realize what his dreaming about it means. It's not until he's ordered to kill Kakashi and almost finds himself on the business end of his Chidori that he puts the pieces together.
After that, everything changes. The knowledge that Kakashi is his soulmate is not enough to make him defy orders, but it's definitely a factor in his decision to lie to Danzo. He could have completed his mission, could have killed Kakashi and taken his eye, but despite the rigorous conditioning Danzo has put him through, a part of him is beginning to question his own blind loyalty.
Yes, Danzo had saved him from the tanks in Orochimaru's lab, had given him a name and a home, a place to belong, but meeting Kakashi and being spared and saved by him again and again has upended everything he has ever believed in, soulmate or not.
Of course, when Danzo tries to brainwash him back into submission he does start to consider that maybe that's not such a good thing, until Kakashi shows up and saves him yet again.
He tries to tell him not to make a habit of it, he's perfectly capable of saving himself, but all that comes out is thank you.
---
Tenzo is sixteen when he figures out that the extent of his bond with Kakashi goes further than dreaming Kakashi's dreams. It turns out that Kakashi also sees his dreams, and the conversation that results from that revelation is very embarrassing - at least for him. Kakashi seems to find the whole thing amusing, which only worsens his embarrassment.
Still, it's not like he can control what his mind does while he's asleep. Hell, he can barely control what it does when he's awake sometimes, which occasionally proves to be a problem when Kakashi is talking to him and all he can think about is what his face looks like under that mask.
He supposes he could just ask. Knowing the truth of it might make him stop dreaming about it, which would give Kakashi a lot less to tease him about.
Then again, he kind of likes it when Kakashi teases him. It makes something in his chest flutter and his face feel warm - it's a weird feeling, but it's nice, too.
It also makes Yugao tease him, though, which he finds he doesn't like as much as he does Kakashi teasing him. Maybe it's because Yugao's teasing involves constantly bringing up his "painfully obvious crush on Kakashi-senpai" when she knows Kakashi will hear her, but he doesn't think it comes from a place of malice - if anything, she probably thinks she's helping, but it's not much of a secret to begin with and her unnecessary addition to the situation is embarrassing.
At the same time, though - and he definitely won't tell Yugao this - it almost feels like everything he's ever heard about family.
---
Tenzo is twenty three the first time Kakashi kisses him.
They're on a mission in the Land of Wind, hunkered down in a cave to wait out the sandstorm that rages outside, and despite everything that's been happening recently and the loss of his students, Kakashi seems almost relaxed. He can't help but wonder if it has anything to do with the white and red Anbu mask that sits on the ground beside him - in all the years he's known him, nothing has helped Kakashi turn off his emotions faster than putting on that mask.
Not for the first time since they left, he thinks Lady Tsunade may have made a mistake in letting Kakashi put it back on for this mission.
Kakashi picks it up when the sandstorm clears and gets to his feet, but before they walk back out of the cave he catches Tenzo's wrist, pulling him around to face him and kissing him, hard and quick. It's out of nowhere and over in an instant, and before Tenzo can even process what has just happened the porcelain mask is hiding Kakashi's face from him.
Even if it was unexpected, it was a nice kiss, he thinks as they head back out into the desert, watching Kakashi's back in front of him, and when they make camp in another cave later that night, it features prominently in his dreams.
---
Tenzo is twenty eight, exhausted and warworn and learning how to put his broken pieces back together, when Kakashi finally allows himself to give in to their bond.
It happens twice - first in Kakashi's dreams as he battles against his own better instincts but still comes to the decision to knock on Tenzo's door, and again in reality when he actually shows up. Tenzo barely has the door open before Kakashi is stepping through and apologizing for taking so long, pulling him into an embrace that feels so much better than he has ever dreamed.
Kakashi stays with him that night, and when Tenzo's nightmares wake them both in a cold sweat, Kakashi holds him tight and promises him that he will never have to bear them alone again - and Tenzo, who is sad and broken and so hopelessly in love with him it aches, can only hide a grateful smile in his neck and tell him that he's going to hold him to it.
It's not quite a promise of forever, but it's as close as either of them are currently capable of getting and for now, it's enough.