Chapter Text
The first time he meets Satoru, it's within a hospital. Kakashi observes him with a certain apathy; Sakumo had died a couple of years ago. Perhaps four years ago, if Kakashi were to try to remember the exact date, but he has forgotten it just as he has forgotten his mother's face. Kakashi is ten years old, nearing eleven, and he learns that he is an older brother. Of course, the child sleeping on that bed cannot be more than five years old, which makes him a couple of years younger than Kakashi.
He is not excited, of course he is not. His father had tarnished the memory of his mother, and Satoru's existence was proof enough for him. However, his rejection would not be taken into account. The Hokage had not been lenient regarding his thoughts; Satoru would be accepted in the village as Sakumo's son and as a member of the Hatake clan, and there was no way to change it.
He evaluates the child with a critical eye. He has white hair, whiter than his father's, and relatively pale skin. He looks small in his unconscious state, and Kakashi wonders how much of it actually belongs to his father or how much of it belongs to a clan that has been forgotten (but both his existence and the existence of this child make that fact impossible).
Satoru belonged (belonged) to a small village of farmers, one protected from the ominous forecast of a war in full swing, and from the report he obtained, the protection had not been enough in the hands of an inexperienced shinobi. Satoru's mother was kidnapped, tortured, and murdered. (And despite that, Kakashi knows she did everything possible to protect the child).
As soon as the Hokage leaves the room, Satoru is, by extension, his younger brother.
He gathers all of the child's belongings (no more than a dirty backpack with few clothes and personal hygiene items) and takes them to the estate. Later that day, he meets with his team. Kakashi does not mention that he actually has a family now.
Days later, Satoru wakes up. It's all confusion, until his eyes stop on him, and there is a certain understanding in them that he wishes he didn't know. However, he does. There is nothing of his father there, except perhaps for the hair and the DNA evidence.
The child does not speak, and Kakashi does not blame him. Nor does he ask about his mother, perhaps because he knows what her fate was before falling into unconsciousness.
"You are the son of White Fang," Kakashi says; the child blinks towards him. There is no interest in those eyes. "Sakumo Hatake is dead."
And Kakashi understands that Satoru is another orphan left by the war. With his biological mother dead for protecting him from some mercenaries and his father dead after committing suicide, he has no one else.
(Except for him).
"Sakumo Hatake was also my father," Kakashi continues, without being involved with those words because he is overwhelmed by shame. "I am your older brother."
You will live with me.
It is the last thing he says before taking the child out of the hospital and informing the Hokage. Satoru is now another member of the Hatake clan, and he is grateful not to have to complete any paperwork because the Third Lord said he would take care of any paperwork the child may require.
Over the next few days, he realizes that Satoru is not very talkative. He doesn't have to be after everything he has been through, and Kakashi is patient (he hasn't heard him speak since they left the hospital; he wonders if the child knows how to do it).
"What is your name?"
Kakashi is stupid, perhaps he is an idiot. Satoru has been with him for two days, and it is the first time he asks a real question to the child he is supposed to take care of. (But how to do it when all he sees there is a memory of his father?)
"Satoru."
And it is the first time he hears the child's childish voice. It is small and with little use, of course Kakashi knew the child's name. It was the last thing his mother said to the Konoha shinobi before dying in the cold jaws of a cave.
"I'm Kakashi."
Satoru's existence is silent; he moves as if he feels uncomfortable, and Kakashi believes he can understand him. But he doesn't, because he hasn't seen his mother being mistreated until there is nothing left of her. (But he has seen his father's body bleed out on the cold tatami floor, and he doesn't believe it's the same because at the end of the day, there was nothing to rescue from that).
He knows that from now on, Satoru's existence is tainted by his father's legacy. Poor unconscious child. Kakashi was six years old when he rose through the shinobi ranks as a chunin and was rewarded with his father's lifeless body in an awkward and humiliating position lying on the cold tatami, sheltered by darkness.
Satoru was five years old when he lost his mother, when he witnessed the abuse the woman suffered to protect him from men planning to harm him. He watches the child eat, and there is no light in those eyes despite having the sky and the clouds within them.
"I'll have my first mission as a jounin," Kakashi tells the boy days later. He has gone to train, as well as hidden his brother's existence in the remoteness of the estate.
He doesn't want them to find out about him. Not yet.
The child doesn't respond, seeming to have no interest in doing so, and Kakashi is fine with that. He also has no interest in giving explanations.
"I'll be back late, there's food in the pantry."
He doesn't know if Satoru is capable of preparing his own meal, but he has learned to fend for himself from an early age, so he waits for the child to learn to survive because that's what he'll have to do from now on.
Survive.