23

Chapter 23: i feel like a storm is comingNotes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Kakashi had gone into Team Chi with a sense of purposeful wariness. Not only because he hadn't wanted to be assigned to another dedicated team (at least not until he can trust himself to look after another teammate's back), but also because he'd promised himself that he wouldn't let his guard down around Minato's brother.

He had known that the latter would be a difficult endeavour. Kakashi has watched Raijin interact with Obito, Minato, Kushina and even Rin. He has seen how just a few words and jovial smiles from the blond seems to draw them in like sunflowers turning towards the sun. Or like hapless moths drawn to a flame. Hell, even Nara Shikaku looks more awake, almost charmed, in Raijin's presence.

The elder shinobi's charisma is only aided by the fact that Kakashi has to spend so much time in close quarters with him now that they're essentially roommates. He keeps his eye out, always waiting for the other shoe to drop, but aside from occasionally having garbled one-sided conversations in his sleep, Raijin doesn't do anything to warrant the suspicion Kakashi can't help but regard him with.

Raijin is funny and easy-going in their day-to-day life, and a reliable leader when they're on missions. He tries to build and maintain a rapport with each member of the team, actively engaging them in both casual discussion and team strategy meetings. He ropes Kakashi into helping him experiment with seals and it is only halfway through their second session that Kakashi realises Raijin is subtly trying to teach him basic fuuinjutsu theory. He tells them point-blank that he refuses to put their lives at risk for the sake of any mission.

The last one had turned Kakashi's blood to ice, his mouth going dry, as if a ghost had just walked right through him. It had brought up uncomfortable reminders of his father and of Obito; both reminders that had left Kakashi feeling thoroughly spooked and rendering him unable to look Raijin in the eye for days after.

Despite himself, however, Kakashi finds that he is slowly being drawn out of his shell. He barely catches himself from smiling at Raijin's antics, only just managing to refrain from feeling any fondness accompanying the amusement he feels whenever he gives in and quips back at the blond.

It doesn't help that Raijin always seems so delighted whenever he manages to pull those moments of almost-camaraderie out of Kakashi. Even when Kakashi snaps at and challenges him on purpose, knowingly pushing buttons that he can see piss Raijin off, Raijin doesn't snap back as Kakashi expects him to. He storms off and sulks and pouts, sure, but he never actually says anything hurtful or holds it against Kakashi.

He's kind of like Minato in that way. Kakashi has never quite managed to push his sensei away either, even when he had given it his absolute best shot for almost the entirety of the first year he had been under Minato's care. Minato had stayed through everything Kakashi tried to throw at him. Through every test and trial and the odd assassination attempt where Kakashi lay in wait for Minato to give up on him, Minato had stayed.

It had thrown him off balance back then with his mentor, and it throws him off balance now with Raijin.

Something about him is still so painfully familiar; it eats away at Kakashi, catching him off guard whenever he least expects it. He doesn't know why he feels safe or comforted by a man he doesn't want to trust. He doesn't get it.

"Yo, Kakashi!" Raijin calls from the campfire they've built outside their tents, arm waving in a wide arc as he grins wide, eyes closed. "Get your head out of those books and come hang out with us!"

Instinctively, Kakashi scowls. 'Those books' happen to be ones about advanced chakra theory that Raijin himself had lent him, pulled from a seal on his forearm that looks like gears of a clock left to float among sprawling constellations of kanji instead of stars.

He opens his mouth to say "Go away" or "I'm busy" or "I don't even like you." But Raijin is tapping his foot with feigned impatience and patting the space beside himself on the log he has claimed. He's wearing a black haori over an orange kimono shirt today and, for some reason, something about the colours or the image is giving Kakashi some pause. The strange sense of déjà vu hits him again and Kakashi sighs, closing the book and standing up to just go join his team. He shoots a scathing look at Raijin when the man starts looking too pleased about successfully pulling Kakashi into the fold, but he also doesn't protest when Raijin hands him a packet of the fancy jerky they'd stolen from a Kumo camp with a wink and a smile.

'It's a bribe,' he thinks, staring at the packet, 'or a reward for good behaviour.'

He should feel outraged at being treated like a puppy or some kind of toddler, but mostly, he just feels a sort of detached amusement.

(It might also just be fondness.)

Hyuuga Daisuke ropes him into a conversation about the different taijutsu forms across the nations and Kakashi allows it. Beside him, Raijin throws his head back and laughs so hard at something Akimichi Kumiko just said that it sends him careening into Kakashi's side. Kakashi allows that too.

Begrudgingly, as days turn into weeks, he finds that Raijin has carved out a mantle for himself in Kakashi's eyes that isn't just 'Possible Spy', 'Pain in the Neck', 'Obito's Saviour' or 'Minato-sensei's Brother'.

They spar together and train as a team. They work on genjutsu based seals. They work or read in companiable silence. They bicker and argue. They share their meals. They wake each other up from nightmares and stay until the other has calmed down again.

Despite his best efforts, Kakashi is drawn out—a sunflower looking to the sun. Raijin pulls him right into his orbit and Kakashi can no longer find it in himself to resist the comfort of the man's magnetism.

Because that's what it is. He finds Raijin comforting. He feels seen and heard and known in a way that shouldn't be possible for someone who hasn't known him all his life. As disorienting and terrifying as that is, it is also incredibly difficult to resist. Vulnerability is a terrifying prospect for shinobi, and yet, it is a tantalising idea that hangs just out of reach up until, all of a sudden, it doesn't.

And he can't explain it. Kakashi doesn't ever tell Raijin anything about himself. He doesn't have to either; it's like Raijin already knows.

He wonders if Obito and Minato feel the same way about Raijin. 

Is it only Kakashi who is stuck in the dissonance of it all?

'No,' he thinks, mulling over every interaction he can remember having with Raijin. He isn't the only one. Raijin is the same. He's just as stuck as Kakashi even if it is over something different.

There are moments when Raijin thinks no one is looking, where the blond suddenly gets quiet and contemplative. His chakra streaks through with something dense and heavy. Moments where Raijin looks caught off guard seemingly out of nowhere; like he is looking out at ghosts. Sometimes Kakashi will say or do something and Raijin will just stare at him for a second, struck dumb for whatever reason is known only to him; seeing someone else, stuck in a time past.

He wonders sometimes who Raijin sees when he looks at Kakashi like that.

With the way things are going, he thinks he might even get to find out one day, and the thought of that has his head spinning. He can't even pinpoint when exactly his wariness turned into a fruitless endeavour that he gave up on before he even realised what he was doing.

Kakashi stops pushing Raijin's buttons and, instead, fumbles through the beginnings of what he thinks might be friendship. Raijin smiles and laughs and ruffles his hair and stays through it all.

Or that is what he is supposed to be doing anyway.

Except, here they are now—the two of them fleeing from who knows how many Kumo shinobi after having been compromised on a mission to intercept an important missive from the Raikage to the Lightning Daimyo. Kakashi suspects a leak but that will hardly matter in the grand scheme of things if they were to die right now.

His knee is definitely sprained, if not outright fractured, pain lancing right through it and up to his fucking skull every time it is jostled while Raijin throws himself over forests and cliffs with Kakashi on his back.

"It's no good," the captain comments through gritted teeth, barely audible over the wind whistling in Kakashi's ears. "We can't lead them to the rendezvous point and put the others at risk."

The pathetic, helpless eleven-year-old in Kakashi kind of wants to cry. He wants to cling onto Raijin even tighter. He wants to go home. He wants to see Minato, Rin and Obito.

They have what feels like the entire village of Kumogakure on their heels and nowhere to go. Kakashi's chakra is flagging, his ribs hurt and so does his knee, and he knows he isn't going to be much good as any sort of backup to Raijin.

"You should ditch me," he announces pragmatically, even though the thought makes his gut churn violently enough that it makes him want to throw up. Although that might also be his dwindling chakra reserves combined with motion sickness. It's not like he's thrilled that their only option is leaving him to the tender mercies of the Village Hidden in the Clouds, but there's also not much else they can do.

At least without Kakashi acting as deadweight, Raijin stands a chance of getting away safely. Kakashi can still pull off some sort of distraction to buy time, he's sure. He'll do his best anyway.

The mission will succeed and, more importantly, Raijin will have a shot at surviving.

"What if I screw up and your brother is the one who gets hurt this time?" he had asked Minato.

Well, Kakashi is done forcing other people to clean up his messes. He isn't interested in finding out the answer to the hypothetical question he'd posed to his teacher.

"You should leave me," he repeats, wheezing when Raijin's next jump is supremely unkind to Kakashi's broken ribs. "I'm only holding you back."

"Shut the fuck up," Raijin seethes. "I'd rather die."

Rolling his eyes, Kakashi drawls, "You're going to get your wish with the way things are looking. We're both going to die at this rate."

The exertion of speech has him breathless, and Kakashi coughs, trying to push air into his lungs futilely, his vision going dark for a second as he tries to inhale painfully. He blinks away the spots dancing before his eyes, and then blinks again at the dark stain he has just left on Raijin's flak jacket.

"I'm bleeding," he says helpfully.

"I know, Kakashi."

"No," he insists, "I meant internally."

That brings Raijin to an abrupt pause. He cranes his neck to glance at the metallic tasting blood still clinging to Kakashi's mouth and curses. Their pursuers must only be a few minutes behind them, and they really can't afford to stop and risk capture. Still, Raijin ducks into the very first cave he can spot and crouches in the tight space.

Kakashi takes the cue and lets go, allowing the older ninja to gently lower him to the ground. "You could make it without me," he states.

Raijin clicks his tongue. "I'm not going to," he maintains firmly.

Is this how his dad had been? Is Kakashi going to end up like Obito in that cave, sans subsequent abduction?

Hysterically, he thinks that if he gives Obito's sharingan to Raijin, that will legally make him an Uchiha too and probably give Minato an aneurysm. The Sandaime might just drop dead instantly from the stress alone.

"You can either run away or you can fight them," Kakashi forces out, unable to keep from crying out as Raijin splints his knee with makeshift supplies from the seal wrapped around his wrist. "You can't do either with me around."

Raijin bites his lip. His eyes are wide and almost unnaturally bright as he looks down at Kakashi. "You're right," he says after a moment.

Kakashi's heart sinks even as he nods. He knows he's right. That's why he'd said it at all. Still—

"I have an idea." Raijin pulls a scroll out of his seal and bites his thumb, smearing his blood across and slamming his palm onto it.

Kakashi blinks as the biggest fox he has ever seen emerges from the scroll in a cloud of smoke. Roughly four feet tall, with pitch black fur streaked through with patches of silver, it studies them with unnervingly intelligent amber eyes. 'A summon,' his brain supplies belatedly, which also cues him in on the fact that he's losing coherence quickly, meaning it's only a matter of time before he straight up passes out.

"You're injured, so I didn't want to have to do this," Raijin grimaces, gentle fingers smoothing Kakashi's hair away from his face, "but it looks like we don't have much of a choice, Kakashi-kun."

The fox regards them with a solemn sort of air to it. "What is going on, kit?" it—he—asks.

Raijin sighs and scratches behind the fox's ear. "I'm going to need your help, Shuu-san," he says. "Do you think you could carry Kakashi to safety while I deal with the guys after us?"

Panic strikes Kakashi, startling him back to full awareness. "What?" he demands. "You're actually going to fight? You can't—there's hundreds of them!"

Regarding him with a grim smile, Raijin pats Kakashi's cheek. "Don't worry about me, Kakashi. I'll be fine."

He says it with a confidence that Kakashi can't feel. How could he say he'll be fine when he is so outnumbered and stuck in hostile territory where enemy reinforcements are only a moment away? How could he say he will be fine when Kakashi knows that Raijin probably sustains injuries of his own?

"Leave it to me, Rai-chan," the fox—Shuu—assures his summoner. "I will make sure the child stays unharmed."

"Thank you, Shuu-san," Raijin breathes, briefly pressing his forehead to the fox's in gratitude. "I'll have two clones lead you to the rendezvous point where the rest of my team should be waiting. Kakashi needs medical attention as soon as possible."

"Understood."

Kakashi grits his teeth in fear annoyance. "You can't fight," he insists. "That's practically a suicide mission!"

"I'll be fine," Raijin says again, completely at ease.

"Think about Minato-sensei" he wants to say. "What about Obito and Kushina-san? What about me?"

But Raijin simply creates two clones as promised before easing out of their little nook and turning back in the direction that they came from, running towards their attackers, before Kakashi can so much as string his thoughts into speech.

Left in the cave with a fox that regards him with too-knowing eyes, Kakashi stares blankly at the opening that Raijin had just left through.

Numbly, he says, "You were supposed to stay."

'Gyuuki's nearby,' Kurama pipes up helpfully, watching idly as Raijin dispatches two more of his opponents with targeted nerve strikes.

'What the fuck,' Raijin says back, deadpan, head immediately swivelling around to try and catch sight of the Eight Tails and its jinchuuriki. 'B-jii-chan can leave the village? Why the hell is he here?!'

Kurama huffs and shakes his head. 'Beats me. I wasn't exactly in touch with my siblings around this time.'

Groaning, Raijin ducks under a kunai that sails overhead and promptly roundhouse kicks its owner in the head. He's trying to just knock his pursuers out for now, aiming for pressure points and concussive hits that take them out of the picture temporarily; just enough for him to get away.

Not for the first time, he wishes he could have had the crazy chakra control required to power Minato's Hiraishin jutsu. Raijin's life would be so much easier if he could just literally teleport away from ever major inconvenience. Alas, given the wonky hold he has on his chakra, Raijin will likely never be able to attempt the technique without potentially hurtling himself straight into the endless liminal space of the universe.

He's just going to have to face his problems like a boring grown up because no one ever lets him have any fun.

With a pout, he takes to the trees as soon as he makes it to the edge of the forest, decidedly leading the manhunt away from the direction Kakashi and Shuu went in. They will need a few hours' head start at the very least, which makes it Raijin's job to keep their pursuers thoroughly engaged until his mini-sensei can make it to safety.

He has no real plan, but that's okay; Raijin rarely ever does unless world-altering time travel happens to be involved. He's the improviser of all improvisers. He can totally do this.

First, he just has to attract all their attention and keep them engaged in combat with him so they're distracted. Then, he's going to get away as soon as there's a lull so he can set up every trap and trick known to man and turn the forest into his personal playground from hell. The Kumo nin are going to go on the wildest goose chase of their lives if things work out the way Raijin is starting to picture them.

What he refuses to picture is any sort of confrontation with Killer B. Now, take a guess as to just who is waiting to jump out at him from among the trees.

Of course, as usual, nothing ever truly goes his way.

Raijin wonders if B will mind if he just sits down right here on the forest ground and has a minor breakdown about the continual degradation of his luck. He literally just had to almost relive the events that led to his Kakashi's death with a tinier version of him, and now this? Seriously, he thinks he deserves a good cry. As a little treat, you know. He has got to get that emotional catharsis somehow. Shinobi mental health for the win and all.

Raijin comes to a stop, stares blankly at the much younger face of Killer B, and lets out a heartfelt sigh from deep within his soul. "After this," he announces, "I'm going to fistfight god."

B blinks, looking taken aback by the random declaration. "What a strange thing to say." He shrugs and brandishes one of his swords. "I'm about to put this fool in his place! Fool, ya fool!"

Fuck, Raijin is going to cry because he missed B's stupid raps so much and it's going to be totally mortifying and then he'll have to scale the tallest mountain in Lightning and fling himself right off it to redeem his honour.

Sniffling, Raijin lowers himself into a ready stance and slips his hand into the pouch strapped to his thigh, grasping at a seal even as he violently blinks the tears out of his eyes.

B gives him a weird look. "Are you crying, fool?"

"Am not," Raijin denies, blatantly crying. "You're going senile and blind because you're old and that's what old people do, jii-chan."

The gasp B lets out is one of genuine affront. "Killer B ain't old!" he insists. "My skills got no mould! I'm going to leave this brat out in the cold!"

To his credit, B really isn't that old. Raijin doesn't actually know how old the guy had been in his own time, but he has to be in his mid-twenties right now. He doesn't even have a beard yet. That's, like, super young. Which would explain why his raps seem even worse than Raijin remembers them being. Clearly, despite popular opinion and against all odds, B really had improved his rapping skills over the years.

Maybe miracles do happen after all.

Well, whatever. Raijin can do a mental deepdive on B's musical growth over the years in his own time; preferably when he doesn't have an offended jinchuuriki trying to stab him with fancy swords, or octopus arms making to grab and launch him into the stratosphere, all while he's still trying to keep his own jinchuuriki status under wraps.

Leaping out of the way, Raijin springboards off one of Gyuuki's arms and sticks a seal to the nearest tree before jumping back out of the fray for when he pulses chakra into the seal. The tree explodes, splintering and sending shards of wood, sparks and smoke everywhere, forcing B to put distance between them unless he fancies getting his eye taken out by a tree.

Raijin grins viciously as B jumps right into the range of the other trees he marked while dodging Gyuuki's tentacles. He's pretty sure at least one of them is just harmless confetti and glitter, but he didn't exactly have time to stop and pick out which seals he'd use. Oh, well.

Hopefully, B wouldn't mind rocking the glittery purple aesthetic Raijin curated especially as an homage to Yamanaka Ino.

"You can totally pull off purple glitter, jii-chan! Believe it!"

"You're crazy, fool! Ya fool!"

"Have you heard?" Chouza remarks, refilling Shikaku's empty sake cup. "They're saying the war is all but over."

As though that isn't the precise reason the three of them have gravitated to Chouza's engawa for a few rounds of sake tonight.

Inoichi snorts and pops an edamame bean into his mouth. "With Iwagaure's old oni finally agreeing to sign the damn peace treaty, it sure feels like it."

Shikaku smiles wryly, watching lazy wisps of clouds as they drift over to thinly veil the full moon. "And it only took him suffering the gravest loss of this war to do it."

Chuckling, Chouza shakes his head. "I bet he didn't expect an entire brigade of over a thousand to lose to a mere platoon of fifteen."

"I can't even blame him," Inoichi comments, huffing. "Namikaze sure is something." He downs the contents of his cup. "If they don't make him Kage after this, the people might just riot."

"Orochimaru-sama is still a Sannin," Chouza argues, but it's in vain. All of them know the likely outcome, and with Minato almost singlehandedly wrangling them into peace, it has only become that much clearer.

With a sigh, Shikaku pushes himself to sit up straight so he can reach for the ikura. "A Sannin might have been enough for the Daimyo's approval if the competition had been anyone else," he says. "Minato just has the higher appeal."

"That brother of his certainly sweetens the deal," Inoichi remarks candidly, lobbing an empty edamame pod at Shikaku's head because he's just an asshole like that.

Shikaku lets the pod hit him in the face. Dodging it would be too much work.

Chouza watches them with amusement. "You think so?" he directs at Inoichi.

"Sure." Inoichi shrugs, idly tossing another empty pod at Shikaku. "The brother might not have defeated a thousand soldiers in one go, but people are saying he pretty much systematically harassed Kumo until they gave in and agreed to signing a treaty."

Scoffing, Shikaku chucks a pod right back at Inoichi who dodges it. "Allegedly, he fought Kumo's jinchuuriki to a standstill, held off a force of five hundred for nine hours by himself on their home turf, and still managed to get away pretty much unscathed."

Inoichi frowns, peering over at him. "Why are you using 'allegedly'? As if our future jounin commander-sama hasn't already read the mission report."

Shikaku hides a smile behind his cup. "How else am I supposed to maintain my image of mystique?"

"I can't believe those words actually just came out of your mouth."

Chouza laughs, leaning his weight back against his hands so he can look up at the sky. "Conversely, I suppose, Orochimaru-sama brings no such connection to sweeten the deal in his favour."

"It's not just about the connection," Shikaku shakes his head, "although networking is a nice way to boost any potential political leader's resume. In this case, at least, it's more about the drama."

Inoichi hums, nodding slowly, his eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "They'd have an easy time turning a purely military achievement into something emotionally palatable to appeal to our civilian overlord if they choose Minato."

Chouza tilts his head, sipping at his sake. "Well, it certainly does sound poetic." He closes his eyes and smiles. "Two shinobi brothers from humble civilian origins, separated from birth but brought together by fate, at the helm of bringing their nation to peace and prosperity. I'd watch if they ever make it into a play."

"Minato driving back a thousand ninja sounds like something straight out of the Tale of the Heike," Shikaku agrees. "The civilians will eat it right up. We're going to need that kind of boost to our popularity to recover from the war economically."

"Man," Inoichi sighs, slouching over and raising his cup, "it sure is nice to finally get to talk about aftereffects. It's finally starting to feel like it's really over."

Shikaku groans and falls back, squeezing his eyes shut against the world at large. "Is it really? There are still treaties to finalise, and there's going to be meeting after meeting while the Kage all gather to try and push blame onto one another like squabbling children so their village won't have as many reparations to pay. Border skirmishes probably won't stop for another couple of years. Trade won't stabilise any time soon either. Konoha is going to have to take on another debt to pay off the expenses we've incurred this whole time being at war. We're only getting started."

"Sure," Chouza allows gently, "but at least we are no longer actively fighting one another. Peace is finally within reach."

That has Shikaku's eyes slowly opening again. "Yeah," he breathes. "You're right."

Inoichi smiles wryly down at his cup. "Peace, huh?" He tilts his head back, sighing at the cool breeze that blows past them lightly. "Sure sounds good to me."

"It does, doesn't it?" Chouza smiles.

They bask in silence for a while, allowing the idea to sink in. No more frontline battles and overwhelming losses. No more missions to carry body bags of fallen shinobi back to the village. No more promoting genin too early so they have more bodies willing to die for the village on the battlefield. Finally, they will be allowed to rest.

It is Inoichi who finally breaks the comfortable silence. "Who do you think they'll blame this time?" he asks.

"Not Suna," Chouza responds immediately. "They really did stay out of this one."

Inoichi snorts. "I mean, after, they got blamed for the last war, it would probably be kind of unfair too."

"I'm going to become a missing nin if it's Konoha," Shikaku announces.

Making good use of his long limbs, Chouza reaches over to smack him in the face. "Don't even say stuff like that!"

Undeterred, Shikaku insists, "I really will quit my job and leave the continent. I am not sticking around to clean up that mess. It would seriously put us underground if the other villages made us cough up that kind of money when we barely have enough to keep everyone clothed and fed. Especially with winter almost upon us."

Cheerfully, Inoichi tosses in, "I bet it's going to be the oni! Fuck that old geezer."

Shikaku lifts his head just enough to peer over at his friend. "Why are you in a one-sidedly feud with the Tsuchikage?"

Inoichi shrugs. "For fun."

Chouza bursts into a full-bellied laugh, accidentally knocking over his cup with how hard he smacks the table. "I'll never understand you, old friend."

"You should try it," Inoichi insists, grinning, eyes bright. "It keeps things entertaining."

"Hard pass."

"You only say that because you've never had a day of fun in your life, Shikaku."

"Now, now, Inoichi, just because it's true doesn't mean you should say it."

"I'm going to spit in your cups next time."

Notes:

I nearly cried writing this because of the rap. B's dialogues are so hard to write and for what.

Anyway, this brings the active war arc to a close. We're moving right on into the politics side of things in the aftermath, which means a lot more Minato-centric chapters probably.