Chapter Text
Kakashi's entire frame froze, his eyes widening slightly when he caught sight of just who was in front of him.
There was a man, a teen most probably, facing away from him with a mask on that resembled that of an ANBU, his attire consisting entirely of dark clothes and a few bandages around his arms. He had a cloak on too.
But his hair. Kakashi couldn't tear his gaze away from the golden locks framing the mask. It was a shade that left him breathless, that brought memories with it. Regrets, too.
"Holy shit Naruto! They finally caught up to you!"
And then the gray-haired man opened his mouth, and Kakashi's world just about ended right there.
He wasn't sure, couldn't be actually, but the screech that left the other's mouth was telling enough. The blonde whirled around, strands of golden hair fluttering around his head like sunlight that Kakashi felt momentarily dizzy just by seeing it.
"Hidan, what the fuck!"
Even the voice sounded like what his Sensei's son would've sounded like if the child hadn't been taken. Now, that's what Kakashi used to think, because it was what the whole village thought; that the jinchuuriki had been somehow taken from inside the walls, tucked into a bag and just whisked away one night.
He remembered the day as clear as the sky. He had been out on patrol, trying to stay away from the rundown apartment and filling his mind with tasks, incoming missions and a better training to up himself just a little bit when ANBU Weasel had stumbled upon him, crying his eyes out and asking for help. At the time, Kakashi had felt himself sinking his toes into unfamiliar territory. Moving towards what he knew would undoubtedly bring a change to the village as a whole. ANBU Weasel had reached out to him, the way he'd asked of him, and Kakashi had answered.
It had been a shitshow, and there really wasn't a better way to describe the whole ordeal. Sometimes he could still hear some of the other jounins comparing it to the Hyuuga Affair, whispering between themselves about Itachi and Danzo. About what each of them had done, or try to, because Itachi had been too scared to follow orders, for once, and had risked it all.
Kakashi, and every single available Leaf shinobi, had been knee-deep into the problem that they forgot about the other things. Let those same things pass under their noses like scentless waves, and by the time someone had noticed, it had been way too late to do something.
Way too late to find and bring back Naruto.
And now— here he was. Apparently. He hoped so, anyways.
"Sensei. Sensei, what is going on? Who is he?"
Kakashi glanced to his right, where Sakura stood with her fists clenched, a wary look on her eyes. He noted how rigid her posture was, the way she looked ready for a fight.
To his left, Sasuke's Sharingan was spinning lazily. He knew though, that his student was deeply analyzing the scene unfolding before them, trying to see any warning sign of one of the three people standing before them that indicated hostility.
So far, only Hoshigaki Kisame dared to.
"For fuck's sake," said the nuke-nin, not moving his eyes away from them, but sparing a scalding glance towards the man called Hidan. Kakashi thought he recognized that name, too. "Hidan, shut up! The mask was for something, you stupid blood-sucker!"
"Ah? And how the fuck was I supposed to know that?"
Truth be told, Kakashi had no idea what to do. It was the weirder stand-off he had been involved in, along with his students. Even when Sasuke and Sakura were Chunin already, he highly doubted they had come across something of the likes.
He sighed, relaxing his posture but keeping some of his stance. His heart was beating loudly against his ribcage, the sound reverberating through his whole body. He had to do something, keep them distracted and maybe avoid a fight, because as strong as his team was, two possibly S-ranked missing nin wasn't something to take lightly.
He didn't want to add the unknown masked nin to the equation, especially if it turned out that it was, in fact, Uzumaki Naruto behind the mask. The thought alone sent a wave of dread through his body.
Before he could do something, the masked nin sighed deeply, righting himself and standing fully atop the lower branch on which he was perched on, the cloak he had on fluttering with the slightless movement.
"Well, now that Hidan fucked up my identity, guess it's time I give up this too."
One of his hands reached up to the mask, gently lifting it up. Kakashi's breath caught in his throat, a myriad of emotions cursing through his entire chest when golden locks fell onto a bare forehead, marked only by a single tattoo right in the middle of it. Then, his eyes moved to whiskered cheeks, passing a scar cutting above the right eyebrow and finally falling into pools of deep blue eyes.
Naruto. It was Naruto and the smirk gracing his lips didn't change anything about him.
"So," he said, his eyes twinkling with the same mischief he'd used to have as a child, when his pranks had Chunin running after him with murder in their lips. He leaned casually against the trunk, his arms crossed in front of his chest with a cocky, playful smirk on his lips. "Name your business, Copy-nin-san."
Kakashi swallowed, because suddenly, it wasn't just about a jinchuuriki disappearing. It wasn't just about his Sensei's son being lost and reappearing in front of him with two missing-nin by his side.
It was about nine missed years, about loyalties and that wolfish grin on both the missing-nin faces'.