Work Text:
Kakashi is sitting in bed reading when he slips through his hospital window. He’s been bedridden for about half a week now. He looks, a little better, physically anyway. Tenzo steps around the bed and pulls the divider curtain closed, blocking them from the view of any passing staff. It’s past visiting hours. Kakashi hasn’t looked up from his book. Stepping back around the bed, he sits by Kakashi’s feet, lazily looking out the window.
“So… I hear you finally met Sasuke.”
“mhm.”
Kakashi continues to feign reading. He flips a page. “Hell of a first meeting…”
Tenzo snorts. “Yeah, you could say that.”
He peers over his book at him. Tenzo meets his incredulous gaze with a soft smile, and Kakashi returns to his novel.
“I’m fine.” Tenzo offers.
“I know.”
“Okay, so what is it then?”
Kakashi doesn’t answer right away. Eventually he sighs, dropping the book into his lap, falling back against the pillow. He drapes his arms over his face. Tenzo waits.
“He’s my student.” Kakashi eventually breathes out.
Tenzo shifts, sliding a knee onto the bed, so he’s facing him.
“I feel responsible for him.”
“Is this about Sasuke in general, or about him stabbing me specifically?”
“both.” Kakashi’s voice is small.
“Well, on the stabbing front. It would take a lot more than that to kill me. And, you’re not responsible for every single thing Sasuke does. He’s his own person.”
Kakashi doesn’t seem particularly interested in that perspective. No surprise there, he always put everything on his own shoulders. Tenzo tries again.
“I don’t think he was actually trying to kill me. It seemed more like he was trying to incapacitate me. For all that flagrant malice he displays, he’s more bark than bite.”
It lands better this time.
Kakashi let’s out a small laugh. “Heh, yeah, that sounds like him.”
Tenzo returns to looking out the window. The sun has set, painting the sky a vibrant mix of soft orange and purples. Thankfully, the longer term units at the hospital always had decent views.
Kakashi lets his arms fall back down into the bed.
“We weren’t expecting direct contact with Orochimaru.” There's concern in Kakashi’s voice.
“yeah.”
Kakashi waits, but Tenzo doesn’t continue.
“He recognized you.”
Tenzo pinches his eyes closed. “I’m… not ready to talk about it.”
Kakashi hauls himself up to sitting. Tenzo is vaguely trying to dissociate into the floor tiles. Eventually he comes back to himself and looks up, out across the sky. Kakashi reaches out and takes his hand, bringing it to his face.
“Well,” he kisses Tenzo’s knuckles, “speaking of your talents.”
Tenzo gives him a withering look.
Kakashi just smiles. “I have a favor to ask.”
“This better not be a sex thing.”
Kakashi leans towards him. “It will be exhausting, but highly rewarding.”
Tenzo takes his hand back. “Uh-huh.”
Kakashi climbs forward on the bed. “It could take days.”
Tenzo plants his hand behind himself and tips his head. He has an idea of where this is going.
Kakashi slots himself around his side. “It will take all of your focus to last through it.”
“This is about Naruto isn’t it.”
Kakashi’s eyes crinkle shut as he lets his chin land on Tenzo’s shoulder. “Yes, it’s about Naruto.”
Tenzo sighs, resting his head on top of Kakashi’s. “What did you have in mind?”
“Is that a yes?”
They both knew he was going to say yes. “Not quite.”
* * *
Kakashi is resting against the headboard. Tenzo’s sat cross legged, facing him, head resting in his palm.
“You’re right. That does sound exhausting. It’s a good plan though.”
“I’m glad you like it.”
“When were you thinking of starting?”
“I want to run it by the Hokage first before telling Naruto. I won’t be out of the hospital for a few more days, and then, ideally, I’d have a few days at home before I jump back into anything again.”
Tenzo hums in agreement.
“You better rest up too. Naruto’s stamina is… endless.” Kakashi gives him a guilty smile.
Tenzo sighs dramatically. “Great.”
Tenzo moves to stand and Kakashi grabs one of his books back off the side table.
“Stay here tonight?” He asks, book already open.
“Sure. I need to grab dinner first. Can you eat solid food yet?”
It’s Kakashi’s turn to let out a dramatic sigh. “No. Soup would be great.”
“Ah. You got it. I’ll be back soon.”
* * *
And that’s the signal. Tenzo darts across the field, landing next to the pair.
Naruto’s eyes widen. “Captain Yamato!!! What are you doing here!?”
“Heyyy, Naruto, Kakashi—”
“Hey, hey, which one of the five natures does your wood style jutsu fall under!?”
Kakashi lets out an exasperated sigh as his head falls, chin hitting his chest.
“Uh…” he glances at Kakashi before looking back to Naruto and putting on a gentle smile “Well, you see—”
Kakashi quickly steps over to him, cupping a hand in front of his face before whispering in his ear. He’s pressed himself fully against his side. Tenzo gives him a questioning side eye, but Kakashi carries on unfazed.
“Listen, honey, sweetie, dearest—”
Tenzo sighs internally. So it begins.
“—he may be unfocused, but at least he’s enthusiastic. Go ahead and tell him. We’ll need the waterfall eventually, just make it now.”
“Right…”
Kakashi sidles back into place and Tenzo returns his gaze to Naruto, who’s all smiles.
“…well, earth style!”
He flies through the hand signs and watches Kakashi and Naruto shrink below him, as he rises up ten stories on a cliff of earth. Naruto is shrieking down below, he smirks.
“Water style!”
Water pours forth over the gorge he left in the center of the cliff, pummeling down into the space for the pool below. Kakashi is beaming up at him, and Naruto has stars in his eyes. He grins at them before hopping down to explain mixing chakra natures.
* * *
Tenzo is sat cross legged, palm extended, keeping Naruto’s nine-tails chakra in check. Kakashi is standing next to him, nose in his book. There’s a field of Naruto’s in front of them, all desperately trying to cut a leaf in half using wind chakra.
“So much for a few rest days huh?”
Kakashi sighs. “He’s been camped out in my hospital room for the past three nights.”
Tenzo chuckles. “Well, he’ll certainly need that enthusiasm if he’s going to make it through this training.”
“He’s not the one I’m worried about.”
They’re about eight hours in. The nine-tails hasn’t breached into a cloak yet. Neither of them really expected it to at this stage of the training, but it was still much closer to the surface than usual. He was already tired and Naruto wasn’t showing signs of stopping anytime soon.
Another spike. Tenzo closes his eyes. Focus. The chakra spike quickly subsides.
Kakashi flips a page. “Have I mentioned how glad I am that you’re here?”
Tenzo readjusts his braced arm. “Have I mentioned how convenient it is that this brilliant plan of yours has me doing all the work?”
Kakashi snaps his book closed. “Ah! Naruto!” He quickly glides off into the field. “Why don’t we undo the shadow clone jutsu and go over what we’ve learned to far, hmm?”
“OKAY!”
Tenzo drops his jutsu as he feels the clones disappear. Balancing Naruto’s chakra at this level isn’t that difficult, but doing it for hours on end it making his body achy and stiff. He catches Kakashi glancing at him as he rolls his shoulders. Kakashi pointedly looks at the setting sun before looking down at Naruto.
“Alright, one more hour, then we’ll turn in for the night.”
“But—”
“—We’ll camp here and start bright and early again in the morning.”
Tenzo smiles. Clever. Naruto isn’t a morning person. There’s no way they’ll be starting bright and early. Kakashi’s giving him extra time to recover before doing this all over again tomorrow.
“I’ll grab us some dinner.”
“Ramen please!”
“Yeah, yeah, I know.”
“With extra pork!”
Kakashi and Tenzo share a nod, then he darts off before Naruto can request anything else.
“Alright, you ready Naruto?”
“You bet I am!”
Tenzo raises his palm again, reinitiating the elder jutsu.
“Multi shadow clone jutsu!!!”
* * *
Tenzo is finishing his stretches as Kakashi seals all their trash into a scroll. They’ll deal with it tomorrow. Naruto is already sprawled out on his sleeping pad. He groans as he straightens up out of his last stretch. Kakashi puts out the fire.
“Getting old are we?” Kakashi teases at him.
Tenzo rolls his eyes before sliding between his blanket and sleeping mat.
“A thank you would suffice.” He mumbles out in response.
Kakashi unfurls his bedding and lays it next to him. Much closer than Tenzo was expecting him to.
“Oh?”
Kakashi sinks down next to him. “He’s family.”
A soft smile spreads across Tenzo’s face. “I see.”
Kakashi rolls onto his side and drapes an arm across him. “Plus, he could use more queer role models.”
“Is he out yet?”
“No.”
“Well, that certainly explains the intensity of the whole Sasuke thing.”
Kakashi snorts.
“Hey! What are you two laughing about over there!?”
Kakashi puts on his teacher voice. “Nothing. Go to sleep Naruto.”
Naruto grumbles, turning over a few times, before his breathing falls steady.
“How does he fall asleep so fast?”
“He never ceases to amaze me.” Kakashi mutters out, voice laden with sleep.
“You too? Getting old are we?”
“Hey, I’m barely out of the hospital.”
“And you’ve done nothing but sit around all day.”
“yeah, yeah—” Kakashi flops over onto his front, scooting his arm further over Tenzo, and muffling his voice into the pillow. “—thank you for being here.”
Tenzo pats his arm, smiling. “Anytime.”
* * *
After a break in training to take on a mission, Naruto is as eager as ever to overexert himself. Or more accurately, to overexert Tenzo. Kakashi peeks over his book to check on Tenzo just in time for Naruto to run out of patience again.
“Aw, come on! This is taking forever!”
Kakashi drop his book onto his face. This kid.
“I need more clones!” All ten of Naruto’s clones shout down at him.
Kakashi lifts the book back up, glancing at Tenzo again. He was hoping to give him a break by making Naruto restrict his number of clones to what would fit across the waterfall. But, as usual, Naruto wants to go big. They still haven’t had a nine-tails cloak appear… they can probably push it. He stands up.
“Okay.”
Tenzo glances at him as he walks over. He puts on his best apology smile. Tenzo’s eyes narrow. Kakashi squats down, flipping the book up in front of his face. Time to beg. He straddles Tenzo’s left thigh as he leans in.
“Heyyy, Tenzo, honey, swee—”
“—what now.”
“Ah-hah, well, can you make the waterfall wider? Say, 200 clones wider?”
Tenzo lets out a pained groan, but he’s already making his earth jutsu hand signs.
“You’re really” he takes a labored breath “asking a lot of me, you know that?”
“Mhmmm, but it’s sooo hot seeing you like this.”
Tenzo glares at him as he moves onto water style.
“So impressive, so strong.”
Tenzo arches a brow at him before turning back to the waterfall, and expanding the wood bridge.
“Thank you so much. We couldn’t do this without you.”
Tenzo falls forward onto his hands once the bridge is done.
“Uh-huh.” He gasps for air. “Yeah, no problem. But also, you’re carrying me to bed later.”
“In a sexy way?”
“In a chakra drained kind of way.”
“In a sexy chakra drained kind of way?”
“As long as you carry me, I don’t care.”
Kakashi presses a kiss to Tenzo’s temple before dropping the book from in front of their faces and shifting to standing.
“How’s that Naruto? Now you’ve got nothing to complain about.”
Naruto cackles maniacally above them. “MULTI SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!!!”
Kakashi ruffles Tenzo’s hair and moves to stand behind him.
He goes back to reading. “You’re the best.”
Tenzo relaxes back to rest against his legs.
“You’re the worst.”
“You love me.”
“Unfortunately.”
* * *
Tenzo manages to make it until dusk before Kakashi decides it’s time to step in and end training for the day. He crumples forward the moment Naruto recalls all his clones. Naruto, as usual, is resistive.
“But I’ve almost got it! I can tell Kakashi- Sensei!”
Kakashi pointedly glances over his shoulder to look at Tenzo. Naruto follows his gaze and gulps, laughing awkwardly when he sees Tenzo trying to force a smile onto his face. He hops down from his perch on the waterfall.
“Right.” Kakashi repeats. “So we’re done for the day.”
Naruto still has that look in his eyes. Kakashi sighs. Seeing Tenzo may sedate Naruto for a short while, but it’s not going to last.
“Alright.” He can feel the panic emanating from Tenzo behind him as a wide grin breaks across Naruto’s face. “But leaf splitting only. And no clones.”
“What? But I can already do that!”
“Well then, get better at it.”
“Fiiiiiine.” Naruto whines.
“Good. Okay, we’ll be turning in for the night. Just, get some rest soon, alright?”
“You got it, Sensei!”
Naruto scampers off to collect some leaves. He can hear Tenzo release the wood pillars surrounding them. As he turns around, Tenzo is shifting to stand. He hops over to him and scoops him up bridal style. Tenzo gives him an amused look before going limp in his arms. Letting his head fall against Kakashi’s chest.
He walks them over to where they set up camp last night. Kneeling down, Kakashi gently deposits him onto the ground. He just lays there. Damn. He must be really worn out. Kakashi begins moving about, unfurling the beds, heating up dinner, peeling Tenzo out of his outerwear and shoes despite protests that he can do it himself.
When they are finally climbing into their beds, Kakashi takes a last look at Naruto. He can see his silhouette crouched under a tree, vibrating. Guess that kid won’t be going the sleep anytime soon. He lays down and curls himself around Tenzo who is already asleep, dead to the world.
* * *
Kakashi surfaces into consciousness. He rolls his unopened eyes. Naruto. He curses to himself as he feels Tenzo’s breathing change underneath him. Great. It’s not even light out yet.
He pries an eye open. Naruto is standing by their feet. He’s glowering down at them with a mix of annoyance and confusion. When he notices Kakashi looking at him he crosses his arms over his chest.
“I want to train.”
Uuuuugh. Tenzo’s arm falls from around his shoulders as he peels himself off of Tenzo’s chest. He sits up fully.
“Naruto…” The fire hasn’t dwindled much. It’s been maybe a few hours. “…it’s still dark out.”
“I don’t need to see for this training.”
Kakashi glances down at Tenzo as he rolls onto his side, facing away from both of them.
“You may feel ready, but Yamato needs more recovery time.”
“You two just want to laze around together! Come on Kakashi-Sensei, I gotta train!”
“Naruto.” Tenzo’s voice is icy. “If you don’t give me a break, I will bury you so deep beneath the earth that no one will hear you scream.”
Kakashi blinks once before a serenely devilish smile spreads across his face.
“aaaaahahahaaa, ah, okay, yeah, no problem Captain Yamato. Tomorrows fine. Hahaha ah. I could use some rest too actually.”
Naruto quickly darts to the other side of the fire and begins unfurling his sleeping pad. Kakashi lays back down on his side, slipping his arm around Tenzo’s waist.
“Well, that takes care of that.” He mutters into the back of Tenzo’s neck.
Tenzo threads their fingers together and pulls him closer.
“Don’t wake me till it’s light out.”
“Wasn’t planning on it.”
* * *
He and Tenzo are making their way to their favorite tea shop. The Hokage has given them a few days off after their joint mission against the Akatsuki. It’s some much needed downtime. They pause, just before turning the corner.
“Hey, have you guys noticed anything… like… strange with Kakashi-Sensei and Captain Yamato?” Naruto asks.
They glance at each other before leaning against the side of the building. A smile spreads across Tenzo’s face. This should be good.
Sai responds. “Strange is a very vague word. Perhaps it would help if you explained what you mean.”
There's scuffing sounds as Naruto mumbles out a reply. “hmmm, I don’t know, just like, their relationship. I guess.”
Sakura pipes up. “Huh, I haven’t spent a lot of time with the two of them. But, now that you mention it, they do seem very familiar with each other.”
“Yeah! Yeah! They like, sleep really close together, and stuff.”
Sai again. “Oh. You are referring to the fact that they are involved.”
“Involved?” There's confusion in Sakura’s voice.
“Yes. Involved.”
There’s a beat of silence. Kakashi and Tenzo share an tired look. He can picture Naruto and Sakura’s faces as they try to understand what Sai is saying. When it’s clear they’re not going to get it, Sai continues.
“I do not know the exact nature of their relationship, but dating.”
“DATING!?!?” Sakura shrieks.
“THAT’S A THING???” Naruto’s voice is laced with panic.
Kakashi’s head falls with exasperation. Tenzo smiles softly. Leave it to Sai to be the one to notice.
“Yes. Dating. As in two people who like each other—”
“—I know what dating is!!!” Sakura huffs out.
“Oh. Well then why—”
“—you mean, two guys, can, like, date each other…” Naruto’s teeth are chattering.
Kakashi and Tenzo push off the wall. It will be time to step in soon.
“Yes. Is this new information to you?” Sai’s voice is as even as ever.
“Wait, Sai? You knew they were… involved?”
“Yes. It was quite obvious. I would have thought you would pick up on it Sakura, as you are quite emotionally intelligent. Hmm, perhaps it was easier for me to notice, since I am gay myself.”
“WAIT! YOU’RE GAY?”
“Yes. Are you not, Naruto?”
“WHAT DO YOU MEA—”
Kakashi spins around the corner.
“Yo!” He waves as casually as possible.
Tenzo follows after him. “Fancy meeting you all here. We were just about to grab a bite. Would you like to join us?”
Tenzo is smiling neutrally while Kakashi hides himself behind his book.
“Hello.” Sai smiles at them. “Are you two here on a da—”
Sakura clamps her hand over Sai’s mouth.
“Ah, hahaha, hah. Um we were actually just leaving!”
“Uh, yeah,” Naruto fumbles over his words. “we need to, um, go talk to, uh, we need to do some, uh…”
Sakura pulls herself together. “Yeah! These two were going to help me run errands, for, um, medical supplies!”
The three of them are backing away slowly. Sai with a resigned and confused look on his face. Naruto and Sakura beet red and sweating bullets.
Kakashi loosely raises a hand to wave them off. “Okay then.”
The two of them turn towards the store front.
“Well, darling, I guess it’s just us.” Tenzo says, louder than necessary.
Kakashi suppresses a laugh. There’s a smack sound as Sakura slaps her other hand over Naruto’s mouth just in time to smother his squeal.
Tenzo half turns back towards them “Did you say something?”
“Nothing!” Sakura squeaks out. “Nothing. Have a nice, uh…”
“Date?” Tenzo offers plainly.
“Yes! Ah haha, have a nice date Captain Yamato, Sir!”
Kakashi watches Tenzo’s eyes crinkle closed in a smile. “Thank you, Sakura.”
There's a small gust of wind as the three of them bolt from the scene.
“You’re a menace.” Kakashi croons from behind his book.
“You love me.”
“I sure do."