(no subject)
Kakashi knew about Naruto from the start. It wasn't as if he hadn't been involved in his teacher's life after their team -or what was left of it- had graduated to other positions. Kakashi himself never took another team, but he stayed near his Minato-sensei, near Rin-trying to protect what little he had left.
He had known Uzumaki Kushina (who in the village didn't know such a loudmouth?) but he only paid her attention because she was Minato-sensei's girlfriend-his fiancée and important to him. Before he despised her loud ways and un-ninja like behavior. But after the…accident…with Obito, he watched her as well and she treated him like a kid brother at times, ruffling his hair, trying to tease him out of melancholy and fits of depression. It was Kushina, he remembered, that slipped him his first copy of Icha Icha Paradise and said that 'young men his age should have something fun to read.'
It had been two years since Obito died but Kakashi tried even harder to keep the spirit of his friend with him and Kushina laughed and hugged him, said that there was no better w ay to keep a friend alive. It was her and Minato-sensei that stayed near him, even when he pushed others away. Kushina was the only one that didn't mind that he was late; she had actually offered several excuses for him to use, each one wilder and less plausible than the last.
He had spent hours at the house she shared with Minato-sensei, listened to her stories of what she did as a kid and about this blond that was 'quiet and too serious for his own good, but when you got him in one of his moods, he had the best smile in the world'. He didn't believe half the stories that she said about him and all that she told about herself (only Kushina was crazy enough to go painting Hokage mountain) and he felt almost at home, even with as different as it was from the place he grew up in.
Kakashi had been fifteen and an ANBU and it was only because of Kushina and Minato-sensei that he had been able to stay sane. Rin helped as well, but she frequently had her hands full as she moved around in the hospital, her medical skills put to the utmost use. She often had to smack him upside the head when he came in, fingers prodding to find all the spots where he was hurt that he wouldn't say out loud.
He had sometimes wondered what ninja did when they had no one at all, like he had been a few years prior, before he realized ninja needed connections to stay sane. He hadn't been able to quite imagine it-he had a (former) teacher that was concerned about him, a friend-at least one friend-that was there and stuck by him…and the crazy antics of Kushina to keep him from losing his mind every time a comrade came back almost too injured to work again. When he was the one standing over a body that was slowly going cold, he told himself it was because they had intended to harm those that he cared about. They were ninja, but…having people around him reminded him that they were human, too.
Another few years had passed and there was rumbling in the undergrowth---dissention in the ranks, as it were. Kakashi didn't know the details; that fell on the head of the newly-appointed Yondaime, Namikaze Minato. Kushina even had a hard time pulling him out of the moments where the worry seemed almost tangible, but she did her best. They had other things to focus on as well-Kushina was going to have a child and they had already decided on the name---Naruto.
He only hoped that whatever happened would blow over soon, that he wouldn't lose anymore friends, that life would go on and things would be normal. He would see what type of child Minato-sensei and Kushina would have; see what type of ninja such people would create.
It wasn't to be, though-Minato-sensei had an all-encompassing devotion to the village, to those the loved and cared about and he gave it is all. He gave up everything he loved to save the village he had sworn to protect. Kushina as well-and Naruto was the gift they offered. A tiny, newborn hero that was the one that held their monster at bay, protected them still as long as he was alive.
Kakashi was ashamed that he couldn't go near Naruto-didn't want to have anything to do with the child that was a reminder of what he failed at. He hoped that Naruto wouldn't become a ninja, that he would be redirected from the lifestyle that took away his parents, took away Kakashi's friends and comrades and set him up for more misery. He knew that Naruto was alone, but he couldn't bring himself to ease that loneliness in any way. If he got close, he would lose Naruto, too.
It was shocking then-when he realized that even without Kushina's or Minato-sensei's influence, how much the child grew up to be like his parents. Pranks, ninjutsu-personality was all Kushina's and all without her hand on him, her voice in his ears encouraging him. Minato-sensei's looks and all-encompassing devotion…
…even to those that shunned him. It was as if his friends, his mentors were chiding him gently and Kakashi had sighed and given in. He would take care of Naruto, guide him so that the boy didn't go down the same path that Kakashi had gone down. He would be better than that.
And one day he would tell them of his parents as well. One day.