After Kakashi joined Anbu, he stayed in the dorms whenever he wasn't on a mission.
One reason was that the Hatake house was a bit far from the village center, making it inconvenient for him to get there quickly when an emergency mission came up.
The other reason was that he wanted to stay away from that place—away from Satoru.
Seeing Satoru always reminded Kakashi of his father.
He couldn't get over his father's death.
If he had come home that day instead of his brother, would things have turned out differently?
That thought always lingered in his mind.
But the dead couldn't come back to life—he knew it was nothing more than a fantasy.
"There's nothing else planned for the afternoon."
Wearing his mask, Kakashi lowered his eyes and placed the freshly fried river fish on the table.
Satoru looked at the two servings of fried fish and miso soup set out on the table. The portion in front of him had a few unmelted sugar crystals sprinkled on top.
The miso soup was also a bit lighter in color.
Satoru let out a small, helpless smile.
This guy really was all talk but still cared deep down.
Even though he always acted cold, his actions showed that he treated him like family.
"Oh, so you actually remembered to add sugar for me."
"But just sprinkling it on top won't really add any flavor, you know."
Kakashi's hand holding the rice bowl froze for a moment. His brows furrowed slightly, and the tips of his ears quickly turned pink.
Oh? He's embarrassed.
Satoru poked at the fried fish on his plate.
This timeline's Kakashi… before the Uchiha rebellion, wasn't this around the time Danzo had his eyes on him?
Lost in thought, Satoru wasn't paying attention to his chopsticks.
With a soft thud, his chopsticks pierced through the fish, making a crisp sound against the plate.
Their eyes met awkwardly.
Kakashi frowned slightly, then quickly looked away.
"If you don't want to eat it, then don't."
"No need to force yourself."
Ah, his fragile teenage heart had been poked again.
Satoru didn't feel like arguing over something like this, so he just shook his head with a sigh.
"Is your mission outside the village?"
Kakashi raised an eyebrow at the unexpected question and looked up.
"Yeah, most Anbu missions take us outside."
Satoru had never cared about where he went on missions before, so the sudden question made Kakashi a bit suspicious.
"Are the Root guys going with you too?"
Kakashi was in the middle of lifting his mask and drinking his soup when he choked hard on Satoru's words.
As a civilian, Satoru had no reason to know about such things, and Kakashi usually wouldn't discuss his missions with him.
Turning his head away as he coughed, Kakashi asked in surprise, "I haven't heard anything about that. How do you know about Root?"
Satoru just tilted his head innocently and pushed a box of tissues toward him.
"Just a random guess. Plus, you and Itachi are both in Anbu. It's not that strange for me to know, right?"
Kakashi gave him a skeptical look, wiped his mouth, but didn't press further.
Satoru watched as Kakashi quickly and silently finished his fish like a cat, then got up with his plate and walked over to the sink.
The night passed without another word.
Separated by the table, the two lay down on opposite sides of the tatami floor and went to sleep.
...
The next morning in Konohagakure.
Hatake Satoru had taken the day off from school. As he wandered lazily through the streets, looking for a place to grab breakfast—
"Get out! Get out! You trying to steal again?"
"It's the Nine-Tailed Fox!"
A commotion broke out in a nearby store.
Nine-Tailed Fox?
A familiar figure popped into Hatake Satoru's mind, and a small smile formed at the corner of his lips.
Well, no rush. Might as well go take a look.
"Oh, it's a fox mask. Kinda cute."
Hatake Satoru bent down slightly and caught the mask that had been thrown at Naruto's head. He turned it over in his hands, examining it.
The shop owner hadn't expected such a strange person to suddenly appear. He took a startled step back.
Looking around nervously at the people nearby, he couldn't help but mutter under his breath, "Where the heck did you come from?"
The surrounding crowd tilted their heads, eyeing the masked man curiously.
The crowd started whispering among themselves.
"Didn't even notice when he squeezed through the people."
"Talking to the demon fox? What a weirdo."
"With that eye patch covering his eye, can he even see where he's going?"
A faint, irritated mark seemed to appear next to Hatake Satoru's head. No wonder Sakumo had been pushed into isolation by these people.
Their comments were seriously annoying.
But even though they were all grumbling, none of them dared to step forward and say anything directly.
Sometimes, when everyone gangs up on someone, it becomes a shield for cruelty.
After all, they were only picking on Naruto because he was still a kid—still at an age where they could push him around.
The moment they saw Hatake Satoru stepping in to back Naruto up, they quickly lost interest and scattered like birds.
As the crowd dispersed, the shop owner awkwardly met Hatake Satoru's gaze, his own eyes flickering toward the black eye patch.
"Fine, fine, just take the kid and go. I don't want any trouble messing up my business."
Staring at the pitch-black eye patch, the shop owner felt an unexplainable sense of unease.
He waved Hatake Satoru off dismissively and hurried back into the store.
"This is the second time, you know."
Hatake Satoru held the mask in one hand and pulled the dazed Naruto up from the ground.
This was the first time someone had ever stepped in when he was being bullied.
Naruto was still sitting there, trying to process what had just happened.
But when he got a good look at Hatake Satoru's face, his bright blue eyes lit up.
"Ah! I remember you! You're that cool eye-patch guy from the dango shop yesterday!"
Eye-patch guy? Seriously?
Getting compliments from a woman was one thing, but from a guy? That just felt... weird.
Hatake Satoru shook his head, then crouched down and tied the strings of the fox mask behind Naruto's head.
"That nickname's not bad, but my name is Hatake Satoru. You should probably remember that instead."
Naruto touched the mask hanging on his head, flashing a big grin at Hatake Satoru while nodding eagerly.
He opened his mouth like he wanted to say something, but before he could, his stomach let out a loud growl.
Embarrassed, Naruto quickly covered his stomach with both hands.
Hatake Satoru stroked his chin, stood up, and glanced around at the nearby food stalls.
"Got so caught up in the drama that I forgot about food. Wanna grab a bite with me?"
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