You've Got a Friend in Me
Kakashi gets a gift from Obito that makes him reflect on things.
...No, not that one.
My gift for @anannua for the 2024 Hideout Gift Exchange!
Kakashi stared at the strange... pillow-like thing that was in the bag. The stitches were uneven, which was very noticeable with the black thread on the white cloth, and stuffing was starting to leak between them. Two different-sized buttons were sewn on as "eyes", although the left one looked like it could come loose at any moment. The shape, too, was strange- it could almost, if you squinted, look like the profile of a dog.
In short, it was useless trash, and Kakashi could almost believe that Obito had stolen the thing out of the dumpster, except...
Obito had looked unseemingly proud to have made such a low-quality thing. Kakashi could absolutely imagine Obito squinting and sticking his tongue out as he carefully cut out the absurd-looking shape that was supposed to be a dog, jabbing his finger with a needle and yelping multiple times, determinedly stitching all the way around before realizing he forgot to stuff the plush-
But that was just his imagination. For all he knew, Obito could have put no effort into it whatsoever. It certainly looked like no thought had been put into it.
("His name is Inugurumi!")
...But it was so stupid-looking, only Obito could have made it. It would probably have been easier to buy a stuffed dog, and the quality would have been better too. What a ridiculous gift. It wasn't even useful, not like the ointment from Rin or the high-quality sharpening stones from Sensei.
Just a useless, stupid-looking stuffed dog that Obito made, whose only possible use was to try and make Kakashi a little happier for a while.
...Sensei would probably nag him about being nice to teammates if Kakashi threw it away right after the party, so it was probably better to take Inugurumi home for a little while before getting rid of it. In the mean time, he'd just store it in the closet.
Ugh. Moving. Whatever idiot had been doing jutsu practice in the apartment below him had ruined it for the rest of the tenants- now Kakashi had to relocate all his stuff to a new place before the building either got demolished or collapsed on its own. At least he wasn't one of the unlucky bastards who were still out on a mission- those people got genin going through their stuff to try to salvage what they could find before the inevitable collapse. At least Kakashi could box up all his stuff in private.
Right now he was going through the closet, which had been collecting junk for the past fifteen years. This old ripped shirt was junk, and that "mental health is mental wealth" book from Gai was junk, and those gag gifts from various jounin were junk, and this stupid looking pillow-thing was-
Kakashi froze. Some stuffing had definitely leaked out of the uneven stitches, and he'd probably find the "left eye" button on the floor of the closet by the time he finished packing, but here it was.
He had forgotten about the thing's existence by the time the Kannabi Bridge mission was assigned, and not recalled it once any time since, yet somehow, he could still remember that stupid name Obito had called it. A nuigurumi was a plush toy, but since it was supposed to be a dog...
Kakashi had spent half of his life trying to live up to the gift Obito had given him on his death-bed. A doujutsu was a weighty thing that demanded respect and chakra in near-equal measure, and Kakashi had made it one of the major tools in his shinobi toolkit, for good or ill.
But Kakashi had forgotten this gift. Not intended to be a tool at all, a silly gift which demanded nothing.
A gift Obito put time and effort into, whose only use was to try and make Kakashi a little happier for a while.
Kakashi squeezed Inugurumi to his chest, and stuffing leaked from between the dog's seams like tears from eyes clenched shut.
dededos
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