Was just wondering if you have any crumbs to give us from IR,TSWAT. I love love love that fic sm and soooo want an update 😁😁
Hi, I'm sure doing .
Just joking. Thank you for the well wishes, apologies it took me so long to get back to you. I've been inactive for a reason which I may talk about in greater length in a different post on another day. For now, however, your wish is my command.
In Retrospect, The Signs Were All There - Unreleased Chapter Nine Excerpt
"Village Spirit Team is a lame name," Kakashi said after the assembly of forgettable civilians shuffled out of the Hokage’s office.
Minato hummed and shuffled his papers into a neat pile. "I think it’s endearing."
"I don't see why..." Kakashi trailed off as Minato's eyebrow rose. "It isn't... clear to me why my presence is needed at this... village... party."
Minato's eyebrow lowered, and Kakashi exhaled a quiet breath.
When Minato gave his signal, Kakashi stretched his tight muscles and put his eye to rest. The snapback was predictably awful, and he braced himself preemptively. For a moment he considered the low thrum of his drained chakra slogging through his system and wondered when it'd become a forgotten ambiance.
"It would be best we rested well, we have a long day ahead of us," Minato said and Kakashi rolled his eyes out of sight - every day was long - and then immediately cringed because what if Minato knew somehow.
He risked a glance back. Minato's face was as serene as ever, his signature look. Phew.
On the day of the Village Spirit Team announcement, the extensive production of the event smacked any snide comments from his slack-jawed face. Shinobi and civilians alike adjoined in a temporary cluster of gazebos destined to be replaced with a permanent structure, a building they would call the village hall.
Ridiculously portioned canapes floated around with civilian caterers. Servers offering champagne flutes patterned and intersected their movements at equal intervals. Kakashi couldn't help but draw up mental schemes as if he were cataloguing guard rotations.
Fairy lights entwined with the skinny wooden support beams, linked up to a generator half hidden by table cloth sewn together from doilies. A lone chūnin stood guard on the off chance an enterprising idiot blew the thing up. Besides him, the rest of the guards were far less visible and light on the body count. Likely due to the heavy presence of infamous hidden leaf shinobi mingling with the rest of the guests.
Kakashi stood in one corner of the largest gazebo, adjusting his position as needed to keep his comparatively small stature hidden behind the crowd. Minato had originally deposited him by the punch stand in full view of several bored guests fishing for conversation. The moment the fishmonger turned his eyes to him, he fled.
The crowd quieted and rippled towards the stage. Kakashi couldn't see Minato, but he could hear his voice. He'd forgone a microphone but his audience were captivated and his words projected.
Privy to the script, Kakashi slipped out and headed to the smallest gazebo, home to various spare supplies and, most importantly, the generator.
Read Chapters 1-8 here. Hopefully, 9 will join them soon.
You know those people who will mess around with cats/dogs, pick them up, shake them, just generally piss them off because the pet tolerates it until one day the pet just snaps?
And the owner can’t reconcile that they are the ones at fault because, oh my goodness, that came out of nowhere! Fluffy was such a well mannered polite boy who wouldn’t hurt a fly, I would never have expected him to lash out like that...
So the owner believes that the pet is the one at fault?
That’s... That’s my Dark!Minato + ChildSoldier!Kakashi dynamic summed up
I wanted to write an explanation about the Desk Thing in Reasonable and Minato's general manhandling of Kakashi, and why I chose to write this.
(This is specific to my personal interpretation of Minato in my dark!fic, not to canon Minato. Also, warning, this post may be somewhat uncomfortable for some)
It's actually rooted in my own experiences, which sounds darker than it is. Or perhaps it sounds exactly as dark as it is. You can cast your own judgements, I am unaffected now but I can remember how it felt in the moment and would not like a repeat performance.
Have you ever been picked up or manhandled without your consent? Or perhaps has a person physically adjusted your posture and/or position? I've had both happen to me on a number of occasions.
I'm not a particularly small person but I am by no means tall, which means many people are taller and bigger than me. I knew one person in particular who, when I didn't agree with where he wanted to go, would simply pick me up off the ground and walk in that direction anyway. Typically this occurred by the school lockers after extracurriculars had ended and there was no one around. The common point of contention: I wanted to go home, he wanted to continue spending time with me.
I've also had experiences because of my brief dabble into acting where I was treated as a piece of a set, essentially. When put into the position of director, some people start to distance themselves from those they direct. This one person would physically adjust the position of my body down to minute details at times, like the position of arms and such. I've witnessed models being treated similarly.
Both instances (which were unfortunately repeated) were incredibly uncomfortable but not just for obvious reasons like the incredible invasion of personal space. My agency was taken away from me, especially in the first example. I didn't know what was going to happen next, where I would end up next.
In the first case, I was physically overpowered. It's scary being picked up without your consent and helpless to escape the hold. What if they drop you, where are they taking you, when will they put you down, what if somebody witnesses this etc. You have no power.
In the second, it's like being treated like a doll rather than a person. It's less scary, more creepy. For Reasonable, I amplified it further. Minato often gets lightly frustrated with Kakashi not immediately understanding what is wanted of him or simply bypasses the request altogether. He simply moves Kakashi as he wants him to, pushes him to where he wants him to go etc. It speaks to his sense of propriety concerning Kakashi.
Both of these come together in Reasonable. Kakashi's agency and control over his own body is taken away from him and there's an additional power dynamic there that is beyond physical. Like in the second case, it's somebody with authority in the situation making the adjustments so you can't resist them, unlike how you might in the first case.
Any shinobi who fought in the third war can tell you about the Yellow Flash. That... man, he had a flee on sight order.
Not because he was deadly, although he certainly was.
But because, if he touched you, your death was guaranteed.
Or maybe not. Maybe he wouldn’t bother pursuing a no-name chuunin or unlucky genin. But you could hardly sleep soundly at night knowing that, if he chose to, he could.
That mark he left behind was a harbinger. Every time your eyes lay on it, you were reminded that he could take your life in a flash if he so fancied. Others who saw it? They gave you a wide berth. Shooed you away if they were particularly paranoid. Or maybe they were wise for it. Just know no one would be turning up to your birthday party if you had one, and you must know how desperate people are for any excuse to celebrate during war.
There’s only one known way to get rid of it. It’s not like Tobirama Senju’s scrolls are just lying around, open for study. You’d best pray it was on something you wouldn’t miss too much, say an arm or a leg.
I knew a Kunoichi who had it branded right across left cheek, nose, and up to her scalp. I haven’t seen her since she first returned with it, all those years ago.
Disregard of Proprietary and Privacy. Off-screen, he has taken clothes from Kakashi’s apartment and relocated them to his place, without asking for permission.
Along the same lines, he slipped a hiraishin seal into Kakashi’s shirt before Kakashi even put it on, unknown to Kakashi until later revealed by Minato himself (although he neglects to explain how he slipped it on without Kakashi noticing - Kakashi notes that they hadn’t seen each other that day and is confused)
Manhandling. If Kakashi is not immediately arranging himself to Minato’s will (so far, when he has been confused by an order and when he was disorientated from the hiraishin) he picks Kakashi up and places him where he wants him to be. A casual disregard for Kakashi’s agency.
Condescending words. Minato treats Kakashi both like a child and a full grown soldier when it suits him.
Vague explanations. Kakashi often finds himself in the dark and sometimes frustrated with Minato’s lack of elaboration. Minato often ‘misreads’ cues and redirects conversations or answers questions without saying much of substance.
Charisma. Minato’s actions ring alarm bells. Yet he talks as though the alarm bells are natural ambience and convinces the people he is speaking to of this as well.
In general, he disregards the rights of others but he isn’t overt about it.
He’s particularly bad on this front regarding Kakashi because Kakashi will not question Minato - due to a combination of self-doubt, admiration and PTSD, Kakashi will turn it onto himself or he just assumes Minato ‘has his reasons’ - and Minato has a sense of ownership over Kakashi that he doesn’t have over anyone else (not only is he hokage, he was Kakashi’s sensei and is the only remaining close connection Kakashi has since everyone else died).
Trigger Warnings: Manhandling, treating people like ornaments, power imbalance, angst, unsettling behaviour (lmk if anymore apply and I will edit this and the ao3 tags) >>not sexual but uncomfortable and strange<<
// Fandom: Naruto // Rating: Mature // SFW // No Smut // No Ship // dldr //
Summary:
Hogake Minato Namikaze summons Kakashi Hatake to his office and that is the last order he is given that evening that he understands. Everything that follows is… strange.
(AU in which Kushina and Naruto died during the Ninetails attack but Minato survived. This takes place nearly a year later. Kakashi is a barely functioning fourteen-year-old ANBU who is a long way from who he is in part one. Minato projects that he is a reasonable individual but he really isn’t.)
This fic is the first instalment in a series in which Minato’s strange behaviour develops and everything gets a little darker.
Read on Ao3 Here
Excerpt:
“Ah, Kakashi, there you are,” Minato said as Kakashi gently closed the door to the Hokage’s office behind him. There was a small click in the relative silence of the room that signalled that the lock was in place and Kakashi took his hand off the knob slowly, fingers ghosting along the wood as he came away from the door.
His grip hadn’t been strong to begin with. While Kakashi didn’t think before crushing a throat with his bare hands on a mission, outside of his work he was conscious of his movements, to the point of detriment at times, especially in Minato’s presence. He wasn’t sure why, he hadn’t thought too deeply about it.
… friend killer …
He looked at Minato, switching his slightly unfocused gaze from his hands to his sensei-turned-hokage in a neck movement that was probably too precise to not come off as a little creepy. But Minato just smiled his usual sunny-closed-eyes-smile and didn’t react to Kakashi’s awkward posture and the way he stumbled through interactions and always said not the wrong things but not the right things either and people would give him looks and shy away and not seek him out past first impressions and they knew he wasn’t normal that something was wrong with him they whispered they called him things they called him-
“Come here,” Minato said, eyes open now and mouth in an agreeable line, and gestured above his table, indicating the space in front of his desk where a chair would usually be but wasn’t. “Take a seat.”
On automatic, Kakashi walked forwards and came to a stop before the desk. Minato’s expression gave no further explanation for what he was expected to do, not even when Minato cocked his head to the side slightly, his hair falling wayside, and his lips spread in the way they did when he watched the new genin train. Genin could be clueless at times and Minato smiled like that at them when they were, finding their honest mistakes - mistakes that would get them killed in the field - and open confusion - bad habit, they shouldn’t broadcast their emotional state to the enemy - endearing somehow.
“It’s not like you to disobey your superiors, Kakashi,” Minato said and his tone sounded good-natured but Kakashi’s blood ran cold regardless and he cringed ever so slightly, hunching a little more into himself. Kakashi didn’t rely on his own judgement unless he absolutely had to and, generally, his superiors were more level headed than he was. He didn’t disobey unless they were clearly incompetent and Kakashi was the next logical choice of leadership.
// Fandom: Naruto // Rating: Explicit // Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings // SFW // No Smut // No Ship // dldr //
Summary:
Danzo makes a proposal. Minato considers it. Kakashi’s life gets a little bit more complicated.
Read on ao3
Excerpt:
Another week, a challenge with Gai, several memorial visits, and two dinners passed before the first event of any interest occurred: council member Danzo Shimura arrived precisely on time for his appointment with the Hokage and ordered Kakashi to leave.
Minato refused.
“Just ignore him,” Minato said, waving a dismissive hand at Danzo’s inquiry as to why Kakashi was perched on his desk, said desk-percher zoning back in as he realised he was the topic of conversation. He had grown used to being talked around, a piece of the scenery. People often gave him confused looks at first but those were quickly dropped by the time the second meeting came around, if there was a second one. Funnily enough, civilians didn’t even question his presence. He chalked that up to them being on the periphery of the shinobi world and accepting everything at face value because ‘that's just how those shinobi folk are.’
“Ignore him? This is sensitive information, Namikaze, not for just any shinobi to hear,” Danzo said sternly, gaze lingering on Kakashi for a long moment. While he couldn’t pinpoint the specific subject of his gaze, Kakashi got the sudden urge to ask if something was on his face. However, he didn’t give in to the temptation, he pointedly looked up to the hokage portraits and pretended he wasn’t there at all. While Minato had never explicitly stated it, Kakashi knew that his role wasn’t to be a part of the meetings but rather an accent to the setting. He still wasn’t entirely sure to what purpose he served but it was clearly working since Minato hadn’t dismissed him. Although, if Kakashi didn’t get a mission soon he was going to go stir crazy.
“You shouldn’t worry so much Danzo! Honestly, Kakashi has been under my charge since he was five years old, he’s very well trained,” there was a slight conspiratorial edge to Minato's smile. “I won’t be changing my mind,” he said brightly and settled his intertwined hands on his desk, leaning forward invitingly.
The lines on Danzo’s face shifted from indignation to irritation as he acquiesced to Minato’s conditions. Kakashi had to suppress a shiver as Danzo shot one last calculating look in his direction before following suit, acting as though Kakashi wasn’t in the room. He pulled off the impression the best of all so far, even those who had grown used to the oddity that was Kakashi’s side job gave him a cursory glance once or twice. To Danzo, it appeared that he may as well have been a houseplant.
Nevertheless, his words were hidden by a shroud of obfuscation and indirect meanings, “while I appreciate your enthusiasm for my work - an acceptance I couldn’t have hoped to have received from Hiruzen, may he rest in peace - there are still ways in which we could protect the village further that perhaps you would not be as willing to endorse.”
“If you didn’t think there was a chance that I would, I don’t think you would have brought it up to me at all,” Minato replied, his happy-go-lucky manner betraying none of the severity of the implied situation that Kakashi suspected it held. In contrast, Nara Shikaku hadn’t glossed over his words when discussing the high-security details of the jounin command earlier, although he did hum when Minato’s answer to when Kakashi would come back into the fold was an indefinite ‘soon’. Kakashi hadn’t known that his leave from active duty had been official until then and came to the realisation that he must only skim the surface of the Hokage’s duties in his time at Minato’s side if he was missing details like that.
Danzo smiled. It wasn’t a nice smile, so Kakashi stopped paying so much attention to his peripheral view of him. “Indeed, I shall cut to the chase then, I wish to retrieve my former head researcher from his impromptu sabbatical. I believe that, under appropriate supervision, he could contribute much more to the village than he already has.” Whatever that was, it sounded dodgy, but Kakashi lacked the contextual knowledge to confirm how shady the proposed operation was.
From what little interaction they had had, Kakashi knew that Danzo had airs about him of greater-goods and mystery, the kind that came from living so long as a ninja. He was reportedly one of the most loyal to Konoha, the extent of that loyalty boundless. Kakashi wondered just what exactly that meant for his will of fire and the heated decisions it would prompt him to make. Kakashi was rash in the field and had nearly lost his head to recklessness on more than one occasion, although he couldn’t completely kid himself into thinking his ‘dedication to the completion of the mission regardless of the risks’ smoothly translated to 'dedication to the village'. How different would things be if he was as loyal as a man like Danzo? Not at all, possibly, but the concept gave him something to chew on as his shift dragged on.
“Hmm, I won’t deny the merits of your proposal,” Minato said after a few moments of contemplation before leaning back into his chair, decision made. “However, I also cannot deny the risks. Provide me with the means to eliminate the risks and the rest I’ll leave to you.”
“Understood, Hokage-sama,” Danzo dropped the informality he had picked up in his earlier irritation, leaving the room at a sedate pace, his posture revealing neither that he was happy with the conclusion of the meeting nor that he was dissatisfied. If Kakashi had to guess, he’d say a bit of both.
“Oh!” Minato exclaimed just as Danzo’s hand wrapped around the handle of the office door. He paused and turned his head towards them, body angled to leave. “I have a favour to ask,” he scratched at his neck sheepishly.
“A favour or an order?” Danzo replied, slowly shifting to face them. Understandably, he seemed a little irritated at having been called back despite the meeting having reached its end. Minato had a bit of a habit of doing that, the veteran shinobi treated the behaviour with fond exasperation, the civilian women found it endearing while the younger shinobi were almost always thrown off balance. Danzo struck out his own category: gravely displeased.
“Oh, well, if you have to be like that, it’s an order,” Minato said with a small laugh that did nothing to lighten Danzo’s mood. “I’d like Kakashi to train with your division once a week, I think your methods will benefit him greatly with what’s to come.”
All at once, Kakashi was promoted from house plant to shinobi as the focus of the conversation and Danzo’s acute attention was placed on him. He knew not to question his Hokage when in the presence of others, Kakashi had a role to fulfill outside of their bi-weekly dinners that he didn’t completely understand but knew how to play nonetheless, but he couldn’t help but send a questioning look at Minato’s side profile.
Meanwhile, Minato maintained that his conversation with Danzo was a two-player game, “you can send one of your shinobi to pick him up when you’ve decided a time and place, his schedule is free for the next week. Do pick a day and stick to it, though, I have plans for him.”
Danzo’s sharp gaze switched from Kakashi to Minato and analysed him, Minato’s cheery attitude unfaltering, before speaking, “understood, Hokage-sama.”
Meeting actually over now - Minato never pulled his spontaneous idea routine more than once - Danzo’s hand twisted the doorknob and he left the office.
“So, Kakashi,” Minato turned to him, a little more upbeat than usual, “we’re going to have a nice conversation over dinner about a little something called Root and what I’ll be needing you to report back to me.”
