Chapter Text
At the age of four, Kakashi Hatake is a gifted child. He can read at a university-level, he has excellent physical coordination, and he is vastly more mature than his peers.
What he doesn't have is a Quirk.
The average age that children begin to display their Quirks is at four years old. Most of his classmates in his preschool have already exhibited their Quirks - Kakashi is one of only two children who have not.
According to the x-ray his father took him to get a few weeks ago, there's a 99% chance he may never manifest a Quirk.
Kakashi isn't too devastated about it. The majority of Quirks have minimal impact on daily life. There's plenty he can do without a Quirk, and he can already run circles around the ankle-biters in his class who do possess Quirks.
However, he does worry about Miki. As the sole other member of their "Quirkless until proven otherwise" club, Miki had been a quiet but otherwise well-liked member of their class prior to Quirk manifestation. She adjusted poorly to suddenly becoming an outcast like Kakashi and has been crying in the bathroom every other day during their breaks.
Kakashi has done his research, and he knows that society's treatment of Quirkless people has grown more and more discriminatory as time goes by. That's why he is profoundly unimpressed when two of their classmates decide to corner Miki and him in the restroom. He isn't surprised, but he also isn't going to put up with it.
As a result, Hatake Sakumo is soon called to the principal's office.
Sakumo can feel a migraine coming on when he sees two children with scorched clothing crying to their angry parents, and a bored, completely untouched Kakashi standing at a distance.
The principal says through gritted teeth, "Kakashi somehow engineered a small explosion during break. While no one was injured, he's given quite the fright to these children. This is his first infraction, but it is quite the serious one."
Sakumo resists the urge to face-palm.
He's not at home as often as he would like, due to his frequent patrols and agency work. While his late wife was a clever and strong woman, neither of them were prodigies in the way that Kakashi has proven to be.
Sakumo hadn't allowed him to skip grades because he wanted for Kakashi to socialize with his peers, but he's starting to think that may not have been the best choice.
He crouches down to be eye-level with Kakashi. "Is what your principal saying true?"
Kakashi shrugs. "It is true in that she has only discussed a fraction of the story and is ignoring any facts that don't fit into her perfectly neat worldview."
Sakumo sees the principal turning purple with anger in the corner of his eye, and the other parents are starting to clamor as well, but they aren't his priority. Kakashi is, and will always be, his priority.
"What facts are missing?"
Kakashi recites in monotone, "They cornered us in the bathroom. Ichiro pushed Miki down and called us 'Quirkless losers.' Kentaro was about to burn her with his Quirk."
Kentaro interrupts. "That's not true! I wasn't going to burn her. I was just - playing around."
Kakashi rolls his eyes. "You had a flame in your hand, about two inches away from her face. Forgive us for not 'playing along' with you."
Miki's mother frowns severely at Kentaro and Ichiro's parents. "Is this true? Was your child threatening my Miki with illegal Quirk usage?"
Kentaro's father promptly stops glaring at Kakashi. Good, because Sakumo probably would have poked out his eyes if he continued any longer.
"O-oh, I see. I didn't realize that was what happened. Perhaps we should just let this incident pass - let bygones be bygones."
Miki's mother says coldly, "You weren't so willing to let things go when you thought Kakashi was the instigator instead of your son."
He laughs nervously. "My son has a powerful Quirk; he can't be expected to have full control over it at such a young age. But I'll be sure to give him a good talking-to after this."
"Wait. I'm confused. If this Kentaro is the one with a fire-based Quirk, why did you say Kakashi caused the explosion?" Sakumo asks. "He doesn't even have a Quirk!"
The principal hesitates. "We're aware of that, but they've all testified that the explosion was because of Kakashi."
Kakashi looks away evasively.
"Kakashi..." Sakumo uses the same warning tone he used when he returned home to a disassembled computer that his child was hoping to turn into a police radio.
His son sighs. "Fine. It was me. That idiot didn't even know about dust explosions. You would think someone with a flame Quirk would do some proper research on combustible material."
"So you...?"
Kakashi lifts his left hand. "Dispersed fine particles left over from the wall construction, in an enclosed space." He raises his right hand. "Imbecile with a poorly mastered fire Quirk." He puts his fists together and imitates the sound of an explosion. "Ka-boom."
Sakumo pinches his nose bridge. "We've had this discussion about your science experiments before."
"I calculated the volume of the room and the amount of dust! There was practically no risk of bodily harm!"
"No experiments without supervision," Sakumo says firmly. "Ever."
"Like it would be of any use. Your chemistry knowledge is even worse than mine," Kakashi mumbled under his breath.
The principal clears her throat. "If we could get back to the main topic? Kakashi has admitted that he was the one to cause the explosion. Regarding punishment-"
Miki's mother interjects. "It's evident to me now that Kakashi was defending himself and my daughter. Moreover, there was no physical harm caused by his actions, so I understand he was well within his means for legal self-defense."
She tosses a business card onto the principal's desk. "If the next words out of your mouth aren't, 'regarding the punishment for illegal Quirk usage,' you will have a Quirk discrimination lawsuit on your hands so fast it will make your head spin."
Now that Miki's mother is standing with her arms akimbo, Sakumo remembers where he's seen that pose before. Her face is plastered on billboards all over town as a civil rights attorney at the top law firm in Musutafu.
The principal must know her background too, because her face goes bone-white, and she starts backpedaling like crazy.
In the end, Kakashi gets away with only detention as a punishment, while the bullies are suspended for two weeks.
Sakumo still believes it is important for Kakashi's development to make friends with kids his own age. And it does seem like he's gained a little follower in the form of Miki, who now seems to view him as her hero.
Yet Kakashi obviously needs more intellectual stimulation than what he's been receiving learning the alphabet and how to add and subtract.
"How would you like to take some university courses online?"
Kakashi's eyes light up.
Kakashi is so excited that Sakumo feels guilty for not making the suggestion sooner.
He decides to reduce the frequency of his patrols moving forward. Hero work is important to him, but he only has so many years to be around for Kakashi's childhood.
As it turns out, Kakashi's childhood ends up being shorter than either of them could have ever imagined.