Chapter Text
At the ripe age of 19, Minato's been assigned a genin team of his own. He's reading their files, and he doesn't know what to think -- his genin team's more of a genin and chunin team. And they're so young. Rin Nohara and Obito Uchiha are the ripe age of 9 years old, freshly graduated from the academy as genin. Then there's the part that makes his head spin. 6-year old Kakashi Hatake. The son of the now-disgraced, late White Fang of Konoha. A chunin. How? Who decided that a literal child was the right age to be promoted? Can six year olds even read?
Regardless, this is his team. He'll make it work. He has to. So here he is, reading up on their family histories. Kami, he feels creepy as hell doing all this. He could just ask them when they become his students, but he should at least know something about them beforehand. Rin Nohara's got a pretty normal family history. Parents, siblings, civilian family. Obito Uchiha's is a little worse. No parents, yes grandparents, and is yet to manifest a Sharingan. In terms of skill, he’s considered ‘sub-par’ by the Uchiha — so he’s just average for his age. That's fine. Kakashi Hatake is not fine. No parents — lost his mother very young, lost his father recently. A prodigy. His chakra reserves are small, at least for his age. But he’s exceptionally proficient in ninjutsu. Excellent chakra control, proficient in most common ninja weapons, and intelligent. The ideal born shinobi, and he's six years old. What the fuck did Sakumo feed this kid?
Regardless, he's going to be their teacher now. So he better lock in and figure it out. He runs the bell test with them. Rin and Obito fall for almost every trap he sets. Kakashi? Kakashi sees right through them. Each and every one of them. Minato catches Kakashi's traps just as fast, but he's at a stalemate with a literal child. In the end, it’s Kakashi’s strength that fails him. No matter his intelligence, a six-year-old is a six-year-old, and Minato’s an adult jonin. They get the bells, eventually. Kakashi freaking baits him, using Obito and Rin as cannon fodder. It's bad teamwork, but it's teamwork to an extent. He can work with that.
"Bakashi, what the hell's wrong with you?! We could've died!"
"Well, you didn't. So stop complaining."
"How do you know that, huh?!"
"I can see the future."
"So you're delusional on top of being an ass?!"
Kakashi doesn't respond. Privately, Minato's inclined to agree with Obito. "I can see the future?" That's entirely implausible. Even if Kakashi had the ability or knowledge needed to perform any variant of a scrying jutsu, his chakra reserves are too small. He's physically incapable of performing them without completely draining himself.
It’s only the first day, and he’s already managed to gauge a team dynamic. Kakashi is relentless, harsh, and unforgiving, Obito is naive, optimistic, and energetic, and Rin is kind, gentle, and forgiving, higher energy than Kakashi but more relaxed than Obito. And so goes their team dynamic. Kakashi's brilliance, Obito's energy, Rin's kindness, and his...he doesn't even know.
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He finds himself talking to the other jonin sensei. They’re all slightly older than he is, but about half of them have had their teams for longer. Kaori’s had her team for almost a year, and Shikaku’s had his team for a few weeks.
"You got assigned a team, right? How's it going?"
It must show on his face exactly how it's going, because Shikaku keeps going.
"It can't be that bad. It's only been a week."
"He's got Kakashi Hatake on his team."
The interjection from Kaori has Shikaku silent, before he turns on his stool to look at her.
"No, no, Kakashi's fine," Minato protests. The other ninja in the room give him a look. Kakashi, the son of the late White Fang, the youngest active roster ninja ever, fine? Fat fucking chance. "They're fine, it's really not that bad. They've just got a weird dynamic."
"Weird? That makes sense — the youngest member on your team has seniority over your other two students. He's also a prodigy, in every sense of the word. That's bound to start some rivalry."
"No, no, it's not that. Well, that's happening too, but that's not the big issue here."
"So what's the big issue?" Presses Kaori.
Everyone's curious about his team, and he can't blame them, but the inadequacy he feels sitting there is painfully strong. The youngest chunin in Konoha's history, the son of the White Fang, and a prodigy in every sense of the word is on his team. An Uchiha (the only one in the batch) and a civilian who ranked extremely high for basic medical ninjutsu. What should be a well-rounded, excellent team from the very start, and they’re a hot mess.
"Rin's fine, she's the most well adjusted. She might be a little too kind for this line or work, though. Kakashi and Obito fight like cats and dogs. Well, Obito fights. Kakashi doesn't even acknowledge him. Obito's trying to impress Rin, but Kakashi outshines them both."
"So nothing's wrong with Kakashi?"
"He says he can see the future."
Dead silence from Kaori and Shikaku. Minato cringes inwardly. After a week with the team, it seems much more plausible than it did the day of the bell test. Kakashi is innately aware of everything, to an unnatural extent. Minato understands vigilance. He understands hypervigilance. Kakashi is on another level entirely, moving to counter motions that Minato hasn’t even made yet. When Kakashi ages into physical strength, ages into larger chakra reserves, ages into a size comparable to Sakumo’s — he really will be the ideal born ninja. But right now, he’s a child. A child with an uncanny ability and a complete inability to rely on his team. A child who is arrogant, a child who is solitary.
"So he has a good imagination. Good -- he's still a kid, you know." Kaori's reassurance comes easily. Which makes it significantly easier for Minato to break the news to them.
"I'm starting to believe it."
The entire room falls silent, and at least 7 pairs of eyes stare at him from across the bar. Shikaku, Kaori, and other people Minato can’t name, but can recognize by face. Shikaku sighs so deeply Minato can almost taste the other man's headache.
"You believe it? Minato, a six year old told you that he can see the future and you believe it? Are you alright?"
"I know I sound crazy, but that kid knows things. I know he can't do scrying or prediction jutsus -- not with his chakra reserves. But he sees things coming. I've been trying to catch him off guard in our training -- nothing. He doesn't fall for anything."
"So what I'm hearing is that you are losing to a six year old."
"..."
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Kakashi is not having a good time. First, he inherits his mother's kekkei genkai and he still hasn't figured out how to turn it off. He's tempted to swallow his pride and beg his Uchiha teammate for help -- nobody knows clan jutsu like the Uchiha. Then, every morning, he's reminded how utterly idiotic Obito is, and has to internally berate himself for even considering such a thing.
He wants his dad. But that's not happening, either. He still hasn't managed to enter the study. The image remains seared in his brain, and it won't leave. There'd been so much blood, his father's tanto unsheathed and still loosely held in his lax grip, the floor, the smell of iron, the hospital. The worst was his father's eyes. Ever since his mission, his eyes had become progressively more desolate. But the sheer lack of life they'd held when Kakashi had found the body makes it difficult for him to sleep. For all this precognition's worth, it hasn't helped him. He didn't have it when his father's mission failed. Manifested it after his father's death. The only times in his life the bane of his existence would've helped, and he didn't even have it then.
And to top it all off, nobody believes him. He's been saying it since he got placed on his team, and every time, Obito and Rin look at him incredulously. Then Obito starts yelling about how he's crazy and Kakashi wants to rip Obito's hair clean out of his scalp. It doesn't show as obviously on Minato's face, but he can tell that Minato doesn't believe him either. Can see the flicker of doubt in his eyes.
He sighs, sitting back in his tree. It's a nice sitting place, located close to the Hokage Monument. And, if he turns his back to Konoha, nothing to look at other than the birds. And he doesn't mind knowing what they're going to do next. Every day, Minato has them going through random, utter bullshit. The D-ranks are fine. Boring, but simple. Nothing to make his head hurt from seeing the future. What's irritating is how hard Minato's trying to get him close to Obito and Rin.
Which is why he finds himself sitting on the grass with his team, playing Fish instead of doing anything useful. Fine.
"Kakashi, do you have the eight of clubs?"
"No. Give me both your jokers and the eight of hearts. Obito, give me the eight of spades and the eight of clubs."
Obito throws his cards on the grass. Kakashi had already bled him dry of high spades and low hearts -- Minato and Obito's team is losing miserably. Kakashi's already calling his and Rin's fourth set, compared to their grand total of one.
"How?! How do you just know what we have?!"
"Because I can see the future."
"Kakashi, just TELL US HOW YOU DO IT! Nobody can see the future -- how are you doing it? How are you cheating?! We're playing with Rin's cards, and she shuffled the deck. And unlike you, Rin would never cheat! So how are you doing it?!"
"I've already told you. It's because I can see the future."
"NOT THIS SHIT AGAIN!"
"Language," Minato reprimands, but it's clear he's trying not to laugh. Then Kakashi gets the 4 of clubs from Minato and calls their fifth set. Obito screams in frustration. Kakashi has to swallow his urge to grin -- it's unbecoming, and he's not giving Minato the satisfaction of seeing him enjoy team bonding in any capacity.
Their next few days are spent in a similar fashion. Minato drags them on progressively more "bonding excursions." They play more games. Kakashi can smoke them in almost any card game -- ERS, poker, Fish, Uno, Rummy. Any game involving skill and drawing from a pile. His losing streak, however, comes into play when the games of chance roll out.
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Kakashi is really, really bad at Ludo. It takes him half of the game to roll out a single six to get any of his pieces on the board. Obito's overjoyed at this turn of events -- Kakashi's bad at something. It doesn't matter that it's completely due to random chance. What matters is that Kakashi is losing and Obito is winning.
"How come your 'future sight' ain't helping you now, Bakashi?"
Because being able to see the outcome in a game of chance doesn't help me. I know what I’m going to roll, but there's nothing I can do about it. Are you actually stupid, or is this solely to anger me?
But Kakashi doesn't care. He doesn't really do much -- he shows up at the same time every day. He trains with them. He wins every spar, every game (that needs even an inkling of skill). Then he goes home. He flatly turns down every request to go eat with them, turns down every invite. And that gets Obito's blood boiling. He doesn't interact with them, doesn't get dango with them after training, just goes straight home. He also never shows them his face -- like, ever. Obito's seen him drink water THROUGH the mask. It's like he thinks he's better than them.
"Asuma, he's so full of it!"
Asuma and Kurenai exchange looks, before Kurenai gently scolds him.
"You're more than half his age older than him, Obito. He's little."
"A little goblin! He somehow manages to cheat at all the games that you can possibly cheat at."
"Sounds to me like you're just angry you're losing in front of Rin."
"Shut up! He doesn't like any of us, and he says he can 'see the future.' Weirdo much?!"
"Oh yeah, I heard Shikaku-sensei mention that. Also, it's not like he has no friends at all. I think it's just you he doesn't like."
Asuma leans back in his chair, and Kurenai giggles.
"What's that supposed to mean?!"
"He gets along with that Guy kid. The son of the eternal genin. Well, they get along as well as Kakashi can.”
"No shot -- doesn't he only wear green, is super loud, and has the world's most bowl cut bowl cut? HIM?!"
"Yeah. Guy says it's something about being 'Eternal Rivals," whatever that is."