DiSCERN (Naruto Fanfic)

Chapter Eight.

Kakashi sighs.

Beside him, Minato laughs dryly.

Right on Itsuki's hospital room door, was a huge, colourful list of names. Apparently, blue ink was 'you're allowed, i guess', and red ink was 'go away, Anko bites'.

Kakashi's name isn't anywhere on that list, but Pakkun's name is, along with a wriggly scribble of a henohenomoheji beside it. Minato's name is stuck on with a piece of paper that labels him 'TBA'.

Minato observes the biggest red writing ('Tsunade-hime go away', and a scary depiction of a demon hag or something) with a sort of amused understanding. Maybe there's a story there.

"I'm pretty sure 'Kakashi' is easy to write," he spites, grumbling ways to punch that girl in the head for this evident discrimination.

"Now, now, Kakashi," Minato soothes the boy, "maybe she just forgot?"

Kakashi scowls at that, but doesn't say anything else. He lifts his hand, and knocks like a normal human being.

"What's the password??" a female voice inside the room pipes up with an annoying amount of cheer, and Kakashi has to physically restrain himself from kicking the door down.

Minato flusters, "oh no, quick, Kakashi, what do you think Anko would--"

"This is Kakashi, I'm coming in, Itsuki," he decides to ignore the teacher completely, reaching for the doorknob and unhesitatingly wrenching it open.

Then he stops.

Because the second he steps in, he finds Itsuki on the bed, Anko sprawled over on top of him straddling his little figure.

Kakashi freezes, takes two breaths. Minato facepalms.

"It's not what it looks like!" Anko says.

"I don't know what this looks like but it's not what it looks like!" Itsuki parrots.

Kakashi doesn't hear a word of it. He marches over, face criminally stoic, and grabs Anko by the scruff before tossing her to the side.

"Alright, you're officially fired from babysitting," he declares.

"Stingy!"

"What do you mean 'stingy'?!"

"I've been taking care of Itsuki this whole time! You don't get to steal him from me!"

"You've been obsessively clinging onto him, that's what!"

In the next second, Itsuki is tugged back and forth between the two bickering forces, swinging from one arm to another.

Eventually, he's scooped up into someone's arms.

He's spent the majority of the past few days huddled into someone's arms like a baby anyways, so maybe another day of it wouldn't hurt.

It's a big person, so at first, he wonders if it was Kakashi, then he remembers that Kakashi was tiny now. Maybe it was Dan. He feels the hard chest of the Konoha Flak Jacket, and these arms were wide and homey.

"Both of you, please calm down," and the voice, Itsuki realizes, isn't Dan's-- "you're going to confuse Itsuki-kun at this rate."

"But, Minato-sensei, Anko's definitely taking advantage of his blindness," Kakashi accuses, "didn't you see that just now?"