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It was overkill. But did Kakashi care? No. He’d lived his whole life shying away from titles and accolades, so he figured he should be excused for wanting to flaunt and show off at least once in his life, right? And the look on his fellow Kages’ faces when they’d shown up had been exactly what he’d wanted to see. Incredulous, sour, amused, wary. All of it.
Naruto helped to assuage any doubts, of course, when he beamed and greeted them all by name, bounding around the room with his bright and sunny energy. On the other hand, Sasuke stayed silent and subdued beside Kakashi. Watching, but not joining in. Sure that his presence wasn’t exactly wanted nor welcomed.
Kakashi merely smiled his signature eye-smile and took his seat, Sasuke falling into position behind him as they both waited for Naruto to finish his greetings.
Kakashi didn’t think there was ever a point in his life that he could be this unguarded – figuratively, of course. Not even within Konoha, where most shinobi could at least let their guards down, was he ever not on a knife’s edge of being ready to jump straight into combat. Experiencing the Nine-Tails’ attack from within the village itself at a young age probably had something to do with it.
But now, Kakashi could actually release some of the ever-present tension in his shoulders, stop analyzing scents and sounds with such focus and just… be. Just take the moment for what it was; a walk through a foreign town.
Instead of parsing out the scent of steel, polishing oil or blood, he now allowed himself to actually enjoy the pleasing scents of fresh baked goods and food. The sound of laughter and the clinking of cups. Somehow, it was like experiencing the world for the first time. The world as a civilian, perhaps.
He could humour his own curiosity and thoughts of looking at wares and souvenirs, of trying new foods, instead of doing only the bare minimum needed to survive and suspecting everything. Even as part of previous foreign dignitary trips, he never ate anything more than ration pills or dry foods he had packed. One could never be too safe, after all.
Not that he shouldn’t be safe now that he’s Hokage, either. Just that, well, he no longer had the unspoken pressure of having to be the best; to be the one that had to watch for everything, to account for everything, to always be prepared for the worst case scenario. Not when he had both Naruto and Sasuke with him.
“You looked… relaxed, today, Kakashi-sensei,” Naruto noted later that evening. ‘Happy’ wasn’t quite the right word to describe it. He looked up from where he had flopped against Kakashi’s side as the elder hummed, a quiet question. “Kurama told me you’ve never let your guard down like you did today.”
A turn of a page, “did he now.” Kakashi huffed and pulled his body out of reach when Naruto’s fingers went to pull away the Icha-Icha cover to try and see what book he was really reading under there.
“He also said you liked showing off that you have ‘two of the world’s strongest shinobi’ as your personal guard,” Naruto says with a grin. Kakashi doesn’t think he likes the ideas that Kurama puts in Naruto’s head – doesn’t like that Kurama is telling Naruto about Kakashi’s silly power trip.
Naruto’s grin widens as he sees the slight furrow in Kakashi’s brow and the near-unnoticeable pout of his lip. “So he’s right? You asked us to come so you could show off to the other Kages?” A loud bark of laughter. “That’s hilarious! I didn’t think you’d be that kind of person, Kakashi-sensei!”
With a loud sigh, Kakashi snapped his book closed to level Naruto with a stern look. “So what if I did? Am I not allowed to flaunt that even if I’m the weakest Hokage, it doesn’t matter because my students are the strongest?”
Now it was Naruto’s turn to frown, “what the hell do you mean, ‘weakest Hokage’?” He repeats, annoyed. Sitting up, he rolls a little so that he cages Kakashi into where they sat on the couch. “You are not the weakest Hokage, don’t you ever say that again!”
Kakashi sighs, knowing he shouldn’t have said that in front of Naruto. “Naruto…” Unfortunately, it’s too late, and Naruto was already getting all worked up.
“You are the Hokage the village chose, the one everyone acknowledges, and that makes you the best!” Naruto scolds, having been through thousands of these arguments before. “The only thing you got right was that you do have the strongest students,” he said with a harrumph, crossing his arms.
Kakashi’s expression softens, knowing that he’d never win this argument. He slowly puts his hands on Naruto’s hips, patting to console him. “Alright, alright. So you’re not going to fault me for wanting to show my dear students off every once in a while then, are you?”
Easily distracted by the subject change, Naruto tilts his head for a moment then grins. “Of course not! Actually, you should show me off a lot more!”
Chuckling softly, Kakashi asks, “should I? I’m not so sure about that.” He smiles at the sulky pout that elicits from Naruto. He knows better than to mention anything about not feeling worthy of standing next to Naruto, of being loved by him. He learnt his lesson the first – and last – time he’d ever mentioned something similar to Naruto before. It had been the longest month of his life; enough for Kakashi to start empathizing with what Sasuke had to put up with all those years.
It didn’t stop him from feeling uncomfortable when Naruto would press up close to him in public; closer than a friend or teammate would. Well, except Gai, but that man never understood the concept of personal space to begin with. But Gai never wound an arm around his waist like Naruto would, never pressed up behind him to hook a chin over Kakashi’s shoulder, never sent him looks that had women looking glancing between them and giggling. Then again, he’d never dated Gai either, but still.
He starts to regret his decision to bring Naruto and Sasuke – to be fair, the latter has been behaving well the whole time – to the Summit. And not even because they interfered with the actual Summit itself, but the celebration dinner that was held on the last night.
After getting bullied by both the Kages and his students, Kakashi had showed up to the dinner for once wearing something other than his uniform or the ceremonial Kage robes. Instead, he wore an uncharacteristically impractical haori hakama, with the haori a flattering dark purple that Sakura had gifted him when he first became Hokage.
Naruto had been beaming when the other Kages had welcomed Kakashi with approval in their eyes, and Kakashi resisted the urge to roll his own. The other Kages were in similar states of more relaxed formalwear; Ohnoki and A wearing similar hakama whilst Gaara opted for a more casual Nagagi, and Mei in a flowery Furisode. Kakashi wasn’t sure if she had purposely picked out the style for the fact that it was only worn by the unmarried or not, but he knew better than to ask.
Thankfully the dinner passed relatively peacefully – though some of the Kages did get a little more drunk than Kakashi expected them to – he didn’t realize it until too late when his seemingly playful jokes with the Mizukage went a little too far.
“You really do clean up well, Hatake-san,” Mei said for the nth time that night. She leaned back and didn’t hide how her eyes appraised him appreciatively. “You really should dress down more often. Especially now; the Hokage doesn’t need to be wearing the uniform at all times, you know?”
Kakashi chuckled, “these are about the only non-uniformed things I own, aside from sleepwear, and they were gifts from my students.” Taking a quip sip of sake he added, “I don’t have the mental capacity to waste on fashion anyway.”
Sighing and shaking her head, Mei chided, “that’s not very conducive to attracting a partner. But that’s fine, I quite like a man in uniform too.” Smiling, she nudges a gentle hand on Kakashi’s arm, and then leaves it there.
Kakashi simply chuckles again and sends her his typical eye-smile, “I’m flattered.”
“He doesn’t need to attract a partner,” a voice cuts in, and then there’s a hand pushing Mei’s away. Both Kages’ eyes jump to Naruto, who had reached over all the way over Sasuke – whose face was pinched – so he could reach over to pull Kakashi slightly away from the Mizukage.
Kakashi was about to quietly warn Naruto – they were just joking around – but Mei beat him to it. “Oh? Is that so?” Her eyes pointedly ran from where Naruto had a hand over where hers was earlier, up to his serious expression. Smiling amusedly, her eyes flicker back to Kakashi as she teases, “well, all’s fair in love and war, right?”
“Oh, is that so?” Naruto echoes her words, “in that case…” The entire table is startled to silence when Naruto abruptly activates his Six Paths Sage Mode, and the entire table – no, room – is bathed in the light of his chakra cloak.
“Naruto!” Kakashi hissed, shocked. Was his student drunk? He’d never seen Naruto anything beyond slightly tipsy, as Kurama and Naruto’s combined chakra would inadvertently burn off the effects even without conscious effort. In the corner of his eye, Kakashi saw even Sasuke’s eyes widening, the Sharingan appearing almost out of reflex from seeing Naruto’s battle-ready form.
Silence rang in the air, and the atmosphere slowly became suffocating as Kakashi tried to figure out a way to diffuse the situation, grasping Naruto’s hand on his shoulder and pinching hard. Alas, Naruto didn’t react, his eyes still holding the Mizukage’s gaze, challenging.
Mei’s brows were raised, surprised just as the others. However her eyes looked sharp, gaze thoughtful before a bemused smile returned to her lips and she slowly raised her hands up in surrender. “Fair enough. I know when I’m outmatched,” with a dramatic sigh, she flicks a mournful look towards Kakashi. “Such a shame though, he’s quite handsome.” Gaze jumping back to Naruto, who had thankfully returned to normal, she added, “You got yourself quite the catch there, Naruto-san.”
Naruto being Naruto, beamed as if he hadn’t just been ready to fight her. “Right?? And…” he leaned forward even more, Sasuke jabbing him in the ribs in silent complaint, to whisper conspiratorially, “he’s even more handsome under the mask!”
Kakashi buried his face in his hands, a heavy sigh escaping him at the fact that Naruto had no quiet voice at all, and so the entire table no doubt heard what he’d said. “Naruto…” he groaned.
“What?” asked the blonde, blinking innocently up at Kakashi. “You are, though.” Then with another big smile, he reached both hands over to grab Kakashi’s face. “And I’m the only one that gets to see it,” added gleefully.
Soft laughter by his side drew Kakashi’s attention – and a chance to distract himself from blushing in front of the other Kages – to Mei, smothering her smile behind a hand. “Oh, you two are just precious. That’s enough now, don’t make me any more jealous!”
Thankfully, Naruto finally pulled back to return to his seat – not without another jab from Sasuke – as he grinned at her. “Don’t worry Mei-san, I can introduce you to some guys if you want! Or,” he drops a hand on the shoulder beside him, “Sasuke’s technically still single! Though you might have to fight Sakura-chan for him.”
And with that, the table relaxes again as the Kages all chuckle and shake their heads at his ingenuousness. Kakashi reaches over and grabs Sasuke’s sleeve, saying lowly, “maybe you two should excuse yourselves for tonight. Take this drunkard back with you, will you?”
“Oh, in that case,” Naruto butts in casually. He stands, and then pulls Kakashi up with him. “Let’s just call it a night! It was great seeing everyone again! Safe travels home!”
“Hey, Naruto—wait!” Kakashi tries to argue, eyes wide but as he looks back to the other Kages, already stressed about them taking offence, he’s only met with the sight of four amused looks as they all cheerily wave goodbye to him. He barely squeezes in a “excuse us—” before he’s dragged outside by Naruto.