21

Chapter 21: throw me in the sky and see the sun shiningNotes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Three months into his stay at Konoha, Raijin gets assigned his first frontline battle.

He had known that it would only be a matter of time before Hiruzen inevitably shipped him off. Raijin's strengths as a shinobi are best suited for a battlefield after all, or at least, he has developed them to be this way. It's not that he can't be subtle when the situation calls for it, but he does end up having to put more of his focus into restraint in that case and it comes at the cost of his overall performance.

When it comes to an outright battle, on the other hand, Raijin knows he is close to unmatched. Realistically, he could count on both hands the number of people in this time period who could give him enough trouble that he'd have to expose his entire skillset and bring out his strongest attacks.

So, yeah. It really was inevitable and he'd known to expect it but it still kind of sucks. Like, majorly.

The villages aren't friendly right now, and he gets that, but he'd also gotten used to the shinobi alliance. Raijin had grown up in peacetime, and even when he'd been at war as an adult, it had always been against bigger threats that forced the villages to band together. Maybe it would have been different if he had actually stayed in the village like his peers and ran missions that would sometimes lead to inter-village clashes, but Raijin had been off with Jiraiya for all of that. And once he'd returned, the Five Kage summit had been a big enough deal that conflicts were low even if tensions were high.

Raijin is terrified that he'll look across the battlefield and find a face that had belonged to a friend and be expected to hurt or kill them. What if he ends up having to fight the family member of a friend? He knows he will likely never befriend the same people again but that doesn't mean he wants them to hate him either. He doesn't want to contribute to an endlessly vicious cycle of hatred and revenge.

He could try to just maim and not kill but there's a high chance of that resulting in him getting called out and punished. Showing mercy to an enemy is frowned upon in the shinobi community even at the best of times, but in the middle of a war, it is likely that he would get outright accused of shirking his duties and putting his allies at risk.

After all, in their world, duty comes above all else. The moment a ninja puts on their headband and swears allegiance to their village, they are renouncing every other identity. They are shinobi first and foremost. Before they are parents or children or siblings or friends, they are shinobi, and they always will be.

Once upon a time, the Will of Fire had been about fighting for a world where their children could be at peace. It had been about protecting the future generations, about prioritising the safety of their progeny so they could have a shot at living better lives. Protecting Konoha had been about protecting all the little futures that would grow up safe behind its walls.

Senju Hashirama himself had lost sight of that by the end of his tenure as Hokage. These days, the Will of Fire is about fighting for the village. It is about protecting the system, the structure, the unit. It is about allegiance to their leader and putting their lives down for Konoha, the villagers in it be damned.

Uchiha Itachi slaughtered an entire clan—his own clan—overnight for the sake of the village, because he had been ordered to. Not even the children or civilians had been spared. Sarutobi Hiruzen, temporarily raised from the dead through Edo Tensei, had looked Sasuke in the eye and said the Will of Fire had burned bright in Itachi. As if it didn't kill hundreds. As if it didn't haunt Sasuke for the rest of his life. As if it didn't ruin Itachi in every way that matters. As if neither of them had been children.

Their Will has gone from being about love and peace to being about strength and unquestioning loyalty.

And Raijin doesn't know how to be a part of that anymore.

He has been lucky with the missions he has run for Konoha so far. They had only been assassinations, high-stakes courier missions, recon, sabotage, or raiding bases of mercenaries and bandits. Even when he has been required to contribute to the war, it hasn't been in any direct manner.

That luxury is no longer being afforded to him.

Now, more than ever, he finds himself wishing he could magically learn enough chakra control so he could just become a medic or something. Or maybe he should have specialised in intelligence or investigation or administration.

But no, he had wanted big and flashy so the world could never ignore him again and now that has come back to bite him in the ass.

As soon as all of this is over, Raijin is just going to become a desk shinobi. Staring at words all day might give him a headache and drive him to tears, but at least he wouldn't have to deal with this shit anymore.

Speaking of the shit he has to shovel; golden eyes flicker at him from across the fire and Raijin has to actively hold himself back from shuddering violently enough to accidentally fling himself into the campfire.

One day, Raijin is going to prove that the planet only continues to turn so that his luck can somehow manage to progressively deteriorate with each passing day. At this point, it really does have to be some sort of divine scheme, and he's going to get his hands on some proof as soon as he has the time to spare because the only other explanation is that Raijin is just slowly going insane.

Which would make sense but it's also totally unfair that he's losing his mind and he still doesn't get a break. That'd be so unfortunate that it might actually be the final straw that leads him to straight up rage quitting and taking himself on a permanent holiday to some nice deserted island.

But all of that is besides the point. The point being: Orochimaru is totally staring at him and has been for a good five minutes now. Raijin doesn't the think the guy has even blinked. It'd be fascinating if it didn't make his skin crawl.

Orochimaru may have decided to fight on their side by the time Kaguya made her presence known but Raijin had never managed to quite get over his hang-ups regarding the Snake Sannin. In his time, Orochimaru had been flighty, slippery and secretive. He had been one hell of an ally, but there was no real trust there.

Even with the end of their world looming over them, Orochimaru hadn't exactly been a friend. The man had done what was needed, always, and when he fell to Zetsu's schemes, he had died alone. Raijin couldn't be sure if there had even been anyone left to mourn him.

He doesn't really know this version of Orochimaru well enough to know if there is some redemption to be had here. Raijin doesn't even know if he's the right person for this at all. He doesn't like Orochimaru, doesn't trust him and has no personal investment in the man's betterment.

But—

But. Well. Jiraiya does. Jiraiya never stopped liking or trusting or being invested even when claimed otherwise. Orochimaru is to Jiraiya what Sasuke had been to Raijin, and that he can understand. He knows too well that giving up on Sasuke had never even been an option to him, had been impossible and unthinkable even when the rest of the world couldn't fathom his faith in chasing after his teammate once Sasuke abandoned the village.

So, yeah, he doesn't exactly know if Orochimaru is past the point of no return just yet or not but he doesn't think he could leave the man alone without at least trying for his old mentor's sake.

The timeline is a bit wonky in his head since they could only consolidate so many events with the limited time and resources they'd had, but Raijin is pretty sure Orochimaru has already started experimenting with the Shodaime's cells at the village's behest. He doesn't think Orochimaru is a ROOT member already since Minato hasn't officially been declared successor, so hopefully the illegal experimentation hasn't started just yet.

Raijin's gaze drifts back over to Orochimaru's. The Snake Sannin blinks at him lazily and, in a brief fit of pettiness, Raijin sticks his tongue out at him. Blinking, Orochimaru tilts his head. The asshole doesn't even have the decency to look taken aback or annoyed—he just looks amused.

Huffing, Raijin turns away. He doesn't even like Orochimaru. He fundamentally disagrees with a lot of the stuff the guy stands for, including but not limited to human experimentation for one. Although the line with that one is kind of blurry right now because, technically, it should still be village sanctioned. Not that it makes it okay by any means in Raijin's book, but it isn't illegal enough for a case to be made for it.

He doesn't even know how he's going to take ROOT out of the picture yet and he's still taking on more problems to solve. Why does he have to be the one to drag Orochimaru's creepy ass back to the societally acceptable side of morality?

Ugh. Him and his stupid hero complex. He can't even throw his awesome speech at Orochimaru and hope that will do it because the snake bastard is too skewed for that kind of emotionally intelligent approach.

No, he'll have to find some other way to occupy Orochimaru's interest enough that he doesn't go down the crazy evil scientist route in this life.

Man, Raijin deserves a medal. And a raise. And a lifetime supply of free ramen. He's out here doing all this community service for free. There has to be some law to protect him from this kind of exploitation.

When he sees Jiraiya next time, Raijin is going to con the old perv into buying him free food forever in exchange for redeeming his creepy best friend.

Nodding to himself, he stands up and heads for his tent, deciding to call it a night.

Tomorrow, they will make the rest of the journey to the no-man's land in between Land of Frost and Land of Lightning where the currently stationed Konoha troops require reinforcements to respond to the mobilising forces from Kumo. No doubt a battle will ensue soon after. Raijin will have to figure out what he's going to do about that and fast.

Needless to say, he doesn't get much rest that night.

Shisui isn't really a fan of war.

Which, okay yeah, who is? And at all of eight-years-old, no one's expecting him to really be thrilled about bloodshed and honour or whatever either. Mostly, all anyone expects of him is to keep his head down, follow orders and stay out of the way. And Shisui can do that. He's good at it even.

But that doesn't change the fact that the Land of Frost is cold and Shisui's Uchiha physiology makes that close to unbearable even though he tries to circulate his chakra consciously as much as possible. It doesn't change the fact that he can never quite manage to sleep in the camps or on the move because he's jittery in anticipation about the fighting that is just waiting to break out on the horizon. It doesn't change the fact that even though he's a chunin now, he's still eight, and he misses his mum and he misses Itachi and he kind of just really wants to go home.

He most certainly doesn't want to be stuck on messenger duty as the higher-ups have him run around the camp to pass their messages instead of just doing it themselves.

Still, Shisui makes sure to keep his head down and follow orders and stay out of the way. He's fast—close to being the fastest among the chunin despite his age, and he's good at never getting caught underfoot. They say that it makes him efficient. That he's useful and smart. That it'd be a shame to lose him to the Police Force before he even reaches his prime.

It's supposed to be a compliment, backhanded though it may be. He isn't sure how to feel about it just yet. Shisui doesn't particularly want to join the Police Force. He likes his chunin vest a lot more than the police uniforms after all.

He also doesn't particularly want to be here though, if he's being honest.

Shisui huffs, sighing at how his breath fogs up in front of his face from the cold. He hopes he'll manage to sneak away before he gets saddled with another message this time.

Grown ups are kind of stupid as far as he's concerned. Instead of sending around all these messages through him about last minute intel and strategy changes, they should just go back to the council tent and talk it out themselves so they can just be done with it.

"I'm sorry, Shisui-kun," Akimichi Chouza smiles down at him sympathetically, "but can you please pass on a message for me?"

Shisui considers just throwing a tantrum instead. He wants to pout and refuse and kick the dirt under his sandals. He does none of that. He does none of that because he may be eight, but he's a chunin first and that means he has to be serious about his duty to the village. Doubly so because he is an Uchiha and everyone knows that the Uchiha have twice the number of eyes on them, waiting for a screw-up. It won't matter that Shisui is just a kid and is tired and cold and homesick. It will only matter that he is an Uchiha shinobi refusing an order from a superior.

He forces a smile and nods. "Of course."

At least Chouza has the decency to look apologetic. "I'd go myself, but I have to go check on our rations right after," he explains. Shisui decides to forgive him if only because Chouza presses a honey candy into his palm with a wink. He isn't above accepting a good bribe after all. "Raijin-kun is out patrolling the south-western flank of the camp right now. Can you go tell him that he is being assigned to the third eastern unit as captain tomorrow? Team Chi if he asks."

Shisui's eyebrows rise. "Raijan-san?" he repeats. "As in, Namikaze Minato's brother?"

"I'm sure you'll find that he's rather hard to miss once you go looking," Chouza comments, looking vaguely amused. "The colouring is rather distinctive, after all. Now, can you tell him that for me?"

Suddenly reenergised, Shisui grins. "Of course, sir!" He dips into a salute and scampers off as soon as he has been dismissed.

He may be kind of miserable, but at least he can finally meet Raijan in person and see just what it is about the man that has Itachi so enamoured by him. It had been super weird to see Itachi actually excited about someone—a newbie to the village of all people.

The Yellow Flash is cool, and Shisui has no problems admitting to that. He wants to get that fast someday after all. But just because Namikaze Minato is a badass doesn't necessarily mean his brother will be too.

"It's not that," Itachi had said when Shisui pointed this out. "I just like the way he talks." Pausing, the four-year-old had sheepishly added, "And his chakra felt nice. Warm."

As if that made any sense at all.

So, Shisui is curious. Sue him. It's not everyday Itachi reacts like that. Most days the kid acts like one of the priests from the big shrine; all serious and formal and politely disinterested in worldly pursuits even though he doesn't even come up to Shisui's shoulder.

He shunshins at his top speed, eager to get his task completed and hopefully finally be able to call it a night. There are a few clusters of shinobi stationed around the south-western perimeter at even distances from each other, it being one of the few spots where they are left unprotected by the mountains in between which Konoha has set up camp. Most of them are chunin, so it seems that Raijin is in fact in charge of the second patrol shift tonight. Arguably the least desirable shift because it is the coldest around this time of night and those on patrol can't even start fires to warm themselves up.

"Raijin-san," Shisui calls out, approaching the head of blond as soon as he spots it. Chouza had been right, at least—the man does stand out even when he is dressed in standard jounin blues, cloak haphazardly thrown over his shoulders and left unclasped.

The man turns, blinking in what might be surprise when Shisui strikes a salute. "Did you need something from me…?"

"It's Shisui, sir," he provides. "Commander Akimichi sent me with a message for you. He says you're being assigned as captain to the eastern Unit 3 as captain starting tomorrow."

Raijin frowns. "Team Chi?" he asks, brows furrowing when Shisui nods. "The hit-and-run specialists," he mutters to himself, closing his eyes in thought. "Sure, I guess."

Shisui shuffles, barely keeping his teeth from chattering as a harsh wind rips through the night and tears through his own standard issue cloak. He's going to start wearing boots instead from now own. Clearly, wearing two pairs of socks with his sandals just isn't doing enough for him.

When he looks up, it is to find Raijin's knowing gaze fixed on him. "Cold, Shisui-kun?" he asks, fingers tapping the spine of the little notebook he'd been occupied with until Shisui came by.

"Just a little," Shisui admits, shoulders hunching.

Raijin hums. "You're Itachi-kun's cousin, yes?" he asks, leafing through the notebook. "He mentioned you when we last spoke." Looking up to smile at him briefly, he adds, "He said you were his best friend."

And, even freezing his butt off, Shisui can't help but perk up at that. "He did?" he asks, leaning forward slightly. "Man, I can't believe I missed it! Itachi-kun can be unexpectedly cute, huh?"

Raijin chuckles, the laugh high and genuine. "He's a sweet kid, for sure," he says, pulling out a page from the notebook and examining it fleetingly. "I'm glad he has a friend like you though. You seem like you probably draw him out of his shell."

A little stumped, Shisui blinks twice. "Well," he fidgets, feeling his ears turn warm, "I guess. I try to at least."

"Good." Raijin smiles kindly. "Here you go, Shisui-kun," he adds, offering the piece of paper to him. Shisui eyes it, unsure if it's another missive for him to carry. "It's a seal I use to stay warm," Raijin explains, perhaps seeing some of the doubt show on his face. "If you stick it to the inside of your clothes and pulse your chakra into it, it should keep you warm for at least the rest of the night."

Now with a newfound appreciation for the little square of paper, Shisui accepts it and stares in awe at the pretty squiggles that mean a whole lot of nothing to him. "Really?" he asks, wide eyed. "Can I really keep it?"

"Of course," Raijin chirps, grinning and ruffling Shisui's hair. "You're a friend of Itachi-kun's after all. That kind of makes us friends by extension too."

Shisui is pretty sure that isn't how it really works but he isn't about to bring that up now. He's a child of the world after all. Itachi might think he's above it, but Shisui can appreciate a good hustle for what it's worth. And if he knows anything, it's to never refuse free stuff. Especially free stuff that keeps him warm while he's stuck in the cold for the foreseeable future.

"Sure," he decides on the spot, beaming up at the older shinobi. "I'll totally be your friend, Raijin-san! Does this mean you'll make another one of these for me if I ask?"

Snorting, Raijin crosses his arms. "Maybe," he allows.

Shisui is undeterred. The toasty warmth spreading from where the seal is now stuck to the inside of his chunin vest only eggs him on and he bounces on his toes. "Then, can I come find you tomorrow for one?"

Some older shinobi find that kind of thing annoying. Even when they share a rank, overlooking age can be difficult since Shisui is as young as he is. What kind of adult actually wants to hang out with an eight-year-old and entertain all their 'childish' whims?

Apparently Raijin does because he only flashes Shisui another smile of indulgent amusement. "Sure, Shisui-kun," he says patiently.

Shisui knows better than to whoop out loud on the edges of a war camp, but it's a near thing. He settles for pushing his joy into his chakra instead, the only semi-outlet he has, letting it brush against Raijin's for just a second to share it with the man.

Raijin doesn't seem put off by that either, even though it could be counted as maybe a little overly friendly. Shinobi are skittish creatures after all. Instead, his own chakra twists around Shisui's playfully before retreating.

And, yeah, Shisui sees it now. Raijin really is nice and his chakra is so warm to the senses that it almost tricks Shisui into believing that he can physically feel it, and maybe that's why Itachi seems to like him so much. Raijin doesn't necessarily talk down at Shisui but he's also kind; gentle in a way he probably isn't with older shinobi.

Normally, being treated like a kid pisses Shisui off. He's a shinobi and he's good at it and people only seem to want to treat him like a kid so they can conveniently undermine that. They didn't see him as a kid when he made his first kill at six, but they do throw his age in his face when they start to feel threatened by his skill. It's annoying. The inconsistency is confusing and, sometimes, hurtful.

But being treated like a kid just for the sake of it? To be nicer and funnier and more tolerant but still respectful? That…isn't so bad. At all. It's the kind of thing that Shisui likes about Akimichi Chouza, for example.

"I bet Itachi's gonna hate that I'm friends with you now," he remarks, grinning wickedly.

Raijin's eyebrows rise. "Really? Why would he?"

"I think he wants to keep you for himself, you know? He's totally gonna pout about it because he'll think I'm trying to steal you away," Shisui says. "Itachi-kun doesn't make friends too easily, after all."

Snorting, Raijin tries and visibly fails to smother a smile. "Cute."

"Isn't it?" Shisui grins. "He might try to hack off my hair with a kunai again though."

"Again?"

"Oh, yeah," Shisui waves his hand, "Itachi-kun is vengeful."

Raijin hums, looking thoughtful. "Must run in the family."

Shisui cocks his head. "What does that mean?

"Oh, don't worry about it, Shisui-kun."

Somewhere on the border of Land of Wind, Uchiha Obito violently jerks awake at night, disoriented and wild, sharingan spinning.

"Obito?" Kakashi rouses beside him, squinting up at his friend in confusion. "What's wrong?"

Frowning, Obito stares unseeingly at the canvas wall of their tent. "I sense a great disturbance somewhere in the universe, Kakashi," he announces solemnly.

"What the fuck," Kakashi responds.

"Something terrible has just happened."

"Literally just shut up and go back to sleep, Obito. You have the next watch." Rolling over, Kakashi hunkers further down into his sleeping bag.

"I can feel it, Kakashi," Obito insists.

"Why couldn't I have had normal teammates, kami-sama?"

Snorting, Obito lays back down. "What a strange thing to say about your husband, Kakashi."

"What the fuck did you just say?"

"Hmm? Oh, don't worry about it. It's nothing."

"Obito? What the fuck was that supposed to mean? Obito?"

Notes:

I think all Uchiha love jealously. Like dragons lol. They want to monopolise their loved ones' time and attention and they get pouty when they have to share.

Anyways, the final duckling has been collected. Raijin has a full set now.

Also, just to clarify, I'm doing the husband thing for gimmick but I'm not actually going to be including outright KakaObi until they're both adults. Kakashi is like eleven right now so the romance just feels weird to me. The marriage thing is entirely for comedic purposes and mild tax evasion in my head.