Author's Note: Fourth Instance of this series! I can't believe it! I personally liked this one a lot. Even if it is so cute and sweet that my teeth were at risk of cavity.

This one takes place in teen!verse, not too long after Rin and the dimensional travelers. It could also be a stand alone, because it doesn't really makes reference to it, but... well, yeah. It's the same verse.

Anyway I hope you enjoy it! :D

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. It should be obvious.

This has also been posted in AO3.

Saving grace

Kakashi closed his Sharingan eye and repositioned his Konoha headband over it. He felt tired, drained and a little grimy. His right tight ached from a darkening bruise caused by a hard kick he had been too occupied at the moment to fully stop. He had been able to move away, though, so he didn't have to deal with a broken bone now. He felt warm liquid running down his left arm and turned slightly to inspect it curiously, only to find a nasty – but thankfully superficial – horizontal gash, still bleeding. Huh. Probably a kunai.

He shrugged and returned his vision to the landscape, trying to ignore the gory image of the bodies that lay just a couple of meters before him, still warm, but cooling with every passing second.

He was outside of a deathly silent compound that, just the day before, had been full of noise and happy conversations. In contrast, this morning he couldn't even hear birds singing, because they had been scared away by the commotion earlier.

A bitter smile spread beneath both his masks. How ironic, that once upon a time he wouldn't have felt an ounce of anything remotely regretful about killing an enemy, had lived believing that to be a good shinobi that was sort of a prerequisite. By then he had been just a child, a barely promoted jounin that knew nothing about the real world. Now, he felt guilt and regret and sadness for every single man and woman he could not avoid killing. It was fucked up, in a way, that when he finally understood that the enemy were also people – who ate, and slept, and joked, and loved – and that killing them meant robbing somebody of a friend, a lover, a mother, a father, a sibling, a daughter, a son… Then, when he had just realized that he completely and viscerally hated killing and was actually contemplating quitting ANBU, he was ordered to lead a team to slaughter a whole clan.

He could have turned it down. He could have said no. That is, he could have, if the damn Elders and fucking Danzo hadn't made it impossible for him to do so.

"You have been trying to gain custody of the Jinchuuriki," the councilman had said, and Kakashi had frozen before being able to deliver his negative. "You understand that it is not possible for us to let it be in irresponsible hands. It needs to be… handled... with utter care. Of course, if you were to show us that you have the strength needed…"

The man had let the sentence hanging, but the offer – the blackmail – was there, clear as the purest crystal. Kakashi had to fight not to let a growl loose, because the disdain in which he referred to Naruto incensed him like nothing else. Nobody had the right to badmouth their little blond sunshine, or treat him as a goddamn tool.

Oh, how he wished he could have just punched the man right in his smug face, but he hadn't. Logically, he knew he was being played, but it was the first time the council actually seemed to ponder the possibility of letting Obito and him take Naru-chan. He couldn't just throw the chance away. Even if it meant ignoring his morals and take another step to self-hatred.

The boy was barely two years old, and knew nothing of love and kindness but for the times they were allowed to visit him at the orphanage where he was left soon after his parents' deaths. Handled with care, his arse. They left him in a fucking orphanage, where he was sneered at and treated as nothing. He had had to grit his teeth to stop the accusations and harsh words that wanted to escape his throat, and instead chanced a glance to the Sandaime. The old man looked at him with tired, resigned eyes. It was obvious he hadn't wanted to give Kakashi such a mission, but the Council had apparently not let him another option. The same had happened when he first applied to take care of his mentor's baby: the Sandaime, taking up once again the mantle he had already passed on before, had been happy to oblige, but the motion was stopped in its tracks by the Council. Same as that time, Kakashi had been slightly disappointed, but he understood. In any case, he wouldn't let them win that easily.

He had accepted, with the condition that they be legally allowed to adopt Naruto as their own.

The council had protested immediately, insisting that just considering letting the demon be put under their care was more than enough, but Kakashi didn't budge. If they wanted that horrible mission done, they would have to acquiesce to his terms.

After much grumbling, shouting and discussing, the Hokage had had enough and took the bull by the horns, commanding the attention of all present.

"Hatake-san has proven his ability and loyalty to this village time and again. I believe it is certain that, were he to complete this difficult mission without a hitch, he will have proven beyond any doubt that he is more than capable of taking care of Naruto." He had said, putting enough emphasis on the name to make it clear he disapproved of their referring to him as an object. Kakashi was… grateful.

Danzo's eyes had flashed with something he was barely able to catch, and he had suddenly felt dread pool in his gut at the accomplished gleam he could see in them.

"Yes, truly," he had accepted, and the rotten feeling had intensified at his casualness. "If he were to accomplish the mission without a hitch, by himself, I'm certain we could be convinced of his… capability."

Cunning bastard. It had been clear that he thought he was killing to birds with one stone. Send Kakashi alone in a mission to dispose of fifty enemies, which would probably end either being completed or easy enough to finish off by another team, but with Kakashi being dead one way or the other. This would consequently lead to one person less to try and take Naruto in.

Too bad Kakashi was much more skilled than what he believed. He had been glad to be underestimated.

Remembering Obito's reaction to the announcement later that night still made him shudder.

"They what?!" He had shouted, rounding on him with his Mangekyou suddenly activated and spinning madly in his right, only eye. "And you accepted?! What were you thinking, Bakashi?!"

It had taken him two hours and a round of angry sex to finally make Obito see sense. He hadn't been totally convinced, and saying he had been unhappy with the terms was falling short but… he understood all too well. He also loved Naruto with all his being and, had he been in Kakashi's shoes, he would have accepted the chance offered to bring him home, too.

And there he was now, surrounded by the bodies of at least fifty people who he had just murdered, feeling angry and guilty and so very broken…

He wanted to go home.

He needed to go home.

Obito awoke with his Sharingan activated and a kunai in his hand, ready to be thrown. The only reason he had not attacked immediately was that he easily recognized the unmistakable silver hair of the intruder. Well, not intruder, seeing as the teenagers had been living together for years, now.

"'Kashi?" He asked sleepily, adrenaline receding as his mind reassured him he was not under attack. "Wassrong?"

Alertness came back with a vengeance when he didn't receive a response, and his boyfriend just stayed there, standing and looking at him like a statue. No, not at him…

Obito switched on the light on his night table, and then looked at the other teen carefully. He startled after noticing his appearance and jumped out of the bed, worry filling his mind as he approached his silent lover.

He ignored the caked blood and torn clothing in favor of taking the masked face in his hands and turning it enough to make Kakashi look at him in the eye.

"'Kashi, what's wrong?" He repeated gently, soothingly, hoping that he was heard this time. The gray eye that had been unfocused until then finally cleared and fixed on him, but there was an emptiness there that Obito hadn't seen in many months.

"Mission complete." He said in a dead voice, and Obito's stomach churned with sudden understanding. He took Kakashi's stiff form into his arms and forced his face into the crook of his neck, running his hands up and down his spine in a calming motion. He knew Kakashi well, so he was aware that it was futile talking to him before the block he had erected around his emotions broke down.

It took a couple of minutes of complete silence, but the other boy finally broke, clinging to him like a child, like a drowning man desperately fighting to keep hold of his anchor.

"It was so horrible… Just about a dozen of them were shinobi, Obito! They were mostly civilian, elderly people and housewives and kids! They did nothing! They knew nothing! And I killed them. I killed them all, without doubt, without mercy… They were terrified." He raged, but his voice was cracked at the edges with guilt and self-disgust, and Obito hated it. "I'm a monster." He continued, his voice now a mere whisper, but full of conviction. "I'm a horrible monster. I don't deserve you. I don't deserve Naruto. I don't..."

He hated that Kakashi had accepted the mission, he hated that he hadn't really have a choice in the matter, he hated that the Elders had practically forced his lover into doing something that he recently had discovered he loathed; but above else, he hated that they were the cause of the returning emptiness, doubt and self-scorn he had fought so hard to help Kakashi get rid of.

He pulled away from the embrace, but retook Kakashi's face in his hands, forcing him to look at Obito again.

"Now, listen carefully, Bakashi." He growled, and Kakashi was startled speechless. "You are not a monster. You are not a soulless killer who doesn't deserve to be loved and be happy and to be treasured. You did this for Naruto." He stressed. "Sure, it was horrible; it will still hurt when you remember it, but there were orders. You are a shinobi, and it's your duty to follow them, especially if following them will enable you to keep your loved ones safe. Naruto loves you, he needs you, and even if it would have been great to find another way… we might not have. The Council has fought tooth and nail to prevent us from taking him under our care, and you know how much he suffers in that damn orphanage. This was the only certain way to take him out of there, and you took it." Yes, he had not been happy when his lover had told him, but he had known logically that it was their only real choice in the matter. He would have done it, too.

"You were so brave. I'm so proud of you, you know? Don't doubt for a second that I'm here for you. Don't doubt for a second that I love you. I would be lost without you, you know? You were the one to put me back together after Rin-chan's death. You picked up the pieces, even when you were suffering just as much as I was, and helped me get back from the dark path I had started to walk down." It was true, he pondered, as he recalled the darkness that had started to creep into his mind when their teammate died, and he shuddered at what he might have become if it weren't for the silver-haired jounin. "Do you remember, 'Kashi? It was you who saved me, you. Does it sound as if that were the work of a monster? Huh?"

He wiped away the tears that kept falling down Kakashi's face, while ignoring his own. He had started to cry sometime at the beginning of his own speech, as he watched thousands of emotions clash in Kakashi's gray eye. He had looked so heartbroken that it made Obito's chest hurt, and he wanted nothing else than to return his lover to his laid back, deceitfully lazy but strong, playful self.

"Does it?" He asked again, because it was important Kakashi answered. He needed to make him understand.

"… No."

It was reluctant, and Obito almost didn't hear it because it was said in a voice so low, it was merely a whisper. But it was acceptance, however doubtful. He could work with that.

He carefully, tentatively, tugged down the mask, giving the other teen enough time to stop him in case he wasn't comfortable letting Obito see his entire face at the moment, but there was no resistance. The dark fabric pooled around Kakashi's neck, revealing a normal face, if a very handsome one.

Obito caressed the small mole on Kakashi's chin with his thumb, before leaning forward and pressing a soft, chaste kiss to pale lips.

He pulled back and looked the other in the eye, happy to note that the tears had stopped, before smiling tenderly and hugging his boyfriend once more.

"I love you, Kakashi." He repeated, because he felt that it didn't matter how many times he said it, it wouldn't be enough. Not tonight.

"… I love you too."

Next morning the young couple came out of the Hokage's office feeling emotionally drained but incredibly happy. For about three hours and a half they had been discussing about their agreement with the Council, whose members had predictably wanted to get back on their word, of course. They had not have any doubt about it. But there was a contract, made the same day Kakashi had accepted the dangerous mission, and as it terms had been met, they hadn't been able to refuse. Both jounins were now legally guardians and adoptive parents of a two year old blond Jinchuuriki, and there was nothing the councilmen could do to change that fact without going against the law.

The night had been rough and Kakashi was still a little out of sorts, but Obito hoped that retrieving the new precious member of their little family would push him out of his slump.

They reached the orphanage in record time and immediately went inside. One of the matrons spotted them immediately and sent them a reproachful glare, before quickly smoothing her expression and approaching them. The disapproving gesture had lasted less than a second, but they were ninja, and hostile tells were something they had been trained to look for and recognize in any situation.

It was not the first time they had to deal with the caretakers' snappish behavior since Naruto had been placed in their dubious care, but after the time one of them had been especially nasty to Naruto in their presence – consequently suffering the concentrated pressure of both teenager's Killing Intent directed at her – the rest had been polite, if distant in their behaviour.

"Follow me," the woman ordered, not bothering to ask who were they there for. They dutifully walked behind her, noticing that they were being led to Naruto's – single, isolated, tiny – room. Well, it was better this way. They wouldn't be wasting any time getting the hell out of there.

She rudely rapped her knuckles on the plain wooden door that separated the room from the hallway, before opening it not bothering to wait for an answer. She scowled, barely visible, and tried not to look at the small kid sprawled on the ground, who seemed to have been colouring on a bit of parchment, and was now looking up at them with visible happiness shining in his blue eyes.

She turned, ready to go away, but Kakashi took her arm without being particularly careful and thrust a handful of papers at her.

"We have adopted him," he said curtly at her questioning look. "We'll be taking him out of here today, and your boss has to sign these papers before we leave. Are we clear?" He asked, narrowing his eyes when she looked ready to protest. Shutting her mouth with an audible click, she grabbed the papers and nodded stiffly before hurrying away.

Meanwhile, Obito had entered the room and was jumped by a hyper toddler with a cry of "Tobi-niisan!" He chuckled and tussled the blond locks, before crouching until he could be on eye level with the tyke.

"Hello, Naru-chan!" He greeted cheerfully, aware of Kakashi's interaction with the dreadful woman. "How have you been? What were you drawing?" He asked curiously, and couldn't help but smile at the colourful piece.

"This is Naru-chan and Tobi-niisan and 'Kashi-niisan and this is a biiiig ramen!" He said in a high pitched, exited voice. Obito chuckled, amused that Naruto was such a ramen fan already, having eaten the broth only once before.

"It's very well done!" He said seriously, with a fond smile. Naruto beamed at the praise, and then blushed. "Ne, Naru-chan…" The kid looked up at him with curious eyes. "Do you know what adoption means?" He asked, not knowing how to explain it. After thinking about it for a second, the boy shook his head in the negative. "It means getting new parents." The boy's mouth formed a small, surprised "o".

"A new mummy and daddy?"

"Well, yes…" That was the case – in the majority of the cases, at least. "Or two mummies… or two daddies." He added awkwardly.

"Naru-chan," Kakashi interrupted, dropping to Obito's side and making Naruto's wide eyes focus on him. The nasty woman had gone away, then. Good. "We have adopted you." Noticing the blank look, he decided to elaborate. "I mean… Would you like Tobi and I to be your new daddies?" He asked gently, and they could see the boy's face fill with shock and all consuming hope before he lowered his head and peeked behind blond lashes, suddenly insecure.

"Naru-chan live with you?" He asked in a small, wavering tone, small hands twisted in his blue t-shirt. Obito's heart melt and, judging by Kakashi's even softer tone when he answered, his had as well.

"Yes, Naru-chan. We will all live together, because we are now a family."

Before he had finished speaking, he had an armful of sobbing, happy two year old. The silver-haired teen smiled gently beneath his mask and dropped a kiss on sunshine hair, enveloping the boy in a hug. Obito smiled fondly at them before joining in their first, official family embrace.

Things were starting to look up.

~ The End