| [Dec. 27th, 2013|06:27 am] |
Kakashi collected the kit from the sink and pulled his stool around. Minato cracked one eye open, lazily amused. “Offering barbering services as well?”
“You can do it yourself, but Naruto might be annoyed if you accidentally cut your own head off,” Kakashi said.
“Come on,” Minato said, opening the other eye just enough to look offended. “Massive facial scarring is absolutely the worst I’d ever do.”
“So nothing that’d make a difference?” Kakashi said, feeling a smile curl briefly. He tipped Minato’s chin up, making him drop his hand, and lathered him up with the thick, white, sandalwood-scented foam that Minato kept as one of his few indulgences.
“Maybe it’d get the Council to take me a little more seriously.” Minato tilted his head up to give Kakashi access to his neck, and closed his eyes again. “So what do you think of Namiashi as a captain?”
“I think you’re testing the patience of someone with a blade at your throat,” Kakashi said, cutting the first razor-stripe through the foam. Minato preferred a safety razor, because he thought it was classy. The hilt was a solid steel weight in Kakashi’s hand, familiar, even though they’d only done this a handful of times. “Weren’t you supposed to be thinking at me?”
“I am,” Minato said dreamily. “I'm thinking of whether I can send a raw rookie team out on a vital mission of national security, when every member is a competent solo assassin but I still don't know whether they work together as a unit. Whether their captain can lead. Whether one particular rookie will follow.”
Kakashi made an aggravated sound. “I follow orders. Why is everyone so convinced I’m an insubordinate dick?”
Minato’s mouth twitched, and a sliver of blue showed beneath his eyelids. “You follow orders. You just bitch about them. For years, in some cases.”
“If you can’t take constructive criticism, you shouldn’t have become a public figure,” Kakashi said shortly, finishing Minato’s left side. He switched to the right, razor tracing a careful path. At the end of every stroke, he flicked foam from the polished steel head. “The team is—rough. And I think you don’t like Namiashi very much, given the subordinates you dropped on him.”
Minato gave a rippling little chuckle. “His previous captain reported him as an excellent lieutenant with a talent for leadership, especially for handling temperamental subordinates—and I know how well he's done with Ueno.” He opened his eyes. “I also know that you respect valid authority, that you never disobey orders—though you can sometimes be creative in your methods of carrying them out—and that you're harder on yourself than any good captain would ever be. I don't consider you a problem subordinate, Kakashi. It's an honor for Namiashi to command you.” He added, thoughtfully, “Though certainly a prickly one.”
“Sounds like he can cope,” Kakashi said, dry.
He wasn’t sure what to do with the rest. Minato wasn’t stingy with praise; when he thought you’d earned it, he gave it freely, but he’d never said honor before. Kakashi felt a little hot behind his mask.
He cleared his throat and flicked a handful of chakra at the tub, catching a skein of water. It ribboned over as he finished the last blade stroke, hovering above Minato’s head, then dropped like a bucket of water. Minato’s hair flattened again, and suds, foam, and water streamed over the tiled floor, spiralling down the drain. Clean-shaven and scrubbed, he already looked improved, if slightly drowned.
Minato shook his head like a dog, raked dripping hair back from his eyes, and rubbed a hand over his chin. “Not even a scratch,” he said with satisfaction. “Thanks, Kakashi. Normally I’d offer to reciprocate, but I think this time I’ll wallow in hedonistic bliss and let you scrub your own back.” He levered himself upright, shining-naked and unselfconscious about it, which was about the norm, and flicked a spike of Kakashi’s hair. “Early training again?”
Kakashi shrugged, and waited for Minato to get halfway into the bath before he said, “With Ueno, actually.”
Minato made a startled sound. There was a slip and a splash before he caught himself hastily against the side of the tub, and Kakashi snagged the overflowing water to start his own scrub-down. |
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