Kakashi let himself be towed. “I see that.”

He’d felt it, when Naruto had screamed and Minato’s chakra had flared in bright, hot surprise. For Kakashi in the next room, it’d been a lot like getting sucker punched in the coils. But at least he was awake.

On the floor, Minato gave an unrepentant grin.

He looked like he’d been through a second war. The flame-decorated coat was absent, leaving a torn, stained jounin uniform in its wake. His hair was dark with old sweat and lopsidedly spiked, as if he’d spent a few days dragging his hands through it. Tired shadows cut under his eyes, and the lines around his mouth had deepened. He’d been gone a week, and looked like he’d aged about five years.

He didn’t seem to be actually injured, but there were old blood stains caught under his nails, dried around the roots of his hair, and flecked at the edges of his face. Rasengan, Kakashi thought, and poor clean up. That was a fight he wanted to know about.

At Naruto’s insistent tugging, Kakashi crouched and asked, “Did you bring us any presents back?”

Naruto’s eyes went big. “Presents?”

Minato grimaced, which served him right. “Not this time. Sorry, Naruto. Might have a mission for your team though, Kakashi.” He held out a hand, and Kakashi hauled him up. “How did the first one go?”

“Well,” Kakashi hedged. “It was successful.”

“Missing-nin? No—missing villagers, right.” Minato rubbed a hand over his face. “Were you able to recover any of them?”

“Two,” Kakashi said. Fujiyama-san had definitely survived, and Hisa was still a question mark in the hospital—both details which Minato would get when he eventually worked around to the slaughtered forest of paperwork awaiting him, but he didn’t need them now. “We took care of the main problem and I didn’t murder any of my teammates, so hey.”

“It’s good not to murder your teammates!” Naruto piped up, confused but supportive.

Minato’s smile was wry and knowing. “I’m very proud of you.” He dropped a hand onto Kakashi’s shoulder and squeezed briefly, fingers warm where black cloth gave way to bare skin. “And I was glad to see you here, when I got back.”

Kakashi cleared his throat awkwardly. “About that—”