There was a saying which proclaimed that one should never meet their heroes. Kakashi reflected that this was true. Travelling back in time had been an incredible experience and meeting titans of the shinobi world such as Hashirama and Madara had been awe-inspiring at first. Then he had gotten to know them. Boy, had he ever been disillusioned after that.

Hashirama he met first. The older man had found him only hours after his time-jump, dazedly wandering through the forest near the Senju compound. He and his brother were the only two people who knew his true origins and they had adopted him as a Senju almost immediately after hearing his story. It was nice to have brothers after more than a decade of no family at all. However, as he had mentioned, one should never get to know one 's heroes.

Hashirama was almost as obnoxiously cheerful as Gai, with the same propensity towards spontaneous tears and a disturbing habit of becoming theatrically depressed at the slightest provocation. It took a lot of energy to spend large amounts of time around him, although Kakashi was used to it somewhat from overexposure to Gai. Tobirama he got along with a lot better. They shared a level of intellect and a love of quiet spaces filled with books.

That didn 't mean that Tobirama was without his strange quirks which Kakashi could have gone without. His new silver-haired brother often got entirely too in to his research and didn 't like taking 'no ' for an answer when he wanted a volunteer to test something out on. One memorable incident had left Kakashi with a cat 's tail for a week. It was an experience he was not in a hurry to repeat. After that he had learned to steer clear whenever the inventing gleam showed up in Tobirama 's ruby eyes.

Madara, however, was the one that he was most unprepared for. When he thought about Uchiha Madara, the first image his brain used to come up with had usually been a typical Uchiha face in the midst of manic, evil laughter. The reality was a man who tried very hard to cover his innate dorkiness by always being grumpy. It worked on most people, who were absolutely terrified of him. It did not work on Kakashi. Kakashi was the master of seeing underneath the underneath. And underneath Madara 's ever present temper tantrum was the beating heart of a

giant dork

.

The man was a sucker for small children. You 'd never know it, as most were too frightened by his appearance to approach him, but Uchiha Madara would be the first one to sit down and let a child braid his hair with flowers. In fact, Kakashi had once caught him in the middle of just that and the teasing still hadn 't stopped.

He was also a closet bookworm. Tobirama was infamous for his love of learning and research but Madara was the one with a bookshelf full of novels that he read in bed every night ' and would go on about the plotlines for, given half the chance. The first time Kakashi had whipped out his book in front of Madara the older man had actually derailed his yelling in favor of trying to see what he was reading. When he 'd finally caught wind that it was 'filthy, horrendous deviancy ' it had become his mission to try to steer Kakashi towards so-called better reading material. They were usually adventure novels because, well, nerd.

His dorkiness was obvious in the way he doodled on every copy of every report that was not actually going to be filed, the way he wore hair in front of one side of his face because it wasn 't his 'good side ', and the fact that Kakashi had once surprised him at home and seen him wearing pajama pants with little cartoon dogs on them. No matter how much the man had insisted they were a present from Hashirama, the fact remained that he had kept them and worn them.

Disillusioned as he was, Kakashi found it really hard to be afraid of a man who made an ick face every time someone put pickles on his sandwich. Which meant that he was free to tease him. It quickly became his favorite pastime to tease Madara at every opportunity that presented itself. Which is how he came to be doing what he was: fleeing from a riled up, flustered dork whose hair was standing on end from all the shouting he was doing.

Kakashi laughed as he sprinted up the side of the Hokage tower and flung himself through the window for the office of their newly elected village leader. Expecting Hashirama, he instead found Tobirama at the desk, who looked startled and confused when Kakashi threw himself down, dragging the man 's chair backwards to barricade himself in the corner. Confusion turned to exasperation when Madara stormed in through the same window a moment later.

'Kakashi, what have you done to him this time? ' The suffering was obvious in Tobirama 's voice. Still, he didn 't get up from the chair to leave his little brother to Madara 's clutches. The silver haired man in the corner chortled.

'All I did was offer him more peanuts, ' he protested as innocently as he could.

Madara clenched his fists and bellowed, 'You were throwing them at my head! '

The angelic face Kakashi tried to make was mostly wasted behind the mask he wore. Tobirama heaved a sigh and rubbed at his temple. Dealing with the antics of these two was never easy and somehow it usually fell to him to break them apart. Wondering why Hashirama had ever insisted that they get to know each other better, the second Senju brother eyed Madara with a look that dared him to move from that spot and then rolled his chair away from the corner.

'Kakashi, if you love me as a brother like you say you do, then you will do me a favor. You will

leave Madara alone

. ' A strategic flare of the chakra that was feared by any who faced him in battle had the younger man bolting out of the corner and sidling up next to Madara, pressing against him in an ostentatious display of good behavior.

'Maa, leave him alone? How could I leave my favorite Uchiha-? '

'Kakashi! '

'I 'll stop bothering him! ' Kakashi yelped when that oppressive chakra flared again. He wasn 't hailed as a genius for nothing; he knew when to cut his losses.

Madara raised an eyebrow at the man still plastered to his side, although more for protection than humor now. It boggled his mind how different all three of the Senju brothers were. There was very little in common between any of their personalities. Not nothing, of course, but little. He shook his head in wonder.

'How is that you are related to this buffoon? ' he asked absent-mindedly. He really wasn 't expecting the response.

'He 's adopted, ' the Senju growled. Madara paused, both eyebrows shooting up for his hairline.

'You 're not serious? ' he asked, looking between them.

Kakashi shrugged and stepped away with his hands immediately seeking his pockets as Tobirama said mildly, trying to cover his angry misspeak, 'I thought you knew that Madara. '

The head of the Uchiha clan shook his head in bewilderment, looking to Kakashi for clarification. The younger man 's visible eye turned up in his signature smile.

'Yup. I was born in the Hatake clan, actually. ' He shrugged again as if this wasn 't mind-bending news. It explained absolutely everything about the difference between 'brothers '; it explained the man 's obsession with dogs; it even explained his fanatical loyalty to anyone he saw as a part of his 'pack ' so to say.

'Well I 'll be, ' he murmured under his breath.

'Well if that 's all wrapped up I 'll just be going then. ' Hoping for a quick getaway, Kakashi strolled casually for the door. He had managed to make it in to the hallway when Madara caught up to him, glaring as if offended that he 'd left without him.

They walked together in silence, weaving their way throughout the tower. Kakashi let his companion chew over this new information in peace. It wasn 't all that surprising that he hadn 't guessed. Kakashi 's hair color matched Tobirama 's closely enough that most people swallowed the fiction whole without bothering to wonder why no one had ever heard of the third Senju brother until just a few years ago. He wondered if, after how close they had all become, Madara might be offended that he 'd never been told this secret. He wondered how Madara would react to finding out the Big Secret: that he wasn 't actually supposed to exist in this time.

Nothing was said as they stepped out on to the public streets and, without discussion, headed towards the Uchiha compound. They passed the academy still in construction, skirted the park with children playing, and avoided the marketplace with vendors hollering out their wares. It wasn 't until they were cutting through an empty training field that Madara hummed to himself.

'Hatake Kakashi, ' he murmured, trying the name out loud.

Kakashi stopped dead in his tracks. Something deep inside him was

singing

, calling out in rapturous joy the likes of which he 'd never experienced before. It felt like lightning dancing inside him, like fire running through his veins, like floating on air. It felt like every clich ' in every romance he 'd ever read. Madara stopped and looked back at him enquiringly.

Kakashi did the only thing he could think of. He retaliated in kind.

'Uchiha Madara, ' he mumbled, watching Madara stiffen as his eyes blew wide in shock.

How often does one call someone by their full name? Not often. Kakashi figured it was reasonable that Madara had never happened to be present when Kakashi used his full title. Still, it was a bit jarring to discover that the man you had been teasing for the past few years was actually your soulmate.

As the sensations in his body slowly faded away, Kakashi became aware of the faintest pulling sensation in his chest, like something had a hook in him and was reeling him in very gently. It was pulling him towards Madara. As the older man seemed to slowly recover from his own shocking experience, Kakashi caught his eye.

'I was not expecting that, ' he admitted. Madara, to his amusement, blushed.

'I was hoping for it, ' he confessed. Kakashi smiled. When he pulled down his mask, Madara 's blush deepened. And when he kissed the man for the first time he could feel the heat of it.

There was a saying which proclaimed that one should never meet their heroes. Kakashi decided that he could be convinced otherwise.