It took quite a while for Kushina to finally calm down. Minato set Miss Namikaze Haitao down on the ground and hurried over, offering all sorts of comfort and begging her not to take it to heart. After all, nothing upsets a woman more than someone questioning her looks. Besides, because Kushina had been too worried to leave Momoko alone at home, she hadn't taken on any missions in a long time. She was cooped up all day with all that pent-up energy burning a hole in her pocket—not surprising, considering she was a famously formidable Uzumaki Jounin.
As for Miss Namikaze Haitao, she stared fixedly at Obito and Rin for a long time. Although she looked like she was spacing out, her brain was actually racing at top speed.
So these two are Kakashi's teammates? But why didn't she ever see them around later on? Were they away on a mission? Uchiha Obito? She had never even heard of this guy—no wait, she felt like she'd heard that name somewhere before. Her roommate in the upper bunk had mentioned something about a Fourth War or a Brother Tu, which meant this Obito was probably part of the main good-guy army. Besides, wanting to be Hokage—isn't that the exact same dream as Naruto? He was a dropout too, and stubborn as a mule; he was practically a carbon copy of Naruto! By all standard tropes, even if he wasn't the protagonist, he had to be part of the main hero squad, like some sort of division captain.
Yet, based on Sasuke's memories, the Uchiha clan was supposed to have been wiped out when he was a child. So why hadn't this Uchiha Obito died? Was he away from home? Or was he sent off on some top-secret hidden-identity mission far away?
She still had no idea if she was just some disposable cannon fodder. When immortals fight, ordinary mortals suffer the collateral damage; her parents were total unknowns, so she still needed to look out for herself and find a backup plan. No matter the era or the background, human connections are always the key to survival.
Haitao suddenly lunged forward, wrapping her arms around Obito's leg, her eyes sparkling as she looked up at him. "Goggles Brother is so cool! Can you be the boss of the Comet Squad? Yeyeh-jun, Potato-chan, and I will work super hard!"
"Comet Squad? Yeyeh-jun? Potato-chan?" Obito was utterly bewildered. What on earth was this kid talking about? He understood every single word individually, but put together, they made zero sense.
Minato offered an awkward smile. "Momoko's been reading this children's comic book lately. There's a Comet Squad in it that fights evil and upholds justice, and the boss wears goggles just like yours. As for Yeyeh-jun and Potato-chan, she's probably talking about her two stuffed animals."
"Oh, I see." Even though he had never read any children's comic books, this was the first time anyone had ever thought he was cool, and she was even insisting on making him her boss. There was no way he was going to let an opportunity like this slip by.
Obito crouched down and picked up little short-legged Haitao. "Alright! From now on, I'm your boss, and you're my squad member. Nice to meet you, I'm Uchiha Obito, the man who's going to be Hokage!"
He often helped out the elderly in the village and occasionally babysat their grandkids, so Obito was surprisingly practiced at holding children. The kid looked adorable, and while she had a bit of heft to her when he lifted her, it was easy to tell her parents took great care of her.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Namikaze Haitao, and in the future I'm going to be... um... Momoko doesn't know what she wants to be yet." Dreams? Her old dream used to be getting into a good university, and once in college, landing a great job. But if she traced it back to her earliest dream, Haitao figured it would have been opening an internet cafe—you could clock in whenever you felt like it and play video games all day. Now that would be pure bliss.
The future?
Minato smiled. Perhaps this was the driving force behind all the hard work they put in as adults—so that countless children like Haitao could keep smiling.
Obito spun around twice with Haitao in his arms, making her giggle with delight. "It's alright! If you don't have a dream yet, you can just make being happy every day your dream."
Haitao gazed up at him with shining eyes. If hugging his leg at first had just been a survival tactic to avoid becoming cannon fodder, she now genuinely felt that this goggles-wearing teenager was a really good guy. He felt like a little sun, warm and cozy.
Rin, standing nearby, reached out to stroke Haitao's chubby baby cheeks. "I should introduce myself too. My name is Nohara Rin. You can call me Rin Sister, Momoko." She's so cute! Her skin is so soft! A little girl, all sweet and squishy—she felt so light she could practically float away into the air.
"Rin Sister!" Ah, girls! Such adorable girls. Girls simply had to be the cutest creatures in the entire world.
While the three of them were busy being warm and adorable over here, Kakashi, standing off to the side, felt an unusually rare touch of loneliness. Those three entities were just too dazzling, and besides...
Kakashi glanced sideways at the Yellow Flash of Konoha. Minato was glaring at Obito with a look of utter grievance, as if the next second he might charge over and bury him alive in the Konoha forest. Was this really the fearsome, legendary ninja everyone dreaded?
Haitao currently had only one thought in mind: *I'm safe.*
As for Hatake Kakashi—following the standard progression of stories, a protagonist's mentor usually exists just to be turned into cannon fodder. If she wasn't mistaken, later on he would definitely be surpassed first by Sasuke, then by Naruto, and then that would be it. Or, there was a very high chance he might harbor resentment, turn to the dark side, and become the ultimate final boss! Put that way, this Hatake Kakashi was extremely dangerous.
Haitao cast a stealthy glance in his direction. She definitely had to keep her distance from this guy in the future and try her best not to leave a bad impression on him, otherwise she'd undoubtedly end up being the chicken sacrificed to scare the monkeys.
The exact second Kakashi turned his head, he caught Haitao withdrawing her gaze. This little brat gave him a weird look just now, didn't she? But then again, the kid was only two or three years old, so that couldn't be right—did he just imagine it? Tch, kids at two or three aren't always so simple, though. Lately, he'd even been hearing about that Uchiha kid—a child frighteningly skilled at killing.