It took exactly 48 hours for his one act of guilt-inspired kindness to come back and bite him. He had meant what he said about her becoming a shinobi and registering for the Academy as a suggestion, not an order. Apparently, the girl had actually gone to the Hokage to ask about becoming a shinobi, but it was made difficult by her inability to speak. At least, that was what Minato told him when he was getting lectured.
The thing was, Kakashi knew she could speak. She had just been told to avoid it. The entire time his sensei's scolding passed through his ears, he had pondered this. Sure, she could have avoided speaking out of pain, but even if she had been given medications, they wouldn't have been strong enough to do much besides dull the pain. That would mean she had a high pain tolerance, nullifying the argument. Point being, if she was not speaking, it was by choice.
At first, the guards at the door would not let in the disheveled, mute girl-for fairly obvious reasons. But instead of leaving, her response had been to sit across from the large doors in the hall for a good 12 hours until the guards took her out of the building kicking and screaming bloody murder. She kept coming back though, so by the next day, the Hokage simply told them to let her in.
Upon being asked why she wasn't speaking in the middle of an incredibly uncomfortable game of charades, the child had stuck out her recently mutilated tongue as an excuse; it was a crappy one in Kakashi's opinion. From there, it had been simple enough to find the paper for the little girl, which declared Kakashi as her guardian. Being busy and not having time to lecture a thirteen year-old on responsibilities that he was far too young to handle, Sarutobi passed the information onto Minato. Which was how he ended up here.
Kakashi was promptly lectured and forced to bring the child back to his studio apartment. He found it irritating to say the least, but he had dug his own grave. He signed that form for her on his own free will, so now he had to take care of her. But he didn't want to take her home; aside from taking up space, having a roommate or a dependent, as the case may be, would only make everything ten times more difficult. How was he supposed to care for someone else? He could barely take care of himself as it was. He couldn't even keep his comrades alive, even though he had been their leader. The only option he could see was to treat her like he would treat himself.
Kakashi led her inside, noticing that she wasn't wearing any shoes. She stood off to the side a bit, unsure of what to do with herself. Not wearing shoes defeated the purpose of taking your shoes off in the first place, the practical idea being not to get dirt on the floor. In fact, she had dirt all over her entire body and there were bloodstains on her once white dress, but at least she wasn't wet. He motioned her inside anyway; it wasn't like he cared because he frequently brought blood and dirt into the apartment himself.
"Make yourself comfortable, you'll be sleeping on the couch," he told her simply. She nodded, and moved to sit on the couch. The apartment was small and plain. There was a rarely-used bathroom and a pitifully bare kitchen. There was a bookshelf and an empty desk on one side. There were no books on the book shelf yet; it was mostly used as a bedside table containing a downturned photo of Team Minato and a glass of water. The couch was in the middle of the living room, navy in color, and his bed with white sheets and a shuriken print blanket. "I'll help you talk to the Hokage tomorrow," he told her dismissively before leaving the apartment again.
For the rest of the evening, the girl did nothing until Kakashi got home, which was around nightfall; besides sit curled into a ball on the couch. When he entered his apartment, he noted how she curled up tighter when he got within a good five feet of her.
Later that evening, while making an effort to go to sleep, he couldn't help but be kept on edge by her staring at him constantly. By now she looked almost like a zombie with her too skinny body, pale complexion, and sleepless eyes. At one point during the night, he was fairly certain that she had gone to the bathroom and had maybe passed out there for about 3 hours. Then she was awake again. It was clear his first strategy wasn't going to work. He would have to do something about this or he would never sleep again.
