Chapter 2: The Hatake Compound

Kaito's POV: 1st Person

"Take care Kaito!" Tsunade called as the door the door shut behind me. Kakashi strolling along the hallway, as if I was not resisting to the point where he was literally dragging me. It hurt to have the collar pulling and digging into my neck, but I was trying to get the stupid leash to slip off, even going as far as shaking my head, instead the leash was just getting tighter, and pinching. He didn't even seemed notice. This guy was strong. I couldn't put up the fight that I wanted to, thanks to my hurt leg. He pushed the last set of doors open and I was blinded by the sunlight that greeted my eyes.

"Aw! Kakashi Sensei, is this the ninken Lady Tsunade was looking after?!" A loud pink haired girl, squealed, running up to us.

I backed up at her fast approach, my hackles raised in warning. She was loud and I did not like her.

"He's so cute! His eyes are like emeralds!" She squealed again.

I flattened my ears, and gritted my teeth together.'Cute? She did not just call me cute?! Grrr!' It would not be a good idea to bite someone's face off in front of an S-class shinobi. I glared up at the happy looking Copy Ninja, letting this girl make such an ungodly sound.

"Maa, he doesn't seem to want to go home, Sakura. Maybe you can convince him?" Kakashi said, with a pout clear in his tone.

The girl actually tried to give me a stern look, and pointed her finger at me. "Now you be good." She said, as if I was just some common dog.

I growled at her, snapping my teeth very close to her finger. Her voice was so annoying. I wanted to rip her throat out.

She seemed taken aback, at my reaction, but instead a moving away from me, she moved closer. "No, need to be so defensive. See?" She reached her hand forward.

I watched her hand as it came closer. I didn't understand her gesture. What was she going to do with that hand? Hit me because I snapped at her? I am honestly surprised my new Master is not giving me my punishment, if that is the case. Was he going to let her exact her revenge on me, and then scold me when we finally were in his domain? I lowered myself closer to the ground to try and avoid the contact, until I couldn't go any lower without it looking like I was submitting. I would never submit! I flinch when her hand rubbed between my ears, before she switched to scratching behind my ears. My eyes went wide at the weird touching she was doing. She shouldn't be doing that. She should be exacting revenge, for snapping at her hand. But, instead….instead she was….'This actually….feels...good.' I found myself moving my head a little to the left, to help guide those fingers, that were scratching at a hard to reach spot. My tail was thumping against the ground. Its never done that, in a long time.

"That's a good boy." The girl; Sakura praised. Pulling back her hand and standing. I stared at her dumbstruck, then looked back at my tail. It had stopped moving, and back in its normal position. I swished it, but it wasn't heartfelt like when she was scratching behind my ears. I don't get what these shinobi's are playing at. Were they going to play the carrot and the stick game with me, or something?

"Sakura, aren't you going to be late for your lesson, with Lady Tsunade?" Kakashi reminded the girl, sending her running into the building, with hurried 'goodbyes' and 'see ya later'.

"Okay Kaito, time to head home." Kakashi said, already moving.

I glared up him, but followed with much resistance this time. I didn't very much like being choked by the leash, and pulling against a force that could drag me without trouble just put more strain on my hurt leg. However, I walked a far away from him as the leash would allow with making it taut. Snapping at any dog that came up to greet me, even a small white pup who came bounding over, I sunk my teeth into his fur in warning; not drawing blood of course. A boy wearing a gray fur lined jacket with the hood up and red markings on his cheeks, who looked around the same age as that Sakura girl, came running up and picking the pup up.

"What's his problem?!" The kid demanded.

His owner died." Kakashi stated, stopping only to look back and answer the kid.

"Oh, I'm sorry boy." The kid said, expression softening. Even the pup in his arms gave me a pitied look.

'If they knew her, they wouldn't feel so sorry for me.' I snorted at their pitied looks, and turned my back on them, I sure wasn't sorry she was dead. My new Master; Kakashi was already walking anyway. We walked for a good thirty minutes, Kakashi seemed to like taking a slow strolling pace, which was fine, but my body was beginning to tire. I was actually panting from exhaustion. I wasn't that out of shape. Maybe the Lady Hokage had been telling the truth about my condition. It still didn't answer my question, as to why she wanted me alive? I was very happy when Kakashi opened a gate to what looked like a Clan house. It was in a more quieter part of the village it seemed. He lead my up to the front door. I could smell no other people here. Did he live alone?

As soon as I was in the house, and the front door was closed, did he finally remove the leash and walked away. I didn't move from the door, I was too busy scoping out the room. A kitchen seemed to connect to the living area, along with a hallway that must lead to more rooms, and stairs that obviously meant this house had a second floor. I noticed, Kakashi move toward his backdoor, but I was still too focused on looking for any clue that might tell me what kind of life I could expect from this shinobi. I didn't notice until it was too late, and eight dogs charged through the backdoor, pass Kakashi and straight toward me.

I crouched, ready for the pack to tear into me. I was sure that their Master had meant for them to rip me a new one. Instead, they just circled me. Tails wagging, and ears forward. What kind of pack was this? They were all mutts. I was pacing the circle they had made around me, hackles up and showing my teeth in warning. I was waiting for one to break ranks to start the fight. I would show them. I show no mercy.

"Welcome." My eyes snapped to the small brown pug in the pack, who wore his hitai-ate on top of his head. "My name is Pakkkun. Welcome to the Hatake Compound."

I did not return his greeting, my posture stayed the same. It could be a trick. No pack was so excepting.

"Boss briefed us before he went to pick you up. So, there's no need for you to be defensive. Your name is Kaito, right?" The pug droned.

I didn't see any reason to answer him. They were just trying to lull me into a sense of security. I wasn't going to be fooled so easy. My ex-Master loved setting fights up against me and other ninken, or even common animals, just for some entertainment. Who's to say this Kakashi wouldn't do the same? His ninken were probably trying to get me off guard. That wasn't going to happen.

The little pug sighed, before speaking again. "Let me introduce everyone. This is Urushi, Shiba, Akino, Guruko, Bisuke, Uhei, and the big guy is Bull." Each dog had nodded their head in greeting when Pakkun introduced them. I had to tilt my head up at the last one; Bull. Well, the beast fit his name. I would have to be careful going up against him.

"Guys, suppers ready!" Kakashi called from the kitchen.

All the hounds ran for the kitchen except Pakkun. He stayed seated in front of me. Starring at me with bored eyes that reminded me of his Masters. "Look pup, I know its not my place, but," Did he really just call me pup?! I could eat him in two the three bites."You don't have to worry about anything here. Now you might not believe me, and that's fine, but Boss is a good Boss. The best that you could ever ask for. Try and relax, okay. You just need to rest. Training will come later. Its a packs job to care for one another. And you are pack now."

Pack. Ha! Like I was going to believe that. I don't need a pack. I have never needed a pack. I snarled at him, so I could get my message across. 'Focus on your own pack!'

The pug just blinked at me and grunted. "Well, maybe with time you will come around. Until then, how about we go and eat. Boss serves us a pretty good meal."

I followed the pug; Pakkun to the kitchen rolling my eyes. I didn't care if I ate or not, it was probably just dry kibble bits anyway. I stayed nearer to the fridge, while Pakkun walked up to Kakashi, his Master. I looked at the other dogs bowls. I was wrong, they were being fed beef steak, and a few had chicken. I looked up and watch Kakashi serve Pakkun, giving him a good piece a steak. All eight dogs were eating the meat, at a fast pace. I didn't see a bowl down for me.

When Kakashi looked at me, with his one eye, I took a step back. That's right. I'm the enemy ninken. I won't be treated like the rest. At least, that's what I thought, before he spoke. "Well, which do you want? Steak or chicken?" He asked, closing his one eye, making it look like he was smiling, while holding up two bowls.

'What is going on?' I gave him a quizzical look.

Kakashi's POV: 3rd Person

I watched as the pack introduced themselves to Kaito, as I prepared their dinner. Lady Tsunade had briefed me a few days ago, about Kaito. I wasn't sure how to approach the canine. P. T. S. D. was really rare in summons, but so was the abuse of one. Judging by Kaito's reaction to the pack, told me that he had never been around a pack environment, if any. It was heartbreaking to see. The hound didn't trust anything. Also despite knowing that by continuing to form sounds with his throat, he may lose the ability to use human language; Kaito continued to growl, snarl, and snap at anything that got too close. When everyone came running into the kitchen, I noticed Pakkun stayed, probably trying to put Kaito at ease. It didn't look like it was going very well, if Kaito's stance was anything to go by.

When they finally entered the kitchen, Kaito watched as I served Pakkun, but he did not move forward. "Well, which do you want?" I asked, turning toward him and holding up two bowls, giving him a one eyed smile. "Steak or chicken?"

He took a step back. I took this as a sign, that Kaito was afraid of me, and so was going to make my mission very difficult. It was not going to be easy to gain the trust of a ninken that had been through abuse and suffering from P. T. S. D..

"I would advice the chicken, Boss has a bad habit of overcooking red meat." Shiba offered.

Kaito, looked between me and Shiba, as if waiting for something to happen. "And here I thought you guys enjoyed my cooking." I joked.

After a minute passed, Kaito pointed his nose in the direction of the bowl that held the beef steak. I placed it on the floor and backed away, leaving to hounds in the kitchen, and possibly giving Kaito peace of mind that he could eat without worry. I went to my room, leaving the door open so I can still watch the hounds in the kitchen. He was watching the pack eat. He didn't even make a move to toward the bowl, just looked at it with narrow eyes, and sniffing at it. Pakkun was watching him too. I know he had to be hungry. Lady Hokage had informed me, that he had not eaten today. This was going to turn into a huge problem, if he refused to eat. I tilted my head slightly, when Pakkun walked over to Kaito, who watched him intently. Pakkun didn't say anything too him, instead he took a bite out of the beef steak in Kaito's bowl and walked back to his own dish. Kaito did not take his eyes off of Pakkun, until one by one the pack started leaving the kitchen or going to the large water bowl I had down for them, or out the back door that I had left open. Kaito finally took his eyes off Pakkun and gulped down the beef steak, barely chewing. He thought I had poisoned the food. Pakkun knew this too, it was why he show Kaito that it was safe by eating a bite of it himself. It was why Kaito had stared at Pakkun before eating the meat himself.

'This is going to take a while.' I mentally sighed. Not that I had much to do at the moment. Team seven was disbanded, each student studying under one of the three Legendary Sannin. At least three of the annoyances were out of my life, for the time being. Well, maybe the three brats weren't annoyances. I rubbed my visible eye and took my hitai-ate off, replacing it with an eye-patch, and moved to go sit on the couch in the living area. Soon, I was joined on the couch by seven of my nine ninken. However, I honestly don't know if I can win this dog over, if he didn't want to be helped.

"What do you guys want to watch?" I asked, and they all started calling out different channels and movies. As they discussed among themselves, I watch Kaito, who seemed through in the kitchen and now investigating the house. Pakkun was guiding him around, or trying to. Kaito seemed to just ignore his presence.

Kaito's POV:

I walked, well, more like limped around the house, sniffing everything as the annoyance in the form of a pug, known as Pakkun followed me around. Giving me and unwanted tour of the house that was going to be my cage. I walked right past the backdoor that was kept open. They would just stop me anyway. If I was honest with myself though, the little pugs presence, did feel comforting. But I would never say that out loud. He wasn't my friend, and I wasn't one of the pack. He was just following me around, so he could help his Master watch my movements. I mostly just wanted to be alone, right now. So much has happened. I was mostly trying to find a place to lay down, that didn't have the scent of the other ninken. I avoided the upstairs though, it would take too much energy to climb those stairs with a hurt leg.

I glanced back up and toward the couch when I felt eyes on me, giving the culprit a glare. It was my new 'Master', Kakashi. He was watching me. I noticed he had switched his hitai-ate with to an eye-patch. 'And yet I am forced to wear mine at all times. Yeah. Totally fair.' I sniffed some more before finding a spot by the stairs that didn't smell too much like the other ninken and curled up, resting my body. I was just so tired and I couldn't understand why. The Hokage kept me almost comatose, before today.

"I heard you hadn't long woke up, you can't be tired just yet." My new 'Master'.said, from his spot on the sofa.

I growled at his annoying voice.

Surprisingly, and oddly, he growled back. His growl demanded something from my instincts, but I was not sure what. The other hounds quieted at the sound of his growl, which confused me more. He was a human, not a hound. They just been brainwashed to follow a human's lead. It was sickening, how easy a majority of my kind, fall for the nice act these people put on. I kept my glare on Kakashi, despite my instinct telling me not to. Pakkun even went back to his Masters side. But still… 'His growl was scary for a human.' I looked away from the him and the couch.

"Come join us." Kakashi said, flicking through the channels on the television.

I watched the eight dogs all crowded on the couch. I didn't want to be near anyone. Out of curiosity I looked at the television screen. It has been so long that I seen one. My ex-Master and her comrades never took me anywhere that was populated. I actually never been in a house before now. So all of this was a little overwhelming for me. But I wasn't going to get use to it. It wasn't going to last anyway. But still it has been since I was a pup, that I was allowed to even have the privilege of even having the comfort of false happiness.

"Hey, Boss, didn't we didn't we watch this episode last week?" Pakkun was asking.

"None of you could decide what to watch, so I picked my favorite." Kakashi explained.

'Yeah, like you were going to let them pick anyway.' I snorted. I watched the episode play. The character on the screen, brought up memories that I once thought were forgotten. Memories of my young Master, before my ex-Master took me. I shook my head. Why was I going back to the past, the past was dead. There was no going back. I scowled at the television show, and turned my head when Kakashi looked my way. Kakashi was not my Master. I would find a way to escape.

I laid my head down, content on just ignoring all that was going on in the house. But my eyes stayed on the television show, watching the moving pictures on the screen. My eyes were getting heavier the longer I watched. It wasn't long before I gave in to sleep, but sleep brought scattered dreams that I wished just stayed away.

"Kaito! Let's go play!" "Wow! Kaito your fast!" "We're going to be best friends forever! Right, Kaito!" "We love you, buddy. We always will." "AHHHH! Kaito run!" "Get out of here!"

"Ha, ha, ha! Your mine now, mutt!"

Kakashi's POV:

I sat on the couch and watch Kaito sleep. It looked like a restless sleep. He was whimpering, his mouth trying to form verbal sound but nothing but wheezing could be heard. The rest of my pack were already on their way to the bedroom, except Bull. Bull wanted to stay out here in case Kaito awoke during the night and needed a pack buddy to cuddle with for comfort. He may be the largest of the pack, but he was also the kindest. Knowing Bull though, he would probably make his way to the bedroom in the middle of the night.

Sighing I exited the house going to the backyard. ANBU Cat was waiting for me.

"How's it going?" Cat asked.

I scratched the back of my neck. "As good as its going to get, I guess."

Cat tilted his head. "That bad?"

"Yeah." I finally admitted.

"Lady Tsunade asked me to deliver this to you." Cat said, handing me a rolled up scroll. "Its the ninken's file. Everything that we know about him is in there. Warning. There's not much in there."

"Thanks for the warning." I said. "He's resting now. I don't think he likes me much though. I don't think he's had much time in a pack. Its going to take time."

"Right. Will that be all?"

I nodded. "Yeah."

Cat used a transportation jutsu, leaving me alone in the backyard. I sighed again. I guess that means I have to limit my visits to my team, until I could gain Kaito's trust.

TBC

A/N: I know I was going to update this story on the weekend but I have an exam in the morning and a very busy weekend planned and I don't know when I will have time to get to sit down long enough to post the update. So, here it is! Surprise! =)

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Until the next the next update.

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