Feeling pleasantly full he sent his three genin home to get some rest, not that today had been their most intensive day, but the last two days had been a bit emotional for the team. Tomorrow he expected Sakura would pick up water walking by the end of the day, he'd send Sasuke on a mission and Naruto could work with Sakura during their training. A large part of the reason he wanted Sakura to help them was simply because he wanted his team to get used to relying on each other even if it meant taking a backseat occasionally, plus the girl did seem to have a knack for teaching. Maybe one day she'd have her own team, they all could, but for now he was watching over them and growing fond of them far too quickly.

Naruto he knew he'd want to be close to him from the moment he was born, but a somewhat unstable fourteen year old wasn't considered a prime candidate for taking in a child and soon after a gag rule was thrown into effect. Kakashi wasn't allowed to talk about his parents and apparently approaching him would give away his identity because Kakashi was Minato's student. Hell the only way he could interact or take care of him was get assigned to the Anbu squad expected to watch over him when he could. Once he was out on Anbu he couldn't even do that, all he could really do was check through Iruka how the poor kid was doing. So being faced with the bright haired boy that could have been like a little brother to him in another life was an opportunity he would have hated himself for wasting. To be completely honest despite his dark his past Naruto was probably the best adjusted of the three, Sasuke was drowning in his pain, Sakura was slowly becoming someone better suited to the life she signed up for, but Naruto with his good-nature and warm disposition would be easy to guide. As long as Naruto was treated with kindness and respect he'd flourish. So he hadn't been able to focus on him as much, largely because he hadn't needed to. Of course eventually Naruto would need him and Kakashi would be ready, it would be a disservice to those who were gone and to the boy himself, who even without their connection, he knew he'd be fond of.

In Sasuke he saw himself in many ways, he could see who he used to be and despite the boy's beliefs Kakashi could understand his pain. Kakashi knew loss he'd experienced it and he'd managed to overcome it in some ways, but wounds like that never fully heal. He needed someone to help him understand that it was okay to be angry and even hate people, but he needed to keep that from ruining him before he could become his own person. Sasuke he could already tell would face troubles in the future and someone would have to drag him away from the darkness he seemed so intent on falling into, maybe that'd be Kakashi or the other genin, but he needed people close to him. His desire to kill his brother was understandable, the whole betrayal still seemed odd to Kakashi, but it was indisputable that it happened and maybe Sasuke deserved revenge, it might not be Kakashi's place to dissuade him from that notion. With Kakashi's standing in the village requesting a mission to hunt down the missing-nin wouldn't be impossible, but his genin had a long way to go before they could face Itatchi. Kakashi himself was very wary about engaging the older of the Uchiha brothers, he could do with training himself.

The biggest surprise to Kakashi was Sakura who despite being civilian born, had the makings of a fine ninja. She didn't have the same gifts as the boys, but she had her own advantages that would easily speed up her ability to learn: quick comprehension, ability to retain knowledge, a somewhat rare inclination towards genjutsu, great chakra control, and she had drive which was something nobody in his team lacked. It would depend on her chakra affinity, but he'd prefer to focus on techniques that would allow her to get the most with the least, so to speak, with some genjutsu training as well, she would be an asset to the team.

Sasuke was sent off with two clones and a mission Kakashi had picked up before arriving at the training grounds telling the other two, "Naruto tell Sakura what we've been doing and let's see how you two do together."

He watched the two and hid his smile beneath his mask, Naruto's description of how to water walk was interesting to say the least. "So you kinda want to think of the water like jelly because it moves around and you want to like freeze the jelly so you don't sink."

"Naruto I think-

"No, you're right it's more like walking on a mini wet earthquake, right?"

"Naruto, actually-

"I got it this time-

Sakura raised her voice, "Naruto could I talk for a moment."

"Oh sure Sakura-chan," Naruto replied easily as if he hadn't been droning her out with talking about gelatin or whatever else he'd come up with.

"You're not wrong about focusing on the shifting of the water because when you send chakra to your feet it disturbs the water. Which means we need to make it even lighter and more precise than walking on trees and be able to account for the shifting. I think it'll be hard to start, but once we get the hang of it'll become second nature and we won't have to think about it," Sakura was much more eloquent, but it was true that Naruto was getting the gist of it. He'd should give him some assigned readings, he had the capacity to learn, just not the means. He bought Sakura books and scrolls he could certainly do the same for Naruto, unfortunately it wouldn't be a fun outing for Naruto.

He watched as the two continued to debate about water walking, but they made steady progress, Naruto was doing much better with an encouraging Sakura rather than a sullen Sasuke and Sakura was picking it up as quickly as he expected. After a few hours he had two very wet genin, but Sakura was standing on the water without shaking much and Naruto was making steady progress, he might get it before the day was through.

"Alright Sakura, I'm calling that a success for now, obviously you'll review it through the week, but next I want you to try something else," Kakashi called out distracting her which sent her back into the water, which Naruto laughed at earning him a splash from Sakura. She pulled herself out of the river and walked to Kakashi looking energized enough that he was comfortable starting what this had all been building up to. He handed her a slip of paper only telling her to focus chakra into it and it immediately soaked through.

"Kakashi-sensei, you might want to give me paper when I'm not thoroughly drenched," she shook the soggy paper in what he could only refer to as, a sassy manner.

"I was actually expecting something like that to happen, what you touched wasn't normal paper it was paper that reveals your affinity for chakra nature transformation. It became damp meaning your chakra nature is water," Kakashi explained, "Now that we know, we can start training your mastery over that nature transformation. Eventually you'll be able to use water type jutsu which we can apply in battle, but it does usually take time to develop."

"How should I start?" Sakura asked clearly excited at the prospect of learning new jutsu.

"How to begin training a nature element varies greatly on the nature, for water like you Sakura you'll be using chakra to control water flow. I don't mean forcing a ton of chakra into the water to disrupt it, I mean actively being able to move it according to your will. Since it's your affinity you should feel a natural inclination as to what you need to do, but I'll guide you when you need help."

He watched the girl hurry to the waters edge and place her hands in the river, he could see the slight light that signaled her chakra was flowing through her hands, but the water was simply moving around her hands as it naturally would. He'd offer some advice in a little while if it still wasn't clicking, but he wanted to let her try it out first.

Naruto was continuing to improve, he was still complaining about jello, but there was little point in correcting him. He could smell Sasuke approaching from nearby so he must have finished his mission, he'd provide some good competition for Naruto. As much as they argued, they were a good match.

"Sasuke is your mission complete?" Kakashi asked and he received a nod, "Alright, tonight your homework is writing a mission report and I'll check it over while you train tomorrow. For most missions you don't put off the report unless you were injured, but because there's no rush for D-ranks bringing it in the next day isn't problematic."

"Right," he nodded swiftly then promptly asked, "Can Naruto walk on water yet?" and his competitiveness was kind of adorable.

"No, but he's made a lot of progress so you'll have to be quick to keep up and Sakura is already finished.

"Nice job Sakura," Naruto said before promptly sinking into the water.

"Yeah, good job," Sasuke looking less awkward than he sounded, compliments were clearly still new to him.

"Thanks," she said to them both offering a small smile before placing her hands back in the water.

Naruto who had just been floating while they conversed asked, "Why are you washing your hands?" Kakashi hadn't talked loudly enough for him to hear his explanation to Sakura about chakra natures, he initially didn't want to distract him, which seemed like his biggest problem.

"I'm learning to control my chakra nature, it's water," she replied not making it sound like a big deal, but Naruto fell into the water again when he yelled an exclamation about how cool that was, then demanded more information.

With all three of them gathered he might as well explain the next stage of training and about chakra natures.

He switched from Kakashi-trainer to Kakashi-sensei mode for his little teaching period. "There are five chakra natures water, fire, wind, earth, and lightning. They are the basis for all elemental ninjutsu, these natures are actually where the names of each of the five great nations came from, as you probably could have guessed. They each have strengths and weaknesses, but no element is fundamentally stronger than the others. Which nature or natures you learn is generally based on your affinity, which is just a word for which nature your chakra most easily is molded into. For example my affinity is lightning, but I've also mastered earth, water, and fire. Wind has been difficult for me and I don't really have the free time to train that nature because even considering my ability, learning a nature that doesn't come easily to me is time consuming."

"Can most people use multiple chakra natures? Four out of five seems difficult, " Sakura asked.

"Mastering four chakra natures is extremely rare and the amount of people who can naturally use all five that I'm aware of living and dead can be counted on just my fingers. A lot of it depends on ability, but nothing is technically impossible. Generally by the time you become chunin you can use one nature, jonin can usually use two more advanced jonin might use three. Of course there are people who don't focus on ninjutsu or who generally focus on clan skills, who despite being great ninja don't know many nature transformations. However, I can't teach you any new jutsu if you can't walk on water, now can I?"

He did feel it was a bit of encouragement to get the boys going, the idea that if they finished they'd learn more jutsu, which was true. However he did have one other thing to show them and he personally felt it'd be a nice way to introduce his pack.

"Gather round," he called to his genin and like little puppies they ran over. "Summoning Jutsu," he bit his finger and slammed his hand on the ground. After only a puff of smoke he had his entire pack of dogs standing in front of him looking critically over his genin. He'd mentioned that he was going to be getting a team.

Surprisingly it was Bull his least talkative dog that spoke first, asking, "New puppies?"

"Whoa," Naruto yelled and darted towards them, "you can talk? Who are you guys?" Kakashi heard what sounded like Sakura whispering about how cute they were and his ninken clearly noticed because Urushi sent her a grin.

"This is my pack, my personal summons. I raised them since they were puppies," Kakashi gestured to the group who were walking around observing the genin from different directions, he could see the kids trying not to fidget under their gaze. "I'm often deployed on tracking missions, I'm one of the best in the village and a lot of that is thanks to these guys: Pakkun, Bull, Urushi, Shiba, Bisuke, Akino, Uhei, Guruko," he explained gesturing to each as he introduced them.

"Isn't it usually the Inuzuka Clan that raised dogs and took tracking jobs?" Sakura asked and she was right aside from Kakashi there was no other ninja in the village, outside the Inuzuka, who employed dogs to work as tracking hounds and battle partners, Kakashi told her as much.

"So why do you do it, are you actually related to that clan?" Sasuke asked finally speaking up.

"Technically the Hatake and Inuzuka are very distantly related, but the Hatake clan generally tamed wild canines like wolves or coyotes while the Inuzuka raised and bred dogs,"Kakashi explained.

"But you have multiple dogs and they aren't anything like wolves," Sasuke pointed to Pakkun in particular who spared him only a brief glance.

"It's a long story, but I met these guys when they were babies and decided to raise them, being a Hatake and having been written into my father's species summoning contract it was easy to make them my personal summons."

"What's the difference between a species summoning contract and a personal summon?" Sakura asked reaching down to pet Shiba.

"A summoning contract is often formed between a species and a ninja, allowing the ninja to call on members of that particular species. A personal summons is a summon that either resides within a species, who is specifically loyal to you or a summon that you form a unique bond with and exclusively summon," Kakashi explained, but went on to add, "The Hatake clan is unique in it that all members shared a single contract and that it wasn't limited to a single species, part of our culture was taming wild animals and once we reached a certain relationship with an animal we'd ask that they join the clan and become a member of our contract. Sometimes the animals would reject the offer or accept being added to the contract, but only be willing to serve the person who tamed them. However most of the time even the summons that were only loyal to one ninja would be willing to aid their child, because they were considered family." Kakashi gestured to the dogs who seemed to be descending on Naruto, "These guys are my personal summons, they will only answer my calls and I almost never summon anyone else, but the reason why I was able to form a contract with them easily was that from birth I was already included in a contract, once I'd raised them long enough they simply joined it."

"Why don't you summon the wolves then?" Sasuke asked, "They'd probably be useful," he didn't say anything, but Kakashi could guess he was underestimating his dogs because admittedly some of them weren't exactly threatening looking, but Kakashi wouldn't change them. They'd helped him through some dark times and served as support in and out of battle.

"Personal reasons, but I also never need to, despite how they look, these guys can actually tear ninjas apart and we can use jutsu together," Kakashi shrugged off answering anything else, because trying to discuss anything further would lead him to talking about something he wasn't comfortable with. He belatedly realized that Naruto was asking less questions that he would have expected and quickly attributed that to the fact that he was currently rolling around with the dogs, covered in Bull's slobber. Laughing at the fact that Akino had sunglasses.

"Hey guys, the new puppies are having trouble walking on water why don't you show them how?" Kakashi asked and all three genin's eyes shot to the dogs who trotted onto the water and walked around on the river leaning down to easily drink as they stood.

"How are dogs beating me?" Naruto complained, "I'm going to walk on water, just wait." He ran to the river after the dogs yelling.

"We aren't puppies," Sasuke said and chased after Naruto apparently he wasn't a fan of being shown up by dogs either.

"Please don't tell me they already know water style," Sakura looked at him pleadingly, but he merely shrugged.

"You should learn it quickly just to make sure they can't show you up, because I can tell you they know more about elemental ninjutsu than you do," Kakashi patted her head like a puppy and she ran off and jammed her hands into the water.

It was like a little makeshift family was having a day by the river, and it was scary that he'd be happy if it was true.

A/N

Thanks for reading let me know what you think.

There's a bit of debate over what natures Kakashi can use, some people think it's all five (according to the wiki) looking at the anime it seems more like all of them except wind, but others claim that in the manga he's only used water, earth, and lightning. In my story he can use four mainly for story purposes, so I don't know sue me.

I'm pretty sure Sakura can use both Water and Earth, but I don't know what order she learned them in. For what I have planned and the fighting style I developed for her she's best suited for using water style for the time being. We'll get to see her fighting for real and her only water jutsu, won't be a tears jutsu.

I totally made up the whole Hatake summoning thing, but I wanted an explanation for his naturally good senses and his contract with his ninken which was never explained, though it was said that he raised them. If they were normal summons, then they wouldn't need raising because they'd grow up wherever that species lived. So that's how that was born, let me know if it made any sense. Plus I wanted to give the Hatake clan a bit of background.

Next chapter there will be a layout of what the characters will be learning and I might do a small time jump until just to move the story along. Their C rank mission is approaching, but it won't be next chapter