Hours crept into days, bled further into half a week before Kakashi felt he was aware again. Numb, but aware. He had skipped the Academy, training relentlessly. Makoto had been there a few times when he entered the house but the sight of the older man, his father's friend, his father's 'Gooper', had always made Kakashi go right back outside. Kakashi didn't want to talk. Didn't wish to hear pity or soft words. It wouldn't fix things, wouldn't make it all go back as it should be. He hadn't been able to go back into the room, his father's private dojo, where...

Every time he started to revisit that moment a sensation of cold would sweep down his limbs and for just a moment there would be iron bands too tight for breathing that constricted his lungs. Becoming aware -because of course, Sakumo had ensured his son knew how to handle a panic attack- of his surroundings helped. Focus on counting senses. What could he smell? Really smell not just what he thought of from the memory. What did his eyes land on?

Right now as he fought the most recent rush that made his heart pound and bile choke up his airways even if Kakashi didn't move in the slightest, he paid only attention to the oddity before him. Nori, on her knees, trying to scrub the kitchen floor? Her hair was damp, a grimace twisting her face and from the clear tracks of her capri pants, he could tell she was more spreading the cleaning water by clothing than the rag in her hands. It was fairly amusing, and as he just paid attention to the unusual sight, focused on the sound of the wet cloth rubbing along the tile floor, the way she was definitely going to have her pants soaked as if she'd had an accident when she stood up. How the green of her tunic was that shade she never liked to wear saying it made her hair look like dried mud so it had to be yet another of the hand me downs that he clan always seemed to put on her. Even that there were clear scratches on the soles of her feet, likely from running outside barefoot no matter how much he told her she was an idiot for it; it wasn't like you could fight that way safely.

Everything was a distraction until it shoved the fear away once more and finally he could ask. "What are you doing?"

Nori yelped, not used to listening to someone who moved quietly as Kakashi had been trained to do and threw the rag in his direction. She then blinked at him like an idiot, while Kakashi just raised one eyebrow. His hand held up, having caught the item even if it had been off course, and not at all concerned as it slowly trickled water down his wrist.

Fortunately, Kakashi knew he didn't have to repeat himself. It was one nice thing about her. Though he kept wondering when she'd do it. Ask about...that. Open the topic he could only get through life by never going near. If he didn't think about it, talk about it, deal with it, it hurt less. He could handle it, get by. The moment she asked though he knew he'd have to cut all ties with her. Maybe see about talking to another in the Midori clan about making things for him. Because Kakashi simply could not deal with acknowledging it was real and had happened.

Instead, up to this point, Nori had continued to ignore the topic just as often. She'd ask if he wanted to help her identify a new plant in the yard but mostly left him alone. Kept quiet, was there but never where she was too close. Let Kakashi set the tone and boundaries of their interactions. Finally, Nori sighed. "I'm not very good at these household chores but I do know how to do them. I just tend to make a mess of myself while getting everything else clean."

Looking from the still wet rag to the girl kneeling on the floor in front of him Kakashi managed to choke another word out, more than he had done in the past four days. It scratched his throat and made him sound like a dying frog. "Why?"

An awkward running of a wet hand through the short locks revealed at least why Nori's hair seemed damp before she held out her hand for him to toss the rag back. Only once she dipped it in the bucket beside her, wringing it out meticulously and her face once more on the floor did the girl respond. Clearly making her body language show him she was going to let him have as much privacy as he needed. "Because you didn't like Granny Ryoko or Makoto here so I'm doing it."

The implication made Kakashi close his eyes, slumping against the door frame. Nori wasn't going to make him talk. She didn't need him to. She'd been there, and if he wanted to pretend nothing happened and maybe Sakumo was just out on another long trip -spare Kakashi the pitying eyes and soft voices of those who would try to make him feel better but in making themselves feel soothed in sharing things would only rip the wound back open and Kakashi's heart would be bleeding all over again- well Nori was clearly going to enable him.

"Don't you dare ask why, either," Nori grumbled as she kept her eyes on the floor. The slightly ragged breathing from Kakashi so silent she only heard it in the pause between pulling the rag towards her and pushing it away again. "I'm not an idiot, Kakashi." Nori huffed then, scooting along the wet freshly cleaned area to reach further. "Someday I'm going to be your official herbalist, and I have zero doubts you're going to be a lot messier about things like your kitchen and stuff and until you retire someone's got to make sure it's all clean and you eat. So yeah, I'm going to be really bad at this but.."

"You're rambling," Kakashi mumbled but then he walked in, avoiding where she'd already cleaned and hopped on the counter, sitting there, clearly intending to just watch her do the work. "...also, you cook terribly unless grilling in a pan."

An annoyed look was his answer and Kakashi felt himself grimace instead of a smile, glad the mask hid it, instead he closed his eyes and tilted his head, exaggerating the motion so she'd know what he meant even if he couldn't smile properly. He didn't feel happy in the slightest. Just, a bit at ease. Nori was willing to hide what she was doing under the argument of duty in a way that meant Kakashi didn't need to thank her, could brush it off. Keep his fragmented pride. For the first time, however, he felt the word catch in his throat but wouldn't let it out.

Friend.

She was telling him in words that they could sidestep that she was his friend and he didn't need to say the same, that she was here because she wanted to be. Would be, until far in the future.

"I could pick something up." Instead came her offer. No words about the incident, the funeral that Kakashi couldn't remember well. Only that there were so many people and they were suddenly speaking only about the good his father had done. That the Midori clan had easily mingled, keeping a subtle shield around the young boy with ninja doing the same. That he'd been screaming inside and unable to do more than just stand there, starring. A photo of his father doing pitiful likeness to the vibrant man he had been.

The trembling furiously quiet form he could see out the corner of his eye, where she would dart furtive glances so obviously at Kakashi had helped keep Kakashi from lashing out. Nori had been angry for him, no doubt the grips of her relatives so tight on her shoulders were to help keep the normally quiet girl from screaming at some of the same people muttering now who had been muttering then.

Kakashi wasn't blind, nor deaf. He had known because when he was avoiding Makoto it was because Kakashi knew the laws. The rules and codes of all Shinobi and that Sakumo had broken them, that there was more to it. More than just something as simple as one's honor. Had to be.

Just..had to.

The sound of the wet rag slapping on the floor startled Kakashi and he realized he'd started to reminisce again. Growling he rubbed his eyes in frustration. He hated these flashbacks. There was a droning noise, and Kakashi focused on hearing it. Aware that Nori had to know and probably read the same scrolls about it Kakashi had left dropped around the house. Because of course, the Hatake family had books and scrolls about dealing with the aftermath of their job and the horrors it could cause. But she was letting him decide what was enough and he wanted to cry almost just from that alone.

Finally, he began to understand the words she was saying instead of just the tone. When it finally made sense to his exhausted brain Kakashi felt the urge to laugh.

"...can be extracted using alcohol and heat. This is a potentially dangerous method of extraction as alcohol has a lower boiling point than water..."

"My, my..." Kakashi drawled. "If someone didn't know your future career ambitions... Such a deviant."

Nori looked up at him and smirked. "Says the boy who can identify every body part and how to best attack with them."

"It's important to know." Kakashi waved his hand, the familiar argument letting his shoulders relax. "Just because I proved the knee was surprisingly useful, but the elbow more so doesn't mean you need to get so startled still."

"They're both bendy joints!" Nori blurted out and then groaned. Peeking through her hands at him, ignoring the soapy water sliding down the back of her hands as she gave a sheepish smile.

"Bendy joints." Kakashi drawled. "Such fascinating terminology. Do tell me more."

He easily dodged the rag that time.

()()()()()()()()()()()()

It was a few weeks later that Kakashi realized Nori had not been gone much, and he was going back to the Academy during the days now. Still, he saw no reason to bring it up until he realized something was different and called out to the kitchen from where he was standing in the living room. It had taken him an embarrassing amount of time to finally realize something was off in the room. Even the excuse of recent traumatic events was no reason why Kakashi should have been uncertain as to what had changed for days! "Why are there clothes in a box beside the couch?"

A distracted holler came back to him along with the sounds of Nori and her most recent attempts at an eggplant recipe making cupboards be opened and closed as some missing utensil was searched for. There was a surprising number of the plants in the yard lately all ripe and it spared going to the market stalls. Neither child had quite forgiven the neighborhood gossips. "Because I require something to change into?"

Needing to blink several times to process that information Kakashi tilted his head. The neatly piled up blankets by the couch, and the couch itself, all did smell of Nori. He'd just become so used to her scent by this point it didn't register most the time.

"Do you ever go home?" Kakashi scratched the back of his head. Only realizing after there was a strange pause to the formerly loud racket in the kitchen how that probably came out. "Besides just saying hello and getting more scrolls, I mean."

Once more Kakashi was grateful that Nori was not a typical child as she made a laughing sound at how well he did know her traits. "I raid the spice cupboard too," Nori confessed and poked her head out, gesturing idly with the small knife in her hand. It had a protective leather sheath on it still, even assuming she wasn't aware at all times where the potential tool and weapon was as Kakashi cataloged out of habit. That didn't mean Nori ever let one of her knives -and she'd argued with him before about how kunai were not kitchen knives before she just started bringing her own- out of their sheaths when not in use. She must not have been cutting yet. "But, no. It's loud and crowded there."

Kakashi nodded, looking up at the ceiling. Only when he heard footsteps walk away did he meander out of the room and down one of the adjoining halls. If he remembered correctly...sure enough once he disabled a few traps the hallway led into a series of smaller rooms. They were dusty but manageable. Futons and bedding still rolled up in the closets and away from the rooms in the 'main' part of the compound. Still connected. If the Hatake family was as robust as it had once been, then this part of the home is where the children would have been housed with their caretakers. There was the former Midori occupied workshops and rooms but you had to actually go to a different building for that and it was right by the..dojo.

So that was an absolute no.

Instead, Kakashi waited until dinner was served, thinly sliced and grilled eggplant that was a bit too heavily seasoned but what did he expect from someone obsessed with plants and herbs? At least there was fish and rice with it, both salted to the level he knew meant Ryoko had made it and Nori had probably picked up while Kakashi was at the Academy.

His mask around his face as Nori ate with him, having long ago proved she could be trusted to not look (mainly because as she said 'if that's your thing it's more normal than the whole knowing me by my smell thing, you crazy Inuzuka people!') and Kakashi used a genjutsu anyways for practice at it in a mild way that wasn't very draining. So only when Kakashi had finished his own meal did he wait for the right moment, until Nori was chewing on her fish, half daydreaming, for his speaking up again.

"There's a few extra rooms. You could just stay here as a sort of live in caretaker and cook and clean for me so I don't have to hire any gennin to do it."

While Nori choked and swallowed her tea to try and dislodge the fish, Kakashi stole her eggplant.