DISCLAIMER: I own nothing from the Naruto universe: can you believe it?! Please review: I will take advice and suggestions from my readers while continuing the story!

Thinking (+ flashbacks, etc.)

Biju, etc. speaking

Biju, etc. thinking

Emphasis

Kakashi looked at himself in the mirror and unconsciously grimaced. Maa, at least the uniform still fits, although it's a little tight in the shoulders.

He had gotten used to wearing his Jounin uniform rather than the ANBU uniform he was now donning and had to admit to himself that he had not missed wearing the extra mask or many of the duties he had grown accustomed to. Naruto had laughed at the Hound mask he wore, although she liked his armor, before having a little bit of a breakdown as she remembered him rescuing her from Orochimaru. She had promised that she was fine now, and even excited that her "daddy" was "even more my hero!" She had wanted to go to the Academy, even that day, which should be a relief to him, but wasn't.

I know I'm worried about her mental state, but let's face it, Hatake: you just don't like being back on ANBU active duty! God only knows what the Sandaime has planned for me today.

It was guard duty. Which sucked. The only good thing about standing on top of the Hokage Tower was that he could also see the Academy and check out Naruto and Hashi-kun. Hashi-kun had been moved up into the senior-level class, which was no surprise to anyone, although those morons wanted to move his little Naruto up as well. He had refused, something Naruto was thankfully fine with.

Extending his senses for threats or unknowns, he sighed loudly.

"Taicho? Are you alright?"

"Maa, just bored, Raven. As soon as the shift is over, we'll take a two-hour break then meet the rest for training. Tell me, how is your cousin coming along?" Kakashi asked in a darker tone. Normally he didn't speak while on shift, but a sealing array at the top of the Tower kept them both unseen and unheard.

Shisui wanted to laugh. Ever since Hatake-senpai realized that his little girl had a crush on Itachi, he was... hostile. Yeah, that's one way to put it. "Both of my cousins are well, Taicho. Itachi-kun has been cleared to join ANBU - which I'm not too hot on, and your daughter hasn't forced Sasuke-chan to seek medical attention in almost a week."

Kakashi winced behind his masks. He had no idea why Naruto and little Sasuke - who was otherwise a happy, seemingly sweet kid - fought like cats and dogs, but they did.

Rabid cats and dogs.

Sasuke was a strong little kid and had declared that Naruto-chan was his rival. Naruto had just shrugged at that. It was simply unfortunate for the "spare heir" that Naru-hime had been trained by the Sannin, and of course him, too. "Maa, that's good - that's good," he hummed and then couldn't help himself, "so does Itachi-kun have a girlfriend yet? One his age or older?"

Shisui laughed quietly. "He's not short on admirers, but Itachi-kun isn't into girls yet, taicho. Having so many fangirls has really," he saw his captain shiver all over, "caused him to avoid females as much as possible." Shisui could have sworn he heard his captain grumble about that not totally being the case as he saw his fingers ticking toward his weapons pouch, just thinking about it. It was true in some ways, but it was certainly all innocent. The only girl that Itachi talked to at all was Naru-chan - something that pleased his aunt to a completely unreasonable degree - but those conversations only took place before and after his cousin walked his little brother back and forth to the Academy. The fact that it aggravated Hatake-senpai to no end was hilarious, and yet he almost feared for his cousin/best friend's safety from the overprotective man.

"You think this sealing array's safe?" Shisui asked an hour later.

"I know it is," Kakashi replied.

Shisui grumbled to himself, wondering if he should say anything or not. Fuck it, he finally decided. "Danzo-sama approached me and wants me to work for him. I - I'm not sure Sandaime-sama is aware of this."

Kakashi's eye widened behind his mask. Just a few years ago, Danzo had approached him, too. At the time, Naruto had been in the orphanage, and it seemed that Danzo believed that Kakashi hated or was at least still ignoring his sensei's daughter. His information was, thankfully, at least a week old... He'd fed Kakashi quite the elaborate spiel, trying to get him to turn against the Sandaime for not allowing him and other young shinobi to fight the nine-tails, and thus not being able to save his sensei. Unfortunately for Danzo, he'd also implied that Naruto needed to be put in his care and removed from the orphanage, a place he had recently come from for the second time ever, back then.

Why the Sandaime still took Danzo's advice and allowed him to remain so close to him mystified Kakashi to no end. Particularly after he, himself, had informed the Sandaime of everything that Danzo had tried to convince him of. Danzo had wanted him to kill the Hokage, for Kami's sake! It was one thing to keep Hiruzen-sama's old friends close, but to rely on someone who was suggesting treason was too much, in his mind. He fully understood the old saying of keeping your friends close but your enemies closer, but your enemy shouldn't be someone you also depend on. He had no choice but to trust his leader, though.

"I'll accompany you to report this to the Sandaime," Kakashi said simply. Just to be extra careful, he used hand signs to tell the kid what he thought of all this: Proceed with caution. Verify orders with Leader. "All orders, Raven," he said aloud.

"Hai," Shisui said, not knowing whether to be relieved or not. His attention was caught by some of the youngest children pouring out of the Academy for lunch. He saw his aunt, bending over and speaking to his younger cousin, as if he had done something wrong, and could only shake his head in fondness.

Sure, Sasuke-chan was a brat with a brother-complex a mile-long, but he was an alright kid most of the time. He liked to think that Itachi had a cousin complex, but that wasn't quite true. Itachi was the brother he never had, but Itachi's primary focus was on Sasuke. He supposed it was understandable, but sometimes he wished that he had a sibling as well, but that had not been meant to be. He admitted to himself that he was also glad that he wasn't born into the Uchiha Clan Head's family, however. Fugaku had so many firm - and outlandish, I think - expectations of his cousin, and Shisui was more of a freewheeling type of guy who probably wouldn't be able to handle that crap.

He loved his Clan like crazy but could admit to himself that they had real problems, aside from those that he thought were the village's or Hokage's fault.

Turning away from the Academy, knowing that Aunty Mikoto had everything under control, he saw that his captain was also concentrating on the children. He heard Inu snort and looked back over to see Naru-hime hauling a larger pink-haired girl over her shoulder as she walked up the Academy's outer walls. How could they not look? The pink one was screeching her head off!

"PLEASE put me down, Naru-chan!"

"If I put you down you'll fall, Sakura-chan! C'mon! It's real cool up there!"

Kakashi shook his head, realizing that he needed to have yet another talk with his little blonde. One, it wasn't "fun" for another person to be forced into something they probably - since Sakura came from a civilian family - thought was "magic," (or anything else, really,) and two: she needed to do a better job at hiding her skills for now. The last thing that any of those in the Senju "household" needed was even more attention on them. He was able to turn away after Naru hopped onto the roof with her little friend; they were joined by that bad influence, Ino-chan, and the little girls had a picnic on the roof.

Sighing heavily again, he drew his fingers through his even wilder than normal hair before stretching his back: he needed to cut his hair.

Things were much safer for both Naru and Hashi-kun at the Academy now that they'd purged the scum that had been there, Kakashi felt. It had taken nearly a month, and he was grateful that Naru bounced back from the attack as quickly as she seemed to.

Little did Kakashi know that the reason Naru overcame her trauma so quickly was that she promised Kurama-nii-san not to freeze up again, as well as agreeing to let him eat anyone who attacked her in the future.

Not everyone tossed out from sensei duties had been traitors, but they had caught an Uchiha who had a curse mark. In interrogation, the guy had insanely bragged that he was one day going to be Orochimaru's vessel, although T&I never did find out why he was so willing to give his life to the Snake. The traitor had died when Inoichi-san inadvertently activated a fail-safe that the Snake had put in the traitor's mind.

Kakashi was grateful that Inoichi-san made it out of the explosion the Yamanaka's supposed error had caused. It was all the Snake's doing, though. Inoichi meant a lot to him: he'd helped him sort out his feelings on all kinds of things, although the man was still a constant pain in his ass. Honestly, though, he felt honored that Inoichi had spent his therapy session after that scare talking to Kakashi about the Yamanaka Clan Head's own trauma at being in a peace-time situation that still could've ended his life. They both had a lot to live for.

He summoned four members of his pack to keep watch with them. He had so much on his mind that he could possibly fuck up here, and Kakashi wouldn't allow that to happen. "We're guarding the Hokage; alert me to threats," Kakashi ordered.

"Hai!" Pakkun, Akino, and Uhei agreed as one. Bisuke, on the other hand, wagged his tail wildly and ran to the side of the Tower's rooftop. "Hey, Boss! The pup's down there!"

"Bisuke," Kakashi all but groaned. He was still a pup and still needed training. Too bad I didn't bring a water spray bottle: I'll probably need it by the time this shift is over. Bisuke needed to learn how to stay still, though, and keeping the ninken out helped grow his chakra by at least a sliver every day. "I know she's there, Bisuke, but we're guarding the Hokage and Tower today."

"Aw, that's no fun," Bisuke pouted: actually pouted!

"Orders are orders, Bisuke. Suck it up and behave," Pakkun scolded. "If you can't handle Boss' commands, you can go home!" Bisuke put his tail between his legs and returned to formation.

"Hokage-sama, may we have a moment of your time?" Kakashi asked as he placed two fingers on his mask. It was the official ANBU sign to ask for the Hokage to activate additional privacy seals after excusing others from the room.

"Of course, Inu," he said attentively as he flicked his wrist. Other ANBU in the room were felt sunshinning out to the hallway or rafters, where a genjutsu hid the ANBU or Hokage, depending on the Hokage's orders. "What can I help you with, Kakashi-kun?" Hiruzen sat back in his chair and inhaled deeply from his pipe, glad to stop bending over to work on his endless paperwork. Seeing Inu defer to Raven, he asked the same question of Shisui.

Shisui took a deep breath. "Danzo-sama has asked me to work for him. He implied that I do it secretly in addition to my ANBU and MPF duties."

Hiruzen wanted to smack his head into his desk. His old rival was going to put him in the grave early, and that was just from stress, rather than what the disabled man wanted to do: plant a kunai in his back, literally, it seemed. "Is that so? Why don't we see what he wants then."

Kakashi and Shisui both wanted to smack a little sense into their leader at that response but kept their countenance blank and remained silently respectful.

Sort of. But what could they do?