Present
Shinobi are good at following orders. Trained and raised with a specific ruleset, budding graduates are tested on their aptitude, intelligence, response times, memory, and tactical awareness. Many children never cross the line from civilian to shinobi, and even those who do are never guaranteed to progress in the ranks. At genin level, it is said that more shinobi die on their first mission outside of the village than in any other mission type combined, which is why the four-man squadron - one jounin sensei and three genin - was introduced.
As it stands, Konohagakure no Sato has the lowest shinobi mortality rate and highest level of registered chunin. It is also said that the would-be client is hard-pressed to go anywhere in Hi no Kuni without hiring a Konoha shinobi. They are the most expensive, of course, but their client mortality rate is astronomically low, and any mercenary with a head on their shoulders will turn tail and flee at the sight of a Konohagakure insignia.
Shinobi are good at following orders, Konoha shinobi perhaps a league above the rest.
That being said, being told to sit and stay by his younger cousin like he was some kind of dog was testing the very limits of Obito's patience. And yeah, sure, Shisui might be some kind of 'once in a generation prodigy' (except twice now, because Itachi was just as scary as Shisui but also had a sadistic streak twice as wide), but Obito had kept him from eating dirt as a kid, that had to garner at least some kind of respect.
So no, Obito definitely wasn't pouting as he waited for his squad leader to finish looking into some lead or another at the bounty checker's office (and wasn't that weird, getting diverted by half a day just to pick up a new bingo book). Obito shivers as the wind shifts and carries the scent of the small market towards him, cheap, greasy street food clogging his senses.
His stomach growls.
This sucks.
"Maa, maa, shinobi-san, why the long face?"
Obito jumps slightly as his head whips around, Sharingan flashing subtly as he searches for the source of the sudden (pleasant) voice. He tenses a bit as he comes face to face with a man his age, dressed in civilian clothing but wearing a tight-fitting black mask around the lower edge of his face. He has a shock of silver hair falling messily (artfully) around what appears to be a makeshift eyepatch/headband combination.
His stance is balanced, certainly, but not exactly what Obito would expect of someone looking for a fight. In towns like these, after all, there's an unofficial rule that village feuds stay firmly outside their walls. He could be a shinobi, probably safe to assume he is one, really, but Obito can't help but notice the lack of chakra.
He's met shinobi who could conceal it entirely, of course. Any jounin worth their salt and all of the Anbu know-how, but partial concealment…
Well, it's the difference between closing your eyes or keeping them a fraction of the way open all day. Doable, certainly, but not without immense amounts of practice and stamina. It would hurt, after about five minutes, once the chakra coils began to overfill, stockpiling to the point of breakage.
Minato-sensei is the only person Obito knows with the ability to hold their chakra like that for more than a couple of minutes, and that's only because he cheats using seals.
So, either Obito has found himself a one-in-a-million, needle in a haystack prodigious shinobi, or he's dealing with someone on what he figures to be mid-genin level.
Obito relaxes.
He could take them.
"Ah, just a long day with no rest. I'm sure you understand," Obito replies cordially, Sharingan deactivating as he crosses a foot into his lap, leaning forward. "The matron gets pissed if we accidentally scare away her clientele, so I was the lucky one who got to stay outside."
"That doesn't seem very fair," the man responds, placid. "I wasn't aware Konoha shinobi were the bounty hunting type."
Obito snorts at the less than discreet dig for information, refusing the urge to roll his eyes.
"We aren't, just had to make a quick pit stop is all. Things change so fast anymore that it's always good to have the latest information," Obito says, watching as the man's lone eye fixates on something just over his shoulder.
"Mm, it's always good to be safe," the man agrees, absentminded. "Say, are you-"
The stranger is quite rudely interrupted by Obito's stomach as the wind shifts again, blowing more of the mouth-watering scent towards them. He chuckles, a soft (charming) sound as Obito flushes crimson, his visible eye crinkling in a smile.
"Were your orders strictly against feeding yourself, Shinobi-san?" he asks, a teasing edge in his voice. "We wouldn't want you to starve to death.
"Obito," the flushing Uchiha cuts in. "It's Obito."
"Obito-san, then," the stranger says, amusement practically oozing out of them. "I can't imagine you'd be much use to your village as a shriveled husk on the road somewhere. Let me buy you lunch."
Obito tenses again at the odd request, experience making him wary but his usual nerves strangely absent.
"And why would you want to do that?" It comes out far more biting than Obito intends, but the man doesn't seem to mind, holding up placating hands.
"Easy, there, Obito-san. It's not very often that I get a chance to sit and eat with someone, and shinobi always have the most interesting stories. I'd love to hear a little bit about the world through your eyes," he says.
Obito can't help but begrudge the stupid mask, because the expression the man is wearing is startlingly persuasive (attractive), and it must be devastating without a barrier in the way. He hesitates for a moment, glancing back towards the door. Shisui had said to wait outside, but he never actually said where exactly Obito had to wait, right?
"Sure thing, then, I'm starved," Obito agrees, standing up.
"Ah, perfect! I know just the place!" the stranger says with a twirl of his arms, spinning on a heel and gesturing for Obito to follow him. "I hope you like fried food because they make absolutely killer cod."
Obito lets out a breathless laugh at the man's buoyancy, jogging a few paces to catch up.
"That's fine, but they better have takoyaki, or I'm going to have to sue," he ribs, delighting in the soft laughter that follows.
"Maa, so violent. I knew you Konoha shinobi had to have a dark side somewhere," the man says, eye narrowing conspiratorially.
"Ah, well, you know us shinobi," Obito replies, lacing his hands behind his head as they walk. "Bad boys through and through."
This grants him another bark of soft laughter, and Obito can't help the thrill that runs through him at that. He can't remember the last time he got to go out and just… banter with somebody. In the village, he's an Uchiha first, the Hokage's student second, a jounin third. Unapproachable is basically his middle name, and with his relationship with his clan, people seem to think he's some kind of stuck up, pretentious asshole who can't be bothered to forgive and forget. Or, even better, the prime example of exactly how an Uchiha should behave in his village.
"Oh man, that smells good," Obito breathes as he approaches the stall, side by side with the masked stranger, close enough that their shoulders almost brush.
"Mm," he agrees, approaching the counter. "You said you were craving takoyaki, yes? Anything else you'd like?"
"Nah, and I can pay for myself, you know," Obito pushes, looking down to reach into his holster and grab out his coin pouch.
"I'm sure you can," he responds, placing their order and paying before Obito even has it in his hands.
"Bastard," Obito laughs but frowns a bit as the stranger seems to flinch minutely at the word.
"You've caught me red-handed," the man jokes back, but now that he's looking for it Obito can hear that it's slightly strained.
"You know," Obito butts in swiftly, killing the tension before it can rise, "you never did tell me your name. I can't exactly call you Stranger-san, now, can I?"
He means it as a joke, but Obito can see as something twitches in the man's shoulders.
"I suppose I didn't, did I?" he replies faintly, accepting baskets of battered fish and octopus from the gruff-looking lady behind the counter. "Let's find a place to sit down, ne?"
Obito narrows his eyes at the obvious deflection but lets it lie for now. He doesn't recognize the man from the bingo book, and he's already double-checked for henge with the Sharingan. Obito follows the man to a nearby bench and accepts his basket of food, breaking a piece off and reaching into his weapons holster.
The stranger watches with unbridled curiosity as Obito withdraws a vial full of colorless liquid and drops a chunk of his lunch into it, shaking the small bottle. After several seconds with no reaction, Obito nods and sinks his teeth into his takoyaki, satisfied.
"That's an interesting little routine you've got there, Obito-san," the man states, still looking intently at the vial.
"Mhm," Obito agrees, swallowing. "This little guy is a concoction my teammates whipped up. One of them is more than a little obsessed with poisons, and she was always trying to build up our poison immunity, or whatever the hell it's called, so my other teammate experimented until she found something that would turn a different color when it came in contact with different poisons.
"Of course, that just made the first one more competitive, so she started using smaller doses of a lot more potent stuff. This liquid can be used to identify nearly any poison, and can even be used as an antidote in a pinch. It's pretty cool stuff. I can say that it absolutely sucks to drink though. I was sick for days."
Obito takes another bite of his food, turning to look at the man and-
"Wha- how is half your food gone? I never even saw you move!" he yelps, a finger jabbing towards his face.
The man blinks, cocking his head and giving Obito an innocent look.
"I have no idea what you're talking about. Cod?" The man holds out his basket as Obito flaps an accusing hand at him, nonplussed.
Grumbling, Obito snatches a fish out of the man's basket and bites into it viciously.
It's so very good. Obito could cry.
"Not going to put it in your fancy poison juice first?" the man asks as Obito is swallowing.
Obito, the suave man that he is, chokes on his fish and spends the next three minutes trying not to die, pounding a fist to his chest and draining nearly half his canteen of water. Tears running down his face, Obito glares at the man next to him. His shoulders are pointedly still, but there's definitely a quiver in his lip under the mask.
The bastard is laughing at him.
"Who needs poison when you're just going to choke on it, anyway?" he says as Obito takes several deep breaths.
"Oh, shut up," he croaks, thoroughly humiliated for the day.
Obito glares at the offending fish, downing the rest of it before biting into another octopus ball. He turns it back over at the man who is certainly not still laughing at him and watches as his eyes flick away from Obito's. The rest of his fish is gone.
"Both of your teammates were girls, then?" the man asks suddenly, staring off into space.
"Huh? Oh, yeah, they were. They were always ganging up on me and making me run stupid errands for them," Obito grumbles fondly. "Still though, a genin team with two kunoichi? We were the talk of the village! 'Course, it also helped that both of our senseis were pretty famous, but back then I would take what I could get."
"Both your senseis?" the man echoes, looking back over to Obito.
"Mhm!" Obito agrees around another mouthful of takoyaki. "Yeah, one of the girls was already apprenticed to the first, and then when Mi- er, I mean, Sensei sensei took over, uh, other sensei would come and watch a lot. He helped us out."
The other man seems to take a moment to digest the information, thumbing the edge of his mask.
"That seems pretty complicated. I take it having two senseis is not common practice for most teams?" he asks, turning to look back towards Obito.
"Yeah, we were a pretty special case, I think," Obito replies, dusting off his fingers. "I'm really not sure how much more I can tell you without getting you in trouble, though."
"Ah, of course, of course," the man replies, distant.
Silence settles between the two of them, the unintentional threat weighing down the conversation enough to bring it to a screeching halt.
"Well, um, I should probably be getting back to my team before they set the village on fire or something," Obito says after a small, awkward pause.
When the man doesn't respond, Obito stands up and tosses his trash in the bin next to the bench.
"It was nice meeting you today. Thank you for the food," Obito says with a bow before turning to leave.
"Kakashi," the voice behind him cuts in, freezing Obito in his tracks.
"I'm… sorry?" Obito asks, turning around with his eyebrows drawn together.
"You said you wanted to know my name. It's Kakashi," he says, eye locking together with Obito's own for the first time since they met earlier, something Obito can't quite understand shining back at him.
"Oh, right!" Obito chirps, a broad smile breaking out on his face. "Well, it was nice to meet you. Please try not to kill me with fish next time, Bakashi."
Obito watches as something like shutters slam down on Kakashi's visible eye. The man stands up and places a placid smile on his face, hands clasping tightly behind his back.
"It was nice to meet you as well. And I'm sorry to say, but I can't make any promises for next time. Have a safe trip home, Uchiha Obito." Kakashi tosses his garbage at the can, Obito's eyes reflexively following it.
It crashes to the ground at least a meter behind the can, and Obito snorts as he looks back up.
"Nice shot, Baka…" he trails off as he's met with only the empty road, the slight breeze rustling his hair. "What the-?"
Obito had absolutely no idea how the man had done it. Even a clone would have made some sort of sound as they dispelled, and Obito had just watched the man (well, sort of anyway) down an entire basket of fish. There hadn't been any sort of chakra usage that Obito could sense, either. He was just… gone.
"I do believe we told you to wait outside, and yet here you are, talking to yourself and setting a frankly ghastly example of the mental stability of Konohagakure shinobi."
Obito jumps nearly a foot in the air, spinning around with eyes blazing.
"Sensei, how many times do I have to tell you to stop doing that!?" Obito shrieks, pelting a kunai at the man.
Orochimaru catches the projectile fluidly, stowing it into the billowing sleeves of his haori and turning without a sound.
"Come along, then. Shisui will assuredly cause more trouble if left unsupervised for too long," he says before disappearing with a small swirl of chakra and a flawless shunshin.
"Damn showoff," Obito mutters, moving to follow.
He hesitates, glancing over his shoulder but not still not seeing anything. Shrugging, Obito follows his sensei's lead back to the front of the village, intent on heading home after this dumpster fire of a mission.
The detour had been interesting, certainly, but it still added a whole more day to their travel time. Minato-sensei had better be thankful.
Several Weeks Previously
Kakashi would be the first to admit that he wasn't teacher material. Whoever it was that decided to give him a genin squad must have lost their minds. His team (broken, shattered, gone) was a disaster from jaded start to catastrophic finish, and his utter failure to keep them together really showed how pathetic Kakashi's mentoring abilities were.
(He'd been an Anbu captain for six years, his team handpicked and trained by Kakashi himself. They had the highest success rate throughout the ranks, and while he was certainly more than a bit on the suicidal side, Kakashi was known as the most capable captain in generations for a reason. He was the best of the best, and the Sandaime knew it. But how can you ask a broken man to fix broken children, broken relationships?)
Kakashi was aloof and awkward, and everything children didn't need, legal status as adults notwithstanding. There is so much more he should have (could have) done, but in the end, real field experience cannot be substituted for anything. This is a key factor in why the jounin exams are so brutal, and why so few shinobi are able to pass them.
So really, what more could Kakashi expect from a pack that had never left home and had only undergone a month's worth of crash course training in scent work and tracking? His dogs had always been sharper than most, but they simply didn't understand yet the way any of this worked.
He had to say though, his dogs had definitely learned some new words when a small squad of hunter-nin dropped out of the trees on top of them only minutes after Bisuke came back from reporting their location.
"I'm so sorry, boss!" the dog yelps as he dodges the swipe of a ninjato, falling back to land at Kakashi's feet. "I wasn't watching carefully enough, and now they're mad."
Kakashi ignores Bisuke's whining for the moment, carefully cataloging the enemy's position and running half thought plans through his brain, rapid-fire.
"It can't be helped," he murmurs back after dodging a lightning-quick kunai and snatching the dog up by the vest, using the force of the explosion tag attached to flip himself into the trees. "Dispel yourself for now. You need practice, but not with so many high-leveled opponents at once."
Bisuke hangs his head in shame but doesn't argue as he disappears in a puff of smoke. Kakashi drops like a rock as another kunai buries itself into the tree where his head was moments ago, launching himself at the most aggressive of his assailants.
On the bright side, they don't seem to be much more powerful than chunin, but five against one odds, when Kakashi has an unfortunate handicap in the form of a deliberate lack of his (stolen, not his) left eye really, isn't fair. But then again, nothing in Kakashi's life has really ever been fair. It only takes one controlled motion to dart forward and snap the first hunter-nin's neck with his knee, the body acting as a shield in the next second as a handful of shuriken bury themselves in its back.
Kakashi forces some chakra into his arms, hurling the body at the one standing closest before executing a time perfect kawarimi, the poor log being burned to a crisp in an instant. Of the four remaining, Kakashi can identify two of them hanging back as mid to long-range ninjutsu specialists. The one with the ninjato is most likely a kenjutsu specialist, and the one flinging one projectile after another at Kakashi's flickering form is most likely their medic.
Just his luck he would take out the taijutsu specialist first, the one that would have caused him the least amount of trouble. Kakashi blinks through a series of hand seals, palm brushing against the ground as he calls up a powerful Doton jutsu he'd learned from Tenzou (Stop, don't think about them). Jagged spikes of earth shoot up from the ground, his Doryūsō impaling the closest shinobi and pinning him to a tree.
Well, at least he didn't have to worry about the shuriken, anymore.
The other hunter-nin swiftly fall back, and Kakashi leaps to his left to avoid a well-aimed Suiton at his blind spot, retaliating with a teeth-numbing Raiton, an effortless Sanda that races up the stream of water and collides harshly with unlucky shinobi.
Three down, two to go.
The kenjutsu user throws himself forward, executing a textbook perfect flip into a swing at Kakashi's neck, sacrificing visibility for leverage. Really, though, they should have figured out by now that aiming for Kakashi's blind spot was not doing them any extra favors. Kakashi curses at his lack of a weapon with reach as he rips a kunai out of his pouch, deflecting the blade and spinning sharply, burying his elbow in the shinobi's solar plexus.
Kakashi can hear as ribs crack and the air is punched out of their lungs, the hunter-nin crumpling like a marionette with their strings cut out as they drop to the ground in a heap. Kakashi curses slightly as he feels the last hunter-nin's chakra growing fainter, fleeing to live another day and bring the information back to their village.
Kakashi could give chase; hunt the shinobi down with his pack and give them a real lesson in field combat, but ultimately he decides against it. Butchering Kiri shinobi will only lead to trouble in the future, and from what Kakashi has gathered about the current state of the village, making enemies should be avoided. He's sure Kiri is desperate to show that they still have full control over all their affairs, but Kakashi can tell simply by the state that their supposed hunter-nin are in that they're nowhere near recovered from Yagura's bloody reign.
Kakashi looks at the trembling body at his feet, the shinobi struggling to right themselves as they hack and gasp behind their mask. Kakashi sighs.
"Look, I don't really have time for this right now, so how about you and I make a little trade, ne?" Kakashi asks, KI leaking from every pore even as he tilts his head with an eye smile. "I get your nice ninjato, and you get to walk away and catch up with your buddy. How does that sound?"
Kakashi can feel something like disgust (alone, they left him alone) roll through him as the trembling shinobi looks up at his face. Their ninjato is lying about a meter away, buried point first into the ground a little behind Kakashi's right foot. Really, he doesn't need to ask, and they know it. The shinobi stands shakily, jumping back in halting movements to put some ground between them.
"Tell you what," Kakashi continues, tipping his head to the side. "You throw me that nice sheath of yours, and I'll even let you take home the bodies of the rest of your team over there."
Kakashi nods at them, and although he can't actually see the expression of the one left standing, he can tell they're staring at the impaled shinobi over his shoulder. Kakashi watches in satisfaction as the hunter-nin in front of him unbuckles the leather sheath with shaking hands and tosses it to land in the dirt at his feet, head tipping down to look at the ground.
"Maa, no need to be ashamed," Kakashi reassures the other shinobi, crouching down to pick up the sheath, twirling it in his hands. "A shinobi who breaks the rules is scum, that is true. But a shinobi who abandons his comrades…"
Kakashi trails off, looking in the direction the other hunter-nin had fled.
"Well, they're far worse than scum."
Kakashi runs through a few quick hand signs and places his palm flat on the ground, watching as his Doton crumbles to dust, the impaled shinobi falling to the ground with a wet thwap! Brushing his knees off, Kakashi stands and plucks the ninjato out of the ground, examining the blade. Nodding, he tucks it back into its sheath and springs up into the trees.
"Remember those words for next time. A much better person than me is the one who said them, after all," Kakashi says, voice flat.
With a swirl of leaves, Kakashi vanishes, not sticking around long enough to watch the hunter-nin crumple into the dirt, face pressed to the ground, choking back sobs. It's not his place.
(Perhaps they'll learn from this experience, that the chance to advance through the ranks at an accelerated rate isn't all it's cracked up to be. Perhaps they'll learn why it is that Konohagakure values its human capital so much.)
Kakashi sighs as he finishes drawing camp, glaring at the setting sun. Settling down by the small fire he's allowed himself, Kakashi draws his newly acquired ninjato and gives it a far more in-depth look. There's a large gouge on the blade that he'll have to work at with a whetstone for a while, but other than the minor damage from the scuffle earlier, it looks relatively brand new.
The leather wrapping of the handle is conditioned well, but not yet worn into the shape of the wielder's palm. Kakashi wonders, distantly, if this was perhaps a graduation or promotional gift. The shinobi (kid, Kakashi pointedly doesn't think. He could tell from his slight build and the smell of his hormonal imbalances that he couldn't be any older than fifteen) was certainly adept, but their moves had been too textbook, too practiced. It's obvious that they hadn't had much field experience, either a freshly promoted genin or a career desk chunin. Judging by the obvious affinity for pointy objects, though, Kakashi thinks he's safe to assume the former.
Pulling some hardened jerky from his pouch, Kakashi stuffs a chunk of it in his mouth before nicking his thumb on the pointed edge of the blade, running through a series of quick hand signs and slamming his hand on the ground. With a loud pop! his pack appears, ninken snarling and yipping at each other. He raises an eyebrow and waves away the smoke, watching in unimpressed silence.
"-told you you were being too sloppy with your chakra, but 'no, Pakkun, I know what I'm doing, Pakkun'. And now look at where it's got us. We're all going to be in the doghouse after this!"
"And I told you that I was being careful! It was one stupid mistake!"
"Um, guys," Ūhei attempts to jump in. "I think we should-"
"Can it, pup!" Pakkun barks back. "We finally get a summoner, and you have to go and mess it up royally on our first mission!"
"I didn't mean to!" Bisuke snaps hackles raising. "It was an accident!"
"Yes, well, accidents kill people, Bisuke. Welcome to the real world," Pakkun growls, his own hackles rising at the challenge.
"I'm aware of that," the taller dog snarls, "and I'm telling you-"
"Are we quite done yet?" Kakashi cuts in, dry. "Because as much as I love a good drama, now is really not the time."
Bisuke and Pakkun both leap about a foot in the air, snapping to attention and tripping over each other trying to turn and face their summoner.
"Boss!" Pakkun yelps, finally getting his feet underneath him. "Are you okay? Bisuke didn't get you hurt, did he?"
"Oi, you asshole, don't put it that way," Bisuke hisses, head dropping in shame regardless.
Kakashi heaves a sigh.
"I'm fine you two. Stop sniping at each other and come sit down. The rest of you, as well," Kakashi says, looking up to address the rest of his pack.
He watches in faint amusement as they all scramble over each other to press themselves as close as possible, Ūhei's head dropping into his lap. He absentmindedly scratches at the pleading dog's ears as the rest of them settle themselves down.
"Now, who here can give me a clear rundown of what happened today?" Kakashi inquires.
He sees Pakkun's head snap up to glare at Bisuke, posture straightening.
"Unbiased," he quickly cuts in.
Kakashi waits in several seconds of expectant silence, watching as the dogs shift awkwardly.
"Um, I believe I could, boss?" Shiba rumbles, polite as always.
"Go ahead," Kakashi instructs gently, tipping his head.
"Um, so, you summoned one of us for a tracking job, because you wanted to see who exactly it was that the hunter-nin were tracking, but you've been tracking someone yourself, so you decided to have one of us do it," Shiba rambles, clearing his throat nervously. "And Bisuke ended up being the one to answer your summons."
Kakashi nods, encouraging.
"So then, you um, had him follow the hunter-nin while you kept tracking the other guy - the one who smells like death - so you could see if you were following the same person," Shiba looks at Bisuke, who nods, and then continues his story. "So he did just fine catching up with them, and he saw that they were going in a different direction, following someone with a different scent, so he returned to you. But um, while he was going back, he slipped up and used a little chakra to pull at our bond and find out where you were at, and one of the hunter-nin was probably a sensor."
"Definitely a sensor," Pakkun cuts in with a grumble.
Kakashi raises an eyebrow at him once again.
"What? I may be mad at him but that doesn't change the fact that I know I trained them well enough not to use any chakra within a twenty-meter radius of anybody we're tracking," Pakkun says with a sniff, and Kakashi rolls his eyes.
"Of course," he agrees, looking back towards Shiba. "Is that all, or do you have more to add?"
"Oh, um, well, I mean, they sensed that he was a ninken and not like, a normal forest animal or something so they stayed back and followed him downwind and from a distance, which led them straight to you?" Shiba finishes, voice squeaking.
"Are you asking me, or telling me?" Kakashi pushes, watching with approval as Shiba's spine straightens.
"Telling you, boss. Their sensor just had to follow the dog," He looks at Bisuke again, and then back into Kakashi's exposed eye. "It could have happened to any one of us, boss. He just got unlucky."
Kakashi nods, approval spreading through his chest at the statement. Tearing off another piece of jerky, he tosses it to the gray dog and hums. Eager jaws snap up the treat, and Kakashi can feel Ūhei's eyes staring longingly at the rest of the meat in his hands.
"Very good, Shiba. Did everyone catch that last part?" Kakashi inquires, gazing pointedly at the two dogs refusing to look at him.
"Yes boss," his pack responds, tails wagging.
"So, just to recap, Bisuke did as I asked him, and had the misfortune of encountering a sensor on his first solo run. What could we have done differently to avoid this situation?" Kakashi asks, fiddling with the jerky in his hand.
"Oh, me, me!" Akino cries, jumping up and wagging his tail fiercely. "Pick me, boss!"
Kakashi snorts, ignoring the whine from the basenji below him as he nods at Akino.
"So, so, while using our chakra bond with you is definitely faster to find you, when we're doing, like, undercover tracking stuff, we should just go back to where we met you, and then use our noses to track you from there!" Akino yips, spinning in a circle. "And then that way, we're not using chakra and drawing attention!"
Kakashi represses a grin as he tears off another piece of jerky, tossing it to the wiggly dog.
"Very good, Akino. That's certainly one idea. What else?"
"I have one," Ūhei whines, nuzzling further up Kakashi's lap.
"Me too, boss," Guruko yips, eyes fixated on the jerky.
"Go on, then Guruko," Kakashi encourages, hiding a grin at the wounded whine from beneath him.
"Okay, well how about instead of going where we last met you, we discuss where you're headed before we leave, and then that way we can meet up with you faster!" Guruko says, sitting up proudly.
"Hey, you just stole my idea and added a crappy step!" Akino barks, spinning around.
"No, no, I think he has a point," Bisuke jumps in, quickly diffusing the situation. "It would help cut down on travel time, and give us a better idea of what to watch for."
Bull woofs in agreement and Kakashi can't help himself but shake his head in amusement. His pack has come a long way in the short month he's been working with them.
"Oi, don't go trying to steal my jerky, Bisuke! That was my idea!" Guruko barks this time, springing to his feet.
"I'm not trying to steal your jerky, Guruko," he says with a sigh.
"Exactly what a jerky thief would say!" The tawny dog fires back, tail pointing.
"Alright, alright," Kakashi cuts them off, tossing a bite of jerky to the paranoid dog. "There's enough jerky for everyone here, settle down."
The dogs grumble as they settle back down, and Kakashi has to keep himself from chuckling as Ūhei lets out another, dramatic whine.
"You had an idea?" he inquires.
"Yes, boss!" he yelps, snapping upright to attention. "See, Nao-sensei told us that, because we're animals, we can use natural chakra! So, if we just learn how to use that, the sensors won't feel anything and we can still find you from anywhere, even if it's raining!"
Kakashi blinks at the absurd statement, trying to wrap his head around the concept of all eight of them trying to learn how to control something as volatile as Nature chakra. It was… not as far-fetched of an idea as it could be.
"Was that… not a good idea?" Ūhei asks uncertainly, tail slowing to a stop at Kakashi's silence.
"No, no, it wasn't a bad idea at all," Kakashi reassures the dog, tearing off another piece of meat and holding it out for him. "The logistics of it may be difficult, but if we could make it work, it would actually be incredibly beneficial to us in the long run."
Ūhei takes the treat, still looking visibly uncertain, but settling his head back in Kakashi's lap nonetheless.
"So, what you're sayin' is that if we learn how to use this natural chakra stuff, we'd be even more useful to you than your old pack?" Pakkun asks candidly.
Kakashi flinches slightly at the words (his pack was gone forever, and he was already trying to replace them. He was disgusting, undeserving of their love, he never should have-), but nods his head regardless.
"Natural chakra is dangerous and incredibly unpredictable, but one of my students learned how to use it and was able to nearly level an entire village with its power alone afterwards," Kakashi explains to the rest of his pack, who look confused. "If you all did learn- no, if we all learned how to use it, I believe it really could put us at an unfair advantage towards the ones we're tracking currently. We'd have to ask Nao-sensei, though, you're right."
Kakashi scratches Ūhei's ears again, absentminded, as he thinks on the topic.
"I don't think I have time to learn how before I finish tracking my current target, but I do believe it would be… in my best interest to learn how before I proceed to the next one," Kakashi decides, taking a bite of the jerky. "That being said, I need to get some sleep tonight before I hit my target, so I need a couple of you to stick around and keep watch for me tonight, and the rest of you to be on call for tomorrow."
"Of course, boss!" Shiba chirps, turning to look at the group. "Who wants to do what?"
"Oi, that's my call, you brat," Pakkun snaps at the other dog, popping up onto the log next to Kakashi. "No respect for their elders, I swear."
Kakashi snorts but holds a hand up to Pakkun.
"Before you decide anything, I don't need trackers tomorrow. He's arrogant enough to the point that his trail is ridiculously easy to follow. An amateur could do it. No, I need my fastest dogs tomorrow to act as distractions, but stay out of the way of direct combat."
"No actual fighting?" Pakkun clarifies.
"No actual fighting. Just distractions, getting under his feet, the works."
The pug nods, thinking it over for a moment.
"Bull, Akino, Shiba, Urushi, you're on guard duty tonight," Pakkun decides. "Ūhei, Bisuke, Guruko, you're with me tomorrow."
Pakkun says it with authority but still turns to Kakashi afterwards. Kakashi smiles.
"Very good, Pakkun. The small, agile dogs will be best for this fight, I think," Kakashi says, handing Pakkun a bite of jerky.
The pug takes it with a smug look, tail wagging happily.
"Say, boss, who are we tracking, anyway?" Guruko asks, cocking his head.
"He's the one who smelled like death and vinegar, right?" Bisuke chimes in, gazing curiously at Kakashi.
"Mm, the one and the same. You see, his name is Hidan, and he's a member of…"
TBC
Author's notes: Side note because I forgot to add this in the first chapter, Gin means silver. So, when the information broker first asked him his name, Kakashi literally had the gall to just be like, "My name is blondie." with a straight face.
Comments feed the soul!
~Nikki