"We found his trail near the West Gate," Kakashi reported. He stood before the Hokage's desk, weary to the bone. His ANBU mask hung heavy on his hip, his clothes weighted with the toil of two days' worth of searching. "Frog and Hawk's bodies were also there, only a couple of hours old. He must have hidden himself within the village before trying to escape."

The Hokage's expression was distant, but not surprised. Any thoughts he had were hidden behind his clasped hands. "Continue."

"We followed him southwest, towards the Land of Rivers, only for the trail to end abruptly past Tanzaku Gai. We searched the surrounding area, but it didn't pick up again."

Frustration burned, a counterpoint to his exhaustion. Even ANBU needed sleep, and they'd given it all up… just to return with nothing. And it burned, knowing he could have saved his comrades if he had been a little faster, a little sooner. Could have brought a murderer to justice.

"You lost the scent?"

Kakashi struggled between a shake of his head and a shrug. In the end, he went with neither. "It just ended. There was no new starting point, like there would be with a tunneling jutsu. Even shunshin leaves a trail." He hesitated, then added, "It's as if he vanished into thin air."

At that, the Hokage's gaze sharpened. He lowered his hands, frowning. "Are you thinking of the masked man you encountered?"

"Space-time jutsu don't leave a scent trail," Kakashi said, bittersweet memories tainting every word. "And I can't think of any other reason someone like that would be there, on that night."

"An accomplice," the Hokage murmured. He rose from his desk, moving towards the window. He clasped his hands behind his back, thinking. The glass mirrored his dark expression.

Kakashi followed his gaze.

For all that it had just experienced its second earth-shattering disaster within the last ten years, the village outside the Hokage's office didn't look any different from the Konoha of two days ago. There was no rupture in the skyline, no trees still smoking in the distant mountains. The heavy thrum of fear that permeated the streets couldn't be seen from here. The sky was the kind of sunny blue that spat in the face of tragedy, especially with the rains that soaked the earth mere weeks before.

The only visible difference was the amount of genin taking to the roofs, trying to do the rounds that the Uchiha did, while administrative chuunin scrambled elsewhere to understand the policies the Military Police had implemented for decades. No one simply looking would know the entire village was now under martial law, as the the system scrambled to return to some semblance of sense around the gaping hole the Uchiha clan left behind.

"I'll have Jiraiya investigate the masked man," the Hokage said at last. His scowl reflected off the window, superimposed over Konoha's rooftops. "We cannot afford to stay unaware of a man who can enter and sabotage Konoha on a whim."

Kakashi shifted his weight, his eyes narrowing. "You think he's entered Konoha before," he said.

"Who's to say he hasn't?" The Hokage's hands tightened. "Uchiha Shisui could not have blown himself up with nothing but handcuffs and chakra suppression seals."

Kakashi's hand fell to his tanto's hilt, the worn grip an anchor against the shock. There had been many, many questionable details about Uchiha Shisui's death. It had all gotten wrapped up in red tape before Kakashi could build his own conclusions. But if the masked man had been involved… a man who could disappear on a whim, leaving behind no trail to follow…

A cold chill crept down Kakashi's spine. "Are you saying he was the one behind Minako's kidnapping?" His mind slotted the pieces into place—the twins, constantly visiting; the sharp escalation in tension, when an Uchiha became the suspect… "It was a set up?"

The Hokage turned to face him. Fury lit his glare, building like a thunderstorm. "Someone wanted Konoha to lose the Uchiha through any means necessary." His voice lowered to a growl. "And the more hasty of us fell for it."

"Sir?"

His gaze slid towards Kakashi. Instead of answering, he said, "Consider this classified. As far as anyone knows, Uchiha Itachi went rogue and killed his entire clan before fleeing the village. He worked alone. Understand?"

Kakashi released his tanto and dipped his head. "Hai, Hokage-sama."

His curiosity burned—who did the Hokage mean? But in this profession, there were times to ask, and there were times to feign deafness. He tucked the detail away for consideration later.

The Hokage returned to his desk, looking similarly engrossed in thought. He pulled out his pipe. "How is your team?"

The question dragged Kakashi from his thoughts. "Doing alright," he said automatically. "I sent them ahead to the barracks. A day's rest, and we'll be ready for duty again."

"Good." The Hokage began to clean his pipe, wiping the bowl with a soot-stained rag. "And Tenzo-kun? He's been with you for, what, five years now, isn't it?"

Kakashi nodded. Where was the Hokage going with this? While it wasn't rare for him to ask after a team, it was never just out of simple curiosity.

"Do you think he's ready for a leadership position?"

Oh.

"Yes," Kakashi said, without hesitation. Tenzo had come a long way from the Kinoe who could only follow orders. "He's been taking more initiative lately, and expresses his disagreement if he sees an issue with an order. If he started with a team familiar with him, I believe he can grow into a good captain."

His chest twinged with pride and sadness. It was good to see Tenzo come into his own. But his absence would leave a hole in the team that would be difficult to fill.

Ah well. Kakashi could still drop by and mess with him, captain or no captain.

"That's good to hear," the Hokage said, reassembling his pipe. "He can take over Team Ro for you."

Kakashi stilled. "Hokage-sama?"

The Hokage looked him in the eye, bringing to bear the full weight of his authority. "I'm taking you off the ANBU roster."

Kakashi had to bite his tongue to hold back the litany of no! that flooded his mouth. ANBU was his escape. When the weight of the world overwhelmed him, he would don his mask and disappear into Hound. For Hound, there was no past, no future. There was only his team, his comrades, and the mission.

What could be so important that he had to leave ANBU for it?

"There's a long-term A rank mission that only you can accomplish," the Hokage continued. "You won't have the time to manage an ANBU team."

His mouth was dry. Kakashi licked his lips, his mind whirling. "I can handle it, Hokage-sama."

"No." The Hokage shook his head. "Uchiha Sasuke needs a guardian—"

The breath left Kakashi's lungs.

"—and I won't risk you on an ANBU mission while you're in charge of him." The Hokage sighed. "I wouldn't ask you this if it wasn't necessary. If he hadn't activated his Sharingan…" He shook his head. "But he did. And now he's the easiest target for anyone after the doujutsu."

"I don't think one man is enough to hold a 24 hour guard," Kakashi said, deliberately, desperately misconstruing the Hokage's words. Because he couldn't mean what he was saying. He couldn't.

The worst part was the understanding in the Hokage's immovable gaze. "He needs a guardian," he repeated. "Someone who can teach him how to use his kekkai genkai properly."

I don't even know if I'm using it properly, Kakashi wanted to say. Hysterical laughter bubbled in his throat. Years and years of wielding Obito's gift, and every day was just finding new ways to keep up and cope with whatever new trick it pulled on him. There had been the headaches from the overstimulation, the information overload, fighting to stay ahead of the endless chakra drain, the constant ache of eye strain.

"Hokage-sama, with all due respect, I can't do this. I can't take care of a child."

"Your sensei was younger than you are now when he took you in."

Kakashi flinched.

The Hokage's gaze softened. But there was no regret in his voice. "Sasuke-kun may not be as precocious as you were at that age, but his teachers assure me he's got talent that puts him ahead of his peers. The Uchiha—" Sorrow flashed through his face. "—have always raised capable children. You won't have to worry about him."

Kakashi shoved his hand through his hair. Frankly, he disagreed. Even at Sasuke's age, Kakashi hadn't understood other kids at all. Putting him in charge of a traumatized child was an all-too-familiar recipe for disaster. He didn't know how Minato-sensei had done it. He didn't want to know.

"I wouldn't ask this if I didn't think you could do it," the Hokage said gently.

Panic buzzed under Kakashi's skin, as uncontrollable as the lightning he wielded. The Hokage might as well have said, "That's an order," and be done with it. His fingers itched for the porcelain mask at his hip.

He wouldn't even have that anymore, after this.

"What about the twins?" he said, trying to buy time as he searched for a way out of this. "Won't they need protection too, after…" He waved a hand towards the windows, trying to encompass the past month in a single gesture.

The Hokage's lips thinned. "So long as their secret remains, they'll stay safe."

Kakashi couldn't help the incredulous look he gave the Hokage. "Masked man or not, whoever took Minako knew."

"We can't be certain." The Hokage packed the tobacco into his pipe. The words had the sound of a well-worn argument. "We did plan for this. It's much harder to escape carrying two children compared to one. There could have been factors that forced them to take only her."

Perhaps the masked man could only bring one child with him in his jutsu, or he couldn't bring anyone and simply prioritized speed over going undetected. And still, it grated against Kakashi's frustration.

"So they just happened to get the twin that wasn't the decoy."

This time the Hokage's Killing Intent was more potent. He pinned Kakashi with a sharp look. "The status of jinchuuriki protects Naruto as well. Or have you forgotten how much an Uzumaki sells for in the black market?"

Kakashi looked away first. The bitterness still lodged in his throat, but there was revulsion now as well. The Uzumaki's vitality-based kekkai genkai had been infamous, even before Uzushio fell. It was one of the reasons the village was built in the first place. Who wouldn't want to get their hands on a kekkai genkai that could heal wounds and supposedly even extend a person's lifespan?

Even if Naruto never manifested the clan's heavily-matrilineal abilities, there were people out there who would risk taking him anyway, for the mere chance that his children would inherit it instead.

Seeing he understood, the Hokage relented. "I also considered the possibility that the kidnapper had chosen deliberately. But the only people who know the truth are the four Founding Clan heads, the Jounin Commander, the Head of Intelligence, my council, Jiraiya, and you. It's why the Uchiha came under suspicion in the first place."

He ran a hand down his face, before continuing. "But a reliable source told me that Fugaku never shared that information with anyone. No one else would have any reason to use or give up that information. So we're back to square one."

Kakashi's hands clenched into fists. "Hokage-sama, we can't risk the twins' lives on an uncertainty."

"I can increase their ANBU guard to a team, no more. No, Kakashi," he added, interrupting Kakashi mid-protest. "I want to protect the twins as much as you do. But you know how much our manpower was hit by the Kyuubi attack. And now, this…" He shook his head, weary. "We need every able body we have in the field. Or it'll be war all over again."

"Then let me—"

Kakashi froze, the words ice in his throat. It was a thought that had flitted through his mind, again and again, over the years. And again, it brought fear like nothing else could. An iron spike through his heart.

They were sensei's kids. They were pack. He should be taking care of them, instead of leaving them to a tiny apartment, washing their clothes by hand in the yard. Then the faces of his father, his team, his sensei would flash through his mind, and the fear would grip him again, tighter than any vice.

He couldn't take them in. He couldn't. Everyone he got close to only got hurt. He'd told himself that, again and again and again.

But that didn't stop them from getting hurt this time, did it? whispered a soft voice—kind and caring, even in the lightning and rain.

"You know why that can't happen, Kakashi."

The sadness on the Hokage's face burned away the black spots encroaching on his vision. Kakashi's breath rattled in his lungs.

"Sir?" he rasped.

"Their anonymity protects them from both Konoha's enemies and their father's." The Hokage wove his fingers together. "If word went out that you had taken in a blond child and his red-haired sister, everyone would know who they are."

Kakashi hated himself for the stuttering relief those words brought. It was an excuse. Not one he could argue with, but an excuse all the same.

The Hokage's voice dipped lower, reassuring. "We'll keep guard against the masked man and his possible cohorts. From what I've seen, none of the children seem to be aware of what Minako did that day. Their secret will keep them safe for a bit longer."

Kakashi bit his cheek. The pain cleared his mind, if only a little.

"Understood," he said.

"Get your affairs in order," the Hokage said, not unkindly. "Then I'll introduce you to your new ward."

"Hai, Hokage-sama." Kakashi put his mask back on.

The Hokage lit his pipe. The acrid scent of smoke seeped into the room. "Thank you, Inu," he said. "Dismissed."


Kakashi headed for the ANBU barracks, hoping to get a spar in before he had to tackle the paperwork. His fingers twitched with the urge to move, to flee into the mindlessness of a fight. He wasn't going to get any sleep today, that's for sure.

To his surprise, he found the rest of Team Ro still there.

Tenzo sat on his bunk, rubbing a towel over his short hair. Yugao was on her stomach on the bunk opposite his, their conversation interrupted. She had her chin in one hand. Her eyelids drooped. Horse was in the far corner, flat on his back. Everyone politely ignored the towel covering his mask-less face. All of them were freshly showered, but still in their ANBU uniforms.

Kakashi yanked his Hound mask off. "I thought I told you to go home."

Tenzo and Yugao exchanged looks, silently debating on who would answer. Yugao was a new recruit, who just got cleared for missions a few months ago. She made a good addition to the team, never hesitating with her blade and giving Tenzo someone his age to relate to. But she had yet to truly settle in. Most of the time, she would wait for other team members to speak before giving her own input. Only time would tell if that became a hindrance or a benefit to Tenzo's leadership.

Kakashi dug a canine into his lip. The taste of blood was better than the bitterness in his throat.

With a sigh, Horse raised his hand and flicked two fingers to the side. Mission: Guard rotation. Estimated time of departure: 4 hours.

"A guard rotation?" Kakashi tossed his mask onto his bunk. It bounced once, then stilled. Tenzo followed its path with wide eyes. "We just came back from a 48 hour mission. Someone else can take that."

"They can't," Yugao said. "They're already there." She sat up, sweeping her wet hair back over the towel on her shoulders. "The Hokage has assigned ANBU to reinforce the village perimeter. The Barrier Interception Team is stretched thin as it is, with the usual chuunin sent to the border."

That gave Kakashi pause. "Why? Did Kumo try something while we were gone? Iwa?"

"No." Tenzo made one last pass over his head, before neatly hanging his towel from a wooden rack growing above his bunk. The not yet echoed in the silence of their underground room. "Hokage-sama is just being cautious. Last I heard, they received a message from Suna this morning."

So the news had already spread. Kakashi pressed a hand to his face, massaging the corner of his left eye. It had taken a rush of high risk missions and the sacrifice of Hyuuga Hizashi to keep war from breaking out after the Kyuubi attack. What would it take this time?

"At least we still have a couple of hours to sleep." Yugao's smile twitched. Not even her dry humor could push through her fatigue.

"Six hours," Kakashi decided. Sighing, he snatched up his mask again. He smoothed his thumb over the edge in silent apology. "I'll talk to Kuma. We'll get a guard shift in six hours, no earlier. Get some rest."

"What about you, Taicho?" Yugao asked. She perked up a little, a thought crossing her mind. "Are you going to check on your kids?"

It took everything he had not to stiffen. He put on his mask, and strode towards the door. "I'll rest after I talk to Kuma. And they're not my kids."

The towel on Horse's face fluttered with a suspicious coughing sound.

"I hope they're doing okay," Yugao called. Her sincerity did nothing to mask the teasing in her voice.

Kakashi slammed the door in their faces, ears burning.

The loud thud echoed down the tunnels. He took a deep breath, sighed, then started walking toward the office areas. The natural rock walls shifted to concrete as he headed deeper into the mountain. A few ANBU agents rushed past him, a distracted nod as their only greeting.

He had managed to keep his occasional visits to the twins a secret before. (By which he meant, subtle enough for those in the know to politely ignore, the nosy bastards.) But after he'd all but lost it at Minako's kidnapping, his team began taking a scary amount of interest in the children. They had gone along when he volunteered Team Ro for guard duty. They had quietly humored his irritability after they'd been taken off it. And because the shinobi grapevine was inescapable even in ANBU, soon enough, the entire division knew:

Hound had a soft spot for the Demon Twins.

Kakashi stepped to the side, just in time to dodge what would have otherwise been a shoulder check. Bat scoffed and walked on—only to almost trip over Tenzo, standing two feet in front of him.

They stared each other down.

"Maa, Koumori," Kakashi said. "You should really keep an eye on where you're going."

The tendons stood out on Bat's neck. "Ah," he said stiffly. "My bad."

Tenzo didn't speak. He didn't have to. That split second between his presence and Bat noticing him was enough. Threat delivered, he stepped aside, letting the older shinobi pass.

They watched Bat walk away, until he left their line of sight. Kakashi tilted his head, considering. Then he pulled Tenzo in by the shoulder and started ruffling his hair. Violently.

Tenzo yelped. "Wh—Taicho!" He thrashed, trying to escape.

His voice cracked. Hilarious.

"Look at my cute little kohai, standing up for me," Kakashi sang. "I have to reward him somehow!"

"Not—a reward—!"

One last rub, and Kakashi released him. The choking noises were starting to echo. Any longer, and someone might hear it and take it seriously.

Tenzo covered his head with his hands, frowning. "He shouldn't have done that," he grumbled.

His mask was still in their room, with only his facial guard to frame his face. Unlike Horse, who was the type to keep mask and mask-less life completely separate, Tenzo barely existed outside of ANBU at all. So he walked around without his mask, uncaring of who recognized him inside the barracks.

"I don't actually care what they think," Kakashi told him. ANBU wasn't as cold as the rest of the world thought. Most of the reception had been friendly ribbing between peers. Some had just minded their own business. Kakashi liked those best.

Then there were those who looked at Kakashi askance, scowling at his back.

Kakashi had grown up under the care of a jinchuuriki. Those agents could take their prejudice to the trash where they belonged.

"Even still," Tenzo insisted. "You're a captain. They should treat you with more respect."

The reminder sobered Kakashi. "Not for much longer."

Blankness slammed over Tenzo's face. With a sigh, Kakashi ruffled his hair again, breaking the ROOT-trained reflex. Tenzo's frown returned, even as he shoved Kakashi's hand off. "What do you mean, 'not for much longer?'" he demanded.

Kakashi rubbed the back of his neck. Did he really have to do this here? At least in Bear's office, he could dump the news on Tenzo and flee. But Tenzo was giving him increasingly horrified looks now, so he relented.

"I'm being reassigned to an open mission," he said. Out in the open. Mask-less. Not the hard efficiency of Hound, just Kakashi and all his mistakes. "Long term. Duration unknown. As of today, I'm no longer in ANBU."

Saying it aloud hammered the point home. He slumped. What was a marionette without strings to hold it up? Or a puppeteer to tell him what to do? There was no one he could turn to. How did one even look after a child?

"You're leaving?"

"I'll still be in the village." Tenzo's wide-eyed distress dug under his skin. Yeah, no. Kakashi had enough on his plate without having to deal with Tenzo's worrying too. He beamed, knowing it would show in his voice, if not through his porcelain mask. "Maa, it's almost like you'll miss me! Don't think I didn't notice you following me out of our room. Want to go on a training trip, for old times' sake?"

That erased any concern on Tenzo's face. He blanched, his weight shifting backwards in an aborted half-step. "No thank you." A blink. He gave Kakashi a surprisingly piercing look. "Was that why you were acting so distressed? I thought you were just worried about your—"

"They're not my kids."

The words whipped across the tunnels, trailing half-heartedly into the silence that followed. Kakashi clenched his fists, gritted his teeth, and actually, you know what, enough was enough. He whirled on his heel and marched towards the offices.

Because that was the heart of it. They're not. They were pack; their scents were carved into his memory, their safety his priority. They were one more thing he couldn't lose.

But the twins didn't know him. They could walk past him on the street and not even blink. They wouldn't find safety in him, not in the way that Minako had calmed at the mere scent of Uchiha fucking Itachi.

They were his pack, but he wasn't theirs. And now he was being forced to take in a child that wasn't his in the way they were.

And didn't the irony just sting?

Soon, Tenzo's presence rejoined him in the walk to Bear's. Kakashi couldn't sense him with his eyes, ears, or nose. But he was sensitive to air currents, especially in a space as enclosed as this was. He knew how Tenzo moved. And he could feel the air shifting behind him as he followed.

Bristling, Kakashi strode into Bear's office. His hand shot out, too fast for Tenzo to dodge. He yanked his sputtering kouhai into the room and shut the door behind them, preventing his escape.

"Inu," Bear greeted, mask on and sitting behind his desk.

Kakashi might be younger than Bear, but in ANBU, experience counted almost as much as age. Between the two of them, they were some of the most veteran captains of the force.

It also meant that Bear was all too used to Kakashi's habits. He didn't even blink when his old subordinate shoved Tenzo in his face.

"I've been reassigned," Kakashi said with manic cheer. "Meet my replacement, who oh so kindly volunteered to accompany me here."

Tenzo was too disciplined to squeak. Instead, all the blood drained from his face, turning it a sallow yellow.

"He'll talk to you about Team Ro's guard shift in six hours," Kakashi continued mercilessly. "I'll pick up the paperwork after you're done." He smacked Tenzo between the shoulder blades, hard enough to send him stumbling forward a few more inches. "Good luck!"

"Aa." Bear had the audacity to sound amused. Tenzo quailed. "Thanks for your service, Inu. Make sure you drop by from time to time, you hear? No one scares the newbies like you can."

"I'll think about it," Kakashi said, because if there was one thing Kakashi had built his reputation on, it was refusing to hold to any vague commitments.

Tenzo found his tongue at last. "Taicho, wait—!"

"Not your taicho anymore!" Kakashi said, and slammed the door in his face. Whatever Tenzo meant to say was lost behind the privacy seals carved into the ANBU commander's door.

Finally alone, he slipped into the shadows, in no mood for any other encounters for the day.

Did Tenzo deserve that? Probably not.

Did it make Kakashi feel better, though?

Definitely.

Now all he needed to do was burn off the anger and anxiety dancing in his bones. Clean out his apartment. Panic over an orphaned boy. Then collapse into bed, hopefully too exhausted to dream.

After a moment's pause, he changed direction for the ANBU training rooms. Bear said the newbies needed scaring, hadn't he? No one said Kakashi couldn't do it now.

If everyone's last memory of the ANBU Captain Hound was driving fear into the hearts of new recruits, well. It was better than slinking out with the paperwork.


A/N: Surprise! :'D Wait, no, don't go, I promise it won't be Mary Sue, aaaaaaa D': All kidding aside, this plot twist is something I've been planning for years. I wouldn't say I planned this from the start, since the original form of this fic wasn't even as a chronological story, but in the end I decided this would be more fun and whack. I haven't seen a lot of people explore what kind of shinobi Naruto would be like without the Kyuubi, and only about three years in did I see people exploring an SI with the Kyuubi, though it was more of an SI with Naruto's role. This fic will be mostly neither. I think it's going to be fun exploring what Minako would do as Konoha's jinchuuriki, and what Naruto would do as Naruto without his chakra battery. He's not going to be relegated to a minor role in the "agency" sense, so no need to worry about that! (which is more than I can say about canon Naruto and its female characters but that's a rant for another day)

I hope I've built up enough good will and trust for you guys to not see this as a bad sign and jump ship ^^' (which I will not lie has been a worry of mine since 2015 LOL) Thank you so much for supporting me, and see you in the next chapter! It'll be the last one for this arc ;)