I do not own Naruto!
Enjoy!
011011011011011011011011011011
Kakashi Hatake was many things. He was a prodigy in his own right, gaining the title of genin at just five years of age, and progressing through the ranks as quickly as he could. He became chunin at the age of 6, and then reaching the rank of jounin at the age of 10, and as of the age of 13 he had already entered the ranks of the ANBU where he just as quickly became a captain of the deadly organization.
During his years as a shinobi, he had earned several monikers ranging from Cold-Blooded Kakashi and Friend Killer Kakashi to his more commonly used moniker of Copy Ninja Kakashi and Kakashi of the sharingan.
The sharingan. The highly respected and protected doujutsu of the famed Uchiha clan that was almost completely wiped out several years ago, by a single man with the goal of proving how strong he was. Now, Kakashi himself was not an Uchiha, but the sharingan that he possessed was that of a teammate of his, and it was more of a sardonic gift that was given to him as his teammate passed on from this world to the next as the result of a mission gone wrong.
Now the mission was a success in the sense that they had completed what they were supposed to, but had ultimately lost the life of a comrade. A comrade that whether they knew it at that point or not, they had all held dear to their hearts. Kakashi realized this only years later, and due to this, decided to pick up one of the quirky traits of his late friend: tardiness. He would show up on time when it counted, but more often than not he would show up hours late for meetings and briefings, and today was no different.
Today he was actually twenty-six hours, thirty-five minutes, and forty-seven seconds late and counting. Not his personal record but he was enjoying taking his time on his stroll back from his mission.
It was an easy one, just escorting a merchant family to the next town over. It was only a C-rank mission, and way below his skill level with him being an A-Rank ninja, but he gladly took the reprieve and relished in being able to enjoy his beloved Icha-Icha book.
With his prized book in his left hand he slowly continued down the well-worn path to the village, allowing the wind to blow through his gravity defying silver hair. While the wind blew through his hair, the hair never once fell in his eyes as he had a Konoha hitai-ate tied around his forehead slanted just enough to cover the left eye socket that contained his gifted sharingan eye. He had a mask covering the bottom half of his face, leaving it so that the only visible portion of his visage was his right eye.
The Hatake wore the standard shinobi uniform which consisted of a navy long sleeved shirt and pants, as well as a green chunin flak jack. His pants were taped at the ankles and around his right thigh where he had a kunai holster placed, and the shoulders of his shirt, and the back of his flak jacket had the iconic orange spiral that many had come to associate with the village Hidden in the Leaves.
To the untrained eye, one would think that Kakashi Hatake was so engrossed in his book that he wasn't even paying attention. To a true shinobi though, they would see how his ears twitched towards each sound, and while he walked with a slouched posture, it was just the perfect mix of slouched and relaxed to where he would be able to react in a moment's notice.
They would even notice how he subtly avoid any and all items that would cause a noise or draw attention to himself should he bump into or stop onto the items. And as he was doing all of this, he was taking stock of his surroundings, straight down to the pitch-black Great Dane that was sitting awkwardly on its haunches in front of the gate. It looked as if it would have stood just over three feet tall and weighed a good hundred and fifty pounds or so.
As he walked around the Great Dane whose back-right leg was sitting at what appeared to be an uncomfortable angle he entered through the great gates of his village up to the guard post where two chunin, Izumo and Kotetsu where currently checking a team back in to the village that made Kakashi almost audibly groan.
The team that was currently being checked in was team nine that was currently under the tutelage of Might Guy, the 'Green Beast' of Konoha. Might Guy was the Taijutsu master of the village and was currently raising a mini-me in the form of his student Rock Lee, and was creating a rather destructive force between the whole of his genin team which include Ten Ten and Neji Hyuga as well.
The silver-haired shinobi slowly waltzed up to the guard post to show his clearance credentials, but held back a few steps hoping (may haps praying) that they green clad shinobi wouldn't notice his presence, when the man himself turned around and with a bright, blinding smile shouted "Kakashi, my rival! I had no idea you were also out of the village!"
Kakashi paused for a moment, his eyes slowly moving up from the page as looked up at the man who was addressing him and responded "Hmm, did you say something?"
Guy instantly put his hands on his hips, "Such hip behavior from my rival! As my team has just gotten back from our most youthful mission, I declare a challenge against you!"
The challenge went ignored as Kakashi looked from Guy back to the Great Dane sitting just feet outside of the gate. "Who does the dog belong to?"
"We do not know, Hatake-san!" Guy's mini-me responded. "He started following us a mile away from the gate."
"He's injured; he limped the whole way, but he growled any time we tried to get too close to him to check." Ten Ten supplied crossing her arms across her chest. "Stubborn dog."
"We thought he was just a stray looking for food, but he refused to pass by that point." A stoic voice added in, and Kakashi let his lone eye stray across the group to view the pale eyed Hyuga, standing with a disapproving look across his face.
"How long has he been sitting there?" there was a disinterested tone in his voice, but Guy could tell that his lifelong rival and friend was interested.
"Ten minutes. He got here and howled a few times and then proceeded to sit down, almost as if he was waiting for something."
Kakashi hummed in response as he showed his credentials to the guards and turned back around in time to see the Great Dane to slowly stand up, his cropped ears standing straight up and his ears staring straight ahead giving him an almost formidable look to him. The shinobi in him told him to pay attention, and he let his hand drop down to the weapons pouch on his hip as he followed the dogs' line of sit to the clearing just inside the village gates.
There was a figure running straight towards them from within the village. Dust was kicking up from behind them, and it was obvious that they weren't trying to go unnoticed as another figure quickly came into view following the first as they both entered the clearing that was just inside of the gate.
The first figure was wearing a jacket that kept them well covered with the hood pulled up over their head, and the second had bright blonde hair, almost the colour of the sun.
The hooded figure took a step forward as a particularly strong gust of wind blew through the clearing, causing the hood to fall back from her head, bright blood red hair spilled from under the hood and cascaded down around her shoulders.
"Kushina-san-" Kakashi breathed as he took in the young girl. The girl wore a forest green v-neck battle kimono with black compression shorts. She had on black knee-high boots and a black trench coat style jacket that was worn on top of it. Her blood red hair flew in the wind and could have easily reached her waist, and her face was covered by a face mask that only allowed her the top portion of her face to be seen, where her two violet eyes where looking across the clearing trained on the dog sitting just outside the gate.
"She does look remarkably like Kushina-san, doesn't she?" Guy whispered, not wanting to be heard by his team. "Her name is Kumo Hayashi. She just graduated yesterday via field promotion."
Kakashi looked back to the girl and noted the hitai-ate tied around her neck, and to the one tied around the forehead of her blonde companion: Naruto Uzumaki. So, he had finally passed as well. While he would never show it outwardly, he was proud the unpredictable ninja had finally succeeded in becoming a ninja. He could only hope that who ever his teacher would be, would be able to lift him up and teach him properly like he deserved.
"KUMO-CHAN!" Hatake was pulled from his musing as the younger green-clad ninja shouted to the young red head.
He looked from the young boy to the red head standing still and silent in the middle of the clearing and noted the blank, almost clouded look across the girls face and he couldn't help but feel as if something was wrong.
The girl took a step forward and Kakashi watched as the girl's knee almost buckled as she put her weight forward, looking at nothing but the dog. The girl caught her balance, and he could hear her suck in a breath as she held her head high and continued to walk towards the animal at the gate.
He could feel the girl's chakra becoming more erratic the closer to the gate she got, and it almost felt as if the more chaotic that it got, the more chakra the girl seemed to have. He watched the girl as dust kicked up around her with each step, and with each step it seemed as if her chakra was becoming visible.
Kakashi narrowed his eyes as he realized that the girl's chakra was becoming visible, and taking on a very distinct red colour. He stuck his hand inside his weapons pouch and let his hand grasp around the hilt of a kunai when he froze.
Killing intent. One so powerful, and so vile he had only felt it once before in his life was washing across the clearing. He stared at the girl cloaked in red chakra back to the blonde that had been steps behind her. The blonde who he KNEW was the only one who should have access to a chakra that colour, or a killing intent that vile due to a tenant of his.
He couldn't bring himself to move as his brain tried to process what this meant as he watched the blonde run up behind the red head and snuck his hand inside of hers.
Almost as quickly as the intent came, and the chakra had surrounded her, it was gone causing the ex-anbu captain to almost sigh in relief as question after question started to bombard him, but one in particular coming to the forefront: who, no, what was she?
The group watched as the girl walked out the gate and dropped down next to the dog wrapping her arms around its neck.
Kakashi pushed a little extra chakra to his ears so that he could pick up the dialogue that was being exchanged.
"Daisuke, where is he?" The girl's voice was almost melodic despite the emotion being held in it.
The dog, Daisuke, had remained quiet and he watched as the dog pushed something towards the girl. From his spot, Kakashi could only assume that it was a weapons pouch from its shape.
He watched the girl pick up the pouch and with shaky hands remove to items from within.
"No. Daisuke. This can't be. He can't be-" the girl's voice trailed off and Kakashi, despite the years of him being a shinobi, couldn't help the feeling as his heart clenched.
"What's happening?" Rock Lee piped up from besides him, and he saw out of the corner of his eye as Guy put his hand on the younger shinobi's shoulder to quiet him, obviously understanding the situation that was currently occurring.
Kakashi continued to focus on the duo sitting by the dog until they had started to stand up to come back into the gates. He had started to turn back to Guy and make his disappearance when something from his peripheral caught his eye: a flash of white. He turned back to see what had caught his attention when he felt his heart drop in to his stomach at the sight of what was in the girl's hands: a Konoha hitai-ate with bleach spots splattered across the band, and a porcelain white mask with the scowling face of a panther painted across it.
011011011011011011011011011011011011011011
Kumo was excited. The most excited that she had been since coming to this village. She had heard Daisuke's call, and that meant that her father was back.
The villagers would not longer pick on her or Naruto.
That thought alone was enough to send Kumo running even faster through the village despite Naruto's calls from behind her to slow down and let him catch up.
She was so excited to get to the front of the village, where she was no longer paying one hundred percent attention to where she was going and had managed to run her way straight in to the last person she had wanted to see today: Haruno Sakura.
Now don't get her wrong, Kumo didn't like Inuzuka Kiba either. In fact, she detested the both of them due to their behaviours. But. If she was the last kunoichi on earth and needed to pick a partner to help her out of a tight spot, without a doubt it would be Kiba over Sakura.
Kiba, like the rest of his clan, had a pack mentality. Meaning whether he liked you or not, if you were charged with being a part of his team, he would have your back. Sakura on the other hand, would rat you out over a bottle of shampoo, and that was without having her precious Sasuke-kun nearby.
"And what do you think you're doing, Copper-Topper?" Sakura sneered at Kumo.
"Look Pinky, I don't have time for this today. I'm in a hurry."
"Not in too much of a hurry to realize that you're rather OBVIOUSLY breaking the law."
"I don't know what you're talking about, but I do have to go."
"Where did you get it. I bet Naruto gave it to you to wear."
"I literally have no idea what you're talking about. Now, can I go?"
"That hitai-ate. You didn't pass the test. In fact, you weren't even there for the test yesterday. You're currently impersonating a shinobi and are in direct violation of Konoha laws. I bet we could get Naruto in trouble for this as well since he gave his to you to wear." Sakura's arms were crossed across her chest as she glared at the younger girl.
"I was promoted via field promotion, Sakura. This hitai-ate is mine." Kumo leveled her own glare at Sakura walking past the pinkette only to have her grab onto her shoulder and hold her in place.
"I don't believe you."
"We don't have time for this Sakura. Let her go." Naruto had finally caught up with his red-headed friend. "Or do you want me to report you to the Hokage for threatening a fellow shinobi of the leaf?" Naruto cocked his head to the side, an innocent smile spread across his face. "Hmm?"
Sakura glared at Naruto and tightened her grip on Kumo's shoulder.
"Look, we seriously don't have time for this," Kumo muttered before bending her knees just enough and quick enough for Sakura to lose her balance. Side stepping out of the way as the girl fell, she took off running once again, and shouted over her shoulder, "See you at team placements, Pinky!"
"You should have just let her go, Sakura-chan. We did tell you that we were in a hurry after-all!" Naruto smiled.
Sakura picked herself up off the ground and furiously dusted the front of her dress off mumbling "I hate you both!" under her breath.
"No skin off our backs!" Naruto laughed, sticking his tongue out at the girl and then turned on his heal to run after Kumo.
011011011011011011011011011
As Kumo got closer and closer to the area that she had heard Daisuke's howl coming from, she couldn't help but feel a pit grow large and larger at the bottom of her stomach. Scenarios were running through her head, each more heinous and gruesome than the last of the battle that had happened when her father had activated the fail-safe and sent her to Konoha as he fought the two missing ninjas.
Taking a deep breath as she ran, she tried to push the horrible thoughts out of her mind as she came in to the clearing just before the main gate to the village.
Standing in the clearing her eyes were instantly pulled to a mop of silver gravity defying hair and she felt her heart soar. Her father: he was hom-.
The owner of the hair turned around and instantly her heart plummeted straight from the sky where it was soaring to the bottom of the pit in her stomach and it made her nauseous.
A sharp gust of wind blew and she couldn't even be bothered to try and pull her hood back up over her head as her hair spilled down across her shoulders.
The wind brought on it the smell of the owner of the silver hair: the smell of parchment, a fresh book and dogs. Her father smelled so strongly of peppermint that this man couldn't have been him.
If it was possible her heart dropped even further as she noticed the man had a hitai-ate covering his right eye as well.
Her eyes flicked over to the giant dog standing outside of the gate and everything around her seemed to melt away.
As she took a step forward, she felt her knee buckle, but she forced her body to right itself before she could go crashing in to the ground.
"It won't due for you to look week." A voice rang from the back of her mind, and Kumo almost paused in her steps towards Daisuke. She hadn't heard that voice in months.
Kumo sucked in a deep breath and continued to walk towards the pitch-black Daisuke. Her thoughts returned to the black hole that she had been banishing her thoughts to the last few months since she had appeared in Konoha. The thoughts from her imagination that explained every vicious and horrible reason as to why her father hadn't returned yet.
The thoughts swirled through her head as she got closer, and the worse the images turned in her head the worse the control over her chakra turned. She could almost hear her father telling her to keep her chakra in check as he had done so many times when she was younger. 'You've too much, pup. You need to keep it under control, always.' He would say and then smile at her and ruffle her hair.
She tried. Tried as hard as she could but her chakra was swelling at an enormous rate. She had forgotten how much she had. She clenched her fists by her sides as she tried to control the ocean of chakra, but each time she got close, an image of her father would pop to the forefront of her mind: dead and covered in blood.
"Just a little more!" She could swear that she heard the voice again, almost cheerful as the last of her now abysmal control over the immense chakra started to crumble.
As Kumo took the next step forward she flinched as something stung the skin across the back of her hands. She ignored it. Daisuke was so close to her now. Why was it taking so long to get to him?
The pain stretched further until it felt like it coated her entire body with small flames. Still she couldn't stop, and gritted her teeth as she pressed further.
"PERFECT!" The voice shouted from the back of her mind, and Kumo started to stop as she saw her chakra rolling off her skin in waves.
As she brought her feet together to come to a complete stop, she felt a hand push itself into hers and a small voice whisper "What was shinobi rule number 25 again?" she felt the familiar, comforting chakra that she had come to associate with her pseudo brother, and almost chuckled that he was bringing up the Shinobi Code of Conduct now. "Keep it together a little longer. We have observers." He squeezed her hand, and Kumo felt herself gain control over her chakra, and the burning sensation across her skin all but disappeared. Kumo was so wrapped up in finally getting the rest of her chakra under control she completely missed the voice from the back of her head hissing "Curse you Uzumaki! I almost had her!"
The duo passed through the gate and stood in front of the Great Dane, and the young kunoichi dropped down on her knees next to her father's ninken and wrapped her arms around him and shoved her face into his neck.
"Daisuke-where is he?"
Moments passed and Daisuke said nothing, and Kumo could feel her heart drop lower and lower into the pit of her stomach.
She removed her face from the side of his neck and tried to look him in the eyes, but Daisuke wouldn't meet her gaze. He instead wiggled slightly from her grasp and pushed a small pouch towards her.
A confused look raced across her face and she reached a hand out and picked up the pouch. With a shaky hand she pulled the first item out and gasped.
~Flashback~
It was Saturday. Her father had left to drop Naruto off back home late Tuesday night, and reappeared for a brief ten minutes before gathering a bag together stating that he was called in to work.
'Don't leave the house' he had said a small smile gracing his face. 'I will know if you do.' He winked pointing to the seals that were placed just above each window and doorframe that led to the outside world.
'How long are you going to be gone?' Satsuki was curious. It had been a while since his work had called him out to be gone longer than a few hours.
'Should only be a day or two.' There was a small pause as he reemerged from his bedroom with a small backpack. 'There's enough food in the food to last you until I get back.'
'What's the job?'
'You know I can't tell you that,' there was a sigh in his voice that Satsuki almost missed.
'But whyyyyyy?' Satsuki had whined.
'Because it's necessary for your-'
'For my safety. Yeah I know.' She had scoffed. 'I don't understand what it is that you do that makes it so dangerous for you to tell me.' She rolled her eyes at the word dangerous and crossed her arms and stared at her father.
'You'll understand one day.' He ruffled her hair and headed back towards the door. 'Now I should be back by the end of the day Thursday at the absolute latest. See you when I get back, Pup.'
Her tou-san was supposed to be back almost two days ago now, and he was late. Not only was he late, but Daisuke had disappeared at some point within the last two days and she wasn't able to leave the house to go look for him.
Maybe Daisuke went to go look for him. Yeah. That's what happened.
Satsuki curled up into a ball in her bed and listened to the rain tapping on the window and slowly fell asleep.
011011011011011011011011011
Satsuki bolted upright from her sleeping position. She blinked her eyes as she glanced around her trying to decipher what had woken her up.
After a few moments she noticed the bright flash of lightning and the low rumble of thunder from the storm going on outside.
Satisfied that the storm outside was what had woken her up, she laid back down and snuggled underneath the thick comforter on her bed. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm herself when she noticed something odd.
She took another deep breath and could smell the faint odor of copper. Her eyes snapped open, and she sat back up in her bed, allowing the comforter to fall to the side. Stretching her senses out she could barely detect something moving within the house, and she was instantly on her feet quietly making her way to the hallway.
Silently she slipped down the hallway to where she had heard the noise, halting once she got to the end where the smell of copper filled her nose.
She twisted her head around the corner just enough to see into the entry way of the living room and her eyes took in the one thing that was out of place: there was something, more like someone, draped across the chair.
Their limbs hung awkwardly off the sides of the chair and they definitely didn't look comfortable. Their clothes seemed almost pitch black, except for the chest plate which appeared to be silver underneath the muck that covered it.
There was a small dripping noise that she had noticed as well. Not anything consistent enough to be a running faucet, but just enough to cause her to inch further into the room to discover what the noise was.
She only took a step further into the room when she discovered the noise was blood, slowly dripping out of the figure's hair onto the floor. She reached a hand out towards the figure, only to jump back and gasp as a bright flash of lightning illuminated a porcelain mask that was shading the figure's face.
She took a step backwards and instantly something cool was up against the back of her knees and she jumped from the shock of the coolness, and instantly turned around.
Looking down, she saw it was a dog, but due to the darkness in the room she couldn't tell its shape, and its smell was covered in the same copper, blood, smell that the figure was.
The dog moved to behind her, and again pushed its cool nose into the back of her knees pushing her down the hall that she had just come from. "Back to bed with you," a voice grumbled out.
She glanced behind her at the dog with her eyes wide before taking off running down the hall and silently closing her bedroom door behind her. She jumped back into her bed and threw the comforter over her head, squeezing her eyes shut as tightly as possible. It was just a dream. It was all just a bad dream.
~End Flashback~
She looked at the mask in her hands with disbelief. This was the same mask that she had seen on the figure draped across the chair that night. She thought it had been a nightmare. But here the mask was staring back up at her with its scowling face.
Her hands shaking if not more now than before, reached back into the pouch and pulled out the remaining item from within and it was all she could do to keep the tears from falling from her eyes.
The last item was a hitai-ate with the leaf symbol etched across the metal. The metal plate was attached to a bleach spotted stretch of cloth that smelled of – peppermints.
"No. Daisuke. This can't be. He can't be-" Her voice trailed off and she heard Naruto next to her sucking in a deep breath of air. She looked up from the hitai-ate to the enormous dog, her eyes glistening with held back tears.
Daisuke looked to his young charge and shook his head, and murmured a very low "I'm sorry," in his deep baritone voice.
Kumo felt her chakra start to lash out again at the unwanted confirmation, but took a deep breath to cam her emotions as she reminded herself of what Naruto had said earlier. There were people watching. Well-more people then normal. There was always an ANBU member tailing them.
Kumo took another deep breath and pushed her last thought out of her mind as she slowly stood up and turned around to face the gates to the village one last time. As she slipped the porcelain mask and the forehead protector back in to the pouch she noticed the silver haired man staring at her, an unreadable expression on his lone visible eye. She couldn't help but glare at the man as her heart clenched. He looked so much like her father it hurt.
She shook her head and looked back at Daisuke and crouched down to be on his eye level.
"I see that you're hurt. Are you able to still walk till we can get you to a veterinarian?" her eyes were smiling, but her voice shook with the emotions threatening to spill out.
"I have suffered far worse than this, my child. I will make it." The canine stood to his feet and Kumo noticed the true ailment afflicting him. His back-right leg was broken. She was no doctor but she could tell it was bad as well, if not horribly painful as the bone was jutting out of the skin. She cringed as she noticed dried blood around the puncture spot and the dirty colour of the bone. It had to have been broken for some time now.
"Let's hurry and get you fixed up then," once again a smile spread across her eyes despite the emotion filling her voice as she stood back up and headed back to the gate with a silent Naruto by her side.
They solemn trio entered through the gate and Naruto tugged her towards the guard post.
Kumo shot her friend a confused look but followed nonetheless. His head was held high despite the tears that he too was holding back from spilling across his lids as he walked the two up to the gate, ignoring the team of three and their eccentric sensei. Standing in front of the two ninjas within the check-in point, he stood ramrod straight, then crossed his right arm across his chest and placed his hand in a fist across his heart. Kumo, despite not knowing what he was doing, followed suit.
"Shinobi-san," Naruto's voice shook slightly, and he drew in a deep breath. "This is Daisuke, he-"
"Returning home from mission SRL-8436," Daisuke's gruff voice barked out, cutting Naruto off. "Pardon my appearance." Kumo's fingers twitched a bit as she felt a small flare of chakra, and saw the two chunin at the gate instantly snap to attention. "I would like to get these two home and report to the Hokage though, if it's alright with you?"
"O-of C-course!" The chunin with a bandage wrapped over the top of his nose stuttered out while quickly scribbling something down on the paperwork in front of him, and shoving it across the counter to Naruto.
Naruto gave a short bow and just as quickly grabbed the paperwork and stuffed it into his pocket and turned to head further into the village.
Kumo mimicked his actions and turned to follow suit, only to have a hand come down on her shoulder. She paused to look at the owner of the hand.
"Kumo-chan, are you alright?" the concerned face of Rock Lee's stared back at her, and it took everything she had to not break down into tears right there.
Taking another deep breath, and pasting a smile across her mostly hidden face, she gave a quick answer, "Yes, Lee, now I have to go get Daisuke medical attention. I'll find you later, okay?" She didn't wait for a response before she shrugged the hand off her shoulder and took off running to catch up with Naruto who had already pulled ahead with Daisuke.
011011011011011011011011011011011011011
As long as the sun was out, the gates to the Inuzuka Clan compound were always open. They were guarded by oversized canines that exuded pride and demanded respect. They made even the most experienced of shinobi weary.
The dogs guarding the gate today stared, and almost glared down the small trio, only slightly backing down when they saw the limping Great Dane bringing up the rear as they made their way to the back of the compound where Daisuke insisted the clan member skilled enough to fix his leg would be. He said her name was Hana, and Kumo couldn't help but feel as if she had heard the name before.
They walked up the stairs to the house that Daisuke had pointed them to, and two couldn't help but feel as if they had just walked up to the clan head's house. Pushing that thought aside, with a quick glance towards each other, Kumo put a fist up and knocked on the door, and waited for someone to answer.
A few minutes had passed and the trio could hear someone coming closer to the door. With a creak the door swung open to reveal-
"Kiba!"
"Loser. Tomato-paste." The clan heir crossed his arms and glared back at them. "I had to pay for your ramen today after you ran off. Here to pay me back?"
If Kumo's heart could sink any lower it would be in the ground. She had forgotten about the ramen that was left unfinished and unpaid for.
"Actually," Naruto started to dig his toe in to the nonexistent dirt on the stoop. "We're here fo-"
"Brats, what are you doing on our doorstep this evening?" the sentence, while gruff and uncouth sounding, had a playful undertone to it and for once the two of them were excited that the Inuzuka matriarch had appeared.
"Inuzuka-sama, we were looking for Hana-san." Her voice started to waiver, earning her a questioning look from Kiba. "Daisuke said that she would be able to help fix his leg."
"We only fix dogs here. Not people." she stated, raising a brow as she crossed her arm.
The two moved out of the way to show the dog that had once again sat down with his leg sticking out at an awkward angle in front of him.
"Wait? Aren't you?" Confusion flashed quickly across the matriarch's face before she glanced down at the canine's leg. "How the hell did you manage that?"
"You don't think I planned this, do you?" Daisuke barred his teeth at the older woman. "She here, or not?"
Tsume did not answer, and instead walked over beside the hound and crouched down, wrapping her arms around him and lifting him up, ignoring the growl that escaped his mouth.
"I can walk!"
"Not till that leg is patched up. Kiba!" Kiba's head whipped to the side to face his mother. "Go get your sister and tell her to meet me in the OR." The woman started marching from the house, down the street only looking over her shoulder once to shout "NOW."
Kiba took off running the other way down the street, presumably to get this Hana girl, and Naruto and Kumo glanced at each other for just a moment before they too, started running.
Before they knew it, they were caught back up with the head of the canine family, barely making it in through the door before it slammed shut behind them.
"You two wait here." The elder kunoichi grunted as she went through a further set of doors.
The two just stood staring at each other, brains only starting to fully catch up with everything that had happened over the last hour or so.
They slowly lowered themselves down on to a set of chairs, not even bothering to look as the door to the streets slammed open and someone went running by. The same doors the that Inuzuka Matriarch and gone through minutes again opened and slammed shut as the person ran through the doors and complete silence washed over them.
Kumo pulled her knees up to her chest and laid her head on Naruto's shoulders. She felt a weight settle on the top of her head as Naruto leaned his head on top of hers and took a shaky breath.
She stared blankly at the wall in front of her, her brain barely registering the faint smell of salt, and the small droplets of liquid dropping on to the top of her head.
"He's gone." Her voice cracked as she said it, and tears stung at the corners of her eyes. "He's gone." Tears started to spill over her lids, and she could see bright yellow eyes staring back at her as she blinked. "I. Hate. Snakes."
All that could be heard in the room was the two children crying as one shadow puffed out of existence and one figure edged their way out of the room, allowing the door to quietly swing shut behind them.
011011011011011
Kakashi made his way up the stairs to the Hokage's office, ignoring the calls of the secretary stating that he wasn't seeing any visitors right now.
There was only one thing on his mind and it was the masked red head and that ninken. From the vicious red chakra that leaked from the girl, to the scowling panther mask that she held in her hands, to the glare she leveled at him that would have made a lesser man cower in fear, he had questions, and NO-ONE was going to keep those from him.
He strolled right up to the imposing doors of the Hokage's office and after leveling a gaze of his own back at the secretary causing her 'eep' and turn back the way she came, he pushed the doors open and waltzed in to the office.
His entry went unnoticed by most of the occupants of the room as they were currently in the middle of an extremely heated argument.
"You went too far this time, Hiruzen!" The elder Homura was shouting at the Hokage, and Kakashi decided it was in his best interest to put his experience in the ANBU to good use as he leaned against the wall and blended in with the shadows around him. "You saw the paperwork given to you by the Daimyo. She wasn't to become a genin!"
"When he sees that you went over his call, he will not be pleased!" Koharu added in, slamming her hands down on his desk.
"I didn't go against anything he had ordered of me actually." The God of Shinobi chuckled, lighting a pipe.
"Then how is she now a genin?" Homura crossed his arms across his chest, his eyes peering down through his green rimmed glasses. "She was clearly spotted running through town with a Hitai-ate tied around her neck. How do you explain that? Or do we need to go and punish the child for impersonating a shinobi?"
"No, she is a genin," Hiruzen took the pipe out of his mouth and let out a long breath. "The paper clearly stated that she couldn't take the genin exam. Which she didn't."
Kakashi noted both elders opening their mouths as if wanting to say something, but they were immediately quieted as the Hokage put up a hand.
"She demonstrated the necessary qualities to show that she was ready to become a genin without the official exam."
"What she demonstrated, was that she can sneak into your office and steal important documents." Koharu huffed.
"She apprehended and uncovered a traitor, and then used the knowledge that she had learned during the 'test' that she was given to make sure that he was dealt with accordingly that led to the least amount of damage to the village." There was still a smile across the old man's face. "In fact, the Forbidden Scroll never left my office." The two elders got extremely quiet and they raised an eyebrow at their old team mate as he pulled something from with in the desk. "It was here the whole time."
"You must be losing your mind, old man. That's a twig."
"Is it?" The smile across the leader's face got wider as he tossed it to Elder Homura.
The gentleman caught the so-called branch and held it close to his face scrutinizing every detail before he looked up. "How did she do it?"
Kakashi himself raised a lone eyebrow, trying to decipher what was going on from his spot in the corner. It looked like a twig, but in the shinobi world, just because it looked like a dog and barked like a dog, didn't mean that it was a dog.
"The girl has special talents, and I myself do not fully comprehend how she is able to do transformations like this, but-" Hiruzen put his hand out for the piece of wood to be deposited back into his hand. "To undo this specific one," he reached up and plucked off the one lone leaf on the edge, "You just have to find the weak spot and it unravels." He set the item down on his desk and the all watched in awe as it flickered in and out of existence until the forbidden scroll was sitting on his desk, sitting in the same spot as the twig previously had been placed.
"This is a dangerous game that you're playing Hiruzen. I still think it would have been wise if you had given the girl to Danzo. You made a mistake with not giving the Kyuubi container to him, and now you're making the same one with this girl, you should reconsider your choices."
"Koharu, I have made my decision." Sarutobi's voice took a hard-steeled edge to it. "The girl is going to be assigned to a genin team with the rest of the graduates, and that's final." Hiruzen's eyes flashed to the corner that Kakashi was currently residing, and Kakashi couldn't help but feel like a child with his hand caught in the cookie jar for a moment.
"Now if you would all kindly vacate my office." It was phrased as a question out of politeness, but the demand was clearly understood. "I have another meeting to attend to."
Kakashi stood in his corner and watched as the two elders left the room grumbling, before he stepped out of the shadows.
"Kakashi-kun. How was your mission?" The Hokage smiled at the man. "You are a little late by my records are you not?"
Kakashi had the grace to look slightly embarrassed as he reached his hand back and scratched at the back of his head. "What can I say, I got lost on the road of life."
The elder Hokage did nothing but chortle knowing that the young Hatake most likely got 'lost on the road of life' with a civilian from the next town over.
Hearing the Hokage chuckle, Kakashi sighed, knowing that he had been caught. There really was no hiding anything from the God of Shinobi. "The mission was a success. Escorted the merchants to their destination without any major hiccups."
Sarutobi nodded his head and made a few scratches of his pen across the papers on his desk. "Now, did the hiccup happen during the mission, or once you had returned?" He set his pen down and folded his hands a top of each other as he leveled a gaze at Kakashi.
"I saw a girl when returned home. Red head. Seemed to be close with Naruto. Is that who you were just discussing?" Kakashi got straight to the point. He never did like muddling around with idle chit-chat when he had questions he wanted answered.
"Ah, Kumo Hayashi. Yes. What about her?"
"Who is she?"
"The daughter of a close friend." After a moment Kakashi realized that the older man wouldn't be saying any more, so he continued speaking.
"There was a ninken at the gate as well. She seemed shaken up to see it." He observed as the Hokage's visage became stern, prompting Kakashi to proceed. "In fact, she was so shaken up, she seemingly lost control of her chakra. Which it appears that she has a lot of it mind you. Her chakra took on a very specific red colour, and the killing intent that rolled off of her, mind you only for a split second, was very reminiscent of something that we both know is contained within a certain blonde. A certain blonde, who ran up to her while her chakra was out of control, reached his hand into hers, and all of a sudden, the chakra was under control again. I would have liked to chalk this all up to what appeared to be a child of a shinobi learning that her father had just died in the line of duty, when I noticed two items that were passed to her by the dog. One of which was a porcelain mask." He watched as the Hokage's face softened for a moment, confusion passing across his face. "A panther mask."
The reaction was instantaneous. Hiruzen Sarutobi snapped his fingers and barked, "OUT." And Kakashi could feel the presence of four different shinobi, ANBU, disappear from the room. "Activate." Kakashi could feel chakra dance around the room as a privacy seal was enacted.
"The dog walked up to the gate and stated he was back from mission SLR-8346. Naruto called him Daisuke. But I know him as Unmei, Doom, The Hellhound of ANBU Team Omega. The team which was led by Panther, known in the Bingo Books with a flee on sight warning as Botsu, Death." Kakashi crossed his arms across his chest. "What does he have to do with this red head with the demonic chakra?"
"Kakashi, what I am about to tell you, is an S-Rank secret and is not to leave this room. Understood?"