Ashen

by Tavina

"Of all the sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: it might have been." In which we take a look at the world through the eyes of everyone except Hana. The Bloodless Side Stories.

16. Bansai (Long Live)

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

---

"Attitude is a choice. Happiness is a choice. Optimism is a choice. Kindness is a choice. Giving is a choice. Respect is a choice. Whatever choice you make makes you. Choose wisely."

― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

---

ANBU Hound realizes something very quickly while observing the council meeting from his position stuck to the ceiling. There's something about Inuzuka Hana that draws other people to her.

If he's in the mood for honesty, he would admit that the idea worried him, but as he's Hound right now, and not Kakashi per se, he's not in the mood for honesty.

"Objection!" Uchiha Fugaku stands up so quickly that his chair clatters to the floor behind him. "I believe Inuzuka Hana is employed by the Military Police. Elder Shimura, you have no authority to transfer her."

This is the first time that ANBU Hound has seen Uchiha Fugaku afraid. The man ought to know better by now, than to show his obvious attachment and concern for someone who could very easily disappear. It doesn't seem to have occurred to him though.

ANBU Hound finds this strange. He's not normally this bad at politics even if he is bad.

Kakashi doesn't entirely find this surprising at all, because the Uchiha Patriarch is doing what he'd like to do: object, loudly, stridently.

And then Elder Homura says something, and Inuzuka Tsume's hackles come up. "This is my daughter you're talking about Elder Homura."

Elder Utatane says something. ANBU Hound does his level best to keep Hatake Kakashi from falling off the ceiling and throttling Elder Utatane. Getting anywhere near Danzo is a curse, not a privilege. He sort of succeeds.

At this point, ANBU Hound has to admit that he's doing a horrible job of being ANBU Hound. He resigns himself. I am Hatake Kakashi right now, I suppose.

"It's mentioned that I may request one person to travel to the capital with me, from among your ANBU guard simply as a measure of security." Hana-chan says calmly down below. She doesn't seem to be overly fazed by agreeing to the contract, and he can't quite tell if it's her Inuzuka confidence, or if she doesn't realize what her position's like. He hopes it's the former not the later, because otherwise she's less likely to take this seriously enough.

She needs to take this seriously. He needs her to take this seriously.

"You may." Hokage-sama picks his pipe up from off of the table. "As long as they are in the village."

And how would she know anything about the movements of any ANBU, Hokage-sama?

"For this mission, I would like to request ANBU Hound, Hokage-sama." The thing is, she doesn't really want ANBU Hound, every kind action that ANBU Hound offered her had been because he couldn't suppress Kakashi, but she doesn't know that. She wants her friend, Hatake Kakashi.

So he makes sure that ANBU Hound refuses, and takes off the mask. He sees the storm of disappointment building in her eyes, and he knows — knows simply that she does understand the stakes. She'd been hiding it so well before too. "Hatake Kakashi is more than willing to accompany Inuzuka Hana on her mission to Kakunodate though." In the one moment that she had despaired, he'd felt his heart clench painfully. He reminds himself that he'd taken a tanto to the heart on a mission in Ame recently — and by recently he supposes that it's been at least three years — so stabbing pain in his chest is completely normal and has nothing to do with feelings.

Hokage-sama sends ANBU Hound a questioning glare — What are you doing? — but ANBU Hound is firmly suppressed at the moment, and Kakashi's eyes are fixed on Hana-chan's face. She's starting to get it. Maybe. She looks like she's considering something very hard.

And he's back to normal again. She's alright again.

"Permission granted for ANBU Hound and Hatake Kakashi to accompany Heiress Inuzuka for the duration of her mission to Kakunodate." Hokage-sama has conceded the Hatake Kakashi bit, which is all that he really wants, so he counts that as a win.

Kakashi slips the ANBU mask back on and bows politely which isn't what ANBU Hound would have done, but he's ignoring that at the moment.

"Thank you for granting my request, Hokage-sama." She bows and with a slight amount of emotion that Kakashi recognizes as her attempts at sarcasm, she continues. "Thank you for your most valuable offer to apprentice me, Elder Shimura."

Silly puppy. Don't you know that poking Danzo is bad? Still, he can hardly ask for more.

He'll take what he can get.

---

Hokage-sama gestures for Hound to follow him as he leaves the meeting table. Kakashi wanders along behind the aging leader.

Hokage-sama only speaks after lowering himself into his seat behind his desk on the fifth floor of the Tower. "ANBU Hound." He leans forward. "Or should I say, Hatake Kakashi?"

So he did notice that I haven't been able to keep the proper ANBU personality. He unmasks himself for the second time that day. "Hokage-sama?"

"Inuzuka Tsume has expressed concern—" And he's back, back to that day in the weak morning light, to gravestones and — He didn't know that Inuzuka Tsume still cared...but like mother like daughter: an Inuzuka always cares. "— over your continued stint in ANBU." Is all that Hokage-sama says. He does not criticize Kakashi's public loss of persona today. He doesn't ask if it's because of Inuzuka Hana. "You've been an ANBU agent for five years now, Kakashi-kun. Perhaps it's time to take a rest."

And he'd noted himself that Hound is slipping away, but he's not willing to give up ANBU. What would be the purpose? I have to go see Sensei and Obito and Rin and Kushina-neechan and Otou-san again sometime. And he supposes that if Hana-chan could hear the direction his thoughts have taken, she'd be upset. The first rule of friendship is not dying. The first rule of friendship is not dying, but all he has is a heavy past and no future to look forward, so she can't blame him, can she? "I don't want to rest, Hokage-sama."

And Hokage-sama actually sighs, smoke billowing from his mouth. "But perhaps you need it." He holds up a hand to stall Kakashi's protests, and continues. "I'll let you decide, but think about it Kakashi-kun. Life goes on after death."

Kakashi bows politely and leaves through the door. Past. Present. Past. Present. Past. Present — The memories are too much. He nearly puts a hand against the wall to steady himself but—

"Hatake Kakashi." There's someone there against the wall. He isn't leaning, because this man does not lean, but he's there all the same.

"Fugaku-san." What do you want with me? Why are you — oh of course. Your daughter. Inuzuka Hana. He resigns himself for the threats, the disapproval, the rage that kekkei genkai thief, friend-killer Kakashi is accompanying a little girl on a dangerous high stakes mission, and he's used to blame.

"Please." And it seems as though it's a struggle for the man before him to put his thoughts into words. Or perhaps it's just that he doesn't know how to get those words out of his mouth. Kakashi hasn't the faintest idea, but the struggle in front of him is horrible to see. "Take care of her."

And that's the funniest thing he's heard all day. Hatake Kakashi is terrible at taking care of people. "Maa..." He smiles. "The last time an Uchiha asked me to take care of a girl I jabbed my hand through her chest." His heart is uncomfortably squishing inside his chest again. His right hand burns. And Rin's in front of him again. Kaka...shi. He blinks. Rin is put back to the past where she belongs.

"See that it doesn't happen this time." Uchiha Fugaku turns to stride down the hallway. "Or I will make sure that you never see the sun again."

It is interesting that he didn't say that he'll kill me. He just threatened to lock me in a jail cell for the rest of my life. Kakashi muses, but he's too tired. It's too much, and he can't find it in himself to care.

---

He's assaulted at his local grocery store the next morning. Or well, he's sort of assaulted. It's mostly his feelings that are assaulted. As an adult, he doesn't have room to say that he was actually assaulted, especially not by a ten year old boy. "Hatake Kakashi."

Oh look. It's a chibi-Uchiha. Thank Kami that Uchiha Itachi looks nothing at all like Obito. Nothing, whatsoever. They shared the same dark hair and dark eyes like ninety percent of the rest of their clan and that's it. Uchiha Shisui was the hardest to talk to, the one that laughed and smiled almost exactly like how Obito used to despite not being late all the time.

Uchiha Itachi just looks angry, and even when he smiles, he doesn't remind Kakashi of the friend he could not save. There's a sharpness to the little Uchiha Heir that Obito had never aspired to.

The most recent Uchiha prodigy had been the talk of the jonin break room a few months back. He chose to work in Crypt as his former jonin sensei's apprentice, didn't he? People had wondered why Uchiha Itachi would bother with a desk job instead of heading straight for the Black Ops or more promotions. It had been such an uncharacteristic path for a young prodigy to take.

Kakashi doesn't bother to wonder why. It's clear from a mile off that Nara Ensui is an overprotective mother hen when it comes to his team. And Nara Ensui knows very well what living in the Black Ops is like given that he'd married a retired ANBU agent. ANBU Mamba had ruined men and toppled empires in her day, but the last mission she'd taken to Kusa had nearly sent her home in a body bag, as it is, it was a close job in Konoha General. She'd dropped Anbu for Intel after she recovered.

People don't give desk job Naras enough credit, in his opinion. Most of them were capable of plenty more than what they do — it's just that they don't aspire to that much — but Nara Ensui seems a little different than most. Kakashi just can't seem to put a finger on what the difference is though. Still, it has little to do with the Chibi-Uchiha in front of him.

"Uchiha Itachi." He acknowledges at last. He has a fairly good idea why the Chibi-Uchiha's following him around in the grocery store. It's Inuzuka Hana's fault isn't it? Everything that changes in my life is her fault.

"You're going on a trip with my sister." Uchiha Itachi states, and he looks so much like Uchiha Fugaku in that one moment — it's the exact same minute frown, the exact same set of the lips, darkening of the eyes and air of disapproval, although Chibi-Uchiha hasn't quite managed the heavy crushing weight of his father's glare — that Kakashi wants very badly to laugh hysterically. Like father, like son. But I am nothing like my father.

Hatake Sakumo was good and kind and honorable and placed the lives of his comrades above his own and selfless, always so damn selfless, and Hatake Kakashi is — well, no matter. I am who I am.

"I am in fact going on a trip with Hana-chan." He smiles brightly at the boy, and hopes that Chibi-Uchiha doesn't press further.

If at all possible, the mood around Itachi darkens still further. "They call you friend-killer Kakashi in the Chunin Breakroom."

Ouch. Right in the gut. And there's Obito again, they'd have to leave him behi — Kakashi blinks and very carefully puts Obito back in the past where he belongs. "That's not a very nice thing to say, Chibi-Uchiha-chan."

"I just wanted to tell you." And this is the darkest glare that Chibi-Uchiha has managed yet, though it still doesn't match his father's. "That if anything happens to Hana, they won't find your body."

Kakashi feels his eyebrow rise. "Somehow, I don't think you'll be able to make good on your threat, Chibi-Uchiha-chan." He mutters under his breath.

In another few years, perhaps, Uchiha Itachi's star is rising fast after all.

But right now? That threat is nothing more than empty words.

Kakashi could kill him blindfolded with both hands tied behind his back. Not uninjured, Uchiha Itachi is a prodigy, but certainly a thousand times out of a thousand, he'd still be alive at the end of the fight, and Itachi wouldn't be.

Hatake Kakashi had been Konoha's rising prodigy once in his day. What's happened afterward...well, that's not the issue, is it?

Uchiha Itachi steps forward very carefully. "I don't care if it takes ten years or a hundred. If you hurt my sister, you will pay the debt to me in blood." There isn't anything angry in the boy's face, just calm surety. The sun will rise in the morning, and set in the afternoon. He is an Uchiha. If there's a debt that he's owed, then it will be paid in blood.

Kakashi turns away. This world will break you and that easy confidence of yours, Chibi-Uchiha-chan. "I wasn't planning on it." Hana-chan is his friend. She deserves to be fought for. If there's anything his life's taught him, it's that friends deserve to be fought for.

He's learned that lesson only because it's been beaten into him with the blood on his right hand and the stinging in his covered eye. Sometimes he wishes he wasn't so stupid. If he wasn't, would they still be alive?

He goes off to collect carrots for the trip. They wouldn't make it to the capital in a day after all, and they'd still need to eat.

Chibi-Uchiha doesn't bother to follow him. Their conversation had accomplished everything that was necessary on both sides.

They understand each other perfectly.

---

He ends up standing on the porch three hours early. "It's rare for you to come here, Kakashi-kun." Inuzuka Tsume steps out of the doorway.

In the morning light, she looks younger than her twenty eight years, the mascara on her face more vibrantly red. It hurts, because it's the same look she had that morning, that morning where gravestones still loomed large.

"I'm attempting punctuality, Inuzuka-san." He replies. They both ignore the fact that three hours early is hardly punctual.

Tsume sits down in one of the chairs. "It's been a long time since you've cared to try for punctuality." She observes, dark eyes fixed somewhere on the horizon.

Years and years... In the quiet depths of his heart, he can finally admit to himself that he once knew the woman sitting across from him much better, and that there'd been grief between them, shared and given. He shrugs. "I've been jolted." My life has been turned sideways, by your daughter no less.

There's a hint of a smile on her face, but her eyes reflect years and years of melancholy. "I acted badly that day." She murmurs. "And for that I am sorry."

She's referring to that day, to graveyards, to the rage twisting her face that summer morning, to the sting that he can still feel on his right cheek. She had not said what she'd wanted to say. Inuzuka Tsume who'd always spoken her mind didn't speak her piece to save his sanity. There'd been blame she ascribed to him, but she'd held her silence.

It might have been the only thing that saved him in those months. She'd held her silence when she'd never done so before.

It had given him a little ground left to stand on, when he had nothing to his name.

"Mmm." He doesn't have any words to say, what does one say? There's no etiquette book for this. "Someone told me." He begins. "That I am not a bad luck charm."

Tsume snorts, the sound not at all graceful, but just as he remembers she did years ago, on another porch that he now never visits because that's haunted by the worst ghost of them all. "I can imagine." She rises from her place and opens the door. "Come by more often, Kakashi-kun." The past ought not interfere with the future. He hears it in her voice, but he doesn't know if he can manage it.

"I'll try." It's all that he can do, after so many years of not trying anymore. I'll try.

Tsume nods and without a word, walks back in.

Three large gray dogs slip out of the door and surround him, watching him, wordlessly, silent even among themselves, with serious dark eyes.

---

A little boy with wild hair races out the door. "Good morning, Ossan!" He shouts as he clatters down the garden path. He leaves the scent of tears behind. Clearly, his sister leaving again weighs heavily on his heart.

Ossan? Surely I don't look that old. The dogs around him chuckle, still wordless.

Hana-chan appears. "Good morning."

"I was about to sleep in and be late, Hana-chan." Lies. Why are you lying? "But then I remembered that the overeager puppy would leave without me." That part at least, he thinks is true.

The dog she calls Ichi growls. "You stop that." Her partners know exactly how long he's been standing on her porch.

"Can't I talk?" Talking makes him feel more flippant, better somehow. The air is cleaner in the light of the morning, in her frustrated expression, and smiling face.

"You really shouldn't." The one she calls San snarks. "All that comes out of your mouth is drivel." And they mean this in the nice way, where they tell him, much like Hana would, that they dislike his lying attitude, even if it's what helps him stay afloat.

They just don't say it as politely as she does.

She loops her arm through his, stretching up a bit to do so, and he is struck by the idea that she'll hit a growth spurt soon, be all long limbs and sharp smiles and raised brows and crossed arms.

She won't be ten forever. His mind immediately takes a dark turn and conjures up a way for her to be ten forever.

It's the same way Obito will always be twelve, that Rin will always be thirteen, and Minato-sensei — He tucks the thought away. It's not really for the light of day, and he is tired of trying to convince himself that living in loneliness is better than the possibility of losing friends. A taste of friendship is all he needs to remember that lone wolves don't live long.

Something in his heart craves an end to all this aching, all this bleeding, all this unending loneliness.

"And I am everlastingly grateful that it is not the case, Kakashi." He blinks once and remembers that she doesn't know what is going on inside his head, that she's still talking about his lie about sleeping late. "Don't worry, Ichi, Kakashi didn't mean it. Right?"

He considers it for a long moment. Did he mean it? "I didn't mean it." I really didn't. Why don't I?

"You know," He has no excuse for being lost in thought. He doesn't have an excuse, and still her next words catch him by surprise. "You don't have to make such an exaggerated excuse when any normal person would notice that you have bruises under your eyes." She looks up at him briefly. "Hiding is bad for the soul." She looks at him as though she expects to pry secrets out of his soul from reading his masked face. It really is...alarming.

"Don't worry about it, Hana-chan." She might wear a chunin vest, but he still looks at her and sees someone too reckless, a puppy running too fast into danger and chaos without even taking a moment to weigh the consequences. "We're going on the journey of a lifetime after all!" A journey he hopes they will be returning from. The capital is a dangerous place for blunt honesty, and she's got it in spades. He flashes her a smile and pulls out Icha Icha. "Which really means I should get my reading done before we get to prim and proper land." Not what he means, but sometimes it's better to consider nothing at all.

"Haven't you finished that at least eight times by now?" She's annoyed again, teeth flashing white in the sunlight, grip on his arm a little tighter than it used to be. "Why are you still reading it?!"

So he prods her a little more to see the lightning sparking in her eyes. "Maa...Hana-chan, great literature is to be appreciated eternally you know?" Yes, there it is, the flash of irritation sparking across childish features, a pout and a glare all at once. "Besides, I'm getting to the climatic scene where Masako-chan is confessing her eternal love to both Enji-kun and Daisuke-kun at the same time while—"

"Stop it!" She shrieks and slaps her hands over her ears. "I don't want to hear it!"

Laughter rolls from his throat without warning and eases some of the pressure in his chest. This moment, this moment is one to keep.

---

They make camp a ways off of the road, enough that a small cooking fire wouldn't attract undue attention. The rest of their walk has been uneventful, quiet even, despite the usual Inuzuka tendency to break every silence nearby with the biggest blunt weapon they can get their hands on. Hana-chan's Triplets mutter among themselves while they walk, but it is mostly of the nonverbal sort, an ear flick there, a scratch here, and Kakashi doesn't mind it.

He's in the middle of pulling open his collapsible cooking pot when she feels the need to break the silence.

"Kakashi? Do you have a tent?"

"Hmmm..." He strikes an exaggerated thinking pose. "No." There's no real need for one anyway. It's the middle of summer, and Konoha summers are muggy in the evenings and scorching at noon.

He doesn't know why she brought a tent. It is not supposed to rain within the next month, a good thing for shinobi traveling quick and light, less so for farmers, but that is the way of the world.

"Where are you sleeping then?" She looks at her child-sized tent, looks at him, looks back at the tent, and he's well aware of what she's thinking of.

He won't fit in there, but it's nice of her to think of him.

"Maa...don't worry about it, Hana-chan." He picks up several wood pieces and sets about creating a fire. I'll be just fine outside.

Ichi scratches himself behind his ear. "He can sleep outside." Nice to know you three are still the same as ever.

"Ichi!" Hana smacks the paw away from Ichi's ear. "That's so rude."

The dog huffs."It's June, Hana. He won't die if he sleeps outside." And that's just what he was thinking earlier, but still, the Triplets and their lack of manners towards him is bothersome, not the worst situation he's come across, but bothersome all the same.

He half suspects it's because Pakkun and the others said something insulting inadvertently and now the Inuzuka hounds are all nursing an unfortunate and uncharacteristic grudge. Ah well, Inuzukas don't hold grudges for very long. Give it a few weeks, it'll die down quick enough.

Hana half growls at them. "No one's sleeping in the tent then. Since no one's going to die by sleeping outside that's where we're all sleeping."

"I'm sleeping in there." That sounds like Ni. "I hate sleeping outside!"

"Ni." Ah, he was right then. This one sounds like San. Ichi is generally more frustrated. "You sleep outside the doghouse every night."

"I don't like getting wet, and it might rain at night." Ichi pads into the tent.

"I'm not sleeping outside if everyone else is sleeping inside." And there's San.

He can't help it, he muffles his chuckles with one of his hands and tries hold it in. They sound like cross toddlers, the lot of them. These days, the Pack is as serious as he is. He misses the days when they sounded like this.

"Kakashi?" Hana's come to join him at the fire.

"Yes?" He can speak without howling with laughter now. That's good.

"What's so funny?"

"Your Triplets are really something." Loyal to a fault, like three adolescents trailing after a ringleader puppy.

The ringleader puppy makes a face at him and pokes at the fire with a stick. "We make more sense than your ninken anyway. They seem to think that Ichi, Ni, and San are somehow not good names."

He tastes the soup absently. It's bland. He must have forgotten to add salt while he was distracted by the Triplets and their antics. He rummages around in his pack for some. "And you're saying that they're good names? Ichi, Ni, and San?"

"You named one of your ninken Bisuke. Biscuit. I don't think you have space to talk." Bisuke is perfectly happy being Bisuke.

He flicks the spare piece of raw cabbage at Hana-chan. "Go be judgmental somewhere else, Hana-chan."

He might have offended her just a little with the cabbage, because she doesn't talk again until after dinner. "Kakashi?"

"Hmm...?" He's reading about the fallout of Masako's double confession, and it's just as entertaining as the first time around, so he's not paying too much attention.

On second thought, he really should have.

"Why didn't ANBU Hound want to come on this mission?"

"Because ANBU Hound is not your friend." He says this before he even thinks about it. Says it without even thinking that she doesn't know a thing about ANBU Hound. He flips to the next page, and stares at it for a moment before he sets the book down. Masako's tears are hardly going to entertain him any further tonight. "You don't get it do you?"

"You're right." She tosses another stick into the flames and watches the orange flames unblinkingly for a moment. "I have no idea what you mean."

"ANBU Hound doesn't have any friends because ANBU don't have friends."

Her shoulders slump. "But you've acted like my friend when you were wearing the mask before."

He remembers. ANBU Hound forgets that he isn't Kakashi at times. ANBU Hound is not a model ANBU Agent despite what other people think. "Hound was lost. Kakashi wasn't." Or at least, he wasn't as lost.

"Thank you." Maybe she still doesn't get it, but if she isn't going to pursue it, he isn't going to offer. She peers over his shoulder at his reading material, so close that he can feel her breath against his masked cheek. "So what's the plan for tomorrow?" It's been a long time since anyone's asked him for a plan, or was unguarded enough to stand so close.

Trust is a fragile thing that he'd lost a long time ago, so he has to relearn the actions, the habits, that come with it. He finds this less troubling than it did when he first realized that he lost it.

He raises an eyebrow at her. "Isn't this mission your affair?"

"I wouldn't mind suggestions." She frowns and crosses her arms. "Besides, I'm trying to figure out how I should introduce you to the Daimyo."

He flips to the next page. "You're Heiress Inuzuka and I'm your long suffering bodyguard." That's the easiest solution. She is an heiress, and being a servant gives him an autonomy in Court that she won't have. They'll need every advantage they can get.

"I don't need a—" Her mouth clicks shut. "Oh, I give up." She pulls her sleeping bag from out from under the Triplets. "I'm going to sleep now." She announces. "Have fun being a bodyguard." Her emphasis of the last word makes him want to laugh again. He's played bodyguard to plenty of others. It's hardly an insult.

"Good night to you too." By the time he looks over again, she's already fast asleep just outside the tent, her head pillowed on San's stomach, a strand of dark hair stuck in the dog's jaws.

---

The Capital is the same as ever, loud, boisterous, slightly dirtier than Konoha's narrow, dusty streets. It's crowded too, which always sets him slightly on edge and the chatter nearly drowns out...there. He yanks Hana-chan to one side.

Sure enough, it's warranted as the street clears for a large black horse and its rider.

"NI!" Hana slips from his grasp — he wasn't paying attention, why wasn't he — and dives across the street. For one horrifying moment, he pictures her trampled underfoot.

The rider's experienced though, because the horse is pulled to a halt before it would have impacted where Hana was standing not two moments before. "What did you think you were doing, girl?"

"I was making sure that my partner didn't get trampled by you." Ni had been in the middle of the road.

So that was why she'd run into danger. Something in the vicinity of his heart shudders and uncoils. She's not injured. It's fine. Both of his eyes are uncovered. His hands are in the rat seal. He'd been ready to raise a wall, shock the horse and rider, do something, but it's fine. It's fine.

"And why were you being so irresponsible anyway? You could have trampled someone!" Hana does not think that it's fine. Hana looks absolutely incensed.

The rider's hair is dyed green at the tips. "I don't like your tone." And his words carry an expectation of authority that Hana hasn't caught.

"Well—"

He slaps a hand over her mouth. "My apologies, sir. My lady and I meant no offense whatsoever." He half expects that this rider isn't just some young lordling, but out of sight out of mind. The sooner they can get away from this court official, the better. There's a pricking between his shoulder blades that always comes back in the path of something bad.

And then he learns that he nearly contracted a sudden case of heart failure because Inuzuka Ni is a glutton of the worst magnitude, and he has to physically try to not stab something. "Ne, Hana-chan. You should watch your words more carefully. I'm not sure who it was that we offended today." He doesn't know, but he suspects that young man is rather important.

"Does it matter?" Hana frowns. "I was right. He shouldn't have been that irresponsible as to go charging about on a horse in such a crowded place. He looked a few years older than even you. A grown man should know better than to put lives in danger needlessly."

He sighs, no, nobles do not know that by any stretch of imagination, but there's no time for more words. They've arrived.

"Papers? And state your business." The gate guard stretches a lazy hand at them, that wouldn't have stopped them if they were truly shinobi out to break into the palace.

"Heiress Inuzuka." He ignores the multiple openings in the walls...they don't see many shinobi here. It's not unusual to not have defenses against the uncommon. "And her bodyguard, Hatake Kakashi, here are the Hokage's behest to request audience with Kageyoshi-sama." They don't carry identification papers on normal missions, too much of a dead giveaway, but for this one, it's necessary.

Hokage-sama had provided him with official enough looking papers.

"Your residence is in the Orchid Pavilion." The guard glances down. "Hiruhitzen-ooji has specifically requested the honor of hosting you, Inuzuka-sama." Now that is alarming.

What has Hana-chan been doing to attract royal attention?

---

He doesn't have to wait long to find out, just an uneventful night in a very nice set of rooms, where the passing heavy tread of the guards jolted him into wakefulness at every half hour...so it goes. Just before the dawn he gives up on sleeping and turns the facts over in his head. Whomever the Orchid Prince is, he knows Hana specifically, at least by reputation.

Three bowls for three dogs. A servant girl with well pampered hands. The ear of the Daimyo.

The atmosphere sets him on edge. The lack of knowledge almost makes him want to go search for it, but that would leave Hana alone, and that is currently unacceptable.

At about mid-morning, she stops wandering around the gardens and sits down with a sheet of paper, rolling a pebble between her hands.

"Ne, Hana-chan."

She jerks to attention. The pebble shatters with a burst of chakra against the opposite wall. "Kakashi! Please stop startling me."

He stoops over to pick up the sheet of paper that she's dropped. "What is this?"

"Give that back." He hadn't an interest in it before, but she's so desperate to get it back, and he has no idea why.

She trusts him about other things. Why not this one? Why not this sheet of paper? What other secrets does she keep from him that he doesn't know about?

Somehow, if he bothers to really identify this emotion rolling in his gut, he'd probably call it jealousy. She calls him friend, but she won't tell him about everything.

She won't tell him, and it hurts.

He holds it out of her reach. "Tell me what it is, Hana-chan." What is this paper, and why do you need it back so badly?

The Triplets slam into him from behind. He lets them do it. It's not like he won't get his answers somehow.

"Listen." Ichi snaps.

She pulls the sheet away from him and stuffs it down her shirt. He'll get his answers later.

He peels himself off of the ground and spits out a mouthful of dirt. Royal dirt tastes the same as normal dirt. "Would you three be any nicer to me?"

San spares him a disdainful glance. "Why would we do that?"

So the Pack has said something that bothered them. He knows he hasn't done anything that Hana can't forgive, and the Haimaru Brothers take most of their cues from Hana very seriously. It has to be the Pack that's made them grumpy.

A child appears from around the corner. "You there!" He marches towards Hana. "Are you some sort of new servant?"

"No." She isn't offended, just a little bit amused, a sharp smile curling on her lips. "I don't happen to be a servant."

The boy puffs up, but his fists tremble slightly. He isn't used to not getting his way. "Do you know who I am?" It's probably a safe bet that this is an important boy, or at least, a very spoiled one.

"No." Hana's smile grows wider. "I have no idea who you are."

"I'm Kageyoshi Hiruka!" The boy stomps his foot. "And Chichi-ue will hear about how you disrespected me!" The sixth prince is just a child.

Not the prince they're looking for then. Kakashi's more concerned about his elder brother.

He tunes out the rest of the conversation to focus on the scant information he has about Kageyoshi Hiruhitzen. He is the Daimyo's second son, his favorite child, the prince of Orchids, clearly important in Court, and he knows Hana. Knows of Hana at any rate.

What sort of paper would Hana not want him to see? She's ten, there shouldn't be anything that she has to hide yet.

Abruptly his mind goes back to Iwa no Deidara and Hana's attachment to the Tsuchikage's student. A letter? A letter from a foreign source?

That would be a problem.

If his suspicions are correct, she could be charged with treason if she doesn't get rid of those papers before someone untoward found them. Something about the thought of Inuzuka Hana's execution hurts him. She isn't a traitor to Konoha. She isn't.

She isn't. She's no traitor.

Inuzukas are loyal all the way down to their bones.

But Iwa no Deidara had called Hana, cousin. And Kakashi had learned at his otou-san's knee that family love and family loyalty is at the heart of every Inuzuka. What an Inuzuka calls pack matters.

All too likely, Hana-chan calls Iwa no Deidara pack.

That could get her killed. The thought freezes in his lungs. Why would a foreign brat be someone you would die for?

"You seem to be in the business of irritating people, Hana-chan." Oh look, the little prince is stomping across the garden like an enraged duckling.

"I don't like brats." She huffs, bangs rising in the muggy air. "Besides, I get along with people in Konoha just fine."

"From what I remember," might as well check his hypothesis about Deidara-chan's letter. "You seem to have a habit of collecting brats, largely, ones that have blond hair, blue eyes and happen to be the Tsuchikage's student."

"I have no idea what you mean, Kakashi." She musters the fakest smile he's ever seen, eyes turning up into his signature plastic smile. He blinks. What? "You must be getting old." She continues, tapping a finger against her chin. "I'll have to remind you to put your mask on soon." It's an admirable defense, but it confirms what he'd been thinking about. The paper is from Deidara. "And by soon, I really mean right now."

His hand flies up to his face. Skin touches skin. He's not wearing a mask. He hasn't forgotten to put on a mask in the morning since he was three years old.

It's just...not done. He goes in, mind racing. Why had he not put a mask on this morning? By this point, the mask is as much a part of his routine as everything else. They are in enemy territory, and he wanders around showing his face to everyone?

What's wrong with me?

"—didn't think that it was you." There's a young man with pale green eyes in the garden when he gets back.

"Asahano-san?" So Hana does know him, but by a different name. Not her fault she was confused yesterday then.

The Orchid Prince bows. "Kageyoshi Hiruhitzen-ooji at your service, my lady."

"Would you mind telling me when you met my lady?" What sort of person is this Orchid Prince? Is he a help or a hindrance?

"We made our acquaintance at the Civilian Council meeting in Konoha." The prince waves a hand airily in the vague direction of Konoha and takes Hana's hand with the other. "Come along now, we've got so much to do and so little time to do it with."

Kakashi pulls out his book and follows, though he's hardly reading. Asahano-oooji wears three rings, one of them set with a emerald gemstone, two in plain gold on his right hand. The cut of his clothing is fine, but not overly extravagant. He doesn't expect to appear in Court today, or to visit his father then. He would have dressed better otherwise. He's been to Konoha before, to sit on the Civilian Council.

A powerful young man. He can't be older than twenty-three. And he's holding Hana's hand like it's nothing.

Just what does he want? Kakashi is not naive enough to forget that everyone in Court wants something. Now all he needs to figure out is if the Orchid Prince wants the same things that Hana does. If not, their position is precarious indeed, considering that they are living in his garden.

"You smell like the idiot we met yesterday." Ni mutters. Yesterday. The Rider we met yesterday was a prince?

"Asahano-san?" Hana pulls her hand away. "Do any of your brothers also wear their hair in a high tail?" Do they dye their hair different colors?

"Mmmm." He sighs. "They all wear high tails, except for Kasano-chan." Who is too young to do anything of note.

"This one dyed his hair green." Kakashi murmurs. "And he was riding a large black horse through the market square." He cut a distinctive figure. Asahano-ooji should know which of his brothers they'd met.

The Prince slumps. "Of all the people you could have met...Why do you have such bad luck, Hana-chan?"

"Who was it?" Hana seems to have finally realized the magnitude of her actions yesterday. He wishes it didn't have to be like this though.

"My eldest brother dyes the end of his hair green. He loves horse racing, and remember, I told you this before, he hates outspoken women." This list doesn't sound like a good one. Hana made an enemy of the only prince more powerful than the one in front of us. "Please tell me that you said absolutely nothing to him and that he only startled you in the market."

But can they trust the word of the Orchid Prince? Kakashi hasn't discerned that yet.

She winces. "Ummm...sorry?" She called him irresponsible, a public terror and several other not particularly flattering epithets.

"Congratulations." Asahano-ooji's voice takes on more several degrees of sarcasm. "You've just royally irritated the Crown Prince, my dear aniue Hiruyasu."

"And I told you that you shouldn't have done that, my lady." It's part of his persona, as the bodyguard he should probably remind his lady to not speak out of turn.

The Prince meets his eyes, pale green to dark brown. "For once, Shinobi-san, I completely agree with you. Hana-chan should really stop opening her mouth in public," but then the moment's gone. "Well, all of you, follow me." For once? Shinobi are not people this prince looks well upon then, either that, or his servant status.

Why had he sent an unusually pampered servant to greet them yesterday then? Why is he hosting a shinobi? Why is he pretending to be helpful? There are still too many questions.

Still, Kakashi doesn't trust him. Everything about this makes his sixth sense itch, and he's long since learned to trust his own intuition.

Hana-chan is not safe here.

---

The next of the Royal Household that they meet is Asahano-ooji's only full sister, Ai-hime. Ai-hime also apparently showed up yesterday pretending to be a servant.

Kakashi doesn't trust her further than from where he's standing to the door. He's standing right next to the door. It doesn't say anything about his growing paranoia while living in the palace, not at all.

He especially doesn't trust women who wink at him flirtatiously. "You look much more handsome without the mask, Shinobi-san. My apologies for ignoring you yesterday."

"N-not a problem." Ah there it is again, his inability to speak properly. He thought he'd gotten rid of the stutter at age three, but it seems not. He hates flirtation.

He hates showing other people his face. He ignores the thought that Hana's seen his face more times than he can care to count, which is to say the number's passed the number of fingers and toes he owns.

He ignores what that means.

The number of times his team had seen his face, he can count on one hand with fingers left over.

Meanwhile, Ai-hime's focus has left him and centered on Hana-chan instead. "We need to fix your clothing, and your hair, and your makeup. Your posture is already very good though. Chiharu, call in the royal tailor. I need some new clothes made."

"Of course, Saena-hime."

About four hours later, it is clear that if Hana-chan doesn't get some time away from the princess and her attendants, then she is going to scream. "You have to hold your chopsticks two thirds of the way up."

Kakashi's personal thought is that most of what nobles do is entirely useless so Hana-chan can forget all about it when she leaves this place.

Unfortunately, as the princess is an expert in courtly graces it seems that Hana-chan will have to learn no matter what if she wants to get her plan through the Daimyo's court. It doesn't do to look and act like a country bumpkin after all.

Still, she's been remarkably patient with all of this so far. He would applaud her if he didn't know that she wouldn't appreciate his praise in the slightest.

After lunch, Hana-chan sits with one of the attendants so that she can get her makeup done. "It would be nicer if you didn't have these tattoos, Inuzuka-san." Blasphemous. Inuzukas never cover their fangs if they can get away with not doing it. "You have such nice round cheeks, and such a shapely jaw." No royal attendant ought to tell a clan child that her pride is misplaced.

"They aren't tattoos." Hana-chan swallows down whatever unkind words she was about to say and smiles. "They're my clan birthmarks. Without them, I'm not an Inuzuka. Please don't cover them."

Yes. She is Inuzuka Hana, and she is proud of that, as she should be.

Just as he ought to be proud to be Hatake Kakashi.

For they are both the descendants of Okami, so they ought to share that self same pride.

"They cover up how beautiful you could be, and they'll clash so terribly with the blue kimono."

Something in his chest snaps and growls. She'd been prettier in red, but red is apparently not in fashion during this season in Court — another foolishly stupid thing that bothers him.

"My lady doesn't want them covered." He doesn't know why he's angry, Hana-chan has been holding her own about her fangs, and it isn't really his place to say anything since he's pretending to be a servant, but he's angry and he wants to say something so he does. "So don't cover them. Besides, she looks better in red anyway."

She turns large brown eyes up to him. "Kakashi?" Don't be so surprised. You looked pretty for your ascension day.

"You do." He eye smiles while flipping his book open again. "Don't look so frustrated, Hana-chan!"

Ai-hime looks between the two of them. "Shinobi-san." She says, gently, because she does everything gently, even her rebukes and criticisms are silk. All the platitudes rub him the wrong way. "Please put that horrid piece of literature away. It is not polite to read it in public, especially in front of ladies." And then she turns to Hana. "I haven't heard of an Inuzuka clan before Niichan mentioned that he'd be hosting you, and that he's going to have to ask me for a favor."

It is unlikely that an Inuzuka would have visited court before in living memory, but even so, it bothers him to hear someone else speak to his friend as such.

While he's contemplating the problem, Hana excuses herself and walks out into the garden.

And with that, the ladies turn their attention to him and his lack of court attire.

He nearly suffers before he makes his quick escape. No one's going to make him give up his cotton shirt and flak jacket.

---

The next thing of note is that the Crown Prince sends a retainer to come get them, presumably for the offense Hana caused him yesterday at the marketplace.

Kakashi is not looking forward to tea with a brat.

"Hiruyasu-ooji." The retainer bows forwards exactly ninety degrees. "I've brought Lady Inuzuka as you requested."

The Crown Prince is sitting with his back to them at the table. Rude. Kakashi notes, though he also notes that his own mood isn't conducive towards civil discussion with all the royal nonsense that's been going on ever since they stepped foot in court.

Kakashi doesn't like visiting the capitol. Normally, all his missions in Kakunodate involve murder. Maybe she should have chosen Yugao.

There are at least four unguarded exits is the next thing he notes carefully. The Crown Prince does not expect to capture them.

"You're late, Abe." Further, the Crown Prince is irritated and rude. Just like yesterday.

Kakashi really is not looking forward to tea with this brat.

"That would be my fault." Hana walks around the table to sit down at the other chair, and Kakashi moseys over with her. "It must have taken a while to find me."

The retainer makes a quick exit, evidently not willing to deal with the Crown Prince's bratty moods.

"Yes." Hiruyasu-ooji mutters. "The recently arrived Lady Inuzuka is late."

Hana merely rises to pour tea. "Do you like stronger or lighter flavors, Hiruyasu-ooji?"

"Lighter."

Kakashi rather misses his friend's cheekier nature. Her rather passive serving of obtuse in front of His Royal Bratling isn't helping very much.

She uses a small bit of chakra to heat the water. Raiton chakra.

Where did she learn that? He'd certainly never taught her, and he doubts her Nara sensei did. "Was there something you wanted me for?"

The Crown Prince takes a sip. "I accept your apology."

" — Comparing me to a public terror, Lady Inuzuka?"

Kakashi blinks. He's rather lost, consider that he's been going through Hana's list of friends to find one of them who would be able to teach her Raiton Chakra.

He's coming up short though.

He knows for a fact that Tsume wouldn't. It wouldn't be any of the Uchiha she knows, especially since Uchiha Fugaku is certainly not Raiton Natured. It wouldn't be Gai either, since Gai is hopeless at most all ninjutsu. It wouldn't be her earth-natured Nara Sensei, or his Yamanaka wife. It wouldn't be any of her teammates either.

So who is it? Who would have taught her the Lightning Release? She wouldn't have been stupid enough to learn it by herself.

"I am not. I am saying that you are a public terror if you do this often enough that everyone knows to dive out of the way."

Oh. That's what they were disagreeing about, His Royal Bratling's public conduct.

The Crown Prince bangs the table with his fist. Impulsive as well as bratty and rude. Kakashi makes a mental note of it. And easily angered. "Do you know what the punishment is for talking back to a prince?"

Hana leaps to her feet. "I don't, but I'm a shinobi from a clan. I answer to my mother first, the Hokage second and your father third. Before you become the Daimyo, you don't have the power to order me executed."

Kakashi smothers a chuckle.

She's so dramatic.

"You thought I was going to order you executed?" Yup. Hiruyasu-ooji did not expect that to come out of Hana's mouth. "Dear Kami, I don't execute people for talking back to me."

"Well then," she snarks and sits back down. "If I am not being executed, I doubt that I'm going to fear any other punishment you might throw at me."

"You speak like a soldier." Perhaps the Crown Prince isn't just a hot headed bundle of nerves.

Kakashi makes a note of it. He really hasn't been into the Palace enough to know about all these relationship dynamics. I need to get a good conversation with Asuma in to pick his brain about the royal relationships. Who supports who and all that.

"Forgive me, Hiruyasu-ooji." Kakashi mutters. "My lady is a soldier."

This causes the royal attention to land on him. "Sharingan no Kakashi of the famed Hatake clan." His name's traveled far it seems. He really rathers that it wouldn't. Famed Hatake Clan. That can only mean Otou-san. "You tell me that ladies can be soldiers."

Kakashi eye smiles. He knows quite a few excellent kunoichi who would gladly rip out the tongue that's just said that. Yugao, Tsume, and Hana-chan included. "The Hatake Clan has always shared a special relationship with the Inuzuka Clan." The Hatake are the children of Yama, Okami's son. The Inuzuka are the children of Yasuka, Okami's daughter. "And the Inuzuka are matrilineal. My lady is very much a soldier as she is a shinobi of Konoha."

The Crown Prince considers him. "Forgive me for asking this, but how old are you exactly, Hatake-san? Because from what I can recall of the last war, Kanabi Bridge was destroyed when I was fourteen."

Kanabi Bridge.

If he goes his entire life without hearing about Kanabi Bridge again he will thank his lucky stars. Alas, he is Kakashi Hatake, and he is not lucky.

"I'm eighteen." He does some quick mental math. "That must mean that I'm two years younger than you."

"You were twelve when Kanabi Bridge was destroyed." There's a flat note of disbelief in Hiruyasu-ooji's voice. "The samurai only allow their young men to join battle at 15."

For someone who graduated the Academy at age five and then promptly went out onto the battlefield, the thought of being young at 15 is a little obscure.

He's only three years older than 15.

He's lost count of the number of bodies he's left in his wake by now, but there are two that destroy him every time he thinks about it.

He must not think about it.

"I killed my first person at seven and a half." Hana murmurs. "That Kakashi was at Kanabi Bridge is not unusual."

What was unusual was that he was leading that mission.

"You've killed a person before." Oh, look. There's that cute civilian horror. "How old are you?"

For all that Hana is a cute little puppy who can't cook to save her life, she's not a child. Not the way civilians think of children anyway.

In Konoha, she's a well respected adult, except when it comes her parents.

Her parents will always think of her as a child. No one else will ever give her that sort of space, not her peers, not her superiors, not her Sensei, and certainly not him.

He's not friends with a child, despite his teasing her for being a puppy.

She's Inuzuka Tsume's daughter. The Inuzuka raise wolves.

"Ten and two months." She chirps.

"Ten?" Hiruyasu-ooji whispers. "You're ten?"

"And two months."

The two months bit won't help him, Hana-chan!

And oh, look, there's the Second Prince that Kakashi hasn't finished plumbing the depths of. "I would thank you if you didn't suddenly commandeer my guest, Aniue."

Hmmm. A lot of bad blood between these two. Distrust everything they say about each other.

Kakashi edits his mental profile of the two of them to include that knowledge. Whatever Asahano said about his elder brother is suspect.

And he had tried to make it seem like irritating the Crown Prince was a big deal, except all that had happened to Hana after yelling at the Crown Prince in a public square is an invitation to tea.

Not that serious at all if one thinks about it.

The Crown Prince had been irritated, but honestly, who wouldn't? He doesn't know that Hana-chan isn't a child.

"I was having tea with the newest lady in court, Asahano-chan. Surely that is not something that you must stage a protest over?"

So Hiruyasu-ooji does have a different face, one that can be more poisonous and flattering than the rash one he showed Hana.

Kakashi likes him a little more already, even if he is a royal brat.

"Aniue, I wasn't aware that you were looking for a royal consort. At your venerable age, I'm sure it's hard for any lady to approach you. Might I suggest several other ladies to spend time with besides my ten year old guest?"

You were the one who walked around holding Hana's hand. Kakashi can't say why he still doesn't forgive Asahano for that, but he doesn't forgive it, and that's final.

"Ah, but Asahano-chan." Hiruyasu-ooji drawls slowly. "The only other lady that I'd take tea with is our beloved imouto, Ai-chan. She is sixteen this year, no?" Hiruyasu-ooji raises a hand to examine his cuticles. "We'll have to arrange a marriage for her soon."

"You wouldn't dare put any ideas in Chichi-ue's head."

Kageyoshi Hiruyasu sends Asahano a truly excellent poisonous smile. Kakashi approves. "Try me, Asahano-chan."

Asahano makes a move forwards, his hand raised. Like an idiot. Except maybe not.

"Stop where you are!" The Daimyo and the retainer that had scurried off earlier makes an appearance. This plot is deeper than it looks.

Both princes drop to their knees. "Chichi-ue. Bansai."

"I never thought I'd live to see the day." The Daimyo paces back and forth, in a state of half apoplectic rage. "That you would ever raise a hand against Yasino, Asahano! What do you have to say for yourself?"

"Forgive me, Chichi-ue. I acted rashly and without thought." Who expected who in this scenario?

The thought bears more weighing.

---

It's later that night when he finally decides he needs to get all this into the open. The thought's been gnawing at him all day, and he doesn't want to hide it anymore. "We've gotten ourselves caught in a tangled mess."

So yes, he might have gone through her belongings. What he had found there bothers him immensely. Why do you have papers on the explosion release, Hana-chan?

"Un." She groans, and her head drops into her arms. "I don't know anyone who'd be willing to help us."

"So you noticed." Kakashi muses. "All of them want something from you." Kakashi wonders if she knows that he also wants something from her.

He wants his answers, but he can wait a little bit longer.

"Yes." She turns to look at him with utterly trusting eyes. He could almost hate himself a little more. "Asahano-san wants some sort of political thing or other. Ai-hime wants me to help her brother. Hiruyasu-ooji wants to use me, did use me, to discredit Asahano-san." She sighs, blowing her bangs out of her face. "Morimo-ooji's probably the only one who has a straightforward intention in this whole mess. He only wants someone to spar with."

"I don't know about that." He murmurs. "Morimo-ooji appeared at too convenient a time, didn't he? Right when you were at your most frustrated point, he randomly appears in the garden, and acts like the people you would have found at home."

"When you put it that way," she throws up her hands. "He sounds like the most suspicious character of all of them."

"It's interesting." He hates himself. He really does. He didn't have a right to go through her things and look at her papers. He didn't have a right, and he'd done it anyway. They're heading for a fight tonight, only because he couldn't contain his doggone curiosity. "That we haven't met the fifth prince yet, with how many of the other ones that we've seen."

She frowns. "You're right. That is weird."

"Do you know what I'm also right about, Hana-chan?" Kakashi sing songs as he stalks over to where she sits. "You're uncanny ability to collect brats!"

"I have no idea what you mean."

Oh, now you're just lying to me, Hana-chan. That hurts him.

He rather have it be the truth, even if the truth is awful and jagged.

Hatake Kakashi hates a liar.

He slaps a piece of paper onto the desk next to her. "This look familiar?" He can't keep the breaking from his tone. I call you my friend.

But you won't tell me the truth.

You won't give me even the benefit of doubt.

She picks it up. "You went through my stuff." She sounds a little gutted. Not guilty, just sad.

What right do you have to feel betrayed? You betrayed—

No she didn't.

"You left it out." Another lie. This one his. She didn't leave it anywhere he could have easily seen it. Hatake Kakashi hates liars, and chief among them is himself. Then, he's not above hating himself. "Would you mind explaining why you have notes on the explosion release?"

"I don't have to explain anything to you." She hisses at him as she stalks away. "I don't have to explain anything to a thief and a liar."

Thief.

Liar.

Things he's always hated about himself.

He doesn't let her run away from that. "I'm the thief and liar? That's rich coming from you, Hana-chan." His voice drops lower. "Might I tell you that bloodline theft is a crime?"

He doesn't really think she's committed bloodline thief. She probably can't even use the Explosion Release, but he had been worried about her, and she called him a thieving liar, and he's heard that too many times from too many people for it to mean nothing.

He had called none of them friend before this though.

This accusation hurts more because it comes from the mouth of a friend.

"You think I committed bloodline theft?" She bares her fangless teeth at him, quivering with rage and unshed tears. "How dare you accuse me of thieving something that is my birthright?" Birthright. He can't think through the hurricane in his thoughts. "Like you said, Kakashi, that's a bit rich coming from you."

A bit rich coming from you.

He stumbles back, a hand over Obito's eye.

It was a gift. It was a gift Obito never would have had to give if he hadn't been a stupid— He was stupid and Obito had died and Rin had died and MinatosenseiandKushina-neesanandTou-sanandsomanymanypeoplealldead—

"I'm sorry." She whispers "That wasn't—" Breaking. Everything breaks when he touches it, and so too she is breaking. "I—I, I'm sorry. What I said wasn't true." She smells like anger and guilt and unshed tears. "I was angry that you accused me of a crime, but I shouldn't have brought that up."

He moves back to the table. "No really?" He murmurs. "If you didn't commit bloodline theft." He feels so sick. Everything breaks. Everything's broken, and he's the most broken part of the lot. "Why do you have the explosion release notes?"

"This was written by Tou-san." The page she holds out to him slips from her grasp onto the floor. "It's his seventh birthday present to me."

Oh.

Oh.

He forgets, as it is so easy to forget, because she looks so Inuzuka, acts so Inuzuka that her Otou-san wasn't an Inuzuka.

She flees, shoulders shaking.

He sits there all night staring at his hands. You are an Okami-damned suspicious asshat.

His right hand is sticky with all that blood. All that blood he's never been able to wash off.

She only stops crying when she falls asleep.

Sleep, as it does on so many nights, doesn't visit him.

---

Morning comes, but the brightening sky does nothing for him. He is the common denominator in all the relationships he's had that crashed and burned.

Hatake Kakashi is the common denominator, no matter what Hana and Gai have tried to say about it.

He offers her the page that he's reread over the course of the night in silence.

The paternal nature of those words remind him so much of another set of notes—

He doesn't know why he didn't see it earlier. He doesn't know why his mind had jumped straight to the worst possible outcome.

I don't know how to be friends with anyone anymore.

But the real question is: Did he ever know how to be friends, or did every friend he have get forced on him because they were too stupid not to go away?

"Thank you." She sniffs, her head in her hands as she angrily wipes away a few tears. Tension in her shoulders, guilt in her eyes, but she's not the one in the wrong.

She hadn't done anything wrong.

An inheritance isn't a wrong.

"Last night." She accused you, because you accused her first. And the accusation stings, but it's not as if he was nice before, and all his thoughts keep chasing themselves around in circles. "Last night." He says again, but he can't finish the sentence.

You didn't have a problem finishing your accusations last night, Kakashi.

She shakes her head. "I shouldn't have-" called you a thief and a liar.

"I didn't-" mean it.

"I think we knew what we were going to say." She sighs. "But I'm not sure that we're ready to say it."

He blinks. "Perhaps." A sardonic smile tugs at his lips. "We're running away again." Most of the time, they're always running.

At least he's always running.

"I'm sorry. I was upset." She's trying so hard. He wonders if she knows what it means. You won't be able to get rid of me after this. You really won't. "You took Tou-san's notes." She stares down at her hands. "They were his."

"You're trying really hard." He runs a hand through his hair. She's trying so hard. He ought to try. "I'll not look at your stuff again?"

She finally smiles, even though it doesn't touch her eyes. "I'll not be so prickly."

Three feet of space between them, as wide as three hundred miles.

He takes a step forward. "Are we still fighting, Hana-chan?"

"I forgive you." He didn't ask for forgiveness, but she offers it anyway. It seems to come so easily to her. "You don't have to forgive me."

I never held it against you, Hana.

He laughs. He's got heartburn again, because his chest hurts. It hurts. "And if I don't, I'll be alone again. I don't-" I don't want to be alone anymore. I'll stay if you let me.

Please let me stay.

"You won't be alone." She leans on the window sill and stares out at the gently bobbing orchids. "Gai-san would be around."

That's not what he wants.

That's not what he means.

"You know, Hana-chan." He sets a hand on either side of her, and stares out at the flowers. "Hokage-sama suggested that I find a few more friends than Maito Gai. He says it will help with my outlook on life." He tilts his head back and pulls the mask up over his face. "I'm inclined to agree with him on that piece of advice."

Please let me stay.

Please.

I'm so tired of being lonely.

She laughs. "There are plenty of people in the world."

"And only one I call Hana-chan." He wonders briefly if he knows what he means to say. What does he mean?

He wants so badly to stay.

"I'll find you flowers for an apology when we get back to Konoha."

He gets to stay.

She lets him stay.

And the sun rises.

"Overeager puppy. You've already offered me perishing with grace, immaturity, longevity, and forgiveness." He ruffles her hair. Too many virtues already, Hana-chan. Let's save some for later, or else, I'm going to get repeat flowers. "What are you offering me next? Nobility, dignity and love?"

"There are still plenty of virtues left to give." She pries his hand off of her head, but doesn't let it go. "Gratitude and remorse have a place in this world as well."

But I don't want that from you.

He only wants the space to stay.

"No need for flowers. You can make me fish again."

She pouts at him. "Kakashi, I'm fairly certain that you'll end up eating black stuff. Not fish."

He shrugs. "It'll have character." And their balance is restored.

"It'll be a charred mess." She bounces past him. "And then you'll get sick and wind up in your most favorite place in the world."

"And where would that be?" He really doubts he likes this place.

"The hospital, Kakashi. I know how much you adore Konoha General."

The cheeky — He throws Icha Icha at her.

---

Hana-chan and the until then missing fifth prince have an unspectacular conversation about politics. Seeing as Kakashi himself is not particularly well versed in politics, he spends most of it trying to discern the specifics of Seiya-ooji's scent underneath the floral perfume.

It corroborate his story of living outside of the palace complex. With that, Kakashi relaxes just a little. The fifth prince seems like the honest sort.

Then, appearances are deceptive. Kakashi still wants to like the fifth prince though. At least, he's not concerned about the royal catfight if he prefers to stay outside the palace.

The next thing of note is that they are invited to a boating party. Specifically a boating party hosted by the Orchid Prince's Haha-ue.

He likes this boating party so much already.

Not.

He supposes Consort Ine could be considered beautiful, but really, it's hardly important. He just wants to know what the Second Consort wants with them especially since she's probably out to protect her son.

There's a reason he's never signed up to go on a mission into court. The backroom harem drama is enough to make him want to gouge out his own eyes.

All that drama, all that pain, all the murder and blood for who's son gets to sit on a fancy chair.

Everyone knows that the real power in Fire Country lives with the Hokage and his advisors. Kakunodate might as well be an artificial other world.

"Oh, Lady Inuzuka." Consort Ine draws attention to them as soon as they arrive. "I've heard so much about you from Asahano-chan."

What do you want?

There are too many people here, who all want such different things.

Still, by giving the Daimyo two sons, she has some measure of power not enjoyed by any of these women.

"The pleasure of meeting is all mine." Hana-chan bows and says some other flattering words. He wonders briefly if she knows how uncomfortable she sounds doing this.

Perhaps he should offer her a few lessons. He scrapes the idea a second later. Everyone knows when he's being fake. It's too obvious.

"Shinobi-san." The Orchid Prince's second sister hangs on his arm. "Won't you take the mask off? We're all among friends here after all."

"I would rather not." He knew that he was going to regret showing his face to this girl, and look, he's right. Now she can only keep asking to see it.

The Princess turns to Hana-chan. "Would you ask him to take the mask off? He'd look so much better without it."

He almost laughs at the offended look on her face. Clearly, she likes being the only person she knows to have seen his face.

"No." Hana-chan crosses her arms. "Kakashi can wear whatever he wants. That includes his mask."

"Ai-chan." Consort Ine is not trustworthy. To become a powerful consort inside the royal harem is not a task for empty heads, but she acts no different the women around her. She's hiding something. "Leave the poor young man alone. He probably doesn't have much confidence in himself."

For as long as he lives, he will not understand why his face is such big deal.

Sure, it's pretty to look at — at least according to Hana-chan — but there are plenty of aesthetically pleasing faces in this world.

"On the contrary," Hana-chan mutters. "I would say that reading Icha Icha in public is too much self confidence, or just not enough energy to care."

He chuckles. "My lady knows me so well."

There's a bit more discussion as his name is bandied about before he notes the distant tremor of a horse's hooves. Just one.

A retainer arrives to announce the Crown Prince.

The rest of the party goes silent. How interesting. Kakashi muses. Those who like Consort Ine do not like the Crown Prince. Why did he invite himself to this party?

But then, he's already decided that the Second Prince isn't a trustworthy one.

And upon further reflection, it makes perfect sense that Consort Ine's backers wouldn't enjoy the Crown Prince.

The two brothers strongly dislike each other after all.

"Ni-Haha-ue." Kageyoshi Hiruyasu kisses the back of Consort Ine's hand. "Allow me to escort you to Lake Toya, as it seems that our dear Asahano-chan is late."

The Crown Prince likes to put on a welcoming face then.

Why is he playing nice with a Consort who doesn't have any reason to like him if he's the Crown Prince?

Kakashi's mind goes back to the scene in the garden. Kageyoshi Hiruyasu is not his father's favorite child, so he ought to play nice with his father's favorite consort.

But then why does he want to come here, especially when this is just putting the Second Consort on the spot?

Consort Ine doesn't want to make a scene. She only smiles. "Of course, if Hiruyasu-ooji is willing to humor an old woman, how could I say no?"

Dripping poison.

We need to leave this place as soon as possible. Kakashi doesn't like to ignore the twinge of something between his shoulder blades.

He hasn't survived eighteen years by ignoring his senses.

Every time, every time, he'd felt the pricking on the back of his neck, spreading down his spine, and then the entire world gets shot to hell.

This shouldn't be any different.

"Aniue, it's good to see you."

"The pleasure is mine, Asahano-chan."

No. This won't be any different.

He takes a mental tally of his chakra levels — moderate — the number of shuriken he owns — 56 — the number of kunai — 27 — and where Hana is — directly below him — as he sways with the movement of the carriage.

This is only going to get worse from here on out.

---

They arrive at Lake Toya in the middle of the morning, surrounded by Consort Ine's attendants.

The Crown Prince lingers on the fringe of this conversation.

Why did he come? What is he getting out of this?

Kakashi doesn't trust the Second Prince's description of his brother in the slightest now. This particular move isn't the work of a young man who can punish anyone indiscriminately.

Not to mention, a prince out of favor with his father doesn't have the power to air his grudges publically. The Crown Prince is here for some other reason.

Not to mention, Hana-chan had embarrassed the Crown Prince in public, and all he'd wanted from their tea time was a private apology however roundabout.

No.

There are pieces to this puzzle he's not getting, and damn it all to hell if that doesn't bother him.

ANBU missions often come with spotty intel, but currently, this takes the cake.

Politics has never been his strong suit.

You want political maneuvering, you'd want a desk job Nara, but this mission might as well have come from the mouth of Danzo, and he doesn't trust anyone else with Hana-chan's life.

He doesn't trust himself with it either, but it's easier to blame himself when everything goes to shit than it is to find someone else to blame.

So no, he finds no comfort in any of this.

Lake Toya is nearly circular with water clear enough to see to the bottom. Unfortunately, being on the water almost completely cancels the effectiveness of his nose, and he's long learned not to trust his eyes a hundred percent.

There's no reason to expect an ambush, but the twinge between his shoulder blades has become an unfortunate tingling up and down his spine.

He's doing a good job of pretending to be nonchalant though, so no one's caught onto it yet.

"Aniue." The Second Prince gestures towards the party. "Come join us."

"Why Asahano-chan." Hiruyasu-ooji replies. "I'd be delighted." The Crown Prince takes a seat, but no food passes his lips.

Kakashi observes the scene out of the corner of his eye. Someone else who is suspicious of this venture.

But if that's case, where is this attack coming from?

There's only one other party.

Consort Ine and her children. But that means the Crown Prince should stay away, unless—

Is it us that he's concerned about?

"Aniue." Ai-hime smiles awkwardly. "Would you be so kind as to grace us with your musical talent?" She gestures towards Hiruyasu-ooji's flute, which he had set on the table earlier. "You've gone so far as to bring an instrument with you."

"Actually," Consort Ine pulls an old zither out from under her seat. "I'm very fond of zither music, and it is well known that Hiruyasu-ooji's musical talent is unsurpassed among the princes. Would you be so kind as to play the zither for us, Hiruyasu-ooji?"

Oh. This is bullying.

But what gives a mere consort the audacity to bully the crown prince?

This situation is getting curiouser and curiouser.

"You know me so well, Ni-Haha-ue. I do so live to please." Hiruyasu-ooji bears it with seeming grace, though the corners of his mouth are a little too stiff to be pleased. So this has been going on for awhile. "Do I have a song request?" He looks to Consort Ine first. "No?"

When he finds nothing there he next turns to Hana. "Lady Inuzuka, as you are the newest lady in court, do you have a request?"

Kakashi…carefully decides to let it go. And further, carefully doesn't consider why he is so bothered by this. He shouldn't be bothered. Nothing's wrong.

"Whatever you would like to play would be fine, Hiruyasu-ooji." Hana-chan is unhappy.

She's noticed the bullying then, but how far she's thought on this, he can't hazard to guess. He doesn't think she's well versed in court politics — most Inuzuka's aren't well versed in any form of politics — but Hana-chan is and seemingly always has been a little different.

"A song for a beautiful lady then." And while Hiruyasu-ooji seemingly says this to Hana-chan, his eyes are trained on Consort Ine's face.

Curiouser and curiouser.

Kakashi ignores the song in favor of the incredible undertones of accusation. There's no way this is at all romantic, but what it really means is yet to be understood.

Consort Ine is pale.

What a strange way to react to a romantic song.

The deep unease in his back doesn't go away.

He very nonchalantly pushes his hitai-ate up. There's something more —

Under the boat. The only place to hide in the clear waters of Lake Toya is under the boat, but they would only be able to do that if—

It was all a trap.

But a trap for who?

His eyes meet Hana-chan's. He doesn't have time for warnings, but, good, she knows.

Five shapes leap out of the water towards the boat.

Hana-chan throws herself at the nearest of them, a kunai in hand.

He has to trust that she'll take care of herself. He unsheathes his ANBU order tanto and joins the fray himself.

Masks, not ANBU. The Sandaime would have notified him if there would be ANBU in the near vicinity, no, he recognizes these masks all too well. ROOT.

What hand does Danzo have in this?

Still, this fight is a little too easy somehow. He's already dispatched one, and Hana-chan is not full of holes.

He doesn't delude himself. If Danzo wanted Hana-chan dead, then she wouldn't be able to survive very well, even if he was here to help. The fact is though, Hana-chan isn't dead.

Danzo doesn't want her dead.

What is going on here?

Why—

They aren't the targets.

In fact, of the royal outing, only Hiruyasu-ooji has been attacked. The Crown Prince.

But what has he done to warrant his removal in Danzo's eyes?

He doesn't have time to think further as he flips out of the way of a wooden spike. Kinoe.

The child who had called himself Yamato, but also Kinoe. Mokuton.

Danzo doesn't even want to avoid culpability with this one. The Shodai's cells are rather...noticeable after all.

"What do you want?" He asks when they meet again blade to blade.

"I can't tell you that." Kinoe responds. Still, this isn't a fight to the death despite the two ROOT agents Kakashi's killed already. He still expects that there's going to be hell to pay for this later, but at the moment, there's no reason to think about it.

They got in the way of his mission orders, in the way of his own promises that he's still not certain he isn't going to break — protect Hana-chan. Protect friends, pack, pack, pack — so now they're dead. He'll worry about paying the toll for those deaths later.

Behind them, there's a rather impressive explosion. So Hana-chan's learned the Explosion Release.

Kinoe turns and starts to flee across the water, but not before throwing one last pair of kunai in his direction.

Kakashi dodges them and follows.

---

"We're far enough away now." He says after they reach the opposite bank. "What do you want?" It's easier asking this than asking what Danzo wants. They both know it's what he's asking about in the end.

"I still can't tell you that." Kinoe looks at him through wide eyes behind the mask. "I just have a warning for you, if you want to hear it."

"What makes you think I'm letting you leave here?" It might be a hard fight. It might be a dangerous fight. He might get injured during this fight, but he still doesn't doubt that he can wipe out this last person and leave whatever Danzo's goals for this mission a complete wash.

He and Kinoe might have a tenuous bond, but the bad feeling in his spine hasn't gone away even after the other four on this mission have been completely wiped out.

"Because I don't think you're actually a friend killer." Kinoe stands there without weapons. "And because our orders were related to the Crown Prince."

Kakashi isn't foolish enough to believe then, that the ROOT agent is harmless. A shinobi can kill even without weapons. Still, no one's ever said that combination of words to him before I don't think you're actually a friend killer so he hesitates.

And damn him, he shouldn't hesitate for something so small, but he does it anyway.

"Anyway, I'm unilaterally deciding that you need to hear this warning, so at least appreciate that I'm going out of my way to tell you." Kinoe shifts on his feet. "My employer is very interested in your left eye." Obito's eye. "And that's the warning. Be careful, alright?"

The ROOT agent leaps into the tree. "And as for Inuzuka Hana-chan…" There's a pause. "Just know that she's important."

It's the way that Kinoe says 'important' as if that means something more than Danzo's attention…almost as though Kinoe cares about what happens to Hana-chan…

Kakashi turns on his heel and vanishes.

---

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

It didn't look like Hana-chan was the focus of the attack, but Kinoe had said important, had—

He's dropped the ball. He's fucked it all up again.

When he gets back it'll be—

The deck of the ship is littered with the parts of a person — Hana-chan's handiwork — but no Hana-chan bloodied and dying. He hasn't failed yet. Not yet.

Not yet.

He takes in everything else. The Consort and her various hangers on and children are crowded together at one end of the boat. The one farthest away from the scene of their killings.

He's killed Danzo's underlings now, and he's not stupid enough to believe that doesn't come with consequences, but he's not in the mood to care right at this moment.

Hana-chan is missing.

"Where is my lady?" He asks, pleasantly, because it's easier to trap flies with honey than vinegar.

He doesn't receive a coherent response.

Well, that won't do at all.

"Where is my lady?" He asks once more, a little more agitated this time. There might also being killing intent involved.

"L-lady Inuzuka and Hiruyasu-ooji, h-have returned to the palace." Consort Ine pulls herself together for the most part, though she does not look happy to see him.

Oh, the Crown Prince is missing.

He didn't notice until she mentioned it. No matter.

Hana-chan is alone with only a civilian.

Yet again, he vanishes without a word of warning. As he gets closer to the palace complex, his heartbeat evens out.

If she's made it this far, then there aren't any ROOT agents immediately on her tail.

There's no need to lose his head completely. She doesn't know what ROOT is. And to keep it that way he has to make up some story...nuke-nin from Kiri. That's all. No more, no less.

"My Lady." She's in the company of two princes. "Permission to speak to you in private."

They step out onto the balcony. "I killed the last attacker. They were nuke-nin from Kiri." Even if it is to keep her safe, why does this lie taste so much like ash?

"Oh really." She murmurs."I didn't realize that the Mokuton has traveled all the way to Kiri." Why are you lying to me, Kakashi?

The high arch of her eyebrow cuts kunai-sharp.

He winces. "I'll tell you about it later, but for right now we need to go with that story."

He'll tell her just enough to keep her… what exactly? Happy? Satisfied? In the dark? He might as well dig his own grave and cover himself with Doton jutsu.

"Yasi-Hiruyasu-ooji thinks that this attack was a murder attempt." She interrupts his thoughts. "On him."

So Kageyoshi Hiruyasu is no fool. It makes it even stranger that he'd go out of his way to leave the palace for a trip with a group of people he knew wasn't in his favor then. He'd done it for something, because he's no fool, and he'd nearly died for it. "It was." As best as he can guess it, Danzo has some vested interest in messing around with the royal succession besides his plans to gain a sharingan.

"He thinks it's Consort Ine's plan." He hadn't thought that deeply into it, but the Second Consort supporting the plan would make sense.

The only question is how a royal consort would contact Shimura Danzo to begin with, or know that Danzo hired out for such distasteful jobs.

If anyone should know, it ought to be the daimyo's wife.

This is not normal. The Daimyo's wife ought to have more power in court than a mere consort, but nothing about this court seems normal.

They will have to proceed cautiously.

"Let me speak about this incident should the Daimyo ask." He might not be the best at politics, but his solution to everything is not to smash everything with a big hammer. "You are my lady. We still have to keep up pretenses."

Court. How he hates the place.

"You will tell me everything." Hana-chan frowns at him, and he knows that this is one conversation he won't be able to avoid. She's persistent when she wants to be. It's what got them here to begin with. "But first I'm going back inside to make sure that there is actually no one left to kill the crown prince."

As it turns out, it's quite clear that Consort Ine wants to kill the Crown Prince, and the Daimyo is just too blind to see it.

And then of course, Kageyoshi Hiruyasu has a relapse of a childhood illness, and it really seems like they won't be able to keep living in the Orchid Garden anymore.

---

"Kakashi?" He's escaped talking about this until after dinner, but he won't be able to dodge this any further then. "We need to have a discussion, remember? The nuke-nin from Kiri?"

Okami. She still sounds so young.

But who is he to complain about someone else's youth? He'd been angry about Minato-sensei trying to shield him from some things.

I am a lying hypocrite. She's so young. So little and not little all at once.

Was this how the adults in his life looked at him back when he was young? He's not an adult, not really. He doesn't know.

"I'm going to draw a sound proofing seal." He mumbles. "Let me get a brush and ink."

"Meanwhile, I think I'm going to hold your book hostage just in case you decide that we didn't have this conversation before." She picks up Icha Icha, eyes glossing over the cover.

"You wound me, Hana-chan!" He goes to collect a few writing instruments from his pack.

Will she really do anything to Icha Icha Paradise? Probably not. She's not destructive to anything other than the contents of his refrigerator and his locked doors, and if he's being honest with himself, she's destructive for his self destructive lifestyle too. For someone who doesn't have a future, he sure acts like he deserves one these days.

Icha Icha is safe for now, especially since he doesn't intend to run away. Not right now at any rate.

There, soundproofing seal done, so they don't have to worry about ROOT agents or nosey civilians. They'll just hear quiet background noise.

"We need to talk about those nuke-nin from Kiri." She looks up at him with all seriousness.

It's her eyes. He realizes suddenly. Her eyes are so old for such a small face. He's not sure he's ever met a person her age with such old eyes. Then, there aren't many ten year olds who've seen what she's seen, and shinobi live on borrowed time anyway.

"As you guessed." He says. "They weren't nuke-nin from Kiri."

"They're from Konoha then?" She asks. "The Mokuton is the Shodaime's kekkei genkai, isn't it?" She sounds absolutely certain. She's just asking for his confirmation.

"Yes." When she's serious, he has a hard time keeping himself from seeing the ghost of futures possible. "You have to stay silent about this." When she's asking him questions, when she's injured and toasted, when she acts her age, he can ignore the ghost of the woman he knows she'll become in ten years time.

As a child, Inuzuka Hana is magnetic. As a woman, she'll be indomitable.

He's not sure he'll be around to see it, and something about that thought aches more when he lingers on it.

He's long since been resigned to a lack of personal future, had even thought about it flippantly, but now, he rather wishes he'll still be around when Inuzuka Hana-chan becomes a moving storm. There are fools out there who don't know what sort of person they've baited — Hyuga Hiashi comes to mind — and the look of pure terror on their faces when they realize would warm his soul.

But he won't be there to see it.

He wishes, but he really doesn't expect it.

"They weren't under the command of the Hokage, were they?" She pins him with a too solemn look. "You know who they are, and who is commanding them." Okami save me.

Her perception will be her ruin and his death.

"What do you know?" He's walking down a very slippery slope, but there's only so many paths they can take, and all of them are dangerous.

What is he willing to lose?

"My cousin, Inuzuka Gaku." He'd forgotten about Inuzuka Gaku. He curses himself for that now. "He lost his memory, remember? A few months back, he regained parts of his memories. There was a seal on his tongue. He couldn't tell me everything, but he could say that he was a part of the an organization." So she knows some things, but not everything. Something's rotten in Konoha's center. She knows that. It's already too much. "I'm just connecting dots at this point."

"Please stop." Please. He doesn't know why he prefers that she not know, she's still caught Danzo's attention anyway. You're important to him somehow. "They were here to protect interests." Maybe it's just because he knows she's not skilled enough to hide her own knowledge behind her too expressive face. She's one suspicious question away from giving away the game.

And if the game is up, if the game is up, where would that leave Hana-chan?

"Like I said, I can only assume that Cousin Gaku's a part of the same organization as the one we ran into this afternoon, because there aren't multiple shady organizations inside Konoha." She continues without noticing his spiking heart rate.

For the better really, she doesn't need to know how much he cares. The fewer people who know how invested he is, the better. "They aren't under the command of the Hokage, but there are precious few people who can create entire organizations under the Hokage's nose and escape unnoticed. I would guess only the Hokage's Council has that power...and Elder Shimura is the only one who commands another sector of ANBU."

Too much. That's too much. "You really are a prodigy." He murmurs. You're going to be the death of me, Hana-chan. "Please, stop right there. There is nothing else you need to know. Do your best to forget all about this." And maybe then, this dangerous attention will pass her by.

The path with Shimura Danzo leads only to death and agony. He wants none of that for her.

She peels his finger away with a too small hand, eyes still an age and a half older than they should be. "Does ignorance make me safe?"

He'd been thinking about it, and ignorance doesn't make her safe, but knowledge is fire that she'd burn herself with, and his heart shudders every time she's toasted — One day, it'll be an injury she doesn't survive.

He doesn't want to be around for that day.

He doesn't want that day to ever arrive.

"Because Elder Shimura seems plenty interested in me already." These words strike too close to home. You don't know half of it, Hana-chan.

"You already had your suspicions." What is this feeling? He runs his hands through his hair in frustration, and if he's truthful with himself, more than a little fear. "And no, I suppose ignorance doesn't make you safe. Your assumptions are correct."

He hasn't been afraid in a long, long time. His own death no longer frightens him, and for a long time, there hasn't been anyone in his life whose death could scare him, but hers, ah hers, that still has the capacity to frighten him. I can't take another loss, Hana-chan. I can't — not you too. Not after Minato-sensei and Kushina-neesan and Obito and Rin and Tou-san and — not you too.

"Why were they here?" And as for Inuzuka Hana-chan…just know that she's important.

His hand makes an abortive movement to his face. "There were...circumstances involved." It's his nature to hide.

She lets him go. "Alright."

"Now, that that's over." It's not over. Nothing's ever really over between them, but that's the process. It's put away for now. It's all he can ask. "I assume you'll tell me about your kekkei genkai now?"

"Tou-san was born in Iwa." He'd known that, though it's easy to forget it. "I inherited the Explosion Release from him." A straightforward case of inheritance that led to Iwa's most famous kekkei genkai arriving in Konoha.

It's almost funny.

He'd made such a hash of things. Paranoid. You're paranoid.

"And your training injury…So that's what it was. Explosions."

She gives him only a slight nod, like her injuries mean nothing to her, and pulls a sheet of paper towards her. "Moving on from that. We need to talk about how we are going to navigate court."

For someone who is so upset about his own tendency to not take care of himself, she's surprisingly hypocritical when it comes to her own wellbeing.

Still, to chastise her is to be a hypocrite himself. He lets it go for the moment.

Nothing is ever really over or finished between them. It all gets picked back up again later.

---

The next morning, he moves everything they own into storage seals, Hana's many many papers among them. She goes to find them a new place to live.

Somehow, her Inuzuka nature has won her friends here in this viper's nest. He won't question it. He'd always know that Inuzuka Hana is charismatic in her own blunt way.

If she has more supporters now than she did before, well, that's a good thing.

As it is, she's left Ichi and Ni with him.

"We need to talk."

Those four words are ones that he never really ever wants to hear. He's fairly certain no one ever wants to hear them.

However, the large grey dog who flops down beside him doesn't seem to have read the manual on words that no one ever wants to hear, and likely wouldn't give a flying rat about proper communication etiquette.

Dogs are like that, and wolves even more so.

Whatever the official records said about the Inuzuka Dogs, he's more than half certain that Hana's Triplets are at least part wolf.

"Do we?" He mutters out of the corner of his mouth as he seals Hana's pack on top of his own into another, larger, expanded storage seal. I want to see anyone getting these out without me.

As Minato-sensei's student, he's at least picked up a little bit about sealing. He's no genius at it, could never keep all the squiggling lines together by pure memory, and afterwards, using the Sharingan to memorize seals just seemed wrong somehow, so he's never done it, but he can get the job done.

"We do." Ichi huffs from beside him. "We ought to know where you stand."

Ni flops down on his other side. "And where you want to stand."

The two of them stare at him with dark eyes, as if daring him to run away from the conversation.

"Do you really not know?"

Is their unfriendliness towards him really because they don't know where he fits? Are they asking him to tell them where he fits?

Will that make everything better?

He doesn't get to decide where he fits.

"You're not blood pack." Ichi scratches his ear with a foot. "But you're not team pack, or family pack either. What are you?"

"I'm friend pack." Even though he knows—

"That doesn't exist." Ni looks at him as if he is a very stupid child. "You can be team pack, or you can be family pack, but all friends are family so friend pack doesn't exist."

All friends are family to the Inuzuka.

"What pack are you?" Ichi asks. "Or are you not-pack?"

Inuzuka have either pack or not-pack. Either brothers and sisters or friendly acquaintances. There's no real in between.

The first rule of friendship is not dying, Kakashi. But until less than a year ago, she'd called him Kakashi-san, too close to be a stranger but too far to be a friend.

He'd used a New Year's wish to change that to just Kakashi, but where does he stand? He doesn't know.

"I just want to stay." Lone wolves don't live long.

And Hana doesn't seem to mind if he stays even if he breaks everything and—

The two dogs next to him scoot closer. "Tell Bisuke that he doesn't get to laugh at us, and we'll be nice to you."

They know more about him than Hana does sometimes, even if the Haimaru brothers are more puppy-like than not on most days. They're more or less okay with him staying even if he still doesn't know the answer to their question.

"I can't force him to be nice." He's finished sealing everything now, so it's time to check back in with Hana-chan. "Can Hana-chan force you to be nice when you don't want to be?"

She's tried to tell them off for being rude before, but it hasn't worked as well as she hoped.

Ichi huffs at him. "But you're older. Shouldn't you know how to make them stop laughing?"

He frowns. "I will give them a stern talking to when I get back." He can at least ask what's started this whole mess. Maybe it's all just a misunderstanding.

---

He knocks once on the doorframe of Kageyoshi Hiruyasu's imperial bedroom and waits the required number of seconds to hear the faint 'come in'

"My lady sent me to watch you." The Crown Prince is Hana's ticket out of Danzo's lair, so it's best that he act as polite as possible. They'll meet up again presumably in Tsuya-ooji's garden, but at the moment, she has to get their belongings there.

They might not be on different sides after all. It's best to keep that in mind.

"Did she?" The words are still faint. The man looks like he's trying his best not to cough. The whole room stinks of sweat. "That's kind of her."

Somehow, despite the almost sardonic tone, Yasino-ooji doesn't seem terribly sarcastic. The sincerity is rare Court.

"She is." There's a lot Kakashi wants to ask, but he doubts he'll really get his answers.

He isn't half as good at getting people to tell him things of their own free will as Hana-chan is.

Why a careful man would go on an outing with someone he knew wanted to kill him is one of those questions.

"Value her." Yasino-ooji sighs. "People like her are rare."

Maybe that's why. Inuzuka Hana draws people to her because she's so very real. She shows her love and her hatred so clearly.

She doesn't wear masks, doesn't play games. It's easy to value that.

Kakashi tilts his head to the side. It might not be as hard as he thinks to ask. "You went to the boating party."

"And I deeply regret that decision." The Crown Prince's eyes fall closed. "Ask your question."

"Why did you go?" He suspects it's because there was news of foul play and Yasino-ooji thought of them.

But then that begs the question of why they are so important.

"I heard someone planned to murder a child and her chief retainer." The words are dry as dust blowing in the autumn wind. "And they just walked right into a trap. How could I stay away?"

He's been a shinobi for too long. He forgets how this looks from the outside.

Inuzuka Hana is a child in the eyes of civilians. Civilians are attached to children, even ones that are not their own.

He's been a shinobi for too long. Hana-chan, for all that she is ten, is no child to him.

The silence between them stretches out long.

Luckily, someone comes to distract them from the heaving coughing fits and his own distinct lack of comforting abilities.

Asuma bows as he crosses the doorway. "Yasino-ooji, may I be granted a moment to speak to Kakashi?"

Yasino-ooji merely waves a hand in consent. He seems halfway between sleeping and waking anyway.

Asuma gestures wildly for him to come outside the door. "Kakashi, this isn't the time for games. You've got to come here."

What's going on now? Ah well, he was supposed to talk to Asuma about the situation in Court anyway. His greatest concern is seeing Hana-chan out of here alive and unharmed. Everything left in Konoha can wait. "What's lit a fire at your feet?"

Asuma makes a face at him. "Do you know the danger you're in?" Asuma leans in. "I heard this just thirty minutes ago…"

---

The Twelve Guardian Ninja have uncovered an attempt at a coup.

How delightful. More politics.

His own guardianship of the Crown Prince is passed of to Tuou, and he follows after the three others on their way to speak to Tsuya-ooji.

He largely needs to confirm that Hana is, in fact, fine. Everything else can wait. Why do you seem to get into more trouble every time I take my eyes off of you?

"My lady." Ah, there she is, dressed a little differently than when she left this morning — she seems to be masquerading as a peasant boy now for some reason — but still entirely unharmed. Excellent. "And Tsuya-ooji, our apologies for disturbing."

Tsuya-ooji merely frowns, and strides forwards, and the door he pauses and looks both ways before carefully shutting it with nary a whisper. "Now." He mutters rather crossly. "What was so urgent that three of the Twelve Guardians showed up at my estate?"

Given the scope of the conspiracy, maybe the fourth prince also finds his own position precarious.

Kitane steps forward. "You are not a peasant."

No really? I thought the Twelve Guardians were made of better stuff.

"No." Hana-chan smudges the makeup until her red fang is visible. "I'm Lady Inuzuka."

Kitane nods to reassure himself. Given that this is his story to tell, Kakashi is patient enough to wait. "Alright, so we've uncovered a plot." He takes a deep breath and centers himself. Kakashi personally wonders if this really warrants this level of concern. But then, he doesn't live here. It's not really on him to know. "Consort Ine approached me this morning with a bribe."

"Sit, Kitane." Tsuya-ooji pulls out a chair.

Kitane sits.

Kakashi makes his way to Hana-chan. "There's more bad news to come, my lady." He's speaking too softly for others to hear, but she should be able to just fine.

He's thankful for all these traits they share between them. Heightened senses aren't foolproof but they're so much easier to work with.

She tilts her head forwards, fingers tapping on his arm. "It figures."

"Now tell us about the bribe." Tsuya-ooji is...unusually eager to uncover a secret. What does he have against the Second Consort, or is it just that that woman made herself so unappealing to everyone except the Daimyo?

"She wanted me to turn against Kageyoshi-sama." Interesting. She loves her son far more than her lover. "I refused of course." Kitane shudders. "And there was an insinuation dropped that I would regret it."

"Has she made any overtures towards you two?" Tsuya-ooji considers Asuma and Chiriku.

"No." Asuma spits. "But it's likely because she knows Konoha wouldn't support it, and Chiriku's got too much of a moral compass."

But no. Konoha does support this, or at least Danzo does.

"And you?" Tsuya-ooji murmurs while staring at him. "What about you?"

Kakashi eye smiles at him. "I was just passing through." Let's see what you make of that.

Tsuya-ooji's eyebrow twitches. "So we may assume that three of you are still loyal."

"Tuou should still be as well." Asuma murmurs. "Consort Ine hates her." So that's why they'd been convinced it was alright leaving the Crown Prince with her.

"Four of you then." Tsuya-ooji mutters. "And we have no idea what she intends. I will attempt to contact Seiya. One of you go protect Aniue from someone poisoning his rose tea, and keep quiet about this."

"Pardon me," Chiriku-san steps forwards. "But shouldn't we let Yasino-ooji know of this immediately?"

"No." Tsuya-ooji snaps back. "Aniue would start coughing up blood again, and we can't have our Crown Prince in such a state when there are still appearances at court to consider."

So the Fourth Prince sides with his eldest brother rather than his second brother. Interesting.

Chiriku's face falls. "The heavens seem to curse our Crown Prince for no reason at all."

Illness doesn't have much to do with heaven. Then, Kakashi's not particularly religious himself.

A shrine back in Konoha begs to differ. He'd spent Bon there for six years as a child until he couldn't convince himself that he was a child or that the family god wanted to listen to him.

Tsuya-ooji rises. "I do not care what the heavens seem to think." He brushes imaginary lint off of his haori and gestures for them all to disperse. "I only care what I think. And I think that you three need to get back to your daily tasks and not congregate about me so obviously."

He squeezes Hana-chan's shoulder once. "Talk. Alone." Konoha standard so brief he doesn't even think Asuma caught it.

Her fingers move against his side. "Yes."

---

They've been stuck in two cramped rooms all night. It had been a sleepless night all things considered.

For him, that is.

Hana-chan had no problem falling asleep. She'd used on of her partners as a pillow, and the dog spent the night chewing her hair. It seems to be normal, enough that she doesn't even mention it when she wakes up, just pulls her hair out of the dog's jaws absently.

"What," she muses. "Would Danzo possibly hope to gain by colluding with Consort Ine?"

"A puppet daimyo?" Kakashi offers. He knows that Danzo was after his — Obito's — eye as well, but there's another thing. Just know she's important.

He's not willing to give up that piece of information yet.

She casts him an unimpressed look. "Doesn't he have that already? Why would he deploy his own forces to attempt to kill of Yasino-ooji?"

"The organization." He will burn in hell for this. Why doesn't his tongue just stay still? He doesn't normally have this problem. "Was not here simply for Yasino-ooji."

She sits up. "You?" She thinks for a moment. "They were here for your eye."

"Obito's eye." He corrects thoughtlessly, and then freezes. "Your perception startles me, Hana-chan." He had made one motion last night. She'd remembered it again without any prompting.

Are you a ghost, Hana-chan? Do you read my mind?

She shrugs. Of course she doesn't read his mind. If she did, she'd be much angrier with him. Thank Okami for small mercies.

"So theoretically, this was a winning scenario for the both of them. He gets...an eye, and Consort Ine gets a crown prince."

"Yes." He considers their situation. It's worse than he thought. How many ROOT Agents had they slaughtered between them? That's already enough to make Danzo angry. And then he'd let Kinoe go. This can only end badly, but he can't say that. "And we've foiled both of those plots."

Perhaps Danzo would… No of course he wouldn't. He wouldn't have mercy on Hana-chan just because she's ten.

For one, Shimura Danzo and mercy don't belong in the same sentence together. For another...She's important.

Important for what? He cannot imagine what.

---

"You're different." He's sitting with Asuma in a central room on the bottom floor of Yasino-ooji's pagoda.

Asuma had been silent until now, but alas, the silence wasn't made to last.

He shrugs. "Yeah, so?" He hadn't changed so much since Asuma saw him last.

The last time they'd seen each other in person had been four, nearly five years ago. A funeral. A funeral.

Minato-sensei—

That thought belongs in the past. He puts it where it belongs. The past doesn't own me. I have a place to stay.

Asuma had left for Kakunodate after another falling out with the Sandaime in the aftermath of the Kyuubi. He's surprised Asuma still hasn't caved and gone home, but maybe he does hate his Otou-san that much.

Kakashi's in no position to judge. If I'd told— That belongs in the past too. Leave it there where it belongs.

"I'm surprised you're here with an Inuzuka girl, Kakashi." Asuma leans back, cigarette dangling from his mouth. "And she's got teeth too."

Ah right. Asuma wasn't around for the beginning of his friendship with Hana-chan. Come to think of it, they'd only really started an acquaintance after the Kyuubi Attack. In the wreckage of the village and the wreckage of his life, a small girl had prevented him from drowning himself in the Nakano River.

"Asuma-san?" Speak of her, and she appears just as though she's been summoned.

He smothers a laugh. She's got the best sense of timing.

Asuma radiates guilt. "I meant nothing—"

"Enough about that really." Hana-chan blows right past his concerns. "Do you know where Chiriku-san is? I need to talk to him."

"Chiriku?" Asuma blinks. "Sure, he should be—"

"Can you go get him?" She has a new idea about something now. There's that determined look that says anything standing in her way is going to have to move. "I need to talk to him."

"Maa..." He looks back at her. "Hana-chan, you're far too excited after having visited a sick man that we depend on."

She sticks her tongue out at him. "Oh hush you." She pokes his nose in a fit of childishness. "I might have found the answers to all of our problems."

He swats at her hand. "Don't be mean, Hana-chan." He doesn't really care. It's good to see her happy again. She's spent the past few weeks decidedly unhappy, partially because of him, but she's happy now, and he likes that enough not to care about his personal embarrassment. "Tell us the good news."

"Kakashi…" She frowns. "I can't tell you if I'm not right."

"Okay…" They both turn back to look at Asuma. That confusion's unwarranted. I haven't done anything that unusual. "I don't know what you've been doing, but keep doing it."

He disappears out the door.

"What was that about?"

Kakashi shrugs. "He seems to think that I'm happier than when he saw me last." He is happier than since the Kyuubi Incident.

It's because of Hana-chan.

He has somewhere to stay now. It's enough. He's not alone anymore.

It's enough.

"And when did he see you last?"

"In the graveyard." He'd been there for Minato-sensei's funeral. And then decided the next morning he really wouldn't mind if he fell into the river and died. "Now, Hana-chan. What was it that you discovered?"

"Yasino-ooji's illness. I think I know what it is."

---

"It's anemia." He doesn't know when she learned anything about diseases, but it's not like he knows everything that she's learned about. "A blood disease. When there aren't enough blood cells to maintain nutrient levels. It causes chronic fatigue among other things."

Chiriku hums with his eyes closed, and his hands glow green. "You said it was when there are fewer blood cells?" How does Hana know more than a medic?

"Yes." She shifts on her feet. "So what's the diagnosis?" She cares about Yasino-ooji.

Not unusual. She cares about almost everyone she meets even if she doesn't seem to notice this.

"Yasino-ooji." Chiriku glances over at Hana-chan. "Does in fact have fewer blood cells than average."

"So it was a blood disease." There's a note of resignation in Yasino-ooji's voice. It has to do with his position in Court then. "Well, it can hardly be helped."

"Can you artificially replicate the blood cells?" That's an interesting thing to ask.

It's like she knows this illness, but as far as he knows, there's no reason for her to—

Don't go down this path again. Don't do it.

His paranoia's already cost him once. He won't make the same mistake again. He's a genius for a reason. He won't make the same mistake twice. Even if he's made the same mistake too many times and lost too much for it.

"For the time being, that is a possible patch." Chiriku concentrates, the green glow grows wider and brighter. "But it's not permanent." He warns. "Artificially replicating blood cells too often will lead to an early demise."

"I'll take what I can get at this point." The Crown Prince props himself up. "I can't languish in bed forever. Lady Inuzuka, thank you."

He bows to Hana-chan.

"Don't do that." She flushes bright red, though not as red as those fangs. "You're the Crown Prince, other people shouldn't see you—"

"Bow?" Yasino-ooji sounds amused. "As far as I am aware-Lady Inuzuka you may correct me if I am wrong, but-you would have killed a person to have had me grovel at your feet after I nearly ran you over on your first day in the capital."

"That was something else."

Kakashi does his level best to not burst out laughing, but it's a near thing. Hana-chan makes a face at him.

Chiriku rises. "As it is, I will return when we need to coordinate our plans."

"Which plans?" Oh yes, they hadn't told Yasino-ooji about the recent developments out of concern for his health.

Best fix that now that he's in no danger of relapse.

"There has been," Kakashi interjects. "Reports that she is attempting to bribe various members of the Twelve Guardians."

"Has she set a date for her plans?"

"Yasino-ooji? Who was Consort Ine before she became consort?" She's thinking hard. Something else is bothering her.

"Imube Ine was one of the many daughters of Imube-sama." Yasino-ooji grimaces. "And one of Chichi-ue's many mistresses before his marriage to Haha-ue."

And something else clicks together in her mind. The look on her face is bitter.

But he can't help that, so he does nothing.

---

He heads out with Asuma to find some evidence of the Second Consort's wrongdoing. It shouldn't be hard.

"We just have to target some Imube clan members."

Asuma casts him a look. "You don't know anything about this Court do you?"

He shrugs. "Tell me what's wrong with the decision I made." It's not as though he can't take criticism. It's just easier to cut to the heart of the matter.

"Members of the Imube Clan have the Daimyo in their pocket. There's no way we can target anyone important in that clan unless we want to lose our heads."

"You're really going to let a civilian behead you?" Five years at the capital has changed Asuma then. He's thinking like someone who has to bow to the whims of civilians.

Since when did the Daimyo have power of Sarutobi Asuma?

"You think it'll blow over with Konoha if the Daimyo really wants to make a fuss over it?" Asuma's surprisingly serious. "You don't know my Otou-san if you think you think he'll blatantly flaunt his power just to get me out of trouble."

If anything, Hatake Sakumo had always—

No. Past. Past does not belong in the present.

"Fair enough." He concedes the point. "What do you suggest we do?"

"We go nab a few very minor members of the Imube clan."

Kakashi sighs. "Isn't that what I said?"

"No." Asuma turns down a side path. "We're going to nab the ones that I want to nab, not the ones you happen upon."

Fine, fine. Court is Asuma's hunting ground. He'll concede that too. Whatever it takes at the moment.

If they can get rid of the Second Consort, they can get the Daimyo to talk to Hana at the very least.

---

They drag two very unfortunate men to Yasino-ooji's study. "This is unlawful detainment." The one of the right grouses. Kakashi didn't bother to remember their names. It's really not important. "We're your imperial relatives, Hiruyasu-ooji."

Yasino-ooji strides back and forth between them, his hair falling messily out of the high tail. Someone who hasn't slept much recently. There must be plenty to think about. "A correction, Imube-san. You are Asahano-chan's relatives, but you are most certainly not mine."

So the Crown Prince has a spine. He'd been more than he seemed.

The one on the left opens his mouth. "Then you must know that—"

Yasino-ooji unsheathes his sword in one fluid stroke, and examines it very casually. "I must?" He runs a finger down the flat of the blade. "I didn't know that there was anything that I must know."

Kakashi revises his sentiment. Make that completely cracked now. Yasino-ooji seems one step away from a complete mental breakdown and a murder spree.

"Hiruyasu-ooji." The one on the right smiles. "Surely there's no need for anger, right? We've just been detained by these..." The man glances over. Kakashi eye smiles and waves at him. Fuck you. "Shinobi. We'll see ourselves out."

"No." Retainer Abe blocks the door. "Those who want to commit treason ought never escape." He holds his arm out across the door, a pipe in hand. "Tell Hiruyasu-ooji what you've done."

Now that the Crown Prince is determined to fight, all sorts of people are coming out of the woodwork to help him. How interesting.

Kakashi wonders how long Yasino-ooji has been waiting to turn the tables. How deep are the roots of this plan now set in motion?

"Why must we listen to you?" The man on the right takes a step towards Retainer Abe. "Don't you know that your own position at court is at stake?"

The man on the left sneers. "He doesn't have a future at court."

The sword in Yasino-ooji's hand twitches. "So you admit it then. Consort Ine has paid you to spread lies in front of Chichi-ue. You want Asahano-chan to become the next Daimyo." He doesn't say anything about the bribe.

That is very interesting.

"You have to admit." The one of the left glances at him. "A hot headed prince without any friends or any understanding of the outside world and a weak constitution, compared to a friendly, charismatic prince who often visits Konoha? Which one would you choose?"

"Retainer." Hana-chan steps out from behind the bookcase, two hands clenched into fists. "You have to admit, a black-hearted prince who is willing to kill his brother for a title, or a young man who tries so hard to be understanding despite being crushed by a mountain of expectations? Which one would you choose?"

At the moment, she looks every inch the queen she has the potential to be. Her fangless smile cuts just as sharp.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Lady Inuzuka." Kakashi approves of how many teeth she shows.

"Don't be so surprised." The other one hisses. "She's just a little girl."

Hana-chan blinks. "Yes, I'm just a little girl, so could you please tell me what's going on?" She takes another step forward.

The two cowards take a step back. "Don't be stupid." The one on the left hisses at the one on the right. "She killed two men not two weeks ago. She's not dumb enough to not know what's going on."

So they heard about that too. Kakashi feels inordinately proud, given that he hasn't actually taught Hana-chan anything dangerous. Still, she's his friend, so he's proud of how far she's come.

She takes another step forward.

The coward on the left takes a step back and trips over decorative table, a scroll rolling out of his sleeve.

Kakashi scoops it up. "I think we need to take this." He passes it to Yasino-ooji. "I believe you might need this as evidence."

---

The plan evolves once more. Yasino-ooji baits his younger brother with the idea that he will soon be leaving court, and by extension, the position of Crown Prince.

Kakashi secretly wonders how long the Crown Prince had been hiding his true nature from his siblings. How on earth is Asahano-ooji able to believe that his brother would willingly step aside?

Yasino-ooji has been planning for a long time to get rid of his second brother and Consort Ine then. Kakashi almost applauds him. He's played his part well.

The man himself has arrived. Court looms before them.

Kakashi falls in place a step behind Hana-chan.

"Lady Inuzuka." Yasino-ooji offers Hana-chan his arm, and nods curtly in Kakashi's direction. "Sharingan no Kakashi."

He puts Icha Icha Paradise away and nods back. "Yasino-ooji."

Court is crowded, filled with overlapping whispers and hurried movement. He keeps his senses trained on Hana-chan, and by extension Yasino-ooji.

This is the perfect place for an assassination.

Hana-chan meets more people who could help her goal. The Minister of the Right, and the Minister of the Left are both in Yasino-ooji's favor.

How did Consort Ine not see the writing on the wall? Do not tell me that Yasino-ooji is really that good at acting the weak and dying elder prince?

Then, Kakashi doesn't know. Maybe he'll ask Asuma later.

He doesn't have much hope for answers though. He and Asuma had wildly different opinions the last time they'd tried to work together.

All of the princes are here. All that's missing is the Daimyo, and then this play can get well and truly started.

"Kageyoshi-sama has arrived!"

"Bansai!" Everyone drops to their knees. Kakashi follows suit. Good. Hana-chan did too. "A thousand years of good health to the Daimyo!"

"Rise." The Daimyo doesn't look like much. He's a middle aged man with a ridiculous headdress. "Now, would anyone like to bring any affairs for the day?"

Still, he's a middle aged man in a headdress that could potentially order Asuma's death on a whim. Even Sandaime-sama has to take into account what he wants. It is easy to forget that when in Konoha, or out and about in Konoha's name.

Yasino-ooji disputes with the Minister of Grain about accounts. The tension in the room is about to boil over.

A knot settles between Kakashi's shoulder blades. Asahano-ooji is armed. Yasino-ooji is not.

Should something happen, Yasino-ooji is not his brother's equal with a sword in hand, especially if he doesn't have a sword to begin with.

The trap closes.

The Minister of Grain still thinks he can escape."C-consort I-"

"Anata." Consort Ine murmurs. "It must have been an accounting mistake."

"It wasn't one." Yasino-ooji stalks towards Minister Imube. "Now tell me, what were you about to say?"

The tension worsens.

"C-consort Ine had a propos— I mean, I cannot—"

Kageyoshi drops the scroll. It rolls across the dias. "Ine, what does he mean?"

"Ana—" Everything begins to unravel. "This one is sorry, Kageyoshi-sama, but—"

"But?" So the Daimyo can pry himself away from his favoritism long enough to be angry. "Have I not spent enough money on you? Did you need to install a relative of yours to funnel money towards your own pursuits?" He doesn't turn his head. "Yasino, how much money was it, that was lost?"

"Sixty million ryo." Yasino-ooji replies. "Last year."

"Sixty million—" Kageyoshi-sama sits down, heavily. "Tea." Tuou steps forward with a cup. "I need tea."

Yasino-ooji's smile sticks with him. It sticks with him, because it looks like the smile of someone who has won something he's been waiting a long time for.

A frisson runs down his spine. It's not because—

The Daimyo is dead. If he didn't place the poison, then he didn't stop it from happening.

"My first duty is service to Fire Country. I could not possibly leave." No. Of course not. Underneath his frail appearance and arrogant attitude, Yasino-ooji is an ambitious man. He would not let go so easily. "But I am afraid that I have more bad news to report. I've recently unearthed an assassination attempt on your life."

But who truly planned this assassination attempt?

It doesn't matter. It's already been successful.

"If that is the case, Kageyoshi-sama," Minister Nakatomi steps forward. "I must ask that you punish the vile woman accordingly."

"Surely not," Another minister protests. "How are we to ascertain that Consort Ine is not being falsely implicated?" He tips his head in Yasino-ooji's direction. "It is no offense to Hiruyasu-ooji, of course, but the scroll cannot be considered evidence."

"I can be considered evidence." Kitane strides in through a side door. The net is pulling closer, all the while, the true culprit in this murder will never be caught. "Consort Ine contacted me directly to attempt to bribe my loyalty, I suspect the other Guardians have been similarly propositioned. Are bribing the Guardians the actions of a loyal consort? I must ask that you punish the Consort Ine, Kageyoshi-sama."

"But if that is not enough proof for you." Asuma and Chiriku appear dragging the two members of the Imube Clan formerly locked in Yasino-ooji's basement with them. "We have these two members of the Imube clan who were in contact with Hiruhitzen-oji. Who have been in a plot to take Yasino-oji's life by bribing the imperial doctors."

"You—" The poison works faster with anger. How clever of you, Yasino. "You—" He does not finish the sentence. Blood sprays across the dias.

"Chichi-ue?" Kageyoshi Hiruyasu has spent too long acting.

His facial expression is impeccable, without reproach.

Asahano draws his sword, and rushes towards his elder brother's defenseless back. Kakashi doesn't believe for a moment that it's truly defenseless.

Hana-chan and the Triplets surge forward. "Stop this." She hisses. "Or I will break your wrist."

Asahano pulls a knife on Hana-chan, and—

That's enough.

Kakashi has a kunai over his throat between one breath and the next. "Maa...I think that's enough, Asahano-chan!"

Hana-chan crushed his wrist. He's so proud.

---

Yasino-ooji asks for Hana-chan to sit with him in his Otou-san's sickroom. He still looks like he is grieving, even if he caused that sickroom to begin with. Kakashi doesn't understand it, doesn't understand kinslaying, but it's hard to tell if the Daimyo is kin with his sons at all.

Hatake Sakumo— No. He can't put his Otou-san in the past so many times.

They are far closer than the rest of the court is even aware of.

Yasino-ooji has taste at least. He appreciates Hana-chan's brand of honesty.

Kakashi gets questions from various courtiers.

He props Icha Icha Paradise up in front of his face while guarding the door and doesn't answer anything.

Hana-chan's chances of escaping Danzo have just gotten better.

He's in the middle of reading about Masako's attempts to figure out her future — decently relatable — when Hana-chan finally appears again.

"My lady?" He's gotten a little used to referring to her as such, but that doesn't make it true. She's not his lady. She's his Hana-chan. He offers her an arm.

She sets a hand in the crook of his elbow. "Mission. Success. Soon."

He nods, and taps back. "Good. Home. Soon."

The sooner they get out of the capital, the better he'll feel.

---

Fish nibble at him as he dips his feet into the water. They've found the Daimyo's koi pond, or at least one of them here in Morimo-ooji's gardens in the aftermath of everything that's happened.

He's kicked off his sandals, so his feet are bare. "I didn't think we would actually succeed."

Hana-chan sits a little ways off, her hand in the water. She throws a handful of water at him. Chakra control's gotten better. "That's so mean!"

But his is better. He makes one hand sign, and launches a wave at her. "It's my job to be mean."

She splutters, dripping, trying to wipe the water from her eyes. Her frustration changes to determination as she scrubs her hands over her face.

Five steps back, she pauses for a moment eyes narrowed, before she charges forward, shoving them both straight into the pond.

They break the surface together.

He spits out a mouthful of water. "Hana-chan!"

She treads water, giggling all the while. "I wouldn't have been able to do it, if you didn't let me."

Quite true. Her intentions were visible from a mile away. If he really wanted to, he could have thrown her into the pond by herself and stayed dry.

Still, it's more fun this way.

Ni takes a flying leap at the pool.

They are caught in the path of the spraying water.

The look on her face makes him laugh. Clearly, she hadn't expected to be drenched again.

There are footsteps on the other side of the garden. He pulls his mask back over his face. A person...closer...it's Asuma.

"Kakashi?" Asuma still looks unbalanced somehow, though Kakashi's sure that whatever changes he's gone through haven't been that much. He's not that different from that day in the graveyard, is he? He isn't. "Are you — oh never mind." Asuma shakes his head. Let it be known that at least Sarutobi Asuma knows when he's lost the fight. "The Daimyo wants his Lady Inuzuka. He says he's about to go mad."

Hana-chan climbs out of the water and shakes herself off, hair flying everywhere as she does so. "Does he want me now, or later?"

"He wanted you two hours ago." Asuma shades his eyes against the glare of the sun. Still, Kakashi's rather certain Asuma's studying him from under one calloused hand and finding that something doesn't add up. "And I'm sure he's about to chew the head off of someone by now."

"I see." Hana-chan shakes her head mockingly. "I bet he wants me to go drink tea with him."

"Actually." Asuma rubs his day old stubble. "It's tea."

Hana-chan groans. "Kakashi, do you want to come with me to take tea with a tiger?"

He shrugs. "Nope." He smiles at me. "I'll sit here and catch up with Asuma, yeah?" He has to sort this out before they leave the Capital.

Asuma looks like he's bursting with questions anyway.

Hana-chan casts him a glare that can't even burn him to a crisp. "Traitor." Her smiles are sharper and more pointed.

He'll have to remind her to work on it later.

"So what's going on with you?" Asuma asks when Hana-chan turns the corner and out of sight.

Kakashi shrugs once more. "What do you think's going on?"

Asuma runs a hand through his hair. "Beats me if I know. Out with it, Kakashi. I haven't the patience for looking underneath the underneath."

"There's nothing to look underneath." Kakashi pulls himself out of the water and into the summer sun. "I made a friend."

"With a little Inuzuka?" Asuma lights a cigarette.

"Something wrong with that?" He asks, lazily swirling a hand in the water.

Asuma holds up his hands. "Nothing. There's nothing wrong."

His body posture says otherwise though. I don't need your judgement, Asuma.

One hand sign and he drenches Asuma too. "Look underneath the underneath more, Asuma." He singsongs as he grabs his sandals and leaps onto the tiled roof.

Down below, Asuma sighs as his cigarette goes out. "That doesn't even mean anything, Kakashi." He grouses as he searches through his vest for another, dry cigarette to light. "Underneath the underneath is the top, if you must know."

Kakashi smothers a chuckle. Things look better than they do in years, and the afternoon sunlight is brighter than he remembers it should be.

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Bansai- A Japanese war-cry literally "(may you live) ten thousand years," originally a greeting addressed to the emperor, from ban "ten thousand" + sai "year."

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A.N. So, I started this June of last year, but this chapter is a monster, clocking in at ~23K, so I'm okay with it taking 7ish months. At least we now get to see Kakashi POV of the capital arc? I hope it makes everyone as happy as I did when writing it!

Also, I've decided that Kakashi's theme song is Soldier by Fleurie. In other news, Bloodless has a discord now, if anyone wants to join us and discuss stuff. Invite is 8KhM9C6.

Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed, favorited, and followed. I really love hearing your thoughts.

~Tavina