Kakashi insists on doing the Henge before taking off his mask and Snake has no leg to stand on to complain. She is a strict taskmaster, insisting that he adjust the facial features over and over again until she is satisfied with the degree of familial resemblance with her own borrowed face. The similarities must be convincing, yet not too obvious. The differences between the genders must also be taken into account together with a myriad of other details. ("The ears, Hound-kun. Don't forget the ears!")
Kakashi's Henge looks around thirty-something, square-jawed and ruggedly handsome, with short brown hair a shade darker than Snake's and sky blue eyes like Minato's. He looks jarringly unfamiliar, though something nags at the back of Sakumo's mind as he stares at his son's reflection in the mirror.
Satisfied with the face, Snake moves on to critique the rest of the body.
It's only when Rin pipes up that Sakumo realises what he's been seeing. "The Henge looks a bit like you, you know?"
And so it does. There are touches of familiarity here and there, in the shape of his nose, the curve of the eye, the fine lines bracketing the mouth... Sakumo wonders if Kakashi is doing it consciously, or if Kakashi's brain is just throwing in pieces of whatever he can remember.
Sakumo isn't quite sure what this feeling in his chest is.
"The anatomy is textbook perfect of course, but..." The character is to be civilian, so Kakashi has to adjust his figure to something less shinobi-like and more "desk worker who exercises once a week". Snake pokes at Kakashi's stomach, demanding that the blushing teen lose the muscle definition there, and a giggle escapes an equally red-faced Rin.
It's surprisingly difficult to piece together a Henge from imagination, as opposed to simply copying someone's identifying features like taught in the Academy. The degree of detail Snake demands is also much more exacting. ("Adjust the curve of the spine to account for bad posture!")
"Are you going to teach me your version of the Henge?" Kakashi asks with feigned nonchalance.
She quirks her eyebrow, looking remarkably bratty in her child-form. "It's more difficult than your standard Henge and it incorporates seal work. I'll teach it to you when you've got the acting down." She bares her teeth in a smile. "Consider it an incentive." Kakashi grumbles a bit but stutters to a stop at the next thing that comes out of Snakes mouth.
"Keep your underwear but take off your pants. It's not your body, so you have nothing to be shy about."
Rin squeaks and buries her face in her hands. "M-maybe we should leave?" Uneasiness coils tightly in Sakumo's gut at the sight of the panic that flashes across Kakashi's face. He'll kill Snake, ANBU or not, if she attempts anything untoward... Thankfully no mysterious death occurs because Snake considers Kakashi's pale face for a long moment and relents. The tension thrumming through Kakashi eases and his two ghosts relax as well.
"You're really uncomfortable with this, huh. How do you even go to the onsen?"
Kakashi laughs awkwardly. "I don't go to public ones."
"Communal showers?"
"No such thing in the battlefield. Outside of that, I could always go home."
She huffs. "Alright. I won't force you. I suppose getting you out of your mask was a triumph enough."
"Sorry," Kakashi mumbles, hanging his head.
"As long as you can get the Henge right and don't let it affect you in the field, it's fine. Everyone has their quirks. Anyway the legs should be easy enough — just be hairy, hah. Let me look at your feet." She crouches down. "Your toenails are too perfect. They look like they've been manicured. Do you manicure your nails?"
Kakashi snorts, amused. "No. My nails are just naturally beautiful." He does the hand seals, adjusts the Henge to make the toenails duller and a little chipped. He sticks out a foot and wriggles his toes. "Satisfied?"
"Mmhm."
"Has anyone's cover gotten blown because of these details?"
Snake looks up with a crooked smile. "I had a close call once. I was pretending to be the daughter of a noble I was to assassinate, and her father kept asking me why I hadn't painted my fingernails. Which was, apparently, what the daughter was obsessed with but our informants didn't pick up. Had to make up a bullshit lie about believing in some scientific study denouncing nail polish." She turns serious. "If the interrogators are good, they'll watch out for these details. It's the same for any genjutsu."
Kakashi nods gravely and Snake beams. She tosses him his shirt and springs to her feet. "Henge your uniform into something civilian and then we can go!"
"Aren't we going to go through the personality?" Kakashi asks with slight anxiety.
"No better practice than speaking to people. C'mon, chop chop!" Snake runs through the appropriate hand seals and does a twirl as her uniform transforms into a cutesy blue dress. Both ghosts can't help but gape at that and a bark of laughter escapes Kakashi.
"Senpai."