A/N: A bit of fluff when Kakashi's ninken try to distract him :)
After saying farewell to Minato and Kushina for one final time, Kakashi and Snake head back to Kakashi's apartment.
With how often Kakashi stays in ANBU nowadays, Sakumo has almost forgotten how tiny this place is. The front door opens straight into the bedroom, and the living room is nothing but some empty space between Kakashi's desk and the open kitchen. A bookshelf stands to the left side of the bed together with the cabinet, and the toilet is tucked away behind a dividing wall.
Wrinkling his nose at the stale air, Kakashi pushes open the creaking window above the bed and ties back the curtains. "Are your ninken coming back?" Snake asks as she slips her mask off and clips it to her belt.
"Speaking of the devil..." Kakashi mutters, and a moment later eight furry bullets come leaping through the window, claws skittering wildly over the wooden flooring. Bisuke, who has always liked Snake best, leaps straight into her arms. His weight makes her stumble back a step, but she grins when he licks her cheek. "Are you all birds or dogs?" Kakashi grumbles as he snatches up a towel and a spare set of his uniform.
Everyone who has a tail wags it at Kakashi's recovered snark. "Your friends are all alright, Boss," Pakkun reports succinctly. Tension leeches out of Kakashi and the teen gives Pakkun a grateful nod. With a toothy grin, Shiba fetches a pair of boxers from the cabinet and tosses it at Kakashi, who snatches it out of the air with a renewed scowl.
"Make yourself comfortable," Kakashi says to Snake. "There's tea in the kitchen cabinet if you want some."
"And yum-yum's in there too," Akino pipes up saying. His sunglasses glint conspiratorially. At the ninken's seriousness, Sakumo can't help but smile.
""Yum-yum"?" Snake parrots. Kakashi groans loudly and narrows his eyes in warning at the ninken sprawled all over the floor. The bathroom door slams behind the silver-haired jounin and Guruko shakes his head.
"That's what Kakashi calls canned chunky chicken," Uhei bursts out saying not a moment later, his lips turn up at the corners to reveal a little teeth.
"I was four!" comes the muffled yell through the bathroom door, making Rin grin a little as well. "You were all weepy puppies!"
Turning up his nose at Kakashi's protests, Pakkun leads Snake to the cabinet and waits until she gets out the canned treats obligingly. "He would sing a song too, to get us to come for dinner," Pakkun reveals as a reward for Snake's cooperation. Bull snorts loudly at that and Urushi howls like a hyena.
"Really?" Rin asks with amusement and Sakumo nods, chuckling. To be fair, it was Sakumo who had started puppy-talking in order to help Kakashi's new pack of baby ninken feel more at home after being summoned to a foreign environment. Kakashi had copied him, and Sakumo had barely resisted the urge to pinch Kakashi's cheeks and squeal over his son like those ladies in the market.
Kakashi comes out of the toilet with his hair sticking in all directions and mask barely covering the flush in his cheeks. "I thought you guys were supposed to be on my side," he gripes indignantly. The only response his ninken deign to give him is absent-minded tail wagging. They are all too busy gobbling down the food Snake had set out for them on plates.
From her seat at his desk, Snake hands Kakashi his bento with a smirk. "Eat up."
Making an expression of exaggerated shock, Kakashi takes the proffered food. "Senpai paid for this? The planets have aligned!" She rolls her eyes and tries to nail him with the chopsticks, only to have them snatched out of the air. Kakashi perches himself on the edge of his bed and snaps the chopsticks apart nonchalantly. "Ittadakimasu."
They eat in silence after that, letting the breeze filtering through the window cool them. As one of the older developments, Kakashi's apartment is sufficiently far away from Minato's house that the Kyuubi's destruction had not reached the area. The block opposite shields the village centre from view, leaving them with a false sense of normalcy.
"What did you want to talk to me about?" Kakashi asks as he picks off the last grain of rice. At Snake's raised eyebrow, he reaches out with his chakra and activates the privacy wards.
"I'm leaving for a mission tomorrow — a meeting with the daimyo of Cha no Kuni as Yondaime-sama."
Kakashi's expression flickers but he buries his emotions quickly. "How long?"
"A few weeks should be more than enough. It's just a meeting about trade, but Sandaime-sama doesn't want anyone to know about Konoha's situation. That's why there are so few shinobi around — we lost about 15% of our fighting strength due to the Kyuubi attack, not to mention civilian casualties, so everyone is overloaded with missions in order to maintain a semblance of order to the outside world." Snake fixes Kakashi with a stern look. "Sandaime-sama wants you to stay here though, to help protect and rebuild the village."
"He thinks I'm unstable," Kakashi says flatly.
"He's giving you time to recover, and to be frank, you need it. We have a lot of ANBU casualties, so you might be promoted to captain soon." Kakashi jerks in surprise and Snake nods. "You'll need your head on right if you're going to lead," she says, not unkindly.
A contemplative look crosses Kakashi's face. "So ANBU is recruiting. Are we lowering the age range?"
"Case by case basis. Doesn't mean you won't get people older than you, though." Kakashi frowns but Snake shakes her head. "Don't worry about it. Take a break, sort yourself out, and the rest will fall into place."
The silver-haired teen nods slowly, still doubtful but with determination gradually settling over him.
"He'll make a good captain," Rin says with a gentle look towards Kakashi. "He might forget himself, but he'll keep going because of the people relying on him."
'Hopefully, he'll meet teammates who care for him in return,' Sakumo muses. ANBU hasn't been as bad for Kakashi as Sakumo initially thought it would be, if only because of the close bond he has formed with Snake.
"Senpai," Kakashi asks as he packs away their trash and heads to the rubbish chute in the kitchen. "Did you speak to Sandaime-sama about Danzou?"
"Yes." She hesitates briefly. "Unfortunately, Sandaime-sama is putting the matter aside for the moment."
The slam of the rubbish chute door almost takes of Kakashi's fingers. "What?!"
Snake just shakes her head regretfully.
"But we have evidence of ROOT activity in Ame! And the Ame kids — we just need to find Orochimaru's labs and we'll have evidence of his involvement too!"
The way Snake's brows are drawn together speaks of a jaded worldliness. "I know."
"Then...?" he splutters.
"He says that Konoha is already weak due to the Kyuubi attack. If we act against Danzou, at best, there would be internal strife, and at worst, there would be civil war."
A reasonable explanation. It makes Kakashi's anger falter but not fade. "So he's scared of Danzou."
"Only a fool wouldn't be."
"Minato-sensei wouldn't have allowed him to get away like this," Kakashi retorts.
At the sight of Kakashi's clenched fists, Snake rises with a sigh and walks over to take Kakashi by the shoulders. "Don't show your anger towards the Sandaime or Danzou. Especially Danzou, do you understand?" Only when he nods stiffly does she release him with a wan smile. "We'll have some other chance when things settle down a bit. I'm sorry, Kakashi. When I took you on as my protégé and when I asked you to follow me to Ame, I thought Yondaime-sama would be around to protect you until long after Danzou's dead."
"I don't need protection," Kakashi replies with a stubborn frown.
"Perhaps not," Snake concedes, "but you can never be too careful. You heard what Otsu said. Danzou has a grudge against me. By extension, that means you're on his radar too. Don't antagonise him. In fact... Once you become captain, we probably shouldn't associate anymore."
Kakashi head snaps up, his lips curled in a snarl. The ninken perk up their ears in interest. "I'm not going to tiptoe around him. Danzou isn't my father. He doesn't get to decide who I can associate with."
"I don't think he'll let me decide either," Sakumo murmurs wryly, and Rin hides a smile.
"Alright, young man." There's fondness in Snake's lopsided grin. "I suppose he doesn't get to read your diary either." Chuckling at Kakashi grumble of protest, she unhooks her mask from her belt and heads towards the window. "Just stay out of trouble, you."
Kakashi's belligerent posture eases. "Going already?" The forlorn note that accidentally slips into Kakashi's voice makes her pause and look back, blinking owlishly behind her mask. Kakashi stands rigidly, his face growing redder with embarrassment by the second. "Sorry, don't mind me—"
Snake steps up onto the window sill lightly and casually shrugs. "Maa, just going to borrow a futon. I'll be back."
A/N: Hmm no Hiruzen bashing intended. Just legitimate disagreement and erosion of trust between Sandaime and Snake & Kakashi. Even though Minato is dead, Kakashi's loyalties still lie first with Minato then Hiruzen.