So as promised, the update was hella slow in coming -.-' I was a little distracted what with Naruto morphing into soft core yaoi overnight and all..

Thankyou to all you shiny folks who left me a review, they really make my day -coddles fragile ego- And I'm glad people are sharing the ninja dog love because there's lots more of them to come. Please note that this chapter turned out just as tangent filled and kind of heavy on the swears, Kakashi and Kiba are a bad combination. Still unbeta'd and gramatically challenged.

Chapter 2: The not quite cavalry.

Kakashi's feet barely touched branch before he was on to the next jump, navigating the forest with a practised ease and at a pace bolstered by the knot of anxiety in his stomach. Up ahead Pakkun was a chocolaty coloured blur in the leaves; racing after the smell they had picked up nearly half a day before out on the fire country borders.

The smell of Isamu's blood - which luckily unlike a simple scent trail resonated enough for the pug to trace even in the rains, however faint.

Kakashi's hands curled tighter around his drawn kunai as he moved, unable to completely control the particularly interesting brand of fiery rage blossoming somewhere in the back of his skull, a development which usually meant someone was going to end up with a chidori sized hole in their chest. The feeling had been growing steadily with every mile they covered, a dull background pitch to boil his thoughts out.

When was the last time Isamu got so much as scratched? He couldn't remember, it had been that long ago.

To think of the Ninken as vulnerable caused him pain in some very involved and well.. complicated ways that he didn't quite feel like allowing himself to understand, but to think of him dieing alone in a dark corner somewhere was down right unbearable. And it wasn't going to happen. They would find him first, Kakashi had decided.

Pakkun made a little signalling noise and dropped downwards to the forest floor as they reached the Konoha barrier.

"He made it home" he pug said blandly, clearly he wasn't allowing much hope his fellow Ninken had made it any further.

"He's strong" Kakashi muttered as they mounted the wall, less than shadows under the guard's gaze, and were soon in the village and flitting across their team mate's track completely undetected - there wasn't time for the formalities of a check in.

"So was the attacker" came the little dog's answer as his nose twitched in the wet air and altered their course accordingly.

Pakkun could be so depressingly realistic, and here he certainly had a point. From what they had found in the forests spanning the journey home Isamu's assailant had forced him into a drawn out game of cat and mouse (pardon the phrase), from which he had barely escaped with his life, and still might not yet.

More disturbing was that neither Kakashi or any of the dogs could identify the mystery nin's country or allegiance in the scents left behind, let alone figure out how they had known where to lie in wait to ambush Isamu.

Kakashi had dispatched him ahead with a message barely minutes after obtaining the valued information that had been their mission goal, while the rest of the pack stayed behind to 'clean up' - it had appeared Isamu got the more pleasant of the two tasks, though in hindsight apparently not.

The ninja must have either been stalking them all along completely undetected, indicating an S class criminal of unknown power (by which Kakashi meant possibly more powerful than himself, but preferred not to say it) was loose in the fire country.. or that the person had just got extremely lucky.. and still had to be at the very least dangerously unstable to attack a Ninken of Isamu's level for what? The hell of it? assuming they were unaware of the scroll..

Whatever the truth, they were going to be sorry. Kakashi had decided that too.

Right now however the first priority had to be discovering whether the Konoha information chain had been breached, and that meant finding Isamu, as it had already become obvious they didn't stand a chance of following the ninja responsible by the non existent scent trail. It seemed whatever else this nin was they knew a thing or two about tracking. But Kakashi would find them some other way, in or out of a mission parameter, though he expected Tsunade would be more than willing to oblige him it as an official duty once he reported the news. Considering Isamu had almost been taken down (almost Kakashi told himself again) any number of lesser Konoha summons were also at risk, if messages were being targeted.

Their speed increased as Pakkun lead the way through the familiar wind of the commercial quarter and down a series of back alleyways, at first it seemed that Isamu might have been heading for the missions tower but then his course began to waver and double back on itself, loosing any clear sense of direction in the darkened Konoha streets.

"What's he playing at?" the pug muttered in irritation as he was forced to turn and retrace his steps for the fourth time in a row. "He could find the way home in his sleep.. even if he was dieing he would still get himself back to that squat you call an apartment.. normally" his little round eyes were dark and serious as he looked up at Kakashi.

"We don't know anything for certain yet" the copy nin murmured, using his own well-trained nose to keep following where Pakkun had left off. Here where the prevailing scent of people overhung everything a Ninken's earthy musk stood out a mile to those who knew how to look. "We find him first"

"You're the boss" Pakkun bounded up ahead again and Kakashi knew without looking that his droopy face would be drawn into a scowl. Temperamental little bastard - and he had the nerve to say Kakashi was bad at coping.

They moved on in silence for a while, following the missing dog's wanderings back and forth through gardens, under rubbish bins (well here Kakashi pretty much supervised, even he wasn't that bendy) and up behind market stalls until both man and dog were fuming in silent frustration.

"Of course it is entirely possible.." Kakashi panted as he shimmed up a convenient drain pipe to follow the trail's abruptly vertical course onto the roof of a shabby apartment block ".. that he has chosen to spend his final hours pissing us off"

Pakkun gave an amused grunt as he waddled across the tiling. "That sounds about-" but he stopped short and scrabbled up a few paces before dropping his head in a growl "Kakashi"

The jonin moved up to see a puddle of blood staining the brickwork, smeared thin by the rainfall but not completely washed away because of the curve of the rooftop

"Damn"

Ninken instinctually used chakra to reroute blood flow away from an injured area whenever possible, meaning that they could carry on moving over fairly large distances even while wounded. If you discovered more than a few drops of their blood at a time it was a pretty clear sign that the dog was reaching its psychical limits.

"The moron wore himself out on that little village wide jaunt" Pakkun was grumbling to himself "Its old as well, at least four hours - maybe more"

Kakashi cursed under his breath and hurried to the roof's edge, single eye staring out over the Konoha skyline. A little tinge of blue was growing under the dark horizon, indicating a fast approaching sunrise (or cloud rise, the storms weren't showing any sign of moving off even if the rain had lessened to a drizzle for the moment) soon there would be enough natural light to search by plain sight as well. Fat lot of good it would do them if all they had left to find was a corpse.

"Come on" Pakkun called as he hopped to the next roof "The trail's heading outwards again, it will be just our luck that he wandered back out of the village in his stupor"

Kakashi followed without comment, wondering for what felt like the hundredth time since they started this search why on earth Isamu hadn't simply ended his summon and returned to the Ninken homeland when he was first attacked. Getting a scroll back quickly was of course important, but the chance of it being taken if he was captured or killed trumped that any day, and while Isamu's mind worked in sometimes unorthodox ways he wasn't so reckless as to run that risk needlessly. Something had happened to skew his judgement, probably the same thing that currently had him roving pointlessly around the village. The whole situation made Kakashi nervous, but without knowing more there was nothing he could do. They just had to find him quickly and get some answers while the dog was still (hopefully) in a condition to give them.

Pakkun paused as they crossed one of the main footpaths leading out of the village proper, as far as the copy nin could tell the scent trail lead off into the woods beyond in a pretty direct course. He gave the dog a questioning look.

"There's a fleeting fresher trail overlapping the first," Pakkun muttered, shifting to try and clarify the information his nose was sending him. "It's Iruka-sensei, an older scent and a newer one.. which is mixed with Isamu's" he blinked and snuffled along a little before letting out a heart felt. "..what the hell?"

Kakashi stiffened, a sudden leaden feeling settling in the bottom of his stomach. "Which way does it go?"

"The second one is heading east over the training pitches" Pakkun scratched distractedly at an ear with his back leg ".. Inuzukas?" he wondered aloud.

"Could be. But still.." Kakashi tried to imagine a scenario where Isamu would be with the chunin-sensei, everything he could construct involved one of the pair being dead or very near it, and (luckily) he didn't think Isamu would drag a kill around afterwards, however out of it he was. "..Follow" he decided at last, teeth gritting.

As they sped after the new trail in no small amount of trepidation, Kakashi couldn't help fearing the worst for his errant Ninken.

Were they too late?

Recently he had been making a rather nasty habit of that.

Kakashi knew the route to the Inuzuka home like he knew the especially explicit chapter thirteen of Icha Icha paradise volume one, and that is to say, he knew it very well indeed.

The few moments of his childhood that were not occupied with death and duty were largely spent there, training his future weapons even as he himself was trained to be one. But depressing symmetry aside, his memories of it were fairly pleasant and he was as close to Tsume Inuzuka as he was with anyone in the village, though that is perhaps not saying a great deal. It wasn't exactly that they had grown up together, when he was first introduced to her Tsume was already a self possessed little chunin and grown before hand in enough ways to be reasonably terrifying to the infant Kakashi, who had until then only encountered kunoichi from a safe distance.

Rather she had treated him like one of her more stubborn Ninken in need of some training, and took a then aggravatingly persistent interest in his general welfare when he was left orphaned.

There was a time when she had dragged him in for dinner with her parents almost weekly (often aided and abetted by his sensei) and insisted on keeping him company even at the height of his sullenness. Most distressing of all she had been completely impervious to sarcasm, ending most of their disagreements with a well-aimed fist instead, seeming to think that settled everything.

It has to be said that being consistently beaten to a pulp will leave a lasting impression on a young man (other than the obvious bruising), and Kakashi, being slightly eccentric after all, was left with a vague feeling of affection for his tormentor.

But he wasn't one for crowds and since Tsume had settled into her role as Clan head and begun popping out more little Inuzukas to terrorise the village she was rarely alone, so he didn't see her more than in passing during meetings or in the missions room now.

Not that he ever missed her, crazy woman - like he needed more hassle than he had already, no way, not at all…

As they vaulted the compound fence, brushing the trappings aside like cobwebs, and touched down soundlessly on Inuzuka soil, regardless of his continued concern for Isamu Kakashi couldn't help feeling a tiny bit of the anxiety he had been carrying for the last few hours (days, weeks, months?) ebb away.

Because you know, Kakashi was just as good at fooling himself as he was at fooling everyone else.

The Haimaru triplets appeared almost immediately, it seemed they were expected. Barking out short greetings to Pakkun the dogs escorted them up to the main house - while they were quite familiar with Kakashi, noone was allowed to wander around the complex unsupervised, mainly for their own safety. Isamu wasn't the only volatile ninken in Konoha, just the only one allowed on active duty.

"They say he's here" Pakkun muttered "And was breathing when they saw him arrive"

The triplets were always been such cheerful souls to be around.

Hana was waiting when they reached the door, waving them inside with a tired smile, looking very dishevelled. Kakashi careful ignored the blood stains on the gloves and medic apron she was wearing "Hatake-san we were wondering when you would come - the scroll's been delivered and ma's in with him now, its bad but she thinks he will pull through"

Despite his best efforts, Kakashi's shoulders visibly sagged in relief.

"I'll come and get you as soon as she's done, sorry but I have to get back inside to help" He watched her hurry off again, a hundred new questions already forming but the most important answered. Isamu was here and the scroll was safe. He exhaled slowly as Pakkun tapped absently at the edge of his sandal to get the jonin's attention.

"I'll let the others know if you don't mind, I'm not much more use now anyway"

"Ah" Kakashi nodded and watched the pug disappear in a little puff of smoke. He was left slouching alone in the entrance hall at a loss for what to do next. The adrenaline was still pumping but there was suddenly no use for it, and for a moment there he had been almost sure Isamu was.. he fluffed distractedly at his hair before the thought could finish, no need to get overdramatic about things. He was here, Tsume would fix whatever was wrong, it was all going to be fine.

Then he remembered Iruka.

Oh. Fuck.

If Isamu was alive then by his earlier reasoning that meant..

But Hana would have mentioned if Isamu had happened to be carrying any dead teachers when he arrived surely? And the dog wouldn't have brought himself here anyway, he had never got along with Kuromaru very well and distrusted all his family as a result (not that he ever needed an excuse to dislike people, it was his default response). Besides they had already ascertained that he had no idea where the hell he was going, and Isamu definitely didn't have the kind of luck that would have let him wander into the Inuzuka compound by coincidence. He had probably passed out somewhere, Iruka found him and, being the (mostly) levelheaded chunin he was, had brought him here.

No horrible mauling included.

Right?

RIGHT?

He swore and padded up the hallway in search of someone to allay his new flurry of panic. Hey, just because he was laid back on the outside didn't mean that Kakashi wasn't usually having an internal freak out of some kind, you didn't get to jonin level by really being a carefree mooch (though pretending was a source of endless personal amusement). No, the key to ninja success was just not letting everyone know you were an utter spazz who hadn't been 'off duty' since he was ten and had a paranoid streak as many years wide - which was a lot easier when he didn't have reason to believe someone had been chewed to bits by one of his summons, but Kakashi thought he was handling it quite well all the same.

Shitshitshitshit.

"Um Minoru-san I'm feeling fine now really, you don't have to stay"

"I wasn't joking about that sedative Umino-san"

"I never knew all medi-ninjas were as mean as Tsunade-sama, is it part of the training or somthin'?"

"Kiba! Don't bad mouth your hokage"

"What? I didn't say it was a bad thing sensei"

"Woof!"

"No one asked you Akamaru"

".. Inuzuka-san isn't there, ehem, somewhere else you should be?"

"Nope, I gotta make sure Iruka-sensei's okay (..and we're not allowed in the treatment room anymore, seriously how was I supposed to know those vials were flammable? Sis should label things better)"

"Please both of you, I'm fine"

Kakashi peered around the doorway from which the disembodied conversation was floating, feeling relief followed by a side order of amusement at what he saw.

Iruka was sprawled shirtless and semi-bandaged on the floor of the Inuzuka common room looking as if he would like to be anywhere else just about then, but was being held in place by a severe looking medic-nin, who in turn was having to deal with an over excited Akamaru pulling at the hem of his uniform as he tried to work.
A soggy looking Kiba was sitting cross-legged at Iruka's other side with a towel wrapped around his shoulders, chewing absently at an apple as he watched the proceedings with mild interest.

…So Iruka was still alive, score.

Feeling a little dazed by the pattern of horror/relief his evening was taking, Kakashi waited a moment to see if anyone would notice his loitering, but they all seemed too preoccupied so, feeling charitable, he announced his presence with a suitably blasé "Yo"

"Kakashi-sensei!" Iruka redoubled his efforts to escape the medic ninja's clutches but the larger man was having none of it.

"Umino-san you can't move about yet. The jutsu needs to seal or you might reopen the wound" he medic said in a tone that broached no argument, pushing Iruka back down with what looked like minimal effort. (Konoha medical ninja were famous for their 'let me heal it or I'll break the other one' bedside manner.)

"Ah Kakashi-sensei, I'm so sorry - I didn't know the dog was yours - I hope I wasn't.. I don't know if I - but Tsume-san seems to think he will be ok - there wasn't any time so I just carried him.." Iruka babbled worriedly, becoming increasingly incoherent as the words flowed. Kakashi just stared, lone eye taking in the newly dressed arm, ashen face and the blood soaked cloth lying in a pile near the medic nin's pack. So there had been some mauling.. and Iruka was.. apologising? What a fruit loop. He waved a mollifying hand at the agitated chunin.

"Don't worry Sensei I'm sure you did your best" he said vaguely, wondering how it was that Naruto had managed to inherit his first sensei's wild mood swings and heart over head battle strategies yet completely skipped over his chronic politeness, the one quality he would have welcomed in a genin. Sigh.

Kakashi's brain was still half fogged with mission buzz, in that strange place between identities that existed in every shinobi on and off the battlefield. Yesterday he was an emotionless killing machine, tomorrow he would be a sluggish (out of work) sensei once more, but for now he was just floating in the middle, and it was very unpleasant. Even with this distracting if familiar come down however, Kakashi knew that there was something wrong with the information he had just gleaned. Iruka had been attacked but not killed?.. that was, well, an extremely unlikely scenario. It indicated further discrepancies in Isamu's behaviour if nothing else and even though the scroll had been apparently delivered Kakashi suspected there would be more trouble before this whole fiasco was over.

"Umino-san please stop struggling- I'm sorry Hatake-san but I've cast several pain relief jutsus, so he's a bit out of it - most people relax - but apparently he's just even more jittery when he's light headed" the medic muttered "I tried to get him to come back to the hospital but he wanted to wait and find out the dog's condition"

"You should have seen him when he arrived Kakashi-sensei" Kiba said enthusiastically "He was all bloody and tough looking with Isamu slung over his shoulder like it was nothing, I hardly recognised him - it was awesome"

"Thanks a lot Kiba" Iruka pouted (that was an actual pout wasn't it, the little bit of Kakashi's brain fuelled entirely on Icha Icha, the bit that had also approved of the bare chest, observed jubilantly, though the rest of him was too busy to notice) "And there's nothing awesome about getting burned out by a half mile dash" he muttered ruefully.

"Or offering yourself up as a chew toy" The medic frowned, winding another layer of fabric over Iruka's arm.

Offering? Kakashi would have to get the full story from someone once everything calmed down, but for now keeping quiet was probably the best way to go, no need to encourage the already over excitable chunin.

Iruka rubbed at his scar in a trademark gesture of embarrassment "I didn't think, I just had to do something - I wanted to ask you about getting some extra medical training for the academy staff, after this I really think we could all do with a brush up"

"You can come and see me again when you're fully lucid sensei"

"I am Lucid!"

"Then why are you facing Inuzuka-san while you're yelling at me?"

"I'm not yelling! And- Eh? Oh sorry Kiba, my visions a bit blurry.."

"And your hearing as well I expect, surround sound right? That's the sedative taking effect"

"I didn't take any sedatives!"

"No - but I injected you while I was bandaging"

"You!.. sneaky.. bastard…Hnmm"

"Such a thankless job" the medic sighed as Iruka, as if on comic cue, slumped backwards in a dead faint. "I'll take him back with me to be safe, but I think he should be fine after a good rest" he informed Kiba as he started to gather his things up.

"Thanks a bunch Doc" the boy grinned "Iruka-sensei's a lot more fun when he's wasted" he added thoughtfully. "Shame he doesn't teach his classes like it"

"You should let the Academy know he won't be in" Kakashi said breaking his silent (entertaining) observation of the trio "Iruka will never stay put unless he knows there's a sub organised" unless the medic planned on re-drugging him whenever he came round.

"Of course Hatake-san, I hope your summon recovers" the medic stood and conjured up a clone to help load the snoozing Iruka onto a waiting stretcher. "You are looking rather fatigued yourself" he added as he eyed the copy nin "I can give you something to-"

"That won't be necessary" Kakashi said quickly. The last thing he needed was the after effects of a sleeping aid when he set out to find Isamu's attacker tomorrow - he was pretty sure he could convince Tsunade to let him go as long as he henged a little to cover his injuries and/or general air of looking like shit. "Thank you"

"Hmm" the medic shot him doubly disapproving looks as he carried Iruka past Kakashi out into the hall "My regards to Tsume-san" he called over one of his shoulders to Kiba as he and the clone slipped out of the still open front door into the half light of dawn.

"Yeah yeah" Kiba came to lean against the doorway where Kakashi still stood unmoving to watch them off. Akamaru had long since settled down to sleep in a chair when his provocations had gone ignored.

They stood in comfortable silence for a moment before Kakashi remembered something vitally important that he had neglected to say.

"Kiba?"

"Yeah Kakashi-sensei?"

"Nice pyjamas"

"… Oh fuckit"

Hana reappeared while they were in the middle of emptying the Inuzuka kitchens of anything even vaguely edible. Kiba (after returning from a hasty wardrobe change) seemed to think that since Kakashi was a guest he was practically obliged to drag out the biggest pile of food he could carry and help the Jonin eat it, and Kakashi, who hadn't seen anything but ration cakes for going on a week wasn't about to disagree.

Kiba looked up and mumbled at her through a mouthful of sliced ham, sending spittle flying "ows 'e 'oin'?"

Hana casually smacked him on the back of the head as she passed, sliding into the chair next to Kakashi. "We were able to heal the worst of it, I would say he's damn lucky that the wounds didn't puncture any organs only well.. you better go and have a word with Ma, she can explain it better than me" she told him darkly as she reached over to pour herself a generous glass of sake. "- Kiba you're so grounded for jacking the alcohol cabinet again" she added in an offhand voice as she took a swig.

"Like hell! It wasn't for me, what I'm just supposed to be a bad host? I was raised with better manners than that"

"Oh? you've been hiding them really well up until now"

"That's because I'm not a suck up like some people-"

Kakashi left them swapping insults as he stalked out to the treatment room where Tsume was busily rinsing blood off of her gloved hands at a giant sink in the corner. Isamu was laid out on the table, limp and pitiful looking with large chunks of fur shaved off to better accommodate the healing seals - but at least Kakashi could see by the rise and fall of his bony chest that he was still alive.

"Someone did a real number on him" Tsume growled without looking up "I found multiple senbon punctures along with the shuriken gashes. They weren't aiming to kill Kakashi, it looks like they made hits they knew would be non fatal - at least for a while - like they were just doing it for fun" the plastic of her gloves snapped harshly in the quiet room as she yanked them off. "I've never seen anything like this on a summon"

"Were there any poisons in his system? genjutsu?" Kakashi asked as he moved closer and ran a hand through Isamu's fur, hating how he didn't so much as twitch at the touch.

"Nothing obvious but I've taken a few samples to screen, It'll take a while, I don't want to miss anything, but we should know by tomorrow"

"We tracked him home, his trail became very erratic at the end, I can only assume there was a jutsu of some kind involved" Kakashi murmured.

Tsume gave him a crooked grin "Iruka-sensei was pretty lucky to keep that arm wasn't he.. I should offer him a job, seeing him lugging the mutt over his shoulder like a sack of rice was something else"

"Hmm"

A gentle hand landed on Kakashi's shoulder, squeezing lightly "Hey, He's fine, whatever happened he made it out, right?"

"Yeah, thanks for the patch up - can I take him home?"

"That's probably best, if he wakes up here he'll only flip out and undo all my hard work" Tsume dropped her hand and moved around the table to collect several jars sitting on the counter top "Take these for now, just in case, and I'll send Hana round this afternoon to see how he's doing - doubt he'll be up by then though"

He took the medicine in silence, privately thinking that unless he got hold of a soldier pill or two he wasn't likely to be up either. Oh well there would be plenty of time to rest when he was dead, as sensei would say.

Tsume went out into the hall and bellowed until Kiba materialised, chicken leg still in hand.

"What now"

"Help Kakashi get the mutt home, I'm sure you've got buckets of energy after that second dinner" she scoffed over her shoulder at him as she pulled open a box cupboard under the table and dragged out a linen stretcher not unlike the one they had watched Iruka get carried off in. "Make sure he's laid out comfortably with plenty of room, and blocking off the exits might not be a bad plan either"

Kakashi and Kiba held the stretcher level as Tsume eased the sleeping dog onto the fabric, his body flopped inanely, head lolling, and Kakashi felt his anger bubble up again. Two hours sleep, just to make sure he remained standing, then he was going straight to the Hokage. Someone needed to get punched for this. A lot.

In the darkness of his tiny apartment Kakashi laid Isamu out on his bed, attempting to shift him in a position that wouldn't put undue pressure on his injuries. As predicted, outside the morning had dulled from the initial glow of dawn into another rain cast drudgery of a day. Kakashi was rather thankful for it, sunshine always made his head sting after a long mission, better to be in the shade while he adjusted.

After inspecting the various ointments and pills Tsume had provided and deciding he knew roughly what they were all for, he hooked down the edge of his mask and bit through his thumb a little more vigorously than was necessary.

The summoning smoke cleared to reveal a much-refreshed looking Pakkun, who immediately moved over to the bed and started inspecting the sleeping Ninken.

"What a mess" he said tersely, snuffling around the healing flesh and dropping a probably unconscious lick on the top of Isamu's head. "Can't leave him alone for a second"

Kakashi flopped down onto the edge of the bed and propped his head up with one fist, pushing up his headband to rub at the sharingan eye with the other. "You have no idea. From what Tsume said the ninja who attacked him was a complete headcase"

"They probably got on like a house on fire"

Kakashi didn't even bother to roll his eyes, being quite used to Pakkun's dreadful sense of humour. And besides Isamu didn't like crazy people anymore than the sane ones, he was very diplomatic that way. "How are the others?"

"Sleeping, lazy sods. Otonashi's leg needs a little attention but everyone else will be work shape whenever. Hachiro's recovering his chakra a lot faster now, he was already up when I got back"

"That's good" Kakashi sighed. Hopefully Isamu would wake up sometime in the next forty-eight hours and then he would be able to end his summon and return home to the far superior care that the other dogs had to offer him. Getting stranded on this side unwillingly was very rare for a high level Ninken. Kakashi mused again that the unknown cause of his befuddlement must also be the reason he hadn't returned already. It was extremely disquieting to think that there was a ninja out there with the ability to basically earth bind a powerful summon and bring it to the brink of death with such apparent ease.

Especially when it looked like they were a few kunai short of a weapons kit.

With nothing else to be gained by continuing to fret, Kakashi settled down on the floor with Pakkun perched still but alert on his chest, read to wake him when needed as well as providing a pleasant warmth, and tried to force out some sleep.

Hopefully Tsunade wouldn't be in a bellowing mood when he reported in; she always seemed to get so grouchy when he put in earplugs and lip-read his way through their meetings.

To be continued-