Kakashi thought back to the conversation he and Gai had as he lay in bed. After spotting Hitomi's picture, Gai asked a few questions about her, but didn't delve too far into the topic. Gai really did have more situational awareness than most people gave him credit for. It was the topic that came after that that he kept coming back to:

"You know, Kakashi, Ran really is a lot like you," Gai commented as he took another drink.

"How so?" Kakashi honestly doubted that.

"Has she warmed up to you yet?"

"Not at all."

"There you go!" Gai exclaimed, "look at how long it takes for you to warm up to others. It took me years to get you to even talk to me!"

"It's only been two days, Gai. I'd be a bit worried if she was incredibly open and affectionate right away."

"Does she keep things from you?"

"What child doesn't?"

"No, I mean, if she's hungry or thirsty, does she tell you?" Gai hit the nail on the head with that one, and Kakashi couldn't help but wince at that. "She doesn't, does she? Certainly reminds me of a certain jounin I know. One who needs to be on death's door or collapsing from chakra exhaustion to even think of asking for help."

Kakashi sighed before knocking back the contents of his cup before adding, "a dislike of doctors and not asking for lunch are two very different things."

"Well," Gai rubbed his chin in thought, "did she say why she didn't ask?"

"Said I was busy."

"Seems like she was worried to ask since she didn't know how you would react."

"Ran should know that I wasn't too busy to not feed her."

"Does she really, though? This world is very different from the one she's used to. Ran doesn't know what's too important to pause for a snack and what isn't. She also doesn't know how you would react to such a request. Would you be angry?"

"I wouldn't."

"She doesn't know that, though. She's only going on what you've shown her, and I'm guessing that isn't very much. Ran is only going to give you the same amount of trust you give her."

Kakashi glanced over at sniffling girl, who was hiding underneath her quilt, as she tried to stifle her crying. He was starkly reminded of a younger version of himself; the one who tried desperately to wash blood that wasn't there off of his hands. Cursing Gai as he stifled a groan, Kakashi wondered he had to be insightful now of all times. Kakashi crammed their conversation into the back of his mind as he tried to fall asleep, but Gai's parting words kept coming back to him:

"Getting you to open up is like pulling teeth, Kakashi, and Ran isn't going to pick up the pliers."


Ran woke as the sun broke over the horizon, waking Kakashi when she made her way out of the room. He heard the toilet flush and Ran making her way back to their room.

"Wash your hands," Kakashi scolded as she opened the door. There was the sound of shuffling feet, but Ran doubled back.

"Can't reach."

"Alright," he groaned as he sat up and lead her into the bathroom. Lifting the girl up, Ran made quick work of washing her hands. Kakashi found it strange that Ran needed help reaching the sink, he had never needed help when he was her age. He had just leapt up on the counter or stuck to surfaces with chakra. "How did you reach things back with your mother?"

Ran gave him bewildered look before saying, "I used a step-stool," like it was obvious.

The jounin supposed that made sense, and he added the item to the list of things he had to buy for the child. After washing her face, Kakashi sent the girl off to get dressed while he washed up in the bathroom. It wasn't long before the pair was ready for the day, with the exception of breakfast and teeth brushing. It wouldn't be long before those would be completed. It was the empty fruit bowl that brought the morning to a screeching halt. Kakashi usually just had a banana or an orange for breakfast, but it seemed he had given her the last one the day before.

"Rice," Ran broke him out of his small internal panic.

"What?"

"Can we have rice for breakfast?"

"Just rice?"

"Uh-huh."

"If that's what you want," Kakashi said as he loaded up the rice cooker. A few minutes later, they both had steaming bowls of rice, and Ran wasted no time clumsily tucking in.

"Did you use smaller chop sticks as well?" Kakashi asked after he had finished his own meal while Ran wasn't looking.

"Mm-hmm," the girl hummed her response. Another thing added to the list. Ran squinted up at him suspiciously when she saw that his food was already gone. Kakashi gave her one of his eye smiles in response.

"I have some things to take care of, so I'm going to leave you with a clone for a little while," Kakashi explained after everyone was fed, watered, and had their teeth brushed. A shadow clone popped into existence after his explanation, and the jounin set off to complete a D-rank. Hopefully, he would be done by the time the store started to open.

Kakashi was the only one at the mission's desk, besides the chuunin on duty, but it seemed the new missions had yet to come in. He was stuck with yesterday's leftovers, the jobs absolutely no one wanted. His options were: babysitting at the orphanage and cleaning up litter and painting over graffiti in Konoha's poorer districts. There was no way in hell Kakashi was going to babysit, so he picked up the needed supplies and headed out.

The mission took three and a half hours. Three and a half! By the end of it Kakashi was ready to stab someone in the eye with his litter stick. He managed to avoid the early morning rush of gennin teams and their sensei, and reported the mission's success in record time. The walk back to his apartment was leisurely, but it wasn't long before before he was unlocking the door.

The clone dispersed with with a glare as soon as it saw him. Kakashi didn't understand, that is, until he looked through its memories. Seemed Ran had gotten a little stir crazy while he was gone. She had played with her stuffed animal for a while, but it wasn't long before she grew bored of that. The clone had sat her in front of the t.v., but then she started to get stir crazy. With no better options, it had her run around in circles until she tired herself out. Tire herself out, nearly throw up, same difference. It was when the t.v. didn't work a second time that the clone had her write out all the kanji she knew just to keep her from bugging it. The clone earned itself several glares as she set about her task. Once she had finished that, Ran thankfully went back to playing with Kero-chan in their room.

"Ran?" Kakashi called as he cracked open the door. The little girl was sitting cross legged on his bed with a picture frame in her hands, and another one in her lap. Upon closer inspection, Kakashi saw that it was his old team's photo in her hands.

"Who're they?" She asked, glancing up at him, and Kakashi was forced to squash down the immediate urge to rip the photo out of her hands. That sort of reaction certainly wouldn't fly over well with Ran, and she would become even more uneasy around him.

"They were my old team," Kakashi explained.

"Where'd they go?"

"They died, a long time ago."

"Oh…" Ran carefully handed him the photo before picking up the one of Team Seven. "Who's that?" She asked as she pointed to a certain scowling boy with black hair.

"That's Sasuke."

"Did he die too?"

Kakashi was startled by her blunt question, but quickly answered, "no, he left the village."

Ran stared at the picture for a little while before asking, "is he coming back?"

"I don't know," he sighed.

Ran looked at the picture for a little while longer before she handed it back to Kakashi and hopped off the bed. "Is it time to go shopping now?" She asked.

"Yeah, go put your shoes on," Ran darted out of the room, but Kakashi looked at the two photos for a few seconds longer. The sound of Ran's scandals clacking out the door forced him to put them back quickly and race after the girl.


The first stop the pair made was home goods store. There they were able to find a child's utensil and dishware set made with bright colors and fun patterns, and Ran found a mug with the same frog as her hair clip printed on the front. Kakashi thought it was just a coincidence, and added it to their basket, until they found several step-stools with the same frog on it.

"Do you know what that frog's from?" He asked Ran as she looked absolutely elated.

"Nuh-uh," Ran replied as she clutched the stool to her chest.

"Oh, Gekotan?" A saleswoman asked as she walked past. "Sorry, I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but I couldn't help but overhear."

"Not at all," Kakashi reassured her.

"He has a name?!" Ran squawked.

"Yep! He's the main character from a popular kid's t.v. show. I think it airs every Saturday morning," the woman explained.

"What day is it?!" Ran demanded Kakashi.

"Friday."

Ran gasped before looking down at the step-stool excitedly.

"Sorry about her," Kakashi apologised to the poor woman.

"No worries," she laughed, "all my nieces and nephews love it. I think we have some more Gekotan themed items a bit further back."

"Really?!"

"I'll show you," the woman laughed again before leading the pair further into the store. The woman wasn't lying, there was an entire aisle dedicated to the frog and his companions. The mug Ran found must have been misplaced because there were dozens of others here. Kakashi spotted a familiar face amongst the crowd, the duckling that covered Ran's futon showed up several times here. "I'll leave the two of you to it, then!" The woman said before making her leave.

They ended up with a second utensil and dishware set, this one Gekotan themed; a second mug, with a duck; and Gekotan themed bath towels. Kakashi couldn't help but wonder how long it would be before the little frog took over his apartment. He supposed it wouldn't be too terrible, since he managed to learn something about his daughter:

Kakashi didn't know much about Ran, but there was one thing he could say for sure. She really loved frogs.

Their second stop was large clothing store. It had been a long time since Kakashi had last been to a civilian clothing store. Pretty much all he wore at this point was his uniform. He had already made it the children's section when he noticed that his tag along was no longer at his side. Letting out a sigh, Kakashi backtracked until he found Ran standing at the entrance.

"You still don't want new clothes?" He asked with a sigh, and Ran proceeded to look away. "Why don't you want new clothes?"

Still no answer.

"They may have some shirts with Gekotan on them," Kakashi prodded. She turned her head slightly at that, seemed to consider it for a few moments before giving in. "Good," he smiled before leading them back inside.

"See anything you like?" Kakashi asked as they stood in the children's section. Ran wasn't looking at him, or anything around her, opting to look at the floor. "What about this?" he asked, holding up a red t-shirt. She didn't even glance at him. "I'm going to just pick whatever if you don't say anything." Still no reaction. The jonin sighed before asking, "what's your size?"

"Size?" Ran finally responded.

"Yeah, your clothing size."

"Clothes have sizes?"

Kakashi groaned before crouching down to check the tag on her clothes. Only to not find one. "Where's your tag?"

"Why would my clothes have a tag?"

It almost seemed like she was purposely being difficult. "The manufacturer puts tags on their clothes to say the size, washing instructions, and other things."

"Well, Baa-chan didn't put tags on my clothes," Ran grumbled.

"Wait, your clothes are handmade?"

"Of course! Baa-chan makes all my clothes! She makes me new ones when I outgrow my old ones! So I don't need new ones, my old ones fit fine…"

Kakashi supposed it made sense. He doubted her village had a clothing store, but to have all of her clothes handmade… Did that mean he shouldn't wash them in the washing machine? "You don't have to get rid of your current clothes, you just need some other ones to wear while their being washed," he tried to explain.

His explanation seemed to help a bit, since Ran actually looked at the shirt, even if it was reluctantly. "Baa-chan says red clashes with my hair…" she muttered.

After several failed sizing attempts, the pair eventually picked out some clothes they were both satisfied with. A couple t-shirts of varying colors, a few with Gekotan on them, shorts, and a pair of overall shorts. The only skirt Ran ended up buying was an overall skirt, but Kakashi was just fine with that.

"Is that it?" Kakashi asked as he added the third set of pajamas to their basket.

"Undies."

"Oh. Right. You go find some for yourself then, I'll wait here."

Ran nodded before running off. Kakashi thought he was doing a pretty good job today, he was being patient and supportive, but picking out little girl underwear was just too much. The very thought made him immensely uncomfortable. Ran could, and would, manage that on her own.

It wasn't long before Ran made her way back. "I found some with Gekotan on them!" She exclaimed as she held up the pack to Kakashi. He just sighed and held out the basket for her to put them in before making his way over to the cash registers.

Children's clothing, as Kakashi discovered, were much cheaper than even regular civilian clothing. Just about everything a shinobi needed was expensive, especially clothing, and by their standards civilian clothes were dirt cheap. Children's clothes more so. He was honestly expecting to spend more at the cashier, but received a pleasant surprise for once.

The pair proceeded to make their way back to their apartment, with Kakashi lugging the bags. They weren't heavy, just large and cumbersome. When Ran suddenly stopped, Kakashi was rather proud of noticing right away for once. She sniffed the air a few times before saying, "smells like home…" The jounin quirked an eyebrow at that, but a quick glance around revealed the Yamanaka flower shop only a ways away.

The little girl walked over to the storefront and gazed somberly at it. "Mama had a lot of flowers… I wonder who's taking care of them now…" She murmured. Kakashi looked at her for a while before letting out a sigh and walking into the store.

"Oh, Kakashi-san," Yamanaka Inoichi greeted, "is there something you need?"

"Yes, what kind of flowers can you grow in an apartment?"

"An apartment? I'd usually suggested a few potted ones, or a flower box, but why-" Inoichi started, until he noticed the little pink haired girl peeking in the doorway. "Oh…! Ino wasn't lying then… Anyway, I think a flower box would be nice. Do you have any preferences?"

"Whatever won't die easily."

"We do have some petunia seedlings that you could put in a flower box. We can even set it up for you. All you would need to do is water them every day or so." Inoichi explained.

"Sounds good."

"Then it'll be ready in a few hours, you can pick it up then."

"Great," Kakashi said before leading Ran out of the shop.


Kakashi sat cross legged on the floor of his room while he emptied out the bottom drawer of his dresser. Ran was currently in the kitchen rinsing off her new dishes and utensils. Once the drawer was empty, and its contents added to the other drawers, he set to work removing the tags of Ran's new clothes and putting them inside.

"Ran," he called into the kitchen, "go wash your hands and we'll have lunch." There was a small thump before Ran darted into the bathroom with her step-stool raised above her head. Kakashi shook his head as he made his way into the kitchen and removed two bentos from the fridge that he had managed to remember to grab on the way back from his D-rank.

Ran darted out of the bathroom and held up her hands for Kakashi to inspect. Satisfied that they were clean, he motioned for her to sit down and start eating. She gave quiet thanks before digging in with her new Gekotan chopsticks. A good 90% of her food now managed to make it into her mouth, and Kakashi had to admit he was proud of himself for solving that problem. Now, how to eat without her seeing his face…

The opportunity presented itself when the little girl took a long drink from her mug, and Kakashi wasted no time in cramming half of his meal into his mouth. Ran did a double take when she set down her mug to find his cheeks bulging under his mask. She stared at him in disbelief, but all Kakashi did was just gave her one of his infuriating eye crinkles.

It was noon by the pair had wrapped up their meal and headed back onto the streets of Konoha. Kakashi wanted to get Ran setup with a daycare, but how he was supposed to go about that was beyond him. Maybe Sakura would remember the name of that daycare that supposedly catered to shinobi families.

Speaking of one of his students, Kakashi realized just how late he was for training. Hopefully they would have just started without him by now, but you never know… The jounin sent a clone off to inform them that he wouldn't be joining them today, and if Sakura had that name.

With nothing left to do now but wait, and he knew his clone was going to take its sweet time fulfilling its task, Kakashi decided to wander around the village. Ran tailing behind him loyally, at least, for the most part. She did get distracted ever so often by one thing or another.

"Ne, ne," Ran tried to get his attention with a tug on his sleeve. Something pretty big had caught her attention, "why is the lady from the office's face on the mountain?" She asked, pointing up at the Hokage Mountain.

"Hmm? You mean Tsunade-sama? Blonde hair, has a diamond on her forehead?" A head nod, "That's the Hokage Mountain, all of the Hokage's faces are on it, and since Tsunade-sama is the current Hokage, her's is on it as well."

"She's the Hokage?" Ran asked, shocked, "isn't the Hokage really important?"

"Very important."

"But she spent all that time yelling at you…!"

Ouch.

"I'm just that important," Kakashi tried to convince her, but Ran didn't seem to buy it.

"So the faces next to her are the previous Hokages, then?"

"Yep, the first through the fourth."

"The fourth looks kinda familiar…"

"Really now? You should let me know when you figure it out," Kakashi wasn't going to tell her directly, but if she managed to figure it out herself, he wasn't going to stop her. Ran had scrunched up her face in concentration when Kakashi received the memories from his clone. As it turned out, his team had eventually figured out that he wouldn't be joining them today and got started on their own. There still were several shouts from his students when his clone showed up, though.

Unfortunately, Sakura didn't remember the name of the daycare, but had said that someone in the Hokage Tower probably knew. Kakashi grabbed onto a still lost in concentration Ran by the back of her yukata and dragged her to the Hokage Tower. He was starting to figure out when he needed to keep an eye on her her in order to not lose her.

"Ah, Hatake-san, is there something I can do for you?" The chuunin at the front desk asked. His eyes widened briefly when he spotted Ran next to him, but quickly recovered his professionalism.

"I heard there was a daycare that catered to active shinobi," Kakashi started, pointedly ignoring the chuunin's glance, "do you have the name?"

"Y-yes! Just a second… It should be around here somewhere…" The chuunin muttered to himself as he dug through a couple stacks of paper on the desk. "Here it is," he said before handing Kakashi a colorful flier, "all the information should be there."

Kakashi nodded his head after he scanned the flier and turned to leave without so much as a 'thank-you'. Ran hurried after him as he read the flier more in depth. The daycare was run by a retired kunoichi who employed mostly civilians, but there were a couple shinobi in the reserves working as well. It catered specifically to active duty shinobi, offering a wider range of care hours, but they were unable to do overnight care and were closed on Sundays. It made sense because most shinobi below the rank of jounin took that day off. All Kakashi would need to do was enroll Ran and then he would be able to drop her off whenever he needed.

As the pair made their way to the daycare, there was a sudden tug on Kakashi's sleeve. "Yes?" He asked, glancing down to find a very excited Ran.

"There's a dog!" She all but bounced as she pointed to a very recognizable dog. A wolfish appearance and impressive size marked it as one of the Inuzuka dogs. Its one remaining ear twitched briefly, and the dog turned to look at them. Ran gasped a little when she noticed the eye patched, but other than that, she didn't seem all that intimidated by the fierce looking canine.

"If he's here…" Kakashi muttered as he nervously glanced around for dog's partner, but relaxed a little when he didn't spot her.

"Can I say hi to the dog? Can I? Can I?" Ran pleaded.

"Alright, just make sure you introduce yourself first," he said.

Ran nodded her head excitedly before making her way over to where Kuromaru sat. Kakashi assumed that Ran knew what he meant when he said, 'introduce yourself', but instead of holding out her hand for him to sniff, she took him literally.

"I'm Koizumi Ran," she said with a bow, and Kuromaru looked to be holding in a laugh. A certain partner wasn't so courteous.

Tsume gave a bark of a laugh as she appeared next next to Kakashi. "That's one hell of a brat you've got there, Kakashi!"

"Hope it's alright, I didn't know if Kuromaru would mind."

"Nah, don't worry about it. There hasn't been an Inuzuka dog who didn't loved kids," Tsume laughed as she slapped him on the back. Said dog gave Ran a sniff, that the girl returned, before offering his head for her to pet. The little girl seemed absolutely elated as she gently ran her hand over his course fur.

"A little lower if you would," Kuromaru commented, causing Ran to leap back in surprise.

"You can talk?!" She exclaimed, causing Tsume to laugh again.

"Most of our dog's can talk, kid," Tsume explained as she made her way over.

"Tsume," Kuromaru huffed with an eye roll.

"Are you his owner?" Ran asked, looking up at her.

"Ehh, more like partner."

"Partner?"

"We're together for life, on and off the battlefield," Kuromaru explained.

"You fight? That's super cool! You must be really strong," Ran gushed as she began petting him again.

"Looks like you've gotta dog lover on your hands, Kakashi," Tsume said as he made his over to the group.

"That should hopefully make things a little easier, at least," he sighed as he watched his daughter lavishing Kuromaru with pets. Kakashi now for sure knew two things about Ran: she loved dogs and frogs. But she hadn't opened up about those on her own, he only knew about them due to events outside his control. There was very little, if anything, Ran shared about herself on her own.

"Don't worry too much about it," Tsume said suddenly, seemingly knowing what he was thinking. "The kid'll warm up to you in her own time, just stick by her until then." Receiving parenting advice from Tsume was one of the last things Kakashi expected, but it wasn't necessarily unwelcome. "What? I have my moments," Tsume laughed when she saw his shocked face, giving him a toothy grin.

"I think we've left those old bats waiting long enough," Tsume laughed after a good few minutes of petting. "Let's go, Kuromaru." The dog sighed at his partner's antics before giving Ran a good-bye lick, and headed after Tsume. The little girl vigorously waved good-bye to Kuromaru, and the dog couldn't help a toothy grin. "See ya around, Kakashi!" The woman called before the pair disappeared from sight.

"We should probably head over to this place before it gets too late," Kakashi said as he glanced down at the flier for an address. Ran only nodded at his suggestion, and Kakashi was forced to hold in a sigh. She had wasted no time closing herself off from him.

Why couldn't Tsume have said how long this was supposed to take?


A/N: This chapter is a lot rougher than previous chapters, and I'm not super pleased with it. It almost feels like filler, but we learned more about Ran so I guess it isn't * ~ *. I had to get through these scenes before I could get to some of the more exciting stuff I have planned. So there's that to look forward to, I guess.

Something that really bugged me about the Naruto ending was how old Akamaru seemed. Kuromaru is listed as being 30 in part two, but he's still in top shape. Akamaru couldn't have been much older than that in chapter 700, but he's shown as this elderly dog on his last legs. So, for this story at least, the Inuzuka dogs are going to be given a human lifespan. It's just too damn upsetting otherwise.