A/N: So Fanfiction is being weird and didn't send out an update email so I'm uploading this chapter again in hopes that it'll actually work this time.
"Lookit! Lookit! Lookit!" Ran exclaimed as she jumped up and down. There was another snake wrapped around her arm, and she was excitedly waving in front of Kakashi's face. She couldn't believe her luck! After seeing so few animals hanging around in the forests by the training ground, she had managed to catch a snake two days in a row! This snake was different from the previous one, though. He, Ran didn't know if he was a he for sure but she liked to think that he was, was a lot larger than the Green Tree snake. While yesterday's was only about as wide as her thumb and could only coil around her arm a few times, this one was two fingers wide and wrapped all the way up to her shoulder! He also happened to be much more colorful than the little one, covered in a pretty pattern of light colors that Ran had never seen on snake before. Her new friend was so cool and pretty!
"Yes, yes, that's very cool," Kakashi said blandly from behind his book, not bothering to look at what she had actually found. It was probably another cicada shell. That blasted pile had almost doubled in size in one day. Kakashi was really starting to get weirded out by them. It felt like they were going be everywhere he looked.
Open a drawer?
Bam, cicada shell.
Try to put on his sandals?
Oh Jesus there was another one.
Turn around?
Giant cicada shell behind him.
Maybe he was getting a little away from himself, but a pile made of the shells that was tall as Ran was enough to give anyone the heebie jeebies. Hopefully his wild worries wouldn't become a reality, he had made sure to ban any from entering the apartment after all. But he wouldn't put it past Ran to sneak some in, what with how attached she seemed to be to them…
He was going to have to check her pockets when they went home. Better to be safe than finding one on his pillow.
"Boo! You didn' even look!" Ran whined and stomped her feet.
Kakashi sighed loudly, but he looked from behind his book. It was then that he went very still and sat rigidly instead of the usual stretched out leisurely across his couch. Sitting up slowly and placing his book carefully down next to him, Ran started to pick up that something wasn't exactly right here.
"Wh-what?" She asked in a voice that she tried to make sound brave, but ended up shaking slightly.
"Now, stay very calm," Kakashi said in a soothing voice as he held his hands in front of him and stood up. His words had the opposite effect, though, and sweat started pouring out of Ran's skin. "While the snake you're holding isn't exactly dangerous if handled right-" unfortunately Ran ended up jumping the gun before he could finish what he was saying.
"AAAH!" She shrieked as she started waving the snake around and hopping from foot to foot. "WHAT DO I DO?!" Ran screeched and started to move towards Kakashi. Who promptly took a large step away from his daughter.
As he was saying, the snake she was currently holding, a Speckled Adder wasn't necessarily all that dangerous if handled correctly. It wasn't exactly a pleasant experience being bitten by one of them, though. Their bites weren't deadly, as long as the antivenom was administered within 24 hours, but it had some less than pleasant aftereffects. Stomach cramps, vomiting, and diarrhea were all common, but there was one side effect that occurred in about one out of five male cases:
Impotence.
Permanent impotence.
Despite what everyone seemed to think of him, and the fact that he was currently living one of the consequences of intimacy, Kakashi was not going to risk being that one in five.
"DO SOMETHING!" Ran wailed before she started running towards him, still waving the snake around.
"Don't you bring that thing any closer!" Kakashi didn't so much yell, but forcefully said to her. He also most certainly did not jump behind the couch to make a barrier between him and that demon spawn of a snake.
Ran was on her own here.
She would be fine if it bit her.
Probably.
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"What are those two doing?" Yamato muttered to himself. All he could make out was Ran waving her arm like crazy while Kakashi quickly backed away from her. The occasional shriek could be heard over the roar of the waterfall. Both sounded a lot like a little girl though.
As it turned out, throwing another grown man and a teenage boy at the problem hadn't helped solve it. All of them, including Naruto once Kakashi had explained just what that snake could do, had quickly backed away from Ran. Luckily Kakashi realized that the snake was too dazed by Ran's waving it around to attempt to strike her. At least he wouldn't have to deal with a kid spewing from two ends tonight. The real problem was getting the snake safely away from Ran and keep from being bitten themselves.
Especially when none of them were exactly volunteering.
It was after a group huddle of sorts, a good five feet away from Ran, that they realized the best thing that they could do was have her toss it into the woods and then run really fast away from it.
None of them ever claimed to be smart men.
The plan actually turned out to be a major success. With the snake more than eager to get away from Ran, after the girl had nearly rattled its brains into mush, and disappeared into the underbrush as soon as it made contact with the ground.
"That… was… scary…!" Ran wheezed after collapsing to her hands and knees. She made sure to make a mental note to run in the opposite direction if she ever came across another snake with those markings.
"Ne, Ran," Naruto said to her before flopping down next to her. It was about time for a break anyways. "I thought you knew lots about animals and bugs," if the things she would show him and tell him about during his breaks were anything to go by, "why didn't you know that one?"
"Never seen it before," Ran said before flopping onto her stomach with a groan. She was too tired from the whole ordeal to talk anymore.
"I'd imagine that you wouldn't have. They're actually pretty rare this far south. They usually live in the Land Hot Water," Yamato explained from above them. "Right, Senpai?" He looked around, but Kakashi was nowhere to be seen. "Senpai?"
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Tracking down a single snake was easy for an elite jounin, and it didn't take Kakashi long to find the snake that had been around Ran's arm just a few minutes earlier. One young snake that had wandered too far away from home he could believe, but a rare poisonous snake showing up a day later? That was too much to be a simple coincidence.
It didn't help that a certain traitor who happened to love rare bloodlines was strongly associated with snakes. Orochimaru had been interested him in his youth, but Minato-sensei had managed to keep him away before he ended up defecting. It would not surprise him at all if Orochimaru was interested on getting his hands on Ran.
He would get her over Kakashi's dead body.
A quick kunai though the head was more than enough to kill the snake, and Kakashi was relieved when it didn't disappear in a cloud of smoke. It didn't appear to be a summon, but he wouldn't put it past Orochimaru to have a way of controlling snakes that weren't summons. Even if this was a regular snake that wandered into Konoha, Kakashi wasn't willing to take that chance. Once the carcass of the snake was reduced to ash with a fire jutsu, Kakashi headed back to where the others were.
Things became a little more complicated at the training ground after Naruto cut the waterfall and moved onto trying to merge the nature transformation into the rasengan. Naruto was slipping up and using the Fox's chakra more than Kakashi was comfortable with, and it was decided that Ran wouldn't be able to hang around and play for her own safety. With the rate things were going, they would probably be out practicing until late. Later than Ran's daycare was going to be open.
"Sorry man," Pakkun apologized after Kakashi asked him if he and the other dogs would be able to watch Ran for the afternoon. "We're all busy today. You're going to have to figure out something yourself." With that he returned to his realm with a puff of smoke.
Well that was just great. What could dogs even be busy with? They were dogs. What was he supposed to do now? Kakashi already knew that everyone was too busy with one thing or another to watch Ran. With a good half of the village was out looking for the Akatsuki agents that were within Fire's borders, and just about everyone he knew well enough to ask were included in that half.
Well, there was one thing he could do…
"Tenzo, would you be alright on your own for a little while?" Kakashi asked.
"I should be able to get the Kyuubi under control on my own, but it probably wouldn't be good for you to be gone for a long time."
"Good, I should be back in a half hour at the latest," Kakashi said before he shunshined away. Tenzo sighed before turning his attention back onto Naruto.
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"Only advanced genin should be assigned this mission," Kakashi said. The clerk at the mission desk raised an eyebrow and looked at him. The sound of genin teams and a few remaining chuunin receiving and reporting the results of their completed missions could be heard in the background of the busy office.
"Really? This is just a babysitting mission for a five year old, don't you think you're exaggerating a little?" He didn't sound convinced. If only it was as simple as he was making it out to be.
"Really Kakashi-san?" A haughty voice called, evidently overhearing what they were saying. As much as Kakashi respected the man's skills as a capable shinobi, he wasn't exactly fond of Ebisu. "A simple babysitting mission could be completed by fresh academy graduates. You really don't need to ask for genin with more experience." Ebisu pushed his glasses up his face. His genin were currently talking with some of their fellow graduating class in a corner of the office.
Kakashi's visible eye narrowed slightly. "Ran's a handful, and I don't think green genin would be enough to handle her." What with an experienced jounin and chuunin losing her.
Yes, he knew about that.
"I highly doubt that. She's only five years old, and if I remember correctly she wasn't raised in a ninja village. Do you really think trained shinobi wouldn't be able to adequately keep an eye on her?" Was he taking this personally? Time to see for sure.
Kakashi shrugged. "Trained shinobi, those are the key words. Fresh genin aren't all that well trained yet."
Ebisu made an indigent sound as he went red in the face and started adjusting his sunglasses. "I'll have you know that any shinobi trained by me has skills that far surpass those of their peers!" So he was taking this personally. Kakashi could work with this.
"Oh I'm sure that they are, but I still don't think that they would be enough to watch Ran…" He glanced to side, seemingly unsure.
"My team will take your mission, and we'll prove you wrong!" Ebisu was getting heated.
"I don't know… Your team isn't exactly what I'm looking for, and I don't want to shell out the money for a team that doesn't meet my specifications…"
"We'll do it for free then! I'm sure they will find it to be a good learning experience." Ebisu made it sound like it was going to be a learning experience for Kakashi as well, but they would see about that. "Konohamaru, Moegi, Udon!" He called to his students and they ran over to his side. "Instead of doing a mission today, we'll be completing a training exercise."
"Eeeh? I don't wanna do a stupid training exercise, kore!" Konohamaru whined. "We've been training forever and you said we could do a mission!"
"Yes, but this is a special training exercise!" Ebisu held up a finger for emphasis before continuing "Kakashi-san doesn't think that you three are skilled enough to watch his five year old dau-"
"You mean the mission ba-mmrph!" Konohamaru interrupted, but Moegi had thankfully clamped a hand over his mouth before he said something that might offend Kakashi. She gave him a nervous smile and a small bow, but Kakashi shrugged it off.
It wasn't the first time that it had happened, and it certainly wasn't going to be the last. Besides, Ran didn't seem to take it personally, so why should he?
Ebisu continued as though he hadn't been interrupted, "this is a test of sorts! To prove Kakashi-san wrong!" He pressed a hand to his glasses and pointed dramatically to Kakashi.
This guy was really getting into this… Would his students even fall for it as their teacher had?
"Ooh! We'll totally prove you wrong, kore!" Konohamaru pumped his arm in determination while his teammates nodded their heads in agreement.
… Kakashi stood corrected.
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"So there is a bento in the refrigerator that she can have for dinner," Kakashi explained once they all stood in his cramped apartment. Ran was staying mostly behind him and eyeing Ebisu suspiciously, but she didn't seem to mind his students all that much. "Now," he said as he turned to Ran, "remember what I told you."
"Ussu!" Ran said very seriously and saluted. Thankfully there was a period when he was picking her up from daycare that he had been able explain what was going on, and if he had told her to try her hardest to get away from them… Well, this was supposed to be a test, after all. It also helped that Ran had looked absolutely delighted when he said to give them hell.
"Remember, no helping them," Kakashi said to Ebisu with a eye crinkle. The man looked offended that he would even remind him, but he nodded all the same. "I'll be back around ten tonight." Naruto was going to stop around then whether he liked it or not. "Her futon is all laid out and she should be fine without a bath for tonight."
Not wanting to have nosy genin or jounin poking around his bedroom, Kakashi had sealed it off with a complicated sealing array. He barely trusted his students alone in his apartment, and he certainly wasn't going to trust Ebisu and his team. It was bad enough that it was technically now Ran's bedroom as well. Everything she would need was already moved out to the living area with her futon so there would be no need for them to even try to open the door. Not that they would be able to, the seal was one that Minato-sensei had taught him before he had died. Ebisu wouldn't be able to get through it even if he had a week.
Was it a bit of overkill for a door? Probably, but he didn't want a bunch of snot nosed brats and one closet pervert (as Naruto referred to him) poking through his stuff. With a wave to Ran, that she returned several times over, he stepped into his sandals and headed back to the training field.
"So, you're Kakashi-sensei's kid?" Konohamaru wasted no time asking as soon as he had left. "You don't really look like him."
"We don't even know what Kakashi-sensei looks like, how could she look like him if we don't know that?" Moegi argued.
"Yeah, we have nothing to compare her to," Udon agreed with a sagely nod.
"We have the same teeth," Ran interrupted them before opening her mouth wide to show her four prominent canines. The three made sounds of surprise and astonishment at them, which made Ran puff out her chest in pride. "And…" She said before shaking out her hair, making it stick up with a few run throughs of her fingers, and then used one hand to cover the lower portion of her face and another to cover her right eye. While her visible eye was much larger than Kakashi's due to her still being a child, she was able to half close it to give the impression of his too-lazy-to-open-his-eye-all-the-way-look.
"Oooh! I see it now!" Konohamaru exclaimed, and the others nodded. The resemblance between the two was much easier to see when Ran covered her face in the way Kakashi did. They had the same eyes after all. It would be easier to see if someone were to see them together while Kakashi was unmasked, but seeing that was about as likely as seeing Naruto turn up ramen.
After this, the three of them sat down and, reluctantly on the preteens' part, played with Ran. Konohamaru complained for a little while that they were too old to be playing with blocks and plastic figurines, but Moegi brought him around. If that's all they had to do for this training excersize, it wasn't too bad.
Ran seemed content playing with her toys, and wasn't causing any trouble for Ebisu and his team. While the adventures she came up with were more detailed and imaginative than would generally be expected from a five year old, it really wasn't something to warrant a high D-rank. Ebisu was starting to wonder if Kakashi had been exaggerating and that this was going to be easy.
"I gotta pee," Ran suddenly said before dropping her toys and running into the bathroom.
"Ne, ne, wasn't this supposed to be a challenge, sensei?" Konohamaru asked him with a scowl after she closed the bathroom door. "All we're doing is playing with a little kid! I thought this was a test of some sorts, kore!" Moegi and Udon agreed with him and he leaned back on their arms while they waited for Ran to come out.
Konohamaru wondered what kind of test was this anyway? It wasn't exactly like the kid was a ninja or anything. What kind of challenge could she pose to a bunch of super awesome newly minted genin? It didn't matter if she was Kakashi-sensei's kid! She was just that, a kid! They were shinobi now, and he was going to be the Hokage soon, they would show Kakashi-sensei not to underestimate them!
Udon snapped Konohamaru out of his thoughts when he mused worriedly, "she's been in there for a while, don't you think?" He was right, Ran had been in the bathroom for a good ten minutes by this point.
"Moegi, you're a girl, you should check on her," Konohamaru suggested as he lounged on his back with his arms supporting his head. He wasn't worried. She was probably just having some weird girl problem.
"Alright," Moegi said after crinkling her nose and getting up to knock on the door. "Ran-chan? Are you alright?"
No answer.
"Ran-chan!" She tried calling, but no noise came from within. "I'm coming in, ok?" Ran was a little kid, and she probably was having trouble or something and needed help. "Ran-cha-Konohamaru-kun!" Moegi yelled after she opened the door.
"What?" He called back as he sat up, body getting a little tense. That shout wasn't a good sign…
"Ran-chan's gone!" She cried.
"What?!" Konohamaru and Udon cried before running into the small bathroom as well. Due to the apartment's small size, the toilet and bath were combined into one room rather than the two separate ones that was common in most households. The trio looked all over the bathroom, but they couldn't find hide nor hair of the little girl.
"Uh, guys," Udon said slowly, "the window's open…"
"Eeeh?!" Konohamaru and Moegi yelled before all three of them crammed together to look out of it. "Is that a fire escape?"
"She must have escaped using it!"
"We gotta find her, kore!"
The trio ran from the bathroom and out the door. "Ebisu-sensei, you stay here in case she comes back!" Konohamaru yelled back before hastily slamming the door closed.
"Those three…" Ebisu sighed before hanging his head. If they had actually looked a little harder instead of panicking, they would have found her. "You can come out," he called, loud enough that she would be able to hear him. "I told Kakashi-san that I wouldn't help them, and I stand by my word." The sound of the bathtub cover being pulled back and the tapping of her bare feet as she jumped out of the tub and made her way out of the bathroom could be heard from the main room. "And in such an obvious place…" He was going to have to teach his students that the obvious option wasn't always the right one. It was pivotal for a shinobi to be able to see underneath the surface.
"He said to not give them too hard of a time," Ran said as she plopped across from Ebisu at the low table with a large grin, looking incredibly proud of herself.
"Did Kakashi-san tell you to do that?"
"Nu-uh, all he said was to give them a hard time, and to not actually leave the apartment. I came up with the idea," she puffed out her chest in pride, "and it went better than I 'spected!" She giggled to herself. "He also said that I should listen to you," she added as an afterthought before looking up at him almost suspiciously.
Ebisu hung his head and sighed. Three twelve year olds foiled by a five year old… he was going to give his team the worst D-ranks he could find as punishment for acting without thinking for this.
"Wait," he said when something dawned on him, "he told you to give them a hard time, but not too hard of one?"
"Yep."
"So he told you to be difficult?"
"That's what I said," her brow furrowed.
So Kakashi had set this all up, hadn't he? From the very moment he had spoken to him at the mission's desk. Ebisu's head made a loud thump when it hit the table. He had fallen for his ruse hookline and sinker.
"And that was you going easy on them?" Ebisu groaned against the wood.
"Yep, I made it so it was all suggestiongation," she nodded her head seriously with her arms crossed her chest.
"That's not a word."
"Ehh? Really? Well I made it so that they would think something happened, but it didn't. They ended up trickin' themselves," Ran made a sound a little too close to a cackle. Children were not supposed to cackle.
"Well I guess you should have dinner now," Ebisu sighed as he pushed himself to his feet and got her bento out of the fridge. He had a feeling that his students wouldn't be back for several hours.
After Ran was fed and watered for the evening, she spent the rest of her time working on kanji. The fact that a five year old, who honestly seemed to be a bit of a troublemaker, was able to sit still for so long and study so seriously surprised Ebisu. Lord knew he had trouble getting Konohamaru to sit still for more than ten minutes when he was younger. He had expected her to maybe spent a few minutes on her kanji work, in order to say that she did do some today, before going back to playing. Yet here she was, three hours later, and she was still at.
"When do you usually go to sleep?" He asked her when his watch struck eight.
"When I get tired," Ran answered, not looking up from her work.
It figured Kakashi wouldn't have a bed time for his kid. He wasn't exactly known for being responsible, after all. "Well, I am your guardian for the time being, and young children need to go to bed at 8 o'clock in order to get enough rest for their bodies to grow properly."
"You talk funny," Ran said as she squinted up at him. Ebisu started to sputter, but she picked up her pajamas and went into the bathroom to change. He made sure to keep a sharp eye on her chakra signature in the event she attempted to make a real break for it, but once again, she listened and came right back afterwards. At least she was listening to him. What that earlier suspicious look was about was beyond Ebisu.
"Are you usually read a story?" He asked her as he tucked her into bed with great care. Ran shook her head before snuggling into her futon and closing her eyes. It wasn't long before she fell asleep and her breathing evened out. At least she didn't kick up a fuss about bedtime, unlike certain he'd been put in charge of in the past.
Ebisu stretched out his arms before resting them on the tabletop. Having another two hours to kill before Kakashi was due to return, and hopefully after that his team, he decided to pick an interesting look book from Kakashi's bookshelf and settled in.
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The door to the apartment creaked open quietly and Kakashi crept inside. Seeing that it was only Ebisu and Ran inside he gave the former an infuriating eye crinkle. Ebisu looked ready to blow a gasket, but Kakashi motioned for him to come out onto the landing. Despite looking as though Ebisu would really rather do anything but, he still joined the other man.
"I take it she beat them then?" There was lack of smugness in Kakashi's voice, but that lack of it meant that he had expected this from the beginning and the result came as no surprise.
Smug bastard.
"She managed to dupe them within the first half hour," Ebisu admitted grudgingly with an adjustment of his sunglasses.
Kakashi did not look surprised at all by this and nodded his head. "Looks like they're back," he said and turned to the three exhausted and frazzled looking genein walking across the landing.
"Erk!" The three squeaked as they went ramrod straight when they spotted Kakashi with their sensei.
"U-uh…" Udon stuttered.
"Ka-Kakashi-sensei!" Moegi said as she hid slightly behind Konohamaru.
Who gulped before saying, "w-we looked all over the entire village for her, kore…"
"Is that so?" Kakashi's tone cut like a kunai and his lone eye was like ice as he stared down at the trio. They took several shuffled steps away from him. Maybe if they put just enough space between them he wouldn't be able to land a killing blow.
Probably wishful thinking, but it was better than nothing.
"I-it wasn't our fault, kore!" Konohamaru tried to pull a brave face with his teammates nodding their heads behind him.
"Oh? I thought that you were tasked with watching her… That's what your 'mission' was for this task, wasn't it?" The three gulped and Udon looked to be on the verge of fainting. "Yet…" At this point they were just hoping that it would be a quick and painless death. "Your sensei here was the one ended up watching her." All of the coldness disappeared from his expression and voice as though it had never been there.
"She came back?" Moegi was the first to recover from the shock caused by the sudden change, and she pushed down on Konohamaru's head so she could see Kakashi better.
"She never left." Kakashi gave them an eye crinkle. "Isn't that right, Ebisu-sensei?" Who nodded reluctantly.
"EEEH?!" The three screeched in unison.
"Ran never left the apartment, and you would have known that if hadn't jumped to conclusions and actually searched the bathroom better. She was hiding under the bath cover, for your information."
"What the hell, kore?!" Konohamaru demanded with a fist raised. "You let us run around the village for hours looking for her and you knew where she was the entire time?!"
"I did tell you this was a training exercise." Ebisu's harsh voice and arms crossed in disappointment caused Konohamaru to slink back a little in shame. "Which you three have failed, if that wasn't obvious. A shinobi must be able to look underneath the obvious, and often even below that. You came into this knowing that it was a test, but you got arrogant and lazy, underestimating your opponent, and that resulted in the three of you being bested by a five year old." The three looked properly shamed as they stared down at their shoes and shifted nervously. "We'll be completing more training exercises like this one before you'll get another mission."
There were a few half hearted complaints at that, but they seemed to understand, even if were frustrated and embarrassed. "Yes, Ebisu-sensei," they all replied with varying degrees of sincerity.
"Since this wasn't an official mission, you're all dismissed for the night," Ebisu said. The three nodded before making their way from the apartment building. There were some lingering glares as they jumped away though.
"Don't be too hard on them," Kakashi said as he made his way into his apartment. "She's duped jounin before."
"Wait-what?!" Ebisu yelled, but Kakashi had closed the apartment door right in his face.
Just who had Ran duped?
The early afternoon sun felt warm on her skin as Ran rode on the back of Bull with Pakkun perched in front of her. It came as no surprise when the two dogs had showed up at the daycare and signed her out with a paw print. The workers only gave a long suffering sigh when they took back the sheet, evident this wasn't the first time Kakashi had sent his summons instead of picking Ran up himself.
Something felt off today, however. Kakashi had explained yesterday that she wouldn't be allowed to hang out in the training field anymore. Something to do with safety and all that. Ran didn't really understand, and she would be lying if she were to say that she wasn't upset by this development. The daycare was fun, sure, there were lots of toys and books and Kasumi-sensei would keep her company when the other kids her age didn't want to play with her. There may have been a playground as well, but the plastic and wooden structures could never compare to playing in an actual tree. The wood chips and soft asphalt felt so different from the way soft grass felt against her bare feet. Or how there weren't any animals to try at catch, or rocks to collect. There was only the occasional bug who wandered a little too close to the playground and quickly ended up caught in a net or bare hands. But at this point most bugs knew to stay away.
The sounds and smells were so different at the daycare than they were in the forest. They were so strange and… artificial compared to the ones she was used to. The strong smell of disinfectant overpowered any other scents that might be noticeable. Kasumi-sensei had given Ran a strange look when she asked about the smell, saying that it was only really noticeable if you focused really hard. It confused Ran that the others were barely able to smell what almost gave her a headache at times. The smell of disinfectant clinging to every surface was so incredibly different from the smells she was used to. The air was supposed to smell like earth, plants, flowers, with the scents of livestock mixed in. The way a hot summer day was supposed to smell, not whatever this was.
You were supposed to be able to hear hoes breaking the earth, farmers yelling to one another across the fields, the calls of animals, the chirping of birds and bugs, and the sound of children laughing as they ran through the streets. Not the strange sound of someone landing on the roof and then using it as a springboard to get to the next building. How they even did that was beyond Ran. This place was just so loud and busy. People here were constantly on the move and yelling about one thing or another. No one stopped to enjoy the sweet smell of the air, the sounds of birds and animals, or stopped what they were doing just to watch when the sky almost seemed to be on fire when the Sun set.
This place was just so incredibly different from her home and what she was used to, but all of that changed in the training field. The smells of the city faded away and nature's scent filled the air. There may have been other strange lingering scents that she wasn't able to place when she concentrated on them, but they were overpowered by the smells that were supposed to be there. When in the training field proper, the roaring of the waterfall tended to overpower other sounds, but the farther away she got from it the better Ran would be able to make out other sounds. Like Naruto's carried shouts of concentration, and the ruffling of the leaves that Kakashi's couch was under.
The forest next to the training ground was perhaps the best place in the entire village, and it was the one that reminded her the most of home. Sure, there weren't nearly as many animals running about and calling to each other, but it was full of bugs chirping and scurrying around. There were all sorts of interesting plants and rocks to find in it as well, some of which she had never seen before. Sometimes, just for a little bit, Ran liked to pretend that she was back in her village. That the distant shouts were from Kenji herding his cattle, that the sound of the waterfall was from the creek that the entire village would play in on the hottest days of the summer. And when the sun would start to set, Ran would run home to Mama waiting for her with arms open for a hug.
Ran hadn't realized how much she missed spending time in the training field until she wasn't able to anymore. Everything just felt so right there, compared to the village proper where everything felt so wrong. She had been beyond excited when Pakkun and Bull had shown up and said that they were taking her to her favorite place. That excitement had quickly faded away when she caught sight of the dogs' expressions. Dogs didn't show emotions the same way people did, but it was easy for Ran to pick up the signs. The way Bull's ears fell back and his tail seemed to be almost curling under him. How Pakkun looked and sounded almost grim as they climbed onto Bull's back.
"What's wrong? What's going on?" Ran asked the little dog in front of her.
"I don't know, pup…" Pakkun said with a look in his eye that Ran didn't fully understand. It looked vaguely familiar, but she wasn't able to place it. Bull let out a low whine and Pakkun closed his eyes before letting out a long breath through his nose.
The uneasy feeling in Ran's gut only got stronger when she started to feel as though the dogs knew something and weren't telling her. Whatever it was was bad enough for Kakashi to send his dogs to pick her up in the early afternoon and bring her to the training ground that was apparently too dangerous for her to play in anymore.
It felt as though there was a rock in her belly, and that feeling only doubled when they arrived.
The field was pockmarked with holes varying in sizes, and Ran briefly wondered what could have made them. That thought was quickly brushed aside when she noticed how Kakashi, Naruto, and Yamato were standing close together. The air around them felt heavy and they all had strange expressions on their faces.
Kakashi turned away from the others when he sensed his summon's arrival. "Ah," he said in a tone of voice that Ran couldn't place. "Thanks for picking her up…" Bull laid down and Ran hopped off of him. The dogs didn't disappear once their task was done, however, opting to stick around for the time being.
That worried Ran even more. What… What was going on? Why was Kakashi leading her away from the others? Why was Bull whining and Pakkun grimacing? They usually poofed away as soon as their task was done, unless it was playing, they loved playing. How come Naruto hadn't greeted her with a loud hello and a full arm wave. Why hadn't Yamato scolded Kakashi for using his dogs to pick her up instead of doing it himself?
Ran fisted her hands into the hem of her shirt.
Kakashi stopped when they were a ways away from the others and crouched down in front of her. "Ran…" he said, his voice soft. She really, really, didn't like him making his voice sound like that. It didn't sound right, and it made her skin crawl.
The feeling of rocks in her stomach multiplied until it felt as though there were easily ten rumbling and tumbling around.
"Asuma…" Kakashi started before sighing and running a hand through his hair.
"The one who smells like Jii-chan…?" She asked nervously.
Kakashi chuckled slightly at the nickname, but the laugh sounded almost empty. Like it wasn't sincere and was being forced. "Yeah, that's him," he said. Ran twisted her hands tighter into her shirt.
There was a short pause, and then Kakashi said, "he died earlier today."
