I'm sorry for the long absence...

Life can just throw you curve balls that you aren't prepared for... but anyways I'm back! For a while... Kinda preparing for AX, I'm so excited! Hoping that there will be great art to buy just as always...

Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine, nor the characters, but taking a spin on them is quite amusing.

Warning: Language, crude/dark humor, and other things... Just stuff you'd expect as same from last few chapters... Oh there might be more angst, but it hopefully won't hang around for long.

Beta: Still avoiding complaints in my engrish... soooo... so far so good :D

Pakkun Days

Grown Ups

Although normally I would've grieved til my dying days, the way the Hatake's have to suffer just because Sakumo SAVED his comrades was really starting to piss me off. My mother died on that mission, and to hell they were making it to be all for naught!

I'd kill anyone who'd make my mother's death seem like nothing.

Lately Kakashi and Sakumo have become distant, as Kakashi spends more time training with Minato. Occasionally he'll summon me from the home, making me appear out in the middle of whatever mission he's in. It's damn right annoying, but slowly I'm getting used to it. First time I was summoned, my stomach felt queazy, but only for a little bit. Still does every now and then, I think I just got issues with teleporting.

Oh yah, forgot to mention Kakashi is a genin now... Little shit just went up and left home on his missions. He didn't even have to go through all the class-D rank missions for long. After one or two Tora missions, and then bam! War hits us, and he's out tracking the enemy with Minato beside him. Well leaves more space for me on the bed for naps.

I try and cheer up Sakumo, as all he does is stay at home. But lately he's shut himself off, even from the rest of his own pack. They worry about him a lot, they aren't getting much sleep. Whenever I go to their side of the compound they always highly talk of my mother. I like it when they comfort me and tell me how much I didn't know about her.

I haven't told anyone yet about my condition as reincarnation. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one with this, there must be other's who know of the one future timeline I do. Yet nothing seems to have changed, do they also not wish to fuck things up, causing chaos and havoc in other ripples. My paw pads hit the dirt, as I exit the compound, off to go mingle with the other summons and animals in konoha. It's always nice to get some dirt or knowledge.

Viewing the Hokage mountain is pretty cool, but what beats the view of this place is smelling all the smells. Dogs do have it lucky, I have to admit.

Strolling along I see Kuromaru, he's an older canine, and like me, expresses the ability to talk. But it's still nice to bark behind someone's back who doesn't know 'dog' language. He still has both his ears, and his eyes. Sometimes it gets me wondering how in fact he does lose them.

"Yo, see your out of the Inuzuka compound." My eyes trail around the place, looking for Tsume.

"Well if it isn't the little runt." He barks back. He notices my wandering gaze. "Tsume asked me to take a look around." If Kuromaru had eyebrows he'd be wiggling them, but he settles for his wolfish grin.

I chuckle. So she's going boy-crazy at this day and age now. "Well it shouldn't be hard for you. What a big nose you have to sniff him out with." Kuromaru gives a rough push. It's strange how they have nursery rhymes in world's, and here wolves are no different displayed as they were in medieval times. Big, Bad, and Scary.

"You forgot the big, white, gleaming fangs to scare him off with." Kuromaru loves to remind me that Tsume has too many ex's for me to keep count on my paws.

"You probably didn't have to do much work..." We both let out a hearty laugh, as I pass by.

I've been theorizing that maybe Kuromaru is just like me. Another reincarnation with their memories intact. Maybe that's what gives us the ability to speak, and not other summons. Or is something in our D.N.A. like all the scientists back home on earth would say. I let out a sigh, as I take an aimless trek around Konoha.

"Hey you!" My ears perk up, as I can feel my upper lip stiffen. Great just my luck. I show my hide out here just once this week, and I have to run into this bitch.

Said bitch is a pre-teen, said daughter of one of the survivors that Sakumo saved. And all she ever does is harp on us, whenever she hears or sees hair of us that live on the Hatake compound.

"Why don't you take your cowardly tail back to the front lines, and go die with honor!" The crowd watches, but tries to keep a passive stance. They don't stare too long, they don't interfere, but they never stop paying attention. "It's because of cowards like you that we are at war!"

I sit my rump down in the road as I simply look apathetic towards her pleas and out crys. "If you want to die so badly, then by all means, go."

"Why don't you tell Sakumo to stop huddling in his home, and go back out and do missions!"

I snarled back. "I would, but the freakin Hokage ordered him sick leave. It's not that he won't go, it's that he can't go."

"He obviously can, because he's the White Fang." She leaves, not before spitting in the dirt in front of me. A flick of her head, and off she is to whatever she was doing before. I shuffle in my gear, as everyone now recognizes the image of Kakashi's symbol on my back. There's no way I'm just going to take this. I don't care if Pakkun was a mature, wise, polite-yet-passive-aggressive dog. I'm going to give this little shit a piece of my mind.

"You should be thanking him that you aren't crying like some prissy little crybaby, that your father isn't out dead. He hasn't been sent out on the front lines, because he isn't even worthy of the title chunnin!"

She turns around astonished at me, before gritting her teeth and pulling out her kunai. Fine she wants to fight here, I hope she doesn't mind everyone seeing her under-jammies.

A couple tosses, but compared to Kakashi's throw, they aren't nothing, as I catch one in my teeth. I zip by her, before she even realizes it, her pants are falling, as her strawberry panties flash everyone. I let the metal fall, just as I turn to see her bright red face.

"Strawberries, I would've thought you'd at least go ninja-themed if you are going to parade around like one."

I 'body-flicker' away, but taking her little money sack pouch. After urinating on a pole, and saying hello to a couple more summons, I go and bury it by her house, right where the beautiful camellia bushes 'used' to be. Ah revenge is sweet.

"Pakkun, welcome back." My ears perk up, as I hear Sakumo's voice. That's strange, he's usually in his room.

"Hello, Sakumo." I eye him, as he is sitting on the couch, a faint gleam in his suspicious smile.

He pats the side next to him. I whine and sit on the floor. If I have to face some lecture, I don't want to be next to the person giving it to me. His face turns more somber, as he pats the cushion again. I hesitantly walk forward, already having an idea he's going to be talking about the fiasco today...

"You're not in trouble, Pakkun." My eyes widen, as I leap onto the couch, sitting respectfully next to him. He pats my head, just like the many times I've seen him pat my mother's. "You look so much like your mother... except your ears." He gives them a little tussle. "They are more like your father's."

"Father?" I question. My mother never spoke of my father, nor have any of my other pack mates.

"Just some stray, that your mother fell in love with. That's all I know." Sakumo gives me an apologetic shrug, but I give an affectionate rub to his hand. It's enough to quench my curiosity. I'm better off not knowing him.

"I'm home." A low voice resounds from the door.

"Welcome back." Sakumo and I chorus back. Kakashi's form appears from the long hallway, as he looks into the living room. He looks at me apathetically, before his glare sets in on his father. With a huff, he turns and hurries up the stairs. Sakumo's forlorn gaze doesn't go un-noticed. I give a small whimper of sympathy, but Sakumo quickly puts on a smile for me.

"You shouldn't have to smile if you aren't happy."

He looks at me, before his face placates out. "What should I do Pakkun. Kakashi was so different before... but now... He can't even stand to look at me." My heart clenches, as my mind races back to the moment where I watched Kakashi stumble in on Sakumo's dead body. My body stiffens, as the hairs on my back raise in anxiety. I shouldn't change anything, it'll cause less ripples... But my heart is still healing over mother's death, and the person who is only ever home to show me comfort is Sakumo nowadays. Kakashi is there for me, but with the long weeks he gets pulled out for tracking or escort missions, the bed is a lot lonelier.

"It's just a phase. He's probably just angry, and trying to win favor for the Hatake name in Konoha."

"Do you think it would've been better... if I had stayed behind? That this war wouldn't have been started... That my son now has to fight in, instead of enjoying his younger years while they are still here."

I ponder on what to say. It seems Sakumo has done a lot of thinking while he was holed up in his room.

"I think... I think it is better that Kakashi still has a father." Sakumo's eyes widen at me, but I quickly put up my paws in surrender. "That wasn't... I-I'm not blaming you or anything for mother's death... I-I..." But Sakumo's warm hand pets my head as he smiles at me, easing me.

"Thank you, Pakkun." He gets up, before heading into the kitchen. My tail wags with excitement. It's been year since I've had his cooking. I quickly run up the stairs, as I view Kakashi lying in bed, dead-tired. He lifts his head barely, as he looks at the door.

"Oh, Pakkun." He pats beside him, as I leap onto the bed. I sit, as my tail wags. I bet there is even a huge beaming smile on my face. I can tell that Kakashi is smirking from underneath his mask as he pats my head. "You seem really happy to see me."

"I am. That's not the only-"

"You're the only one who ever is." He quietly murmurs, his eyes falling asleep. I don't know what it is about Hatake's and how they do it, but I seriously will find out how to stop this heart crushing sensation that they can cause just from a simple-sad-tear-jerking line!

My tail stops, as I lay beside him, his hand still resting on my head. "Keep an eye out for me."

"We're at home, what is there to look out for..." But the kid is already asleep. Well I guess I can always just bite him in the ass to wake him up for Sakumo's cooking, instead of racing him down the steps for it like we used to.

It'd be a new regime that I'm up for.

So yah not much on this author note except that I'll be trying to dish out chapters like fliers at a convention!

Thanks for reading!

-goes off to write the next one-