I do not own Naruto. I do, however, own Chiyuki, any original characters, and this story's plot.
smother
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Kakashi is twelve years old when he finally tells his teammates he hasn't stepped foot inside the Hatake compound in years.
"But have you never needed stuff from there?" Obito asks, scratching his head.
The last Hatake shakes his head, his hands in his pockets. "No. I went back there once to get some stuff with Chiyuki, but I either bought the rest or-"
He cuts himself off, because Sarutobi Biwako had given him enough clothes and weaponry to last him a year, back when his old man… and somehow speaking of it feels weird. Maybe it's because Chiyuki's relationship with her parents had always been odd, or maybe because he felt uncomfortable being fussed over by a woman he didn't really know.
The silver haired boy settles for shrugging and letting the words hang in the air, and Obito thankfully doesn't press it.
Rin, on the other hand-
"Let's use the time we have off and go take the rest of your stuff, then." The girl says, hands on her hips. "No time like the present."
"I'll pass." He replies, breezily. Too many things happened there - things that he hasn't worked through yet, things he does not dare touch just yet - and he really would rather not go there without Chiyuki.
"Weren't you saying just the other day that raising your nin-dogs on the fly is a pain? I'll bet there's a bunch of stuff on how you can do it in your old house." Rin retorts, merciless in how she throws facts at him, and Kakashi curses her perceptiveness - not for the first time, by far.
They both watch him closely, his teammates. They've learned how to guide him along without much resistance, and how the best way to get him to do something is to either argue how useful it'll be in the future, or mention the Sandaime's youngest kid.
More often than not, they use both.
"Besides, by the time you and Chi see each other again, you'll be able to show her how far you've progressed. She beat you in your last spar, right?" The medic-nin in training adds, like an afterthought, and if the silver-haired boy didn't know her so well, he might've fallen for her (admittedly) great acting skills.
(Obito grumbles that he'd be able to defeat Kakashi if he had Gai as a teammate too, but both his teammates ignore him.)
Kakashi rolls his eyes all the way to the back of his head, making a show of appearing extremely bothered by the whole situation. "Fine." He finally grumbles, and once again curses his teammates.
Mostly Rin.
He ignores the shit-eating grin on her face the whole time they're there, and it actually serves as a distraction as he undoes the seals he'd put in place, preventing anyone from entering the Hatake compound. The house has a thick layer of dust all over it, mimicking the grief and melancholy that seem to hang in the air. Kakashi ignores the dull ache in his chest as the images of his dad smiling at him in the kitchen, making them both breakfast, haunt him like a persistent ghost.
He glances at the empty plant pots and remembers how Sakumo had killed every single one of them, even though he took such good care of them. In a way, it's very similar to how he went to such painstaking measures to protect his dear village, yet received nothing but scorn in return.
The silver haired-boy turns his head away from the sight, and focuses on his task.
Anxiety starts to creep up on him, slimy and sticky and uncomfortably hot, and he is physically unable to take another single step towards his dad's study. The walls start to close in, shadows creep up around the edges, and he wants to run run run run-
"Hey. Do you mind if we go in together?" Obito's voice suddenly chases away the creeping demons, and his firm hand on Kakashi's shoulder is a grounding, welcoming weight.
The past Kakashi would have shrugged him off and turned his back on them, unwilling to open up his heart to anyone else but his best friend. He'd have run and run and run far far away, would lock his emotions and himself up so tightly no one else would be able to breach his walls - not even himself.
The present Kakashi feels Rin's comforting presence on his other side, and with a sigh, nods at the Uchiha boy.
"Yeah, let's go."
Neither his teammates mention the break in his voice, the cold sweat building up in his face, the slight trembling of his hands. They stick to his side the whole time they're inside Sakumo's study, and somehow, that's enough to keep the awful, slimy hands of death and pain and grief away from him.
For now, it's enough.
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Kakashi grips the scroll in his hands so hard blood actually starts to seep into the paper, and Pakkun puts a small paw on his arm, doggy eyebrows deeply furrowed in worry.
"Boss?"
The silver haired boy grits his teeth and throws the object at the opposing wall in a sudden movement, making the pug jump. The impact makes a dent in his wall, but he honestly can't bring himself to care about it right at this moment. His whole body is up and roaring like a furnace, his anger rolls off of him in thick waves, pupils blown wide and sharp fangs on show, a growl building deep in his throat-
Pakkun chomps down on his forearm - something that can barely be considered a graze, almost like a puppy's playful nibble - and the spell is broken. The boy sags down to the floor of his small apartment, where his demons dance around mockingly in the dim lights. It almost seems as if he's devoid of any energy, but there's an odd glint in his dark eyes that promises pain.
"What is it, boss?"
Inside a deadly body, the furnace roars.
So what if it's a supposedly clan thing?
So what if she isn't a Hatake, doesn't have the dog contract, doesn't have fangs like he does, and doesn't understand the intricacies of smells and emotions?
Chiyuki isn't part of a canine clan, but she had been his Alpha, and they had unjustly taken her away from him. Ripped her from what his instincts had been telling him, from how right it'd felt, from how safe and secure he'd finally felt after his dad-
"They took her from me!"
The furnace roars and spits and rumbles, wild flames that lick at his skin and make him snarl his words out. He's burning, burning, burning-
Kakashi is the Alpha of his own pack because an Inuzuka had told him it was the right choice, and he, as a young pup who had known nothing, had acquiesced. Had lowered his head and accepted it, had seen the resignation in his Alpha's eyes, and had swallowed down the most bitter, most disgusting pill he'd ever laid eyes upon, because it was what they told him to do.
An outsider of another canine clan, who thought his own clan worked like theirs, had pushed Chiyuki out of his pack, and he had accepted it.
Huge, thundering flames rumble inside the furnace, clamoring for due justice, wild and unhinged in its desire to take back what has always been his.
"Then do it." Pakkun, to his credit, doesn't even flinch when he becomes the target of Kakashi's vicious, dangerous eyes. The brown dog actually grins, a mean and savage thing that shows off all his sharp little teeth, feeling his Alpha's outrage and wanting to burn the world down alongside him. "It's your pack, and there's no one to tell you how to do things - not anymore. Just do what feels right."
Kakashi thinks back on the scroll belonging to his clan, then silently gets up and picks it up, ignoring the fresh blood stains. Now that he has an established pack and is acknowledged as their Alpha, it would be too complicated and emotionally exhausting to shift the position back to Chiyuki -
-even though the flames burn hotly against his skin, bellow for justice to be done-
-but it doesn't mean there aren't other possibilities.
They took her away from him once, and once only. There's something dark and unhinged in his eyes, something that should worry Pakkun but somehow doesn't. Something that promises to set the world on fire and watch, with no small amount of satisfaction, as it goes down in flames.
A promise to burn everything to the ground so that she can build it up from scratch.
The furnace burns throughout the night, fire cackling and roaring, as the last Hatake meticulously plans his next steps, written in ash and thundering flames.
(Kakashi actually feels pretty good about his plans, once dawn breaks. Then, someone tells him his best friend had been kidnapped, and all his careful planning is thrown out the window without another thought.)
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Codependency is real and not very healthy, kids. Take care of yourselves.