Chapter 04
Takkun is Sakumo's leading ninken. Since their contract formed, the silver husky has been a staple presence in almost all missions, and perhaps the most interactive with his human's personal life. The rest of the pack come and go as they pleased, but Takkun simply preferred to stick around.
Perhaps, the dog muses on occasion, it all began when Sakumo and his mate had their first child, Kakashi.
He remembered being there for the pup's first bath in the adult's tub, in which Takkun also had the misfortune of actively participating in. "He'd like it better if you were in there with him," Sakumo had urged. Liar.
He remembered when the White Fang's little boy took his first steps, and then stomped on his tail. By accident of course. His tail's never been quite the same, he likes to hold that over the boy now.
There were good times. And there were bad times.
When Sakumo's mate passed away, neither he nor his ninken had been present. They received a message by way of hawk, and as soon as their stand-in arrived to take Sakumo's place, the man had bolted in the direction of the village. Faster than Takkun had ever seen the man run.
He remembered the cries of little Kakashi, the tears and sorrow of Sakumo. The loneliness both males felt. A hole missing in their little pack. It was probably at that moment, that Takkun vowed to stick by his master's side. He needs me now more than ever.
Years passed and one day another addition was added to their pack, a little pink-haired girl by the name of Sakura. This pup resembled nothing of her adoptive family in looks, but she was certainly smart and did strange things. Takkun liked to watch her and Kakashi. The interactions would be what humans would call "adorable".
But the little girl on her own was sometimes fascinating. She has quite the active mind, very curious. Every day it seemed like she was pushing the boundaries a little more. Takkun once told his master to count his lucky stars that she wasn't a troublemaker like his first.
Not yet anyways.
Today had been relatively calm though. Sakumo was on a day mission, Kakashi was currently in class. That left him at home to watch the pup with Granny Saihara. On days like this, Takkun preferred to lay at the foot of the couch. The older woman, when not preparing snacks or looking after Sakura's needs (he covers his nose with his tail when it's diaper time, no shame), spent a lot of time reading to the girl.
And Sakura absolutely loved it. She got to lean back into Granny Saihara and look at the abundance of colourful pictures as the woman pointed at the pictures and then read the words. The first book of the day was animal themed.
"Duck," granny says, as she points at the duck on the board book, "and this is Cat." She points at the corresponding animal. Cow, goat, rabbit, pig, and the list goes on. Takkun's ears twitch involuntarily, who knew reading animal names could make him hungry.
Sakura is smiling and pointing at pictures and tracing them with her little finger. Granny flips the thick board to a new page and the little babe grabs a hold of the book with her chubby fingers. "Tak!" she says and laughter bubbles out of her mouth.
"Sweetie, this is Dog," granny says.
"Tak!" the babe repeats again, laughing.
Granny Saihara is a little amused and tries to see if she can get the girl to say the word, "Dear, can you say dog?" She repeats the word a few times, slower to make the notes clearer. Sakura pays her no mind though, "Tak!" she says again with full clarity.
"Hm," granny pats the babe's head, thoroughly amused, "Alright, 'Tak' it is." Granny doesn't miss the way Takkun has completely burrowed his face behind his back foot and tail.
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It's a nice spring day in Konoha, a little bit before Sakura turns one when Sakumo decides to introduce the rest of his pack to her. It's still a little cold so he's dressed her in multiple layers and appropriate shoes now that she can walk, much to his surprise.
They are together in the yard with Kakashi, who is also heavily layered. Sakumo thinks his boy's got at least two masks and two scarves around his face. His hands in gloves and shoved into his coat pockets as he watches his sister move around the yard, her steps pretty solid, but there is the occasional slip up. He watches mostly for those.
Takkun is walking beside her, ready for anything. Sakumo takes a moment to watch his children before biting into his thumb and summoning the rest of the pack.
A plume of smoke later, his yard is filled with half a dozen more dogs of various sizes and breeds. "What's up Sakumo? We didn't sense any alarm in your chakra, everything okay over here?" the largest of the six asked.
"Oh, everything's just fine Shoga," Sakumo motioned for them to turn around and look behind them, "I thought I've been talking about her long enough, it was time for you all to just meet her."
The dogs, some cautious, some excited, turned and saw the baby with wide green eyes looking back at them. For a moment, everything was still, but Kakashi could see the growing excitement in his sister's eyes, and then she pointed at the group of ninken and exclaimed, "Tak!"
Takkun saw the brief flashes of horror in his pack's eyes and let out a literal bark of laughter. The ninken came out of their stupor pretty quick and trotted over to the girl, surrounding her. Shoga nudged her, "Listen here pup, my name is Shoga. Sho-ga." Sakura giggled endlessly and reached her hands up to grab at the dog's mane, "Tak!"
The ninken pack, besides Takkun, came to an unanimous vote; there was much work to be done with their newest pup.
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Author's Note: Hey, yeah, I know it's been forever. I'm terrible at updating anything because I'm not a writer-type. I'm a reader-type. And... adult-ing is just really hard in general. I just thought, what the heck, and decided to write this real quick. It's fully of grammatical errors, I know. I just wanted to have a little fun before I walk my dog. Again, please do not PM or write reviews asking me to update. It's not going to make me do so any faster or sooner. Although the interest is appreciated.
In case anyone is curious, Shoga indeed means 'ginger'. And yes, all of Sakumo's ninken are named after food. Decided that on a whim. What breeds they are, is pretty irrelevant. I wanted to make this one a little longer, but I had already gone over the 1k word limit. Until next time folks!