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#Ūhei
badninken · 2 months
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I was looking at that pic you reblogged of Zabuza being held down with the ninken and just realized Uhei (bandages dog) is holding his sword.
YES!! So brave and strong! Getting that fearless grayhound snoot right in there , very very good ninken <3
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Ūhei is one of my favorites because their bandages remind me of those wraps that are used to ease dog anxiety. Since there are a lot of traumatized grayhounds out there due to racing I imagined Ūhei being a dog that needed a bit of aid and recovery to get back to their brave, badass self who's ready to use legendary Kiri swords as chew toys!
(also using gender neutral pronouns for Ūhei since I've seen them referred to as both both he and she in fics and I believe they've used both male and female voice actors in the anime? anyway, nonbinary Ūhei is now canon in my head <3)
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aldynafox · 2 years
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DOGOOOO !!!
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jesseevelann · 2 years
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Pride Month; Demiromantic, Gay (MLM) and Transgender
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dark-elf-writes · 11 months
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Kakashi does dog shows with Pakkun (the breadwinner of the entire household) and Guy does motivational speaking/group therapy with turtle racing on the side. The turtle’s name is Youth and she is a very spry young lady brining in all the money.
When career day comes around Naruto says Kakashi is retired but their dog has a job. Everyone laughs. Naruto can’t figure out why. Shikamaru is gearing up to make a room full of five year olds cry again.
Iruka who had Lee the year before sighs, grateful at least it’s a dog and not a turtle/tortoise this time that he has to translate into kid speak, and says that technically Kakashi’s job is a dog handler but he’s sure their dog does a very good job at racing.
Naruto again is confused. Ūhei is also retired and doesn’t race anymore. Pakkun is the one that makes all the money.
And that’s how the class ends up watching a video of a dog show with Naruto’s massive dad in a full suit with his hair actually combed prancing around with the tiniest and most pissed off looking pug they have ever seen.
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What’s your favorite breed of dog?
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You're asking me to pick a single one? For shame!
Lurchers and bulldogs are quite reliable for certain types of mission work, and pugs are aesthetically very cute. But then again, those are the only three breeds that I've had any significant amount of personal experience with, considering Ūhei, Bull, and Pakkun. The rest of my pack are all collie, terrier, shiba, and beagle mixes, I think. Mutts, you could say, but don't call any of them that to their faces.
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naruto-auzumaki · 1 year
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[AO3 LINK]
You would think that being the last member of a clan meant being the one to know everything about it, including its vast history, the ancestry, past settlements and clan feuds. Unfortunately, Kakashi has rather limited knowledge when it comes to the Hatake clan. His father didn't live long enough to teach him himself, and Kakashi didn't put much more of an effort in learning on his own time after his only parent's suicide. He had other things to worry about at the time, and then after that, he kept having more and more other things to worry about. The most he knows is that in the past, the Hatake clan were once farmers. To be more specific, the clan was a civilian clan, and while most if not all of the members knew how to wield jutsu on some level, they had focused more on using said jutsu for things like watering their crops, making ash and churning their soil with it, controlling the electrical conductivity in the soil, and summoning well-trained packs to ward away pests preying on their fields or coops. 
Having grown up during a time of war, Kakashi had honestly forgotten the knowledge. It was ridiculous to even think about. Imagining a life where he was peacefully using jutsu for nothing but ordinary, daily tasks was just not something he was capable of. Even now, he struggled to see himself doing it. To have Pakkun guarding a little fenced in chicken coop, Bisuke and Akino surveying the fields, Ūhei and Guruko herding sheep, Shiba, Urushi, and Bull hunting out in the woods… And Kakashi doing what? What on earth would Hatake Kakashi be doing on a farm? Hunting bandits? Investigating a crime scene? Watching over his cute little genin, of which he doesn’t have, completing a simple little D-rank, pulling weeds out of the field? 
He just can’t picture it. He could picture anyone else but himself. 
Which… is an idea. What sort of person could he picture taking care of a farm with a bunch of ninken? What sort of Hatake can he see doing such a thing? Not himself, and not his father, certainly not. Someone… who breathes in and genuinely appreciates the fresh air around him. Someone who runs alongside of his ninken with breathless glee, uncaring of the sort of picture he makes in doing so. Someone who loves life and the life he lives, someone who makes connections without even thinking about it and who can smile widely in the face of strangers without any suspicion. 
Body moving on its own, Kakashi finds himself hunting a buck. He works quickly, preserving most of the meat, and mixing up a bit of yummy dog chow for his pack, using leftover meat and some other edible flora he’s picked up along the journey. Then, he works on the hide, making a couple shadow clones to assist. It’s lengthy work, taking too much time for someone who just abandoned his village, but then again, he doubts the village will notice his absence any time soon, so it is time that he fortunately can spare. What he has planned will take days, and he predicts people will be coming after him in about a… week, possibly. He’s far enough away that he can spend the next five days without interruption. 
It’s a long five days. He scrapes the hide clean, soaks it in a river, wrings it out, brains it, softens it, then smokes the results. For the normal civilian, this would be incredibly labor intensive, although Kakashi finds himself having an easier time of it. Even still, it’s not something that can be rushed, and while he’s working on his spontaneous side-project, he has to spend some time working on building himself a camp that will last for the next five days, carving some wood, digging out pits, making a tent, etc. 
There’s also the awkward tension between him and his ninken that he needs to work on. If he had summoned Pakkun alone, he likely wouldn’t have noticed anything amiss, given how he seems to be acting completely normal. The rest of the pack, however? You could almost describe them as skittish. They subtly look at him from the corners of their eyes when they think he can’t see, leaving space between them and him. It’s understandable, if he sorts through his memories of this life. He’s acting much differently than they’re used to. Less broken, he supposed. 
They’re not unhappy about it, that much he can tell. Likely, they just can’t tell whether this is a permanent change or not. They don’t want to get their hopes up. Which is painful, because he knows there have been times in the past where they had gotten their hopes up, only to have that hope mercilessly crushed not long afterwards. And he was the one to do that, intentional or not.
There had been times where he was just on the cusp of healing. Of taking that step forward towards bettering himself. And inevitably, he would turn his back on the thought, scoffing at the idea that someone so shattered could piece themselves back together. Honestly speaking, he was almost suspicious by how often it had happened. Not that it mattered anymore, of course, but it was still suspicious. 
Oh well. 
In any case, he’s aware that the tension between him and his ninken will likely continue for some time. The best he can do is leave them out for as long as possible, getting them used to his presence. And slowly, they do, if only marginally. By the end of the fourth day, he notes that his pack has inched closer to him than they had previously, surrounding him on all sides as he worked on carving out a wooden base for a mask. He was lucky to find a black walnut tree, one which had lost quite a large, sturdy branch. He’d gathered quite a few walnuts, and enough wood for more than just his current project.
By the end of the fifth day, his deer hide has been smoked, and he gingerly applies a portion of it to the wooden mask base he had carved. It only covered the upper half of his face, so he was left with quite a bit of hide left over, which he decided to store for the time being. Processing the hide was long enough after all, and he needed to get moving soon. In the end, he’s got a canine-inspired mask, with simple seals applied to it that allows him to see through the wood and leather, rather than needing holes to see through.
It’s obviously not the first time he’s made a disguise for himself. He’s been disguised as both male and female servants, as photographers and entertainers, unfortunate souls from the slums, high-end Geisha, and every other role you could think of in-between. It wouldn’t even be the first time he’s made a role without much thought of a backstory, really. He knows how to improvise, and how to keep his story straight despite unplanned details. 
But something feels different. Putting on this mask, one he took the time to carefully craft with his own two hands, felt entirely unlike any face he’s worn before. It’s something new, something refreshing. 
“Arata,” he whispers. His ninken perk up, looking towards him with interest. It occurs to him that he hasn’t said a word to them since he had first summoned them five days ago. “My name is Arata, now.”
Pakkun looks over his shoulder, having been previously napping by a tree. A singular eye roves over his form, and the pug huffs. 
“Arata could have made the mask cuter.”
“Oi,” Kakashi pouts, and oh they definitely can see it now. He can’t exactly deny that he pouts when it’s in full view for everyone to see. “The mask is cute!”
“You look like a fox,” Ūhei snickers. 
“None of you appreciate my artistry,” Kakashi sniffs. He’s prepared for the onslaught of scents that brings. “It’s a husky. Clearly.”
“Clearly,” Akino says sarcastically, getting a few laughs out of the pack. Kakashi feels bullied. 
“Arata is above this,” he tells himself, taking in a breath and getting into character. “No shame here! I don’t care what any of you think! Arata is happy with his mask and will be happy no matter what you say!”
The pack laughs even louder then, closing in on him and crowding his legs. He dutifully ignores them, and starts moving. Time to get rid of any traces of a camp, then get going.
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just-puddding · 6 months
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Also here's a little ūhei walking cycle
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Dog Sanctuary Owner Kakashi Au
Rescuing the Hounds
Made with help from @shinobimagpie
Pakkun is the only hound Kakashi doesn’t save. He’s a service dog given to Kakashi after the car accident that took his left eye, and has been with Kakashi for years.
Bull was a rescue from an abandoned house. Left behind when his owners left, bull was left with a bowl of dry food and water. It took three days for the neighbor’s to realize he was still there and call the sanctuary. No one else wanted to go in because they didn’t know if the big dog was safe to approach. When Kakashi and Gai step into the house, bull rushes to them and begins jumping up excitedly. Kakashi has never seen a more excited dog. Gai ends up carrying Bull out of the house and holding him while Kakahsi examines an injury on his foot from stepping on some glass from a broken cup he knocked off of the counter.
Akino is a rescue from dog races. Although many of them take great care of their dogs, Aknio was raised by someone who abused him a lot. Kakashi and Gai were called in by another dog racer, and ended up getting enough proof of Akino’s treatment to have him taken from his owner and placed into their sanctuary. Akino still loves to run around the sanctuary, but he never races anymore.
Bizuke was the dog left behind by a family who couldn’t take him when they moved. When he was given to the sanctuary the little girl who he belonged to cried, begging her parents to take him with them to their new home in another country. To ease her hurt Kakashi gave the family his email and told them to message him when they settled down, promising to take lots of pictures so that they could see how bizuke was doing. The little girl messages Kakashi at least once a week asking about bizuke, and when she gets a new dog for her new home she emails Kakashi and thanks him for taking such good care of her first dog.
Shiba was a born stay. He was in a litter of puppys found in a dumpster by someone and brought to Kakashi’s sanctuary. Kakashi stayed up for days with the pups feeding them, washing them, and doing everything he could to help them survive. One of the pups did end up dying, but Shiba and his sister pulled through. Although Shiba’s sister ended up being adopted out, shiba prefers to stay with Kakashi, always hanging by his side and making it clear he does not want to be taken from the sanctuary.
Ūhei was a young pup belonging to an older woman. She had only just gotten him a few months ago before tragiclly passing away. Her son came over for a visit one day and found ūhei sitting on the edge of her bed guarding her. Ūhei was brought to the sanctuary by the son (Genma) because he couldn’t take the dog in himself but he knew he would have a safe home with Kakashi. (gai had waxed poetics about him since starting work at the dog sanctuary). Kakashi makes sure to take Ūhei to the cemetery where his old owner was buried at least once a week and lets him sit on her grave. Sometimes he cries, sometimes he just sniffs the stone and lays down like he would on her lap.
Guruko was an older stray rescued from the streets. He was rescued by Gai in the middle of a rain shower. Gai was on his morning jog when Gueuko came up to him and started sniffing his pockets. It was then that Gai remembered he always carries dog treats on him and forgot to take them out for his run. He offers Guruko a treat and uses the distraction to look for a collar. When he doesn’t find one he decides to take Guruko to the sanctuary so Kakashi can see if there’s a micro chip. Kakashi does find one, but it leads him to a family living five hours away from them. Kakashi contacts them and finds out that they lost Guruko five years ago and had given up searching. He asks if they still want him, but they had already found a new dog by this point and adjusted to having that one with the family, so Guruko stays with Kakashi and Gai at the sanctuary and always goes for a morning jog with Gai.
Urushi is a pup brought in by Gai’s father after one of his trips. He found the little guy hiding in a storm drain refusing to come out, and only managed to coax him out after calling Gai for some help. By the time he got the dog to Kakashi and Gai, Urushi was really sick with worms and a respiratory infection. It took a lot of work on Kakashi’s part, but Urushi managed to pull through and bonded really well with Shiba, to the point where the two of them refuse to be separated. Kakashi immediately called up Tenzo for another dog house to be built onto his properly, and started buying all of the necessary toys and equipment for Urushi at his home.
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mokutone · 2 years
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this is mostly to help me remember who is who
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hotgirluchiha · 3 years
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guys being bros
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badninken · 6 months
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it's very cool and awesome how kakashi has so many dogs
until you have to draw all the dogs
(i mean it's fun and i do this out of my own free will but also just so many dogs)
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raizagabriel · 6 years
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Kakasaku Month 2018- Week 1 day 3- Stargazing Ninken just because I love them ♥️ @thekakasakusquad
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askthecopynin · 2 years
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What’s it like knowing your hounds are cooler than you?
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'Ūhei already knows. I fear he will tell the others.'
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dark-elf-writes · 11 months
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I am howling at the 'Kakashi calls in a bomb threat rather than not go', I just keep on thinking how bemused the organisers would be, just 'why a baby race???'
Also I just love the idea of Naruto growing up and just being super competitive, and that he's been raised to do this from the beginning. And also doing so many different things, from karate to pageants. And winning them all, with a supportive father who helps with the cheating a bit.
Oh Naruto would have so many extracurriculars. Like Kakashi has a set schedule that’s plastered in three separate places in the house AND on his phone because he is late to everything unless it involves his kid. He is incredibly supportive even if that support is sometimes a little… unorthodox.
(Tbh he doesn’t need to cheat to make narut win as he gets older. Naruto as enough training under his belt that he does a damn good job on his own… and he also picks up how to cheat on his own just in case.)
Walking into their house is like walking into a full trophy room between Naru and Pakkun. There’s even some left over from Ūhei’s racing career.
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ah yes, the idea for yet another variant of this au chain
Team Seven take the mission to the Land of Waves. On the bridge, they fight Zabuza and Haku.
On the bridge, Sakura dies.
For a moment that lasts forever, everything seems to freeze. It’s shock, initially, on every face. Haku’s mirrors are in the midst of cracking apart, Naruto and Sasuke standing bloody and back-to-back between them, while Haku lunges across the expanse of stone to protect Zabuza from the shrill and deathly lightning in Kakashi’s hand.
Even Sakura herself seems stunned, rotating midair as if in slow motion. She seems unsure of herself, or how exactly she got where she is - bolted from one end of the bridge to the other, abandoning her post as Tazuna’s bodyguard to intercept Haku on their way to Kakashi.
And she’s made it, to her credit. Caught Haku just before they reach Zabuza, tagged them with her kunai. There’s blood on their clothes, a stark red streak against pale skin and fabric.
They’ve spun at the contact, reflexive, defensive. Somehow, even with the Chidori roaring in Kakashi’s palm, the world goes silent as Haku’s senbon sinks into Sakura’s neck. It’s all too slow as the strike transfers momentum, as Sakura’s feet lift from the ground and the senbon tears out of her throat. Sasuke stares on with Sharingan ablaze, unable to breathe, unable to look away as his eyes dutifully and traitorously record Sakura’s death in minute, excruciating detail. He doesn’t know, just yet, what the cost of his clan’s power truly is.
But Kakashi does, only too terribly well, and as time catches up with itself and Sakura goes crashing into the bridge, he strikes. His hand punches straight through Zabuza’s ribcage, tearing through his heart until Kakashi’s fingers protrude from his back. The surprise on his face is overlaid with the relief on Rin’s, and Kakashi yanks back, turns away, refuses to look at her ghost with the blood on his hands.
Sasuke is frozen, unblinking, struggling to breathe. He can’t drag his gaze away from Sakura’s body, and she looks so small where she’s crumpled on the bridge, utterly motionless in an expanding puddle of her own blood. He can’t see colours, except for the crimson, as if everything else has been spontaneously switched off.
She’s still breathing, barely, a weak flutter that-- Gods, Sasuke thinks he might be imagining it, actually, he can’t tell, and her body is outlined in white fire that he knows isn’t real, Sharingan whirring, head spinning. The world rotates.
It ruptures, all at once, as Naruto lets out an ear-piercing scream at Sasuke’s side. Whatever was holding it all snaps, and Sasuke whips around to check on Naruto, and sees the menacing red bleeding into blue eyes, sees the way his teeth are cracking and elongating in his jaws, the fangs that are too big for Naruto’s skull, the ink creeping out from the birthmarks on his cheeks, winding back along his temples and down his nose.
There’s a shout, Kakashi’s voice, but Naruto has already vanished in a blur of sticky red chakra and the shattering of the stone under his feet, and by the time Sasuke can find him again he’s already torn into Haku like a wild animal, cracking bone and shredding flesh. Their head rolls away from their body, before Naruto pounces on it.
The skull pancakes under Naruto’s hand, a splatter of brains like a water balloon bursting, a tongue poking from between his fingers and an eyeball popping into the air and arcing away. Naruto is snarling, glowing, and there’s blood dripping from every footprint he leaves, his skin melting and boiling as fast as it heals under the cloak of-- of-- oh gods, and Sasuke doesn’t even know, can’t even comprehend what it is that he’s seeing. A Naruto that isn’t himself, isn’t even human, and there are ethereal tails forming and lashing from the dark red chakra itself, two-- three. Long curves that look like ears, deep gouges in the stone as his nails-- claws, they’re claws, wickedly sharp, and they look more like bone than fingernail, like the animal is too big to be contained by Naruto’s real body.
Haku is in pieces under Naruto’s attack, and he won’t stop slashing and biting and shredding. Nausea boils up, fear and panic and Sasuke doesn’t fucking understand but he’s pretty fucking sure that he doesn’t want to, and it’s almost a relief when he has to turn away to vomit.
Kakashi’s voice is in the air, and every fibre of his body wants to help ruin the people who’ve killed Sakura right in front of them, wants to sprint to her side and try to save her - but he can’t, he knows, and he can’t lose control like his kids are. He’s the leader. He’s the adult. There’s too much blood under Sakura already, her carotid artery sundered by the attack, and she’s just a child, she’s beyond help, beyond Kakashi’s rudimentary skills in medical ninjutsu, she’s already gone and there’s nothing Kakashi can do to save her. Because there’s never anything he can do to save her.
But he can’t lose control, and he needs to triage the situation as best he can. If he fails to act, then he’ll lose Naruto too. He’ll lose Sasuke. He’ll lose all of them. So he sprints to Naruto, tackles him to the ground, ignores the sudden searing agony of the Kyuubi’s chakra biting into his skin. Naruto is wild, lost in the onslaught of his demon and grief, but where the Kyuubi’s domination brings with it new and unique strengths, it also brings weaknesses.
It takes more chakra and effort than Kakashi has, but he makes Naruto look him in the eye, brings as much of the Sharingan’s power to bear as he can. For a minute, struggling to keep Naruto down while he howls and snaps his teeth and tries to bite through Kakashi’s wrists, nothing visibly happens. Kakashi is shaking by the time Naruto finally stills, takes a deep breath, lets out a noise like a dying animal.
When Naruto slumps, the Kyuubi locked back into its cage, Kakashi goes down with him.
Sasuke’s approach is slow, shuddering, uncertain. His eyes are burning, and he can’t tell if it’s from chakra or from tears, but he doesn’t care. Naruto and Kakashi are breathing, tangled together in an unconscious pile, and Sasuke can’t even begin to think what to do with them so he ignores them. Goes to Sakura instead. She’s sprawled, her skin scraped and raw from her impact and tumble against the bridge, her throat torn open. Sasuke’s never seen what the inside of a larynx looks like before.
He turns away as he gags, but there’s nothing left to come up except a violent ache so deep that Sasuke thinks, for a moment, that he might be about to die as well. Sakura is limp when he tries to pick her up, warm and pliable and lifeless in his hands. He can’t get them to stop shaking, makes a mess as he tries to wipe her hair out of her face. Smears blood everywhere. It’s matted in her hair, the normal pink warped into a blurring crimson.
It’s the ninken who actually take control. Pakkun sets Bull and Shiba to guard Tazuna, even though the threat to him is gone. The cold reality is that they’re acting more like prison guards than bodyguards; Konoha has lost a genin and nearly lost her whole team, and it rarely forgives such offences. Guruko establishes a small parameter around the scene, and Akino keeps the remaining civilians in a tight group. Urushi comes to sit vigil with Sasuke, and they let him cradle Sakura’s body to his chest and cry.
With only a few words, Pakkun has Ūhei unsummon herself, and she vanishes in a puff of smoke to report to the Hokage and get a rescue team sent after them. With Bisuke’s help, Pakkun himself sets to untangling Naruto and Kakashi and ensuring they’ll live through this. Shiba, the only ninken with a lightning affinity, is pulled off Tazuna duty to give Kakashi a chakra transfusion; he jolts and moans when it’s delivered, but it’s a necessary agony and he doesn’t fully wake.
When Gatō makes his appearance, Bisuke vanishes and reappears on his shoulders, and his entourage is sent fleeing in panic as she rips out his throat too with delicate, savage fangs.
By the time that Ūhei returns with a rescue squad at her side, Naruto is awake again and he refuses to let anyone take Sakura’s body from him but the masked Anbu simply picks them up together. Gai is firm but gentle as he carries Kakashi - not quite awake, but beginning to stir. Sasuke tries to stand - he’s numb and hollow, and he thinks that he should feel like he did when he found Itachi over the bodies of their parents but he doesn’t. He doesn’t feel anything.
Perhaps he should feel guilty for that.
His legs fail him, however, and maybe he should feel pathetic for not even being able to pick himself up from the ground but he can’t bring himself to care as he’s carefully lifted up by Asuma. Sasuke wants nothing more than to stop existing while he watches his team over Asuma’s shoulder, stares unblinking at the way Naruto shakes and begs Sakura to wake up. She won’t.
She won’t ever again.
The ninken make the trip back with them, and if it is a quick affair then it is also a haunting one. Naruto doesn’t shut up the entire time, alternating between talking to the girl who cannot hear him and muttering quietly to himself. If Sasuke looks closely enough, he can see the flash of fangs in Naruto’s mouth that never quite flatten again.
The report to Hiruzen lasts for a lifetime, and is over far too soon. Kakashi is lucid by then, standing on his own feet but with Gai’s continued assistance. His report is... empty. Perhaps that’s as it should be - he does not cry, for death has already wrung from him as many tears as he could ever give it, but his voice is icy and his gaze is bitter and grim. He recommends, as emotionlessly as he explains all the rest, that Konoha execute Tazuna for his crimes.
Naruto finally surrenders Sakura’s body when her parents arrive. He and Sasuke will never forget the way they break when he does, the collapse and the howling and the way that Sakura is stiff and pale in their arms. Her eyes are still open, glazed and green and unseeing.
Why are her eyes still open?
Afterwards, after Sasuke and Naruto are released from Team Seven’s trip to the hospital but Kakashi is coerced to stay, two of the ninken stick around. Ūhei sticks to Sasuke’s side like a parasite, a warmth and stability that Sasuke finds himself loathing, while Bisuke trails Naruto at a short but definitive distance.
Naruto doesn’t let Sasuke wander home alone. He wants to, desperately, wants to hide away in the ocean of death that he lives in and-- gods, and what, exactly? Showering is an option that should be appealing, but it’s not. Even the thought of washing Sakura’s blood off himself - of erasing the last tangible evidence of her life - is sickening. They’d been cruel to her, in life. Sasuke had expected little of her at all, and he hadn’t cared if she’d known it. Naruto, with his puppy-love, hadn’t been better.
Except she was dead, and in the end her strength hadn’t mattered at all. Any one of them could have been caught the way she was - and it was bravery that had killed her, not weakness. She’d left the safety of distance and thrown herself in the way, in between their sensei and an incoming attack, and there was no way of knowing if Haku could have hurt or killed Kakashi in the attempt but Sakura had prevented it from even being an option.
Had she known? Had it been a decision on her part, or had it been instinct and desperation? Had she ever realised that-- gods, had she ever known that her team loved her?
A glare isn’t enough to discourage Naruto from following Sasuke home, as it never has been, and there’s a chance that Sasuke could make him leave with words but--
He can’t bring himself to speak. Not once, not at all. His voice feels like a weight in his throat, like he’s swallowed marbles, and that’s fine, really, because what right does he have to fucking use it anyway? Sakura’s voice has been stripped away. She’ll never speak again, and Sasuke deserves to far less than she does.
Did.
The dogs never leave their sides over the following weeks. Ūhei and Bisuke are their most common company, but all eight of the ninken rotate in and out. Naruto refuses to go back his own home, wherever the fuck it is. At first Sasuke hates him for it, hates everything, but eventually Naruto is absent for half a day - training, he says when he gets home - and Sasuke panics.
So much is gone. Almost everything is gone. Sakura is gone. And gods Naruto is annoying - but he understands, actually, Sasuke can see now, despite the absurd and cheery exterior he’d worn before. He’s always understood, and the cheerfulness was a lie. Or, perhaps, a choice. And the fear of losing him to is so overwhelming that Sasuke simply never asks him to leave.
They attend Sakura’s funeral. It’s... eerie. Too many people and too few people at the same time. Some that Sasuke doesn’t recognise - too many that he does. Sasuke stands between Naruto and Kakashi, and Kakashi doesn’t say a word to them, to anyone, and Sasuke lets Naruto hold onto his hand with a crushing grip. Ino approaches them, afterwards, and habit has Sasuke bracing himself but there’s no admiration in her eyes this time. She snarls at them. “It should have been you.”
It’s hard to argue with her.
Sakura’s parents are... unbearable. The agony in their expressions is so familiar, so intimate, and yet they’re so kind to Sasuke and Naruto despite the fact they let their daughter die. When Mebuki learns that they’re living on their own - not a parent between them - she begins visiting them. They’re not social calls, not really, and she doesn’t linger too long, but her visits are scheduled and regular, and bring with them meals put together for Sasuke and Naruto and whatever cleaning they haven’t managed between them. After the first week, she brings small snacks for whichever of the ninken are with them as well.
Kizashi gives them two stuffed animals and Sakura’s hitai-ite. The toys are generic - a very round bird and a fox, both worn by time and use - but they were hers, and beloved when she was small. Naruto tries to refuse the hitai-ite, because surely her parents want to keep such an important thing, but Kizashi insists. He doesn’t want it, he tells them. He would rather remember Sakura as his daughter, and not as a Konoha soldier.
Perhaps there’s merit in that, but Sasuke and Naruto set it between her toys on the dresser in their room, next to their team photos, and they can’t bring themselves to work out the bloodstains in the fabric, but the plate is kept perfectly polished. Maybe her parents just don’t understand - but Sakura was proud of her position as a Konoha-nin, and she died fulfilling it.
It’s a little shameful, of course, that Sasuke is sharing his room with Naruto - but Naruto disagrees, and Sasuke can’t bring himself to care. Sleeping alone has proven... difficult. And pride is worthless.
The dogs never leave, but Naruto and Sasuke don‘t see Kakashi after Sakura’s funeral. There are meetings with Hiruzen, visits from some of the other jōnin, and no matter how vehemently they protest, they’re assigned a new sensei. It’s hideously uncommon, and it’s not Kaede-sensei’s fault, but Sasuke can’t help but hate her too. She can’t replace Kakashi, and Sasuke resents her for even trying, no matter that Kakashi-sensei has abandoned them. At least they’re not given a new teammate. As if anyone could possibly replace Sakura.
“The dog-Anbu is back,” Naruto says one day, while they spar under Kaede’s watchful eye. “I think... I think it might be Kakashi-sensei.”
And Sasuke knows about the dog-Anbu, of course. Though he rarely speaks himself, Naruto has no such compunction, and his chatter has become a familiar comfort. A Naruto who’s talking is a Naruto who’s alive. He’s told Sasuke all about growing up, about the loneliness and the dread. About the hatred of the village. The dog-Anbu had been the most familiar regular amongst the quiet tail of Anbu who’d watched Naruto his entire life - and yet never intervened. Had it been willful, or were they under orders? Hard to say, given that they were almost never given direct trouble anymore. The civilians who saw them out and about - on the rare occasion they were - were either too sympathetic or too wary to confront them. There was no opportunity to intervene even if the dog-Anbu wanted to.
That the surreptitious Anbu presence was back should have been concerning, but... Naruto had always found comfort in the recognisable dog-Anbu. Maybe it was contagious.
And if Kakashi was still watching them, then he hadn’t abandoned them. Somehow, it made Kaede’s training more welcome.
Jiraiya becomes part of their lives. He’s an irregular and brief presence, but he drifts in and out. They meet him early, and Naruto refuses to leave Sasuke’s side to fulfill whatever task Jiraiya has for him, and so they learn together the truth of the beast caged inside Naruto’s skin. Jiraiya works on the Seal, repairs what he can from the damage Naruto did on the bridge, ensures its continued integrity. He’s hard to like on a personal level, but they don’t begrudge his visits when they happen - making sure Naruto has control of the demon is imperative. He can’t use a power he can’t control.
Because that’s their secret, of course. In the dead of night, in the quiet of the Uchiha compound, when it’s just them and the ghosts. Naruto practices, with Sasuke on hand - Sasuke who’s learnt from Jiraiya that the Sharingan can manipulate the Bijuu, who finally understands what it was Kakashi did to bring Naruto down when Sakura died - and Sasuke practices with him, and forces back what power slips beyond Naruto’s grasp when they break open tiny cracks in the Seal.
And Naruto helps Sasuke too, offers a barrier of stolen demonic chakra that is the only thing, they’ve found, that can provide any resistance to the sticky black flames Sasuke can conjure. It makes his eyes bleed, and the chakra cost is like ashes in his veins, but creating and controlling the Amaterasu gets easier every time he does it.
They’re going to need it. Sasuke isn’t sure if Naruto simply needed the context of Sasuke’s quest for vengeance or if Sakura’s death made him understand the purpose of revenge, but they’re in it together, now. Naruto refuses to leave Sasuke’s side - and if that means following him down the path that leads to killing Itachi, then so be it. His power, despite what Sasuke had once thought, is immense and - somehow - at Sasuke’s disposal.
It’s strange, he thinks. How Naruto can still have faith in people, the differences in how he talks to Sakura’s ghost as if she’s watching them, as if she’s not simply gone, as if she might be proud of them, and how Sasuke can never bring himself to say a single word. Stranger still, how easily Naruto throws that faith away when Sasuke asks him to.
Strange, but comforting. Love, perhaps, if Sasuke lets himself dare to contemplate so fragile and dangerous a thing. And if Naruto will forsake his morals at Sasuke’s behest, then the least he can do is hold true to them. Because one day, when they’re ready, when they’re so strong that nobody will ever be able to rip away a life they love ever again, they’ll hunt down Itachi and make him pay for the lives he tore down.
But first - and maybe it’s practice, or maybe it’s vengeance, or maybe it’s both - they’ll return to the Land of Waves, once they’ve got enough control of their strength, and they’ll burn the Great Sakura Bridge to the ground.
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laisaxrem · 3 years
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Chapters: 5/? Fandom: Naruto Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Hatake Kakashi Characters: Haruno Sakura, Hatake Kakashi Additional Tags: 50 Types of Kisses - Writing Prompts, Prompt 46 - A lingering kiss before after a long trip apart, I’m an idiot, I had read wrong, so I corrected the prompt, I said you that I’m an idiot Summary:  Kakashi. If you reply to this letter by telling me that you will be late again, know that it doesn't matter, I understand perfectly. Hokage's duties come first, I've always told you. Also because now I have someone else to keep my bed warm at night, so I don't need you anymore. Sakura
.
.
.
It had been a long and tiring month. Kakashi had been summoned by the Daimyō and what must have been a short visit of less than a week had turned into thirty-four days away not only from his beloved Village but above all from his beloved wife. Obviously when he had realized he wasn’t coming home on schedule, he had Sakura send a messenger hawk assuring her that he would be back by the end of the week. He had had to send two more messages of this kind and finally, on the twenty-fifth day, had summoned Pakkun asking him to come and see Sakura, make sure she was okay, and maybe stay with her until he returned.
Now that he finally saw the gates of the Village, Kakashi accelerated his pace. In the pocket of his uniform he heard the creaking of the paper of the last note that his wife had sent him and that he had read and reread in the last few days.
Kakashi.
If you reply to this letter by telling me that you will be late again, know that it doesn't matter, I understand perfectly. Hokage's duties come first, I've always told you.
Also because now I have someone else to keep my bed warm at night, so I don't need you anymore.
Sakura
As soon as he had read it for a moment he was baffled. Then he had burst out laughing and took pen and paper to answer… which he had never done because the Daimyō had called him urgently. From there he had returned to his apartments only to throw himself into bed for a few hours and take a quick shower the next morning. Three days later, finally, the Daimyō had given him permission to return to the Village. Kakashi hadn’t had it repeated twice and left the next day when the sun hadn’t risen yet. Throughout the journey he had forced his escort to keep pace; his goal was to get home by evening: he wanted to arrive before Sakura went to bed, he wanted to take her in his arms and hold her close and kiss her until he fell asleep.
Too bad he hadn’t come to terms with his two babysitters. Genma had started muttering about a hypothetical sprained ankle in the middle of the morning but Kakashi had ignored him. He had not been able to ignore, however, Tenzō’s insistent chakra which a couple of hours later had started to glow in waves like fire; it was a clear warning sign from his ANBU team’s taichō and for a while Kakashi was able to ignore it. It was nearly noon when he had had to give in to the insistent chakra pulses and signalled Genma and Sai to stop for lunch; he had given them a little over forty minutes, mostly because Kakashi realized that his head had started to hurt and he needed to rest (oh, he would have come up with a way to make Tenzō pay for that, that was for sure).
They had taken two more breaks, much to Kakashi’s despondency (although, as the sun went down on the horizon, it was increasingly clear to him that the chances of being able to return to the Village before evening were slim or nil) and it was dark when they finally entered the gates of Konoha.
Kakashi did not want to do anything but leave his escort there and run home but he knew he had to go to the office first: the next morning he would have to meet the full Council and update them so he needed to have all the documents in order. Shikamaru was waiting for him there and a part of Kakashi was amazed (it was tragically far beyond his usual schedule); but on the one hand he was grateful because thanks to his help he got the last chores done in half the time.
Almost two hours later Kakashi closed the file he had in front of him with a sigh.
«I’m sorry, Shikamaru, but I really have to go for today», he announced, casting a worried glance at the wall clock. Shit.
His young friend nodded and began to collect the papers neatly.
«Sakura will be mad, huh?»
«Mmm… Maybe», he conceded. Then he smiled and added: «She wrote to me that she found someone else to warm her bed».
After a second of amazement (Kakashi was happy to have said it just to see his usual bored expression give way to a pair of wide open eyes) Shikamaru laughed and rubbed the back of his neck absently.
«Good luck, then».
Too exhausted to run but with his chakra at a frighteningly low level, Kakashi weighed his alternatives and, with a nod to Shikamaru, grabbed his backpack and used the Shunshin to leave the office and reappear outside his home (he knew that Tenzō hated it when he did and that awareness was enough to compensate for the severe dizziness that hit him upon landing).
When he opened the front door he was greeted by darkness and silence.
«Tadaima», he announced in a low voice as he gently placed his backpack on the cabinet in the genkan and tidied up his sandals.
For the first time in a month, Kakashi felt he could breathe perfectly and the fatigue and frustration he had been carrying around all that time faded away from his body.
Part of him wanted nothing more than to run to their bedroom and wake Sakura, lose himself in her embrace and feel her warm skin against his, her thin but strong fingers stroking his hair. Not to have sex (he didn’t think he had the energy right now) but simply to feel her. But the other part of him knew that it was terribly late and Sakura had a bad habit of overdoing it in the hospital and Academy and wherever they called her, so she deserved every minute of sleep she could carve out.
But…
But Kakashi needed to hear her voice. Damn.
Sighing he went into the bathroom on the ground floor and washed quickly using the little showers: he was tired but not so tired as to take the dirt of the trip to bed and at the same time he didn’t want to risk waking Sakura using the shower upstairs.
A towel around his waist and one around his neck, Kakashi padded up the stairs and went to their room. The fusuma was open and as soon as he appeared on the threshold the man realized that Sakura had not lied in her letter: in fact his wife was not alone in their bed.
With her there was a mountain of dogs.
Sakura was in his half of the bed, lying on her side, the sheets all bunched up at the bottom, Pakkun lying belly up under her right hand. Bull was crouched at her feet, his forelegs intertwined with her legs, and took up most of the bottom of the bed while the other six ninkens were arranged around them: Bisuke had his muzzle pressed against Sakura’s back, Akino was for half lying on Bull, Shiba on his stomach took up almost half of the bed forcing Ūhei to remain curled up in a corner while Urushi managed to carve out a space of his own on Sakura’s pillow and Guruko’s tufted tail was sticking out from under the sheets. Finally a small black ball was curled up on his pillow next to Sakura’s pink head, its tail stretched out to brush her neck: Yoru, their kitten, not even three months old.
Kakashi stared at the scene with his mouth open for a moment, his eyelids blinking fast, and then a laugh escaped his lips. He stopped it immediately but it was too late. Sakura moved and opened her eyes and after a few seconds she brought him into focus.
«Mmm? Kakashi?» she moaned, her voice hoarse with sleep.
He came over and knelt on the floor, one hand going to touch her shoulder left bare by the loose t-shirt she was wearing. That brief contact was like a balm for Kakashi: he knew that he had missed Sakura but until that moment he hadn’t really realized how much.
«Sorry. I didn’t want to wake you up», he whispered, leaning forward to gently kiss the skin he had just stroked.
Sakura’s eyes fixed on his and Kakashi got lost in that green, so much so that he almost didn’t notice her fingers caressing his face slowly, gently, as if to memorize every curve and every corner.
Kakashi could no longer restrain himself and leaned forward to kiss her. He didn’t even open his mouth, too exhausted to think about deepening contact, and Sakura didn’t protest. Yet that kiss on the lips, one of the most chaste they had ever exchanged without the hindrance of the mask, lasted an infinity of seconds, the lips brushing and retracting and then approaching again in a slow dance.
Finally Sakura sighed and rested her forehead against his for a second.
«When did you arrive?»
«Less than two hours ago. I had to go to the office», Kakashi replied, his fingers tracing Sakura’s skin in slow movements. Then his gaze was drawn to the movement of a tail and he smiled. «So you weren’t kidding when you said there was someone else to keep your bed warm, huh?»
«Yeah», Sakura chuckled as her fingers mimicking his. «In fact, maybe they keep a little too hot», she added, nodding her head to the sheets abandoned on the bottom of the bed.
«We can always leave, girly», came the grunt from Pakkun.
The little ninken opened his eyes and scanned them with his stern frown but Kakashi knew it was just a farce.
«Absolutely not», Sakura replied, giving a little scratch to the brown fur of his eldest ninken. «You are not going away, tonight».
«Oh. So I’ll take a futon…» Kakashi began, uncertain. Because the more he looked, the more it became evident that the ninken took up all the space in the bed and that there was no room for him too.
He had to admit, he was disappointed. Yes, the sight of Sakura and the dogs snuggled together warmed his heart, but after thirty-four days away, Kakashi wanted nothing more than to hold her in his arms and fall asleep to the sound of her breath.
«Where do you think you’re going?» Sakura stopped him, grabbing him by the wrist, as if she was afraid of seeing him disappear. «There is room for you too, you know?»
«There is?»
«There is. Come on, Rokudaime-sama, come here», Sakura urged
Kakashi hesitated a little longer, trying to figure out where he could actually lie down. On Bull, like when he was just a six year old boy? Or maybe he could convince Shiba to sleep a little more composed so as to carve out a corner of the mattress?
«Stop being precious and join us», Pakkun scolded him as he idly stretched his legs and slightly changed position. At his words, the other ninkens moved just enough to create a space behind Sakura, small but enough for Kakashi to stretch out beside his wife and hug her. «Or go to the other room: we’ll take care of keeping Sakura company», added his old friend again. Then he closed his eyes.
Giving in to Pakkun’s words and Sakura’s smile, Kakashi got up and shook off the damp towels. He already had one knee on the bed, his eyes looking for the best way to reach his place without stepping on some ears or some tails, when he was interrupted by two brown eyes that glared at him.
«Put on a pair of underwear first», Pakkun growled louder than before. And Kakashi realized that he had never actually worn a pair of boxers after washing. «What are you, a savage?»
Sakura and Kakashi stared at each other for a second, then they both burst out laughing.
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