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Every time Kakashi gives any sort of praise she lights up as if he had just promised to get her a puppy. If Kakashi is being honest with himself that should have been a red flag from the beginning, instead it gets waved off as a Sakura-quirk. After all his other two students have strange qualities in spades, so he doesn’t think much on the fact that his female student soaks up praise and compliments the way a dry sponge does water. He chalks it up to the fact that she has probably been over looked at the academy due to the sheer number of clan heirs in their year.
What tips him off that something may be wrong is the way she takes corrections. Sakura takes corrections and applies them as quickly as she can, this in itself is a trait that Kakashi can’t help but be impressed by; the young kunoichi has a sharp eye and picks up techniques quickly. To most it would look as if she is merely eager to learn, but Hatake Kakashi is not most. Instead he sees the fear of being left behind. No, that's not quite right, he sees the need for approval, the need for recognition.
It doesn’t take long for him to see that this runs deeper than being overlooked by academy teachers. Its throw away comments most would miss that start to construct Kakashi’s mental image of what her life must be like at home. They are quiet little things when Naruto asks if her family would mind that she is eating with them, or her outbursts when he tries to convince her that it’s okay to not get everything right on the first try. He recognizes them because once upon a time he heard an Uchiha use the same tone and similarly worded statements, at that time he watched a teammate get ignored by their clan and still seek their approval, even after years of being put down. He learns quickly how to derive the true meaning from the simple dismissals of her home life that Sakura offers.
“Oh, they won’t mind.” They won’t notice.
“I want to finish this Jutsu.” I don’t want to go home.
“Kakashi-sensei, is this right?” Please don’t forget about me.
“Really? You think so Kakashi-Sensei?!” You noticed?
At first he thinks she may come around and open up about it, but as the time passes nothing really changes. He waits patiently while subtly checking in on her family. At a glance they seem fine, her parents are merchants, her father seems loud and friendly and appears to adore Sakura, her mother is far more serious and gentle. Underneath that he watches her father work far too hard and come home late every evening he observes the family, her mother hardly acknowledges the young girl and Kakashi notes that Sakura spends most of her time in her room in silence.
He knows he won’t be able to do anything not while her parents are still supporting her just fine, so he reaches out in other ways, spends a little extra time when giving her instructions, offers demonstrations when he gives corrections. He makes sure to keep an eye on her (even if a part of him breaks every time he sees her and thinks of Rin), so it doesn’t slip past him when she starts losing weight. It’s gradual and he takes note but only understands how bad it’s gotten when he presses a hand into her side to correct her stance while they work on taijutsu and he notes how loose her dress hangs on her frame, the way he can feel her ribs under his palm.
That evening his mentions his concern to the Sandaime. As usual the man recognizes that Kakashi only brings up matter of importance and agrees to look into it. He can’t sleep that night, he has an incredibly miserable feeling settling in his gut.
“Kakashi-sensei have you ever wanted to disappear?” Sakura sounds so quiet, and not in the determined way she usually does, no she sounds completely defeated. It catches him off guard and he is so shaken that he doesn’t even care when his Icha Icha falls to the ground with a dull thud. She stares up at him from when she sits in the middle of the pond (they had been working on Chakra control and both boys had already gone home.)
He steels himself and walks out across the water to sit down in front of her. “Well that depends on what you mean. Care to elaborate?” He knows where this is going, but he wants to make sure that they are on the same page.
She looks so small and vulnerable, and if the way she refuses to look him in the eye says anything he would bet she feels bad for even mentioning it. “D-do you ever think the world would be better if you aren’t in it? Like no one would notice if you just up and vanished?” She sounds tired, it makes his heart ache.
“I did, when I was younger.” He admits, there is no use in hiding it after all. He remembers the days of numbness and solitude, the days when he considered following in his father's footsteps and taking his own life. Back then the only thing that had stopped him had been the desire to be the perfect shinobi, to become a tool for the leaf. Then had come others, Minato-sensei, Kushina, Obito, Rin, Gai, Tenzou (it burns to think that he has lost so many of the people who had helped him stay afloat, that most of them would never know how he truly felt) The list goes on even if some of the people aren’t and never have been considered friends.
“So?” She asks and looks into the water below them obviously unsure of where to take the conversation.
“Sakura, I want you to understand that even if you don’t notice it there are many people who would miss you. So many more than you would think.” He tries to remain soothing while he idly wonders if he could be doing more; he reminds himself that he is only one man and can’t make up for years of neglect in a few months. But still the image of blood stained floors haunt his mind.
She meets his eye with a an emotion drawn across her face that he can’t name. “Name one Kakashi-sensei, and don’t say my parents because we both know that won’t be true.” To say that Kakashi is shocked by her challenge is an understatement (even if he would have said the same thing to Minato-sensei had the man had this conversation with a younger Kakashi.)
“Yamanaka Ino.” He leans back a bit as he says it, he knows they were close in the academy. She opens his mouth to respond but he beats her to it, “Naruto, He looks up to you, admires your strength. Lee, he has always seemed quite fond of you. Hinata, she considers you a friend. Sasuke, no matter what he may say doesn’t find you as annoying as he claims, not to say he loves you but he would definitely notice. Iruka-Sensei, he cares about all of his students.” He pauses to watch a slight look of wonder fall across her features. He clears his throat. “And uh, I would certainly notice if you vanished, after all you wouldn’t want to leave me without any competent students would you?”
There is a long silence and Kakashi fears for a moment he may have overstepped. Then she is hugging him, it takes him by surprise and knocks the both of them into the water. When he resurfaces and drags her up with him she presses her face into his shoulder and he knows that not all of the droplets making their way onto his shoulder are from the pond. He doesn’t say anything as they get back to edge of the water and just rubs a hand up and down her back while she clings to him.
The Sandaime doesn’t hesitate in taking action once Kakashi brings up the incident to him. He has barely even mentioned it and Sakura is being taken to see one of the counselors, Akida, a very nice woman with endless amount of patience, usually only involved with ANBU but seeing as Kakashi is now knee deep in this situation it changes things.
When Sakura mentions that she is nervous to meet Akida-san Kakashi promises to go with her (he books his own appointment right after hers as an excuse, he hopes he will be able to skip out, it doesn’t happen, he gets dragged into the room anyways). The woman seems delighted to see him and even more so when she finds that Sakura was his motivation to finally make an appearance for one of his appointments (he always has been good at putting aside his own discomfort for the sake of others.) After the first meeting Sakura spends the next hour rambling on about Akida-san and how nice she is.
Three weeks later he gets called into the Hokage’s office and is greeted by Akida-san and Haruno Kizashi. The meeting stays brief and the pain in Kizashi’s eyes as they speak so plainly about his daughters weight loss and slightly suicidal thoughts proves Kakashi's original theory that the man works so much that he doesn’t notice how much he ignores his family.
It passes in a blur and eventually a few things can be agreed on. First would be that Sakura no longer feels safe in her own home, the second would be that her tendencies need to be dealt with sooner as leaving them to build could lead down a very dark road. Finally Akida-san offers a solution to their new found problem by suggesting Kakashi become her guardian in the meantime; while Kakashi isn’t sure he should be in charge of a child any further than teaching Jutsu (and even that is a stretch), Kizashi seems to be saddened but understanding and agrees. The look that the Sandaime gives him tells him that he isn’t being asked, no this is an order. Really it does make sense, its unfortunately common for a jonin instructor to take in students who no longer had homes or support from their parents. He leaves trying to figure out if it is worth it to move to a new apartment or just to move back into the Hatake compound.
His ninken are practically vibrating with excitement and even help clean up the compound, Kakashi thinks they are just happy to have someone who might actually let them sleep on the bed. He sighs when he realizes that they have hardly even met Sakura yet and have already accepted her as part of the pack. Although he would be lying if he said it didn’t bring a smile to his lips.
Moving Sakura doesn’t take long, maybe two hours at most. As soon as she set foot into the house the dogs have swarmed her demanding cuddles and pets.
There are more than a fair share of awkward moments in the first week, eventually they settle into a routine. They wake up early and eat breakfast together (even if it is only toast she has to eat something, Akida’s orders) then they train and take lunch with the team (Kakashi pretends not to notice if she doesn’t eat as much at lunch) before running a D-rank most afternoons, and then heading back to the compound or to Ichiraku’s to have supper as a team before the boys head home and Kakashi either fills out mission reports or various other forms, or cleans. Sakura helps with as much cleaning as she can or finds herself in the small office/library that was his mother's before her passing. She brings question to Kakashi when ever one pops into her head and often he listens to her hum to fill the silence. The pack adores her and all end up sleeping in her room with her.
Slowly she starts to come out of her shell and Kakashi notices she eats snacks throughout the day without prompting. She visits her parents occasionally. After a while Kakashi finds that she seems more stable, he won’t say better because speaking from experience proves that some people never get better but she makes progress and that is what counts. Kakashi can’t deny that he has grown fond of her.
While Sakura moving in was a sudden event Naruto’s shift in residence is slower, so slow in fact that Kakashi doesn’t realize that it had happened until he is telling Naruto that is his turn to do dishes because Sakura did them the night before. He tries to recall how it had started. It had been weeks ago, returning from a mission. Yes, they had passed the Uchiha compound and Sasuke had opted out of ramen with the team, then because the Hatake compound was between the Uchiha's home and Ichiraku’s they had simply gone home for dinner and Kakashi had made something. Kakashi hadn’t been able to say no when Naruto looked up at him and asked if he could sleep in the spare room.
Things derailed from there. Honestly Kakashi is a bit surprised that he hadn’t noticed until now. He thinks back to the last time that Naruto had gone to his apartment for anything more than a change of clothing. It must have been two, or was it three weeks ago?
He watches his two students bicker back and forth over a new earth jutsu he had shown them earlier in the day, and even though he whined about it initially Naruto does the dishes and puts them away without any other complaining. After that both his students disappear and he is left standing in the entryway to the kitchen as the house falls silent. At first he isn’t concerned until he considers that silence and Naruto are not friends.
He passes the office and pokes his head in to see Sakura curled up on the couch with a book and Bull asleep on the other end of the couch. He frowns slightly, usually all of his ninken are with Sakura when they aren’t pestering him for one thing or another. He shakes his head and starts to move on through each room in the house. Finally his search pays off as the sound of light hearted laughter echoes from the backyard.
Naruto and the rest of his ninken have taken up fetch in the backyard with Pakkun watching from the deck. He wanders over to sit down and watch. Pakkun lifts his head in acknowledgement and Kakashi pats the top of his head gently. “Not Sakura’s best friend anymore?” He asks.
Pakkun simply shifts. “It’s not like that boss. We still love Sakura, she just doesn’t need all of our attention anymore.” Both of them look out towards Naruto who is admittedly doing a wonderful job at making sure all of the ninken get a chance to retrieve the ball. “We gotta make sure everyone in the pack is taken care of, besides Sakura’s bed was too crowded with all of us in there, having Naruto living here means we can all get to sleep on the bed.”
Kakashi blinks and looks down at the pug. “You do realize he doesn’t live here, right?”
His summon just gives a roll of the eyes and huffs out a “keep telling yourself that boss.”
“What are you doing Naruto?” Sakura sits next to him as he packs a bag for the next few days, even though they just got home from a mission. Kakashi looks over at the two of them in Naruto’s apartment Sakura perched on the edge of the bed while Naruto kneels in front of his dresser. Sakura must be just reaching the realization that Kakashi had come to a few days prior.
“Huh? Oh just - well- I mean-” He turns bright red and shifts uncomfortably. “I was-” he looks down and Kakashi guesses that Naruto doesn’t want to be rejected and is ashamed that he has gotten caught in his subtle attempt to move in.
Sakura glances at Kakashi who merely shrugs and then she is up and taking things out of drawers. “I think we will need a bigger bag Kakashi-sensei, not that there is much left to move.” He hums and is about to leave when Naruto blinks slowly and looks between the two of them.
“But- Wait- Huh?”
“You practically live with us already, may as well make it official.” Sakura give a shy smile after she realises she may have spoken too soon. “That is- I mean- If you want, Kakashi-sensei won’t mind, right?” She looks at him for help and he gives a signature eye smile from behind his mask.
“Of course not.” And that is that, Kakashi hops out the window to go inform the Sandiame and returns to find Naruto and Sakura are sitting in the now almost empty apartment waiting for him. Their excited chatter follows him the entire way home.
Once he has two of his students living with him his attention turns to the last. He knows first hand that Sasuke should definitely not be living by himself in the Uchiha compound. No child should be living with the memories of everything they lost carved into the very walls of their home. The Sandaime is more hesitant about this one but Iruka-sensei appears out of nowhere and insists that Kakashi is right. He has never been more grateful for the chunin in his life.
Next thing Kakashi knows is that after hours of arguing and signing papers the council and Hokage are making him become the guardian of the last Uchiha and he doesn’t even think before going to the Uchiha compound. He regrets this when he realizes that it’s two-thirty in the morning and is about to leave when Sasuke rounds the corner kunai in hand.
“What are you doing here sensei?” He asks after a moment.
Kakashi shakes his head, they are already here he may as well get the impending argument over with. “Pack your things.”
Sasuke tilts his head. “Why? Where are we going?”
Kakashi shrugs. “Home.”
There is less protest that he had guessed there would be, in fact there is none at all. Just clinking and the soft sound of Sasuke walking back around the corner to his room.
Sasuke shuts the pack down pretty quickly, and the arguments that break out between Naruto and Sasuke seem to never end. But things settle into more or less a normal. Kakashi can say that he is disappointed that Sasuke isn’t adjusting but he also didn’t expect anything else.
The main issue is the miscommunication. Any time that Sakura, Naruto or any of the ninken attempt to help Sasuke he takes it as pity and lashes out. His outbursts of course bring Sakura to tears, and make Naruto angry. Which in turn frustrates the pack and before Kakashi knows it the entire house settles into an uncomfortable state of chaos and tension.
The day that he intends to pull everyone aside and try to get everyone on the same page he wakes up late, to silence. Strolling out of his room he finds Sakura in the office going over some scrolls on sealing jutsu he had found for her. She looks up at him when he stands in the doorway and then looks away, tear tracks staining her cheeks. Bull and Akino are laying on the floor in front of her and she has Uhei laying curled into her side while she strokes his head. Bull shakes his head at Kakashi as the sign that Sakura doesn’t want to talk to anyone right now. He moves on to look for Naruto.
His bedroom door is wide open and the blond in question is laying across the top of his blankets and the rest of the ninja dogs have made themselves at home in and around the bed. Naruto doesn’t even acknowledge him. He lets out a sigh and shifts his eyes over to his summons, Pakkun, Urushi, Shiba and Guruko are all accounted for. The only one missing is Bisuke, although he has probably squished himself under the blankets.
He closes the door halfway when he turns to continue down the hallway. Sasuke’s room door is closed so he figures he will make some tea, it’s very obvious he missed a fight this morning. And then he trips over Bisuke who is curled up looking rather dejected in front of Sasuke’s door. He doesn’t hesitate to scoop the small dog into his arms (the others would be furious if they ever found out about his slight favoritism) and continues down the hallway. Bisuke looks over his shoulder at the door.
“You wanna tell me what happened?” Bisuke shakes his head resolutely. “Alright then.” He goes about making tea with a single hand as he uses the other to hold Bisuke to his chest. “I’m surprised you're not in there with Naruto.” Bisuke huffes at Kakashi’s statement.
“He has the rest of the pack. Sasuke has no one.” Kakashi pauses. It’s true, in the past month that Sasuke had been living with the rest of team seven the ninken had effectively given up on him. And while the team worked just fine on missions as soon as they got home every semblance of common ground seemed to fall away. “I get scared when I am all by myself, maybe he is scared too.” Kakashi stares down at his summon as it speaks over a small yawn. “I won’t give up, everyone in the pack needs to be taken care of.”
“Yeah, yeah they do Bisuke.”
Kakashi takes the steps up to the house and moves to grab the doorknob when he hears the screaming. The only thing that makes him pause is the fact that this time it’s Sakura’s voice shattering the silence. “Why can’t you just understand we are trying to help you!”
“Because you don’t understand! You never will, because at least you have a family!”
“We are trying to be your family too Sasuke, but you just push everyone away, me, Naruto, Kakashi-sensei!”
“No matter what you think or how long you live here, they will never be the same as blood.”
“You’re right. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t my family. Naruto may as well be my brother, and you know what Sasuke; at least my brother cares about me.” Kakashi has heard enough, no matter how angry they are things have officially gone too far. The door swings open and he sees Sakura turn to look at him. Tears gathering at the corners of her eyes and every muscle in her body is drawn tight like piano strings. On the other hand Sasuke is shaking, his jaw clenched tightly shut and fingers are gripped in the hem of his shirt, onyx eyes remain focused on the floor near Sakura's feet.
He doesn’t even need to say a word before the older of the two realizes that she may have stepped too far. She opens her mouth and Kakashi puts his hand up. He knows that if even one more word is said (even if it is an apology) things will turn violent. She gives a meek nod and makes a quiet exit. He watches the few ninken who had been in to room follow after her, the only exception being Bisuke, who sits far enough away that he isn’t in the genin’s line of sight but close enough that Sasuke has to know the small dog is there. Once he hears the telltale click of a bedroom door down the hall he lets out a sigh.
“Sasu-” The jonin doesn’t even get to start let alone finish.
“Shut up. I don’t want to hear whatever bullshit you think will make me feel better.”
“Actually I wasn’t intending to make you feel better, so you get to listen to me anyways.” Sasuke looks up at him and Kakashi can see the faint shine in his eyes that gives away unshed tears. Crossing his arms over his chest Kakashi sighs. “Look, I know that you think you need to do everything but no shinobi ever succeeds on his own. That is why we get assigned teams, so that we can cover for our team members. And I know, we will never be like your family, because we aren’t them. However that doesn’t mean that you should shut everyone out. Sakura and Naruto only want to help you; everyone needs a hand from time to time. Now that’s also not to say that everything has to be perfect, just try, put in a solid effort and I guarantee things will change.” Kakashi looks back to the Uchiha and notes that he has relaxed some, his hands now hang at his sides and he doesn’t look ready to snap at anytime.
“I don’t want to talk to her, or Naruto, or you.” Kakashi frowns a bit, the statement stings but it could be worse really.
Bisuke chooses that moment to throw himself into the conversation. “Then talk to me!” The dog scampers up to stand in front of Sasuke and and looks up with wide eyes. Sasuke looks at Kakashi who simply shrugs in return. Then Bisuke is trotting off down the hall towards Sasuke's room while glancing back at the two ninja standing awkwardly in the living room. For a moment Sasuke seems to weigh his options before sighing in defeat and starting off after the ninken at a slow measured pace.
“Now you need to apologize. Unless all of you want to spend the next month on D-ranks only.”
“Sakura, Teme, come on I don’t know what you did but I don’t want to get stuck on dumb D-ranks. Just say you’re sorry and move on, ya know?”
“I’m sorry Sasuke, I had no right to say anything, it was wrong and mean, and I can understand that you’re mad at me I was just frustrated, from now on I will try to be more calm.”
“It’s okay. I guess I can try to accept your help sometimes.”
“Kakashi-sensei they made up, can we go get ramen to celebrate?”
“Only if you pay.”
“Hey that’s not fair!”
He races towards the Hokage's office Tenzou is close on his heels, it’s well past midnight and no one will even notice the two of them moving across the rooftops, even if they did no one would stop two ANBU in a rush.
Rationally he knows that they will be fine, Gai has been teaching them while he has been gone, and Iruka-sensei has been staying with them so it’s highly unlikely that they broke anything in the four days he has been gone. Still he can’t help but worry. Not to mention that he feels a bit guilty, he had promised that he would be back by lunch today. Idly he wonders if this is how parents feel when leaving their children at home alone for the first time; he rethinks that statement, is he technically their parent now?
They come to a stop outside the window when he notices someone already in the office with the Hokage.
“What is the rush senpai? Eager to get rid of the mask?” The blank cat mask stares at him although there is a hint of humor in his kohai’s voice. He hums. It must be strange, up until just over a year ago Kakashi had been doing everything he could to get the Sandaime to place him back into ANBU. Now he was itching to get back home, not because of the pressure it puts on him (he has kind of missed the thrill of it really) but simply because it would be the first time he took an ANBU mission since he had taken on team seven. Standing here waiting on the Hokage to signal that they can come in and may be dismissed kind of makes him wish that he never had to take another mission without the little ducklings that he calls his team (He knows this won’t happen, retired or not Hound is still needed in rare circumstances, he doubts that will stop just because he has a handful of children waiting on him to come home).
“We’re late. I told my team I would be back for lunch.” He didn’t need to say anything else, Tenzou would understand. (Everyone knew that Kakashi was now officially taking care of team seven by now; shinobi are horrible gossips.)
“Ahh, You said things were getting better between the three of them, besides if their chunin teacher is there they should be fine.” Kakashi nods absently just as the window slides open and they slip inside for their report. Kakashi leaves his mask with the Hokage and parts ways with Tenzou as his kohai heads towards the ANBU headquarters to take his own mask off.
When the jonin stops in front of the house he is able to focus enough to see the dim glow of the T.V in the front room though the window. He unlocks the door and steps into the house and he sees Iruka-sensei look up from the pile of paperwork that has swallowed the table. “Welcome back Hatake-san.” He offers up a tired smile, Kakashi gives his signature smile in response.
“Sorry I’m late.”
Iruka shrugs, “it’s fine, we got Ichiraku’s for dinner and then they insisted you would be back tonight so they tried to stay up and wait for you.” The smile that Iruka has when he says that makes Kakashi pause. His curiosity must show somehow because the teacher gestures towards the front room.
Slipping into the room provides the sight of both couches pulled together to have a view of the window, and by extension the doorway, the t.v drones on in the background with the volume turned down so it is barely louder than Naruto’s snoring. Naruto is leaning against the side of the couch in a position that definitely can’t be comfortable, his legs are trapped by Shiba and Uhei who have fallen asleep atop his feet the rest of the couch is taken up by Sakura who is laying half on top of Bull while Pakkun has found himself resting on the back cushions directly behind the young kunoichi. Half of the second couch is being used by Akino, Guruko, and Urushi to form a tangled dog pile, and on the other half Sasuke lies curled around Bisuke with one arm dangling off the cushions. The glow of color from the t.v. dances across slack expressions and Kakashi feels his chest tighten slightly.
He knows then that they will get better, he passed these brats for a reason. He rushes off and grabs blankets before tossing them gently over his students and summons. Naruto cracks one eye and gives a half smile (he looks so much like Minato-sensei). “You made it home sensei.” He mumbles around a yawn. Kakashi chuckles and ruffles his hair.
“Go back to sleep.” He whispers pressing a finger over masked lips in the universal sign to be quiet. The blond nods and leans back into the couch pulling a blanket more securely around himself.
Iruka has already disappeared and his mountain of paperwork with him, it’s alright, he will thank him tomorrow at the mission desk. For now Kakashi goes to sleep, and for the first time in a long while he actually gets a good night's rest. (Until three little ducklings wake him up demanding breakfast.)