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Chapter Text

Tenzou trudges after his teammates into the locker room and lets his shoulders slump in relief at finally being able to pull off his uniform. A deep feeling of camaraderie washes over him as his team all line up to switch their anbu blacks for civvies with a shared single-minded focus. It’s not uncommon for a mission to go to shit, but this one started bad and just got worse from there. He’s really dreading having to find the words to write up this report.

“Thank fuck that nightmare of an assignment is done!” He stills in surprise, not expecting his thoughts to be echoed by the rookie agents an aisle over.

“Ugh, tell me about it. So glad we got our masks this round. I never want to be part of the ‘ vacation rotation ’ ever again.”

“Would you say the job was disastrous for your mental health?”

“Fuck off, man. I’d like to see how you deal with the absolute waste of time that thumb-twiddling job is.”

“Oh no, shinobi-san, you have to stay here in the area, even though there’s nothing to do. What if there’s an emergency ?!” Condescending laughter. Tenzou grits his teeth and does his best to ignore the mocking, but he knows his teammates can tell he’s offended at the casual disrespect to Hokage-sama’s newest initiative.

A nudge at his elbow has him glancing over at Yugao who shrugs and makes a face over her shoulder at the loudmouths behind them. He huffs a laugh and relaxes a bit at her quiet solidarity.

“Oh, oh, guys! Did you hear that Hokage-sama actually approved that waste of time division for a dedicated genin team?”

Tenzou tries not to visibly perk up at that. He’d already decided he wasn’t going to put his name forward this year. What was the point when Hokage-sama’s counselors had made abundantly clear he would never be trusted with a genin team?

Though maybe his request for a team would actually have a chance this year, if not as many people are interested in working with the new Emergency Response division. He knows he’ll never get a regular team, no matter how often he asks, but this specialized one...

“Shit, can you imagine being the poor sucker who gets saddled as their sensei? It’s gonna be even more like baby-sitting than getting actual genin usually is. Like, what are you even gonna teach them? Can you even call it shinobi work?”

Tenzou closes his locker a little too forcefully and struggles to hold back his vitriol at their dismissive attitude towards an assignment that is, at its core, an honor and mark of trust from the village leaders. Kakashi-senpai glances at him with a raised eyebrow. He forces himself not to flush as he gathers his things and heads out. Hayate catches his arm when he walks past him.

“Hey, we’re thinking of going out for drinks tonight. You in?”

“Yeah sure,” Tenzou says. He rolls his shoulders in an effort to drop the bitterness creeping up the back of his neck, and glances behind him, “Kakashi-senpai are you-”. Not there. He sighs and Hayate snickers at him.

“50 ryo says he shows up and dumps his tab on Tenzou,” Genma smirks. Tenzou makes an indignant noise, but it’s drowned out by a chorus of ‘no bet!’.

Everyone laughs at his put upon expression and he waves them off, heading back to his barracks issued room, intent on squeezing in a shower and nap before meeting at the bar.

~~~~~~~~~~~

He wakes up the next morning with a pounding head, a mouth that tastes like death, and the clear certainty that this is not his bed- it’s far too comfortable for an Anbu barracks cot. A quick chakra pulse tells him Genma and his boyfriend, Raidou, are both nearby, so he decides this last point isn’t concerning. He gathers himself to, carefully , lift his head and finds that he spent the night on a very squashy couch. Closer inspection of the area shows that he ended up crashing in Genma’s apartment.

Tenzou carefully levers himself off the cushions and makes his way over to the kitchen for a glass of gloriously refreshing water. Aaahhh, hydration. He’d be embarrassed by the noise he makes, but it summons Genma from his bedroom and Genma is a saint known for cooking breakfast for hungover friends.

“Good morning,” Genma chuckles at Tenzou’s attempt to look pitiful at him. “Sit down and I’ll fix up some food, you look like you need it.”

He sinks down into a chair at the kitchen table and pops an aspirin when Genma- truly the saintliest of saints- hands him one. “How are you never hungover after these things? Please teach me your secret, Genma-sama~”

Raidou laughs quietly as he oozes into the chair across from Tenzou. “He says it’s a medic-nin secret technique and if he tells, he’ll get kicked off the field medic roster.”

Genma gestures dramatically at him with the wooden spoon in his hand and says, “Damn straight! You should be grateful I have mercy enough in my heart to share it with you.” He places a serving of reheated fried rice topped with egg in front of him and Tenzou.

Raidou claps his hands together and says, “Bless you oh great and merciful Genma-sama!” More chuckling and they all dig in.

Eventually Raidou slows down enough to ask, “Sooooo, Tenzou. You alright?” Tenzo looks up and furrows his brow questioningly. Genma clears his throat.

“What Raidou means is, you said a few things last night that got us worried. We just wanted to check in with you sober.”

Tenzou pauses his chewing and continues to stare uncomprehendingly at them. His friends look back expectantly. After swallowing he says, “Most of last night’s specifics are a little fuzzy. Maybe if you, um, give me a hint?” He trails off. He can make an educated guess at what drunk-Tenzou said, but he doesn’t really want to get into his abandoned campaign for jounin-sensei right now.

Genma snorts, spraying rice across the table. “That’s the most fantastic way I’ve ever heard someone say ‘I was drunk off my ass and don’t remember shit’,” he tries to say more, but dissolves into unintelligible giggling.

Raidou gives a long, suffering sigh and goes to speak, even as he tries to hand Genma a napkin, but he’s cut off by a tapping at the window. Since Genma’s busy, he stands to take the missive from the bird sitting on the sill. “It’s for you,” he hands it over to Tenzou.

Tenzou unrolls the note: it’s a summons to meet with the Hokage in- he glances at the clock- half an hour. He tucks it away in a pocket and sets to quickly finishing his breakfast. Once the bowl’s empty, Genma snatches it from him before he can wash it at the sink.

“Yes, yes, my cooking’s amazing, you can’t get enough of it- now get going already,” Genma shoos him away and Tenzo flips him the bird since his mouth is still full. Raidou just rubs his face with an exasperated groan. Tenzou lets himself out through the window with Genma’s laughter fading out behind him as he makes his way across the rooftops.

~~~~~~~~~~~

After a quick stop to change into his spare uniform, Tenzou is ushered into the Hokage’s office and he kneels in front of the desk with his head properly bowed. A sign from Hokage-sama has his anbu guards retreating to positions out of earshot.

“Please rise, Tenzou,” Hokage-sama says. “And remove your mask, if you would.”

Tenzou stands and, hesitantly, takes his mask off and clips it to his belt. “Hokage-sama,” he stands at attention.

Sandaime-sama takes a moment to look at him, puffing on his pipe, before leaning back in his seat. “You’ve served in anbu for almost ten years now. Far longer than most operatives.” He pauses here and turns to contemplate what can be seen of the village from the window.

“Yes, Hokage-sama,” Tenzou says after a moment. He wonders what makes ten years remarkable when he knows Kakashi-senpai joined a full three years before he did, and had eight more years of service before that.

Well, technically Tenzou also had more shinobi service before Anbu, but his years in ROOT are very carefully not alluded to when at all possible.

“Hmmm,” Hokage-sama rumbles. “And for each of the last four of these years, you have put in a request for a genin team.” Tenzou’s heart doesn’t skip, he’s too well trained for that, but he does have to fight a moment of breathlessness.

When the Hokage doesn’t continue, he says, again, “yes, Hokage-sama.”

“To be quite honest, Tenzou, you’re one of my best, most reliable agents. Many would argue that your talents would be wasted outside the shadow ranks. However,” he blows out a thin stream of smoke, “I’ve often found that these same arguers overlook the impact and importance a teacher dedicated to building up the next generation can have on the village as a whole. A jounin-sensei has the unique privilege and duty of passing on their skills and philosophies to their students. Of building up the village’s future and leaving a legacy.”

A terrible, aching hope wells up inside him and he has to take a moment to wrestle it down before it overwhelms him. He doesn’t dare say anything to interrupt.

“Tell me,” Hokage-sama comes around his desk to stand in front of Tenzou, piercing him with a heavy stare. “Would you be as willing to volunteer yourself, if the team you were given was seen by others as only a duty, one that seemingly brings no honor to you as a shinobi?”

“Yes, of course, Hokage-sama!” Tenzou clears his throat and wills his face to stop burning. Hokage-sama’s eyebrows slowly come down from his hairline and the corners of his mouth twitch around his pipe. “Ah, that is to say, to be chosen as a sensei, to guide the village’s future, is an honor no matter public opinion and whoever says otherwise is sorely mistaken and not paying attention-” He presses his lips tightly together to stop his rambling. How mortifying!

A stunned quiet lingers for a moment and then Hokage-sama breaks into chuckles. “Well said, Tenzou, I couldn’t agree more! Forgive my provocations, I had to check. You’d be surprised how many of my jounin are really only interested in how a successful genin team will reflect on their own reputations.” Tenzou looks back to Hokage-sama to see him reaching across his desk for a set of files, still chortling. His heart pounds and he has to consciously smooth out his breathing.

Hokage-sama turns back and must see something pitiful in him, because his face softens with a pleased grin and clarifies, “I have a team that I’d like to entrust to you, Tenzou. It will be an… unconventional assignment. Aha, I can see you’ve heard a rumor or two.” Tenzou nods. “Well, I’m not sure what you may have heard, so I’ll give you the full briefing.” Hokage-sama pauses a moment, “Hmm, that is if you are still interested in the post. It is my understanding that you haven’t submitted the paperwork for it yet this year.”

Tenzou nods quickly, not trusting his voice.

“Very well. As you have undoubtedly already heard, Daimyo-sama came to me a little over two years ago with concerns about the rising number of natural disasters these last few decades. He expressed a desire to create standardized measures, both preemptive and responsive, to be applied on a national level to mitigate the destructive effects of such emergencies. After much discussion, it was decided to implement a new Disaster Response and Relief division in Konoha to coordinate and oversee these efforts.

“While the division is centralized in Konoha, there are satellite branches that, currently, operate out of our regional outposts and serve as local coordinators. As of now, most of the division staff and consultants are civilians and retired shinobi looking to keep busy.”

Tenzou gives a questioning noise and Hokage-sama’s mouth twists wryly. “My active shinobi seem to be under the impression that their talents are not being fully utilized in this new field and they shouldn’t be expected to give up otherwise promising careers to-” he breaks off, shuffles several folders around his desk, and squints down at a sheaf of paper. “‘To wallow in mind numbing boredom on the off chance a civilian needs their hand held through a thunderstorm.’” Hokage-sama leans back and takes another puff on his pipe. “Evocative imagery, don’t you think? Almost poetic.”

Tenzou is mostly struck by the sheer audacity it takes to actually write that out and knowingly submit it to the Hokage.

Hokage-sama sighs. “I do realize that what I’m asking for is a startling and foreign departure from what everyone is used to. And the shinobi that serve our great village truly didn’t sign up for this sort of duty. However,” the stern look that sweeps over his face reminds Tenzou that the man before him has lived through three separate wars and is known as ‘the God of Shinobi’, “that does not change that the duty is necessary. The very act of Konoha’s founding was also a stark change that many were uncertain of. If we only ever do as we have done, we will never be more than we are.

“So, my plan is, on the surface, a simple one. Cultivate a few dedicated teams of shinobi to serve in the division full time, while keeping a reserve roster to be called upon as needed. From there, it is my hope that the fruits of our efforts will prove the value of such work. But, as is the case with most worthy endeavors, only time will show such.” He bends to tap out his pipe and set it down, then straightens and brandishes the files he’d been holding earlier.

“Which brings us back to you and your new students, should you accept them.” Tenzou reaches out a hand that does not tremble, thank you, and takes the thin sheafs of paper from Hokage-sama. “This team assignment is a little different than normal,” with the papers firmly in his grip, Tenzou feels brave enough to raise an eyebrow at him and gets an answering chuckle. “Beyond the obvious. Each of them volunteered for this specific team in full understanding of its unconventional nature. There will be no jounin-sensei test for them; if you decide to take them on, then they’re yours. No take-backs, as they say.”

Flipping the files open to cover his excitement, Tenzou knows without a doubt that he wants them. He’s already impressed by their willingness to give up the ‘glory’ of a standard jounin track career, let alone the massive undertaking they’ve signed up for. Their young faces stare out at him from their pictures, all earnest excitement and determination, and he lets himself smile at his Hokage.

“I am honored to accept this assignment, Hokage-sama.”

Hokage-sama beams at him. “Excellent! I’d hoped you would be!” Tenzou does his best to not bask too obviously in the implied praise. “You’re to meet them at the Academy a week from today with the rest of the jounin-sensei. I’d recommend consulting with the DRR division on how to best incorporate your team into the existing framework, as well as for any training recommendations they may have.”

“Of course, Hokage-sama,” he bows to hide his traitorously wet eyes.

“Well then, good luck. Please remember to file the appropriate paperwork with the jounin office. And don’t be afraid to use the resources at jounin headquarters for new sensei! It’s there to be used and there’s no reason to not take advantage.”

With that parting advice, Tenzou is dismissed and he heads back to the anbu barracks to go over his students’ files more thoroughly. Then he stops abruptly at the edge of a roof. 

The barracks are only for active duty agents. He needs an apartment. He’s… never had to worry about that before. He’s only ever lived in spaces that were assigned to him-!

A careful breath and he reorients back towards Genma’s apartment. This is the sort of thing you can ask your friends for help with, right? Right.

They probably won’t tease him too much.

Chapter Text

Yuzuru

Tachibana Yuzuru wakes early, dawn a mere suggestion peering through her window, and bounces out of bed. She knows herself well enough to tell that she won’t be getting any more sleep at this point. A quick tumble when she trips over Mochi brings her rolling to her feet and she belatedly sends a chakra string to switch on her bedside lamp.

She jumps over his retaliatory head butt and lands near her dresser. Yuzuru sticks her tongue at him. “Weak, Mochi! What, didja turn into a sheep overnight? You can do better than that.”

“Mleheheh!!! I’ll show you weak, clumsy Yuzu!” Ah, there’s really nothing like the dulcet tones of an affronted pygmy goat to start the day~ Oh snap! Dodge, sidestep, leap -

Manju comes swinging in from the sidelines, knocking Mochi over on his side and flopping her full weight on top of him, the smuggest goat grin on her face. The indignant noises coming from under her fluffy white girth have Yuzuru laughing so hard she has to hold herself up on her dresser top.

The stocky kiko goat doesn’t always join their roughhousing play, but when she does it’s always fantastic. Mochi’s little hooves are only just barely visible as they flail for purchase and Manju tilts her long twisty horns this way and that, so very pleased with herself.

Taking a few deep breaths to calm her laughter, Yuzuru turns to pull out her new genin outfit, only wheezing a little. Storm grey, reinforced thigh-high stirrup socks go on first, then plum purple shorts. Wrestle on the sports bra that she couldn’t convince Akane-baa she doesn’t need yet. Slip on a pair of mesh armor elbow guards. Then a tight, high-necked moss green tank top goes under her pecan brown sleeveless hoodie, a brightly embroidered red Whirlpool spiral against a traditional Wind country washi pattern on an open sensu fan sitting in place of a traditional clan mon- a nod to her great grandparents that she takes after so strongly-, zipped halfway.

Her little herd squabbles quietly behind her as she twists her dark hair into a pair of thick rope braided pigtails. She ties them off at the bottom of her shoulder blades with the woven hair ties her parents sent for her last birthday. Yuzuru secures her thigh holsters at the top of her stockings, just below her shorts, one on each leg. Then she reaches for the last piece, the graduation present all four of her older brothers worked together to make so that “she can know she’s loved and supported even when they can’t physically be there to hug her”.

Yuzuru sniffles and swipes at her eyes. She moves to her bed to spread out the tanned leather gear belt and double check she packed it properly… ok and to admire it some more- her brothers really went all out. There’s a set of scroll holsters and pockets at each hip, with smaller pouches marching along the belt above them, plus space to attach one or two more traditional hip pouches in the back. The front clip and tie are even made so she can display her hitai-ate over the closure. Which, obviously, was the first thing she did when she got it.

Taking a moment to run her fingers over the dancing goat motifs worked into the leather and the mountain embroidery lining the inside of each pouch flap, Yuzuru sets to actually double checking her belt’s contents.

Storage scrolls, her graduation gift from Akane-baa, are filled with her bulky camping supplies, extra weapons, rations, spare clothes, and toiletries. A canteen, rope and suspension tool, a dozen bandanas, basic field guide of Fire country’s native flora and fauna, pocket parka, notebook and pencil, and her drop spindle, unspun wool, and yarn she tucks into the larger pockets. Her first aid kit takes pride of place in the back. With her thigh holsters holding her supply of kunai, shuriken, smoke bombs, exploding tags, flashbang tags, and wire, she’s free to load the smaller belt pouches with other miscellaneous necessities. Goggles, gloves, flashlight, glowsticks, flares, compass gridreader, multitool folding knife, hunting knife, plus a pack of origami paper for fuuinjutsu and chakra control practice finish off her stash.

...It’s prooobably overkill, especially since she’s only just meeting her team today. But, well. A lifetime of being drilled by her family on the importance of always keeping a well stocked go-bag added to everything she’s learned at the Ninja Academy means she really just can’t help herself. Maybe her sensei will be impressed? Hopefully by her preparedness and not her lowkey paranoia.

Yuzuru lightly slaps her cheeks to recenter her thoughts.

“Are you done fussing now?” Mochi asks plaintively while crawling into her lap. His shaggy black spotted hide is mussed and she grins down at his adorable grumpy face. He bleats at her and shoves until her hand is in prime scritching position. As Yuzuru indulges him, a pair of hooves bracing on her shoulders followed by a warm weight on her head tell her where Manju got to.

She basks in the warm affectionate moment, until Manju leans heavily on her and says, “I bet we woke up Akane-obaa, might want to prepare a peace offering.” Yuzuru freezes for a split second of abject dread, then launches into motion, spilling laughing goats behind her.

The belt gets unceremoniously secured on her waist as she slides into the kitchen. Catching up against the counter, Yuzuru brings her whole focus to rushing through preparing breakfast and tea. Thank every kami that’s ever blessed the world for chakra strings- she can stand in the middle of the kitchen and conduct the entire intricate dance of cooking in almost half the time, though she has to be careful not to spill anything. Her technique isn’t anywhere close to Akane-baa’s high standards, but she’s decent enough even if she doesn’t care to dedicate herself to puppeteering.

Akane-baa has never pressured her to do more with her teachings than Yuzuru wants to and she’s so grateful for that. Since coming to Konoha, she’s met so many kids struggling under their family’s expectations in the name of clan tradition. With Yuzuru being the first of Akane-baa’s many descendants to show any real talent for puppetry, she knows it could have so easily been her fighting under the weight of a legacy. But Akane-baa has never demanded more than comfortable competency, the same as she asks from the rest of the family.

She loves Akane-baa so much, everyday.

Her only warning is the quiet swish of a silk kimono. “My goodness, so energetic today at,” a pause, likely to look pointedly at the maneki neko clock hanging on the wall. Yuzuru’s tongue sticks out in her fierce concentration and she doesn’t dare split her focus to check. Sending all the food and dishes to lay themselves out on the table takes every bit of her attention. “Hm, 5:30 in the morning.” Sweat breaks out on Yuzuru’s forehead, getting in her eyes as she painstakingly arranges everything in a pleasing arrangement. There’s quiet laughter that experience tells her will be hidden behind a graceful kimono sleeve, the barest hints of a smile showing in the corners of dark eyes. “Why, one would almost suspect some sort of exciting event to be taking place later.” And done!

Yuzuru ends her jutsu, turns smoothly to face Akane-baa, and dips into a theatrical bow. “Good morning, Akane-baa! Many apologies for disturbing your rest. Please accept this humble offering of contrition, though it be not worthy of your greatness!” The bleating giggles, inexpertly stifled, from around the corner add that perfect sprinkle of extra ridiculousness to the tableau.

Akane-baa gives in and lets out great belly-shaking laughs in her smooth and gloriously rich alto belltones. “Ah, with such a heartfelt plea, I suppose I must pardon you for your insolence just this once. Now come, let me see you properly.”

A firm hand grips her chin and lifts, the strength and grace in those fingers not at all diminished by the wrinkles lining their papery skin. Raising her head to face her, as always, immaculately dressed and put together great grandma, Yuzuru moves into several silly poses to show off her new outfit. Akane-baa oohs and ahs excessively and gives a short round of applause.

“Practical and lovely, my most talented and favorite great granddaughter.”

“I’m your only great granddaughter!”

“Oh, is that so? Well, all the better then. You might not stand up so well against competition.” She gently pats Yuzuru’s cheek with exaggerated pity. Then she goes to the table, settling down with grace and serving herself. Like she didn’t just leave Yuzuru gasping and dramatically clutching her chest.

“Well don’t just stand there gaping, dear. If we’re to be awake this early, we should fortify ourselves appropriately.” She gestures imperiously, “before the food grows cold, if you please.”

Yuzuru collapses into her chair, smiling brightly.

They wile away the next two hours with Akane-baa telling dramatic renditions of the various family dramas currently plaguing her social circle. Eventually, though, she throws Yuzuru out for being too distracted to properly appreciate her stories.

Slipping on her ninja sandals, dark grey to match her stockings, Yuzuru asks, “Aren’t you at least going to wish me luck?”

“May you have copious luck on this auspicious day.”

“Thanks- wait! Akane-baa, you need to say good luck! Akane-baa? I know you’re smirking behind that sleeve, you can’t hide from me! Just what kind of luck do you want me to have?!”

Further complaints are met with a closed door and melodious laughter fading deeper into the house. A few passing neighbors snicker at her plight. Or maybe at the pair of goats skipping gleefully away while she’s distracted.

“Get back here, you trouble makers!” Yuzuru yells, shaking her fist as she gives chase.

She catches up and they settle into an easy jog. First stop: Shiho’s place. It’s always a toss up on whether she got a reasonable amount of sleep or pulled an all-nighter, falling down research rabbit holes, and Yuzuru long ago developed a habit of going over early to prod her friend into getting ready for the day.

The catch is that Shiho’s parents think Yuzuru’s a bad influence, so she can’t just knock on the front door. And they’re also shinobi, which makes the next easiest solution of Shiho’s bedroom window equally difficult.

Mention that her family can track their long history as goatherds back more than a thousand years once and, suddenly, she’s an ignorant country hick holding their daughter back from greatness and leeching off her genius. Yeesh.

Thankfully, they’re not as clever as they think they are. While there are a concerning number of traps around Shiho’s window, her parents haven’t thought to block the nearby bathroom window nearly as well. Hehehe. Yuzuru and Shiho have been using that trick for illicit sleepovers for almost a year now.

Mochi gives a warning bleat and the three of them quickly duck behind a fruit stand just as Shiho’s dad walks past. A quick glance tells her the pears are on sale, so she slips a few coins to the amused grocer and swipes a small bag with a cheeky salute. Neatly sidestep Manju’s drooling lunge, dart across the street, up the wall, hold the window open for greedy goats, and then she’s slipping in behind them.

Success is sweet and so are these pears.

She pads quietly into Shiho’s room with happy munching sounds trailing after her and sighs at the sight of her absentminded friend snoring away in her bed, surrounded by books and notepaper, glasses askew on her face. Unfortunately for Shiho, she never made it under her covers, leaving her poor bare feet vulnerable to Yuzuru’s devious fingers…

Shiho shrieks and hits the wall when she jumps the wrong way off her bed. Yuzuru kindly snags her glasses when they go flying past her even as she falls down laughing. Staticky ash blonde hair puffs around her friend’s gobsmacked face when she pops up and Manju helpfully slobbers on it in an attempt to make it lay flat.

Yuzuru passes back her glasses when Shiho goes to adjust them and smacks herself in the face. “Whassit? Yuzu?? Hi Manju…”

“Morning Shiho,” she snickers. “Hah, I really wish I had a camera~ I think that was your best reaction yet.”

Expertly ignoring Shiho’s pout, Yuzuru rolls to her feet and starts rummaging through the closet for a clean outfit. She knows Shiho doesn’t expect to pass her jounin-sensei’s assessment test and has a detailed plan for getting assigned to Intel anyway, but that’s no excuse to ignore her appearance today, honestly. Shiho lets her and dutifully puts on everything she’s handed, making sleepy morning noises under her breath.

Freshly clothed in tan capris, cream t-shirt, and a robin’s egg blue jacket, hitai-ate secured around her neck, Shiho next submits to the hairbrush brandished at her. Yuzuru works on taming the dandelion fluff in front of her, while Shiho grabs her thigh holster and hip pouch, giving them a cursory glance through before putting them on. A quick twist of a hair tie secures a low ponytail and they’re done.

“Here, you can eat this on the way.” Yuzuru passes her a pear that escaped Manju and Mochi’s grazing.

“Ooh, my favorite! What’s the rush, though?” They all spill out the bathroom window, taking care to close it behind them. From here, it’s only about ten minutes to the Academy.

Yuzuru whirls around and grips Shiho’s arms intently. “Shiho. My friend, my buddy, my pal, don’t you realize what today is?”

“U-uh, the day we get our team assignments…?”

“No! Well yes. But that’s not all it is.” She takes a deep breath, savoring Shiho’s confusion. “It’s our first official day as genin!” Yuzuru beams at Shiho, dancing her feet in a little jig. 

“... yes…?”

Her shoulders slump and she pouts tearfully. “Aizawa Bakery? Heavenly pork buns that melt in your mouth?”

Shiho shakes her head, still not getting it. Yuzuru throws her hands up and groans.

“He always gives new genin a discount on their first day of official service and-”

“Oh. Oh oh! And he always has his first batch of pastries out of the oven just before the Academy starts!” Ah, Shiho’s so cute when she figures out a puzzle~

“Ding, ding, ding! Exactly that.” Yuzuru points dramatically in the direction of the target bakery. “But if we want to have even a hope of taking advantage of this great opportunity, we have to get there before the enemy cleans him out.” She clenches her fist and holds it out to Shiho, who’s now quivering with excitement. “The competition is fierce, but together, I believe we can beat the odds! Are you with me?”

Shiho knocks her own fist against Yuzuru’s knuckles and takes off sprinting, shouting “last one there pays!” Manju knocks her knees out from behind and Mochi deftly sabotages her ankle. They take off after Shiho, cackling madly.

“Betrayal!”

Kenji

Inuzuka Kenji slides into his regular spot halfway up the riser seating for, hopefully, the last time. Habit has him glancing at his usual deskmate to gauge his mood. Throbbing forehead vein, tightly crossed arms, constipated expression, very deliberately not shouting at the two girls loudly gushing over their sizable haul of pork buns- damn those smell good- . Standard Hyuuga then.

He huffs a sharp breath through his nose, wipes drool from the corner of his mouth, and tugs at the high collar of his jacket. He doesn’t bother pulling the zipper any higher, though he does spare a brief wish that the sleeves were long enough to be rolled up, just so he could have something to fiddle with. More kids trickle in, raising the noise level to grating.

Centering himself with focused breathing is second nature at this point and Kenji deliberately shifts his senses to less offensive stimuli. The mesh armor resting next to his skin under his regular clothes, a quiet pressure down to his wrists and ankles; his feet pushing down into the floor; a gentle breeze ruffling his messy bangs and high ponytail; the cool metal of his happuri faceguard against his cheeks; his fingers flexing through carefully formed one-handed seals- wonder if anyone’s ever managed to perform two jutsu at once . One last slow exhale and he opens his eyes.

Oh, Nishimura’s looking at him. He tries not to think too hard about why she always blushes around him, but he does have to admit it makes her big blue eyes, already amplified by her bottle thick glasses, adorably gigantic.

“Uh um, good morning Kenji-kun, do you want one…?” She hesitantly holds out one of the absolutely tantalizing buns, like she thinks he’s gonna say no . He can see Tachibana turning to give him a baleful warning glare, but he’s already reaching out to take the tasty treat.

“Yeah, thanks, Nishimura.” Keeping his grin to friendly, non-teeth baring levels only mostly works and he feels a fang slip out the corner of his mouth. Nishimura meeps very quietly. Kenji holds back a sigh. Why does he have to have such frightening chompers? Everyone else in the clan just has sharp incisors; he gets a full mouth of vicious fangs.

At least Tachibana doesn’t hold it against him, just snickers at her nerdier half’s stuttering response. Kenji’s seen what lengths that girl will go to for retribution- Hyuuga is pointedly ignoring them now- and he’s glad to be on her good side. It probably helps that they’ve known they’re going to be teammates for a while. Apparently no one else was interested in the volunteer only team.

Movement at the corner of his eye has Kenji leaning back in his seat just in time to avoid Kitamoto flinging herself across the desk to make grabby hands at the remaining pastries.

“Yuzuruuu, don’t I get a pork bun, too~?”

Tachibana smushes a hand into Kitamoto’s face, holding her bag just out of reach. “Not even a please, huh, Tenten? And here I was, thinking you didn’t need handouts!”

Kitamoto gasps indignantly, “That was one time! And all I said was I already had that pamphlet-!” Kenji ignores the rest of their friendly squabbling and settles in to enjoy his pork bun.

So good …

Eventually Hiroyuki-sensei walks in and everyone quickly settles in their seats, Kitamoto clutching two pork buns, though one of them is ripped. He licks the last of the filling from his thumb, careful to keep any smears off his fingerless gloves.

Kenji pays only the barest attention to the short speech that follows. It’s nothing they haven’t already heard yet and he’s busy parsing through the unfamiliar scents gathering in the hallway. One of them is going to be his and Tachibana’s jounin-sensei and he really, really hopes they were selected on a volunteer basis too. A reluctant and potentially grudging jounin would be awful to learn under. If they even bothered to teach them anything to start with. He’s heard horror stories from some of his older cousins.

Before he can spiral into defeatist thoughts, he focuses back in to listen to the team announcements.

“Team 1 will be Tachibana Yuzuru, Inuzuka Kenji, and Akimichi Hanami!” Well that was quick.

Almost as one, he and Tachibana swing their heads to stare at Akimichi. She smiles and gives them a little wave, even as some of their classmates jeer mostly goodnaturedly. Huh, did not see that coming. A glance in front of him shows Tachibana looking just as surprised. She blinks and sends Akimichi a confused thumbs up.

Teams continue to be called out. Nishimura ends up with two slightly below average kids, but doesn’t seem upset, and neither does Tachibana, so he puts it from his mind. There’s only a few clan kids in his class and none of them are slated for a legacy team, so everyone’s mostly being sorted by ability and there aren’t any major surprises until-

“Team 9, Hyuuga Neji, Kitamoto Tenten, Rock Lee!”

Wow. Kenji’s going to savor that flabbergasted expression on Hyuuga’s face for possibly the rest of his life. Everyone very carefully doesn’t ask how Rock managed to pass the exam without the use of chakra. His tearful cheering is already reaching towards ‘deafening’.

With that done, Hiroyuki-sensei says, “Your jounin-sensei will come in to collect you now. It has been an experience teaching you all and I, again, congratulate you on successfully becoming genin. Don’t visit.” He gathers his papers and unceremoniously walks out the door, leaving it open for the jounin to enter.

The newly formed teams head out as they’re called. Eventually, a young brown haired man, probably early twenties, and also wearing a happuri, comes in. “Team 1 with me, please.” Kenji makes his way up front with his teammates and their new sensei leads them outside, heading for a nearby training field. He spends the time to fix the man’s scent in his mental files. It’s… harder to do than he expects, only a subtle impression of tree resin and damp earth that blends disconcertingly well with their surroundings.

Inexplicably, a pair of goats trot up to keep pace with them and break through Kenji’s musings. Tachibana reaches down to give a playful shove to the bigger one, that comes up to her waist instead of just her knees, and Kenji realizes these must be her summons. She’s mentioned them a few times in class. He’s never met them before, but, on second sniff, he registers their scents as familiar. And distinctive. He tries to keep his sneeze surreptitious. The little one gives him a look . Oh well.

The sparsely forested field they stop at is only a ten minute jog from the academy and Kenji takes a moment to look around. He’s never been to this one, though he knows it’s one of the few public training fields academy students are allowed to use. Kenji looks back and blinks at the bright grin being leveled at him and the girls. Volunteered rather than assigned it is, then.

“Good morning,” sensei’s voice is a mellow tenor filled with honest pleasure, and Kenji isn’t sure what he’s supposed to do with that. “My name is Tenzou and I’m very pleased to meet you all.” He even glances down to include Tachibana’s goats, like he really means it. “I thought we’d start with telling each other a bit about ourselves- likes, dislikes, hobbies, goals for the future- that sort of thing.”

Tenzou-sensei settles cross-legged on the ground and the rest of them follow suit. “I’ll start us off. I like punctuality, windchimes, and walnuts. My dislikes are, hm, oily foods and messy spaces. I enjoy studying architecture and my current goal is to master a third common elemental transformation for my ninjutsu.”

Does. Does that mean he’s mastered an un common one? More than one?

Maybe he can help Kenji figure out if two simultaneous one-handed jutsu are possible… Before he can get too lost in thoughts of jutsu experimentation, Tachibana rolls up onto her knees and throws out her own introduction.

“My name is Tachibana Yuzuru and these are my personal summons, Manju and Mochi!” She gestures to the big and little goats respectively. They lift their heads from grazing, make goat noises, and go back to doing their own goat thing. “My likes include, but are not limited to, making people laugh, Aizawa Bakery pork buns,” here she offers out her bag of pastries to each of them and Kenji helps himself to another, with sensei and Akimichi doing the same, “and watching the sunrise. I dislike people who willfully misconstrue everything you say just so they can take offense or are deliberately cruel for the sake of cruelty.” 

Uwaah, Rock and Hyuuga really are on her eternal shitlist… Tachibana cheerfully barrels past Tenzou-sensei’s look of mild concern.

“My hobbies are thread crafts and fashion.” A deep, deep breath. “My goal is to turn Konoha’s Disaster Response and Relief Division into the undisputed international standard of natural disaster management and use the offer of cooperative efforts with other nations as a stepping stone to lasting peace!” She ends this statement on her feet, one fist to the sky with the other propped on her hip.

Despite the confidence she’s affecting, Kenji can smell the nervous sweat building at her temples as she watches Tenzou-sensei for his reaction. He really hopes the guy isn’t gonna turn out to be one of those assholes who tell her to give up on “such a stupid and unrealistic dream, grow up already, idiot”, but he prepares himself for damage control just in case.

“Oh, I didn’t realize your plan was so far reaching Yuzuru-san,” Akimichi chimes in, darting nervous glances between everyone. “But, thinking on how passionate you are about this, I suppose I can’t say I’m surprised...” She clearly loses some of her nerve when no one shows signs of relaxing.

“Well,” sensei says after a small eternity, “it’s certainly ambitious, but then again, so was the first Hokage’s dream of a unified shinobi village.” He looks at her thoughtfully. “It will take quite a lot of effort and persistence, but it doesn’t sound like an impossible dream. Though you should prepare yourself to not see any kind of significant change for many years yet.” Anything else he might say is lost, as a crying Tachibana tackles him in a bruising hug, rolling to the ground in a stuttering mess that the goats waste no time jumping into.

Kenji lets himself give a slumping sigh of relief. Tenzou-sensei is really starting to look like the best mentor they could have asked for. Akimichi catches his attention, twisting the hem of her blue shirt in nervous hands.

“Um, does that usually go poorly? It seems like a reasonable and worthwhile goal?”

He just stares at his surprise teammate for a moment and tries to order his thoughts into as gentle a shape as he can. “You really signed up for this team and didn’t bother to pay attention to what people generally think of the whole idea?” Ah. Damn. So much for gentle. A rumbling subvocal even slipped its way in. Akimichi’s eyes go wide and a little watery.

Kenji briskly rubs the back of his head with a short growl and just bites out his words, since he’s clearly incapable of doing it nicely. “Look, ninja get a variety of different missions based on their skill sets, right? And, one of the biggest ways they get recognition and promotion opportunities is from how many enemies they defeat or outwit. The Academy tells us shinobi work ain’t all about the glory, but there’s still glory to be had . Whether that’s through battles, skillful sabotage, the ability to steal information without anyone the wiser, whatever.”

Tachibana and sensei have sorted themselves out, with her now aggressively cuddling the wriggly little goat- Mochi, he reminds himself- and him cautiously patting her head like he’s worried she’ll break into spontaneous hugging again. They’re both listening closely.

Kenji keeps going. “This kinda work doesn’t have that sorta stuff. It’s got cleanup after shit you don’t got a prayer of stopping, just mitigating- if you’re lucky. Most of our time’s gonna be spent elbow deep in civilian grief and drama and we don’t get to brush them off to go about our jobs. That is our job. Most of the shinobi forces don’t think it counts as real ninja work, or that it’s glorified busy work that the civilians could do just as well on their own. They think it’s a waste of their training and skills.”

He has to stop to catch his breath. Tachibana’s been nodding furiously along with each of his points and Tenzou-sensei has that look of thoughtful consideration again.

A glance at Akimichi doesn’t give him any easy cues, but she’s always a bit hard to read. She tends to match her reactions to others rather than expressing her own. She doesn’t smell any more upset than before, though, and even looks like she’s chewing over his words, so he’s gonna count it as good. He clears his throat, thankful his large red clan markings help mask his flush a bit.

“So, yeah, I’m Inuzuka Kenji and my nindog partner isn’t missing, I just don’t have one.” Sensei mercifully doesn’t outwardly react to that particular tidbit beyond some mild surprise that moves quickly to an accepting nod. “I like ikigai philosophy and wabi sabi aesthetics. I dislike perfume and people who are dismissive of others’ sincere efforts. For hobbies, I like doing calligraphy and moving meditation.” He scratches his cheek, not quite able to meet anyone’s eye. “A goal I have is to develop my own utility-oriented ninjutsu for the purpose of dealing with large scale disasters and their fallout.”

Tenzou-sensei grins at him. “I have some experience with jutsu creation so that’s something I can definitely help you with. I look forward to seeing what you come up with.” Kenji nods in acceptance of that offer. Sensei turns to Akimichi. “And I suppose that leads us to you.” He gives an encouraging gesture.

She squares her shoulders a bit, “My name is Akimichi Hanami and I like artistic wagashi and my hamster, Suki. Ah, my dislikes are… um. I guess I don’t like being called fat?” She trails off for a moment, clearly thinking hard about it. “Uh, my hobbies are trying new teas and learning different recipes. For goals, ah, maybe to retire after my mandatory service is done and take over my dad’s restaurant…? Or maybe follow my mom into food pill research and production. I haven’t decided yet.”

Kenji blinks at her. That was… so bland and wishy washy. He can already feel the disbelief building from Tachibana “I know exactly what I want and how I’m gonna get it” Yuzuru’s direction. Apparently so can sensei, because he claps his hands to grab their attention again.

“Well, those are both perfectly reasonable and easily achieved aspirations. It’s commendable that you all have such clearly articulated plans for yourselves. I look forward to helping you bring them to fruition.” He smiles at the three of them, his large dark eyes adding the faintest hint of menace, and neatly diverts the potential drama.

“It sounds like we all have a basic understanding of the work ahead of us. We’ll be heading over to the current DRR offices tomorrow after training for a detailed overview of our duties and responsibilities. For now, I’d like to get an idea of your skills and abilities. Does anyone have questions before we begin?”

Akimichi hesitantly raises her hand and sensei nods at her. “Um, I was just wondering how mission assignments are going to work for us if we aren’t working within the traditional system?”

“Good question! You’re right that we won’t be getting assignments in quite the same way as most genin teams. The division head and I have worked out a schedule that we think will be a good starting point.” Tenzou-sensei leans forward to rest his forearms on his knees. “This first month or two will be training and getting familiar with the systems the DRR has in place, and how they’re being implemented. Then we’ll move to a two week: four week schedule. Two weeks in-village, followed by four weeks of field work. It’s going to be a lot of studying and grunt work starting out, but the goal is to get you three to a point where we can take over a lot of the responsibilities currently being handled by the interim rotational teams.”

He pauses to look at each of them and Kenji has to hold his breath against the excitement bubbling in his chest. This man is taking them seriously and has already been working on ways to support them in their goals. He doesn’t think they’re wasting their time. Is talking like he thinks this is a worthwhile task. Kenji tightens his grip on his crossed ankles and breathes out.

“So, with all that in mind, I have some exercises and drills for you all to see where you’re currently at skillswise. Once we’ve finished that, I’d like to hear what skills you think we should work on as a team, and then you’re free for the rest of the afternoon.” An affable smile. “Sound good?”

“Yes, Tenzou-sensei,” they answer together.

Hanami

Nearly four hours later, Akimichi Hanami is a winded aching puddle on the ground and her teammates don’t look to be faring much better. Tenzou-sensei is ruthlessly thorough!

He tested them on everything- truly everything - mostly with practical exercises that worked in several skills at a time… that they had to repeat. And repeat. Until he was satisfied. And then they did it all over again with the next set of drills!

Her tummy rumbles loudly. With great effort, Hanami lifts herself with her overcooked noodle arms into a vague sitting position and turns pleading eyes on Tenzou-sensei. “Was that the last of it…?” Yuzuru-san and Kenji-san make sad noises of agreement. Even Yuzuru-san’s goat summons are laid out on the ground, little sides heaving from exertion and wheezing plaintively.

Sensei just chuckles at their pain. “Yes, that’s it for today.” He isn’t even sweating… but he hands them each a cold juice packet, so she forgives him. “Do any of you have ideas for what we should study together now, or would you like to think about it some more?”

They all take a moment to slurp their fruity electrolytes and Hanami waits for one of the others to answer first.

Kenji-san taps his fingers against his drink in a slow relaxing beat. “What about, like de-escalation tactics.” He glances up, then focuses on the tree line. “Or at least non-lethal ways of subduing or detaining someone. There’s a few we use in the kennels for injured animals and I imagine people get heated and irrational in those sorts of tense situations too. I’d like to have a few ways of responding that don’t include violence.”

Yuzuru-san smiles approvingly and nods her agreement. Then adds her own suggestion of “Medical jutsu. First aid is good to know, but we’re a team of first responders, so we should have at least one or two of us qualified as field medics.” Hanami swallows down her apprehension at the thought of being relied on for something so critical and difficult. Every bit helps, she reminds herself. Being more capable tomorrow than you are today, even by just a little, can be the deciding factor between success and failure.

Rallying her nerves, Hanami ventures her own suggestion. “Maybe civilian relations?” At sensei’s questioning head tilt, she hurries to clarify. “Like how the local governments are organized in each region and who’s in charge of what from village to village. If we know who’s supposed to be responsible for what, it’ll make coordinating and delegation easier to manage. Or something.”

Sensei smiles. “Excellent suggestions. I’ll get plans set up for each of your ideas.” Hanami blushes, pleased that she didn’t bungle that. “Meet me at training ground 12 at 7am tomorrow morning. Be sure to bring your full travel kits, please. Dismissed.” And he’s gone in a rush of wind, only a few floating leaves to mark where he was standing.

Hanami focuses on getting her breath back while she finishes off her juice. When it’s all gone she turns to her teammates- how are they already standing upright?!

She quickly rolls to her own feet and calls out to them before they can leave. “Um! Do you guys want to get lunch together?”

They stop, look at her, share a glance, and Kenji-san shrugs. Yuzuru-san quirks her head, pretty braids draping over her shoulders, and says, “yeah, alright.”

Hanami beams at them. “Great! There’s an okonomiyaki place nearby that’s really good.”

Kenji-san pops his back in a languid stretch. “Lead on, then.”

A quick walk takes them to Okonomiyaki Chitose, one of her absolute favorite hole-in-the-wall restaurants, nestled between a small music store and a used bookshop on a quiet side street. The owner calls out a greeting when they walk in, “Hanami-chan! Good timing, you just missed the lunch rush. Oh and friends, too? Welcome, welcome! Sit anywhere.”

“Hi, Shinji-san! These are my new teammates, Yuzuru-san and Kenji-san,” she settles in a booth next to a window in deference to Kenji-san’s nose and takes a moment to peruse the menu.

“You don’t need honorifics for me you know,” Yuzuru-san admonishes with a wry grin as she plops down across from her. “May as well get cozy, since we’ll be spending so much time together.” 

Kenji-san slides in next. “Guess I can’t just keep calling you both by your family names forever. First names is fine by me.” He leans an elbow on the table and props his cheek on his fist. His eyelids are drooping so heavily, Hanami wouldn’t be surprised if he dozed off before the food was ready.

“O-okay, then you can both call me Hanami, too.”

“Oho, getting friendly over here, aintcha?” Hanami squeaks in surprise when Haruka-san, Shinji-san’s wife, pops up to take their order. Kenji and Yuzuru don’t even twitch.

“Haruka-saaaan,” she whines.

She just laughs at them, “sorry, sorry. Didn’t mean to sneak up on ya. Musta been a rough training day, huh?” She eyes their scuffed and sweaty appearance with all apparent amusement.

Yuzuru slumps dramatically and presses the back of a hand to her forehead, “you have no idea, Haruka-san~ Our new sensei is a slave driver!”

“Them’s the breaks, kid,” a teasing wink, then, “you lot wanna start with a round of waters while ya look over your options?” They chorus an affirmative and she heads back to the counter to get their drinks.

“Any recommendations?” Kenji asks.

Hanami hums thoughtfully. “Well, I really like the butatama, ‘cause you can’t go wrong with a classic, but their mizuno-yaki, topped with boiled egg, is also really good. But the yamaimo-yaki has a great texture, since it’s got grated yam instead of flour…” she trails off into quiet muttering, debating which others to suggest. A stifled chuckle brings her head back up, but Kenji and Yuzuru’s smiles don’t seem mean spirited.

“Those all sound good! Why don’t we get those and split them? I love trying new food~” Hanami relaxes fully at Yuzuru’s enthusiasm and returns her grin.

“Yeah, let’s do that!”

When Haruka-san comes back with the water, Kenji gives her their order. With food now imminent, Hanami sighs and rubs at her aching thighs. Then realizes they’re missing two furry bodies.

“Where are Manju and Mochi?” she even checks under the table, to no avail.

Yuzuru blinks at her. “Huh? Oh, they decided to be lazy bleaters and unsummoned themselves back home. They’re likely whining to Akane-baa as we speak,” she snickers.

Hanami tilts her head, but it’s Kenji who asks, “Akane-baa… is the grandma you live with, right?”

“Yeah,” Yuzuru nods, “though if we want to be technical, then she’s my great grandmother on my dad’s side of the family.”

“ Great grandmother?!” Hanami knows she’s being rude, but-! “J-just how old is she?”

Luckily Yuzuru just laughs. “Oh, she turns 84 this year! And my older brother back home has a set of 2 year old twins, so she’s also a great great grandma. Twice over, even!” Hanami thinks that her face must be doing something truly interesting, because even Kenji’s getting the giggles now. She tries to pull herself together.

“Sorry,” Hanami’s blush could probably take over for the table grill at this point, “I don’t mean to be rude, it’s just, well, um.”

Kenji, bless him, comes to her rescue. “Nah, I know what you mean. Shinobi don’t tend to have elders quite that old. It’s one of the reasons Hokage-sama and his council are so respected. They’re just shy of 70 and literally the last of their generation.”

“Mhm, mhm. Elder Torifu just passed recently at 75 years old and he was the oldest clan member on record, from even before Konoha was established.”

Yuzuru frowns pensively, “That’s really sad. Though, I guess it’s only fair to say that civilians generally average an 80-ish year life expectancy. So I do know Akane-baa is very old, especially here. I was just teasing a bit.” She sighs. “But in my hometown region, it’s not that unusual to know people in their 90’s. There was even one lady that lived to 102.”

Hanami and Kenji are still gaping when their food arrives.

Haruka-san gives them a show as she prepares everything and cooks it up on the griddle. They give her a round of applause and she dips a bow at them, before leaving them with their meals. Divvying up the okonomiyaki to share between them takes just a few moments and Hanami starts the conversation back up from a different direction.

“So, Yuzuru, you’re not originally from Konoha? You mentioned your hometown…”

“Mmm!” she swallows her mouthful. “Yeah, my family lives up north. Fairly close to Iron country, in the foothills bordering the Akaishi mountain range.”

“Oh, wow. Sounds cold…” Hanami shivers just thinking about it. She quickly takes another bite of her steaming food to drive off the imaginary chill.

“Hahaha! You’d think so, yeah? But the mountains themselves actually do a pretty good job of blocking the colder fronts that Iron is famous for. So long’s you don’t want to go mountain climbing, it’s really not that bad. Still more chilly than Konoha though!” Yuzuru seems pleased to babble about her old home and Hanami’s glad she thought to ask.

Kenji pipes up with, “so how big is your family? You mentioned a brother and two… nieces? Nephews?”

“A niece and a nephew. They’re my second oldest brother, Nori's kids. Nori is actually the younger of identical twins!” She grins at them. “So, starting from there, it’s Maki-nii and Nori-nii, who are both 25. Then Ichigo-nii is 24, followed by Kaede-nii, who’s 23. There’s my mom and dad, Sango-baa and Kaname-jii, my paternal grandparents, and Anzu-baa and Satoshi-jii on my mom’s side. There’s also Sayaka-ba, my mom’s sister who moved away to live with her husband’s family, further east towards Rice country, but we don’t see or hear from them very often.”

“Ah, let’s see, who else…?” She takes another bite before continuing. “I have a few other aunts and uncles, plus a bunch of cousins, all spread over a few local villages too, so family gatherings usually end up being more like community festivals. Same thing for our neighbors and their families.”

“Huh, don’t sound so different from our clan compounds then,” Kenji muses and Hanami nods in agreement. “Still, that’s a lot of older brothers. And what’s with that age gap? You a whoops baby or something?”

Yuzuru snorts and slaps a hand over her mouth to keep from spraying food. “Ha! Or something!” She bangs a fist on the table as she laughs. “Yeah, I was definitely an unexpected addition to the family register,” giggles overcome her ability to speak and Hanami takes a chance to add her own commentary.

“Four brothers… I’m an only child, so that sounds a bit, ah, overwhelming.”

“Same,” Kenji agrees, “though I do live in my clan’s communal housing, so I think I’ve got an idea what that must have been like for ya.”

“Communal housing?” Hanami asks.

“Yeah, it’s mostly for clan orphans, or kids who can’t stay with their parents for one reason or another. The adults all take turns as Den Parents, so we have, like, authority figures to look out for us and stuff.” He stops talking abruptly and shoves the last large bite of his okonomiyaki in his mouth, chewing fiercely. Yuzuru’s giggles fade out.

Hanami considers carefully, then concludes that she’s neither equipped nor qualified to tackle that. So she switches topics.

“So how did you two decide that disaster response was what you wanted to do?”

Yuzuru starts, then shakes herself and responds. “Landslides are a pretty common hazard back home and we’ve got a fairly well developed system in place for all the nearby villages.” She shrugs self consciously, “my family’s always been a bit more chakra sensitive than most civilians, so using that to help mitigate the problem was just common sense. It made a big, and really obvious, difference to have people with chakra skills involved in the process. I’m just the first with chakra coils developed enough to make coming here for further training worthwhile. So I, y’know, did.” She spins her chopsticks in a complicated pattern, then nudges Kenji with a sharp elbow.

“Oof!” He shoots Yuzuru a baleful glare, rubbing his arm. He shifts his gaze to Hanami and she makes sure to keep her face blandly curious. Kenji shrugs with careful disinterest, “seems like all anyone cares about sometimes is a ninja’s kill count. Figure saving people oughta be just as important.” Then he pins her with an intense stare. “What I wanna know, is when you decided to sign up. And why.”

Hanami blinks rapidly at that. He sounds almost accusing, but she isn’t certain why he would be. “Well, because you needed a third teammate.” They stare harder. “Um, I overheard Hiroyuki-sensei discussing it with one of the teachers for the class below us- Mizu-something I think? An-anyway, they were saying if they couldn’t get a full team this year, then they’d just send the ones who signed up this term over to the genin corps roster and try again… with next year’s… class. So I, um, I thought,” she tugs fitfully at her wristbands, quivering under the weight of their attention, “I thought that wasn’t fair, since you both wanted this so much and worked so hard for it.”

She takes a deep stuttering breath. “And I’m an Akimichi. If I didn’t support my comrades when it’s within my power to do so, I would hardly be worthy of bearing my clan mon.” Hanami holds a fist over the Akimichi embroidery decorating the front of her shirt. “I know I haven’t spent as much time preparing for this career as the two of you have, but” she licks her dry lips and wishes she hadn’t already finished her water, “I’m going to work hard and catch up with you soon. I promise I won’t hold you back!”

 Kenji and Yuzuru don’t give any reaction for several long moments. Just as quickly as it came, her meagre courage deserts her and she busies herself by gathering all their empty dishes and cups for Haruka-san to collect. Her face is hot again.

Something kicks her ankle and she nearly jumps out of her seat. The tips of Kenji’s ears are red and he won’t meet her eyes, staring off to the side. Yuzuru reaches across the table, grips her wrist, gives an absolutely blinding smile, and says “thanks for looking out for us, Hanami. We’re glad to have you on the team.”

Hanami sniffles, then has to grab for a napkin to dab at her damp cheeks. “Oh, thank goodness. For a second there, I thought you were mad at me.” The napkin is too wet to be any sort of help. Honestly. It had one job.

Kenji flinches and rubs the back of his neck, gives her a glance from under his lashes. “Sorry ‘bout that. Didn’t mean to sound like you did something wrong. Was just wondering why the sudden interest is all.”

“What doofus here means is that he has a scary face, but soft puppy fluff where his brain should be, and doesn’t ever intend to actually come across as frightening.” Yuzuru looks like she’ll keep talking, but Kenji grabs her in a headlock with mortified rage. The ensuing scuffle is intense but quiet and finishes quickly when Haruka-san appears with their check.

She gives them all a raised eyebrow and Kenji and Yuzuru’s shamefully contrite faces have Hanami laughing so hard she gets a stitch in her side. The smile stays on her achy cheeks all the way home, where she regales Suki about the day’s excitement.

Chapter Text

Hanami

The pan sizzles merrily as Hanami feeds it another stream of egg mixture. Using her cooking chopsticks with the little hamster carvings at the top, a gift from her dad, she deftly rolls the tamagoyaki into shape. When she’s finished incorporating the last of the eggs into the thick omelet, she slides it onto a cutting board and leaves it to cool before she cuts it.

With the onigiri already made up and stashed in their own section, she sets to packing the rest of her large picnic bento. If yesterday was any indication, then Hanami and her team are going to need all the fortifying foods they can get! So far she’s made curry croquettes, chicken meatballs served on skewers, roasted edamame, beef-wrapped asparagus, and inari sushi. Little apple rabbits rest on a bed of peach slices and the tamagoyaki gets nestled in next to them. Add a few packets of her special protein rich senbei crackers and she’s done.

Hanami leans back against the counter and sighs happily, wiping her hands clean on her frilly apron. Munching sounds behind her have her turning to look at Suki, who’s in hamster bliss, sprawled in a bowl of the vegetable peels and ends. She giggles and strokes a gentle finger over her fluffy friend’s golden head.

Dad walks in scratching his belly and pointedly sniffs his way over to her morning’s efforts. “What’s this? Is that really my little pumpkin cooking up a storm so early in the morning?” He swipes a taste from the various mixing bowls and gives an appreciative hum. “Curry for the croquettes, eh? Bold choice- and decent execution. A little heavy on the turmeric, but the cumin gives it a nice little kick.”

Hanami smiles brightly. She loves when dad gives constructive critiques of her food.

“I know it doesn’t all fit the season, but I figured my team will be happy enough for food to overlook it, just this once!”

He chortles and says, “Oh, I don’t doubt it! So long as you don’t make a habit of it, that sort of thing is fine once in a while. But,” here he fixes her with a firm stare, “that type of casualness towards seasonal coherence is something that can sabotage a restaurant if you’re not careful. Especially fine dining establishments like ours. Customers expect a certain adherence to tradition, even as we push the limits of our dishes. Understand, pumpkin?”

Hanami ducks her head in a chagrined nod. “Yes, dad. I promise I’ll be more careful from now on.”

“Good girl,” a large hand ruffles her still sleep mussed hair and that’s that. Dad even helps her wash everything up before she scoops Suki out of her bowl to deposit her back in her enclosure.

Then she throws on her clothes, grabs her equipment holsters and pouches, quickly brushes out her long ginger-blonde hair, and makes sure her travel pack is secure.

“Bye, dad, I’ll see you later!” Hanami busses a kiss to his cheek and accepts her bento from him when he hands it to her.

“Bye, pumpkin. Work hard and have fun!”

She settles into a brisk jog towards the compound gates, hoping it will be a good warmup for whatever Tenzou-sensei has in store for them. As she’s passing one of the clan’s training grounds, Hanami spys Choza-sama making his way inside, Choji-sama slowly following behind him. The young clan heir looks so uncertain and nervous as he hesitates at the edge of the grounds that Hanami’s good mood propels her to share some of her excited energy. 

“Choji-sama!” she calls out. He blinks and looks around in confusion until he sees her waving at him. When he shyly waves back, Hanami trots over and plops a packet of senbei in his hand. “Here! It’s my own rice cracker recipe, good for after a tough training session.”

“O-oh, um, thanks, Hanami-san.” She smiles at the awkward gratitude lighting his face and wishes him a good morning, bowing a greeting to Choza-sama, who smiles indulgently at her. 

As she passes through the gates, she goes to turn right towards the training field from yesterday, but pulls up short. Sensei said to meet at training ground 12… Hanami is fairly sure that yesterday they were in field 8. A quick readjustment to her mental route and she heads left to meet with her team.

Hanami arrives to see Kenji and Yuzuru already waiting by a small pond ringed by a copse of trees. Kenji’s got a pack slung over his shoulders, but Yuzuru only seems to have the same equipment as yesterday. Hopefully she just put it down somewhere nearby and didn’t forget to bring her travel things entirely!

“Good morning!” she calls and the other two look up and wave her over. Hanami looks around, but “is Tenzou-sensei not here yet?”

Kenji’s nose twitches. “Mmm, he’s here. I can sorta smell him nearby, but I think he’s got some scent masking jutsu on.”

“Ooh, ooh, we should see if we can find him!” Yuzuru bounces excitedly, a devilish tilt to her smile, but before she gets too far into her planning, there’s a voice from above them.

“Ah, we’ll save that for a different day, alright?” They look up and- Tenzou-sensei is standing upside down on the bottom of a branch!

Hanami gasps. Her hands move of their own accord to clasp against her cheeks. Are they going to learn surface walking already? She knows it’s one of the fundamental shinobi skills, but she hadn’t thought they’d get to it so quickly!

Sensei smiles amiably, “Yes, Hanami, that is what we’re working on today.”

Oh no, she said all of that out loud. She moves her hands to cover her burning face. Yuzuru laughs and nudges her out of hiding.

“But first, I want to see some warm ups and then, hm, let’s say 10 laps around the field.” Sensei jumps down to land lightly in front of them. “Well? If you want to have time to learn this before we’re expected at the DRR office building, you’d better get going.”

They scramble to put their things to the side and get started.

It’s interesting to see her teammates' personal styles in their stretches and katas, when Hanami’s used to everyone being limited to the Academy style in school. She keeps some of her focus on her own movements, but still admires how well these different styles suit them. Yuzuru is ridiculously flexible and bouncy and Kenji’s movements are so fluid and fierce. Hanami feels clunky and unrefined next to them.

All too soon it’s time for laps. Hanami sighs, knowing she’ll be lagging behind her much faster teammates, but settles into a steady pace that she knows she can maintain while still pushing herself. To her surprise, though, Kenji and Yuzuru fall in next to her and deliberately match their speed to hers. When she glances at them, Kenji answers her unspoken question.

“You know, even more than other teams, when we get deployed, it’s gonna be as a unit. Our fastest response time is always going to be set by our slowest team member.” He grins wolfishly, teeth fully on display, the expression mirrored on Yuzuru’s face, and a frisson of nervousness skips down Hanami’s spine. “So we figure, best way to motivate is from the back.”

This is the only warning she gets before he and Yuzuru chase her around the training field as she tries desperately to keep ahead of them. She doesn’t think they’ll do anything mean, not since their conversation yesterday, but she also doesn’t fully trust the wicked gleam in Yuzuru’s eyes. Especially not when Manju and Mochi jump in to ‘help’.

They finish in a collapsed and giggling pile at Sensei’s feet. When Hanami manages to extricate herself, she’s treated to a look of fond bemusement from the man and she grins back at him. He ruffles each of their hair then calls for attention.

“So, what can you three tell me about vertical surface walking?”

“The goal of the technique is to coat the bottom of your feet with a thin layer of chakra that’s resonant with the surface you wish to stick to. That’s why practicing on a buncha different materials and textures is so important, to get the hang of instantly matching your resonance with your surroundings” Kenji states succinctly.

It’s things like this that remind Hanami of just how freaking smart Kenji is. Hyuuga Neji always got praised in class as a rare genius, advanced beyond his peers, but she thinks that’s only because Kenji never went out of his way to obviously compete with him.

Tenzou-sensei just nods, like he expected that. “Very good, Kenji. Girls? Do you have anything to add?”

Pulling her eyes from Kenji’s now blushing face, Hanami is about to speak up, but Yuzuru beats her to it.

“It doesn’t have to be just your feet! Any part of your body can be used to stick to surfaces.” She gets a thoughtful, or perhaps scheming, look and asks, “hey, Sensei, do you think it would work with chakra strings? Like swinging from a rope, but it’s chakra!”

Sensei blinks, “Well, I’ve never heard of the technique being used that way, but I suppose there’s no reason we can’t try it once you get the basics down.” Yuzuru punches the air with a cheer.

When Sensei turns to her, she shakes her head. “I can’t think of anything else to add, Sensei.” To her relief, he isn’t disappointed and just nods, continuing with the lesson.

“This technique is also considered to be one of the better chakra control exercises, since it requires, as Kenji said, such a precise application of chakra. Too little chakra and you won’t manage to stick to anything.” He presses a hand against a tree trunk and lifts it away with no resistance. “However, too much chakra and you’ll be repelled from the surface.” Again, he puts a hand to the trunk, but this time it flies back from the tree with a spray of bark and splinters.

They all flinch away from the debris and Hanami can’t quite contain a small “meep!”.

Tenzou-sensei faces them with an encouraging smile. “You need to focus a steady stream of energy to your feet” he brings his hands up in a ram seal of concentration and confidently walks up the side of the tree “and don’t forget to circulate chakra through the rest of your body, to keep your torso steady.” She looks closely at where he put his feet, but the bark doesn’t show any signs of cracking or scuff marks. Sensei walks back down with that same easy gait. “Think you’re ready to give it a try?”

A chorus of “yes, Sensei!” and they each claim a tree to practice on.

Hanami closes her eyes and focuses on her chakra swirling a familiar rhythm inside her. So, how to do this? She thinks on how it feels to move her chakra when she’s using her clan’s enlargement jutsu. The way her energy suffuses all throughout her muscles and stretches . That isn’t what she’s aiming for here, but figures it’s a good place to start.

She concentrates on coating her palm, more gardening glove thick than oven mitt, and places it on the trunk in front of her. Small tug. It stays put! So far, so good. Next, she does both hands at once. Her left slips sideways and her right feels like it’s trying to push two magnets together.

Hanami shakes her wrists out and considers that. Wasn’t that kind of what Kenji was saying earlier? That the goal was to ‘match resonances’? Maybe she could-

“Yes! We did it!” Hanami’s line of thought is broken by Yuzuru and her goats’ triumphant crowing. She looks over to see all three of them perched on one of the higher branches of their tree.

“Well done, Yuzuru, Mochi, Manju,” Sensei praises. “Now show me you can also walk back down. And then do it a few more times to really get the feel of it.” They call an affirmative and set to it. A quick glance to Hanami’s other side shows Kenji halfway up his own trunk, only wobbling slightly. Looks like she’s the slowest one. Again.

A firm hand on her shoulder shakes her from spiralling down that thought trail. She looks up at Sensei’s understanding face.

“Don’t worry too much about matching the others’ pace, ok? Natural talent may give them a head start now, but steady effort and hard work can close the gap. And once they hit their limits, then you can be the one encouraging them, yeah?” He winks and the weight on Hanami’s chest disappears.

“Yes, Sensei” she says, smiling shyly.

He gives her shoulder a gentle pat. “Good. Let me know if you need any help” he says and then moves over to talk to Kenji.

Thus bolstered, Hanami goes back to her own attempts.

An hour or so later, she’s managed several shaky steps up her tree and her teammates are alternating between calling out encouragement and chasing each other on the trees for extra practice. Sensei stays beside her, giving her helpful tips and praising her successes. She’s able to turn around and walk back down from her highest point yet, but can’t quite keep her legs from collapsing under her once she hits the ground.

“Alright, kids, let’s break here for lunch.”

Hanami cheers weakly and crawls over to where she left her bento. The others follow and she pulls herself upright into a cross-legged seat. She unties the bento’s cloth wrapping, laying it out on the ground to place the different sections on.

“Um, here, please help yourselves. I think I made enough for everybody” she says, pushing a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

“Ooh, don’t mind if I do!” Yuzuru cheerfully plucks a croquette and pops it in her mouth. “Mmmmm~, so good~!” Kenji makes agreeing noises around one of the meatball skewers.

Tenzou-sensei places his store-bought bento to the side and reaches for an onigiri. “You made all this, Hanami?” he asks as he takes a bite. His face lights up appreciatively. “Yuzuru’s right, this is very good. Thank you for sharing.”

“O-oh, it’s no problem. I really like cooking and shared food always tastes better, I think…”

This has Yuzuru bursting into motion, an exclamation of “yes, it does!” almost lost as she dives for her own and Kenji’s lunches, rips them open and adds them to the spread. She eyes Sensei’s bento and he hurriedly hands it over. Kenji snorts at Sensei’s face and keeps eating. Hanami’s cheeks stretch in a pleased grin and she settles in to replenish the morning’s used calories.

Sensei waits until everyone’s slowed down from the initial meal rush to say, “So we talked a bit yesterday about what things you’d like to study as a team. There’s an intro medic course starting tomorrow evening at the hospital and I took the liberty of putting everyone’s names down for the class.” A pause as he chews a slice of the tamagoyaki. Hanami and the others stay quiet and wait for him to continue, though Yuzuru is quivering again. Where does she even get all that energy from?!

“The classes meet at 6pm and last for three hours, in a combination of lectures and practicals. Because we’re part of the field medic hopeful group, we get the accelerated coursework. Which means a class every day, save for Fridays, with an expected completion date of May 12th- about six weeks from now.”

“Um!” Hanami speaks up before she second guesses herself, even though that means interrupting Sensei. “That doesn’t, uh, seem like, like enough time to learn every, um, everything we’ll need to… know?” Her gumption abandons her towards the end and turns her statement into a trailing question, but she gets her concern out.

Luckily, Tenzou-sensei nods agreeably. “You’re absolutely right, Hanami.” She lets out a gusty sigh of relief. “This is specifically the intro course. It’s purpose is to get all of us to a basic level of understanding and competency.” He gestures with his chopsticks, absently dodging Mochi’s attempt for the croquette held between them, and continues, “further coursework can be done during our planned in-village weeks and self study in the field. Again, our aim is basic team competency; if any of you decide that you’d like to specialize further in medical ninjutsu, we can work that out as it becomes relevant.”

Hanami and Kenji nod their understanding, as does Yuzuru, though she pouts about it. Hanami thinks she won’t be at all surprised if Yuzuru goes for a full medic qualification eventually.

Sensei claps his hands. “Excellent. As for Kenji and Hanami’s suggestions, I wasn’t able to find anything quite so specific- but!” he says in response to their disappointed faces. “A few shinobi who are longtime squad leaders owe me some favors and agreed to talk about their leadership experiences with you. They’ve also had to deal with civilian crowd control a time or two, so it should be a good learning opportunity. And I’ve put a request in with a friend who works in Archives for anything they might have that could help.”

Hanami knows she can’t be the only one staring at Sensei with wide eyes. That’s. That honestly sounds more like several favors. And Sensei is calling them in for genin he hasn’t even known for a full two days? The shinobi favor system is as old as the village and was an integral part of unifying the various, historically antagonistic , clans into one cohesive village structure. For Sensei to spend so many on them and their advancement rather than his own is… well, it’s…

She swears to herself, right then, that she’ll succeed at every task he puts in front of them, prove that her team is worth his support and investment. A quick glance at her teammates shows that Kenji, at least, is in agreement. It’s possible Yuzuru hasn’t grasped the full significance of Sensei’s actions, since she grew up outside the village. They’ll just have to explain it to her later, then.

Hanami puts as much gratitude into her smile as she can. “Thank you, Tenzou-sensei! We’ll do our best.” Sensei smiles back and they all return their attention to finishing their lunches.

Eventually, they munch their way through most of the food and Manju and Mochi help finish off the rest. As they clean up and collect their things, Sensei stays sitting on the ground. When they shoot him inquisitive looks, he grins and tells them to grab their packs and sit back down.  Yuzuru gets a raised eyebrow at her lack of obvious traveling bag, but Sensei doesn’t immediately comment on it.

“Having a well-prepared mission bag packed and ready to go when you get a mission summons can, often enough, be the difference between a hard mission and a failed one.” Sensei’s serious face says he’s speaking from experience and Hanami pays close attention. “If you have all the basic essentials, then adding specialized gear as needed is a simple matter. So, what do you think counts as essential, Hanami?”

She twitches. “Uh, um, rations?” she ventures, then squares her shoulders and elaborates more confidently. She’s an Akimichi, dammit, this is her wheelhouse. “Ration bars, food pills, and other non-perishable staples that are easily prepared and can be eaten plain or supplemented with local foraging or hunting, at least enough for one or two weeks. More if you have a storage scroll available, in which case you can also bring a few perishables along as well.”

Tenzou-sensei nods his approval, “Well said. With that in mind, let’s take a look at what you’ve all brought for food.”

They all rummage through their things and lay them out in front of them. Yuzuru is the only one with a storage scroll and Hanami wonders where she got it. The ones made for food grade items can get expensive and hers seems well made- well stocked too, by the look of it. Hanami, for herself, has a package of rice, vacuum sealed dried vegetables, jerky, a small assortment of nuts and spices, and a week’s worth of her clan’s special ration bars and food pills- much tastier than the regular standard ones. Kenji’s pile is similar, though it leans more towards pre-made rations and doesn’t have as much variety.

Sensei’s pleased smile is quickly becoming one of Hanami’s favorite things.

“I’m glad to see you all so well stocked. And you packed it efficiently too, well done.” He pulls Yuzuru’s scroll closer and peers at it curiously. “Yuzuru, did you make this yourself?”

“Oh no, not me” she’s quick to negate, shaking her head. “Akane-baa did, as a graduation present. I’m not allowed to use the quality sealing paper until I can draw a design with no mistakes one thousand times. So far, I’ve got permission for exploding tags, smoke bomb tags, and flashbangs. Right now I’m working on getting my barrier seals up to my grandma’s standards.”

“Wow, that’s really impressive Yuzuru!” Hanami exclaims. For many reasons, not least of which is that she’s pretty sure none of the Academy staff knew about this particular talent of Yuzuru’s. If they had, she doesn’t think they would have let her get assigned anywhere but Research and Development.

Oh, that’s probably why she kept it quiet.

Kenji leans over to get a better look for himself. “It really is. Does she ever teach? Sealing, I mean, like, outside the family?”

Yuzuru hums, tilts her head this way and that, crosses her arms, scrunches her brow, then, finally, shrugs. “Not that I know of, but there’s no harm in asking.”

Sensei chuckles at Hanami and Kenji’s incredulous expressions. “Ah, there are plenty of clans that would disagree with you on that, but if you think your grandmother wouldn’t take offense, then it’s worth pursuing. Competent seal makers are rare nowadays and always in demand.” He turns to Kenji, “if she says no, there are other avenues you could pursue to learn. We’ll look into it together if it comes to that, alright?” Kenji nods with a light flush.

With that, Sensei goes back to Yuzuru. “Am I right in guessing that the rest of your gear is stashed in your other scrolls?” She nods. “Not a bad plan, it definitely saves on space. But you should consider having an extra bag, just in case. Most of our team’s missions will be long ones that have us out of the village for weeks or even months at a time.” He chuckles wryly, “you’d be surprised at the amount of extra things that can make their way into your pack. Plus, having some gear separate is useful for if your scrolls get damaged.”

Yuzuru pouts a bit, but nods in acknowledgment. Sensei moves on.

“Why don’t you give us our next essential, Kenji?”

He looks up from studying Yuzuru’s scroll. “Shinobi utility weapons, such as ninja wire, kunai, knives, rope and the like.” Kenji pauses for a brief moment, then grimly continues with “just because we’re not a combat team, doesn’t mean we’ll never see combat. There are plenty of people, shinobi or not, who might think a natural catastrophe is the perfect time for violent or opportunistic actions. It’s… also not out of the question for some incidents to actually be intentionally triggered by enemies or criminals.” He shrugs, clearly uncomfortable with what he’s saying, but doesn’t retract any of it and holds his intense grey-eyed gaze resolutely on Sensei.

Tenzou-sensei regards him solemnly- maybe a bit sadly? “An excellent point, Kenji. I’m proud of you for being aware of the possibility and making sure your teammates know to account for it.” Sensei’s voice is achingly gentle and Hanami’s vision wavers with tears.

“Well, some people might be awful, but that doesn’t mean everyone is. And if we want to see more kindness in the world, then we’ll just have to be the ones making it happen.”

Hanami blinks when everyone looks at her, a myriad of emotions playing over their faces. Does she have something on her face? A quick swipe of her cheeks tells her she shed a few tears. Embarrassing, but not worthy of her team’s scrutiny. She stares back at them confusedly.

Sensei rouses himself and clears his throat. “Well said again, Hanami. We prepare for the worst and do our best to bring relief where it’s needed.”

Oh. Oh no. She spoke without noticing again, didn't she? Ohhhh nooooo. She really said that. Out loud. With words and everything! Hanami wishes, briefly and fiercely, that she had a hood or higher collar to hide behind. Clearly a terrible oversight. She settles for burying her flaming face in the tops of her knees. At least Yuzuru thinks it’s funny.

Mercifully, Sensei brings them back on topic. “Alright, lay out your weapons and we’ll see what we have to work with.”

Spreading out the contents of their weapons pouches shows Yuzuru, again, as the most well stocked via storage scroll, though her thigh holsters also hold a decent arsenal. Kenji has a variety of weapons stashed, not only in his pack and thigh holster, but also in strategic locations throughout his clothing. Comparatively, Hanami feels distinctly ill-equipped, though she hadn’t thought she was skimping. The flush on her cheeks is for an entirely different reason now...

Sensei just offers her a few suggestions for what she should be aiming to have on hand and packed away as backup. They continue on this way through the rest of what Sensei considers ‘essential’. Which turns out to be more extensive than Hanami was expecting. Their camping supplies, including bedroll and tent, hygiene necessities, clothing, and first aid supplies all get a thorough accounting and review. Her head is spinning by the end of it, but she takes careful note of every critique and suggestion.

When Sensei finally declares the inspection finished and all their gear is put back away, Hanami pulls out her senbei crackers and sets to munching off her built up stress. Yuzuru looks at her pleadingly and she graciously hands a few over. Kenji accepts one when offered and reclines back tiredly on his elbows.

Sensei waves her off when she holds one out for him, but smiles in thanks. “Now that that’s done with,” he stands and braces his hands on his hips, “I think it’s about time to introduce you to the rest of the division.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Disaster Response and Relief office turns out to be an old patched up building that sits along the base of the monument cliff just off a seldom used service road. They’re greeted at the door by an older nin who’s missing his right forearm and all but the stump of his right ear.

“Ah, Tenzou-san! There you are!” He leans back through the doorway and says, “Call off that search party, Teruhito! Our new genin are finally here.” Tenzou-sensei sheepishly rubs the back of his head.

“Sorry about that, Morikawa-san. We got a bit caught up with training.”

Morikawa turns back with a faux offended expression. “Hey now,” he says, “don’t you go overworking the kids before they even get started! We need our little minions in tip top shape, y’know.” He gives Hanami and her teammates a quick wink, the corners of his lips twitching.

She can’t help but smile back at him as she hears Yuzuru giggling behind her. Then they’re being waved into the building, Sensei leading the way. Mochi and Manju split off to play some kind of skipping game up the cliffside.

Maps are the first thing Hanami notices in the large main room. Large, detailed, and absolutely covered in colored pins and scribbled sticky note notations. They’re all focused on Fire country, with varying levels of detail on neighboring countries and land masses. Division staff bustle around each other, updating the different notes and pins dotted across the terrain.

A quick glance around confirms that most of the meager staff is made up of shinobi with otherwise career ending injuries, plus a smattering of civilian assistants. Everyone looks up briefly to give them a distracted yet warm welcome.

“Right,” Morikawa-san slaps his remaining hand against his thigh. “My name is Morikawa Hiroto and I’m the head of Fire country’s Disaster Response and Relief shinobi division. Welcome to the madhouse! We’ll do a quick tour of the place, then Tenzou-san and I can go over your expected duties and projects.”

Hanami and her teammates follow him through the other rooms as he gives a rundown of each office section. They make it through the meteorological and seismic data analysis areas, regional ground surveys, and past incident reports before Kenji stops abruptly in one of the doorways. He leans forward, sniffs, leans backward, does another sniff.

She has no idea what’s happening, but she can say with certainty that she’s never seen anyone so confused and clearly offended by it. A glance to her side shows Yuzuru also looks a bit puzzled, though she seems to be taking it better than Kenji is.

“Um, is something wrong?” she eventually asks. Sensei and Morikawa-san look back at them.

Kenji screws up his nose. “There’s somethin’ weird ‘bout the layout here. And the airflow.”

“Mm, yeah, it kind of feels like everyone’s moving or- no. Like they’re… rotating almost,” Yuzuru says. Then her eyebrows furrow. “Maybe more like shifting? While also staying still.”

Hanami has no idea what they’re talking about. The building layout does seem a bit labyrinthine, but that’s fairly normal for all the administrative buildings. All the ones she’s been to anyways. She turns to Sensei and is startled by the intensity of his speculative gaze.

“Yuzuru,” he says, “have you had any sensor training before?”

Yuzuru blinks at him. “Uh, not especially. Though the basics are taught to any of the kids in my hometown that show a predisposition for it. Makes goat herding and babysitting a hell of a lot easier,” she grins wryly.

Tenzou-sensei hums, then explains, “What you’ve noticed is the second Hokage’s security system. This building used to be his personal jutsu laboratory, before the Research and Development division was established. He used fuuinjutsu to connect each room so that, if someone didn’t know the sequenced chakra code, they would loop between them randomly while being cut off from the exit. And if they did know the code, could travel to each room from any doorway as a safety feature, in case his experiments became volatile.”

“Huh.” Kenji relaxes back into a slouch and stuffs his hands into his pockets. “That explains a lot about the other admin offices. Their security’s based off the stuff in here, isn’t it?”

Sensei shoots him a pleased grin. “Far more streamlined and combined with other measures, but yes. Most of Konoha’s more stringent security was developed from Tobirama-sama’s personal research.”

Wow. Hanami isn’t sure if she’s more impressed by the second Hokage’s creativity or the fact her teammates noticed something was up. She’s going to have to really work on her situational awareness if she wants any hope of keeping up with them…

The rest of the tour doesn’t take much longer, then they’re shown to a smaller office room that has bookshelves and cabinets lining the walls and told to take a seat at the table. Each of them gets a thick, unwieldy file detailing the work the division has been doing since it started.

What standard preemptive measures have been developed and implemented across the nation. How analysis predictions are used to focus on the areas expecting the most trouble. The rundown on how they’ve divided up the regions to make use of Konoha’s preexisting outpost and border stations.

Each outpost gets assigned a team specifically for DRR purposes that serves a four month stint, then returns to regular shinobi duty until the rotation schedule comes back around.

Hanami, feeling a little slow and silly, asks what sort of duties the teams perform when not responding to current disasters.

Apparently, mostly search and rescue, running emergency drills for the locals, and assisting the regular patrol units when requested.

Yuzuru’s face goes mulish as she asks, rapidfire, “what about organizing and checking emergency supplies for the area? Shelter plans for displaced citizens? How are reconstruction efforts delegated or organized? Do they know if all the local censuses are up to date for when everyone needs to be accounted for? Where are the local clinics and hospitals and do they have plans in place for receiving a large influx of patients? What’s the plan for dealing with displaced wildlife?” She clamps her jaw shut with an indignant flush. The room is silent while everyone stares at her.

Kenji tugs his ponytail, “Maa, I reckon that’s what we’re here for. These shinobi on rotation are most likely gonna be on some kind of reserve roster, that get pulled from the regular force as needed, while we take over normal operations for the division. Y’know, like Intel, T&I, and Barrier Defense do?” he trails off awkwardly, but Yuzuru seems mollified and the division staff are visibly beside themselves with satisfaction and approval. Tenzou-sensei gives them both a proud head ruffle.

Hanami clears her throat and redirects a bit. “Ah, how is all of that being handled here? In Konoha, I mean. You’ve only mentioned out-of-village operations so far.”

And that’s how Hanami’s team gets their first mission assignment. Their job is to review Konoha’s emergency plans and protocols, the state of the associated supplies and shelters, distribution of tasks, and make notes on any lacking areas or ideas for improvement. Then they’ll submit a report for Morikawa-san to present in front of the village councils.

Kenji

Kenji’s surprised at first that their mission deadline is a whole two months from now, but after some consideration, he can see why they’re given so much time. Tenzou-sensei even said it the first day. His team is expected to use this time to familiarize themselves with the Disaster Response and Relief’s current system of operating and bring their training up to a standard that they can confidently leave the village for field work.

So he and the girls spend the next several weeks sequestered in the division office, going through every plan and protocol with a fine tooth comb, asking questions and clarifications from whichever staff member happens to be closest. Tenzou-sensei is right there with them, studying field reports and civilian surveys on what worked and what didn’t, making notes to add to their study material. Together they muddle through, pausing every so often to consolidate their notes.

Combined with their new classwork at the hospital, Kenji’s done more reading than he ever has in his life. He and Yuzuru were not meant for sitting at desks day in and day out. Thankfully, Sensei makes sure that they also get lots of physical activity.

It becomes routine to meet Sensei early in the morning at a different training field each day. Clearly, he wants to get them accustomed to working on as many kinds of terrain as possible. They always start with warm up stretches and katas before doing at least ten laps around whichever field Sensei’s picked out for the day. Sometimes it’s a flat clearing, but more often there’s some kind of incline or rocky formation they have to traverse.

A quick water and snack break and then Sensei gives them something new to work on.

With a few extra tips and advice from Sensei, Hanami manages to walk all the way to the top of a tree and back down again, reliably, after just two more training sessions. Kenji and Yuzuru were told to try their feet at water walking in the meantime. Which, coincidentally, is how Kenji discovers that Yuzuru and her goats absolutely despise swimming.

He coulda spent all day tugging at their ankles and laughing at the utterly ridiculous noises they make when they come up sputtering, but alas. Through some unholy concoction of spite, ingenuity, and determination, all three of them master the technique in just under an hour. And with that, well, it’s just a matter of self-preservation to work it out for himself.

After proving their success to Sensei, who regards them mildly and shakes his head for some reason, they spend the remaining time cheering Hanami on while doing some light sparring. They take a satisfied lunch and head over to the DRR office. Usually they stay there for about four or five hours and break for the day. On days they have medic class, Sensei ushers them out after no more than three hours and takes them for an early dinner before they go to the hospital.

They have to sit through a series of in depth lectures on the human body and how it all works. Then they’re taught a general purpose diagnostic jutsu and how to interpret its feedback. After they can do that with an acceptable degree of competency, they get to learn the mystic palm jutsu.

So many exploded fish.

A lot of students get cut from the course when they can’t manage to handle this one. Hanami is struggling on the cutoff cusp, but morning training helps enormously with her chakra control. Slowly she makes progress. Enough that she manages to stay in the course, though the instructors make it clear that she’ll likely never qualify as a full medic. Yuzuru is clearly offended for her teammate, but Hanami seems to accept this verdict with no qualms.

After that, the classes change to alternating lectures with practicals and they spend several hours a week shadowing nurses and medics as they make their hospital rounds, assisting when called on. Tenzou-sensei also has a friend on the field medic roster who comes by sometimes to give advice- he seems inordinately pleased that all of them are aiming to qualify and explains that most shinobi medics are encouraged to stay in the hospital or at an outpost clinic full time.

Yuzuru immediately has a million and one questions about outpost clinics and if they're just for shinobi, do they ever work with or teach at civilian hospitals- and so on. This is also how they learn about Kato Shizune, Senju Tsunade-sama’s only apprentice, and her work in building the outpost clinics and standardizing Fire country’s medical knowledge and practices.

Kenji isn’t really sure what the strange bitter twist in Yuzuru’s scent is supposed to mean, but she’s at least easy to distract with a quick change in subject.

Once they have the basics of tree and water walking down, Sensei has them refine the skill by doing their warm ups and katas on top of the water. Still ponds at first, then moving streams and rivers. It’s a lot harder than Kenji was expecting, since figuring out the technique was just a matter of finding the right balance and then maintaining it. But apparently there’s a big difference between figuring out how to stand on water and actually doing an activity while on top of a moving surface.

Go figure.

Their progress with it goes in fits and starts, alternating between victory juice packets and gently scathing critiques from Tenzou-sensei. Kenji didn’t even know it was possible to be gentle and scathing.

They struggle to do five, then ten minutes without falling under, becomes eighteen minutes, twenty-five minutes, half an hour. The day they manage to finish an entire training session on the fastest flowing section of the Naka river, Sensei beams at them.

“Well done! I’m very pleased with your hard work and I hope you are too.” Sensei’s scent is so light and happy, all sunshine-warm sap and rich loamy petrichor. It’s… Kenji has to busy himself with his hard won juice packet. His face is just hot from the workout they just did. Definitely. For sure. No other reason.

“You’ve all done very well, so I thought we could learn one more new skill and then put it all together with the Academy jutsu to play some ninja tag. Sound good?”

Yuzuru practically vibrates, her earlier fatigue shrugged off as easily as always. “Yes, yes, yes, please!”

“That sounds fun, Sensei,” Hanami says. “What will we be learning?” 

Sensei’s smile is too bright, refreshing and blinding all in one. “Shunshin, of course!”

The body flicker jutsu is an exercise in physics. Or maybe a competition with physics? Either way, they smack into a lot of trees.

Master that in a couple of days and then ninja tag is a go. Only, Sensei decides regular ninja tag would be too easy. So he does massive earth and water jutsu underneath them, while they try not to die.

Turns out Tenzou-sensei is a force of nature that can throw other forces of nature around like kunai.

Terrifying, but good practice for floods and landslides. There are also hide and seek games, capture the flag, and keep away played with a basket of eggs, all under similar circumstances as tag, that exponentially improve their teamwork. Not to mention their tracking and sensing abilities. And anything else that could be even tangentially helpful to their continued survival.

They try practicing with other genin teams, but no one ever wants to come back for a second game. Team 5 actually ran screaming from Kenji and his teammates when they passed them on the way to lunch the other day.

That’s around when Tenzou-sensei gives up trying to get the other genin teams involved and, instead, recruits his off-duty jounin friends.

He thinks they’d be getting a lot more flak about damage to the training grounds, but Sensei is really good at putting everything back mostly how they found it.

They graduate from training field laps, to village wide circuits- a different route every time. Then laps on top of the Naka river. While juggling. Let no one say Sensei isn’t thorough.

Then he pulls out a few sheets of chakra paper to test their affinities.

“So the way these work is you channel some of your chakra into the paper and how it reacts tells us which element comes to you the most naturally.” He holds up one of the papers and it collapses into a muddy mess. “My chakra is a bit unique, in that I’m both water and earth natured. Normally, if I was only earth leaning, it would have crumbled into dust. A pure water nature would have made the paper soggy and damp. Fire burns it to ash, lightning makes it wrinkle, and wind splits it in two.”

They each get handed a paper. Kenji takes his distractedly, mind whirring through the implications of Sensei’s dual affinity. Combined with the omission of any family name during team introductions, his personal scent, and the implied hint of knowing an uncommon elemental technique… Well. It explains a lot actually, even as it raises a whole slew of questions.

He’ll talk to the girls about it later, see what they think.

A tearing sound to his left brings him back to the present. Kenji barks a laugh at Yuzuru’s hopping grabs for the half of her paper trying to escape on the breeze.

“Hwah! Get back here, you little-!”

His own laughter catches him by surprise, but- Yuzuru lunging for a fluttering scrap of paper in increasingly ridiculous ways, goats hindering her at every turn, Hanami wide-eyed and hovering anxiously, Tenzou-sensei’s bemused face… Hah, ok, deep breaths, even it out. Hoo man. Alright, back on task.

Still snickering softly, Kenji focuses on his own sheet of paper. It takes barely a thought to call up his chakra, now he’s so familiar with it, and then the square in his hand is a mess of creases and folds. Huh.

“Lightning natured, eh?” Kenji looks up to focus on Sensei tapping his chin thoughtfully. “Not very common in Fire country, but I have a friend I can shake down for some techniques. And we can at least get you started on drawing out your element in the meantime.” He glances over to Yuzuru, who’s grasping both her pieces triumphantly, with a small smile. “He might also know a few wind jutsu as well.”

Kenji nods, “Ok, thanks Sensei.”

“Oh, that’d be nice,” Yuzuru says, “but I think Akane-baa will want me to start with her and Kaito-jii’s techniques.”

“Alright Yuzuru, let me know if you change your mind. Kenji, I’ll see about finding you some jutsu to practice.” He claps his hands, “Now for Hanami’s turn!” They all turn to her with wide grins and she startles with a quiet squeak.

“U-uh, alright, here I go…” She clutches her paper tightly in both hands, squeezes her eyes shut, and… the paper crumbles into little clumps of dirt. “Oh! That means… earth natured, right Sensei?”

“Yes it does. It also means that you don’t have to go hunting for jutsus. I know quite a few and I’m more than happy to share.” Hanami flushes slightly under his gentle smile.

Kenji has to pause a moment, the image of his mild mannered and people pleasing teammate throwing around the same kind of earth jutsu that Sensei terrorizes them with briefly taking over his brain. 

“Ah!” Tenzou-sensei smacks a fist into his other hand. “I almost forgot. Before I show you how to get started with your elements, I want to teach you all an earth technique that will give you feedback on ground density and composition. The more you know about dirt and soil, the more useful it is. But even just a basic understanding can give you a lot of information. Helpful for all sorts of situations. I’m sure all of you will get plenty of use out of it.”

“Yes, Sensei!”

And with that, Tenzou-sensei walks them through moulding and tuning their chakra to slip into the ground instead of sticking to it and how to make sense of the information that echoes back at them.

“Huh,” Kenji says, “it’s like the diagnostic jutsu we learned at the hospital. Just for dirt instead of human bodies… Why are you staring at me like that? I’m not wrong.” He growls a bit for good measure, but Yuzuru is quick to wave him back down.

“No, no, you’re definitely right. I was just wondering if that means we could take the basic concept and apply it to other things too. Like- could you sense if a tree was sick, or if a fire is electrical or oil based, or-!”

Hanami pipes in, eyes going distant in thought. “Is it similar to how poison detection techniques work? Would it tell you if water was safe to drink?”

Sensei laughs delightedly and ruffles all of their heads. “All excellent thoughts! Tell you what. You three play around with it, see if you can make it work for any of your ideas, and I’ll find out if it’s already been done. Then we can compare that with whatever you’ve come up with, maybe see if we can improve anything.” He winks at Kenji, “it’ll be our first foray into jutsu development.”

Kenji grins back. This is gonna be awesome!

Even with their basic knowledge of how it works, it still takes Kenji and Yuzuru a good chunk of that day and the next to get the earth sensing jutsu down. Hanami manages it much more quickly and with far more consistent results.

“I guess working with your affinity instead of against it really makes a difference, huh?” she muses.

“Guess so,” Yuzuru says. Kenji just grunts, not wanting to break his concentration.

After they’ve mastered that, Sensei sets them loose on the village’s emergency shelters, with an eye to structural integrity, stability, and accessibility.

“We’ve gone over all the systems in place elsewhere; you should know what to look for here. Take one of the outpost checklists and see how well the village compares. I’ll be at division headquarters; Morikawa-san had something he wanted to run by me. You can give us your assessment together. Alright?”

They decide to be thorough and also check on the supply stashes and water reservoirs, making notes on what needs to be replaced, reinforced, or better secured.

Kenji’s going through his copy of the checklist- food, medical equipment, blankets and bedding, air shaft integrity, and so on- when Hanami calls out for help in a strained, panicky voice.

He only just manages to keep hold of his papers as he flies down the tunnels to his teammate. He and Yuzuru both skid to a stop in the doorway, bumping against each other briefly.

Hanami’s got her hand on the wall, clearly using her new earth sensing, and is this close to hyperventilating.

“What’s wrong,” Yuzuru demands, walking over to rub soothingly over her back. Kenji goes to the wall and takes his own look to see if he can find whatever is freaking her out.

And he does. Oh boy. Yeah, that’s bad.

He grabs one of Yuzuru’s hands and plonks it on the wall, giving her a pointed and panicky look of his own. The moment she notices the hidden explosives is obvious, what with the blood draining from her face.

“That’s-” she gulps.

“Bad,” he finishes for her. “Really, really bad. We need to grab Sensei, so he or someone else can get rid of it.”

“Them.”

“What?” Hanami asks. She’s starting to look a little steadier, now the initial shock’s worn off, though her face is still pale and tight around the edges.

Kenji glances over at Yuzuru with trepidation.

She swallows. “There’s a whole connected network branching off from this cache. I can’t tell where all of them go, but at least some head for the Academy and Hokage Tower…”

They all pause to take that in. Then Hanami squares her shoulders, firms her chin, and braces her feet.

“Yuzuru, summon Mochi.” She does, and the air must be even more tense than Kenji realized, because the little trouble maker barely bleats before he settles into work mode. “Mochi, I want you to go full stealth and watch this spot, while we go get help. Unless someone tries to set off the explosives in the wall here, you are to keep yourself hidden and not interfere. Understood?”

Mochi voices his agreement, then seems to melt into the walls. It’s almost enough to make Kenji quirk a smile remembering how they got Tenzou-sensei with that trick during tag last week. Almost.

Hanami then turns to face them. “Right. Now the three of us are going to go find Sensei. If either of you notice anything even slightly off about anyone that attempts to approach us while we do that, signal immediately. If that happens, Yuzuru, I want you to send Manju to Sensei, then find the nearest Anbu patrol and tell them what’s happening and that someone tried to intercept us on our way to report. Kenji, you do the same for the Jounin command center and I’ll head to. Um,” she falters a moment, but rallies quickly. “I’ll alert Hokage-sama.”

Even with the wobble there at the end, Kenji feels reassurance wash over him at her take charge attitude. Just for that, he musters up a confident grin to go with a “Yes, ma’am” and an indolent salute.

Yuzuru is also visibly calmer as she gives her own affirmation.

Blushing bright enough to mask the clan swirls on her cheeks, Hanami still manages to sound firm when she says, “All right then, let’s go!”

It’s a tense journey out of the shelter tunnels and they all pause at the exit. There’s a set of paths leading down into the village proper that they still have to examine, but reporting their unexpected find takes precedence. Unless doing so will tip off whoever planted the explosives that they’ve been found out.

He’s just about to suggest they keep going with the inspection to allay suspicion, but Hanami goes straight over the cliffside to take the direct route down the wall back to headquarters, where Sensei should be waiting for them. Nothin’ for it then. He’d already decided he liked her plan, he’s not gonna start kickin’ a fuss now.

Despite their paranoia, they make it down the cliff, into the building, and all the way to Sensei’s side uncontested.

He and Morikawa-san are clearly taken aback by their sudden and shaky appearance, but don’t interrupt until after Hanami finishes giving their emergency report. A few terse clarifying questions and then they’re following the two older ninja to the Hokage’s office.

After that is a stop-start blur of events, swinging between swift action and tense waiting while various experts get called in to assist and more information is uncovered. Turns out, whoever planted these bombs really did manage to get them all over Konoha. And the way they’re all tied together means each one has to be delicately disassembled in a very particular order to prevent the whole network from triggering.

The fact that most of the ammunition used can be dated to near the end of the 3rd Shinobi War is equal parts disturbing and relieving. Disturbing, because how the hell had this not been noticed before now. Yet relief comes from the knowledge that this was clearly a plan abandoned several years ago at least, so the threat of the perpetrator isn’t as immediate as it could have been.

But even with that, no one wants to leave the work until every last piece is disabled and taken apart. It’s morning again by the time anyone realizes Kenji’s team never got dismissed yesterday.

Tenzou-sensei is blurry around the edges when he approaches after speaking quietly to some of the Anbu on scene. Kenji squints to bring him into focus, but it just makes everything go dark for some reason.

“Ah, I’m sorry about that, kids.” Kenji jerks awake to Sensei’s hand on his shoulder. “You’ve all gone above and beyond, finding the problem and helping fix it as much as you have. Anbu is going to take over from here though.”

“Yes, Sensei…” they mumble more or less coherently. Yuzuru is leaning heavily on Hanami, who’s blinking in that ‘trying to stay alert’ way.

Contrite and bemused are an odd combination on his face as he says, “All right, I think it’s time to get you three home for some rest. We’ll take today and tomorrow off. Ah-ah,” Sensei cuts off their protests, “This past month has been a lot of hard work and long days. Resting is also important.”

Kenji can’t tell which of the Anbu coughs out what sounds distinctly like “hypocrite!”, but it’s funny to watch Tenzou-sensei pretend not to hear them even as an embarrassed flush takes over his face.

“Right!” he straightens abruptly. “Off we go, then.” Sensei quickly herds them away from the quietly snickering group of black ops agents- and Kenji is way too tired to process that right now, but makes a mental note to consider it later.

None of them end up needing to be carried, but it’s a close thing. They head towards Yuzuru’s house first since it’s the closest to their current position. The goats opt to unsummon themselves rather than walk.

The door opens as they walk up to it, Yuzuru’s grandma clearly anticipating their arrival.

“Akane-baa~, I’m back!”

“Welcome home, my little whirlwind. What sort of mischief have you stirred up now?” She cups her granddaughter's cheek in a gentle hand.

Yuzuru leans into it, tension melting from her shoulders. “Oh, you know. This and that.”

Kenji relaxes almost against his will; the two of them have that deep, subtle shared scent of close knit family and, combined with the faint undertones his team is starting to take on from each other, it’s the closest to pack scent he’s had since… Well, since everything with his mom, his inability to bond with a nindog of his own, and the rest of his clan now too tense and nervous around him to connect in the way a true pack scent requires.

“Oh, dear. Why don’t you all come in, then? It doesn’t seem as if this one is ready to separate quite yet.”

Kenji comes back from his wandering thoughts, only to blush fiercely as his current position becomes clear. He’s got Hanami’s wrist in his grasp, fingers on her pulse, other hand fisted in Tenzou-sensei’s flak jacket, and his nose buried in the nape of Yuzuru’s neck. Oh and he’s whining, very softly, those sad puppy whimpers he hasn’t made in years .

Before he can start contemplating escape routes, Akane-san has neatly ushered the whole team inside. Taking his shoes off in the entryway is instinct and from there they quickly find themselves awkwardly cuddling on the couch. A glance at Sensei doesn’t offer any guidance; he looks as confused and off kilter as Kenji feels.

“Um,” says Hanami.

“Yay sleepover~”

Through some sort of sorcery, Yuzuru maneuvers all of them into a more comfortable configuration. He’s now got his dark-haired teammate doing an impression of the world’s clingiest octopus around him, Hanami’s thigh under his cheek- where did his happuri go??- with her fingers tangled in his hair, and Sensei holding his ankles where they’re laying over his lap. This is-

Kenji’s next breath comes out edging towards a sob. And then, just like that, everything catches up- the knife edge tension of finding Konoha riddled with explosives, right on the heels of five weeks of hard 14 hour days, on top of everything else- and he tucks his face further into Hanami, trying to stifle his gasping shudders. He can smell when the girls also start crying, both of them holding him tightly.

As if from far away, Kenji hears Sensei and Akane-san talking quietly, but he can’t focus enough to make out the words. Sensei keeps a gentle hold on his feet, though, and doesn’t make any moves to get up or pull away. So Kenji let’s himself slip under into exhausted sleep, safe in the hold of his almost-pack.

Chapter Text

Yuzuru

Yuzuru wakes from the impromptu team cuddle-nap by way of hitting the floor. She blinks dazedly up at Kenji’s chagrined face peering down at her from the couch.

“Did you just shove me off ?”

“Maa… in my defense, you were kinda chokin’ me… didn’t mean to send you flyin’ though.”

Hanami pokes her head out from around the corner towards the kitchen. “Oh, you finally woke up! We were just about to put away the lunch things. I’ll go tell Akane-sa-, ah, I mean, Akane-baa-san, um, to leave the food out for you.” Then she’s gone, footsteps heading down the hall.

… wait. Lunch?

A glance out the window shows that, yes, she and Kenji both managed to sleep until the early afternoon.

Yuzuru rolls to her feet and into a stretch that has her bending backwards to touch the floor with her fingertips, then the palms of her hands. Hold the pose for one breath, then two. Then lift her feet into a walkover to bring her back down the other side. Whew! Once that’s done, she looks at her teammate still sitting, a picture of sullen embarrassment, yet trying to appear aloof and indifferent.

Hmm, well that just won’t do.

Idly scratching her cheek, she considers her options. Mussing up his hair even further with a noogie would be satisfying for her , but she doesn’t think that’s what he needs right now. Same goes for all the other affectionate indignities she could potentially inflict. The problem, she thinks to herself, is that she doesn’t know exactly what set him off yesterday. A few guesses, sure, but it could also be something she has no idea about.

So, she needs something quick, before he either bolts or manages to bury the issue under his customary nonchalance, and it needs to reaffirm that they’re in this together now, he can rely on her whenever and she’ll have his back-

Oh. Ooohhh! Now there’s an idea. She can make one for Hanami and Sensei, too, a small thing for the whole team. It’ll take a bit to put it all together, though…

Aha! Yuzuru grins widely as she decides what to do in the meantime. She turns to Kenji and deftly ignores the trepidatious look he’s giving her.

“C’mon, c’mon!” She chivvies him off the couch, “let’s go get food~”

“Alright already… no need to push,” he grumbles halfheartedly.

Bouncing into the kitchen, she quickly ushers him into a seat at the table, then plonks down next to him. Tenzou-sensei smiles and greets them from the sink where he’s washing dishes, Hanami beside him, drying the clean ones he passes her. Akane-baa sits across the table and gives her an expectant look.

Yuzuru pauses from filling hers and Kenji’s plates. Stares back at Akane-baa blankly. She raises an amused eyebrow and languidly sips her tea. Racking her brain for any hint of what she might be missing gives her nothing but more confusion.

Oh well…

She shakes that off and, instead, focuses on the first part of her ‘Reassure And Also Sneakily Claim Her Team’ plan.

“Akane-baa, this is Kenji. He’s the one who wants to learn fuuinjutsu.”

Akane-baa’s satisfied smile surprises her, “It’s very nice to meet you properly, Kenji-kun.” Oh, whoops, introductions. That’s what Yuzuru forgot. “I am Uemura Akane, Yuzuru’s great grandmother, and I look forward to teaching you. Yuzuru has only had good things to say about her team. Please, call me obaa-san. None of that shishou or sensei nonsense,” she waves a dismissive hand and her smile turns mischievous, “I only teach my family techniques to family, you see. So if you are to learn from me, I expect to be addressed appropriately.”

There’s a loud clatter by the sink as Hanami squeaks and fumbles the dishes she’s holding. Sensei jerks, then goes eerily still. The wide eyed, dumbfounded expression on Kenji’s face has Yuzuru stifling giggles.

“Ah, um,” Kenji stutters, clearly uncertain how to properly respond. “Thank you for the opportunity, Uemur-, Aka-, uh, I, mmm… obaa… san.” His face is absolutely radiating heat with the force of his blush.

Yuzuru gives up on muffling her amusement and laughs uproariously, slapping the table and leaking tears down her cheeks.

Akane-baa just smiles sweetly and says, “Of course, Kenji-kun.” Then she gestures to the food. “Eat up, darling. I’ll go over some basics while you do, to get you started before you head home. Oh, and Hanami-chan? You pay attention as well, dear. There’s no reason you shouldn’t have an understanding of the fundamentals after all, even if you decide not to pursue it further. Tenzou-sensei, if you change your mind, you’re always welcome to sit in on lessons.”

“Thank you, Akane-san,” Sensei says, stiff and awkward. “I will keep your offer in mind.”

“A-ah, yes, thank you very much, Akane-baa-san!” Hanami bends a flustered bow.

By this point, Yuzuru gets a handle on her giggles and starts munching through the lunch spread, grinning widely at her team.

“Well, to start, do either of you know the basic functions of what fuuinjutsu can do?” Akane-baa glances between Kenji and Hanami. Yuzuru keeps quiet, because this is their lesson, not hers.

Kenji visibly sets aside his embarrassment in favor of an intellectual challenge. “I know fuuinjutsu is used in storage seals, which is why it’s also commonly referred to as sealing. Because you seal objects inside an array. There’s also barrier seals, explosive tags, chakra suppression… I don’t know their exact purposes, but the hospital also uses fuuinjutsu arrays for certain surgeries and procedures.”

Hanami chimes in with, “Stasis seals. The Akimichi use them for bulk food transport.” She hesitates, then quietly continues. “It’s also the basis for body storage scrolls.”

Akane-baa nods approvingly. “Yes, those are all good examples of the three basic fuuinjutsu functions.” She chuckles when Hanami scrambles for a notebook and pencil. Waits for her to settle at the table and give her attention back to the lecture. “The three most basic functions of fuuinjutsu are absorption, holding, and expelling. Or another way, intake, stasis, and output. These are the foundations upon which every array you will ever encounter is built upon.”

Tenzou-sensei finishes the last of the dishes and finds his way to a chair, curiosity lighting his gaze. Yuzuru smirks to herself. No matter what Sensei might already know about the subject, it’s guaranteed to barely hold a candle to Akane-baa’s extensive knowledge. After all, the hidden villages have such a military focus towards all their studies, while her grandma and the puppeteer troupe she grew up in went to great lengths to not be so narrow or rigid in their learning.

Akane-baa refills her teacup. “With that in mind, which functions would you expect to be involved in your example arrays?”

There’s a brief pause as they consider that. Then Kenji slowly ventures, “Wouldn’t a food storage scroll have all three?” At Akane-baa’s gesture, he elaborates. “Intake to pull the food in, stasis to keep it fresh, and output to retrieve it later.”

“Very good, darling, that’s exactly right.” Kenji ducks his face and takes a bite from his plate. “Hanami-chan, why don’t you take a guess at… hm, let’s say barrier seals.”

She blinks. “Um, maybe stasis? To, uh, keep things out. Or in, I suppose…”

“A good deduction, dear. Anything else?”

“... no?” Hanami fidgets anxiously.

“Think of it this way, dear,” Akane-baa suggests, “what is a barrier?”

“A barrier… is… uh,” her brow scrunches, “a barrier is, mm, something that blocks off an area…?” Hanami glances at Akane-baa, who doesn’t let up on her patient gaze. “S-so, some kind of obstruction, or obstacle? Maybe…?”

Suddenly, she straightens, her face lighting up in realization. “Oh! So there also has to be some kind of output, doesn’t there? To close off the area covered by the barrier…and,” another glance, more certain of herself this time, “for there to be an output, it needs to have taken something in. So a barrier seal also uses all three. Intake, stasis, output.”

Akane-baa claps delightedly. “Just so, my dear! Well done.” Relaxing back in her seat, she looks at each of them with a satisfied smile. “There are few to none of all known seal arrays that use fewer than two of these functions. The end result of any seal depends on how creative you can get with the details. Yuzuru!” Yuzuru jumps to attention, “a firefly lantern, please.”

A quick finger flick sends a chakra string to grab a sheet of origami washi paper. Lifting it up over the table, she sends a few more strings to quickly fold a box lantern. As she’s finishing that, Yuzuru focuses her chakra to form the seal at the tip of her tongue. All the folds done, she brings the opening to her mouth and gently blows out, inflating the lantern and sending the seal to float inside at the same time. Setting the softly glowing origami lantern in the middle of the table, Yuzuru looks up and meets her team’s shocked expressions. She blinks at them.

Chuckling pulls her attention back to Akane-baa. “Thank you, love. Now, who would like to guess how Yuzuru’s seal utilizes the three basics?”

“What was-?!”

“How???!!”

“But, ink…”

Oh wow, even Sensei is sputtering. Part of Yuzuru feels very accomplished by this, but mostly she’s exasperated. Honestly, that wasn’t even close to her most exciting seal. All the stone lanterns back home have some version of it, to light the way after dark. And it’s not like her little origami one is going to last all that long anyways with nothing to anchor it.

She sends a disgruntled look to Akane-baa, who is far too amused for this to not have been her intention, and petulantly crosses her arms.

“Yes, yes, I understand none of you have ever seen fuuinjutsu like this before, but please calm yourselves. It won’t do to lose your decorum everytime you encounter something new, darlings.” When they all turn their incredulous gazes to her, Akane-baa just sighs, a picture of a put upon grandmother. “Leave your expectations behind and be prepared to exercise your imaginations. However Konoha might teach it, sealing is as much, if not more, art than science. If an array makes sense to you and you can convince the world’s natural laws that it makes sense, then it will work.”

There’s a thoughtful pause as Yuzuru’s team mulls that over. After a moment, Akane-baa continues.

“That’s where things like the basic functions come in. Along with extra concepts like conversions and amplifiers as well. It’s all part of how we, hm… make the argument, shall we say, that any given array will work as intended.”

“Is that,” Kenji clears his throat, “is that why fuuinjutsu seals are made up of words all linked together? Because it’s- explaining why the array should work…?”

“Yes, just so.”

“Then why,” Tenzou-sensei cuts in, “do improperly formed or drawn seals explode?”

“Wait, that’s actually a thing that happens? I thought Hiroyuki-sensei was making a bad joke when he said that!” Yuzuru gapes at Sensei, then, when that gets her nothing more than a confused stare, turns to Kenji and Hanami, hoping one of them will laugh and say something like ‘of course it’s a joke, haha, we got you good’. But they only shake their heads and shrug helplessly and now Yuzuru has to deal with the fact that there are people accidentally making fuuinjutsu explode.

What even.

At least Akane-baa is sympathetic to her plight and pats her shoulder consolingly. “That would be the difference between a productive discussion and a screaming match, Tenzou-sensei. A proper, constructive, argument should be a conversation, not one side brow beating the other into submission.” She sighs heavily and lifts a hand to her temple, “This is also why I won’t be teaching either of you the ‘standard’ seals commonly known and taught in Konoha. If any of that ‘my way or no way’ style shows up in your work, I will be most displeased .”

Yuzuru is too busy trying to readjust her understanding of Konoha’s attitude towards fuuinjutsu to pay much mind to the familiar dramatics, but Sensei slants a sharp look at Akane-baa that she returns placidly. He slowly relaxes back into his chair- she hadn’t even noticed he was tense!- and turns contemplative.

“You know, I think I will accept your offer, Akane-san. Clearly there’s much about this branch of study I was unaware of.”

The dry, knowing smile Akane-baa sends him says he’s not fooling her one bit. Yuzuru briefly wonders if she should be concerned about Akane-baa getting put on some kind of village watchlist. Then she remembers just who her grandma is and the worry is gone before it’s even fully formed.

Also, she trusts Tenzou-sensei. She’s sure he has many reasons for changing his mind, but she’s also sure that all of them come from a place of well intentioned concern and curiosity.

Her attention turns to Manju, who’s been slowly creeping towards the table- Mochi’s chakra is sulking on the roof, so she’ll have to check on that later. But right now there’s a fuzzy goat nose quietly twitching it’s way over the table edge, past the dishes, tongue delicately maneuvering  the little glowing paper lantern into a waiting mouth. Manju crunches down with relish, tiny chakra sparks dripping down her beard.

“Right,” Sensei’s voice pierces the silent hush that followed Manju’s entrance. “I… I should be going now.” He runs a hand through his hair and stands. “Akane-san, thank you for the food and the lesson. I’ll be in touch to work out some kind of schedule with you for training. Kids, I’ll see you day after tomorrow, at training ground 26, the usual time.”

“Yes, sensei,” they chorus. He smiles distractedly and heads to the door. Akane-baa gets up to follow, waving the genin back down to stay in their seats. Shortly after, they hear the beginnings of a muffled conversation, but it’s quickly cut off when the two adults walk outside and close the door behind them.

Kenji slumps in his seat and groans, rubbing his hands down his face. “That was…”

“Yeah,” Hanami wilts into the table and trembles slightly.

“Are you two ok?” Yuzuru asks, concerned.

They raise their heads to stare at her incredulously, catch each other’s eyes, and then burst into hysterical giggles.

Rude . She ‘hrmphs’ at them. Leaving the two to pull themselves together, she sets to cleaning up what’s left of the food and dirty dishes, grumbling under her breath all the while. For some reason , this just makes them giggle harder. She makes sure they can’t see her twitching lips. No need to egg them on too much.

Slowly, they calm down, laughter trailing off to deep regulated breathing. When they’ve got themselves firmly under control again, Yuzuru rejoins them at the table.

“So did you guys want to hear about how the firefly lantern works, or do you want to guess first?” Interest lights Kenji’s face and Hanami straightens with an air of anticipation.

“Give us an explanation, please,” Hanami says. “My head’s too full to try to figure it out myself just now.”

Yuzuru smiles. “You got it! Ok, so, it’s actually based off a seal that’s used a lot back home. That one collects sunlight during the day, then, once it gets dark, releases that light in tiny amounts that look like fireflies. Obviously, mine didn’t do the same thing. The difference is, the seal I used took the natural energy from my breath instead of the sun, and, because I didn’t use any ink, the chakra impression of the seal just floated inside the paper lantern, using that shape as a boundary line. Which is why it didn’t immediately dissipate.”

“But it would have dissipated eventually,” Kenji speculates.

“Yeah,” she nods, “the lanterns at home are drawn with ink inside stone lanterns, to anchor the seal and stabilize it.”

Hanami tilts her head and gets a thoughtful frown. “And, do the stone lanterns themselves act as- you called it a boundary? And that’s how you keep the seal from… using up its energy too quickly?”

Akane-baa walks back in, “Exactly, dear. The boundary delineating the affected area is described within the seal for just that reason,” she smiles at Hanami’s quiet ‘meep’, but doesn’t sit back down. “Now, I’m sure you two would like to be heading home, so we won’t keep you.” She ignores Yuzuru’s pouting. “We’ll meet again in three days, your sensei will give you the details later. In the meantime, think of a seal concept you’d like to try and a few ways you might use the functions we spoke of to build it. If you feel up to it, you can even start on a few explanations on why it should work the way you imagine it to.”

Kenji and Hanami voice their agreements and gather their things to leave. Yuzuru makes sure to give Kenji an extra tight squeeze when she hugs them both goodbye. He grunts, but doesn’t complain, and Yuzuru’s just going to take that as permission to not hold back from tactile affection anymore.

Hanami gives her an amused look, like she knows what’s going through her head, and gets an innocent smile in return. And with that, her two teammates take off back home.

Suddenly, the house seems deafeningly silent.

Not sure what to do with the odd melancholy creeping up on her, Yuzuru drapes herself despondently over the couch and sighs loudly. Then gets the breath knocked out of her when Manju jumps up to sprawl on top of her. Yuzuru runs her hands over Manju’s head, seeking out her preferred scritching spots.

“Why are you sad?” Manju asks.

Yuzuru genuinely doesn’t know how to answer that, because she’s not entirely certain herself, but there’s always- “I miss having lots of people in the house,” she says honestly. “It wasn’t like having the whole family crowded in for dinner, but it was nice, my team bustling around in here.”

Manju bleats softly, “Me too. I miss Nanny and Taro-jii.” There’s quiet as she snuggles her head up under Yuzuru’s chin. “Make Shiho move in. Herd should live together and she doesn’t like being with her parents anyway.”

Yuzuru freezes. That’s. “Why didn’t I think of that?!” Because that would be perfect . She can feel Manju’s smug little grin and she drops a kiss on her nose. “Clever girl.”

Akane-baa chuckles as she leans over them. “I have no objections to this plan, loves, but you might want to check with Shiho-chan first.”

Yuzuru scrunches her nose at that- of course Shiho would want to live with them!-, then refocuses on Akane-baa and the scrolls she sets on the coffee table. She wriggles her way out from under Manju, to the goat’s great disgruntlement, and plops down next to her grandma.

“What’s this?”

“These, my little whirlwind, are the wind jutsu Kaito-kun and I agreed on as the mutual starting point to our more complex techniques, when we first taught Sango-chan elemental manipulation.” Akane-baa opens the first scroll and positions it so Yuzuru can read it with her. “We’ll just go over the theory for right now. Your Tenzou-sensei said he’s going to walk all of you through manifesting your elemental chakras during your next training session.” She taps one elegant finger against the paper, “these have to do with shaping those elements after you’ve called them forth.”

Yuzuru nods excitedly and gives her full concentration to the following lecture.

Hanami

Hanami and Kenji take their time walking down the road. She’s not in any rush and the day’s events keep turning over in her head. So much happened so quickly! And she definitely wasn’t expecting to get pulled into fuuinjutsu lessons , of all things.

It never even crossed her mind that she might be able to learn to make her own seals. After all, that’s something she only ever heard of really smart and talented people doing. Like Yuzuru and Kenji. But… what Akane-baa-san said didn’t sound that out of reach or dangerous, so maybe even someone like her could manage to do it, too.

A nudge to her shoulder pulls her out of her thoughts. She looks at Kenji, who’s peering at her from the corner of his eyes. When she tilts her head questioningly, he glances away and reaches up to readjust his faceguard.

Taking a moment to look around shows they’ve made it to the intersection where they’ll have to split up to get to their respective clan compounds. Kenji seems reluctant to part though and his heartbreaking keening from this morning isn’t going to fade from her memory anytime soon. She doesn’t have to consider long before she nudges him back with a smile.

“If you don’t have plans tomorrow, I need to grab some ingredients and make a few batches of my senbei to restock. Do you want to join me?” Hanami knows she’s read the situation right when Kenji’s shoulders loosen and he actually meets her gaze.

“Yeah, I can do that.” He shrugs lazily, “Don’t know how much help I’ll be, but I’m not useless in a kitchen. If you wanna put me to work or whatever.”

“Ok. Let’s meet here after breakfast then. Around 9 sound good?”

And now it’s like he was never tense at all, as he nods agreeably, “Yeah, see you then.” He climbs the nearest wall and takes off over the rooftops, leaving Hanami to smile wryly after him.

Sticking to the roadways, she makes her own way home. Sometimes it's nice to take her time and  just enjoy the crowds.

She’s barely five minutes from home when Hanami hears sniffling from behind some trees. It’s not even a conscious thought to redirect her path and, soon enough, she’s walking into a small clearing, where she finds-

“Choji-sama? Are you alright?”

The boy twitches hard and hunches over himself. Hanami frowns as she comes up to him. He’s holding his hands close to his body, but doesn’t appear to be otherwise injured. Kneeling in front of him, she holds out her own hands and gently asks, “May I see?”

Choji-sama hesitates briefly, then slowly uncurls and lets her inspect the damage. Hmm, scraped knuckles, a few nicks from what can only be weapons handling class, and some bruising along his forearms.

“Sparring practice?” she guesses as she runs through the hand signs for the diagnostic jutsu. None of it looks serious, but she’s had it drilled into her to always double check. “Some of the kids in my class could also get rough,” she commiserates. “This is the year the teachers really encourage everyone to not hold back as much, too.”

“Yeah,” Choji-sama says, very quietly. “I just…,” a tired sigh, “I don’t really like fighting,” he whispers like a secret.

Hanami considers him, and the defeated air that hangs over him like a fog, even as she parses through her jutsu’s feedback. Thinks of all the things she could say to that. And decides to go with, “So don’t.”

Oh, is that why Yuzuru loves shocking people so much? Hanami has to admit, trying not to giggle at her clan heir’s gobsmacked face, she can definitely see the appeal.

“Wh-what do you mean?”

Hanami sighs and leans back on her heels. “Well, you could always choose to be a medic, if you don’t want to be a fighter. Or work on some other skill that makes you more valuable away from the frontlines than on them. You don’t have anything broken by the way. In your hands,” she clarifies when he just looks even more confused. He looks at his appendages like he's never seen them before. “I can heal up most of it for you, if you’d like, but the most I can do for the bruising is speed up the process a bit.” She scratches her cheek sheepishly, “Soft tissue is a lot harder for me to deal with. I’m working on it, though.”

After a moment of awed staring, Choji-sama nods. “Yes, please, Hanami-san. I appreciate it.” He even manages a tiny smile.

Beaming back at the boy in front of her, she gets to work. About ten minutes later, she’s finished, and makes an impulse decision.

“If you don’t mind waiting here for a few minutes, Choji-sama, I could grab some picnic things and we could just hang out for a little while. It’s too nice a day to spend it all inside.”

“Oh! Um… yeah. I’d like that, I think,” he says.

“Great!” She smiles broadly. “I’ll be right back.”

Hanami runs off, boosting her legs with chakra to shorten the time. Suki would love to spend some time outside, she thinks, already going through a list of all the snacks she has on hand. She’s sure meeting the little hamster will also help Choji-sama get his mind off any lingering worries, too.

Kenji

Kenji kneads a handful of black sesame seeds into the bowl of cracker dough he’s been put in charge of. Hanami’s cousin Choji works industriously alongside him, cheeks puffed slightly as he concentrates on mixing his own bowl with the furikake seasoning, the little hamster sneaking bits when he’s not looking. Adorable.

Kenji’s nose twitches as he fights a smile. He wonders how long it’s gonna take the two Akimichi to remember it’s a school day.

It had been a surprise to meet up with Hanami this morning, only to find she’d gained a second shadow since the last time he saw her. She hadn’t made a big deal of it, though, and Kenji was more than happy to let her set the tone anyways.

That scare with the explosives sucked ass, but it also highlighted for Kenji just how much he trusts his team. With the promise of Hanami taking charge today, he’d even managed to sleep after only pacing his compound once instead of three or four times. His instincts are obnoxious on the best of days, so if they’re gonna decide Hanami’s lead is good to follow, he’s not gonna fight it.

Kenji finishes his current task and turns to Hanami for further orders.

She points to the cling wrap and rolling pins off to the side. “Get two pieces of the plastic and put a piece of the dough,” she holds up a small ball of her own dough to demonstrate the size, “in between them on the counter. Then you’ll use the rolling pin to flatten it out until it’s the size of your palm. Once all of them are shaped, then we can deep fry them.” She smiles, a bit of rice flour dusting her chin, “Got it?”

Choji nods seriously, “Got it, Hanami-nee!”

Really, this kid is too damn cute for his own good. Instead of saying that and potentially spooking him, though, Kenji gives a lazy salute and gets to work.

The whole process is fairly simple once they get going, actually, but they churn out so many batches, it still takes them the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon to finish. When Hanami said she wanted to stock up, she wasn’t kidding.

She and Choji keep up a steady stream of easy chatter, with Kenji piping in every now and then. He offers to get takeout for lunch, since they’re still using the kitchen, and the cousins enthusiastically debate where they should order from. Eventually, Kenji declares if they can’t pick, he’ll just surprise them, and leaves to the sound of their giggling.

The whole day is nice. Relaxing. Kenji even finds himself slipping into that quiet headspace he usually only manages through meditation. Just existing, all the extra noise from his many trails of thought falling away.

Unfortunately, it can’t last forever.

All the senbei are cooked, cooled, wrapped in sheets of nori seaweed, and it’s time for Kenji to head home.

He hands Suki one last sesame seed and ruffles Choji’s hair as he passes by out the door. “Today was fun, man, but make sure you go to school tomorrow, a’right?” He smirks at the twin gasps of shock that elicits. “See you later, Hanami.”

She and Choji give a vague goodbye, clearly distracted by the revelation of inadvertent delinquency. Kenji snickers to himself.

Now to see if he can make it all the way to his room without snapping at any of his relatives.

He pauses just inside the Inuzuka gate and thinks on that a bit. Weighs his energy levels to his current emotional capacity.

Yeah no, Kenji decides, best to work some of that off before one of the pups tries to tackle him. Again.

So he veers off towards the nearest training ground, musing on what kinda workout he wants to do. He settles on practicing kawarimi and shunshin. He’s got each of the techniques down to where he only needs one one-handed seal for each and he’s eager to see if he can figure out how to combine them. Even just managing to do them in quick succession, with little to no pause in between, will be a feat.

Kawarimi, in general, has an average range of 2 to 6 meters, depending on chakra efficiency and situational awareness. So far, Kenji can successfully manage about 5 meters with consistent results. Combined with the shunshin technique, which also relies on efficiency and awareness, with a distance range of 12 to 30 meters, and he has a versatile method for navigating hazardous terrain.

But first, he’s gotta be able to do it.

The sunlight slanting down on him is edging towards the horizon when he finally calls it quits for the day. Kenji wipes his face with his shirt hem and makes straight for the shower. Satisfaction rests under his skin from a day well spent, even as he dodges around the other kids that live in the communal housing.

Dinner is a raucous affair, as usual, and the den parents on duty have their hands full making sure everyone eats their greens and no wrestling matches break out at table.

Kenji keeps out of the way as best he can. The only real excitement for him is when little Mimi-chan, all of three years old, apparently decides that the only acceptable seat at the table is on Kenji’s lap. Just. Snuggles on up and makes herself cozy.

Kenji sees the adults eyeing this new development and Kenji’s reaction to it. And Kenji could make a fuss, get the pup wrangled elsewhere, but. She’s clearly just looking for some contact comfort and anyone else in the room is either too busy or would take it as an invitation to wrestle. So.

He sighs to himself and hooks an arm around her waist. With his free hand, he grabs a few extra things for his plate. If she’s going to be his for the meal, then he’s gonna make sure she eats something. There’s been talk of her not eating or sleeping much since coming to the Den.

It takes some coaxing, but Mimi eats three pieces of broccoli, a mouthful of rice, and half a chicken drumstick before tapping out and Kenji wishes that wasn’t an accomplishment. Then dinner’s over and the kids on cleanup duty get put to work.

Kenji adjusts his hold on Mimi, then slinks off before he can get conscripted out of turn. It’s happened before.

Toddler arms come up around his neck and Mimi buries her face in his throat, breathing deep. He almost stumbles when he realizes she’s scenting him. He can’t remember the last time anyone scented him. The small hitch in his step is enough to get her softly whining, before he nuzzles the top of her head and rubs his hand down her back to get her to settle again. Which she does with a gusty sigh, rustling the hairs at his nape.

“Sorry,” Kenji mutters for good measure, giving her a short squeeze. Mimi just grunts and pushes her face further into him. “You sleepy, pup? I think I can find your room if’n you wanna go ta bed.”

Her hands fist in his shirt. “Wan’ stay with nii-chan…”

“Huh.” He ponders on this declaration. “Well, alright then,” he says, staring at nothing. What even is happening. This is most definitely not how interactions with his extended family tend to go. If she wants to hang out though… “Wanna go for a walk?” Might as well take her with him on his perimeter check.

“... do I hafta walk?”

He snorts. “Nah, I’ll carry you. You just enjoy the ride, yeah?”

“M’kay.”

Kenji waves down Hiza-san, one of the parents this week, to let her know Mimi’s with him, so nobody panics. The double take she gives him would probably be funny if it weren’t so damn insulting. 

Resisting the urge to flip her off, he huffs and lets himself out the door.

The evening air immediately cools his ire, bringing his earlier calm back to the fore. He angles towards the southwestern edge of the compound walls- then stops.

“Hey,” he bounces Mimi just a bit to get her attention, “if I go fast, will it freak ya out? Or upset your tummy?”

She levels him with an affronted gaze, “I’m not a baby .”

“Ok,” don’t coo at her, don’t coo at her, don’t-, “just figured I’d check.” The skeptical look he gets for that is giving him a whole new appreciation for his mom’s old coworkers at R&D. They musta been saints or something, because he knows he did similar whenever mom took him in with her, and they never patronized or made him feel too little for anything.

Ah, and now he’s missing them all over again. Near on ten years since they died, it still sometimes hits him like new. He wonders how Anko-nee is doing…

Kenji shakes himself. Past is passed, now is here. Focus.

“Right. Hang on pup,” he grins at Mimi, who sniffs and goes back to his shoulder.

Setting off in an easy lope, Kenji breathes out a contented sigh. Today was a good day.

Chapter Text

Tenzou

His students are gratifyingly quick to notice his approach, even Hanami, and they don’t startle like they used to when he lands in front of them. “Good morning!”

“Good morning, Sensei,” Hanami responds. Kenji greets him distractedly from his position leaning curiously over Yuzuru’s prone form. Moving closer, her continued blank gaze is starting to worry him.

“What’s happened here?” He bends down to peer more intently at his normally boisterous genin.

Yuzuru’s face twists alarmingly and then he has a distraught 12 year old crying into his flak vest. The events of two mornings ago leap to the forefront of his thoughts, but the other two seem to be just as confused as he is, so it’s not likely to be that. With a sigh, Tenzou settles on the ground to wait out the floodworks and pats her back.

His old Anbu squad were distinctly unhelpful when he went to them for advice after his team’s mini breakdown. ‘Probably hormones’ might be true, but there’s nothing he can really do to help with puberty woes.

Eventually her sniffles taper off and Tenzou feels it’s safe enough to ask, “Do you want to tell me what this is about? I can’t help if I don’t know what’s wrong.”

Yuzuru exhales a shuddery breath. “Shiho said sh-she doesn’t want- wanna move in with me and Akane-baa…”

…who?

Kenji saves him from admitting ignorance. “Doesn’t your nerd friend already live with her parents, though?”

“Oh no! Did something happen to them?” Hanami frets. “But then why wouldn’t she…?”

“No, they’re fine!” she huffs angrily, crossing her arms.

Okay, then. Tenzou doesn’t know how to respond to that, so he’s unspeakably relieved when Yuzuru abruptly deflates with a sigh.

“It’s fine,” she waves dismissively. “I’ve just been so busy, I didn’t realize she was getting along with them better since graduation. Sorry if I overreacted.” She fidgets with the zipper on her jacket and won’t look any of them in the eye.

“Well,” he says cheerfully, because this is something he can help with, “I have good news for you on the being busy issue.” All three of them perk up. “While it may have been a hectic time since we got started, you all have been progressing in leaps and bounds. We’re almost done with our intro course at the hospital- there’s just two more practicals and then the final exam to get our field medic licenses. We’ll still only be qualified for the basics, but it’s a start.”

Yuzuru is practically vibrating in place with a wide grin, her drama all but forgotten. Hanami and Kenji aren’t that far behind in their own excitement either. As someone who never thought he’d be given the chance to learn medical jutsu, Tenzou has to admit that he’s pretty damn pleased with things as well.

“To that end,” he continues, “we’ll have a few review sessions during our regular training time to go over any details you’re not as confident in before the exam.” Hanami sighs in relief and he sends her an encouraging smile. “Afterwards, your evenings will be free again.” He chuckles at their cheers.

“Also, our hours at the Disaster Relief HQ are going to change to two hour shifts in the afternoons, five days a week, unless otherwise necessary.”

Kenji and Yuzuru immediately elbow Hanami, who blinks at the sudden attention, then rallies herself to be spokesperson for their confusion. “Sensei, why so few hours? We’ve been putting in more time than that and there’s still a lot to get done.”

“Ah, but you’ve also been working on a specific project this whole time. One that’s almost done,” he reminds them. “It’s important for us to maintain a steady presence at HQ, but that’s not where most of our work is going to get done, now is it?”

Realization sparks first in Kenji. “Oh, cuz we’re the feet on the ground. So most of our time will be spent outside the village, while everyone stationed here works on coordination and analysis. We’re just helping set up a workable system right now. Later, we’ll be in charge of maintaining and troubleshooting that system across the country.”

“Exactly!” Tenzou has no idea why some of his colleagues complain about getting genin students. This is fun! “And we’re coming up on our first out-of-village stint in just over two weeks from now. We’ll be gone for a month, barring any complications, so we’re also going to be reviewing camping skills and travel protocols before we leave. Our route this time won’t actually be taking us very far from Konoha, but I’m expecting you all to comport yourselves as if we were.”

“Yes, Sensei.”

“Good.” He stands and waits for them to follow suit. “Now, the plan for the rest of this week is to finish our review of Konoha’s emergency policies and get our report done, so that we can focus on preparing for our excursion. But first,” bracing his hands on his hips, Tenzou grins, “element training!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Hey, Sensei?”

“Hmm?” Tenzou turns from where he's been helping Hanami manipulate a few different types of dirt and rock and looks behind him to Yuzuru. Then stares, because-

She and Kenji are chasing around the clearing, each with a few leaves in one of their hands. That, by itself, wouldn’t be so odd, though Kenji’s lightning exercise doesn’t require leaves. He’d already noted the two of them focus better if they can move around in some way and adjusted his teaching and team sessions accordingly. No, what’s throwing him for a loop this time is that, well.

Each of them, in one hand, are molding wind chakra to split one leaf at a time while, with their other hand, they send little electric zaps at each other in a strange game of tag.

He’s broken from his shock at seeing his genin simultaneously mold two different elements when Yuzuru sees she has his attention.

“Can you teach us fire and water release, too? Not like, actual jutsus or anything,” she rushes to say, because his face must be doing something interesting . “Just, you know, how to mold the base elements. We’ve already got earth, lightning, and wind. It’d be kinda cool to be able to do the other two as well.”

“... come show me your earth release and I’ll think about it.” Because why not. Tenzou’s been meaning to practice with the other elements anyway. And he already knew that Yuzuru and Kenji were geniuses. He wonders, briefly, if they’d be able to learn wood release. There’s more to it than just chakra control and molding earth and water chakra at the same time, but not much more, according to the first Hokage’s old notes.

“Woohoo!” Yuzuru cartwheels towards him, Kenji following nonchalantly behind her. Though he’s also got an excited smile threatening on his face, so Tenzou makes sure to give him a head ruffle. They settle on either side of Hanami, asking her to show them how she’s doing.

That’s something he’s been keeping an eye on, but there doesn’t seem to be any hard feelings or resentment brewing. Either from Hanami, because her teammates take to new concepts like ducks to water, or from Yuzuru and Kenji, because Hanami needs more personal time and attention from him to grasp new skills.

Hanami is actually quite capable and quick to learn. Just not in comparison to the other two. Thankfully, they’re all good at acknowledging each other’s strengths and encouraging each other when they get stuck. Yuzuru and Kenji have also been leaning more and more on Hanami as team leader, too. Tenzou smiles every time she steps up and is more confident than the last time.

He’s so proud of all of them.

After proving a bare proficiency at molding earth chakra- a mark against the possibility of their learning wood release- and making sure Hanami’s gotten a chance to try using lightning and wind chakra- with only minimal success-, Tenzou walks them through how to manifest fire.

“Oh!” Hanami beams at the little flame waving gently above her palm. “I did it!”

“Good job, Hanami,” Tenzou says. Beside her, Kenji is working on getting a small flame on the tip of each finger. Yuzuru is frowning at her own lack of progress and he’s just about to give her some encouragement, or maybe tell her it’s ok if she can’t get it, when her expression suddenly clears and she opens her mouth.

And then he’s dumping a veritable waterfall over the gigantic, roaring blaze that comes rushing out. When he cuts off his jutsu, all three of his students are scattered and soaked. Manju and Mochi bounce over from the trees where they’d been practicing some type of goat technique and clamber worriedly around Yuzuru, bleating with concern.

“Oops?” She grins sheepishly, dripping wet and singed.

Tenzou massages the bridge of his nose. “What did you do?” he asks, because that was decidedly beyond a simple fire release.

“Um, well. I was having some trouble getting going, but then I thought about how fire needs to breathe, so I, uh,” she hesitates briefly at the flat look he’s giving her, “I gave it some wind?”

He rubs a hand over his face and sighs. “I understand your thought process, Yuzuru, but this is chakra fire. You’re supposed to use your chakra to make a spark, like when using a flint, and then feed it a steady stream to keep it going. Using air, like from your breath, or wind chakra makes them exponentially more powerful and hard to control.” He looks at her pointedly and her shoulders hunch.

“But,” he continues after a beat, “that’s why you have a sensei. To make sure you can practice and make mistakes safely.” Tenzou smiles when she sighs in relief at not getting terribly scolded. “So let’s try again. One element at a time, please. At least until you have a basic grasp of each of them.”

Kenji and Hanami extricate themselves from the newly muddy area and gently rib Yuzuru for getting impatient. She allows it with good grace and then they’re back to work. At Tenzou’s suggestion, she tries snapping her fingers to generate the chakra spark and manages it on the third try.

Shaking his head at the ridiculousness of it all, Tenzou decides they’re all already wet, so he might as well make a game of water release training. It’s important for the kids to end on a high note after all.

So he tells them how to mold their chakra to produce water, gives them a few tips, splashes them all in the face, and then retreats across the training ground. They pursue, shrieking and laughing.

Just before lunch, Tenzou shows them the chakra trick for getting water out of their clothes and belongings. Manju and Mochi, the rascals, pick it up quickly and combine it with a vigorous full body shake that sends water flying everywhere . Though it does give his students a chance for extra practice.

They give him baleful looks when he points this out.

The team unanimously opts to eat up in the trees, since the formerly grassy clearing is now a muddy field. It’s a little tricky to set up their usual picnic spread on the branches, but with some ingenuity they make it work.

“Say, Yuzuru?” Hanami fidgets with her chopsticks. “Do you have any suggestions for thinking up seal ideas? I’m not really sure where to start.”

Yuzuru swings her legs while she mulls over her answer. “Hm, well, like Akane-baa said, seals can do just about anything if you’re creative enough, but you know she’s not expecting you to come up with anything revolutionary or complicated right at the start, right?” Hanami nods with a bit too much relief, so she probably was worried about that. “Just think of something that would make daily life either easier or more fun, would be my suggestion, or- oh, I know!” She bounces excitedly and Kenji snatches a box of dango before it falls. “Why don’t you make something for your hamster! Suki, right? I bet there’s plenty you could come up with for her.”

“Huh,” Hanami says, gaze distant. “I could… do that… I think,” her voice fades as she mutters ideas to herself. Yuzuru beams happily.

Tenzou takes the dango stick Kenji passes him and muses on his own sealing ideas. Since he’s decided to take the lessons alongside his students and all. To keep himself from getting lost in thought, he glances over to Kenji. “What about you? Any ideas yet?”

“Maa, well, I was thinking maybe… some kind of scent holder.” Trust an Inuzuka to come up with scent-based fuuinjutsu. “But, like, have it also have some kinda emitter aspect, too. Somethin’ you could put in a stuffed toy, for example, to give it a specific smell that lasts a long time.”

Stuffed toy, scent, won’t make eye contact, blushing, “And who are planning to give this toy that smells like you?”

Kenji grimaces self-consciously as the girls ‘ooh’ at him. “Nothin’ like that you pervs,” he grumbles. “Plenty of the clan’s pups- I mean, kids- have a hard time when their families go on long missions. Figured it’d be nice if’n they could have somethin’ to cuddle what smells like ‘em.”

Ah. Tenzou slowly reaches over and ruffles Kenji’s hair. “You’re a good kid, Kenji.” He smiles at his student’s burning face.

“I told you,” Yuzuru says to Hanami, “his scary face hides nothing but puppy fluff.” Hanami giggles.

Tenzou swallows a laugh of his own. Looking around at the finished picnic, he claps his hands once to call for attention.

“Alright, fun's over. Time to get back to work.” Tenzou chivvies them into cleaning up the lunch things to a chorus of playful sighs and groans.

He takes some of their HQ time to show them how to write up an official incident report for their explosives discovery to submit to the Hokage. After that’s done, they decide how to arrange the information in the emergency procedure report, which occupies the rest of their now shorter office shift.

With the rest of the afternoon free until their evening class at the hospital, his students are clearly at a loss for what to do. Tenzou sighs and beckons them to follow him. They do, trotting dutifully behind him as he leads them to his new apartment for a review session. It's nothing special, but it’ll be comfortable enough even with the goats also squeezing in.

They peer around the space curiously, Yuzuru and her goat accomplices even going so far as to open the few doors to peek behind them. Hanami scolds them, but also steals a look. Kenji stands in the middle of his combined kitchen, living, and dining area, breathing deeply through his nose, a small furrow of concentration on his brow.

Tenzou snorts at their shamelessness and sets about making tea. He’d also offer snacks, but he doesn’t have any- no, wait. A quick check in the cupboard unearths a lone box of pocky sticks, a souvenir from a Tea country mission a few months ago. He pauses, looks for an expiration date, finds one.

…

Eh. It should be fine. It’s just pocky, right? Right.

Placing the tea and pocky on the table Kenji’s already claimed a seat at, he calls for his wayward students. There’s a small ‘thump’ from his bedroom, an echoing ‘baah’ in the bathroom- sounds like Mochi found his shower?-, and then Hanami is dragging Manju and Yuzuru back into the main room, consternation writ clear on her face.

“Nothing broke!” Yuzuru defends against his raised eyebrow.

“Sorry, Tenzou-sensei,” Hanami tacks on.

He can’t help but laugh. “It’s fine. I would have told you off earlier if I minded.” He pulls out his notes from the medic course. “Now come on and let’s get some review done before our practical tonight. Manju, Mochi, you’re free to keep poking around, but please don’t eat anything without asking first.”

“Yes, Sensei,” a chorus, with five voices this time. Tenzou grins. This sensei gig is everything he’d hoped for and more.

Yuzuru

While Akane-baa walks the rest of her team through their first forays into fuuinjutsu, Yuzuru works on mastering the Wandering Scorpion Puppeteer Troupe’s camp warding seal. She really wants to have this particular barrier down pat before they leave the village. Also on her current seal project list is a pen enclosure, good for animals and small children, and a portable umbrella effect.

Occasionally she’s asked to weigh in on an idea or to give alternate suggestions, but for the most part she just listens and quietly goes through the painstaking process of writing out each of her seals one thousand times. Perfectly. No mistakes, because if there are mistakes, Akane-baa makes her start over from the beginning. So, really, Yuzuru has to write out each seal perfectly one thousand times in a row .

It’s a good thing fuuinjutsu is so fun, otherwise she’d never bother. Granted, that’s Akane-baa’s rule, but Yuzuru sees the sense in it. ‘Don’t practice until you get it right, practice until you can’t get it wrong’ and all that.

She sighs heavily and lets herself sprawl backwards on the floor. Lets the lesson taking place at the kitchen table steal her attention. Just for a moment.

Kenji comes at fuuinjutsu like she does. Finds the end result he wants and works backwards from there, with lots of logic- and not so logic- leaps in between. When Akane-baa pointed out that symbolism and folklore knowledge work just as well as scientific fact so long as it’s consistent, he’d picked it up immediately.

Sensei and Hanami are a lot more methodical in their approach and start from the beginning to make their way to a solution. Yuzuru wonders if it’s anything to do with their element affinities both being earth. All slow and stubborn, lots of taking their time before anything gets done.

The ideas they’ve all come up with are great.

Kenji blushed something fierce when she called his a ‘wish you were here’ scent seal, but he couldn’t argue she was wrong. Hanami wants to make a running track for Suki. Kinda like a hamster wheel, but flat, so it won’t injure her back when using it. Right now she’s stuck on how to get it to move.

Sensei came up with an idea for an alternative storage seal that can make a canteen hold more water. Akane-baa didn’t let on that the Wandering Scorpions have one like that already. From almost a hundred years ago, even! Yuzuru hasn’t called her out on it yet, because she wants to see if Tenzou-sensei comes up with something different. Though, if she hasn’t mentioned it by the time he has a working prototype, Yuzuru will try to find out why before spilling the beans.

It may just be secretive shinobi being secretive, but it also might not. Or maybe she’s also curious to see what he does.

Speaking of Akane-baa, she’s currently sending her a pointed look. Yuzuru sighs again and hauls herself back up to write some more seals.

Hanami

For all of Hanami’s nerves leading up to the field medic exam, when the actual test comes she feels fairly confident.

She has a hard time remembering all the precise medical terms for the written portion, but she knows all the material. And the practical section was… Hanami hesitates to say easy, because keeping a fish alive on a table for half an hour, using nothing but your chakra and medical knowledge isn’t, by any means, easy . But it also wasn’t difficult .

Either way, at the end of it, she, Yuzuru, Kenji, and Tenzou-sensei all join the ranks of Konoha’s field medics.

Sensei’s friend, Genma-san, even shows up to congratulate them. He joins for their celebratory team dinner, too.

“My treat,” he says, smiling around the senbon acting as a toothpick, hanging from the corner of his mouth. “You guys worked hard for this.”

“I’m not paying for drinks later,” Sensei deadpans back.

Genma-san’s smile widens. “You’re coming drinking with us tonight? Great, I’ll let everyone know.”

“I just said-!”

They bicker good naturedly back and forth to the restaurant, through the meal, and back out onto the street. Sensei tries to duck away then, but Yuzuru catches his ankle with a chakra string, Kenji ‘accidentally’ steers him into Genma-san, who Hanami tells to “please make sure he shows up on time for training tomorrow morning.”

Sensei gives them all a playfully betrayed look, which they return with innocent grins. Genma-san laughs as he throws an arm over his shoulders.

“No getting out of it this time, Tenzou,” he laughs.

Sensei sighs. “Ok, ok. I know when I’m beaten.” He points a stern finger at them that’s only slightly ruined by his obvious grin. “But just know that I’ll get you all back for this.”

Hanami’s stomach flutters nervously, because Sensei’s idea of retribution tends to come in the form of outrageous training exercises, but she still snickers with the others when Genma-san unceremoniously drags him away, still verbally poking at each other.

“Ah, do you guys have a moment?” Hanami asks. Yuzuru and Kenji nod and fall into pace with her as they walk. “So, you also noticed how, um, bare Sensei’s apartment was, too, right?”

“Right,” Yuzuru agrees, “seems like he might have just moved in”.

“Yeah, it’s pretty empty… So I was thinking, maybe we can get him a present, or make one, as a housewarming gift.”

“Mmm, I could make a hanging scroll,” Kenji muses. “Not too sure what I’d put on it though.”

“Something funny,” Yuzuru says. “Tenzou-sensei likes to laugh.”

While Kenji’s thinking on that, Hanami says, “I was thinking of writing up a few recipe cards for him, too. Just a few simple ones. What do you think?”

Yuzuru hums in agreement, “Yeah, Sensei’s place kinda screams bachelor. That kitchen needs some help.”

“Oh thank goodness I wasn’t the only one who saw that!” Hanami hides her face in her hands. “His fridge literally only had a few takeout containers. It’s like he’s never had to stock a kitchen before.”

“He might not have,” Kenji says. Hanami doesn’t know what he means, but it looks like Yuzuru might. Luckily, Kenji notices her confusion and leans close to whisper, “I think Sensei was in Anbu.”

That-!... would make a lot of sense, actually.

“How can you tell, though,” she asks.

It’s Yuzuru who answers. “Genma-san. He was part of the squad that came in when we reported that whole mess behind the monument.” She pauses. “Now that I think on it, I’m pretty sure we’ve met quite a few agents recently.”

Kenji yawns and says, “Yeah, Yugao-san, Hayate-san, Genma-san,... I don’t know about Raidou-san, but I’m leaning towards not.”

Hanami turns this over in her head and keeps coming back to, “so, wait, we’ve been training with an Anbu squad this whole time?”

Kenji

He’s not sure who told his clan that he’s heading out soon, but Kenji sincerely hopes they stub a toe every day for a month. Or catch a case of fleas. Something.

Nodo-san is the latest to corner him, his partner Kiko in tow.

“Hey, Kenji!” He’s never spoken to this man before except to get scolded for ‘prowling’ when he does his nightly rounds. Kiko would sometimes drag him home from splashing in mud puddles when he was little though, so Kenji holds back on his urge to growl.

“Nodo-san, Kiko.”

“Hahaha, why so stiff, pup?” Nodo-san slaps his shoulder companionably and Kenji barely bites down a snarl. Thank kami-sama Mimi’s at the Den, taking a nap, and isn’t here. She has even less patience than Kenji does for this charade.

“So I was thinkin’,” Nodo-san continues like he didn’t notice anything, but Kiko slows her excited prancing. “Kiko’s sister had a new litter a few weeks ago. Why don’t you go over and see if any o’ them suit ya. I hear it’s been a while since you last tried to bond with anyone, but ya can’t give up yet, pup. Some folks just take more time to find a partner and that ain’t no bad thing, just so long’s you keep tryin’, ya know!”

“No thanks, Nodo-san,” Kenji grits out. Kiko whines softly and he unclenches a hand enough to give her a brisk pat. “I appreciate the sentiment, but Hana-san and the other medics at the vet clinic already determined that my chakra won’t support a bond.”

That had been a fun day- not. They’d grabbed him a week ago for a full onslaught of every test they could think of to try and figure out why nothing was working. Humiliating might be one way to describe the experience. Or excruciating.

Nodo-san frowns, not liking this answer. Kenji just hopes that invoking the clan heir’s name will hold enough weight that he’ll either drop the issue, or take it up with her.

So long as Kenji stops getting ambushed by well meaning clansmen, he’s not picky about which.

Thankfully, Nodo-san nods thoughtfully, a pensive tilt to his scent as watches Kenji. “Alright, pup. If yer sure…” Kenji nods decisively. “Guess that settles that then. I’ll, ah, spread the word then, shall I?” He gives a smile that wants to be something else.

“If you don’t mind, Nodo-san,” Kenji agrees, but he doesn’t expect much to come of that. The last dozen ambushers all made similar promises.

After that, Nodo-san heads on his way. Before he and Kiko disappear around the corner he hears the man muttering about how “no good comes from an Inuzuka what can’t make a partnership, Kiko girl, no good at all.”

Not for the first time, Kenji wishes his hearing wasn’t so much keener than the average Inuzuka. Damn hybrid vigor.

He shrugs his shoulders, trying to brush off the crackling tension creeping up his spine. When that doesn’t work, he slinks off to an empty training ground, intent on working through his disquiet before heading home.

Hanami

Maps of Fire country are starting to show up in her dreams , Hanami laments. Hours of pouring over their intended route, learning all they can about the towns, roads and surrounding area as they possibly can, is tedious work, but she doesn’t voice her complaints. Nobody else is and she already promised herself she’d do every task Tenzou-sensei gave them.

So Hanami grimly settles into the work and gets to practice all the memorization tips and tricks she learned in the Academy.

When not holed up in HQ or the library, she and her team take to spending their new free time teaching each other some of their respective hobbies.

Yuzuru shows Hanami and Kenji a few simple embroidery stitches and they all laugh at the lopsided decorations being inflicted on the throw pillows they nabbed for cheap at a consignment store. Yuzuru has a veritable rainbow of colored thread to pick from, so Hanami gleefully uses as many bright and clashing colors as she can, just to make her teammates groan and laugh. Turnabout is fair play after all.

She really loves the flowing kata Kenji teaches them as part of a meditation routine. He calls it qigong and it’s harder, in a way, to keep her movements slow and steady when Hanami is so used to training for speed and strength. Her limbs ache at the pace in an unfamiliar way, but she feels refreshed afterwards. Like she just rinsed out her soul and got rid of mucky build up she hadn’t noticed before.

Kenji gives a small, pleased smile when she tells him so and launches into a detailed description of how the form encourages chakra movement and regulation. Hanami can’t hope to keep up with all the terms and scientific phenomena he references, though Yuzuru seems to be mostly following what he says. She still beams at him like an idiot, happy that her interest has made him happy. He’s been stressing about things at home lately and she’s more than glad to give him something to smile about.

When Hanami invites her team to come over for some baking, she didn’t expect it to turn into such a production, though in hindsight, she probably should’ve.

It starts with Manju and Mochi tagging along, hoping to steal some of their cooking efforts. Then Choji sees them walking to her house and shyly asks if he can join in. Kenji snickers when Choji rushes to reassure Hanami that the Academy already let out for the day and he slings an arm around the younger boy’s neck to pull him along.

When they get to the kitchen, Hanami’s dad is already at the stove, contemplating a pot of broth.

“Pumpkin!” he calls when he sees her. The others come in behind her. “And friends,” he smiles jovially, having met everyone earlier that week. “Come over here and tell me what you all think of this soup base.” They all crowd in for a taste and spark a lively discussion on the nuance of the flavors compared to what her dad was trying for.

Which is when her mom trudges in from her most recent food pill testing bender. She stares blankly at everyone for a moment, then shrugs and collapses into a chair at the table to join the discussion from a slightly safer distance.

Choji asks if Suki could maybe come down, too, so Hanami goes to get her from her room. Yuzuru’s summons whip their heads around to stare at the new addition to the group and Hanami has a brief moment of concern. But Suki is as fascinated by the goats as they are by her and her hamster friend spends the afternoon switching between Manju and Mochi as her preferred perches.

Hanami’s parents end up teaching everyone how to make taiyaki and melon bread. The recipes are new to Hanami as well and the resulting shenanigans and mess make for a fun and memorable experience.

All in all, a good day.

Yuzuru

Apparently, the voice throwing jutsu that Yuzuru has been begging to learn for literal years is a wind release technique. And it’s on the first scroll of wind jutsu that Sango-baa learned from.

Yuzuru is going to prank her team so hard .

Getting Manju and Mochi to not just play along, but also help with the prank takes a few bribes. It’s gonna be worth it.

She snickers quietly to herself before she calms enough to get started.

Just before she enters the training ground, Yuzuru makes a clone at the same time that she folds her chakra in tight, small enough to mistake her for a woodland critter, just like Hayate-san showed them the other day. Manju and Mochi continue on with the clone while Yuzuru hides herself in a nearby tree with a decent vantage, making sure to place herself downwind of Kenji.

Now the fun part.

Carefully, Yuzuru weaves the jutsu’s hand signs and it feels just as odd as the first time. Like her breath is literally being stolen, but also not? Because she’s the one sending it out. Whatever. She’ll get used to it eventually.

There’s a slight lag with this technique, since it’s, essentially, carrying her voice to a position of her choosing. Fine for theatre work; not so great when Yuzuru has to compensate for the unpredictable nature of regular conversation.

“Hey, guys!” Yuzuru says as her clone jumps down just after the goats. Gotta hide that lack of shadow as long as she can.

“Morning, Yuzuru,” Hanami calls, not pausing her stretches.

Kenji is lying face down on the ground and grunts when Manju chews on his ponytail.

“What’s up with him?” she asks, daring to let her clone drift a little closer. Mochi helpfully dances around her legs.

Hanami shrugs. “Kenji, what’s up? The dramatics are supposed to be Yuzuru’s thing, you know this.”

“Rude!”

They pull a small chuckle from Kenji, but it’s followed quickly by a tired groan.

“Mimi, my little cousin I told you about? She’s been having trouble sleeping.”

“I thought that was getting better?” Hanami says. She finishes stretching and walks over to sit next to him.

He sighs, “Yeah, but then she found out I’m gonna be gone for a month.”

“Ouch,” Yuzuru winces in sympathy.

“Pretty much,” he agrees. “And the Den parents all know now that I’m good at settlin’ her down, so they keep waking me up to take care of her. On account of her snapping and snarling at everyone else.”

Hanami frowns thoughtfully. “Kenji,” she says slowly, “do you think- You’re a genin, a legal adult as far as Konoha’s concerned. Do you think, maybe, you’re a Den parent now?”

Yuzuru looks at her with deep skepticism. It makes sense, she supposes, from a certain point of view. However… Maybe it’s just because she was raised outside Konoha, but expecting a 12 year old to ‘parent’ anyone when there are actual adults around to do it seems… she settles on irresponsible, though there are many other words that come to mind.

Kenji’s chakra goes from staticky to exposed electrical wire in the space between blinks.

Oh, there goes her clone.

Hanami and Manju quickly jump away and Yuzuru thinks the small, telltale ‘poof’ of chakra smoke will get lost in the distraction of Kenji’s little chakra surge, but no such luck. She does take a certain amount of glee in shocking Kenji out of his charging tension, though.

Yuzuru giggles at her own awful puns. Then swears. She was still throwing her voice!

Sure enough, her teammates are staring incredulously at the spot where her clone was just standing.

“What-,”

“Be mad later!” she yells, taking great joy in their confusion. “We’re playing hide and seek now!” She doesn’t know Sensei’s scent erasure jutsu, but she’s pretty sure she can still lead a merry chase if she puts her mind to it. Already, she’s backtracked and swung wide around the meeting spot, mindful of the wind’s direction, and laying small traps as she goes.

“Come find me~” Yuzuru taunts, then cuts her jutsu and sets to hiding.

Kenji

It’s not that Kenji meant to get into a knockdown dragout fight with his clan head. He doesn’t even really remember throwing the first punch.

All he knows is, he went to ask if Hanami had the right idea of what’s been happening at the Den recently. He wasn’t really expecting to get more than a bare confirmation, but if Tsume really doesn’t want him to know her reasoning- though he can hazard a decent guess-, the least she could do is tell him that. Or at least not be obvious in her subterfuge.

Kenji breathes with an unhurried, measured pace, holding his ire and pain in check. Keeps an easy pace towards Sensei’s apartment. It would probably be better to go to the hospital, but they covered dislocations in the field medic course and Kenji would rather have someone he trusts fix up his shoulder right now.

His breathing stutters as he thinks on everything else that can’t be fixed after tonight’s shitshow.

Kenji roughly scrubs his face with his good arm, careful of his bruised wrist, and refocuses. Slipping along the rooftop paths, he pushes it all down to deal with later. First, he has to get to Sensei.

Remembering this morning’s hide and chase game makes a good distraction and he spends the rest of his run going over ways to improve for next time. The new voice throwing trick Yuzuru pulled was more effective on Hanami than him, but it still threw him off a couple times. Kenji’s planning out how to train his scentless tracking skills more, when he takes the last flight of stairs to Sensei’s apartment door.

He knocks. Waits a minute. Knocks again…

Kenji’s forehead thunks against the door. Not home. Fuck.

He considers his options. Picking the lock to let himself in has appeal, but higher ranking shinobi are known for their paranoia for a reason. While he doesn’t think Sensei would leave any lethal traps on his door or windows, there’s no guarantee he hasn’t.

Testing out his tracking skills aside, the thought of running around the village more than he has to right now also doesn’t particularly appeal. Which means no going back out to find Sensei elsewhere.

So. It’s sit against the door and wait, then.

Tenzou

“Maa, Tenzou, if you don’t hurry, we’re going to be late to meet the others…”

Tenzou turns to give Kakashi-senpai the full force of the look that comment deserves. “That’s rich coming from you,” he snipes back.

Kakashi actually blinks at that. A beat too late to hide his surprise, he clutches his chest in mock offense. “Really Tenzou, that’s so accusing! I’ve never been late to anything, I’ll have you know.”

“Oh, really.”

His raised brow goes ignored as Kakashi just nods sagely. “Yes. The trick is to always arrive exactly when you mean to.”

Tenzou can’t quite hold back his incredulous laughter. “You are so full of it, Senpai,” he says. “And we’re not going to be late, I just need to grab the whetstone I promised to give Yugao.”

“... ok, I’ll bite. Why are you giving Yugao a new whetstone?”

Tenzou grins ruefully. “Because her old one got caught in the crosshairs of my kids’ elemental chakra experiments.” He takes advantage of the following pause to climb the building wall up towards his apartment window. He disarms his traps and slips inside.

Kakashi lands on the sill just behind him. “And how, exactly-?”

Tenzou cuts him off with, “If you really wanted to know, you’d have shown up to train with us like I’ve been asking you to,” thrown over his shoulder. He was certain he’d left the whetstone on his kitchen counter. Hm. Maybe it’s by the couch?

“... I’ve been busy.”

“Of course, Senpai, I understand.” Tenzou lets that rest just long enough for Kakashi to drop his guard. “Your challenges against your ‘eternal rival’ should obviously take precedence over everything else.”

Senpai makes a noise that sends Tenzou into a fit of laughter.

“Since when are you so sassy?” he demands and Tenzou laughs harder. Senpai sighs, “Maa, I think those genin of yours have been a bad influence, Kouhai.” He comes in and goes to sit at the table. Then stops, chair pulled out halfway, his head tilting to the side and his nose subtly twitching.

Tenzou’s laughter fades out and he stretches his own senses to try and find what caught Kakashi’s attention.

He catches Kenji’s chakra on the other side of his front door. How long has he been waiting there?

Tenzou walks over quickly to let him in, smiling to himself at the scroll hanging on the back of his door. ‘If pushing hard does not work, try pulling’ taunts him in beautiful calligraphy. Not anything he would have expected to be gifted- though he wasn’t expecting gifts at all -, but he loves it all the same. Loves his precocious students even more.

He shakes his head at his own sentimentality and pulls the door open. Kenji’s head hits his shins when he falls backwards from where he was sitting leaned against the wood.

“Kenji? What are you doing down- what happened to your arm? ” He kneels down to get a better look at him and help him stand up.

Kenji blinks at him. Then glances down at himself, like he doesn’t know what Tenzou is talking about, then back up again, his gaze landing somewhere around Tenzou’s ear. “Argued wit’ Tsume,” he says sleepily. Blinks some more. “Din’t wan’ hospital…” He cracks a yawn, then winces when it pulls at his black eye.

Tenzou strangles a sigh and pushes his burning need for details off to the side for a moment. Getting his student patched up takes priority. He can demand answers afterwards.

“Okay, Kenji,” he says evenly, “if you let me take a look at your injuries, we won’t go to the hospital.” Unless they end up being beyond his skills, he doesn’t say. “Think you can stand to get to the table?”

Kenji thinks on that, his face solemn, then nods, “yeah, I can do that.” At least he’s starting to sound more awake now, Tenzou thinks. “Might need some help getting up, though.”

“Sure thing, Kenji. Just lean this way a little so I can- yeah, perfect. Just like that. And up we go.” They stand with matching grunts and he hears Kakashi-senpai snort lightly behind them. Kenji stills, freezing in place. Ah. Whoops. It didn’t even occur to him that Kenji might not have noticed the other man’s presence.

He uses the hand wrapped around Kenji’s middle to give him a reassuring pat. “That’s just Kakashi. You’d have met him sooner if he wasn’t so busy recently.” Tenzou turns and leads Kenji to limp over to the table, kicking the door closed behind him. After he gets Kenji settled in a seat, he waves vaguely between the two. “Kenji, this is Hatake Kakashi. Kakashi-senpai, Inuzuka Kenji.”

Kenji eases slowly into an approximation of his usual slouch and nods a greeting. “Nice to meet you, Hatake-san.”

Tenzou raises a brow at that, but Kakashi mirrors his body language and leans languidly against the counter. “Maa, no need to be so formal, cub,” he says with an eye smile and Kenji relaxes fully.

It must be some kind of canine thing. Tenzou hopes so anyway, because otherwise he has no idea what’s happening here.

He shakes that off. “Anyways, I’m going to take a look at your injuries now, ok?”

“Mm,” Kenji nods and still won’t look him in the eye. Injuries now, worries after, he reminds himself.

The extent of the damage is wide but not severe, thankfully. “Alright, nothing looks too bad, Kenji. Mostly just a lot of bruises. That dislocated shoulder is definitely the worst of it, so we’ll start there. Sound good?”

“Yes, Sensei,” Kenji replies, in a small voice that hurts his heart.

He catches Kakashi’s eye and the other man nonchalantly moves over to the fridge- conveniently farther from the table and giving his back to them- to grab an ice pack while Tenzou realigns Kenji’s limb. Kenji stays stubbornly silent, but Senpai flinches slightly.

Definitely some kind of canine senses at work there.

“All set,” Tenzou says. “Going to leave that for a bit and work on the bruising while it settles. Senpai, ice pack, please.” He hands it over wrapped in a kitchen towel and Tenzou has Kenji hold it in place on his shoulder

“You know, that’s not a bad showing from a tussle with Tsume,” Kakashi remarks lightly. “Depending on what she looks like, I might even call it impressive. That woman hardly ever pulls her punches.”

“Yeah,” Kenji says, face tightening, “she really doesn’t.”

Tenzou breathes in, then out, and focuses on his chakra in Kenji’s system.

“Well, at least it was only Tsume by herself.” Kenji startles and looks at Kakashi, who chuckles darkly. “I’m assuming anyway. She and Kuromaru don’t usually go all out in a double team against outnumbered clansmen.” He tilts his head, “Even clansmen that can’t support a chakra bond.”

A wounded noise punches out of Kenji and his breathing goes ragged. “Th-that’s not-! It just happens sometimes,” he says desperately. His lips pull back in a terrified snarl, teeth on jagged display. “It don’t mean nothin’. M’still an Inuzuka. We’re- we’re more than just our nindog partnerships!” He’s almost hyperventilating now and Tenzou has to bite his tongue bloody to keep from doing something inadvisable. Like picking his own fight with Inuzuka Tsume.

Kakashi crouches to be eye level with Kenji. “Cub,” he says firmly and Kenji’s gaze jerks to meet his, “My grandmother was born Inuzuka Kaoru. I know what the Inuzuka think of clan members like her.” Kenji sucks in a startled breath. “That doesn’t make them right .”

Kenji’s face crumples and he falls into Kakashi’s chest, heaving sobs wracking his body for the second time in less than a month.

Tenzou sighs softly and rubs his hands over his face. When he drops them back in his lap, he sees Senpai has his arms wrapped awkwardly around the crying pre-teen, clearly at a loss for what to do now. Holding back a snort- welcome to Tenzou’s life-, he stands and motions for Kakashi to do the same.

When all he gets is Kakashi glancing pointedly at Kenji, Tenzou falls back onto Anbu field signs. “Carry him, idiot.”

Kakashi-senpai narrows his eye at Tenzou, but does as he’s told.

Tenzou next has him sit on the couch and gets him situated comfortably. Well, as comfortably as he can, given that Kenji is still clinging to him. Tenzou sits beside them and drags the quilt- Yuzuru’s gift- off the back of the couch to throw over all three of them.

When Kakashi keeps watching him expectantly, Tenzou grins slightly and pulls on Kenji’s feet until the boy is draped across both their laps. Kakashi sighs gustily, but he’s been resting a hand on the back of Kenji’s neck this whole time, thumb stroking in a gentle motion just under his ear, while his other one lays across Kenji’s back, holding him in place.

“S-sorry, Kaka-shi-san,” Kenji gasps out between sobs.

“Not your fault, cub,” Kakashi says. Then sighs again, softer this time.”Haven’t been part of a puppy pile in a long time, is all. Guess I’m out of practice.”

Tenzou knocks his ankle against Kakashi’s. “Well, I’ve never been in a puppy pile ever. Is it anything like a goat-kid pile? I’m getting very experienced at those.”

Senpai gives him a weird look for that, but Kenji snickers wetly, which is what he’d been aiming for. Kakashi peeks down at him.

“Do I want to know, or am I better off living in ignorance?” he asks.

Tenzou clicks his tongue. “Only fools find bliss in ignorance, Kakashi-senpai. Everyone knows that.”

Kenji’s crying slows to small, breathless hiccups. “Kinda wish I could be a fool right now,” he mutters.

Tenzou gives Kenji a gentle squeeze. “Want to talk about it?” He keeps his attention on his student, but he still sees the moment Kakashi gives up and slumps fully into the couch cushions.

As if that was the cue he was waiting for, Kenji says, in one long rush, “My mom was like me, no nindog partner. Went into Research and Development. Everyone called her either brilliant or coldly clinical, dependin’ on their mood and how off-putting they felt she was bein’. Couldn’t stand useless socializin’ or- or playin’.” He takes a shaky breath and tightens his grip on Kakashi’s vest, looking an inch away from bolting. When he slants a furtive glance at them, Tenzou makes sure to hold as calm and open an expression as he can and Kakashi never falters in his thumb’s slow rhythmic movement.

Kenji bites his lip, then doggedly continues, like he’s ripping off a bandage. “She was one of Orochimaru’s favorite lab assistants and talked him into helping her get pregnant with me.”

Tenzou… was not expecting that. He feels both locked in place and barely tethered. Long rows of green lit tubes fill his vision and he’s back in that prison that was his whole world, suspended in fluid and tangled cords. Watching helplessly as, one after another, each other container went dark and lifeless. Until Tenzou was the only one, left alone and forgotten…

He blinks back to the present with a jagged breath. Kenji is looking at him like he’s waiting for the hammer to fall and Tenzou struggles to pull himself together enough to reassure him. He opens his mouth, but nothing comes out.

Senpai stares blankly at the ceiling for a long moment, then scoffs dismissively. “If Orochimaru’s good opinion and former association is enough to condemn someone, then Jiraiya and Tsunade wouldn’t still be held in such high esteem. And,” he says, his voice straining, “a child shouldn’t be held accountable for their parent’s actions.”

Suddenly, Tenzou can breathe again. He rolls his shoulders with a deep sigh and makes a choice. Lifting his hands- and pushing through the whimper Kenji gives at the loss of contact-, he makes the familiar hand signs of his wood release to grow a chair. When it’s done, he leans back and puts his hands back down.

Then he roughly clears his throat and says, “As far as we know, there hasn’t been a natural user of wood release chakra since Senju Hashirama.” He turns to Kenji, who’s looking at him with dawning understanding and horrified sympathy. Tenzou manages a weak smile in response. “Anything else?” he asks wryly.

Kenji giggles, slightly hysterically. “No- no, that’s,” he sniffles and wipes his face, “that’s it, I think.”

“Oh, thank fuck,” Kakashi says suddenly and Tenzou and Kenji both startle. “No offense, cub, but I’ve just about exceeded my plot twist capacity for the year with this.”

“P-plot twist?” Kenji asks.

Kakashi nods sagely. “An unexpected development that alters your perception of the narrative. Fun in books, not in real life.”

Tenzou covers his eyes with a hand and laughs helplessly. “I second that plan. No more ‘plot twists’, please.”

“S’a good plan,” Kenji mumbles. His eyelids are drooping even more than normal, as exhaustion and relief cut through the last of his tension.

Tenzou shares a glance with Kakashi-senpai and, a few field signs later, says, “You’ll stay here tonight, Kenji, if that’s okay with you.” Kenji grunts what might be an agreement.

“Cub,” Kakashi says, and Kenji blinks a stubbornly bleary eye at him. “We’ll keep watch. Get some rest.”

“... ‘k.” And just like that, Kenji burrows his face into Senpai’s stomach and drifts off to sleep.

Tenzou waits a minute, then quietly says, “Thank you, Kakashi.”

Kakashi hums back non committedly. “Should probably let the Inuzuka know where the cub’s gotten to, just in case they don’t already know.” Tenzou scowls at that and Senpai huffs a laugh at him. “Poor child handling aside, he is still a clan member.”

“Yeah, I know,” Tenzou sighs. “I just- I knew he was having some issues at home, but this is…”

“Bit worse than you were expecting?” Kakashi asks dryly.

“Just a little, yeah.” They smile grimly at each other. Then Tenzou frowns pensively. “He can’t go back to living there like nothing happened, Kakashi. I don’t think he should go back at all , honestly.”

Kakashi’s gaze is heavy against the side of Tenzou’s face. Slowly, he nods. “Okay.”

Tenzou blinks. “Really?” Even though the Inuzuka clan could make their lives horrendously uncomfortable if they get offended at outsider involvement in clan business?

Some of that must have leaked into his tone or scent, because Kakashi sighs. “Really.” He looks down at Kenji, curled in his lap. “I’ll take care of it. Your team is leaving the village in just 3 days now. Should focus on getting ready. Cub’s going to need to find a new equilibrium before you go. There are still a few agreements and treatises between the Hatake and Inuzuka I could leverage, if Tsume wants to be difficult.”

Tenzou is so glad that it was Kakashi-senpai who found him in ROOT, all those years ago. He lists sideways to rest against Kakashi’s shoulder and hide his face. Senpai sighs like this is the most exasperating thing that’s ever happened to him, then summons Pakkun on Kenji’s back.

“Yo, Boss,” the little pug says. He leans down to sniff curiously at the sleeping boy, while Kakashi explains the situation. There’s a concerning gleam in his dewy eyes by the end of it. Even Senpai seems taken aback when Pakkun growls low in his throat. “No worries, Boss, I know just what to do .”

“... right,” Kakashi says. “Make sure to let them know not to mess with the cub’s things. I’ll be by tomorrow to collect everything.”

Pakkun gives a ferocious grin and lets himself out the window.

“Should we-,” Tenzou starts, but gets interrupted.

“Don’t worry about it,” Kakashi waves off his concern. “I told you, I’ll handle the Inuzuka.” Tenzou feels Kakashi’s cheek press against the top of his head briefly. “You get some rest, too, Tenzou. I’ve got it from here.”

“Alright. Wake me when you’re tired.” Tenzou lets himself fall into mission sleep between one breath and the next.

Chapter Text

Kenji

Kenji drifts slowly on the hazy edge of waking. There’s a soft blanket steeped in Yuzuru and Sensei’s scents wrapped around him and, if he presses his face just so into the cushions beneath him, he also gets whiffs of Kakashi-san. He’s alone on the couch now, but he easily hears Sensei moving about the kitchen, muttering to himself and making cooking noises.

Last night almost doesn’t feel real, but the lingering ache of his shoulder says otherwise. Kenji can’t believe he actually told someone, out loud, everything about his mom and Orochimaru. It feels… good, he decides. Yeah, it feels really good to get all that out of the tight little bottle he keeps it corked up in, way down deep.

He thinks if he did his qigong meditation right now, he’d float right off the ground with nothing left to weigh him down.

There’s still the issue of going back, but Kenji doesn’t want to think about that right now when he’s luxuriating in feeling safe and known by people who care about him, so he lets those worries fade to the background and wriggles deeper into the blanket. Sinks back down into blissful unconsciousness.

Some indeterminate amount of time later, Kenji’s jerked awake by a sudden weight on his chest. He blinks stupidly at Mimi’s scowling visage. She growls and crawls up to roughly bury her face in his neck.

“Nii-san went away,” she complains. “Said you weren’ goin’ ‘way till later.” There’s the salty tang of angry tears, with a sour undercurrent of grief.

Kenji rubs her back and nuzzles her hair. “Sorry, Mimi,” he says, because Den parent farce or not, he loves this fierce little pup that gets him. “Wait. How did you even get here?” He shuffles into a sitting position, Mimi clinging determinedly to his front.

“Yo,” Kakashi-san says from where he’s crouched in front of them with an eye smile and a carefully muffled scent.

Kenji blushes, bashful as memories of throwing himself at the man last night taunt him now in the daylight. “Good morning, Kakashi-san,” he says. Then he notices the cardboard boxes arrayed behind him. Sniffing curiously, Kenji catches his own distinct scent, along with Mimi’s, coming from them.

Kakashi-san chuckles sheepishly and rubs the back of his head. “Ahaha, surprise…?” Kenji tilts his head questioningly and Kakashi-san clears his throat. “Maa, well, I went to your old compound to get your things-” what? “-because Tenzou and I agreed it would be better for you to stay somewhere else, at least for a while, after your fight with Tsume. Especially since you’ll be leaving in just a few days.” Oh. Mimi whines softly at the reminder of his imminent departure and Kenji gives her a squeeze. Kakashi-san, bafflingly, reaches out to ruffle her hair. And she lets him.

“Yes, imagine my surprise when Hiza-chan let me into your room and this scrappy cub ambushed my ankles.” Kenji can indeed imagine that. “More shocking, though,” Kakashi-san continues, “was how she coated her little chompers with white lightning chakra.”

“Senpai!” Tenzou-sensei calls aggrievedly from the stove. “What have I said about puns before coffee?”

Kakashi-san hums with a twinkle in his eye that’s so reminiscent of Yuzuru’s that Kenji has trouble keeping a straight face. “I don’t know that I recall anything specific, Tenzou-kun. Was it something about grounds for acceptable murder?”

Kenji manages to deadpan, “That’s some black humour, Kakashi-san. Are you sure Sensei deserves that kind of roasting?”

“Oh gods, there’s two of them,” Sensei whispers and Kenji loses control of his snickering.

Mimi lifts her tear streaked face to glare at everyone suspiciously. “I don’t get it,” she sulks.

“Maa, we’re just playing with words that have more than one meaning depending on their context, or sound like other words,” Kenji placates.

“Oh.” Her forehead wrinkles. “So s’like, like sayin’ a bear wit’ no teeth issa gummy bear?”

There’s a beat of silence. Then Sensei gives a defeated groan and Kakashi-san and Kenji burst into laughter. Mimi startles out a giggle, not expecting their reactions.

“Yes, Mimi-chan,” Kakashi-san says. “That’s exactly what it’s like.” He stands to his feet, still laughing under his breath. “Come on,” he beckons them over to the table. “Smells like breakfast is almost done.”

Kenji goes with him, hefting Mimi in his arms, and settles in a chair as Kakashi-san sets the table and Sensei brings over the food. It’s simple miso soup and rice fare, with fish flakes for protein, but it’s not burnt or undercooked like Kenji had been halfway expecting. Mimi, as usual, refuses to leave his lap. The two men watch in bemusement as Kenji briskly serves himself and sets a small amount aside for her to work through on her own.

“Thank you for the food,” Kenji and Mimi both say. Sensei and Kakashi-san echo them and everyone digs in.

Kenji vaguely registers Kakashi-san carefully eating so his face stays hidden, but he’s more focused on Mimi’s progress. She actually finishes everything he gave her, though refuses an offer for seconds. Sensei hums contentedly and something in Kenji unclenches at the easy domestic air.

Kakashi-san’s description of ‘white lightning’ chakra, specifically, sticks in his mind, though, and he gives into asking when the meal is mostly done.

“Hmm? Ah, yes,” he says. “It’s one of the defining features of the Hatake clan, cub.” Kenji stares, because- what?

“What?” he says.

Kakashi-san looks both terribly amused and achingly pained. “Intermingling between the Hatake and Inuzuka used to be, hm, not common per say, but not unheard of, back when my clan was more than just me.” He pauses, takes a deep breath, then pushes on. “One of the agreements between our two clans was that the Hatake would always be granted custody of Inuzuka children that showed Hatake traits, on account of Hatake chakra not being compatible with the traditional Inuzuka techniques. Of course, because of the stigma the Inuzuka clan holds against clan members that aren’t ‘Inuzuka enough’, the Hatake agreement also specifies that any child that can’t perform the Inuzuka jutsu is to be considered Hatake unless otherwise challenged.”

Kenji can’t breathe. There’s a tiny spark of… something in his chest that feels as though any sudden movement will shatter. He looks at the boxes of his and Mimi’s belongings, then back to Kakashi-san and he can’t quite bring himself to ask the question burning in his throat, because what if he’s wrong.

Tenzou-sensei is still and silent, no hint of his thoughts and feelings in his scent or body language. One of these days, Kenji is going to figure out how he does that.

“Whazzat mean?” Mimi asks, piercing through Kenji’s whirling thoughts.

Kakashi-san clears his throat. “It means that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, I can claim you both as members of the Hatake clan. If you want. It’s just an option. You can choose to stay Inuzuka if you want, though that’ll take some finagling after the conversation I just had with Tsume. But don’t-”

“Kakashi,” Sensei interjects, laying a hand on his arm, “are you saying that, because Mimi has this Hatake specific chakra, you were able to use that as a basis for putting a claim on her, and Kenji as well? Because he doesn’t have a nindog partner?”

“Yes,” he says, relief and helplessness clear before he also pulls his scent into nonexistence.

It strikes Kenji then, that Kakashi-san said he was the last of his clan. And he’s never heard of any other Hatake, so it’s also not a recent development. Kenji glances down at Mimi and thinks Kakashi-san’s earlier joke of being shocked was probably a vast understatement. So much for no more plot twists, he thinks.

With that in mind, it’s an easier thing to bow respectfully, bringing Mimi with him. “Thank you, Kakashi-san. We are honored to be invited into the Hatake clan. Please take care of us.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The process of joining another clan is more complicated than just that, of course, even with an established inter-clan agreement smoothing the way.

For one, Kakashi-san lives in a shoebox apartment even smaller than Tenzou-sensei’s, so they have to decide if they want to go hunting for another or go through the work of reopening the old Hatake grounds along the western edge of the village wall near the Naka river.

Mimi’s demands to see the place and her subsequent declaration that “Why are you stupid? Your pack is here, so we should be here too,” take the decision out of their hands. Apparently Kakashi-san hadn’t known that his summons were using his childhood home as a base camp. Very much like Yuzuru’s goats and the Tachibana-Uemura house.

Tenzou-sensei gave Kenji the day off from training and office duties, with a wry promise to keep the rest of the team occupied, so they can get settled in private before being descended upon. So there’s no reason to not get started moving in immediately.

It’s clearly difficult for Kakashi-san to be here, but he still chuckles at Mimi terrorizing the dogs as they lead her on a run around the traditionally styled main house. He’s already added Kenji and Mimi to the fuuinjutsu wards circling the property and seems confident in leaving her to the tender mercies of his pack, so Kenji follows his lead and walks into the house behind him.

“Maa, not too bad for almost twenty years of being closed up,” Kakashi-san says, tapping his foot against the wooden flooring of the hallway.

“Mm,” Kenji agrees and slides open a door to a large empty room. “Tatami’s gonna have to be replaced, though. Shoji screens, too.”

“Yeah, but that’s only to be expected, really.” He heads to the kitchen to inspect the sink and faucet. “I’ll have a plumber come out to take a look at all the piping. That’s not an area you want to DIY, really.” He stands and moves further into the house, joining Kenji in peering inside closets.

They both sneeze and wrinkle their noses at the heavy mothball scent coming from the old linens and bedding. Kakashi-san closes that door firmly and ushers Kenji to the next area. “We’ll just replace anything cloth,” he decides and Kenji nods in fervent agreement.

There’s six bedrooms, a kitchen, dining area, three general purpose rooms they can tailor as desired, a library that Kenji cannot wait to look through, a dojo, several closets, an engawa that wraps around the entire building, plus an attached bathing house.

All in all, the bones of the place seem well preserved and the only daunting part of the whole task is going to be washing all the dust and dirt away. But they’re only focusing on the large main building to start with, so it’s not as bad as it could be.

It’s not a terribly grand estate, but it is sprawling. A few smaller homes are scattered near the main house on a roomy five acres spreading from the river bank to a small clan forest, with easy access to a well hidden side gate in the village wall that the Hatake clan, apparently, got special permission for when they joined the initial Uchiha-Senju coalition. When Kenji asks if the current administration is aware of its presence, Kakashi-san smiles brightly and assures him that the appropriate paperwork is, of course, always available to the Hokage for review on request. Kenji snorts at that convoluted ‘no’, but ultimately decides not to worry about it.

Armed with a mental list of what the house will need, they collect Mimi and head out to put orders in for materials at various establishments. Mimi ends up choosing most of the color scheme and furnishings, since he and Kakashi-san don’t have many strong preferences. It adds some much needed interest to an otherwise boring errand and the two of them make a game of giving outrageous suggestions to see who can pull the most disgusted or disdainful look from the opinionated toddler.

Kenji tries a couple times to ask Kakashi-san how he wants to split the costs of everything, but gets rebuffed and redirected enough that he stops asking and just starts taking note of all the prices. Kakashi-san probably doesn’t want to talk finances in public, is all. Plus, Kenji realizes, they’re going to have to pay for some kind of childcare for Mimi. Kenji’s mission schedule will have him out of the village more often than not and Kakashi-san is a jounin, so he’s probably in high demand for higher ranking missions.

Not to mention house chores. What kind of food shopping, cooking, and cleaning schedule would Kakashi-san prefer? Maybe he’s expecting something like the Den uses, where the kids share most of the small daily work and the adults supervise and finance everything. But that wouldn’t be very fair to Mimi since she’ll be the one most often at home.

And schooling. Mimi is so smart and she’s gonna need lots of mentally stimulating activities. Already, she knows how to spell her name and can recognize a half dozen kanji and all the hiragana alphabet. Kenji’s taught her Anko-nee’s clapping game for learning jutsu hand signs and she found the diagrams in his medical texts, so he taught her all about those, and-

“Cub.” Kakashi-san drops a hand on top of his head and leans down to make eye contact with him. Kenji stares, not sure why breathing is so difficult all of a sudden. “Cub- Kenji. Blink if you can hear me, please.”

He blinks, though he’s not sure why Kakashi-san wants him to, then blinks some more when he registers that his eyes are too dry. And then they’re too wet, there’s tears flowing down his cheeks and snot clogging his nose, he’s not gonna be able to catch any scent indicators from Kakashi-san like this, kami-sama, he needs to stop crying so much all the time-

“Ok,” Kenji hears rumble through Kakashi-san’s chest under his ear, as Mimi clings to his leg and adds her own tears to the cacophony, “It’s ok, cubs. We’ll just. Go home-” Kenji whines sharply, sick at just the thought of going through the Inuzuka compound like this, “-to Tenzou’s place! Yes, we’re going back to Tenzou’s apartment, and it’ll be calm and quiet and we’ll all calm down and be quiet and it’ll be… fine. Right? Right. Alright, off we go.”

Kakashi-san’s chakra wraps around them in a series of long distance shunshin and then they’re standing in the middle of Tenzou-sensei’s kitchen. Kenji stumbles at the abrupt stop and falls on his butt, only just managing to not squish Mimi. The room fills with chakra smoke as Kakashi-san summons his pack.

The great mass of happily wriggling dog bodies swarms around them with excited yips that quickly turn concerned.

“Puppies sad?”

“Boss, what’d you do?”

“Who do we need to bite?!”

Next thing Kenji knows, he’s in a big furry pile in front of the couch, blanket not quite able to cover everyone as the dogs all cuddle close around him and Mimi. He wipes his gross sticky face and locates Kakashi-san watching from the couch with an unreadable gaze. He bites his lip and looks down at his hands twisting in his lap.

He fucked up. Not even a full day and Kenji’s already managed to disappoint his new clan head.

“Kenji,” Kakashi-san says and Kenji can’t quite hide a wince at the loss of being ‘cub’. There’s a sigh above him, some shuffling noises, and then Kakashi-san is sitting in front of Kenji on the floor after carefully rearranging a few dog and toddler limbs.

“I think,” Kakashi-san says slowly, “that we should talk about what it means for you to be Hatake. Not just how it makes you no longer Inuzuka, but the expectations of the Hatake clan for its members.” Kenji nods miserably, tears pricking at the corners of his eyes as he braces for his scolding.

Kakashi-san leans his head in his hand, elbow propped on a grey dog with a dark mohawk. “First thing, I suppose, is that, even during our clan’s height, we were never very large and, historically, had more nomadic tendencies than most other shinobi clans.”

Oh. “That’s why the personal gate?” Kenji asks.

An affirming nod, then Kakashi-san continues. “Part of the reason we joined Konoha was to have a safe place for our cubs- children- to grow up in relative safety while the adults traveled.”

This is familiar enough reasoning to Kenji. “Like the Inuzuka have the Den for kids without much parental guidance.” He’s surprised when Kakashi-san makes a face.

“Not exactly,” he says. “The Inuzuka clan have a more… communal emphasis, in general, than the Hatake. We lean more towards small packs, loosely affiliated, that work cooperatively.” Kenji makes a questioning noise in the back of his throat, the opportunity to learn something new smothering some of his anxiety. The dogs around them have fallen silent, listening intently, and Mimi is resting quietly against an enormous bulldog, holding a thumb in her mouth.

Kakashi-san gives his attentive audience a wry glance. “You know the origins of the Inuzuka’s nindog affiliation?” he asks and Kenji nods.

“Was a summons pack what decided to give up their home in the dog clan’s territories and bound themselves fully to their human partners.”

One of the dogs, the one wearing sunglasses, snorts derisively, “S’one way of tellin’ it I guess.”

Kenji glances at him curiously, but Kakashi-san waves off his budding questions. “Maa, it’s close enough for now. The details aren’t important for this discussion. Ah, don’t worry, cub,” he grins at Kenji’s pout, “we can have more history lessons later if you’re really interested.” Kenji nods and looks down shyly, pleased that his nickname is back.

“Anyway,” Kakashi-san continues. “The part that differentiates the two clans the most is that, while the Inuzuka are all bonded in one large pack, the Hatake hold loyalty to many different canine summons families. Which is one of the reasons we don’t always get along with our Inuzuka comrades, even though we have similar canine instincts and drives” he says wryly. “They expect a certain amount of assimilation to their clan ways from all their members, with little deviation allowed for nonconforming individuals. Whereas we, the Hatake, understand that our clan only works by respecting our differences, even as we acknowledge our shared similarities.”

Old grief, at all the ways he’s never quite fit with the other Inuzuka, wells up from deep inside and Kenji has to rub at the tightness in his chest. A greyhound wrapped in shinobi compression bandages squirms into his lap and licks at his face. Kenji gives her a small smile and scratches behind her ears.

“Basically,” Kenji looks back up at Kakashi-san, “while you might be used to trying to live up to certain expectations from the Inuzuka clan, we Hatake just do whatever works for us, with room to adapt and alter our routines depending on the changing needs of individual clan members.” Kakashi-san’s voice is kind but stern. “Meaning that, when I say not to worry about household costs, I mean that I, as your clan head and a fully grown adult of our household, want you to not worry about household costs.” His voice turns vaguely self-deprecating, “I happen to be fairly personally wealthy, since I’ve only had myself to support for a long time, and the clan’s coffers aren’t exactly empty either.”

Kenji lets that slowly sink in, turning it over in his head to get the full flavor of this new and strange way of doing things. Considers all the things he’s uncertain of. Decides that it’s probably safe to just. Tell Kakashi-san everything he’s worried about. They can’t solve anything if he never brings up the problems in the first place. It’s not too different from how his team works together actually, now he thinks on it.

And that’s what finally gives him the gumption to roll his shoulders and sit up out of his hunched slouch.

“So, um, what are we going to do about taking care of Mimi, if we’re going to be busy with missions?”

Kakashi-san leans to rest casually against the couch behind him. “Well, I’ve already gotten permission for a sabbatical from active duty.” Kenji blinks and gapes at him. When-? “Physical clones are terribly useful for running errands,” Kakashi-san chuckles. “And Psych has been trying to get me to take time off for years. That I’m doing so now because of two newly adopted clan members just means that they were even more eager to grant my request. They’ll only let Hokage-sama pull me for in-village duty, if they allow him to pull me at all, honestly.”

Kenji slumps in relief and collapses to lay across the dogs. “Ok,” he breathes out. “How-” he stutters, clears his throat. “How do you want to split chores? Like cleaning and cooking and stuff?” His face burns at the audacity of asking an adult clan member to clean up after him, even as obliquely as this. Pups are supposed to learn from their elders and then take over what tasks and duties they’re capable of to free the adults’ time up for more important things.

Kakashi-san gives him a wryly incredulous look. “Cub, I just told you that I’m on sabbatical. That means I’m going to be around and free from duty all the time for at least a year and I’ll be hunting for things to do even if you don’t take over any of the chores.” He sighs long-sufferingly. “Though I suppose, if you really can’t help yourself, I won’t stop you from washing dishes or cooking a few times while you’re at home.”

Kenji gazes blankly at the ceiling for a long moment then snorts roughly. “This is gonna be really weird, isn’t it Kakashi-san?”

“Oh, cub, it’s already exceedingly weird. And, do me a favor? Drop the ‘san’.” At the look on Kenji’s face, he elaborates, “this is going to be odd enough without the extra formalities. And we’re technically… family now.”

Mimi chooses this moment to pull her thumb from between her teeth and say, “Kaka-ji.”

There’s dumbfounded silence. Then doggy laughter fills the room and Kenji giggles helplessly at the hangdog look from Kakashi-sa… Kakashi.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kenji gets to see Kakashi’s advanced clone jutsu when he sends one out to pick up lunch. He notices Kenji’s interested gaze.

“It’s called a shadow clone,” he explains. “Chakra intensive and you get all of the clone’s memories when it dispels, which can make it disorienting to use in the field, which is why it’s only rarely taught to anyone under jounin rank.”

Kenji makes a small noise to acknowledge the underlying warning. “Sounds like it’d be useful for reconnaissance or book learnin’ though.”

Kakashi chuckles. “Yes. It’s no help with developing muscle memory, but any kind of mental training does carry over. Including the headaches that come with prolonged mental strain.” He tilts his head wryly. “Ask me how I know.”

Kenji snickers and helps Mimi wash her face and hands in the sink, then does the same for himself. One of Kakashi’s dogs clears his throat and Kenji glances over to see the pug giving Kakashi an unimpressed stare.

“This is nice and all, Boss,” he rumbles in a surprisingly deep voice. “But are you planning on getting on with the ritual anytime soon?”

Kakashi actually flushes red, just slightly. “I’m trying not to overwhelm them with too much at once, Pakkun,” he grumbles back.

Pakkun levels him with a look that says exactly what he thinks of that excuse and Kenji has to bite his lip to hold in a laugh. “Kenji-cub’s leaving on mission in a few days,” he says sternly. “Are you really going to let him go out without backup?”

Backup? What? Kenji’s suddenly a lot more invested in the discussion.

“Not to mention,” Pakkun continues, “Mimi-chan deserves to have a first meeting with Kenji-cub here to support her.”

Kenji has a sinking feeling about this. He sends a desperate glance Kakashi’s way, but the man looks to be caving.

“You’re right, you’re right,” he says, holding up placating hands. He turns to Kenji and blinks at whatever he must see on his face. “Maa, maa, it’s nothing bad, cub, I promise.” He comes over and awkwardly plucks Mimi from Kenji’s numb grip. Balancing her on one hip, he uses his free hand to steer Kenji back to the floor in front of Sensei’s couch.

The little tan dog with spots over his eyes carries over a gigantic scroll that wasn’t there a moment ago. Kenji’s stomach drops to somewhere around his feet and he presses back against Kakashi’s hand still on his shoulder. Kakashi glances questioningly at him and Kenji stares back helplessly, not sure how to articulate his dread without insulting the man or his summons.

Some of it must come through though, because Kakashi’s eye widens in what seems to be understanding and he turns to crouch in front of Kenji. Mimi glances between them, clearly confused, but stays quiet.

“Every Hatake signs the clan summoning contract,” Kakashi says without mercy. “But, Kenji,” he squeezes his shoulder gently for emphasis, “Not every Hatake is a summoner.” Kenji shakes his head disbelievingly. “Yes,” Kakashi says firmly, no room for argument. “The contract doubles as a clan registry, to keep a record of our dead and living clan members. And to mark our commitment to our canine allies, even if not every Hatake wants to- or can- be a summoner. We sign as a promise that they can also summon us for aid.”

That breaks through the morass of self-doubt and fear swirling through Kenji’s gut. He looks down at Pakkun who nods solemnly.

“The pact between the Hatake and the canine clans has always been one of mutual aid and care,” he says gravely.

“Oh,” Kenji breathes. Then, softly, “So if I, if I can’t-” he can’t quite make himself finish, but Kakashi smiles gently at him all the same.

“Of course it’s fine, cub. You’ll be Hatake whether or not you connect with any personal summons.”

Kenji looks at him and Mimi, at the small pack sitting in various states of excitement, then nods and sits determinedly in front of the contract scroll. The dogs woof and cheer and he manages a shaky smile for them.

Kakashi settles next to him with a quiet huff and Mimi crawls out of his lap to sit between them, glancing around expectantly.

“What now?” she asks.

“Now,” Kakashi opens the scroll and unrolls it in front of them, “you and Kenji get to write your names here.” He points to two blank spaces next to the only name still bright as fresh blood, Hatake Kakashi. All the others are a dull rusty color, their owners long since passed away. “And that will finalize your adoption into the Hatake clan.”

“Oh,” Mimi says. She scrunches her nose. “Do we hafta write Inuzuka for our names?”

Kakashi chuckles, even as Kenji blinks as the reality of everything comes over him. “No, you can use Hatake. This is how it’s written.” He guides her tiny hand in tracing the characters on his own signature, so she can learn the unfamiliar shape. “Do you want to go first, Mimi-chan?”

She turns shy suddenly, hunching her shoulders and pulling her arms in close. When she looks at Kenji beseechingly, he grins ruefully and scrubs a hand through her wild hair.

“Watch how I do it, ok? Then you can have your own turn.” Mimi relaxes and nods agreeably.

Kenji shares an amused glance with Kakashi, then, without further ado, bites his thumb and drags it across the paper. The new signature comes out less shaky than he expected, ‘Hatake Kenji’ appearing in clear, even lines, then he places his bloody fingerprints below it. He feels the small pull at his chakra as the scroll takes a small sample, for storage and monitoring presumably.

He can see Kakashi open his mouth behind his cloth mask, but Kenji doesn’t wait for whatever he might say or ask next. There’s nervous anticipation singing in his veins and he wants to do this before his nerve fails him.

Forming the signs for the summoning jutsu, Kenji ignores Kakashi’s small noise of surprise, concentration centered on the chakra flowing into the technique he'd memorized long ago, even if he'd never worked up the courage to try it before now. It feels… questing, almost. Like it’s searching for something in specific. Kenji keeps feeding it, eager to find what it’s looking for. There are muffled tendrils of foreign chakra brushing against his, testing and tasting in equal measure, until, finally, there’s one that catches and clings. It flares bright and clear like a beacon, slotting a small hook in his soul that fits like it was always meant to be there.

“Kuchiyose no jutsu!” he shouts and lets the new presence pull on his chakra coils like a tug rope. There’s a cloud of chakra smoke and then Kenji’s gazing into luminous amber eyes.

He did it.

He did it! Kenji grins widely, too ecstatic to care about his fangs, and the dark face in front of him answers with a lolling tongue and its own toothy smile.

His new companion is a beautiful, leggy wolfdog mix, her fur a starry sky at midnight. Kenji breathes deep to scent her as he watches her watch him and laughs when she sticks her nose in his face for her own inquisitive whiff.

“Hi,” he says breathlessly. “I’m Kenji.” He pauses, then grins some more. “My name is Hatake Kenji.”

“Hello, Hatake Kenji,” she says in a ringing alto, “I am Benihime, of Timber Wolf and Dog.” Her tail wags a pleased and steady rhythm.

They might have continued quietly inspecting each other, but the reverie is broken by Mimi’s lunging shout of, “Me next!”

Kenji and Benihime scramble out of the way of her dive towards the scroll, landing in an ungainly heap as Mimi slaps down a messy signature and handprint. Then she’s speeding through the summoning hand signs she’s seen only once and Kenji and Kakashi are yelling strangled warnings that Mimi completely ignores to slam her hand against the floor with a triumphant cry.

The chakra smoke clears on Mimi buried under six sooty-furred little bodies with large pointed ears, all of them sniffing her over eagerly. She giggles happily and there’s lots of high pitched puppy voices overlapping in an indistinguishable jumble of tails and paws.

“Uh…” Kenji says. Benihime climbs onto the couch to escape the flailing play fight that’s broken out in front of them.

“Hng,” Kakashi wheezes.

His pack laughs uproariously and Pakkun in particular seems terribly smug and amused. “I’ll go see if I can’t find their mother,” he snickers.

“Yeah, ok, sure, good plan,” Kakashi says. Pakkun disappears in a small puff of smoke.

It’s hard to tell with all the rolling around, but Kenji thinks Mimi’s new friends have darker markings along their legs, as though they’ve got tall stockings on, and dark stripes down their backs. He glances up at Benihime and decides she’s got the right idea of it. He climbs up next to her and pulls his feet up on the cushions for good measure. Kakashi just sighs, then rolls the Hatake summoning scroll up and puts it to the side where it won’t be tripped over.

Some of his pack are wading bravely into the fray, herding the little ones away from making too big a mess. Any further discussions are tabled in favor of listening to the littlest pack members introduce themselves and loudly exclaim over this new and exciting adventure.

It takes some effort to get their names parsed out from the rest of their play growls and shouts, but Kenji manages to ascertain that they are Tsubaki, Hinageshi, Asagao, Renge, Yotsuba, and Suisen. No idea what clan they’re from, but one thing at a time he guesses.

Kakashi slips away into the kitchen, still close, but far enough removed to have some breathing space. He sets out the, now lukewarm, lunch things on the table and calls Kenji and Mimi over. There’s enough to share with everyone, even with the unexpected additions, and they all happily chow down.

After the late lunch, Mimi says she wants to show her new partners the ‘big house we all live in now’. So they all head back out to the Hatake estate to give a tour of the house and grounds.

Leaving the older dogs and Benihime in charge of the puppies, Kakashi and Kenji set to cleaning out at least two bedrooms and the toilets, so they’ll have somewhere to sleep tonight that isn’t Kakashi’s cramped apartment or infringing on Tenzou-sensei’s space. Luckily, they managed to grab a couple new futons and blankets while they were out earlier, and there was a plumber available today, who already came out and turned the water back on after giving the pipes an all clear.

With those bare necessities met, they celebrate with more takeout, eaten on the engawa to enjoy the evening breeze.

Tenzou-sensei finds them that way, sprawled across the elevated walkway, surrounded by lounging canines and ravaged food containers. He stands on the lawn, regarding them with his hands on his hips, until Kakashi fishes out one last meal that was hidden away and silently offers it to him.

Sensei sighs and shakes his head, but smiles as he takes it and sits down to eat.

“Looks like you all had a busy day,” he remarks when he’s mostly done with his food. “I’m Tenzou, by the way,” he says to the newer additions to the group. There’s a sleepy round of introductions and ‘nice to meet you’s’.

Kenji fidgets with his happuri, then gives in to asking, “How were Hanami and Yuzuru?”

“Hm, confused mostly, and a little concerned, because I didn’t tell them much. Just that you and Mimi are moving in with a family member who’s willing to share his home and you’ll now be living outside the Inuzuka compound.”

“Oh,” Kenji says. “Were they… mad?”

“Why would they be mad?” Sensei looks genuinely perplexed.

“Because I wasn’t at training. Or that I asked you to keep them away today. Or because this all came out of nowhere, and we’re just about to leave on our first mission outside Konoha. And, you know, this whole thing is cutting into our preparation time…” Kenji trails off uncomfortably.

“Kenji,” Tenzou says exasperatedly, “You three are as prepared as you can be. Even if we left right now, tonight, you’d be ready.” When all Kenji does is look at him skeptically, he sighs. “Is your travel bag packed with all the extra additions we discussed?”

Kenji blinks. “Well, yeah. You walked us through it more’n a week ago. It’s been sitting ready since then.”

Tenzou nods, “And the mission parameters are clear? You don’t have any questions about our goals for this first trip?”

“Yes, Sensei,” Kenji scoffs, rolling his eyes for good measure. “All we’re doin’ is distributing the updated emergency protocols to the towns and outposts immediately surrounding Konoha and checkin’ their supplies and infrastructure. Could do that in my sleep by this point,” he finishes in a mutter.

Kakashi chuckles from his reclined position. “Ah, cub,” he says. “That’s more than ninety percent of all mission prep right there.”

“... Really?”

“Really, Kenji,” Sensei laughs.

“Huh.” Kenji contemplates this. “What’s the other ten percent?”

“Contingencies for when things go sideways,” Kakashi says.

Tenzou-sensei looks at Kenji with an expectant eyebrow, so he dutifully rattles off, “Retreat and regroup; retreat and flee; hold position and call for reinforcements; detour and continue on.”

Kakashi raises his head in the middle of Kenji’s recitation and, at the end of it, he whistles appreciatively. He turns to Sensei, clearly impressed. “Damn, Tenzou, you should write some sort of teaching manual.”

Sensei smiles serenely.

Kakashi sobers a little. “That’s a fine enough set of plan alterations for genin, but you should expect that list to grow and change as you go up in rank,” he says to Kenji. “The expected duties of chuunin and jounin often mean that you’ll end up being the reinforcements.”

Nodding seriously, Kenji stands and stretches. “I’ll keep it in mind. I’m sure putting it to practice is also gonna be a learnin’ experience,” he grins wryly.

Chuckling quietly, Sensei says, “Everything is a work in progress. We’ll adjust as we go, but having a starting point is important.”

“Yeah,” Kenji says, glancing at Kakashi ruefully. “We ah, talked about that some earlier.”

“Oh?” Sensei asks, looking between them.

“Yes,” Kakashi sighs and sits up fully. “Just a few misunderstandings we needed to smooth out. Isn’t that right, Mimi-chan?”

Mimi rubs her eyes as she stands and walks over. “Mm,” she agrees with a nod. “Kaka-ji told us ‘bout bein’ Hatake.” She sways gently on her feet, more than ready to fall asleep at any moment.

Sensei mouths ‘Kaka-ji’ to himself mirthfully. Sighing, Kakashi sweeps Mimi into his arms as he rolls to his feet. She allows it with only a token grumble, then yawns toothily. The futons are already made up, so he carries her inside for bed. Then proceeds to stand in the doorway, clearly unsure of what comes next.

Kenji snorts and goes to help. Rummaging through her things, he pulls out pajamas and a toothbrush and leads Kakashi to the bathroom. He watches intently as Kenji guides Mimi through her bedtime routine and Kenji almost expects him to whip out pen and paper to take notes.

After that’s done, they go back to the bedroom set up for Mimi and Kenji to share for the night. Mimi’s new summons are already curled up in the sheets and only barely move to make space for her to lay down with them. All seven of them heave tiny sighs and snuggle impossibly closer.

And with that responsibility taken care of, Kenji finds himself fighting his own yawns. Kakashi chuckles at him.

“Bedtime for you, too, cub. It’s been a busy day,” he says softly.

Kenji wrinkles his nose, but Benihime slinks in and gently nudges his arm. “I could sleep,” she says. “We can talk tomorrow.”

… That futon does look real comfy. “Yeah, alright,” he sighs. He pokes his head out the door to say goodnight to Sensei and Kakashi, then collapses into sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day starts with a bang.

Literally, a bang, as Yuzuru loudly slams open the front door and yells good morning, Hanami and Sensei following with futile shushing noises. Hoofbeats clatter down the hall unerringly towards Kenji’s bedroom and he flings himself from bed to cut them off before they wake the puppies.

“Yuzuru!” he hisses from the doorway. She slides to a stop in front of him, startling at his frown. Kenji leans to the side and gestures emphatically behind him. Her eyes go wide.

“Oops,” she whispers. “Sorry, Kenji.” She shuffles backwards and grins at him sheepishly. Manju and Mochi also give quiet apologies.

Kenji sighs and scrubs a hand over his face. “Just. Lemme get dressed, ok? I’ll be right out.” Yuzuru nods and retreats down the hall, goats in tow.

Turning around, he almost runs into Benihime. The large wolfdog is eye level with his throat on all fours and he marvels at how quietly she can move. She’s peering around him out the door, sniffing intently.

He sighs and scoots around her bulk. “My teammates are here apparently. I’ll introduce you in a sec.”

She looks at him with a hooded gaze. “Very well,” she says primly and sits on her haunches to wait.

Emerging into the kitchen a few minutes later, Kenji lets the last of his annoyance fade when he sees the breakfast his team brought. Kakashi is already there, conversing in low tones with Sensei.

“Good morning, Kenji,” Hanami says. “Sensei mentioned you’d moved, so we thought you might like some help cleaning and unpacking.” She turns to Benihime curiously. “Hello,” she holds her hand out politely for the wolfdog to sniff, “my name is Akimichi Hanami. Tachibana Yuzuru and I are Kenji’s teammates and these are Yuzuru’s summons, Manju and Mochi.” Hanami gestures to everyone in turn.

“Good morning, Akimichi Hanami. I am Hatake Kenji’s primary summons partner, Benihime, of clans Timber Wolf and Dog,” she says proudly.

Hanami and Yuzuru both freeze and Kenji holds in a whimpering groan. They swing their heads slowly towards him. He sighs heavily.

“Food first,” he begs.

Kakashi and Sensei watch in bemusement as the girls pull every detail from him. Well. Almost every detail. Kenji doesn’t mention his parents or anything about Tenzou-sensei’s wood release. But everything else gets laid bare before the combined might of their relentless questioning.

By the end of it Kakashi is watching them with something akin to wary intrigue. “You know, if disaster relief doesn’t work out, I think you two would do well in the Intelligence division,” he remarks. “T&I is always on the lookout for new talent.”

Sensei elbows him with a scowl. “No poaching my students, Senpai. Especially not for a division you don’t even work for!”

Kakashi raises his hands placatingly, “Maa, Kouhai, it was just a suggestion.” At Sensei’s continued displeasure, he sighs. “Alright, alright, I promise not to mention it again.”

Sensei settles back down with a huff. Yuzuru snickers at them, though Hanami is clearly relieved that no one will be recommending her for T&I.

With that out of the way, they clean up the dishes, leaving some food covered for Mimi and the others for whenever they wake up. Kakashi says he suspects they’ll sleep for quite a while. They did, after all, have a very exciting day with lots of chakra usage yesterday.

The plan they come up with for the cleaning is to take out all the tatami and shoji panels that need to be fixed or replaced and leave them just outside the dojo for now. Then throw away all the broken or rotting furnishings and linens and wash whatever can be salvaged. They all have on clothes they don’t mind getting dirty, so they dive right into working.

Benihime follows Kenji and helps wherever the lack of opposable thumbs doesn’t get in her way. They keep up a steady flow of conversation, eager to get to know one another. Yuzuru and Hanami join in every now and again with their own remarks and explanations of the work their team does, but for the most part the girls stick to talking with each other and the goats. They know Kenji and Benihime have a lot to talk about and let them bond in relative privacy.

Kenji’s so thankful to have such a great team.

By the time they break for lunch, Kenji has managed to convince Benihime that she can just call him Kenji. No need for his full name every time. Yuzuru almost fell over with giggles when Benihime tried to get him to answer to ‘Kenji-sama’. Even Hanami’s shoulders were shaking with suppressed laughter.

While they eat, Yuzuru asks Kakashi about the fuuinjutsu used to keep the house in repair while it wasn’t being used.

“My jounin-sensei sealed it up for me after my father died,” he says. “Why do you ask?”

“Well, because it’s not all Konoha standard. Where else did he learn sealing from, do you know?”

Kakashi blinks at her in surprise, then grins slightly. “Ah, a fuuinjutsu enthusiast. You’re right, he did learn multiple schools of fuuinjutsu. I think some of it might have been from Wind country and he also studied from the Toad sages.” Mochi bleats derisively, but doesn’t say anything further. After a moment, Kakashi continues. “And, of course, he learned extensively from notes left by the seal masters of Whirlpool.”

Yuzuru hums thoughtfully and mutters a quiet “that’s what I thought”, but doesn’t pursue the subject further. Instead, she changes the topic and the conversation moves on.

Urushi comes in at one point to let them know that Mimi and her pack are awake and to reassure Kenji and Kakashi they have the puppies in hand. Kenji helps the ninken carry food and drinks out to the engawa for them to snack on. With a brief head ruffle for Mimi, he heads back to the others and the cleaning continues.

Yuzuru’s chakra strings prove exceptionally useful for getting into corners and smaller spaces and Kenji wastes a bit of time figuring out how to make them for himself. Success is limited, but he can manage one string at a time well enough to make the effort worth it. He’ll leave Yuzuru to multitask multiple strings per hand, thanks.

Kakashi is surprised, but Sensei just shakes his head. “This is everyday, Senpai.” He pats Kakashi’s back bracingly. “You’ll get used to it.”

Eventually, they notice Hanami is missing from the group. They find her back in the kitchen, scrubbing every surface to within an inch of its life. Cabinets, pantries, oven, nothing is safe from her cleaning rag. She waves them off cheerfully before Sensei can even finish asking if she wants help.

“Don’t worry about it. This is easy stuff!” So they leave her to it.

By the end of the day, everyone is covered in dirt and grime and most of the house is sparkling clean.

Kakashi reveals that he used a shadow clone to clean up the rest of the bathhouse while no one was looking, as a surprise. They all cheer at the hot water already drawn for the large communal tub. There’s even a removable privacy screen, to separate or open the bath according to people’s comfort levels. Kakashi leaves to collect Mimi and the dogs and everyone else eagerly heads for the showers to scrub down.

As they soak, with the sounds of the puppies’ water fight echoing out from the showers, Sensei reminds the genin that tomorrow is their last day before heading out. “So if there’s any last minute errands, make sure to get them done before the end of day, alright? We’ll be leaving from the main gates early the day after, so there won’t be time for it then.”

“Yes, Sensei,” they drawl, too relaxed in the blissfully hot water for anything else. Kenji can’t even bring himself to tease Yuzuru for being fine with baths, despite hating swimming.

“Haah~, wish my subordinates were that biddable,” Kakashi sighs mournfully.

Tenzou-sensei gives him a deadpan look, but doesn’t rise to the clear baiting. Kakashi pouts behind his ever present mask and Kenji and the girls snicker at them.

The next day goes much the same, though the girls leave after lunch to take care of their own tasks.

Kakashi and Sensei pick up the replacement tatami flooring and shoji panels and they have all of them put in before dinner. While the adults handle obtaining food, Kenji helps Mimi put her things away in her new dresser and shelves. The excitement of arranging everything just so is, thankfully, enough to distract her from the fact that Kenji moves his own belongings to the room next door.

He thinks she might have forgotten about his mission too, but doesn’t want to ask for fear of sparking a tantrum. It’s probably mean to leave Kakashi to deal with the inevitable fall out, but… Kakashi did tell Kenji to let him take care of the adult concerns, so maybe it’s ok?

Well, even if it isn’t, Kenji won’t be here to help anyways.

With that sour thought rolling through his head, Kenji does his breathing exercises until he’s calm enough to sit through dinner, a few evening activities with Mimi, a perimeter sweep with Benihime, and then, finally, falls asleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Breakfast is quiet, most of Kakashi’s summons sleeping in with Mimi and the puppies of indeterminate heritage- who’s mother has still not been located.

Kenji flicks a glance at Kakashi, back to his food, then down the hall towards the bedrooms.

Kakashi sighs and says, “If you’re wanting to say goodbye to Mimi-chan, you should just go do it, cub.”

“But,” Kenji starts, “it’s not fair to leave you with an upset toddler first thing in the morning.” He gets a raised brow for that and Kenji flushes self consciously.

“It’s also not fair to leave Mimi with no chance to hug you before you go,” he says, voice bland.

Kenji flinches and nods miserably, then stands from the low table. Benihime walks with him, a silent support, and he leans briefly against her shoulder in gratitude. Sneaking through the bedroom door, Kenji lays down on top of the blankets next to Mimi, cozy in her cuddle pile.

He spends a moment watching her breathe easily. She’s slept soundly through both nights since they moved in with Kakashi and it only goes to emphasize how unhappy and ill at ease she was at the Den. Only time will tell if that continues, but it gives Kenji hope that she’ll bounce back from missing him.

Bracing himself, he softly shakes her awake. “Mimi,” he calls. “Hey Mimi, sun’s up. Time for gettin’ up.”

She groans and rubs her eyes as she rolls over to look at him. “Nii-san?” she mumbles blearily.

Kenji grins at her disgruntled face. “Mornin’, Mimi.” He reaches over to card his fingers through her messy bed hair. “Food’s in the kitchen,” he says, stalling despite himself. “There’s salmon flakes for the miso.”

“I like salmon,” Mimi says.

Kenji’s grin turns unbearably fond, “Yeah, I know you do.” He breathes in, breathes out, and forces himself to just say it. “I gotta go meet my team for our mission now.” Mimi’s face turns mulish and he keeps going before he loses his chance. “I’ll miss you while I’m gone, but you’ve got your pack now, and Kakashi and his pack, too. I know he’s new to us, but I think we’ll be happy livin’ with him. So be good for him, ok? He’s new to this whole mess too, ya know.”

Tears are leaking down her cheeks and she’s sniffling badly. Her pack is coming awake around her, picking up on her distress and adding their own whines and whimpers.

“Nooo-ooo, nohoo” Mimi howls quietly, hiccuping through her tears. Her pack takes up the mournful call and it just about breaks Kenji’s heart. He slumps his head onto the pillow with a sigh and stares at the ceiling as Mimi clings to his front and sobs.

The door opens and Kakashi comes in, takes in the scene, then picks up Mimi so she can cling to him instead. “Yeah, it’s no fun, is it, cubs?” he asks and Kenji scrubs tears from his own face. Kakashi’s pack comforts the puppies and surreptitiously nudge him out of the bed.

Kenji gives Kakashi a sad smile that he returns with a soft head ruffle, says one last goodbye, then slips out to grab his mission pack and head to the village gate.

He’s mostly fine by the time he and Benihime get there and he goes straight to where Sensei is waiting to the side, talking with the chuunin on gate duty. Sensei greets him distractedly, then waves Kenji over to explain the sign out process for leaving the village. Hanami and Yuzuru show up at roughly the same time shortly after they’ve finished the paperwork.

“Well,” Sensei says, after a quick equipment check, “you all know the plan. We’ll start off west by south and hit the first town by midday if we keep a good pace. The goal is two to three days per town, if not fewer, which will give us time for at least eight to ten stops before we head back.”

“Yes, Sensei,” they chorus. Kenji feels his excitement trickling back in.

“Any questions? No? Alright, then let’s go!” Tenzou-sensei leads them out the large red gates, Kenji and the rest hot on his heels.

Chapter Text

Kakashi

Hatake Kakashi paces up and down the halls of his clan’s no longer empty main house, swaying lightly to soothe the young girl crying into his shoulder. Or, he’s trying to soothe her, at any rate. Little Mimi and her equally little pack of summons- and just how in the hells did she manage six on her first summoning? that’s not supposed to be possible - seem determined to be inconsolable.

His pack are doing their best to help, but they have no more experience with small pups and children than Kakashi does. Normally, he’d toss her in an Inuzuka puppy pile and call it a good deed well done, but that’s… not an option here. For many reasons.

Kakashi heaves a sigh and allows himself to briefly regret every life choice that led to this moment.

Astonishingly, Mimi lifts her face from his, now snot-covered, shirt and stares at him, tears fading to sad little hiccups.

“Kaka-ji is sad, too?” she sniffles.

“...Yes,” Kakashi says, hesitant but not willing to pass up a possible opportunity to reason with the toddler clinging to him.

“Oh.” Tiny wrinkles form on her forehead as she, presumably, thinks deeply on this discovery.

Thinking fast, Kakashi takes a chance and says, “I was hoping to introduce you to a friend of mine today. He’s just got back from a long mission”- a week is hardly long, but he’s not above playing on Mimi’s sudden empathy- “and I’ve missed seeing him.” That part is definitely laying it on thick, but hopefully his pained shudder at actually uttering those words will come across as suppressed sadness and not disgust at having to express emotions .

She peers up at him doubtfully, then sighs, so very put upon. “Ok,” she says.

“Ok?” Kakashi can’t stop himself from asking.

Mimi kicks her tiny ankles against his sides and drops her head on his collar bone, hands curled in the fabric of his shirt under her chin. She nods once. “Ok,” she reaffirms petulantly.

Kakashi is twenty-five years old and he’s been an active shinobi of Konoha for all but five of them. This should not feel like an impressive victory. And yet.

Instead of dwelling on that, he walks to Mimi’s bedroom and helps her pick an outfit for the day. She selects a t-shirt and shorts combo with little fuss and goes to wait with their summons. Thankfully, with their summoner now calming down, the puppies of unknown heritage also cease howling their woes. His entire pack nearly collapses in relief.

From there, it’s easy enough to gather them all for an excursion to go bother Gai and his team. That should be exciting enough to keep Mimi distracted from Kenji’s absence. For a little while at least.

The only real snag he hits is with his own outfit.

Kakashi could just wear his jounin uniform, but, with the sabbatical and all, he’s really not supposed to. Stubbornly refusing to pout- he’d only asked for a month off, maybe two, to get Mimi and Kenji settled, but Sandaime-sama had intercepted his clone at the Administration building and bullied it into accepting the longer time off- Kakashi goes through his wardrobe for options.

When that only turns up more sets of jounin regulation blues, he sighs and goes hunting for the chest of old clothes he found in the attic while cleaning. At least his dad’s things are all still stored in the smaller house closer to the river that they used to live in, so Kakashi doesn’t have to worry about stumbling over them here in the main house. He’s not sure he’ll ever be ready to open that house back up again.

Shaking those thoughts away, he sifts through his new choices and eventually lands on an old fashioned gray and muted blue haori jacket, with the Hatake clan mon of a square cross-sectioned grid in the center of the back. He even finds the matching soft obi belt meant for holding it closed. His normal pants and anbu undershirt, with the attached mask, will be fine to wear with this, he decides.

The only thing left is to put on the eye patch he normally only uses for undercover missions in place of his hitai-ate and then Kakashi is as prepared as he can be to leave the house. No matter how naked and exposed he feels without his uniform.

None of his dogs comment on his new attire, thankfully, and Mimi only gives it a cursory glance before tugging on his hand to pull him out the door.

It only takes a few steps across the lawn for it to become clear that, if he wants to make it to Gai’s preferred training ground with anything resembling speed, Kakashi and his pack are going to have to carry the little ones. Mimi graciously doesn’t protest and the puppies all think this is great fun.

With that done, they make good time and get to their destination with no major mishaps. Kakashi breathes a sigh of relief and walks over to where Gai is watching his students beat on each other.

“Yo, Gai,” he calls when he’s close enough he won’t have to shout.

As expected, Gai twirls around with gusto and a -literally- beaming smile. “Kakashi, my Eternal Rival!” he booms. “Have you come for another Challenge? I Accept! Today I shall best you for the thirty-third time, or else I will cartwheel five hundred laps around the village!”

The dogs come out from the tree line to drop their charges on the ground and Gai finally notices Kakashi’s tiny passenger.

He gasps dramatically, grabbing his overly muscled chest in shock. “My Rival, you did not tell me you had a Daughter! How Cool of you to keep her so hidden, even from me, Konoha’s Noble Green Beast!” Gai bursts into excessive tears. “Truly, I am overwhelmed with Joy that you have decided to finally introduce me to the fruits of your Youthful Vigor!”

Mimi leans back to give Kakashi the full force of her incredulous glare. He doesn’t blame her. Why did he think this would be a good idea again?

“You know what?” Kakashi says. “Never mind. I can see that you’re busy, so I’ll come back another time.” Then he turns around and jumps up to run back along the tree branches. His pack grumble, but pick up the pups and fall in beside him. Gai’s shouts of how ‘Hip and Cool’ Kakashi is fade out behind them.

Once they’ve left the training ground by a good margin, Kakashi pauses in his run. He looks at Mimi. “Well, I’ve seen my friend now.”

“He’s loud ,” she accuses.

“Aa,” Kakashi agrees. “He’s best enjoyed in… small doses.”

Mimi doesn’t seem convinced. “He wasn’t small.”

Kakashi barks a startled laugh. “Y-you’re very right, Mimi-chan,” he snorts. “My mistake.” Then he sighs. So much for using Gai as a distraction. He drums his fingers along Mimi’s back. And then does it again when she giggles.

She squirms in his hold and he drops to the ground so he can set her down. The pups get set loose too, and four of them take off into a bush, shouting about a grasshopper they saw from the trees. The other two totter over to Mimi and Kakashi.

“Not interested in grasshopper hunting?” he asks them.

Mimi tugs on his pants leg and loudly whispers, “Suisen and Renge caught a tadpole yesterday, Kaka-ji.”

“Ah,” he says, with great gravitas. “So the great hunters are allowing their siblings a chance to prove their mettle. I see, I see.” Kakashi crouches down to smile at them. “That’s very generous of you two.”

They puff out their chests and nod importantly. “Tha’s right,” says the one to the left. “Was a big juicy one too! And we catched it all by ourselfs.”

Urushi, lingering close by, rolls his eyes, so Kakashi feels confident the pups did not, in fact, catch the tadpole on their own. He still makes impressed noises though. Even he knows it’s bad form to undermine a puppy’s pride.

The three of them regale him with the thrilling tale of their conquest over the tadpole while the rest of the pack chase the grasshopper hunters and Kakashi dares to think this whole mess might not be as bad as he was expecting.

Which, of course, is the moment Pakkun finally returns with the puppies’ mother in tow.

She’s got darkly colored legs that put Benihime’s long limbs to shame, striking against her bright red body, and a long black stripe down her back. Her long pointed face is equal parts exasperated and unimpressed.

Huh, Kakashi thinks. He has no idea what kind of canine she is… Looks a bit foxlike, except for the part where the proportions are all wrong.

The two tadpole warriors trip over each other as they rush towards her, yipping excitedly. Their mother greets them calmly, not even batting an eye when the other four come tumbling out of the underbrush to crash into- and he cannot stress this enough- her astoundingly tall black legs.

She eyes him, then snorts and shakes out her mane-like coat. “Hatake,” she says briskly. “Thank you for looking after my cubs, but I’m afraid they’ll be coming home with me today.” At Mimi’s quiet wounded noise, she softens ever so slightly. “They’re too young to be away from our den for so long, little summoner.”

Mimi turns to bury her face in Kakashi’s chest with yet more tears brimming in her eyes and he wraps his arms back around her, cursing his earlier optimism.

“Perhaps you’d like to stay for lunch before you go? Maybe we could arrange for visits, so the cubs can keep getting to know one another.” And he doesn’t have to deal with a horrifically distraught toddler.

The mother considers this, then nods. “That would be acceptable,” she agrees and Kakashi sighs in relief.

In short order, they relocate back to the Hatake main house and Kakashi serves up sandwiches for him and Mimi, and steak for the summons. Conversation is scarce while they eat and he waits until everyone is mostly done before bringing up any important topics.

“So,” he eventually says, “I don’t think I caught your name earlier.”

The cubs’ mother finishes her food and licks her lips clean before addressing his implied question. “I am Kiku of the Maned Wolf clan. You have met my children,” she says dryly, “so I won’t bother introducing them. They were born three moons ago, to me and my mate, Sakurai.”

Kakashi gives her a respectful bow. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Kiku. I am Hatake Kakashi and this is my ward, Hatake Mimi.” Mimi sullenly chews her sandwich and won’t meet anyone’s gaze. “Over here are my pack,” he continues blithely, “Pakkun, Bull, Uhei, Guruko, Urushi, Akino, Shiba, and Bisuke.”

Kiku regards each of them as they’re introduced. A grin finally pulls at her mouth. “Well, I suppose it’s good to meet you all. We’ll be seeing much of each other since my cubs won’t be ready to be on their own for another year or so- and I doubt your little one will either.”

Kakashi huffs a laugh at that. “Astute,” he says. Then pauses and asks about the thing that’s weighed on him the most about all this. “Would you happen to know why all of your cubs answered Mimi’s first call? I’ve never heard of anyone getting more than one primary partner on their initial summoning.”

“Not surprising,” says Kiku. “It’s only something that happens with our clan in particular and we haven’t had a summoner in over 130 years. Sanae was the last, I believe.” She lays down next to Kakashi and very precisely arranges her long limbs into a, supposedly, comfortable position.

“We, the Maned Wolves, are unlike our many cousins, for we prefer to hunt and live in solitary, rather than packs.” Kakashi feels his eyebrows raise in surprise. “Sometimes we live in pairs, but not often. And of course, if food is plentiful, or a situation requires, we are not averse to sharing space with kin. Generally, a primary partner is meant to be a co-leader of a summoner’s companions,” she says pointedly. “As this is incompatible with our temperaments, when a summoner calls for us, all of their prospective companions answer together as equals, rather than one at a time.”

Kakashi hums contemplatively. “Is it common for whole litters to answer one summoner’s call, then?”

“Yes and no,” Kiku muses. “It’s not un common, but usually we’re not summoned so young, so that’s likely to be a contributing factor in the current circumstances.”

Pakkun and the rest break into snickering. “Yeah, Mimi-chan just about gave this one a heart attack. Didn’t even wait for instructions! Just watched her brother, then repeated what she saw him do, easy as howling.”

Kiku looks remarkably pleased by that. “A talented and independent soul, then. My cubs have made a good match,” she grins.

Kakashi smiles back despite the painful memories her words stir in him. Mimi won’t be following his example if he has anything to say about it. Anyone who pushes for her early training or Academy graduation can take it up with the business end of his kunai.

They chat for a while longer, gently probing to get each other’s measure. Apparently, the reason Kiku took so long to come collect her cubs is because she was out on a hunt that ran longer than she’d anticipated. So she was grateful that someone had been watching them, even if it was disconcerting to find them missing in the first place.

Well that sounds like an opening. Kakashi jumps on it.

“You could always bring them here for a visit when you need to go on a long hunt,” he says, all nonchalance. “It would be no trouble and the cubs play nicely together.”

Kiku’s large ears flick this way and that as she considers the offer. “Hm, that would be acceptable,” she says at last. She reaches over to nudge Mimi with her nose. “That means you will see your partners at least once per month, little summoner. Sometimes twice, even.”

Mimi uncurls from Kakashi just enough to nod her understanding, then burrows back into his side. Kiku tilts her head at him in question.

Sighing, Kakashi runs a hand over Mimi’s head. “Her parents both died on a mission several months ago,” he explains quietly and Mimi brings her own hands up to block her ears. “She went to live with the other Inuzuka orphans in their clan’s group home and had… some trouble adjusting. She did eventually form a connection with one of the older boys, Kenji, and was starting to do better.”

“The little summoner’s nii-san, that you mentioned earlier?” Kiku asks.

He nods, “Yes. He had an altercation with the Inuzuka clan head, which led to my meeting the two of them and adopting them into the Hatake clan.” Kakashi chuckles. “As you can see, Mimi-chan is doing quite well with our traditions so far. Kenji is as well, but he also had to leave early this morning for a long mission, and Mimi-chan is missing him.”

“Ah,” Kiku says, “it all comes clear now. The little summoner has had too many people leave her suddenly.” She gives Mimi a sympathetic gaze. “I am sorry that you now also have to say goodbye to your summons, but we are not leaving forever, little one. Merely for now. My cubs are bound to you now, and you to them. They will visit often and, once you and they are grown, you will be able to summon them whenever you wish. Understand?”

“Why can’t I be growed now ?” Mimi asks sadly, with soft sniffling.

“Because you are not yet capable of defending your own territory without assistance, or of doing your own hunting,” Kiku says firmly. Which is true, but not how Kakashi would have explained it. Mimi seems to accept this reasoning though and settles back with a small pout.

Kakashi has a thought and chuckles. “Your Kenji nii-san is on his first long hunt, Mimi,” he teases. “By Hatake standards, that means he’s just about close to fully grown, himself. Wouldn’t it be fun if we could get the estate spruced up and in order so he can show us if he’s up to the challenge of managing our territory once he’s back? It can be your first lesson in what you’ll need to do as a grownup.”

Mimi perks up, a fierceness lighting up her eyes. “Yes,” she says. “Nii-san is a good Hatake an’ so’m I.” She bares her teeth. “Th’ Inuzuka can, can- eat poop! ” Her summons pack growl and snap their agreement.

Startled laughter bursts from all the adults, even stately Kiku. “Atta girl!” Guruko crows and the rest echo him with similar sentiments.

And with that grand declaration, it’s time for Kiku and cubs to return home. There are far fewer tears than Kakashi was expecting, so he guesses giving Mimi things to work on while they wait for Kenji is the way to go.

Their guests leave with little ceremony and Mimi lays down for a nap. Kakashi takes the reprieve to scour the house for all the paperwork he can find and sets a shadow clone to going over all of it. He and Mimi can inspect the grounds when she wakes up. He wasn’t planning on doing more than giving Kenji and Mimi a new name and a home away from where the Inuzuka clan was stifling them, but-

If these new cubs of his are so excited to be Hatake, then he supposes it wouldn’t be awful to give them more reasons to continue being so.

Naruto

Uzumaki Naruto is rushing home with his arms filled with groceries and a gleeful thrill in his chest. That henge jutsu they learned in class the other day is amazing ! With a different face, he was able to get so much more food than he ever does when he looks like himself. And none of it is wilted or past its expiration date. He even managed to snag some meat!

He snickers to himself at pulling one over on the mean old couple that usually kick him out of their store. Man, he’s gotta start doin’ this for all his shopping. With the money he didn’t spend on just this one trip, he might even have extra to stash away for savings at the end of the month!

Singing a silly food song to himself, Naruto gives in to the urge to do a little victory dance. Which is why he doesn’t immediately notice the old woman turning the corner, or the man sticking his foot into Naruto’s path. His ankle hits the man’s obstructing leg and the groceries go flying to splat all over the old lady.

The old lady blinks slowly as egg drips down her hair and shoulder and there’s splattered tomato and milk across her pretty kimono. The man grabs the back of Naruto’s t-shirt to roughly haul him back upright.

“Now just look what you did, you little monster!” he yells in Naruto’s face. Naruto flinches back and lifts his arms to block any potential blows. This guy has that look about him that says he’d love to give Naruto a whooping.

The man continues to rant, shaking Naruto every so often to emphasize some point or other and Naruto just tries to stay small and quiet. Sometimes people just want to yell at him for a bit and then let him leave once they’ve got it all out of their systems. There’s a devastated and resentful seed of bitterness burning in his gut though. All that food, wasted. Forget saving any money now- with this setback, he’ll be lucky if his budget makes it to the end of the month!

Naruto struggles to hold back his tears and movement brings his eyes back to the old lady now gingerly picking her way around the fallen meat and vegetables towards them. Great, someone else to yell at him.

“Pardon me,” she says mildly, and wow , her voice is pretty. “Do you know this young boy, sir?”

The man nods importantly. “Unfortunately, madam. This here is a local troublemaker. Always causing trouble for others, he is.” He glances at her ruined kimono and grimaces. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure he pays you back for the kimono.” Naruto blanches. Kimono are expensive in general, and this lady’s seems extra nice.

She hums doubtfully, looking at Naruto and his patched clothing. “Money isn’t really the issue here, though your… dedication to instructing disenfranchised youths is impressive.” The man preens at the praise, but Naruto squints at her. Somethin’ about the way she said that niggles at him. “Perhaps,” she murmurs, face thoughtful, “if you would be so generous as to release him into my care, he can repay me by helping wash my clothing of his ill-fated food items.”

That sounds like a much better deal than hanging around to get yelled at some more. “Yeah, yeah, I can do that,” he exclaims quickly. “I wash all my own stuff, so I’m real good at it, lady, promise. Uzumaki Naruto will scrub that kimono till it’s good as new, believe it!”

The old lady’s eyes widen in something like shock or surprise, but she recovers quickly and raises one of her hands to hide a smile behind her wide sleeve. The man is clearly torn between keeping hold of Naruto to continue his tirade and letting him go to serve his punishment. Finally, at the lady’s raised eyebrow, he caves and shoves Naruto towards her, nearly making him fall on his face.

“Alright, brat,” he says, “make sure you do a good job. I’ll hear about it if you don’t! And quit making trouble for everyone, you hear?” And with that, he stomps away.

“Good riddance to bad rubbish,” the lady mutters and helps Naruto stand back up. He jerks his head to stare at her and she winks at him . “Come along now, darling, we have things to do.” Naruto stares blankly at her retreating back, not entirely sure what just happened.

No one’s ever called him ‘darling’ before.

She glances at him over her shoulder. Naruto shakes himself and hurries to catch up. Whatever this lady’s deal is, he does still need to wash her ruined kimono. He promised after all, and he always keeps his promises!

They walk in silence for a bit and Naruto itches with all the things he wants to ask, but bites his tongue on his questions. He doesn’t want to annoy her more than he already has. He sneaks glances at her from the corner of his eye, trying to read her mood and intentions. The sixth time he does it, she’s looking back at him, one brow raised. Naruto whips his head to face forward again and she chuckles behind her sleeve.

“Ah, forgive me, Naruto-kun,” she says and Naruto stares. Why is she apologizing? Her eyes crinkle at the corners. “I know your name, but I haven’t properly introduced myself yet. My name is Uemura Akane. You may call me as you like, though my own preference is Akane-baa or Obaa-chan.”

“O-obaa-chan?” Naruto clutches his shirt over his belly. It feels weird, all swirly and jumpy.

This time, she doesn’t hide her smile. “Yes, if you’re comfortable with that. Do you mind if I call you Naruto-kun, darling, or would you like a different honorific?”

“Na-! Naruto is fine! And, and I don’t know what onericks are, but whatever’s fine, I don’t mind!”

“Very well, then I shall continue with Naruto-kun. And an honorific is what you put at the end of someone’s name or title. Such as Obaa- chan , Naruto- kun , or Hokage- sama ,” Obaa-chan explains patiently. “It confers your respect for, or closeness to, the one you are addressing. Which is why many people default to ‘san’ upon first meeting someone, if they don’t yet know their importance or social standing in relation to the new person.”

Naruto gapes a little. “Is that why everyone’s always on my case for callin’ the Hokage Jii-jii all the time?!”

Obaa-chan startles a laugh, then has to stop walking when her whole body shakes with it. Naruto giggles with her. Obaa-chan has a great laugh and it doesn’t even feel like she’s laughing at him . Eventually she calms down and dabs at her face with a handkerchief.

“Yes, darling, that is most likely the case,” she snickers. “Hah, here we are then.” Naruto looks at the house as they approach it. It’s bigger than any home he’s ever been allowed inside and he shoves his hands into his pockets. He doesn’t want to ruin anything by accident, like the teachers are always yelling at him for in the classroom.

Naruto can’t quite keep himself from investigating though, while Obaa-chan goes to change clothes. The inside is filled with pictures of Obaa-chan and other people, with various knick knacks, embroideries, and origami pieces scattered across the walls, shelves, and other surfaces. The kitchen clock is even shaped like a lucky cat!

He’s looking at one of the photos- this one of a genin team with their jounin-sensei, two obvious clan kids, and another that looks a lot like Obaa-chan, so he thinks maybe they’re related- when she comes back into the room carrying the dirty kimono with her. She catches him at it before he can jump away, but only smiles at him.

“That’s my great granddaughter, Yuzuru, and her team. She graduated just this year and they’re off on their first big mission.”

“Wow…” he breathes. Naruto’s not sure which part is more impressive, this Yuzuru getting to leave Konoha on a cool mission or the fact that Obaa-chan must be really old . He decides on the mission, because Jii-jii is also really old. “What kinda mission is it? Are they fighting bandits? Or, or bodyguarding a princess?” He gasps and jumps from foot to foot with excitement. “Are they rescuing a princess who’s been kidnapped by bandits?!”

Obaa-chan laughs. “No, nothing like that,” she says and Naruto pouts. “They’re a highly specialized team, you see.” He perks back up in interest. “My Yuzuru and her team are the first ever Disaster Response and Relief shinobi team, commissioned specially by the Daimyo.”

Naruto ‘ooh’s, then scrunches his nose in confusion. “So. What do they do?”

Smiling wide, Obaa-chan leans down to look him in the eye and Naruto holds his breath, transfixed by her sparkling gaze. “They are the shinobi that come when nature itself turns against Fire country. Fires, floods, earthquakes- while everyone else retreats to safety, my little whirlwind holds the line against catastrophe and picks up the pieces in the aftermath.”

Naruto feels his eyes go wide. That’s- “so cool …” he whispers.

“Yes,” she stands back up and heads over to the kitchen table to lay out her kimono. “All of them have been working very hard to become as reliable as they can be. Learning medical jutsu, studying the early warning signs of natural disasters, rewriting Konoha’s safety and emergency protocols,” she says. Reaching into her sleeve, Obaa-chan pulls out a thin case and opens it to reveal a small brush and ink stone and unrolls a piece of paper. “And,” she makes a slight flourish as she readies the ink on her brush, “mastering fuuinjutsu.”

The brush flies across the paper, forming an elegant script of swirls and dashes. When the design is complete, Obaa-chan places it on top of the dirty cloth and looks at him. “Naruto-kun, do you know how to channel chakra to your hands?”

He blinks, then nods eagerly. “Yeah, we covered that in the Academy ages ago and I can do a real good henge, believe it!” he says, pumping his fist in the air.

Obaa-chan gives him a pleased smile and that swirly feeling in his tummy comes back. “Then I’d like you to put some of your chakra in this seal tag here, if you don’t mind, darling.”

Naruto’s only ever heard about exploding seals before, but Obaa-chan seems confident, so he steps close to put his hand on the paper and screws up his face as he concentrates real hard on pulling some of the whirling energy inside him to go into it. He feels… something happen, and then there’s a small pulse of that same something under his hand.

“Oh very good, darling, that was just right.”

His eyes fly open. Obaa-chan takes the paper and places it to the side. Then she holds the garment by the shoulder seams to lift it off the table and gives it a firm shake. Naruto’s jaw drops when all the mess made by the food flakes and slides off onto the floor.

“What?!” He grabs the kimono and twists it this way and that way, even brings it up to his nose for a sniff. He turns to look at Obaa-chan’s amused face, completely poleaxed. “There’s not even stains! S’like it never got dirty at all , how’d you do that ?!”

She chuckles delightedly and Naruto feels himself blushing. “That, my darling Naruto-kun, was fuuinjutsu.” She peers down at his astonished face and smiles gently.

“Would you like to learn?”