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It was another quiet evening at the Hatake household. The boys were upstairs in their room. The girls were downstairs, with their parents, playing on the floor. The heads of household were reclining after dinner, discussing the upcoming chunin exams to be held in the Hidden Cloud.
Mei was telling a story about her first attempt at the exams. In short, everything that could have gone wrong did and she never got another chance. Shortly after that exam the first round of purges had begun in the Mist and she’d had to go into hiding. Mei was working up to the part where she was nearly beheaded by ninja wire when her husband stiffened beside her.
Mei stopped her recitation. “What is it?”
Kakashi rose slowly, glancing out the front window. “Alarm, an old one, that runs underground. I haven’t checked it in awhile so it could be misfiring.”
“Do you want me to get the children ready to leave?” Mei glanced at her daughters. They were playing with their kunoichi dolls’ outfits as if the right look would come along if they just kept trying different things. So far all of the color combinations were either obnoxious or clashing.
Kakashi’s eyes stayed trained on the outdoors as he made his way to the door. He didn’t say anything at first, turning the issue over in his mind. “No, stay here for now. I honestly didn’t think that trap was still active.” After another pause he said, “be back soon,” and vanished.
To their credit, the young girls noticed their father’s sudden departure and paused in their play to look to their mother questioningly. Mei smiled back at them with a face that was hopefully reassuring. She briefly wondered at the trust children placed in their parents and the responsibility the parents took on when having them.
Outside, Kakashi crept to one of the outer rings of defense around the house, almost into the tree line. He knelt by the earth, using his chakra to sense the underground tags he’d ignored for weeks. Careless, he chided himself as he examined the seal that had alarmed him. He was halfway through his inspection when a prickle at the back of his neck made him turn. His eyes widened.
The house was consumed by a murky green smoke leeching out from the inside. He could see it seeping out of the cracks around the windows and doors. It gave the house an eerie presence, as if it were on fire from within but he could see no flames.
Senses on high alert, the father and husband bolted back to the dwelling, shoving aside the panic that had begun to cloud his senses. He stretched out his awareness to locate the intruder while he attempted to think the situation through logically. His heart pounded in his chest. He sensed no one, but he hadn’t sensed anyone after the initial warning either. This gave him a sick feeling that resounded all the way to his toes.
Reaching the house seemed like it took an eternity, precious seconds lost due to his negligence. At last the door was within reach and he threw it open, barely registering the hinges breaking and the door hanging cock-eyed in its frame.
“Mei!” Kakashi shouted against the swamp of smoke that met him. Only silence answered him and a cold hand grasped his heart. There was a possibility that Mei had already evacuated the children but he wasn’t going to rely on that hope. The sinking feeling in his stomach let him know that no, they were all still inside of this.
Thankful that he’d worked seals into his mask years ago, Kakashi plunged into the murk. After using a small wind jutsu to open up visibility, he saw his twin daughters laid out on the wooden floorboards. He approached their still bodies fearfully. Terror threatened to overpower his other faculties.
He reached out hesitantly to touch the arm of the closer girl, Fujita. She had begged Mei to braid her hair that morning. It was tied back with a pink ribbon. Favorite color or not, the light red clashed horribly with her auburn locks. When his skin met hers it was warm to the touch and he could feel the life in it as if it were his own. Relief made his muscles relax the tiniest bit.
Hands flashing through signs, Kakashi produced a clone of himself who scooped up first one daughter, then the other, and hurried out of the building. The original hurried on.
Kakashi was halfway up the stairs when he nearly stumbled over Mei’s body. It was prone on the stairs, as if she’d been racing up as the noxious smoke overcame her.
Kakashi frantically brushed her disheveled hair away from her face to get a look at her. “Mei,” Kakashi said, holding her face in his hands. She gave no response but her breathing and heart rate were normal. “What is this?” Kakashi asked himself aloud, glancing around at the curling green smoke around them. He paused to make two more clones. His third doppelganger picked Mei up gingerly, cradling her head against his chest so that he wouldn’t strain her neck. As the clone carrying Mei hurried back downstairs, Kakashi bit his thumb. In another flash of hand signs Pakkun appeared.
“What the-?” the pug exclaimed as he materialized beneath Kakashi’s hand. The little dog coughed. “What happened?!”
“Pakkun, I need you and my clone to figure out where this is coming from, and fast. I have to run upstairs and get the boys out of here. If something happens to me, take care of Mei and the girls. They’re already outside.” Even as Kakashi said this he reached the top of the stairs and slammed his palm into a seal on the wall. The inked design glowed red for a moment and then vanished. Kakashi looked back down the stairs but couldn’t see Pakkun through the hazy green smoke.
A memory flashed into his mind as his first clone dispelled. Mei and his other shadow clone had joined the girls in the woods. He breathed a little easier as he shouldered his way into the boys’ room. Roka’s unconscious body had been blocking the door. Kakashi slid into the room and hefted his eldest onto his shoulder. Kasumi, who was lying awkwardly half off of his bed, was easier to lift.
Kakashi turned to leave when a new memory flashed into his mind. His clone’s trip to the cellar was pretty routine but then his clone had looked at Pakkun. The pug’s eyes were wide as he turned from a wired device sitting on the cellar floor. “It’s a bomb, get out now!”
Kakashi immediately teleported out of the house with his sons in tow. The house exploded before his feet had touched grass. He ducked his head against the heat of the flames. The shock wave made his ears pop. Distantly he noticed that something had hit his arm. Kakashi was knocked flat into the grass like a piece of debris as the night was lit up by the burst of fire that consumed the house.
After a few seconds Kakashi caught his breath and pushed himself up into a sitting position. The smell of cool grass was consumed by the sudden heat drying out the air. Smoke filled his nose as he visually inspected his still unconscious boys.
The father turned back to the house to see the main supports ablaze, the now glassless window frames that were still intact vented much needed oxygen to the flames. Debris collapsed through the floors into the basement. Kakashi’s eyes widened, the basement.
Fear seized him once again. His hands fumbled through the familiar signs for summoning; his arm burned at the movement. Kakashi smacked his hand to the ground. Nothing happened. His eyes bulged and his breath caught. He tried again, signing slower this time to be sure of no mistakes. Nothing. Tightness settled into his chest. “Pakkun?” He removed his hand from the ground slowly, no pug had appeared.
Slowly Kakashi turned his hand up to stare at the blackened palm in disbelief. He blinked once, twice, and he took a breath. There was no fresh blood on his hand and hope cropped up. Giving himself a frantic once-over, he swiped some blood onto his hand from a wound in his arm and tried again. Pakkun appeared in a puff of smoke.
“Hey, are the pups alright?” Pakkun did not wait for an answer. He pranced over to the silver-haired boys and began to sniff them over carefully.
Kakashi flopped back onto the lawn and closed his eyes.
“What’s wrong with you?” Pakkun demanded when he looked up from his inspection of the boys. The man was limp with relief, laid out on the grass.
The Hatake sat up and rubbed ash out of his eyes with one hand. “Nothing, Pakkun, it’s nothing.” He took a deep breath to steady his nerves. Then Kakashi picked his sons up and hurried over to the spot where the female Hatakes lay. Pakkun trotted at his heels.
Pakkun appraised him as they ran over. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
Kakashi nodded. “We’re all okay,” he whispered too soft for the hound to hear. He gave his boys a squeeze and focused on what lay ahead.
After setting his sons down and checking his daughters one more time, Kakashi sat down next to Mei’s still form. In the nearby thicket crickets chirped, oblivious to the fire that did not concern them.
“Sure you’re okay boss? Your house did kind of just explode.” Pakkun asked. The pug walked over and sat next to Kakashi.
Kakashi looked up at the sky. By now he and Mei would have normally just finished tucking the kids in. The remnants of their house burned in the clearing beyond, lighting up the night sky. Ash had begun to float up and away from them, carried by the uncaring breeze.
“Do you want me to stay?” Pakkun prompted. Kakashi hadn’t moved. He just stared up at the sky. Pakkun turned a couple of times in place and laid down in the mulch on the forest floor. Kakashi reached out and gave Pakkun’s ears a light scratch before letting his hand fall back at his side. Pakkun wagged his tail twice in response.
An hour later Mei stirred, rousing Kakashi from his waking dream. His anxious face was the first thing she saw when she woke up. She blinked at him lazily, still half-asleep. A small smile crawled over her face before it ran away. She took in the look of her husband, haggard and worn. She felt the earth at her back and saw the sky over them both. She remembered the smoke, telling the girls to get outside, running upstairs to get the boys… Her eyes opened wide and she sat bolt upright.
Kakashi managed to get a few calming words out before Mei saw their children strewn about them. This threw her into a panic. One bite from Pakkun and an easily blocked blow from Kakashi later and they were all sitting in the leaf litter once again. Mei cradled Kasumi in her arms, she held his head protectively.
“You’re sure they’re alright?”
“They smell fine Mei,” Pakkun ground out. “And either way there’s nothing we can do about it right now.”
Mei frowned but had no counterargument. She turned to Kakashi who looked rundown but alert. Without looking up, as if he knew she was watching him, he said, “I activated the Leaf distress beacon before the house exploded. They shouldn’t be long now. I assume if our attackers were going to come back they would have already.”
“If it’s who I think it was, they won’t,” Mei commented softly. She thought of the scent of the green mist, the use of tactics. It was their style.
Kakashi frowned and looked at his wife.
“It’s probably some of the Blood Mist Renegades. They’re very secretive and rarely fight in open combat. You remember my little cottage that burned down?”
This got Kakashi’s attention. His eyes popped. “That was them?! I thought that was arson?!”
Mei gave Kakashi a flat stare. “You really are from the Leaf if you believed that.”
“But the official report-” Kakashi trailed off at Mei’s incredulous stare. “You should have said something. Naruto would have-”
Mei waved her hand, “he would have been in an uproar and not been able to do anything about it. They’ve been trying to kill me for years, even after I retired.”
“And you didn’t think to mention this until now?” Kakashi demanded.
Mei only looked a little guilty. “It wasn’t a problem until now. They haven’t tried since the cottage. They had other targets I suppose. I’d hoped that Chojuro had stomped out the last of them.” They lapsed into silence, waiting for the Leaf or the dawn, whichever came first.
“You should get some rest,” Mei said quietly. Pakkun pretended he wasn’t there.
“I’m fine,” Kakashi responded. “I don’t think I could sleep tonight if I tried.”
Mei nodded. They’d had many nights like this, Kakashi not being able to sleep and pacing the house, checking and rechecking the traps and tripwires. Sometimes there was a trigger, sometimes it was just a feeling. Mei had been getting better at figuring them out over the years. Of course this night something actually had happened. There was nothing she could do while Kakashi mentally beat himself up. They sat in silence, neither able to sleep. The three watched over their pack beneath the stars.
An hour later, Yamato arrived with a team of medical ninja.
“They destroyed the house Tenzo,” Kakashi said tiredly without preamble. “I’m sorry.”
“I saw,” Tenzo said, wondering how he was supposed to have missed that. The jonin sighed, “well, I had been meaning to make a certain modification in the last couple of models but I only figured out what I was doing wrong last week.”
Kakashi held up a tired hand, “it doesn’t have to be perfect. The last-,” Kakashi was embarrassed to realize he’d lost count of how many houses Tenzo had made for them. He swiftly counted them in his head and finished with, “-six models have been wonderful.”
There was an awkward pause. “You forgot again didn’t you?” Tenzo deadpanned.
Kakashi opened his mouth to reply but a medical kunoichi cut him off. “Let me see that arm Lord Hokage.” Kakashi absently handed her his right arm. She took it out of reflex but frowned at him. “I meant the one with the splinter.”
Kakashi glanced at his left arm which had a “splinter” sticking out of it as wide as his thumb. Now when did that get there? He handed his left arm to the kunoichi while casting anxious glances toward the ninja working with his children.
“They’re fine Kakashi,” Tenzo said. Kakashi nodded in response but didn’t take his eyes off of them. Tenzo frowned and turned to Mei who was also watching Kakashi.
Pakkun looked at Tenzo, then Mei, then Kakashi. He sighed, walked over to Kakashi, and bit him in the ankle. Kakashi didn’t yelp exactly but he did gasp in surprise. His head swiveled over to look at the pug who was receiving glares from all sides. “You’re making people worry,” Pakkun told Kakashi. “Quit it.”
Kakashi blinked, looked at his wife, then his friend. Tenzo looked embarrassed, Mei annoyed. “Good therapy Pakkun,” she sarcastically told the pug.
The dog shrugged his haunches. “It’s worked in the past.”