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It was half way through the morning on a Thursday and shikaku was sat at his desk in the tower, already half bored and maybe half asleep, when he hears a noise that makes him jump. A quiet almost chirp sound and the deliberate scratch of nails on the wooden floor of his office.
Leaning sideways to peer round his desk he spots a large Wolf standing just past his desk, half hidden by the desk itself, watching him closely.
“Everything ok?” He checks, he knows the only wolves in konoha are the Hatake wolves-and kakashi when he chooses to shift-but he can’t quite see this wolves pattern enough to identify this one yet.
Coming round the desk and stepping up to shikaku’s side the Nara is able to spot the singular grey sock on the front left foot and, more telling, the scar over the left eye clearly identifying this as the copy nin himself.
He presents his arm out-palm up, hand low-and the wolf noses at his palm and sniffs at the pulse point on his wrist before stepping back and sinking into the hollow below his desk and settling into a loose curl. He looks calm like that, eyes half lidded and ears flopped into a relaxed position. Shikaku feels sleepy just looking at him.
Kakashi must have just returned from his two week mission in the land of snow.
It’s not uncommon for kakashi to seek out his various pack members after a mission, especially long or difficult ones, and he seems calm enough and unharmed so the Nara decides he’s probably good to carry on his paperwork. If the wolf needs something he’ll get his attention but for now he appears content with the quiet presence of the jonin commander.
—————-
It’s a couple hours later and not much has changed. Some more paperwork has managed to be completed and Kakashi has stayed mostly quiet, shifting just enough to rest the top of his snout over shikaku’s foot and ankle. A small grounding point of contact in the wolfs dozing sleep.
It’s about lunch time and shikaku is just considering nudging kakashi and going to get some food when his thoughts get interrupted.
A simple tap tap tap on the door and shikaku feels the flick of an ear against his leg and the subtle shifting of weight of the snout over his foot when someone opens the door and steps in.
“Inoichi” shikaku is quick to speak, both announcing the identity of the man for kakashi’s sake and giving him time to flash the Yamanaka a couple quick handsigns for ‘quiet’ and ‘company’, motioning to under the desk. It wouldn’t be the first time the mind reader has immediately started quick firing gossip he’d learnt from T&I the second the doors shut (and shikaku’s automatic privacy seals are up with it) after all.
Inoichi, to his credit, doesn’t even blink as he rolls with the information, acting perfectly natural while giving a greeting of his own.
“I bought lunch” he states, then conversationally drops, “I know your habit of skipping breakfast and being too lazy to get lunch most days”.
“Troublesome, that’s an exaggeration and you know it…but thank you” shikaku takes a moment to glance down and check on the wolf below him. It seems he’s now much more awake but still calm and settling again after the Yamanaka’s sudden appearance.
“You going to come out and say ‘hi’ or do you want to go back to sleep for a while?”
—————-
All things considered inoichi wasn’t actually all that shocked at the idea of someone hiding under shikaku’s desk, after all a couple years back it was almost a daily thing. Before he made genin shikamaru’s favourite nap spot used to be under his fathers commander desk to the point the older Nara always kept a couple pillows under there for when his son inevitably crept into his office.
So while as far as inoichi knew it had been a while since it happened he wasn’t surprised and when shikaku invited the guest out from under the desk he was already expecting to see the head of dark hair and lazy demeanour.
He wasn’t expecting the wolf.
Inoichi knew he hadn’t schooled his shock quite quick enough when he heard the snort from his teammate and huff from the wolf. He just shrugged in response,”I was expecting shikamaru honestly”.
He grinned and-lowering himself to the ground-made the executive decision that they could eat lunch on the floor in front of the desk together. The room was big enough and it meant he could offer apology head scratches to kakashi. Ignore that there really wasn’t any reason to apologise, it totally wasn’t an excuse for the blonde to pet the big, soft, fluffy wolf. No. Not at all.
Ok he really wasn’t fooling any of them but still.
—————-
Lunch actually was a pleasant affair. The two teammates occasionally offering strips of meat and odd veggies from their own meals to their wolf friend and said wolf lounging against the both of them, absolutely soaking up the mostly mindless scratches and pets. Basking in the calm atmosphere as the other two talked random gossip above them.
In the end the wolf found they were pleased they searched out their pack and were grateful for said pack for othering the comfort needed with no fuss or questions. Especially after such a stressful mission when he was clearly in no mood to talk.
He really did have good packmates.