Musings, by Kakashi
Kakashi had grown close with the dog over the few days they’d traveled together.
Kakashi only wanted one thing: to know where they were going. Clearly, the dog had something in mind. It’d rarely altered it’s course, heading in a remarkably straight line towards its goal.
They’d mostly traveled by roads or through towns, though it mostly seemed coincidental. Like the roads and towns just happened to be along the path the dog was set for. Like it wasn’t using landmarks to navigate.
It wasn’t until the middle of the night that Kakashi figured out what was up.
The dog clearly hadn’t noticed that Kakashi was awake. It had crept away from him and. Grabbed a stick?? Which it set on the ground?? And then the stick spun. Like a compass. And was parallel to the path they had been taking.
Okay.
Creepy sentient dog (not that Kakashi could talk) could turn sticks into compasses.
That was. At least it knew where it was going?
…
Nope. Didn’t help Kakashi’s shinobi paranoia.
It wasn’t until they entered a town – Surrey, by the street signs Kakashi saw – that Kakashi realized the hyper-intelligent dog was more than just a dog.
They reached a small town, curled under a bridge and- the dog. It. Turned into a man.
Kakashi could see why. The steep bridge wall was slippery for dog paws. Kakashi was only climbing easily because of the wall climbing technique. He was a ninja. Some normal (if smart) dog wouldn’t be able to make it up the wet, moss-covered stone.
A scrawny, starved-looking man? The man stood up and easily pulled himself into the tight space between the top of the wall and the underside of the bridge. Kakashi scrambled up after him, easily pinning the man under his oversized puppy paws.
Teach me, he thought intensely at the man, I want to be six feet tall again.
The scraggly man barked short, harsh laughter. Laughter that near-perfectly lined up with his odd doggy huffs. “Confused, huh? At least I know that you’re definitely not a muggle dog. You probably have some crup in you with such intelligence.”
What the heck is a crup?!? I want to be human-shaped again, you civilian magic weirdo.
“Although I remember this once, Father bought a dire wolf pelt for Mother. Maybe you’re one of those.” The man slipped into silence, his blue eyes going cloudy and heavy with memory.
“I’m Sirius Black,” he said, long after the silence had gone from uncomfortable to tiring. “I haven’t named you yet. Just been callin’ you pup in my head.”
Good, thought Kakashi, I’d hate to get another name. I’ve just been calling you “Old Dog.”
Sirius’ shoulders shook in laughter, “It’s unlucky that dogs aren’t like reptiles. We don’t have a language besides our bodies, and neither of us seem to know that innate language very well. I won’t care if you run off.”
Sirius paused, and Kakashi stared him down, thinking very loudly You’re an idiot as he hoped it showed in his lazily flicking ears. “I’m heading towards my godson, Harry. He lives with his Aunt, I know. Dumbledore bragged about some blood protection keeping Harry safe, and they’re the only blood relatives close enough to his parents that could do that. I was supposed to get him, pup.” Sirius trailed off before whispering, “He was supposed to be my pup.”
Sirius Black shook, suddenly enraged. The mood swing had been faster than Hiraishin.
“If it wasn’t for that,” his voice darkened, “rat, I woulda never’ve had to give ‘im up.” He brightened like a grim star nearing death. Bright and shining, but also deadly, burning, and threatening to explode and take everything with it in the blast. “I’ll kill that rat and get Harry back, and I don’t care if they throw me in Azkaban as long as that rat is dead when they do it.”
Sirius shifted again. His body folded in on itself – inside, outside, twisting, turning, collapsing – and before Kakashi was the grumpy black dog he’d followed for so long.
They curled together for warmth and slept.
—
In the late afternoon, almost evening, they were in a painfully boring subdivision with perfectly cut grass, identical houses, and one vehicle (not a carriage, Kakashi determined, but definitely similar) in each paved path up to the house. The sun was slowly setting, and he and Sirius had settled in some bushes just outside one home that looked much the same as every other house, except for the fact that there were currently two vehicles in the paved path that led to the house. The bushes were well taken care of. The flowers in bloom, the leaves full and green, and the plants thick enough to keep the two dog-shaped men perfectly hidden from the road.
Inside was a family, eating a meal.
Two women, a grown man, and two boys. No pets that Kakashi could smell, but the heavy scent of owl pellets and feathers was evident throughout the property. It was too strong to be an average animal, so it must’ve been some form of ninken. The scent of chakra was layered around as well. It wasn’t natured, oddly. Just… chakra. Seal chakra.
Life energy, scattered around like it was bleeding off of– two young boys and a woman.
Kakashi focused his senses. Specifically, his chakra sense.
One woman – small and tittering – had small sparks of chakra flickering off of her. Not enough to truly develop her reserves, but enough that, if trained from a young age, she could’ve performed a few C-ranks. Good for an infiltration specialist or a monk. Not much else.
The larger boy was similar. Flickering chakra only bigger than the Tittering Woman’s because he had more mass to make chakra with. Both of their chakras were twisted, every so slightly, around what felt like a seal.
A seal that felt remarkably like Uzushio.
It was odd, too.
The woman’s chakra was fairly Yin, and the boy’s Yang, but the seal was very Yin.
The larger man and woman only had the barest amount of chakra to keep them alive. Unnatured, as all small amounts of chakra was.
Then there was the second boy. He must’ve been Harry, the godson. His chakra was also Yin, though it was fairly well-balanced for a civilian. The Yin was untrained and powerful, and the Yang felt like it had been weak, but it was cultivated to strength.
Beyond Yin and Yang – the only chakra types that Kakashi could actively sense outside his body – there was a… breeze, almost. The seal twisted between the Tittering Woman and Large Boy was also twined around Harry.
It was through this twining – which twisted around the property like golden threads and pressed against Kakashi’s soul and mind – that Kakashi could feel the softest of breezes. Wind nature, then. Good for fanning flames, good for kicking up storms.
Wind was what Naruto had.
With his senses opened, Kakashi took the chance to peek at Sirius. The man was painfully Yin. Shadow and intelligence and natural, heavy, darkness that he’d been born with. There was a little Yang, but mostly in fire, and passion, and motivation (also in shapechanging, as something so physical could never be accomplished by a Yin-type). Kakashi had a feeling that Sirius had once cultivated Yang like Harry was (where he’d learned shapechanging), but had long since been left with the Yin.
Surprisingly, the man was very heavily fire-natured. It wasn’t rare for there to be a Yin-fire, but it was much more common in Konoha (where the fire-natured Yamanaka called home) than anywhere else in the Elemental Nations.
Traditionally, Fire and Lightning were Yang, and Earth and Water were Yin, while Wind went either way.
Of course, it was just a likelihood of what one would be. Kakashi hadn’t seen the statistics since his one six month stint teaching at the Academy, but it was far more nuanced than most thought.
The five humans had dinner, and Kakashi let the human voices wash over him.
It was 30-70 for a Fire to be Yin over Yang in Konoha, and 15-85 across the nations.
It was 8-92 for a Lightning to be Yin over Yang in Konoha, and that was only because there were only twelve primary lightning natures in Konoha, and Kakashi was the Yin Lightning. Everywhere else, it was 20-80.
Wind was fifty-fifty everywhere except for Uzushio
There were similar (if inversed) percentages for Earth and Water, and Konoha didn’t have nearly as large a difference with typing compared to the rest of the nations.
Kakashi was brought out of his musings by loud banging.
The Yang chakra in the room had suddenly spiked, heavily tinted with air and wind and movement. Kakashi risked a peek through the window (as did Sirius, he noted) and witnessed something fascinating. A basic and weakened version of the Akimichi’s Body Expansion Technique, used on another individual on an instinctual level and instead of relying on Fire and Earth in conjunction to expand the user’s body, Wind was used to force another’s body to expand.
It was harmless, that much Kakashi could tell. More of a temporary ballooning than anything truly harmful, although the rubbery pallor and stretch to the woman’s skin was slightly concerning.
But interesting.
The small boy rushed out the door, and only paused when the large man yelled at him. “COME BACK IN HERE! COME BACK AND PUT HER RIGHT!”
“She deserved it. She deserved what she got. You keep away from me.” The boy was shaking, but his voice was steady, and his face was another matter entirely. Fear and anger poured off his scent, the adrenaline was tangible on his breath.
“I’m going. I’ve had enough.”
The boy, carrying a trunk that seemed to fly behind him, raced into the night.
Sirius and Kakashi followed after.