Chapter 7
It starts with small doubts.
Kakashi can't say when he started to become somewhat critical of Lord Hizuren's government.
(Kakashi confesses, he may or may not have been influenced by the last conversation he had with Obito a few days ago.)
But the point is: Kakashi didn't intend to actively look for cracks in the government or anything like that. It just... was there. And Kakashi can now see them clearly and can't help but have critical thoughts about it. (Although he never expresses anything out loud)
In his opinion, Lord Hiruzen delays a lot with things that he could get out of the way now. Consider the situation with the Uchiha clan: Tension and distrust still linger even after investigations into rumors that an alleged Uchiha may have unleashed the Kyuubi on the village have been completed.
The investigation yielded nothing. No culprit was found.
Technically, this should have been a good sign. A relief for the Village and the Uchiha clan – because it proved that there was no traitor among them. That the relationship between the Village and the Founding Clan would no longer need to be shaken by malicious rumors. But. That was not what happened. The Village/Clan relationship was shaken. Completely. Because no other clan was subjected to as much scrutiny and investigation as the Uchihas were. And even with T&I clearing the Uchihas, it didn't lessen the distrust and rumors people had about them. (And the Hokage didn't seem concerned about correcting that)
For Kakashi, this situation will still fester.
Another thing that surprised him the most negatively and bothered him the most was becoming aware of another rumor going around among the civilian villagers: it seems that somehow the secret surrounding Naruto had leaked. Partially. But still, it should be impossible.
The boy's status was classified as an SS-Class secret. No secret of that level should be able to leak to the masses! (Only Kakashi, Hiruzen, the Council, the ANBU Commander, and the ANBU guard knew the secret.)
And yet it was leaked.
Kakashi just... didn't know how it happened. He hadn't been in the village long enough to investigate, and the Hokage said he was dealing with it.
He wasn't.
But Kakashi wants to believe that Hiruzen will actually solve this. But honestly? He has his doubts.
The weeks pass in a blur. As the Hokage had warned him before, ANBU Hound is required for many missions.
Most are for tracking missions to hunt down Orochimaru and to raid possible illegal laboratories. This time Hound has a full team of five Black Ops agents and for the first time in a long time he calls on all his Ninkens to hunt. ( He missed them a lot )
No one else in the ANBU can summon as many ninken at once as Hound can. The most ever recorded was someone summoning 3 or 4 – and apparently they were from the Inuzuka clan.
His squad spends days searching for any trace of the Snake Sannin, but they come up empty. They find some hidden laboratories, but they don't get much information there because Orochimaru has left many active traps and this compromises the extraction of anything useful.
Eventually, months pass and the hunt is called off and the agents are reassigned to other missions.
When Hound returns to Konoha, he gets very little rest because, as a multifaceted agent who masters several specialties, he ends up being put into the field more often than other agents – and Hound doesn't complain about it.
He is constantly sent on infiltration missions, and can spend up to two or three months away and living undercover.
To his own surprise, Hound enjoys these missions. He enjoys dressing up and pretending to be a completely different person each time. After all, who knew acting could be so much fun? He genuinely enjoys his characters.
(sometimes it was good to stop being Hatake Kakashi and Hound for a moment)
-
After discovering that the ghost Obito could see things through their shared eye, Kakashi began to work harder to make up to his friend for all those bloody memories his Sharingan accumulated during his secret missions.
When Kakashi goes on long missions and disguises himself, he takes the opportunity to let loose more — so to speak, to enjoy and relax a little.
He wants to apologize to Obito for accumulating such bad memories with their Sharingan.
So he tries. He goes sightseeing, takes photos, tries different foods, bathes in onsen, visits themed teahouses, reads adventure and fantasy books – which Kakashi thinks might be Obito's favorite type of literature.
He tries to balance the bad memories with a little bit of good memories. Kakashi doesn't know if it works but he hopes it does. He wants to have something different to talk about with Obito next time.
Hound doesn't know why, but he ends up being assigned to guard the Hokage. This is a pretty boring job, if Hound has to be honest.
The Hokage only stays in the Administration Tower all day and part of the night. He has two hours for lunch and short breaks for snacks and other breaks. He usually buys ready-made food for dinner and when he doesn't, he eats dinner at one of his daughters' houses.
That's it. A very common and repetitive routine.
(This reminds him of the guard duty Hound did for Kushina during her pregnancy. But Kushina was more active and always tried to involve Hound in her daily activities. She didn't understand that he should stay hidden because he was on work hours .
Lord Hiruzen doesn't mind his shadow ANBUs and doesn't even try to chat with them)
The Administration Tower is a hive of activity day and night. In the Hokage's office, Lord Hiruzen and Elder Danzo talk together. They often argue and disagree a lot.
From what Hound can tell about them, they are like two political opponents and men with completely different opinions and philosophies.
Lord Hiruzen is a firm believer in the Will of Fire and the philosophy of his Kage predecessors. Elder Danzo is quite the pragmatist in all things, and Hound has heard enough to know that there is a bit of a staunch dogmatism in that man.
Hound finds their meetings quite interesting. Their dynamic is now tempered by age and experience, but Hound sometimes wonders what they must have been like when they were temperamental youngsters on the same team.
Did they fight a lot? Did they disagree fervently with each other? Did their sensei have to step in and separate them often? Did their other teammates try to calm them down?
"You can't be serious, Hiruzen," Danzō says restrainedly but is clearly displeased.
"Danzō -"
"Why ask for my opinion if you're not going to consider it in the first place? What a waste of time for both of us."
"For good decision-making, it is important to listen to the opinions that my Goikenban Council has. You may not see it that way, but I am listening to your opinion, my old friend, and I am not dismissing it," the Hokage says with a tired sigh, as if they had had this same discussion many times before. (That is probably the case.)
"Alright. If that's all, I'll take my leave as I have much work to do." Elder Shimura leaves.
The Hokage sighs. " Ah , he always does that," he says to no one in particular.
With his shift over, Kakashi has time to visit the memorial stone. He tells him about Gai's last persistent attempts to corner him and challenge him to a duel.
Gai is excessive. Very excessive. And persistent, it's worth noting.
Kakashi just runs away from him. He manages, most of the time, to lose the other guy. But sometimes Gai acts like an elite tracker and finds Kakashi in the most unlikely places. (Like the bathroom. Ugh, creepy.)
Kakashi ends his one-sided conversation with the Stone, promises to visit the next day and promises to burn the incense he keeps on the altar that he barely gets to use regularly due to his always busy mission schedule.
He says goodbye and leaves. A few minutes into the walk he detects faint chakra signatures following him. A sequence of ANBU signals flashes at him and he makes a detour.
Surprisingly, Elder Danzo is waiting for him in a clearing away from the cemetery.
"Hatake Kakashi, it's a pleasure to see you again", greets
"Likewise Elder Shimura-dono. What is your summons for, Sir?"
Shimura smiled a small smile. "Straightforward as always. Well then, Kakashi-kun, I have a proposition for you."
That was when Kakashi first heard about Root.