So...?

“Hey , uh this is a little late, but you don’t have any allergies right?” Kakashi asked right before opening the door to his apartment. He offered to let her rummage around his scroll collection after training, always happy to help a fellow reader out even if their content differed. (porn vs academic resources). Sakura looked at him like he had grown a second head that wasn’t wearing a mask. Eyebrows furrowed and a too serious glint in her eyes for a 14 year old with pink hair to wear.

“Sorry, no allergies right…?” Sakura blinked, then took a deep breath, hesitant to follow her worrisome teacher, then finally-

“Not that I’m aware of Kakashi-Sensei,”

Her sensei lit up. Shoulders raised with a sudden onset of confidence and an awfully familiar but only half-fake cheer in his voice as he swung open the door with the same pride a mayor would cutting the ribbon to a town hall.

“Great! Meet the pack!” He exclaimed.

Why was Kakashi-Sensei like this? Two hours later, her decision to leave with the scrolls she picked was vetoed. Both emotionally,

“Sakuraaaaa, you can’t leave this early!” Cries Bisuke.

And physically, Bull covers her entire lower half.

At least she’s comfortable on the couch with a messy mountain of scrolls next to her on a side table. The rest of the dogs are scattered on the couch, (or on her chest, c’mon Bisuke.) or on the rug that’s love worn with frayed edges next to the couch. She’s not sure where Sensei went, but Pakkun followed him; She had been too immersed in the scroll she was reading to pay attention to him. Her working theory on why he currently abandoned her in his home was due to his summons bugging him. The pack had pestered Sensei about not letting them meet before, then about what’s for dinner, then about how sweaty she was, then how dirty she was, then about how short she was compared to Kakashi, then about how she gave good ear scritches, then about how Guruko wanted steak, then about how dirty Kakashi was. They’re very...chatty. If Naruto and Sasuke didn’t bicker so much and accidentally train her to tune things out, her reading would’ve been much harder with the background noise. Between reading (apparently there was a type of lizard in Suna that had glow in the dark blood that was commonly used in makeup and paint) and being as nosy as possible while pinned to a couch (Kakashi-sensei has a lot of porn….gross. He also has a lot of plants and a lot of random trinkets, and an odd sword hanging on the wall with a lighting bolt engraved into the metal on the handle that’s half wrapped in a red leather strap)

Her head snapped up, a soft clang of ceramic rang from somewhere in the apartment. Followed by, “Pakkun, you can’t just lay down right there, I’m trying to cook,” Kakashi-Sensei is presumably in the kitchen. Which is to her left behind her. He casually meanders into the living room in front of her like his pets didn’t keep her hostage.

“So?” He asks as he hunches forward, making direct eye contact, which was still intimating, and in fact, not “half as effective” as Naruto claimed once. The light in his eye was gone, leaving a dull piercing gaze behind. A hollow feeling started to creep into her torso before confusion took over. She glances away, he is still looking, damn.

“So…...what Sensei?” She tries. Despite being her Sensei for years at this point, and still meeting with her every other day when he was in the village while she trained under Tsunade, she still couldn’t figure him out sometimes. Sometimes it was a Civilian vs Shinobi thing. (Sensei, hide your weapons! They think you’re threatening them!) or a gender thing, (It’s so hot out, won’t you be cooler if you take your shirt off like Kiba over there Sakura? SENSEI! I’M A GIRL! Ahh, right, sorry.) She almost reported him for that one, but it wasn’t pervy, just genuine social ineptitude.

So that leads to this dilemma, figuring out what the ever loving fuck her Sensei was trying to communicate with her.

“Sooo……” He scuffs his foot against his hardwood floor (a lovely grain her merchant brain supplied) “Do you want to sign the ninken scroll or not?” Where the hell did this come from? She manages to refrain from saying that, but can’t control her face. She’s sure her expression isn’t pleasing. Was this one of his weird mindfuck tests? It had to be. Right?

“Uhhhh, where’d this come from Sensei?” Please explain your thought process, please, for once, Sensei. She tries to keep her emotions restrained but her heart is beating in her chest like a chihuahua with rabies in a cage. He leans back a little, but still hunched forward more than usual,

“The pack said you had to meet them before I let you sign the scroll,” Okay, now she’s a little pissed.
“So you tricked me into your apartment by luring me with your other scrolls?” She asks with a cruel smile that was a mimicry of Tsunade’s. He holds his hands up in mock surrender, and finally releases her from his look as he closes his eyes while he smiles,

“Ahh no, you see, I thought I might as well get the meeting over with while you were over, otherwise I would’ve unsummoned them before you entered, I do that for all my guests unless they’ve met my ninken before.” An awkward beat went by.

“Did it not cross your mind to inform me of this beforehand?” Okay, it wasn’t likely to be a mindfuck, Kakashi-Sensei is just like this. The thought relieves her. The chihuahua in her chest was now just mildly pacing around the perimeter of its cage.

“Why would I bring it up beforehand?” This moment would be funny if it weren’t for the actual bewilderment clear on his face, nose slightly scrunched as he peers at her, like watching her would give him some sort of explanation, couldn't’ she just make the decision when offered it?

Luckily for her, Pakkun barks literally, then barks out, “Boss! She needs time to decide, not all pups are like you as a pup!” Then he bit Sensei in the leg. Hard. The confused squinting turns into a pained grimace as he keeps quiet.

“Kiddo,” Pakkun starts, she tries to see if there was blood on his teeth as he speaks, “ Just go home and think about it for today and-”

“She could stay for dinner!” Bisuke yelps, very loudly considering how close he is to her ears. Ow.

“Sure, do you like pork dumplings Sakura?” Kakashi asks, taking on his false cheerful persona.

Why did she get the eccentric Sensei? Asuma would’ve been better. He was well adjusted, had only one well known vice of spoking, attractive, not a perv, but he wouldn't offer her a dog contract and dumplings. She took a good look at her Sensei.

He’s a lanky man, with a slightly tilted pelvis from an old severe injury, making him literally crooked. He complained about it aching on rainy days. He’s well muscled but lean. He has a hunchback, an uneven hack haircut that she’s seen him do on several missions when it got too long for his liking. His usual uniform has scuffs and dirt embedded in the seams from training today. His vest was unzipped the moment the henohenomoheji that team seven embroidered on the inside during the stitches lesson of their medical unit that was before even their wave mission was still there, if faded and worse for wear. He made them run so many laps after that stunt…. His uniform has a damp splotch on his leg, courtesy of Pakkun.

His eyes have their usual dull sparkle in them, when he looked at people, he looked beyond them. He confessed one day during an episode on a mission that he hated looking people in the eyes unless he was making a point. She doesn’t think he remembers telling team seven that. The visible part of the face has slight stress and age wrinkles, making Sakura more aware of their age difference, and skill difference. Bad Shinobi don’t get old. His crow feet are slightly visible even when he’s not smiling. His hands have a few crooked fingers, and he constantly has at least one split fingernail and he’s never cleaned underneath his nails either. He wears a very old smelling cologne that Sakura both likes and fucking despises at the same time. It was slightly nutty but mostly generic. He only wore it in the village. He scratches himself too often, and too roughly to just be dry skin.

Before her was a very flawed and broken man, but a man that made warm and delcious pork dumplings and stupid offers to a 14 year old girl. That she might say yes to.