A/N: Warning: OOCness from just about everyone for the first two chapters... sorry...
Kakashi was on his way home from another boring meeting with the Godaime. She had been lecturing the jounin on some topic Kakashi didn't even remember being present for. So, he had just zoned out her voice and thought about his own problems for a moment. He realized, during that time, that he missed Sasuke. Sure, he hated how Naruto was now under Jiraiya's supervision and how Sakura was now with the Godaime herself, but he absolutely couldn't stand how Sasuke was with Orochimaru. He sighed long and hard and cursed himself under his breath, knowing it wouldn't do any good. Sasuke would now be seventeen, as would Naruto and Sakura. He wondered just how the Uchiha was doing and he hoped to kami-sama he'd be able to see him again.
Sasuke trudged slowly up to the village gates, a look of sorrow on his face. He winced at the sign of 'Fire' by the Hokage tower and twitched at the mention of Konohagakure. He regretted ever going to Otogakure. He wished he had just listened to Kakashi, Sakura, and Naruto. But, no. He was too stubborn back then. Now, he'd be disgraced in the village. He gulped at the thought, but went to Tsunade's office nevertheless, receiving glares from passing villagers.
"Tsunade-sama..." Sasuke whispered as he lightly pushed the door to the Godaime's office open. The blonde looked up and blinked at the sign of the younger Uchiha.
"S-Sasuke...? Is... is that you?" She question, completely stunned. She got up from her desk and looked him straight in the eyes.
"Yeah..." Sasuke replied slowly.
"You... why did you come back?" Tsunade questioned, looking angrily at him. Sasuke gulped.
"I... I realized it was wrong... I'm sorry-"
"You realized? Oh, wow. Uchiha Sasuke. I hereby grant you to stay in Konoha... but, there's a catch," Tsunade quickly changed the subject around and eyed the confused teen.
"A... catch?"
"Yes. You must not reveal you are back to anyone but Sakura and Naruto."
"What? Wait... what about Kakashi-sensei...?" Sasuke felt a pang of guilt saying his old teachers' name.
"No. You must not reveal you're back to him. Only Naruto and Sakura. And they must not tell anyone. Understood?"
Sasuke was about to protest, but knew from the look in Tsunade's eyes that it wasn't his place to do so.
"U-understood..." He whispered and turned tail on sannin.
'Eh? Why can't I talk...? Oh my GOD! When did I get to be so short? What in the name of- KIYA!' Kakashi screeched at the sign of his own reflection in a puddle along the road. He looked down at himself and did some movements to make sure it was really him.
He gasped as the reflection copied him. It was real.
Kakashi was a dog.
He was a really pretty dog, actually. A pure white German shepherd, to be precise. He still had the scar over his left eye and a tuft of extra fur coated his head like uneven bangs. He was a puppy, though. That's what made him angry.
'Out of all the gawddamn things I could've turned into, it had to be a helpless puppy?' He growled, barring his teeth.
"Sasuke-kun... I think you need a pet..." Sakura smiled as she made Sasuke something to eat in his old house.
"Hn? A pet...? You've got to be kidding me..." Sasuke grumbled angrily.
"Oh, come on! I think you'd look cute with a doggy by your side!"
"Heh... that reminds me of Kakashi-sensei..." Sasuke thought with a smirk. "Well, maybe someday..." He growled.
Kakashi didn't know what to do. He was a puppy, for kami-sama's sake! He decided it'd be best to go to Tsunade's and get some medical treatment... but... how would he communicate with her?
'Hey! I still have a human mind, right? So that means I can still write, right?' Kakashi thought and galloped in the direction of the Godaime.
Whence he got there, he pranced into Tsunade's office and jumped up on her desk, papers flying everywhere. The blonde blinked twice, cocked her head, then growled at Kakashi.
"You mangy mongrel... get off my desk, dammit..."
Kakashi snorted disapprovingly and barred his teeth. After a quick growl, he grabbed one of her pens in his mouth and pulled a blank piece of paper over to him with his right paw.
"Eh?" Tsunade had never seen any dog do THAT before! Not even Pakkun could do that...
Kakashi scrawled some incomprehensible kanji the page and Tsunade blinked at it. The German Shepherd growled some dog talk under his breath and tried again. This time, Tsunade understood.
"KAKASHI!-?" She gaped. The puppy nodded and let the pen drop from his mouth, sitting down obediently on her desk. "Wha-... What in God's name-?"
Kakashi sighed and picked up the pen, writing some more kanji on the piece of paper.
Can you help me?
"Well... Not exactly, Kakashi-san... This is something that...er... doesn't exactly happen very often, so..."
Kakashi didn't listen to the rest and wrote something else down.
Can you make me speak again?
Tsunade blinked. She was about to respond 'no', but something made her stop. Kakashi straightened with signs of hope.
"Well... there is ... one thing..."
What? Kakashi wrote.
"Come here..." Tsunade opened her arms and Kakashi jumped into them. The Godaime carried Kakashi to the medic hospital, the whole way mumbling about indecency and other things Kakashi didn't want to hear.
Whence they were there, Tsunade immediately took Kakashi to the back room and put him on a glass table.
"Now... this might sting a bit, but deal with it, okay?" She said, knowing she couldn't get a response anyways. "Also... there's one more thing."
Kakashi cocked his head, implying that he wanted to know what that other thing was.
"Well, the medicine I'm about to inject into you will only allow you to speak for certain amounts of time. The time that it occurs is random. It could happen for five minutes, or it could happen for five hours, but it will randomly happen, so use your speech wisely, okay? Well... here we go..."
Kakashi closed his eyes and whimpered as he felt an elongated needle being pushed into his right arm.
"It will make you a little woozy at first, so you need to always be with someone. You could pass out at any time, too..."
The puppy gulped at the thought of helplessness as the needle was taken from his furry body. He shimmied and looked up to Tsunade.
"Well... did it work?" The Godaime questioned.
"I think... hey! I can talk!" Kakashi marveled. "Damn... now I know how Pakkun feels..." He sighed and leapt off the metal table. "Well, thanks Tsunade-sama... I'll find someone really quickly, just as you instructed. Ja!" With that, the puppy skidded out in a full dash across the tile. Tsunade giggled at the sight of Kakashi running like that.
"Alright... now... I need to find someone before this medicine takes its true effect on me..." Kakashi mumbled, looking left and right. He felt so helpless. Beside a 5-year-old human child, he only stood about waist high. On a full-grown person, he only stood about knee-high at the very most (counting the pointed tips of his fluffy ears). "Eh?" Kakashi stopped at the sight of a very familiar raven-haired boy. "S-Sasuke..." He whispered in astonishment.
"A dog, huh?" Sasuke sighed at the thought of Sakura's lecture just a few minutes prior. He was on his way, secretly, of course, to the pet shop to buy a dog. Don't ask how, but Sakura had coaxed him into getting a pet. He knew that, if any, he'd be getting a dog. "Huh?" He glanced behind his shoulder, continuing to walk, and noticed a pure white German Shepherd puppy trotting along behind his heels. He blinked, then shook his head. 'What's with this puppy...?' He thought strangely.
Kakashi growled to himself. He couldn't speak at the moment. Just before he had called out to his former student, the medicine had it's little glitch Tsunade had told him of. He sighed and figured he'd just follow the Uchiha to wherever it was he was going until he could speak again.
Sasuke was getting suspicious now and stopped completely. Kakashi didn't noticed and walked right into the back of the teen's legs, causing the puppy to tumble over forwards and land on his belly flat on the ground in front of the Uchiha. Sasuke smirked and knelt down beside the puppy.
"Not very smart, are you?" He mocked, flicking Kakashi's right ear, making it flap back and forth. The puppy growled and leapt to his feet, barking at Sasuke. "Hey, hey... alright, I get it..." Sasuke shook his head and got to his feet. "Hey... why don't you come home with me? You don't look like you have an owner... Besides, it'd be less money for me if I could just take you instead of going to a pet store..." He scoffed, grumbling something about Sakura being a bitch.
Kakashi's ears perked up.
'Staying... with... Sasuke? In... his house?-?' He blinked, then let a wolfish smile fall into place. Oh, he was going to have some fun...
"Heh.. Even if you don't want to, I'll take you home anyways..." Sasuke picked Kakashi up and cradled him in his arms with a smirk. "I've heard pet owners name their pets... What should I name you...?"
Kakashi whined.
'Oh no... The one time Sasuke speaks to me is when he's going to name me... this is just great...' He growled sarcastically.
"How about..." Sasuke thought for a moment. "...Shadow..." He decided with a smile. Kakashi thought he was going to die.
'Well... at least he didn't name me Princess...' He thought aggravatedly and decided to go along with it. He'd be able to speak soon enough anyways...
"Alright! Your new name is Shadow!" Sasuke declared. "You like that?" He tickled Kakashi on his furry belly. The puppy sneezed lightly and wiggled in Sasuke's grasp. The Uchiha smiled at the puppy. "You know... my sensei had the same scar on the same eye... Not to mention one of your eyes is red, as well..." He brushed the thought from his mind and decided it'd be best not to think on it too hard.
"Well... the first thing we do is give you a bath when we get home. You can take one with me in the hot springs, okay?"
Everything stopped.
Kakashi blinked repeatedly and his jaw hung slightly ajar. The only time Sasuke and him had ever been in a hot spring together was that one time during a mission (episode 101). He gulped and tried to relax himself. It was just one bath... what could possibly happen?
Sasuke grabbed the bottle of doggie shampoo he had gotten from Kiba earlier and a bottle of his own shampoo and stripped down to his bare skin. Kakashi gulped, trying to keep his eyes from wandering to the wrong places. The puppy was mesmerized by the boys' muscles and packed abs.
'When did Sasuke get to be... so... strong...?' Kakashi gaped. He didn't know if it was just because he was a dog, but he felt immensely weak next to his former student. Sasuke looked down at the puppy, who yipped with surprise and tried to scurry away. But, unfortunately for Kakashi, Sasuke grabbed him underneath the belly and easily lifted him with one hand around six feet off the ground.
"Come on.. you're not seriously scared of water, are you?" Sasuke mocked, dangling Kakashi over the steaming hot spring. The puppy gulped at the heat it was emitting and scrambled up Sasuke's arms and onto his shoulder. Yes, he was that small. Sasuke smiled and shook his head. "Scardey cat..." He mumbled and took his first step into the water.
"Alright. Time to wash you..." Sasuke stated, rinsing the last of the soap from his hair. Water dripped slowly from his raven locks. Kakashi was treading water, trying to get used to doggie paddling. Sasuke had put him back on a rock several times, trying to get the puppy to relax, but Kakashi would always just jump back in and swim once more. Whence he heard the word 'wash', he immediately knew that meant him and tried to swim away as fast as he could. He snorted water from his leathery nose and licked his furry snout every couple of seconds. Sasuke smirked in amusement and put some of the doggie shampoo into his hand. Whence he put the bottle down, he grabbed Kakashi with his free hand and drug him back in the water to where he could put him on a rock and soap his fur.
Kakashi shivered as Sasuke lifted his wet body from the steaming liquid. The cool breeze of night felt almost eerie as it trickled around his body. He shimmied the water from his fur and stretched.
"YIPE!" Kakashi shrieked as a freezing cold gel drizzled onto his back. Sasuke's large hands wrapped around Kakashi's wriggling body and rubbed him up and down. Kakashi tried to stay focused. This was too much!
His breathing slowed as he arched his back to Sasuke's touch. Then, all at once, his little doggie body collapsed.
"Eh? Shadow? Shadow, are you okay?" Sasuke stopped rubbing the soap through Kakashi's fur and dipped his hands in the water to clean them of soap. "Oh my God! Shadow, wake up!" Sasuke realized it wasn't working and dipped Kakashi's body into the water to get most of the soap off. Whence done, he grabbed a towel and quickly dressed himself, drying Kakashi's dog body with the warm and fuzzy towel. Kakashi didn't wake up. At least... not until Hana did something about it...
"Is he alright...?" Sasuke asked Inuzuka Hana worriedly as the vet checked Kakashi's body.
"Don't worry, Sasuke... Nee-chan's a good vet. He'll be fine..." Kiba reassure his friend.
"Yes.. he's waking up right now, see?" Hana replied, taking a step back from Kakashi.
"Huh...? Wh-where am I...?" Kakashi asked without thinking. Sasuke, Kiba, and Hana all stopped.
"Did he just talk...?" Kiba asked astonishedly.
"Does that mean that he's a kuchiyose animal, Sasuke?" Hana asked, turning to the younger nin.
"I... I don't know... I just sort of found him and brought him home..." Sasuke blinked, staring at the dog.
Kakashi suddenly remembered he was a dog and sat on his haunches.
"Uh... woof?" He tried to recover, but they weren't buying it.
"Are you a summoned animal?" Hana asked, staring at the puppy.
"Eh? N-no... I-"
"Kakashi?"
The trio turned around to see Tsunade and Tsume in the doorway.
"Kakashi?" Kiba, Hana, and Sasuke chimed with utter astonishment.
"Yo..." Kakashi mumbled, shimmying the excess water that was still slightly dripping from his crystal locks of fur. Sasuke, Kiba, and Hana all turned back to the puppy. Sasuke gaped at him.
"K-Kakashi-sen...sei...?" He whispered. Kakashi licked his snout and stretched out in a dog-like fashion.
"Um... She can explain..." Kakashi mumbled innocently, pointing a paw towards Tsunade. Everyone turned to the Godaime. Sasuke kept his eyes on Kakashi, but listened intently onto what the situation was.
"Ahem... well, I suppose I can give you all a briefing. That is, ignoring the fact that a certain Uchiha Sasuke disobeyed my orders in letting Hana and Kiba know he was here..." The Godaime gave a glare to the Uchiha, who looked away and kept his eyes focused on his sensei. "But, anyways, you see..." Tsunade continued. "I still don't know how in the world Kakashi got to be a dog, but I do know he ran to my office and wrote me his problem. I gave him a medicine to let him speak, but it only works at random times. Sometimes he won't be able to speak for hours at a time, other time's it'll only be seconds. We can't tell for sure. Also, I told Kakashi to find someone that could take care of him quickly because the medicine gradually weakens his state of being and he won't exactly have control over his body. Like, just now, for instance. Kakashi-san passed out due to the medicine I injected into his bloodstream. But, of course, it wouldn't just do that automatically. Which means that he had to have had some sort of stress put onto his mind or body... Eh, Kakashi-san?" Everyone turned to the white German Shepherd.
"Huh? Uh... I'm fine now, though. I-it really doesn't matter..." Kakashi laughed nervously. 'Why do I have to be able to speak now?' He thought aggravatedly.
Tsunade sighed and turned to Sasuke.
"Sasuke. Did you take Kakashi-san in without knowing it was him?" The blonde questioned. She suddenly blinked, as did everyone else. The Uchiha was blushing furiously and avoiding eye contact. "Sasuke?"
"Huh? I-I... I didn't.. I mean... wait, what?" He stuttered nervously.
"Alright, then... seeing as the Uchiha is unable to communicate properly at the moment, I hereby decree that Kakashi will be strictly under Sasuke's watch until his state of being determines he has fully returned to normal." Tsunade laughed, an evil plot forming in her ingenious mind.
"NANI KA!-?" Sasuke and Kakashi chimed at the same time. Tsunade smirked.
"That's your punishment for going to Oto, Sasuke!"
"I can't believe this!" Sasuke cried. Kakashi buried his furry head into Sasuke's warm and solid chest. The Uchiha blushed and looked away, still walking back to his... er... their house.
"Sasuke...why'd you come back...?" Kakashi mumbled childishly into his chest. Sasuke felt the Hatake's warm flow of breath lightly beating his clothing. It was cold out, seeing as it was in the dead of winter currently, and Kakashi was shivering from the cold. Even with his fur. Sasuke ignored the question and slowly stuffed the surprised little puppy into his warm shirt and fuzzy jacket. The furry little puppy slid down into Sasuke's clothing and cuddled up into his stomach. The Uchiha suppressed fits of giggles from the tickling of Kakashi's fur against his bare tummy. Kakashi smiled and blushed wildly at being inside Sasuke's shirt. He slowly debated something in his mind, then licked slightly below Sasuke's pant line. The Uchiha yelped at the smooth tongue and blushed bright red.
"K-Kakashi! S-stop that!" He stuttered, putting one hand underneath the lump in his clothing to support Kakashi's furry little body. Kakashi smiled to himself in the darkness and snuggled into the warmth of Sasuke's body heat.
He was going to like living with the teen.