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Now that you have chosen the right breed for your needs, the next step is to make sure your new dog recognizes that your authority is absolute. Rebellion and stubbornness are not conducive to a functional and rewarding relationship.
In short: Establishing dominance is key.
~~~
Despite the impatience nipping at his heels, despite the constant ticking of his mental clock, and the way he aches to begin, Minato does not call upon Kakashi to discuss his new place right away.
Minato knows all too well that timing can be everything when it comes to a successful operation.
This, like everything else that Minato has ever done, must be done with precision.
So instead of pressing forward immediately, Minato waits.
He plans.
He assigns Kakashi’s ANBU squad to a high-level sabotage mission in Key and settles in to wait for the necessary pieces to all line up perfectly.
He cuts through his daily paperwork during that time with brutal efficiency and approaches the newest arm of the budget restructuring he’s been enacting with a level of surgical precision that reaches beyond even his normal strict, systematic methods. It ensures that he’ll have plenty of free time for at least the next few weeks, which is ideal since this portion of his plan is one where timing and consistency will be paramount for success. It also makes Botan-kun, the adorable little chūnin who has been taking the Finance Department by storm lately, look at him with awe.
One half of his mind forever dedicated to monitoring Kushina’s seal, Minato waits until Kakashi has returned from the mission, eight sure-to-have-been grueling days later, to make his move.
He waits until Kakashi is alone in the ANBU locker room.
Which is easy enough since Kakashi is always the last to leave, always the one staying behind post-mission while the others in his squad head back out into the village to their homes and their families. To their friends and their reminders that they have once again returned alive.
Not Kakashi though, never Kakashi.
Kakashi is othered even in ANBU, even among the elite. Is weighed down and yet lifted up by the legacy he’d been born to, the horrors he had grown up beside and within, and the legend he has long since begun to build on his own.
So instead of leaving quickly, eager to take advantage of his mandatory post-mission downtime, Kakashi is standing in the locker room, his ANBU mask and armor already cleaned and stored away. He is stripped down to his blacks, the sleeveless ones he prefers, with the customary mask in place as always, obviously exhausted but outright refusing to rest yet.
He is exactly as Minato had known he would be.
Had counted on him being.
Separate.
Isolated.
Drained.
Vulnerable.
Minato smiles just a bit as he leans his shoulder against the door frame.
Perfect.
“Hokage-sama,” Kakashi greets, head automatically dipping in deference.
“Sensei, Kakashi,” Minato corrects as he always does, a careful sort of order for closeness, for familiarity beyond leader and soldier. A calculated reminder of all they are to each other, all they have shared and lost together. “You’re off duty now, so call me sensei.”
“Sensei,” Kakashi repeats as he always does, as if he is giving himself permission now that Minato’s has once again been reaffirmed.
Always so cautious, so careful.
Kakashi’s many losses have made him as fragile and malleable for the right hands on an emotional level as they have made him vicious and unrelenting in the field.
Minato smiles just a bit to himself.
Poor little Kakashi, the lonesome Hatake pup that he is, really is the perfect choice.
Besides, in the end, this will be a net positive for Kakashi as well.
“You will stop by soon and let Kushina feed you,” Minato orders casually. “She’s been asking about you. We both know if you don’t drop in on your own, she’s only going to hunt you down later.”
“Yes, sensei,” Kakashi agrees instantly, easily, with another small head bob.
Minato is sure his child will enjoy the benefits of that kind of easy compliance one day too.
After Minato has pressed certain limits, guidelines, and expectations into Kakashi so deeply that not even death will be able to carve them out, of course.
Kakashi will one day belong to his child, above even Minato himself, but that doesn’t mean Minato won’t have the final say in certain situations and circumstances the two might encounter.
The key is implanting the proper, desired responses here and now.
Minato refuses to take any chances with his child’s life, safety, and future happiness.
“Your mission went well,” Minato continues, eyes tracking over Kakashi’s form. “Tora came back injured, but not every mission can be perfect.”
He sees the minute almost flinch that Kakashi is unable to tamp down completely.
Minato smiles.
“I’m proud of you,” he continues. “And while I’d love to leave you to your well-deserved rest, I’m afraid I need you to come with me.”
“Hokage-sama,” Kakashi perks up, posture shifting into something closer to sharp attention, although Minato can see the way exhaustion makes it just a bit sloppy around the edges.
“I can’t discuss it with you here,” Minato doesn’t bother to correct Kakashi this time, “but I have a new mission for you.”
Minato steps forward and lays his hand on Kakashi’s mostly bare shoulder.
With a flex of his chakra and a mental push, they both disappear.
~~~
Kakashi is empty.
He has been for a long time now.
Something had died in him the night Sakumo had killed himself, had bled out onto the tatami mats alongside his father.
Some part of him, something young and vulnerable he had never been able to name, had crawled out of Kakashi’s chest, out of his very soul, that night. It had curled up, pup-like and slit-stomached, in the curve of his father’s cooling corpse and refused to move.
It had burned alongside Sakumo’s body.
Kakashi, left behind alone and hollow, had adapted to the loss, of course.
Had sewn those gaping, gutted parts of himself that remained back together as best he could, buried the hurt of it all as deep as he could reach, and then he just …
Kept going.
It was, as Sakumo always says used to tell him, just what the Hatake do.
One of the core, guiding principles of their his dwindled Clan.
Protect.
Adapt.
Survive.
Die at the right time, for the right cause.
So of course Kakashi had pressed forward.
He had grown stronger, had thrown himself into his training with renewed fervor and vicious intent.
He had done his best to protect the village, had cut his way through mission after mission, through the very war itself.
Kakashi has adapted to and then overcome every challenge and loss that has settled on and around him.
He has not yet managed to die survived.
But now?
With the loss of not only Obito but of Rin still so fresh in his mind? With the blood on his hands and arms refusing to wash away and the sound of rocks falling and birds chirping haunting his dreams?
Kakashi feels as if he has finally been hollowed the rest of the way out.
Reduced down to little more than the scarecrow Sakumo had named him for.
A sentinel of straw and wood with no real will of his own, left to rot in a field until his usefulness is finally gone.
Even the challenges and the teammates he has found in his time in ANBU do not truly touch him.
He completes his missions, aiming always for success, for as close to perfection as each situation allows him to.
He keeps his teammates as safe as possible even if it means taking a blow for them.
And with every mission Kakashi goes out on, he does so under the belief the expectation, the hope that he might not come back alive.
He has long since made peace with that aspect of a shinobi’s duty.
Kakashi exists.
He does not do much else.
But now …
Now Kakashi is standing in the middle of a forest far from the village but still sheltered by towering trees, ready to obey his Hokage.
“Do you understand why I assigned you to the ANBU?” Minato-sensei, one of the vanishingly few people or things truly capable of making Kakashi feel real at any given moment, asks.
“My skillset is suited for cov-” Kakashi begins to answer automatically, confident in his reply. In what he has worked so hard to be and become.
“I assigned you so I could keep a direct hand on you,” Minato-sensei interrupts him with a raised hand. “I had plans for you but, well, my own circumstances have changed so yours will too.”
Kakashi stills, attention focusing in even further.
For the longest time now, Minato-sensei’s orders have been the one solid tether he has had to ground himself with.
Kakashi is eager for more of them.
Desperate for the direction they provide.
“You are a broken thing, Kakashi,” Minato-sensei says, eyes gleaming and expression calm.
Kakashi blinks.
Kakashi knows that he is broken, he has been for years now.
It is not really all that surprising that Minato-sensei knows that too.
It is just …
This is the first time that Minato-sensei has ever outright said as much to him.
“You’re intelligent, strong, and skilled,” Minato-sensei continues, leaning back against the towering ironwood tree as he watches Kakashi. “But beneath it all, you’re just a pathetic little thing, aren’t you? Still a pup, mewling for its pack but knowing they’ll never come.”
Kakashi’s heart speeds up and refuses to slow down despite the way he automatically adjusts to keep his breathing slow and even.
“They’re all dead now,” Minato-sensei continues, tone calm but words merciless. “But you? You just keep on living, don’t you?”
There’s a soft buzzing in Kakashi’s ears.
A wasp-like static.
He resists the urge to try and shake it away.
His chest feels tight.
“But I like that about you, Kashi-kun,” Minato-sensei’s tone abruptly softens just a bit as he pushes away from the tree and steps closer to where Kakashi is standing. “It’s a trait I find myself needing now more than ever.”
Minato-sensei’s hand, large and warm, moves to press down firmly against the top of Kakashi’s head.
A part of Kakashi yearns to press up into it, to lean into the touch.
It’s been so long since anyone…
“Kushina is pregnant,” Minato-sensei tells him, voice low but expression practically aflame with joy. “I’m a father now.”
In that moment, Kakashi understands exactly why Minato-sensei had taken them so far from the village for this conversation. With it being so early in her pregnancy, Kushina might be vulnerable despite all of her strength, but the pup-to-be is even more so.
“My child deserves the best,” Minato-sensei continues. “I will give it to them.”
The hand on Kakashi’s head clenches, strong fingers tangling in the thick strands of his hair. A barely there sting that makes Kakashi want to shiver.
“With the right training,” Minato-sensei says, “I think that could be you.”
For the first time in longer than he can remember, something inside of Kakashi stirs.
Something malformed and scar-covered nestled deep in the black hollowness inside of him, wakes up in interest.
Something... hungry.
“Me?” Kakashi can’t help but ask, can’t bite back the question like he otherwise would.
“With the right training,” Minato-sensei repeats in agreement. “You could fulfill your true potential, Kakashi, and then you would finally have what we both know you’ve been aching for, deep down beneath it all. What all Hatake ache for.”
Kakashi’s breath catches in his chest.
That sounds so …
“You will belong to them, to my child,” Minato-sensei seems to relish saying those two words, “above all else. Above the village. Above me. You will be theirs. Your mind, your body, and your entire soul. You will kill for them, live for them, die for them.”
That long-toothed, stitched-together creature inside of Kakashi's hollowness stretches and points its bloody muzzle toward the sky.
“And if you’re good,” Minato-sensei’s mouth curls up in a small, sly grin, “if you take to your training and perform like I think you will, then one day they will be yours as well. Mated and claimed. You’ll be a real part of my family, Kakashi. Don’t you want that?”
There is a howling, gnawing, ravenous ache in the depths of him now.
And Kakashi …
Uncaring of the hand in his hair or the pain that it causes, Kakashi drops to his knees.
And then, when Minato-sensei’s hand finally unclenches, he drops lower still.
“Teach me, sensei,” Kakashi begs, forehead pressed to the ground directly in front of Minato-sensei’s feet.
Kakashi wants what Minato-sensei is offering him.
Needs it with a desperate sort of hunger unlike anything he has ever felt before.
He will do anything and everything Minato-sensei requires of him to gain it.
He will be perfect.
Or this time Kakashi will finally die trying.