Reticent

Accident

Kakashi opened the door for Toge, and after following him in, thankful that the other took his shoes off before entering, he summoned his pack. "Toge. This is the pack. From now on, you're apart of the pack."

"Shake," Toge smiled at Kakashi, slipping off his mask and comfortably wearing it as a turtle neck. Kakashi turned to the few dogs that he could summon.

"Pakkun, Bull, Shiba," Kakashi knelt down in front of the dogs. "This is Toge, he's my Family Bind Mate."

If they were confused before they definitely weren't now, and they padded up to Toge, sniffing him and rubbing their heads against him. "He's older?"

Kakashi nodded. "He's the protecter."

Pakkun huffed, sitting on his hinds and lifting his paws. Toge plopped down in front of him. "Takana?"

"Huh?"

"Oh," Kakashi pulled a little on his hair. "Yeah. He, can't talk? I mean he kind of can, but he talks in onigiri ingredients for some reason. Come to think of it, why do you do that, Toge?"

Toge pressed his thumbs on Pakkuns paws and leaned close to his ear, whispering lowly, "Don't move."

None of the others heard the command, but Pakkun did and could physically not move. He couldn't even blink, let alone talk.

Suddenly he could again and leapt up. "I see. Kekkei Genkai."

Kakashi knelt where Toge was sitting. "A Kekkei Genkai?"

Pakkun nodded. "He told me not to move, and I couldn't. Im guessing his Kekkei Genkai is making anyone who hears him follow his orders, against their will. Is that why you talk like that? To not accidentally give out orders?"

Toge nodded, "Shake."

"Oh," Kakashi nodded. It made sense. "That was probably why those bloodline thieves were after you. How did you kill them? Actually, don't answer that."

Toge wasn't going to answer him, even if he had wanted to know. After all if he did that would possibly hurt him. A Kekkei Genkai. It was nice to finally put a name to his strange ability.

"Toge?"

Toge looked up, tilting his head at his packmate. He liked the sound of that.

Kakashi was standing at the door. He probably moved back when Toge was distracted. "I'll have to be right back, i need to get you some clothes. You can't walk around," he gestured at him. "Like that."

Toge looked down at himself. Ah. He had forgotten what state he was in. Other than the mask(that doubled as a shirt, very convenient) his clothes were a mess. Blood and shreds of guts still plastered on his pants and shoes, and Toge was reminded that he still smelled strongly of fish. Not only that, but the injury on his side—

Oh.

It was then when he felt a throb in his side, reminding him of the injury he had long forgotten about. He made a small sound in his throat, frowning. "...Tsunamayo."

He seriously forgot about that. Sure, it ached the entire way, and sure, it still definitely was open— and probably infected by now— and currently slowly leaking, pooling into his shoes, but it truly wasn't this bad when he first woke up.

Though, he has been the moving around a lot, it must have reopened somewhere along the way.

You know when you hurt yourself, and don't feel the wound until you see it? Yeah, currently that was happening. Toge whined as black and white spots dotted his vision, irritated that they showed up now, when clearly he was fine not to long ago.

Kakashi had long since left, and Bull had nudged his side, whining. He undoubtedly smelled the wound. The other dogs too, but since Toge hadn't signified having any type of wounds, and Kakashi didn't point out any either(and if the paranoid Kakashi didn't point it out, it surely would be fine), they assumed it had something on do with the fish stench on him.

It was when Toge hobbled over in the direction of the couch, pressing hard on his side, that they wondered if he was hurt.

Before they could ask him —though he wouldn't be able to answer, at least not in a way they would understand— he toppled over, passed out.

They took half a second to process the blood that slowly pooled under him where his hand no longer covered— and, oddly enough, out his shoes—before Bull was barrelling at the door to get it open, Shiba was at Toge's side trying to stop the blood flow, and Pakkun was running through the small doggy door Kakashi installed not to long ago, and they were running, running to find someone, anyone, who can get the only family Kakashi has back to safety.

———

When Toge woke up again the first thing he saw was just pure white, and wondered if he had died. But the soft sound of breathing, and a rather annoying quiet beep that went off every second, dismissed that theory immediately. He turned his head, looking for the sources of breathing.

Next to him, by the window, Kakashi stood, his eyes closed and arms crossed. Toge tilted his head, examining him. Was he sleeping? Next to him were a couple bags and a small box.

On the chair by his bed, another, unfamiliar, person slept(that is, if Kakashi was sleeping). Toge immediately moved to see if his mask was up.

It was.

But it hadn't been when he passed out, for sure. So either Kakashi found him and pulled up his mask, unlikely, one of the pups pulled up his mask, also unlikely, or this stranger saw his face and Toge broke the one rule of being a Hatake his first day actually being one.

Oops.

———

A bit shorter than usual, so that oops was for both Toge and I AKJSKAKDMDKAKNFNFNG—

IM SORRY OKAY NEXT CHAPTER ILL TRY TO MAKE IT LONGER ('༎ຶོρ༎ຶོ')