"That covers your debriefing, Ookami-sensei. I shall transport you to the sensei's office now."

Raccoon hooked her arm around Kakashi's and they disappeared in a puff of smoke. The reappeared in the headmaster's office, right in the middle of a meeting, apparently. The two in the room stared at them, making the female ANBU uncomfortable. Raccoon fidgeted self-consciously and Kakashi felt a twitch of amusement at her distress, but took pity on her. Speaking in Konoha's language, he said

"Thank you, Araiguma-san." Raccoon went still as soon as he started talking into the silence. He could almost feel her blushing behind her painted mask and grinned behind his. She managed to stammer out a reply.

"Of course, Ookami-sama have all h-heard of you. And of course, the c-copy nin as well. I-it was a p-pleasure." They bowed to each other awkwardly in the small space, and Raccoon disappeared in a puff of smoke and leaves. Only when she was gone did Wolf turn to the others in the room. A man with a long white beard looked at him with twinkling eyes and said in English, "I presume you are the infamous Kakashi Hatake.

"Hai sensei, but while I wear this mask my name is Wolf."

"Of course."

He gave introductions, pointing to the other two in the room in turn.

"I am Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of this school. This is Professor Severus Snape, the teacher of the Potions class." The two looked each other in the eye without saying anything. Kakashi broke the silence, turning back to the headmaster and said, "I was wondering,

Dumbledore-sensei. I was informed there was a teacher here this year by the name of Iruka Umino?" Dumbledore gave him a knowing look over his spectacles and smiled.

"Yes, he's going to teach for the year. Do you know him?"
Kakashi hesitated. He was hoping to catch a glimpse of the academy teacher, he had to admit. Kakashi had some unrequited feelings of the love variety for the chuunin, which would all in all, Hatake reasoned, only result in both of them getting hurt. Mostly himself.

"...Hai," He answered reluctantly. The chuunin had never really taken to the lazy copy nin most of Konoha knew, and hated Kakashi-sensei, the leader of team seven. Mostly because of the fight they had.

Dumbledore looked at him, but said nothing else on the subject.

"..Where will I be staying during my mission, Headmaster?"-sensei' Kakashi had to bite his tongue not to add the honorific. He may speak flawless English, but could barely resist mixing pieces of his tongue in. Other than that, he spoke without even the slight touch of an accent. Or so his teacher had told him.

"Well, as you know, you are going to watch over a student by the name of Harry Potter. First you'll meet him and he'll be informed of your position as his bodyguard. Professor McGonagoll will tell you where to go from there. You'll most likely be in the Gryffindor commons. Severus?" The teacher nodded tightly and swept out of the room, and Kakashi could only follow.

Snape was obviously trying to walk faster than the ANBU but it didn't work, as Kakashi had to pace himself beside and slightly behind so as not to walk ahead of the man. He glimpsed masses of what he assumed to be students chattering and walking through doors into what looked like another huge room. Snape pushed him into a small room with a burning fire that looked to be an office. There were three people in the room, who had sopped talking when thy came in. There was a young girl with tousled brown hair, a boy with mussed black hair with glasses and a small jagged scar on his forehead. Behind the desk sat a strict-looking woman.

"Here he is." Severus growled, shutting the door. The woman looked at him from behind her square glasses. Kami, does everyone wear glasses here?

"Are you the man Albus was talking about?"
"I don't know, Oujo-san. I was assigned to protect someone." He dipped his head in a small bow of respect. The lady nodded.

"Then you are. I'm Professor McGonagall, the head of Gryffindor house. This is Harry Potter," She pointed to the boy, "and Hermione Granger." He bowed again and replied.

"It's a pleasure. I am... Wolf." He nearly said Ookami, and bit his tongue again. There was an uncomfortable pause where they looked at him, waiting for him to explain. When he didn't, the professor continued.

"Harry Potter is who you're assigned to protect... Wolf."

The boy rose at that. "I don't need a babysitter!" He objected, and Kakashi replied in a quiet, deadly voice.

"Not babysitter. Bodyguard. And trust me, I'm not happy either to find out the S-ranked mission I got dragged back into service for is protecting some bratty kid for a year."

The room was quite, and Harry flushed red in indignation. Hermione's lips twitched slightly in a grimace. The professor glared at them both and proceeded to tell Harry off.

"After what happened last year, we felt it necessary to hire someone to protect you. And especially after that incident on the train. You'll have to learn to live with it. Now, Wolf," She turned her withering gaze onto the man, "You'll follow Harry for the rest of the year. Make sure he doesn't get hurt or into trouble. You can sleep in the Gryffindor common room. That's about it."

Wolf nodded in understanding, and she told Harry to wait outside while she talked to Hermione about something and then they would go to the feast together. Harry mumbled an answer and pushed past his guard to the door. Kakashi followed him, shutting the door softly. Harry leaned up against the wall, grumbling angrily, and Hatake stood next to him in his usual bodyguard stance. Harry glared at him, and he ignored it. There were footsteps approaching briskly, an just as the boy opened his mouth to say something undoubtedly scathing, a man's voice exclaimed "ANBU-sama? What are you doing here?"

The soldier in question looked to see who the speaker was, and found himself face to face with none other than Umino Iruka himself. Awe leaked into his voice as he continued speaking in English.

"And Ookami-sensei, of all of them." Kakashi blushed and kept his voice neutral, saying in the guarded tone of a shinobi in mission mode, "Standing, Umino-sensei. And that would be wolf in this language, sensei." He emphasized the last word and Iruka blushed slightly and rubbed the scar marring his face.

"Don't sensei me, ANBU-sama. I know that. And also, if anyone deserves the title it's you. Everyone knows what you've done for Konoha."
"Everyone must, if even a chuunin does," Kakashi quipped and the teacher's face went pink. "I wasn't aware our hero was such a jerk."

Kakashi chuckled. "Comes with the territory." Iruka snorted and Kakashi continued in a more friendly tone, "Maa, all jokes aside, it's nice to know someone else from Konohagakure is here."

"...Yeah. Well, Ookami-sensei, I must be going." Iruka turned to leave but the ANBU spoke before he had the chance.

"Umino-san, seeing as how we are brothers here, you may call me Ookami."

Iruka paused, his back against the two leaning on the wall.

"...Call me Iruka." Before Iruka could walk off again, Kakashi interrupted in a lewd tone, "You can always call me nii-san, nii-chan." He chuckled as a kunai buried itself into the wall next to his shoulder. He tossed it back to the teacher, who caught it and span it by the ring a few times before slipping it back into his pocket.

"Love you too, nii-chan~"

"Next time I won't miss." Iruka threatened and Kakashi laughed as the teacher walked away to the feast. He felt eyes on him, and turned to see his charge staring at him. Just then, the door to the office opened and the two women stepped out.

"Shall we?" The professor asked and they trailed after her to the feast.

The feast was awkward, to say the least. The Great Hall was filled with whispers and off looks, all directed at the foreigner. Hatake ignored it, assuring himself they'd get used to his presence in time. Harry did his best to ignore him, willing him to not exist. Kakashi was slightly amused when the Weasley boy tried to ask but Hermione had frantically gestured to him it was a bad idea. Dumbledore had made only a small mention of him, saying he was at the school to prevent a repeat of last year. His tone said clearly that was all he was going to say on the matter. After the feast was over, the four trailed their way back to the Gryffindor tower with the rest of the group. All of the students made their way up to their dormitories, and the common room was quiet at last. Kakashi pulled the mask off his face when he had made sure he was alone. He sighed and absently trailed a finger down the scar over Obito's eye.

"Ah, Obito. If I was in Konoha I would be visiting you right now. But I'm here, so I'll just have to make do with talking into the wind." He paused, wondering what he should say. All he could think of was

"Obito, what have I gotten myself into?"