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Hound—Kakashi—finds him on his way back to the western medical unit after another day of fruitless searching for somewhere that can properly house 18 children.
As much as none of them want to be apart from each other right now, clinging like limpets to the nearest sibling, cousin, friend, they will all need their own space. Outside of clan compounds, space is the problem. And the clan compounds are in use.
Itachi refuses to take them back to their former homes.
Really, he should burn the whole place to the ground.
He's not up for going back in there and pulling out anything of value—by which he means anything the children might want, now or later. He doesn't want anyone else going in there either, despite knowing that ANBU, T&I, and, he's sure, ROOT have been, are, or will be all over it.
But.
Kakashi finds him. He dangles a key in front of Itachi's face.
“What?”
“A place you can live. Enough room for all of you.”
Itachi still doesn't really understand. He just stands there, looking at Kakashi.
Kakashi gives him a look of mixed rebuke, compassion, and empathy. Itachi doesn't understand that last one until Kakashi speaks again.
“The old Hatake place. I'm never going to go back there. It's full of tragedy, but it's not your tragedy. And the kids won't know anything about it.”
Oh. This is unexpected, except in all the ways that it's not. Kakashi is always trying his best to take care of his comrades. For all that Itachi isn't on Hound's ANBU team anymore—and hasn't been for years—Kakashi still sees Itachi as one of his.
“I've cleaned the place out over the last week.” Itachi gets the sense that he's smirking under that mask. “And I had some genin teams in to do heavy lifting. The personal things have been pulled out, the dust bunnies evicted, and some basic bedding, clothes, and food laid in. ANBU took up a collection.”
Oh. Itachi is… touched. And overwhelmed. Again. He's going to be overwhelmed forever, a whisper in the back of his head says.
Itachi reaches out to take the key.
“Thank you,” he whispers.
Kakashi reaches out, hesitantly, and places a hand on his shoulder.
“You're a clan head now,” Kakashi continues. “Not that it's going to do you much official good. But you should go and visit Akimichi Chiharu-sama, Nara Yoshino-sama, and Yamanaka Noriko-sama. They can help you with the kids.”
Itachi just about collapses with relief at the thought of real help. He has a feeling he knows why Kakashi listed Chiharu-sama first, too, so that will be his first… second… third… fourth? stop.
“Come on.” Kakashi removes his hand and waves it toward where Itachi knows the Hatake place is. “I'll get you keyed in to the wards. You'll be able to do the kids later.”
Itachi follows, relieved. This, at least, is now taken care of.