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It had been a little less than a month since Kakashi had the idea to renovate the Hatake Estate to live there with his three kids. This decision had come a few months after the four of them had become Team 7 and after Kakashi had realized that the living conditions of his students were beyond chaotic.
Naruto had lived entirely alone in a dilapidated apartment provided by the village since he was 7 years old.
Sasuke still lived in the Uchiha district, in the house where his parents had been murdered when he was eight years old. He, too, lived entirely alone.
Sakura, although still living with her parents, was completely ignored at home and her parents, civilians, absolutely did not support their daughter’s kunoichi talents.
Upon learning this, Kakashi, who had never considered himself a loving person, had decided to act. And even if he had wanted to adopt these three kids immediately, he knew that it was not possible. Naruto and Sasuke were the last of their clan and no one would ever let the Uzumaki and Uchiha die out, which would happen if Kakashi officially adopted them, making them Hatake. And for Sakura, being of civilian birth, her parents would have had to give their consent, and he was not sure if they would agree.
So, he couldn’t officially adopt them. Too bad, he would have to just get them out of their current living situation.
Except that, still living in the ANBU district in a small apartment, Kakashi couldn’t accommodate his students there. He had therefore decided to restore the Hatake Estate, where he hadn’t set foot since he joined the ANBU, more than 10 years ago. This house didn’t contain only good memories for Kakashi, quite the contrary, but he wouldn’t let his own traumas get in the way of his students’ well-being.
The four of them had therefore started renovating the old house. And since they were doing this in their free time, between missions and training, it wasn’t progressing very quickly, but that was fine with them. This house was going to become their living space, so Kakashi didn’t want to just hire a team of workers to renovate the space. He wanted the kids to make it their own, so he was going to let them do the renovations.
The first rooms they renovated were the bedrooms. One for each. And even though the house was gigantic and there were dozens of rooms available, his three students had chosen adjacent rooms. And Naruto and Sasuke’s rooms were side by side. Obviously. That way, the two boys could annoy each other even after sunset.
Kakashi had sighed at the realization of this choice but hadn’t intervened. Maybe Naruto and Sasuke spent their time fighting, but this rivalry was becoming increasingly healthy, and it was rare for the two teenagers to be intentionally mean or violent to each other just for fun. And then again, the house was huge so if they really couldn’t stand each other, they could have easily chosen rooms far from each other. But no, they wanted to stay close.
Too bad, Kakashi would invest in better earplugs. Maybe he’d offer some to Sakura too, who had chosen to move into the same hallway as well, her room right next to Sasuke’s. But thinking of it, Sakura could be as loud as the boys when she wanted to be, so Kakashi wasn't that worried.
Kakashi would take a room in the same part of the house but leave a few empty rooms between his and his students’. For the noise, but also to give them a little privacy. Or at least make them believe that he didn’t hear them getting up in the middle of the night to go to each other’s rooms to do mischief. They were in an old house, the floors creaked and even without that, his students really weren’t as sneaky as they thought.
But hey, they were young and Kakashi was willing to turn a blind eye to these nocturnal escapades as long as their performance in training and during missions didn’t suffer.
Once the rooms had been renovated to the taste of their inhabitants, they tackled the common areas, starting with the kitchen and the living room.
When all these rooms were renovated, this house really began to feel like a home and the students felt more and more at home.
When he’d suggested on a whim to restore the Hatake Estate as a place for his students to live, Kakashi hadn’t really known what to expect. As mentioned before, he didn’t really have good memories associated with the place, so he wasn’t sure how it would turn out.
But apparently, his students seemed to take the mission of changing this house, both in appearance and in memories, very seriously.
And indeed, even if they were the same walls, Kakashi couldn’t possibly mistake the room in which he had found his father’s lifeless body for the room in which Naruto and Sakura were currently chasing each other, the girl threatening the blond with a frying pan and Naruto running for his life.
Sasuke simply sat at the table, trying to eat his bowl of rice quietly.
It was too early for this kind of bullshit, Kakashi thought, running a hand over his face.
“Wait a minute, let me catch you!” Sakura shouted.
The two young teenagers were so caught up in their chase that they didn’t even notice Kakashi’s arrival, so when they passed in front of him, the Jonin was able to grab Sakura under the arms to lift her up and stop her.
“What the- Kakashi-sensei! Put me down, I have to hit Naruto!”
“Don’t let go of her, sensei!” Naruto countered. “She wants to hit me with her pan.”
“You deserve it!” Sakura exclaimed, continuing to squirm to get out of Kakashi's arms.
“Okay, okay, calm down!” Kakashi asked firmly. “What’s going on here?”
The two concerned began speaking at the same time. “Naruto is an idiot who-” “Sakura is a crazy woman who-”
“Stop! One at a time.” Kakashi continued. “Sakura, what’s going on?”
“Naruto is an idiot!
“We all know that.” Sasuke muttered from where he was.
“Hey, I heard you!” Naruto exclaimed, turning to the other boy and pointing an accusing finger at him.
“Good news of the day, you’re not deaf.” Sasuke congratulated sarcastically.
“What did you just say?” Naruto asked indignantly.
“Never mind, you’re deaf actually.”
“You little-”
Naruto didn’t have time to finish before Kakashi grabbed him by the collar, suspending him in the air.
“Sasuke, please don’t escalate the situation.” The older man asked.
The young Uchiha only responded with a shrug, seemingly refocusing on his bowl of rice, though Kakashi saw him send a victorious smirk to Naruto.
“Okay, let’s both start again.” Kakashi said, refocusing on Naruto and Sakura, whom he was still holding. “One at a time.” He warned, seeing them open their mouths at the same time.
“Sakura is tyrannical.” Naruto muttered simply, crossing his arms.
“And Naruto is incapable.” Sakura hissed.
Kakashi sighed. He wouldn’t get anywhere like this. Those two would never be able to give him an unbiased report on the situation. For a moment, Kakashi considered asking Sasuke, but if living together had taught him anything, it was that Sasuke loved chaos just as much as Sakura and Naruto did, he just hid it a bit better. The little shit.
Well, he was going to have to ask someone truly neutral. “Guruko.” He called, deciding to question his ninken, who was lying on the floor next to the kitchen door.
They might have been in a secure house, but Kakashi was still paranoid and didn’t want anything to happen to his students. So, when the kids were alone and he was in another room, he made sure that at least one of his dogs was always with them. That way, if something serious happened, Kakashi could find out in less time than it took to say it. And it also allowed, in this kind of situation, to have a neutral and unbiased point of view of what was going on.
Guruko stretched and sat up before reporting. “The kids got up early and wanted to make breakfast. Sasuke made the rice, Sakura said she was making the vegetables, and so Naruto ended up making the eggs. I don’t know exactly what happened, but Naruto apparently did something to upset Sakura, and she started yelling at him. Strong words were exchanged, and Sakura ended up threatening Naruto with the pan, and Naruto ran off. They had been chasing each other for several minutes when you arrived. Sasuke finished making the rice and sat down to eat without interfering with the other two.” The dog explained neutrally.
“I see. Thanks, Guruko, you can go if you want.”
The ninken nodded and trotted out of the room, joining Bull outside.
Left alone with his students, Kakashi suppressed a sigh. “Are you ready to explain what really happened?”
There was a stubborn silence before Naruto finally opened his mouth. “I don’t even know why she started complaining. But I certainly wasn’t going to let that happen.” He grumbled.
“Sakura, why did you start screaming?”
“He was doing everything wrong!” The young girl exclaimed. “Firstly, he pierced the yolks when he opened the eggs, but that was almost okay. Then he mixed it haphazardly, but I was ready to let it slide. But then he wanted to put the eggs in without even heating the pan or putting oil in it! So I took the pan away, telling him that wasn’t the way to do it, and he got angry, saying that anyway, I was just a know-it-all and that if I wasn’t happy, I should just do it myself, but since the vegetables weren’t done yet, he seriously doubted my abilities.”
“You didn’t like that and started chasing him with a frying pan.” Understood Kakashi.
Sakura nodded.
“Yeah, well next time try doing something you’ve never done before with someone yelling at you that it’s not how it’s done without saying how to do it and we’ll see!” Naruto defended himself, crossing his arms over his chest.
At this, the other three people in the room looked at Naruto. Even Sasuke looked up from his bowl of rice.
“What? Why are you looking at me like that?” Naruto balked, already on the defensive.
“Have you never made eggs for breakfast?” Sakura asked rather abruptly.
“Not everyone is lucky enough to have a mother who teaches them how to cook.” The young blond snarled.
“Naruto.” Kakashi reprimanded sternly, knowing that the living conditions of his students before they came to live with him were a sensitive subject for everyone.
All three of them knew it too, and usually no one used those arguments against each other. For Naruto to stoop to that, he must have really felt cornered.
Seeing that they had calmed down and not wanting to continue to hold them up, Kakashi released Sakura and Naruto, even though the two young people didn’t move.
Finally, Naruto finally sighed and lowered his head before answering.
“I wasn’t allowed near the kitchens when I was in the orphanage. I was barely allowed to eat in the same room as everyone else, so touching the food everyone else was going to eat? It was unthinkable. And when they kicked me out and I ended up in this apartment, I had no one to teach me how to cook either. I don’t eat so much instant ramen for fun, I just don’t know how to make anything else.” The boy mumbled.
At that moment, he really did look younger than 12, and Kakashi once again wanted to go and yell at the people who had made all this possible.
Sakura now looked ashamed of herself for getting carried away, and even Sasuke looked slightly friendlier than he had a few minutes ago.
“I understand better.” Kakashi said calmly. “Naruto, not knowing how to do something isn’t a fault, and next time it happens, don’t hesitate to say so instead of trying without knowing what to do, and I’m sure your teammates will be able to teach you without mockery. That goes for you too, Sakura and Sasuke. Everyone has skills that others don’t necessarily have, and it’s by helping each other that we become better. Putting down or denigrating someone who can’t do what you know how to do won’t get you anywhere. So, I’m counting on you to be more open with each other and help each other even if it’s not during a mission or in training. You’re a team, and it’s not just on the field that you need to help each other. Understand?”
“Understood, Sensei.”
“Those who don’t follow the rules are trash.” Kakashi began.
“But those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash.” The three teenagers finished, looking ashamed of their previous behavior but also very serious.
Maybe Kakashi-sensei made them repeat this phrase 50 times a day, but they understood the point a little more each day.
“Good. Now that that’s settled, you two go sit down while I finish breakfast. We can have a cooking class where I’ll teach you how to do whatever you don’t know how to do another day. It’s already late enough.”
“We weren’t the ones who slept in.” Sakura muttered as she sat down at the table.
“Are you really going to teach us how to cook, Kakashi-sensei?” Naruto asked.
“Do you even know how to cook?” Sasuke asked instead.
“Cooking is a useful art of the Shinobi, and everyone must be able to feed themselves with what is in front of them.” Kakashi replied soberly, answering both questions at the same time.
Sasuke huffed and Naruto simply nodded.
Kakashi then quickly got to work and finished preparing breakfast. And in less than 15 minutes, each child had a plate of rice, two eggs, and grilled vegetables in front of them.
“So cool.” Naruto beamed, admiring his plate. “Do you know how to make ramen, Sensei?”
Sakura slapped her forehead at this typically Naruto remark and Sasuke sighed but Kakashi only smiled.
“I’ll teach you how to improve instant ramen to make it taste better.” He promised.
“So cool!” Naruto exclaimed again, louder.
“Come on, eat while it’s hot, we have a big day ahead of us.”
The three children nodded and after a quick ‘Itadakimasu’ began to eat eagerly.
Kakashi watched them for a moment, enjoying the relative silence before getting up to start the dishes.
When he’d invited his students to come live with him, he hadn’t expected to have to give them cooking lessons; but after all, a good teacher was a versatile teacher, capable of teaching his students anything. Kakashi thought that for now, he wasn’t doing too badly as a teacher, so he would take on this challenge.
After that, cooking together became something of a new tradition for Team 7. Most often, it was Kakashi who cooked, having more experience than the others, but at least once a week, the four of them would gather in the kitchen and cook together, gradually increasing the difficulty of the recipes and learning together to cook with what they had on hand.
Even years later, when the children were almost 30 and had children of their own, each had their own life and no longer lived together, they still found time in their busy schedules to cook together, honoring the tradition they had started when they were only 12.