Kakashi wonders sometimes what he was thinking, hesitating the way he did.

He had been so afraid of the dark emptiness of this place, never really full even when he lived here as a child, too expansive for a too-smart kid and a worn down veteran. After his father 's death it had grown impossibly colder, emptiness seeping into the walls the same way Sakumo's blood had seeped between the floorboards. He 'd been afraid to bring his team here, afraid that the empty cold that he remembered haunting the rooms would weigh on their bright souls as they slept.

He hadn 't counted on the reverse being true.