"Stay still!"
Kakashi felt a bead of sweat run down his face, even though he hadn't moved at all since the old woman began measuring him. He stood stiffly in the middle of the tiny shop, arms slightly raised while Madam Matsu shuffled around him with her worn measuring tape.
Just as Tsunade had warned him at breakfast, the village's oldest tailor muttered complaints as she treated the new Sixth Hokage like a mannequin that refused to cooperate.
"You young people are always so twitchy," Madam Matsu grumbled, tapping his hip with the tape before pulling it snug around his waist. She peered through her thick glasses, squinting until her eyes nearly disappeared in her wrinkles. "How am I supposed to line up the Hokage cloak if you keep shaking like a trapped insect?"
Kakashi didn't dare blink. "Madam Matsu, I assure you, I am completely frozen."
"Excuses!" she huffed, moving to his front and poking his chest with her thumb to make him stand straighter. She leaned in, her nose close to his collarbone, and squinted up at his jaw. "Look at this posture. Slouching like a tired genin. You're the Hokage now; lift your chin! How can I figure out the collar if you're leaning forward like you're hiding from someone?"
Kakashi sighed softly, his shoulders dropping a bit before she snapped the tape against his arm, making him freeze again. 'Tsunade wasn't exaggerating at all,' he thought, staring at the wall of fabric with a defeated expression.
Behind the counter, Madam Matsu's granddaughter fidgeted nervously, her hands gripping the edge of the wood as she watched her grandmother treat the newly appointed Sixth Hokage like a child she was disciplining. She looked ready to bow and apologize on the old woman's behalf at any second, clearly terrified that her grandmother's complete lack of filters would offend the most powerful ninja in the village.
Kakashi, however, just offered the young girl a reassuring, helpless look from the center of the floor, silently signaling that he wasn't going to arrest her grandmother for assault by measuring tape.
"Stop looking around!" Madam Matsu barked, completely picking up on his distraction as she pulled the tape measure tight across his shoulders. "Keep your eyes straight ahead, young man. The granddaughter of the First Hokage stood right where you are standing, and she didn't squirm half as much as you are!"
"Sorry, sorry."
Kakashi remained perfectly still for twenty straight minutes, not even breathing at times. He simply focused on staying as still as possible, determined not to trigger another lecture from the stubborn old woman.
Madam Matsu finally stepped back, letting out a sharp hum of approval as she rolled the worn tape measure back into a neat coil. "Well, at least you have some discipline when you choose to use it. Your measurements are done."
Behind the counter, her granddaughter let out a massive sigh of relief, her shoulders dropping as she finally stopped fidgeting.
"Thank you, Madam Matsu," Kakashi said, finally taking a full, deep breath as he lowered his arms. "I appreciate the hard work."
"Hmph." The old woman grumbled, already shuffling back toward her desk to scribble down the final numbers. "The cloak will be ready in three days. Now get out of my shop; you're blocking the light."
"Ah, apologies."
Kakashi quickly sidestepped, giving the Granddaughter a brief nod of respect. Kakashi didn't know if he could do what she did.
Quickly walking out, Kakashi sighed and took a big breath of the fresh air. The little shop didn't smell bad, but it smelled like an old lady. Kakashi didn't know he'd miss the smell of Konoha so much, but being poked and nagged at for a little over half an hour, you learn to appreciate the small things.
Kakashi began walking down the bustling main street of the village, heading toward the upper cliffs where the Hokage Monument overlooked the entire valley. The morning sun was fully up now, casting long shadows across the rooftops as merchants set up their displays and civilian families started their day.
Next, he was headed to see Kenzan, the Master Mason. As Tsunade had said, it was time to start planning his stone face for the monument, which still felt unreal. As he walked, his mind wandered to the new blood clone technique he invented. With the customizable Kamui dimension, he was already thinking about how to use the time dilation to start inventing.
'There's the train, but it's already being reworked; there's the chakra armor, already being replicated by Research and Development, so I can really focus on other things,' Kakashi thought as he walked. 'Like the boats from the Land of Sky just waiting by the shore still... or maybe I can just leave that to R&D too. Yeah, that sounds better. I want to make other stuff, but some help in explaining what I want would be good, or I could even make weapons for it. It'll need a port eventually; maybe I'll put one right where they sit now and hire some builders- maybe Tazuna and Inari's crew.'
Kakashi arrived at the mountain workshop at the base of the massive cliffs, where decades of stone dust hung faintly in the air. Master Kenzan was already waiting outside, holding a large wooden clipboard and looking up at the blank space on the mountain right beside Tsunade's carved face.
The Master Mason turned as Kakashi approached, his sharp eyes instantly scanning the new Hokage's features. Unlike the eccentric Madam Matsu, Kenzan didn't waste any time with complaints or lectures; he simply gave a respectful nod and gestured for Kakashi to step onto the wooden platform so he could get a proper look at his profile from different angles.
"Welcome, Lord Sixth," Kenzan said, his voice deep and practiced. "Let's get these angles sorted out so I can start the structural carving before the week is out."
Kakashi stepped onto the wooden platform, turning his head as requested so the master mason could analyze his features from different angles. Kenzan worked in silence, his eyes darting between Kakashi's face and the clipboard as his charcoal pencil scratched quick, precise lines across the paper.
The process was remarkably efficient. Unlike the agonizing half-hour ordeal with Madam Matsu, Kenzan captured the necessary profiles in minutes, nodding to himself as he finalized the sketches.
"That's all I need, Lord Sixth," Kenzan said, stepping back from the platform and lowering his clipboard. "I'll begin the initial cuts on the cliffside tomorrow morning."
Leaving the dusty workshop behind, Kakashi made his way down the mountain path toward the center of the village. The morning errands were officially out of the way; it was time to head to the Hokage Tower.
'That's what I can do.'
Kakashi immediately thought about the anbu, and his serum, specifically Tenzo. He hadn't forgotten about the man, but the time constraints and training everyone he could really left him no time to do much; he was stretched so thin that shadow clones were being used, and Kakashi admittedly didn't like using them. But with his blood clones and the Kamui space, Kakashi was ready to invent and help bring everyone up alongside him.
- Chapter End -
Hope you enjoy.
College classes starting up again.. I'll try my best to update when I can, but it won't be like before with the 1, 2,3, or even 4 ch. a day.