Author: Agent Hatake (agentANBUhatake)
Summary: Any mission that he was sent on could quite possibly be his very last and that reality hadn't particularly fazed him. It wasn't until his friends had pushed him into loves' gentle embrace that, that reality had started to hit home. KakashiKagome. Inuyasha Eyeshield 21 Xover.
Disclaimer: Pft- will I ever own Naruto or Inuyasha and its' characters? Probably not, but I have dreams about the one day I do . . .
A/C: Umm, here's hoping that you'll find it interesting.
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Chapter 1, Part 1
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A Breath of Fresh Air
"Look, Kurenai-san. One way or another one of team 10 will stay with you everyday until you give birth." Ino said in a no non-sense way with a hand on her hip. "I've already talked about it with the guys and they wholeheartedly agree that it's not safe for you to be alone for any part of your pregnancy. So what we're going to do is-"
Kurenai sighed, smoothing a hand across her still flat stomach. She was still in her first semester and heading into her second one. "Ino, I've already got someone coming." She interrupted, knowing that if she didn't, she'd find out what she was going to do three weeks from now on a Thursday at 3:23 in the afternoon if she let Ino have her way. And frankly, her feet were starting to hurt from standing too long. The extra hours she'd be picking up at the tower were taking their toll on her, especially since she'd started wearing high heels.
Being pregnant is going to suck, if she put it simply. And she wasn't going to have Asuma around all the time to amuse herself by watching him be anal about the placement of the rocking chair in the nursery. Fussing about how if a ninja attacked from the window or the door the rocking chair would have to be in a place that wasn't immediately within site so the enemy didn't have the element of surprise and couldn't get the drop on them. And how if they moved the crib closer to the window, ninjas could just snatch their baby straight from under their noses and how embarrassing that would be that a ninja got the one-up on TWO jounins. Embarrassing . . . He'd gotten a head start on the nesting part of the pregnancy . . .and he didn't even have a gut full of baby! The injustice!
Instead, he was off chasing clues and following leads on the whereabouts of the Akatsuki with Kotetsu, Shikamaru, and Izumo. In an instant she felt a rush of anger towards Akatsuki, because of them she was being depraved on alone time with Asuma. They weren't going to have too much of those moments when the baby came. 'Oooh! If I could just lay my hands on one of their necks so I could-' mentally she imagine herself cutting off the air supply and snapping the neck of those Akatsuki pricks as if they were twigs and immediately calmed down.
Mood swings were fun.
Ino blinked, surprised and curious. "Who?"
She hummed at the question before tilting her hand to cover the glare of the sun from her eyes. "My cousin is coming to stay with me."
"You have a cousin?" Ino asked, shocked. Shikamaru or Asuma hadn't said anything about Kurenai having family!
"Mm-hmm." She was getting tired and despite it being 2 in the afternoon, she wanted a nap, having spent the majority of her night researching things for Tsunade-sama. 'I wonder if this is what it's going to be like during my last trimester, will I be this sleepy so early in the day?' She'd be annoyed if with this pregnancy she were going to always be so tired and ended up sleeping like Shikamaru, for hours on end.
Ino noticed this and immediately steered Kurenai back to her apartment. Ino was still curious though, a cousin? If it was a guy and had the same dark burgundy almost red eyes, hmm. . . "When is he coming?" She asked, excited.
"She's coming tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. She has a couple things to do before she can come over." Kurenai emphasized, god forbid news got around Konoha about a male staying at her house. She contemplated that for a moment, thinking how sexy it would be for Asuma to fight for her honor . . .while shirtless. Kurenai sighed wistfully.
"Really?" Ino perked up at the news, a new girl in Konoha? That is interesting, she'd have to tell the guys about this because they were sure to find it interesting. Especially Asuma, she wondered if he already knew about this. Her eyes immediately narrowed, 'And he didn't think to inform us of something this important?'
"How old is she?" She asked; she had a reputation to uphold as Konoha's gossip queen after all. She wasn't letting this conversation go until she knew Kurenai's cousin's life to the very last detail!
Kurenai noticed the glint in Ino's eyes and immediately mentally groaned. She recognized that glint. She often saw it in Anko's eyes when she was determined to get a free dango meal from some hapless Konoha guy or tourist.
She only needed to get groceries for the week from the market and instead got an interrogation. Oh boy. . .She nearly cried in relief when she saw her apartment complex come into sight; Ino noticed this too and frowned in disappointment.
"So? How old is she?" She prompted again.
"She's 26 years old." Kurenai picked the pace up a bit, hoping Ino wouldn't notice that and let her go free.
"Here, let me take those bags and help you up the stairs. We really have to do something about that, you can't be climbing stairs all the time, it's dangerous." Ino sure was getting way over protective of her sensei's wife.
Kurenai mentally cried twin rivers. She knew what this was going to lead to, a pot of tea (water for her) and a whole lot more questions.
"What's her name?" Ino asked once they cleared the stairs to the 2nd floor and were a corner away from Kurenai's apartment door.
"My name is Kagome Higurashi." A voice answered, a woman stood in front of Kurenai's door with a suitcase behind her and a big worn yellow backpack hanging from her shoulder. Her hair was up in a ponytail with her bangs swept off to the side. She had clear blue eyes, a small nose, and pink plump lips. She wore a non-descript blue tee and khaki shorts with white sneakers. She had amazingly pale and clear skin.
Ino mentally pictured Kagome's hair down in waves and with an elegant kimono and was blown away with the mental image. 'She's gorgeous!' It was a good thing that she was shorter than Ino by 3 or 4 inches otherwise Ino would have been jealous.
She had a teasing smile and twinkling blue eyes. "Hi, Kurenai!"
Kurenai nearly squealed in happiness and settled for a big bone-crushing hug and a giggle. "Oh, Kagome, you can't imagine how happy I am to see you!" Ridiculously happy, Kurenai mentally added because if she played her cards right she could have Ino out of her hair and a nice big cup of Kagome's famous hot chocolate, yumm!
"Kurenai, I can't believe you're pregnant! I feel so proud! When am I going to meet the man that got you pregnant??" Kurenai nearly wept at finally having someone to have a sane and normal conversation for once!
But tears dabbed at the corner of her eyes anyway and she met Kagome's own blues with her reds, a couple tears leaked out and she managed to choke out a, "I'm sorry, these hormones are driving me crazy! I never used to cry this easily." Before she succumbed to her tears and blubbered onto Kagome's shirt.
Kurenai pulled in a big gulping breath and turned to Ino, her arms still around Kagome's smaller form.
Ino nearly flinched when the word 'pregnant' came out of Higurashi-sans mouth, equating the word 'pregnant' for 'big' and waiting for Kurenai's top to blow and immediately chastised herself because she knew that Kurenai was the most rational and sane jounin she knew, Kurenai wasn't going to cry for something that she was happy about and obviously true. She wasn't Chouji!
"Ino, can we continue this conversation some other time because I really want to catch up with Kagome." Kurenai said with a watery smile. For once, these hormones were helping her out. She added a small sniffle for the heck of it.
"Oh, sure! I'll talk to you later then, bye Kurenai! It was nice to meet you, Higurashi-san." Ino bowed hastily before she turned and headed out of the apartment complex.
"It was nice to meet you too!" Kagome called out, before immediately ushering Kurenai inside and picking up the grocery bags from the hall, pulled her suitcase behind her, and stepped inside.
"Do you think you can make some of your hot chocolate, Kagome?" Kurenai asked with another watery smile.
"Of course!"
'These hormones are a great thing too,' Kurenai decided.
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Kurenai was surprised that Anko came a whole day later to investigate the very true rumors going around Konoha about someone coming to live with her. For sure, she said, Anko was going to come by the very same day. But lo and behold, here Anko was a day late and in the threshold of her apartment.
A little-sleep deprived and moody, but she was here. Oh boy . . .
Kagome was thankfully in the kitchen so she didn't have to experience Anko so early in the morning. Not many could survive Anko so early in the morning . . . She had bags under her eyes with a dark gleam in them and her cloth- ahem coat looked a little rumpled and she was methodically twirling a kunai around her finger. She radiated danger in waves.
She thanked her own foresight to warn Kagome about ahem theeccentricity of the friends that she had.
"Want some breakfast?" She ventured to ask and moved aside as Anko walked through and slumped into the kitchen chair. Both Kurenai and Kagome flinched when she slammed the kunai in her hand on the table, but thankfully slammed it on its side rather than stabbing it through the table.
She had a lot to be thankful for, lately. She walked over to the table and got in the chair the same time that Kagome set down breakfast on the table and got two mugs of deliciously smelling coffee and one banana, peanut butter, and broccoli smoothie for Kurenai; one of her odd cravings that Kagome didn't bat an eyelash at. She was a godsend for sure.
Almost immediately there were three sighs of pleasure.
"Mm, these eggs are delicious." Kurenai mumbled through a mouthful of eggs. Kagome beamed, she never got compliments like these.
"Fuck the eggs, this cup of coffee is exactly what I needed. Sunshine in a cup. Meh, I can't be mad at you with this in my system."
"You were mad at me?"
"Well, yeah. I mean I could've lived with you to help you out with your pregnancy." Kurenai's mind blanched at the thought. "But instead you called for your cousin?? What's up with that?"
Kurenai smiled, pleased that bachelorette Anko would've come to her rescue if she called for it. That was heart warming. "The point was I needed someone that wouldn't constantly be out on missions, someone stable."
"Missions?" Kagome joined in. "What kind of missions do you go out on if you don't mind me asking?"
"Normally we wouldn't be able to tell civilians the kind of things we do but since you are Kurenai's cousin and Kurenai has a lot of backing from the Hyuuga family and some of the council, I doubt it'd matter much."
Kagome looked towards Kurenai, happily sipping her smoothie and turned back to Anko. "Our squad was sent to start negotiations with Amegakure so I just got back an hour ago. And in 5 more minutes I have to go on patrol duty. Urgghh, patrol duty."
Kurenai soothed her back and patted her arm. An hour? Wow, she'd never doubt Ino's gossiping skills ever again. Especially if Anko was able to hear that piece of information so soon after she got back from her mission.
Anko looked up, "Hey, do you think I could get a bit more coffee to go?"
"Mm, yeah. Let me put it in a thermos for you."
Anko bowed her head and arms on the table, "You're a godsend."
"Amen." Kurenai murmured.
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A/C: What did you guys think? I hope you liked it enough or were intrigued enough to write me a review. I'm becoming a review whore.
Man, I hope my action scenes get better by the time I upload them, but that won't be till the –squints- 9th or 10th chapter? Err- part? It'd be chapter 3, part something rather.
If anyone that's capable of writing a half-decent fighting scene, please help me out. PM me, yeah? Of course, you'll be receiving all the credit for that scene.
But if not, I'll do my best. Yosh!