Welcome to Destiny of the Forsaken, sequel to Ninja Taboo
Obviously, I don't own Naruto, but I do own Riku, and I'm using Daisuke with the permission of Neverlookbacksamurai.
Dedicated to Neverlookbacksamurai, my awesome co-author.
"Daisuke! How many times do I have to tell you?! Don't touch the oven when the pie is baking!"
The jonin's hand searched around the kitchen for a rag, his keen ears picking up snickering from the side. He wiped the gooey dough off his silver hair and mask, feeling the heat from the oven seeping through the cloth on his skin. Finally clearing his vision of the half-baked pie, he followed the quiet laughter, arriving at the closet in the hall.
Inside the dark room that would make anyone feel claustrophobic sat the next Naruto. The new village troublemaker. His arm was wrapped around a large ceramic mixing bowl, his free hand grabbing a handful of the leftover dough and kneading it with his fingers. A moment later, the dough ball suddenly disappeared, taken into one of the two mouths that occupied most of his palms.
"Just add a little chakra…" The young voice muttered over the slurping of the small tongue swirling the mixture together in its mouth sloppily as the boy concentrated.
"There you are!" yelled the masked voice with the heavy tone of proud discovery.
The squeaky door abruptly flew open, letting in the sunlight from through the open windows around the apartment and revealed the glaring eye of Hatake Kakashi. There was a moment of awkward silence between the two until the laughter of the genin broke through.
"I…I can't believe…you fell for it…!" He forced out the spots in his laughter that should've been for breathing.
The anger in Kakashi's eye quickly vanished as he watched the curled up figure of his foster son, reluctantly remembering the woman who used to laugh the exact same way. There was so much of her Kakashi could see within the boy, like the rich brunette hair and the piercing ice-blue eyes. Sadly, there were also things that weren't as desired, such as the gold streaks among his hair, the sharp border of his eyes and of course, the mouths that were embedded in his hands. The symbol of the man who took her away…
Fiercely shaking out of his thoughts, he bent down to pick up the mixing bowl and Daisuke by the arm. Daisuke was slowly taking in his much needed air, wiping away tears as quiet leftover laughter randomly came out. They both went back into the kitchen, Daisuke taking a seat at the dining table and Kakashi retrieving the cooled, charred pie from its deathly oven. The jonin let out a frustrated sigh as he tossed the burnt food into the garbage bin, the sounds catching Daisuke's attention. He leaned against the sink edge and thought over his word choice before turning to face the boy.
"Daisuke… when are you grow up?" his voice low and serious, just barely audible through his black mask. "What do you think your mother would say?"
The forbidden phrase.
A low groan escaped his throat as Daisuke looked over at his father and stood up, his chair scraping back against the tiled floor violently.
"You always say that, but I've never even met her. You say that she's on a mission, but why hasn't she even tried to contact me at least? Why can't you tell me her name?!" he half-yelled, the strain of self control eminent.
Kakashi blinked a few times, definitely caught off guard with the young one's exclaim and his hard eyes. His own exposed eye searched the walls of the kitchen for an answer.
As if to save the jonin from having to make up yet another story to distract Daisuke, the doorbell rang throughout the room. Daisuke made a quick dash for the door, escaping the ridiculously uncomfortable atmosphere of the argument. Unlocking the dead bolt, he pulled it open quickly, his eyes falling on the wave of black hair that belonged to a hunched over girl.
"Izumi?"
Her head jerked up as if she was just in a trance and her cheeks plunged into a faint red. There was the sharp crinkling coming from behind her back where her arms were, her whole body fidgeting.
"Um…D-Daisuke…I w-was wondering…"
She looked as if she would faint at anytime; of course that was how she felt as well. Her hands shot out from her back and pushed a worn pink envelope into his face.
Daisuke leaned back to avoid the tight fists digging into his nose and blinked a few times, slowly taking in what was happening. He scratched the back of his head, his own cheeks tingeing with pink. He took it from her shaking hands and watched her bolt away the place the moment the paper left her possessions. He read his name written on the front in tiny kanji, feeling a weird feeling in his stomach until the envelope suddenly disappeared from before him.
"Man, she must've been pretty nervous if she wrinkled it this badly."
His heart nearly leaped out of his throat when he heard the family voice, his blush deepening madly. Already knowing who it was, he snatched the letter from her hand and quickly stuffed it into his pants' pocket, giving a slight glare to the laughing jonin.
"Hey sensei." He muttered, wishing hard for his blush and embarrassment to subside before he would let everyone see his face again, though he did glance from the corner his eye to see the couple standing there with white plastic bags in their hands, the man with a warm smile, the woman, her usual grin. Daisuke couldn't help but give a smile of his own, stepping to the side to give them enough room.
"Hey." They both said at the same time as they stepped in and made their way to the kitchen.
The instant they came into Kakashi's view, he instantly regretted not cleaning off all the dough when he saw the sudden change in the woman's face.
"Cut me some slack you guys." he groaned, his voice weary and discouraged.
The white haired woman was already biting her lower lip as she dug her face into the crook of her partner's neck, her shoulders shaking with the pressure of holding in her laugh. She hung onto him with an arm over his shoulder and around his neck, trying hard to regain her usual composure.
"Come on Riku, be nice." The man teased with a playful tone, partially hiding his own delight.
She took in a deep breath and straightened up; turning around to meet Kakashi's masked face once more. By then, he had already cleaned himself pretty well with the rag on the counter, a few white smudges here and there.
"But Genma, I had so many nice things to say to him." She pouted with amusement dancing in her onyx eyes.
"I'm sure you did." Genma said, sarcasm dripping heavily from every word.
Riku smiled apologetically to her silver haired friend, though she knew she had been forgiven already from the look in his eyes. She draped her haori over one of the chairs as she set the bags they had brought on the table and opened one of them, only to see another set of hands dig in before her. She looked up to see a hungry looking Daisuke and his pincer fingers ripping open a box of colorful dango.
He gave a short call of "Itadakimasu!" and proceeded to take one of the balls off the bamboo skewer, though it was instantly swiped from his hand. He bit into thin air and had a confused face as he searched for it, only to see the food in the fingers of his mentor.
"Did I say you could have some?"
He knew she was kidding from her smile, though he was never really sure with her personality.
"Sensei, may I please have some?" he said as his eyes widened into gleaming, adorable puppy dog eyes.
Riku chuckled and removed one of the balls from the stick carefully with her teeth before giving it back to him.
"That's better."
He laughed a little before filling his mouth with the rest of the treats on the stick.
"Anything happen?" Kakashi's muffled voice asked as the two leaned against the wall, watching the teacher and apprentice.
"Lots of missions, lots of paperwork, no time for anything else." Genma crossed his arms across his chest, looking up at the ceiling as if watching his thoughts come together in the air. Kakashi gave him a glance and a sigh.
"So you haven't asked yet, have you?"
Genma let out a sigh of his own, filled to the brim with frustration and disappointment. "It's so hard!" he said in a hard whisper, hearing Kakashi's quiet chuckle.
"You've been thinking about this for how long?"
"I know, I know!"
"Just ask her already."
Genma gaze stared on at the profile of the woman chatting with her student, glancing down at her left ring finger. He rubbed the back of his neck and let out what seemed like the twentieth sigh of the day. He made his way over to the small dining table and stood behind Riku, crossing his arms around her neck. He bent down and gave her a kiss on her neck, resting his chin on her shoulder.
Riku chuckled when he saw a light blush streak Daisuke's face, his eyes quickly averting away.
"Hey, Daisuke."
The boy hesitantly looked over, seeing the glint in the kunoichi's eyes.
Without notice, her hand found the side of Genma's face and she turned his head towards her, giving him a full kiss on the lips. When she pulled away, there was a large smile on his face and blush twenty shades deeper on Daisuke's face. She stifled a laugh and stuck a stick of dango in Genma's mouth, finishing her own pack of food before slipping out of his arms and standing up.
"Alright, now that I've had my fun, ready to go Daisuke?"
"Where you guys going?" Kakashi asked, taking a seat in one of the four chairs at the table and grabbing a pack of dango for himself.
"Training, be back later!" Daisuke called out, already at the door, pulling on his ninja sandals and out of the apartment by the time he finished his sentence.
Riku grabbed her haori off the chair and stood there, gazing at the open door where Daisuke was jogging in place, impatient for his teacher.
"Riku?"
The addressed turned and was instantly caught by the piercing eyes of Kakashi.
"Be careful today…he's a little…"
She nodded, his gaze holding her just a little longer as she lingered there as if telling her, 'Just wait a bit more before telling him. Please.'
10/8/08: Yes, this was released before Ninja Taboo was done, BUT I refuse to let this story sit in my harddrive when its all written out! So think of chapter one as a foreshadowing for NT. 'K?