Title: Love Is What the Trouble Is
Chapter: Surprise!
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or the characters. Naruto belongs to the author. I just own the plot and the O.C.'s.
As Sorano walked around the Ninja Academy, looking for the enrollment office with a young silver-haired girl in tow named Kyoko. She stopped in her tracks to reassess the situation. The entire situation. He didn't know she was here, but that was going to change once she found out if her daughter was eligible for enrollment at Konaha Ninja Academy. The thing that made matters worse is she hadn't been to this village in quite a few years. So, her memory of where things were in this town except for a few places was just a vague memory.
"Hello," came the self-assured voice of Gai that made her skin crawl. She thought she had gotten use to it, but apparently she hadn't. "Do you need in help? Oh Sorano!"
"Hello, Gai," she greeted with her best smile to which he returned. He hadn't changed much in looks since the last time she saw him: skinny and still had those thick eyebrows and the bowl haircut. Here it comes she thought to herself.
"So, what are you doing here?" Gai asked.
"Seeing if I can enroll my daughter into the Ninja Academy," she answered.
"Your daughter?" he asked then looked down at the little girl. He did a double take and the spoke again. "Does Kakashi know you're here?"
"No, but I'm planning on visiting him once I'm done here," she answered as she moved a stray bit of dark blue hair out of her face.
"So do you need help or would you like someone to accompany you?" Gai inquired smoothly.
I'd rather die from a self-induced kunai injury, she thought to herself. Although she politely said, "I don't need any help but if you would like to join me you can."
"All right, then," Gai voiced. "Sorano would you like to join me this evening for dinner?"
Sorano tried to hide the shock that was forming on her face and tried to answer him, but no words came out at first. "Well, you see, I uh, I mean-"
"Gai, can't you tell the lady is not interested. So, stop wasting your breath," a familiar, smoother voice suggested. "Isn't that right, Ma'am?"
Then she began to panic. The moment that she was planning for later was happening now and she was glad that it was even though she was panicking a little on the inside. She wished she had asked for help from a cousin that lived here. She turned around to look at the familiar, silver-haired man behind her in his mostly masked face except for one eye and nodded her head.
"Sorano?!" he asked with much surprise. "Is that you?"
"Yes," she answered with a weak smile. "It's me, Kakashi."
"What are you doing here?" he asked.
"I'm moving here," she answered the question if only half of it.
"Cool," he state nodding his head. She could tell he was beginning to smile behind his mask by the way his uncovered eye looked. "Where are you staying?"
"I'm staying at a temporary housing establishment in the village," she answered weakly.
"No, you are not. At least not anymore," Kakashi said taking charge. Now, she really wished she asked for help from her cousin, but now it was too late. "You didn't answer my question entirely. Why are you at the school?"
"Oh, um," she said, startled. "I'm enrolling my daughter into the Academy."
"You're daughter?" Kakashi repeated with Sorano being able to read disappointment in his eye.
"Yes, my daughter, Kyoko," she stated as she pulled the girl to the front of her to pick her up and set the child on her hip.
Kakashi to a long look at the child before him then asked, "How old is she?"
"She's three years old," Sorano answered honestly.
"What?" Kakashi echoed.
"She three, Kakashi," Gai stated with that smile of his.
"I heard her, Gai. Thank you," Kakashi said obviously annoyed.
"Well, she's beautiful. Just like her mother," Kakashi stated.
"Thank you." She blushed.
"So, you're seeing if you can have her enrolled into the Academy?" Kakashi said. "Oh, Gai, um, if there is something you need to do, you can. I believe Sorano and I need to talk."
"Oh, right," Gai said before using the teleporting jutsu.
"To answer your question, yes," she answered a little relieved that it was just her and Kakashi.
"So, what's Kyoko like?" Kakashi inquired about the little girl.
"At times she's like me and most of the time she's like her father," she answered with a wink.
"If I remember right there was not much difference," Kakashi teased.
"Yeah, but I don't get distracted as easily as he does. I arrive on time to things," she continued.
"Touché," he finished with a laughed. She laughed right with him. "So, this is what you've been doing the past three years?"
"Yeah and waiting for someone to come by like he usually did when a mission would send my way," she vocalized.
"Ouch, that hurt a bit," Kakashi teased. "I'm sorry I didn't, but I wanted too."
"That's OK. You've been forgiven," she stated.
"Oh, good," he said keeping the smile on his face.
"Well, I better get to the enrollment office," she said changing the subject.
"Come with me I take you right to it. I'll even help while you're in there," Kakashi suggested.
She nodded her head. They talked a bit more on their way to the office. While waiting Sorano kept on fidgeting with her long blue hair, Kakashi watched her with a smile on his face the entire time.
"Umeko Sorano and Hatake Kaskashi," a voice called. When the reached the source of the voice, the man said, "Follow me."
It only took a matter of moments. Sorano was so nervous she didn't notice anything around except for her daughter whom she had on her hip. Kakashi put a reassuring hand on her free side. He could tell that relaxed her a little bit, but not all the way. After a few moments they had arrived in a room with a little old man.
"You would like to enroll this child into the Ninja academy?" the older man asked.
"Yes," Sorano answered.
"You're from a different shinobi village. Why are you choosing to send your child to this one?" he asked.
"I am moving here that is why," she answered.
"Good enough. Who is the father? I take it her father is a ninja and you are not?" he asked and he felt she was getting a little too personal.
"Kakashi-san is, sir," Sorano said politely.
"Oh," the man said lifting an eyebrow. Then he went back to normal. "She's not old enough yet, but her name is on the list. Though there is a matter we need to discuss further."
Just as the older ninja finished saying that Kyoko began squirming and whispered in her mother's ear. Sorano stated to Kakashi, "Could you stay here and talk with him while I walk out the room a moment?"
"You need to be here for this," the important ninja said.
"No, I don't. Not unless you want her to relieve herself in here?" Sorano challenged as she stomped quickly out of the room. She swore she heard Kakashi suppress laughter before she had stomped away.
Walking out of the room, she bumped into someone. "Oh, sorry."
"No, I'm sorry," she heard a soft male voice say that sounded familiar.
"Iruka?" she asked.
"Yeah, that's me," he said before he seen her face. "Sorano!" He quickly grabbed her into a hug.
"Nice to see you, too," she stated once they ended their embrace.
"What are you doing here?" he said as he was tickling Kyoko.
"I moved here and I'm enrolling her into the academy," she answered. "It looks like she'll be your student in a few years."
"Well, considering her family on both sides probably will and probably not for very long," he bragged.
"True," she agreed while smiling at the chuunin in front of her.
"So, Kakashi knows?" he asked.
"Yeah. Actually he's talking with the man in charge right now. "
"Good," he said with a smile.
"Mommy," Kyoko interrupted.
"Yes, I know, baby," she told the little one. "Excuse me, Ruk, but I must return to what I was doing before I bumped into you."
"That's OK. Talk to you later?" he said as he pulled her into another hug.
"Yeah, I would love that," she assured the man before her.
"Bye Ran. Bye Kyoko," he said with a smile on his face and waving as he walked away.
"Bye, Ruk," both Sorano and Kyoko said as they went in their original direction.