Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.


SURPRISE

/sə(r)ˈprīz/

an unexpected or astonishing event, fact, or thing.


4 YEARS AGO


Kakashi sighed, staring at the door of his student's temporary bedroom. "I don't know what I find more surprising, the fact that she didn't accept it right away or the fact that you were actually serious about not doing this until she accepts it," he sighed to his longtime friend, who giggled and wrapped her arms around her legs. Rin felt absolutely no shame for causing Kakashi this agony, and he knew it. He knew he deserved the rebuttal he'd received from Hinata, as well as the quick punch to the jaw and the knee to the gut he'd somehow didn't see coming. He did hide this type of information from her—'this type' meaning that the man who was responsible for the war, Uchiha Obito, was being freed, the man who was the cause of days of misery and despair on Hinata's part.

He'd tried to reason with her that they'd erased those memories, and that by affect that Obito she'd come to know had died. The Obito they were bringing to Rin was kinder, gentler—the Obito Kakashi had grown up knowing. Despite this, she wouldn't listen to him. She actually became furious at him for even thinking she'd accept it as a reason. Rin had managed to diffuse the situation somehow after she kicked him in the guts, for which Kakashi was grateful for—the girl had used chakra behind her kick. He was sure he'd be pissing blood for days.

Rin was forcing them to stay the night, in fact, much to Kakashi's dismay. He was afraid she'd try to choke him in his sleep or cut up the scroll.

"You brought this on yourself, Kashi-kun," she said, flipping the page in the latest and most mysteriously printed novel in the Icha-Icha series, Icha-Icha Palace. "Wow, this is as dirty as Icha-Icha Lifestyle. And I thought that kind of smut would end after that book. But it doesn't utilize the literary devices like Lifetsyle did." Usually, Kakashi would add to the conversation, but he just couldn't; not with someone like Hinata mad at him.

"Why doesn't she understand?" Kakashi asked for the umpteenth time.

Rin sighed and put down the book and turned to her friend. "Kakashi. She met the Obito going through a dark time. From what you've explained to me, he was a cruel man who was unafraid to torture children. In all honesty, if someone like Hinata didn't hate who Obito was I'd be surprised. Though you've told her that the person he is now is of no threat to her, all she knows is his cruel side. It'll take her a while to be willing to accept this." She got up and patted Kakashi's knee as she made her way to her private kitchen, pulling out a plastic container filled with rice balls. She leaned against the counter with her hip, looking out the window. "Kakashi. Go outside."

"Eh?" asked Kakashi, raising an eyebrow. "Maa, I don't want to. I shouldn't. I'm an ANBU, Rin. I don't want those kids seeing my face."

Rin raised a brow. "Kashi-kun, you wear a porcelain mask over a cloth mask. I think your identity is in safe hands. Besides, Kashi… I'm not giving you a choice." She pointed at him. "Go outside. Those kids won't bother you. They know better than that." He raised an eyebrow, and she sighed. "Honestly? They're quite intimidated by you. It's not everyday they see a man walking around in full body armor with a mask purely meant for intimidation. Besides, I told them already not to bother you, when you sent me that messenger hawk a week ago."

Kakashi nodded. "I still don't want to."

"And again, you have no choice. Now go, or I'll read Icha-Icha Palace and then burn it right in front of you." Kakashi whined under his breath, yet he grabbed his porcelain mask and placing it on face, knowing not to argue with Rin when she was threatening him. Kakashi walked outside, keeping wide of the children as not to frighten them. They noticed him, and several little boys stopped and gaped at him, while the little girls giggled amongst themselves about what he might look like under the mask. He did his best to ignore the children, keeping his eye on the woods. He figured, if he didn't have a choice, he'd continue with Hinata's vigil. While he didn't have her eyes, he did have an amazing sense of smell, one that stretched a couple of kilometers if he focused more of his chakra into his nasal passages. Beyond that, he had decent chakra sensing abilities, and he also had a good sense of hearing.

Kakashi walked to a large slab of rock right on the edge of the property, sitting down on top of it and facing the house, watching the children play in front of the orphanage. In the back of his mind, he remembered that seemingly long period of his life; from the time he was six until he was twelve that he'd lived in an orphanage. He remembered how much he had hated having lived there, without anyone to talk to or understand where he was coming from. He'd felt so painfully alone. He could only sympathize with these kids; that they had to feel the same way he had. That they had the same question he had: Why? Why do I have to be alone?

"Excuse me."

Kakashi blinked, surprised that his sense of smell hadn't been alerted to the fact that someone foreign was nearing him. A small boy with short-cropped grey hair and wrappings around his eyes, his face turned towards the house. "You are in my spot."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "Your spot?"

"Yes. I sit here a lot." The boy crawled onto the rock surface carefully, biting his bottom lip as he made his way towards the center of the slab. "But I guess it's okay that you're here. I would feel bad if I just chased you away." The boy turned his face towards Kakashi. "My name is Hayato. What's your name?"

Kakashi shrugged. "Dog," he said simply.

The boy gave a small smile, and Kakashi could only note that it was quite possibly the weirdest thing to be on this child's face—mostly because he found it inexplicably cute on his entire face, a fact Hatake Kakashi would never admit aloud. "Dog is not a name for a grown man, Oniisan. What is your real name?"

"Dog," repeated Kakashi, "All you have to know me as is Dog."

The boy sighed, but he continued to smile. "Are you alone, too, Dog-niisan?"

"No. I'm here with my friend. I'm visiting Rei-chan," he responded, trying to remain as vague as possible.

"Miss Rei has friends?" Hayato asked. Kakashi was sure that behind the wrappings, Hayato was raising an eyebrow.

"Not many. I'm an old friend."

"Oh. Okay." Hayato turned away, angling his face as to let the breeze lift some of his overlong hairs off of his face. Kakashi watched him with a curiosity that he didn't even know he had, especially for children. Usually, for children below the age of ten, he quickly lost patience. Young children were annoying, and sometimes idiotic; and had a small frame of knowledge. But, for some reason… this kid wasn't annoying him. He was actually quite interesting. Kakashi would admit, maybe it was partially because of the wrappings around his eyes, but… it was something else, too. What, he didn't know—but something. Kakashi sighed under his breath and turned his attention towards the other kids outside, who had stopped playing and were whispering, staring at… at the boy next to him.

"Do you know they stare at you?" Kakashi found himself asking.

"Yeah," responded the boy honestly, "I can feel it, and Miss Rei told me a while ago. But they've been staring at me since I first came here, five months ago. I'm used to it now." He nibbled at his bottom lip slightly. "They think I'm weird, because I can't see anymore." His fingers drifted up to the wrappings. "My papa was mad at my mama, so he took what she loved most about me. At least, that's what my mama told me, before… before she died."

"Sorry," Kakashi said without thinking.

The boy angled his face, confused. "For what?"

"For… for your mother."

"Oh. Don't be sorry. My mama's happier now. My mama was never really happy with my papa. I'm just sad she left me alone with my papa. But now I'm glad that I'm not with my papa anymore."

"Did he die?" asked Kakashi, curious.

"I dunno. I lost him in a crowd six months ago. I never found him. Miss Rei found me and she brought me here five months ago." He smiled sadly. "Do you have a mama and a papa, Dog-niisan?"

"Hmm…? No. They died a long time ago."

"What were their names?"

"Their names… their names were Dog-Okāsan and Dog-Otōsan."

Hayato giggled. "That couldn't really be their names!" he said, smiling widely, confusing Kakashi more. Why didn't he find this little boy annoying? Why couldn't he find him annoying? Sure, the kid had a lot to say, and usually this would piss him off, but he… he couldn't get enough of it. He just wanted to hear this little boy's voice. He wanted to spend time with this boy. Kakashi's mind began to race, trying to figure out why he didn't mind this little boy. There was nothing truly special about him—silvery blue hair that seemed to defy gravity slightly before falling to the side, all of it pushed to the right side of his face, slightly darkened skin; small, skinny body—what was so different about him?

"What was your mother's name?" asked Kakashi out of the blue, confusing his own self.

"My mama?" Hayato bit his lip. "I dunno how to pronounce my mama's name. She never taught me. I've only heard it once, but I've seen it spelled a lot, before my papa… you know."

"Do the best you can," Kakashi urged. Why did he care so much? He didn't know. I don't know why, but I really want to know. I want to know who gave birth to this boy…

"O-Okay…" said Hayato, his lip-biting drawing the slightest amount of blood from himself and concern from Kakashi. "Her first name was Ch-Chee-yo-yay," fumbled the young boy, who seemed flustered with the task of both pronunciation and remembering the name itself. "Her family name was H-Hah-tock-kay."

Kakashi felt like his heart stopped moving. "Do you mean Hatake?" he asked, hesitant. "Hatake Chiyoye?"

Hayato's face brightened. "Yeah! That was it!" His smile faltered some. "Did you know her, Dog-niisan?"

All too well, Kakashi thought. It all just snapped into perspective. From the shape of this boy's mouth to small tinting of blue in his hair—Kakashi could see her in him. "I must go," said Kakashi without thinking, all but jumping off of the slab of stone and resisting the urge to run. His whole world was flipping over, and it was freaking him out, immensely.

"Sayonara," said the boy politely, confused as Kakashi all but ran away from him. Kakashi was more than happy to reenter the house, his breath uncharacteristically heavy. He knew he should calm down, but he just couldn't. He knew he was freaking out, but he couldn't stop himself. Well, he could; only with one thing—hard and immediate training.


Okay, looking back on his response with a more critical eye, hard training wasn't exactly the best route for him to take, considering his idea of hard training was to continuously use the Sharingan while he threw kunai at random things (after all, it was an orphanage; not a training area, there was practically nothing for him to aim at except for trees and small animals that were on the outskirts of the orphanage). Plus, training had done nothing to get his mind off of it, except for physically and mentally exhausting him and using up his chakra supply with the Sharingan. He barely made it back inside the door to Rin's small house before he collapsed against the door, breathing heavy, his lids way too heavy for him to even think about being conscious. Dimly, he heard a female voice asking him if he was okay, if he needed help; but he couldn't hear one damned thing clearly, besides that insistent ringing in both of his ears.

He slid down the door in a messy heap, finding that his world was spinning, making him feel dizzy—also due to his exhaustion. He could make out two women in front of him—one with dark indigo hair, the other with brown hair—but, for the life of him he couldn't remember either of their names.

All he could do was… pass the fuck out.

Rin blinked, staring at the suddenly limp body that was Hatake Kakashi. The Kakashi she knew would never faint, unwillingly or willingly, so the chances that he'd had a panic attack that managed to induce fainting was a bit off-target. More accurately, and judging also by the amount of sweat on his visible skin after she pulled off the porcelain mask, he'd trained himself to the point of exhaustion, which, considering he'd been gone for more than three hours, really did make more sense. She sighed, playing with Kakashi's porcelain dog mask for a minute before placing it off to the side. She turned to the stunned Hyūga heiress, saying, "I'll take his upper if you take his lower."

Five minutes later, the two kunoichi had managed to get the unconscious copy nin onto the sofa, both breathing heavy with the effort. While he was physically fit and lean for most men his size, he was still a tall man, and as such… he weighed more, a lot more than the two of them. If Kakashi was on the lower side of the scale, Rin was absolutely scared of the prospect of trying to lift someone like Gai.

"Why was he working himself to the bone?" asked Hinata in an almost silent voice, pushing the overlong strands of silver hair from Kakashi's face. She does know him very well, doesn't she? Rin thought, resisting the urge to smile. Instead, Rin shrugged, raising her hand to Kakashi's forehead and quickly pulling off his Leaf headband, trying to allow him to properly sweat instead of having it inhibited by the cloth of the hitai-ate. She raised a hand hover over Kakashi's unnatural eye, enveloping the appendage in green. Quite possibly, she figured that his exhaustion was due to the mental stress of the Sharingan rather than just the chakra over-usage, but just in case… she was sending some of her own chakra directly into the organ she transplanted, sending her healing waves through the eye and into the rest of his body via chakra networking.

Hinata watched on with major concern for her teacher, whom she had come to see as some sort of family member. She was still mad at him for expecting her not to be mad at him for forgiving Uchiha Obito, but—she couldn't help but pity him, at this moment. Whatever was making him feel as distressed as to pass out—something she, herself, had done quite often—was something she didn't want him to feel.

"He probably knew you wouldn't agree with it, you know," admitted Rin, who looked up at the younger girl. Hinata looked up at her, uncertainty in her eyes. "Kakashi isn't stupid. He knows when people possibly will not like something, especially when it comes to the village in particular. Most of the time, he'd give up whatever trip he's on for the village, or for the people close to him. But… this is different." She swallowed. "Obito is the first person who saw Kakashi as Kakashi. Obito was the first person Kakashi would ever consider to be a friend of any sort. He's an unresolved source of immense guilt within him. Kakashi couldn't just allow his friend to die."

"Obito hurt me," whispered Hinata.

"He knows. He told me. That's why he was afraid to tell you."

"Afraid sounds like a little bit of an overstatement. My opinion doesn't matter that much to him," mumbled Hinata.

"Don't be ridiculous," sputtered Rin, eyes wide. "You severely underestimate the emotions of Kakashi. Yeah, sure, he sucks at showing them. That doesn't mean they're not there." Rin sighed. "He would never tell you this, but… legally speaking, Kakashi is your godfather." Hinata blinked and looked up, surprised. Rin gave a small, meek smile. "He's known you since you were tiny. He used to show me pictures of you. It was adorable, actually; to see how much he loved you. For a long time, he didn't even realize he was boasting about you, until his team came along. Since then, he's been more conscious of his feelings and his desires, and he's expressed his desire to me about wanting to keep your respect of him at the highest possible point. You're like his niece, Nata-chan. The last thing he wanted to do to you was save the life of someone who brought you harm."

Hinata bit her lip. "W-Why hasn't he said anything to me?"

Rin shrugged. "He didn't see the need. You seem to already adore him as some sort of major family member in your life—that's more than obvious to me, anyways—and I guess he just didn't see the need to tell you about it. It's probably one of the very few major things he hides from you, Hinata."

"He hides a lot?"

"You'd think that, but honestly, he really doesn't. Kakashi is pretty much an open book. You know more than you think about him, and I won't explain myself at all. I'll just ask one question of you: how many times has he shown you his face, Hinata?"

She blinked, and then frowned, her brow furrowing as she came up with a numerical value. Ever since that time in Kumogakure when she was fourteen, the amount of times she'd seen his face increased exponentially.

Rin seemed to be able to read her face easily. "Hinata, I can count on one hand the amount of people I've met that he's shown his face at all. All of them were important to him in some way. Trust me, Hinata—if he shows you his face, you mean something to him."

Hinata swallowed, seemingly processing the information. She had already known that Kakashi had trouble expressing his emotions to people, and she had thought that she knew a lot about him; but Rin was giving her something she'd never noticed before. She had never known about any of this, and she wish she had before she got mad at him. She meant something to him; her opinion meant something to him. "H-How…" she swallowed dryly again. "How much has he given up for the people he cares about?"

Rin chuckled. "I know a lot about Kakashi, but Hinata… that's probably the one thing nobody will ever know. All I can tell you is… since Obito's disappearance, I'm pretty sure his entire life has been about giving up things for those he cares about."

Hinata nodded, swallowing the information. Her mind was moving at a rapid pace, almost too quickly for one person to really be fully thinking through anything. She was already losing count of all the possible occasions where Kakashi had given up something for her just to make her happy, just to please her. How unfair would it be of her to be mad at him for finally doing something that made him happy? How cruel would it be of her? Without thinking, she ran her slender fingers through Kakashi's sweat-slicked silver hair, a motion she had the barest memory of her father doing for her when she was a very young girl, during times that she was sick.

Kakashi's eyebrow twitched, and he slowly opened one dark gray eye, finding it difficult to concentrate on the young girl above his face. "Hinata?" he mumbled, confused. "What happened?"

She didn't respond to him with words; she just continued to run her fingers through Kakashi's overlong hair. She was barely managing to resist the urge to cry, but it was a battle she was losing terribly. She really hated showing people her tears, but she just couldn't help herself. "You silly old man," she said with a wobbly, shaky smile. "You, silly, silly old man." She pressed her forehead against his. "Silly old man."

"Hinata?" he asked, growing increasingly confused and worried.

She didn't respond to him, but she did speak. "Rin?"

The woman raised an eyebrow. "Hmm?" she asked, surprised she was addressed, and not Kakashi.

"Do… Do you think tomorrow morning at dawn will be too early to bring Obito-san here?" she whispered.

Just the mention of his name brought a wide smile to Rin's face. Finally. "No. No, I don't."


Kakashi made a decision not to be there after he unlocked the seal. He didn't want to impede on Rin's moment, apparently; a fact that made his friend break down with tears. Of course, that didn't mean that he wasn't watching their moment—in fact, he and Hinata stood only thirty meters out of Rin's range, finding it to be the easiest thing in the world to watch from their high point in a tree. Hinata sat close to the older man, her pale lavender eyes trained on the same sight as Kakashi's dark grey eyes.

The two of them watched Rin bite her thumb, watched her hands fumble their way through the seals; the cause of which they both knew to be due to the fact that Rin had not practiced ninjutsu like they had in many years. They watched as she brought her bloodied hand down onto the scroll's seal, and they watched as she stepped away from the cloud of smoke that appeared; her lithe body tense and filled with slight fear.

Fear that disappeared as soon as the smoke cleared. In fact, any negative emotion she was feeling just slipped off her body as she beheld the figure before her, whose onyx eyes were softly beholding her. The air lost any terseness, and Hinata could plainly see that all that was left was love—absolute love. Hinata couldn't hear her speak, but she knew plainly what she said by reading her lips.

"Obito."

The man in question smiled, and Hinata could recognize the same emotion radiating off of him. In her mind, subconsciously, she made an immediate distinction from the man who had been responsible for her temporary missing-nin status and the man in front of this kind woman she'd come to adore. This man was kind, and she could see plainly why Kakashi had wanted to save him. All she could think of was her own friends, and how she would do the very same for them.

The man's lips moved. "Rin."

Finally, Rin broke, breaking down in tears of pure happiness as she tackled her long-lost love to the ground. Hinata smiled at that—was she like that with Kankurō?—as Kakashi stood up, a small smile in his dark gray eye. "Are we leaving?" Hinata asked, not taking her eyes off of the sight before her.

"Soon," he replied in an obviously uneasy voice, "There's one more thing I need to do before I leave."

"What is it? I can help," she immediately offered, jumping to her feet and turning to Kakashi, who was surprised by her offer.

"I, umm—I'm not quite sure it's something you can help with…"

"Kakashi," she said in a confident tone, a small smile on her face. "Please, Kakashi. Tell me what it is. I want to do whatever is possible to help you with any subject. I don't want you to do whatever it is that you're going to try alone, especially when you sound so uneasy about it. I would just like to help you, in whatever way possible."

Kakashi stared at her for a moment, and then sighed. "Do you mean that, Hinata?"

"Wholeheartedly," she said. "Please, Kakashi, let me help you."

He rubbed the back of his neck. "Okay, Hinata. I'll tell you what I need help with, but you have to promise that you won't… overreact. Can you promise me that?" She nodded quickly, enthusiastically. He closed his eye and sighed again. "Okay. What I'm going to do is… I'm going to adopt a young boy named Hayato." Hinata blinked. Okay, she wasn't expecting that—nor did she expect him to keep going. "He lives here at the orphanage. I just met him for the first time today. I… he's… well, I guess there's no easy way to say it, really, so I'm just going to say it. He's my son."


I got a review for 'Of Strength' the other day saying that the fact that a Genin (it said Gemini, but I just pinned it down to AutoCorrect) threatening a Jounin was improbable, and that the story is, for lack of better terminology at the moment, far-stretched. I couldn't estimate for where the Guest reader may be so I could respond, so I'm responding here: Kakashi had a quote during the first real arc of the manga (Land of Waves arc) that said: "I can see where a thing like that would be hard to accept… but it's a fact you'll have to live with. This probably won't be the last time we run into a kid who's both younger than you… and stronger than me." The point of the character of Shikaru [Obito] is that he's undeveloped, raw power with a murderous side and a conscience. He is a child who can threaten an adult and get away with it for the fact that it's the truth-every child's dream, I suppose, but he's got to live with why. And about the story being far-fetched... lol. The story that these two fics are based off of are the definition of far-fetched! But they're fantasy, so anything can be made and as long as you have enough justification-which, I believe I provided. But thanks for the review, though-I enjoy getting chances to explain myself when I don't in my stories, especially in the earlier chapters when I had no idea what the fuck I was doing.

To sailorangelmoon1: glad to know you liked it! The same goes for TheUtsukushiiYume; thanks for your reviews! It made this authoress pretty damn proud!

Okay, I have an excuse for why it took me two weeks to upload. I got so into writing that I completely forgot the pace I was supposed to be on. I was only supposed to be only ten or so chapters ahead, but... I dunno, last week, I got so into editing and rewriting chapters and adding chapters and MORE editing that I completely forgot that I had to post something. I'm just really excited about this story, because it has a plot, and it's going somewhere :) It kind of developed like 'Of Strength', actually. (Not saying it's LIKE the same plot, but I'm saying the development process was basically the same).

The song of this chapter is 'Move Along' by the All-American Rejects. 'Dirty Little Secret' is on the same album, and they're two of my favorite songs of all time, from any band that I listen to (which ranges from AC/DC to Sleeping With Sirens to Hollywood Undead to the Script).

I didn't get many reviews for the last chapter (okay, not a total truth, I got two, which is more than what 'Of Strength' started off with), but what bothers me is that a lot of people wanted a sequel, and I know they don't realize that it's already out. It's really bumming me out :( and I don't want to bother them by sending PMs, because that would be sick and needy and annoying. But hopefully, they'll find the story. This one's looking to be a long one, so I think there's time.

Read&Review? :D