As I Dream
By: Undecidedlycertain
Chapter Three
Eyes Like Mine
The Haruno household had fallen into a fairly regular routine. At six thirty Haruno – San and his wife rose, as they had every morning for the last thirty years, and shared a pot of tea as they waited for the miso to cook down. On nice days they took their tea in the back garden. When it rained they sat together on bench beneath the double window overlooking their large back yard where Sakura used to play as a child.
Obito woke at seven thirty every morning like clockwork, and Sakura would rise and have them both ready for breakfast by eight.
But before that, at seven A.M. precisely, Haruno – san would go to the front door and collect his morning paper before sitting at the kitchen table to watch his wife cook and read the obituaries. It was the few moments of peace that he grasped for himself each day before the tag-teaming mele of having a small child in the house began.
This morning, however, when he opened the front door… a pale haired ninja fell backward over the threshold. As soon as his head hit the polished wood of the entryway his bloodshot eye snapped open.
Kakashi gauged his surroundings, taking careful note that Haruno-san could easily stomp his face into a pulp an any given moment should he desire to…and Kakashi wouldn't do a thing to stop him.
They stared at each other in silence for a while before Haruno – san sighed. "I suppose you should come in Hatake – san."
Kakashi nodded and rolled to his feet, feeling decidedly awkward. This kindly looking man had every reason in the world to hate him. He had pursued a relationship with his daughter who was not only fourteen years younger than himself, but to make matters worse he had done so with out Haruno – san's permission.
Come to think of it though, a good bit of it had been with out his permission as well…
"Haaaaaa!"
The tree never stood a chance.
"Huuuyaaa!"
Neither did that one. At the rate the timber was falling, the Konoha forest would be barren before daybreak.
"Someone has anger management issues today."
Sakura screeched and whirled around, the glow of chakra fading from her hands. Her cheeks were streaked and splotchy, and her nose bright red. Immediately she turned her back to him, wiping at her eyes with the backs of gloved hands.
"W-what are you doing here, Kakashi – s-senpai." Her voice wavered, but he admired how quickly she recovered herself. He'd always admired her strength…inside and out.
"Oh nothing. I was just passing by. Deforestation is a secret passion of mine. I didn't realize you'd taken up the cause too. Trees are nasty things aren't they, always lurking around providing shade and oxygen." She snorted a half laugh, and even though it sounded a little wet Kakashi was immensely pleased with himself. "Actually, I'd have done it myself years ago, but I've been so busy lately."
"Stop it, you." She turned back to face him with a sad smile. "The only secret passion you have is Icha Icha." She chuckled feebly, and leaned forward to whisper playfully, "And it's not really much of a secret."
He snapped his fingers and shrugged. "Aww, and I've been so careful. What gave it away?"
He stepped closer, unconsciously breathing in her scent. Her eyes were incredibly sad and it tore at his heart. He had always had a soft spot for the pink haired kunoichi, but she wasn't the heart sick little girl she'd been when he first met her so long ago. She was a strong, successful ninja, a revered medic, and an amazing woman.
His gloved fingers found the soft skin at the curve of her cheek before he could think better of it. His stomach clenched so strongly when she gasped softly at the contact, lips parting slightly, that he was instantly fifteen again and experiencing such feelings for the first time.
It was enough to give him pause. He nearly drew away, but her eyes were begging him to stay.
"Why were you crying Sakura?" He asked after clearing his throat and stuffing his hands back in his pockets. It may have made him seem cool and aloof, but it was actually a self-conscious gesture meant to keep his hands from giving anything away about what he was feeling. Hands could often be as revealing as faces.
Then she was crying again. Sobbing into his chest actually, her hands fisting white knuckled in the front of his vest. Apparently there had been an accident in the village: a little boy had accidentally activated an exploding tag. Sakura hadn't been able to save him.
Kakashi sighed, his breath ruffling the soft hair her crown as he rested his chin on her head. She had always been too tender hearted for this line of work, but she was good – almost too good. It made things like this even harder.
"Sakura," he began soothingly, rubbing small circles between her shoulder blades to dispel the tension there, "the boy was dead before they ever brought him to you. You are an amazing medic, don't you dare think otherwise, but even you can't bring people back from the dead."
"It hurts." She whimpered, and he realized at that moment that if there was anything, anything he could have done in that moment to ease her pain he'd have done it with out thinking twice.
"I know. It's hard, and you have every right to grieve, but then you need to find a way to move on. There a lot of people in this place that owe their lives to you. Be sad for this one lost, but be grateful for all those that have been saved." He patted her awkwardly on the head, stepping away.
She sniffled, but seemed to be calming down. "When did you get so smart, eh Kakashi?" Her voice cracked hoarsly, but the humor warming her tone was still evident.
"Hell if I know." And he smiled when she laughed, and his chest seemed fuller all of a sudden.
There was a line here, one he should definitely not cross. One he shouldn't even be considering crossing...One that he shouldn't even be close enough to see for God's sake.
She looked so frail, like she was fighting to keep from folding in on herself. Yet she was strong, she was fighting, and the glow in her eyes was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen, shining like a jade sea.
He turned and began to walk away, and he heard her huff quietly at his back in exasperation. It made him smile.
"Come on Sakura. I'll buy you a drink. Nothing quite like drowning your sorrows, eh?"
There was a moment of pause before her soft foot falls began to trail behind him.
"Ok." She hooked her arm through his and rested her head on his shoulder.
Damn. He just stomped all over that line, didn't he?
"You did say you were paying, right?" she asked, tilting her head up to cast a skeptical eye at him.
"Aa." He conceded with a small grin.
"Just making sure you wont run off while I'm in the bathroom again."
"Technically it was Naruto that stiffed you on the tab that time. I stiffed him. How was I supposed to know he was so ungentlemanly as to leave you to pay the bill?"
Sakura laughed out loud, turning her face into his sleeve. "Oh please!"
The tea was warm and comforting in his hands, but it didn't help to ease the quiet tension that had settled over the Haruno kitchen. They hadn't asked yet, but he was sure it was coming.
"What exactly are your intentions for my daughter, Hatake – san."
…And there it was…
"Its Kakashi, please." He said pleasantly as he could manage, given the situation.
The large windows looking over the back garden gave a spectacular view of the newly risen sun, warm and bright, highlighting everything with golden fingers.
"I suppose I don't know what my intentions are at this point, to be honest." He paused, staring intently into the swirling contents of his cup. He was feeling uncomfortable, but he wasn't a teenage who had been caught rolling in the hay with the neighbors daughter. He was a grown man…one with duty and responsibilities. "I suppose a lot of that will depend on Sakura. I – I wasn't expecting anything like this."
Sakura's mother smiled understandingly before digging through her cabinets looking for breakfast ingredients.
Her father however spoke up from behind the fold of his newspaper. "Aa. As we were not expecting our daughter to show up on our door step pregnant and unmarried." He didn't sound angry, just honest.
It still forced a sigh from his lips.
"Its 7:20." Haruno – san said quietly to his wife.
"Oh yes." She set the packages she was working out of their wrappings onto the counter and hung the towel she'd slung over her shoulder onto the oven door handle just as a loud cry sounded from upstairs.
Kakashi, who's leg had been twitching out of nervousness, jumped hard enough at the unfamiliar sound that he knocked the table about three inches to the left.
"Its just Obito." Sakura's mother said with a small smile. "I'll go get him before he wakes Sakura. She looked so tired yesterday, it will do her good to sleep in a bit."
Several tense minutes followed in which Kakashi didn't realize he was shaking the whole table with his leg twitching until Haruno – san snatched his tea cup just as it was about to dance off the edge.
"Its not all that bad." Haruno – san offered, lowering his paper to take a sip of his tea. "Had it been a girl, however…" he trailed off with a small grin lining his face and causing his eyes to close slightly as his cheeks pushed his face upward.
Kakashi nodded, but could not summon the energy to smile back.
Then Mrs. Haruno was sweeping back into the kitchen with a small child nestled in her arms, his head on her shoulder. Kakashi froze, fascinated by the sight of him, and yet terrified at the same time.
She must have anticipated his discomfort because she didn't waltz in and plunk the child in his lap, as he was half expecting. Instead she went about her business one armed with the skill of a veteran.
Sleepy green eyes widened curiously when they spotted him; his mother's eyes set in a perfect little face under tufts of unruly downy white. He began to wiggle and his grandmother set him gently on the floor where he dashed around her legs, peeking at him from the edge of her green yukata. It was the same shade as his eyes.
Mrs. Haruno laughed affectionately and gave him a gentle push out from under foot. "Go on now. Go see Jijii-san."
"Ojiisan." Haruno-san corrected good - naturedly. "You don't want him to call you Baba, do you? Or maybe Akuba?"
Mrs. Haruno laughed again and went back to her cooking. The child toddled a bit drunkenly toward the table, and Kakashi wondered at the fact that he could walk on those squatty little legs. He stopped by Haruno-san's cushion, his head barely clearing the low table, and stared with open curiosity at the newcomer.
Kakashi simply stared back. There were no words.
Haruno-san grunted and patted the boy on the head. "Go and say hello, Obito."
Obito. She named him Obito.
The child ran around the table to stand next to Kakashi and looked up at him. Kakashi looked back, clearly unsure what to do.
Obito said nothing, but began to inspect him thoroughly, curiously poking the pockets on his vest and even managing to free and a jutsu scroll before Kakashi could catch his quick little hands.
"Ah, I don't think your mother would be pleased if I let you play with that, now." He said soothingly as he tucked the scroll away more firmly.
Obito was undaunted.
"He is…bigger…than I expected." Kakashi conceded finally when Obito, bored of his new playmate already, scampered off into another room. Mrs. Haruno scampered after. "I was thinking…maybe…" he gestured with his hands a space of about twelve inches or so.
Haruno – san simply hmm'd, still tucked away behind his paper, but Mrs. Haruno smiled openly when she stepped back into the kitchen with the baby on her hip.
"He is a little over a year old now Hatake – san." She laughed lightly. "And he was never that small to begin with."
"Oh?" Kakashi looked down at his estimation and shrugged. How was he to know how big babies were supposed to be?
"Oh no. He was a very healthy little fellow. Nearly nine pounds at birth."
He nodded, unsure exactly what to say. Nine pounds didn't seem like a lot, but when you considered…
"Oh, dear. I'm out of onions." Mrs. Haruno scrunched her nose as she considered her options, a habit her daughter also displayed, and Obito ooh'd in response to his grandmother's lament.
"Can you do with out?" Haruno – san asked?
"The omelets will not be as good." She replied remorsefully, then brightened, turning hopeful green eyes on Kakashi.
And he knew that look too well not to be a bit concerned by it.
"Ah! Hatake – san, would you be a dear and run up to Takae-san's and get a batch for me? You can take Obito, the morning air will be good for him and it will give you two a chance to get to know each other better."
"Erm…"
"Thank – you so much." She said, passing the child down to him before he could answer, another trait of Sakura's that was inherited apparently. " I'm sure Sakura will be up when you return and we can all have breakfast together."
"But…"
"Eh…" Haruno-san's concerned eyes from over the top of the newsprint, but his wife nodded confidently.
"Oh! And don't let him try to sell you last week's leftovers. I don't care if he discounts them, soggy vegetables just don't taste as good unless you're making soup."
Kakashi sighed and looked at the child in his lap, who was looking back up at him benignly.
"Alright." He said, steeling himself as if he were preparing for a mission. "Um…should I carry him, or can he walk?"
Haruno – san chuckled. "I would carry him if I were you, unless you want to chase him all over Konoha."
"Erm, no." he glanced back Obito, who was happily sticking his fingers into Kakashi's luke warm tea. "Ah – won't Sakura…"
"Oh, she'll be fine." Mrs. Haruno practically sang. Kakashi was beginning to believe the woman was enjoying his discomfort.
Treat it like a mission. He could do this. This was not a problem.
Obito squee'd and dumped the last of the tea on Kakashi's crotch.
…At least it had cooled.
