Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
An: It's been a while, hasn't it? Sorry. Writer's block can be such a pain.
Warning: Bad grammar. English isn't my first language unfortunately.
Summary: Kakashi's journey into fatherhood...it's a strange one.
Mid-day Waltz
Chapter 9
There was something oddly heartwarming about sending a child off for the first time to genin academy. Granted, Temari wasn't really a child and this really wasn't her first time going, but Kakashi still felt a bit of pride as he watched her trudge up to Umino Iruka.
She looked miserable.
'Can you blame her?' Obito asked. 'Once was bad enough, but now she has to go twice. Poor kid.'
Kakashi, like the rest of the parents around, lifted a hand to waved to her. He gestured that he would pick her up after her classes were done. When he turned to leave, he abruptly stopped in his track and did a double take.
Shikamaru Nara looked bored as he helped Umino wrangle the new class.
'This can't be good,' Obito cringed.
Kakashi could see the disbelieving, horrified look on Temari's face.
Their luck at skirting around Shikamaru had ran out. Kakashi had, out of consideration of her feelings, managed to avoid the slouching Chunin whenever they were out in public, but all of the hiding and dodging and effort seem moot now that Shikamaru would be the teaching assistant to her genin class.
"Let's go," Shikamaru placed a hand on Temari's shoulder. He steered her inside. When she looked back, Kakashi could only give a helpless shrug.
'She'll get through just fine,' Rin assured. 'She's gotten out of tougher situations before. Remember, she's a Jounin.'
Still...Kakashi hung around for an hour and watched her through the window. When he was sure that she was fine and that Shikamaru didn't seem to notice anything unusual, he finally took Rin's advice and went home.
It was lonely and quiet when he entered the apartment.
When they walked home later that afternoon Kakashi was careful about how he phrased his words. He could practically see the dark clouds hovering over her head.
"How did it go?" he finally asked.
"Peachy," she said sarcastically. She reaches into her bag and pulls out a crumple piece of paper. "Here."
It was a stick figured drawing of Kakashi.
'That's really cute,' Rin admires. 'Look, she even drew your sharingan.'
'She's got your hair down right,' Obito teased.
Kakashi blinked at the massive grey lightening bolts that sprung from the head of his stick self.
"The teacher wanted to get to know us. We had to draw a picture of our family," she huffed in annoyance.
"Ah..." Kakashi nodded. It wasn't like she could draw Gaara or Kankuro. She had picked the safe option since everyone already knew that she was staying with Kakashi. No one would think twice of it when she drew the most infamous nin in Konoha.
"Can I keep it?" he asked.
"Whatever."
Kakashi tucks the picture into his vest pocket.
Tsunade was waiting at the apartment for them when they arrived. From the look on her face, he could tell that she didn't have good news. The cynical part of Kakashi (the part that Obito occupied) thinks that she never seems to have good news. Kakashi was ordered to ward the apartment before they could talk openly.
"It's taking a lot longer than expected to reverse the curse," Tsunade said. "I can't keep to the time I promised you." She kept her eyes on silent Temari. "Just wait a little longer."
Obito wanted Kakashi to point out that Temari had been waiting for close to a year now.
"Hang in there." With those last parting words, Tsunade left.
"Want to go to the training field?" he asked Temari.
He took her lower head as a yes. He took her into the dead forest. He went as deep as he could get from prying ears and no one but Kakashi was around when she finally let out a frustrated yell. The chakra that poured from her body made her glow slightly and the wind picked up. One old tree came down with a deafening crash. Then another one. She managed destroyed five trees before her strength gave out. She slumped to the ground and pound her fist into the dirt angrily.
"Just a little training," Kakashi said to the anbu that came to investigate the disturbance. The nin, once he realized who Kakashi was, nodded and left.
When they were alone, Kakashi stood motionlessly and allowed her to vent. Her little fist kept slamming with fury. Kakashi suspected that she wasn't just angry about how long it was taking to cure her. There was also Shikamaru and her humiliation at having him see her at her lowest.
She had a lot of pride.
Shikamaru was the last person she wanted to see.
After a few minutes, she grew still. She stayed like that, head bowed and her knuckles bruised and bleeding.
Her eyes were clear when they finally looked up.
Kakashi decided that it was time to go home.
In the living room, he grabbed for the first aid kit so that he could bandaged her hand.
She stayed still for the most part, but he could see the slight shuddering breathe she took as she willed away frustrated tears.
"Cry," he told her.
When he reflected on it, deep down he thinks that if he had forced Sasuke to speak about what he was feeling, then Kakashi might have prevented his former student's defection. Kakashi could have saved him. Sasuke had a lot of deep rooted issues that he purposely kept hidden from his team. All that rage and grief that Sasuke held onto had no outlet and eventually it boiled over. It was a painful thing to admit it to himself, but Kakashi knows that he could have prevented the boy from becoming the unstable mess that he was now if he simply said to Sasuke that it was alright to cry.
'You can't blame yourself,' Rin said.
'Yeah. It's not your fault. People make their own choices,' Obito reminded him. 'Hindsight is twenty-twenty after-all.'
When Kakashi spoke, he spoke the words he wished he had said to Sasuke. It was advice he never got a chance to give even after the numerous times they managed to meet on the battlefield.
There wasn't any shame in weeping. They born into this world crying. Most will probably cry when they leave. Even someone as strong as Zubusa shed a tear in the end.
"Naruto cries all the time," Kakashi mentioned. "He's a regular waterworks, but he's going to become the strongest Hokage Konoha is going to ever know because of it."
Temari looked at him in disbelief.
"That doofus?"
"Future Hokage Doofus," Kakashi said. There was a swell of pride in his voice and he smiles wanly. "He knows there's less baggage after a good cry. He sheds a few tears, then he moves on. People who don't cry are the ones who are stuck in the past and can't grow."
That's what separate someone like Naruto from someone like Sasuke. Naruto was wise enough to realize that tears wasn't a sign of weakness. That's why when Naruto and Sasuke finally have that all important battle, Naruto will be the one left standing.
'That's some fatherly advice, you've got,' Obito said. 'You know what, Kakashi? I think you'd make a good dad. How about having one of your own soon? It's not like you're getting any younger.'
Kakashi tries to imagine it, but he drew a blank. A kid of his own, huh...
'He has to find a nice girl first,' Rin said firmly.
'Hey, when you have your first boy, you'll name him after me, right?' Obito wanted to know.
'Obito Hatake?' Rin snorted.
'It has a nice ring,' Obito defended himself.
"I'm not five," Temari says. Her voice drew Kakashi's attention back again. "I don't cry easily."
Kakashi felt tired.
Why is it that he always seem to get stuck with the hard-headed brats?
When he looks down at a sleeping Temari hours later, he couldn't bring himself to regret taking her in. It was just like how he had never regretted taking his genin team, problems with Sasuke aside. He had, against his better judgement, grown attached even though he knew that their arrangement couldn't last forever. As soon as she was back to normal, she would go back to Suna and her normal life.
Rin spoke in a quiet mummer and Kakashi agrees with her.
He probably saw Temari as that second chance he never got with Sasuke.
When she tossed and turned and kicked off her covers, Kakashi carefully pulls the blanket up and tucks her in.
'Like I said, you'd make a great dad,' Obito commented. 'Food for thought.'
Kakashi withdrew the portrait that Temari had sketched out of his pocket and hummed.
The next morning, the picture had found a special permanent home on his fridge.
