TotW -12
Author's Note: Wow...please bear with this--a flash-backing chapter. (...and 'otouto' means little brother.)
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"Sakumo you bastard, I fucking hate you."
"…Um…do I get a reason for this astonishing, yet truthful claim?"
Jiraiya suddenly turned and grabbed him by the collar—Sakumo let him. He looked as angry as he could get. Jiraiya's eyes narrowed. "You're getting married."
Sakumo blinked. "Yeah…"
Jiraiya released his grip, still with an angriness of a beaver. "When were you gonna tell me? On your golden anniversary?!"
Sakumo looked at him askance.
He broke the 'rules'.
The 'rules' being in this case, purely relative in the most metaphoric sense.
Jiraiya was genuinely angry with Sakumo, no joke at all. The fact that his otouto had been increasingly confrontational ever since he even met her was kind of a big, dumb clue for him. Just because Sakumo was the most content guy in the world right now, Jiraiya felt the need to taboo him or something and make him stay single (and drunk) forever. He figured Jiraiya didn't like sharing a brother; after all, the two of them were always together—who was Sakumo to go and abandon that? Well, in short, he wasn't about to. "Jiraiya…I think you're jealous and overreacting. I'm not going anywhere, you know."
"Well you've been spending an awful lot of time with…her."
Sakumo wanted to laugh. "I imagine that's a little important though considering she's going to be my wife…"
Jiraiya kept his glare. "Tsunade seems sad."
"Jiraiya, you know she loves you."
He held up his arm that showed a large bruise. "Does this look like love?!"
Sakumo shrugged. "Send her flowers."
Jiraiya glowered. "She eats them."
"You don't know that."
He turned away. Then, he looked at Sakumo: "I. Hate you." Jiraiya walked away from him.
"Seriously! I'm not leaving!" Sakumo called; probably in vain.
Sakumo you bastard, I fucking hated you.
Jiraiya wanted to cry.
He didn't attend the wedding (not even as witness, so Yoshiko asked a friend—a complete crying affair between all two members in the first row of the pew—the other being her mother; God what a funny day), and Sakumo never left Jiraiya.
Slowly, his otouto came around to their little family; maybe it'd been the equally funny and awkward day he self-lessly helped her to the hospital one day in September—as a result she softly accepted the name he'd afore suggested to them that had sounded absolutely hideous at the (potentially drunken) time. Oh, sure, she let Sakumo go to bars at the most inconvenient times…
"Jiraiya!" said Sakumo, surprised that he'd taken a seat next to him.
"Yo," he said. "Some fine weather we're having."
"Yeah—sure," said Sakumo.
"Look," said Jiraiya. "I'm sorry."
"Look?" grinned Sakumo beneath his mask, taking his brother for his word. "Well I don't see a sorry…"
Jiraiya's face flushed. "I'm sorry."
Sakumo looked at him. "Apology long since accepted."
Jiraiya lightened.
"You apologized to me last week, don't you remember?"
"…Huh?"
"Ah—too drunk to remember; 'happens to the best of us."
Jiraiya smiled. "Thanks."
"Tondemondai."
…
"So…" said Jiraiya after a while. "Have a name yet?"
Sakumo sighed over the past month of discussions. "She wants to name him Kenshin, and I have nothing."
"Not true,"
Jiraiya and Sakumo looked behind them—suddenly Sakumo moved the sake beneath him out of the way innocently. Jiraiya couldn't help but stare; she was very pregnant. "You did suggest Kuwa," she smiled. "Or shouldn't I remind you of that?"
Jiraiya's sudden snicker exploded into laughter. Kuwa…! When he got slightly dead-panned, he composed himself and looked down at a curious shot of sake that hadn't been beneath him ten seconds ago.
Yoshiko smiled as if the static past year hadn't happened. "Jiraiya-san…what would you suggest?"
He blinked bashfully as they both looked at him. "Well…" he thought. "Kuwa…" he smiled, musing. Kuwa…kuwa…ka…Kama…Kama… "Kakashi!"
Yoshiko gasped in shock.
Sakumo gasped in ecstasy. "That's PERFECT!" he grinned.
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