Sakumo was well aware that Emi here hadn't any children of her own or held any desire to have any to this day. She never seemed to run out of stories about children and how they rubbed her the wrong way or were just ill raised. The Hatake had to admit that wherever it was Emi was from before she arrived at Konoha he had no intention of going there himself.
Though that didn't mean that he was not curious.
Apparently she had been brought to Konoha as a young teen but her transition and experiences of her time before were not something she nor the Hokage wanted to be mentioned. There were still plenty of things that he wanted to know about her, she was unique and didn't quite fit any mold to the T. It was obvious that whatever events that lead up to her transfer into Konoha left a lasting mark on her, Sakumo only wished he knew her while growing up… a task that would have been difficult since she had been trained to join the force since she had arrived.
It was odd, normally no matter who he looked at he could get a good vibe of what kind of child and teen they may have been. Emi here, perhaps like many other children who were secluded and set aside to be one of Konoha's Special Tools, was an exception. The woman seemed much too old for her age, she also seemed to have great control on what she wanted others to see.
That was something he both admired and worried about.
"Seriously though Sakumo, Kakashi knows how to take care of himself for the most part. What brought this sudden urge?" He couldn't help but roll his eyes as she leaned back into her booth seat, there was one thing Sakumo Hatake was almost a hundred percent positive about when it came to Emi.
Her uncanny ability to know when something was up bothered a lot of the people she worked with.
"Call it a parent's intuition." He smiled rubbing the back of his neck, "There is just something about all of this that is rubbing me the wrong way." That seemed to have gotten the females attention before that far away look plagued her face once more. That was another thing, Emi seemed to always know a lot more than what she led on. Though he wasn't completely sure on what her relationship with the Hokage was, it was obvious that he trusted her and while she may not completely trust him Emi was extremely loyal to the village.
Sakumo's gut wretched more and more as the minutes ticked by. It would seem that his parental intuition was onto something.
Now if only he could talk about the mission itself.
"Do what you see fit and keep true to yourself." Her voice knocked him out of his own thoughts and while he wanted to pretend he couldn't see the worry, hurt and knowing look she was trying hard to cover up...he couldn't. She knew something about this, or at least her instincts too seemed to tell her something was up. "I'll keep the idjit alive." She added with a smirk, "What's the worst that can happen?"
There were not too many things that bothered Sakumo Hatake, but watching as his comrade downed dango stick after dango stick then order four plates more was definitely on the list right below watching her down bowl after bowl of Miso Ramen. He knew, with the amount of time they had spent in each other's company that Emi didn't live off of the stuff. She was known to be seen walking around with an apple of two in passing and ate a good portion of vegetables with their meals eight times out of ten.
But there were days like this and he wasn't too sure how she didn't get sick.
"You have any siblings?" That stopped the brunette from snatching up another stick of dango. He watched as she seemed to think it over for all but a second.
"No." Since she hadn't asked him why he was asking he knew it was alright to continue.
"Did you have any?" He watched as she finished chewing the first of three Chadangos.
"Yes." She was answering curtly, meaning at least she was considering sharing the information.
"What happened to them?" This time he had to wait for her to finish her last ball before she spoke up. He knew next to nothing about the female and her family life before she was an orphan here. It bothered him, but not enough for him to bring it up before now. Or at least as suddenly as he had.
"I do not honestly know."
"What I want to know is why they didn't attack." Kushina grumbled as they stood before the Hokage. Minato hadn't picked up on them being tailed until Kushina had brought it up in their conversation on the walk back, apparently Akihiro hadn't but didn't seem too bothered by the fact either. "They could have very well originally thought that we had somehow gotten that scroll to where or who it was supposed to go to." Minato would be lying if he said he wasn't surprised that Kushina picked up on the shinobi tailing them, but the fact of the matter was that he was. He didn't know too much about Konoha's Red Hot Habenero's full potential, but he was aware that Team 5 was supposed to be some sort of specialized team when they were originally assigned together.
"Up until you began tossing it around." Minato agreed with a frown returning his thoughts to the mission at hand, there were too many things about it that just didn't seem to make sense. Or made too much sense. The fact of the matter was that this mission went about as possibly as well as it could have gone and that bothered him. What had bothered him most was the fact that a whole village was just gone upon their arrival. How it was something like that could go on without some sort of information coming back seriously irked him. It wasn't some quickly done botched job either, the only things left standing were some of the frames of the houses that was not burnt with the rest of it or possibly selectively left behind. At this point, he was convinced that everything there was staged.
He wouldn't have thought too much about it if both Kushina and Akihiro didn't have such a haunted look at the remains of the small town. Both of them were trying their hardest to cover it up, but the fact of the matter was that he was smart and observant enough to notice.
The fact of the matter was that while he heard rumors and third to fourth-hand tales of some of their missions and even hung out with them on occasion. Minato knew next near to nothing personally about their background aside of what was common knowledge. He knew that Kushina's home village met a similar fate, but he didn't know where she was when it happened. While details on Uzushiogakure and Kushina's childhood were far and few between any information on Akihiro was completely wiped it would seem before he showed up and he didn't talk about it. But the way he reacted to the scene in a similar fashion as Kushina had him betting that perhaps his home too was met by a similar fate.
Then there was that new piece of information he was privy to.
"If that is not a stupid question then I don't know what is." Minato blanched as Akihiro blatantly laughed and Kushina looked over at him with a knowing smirk. "I mean you are supposed to be our generations child genius or whatever, no? You have to have pieced two and two together by now." This was not exactly how he imagined this scenario playing out, heck none of his scenarios came even close to this. He expected anger, resentment, a joke? But this, no... he definitely didn't expect this.
"I think he was trying to verify his own opinions Kushina." Surprisingly Akihiro was still rolling in laughter, Minato had to admit he looked much more approachable now than he had ever seemed in the past. "Give the kid a break."
"What am I supposed to do? Spell it out for him?" The kunoichi looked like she wanted to punch someone, specifically him. "I mean I know that a lot of information is on lockdown and I don't expect many to be able to figure it out on their own. Aside of Shikaku, but let us be honest he's scary smart. But Minato has been there through very selective and specific events that would lead anyone to believe what I am sure he does. If we were back in the village I'd had hit him upside the head with something and verified the obvious."
Well, if that wasn't an answer then he didn't know what was.
And now he could agree and say that being referred to as if you were not there was annoying.
Minato Namikaze didn't know what kind of specialized team Team 5 was supposed to be, but if Kushina and Akihiro were any proof of how well the full team could have complimented one another... Konoha lost a damn good team.
"I know our experiences with C-ranked missions haven't been good since Kiko-sensei went missing," Kushina began interrupting him from his own musings, "but this went too according to plan, ya know."
They watched as the Third smoked his pipe and nodded, "I understand your concerns and they have been noted." The elder began, "Your mission is a success though and you will be called upon when you are needed. This mission is not to be discussed with anyone outside of this room." That gained his attention, " You are dismissed."
"Hai."
The door had shut behind him as Kushina groaned out, "Do you see what I mean?" Minato looked to Akihiro who was looking at him. Apparently they were both unaware of what their red-haired teammate was going on about.
"Stacks and stacks of paperwork!" He watched with a smirk as she literally shuttered, "If that isn't hell then I don't want to know what is."
"Still not sure about whether you want the title or not."
"How does he even have time to train and maintain his level of awesomeness?" Kushina sounded legitimately curious about the question, "Where does he find the time? Where does any of the Kage? Especially during a war! I mean remember those mountains! I had nightmares of opening the Hokage's Office and being swallowed up by a river of paperwork, ya know."
"If anyone else said that I would call them on it-" Akihiro sighed, "but the fact of the matter is that is something you would dream about."
"Oi! What is that supposed to mean?"
"I am going to have to agree with Akihiro on this one." Minato laughed, "and now I have a pretty good idea of what sort of experience you have under a Genjutsu." Minato laughed harder when she flushed, scrunched her nose up and stormed off a couple paces ahead of them.
"It just wouldn't quite make sense."
"What wouldn't?" Minato asked having a good idea of where Akihiro was going with this.
"Kushina being afraid of something normal like heights, spiders or the dark."
"It would surely have made her shinobi career that much more difficult if she were afraid of any of those."
"Have to say I wasn't expecting an avalanche of paperwork though."
"I am right here, ya know!" Both Akihiro and he laughed. "Don't talk about me like I am not there. It's annoying and rude."
"I absolutely adore that you are way mature for your age Kakashi." The Hatake looked up from the book he was reading at the kitchen table and to their now uniformed babysitter. "I am sure you too will find that intellectual conversations are stimulating, I know I enjoy them. You will have so many opportunities to do good and help others." She then lifted the spatula from the scrambled eggs and pointed it directly at him, "But young mister that also means you will understand and likely care deeply for some things and people. This maturity will make you more prone to depression and detachment. And those- being someone who has been used to things coming naturally to you- you will find it harder than most to overcome those battles. Everyone has difficulty with them, geniuses and prodigies have been conquered by them."
"Have you been drinking?" He watched as she leaned forward and wholeheartedly laughed her long brunette curls rolling over her shoulder and bounced with the motion. She then turned back to the stove, "You typically only talk to me like this after you have been drinking."
"It doesn't mean that's the only time I think about it or want to talk to you about it." She admitted looking back at him with a smile, "It's hard to look at you and know that there is a young adult's mind in that child body of yours...even for me." She paused and frowned, "I want nothing more than to keep you all to myself and never let you out of my sights. But I know better. A child's mind needs stimulation and those who are gifted... even more so. I just know it also means that you are growing up quick and in a sense I am going to have to let go all the quicker."
"And you are positive you haven't been drinking."
"I have a mission." She chuckled turning off the stove before bringing the eggs over in the pan. She shoved some of them onto his plate in front of him and then onto the empty plate for his guest who had yet to have awoken. She placed the pan back on the stove before attending to the mounds of rice she had cooked and began balling them.
"Ah." Kakashi had figured as much when he walked in earlier and found her over the stove in her gear. A part of him was still hoping that she had one the previous night and just hadn't the time to change before breakfast. "How long?"
"Hopefully I will be back before your father." The uniform was on, but she wasn't in that mindset yet. He looked from her and to the mask that was placed around her waist. It wasn't a full mask like every other he had seen around the village, he knew that it's difference from the others meant that she was different than all of the others. What she did. He didn't know. But he remembered seeing her as a child, those brown eyes shadowed with black staring down at him from behind those sockets, a caring small smile showering down on him.
"I smell breakfast." Obito chirped as he walked into the kitchen clad still in his PJ's. "Oba-sans breakfast is da best!" Kakashi watched in mild interest and disgust as Obito downed his food. Just as it looked like was going to clear his plate she hovered and dropped two Onigiri on their plates. It was at this moment when Kakashi realized just how natural the two of them looked. For a split moment, he felt what he could only assume was jealousy rumble inside him before he reminded himself that Obito was like a brother.
An annoying brother, but apparently that's what younger siblings are... annoying.
Emi had been the one, according to his father, that introduced them at a young age. Or rather she had been taking care of Obito since the Uchiha had apparently left him and his gran on their own around the time that she and his father began hanging out. Kakashi wasn't too sure if either Obito or Emi were a blessing or a curse. They tended to float either way depending on the day.
"Another mission Obasan?"
"I don't have to be looking at you to know that you are talking with your mouth full Obito." The Uchiha gulped down his food and stared incredulously at her back as she washed her hands and put her hair up. Kakashi chuckled when she turned around and she was glaring at him in a very maternal matter, then the glare shifted to him and he began to nonchalantly eat his meal.
Technically he hadn't done anything wrong, right?
It was amusing how the tables had turned from the first night. This was likely as close to a functioning family as he was going to get.
And frankly he wouldn't want it any other way.
Ending Notes:
I wasn't expecting to take this long to put up the first of the two chapters for this week. I also haven't updated the last two awfully written chapters. I promise I am getting there.
I had fun writing this.
Updated 091215
