Chapter 14 – Pcitures

"Daddy!" Sachiko ran screaming towards Kakashi followed by an angry Yasahiro.

"Sachiko! You're gonna pay for this!" Yasahiro shouted chasing her through the living room.

"It was an accident. I didn't mean it!" she ran into Kakashi's arms screaming "It was an accident daddy". Kakashi let out a sigh, they didn't need this. Yamato grabbed the irritated Yasahiro stopping things from escalating.

"Hiro…Hiro…" Yamato held the struggling boy "calm down, tell me what she did "he smoothed his hair trying to cool him down as he held him close. He saw the broken toy in his gripped hand; it was a present from Mikiko from their visit to the Sakura festival last year. Yamato reached for it to see the damage.

"She ruins everything!" Yasahiro said in angry sobs.

Yamato sighed "Hiro…let me see" he said softly as the boy in his arms trembled with emotion "I can try and fix it".

Hiro shook his head "I told her not to touch my stuff!" he huffed dropping the broken toy "I can't wait till my dad gets here" he said shaking Yamato off him and sulking off to his room glaring angrily at Sachiko "Then I won't have to deal with her anymore".

"Hiro…you don't mean that" Yamato called after him. "Don't I?" was the reply he got before a door slammed in the hall way.

Kakashi let out a breath we've given him even more reasons to leave, great he looked at his daughter in his arms"Sachiko, what have we told you about touching other peoples stuff" Kakashi said sternly.

"I was just looking daddy; he wouldn't let me see it and when he caught me with it, I dropped it and it broke" she replied between soft sobs. Kakashi put her down "that's why you don't touch other peoples stuff. That was very important to Hiro". Sachiko lowered her head in shame, soft sobs still escaping her. "To your room, now" he said with a sad sigh and went to help Yamato pick up the pieces.

"You think you can fix it?" he asked Yamato, who shrugged his shoulders in answer, his pale face full of concern. It had been a few days since they had told Yasahiro about the message they got from his dad. Yasahiro had been ecstatic with the news. Finally, he felt like he was wanted by someone, someone he could call his own. He immediately started packing to be ready for when his dad got here to take him away. He had noticed though that Iruka, Yamato and Kakashi were quieter than usual. Iruka seemed fairly down and often told him he'd miss him if he were to go. Yamato smiled at him whilst they trained but the smile never quiet reached his eyes, his eyes always looked sad. Kakashi was harder to read than the other two. He had caught him gazing at him with a distant look whilst he was doing his homework the night before. He liked living with them, but he needed his own father and not Sachiko's fathers.

He made sure to pack the picture of all of them from the Sakura festival; they all stood smiling as fireworks went off in the back. He laughed remembering how many takes it took to get this one nearly perfect picture. Sachiko would constantly move making Yasahiro scowl as it was taking ages to take a single picture. Kakashi would tease Yamato so he was frowning or Mikiko would decide her hair wasn't quite right and they had to wait while she fixed it. Eventually they had taken the one picture everyone was happy with. Mikiko had been at the later stages of her illness, the picture showed her sitting down with Yasahiro and Sachiko on either side, an arm around each of them. Yamato stood behind Mikiko an arm around Kakashi's waist, who stood on his right with a hand on Sachiko's head making sure she was looking at the camera. On the other side, Iruka held Yamato's hand and had is other arm draped across Yasahiro's body pulling him close into a hug. Yasahiro smiled remembering the day and run his thumb over his mum's face as tears swelled in his eyes. He missed her greatly but had fond memories of her. She hadn't had an easy life but it had been better when they had moved to Konoha and he remembered her last day as she went to sleep forever with a smile on her face. And that was thanks to three men he was preparing to leave. He sighed as he put the picture into his pack.

-oOo-

In the middle of the night, a chakra signature awoke Kakashi and Yamato; they shared a glance and pulled away from the sleeping Iruka as they answered the light knock. It was for Yamato, a mission of the books and therefore S ranked in black and whites. "How long" he asked the masked messenger.

"Three to four weeks. Classified" he glanced at the sleeping form behind them. Though Iruka was the acting Hokage and the Elite ANBU's partner, there was still data he was not privy to. Kakashi and Yamato preferred it that way, there were some stuff Iruka's kind heart would just not be able to handle. If Kakashi had it his way, he would also keep Yamato in the dark, it hurt that Yamato had to keep doing this. "Same as before, find and destroy the experiments. Need to find the leak" the masked messenger continued. He lowered his head "There's also some new disturbing info. There might be children involved so precautions need to be taken". Kakashi looked at Yamato and saw the black almond eyes glaze over and knew his lover was already in mission mode.

Iruka stirred when he felt a warm body missing from his back. His heart pounded heavily against his chest as he heard the words "tread carefully, cat" followed by a whoosh as the messenger disappeared. As Iruka feared, Yamato had been called for an ANBU operation and was expected to be gone for nearly a month. "When do you leave?" he asked as his lovers contemplated a scroll, Kakashi making sure the plan hatched by the ANBU would bring his lover back to him in one piece.

"40 minutes" Yamato answered concentration on the map. Iruka squeezed Yamato's arm as he left them and went to prepare him some food. "Ruka" Yamato called out, Iruka turned to meet his lover's eyes. Yamato opened and closed his mouth but said nothing as he settled for a smile. Iruka smiled back holding back tears; he hated it when Yamato went on ANBU missions. Kakashi had been trying to get Yamato out of them since taking the acting Hokage position but Yamato was needed more now than ever, as they felt the great loss of Shinobi's after the war. He closed the door behind him and headed for the kitchen.

Kakashi wrapped his arms around Yamato's slender waist "Kashi" he sighed "I...I won't get to say goodbye to Hiro" Yamato said into Kakashi's neck as they cuddled "His determined to leave us you know".

Kakashi nodded "He'll be OK Yama" he assured "he'll be with his dad". Yamato nodded and felt the arms around his waist pull him in tighter for an opened mouth kiss. Kakashi met Yamato's black almond eyes and smiled reassuringly seeing the sadness in them. "We can always visit ne". Yamato nodded in agreement, this mission was going to be tough on Yamato and he wasn't going to be there to watch his back. He hated being acting Hokage; the sooner Naruto turned 25 the better Kakashi thought. Yamato walked over to his chest of draws pulling out a neatly wrapped brown parcel

"Give this to him for me" he handed it to Kakashi carefully. "And tell him...I...I" Kakashi nodded in understanding when his lover couldn't finish his sentence. "I'm going to go kiss the kids, and then…I have to leave" Yamato said with a sad tone.

When Yamato returned to their bedroom he found Iruka had returned with food parcels neatly wrapped and was now being comforted by Kakashi. "Ruka" he sighed pulling his lover into his arms "sorry".

"It's not your fault babe" Iruka said nuzzling Yamato's cheek running his hand through the short brown hair "It's just, you've been home less than a week. I'll miss you, and now Hiro's leaving and...I" he let out a breath. "I love you Yama, I love you so much" he said cupping Yamato's face and pulling him in for indulgent kisses "be safe ok?" Yamato nodded as Iruka proceeded to kiss him further.

Yamato relaxed into Iruka's kisses as he felt his weapon pouches being attached to his belt and warm arms encircle both him and Iruka as Kakashi joined the embrace. Kakashi rested his head on Yamato's shoulder kissing and sucking on the skin below Yamato's jaw. Kakashi was a man of very few affectionate words but his actions always spoke volumes. He continued to nibble on the sensitive skin efficiently marking Yamato and making him smile at the gesture. Kakashi then pulled up the ANBU vest Yamato wore, covering his neck and chin. Iruka grabbed his cat mask and placed it around his head. Yamato pulled them both in for final kisses, then pulled his mask down and teleported away without a backward glance as it always faltered his resolve seeing the worry in his lover's eyes. He put his hand into a pocket inside his ANBU jacket and felt the edges of the glossy paper as he jumped through the darkened street. It was his favourite picture and he kept it close to him, the one of both his lovers, his kids and the one who had made his family possible, Mikiko.

"He'll be alright" Kakashi looked at the lover in his arms "After all, I trained him myself and...well...he surpassed me years ago, but don't tell him that. I like it when he calls me Sempai in that sexy voice of his" Kakashi crinkled his eye. Iruka looked up at him and didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"Honestly Kakashi" he said shaking his head "you're just something else" he laughed kissing Kakashi's cheek affectionately "But..." Iruka gazed into his lovers' eyes mischievously "I have to admit to liking it when you both call me sensei" he smirked.

"Well then Sensei" Kakashi smirked "how about we go back to bed and you can teach me how to be good" he purred in Iruka's ear. Iruka didn't need any more of an invitation and pulled Kakashi in for a hard kiss.

-oOo-

Iruka sat marking papers at the kotatsu as Kakashi traced patterns on his back from the sofa with his book in his other hand. Yasahiro sat across from Iruka practising his calligraphy and Sachiko lay on her stomach between them colouring in the beast Sai had drawn on a scroll and left behind on one of his training sessions with Kakashi and Yamato. Iruka chuckled to himself as the image of Sai attacking an enemy with a multi-coloured beast with pink claws crossed his mind. If only his daughter knew how dangerous what she was colouring was, maybe she shouldn't really be near it Iruka thought suddenly. "Is she Ok to be colouring that?" he asked Kakashi. Kakashi smirked looking at the picture, clearly the same image running through his mind too.

"It's fine, only Sai can activate it. I think I'm going to sneak it into his pack next time were on a mission. Do you think his expression would change or…" he stopped abruptly. Iruka felt the small shift in Kakashi's body as he seemed to go on alert. Kakashi felt the unfriendly chakra signature approach and stood walking casually towards Sachiko and Yasahiro. He crouched to their level and patted each on their back praising both for their work. Iruka gazed at him questioningly but was met with a smile and crinkle of an eye as he pulled up his mask. That only meant one thing Iruka thought and touched his right leg withdrawing a kunai. Knock Knock, came the sharp rasps on the door. Kakashi lowered his head and look at Yasahiro with a smile and Iruka's chest constricted. The day had finally arrived, the day he had been dreading…

The next Chapter is in the process and will be up tomorrow, if not next weekend. Am also currently working on updating my other fic All Is not Lost, When one has hope so look out for that too this weekend.