House of Crows
Chapter Twenty-Four: Fabrications, Twisted Truths, and Misdirection
When you think it couldn't get much worse
The numbers rise on the death toll
And the chimes of freedom flash and fade
Only heard from far, far away.
Kakashi looked around the street with no small amount of trepidation. At night-time all the lights seemed twice as bright, and all in deep, throbbing shades of red and orange, leaving roving shadows that seemed to create movement where there was none. He'd had two years to get used to operating with just one eye, but even now he turned his head sharply the moment he thought he saw anything move on his left side. In this seedy little place, his finely honed senses were prone to overreacting.
The seventh time he visibly jerked when a club door opened to their left, Jiraiya sighed at him. "Would you relax? You're acting like such a newbie, Kakashi-kun."
"I am a newbie, Jiraiya-sama," Kakashi replied, coming to a stop beside the sannin. He followed the older man's gaze across the crowded street to a lively looking joint whose windows were lit up like a pumpkin and the sound of merriment drifted out of the wide doorway. There were exactly two types of people hanging around outside; drunk men with money to burn, and excessively made-up women in exotic kimonos that hung off their shoulders.
"Take note, Kakashi-kun," Jiraiya said reverently. "The best brothel in all the fire country."
It was probably true, since prostitution was illegal in most provinces save for this one. Only here could you find a whole village dedicated to eroticism, and the pleasure quarter in this place was infamous throughout the land. Kakashi knew that after a good pay day, this was precisely where a lot of his fellow shinobi came to blow off some steam.
Kakashi had so far felt no such inclination to come here. He still didn't understand how exactly he'd ended up in Otafuku Gai anyway.
"You said we were going to train in sacred grounds," Kakashi pointed out, watching a woman bend over to speak to a man sitting at a bench outside the brothel. Her cleavage was a universe unto itself.
"We're here, aren't we?" Jiraiya pointed out cheerfully. "And you need lots of training from the looks of you. Come on!"
Kakashi remained rooted to the spot. "I can't go in there," he said.
"Why not?" Jiraiya blinked at him.
The cleavage would eat him. "I'm not old enough," he replied stolidly.
"You're fifteen, Kakashi-kun, you're a man now!" Jiraiya slung an arm around his shoulder to begin shuttling him across the street whether he liked it or not. "Or at least, you will be once one of these lovely girls pop that cherry of yours."
"I don't want to pop anything," Kakashi insisted, trying to dig his heels in.
"Nonsense. Think of it as training! You want to make it good for your first love, don't you? You don't want to disappoint her, do you?"
Kakashi wondered who he was talking about. "No," he admitted.
"So like all things you want to master, you need to practise first." They were standing just outside the brothel now and Jiraiya swept his hand out, as if revealing all the women working there. The few standing outside the entice customers were beginning to look over with curious, painted smiles. Kakashi could see they had caught the scent of fresh blood.
"I think I'll wait out here," said Kakashi, hand automatically latching onto one of the pillars holding up the wide awning. This way no one could move him unless they wanted to tear down the whole building with him.
"You're not being very sporting, Kakashi."
Tough. Few things managed to perturb Kakashi. Finding your father dead in the living room with his guts spilling out onto the floor more or less set the bar pretty high regarding what kind of things could make him sweat. Being sized up by ten heavily armed men twice his size wouldn't even make his heart flutter.
Ten heavily endowed women with bare shoulders, on the other hand…
Kakashi couldn't help the gulp reflex. He wasn't shy, he was just terrified for his life. This was how a snow rabbit felt when surrounded by a pack of wolves. One wrong move and he'd be torn limb from limb.
"I'll wait out here," he repeated firmly, clinging to the pillar. "Have fun, Jiraiya-sama."
"You'll regret this later," Jiraiya warned, but shrugged anyway. He didn't want to waste too much time trying to convince the stick in the mud to have some fun when he himself could be getting on with it. "Have some money. Spend it wisely and meet me by that fountain over there in about… three hours."
Kakashi looked at said fountain, taking note of the three naked female statues who appeared to be doing some kind of synchronised handstand while water gushed from between their-
Kakashi quickly looked away. "Three hours. Got it." He took the money Jiraiya was holding out - though it was only a couple of measly coins – and remained fast by his pillar until the older man had looped arms with one of the heavily made-up women and was too far away to drag Kakashi with them.
He took off at a vague stroll down the high street, looking about with grim interest at all the attractions he passed. Several brothels, several more themed hotels, some kind of movie theatre that he thought about entering until he realised all the movies on the board were called things like "Cumming Tonight" or "Dog-style Afternoon". Kakashi didn't really want to sit in a dark room for an hour with the kind of people who would go see such films.
The first neutral place he found was a soba stall. The noodles weren't great, but he sucked them down anyway for lack of anything better to do. He wound away the time idly kicking the spokes of his stool and ordering seconds until his stomach was full and he only had one coin left. This he clenched firmly in his hand and finally departed, looking once more for another establishment in this town that wouldn't rob him of his virginity in some way.
That was when he found the pachinko parlour. Granted, most of the machines and games were sex themed, but plenty weren't. And though some people might think entering an arcade armed with just one coin might be a bit pointless, Kakashi wisely assessed his situation. He could spend it on one game of whack-a-frog, or he could attempt to multiple his earnings at one of the gambling machines.
Kakashi walked around the parlour slowly, watching the row upon row of men playing at pachinko and slot machines. Not only was prostitution legal here, but so was gambling, and this hall was all but packed out completely with the thundering noise of hundreds of machines spewing metal balls and playing garish jingles.
He'd never actually been inside one of these places before, as too many people back in Konoha knew exactly how old he was (the Infamous Hatake Kakashi, the youngest ninja to graduate to the rank of jonin two years ago, aged thirteen), and half the population of Konoha seemed to be able to recognise him on sight. There was probably an age restriction in this place too, and though Kakashi doubted he looked eighteen – he'd always been a little short for his age – there were plenty of other things an underage boy could do in this town that were much worse. As such, the attendants overlooked him.
Kakashi picked his target thoughtfully. All the machines were rigged one way or another, but the slot machines appeared to allow less physical control than the pachinko games, so he chose the latter, and sat down at the very end of one of the rows since this was one of the few empty seats that left a gap between him and the next player in the form of another empty seat. He was always a bit wary of sitting closer to strangers than necessary.
The gears seemed easy enough… even if the euphemisms ran a little too thick. Once he put his last coin in the slot, his balls 'dropped' as the machine put it, before asking him to 'shoot his load' using the handheld throttle. Ignoring the suggestively posed pictures of women in the background, Kakashi did as he was told and heard the rattle of little metal balls as they cascaded through pins and obstacles to disappear through gates in the bottom. The pictures on the screen before him began to spin at a dizzying speed before gradually slowing to a stop to form a picture of a woman in three parts wearing a mismatched bikini before the whole thing started again. Kakashi guessed the objective was to make her match, but like the slot machines it was deceptively random.
Nothing the sharingan couldn't handle.
Bumping up his headband to expose his borrowed eye, Kakashi quickly judged the mechanics before him – the size and weight of the balls, the paths of each individual pin, the velocity the balls fell, and just how much pressure was needed on the throttle to get most of the balls down into that prize winning gate. The pictures on the screen no longer dashed by in an incomprehensible blur. The very millisecond Kakashi saw the red-head with the red lingerie about to line up, he tapped his finger against the metal casing of the console and let a tiny electric charge loose.
The screen froze, then flashed, and suddenly hundreds of small silver balls began spilling into the tray above his knees.
Already he'd be able to pay Jiraiya back two-fold for what he'd lent, and Kakashi settled himself back to spin the throttle again and watch the screen intently for a match. He couldn't hit the jackpot too many times though. People would only get suspicious.
No one appeared to notice him for a long time, or at least not until he'd accumulated roughly ten trays of balls beside his chair which he was thinking of exchanging for one of those flash looking swords on the wall. Something began to prickle along the back of his neck, and instantly he knew he was being watched.
Kakashi didn't react, but he certainly toned down his playing, suspecting one of the attendants might have decided to take notice of his age after all since he insisted on winning all the time. It was probably time to go and meet Jiraiya anyway… just… he needed one more go!
Balls rattled and clattered and a body moved into the empty seat beside him. His first reaction was annoyance, as Kakashi's personal space bubble extended beyond the chair next to him, but when it dawned on him that the new player was looking sideways at him in a rather interested way, his feet got itchy. It was time to leave.
"You're cheating."
Kakashi glanced sideways at the person next to him, and it was almost like he'd looked into a mirrored wall. The face staring back at him was so much like his own that for several seconds he was struck dumb. Same eyes, same nose, same hair. He was even about the same age as Kakashi judging from his height. Even a vague kind of smile hung on his lips, one that Kakashi knew he'd worn himself in the old pictures of his father's family album, though that was before he'd started to wear a mask.
Eventually he managed to find his voice. "I'm not cheating," he denied, too surprised at the appearance of the boy beside him to manage an honest tone.
"I can't figure out how you're doing it though," the boy went on, leaning in to look at Kakashi's hands before looking up at his face. "Maybe that weird eye of yours does something?"
Kakashi's weird eye promptly shut. "Mind your own business," he grunted, sliding his headband down over the sharingan to hide it completely.
"This is my business," the boy informed him. "Or, it will be one day, I suppose. My father practically owns half the entertainment in this town, and in other towns in other countries too."
"Your dad's a businessman?" Kakashi asked incredulously. Somehow he doubted this was a family business, considering this boy was almost certainly a ninja, and a pretty advanced one at that. The two daggers strapped to his back gave it away, and Kakashi sensed that vague smile hid something much more sharp and lethal.
"Businessman? Not really." And that was all the boy elaborated, as he suddenly waved to Kakashi. "Look, I'll show you how to cheat properly."
"Properly?"
"No one can catch you this way." The boy took a pick from his pouch and inserted it into the lock of the machine before him. After a couple of jiggles it clicked and the whole front swung open a few inches. Kakashi looked around, but everyone was too engrossed in their own games to notice and not a single attendant was in sight. The boy stuck his hand inside the gap and began to feel around. "They're all programmed with different settings, you see," he told Kakashi as he fiddled. "Setting ten is like super tight-ass, it won't pay out anything. Setting one makes you hit the jackpot like every couple of goes."
"You can program it?"
"It's easy." The boy slammed the machine shut again. "Gimme some balls, I'll show you."
He didn't ask permission to stick his hand into Kakashi's lap, and it was bound to be a waste of time complaining. He was intrigued anyway, not so much that the machine could be reprogrammed, but that this boy knew how to do it and was willingly showing Kakashi how to do it too.
"See!" the boy said over the sudden din. His machine was flashing and clacking, having hit the jackpot on the first try. "Piece of cake!"
"That's great," Kakashi said distractedly. "But I wasn't cheating anyway… and I should probably go. I have to meet someone."
The boy gave him a puzzled look. "Don't you recognise me?"
Kakashi stopped and looked at the boy. It was hard to ignore their similar features, but he'd been willing to put that down to coincidence. "Should I?" he asked tentatively.
"Well, we haven't met before, but I thought you'd at least figure it out, Kakashi."
That was probably supposed to impress him, but being youngest jonin in a century with an exemplary war record already beneath his belt meant his reputation proceeded him in many places these days. He was already spoken of as Sharingan Kakashi in Iwa, and anyone who saw his eye and realised he wasn't an Uchiha would know exactly who he was. "Figure what out?" he asked dryly.
"Who I am."
"I don't know who you are," he said dismissively, about to turn away.
"Don't you even suspect you might know?"
Kakashi didn't dare hope.
The boy sighed and gestured to himself as if Kakashi was a little slow. "I'm Hatake Karasu. Hatake Sakumo was my father's brother… so I guess that makes us cousins. Hi. You're not as tall as I thought you'd be."
Since that night nineteen years ago, Kakashi had realised he wasn't as alone as he'd thought. Suddenly he had family, and not just one cousin, but dozens of cousins, and uncles and aunts he'd never even dreamed of. He'd learnt about the grandfather his own father had never mentioned; learnt his name and his grandmother's name, and learnt the names of their parents. A genuine family tree bloomed before his eyes. The family grave in Konoha bearing just two names seemed absurdly small and disingenuous by comparison.
But the reason why his father had never even mentioned the existence of the rest of the Hatake family quickly became clear to Kakashi when Karasu, after cashing in their balls, dragged him to meet his father. The man was so much like Sakumo that it hurt to even be in the same room as him, yet from the outset it was clear that Kakashi wouldn't find a father figure in his uncle. The leader of the nomadic Hatake clan didn't like him. The sins of the father, he said, were carried in the child. And not only was Hatake Sakumo a deserter and a traitor for abandoning his seat at the head of the upper house to settle with an 'outsider' in a static village, but he'd died a coward, and no son of his was welcome back.
When Kakashi returned to Jiraiya later that night, he kept his new discovery to himself, uncertain of what to make of it. Neither did he know what Konoha would make of his family attachment to a rogue clan who viewed the village as an enemy.
However, if the head of his newfound clan had rejected him outright, Karasu hadn't. He wrote frequently, and Kakashi wrote back when he could (awkwardly – he wasn't used to writing casual letters, but he was determined to hold on to the one bond of real 'family' he had left), even if it was a little difficult getting a letter to someone who was never in one place longer than a month. Whenever the clan was nearby, he was invited to visit. His superiors gave him leave all too happily since councillors had all but been begging him to take some breaks between operations since he was six, and it was through those visits that Kakashi got to know his clan.
He tried to avoid his uncle – even though the man didn't banish him on sight, he would always sit Kakashi down while he went on at length about all the crimes and faults of Konoha and the other villages across the land. But mostly just Konoha. It was an intense rant that could go on for hours and most of it was probably true, giving Kakashi no comfort, and the longer he sat there listening, the more his uncle seemed to think he was redeemable.
Karasu accepted him as he was, always ready to answer questions Kakashi had thought would never be answered. He showed him signature clan moves and jutsus, and in turn Kakashi taught him some of the more interesting techniques he'd copied over the years. His prowess and international reputation awed most of the upper and lower houses combined, and Kakashi was quite the novelty when he joined up with the clan. Aunts always wanted to take his mask off and feed him up, his cousins always wanted him to show off his eye. Several female cousins tagged after him like the girls back in Konoha did.
Reika, one of Karasu's cousin on his mother's side, was five years younger than himself, and was always the boldest. She was the one who told him why his uncle really hated Kakashi, and who the true heir of the clan was. Even at a young age she'd had plans of elevating her position in the clan by sucking up to someone like Kakashi – someone she believed would take back what was his one day.
He hadn't known it at the time, but Karasu had plans too.
It was during a visit some time after his eighteenth birthday that his uncle finally tried to kill him. He'd been drunk at the time, calling him 'Sakumo' repeatedly all through the evening, but he'd still come very close to smashing Kakashi's face through the back of his skull. The rest of the upper house had intervened in the ensuing chaos, which was perhaps the only reason Kakashi had survived such a sudden, savage attack, and when things had calmed afterwards Karasu had left to speak to his father in private.
When he came back he had a smile on his face and blood all over his arms. "Let's play some pachinko, ok?" he'd suggested.
His father had been found dead the next morning and Karasu was swiftly deferred to as the new head. Kakashi rather suspected he knew who'd killed him…
And it was only in the passing years that Karasu revealed just how far his ruthless ambitions went. Where his father had been content to drink sake and rant about the injustice of static villages and their affiliated clans, Karasu was not. He's put things in motion that Kakashi had hardly noticed until it was too late, and now everything had finally culminated in this very moment, when he found himself stood around a map with Karasu and other members of the Hatake upper house, looking across at an emissary and his bodyguards from Iwa. It wasn't what he'd call a relaxed atmosphere – far from it. Almost everyone in the room had their hands glued to the hilts of their weapons. The rest glowered unpleasantly at one another across the table.
"You're sure?" the Iwa emissary asked him, scowling hard.
"Absolutely," Kakashi replied evenly, running a finger across the map. "The pass from waterfall is blocked. There's nothing but an ambush waiting for you there. Konoha already anticipated this strategy so the border all the way to Suna is being watched."
"Just how much man-power does Konoha have?" the emissary demanded. He was naturally incredulous of everything Kakashi was telling him, which was only natural given his role in the last war.
"Nearly six thousand," Kakashi said, "And that's not including the back-up from Suna."
Karasu walked over to the map. He wasn't pleased. "My other sources in Konoha never reported that many people."
"The majority of ANBU are underground. Most jonin don't even know how many people there are working in those sections, and the info is strictly off limits to anyone but the Hokage and her closest advisors. There's a whole division recruited from one of the fire country's oversea territories that's inflating the numbers."
"Imperialism at its finest," Karasu sighed. "How do you know this?"
"I'm next in line for Hokage," Kakashi said, as if that explained it all.
It seemed to. The emissary grunted and pointed at the blue spaces on the map. "We'll have to launch a surprise attack by sea."
"Good luck with that," Karasu said drolly. "The only way through to the fire country from the coast is through Sound lands, and they'd fight you the whole way. If you came from the east coast directly onto the fire country's coast, you'd be sailing through water country territory, and they're not your allies. They'd have you at a supreme disadvantage at sea. Where's the Kyuubi, Kakashi?"
Kakashi shrugged. Naruto was probably still stationed along the border of the grass country, but… "In Konoha, most likely."
"Ideally he should be drawn far away from there at all costs. We don't stand a chance of attacking Konoha while he's at home. In the mean time…" Karasu sighed and shook his head. "Where do you suggest the best place to launch an invasion?"
Once again, Kakashi was forced to lie. "Konoha's people are spread too thin along the border… if Iwa concentrates it's invasion at a single point coming from the grass country, you should break through. That's the only way I can think of." In truth, most of Konoha's people were along the grass border already. Of all the places for Iwa to attack, it would be the best fortified and with Naruto there, every rock nin faced slaughter. Kakashi didn't care so much about that.
"What about us?" Kakashi asked. "What will be the syndicate's move?"
"That depends on whether your information pans out," Karasu said evasively. "I have something in mind but it may take a while to put into action."
"We can only buy so much time for you," the emissary warned. "Use our payment wisely."
Karasu closed his eyes. "Yes, yes."
The reference eluded Kakashi. Karasu obviously had some plan that the Iwa emissary knew about and had apparently accepted, and it probably had something to do with the 'payment' they'd been given, but this was a secret that would not be shared easily. Kakashi refrained from pushing for answers. Some things he wasn't sure he wanted to know anyway. He was content enough to know that Karasu had no immediate plans to launch a confrontation between the Syndicate and Konoha.
Everything he knew now would have to do. Tomorrow he could send a message back to Konoha to add extra manpower to the grass country border with the hopes that the emissary would take his advice and act upon it.
When he was finally released from the meeting, Kakashi made his way back to his room feeling almost relieved if not for the knowledge he was now facing another difficult opponent: Sakura. It was already past midnight by then, and Sakura had been waiting for over an hour. He knew she was there long before he arrived at his door; his chakra tag told him as much, though it told him nothing about what kind of mood she'd be in.
Taking a deep breath, Kakashi opened the door and walked in. Almost immediately his eyes landed on the splendid couch against the opposite wall, and the figure of the pink-haired girl stretched out on it. Her head was cushioned against the armrest and her eyes were shut. Judging from the slow, steady rise and fall of her chest, anyone would assume she was fast asleep.
Kakashi knew better.
If Sakura thought for a second that she looked nearly that angelic when she was asleep, she had another thing coming. She wasn't even snoring.
Well. If she was going to feign sleep to avoid talking to him, then he might as well play along. Kakashi went into the bedroom and pulled the lightweight top blanket off his bed and returned to spread it over Sakura, making sure to tuck it around her carefully so she'd feel no draught. She gave a very convincing sleepy murmur but didn't open her eyes. Her commitment to the role was admirable, and he wondered how long she planned to carry it on for…
It was still easier than putting up with her accusatory glare and tense, frosty silences, so he left her to her oscar winning performance and moved back to the bedroom to sit at the work table beneath the window. There were paper and pens already provided in the drawers, fresh and unused, and he mechanically pulled out a sheaf to begin writing.
"What are you doing?"
Evidently Sakura gave up quickly when she didn't have an audience. He glanced at her over his shoulder, noticing the blanket he'd given her was now draped around her shoulders like a shroud. "Sorry, did I wake you?" he asked drolly.
Sakura shrugged. "What are you writing?" she asked again.
He turned back to the note he'd barely even begun to write. "A letter to Konoha."
"Why?"
"I'm warning them that I've heard a rumour from a reasonably reliably source that Iwa is probably planning a focused attack near the border of the grass country some time soon," he said.
"Why?"
"This one probably deserves a heads-up."
"No… why are you doing that?" she asked coming forward to perch on the edge of the bed behind him. "I don't think Karasu would be happy with you if he knew."
"Probably not," he agreed.
Sakura's eyes met his, and he saw something uncertain glittering there. "I could tell him, you know," she said softly. "I could tell him you're two-timing him, helping out Konoha like this. He might put you under lock and key. How would you like that? I could, you know, because you don't have it in you to take me down with you…"
He smiled slightly, tilting his head back. "Karasu wouldn't settle for mundane punishments. He'd kill me, Sakura," he told her bluntly. "And I don't think you have it in you either."
She gave him a reproachful look. "He's your cousin. Would he really kill you?"
"I wouldn't underestimate a man who killed his own father," he replied.
A look a revulsion slowly spread over Sakura's face. "And you betrayed Konoha for family like that?"
"You can't choose your family, I suppose," he admitted. "But they're not bad people. Not really. They've always been kind to me and I can't repay them with betrayal."
"They're only nice to you because you're a perfect specimen of their 'upper house'," she said derisively. "What about Aki? Your clan treats her like a stranger because she's not fair-haired and inbred. And you don't have to turn them in – but you shouldn't be helping them at the very least!"
"I'm not helping them," he protested.
"Then why are you here?" she demanded.
Kakashi slammed his pen down. "I'm here for you, you ungrateful woman," he snapped. "The only reason I am here is because I found your brainless cat delivering a message to the Hokage and realised what kind of mess you'd walked into! I came because I was worried about you – about what kind of trouble that flapping mouth of yours would get everyone into! And the reason I'm still here now is because I want to keep you safe. And because of that I have to play along with whatever Karasu wants or else he'll be suspicious, and it's not what I planned on doing and I don't take pleasure in lying to anyone, so you could at least be a little bit more sympathetic."
"Aw," she said flatly. "Poor you."
"That's a start," Kakashi sighed. He rubbed his neck and turned back to his letter. "I have to give frequent status reports about you to Tsunade anyway."
Sakura frowned. "About me?" she echoed uncertainly. "What about me?"
"The only reason I got clearance to be here is because I'm supposed to be looking after you. You are pregnant."
"Tsunade knows?!" Sakura cried, almost leaping to her feet in horror.
Kakashi glanced around at her, vaguely surprised by her strong reaction. "Yes. She knows."
"We… Well, what did she say?" she whispered.
He shrugged. "She didn't really say anything about it…"
"Oh god… she probably thinks I'm stupid and all kinds of incompetent." Sakura pulled her hands fretfully through her hair. "Did she seem disappointed to you? Was she scowling? Did she say she was suspending my apprenticeship?"
Kakashi thought. "Not really. Mostly I think she was worried about you being out here on your own."
"The point of me being out here on my own was so that people like her would never have to find out!" Sakura gasped. "Please tell me she's the only one."
Kakashi thought again. "Well… Shizune knows. Naturally. She knows everything Tsunade knows. And Ino knows because-"
"INO?!" Sakura literally screamed. It was a good thing this floor was nothing but empty overflow guestrooms. "Oh shit – so everyone knows!"
"Ino's under orders to keep her mouth shut. When I left, she seemed to be obeying it."
"Ohgod ohgod ohgod…! Who else knows?" she whimpered.
"Well…" He thought of Tenzou, who had looked almost as panicked as Sakura did now when he'd been told. "No one important," he finished.
Sakura glared at him through wet, narrow eyes. "Did you tell them?"
"It was Ino," he explained. "She flew a bird scout over and overheard us arguing."
Those distressed eyes widened considerably. "That… that bird. The one you killed. That was her?" She paused. "That's why you killed it."
"Fortunately she didn't overhear too much," Kakashi said.
"Fortunately for you. Unfortunately for me, she didn't overhear the part where I called you a treacherous swine!"
"You're still mad about that?"
"Mad?! What you've done is completely off the charts!" she gasped out. But it didn't seem to be in anger anymore. She was holding a hand under her belly and bending forward slightly. That furious scowl of anger was turning into a grimace of pain.
Kakashi turned around in his chair. "Are you ok?" he asked tentatively.
A muscle in her jaw ticked. "I'm fine."
She wasn't. Kakashi jumped to his feet, moving towards her to assist, but she slapped his hands away the moment he drew near. Her face smoothed of pain and she straightened. "I told you, I'm fine. I just get odd pains sometimes."
"That's normal?" he asked, worried.
"I think so," she said tersely.
"Maybe it was the baby's way of telling you to stop getting upset?"
"How can I when you still exist?" she grunted. She sat rubbing her stomach with a disgruntled expression on her face that was halfway between annoyance and worry. This pregnancy couldn't have been easy on her. And she was certainly going to refuse his help whenever offered.
Sakura looked at the wall clock. "I should go to bed," she said at last, standing up. "I think I've stayed here long enough, don't you?"
Kakashi thought of that hard, lumpy futon waiting for her at the end of a long walk back to the servant's wing. "Stay with me."
"What?" She stared at him like he'd spoken another language.
"Your bed's terrible. You should be sleeping in a proper bed like this one," he said, pointing to the luxury emperor sized monster beside them.
Sakura sucked in a sharp breath. "I'm not sleeping with you," she hissed.
"I'm not asking you to – I'm just asking you to take the bed. I'll sleep in the other room tonight… and I'll be gone in the morning before you get up, so you don't have to see me if you don't want. It's normal for a mistress to stay the night so it won't raise any more eyebrows than we already have."
She looked at the bed, and the longing was impossible to miss. She'd spent weeks on that servants' futon, and that was enough to make anyone's back sore even if you weren't pregnant. Her lower lip caught between her teeth as she pondered. In passing, Kakashi noticed she looked particularly lovely when she did that.
"You'll sleep in the other room?" she asked. "With the door shut?"
"Sure," he said, nodding. Whatever she wanted.
Gradually her shoulders seemed to loosen and she gave a hesitant nod of her own. "Ok. But only because you insist." Although it hadn't taken too much to convince her. She must have been missing her old bed pretty badly if she was willing to share a guestroom with him under these circumstances. "I guess you'll need a blanket."
As she said it, she slipped off the one from around her shoulders and held it out to him. He took it, making sure not to brush against her fingers. She wouldn't like that. And of course the moment it was in his hands she turned away swiftly and sat down on the bed. "You may go," she told him formally.
He was being evicted. Kakashi sighed and grabbed his half-written letter from the table before heading towards the partition doors to the other room. He looked back before he closed them. "Will you be alright?"
She shrugged and nodded.
"If you need anything, just ask."
He was about to turn away again when she opened her mouth, as if about to interrupt him. He halted and waited. "What is it? Do you need something?"
She looked faintly embarrassed as her hands twisted in her lap. "Um… do you happen to have anything to eat?"
With muscles still aching for a hard day's travel, Ino pulled herself up onto her favourite bar stool. She preferred tea houses but none of the ones opened this late would be reputable, and she felt like she needed a kick of something stronger than green tea if she stood a chance of getting any sleep tonight.
She didn't know how much more she could take of this – not the missions, but of the jaw-aching, wall-banging oath of silence.
Her best friend, the one she'd loved, hated, and envied for most of her life, was having a baby. Ino could remember when they were both barely more than babies themselves. She remembered their elementary kunoichi classes in the fields, picking flowers and learning their names and their meanings. She remembered when they'd fought and pulled each other's hair over the cutest boy in the class. Sakura had only just given her virginity away a few months ago to some as-yet-nameless yob. Now she was becoming a mother.
Of all the girls in their class, Ino would never have expected this. Sakura was so obvious the career driven type - the kind who would work themselves to the bone until suddenly they were nearly forty and their biological clock was screaming for attention. Sakura wouldn't even know what to do with a baby. What on earth was she thinking?
But then, it wasn't her fault. Something had happened on that mission and Ino had gathered it wasn't according to Sakura's plans. Some brute had done this to her. Had she been raped? It was hard to imagine any man being capable of forcing himself on that monstrously strong bitch, but undercover missions sometimes asked for great sacrifices…
Whoever had done that to her would pay. Ino was certain of that. her mind was put at ease to know that Kakashi was now with her, looking after her in his own fashion. Which was a weird fashion. Honestly, Ino didn't really understand why Sakura had asked for him, rather than, say… a fellow female with some knowledge of pregnancy. As far as she knew, Kakashi was as clueless as an incorrigible bachelor came. The two must have been closer than Ino realised if she'd called for him of all people.
Someone slumped into the barstool next to her, making her glance over. He looked just about as miserable as she felt, though she doubted he was carrying a terrible secret on his shoulders that he was absolutely forbidden to tell anyone about. "Hey, Tenzou-taichou," she murmured.
"Hey… you…"
"Ino."
"Right, yeah."
It wasn't like they'd fought together or anything. Ino rolled her eyes. Well, they hadn't crossed paths much these last few years, what with their areas being so widely apart. She was an interrogator and part-time florist. He was an ex-ANBU captain who did more house building than black operations these days. Ino remembered him clearly though, as she never forgot an eligible man. She, on the other hand, had not made nearly the same impression on him as a fifteen year old.
That may not have been the case any longer though, she thought, noticing his gaze idling down the length of her body. She smiled. Being checked out always cheered her up.
"Have I ever told you how I became an ANBU captain?" he began.
Why would she want to hear something as boring as that? So she said, "Yes, actually, you have."
"Oh." He leant back, looking puzzled. Then he looked at the beer in his hand. "I should probably cut back on these things if I'm getting memory blackouts."
"Speak for yourself." Ino tinkled her fingers in the air. "Oh – mister? Can I have another sweet martini please?"
The bartender slid her another glass and she began tipping it back heavily.
"I don't think I've ever seen you in here before," Tenzou said curiously. "What brings you?"
"Booze, obviously," she replied. "I'm drinking to forget."
"Forget what?"
"My friend, Sakura."
Tenzou coughed a little into his bottle and had to wipe his nose on his sleeve as his drink revisited him up a different airway. "S-Sakura?" he wheezed.
"You know her, right?" Ino glanced at him shrewdly. "She was on your team a while back."
"Yes," he said heavily. "I remember her. I… uh… hear she's on a mission."
"Yeah," she sighed. "Poor Sakura."
"Hm?"
She tipped her drink back again. "Nothing."
"You shouldn't worry about her. She's with Kakashi-sempai, after all."
"Hah," she snorted derisively, causing her new drinking buddy to glance over at her in surprise.
"What was that?"
"That was a derisive snort," she said.
"Because I mentioned Kakashi-sempai?"
"I repeat. Hah."
"You have a problem with Kakashi?" he wondered.
"Not him personally," she said with a maladroit sigh. "I just don't see how he has anything to do with anything. I don't see why he had to go with Sakura. Why didn't she ask for me? I'm her friend. Sort of…"
"Well…" Tenzou scratched the back of his head awkwardly, as if trying to figure out the best way to phrase what he was going to say. "They're close. I don't think it's personal preference, but maybe Kakashi was just the only person who could help her?"
Ino shook her head. He didn't understand. This wasn't about complimentary skills and abilities. Sakura was pregnant. She didn't need stupid men hanging about, she needed a sympathetic woman, or even multiple women. But Tenzou wouldn't get that. He didn't know anything about what was going on with Sakura right now. "I don't agree he's the best choice," she grumbled. "But at least he's a good man. Pretty honourable, you know? A lot of integrity. I guess if a man had to go, Kakashi is the one you'd trust to take good care of her."
Tenzou hastily began drinking as if to avoid replying to that. He finished with a wheezy gasp. "Yeah, well don't put too much stock in his supposed 'honour'," he muttered.
"Pardon?"
He had the guilty look of someone who knew too much. "Nothing." She recognised it because she'd been wearing it since the moment Tsunade had dismissed her from the office with the warning that word of Sakura's condition was not to leave this room. No matter how much she was desperately to spill her guts to someone, she valued her life too much to allow it. She wanted to tell Tenzou that the reason Kakashi was a bad choice was because he had all the midwifery experience of a cod, but then she might have to kill him.
Little did she know, Tenzou also wanted very much to tell Ino the reason why Kakashi was a good choice was because it was all his damn fault in the first place and he needed to own up to his responsibilities. Likewise, he too valued his life. If Kakashi returned to find out he'd told Sakura's friends about what was supposed to be their private problem, he'd be kicked in the balls so hard he would never ever be able to join Kakashi in the exquisite agony that was fatherhood.
The two drinkers sighed to themselves, ordered another drink and fell into a deep, mulish silence. Both thought of their respective friends, deep in shit, deep in the rain country. Almost simultaneously their thoughts wandered naturally to someone else.
"Naruto's coming home soon," Tenzou commented, for the sole reason that of all the people in Konoha, this was the one he probably needed to avoid. If by some horrible slip of the tongue Naruto found out that his best friend had gotten knocked up (by their superior of all people) Konoha might just be turned into a crater. Again.
"Is that so?" Ino said softly. Inwardly she swore to hell and back. It was bad enough keeping her mouth shut around Sakura's other friends, but how the hell was she going to keep from blabbing to Naruto? It wasn't fair she'd been born with this compulsive need to gossip. It was a severe neurological disorder! There was absolutely no way she'd be able to sit in the same room as one of Sakura's closest friends and carry on a normal conversation with him, knowing what she knew about their mutual medic-nin.
Just sitting here with Tenzou made her want to rock anxiously in her chair, like a little girl who desperately needed to relieve herself of one thing or another.
"Sooo…" Tenzou slurred after a while. "You come here often?"
Ino gave an exasperated sigh. "Just pay for my drink and let's go."
"Huh?"
"You've pulled."
"Yes!"
Pakkun's claws clicked along the stone floors of the undercroft. He was following the scent of a mouse, although he wasn't hunting it. Tracking little animals for food was something for cats and wolves. Pakkun, on the other hand, was quite civilised and preferred strings of sausages and slices of cooked chicken to raw animals. So as was usually the case, Pakkun's tracking was purely for fun.
The trail ended at one of the pantry's doors. Inside his mouse was probably happily nibbling at the corner of a sack of rice, and this was where the game ended. The door was locked and Pakkun sat back on his furry bottom, panting as he wondered what next to do to entertain himself. He might normally call it a night and go up to sleep at the end of Kakashi's bed, but while Sakura was there the pug had been effectively banished. Not that he wanted to be around. The mood between those two could bring a house down.
A clatter of pans further down the underground corridor made him close his mouth and cock his head. It sounded like someone was up in the kitchen, but who'd be working at this hour? Perhaps it was an intruder. Claws clicking, Pakkun toddled off to investigate.
When he heard a rather familiar voice swearing up a flight of stairs, Pakkun paused. Ah, he thought. Look who else got banished.
Trotting up the wooden steps, Pakkun emerged in the long kitchen that seemed much larger at night than it was during the day when it was full of people. It wasn't completely dead though. The gas burning stove was always lit, throwing out warmth that was almost stifling compared to the underground passages. Someone was stood beside it, staring at a pan in a perplexed sort of way.
"What are you up to?" Pakkun rumbled as he came forward.
Kakashi wasn't surprised to hear his voice. He'd heard those claws coming a mile off. "What does it look like I'm up to."
"I think you're cooking," Pakkun observed. "What are you cooking?"
"Eggs. I'm boiling eggs. 'Do you have anything to eat?' I thought she meant a chocolate bar or something. But no. She wants hard boiled eggs. Three of them. At one in the morning. With salt."
"Can I have one?" Pakkun inquired.
Kakashi glanced at him hard. "I'm only doing this because it's my fault she wants eggs at all. You're just spoilt. Boil your own eggs."
Pakkun ignored him and bounced up onto the table behind his master to sniff at the box of eggs he'd left there. He selected one, crunched off the tip and began lapping the delicious, slimy contents. "It's only to be expected," he said around his snack. "Females always behave weird when they're expecting. My first mate got a taste for snails before she had our litter."
"Snails, huh? Do you think we should add that to the menu?"
"Best not. They get really uppity if you don't do exactly what they say."
"Boiled eggs and salt it is then," Kakashi sighed as he began plucking out the hardened eggs one at a time to drop them into the first bowl he'd found, which was actually a strainer. As for the salt… well, he couldn't sprinkle it in the bowl (due to the holes, obviously) and he wasn't sure how much she wanted exactly anyway. So he picked up the whole receptacle and decided to take it with him, even though it was the size of a brick.
Pakkun removed his head from the egg box, yolk all over his face. "You've never done this before have you?"
"Shut up."
Pakkun stuck his head back in the box to continue crunching his way through the entire contents. Kakashi left him to it, feeling that as long as the dog left no sticky paw prints on the counter for the cooks tomorrow, no one would be able to link the demolition of a whole supply of eggs back to Kakashi.
When he returned to his chambers, the lights in the bedroom had all been doused save for the lamp by the bed. Sakura was sitting upright against the headboard looking excessively demure with her yukata still on and the blankets pulled up to her armpits. She watched him warily as he entered, but he could tell she was too hungry to snub him entirely right now.
Walking up to the bed, he held out the strainer of eggs mutely.
She looked at them sceptically. "You didn't peel them," she pointed out.
"You didn't specify that," he reminded her flatly.
"Because it's common sense. If you're preparing a meal for someone, you don't expect them to do half the preparation themselves." She took the eggs anyway and looked at him expectantly. "You brought salt, right?"
He set down the hefty container on the nightstand beside her.
She stared at it. "You're trying to kill me," she said.
"I'm not saying eat all of it. Take as much as you want," he sighed. "Is there anything else you need?" And he masterfully avoided adding a sarcastic 'princess' to the end of that question.
Sakura crunched one egg between her palms and began rolling it back and forth to rid it of its splintering shell. She looked at him thoughtfully. "No… I'll be fine," she said hesitantly. "Thank you."
It was almost as if she wasn't sure she meant it, but it was the first nice thing she'd said to him since he'd found her here. Better than nothing, he thought, and he turned to leave.
"Three eggs don't make up for what you did, Kakashi," she warned him, as if reading his thoughts. "This doesn't change anything."
He paused in the doorway, a frown marring his brow. "You're welcome, Sakura," he said thickly, pretending he hadn't heard, before sliding the partition shut with a thump.
Next Chapter: Eye for an Eye