Chapter 28: Kiku and Hideaki
"I'm bored." Well that certainly was not ground breaking news, Kiku had been bored for weeks. "When are we going to get to do something exciting again?"
"Kiku did I know five minutes ago, the last time you asked me?"
She sighed rather than give an answer.
"Then what makes you think I'm going to know now, when I haven't moved from this spot since the last time you asked."
They were at the park, lying under a tree watching the clouds rolling over the village. They had not been assigned a mission since they came back from the temple, Haru-Sensei had been dealing with something, was out of the village. Isamu was sulking about somewhere; he had stopped talking to them after their return. They did not blame him and they were not mad he dealt with things the way he needed too. But Hideaki and Kiku were bored from the sudden halt in everything they were doing.
Kiku shrugged shading her eyes as the sun made an appearance. "Well if you suggested something to do, I wouldn't have to keep asking you when we're doing something fun again."
"Why don't you think of something?"
Kiku sighed again dropping her hand over her stomach, "I miss Isamu," she whispered. Hideaki rolled his head over to look at her. They had been best friends for as long the three of them could remember, but he could never find the right thing to say to her. Isamu could, it seemed like he always knew just what to say to either of them to make everything better. He missed Isamu too.
He sat up and looked around the park, it was mostly empty, which was not odd at ten-thirty in the morning. Surely there was something they could do here in the park at least a little bit fun to pass the time. Nodding Hideaki stood up and walked over to the swings. Kiku rolled her head around to watch him.
"What are you doing?"
"You remember when we were kids, we used to see how far we could jump off the swings."
"So?" she asked rolling onto her stomach to get a better look at what he was doing.
"I bet, I can go twice as far as I use too," he put one foot on the seat and kicked off. He pushed himself higher and higher until he felt weightless for a few moments when he was at the highest point the swing traveled.
"With that swing you won't even make half the old distance," Kiku said crossing her arms to prop up her head. "Too much height, you'll just go up really high."
Grinning, Hideaki gave one more good push coming forward again and leapt out of the swing. He felt weightless as he rose into the air, leaving the swing far behind him. He took a deep breath and held his arms out as he started to descend, faster and faster, the ground was close. He hit the ground, knocking the wind out of him, and rolled across the grass, right up to Kiku.
"I told you," she pushed herself up off the ground and stepped over him, "you had too much air, that wasn't even half of what you used to do."
Hideaki stood up dusting himself off and followed Kiku over to the swings. "Oh please, show me what I did wrong." He mocked sarcastically as Kiku climbed into one of the swings.
"Oh, I will," she pushed herself forward, and started the process of building up height. She was going higher than Hideaki had when she finally stopped pushing and let the swing start to slow. It was half the height as when Hideaki jumped when as it came forward she launched herself off the wooden seat. She landed twice the distance that Hideaki had landed, and rolled out of it, bouncing up to her feet.
Hideaki chuckled watching her walk back to the swing. She always had been good at that. He climbed up into a swing, after Kiku had climbed into the one next to him they both started swinging once again, both of them going as high as the swing would go then together they jumped out, and soared weightlessly for a few seconds before hitting the ground.
Kiku laughed and rolled up next to him. She smiled at him, like she usually did at Isamu, and took his hand in her own. "You know, I would miss you if you just ignored me like Isamu is."
"I would miss you too," he said smiling as he sat up, pulling away from Kiku. She sat up and moved right next to him.
"What's wrong," she was really close to him. He shook his head and moved a little away from her.
"We can't do this," he said not looking at her. If he looked at her he would not be able to stop himself.
"Why not?"
Should he tell her? Isamu had told him in confidence, so it was wrong for Hideaki to just tell other people. But this was not just anyone, this was Kiku; and she felt the same way about Isamu, she was just begging for attention now. He could not tell her, and he refused to get in the middle of it.
"Hey! I asked you a question," she grabbed his wrist to turn him to face her.
"You don't feel that way about me Kiku." He pulled away from her. He never thought he would pull away from Kiku. "You and I both know you like Isamu."
"He's not here, he'd never know the difference." He shook his head again.
"I can't Kiku."
"Where do you think Kakashi-sensei went?"
"Why are you talking to me?"
Daisuke shrugged folding his hands behind his head as he walked next to Katashi through the village.
"Why don't you go bother one of your other friends?
"They're all busy training and on missions," he replied looking up at the clouds.
"Well aren't they lucky," Katashi grumbled casting a venomous glare over at Daisuke, who either ignored it or missed it.
"I know what we should do!" Daisuke grinned looking over at Katashi, "we should go find Tsubaki's brother. He would know what's going on. Tsubaki's parents are friends with Kakashi-Sensei."
"You're an idiot," Katashi remarked quickening his pace to get away from Daisuke.
Daisuke sighed, matching Katashi's pace, "that's what Tsubaki always said to me." Katashi rolled his eyes, increasing his speed again.
"What do you want from me?"
Again Daisuke shrugged, his gaze returning back to the clouds. "You know we aren't a very good team," he randomly commented.
"Because you're an idiot."
"No, there's more to it than that," Daisuke stated matter-of-factly nodding. "I was talking to some of the other genin; did you know they all actually like the other people on their teams." Katashi rolled his eyes, "I'm serious, they do stuff together outside of training and missions, they actually like each other."
"What's your point?" Katashi was growing very tired of Daisuke's company.
"I'm hungry," Katashi's statement was accompanied by the growling of his stomach. Daisuke grinned looking over at Katashi. "Wanna go get some food?"
"If I do, will you leave me alone?" Daisuke nodded, but Katashi knew he was lying. But he was hungry too, so he figured, "why not?"
They walked through the streets heading for a teashop Daisuke said had the best dumplings in the village, their path lead them past the park where they saw the friends of Tsubaki's brother. And it looked like they were arguing about something.
"Wonder where the red-head is?" at that moment the girl stormed away from the other, shoving her way between Daisuke and Katashi. Staring open-mouthed after her they waited for something to happen, seconds later the boy came running past them, mumbling an apology as he chased after the girl.
"Wonder what's up with them," Daisuke looked over to Katashi so see if he had any kind of response.
"Why are you so interested in everyone else's business?"
Daisuke looked like he was seriously contemplating the question for a few second, scratching his head, then he shrugged, "I'm just curious."
"You're an idiot."
"Can you stop that, it makes me miss Tsubaki more." Katashi rolled his eyes shaking his head.
"Let's go before I change my mind about getting something to eat with you."
Naruto walked quickly through the streets of the village, he was half-way through his sixth lap of the village. He had not eaten, he was not hungry. He had more or less chased off all of his friends who had tried to offer some form of companionship, help, or positive thoughts. It was still early and he was not expecting the team to be back anytime soon, so he had a while to stress quietly to himself lapping the village. He had never been one to just sit back and let others do something that he was perfectly capable of.
One of the main things running through his mind was his son. Isamu had been withdrawn for days, and when he finally found out why, Naruto wanted to offer him some form of comfort. But there was nothing he could say to comfort his son. What could he have said to help with the problem his son was confronted with, "go ahead son, kill me so you can have your sister back." That was cruel, the whole situation was cruel, and none of them could think of a way to fix the situation without endangering someone's life, and that someone was unfortunately Tsubaki.
If the mission failed, chances were they would never see Tsubaki again. He would never see his baby girl again. That made his heart ache, his baby girl had been put in harm's way because of him, just like Isamu had been. This just was not right. If people had a problem with him, they should just come straight to him and leave his children out of it; they could not help the fact that he was their father.
He grew more and more frustrated as he walked around the village. There had to be something he could do…
"Kiku!" Naruto turned around to see Kiku and Hideaki coming down the street, and Kiku looked about ready to scream. "Kiku, please don't be mad at me," he heard Hideaki beg chasing after his friend.
"You expect me to sit there and listen to you say stuff like that," Kiku whipped around sending the boy off guard, he staggered to a halt, and backed up a step. "I can't just sit around all the time Hideaki. He's not the same, and I look to you, one of my best friends, for comfort and you turn me away! This is a bunch of crap Hideaki, this whole situation is, and I expected you to be able to help," she had reached some breaking point, tears started to stream down her cheeks.
"Kiku, what could I do, I'm just a genin."
It surprised Naruto to hear Hideaki say that. In all the years he had known the boy, Hideaki had never said anything that made him seem so uncertain of his abilities. Hideaki, Kiku and Isamu had always shown a "go-get-em" attitude about everything. Yet, with in the past few weeks, all three had been reduced to nothing.
This was far more serious that he originally thought, it was not just about him and his children this affected the whole village.
In that moment he formed a plan, he turned around and started for the Hokage's office. He knew how to fix everything, it was so simple, he was amazed it had taken him so long to think of it.
