Neither the story nor the characters belong to me.
Chapter Eleven
SHIKA
"Bottle, bottle, bottle… where is the fu..." I stopped mid-freakout as Denki appeared in my line of sight. "Fudge and bottles?" I finished, well aware my cover-up was lame. Eventually, I was going to slip up and teach Denki his first curse words. It was inevitable.
He pointed wordlessly to the diaper bag on the counter.
"Gotcha."
I opened the bag and found the bottles perfectly packed inside with formula, three extra outfits, and a slew of bibs. It was Friday, my morning to take the boys to school and daycare, but Temari had pre-packed the diaper bag like the early-morning hero she was.
"Man, she's good. I should marry that woman" I muttered.
"You already did!" Denki called back, already having run to the living room.
Right. I did.
Had it already been three weeks? In some ways it seemed like it had been only a few hours and in others, three weeks was forever. We'd fallen into an easy rhythm between getting the boys where they needed to be and getting ourselves to work. We were surprisingly good partners. Courteous, thoughtful of each other, both willing to pitch in on chores or whatever needed to get done. It was like we'd been roommates for years, the very definition of platonic... Fucking platonic.
Gone was the subtle flirting, the high-strung moments packed with enough sexual tension to send a fault line into a full-blown earthquake. Now her smiles were…friendly or reserved for the kids. She'd flipped a switch from flirty to just friends.
Well, I'd forced the flip, but that wasn't the point. I fucking missed her real smiles and quick, stolen glances when she didn't think I was looking.
I threw a few extra containers of baby food into the bag—mostly to feel like I'd done something—and grabbed a stainless-steel coffee mug.
"Push." The note on the Keurig was in Temari's handwriting and pointed to the "brew" button.
I slid the cup under the dispenser, pushed the brew button, and waited. The dark, rich scent of coffee filled the kitchen, and it wasn't just any coffee. Oh, no, that beautiful, deep, soul-stirring smell could only be from one place. I threw open the cabinet above the machine and my jaw fell slack. Black Velvet Coffee.
Temari had remembered from the last time I'd visited, and she'd ordered it for me. She'd taken that time, kept that memory, filed the information away for no other reason than to make me happy.
I'd had women give me ties, cuff links, all the guy shit girls thought we wanted. Hell, I'd been given blow jobs as a birthday present on more than one occasion. But the coffee meant more than all of that because there was no occasion, no reason to do something nice other than the fact that she was Temari and that's just what she did. Maybe we were platonic, but she cared.
I screwed the lid onto the cup and put it next to the diaper bag, feeling lighter than I had since telling her our marriage would be in name only.
"You boys ready to roll?"
I walked into the living room to find Hoki bouncing happily as Denki tied his shoes. He stuck his tongue out every time he did it, as if it needed that precise position to be successful in his shoe-tying endeavors.
"Almost. Done." Denki said each word carefully as he pulled the laces into a perfect bow.
"You got it!" We high-fived and I reached for Hoki. "Okay, if we leave now, we can stop by..." Well. Shit. Literally. Hoks reeked. "Never mind. Clean pants for you, and then we'll go."
Thank God I didn't have a typical nine-to-five or I would have been screwed trying to figure out how to actually get two kids out of the house on time. Temari didn't seem to have a problem with it. She even managed to get out early, but it didn't matter how early I started, we always seemed to walk out five minutes late.
Five minutes later, Hoks was clean, and we were on our way with a pit stop at the pantry to snag a little box off the highest shelf.
"I've got the bag!" Denki said as I strapped Hoki into his car seat.
"One, two, chest buckle, scoot it up" I muttered, remembering exactly what Temari demonstrated that first day. Kids were a hell of a lot easier than babies, that was for sure. Half my time went to trying to keep Hoki alive.
"Good job" Denki said, leaning over from his booster seat.
"Glad you approve. You click in, and we'll take off." I walked around the end of the truck, pushed the step stool Denki used to get in the truck to the side, and shut his door after checking that he'd clipped in.
Independence was important to the alpha pup, and I got that on a purely experiential level. If you could depend on yourself, you didn't need to worry about what anyone else would—or wouldn't—do for you. The step stool was a small thing that made him feel a little more self-sufficient, and I didn't mind in the least. Kind of like moving the snacks to the lower drawers in the kitchen so he'd always feel like he had access to the food. The first time Temari walked in on him standing on the kitchen counters, reaching for the granola bars, she'd hooked him up. As long as the kid wasn't asking to drive, I was up for just about anything to make him feel a little more in control of a situation he had almost no say in. They'd been with us for three weeks now, and there was no sign of their father. More like sperm donor.
We pulled out of the driveway, headed through the hotshot neighborhood, and started down Apple Blossom Avenue toward Konoha, making one small detour before reaching Little Legacies. I helped Denki down and got Hoki, before walking the boys with their bags into the preschool. Parents who would have usually ignored me waved on their way out, smiling like I was allowed admittance into their club because I now cared for miniature humans as well.
Well, except Ethan Coulter, but that guy was always going to be a self- righteous douche, if history was any indication.
"When are you going to stop playing with fires and get a grown-up job, Nara?" Ethan asked as his son ran toward Denki's classroom.
Denki hung up his bag in his cubby and took off his Konoha Wildland Fire jacket.
Sue me, I liked that we had matching jackets.
"Right about the time you realize there's more to life than money, Coulter." Hoki ran his hand over my light beard, and I made a few monster noises to get a giggle.
"Right. Welcome home and all that. I heard you somehow landed Temari Uzumaki. Not sure how you managed that in less than a week. What did you do? Shotgun wedding?" He lifted his eyebrows, and I more than got his meaning.
"Not that I blame you."
Denki put his hand in mine, buffering my instant need to crush Coulter to a pulp. A few years ago, I would have, consequences be damned.
"How's Kim?" I asked pointedly.
Coulter married our class prom queen in a flurry of small-town excitement, but I knew he was found most nights at Wicked, the local bar. And he wasn't alone.
"Fine, thanks." His eyes narrowed. "Have a good day and all that." He nodded in our direction and walked away.
He had definitely been one aspect of Konoha I'd been happy to leave behind.
"That's Blake's dad." Denki hung up his jacket carefully. That was one thing about having a kid who hadn't owned much in his life; man, did he take care of what he did have.
"Yeah? I went to school with him. Is Blake nice?" Talk about a name that was pretty much invented to be printed on a Harvard acceptance letter.
"Nope. He's kinda spoiled and mean." Denki shrugged.
Go figure.
"Denki, honey, let's go, you're going to be late!" Temari said as we walked into the class.
She ran her hand through his hair, and he leaned in a little. That kid might not want to depend on anyone, but, man, did he have a huge soft spot for Temari.
We were pretty similar in that way.
"Bye, Shika!" Denki said loudly and hurried to his desk.
"How did the morning go?" Temari asked, stepping just outside the classroom with me. Not sure how a preschool teacher managed to look hot all buttoned up like she was, but she did. Then again, I probably would have found Temari attractive in a potato sack, let alone black pants that hugged her curves and a pink knit top that looked like it had been sewn with her body in mind. She took Hoki and kissed his forehead. "Mmm, he smells good."
"I splashed a little cologne on him," I joked. "Nothing big, just a little Axe. He wasn't quite ready for Old Spice."
"Ha, ha. Very funny. He always smells good." She took another sniff at Little Man's head, closing her eyes in bliss. As much as I'd never imagined myself with kids, Temari was in her element, and it looked good on her. "Morning was great, thanks to finding my favorite coffee." My voice dropped a little.
Her smile was instant and a little shy.
"I'm so glad you like it. I thought you might need a little pick-me-up."
"It was a great surprise. Perfect." Just like she was. Her hair was down and currently in possession of Hoki. "Thank you."
Her cheeks flushed, and she cleared her throat.
"So, did you get into it with Ethan? I saw you talking to him."
"That guy hates me. Always has." I stuffed my hands in my pockets.
"You slept with his girlfriend before the homecoming game." She arched a brow my direction.
"Hey, they were on a break, and she was more than willing. Trust me." I shrugged.
It wasn't my fault Coulter couldn't keep his woman happy.
She scoffed.
"I have no doubt. Just play nice. This isn't your sandbox anymore; it's Denki's, and he already has a hard enough time fitting in."
My hackles rose.
"What do you mean?" I glanced over her shoulder and saw Denki sitting alone at his table, organizing pencils while his classmates gathered near Blake.
"I mean, kids are kids. Denki hasn't always had the new backpacks, or new shoes, or the stuff that some of those kids value. They aren't always welcoming to him." She followed my gaze and sighed. "Kids can be jerks."
"Whatever, my kid is way cooler than that Gap model wannabe over there licking the dry erase board." I nodded toward Blake.
Her eyes widened momentarily and then she stifled a laugh, kissing Hoki again.
"Okay, get out of here." She handed Hoki back over. "Thanks for handling this morning so I could leave early for the staff meeting."
"Thanks for marrying me," I said with a shameless grin.
Shit, I was flirting.
She blinked.
"Bye, Shika. I'll see you at home." She turned back to her class, and I moved quickly, slipping the awkward box free of my jacket pocket and putting it in her hand. "Bottlecaps!" Her smile lit up the freaking world.
"See you at home, Mrs. Nara," I called back over my shoulder. That was officially my favorite nickname for her. Ever. "Let's get you to Cherry's, Little Man."
Hoki let out a squeal as I blew a raspberry into his neck and carried him out of the preschool.
Not a bad way to start a day.
Monday fucking sucked.
"What do you mean he's not here yet?" Good thing Sasuke's office was soundproof because the other crewmembers didn't need to hear this shit.
Sasuke tied his running shoes.
"I mean, he told me he owed his old crew one more day and he's giving it to them. He's coming."
"It's already the second of May. He'd better show, because he agreed to be our Supe, and if he doesn't show, our whole charter with the town is fucked."
All our work, the money, the begging we'd done to the town council, it would all be for nothing if Kakashi Hatake didn't show up. He was the only surviving member of the original Konoha Hotshots.
"He will. He bought a house and everything. He will come."
I ran my hands over my head and rested them on top, interlacing my fingers.
"It's not like I can blame the guy. I know it's painful as hell for him to come back here and put this patch on."
"Yeah, but we can't do it without him, and he knows that. None of us have the experience to be superintendent. He'll come."
"For the patch?"
"No. Because the last thing he said to my father was promising to get me off the mountain. To keep me safe. There's no way he's not showing up now that we're headed back up."
What a fucking guilt trip. Kakashi had taken the truck down with Sasuke kicking and screaming not to leave his father, and they'd lived. Every other crew member had been found in their deployment shelters, arranged in their site just how they'd practiced hundreds of times.
"I guess we'd better get out there," I said.
A few minutes later, we stood at the head of the great room, where all but one of the new Konoha crew waited. Most of the crew were seasoned wildland firefighters. The others…well, we had to get them in shape and ready for certification.
"Glad to see everyone made it in today" Sasuke said, zipping up his fleece "Most of you know me. For those who don't, I'm Sasuke Uchiha, and this is Shika Nara. Kakashi Hatake will be our Supe, but Shika here is going to be in charge of keeping you all in shape."
The fuck I was.
Pretty sure my face said as much as Sasuke slapped me on the back.
"You saying you're not the most in-shape asshole out here?" he asked with more than a little challenge in his tone.
"Well. Yeah. Of course I am."
Hell yeah, I was. I ran every day, lifted at night, and ate like a GNC ad most of the time. Lately, I'd put in extra sessions at my home gym, but that was honestly to keep my hands busy and off Temari.
"Then they're yours." Sasuke left me standing at the head of the crowd.
Everyone looked at me with expectant faces, and I cleared my throat.
"Okay. Well, then." What was I going to do with them? Seventeen faces stared at me like I was supposed to know what the hell I was doing. Ten of them, I'd known for most my life, but the other seven were virtual strangers. An idea struck. "For those of you who are legacies, welcome home. For you newbies, we're going for a little tour. On foot. Hope you're hydrated."
We ran.
I chose the worn path up Konoha Mountain, keeping us well below the tree line. My lungs burned for the first mile, but then adjusted as usual. I'd babied myself on the treadmill too much lately. There was simply no simulating these rocky turns and dramatic elevation changes.
Two miles in, Sasuke jogged up next to me, giving me the evil eye.
"I'm regretting giving you this position."
"Only because you're too out of shape to keep up. Sakura's turned you soft."
My breath was even and steady, but many of the guys behind us couldn't say the same. The newbies had all been here for a week, so they'd had a little time to adjust to the elevation, but I knew I was going to have to slow them down before one or more of them dropped from altitude sickness. It would take a full month to get them acclimated.
"What, and Temari hasn't made you soft? Or was that not a little cupcake on your desk with a 'good luck today' note?"
"Stay the fuck out of my office, and you better not have touched my cupcake."
I'd kill him if that little bite of red velvet wasn't there when I got back.
"What is this I hear about cupcakes?" Naruto asked, coming up on my right.
"His wife brought him a little first full-crew day present," Sasuke teased.
"I hate when you call her that," he muttered.
"Well, that's what she is," Sasuke countered.
"Wait." Naruto's head snapped in my direction "Temari brought you a cupcake and didn't leave me one? What the actual hell?" The guy looked crestfallen.
I kept my mouth shut. Temari was a sore subject between us, and I wasn't sure we'd found any common ground to declare a truce yet.
"She's still pissed at you" Sasuke told him.
"Figured that out. She can be as pissed as she wants, I only have her best interest at heart," Naruto answered like the egotistical ass he was.
"Bullshit" I muttered as we rounded another curve.
"Excuse me?" Naruto snapped.
"Here we fucking go." Sasuke sent us both a stern look that we ignored.
I glanced back and noted we were about ten feet in front of the next guys, Neji and Kiba Hyuga, who were lost in their own conversation.
"Look, Naruto, I get why you wouldn't want her with me. But you have to let go of the idea that you can control her. She's a full-grown woman."
"I'm well aware of what she is. And damn right I don't want her with you, but I also don't want her hating me. She's my sister, which is nothing either of you two would understand. She's my responsibility."
I snorted. The idea Temari would ever think of herself as a responsibility was laughable. She was more of an adult than the three of us put together.
"Technically, she's Shika's responsibility. Legally and all that," Sasuke interjected with a smirk and a quick glance my way.
"She's not Shika's anything," Naruto snapped.
My hands curled into fists.
"And I'm out of here. Sasuke, do me a favor and stop at that little grove right before the descent? I want to check on stragglers."
I kept my focus solely on Sasuke because I was ready to throw down with Naruto. Usually he was the most easygoing in our friendship, so why was he such an immovable asshole when it came to Temari?
"You got it," Sasuke answered, and I turned around, running back through the line.
I passed the Hyuga brothers with a nod, noting they were keeping up just fine. Then again, they'd been home for months, so they were more than adjusted. Plus, Neji pretty much lived in the gym and hauled his little brother along.
TenTen Ama was next in line, running with sure strides as her braided, jet-black ponytail swung behind her. Her trademark dark eyes were hidden behind her sunglasses.
"How's it going, TenTen?" I fell into pace next to her.
"You're taking it easy on us" she remarked, peering over her glasses at me. "I know you guys can run twice this fast."
She could outrun all of us.
"But can the rest of them?" I asked, motioning toward the back of the line. "There are two rookies behind you, plus seven transfers that came from low altitude. Not everyone has been running at the same elevation."
"Their lack of training is on them. Are we going to be able to qualify them? You know I love the idea of wearing my mom's patch, but I gave up my spot on my Montana crew for this, so I bet everything on you guys getting us off the ground."
No pressure, or anything.
"We will if you're willing to step up and help. You've been on that crew for, what? Two years?" The gravel path crunched beneath my feet as we climbed steadily.
"Three. And don't get me wrong, I'd rather be here. I'll help in any way I can. I know I'm not your most experienced firefighter, and that I'm not exactly someone who the guys are going to take seriously..."
"Because you're a girl?"
She nodded, her mouth going tense.
"That's a load of shit, TenTen. You're young. What? Twenty-three now, right?"
"Yeah. I just had my birthday in February."
We turned at the fork in the path, heading higher up the mountain.
"You're not the youngest here either. None of these guys will give you any shit because you're a woman or I'll toss them. You understand? Hell, you're outrunning most of them. Speaking of which, I need to check on the others."
She nodded again, and I ran down the line. Konohamaru Chandler ran twenty feet behind TenTen and was currently staring at her ass. Kid was nineteen and the spitting image of his father, who probably would have smacked him upside the back of the head if he'd seen the way he was ogling his crewmate.
Guess that was my job now.
Lee Rock noticed too. He was another Konoha kid, just a couple years younger than I was. Graduated with Temari, if I remembered correctly, and he'd been smart enough to keep his hands off her.
"You'd better keep your eyes on the trail, the fuel, or the sky, kid, because if you put them on TenTen's ass one more time, I'm going to knock them out of your head. Understand?" Lee practically growled at the kid as he passed him on the left.
"Yes, sir." Konohamaru paled as I ran by.
I gave Lee a nod of thanks, and he returned it, glaring at Konohamaru.
The transfers were keeping pace, and I reminded them to drink water as I passed them. Chance led the pack, wearing the same cocky smirk he'd used on Temari.
Asshat. Wait. Where was… Well, shit.
At least a quarter mile back, Gaara Sabaku was running with his sister, Karin. Kind of. I picked up the pace to get to them.
"You can do it" he told her in the same big-brother tone Naruto used with Temari.
"I'm. Not. Sure." Her words were punctuated with gasping breaths. The girl was struggling, and her face was red with exertion.
"Just breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth, and push through. Keep moving," he urged.
"My nose isn't the damned problem, Gaara! I'm out of shape! Didn't you notice that?" She fell out of the run and started to walk, her chest heaving as she fought to catch her breath.
"Don't stop, Karin," Gaara pleaded. His brown eyes widened when he saw me. "Shika, I can get her up to speed, I promise."
I slowed to a walk next to Karin, who was gulping for breath but still pushing up the hill. She was eighteen, our youngest legacy, and if she hadn't signed up, we wouldn't have a crew. We needed every single legacy left.
"Gaara, why don't you run up ahead? The transfers are about a quarter mile up, and Lee is beyond them. I'll take care of Karin."
"I'm not leaving her." He shook his head.
Great, it was Naruto Junior.
"You are leaving her. Now. Get up that mountain and join the crew. I'm not going to cut Karin, and you know it. Go." I pointed up the mountain.
"I'm okay," Karin told him, bending over slightly. "Please go." He grimaced but did it, breaking into a run to catch the others.
"I volunteered. So he would. Come back" she told me with uneven breaths "I knew you'd. Need him. For the numbers."
"We do. We need you too. Put your hands on top of your head." I did the same. "Like this."
She did, and the sound she let out was too self-deprecating to be a laugh.
"Yeah, okay. What part of this"—she motioned to her body as she caught her breath—"do you need? I was raised by a hotshot and my brother is a structure guy…or he was until I guilted him into coming back to join you guys. I know how in shape you have to be. We both know I'm going to hold you back. I'll be the reason we fail." The wind picked up, blowing a hunk of red hair across her face. She whipped it away with a groan. "Even my hair is sweating."
She looked miserable, but I ignored the stab of guilt in my conscience that I'd done this to her. We had to get every member qualified, and if that meant running the mountain every day, we'd do it.
"Are you done?" I asked with a shrug.
"What?" She blinked at me, her arms falling to her sides.
"I'm asking if you're done setting yourself up to fail." I took my water bottle off my belt and handed it to her, noticing hers was empty.
"I can't take that. You won't have any."
I pushed it toward her.
"If you drop of dehydration, we're short a crewmember. Make no mistake about it, Karin Sabaku, you are a crewmember."
She took a drink and handed it back.
"Thank you."
"Do you want to do this? I don't mean do you want Gaara to do this, or if we need you for the sixty-percent rule. I mean, do you want to be a hotshot?"
She nodded, watching the path rise above us as we took the steepest part of the trail step by step.
"You're going to have to speak louder, especially around those guys up there." I motioned up the path, where we couldn't see the rest of the crew anymore.
"Yes, I do." She nodded again. "I really do. I love the science of it, the way the fire moves with the wind and fuel. I love the thought of outsmarting it, using fire itself to burn out and control it. To save towns and homes because ours burned. I guess I want to save a kid from being me." She shrugged, still looking at the path.
"I get that. It's the same reason I agreed to foster Denki and Hoki. I didn't want them growing up like me either. Not that I didn't have a great dad, and a fantastic gran, but I understand wanting to protect someone else."
We walked in silence for a hundred yards or so while her breathing evened out.
"Sakura…she had to order XL pants for me." She tugged on the khaki fabric at her hips. "That's the biggest size they make."
"And if they didn't, we would have had some custom-made. We're not losing you over a dress size, Karin. Besides, you know it's about strength and endurance. And you made it two miles, uphill, before walking. That's an incredible feat. You have to focus on that. Are you in certification shape? Probably not."
Her shoulders fell.
"Stop. Some of those guys up there aren't either. You're not alone. We have months, Karin. Months to get you up to standard, and you've already kicked ass doing it by yourself. Next week, it will be three miles. The week after that? Four. You. Are. Not. Alone. You have the entire crew to help. The only question is: do you want to get there?"
She nodded, her head down as we turned the last corner, where the path leveled off about halfway toward the tree line. We were probably around ten thousand feet or so.
"And you're going to. Know how I'm sure?" I grinned. "No."
"Look up ahead." I pointed to where the rest of the crew waited, all resting in the grove I'd asked Sasuke to stop at.
"Okay?" She followed my line of sight.
"One, your crew is waiting for you. They didn't leave you behind. Two, you didn't stop moving. Maybe you didn't run the whole way, but you sure as hell didn't stop. You didn't quit. You pushed forward, and you covered the same distance they did. That told me everything I needed to know".
She swallowed.
"They're going to think I don't belong here," she whispered as we walked toward where the transfers now stood, most holding their hands on their head just like Karin had. One of the guys was puking off to the side.
"You belong here more than they do. Don't you ever forget that. You're a Sabaku. This crew is in your blood. Now, before we get up there where everyone can hear…I can help you, but I'm probably not the best person for the job. What do you say I hook you up with TenTen?"
"TenTen Ama?" She slowed and shot me a more than skeptical look.
"Yep. She's our only other woman, since Sakura is in the managerial position. She's also one of the best hotshots out here, and she's going to be able to tell you exactly what you'll need to be able to do."
"She's terrifying" Karin whispered, her eyes widening as she watched TenTen stretching by one of the trees.
"She's fierce" I cocked my head to the side "And fine, a little terrifying too. But I have a feeling you'd be more comfortable pairing up with her than say…Chandler over there."
"He's a dick" she blurted. "Anyone but him. He's been an ass since kindergarten."
I filed that information away.
"See? TenTen is your best bet." Gaara saw us and jumped up from his seat against a tree. "Plus, no overbearing older brother," I added.
"Now that might be the best reason." A smile curved her lips.
"I'll tell TenTen that you might need a little help," I said quietly as Gaara approached. Then I left the two and headed over to where Sasuke and Naruto waited with the rest of the legacies.
There were two clearly defined groups up here—transfers and legacies. That's an issue.
"She going to be okay?" Naruto asked, motioning toward Karin.
"Yeah."
After I gathered the crew, we took a narrow but well-worn path down the mountainside into a flat stretch of bare land. The trees here were either saplings or carcasses, with the exception of one or two lucky pines, but even those bore the scars of being singed.
I led the crew to the center of the small glade, and then faced them.
"Sasuke, Naruto, TenTen, Lee, Kiba, Neji, Konohamaru, Gaara, and Karin, come up here."
The transfers shifted their weight, watching the legacies move to stand behind me. I looked over the transfers.
"Everyone standing with me has a blood- given right to be on this crew." I glanced at Karin. "And I know you've heard the stories and read the reports, but seeing it is different. Almost eleven years ago, the Konoha Mountain fire started on the back of this peak. The crew dug a line, but the winds shifted."
I looked over to Sasuke. He nodded and took over.
"Weather reports had indicated the winds would pick up, but no one forecasted seventy-mile-an-hour gusts or the change in direction. The line held at first, it gave the town time to evacuate. But when those gusts hit…" He shook his head. "The fire jumped across the treetops. It was the most terrifying and devastating thing I've ever seen." His jaw tensed, and I knew that was the most he was going to say. Hell, it was almost more than he'd ever said about that day.
Unlike the rest of us, he'd been there, seeking out his dad to see if there was anything he could do to help.
A moment of unintentional silence was broken by the sound of someone walking out of the grove of trees behind us. Kakashi.
He looked anything but happy to see us.
"The fuel was dry," he said, running his hand over his trim beard. The guy was only thirty-two—just five years older than me—but there was a weariness about him, like his soul had aged far faster than his body. "We were in the middle of a drought, and the trees went up like matchsticks. Uchiha's son drove up and found the crew." He came to a stop, standing between Sasuke and me but not looking at either of us. "There was a healthy amount of yelling between father and son, and Uchiha told me to get Sasuke off the mountain. We were just there"—he pointed to the trail we'd just come from—"heading down to the south ridge to cut another line in hopes that they could head the fire off there, but the fire came to meet them instead."
His jaw tensed, and he curved the bill of his baseball hat as he cleared his throat. "This"—he motioned to the small area of the glade we occupied—"is where they deployed their shelters. This is where they found all eighteen of them." He fell silent.
I'd been up here hundreds of times. It was where I felt most at peace on days I missed him too much to take a full breath, where Temari found me two days after the funeral, where she'd sat silently for hours next to me on a fallen, burned-out tree because I hadn't been ready to leave—to let go of him.
This was the place I'd come that night seven years ago after realizing while she might never be mine—not really—I'd always belong to her.
"They're all buried together farther down the path in Aspen Grove." My voice sounded a hell of a lot stronger than I felt "But this is where I feel them the most. I wanted you to see it," I told the transfers. "To stand here and understand what we lost that day, and why we have to rebuild it. This isn't just a job to us. It's true that we're legacies, that this is our home, but it's yours now too. From now on, we're one crew. Whether you're here by blood or by choice, we're all Konoha now."
Silence stretched, broken only by the gentle whistle of the wind through the trees and the chirping of birds.
"Good speech" Sasuke muttered.
"It was the best I could come up with on short notice, after you threw the whole training job on me" I whispered in answer.
"I'd give it an eight," Naruto added "But ten with Kakashi's dramatic entrance."
"For fuck's sake," Kakashi mumbled, rolling his eyes. "For anyone who hasn't been a pain in my ass since they were born, I'm Kakashi Hatake. Yes, I'm the only surviving member of the original Konoha crew, and your new superintendent. I hope you were listening, because that's the only time I'll tell that story. Fire is all I know, and damn, does she know me well. Listen, do what I tell you, always guard your brothers"—he sent a look toward TenTen and Karin—"and sisters, and I'll bring you home alive." He glanced between the groupings and narrowed his eyes. "Now, every transfer pick a legacy—whichever one you want, as long as it isn't me. You'll have dinner with them within the next week. We'll switch it up until you all get good and cozy with one another."
I folded my arms across my chest and watched as each transfer picked a legacy. Good, this should help team cohesion and really build... Oh, hell no. Chance grinned at me.
"Seriously?" I asked.
"So, what are your wife's favorite flowers? I'd hate to show up empty- handed." That little glint in his eyes was going to get his ass kicked.
I knew his type. It wasn't about Temari as much as it was about getting under my skin and trying to establish the dominance he didn't have.
"Oh, she's a big fan of Lily of the None-of-your-fucking-business. Dinner's at seven, dessert is on you, and if you so much as smile at Temari, I'll smoke your ass on runs every morning until you'll wish you'd never seen her."
"Yeah, that's never going to happen" he said with a laugh as he left to join the other crewmembers hiking up to the trail. "The wishing I'd never seen her part, that is," he called back with a wink.
Yep, he was itching to get his ass kicked.
"Trouble with the newbie?" Naruto asked, clapping my back.
"He hit on Temari at dinner the other night."
"Tell him he doesn't have a shot in hell."
Naruto sent a glare in Chance's direction. It was nice to have that hatred focused elsewhere, even if it was just for a minute.
"Already done."
"At least that's one thing we agree on." That glare turned on me as he backed away, whispering, "Not that you have a shot either."
Well, so much for that minute. At least he wasn't broadcasting that our marriage was fake, but that was probably because he was smitten with Denki and Hoki.
"What the hell did you do to piss off Uzumaki?" Kakashi asked as he hiked beside me up the hill toward the trail. The terrain was steep, decomposed granite slipping beneath my shoes slightly as we made our way up the incline.
"Married his sister."
"Temari? No shit, really?" His eyebrows rose in surprise.
"Why so surprised? Everyone else seems to think it was inevitable."
Everyone but Naruto.
"You got back into town about a heartbeat ago, and now you're married? I think it's a pretty fair reaction to be surprised." We reached the trail and turned to look back over the clearing as the rest of the crew passed by, heading down the mountain.
"Speaking of getting back into town, what was with you walking out of the trees back there? I thought you told Sasuke you owed your old crew one more day before you showed up?"
He folded his arms over his chest, his eyes scanning the now-empty glade.
"I did owe my crew one more day. Just not the one Sasuke assumed, and I wasn't exactly expecting you guys to haul everyone up here." The sound he made was too heavy to be called a sigh. "I haven't been here since it happened. The last memory I have of them is alive and breathing, joking and working. I didn't want to replace that with charred terrain and burn marks."
"Understandable." The ground had been black when I'd come up after the funeral, the locations where the shelters deployed clearly defined. I'd spent hours wondering which mark had been my father. What his last thoughts had been as the flames made him fuel for the fire he'd spent his life fighting. But grass had grown over the mutilated remains of the grove as the healing process took over. "It looks…better now. Eleven years is a good time for a forest to begin a recovery."
"What about a man?" he asked, watching the breeze sway the branches of the aspens.
Kakashi had been notoriously quiet after the fire. He didn't give interviews, didn't pose for cameras, or write a memoir. He avoided the media like the plague and sought out fires with a ferocity that could almost be called a death wish.
"I think it's a good time for a man to start recovery too." I clapped my hand on his shoulder as Temari's face crossed my mind, laughing with Denki as Hoki sat perched on her hip in the kitchen. Maybe there was hope for us all to find a little happiness. "Take your day, Supe. Just don't forget that there's a whole new Konoha crew who needs you. Including me."
I left him standing at the edge of the trail and joined my crew. We were all haunted by our parents, our personal ghosts, but Kakashi had it worse.
He was one.