Taisetsuna "Precious" - Version Two
by Aoikami Sarah
Chapter Four
Kakashi opened the door to his apartment. Three heads poked around him to see inside.
"Wow!" Hikari cried. "It's huge!" She and her sisters ran in and jumped on the couch.
Kakashi's eye bulged as he noticed Come Come Paradise Volume 3 lying for anyone to see on the coffee table. 'Oh no! I need to clean up this shithole!' He ran around so fast he blurred. He opened a closet, already jammed with stuff and threw a huge pile of magazines and manga into it. He laughed nervously as the girls blinked at him.
He sat down on the coffee table and stared at them. Yami was sitting on her hands. Yume was kicking her feet idly against the side of the couch. Hikari clutched the edge of the cushion and stared intently back at him.
"So," he began, "why exactly did you attack me and my students?"
Six cheeks blushed. "We wanted to see…" Yami started.
"…If you were really that strong," Yume finished.
Hikari rubbed her thumbs against the ribbing on the cushion nervously. "Kaasan always said that you were stronger than her. We wanted to see if it was true."
Kakashi hummed, amused, but only for a moment. "Forgive me but, how did she die?"
Their eyes fell to the floor again. "She went on a mission… They brought her back…" Yume sniffed.
"I'm sorry. Don't cry again, please?" He looked around wildly for tissues. All he had was toilet paper. He opted for napkins instead. As they calmed down again he sighed. "I guess you'll have to stay with me for now. Since you don't have passports you'll have to take off your Suna hitai-ate. Otherwise you'll be arrested."
They did as they were told. Suddenly, as if left unprotected, all three of their stomachs grumbled. They blushed again.
"Hungry, eh?" Kakashi asked and stood up. His own stomach echoed theirs. "Heh. I have nothing here. We'll have to go to the Ramen joint."
"Ramen!" they all cried in joy.
"You're easy to please," he muttered and led them to the restaurant.
.X.
As they walked through the downtown streets, heads turned.
"Oh, how cute!"
"Triplets! Look, they're adorable!"
"Would you look at that, they're identical!"
Kakashi hoped against hope that he could make it to the restaurant without running into anyone he knew.
"Oi, Kakashi!" a familiar voice called.
'Oh no. Well, at least it's not Gai.' He stopped and waved. "Yo, Iruka."
The girls looked around their father's legs. "Iruka?" "Like Ikura?" "Ikura who was friends with Kaasan?" they asked.
Iruka blinked and both men stood in stunned silence for a moment. "It's I RU KA," he mumbled.
"Come on. You're buying us dinner," Kakashi grabbed his vest and dragged him into the ramen shop.
When the food had finally come, Kakashi pulled Iruka aside and tried to explain.
"They're Oururi's!"
"Shhhhhhh! Keep your voice down. Yes. It seems I got her pregnant before she left."
"That's incredible! So where is she? Man, it's been so long since she's been around, I can't wait to…" Iruka's joy faded as he read the expression in his friend's eye. "She's not…?"
"Yes."
"Kakashi…"
They looked over at the girls who were fighting playfully over a piece of gyoza. Hikari let out a loud shriek of a laugh that stunned the two men's hearts. It sounded just like her mother's. Iruka went to order drinks while Kakashi observed his daughters from a distance. Yume grabbed a hold of Hikari's uniform as they play-fought and pulled. A soft tearing noise made them all gasp.
"Oh no!" Yami covered her mouth. "Kaasan's repair!"
Tears came to Yume's eyes. "I'm sorry, Hikari! Kaasan won't…"
"It's ok!" Hikari urgently cut her sister off, clutching her hand.
Kakashi squinted slightly and hummed to himself before returning to the table. "What's the matter?" he asked. "Did you rip your shirt?" They were reluctant to say anything. They stared at their food. "It looks like it's been repaired once already."
"Three times," the middle one added.
"Yami!" Hikari scolded.
"Kaasan would have been upset if she saw it." Yume explained. "It made her sad to fix our things."
Kakashi became lost in his thoughts for a moment, picturing Oururi in her Anbu uniform on her knees with a needle and thread, stitching her sobbing child's clothes back together. 'It's ok, Hikari,' she said in his mind. Her voice was soft, but behind the Neko assassin's mask she wore her brows were pinched together in an expression of worry. Kakashi puzzled at this. 'She cared about her children enough to mend their garments, but it made her sad to do so?'
