"Where are you guys headed?" Beki asked, the smile mostly genuine.
Hinata beamed. "Naruto kun is taking me out on a date."
"I have a lot of really great stuff planned," Naruto ticked them off on his fingers one by one. "We're going to the market, the ramen shop, and then we're going swimming."
Hinata was practically glowing. She was like the moon, Beki realized, and Naruto was her sun. The closer he was to her, the brighter she shined. Beki was happy for her friend. She was happy for them both. That didn't prevent the childlike pain of being left out by your friends from rearing its ugly head. If she ever said anything, the two of them wouldn't think twice about bringing Beki along. The right thing to do would be to keep on pretending that being alone in another person's house all the time wasn't lonely as hell.
"You two have fun," Beki waved. "Stay out of trouble."
"Haha," Naruto grinned mischievously. "We'll try."
The click of the door behind them had a finality to it. It sucked all the pleasant atmosphere out of the house and Beki noticed the place seemed a little darker. She heaved a sigh and sat down on the stairs. She had some time off from training with Ebisu because his team was away on a mission. Team Gai was away as well, leaving Beki with none of the people she usually hung around. Not wanting to stay cooped up all day, Beki got dressed and headed into town. If nothing else, she should try not to turn into a shut in.
…
Seiichiro hadn't been to the Hidden Leaf in months. The guards had to do a double take when they saw him as his appearance had changed so drastically. He knew the bags under his eyes were deeper, his hair was more gray than blonde now, and his back didn't seem quite so solid. Once he was through the gates, Seiichiro bypassed the inn and headed straight for the Hokage's mansion. He had a lot to discuss with Tsunade.
The guard announced him and Tsunade came to the door herself. "You're not looking so good, Old Man."
"And you apparently can't keep track of a 17-year-old," Seiichiro said low enough so only the two could hear. Tsunade's eye twitched in surprise.
"Did you nanny cam me?" Tsunade asked sarcastically.
"I didn't," Seiichiro said. "Someone else just got a shot of my daughter in Suna and were kind enough to share it with me."
"So are you bringing the hellfire or what?" Tsunade folded her arms. "I have a lot to do today and if you want a fight we need to get it over with now."
"No," Seiichiro stared her down. "I'm taking you to lunch."
Tsunade blinked in surprise. "You're serious?"
Seiichiro leaned to the side and took a peek into Tsunade's office. "Doesn't look like you have company. There's no way you aren't hungry, or are you just too busy for a free meal?"
"Alright, Shizune hold down the fort," Tsunade called over her shoulder and Shizune bowed.
"Yes, Lady Hokage."
"So what's the occasion?" Tsunade asked. "Are you going to subject me to old man stories or have my charms finally won you over?"
"You're about as charming as a rabid badger," Seiichiro said without a moment's hesitation. "But I feel like I can trust you because you don't try to win people over. You're very take it or leave it, which I can appreciate."
Tsunade eyed him over suspiciously. "That sounds an awful lot like you're going to ask me a favor."
"No," Seiichiro shook his head. "I just need to update you on the situation in Getsu and what that means for you."
"You really don't try to sugar coat anything, do you?" Tsunade made a disgusted noise. "What is it now? Did you do something sketchy and they're going to lock you up?"
Seiichiro sighed. "If only that were the case. As hard as it will be for you to believe, I'm a progressive voice back home. I think shutting ourselves up on our island and keeping out of other people's business is a fast road to being overrun and unprepared to deal with it. I talk back to the king when I know he's spouting nonsense his advisors have crammed down his throat. His Majesty used to think that was refreshing, but lately he finds the habit detestable."
Tsunade watched him carefully. "Are you saying you're going to have to step down?"
"I'll step down when I'm dead," Seiichiro said as he moved the noren aside for Tsunade to enter the restaurant. "They're trying to strong arm me out of my position but I can't let that happen. I don't have much I can leave my daughter so I have to hang onto this job with a vice grip."
They took a seat at the counter and the cook took their order. Everyone else at the counter moved over a few seats to give the pair some privacy.
"I guess I look worse than I thought," Seiichiro's smile was strained, like a dried out rubber band ready to snap. Tsunade noticed the way his eyes darted around the room, how his fists were clenched so tightly his knuckles were white, and how dark and deep the bags were under his eyes. The man clearly hadn't slept in days.
"What is going on?" Tsunade's voice dropped so low no one else could hear. "Tell me straight."
Seiichiro looked at her, his smile pulling even tighter. "I'm old. People aren't afraid of old men."
"You're 37, shut the hell up," Tsunade sipped at her drink. "How dare you talk about being old to me."
"You have friends," Seiichiro corrected. "No one is afraid of friendless old men."
Tsunade noticed the bulges under his sleeves. She reached over and drew back his sleeve with the back end of her chopstick. He had clumsily bandaged himself up but it was clear he had some long deep gashes.
"They blitzed me in an inn. Killed the owner and several of the guests before they reached me," Seiichiro jerked his arm away as he scanned the room. "They were hired help. Thugs, really. No way to know who is paying them."
"You need to resign," Tsunade spat. "What kind of father are you, risking orphaning your daughter over some job."
Seiichiro kept his voice level and showed no signs of anger. "You don't understand, Tsunade. Officials don't 'just' resign in Getsugakure. They die under mysterious circumstances while still in office or they resign and disappear into a quiet life in the country. From which they are never heard from again."
Tsunade looked at the man beside her. Death was coming for him on a swift horse and yet he was a brick wall as ever. Rather than trying to run from it or find a way around, Seiichiro was doing damage control.
"So what do you need from me?" Tsunade sipped her drink casually so as not to alert people to the nature of their conversation. "I can offer you protection if you decide to stay here in the village. I know Beki would like having her father around."
Seiichiro gripped his glass. "I don't think there's enough time left for that. I...there are some other avenues I'm exploring right now. There are some people I used to run with in the old days that didn't exactly settle down to become farmers and accountants. They're looking into it for me. There's a chance, if we can figure out who is masterminding all this, we might be able to head this off at the pass."
"If you can't?" Tsunade asked measuredly.
Seiichiro tapped his glass on the counter. "Just make sure my little girl is okay. Do what you have to do to keep her out of that viper pit. Fabricate a scandal, force a treaty, whatever you have to do. I'm not asking this as the ambassador. This would be a personal favor."
Tsunade knew Seiichiro was the ultra diplomat. He had never even asked her to compensate him for a lunch, let alone anything to this extent. She knew then his situation was truly dire. She shrugged. "What's another fatherless teen running around my village? She doesn't cause any more trouble than mine do."
"Thank you." Seiichiro looked her in the eye. "If I get through this, drinks are on me."
Out of the corner of his eye, Seiichiro spotted a silver eye peeking at them from the outside edge of the noren.
"Get in here, Beki," Seiichiro commanded. "You suck at spying."
Beki slid in through the noren, attempting to look as guiltless as possible. "Sorry," She tugged at her braid self consciously. "I thought I heard your voice so I had to check. How long have you been in town?'
"Not long," Seiichiro waved Beki over to the seat beside him. " What have you been up to?"
"Oh, you know," Beki tapped on the counter. "Ebisu's been treating me like crap, the Hyuugas are nice, the weather is good, and I'm bored out of my mind. The usual."
"Funny," Seiichiro took a sip of his drink. "Then being in Suna must have been exciting."
Beki shot Tsunade an accusing look, to which the Hokage shook her head and shrugged as if saying "It wasn't me."
Beki cleared her throat. "What are you talking about? I haven't left the village proper in months."
"I would have an easier time believing you if I hadn't seen pictures of you with the Kazekage," Seiichiro's gaze bore holes through his daughter. "You're busted. You might as well confess."
The hair on Beki's neck began to stand on end. Based on the vibes her father was giving off, she would have to answer this line of questioning carefully. "He's my friend and he was in trouble," Beki kept her voice level and her gaze on the counter. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you-"
"As far as I know, the Kazekage has only been in Konoha on official business less than a dozen times in the last two years," Seiichio tapped his glass on table. "Explain to me how the two of you developed a close enough friendship for you to risk death and dismemberment against the Akatsuki for him? Based on how packed a kage's calendar, I can figure he possibly squeezed you in for about three lunches. By that logic, the Hokage and I should have matching tattoos by this point."
"I'm up for it," Tsunade tossed in casually, trying to break the rising tension in their corner of the restaurant. "No flowers or names."
Seiichiro ignored her, his attention to his daughter so intense it was almost physically palpable. Beki cleared her throat and averted her gaze. "He, um, well, yes we've run into each other in town a few times. We have a lot in common so I may have sent him a friendly letter or two and he may have sent an occasional letter back. You know, congratulations on passing the chunin exams and so on…"
Beki's palms were sweating. Seiichiro was giving her a look she'd seen him use a million times. He had rested his chin on his hand, his expression one of mild interest with raised brows and the tiniest smirk. The bemused catlike look was one he reserved for situations where he knew someone was lying to him but would allow themselves to dig their hole as deep as they liked before he would rain hell on them. Beki could feel her whole body growing tense, her abdominal muscles squeezing the air out of her and her throat closing up. She wanted to defend herself, to give Seiichiro some reasonable explanation, but Beki knew she was just digging herself a deeper grave. Her voice pittered out mid sentence and Seiichiro smiled. "Are you done?"
Beki nodded, defeated. Seiichiro sat up and held up a finger. "I need to know one thing. Were you there for him, or were you there for someone else?"
"Him," Beki said barely above a whisper.
"I don't know where you get it," Seiichiro shook his head. "It's like you're a magnet for careless decisions."
Humiliated didn't begin to cover how Beki felt. Her father had called her out in front of the Hokage and in such a way there was really no defending herself. She knew that concealing the relationship wasn't necessarily the way a dutiful daughter would behave. Then again, Beki felt like she was entitled to some semblance of a private life. "You have to admit we did a good job of keeping it out of the press," Beki offered, hoping her father would at least concede to her discretion.
"Not good enough," Seiichiro scoffed. "You got sloppy. Hopefully Ishida is the only person who got a picture of you two together or this will blow up."
"Dad," Beki knew he was in a foul mood now but she couldn't keep quiet. "Do you realize how hard this is for me? I'm practically in exile. Its exile in a gilded cage, true, but I never get to see my friends. I live in another family's house across the world with everything I do under a microscope. Are you really that surprised that I started forming relationships on my own so I could feel loved and supported?"
"I'm just disappointed you didn't have the brains to pick someone other than a damned world leader," Seiichiro hissed under his breath. "Do you realize how naive you look? What that could do to your career, what it could do for our damned country, if things don't go well between you two?"
Beki bit her tongue knowing that speaking out against her father any more would just complicate things with Tsunade. It would be hard for her father to do business with the Hokage after this, let alone for Beki to face her later.
"Hokage sama," The sick feeling in Beki's stomach intensified to the point where she felt as though she was going to toss up her lunch. She turned to see the last person who needed to get involved in this situation standing in the doorway. "They said you were here."
"Kazekage sama," Seiichiro shot him a grin Beki recognized as dangerous but its ominous nature escaped Gaara. "Just the person I wanted to see." Seiichiro stood and Beki was left with no choice. He's going to kill him,Beki thought.
"Gaara, run," Beki said in a low steady tone.
"What?" Gaara gave her a confused look.
"Don't ask questions," Beki cautioned, raising her hands and making a shooing gesture. "Go. Go now."
Gaara eyed Seiichiro for a moment before deciding to follow Beki's advice. "We'll speak later." Gaara said to the room as he backed outside. Seiichiro followed him nonchalantly.
"Where are you going?" Seiichiro interrupted, blocking the way with his massive figure. "You and I have something to discuss."
Gaara's instincts told him to back away, but his pride told him to hold firm. His pride was quickly losing steam, however, when suddenly Beki threw herself between them.
"Dad! What are you doing?" Beki hissed in protest as she tossed her father a harsh look. He paid her no mind as he maintained the intensity of his glare at Gaara.
"What is your relationship with my daughter?" He asked, blatantly searching Gaara's face for visual tells.
Beki turned towards Gaara and shoved him backwards. "Go!"
Gaara didn't need to be told twice. Seiichiro looked to be in no mood for this particular conversation. He knew Seiichiro was just being a protective father. Maybe he could appeal to reason, Gaara thought. After all, Beki and Gaara hadn't really done anything together except for their beach side sleepover.
"Tsukimori-san. I know you're worried about your daughter, but I promise I've been taking good care of her. When we slept together I may have lost control of myself, but I can assure you that it was an accident that won't happen again."
Beki's mouth dropped in shock. Instantly she threw her arms out towards her father in an attempt to hold him back. A shadow had crossed over Seiichiro's face, the color washing from his skin like the calm before a storm. Seiichiro raised his massive hand and with unholy speed, he made a frenzied grab at Gaara's arm.
Gaara pulled back swiftly and backed towards the entrance behind him. "I don't understand. I may have hurt her that night, but I was hardly myself."
Beki just stared at Gaara. This just keeps getting worse, Beki thought. Every time he opens his mouth he shoves his foot in further. She turned her attention back to her father. "Dad! No! It's not what it sounds like!"
Seiichiro made another lunge for Gaara, but he was able to dip out the door and form a floating sand cloud beneath him.
"RUN!"
Gaara heard Beki shout the words behind him, but he was already flying away. I don't understand why he is so upset. Gaara shook his head.
"Dad, I can explain everything. Gaara isn't so good with words," Beki said as she stepped back and tried to give her father some breathing room. "Wait, no. What I'm trying to say is that he's really good with words, but he's extremely literal and doesn't..." Beki trailed off as she noticed her father striding towards the entrance. "Where are you going?"
Seiichiro said nothing as he stepped out of the restaurant with his distressed daughter chasing behind him. He nonchalantly grabbed his kanabo and gave it a loving pat. He licked his thumb, held it up to the air, and closed his eyes for a second. Beki came up behind him and continued trying to explain the situation.
Seiichiro tossed up the kanabo and caught it like a javelin. He held up his thumb to line up a shot, wound up his arm, and hawked the massive club like a spear. Beki watched in horror as it knocked the Kazekage clean out of the sky and onto the rooftop below him. Before she could react, Seiichiro had started off in that direction. His pace had been slow at first, but he picked up speed and momentum in the same way as a runaway train. It wasn't especially fast, but forceful. Anything that got in the Reaper's way would be mowed down. Tsunade came outside and heaved a sigh. "Here we go again. Go after them, Tsukimori. I'll be along in a minute."
Beki gave her a nod in confirmation and headed out after her dad. She was faster than he was but she needed to take a different route. If they crossed paths, Seiichiro would probably incap her to keep her out of the way. As Beki darted through the alleys to get to Gaara, she almost ran headlong into Kankuro.
"Hey," Beki grabbed his shirt. "You need to come with me."
"Whoa," Kankuro peeled her hands off him. "Easy killer. I know I'm hot stuff but calm down."
"You don't understand," Beki tried not to let her voice crack in panic. "I think your brother's in trouble. Come on."
Kankuro paled and he trailed after her obediently. "What's going on?" The edge to his voice betrayed how recent events were still tugging at his mind. Beki knew he was probably worried Akatsuki was there to finish the job.
"It's my dad," Beki explained. "He found out about us."
Kankuro stopped dead. "Are you serious? Come on Tsukimori. I don't have time for this. I don't need to be emotional support for my brother while your dad wags a finger at him and warns him not to get any funny ideas about you."
Beki stared him down. "He just knocked Gaara out of the sky with his kanabo. He clipped him like a bird with an arrow."
Kankuro sighed and started running again, mouthing curses about insane Getsu shinobi. Beki ignored him and began scaling the side of the building she had seen Gaara crash on. Grabbing Kankuro had cost her precious time because the moment she cleared the top she saw her father was already there. Seiichiro held Gaara up in the air by the throat. Gaara's sand armor had cracked and the skin underneath was pink. His sand was wrapped around Seiichiro's arm and was crushing down on it. Beki could hear the groan of the metal of Seiichiro's gauntlets but his face betrayed no pain.
"Let him go Tsukimori," Kankuro warned as he approached the middle aged giant. In the blink of an eye, Seiichiro had backhanded Kankuro across the face. The blow was so swift and so forceful it spun him around and knocked him off his feet. Kankuro struggled to get back up but the world was spinning.
"Its okay Kankuro," Gaara's voice was strained. "Stand down."
"Are you crazy?!" Kankuro staggered up onto his knees. "He's going to crush your windpipe."
"Go, Kankuro," Gaara had turned his attention back to Seiichiro. Kankuro glared at Beki. "If something happens to him, I'm coming after you."
"Fine," Beki said automatically "I'll walk right into the knife for you, okay?" Kankuro jumped off the roof, leaving the three of them alone with the sky.
"Go ahead and crush my arm," Seiichiro squeezed. "An arm is a fair price to pay for strangling a kage."
"I told you, nothing inappropriate has happened between us," Gaara strained against the vice grip. "I love your daughter. I am not trying to take advantage of her for political reasons."
"I don't care about politics," Seiichiro spat. "It seems to me you singled out a girl without friends or family as your plaything."
Gaara coughed and wheezed in his next breath. The sand armor around his throat had shattered and was now putting additional pressure on his windpipe as he tried to breathe. He looked the Getsu ambassador in the face and saw the righteous anger in his eyes. This man thought he was protecting his only daughter, his only family in the whole world, from Gaara. He released his hands from Seiichiro's wrist and raised them up around them. The sand followed his movement, encasing the two of them in a perfect sphere of sand.
"What's this?" Seiichiro's voice was full of venom. "Are you going to crush us both?"
"No," Gaara explained. "Whatever happens here between us, Beki doesn't need to see it."
Seiichiro paused a moment waiting to see if Gaara would bring the sand in on them. The walls maintained their stability and the way Gaara looked at him so earnestly sold his words. Seiichiro set the boy back on the ground and watched him cough it out. The sand subsided back into the gourd and instantly Beki was on them. She rushed over to Gaara and took his face in her hands. "Are you alright?!"
He nodded, the motion triggering his aggravated airway. Gaara turned his head and descended into a coughing fit. Beki looked up at her father with protective fire in her eyes. "Really, Dad? Really?! You had to take it this far!"
"I never actually got to eat," Seiichiro said. "Let's get grab a bite. The three of us have a lot to discuss."
…
"Why have you kept this from me?" Seiichiro said to both of them, but it was mostly meant for Beki.
"I unfortunately can't claim to have much of a private life," Gaara explained. "I was concerned about the attention our relationship would bring on Beki if it was public knowledge."
Beki cocked her head. "Well, yeah, and it was a distance thing, so it took a while for us to figure out how serious it was."
Gaara blinked and looked at her in surprise. "We did?"
Beki shrugged. "I thought that sounded more grown up than 'we fell madly in love at once'," she popped a snow pea pod in her mouth before continuing. "Not to mention I knew you were absolutely going to have a cow about it."
"I might have had less of a cow if I had found out from someone other than Ishida," Seiichiro sighed. "He's been trying to have me send you to the shrine for years."
Beki scowled at the bowl. "I hate Ishida almost as much as I hate Ebisu sensei."
"So what are your plans for my daughter?" Seiichiro turned his dad glare up to ten.
Gaara was unphased and spoke as leisurely as if Seiichiro hadn't tried to strangle him an hour before. "We've discussed marriage, which Beki is open to but would prefer we put it off for a while longer."
Seiichiro almost choked on his beer. "You bet your ass she's going to wait."
Beki saw her opening and smiled wickedly. "What, Dad? Didn't you marry mom at my age?"
Seiichiro shot her a dirty look. "First off, we weren't political figures. Second of all, I had been in a relationship with your mother for over two years wherein we literally had to kill for each other and nearly die for one another. Third of all, your mother was nineteen. Not seventeen."
"Sounds like a classic case of 'do as I say, not as I do'," Beki smirked with self satisfaction. It was fun to put her dad in his place. She seldom got the opportunity to but every once in awhile he fell from the high ground.
"Not to mention we were married before anything like that happened between us," Seiichiro leered.
"For the last time!" Beki slammed her hand on the table. "Nothing like that has happened! We slept side by side on a trip we took to the beach! He's only seen me topless because my swimsuit broke!"
Gaara chimed in. "Then again, everyone at the chunin exams saw-" Beki slapped his arm and he looked at her in shock.
"Domestic violence is a crime, Beki."
Seiichiro shook his head and gave a soft chuckle. "I hate to admit it, but the two of you might not be such an odd pair."
Gaara put an arm around Beki and risked a small smile. "Thanks, Dad."
Seiichiro crushed the glass in his hand and Gaara's sand armor began to form instinctively. He gave a nervous puff, his equivalent of a laugh. "Just kidding. Sir."
"I'll be right back," Beki stood up and headed towards the bathroom. The excitement of the afternoon had left her feeling like a mess. Now that she was sure her dad and Gaara wouldn't end up killing her, she thought she could steal a minute to fix her braid. The wild chase through town had unraveled it and sent all her strays flying.
Seiichiro watched his daughter walk away and began to wrap his bleeding hand with a napkin. "I want you to be honest with me," Seiichiro said to Gaara without looking at him. "I'm an old man now. I don't know how much time I have left and I would hate to see my daughter with someone who was just wasting her time."
Gaara considered the ambassador's appearance. As large and intimidating as he was, it was true that he was aging quickly. In the two years he had known him, Gaara had noticed the gray replacing the gold of his hair, the wrinkles on his face, and how his energy had begun to dwindled. He was tired, worn through and spread too thin.
"I have no intention of wasting her time," Gaara reassured him. "Beki is precious to me. When I think about my future, every plan I make includes her. I've become so fond of her that at times it is hard for me to remember a time before her in my life. I remember an event in my past and I try to recall what she had been doing at the time-"
"Love isn't enough," Seiichiro interrupted him. "All anyone ever talks about is love but the truth is sentiment doesn't fill a wallet. It doesn't put a roof over your head or stop an assassin's blade." Seiichiro looked the Kazekage in the eye. "You don't have a father to tell you this, so I guess it's my job to fill you in. Relationships aren't 50/50, they're 100/100. You may love your job, but if it comes before my daughter you two will fail. Being in a relationship means actively choosing that person every minute of every day til death do you part. So I have to ask you: are you the kind of man who will keep choosing Beki?"
Gaara nodded. "Of course. Being with Beki is all I really want-"
Seiichiro held up his hand. "Not just now, when you're both young and she's pretty and the relationship is convenient. I mean when you're having an awful week at work with a threat of impeachment hovering over your head, you come home and get chewed out because Beki is hormonal, miserable, and moody? Will you pick her and not hide out at the office when you're both exhausted and you have a new baby that just cries for hours at a time?How about when your kids grow up and they are out of the house, so Beki gets needy and bugs you constantly because she's bored and lonely? What about when her figure starts to go and she stops dressing up for you, but an army of younger women are throwing themselves at your feet desperate for you to give them the time of day?"
It was clear that Seiichiro was trying to show Gaara that the long distance relationship he had with Beki was easy in comparison to what lay ahead.
"I know you are trying to see if I'll get scared away by this," Gaara explained. "Most men my age would think about that sort of commitment and run as fast as their legs could carry them. I didn't have a normal happy family, so the thought of having someone to come home to, even if she's grouchy and irritable, fills me with joy. There will never be a day where I am not grateful just to have her in my life."
Seiichiro watched Gaara's face. After a moment he exhaled and shook his head. "I hope you can remember that as you get older."
Beki stood quietly across the room from them. It was odd, seeing her father next to Gaara, especially since she had worked so hard for so long to keep them separate. It was comforting to see the two talking in what almost seemed a friendly manner. Beki smiled to herself, content with how things always seemed to work themselves out.
I have to send my computer in for repairs and as the process may take several weeks its unlikely there will be another update for a while. If you message me I will do my best to get back to you within a reasonable amount of time. That being said, I do not know when I or Tallman will be able to post an update. Thank you for reading!