The Bank II
"A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it." - Jean de La Fontaine
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or the characters contained therein, they belong to Masashi Kishimoto who is kind enough to let fans write fiction. I make no profit from this nor do I intend to.
A/N: Unbeta'd. I will attempt to post every other week. I think I'm going to need to do more rewrites on the remaining chapters than in previous chapters so I can't make any guarantees.
Posting this chapter off-schedule since I did manage to get it done today and to prevent other chapters from having delays – for reasons that will become apparent I don't want to post the next chapter the second week of September.
Enjoy.
Chapter XIV
Kakashi leisurely made his way down the street, his destination almost within sight. It had been a long mission, so far two weeks longer than expected, and he was starting to get tired of the whole thing. The longer it took the more convinced he became that it was just a wild goose chase – the possibility of which had been mentioned before he'd been sent out, so while not surprising, it was still incredibly frustrating. However, he could almost see the light at the end of the tunnel, just one more shop to check and then he could wash his hands of the whole thing and finally return to the village.
Just as he was passing the entrance to a storefront a harried woman hurried out after a small blur of movement.
Without much thought, Kakashi quickly shot out a hand to grab the collar of the small ball of energy as it tried to rush past him. With a rueful smile, he dragged the now struggling small child around and back toward the poor woman.
"I believe this is yours?" he asked, holding the kid out to her by his collar.
"Oh! Thank you!" she panted, taking a moment to catch her breath, resting one hand on her clearly pregnant belly. "He's always taking off when I try to bring him to the barber. Why? I'll never know, he loves the lollipops he gets after…" she trailed off realizing that the helpful stranger hadn't responded but instead was patiently waiting for her to take her child. "Oh! Yes, sorry, thank you!" She hastily grabbed the small boy and nodded her thanks.
"Not at all." Kakashi returned her nod and resumed his travel.
As he walked, he couldn't help but wonder if Sakura would have similar problems and if there would be anyone around to help her when she needed it. Hastily Kakashi pushed that particular thought away. Only to wonder if Sakura was showing yet. She was fairly lean so he figured she'd probably start showing earlier than other women – any sort of bulge would become apparent fairly quickly on her slight frame.
Kakashi found his steps hastening without his conscious direction, he wanted to see Sakura. Wanted to see the bump he knew she was sporting – to touch it and verify for himself that she truly was carrying his child. He knew her intimately, every inch of her. The bump would be new and he wanted to explore it for himself.
Though, Kakashi mused, Sakura might try to hide it for a while – depending on if she'd signed the paperwork or if she'd even decided to publicly admit he was the father. He'd made it clear that he would publicly accept responsibility – if that's what she wanted. He would do whatever she needed – whether that was having him accept responsibility or quietly stay in the background while still supporting them financially. Since she hadn't reacted either way he couldn't even begin to imagine what she had decided to do in the first place. It was entirely possible that she had decided not to keep the pregnancy. Though, Kakashi highly doubted it since his offer of financial support seemed to have been a welcome solution to most of her potential problems if he had to guess.
Before he realized it, Kakashi had arrived at the shop. Resolutely he returned his focus to his mission – once he finished, he could return to the village and find the answers to all of his questions himself.
Kakashi hurried along, more quickly than he usually would, to Sakura's apartment. He'd just reported his most recent mission and quite suddenly needed to know. Tsunade had not been in when he returned to report so he couldn't even try to guess by her behavior.
Finally, her apartment building came into sight and he slowed down, abruptly uncertain. Taking a moment to collect himself, Kakashi paused in the little park across the street from Sakura's apartment building, his eyes searching out her balcony. With a little relief, he noted that the light was on, though probably one in the other room as it wasn't as bright as it usually would be.
Having collected himself to deal with whatever he found, he made quick work of the climb up to Sakura's balcony. Kakashi was pleasantly surprised to find that her door was open to catch the evening breeze. Unable to wait even the few moments it would take for Sakura to answer his knock, he carefully slid open the screen door and stepped inside the partially darkened room. Immediately he paused in the doorway, surprised to find that Sakura was sitting at the kitchen table, her back to him. Since the kitchen was mostly shrouded in darkness, he'd assumed that she was in another room.
"Sakura, I-" he hastily greeted her, hoping she wouldn't mind him barging in.
"Heard you were due back tonight," she started without preamble, not bothering to turn around to greet him properly. "Figured you'd be 'long sooner or later." She glanced at the kitchen clock. "Looks more like later."
At a loss as to what to do, he lingered in the threshold, her behavior giving him more than enough reason to pause. Something was definitely not right.
Sakura lifted her head to take a long swallow of something, Kakashi's sensitive nose catching the scent of sake. Immediately concerned, he took a few steps toward her, still uncertain what he should do. Absently, he wished that Tsunade had been around when he reported in, she might have been able to warn him about whatever was wrong with Sakura.
"Sakura-"
"'S'fine, Kakashi," she interrupted him, pouring herself another glass of the potent rice wine. "I… I lost the baby."
Shocked, Kakashi stood as if frozen, rooted to the spot, his stomach dropping unpleasantly. He didn't understand. Sakura said she'd lost the baby, not that she'd terminated the pregnancy. She was a medic, one of the best in the village, if she had wanted to keep the child, then there should not have been an issue. Sakura shouldn't have had any problems. Sakura couldn't lose the baby. It just wasn't possible.
Keeping her back toward him, she downed the rest of the glass she was holding and then poured another – clearly looking for the courage to go on.
"Was an accident at the hospital." She paused, took a deep breath, understandably trying to steady herself, before continuing. "Minako's, you remember Minako? She patched you up n' got you back to t'village when you got yourself injured on that one mission a while back…" Sakura trailed off, remembering how angry she had been with him at the time and that he still hadn't explained himself. "You still haven't told me 'bout what that was all 'bout you know."
"Sakura, that's-"
"'Nyway," she interrupted him, waving her free hand at him, not wanting to hear his excuses, "Minako's ol' team'mates stop by the hospital while Momo, 's Minako's dau'ter, was visiting." Sakura paused to take a long sip of sake and once again make an attempt to better compose herself.
Kakashi could almost feel the palpable pain and grief rolling off of Sakura. Clearly, it was all she could do to keep herself together to tell him what had happened. He could not fault her for feeling the bottle of sake necessary for the conversation she was attempting to have with him. But, at the same time, he was more than a little concerned, Sakura didn't usually drink to excess. It did not take a seasoned strategist to see that this could not end well.
"Those two... jackasses thought t'play a mean-spirited joke on Minako. Only... only Momo got 'er hands on th' box before 'er mother could grab it. Was filled wi' training senbon and rigged wi' small 'splosive tags."
Kakashi inhaled sharply. That was an incredibly dangerous prank, even for those two clueless idiots. And, with their hyper-competitive natures, it was highly likely that they'd ended up doubling the number of explosives added to the box in some phenomenally stupid competition or other.
Sakura exhaled, gathered her courage, poured herself another partial glass, and downed it. She needed to be drunk. Telling Kakashi was even harder than she'd imagined it would be – especially considering the fact that she had just spent several weeks planning on how to tell him that she was keeping the baby. Telling him that she had lost it, her… She just wanted it to be over and done with it so she could collapse, alone, in her own misery and grieve in peace. Waiting for Kakashi to return so she could tell him had only served to put her own grieving process into a sort of holding pattern. Of course, true to fashion, Kakashi just had to be late too.
Sakura was well aware that she was lucky in that she hadn't told anyone about her pregnancy yet. She had, after all, only a few weeks previous passed the three-month mark and had only just learned the gender. Sakura thought it best to wait and tell Kakashi she was keeping the baby before letting on to others, aside from Tsunade of course, that there was a baby on the way. At the very least she figured that they could sit down and have a proper conversation about it. What she would – and wouldn't – say when people asked her about their little girl's father.
Shaking her head to clear the 'could have beens' from her alcohol fogged mind Sakura continued, just trying to get it all out as quickly as possible. "I-I managed t'get th' box 'way from Momo but not be'fore she tried t'open it – broke th' seal." Sakura paused to take a breath, closing her eyes briefly to do so. "Ended up taking th' 'splosion..." Her right hand automatically going to her midsection. "Saved Momo…"
Kakashi closed the distance between them, his hand automatically reaching out to her.
"But… not wi'out a price… Lost her..." Sakura trailed off, her right hand still resting on her stomach, and her left still lightly resting on the sake bottle. "Got outta hospital las' week but 'm not cleared t'return t'work for 'nother week…" her speech started to degrade more quickly as the effect of the alcohol began to add up, "or, engage in any stren'uous… phys'cal activities for 'nother two weeks..."
Kakashi stopped just short of touching her shoulder, his hand hovering in mid-air for several beats. His fingers curled and extended, once, twice, a third time and the arm dropped to his side. He closed his eyes and let out a long slow breath, pushing his feelings aside for the time being, before moving around Sakura to get her a glass of water.
When he turned to approach Sakura from the front he noted the tear streaks running down her cheeks. As he observed her, another pair of tears made their way unevenly down to her chin where they then merged and dropped to the table.
Gently, he placed the glass of water in front of her, disengaging her fingers from the bottle of sake and her stomach, wrapping them both around the glass of water instead. He then took the nearly empty sake bottle and glass from her and placed them in the sink, with another empty sake bottle.
Silently he cursed, if she'd made it through a bottle before he turned up, she'd clearly been waiting for him longer than he'd realized. He should have just told them he'd submit a written report later rather than wait to give his report to a clerk verbally. Could have made it to her apartment before she cracked into the second bottle at the very least.
As he stood awkwardly by the sink, deep in thought, and watched as another pair of tears started their uneven trek down her cheeks. A moment's further musing led him to open several drawers before he found her clean dish towels. Pulling one out of the drawer, he then returned to the sink and saturated the towel with cold water.
When he returned his focus to Sakura, she was drinking the water, a tear occasionally dropping from one of her eyes, and her breath coming in slight hitches. Silently, he handed her the towel and she obediently accepted it, holding it to her eyes with both hands.
Observing that her water glass was empty, Kakashi, took and refilled it, once again, placing it in front of her. Everything he could think of momentarily taken care of, he took a seat across from her and waited.
After several minutes, during which Sakura drank most of the second glass of water, with the cold towel held firmly to her eyes, she opened her mouth to speak.
"''m sorry."
Surprised, Kakashi shook his head. "Why?"
"dunno…I..."
"Sakura, it's okay."
"I wan'ed t'have th'baby…" her voice broke and she trailed off, doing her best not to start crying again.
Kakashi suppressed the incredibly strong urge to reach out to Sakura across the table. Her obvious grief causing him far more pain than he'd like to admit. Kakashi wasn't sure what Sakura needed but felt that human contact, the more the better, was probably what was necessary. Seeing her like this was just killing him.
Hastily, he found that he had to unclench his fists as fury flared dark and hot at the two idiots who had done this to Sakura. Those two useless morons had, when all was said and done, killed his unborn child – a daughter from what Sakura had said. He could have had a daughter… That he had never wanted said daughter was beside the point. They took something very personal from himself and Sakura and he needed to make sure they paid...
Sakura managed to pull herself together without his help and interrupted his thoughts. "The pape'work, your pape'work, 's on m'desk i'tha hall."
"What?" he responded, surprised out of his rage and not following her thought process or her increasingly unintelligible speech.
"T'papers you drop off 'fore head'ing out – they all there. I… I, uh, din't file an'thing… yet."
"Oh…" Kakashi trailed off, uncertain what he should say. A part of him had hoped that she had filed the paperwork. But, that was beside the point, something to be dealt with later. First, he had to deal with the more immediate issue at hand.
Sakura hiccupped and swayed a little in her seat, the stress and strain of getting everything out finally wearing off and allowing the alcohol to finally fully kick in. Kakashi realized that she must have been running on sheer adrenaline and nerves – especially considering that she'd made it through nearly two bottles of sake on her own.
Hastily, Kakashi scrambled to his feet and hurried around the table to steady her. Clearly, she had hit her limit. As he struggled to steady Sakura, he realized that she had passed out, the strain and stress had finally gotten the better of her.
Carefully, he managed to maneuver her into his arms so he could pick her up and carry her to her bedroom. It certainly wasn't the first time he'd done so – her couch was good for sitting but not much else. However, this time the circumstances were vastly different. A small part of him wished that he was doing bringing her to her bed for the usual reason. Even with all that had happened, he still wanted her – he would gladly have spent a pleasant evening with her upon his return if she hadn't lost the baby. And, from what Sakura had said, he was fairly certain she wouldn't be up for anything for another two weeks at the least – that was, of course, if she would even be up for such an evening with him ever again. After what she had just been through – was still going through – he couldn't even be sure if she would ever want to have anything to do with him ever again.
With a sigh of genuine regret, Kakashi gently shifted Sakura into her bed and under the covers minding her midsection as he guessed that she was likely still healing. Uncertain what else to do, he returned to the kitchen for a bottle of water and a large soup pot, stopping briefly in her bathroom to grab a bottle of ibuprofen. He then quietly returned to her room and placed the bottle of water on her nightstand along with the pain reliever and the soup pot on the floor next to her bed – he knew she was a lightweight when it came to alcohol and was prone to throwing up after over-imbibing. He took another look at Sakura and then carefully shifted her onto her side and placed a small, easily broken, seal on her to keep her in place, just in case.
Kakashi paused again to study Sakura while she slept. She was far stronger than he was. Tears aside, what she had been through would have broken many a strong woman. Would have broken him. Yet, while sleeping she seemed so fragile, so vulnerable. The image of her tugged at him in an entirely unexpected way.
His hands curled into fists before he could stop them. Keeping his gaze locked on Sakura Kakashi slowly inhaled and exhaled, managing to unclench his fists. The anger, however, was not so easily dissipated. Losing the child, his child was devastating to Sakura… and, on some level, to him as well. A little girl. What would he have done with a little girl? Would she have taken after him, or Sakura? As much as he didn't want to admit it, he had been looking forward to seeing Sakura go through with the pregnancy – in spite of himself, he was curious... and honestly wanted to see it through to the end. An unexpected chance… now lost.
On his way out, Kakashi paused by her desk to look at the paperwork. Sakura had filled everything out – even the name change paperwork – all that needed to be done was to file them at the courthouse. Unsure what to do, he decided to leave them on the off chance that she ever needed them again.
Silently, he took his leave, making sure to lock the door behind himself and trying very hard not to let the new feelings in. He was already in over his head and didn't know what to do. The Memorial was no longer the source of solace it had once been and Madam Verushka wasn't even due by the village any time soon to provide him with cryptic advice.
Sakura lost the baby – their daughter. He was not married. He was not in any sort of official relationship. He was finally back on track to achieve his life's goal. And now… He felt lost.
Feeling irritated, his morning contemplation of the Memorial interrupted by a group of chattering housewives out for a morning stroll, Kakashi found himself in the need of a sparring partner. Something – anything – to help get some of his frustrations out. He had heard at the pub, where rumors abounded, many of which were whispered whenever he was within earshot, that the two idiots who had injured Sakura and killed their unborn daughter had been placed on disciplinary leave until the appropriate punishment could be decided.
From what he could gather, Sakura hadn't wanted to advertise the fact that they'd killed her unborn child so they would be dodging the kunai there as they would most likely be only facing charges for their ill-conceived joke and the damage it had caused – including putting one of the village's top medics out of commission for almost a month. Unfortunately, Genji and Kenji had been released under their own recognizance, rather than being held somewhere. And, from what he'd heard, they'd been complaining loudly about their situation to anyone who would listen to them. For whatever reason, the two morons failed to understand how dangerous their prank had been and just how serious the consequences had been. If Sakura hadn't intervened their 'practical joke' could have easily killed Momo or anyone else who opened the box unaware of the malicious contents. That the box had been filled with training senbon did not matter in the least – enough explosives could turn anything into a deadly weapon.
Not bothering to try to hide his ill humor, Kakashi found himself strolling in the direction of one of the many training buildings, the one where high-level shinobi tended to congregate when looking for a challenge or workout. Even in his foul mood, he was aware that he should be careful in his sparring partner selection. Best case scenario, Guy would be around. Guy never needed or even asked for a reason to engage in an especially brutal sparring session. Worst case scenario, if Guy wasn't hanging around, he'd find a string of partners or even a few to take on at once – anything to work some of his anger and frustration out.
Upon making his way into the large lobby of the high-level training building, he realized something was up. As Kakashi walked through, he heard whispers, nothing he could quite make out, but enough that he knew something unpleasant was going down. In a foul enough mood to decide to actively seek trouble, he found himself following the whispers.
Rather quickly he found himself at the source of the disturbance. The idiots he'd had demoted, Genji and Kenji, were throwing dual temper tantrums like bratty man-children in the middle of the hall leading to the stairs to the training rooms and thus preventing pretty much anyone from getting on with their business.
"What's going on here?" Kakashi called out after observing the two shinobi snarling around at anyone within hearing range, his own anger kept carefully in check.
Kenji turned his attention to Kakashi and narrowed his eyes. "You!"
Genji focused on Kakashi upon hearing his friend exclaim and pointed a finger to do the same. "You!"
Just barely preventing himself from rolling his eyes, Kakashi tried again. "What's this all about?"
"We got demoted!"
"So we need to train!"
"So we can take the test and get back up to jonin!"
"But, no one will spar with us!"
"This is your fault!"
"My fault?" Kakashi asked with some surprise, his anger momentarily taking a backseat to incredulity. How had these two idiots ever made it to jonin?
"Yes! It's all your fault!"
"How is this my fault?"
"You were there!"
"You could have stopped them from demoting us!"
"I could have stopped them?" Kakashi asked, utterly bewildered. How they couldn't see that he'd been the one to have them demoted or, that they seriously deserved to be demoted was beyond him. Never mind the fact that they seemed to be completely ignoring the further disciplinary actions yet to come.
"Yes! You were there! You could have told them that we were doing just fine!"
"It was that stupid Minako who couldn't pull her own weight!"
"Not for the first time either!"
Kakashi shook his head, refraining, with an enormous effort, from pointing out the flaws with their statements. Their inability to find sparring partners was unsurprising considering how well-liked and well-regarded Sakura was within the shinobi community. Never mind the new nonsense they seemed to be spewing about their former teammate. Kakashi could hear the whispers around him. Catching a few snatches here and there he had to suppress a frown, the rumors he had heard in the pub seemed to be far more widespread than he'd realized.
"...she was badly injured…"
"...he was her teacher…"
"...heard she was pregnant…"
"...they've been seen around town a lot lately…"
"...bad hormones…"
"...she's not dating anyone…"
"...whose child…."
The whispers must have gotten around the room as Gin, the most diplomatic shinobi present approached Genji and Kenji, likely to try and calm them down and avoid an even bigger scene. The idiots seemed to be the only two shinobi present who were unaware of how unwise it was for them to be provoking Kakashi as they were.
"Come on guys, why don't you two go spar with each other today?"
"I'm tired of sparring with him!" Kenji jabbed a finger at his friend.
"And, I'm tired of sparring with him!" Genji returned his friend's pointed finger.
As one they turned on Kakashi. "This is your fault!"
They both glared at each other before shouting in unison. "You'll spar with me!"
Annoyed that they'd said it at the same time they started bickering amongst themselves.
Feeling sorely put-upon and yet also in the mood for some retribution Kakashi nodded slightly.
"Training field four in fifteen minutes." Without waiting for a response, he turned on his heel and leisurely made his way out of the building, obviously on his way to the training field. Kakashi was well aware that he would have a large audience for this very public beating and couldn't find it within him to care what conclusions people may draw from it.
Only a few minutes after he left, the two idiots realized what he had said and shot out after Kakashi. Each one trying to get to the training field first.
Once the three shinobi were gone, the whispers started again. This time speculations growing stronger as to just what exactly the relationship between Sakura and Kakashi could be aside from friends.
Kakashi made his way silently into Tsunade's office and waited for her to finish adding notes to the scroll she had open on her desk. Since he wasn't certain of the greeting he would get, he figured it would be best not to 'poke the bear' so to speak.
"Kakashi," she greeted him just as she finished the scroll, re-rolling it and placing it in her outbox. "Glad you made it, only," she checked the clock on the wall, "ten minutes late."
He shrugged, knowing that there wasn't really an answer to her comment, nor did she expect one.
Tsunade eyed him for a moment before bringing up a topic she wasn't certain she wanted to broach. "I heard you had an… eventful sparring session the other day?"
"Did I?" he asked, suppressing the urge to pull out one of his orange novels.
"Kakashi…" she growled, warningly.
He sighed. "I suppose you might say that."
She raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Really, now?"
"They started it."
She snorted. "So you decided to finish it?"
He shrugged. "They picked the fight. Plenty of onlookers at that training building and then on the training ground. The two of them decided to come at me together going all out from the get-go. Idiots were upset that no one would spar with them. Unsurprising considering what they did."
She sighed. "Those two halfwits did have it coming, didn't they?"
He nodded. "It's not my fault that they're slow and only just put the pieces together before we started – that I was the one to get them demoted, not Minako. Some misguided person probably told them on the way to the training ground – trying to convince them that sparring with me was a bad idea." He sighed. "I heard the whispers around the corners of the room. I suppose it was too much to hope that none of it would get out."
She snorted. "Not likely in this village. Though, Sakura has neither confirmed nor denied any of it. Since the medic family is especially close-knit, I can be fairly certain that no one else has either. Because Sakura didn't want to press charges," Tsunade's fingers curled into fists before she could stop them. She had to take a moment to let her anger subside before continuing.
"Well, without Sakura pressing charges, they're really only on the hook for the damage to the hospital room and Sakura herself. Not nearly enough for me. But," Tsunade sighed, "nothing to be done if she doesn't want to publicize the extent of her injuries." She shook her head, wishing Sakura had chosen differently but understanding why she had made the decisions she'd made. "As for their demotions, they should have figured that out long ago!" Her fist slammed angrily into her desk, punctuating her point.
"That was why they went after Minako, wasn't it?"
"Yes. They blamed her. Sakura just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."
He suddenly found himself angry all over again and had to take a minute to physically force himself to let go of the unwanted emotion.
"You did get in a few good hits for me, didn't you?" Tsunade asked, unable to keep the predatory glint from her eyes. She'd like nothing more than to have an excuse to knock the stuffing out of the two idiots who had caused Sakura to lose her baby.
Startled for only a moment, Kakashi chuckled darkly. He'd genuinely enjoyed knocking Genji and Kenji around – even if they were too dumb to realize the full extent of why. To add insult to injury he'd stuck to straight taijutsu and had barely put forth any effort, preferring to let them do themselves in. However, that's not to say that he didn't get in a few satisfyingly damaging blows to both of the idiots.
"Good. Those two deserve what you gave them and much, much more, I'm quite sure."
"They'll be getting demoted again when they get out of the hospital?"
It was her turn to shrug. "Probably. They'll be in the hospital for a good long while, most of the medics have refused to treat them using advanced techniques. So, we'll have some time to figure out what to do with those two idiots. They're surprisingly stupid for men of their age."
Kakashi snorted softly. "They're just surprisingly stupid, period."
Startled, Tsunade laughed and shook her head, dismissing the two morons from the topic of conversation. "Now, I'm sorry to send you out again so soon, especially after…" she trailed off, uncertain how to phrase it.
"It's fine."
She narrowed her eyes and glanced at him intently for a moment. "You sure?"
He nodded. "I don't think Sakura really wants me around right now anyway."
She thought for a moment before nodding slowly. "You're probably right there. I'll tell her tomorrow that I've sent you back out then." She rummaged about on her desk for a moment before pulling out a mission scroll and tossed it to him. "Fairly standard retrieval. Should take a little less than a month, no more."
Kakashi caught the scroll and automatically broke the seal to start reading. He nodded as he read, it was fairly straightforward. Nothing tricky, or out of the ordinary. "I understand."
"You need to leave tomorrow at first light."
"Right."
"See you in a few weeks."