The White Fang
Kakashi sat up from off the floor as Ketari came in and sat on the bed rather dejectedly.
"Well... what's up?" Kakashi asked, petting Tohru. The poor pup needed some consolation after losing sixty-one straight Janken matches.
"Ketari?"
"I'm fine... Just tired," she said, giving hima smile. Kakashi wasn't, however, entirely convinced. He scrutinized her, but shrugged and petted Tohru some more, making sure to scratch behind his ears.
"Kakashi?"
"Have you... ever wanted to have children?"
Kakashi sighed and thought for a while, his hands moving to scratch Tohru's belly while his thoughts moved to Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke, his beloved students. "I suppose so... I never really thought about it that much, but when I was little... Dad used to talk to me all the time about having grandkids, even though I was so young... And I used to promise him that I'd have kids someday just so he'd shut up about it for five minutes, but now I wish I hadn't. I just should have let him talk on forever, I wouldn't mind a bit now.
"But yeah, I've thought about it, a little. I never really had time to... umm..." he was suddenly at a loss for words, just right out of the blue his head emptied completely. He had nothing else to say. "But what about you?"
"I always wanted to have kids... because I was always so lonely, and I wanted to have a family that I could take care of, a family that needed me and a family that I would never... die out on. The only friends I had were Iruka and Hayate... and they were my teammates... and you... but... Rin liked you, she told me she did."
"WHAT?"
"Umm..."
"But she- but I- but-but-but! She told me that she liked Obito, well, I mean, she didn't tell me per se, but it looked like it and-and-and-... She liked me?" Kakashi crossed his arms over his chest and pouted. "Now that's just not fair. She didn't even tell me, and I thought she liked Obito. Obito liked her, and I even told her he liked her, but... haaaaa..." he exhaled and put his hands on his knees. "Oh well... I haven't seen Rin in... what? Thirteen years just about. It doesn't matter anymore, and besides," he looked up at Ketari slyly.
"I love you, not her," he said.
The three birds in the tree next to the window chose this time to drop out of the tree and hit the ground with a rather loud thud, which caught the attention of one of Kakashi's ever-playful Summoned pups. The pup wagged it's tail, mouth open, tongue lolling, and pounced.
The birds screeched, got up on their legs, and commenced to run as the pup bounded after them, yipping and barking. Kakashi was too busy to see what the trouble was, however, and when the birds went to see why he was too busy they screeched and fell again, this time off the windowsill.
Fortunately for the birds, they were only kissing, unfortunately for the birds, it was enough to make them fall over again. The yellow bird looked at the pink one and squawked, while the black bird simply ruffled it's feathers and tried to maintain whatever dignity he had left as the pup, Kaiko, came back to play Chase-the-Birds round 3.
Kakashi pulled up his mask again and the birds sighed. They still couldn't see his face, not even when he was kissing! He had faced the other way. Meanwhile, Kaiko was playfully batting around the black bird in between his paws, yipping with delight. The bird spun in midair and it's eyes turned red, mimicking the batting movement of the pup's paws. Swiping Bird Wings of Mimicked Puppy Death was not very effective against a puppy that was possibly ten times his size, and Kaiko simply bent down, seized the bird in his mouth, and trotted away.The pink and yellow birds were oblivious to the whole scene, opting instead to watch the scene within the window as long as it didn't 'escalate out of hand'.
Kakashi got up from the bed and stretched. "Anywhere in particular you want to go? We have a whole two weeks left, just about."
"I thought you said you needed to visit Gai?"
"Yeah, I can do that later," he said, waving it off. He gave her a disarming grin and she frowned at him.
"Sometimes you're very weird..." Kakashi's face collapsed.
"Weird...?"
"Not in a ... very bad way."
"Oh, okay. That's good enough for me."
"And one more thing... I heard that you like to hang around The Pink Bookstore." He kept his face straight but his insides were squirming. She knows! Agh! What'll I do, what'll I do? What if she doesn't like me reading those books and leaves me? Would she leave me for reading those books, or does she love me enough to stay with me even if I do? Or or or... AAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHH!
"What's wrong with you? You're sweating bullets."
"OH, ah ahhhh... NOTHING." Breathe, Kakashi, breathe!
"Does this have something to do with that bookstore?"
"OF COURSE NOT."
"Liar liar mask on fire," she pouted, sticking her tongue out at him. She crossed her arms and walked over to the windowsill, removing the sodden black bird from the puppy's mouth and letting it go. "So, family man, what would you do if you had kids?"
Now it was Kakashi's turn to cross his arms over his chest. "Iunno, I told you I never thought about it. Didn't even have younger siblings or anything, I don't know how to handle kids. I guess uh... I don't know, I like little babies," he shrugged. "They're so tiny and adorable, especially when you poke them and they laugh at you. But sometimes they cry at you too, and that's not so fun. And they vomit, and poop, and vomit, and soil their diapers, and vomit, and... sleep.. vomit."
" 'Sleep vomit'."
"Yes, they sleep vomit!"
"Really," she said disbelievingly.
"Well if they vomit everywhere else then they MUST vomit when they're asleep."
Ketari shook her head and pushed Kakashi off the bed. "And this is coming from the so-called 'Genius' ninja of Konoha. Sleep vomit... honestly." Kakashi gave her a perplexed look from the edge of the bed. "What? Don't expect me to let you get in the same bed as me." His eyebrows knitted together and he gave her his best pouting face. She sighed. "Fine. You stay on that side and no wandering hands or you'll find that more than your hands are gone, believe me."
Tohru woofed a laugh. "No reproducing boss."
"Shut up Tohru."