Kisame sipped his cinnamon mocha as he flipped a few eggs on the stove. Fried spam steamed on one of the paper towel-covered plates right next to the batch of fried rice and behind him, Konan quietly sat in her usual seat at the table with the news app open on her tablet and her prog metal playlist soft in the background. It wasn't often he got a free Saturday morning to make breakfast for the kids—

"KENNEDY?!" Kiba's voice exploded from upstairs.

—still with his part-time schedule as one of Konan's elite reserve agents and having more rules for his friends than the kids, the Hoshigaki household never kept normal hours. In a twisted sort of way, raising Sakura as they did honestly had its benefits.

Benefits, he scoffed to himself as he lifted the eggs from the pan. Maybe knowing Kakuzu these seventeen-something years was finally wearing on him. He loved his daughter for better and every single bit of the worst, but he couldn't undo the past. He couldn't undo his mistakes. All that mattered now was that he had back the person he loved most, scars and all, and that meant to accept that it was his fault she couldn't live a normal, better life.

So he knew it'd be wrong to treat her like she had one.

Besides, it seemed like her and the boys were having fun.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN KENNEDY?!"

Konan only tilted her head, eyes never leaving her reading. "Do you remember that pharmaceutical company brought up in the last meeting?"

He moved his attention to his boss. "What about them?"

"Their subsidiaries are interesting; machinery, tourism, healthcare..."

"Sounds legit enough."

"I've sent Kakuzu to draw a report on their progress," she said. "And he's brought to my attention that they've been loading their cruise ships with their own manufactured medical devices and recently developed lap equipment. Transportation, I understand. But through the use of commercial vessels?"

"Yeah, they're definitely up to some fun." Kisame shut off the stove. "You think Orochimaru's workin' with them?"

"We know too little to assume." There was a faint thump upstairs. "The Mediterranean cruise will stop in Hydra, Greece two weeks from today. You and Itachi will investigate. I will keep watch over the kids and mind the gym while you're gone." She took a sip of her glass of freshly squeezed orange juice and paused. "Mint?"

"With some ginger and honey."

"It's good."

"Aw, you always know how to warm an old man's heart."

She snorted quietly. "You're thirty-three. And younger than me."

"Well, you know us teen dads, we get our creaky bones early."

Akamaru trotted down the stairs first, a bulking dog of almost a hundred fifty pounds that rarely ever barked and only got aggressive on the kids' command, and waited for Konan to pat him on the head before he followed Kisame around the kitchen. Kiba stumbled down not too long after, forehead scrunched as he ran a hand through his wild bedhead.

"Uh, mornin' Ms. Boss, Mr. Dad." He opened his mouth to say more, shut it, squinted, then opened his mouth again. "What would you do if I just, like, drank all that coffee straight from the pot?"

Kisame glanced at the twelve-cup coffee maker. "I think the adult answer is that you should drink the orange juice instead. Is it immediately organic if it's homemade?"

"Uso—you made orange juice?!"

Konan took another sip and continued to read.

"Yeah, and apparently it has the power to hold you back from your caffeine addiction." Kisame began to move the dishes to the dining table. "Who's Kennedy?"

He hoped it was a kid from school because teenagers having friends their own age was probably good for their development, but then again, it was impossible to surround them with normal adult role models when all his friends were his coworkers and their job inspired a lot of... eccentricities.

Deidara might be the closest in age at nineteen, but the Akatsuki picked him up at fourteen for his bomb development skills—which was already far too loaded of a sentence—and he and Shino had catalogued every inch of the surrounding woods together for the sake of art inspiration and insect collection, Kiba sometimes bounced around at the main RAIN building either helping out Itachi in the law division or Obito in tech development, and don't even get him started on however the hell Sakura, Hidan, and Sasori got along with all the drag races and fight nights and—

"Sakura's boyfriend," Kiba said as he reached for one of the pitchers in the fridge. "Ehhh, I guess it's gonna be Leon now. Kami. Am I hallucinatin'?"

"Oh, Sakura's boyfriend," Kisame repeated. A particularly heavy groove thrummed through the speakers.

Then he spat a mouthful of coffee all over his fuzzy slippers.

Shino was the next one down with a forehead just as scrunched as Kiba's was. "He's the cornerback of the football team."

"Honor roll, popular dude, boy-next-door vibes..." Kiba continued.

"He's had a crush on Sakura for weeks. How do we know this? He's been so obvious it's physically painful."

"And she didn't say nothin' 'bout it!"

Sakura was the last to wander in with another scrunched forehead, except there was only confusion in her small frown as she took the seat to Konan's right. "We've only been dating for a week."

"He tackle-hugged you after the game yesterday. Y'know, the game you made us go to," Kiba stressed. Akamaru poked his snout up and gently clamped around the corner of a piece of spam and silently slipped away under the table to munch and watch, of course, because that dog just went about his business like being that weird was normal. "You remember that, right? That we went to a football game. Us. Sakura, the only thing any of us know about football s'that there's a ball!"

Kisame shuffled out of his slippers. The kids never seemed to be interested in things like dating or partners and even when the only rules he had laid out were that one, they had to be safe and two, they had to let him know immediately if something went wrong, but nothing ever came up. And he didn't really expect it to when they were teenagers when them and him and all his friends kept odd hours and odd places, and the things that made him worried were more along the lines of Hidan and Sakura almost sending each other to the hospital again.

So, this was new. Super new.

"What's he like?" He asked as he grabbed the paper towels.

Kiba popped into the seat on Konan's other side as he lowered three glasses of orange juice. "Goddamn embarrassing."

Shino slipped into the chair beside Sakura. "He's... nice. I suppose."

Sakura tipped her head and hummed, brow crinkling just a bit more and, slowly, thoughtfully, "Sweet?"

Even Konan looked up this time.

Kiba scooted his chair back in horrified silence as Shino's hand flew to Sakura's forehead, muttering under his breath about how it was flu season and he knew it was going to get one of them but he didn't think it'd be this soon—

And Kisame grinned because that was so fucking adorable.

"Boy-next-door, you said?" Konan inquired. "What is his school rank? His character? His beliefs?" She set down her tablet and leaned forward. "Is he capable of taking down someone twice his size and if so, how quickly would you estimate him being able to do it?"

"Boss."

"These are important questions, Kisame."

He sat down next to Kiba. "But you didn't even start off with the most important question!" He turned toward his daughter and grinned. "Is he cute?"

And Sakura, blunt and blank-faced as per usual, looked him straight in the eye. "Very."

He laughed a full-bellied laugh as Kiba buried his face in his shirt and screamed.

::

"You," Casey accused from across the dining table. This week's math homework had been methodically pulled from its staple and splayed all around her and her scratch paper, "have a girlfriend, don't you?"

Leon startled and looked up from his phone. "Wh—" He twisted this way and that to peer through the doorways and anywhere else an excited, badgering mom could be lurking.

"Mom's holding an online review session for her upcoming exam. She won't be down for a couple hours."

"Great. Don't tell her anything." He ignored her duh face as he paused. "Am I that obvious?"

She rolled her eyes. "That's the dumbest thing you've ever asked me. Anyone with half a brain cell is gonna notice that stupid smile you sometimes get when you're texting, and it's gotta be a new someone who's making you look like that."

"Like what?"

His phone buzzed. He looked down.

And there went his dimples.

She sighed. "Like that."

Casey lowered her pencil and leaned back in her chair, wondering how her brother could possibly land a spot in the top ten at school. Not being a complete airhead wasn't a lot to ask but here they were, her not trying to raise her math teacher's blood pressure for the third time this week and him mooning over a text. But because he had his space cadet moments, she had to make sure he didn't dig himself a hole he couldn't get out of. It was only fair since he looked out for her all the time, even if she had to suffer through all the Happy Meal toys he wouldn't stop getting her. Plus, he was an annoying jockstrap. He needed all the help he could get.

And after last time...

(Red-soled stilettos.)

She pursed her lips. "Hey. Doofus." She bumped his leg with a socked foot. "What's she like?"

Leon sent off his reply before puffing out his cheeks. "Sakura's one of the back row kids who never raises her hand or talks to anyone else outside her group. I never really talked to her much either until we got put on a project together, but she's smart, skateboards, laughs at my dumb jokes, so I think that's got to count for something. She mentioned she was going to re-dye her hair soon, has a bunch of ear piercings, and has at least three tattoos. Oh, and it's cotton candy pink." She blinked, bewildered. "Her hair, I mean."

It took her a few moments to wrap her head around all—all that.

"Huh," she muttered thoughtfully. "How come you didn't say anything earlier?"

"We've only been dating for a week and, uh." He rubbed the back of his neck, dutifully avoiding eye contact. "Okay, don't make fun of me, but apparently I've been super embarrassing about the whole thing and it took Claire and Chris bullying me into actually, like, asking her out because I still wasn't sure if she liked me back or not but I think she does because she didn't beat me up after I kissed her—"

"Dude."

"—I think you'll like her, though," he smiled. "I asked her to come to a game once and she's been to every single one since. Playoffs start in a couple weeks, so you can meet her at one of those if you want. Or if you want to meet her earlier, you can get food with us. She won't mind."

His phone buzzed again and he glanced down.

So. This was new.

And there's actually a bunch of questions she wanted to ask. More than a bunch, if she wanted to get more specific, but that might just be that bit of wariness she couldn't shake off her shoulders. This Sakura didn't sound like someone Leon would like, much less someone who could turn him into this smile-y, blush-y, thumb twiddling sixth grader, and sixth graders were the absolute worst.

But anyway.

"So why're you so nervous if you've only been dating a week? Do you really like her that much?" Casey asked. She started to shuffle her packet papers back in order. Of course the one day she actually hunkered down to do an assignment she'd almost be late turning in was a day she was going to have to cyber-stalk the new girlfriend, but what could she do? He was smile-y. And blush-y. Even now. "Wait, seriously? You? Mr. Football Player Flirtation Station?"

"You hang out with Claire too much."

"Then stop having her babysit me."

"You need to be babysat."

"Okay, then shut up."

He jolted her chair with his foot. She kicked his shin harder.

"But for real, I want to meet her when you're sure she's not gonna run away. And you guys better not do any gross couple-y stuff in front of me," she warned.

Leon's lips quirked up in a small smile, soft and fond as he dragged his gaze back down to his phone when the screen lit up one more time.

"Don't worry," he said. "I swear I won't get any more embarrassing."

::

The skateboard slid out right from under Leon, sending him flying into Sakura's arms.

"Thank you for saving me from cracking my skull on the sidewalk," he mumbled, voice muffled from where his face was smushed against her shoulder. She snorted and patted his arm.

"Do you want to try again?"

He lifted his head, his arms wrapped loosely around her middle as he grinned. "If I can make it to the end of the street without eating shit, can we get ice cream?"

Sakura glanced at her board, stuck innocently in a grass patch.

"Sure, just don't get your hopes up."

"Wh—Hey! What's with all that faith in me you don't have?"

"You'll get it eventually, just not today."

"Today is eventually," he swore as he nudged the board back over. His tongue poked out the corner of his mouth as all his focus zeroed in on his balance as she held onto his hands to keep him steady. They were a little sweaty, a little warm, and he felt every single callus from the edge of her palms to the tips of her fingers. "You won't be so smug when I'm cruising down this sidewalk like every little old lady's worst hooligan nightmare—"

In his grumbling he missed Sakura's soft smile and even softer gaze.

But what he didn't miss were her shaking shoulders when he ended up ass-first in a bush.