Sorry for the wait on the update. As a reward, have a nice long chapter (long for me).


To Sakura, the next portion of their walk went surprisingly fast. Perhaps it had something to do with Jiro sharing some stories about his late wife. For an arranged marriage, she was surprised by how much he really seemed to care about her, and if his stories were to be believed, she had cared about him.

After telling a few stories about their first year of marriage and how much he and his wife had wanted a child, he finally seemed to calm down, the shock of earlier events slowly fading from his mind.

He talked about his first meeting with his wife, how they had both sat in silence in an otherwise empty room for a their entire first meeting just coming to terms with the sudden announcement by their parents that not only were they to have arranged marriages it would be to the person they would be meeting in a matter of minutes. The little time spent together in silence had been their only meeting before their actual wedding ceremony a few weeks later. Other than the formal exchanged greetings, that was all they had said to each other that first time they met.

He told of how they had slowly gotten to know each other, how her father had build them a home on his land and they had moved into it – the home he had just left. But he never mentioned her death or the birth of his son. He changed the subject, asking Sakura about her life instead.

"Me?" She asked in surprise.

"Married, dating, uh… what…?" Jiro asked, glancing over at her.

Naruto, who had been walking in front of them the whole time, dropped back and slung an arm around her shoulders. "Nope! She's completely single! Hasn't had a date in ages – oof!" His words were cut off by a sharp elbow to the ribs.

"Ah." Jiro glanced over to Sakura quickly and slowly, but surely, started to walk closer to her.

"Sakura," Kakashi's voice broke into their conversation. "I believe Yasu is waking up."

"Oh, good, let me take a look at him." Sakura slipped out from under Naruto's arm and waited until Kakashi caught up with her. Brushing aside the cloth hiding the child's face, she growled at her team leader.

"He's snoring, Kakashi."

"Oh, my mistake." He smiled and gave her a happy eye-crease. "I thought he was giggling."

"You're such an idiot." She sighed, shaking her head.

"Takes one to know one."

If possible, she would have sworn he smiled even wider.


Increasing her pace, Sakura caught up with the group in front of her just in time to hear Naruto telling a less than enthusiastic looking Jiro about his and Hinata's relationship. Somehow, Sasuke had slowed enough to be overhearing his friend's words as well. Naruto wasn't saying anything she wasn't aware of, but she was sure it was certainly more than Jiro had ever wanted to know about the blond haired man.

"She's the best! She's kinda quiet but when it's just us, lying in bed, she'll talk and tell me what she's thinking. And you wouldn't believe what she's like in bed!"

"Naruto!" Sakura said sharply. "Jiro-san doesn't want to know about your sex life. Really!"

"No one wants to know about your sex life, Dobe." Sasuke kicked in.

"There's nothing wrong with my sex life!" Naruto protested.

"No one ever said there was anything wrong with it, just that we don't want to hear the details." Sakura explained.

Clearing his throat, Jiro smiled weakly and tried to change the subject. "And how about you, Sasuke-san? Are you married or dating anyone?"

"I have a girlfriend." The quiet man grudgingly admitted.

"Oh? And how did you meet her?" Jiro asked politely, attempting to keep Sasuke talking.

Naruto snorted. "It was actually the girl's best friend who met him."

"More like stalked him." Sakura chimed in with a laugh.

"Stalked him?" Jiro asked. "Isn't that a little worrying?"

"Not when you're a shinobi and can defend yourself. It just tends to be a bit annoying. Besides, it wasn't the malicious sort of stalking. You see, even in the shinobi village we develop… followers." Sakura brushed aside Jiro's concern easily.

"Hah! Everyone else develops followers, Sasuke develops stalkers. Sakura was even one of his stalkers at one time." Naruto ribbed.

"Hey, I wasn't… well, okay, I guess… but, I mean, I wasn't 'stalker' bad, was I?" Sakura asked.

Her two teammates nodded their heads vigorously. Kakashi's sing-song voice came from behind them, "Oh yes, you were, Sakura-chan!"

"Thanks guys." She grumbled, visibly slumping. "Well, at least I got over it."

"Was that after the first or second time he tried to kill us?" Naruto asked sweetly.

"The second." She said sullenly. She wasn't about to tell them it had actually been when he'd held a chirping chidori to nearly fatally wounded Kakashi's throat that she'd woken up from her dreams of a future with Sasuke.

Jiro cleared his throat to move the story along.

"Suki was actually persuing one of our friends, Neji, while her best friend was after Sasuke. And if you think Sasuke is emotionless, you should meet Neji! Better yet, watch the two of them at the bar sometime. It's like two statues, only their arms moving the drinks to their mouths occasionally. The silence is unnerving. Not a word from either of them. It's like they're dead or something. They're just happy to sit there in complete silence." Naruto said, his hands interlaced behind his head and his arms, once again, sticking out to the side, his eyes staring up at the gathering clouds. It was probably going to rain again before long. They'd been rather lucky to have such a stretch of clear weather this morning so they were more than overdue for a storm.

"That's because he understands the gift of silence, unlike the loudmouth over there." Sasuke said.

"Anyway," Sakura continued, "eventually this one night at the bar, Suki gave up on Neji and came over to drag her friend away from Sasuke, who her friend had just about cornered in the bar. Sasuke was a little amazed by how cold Suki was to him and found himself intrigued, didn't you, Sasuke?"

"Hnnn." He replied uncommittedly.

Naruto took up the narrative. "Suki gave him the cold shoulder before grabbing her friend by the arm and dragging her away. The next night when the pair showed up at the bar, each following her selected stalkee, Sasuke started pumping her friend for information about Suki."

Sakura chimed in, enjoying this immensely. "But Suki still wanted nothing to do with him. She wanted Neji, but Neji wanted another of our friends, TenTen, who was completely oblivious to Neji because he was terrible at sending signals but definitely receptive once he got it through his thick head. But oh, yeah that's another story." Sakura cut that short as Naruto motioned for her to stop there.

"Right. But once Sasuke had his interest piqued, he couldn't leave her alone. Sasuke became the stalker. But she wasn't interested, mostly because her friend accused her of betraying her and stopped speaking to her. Eventually, Suki got tired of it, hauled off and punched him in the face. Being a shiniobi, there was no way she could have actually hurt him, but when she struck him, she did it with her thumb inside her fist, nearly breaking it."

"So Sasuke brought her to me to heal her." Sakura took over again. "She and I had a talk and I managed to convince her to finally give Sasuke a chance."

"And they did well from there?"

"Famously." Sakura replied.

"Wow. How about Kakashi?" Jiro asked.

"Um…." Naruto looked at his companions in confusion. "I don't know, how about you guys?"

"Not a clue." Sasuke said.

"Don't really know." Sakura concurred. "It's never been the sort of question we've asked him."

Naruto was scratching the back of his neck again. "He's just always just been Kakashi. I've never really seen him with anyone. I mean, women have come on to him because he's all mysterious and everything, but I can't say I've ever seen him with anyone."

"Well, I've heard a story or two about him in the baths before," Sakura said. "But it's always been a 'friend of my sister' sort of thing."

"Ah… is he listening?" Jiro asked quietly.

"No way to know. He wouldn't give us any sign if he did, except for a wave and the typical, 'Yo!' " Sasuke finally spoke.

Sakura's mind wandered away from the small group's conversation. Was it possible Kakashi had someone special the team didn't know about? Their team had always been closer than most, at least the three of them had been, but Kakashi had always been aloof, never telling them much of his personal life. There had been that mission a year or so ago that had been just the two of them, but she'd been the one who talked most and the subject of Kakashi's romantic history never came up. He'd mostly just listened, even though he had finally told her about his eye. She already knew the story, thanks to Tsunade, but having him tell her showed he trusted her. Of course it was one of the few times he talked on the mission…

But that was just Kakashi. Generally alone at the bar most shinobi hung out at, rarely flirting, hardly ever pulling his nose from his Icha Icha book long enough to even down his sake. He just… was.

It wasn't like she hadn't seen him seduce a woman before. It was on a mission a number of years ago and he'd needed to get information out of a certain lady, and he'd obviously been quite good at it. Really good at it.

She was pretty sure he wasn't dating anyone; his best friend was Genma and Genma was dating her best friend, and the town gossip, Ino and she certainly would have heard something by now if he was. It wasn't like he hadn't dated anyone, she could recall two specific women who had managed to pick him up at the bar – but it had been just like that, they had to make all the effort to get the laidback man to even look up from his book much less leave with them. A little part of her wondered just how far he had gone with those women. Had he showed them his face? Had they been able to kiss his bare lips? Had they been able to see… more?

Why was she even thinking like this?

Maybe because you're jealous?

Sakura sighed. She really and truly hated this inner voice of hers. As she had gotten older, the voice had more or less disappeared; at least it remained hidden until she found herself conflicted about something. And the voice speaking up now apparently meant she was conflicted about something.

Ahem, ahem. Jealousy?

Oh, for god's sake, shut up! I'm most certainly not jealous of some hypothetical woman.

I wouldn't be so sure…

"Sakura!" the sound of Naruto's voice and one of his hands waving in front of her face brought her out of her thoughts. "Kakashi-sensei said it looks like rain so we're going to break for lunch."

"Oh. Good idea." She said, wondering just how far out of it she had been.

"Where were you? I had to call your name half a dozen times."

"Lost in thought," she replied. It was a good thing he had called to her. The rest of the group had stopped and she might have kept waking for quite a way before she realized she was alone. And it would be just like Kakashi to allow her to keep going, too.

With a sigh of relief, she shed her backpack and stretched her body to work out the kinks formed from hours of walking. She took a good look around the site Kakashi had chosen.

It was at a good place, on top of a very small and rocky hill, almost unnoticeable but enough to drain the water away from the shelter Naruto and Sauske were currently setting up. Glancing up at the sky, she could already hear the distant rumble of thunder from the gathering clouds and it was easy to see the afternoon storm that was rapidly growing.

Like clockwork, she mused. Every day around noon it stormed for about an hour, after which the skies cleared for a few hours. Occasionally there would be another storm around three o'clock, but it wasn't as regular as the noon and evening storms. It was those evening storms that were the rough ones. They started about seven o'clock and lasted all night with lots of wind, thunder and lightning. These were the storms Kakashi and Sasuke loved to stand out in to properly experience the storm. Or something stupid like that. It wouldn't be half as idiotic if they would just wear their damn cloaks.

Speaking of Kakashi, Sakura glanced over to see that he had sat down under a tree with Yasu who was finally awake from his nap. She was surprised to see that Kakashi had summoned the youngest of his nin-dogs, Pup who was playing with the little boy. At the moment, Yasu was struggling to stand up but every time he got himself balanced onto his hands and feet, an overenthusiastic Pup would bump into him and knock him down. Luckily both of the participants were enjoying it too much to really care that they were getting nowhere.

Kakashi himself was sitting against a tree, dirty novel grasped tightly in hand. it looked like he was concentrating solely on the book, but Sakura knew he was probably keeping an eye on the little boy and his nin-dog; he had that sort of skill, after all. When they were all younger – hell, just this morning – he would fight them with his nose buried in one of those damn books and it was the most annoying thing, giving the impression that they didn't offer enough of a challenge for him to give his undivided attention to. But then again, that was the point wasn't it?

It was just that he took such joy in doing it. Sakura sighed.

Her eyes searched for Jiro, and she smiled again when she found him. He had curled up under a tree not too far from Kakashi, his pack under his head and his cloak covering him like a blanket and he was snoring softly. Well, at least someone was comfortable.

Sakura made her way over to the tree Kakashi was propped up against.

"Kakashi, can I ask you something?" Her voice was low as she didn't want Jiro to wake up and overhear them.

"Mmmm." She took his nonverbal response for an affirmative and settled beside him.

"What would make a grown man unwilling to hold his own child?"

"What makes you think I would know the answer to this?"

"If I asked Naruto, he wouldn't understand well enough to answer. If I asked Sasuke, he'd understand enough to answer, but he wouldn't share it with me. That leaves you." Sakura smiled sweetly at him.

"Hnn… There's a lot of possible answers to that question."

"Like…?"

"The general lack of caring or interest."

"That one doesn't apply. He seems to care enough about Yasu, he just doesn't want to hold him. I mean, when we were attacked back there, he was worried the most about his son but the minute I told him to take Yasu from me, he flat out refused."

"Perhaps he is scared."

"Scared of a one year old child?"

"That whole projectile vomiting thing they tend to do even freaks me out sometimes."

Sakura gave a soft giggle. The thought of Kakashi running in fear from a child, even a puking child, was too funny to remain straight faced.

"So if you had kids, would you be afraid to hold them?"

"If you'll remember, I've babysat for not only Asuma Jr, but Anko and Ibiki's unholy pair. I have no real fear of children."

Sakura laughed again, "Who would have imagined that two insanely strict and, well, scary people could have such hellions?"

"Hmmm. They are a bit harsh with everyone but their own children."

"The ones who really need it. But back to Jiro. If you had a son, what would make you unwilling to hold him?"

"If I had a son?" Kakashi turned to look at Sakura out of his good eye. "That's a bit hard to imagine, isn't it?"

"What, you with kids? Look at Yasu playing with Pup! They're both enjoying it! And the way you sat with him this morning was great, too."

"That's not exactly what I meant."

"I can't see why. But, back to Jiro…"

"Honestly, I think it's a combination of several factors, the most important being the loss of his wife. As near as I can tell, he seemed to really care for her, unusual for an arranged marriage and when he lost her during childbirth, the possibility of losing his child was too much. It's also possible that, like a number of men, he was afraid to touch such a delicate, breakable creature and without prompting from a wife, no one forced him to get over that fear. It could be a combination of the two but the only real way you can find out is to ask him."

"Oh." Sakura hesitated. "You know, I think that's the most you've said to me at once in months – no, maybe years." She said with a smile. "Hmm... I guess it makes sense, though. And I suppose I have to ask him then, right?"

Kakashi responded with his usual non-verbal tone.

Sakura stood up and brushed the dust from her skirt. "It was nice of you to summon Pup for Yasu to play with." She said, giving him a smile that had Kakashi burying his nose even further into his book.

Turning to the boys, she was going to ask about the pack with Jiro's food and direct the two to gather wood and some water when she saw Naruto bending over to tie one of the ropes for the shelter to a stake.

"Naruto, your pants are ripped, again." Sakura said in exasperation, walking over to join him.

"Where?" he dropped the rope he'd been holding to turn and try and see the back of his pants and the corner of the tarp dropped onto Sasuke's head. Sasuke growled.

"Would you fix them for me, Sakura-chan?" Naruto found the hole and stuck a finger through it. It looks like it had been a cut from a kunai.

Sakura looked at him, hands on hips, single eyebrow raised. "Naruto, you're 23 years old. Surely you can fix your own pants by now."

"But... that's why I have Hinata."

Sakura's annoyance was rising. "You can't be serious." She fumed. "Please tell me you're not just dating Hinata because of all the things she does for you." By this time Sasuke, who had long since tired of relationship talk, had gone to gather some firewood. He knew where this was headed and wanted nothing to do with it.

"Well, no. I really like her." Naruto turned away from finishing the last tie for the shelter for the upcoming storm. "She... she accepts me for who I am, even though I'm the kuuybi container… She puts up with me. The real me."

"So you just 'really like her.' Is that all?" He patted the last corner rope before he sat down against one of the trees used as a base for the shelter. Sakura sat next to him and rested her head against his shoulder.

Naruto glanced around as if he was afraid of being overheard. He continued in a loud whisper. "No. I think I love her." The blond haired man bowed his head and twiddled his fingers, something he'd picked up from Hinata.

"Is that all? What about her?"

"I think she might love me too." He said slowly, turning to look at her with sad eyes.

Sakura struggled not to roll her eyes. It wasn't as if that hadn't been obvious for the past decade.

"And what's wrong with that?" Sakura asked. She was a bit confused by Naruto's logic.

"I think… I want to ask her to marry me." He said softly. "Do you think she would accept?"

"In a heartbeat." Sakura gave him a reassuring smile. "I can't think of anything she'd like more."

"But her father hates me. He knows I'm the kyuubi container and he'll never let Hinata marry me, even if she wants to."

"Naruto, this is really unlike you. You're usually so confident, sure that you'll find a way to make things work."

"It's different this time, Sakura. I can understand that people who I don't know, don't like or respect me. They have no reason to believe I'm anything but a monster. But Hiashi and the clan elders have met me and know all about me yet they continue to put me down every time we meet. To them, I'll always be a monster, even if I manage to make it to hokage. And it makes Hinata sad. She's never said anything, but I can tell. I'm not that blind and I don't want to make her life miserable."

"Well, I can see your point but I think that choice should be left up to Hinata."

"Don't you see? I don't want to make her choose between me and her family." Naruto's voice was rising with his frustration level.

Sakura gave him what she hoped was a reassuring smile. "I'm afraid she's going to have to, eventually. At least as long as her father continues to disapprove. And Hinata abdicating to Hanabi is out?" Sakura asked without much hope.

"No. Apparently it doesn't work that way. Besides, Hiashi wants Hinata to marry Neji so he can be clan leader."

"And Neji? How does he feel about it?"

"You know he and Tenten have been dating for a while now."

"Right… So… Don't suppose the old man could be told to mind his own business and just fuck off?" Sakura offered, feeling a bit at a loss for suggestions. Hinata's whole family situation was a bit sticky, what with her being the designated future head.

Naruto threw his head back and laughed loudly. "I would give anything to be able to do just that! And wouldn't the look on his face be priceless?" The unnaturally serious and depressed tone to his voice was gone as he flashed her his usual wide grin. "Maybe once I'm hokage I can tell him to do just that."

Sakura returned his grin and nodded. There was no way it would work, but she would put a little thought into it and maybe she could find a solution. She'd discuss the matter with Tsunade and maybe the older woman had some insight into the matter. "Until then, I'm thinking you're going to need to fix your own pants – well, at least on this mission."

The clatter of driftwood and sticks falling from Sasuke's arms made Sakura realize she should probably get to work on lunch before it started to rain. If they hadn't had the baby, they wouldn't have bothered with the hot food and just eaten rice balls or something, but with the addition of the child and the fact Naruto had eaten all the rice cereal she made this morning, she needed to make some fresh for Yasu. With that and a bit of the fresh fruit sent by Emiko, they would have a decent lunch.

It was routine, and their team fell into it without discussion. Sakura, by default, handled most of the cooking. It wasn't like the others couldn't cook… no wait, they really couldn't cook. Sakura's own culinary skills weren't anything to sing high praises about, but burned to a crisp wasn't her predominate seasoning like her other teammates' cooking. When left up to Naruto, it was almost impressive how one could burn instant ramen – especially since all you needed to do was add hot water to the noodles.

In exchange, the other three usually kept watch and handled some of the other chores around camp. Because this was a trip through Lightning where Kakashi and Sakuke complained about not being able to sleep anyway, they would handle the watch. Naruto was carrying the heavy scrolls full of baby supplies and the like. The two lightning chakra users would be able to catch enough sleep during the rest stops throughout the day required by the civilians. Keeping Yasu well rested would be the best solution to keeping him quiet and while they wouldn't cover as much ground as they would like, staying away from the villages and well populated areas would help keep their movements as quiet as possible.

If this hadn't been an escort mission, the team would be moving from sun up to sundown, but with a civilian and one of them being a child, they needed to take a much easier pace. Sakura glanced up at the sky; hopefully she could get something warm fixed for Yasu before it started raining.

With a woosh, Sasuke used a jutsu to blow a small flame to start the fire just as Naruto came trotting up a game path from a nearby creek with a bucket of water. After rummaging through the scrolls from Nartuo's pack, she found the one with fresh diaper supplies and the one for soiled diapers and threw them to Sasuke, who caught one expertly in each hand. A little further searching and she found the one with all the food.

"Check Yasu's diaper while I'm fixing lunch, would you?" Sakura asked. An ominous rumble of thunder drew her attention back to lunch. She would have enjoyed watching Sasuke attempt the diaper change but, rain was threatening, so she'd just have to catch the next one. Next time promised to be humorous as well, so she resigned herself to cooking, for the moment.


The rain started just minutes after Sakura had finished cooking the rice cereal. In a rush, she grabbed the scroll with the food and the cooking pot and dashed to the shelter. Kakashi came more slowly with a giggling Yasu tucked under one arm and wriggling pup under the other; Jiro came running moments after Kakashi. The other two members of their party had already been reclined under the tarp.

They spent the next hour in the shelter until the rain stopped. Sakura enjoyed watching Naruto trying to feed Yasu and the little boy not wanting to eat and trying to spit the food out. Pup was waiting eagerly to lick it off the little boy's face and shirt. She tried to stifle her laughter but it didn't always work. Sasuke even cracked a smile at his friend's difficulties while Jiro also enjoyed it, laughing out loud at Naruto and his son. Kakashi had curled up in a corner, snoring softly with a pack as his pillow.

Sakura looked over at her team leader and gave him a soft kick in his leg with her foot. He grumbled and shifted in his sleep, his snores disappearing into soft, heavy breaths. She wanted to reach out and brush his usually gravity defying hair from his face, but she refrained from the action. It was never good to wake Kakashi like that; he was too dangerous of a ninja to startle in his sleep if one didn't care for a kunai to the neck. The whole team had seen Naruto learn that one the hard way one afternoon and it hadn't been pretty.

Her thoughts drifted back to her earlier conversation with her former teacher. Kakashi was right, if she really wanted to know why Jiro wouldn't hold his son, the best way to find out would be to ask him.

But why had he been so incredulous when she mentioned the possibility of him having his own son? Had Kakashi really never thought of having a family? Surely everyone at least thought about it at one time or another, even if the ultimate decision was against it. But Kakashi had sounded like the very idea of him having a child was absurd, unheard of. What could cause a man to completely disregard the potential of offspring?

For some reason, she almost found this more intriguing than the question of why Jiro didn't want to pick up his own son.

It was then that Kakashi's coal black eye opened and stared straight back at her.

TBC…


I love reading the reviews and the stories people have been leaving – even if I don't respond to them right away. I'm going to be evil and steal some of the ideas – the details from some of the comments and include them in my fic. I'm also going to apologize that updating is going to be a bit further apart – I had to take two classes this semester to be eligible for financial aid when I had only planned on one and I work 55-60 hrs a week and I'm running out of prewritten stuff. Most of this chapter was what I've written this past month and I'm so proud of myself!! *pats self of head* good self!

So I haven't abandoned this fic, updates might just be a little far apart.