Alright, this is not the last chapter of Samurai. Next chapter is. That is...that is...so weird...to say that. I've said it before, but this still feels just like that little baby one-shot that I started with a year and a half ago. It has changed a lot, and grown a lot, and stayed the same and just...wow. A full thanks and acknowledgements will be included in the next chapter. In the meantime, feel free to go through the onionna blog to browse and reminisce. Or something. I love all of you lots, lots and lots for all of your wonderful reviews, insights, and speculations. See you in the epilogue!

Funfact: at this time in Japan you kept your kid's head shaved bald until they were three years old and went to their first shichi-go-san festival. Yup.

Funotherstuff: Before you all start getting mad at the reddish shine to Botan's hair, let me clarify this: I'm acquainted with a family who had this happen to their son. The mom is American Chinese and the dad is a red-headed, and their son has really dark-bordering-on-black-hair, but in strong or yellowish lighting his hair has a burnt red tint to it. So deal.

Funotherstuff: One of Kakashi's lines is pretty much lifted from the anime because it's fun.

So, without further ado,

Enjoy!

Kakashi hoped that his son learned to sleep through the night soon, despite all assurances from his mother-in-law that it would be at least weeks before that happened. He lit the lamp for Sakura, sitting back on his knees and yawning. Botan mewled unhappily from the little cot, hungry or in need of his mother's voice Kakashi couldn't yet tell. The boy was only two weeks old, they were all still getting used to him. And he was getting used to them. Sakura bent to lift the infant up, holding him and cooing to try and quiet his crying. The flickering light illuminated the faint red tint to his son's hair, an accent to the fiery color of Sakura's which cloaked over her face as she cuddled Botan close. He would braid it again for her once they got Botan to go back to sleep. Kakashi rubbed at his blind eye absently, trying to relieve a sudden ache there.

"You're fine, you're fine, hush," Sakura said softly, stroking the back of one finger down the baby's cheek while he rooted against her chest, snuffling unhappily still. With a laugh she opened her robe a little and helped him latch on, holding his head up while he fed. Kakashi caught himself staring a little too closely and sharply reined his attention back to Sakura's face, wondering if she'd caught him right as she spoke.

"Kakashi you should try to go back to sleep, you have to be up early to get the last of the rice in," she whispered, not looking up from Botan. Kakashi shook his head, scooting around to sit a little closer to his family—and to pry Botan's fist away from Sakura's hair, letting the little fingers wrap tightly around one of his own. The infant hardly seemed to notice, content and happy in his mother's arms. Kakashi was silent for a long moment, allowing himself to be as peaceful as the two in front of him. Botan's tiny hand opened briefly and then latched closed again around Kakashi's finger, his miniscule fingernails hinting at scratching—just hinting. Everything about his son was just a hint, just suggestions of how the boy might take after either one of them, and Kakashi couldn't wait to see it.

"No, I think I'm fine here," he said softly, tilting Sakura's head up with his free hand and kissing her.

He was glad to be away from the city, filled with people still rebuilding from the fire. He could tell that Naruto and Sai were as well, while his wife was ambivalent towards the entire thing. He of course had helped out where he could, when he could escape all of his bodyguards but Sai who clung to him as though they were both rice grains in a stewpot. He couldn't ever elude Sai, but at least with Sai he could relax sometimes and be what remained of Tenzou—a man who was fading fast. The rest of the time he was expected by almost everyone, even Naruto, to act like Yamato, Lord Gama's son-in-law from the country.

This trip would be restful to him, he knew. In his letters, Kakashi had spoken of the son Sakura had given him—Botan, the name Kakashi should have grown up with. Yamato mused that it was a better name to go through childhood with than "mushroom," as Kakashi claimed to have done. "Peony," alluded to something brief and beautiful, not something that was odd and smushed from the beginning. His old friend also related tales of teaching his tiny fleet of servants how to do menial tasks from getting water for the cistern to rice harvesting and planting. Yamato himself shared his experiences at court and in the household he found himself heir to—how he was the only person there to not address Jiraiya by "father," or how purple his actual father had been last summer when he'd first seen Tenzo—Yamato. He had been presented at court immediately after arriving in the city, presented as another one of Sarutobi's bastards—a believable story to everyone in Edo—who was to marry Jiraiya's daughter in the spring. Orochimaru had looked as though he'd had a blood vessel burst open in his brain.

Since then, Yamato had been tasked with quickly learning what was a lifetime of responsibilities—things that most other men prepared their entire lives for he was learning in months and weeks. Shizune helped him often, although he felt self-conscious going to her since she always had to put away her own work to aid him. After just a few weeks Yamato had put his foot down and forced Jiraiya to make a deal with him. He would work as hard and fast as possible and be given a break to return to Fujimi—deep inside himself, Tenzou's voice asked for a month or more, while outwardly he'd demanded two weeks. Jiraiya had refused.

However, in the middle of winter, Jiraiya had relented after realizing that Yamato was barely living—he ate when forced to, but otherwise threw himself fully into his studies. He refused to meet anyone in Edo, refused to attend parties or public events unless Sai and Naruto physically held him down and dressed him up, and hardly spoke to Shizune or Jiraiya themselves. The old man had cornered him, demanding what was wrong, and Yamato had told him—he knew why he couldn't take a break, there was too much to learn, so if he couldn't have a break in eight or nine months, he most definitely could not have a break now. Jiraiya had backed off immediately, promising that he would send Yamato to Fujimi for two weeks, during the fall harvest—but only if the will to live returned to Yamato's eyes.

With something to look forward to, Yamato hadn't had much trouble holding up his end of the bargain.

Fujimi was much as he'd left it. No major upheavals, no long and silent stares, although a few of the villagers shuddered as Sai and Naruto passed by on their horses—painful or scary memories always lasted the longest in a town of this size. Shizune herself rode next to Yamato, refusing to be carried in a jolting carriage for four days. Yamato didn't blame her, having travelled by litter a few times before banning the mention of them from his presence. Besides, without litterbearers slowing them down they cut a day off the length of the trip.

The countryside was golden around them as they went on towards Kakashi's home, and Yamato felt excitement bubble up in him. He knew in a few days his hands would be blistered and his back sore from helping bring in the rice harvest, he hadn't done any 'real' work in ages now, but he didn't care. This was home, despite everything in his life that had changed, this was still home.

The house was changed, and there was a second building a little away from it where Kakashi's new servants lived. Tenzou, usually buried deep inside, simmered in jealousy. Yamato only admired the fine layout of the complex. As they tied their horses to the fence, Pakkun bounded out from around the back of the house howling up a storm before skidding to a stop at the sight of Yamato. The dog growled low under his breath and circled them warily as another two dogs rounded the corner just a moment after, barking just as loudly as Pakkun himself.

"Hello? Is there anyone home?" Yamato called out, not wanting to get closer to the house with the dogs all around him. Pakkun was gradually calming down, cautiously sniffing at Yamato as though remembering who he was. Yamato hoped he didn't bite him as a welcoming present. Shizune, Sai, and Naruto filed in next to him, waiting.

"Yes! Yes, come around to the back!" came Sakura's voice after a snippet of a hushed argument.

"What about your pack of wild dogs?" Sai called back. Yamato shot him an appreciative glance, while Naruto glared at the tone the shinobi took.

"Oh they're fine, Sai," Kakashi's voice preceded his appearance on the porch only barely. "Now my friend, come and meet my little boy." Yamato stared at the scene on the wrap-around porch, mouth agape. Kakashi came to a stop and leaned up against one of the posts holding the roof up, an infant in his arms—obviously rocking the child to sleep, and perhaps waiting for Yamato's arrival given the fact that he was dressed neatly and formally. The little tyke was dozing off and trying to fight it, his bald head drooping and then picking up again and then drooping once more. Yamato bowed to the two of them, his companions following suit.

"He's certainly persisten—"

"Hush, don't want to wake him do you? I've only just now gotten him to doze off. Poor thing got woken up from his nap by his mother yelling at Izumo for almost pulling up her winter radishes." Yamato raised an eyebrow at his friend just as Sakura came up behind Kakashi and whapped the back of her husband's head before thieving the baby from his arms. The child's eyes opened wide for a moment before closing in contentment while his little body went limp against his mother.

"You like radishes in your soup so much, Kakashi, that you'll whine for weeks if you have to go without for a night—it was a favor to you that I yelled at him," Sakura said, touching her fingers to her lips and then pressing the fingertips to the infant's forehead. Yamato tried not to stare, wondering a dozen things at once—if his own mother had done that to him, if all babies lay so quietly against their mother as this one did, if he would be a father soon, among others. He couldn't muse for long, because Kakashi spoke up when he saw Sakura trying to hide and restrain a yawn.

"My, Sakura, you certainly need a nap as well," Kakashi said, pushing up and away from where he had been leaning. Sakura glared at him as they both went down the steps to properly greet Yamato and his fellow travelers. There was something off about Sakura, though Yamato himself couldn't properly tell what.

"It's almost like she is pregnant again, it would seem by her temper and fatigue. My, Kakashi, you work quite fast—your son is not yet a year old and you are to have a second?" Sai managed to say before Yamato had time to stop him and his idiot mouth. He was about to apologize profusely when he actually looked at his hosts. Sakura had blushed red almost immediately, looking down and away from her newly-arrived guests, followed quickly by Kakashi whose ears flushed to a pink far darker than Sakura's hair. Little Botan giggled in his sleep, gleeful at his parents' embarrassment. Yamato rolled his eyes, typical.

"You couldn't leave her alone for even a few months? Kakashi!"

"Well she is such a beautiful woman and—"

"No! No, no, I don't want to hear a word of what you are going to—"

"Ah, won't you listen to a word I say then…Ten…zou?"

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