A few days later, Kakashi trudged into his living room—still a wolf—to see Keiko sprawled across his couch, flipping through the TV channels.

He barked, cocking his head to the side. Keiko smirked at him and turned back to the TV, seemingly ignoring him. Kakashi whined, forcing his body back to a human—it was just so much easier to talk this way. Besides, it was probably time he started doing stuff again, and not just using his disability as an excuse.

"What are you doing here?" Kakashi demanded of his cousin—at least, he thought they were cousins. He might have to look that up later…

"What?" Keiko said. "I can't visit you?"

"And how did you even get in here?" Kakashi wondered, ignoring what she had just said.

"The scarred brunette let me in. He was leaving with your kids." Keiko said absently.

"Iruka just let you in?" Kakashi repeated. "He doesn't even know you! For all he knew, you could be a serial killer!"

"He seemed like a nice person." Keiko said. She waved her hand vaguely, just narrowly missing Kakashi's head as he dropped to the ground in front of the couch. He sighed, leaning against the couch.

"How are your ribs?" Keiko asked. Kakashi shrugged.

"Mostly healed. Just a little bit bruised, now." He said.

Keiko smiled. "That's good. Told you that it would be better to be a wolf."

Kakashi rolled his eye. "So what have you been doing in Konoha?"

"Not much. Talked to the Hokage, wandered around, talked to some people." Keiko said. Kakashi raised an eyebrow.

"That's it?"

"Well…" Keiko looked around guiltily before sliding down to sit next to her cousin. "I learned something about our family."

Kakashi frowned. What could she have possibly learned that would make her act like this?

"I-our mothers…they were more closely related than we thought."

/\/\

Iruka sighed as Itachi looked around for Hana, while Sasuke played on the ground in front of the bench he was sitting on. Itachi could be so demanding sometimes, and when he gave Iruka the puppy-dog eyes, even he couldn't resist the child's pleads to see his best friend.

And now here he was, sitting on a park bench waiting for the Inuzuka's to arrive.

Itachi poked his leg, successfully getting Iruka's attention. "Yes, Itachi?"

"When's Hana going to get here?"

Iruka sighed. "She'll be here soon."

Itachi plopped down in Iruka's lap, curling up close to him. "When, Daddy?"

"Any minute now, I think."

Iruka closed his eyes and rested his chin on top of Itachi's head.

"When will Daddy be better?" Itachi asked, and Iruka blinked.

"Daddy should be better soon."

"When?"

"A couple of days."

Iruka was saved from more questions when Hana ran up to them, panting and grinning. "Hey, 'Tachi! Let's go play," she said, and Itachi jumped out of his lap and followed his friend.

Tsume appeared at a much slower pace, carrying Kiba. She set him down next to Sasuke.

"Hello, Iruka." She said. Iruka waved.

"Hey, Tsume."

"Has Kakashi gotten any better?" she asked, settling herself on the bench next to Iruka.

Iruka shrugged. "Honestly, I don't know. I think he has, but he refuses to shift back to a human. He's still a wolf."

Tsume rolled her eyes. That sounded just like something Kakashi would do.

"What about that woman that came in with him? Keiko?"

Iruka thought about the woman he had let in before he left the apartment with the kids. "She's doing good. I think. I've only met her once, and that was before I left this morning."

"Did she seem nice?" Tsume wondered.

"Yeah. She was polite, anyway." Iruka answered.

"What does she have to do with Kakashi?"

"I think she's a Yazuma, just like Kakashi's mother. I don't really know much about her, except that she's from the feline branch of the Yazuma's." Iruka said, sighing as he looked at Itachi and Hana happily playing by a tree.

"So you really have no idea how they know each other." Tsume stated rather than asked.

"Pretty much."

"Ah."

They sat in silence for several minutes, each lost in their own thoughts. "Iruka," Tsume finally said.

"Hmm?"

"Are you going to leave them?"

"Huh?" Iruka turned to the woman next to him with a frown.

"Are you going to leave Kakashi, Itachi and Sasuke?"

/\/\

"What do you mean?" Kakashi asked, looking at the brunette.

Keiko shrugged. "Exactly what I said. Our mother's were sisters."

"So…I-I killed almost all of the family I had left?" Kakashi sat up straight, taking in a shuddering breath. Keiko put a hand on his shoulder.

"Not all of the family. You still have me, and Itachi and Sasuke. Plus, all of the Yazuma's you haven't met yet." Keiko assured him. Kakashi shook his head.

"You don't understand. I killed my cousins!" Kakashi groaned and dropped his head onto his knees, ignoring the twinge in his ribs.

"Kakashi," Keiko said. "Calm down! It's okay."

"No it's not!"

"Kakashi!" She shook her cousin hard. "Get a hold of yourself! I forgive you. I'm sure Yoshiyuki would forgive you, and I know Daisuke would forgive you."

Kakashi shook his head. "No. No they wouldn't."

"Yes they would. I know, because I married Yoshiyuki, and I raised Daisuke. If you had just told us, we would have forgiven you. Especially if we had known how badly it was affecting you." Keiko said.

"I wouldn't forgive myself."Kakashi muttered.

"Yes you would. You know you would forgive yourself. You forgave yourself after all these years, didn't you?" Keiko tried to smile, but it came out as a grimace.

"You shouldn't forgive me. Especially now that you know the truth." Kakashi muttered. "I knew I shouldn't have taken the mission. I was never good at the assassination missions. I knew that, and Minato-sensei knew it. But I was the only one without a family. I was the only who was available."

"Kakashi, you have to start caring about your own feelings, and stop caring about the success of the mission." Keiko said firmly. "The Hokage could have found someone else to do it. You just had to say no."

"There was no way I could say no." Kakashi said.

"Yes you could. That's what your father did, right? He cared more about his comrades than the success of his mission. Just because you grew up without the love of parents doesn't mean Itachi and Sasuke should." Keiko said. Kakashi looked up at the mentions of his sons. "If you keep going this way, you'll turn into your father, except you won't care about your comrades. You'll care more about the mission."

Kakashi said nothing.

"You don't want that, do you?"Keiko asked gently.

"Not really."Kakashi whispered.

"Exactly. You have to better than your father. Don't let the opinions of others get to you. Do what you think is right, not what others think." Kakashi finally let a smile appear, only visible because his mask was absent.

"Thanks, Keiko. I think I needed that." He said.

Keiko smiled. "You're welcome. Now," She stood up. "I think I am going to go look for apartments."

"You're staying in Konoha?"Kakashi asked.

"Yep. Minato convinced me that I should stay and help out. I think he felt guilty for ordering my death." Keiko smiled smugly and walked to the door.

"See you later, Kakashi!"

Kakashi waved a hand, then stood up and moved into the kitchen.

He had work to do.

A/N: GOD THIS CHAPTER WAS HARD! You will not believe how long this sat unfinished. I just had so much trouble with it. Oh well. Anyways, I think this will be the last chapter for this story for a while. I'm gonna try to work o n my other stories for a while.

Please review!