Kakashi: Choice
Ten days after his run-in with vengeful Iwa ninja Kakashi stood in the Hokage's office, waiting patiently for the Sandaime to ask him probing questions about his severely edited report. He'd spent a week with Ame, exploring their relationship both verbally and physically.
While Ame was completely at ease with her total commitment to him, Kakashi was still skittish. He'd never been in love before, never previously been aware that an emotion could be so all-consuming. It frightened him like nothing in his ninja career to date ever had. So at the end of the week he'd asked for more time. Ame had agreed that Kakashi had to get back to Konoha and promised to give him space to get his thoughts in order and get used to his newly healed soul. She also gave him the address of an okiya in River country that would forward any messages to her, if he wanted to write a letter.
"I'll manage for four months before the edges really blur," she'd said with a smile that had made Kakashi's heart hurt. "Hopefully you'll have decided how you feel about things by then."
Despite it only being three days since he'd left her, the copy-nin missed her already. Both physically -she'd featured heavily in his dreams the past two nights- and emotionally: he hadn't realised how soothing it was to have someone who just listened to you, held you and was just there for you.
Which lead him back to the present, hiding behind his Icha Icha while Sandaime read his butchered, borderline-treasonous-in-what-it-failed-to-mention report. He had mentioned Itachi and Kisame, but only as the people who had wiped out the Rock ninja trying to kill him. Kisame had said in passing that they'd killed his target, so Kakashi had used that as a possibility to rationalise his survival.
"So Itachi just ignored you?" the Sandaime asked.
"left me to die, more like. He probably didn't expect me to survive my wounds so far from home," Kakashi replied, eyes never leaving his book. Sadly his Icha Icha turned out to be an unsatisfactory substitute for the real thing. His mind wandered towards Ame every single paragraph, especially in the racier sections.
"So this healer patched you up."
"No idea who she was. White hair, black eyes, oversized black cloak with red clouds that matched Itachi and Kisame. Tiny thing; said she was paying a debt to Konoha."
Ame had mentioned a Konoha shinobi who had knocked out a would-be-rapist harassing her almost six months earlier. Of course, had the idiot actually got around to trying anything she would have slaughtered him, but the chunnin hadn't known that.
Izumo mentioned encountering a girl of that description a while ago in Waterfall country," the Hokage confirmed, cementing Kakashi's suspicions that those cloaks with the red clouds were significant. Why else would the Sandaime have remembered an otherwise irrelevant footnote in a routine chunnin report?
"Interesting how she felt the debt was owed to Konoha in general rather to Izumo personally," the Hokage mused, chewing on his pipe.
"I asked. She said, and I quote, 'ninja carry out the will of their Kage and village, for loyalty and allegiance are absolute. Only nukenin have the independence to incur personal debts'," Kakaski said blandly. Ame had said that, too. She'd also said she was tied to Hatake Kakashi, human being, rather than Sharingan no Kakashi, copy-nin. His allegiances and career only mattered to her if they mattered to him.
"I see. Go to the hospital for a check up on how the wounds are healing and take tomorrow off."
"Hai, Hokage-sama." Kakashi saluted and left.
The next month was trying. He felt twitchy and restless to the point of accepting extra challenges from Gai, which led to spending less time at the memorial stone. He still walked around with his nose in Icha Icha, but that was more out of habit than actual enjoyment.
The restlessness gradually passed, leaving hollow listlessness in its wake. In the next two months he was more late more often and spaced out regularly. The other journin and tokubetsu journin came to really hate his 'hm? Did you say something?' which previously only Gai had been exposed to.
The fourth month of his separation from his Ame-chan began with miserable, rainy squalls blasted into Konoha by unseasonably cold winds. Kakashi arrived back at his one room apartment one evening, let himself in and almost had a heart attack.
Uchiha Itachi, S-class nukenin, was leaning against his kitchen counter, sipping tea.
"This is a personal visit, Kakashi-san," Itachi said calmly before Kakashi could flare his chakra or throw a kunai. The nukenin had removed his cloud-patterned cloak, kasa hat and hitai-ite with the scratched out leaf symbol, leaving them piled on the bed that took up a good portion of the room's floor. "I am here for Sempai-chan."
"She sent you?" kakashi asked incredulously. Who sends a nukenin into his home village to deliver a message?
"Iie. She agreed to leave you alone for four months unless requested otherwise and she will hold herself for that. I am here because Kisame lacks the restraint to talk to you about it without dismembering you and we agreed you needed to know before we started on the grievous bodily harm."
Kakashi realised with a chill that Itachi was angry. The calm, precise movements and quiet voice were a thin façade over a perfectly controlled pit of seething fury. Not one ounce of KI was being leaked.
"What do I need to know?" he asked carefully, horribly aware of being completely outclassed by an S-class nukenin ten years his junior. A very angry S-class nukenin.
"Sempai-chan is pregnant. With triplets." Itachi enunciated.
Kakashi felt his mind short out in shock. Ame-chan was pregnant? He was a father? Of triplets?
"she is three months into the pregnancy, just starting to show," Itachi continued as if he hadn't just dealt Kakashi the shock of a lifetime. "I, Kisame and others wish to know your intentions. Most of those others are also nukenin, mostly A and S-class shinobi," he added musingly; "Sempai-chan is very well liked."
Kakashi briefly contemplated being hunted down by angry S-class ninja and shivered.
"So, Kakashi-san, what do you intend to do?"
"I want to marry her," Kakashi heard himself say.
"Oh?" Itachi raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
Very much aware that his life was on the line here, Kakashi picked his words carefully:
"I've missed her terribly. It's not home here without her. I think... no, I know I love her. I don't want to be apart from her like this ever again."
Itachi met his eye stare for stare, sharingan whirling slowly. "I believe you," he said mildly, "but where is your pregnant fiancée going to live? Bearing in mind she had a very large family already that she won't want to leave behind."
Ame had told Kakashi about the orphans she looked after, all survivors of clan massacres, turf wars and similar localised purges. The ones she cared for personally lived somewhere in River country; at least twelve of them, from what she had told him.
"The Hatake house isn't big enough, but the grounds it's built on are large enough for a bigger one..." he trailed off. When had he decided he wanted her to move here permanently? He hadn't thought about his father's house in years. He suspected some part of his mind had decided he wasn't going to let Ame-chan get away again at some point in the first week apart, and had been plotting surreptitiously ever since.
"Sempai can sort out the house; she can do more with seals than should even be possible," Itachi said, demeanour suddenly warmer and almost friendly. "Write a letter of invitation to her for me to take to her and she will be here in just under a week, escorted of course."
"Who's the escort?" Kakashi asked cautiously, the threat of extremely concerned nukenin still fresh in his mind.
"His name is Zetsu. He has green hair and is originally from Kusa. The left side of his body is white while the right side is black and the two sides talk to each-other," Itachi told him.
"O-kay." Kakashi watched warily as Itachi shrugged on his cloak, tied his hitai-ite around his forehead and put on the kasa hat.
"Oh, and Kakashi? Goodnight." Kakashi's world spiralled away in swirling black tomoe as he heard the distant thud of his body hitting the floor.
Ninja villages and Allegiance
hitai-ite = a metal plate, generally worn on a headband, etched with the symbol of the village the wearer is aligned to. Nukenin scratch through this symbol to denote their independence
Konhagakure = hidden leaf in the land of fire (Hi no kuni). Symbol is a leaf containing a spiral design
Iwagakure = hidden rock in the land of earth (Tsuchi no kuni). Symbol is two overlapping rocks
Kirigakure = hidden mist, nickname 'the bloody mist' in the land of water (Mizu no kuni). Symbol is four wavy lines, indicating mist
Kumogakure = hidden cloud in the land of lightning (Rai no kuni). Symbol is three clouds, two of them connected
Sunagakure = hidden sand in the land of wind (Kaze no kuni). Symbol is an hourglass/sand limer with a horizontal line over the top
The above are all major villages, each ruled by a Kage. The other ninja villages are much smaller, as are the countries they are located in.
Kusagakure = hidden grass in Kusa no kuni. Symbol is three spikes, indicating grass blades
Amegakure = hidden rain in Ame no kuni. Symbol is four vertical lines, indicating rainfall
Takigakure = hidden waterfall in Taki no kuni. Symbol is the outline of a downward pointing arrow, indicating a waterfall
There are other small hidden villages, but these are the the main ones.
nukenin = missing ninja; one who has broken his allegience to his home village.
A/N: Poor Kakashi. Getting into sticky situations before he's even met Naruto. At least he won't be bored.