This up early and dedicated to Bad Habits, my very first reviewer! Thank-you Bad Habits!
Kakashi: Anticipation
The emotion he was currently experiencing, Kakashi told himself firmly, was not panic. It was... concern. Yes, concern. Possibly a little worry as well. He'd gone through his bingo book collection and found Zetsu, who had turned out to be a cannibalistic S-class nukenin with a multiple personality disorder. He was also an espionage and assassination specialist, indicating that even if anyone in Konoha was idiotic enough to try and detain him he would probably escape without difficulty.
In order to avoid obsessing too much Kakashi had cleaned his tiny apartment, chucked out a lot of junk and rented the apartment next door to store whatever he did not consider a basic necessity so he could fit his girlfriend into his place until the house was ready. Most of his Icha Icha ended up in a box. He would put away all of it, but decided at the last minutes that he wanted to keep up appearances. He hadn't mentioned his pregnant, soon-to-be fiancée to anyone yet,not having the faintest idea how to broach the subject. 'I met this girl, got her pregnant and realised I was in love, so I'm going to marry her', perhaps? Or would he have to explain about her kekkai genkai and how she healed him? She was technically a civilian despite her mastery of more shinobi arts than most kages, so the hokage trying to recruit her was a possibility.
Of course, the prospect of a new kekkai genkai would prompt a warm welcome among the more calculating members of Konohagakure's ruling elite, but Kakashi was dreading the fact that once his children were actually born he'd be expected to take up the Hatake clan seat on the clan council. Maybe I could delegate it to Ame-chan? She'd terrify them into submission in under a week, easy.
He had no idea what to do to the house, either. Since Itachi had said Ame-koi could deal with the house Kakashi limited himself to boxing up everything portable and moving it into the spare apartment. This had attracted unwelcome attention -and a challenge from Gai to 'stack boxes most efficiently' which he had taken ruthless advantage of- but most people assumed he had finally got around to selling the place.
The day before Ame was due to arrive, Kakashi turned up on time for his requested meeting with the hokage, signature orange book conspicuously absent. After a quiet "Kai" by the ANBU on guard -maybe he should be on time more often, if this was the reaction he got?- he was allowed into the office.
The Sandaime was smoking his pipe behind what was probably a desk under all that paperwork. "Kakashi? What brings you here in such an unexpectedly timely manner?"
"Maa," Kakashi scratched his head, "this is awkward."
Sarutobi Hiruzen, nicknamed 'the professor' and 'Shinobi no Kami', looked intregued. "Really? Do tell."
Important bit first. "well, on that mission I failed three months ago I met this girl."
"Oh?" The hokage raised an eyebrow.
"A civilian," technically "though she's got a very strange kekkai genkai. One thing kind of led to another, I fell in love and just recently found out I got her pregnant."
"Wait..." Sarutobi lowered his pipe, staring. "You, Hatake Kakashi, have fallen in love? I never thought I'd see the day. Congratulations. When is the baby due?"
"Babies, hokage-sama. She's expecting triplets."
The Sandaime actually dropped his pipe onto the paperwork, scattering half-burnt tobacco everywhere. "My word. You don't do things by halves do you Kakashi? When do I get to meet the doubtless charming young lady who has snared you?"
"Hopefully tomorrow, hokage-sama. But, ano, the person escorting her to Konoha is an S-class nukenin. Apparently he's a friend of hers." Kakashi cringed slightly, hoping this next bit wouldn't go too badly.
"Hatake Kakashi," the hokage said, getting to his feet and walking around the paperwork monument so he was standing right in front of the silver haired journin, "your civilian girlfriend is friends with an S-class nukenin?"
Kakashi closed his eye hopelessly. "Several S-class nukenin, from what I was told hokage-sama. They aren't very happy with my being involved with her. Dismemberment was mentioned."
"I suppose irate and overprotective family members are a universal constant when dealing with young women," Sarutobi muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Do you at least know which S-class nukenin is escorting her here?"
"Zetsu, formerly of Kusagakure. He's supposedly some sort of plant hybrid."
"Wonderful. I'll write a memo to the gate guards so they know not to interfere. Should I also be expecting an influx of other angry S-class shinobi trying to kill you? And how did you receive this information?"
The one question he didn't want to answer. "Well, funny you should ask that..."
"Kakashi..."
"I found Uchiha Itachi in my apartment when I got home last week." The copy-nin waited for the axe to fall.
There was a very heavy pause. Kakashi briefly wondered if the red-clouds people were recruiting.
"I take it there was more to that failed mission than you reported, journin Hatake?"
Kakashi hung his head. This was going to be a very long and uncomfortable meeting.
–
The next morning Konoha shinobi were shocked dumb at the sight of Hatake Kakashi, journin considered most likely to be late for his own funeral, lounging against the gatepost of the front entrance to the village shortly after dawn. As the sun climbed towards noon the chunnin on guard duty gradually became aware of how twitchy the cyclopic journin was getting. Kakashi looked like he was expecting to be ambushed by a four man Kumo ANBU squad and was hiding it very badly.
Hagane Kotetsu signalled discreetly to his partner Izumo before wandering over to the copy-nin, taking care to make enough noise to avoid getting accidentally stabbed.
"Hey, Kakashi! What brings you out here today?"
Kakashi's lone eye, which was compulsively scanning the faces of passers-by from behind his orange book, briefly glanced at the chunnin before returning to surveillance. "Kotetsu. I'm waiting for some people."
"You expecting them to jump out from behind a tree?" the chunnin asked. "I haven't seen you this jumpy since that incident with Anko four years ago."
"I suspect one of them is rather angry with me," Kakashi muttered, ignoring the jab completely as he monitored his surroundings with the compulsive paranoia all elite shinobi developed after a few years of having people trying to kill you.
"You could say that" said a voice emanating from above them. Both ninja jumped back, Kotetsu drawing a giant kunai and Kakashi readying his hands to form seals, book gone as if it had never existed. The green haired, black-and-white skinned individual who had emerged head and shoulders from the wall surrounding Konoha blinked gold eyes at them innocently:
"Is this Konohagakure? Of course it is; look at the hitai-ite. Moron."
Kotetsu blinked at the man engaged in an argument with himself and tucked the kunai away. "Yeah, this is Konoha. Erm, state your business?"
The man slid further out of the wall, revealing a young woman in a pretty kimono decorated with cranes held bridal-style in his arms. "I'm delivering Amemaihana-san here to Hatake Kakashi." The last few words were snarled as the nukenin released a short, concentrated burst of KI while he gently set the woman on her feet and adjusted her collar and sleeves as delicately as if she were made of glass.
"O-kay then. This here's Kakashi; I'll just... go," Kotetsu said, backing away before making a break back to where Izumo was goggling at the green haired nin, recognising that this situation was way above his pay grade.
"Coward," Kakashi grumbled, noting that Zetsu wore a black cloak with red clouds. He was sensing a theme...
"Kashi!" Ame cried happily, smiling brilliantly and completely derailing his thought process. Why did I want to be away from her again? It must have been the same kind of idiot thinking that got Obito killed.The journin immediately pulled her into a hug, ignoring their curious audience.
"It's wonderful to see you again, Ame-koi," he murmured in her ear, "I've missed you terribly; I should never have insisted on being given space in the first place. Are you well? The babies?"
Ame blushed happily, genjutu-created hazel eyes shining. "Yes and yes; I've missed you too, so very much!"
"Get a room. Ame-san, where do you want your stuff to go?" Zetsu asked, producing some large sealing scrolls from under his cloak.
"Give them here;" Kakashi said, "I'd rather not deal with the headache inviting you into the village is bound to cause."
The plant-nin shrugged, Venus flytrap-like appendages emerging briefly from around his shoulders. "Suit yourself, tree hugger. Stay in touch, Yogensha-chibi. Hatake-san, for you," he handed over the sealing scrolls and a small messenger scroll. "Just so you know, I'd eat you if she let me." With that he merged into the ground and disappeared.
"wasn't he friendly," Kakashi said breezily, feeling a little giddy from having escaped retribution and seeing -touching- Ame-chan again. "Come on, Ame-chan, I'll show you where you're staying for now." He shoved the message scroll in his pouch, tucked the sealing scrolls firmly under one arm and wrapped the other around Ame's waist. He nodded to the gaping crowd:
"Ja ne," he said with an eye-smile and shunshined away, leaving a few leaves in his wake.
Izumo looked over at his partner. "So, did you know Hatake had a girlfriend, Kotetsu?"
At Kakashi's apartment, the silver haired shinobi dumped the sealing scrolls on the counter, spun Ame around in his arms, yanked his mask down and kissed her like the world was ending. "I missed you so, so much," he muttered, untying her obi and draping it over the fridge. "I love you, Ame-koi and I'm never letting you go."
"I can live with that," Ame whispered huskily, the genjutsu hiding her starry eyesockets dispelling as she tugged at his journin vest. "Off."
Kakashi willingly obliged, then pushed her firmly onto the bed and knelt down to take off her geta and tabi. That achieved, various other items of clothing made their way to the floor and were scattered across the tiny room. Ame was down to underwear, baring the faint swell of her pregnant belly and Kakashi was about to shed his trousers when someone knocked on the door. Snarling angrily, he wrenched his mask up over his face, stalked over to the door and yanked it open just enough to see who he had to kill for interrupting him. The unfortunate chunnin on the doorstep cringed as the journin's focused KI bore down on him.
"Ha-Hatake-sa-sama," he stuttered, staring in terror at th copy-nin's mismatched eyes, the sharingan in his left eye-socket whirling menacingly, "Th-the ho-ho-hokage wo-would l-like a w-w-word-"
"Later," the elite journin growled.
"Ha-Hatake-sama-"
"Is the village under attack?"
"N-n-no.."
"Has anyone militarily significant been assassinated?"
"N-no,"
"Then it can wait." Kakashi hissed, KI rising even higher.
"Hatake-sama-" The door slammed shut and the lock clicked. The chunnin collapsed to his hands and knees, wheezing in relief as the KI suffocating him was abruptly cut off. Never, ever going to take a message to Hatake Kakashi again...
Kakashi returned to the bed in an instant, eyeing his amused lover sprawled across the blankets with raw lust. "Now, koi," he purred, pulling his mask down so it pooled around his neck, "Where were we?"
Kakashi did not meet with the hokage until late in the evening, by which point every single ninja currently in Konohagakure had heard that the copy-nin had brought a girlfriend home from somewhere and was completely head-over-heels for her.
Omake: The Letter
Kakashi opened the messanger scroll he'd up until this moment forgotten and started to read it:
Dear Hatake Kakashi,
We the undersigned are all good friends with Amemaihana-chan and expect you to trat her with the respect and devotion she deserves, both as a woman and as an adept of many different branches of the Shinobi arts. None of us like you very much -or at all- for getting her pregnant, so failiure to do so will result in lots and lots of pain and eventual death. Take not that this is only those of us who could be contacted in the past three months to sign this letter; rest assured there are more of us who couldn't sign both directly and by proxy.
Yours,
Uchiha Itachi
Hoshigaki Kisame, former Mist Swordsman
Akasuna no Sasori
Iwagakure no Deidara
Zetsu
Ame no Konan
Kurosuki Raiga, former Mist Swordsman
Oowashi, daimyo of Bird country
Momochi Zabuza (proxy), former Mist Swordsman
Kayuga Kimmimaro (proxy) on behalf of the Kayuga clan
Kurotsuchi (proxy), journin of Iwa, on behalf of her fellow ninja acquainted with Yogensha-sama
Houzuki Aoitsuki (proxy) on behalf of the Houzuki clan
Yukimaki Matsumi (proxy) on behalf of the Yukimaki clan
Sabaku no Temari (proxy) on behalf of the Yondaime Kazekage, his family and those ninja of Suna acquainted with Yogensha-sama
Kamizuru Kiirobachi (proxy) on behalf of the Kamizuru clan
Tetsu no Mifune (proxy), leader of Iron country
Samui (proxy), journin of Kumo, on behalf of her fellow ninja
Wasabi Jirocho (proxy) on behalf of the Wasabi family in Tea country
Kakashi blinked at the long list of powerful names and influential connections, noting that there were both missing-nin and those alligned to different villages on the list, as well as two daimyos and a powerful business man.
"I really messed up not admitting I loved her right away didn't I?"
A/N: I don't do lemons, so don't expect any. This is as close as I'll ever get.