Kakashi: Panic

Kakashi hopped from rooftop to rooftop on his way home from the hospital. The medical staff were getting used to team seven's weekly visits and had discharged them after making sure none of them had concussions. The three genin had all gone to Naruto's apartment: Sasuke needed to stay with someone until his eyes recovered and Sakura was at odds with her parents, immobilized right arm be dammed. She had moved into an apartment in Naruto's building and on the same floor as him, which had the added bonus of being cheap since no-one wanted to live near either the 'demon' or Konoha's most dedicated prankster since Uzumaki Kushina, especially when they were the same person.

The jounin had seen that kind of distance develop before; civilian parents often had trouble understanding that their fragile, dependent baby had evolved into a fragile, dangerous professional killer. In this case however it was the kunoichi's parents' intolerance of their daughter's jinchuuriki team-mate that had created and maintained the rift. Sakura, being loyal despite her persistent fangirlish inclinations and as stubborn as a mule, refused to go back until her parents were willing to welcome her team into their home. All of her team.

Naruto had suggested once that she should just let it go but the pinkette had bopped him on the head for it.

"You're my team-mate, baka," she'd said gently. "I'm not dropping you for anyone and anyone who expects me to is going to suffer. Got that, Natuto-nii?"

The declaration of siblinghood had won Sakura a real smile and the blond's undying loyalty. Kakashi smiled at the reminder of his team's amazing progress from where they'd been two months earlier and hopped over the wall into the Hatake compound. It was a little after noon and Ame always left food lying around for transient ninja. It was one of the things about his fiancée that Kakashi found absolutely adorable.

He was making headway through a convenient tray of sushi when a pained groan reached his ears. Puzzled and curious, he abandoned the food and went looking.

It was Ame. She was leaning against the wall in the hall leading to the east wing, tiny sweat-drops beading on her forehead.

"Koi?"

"Kashi? S'now," she hissed as her face tightened in pain.

Now? What- Kakashi went white as the full meaning of her words came crashing home. "Now? What do I-"

"Shh. I've sent for a midwife; just... help me to the infirmary," Ame managed, cradling her belly carefully through another contraction. The copy-nin had always wondered why Ame had insisted on having proper medical facilities in the mansion; it seemed she had been very wise to do so.

Kakashi helped his fiancée into the white-tiled room and gently sat her down on a bench just inside the door. "Do you need anything? Anyone?" What do I do next?

Ame winced, her chakra fluctuating wildly with the contractions. "Need to set the seals; will be dangerous otherwise. Here," she held out a hand, "cut me and smear the blood... on the seal outside the door. We'll have half... the village here otherwise." her face stiffened with yet another contraction and the accompanying chakra burst made Kakashi slightly dizzy. The jounin quickly nicked his fiancée's hand and smeared the blood across the design etched into the wall.

The seal activated by that action immediately enveloped the entire room. From what little Kakashi could decipher the seal could easily be entered from outside, but could not be passed through by the person or chakra of the one who activated it. There were other layers and safeguards of course, but that was the bare bones of it. It was a good seal; very robust.

"Yogensha-chan?" I felt the disturbance and- ah." Kakashi turned slightly to see Han looming outside the doorway. "I take it the time has come then?"

"Aa. There should be inin coming," Kakashi said distractedly. "Who did you send, koi?"

"A summons. The geese... have been keeping an eye on me," Ame panted. "Kami and Shinigami... it hurts."

"Not for much longer," Han remarked, eyeing her cautiously, "if you're as far along as I think you are. When did the contractions start?"

"I woke up feeling sore so I had... a nap after breakfast. The pain woke me about twenty... minutes ago."

"If the midwife isn't here within the hour she'll miss it," Han said dryly. "Do you have a contingency plan?"

Contingency plan? What kind of contingency plan? What kind of things can go wrong with a birth? It can't be that complicated can it? Can it?

"Amemai-sama?" Kakashi and Han both turned to see who had spoken. A hooded ninja dressed entirely in black except for a porcelain mask bearing a purple feline snarl was poised at the far end of the hall. "I sensed the commotion. I have medical experience," the individual offered.

"Ever supervised a birth?" Kakashi asked tersely.

"Iie, Hatake-san. I am however female and could supervised until one more qualified than I arrives."

"Very well then," Kakashi agreed, silently relieved to have some help. Any medical experience was better than none. "You are?"

"The mask I bare is called 'Kasha', Hatake-san," the kunoichi informed him as she drew closer and entered the infirmary. "Amemai-sama told me I am not yet aware enough of myself for a fitting personal name and chose a temporary one that reflected my profession."

"Kasha will do for now then," the copy-nin agreed. Never mind that it is a cat-monster that steals corpses.

"I have read about childbirth," the kunoichi admitted. "I need to see how dilated she is to determine how soon she can safely give birth." Her voice was sufficiently distorted by her mask that Kakashi couldn't tell whether she was actually nervous or not.

"What does that-" the copy-ninja's brain caught up with his ears. "What?"

"Hatake-san, you should go see what is holding up the midwife; she should be here by now," Kasha said, kneeling down in front of the sweating Ame, who was gripping the edge of the bench with both hands. "Han-san, who else is in the house that you are aware of?"

"Three Yuurei: Harionago, Shin and Ittan-momen. The rest are on missions or completing assignments." Since none of the former ROOT ninja had anything approaching hobbies, Ame had developed a system of giving them assignments to do when not on missions. They involved things like observing civilian social behaviour and correlating words spoken to body language or going shopping in mufti without attracting attention. Some of the younger Ghost-nin were getting quite good at faking normal behaviour. A few had even spontaneously chosen hobbies.

"Please find Harionago for me, Han-san; she at least is female, if not medically trained. Hatake-san, why are you still here?"

Kakashi shunshined out to the top of the wall surrounding the Hatake compound, mind whirling. Where is the midwife? Surely the birth of a clan heir is a matter of highest priority? What am I supposed to do?

A large speckled goose landed on the wall next to him. "No midwifes available right now," it hissed furiously, confirming Kakashi's suspicion that it was a summons. There had been a few geese on the grounds ever since Ame built the mansion; it seemed they were part of the security rather than being wild. "All the medics on duty are tending to the aftermath of an ANBU mission gone sideways and the casualties of some lunatic who snapped in the public library. Do you know anyone with the right kind of experience we can hunt down?"

Kakashi's mind instantly blanked out. His fiancée was giving birth right now and he needed to find her a midwife or equivalent right now or sooner, if possible. And he couldn't think of anyone.

"Er, a vet?" he offered helplessly, feeling horribly out of his depth. Where are female relatives when you need them?

"Work in a pinch," the goose conceded. "Good idea. Who and where?"

"Inuzukas. Inuzuka Hana. Probably in their clan compound since it's lunchtime."

"Tsume-san would be better as she's actually had children," the goose decided. "I can't go anywhere near all those dogs though; there'd be a riot."

"I'll find Tsume-san. She can always hunt down another appropriate Inuzuka if necessary," Kakashi decided, grateful to have a direction to run in. He shunshined off as fast as possible.

The copy-nin had spent a good long time around the Inuzuka compound learning about dogs when he was younger. He located Tsume in just under a minute and body-flickered to just outside the room she was in.

"Kakashi! Use the door for kami's sake!" Tsume growled in surprise as he materialised on the windowsill in a flurry of leaves. "What on earth brings you here in a hurry?"

"Ame-chan's having the babies now and the hospital can't or won't spare a midwife," Kakashi explained as quickly as he could, desperation nipping at his heels. "I left her with a former ROOT medic but I-"

"Say no more. Hana!" Tsume bellowed, bolting out of the office she used for official clan business and making tracks for her front door. Kakashi stalked after her, nerves making him twitchy. Twitchier.

"What is it, kaa-san?" Hana shouted from the kitchen.

"Go find your aunt Matsu! Kakashi's mate's giving birth and needs her at the Hatake compound yesterday!" the Inuzuka matriarch yelled back.

There was a clatter of sliding crockery and the thud of falling furniture. "Going!"

"Good. Now where the hell am I needed, Kakashi?"

The copy-nin grabbed her sleeve and shunshined directly into the east wing of the mansion. It had taken a while to get used to how moving straight in and out of the expanded grounds felt; unlike when you stopped at the wall, there was definite discomfort involved. It felt unpleasantly like being stretched and squeezed at the same time.

Tsume shook herself like a wet dog as soon as they landed. "Brr! That was not fun. Something to do with the expansion seals?"

"Hai. Ame's just down here," Kakashi said, his nerves deteriorating further.

"Hai, hai; I can smell her. Now go run around the compound or something to work off those nerves. I won't have you wearing a groove in the floor," the Inuzuka matriarch said briskly. "I'll take care of everything from here on out."

Kakashi only realised he'd been shooed once he was standing in the inner garden. He stared at the door for a moment, wondering if he dared go back in and hover by the infirmary door. Probably safer not to.

"How is she?"

The jounin looked down. It was the goose from earlier addressing him. "I have no idea; Tsume pushed me outside before I could find out and ordered me to run off my nerves."

"Good advice," the goose offered. "It's not like there's much you can do at this point and what there was you've done already."

Kakashi stared at the sky for a minute. "I didn't know Ame had a goose summoning contract," he said, mostly out of a lack of anything else to say. He wanted to be here when the babies were born, not on the other side of the compound.

The goose eyed him sideways. "She doesn't. She has what's called a 'foot contract' with us. It's a bit like a backwards summoning contract: you get one or two personal summons who hang around all the time and the boss summon can reverse-summon you if there's a need for it but that's all. You can't actually summon on a foot contract; the summons come to you by themselves. The main benefit is that there is no real limit to the number of foot contracts you can join. Yogensha-chan has three."

"So a foot contract is more like having a familiar, like the Inuzuka dogs, except the familiar is a summon?"

"Sort-of I suppose. The little seer has me and my mate from the geese as her personal guards as well as a few others from her other contracts. We all do what we can to help her but we're limited out here in the Elemental Nations; we'd do better around others who share her contracts. That way we could appeal to others baring the same foot contract as Yogensha-chan for aid."

"What other contracts is she on?"

The goose shook out its wings. "The contracts of her birth-clans: It's impossible to be stricken from a foot contract for anything less than a capital crime against allies. Said clan contracts in her case are the Shrews and the Shinigisu; that second one is the Krait and sea-kait clan, by the way."

"Snakes? Like Orochimaru?"

"Different snake clan. The former sannin has a contract with those snakes that kill their food with poison. The Shinigisu are far more toxic as their venom is for using against potential predators, not food. Some kraits actually eat lesser snakes. There's a bitter enmity between the clans, hence why the kraits are in Kage no kuni and the lesser breeds are in the Elemental Nations." The goose paused. "On that note, will you be putting your goslings on a foot contract with your summons?"

"I..." Kakashi gave up on conversation, brain whirling chaotically. Runnign laps around the compound suddenly feels like a smart idea.

inin = medic ninja

shinigisu = death kiss; kiss of death

A/N: Kakshi panics. I think it's a new experience for him, one he will become more familiar with as his children grow older; offspring do that to you. Sakura also gets to show her newfound maturity in unexpected ways. Foot contracts are an invention all my own; more information on them will be available later.