Chapter 5 - Prism Spectrum

Chouko was working a shift at Ichiraku when they got there, and she greeted them extremely warmly, halfway through adjusting her handkerchief. She'd only been working there only maybe a month and was already a master at every variety served. It had been the exact same situation at her last job, the curry shop. And the hibachi place.

Then again, half of her family was made up of cooking-nin. She considered it extra training.

"Hokage-sama! Welcome! Same as usual tonight?" She had a soft face and a very soft smile, just like her father, but a loud, spicy voice, and hips that went on for forever.

"Well, we're gonna have to take an extra order. By the way, Yukio-kun? This is Akimichi Chouko. She's a… family friend," Naruto said, gesturing towards the girl. "Chouko-chan, this is Hanamura Yukio. He just moved here, an' I'm showing him around the city, y'know."

Yukio bowed, quickly, with a smile. "It's nice to meet you."

"Aww, well look at you! Welcome to Konoha, I suppose!" She laughed. "So what can I get for you, sweetheart?"

"Order whatever you want, I'm paying," Naruto said, sitting down, winking.

Yukio stared. Ichiraku wasn't exactly known for having a small selection of noodles.

"Uhh…" Another moment. "…uhhh…"

"You want me to come back…?" Chouko asked.

"…salt ramen! Just salt ramen, yeah," said Yukio.

"Sounds good, honey. I'll be right on it." She disappeared further into the booth, shrouded by steam. "One salt ramen and one Hokage Special!" Somewhere in the back of the booth, there was a shouted reply.

"…you can sit down, y'know," Naruto said.

Yukio hadn't really noticed that he was still standing. "Oh! Right. Hehe." He sat, and fidgeted for a moment, humming slightly. "This a good place to eat, yeah?"

"Yeah, totally! I've been going here for ages." Naruto tilted his head, humming a little to himself. "It's a great place."

They sat together in silence, listening to the sounds of ramen being prepared.

"So, uh!"

They were talking at the same time again, and they laughed at the same time as well.

"Oh, you first. Please," Yukio said.

"Oh, sure. Well, y'didn't talk much about it back at the records office, but… what brings you here to Konoha, again?"

What, Naruto couldn't remember stuff like that so easily. He frequently needed multiple memos on the more pressing issues brought to his attention, to ensure that he'd absorb the information eventually. And, most of the time, it worked like a charm. Most of the time.

Yukio tilted his head. "Sure I did, I talked plenty about it."

"Well you sure talked about how you got here. But I dunno if I caught exactly why," Naruto said, waving his hand around a little. "So what's your story?"

"Already told you. My brother Hiroyuki got put in charge of the farm, my dad said I could do what I wanted, so I came here to be a ninja. So I can achieve my dream, yeah?" Yukio said. He looked at the counter, then back at Naruto. "Why you making me repeat myself? I say something wrong…?"

Why did he look so anxious? Naruto could feel fear leaking out of him.

"No, no! You're fine, you're fine. Just… curious about you, y'know?" Naruto said.

Yukio shrugged. Eyes back to the counter, his fear fading so slightly away.

Quiet, mixed with the sound of the city, the preparation of noodles.

"So what's your story, Naruto-san?"

Naruto blinked. "Huh?"

"Well you've made me tell my story, it's only fair I get yours, yeah?" Yukio said. He was smiling, mischief in his blue eyes. "And you even made me repeat myself, I think I deserve something in return, yeah."

"Haha! Well, gee, where do I start…? Like, from the very beginning? 'Cos that would take forever, y'know," Naruto said. "Where do you want me to start?"

"Well… you're the Hokage, yeah?"

"Yeah."

"So what's up with that?"

"What do you mean, 'What's up with that?'"

Yukio leaned against the counter, propping up his head on his palm. "Well, what's a Hokage do, really? You, like, the boss around here? Or are you more like a daimyo or something?"

Naruto laughed, waving his hand dismissively. "No, no, the Land of Fire already has a daimyo, y'know."

"Well, duh, I knew that," said Yukio. "You were doing paperwork and stuff back there, and something with books, or something, so what else do you do? And how'd you become Hokage anyway, yeah?"

"Oh, well, that's an easier question." He cleared his throat. "Well, see, I got chosen to be Hokage 'bout ten years ago."

"Chosen? Weird," said Yukio.

"Hey, lemme finish, y'know?" Naruto said.

"Fine, fine." Yukio stuck out his tongue, slumping a little more. "So you got chosen, yeah?"

"Yeah. And before me, there was Kakashi-sensei. And before him was Tsunade-baasan. And before her was my dad, and before him was-"

"Wa-ait, wait, wait. Your dad was Hokage too?" Naruto nodded. "…okay, now that just doesn't make sense."

Naruto blinked, tilting his head, resting it on the flat of his hand. "Why doesn't it make sense?"

"Well, if your dad was once Hokage, then shouldn't you have come, like, right after him?" Yukio narrowed his eyes, frowning, as if deep in thought.

"No, actually-"

"Wait, wa-ait." Yukio took his head off his hand and pinched his chin, crossing one leg over the other. Very deep in thought. "…you call your own brother and sister sensei and baasan? …man, your family is weird."

Naruto's laugh started as a snort, then a chuckle, and then a full-on attack.

"What's so funny?" Yukio's eyes snapped open for a moment, then shut even tighter than before. "What'd I say?"

"Kakashi-sensei… my brother… pfffff…." He waved his hand dismissively, when Yukio folded his arms, squinting even harder. "No-o, no, no. Where did you get that idea?"

Yukio shrugged. He unfolded his arms, and laced his fingers around his knee. He looked at the ceiling. "Well, I thought that you were chosen by your family to be the next Hokage after your brother and sister failed or died or something. I mean, that's how it works for ninja stuff, yeah?"

"No-ot here, it doesn't," Naruto said, shaking his head, still fighting off the last of his laughter. The heck did he mean by that? "I mean, sure, the first two Hokage were brothers, and Tsunade-baa is related to them, and then there's my dad and me, but it's not a given or anything, y'know?"

"Oh. So it was just a coincidence?" Yukio unfolded his legs, wrapping his feet around the base of the stool instead. He thinned his lips, in process.

"Sorta, I guess? The Hokage is chosen based on skill and stuff. I didn't even know he was my dad until I was, like, sixteen." He laughed once, sighed once, shoulders rising and falling. "Ah, now that was pretty strange…"

"Strange how?"

"Eh." Boy, what to say to that? Um. "He… passed away after I was born. I didn't really ever get to meet him."

Two pairs of blue eyes focused on the counter.

"Oh… I'm sorry."

Unexpectedly, Naruto found himself laughing. "Hey, hey, what are you apologizing for? It's not your fault, y'know. And I did get to meet him, once."

Woah, where had that come from?

Yukio's mouth dropped, wrinkling with thought. "…okay, now there is no way I can figure out that happening."

Yeah, not in a million years. There was a reason why he tended not to talk about that sort of stuff with non-jinchuuriki. Other people just had the hardest time understanding that those sorts of things happened, sharing a mind with another. Or more than one mind, in Naruto's rare case.

Naruto told himself to think quick, and did.

"…as a baby, y'know? I mean, he was there when I was born."

"…oh. Ha. Haha. That's funny, yeah." Yukio's laugh was dry, though there was still a note of sourness in that voice for some reason.

And Naruto found himself wondering why he had even decided to bring that up in the first place.

No, seriously, why had he?

"So when was that," Yukio asked, smirking, "like a hundred years ago?"

"I'm forty-three this October, y'know!" Naruto laughed, in return, already putting his worries out of his mind.

"Well it's better that you were made Hokage as an old fart, rather than a freakin' baby, yeah?" Yukio leaned back again, glancing to the side, smile sliding up over more and more of his face. "Wouldn't want no baby in charge."

"Oh yeah? Well, when I gotta pick a new Hokage, maybe I will choose a baby, just 'cos I can."

He didn't even know what they were going on about anymore, but he didn't care. They were laughing in unison, and things were good.

Not long after, there was the ramen, served with a honeyed smile and a wink from Chouko. The Hokage Special, a massive bowl of miso ramen with a healthy serving of pork cutlet floating in the broth. And, for Yukio, salt ramen.

"Thanks for the food!"

As the two of them broke their chopsticks, neither of them managed to split cleanly.

If there was one thing about Yukio that was readily apparent, aside from the fact that he could talk a mile a minute when prompted, it was that he ate nearly as fast as he talked.

Naruto was barely a quarter of the way through his bowl when Yukio had finished his noodles. "More, please!"

"Woah. Hey, kid, slow down, y'know?" Naruto said. "The booth's not gonna go anywhere."

Still, Chouko was there, with her exquisite ears. "Another bowl of salt ramen, sugar?"

"No, salt ramen, not sugar ramen," Yukio said, making a face as Chouko took his bowl, the silver rings on her thick hand shining in the steam. "Sugar ramen would taste weird, yeah?"

Chouko laughed. "Oh goodness me, aren't you something. Another bowl of salt ramen, for you, then."

When it was brought to him, he had it inhaled in less than a few minutes. Naruto was still only halfway through his bowl.

It was maybe after his fourth bowl that the ramen really started to hit him. His eyes were dull, glazed-over, and his mouth hung open slightly.

"I think maybe you shouldn't have eaten so fast, y'know," Naruto said, finishing off his own bowl. "You gonna be okay?"

"Ugh… That was so… good," Yukio replied, before falling over onto the counter, resting his head on his arms. "Haven't had anything that good to eat in… ages…" He closed his eyes, sighing happily. "I think today's been a good day, yeah?"

Naruto looked at him fondly, head tilting slightly. And, not quite knowing the reason why, he put his hand on the boy's back and gently patted the space between his shoulders, like he used to do when Andou and Kurunari were younger, when they fell asleep in his lap.

Red hair fell and parted over his neck; the skin was marked with little red spots like freckles, and Naruto squinted, trying to place where he had seen something similar to them before. He was interrupted before he could get a better look at them.

"Now, what in the world is this here?"

It was a man in a mask with a tired expression on his face, half-buried in a book, standing behind them.

Naruto's face lit up, instantly, and his hand jumped off of Yukio's back. "Oh, hey! Kakashi-sensei! What are you doing here?"

"Back from watching Kotoji." Even his voice sounded tired, like his eye.

"Like always. Why was it this time?" Naruto said. He craned his neck, almost looking backwards, as he spoke.

The man named Kakashi sighed. "Yamato didn't elaborate."

"Ahh. Okay. Well, it was fun, I hope?"

"Yeah. It was fun."

Yukio sighed again, shifting his head deeper into his arms. Kakashi noticed. "So who's the kid?"

"Ah, Kakashi-sensei, this is Hanamura Yukio-kun, he just moved here. I'm sorta acting as guardian for him, so I took him out to dinner." He nodded as he spoke, and tapped Yukio on the shoulder. "Hey, hey, wake up, a little."

"Mwuh? Oh, hello. S'nice to meet you," Yukio said, waving his fingers.

"Yukio, huh," said Kakashi, and tilted his head experimentally, as if trying to recall something.

As it happened, Yukio was doing much of the same thing, trying to remember where he had heard the name before. Kakashi had a bandage wrapped over his left eye. He spoke before Kakashi could say something else. "…Naruto-san's brother, yeah?"

Kakashi's one exposed eyebrow went shooting towards the center of his forehead. "Excuse me?"

Naruto began laughing. "No, no. This is my old sensei, Yukio-kun. And, as a matter of fact," he added, almost prideful, "the Hokage that came before me."

Kakashi sighed. "Naruto, please."

"…but I thought you were dead…?" Yukio said. He narrowed his eyes, like there was light shining in them, as half-remembered words floated to his head and jumbled together. "You a ghost or sommin'?"

Kakashi's eye widened. "What in the world?" he said, looking at Naruto.

"Pfff… No, Yukio-kun, he is not a ghost." Naruto managed to smile a little, trying to collect his own thoughts, before Yukio's face twisted itself into a grimace again. He moaned, holding his stomach. "Hey, are you okay?"

"Think I ate too much," Yukio managed to mumble.

Naruto sighed, laughed. "Now you say it. It's fine, we can head home soon, y'know."

"I still wanna know why he thought I was dead, Naruto," Kakashi said, half serious, half humorous. He had folded his book over one finger, head still tilted curiously.

"Confused you with another, uh. Hokage. I guess?" Naruto said. He shrugged. "That's what we were talking about, before." He paused, searching for words. The ones he found tasted bitter, but he used them anyways. "You know… My dad."

"Ah. I see."

In reality, Kakashi was only slightly interested in the Hokage talk.

(Generally, he tried to keep his retirement as quiet as possible. Though his face on the cliff-side made that hard, sometimes.)

What was preoccupying him more was the boy, Yukio. His face was painfully familiar, but Kakashi could not recall where he had seen it before.

"Ahhh, my stomach hurts," Yukio said, sliding off the stool. "Shoulda stopped at three…"

"We're probably gonna head home," Naruto said. "Sorry I couldn't introduce you two more, y'know? I'm sure we'll see each other later."

"No, no, it's fine. I'm just heading home myself, thought to check here and see if you were around first, though," Kakashi replied. His eye rested on the boy again, who was leaning against the wall of the ramen stand. "Next time, maybe you shouldn't…"

Where had he seen that face before?"

"…overdo it so much. With the ramen, I mean."

"Thanks for the advice," Yukio said, some of the strength returning in his voice. He moaned slightly. "Ugh, okay, false alarm… But I really gotta go."

"Go where?" Naruto said.

"To the bathroom, yeah?"

Naruto laughed. "Okay, okay, I'll get you home," he said, and took out his wallet (simple, brown, no-frills - a gift from Kakeru to replace his ailing frog-purse) to pay for the ramen. He left the money on the counter. "Seeya, Kakashi-sensei."

"Bye." His wave was friendly, but strangely hollow, in a way, as he watched the two of them leave.

That boy's face was far too familiar.

Kakashi went home feeling uneasy, but it abated after a while.

"You okay in there?"

Naruto was standing outside of the bathroom.

"Stop talking to me while I poop!"

Yukio had been in there for about a half an hour.

Naruto couldn't help but laugh. "Well okay, I just wanna make sure you're not, like, gonna die, y'know?"

"You can't die from crap!"

He laughed again. "Call if you need anything," he said, and wandered a bit further down the hallway.

Night had since most definitely fallen, and the lights were on, the darkness of the city outside. Naruto's bedroom was down the hallway, and so was the guest room that was now Yukio's, for the time being.

For some reason, he just couldn't bring himself to stray too far from the bathroom door. He was worried about the kid. Yeah, yeah, you couldn't die from poop. But still.

At the end of the hallway was the table where Naruto kept a few photographs. He didn't like putting them on the walls, because he was utterly useless with a hammer and nails and it wasn't the adult thing to do, to tape them to the wall like he used to do with his posters, so he just let them collect on the surfaces of his house.

He had almost three decades worth of photos, and one from outside of that time, but all in all he hadn't amassed more than a handful of snapshots, a handful of memories. But there was a thing that people said about quality over quantity, and he loved his photos like he loved the people in them.

The most recent jinchuuriki meet-up photos were there, the rest stored in albums that Sachiko, the two-tails, made for everyone and updated out of the kindness of her heart, every time they met, the dear that she was.

There were ten people in each of them, their heights changing, shifting. Some individuals disappearing, others taking their place. Gaara, Bee, and Naruto were the only constants; the others - Morizuru, Sachiko, Yuu, Kakeru, Kemuri, Kurunari, Tonbo - hadn't been around for nearly that long. Kurunari was the oldest, at twenty-one. He had lasted the longest.

Naruto had a few pictures of him and Kurunari, that white-haired boy with the six-tails sealed into him, together, when they were both younger. Kurunari had gotten so tall lately, but once he hadn't even reached Naruto's waist, Naruto's shoulder. Now it was Naruto who came up to his shoulder, funnily enough. But his smile was still the same, a smirk of a thing that barely matched his painfully shy demeanor.

There was that picture from when they had finally brought Sasuke back, and everyone was bruised and bandaged and horribly broken, but still grinning like idiots. Even Sasuke had a ghost of a smile on his face, though his eyes were bandaged, though bruises were growing on his arms, though he'd be in the hospital for weeks afterward.

Which was why Naruto liked that photo so much.

"That's that Kakashi guy we saw earlier, yeah?"

Yukio had gotten back from the bathroom, and was pointing to a photo. In it, Kakashi slept on a couch, book covering the bottom of his face, a dark-haired baby likewise sleeping on his chest, face away from the camera; little red freckles dotted the folds of skin on the back of his neck. The afternoon streamed over them from a window above the couch.

(Yamato had given Naruto the photo a few years ago, after reporting in from a mission, laughing. "I found them like this when I came home, isn't that precious?" Naruto totally agreed.)

"Oh! Yeah, that's Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said. "You okay?"

"I'm fine, I feel a lot better," Yukio said, and tilted his head, taking in the photo a bit more closely. "Whose kid is that? His?"

"No, no, it's Yamato-san's," Naruto replied, smiling. "His name's Kotoji. Cutest kid, he's about three, four years old now?"

"Huh. Yamato. That his wife or something…?"

Naruto had to clamp his hand over his mouth to keep his laughter from getting too bad. "Nah, nah, not his… pff, wife…" He shook his head, toning it down for Yukio's sleepy, perplexed expression. "They're just friends. Kakashi-sensei's practically Kotoji-kun's second dad, though. It's kinda funny, really."

Yukio shrugged. "Cute kid." He yawned.

"Tired, huh?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah."

"Well you can go to bed whenever, I'm gonna be up for a while longer," Naruto said. He put his hands in his pockets, instead of on Yukio's shoulder. "You can take a bath too, if y'want. You know where the bathroom is."

"Nah, I think I'll pass. Thanks, though." Yukio had that look in his eyes that kids got when they were a lot more tired than they really were. "Really, I can't believe my luck, yeah? Housed by the boss of the city… Don't wanna be a bother, though…"

"I wouldn't have you if I didn't like you, y'know," Naruto said.

Yukio ambled towards, and then lingered in the doorway of the girl's room, slight smile on his face.

"G'night, Yukio-kun," Naruto said.

"G'night, Naruto-san," Yukio said, and left.

Naruto stayed for only a moment longer, before heading to his own room, keeping the light on in the hallway.

He kept many photographs, but in his room, there were only three, on his bedside table.

The first was of his team, him and Sasuke and Sakura and Kakashi-sensei, when they were younger. A photo they all owned a copy of.

The second was of him with his own genin, Shusuke and Masao and Murasaki, from when Shusuke was still alive.

And the third was a photo of his parents.

He had found it when he had moved into the house, more than ten years before, hidden behind a bookshelf, wrinkled and forgotten. It was blurry and out of focus. He had put it in a frame, but he could still see the creases behind the glass.

In the foreground, a quarter of a woman's face, a blue eye, red hair parted to the side, a perplexed expression. He could practically hear his mother saying, "How do I work this thing, again?"

In the background, his father, nothing but a smile, a soft aura of blond hair. Naruto couldn't hear his voice nearly as well.

He stayed awake for about an hour doing some paperwork he had picked up on the way home from Andou, who had graciously sorted it all into stuff he could do from home - literal homework, which is what they called it, almost like a joke. Which, in a way, it was, a little thing they shared that made them laugh.

He read some reports about the preparations for the upcoming chuunin exams; a memo from Ibiki about some crime syndicate causing a stink over their missing daughter in the Land of Silk, so be careful; progress reports on the seal therapy in the hospital; stuff from the field agents on the project; y'know, boring stuff like that. And, then, he went to bed.