Chapter 8 - Shutter Requests

It took three days for the blood to be processed.

This is what happened on the second day.

Inou woke up at 5 AM, again.

Nadeshiko was up earlier, again.

In fact, it was much the same as it had been the day before.

Though Naruto got up earlier than usual, after the sunrise. Yukio was still sleeping, so Naruto left a note on the fridge explaining the situation - chuunin exam preparations, talks with the guys from the Taki syndicate, so busy, so busy - and apologizing for not being able to eat breakfast with him, like usual.

He took extra care in reading the initial reports when he got to the Manor. No sign of Kiine, yet. No good.

When Nobuhiro arrived with his men, later in the morning, Naruto went to meet with him immediately. Nobuhiro's expression hadn't changed, either, still wearing that permanent, unintentional snarl.

"It's been a day, Hokage. Where's Lady Kiine." Sli-ide. Click.

Naruto had read all the reports very, very carefully. "There's been no sign of her in the village, yet. I'm sorry, Nobuhiro-san, we're trying all we can-"

"No, no, see, if you were tryin' all you could, then you'd drop everything and you'd be scourin' the place for her, no questions asked." Nobuhiro was leaning forward now, his pretty little knife clamped in his hand. His fingers had square tips and big knuckles. "You guys ain't pulling your weight."

Naruto had a smile on his face, but it was a nervous one, a defense mechanism. "Honestly, Nobuhiro-san, we're doing as best we can with what we have at the moment. But the chuunin exams are coming up and-"

"I don't care about no chuunin exams." Nobuhiro rolled his eyes. And then, in a much lower growl, "Honestly. Ninjas." He spat the word out as if they were poisoning his mouth.

"Hey, hey, I'm serious, here," Naruto said. He managed to squeeze out a few laughs. "We're honestly trying our best. It's not just our village participating in these exams, though, we have guests coming in from several countries, and they've all gotta be taken care of, y'know? Any other time, I'd give you my… complete and total attention, but right now-"

"Oh, sure. I bet, I just bet," Nobuhiro said. He was still leaning forward, brown eyes focused beneath thumb-thick brows. "Though I bet you'd be so much more cooperative if we were from a ninja village, huh?"

Naruto wasn't smiling anymore. "Nobuhiro-san, I promise. Where you're from or who you are makes no difference to me. We'll find Lady Kiine. I swear on my honor as Hokage, y'know." He put his hand on his heart, looking the man into his eyes. "It just might take a while. And I'm gonna need your help."

The eyes that stared back at him were not welcoming, nor were they cooperative, not by any definition.

"We've been helpin' ourselves just fine, thanks very much," Nobuhiro said. "Like I said, I wanted this done as quickly an' as painlessly as possible."

"And we've been trying as best we can to get this done as quickly and as painlessly as possible, Nobuhiro-san. Please trust me, y'know?"

"Oh, I trust you enough." That pretty little knife slid out of its case and shone a beautiful silver when Nobuhiro held it up to the light. "I just don't wanna have to resort to... coercion, is all. What with you being so very helpful to us, Hokage."

Naruto was behind him in an instant, Nobuhiro's knife in his hand.

There was no denying what Nobuhiro had wanted to do with it, not with that anger fanning out from behind him like a cobra's hood.

And, just as suddenly, there was a blade, inches from Naruto's throat. It was held with both hands by the boy in purple, his hair a black curtain that framed his face, almost covering his eyes.

"Please step away from my brother, sir."

His grip on the sword was strong, and the blade did not even waver. There was a pattern of rabbits painted on the handle. His voice was like a girl's voice, young and high, and there was no anger or hatred in it. Only fear, and sadness.

Naruto found himself smiling again. He stepped away, sliding the pretty little knife back into its case. Click.

"Nobuhiro-san, I don't think you'll need to use this, y'know," he said, gently, passing the knife over Nobuhiro's shoulder. "But, hey, it's your knife. So I'll just give it back, so long as you promise not to use it. Sound fair?"

Nobuhiro grimaced, in pain, in scorn, and he took the knife from Naruto's hand very quickly. He grumbled, "Yuki, put that away."

The boy did, sheathing the blade gracefully, beautifully, wordlessly. His eyes returned to the floor.

"Mark my words, Hokage," Nobuhiro said, shaking the closed knife at Naruto as he leaned forward in his chair. Naruto returned to his desk, face fixed. Painless, pleasant smile. "If you don't help us find her, then so help me…"

"Seriously, you have nothing to worry about." Ah, there were a few laughs, light, reassuring. Almost real. "We'll have better luck today. There's no need to resort to threats, y'know."

And Naruto was almost right. Nobuhiro left with his men, his brother with the white sword, and left Naruto alone for quite a while. Enough time to settle a few more complaints - hardly anything he could do there - review preparations for the chuunin exams - things seemed to be going smoothly on that front, minus the Taki shenanigans - blah, blah… Oh!

There was a letter from Kurunari. Andou must have stuck that in there, to cheer him up.

Naruto read the letter with a wide smile that slid comfortably over his face, one that wasn't painted or forced into place. That kid, honestly. He was such a nice guy; a bit of a pushover, really. And so shy, even with his fellow jinchuuriki! Naruto joked that he didn't have a spine because he had a slug sealed up inside him, and Kurunari would just laugh nervously, big shoulders hunched, and say, no, that wasn't true…

And his letters were beautiful things. Naruto's were rough, but friendly - even his official reports read something like actual conversations from him, more than anything. But Kurunari's letters read like pages from a novel, all sparse prose and precise detail.

He was about halfway through the third page when there was a knock on the door. "C'mon in!" Naruto said.

The door opened. "Hokage-sama? I hope I'm not troubling you..."

It was that light voice, and it was full of fear, and uncertainty.

Naruto looked up, and he saw the boy that it belonged to The one who had handled that sword so beautifully, but he wasn't carrying it now, having tucked it into the red-purple belt of his uniform. His hair was dark, and it brushed his shoulders, the corners of his eyes.

"I'd… like a word with you, sir, if you have the time," he said.

A sort of shiver ran up Naruto's spine, the sort he got when he was just a little too cold. And it wasn't even that cold in the room. What the heck.

"Sure, sure, I've got time," he said. He put down Kurunari's letter and gestured toward the chairs in front of his desk, where Nobuhiro had been sitting just a few hours previous. "You're… um…?"

"Yuki, sir. Of the Inaba clan. Nobuhiro is my elder brother." And he bowed very low and very formally before sitting, removing the sword and placing it beneath the chair as he did so. Naruto couldn't help but bow a little in return at the display. "I'm… very sorry for my actions this morning. I didn't want to hurt you, honestly…" And he bowed again, in his chair, pale hands folded in his lap. "I ask that you please forgive me."

"No, no, it's fine! You didn't even touch me," Naruto said, laughing, waving his hand. He knew that the boy was sincere. "So Nobuhiro's your brother?'

"Yes, sir."

They both had brown eyes, and dark hair, but otherwise Yuki looked nothing like him, much less acted like him. Nobuhiro's face was hard, with high cheekbones like cliff faces. Yuki's features were round, and very soft, like water-polished stones. Even their words were from different worlds.

"Never would have guessed," Naruto said. "You guys don't resemble each other very much… if you don't mind me saying, y'know."

"No, I don't really mind," Yuki said, softly, looking up. His eyes were clear and, for a moment, Naruto saw something in them that he could have sworn he had seen once before, a long time ago. "But family is more than just blood, sir."

Naruto shivered. Again. Man, what was that? "You got a point, there, haha! Still, your brother's not nearly as polite as you are. I'm really trying my best with him."

"Oh, I know you are. And I apologize for his behavior, sir," Yuki said. Another little half-bow in the chair. "He's not… terribly fond of ninja..."

"Yeah, I can see that. What's with that?" Naruto said. "I mean," he added, before Yuki could say anything, "if it's something you'd rather not talk about then, hey, I understand. We've all been through some tough times in the past, y'know?" He smiled reassuringly, to punctuate the sentence.

"No, no, it's not that." Yuki waved his little hand dismissively. "I'm sorry, but all I can do is to ask that you be… patient, with my brother."

"I can do that," Naruto said. He grinned. "Easy."

"…and, if you know where Master Kiine is, then please tell her to flee, immediately."

Naruto blinked. "Huh?"

"Master Kiine. I know that she's here in Konoha, and if my brother finds her, then… Then… Oh, I don't want that… I already feel bad enough for allowing this all to happen, and she'd be so mad at me now if…"

The words came pouring out, and the more there were, the closer Yuki seemed to tears. Oh, jeez.

"Hey, hey, calm down, calm down. Just take a deep breath, okay?" Naruto said, reaching his hand across the desk. "Let's just slow down. This is about Master… Kiine?"

"Oh, no, um." Yuki sniffed. "Force of habit. I apologize." He swallowed, nodded. "I meant Lady Kiine."

"Right, so, um… what about her do you want to talk about?" Naruto said. Yuki remained quiet. "Well, uh, first off, how do you know her? She's a friend of yours, I'm guessing?"

"I am her bodyguard and personal valet, sir." He said it softly, as if he were ashamed by the fact.

"Oh. Um. Gosh," Naruto said. He scratched the skin behind his ears. "Wow, you must be really worried about her, then."

"…very much so, sir." He gulped again, swallowing his words. "It's… all my fault that this happened."

"Your fault that she ran away?" He nodded. "Why, how so? What happened?" Naruto was resting his head on the top of his hands, now, listening intently.

"I couldn't… Well, the thing is…" Yuki looked out the window, sucking on his lips. "Well she came up with this idea, and I let her, I just let her go, and I shouldn't… I'm just… I'm just an absolute failure… And the only reason she went to Konoha is..." He couldn't say any more, his throat starting to barricade itself with his held-in tears. "Just… if you know where she is, please tell her to leave, to run as far as she can. My brother will give up the search in a few days, he'll leave you all alone. I just… I don't want to see her hurt…"

Naruto didn't quite know what to say. In truth, he was still somewhat trying to process what in the world was going on in the first place.

He went on something like auto-pilot, picking out things he'd heard and stringing them together, comfortingly, until he could get more answers. He was good at that. "Yuki-san, I'm sure your brother won't hurt Lady Kiine. He wants her home safe as much as you do, and I want to make that sure she's safe, too, y'know."

"That's not what I…" But Yuki didn't say any more, instead standing and bowing quickly after picking up his sword, hiding his face behind his hair. "Thank you for your time, Hokage-sama, but I believe I'll be going now."

"Hey, if there's anything more you wanna talk about… I mean, I wanna help, y'know?" Naruto said, as Yuki was leaving, moving too quickly for any other protest. The boy paused, facing the door, frozen.

"Then please, help her. Because I failed, sir."

Yuki said one more thing, before leaving.

"Oh, and… just to clarify, I… am a boy," he said, awkwardly, still not turning to look at Naruto.

"I… never said you weren't?" Naruto replied. Really, why had Yuki thought…?

(Where had he heard something like that before?)

Yuki paused for only a moment more before departing, leaving Naruto alone, Kurunari's letter still half-read on his desk.

Long after he had finished the letter, gone back to paperwork, after meeting with a few more people, Naruto was still thinking about why in the world the boy had come to talk to him.

"Then please, help her. Because I failed, sir."

The hair on his arms was still standing slightly on end, like he had just seen a ghost.

"Kakashi-san, please, it's just going to be for a couple of hours."

Yamato was asking Kakashi to babysit Kotoji. Again.

"Yamato, I honestly marvel at how very busy you seem to be, these days."

"It's an emergency. I swear. Not like last time."

"You said last time was an emergency, too."

"Well, excuse me for being the only man in Konoha with a Wood Release. I was the only one they could call."

It was a lie and Kakashi knew it, but then again, Kotoji was three, and could hardly be considered a man. He made flowers burst out of the wall whenever he so much as giggled slightly. Which he did. Frequently. He was just a damn happy kid.

Which was nice, because when he was angry, it was even worse, even with Yamato keeping it under control. He had to remove all the potted plants from his house, when this started happening, after a hanging basket of ivy nearly took over his kitchen one afternoon.

And it was forbidden to talk about when he had to extend this to the neighbors. Kakashi thought it was funny until he had to deal with it himself.

"You're excused."

There was a bit of silence on the other end of the line. Then: "In any case, I only got the call from Haruhi-kun like ten minutes ago."

Kakashi didn't answer, not recognizing the name. Yamato'd fill him in.

"He was a student of mine, you probably don't know him."

Exactly.

"Ah, yes. From when Iruka told you to give teaching a try? Ha. Ha. That was interesting."

"Okay, seriously, knock it off."

A quiet giggling from the background. Kakashi shifted the phone to his other ear to scratch his arm. Yamato continued.

"Anyways. Haruhi-kun's freaking out because Benio-chan's freaking out about something, I don't know what, and he's just asking for my help because everyone's busy with the chuunin exams and I have some time off for once."

Kakashi could hear Kotoji squealing, and Yamato telling him, laughter in his voice, to please be quiet, Daddy was on the phone.

"And I'm a little tied up right now, so could you please…?"

"Yamato, I can't keep doing this. I'm not gonna raise your kid for you."

If he had a ryou for every time he'd said that...

"I know, Kakashi-san, I'm sorry. But you know how it is."

"No, I don't know."

"Oh, come on. Please, Kakashi-san."

"I'm busy."

"You're retired!"

"And? I have a lot of things to do."

"Like what?"

"There's a lot of reading I've been meaning to do."

"That's all you do, Kakashi-san."

"Well, I was very busy as Hokage, and I didn't have much time to read. So I'm catching up on it now. Allow an old man his pleasures, won't you?"

"You're not old, Kakashi-san, you're only fifty-seven."

"And you're fifty-three with a three year old. You are just raring with youth, aren't you."

"…did you really have to say that, senpai?"

"…you do know how much I hate it when you call me that, don't you?"

"Yes. Senpai."

Kakashi could practically see him smirking on the other end there. And he sighed. They'd had this conversation a million times, and he knew when it was coming to a close.

"…how long do you need me for."

"Just a couple of hours. It's almost time for Kotoji's nap, anyways. I can try and put him down so he'll be asleep by the time you get here."

"You owe me, Yamato."

"I know, senpai. I owe you a lot."

Kakashi found himself smiling, behind his mask. "I'll be there in a few minutes. And stop calling me senpai."

He swore, that was how Yamato won every argument. Every single one.

Kotoji was a pretty agreeable kid, anyways. Slept like a log, and was well-behaved… for a three year old. Which meant that he went to the potty like a big boy and mostly knew what not to touch in his father's house, though that didn't stop him from making a mess of Kakashi's things. He'd forgotten how many books he had to replace due to Kotoji's utter fascination with ripping out their pages and making things out of them. Usually more flowers.

But, hey. Books were books. Just stories in bindings. They were replaceable.

(Though his first-edition set of the Icha Icha novels, autographed by Jiraiya himself? Those he kept very much at home.)

Speaking of stories, there was a damn interesting one behind how Kotoji had come to be.

It wasn't a story that people told each other much, those days, though it certainly got around when it had initially happened. But no matter when or where it was told, there was always one section that was skipped over, only really noticeable by people who knew the whole truth.

The reasons, once heard, were obvious.

So what had happened was that, apparently, while up on a mission in the Land of Lightning, Yamato and the rest of the guys on his team had gotten a little bit carried away, as it were, following the successful completion of their mission.

About a year later, a deeply-tanned, heftily-built woman with a put-upon expression and offensively pink hair was at Konoha's gates, asking for a guy with wood powers. "It's kind of fucking urgent, so would you get a move on?" she said.

Her lipstick was banana-yellow and even though she was clearly a civilian - if her looks weren't enough, her chakra-level was near-zero - she was kind of scaring the chuunin on duty, and since there was only really one guy with wood powers that fit her description, Yamato was summoned immediately.

The first thing she said was "Ignore the baby."

It was kind of hard not to, considering that she was holding it there on the couch in front of Yamato, and the fact that the blanket it was wrapped in was lime green.

What was this about…?

"D'you remember a girl up in the Land of Lightning?"

She'd have to be more specific.

"Her name was Yukarin. Runa Yukarin?"

No, that… didn't ring any bells.

"She had black hair. Kinda thick. Liked to wear it in pom-poms. Y'know, pigtails."

…sounded kinda familiar.

"She danced at a club called Kirin-Mi."

Oh! He knew that club. He and his buddies went there all the time whenever they were in the area. Well, Yamato always reluctantly, but…

"Pff. You would. But you don't remember her? Wow, how typical."

No, no no, of course he remembered her! Now he remembered her. She was a sweet girl. Sweet girl.

Silence.

…out of curiosity, why was she asking?

"Well, that your little one night stand with her? Resulted in a kid. This kid, as a matter of fact."

Yamato had no idea what to say to that.

"Yep. You can stop ignoring him, now."

The baby was still sleeping, tan-skinned, dark hair, little hand pressed up against his face. Yamato swallowed.

"Oh yeah, and she's dead, by the way. His mom, that is."

The banana-lipped woman continued, as Yamato blinked in horrified silence. One of the chuunin in the room ran to get Naruto.

(That was about where people tended to skip over the story, to get to the punch line, dark as it was.)

(But not here.)

"She bled to death, after he was born. Called it a prolapse or something. There was nothing they could really do."

Oh no, oh no...

"Oh, yeah. I'm her best friend, by the way. And I kind of fucking hate your guts for that, let's just get that out of the way, okay?"

He was sorry, he was so sorry…

"Yeah you'd better be. She told me to find you, you know, before she died, so you could take care of the kid. I mean, she kinda doesn't have any family to take care of him. They kinda disowned her. I'm pretty much the only family she has. Fuck. Had."

Oh, no, that's…

"Oh, spare me. Here."

She held the baby surprisingly tenderly for a woman with such a cold, insincere tone.

"Take him. He's yours, now, okay?"

Yamato took him without a second word. His arms were shaking.

Oh, wow, he was just so sorry…

This was his son?

"Yeah. His name's Kotoji."

Kotoji.

Tears were beginning to well up in Yamato's eyes. Everyone else present started to feel more than a little embarrassed and ashamed and, well, sad for him.

"This must be overwhelming, but y'know what? I don't fucking care, okay? I've busted my ass in trying to find you, and this is way more than a little unfair."

Yamato said nothing.

"She was gonna keep him, y'know. Get her life together. Settle down, move to Kumo, get a real job, okay. 'Cos she lost hers, when they found out she was knocked up. I was gonna help her, too, okay? She was gonna start all over again. Give the kid a good life, okay?"

There was something in her voice, like a bramble caught in her throat. Yamato nodded.

"She wanted him to be a ninja, even. A ninja! Shit, Yuka, after all that…"

Yamato said nothing. Thick tears were coming out of his eyes, and he rubbed them away with the back of one hand, cradling the baby with the other.

"You asshole. You mother fucking asshole. I'm never gonna forgive you, okay? I'm never gonna fucking forgive you, you hear me? You hear me?"

Yamato's eyes were closed.

"Answer me, damn it!"

A chuunin stepped forward, cautiously, prepared to restrain her.

Her makeup ran down her face in two rivers of candy-like color.

…Yamato didn't expect her to forgive him.

"Well… well, good! 'Cos I won't, okay? I'm gonna hate you until the day I die, you fucking..." She sniffed, loudly. "Damn it, and she didn't even know your name! Because you're obviously not really named Yamato, I know how you ninjas fucking work, okay… Fake names every time you…"

Yamato shuddered, wiped his tears away again.

"I'm just… I can't even…"

She was sobbing, now. Almost as hard as Yamato was.

"You'd… you'd better take good care of him, okay? Or so help me…!"

She swallowed, and tried to close her mouth, but couldn't, her yellow lips pursing only in the middle.

…Yamato promised that he would. And that Kotoji would grow up to be a ninja, and a good one, too.

The banana-lipped woman stood there, mouth quivering, eyes whipping from the child, to the man who now held him.

"If you g-go back on your promise. I'm gonna fuh-fucking kill you, okay? I'm gonna come back and… and…"

Yamato said that he understood.

"If anything… anything happens to him…!"

Nothing would happen to him.

"…just… take care of him. Take care of him, okay?"

She was long gone before Naruto could arrive and ask what in the world was going on.

Nobody ever got her name.

Yamato never used a different name, after that. Not even on missions.

(This was where the story resumed, the space in between usually filled with jokes about how Yamato'd gotten in trouble with a fierce ganguro from up north, and how hilarious that was because, come on, ganguro. People still dressed like that? Leave it to Yamato to go for a girl like that, ha ha ha.)

Yamato was utterly terrified.

Luckily, he had a lot of help. People were surprisingly willing to help a fifty-year-old newly-made single father, once the news got around.

Naruto probably had something to do with it. He had connections, and infectious compassion.

A crib and formula and diapers were donated, and baby clothes, too - quite a lot from Ino, since she wasn't going to be using them again anytime soon, thank you very much, which led to some confusion when people sometimes saw Yamato walking around with the baby bearing a large red-and-white Uchiha fan on his back.

(Sasuke was a little miffed about this, but Ino was in charge of such things, and she had the final say on where her children's clothes were donated.)

("Could have at least taken the damn emblem off, he's not even a part of my clan.")

"He's not an Uchiha, he's just my son," Yamato would say, whenever people asked about this. His smile grew more and more genuine, the more he said it.

Man, did he ever love that kid.

And once he got the hang of it, he wasn't too bad a father, either.

The only thing that got in the way was, well, duty. Being the only user of the Wood Release in the world made him something of a high-demand sort of guy.

Before Kotoji could even crawl, he'd be scrambling to find babysitters for him, due to last-minute missions and laws that forbade the use of any sort of bunshin as babysitters - what did they mean, it counted as willful abandonment? And Naruto tried to be understanding and only assign the most pressing matters to him, but things still happened that required his skills, and with a worrying frequency.

Kakashi was, initially, the last resort. And if it weren't for the fact that Kotoji liked him so much, he would have stayed that way.

It had started out innocently enough. When he was very small, and very fussy, he would only stop crying when in either his father's arms, or Kakashi's, no matter what the situation. Naruto was deeply hurt by this, and by that he meant it wasn't that big a deal, haha, but it was still there. Things like that.

But pretty soon, it became readily apparent that, if Daddy wasn't home and somebody else had to watch him, it had to be Kakashi. What luck that Kakashi was retired, and thus so very available to watch the boy when needed?

Yeah, he was well-behaved for a three-year-old, but he was also about as rational as a three-year-old, too.

Kakashi liked to tell himself that it was a huge pain to deal with. He was a former Hokage, for pity's sake. He didn't need to be treated like this, stuck with babysitting duty, time after time. But every time Yamato called him, he almost never turned him down.

He liked to tell himself that he resented when people called him Kotoji's Second Daddy, or, worse, Kaka-Mama - thank you so very much, Konohamaru, you are definitely one to talk - but… he just couldn't bring himself to feel truly angry about any of it, so the feelings weren't really genuine.

Even when Yamato was late in coming home, leaving Kakashi exhausted from dealing with the little ball of energy. Even when Kotoji, right after learning how to walk, started making everything - from the mold on the cheese in the fridge, to the window planter from the apartment next door - start to grow uncontrollably, which lead to a great many, notable fiascoes. Even when he could be alone, reading, saying he was enjoying his retirement.

…well, this was enjoyable in a sense, too.

Besides, there was just something… he couldn't find the words to describe. But he tried.

There was something in seeing Kotoji's face light up with a gap-toothed grin when he came in the door that just reminded him of when things were simpler, in a way. When things weren't healing, weren't even that broken. He had a smile like new beginnings, and it made Kakashi…

No, Kakashi absolutely wasn't smiling about that. He was looking forward to getting some reading done.

Kotoji would probably asleep by the time he got to Yamato's house, giving him a lot of time to himself. That's how it usually was, those days. At least, how Yamato tried to have it. He knew how inconvenient this was to Kakashi.

And Kakashi appreciated that.