Chapter 24

Beta'd by Black Sparrow

Kakashi was tired but thankfully not overly so, the only thing that was really annoying was the pounding headache and his somewhat unsteady feet. The closer he came to the kitchen the more intense the smell of the food became and his stomach started to growl loudly as an answer. God how he had missed Shiori's cooking. Darkly amused Kakashi shook his head, in the year he had known his wife he had become spoiled concerning food.

Kakashi leisurely entered the kitchen and then purposely made some noise to alert the black haired civilian to his presence, she was right he shouldn't scare her in her condition, the thought let his lips twitch up into a smug grin.

Turing around after having heard a noise Shiori couldn't help but smile warmly when she recognized her husband. The civilian then walked the two steps over to Kakashi and kissed him softly, she was glad he was home again. Said copy-nin laid his hand discreetly on her stomach and pulled her into another, a bit more enthusiastic kiss before his wife withdrew slightly and scrunched her nose up playfully.

"Ugh…right anata please go and take a shower," Shiori said unable to hide the humor in her voice.

Kakashi pouted. "Don't you love me?"

"I do, but what I still can't stand is your after mission smell, now move," Shiori said playfully while she gave Kakashi a slight shove to his abs, careful of his arm.

Genma who had watched the whole thing leaned against the library door shook his head. "You two are really sickenly sweet, stop it before I barf," he said dryly.

As an answer he only received a feminine giggle and a rude hand wave in his direction before Kakashi vanished up the stairs into the second floor.

"Could you put the drinks on the table?" Shiori asked Genma while she took out the second portion of rice out of the cooker and filled up the two giant service bowls before putting them into the still hot oven to stay heated.

The shinobi did as requested; he liked the fact that Shiori wasn't shy to give him some tasks in her home. It made him feel as if he was more than just some guest who was attended to but who she was clearly not comfortable enough with to order him around somewhat. Ten minutes later Tenzo helped a still peaky looking Raido into the living room.

"Ohayo Namiashi-san, Tenzo-san, I hope you feel better," Shiori greeted the two.

"Inoue-san?" asked Raido disbelieving, "What the…?You are Kakashi's wife?"

Tenzo looked back at his comrade and asked curiously, "You know each other?"

"Fleetingly, Inoue-san is the owner of Mariko's," Raido explained absently to the youngest shinobi present.

"Oh," the twenty two year old ANBU operative with the bloodline of the first Hokage responded while he suddenly understood his comrade's distraction.

So Kakashi's wife was the owner of the tea house that had most of the ANBU operation in a tizzy. He himself hadn't visited yet but with Shiori being Kakashi-taicho's wife he felt a lot more secure about the new establishment and its integrity.

"So you go by Inoue in public?" Tenzo asked while he helped Raido to sit down on one of the bar seats.

Having situated Raido securely Tenzo then slowly walked closer to the civilian beauty bustling around the kitchen to get a full view of Kakashi-senpai's wife. The Mokuton user had learned throughout his years as an ANBU operative how to deal with civilians. They were always a bit skittish when ninjas moved too fast for their tastes and the last thing that he wanted to do was scaring his senpai's wife, Kakashi would surely have his head for that.

"Yes Tenzo-san, Inoue is my maiden name and it keeps anyone from drawing a connection to Kakashi. Namiashi-san, I already have extended the right to use my first name to Tenzo-san and Genma-san, I would appreciate it if you would do the same," Shiori happily explained.

"Sure, and Raido is fine," Raido acquiesced easily while he still tried to wrap his head around the fact that it was Kakashi who had snagged Inoue-san.

A lot of their comrades had a crush on the beautiful civilian but Shiori had never reacted to the subtler attempts to flirt and had gently let down those that had the balls to ask her out directly, well at least Raido now knew why. The kenjutsu user promised himself to intervene the next time some of his more brash friends and comrades tried to convince Shiori to date them. After all he knew his former captain, Kakashi was protective and possessive over those he thought were his and he would not take it kindly if he caught any of the idiots doing something untoward in regards to his wife. Raido recalled with an inward sigh that Kakashi also had a convenient selective memory in certain instances and would probably attack the offender at full throttle first before asking questions second.

The scarred shinobi sighed again this time out loud, why oh why did he have the feeling that sooner or later he would have to run interference between Shiori's over amorous admirers and her possessive husband?

After Shiori had finished with seasoning the last dishes she shooed the two injured shinobi to the already set table before she passed Genma the platter with the sweet pork and grabbed one of the rice bowls and the bowl with the tempura and carried it over to the table. A few trips back and forth and table had quickly filled with various dishes and the smell let the shinobi violently recollect their empty stomachs.

Just as Shiori lifted the big bowl of soup from the burner Kakashi reentered the living room freshly showered, with new clothes and to the astonishment of the two newest members in the know, without a mask. Both Tenzo and Raido sent Kakashi questioning looks at his unusual behavior but decided against voicing anything, Kakashi loved to play mind games and would take their curiosity as an opportunity to tease them.

Said silver haired ninja scanned the room before he made a beeline for his wife, when he came to an halt in front of her he reinforced his injured arm with a bit chakra and removed the heavy soup pot from her hands. Kakashi always took over the heaviest lifting for her when he was at home, be it moving around furniture, stocking up the fire wood or only carrying the heavy plates to the table. He understood that she could handle these things easily herself and would do exactly that when he wasn't at home but when he was present he would do his damnest to relieve some of the work from her, especially now that she was pregnant.

When the Hatake couple had sat down they all dug into the food after thanking Shiori for her hard work which Shiori accepted with a happy smile, the thankful and blissed out faces had been worth the time in the kitchen.

Halfway through her first dish, Shiori remembered that she had yet to take her prescriptions and so she stood up with a sigh and walked over to the kitchen counter to remove one pill from each container which Shiori then dry swallowed on her way back to the table.

None of the shinobi had missed her actions but they kept their mouths shut for the moment. In the next fifty minutes they cleaned up the food that would have been enough for twenty civilians. After that all of the shinobi with the exception of Genma looked slightly drowsy and ready to fall asleep. While Genma and Kakashi made quick work of moving the dirty dishes into the sink, Shiori removed the still somewhat warm apple cobbler and started to cut it up and stack it on two plates before she heated up three pans and started to make pancakes.

The sugary dessert helped the ninja to recover some of their alertness and the conversation started to get a bit livelier again.

While taking care of the dirty dishes Genma, in his infinite need to be nosy, threw a quick glance at the labels of the drugs Shiori had taken and when they all were seated once more and half through dessert he asked nonchalantly.

"So why do you need to take chakra supplements and folic acid?" the question was asked lightly but the senbon wielder's worry was clear to his team mates.

Shiori looked questioningly at Kakashi who just nodded discreetly before he took another mouth full of pancake, he would let his wife deal with his nosy comrade. Shiori thought quickly about how she should pay Genma back for putting her on the spot like this but in the end decided to just say it out plainly.

"These are the normal prenatal medications for civilians in my position," she said nonchalantly and then smiled serenely.

The reaction was nearly instantaneous, Kakashi kept eating without batting an eyelash while Tenzo and Raido froze in their movements and Genma choked on his cobbler and coughed to remove the pie piece that got lodged in his air pipe. Shiori watched with satisfaction as Genma choked on his dessert, she had timed her answer perfectly.

"Wha-what?" Genma coughed while he tried to get out a full sentence, "Pregnant but…damn it Kakashi but you move fast." The senbon wielder laughed in disbelief. "You just married her two months ago and then she WASN'T pregnant!" As an answer he only received a smug grin from Kakashi and an eye roll and a blush from Shiori.

Raido and Tenzo looked unsure between their two comrades and Kakashi's wife, who apparently was carrying their former ANBU captain's offspring. The scarred shinobi just sighed deeply before he put his head in his hand and shook it. The day was getting more and more surreal, first he found out that his porn reading, die-hard bachelor captain was married and now they were informed that she was pregnant with their first child. Raido knew instantly that Kakashi would be unbearable for the next few months.

"You okay there Raido? You look a little bit crazy," Genma asked humorous having seen his comrade's mien.

"I feel like I landed in the Twilight Zone. Shiori-san? Congratulations to your pregnancy. Taicho? Just so that you know. You. Suck." Raido deadpanned.

"Yes, congratulations from me too, Shiori-san, Kakashi-senpai," Tenzo said, while he stilled looked confused and slightly unnerved between his comrades.

Shiori just giggled and gave them a small 'thank you', the black haired woman started to see why Kakashi liked to put his comrades on the spot like this, their reactions were hilarious and oh so entertaining.

"So, why do you have to take chakra supplements then?" Genma finally asked curiously, he had wondered since he had read the label.

"Because I'm a civilian and Kakashi is a Jounin, the baby will strain my own chakra reserves more than is normal or healthy. Through taking the supplements I head off collapsing in exhaustion and having to be monitored in the hospital for the first five months until the majority of the chakra system has developed. Having more chakra during my last trimester also means that the birth will be easier on me," Shiori explained frankly.

The black haired civilian had bought books about this topic on the day after Kakashi had started his latest mission and had found out how truly dangerous an inattentiveness in this situation could be for her and the baby.

The news had all four men tensing slightly, especially Kakashi wasn't happy with the additional news, he made a note to check all information available concerning a civilian-Jounin pregnancy. Genma looked just a little bit more serious than he normally did but inwardly he was agitated, he LIKED Shiori and if something happened to her or the baby it would destroy their former ANBU captain, Kakashi really deserved a break after his fucked up childhood and teenager years.

Radio and Tenzo were concerned too but more on an abstract level, they were paranoid ninja after all and while they trusted into their comrade's instincts, they wanted to form their own opinions about Kakashi's wife. They had to admit that she had already made a very good first impression, she had taken care of their needs without batting an eyelash and her food was delicious, furthermore she had already won Genma over which was not an easy feat as they knew from personal experience.

They finished the dinner in a slightly somber mood. After everyone had stopped eating, Raido and Tenzo returned to the guest room to recover more of their chakra reserves while Kakashi and Shiori said goodbye to Genma and made their way up into their bedroom.

For the day Shiori left the dishes alone, she would take care of them in the morning. Tired and slightly worried after Shiori's revelations Kakashi led his wife straight to bed and after some cajoling Shiori agreed to join Kakashi in the early bed time. Said silver haired Jounin spooned her throughout the night while his hands kept a possessive grip on her middle.