Chapter 27
Beta'd by Black Sparrow
Hatake Hinako (Hi=sun, na=vegetables, ko=child) was born on the fourth of June at nine o'clock in the morning, nearly a week too early. Shiori had been having contractions for six hours before the bearing-down pains came and they could greet their little girl for the first time.
Himawatari-sensei had arrived shortly after six in the morning when Kakashi had tracked her down, anxious about leaving Shiori alone in the house with only his ninken as protection. The retired medic-nin had since then checked her dilation process periodically but had left the couple alone for the most part before shortly after nine the really painful contractions began and Shiori was dilated enough to start pushing. The gynecologist later told the young mother she had a very easy and fast birth for a first born, a clan child at that.
When the first contractions started around three in the morning Shiori thought that once again she had the Braxton hicks, just like the week before. When the uncomfortable feeling only increased instead of decreasing and then her water broke, the nearly nineteen year old finally gave an anxious looking Kakashi the okay to alert Himawatari-sensei. In the meantime the black haired civilian had kept as calm and collected as she did everything in life. Her gynecologist later wryly shared with her that the gaggle of shinobi down in her living room that had been arriving sometime after Himawatari-sensei had been a lot more nervous and jumpy than Shiori.
Kakashi on the other hand had, while being more than a bit frustrated about the fact that he couldn't do anything about Shiori's obvious pain, started to emulate his wife's calm and collected posture on the outside. He did this instinctively to not stress her even more than she already was. Of course his tensed muscles and nearly grey skin color clearly spoke a complete different language to the experienced medic-nin.
Himawatari-sensei had been more than relieved when everything was over, she had found in the archives of the hospital that the Hatake males reacted to the behavior of their mates and that a panicked and in pain Hatake female induced a berserker like state in them. So Shiori's calm nature was the best thing that could have happened to Hatake-Jounin and everybody around him. Though Etsuko had to concede that the shinobi waiting down on the first floor would have probably been able to restrain him if worst came to worst.
Starting shortly before seven in the morning the gaggle of Jounin arrived at the Hatake household after Shiori's husband had sent out one of his ninken. Etsuko could only shake her head at the men that she knew had normally nerves of steel. When she had been on the first floor to get herself a quick snack one of Shiori's stronger contractions had hit and she hadn't been able to suppress the shout completely. The shinobi around her had tensed and Shiranui-san who normally always had a joke on hand had looked white as a sheet before he had gulped down some sake directly from one of the bottles that littered the dining room table, the others hadn't looked any better.
Kakashi later couldn't say how long Shiori's labor had lasted or what exactly he had been doing throughout that time, the only thing that he could recall in perfect detail was when he was handed his daughter.
Himawatari-sensei had washed and checked his little girl over while he still sat with Shiori; both of their eyes had never left the small pink bundle in the medic's hands. When the woman had moved over to them and presented the baby to Kakashi he had felt his hands shaking when he had reached for the little bundle that was his daughter. The silver haired Jounin had been able to feel the warmth Hinako radiated through the blanket and her small squirms only reaffirmed that she was alive and apparently healthy. The emotional rollercoaster that Kakashi had felt at that moment was indescribable and he had only been able to wordlessly stare down at the being he and his wife had created together.
"She is perfect isn't she?" asked the exhausted but happy Shiori.
"She is so tiny," Kakashi said quietly, he was still in awe of the small red being in his arms.
"She will grow and one day we will wonder where the time went," Shiori said tiredly while she first kissed Kakashi and then their newborn daughter's head.
"Are you okay?" Kakashi questioned concernedly, he could smell Shiori's tiredness and exhaustion as well as the subjacent pain.
"I'm better than okay, now go on and show her to the idiots down there, I'm sure they are working each other into a frenzy by now," Shiori said wryly.
"Are you sure?" Kakashi asked slightly unsure, he didn't want to leave his wife alone up here.
"Don't worry, Himawatari-sensei is here to take care of me," Shiori reassured while she gently pushed at his back.
"She is right, Hatake-san. I will check her over and help her change. You can show your daughter to your comrades, your wife will soon be ready to have some visitors," Etsuko agreed with her patient while she moved closer to the new mother.
Nodding Kakashi slowly wandered from the master bedroom down into the living room while taking extra care to not jostle Hinako. As soon as he had entered the living room, the men that were getting plastered at nine in the morning at his dining table jumped up to come closer.
"Is that...?" Raido whispered while his right hand nervously stroked through his hair.
"Guys, this is Hatake Hinako, my first born daughter," Kakashi said in a hushed voice with a small grin on his lips.
This grin was emulated by the rest of the former ANBU cell while they studied the pink, wrinkled baby with the fine tuft of silver hair. Gai opened his mouth as if to say something before he closed it once more, his eyes never left the small miracle in his rival's arms.
"Congratulations Kakashi! Hinako is beautiful! How is Shiori-san?" Genma beamed at his friend, he was relieved that everything had worked out and he could practically feel the color returning into his face.
"She is fine, just tired. Himawatari-sensei is helping her to clean up right now; you should be able to see her in a few minutes," Kakashi told them, his grin didn't leave his face.
"God that was not fun, her suppressed screams and moans made me feel worse than the time the medics had to remove the katana from my lower spine," Genma said with a slightly green face, around him the shinobi nodded.
"Oh god! Don't remind me!" Tenzo said horrified, he had been the one who had to hold Genma down before the medics could numb the area and start to work at fixing his teammate, the senbon wielder had been lucky to not have retained any spinal damage, it was a very close call.
Brought out of his musings the senbon wielder looked speculatively at Kakashi before asking death defying, "So…can I hold her?"
Kakashi looked at him for a long time before he pressed out, "DON'T let her fall."
Genma gulped and slowly stretched out his hands in Kakashi's direction, when he had the bundle securely in his hands and peered down on the little girl he said astonished, "She is even lighter than I thought." He carefully tugged her closer to his body.
Around him the battle hardened men shook their heads while they grinned like fools at the tiny newborn, then one after the other got to hold her before she returned to the secure arms of her father. That she didn't wake up during the whole circus was a miracle in itself.
Hinako had just returned to Kakashi when the elite Jounin's eyes landed on his pack, the ninken had just returned from their latest patrol around the property. The dogs didn't say anything but their eyes were transfixed on the small bundle in his arms. With a warm chuckle Kakashi smoothly sat down on the floor and arranged his arms so that he could give Pakkun and the rest a better view at his daughter. The pack took in Hinako's smell of newborn and vulnerability and settled around Kakashi while they watched the tiny limbs flail inside of the blanket, it seemed as if the little girl had woken up.
"The pup smells healthy and strong," Pakkun growled while he laid his head down on one of Kakashi's knees.
"Yeah, Himawatari-sensei says that she has rarely seen such a healthy baby from a civilian-Jounin relationship," Kakashi confirmed while he slowly ran his thumb over Hinako's arm and hand.
The silver haired Jounin breathed in loudly when he felt the reflexive grip around his thumb from his baby girl. She was utterly amazing in his eyes.
The group of shinobi stayed for another hour after that, long enough to visit Shiori and congratulate her before they and Himawatari-sensei left the young family to themselves.
After they were alone once more Kakashi moved Shiori down onto the sofa in the living room to relax for the rest of the day. While his wife made herself comfortable on the couch surrounded by the pack Kakashi returned upstairs and quickly removed the protective plastic sheet they had put under the linen as a precaution some weeks ago and changed the bedding. After finishing with his task the silver haired shinobi returned to his young family. He was just in time to watch Shiori's first attempt at breast feeding their daughter. It took his wife three tries to place their daughter right but then Hinako latched on and after a short grimace Shiori's expression relaxed into a small content smile while she watched their daughter feed. When their little girl was finished she nearly instantly fell asleep after Shiori burped her.
"You are amazing," Kakashi spoke from behind the young mother while he leaned over the back of the couch; his deep voice reverberated through Shiori's body.
Shiori looked up at Kakashi and closed her eyes when he kissed her.
"We did it. We are parents," Shiori said somewhat giddy.
Kakashi chuckled. "You are going to be an amazing mother. You were so calm throughout the whole time and never even panicked once."
"I didn't have the time or the patience to work myself into a frenzy. I was hurting, feeling uncomfortable and only wanted to finally have our baby in my arms," Shiori stated amused while she looked up at Kakashi, before her eyes turned softer and she asked, "Sit down with us?"
Kakashi hhmed and carefully sat down beside her, his right hand softly stroked over Hinako's baby hair and soft skin, before he put both arms around Shiori, who instantly relaxed into his embrace, the three of them stayed like this for quite some time.
In the next few days, the young parents learned how to correctly change diapers and that a baby was always hungry and demanding their attention twenty four hours a day. Kakashi also learned how to block his sensitive nose with a simple chakra exercise to also be able to change diapers and relieve his wife somewhat. The sleep deprivation took a toll on both of them but especially Shiori was suffering because she was unaccustomed to it. Kakashi had learned to deal with sleep deprivation before he had even hit ten years and his conscious chakra circulation also helped him alleviate the worst.
When Kakashi was called in for a mission ten days after Hinako was born he looked so defeated when he had to leave the two of them behind that it nearly broke Shiori's heart. She told him that they would be fine and that he should just concentrate on his mission and coming back to them. At least the presence of his ninken and the fact that Raido would be in the village during his mission gave him some reassurance that his wife and daughter would be fine.
When Kakashi returned three days later, he was more than relieved to find both happy and healthy.
Three weeks into his fatherhood Kakashi finally decided to inform the Hokage about his family. For that purpose he chose a day on which he had to hand over the quarterly ANBU reports to the Hokage to sign and return them to the ANBU HQ, it was one of the compromises he had agreed to when he had retired officially from his ANBU duty. On his way through the mostly empty corridors Kakashi hid a picture of Shiori and the just born Hinako inside the first page of the report.
Kakashi entered with his normal lazy posture and handed over the report to his Hokage. The old man's sharp eyes lingered on his Jounin's minimally different body language and was instantly on high alert. Sarutobi pushed his thoughts of the latest merchant meeting out of his mind and concentrated on the report in front of him, when he opened the front page of the report his eyes instantly found the photo tugged between the pages.
Kakashi watched in silent admiration as the Sandaime Hokage revealed nothing through his body language or chakra consistency although he was staring right at the photo of Kakashi's family, Hiruzen's poker face was probably the best in the village and had fooled generations of enemies of Konoha. The 'Professor' quickly signed the papers before handing it once more over to Kakashi. Said retired ANBU walked out of the Hokage office to return the reports. On the way back he covertly removed the picture of his family the same way he had slipped it between the pages.
Some hours later after leaving the Hokage office, Hiruzen dismissed his ANBU guards and shunshined to Kakashi's named address. The Hokage was greeted by a slightly run down and dusty flat with one of his most loyal shinobi standing in the middle of it, the silver haired Jounin turned around to face his Hokage before he inclined his head in greeting.
Hiruzen smiled wryly. "Is there something I should know Kakashi?"
"Hokage-sama," Kakashi just acknowledged before he took out the picture that Hiruzen had briefly seen between the pages of the ANBU report and handed it over to the Sarutobi clan head.
The old Hokage took a closer look at the glowing woman on the photo and instantly recognized Inoue Shiori, the owner of Mariko's with a newborn infant in her arms. A silver haired infant.
"So you have a… girlfriend? And a child," the Hokage tried to clarify.
The fact that Kakashi had a family was still a bit mind boggling to him; those two were probably also the reason why he had left ANBU eleven months ago.
"Wife," Kakashi clarified.
"Ah. Since when?" chuckled the older shinobi.
"We married in July. The certificates are in my file under a genjutsu," Kakashi said warmly.
Sarutobi realized that Kakashi had quit ANBU nearly at the same time and had probably used the week of vacation to spend some time with his new wife.
"And how old is your child?" the old Hokage asked curiously.
The warm smile that the Hokage sent the younger man reassured Kakashi that he hadn't done anything wrong with concealing his family until now.
"Three weeks old and it's a girl. We named her Hinako." Kakashi couldn't help the stupid grin that broke over his face.
Sarutobi just chuckled and shook his head, this was probably the biggest surprise of the year…Hatake Kakashi was married and had a little daughter. He was curious on how he would handle fatherhood and all its ups and downs, than Hiruzen sobered a bit.
"Keeping your family a secret was probably a good idea," the old Hokage acknowledged with a wary sigh. "Kakashi-san, I want you to be careful around the council, especially around Danzo. He has taken up a form of Root once more and while I can't prove it I know that he has been stealing clan children and orphans. Furthermore he has also started to discredit possible Hokage candidates. I'm not sure if he does this to become the next Hokage himself or for another reason all together but this means you are on his radar, so be careful."
Hiruzen saw the younger man in front of him tense and nod stiffly, something primal and dangerous sparked behind that single grey eye. In that moment the Sandaime was sure that Kakashi would fight the old war hawk to death before he let him come too close to his family.
"I will keep him as busy as I can but keep an eye on your family," Sarutobi said while he nodded at the Hatake clan head.
"I will. Shiori and Hinako are everything to me," Kakashi stated calmly.
"Good, and Kakashi? Congratulations to your fatherhood, I know you will make a great father," Hiruzen said with a smile before he shunshined back to the Sarutobi clan compound where his ANBU guards waited.