On a personal note, my cousin's girlfriend just gave birth to my second cousin nearly a month too early and he is healthy and ADORABLE! *happy happy happy* -this is the first baby in that generation and my other cousins and I had a spontaneous party with … a lot of fun :D

Chapter 39

Beta'd by Black Sparrow

Shiori saw out of the corner of her eyes how Hinako toddled up to Genma who was standing right behind Kakashi in ANBU gear but without a mask. The senbon wielder instantly lifted her up and carried her into the circle of adult shinobi. Kakashi's students looked completely out of their depth and a bit cowed and so stayed seated on the couch occasionally sending a quick look at how Hinako was passed from shinobi to shinobi.

"Shiori, I need to talk to you," Kakashi said just loud enough for his wife to hear him.

Said civilian nodded before she instinctively grabbed for one of his hands and led him into her bureau area after closing the door behind them. She turned around quietly and watched while Kakashi visibly tried to find words for what was about to go down.

Kakashi floundered a bit before he said, "There is a very precarious mission going on in Konoha right now… it is dangerous and could potentially lead to a massive backslash so not a lot of us are involved…. I can't guarantee that all of us will survive it… Shiori should something happen to me… I have already talked to our lawyer about this and he agreed to keep you two under wraps as much as possible… I… the guys promised to help you should this happen… just…Hinako… my team… please don't… they need someone to…"

Shiori nodded mechanically while she listened numbly to Kakashi's halted and somewhat disjointed speech. To be honest she had no idea what to think at that moment but she knew that Kakashi needed to be able to concentrate on this mission whatever it was.

Her voice was strangely listless when she said, "I… I promise, the kids are going to be fine… I will take care of them… all of them… and I will explain… I'm not going to let them deal with this on their own."

"Good… good," Kakashi said. "I left a lot of instructions with Atsuka-san… Shiori… I… if I could…" the last part was said unsurely.

"I know, it's your duty, it's what you do… don't worry… should, SHOULD something happen I will take care of everything… just… just concentrate on this mission and coming back to us, everything is going to be fine," now Shiori couldn't suppress the tears anymore, how do you react when your husband tells you that this mission could cost him his life? "I love you," her voice broke at the last part.

"I love you too… I love you both, Shiori-chan… and… you are right, everything is going to be fine, just fine so please don't worry," the silver haired Jounin desperately promised while he held his silently crying wife against his body.

"I know… I know. I'm just being silly," came the choked reply while she buried herself into his shoulder.

Kakashi desperately kissed her and gently stroked through her hair before the two returned to the living room. There his comrades and students were already waiting; Hinako was occupied by Anko who bounced her a bit up and down. Genma turned his head in their direction and took one look at Shiori's red and wet eyes and looked grimly at Kakashi before he nodded. The silver haired Jounin reluctantly let go of his wife's hand and walked over to his students, they deserved an explanation.

"We have been called for a mission and I'm not sure how long it will take. I want you to stay with Shiori for at least today and spend the night here," Kakashi said while he looked at the three teens in front of him.

Sakura's eyes were wide and had a suspicious wet shine to them, Naruto looked torn between being angry, confused and nervous and Sasuke simply gritted his teeth and his arm muscles were visibly shaking.

"It's dangerous isn't it?" Sakura asked her voice failed at the end.

"Yes and very classified, so don't talk about this no matter what. I wouldn't even have told you if it wasn't so close to home… I… take care of Shiori for me? I know you haven't known her for long but…" Kakashi answered in a serious voice.

"Don't worry sensei," Naruto said with an uncharacteristic quiet voice and a small smile on his face.

"Concentrate on your mission, sensei and we won't have to take care of her," came the reply from Sasuke while he watched the silver haired Jounin in front of him.

Beside him Sakura nodded furiously unable to say anything without starting to cry. All three of them were getting a pretty harsh reality check of what it meant to be a ninja only a bit over a week into their ninja career.

Kakashi chuckled, relieved about their easy acceptance of his family and ruffled their hair before turning around to pluck Hinako-chan from Yugao. His little girl looked worriedly up at him and clung to his chest, she had definitely picked up on the strained atmosphere.

"Hinako-chan, be good for your kaa-chan." Kakashi said while he carefully stroked through her silver, shoulder length hair.

The little girl nodded wordlessly and burrowed her face into the crook of his neck to breath in, Kakashi could feel her body relax from his familiar scent and then picked up her mumbled, "I love you, daddy."

The Hatake head swallowed and inwardly prayed that he wouldn't have to leave his family so early, not like his own father had left him. Kakashi had to ruefully admit that he now had a better perspective about his father's suicide, losing his wife must have fucking hurt if their marriage was anything like what he had with Shiori and shortly after that the loss of his honor? His father must have been devastated.
With a quick glance he found his civilian wife in the middle of the shinobi circle, hugging people. Kakashi prayed that whichever way this operation went today that it wouldn't affect Shiori and Hinako.

"I love you too, sweetheart," Kakashi whispered in Hinako's ear before turning and walking over to his wife.

Shiori had used the time he had spent with his Genins and daughter to hug every last one of the ninja that were present and tell them to be careful. She now left Raido's arms and walked closer to him, in the last few minutes she had given up on holding back her tears and was now crying silently while she looked at him holding their daughter.

This was the first mission since Hinako's birth, since the being of their marriage, that was potentially lethal for him and her heart was obviously breaking but she bit her lip and didn't say anything to stop him she didn't want to make it even harder on him. When she had reached them she just buried her face in his shoulder and held him and their daughter desperately.

"Take care… all of you," was the only thing she said while she smiled at him through tears.

"We will, stay safe," Kakashi answered steadily.

His control was too good to show vulnerability in front of the people that relied on him to lead them but it was still hard to remove himself from her warmth. He then handed over Hinako, who waved at him and was clearly disturbed by the dark mood that hung in the room.

Without another word her turned away from his family and gave one last nod to his students before he left through the front gate, his comrades following with a grim and determined air around them.

Interlude Asuma

Asuma's heart stopped for a second when Kakashi dropped in front of him and Raido with a grim look on his face and said the dreaded words that put both of them instantly on high alert.

Code Zero.

Well, fuck.

It meant that something had gone seriously wrong and they were needed ASAP in their emergency location aka Kakashi's home, preferably decked out in full ANBU gear.

Asuma swallowed while he unsealed his ANBU uniform and quickly replaced his chakra blades with his ANBU ones; hopefully nothing happened to Shiori and Hinako-chan that would be devastating to all of them. In the last few months he had gotten to know Kakashi's wife better, not as well as the other members of their group but good enough to know that she was a genuinely nice person and that she really loved Kakashi. Furthermore their toddler daughter was absolutely adorable, Kakashi's little princess had wormed herself into the heart of each and every one of his comrades and he prayed to the gods that Kakashi's vulnerable family was safe and sound, because if they weren't there would be hell to pay.

When Asuma arrived at the Hatake place he could feel the familiar chakra of Kakashi's own ANBU team as well as Kurenai's but thankfully also the ones of Shiori and Hinako. Kakashi's family seemed to be okay, Asuma let himself feel a tiny amount of relief before concentrating back on the situation on hand. He hastily made his way inside and was confronted with grave faces.

With the sentence, "We are taking Danzo down today, orders of the Hokage," Kakashi greeted Asuma in the normally so serene tea room before he could ask and then returned to discussing seals with Yugao.

Ah Hell.

Asuma joined the group around Raido to plan the offensive attack, while his mind was racing. They were taking down the old war hawk? He had heard rumors about the dealings his father's old rival had but nothing had ever been confirmed. For his old man to now give the order to go after the man Danzo must have done something on the scale of Orochimaru. Feeling slightly sick the wind user concentrated on what Raido was saying about securing the Hokage office.

Just like they never had left the black operations the exANBUs quickly hashed out a plan to secure the building and take down Danzo. Kurenai and Anko who had only the barest experience concerning black ops listened attentively and consulted them on poisons and subtle Genjutsus for the trap. They would keep to the sidelines throughout the takedown and would only serve as a last resort. For this the youngest son of the Hokage was very glad, he knew it was unprofessional but it gave him some relief to know that Kurenai was out of the direct fire on this mission.

All in all it took the team of eight only ten minutes to put together the barest bones of the operation. Anko forked over one of her odorless gaseous paralyzing poisons that she only used in the direst of circumstances because it affected enemies and comrades alike without the antidote. Said antidote was distributed between the mission members before they left the tea room to say goodbye to the other members in the house.

Asuma looked away when Kakashi embraced a crying Shiori one last time, no matter how much he understood that this was the life of a shinobi and that each and every of his comrades with a family went through this it was still hard to watch a crying Shiori and a distressed Hinako.

Asuma's gaze fell nearly involuntary on the form of Kurenai when he scanned the room and something tugged on his heart. Maybe one day he would have this with the red eyed kunoichi in front of him. To be honest Kakashi's happy marriage had taken away most of the inhibitions against one of his own. Like his friend demonstrated, it COULD really work with the right woman.

Coming out of his thoughts when Kakashi returned his daughter to his wife Asuma gave his pouches a quick tug to check the strength of the attachment before he followed his comrades out of the house.

They had a council member to catch.

PS: This chapter was a bitch to write!