Chapter 45

Dinner at the Hatake household had turned out to be very relaxing and pleasant, even with the somewhat extreme happenings of the day. Everybody was full and after finishing with stuffing themselves, Team Seven helped Shiori with the dishes while the two ANBU operatives returned to their positions in the trees.
Shortly before sun down Shiori finally sent the three teenagers home, all of them received orders to return early on the next day for breakfast and training. The black haired woman reasoned that even though Kakashi wasn't here they shouldn't neglect their training and like this their sensei would also have an easier time to track them down.

Sakura, who had shaken off the last of the fright of the hours before and was now visibly mellow from the good food couldn't help herself and quipped, "Admit it; you want to stuff us full with healthy food."

The black haired woman blinked for a second before laughing in delight and saying, "You caught me Sakura-chan."

After she had calmed her amusement down the young wife softly stroked over the heads of the three ninja in training, she wouldn't ruffle their hairstyles like her husband preferred to do but she found the contact strangely soothing.

Shortly after saying goodbye to the Genins, Shiori readied Hinako for bed before taking her into the backyard once more to say goodbye to the two ANBU operatives, they would probably be gone when she woke up next. The black haired civilian watched contently while Hinako gave both masked men a hug and then stumbled tiredly back to her, it was already way past her normal bedtime and Hinako-chan desperately needed some sleep.

Kurenai Interlude

The red eyed kunoichi stared sightlessly at the white wall above Asuma's head while her thoughts and emotions were going around in frantic circles. The whole day had turned into a complete disaster; at first the already precarious mission had gone FUBAR when Danzo had evaded the whole eight ninja strong team and then both Asuma and Anko had been so seriously injured that they still hadn't woken up yet. Kurenai's throat closed up when she thought back at the two times the medics had to restart her lover's heart and the way the specialists around Anko had so frantically fought to keep her chakra system from destabilizing, frantic medic nins were always a very bad sign. She loved her purple haired friend, she really did but in that moment she still had been a lot more concerned about the smoking Sarutobi then the snake summoner. Inwardly Kurenai smiled a bitter smile, she had tried to deny it now for months but what had developed as a casual relationship between the two had become something a lot deeper and today the red eyed woman had finally admitted it even if only to herself, she loved Asuma.

She was in love with the laidback ash user that chain smoked and generally liked to be lazy.

The realization had hit her so hard that she barely had been able to keep breathing, she was happy when she was with him! Asuma made her laugh, made her feel safe, he listened to her and tried to help her solve the problem no matter how small,… she had been so stupid! What would have happened if the Sarutobi had died today? Kurenai would have never been able to tell him how much she loved him. They would have never had a chance to deepen this relationship.

And damn it she wanted this, she wanted to live in a functional relationship with a man she trusted and loved.

The black haired woman thought a bit wistfully about the Hatake couple. Shiori-san and Kakashi had shown them that it was possible to have a functioning relationship, even between a civilian and a shinobi; therefore it should also work for two active ninja. Kurenai didn't need a wedding or a ring or anything like that she only wanted Asuma and okay maybe someday she wanted a wedding and children but that was still somewhat off, after all they were young.
Having made up her mind about what she truly wanted she promised herself to tell her lover about her feelings as soon as possible, he needed to know.

Kurenai was ripped out of her thoughts a few minutes later when the unconscious shinobi's body in front of her tensed slightly and then abruptly relaxed once more, a few moments later the bearded man tiredly opened his eyes.

Asuma was awake.

Lizard Interlude

The two ANBU teams that had responded to the fight near the outer wall arrived at the ANBU HQ in record time where they handed over the gathered materials to the already waiting members of the T&I. The black ops ninja had had a feeling that the fight they had been called to was important but when they were personally questioned by Morino Ibiki it dawned them just HOW important it was. They answered all of Morino's questions as thoroughly as possible but didn't dare to mention Hatake's family with even one word. The silver haired Jounin had hidden his family for a reason and none of them wanted to be the one that divulged that information in their interview, because as much as they respected Morino he was NOT an ANBU operative and they would protect the secrets of one of their own as long as it didn't interfere with the mission objective. When the head interrogator of Konoha asked after the two missing ANBU operatives both captains answered truthfully that they had left them behind on guard duty for the next few hours. Ibiki had looked at them for a moment before simply nodding; it happened sometimes that ANBU members were left behind on the scene to prevent any tampering or to bait spies, especially in Konoha itself.

After finishing with the mission report, arranging the guard rooster for the Hatake family and completing the last half hour of his shift Lizard-taicho returned to being the Jounin Shirakumo Hayama. The grey haired Jounin stretched before walking down the streets in direction of his home. At the twenty four hour supermarket across from his building he met up with Mimura Hamaki, also better known as Wombat-taicho. Both nodded at each other while they loaded up their sake supply onto the cash point. The two didn't say a word while they leisurely made their way into the ninja building, only when they had arrived at their shared flat and activated the privacy Fuinjutsus they let their masks slip and let out two deep sighs.

"Hatake got us good didn't he?" Hamaki chuckled while he moved into the kitchen to get the sake cups out of the cupboard and heat up the desperately needed alcohol; some things just couldn't be witnessed without a proper drinking binge following after.

"To true,… on the other hand it's so typical that the smug bastard ends up with one of the most sought-after women in Konoha,... Inoue Shiori,… I have no idea if I should congratulate him or curse him for it. She certainly is my type too." Hayama lamented.

Hamaki snorted while he handed over the warmed sake, "You mean WAS. I really don't want to know what Wolf would do to you if he thought you want to make moves on his wife."

As an answer Hayama just shuddered and chugged down his drink, he certainly didn't want to know either.

The two sat in some silence before the Mimura suddenly began to laugh, "You know on hindsight we are kind of stupid!"

"What do you mean?" his fellow captain asked confused.

"Namiashi,… The behavior of Namiashi Raido… and now that I think about it also Shiranui Genma. Those to never EVER tried to flirt with Inoue-san as far as I am aware and Shiranui IS a first class Casanova and he didn't even hint in that direction with her, maybe he joked around with her a few times but never in a way that could be interpreted as flirting... And Namiashi always interfered when the conversation between her and other shinobi got a lewd undertone, remember? He always tensed and scanned the crowd as if waiting for something. I thought he just was really serious about going after Inoue-san and wanted to protect her from the behavior of others." the bearded shinobi explained.

"You think they knew?" Shirakumo asked while he loosened the bandages on his arms.

"Who was their captain again?" Hamaki asked rhetorically.

"Wolf-tai… ah shit, yeah Hatake clearly told his team about his family." the dark grey haired shinobi answered somewhat embarrassed.

"Yeah and now Namiashi's behavior makes perfect sense, what do you think would have happened if someone had become too handsy with Hatake's wife?" Hamaki asked rhetorically.

As an answer Hayama turned white as a sheet, "…, Isn't there a rumor about the Hatake blood line having berserker blood?"

"You know, I have actually no idea but I honestly DON'T want to know." the Third Shinobi World war veteran answered before gulping down his sake cup and promptly refilling it.

"…Scary thought,…" was softly murmured from his vis-à-vis.

"And now Wolf also has a kid,… cute little thing to be honest, those eyes were massive." Hamaki stated while he thought of the young toddler in the civilian's arms.

"Yeah, a daughter,… good luck to anybody who wants to date her when she is older." a slow grin stole itself on Lizard-taicho's face.

The man who was Wombat-taicho snorted, "Can you imagine it? The poor guy will probably have half an army of exANBU members after his ass."

Hayama choked and started to laugh out loud, "God let's hope we are still around to see that, entertainment at its best, I say!"

"Yeah,… though this kind of makes me wonder how many others of our peers have families hidden away like that." the bearded shinobi said while his eyes wandered to the window beside him and outside to the slowly sinking sun.

"Certainly not me." Hayama snorted while he refilled his sake cup for nth time.

"Yes but there are a lot of civilian-ninja couples around at the moment. Actually I think there have never been so much as right now." Hamaki contemplated while his eyebrows rose.

This boom of relationships had started only a year or so ago. He himself had never felt the urge to settle down, the ANBU captain with the Wombat mask loved his work too much and he really wasn't what one would call family material,… furthermore he preferred men anyways.

"This boom can also be traced back to Inoue,… I mean HATAKE-san. Her teahouse employees are certainly sought after partners for the shinobi population. …,hell if I wanted to settle down and have a family I would certainly check them out first before searching anywhere else." Hayama admitted.

The two fell in a comfortable silence while they contemplated the relationship situation in Konoha.

"Another thing that I want to know is if the little girl was an accident or not." Hayama said slightly curious.

His comrade snorted, "Have you forgotten what kind of missions Hatake ran? Those honey-trap shinobi simply don't MAKE mistakes like that, no that little girl was planned alright. What is more interesting is if her mother knew of the plan."

"You think Hatake knocked her up on purpose without telling her?" the ANBU Lizard asked incredulous, there were a lot of things you could say about your comrades but accusing them of trapping a woman in a relationship went too far didn't it?

"…, you know a few years back I would have certainly said yes, he has done sneaky shit like this before, though not in that range,… but honestly,… no I don't. Have you seen how he tugged on her hair and gave her a run down on his physical state without having to be prompted? The Hatake that I knew a few years ago wouldn't have given information about his physical state to his medic even if he was close to dying, not to mention a civilian, wife or not. He really likes her,… no he must absolutely adore her to have opened up so much. I'm not sure how it happened but what those two have is real and Hatake is going to fight anybody to death to protect this woman and their kid." The bearded man stated in a matter of fact tone.

"Let's toast to that, to Hatake and his family and their continuing safety." Hayama said wryly.

"Cheers!" his fellow taicho and roommate said before emptying his sake cup.