Chapter 22: Come Together

Contrary to his expectations, the dramatic discovery he had made did not immediately turn his life into some big, remarkable, chaotic mess. In fact, the entirety of the following day went along the same calm routine as usual—completely undisturbed—as did the day after that.

Which, of course, actually makes perfect sense. Just because he knew that there was a possible doomsday threat looming in the future, doesn't mean anybody else does. Heck, the attack may not even happen for years yet. It's not as though he had a lot to go on when guessing how much time he had: a couple of images drawn by fans couldn't tell him much.

And even if he did know when it would happen, there was even less that he could actually do about it. He'd sound like an absolute lunatic if he tried to tell anybody. Imagine going up to the Hokage—or even some random ninja—with claims that, according to a cartoon in a different dimension, the Nine-Tails would attack the village at an indeterminate time in the maybe-not-so-distant future.

No. Not a good plan.

Honestly, the only person he'd even consider telling would be Minato himself. And given that Axel would still sound crazy, he decided he'd hold off on any warning attempts until he had an explanation less insane than an alternate reality television show.

Of course, though there were no disturbances on the level of village-destruction in his day to day life—thank goodness—there were still the typical excitements. Ninja will be ninja, after all.

Take, for example, the innumerable holes jabbed into the various surfaces in the store from overeager shoppers trying out the throwing knives. He had started leaving the front window open and requesting that, if the knife really needs a test throw, his customers at least spare the building and aim for the log sign out front instead. There were still a few new punctures, though, including one kunai that was now stuck so far in the ceiling Axel doubted he'd ever be able to get it out.

And take, for another example of ninja disruptiveness, the pair of young genin-in-training currently sitting at his kitchen table working on their homework. At least that's what he assumed they were doing—or trying to do, anyway—and even then it's only half true: one of them was working. The other was trying, but he was just a tad too energetic to sit still long enough.

"Obito." No matter how sweet Rin may have sounded, there was still an audible eye roll in her tone: friendly, yes, but there nonetheless. She gently scolded, "You do know that you actually have to do the work for it to get done, right?"

There was a laugh that the boy probably meant to sound confident or reassuring but just ended up being kind of sheepish. "It's fine, no problem!"

Rin gave her teammate a look.

"And, well, it's such a nice day out," Obito continued, trying to deflect, "so, uhm, maybe we could take a break…?

"We can take a break after you finish the first page."

"But—"

"No buts!"

Thinking maybe he should see if he could help help, Axel closed his notebook—setting aside thoughts of doomsday and his sketchy plans for trying to warn people about it—and stood up. He stretched, relieving a number of cricks in his arms and legs from sitting so long at the register without doing anything but scribble down notes.

His moving roused a disgruntled bark from down by his feet, and a petulant dachshund nose peeked up at him from deep under the desk. Dach, who was curled up on an old cushion he'd stuffed under there, had apparently been using one of his human's feet as a pillow.

"Es tut mir leid," Axel apologized quietly.

Dach snorted in maybe-amusement, pawing the bed a few times in preparation for the renewal of his comfortable snooze. But before he could lie down again, something outside caught his attention. The dachshund stared out the window for a long moment, and then, with a huff, he stood and put his front paws up on the windowsill. With a small bark, Dach looked back at Axel in request.

"…Want me to let you out?"

The question got an affirmative wag, so Axel did as he was asked; he scooped up the small dog, leaned out the open window, and deposited him on the grass outside. He stayed there at the window for a minute, a slight breeze ruffling his blond hair.

It really was a beautiful day, both outside and in.

Though it was a bit louder inside, of course. Hearing Obito still trying to distract his studious teammate from their homework assignment—with no success, she absolutely could not be budged—Axel returned to the matter at hand.

"What are you working on?" he asked, joining the kids in the kitchen. "Can I help?"

Obito startled slightly, then flushed pink with embarrassment. "Uh… well… You don't need to…"

"I'm not doing anything else," Axel replied, sitting in the third chair and scooching in to look over the papers scattered across the table. They were apparently working through multiplication and long division worksheets, which meant that he could actually help; he'd have been useless if they were working on history or writing.

"Math?"

"Math," Rin confirmed.

Her papers were mostly done, just missing a couple of questions here or there. In contrast, Obito had only completed the first three problems. The rest of his worksheets were either blank or covered in distracted doodles.

Axel took one of the scrap papers and a pencil, then copied down the unanswered fourth question at the top of the page. It wasn't a hard problem—basically the same as the first three, but with different numbers—so he spun the page toward Obito.

"Show me how to do this."

=X=X=X=

They were still working—maybe halfway done with the whole worksheet—when the bell hanging over the front door gave a cheerful jingle.

"I'll be there soon," Axel called.

"No need to rush."

He didn't recognize the voice, which was somewhat strange; most of his customers lately were regulars, coming by often enough that he almost knew them all by name. After helping Obito through the last step of the problem they were on (and wringing a promise out of him to start the next one), he went back out into the store.

Axel was getting better at telling civilian customers from ninja, and the beautiful woman perusing the shelf of throwing knives was definitely the latter. She had long, straight black hair, and was wearing a simple dark blue dress. It wasn't typical ninja apparel, but it was pretty clear from how she carried herself that she was a ninja.

The fact that she was looking at kunai and not kitchen knives was also a pretty big clue.

"Can I help you?"

She turned to him, frowning thoughtfully, and he was struck by the inexplicable sensation that he should recognize her. There was something about her face—her dark eyes—that seemed very familiar.

Then she smiled, and the moment passed.

"I am looking for a gift for my fiancé," she answered. "When I asked a friend of mine if she had any ideas, she reluctantly recommended your shop."

To be honest, he wasn't sure if he should feel affronted or not.

Apparently reading that from his expression, she quickly added, "Not because she doesn't like your shop, but rather that she doesn't like my future husband."

Having no clue how to respond to such a statement, Axel eloquently replied, "Oh."

"She had only good things to say about you, really," she continued, "even if some of her remarks were confusing at the time." The woman paused, regarded him for a moment, then nodded slightly. "Accurate, but confusing."

"...Thank you?"

She smiled again, glad the misunderstanding had passed, and turned back to the kunai. Carefully trailing a contemplative finger along the sharp edge of a long, oddly shaped throwing knife, she stated, "I haven't seen this style before."

The knife in question was a little over thirty centimeters long—which was at least three centimeters longer than a typical kunai—and it wasn't straight: the blade curved first convex, then concave. It also didn't have much of a handle, making it a weapon purely meant to be thrown.

"It's from far away, back where I'm from."

With a gesture to the knife, she asked, "May I?"

Axel was just surprised she actually asked for permission. "Go ahead."

"How odd," she mused, slowly turning the blade over in her hands. "I imagine this takes a different throwing technique. Less like a dart, perhaps, and more like a shuriken."

That's a point he hadn't even considered, and probably explains why nobody had bought more than one or two of them; purchased more for curiosity rather than utility.

And then, as if to contradict that thought, she said, "Do you sell a set of five?"

"Wirklich?" he blurted out, surprised. "Uh, ich meine… You really want five?"

She blinked at the language change, but did not remark on it. "Perhaps he'll enjoy the challenge," she said instead, smile now just slightly mischievous.

He still thought that deadly knives were a weird gift for a romantic partner, but he shrugged it off. "You'd be the one to know."

"I'm not sure these will fit in a standard pouch," she said, sending a quick look around the store to check. "Do you sell cases as well?"

As a matter of fact, he did. Both Morimoto and Pei had introduced him to people they worked with to keep weapon accessories stocked in their stores, and now he had a few business arrangements of his own. He didn't have many, but he did have some.

"Yes, I'll go get one."

It didn't take him long to find a suitable case, since the box of all his stock was right by the front desk. He had yet to figure out where he was actually going to display them—he had limited shelf space, after all—so that's just where they had ended up.

As he loaded them into the carrier, she asked, "Does this style of knife have a name?"

Axel paused, trying to think if it did; he could recall the name printed on the knife he had used as a model, but he had no idea if that was the type or a brand or what. "I… think it's called 'Bo-Kri'."

"Not 'bokiri'?" she replied, looking amused. "A name like that would suit a weapon thrown like a shuriken."

The word wasn't one he was familiar with, but he assumed it must a descriptor of some sort—maybe a word like 'spinning' or something. He just nodded, as if he got whatever joke had been made.

Then he told her how much it would cost.

"Really?" She sounded pleasantly surprised, which was the typical response. "Are you sure? I was certain it would cost more."

"I've been told that before."

Eyebrows raised, she asked, "And you haven't raised the price?"

"You bothered to come out here." Axel shrugged. "Least I could do."

As he finished the transaction, the woman gave him a very thoughtful look: as if measuring how truthful he was being. That, too, was a typical response.

Less typical was another pause—a glance through the window—just after she had carefully bundled her newly-purchased throwing knives. It was a very brief pause, to be sure, but he still noticed: something outside had momentarily caught her attention.

Just as something had with Dach earlier.

If that kept happening, he'd start thinking he had a stalker or something.

"It was a pleasure meeting you, Blacksmith-san," she said. "I'm sure I'll come in again someday."

The bell chimed again as she left.

He sent a suspicious glance out the open window, but ultimately decided it wasn't worth worrying about. After all, fretting about it wasn't going to help—not to mention he wasn't sure what he would be fretting over in the first place. So rather than worry, he just rejoined the two kids in the kitchen.

Both of whom were blankly staring at the front door, looking a bit bamboozled.

"What's wrong?"

"Wasn't that Uchiha-sama?"

Axel frowned. He almost asked how that could be possible, but thankfully caught himself before asking something that stupid. The Uchiha Incident—the massacre—hadn't happened yet. Which was something he'd known ever since he'd first met Obito, but apparently that reality hadn't set in until just then.

Just fantastic. With both that and the Nine-Tails attack, the future seems to be teeming with possible tragedies.

…Maybe he shouldn't joke about that.

Instead, he said, "I don't know, I didn't ask."

"I've only seen her a couple of times," Obito said. "She's engaged to the clan head."

Axel blinked. If she was engaged to the clan head, then that would mean that… her fiancé was the clan head. He wasn't daunted by the fact that the Uchiha clan had been—scratch that, was one of the largest clans in the whole village. What had struck him was the realization that the woman he had just spoken to was the mother of two rather important characters from the anime.

At least now he had a better idea of when he was; if they weren't married yet, it was a fairly safe bet that neither Itachi nor Sasuke have been born yet.

"…Oh." Axel wasn't quite sure how to react to that. "I'm… going to step outside. Watch the store briefly?"

Before Obito could say anything, Rin stood up. "I will."

When it looked like her teammate was going to protest—he wanted the excuse to stop studying—she gave a pointed look between him and his unfinished worksheets. He slumped in his chair.

"Alright, yeah, I get it," he mumbled, returning to his dreaded work while she went to take her post at the register.

Axel went to his backyard, wanting a bit of fresh air and a break from socializing. Just before he stepped outside, he noticed one thing immediately: Dach was standing in the middle of the yard and staring up at something on top of the house. The next thing he noticed was that the dog looked like he was waiting for something.

The third thing he noticed was a stick, thrown from the roof, that Dach happily chased down.

"I saw that." Axel glanced quickly at the roof, just in time to see a dangling foot hastily pulled out of sight, and added, "I saw that, too."

At least this explains all those distracted glances outside; it turns out that he did have a stalker. And he had a pretty good guess who it was, too.

There was a long pause. Then, almost before he was aware of it, Kakashi had lightly dropped down from the top of his house. To be honest, it kind of surprised him; Axel hadn't expected the kid to actually announce his presence.

In as much as silently appearing could be considered announcing oneself, of course.

Since it didn't seem like the kid was going to say anything, Axel took it upon himself to ask, "Have you been watching me all day?"

Kakashi said nothing, his expression nearly inscrutable behind his mask.

Axel sighed. "I think that's a 'yes'."

After a long moment, Kakashi finally stated, "You're a civilian."

Well, that was a call-back to the first time they had actually met. And it wasn't really an angle Axel had been expecting this conversation to start with—although, to be perfectly honest, he hadn't really known what to expect.

"Yeah?" he replied, somewhat questioningly. "Last I checked, anyway. Why?"

The kid didn't answer directly, and instead opted for another straight remark. "Just… some average guy."

So long as nobody counted accidentally ending up in an apparently-not-fictional universe after being hit by a truck, of course. And, given nobody should know that particular fact, nobody should know to count it.

Axel just nodded, waiting to see where this was headed.

At that point, Dach returned with the now-slightly-more-chewed-on stick. The conversation was put on pause as the dog carefully considered the two humans. Then, apparently judging that Kakashi was indeed the superior stick-thrower of the two, the dachshund trotted over to the boy.

Kakashi seemed pleased—as evident by the fact that his expression didn't change at all. His face being half covered by a mask certainly didn't help when it came to decoding emotions, but Axel had an inexplicable hunch. The boy threw the stick off to the farthest corner of the yard, and it jammed upright in the dirt.

"…I don't get it."

It was said softly, barely above a whisper. If Axel had to guess, he'd say he probably wasn't supposed to hear it at all. So he thought it prudent to pretend he hadn't.

"Any reason for the questions?" he asked at last, having failed at coming up with something more productive to say.

Kakashi glared at him, but after another moment he seemed to deflate into himself slightly. More loudly this time, he repeated, "I don't get it."

"Don't get what?"

He looked away, watching Dach struggling to free the stick from where it was stuck in the ground. "Why are you friends with Minato-sensei?"

Axel considered the question seriously. There were plenty of reasons why he might want to be friends with him—not least of all that Minato is just a good guy—but in the end, well: "Do I need a reason?"

"…Nevermind."

Before Axel could add anything else, the other half of the conversation vanished.

"Ninja," he grumbled to himself. Still, he did address the possibly-empty air one last time. "Thanks for playing with Dach. When you two are done, you can come in if you want."

Having said what he wanted to say—as unexpected as the whole encounter had been—Axel went back inside. Though he did leave the door open, just in case.

"How's it going?" he asked, seeing the baleful look Obito was giving his homework.

"Urrrgh…"

A splendid reply.

Taking a seat and grabbing a pencil, Axel got back to helping the boy work through the question he'd gotten stuck on. Rin rejoined them when she heard all the talking going on, and together they did their level best to get Obito through the worksheets.

And after a few minutes, the door to the backyard clicked shut. This was followed by a pattering of dog paws… and a quiet set of footsteps.

Rin's eyes went wide with surprise.

"Oh hey, Kakashi," Obito said, too caught up in glaring at his math to really register the unusual-ness in the fact that his third teammate was actually present. It fully processed after a few seconds, and he jerked his head up in surprise. "Wait, Kakashi?!"

The white-haired boy just rolled his eyes. "I could hear you guys from outside. You're going to need all the help you can get."

Since Minato had never actually taken back the chairs he had lent him, there were still seats around the table. Kakashi sat down, ignoring the continued surprise of his team, and tapped a finger to one of the math problems.

"You forgot to add the one."

Author's Note:

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

United, they stand.
Actually uniting, however, might be tricky.

By the way, "Uchiha-sama" really wants to auto-correct to "chihuahua" which is, of course, hilarious. Also, "Sasuke" wants to become "Sapsucker". Auto-correct, you beautiful bastard.

Translations:
"Es tut mir leid." = "Sorry."
"Wirklich? Uh, ich meine… = "Really? Uh, I mean…"
"…'bokiri'?" = "…'blurry'?"
"Blacksmith-san." = "Kajiya-san." (just in case you were interested)

Updates on the 15th of every month, though typically late in the day. Very late. …Sorry
Thanks for all the reviews, favorites, and follows!

pfft: I do have ideas of points I want to hit, but a lot of those don't happen until years from now in the plot. So there is a lot of seat-of-the-pants writing going on right now! If you (or anybody else, for that matter) have any ideas you want to see, feel free to mention them!

See ya on the flipside, everyone!