Kushina isn't lucky enough to learn from Hiroaki that his brother and Kakashi are friends. She is lucky in a different way, though. He offers up himself and his girlfriend Chine to watch Naruto for her.

"Seriously," he says while crossing his scarred arms over his chest. "You don't want to be taking your baby to the dive my lil'bro and his friends like to waste their downtime at."

"Oh really, you don't mind?" Kushina fusses.

Chine, who holds Naruto, smiles at her. "Not at all!" she assures. She turns abruptly away from Kushina; dark indigo hair swishing around her shoulders and goes to cuddle up against the tan arm of her boyfriend. Resting her chin on his shoulder, she gazes up at Hiroaki and says, "It'll be nice to get some experience with babies, right Hiro?"

Minato's old friend nods agreeably. "Yeah," he answers; a pleased blush spreading across his face.

Kushina bites the inside of her cheek. She remembers the days when she and Minato were like them. For their sake, she hopes they have a happier ending.

-O-

Hiroaki wasn't lying when he told her his brother's hangout spot is a dive. It's a relatively small bar on the edge of a seedier part of Konoha. The place isn't terribly well lit and all of the furniture inside looks like it has seen at least one or two bar fights.

As she searches the faces of the rather rough and grim patrons for one that shares a resemblance with Hiroaki, she wonders how Asuma and his friends found this place. It's outside of the usual area older shinobi in her generation like to go when looking to drink with friends or to mourn comrades lost on missions.

As she makes her way to the back of the place, she spots the pretty face of a purple-haired girl giggling at something her companion must have said. Kushina approaches when she spots a Hitai-ate on her.

She hopes she's not interrupting a date.

Kushina is relieved to find she is not shouldering her way into a couple's time together when she stops before the table. She blinks at the sight of six kids crammed into the booth. The group falls into a surprised hush at her appearance.

There are two girls, the pretty one, and another who's quite cute too. There are four teenage boys as well.

Kushina's eyes zero in on the who shares Hiroaki's brown eyes. She feels her lips twitch into a frown when she spies the cigarette between his teeth. "Your brother knows you smoke?" she asks.

The kid scrambles to put it out in the ceramic ashtray on the table as his friends babble greetings at her. When his cigarette is out, he turns to her and says, "Hiroaki doesn't tell me what to do."

She rolls her eyes. "Uh-huh," she replies. She's pretty sure that's a 'no'. Kushina isn't sure it's even going to be worth bringing up to him.

Hiroaki's always had a distaste for smoking but he isn't the type to hound somebody into quitting. He'll only ask them not to do it around him. Maybe it'd be better to bring it up to Tsunade. She's always been a little protective of her teacher's sons and would happily scare Asuma into quitting for his own good.

"Is there something we can do for you, Lady Kushina?" a boy with dark bags beneath his eyes asks.

She grimaces. "Kushina's good, uh."

"Gekkō Hayate," he tells her.

She nods. "Hayate."

He sits a little taller. Apparently, it pleases him for her to know his name. Maybe she'd be like that too if she hadn't been moving in the circles of legends and stars since she was a kid. If she wasn't one herself. "Yeah, so I have a couple of questions," she tells the kids.

Their energy changes. The lingering shock evaporates and they start to squirm in their seats in anticipation. Asuma looks at the girls, who immediately break into giggles, while the two of the boys squashed in the booth behind Hayate bend their heads to whisper to one another.

"What are they, Kushina?" asks Asuma on the behalf of all of the teenagers.

She means to ask about Kakashi, but from her mouth pops, "Why are you guys hanging out here?"

"It's cheap!"

"They don't check your ID!"

"Sensei doesn't come here!"

Kushina blinks at the flurry of answers. Well. Now things are making just a little more sense. "Do… Do all you kids come here?"

Asuma shrugs. "Just about," he says.

She feels a bit uneasy at that answer. Does "just about" include Kakashi? He's younger than these guys by a few years. He also really shouldn't be drinking a lot yet. It's not good for his liver (it's never good for somebody's liver but Kakashi's isn't done growing). "Kakashi too?" she whispers.

There are some shifty eyes and a silence that stretches on just a tad too long. Kushina starts to feel like she's looking into a pitch-black yawning cavern. Shit.

"We tried to include him once," says Asuma at last.

Kushina feels both relieved and worse at his words. "Oh?"

He nods and she sees his fingers go for a cigarette only to abort the motion at the last second. "Yeah," he replies. "My friend Genma thought he deserved a drink after he was accepted into the ANBU." Asuma frowns. "He pretty much told us all to fuck off when we suggested going out together."

She winces. Yeah. That sounds like Minato's student. "Sorry," she mumbles.

He gives her a strange look. "You lookin' for him?" asks Asuma at last while the cute girl, a pale teen with a wild mane of black hair, pushes a half-empty glass of beer at him.

Kushina nods.

Asuma takes a drink from the beer. "You would have better luck talking to Maito Gai if you want to find him," he tells her. "He's the only one still trying to buddy up with Hatake these days."

Dread takes Kushina. Things are worse than she imagined. Kakashi doesn't even let himself have friends anymore? Damnit. She needs to find him and make him her kid's big brother now.

Kushina forces herself to smile at the kids to hide her worry. "Okay," she says. "I think I remember him. He's the one who wears that green jumpsuit?"

"Yeah, that's Gai," agrees the black-haired girl with a giggle. "You should check out the training fields for him," she informs her. "He's been trying to master a new kata lately."

"Thanks," she says. She shifts a bit and reaches into the pocket of her navy-blue skirt. Pulling out a few dollars she plops it on the table. "Here's enough for another round of beers," she tells them. "For all the help you just gave me."

"Wow, thank you!" cheers the pretty purple-haired girl as her long, slim fingers shoot toward the money to gather it up.

The others express their own gratitude and she laughs. "It's no problem!" she says. Turning away, she waves. "Bye guys!"

The group waves back at her but once she's out of sight she can hear them return to their earlier conversations. She doesn't mind. Honestly, Kushina would like them to kind of pretend this conversation didn't happen rather than go bug Kakashi about it. She's getting the feeling that things are only going to grow trickier. If Kakashi receives a heads up chances are very good folding Kakashi into her little family will become a headache.

Thanks for reading and let me know what you think!