In which Haruhi is hurt and team seven babysits.
She raised a single shaky hand into her hair and started twisting the already curly strand around and around nervously.
It's not like she could help it, though!
They had been over the plan going on seven times now. The routine would be the same-she would hide to the best of her ability until she was given the all clear. Characteristically, Kakashi was arriving two hours late so they had had plenty of time to talk. The sun was up and beaming on them and she almost couldn't stand the heat in the pocket.
Or maybe it was something else making her uncomfortable.
What would the kids think of her?
He tapped her head. Scowling, she swatted his fingers away. She didn't want to know. She would much rather stay hidden, but if that meant having to hide in this sweltering pocket for however long she was here, then she would have no other choice but to reveal herself. Her nose twitched in irritation.
She blinked as a thought crossed her mind.
"Hey, what was that, yesterday?" She asked.
"What was what?" He looked down curiously.
"The dramatic yelling-A THOUSAND YEARS OF DEATH!" She imitated him.
"W-well, I was just kidding!"
It looked pretty real to me."
Flustered, Kakashi buried his face into his book and didn't look up until they came a little past the deer trails again.
"Okay, you remember the plan?"
"Yeah."
She slipped down to her peek hole and he left the top partially open so she didn't suffocate.
She heard them loudly complaining and breathed shakily. This wasn't shown in canon except right up to the C rank mission. She was going fully into uncharted territory. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't nervous. It was incredibly reassuring to have Kakashi there, though.
Even if she was still sour at him.
"OH, I KNOW, WERE GOING TO SAVE A PRINCESS AREN'T WE!? TELL US TELL US! Naruto bellowed in his preteen way.
"Yeah, Sensei!" Sakura shouted.
"Hn."
It seemed in their excitement they forgot to tell Kakashi he was late. She punched him in the chest though, for all the good it did.
"Let's head out. To the mission desk!"
She felt them about face and walk away. The three kids scrambled and ran after Kakashi.
Out of her peek hole, she couldn't really see anywhere but straight, but with the sun behind them, she saw all three shadows turn towards each other, as if agreeing before looking back at Kakashi.
"Um, Kakashi sensei?"
"Hm?"
"What's the thing we need to prove ourselves for? Can't you tell us?" Sakura spoke for them all.
They were talking about her! She reflexively twitched away from the tiny tear before forcing herself back. Kakashi's shoulders hunched as if to calm her.
"Like I said you need to prove you're capable on this mission."
"Capable of what!? Come on!"
Them all crowded Kakashi and she got a good eyeful of Naruto hopping around like his pants were on fire.
He deemed them unworthy of response and they fell into a charged silence. The three, even Sasuke, were anticipating their first mission. She fell back against the back of the pocket, a circle of light landing on her thigh. She felt the corner of the book nudge the pocket inconspicuously twice.
'Are you alright?'
She tapped back twice.
'I'm fine, continue as planned.'
He went back to reading his book. They approached the center of town, and things got a lot busier. It seemed to be some sort of rush hour, as everyone looked like they were in a hurry to be somewhere. Not like they weren't either, though.
Everyone was pretty much dressed all like civilians, including the off mission ninja. You could tell who was a ninja though if you payed attention to how they moved. It also help all of them nodded to Kakashi in passing. The buildings became more crowded the training grounds faded away and the smell of foods wafted into the air. Trees provided spots of shade where people rested before continuing.
She felt the air cool as Kakashi stepped into a building, and the force of each step altered with the floor.
They must have been at the mission room now. She recognized this place as part of the academy as they headed in a different direction than before.
Naruto was positively bouncing in excitement, Sakura was fidgeting from foot to foot, and Sasuke's head was up and looking around.
"Kakashi. Here for team seven's first mission?" Said the Third hokage. She waved as best she could and he sent a brief eye twinkle her way. He was very nice for a militaristic dictator.
"Hello Iruka sensei! We're here for our first mission!" Naruto shouted.
"Good job! I'm Proud of you. All of you!" The three kids were obviously pleased and turned towards Iruka.
Actual cinnamon roll Umino Iruka.
She was blushing.
He was scratching his nose and laughing at Naruto's antics. He said something to the three but she couldn't pick it up-she was too busy admiring his perfection. He was adorable and she needed to protect him-
"Team seven is assigned the D-rank mission of babysitting a official's young daughter." Lord Third cleared his throat.
Well then. She knew as their first mission, while it was a big deal, the mission itself wouldn't be anything extraordinary. The three preteens, however, didn't think that far ahead.
"WHAT!?" Naruto screeched.
Sakura and Sasuke were stunned into silence. She felt Kakashi hold back a laugh. She would have laughed and she probably would later, but she was too busy being stunned by Iruka in general.
The third tossed the scroll to Kakashi who caught it with the hand not holding the book.
"Alright team, let's go!"
And he walked out of the room and into the hallway, the preteens scrambling behind them.
She finally let her giggles loose before asking;
"Why a babysitting mission?"
He paused for a second before sheepishly saying,
"Well... I wanted them to have experience with tiny people..."
"…"
She punched the corner of his book. "I'm not a baby!" She choked out.
"I know I know, but I need to see how they can handle taking care of someone else who can't take care of themselves." kakashi backtracked babbling slightly. He only made it worse.
"...Can't take care of themselves? Is that really what you think of me?" she spoke quietly.
He realized his mistake too late.
"W-what I meant to say was, not someone who was incompetent, but-Haruhi?"
She had sunk back down into her pocket, feeling just as small as she was. He called quietly to her again, as the preteens were catching up. It might have been immature, but she didn't want to respond. So she didn't.
She rubbed above her collarbones, feeling the lump in her throat. That really hurt.
When the kids caught up a few moments later, Kakashi explained the mission. There was a lot of whining on Naruto's part, but they eventually made their way over to a much nicer looking home, even better than Kakashis. She noticed he sounded off when explaining, but she didn't really care right now. She knew she wasn't as reliable as she once was, but being compared to a baby, and by Kakashi no less...
They walked the rest of the way in silence, Naruto pouting, Sasuke brooding, Sakura nervous, and Kakashi distracted. Yikes.
Sakura knocked on the door and they stood back and waited. A well dressed woman stepped out hastily.
"Oh good! You all must be the genin team. She's in her crib right now and instructions are on the kitchen counter and baby food is in the fridge. Now excuse me, i'm late for my meeting. Good-bye!"
And without leaving room for any questions she hurried off down the road and was soon out of sight.
"Okay then!" Kakashi clapped his hands in front of him. The three turned towards him and then slowly walked in the house, Naruto tripping on the steps.
They walked nervously into the house. It had an air of a very busy person, who was organized but sometimes just couldn't. There were coffee stains and the carpet was rumpled. Papers and ink were splayed on a desk in the living room. Hearing a faint crying from the room, the three broke into intense whispered arguments.
"Sakura's a girl, she should go-" Sasuke spoke hastily.
"-Well, Sasuke's the great number one so he should do it-!"Naruto whispered back.
"-Wow, because I'm a girl?!" Sakura screeched indignantly.
"WwwaaaAAAHHHHHH!"
"That's enough!"
The three fell silent and turned their gazes on them.
"You have a mission, all three of you! Go up and figure it out together, or have you learned nothing?"
Cowed, the preteens bowed their heads and slinked upstairs. Sasuke, being the clearest thinker, grabbed the instructions from the table.
Then it was two.
He chuckled, trying to defuse tension.
"A lot of work is needed on them."
She stayed silent, but crept back to the hole. He sighed and she felt the puff of breath roll over her.
"What do you think of them?"
She stayed silent.
…
"They sure do have potential, don't ya think?" He asked her.
"...what do you think they'll think of me?" Haruhi finally said, ignoring Kakashi's forced attempts at conversation.
"Well, It's not possible to think bad of you, so don't worry too much."
They fell quiet, just as Sakura's voice rang out.
"Kakashi sensei! We need your help! We can't get the baby to stop crying!"
She felt him twitch.
"Right now?"
"Yes!"
"I'll meet you up their. Sakura ran back up the stairs, and Kakashi took a deep breath, as if to steel himself. He crossed the carpet and climbed the steps. The wails hadn't stopped, and in fact were progressively getting louder.
They were met with a scene of chaos. Naruto was barely holding on to a struggling baby, Sasuke was pouring over the apparently invalid instructions, and Sakura was looking back and forth between the two, not knowing who to help.
A sigh.
The wails were like sirens now, and her ears were ringing.
"You three! Take the instructions and make the baby formula! Naruto, give the baby to me!"
The three compiled, and handed off the wailing babe to Kakashi and fled downstairs. Up close with the child pressed inches away from her, her tiny eye-hole was blocked by yellow cloth and she had to cover her ears in order not to go deaf.
She felt him rock the baby in jerky unpracticed movements, letting out stresses shushes. It kinda worked, but the baby was still sniffling loudly in a way that threatened more.
Now, that simply wouldn't do.
Haruhi was mad at Kakashi, and was tempted to let him handle the baby by himself, with no help. Payback for telling the kids without her permission and then insulting her, no matter how unintentionally it was.
But she couldn't just leave the poor baby like this. If punishing Kakashi meant others were made uncomfortable as well, she wouldn't do it.
Bracing herself, she let go of her ears. The noise rushed in like water, and she cringed at the pressure. Jumping up she peeked out and came face to face with the baby. Kakashi looked down at the baby, then her desperately.
"I don't-I'm not good with babies."
"Make your motions fluid. Take the stress out of your voice, too." Haruhi said, While she had no kids of her own or little siblings, she did babysit in her teen years for cousins of hers.
He nodded, relieved.
His formerly border-line panicked movements became much smoother, his breathing was controlled in an exercise. It's sniffling faded to wet hiccoughs.
He sighed in relief, and stopped.
"WwaaaaaAAAHHH-"
"Hey! Hi baby! How are you?"
The baby stopped dead, little mouth with one tooth opening and closing in shock. It stared up at her from it's position in Kakashi's arms, with unabashed curiosity. Said man was stone still.
She carefully slid out and crawled onto the babe's chubby stomach. It sucked on one fist and didn't look away.
"That's a good baby. No crying, okay? Can you tell us what's wrong?"
She sniffed the air.
"Well, you don't need to be changed. And you were fed before we got here!"
Indeed, there was an almost empty bottle of baby formula on the nightstand.
She dramatically stretched on the baby belly, making the kid giggle.
"Oh! You miss your mommy, don't you?"
The sniffles picked back up, and Kakashi stiffened.
"Kakashi, move back and forth again" She whispered out of the corner of her mouth.
She cooed, and balanced up Kakashi's forearm to place her palms on the babe's cheek.
"It's fine. She'll be back. But for now, we'll take care of you."
The baby let out a tiny giggle, and a fist the size of her torso flexed around her shoulders. She laughed and took the hand in both of hers and danced around it.
"Kakashi-Sensei! We got the baby formula!"
His back was towards the door so she scaled his jacket face just in time-Sakura walked in front of them.
She led the way downstairs into the kitchen, where the instructions were being poured over by the other two.
"Well, it looks like you three managed after all." He said with a faint note of pride, looking at the newly filled bottle.
He handed the baby to Sakura, who took the bottle from Naruto and fed the baby. Throughout the process, it's eyes trailed back to Kakashi's vest, more specifically, the breast pocket over the heart. She waved.
"Hey! What's that smell?!"
"Ew-!"
"Naruto's changing it-"
"-Urg!"
Naruto was forced to change the diaper and somehow managed. He did live alone though, so he must have picked up on some skills.
The thought made Haruhi sad. How long did Naruto live alone for?
When the official came back a couple of hours later, she thanked them for doing such a good job. The baby was dozing and she waved them off as they headed down the shaded street. They walked in a peaceful silence with the crunch of gravel underneath them.
She felt a double tap.
'Are you ready?'
Was she?
She thought of the way Naruto bounced the baby, trying to calm her. She thought of Sakura, cradling her, and even about Sasuke, who read and re-read the instructions. They started the mission disappointed and out of their comfort zone, but still performed to the best of their abilities. And while Haruhi wasn't a baby, and resisted being called one, she couldn't ignore the perseverance and determination the kids showed today.
Biting her lip, she leaned back and pushed twice.
'Yes.'
"I've decided you all are ready."
Three shocked faces looked back on them.
"Really!? Do you mean that!?"
He nodded.
"Let's head over to the training grounds."
The trees lining the edge of the gravel road became thicker and thicker, and the gravel turned to dirt and then crabgrass. Finally, They came to a stop at the three stumps with her heart racing.
He leaned on one of them, and the preteens sat in a half-circle around him, all looking on in anticipation.
"You can come out now." Kakashi called.
"Huh?!" The three whipped their heads around, looking for someone to pop out of the bushes.
"Hello." She called down from her new perch on Kakashi's shoulder.
The three gazes stopped on her and their reactions were almost comical.
Naruto screamed and fell onto his back, gasping and pointing at her. Sakura brought both her fists to her chest and stared with wide eyes. Sasuke blinked in shock, mouth opening and closing silently.
She gave a strained smile and bowed on Kakashi's shoulder.
"I'm Haruhi, please take care of me."
Cliffhanger! Don't worry, i'll go into detail their reactions next chapter. It seems Haruhi's feelings were pretty hurt by Kakashi. I wonder how he will make it up to her. And while she holds grudges, it's good to see her put them aside to help others, isn't it!