The next morning everyone was sitting around the tables in the hotels breakfast bar the only ones absent were Sasuke, Kakashi, Naruto and of course Chaos...
“Hey, this may seem like an odd question but does anyone know if Chaos has a name?” Sakura asked out of the blue.
Everyone glanced at each other, before they muttered negatives or shrugged their shoulders.
“Well, Kakashi should know, he knew her before she had the nickname right?” Gai thought out loud.
At that precise moment a tired looking Kakashi and Sasuke entered the hotel. Asuma smiled, “So how was sleeping outdoors?”
“Not now, Asuma.” Kakashi said. “Where are they?”
“Who? Naruto and Chaos? In the room still, why?”
Kakashi sighed, “Come on, Sasuke we have to go wake them up. She never was a morning person. Always sleeping in for every mission.”
Kakashi continued his ramblings as he and Sasuke walked to the room. Once they were standing outside he politely knocked before opening the door, eyes widening as he saw Naruto and I with cars at the top of a set of tubing that circulated the room in a chaotic track of amazing stunts.
“What happened?” He said exasperatedly while Sasuke eyed the slab of marble that looked suspiciously like the front counter of the hotel.
“We’re racing cars what does it look like?” I said before nodding at Naruto who let go of both cars at the same time. They went through flames, loops, rocketing through turns and down ramps before coming to a rest at Kakashi’s feet.
“Clean it up.” Kakashi ordered.
“Aw why? Come on Kakashi-sensei we’re having fun.” Naruto whined.
“No, he’s right we should be getting ready to leave. Pack up Naruto I’ll dismantle what I can.” I said beginning to tear apart the make shift track.
“Okay. But what should we do with that?” He asked pointing to the counter.
I turned and smiled at Kakashi who just sighed, “I’ll take this back to the front desk.”
“Thanks Kakashi.” I said as he picked up the slab of marble.
“Just make sure it doesn’t happen again and don’t forget to get some breakfast. I know how you used to forget meals in the morning.”
“Alright, stop lecturing we’ll be down in ten.” I said finishing up.
A few minutes later and we had finished cleaning the room, walking into the foyer we stumbled across a verbal fight between the receptionist and Kakashi. Kakashi’s nerves were fraying quickly and the receptionist just wouldn’t shut up so being the nice person I am, I decided to help.
“Excuse me.” I said butting into the fight.
Kakashi’s eyes warned me not to do something really stupid while the receptionist turned to me. “What is it? I’m busy.”
“Well, that’s rather rude. I’m a guest and I could refuse to pay as the hospitality of this establishment seems below par. I’d like to speak to the manager about payment and on the issue of security as it seems you can’t even defend a counter from being pinched.”
I watched as his face turned an angry red, “I beg your pardon!”
“You heard me. Go get your manager.”
“I refuse to do such a thing.”
“I see. I’ll be filing a formal complaint on your work here along with a strict apology for taking the marble counter in order to train those a part of national security. I will also be mentioning how you sexually harassed that young lady from earlier, took breaks off your turn, argued with guests, tyrannically ran your fellow employees into the ground, and hit a women.”
“I never hit a women!”
“So everything else was true? That’s odd I never actually remembered witnessing those.”
That was the final straw he snapped, punching me in the jaw and sending me back into Kakashi who was ready to catch me. “You know I think you took it a bit far.”
“No, he’s a minor crook, he runs an underground smuggling ring and uses this Inn as a transaction place. Very low key.” I rubbed my finger along my bruised jaw.
“I stand corrected. Carry on.” He said lifting me back onto my feet.
“Thank you. Now then, as a representative of the law I have full authority to take you into custody before turning you over to the government. I’ll be grateful if you made this easy on me.” I said grabbing his hands and placing handcuffs around them.
“Kakashi-sensei, shouldn’t you have helped her or at least stopped that punch.” Sakura asked.
“No if I had I would have been the one getting multiple punches from her. She can handle herself even if her personality says otherwise.”
“Kakashi you’ve been standing behind her since she started talking with your arms braced to catch her. How did you know this would happen?”
“Because it’s her.” He said before walking out of the Inn. “Come on team, time to leave.”
Well, it seems he still remembers the past. Then again who could forget it, it was a stupidly long mission that seemed never ending. We had had our suspicions for a while but we couldn’t get the evidence, at least not until we cornered him. Kakashi had caught me that time to but he had fallen out of surprise leaving Obito and Rin to capture the guy.
Enough reminiscing I should focus on the mission. I shook my head before following the others outside. It was going to be a warm day, a perfect day to visit a certain village.
“Hey, Can we make a detour?” I asked the group.
Kakashi and the others stopped walking, “Why?”
“I need to check up on two someone’s. It’s a nearby village no big deal.” I looked to the group, most of which agreed.
Kakashi noticed this and nodded, “Fine, but we won’t be able to stay for long. We have a month to complete this mission and I wouldn’t mind if we ended early.”
“You’re just as you were back when we first met, serious and boring. Have a bit of fun for once.” I said walking to the front of the group to lead them.
“I’d rather not, your version of fun usually ends badly for everyone else.”
“Are you referring to that one time?”
“What else would I be referring to?” He sighed.
“Chaos-san, what are you talking about?” A boy with long brown hair tied back into a low ponytail asked.
“It’s a very long story young Hyuga boy. What is your name anyway?”
“Neji Hyuga.” He said proudly, while his eyes narrowed. I guess I wasn’t supposed to know about his family? It’s rather obvious, his eyes give him away.
“And the rest of you?” I asked.
A few introductions later and I had already forgotten at least three names...being awake during the day is difficult. I should have asked for a few missions off to get my internal clock back to normal but it’s too late now, it’ll have to adjust as we go.
It was an hour walk to the village and when we got there Kakashi recognized it right away.
“Why are we here?” His voice was like frozen ice.
“We need to check up on two somethings.” I answered calmly.
“What’s wrong, Kakashi? This village seems so full of youth.” Gai gestured widely to the small town.
“Do not let it deceive you. Like that thing over there,” He jabbed his thumb towards me. “this place is secretly evil.”
The others looked skeptical but Kakashi was adamant.
“Chaos! I need you to eat this and write down any side-effects, including death.” My sensei never was subtle. He was running towards us with some strange pill outstretched before him, eager to know its side effects.
“Let me guess a new variety of poison?”
“Yes, I need a test subject and sadly your son isn’t a good choice after the last time.”
“What happened the last time?” Naruto asked. Sensei turned to him and although he paused at the startling resemblance.
I leaned to his ear whispering, “His son.”
“Ah that would explain it.” He whispered to me before addressing Naruto again. “Uh…well Chaos is very protective of him and nearly killed me when I tried to get him to be my newest test subject. I swore never to try that again.”
“Neither of you have changed at all.” Kakashi mumbled.
Sensei turned to him smiling, “Kakashi! How are you? Last I’d heard you were dead.”
“Yep that’s how to greet a person, sensei. Then again I did the same thing…” I muttered.
“So I’ve heard, I had heard Chaos was dead as well but it looks as though I was mistaken.”
I scanned my surroundings; he should be getting out in three, two, one…
***
I watched Chaos count down on her fingers. What is she doing? Once all her fingers were down she shifted her stance slightly before a small figure, about the age of seven, shot around the corner colliding with Chaos, sending her reeling into me. I put my book away and caught her, plus one, before we all hit the ground.
“Uh…who’s the kid?” I heard Naruto ask.
“I’m guessing this is…” It was then I realized I never did ask for the kids name. We all stood up one by one as he introduced himself.
“Kashi. My name is Kashi. You must be Kakashi Hatake. I’ve heard a lot about you.” The boy said.
“Kashi, Since Kakashi’s alive we can change your name back to Tora, you know.” Kashi er Tora nodded in agreement.
He looked a lot like her to be honest but at the same time looked like someone else, someone familiar. He had light blue hair like hers and the same mischievous smile with a glint in his eyes but that was where the differences began. His iris’ were black, you couldn’t begin to know where the pupil began and his hair had streaks of silver blending in perfectly with the light blue. He carried himself proudly like she did but it was rather laid-back, like he didn’t care what was happening. He reminded me of myself as a kid.
I watched the two walk down the street with her sensei beside them, Tora laughed as Chaos denied the poison time after time as it slowly became an argument. It was then I realized that everyone seemed shocked into silence.
“Is something wrong?”
They all shook their heads, but Gai hesitantly asked, “Kakashi, was that your kid?”
“No. I would want to have my kid at the village where I could keep an eye on him.”
“What if you didn’t know he was yours?” Asuma muttered mostly to himself, getting an elbow in the side from Kurenai who whispered back. “I don’t think Kakashi is that kind of man.”
“Do you know who the father is?” She turned to ask me as we began to enter the heart of the village.
“No and I doubt she knows either.” I said lightly, opening my book to another page.
A few in the group stopped walking, and by the few in the group I meant those that seemed to find an alternate meaning.
“Then again she probably doesn’t know who the mother is either.”
“What!? How could she not know? Was she unconscious for the nine-months?”
“No, but I can’t see her having a kid. My guess is she adopted.” My chest constricted a bit at the thought of her with a man but I brushed it off as pity for whatever fool fell into her clutches.
The others raised their eyebrows giving each other a skeptical look, “Kakashi, the kid looks identical to her and to you, there’s no way he was adopted.”
We had reached the house in which Chaos lived with Tora and her sensei. “There’s only one way to know.” I smiled at them. “Ask.”
Some of the genin went pale at the thought but Kurenai marched right into the house determined to get an answer.
We filed into the living room behind her, I was going to enjoy this show.
***
I glanced up as Kurenai and the others walked into the room, the genin seemed frightened and Kakashi seemed rather amused. Well that’s a bad sign already. Tora was now in the kitchen fixing everyone hot chocolate so I tilted my head in the direction of the door and the genin scampered out. Another bad sign.
Kurenai walked up to me, “Chaos, who is Tora’s father?”
“I don’t know I only met him once, no wait twice technically, and both meetings were fairly brief.”
“This may be a strange question but do you know who his mom is?”
“How am I supposed to know that?”
Kurenai blinked, “Well I assumed that seeing as he’s yours you would know that you’re the mother.”
It was my turn to blink at her, “Uh, both his biological parents are dead, why do you think I’m his mother?”
“You two look alike.”
“And Gai looks like his student. Are they related?” She shook her head, still unconvinced. I rolled my eyes. “Tora come in here for a moment and bring the genin.”
“What do you need?” He asked bringing out a tray of hot chocolate for everyone else.
“Are you my biological son?”
“What?” he asked setting the tray on the table. “No.”
“Prove it. You apparently look like me a bit too much to be coincidence.”
He sighed before his hair began to change to many different colours, he settled on a deep green for the time being. “There. Better?”
“Wait, then why did you have silver streaks?” Sakura asked edging closer to him.
“Because they remind mom of this guy.” Tora said gesturing to Kakashi. “She showed me a picture once, after he died, and I adapted my hair to look a bit like his but I liked the blue too much so I changed it to this.”
“That explains it… how are you able to change your hair colour?” Tenten added in walking beside Sakura as they both studied Tora’s hair intently.
He shifted uncomfortably, “People say I’m a demon. Mom doesn’t think so though and I’m starting to remember my real parents less and less.”
“I never liked them.” Chaos said sipping her hot cocoa.
“You met them what twice? And besides we haven’t heard from them since. I’m surprised they let me go so easily though, I was there only link to the inheritance.”
Chaos chocked a bit on her drink, “Yes well, I’m sure they won’t be needing it anymore.”
“Yeah I suppose so, I’m going to bed.” He stopped next to her chair, eyeing all of us, before stepping away again. “Well, goodnight. Mom, you’ll show them their rooms right?”
“Of course. Night then.” She smiled warmly, she was obviously fond of the kid.
The moment Tora was gone, Chaos rose from her chair only to be pushed back by me. “What does he mean they haven’t tried anything? Why wouldn’t they need the money anymore?”
“It doesn’t matter it was in the past, he’s happy, I’m happy and they got what was coming to them.”
“Chaos,” Kakashi’s tone was a warning. “Answer me. How did you get Tora?”
She sighed, settling back into her chair.“It was about 3 and a half years ago almost 4 actually.” She seemed solemn. “Tell the genin to go to sleep this isn’t a story they need to hear. There are rooms upstairs each occupied one has a sign, the rest are yours. Leave at least a few for your teachers.”
There were grumbles and disappointment. I couldn’t blame them it was a rather interesting story. I almost regretted it though, every day, but then Tora would smile and I knew what I had done was the better choice if a bit spontaneous.
“Alright they’re gone, now spill.” Kurenai said with the experience of a gossiper. Yeah we’d get along well.