"That's what Keiki said?" Kakashi grinned. Was it immature of him to feel that smug about the Mizukage's enragement? Probably.
"Yes, Sensei, though I don't recollect the exact wording. That woman has a foul mouth and such an expansive vocabulary! I thought my ears would fall off."
"Thanks for your report, Naruto," Kakashi said, "excellent work. You are dismissed."
Done with the meetings for the day! Determined, Kakashi pulled one of the many piles on his desk towards himself... the complaints. His least favorite class of documents, all the more reason to do them first.
There were a lot. Was it strange planetary alignments or the excessively cold weather that made everybody more cranky these days? He grabbed the top most file and began to read. A petty neighborly dispute... a tree that was growing fast in one garden was blocking out the sun in another. Insults had been exchanged and garbage had been dumped on each other's doorsteps.
"They could also simply just cut it a little?" he murmured and wrote "medium urgency, invite for mediation talk" at the top, putting the document into the tray for follow-ups.
The second was a noise complaint. Someone living near the Uchiha compound took issue with the construction that, as the person wrote, "starts at an ungodly hour". In winter? Really?
"Medium urgency, check and potentially adjust building hours with chief constructor", he wrote and put it on top of the tree complaint.
The third was a long letter that he had to read twice to even understand what the issue was. A father was unhappy about his son's grades, but the actual complaint was about the dismal state of the courtyard at the academy. The son had tripped over some "debris", hit his knee and subsequently got a bad grade in a test because he had cried.
"Low urgency, go to academy and talk to Principal Anko about state of school yard," Kakashi wrote. Then he scribbled a Henohenomohej next to it to indicate to Shizune that he'd take care of it in person.
See Anko, he wrote down on his personal to do list.
He hadn't spoken to her in a long time, he thought as he chewed the end of the pencil, it would be good to catch up. And smoke a cigarette or two.
Some movement in front of him caught his eye and he looked up. It was Naruto.
"You're still here?" Kakashi frowned. "You can leave, I'll call for you if I have new orders."
Naruto nodded eagerly, bouncing up and down on his feet.
"Sensei, you should get a computer."
"A... what?" Kakashi asked puzzled.
"A computer. It's a machine. It would save you a lot of time! Gaara says it has solved all his problems!"
"Really?" Kakashi wondered. "In what way?"
"It makes everything faster."
"Faster?"
"It does your work for you!"
"Huh," Kakashi said, "I have a hard time believing such a thing exists."
"I've seen it in their Village," Naruto excitedly said, "it's... small. It makes some noise, but not too much. And you type words and... numbers..."
"Okay... I'll look into it."
Talk to Gaara about a thing called computer, Kakashi wrote on his to-do list. The phone line between the villages was still highly unstable, but he could try to reach the Kazekage in the coming days? Unless...
"Would the Village Hidden by Sand think it strange if I called them?" Kakashi asked Naruto. It was better to be cautious. Good relations were hard work.
"Definitely," Naruto nodded gravely.
"Because...?"
"Because you never call anybody, Sensei," Naruto shrugged. "You send letters. Like a really old person!"
"Thanks," Kakashi grumbled. "I'll write a letter then. You can take it with you the next time you travel there."
Back to the complaints. Too much dog-shit in one street. A broken light in another. A series of scams in restaurants, there were enough reports from different parts of town to make it an urgent issue. Graffiti in several places. And more. And more. And more.
"It never ends," Kakashi murmured and pushed the half-done complaints pile away. Why not look at a few invitations before continuing, those were pleasant at least.
Shizune had neatly ordered the letters in order of importance like she always did. A special tea ceremony with the Hyuga Clan... Kakashi put two tick marks on the paper. This was something he needed to make time for at all cost. The library opening a new wing... that one was optional but he had been the one to talk to a well-off publishing house in the capital about sponsoring this, so... one tick mark. The anniversary event of Konoha's Hospital. The Hokage should award the main prize of the raffle. Why not. One tick mark. A new cake shop opening, politely asking if the Hokage wanted to do them honor and...
Naruto was still here, Kakashi noticed at this point with a bit of irritation.
"Yes?" Kakashi asked. "What is it?"
"Sensei," Naruto said haltingly, "you are a lady's man, are you not?"
"A... what?"
"A lady's man. You're knowledgeable when it comes to women."
Kakashi had to suppress a bitter laugh and turn it into something resembling a cough.
"I don't think I deserve such a label, Naruto."
"But you read all those pervy book!" Naruto said hopeful. "And all the ladies make googly eyes at you when you walk by!"
"Excuse me?" Kakashi frowned. "That's not true."
"It is," Naruto insisted. "I've seen some swoon, actually."
Kakashi laughed outright this time, but apparently, Naruto was serious.
"Okay, what if I'm a lady man, as you say?"
"I need some advice," Naruto dropped his voice.
"About women?"
"Yes," Naruto nodded eagerly, "exactly."
Oh, he had advice, but he himself was the one who should have listened to it months ago.
Advice number one: don't ever fall in love.
Advice number two: if you do fall in love against your better judgment, make sure she's not married to someone you consider your responsibility.
Advice number three: if you're still stupid enough to start an affair, make sure it ends before you can develop idiotic hopes of something you cannot have.
Advice number four: once you end it, forget it ever happened and move on.
Advice number five: if you cannot move on... if cannot stop thinking about her, lie to yourself. Pretend it's all fine. Distract yourself until you believe it. The pain will go away eventually, won't it?
"I can... try?"
"Okay, thanks, Sensei!" Naruto said and stepped closer. "The thing is... I want to marry Hinata," he whispered, beaming from ear to ear.
"That's great," Kakashi smiled back at him though the topic had put a bitter taste into his mouth, "congratulations! You're a great match."
Naruto looked at him expectantly.
"And... you... are you asking me how to go about it?"
"Yes!" Naruto nodded.
"I'm not married, Naruto," Kakashi shook his head. "Shouldn't you ask..."
"Oh, I've tried to talk to Sasuke," Naruto wrinkled his nose, "but he just told me to get lost."
"Okay, then maybe talk to..." Kakashi furrowed his forehead. Who should Naruto talk to...? There were not many examples of happily married couples he could think of.
"See, there's nobody else!" Naruto exclaimed. "Besides, people say you're soon getting married, so you should know?"
"Excuse me?!"
"To the Nohara heir," Naruto informed him a little impatiently. "That ultra pretty lady."
"Okay, if you hear people say that again, tell them to mind their own frigging business," Kakashi said angrily.
"Aren't you talking to her all the time?"
Kakashi laughed in disbelief. "If that were an indicator for impending marriage, I'd have to marry Shikamaru, Sasuke, and Yamato first."
"Oh," Naruto said. "But Shikamaru likes that scary woman from the Sand. Temari. Sorry, Sensei."
"I don't really want to marry Shikamaru!" Kakashi rolled his eyes at so much denseness.
"Ah, that's good then," Naruto said and waited again expectantly.
"Is there something Hinata really likes?" Kakashi asked Naruto when he realized the young man wouldn't go away soon unless his need for guidance was satisfied.
"Yes," Naruto smiled naughtily.
"I don't mean...," Kakashi blushed.
"Hehe," Naruto chuckled. "I know what you mean. Yes! She likes red bean soup with dango or baked mochi. And cinnamon rolls. And Ramen!"
"Okay," Kakashi was relieved to have gotten a cue, "propose to her at Rāmen Ichiraku. Have Ichiraku drop a ring into her bowl in secret!"
"Ohhhhhh," Naruto said, his eyes growing big, "you're a genius, Sensei."
"I... don't think so," Kakashi sighed.
"If you do get married," Naruto chuckled, "I will help you in turn! Just ask!"
"Okay. Thank you," Kakashi said, waiting with raised eyebrows for Naruto to leave the Hokage's office.
It had been a long day and it was not over. He only ever got to the paperwork in the evenings, usually after he had sent Shizune home or tricked her into believing he had retired to the Hokage's Residence himself. She really did not need to sacrifice her life to lessen his workload. It was not right. Which reminded him...
"Is Kaeru still here?" Kakashi asked Naruto.
"Yeah," Naruto nodded.
"Can you ask him to come to my office when you go out?" Kakashi said.
"Sure," Naruto nodded and finally turned to leave. "I'll be seeing you, Sensei! Oh... and I'll tell you how it went with Hinata!"
"Good, good," Kakashi murmured, turning his attention towards the complaints' pile again.
Working late into the night was a good way to distract himself and ensure he had very little time to mope. His frequent Taijutsu battles with Naruto and Sasuke and the substantial amount of training he had to do in order not to get his ass kicked helped too.
That reminded him...
Might Guy's letter that he had been waiting for was on the top of the "personal correspondence" pile. He briefly looked through the rest, but he had given up hope to get news from Tsunade, there had not been a letter for several months now.
"We're getting close," the last message had read, "will be off the radar for a while. Don't get anxious. Take care." She had signed it off with a little drawing of a slug.
He had read it at least a thousand times, as if there was some hidden meaning waiting to be revealed. But there wasn't. She and Sakura were hunting after a cure to an Uchiha hereditary illness, which, once brought back to the village, would change more than one fate. Tsunade had told him they might have to travel very far, to a foreign continent even. All he could do was to trust in their abilities, which he did of course.
And for the rest... there were a ton of explanations why Sakura had not signed any of the letters alongside Tsunade. It wasn't necessarily because she didn't want anything to do with him anymore.
"My eternal rival!" Might Guy's letter started, "Let me give you my invaluable advice on how to improve your Taijutsu skills! I assume you have been following my training schedule with rigorous, untiring discipline? Then it is time to take the next step..."
Kakashi had to smile. Ah, he missed his friend a lot. But here was a guy who had found happiness on his hot spring adventure and was still much too preoccupied to return to his hometown. "The Power of Youth personified", that's what he called the woman he had met in his letters to Kakashi and he left little to the imagination which aspects of youth she brought back into Might Guy's life.
One point for Guy. In his there were only torn muscles, bruises, push-ups and endurance training until his lungs wanted to collapse. After Kakashi had sealed his own eyes, he had started to train diligently to get even better at jutsu-free hand-to-hand combat. He had no evidence that the amnesia problem was linked to anything else but the use of the Mangekyo Sharingan, but there was a nagging suspicion he just could not shake that whatever was going on with Sasuke, Rin and himself could be bigger than what he knew.
Why? Gut feeling. And bits and pieces of memories he should no longer have but clung onto with stubborn determination by writing them down every night.
Kakashi looked up when he heard the door. Kearu came shuffling in, an expression on his unshaven face like he expected to be scolded and was fully okay with it.
"Yes, Sensei?"
"Why are you still here?" Kakashi confronted him sharply. "I thought we discussed this."
"You're still here, aren't you?"
"Yes," Kakashi said, "but that's different."
"No, it's not," Kaeru replied.
"Just go home," Kakashi said tiredly. "I'm sure your sister is waiting for you."
His sister, who decidedly did not want to leave Konoha, had skillfully prolonged her hospital stay until Kaeru had stopped talking about leaving. But Kaeru refused to rejoin the Anbu. Instead, Kakashi had employed him as help for Shizune. The only problem... he was terrible at office work.
"No, she's not," Kaeru said, "she's out with friends."
"Good for her," Kakashi replied. "Go out with friends too."
"I have no friends."
"Then go out with her friends."
"They're all girls."
"Good! Girls are great company."
Kaeru frowned at him.
"Okay, if you don't think girls are great company, rejoin the Anbu. There's not that many there currently. Yamato will be more than delighted to have someone as experienced as you at his disposal."
Kaeru remained silent, but pushed his lower lip forward just a fraction.
It wasn't like Kakashi hadn't tried to nudge him into military service again. But Kaeru had simply flunked all the physical and mental tests. Deliberately.
"Have you at least read Shikamaru's report?" Kakashi sighed.
"Yes," Kaeru said.
"And?"
"He says the Jonins are extremely unhappy about the special privileges the Nohara guards have."
"I doubt that."
Kaeru pouted again.
"Show me the report."
"Maybe he doesn't say it like that, but it's very much implied."
Kakashi sighed more deeply. "I want you to arrange a meeting between me, Shikamaru and Sasuke tomorrow. Invite Yamato too. At...," he quickly checked his schedule. "1 pm. We'll need at least one hour."
"I know you have your reasons," Kearu said, "but Sensei... putting the Uchiha in charge is one thing, but those guards? How can you..."
"I don't think I asked for your opinion," Kakashi interrupted him coldly. "Reasons? Yes, I have my reasons. I have not enough capable people to defend the village, that's my reason. I'd be a fool if I wasted the by far best trained group of soldiers within the village walls."
"I am worried about you," Kaeru said, his pout changing into a frown.
"Thanks," Kakashi brushed him off. "And now stop wasting my time and go home. It's an order from your Hokage."
Kaeru scowled unhappily as he left.
Solve issue with Kaeru, Kakashi wrote on his to-do list and underlined it twice. He was about ready to start making a list of women to match him up with.
Ah, Tsunade... he thought with a small smile. I understand what you went through. I really do.
He opened a drawer and took out another notebook. It didn't have a title, but it was where he made notes about Naruto and measured his readiness to become Hokage.
Naruto did very well as Konoha's ambassador at the moment. There was hope. But the goal was still far away. Very far. Too far?
***
The weather turned even colder at the turn of the year. At the end of January, there was a serious shortage of wood and coal, resulting in over one hundred angry complaints on Kakashi's desk. If he went and said pretty please, the Noharas would resolve the issue with their usual economic magnanimity.
They liked to believe he was their lapdog and he was fairly good at pretending that he was. At least during the day.
The wind had picked up after nightfall, whipping gusts of snowflakes through the air. Kakashi pulled his coat tighter around himself and buried his face in his scarf before jumping down from the roof into the empty street below, carefully checking all the shadows for pursuers. It had become decidedly harder to leave the village undetected of late. The one time Mrs. Nohara had caught him had made her suspicious enough to have someone check on his whereabouts quite frequently. She wasn't fooled by clones as easily anymore either.
"A Hokage does not leave his village unless absolutely necessary!" she had lectured him like a schoolboy in front of the entire village council.
She was right, which made the scolding even worse. He'd like to think that meeting Keiki in secret once a month was absolutely necessary, since it was for the good of the village - but admittedly, they could have met like adults in meeting rooms too.
Though there was no thrill in that and fists talked a very particular language not easily substituted by words. He didn't expect people like Mrs. Nohara to understand that. Neither did he need somebody to tell him that his desire to get regular beatings was an unhealthy deflection mechanism. Substitute one pain for the other? Yeah, not really sane even by his own standards.
Just yesterday, and purely by coincidence, he had learned from Sai that Sakura had written a postcard to Ino a few weeks back.
A postcard.
Part of him was immensely relieved because only people who were well wrote postcards. The other and frankly bigger part of him was absolutely devastated. If she could write a postcard to Ino, why did she not send him word too? Whatever she thought of him, she had to know he was very worried, no? It wasn't like he expected much. Just a "I'm fine. Will return soon." Or even a "not coming back yet, still busy." Just... anything.
Heaving a huge sigh, he headed towards the gate. The guards were playing cards around a little fire lit in an empty barrel. He doubled back and climbed up the wall somewhere to the right. Once he had jumped down on the other side, he made his way into the forest quickly, carefully eliminating his tracks. When he reached the darkness of the trees, he paused. There was something not quite right by how the forest felt...
"Sneaky, but very distracted," a voice said close to his ear.
He jumped. "Goddammit... Rin!"
"Haha," she laughed, "gotcha!"
"You can't leave the village! Turn back!"
"Says who?"
Her mother, of course.
But Kakashi didn't feel like he had to be the babysitter of someone who was almost 40 years old - so he didn't reply. Rin was dressed in a travel cloak, with ear muffs and mittens, her nose sticking out from between the folds of a fluffy scarf. It wasn't a chance encounter, she had waited for him.
"Seriously, Rin," he said. "It's bad enough I'm doing is. Go back."
"Are you afraid of my mother?" she challenged him.
"No," he said defensively. "But I have a very busy life and I'm generally trying not to cause myself even more work. Which extra meetings with her are."
"Ha," Rin chuckled, "you're very good at making her feel like you obey to her."
Ah, but the cost...
"It's dangerous if you go alone," she said firmly, "what if something happens to you?"
"The worst that can happen to me is that I lose a round," he shrugged. "And I've been training more."
"Yeah, I know," she said, "but still. You can always use a medic. I saw your wounds the last time."
Kakashi sighed. "Nobody is following you? Are you sure?"
"Yeah," she smiled happily. "I'm getting good at this. I'm using clones to fool my bodyguards like you taught me."
Kakashi shook his head at her, but he couldn't afford to argue much longer if he wanted to make the rendez-vous in time. Besides, the Rin standing next to him was the nice Rin. The one that was sweet, innocent, concerned for others. He had a hard time saying no to her, that had not changed.
"I want a bit of fun too," she currently pouted.
Mrs. Nohara guarded her daughter like she was the most precious thing in the world. Kakashi was convinced she would have locked her up if he had not convinced the council that he needed more medics at the hospital, Rin being one of them.
"Okay," he said against his better judgment, "you can come with me. Put please behave yourself when we meet the Mizukage."
"I'm not a child," she smiled. "I'll stay in the background, don't worry. But I'll guard your back."
"Fine," he said, "let's go."
Mrs. Nohara had kept her promise so far. Sarada was growing up normally like the other children. She had entered the academy last fall, doing really well in all subjects. She even managed to make her grim father smile from time to time. Sadly, Kakashi didn't have enough time to see her, but he observed her from afar, feeling proud of her success.
But he would always be cautious. It was clear to him that everything had started with the appearance of that child in their lives. Or rather: that the Noharas had revealed themselves only because of her. Uchiha blood, Uzumaki life-force... He held onto the hope that the cure that Sakura and Tsunade would bring would help him remember things that would make him understand the connection. And would maybe help him understand Rin's infrequent erratic behavior.
The meeting point they were now rushing towards was a few hours outside of Konoha, in a slightly mountainous area with large pine trees and rocks, somewhere near the main road connecting the Land of Water with the Land of Fire. His current arrangement with the Mizukage went back to before the Chunin exams. In order to prevent a hostile attack by the Land of Water, Kakashi had sent Naruto to negotiate terms with the Mizukage. One part they soon came to agree on concerned favorable trade conditions: The Land of Fire had wood, grain, and weapons - the Land of Water had fish, cloth makers, and pottery.
The other parts were slightly more difficult. Keiki was a smart woman and she quickly realized that more wealth meant more happiness for everyone. But Keiki was also a very vengeful woman. Being tricked by Kakashi into helping him find Karin with her going empty handed, worse - him and his people causing the death of one of her citizens... she was not ready to let it go. So, the second part of their agreement concerned "repaying the debt". Kakashi had insisted from the beginning that he would repay it personally as representative of his village, which was agreeable to Keiki. Kakashi suspected it had been Naruto who had come up with the brilliant idea of personal battles as being the best way of getting rid of any lingering bad feelings.
Which didn't really work as long as Kakashi won.
Deliberately losing was a good strategy, but it could not be too obvious or she would be so offended, all the progress they had made would be obliterated immediately. Once this current score was settled, Kakashi planned to start talking about other things... mainly the Noharas and the strangeness of their presence. He needed allies if he ever wanted to go against them and the Mizukage and her strong sense of right and wrong was a good asset to have on your side.
Because Kakashi knew Keiki to be someone who played by the rules - which in this particular case was you and me and a maximum of to other people - he immediately became suspicious when he saw the tracks in the snow.
"Stop," he told Rin.
A large group of people had gone by here. Very recently. Off the main road.
"That's not good," he murmured. "Rin, go back immediately."
"What?" she bristled. "Why? I told you I'd..."
"The situation has changed," he said sharply.
There had be not a single word in his intelligence briefings about this kind of trouble afoot. Which could only mean two things: His Anbu was in worse shape than he already knew or these people were very good.
He took off his gloves and bent down to examine the tracks more closely. The heavily falling snow was erasing clues by the second but he was absolutely certain that only military grade boots would leave these kind of marks. He guessed about forty to fifty people.
"Go back," he said again, feeling a prickling at the back of his neck. "It's an order!"
"But I..."
"I do not want to threaten you about revoking some of your privileges, Rin, but I'm going to if you do not obey right away!"
"Okay," she said wide-eyed. "Are you coming with me?"
"No," Kakashi replied, "but you're going to go to the Anbu headquarters and get Yamato to mobilize all the available soldiers immediately. Lead them here."
"Kakashi, you can't take on so many people alone! Not with your eyes sealed!"
"Oh, I certainly can," he murmured, "though it's definitely not a good idea."
After seeing her turn around, he pressed forward, using trees and rocks for cover, getting closer and closer to the meeting point. He found Keiki lying in the snow face down, her blood painting a dark circle around her.
Cursing under his breath, Kakashi rushed to her side and carefully turned her body around. She was alive, though barely. Maybe he shouldn't have sent Rin away, he thought, frantically trying to still the blood that was still oozing out of the ghastly wound in her abdomen.
"Hang in there," he told her, taking off his coat to press it against it, "help is coming."
In a few hours. She would not survive this.
Kakashi surveilled the clearing and tried to pierce the shadows underneath the dark trees, but without much success. The world was utterly silent except for the rustling of the falling snow and his own accelerated breathing. What had happened? Who had known she was here? Was it an ambush? Was she the target?
Or me, Kakashi thought, the hair on the back of his neck suddenly rising as adrenaline shot through him.
Someone screamed.
Rin. Is she the target?
"Sealing Technique: Release!" he yelled, unsealing his eyes, routing large amounts of chakra into them, grabbing one of the pills he carried with him and throwing it into his mouth. He had sworn he would not use these eyes again until he understood what was going on, but he had also always known there would come a time he would have little choice.
The world turned bright red as his eyes came alive.
With a dizzying speed, they adjusted to give him an extended, far reaching view, revealing red chakra points moving fast against the cold snow.
But he could move faster than them. Kakashi had never experienced a similar rush before, a power that surged through his body with such brute force. He was upon them within seconds. Grabbing the first sword he got his hands on, he killled as many as he could with such speed they did not even realize what hit them until it was too late.
And then, his chakra reserves suddenly plummeted and the world slowed down.
He recognized that the few surviving men in front of him were wearing Oni masks.
It cannot be! was Kakashi's shocked thought.
Then there was a blinding flash, a loud boom, and a sharp pain that blossomed outwards from his stomach, multiplying a thousandfold as it claimed all parts of his body. He stumbled and fell to his knees, tasting blood in his mouth, large quantities of it that spilled out of him.
Someone shouted something but it was like his ears were wrapped in layers of thick cloth, the sound came from far away. Shadows danced around him, like the flames of Amaterasu.
He yielded when the pain became unbearable, lying down into the cold snow, his teeth chattering violently. He thought he could see the stars in the sky above, but it was still snowing, the flakes falling on his upturned face almost gently and very, very slowly.
One of the shadows bent over him and a hand touched his cheek, warm and glowing.
"R... Rin?" he pressed out, trying to grab the hand but unable to move even an inch, "are you alright?"
"Shh, don't talk," she said. A sob escaped her throat. "Do you think I came back after such a long time just to see you die?"
It was strange, but Kakashi suddenly had to smile.
"I'm very glad you're here, Rin," he said, feeling the healing chakra starting to numb the excruciating pain, thinking that if he was dying, at least it was peaceful. And then, his senses left him completely.