Moonlight Sonata

Pragma

Kakashi was almost dead.  At least, that's how he felt.  They had been on mission for over a month when all hell had broken loose.  The foe had been powerful, more powerful than Naruto had anticipated.  He was dirty, bleeding, and had used almost all of his chakra fighting the rogue warlord and his group of mercenary Ninjas. Yamato was not in much better shape.  The two of them were almost holding each other up as they made their way back to the benefactor that had hired the Leaf for this assignment.

"I thought we were done dragging ourselves in after the Fourth War," Kakashi muttered as he slanted a look towards Yamato.

Yamato chuckled, "The life of a Shinobi.  We should be thankful we survived to fight another day."

"True that," Kakashi agreed.  "We made our choices in life, didn't we?"

"I think you're bemoaning because of a certain widow," Yamato responded.  "If she wasn't around, you wouldn't be bitching this much." Kakashi laughed at the words, then groaned as his side burned from the laughter.  He was bleeding pretty bad on that side.  He'd have another scar to add to his torso.  Yamato gave him a dark look.  "How bad is it?"

"The sooner we get to a medic the better," Kakashi responded.

Yamato cursed under his breath and moved a bit faster, although not that fast since he was wounded as well.  They were almost to the village when Kakashi stumbled and Yamato barely caught him from going to the ground.  His head was rolling a bit on his shoulders and Yamato had to almost hold him completely up the last bit into town before a few villagers saw them and hurried forward to help.

***

Lee walked hand in hand with Phoenix on the way home.  It had been over a month since Kakashi had left.  She supposed no news was good news but it still kept her feeling as if she was in knots all the time.  She'd been almost literally sick from it.  She knew it was all in her head, her fear that Kakashi would not come back.  Naruto had actually been home for once when she picked Phoenix up from her play date, so she had asked if he had heard anything from Kakashi.

He had given her a slight smile, "I was wondering when you'd ask."

Her face had flushed a little, "Well he is my best friend."

Naruto gave her a look and she looked back at him.  He then laughed, "Okay, if that's your story.  I received word from them a few days ago.  They were fine then."

Lee had felt a lot of relief at the news.  As she walked back to their home, she was a little lighter in spirit.  Phoenix was kicking a rock down the road in front of her.  She had been moody ever since Kakashi left.  Iruka had said that she had been acting out in class as well.  She gave the rock a kick again then suddenly stopped moving.

"Daddy is in trouble," Phoenix suddenly said, looking up at her with big eyes.

Lee stilled, "What?"

"Daddy is in trouble," Phoenix repeated her eyes filling with tears.  "Mama, you got to help Daddy."

Lee shook her head as she knelt in front of her.  "Honey, I told you before Kakashi isn't your Daddy and Naruto said that he was fine."

"The voice said he was Daddy!" Phoenix howled.  "And it now said he's in trouble!"

Lee was horrified by what she was saying.  "Phoenix, what voice are you talking about?"

"The voice that tells me things!  Why don't you believe me?  He's in trouble!"

Phoenix started crying then and Lee looked around, not sure what she should do.  She was horrified, her daughter heard voices?  Was she mentally unwell?  She scooped her up and started walking faster home, terrified someone would hear her.