mint limeade

one third cup of mint, coarsely chopped

Kisame sipped his cinnamon mocha as he flipped a few eggs on the stove. Fried spam steamed on one of the paper towel-covered plates right next to the batch of fried rice and behind him, Konan quietly sat in her usual seat at the table with the news app open on her tablet and her prog metal playlist soft in the background. It wasn't often he got a free Saturday morning to make breakfast for the kids—

"KENNEDY?!" Kiba's voice exploded from upstairs.

—still with his part-time schedule as one of Konan's elite reserve agents and having more rules for his friends than the kids, the Hoshigaki household never kept normal hours. In a twisted sort of way, raising Sakura as they did honestly had its benefits.

Benefits, he scoffed to himself as he lifted the eggs from the pan. Maybe knowing Kakuzu these seventeen-something years was finally wearing on him. He loved his daughter for better and every single bit of the worst, but he couldn't undo the past. He couldn't undo his mistakes. All that mattered now was that he had back the person he loved most, scars and all, and that meant to accept that it was his fault she couldn't live a normal, better life.

So he knew it'd be wrong to treat her like she had one.

Besides, it seemed like her and the boys were having fun.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN KENNEDY?!"

Konan only tilted her head, eyes never leaving her reading. "Do you remember that pharmaceutical company brought up in the last meeting?"

He moved his attention to his boss. "What about them?"

"Their subsidiaries are interesting; machinery, tourism, healthcare..."

"Sounds legit enough."

"I've sent Kakuzu to draw a report on their progress," she said. "And he's brought to my attention that they've been loading their cruise ships with their own manufactured medical devices and recently developed lap equipment. Transportation, I understand. But through the use of commercial vessels?"

"Yeah, they're definitely up to some fun." Kisame shut off the stove. "You think Orochimaru's workin' with them?"

"We know too little to assume." There was a faint thump upstairs. "The Mediterranean cruise will stop in Hydra, Greece two weeks from today. You and Itachi will investigate. I will keep watch over the kids and mind the gym while you're gone." She took a sip of her glass of freshly squeezed orange juice and paused. "Mint?"

"With some ginger and honey."

"It's good."

"Aw, you always know how to warm an old man's heart."

She snorted quietly. "You're thirty-three. And younger than me."

"Well, you know us teen dads, we get our creaky bones early."

Akamaru trotted down the stairs first, a bulking dog of almost a hundred fifty pounds that rarely ever barked and only got aggressive on the kids' command, and waited for Konan to pat him on the head before he followed Kisame around the kitchen. Kiba stumbled down not too long after, forehead scrunched as he ran a hand through his wild bedhead.

"Uh, mornin' Ms. Boss, Mr. Dad." He opened his mouth to say more, shut it, squinted, then opened his mouth again. "What would you do if I just, like, drank all that coffee straight from the pot?"

Kisame glanced at the twelve-cup coffee maker. "I think the adult answer is that you should drink the orange juice instead. Is it immediately organic if it's homemade?"

"Uso—you made orange juice?!"

Konan took another sip and continued to read.

"Yeah, and apparently it has the power to hold you back from your caffeine addiction." Kisame began to move the dishes to the dining table. "Who's Kennedy?"