The Last Elementalist

Part 12 - Sleep is overrated

Yuri barely slept, so neither did his parents. The weather went crazy every time the newborn cried and you'd think that the Elementalists would be used to this by now since that happens almost every single time a baby is born. Yet, they weren't. There hasn't been a baby born in the village in ages. Infertility was sadly very common in an Elementalist. The twins Kazuki and Keiji were the youngest people in the clan before the birth of Yuri Hatake. Which was a joyous event for the entire village, but the nightly storms definitely weren't. So, to say that the mood around the village was a little more sour than usual was a bit an understatement as sleep deprivation made them a lot more irritable than usual. Although the nightly storms never took long because as soon as he was in one of his parents' arms, he was happy again. So, most nights he ended up sleeping in the arms of his mother or his father.

It was one of those nights again. The baby was crying his lungs, the wind was howling and the rain was pouring as if there was no tomorrow. Kakashi sighed and sleepily gave his wife a kiss as she had woken up too. How could she not? "Get some sleep, I'll go" he tells her. She smiles in appreciation, but is too tired to even answer. "Thank you" she mumbles sleepily and lays back down on the pillows. Kakashi hurries over to the nursery where his wailing son was. "Well, at least we know your lungs work perfectly fine" he says as he picks up his son, holding him close as he walks towards the rocking chair next to the crib and sits down. The small child instantly stopped crying as he was picked up. Yuri had his father's shirt balled into his tiny little fists and cooed at his father. "Now you're happy, huh?" Kakashi says with a chuckle "You have us wrapped around those little fingers of yours, don't?" he adds with a small smile looking into his son's ocean blue eyes. The little boy let out a big yawn and not too long after, the boy fell asleep again. In the beginning Kakashi would try to put the baby boy back in his crib after he'd fallen asleep again, but if the last two months have told him anything.... It's that Yuri will just resume crying once he was laid back into his crib, which meant everything would start all over again! No, they just sat in the rocking chair till morning, baby still in their arms. It usually isn't the most comfortable position to sleep in... But hey, they were new parents they could now sleep anywhere! As long as their baby slept than it didn't matter.

Kakashi still went back and forth between the Elementalist hideout and the village hidden in the leave. Trying to always get back to his little family as soon as he possibly could. Time was already moving so fast and he wanted to spend every single minute with his wife and son, too bad that he couldn't exactly do that. It had been even harder to leave them ever since his son was born. Having a wife and baby at home made him think about the dangers in his job, he was an ANBU after all. Kakashi was seriously debating on resigning from the ANBU and become a jounin sensei. He would have more time for his family, his son. There was also this nagging feeling in his mind that one day he will return and find that his son couldn't even remember him. It was a real possibility since he could never know how long he'd be gone for. He couldn't bare the thought of that ever happening and besides that, he also just longed to be with them. To truly be a father to Yuri, to see him grow up, witness his first steps, be there when he speaks his first words, to teach him everything he knows,... He wanted to be truly there for his son and his wife, he felt like couldn't do that while he was still in the ANBU.