Promises Remembered

Part 2 Chapter 13

Part 2 Chapter 13

Kakashi

Day three-thousand ninety-seven without her

A thick layer of dust covered every surface. He hadn't been here since the day before he'd married Sakura, and that had been the first visit since his father's death. Sitting on the edge of the village near the forest, the Hatake property had been spared Pain's destruction. After his temporary death and conversation with his father, he'd been thinking about coming back. Now that the war was over and Tsunade had accepted his timeline for taking over for her, he had the time.

It was a traditional style house, or series of buildings really. As his clan had once been large and important, it was quite a bit grander than he thought necessary. Almost all of the paper shōji needed to be replaced, and the tatami mats were worn and looked nibbled on. But thankfully it had been well built and, until him, lovingly maintained. None of the structure would need replacing.

Looking around at all the abandoned things that had belonged to his father, his family, Kakashi wondered if he would keep any of it. Would Sakura want any of it? Would she even want to live here? As he wandered room to room, imagining a life there, he thought she might. After they'd married, she had proudly worn his—their—family's crest every day. He had at one point expressed his desire to be proud of himself, of his family again, and she had taken it seriously. When she was pregnant, she had even had several things in a variety of sizes specially made with the Hatake crest on them for Kazuki.

He had never told her about this place. Knowing she would leave him, he hadn't wanted to live there with her yet. If she came back to him, Kakashi wanted this to be an option for her. It needed work, but he still had a little time.

"This place is huge, Kakashi. It's a bit big for three people." Genma smirked at him. "Planning to talk her into more kids?"

Kakashi scoffed, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Maybe. But I lived here with my dad, just the two of us. We don't have to open up the whole property."

Genma nodded, looking around at the exposed wooden beams. "Well, at least it won't be a lot of heavy lifting, mostly cleaning and replacing small stuff. Though... I'm pretty sure there might be some kind of yōkai or ghost in one of the storage buildings on the far side of the property."

Suddenly remembering a story his father had told him and the one time he'd been brave enough to investigate it himself, Kakashi barked a laugh. "Oh, yeah that's definitely haunted. We can leave that one shut up for now."

"You were right, Kakashi." Aiko came through a door to his left, folded green silk in her arms. "Your mother had loads of kimonos. Some of them looked older though." She unfolded it and held it up to show him. It was an emerald green brocade with a Hatake crest on the back. "What did you want me to do with them?"

Sakura always looked beautiful in green. "Is there someplace in town where they can be cleaned and repaired if any of them need it?"

Aiko nodded. "Sure. I can help with that." She tossed the kimono over her shoulder and held something else out to him, carefully refolding the silk when he took it. "I found that tucked in one of the drawers. She was beautiful, Kakashi. Though, I guess she'd have to be to have had such a pretty son."

Kakashi blushed and looked up from the old photograph of his mother to see Aiko smirking to herself as she refolded the kimono.

"Hey." Genma folded his arms, only sounding a little indignant. "He's not that pretty."

She chuckled and grinned at her husband. "What was it you told me when we first started dating? You're definitely only interested in women but 'he's so good looking that if he put on a wig you might consider it once?'"