Promises Remembered

Part 2 Chapter 14

Part 2 Chapter 14

Kakashi

Day four-thousand four-hundred and eleven without her

The Academy yard was full of excited, proud parents, mostly other shinobi. He picked out the bright pink hair of his father-in-law easily. Kizashi and Mebuki greeted him with familiar warm smiles that belied the anxiety he knew they felt.

"Kakashi." Kizashi clapped him on the back and laughed heartily. "I can't believe our boy is finally going to be a fully fledged shinobi." He sighed, dramatically. "It seems like just yesterday he was climbing the walls and refusing to come down until we got him sweet dango."

Kakashi frowned. He had not known about that. "When was that?"

Mebuki sighed, rubbing her forehead, irritated with her husband's joviality. "When he was three. Just like Sakura, the little brats." She huffed, a fond smile creeping up her face. "Once he finally fell down—thankfully right into Kizashi's waiting arms—he begged us not to tell you he'd done it. Apparently you had already caught him at it once and made him promise not to do it again without you. Poor thing was afraid you'd stop training him if you found out." She sighed, looking up at him with an apologetic expression. "He was so damn cute and practically in tears. We should have told you but... we caved."

He shook his head, sighing but amused. Kazuki had had them wrapped around his little fingers the moment they'd met him. Finding out he was their grandson had only made it worse. They were definitely guilty of spoiling him from time to time.

"I wouldn't have stopped training him. That was what he needed. But we wouldn't have had any sweets for a while."

Mebuki covered her mouth and chuckled, looking up at him with such a fond, loving expression it made Kakashi's heart ache. He was so thankful for Sakura's parents. "You're such a wonderful father, Kakashi. I hope you realize that."

Looking at his feet, suddenly feeling emotional, Kakashi didn't have time to think of anything to say before an intimately familiar chakra was brushing past him. Breath hitching, he looked up in time to see Sakura end a race with herself beside her parents.

"Hey! Am I late? Have I missed anything?"

Kizashi smiled fondly down at her. "Right on time, sweetheart. They'll be out in just a moment."

Kakashi swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat and tried to school his expression. "Sakura-chan." She turned to face him, her pink hair that he so longed to run his hands through fanning out behind her. A faint blush colored her cheeks, but whether that was because of him or the run from the hospital, he would never know. "I'm glad you could make it."

Seemingly surprised that he'd addressed her at all—he had been avoiding her lately—she blinked rapidly before a small smile lit her face. "Of course, Sensei." He hated it when she called him that now. "I promised I'd be here for him."

She had. Just as he had promised so many years ago something similar. Damn. He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to tell her how much it really meant to him, to their son, that she was there, that she had always been there.

But he couldn't. She isn't yours... not yet...

Before either of them could muster something else to say, the doors of the Academy burst open. Her attention, once riveted on him, was torn away in favor of looking for Kazuki. Standing on her toes, she waved eagerly when she saw him. "Kazuki-chan!"

He watched his son blush at the attention before racing over to meet them. He let his grandparents hug and congratulate him before going to Sakura. Kazuki was grinning up at her beneath his mask. She looked like she was hardly containing her excitement.