Dreams of the Past

Justice

Chapter 37

Justice

Kakashi woke to little hands on his face, patting his cheeks and whispering: "Daddy," over and over until he opened his eyes.

Gods, I missed this so much.

Sakura had a small smile as she watched, widening when their eyes met. "Good morning."

"Morning." He focused on the little boy hovering in front of his face. "Morning, pup."

"Daddy! Daddy awake! Daddy—" He suddenly looked very serious. "Katas Daddy. It the morning, I practiced. I want to show Daddy."

Grinning, Kakashi sat up, pulling his son into his arms. "You want to do morning Katas?"

"Yes, Daddy!"

Sakura sat up too, stretching her arms over her head. "Alright, let's go get Nii-san, hm?"

He watched her carefully. They had only been home for a couple of days and so far, she hadn't had the energy for much. "Will you be okay doing this today?"

She nodded as she stood. "I'll be fine, Kakashi. Who do you think reminded him?"

"Okay." He stood too, dropping a swift, chaste kiss on her lips before following her out of their room.

Tenzō sat, almost patiently, with a resigned Senbei while the rest of them moved through the more complex katas. By the time they were done, he was eager and pushing a laughing Sakumo out of the way. "My turn, Jii-san, my turn."

He stood beside Kakashi-kun and arranged himself in yoi position. "You watchin', Daddy?"

Holding in a chuckle, Kakashi sat beside Sakura and nodded. "I'm watching, Tenzō-chan."

"I ready, Nii-san!"

Looking very serious, Kakashi-kun nodded once and began, leading them through a very simple kata. With a small, concentrated pout, Tenzō followed along almost perfectly.

It was very cute. It made Kakashi's chest warm with pride.

It filled him with a visceral sense of relief. After everything he had been through, retraumatized by Danzō and ROOT, being raised so very differently, Tenzō was proving to be a resilient little boy. Considering the life he had led the first time, Kakashi knew that he had always been. He would grow up happier, more whole, maybe even stronger than he'd been before.

When he finished, Tenzō was watching him with big, expectant eyes.

Feeling a grin split his face from ear to ear, Kakashi leaned forward on his knees to pull him into his arms. "Good job, pup. I'm so proud of you."

Tenzō giggled when he kissed his cheeks. "I be a ninja too, Daddy."

"Yeah buddy, you sure will be."

<KS>

When Sakumo mentioned that he'd written to Jiraiya to recall him before Hiruzen's trial—if Sakura thought about it at all—she would have assumed that he'd have warned him about what he was going to find. Evidently, he had not.

Almost a week after they'd been rescued, he returned to Konoha, confused and angry. The Hatakes were getting ready to sit down to lunch. Tsunade, having taken the afternoon off after several days of barely leaving the hospital, was with them. Sakumo, somewhere off doing very busy Hokage work, was not.

Sakura was in the kitchen, filling a pitcher with water when she felt him cross the barrier. Not recognizing his chakra at first, she was already on the defensive. Then, instead of waiting to be greeted and let in like a normal person, the Sannin barged into her home unannounced, pissed off and looking for a fight. When he saw her, alone, he made an incredibly stupid decision.