FicWad

AN: The words for "Solvejg's Song" I added in this chapter are more or less my own translation from German, which was a translation from Norwegian. Neither Edvard Grieg nor Henrik Ibsen are likely to take issue, since they're both dead. If you want to hear the song, find a recording of "Peer Gynt" with someone actually singing it. It's really pretty.

ALSO, I recently added the last section to this chapter to sort of build up to upcoming chapters. If it seems a little out-of-character to some, just blame it on the booze and high feeling.

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Chapter 6: Second Trimester Pt 2

Sakura lay on her bed in the guest room of the Hokage's headquarters. It was sort of like being in a hotel room for an extended period of time. It was okay, but it wasn't home.

She was well into her sixth month. The baby was growing just the way it was supposed to be, and she was definitely showing now. She refused to go out into the village unless she absolutely had to, and never by herself. At this point, the only people she felt comfortable with were Naruto, Hinata, Iruka, and Ayame. She continued to study diligently with Tsunade, but a barrier had definitely come between them, and the Hokage had finally stopped trying to draw her out of herself.

Sakura spent most of her free time in her room now. One thing she had asked to Hokage for was to have the Sandaime's old phonograph and record collection brought up to her room (AN: See "Exactly Like You"). To pass the time, she went through the entire box of record albums and listened to almost all of them, no matter how odd some of them were. The music that she and Kakashi had danced to she set aside. That was a little too painful right now. Other than that, she didn't really care, as long as it filled her mind and helped her battle her desperate loneliness.

Somewhere between the yodeling and the Zydeco party mixer, she came across one recording that sounded kind of nice. It was an orchestra playing a number of short pieces, some slow and other kind of fast and rousing.

One of these pieces started quietly, almost mournfully. Then, after a few measures of rhythmic chords, a woman started singing in a strange language in a sweet, clear voice. After a few more notes, Sakura, who had been dozing off, came awake with a start. She sat up and listened carefully to the music. The melody the woman was singing was the same tune played by the music box Kakashi had given her on her birthday. She went to her knees on the floor and searched for the album cover, scattered among the others. Finding it, she looked at the front of the jacket, then flipped it over to look at the back. A sheet of paper fell out and fluttered to the floor.

Sakura picked it up. It had writing on it in several different languages. Then she read "Track 4-Side 1: Solvejg's Song". She did even try to pronounce the name, but she looked down at what appeared to be a translation of the song she was listening to. She reached over and moved the tone arm to the beginning of the track. Sitting back against her bed, she read the words as she followed along with the music.


The winter's cold fades and the spring passes by,
The summer comes and goes and the year away will fly.
You will return to me, you ever will be true.
This promise I will keep, I'll wait faithfully for you.

God help you if you the sun still should feel.
God bless you if you come before his feet to kneel.
For you I'll ever wait, for this love we'll ever share,
Or wait for you above, to meet each other there.


By the time the song came to an end, she was sobbing.

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In a few days, it would be October. The leaves were turning color and the air was getting colder. It was early afternoon when Izumo started climbing the stairs up to Kakashi's apartment. He was actually smiling.

Kotetsu, who sat with his chair tipped back against the wall, saw him coming and leaned forward, bringing the front legs of the chair down with a clunk onto the landing. "Hey, you're early!" he called down. "Not that I'm complaining or anything." He stood up and stretched.

Izumo was nearly halfway up the flight of stairs. He had a scroll in one hand, and he held it up triumphantly. "I've got good-/shit!/" He dropped suddenly as the window of Kakashi's apartment above him shattered and a chair went hurtling out of it over his head, sending shards of glass and bits of broken wood over the stairs and down to the courtyard below. The chair smashed to pieces when it hit the ground, scattering a few startled and very annoyed tenants who happened to be down there.

Once the noise died down, Kotetsu lowered his arms away from his face. "Are you okay?" he called.

Izumo got gingerly to his feet, bit of glass falling off him. He shook his head to dislodge anything in his hair. He glared furiously up at the shattered window. "Crazy dumbass bastard!" he yelled. "What the hell-" He turned the other way and called down to someone on the ground below. "Quit shaking your fist at me, Grandpa! It wasn't me!" He looked back up at Kotetsu, staring at him incredulously. "What a complete asshole!" he shouted.

"Come in here and say that to my face, bitch!" an angry voice yelled back from inside the apartment.

"I wouldn't," Kotetsu observed quietly.

Izumo hung his head wearily for a moment. Then he straightened up and lobbed the scroll through the broken window. "Here! Catch! There's your damn ticket outta here!"

"What the hell was that?" Kotetsu demanded.

"S-rank mission assignment." Izumo jerked his chin towards the apartment. "About time!"

Kotetsu went limp with relief. "Aw, damn! That's great. I'm gonna be so glad to see the back of him!"

"Yeah, well, you're not done yet." Izumo turned and headed back down the stairs. "Somebody'll be here to relieve you in another couple of hours."

Kotetsu stared after him in disbelief. "Oh, thanks! I owe you one!" He slumped back into his chair. "Prick!" he muttered.

Inside the apartment, Kakashi picked the scroll up from where it had landed on the bed. He unrolled it and his eye traveled quickly over the contents. S-rank mission, he mused with satisfaction. Unrolling the scroll a little further, he found a separate scrap of paper tucked inside. Pulling it out, he recognized Tsunade's writing. He read the message, then smiled grimly. "Oh, don't worry," he assured the scrap of paper darkly. "I'll be back."

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Sakura lifted her head from the pillow as she heard a knock at her door. She waited for a moment, trying to think who it might be, hoping it wasn't Tsunade. "Who is it?" she called finally.

"It's Iruka," came the reply from the other side of the door. "Can I talk to you for a moment?"

Sakura got up and went over to open the door. She found Iruka standing there. He was smiling slightly, but there was an obvious look of concern on his face. "What's wrong?" Sakura demanded immediately.

"Well, nothing's actually wrong," Iruka replied. "Can I come in?"

"Oh, sure." Sakura stepped aside as he entered the room. She closed the door and turned to him. "Iruka-sensei, what is it?"

He looked at her for a moment, then said, "I came to let you know that Kakashi is being sent on a mission early tomorrow morning."

Sakura's breath caught in her throat. "What kind?"

"S-rank." Iruka watched her as her face fell. "I wouldn't worry about him, Sakura," he went on quickly. "He's never failed one yet."

Sakura nodded distractedly. "I know. Tsunade's probably hoping he won't come back," she said bitterly. She drew her breath in suddenly and covered her face with her hands.

"No, I don't think she wants that," Iruka assured her, but not being entirely sure himself. He contemplated the girl with pity for a moment, then stepped over to her and put his arms around her. "It's going to be all right, Sakura. He'll come back."

Sakura buried her face in the chunin's vest. "I miss him so much!" she cried. Iruka could feel her shuddering under his arms and he held her closer while she wept. She finally drew in a long, quavering breath. "So much for keeping my emotions hidden and possessing a heart that shows no tears!"

"You're not on mission right now," Iruka said quietly. "Don't worry about it."

Sakura shook her head and gently drew away from him, wiping her face. "No," she said decisively. "I'm not going to fall apart. I'm going to do this right." She made an effort to smile. "But thanks."

Iruka smiled back at her. "Sure." After a moment, he added. "I can try to see him before he goes. Do you want me to tell him anything?"

Sakura gave a deep sigh. "Tell him that I..." Her voice trailed off. Just saying "I love you" seemed so inadequate. Then a thought occurred to her. "Wait a minute!" She went over to her nightstand and took a piece of blank paper from the drawer. Searching around for a moment, she grabbed another sheet of printed paper from where it lay on the floor. Picking up a pen, she hastily copied something onto the note paper, folded it tightly, then handed it to Iruka. "Do you think you could give this to him?"

"I'm not sure." Iruka took the paper hesitantly, then looked at her. "Yes," he said. "I'll try. He'll be closely observed as he's leaving, but I'll slip it to him somehow."

"Thank you, Iruka-sensei." Then she added with the hint of a smile. "I hope it doesn't end up damaging your reputation."

"As Mr. Trustworthy?" Iruka grinned back at her. "I'll manage."

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It was a chilly morning. The sun had not quite risen, and there was a light mist in the air. Kakashi walked towards the entrance gates of the village. It felt good to finally be outside and doing something purposeful. It felt good to have the mask back on and the weight of a backpack on his shoulders. He was really looking forward to killing someone.

As he neared the gates, he could feel the eyes of the hidden ABNU operatives boring into the back of his head. He was tempted to flip them off, but thought better of it. He glanced ahead and noticed that someone was standing just inside the gateway. It was Iruka. Curious, Kakashi walked up to him and stopped.

"Are you part of the sendoff committee?" Kakashi asked him.

"No. I just wanted to wish you luck," Iruka replied.

"Okay. Thanks." Kakashi started to move away.

"Wait a second," Iruka said. Kakashi paused. "There's something I wanted to ask you."

"Yes?"

"About Sakura..."

"What do you want to know?" Kakashi's voice took on an edge.

Iruka hesitated for a moment, then said, "You are going to come back to her, right?"

Kakashi regarded him coldly with his dark eye. "I hope that's a rhetorical question."

Iruka stood with his arms folded, a look of calm determination on his face. "No, actually, it isn't."

Kakashi stepped closer to him menacingly, taking advantage of the few extra centimeters in height he had over Iruka, their faces almost touching. He glared at him for a moment, then said, "Fine! You know what? There's no way they could have kept me locked up. I could have been out of here anytime I wanted. But I wasn't going to do that to Sakura. Yes, I am going to come back to her. I love her, I want her, and the only reason I would leave her to raise my bastard child alone would be because I was dead. Satisfied?"

Iruka smiled and gave a nod. "I just wanted to hear it from you." He held out his hand, holding it slightly palm down.

Kakashi glanced at his hand, slightly surprised, then clasped it in his. He felt Iruka press a small, hard square shape into his palm. Still clasping his hand, he said in a very low voice. "There's several ANBU watching us, you know."

"I know," Iruka whispered back, then in a louder voice, he said, "Good luck!"

"Thanks. Iruka?"

"Yeah?"

"Take care of her for me."

Iruka smiled. "I will."

Kakashi gave him a final nod. Turning away, he stuck his hand in his pocket, leaving the folded bit of paper there and pulling out his latest paperback. Opening it, he began to read as he walked along the road, eventually moving out of sight.

He had walked for several miles before he took the paper from his pocket and unfolded it. He recognized Sakura's writing and smiled. She had written some sort of poem, and above it, she wrote "Music Box." It took him a moment to make the connection, and as he read through the lines on the paper, he slowed his steps and stopped. He read it again, a sad smile on his lips beneath his mask. After a while, he carefully refolded the paper, put it back in his pocket, and continued on his way into the thinning mist.

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Jiraiya caught a movement out of the corner of his eye and glanced up from his manuscript. Iruka had approached his table and was standing next to it.

"May I join you, Jiraiya-sama?" he asked.

Jiraiya regarded the young teacher for a moment. "That depends," he mused. "Is 'effulgent' a synonym for 'radiant'?"

Slightly surprised, Iruka thought for a moment. "Yes," he replied.

"You're sure?"

"Positive."

"Thanks! Have a seat!" Jiraiya scribbled down a few more words, blew on the wet ink, then set his papers down triumphantly. "There! I've been wanting to use 'effulgent' for a long time. 'Radiant' may sound prettier, but 'effulgent' has better mouthfeel, if you know what I mean."

Iruka wasn't sure he wanted to know that, but he nodded. "Oh...good," he replied vaguely, sitting in the chair across from the white-haired Sannin. "I hope I'm not disturbing your work."

"No, no." Jiraiya took a sip from his sake cup. "I was just hung up on that one bit." He set his cup down and leaned back comfortably. "So what brings you here, young man? This isn't your usual haunt."

Iruka shrugged. "It's been a long day. I needed to unwind a little."

Jiraiya gave a short, quiet laugh. "This may not have been the best place to come," he said, nodding towards the rest of the sake bar from where they sat in the corner. There seemed to be a definite line of demarcation down the middle of the room between the crowd of patrons. On one side were the older jonin and villagers, many of them married with families. On the other were the younger jonin and chunin. Both crowds generally had their backs to each other, and there was a distinct feeling of tension in the air. Iruka could feel it, almost like the feeling of heat from a fire warming the back of his neck.

"I suppose not," he replied, then as Akira, the proprietor approached their table, he said, "One sake, please."

"Put it on my tab," Jiraiya added as the little man nodded and turned away.

"Thank you, Jiraiya-sama." Iruka smiled across at him. Then he sighed and said quietly, "Things have been really tense, but I thought it would ease up a little once he was out of the village."

Jiraiya nodded. "You'd think so, but then it's only been since this morning. It's a shame, really. You'd think someone having a baby would be a happy occasion."

Iruka shrugged. "I suppose. If the circumstances were a little more...well...favorable."

"Well, yes..." Jiraiya muttered noncommittaly. Then he leaned forward and declared excitedly in a low voice, "But can you imagine what sort of shinobi that child is going to turn out to be? Seriously, with a pedigree like that!"

Iruka couldn't help but smile in reply. "That's true." His smile faded. "I just hope that child still has a father when it's born."

Jiraiya nodded thoughtfully. "I'm all for happy endings, but I'd rather not tempt fate and say of course it will. Can I assume you haven't lowered yourself to taking sides?"

Iruka shook his head. "No, I'm not on a 'side'. I was shocked at first, like everyone was, but now I just want things to work out for them."

Jiraiya looked past him, surveying the room. "Maybe they will. Maybe the-"

He was interrupted by the boisterous entrance of Izumo and Kotetsu. It was apparent that Akira's establishment had not been their first stop.

"Looks like someone's about to dump some oil on a flame," Jiraiya muttered cautiously.

"Son of a freakin' /bitch/, that was a long day!" Kotetsu declared, mainly to Izumo, but including all humanity in general.

"Yeah, you keep saying that!" Izumo replied gleefully. "It's getting better! Akira-san!" the chunin bellowed across the room, holding up two fingers. "One each!" The two sat down clumsily at the edge of the crowd of the younger ninja, who eyed them with amused indulgence. "Oh, man, I am so glad that's over!" Izumo exclaimed. "I would take the worst, piss-ant D-rank mission over that assignment any day!"

Genma, whom Kotetsu had plopped down next to, asked, "You mean babysitting Kakashi?"

As soon as he said the name, it was as though someone had flipped a switch. There was a palpable rise in tension in the room. The backs of many of the older jonin tensed, and a few of them glanced darkly over their shoulders at the other side of the room. Iruka and Jiraiya exchanged a look and sat quietly listening.

"Yeah!" Izumo snatched the sake bottle from Akira as the little man brought two of them over. The chunin set the cup down and drank straight from the bottle. Akira shook his head and walked away. "Yeah. Y'know, I feel for the guy, I really do. I mean, he's totally screwed!"

"No, she is!" Kotetsu bawled out, pounding on his own knee, utterly enchanted by his own humor. Everyone on that side of the room roared with laughter.

Yamanaka Inoichi, who had been sitting at the edge of the older crowd, along with his old teammates, Shikaku and Choza, dropped his cup on the table before him and rose, not too steadily, from his chair.

"Hey, Inoichi-" Shikaku started to say, but Inoichi waved him to silence. The blond jonin walked across the room and stood before where Kotetsu and Genma were sitting, still giggling drunkenly.

"You know, I don't expect you punks to have any kind of respect for your juniors," Inoichi told them and the rest of their group in a low, dangerous voice. "But if that was my little girl you were making your sick comments about, you'd be walking out of here with your balls around your neck!"

"Yeah, well, it wasn't, Inoichi-senpai, so butt out!" Kotetsu drawled back. A few people in the crowd next to him chuckled amongst themselves.

"Oh, this isn't good," Jiraiya muttered under his breath as both he and Iruka cautiously watched the scene unfold across the room.

"You think it's funny?" Inoichi demanded, enraged. "You think ruining a good girl's reputation is funny?"

"What about Kakashi's reputation!" Genma countered angrily, throwing himself forward in his chair. "That Sakura kid's as good as useless compared to him! She probably wanted to bring him down just for the attention! That's the problem with these little kunoichi. They mess up other people's lives 'cause they've got nothing better to do. And just for the record, /Dad/, that includes your kid!" Satisfied with himself, Genma sat back in his chair, his drunken cronies nodding their approval. He didn't notice the hand seal that Inoichi made in the lowered light of the bar. The grin on Genma's face suddenly disappeared, and he slowly took the senbon from his mouth. Staring in horror at his hand as it gripped the long needle, Genma tried to struggle against Inoichi's mind body switch jutsu as the senbon came closer to his eye.

When the others in each group finally realized what was going on, they scrambled out of their chairs and lunged for the two opponents. Someone managed to snatch the senbon out of Genma's hand before he socked himself in the eye with an empty fist. The two groups then faced off against each other, but Gai leaped into the space between them, his arms outstretched, holding each side back.

"No!" he cried, his voice broken with emotion. "This must not be! There must not be division among us! It is true, that although Kakashi is my greatest and best rival, he is indeed guilty of plucking the tiny pink bud of pulchritude before it unfolded its soft, moist petals of legal consent. The time must come when-"

Someone's fist connected with Gai's jaw before he was able to continue, then all hell broke loose. Iruka leaped from his chair and ran into the fray, trying vainly to pull opponents apart. It wasn't long before he was knocked senseless. Jiraiya scrambled out of his seat, dodging flying bottles, furniture, and a wide variety of jutsu, to grab hold of Iruka's ankle and pull him to the safety of the far corner. Akira managed to get a chair broken over his head as he tried to come out to break up the fight.

Jiraiya surveyed the scene with disgust. He began to bring his thumb to his mouth in preparation for a summoning jutsu. However, the fight was brought to a sudden halt as the participants were enveloped in the grip of two enormous hands. Choza grimly held onto the drunken brawlers as they groaned and struggled. Jiraiya shrugged, somewhat relieved at not having to embarrass himself by asked Gamabunta to do something as demeaning as breaking up a bar fight. That would have been hard to live down.

As Shikaku pulled a stunned Akira to his feet, a number of ANBU operatives rushed into the bar. As the pain from the various blows inflicted started to settle on the occupants, the tense atmosphere seemed to ebb into a dull ache. Muffled pleas to be released could be heard from within Choza's clenched fists.

"I'll let you go," Choza rumbled. "But the fight's over!" There were strained, muffled replies of "fine!", "okay!", and "whatever", and he released his partial multi-size jutsu. Many of his victims fell to the ground, while others bent down to help them to their feet. They began to quietly stagger out the door, carefully observed by the silent ANBU.

Jiraiya looked down at his feet as he heard a moaning sound. Iruka was regaining consciousness and was pressing his hands to his head. "You okay?" the older man asked him.

"I think so." With some help from Jiraiya, Iruka slowly sat up. He watched as the subdued patrons began to file from the bar, then he looked around at the ruination left behind. He shook his head. "This is ridiculous," he muttered.

"Let's hope there's not a repeat," Jiraiya commented. "Tsunade would hate to have to shut down all the bars."

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