Chapter 35 -> Part 35

"It's not right," I snapped at Sakumo once he finished. "Tightening the rules and increasing the penalties, I mean."

"No, it's not, and no one likes it, but one of the most common complaints from the civilians is that the shinobi aren't subject to the law, that they can do whatever they wish. With the Uchiha police either dead or fighting and the rest of the Jōnin only in the village long enough to get some rest and spend a few hours with their families, shinobi seem a lot more approachable, so they're acting out."

"They're starting a civil war and the Hokage is only making things worse with the oppressive regulations and the terror campaign. The answer to disobedience isn't instituting more rules, that only adds fuel to the fire! Is the Hokage an idiot?"

"Calm down, Kichiro," he ordered. "Now is not the time to oppose or criticize the Hokage, we need to be unified."

"Unity isn't going to happen like this."

"You know better than to stand against the Hokage."

"I'm one of the few people who actually does!"

"Yes, insubordination seems to be a point of pride for you."

"Absolute power corrupts absolutely. I refuse to let people live under someone accountable only to themselves when I can do something about it!"

"You have to trust the Hokage—"

"No, I don't have to do anything, I most certainly do not have to trust anyone."

Sakumo's head fell into his hand. "You haven't changed."

"What the civilians are doing is wrong, but that doesn't mean the Hokage is right!"

"But you are?"

"Not necessarily, but I know I have a new, valid perspective that can help."

"Look, I think you need to let the Hokage and his advisors figure it out on their own. You just came back and you're not supposed to be doing anything stressful for a few weeks."

"I'm still a medic, I won't overstretch myself."

"Maybe, but every time you go up against the Hokage, you've come out worse for wear. One of these days, you're going to accidentally step over the line."

"So? He won't kill me and it's not like he'll be able to lock me away and forget about me for very long, not with the war going on."

"You have no idea, do you?"

"What?"

"The Hokage put a lot of trust in you when he left the village with you."

"Yeah, and leadership wasn't in my contract with the village."

"He never rescinded your security clearance."

"Then he's even more of an idiot."

"Kichiro!"

"What? I was a hostage and he should have knocked my security clearance down to civilian level the second he regained control."

"Taking control of the village was meant to be your test for candidacy."

"What?"

"Any person considered for the post of Hokage has to pass a test of leadership. Yours was a bit early."

"I never agreed to be considered for the post of Hokage."

"It's not something you choose. Didn't you think it was strange that the Hokage left you in charge with almost no training and experience?"

"I figured he was setting up Konoha as a decoy, so he could launch a larger counter-attack with a home field advantage."

"No, the Hokage would never have tried something that risked fighting inside the village. Needless to say, you passed the test with flying colors. A fair head and firm hand in discipline, the ability to hold the respect of your peers and elders—"

"They were a bunch of kids!"

"They're your future subordinates. You have a good head for negotiating, policy-making—"

"I don't want this."

"Give it ten or twenty years and you could be the Hokage!"

"No, never."

"I know you well enough to see that you have a way to fix what you see as broken in this village that none of the rest of us understand. As Hokage you could do it."

He was right, but I knew better. "I'm certain I could fix it. I could set up a government that makes most people happy, but does that make me better than anyone else? I'll answer that: it makes me no better than people like Uchiha Madara who thought he could bring peace by holding everyone under his thumb. Unilateral action never turns out well, and I'm not going to make myself the villain by pushing my ideals on everyone else."

"Kichiro—"

"I'm going to go for a walk."

I stood up and marched out, my hands deep in my pockets.

"Hold on, Kichiro." Sakumo grabbed my arm on the way out. "Wear this." He pressed a conical hat into my hand. "To hide your hair and the seal on your forehead."

I jammed it on my head and marched out.

(-_-)

I ended up walking all over the village, just watching the civilians interact. No one recognized me and no one tried to stop me. A few hours after setting out, I saw a middle-aged store owner struggling to carry a large crate.

"What are you doing just standing there, boy? Give me a hand or move along."

I shrugged before taking half the weight of the crate, which I suspected was full of glass from the way it clinked, ignoring his suspicious glare and helped bring it inside. The place looked like the lab for a medieval mad scientist.

"The name's Hideaki."

"Kichiro," I mumbled back.

"You're strong for your age. Did you drop out of the Academy or something?"

I shrugged. "Chuunin."

"Why aren't you in uniform?"

I grunted.

He snorted. "My sons were shinobi. The younger got himself captured and mutilated in Iwa, came home in a box too big for him, and the older vanished into thin air. I got a letter confirming his death, but no body. Damn kid thought he could take on Hanzō the Salamander and the team who found him were hard-pressed to do more than identify his body. Their stuff is still upstairs in their room. Little bastards, they should have retired when I told them to. I could've set them up with almost any job they wanted. I'll give you the same advice I gave them, retire while you're still alive to."

"Can't."

"Why not?"

I shrugged. 'Because I'm a Jinchuuriki' didn't seem to be a very good way to continue the conversation.

"You're not much of a talker."

"What do you do here?" I asked, changing the subject.

"I fix things. Anything, really. Toys, clothes, pots, weapons, pets. It's good money, people don't seem to be able to do jack shit for themselves. Its fine with me, though. As long as I pay my taxes and keep my nose clean, nobody cares about grumpy old me. Good thing too, or I'd end up dead and stuck with my bastard sons again, considering the state of affairs. Just wait, in a few minutes, those crazy civilians are going to come marching down the street shouting and banging things. They do it every day. The only good thing about it is that things always get broken. Mostly people nowadays, since those idiots can't go to the hospital when they get hurt while breaking the law."

He sat down at a desk and started noisily tapping at an impressive dent in the side of a pot. I took a seat a few feet away and watched.

"What are you really doing, kid?" The dent slowly started to disappear.

"I was going for a walk. I don't really know anymore."

"Someone piss you off?"

"No, they told me some things I didn't want to hear."

He didn't have anything to say to that. A little while later, an angry shout sounded on the street outside.

"There they go again," the man grumbled. "I would increase my prices in the hope that they would stop being such idiots when it started hitting their pockets, but it won't do a damn thing and I might as well keep making money." He pulled out a roll of thread from a drawer as well as a small box of what appeared to be sewing needles.

"You really ought to sanitize those needles before you stick them in people."

He snorted. "It makes me feel better to know they might not spread their idiocy."

"They think they're doing the right thing, you know."

"It doesn't mean they thought of all the implications of it. Look kid, this is a civilian problem all of you ninja shouldn't be mixed up with in the first place. It happens every few years and it's only happening now because we're at war and things have gotten bad enough to need shinobi to disperse the protestors."

"Is that what most people think, or just you?"

"Depends on which 'most people' you're thinking of. The civilian populace, for the most part, is perfectly fine with the Hokage and military; it's just one faction is much more vocal than everyone else."

"I see."

At that, the first of the injured stumbled into the shop. "I'm gonna die!" The man panicked, clutching his arm.

"Then stop being an idiot and you won't," Hideaki rolled his eyes and peeled the man's hand away from the wound. I'd gotten worse cuts when training.

"The ninja attacked us!" the idiot exclaimed.

"Oh really? What building did you throw rotten fruit at this time?"

"We weren't doing anything this time!"

"I'll believe that when I see my miso soup come to life and dance like a geisha."

"I could oblige," I muttered to Hideaki so only he could hear. He just glared at me as he wrapped the man's arm and demanded twice the rate the hospital charged.

"You have family to see and whoever you walked out on to apologize to, kid, now get out of my shop." He tossed a few coins in my direction. I caught them with one hand. "For the help."

I shrugged and left. I wandered a few streets over, eventually stopping in front of a sweetshop for something to chew on as I made my way back to Sakumo's house, saving one of the Japanese-style donuts for Sakumo. I knocked softly on his door.

"Come in, Kichiro," he called. I warily let myself in, brushing off my feet on the front mat. Belatedly, I noticed I was still barefoot from the hospital, and entered the house, glancing in to the main room where I had left Sakumo. He was sitting on the floor with Kakashi propped up on his knees, playing with the baby. I stayed out of the child's line of sight, even though he probably couldn't see more than a few feet in front of him at best.

"Sweet?" I offered. He shook his head and I took a bite instead.

"Where did you get the money?" he asked dubiously, as it vanished a few seconds later. "Kushina changed the verification codes for your bank account and I don't have any money in the house."

I shrugged, unashamed of the supposed gluttony. I had certainly not gotten the number of meals I needed while in Iwa, and I was fairly certain it had been at least a week, if not longer since I last ate anything solid, excluding the current day. "Helped a guy move a crate. Nice man, he gave me enough to buy a whole box of these, but I ate all the others. I think it was partially a bribe for not squealing on the fact he stitches up and overcharges protestors as a side-job, but that's irrelevant."

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that. Anyways, are you going to be Kakashi's uncle or big brother?"

"I did not sign up for this," I answered.

"Brother it is," he turned to Kakashi. "To-chan has some work to do and you're going to stay right here with your big brother Kichiro inside the big, safe, sealed house while To-chan does his work, okay?"

Kakashi gurgled a response.

"I didn't sign up to be your baby sitter!" I protested, but Sakumo ignored me.

"Be good for your new brother!" Sakumo said cheerfully to both of us as he settled the infant in my arms. If it wasn't for the fact that Sakumo was a Jōnin and could make me take care of his spawn, I would have walked away. "I just fed him, so would you be so kind as to burp him. I'll be back in an hour." Sakumo left in a hurry.

Kakashi smiled up at me in all his gummy infant glory, and I swear there was an evil glint in his eye. "Don't you dare forget that I can pretend to be completely incompetent at childcare and your father wouldn't suspect a thing."

He gurgled up at me as I took off my hat and sat down, picking up the burp cloth draped across the arm of the couch. After a few good burps and the need to clean up his spit-up, which somehow missed the rag and ended up on my shirt, twice, I tried to lay Kakashi down on his blanket, only to find the brat had caught a fistful of my hair and wasn't going to let go of his newest brightly colored toy. At least he only chewed on it and didn't try and pull.

"Good for you, you caught my hair, but it's not nice to grab people's hair, Kakashi, please let go."

He babbled back at me.

"Okay, you are much smarter than any infant your age ought to be, and I see that, but it doesn't make it okay, please let go."

His head hit my shoulder as he continued to speak baby into my clothes.

"I'm not your father, so I don't know what all your little sounds and motions mean. Be a bit clearer, please."

When he looked back up at me, I would swear he was giving me a stink-eye.

"Um, sleep is always a good thing. Why don't you go to sleep, and I'll go to sleep and neither of us has to deal with the other, what do you think?"

That look was definitely the stink-eye.

"Giving mean looks to almost-strangers isn't very nice, Kakashi."

He waved his hands in my direction.

"I'm not your father, I don't know what the hand waving means."

Kakashi smiled, and I swear it was the most diabolical thing I had ever seen.

"Why couldn't Sakumo have a normal infant?" I complained. "One that just wanted a diaper change, food, and to be held during long naps."

Kakashi's face twisted and suddenly he started to wail.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! You're a perfect baby even though you are way smarter then you ought to have a right to be! Please stop crying, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings! Why am I talking to you like you're twenty times your age? I doubt you're understanding more than a few words in every sentence. I think I lost it. Imagine that, I survive what amounts to torture, only to lose it when trying to take care of a baby. How the hell does that make sense? You know what, I'm blaming you, Kakashi. At least you've stopped crying now. That's a good thing, right? I don't smell anything so I just upset you somehow. How do I upset someone who is less than two months old with just words?"

When Kakashi only grinned at me with his fists in his mouth, I groaned and let my head fall back on the couch. He just gurgled at me before starting to squirm. I laid him on his back on the cushion beside me, but he started screaming the second I let go.

"Oh, shut up. If you want to squirm, you can lay on the couch. If you want me to hold you, then no trying to make me drop you, that's the deal." I swear he understood every word I said.

The screaming subsided, but he still cried until I picked him back up.

"You are a manipulative little brat; you know that?"

He let his head fall on my shoulder after sending me a satisfied smile, his hands in his mouth.

"I'll like you only if you help me troll your father."

Kakashi mumbled into my shoulder.

"If you're asking how, I have no idea beyond not letting anyone but him change your diaper. There's not much else you can do at this age besides make noises and scream. Um, yeah, maybe make your first word something funny, or refuse to speak at all and just give your father that evil grin of yours when he makes you try. I want to see the look on his face when your first word is a complete sentence like 'Kichiro is awesome' or something like that."

Grabbing two fistfuls of my shirt, Kakashi started to fall asleep.

"Sleeping upright isn't good for anyone's neck," I scolded lightly and shifted him to lie in my arms instead. After a minute, I changed my mind. "You know what, you're going to sleep safely by yourself, on your back. Babies are always supposed to sleep by themselves on their back."

I gently laid Kakashi on the blanket he had been sleeping on earlier and walked over to close the door that could be slid across the window to block out the majority of the light. Just as I reached out, Kakashi screamed.

"Oh, shut up, you're fine, unless you want to sleep with the sun in your eyes."

He quickly subsided into a pitiful wail as I blocked out the sun. When I crouched and awkwardly patted his tiny torso, he quickly stopped and rubbed at his eyes.

"See? You're just fine. Now, go to sleep, you're tired."

I stood up, and Kakashi screamed, but as soon as I crouched back down, he returned to smiling up at me.

"You're an evil little brat. If you were my kid, I would just let you scream, but you're not and Sakumo would kill me if he walked in and I was ignoring you, so what do you want?"

He grinned up at me and waved his arms. At least it wasn't an evil grin.

"Just go to sleep."

When I started to pull away, his face scrunched up.

"You just don't want to be alone," I scowled. "I suppose I can't blame you, you are only a month old after all, but your father is spoiling you. If you grow up to be a callous brat, I'm kidnapping you and fixing that problem very forcefully."

He gave me one of those sarcastic 'oh, really' looks.

"Do you doubt I could kidnap you or that I would be able to fix the problem? What am I thinking, you can't respond, I don't even know if you're responding to my tone or my actual words. Why don't you use your psychic connection with your father to call him back here? Maybe we could team up and torture him, instead of you torturing me."

Kakashi kicked his legs while chewing on his fists.

"I guess you like that idea. Too bad your father is a Jōnin and we won't be able to deprive him of sleep enough to make him crazy. Any ideas, Kakashi?"

I laid down in my stomach beside him and poked his side obnoxiously. It just made him grin.

"You gotta contribute more than legwork, kiddo. Besides, considering how you seem to understand me just fine, you have to be a genius and you're not going to make me, the normal guy, think of everything."

Kakashi's attention finally wandered away from me and his eyes drifted closed.

"Good baby, go to sleep."

There was a small bookshelf opposite the window where I pulled out a jutsu scroll to study while Kakashi slept. When I heard the front door open without an announcement, I was glad Kakashi was on a blanket, because I released the jutsu scroll, wrapped him tightly, and slipped out the door opposite, which opened up to Sakumo's weaponry. The back of my mind admired the impressive array of sharp objects and ninja gear on various shelves, and the collection of mission bags neatly lining the baseboards. Several were in a state of repacking on the table in the center of the room, but I could tell Sakumo was able to drop everything for an emergency mission if need be.

My neck prickled and I grabbed the nearest blade and slashed at where an adult's head would be, just as the scroll finished rolling shut. Sakumo flinched even as he caught my wrist easily, even though I put a lot of chakra into the blow, and I saw him draw a kunai in a reflexive counter, barely stopping himself before he stabbed me. I still winced as the point of the kunai drew a few drops of blood from my side.

"Good reflexes, kid, but you're rusty."

"You're a Jōnin," I retorted with a scowl. "And I just got out of the hospital."

"Fair enough, but I'm going to have to train you up to where you should be." Sakumo pocketed his kunai and took the training tantō from my slackened grip.

"Whatever," I grumbled, and returned the still-sleeping Kakashi to his father. He simultaneously replaced the tantō and took the child in his right hand. I looked over my shoulder at the weapons room. It was impressive. Sakumo's collection of training blades was arrayed on the nearest wall to my right. Hundreds of kunai were stacked on several shelves on the adjacent wall, and on the wall opposite me, there were eight duplicates of Sakumo's mission packs. On the wall behind the door, the rest of Sakumo's miscellaneous mission and training supplies were arrayed on shelves. I spotted the lead training rods Sakumo used to teach me the katas for using my twin sticks and build up my strength and speed for when I switched to the wooden ones. There was also a pile of bokkens and a box of senbon that I managed to identify before Sakumo pulled me out and closed the door with his foot.

"Now you know where I keep my gear. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I responded falling back onto one of the couches, watching him carefully. Sure enough, when he picked up the scroll to put it away, not caring if I had finished reading it or not, I noticed a slight tremor in his hand. I was probably overthinking it, but I had to ask. "Why are you shaking?"

"I'm not shaking," he sighed, exasperated.

"Did you get injured? Is that why the Hokage let you stay in the village?"

"No, what makes you say that?"

"I don't remember you ever holding Kakashi in your left, even though you would be able to defend him better if you could use your right hand to fight."

"I'm not injured."

"I suppose you wouldn't mind if I checked, it might be an old injury that never healed properly and you've been compensating without realizing it."

"No, I'm fine. You should probably go visit your family. I only brought you here so I could run some errands I couldn't bring Kakashi to."

"You're the one who claimed I'm rusty, what better way to practice is there?"

Sakumo laid a hand on my shoulder and looked me in the eye, dead serious. "I'm fine, Kichiro, I promise. You can check me over with your medic stuff when I pick you up for training in three days, but right now you probably should go spend time with your family, okay?"

I shrugged, figuring he must have been a little shaken up about something. I was one of the few medics who were willing to completely heal an injury so it didn't have to be put on the shinobi's medical records. I hadn't been approached by any shinobi outside of the hospital since the war started, mostly because I was out of the village. I suspected a number of ones who approached me before the war were ANBU, which was one of the reasons I never told anyone about it. ANBU was a secretive group, understandably, and I wasn't sure there were many medics in their ranks, so they would either have to trust the handful of Jōnin medics to heal off-books and place the information into their ANBU file only, or wait for the injury to heal by itself. I happened to be a quiet, and not exactly legal alternative. When I thought about it, I probably made a number of high-level connections without even realizing it.

Still, I couldn't shake the feeling Sakumo was lying to my face about something, something that wasn't classified.