Our embrace had passed the point of comforting to uncomfortable. It was too long and too intimate to pass off as a friend consoling a friend so naturally Kakashi and I stepped away from each other and tried to act as though nothing at all had happened. Eye contact was avoided to stave off embarrassed blushing, and I walked swiftly out of the archive room to the training grounds so that I could pick up Anzu before I was late. I hate being late.
I waited awkwardly, hoping that neither Sadao nor Jukouro would come over and try to talk to me. I did not want to deal with them. I should probably tell them at some point that I was going to be missing lunch the week after next to go to the summit with Kakashi, but I figured that I would just tell them later.
Sadao didn't look like he was going to cross the field to talk to me, luckily. He was staring off into the distance, a faraway look on his face. I knew that look well after living in a shinobi village my whole life; he was remembering something painful. He barely looked over at his son, Tadao, as the smiling teen joined his father. They walked away in utter silence, leaving Hinabi to run off to meet up with her older sister, Hinata, and Naruto, the happy newly weds. All alone, Jukouro and Anzu walked over towards me.
Jukouro gave me a shy smile as Anzu gave me a hug, and I returned the smile over the top of my adopted daughter's golden blonde head.
After asking if he could join us on our walk home, Jukouro, Anzu, and I began a mildly uncomfortable journey.
When we were about halfway there, Anzu looked between the two of us, "Why did Tadao's dad look so down in the dumps today? Is something wrong?"
I nodded and looked at Jukouro, "Do you know what caused him to have 'the look'?"
"The look" is commonly discussed by ninjas. All of the veterans know what you're alluding to, and it has a different source for everyone. I fear the day when Anzu gets "the look," well, more than she already has it now.
"Well, I've heard a few rumors, but you do know that Sadao was ANBU, right?"
"He was ANBU?" I see all of the ANBU reports except for the extremely classified ones and would have noticed his name.
"Yeah, a long time ago. Back then we were seventeen, so you were sixteen, and he went on an extended mission where something happened. His partner came back without him, and everyone in the village thought that he was dead. But then he came back almost a year later. Said that he had to recover in a foreign country for his injuries or something. He left the ANBU after that." That explained why I didn't know that he was in ANBU, I joined the Strategy Unit at seventeen when I became a jonin so this was before my time. "But that's not what the rumors were about. Apparently, he wouldn't tell anyone who had saved him, and would barely talk about his time recovering with anyone, even Lord Third. He didn't get word out to the village that he was still alive, like he should have done in accordance with ANBU policy. It took years for them to let him back out on high ranking missions again. Or so I've heard, but I had a pretty good source so I think that the information is reliable."
I sighed, "You are such a gossip, Jukouro, always have been."
He blushed lightly under the red triangles on his cheeks and revealed sharp canines with his sheepish smile. "I guess so."
"Well, this is us." I waved as Anzu grinned at him.
"Farewell and best of health, dearest Sensei."
He laughed, "I'd expect nothing less from you, Anzu. I'll see you tomorrow for training, and I can't wait for next week's lunch, Kaiyo."
I waved and plastered on my best fake smile, "Me too!"
I turned on my heel and left, Anzu following behind me, and the moment that the front door of our building closed behind us, she burst out laughing.
"I won't tell Kakashi about that."
I stopped on the stairs and looked down at her, towering over her with the added height of two steps. "What?" I legitimately had no idea what she was talking about.
She laughed again while running past me up the stairs, "You're so clueless!"
I ran up after her, relishing the fact that I now had a hip that worked, "Get back here, you! I'm not clueless!!"
She twirled to a stop in front of our door. "Clueless Kaiyo," she sang with a flying leap through the air, landing in a bow.
I smirked, "I think that I'm not as clueless as you think. Something's got you in a really good mood. My mom senses are tingling!" I swung open the door and she shot through it. Following her inside, I pulled a jug of apple juice out of the fridge and poured two tall glasses, "Now sit down and tell me about your day so that I can live vicariously through you."
She took a coy sip, "You tell me about your day first."
"So that's how you're going to play it, huh?" She nodded enthusiastically so I continued with a small eye roll and a shake of my head, "Well, lunch was... awkward as can be. And then when I got back to the office, Kakashi came by and asked me to accompany him to the Five Kage Summit in about a week. You'll have to stay with Bijonko for eight days, sorry. And then we found out a few more things about the case with my mother. Now it's your turn."
"We trained."
I shot her a look, "And..?"
"Nothing much happened."
She was being evasive; something had to be up. "Hmm, what's the name of that teammate of yours? Oh, yeah, that's right. Tadao. See him at all today?"
Her cheeks turned pink under her freckles. "Of course I did. He's my teammate."
"Sure..." I winked, and she downed the rest of her juice with a huff.
"I'm going to go and read my book."
That caught my attention, "Which book?"
"That one series about mythology and stuff. The seventh book just came out, and I bought it today."
They were made for people Anzu's age (so thirteen), but I had read them too, and they're quite good. It's about all of these ancient yokai, demons, that live in the real world.
Anzu froze halfway between her room and the sofa, "Kaiyo, do you think that yokai could be real too? I mean, the Tailed Beasts are a thing. Case in point, Naruto."
I shrugged, "I really don't know, and I probably never will. Go and read your book; I'll call when dinner is ready."
A/N: I just got back last night. I wrote these two chapters during my down time on the trip and on the plane rides home. Italy was absolutely incredible, but it's nice to finally be home again. Especially since the wifi is much more reliable.