Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

An: This is the end. Thank you so much for reading this far. I have appreciated every comment, every favorites that was received. Thank you.

Warning: bad grammar...sorry...

Summary: Kakashi's journey into fatherhood...it's a strange one.

Mid-day Waltz

Aftermath

In the months after the cursed jinx was broken Kakashi had spent countless sleepless nights debating on whether or not to contact her when inquiring about her from Tsunade didn't yield any answers.

It had taken him days of indecision and gentle prodding from Rin and a 'Man up' from Obito before he managed to work up enough bravery to send it; a simple one line question delivered by a message bird that flew all the way to Suna. It was a How are you? that came from a desire to know if she was doing alright in the aftermath of what was probably a traumatizing event. Kakashi honestly didn't expect an answer back. This was Temari of the Sand, a nin that was known for being distant as he was known for being eccentric. He was genuinely surprise when a reply came.

Fine.

Just one word on what looked to be a scrap of paper that was torn from the edge of a scroll probably.

Kakashi scratched his head unsure of where to go from there.

'Just write back' Obito told him. 'What's the worst that could happen?'

Shrugging Kakashi did just that. He grabbed for another sheet of paper and off another message went, a No lingering side effects?

A few days later, another scrap of paper came with a simple No. There must have been a pause where she was thinking of what to write because the next sentence was punctured by a heavier ink flow. Did you kill my plants yet?

The message in response to that was a They're alive and a drawing (he wasn't an artist) of himself with a thumbs up. He exaggerated his hair in wild spikes (it's a homage to the drawing on his fridge).

He waited in anticipation for the next letter. It didn't disappoint. You're an idiot. Again there seem to be a paused in the words. I'm coming to Konoha in a few month as the official liaison. My plants better still be alive.

A drawing of his fingers crossed in promise probably said more than any words he could have written.

For the next few months, in between going to his support group and making sure he really didn't kill her plants because somehow the fallout should they die made him a little wary, Tsunade retired. She retired and Kakashi somehow became Hokage. Even after weeks of wearing the heavy robes, Kakashi couldn't adjust to the feel of them. They are heavy and bulky and stifling in the afternoon heat. He wondered how any of previous Hokages managed to bear through it. He also wondered how they got through the lack of privacy. His secretary, Sena, delivered his mail only after they had been scan for any jinx, curses, and poison. He was grateful they didn't open his letters at least.

Congratulations.

Again it was written on a scrap of paper, like it was an afterthought. It was something Kakashi was glad and something welcomed in the mist of other messages that were pristine and perfumed and so unwrinkled and straight that he wondered if the people sending them had ironed them.

Kakashi hastily wrote back Save me. He was half serious. Why had he accepted this position again?

'You're only holding it until Naruto is ready,' Rin gently reminded.

Kakashi sighed wearily.

He sent the message off and the answered response made the lines in the corner of his eyes wrinkle in amusement. Interesting. Gaara said the same thing to me yesterday. On the bottom of the message was a drawing (another thing he now knew of her was that she was decent artist. She had improved heaps and bounds since she was six) of Gaara who look bored to tears in what could have been a Kazekage meeting with faceless figures in the background.

Kakashi knew the feeling.

He looked up when a stack of scrolls was dropped off on his desk.

"Here you go Hokage-sama," Sena said cheerfully. "Please read through each scroll carefully and sign the bottom line in triplicates."

"Is this my work for the week?" he asked crossing his fingers underneath his desk.

"No." His secretary looked scandalized. " It's your work for the hour."

As his head hit his desk, he could almost hear Temari's snort.

'You can do this, Kakashi,' Rin encouraged.

Kakashi, to his beaming secretary's happiness, reached out to pick up one scroll in resignation.

When Temari finally arrived as the official liaison, Kakashi was the first to greet her. It went against code, but Kakashi made sure that his old apartment (now that he had to move into the Hokage Mansion) was left as a diplomat's residence. He watched as she limbered around the apartment for the first time since the curse. Her finger tips touched the walls. Her green eyes seem distant and glaze over as if in thought. He saw the moment her eyes caught sight of the stuff weasel sitting on the couch.

"Hokage-sama, you have meeting," his assistant remind him. Kakashi was startled a bit. He had forgotten about the presence of his assistant and the two Anbu bodyguards behind him that shadowed his every move. Gathering himself together, Kakashi reluctantly move to leave.

His assistant turned to Temari and bowed politely. "Please let me know if you need anything, Liaison-sama. I'll be happy to help."

As they left (his assistant herding him out like he was some kind of sheep) he thought he saw a twitch pull at her lips.

They met the next day to discuss business and trade. Kakashi took that time to study her. She look normal. As normal as someone could be for living cursed for a year. She seemed relaxed. There was her usual confidence as she leaned back, her long legs uncrossing to recross and showing skin from the slit in her kimono (Kakashi saw one of his Anbu swallow hard). She did it on purpose. He could tell from the glint in her eyes, the amusement in green orbs. Kakashi tried to find his six-year-old ward in her, but other than similarity in their looks (and even then the only things similar was hair, the shape of the face, and eye color), he found to his disappointment that he doesn't really know her.

The woman in front of him is a stranger.

She gets through the business meeting calmly and straightforwardly and even a bit shrewdly. It takes everything in Kakashi to keep up with her as they broached trading agreements, tariffs, and the importing and exporting expectations. She seemed at ease in the talks like she had done this all her life.

'She's the daughter of a Kazekage,' Rin reminded. 'I'm sure she has some experience in Kage business'.

By the end of it, Kakashi wondered if she hadn't just talked him into signing away half the village to Suna.

When they were done, they rose up from their chairs.

"Have you eaten?" he asked. "I know of a place."

He saw that the question surprised her. It surprised everyone in the room. Hokages were limited in the number of people they could interact with outside of the members of the counsels and administrative officals (outside influence and all that). With foreign dignitaries, he was expected provide adequate housing and general comforts, but not to interact with them outside of business meetings. Having a meal with her went against protocol actually.

'You're not one to follow protocol,' Rin admitted with a smile in her voice.

'Good for you!' Obito congratulated. 'A date!'

It's not a date, Kakashi thought inwardly. It was a chance for him to finally meet Temari of the Sand officially, as she is now, apart from what he already knew and found out during the curse. He was curious to know more about the person whose correspondence was the only bright spot in his day as meeting after meeting bored him into sleepiness and laziness that drove his secretary and his assistants crazy.

"Alright," she shrugged.

Side by side they walked out to Ichiraku with puzzling Anbu bodyguards following them.

That was the start of it.

Even after the meal, where Kakashi undignifingly snorted out water from his nose after a crude, but truthfully remark she made about Kage Counsel Members in general that made him laugh, and long after she left the village to go back to Suna, they managed to keep in contact. It had surprised Kakashi that they had enough in common to find things to continue to write about (the difference in their ages, their village, their personalities should have ended their communication before it even began).

Somehow though, they slotted almost effortlessly into each other's lives and the sight of his idle figure walking next to her regal one whenever she was in town became common. So common, in fact, that Kakashi doesn't know whether to find it amusing or flinch when the term Kakamari made its way around the village - it doesn't help when Anko started her betting pool.

She was the first person he thought of when the third worst thing in his life happened (tied for a three-way first place was losing Obito, losing Rin, and finding his father's body. In second place was losing Sasuke). Kakashi's hand shook when he wrote They're gone.

He wrote that the day Rin and Obito's voice disappeared. He had always known it would happen. Their voices had been gradually starting to fade as time passed, but he never thought that he would lose them completely. He had always believed that he would have a piece of them with him until the day he died. But one morning he woke and the presences that use to linger in the back of his mind, guiding him, was gone leaving a gaping blank space. Now all he has is just his own thoughts.

He never thought his head would feel so empty.

Kakashi wrote the message, but he never intended to send it. He had planned on getting through his loss the way he always has gone through any of the other worst moments of his life. Alone. He turned away from the window and the carrier bird he often used to send his letters to Suna just assumed it was ready and picked it up. It flew away before Kakashi could stop it.

The response came back and Kakashi read the words.

'I'm sorry.'

Just two words. Written on a scrap of paper (because somehow Temari can never seem to find a whole parchment to write on). Just two words, but it managed to make the loss a little more bearable.

Kakashi breathed heavily.

He handled the paper like it was something precious (something he needed to do some introspecting on later) and he tucked it away into the drawer of his desk.

The years seem to roll by after that. Life moved on and now he found himself in the middle of a private room in the medic center uncomfortable and awkward as Sakura, in her medic robe, walked towards him.

Kakashi was wary when the bundle was placed in his arms. A wrinkled face, red and prune looking, was revealed when Sakura gently moved the blue blanket out of the way. With the naturally white hair, the baby looks like a miniature old man as it opened it's eyes and squinted.

"Congratulations, Kakashi-Sensei," Sakura said. "It's a boy."

The baby then lets a small snort escape.

It's the first sound his son makes in this world.

Kakashi almost yanked Sakura back when she turned and walked away to give him privacy. He could feel the sweat gather at his brow as the feeling of being a little on edge and out of his depth coursed through him.

Kakashi cautiously peered down.

Everything about the baby, from his hair to the droopy shape of his eyes, was from Kakashi (there was no denying paternity). Even the almost lazy way the child took in the world was Kakashi-like, though his eye color, a pair of intelligent green, came from his mother.

"Let me see him," a tired voice ordered.

Moving forward on slightly shaking legs he hoped she didn't noticed, Kakashi brought the baby to Temari.

She looked exhausted. Her blond hair was matted to her head from the sweat and her face was paler than normal. She stared at the bundle in Kakashi's arms; eyes thoughtful.

"Kishi," she decided after looking at the baby.

Hatake Kishi.

His son.

The sheer force of that thought almost made him stagger backwards.

Temari held her arms out and Kakashi placed the newly named Kishi in them. The moment he saw them together he burned the image of this tired woman and this wrinkle baby into his memory. He will never forget the way she looked as she stared down at the baby because even ragged, he couldn't help but think that she never looked more beautiful.

'One day you'll understand.'

His father's words came to him as Kakashi slipped into the bed to be next to them.

It took some maneuvering until they were comfortable (the pain medication was starting to wear off. Kakashi could tell by the slight twitch of her eye even though she said nothing). He wrapped his arm around her and a yawning Kishi ends up being cradle between them.

She could have married Shikamaru. It was all too easy for Kakashi to see an alternative future that replaced his Kishi was another child that looked a lot like Shikamaru but had her eyes (Shikadai was a name that echoed in his head; a who could have been, if things had gone differently). Temari could have chosen Shikamaru. She could have chosen anyone actually, but instead she chose to tie herself to a washed up old retired Hokage who was still battling his inner demons to this day.

Kakashi has never felt more grateful in that moment.

Even if he didn't understand her choice.

Temari glanced wearily at him before looking at a yawning Kishi who now had his eyes closed.

"You get all the diaper duties," she told him.

Kakashi agreed and held her tighter as a promise.

She leaned into him with a tired slouch and fell asleep almost instantly.

It might have been wistful thinking on his part, but for one brief moment as the sunlight streamed in through the curtain bathing the room with the warmth, Kakashi could have sworn he felt an echo of Rin and Obito's presence in the back of his head before it vanished.

Kakashi looked outside in time to see two free birds fly off into the clear blue sky.