Chapter 10
That morning it was the sounds coming from the kitchen that woke Keigo, not a strange occurrence since Keigo liked to sleep in, or at least until he was woken up by his drooling little brother.
What was strange was the burning sensation in his chest and the cold chills that shook his body.
He was sick and he felt miserable.
As reality hit him Keigo felt his eyes fill with tears.
With all his strength he managed to get up from the futon and head towards the kitchen. He was lucky that they were in the new apartment which was on one floor only because he wouldn't have been able to go down the stairs in his condition.
In the kitchen there was only his father waiting for him, Naruto already at his babysitter for the day.
"Good morning bubba, did you sleep well?" his father asked him. He had already put on his hokage cloak, but his hair was pinned up with lightning pins, an old birthday present from Keigo. It was hilarious.
"Mhm" his throat was killing him too.
Minato wasn't surprised by his son's elaborate response, Keigo had never been a man of many words when he first woke up.
Turning to offer his usual bowl of chocolate cereal, Minato did a double take at Keigo's appearance.
While standing in the kitchen doorway Keigo looked more disheveled than usual.
His hair was flattened towards the right side of his head and his pajamas hung crooked. If Minato remembered correctly it was one of Kakashi's old pajamas.
What worried him most was how bad his son's skin looked. He was pale, dark circles under his eyes and traces of sweat beaded on his forehead.
Before Keigo realized the planet he was on his father was already in front of him with his hand on his forehead.
"All that playing in the snow did a number on you yesterday uh?"
Instead of answering Keigo he moved under the wandering hand and clung to his father's side, his arms like a vice around his waist.
His father was probably right, he thought, yesterday had been one of the first snow days and Keigo had convinced Kakashi to summon his pack to play in the snow. They had built forts and turned Kakashi into a human snowman. Best time of the year if you ask Keigo.
Now he was suffering the consequences.
"Well, I have to work but I can tuck you in and come check on you every hour and it's only a couple of floors down anyway" Minato planned.
Keigo disagreed and tried to melt further into his father's side.
"Alright, since you're the boss here, it looks like it's going to be a bring-your-sick-child-to-work day to infect as many people as possible." Minato sighed as he picked up his kid to carry him comfortably on his hip. Keigo just rested his face in the crook of his neck.
All the people who visited the tower that day for a meeting could find the hokage sitting behind the desk with a little boy snuggled on his lap while he patted his back.
After his period of illness Keigo managed to return to active duty with his team.
Snow still covered the landscape of the land of fire but despite the adverse conditions the missions had to continue.
He and his squad had been sent to an A-rank escort mission.
Their client had to arrive in a village near the hidden village of the rain, an area where several clashes were breaking out.
After eight days of precaution and constant vigilance they arrived at their destination and left the customer.
Not wanting to stay in enemy territory for too long Shikaku-sensei ordered the return journey to begin.
They hadn't encountered any major problems so far, a few bandits and low ranking shinobi but nothing too problematic.
On the third day when they were about to cross the border to return to the country of fire they were surrounded by missing-nin.
There were four of them and their hitai-ate showed that they came from Rain.
They quickly paired up before their opponents could even make a move. Although Keigo and his team's strategies were working, everything went to pieces when one of the missin-nin summoned his summons.
'Bears. Of course he has damn bears' Keigo thought.
The adrenaline flowing through him and the struggle he put on made Keigo not notice his surroundings.
The watered snow that surrounded them was a good source of water that Keigo exploited for his jutsu and soon the last enemy was defeated.
Before he could look for his companions a voice cut through the air.
"KEIGO" Tenzou shouted from across the field "Sensei, he doesn't- I can't wake him"
Keigo's blood froze.
Turning around he was met with a gruesome scene. Tenzou was kneeling beside their sensei who was lying in the red stained snow.
He ran as fast as he could and arrived kneeling on the other side of his sensei.
Shikaku-sensei was just lying there just like when he dozes off under a tree during their training. Only this time half of his face is unrecognizable.
Three large cuts ruin the temple, the cheek and part of the neck. Not to mention the blood, Keigo knows that wounds on the face tend to bleed a lot but he didn't think that amount was normal.
"O-one of the bears got him" Tenzou stuttered "It was supposed to hit me, it was behind me and I didn't see him coming, sensei got in the way to protect me"
Keigo had never seen Tenzou show so many feelings. It had destabilized him.
Both were in shock and the only adult who could have helped them was bleeding to death at their feet.
All their bags of bandages were used to try to stop the bleeding and hold their sensei's face together as much as possible.
"Between the two of us I'm the fastest so we'll put Shikaku-sensei on my shoulders and run towards Konoha" Keigo said.
And so they did.
For four days and five nights they ran, stopping only to swallow some of the soldier's pills. They didn't sleep, they didn't rest, they ran aided by chakra until they reached Konoha.
When there were a few kilometers left to the village Keigo sent chakra pulses to his Anbu tattoo. He knew he shouldn't have used his father's guard like that but his sensei's life was in danger and he wouldn't lose a member of his team.
The Anbu platoon reached them just before the gates and Keigo and Tenzou collapsed from fatigue.
They were all rushed to the hospital. Keigo and Tenzou, who besides being tired, had no injuries, found themselves in front of the room where the doctors were working on their sensei.
They sat in the hallway outside the door to wait, they wouldn't leave until they knew his life was no longer in danger.
The tiredness was overwhelming though and they soon collapsed on top of each other right where they had sat on the floor.
They were awakened by a closing door.
With t-shirt marks on their cheeks and wild eyes, they were greeted by the sight of Yoshino silently closing her husband's door.
"Oh, my boys" she sighed softly. "He's okay, now he's sleeping and he won't wake before a couple days"
For Yoshino Keigo and Tenzou were her children as much as Shikamaru, after all the team becomes family.
Having said this she kindly chased the two boys out of the corridor to send them towards their homes to rest.
Without saying a word Keigo took Tenzou's hand and dragged him towards the hokage tower and his house. He knew that Tenzou had his own room in the chunin compounds but he didn't want to leave him alone with his thoughts and he also wanted to be next to someone who could understand what he was going through.
The apartment was empty and they didn't stop at Keigo's father's office to inform him of their presence. In silence they washed, found some of Kakashi's old pajamas that would fit Tenzou and lay down on the futon.
Neither of them slept until much later.
For as many days as it took for their sensei to wake up, Tenzou lived with the Uzumaki-Namikaze family. Their family dynamics were strange to him but he didn't find it difficult to adapt to their daily routine. Keigo and little Naruto pulled him into their little skirmishes while Lord Minato watched them laughing.
The day shikaku woke up they were informed by a shinobi sent specifically to take them.
Keigo ran, ran even faster than when he had brought back his sensei's body a few days ago, leaving Tenzou in the dust.
He avoided the entrance and crowded corridors of the hospital to enter Shikaku-sensei's room directly through the window.
Breathlessly he looked towards the bed and its occupant.
Shikaku was sitting leaning back on the bed, half of his face was bandaged but he was awake and Keigo could hear him grumbling about doors under his breath.
Tenzou slammed the door of the room open at that moment.
"SENSEI" the boys shouted at the same time before lunging towards the bed.
They each took one side of their sensei and hugged him.
"I'm okay, I knew my troublesome boys would bring me home" Shikaku managed to say as he was sandwiched between said boys.