Chapter 26
Itachi found the comforts of home he was looking for.
Keigo had brought him home where Obito was waiting for him with the front door open to welcome him and Sasuke ready to shower him with the affection he had missed in those five years.
Seeing Itachi return to the village and create a life for himself again had made Keigo think.
In his future Keigo knew that his ambitions were towards his father's mantle, as hokage he could make the changes he had thought of.
Then there was Kakashi, his love, who he couldn't imagine a future without.
ANBU would hinder him, the grueling shifts wore him down, the dangerous missions didn't promise return and the general lack of identity that would compromise the future he imagined.
So Keigo decided to send Duck to retirement.
That mask had accompanied him for almost a decade, it had given him companions that he will carry forever in his heart and had allowed him to protect the color he loved, but it had also brought him great suffering, injuries and had taken away friends.
Duck brought both pain and joy.
Keigo knew he would never leave him behind, after all once an ANBU you are forever an ANBU, the seal would always be on his arm and the mask in his possession in case Duck would be needed once again in the future.
However, Keigo felt like he was losing a piece of himself.
His father had been the first to get the news, as hokage he had to finalize it anyway.
Keigo's palms were sweaty as he waited in front of the tower's office door for permission to enter.
"Come in" his father voice came from behind the door.
With one last deep breath he entered. His father was as usual swamped with paperwork at his desk but his attention was immediately directed to him when he walked through the door.
Keigo was given a funny look, he hadn't been expected so it was strange that he would show up when in reality at that time he would be preparing for training at the ANBU dojo.
"I'm done"
Keigo announced with determination looking directly into his father's blue eyes.
A flicker of understanding passed through those eyes. His father understood.
"If that's what you want, I won't be the one to not allow it"
Keigo was grateful and let it be known.
"You haven't talked to Kakashi yet, have you?" His father's voice interrupted his path to the door. With a confused expression Keigo turned to him.
"No, why?"
A hand being waved casually was the only response he received.
Tenzou took the news well, the fact that they were no longer teammates didn't sit well with either of them but he understood that Keigo would have done better in the ordinary forces and Keigo knew that Tenzou would have been a perfect captain for the new Team Ro.
They were best friends for life, two sides of the same coin, being in two different shinobi forces wasn't going to tear them apart anytime soon.
Keigo on his way home stopped at a small stand that made one of Kakashi's favorite soups. Maybe he was more worried than expected about Kakashi's reaction to his job change.
Keigo certainly didn't like not being together anymore, he would definitely be worried that Kakashi was somewhere bleeding and maybe dying without him knowing anything.
Keigo was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't even notice when he opened the door to his house.
The living room light was on, Kakashi should have been on duty at the moment, it was strange that he would be there unless he was injured.
Keigo rushed over to the couch where Kakashi was lying, already thinking about the severity of his injuries to let him be at home, usually Kakashi had a bad habit of ignoring any wound until he collapsed or Keigo patched it up.
"Are you OK? Did something happen at the dojo? Where are you injured? No wait I'm going to get the first aid kit"
Keigo had to be stopped before he left for the bathroom to get supplies. Kakashi had picked him up and pulled him onto the couch to his side.
"Breathe baby, I'm fine, you don't need to get anything"
Keigo took a deep breath a couple of times to calm himself down, sometimes he got agitated if someone he cared about got hurt.
"Why are you already home?" he asked then.
"Why are YOU at home?" Kakashi turned on him.
A moment of silence accompanied them as their eyes met.
"I left the ANBU" They said at the same time.
Amazement, enthusiasm, relief and many other emotions swirled in Keigo, the same ones he sees reflected in Kakashi's eye.
The weight of letting Kakashi go on a mission without knowing what it would be like was heavy on his shoulders but now that he knew he too had left the ANBU it was like he was a few kilos lighter.
Keigo kissed his Kakashi, the soups left abandoned on the floor where they had been dropped.
Keigo and Kakashi had a hard time getting used to the new routine, their old schedules had them training at any time, be it night or day and they were always ready to stay up for multiple days at a time for missions.
Sleeping for more than a few hours every night seemed impossible and their living room always had someone in it whether it was Kakashi reading or Keigo trying to exhaust himself by training.
Waking up, looking for something to do, working out, eating, sleeping, waking up in the middle of the night and trying to find something that would make him tired enough to go back to sleep.
Keigo couldn't believe he had to admit that he was bored.
The tornado that Naruto was, was the solution to the monotony that his life had become.
His little brother was supposed to graduate from the Academy and become genin but he had a big problem, he couldn't even produce half a clone.
Keigo had a new mission, to get his brother to graduate on time.
Naruto's problem was that he used too much chakra, being the vessel for the fox demon wasn't helping at all.
"This is useless" Naruto shouted in frustration.
He and Keigo had been trying to find a way for him to produce a clone for days.
Naruto wasn't the sharpest kunai in the drawer and of all the things he could inherit from Keigo was his lack of patience.
Not the easiest student to teach, in short.
"Inner voice, spitfire" Keigo reminded gently. He too was becoming frustrated, it was difficult to empathize with his brother's difficult situation when at his age he came up with every jutsu almost without a thought.
Nothing was going right, they both needed a break. Keigo knew where to go to get away for a while.
"Let's go, river-break"
Keigo laid in the shallow water, the sounds of Naruto splashing happily lulling him.
He remembered how his mom used to take him there when he was in a bad mood like he now did for Naruto.
His mom.
Now that he thought about it, his mother didn't use the usual clones they taught at the Academy either. Not even him. They both had a passion for producing more shadow clones than necessary.
And why shouldn't Naruto be the same?
That evening Minato was walking back to his office in the tower after forgetting that he needed to sign some important scrolls.
He was tired, his younger son was waiting for him at home and he didn't want to disappoint him again.
The corridors were seemingly empty, the ANBU were always on guard even if they couldn't be seen, and his feet didn't make a sound on the floor.
The door to his office was in front of him and with a sharp gesture he opened it.
A sea of smiling Narutos were before his eyes, in their hands the scrolls he needed.
Minato closed his eyes, rubbed them and reopened them, hoping he was hallucinating.
All the Narutos were still there.
"Your brother Keigo owes me a week's worth of paperwork for teaching you this"
Minato couldn't deal with that mess so late in the evening, so he turned and closed the door.
The scrolls would wait for tomorrow and the original Naruto would return upstairs after smelling dinner.