Interlude: Another Day, Another Mission​

Moving with exquisite care, Shinji disarmed the poison needle trap on the second floor window before teasing open the lock. He pushed the window open slowly before climbing through with all the stealth garnered from over a decade as a field ninja.

As his foot touched the floor, a flute began playing from downstairs. He froze, then laughed and shook his head. He slid the window closed and walked downstairs to see his son putting his flute down and racing across the room.

"Hi, Poppa!" Hazou cried, leaping on his father with all four limbs outstretched and a bedrock certainty that his poppa would catch him.

Shinji snatched the boy out of the air and swung him upside down, holding him up so that their eyes were on a level. Hazou's shirt fell down over his head but the giggles from behind the fabric made clear his feelings on the situation.

"Pthhbbbbbttt!" Shinji blew a giant zerbert on Hazou's tummy, making the boy shriek and giggle harder.

"Ha!" Shinji said. "Cricket played the song! The Chaos Monster has been defeated again!" He swung Hazou down to the ground and tickled him furiously. The shrieking and phony struggles got louder and more energetic until finally Shinji straightened up and looked to his wife.

"Hey, soldier," she purred, giving him bedroom eyes and a smile full of promise. "Missed you."

Shinji grinned. He had no idea what he had done to deserve Hana—presumably some god or goddess had decided that Shinji was a very good boy and deserved an extra special reward. His lovely wife was beautiful, lethal, an amazing cook, not just okay with his career but actively grateful for it, and she didn't even gripe too much when he absent-mindedly left his shuriken lying around the house. Oh, and she was a Kage-level lover.

Shinji made a mental note to go to the temple and say a general prayer of thanks to every single god and goddess.

"Missed you too, waterlily," he said, taking her in his arms and kissing her thoroughly. She molded herself into him and returned the kiss until he couldn't think straight, then leaned her head on his shoulder and held him close.

"How'd the mission go?" she asked quietly.

"Another day, another excitingly uneventful escort mission," he said, stroking her hair. "Most threatening thing we saw was a couple of chakra hawks off in the distance. The client was pleased with how smooth it was. Five thousand ryo bonus, of which your wonderful husband got half. I was trying to figure out what an appropriately lavish gift would be for my lover. Any thoughts?"

"Hmmm," she said. "Lover, huh? Anyone I know?"

"Yep," he said. He put his palm on top of her head. "She's about this tall. Slim, just the right amount of curves. Wicked smile and eyes to drown in."

"Sounds like a keeper," she said. "You could take her out to that new sushi place."

"Aww...I was thinking more like lingerie."

She snorted and thumped his chest lightly. "Beast."

"You know you love me," he said, chuckling and kissing her temple. The softness of her hair never ceased to amaze him; in the field she wore it up and out of her way, tucked in under a cap. Around the house she wore it down because she knew he liked it that way.

"I do," she admitted, squeezing him tight.

"Momma! Poppa! Stop being gross!" Hazou said, tugging eagerly on their respective pant legs. "Time for story!"

Hana laughed and scooped her son up, perching him on one hip and holding him with one arm while using the other to pull Shinji in for a smoldering kiss that Shinji deeply hoped was a promissory note.

"Okay, cricket," she said, poking Hazou's belly with one finger. "Story time it is. Which one?"

"Akihiko the Brave Ninja Boy!" he crowed.

"Again?" she said. "You always want that one."

"Akihiko! Akihiko! Akihiko!" he chanted.

His parents laughed, shaking their heads ruefully. "Okay, okay," Shinji said. "Who do you want to read it?"

"Duh!" Hazou said. "You have to read it, Poppa! You can't sing the chakra monkey's part as good as Momma!"

"Yes, well, she cheats," Shinji said, laughing and squeezing his beautiful wife. "You two and your cheating bloodline! Honestly, how's a guy supposed to compete?"

"I'm sure you'll think of something," Hana purred. "Come on, time for story."

o-o-o-o​

Hazou was too excited by his father's return to go to sleep easily; it took two repetitions of the book and an extra song before he dropped off. In Shinji's considered opinion, one of the nicest parts about being a ninja was that it was possible to sneak out of the room without waking your finally-gone-to-sleep child. With Hazou out of the way the parents were able to retire to the living room and lounge on the couch, Hana cuddled into her husband's side as he munched his way through his first meal in a week that was something besides cold trail food.

"So, how'd you hear me this time?" Shinji said. "I thought I'd finally surprise you by coming through the bedroom window, but you had Hazou start the song exactly as I came in."

"I'll never tell," she said, giving him a sly smile. "It's one of those secrets that you learn when you make jounin."

"All right, all right!" he said. "I'll take the exams next year. You'll have to help me train, though."

She purred and hugged him tight. He returned the hug with one arm and kissed the crown of her head.

"Mission desk tomorrow?" she asked.

"Yeah, the treasury was closed when we got in," he said. "I'll pick up the balance in the morning. Everything okay?"

She nodded. "With the money from my last mission we're set for the next three months, so I've got some downtime. I know cricket would like having us both here for a while."

"I'm in the rotation for two more weeks," he reminded her. "I arranged to swap with Chikamatsu for the rotation after that, though. I'll be off for six weeks."

"Good," she said. "Now. Are you going to dawdle over that mu shu for the rest of the night or are you going to drag your lovely and impatient wife off to bed?"

"Mmf!" he said, shoveling in a last bite and setting the bowl aside before sweeping her into a bridal carry and jumping to his feet. "Be'! Def'ly be'!" He chewed quickly and gulped down the last of the food. "Yes, definitely!"

"Eep!" she said, throwing her arms around his neck. "No smooches for you until you clean your mouth, mister!" she said.

He laughed and bounced her in his arms before striding into the bedroom.

o-o-o-o​

Ninja missions were not so common that it would have been surprising if Shinji had remained missionless until the end of his rotation. Still, it wasn't surprising that he got one either.

"Feh," Hana said from where she was sprawled on the bed beside him, legs draped over his as the afternoon breeze from the window cooled their sweat-slick bodies. "I was hoping you wouldn't be called up again. I've enjoyed having you around so much."

"I can tell," Shinji said with a grin. He propped himself up on one hand and trailed his fingertips idly across her belly. She sighed happily and patted him with one post-coitally uncoordinated hand.

"It's a nothing mission," he said. "About three hours out, kill the guy, three hours home. We should be back in time for dinner."

"Good," she said. "Those gyoza aren't going to eat themselves."

He perked up at that. "Ooooh, gyoza? I'll make sure to hurry!"

She laughed. "Who's the target?"

He shrugged. "I wasn't really listening. Motoyoshi, I think? I got an address and a description, figured that was enough. He's probably a yak."

"Makes sense," she said, nodding and stroking her fingertips absently across the arm he'd draped across her. "Their promotion rules are a little rough. Who's your second?"

"Murai," he said. He saw her puzzled frown. "You know, tall guy with the burn scars on his left side?"

She nodded. "Oh, him. Yeah, I've done some E&E training with him and he's not bad. The burns on his leg make it a little stiff, though. He tends to drift to the left when he's running. Makes his orienteering a little unreliable."

He snorted. "I'll try to make sure we don't end up missing an entire town," he said drily.

Without looking she poked him in the ribs, making him yelp. "Don't you mock me, mister," she said threateningly. "I know where you sleep."

"Yes," he said. "Next to my beautiful, talented, brilliant, scary wife."

"Darn straight. When are you leaving?"

"About an hour. I just need to wash off and grab my go bag."

"An hour, huh?" she said, a lecherous smile spreading across her face. "You don't have to grab your bag just yet, do you?"

o-o-o-o​

In the final event Shinji was ten minutes late reporting for duty, and he showed up with a giant hickey on his neck. Murai noticed it and snickered as he swung his pack on.

"Ready?" he asked.

"Ready," Shinji said. "Let's go kill this guy. Hana's making gyoza and I don't want to be late."

o-o-o-o​

Murai's burned leg made him a little slower than most ninja, which was undoubtedly why he and Shinji were late getting home. Or so Hana told herself as she sat waiting at the dinner table, the bowl of gyoza cooling beside her.

Of course, it could just be that whatshisname had had some interesting papers or valuables in the house. Shinji always had an eye out for opportunities. He'd whacked some merchant last year and come back with the man's trading journal. Hana hadn't really understood his plan, but Shinji had smiled mysteriously, kissed her, and then arranged for a week off before disappearing. With the advance knowledge of where and when caravans would be traveling and what they'd be carrying he'd managed to arbitrage a few thousand ryo into more than ninety thousand. They'd put most of it in the mortgage fund but he'd insisted on spending a full twenty of it on her: he paid for a D-rank babysitting mission so they could get out for the weekend, then he took her to the spa for a day and a half. Massages, rich food, a shopping trip at the best weaponmaker in town (he'd joked about taking her clothes shopping and only laughed when she glared at him), and a full pound of chocolate.

If today's target had been a yakuza he had undoubtedly had that sort of useful intelligence around. Shinji had probably just needed a little extra time to gather it all up. Maybe there had been some heavy stuff, too. If his pack was full of gold then it wasn't surprising that he'd be running late.

Yes, that was definitely it. After all, very few yakuza were successful enough to hire ninja bodyguards, and nothing less would have kept Shinji from getting back in time for homemade gyoza. No, it was definitely just that he was busy sorting through some valuable papers and had lost track of time. He was brilliant, and mischievous, and he made her laugh on a regular basis (plus, he was a phenomenal kisser), but he did read slowly enough that she teased him for it. He was probably just sorting through the papers, trying to figure out what was worth bringing and what wasn't. You'd think he could just shove it all into his pack and go through it later, wouldn't you? Still, that wasn't her man; his curiosity would compel him to look at everything right away, and then he'd get lost in the puzzle of it.

Yes, that was definitely why he was late. Or maybe he was just trying to be extra sneaky about getting into the house without her noticing. He never had figured out how she always spotted him, and she certainly wasn't going to tell him that she'd made a deal with the genin who manned the mission desk. She brought them homemade food every day and they kept an eye out for her husband. While Shinji was delivering his report the desk genin would send a messenger to let her know that he was back. The messenger would then wait around in the trees across the road to signal her through the window when Shinji tried to sneak in. Surely the messenger would turn up soo—

There was a knock on the door; she leaped to her feet and almost raced across the room, eager to ask the messenger boy how much longer Shinji would be.

The messenger was an adult jounin wearing full dress blacks and a somber expression.