Ch9

Nagato woke up in a huge bed that he had enough consciousness to realize wasn't his. Pushing himself on his elbows, he hissed at every move his hurting body had to endure. His chest felt tight and pressuring, muscles ached and head banged. Placing a hand on his chest, he felt textile. Bandages were covering his bruises and no doubt a few new stitches.

"What do you think you're doing?" suddenly berated a voice from the doorway. Nagato turned his eyes to the busty woman coming in and frowned in memory. He remembered now, last night (or was it a few days now?) was the most difficult one he had to endure yet, both physically and mentally. And if it wasn't for this woman, he would've been in serious trouble. Moments before his strength had left him and he was sure his life was going to be a done, he had managed to send a message to Tsunade so she could track him down.

"Kids?" his voice wheezed.

Tsunade smirked, "Look around." Her gazed shifted slightly. Nagato followed her line of vision and spotted the boys. Both curled up and asleep by his feet.

"They're alright." she answered the question that was pondering his mind. "Were sticking to you like glue throughout the entire trip from town. Little brats refused to leave even during the surgery. Had to give them sleeping pills just to knock them out and save them the trauma of seeing you bleeding out and about." Tsunade rubbed her forehead with a sigh, it was a pain recalling that memory. These kids were a real bother when they were denied something they wanted. She would've called them spoiled had she not known that stubbornness was all because of their worries.

"Now then. I've taken care of most of the major wounds in your body. The rest is up to you and your cells." said Tsunade, her voice was a few octaves away from snapping and yelling at Nagato all that she thought of him at that moment. She was never okay with the man's chosen 'profession', never okay to see him hurt or a string away from dying, which was exactly what nearly happened. Hadn't she been as good of a medical professional as she was, Nagato would have long since been taken to the afterlife. But she restrained herself from taking her anger out at him, now wasn't the right time. Instead she chose to make him listen to her through pain and retied the bandages even tighter around his sprained wrist. Nagato flinched but otherwise lay still and didn't try to argue with the woman. "Here. Swallow this." Prompting his head up, Tsunade gave him a pain killer and helped him drink it down with water. "You're to stay in this bed until I say otherwise. I'll be checking you personally each day and night. I see you leave, you see yourself with a black eye, got it?"

Nagato grunted in understanding, not once shifting his eyes away from the boys. For some reason they looked cleaner and more tended to than when they lived with him. Was he really that bad at looking after two brats and actually forgot to so much as bath them once and a while? Frowning at his own failure, Nagato rested his head against the pillow and cocked it enough to have a clearer view of them. How interesting it was. Not but a couple of days ago, he had thought of them as nothing other than means of his duty, his job and dead friend's vow… but now as he looked at them, Nagato couldn't bear to even think of them as anything other than the most precious treasure he had ever had in his insignificant life. No amount of money, power or wealth could be more important than these two imps right here. Whatever did he do to deserve such an incredible gift?

"Thank you."

Tsunade arched an eyebrow, wondering whether the man was actually saying thank you to her or something otherworldly. Shaking her head, she decided to keep silent and just check him up. After all, what she had just witness while Nagato wasn't even aware himself was enough of a 'thank you' for her. She had to admit, it sure gave Nagato justice and charisma to his unorthodox looks. Nagato was smiling, his eyes shining with unshed tears that she could not say were real or just the trick of the light. But just to please herself, she took it as shy tears.

'God knows, Nagato, you deserve it.'

…

After hearing what had happened, Jiraiya basically threw all his work away and rushed to catch the next plane back to home town.

"Where is he?" asked Jiraiya, his eyes wild and worried as he rushed into Tsunade's house as soon as the door was opened.

"Master Jiraiya? Calm down! He's resti-…" Shizune was barely able to finish her sentence, rushing to catch up with Jiraiya, who was already halfway up the stairs.

"Where are the kids? Are they okay?"

"Shut up you oaf. They're all resting." Meeting Jiraiya on her way down, Tsunade grabbed the man's sleeve and pulled him back down.

"Tsunade. How is he? How are the kids? What happened?"

Tsunade rolled her eyes and shot Jiraiya a look that silenced him. "Why don't we get a bottle of sake?"

Jiraiya guessed the talk would be long. And having a bit of alcohol in his system was something he really needed right now, at least to stop himself from shaking in worry so much. "Make it two."

…

When Nagato opened his eyes the second time, it was dark outside. But not dark enough for him to miss that Kyuubi had left the safety of his arms and was not in the room. Making sure Naruto wasn't going to get disturbed from his dreams, Nagato gently removed his elbow from under the boy's head and with a wince stood up. His chest burned like crazy but he ignored it. Exiting the room, he silently shut it behind himself and quickly tried to get around the house. He had a good idea where Kyuubi disappeared to and why; sometimes the boy was just too much like him.

Descending the stairs, he entered the living room. Huge glass windows were displaying a small backyard with an open view towards the sea, which was just a quick stroll away. Tsunade was damn wealthy in all aspects of that word.

Nagato squinted just enough to spot a small figure by the shore. Exiting the house and heading towards the sea, Nagato was not surprised when he found Kyuubi right where he had thought he would. The boy was sitting in his pajama on the cold beach sand, letting the salty waves lick at his bare feet.

Feeling someone nearby, the boy suddenly jerked and quickly looked behind himself. His expression terrified and scared. Nagato lowered his eyes. This wasn't how he wished Kyuubi to feel his presence; he wasn't here to frighten the boy more than he already had done. Nagato curled his fingers into fists; this was his entire fault…

Kyuubi tried to calm his racing heart but that was impossible as memories of him killing a human being came flashing before his eyes once more and he felt himself falling again. Clenching the wet sand by his legs, Kyuubi whispered in regret. "N-Naga-chan… I…" He wanted to apologies. Just apologies… to someone… for something… for anything… for everything…

Nagato came closer to the stuttering boy ready to cry his eyes out and sat behind him. He picked the child up and placed him on his lap.

Kyuubi bit his lower lip hard and hugged Nagato's neck, his breath hitching and nose sniffling. "…I'm… I'm a… m-m…"

Catching the falling tears with his finger, Nagato stopped all of Kyuubi's scattering emotions and thoughts with a few simple words, "Kyuubi. You saved my life."

Kyuubi looked up at his godfather with half scared, half surprised emotions swimming in his wide eyes.

"Thank you." petting the red head gently, Nagato pulled the boy close to his chest where he allowed him to cry and yell all his emotions out. And that's exactly what Kyuubi did, he yelled and cried while holding onto and being held by that strong support that was his godfather… his father.

…

In the early morning, Jiraiya silently peered into the guest room he knew Nagato was in and smiled. Nagato was sleeping soundly, not even registering Jiraiya's intrusion, aside from tightening his arms around the kids' backs, who were resting on his arms. Jiraiya shook his head, who knew Nagato could be so… grasping?

…

Tsunade peered over her cup of tea as Jiraiya entered the kitchen. "Any of them up?"

"All out." taking a seat by the table, he stuffed a biscuit in his mouth and reached to pour himself a tea from the steamy teapot. "This is probably the first I've seen Nagato sleeping in this long. Can't imagine how I'm going to break down the 'good' news to him now."

"And I can't imagine you ever learning to talk with your mouth closed." Tsunade scrunched her nose at the crumbles falling from the man's big mouth.

"Hoo? Is that an inv-…?"

"That's going to be your broken jaw if you don't zip it." Jiraiya had enough sense to realize that now's the time to stop teasing the dangerous woman. "So, what news must you deliver him?" Tsunade got curious.

"Good ones," by his tone, the news were anything but good. "You remember Gerotora, right?"

"The cleaner?" She knew that amongst such people as Nagato, 'cleaner' was defined as anything but an actual domestic worker. He was a man responsible of reducing suspicion. Meaning, he's responsibilities lied with him cleaning up all the evidence that might lead back to Nagato or any other assassins working within their circle.

"Aa. When he arrived at Gatou's house to disencumber the bodies, he came up with one body short from the list. Zabuza was not found between the retrieved." Although Jiraiya had only recently returned back, he only required a few hours to dig out all the necessary information he wanted to know regarding the Gatou's case, including all the shmucks' names and personal data that Nagato had encountered during his fight.

"Zabuza." thinking the name over, Tsunade said, "Last I heard he had given up on hire entirely. What was he doing with Gatou?"

"Unfinished business is my guess," answered Jiraiya.

"Was he not a solo mercenary?" Jiraiya had to admit, Tsunade was bringing up an interesting point. As far as he was aware, Zabuza was a one-cell man, never leaving someone else do his work for him or alongside him.

"Apparently not anymore. He must have had a partner to help him out. Otherwise he wouldn't have been able to escape."

"What makes you so sure he was taken alive?"

"Because I wouldn't put it past him if he wasn't."

…

Nagato woke up with a start. Upon realization, he noticed that the sun has long since risen up, which meant he had slept in till late again, and the kids…

Looking around, he calmed down once he saw them drooling all over his covers and pillow. Kyuubi had stolen most of his sheet while Naruto had curled himself around his pillow. No wonder Nagato was freezing and felt like crap. "Messy kids," he murmured under his nose while wiping drool from Naruto's chin and cleaning his unfortunate sticky fingers into the sheets.

…

Three weeks of supervised healing and frequent lectures from both Tsunade and Jiraiya ran by fairly quickly and all three of them – Nagato, Naruto and Kyuubi – could finally lax themselves enough to actually enjoy their stay at Grandma's villa without anyone disturbing them or telling them what to do or not to do.

"You're so slow! Come on, I wanna swim!" Running into the open area, Naruto yelled at Nagato to hurry up while tugging sleepy, reluctant Kyuubi with himself into the water.

"Don't wonder off too deep or sharks will get you." not the best choice of words, especially when speaking to children, but no one said Nagato was any wiser when it came to parenting.

"Pft, yeah right. Quit scaring us!" said Kyuubi, but sure did cast his wide eyes over the big blue surface, hoping to spot anything big and black and finny.

"You're stalling!" careless and not paying any attention as usual, Naruto pushed Kyuubi on the back and into the water, forcing an undignified screech from his scared brother's mouth.

"GHA! NARUTO YOU…!"

"HAHAHAHAH-AHHHHHH! NO, don't hit meee!"

Watching the display from the patio, Tsunade sweat-dropped while Jiraiya sighed, "Nagato still has a long way to go with them."

"I don't see you helping him in any shape or form."

"Hm? What are you talking about? As far as I'm concerned, my job here is done. I'm proud to say I was an excellent sensei!"

"Yes, raising an insane killer before flipping his entire belief and life upside down instead of doing anything from the start, is an honors worth of a true teacher."

"Why thank you!"

"That's not a compliment."

"Heh." brushing Tsunade's worries aside, Jiraiya pour them both more sake. "You worry too much, Tsunade. Men don't require sentiments, that's what women ar-…"

"Finish that sentence, and see what happens next." calmly warned Tsunade.

Jiraiya clicked his teeth shut and made a nervous chuckle. "Kidding, kidding!"

"Tsk"

Swallowing their drinks in one small gulp, the two old friends relaxed in their seats, the silence taken by three figures hanging about on the beach.

Jiraiya had a small smile on his face while he watched his student from the background; it was nothing notable to someone from a third perspective, but in his eyes, Nagato had completely changed. He was a much different person from his past. Not only was there an aura of serenity around him, but there was a burning passion of protectiveness and something akin love in his eyes too; oh, if only Nagato knew…

Tsunade arched an inquisitive eyebrow when a light laugh burst from Jiraiya.

"What are you laughing about? Dirty ideas streaming in your head again?"

"Nope. Just reminiscing a good endeavor."

"Huh?"

"You know, now that I think about it Tsunade… Nagato's nothing special really. He has no gang or people to rely on, or work as his allies. He has no large sums of money and he most certainly is a man who does not care for any of that. He's not looking for glory or power. He's just a man wondering how to live his life. However, in the eyes of many crime-lords he had unconsiously, not to mention unintentionally, become something greatly feared. People don't like him just as much as they respect him. The lords can't comprehend him, they can't handle him and worst of all… they can't get rid of him." Jiraiya laughed at that. "Nobody would ever take him for a man of strong emotion. Hahah… If only they could see him now."

Tsunade rolled her eyes. "What brought this up so suddenly, Jiraiya?"

"Ever since knowing Nagato, he always seemed to me as a hollow shell of a human being. He cared for nothing and he loved nothing." Jiraiya spoke with an undying smile, "I always feared that this attitude would once become his demise. You have no idea how worried I had been when I watched him grow into this emotionless killing machine… But you know what, all that passed, as soon as those brats were forced upon him."

Tsunade grunted in displease at his choice of words, 'force' was an ugly comparison, but she understood what he was saying. Her eyes glazing over as she turned to look back at the beach. She could see Nagato standing in the shallower ends of the sea, watching unblinkingly over the kids, while the said kids splashed and fooled around childishly in the deeper parts.

"Yep," leaning back into the braided chair and folding his hands behind his head, Jiraiya felt like patting himself on the back. "I knew these three would be good for each other."

Tsunade gave him a sceptic look. "Yeah right."

"I did!" Jiraiya defended himself. "If it weren't for me and my amazing skills of observation and persuasive indulgence, on top of which – being an awesome sensei and all – I think…"

Tsunade tuned the man out and brought her cup of sake close to her lips. A small smile hid itself behind the glass while a warm feeling fluttered in her heart. Naruto, Kyuubi and Nagato… she had more than one reason to believe – they will be just fine from now on.

…

This was not a 'new beginning' for them, Nagato knew that it was the beginning of something far more hazardous and dangerous than just a melodious adventure…

The things they've seen, the shock they've experienced and the trauma that undoubtedly will be staying within the kids eyes from now on… no more, Nagato refused to let anything like that happen to his kids once more.

'No more chances.'

There was no doubt that Zabuza, that immortal bastard, was just a taste of what he believed will come next. He will no longer leave things to random chances.

Bright purple eyes shone as they peered from beneath stubborn orange bangs. His eyes reflected the kids' smiles, confining them to memory as at that moment Nagato made up his mind – he was going to teach the Namikaze twins everything he knows. He will make sure they're safe, even if he's not around to keep them away from harm. He will…

The End

A/N – best of thanks to all of you for reading! ;))