Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Curative Career of Kaori the Ninja Nurse ❯ Kaori's Family Dinner ( Chapter 7 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Kaori's Family Dinner

“In the hot springs, the group of young women soaked for hours, allowing the natural salts of the water to cleanse and permeate their pores, and flow into their charming concealed crevices. Soon their skin would be smoother and softer than the finest silk. The thought of touching such sumptuousness sent tingles throughout his body's network of nerves, from the tips his fingers down to…” Kaori read, then blushed. So engrossed was she, she almost forgot about the single member of her audience, and the time.

Kaori looked at her watch. It was already late afternoon, almost evening. She was nearly halfway through the book. It was a short book but reading out loud took much longer than reading to yourself. And she had to stop at various point to catch her breath, take a drink of water, and to splash her face with some cold, cold water. The book had that particular effect on readers.

“I guess that's all for today. Let's see how you liked it.” The nurse checked Kakashi's brainwave monitor and saw that the normal baseline was definitely elevated throughout the reading session, and there were occasionally groups of peaks that seemed indicative of REM (rapid eye movement), which meant he could have been dreaming. She was well impressed by the response. `I wonder if it's because it's something familiar that he's responding to, rather than this specific book. Maybe if I read something familiar that's not porn…' Kaori decided that would be her next experiment since the close call with Sakura made it too dangerous to continue to read the Icha Icha book. It was well written, erotic, and quite amusing, but really not as good as a sincere romance with less anatomical detail. That depth of feeling was missing.

She lowered the shades and was about to smooth out the blanket when she noticed the area right below her patient's waist was bunched up into a tent configuration. `Oh my, I guess he had some really good dreams,' the embarrassed nursed thought. Kaori tentatively tucked the blankets in tighter around him, carefully avoiding touching the body there. Then she went to the bathroom again to splash some more cold water on her face. `Stop thinking those kinds of thoughts,' she scolded herself as she took a deep breath and held it to clear her head.

“Well, guess I should be going,” Kaori said reluctantly to her sleeping prince when she was done. “I have to visit the old folks, our bi-weekly family dinner. Sigh, I know exactly what they'll say to me. My mom will say, `Kaori, have you met a nice man yet? Or even a not-so-nice one?' And then my sister will chime in, `Any man will do at your age.' Then my brother will laugh and tell them to lay off me but then he'll add, `Maybe you should keep an eye on the young genin.' Then dad will get into his lecture mode and say, `Kaori, no man is perfect. Just settle down with someone stable in mind, body, and income.' Sigh, sometimes I wonder if having a family is really all that great.”

Then she looked at the lonely silent figure and thought how genuinely lucky she was. “I guess it's better than being completely alone, isn't it?” she asked no one in particular. “Why is it so hard to find a good man? I'm really not that picky.” She stared at her sleeping prince for a minute longer before whispering good-night.

`If only I really had a man like him - handsome, honorable, intelligent, strong, patient...' The lovelorn nurse listed all of Kakashi's presumed fine attributes on her way to her parents' house, on the outskirts of Konoha. She imagined him waking from his coma because of her healing skills and immediately falling in love with her. 'Kaori-chan, you are the only one for me, my guardian angel, my love...' Of course she would play hard to get for a while but then…

Daydreaming, Kaori took her time to get there. She preferred to arrive just before dinner, eat, then leave, without having to endure endless questions and advice from her family. But when she arrived, to her surprise, her family did not greet her with the usual teasing or questions about her love life. If anything, they seemed strangely subdued. They just looked at her, said hi, and went back to whatever they were doing. Maybe they had all given up on her.

That annoyed Kaori because she was ready with a response to whether there was someone special in her life. She had planned to say, “Yes, there is a man in my life. He's the top jounin in Konoha. Maybe you've heard of him, Hatake Kakashi.” But instead it seemed she was being ignored.

Kaori's mother, a pleasantly plump but attractive woman who looked younger than her years, busied herself in the kitchen. Her formerly chestnut hair, now lighter, was pulled back in a bun, just like Kaori's when she was on duty. She was in the middle of forming rice balls when her eldest child arrived.

Kaori tried to bait her mother first. “Hi, mom, need any help?”

“Oh no dear, you just go sit down and rest before dinner. I know how hard you have to work all week.”

“Yes…about work…I met this…”

“Fine, fine, we'll talk about it later. I need to finish making dinner and then change.”

Change? Since when did her mother ever bothered to change for dinner? Normally she would continue to wear her apron throughout dinner. But Kaori just shrugged and tried her dad next.

Her father was an average man in height and build, who luckily still had his hair although it was now mostly gray. He worked as an accountant for the largest accounting firm in Konoha, earning a decent enough living to provide for his family.

“So, Dad, when are you retiring?” was Kaori's usual question to him.

“When you get married,” was his usual response. But today he just said, “Soon enough. These old bones won't take much more.”

“Dad you're only 59 years old. Sandaime, may the heavens rest his soul, was nearly 70 and he was still able to stand up to his former student.”

“He didn't have three children to raise,” he replied with a laugh. “Children age you exponentially.”

Kaori waited for him to say something like, “I hope you'll discover that for yourself soon,” but he didn't. He went back to reading the Konoha Times.

Kaori next approached her sister Sumire, who looked little like her. Sumire, taller and strongly built, was not as pretty as she, in Kaori's humble opinion, but she attracted more boys when they were growing up together. Kaori was sure, like Otoha, it was because of her bigger breasts. Although she was a couple of years younger, Sumire already had a five year old daughter and a three year old son and a four month old baby boy. It seemed she came without her husband or her two older children today.

“Give me a hand `kay,” Sumire mumbled tiredly as she handed the crying baby over to Kaori.

Kaori walked the baby around the room, hoping to appease it while Sumire fumbled with the huge diaper bag. She finally found the baby's pacifier and stuck it forcefully in his mouth. The little tyrant settled down and sucked hungrily.

Kaori tried to hand the baby back, but her sister quickly stepped into the kitchen to heat up a bottle. That left her brother and his busybody crazy bitch of a wife. They were currently fussing over their only child, pride and joy, spoiled brat, two year old princess. The little monster was in the middle of ripping into her teddy bear and pulling out all the stuffing. But that didn't stop her sister-in-law from saying, “Pacifiers will ruin his teeth. Such a bad habit…”

“He doesn't have any teeth yet,” Kaori pointed out.

“That's not the point,” her brother Akira said, siding as usual with his annoying know-it-all-wife.

Kaori felt her good humor drop dramatically. The two of them always had that effect on her. Her brother was tolerable without his wife, but together they were unbearable. He had been such an easygoing, generous boy, but he was becoming more and more like her. Why did that happen with some men? They seemed to morph into someone unrecognizable to please a woman. Kaori swore that she would not try to change the man she loved, otherwise why would she have loved him in the first place.

She could have let their comment go, but Kaori was already geared up for a fight. “It's fine since his teeth haven't yet started coming in.”

“How would you know? You don't have children and you're not a dentist,” the bitch challenged.

“I'm a certified medical professional who reads up on all manner of medical texts, especially pediatrics,” Kaori countered.

“You're just a nurse…”

That did it. Kaori was now ready to tear out her jugular. “A pacifier to appease an infant is better parenting than buying expensive gifts to appease an already spoiled brat!”

“You don't know anything about raising a child! You don't know what it's like…”

Then her brother broke in, “Why don't you go help mom and Sumi in the kitchen.”

Kaori shrugged triumphantly and carried the baby into the kitchen to wait for his bottle.

“What's going on out there?” her younger sister asked.

“Nothing, just you know who acting like a you know what.”

“Sigh, why can't you all just get along,” their mother said.

“You don't like her either. That's why you hide in the kitchen all the time,” Sumire pointed out.

“I have to change,” their mother wisely decided not to get involved. “Kaori, can you please set the table,” she said while disappearing from their sight.

“Bottle ready?” Kaori tried to hand over the baby again. He seemed very ready to cry as his efforts to suck milk from his pacifier proved fruitless.

This time her sister accepted the little bundle of joy and poop, then expertly replaced the pacifier with the bottle with one hand.

“You know, for a nurse, and one that also works in pediatrics, you don't seem to like babies very much,” Sumire commented with an ironic smile.

“I like kids that have been toilet trained,” Kaori admitted. She waited expectantly for her sister to say something like, “Wait till you have your own. So when's that gonna be? You don't need a guy for it. Single parenting is in,” but she didn't.

Instead, Sumire asked, “So what happened in there?”

“What's-her-name said you shouldn't use pacifiers because it ruins teeth.”

Sumire shrugged. “You should just ignore her like I do. Stop being so contentious all the time.”

“Me? Contentious? Where's this coming from?”

“Nothing, it's just…I want things to work out for you.”

“Thanks sis, but I'm doing just fine. And what makes you say I'm contentious? I think I'm very nice, most of the time.”

“Sure you are, to your patients. But I remember how you eyed my boyfriends…”

“Those lame sacks of couch potatoes? I was just looking out for you.”

“Really? Lame? Is that what you think of Kazuhiko?”

“Who?”

“My husband!”

“Oh, yeah, him, of course not. He's a good guy.” Actually, Kaori could barely remember his name after all these years because he had made such a nonexistent impression on her. He was also an accountant at the same company as their father's. He was a quiet guy and you wouldn't know he was there until you tripped over him. Then you might think it was just your sandal straps that were loose. Still it seemed strange for her sister to be so serious.

“You know…I wasn't going to tell you this but…did you know when dad invited him for dinner back then, he was trying to set you up?” Sumire asked.

Kaori could not remember the incident at all. She just shrugged ambiguously.

“But you hardly looked at him and I did most of the talking. You dismissed him too easily so that's why I'm the one married to him,” Sumire continued.

`No big loss,' Kaori thought but did not reply. Instead she entered the dining room carrying a stack of plates, bowls, and chopsticks. The table was covered with the formal tablecloth, normally used only on special occasions like birthdays. The centerpiece was a large elaborate fresh flower arrangement. `We must be celebrating something…maybe Dad's really retiring or maybe someone got a promotion or maybe someone's pregnant again…' Kaori inferred.

But Sumire was not finished with the talk with her older sister. Despite not being as book smart or pretty, she had better people skills and a nonexistent temper, perfect for being a mother. She continued, “Like I said, don't be so contentious. Like how you are with that nurse you work with…”

“You mean Otoha?” asked Kaori as she placed dinnerware in front of each seat.

“You're always complaining about her.”

“Do I? But that's because I have valid reasons. She's annoying and lazy and incompetent. I do all the paperwork while she files her nails!” Kaori nearly broke a plate at the thought.

“Well…I guess what I really mean is you need to lighten up. Don't be so judgmental. Look for the good in people…”

Kaori glared at her sister. That was one of the words their parents always used when lecturing her. But Kaori had to admit it was true. She was judgmental and often thought she was better than others, but then again, she really was better in those cases, so what's wrong with that? But before Kaori could retort, their mother stepped back into the kitchen.

“Dinner's almost ready,” their mother announced. Kaori was surprised to see she had changed into her best kimono. “We can eat as soon as our guest arrives.”

“Guest?” Kaori was about to ask when the doorbell rang. `Oh no, they've set me up on a blind date without telling me! I thought after the last fiasco they gave up. No wonder they've been acting so strangely today.' The last time involved a traveling salesman from Earth Country who already had a wife and child.

“Kaori, please answer the door,” her father ordered.

Kaori sighed and moved to obey him. If it got bad she could always claim she had an emergency at the hospital. Being in the medical profession was good for times like this.

Kaori opened the door. She was about to say “Welcome to the Kuchiki household.” But all she saw in front of her was a huge 50 plus pound precooked turkey. Then a head peeked out from behind it. A very familiar looking head - with black fringe hair and thick black eyebrows.

Kaori felt a scream welling up from the deepest part of her diaphragm. It took everything within her power to suppress it.

-…-…-…-

Next Up: Gai's Strategy

Author's Notes: Inoue Kazuhiko is Kakashi's voice actor (seiyuu in Japanese).