Chapter Text
Chapter 37
Justice
Kakashi woke to little hands on his face, patting his cheeks and whispering: "Daddy," over and over until he opened his eyes.
Gods, I missed this so much.
Sakura had a small smile as she watched, widening when their eyes met. "Good morning."
"Morning." He focused on the little boy hovering in front of his face. "Morning, pup."
"Daddy! Daddy awake! Daddy—" He suddenly looked very serious. "Katas Daddy. It the morning, I practiced. I want to show Daddy."
Grinning, Kakashi sat up, pulling his son into his arms. "You want to do morning Katas?"
"Yes, Daddy!"
Sakura sat up too, stretching her arms over her head. "Alright, let's go get Nii-san, hm?"
He watched her carefully. They had only been home for a couple of days and so far, she hadn't had the energy for much. "Will you be okay doing this today?"
She nodded as she stood. "I'll be fine, Kakashi. Who do you think reminded him?"
"Okay." He stood too, dropping a swift, chaste kiss on her lips before following her out of their room.
Tenzō sat, almost patiently, with a resigned Senbei while the rest of them moved through the more complex katas. By the time they were done, he was eager and pushing a laughing Sakumo out of the way. "My turn, Jii-san, my turn."
He stood beside Kakashi-kun and arranged himself in yoi position. "You watchin', Daddy?"
Holding in a chuckle, Kakashi sat beside Sakura and nodded. "I'm watching, Tenzō-chan."
"I ready, Nii-san!"
Looking very serious, Kakashi-kun nodded once and began, leading them through a very simple kata. With a small, concentrated pout, Tenzō followed along almost perfectly.
It was very cute. It made Kakashi's chest warm with pride.
It filled him with a visceral sense of relief. After everything he had been through, retraumatized by Danzō and ROOT, being raised so very differently, Tenzō was proving to be a resilient little boy. Considering the life he had led the first time, Kakashi knew that he had always been. He would grow up happier, more whole, maybe even stronger than he'd been before.
When he finished, Tenzō was watching him with big, expectant eyes.
Feeling a grin split his face from ear to ear, Kakashi leaned forward on his knees to pull him into his arms. "Good job, pup. I'm so proud of you."
Tenzō giggled when he kissed his cheeks. "I be a ninja too, Daddy."
"Yeah buddy, you sure will be."
<KS>
When Sakumo mentioned that he'd written to Jiraiya to recall him before Hiruzen's trial—if Sakura thought about it at all—she would have assumed that he'd have warned him about what he was going to find. Evidently, he had not.
Almost a week after they'd been rescued, he returned to Konoha, confused and angry. The Hatakes were getting ready to sit down to lunch. Tsunade, having taken the afternoon off after several days of barely leaving the hospital, was with them. Sakumo, somewhere off doing very busy Hokage work, was not.
Sakura was in the kitchen, filling a pitcher with water when she felt him cross the barrier. Not recognizing his chakra at first, she was already on the defensive. Then, instead of waiting to be greeted and let in like a normal person, the Sannin barged into her home unannounced, pissed off and looking for a fight. When he saw her, alone, he made an incredibly stupid decision.
"Well, look at you. You look perfectly fine to me. From the future, what bullshit. You're spies, just like I thought from the beginning. Bamboozling poor Sakumo and the other clans into executing our Kage. I bet you seduced him, too, didn't you—"
He was in her space and shouting before she'd even had a chance to set the pitcher down. Not thinking far beyond, 'how fucking dare he,' Sakura grit her teeth and threw the frigid water in his face.
"Hey! You fucking bitch!" His right hand raised to strike her, but she was faster. The sorry bastard had evidently forgotten who trained her. Blocking his swinging arm, she threw a punch of her own. It hit squarely on his face, and he went flying backwards, landing hard against the far wall in a heap. Kakashi, who'd come inside in time to hear what he'd said, looked positively murderous.
"Are you alright, Ayame?"
"Of course." She set the pitcher down, and crossed the room, ready to punch the idiot again if he needed it.
"Good." Without waiting to hear what their uninvited guest might have to say for himself, Kakashi pulled him up by his shirt and flung him from the house, sending him sprawling into the garden. "I warned you, Sannin."
Killing intent was pouring out of Kakashi as he stepped down into the garden after him. Sakura started to follow but was held back by Kakashi-kun. "Wait, Me-chan."
"Jiraiya, Karasu, what the hell are you doing?" Tsunade was on her feet, rounding them and following Kakashi too, but his hard voice stopped her in her tracks.
"Stay out of this, Tsunade."
She scoffed, taking another step. "Like hell—"
He shot her a warning look over his shoulder, his fangs bared. "I said stay out of this!"
Eyes wide, Tsunade took a few hesitant steps back until she was standing in front of Sakura.
Kakashi turned his full attention to Jiraiya. The other man was still on the ground, rubbing at his jaw, glaring at them. When his eyes found Sakura, her husband let out a dangerous growl.
"I should kill you, Toad Sage."
"Karasu!"
"They're not who they say they are, Tsuna." He pointed angrily at Kakashi. "They're lying, they're spies!"
He started to stand, but Kakashi did not let him, lunging and pinning him to the ground. "What bullshit are you spewing? Spies? You come into my home, uninvited, and assault my mate? Spies?" He jerked him up just enough to slam his head back into the hard ground and drew a kunai, pressing the blade against his neck, his knee in his gut.
Undeterred, Jiraiya spat back, his tone nasty and antagonistic. "What else should I think? I come home, after trusting you, a stranger, and I'm told Hiruzen is in prison, likely to be executed? He's being blamed for starting the war and kidnapping your family. As if he would do either of those things. One man can't start a war by himself and your family looks perfectly fine to me!"
Kakashi snarled in his face, digging the blade in, drawing blood. "He didn't do it on his own. Danzō and his special little side project did all the dirty work. He just gave the orders. Unlike your former sensei, they won't be getting trials because Sakumo and I already killed them all." He jerked Jiraiya's head at an awkward angle so he was forced to look at her. His voice was such a low growl she could barely hear him. "You think my family looks 'perfectly fine,' hm? I found them in the bowels of this village; my boys, battered and bruised, my mate, barely alive and bleeding out, my pup, dead in her womb. If not for Tsunade I'd have lost her too, and I can promise you this, Jiraiya; if she had died, there would be no need for any trial. I would have butchered Hiruzen myself."
Evidently deciding to give Jiraiya time to think about what he'd said, Kakashi withdrew his kunai and sat back, his knee still pinning him down. Jiraiya's face was contorted with disgust, with hatred and doubt. When he finally opened his mouth to no doubt deny what Kakashi had said, Tsunade interjected.
"It's true, Jiraiya. Everything he said... he, Hiruzen is guilty, for all of that and probably more." She sounded so heartbroken. "He isn't the man we thought he was, not anymore."
"But—"
"You saw what he let Orochimaru get away with."
"He said he didn't know about any of that. He was just as upset as we were—"
Tsunade scoffed. "You didn't see the way he was about their boy. He was furious they'd rescued him, furious they wanted to raise him, to love him. 'He's a weapon,' he told me, 'bred for a purpose.' With Karasu and Sakumo out of the way, he took what he wanted and made it look like Iwa. Probably hoped they'd get themselves killed attacking the Tsuchikage." She shook her head, gesturing at Karasu. "What are you even doing here, Jiraiya? Threatening his wife in his home? He would be well within his rights to kill you. Especially after everything that's happened, no one would blame him."
Jiraiya glared up at Kakashi but slumped back against the ground, his voice bordering on petulant. "His home? Doesn't this place belong to Sakumo? I thought he was just a guest."
Kakashi glared right back. "Not anymore. He yielded to me, I'm head of our clan and master here now." One shoulder dipped in a shrug, considering. "Even if I wasn't, I doubt he'd have stopped me killing you."
Jiraiya scoffed. "As if you could."
Lip curling in disgust, Kakashi leaned over him again, replacing the kunai at his throat. "By myself? Probably not. Ayame, sweetheart?"
Sakura gently pushed Kakashi-kun aside and ran over to his side. "Yes?"
His head tipped to the side slightly. "Do you feel up to helping me kill this idiot today? I'm confident we could take him together."
Did she want to kill the perverted bastard? Honestly, a little. But there was still Akatsuki. Sakura sighed. "We can't kill him. We probably still need him, remember? He's an idiot, but he's useful."
He sighed as well, sounding a little too disappointed, and stood back, pulling her into his side. "Alright, wife, if you say so."
"Yeah, listen to your lady. I'm—"
Sakura practically threw Kakashi out of the way, stomping a foot down between Jiraiya's thighs, creating a small crater. He yelped, scrabbling backwards. "I said probably, I'm sure we could make do without you if we needed too, pervy sage."
"Fuck, woman, alright, alright."
Kakashi replaced his mask and glared down at him from her side. "Leave now, before I change my mind."
Jiraiya opened his mouth again but Tsunade came around and pulled him to his feet before he could say anything. "Let's go, you big idiot." Dragging him out, she ruffled Kakashi-kun's hair on the way. "I'll see you later, kid."
"Bye, Tsunade."
Once they were gone, Tenzō got up and dashed down to Kakashi, his arms outstretched. "Daddy!" Kakashi knelt to pick him up. "Daddy, you fight the frog man? You okay Daddy?"
"I'm okay, pup." Kakashi nuzzled his cheek and neck, eliciting a soft giggle. "How about you, hm? Are you okay?"
"I okay, Daddy."
Kakashi let out an exaggerated sigh of relief, carrying him to Sakura. "What about Mama? Is Mama okay?"
Letting go of her annoyance, she accepted a kiss and her son. "Yes. Mama is okay."
<KS>
It took Minato and Kushina nine days to break through Danzō's curse seal. As both former ROOT agents remained loyal to their master, even with him dead, the Yamanaka interrogators tore apart their minds. Sakumo, wanting it dealt with before meeting the other Kage, set Hiruzen's trial for the day after they were finished.
As at Sakumo's inauguration, Kakashi and Sakura were dressed traditionally, representing their clan, and sitting with the other clan heads and important people in a mezzanine above a crowded courtroom. Several of the wives had stopped to offer trite condolences, some more appropriate than others. He could see that with each, Sakura grew more and more withdrawn. After the fourth, he decided to ignore proper etiquette and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, drawing her close and glaring at anyone that looked likely to approach.
She sighed, frustrated. "Thank you." Her lip curled in disgust. "'At least you're young, you can try again.' Honestly, who says that? Is that supposed to make us feel better?" A few angry tears slipped free that she dashed away before anyone else could see. "I wanted her. Sure, someday we will 'try again,' but that's not their business and it won't make it hurt less now. Old cows."
Breathing into her hair, reigning in his own frustration, Kakashi wished he could make this easier for her. "I'm sorry this has been so public."
She clicked her tongue and peeked down at the gathered witnesses where the kid sat beside Tsunade. "And they're going to make Kakashi-kun talk about it all over again in front of everyone. Half the village is here." She sniffled. "It feels a little bit like they're using her."
"The other clans are generally highly protective of their children, at least until they're old enough to be shinobi. Kidnapping the boys, killing her, it's what really turned them against Hiruzen." He ran a hand through her loose hair. "With enough evidence, he would have been replaced as Hokage for starting the war. But he might still have had enough support, even then, to earn a lighter sentence. The council, a few of the older clan heads that count him as a friend, that remember the first war and the Nidaime may have pushed for leniency. For what he did to our family, for her, they'll allow him to be condemned to death."
Clearing her throat and discreetly wiping her eyes again, she nodded, attention locking on the disgraced Hokage. "I hope you're right."
Below them, Hiruzen sat seiza, chakra suppression cuffs chaining him to the floor in front of him. Sakumo's new council, Uchiha Fugaku—a contentious selection that he'd insisted on—two Jōnin that were from civilian families, and the head of the Nara clan, sat facing Hiruzen in front of the raised dais where the Daimyo and new Hokage would preside.
Directly behind Hiruzen sat rows of witnesses. There were a handful of ANBU, still in uniform with their identities hidden, that Kakashi knew had been his personal guard. They had evidently turned on him as soon as Sakumo had confronted him. Kakashi-kun and Tsunade sat behind them, the kid looking small and vulnerable in the sea of grown shinobi.
Is that how I looked when I was first a Jōnin? No wonder no one wanted to take orders.
Sakura had immediately been against Kakashi-kun testifying, and had tried hard to persuade him against it. He didn't need to do this again, she could do it, she was strong enough. But he had refused, tearfully asking her to please let him protect her just this once. Begrudgingly, she'd given in.
There were several others that had agreed to testify sitting around them, as well as a gruff looking blonde that must have been the Yamanaka who would be recounting everything they'd gotten from the prisoners. Even though Sakumo had said the conclusion was more or less forgone, hearing from everyone was key to ensuring the village was satisfied. Unfortunately it was going to take most of the day to get through them all.
Sakura patted his chest, distracting him from his thoughts. "Look, she brought their sons."
Looking where she indicated, he watched as Hiruzen's family, his wife and sons, climbed the steps and found their seats at the other end of the mezzanine. Biwako's face was carefully blank as she stared down at her husband, but her knuckles were white around Asuma's hand.
Kakashi wondered what she thought of her husband's actions. He wondered what the boys thought. Asuma had always had a good relationship with his father. He'd respected him and been proud of his legacy. The Asuma Kakashi remembered would have been as angry about what they were doing as Jiraiya, and twice as devastated by the revelations.
This child was friends with Kakashi-kun. Asuma had lived almost a whole week believing his friend was dead. Now he knew that his father was responsible for that and so much more. Kakashi's own father's death had impacted every single day of his life afterward, his values, his personality. There was no way this wouldn't fundamentally change the man Asuma would become. It was an unfair trade.
At least Asuma wouldn't be left completely alone to live with the fallout.
"Should Asuma be here for this?"
He sighed. "It might seem cruel, but hearing the truth for himself will be important."
"I guess that's true."
There was a sudden murmuring below and they both turned their attention back to the courtroom. Sakumo and the Daimyo had appeared, taking their seats on the dais. Everyone stood, except for Hiruzen who could not.
Wearing the robes of his new office—cut similarly to what Minato had worn, though without the flames, at Kakashi's recommendation—Sakumo called the crowded room to order.
"On this day, the fourteenth of April, I, the Yondaime Hokage, and the Daimyo of the Land of Fire, shall hear testimony against Sarutobi Hiruzen for his crimes against Konoha to determine appropriate judgment." His chest rose and fell with a heavy sigh and he took his seat, and with him, the rest of the room.
Fugaku stood and called the first witness, and off they went.
From what Sakumo and Tsunade had shared from the initial confrontation, few had actually believed Hiruzen's claim of having no knowledge of Danzō's plot to kidnap Kakashi's family. Especially after he had all but admitted to his hand in the war. According to his ever present guard, his claim of ignorance was in fact, bullshit.
Speaking first, the captain, Owl: "He needed to have plausible deniability, so there were never any official orders. Hiruzen never said to Danzō, 'bring them in,' at least that we heard. But there was plenty of complaining about how much better for Konoha it would be if the Hatake boys were brought up 'properly,' and lots of the double-speak bullshit they use with each other. He says one thing with a wink and a nod, really meaning something else."
"Can't have the clans thinking they can do whatever they want with their own children. 'They belong to Konoha.' 'Their kekkei genkai belong to Konoha.' 'How dare they think they know better for their own damn children than me.'" Bear sounded especially bitter and Kakashi wondered which clan he was from.
Indeed, outrage had erupted around the room following his statements. The clans already sent almost all of their children to the Academy, graduating them when earned and allowing them to die for the village. How dare the Hokage not think that enough. How dare he demand even more. Did he seek to completely erode the clan? The family? Would he steal babies from their mother's breast and raise them as he saw fit? How dare he overstep clan independence to this degree.
And what about orphans and civilian children? The Yamanaka had gone next, confirming everything the ANBU had said and worse from the minds of the captured ROOT agents. The two Jōnin not from clans were particularly incensed that Hiruzen had outright allowed Danzō more or less free reign with those not protected by important families. The entire project of ROOT was a scandal from its inception, their offense against the Hatake clan just the final act in a long history of criminal abuse.
It had taken the Daimyo several minutes to regain control of the room after the Jōnin's comments. While there had been chaos around them, Kakashi watched Hiruzen's sons. Asuma had graduated at nine, he remembered, participating in the last year of the war. His older brother, a Chunin at eleven, had spent the years floating between the fronts, ending as a Jōnin and ANBU captain. Not even his own children had been spared.
Eventually another ANBU was allowed to speak, his testimony confirming Kakashi's suspicions about the timing of the attack. "About two weeks ago, Danzō came to him in the middle of the night. He admitted to sending one of his agents to bug Commander Hatake's tent at the front in Grass. Uchiha Fugaku had been there that evening, and they'd discussed treason, or, so Danzō said. It sounded to me like they'd discovered their plot to start the war, and wanted to do something about it. Apparently they had been talking to the Tsuchikage and Raikage about what they'd discovered, and the possibility of ending the war if something could be done about Hiruzen. Was that treason? Maybe. Personally, I don't think so."
Judging the temperature in the room, Hiruzen was as good as dead, but they still needed Kakashi-kun to testify. Sakura was right, it felt a little exploitative. But as the small child bravely recalled to the crowd about being attacked in his home, waking up alone in a cell, being beaten, the attempts at brainwashing, his fear for Tenzō and a pregnant Ayame, the rescue, broken bones and so much blood... and Hana—he could see the affect.
Hearing from ANBU, from the interrogator, it had been infuriating but still impersonal. It was potentially damaging to unnamed victims. But Kakashi-kun had a face and a name, the face of an innocent child. Sakura was a real person known to many after the three months she had spent in the hospital. Hearing from Kakashi-kun made everything personal, it made it real.
Kakashi was grateful to the kid. Sitting there, listening about how they'd beaten him and remembering Tenzō's broken arm—and then Tsunade's confirmation of every single injury after—was nearly too much, even with his quietly crying wife in his arms. Had she been the one on the stand, he might have killed Hiruzen himself right there in front of his sons.
They're all dead. They're all dead. You killed them yourself. They're all dead. Tenzō is safe, Sakura is safe. Kakashi-kun is safe, everyone that hurt them is dead.
Finally, after hours of testimony, Hiruzen had been allowed to make his excuses. All he'd had to say for himself was that he had only ever acted in the best interest of the village. After everything that he had done, it was... frustrating to hear such a flimsy excuse.
At the end of it all, the Daimyo stood, motioning for silence. "Were it solely under my discretion, it seems obvious to me that Sarutobi Hiruzen deserves to pay the ultimate price for his crimes. I am disgusted and more than disappointed in a man that I respected. The Nidaime would be too, I have no doubt." The last was said with a glower at Hiruzen. "However, as Hiruzen is a shinobi, his fate will be left up to the Yondaime and his council. Considering everything we have heard today, I have no doubt true justice will be served."
Sakumo stood from his seat beside the Daimyo and looked down at Hiruzen. "Thank you, Daimyo-sama. Sarutobi Hiruzen, you have not only wronged myself and my clan, personally, but your plot with Shimura Danzō cost hundreds of lives between every nation involved in this war. If things had been allowed to play out as you wanted, it would have been incalculably worse."
There was a murmuring of agreement around the room as he went on.
"Shimura Danzō has already paid with his life. Hatake Karasu, my cousin and head of my clan, executed Shimura Danzō himself for his crimes against our family. But his unborn daughter is not the only victim of their plotting. For the blood of my clan, for the blood of the civilian villagers murdered by ROOT, for the innocent children of our village taken and twisted by Danzō on your orders, and for the blood of every shinobi killed in the last six months of war the world over, I, Hatake Sakumo, Yondaime Hokage, sentence you to death."
There was a somber murmuring of assent. Sakura pressed her face into his chest, quiet, relieved tears shaking her shoulders. Sakumo held his hands up for quiet. "This judgment rests upon Hiruzen alone, his crimes do not reflect in any way upon his clan and family. I will tolerate no shame cast upon, nor mistreatment of his sons or widow."
Biwako let out a quiet sob, her face falling into her hands. The magnitude of their father's crimes might very well have overshadowed her sons the rest of their lives. Now they would at least be free of that burden.
"At the request of both Biwako-san herself, and the clan of her father, I hereby grant her divorce. She, and her children shall henceforth be known as Nara, until either son is old enough to choose otherwise, should they wish it."
Huh. Asuma and Shikamaru were cousins. That explains a lot.
Not having apparently been given this news beforehand, Hiruzen jerked his head around to glare up at her. Biwako sniffed, holding her head high and glaring right back. You did this to yourself.
Neither son acknowledged him.
His life and his legacy for his sins.
Kakashi thought that it was just.
<>
He was executed the next day at sundown. Unlike his trial, his death was not open to the public. The Daimyo, Sakumo, the council, several Jōnin and the heads of every clan were present. The Tsuchikage and Raikage, who had arrived that afternoon, were there as well. This was a justice for them too.
To this, Sakura did not come, choosing instead to stay with the boys and their Kumo cousins who had arrived with their Kage. Kakashi felt agitated and anxious the entire time being apart from her, but he needed to witness Hiruzen's end for himself.
The once great man, student of the Nidaime, called a God of Shinobi, Sarutobi Hiruzen plunged a blade into his gut without final words or dramatics. Sakumo, having been the one to pass judgment, brought a heavy sharpened blade down on his neck, a slow, painful twelve seconds later.
Sarutobi Hiruzen was dead.