Red Is A Pretty Colour

137

Hiko's pov

The next day when I met up with Kakashi~Sensei I knew I had to ask him. Training might be ending before it begins if this didn't go well.

"Kakashi~Sensei, can I talk to you about something?" I asked.

"Sure." Kakashi~Sensei said. "What's on your mind?"

"I was thinking, about the wedding..." I trailed off.

"Oh no, don't tell me your guest list is like Naruto's. I don't know how many times I can beg the other villages to help." Kakashi~Sensei said, a look of dread appearing on his face.

"No, it's nothing like that. That many people is a bit of a drag." I said making Kakashi~Sensei chuckle.

"You've spent too much time with Shikamaru." Kakashi~Sensei said.

"Well we are getting married." I said.

"Right." Kakashi~Sensei said, scratching at the back of his neck. "Now what did you wanna ask?"

"Would you... attend the wedding as my father?" I asked nervously.

"Are you sure you want me to do that? I'm not really the fatherly type." Kakashi~Sensei said with an awkward laugh. "I mean, all I did was throw you into things and call it training."

"It's okay if you don't want to, I just thought it'd be nice." I said as I turned away from him. "That was all I wanted to talk about, I should probably go home and help Shikamaru with the wedding. Sorry for wasting your time."

"Hiko I'd be honoured to go as your father. I'm not very fatherly like Iruka and I'm certainly not a replacement for Minato but I'll try my best." Kakashi~Sensei said, stopping me from leaving.

I turned around and hugged him and he awkwardly hugged me back.

"Thank you, this means a lot to me." I said.

"I'm glad you think of me like a father. At least one of my students still like me." Kakashi~Sensei said.

"Don't worry Sensei, you're stuck with me." I said.

Time skip

We decided to skip training and instead get Ichiraku to talk about the wedding. Kakashi~Sensei wanted to know what attending as my father actually entailed.

"So what does me going as your father mean for the wedding?" Kakashi~Sensei asked.

"What's this I hear about a wedding?" Ayame asked as she leaned on the counter.

"I'm getting married." I replied.

"What!? Who?! When!?" Ayame exclaimed as she shot up away from the counter in surprise.

"That's exciting, congratulations." Teuchi said.

"Thank you. Shikamaru and I are getting married in about 3 months now." I replied.

"Thats great! Congrats. So, Kakashi is going as your father?" Ayame asked.

"Yeah, things felt off when we were planing yesterday and asking Kakashi~Sensei to attend as my father just made things feel right." I said.

"I just need some help figuring out my duties here. I don't want to mess it up." Kakashi~Sensei said.

"Well really the only thing you need to do is give a speech and accept some flowers." I said.

"That's it?" Kakashi~Sensei asked.

"Yeah, you seem surprised." I said.

"I am, I thought the father of the bride would have to do more than that." Kakashi~Sensei confessed.

"Shikamaru and I don't want all the fuss of a big wedding so there aren't as many responsibilities as there were for Iruka at Naruto's wedding." I explained. "We didn't want to make too much work for you and Yoshino~san or any of the other guests."

"You two have never been the type to make a big deal out of stuff. A small wedding suits the two of you." Kakashi~Sensei said.

"I'm glad you think so, Naruto argued with us about not inviting enough people." I said with a sigh and Kakashi~Sensei put a hand on my shoulder.

"There's nothing wrong with having a small celebration." Teuchi said.

"Not everyone can be as outgoing as Naruto." Ayame said.

"This is your day, you and Shikamaru should celebrate it your way." Kakashi~Sensei said.

"We will." I said. "No matter how much Naruto complains."

"Here, on the house. Take it as a congratulatory gift." Teuchi said as he put down a large bowl of miso ramen with extra pork and naruto fish cakes.