A lesson in life and death - Raido Namiashi x Reader
for the baby series - this one got a bit out of hand, sry
Picture for all those people who can't remember Raido 😁
Raido knows the back of your head like the back of his hand.
And he should probably focus on what the teacher’s talking about, considering there’s surely a test around the corner, but how could he? With you this close, the sun painting gold into your hair?
“Dude!” Genma nudges him. “Stop staring.”
He stops just quick enough for Sensei’s eyes to pass over him, pretending to be deeply invested in his books. But you turn, probably sensing the way he’s burning holes into the back of your head and your eyes catch onto his, your smile the smallest thing he’s ever seen. God, you’re pretty.
-
Here’s the thing.
Everyone has to attend the Academy.
It doesn’t matter if they want to become a Shinobi if they grow up, if their family has brought forward Shinobi before.
Times are rough and everyone’s required to at least learn the basics.
That doesn’t mean that they’re treated the same.
You’re a merchant’s daughter and Raido’s a Shinobi’s son.
His mother had been Anbu, his father’s still doing his duty as a Tokubetso Jonin. He’s one of the lucky few whose parents are still alive.
You have your own set of friends, hiding in the back of the classroom during breaks.
Everyone knows you’ve got money, no matter how you dress
“Hey,” he calls after you, fingers clasped around a Kunai. “Want to train?”
-
He’d never known that Silence could be full of noise too.
It’s in those moments, training, the air filled with gasps and curses and the sounds of Kunai’s meeting, that he feels calmest.
In the hours after, back pressed into the soft ground, staring up at the clouds, you talk and he listens. One time, he dares to reach for your hand and your fingertips curl around his, strong and warm and something he yearns to hold.
“You’re so whipped,” Genma tells him when he tells him, hushed whispers when they should be doing something else.
And Raido wants to say he’s not but he’s never been good at lying, even less to a friend.
“Is that bad?” He asks instead, thinks of his future and yours.
It’s not unheard that your groups mingle, but he also knows he has no other choice but to make his father proud.
“I don’t know,” Genma admits, scrunches his nose. “We’ll see.”
-
Raido makes Genin then Chunin and you become an apprentice to your father.
There’s no more reason to meet.
His abilities have long surpassed yours.
But the meadow near the river is still your hiding place and when he meets you there after dark he’s never surprised to find Kunai’s and wooden puppets.
If he relishes in the way you’re still able to throw him over your shoulder, the closeness of your body when you block hits and fight back, he’s got you to talk to, knowing you feel the same.
You kiss him first and he’s still mad about it.
Mad that he wasn’t a little braver, a little more forward.
Biting his lip and pulling back when all he wanted was to pull you close.
It’s over a gift, the smallest something he found on a mission, a polished rock in the form of a heart, the white and black pattern mesmerizing.
But it means something to you like it meant something to him.
To bring it with him, even as he had to fight death, because he had someone waiting at home.
“Can I marry you?” He asks at barely seventeen.
-
“Lovebirds are in,” Anko sings from the bar and Genma rolls his eyes fondly when he spots your face next to his.
“Long time no see,” they all pull you into hugs, ask about your work, pay you drink after drink until he has to carry you home.
“My friends like you more than me,” he pretends to be cross, kissing you on your doorstep.
You smile against his lips.
“Only two more months,” you tell him instead as if he could forget about it.
Yesterday you picked the apartment that’s going to be yours, as in them, as in you and him.
He’s yet to see the dress you’ll be wearing, but he’s got your father on his side, the perfect rings picked out. It’s going to be a lavish wedding, especially for a village that’s still recovering. But people need happy things too.
- - -
“Hey,” you find him in the kitchen, lights out, a glass of water in his hand. “When did you come back?”
“Don’t know,” Raido admits, allowing you to take the drink from him, folding your hand into his.
He’s not allowed to tell you most of what he’s doing, least of all the details of his missions.
“Come,” you pull him in, let his head rest on your shoulder, “you’re home.”
Sometimes he thinks it’s fitting that his sword is black, coated in poison.
It fits the work he has to do.
You are the light of his life, the sun that warms his home.
He curls around like a cat finding a sunny spot and you card your hand through his hair tirelessly, attempting to ease the darkness from his mind.
It’s not always easy, this mix.
Your work is hard but in a different way.
Tiresome customers and everyone’s trying to get you to lower the price, to cut corners.
Raido never minds listening when you come home in the evening when you tell him about your day. He wishes he could do the same.
But assassinations aren’t a topic for the dinner table.
“Tell me what you’re feeling, then,” you ask. “Because your feelings matter to me. And they’re not a secret.”
-
One year in and you’re not yet pregnant.
Raido doesn’t think you’re doing anything wrong, the two of you.
But he’s not home as often as he wants to and you work long hours, trying to lighten your father's load.
“Something has to change,” he decides when he finds you crying one night, too exhausted to brush your teeth.
“Are you coming for a drink?” Genma asks, a little surprised when Raido declines.
“Other plans?” He asks.
“Yeah. I’m going to bed early.”
And Genma might grimace at the thought, but he thinks of you, curled into his embrace, and smiles.
It’s the little things that bring happiness.
- - -
Tumbling through the open window, muscles aching, shirt dirty and ripped.
“You’re back!” You call out from the kitchen, meeting him in the hallway.
“Yeah,” he sighs into your kiss. “I need to shower. I smell.”
“‘Kay!” Though you don’t let go, giggling against his lips. “I have a surprise for you. Do you wanna know right now or after you’ve showered.”
“If you don’t mind the stench, tell me right away.”
“Someone’s going to be a Dad.”
“Who?” He asks, cracking his brain trying to think. Genma’s single, Ebisu too. Could it be-
“You.”
They fail spectacularly at trying to keep it a secret.
Genma threatens to sleep on their doorstep in protest if they don’t name the child after him.
Anko threatens to do the same when it turns out to be a girl.
Nine months are too long and too short at the same time, because he’s in no way ready to hold this little life yet he can’t wait to meet her, his first-born daughter.
-
“Hey there, little one,” he picks her out of her crib at midnight, his uniform already in the wash, you’re just a few feet away.
His girl curls into his hold, curious little mouth trying to find food.
“Uhuh,” he tickles her lip with his fingertip. “I’m not mom. But I’ll get you something to eat, don’t worry.”
Her tiny hands ball into fists, banging against his torso with the strength of a hummingbird.
“Oh,” he whispers back, “so you’re a fist fighter? Good choice. Always go for the ribs.”