Legacy

By: Princess Tyler Briefs and Karuka Ikashi

Chapter 1: The Stork is named Kakashi

It amazed Iruka that the days that would change his life always came without warning. The day his parents had died, Iruka had gone to school as he normally did, caused trouble as he normally had, and been grounded like he always was. The day he first had Naruto in his class had been surprisingly cold, but otherwise of little consequence. The day he'd first met Kakashi he couldn't even remember because it had been so normal (though it had been raining the day Kakashi asked him out).

The particular morning was as regular as every other day of the week Kakashi had been gone. Iruka woke up and reached for his lover, frowning when he found Kakashi's spot empty. He would then remember that Kakashi was on a mission and sigh as he pulled himself out of bed.

He'd begun to make his breakfast by sticking some rice in the microwave, and then dug his favorite pair of pajamas out of the dirty clothes hamper in the bathroom. He smiled at the little scarecrows before pulling them on. He ate the rice with the last of the milk and some sugar, and then went to brush his teeth and pull back his hair.

He was in the middle of this activity, having brushed his hair back and holding it loosely with one hand while he used the other to move his toothbrush, when there was a knock on the door.

Iruka sighed, still brushing and holding, as he walked through the small apartment he and Kakashi shared. A few stray strands of hair slid from his grip as he stopped brushing long enough to unlock the door and remove the traps Kakashi had insisted Iruka have whenever his lover was not home (the paranoid Jounin).

Iruka blinked at what he saw, first trying to comprehend what he was seeing and then seeing if it would disappear. It didn't. There stood Kakashi, looking tired and muddy, with something small, pink, and wiggling strapped to his chest with a sling made from his blanket.

"Yo," Kakashi said with an exhausted smile. "Do you answer the door like this for everyone?"

Iruka ignored him, gaping around his toothbrush. He tried to speak, but instead found himself choking on his lemon-mint toothpaste. He motioned for Kakashi to come inside and listened as Kakashi shut the door as Iruka spit his toothpaste out in the kitchen sink. He rinsed his mouth quickly, finally letting the rest of his hair drop back down again, before walking back in to the main room.

Kakashi was now sitting on the floor to take off his sandals. The thing strapped to his chest was mewling pitifully, one tiny fist clutching the Jounin's flax jacked.

Iruka dropped his toothbrush. "It's a baby!"

Kakashi glanced up at him. "Yes, it is."

"What on earth are you doing with a baby?"

"I found it."

Iruka walked over, sitting down weakly in front of his lover. "You found it?"

"That's what I said."

"'Kashi, you don't just find babies while on assassination missions."

"I didn't find it on my mission."

"You didn't?"

"No. I found it on my way back."

Iruka stared at Kakashi like he would one of the kids in his class if the child had just shown his ability to perform A-ranked jutsus.

"You," he started slowly, once he'd regained some brain function, "found it on your way home?"

"Yep. It was lying in a rice field in this little basket, sort of hidden. I thought it was dead. I picked it up, and it started to scream. So, I did the first thing I could think of."

"Knocked it out?"

"No! I brought it home to you."

Iruka felt rather like banging his head against the nearest wall. A normal ninja would have just put it back. A compassionate ninja would have taken it to the nearest dwelling and left it there.

But, oh no, not his lover. Kakashi seemed to have the default setting of 'get Iruka to deal with it' when faced with anything remotely child-related.

"Besides," Kakashi continued, looking nervous now, "you like kids, so I thought you might want one of your own."

"Kakashi, I spend all day with nearly forty children! Why on earth would I…"

The thing cradled to Kakashi's chest chose that moment to let out a high-pitched shriek that turned quickly in to an ear-splitting wail.

Kakashi jumped at the noise, looking genuinely startled as he froze. Iruka lunged forward automatically, scooping the infant up and cradling the small warm body.

"Sh, it's okay," Iruka cooed softly, running his hand along the smooth skin of the baby's back as he rocked it. "It's okay, little one. You're okay."

Something in his tone must have been soothing as the wails turned to crying, and then swiftly dwindled in to a bunch of very wet sounding hiccup-sobs. Only then did Iruka risk a look up at his lover. Kakashi had pulled his mask down so none of his feline smirk was wasted.

"So, I was thinking we could call him Kakashi Jr."

Iruka sighed wearily, closing his eyes and trying to remind himself why he missed Kakashi when he was away. "Two things wrong with that plan, Kakashi."

"Oh?"

"Yes. First of all, she's a girl."

"Really? How can you tell?"

Iruka opened his eyes to give Kakashi a look that sent ninja twice Kakashi's age crying for their mother's. The Jounin just managed to look sheepish.

"Never mind. I just sort of assumed the diaper was hiding it, or it hadn't grown yet."

For the sake of his sanity, Iruka chose to ignore the last of Kakashi's reasoning. He was just trying to lighten the mood with a poor joke. Iruka hoped.

"The second problem is that she has to belong to somebody."

"How do you figure?"

"Kakashi. You read Icha Icha. Surely you know where babies come from."

Kakashi sulked at Iruka's dry tone. "I meant maybe she's an orphan too."

Iruka had to give him that one. "Maybe. But, 'Kashi, not all orphans are like us. Most have aunts, uncles, or other family that they belong to."

"Well, it's not as if we can go around asking everyone around there if someone lost a baby. "

"We should at least try. Maybe ask Tsunade to send a genin team out. Think about her poor mother- if she has one- terribly upset because her baby disappeared."

"She seemed abandoned to me."

"Or hidden," Iruka argued, "What if you picked her up before the mother came back for her?"

"There was no sign that anyone was near there…or had been there for a while. How long can a baby survive on its own, Iruka? Someone probably just wanted to get rid of her. They felt too guilty killing her, so they just threw her away...maybe they had even hoped someone would find her and take her off their hands. I didn't kidnap that baby; I saved her!"

Kakashi's voice had suddenly grown very serious. Iruka sighed, not seeing any point in arguing about it anymore – at least not at the moment. There were more urgent things to consider, like just what to do with the now hiccupping and smelly baby in his arms.

"Well, let's just get her fed and cleaned up for now. We can figure this out later. Go to the store and find some baby formula. I'll start the bath and then-"

"Don't you have to be at the academy soon?" Kakashi asked suddenly, raising an eyebrow.

Iruka turned his head to look at the clock, alarmed. He had gotten so distracted, reasonably so he thought, that he had forgotten all about his class. He muttered something less than decent under his breath and tried to decide what to do. He didn't want to skip work. If he did, he'd have to explain it later, and besides that, he didn't think having a baby suddenly show up was enough of an excuse to skip work when he had his partner here…but Kakashi with a baby? Just the thought alone scared him and here he was, having just confirmed it with his own eyes.

"I'm not going," he said finally.

"What? Iruka, I can handle this, you know."

"Yeah, I know. Just like you handled it on the way here, right?"

Kakashi made a sour face at him and his sarcastic tone like a student would if Iruka had told him he would make a lousy ninja because he'd grabbed the kunai from the tip instead of the handle. Even though he hated to admit it, maybe Iruka was right. This just wasn't his field. He thought about offering to sub Iruka's class, but after what had happened the last time Iruka had accepted such an offer, it wasn't likely that the chuunin would be too willing to let him do it again. The children needed to retain some degree of innocence before graduation.

"Fine," Iruka sighed finally, surprising Kakashi as he handed the infant over, "I'll leave you in charge of her, but if you have any trouble, go straight to the neighbors. They have children; they'll know how to handle it. If they can't help, come get me. Do not hesitate to do that, understand?"

Kakashi nodded enthusiastically. He held the baby to his chest and rocked her slightly. The baby smiled up at him and gurgled, wrapping small chubby fingers around the closest scroll pouch on his vest. Iruka raised an eyebrow at the strange scene, but shook his head. He quickly left and dressed at mission-pace before returning to find Kakashi and the baby just where he'd left them. He took a piece of paper from the kitchen table.

"Here are the things you'll need," he said as he began to scribble them down.

He handed the note to Kakashi, who skimmed over it with a lazy eye and nodded.

"Sounds simple enough."

"Good," Iruka said with a nod, "I'll be back once school's out. Try to keep out of trouble until then."

"I'm not a child," Kakashi grunted, trying to hide a pout.

"Yes, but you're in charge of one now. And if you don't take the responsibility seriously, you'll find yourself in trouble no matter how old you are."

Iruka smirked slightly at Kakashi's frown and walked up to kiss it away. Careful not to squash the baby between them, Kakashi leaned forward to kiss his lover goodbye.

"Good luck," the chuunin told him.

"Thanks, you too."

Iruka gave him a confused look.

"Well, if you think one is so much trouble, I can't imagine what a classroom full of them must be like."

The chuunin grinned. "At least mine are potty-trained. I'd get the diapers first if I were you. Make sure they're the right size."

Kakashi nodded, and the two said their goodbyes as Iruka left for the academy.

"Well," the Jounin said, turning to the bundle in his arms, "Shall we?"

The baby yawned in response, and Kakashi took it as a cue to get ready to go. First he had to change out of these filthy clothes.

He set the baby down on the bed as he began to strip out of his vest and shirt. No sooner had he put her down than the infant began to cry. His first instinct was to run after Iruka – he couldn't have gotten too far yet – but no. This was something he had to handle himself.

Cautiously, he approached the baby and picked her up again. He was surprised to find that the child ceased crying once she was securely back in her caretaker's arms. Kakashi smiled proudly. Getting dressed would be a problem, but at least it felt good to know the baby enjoyed being held by him. The baby sniffled and wiggled a little bit.

"I can't keep holding you, you know. Sooner or later, I'm going to have to put you down."

The infant gurgled and gave him an innocent look. Kakashi sighed and tried to maneuver a clean shirt around the baby in his arms. The pants were trickier, but he managed with one hand. Once he was finished, he decided to clean the baby up before taking her out to the store. His nose wrinkled as he discovered the infant had already soiled the diaper she was wearing. I thought something smelled…Is it normal for it to be that color?

He washed the baby in the bathroom sink and wrapped her in a fresh blanket. Iruka was right. Diapers were definitely first on the list. Now where to find some?

Kakashi headed out the door carrying the bundle in his arms and made his way to the store. Heads turned as people along the street recognized who they thought was none other than the renowned Copy Nin – but carrying a baby? The Jounin could hear whispers around him the entire trip, but the only words he ever caught were "Kakashi" and "baby."

Kakashi entered a store full of supplies from toiletries to canned food. There was a large baby section too, and there, he found a variety of diapers in all kinds of sizes.

"How are you supposed to know which one fits?" He asked nobody in particular. All he could see on the packaging was an age and a weight, neither of which he actually knew for the tiny girl in his arms- nor did he have any idea how to even guess.

The infant had fallen asleep by then, so Kakashi decided the best way to figure out the sizes would be to pull one out and try it on her. He looked up the aisle first, and then down it to make sure it was clear- because he was pretty sure this wasn't something you were supposed to do. After all, none of the other packages were open.

He didn't think she was a newborn, or at least he hoped not because as far as he knew neither he nor Iruka was capable of caring for anything that small. So, he'd have to work up from there, starting with two months.

Struggling a little, since he only had one available hand, the Jounin worked open the packaging with minimal damage to the actual wrapper and removed one of the light fluffy things. He noticed the kunai pattern on it, and while that seemed strange he decided not to question the logic. After all, what did he know about babies?

A bit more shifting, this time carefully so as not to wake the sleeping infant, and Kakashi managed to get the diaper where he could tell it was definitely to small. Okay, so she was older than that. But exactly how much did babies grow in a month? A lot or a little? As far as he could tell, they stayed little for a long time, so she had to be quite a bit older than that.

He decided to start at a year and work his way down from there as he quickly sealed up the two month old diapers again. He'd gotten down to six months before a kindly lady with a little boy stopped to help him. Since her baby and Kakashi's were roughly the same size, she helped him pick out the correct size. She was even kind enough not to ask him why he didn't know how old 'his' child was.

Next was baby formula. This was a lot easier to pick out. Kakashi took the best one he could find- if price was anything to go by. It was important after all. Though most wouldn't have guessed it by looking at him, Kakashi was big on health. After the formula, Kakashi picked up some bottles and a pacifier (he thought Iruka would appreciate that) before going off in search of toys.

The store didn't carry a very impressive variety of toys, but Kakashi figured he could always find more later somewhere else. He experimented with the toys a bit- trying to discover how they worked and which sounds they made. As they passed by, other shoppers heard squeaking, honking, rattling, and various other noises coming from where the Copy-Nin was standing. They turned their heads to look down the aisle and maybe kept them turned a little longer than they should have. Kakashi stared back at them, one gloved hand clutching a bright blue rattle. The baby woke up and reached for it gleefully. Kakashi handed it to her before making his way down the aisle in search of more toys.

Once he had a full basket of baby supplies in one hand and a squirming infant in the other, he headed over to the cash register to pay. Kakashi tried to take the rattle away from the baby long enough to pay for it and was smacked on the chin by said toy as a result. It didn't hurt the Jounin, but it made him flinch in surprise. The baby giggled, and the cashier looked amused. Kakashi finally managed to wrestle the rattle away from the baby, much to her protest, but once it was paid for, he gave it right back to her and she was happy again.

Afterwards, Kakashi rushed to the restroom to put a fresh diaper on the baby before heading out. The only problem with that being there didn't seem to be any place to do it. At home, the bathroom floor had been the logical choice because he knew Iruka scrubbed it down daily- a lack of germs being the benefit of having a very obsessive compulsive chuunin lover.

But here, he had no way of knowing when it had last been cleaned and the idea of putting the helpless little girl down there bothered him.

In the end, he had to settle for using the limited counter space between the sinks. Keeping the unhappy baby still so she wouldn't accidentally hit her head on the taps was not an easy task while trying to wrestle a new diaper on, but he eventually succeeded with the newfound knowledge that public bathroom counter tops were not designed for that use.

"Alright," he said once they were outside, "Clothes next."

Using his ninja skills, the Jounin found a place that sold children's clothes very easily. Well – the brightly colored rainbow sign and mothers dragging restless, whiny children in and out of the doors were a bit of a giveaway.

He entered cautiously, not knowing quite what to expect. The inside of the store was as brightly colored as the sign outside had been. He started by walking down along the walls and examining the different kinds of clothes there. Too big, he thought. He needed to find the infants section.

As he made his way to the center of the store, he could sense children hiding in the clothes racks. One of them popped out to try to scare him, but only stood and gawked once they found out who his intended victim had been. Kakashi stared back at the boy for a while before he continued walking.

Finally, he found a rack full of tiny clothes that looked about the right size. He looked in wonder at all the different kinds of clothes available and wondered how on earth he was supposed to choose. This is why I wear a uniform, even off-duty most of the time.

As her caretaker was shuffling through the rack, the baby reached out and grabbed the closest one she could. It was a light blue one-piece pajama with small white stars all over it. Kakashi smiled at her and took it.

"You like this one? I guess we should only get a few for now," he told her reluctantly, "Maybe just one or two more."

The Jounin chose a red outfit with a shuriken pattern on it. It reminded him of the clothes he had worn when he was little, before he had started dressing in plainer colors without designs. He decided to grab a bathrobe for her and a pair of pajamas as well. Surely Iruka wouldn't mind if she was comfortable while staying with them, right?

When he felt he was finished, he took everything to the register and paid. The cashier grinned at the bundle in his arms.

"What an adorable child!" she exclaimed, "Boy or girl?"

Kakashi blinked and realized the clothes he had chosen were probably too ambiguous for her to know by looking at them.

"Girl," he replied with a smirk under his mask.

The infant treated the cashier to a shy smile that made the lady try to suppress a squeal, rather unsuccessfully.

"You're so lucky to have such a beautiful daughter," she told the Jounin, still grinning widely.

Kakashi blushed under his mask and held up his free hand before him. "Oh, no, she's not mi-"

Both the woman and the baby stared at him. Kakashi composed himself and dropped his hand as he took back the correction. "I mean…thank you."

He finished paying and stepped out onto the street with the baby and all of his purchases, headed home. Kakashi spent most of the trip thinking about what the woman had assumed.

He reached the door to his and Iruka's apartment and juggled the baby and bags as he tried to open it. Once he was inside, he dumped his bags on the couch and began to go through them as he cradled the baby on his lap.

"You're probably hungry," Kakashi said as he reached for the formula.

The baby made a whining noise as the Jounin shifted her around on his lap. She shivered slightly, and Kakashi decided it'd be best to get her dressed first. He took out the outfit with the shuriken pattern and slipped her into it. Then, he stood up and carried her into the kitchen were he prepared some formula to feed her. Lucky for him, it came with instructions on the back.

Later, as Kakashi sat on the couch again, nursing the infant with a bottle, the thoughts that had clouded his mind on the walk back began to resurface. He thought of the people who had seen him that day and what they had thought of him carrying around a baby. He thought of Iruka and what his reaction had been when Kakashi had brought the infant home. But mostly, he thought of himself. What lay in his future now?

"You know, I never really had a father," he told the baby, "At least not for long. You would have liked him, I think. Everyone always talked about how great he was, and how much he cared about other people. He was really talented too. He could use all kinds of jutsu and whenever he threw a kunai or shuriken, he never missed. I wanted to be just like him…but then he was gone. I wish someone had been there for me."

He cupped the infant's cheek in his palm and smiled at the happy squealing sound she made in response. She grabbed a hold of his thumb and tried to suck it. So small, Kakashi thought, Will you really grow up one day and be an adult? She seemed so tiny, so helpless. Every time Kakashi looked at her, he just felt needed. He hadn't felt that way since Iruka had started dating him. After Team Seven had fallen apart, he had felt like such a failure until his lover had come into his life. Even then, he had always felt like he needed Iruka more than the chuunin needed him. Maybe a part of him needed this baby too. I'm getting too attached. What happens when someone comes to claim her? What if Iruka just doesn't understand what she means to me? What if I'm not good enough to be a father? No, I can't give up. As long as she needs me…I'll be a better father to her than mine was to me.

"I promise I'll always be there for you – Sakiko."