"Hey! Hey you!"
"Hmm?" Kakashi hums, stopping in his stride to face a child who looks to be about the same age as him. "Do I know you?"
"I'm Iruka! Wanna play ninja?" the other child grins and immediately Kakashi frowns behind his mask. Kids are so stupid. Never mind the fact Kakashi is a kid himself, other kids are just dumb. Who would want to play ninja when you could be one?
He eyes the child before him and tilts his head to the side, "why don't you play with them?" Kakashi points to a bunch of children behind Iruka. "It looks like they're already playing. You could just join them."
Iruka looks over his shoulder. "Yeah but, they're already in the academy and we don't join until we're five."
"So?" Kakashi shrugs, already beginning to walk away.
"So? So, you're the same age as me! We should play ninja!"
"Mah, I don't have time," Kakashi says.
Ninja huh? That kid was right about being a certain age to join the academy, and being only four himself, Kakashi would have to wait another year and then an additional four to become a genin. But that's only if he took the normal routes.
Kakashi smirks, deciding to take a detour to the Hokage tower before heading home. Maybe he could get the geezer to let him into the academy early, Kakashi is a genius after all and his father wouldn't mind. And if not, he could always do the shinobi thing and cheat his way in.
xxx
"No."
"No?"
"No."
"Well, why not?" Kakashi asks, standing before the Hokage's desk on his tippy toes. Even with the added boost, his forehead barely reaches the top of the table. "I already know the academy's three jutsus."
"There's rules for a reason," The Third says, blowing a cloud of smoke into his office.
Rules? Hah, the old man was breaking two! No smoking in the Hokage tower and no smoking near children. Even if the Hokage was the leader of the village, no one should be above the law! But… then again… (Kakashi deftly steals a blank application from the Hokage's desk) Kakashi isn't above a little rule breaking now and then. Besides, if a little kid could get away with what he has planned, then all the ninja in the village were incompetent idiots anyway.
"I understand, Hokage-sama," Kakashi curtly nods, landing on his heals and taking a step back.
"Enjoy your childhood, Kakashi-kun. You'll be a fine ninja in no time."
Kakashi nods again, heading for the door with his pilfered academy application.
A/N: I wanted to write a Kakashi time travel fic (it was going to be my first fanfic and it was gonna be awesome!) but then I was doing research to get the timeline right, and nothing makes sense! You see:
Age 4: goes to academy
Age between 4-5: father dies
Age 5: becomes Genin
Age 6: becomes chunin
But none of that makes sense because Obito and Rin graduated at 9 years old, but according to the manga Kakashi graduated in the same year as them, so then that would mean that Obito and Rin are 3-4 years older than Kakashi (Which I'm totally ok with). However Gai, Asuma, and other people are in the same graduating class as them, and they're also the same age as Kakashi. Plus Kakashi beat Gai's team during the chunin exams, so then all of Kakashi's generation graduated at the age of 5-6, since Kakashi graduated at that age and they were all there in the chunin exam... But that makes no sense! Because Kakashi is a prodigy, and then what does that say about Itachi?
So in order for everything to make sense, and keep the timeline in tact, meaning everyone graduates at the same time, Kakashi would be 3-4 years younger than all his pears. Which then means that he's about the same age as Iruka.
