I wrote this a while ago for the KakIru comm. I did a second chapter that I'll post when I find it. Seems the file got lost in the belly of my computer. There will be more, but I'm really strung out right now. Not much time for fun stuff.

I plan to keep to the T rating, so don't expect too much sex or violence.

By the way... Kakashi and Iruka don't belong to me.

Keshi-hime or Princess Poppy.

The girl stood outside the gate of Hidden Leaf village with her burden resting on the ground at her feet. That man in the tower looking down on her was... scary. The way he grinned was scary all by itself, but that… that thing in his mouth. It looked like the long needle her grandmother used to stitch up meat after she'd stuffed it with seasoned rice. Hadn't anyone ever told him that you should never put anything sharp in your mouth? And he was biting it and twirling it with his tongue. If he cut himself it would really hurt, and the blood would run out of his mouth and down his chin and stain the front of that funny jacket he was wearing. She felt sick to her stomach at the thought.

Genma looked down at the girl, the little girl, she couldn't be more than eleven or twelve. Even though most of her slight frame was covered by a hooded cloak, the thinness of her arms, and the pale translucency of the skin on her face, made that more than obvious. How she had lugged that heavy basket all the way across the hills from Thunder Cuntry was beyond him. And where was Anko with the ANBU? He was starting to feel uncomfortable perched up there looking at her looking at him. The kid seemed harmless enough, but the most dangerous assassins always did. Who knew what might be under that cloak, or in that basket?

"So your cousin asked you to bring this to Konoha, said it belongs to one of our people."

He had to strain his ears to hear her answer. "Yes. She works at one of the great houses in Hekireki. She said there was a Konoha shinobi who was there as a bodyguard for the lord about a year ago. She said he left this behind and I should bring it to him here."

Genma considered. The story was reasonable. There'd been a flurry of missions over in Thunder Country during the past year or so. One of the great lords had died without an obvious heir and there'd been a nasty struggle for succession in all the other noble houses. Everyone who could claim sama after their name had been watching their backs… and their throats. It had been good times, almost everyone he knew had made decent money off it. But what would a shinobi want with something that big and heavy on a mission anyway? And if was that important to him why had he left it behind?

From his vantage point he saw Anko approaching with the ANBU escort.

"Ok girly, here they are."

The gates swung open and the girl almost grabbed the basket and ran away. Two huge figures stood facing her, dressed in black, with weird armour and horrible white masks over their faces. It was the most terrifying thing she'd ever seen. A dark-haired woman pushed her way between them. She was really pretty, but something about her was every bit as scary as the monster on either side.

Anko looked the girl up and down. "So this is the threat. Come on kid, you'd better tell your story to the Gondaime."

Tsunade was sitting at her big desk as the party was ushered into her office. The desk was almost clear because Iruka had just spent the past two hours, under threat of bodily harm from Shizume, 'helping' the Hokage to deal with her paper work. It was a ritual they went through about once a month. Usually he tried to get through it when Kakashi was away and he was just as glad to have something to fill his time. He retreated to a corner and stood in silence as the ANBU took up their places on either side of the door.

"So I understand one of my shinobi left this in Hekireki and you are returning it to him."

"The girl's pale skin took on a slight flush. "Er yes My Lady. My cousin, that is my second cousin, I really don't know her very well, in fact I'm not sure that I'd ever met her before…"

Tsunade sighed. "Get on with it girl."

A faint mewling noise came from the covered basket. Tsunade's eyes opened wide. "One of my shinobi left a cat in Thunder?"

Anko smirked and peeled back the blanket. Tsunade stood up behind her desk and leaned forward to make sure that she was seeing what she thought she was seeing.

"Oh."

There was a tense moment of silence before she continued. "Well this isn't the first er, 'love child' to be left on our doorstep. Did your cousin… your second cousin, tell you the name of this child's father?"

The girl took a step back timidly. "No. As I said I don't really know her very well. In fact from what she said to my mother I'm not sure that she knows his name. She just said that he'd been hired as a bodyguard at the great house, that he was from Hidden leaf… and that he had silver hair."

Every leaf resident in the room turned, with the precision of a well-trained drill team, to look at Iruka.

He was leaning back into the wall, half in an attempt not to faint, and half with a fervent desire to be swallowed up by it.

Tsunade was sucking in her lips desperately trying to keep her expression neutral, but the crinkles around her eyes betrayed her amusement. "I see."

She took a long breath. "So Iruka… will you check the records? Find out who was assigned to missions in Thunder," she looked at the baby to judge it's age, "between ten and twelve months ago."

Iruka peeled himself off the wall and just managed to croak out a response. "Of course Hokage-sama."

He tried not to stagger too visibly in his semi-dazed state as he made his way out of the room and down the hallway towards records. Once there he sorted through the stacks, with the speed and efficiency of someone who had the skill to locate and steal a file, in the time between tripping an alarm and the armed response. Which of course he did.

Ok, Thunder Country a year ago. Please, please don't let Kakashi's name be there. Let it be a mistake. Really it could have been anyone, in disguise, someone else using a henge, just to look silver haired. He forbade the question why anyone would want to do such a thing from intruding on his pitiful hopes.

Once he'd located the right section, he pulled the mission reports. So far so good. Ebisu. Everyone knew he was a closet pervert, and a definite possibility, and not beyond using a disguise to hide his true identity either. Genma. Well he would screw anything that moved, and most things that didn't. Kurenai. No. And… Kakashi. He'd been in Hekireki at the house of Shiro for two weeks as a bodyguard almost exactly eleven months ago. Iruka's mouth went dry as he read through the familiar chicken scratch handwriting on the report for a second, and then a third, time.

Slowly his legs folded under him as he felt the straws he'd been clutching at slip from his grasp. He wasn't sure how long he sat on the record room floor, sucking in deep breaths, but it must have been a while. Then when he'd arranged the features on his face to something that would pass as a smile, he hurried back to Tsunade's office.

Everyone was standing exactly where he'd left them. Tsunade behind her desk, the girl with the basket in the middle of the room, Anko and Genma behind her, and the ANBU framing the door. It was as if no one had dared to move while he was gone, as if they all knew that he was the main character in the drama being played out here. He dropped the reports on the desk and retreated to his corner in silence.

Tsunade picked them up and leafed through them, pausing when she reached the crumpled mud-stained one at the bottom. The one he recognised as Kakashi's.

"Well, the evidence seems fairly… compelling. At least at first glance. Iruka, where is Kakashi-san now."

He answered on autopilot, painfully aware of the colour rising in his face.

"Suna Hokage-sama."

She avoided looking at him, as if the report was absorbing all her interest. "And when do you, er, we expect him back?"

"Three or four days, a week at the most."

She looked up, sweeping her eyes across the silent faces in the room. "Well I suppose you should take it to the orphanage for now, I'm sure we can find a couple who'd be overjoyed at the chance to adopt such a pretty child."

The girl watched the ANBU step towards the basket and snatched up the baby protectively.

"Her. She's not an it, she's a little girl, a her."

She glared at the masked monstrosity leaning towards her. "I didn't want to bring her here, after all she's my cousin too, isn't she? I told my mother that she should be with us, with family. But she said the house was too small for all of us, with my brothers and my grandma and grandpa."

Her chin trembled as if she was holding back tears.

Iruka felt his eyes drawn to the baby's little pink face, peeking over the snug white blanket she was cocooned in. Above it he saw a dusting of snowy down. White hair. She had white hair.

He crossed the room and gently took her from the girl. "You're right, she's not going to the orphanage, she should be with her family."

There was a long pause as he stared down everyone in the room. Then he tenderly pressed his lips into the colourless fluff on the baby's head. "I'll take her. If this isKakashi's child then I am her family."

He bowed to the girl, picked up the basket and walked out of the door. And even though every ninja present out-ranked him, not one, not Anko, nor even Tsunade, had the balls to contradict him.