An Iruka-centric side story from Winter Spirits. This is a 4-parter. The angst storm comes in the latter parts.

Series :: Winter Spirits – Side Stories
Title :: The Best Things In Life
Rating :: G [kid!everyone]
Summary :: AU. Iruka, Izumo, and Kotetsu sneak off from school and go exploring during the winter. Some things are worth more than they seem. (They're 10 and 11.)

Iruka wanted to wait for Kakashi, but Kotetsu and Izumo teamed up in a concerted effort to get the pony-tailed boy to sneak away from school with them. Iruka, jittery with cabin fever and already anxious to be free to shiver in the outdoors, didn't take much convincing and willingly did his part to create a distraction.

They made their move close enough to the end of the day that they wouldn't immediately be missed, but that they'd still have time to make an early getaway worthwhile. Squirrels Ichi, Ni, Shi, and Roku were worthy soldiers and performed their duties with honor and much climbing-on-of-heads.

With Konoha Gakuen in an uproar and all classes recruited to the impromptu mission of "Find Squirrels San and Go", no one missed the trio of pranksters as they scrambled over the fence surrounding the football field, slid down the embankment towards the partially-frozen river and hit the treeline. In fact, they wouldn't be reported missing at all.

"Too bad Kakashi couldn't join us," Iruka sighed glumly as he hitched himself up on a thick log and slid to the far side before jumping off.

"That's all you ever think about," Kotetsu grumbled in, carefully pushing a spindly branch away from his face. "He's so boring."

"Why don't you ever -kun him either? Are you guys that much of friends?" Izumo chimed in, his sentence-building skills still a little lacking.

"Izumo-kun, sometimes I don't understand you," Iruka said, wading knee-deep in a pile of deadfall, jumping as something chittered under the leaves.

"There shouldn't be so many formalities between friends," he continued, kicking at whatever was making the noise.

"You sound like Gai-kun," Kotetsu complained. "And you -kunned Izumo-kun."

"Yeah but I haven't known Izumo-kun as long as Kakashi." Iruka mumbled as he poked at a cloud of mushrooms protruding from a log.

"Don't play with those. They're poisonous," His spikey-haired friend commented offhand, edging back towards the river.

"And don't compare me to Gai-kun," Iruka added as a belated afterthought, backing away from the poisonous fungi. "No one can ever be like him."

"Hey, isn't your house around here?" Izumo piped up suddenly, skidding on a patch of mud and toppling off the short bank to land in a pile of leaves. He popped up a moment later, debris tangled in his hair and looking like some kind of forest sprite.

"It is." Iruka hummed thoughtfully. "I didn't know we came so far from the school already."

He grinned in a devilish manner and leaned in conspiratorially. The other two scrambled towards the huddle eagerly.

"You guys want to see something really cool?" Iruka teased, already backing away. Their eyes lit up and they nodded, slowly following him.

"It's across the river, but there's something cool me and Kakashi found a few days ago. He said not to go back 'cause it's dangerous, but he's just scared of getting caught," he continued, hopping on a river stone. Izumo suddenly looked wary.

"We have to cross the river?" he asked, poking at the ice with a stick. A soft sound purred up through the layers telling of slow flowing water.

"It's thick enough," Iruka assured. "And this is the widest deepest part for ages so the water won't melt the ice too quickly. Kakashi said so."

"Well if Kakashi said so," Kotetsu smirked, already jumping on the ice and skidding on its slick surface.

"Hey!" Iruka protested, sliding into him.

"Guys, I'm gonna––" Izumo toppled them both.

It was an adrenaline-filled few minutes as the trio of miscreants skidded and crawled their way across the ice sheet, hoping they wouldn't be spotted. They weren't supposed to be away from school, much less play on or around the river in wintertime.

Scrambling up the embankment on the other side seemed to take ages and Kotetsu wasn't as strong as he liked to pretend he was and was pale and gasping by the time his friends hauled him over the side and into the safety of the trees. They sat in the deadfall for a moment, still breathing hard, before bursting into nervous giggles.

"Okay, come look at this," Iruka urged, dusting the leaves off his pants and tiptoeing towards a log buried in the shadow of shrubs.

"I'm scared," Izumo mumbled, clutching Kotetsu's jacket as his friend moved inexorably towards the gaping maw of darkness.

"It's just a bunch of dead wood," Kotetsu soothed, yanking at his arm.

Something moved in the bushes. A shadow.

Izumo and Kotetsu froze.

Suddenly there were shiny things flashing in the dim light and the boys uttered shrill screams and fell over themselves backing away, Izumo sobbing that a kappa was going to kill them.

"What are you doing," Iruka cut through their hysterics flatly, crouching by the bush where a den of fox pups tumbled free of its protection.

"I, uh..." Kotetsu stared at the blonde-and-orange little furballs.

"No-nothing," Izumo mumbled, still shaking.

"Since when do you have foxes?" Kotetsu accused, shaking off his scare and pointing.

"I think they're orphans," Iruka said, lifting one up. "I haven't seen their mom yet and they were pretty skinny until Kakashi started feeding them."

"Kakashi again," Kotetsu muttered looking disgusted. "It's like he's the Emperor or something."

"Hey! It's not like that!" Iruka protested. "He knows about animals! He helps raise therapy dogs, you know."

"Yeah, I know," Kotetsu groused. "I got mine from Hatake-sensei."

"But Iruka-kun," Izumo whispered, carefully scooping up a thin pup. "How will you be able to take care of them without anyone finding out?"

"Kakashi will find a way," Iruka said with determination. "If anyone knows how, it will be him."

He stroked the fluffy head of the smallest blue-eyed pup and frowned.

"He has to."

NOTES

Ichi, Ni, Shi, and Roku are the numbers 1, 2, 4, and 6. Of course this is the old "let loose animals with consecutive (except a few) numbers and watch everyone look for the missing ones" trick. It usually will work. But don't tell anyone I said that.

Kappa – basically a water spirit with the shell of a turtle (and some say seaweedy hair and a bald head) that really likes cucumbers. And to abduct and/or kill children, dogs and other small animals that stray too close to freshwater sources. And sometimes horses and cows. They need to keep water in the indentation in their head and you can escape from them or defeat them if you bow because they're very polite (when not attempting to devour you or your cucumbers and livestock) and will bow back, thus spilling the source of their power on the ground and weakening them.

Fun fact (but kind of useless) basically all animals are born with blue or blue-ish eyes as there is a protective film covering the lens as it develops. Thus, a lot of blueness going on with babies in this series. Sorry.

Also, for foxes, they may be referred to as kits, pups, or cubs. Cubs and pups is more scientific since they're canines, not felines, but colloquially, people know them as kits. (But they're still cubs/pups.)