Shin hugged Toshi close to his chest. He was always shy when meeting new people, especially adults. His toosan had told him that he'd met this woman before, but Shin had no such recollection.

The woman he was being introduced to was tall, taller than his dad, and had very long black hair that she didn't tie up. Suddenly, she squatted down to be at eye level with him. Shin didn't like when adults did that. It meant they either had something important to say and he was supposed to remember it or he was going to get a scolding.

"Hi there, Shinji-kun, I'm Kurenai." She smiled in a friendly way.

Shin clutched Toshi harder and tried to hide behind his dad's leg, but Iruka was no help at all. "Say hello to Kurenai-sensei, Shin."

"……hi…."

Kurenai glanced at his toy. "Do you like that bear a lot, Shin?" She asked with a smile.

"It's a cat. His name is Toshi."

"A cat…? What happened to his tail?"

"Toosan broke it. Daddy is going to fix it." Shin looked sideways at Iruka.

"Oh….Did you know it was a gift from Asuma and me?"

Shin stared at her in wonder. He'd had Toshi ever since he could remember, to the extent that he believed that children were born with such toys to keep them company. Toshi offered him comfort when both his parents were away on ninja business and he had to stay over at Shinya's house. It wasn't that Shinya was mean or that he ever got bored there, since she had a son a year older than him. But sometimes he got lonely and felt that Toshi was his only company until his father came to pick him up.

"We gave it to you when you were barely two months old, so it's not surprising that you don't remember."

"….thank you…."

"So Kurenai, how are you holding up? Everything all right?"

Shin's attention shifted away from the conversation now that his dad had begun adult-talk. Still holding Iruka's hand, he looked around the unfamiliar house that belonged to this black-haired woman.

It was similar to his own, but the furniture was in different places, and she had vases with flowers. In his house there was one plant, and it was big and sturdy and his toosan called it "Mr. Ukki." It was missing all of the leaves that were within Shin's reach, but it wouldn't be missing any more, because Kakashi had explained to him that while plants grow leaves back, they feel pain if you rip them off, and Shin didn't want to cause Mr. Ukki more pain.

While he looked around the strange apartment, he felt his dad's grip on his hand lessen and lessen as he became more engrossed in the conversation. Finally Iruka wasn't holding his hand at all. Shin took the opportunity to explore the house. He looked into a room whose door was open. It looked a lot like his parents' bedroom, where there were kunai knives and poison-tipped shurikens, a room forbidden to him unless it was something urgent. There were bigger weapons and scrolls in this room, so he guessed he wasn't allowed in here either and moved along.

There was a room opposite to the one he'd just seen, and the door was closed. Shin moved cautiously towards it. There was a duck with a blue bonnet on the door, and it looked very happy. He opened the door.

Inside the room, there was a crib, a dresser, and another piece of furniture with white cloths stacked on it. Shin climbed the crib bars. The crib was occupied, but with something Shin had never seen before. It was like a doll, but it didn't have any hair or a frilly dress.

Shin stared at it. Did it just breathe? It was hard to see with the blanket, but it looked like the tiny chest was falling and rising. Was the bald doll alive? His curiosity was piqued. He had to know what kind of doll could breathe. Steadying himself with one hand on the bars, he reached with the other to touch the strange apparition.

He managed to reach his finger in far enough to slightly poke the arm. The doll gave out a little whine. Before he could make anything out of that, Iruka burst in the room. "Shiniji!"

The surprise made him let go of the crib's bars and fall hard on his butt. It hurt. Shin felt like crying; he could even feel the tears at the corners of his eyes. But someone beat him to it.

"Waaaaaaahhhhh!" The doll was crying! Was that supposed to happen?

"Aww, Aki-chan, did you wake up from your nap?" Kurenai came into the room and lifted Aki, who continued to cry, and began rocking her.

"I'm so sorry, Kurenai-sensei; I didn't even notice him slip away."

"No worries. She was going to wake up soon anyway; it's almost time for feeding."

Shin could contain himself no longer. "What is that?" He pointed at the doll named Aki.

"That's Kurenai's and Asuma's daughter, Aki-chan." Iruka helped him up.

"But she's so tiny!"

"She's just a little baby, Shin, but she'll grow just like you."

Shin considered this. "Can I play with her?"

"Maybe when she's older."

"Why not now?"

"She was born three months ago, she doesn't know how to walk or talk."

"She doesn't?" Shin had never heard of anyone who couldn't do either.

"Aki has to learn; nobody's born speaking or walking."

"I could walk when I was a baby."

"No, you couldn't, Shin, You had to learn, too," Iruka replied with an indulgent smile.

"I could always walk."

"I'm afraid not; maybe you don't remember, but you had to learn to walk."

Shin regarded his dad suspiciously. Whoever heard of not knowing how to walk? But then another notion struck him. "She's your baby?"

"Uh-huh!" Kurenai smiled.

"Does she say 'Mama?'"

"No, she's too little to talk."

"Then how do you know it's your baby?"

Kurenai smiled. "Trust me; I was there when she was born."

"Does her daddy know her too?"

Kurenai's smile faltered, and then returned a little less strong. "I'm sure he does."

Iruka put his hand on his son's shoulder. "We should get going; it's almost dinner-time for us too."

"Can I carry her?"

"Well….you know, babies are really delicate, and they need to be treated with extra care." Iruka looked worriedly at the now-silent baby.

"I'll be careful, I won't drop her."

"I'd rather you do it when both of you are a little stronger."

"I'm three years old already! I'm very strong! I can lift the cookie jar by myself!"

"Aki is heavier than a cookie jar, Shinji."

As the argument continued, Iruka feared that he would have to bribe his son with the chocolate pudding he had in the fridge for desert. But Shinji was easily side-tracked, as most toddlers were, and soon he was asking if Aki had any toys to share and maybe she'd like to borrow his if she was bored.

"...but she can't have Toshi, because Toshi stays with me always."

"That's okay, Shinji-chan, but right she doesn't want to play..."

"Time for us to go, we really have to get dinner ready!"

"Honey, I'm home!"

"Don't call me that. Why do you always have to say something so cheesnmhph!"

Iruka's protest was drowned by the force of Kakashi's kiss.

Kakashi made sure Iruka didn't have any oxygen left to protest before he let go of his lover. When he did, Iruka glared at him briefly before returning to his wok full of stir-fry. The Copy-nin began hovering behind him, never truly touching him yet obviously there. After a minute Iruka sighed and turned around to give him a piece of chicken and a shorter kiss.

Having a real family was something that had shocked both men. They were used to eating and sleeping when they pleased, having sex where they pleased and being able to have long, pointless conversations late into the night. When Shin droppped into their lives, their priorities had been radically shifted. Their center of attention became the little life that had been unexpectedly created, and proper sleep and long conversations became things of the past. Colic, dirty diapers and temper tantrums had been challenges neither man had been prepared for, but overcome them they did. For the first time in his life, Kakashi couldn't jutsu away from a child's question he didn't want to answer, and Iruka had been dealing with children who were toilet trained all his life. Yet despite the lack of sleep and the apparently endless work of raising a child, both shinobi found him an endless source of fascination and amusement.

Satisfied, Kakashi made his way to the living room, where he sat down and took out his Icha Icha, planning to read a chapter or two before dinner. But before he could open Tactics, a small hand tugged at his shirt.

"How come you like the orange book a lot?"

"I guess it fits my tastes."

"Have you read it this many times?" Shin held up three fingers.

"More; I've lost count."

"How come daddy doesn't like it? Why can't you read it to me?"

Kakashi struggled for a moment to find an answer that would satisfy the curiosity of his three-year old and wouldn't get him in trouble with his husband.

"Because…it would probably bore you. I mean, it has zero pictures, and the text is full of complicated kanji…you won't learn kanji until you're actually enrolled at the Academy, right?"

"Daddy said so." Shin paused and then said, "Will you read me a book?"

"…..sure."

With a slight sigh of sadness, Kakashi put away his beloved orange book while he waited for his son to get something to read. He tried not to groan when he saw the pop-up animal book Shin handed him before he sat on his lap.

"This is a picture of a fish with its head ripped off."

"What's that?"

"The headless fish."

"What's that?

"The bear that eats the fish. Apparently someone beat him to it…"

He turned the page. "And here we have an eagle...that doesn't have wings."

"What's that?"

"Well, that's his head, but don't--"

"What's that?"

"That's the eagle's head you just ripped off. Er…let's turn the page."

"What's that?"

"That's dried glue where the animal used to be…in fact there's no more animals in this book; all of them have been ripped out."

"Should I get another book?"

"Dinner time!"

Kakashi let out a sigh of relief at being saved by the bell. As much as he loved his son, there was hardly anything more frustrating for a learned adult than to spend an afternoon reading one-syllable words slowly. Especially if he was used to being under pressure to solve complicated foreign jutsus in minutes if not seconds. But it's worth it; he thought with a smile, I'll do anything for the little tyke, especially if it helps him learn faster…speaking of which, I wonder when's a good time to really start his ninja training. Iruka won't like it, but soon is probably the best time. If I get him to master the basics of ninjutsu before he goes to the Academy, he'll definitely be ahead of his class.

He tried to imagine Shin as an older kid, an early chuunin like himself. But no matter how he tried, his mental image looked too much like his own young self. Kakashi shook his head. Shin wasn't a smaller version of himself, or a blank canvas for him to work on. Too many ninjas had made that mistake in the past. He tried to be a normal parent to Shin, teaching him stuff, encouraging him, being a disciplinarian when the situation called for it. Being a ninja was an aspect of his life he longed to introduce. But that would have to wait for the right moment, more specifically when Iruka was in a good mood.

Kakashi chuckled to himself. Maybe he would sacrifice himself and try hard to make Iruka happy tonight after Shin's bedtime.