A/N: Hello everyone this is my first fic and hopefully not my last, but we'll see how it goes. It starts out pretty G but as the story progresses it will eventually become M. It will be a time skip fic if you haven't already noticed, and I'm hoping to do 3 more in the past ones before I bring it to the present. So here we go.

Disclaimer: I so wish Naruto and most of the other characters were mine, sadly they are not.

22 years ago

The first time Kakashi remembered smelling his scent was one a normal (for him) day of training. He had just started his last term in the Academy and was training with his father's nin-kin Pakkun. The small dog was teaching him how to track using only his nose, which for Kakashi was turning out to be pretty easy as his sense of smell was stronger than an Inuzuka's.

As per orders of his father for training Kakashi was to track Bisuke's trail, another of the nin-kin, through the whole of Konoha and record all the places Bisuke visited without getting off on a false trail. He started off very well, because he is a genius and of course he isn't going to fail training this easy. Bisuke's trail had him wondering through three different training grounds, past the Academy, through a patch of forest, and finally to where he was now, the market.

Now at this time of day (almost noon) there were many people in the market coming and going every which way, buying and selling goods, and chatting with one another. Kakashi is finding it a bit more difficult to find the scent he is looking for but not by much. He finds Bisuke's scent passing the butchers and the fish market before he reaches the fruit stalls.

Pulling in a huge lung full of air Kakashi begins to filter out smells he knows he's not looking for, apples, oranges, bananas, something extremely sweet that makes him wrinkle his nose. He breathes deeply again to make sure he's caught every odor; he cracks his eyes open when he catches something he's never smelled before, something like the smell of the woods on a rainy day only much, much better. The pre-genin pulls more air thought his nose to see if he can get the scent again.

"What is it kid?" the pug at his feet rumbles gruffly.

"Smells good," Kakashi says eyes wondering over the crowd looking for the cause of his distraction, "I want to find it." He says honestly.

Pakkun raises a nonexistent eyebrow at the boys comment and watches as Kakashi weaves through the throng of people before following after him.

"Where are you going?" He barks, but Kakashi seems to not hear him.

The silver haired child wades through the sea of body's intent on finding whatever is producing that intoxicating aroma. Finally he makes it out of the crowd to a little park not far from the market. He breathes deeply again and zeros in on the little brown haired boy playing in the sand alone with his back to him. Kakashi watches him for a minute just taking in the fragrance of the little boy. There is another scent that comes close to the others but is missing something; he turns his head to see a woman sitting on a bench reading a book. Kakashi takes a few steps forward wanting to get closer to the boy.

"What are you doing?" Pakkun asks braking Kakashi from his trance.

He looks down as the pug with an innocent hunger in his eyes, "I want him." He says boldly, and turns back to the child in the sandbox. He walks forward until he is standing next to the box. "May I join you?" he asks politely.

The little boy looks over and Kakashi gasps as the brightest pair of chocolate brown eyes curve almost shut and the 2 year old replies with a vigorous nod of his head. Kakashi steps into the sandbox and sits next to the little boy.

"My name's Kakashi." he says when the little boy hands him a small shovel so he can dig in the dirt too.

"Ruka", the little boy says and smiles at Kakashi again, "do you want to build a castle with me?" he asks happily.

"Okay." Kakashi replies and starts to shovel sand into the bucket in front of Ruka. He breathed in deeply again and smiled as they worked together. By the time they were finished with the small palace he was sitting so close to Ruka their shoulders were touching, Kakashi looked watched Ruka, who was giggling excitedly at the completion of their castle.

Ruka turned and pulled Kakashi close startling the boy, "Yay! We did it!" he shouted squeezing the pale boy's neck.

Kakashi pulled in a deep breath and smiled, he loved this scent, he wanted to bottle it up and keep it forever. He pulled back from Ruka, holding the smaller boy by the shoulders and asked, "Ruka, can I keep you?"

Ruka cocked his head to the side like Kakashi had seen his nin-kin do when they didn't understand something. Then and understanding light came into the young boy's eyes and he smiled brightly and giggled again, but before he could say anything another voice spoke up.

"Iruka, it's time to go." The voice called.

Kakashi turned to see the woman from before standing by the bench book closed in her left hand, right hand beckoning to come to her. He tightened his hold on Ruka's shoulders for a moment before letting go.

"That's mommy, Kakashi, I'll see you. Bye-bye." Iruka smiled and waved as he ran to his mother's side.

Pakkun chose this moment to come up and sit next to Kakashi. "I want him." Kakashi said again while watching Iruka walk away. The pug just looked at him with and unreadable expression.