A/N: *bangs head on desk* I. Hate. PLOT BUNNIES!! Halfway into the second chapter - the SECOND CHAPTER - of this, and one line gets me ambushed! *bangs head again* Ahem, sorry, had to rant there. Anyway, thank you to the prologue's reviewers: Hiya120, KakashiKrazed and WhyMustIWrite.

Disclaimer: Rated T for language, violence and OC's. I also don't own Naruto.


Taro bounced excitedly in place, the little boy's eyes shining brightly. As the silhouette of a man appeared on the horizon, the four-year-old gasped. He bolted out from under Jun's hand, screaming excitedly for "Ruka-sensei!"

Iruka laughed, reaching out to swing the child up into his arms. "Hello, Taro-kun. Have you missed me?" The little blond babbled, waving his chubby arms as he gestured wildly.

Jun shook her head, the twelve year old smiling as she stepped towards the pair. "Iruka-sensei, it's great to see you. We weren't sure you'd come, because of the rains."

The scarred Chunin just smiled at the girl, reaching out to ruffle her brown hair, deliberately tugging a few strands out of the low ponytail. Warm brown eyes met bright blue ones as the preteen held out her arms for the child, the little boy protesting softly at the transfer. Iruka ruffled the little one's hair, making the toddler's brown eyes light up.

"How could I not come, Jun-chan? I would disappoint the children so much."

The girl laughed. "Yeah, Shin said you'd be here. He'll be here after dinner, by the way. He had something he wanted to do today."

"Avoiding me, is he?" Iruka teased.

"As if!" The pair walked towards a large house nestled deep in the woods, talking and teasing all the while.

Iruka paused before Jun opened the door, and the girl smiled as the teacher visibly braced himself. She chuckled as a veritable swarm of children, ranging from little Taro's age to almost her own, descended upon the Chunin. Once the initial impact was over, Iruka moved freely among the children, stopping for a word here or a pat on the head there.

Anyone watching would have known without a doubt that this was a family, in heart if not in blood. The children were like younger siblings, waiting for a beloved brother's return.

Hours later, once supper was eaten and the youngest children were finally tucked into bed, Iruka smiled tiredly at the elder children gathered around him.

The only two he had not seen that night – besides Shin, of course – were Arata, a young man of seventeen and Ai, a girl of sixteen. Those two were Iruka's most trusted children, his first foundlings, and though he loved them all, he had relied upon the two eldest to keep both the peace and the secret. But the pair had left the nest, moving out to the edges of the Fire Country to begin their lives as adults.

Now he had to rely on the next generation gathered around him. Fifteen year old Mai, the mother hen of the group, sat proudly at his right side and Jun plopped down at his feet. These two, plus thirteen year old Shin, had quickly taken up the slack and essentially trained to lead the younger ones long before Arata and Ai had left.

Iruka could only hope that the youngsters would be as effective as their 'big brother' and 'big sister' had been. After all, technically none of these children should exist, and most of Konoha's shinobi would be outraged if they found out about the house. It never failed to both sadden and anger him that these bright, cheerful children should be dead, left to die or outright killed as 'mission casualties'.

But because the teacher in Iruka could not bear such a thought, he had brought the little ones to this place, giving them the best life he was able. They could not come to Konoha itself, and they had to be very careful not to allow themselves to be tracked back to the house if they went into the nearby towns. Considering that the kids were all from 'enemy' states or homes, they would never bee trusted among Konoha's shinobi. But Iruka had no doubt that 'his' children were loyal – even those who had been angry at Konoha had come to love their 'family', and Iruka himself.

His smile gentled as he looked again around the house, not once regretting the fact that most of his paycheck went to support these 'ghost' children. The Sandaime had allowed it, and one or two of the ANBU had even brought him a child on occasion. He wasn't sure if the Godaime would continue to allow it, but since she had not yet brought the matter up, he was content to let it be. Until he was forced to make a choice, then his weeks were spent with his class, and the occasional weekends, along with a few weeks during the summer, with his children.

It was exhausting, but Iruka wouldn't trade it for the world. He only wished that he could have gotten permission to bring Naruto and Sasuke 'home', as he had brought so many other orphans.

But he wasn't able to think on it long. The door to the house opened quietly, allowing entrance for a young teenager with pale skin and shaggy black hair. Dark green eyes shifted up to meet his own, and Iruka was caught off guard by the intensity in them.

"We need to talk."

-five weeks later-

Eyes rolled behind the white mask as the ANBU guard assigned to the Hokage saw the most recent arrival at the tower. Light glinting off of silver hair, one visible eye turned up in an odd sort of smile as the legendary Copy Ninja – alias 'brat', alias 'royal pain in the ass', alias 'lazy bum', alias 'pervert' and so on and so forth – walked casually into the room. Hatake, Kakashi seemed to be completely unaware of the fact that he was nearly two hours late to meet his leader.

The masked man waved cheerfully, actually taking his nose out of the orange book in his hands for a moment while he greeted his former squad-mate. "Yo."

Heron dutifully suppressed a sigh, choosing instead to gesture briefly towards the door. "She is not in a good mood, Kakashi-san." Heron warned, but as always, the Copy Nin just appeared to wave the advice away.

The man strolled in, dipping his head in a brief acknowledgement before nearly falling into the chair in front of the Hokage's desk. Heron closed the door as Kakashi slouched in the chair, unhurriedly propping his chin on one hand.

-

There was silence in the room for all of about five seconds, which was only to be expected. Kakashi internally braced himself for the explosion – that never came. That… was worrisome. His visible eye narrowed slightly.

Tsunade looked up from the papers in front of her, her voice unusually serious. "You're not going to like this, Kakashi." His leader warned.

Kakashi felt something inside of him begin to grow cold as he straightened in his chair. This wasn't good. There was no mischief in her eyes, no smug grin that should have accompanied those words. And she had called him by name.

'Damn,' he thought. 'This is going to be one of those "this is going to hurt" not-going-to-like-this, not just the usual "this is going to be humiliating" not-going-to-like-this, isn't it?'

To Kakashi, that actually made sense.

But he was pulled away from his slight feeling of dread as the Hokage pushed the file on her desk towards him. He reached out with one hand, pulling the file to him and flipping it open with deceptive unconcern. Kakashi stared down at the picture inside, that small place growing colder as he took in the long scar, the warm smile of the man one of his students adored.

He rattled off information, barely paying attention to the facts that he had memorized. "Umino, Iruka. Age 26. Rank, Chunin. Typical position, Academy teacher and Mission desk worker."

'Naruto's first "precious person",' was what he was thinking. 'The over-protective brat who was brave enough to stand up to all of us when he thought we were being careless with the kids.' One dark eye focused on Tsunade's face, all traces of laziness or inattention gone. "Situation?" he queried, his voice low and unusually soft.

"We can't find him. Umino put in for four weeks' leave, which is typical for him during the summers. He works extra during the rest of the year and then uses his accumulated leave all at once. He goes to one of the small towns on the outer Southern region, and he's been doing it since his early Chunin days. The Sandaime accompanied him for a day or two every now and then and occasionally sent a member of ANBU for the duration, so no one thought anything about it. He gets approval for the leave, and is always back the last night of his approved absence." Tsunade took a deep breath.

"Always, until now. He was due back five days ago, but we haven't heard from him. That doesn't mean that he's gone rogue on us. There is a possibility that he's fallen ill, or been injured somehow on the way back… I hope like hell that's what it is, because for all Umino has a record of disrespecting authority, there's going to be a lot of broken hearts in this village if I have to put a price on his head."

Kakashi nodded his agreement, thinking of the number of people – shinobi and civilian – that he had heard defending the teacher at one point or another. But his Hokage wasn't quite finished.

"Regardless, I need you to find out what happened to him, Kakashi. If he's lost track of time, smack him for me. If he's sick or injured, get him treatment. If he's dead, bring me word. If he's gone rogue… I need to know. I'm not going to lie – I want him to be sick or hurt. I don't want to label him as a Missing-Nin. But I need you to find out if I have to."

Kakashi agreed, mentally working out the likely routes between Konoha and the town Iruka was known to go to. Debating whether the man may have had family or a lover in the area that could have held him up. But as he left Konoha, one thought kept repeating in his mind.

'I don't really know you, but you had damn well better be nearly dying. If you do this to Naruto… If I have to kill you, Umino, I'm going to make it slow.'