Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Chapter Ten:

Godfather or Pervert

Just who have you been talking to lately?

Time passed quickly, already a full year since Naruto came into his life. Kakashi finally felt more at home in his old house, but more than that, he was astonished at how much of a difference a year could make. From bitterness, pain and unrelenting sorrow to joy, wonder, and fulfillment. At last, the future was worth living. Indeed, he could not see how anything could go wrong.

They were in the backyard finishing their training with wooden tantō's when Naruto surprised him with a particularly elegant move. Kakashi was a little surprised and more than pleased with his pup's progress. "I see your time spent with Hayate has been put to good use, little man." Naruto chest puffed out in pride at his father's praise.

"Daddy, Hayate said that he'd get me a real tantō for my birthday if you said he could. Please say yes… please, please, please, please!"

Kakashi smiled beneath his mask at his son's antics. He noted that the boy wasn't even out of breath after the two hours they spent training. He ruffled the boy's hair, "We'll see Naruto. Why don't you play now while I fix us some lunch." He summoned his ninken to play with the boy outside while he went inside when he felt a very familiar chakra coming. It was one he hadn't felt in a long time. Jiraiya had come to visit.

He opened the door for the sanin before he even got a chance to knock. "Jiraiya, what are you doing here?" the old man looked the same as the last time he had seen him. He had the same long white hair, red marks running down his face and wart on the side of his nose. His presence made Kakashi a little nervous. He was Naruto's godfather, which meant that he had more right to the boy than Kakashi. The adoption was final, but he could change it if he wanted.

Jiraiya boomed out, "I was passing through the area and thought I would stop in. Moreover, I wish to see my godson on his birthday. I haven't been properly introduced to him yet."

He barely controlled the urge to slam the door in the sanin's face. With a sinking heart, Kakashi let him in. "You have never come to see him before. Are you here to take him then?" he could not help but ask.

Jiraiya looked shocked at the very idea. "Take Naruto, are you crazy? I travel constantly and haven't the time or the patience for a little kid. Plus, isn't he going to go to the academy soon?"

The nin wanted to hug the man in relief, but no way would he ever do such a thing. Instead, he nodded to the sage and went to the back yard to bring in the little boy. "Come inside pup, there is someone here to meet you."

"Me? Okay, I coming Daddy." He ran inside with the dogs close on his heels, until he spotted the giant sanin. He got suddenly shy and skidded to a halt. He spun around and leapt behind Kakashi. He thrust his arm between the nin's legs and grabbed hold of one to hide behind. Unfortunately, he had grown taller in the past year and it wasn't his knee that the boy was latched onto.

Kakashi gasped out with an unmanned wince, "A little lower son." He pushed the boy's arms down a little bit then tried to get him to be properly introduced to his godfather. "This is Jiraiya. He was the sensei to mine. He knew your first father very well. Come out and say hello." Naruto was having none of it.

After Jiraiya finished laughing at the teen's predicament (which made Naruto hold even tighter), he held out a small box to the boy. "I got an early birthday gift for you, Naruto. Would like to see it?"

The boy studied the sanin for a moment before nodding his head. He released Kakashi's leg (much to his relief) and edged forward. He picked up the box and sat down on the floor with it. He carefully opened it and pulled out a large bag. When he saw what was in the bag, he let out a very happy scream, launched himself in the sage's arms, and hugged him tight. "You're the best old man ever!" he said before grabbing his bag of candy and running away with it. He had to hide before his Daddy could confiscate it, as he was not supposed to eat candy.

Kakashi frowned at Jiraiya, "Do you realize how hyper he is going to be now. I am going to have to peel him off the ceiling. You would not believe how he gets with a little sugar. You should have asked." Jiraiya just smiled benignly.

A half of an hour later, Naruto was up on the roof, again, singing on the top of his little leather lungs the fighting dreamer song. Kakashi didn't even have to say one word. He just looked at Jiraiya in triumph and pointed to the ceiling until the sage said, "Okay, you were right. I know I know, I'll go get him again."

Smugly, he said, "Just so you know, that doesn't make up for it. You are giving him a bath and putting him to bed tonight. Think of it as your duty as his godfather."

Later that night, after they had eaten dinner, Jiraiya pointed out an old looking box lying in the corner. It was red and looked like it was from the Hokage's office. It was the type that usually held paperwork. "I almost forgot, Hiruzen asked me to bring this to you. He said it belonged to you. He said it was important."

"Hmm, it is probably something of my fathers." He tentatively opened it up; afraid of what he would see. There were quite a few scrolls about various jutsu, which he moved aside for now. An envelope was nestled between them. He opened it and drew out a picture. It was of Minato and a very pregnant Kushina. The Hokage must have retrieved what he could find of Minato's house after it was destroyed in the Kyuubi attack.

Jiraiya seeing his look of pain came over to inspect the box. "He was a great man," he said quietly. He squeezed Kakashi's shoulder sympathetically. "I still miss him. He was my most brilliant student and good friend."

"Yes, he was." Kakashi put the picture back, closed the box, and moved to put it away, but Jiraiya put his hand out and took it from him. He sat down on the couch and opened it. Pulling out the picture, he said, "Look at how happy they were." Kakashi made a noncommittal noise and turned away. "He was so proud of you," he said to the copy-nin's back.

Jiraiya pulled an orange book from his pack, handed it to Kakashi, and said, "As ninja we have a very dangerous job. All of us are subject to enormous stress and pressures in performing our duties. It is of extreme importance, Kakashi, to know that you cannot keep it up or it will break you. You hold things in and internalize too much. People would not think less of you if you expressed yourself a little now and then, you know. They might even begin to think of you as a human. You have to find a way to unwind and lose the stress for a while. When you were younger, you had enjoyed reading. It's healthy to lose yourself in a good book once in a while." Jiraiya looked at him sadly, "It has been a long time since their passing; too long for it to still be affecting you. You really should talk about it."

"I… It... Never mind. I don't want to talk about it."

"Tell me."

"There is nothing to say. They died. They are never coming back."

"Yes, that is true. They are dead and they will never come back. You know that is the life of a shinobi. We live well, we live hard, and we die. It is what we do. You really need to deal with their deaths."

"Just leave it alone, old man. I am fine."

Jiraiya patiently repeated himself again, "Talk about it, Kakashi. It will help. It has helped me."

"It hurts alright!" he yelled, frustrated that the sanin would not let it be. "I should not let it affect me. I know this very well. As a shinobi, I should not feel emotion."

Jiraiya pointed to Naruto, who had finally crashed from his sugar rush and was sleeping on the floor. "Tell me that doesn't give you emotion. We are human. It is not possible to completely cut off all feelings. We are encouraged to hate, so why not love. It is a very powerful emotion, capable of changing lives. It has its place in the shinobi world too." He went over to where the boy was sleeping, picked him up, and carefully cradled him in his arms. "You miss them, I know. They are still here within you and especially here." He put the boy in Kakashi's arms.

Kakashi looked down at Naruto sadly and embraced him tighter. "Minato and Kushina practically adopted me when my father died. Naruto should have been raised as my little brother." The guilt that had been overwhelming him the past year finally came to a head. "Sometimes I get," he paused trying to find the right words, "I get ashamed at myself for being glad he is my son instead. And sometimes I feel that I am just not good enough to be his dad."

Kakashi Hatake was a very formidable shinobi. He knew a vast amount of jutsu, he was an extremely capable leader, and he was just a kid; an nineteen year old kid to be exact. Jiraiya put his arms around the young man's shoulders and said, "You and I both know that you are not happy he is dead, so get that ridiculous notion out of your head right now. You and Naruto have formed a special bond together. Minato would have been so happy to see you love his son as if he was your own. It is the greatest thing anyone could do for him. I believe he is at peace because of this. Another thing, it is not flesh and blood, but the heart, which makes us fathers and sons."

Kakashi felt as though a piece of his heart had finally begun to heal. Moving the boy closer to his chest, he went upstairs and put him to bed. He pulled down his mask and smiled at his son when he sleepily opened his eyes. "Not tired Daddy. I wanna stay with you. You read to me?"

"Okay pup, one short story," he said as he lay alongside the small chibi. Briefly, he thought of his life a year ago. He was always tense. He strove for tension, worked at building it, for he thought of it as a survival mechanism. He was always watchful. Always aware. Always tense. Always ready. Ready for anything. Nothing on earth could surprise him. A lot had changed in a year. He read a story to his son. Within minutes, both boys were fast asleep. Jiraiya came up a short time later and chuckled to himself when he saw them. He thought to himself that Minato and Kushina would be very happy indeed.

~~O~~

Fires burned across the wasteland. Huge explosions rocked the ground as the small sobbing boy picked his way through the dangerous debris. Just barely dodging away from a stray fireball, he fell on top of the mangled corpse. His keening grew louder with every passing minute. "Daddy," he cried out, "Where is my daddy?"

He picked himself off the dead body, shuddered, and then resumed his wearied pace. More bodies lie in front of him, the earth soaked red from their blood. His ragged clothes gave testament to his desperate condition. "Daddy!" he called out again. The Iwa nin heard his desolate cries and came to him. "Where is my daddy?" he asked innocently. "Can you help me find him?"

"What are you doing out here?" he asked, "A battlefield is no place for a young boy." The child looked about six or seven years old; helpless, forlorn, wretched, and pitiful. He felt compelled to rescue him. "I will take you to my captain. He will know what to do with you."

"I want my daddy," the boy murmured with a sad tortured look in his eyes.

"We will find him," said the nin, hiding the doubt in his voice. If his father was on the battlefield, then he was as good as dead. He raced the boy over to his captain, who was commanding the other nin and explained his discovery. Having no time to deal with the boy, he told the man to put him in his tent.

Several hours later, the captain entered the tent to find the boy hugging his knees and rocking back and forth. He approached him and introduced himself. The boy did not respond. He moved closer and gently moved the boy to face him. The captain was deeply shocked when the blade pierced his throat. As his lifeblood ebbed away, he saw the boy clean his blade on his pants. His expression was empty. He was just another shinobi carrying out his mission behind enemy lines. His vision grew dark and hazy, and his last thought was of his sensei warning him that a shinobi was a deadly assassin, not matter the age, and to never underestimate one.

The blonde boy had streaks of blood running down his face like tears, but his eyes were cold and hard. He made his way out of the tent with great stealth and cunning and without a backwards glance. "Another enemy leader down," he thought as he made his way to where the lieutenant's tent should be. Within minutes, the man, taken in by the poor lost child act, lay dying on the ground. Naruto killed many more before he vanished into the night.

Obito stood next to Kakashi and laughed. "Like father, like son! Will you train him to be like you; a cold hearted assassin. Will you to teach him how to abandon his friends too? A ninja is a liar, a thief, and a murderer."

"We are shinobi, Obito. It is what we do," he responded tiredly. "We are merely tools to be used. You never did understand that. You always had a romanticized ideal of what we truly are. I do not know what you were thinking in showing me this. Naruto never did that, I did. That was my mission. I will never allow him to be in this kind of situation so young."

"But you will allow it eventually won't you."

He looked at Obito with pity, "Yes, if this life is what he wants. I will not lie to him about it, but being a shinobi is not just about killing, it is also about protecting. A ninja knows how precious life is, so we live life the best way we can. We do what we do to protect the ones we love Obito. I hope he wants to be like me because ninjas know what death is, so they understand how beautiful life is.

"And you think I am the fool, Kakashi."

~~O~~

Kakashi awoke from the dream with feelings of confusion. He had never felt any regret about that mission. It was war; he did what he had too. So why did he dream it? Is that what he wanted for Naruto? He did not know, but the one thing he was sure of, was that the boy wants to be a ninja. He wants to be the greatest ninja ever. Kakashi would train him to be just that, great. He drifted back to sleep, peaceful in his decision.

The next morning, Kakashi had something important to show the boy. "Hey pup, come here a second and look at this with me." Naruto came ambling over with his teddy securely in his arms. He sat in his daddy's lap while the man opened the box and showed him the contents. "These are your first mama and daddy's possessions. There are some scrolls on jutsu and sealing and one of your daddy's special kunai. You will get these when you are older. You remember me telling you about the orphanage and how I chose you to be my son, right?"

"Uh huh, cause I was the most special one there."

Kakashi smiled, "That's right son."

Naruto giggled, "Yup, cause I was the cutess and smartess little boy there, huh daddy? Raya, didya know I was dopted? Didja?"

"Really?" asked Jiraiya amused.

"Yeah, cause my daddy wanted a boy. He said he want the best one ever. He didna want one with some old girl cause girls with pink hair punch you inna head. He didna want a boy that wasna smart enough or a girl, cause girls are icky. Huh Daddy?" He giggled again, "That's what he said. Was you dopted, Raya?"

"No," he smiled. "I had a mother and a father."

"Oh, that's sad, poor Raya," Naruto slid off Kakashi's lap and patted the sanin on the arm. "I bet your mama and daddy loved you even though they didna get to pick you out." Jiraiya gave a great bark of laughter and whacked Kakashi on the back with a wink.

The copy-nin shared an amused look with the sage then turned back to Naruto. He held out a picture to the boy and said, "Look here son; here is a picture of your first mama and daddy."

Naruto ran over and studied the photo curiously for a moment. "Wow daddy, he's got my hair an eyes. He looks like me daddy."

"Yes, you two look a lot alike."

"If you get me a mask, I bet I look like you. I wanna look like you daddy."

Funny how good that statement made him feel - I wanna look like you daddy.

Kakashi did learn a very valuable lesson during Jiraiya's visit; he was not a perv, at least not compared to the sanin. The old man tried several times to use the little chibi as a way to pick up women. He would conceal the boy's whisker marks then send him into a women's bathhouse, so that the sanin could wander in looking for his "poor lost and scared" nephew. It worked for a while too, until Naruto asked (in a very loud and offended voice, according to Jiraiya) why he had to keep going into the ladies room. Jiraiya came back to the house with many bruises that day.

Jiraiya did not stay too long as always, but Kakashi was pretty happy to see him leave. The boy already had a fixation on Anko's chest, the last thing Kakashi needed was for Jiraiya to turn Naruto into a pervert like him. Before he left, he gave the chibi another present. "Now don't let your daddy see this kiddo," he grinned wickedly.

"A book?" he asked with a fair amount of disappointment, "No more candy?"

"Hey, that is a real good book. You will find great use for it one day."

"Thanks Raya," he gave him a hug then asked, "When you comin' back?"

"Oh, I don't know. I have to do a lot of traveling with my work for Konoha. I will be back though because I have some things to teach you."

Naruto pouted, "I won't have to go to the ladies bath again will I? Cause that's just icky and gross. Boys not so'posed to go in there."

Jiraiya boomed out laughter and tussled the boy's hair, "Someday kid, someday your gonna love going in there." He chuckled at the boy's look of disgust and disbelief. "What if Anko was in there or that little pink haired girl I've heard tell of? Hmm?"

"Daaaddy!" he yelled out angrily at his father and with more than a little embarrassment. "Why'd you tell Raya I like Sakura? I don't like her; I just like her hair!"

AN

Whew, another chapter done!

Thank you to all my reviewers

Subaru: thanks for the idea I had something a little different initially planned for Jiraiya, but I liked your idea better.

RedRangerBelt: No on the Kakashi pairing for now because he has enough on his hands right now, yes he will be starting the Academy real soon with his friends

Silvermane1: No planned pairings for Naruto in this story, unless I think of a sequel to write