Disclaimer
I do not own Naruto or any of the characters from Naruto.
Summary
It all began with a harmless joke on an unsuspecting chunin. Nothing bad was supposed to happen, really, and Kakashi was supposed to go scot-free. Instead he got saddled with the finished problem: One super-cute Iruka chibi.
Author's Notes:
I am sorry that this chapter came out so late but I am falling behind in my classes, am doing a musical and are seriously sick. I couldn't sing for a giant concert that I had practiced months for.
A few hours later, with much un-restful tossing and turning, Kakashi awoke when the sun rose. With his mission still fresh in his mind, kill Nanashi; he almost didn't notice the body he was holding and currently using as a pillow.
Almost.
His eyes opened a fraction bigger as he stared down, ignoring the faint breeze across his still naked face, and mentally cursed at the sight that met his eyes. 'This is not good…' he thought, wondering how he was going to leave. 'This is definitely not good. I am screwed.'
In front of him was a sleeping Iruka. A sleeping Iruka who had his arms wrapped around the jounin's waist hugging him. A sleeping Iruka who had his arms wrapped around the jounin's waist hugging him while in the body of a twelve year old. Kakashi was screwed.
Leaning on his side, and trying to figure out what he was going to do, the great copy ninja ignored his instincts for the moment. Especially the one, which normally told him to eat tuna, that was now telling him to cuddle the source of warmth closer to his body. With this fierce internal battle waging, he did not see the smaller body shift and roll away slightly; or the blurry brown eyes that opened to stare at him absentmindedly.
"What the hell are you doing?" The sentence was muttered in an angry tone that was usually reserved for killing murderers or beginning an attack on a giant robot from hell. Neither one was happening so Kakashi assumed it was aimed at him.
He blinked and looked down to find that problem one had disappeared, Iruka was no longer around his waist, but problem two had sprung up. Iruka was now in his teenager years.
A time of happiness, when hormones run wild and everyone seems to be in love. Where everything is joyful and spring is all year round. Unless you're one of those angry teens. Then it becomes eight angsty years of hate and slamming of doors in parental figures faces. Sadly, Iruka was one of those types.
So Kakashi tread lightly. "Sleeping." And failed miserably at the task.
Iruka nodded, shuffling around in pajamas that were too tight in some places, his eyes becoming half lidded and he looked like a cat about to pounce. "That was very obvious. Thank you for pointing that out, Hatake-san."
At the formal title, Kakashi felt his body go numb. 'He…he just called me Hatake.' He thought to himself, ignoring the glare shot his way. His eyes widened, 'He must be having those teenage hormones! Soon he's going to be disrespecting the Hokage, skipping school and…' He paused at that, suddenly remembering that Iruka didn't go to the academy, but another thought sprang up as quickly as one thought was settled. 'AND HE'LL GET HIS NOSE PIERCED!'
The inner-Kakashi screamed and swooned to the floor, a puddle of blood forming under it. As pandemonium ranged inwards Kakashi simply pulled his mask up and stood up from the bed, brushing off his vest, which he had again forgotten to take off. He swore silently, he was going to have permanent creases in his skin by the end of the week.
Iruka growled as the other ninja left, "Where do you think you're going?" He asked with a smirk, crossing his arms in front of his body as if he caught Kakashi doing something wrong.
The gray haired man paused at the doorway, his hand resting on the polished wood gently as he turned to look at Iruka. A flicker of an emotion flashed across the jounin's face, but it vanished as quickly as it came. "Work." He stepped into the hallway and continued on his way to the kitchen. Who said he had to 'work', as he so skillfully put it, on an empty stomach.
'It is these simple pleasures in life that make it all worthwhile.' An anonymous quote that seemed to explain everything. Kakashi mulled over the sentence imprinted on a simple bronze plaque, chewing on his third donut philosophically.
He pulled his mask down quickly to take another bite, listening to the patter of footsteps behind him. Without a noise, he waited for the attack from the boy; it seemed to happen no matter what age so far.
But it never came.
The footsteps stopped abruptly only a few feet from him. He turned after hearing the shuffling, as if Iruka was afraid of him for some reason.
Kakashi swerved at just the right moment to avoid the greater extent of the attack, but, alas, the target was still made. With a muted grunt, Iruka pushed the older ninja to the ground. Lying there for an extended period, Kakashi decided to play dead.
"I know that you're alive." Iruka said as he sat on the man's back, looking at the hair that wasn't pressed into the ground. Before he knew what he was doing, a hand reached out to brush through it and a smile graced his features when it sprung back into place. "So why won't you get up?" He leaned forward, whispering the line as if it were a song into the unresponsive man's ear.
'I'mgoingtokillhimI'mgoingtokillhimI'mgoingtokillhim.' Kakashi thought in a cycle, trying to urge his body to move to no avail. It was no surprise though, that his body jumped instinctively when there was a banging on the front door, startling the chunin who was now yawning in barely suppressed boredom.
Standing, he walked to the door and yanked it open to find the one thing that would make this morning worse. Haruno Sakura was standing on the front stoop, her fingers twiddling as Kakashi opened the door. Her mouth opened, something intelligent was bound to come out any second.
"Hur?" And one of the top students in the current age group fails in the art of the human language, deciding to fall back into her ancestral tongue.
Currently, all she saw was her sensei standing in the doorway of her other sensei's house with a pair of arms wrapped around his neck. Her mind instantly went to the first thing that connected with Kakashi, at least whenever she saw him, and she immediately acted on the instinct.
"Pervert!" She screamed while storming in, face blushing madly. Sakura stopped in the living room and turned around, pointing at Kakashi. "You come into Iruka-sensei's house and then you get together with a…a…Lady of the night!" The girl blurted out, feeling even more embarrassed at finding her teacher.
She took a deeper breath, eyes closed as to not see the half dressed whore she was sure that was hiding behind Kakashi still, "I find you a bad influence on us and I am happy that you're going away on that mission, so I can take care of little Iruka-kun when you're gone. Hopefully he isn't to far gone like you are!"
At the mention of his name, Iruka peered over the taller man's shoulder and saw the girl for the first time since she barged in. "Um… I'm pretty sure Iruka-kun can take care of himself nowadays." He said with a snort, finding a wide pair of eye focusing on him.
Sakura was speechless, for once, and stood in the middle of the room. Her hands that were balled into fists became looser and hung limply at her side. Suddenly, the gates of hell broke.
"KAWAII!"
Before Iruka knew it, he was being cuddled by the pink haired youth with Kakashi halfway across the room against the wall. He grimaced when the girl 'cooed' into his ear and hugged him tighter. Any more and he would have to do something serious about her.
The jounin yawned and slouched over, mildly interested in the teenage Iruka. Since he was still in the body of a preteen, and somehow he knew it, he was angrier at the intrusion of his space by the younger girl. At least, that's what Kakashi thought the gleam in those brown eyes was.
So before this love-fest, which Iruka seemed to not want to be involved in, started Kakashi cleared his throat. "I'm going to be leaving in a few minutes," he checked his watch and saw he was only a couple of hours late, "As you must know Sakura, you will be watching Iruka until I come back."
A sound of pleasure came from the girl's lips as she snuggled into the boy's chest. She was unaware of the evil grin passing over Iruka's features.
"But, Hatake-san?" Iruka asked innocently, plan in motion. Just for good measure he batted his eyelashes at the jounin. "Why do I have to have a babysitter whose forehead is so big?"
Sakura's eyes snapped open while a 'coo' stopped midway from her mouth. She pushed away from her past teacher and glared at him, daring him to continue. So he took it and ran.
"I'm sure you could find someone much prettier to look after me. Maybe someone older who will let me do what I want, not this little girl who would most likely play "Shoots and Ladders" before doing anything fun." He pouted while sighing dramatically, hand rising to rest on his head mournfully.
And then, as if on cue, the door to their right burst open and slammed against the wall with a loud bang. When the dust settled, this took a while; a womanly figure was seen through the murkiness. It had a tail and a pair of ears, which, granted, was strange even in the village known as Konohagakure. And Konohagakure was known for a lot of different freaks in its time.
Hissing, the giant cat-woman crept closer into the light. "Kakashi, you will return what is mine." Kurenai growled, stepping over into the threshold with four-inch stiletto heels strapped onto her feet snuggly. "Or face the consequences."
When the last line was spoken in a purr, Kakashi couldn't help but shiver in fear. Whenever she got that tone it meant she was going in for the kill. With a thump, a body fell from the position over her shoulder. "I bought Asuma as a trade. I think it's pretty fair. I give you a drinking buddy and you give me the little chibi-child."
Before Kakashi could answer, it was going to involve a lot of curses, Iruka bowed slightly. "Hello, Kurenai-san. Are you going to be looking after me today?"
The jounin smiled, this is the type of respect she always wanted, and she turned to hug the little chunin only to stop. There was Iruka, twelve-year-old Iruka. The Iruka who threw gum into her hair when he was bored with it. The same Iruka who had picked up the phone when her boyfriend called and said that she was busy with "something else."
"I ever hope so! I always have such fun whenever you look after me!" He smiled and clapped his hands together in pure glee. Seeing this, Kakashi knew it was the better choice to leave Iruka with someone who he knew from when he was little. He had only met Iruka when he eighteen and just becoming a teacher's aide.
Kakashi sighed as he watched, wondering why he had to go on this mission. 'I'd much rather stay here and watch Iruka…' He sputtered quietly at the train of thought, 'To make sure he doesn't get in trouble! That's it!' The ninja nodded and smiled underneath his mask as he moved to the door.
"Well, Kurenai, you got what you wanted. I have to be going." He hadn't noticed the look of dismay that flashed across Kurenai's face. "Hope you two ladies have fun while I'm away." Kakashi then stepped out of the door, after carefully crossing over Asuma's still form, and walked into the morning dusk prior to closing the door.
It was so quiet; one could drop a pin and hear it. A muted cough broke the stillness, but a manicured hand quickly muffled it.
Iruka smiled happily, hands behind his back and surveying his prey. Er… Babysitters. He slowly began to pace back and forth in the room, picking up an object, examining it, and then placing it back onto the shelf. The motions made his pigtail move in a little dance, it would have been cute if it weren't for the circumstances.
He smiled and turned to the women, tilting his head adorably to the side. "According to Hatake-san, you both have to watch over me and make sure I don't get into trouble." The chunin's face wiped blank for a split moment, "So let's have fun, shall we?"
Kurenai swallowed deeply before going through with her next action, "Iruka, I'm older than you so you have to listen to me." The dark-haired head snapped to her, "Also, I was put in charge so that's another reason you have to listen." She glared at the smaller figure, the years of babysitting him coming back to fuel her anger.
Before Iruka could answer with a witty retort, which he had mind you, Azuma groaned and began to lift his body off of the ground. He shook his head and gazed blearily at the group, blinking as if he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing. It was at that moment that Kurenai slammed her foot onto his back.
Iruka continued with his come back, as if nothing happened. "So it appears you are older than me… Why does that mean I have to listen to you?" He sat down onto a chair and tented his fingers while leaning back. Then he popped the question.
Not "the" question, which most girls wait for from their boyfriends, rather, the one that Kurenai did not need to hear while still dressed in a g-string. Not that she had much of a choice.
"Why are you an old hag anyway?"
Sakura, the only true teen in the room, felt a blush rise to her cheeks. 'This is definitely not what Iruka-sensei was like when he was my age, right?' She thought, 'He must be possessed.' She nodded at her scientific conclusion.
Deciding it was time to step in and stop the fight before it started and became ugly, she quickly did what her mother would do in this situation: Make food.
That is how she found herself in the kitchen. "Does anyone want some hot cocoa? I'm making some." Sakura asked, hoping that the two fighters would take the bait and wander into the adjacent room.
A few minutes later, after shutting off the shrieking teapot, the pink haired girl turned to see the two glaring at each other from across the table, again. 'This is the fifteenth time!' Inner-Sakura howled in agony, making Sakura shake her head in agreement at the action.
"It's ready!" She said happily, placing the cups in front of the two and taking a seat. When they continued to glare, even over the rims of the cup when taking a sip, she slammed her own cup onto the smooth surface to create something else for them to concentrate on.
"What is wrong with you people?!" She shouted, unaware of how her face was contorting in her fury. "Just stop glaring!" Sakura suddenly stopped and looked down at her hand where some cocoa had spilled. "Oh dear, I have to find a towel and clean up this mess!"
After the girl had left, Iruka turned back to Kurenai and almost had a heart attack. She was smiling. Thoroughly confused, the future chunin decided to pick his words carefully. "Why are you happy?"
Kurenai blew softly on her drink's surface, her red eyes shining brightly. "For many things, but mainly because you don't know yet." She smirked at Iruka and thought back to when she was younger. He wasn't such a bad kid; he only needed someone to make sure he stayed out of trouble.
"What don't I know?" Iruka asked, suppressed confusion leaking out despite his best efforts to keep his emotions in check.
"Everything, Iruka." But before she could continue, Sakura came jogging back into the room, breathless and without a rag in her hand.
She grinned shyly, "Excuse me, Iruka-sensei, where do you keep the towels? I haven't been here in a while I seem to have forgotten." Iruka answered quickly, "It's the second door on the left? Oh, I thought it was on the right!" And Sakura ran off. Maybe she still had enough time to clean up the mess before the cocoa left a stain.
"Why did she call me sensei? I know I'm good but I didn't think the girls were calling me teacher from behind my back." Iruka sighed and reclined into his chair, looking extremely smug.
Kurenai couldn't help it. She had tried to keep it in since she first saw Iruka, looking like the twelve year old terror most in the village remembered him as, but the way he acted! 'Just like Asuma was when I first met him… Well, at least after I beat him at a game of chess.' She chuckled softly at the fonder memory before her eyes snapped open in remembrance.
"Shit!"
"Where're you going?" Iruka leapt from his chair when Kurenai brushed past, her heels clicking on the kitchen tiles with every step.
When he arrived in the living room she was already at the door, Asuma slung over her shoulder like a piece of meat that was going to be weighed and quartered. She flashed a small grin, "Sorry, Iru-kun, but I've got to get this idiot home." A soft looked passed over Kurenai's face.
Iruka nodded, dumbfounded, as the woman stepped into the morning fearlessly while still dressed in a kitty-kat stripper outfit. "Don't worry. I'll come back to save you from Sakura. We'll go shopping later, cause you're definitely going to need some new clothes." The devious smirk on her face vanished when Iruka looked closer, trying to figure out if she was sick; not completely hearing the comment.
As the door closed, the boy turned when a sound alerted him of Sakura cleaning up the liquid mess. "What did she mean by that?" He asked, tugging on his clothes, which felt only a little tight to him. You didn't have to buy new clothes immediately if your old ones were getting smaller, right? It wasn't as if he was going to grow that much.
Sakura smiled and threw the towel into the sink, "Iruka-sensei, we can't have you running around in your pajamas for the next three days. I'll just have to find you something before we go out with Kurenai-san." She wasn't happy about sharing Iruka with the older woman, but it was easier if she shared him than losing him all together.
"I know just the spot to get you a quick change. Believe me, he owes you this much at least."
End of Chapter Notes
Done. The next chapters will be coming out soon, after I finish all of my projects and other things.
Don't worry, I'll try my best to get them done quickly.