Disclaimer
I do not own 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 know I said I was going to have this chapter out by Christmas, and I did have it finished by then, but then, you know, CHRISTMAS got in the way. Involving buying last minute presents, opening small presents and finding out that they are big presents, seeing relative, both liked and unliked, and avoiding a lovesick suitor trying to get me alone upstate.
It's been an interesting Christmas.
The village of Konoha was known for its freak weather. Sometimes, it would snow during the summer and blistery days would be greeted in the summer. Of course, the weather made it fit for these 'unnatural' natural occurrences to happen when least expected. Many a civilian had been caught in one of those strange snowstorms when wearing nothing more than a tank top and shorts.
This was one of those days. Only a week or two ahead of winter, Crisp winds and crunchy leaves were anticipated. It was not expected to rain straight for a full twenty four hours, making the earth and everything in it seem foggy and spongy at the same time.
It was with these thoughts that a certain jounin stared out the window, a dilemma stirring in his mind that was struggling to be fixed. Should he run after the chunin who had just been in his room, or stay and keep away from a future predicament? Both would result in a confrontation.
"I might as well..." Kakashi muttered, slowly crawling out of his bed to find a pair of pants and his mask. Sure, he could show his face to Iruka, the little Iruka it may have been, but not to the rest of the village. "He's probably run home."
With a yawn, Kakashi grabbed his coat and umbrella, glaring outside to the weather. Rain was so horrible, snow was nice, wind was too, but rain was evil when coupled with either.
"Ma, the last day." He said to himself as he moved outside, receiving a face full with rain and trudging into a puddle of mud. "And just the way I wanted to spend it: in the rain, with mud in my shoes."
The jounin shrugged his shoulders, creating another barrier for the weather to pass and stumbled down the street. It didn't make sense to use the rooftops, it was only windier up there, and down on the ground was probably when Iruka was at the moment.
The most probable place for the younger man to be was at his house. It was closest, possibly the place where Iruka felt at home, and it was dry. Kakashi's face broke into a small smile at the thought, his footsteps quickening despite his many years of ninja training.
In a few moments, with much jumping over mysterious looking puddles that might be a few feet deep, Kakashi found himself at the chunin's house. Tapping his feet, allowing some of the water to drip off to form another puddle, he tried the door.
Only to find it locked.
And to make things worse, when he turned around he found a kitten, which had been near Iruka's house a few days ago, meowing pitifully next to him. After finding out that the umbrella provided protection from the storm, and the person holding it looking vaguely familiar, the orange feline had crept up and clung to the warmth source.
"Let me guess." At the sound of a voice, two greenish-yellow eyes darted up to lock with a singular steely blue, "You want to go inside." An obnoxious meow was Kakashi's response.
"You don't need to be so mean." Kakashi pouted then promptly straightened his face, finding it stupid to converse with a cat. With another sigh he stooped over and picked up the cat, shoving it inside his coat.
When he felt the prick of little claws and teeth against his chest, Kakashi decided that maybe he shouldn't shove cats into coats anymore. Grunting slightly, it was hard to do a back flip onto a roof while holding a struggling cat and an umbrella, Kakashi looked at the windows on either side of the small house.
"What should I do, ketsunoana-neko?" Kakashi said happily, petting the mass of half dried fur that was currently knowing on his mask base.
Hearing what it had been called, and being thoroughly offended, the cat hissed and bounded off his chest, landing on the roof with a little 'oof'. Shaking itself, the kitten bounded away towards the end of the roof and to the back door. On the edge of the roof it looked back for a moment, and, Kakashi swore later on, arched an eyebrow and seemed to slip off.
"SHIT!" Kakashi yelled, hoping no one heard, and sprinted after the feline, praying to all the gods that the stupid little ass-cat survived so he wouldn't have to make a matching little grave for it in this crappy weather. Plus he forgot his umbrella behind him. Stupid cat.
He found the kitten huddled near the back door, the back light shedding an eerie glow in the haziness.
With a snide look at the ninja, the kitten scratched gently at the closed door, giving a loud meow that didn't seem to fit the small frame. Another loud demand was issued when Kakashi turned around to find his umbrella, cursing the kitten under his breath when he found the umbrella four houses down.
Dropping into a large puddle didn't help the man's mood as he stalked over to the door, glaring at the small animal the entire way. Pushing on the door and finding it open led Kakashi to wonder at how Iruka ever became a shinobi, but then, remembering how he had once been in the house, Kakashi reasoned with himself that maybe it was he who left the door unlocked.
Fumbling over things strewn on the ground, Kakashi almost tripped from the cat bolting into the room the moment the door had opened wide enough. Fumbling around in the dark, the man looked for a light switch with his hands, trying to avoid the invisible obstacles he kept hitting. Various things and the cat, at least three times with two being intentional, were hit before the room was basked in light.
"Yo, Iruka?" Kakashi called out softly, looking around the room. The kitchen he was in smelled slightly stale, meaning that no one had come into the house since he left a couple of days ago. Shrugging after opening a window to allow the air to circulate, Kakashi turned to leave to resume his search only to find the kitten sitting near the door, eyes sorrowfully locked on the man.
The ninja studied his opponent for a moment; analyzing motives as the cat unfurled itself form its sitting position and trotted over. "MROW!" It screamed as it curled around his legs then dashed over to a small dish next to a counter, visibly empty, and then sat down.
The gray haired ninja scratched his head and walked back to the counter, taking in the house as he moved. A few articles of clothing scattered throughout the connecting living room, probably from his last visit with the child Iruka, a small bouquet of flowers put in a vase on the table, maybe from one of those kids?
Groaning to himself, he glanced down at the kitten, which was now kneading his pants leg, looking up expectantly for food. "I don't know where he keeps cat food!" The kitten meowed again, digging its claws deeper into his leg.
"You're just going to have to wait." Kakashi growled at the small animal, reaching down to detach it from his pants, dropping it quickly on the couch and racing for the door, and back into the pre-mature darkness of day.
Kakashi grimaced when he looked out from under his umbrella, trying to find the sun, a somewhat large drop of rain falling on his cloth covered nose, 'He didn't have to run away as if I were the plague.' He thought with a frown, shaking his head and withdrawing it back underneath his umbrella, watching the world through one eye.
Before he could continue with that train of thought, it was that or think of Iruka, which was slowly becoming commonplace, Kakashi was stopped when he spotted the hokage walking, holding the hand of his grandson in one hand, the other holding up a large enough umbrella to cover them both.
As he tried to walk past the hokage spotted his stealth movements, who would use such skills when touring the village, and hailed him over. "Kakashi! What are you doing out here in such awful weather?"
"I could ask you the same thing, hokage-sama." Kakashi answered, moving closer, but still keeping a noticeable distance. "I might just be I enjoy walking in the rain-"
The hokage smiled, "In your sandals." He rubbed at his chin thoughtfully, allowing Konohamaru to move away and peer suspiciously at the two old men near-by who were playing go, both slipping pieces onto the board when the other wasn't looking. "I am sure a jounin like you owns at least one pairs of closed-top shoes?"
"Of course, hokage-sama, I just...Forgot about them." Kakashi replied, hand rubbing the back of his head as he ducked slightly, completing the look of incompetence that was often labeled to him.
A rising of the eyebrow was his answer. "Yes, Kakashi, but make sure you take care of yourself. I don't want you to get sick in the next week or two, that wouldn't do any good at all for your team." He stooped to grasp his kin's hand, dragging him from the go game with a hidden, second battle going on, continuing down the street back to his office, hoping to get some work finished on this dull day. "Just make sure you find him. He might be at the memorial."
Instead of questioning the hokage, and one never did so, Kakashi took his advice and turned around and tread in the opposite direction.
After a few moments of silence, the ninja found himself in front of the long slab of stone; every ninja who had ever failed or been defeated in the line of duty for Konohagakure had their name carved into it. And huddled in front of the monument was a crouched figure, hand reached out, pressing against two names.
Kakashi stared at the silent man for a moment, wondering if he knew that he was now here, and watched with a bored, but slightly worried, eye as Iruka abruptly stood up and strode over to where he was standing. He smartly decided to ignore the feeling of dread that filled his stomach when Iruka came closer and the need to flee that accompanied it.
When the chunin stopped, he was completely underneath the umbrella that was held by another, his face directed to the floor. "Kakashi-san..." He muttered. As a response, Kakashi dipped his head slightly so he could hear better, the quiet rain was suddenly causing too much noise at the moment.
If one were passing by right now, it would appear as if the two were romantically engaged.
"Do you hate me?" Iruka said, glancing up to check Kakashi's reaction, his hands twisting around themselves as he worried his bottom lip; an endearing trait he had picked up from one of his younger students. Black hair plastered to the back of his neck, still wet, strands partially sticking to the sides of his face.
The whispered question, spoke so sincerely, shocked the hardened ninja for a moment. Instead, he simply stared at the man opposite of him, glancing at the tears that were sticking the separate eyelashes together into clumps. Without knowing what was happening, his arm moved and his hand cupped the tan cheek in front of him, rubbing the smooth area directly underneath the thin scar that crossed the face.
"I don't think I could." And Kakashi leaned in to capture the slightly bruised lips of the endearing man.
The next day in Konohagakure was blissfully perfect. The rain had stopped, the earth was still, and the world seemed at peace. The two ninja curled underneath one comforter moved closer together, a kitten on the bed waking up and giving a slight sniff before jumping off and running to the kitchen. Staying awake to cuddle and simply bask in each other's presence had tired them, strangely, to an obscene degree, so they didn't move to follow.
For one, though, the exhaustion was the result of a sudden growth spurt.
A blue eye, with it non-matching other, opened to greet the pale sunlight that filtered through the window directly above the small bed. With a soft sigh, and a gentle stretch of his arms underneath his borrowed pajamas, Kakashi moved so he was, once again, under the covers with the chunin, Iruka, who was slowly coming to.
Back to his original age, and mentality, the younger man took in his surroundings, taking stock of his room. Closing his eyes to go back to sleep, the opened to slits of confusion when the found an object that had not been placed there by the homeowner: one Hatake Kakashi.
The man seemed perfectly at ease, shifted up close to the other warm body under the covers. When he felt Iruka stir, his mismatched eyes turned up to stare at the tan figure curled slightly underneath him. Mask still firmly in place, he had never really gotten used to having it off with another person, except the miniature Iruka, Kakashi smiled, hoping the shape of his lips could be seen through the mask.
Instead of a smile back, which was expected, the bright, brown eyes clouded over in confusion. Top teeth worried at the lower lip, chewing somewhat on the pad of flesh. Just as the grey-haired man was about to ask what was wrong, he heard the words that made his blood run cold and that which would change his world forever after.
"Kakashi-san, what are you doing here...in my room?" Iruka asked, his now wide eyes staring at the man who was currently in bed with him, no idea why he was with him.
Shit happens. And it always happened to Kakashi.
THE END
Author's Notes
That's how it ends; don't look around underneath this for more. Also, don't think about killing me after this. Here it is, the last Plastic Ponies chapter, the end to a legacy that I had no idea would actually be enjoyed by people.
I think you guys are the reason I kept posting, and so, I just want to thank all you reviewers for staying with me, when I didn't post for five months, spelling things wrong, or just made plot devices that didn't make sense. Ah, what will I do next time? Better check my bio page, there might be a surprise.
Also, before I finish, let me just say that there will be a chapter after this, but it will have absolutely no Kakashi or Iruka in it. I know, then why should I even post it? Because I said this was going to be twenty chapters long and because I don't think I should leave Sakura and Lee alone when buying vegetables. It doesn't seem safe.