"So where are we going, Iruka niisan?" asks Naruto.
"To see the Hokage," replies Iruka. Naruto has been living with Iruka for almost a year now and has come far in his training. Soon he will start at the academy.
Naruto trots along beside Iruka, holding tightly to his hand. Other kids claim they are too big to hold their parents' and older siblings hands, but Naruto still hasn't quite gotten used to the fact that Iruka actually wants Naruto to hold his hand.
When they arrive at The Hokage's house, Iruka pushes Naruto in first. The room explodes in a chorus of 'Happy Birthdays' and confetti.
Srunned, Naruto stares around the room, open-mouthed. His friends are there - Shikamaru, Hinata, Choji and Shisui, along with Hinata's mum and little sister. The Hokage is there too with a little toddler in his arms. The Hokage's living room is decked out in balloons and streamers. The group starts singing the happy birthday song and Naruto just stands there dazed and stares at the cake sitting on the table in the middle of the room.
When the group finishes singing, Naruto says, "Is this what a birthday party is?" he honestly looks confused. "Who's it for?"
"It's for you, silly!" says Iruka, bonking Naruto on the head.
"For real?" Naruto doesn't believe it. No one has ever celebrated his birthday before. All his foster parents did was casually remark sometime in October that he's a year older now. Naruto isn't actually sure what day his birthday is. "So is it like, my birthday or something?"
Iruka grabs Naruto under the arms and lifts him up into the air so their eyes are level. "Yes, Naruto," he says, looking Naruto directly in the eye. "Today is your birthday. No joke."
Naruto's face transforms from shock to pure joy. He slips out of Iruka's hands and grins around the room.
Hinata runs up to him and grabs his hand. "Come on!" she says, dragging him over to the table. "You have to blow out the candles!"
Naruto does so and the party gets started. Everyone starts stuffing their faces at different paces. Naruto, who Iruka sometimes jokes has a bottomless stomach, tries a bit of everything. Hinata eats almost as much as Naruto, but with more table manners. Choji eats twice as much as Naruto but not nearly as fast. Shikamaru doesn't eat much at all after seeing the amount his friends are eating. The two toddlers get fed on the sliced fruit - apples and oranges. (Naruto wonders why no one ever mentioned the fact that there is a fruit called an orange. Orange is the best - and so is the fruit.) Shisui is tucking into everything - especially the bowl of chocolate-coated strawberries. Hinata's mum is minding the toddlers, but she still manages to eat a fair bit, while the Hokage and Iruka seem to have disappeared for some reason.
Just as Naruto has discovered the slices of bread covered in sprinkles, Iruka and the Hokage return. Shisui seems to like the bread with sprinkles too, and Naruto begins to wonder just how much more sugar Shisui can eat before he starts to feel sick. The only time Naruto ever feels sick is when he's eaten too much sugar.
"Listen up everyone," says the Hokage. "We were going to go outside for some games, but it has started to rain. We'll have to stay indoors, I'm afraid."
"Aw!" whines Hinata. "Can't we go outside and play in the rain?"
"No," says Hinata's mum. "You'll catch a cold."
So the party games are confined to the Hokage's living room. However, something happens that no one expected. All hell breaks loose. The culprit is not Naruto, who is starting to get a bit restless. Nor is it Hinata, who is going stir-crazy. Nor is it Shikamaru who is sick of being indoors. Nor is it Choji, who accidentally released some of his stored up chakra and is now far too antsy to sit still. Nor does the problem stem from the two restless toddlers in the corner who have started pulling each others' hair.
No, the problem is that Shisui is sitting on the ceiling eating grapes and spitting the seeds at the people blow him.
"Now I know why Shisui is not supposed to eat sugar!" Lord Third says, shielding his face from the seed-projectiles.
"Shisui, come down from there!" orders Hinata's mum, Akira.
Naruto laughs and says, "I wanna sit on the ceiling!"
Two shunshins later and Naruto is sitting on Shisui's lap, staring down at the people on the floor.
Iruka sighs in frustration. He thought that Shisui would be one of the more responsible people at the party, not the one to get a sugar high! Out of the corner of his eye, Iruka sees a toddler disappear through the doorway in the rest of the house. "Konohamaru and Hanabi escaped!" he says.
"Damn!" Akira runs after them. Iruka follows, because he suspects the pair will be hard to find.
A few seconds later, a blur rockets past Iruka, followed closely by an angry Hokage. "Get back here, Shisui!" yells Lord Third.
Leaving the Hokage to chase down Shisui, Iruka continues his hunt for the wayward toddlers. Eventually, he locates Konohamaru hiding under Lord Third's bed. After extracting the toddler from his hiding place vis chakra strings, Iruka takes him back to the living room.
Iruka gets back to the living room at the same time as Akira who has a protesting Hanabi in her arms. "Oh, good, you found Konohamaru," says Akira.
Iruka realizes something. "Who's watching the other kids?"
"Wasn't Hiruzen…?"
"He's chasing Shisui!"
The pair stare at each other in horror and run into the living room. It is eerily quiet and completely empty of children. A moment later, Lord Third appears and asks, "Have you seen Shisui?"
"No," says Iruka, wide eyed. "Have you seen Naruto, Hinata, Shikamaru and Choji?"
"Oh no," says Lord Third, looking as if he is sorely tempted to swear.
"I'll check outside," says Iruka.
"I'll check the house again," says Lord Third.
"And I'll stay here and make sure we don't lose any more children," says Akira, taking Konohamaru off Iruka and putting the toddlers back in the play pen in the corner.
Lord Third heads upstairs and Iruka runs outside. What Iruka finds is three 5-6 year olds and the feared shinobi Shunshin no Shisui playing in a mud puddle. "What the hell do you think you are all doing?" demands Iruka.
Naruto, Hinata, Shikamaru, Choji and Shisui all turn to look at him. Then they all pick up a handful of mud each and throw it straight at Iruka. Within seconds, Iruka is just as muddy as the rest of the children, and as wet too.
"GRR!" Iruka is mad now. He does not like having mud thrown at him. Scowling, he picks up his own lot of mud and throws it. Within seconds, a full-scale mud-fight breaks out. Iruka finds himself enjoying the mud fight.
About five minutes later, Lord Third comes outside and surveys the situation. Then he yells, "Who wants a hot bath?"
Naruto runs over faster than greased lightning. "I love baths!" he says, throwing his arms wide open.
"That sounds relaxing, count me in," says Shikamaru.
"Will we have more food afterwards?" asks Choji, trotting over with Shikamaru.
"Ooh a bath!" says Hinata and follows the boys.
"Oh, thank goodness," says Iruka, and heads over to the house.
Shisui looks up from his mud pie and says, "More water to splash around?" he gets up and grins. "Count me in!"
"If you splash around the water, I'll make you take a shower instead!" says Lord Third sternly.
"Yes, Lord Third!" says Shisui, saluting.
"Now come inside and get all that mud off!" says Lord Third. "And be careful not to get mud everywhere!" Lord Third leads the muddy procession inside. Then he sends Shisui and Iruka to the upstairs bathroom saying, "Iruka, make sure Shisui doesn't flood the bathroom!" Then he sends the four smaller children into the downstairs bathroom where Akira is waiting to clean them up. The toddlers are napping in the reinforced play-pen.
As soon as all the wet and muddy children are clean, They gather in the living room, wrapped in towels while their clothes take a spin in the washing machine.
Hiruzen pulls out a box of old clothes. He is sure the Fourth wouldn't mind him using them for this. "Come here," he says. "You can wear these clothes until your own are washed."
The children crowd around and peer into the box.
"Whose clothes are these?" asks Iruka. "They don't look like yours."
"They were Lord Fourth's," says Hiruzen. "I'm sure he won't mind you kids wearing them for a while. Here, Naruto," he pulls out Lord Third's old Hokage cape and wraps it around Naruto. The cape swamps Naruto, but Hiruzen can't get over how cute Naruto looks wearing it. Hiruzen ties a scarf around Naruto's middle to keep the Hokage cape in place. By the time Hiruzen is finished doing this, Hinata has already pulled out one of Minato's old shirts and pulled it on. Shikamaru and Choji are rummaging around in the box as well. Shisui and Iruka help the smaller boys put on the smallest of the Fourth's old clothes they can find. There are some clothes in there from Minato's childhood, although why he kept them is beyond Hiruzen.
Shisui and Iruka pull on clothes that are a lot closer to fitting them than the smaller children. In fact, the clothes Iruka puts on actually fit him. Hiruzen is surprised. When did Iruka get so tall, Hiruzen wonders. It's almost as if he grew overnight.