Kakashi stood before the Hakage's desk, relaxed, slouched, hands in pockets, the very image of rumpled indifference.
The door opened, swinging silently on its hinges and Tsunade strode in, instructing her ANBU to wait outside with a smile and a single nod of her deceptively sweet face. "Sorry to keep you waiting Kakashi-kun. You look tired, everything ok?"
The shinobi blinked slowly, one eyed, hiding his impatience with practiced ease. "Keshi's been sick. We haven't had much sleep in the past few days."
He could feel his mood darkening, obviously she hadn't called him here to chit-chat. And when his leader addressed him as if he was still six years old it could only mean one of two things, she was either feeling sentimental, or guilty. He wasn't much inclined to deal with either right now. "You summoned me Hokage-sama?"
"Er, yes. I promised I'd keep you informed, we've just finished another series of tests."
Another? When would the woman ever be satisfied? "Do you need more samples Hokage-sama?"
"No. We're as satisfied as we can be that Keshi-chan is your biological daughter."
Kakashi knew he shouldn't be feeling the anger that was just starting to slacken its coils in the pit of his stomach. Konoha has been tricked into raising a viper once before, it was the Hokage's job to be cautious. Although he couldn't shake the feeling that there was something she wasn't telling him.
"I knew as soon as I set foot in Thunder Country that the rumours were groundless. Kabuto was never there. In fact there was never any evidence at all to point to a planned infiltration by Sound."
Tsunade picked up a teacup and sighed as she rubbed gently at the dark ring it had left on an official looking scroll. She sipped at the tepid contents, pulled a face, and put it down again. "So you say."
Now it was Kakashi's turn to sigh, but he didn't. This was the sixth time they'd had this conversation. "It's all in my full confidential report Hokage-sama. I followed my usual practice in this kind of situation. Using my cover as a shinobi bodyguard I flirted with all of the women and slept with several. Trust me, if he'd been around the young servant girls would have been the first to notice."
Tsunade emptied the tea onto a withered plant and refilled the cup with something from a bottle that she took from a bottom drawer in her desk.
"But still, Kabuto-san took a very considerable risk, attacking the very heart of Konoha. Now if he had been in Thunder, had some reason to believe the child is his..."
She didn't like it. The potential chaos Thunder Country had faced the previous year was exactly the kind of situation her old teammate liked to take advantage of. Like the leadership vacuum in Sand when the old Kazekage was killed. It would be out of character for Orochimaru not to try to exploit it.
But… she knew better than to question this shinobi's methods. For all his quirks he was one of her very best spies.
Kakashi curved his eye into a smile. Behind his mask it wouldn't matter that it didn't reach the rest of his face. If she hadn't worked it out he'd be damned if he'd tell her. His daughter was a baby, not a lab rat. "Orochimaru's motives have never been easy to understand."
Her lips curved upwards too, more sad than sweet this time, but just as deceptive. "That much is certainly true. Very well you may go. By the way, has Iruka ever asked for any details?"
His expression didn't falter, although he could feel his fingernails cutting into the palm of his left hand. Tsunade could doubt his competence all she liked, but how dare she question Iruka's integrity. "No Hokage-sama. He knows better than to ask anything specific about a mission."
He turned as if to leave, then hesitated. "Not that there's anything to say, but why don't you want me to tell him?"
She drained her cup.
Shit. She'd been trying to avoid this for months. Since that girl had shown up on their doorstep with a white-haired Hatake infant and Iruka had insisted on taking it in. "Because Kakashi-kun, you may not want to accept this, but I've been through his file. Iruka seems to be a fine shinobi now, but there are some er, irregularities in his past that suggest he might be completely dependable." It was almost the whole truth.
This time Kakashi didn't bother to hide his reaction. Not dependable, what the hell was she talking about? Iruka was the most loyal and dependable person he had ever met. Unless… "Surely don't mean… after the fox…? But he was just a child."
"So were you Kakashi, but there's no indication that you became difficult and rebellious."
True, but he had already been a jounin, a warrior who'd survived a war bloody enough to teach him that becoming difficult never made anything easier.
She looked up from pouring herself more of the pungent liquid and seemed surprised to see him still standing there. "Was there something else?"
Yes, she should get her head out of her butt and start appreciating people like Iruka, whose dedication and hard work kept the village functioning.
"Yes. I'd like to move to a small house, something not too far from the academy. Keshi is getting much more active, she needs more space and a garden to play in. I trust you won't object?"
Tsunade put down her cup making a second ring on the document, it would have to be rewritten anyway. She examined him over her tented fingers.
"I suppose I can't really justify acting as if you are just two bachelors any longer. I won't pretend I like it, but I won't object. Just be careful Kakashi-kun, don't get in too deep with this kid. She passed our DNA tests, but from what we know Orochimaru may have the talent to manipulate even that."
Kakashi bowed deeply and turned on his heel to hide his scowl. Great sennin or not, the woman could be denser than Naruto. DNA be damned, it wasn't a few hours in a woman's bed that made a man a father. It was the long days and months of loving and nurturing. The way a child fitted seamlessly into your life so that, only then did you realize what a gaping hollow there must have been before, just waiting to be filled. And he wasn't even a tenth the father Iruka was.
"I'll bear it in mind Hokage-sama."
With that he teleported away, leaving considerably more leaves in his wake than was absolutely necessary. He knew she much she hated it when he left litter all over her office.
He landed in their bedroom to find his two most precious people exactly as he'd left them. Iruka was sleeping on his back, his hair feathered across his pillow and his lips peaked into a little pucker that would be an irresistible temptation to the even most hard-assed prince charming. Keshi was spread face-down on his chest, her little rosebud mouth nestled into the crook of his neck. Like father like daughter, the little minx was a fast learner. That was Iruka's sweetest tenderest part. Well the sweetest not-naughty part, and exactly where he liked his face to be.
Gently easing the child away, he draped her over a shoulder and crouched to wake his sleeping beauty with a kiss. Thanks to Tsunade they were over an hour late, the one time in his life when he wanted to be punctual.
"Get dressed sleepyhead. Going house hunting remember. With any luck she's still wiped out enough for us to get there and back before she starts demanding breakfast.
Brown eyes flickered open, and softened immediately in recognition. Mmm Kashi, you're up, and looking very lively. What time is it?"
Kakashi produced a metal flask from one of his many pockets and put it on the pillow. "Almost noon, and I wasn't given a choice. Mission room coffee, just came from there, that stuff could wake the dead. Just throw on some clothes for now."
Ten minutes later Iruka adjusted the weight of the sleeping child in the carrier strapped to his chest as they made their way though the crooked streets at the heart of Konoha. It was something Kakashi had brought back from a recent mission in Sand, and much more convenient to use than his improvised wrappings.
"I just wish you'd say where it is Kakashi, I don't like big surprises."
True Iruka didn't like big surprises, but Kakashi couldn't resist surprising him anyway, he just looked so goddam cute when he was caught unawares. "Trust me Iruka, you'll love it."
"I do trust you Kakashi, but I just think we should look around a bit first Get some idea of what's available before we take the first thing we like. It will be so much harder to change our minds later."
Kakashi reached for him with the hand that wasn't holding the pink diaper bag decorated with fluffy bunnies. In a less public place he'd have hauled him in and kissed some sense into him, but he settled for brushing their fingertips together.
"You fuss too much, and worry too much. I don't have time to trek all over Konoha looking at every pile of sticks that someone wants to collect rent on, and neither do you."
As he was speaking he led them around yet another corner and stopped in front of a white stone wall.
Iruka looked around in confusion. "What? You mean…"
Kakashi pushed on the wall and a section, which was actually a hidden gate painted to match the stone, swung open. He stepped through with Iruka close behind.
Within the wall stood a small traditional pavilion, its sturdy wooden structure topped by terracotta tiles and nestled into a well tended flower garden. Iruka just stared, then stared some more, pink blush spreading over his cheeks as his mouth drooped open in awe. Just too goddam cute.
"Oh Kakashi, this is it? Really? I… I love it. But are you sure we can afford it."
Now that they were safely out of view Kakashi pulled down his mask, revealing his satisfied smirk in all its glory, wrapped an arm around him and kissed him… hard.
"Yep, completely sure. It's been empty for a long time. The old guy who owns it knew my father. He moved in with his daughter when his wife died years ago, he knows he should have sold it but he couldn't bear to give up her garden. Wanted to know if he could still come and take care of it."
"You mean all this and free gardening. But the house looks perfect, how can it have been deserted?"
"Tenzo came over yesterday and fixed it up a bit. He fenced the pond too, to make it baby safe, so we owe him dinner."
Iruka tweaked his partner's cheeks playfully. "Kakashi-sempai, I must say you've got some useful friends, but you made the deal so you can cook. So when can we move in?"
"Now. Today. Well it still needs your signature but other than that the paperwork's done." Kakashi handed him a ring with a single large key. "The kids are ready to help us move, all of them. Gai too, any chance to improve his strength. Of course we'll have to treat them all to ramen afterwards, so it won't be much of a bargain."
Iruka snaked his fingers through the shorter hair on the back of Kakashi's head and pulled him in for another kiss. As they separated he maintained his grip, tracking the little twitches of emotion on the face that only he was allowed to see. "You know it's a lot like the house that I grew up in, not the same, but similar. My mother had a garden too."
"Happy times?"
"Mmm. But there's no way you could have known that was there?"
Kakashi turned away and led him up the single step to a doorway arched over by climbing vines. His research had paid off.
"Come on, check out the rest. Keshi's room faces west so she won't wake up too early in the morning, and I'll jutsu a stone bench outside her window so that we can sit and watch the sunset after we put her to bed."
He guided Iruka's hand to the lock and they turned the key together. "We'll make our own happy times, lots of them."
They would too. They would be the perfect happy family. He would do everything in his power to make sure that their child had the kind of perfect happy childhood that they had both been denied.
And no one, not even the Hokage, would stop him.