A/N

There does seem to be a bit of a glut of 'Kakashi and Iruka have a kid' stories right now (sorry I haven't had time to read them, I'm back at school full time and life is insane). And I probably won't be able to update much, if at all, before June. So... let me know if you're interested in me finishing this ol' thing, however slowly, or difficult as it is for me to give up, I'll just let this be the end.

Naruto pulled the final cardboard box from the back of the giant turtle and tossed it down to Sakura. She staggered back as she barely broke its fall. "Hey watch it! That one's heavy."

"Oh, heh, sorry. Guess I dunno my own strength once I get going."

The girl sat on the box, head bowed just enough to shadow her eyes behind some unruly locks of hair. Naruto froze, eevn he could tell that something was wrong. He hopped down next to her and tenderly brushed the hair aside, she almost looked as if she was going to cry.

"You know it's strange but it's when we're doing stuff like this that I miss Sasuske-kun the most, even more than on missions with Kakashi-sensei."

Naruto lowered himself to sit beside her. "Yeah I know what you mean. It's kinda like the stuff we used to do as gennins. You know all that D-rank stuff."

Her head drooped further. "He's been gone such a long time now, have you ever thought that he's never even seen Keshi-hime? She's a whole big part of our lives that he doesn't even know about."

Naruto leaned in closer and wrapped an arm around Sakura's shoulder. Then he grinned what he hoped was his brightest and most irresistible grin, and punched the other arm into the air. "That just means we'll have all the more to tell the bastard after we bring him back. Now let's get the rest of this junk into the house. Iruka-sensei promised us ramen when we're done."

Sakura rolled her eyes at Naruto's never-ending ramen obsession but couldn't resist the ghost of a smile too. His enthusiasm was too crazy to not be infectious. She swung her feet to kick at the box under them.

"Ok, you can carry this one then, Mr. 'I don't know my own strength'."

Naruto leapt to his feet at once and snatched up the huge box with Sakura still perched on top. She clung to its sides precariously trying to keep her balance, which wasn't easy considering how hard she was laughing. Tears of amusement mixed with tears of sadness in a roil of emotions that even she couldn't identify.

"Stop you idiot, put me down. Naruto! Put me down right now!"

Across town in the Hokage tower Tsunade wasn't laughing. She was feeling more sober and more grim than she had in a long time. The last of three masked ANBU placed a small wooden chest on her desk, lining it up with the two that were all ready there.

"So this is all of them?"

The cloaked figure leaned forward in a gesture that could be taken as either a bow or a nod.

She frowned and stared at the three little caskets, that's what they were and she already knew it, before turning her attention back to her shinobi. They were good, even she couldn't pick up a trace of emotion from them.

"Very well you may go."

The ANBU bowed as one, their trademark stoop that managed to be comical yet eerily sinister at the same time. As the last of them filed out of the room, Shizune brushed past on her way in.

"So there were more."

"Yes but from a different pit, more than a hundred miles from the other, near an old hideout that Orochimaru abandoned several years ago. And judging by the size of the boxes these were younger."

She raised the lid of the chest directly in front of her, slowly, as if she really didn't want to know what was inside. In truth she didn't.

She closed it much more quickly.

"A lot younger, barely more than newborns by the look of it, her skull isn't even closed. But they've been dead longer."

Shizune's eyes widened. "Her? Are you sure they're girls?"

Tsunade snorted in disgust, although her eyes seemed blank, void of any emotion. "No. Not even I can tell the sex of a few bones at a single glance. But all the rest have been."

She flicked a hand over her desk. "Get these to the lab. I'll be down there later to help them work on them."

"No wait…" By now her hands were rubbing little circles at her temples, dragging the skin into surprisingly deep furrows. All at once she looked much closer to her real age than she had in years. "What do you make of it Shizune? Why does every place that we track Orochimaru to have a grave containing the bodies of little girls? And how and why the hell do they all have Hatake DNA?"

Her assistant's eyes fluttered closed and her mouth tightened into a pained expression. "He's already tried to snatch Keshi-chan, and we know that Sound shinobi are still snooping around our borders. He wants something from a Hatake child, a daughter, and it must be very important to him to put so much time and effort into it. But it's still hard for me to believe that these were all Kakashi's children. They couldn't all have been conceived on missions, if he'd been that reckless surely we'd have heard about it long ago."

Tsunade put both hands flat on her desk and pushed herself to standing. She could really use a drink about now. "I have to agree, and it just doesn't seem like him somehow. I mean, I know he cultivates a reputation as a pervert, but even as a kid he took personal loyalty to almost insane levels, and he does seem particularly loyal to Iruka-sensei."

She slid open the bottom drawer of her desk. She was the Hokage dammit, if she wanted a drink she was going to have one. And no hangover in the world could be more painful than delving into one of her old teammates 'little experiments'.

Iruka watched as Kakashi settled their Little Princess in her crib. She was gurgling and jabbering contentedly, full of mashed ramen, and washed clean of the grime she'd coated herself with in a day of crawling around in the debris of the big move. He knew they weren't the tidiest couple, but they were ninjas and order was a natural part of their lives. So Iruka had been amazed at just how many dustbunnies had been lurking behind their furniture, exposed when it was moved from places where it had stood for almost half a decade.

Keshi grinned at them mischievously, then rolled onto her knees and grabbed at the bars of her crib rocking back and forth. Kakashi adjusted her dolphin mobile higher.

"It looks as if she'll be standing soon, then walking, and in terms of control it's all down hill from there."

Iruka looked at them both with a mixture of pride and wonder. How the hell did the man know so much about everything when all he ever read was porn? Then suddenly he bent over clutching at his midsection. "Gah, well I'm glad someone can almost stand. My stomach hurts, that last fish ball was a killer."

Kakashi wrapped an arm around him, not bothering to suppress his chuckle. "I warned you not to compete with Naruto in an eating contest. The surest road to victory in any battle is knowing when to retreat."

Iruka shot him a glance. "Yeah yeah, no one has ever beaten me in a fishball eating contest before."

"Ah, but this is Naruto we're talking about, and he'll surpass us all in the end." Kakashi led him out of the room and across the narrow hall to their own bedroom.

"Here, lie down. Feel better?"

Iruka stretched out at rubbed at his stomach. "Yeah, it's passing." He looked around at their few pieces of furniture. In the larger room it seemed pitifully sparse where it had seemed positively cramped in their old apartment. "The kids did a good job getting everything set up didn't they?"

He hadn't even noticed when Kakashi had lowered himself onto the edge of the bed.

"Mmm, but we should rearrange it a bit, move this closer to the window." He pulled out Iruka's hairband and ran his fingers through the silky locks. "I want to see the morning sun picking out the shine in your hair."

He unbuttoned his shirt and tracked the side of his thumb down the indent between the muscles of his chest. "And see the golden light on all this beautiful golden skin, preferably when it's shining with sweat and trembling with passion."

Iruka relaxed back into the mattress as Kakashi pressed his lips between his pecs. "You silver tongued seducer. By the way what did Tsunade have to say this morning?"

Kakashi sat up and pulled his hands onto his lap. Thinking about their boss was more passionkiller than even he could handle

"Ah, the usual stuff, more questions, more tests. It seems she's finally conceded that Keshi's ours, which is good. As a child of The Leaf she has a cast iron obligation to protect her, but I'm sure there are things she's not telling me."

Irku rolled over to face him. "Oh, like what?

"How would I know? Didn't I just say she's not telling me?" Kakashi wormed an arm around Iruka's waist and breathed into his ear. "But if you like I'll seduce her for you, using my silver tongue, see what I can find out that way."

He skillfully avoided the blow, but the explosion of rage was harder to dodge.

"Fuck you Hatake! Don't joke like that!"

Kakashi was behind him in an instant, gripping both of his flailing hands and pulling them down to his sides. He licked the nape of Iruka's neck and nibbled gently just below his ear. "Any time you like Iruka-sensei. Any time."

"Kakashi! Quit it."

Kakashi repositioned himself, touching their foreheads together and staring into Iruka's eyes with both of his. "You really are angry aren't you? Are you still mad about Keshi, that I had sex with a woman?"

Iruka tried to look away but couldn't. "No of course not… yes, look I understand and all, but it's just… just something I'd rather not think about, ok?"

His anger had passed as quickly as it had arrived and he relaxed a little, trying not to sink too deeply under the spell of that whirling red eye. "Let's not get into a fight on our first night in our new home. Anyway, how could I be mad at anything that gave us Keshi? I'll always love that woman for that, whoever she is."

"But?"

"But… well yes it hurts, thinking about you with someone else."

Kakashi pulled them both down and pressed their lips together, mumbling softly between kisses. "For what it's worth it's always you Iruka, anyone I hold in my arms, anyone I touch and kiss and make love to. This eye is good for that much at least."

Iruka didn't hear him. He was lost in the crimson depths, surrounded by silver words that he could barely comprehend. But it didn't matter.

"Love you Kashi."

"Love you too Ruka."

He'd always known that loving Kakashi came with all kinds of baggage, and in truth he knew that at least half of it was his.

Well, from the reviews I've got so far it seems a number of you are willing to wait for the rest of the story. Thanks so much for your patience and your input (and sweet encouragement -). Look for the next part early in June.

Tampopo.