By: Selim
Summary: When the newlywed Iruka wants to adopt a child, he meets a discriminated boy named Naruto with a dark past. Can Iruka and Kakashi obtain a small family with the boy, or lose him back to the boys original parents..
Pairings: Kakashi x Iruka, Sasuke + Naruto
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
Information of this fiction: This is a slight AU. Though it has to do with Ninjas, has Kyuubi, and both Kakashi and Iruka are at designated jobs in the manga, some things are different. Instead of 25, Iruka is only 22, and Naruto is 9 along with all the other kids he grew up with in the manga. Beware of OOCness, because there are so many characters, and the amount of manga I've read only introduced a few. Also, this is being beta'd now – just for y'all to know.
Thanks for reviewing (FF) Chewy-Chan, IceNight009, Ankotenshi, AlaskanTiger, Coldplayer, Buried Fairy Tale, Silver fox aka Vash, FXL, Flaming Beauty, Anon, ERM, Deep Blue Dragon, BlackMoon13, Zozma, Ed-N-Envy's Matchmaker, Mrs. Kyou Souma, (AFF) Lexy, InuyashaIsMine, Lunaangel18, Sappirexkat2, Briryan, Pixagi, Hitomi no Ryu, Gonrie, Inoku, AssasinsKiss, WendyGhost, and FallingStAr
"You're not leaving me alone."
Iruka tuned out his lover by busying himself with his work – making a bento box for his lunch. It had completely slipped his mind that the Chuunin exams were approaching, and the day before the semester changed, Anko would be leaving his class unattended so she could participate in her part of the exam, terrorizing genin into thinking they didn't have what it took. With no one else able to teach the pre-genin course, Iruka was called up from his leave a little early to handle his students.
"-I wouldn't know what to do." Kakashi's voice laced on about why he was unfit to be taking care of Naruto on his own. Said boy was lying on the floor in front of the television, drawing. The boy's mouth moved in a wordless motion, as though he were talking to someone.
With a glance towards the boy then at his unmasked husband, Iruka rolled his eyes. "Really Kakashi, nine-year-old healthy children collapsing from heart attacks? If that happens to Naruto, I'll stay home – but it's not. Just get to know him. Do some things he'll enjoys doing and what you enjoy doing – that's not perverted! – and get to know him better. Even you could do that." Iruka walked towards Naruto, bending down. "I'm going now, take care of Kakashi?"
Grinning, Naruto hugged Iruka. "Okay! Have fun!" With a quick wave, the boy turned back to his unfinished masterpiece, clutching his green crayon tightly as his eyes narrowed in concentration, closely Iruka could hear the boy whisper under his breath, "Are you sure that the fox should be drawn with a red smile?" Unnerved some, Iruka stood up and approached Kakashi once more.
"Why not go teach him to use a shuriken?" Iruka suggested heading towards the door with what few items he did take to class, including his bento box. "I'll be back by five, Kakashi." He smiled brightly before leaving the silver haired jounin alone in the room, blue eyes gazing up at him with curiosity.
"Hm. Shuriken training doesn't seem too bad…" Kakashi set the breakfast bowls in the sink, deciding he'd wash them later.
"Ah…Kakashi-san?" Naruto whispered, almost softly. "How old are you?"
"Twenty-five, why?" He asked, pulling his orange book (the first in the ongoing series) from the couch cushions where he'd stashed it during Iruka's thorough cleaning of the apartment before they picked up Naruto. The boy was still drawing on the floor, his hand moving quickly as he colored in a vast sky above green. Once or twice, Kakashi noticed, the crayon would slide off the paper and onto the hardwood floor and, in an act to hide his accident; Naruto would scoot over some so his paper would cover over the crayon marks.
"Then why's your hair already gray? I thought only old people got gray hair? I knew a boy, once, whose hair turned gray when he was sixteen. He visited the orphanage recently, and he was bald!" Naruto jumped up, touching his hair quickly as Kakashi ground his teeth together. "I hope I don't get gray hair when I turn twenty-five! I think my hair's cool!"
Slamming his book shut, Kakashi lowered his head. With a firm rub to his temples, he stressed out evenly, "My hair is silver, not gray. Now, go grab your sandals, we're going out." With a nod, Naruto abandoned his coloring utensils on the ground next to the sheet of paper, taking off after the jounin. "We have a choice – training with a shuriken or I could drop you off at the park and we tell Iruka you trained today."
"Can we do both?" Naruto asked, bouncing from foot to foot. Kakashi frowned. It probably would wear him down enough to actually go to bed early. Actually be dead asleep so that Kakashi could do as he pleased. With a certain dolphin of course. A smile made its way across Kakashi's face as he threw open the house door.
"Only if you can keep up."
As quickly as he could, Naruto ran out the door and down the hall, leaving Kakashi to close and lock the apartment door in hope to buy himself some time to be ahead of the copycat. A futile attempt, Kakashi observed Naruto jump down a few stairs before summoning the correct amount of chakra to move himself from that spot to the front entrance of the apartments. He stood there quietly, watching people walk by the apartment complex before the quick patter of feet drew his attention towards the small boy just leaving the building.
"That was cheating Kakashi-san!" Naruto yelled nearly flying towards Kakashi to slam his fist in anger against the trained jounin's chest. With a grin, Kakashi caught both fists midair, lifting the boy off the ground. With a quick turn, he laid the boy across his shoulders, clutching the boy's legs and upper chest to keep him from falling or causing serious harm.
Kakashi just smiled behind the mask, fingers brushing Naruto's sides to make the boy giggle. "Kakashi-san?" Naruto voiced again after they left the district towards the less crowded part of Konoha.
"Hm?" Kakashi asked, adding a bounce to his step to make Naruto spring in the air some.
Naruto quieted some, his breathing falling short. "Both you and Iruka are boys, how are you two married…? I thought only boys and girls could get married."
Kakashi slowed down, thinking on how to explain this. He had hoped this type of question would come later. Or at least when Iruka was around to explain it better. "Ah. Iruka and I love each other."
"But neither of you are girls…"
"It doesn't matter!" Kakashi breathed, trying to calm himself down. "We just fell in love, wanted to spend forever with each other, and were married. It doesn't matter if we're both boys, as long as we're happy." He lowered the child to the ground, bending his knees to look the boy in the face. "Do you have a problem with Iruka-san and me being married?"
"No." Naruto whispered, brushing his sandal into the dirt. "Iruka-san is happy, and I like seeing him happy…even if it's with a cheater like you." He stuck his tongue out playfully before turning to run towards the upcoming park, leaving Kakashi glaring at empty space. "Sasuke-san!" His voice rang loudly through the space.
Watching the blonde haired boy drift over towards the dark haired Uchiha child, Kakashi dropped completely on the ground with a frown. That had gone a little to well. He'd expected Naruto to put up a little fight about realizing he had two daddies rather than a mother and a father. Of course, he is probably just happy to have a family at all. Kakashi stood up with a huff, pulling his infamous orange book out of his ever present vest. Might as well catch up on his reading while Naruto busied himself by playing.
With one quick motion, the jounin was sitting on a bench under a shaded tree.
"Sasuke-san!" Naruto waved delightfully as he ran towards the dark haired boy that was sitting on a swing, pumping his legs out without even moving the seat into the air. "Do you want to play, Sasuke-san?" He asked, running behind the swings to push his friend upwards.
"I'm waiting for my brother, Naruto." The brunette pumped his legs out, still not moving far into the air. Naruto frowned. "He should be here any sec-ah!" He screamed as Naruto pushed him into the air. Trying to break the swing from moving, the toes of his sandals brushed against the dirt but it was too late as he was pushed forward again. "Naruto! Stop that-!" His body was sent once more into the air, defying gravity before he returned back to Naruto, who pushed him again.
No longer was he yelling for the blonde to stop pushing, instead laughter escaped his lips as he cried out to go higher, enjoying the heights he had yet to reach. As he came back down, Naruto was no longer pushing him, instead the swing was harshly stopped. Tilting his head back obsidian eyes met similar eyes and his smile was washed away. "Big brother!" He jumped out of the swing. "Bye Naruto!" He smiled at the boy before grasping his brother's hand, both leaving the park.
Naruto slumped against the swings, sitting down and began moving his legs out to start moving. It wasn't long before a firm weight pushed him into the air. In shock, Naruto looked behind him as the chair was returning to see who it was, only to see Kakashi's concerned face. "Who's that?" He asked, pushing Naruto up.
"Heh!" Naruto threw his legs out forcing himself to go higher. "That's Sasuke, he's in my class. I think." With a squeal, he came back down before Kakashi firmly pushed him again. "I think he's great. He can throw a shuriken really good. I hope he stays my friend."
"When did you meet him?" Kakashi asked, amused by the child's behavior.
"When Iruka went to the school a few days ago. I got to hang out with my class and play outside. There's a lot of people in the class. I remember their faces, but I didn't get to know their names, only Sasuke's." Naruto giggled. "There's that one girl with pink hair that covers her eyes, she's always looking down and brushing her hair over her face. Then there was a really fat kid who was talking to a kid that was yawning and mumbling about going to sleep. There was a blonde who was poking fun at the girl with pink hair, but I don't think she was being mean. And there was…" The boy continued talking.
Finally Kakashi stopped the swings, allowing Naruto to unwind himself. "There're more kids here, Naruto. Try to make more friends." A suggestion, but Naruto seemed unsure of it.
"I want to go train with the shuriken instead." Naruto sternly said, grabbing Kakashi's hand. "Iruka-san said that you are really good with a shuriken." He dragged his silver haired adopted parent towards the woods marked training grounds.
Kakashi smiled, allowing his ego to be brushed. It was something that rarely happened, by Iruka no less. Leaning down, the jounin smirk slyly as he whispered into Naruto's ear. "What else has Iruka said to you?"
Grinning, Naruto ran ahead. "It's a se-cret!" He laughed loudly.
Iruka stepped into his (and Kakashi's) apartment, dropping the keys on the table stand near the door. The school day had lasted longer than he thought since he was doing genin exams for early applicants, even though the year wasn't over. Several students had signed up, forcing the teacher to stay after school while they did every part of the exam, but only three had skilled themselves in both the written exam and chakra control. It left Iruka tired.
Being that it was nine at night, he wasn't too surprised that Naruto hadn't come to greet him upon entering the apartment. Instead, he was greeted by the flicker of light from the television lighting up the kitchen. Said kitchen had seen better days. Bags of ramen sitting next to a couple of cans of beer and juice littered the table with two empty bowls that seemed to have spilt.
Turning, Iruka glared at the lazy eye watching him carefully from the couch before pretending to go to sleep again. A blonde head ducked into the older male's neck, trying to continue sleeping. "Look at this mess…" Iruka chided his husband while putting dishes into the sink and trash in the pail. "Sometimes I wonder if I'm taking care of two nine-year-old boys, and not just one."
"Wouldn't that make you a pedophile then?" Kakashi smiled. Iruka sighed.
"For the love of – Kakashi, what is all this ice cream doing on the counters! It's melting into a sticky mess! Don't tell me you let him have too much ice cream before he fell asleep?" Walking towards the couch, Iruka pulled Naruto away from the older man, rubbing his thumb across Naruto's face. Skin stuck to his thumb, confirming the ice cream suspicion. "Get that kitchen clean, Kakashi. I'll put him to bed." He turned to walk towards Naruto's bedroom.
Crunch!
In shock, Iruka lifted his foot to see what he'd stepped on, expecting the worse. His chocolate eyes widened at the drawing that Naruto had been working on that very morning. It wasn't his usual foxes that he was always drawing. This one consisted of three block figures, one with spiky gray hair and one eye (Kakashi, Iruka smiled). Beside the block-Kakashi was a dark haired block figure with a scar across the nose to show it was Iruka. Right beside was a little blonde haired child-block. Our family, Iruka reflected, repositioning the heavy boy in his arms. "If he has a food-induced nightmare, you're handling him tonight." He finally made his way towards the bedroom, ignoring the glare being given to him by his husband.
Laying the boy on the bed, Iruka glanced over Naruto's attire, deciding if he should test his chances of keeping the boy asleep and dress him in pajamas. Since it was turning rather warm, the boy was dressed in loose shorts and a tee shirt, giving him room to move around in the clothes, but it wouldn't overheat him during the night. Pleased that Naruto would be okay, Iruka left the room and returned to the living room to help clean up the mess that remained.
Since he had cleaned the table, it was looking a little better. Kakashi was cleaning the dishes for that day which helped a bit. "Since the place is such a hazard zone, I can assume you and Naruto had a good day?" Iruka asked, walking behind his husband and wrapping his arms around the jounin's chest.
"Yes." Kakashi nodded. "He wanted to know why one of us was not a girl."
Surprise came over Iruka's face. "How did you respond?"
"Explained that we were in love. Asked him if he had any problem with us being together, he said he didn't have any problem with it. Incase you're wondering." He added the last bowl in the drainer before turning to lean against the counter. Iruka leaned forward, joining their bodies against each other, his arms wrapping around the jounin's neck to tug at the knot holding the mask in place. As it fell towards the ground, neither wasted time in pressing hungry lips together in a feverish kiss. When they pulled apart, Kakashi continued. "I took him to the park, pushed him some on the swing after the kid, Uchiha Sasuke, left the playground. Then, we went to throw some kunais at a target. He's better now," Kakashi said off handedly. "Later, he weaseled some ramen out of me. Defiantly Arashi-sensei's kid. If I hadn't saved all that money since I started getting missions, we'd bleed dry." Iruka nodded. Who would have thought having a kid was so expensive?
Reaching up, Iruka played with the metal protector covering Kakashi's eye. The copycat had made it clear at the beginning of their relationship that the protector wasn't to be removed without his permission. It was Kakashi that removed the last face covering material, allowing his red eye to make itself known. Leaning forward, Iruka kissed Kakashi's scar before tugging his lover's hand towards the bedroom. "We'll clean the rest tomorrow. I want to thank you for bonding with Naruto."
"You know me, Dolphin." Kakashi smiled, claiming the academy teacher's lips in a quick kiss. "I aim to please."
Seductively, Iruka pulled the jounin into the bedroom, the door shutting behind them. "Let's hope that aim's right then."