Alright! I received so many positive reviews it encouraged me to finish this chapter quickly and post it up. Oh yeah, and for all those who think this is gonna be a simple, sweet fanfic with no real drama...think again!! All things in good time...he-he-he. I shall hook you all to this story and make you beg for more. Ha-ha-ha. /coughs and straightens up/ Anywho, hope ya'll enjoy this chappie. One last thing before I began this story. A big thank you goes out to all my wonderful readers and reviewers for taking the time to comment. I couldn't have gotten anywhere without your support.
Chapter 3. Snow
All was silent in Kakashi's house. Inside the bedroom, Kakashi slept silently, one arm sloppily curled around Iruka in a protective embrace. The older man was pressed up against him from behind and their two bodies shared the warmth provided by each other. The only one stirring at all was Naruto, whose little form twitched and turned in the throes of a nightmare. Outside of the large room the small phosphorescent lights of the kitchen microwave has just changed to three-o-clock when he woke up screaming.
"Naruto? What is it?!" Iruka asked, startled into waking, voice combined with panic and sleepiness.
He sat up swiftly, causing Kakashi's arm to slip, and drew the distraught boy closer to him. 'Judging from the tears rolling down his cheeks he must have had one hell of a nightmare.'
"It's okay, Naruto. It's okay."
"Wait...wha? Wha's goin' on?" Kakashi asked, voice slurred heavily with sleep.
Rubbing his tired eyes distractedly, he neglected to notice he was a lot closer to the edge of the bed than he thought. Before he could grab anything, he slipped off the bed and landed with a muffled thud on the soft gray carpet.
Naruto saw this and burst into peals of laughter, earning an odd look from Iruka. When Kakashi's head popped up from the floor Naruto started laughing even harder. Kakashi raised a questioning eyebrow at his boyfriend, who, much to his dismay, was cracking a grin.
"What? What is it?" he asked while thinking 'Wow...that was odd. Tears at one moment and all laughter the next. This kid's mood is so unpredictable.'
Naruto giggled again while pointing at Kakashi...or rather...Kakashi's hair. He understood the message clearly. In the middle of the night, he had fallen victim to one of a teenage girl's worst nightmare - bed head.
He immediately reached up to try and fix his hair, but silver-colored locks stuck up stubbornly in all directions on one side of his head while the other side was flat from resting against the pillow. Nothing he did seemed to help. In fact, Naruto and Iruka both silently agreed that it was only making his hair worse.
"Alright, alright. Give it up already." Kakashi declared in frustration, giving his hair one last quick run-through with his fingers.
Naruto quieted down and settled for hiding his giggles behind small pale hands. He suddenly seemed to remember his dream because he cried out before latching himself onto Iruka's arm. Tears flooded his cheeks, retracing their paths from earlier.
"...wasn't my fault...wasn't...my fault...I'm sorry...I didn't...I DIDN'T!!" he shrieked at last, releasing Iruka to claw at himself.
"Naruto! Naruto!" the brown-eyed man called loudly as he gripped the child's shoulders.
Naruto's normally bright blue eyes were glazed over, dulled by confusion and fear. It was as if he didn't even recognize the man who had taken him in just the other day. Iruka began to panic a bit when the child started hyperventilating. He wrested away from his grasp and continued to claw at himself, dragging his fingernails down his arms.
"Naruto." Kakashi said, having appeared behind the little boy and quickly restrained him, gently but firmly holding Naruto's hands behind his back so he couldn't do any more damage.
"...I didn't...I-I wasn't...it wasn't me...it wasn't...wasn't...no..." the blond repeated over and over again slowly, the last part coming out in a sort of defeated sigh.
His thin frame stopped shaking and slumped down further in Kakashi's hold, looking smaller than ever.
"..I didn't...k-kill...her..." were Naruto's last words before he collapsed, unconscious, against the older man.
"Naruto!" Iruka shouted, panicking.
Kakashi stood with the boy in his arms and proceeded to carry him to the bed in a manner so calm it was eerie. Iruka looked on helplessly as his boyfriend went into the bathroom, came out with a box in his hands, and then proceeded to dress the scratches on Naruto's arms.
"Kakashi." he said at last, watching as the man settled Naruto into the bed.
He walked over and pulled Iruka into a gentle hug, rubbing his back in small, soothing circles with one hand.
"He'll be okay, Iruka. He's just afraid. Very afraid."
Iruka took comfort in Kakashi's words and slowly closed his eyes, enjoying the closeness. He leaned against him, letting his head rest against the older man's chest and breathing in the heady scent of something...cologne maybe. Yawning softly, he felt himself growing heavier and heavier. The last thing he thought before he fell asleep was 'Kakashi...you'd make a good bed to lie on.' and he swore he could hear Kakashi chuckling.
'Did I say that out loud?' Iruka asked himself sleepily.
Kakashi stood perfectly still until he was absolutely positive that Iruka was asleep. He scooped him up bridal style, quite surprised at how light he seemed. The man wasn't a featherweight, at least not by his standards, but he probably weighed no more than 140 pounds at the most. Factoring in his age, build, and height. Iruka was actually quite slender for his twenty-two years.
He deposited Iruka on the couch before leaving briefly and returned a few minutes later with a pillow and blankets in hand. Draping one blanket around the sleeping man, he then wrapped the other around himself and plopped himself on the opposite side of the couch.
'I think it'd be best if Naruto sleeps by himself. If he wakes up and has another episode like that, there is no telling what he might do. The door's still open, so we'll hear him if anything happens.'
As soon as his head hit the pillow he was asleep again, having wonderful mixed dreams about Iruka and his little orange novel. When he woke up what seemed like such a short time later, he decided to remain awake for the day.
'It's only six- something-or-other. I wish I could go back to bed...'
Knowing full well he would be unable to fall asleep again, he dressed in a clean pair of well-worn blue jeans, a form-fitting black shirt, a white shirt with long baggy sleeves over that hung down over the edge of the black one, and a soft navy cotton sweatshirt. Despite the layers of clothing, the cold in the house still bit through enough to make him shiver.
Kakashi started the coffee maker and waited patiently for the coffee to brew. Once he had enough to fill his cup, he poured in a small amount of sugar and stirred. He took his drink outside without bothering to slip on his coat.
As he had expected, the blizzard had hit Konoha City hard and left disaster in its wake. From the shelter of the porch he could see the icicles hanging from all of the near-by power lines. Most of the plants were buried by a deep layer of snow that had fallen overnight. A white orb in the sky shone down on the otherwise darkened city; the moon's light reflected on the clear surface of the road in front of his yard.
"Black ice. That's never a good sign. I'm surprised we haven't lost power yet." Kakashi said, looking out over the glittering streets.
A sip of the hot brew in his cup did little to warm him. He wrapped his hands around the steaming mug but even the heat from the freshly poured coffee wasn't enough to make the numbness in his hands go away.
He took another sip and let the steam from the cup waft up into his face, bringing with it the wonderful aroma of coffee.
"Naruto's persona is so unpredictable...And not just that... its so unstable. What the hell happened to that kid to make him act so...violently towards himself?" Kakashi asked to no one as he gazed at the cloudy veil over the night sky.
Through a hole in the clouds he could see a large crystal ring encircling the moon. It was a wonderful sight, but the captivating image was soon blotted from the sky by thick clouds heavy with snow.
"Ice crystals and dust...whoever would have thought it could look so beautiful up in space."
He finished his quickly-cooling coffee and set the empty mug down on the iced-over porch railing with a clink. Now his hands were freezing, as were his ears and nose. He stuffed his hands into his pockets to warm them.
"Naruto said...that he didn't kill 'her.' Whoever she is...He blames himself for someone he lost that was close to him. He could be talking about his mother. No matter how unfortunate the circumstances may be, no matter how he got to where he is now...he had parents when he was born...What happened to them remains a mystery unless Naruto tells us."
Kakashi continued to mull in his thoughts out loud, running them off of logic and common sense. Of course, he also had his own memories to remind him of his darker times in life. With slight difficulty, he lifted his right sleeve just past the elbow to reveal a row of three raised scars. They stood out vividly against the otherwise pale skin of his forearm.'Reminders of the past...Like I need any reminders.' he thought contemptuously.
The scars were old, almost as old as he was. He had been only seven years old when he had received those raised lines on his arm. More often than not he hated the markings; they did nothing except remind of him and his father's occasional drunken rage. But sometimes he loved them because they really were the only thing he had left of the man.
Flashback...
Kakashi ran down the little path to his house and shut the door behind him quickly to block out the taunting voices of the children. It wasn't his fault he had silver hair and black eyes. The doctors had stated that these two factors were due to a strange genetic mutation of a rare form of albinism. His type of albinism hadn't even been given a name yet, but some of the top researchers were hesitant to call it albinism at all because it lacked most of the defining features of this genetic mutation.
Rather than white hair or even pale blond hair, his was silver, and in place of the usual violet irises associated with albinism, there were black. And the vision problems that normally occur with the condition were non-existent in his case. In fact, Kakashi's sight was actually enhanced. He had excellent vision. 20/5 to be exact.
However, none of the children at school seemed to care about it at all. They didn't care about what medical conditions he had or what doctors and researchers had to say. All they knew was that Kakashi was different from the rest of them. He wasn't like the children and he didn't fit in, so he was constantly teased about his appearance.
Wiping the tears from his eyes before they could fall, he let his backpack slide off his shoulders to the floor.
"Dad?" he called out in the empty hallway.
"'kashi...thash you?"
Kakashi turned against the direction that the slurred voice was coming from. He knew what it meant...that his father was drinking, drunk, or drunk and drinking.
"I've got homework , Dad. I'll make dinner later, 'kay." he started up to his room.
He didn't want to be around his father when he was drunk. The sickly sweet stench of spilled alcohol and the sour odor of vomit was something he just could not stomach...and the entire house smelled like it except for his room. It was the only room in the place where he could escape from everything if he needed to. His mother wasn't around at all...he could barely remember the details of the funeral 4 years ago, when he was only three years old.
"Com're son and shay hi to your fatherrrr. Nowsh." came the voice.
Kakashi winced at the sound of glass shattering on the floor He sighed deeply. His father was one of those people who ended up in an even sorrier state when they were drunk, but on occasions his temper exploded, and that's where it sounded like it was going now.
"I told you I have homework , Dad." he explained as he slowly walked into the living room.
He moved slowly, eyes watching guardedly for any sign of anger. He was so busy paying attention to the foul-smelling vomit on the floor next to the couch that he didn't notice when the broken neck of a glass bottle came flying at him from no where. Instinctively he raised his arms over his face, but that wasn't enough to block out the pain.
He let out a piercing scream as sharp glass dragged across his right arm, tearing easily through the skin. Red rivulets of blood ran down and stained the dirty gray carpet.
"You hate me, don't youuu...Yourrr own fathersh...You hate me!!" Kakashi's father exclaimed drunkenly, crocodile tears pouring down his face.
Kakashi wanted to go over and hug the pitiful man, wanted to comfort him, but his mind was on the needle darts of pain in his arm. Without a second glance he turned and ran up to the safety of his room where he proceeded to cry out his frustration.
Later that night after he'd bandaged the scrapes as best he could, he crept quietly through the house and did what he couldn't make himself do before. He kissed his father on the cheek and returned to his room, futilely trying to rub the smell of alcohol off of his clothes.
End Flashback...
Kakashi felt a light pressure on his leg and looked down to see a chibi face with messy blond hair and dark blue eyes staring back at him.
"Naruto." he said louder than he meant to.
Rather than flinching away from the man, Naruto clasped tightly onto Kakashi's leg and hugged it.
"What are you doing out here, Naruto? It's really cold outside. You don't have any proper clothes to wear in this type of weather."
"Look." he said while pointing out into the night sky with one small, bandaged hand.
"What?"
Kakashi glanced at the sky, but didn't see anything unusual. That was, until something so cold it almost burned landed on his cheek and melted . He touched the wetness and brought it before his eyes. He looked back up at the sky to see tons of little white flurries fluttering gracefully down from the sky.
"That's snow, Naruto." he explained as two more flakes landed on his face.
"Snow?" the boy tilted his head to the side questioningly.
He held his hand out and a little flurry landed on the tips of his fingers. It quickly melted from the heat of his skin.
"That's snow. You've never seen it before?"
"Not snow. It's water. Water's wet." Naruto said while shaking the water from his hand.
Kakashi stared at the boy with amusement on his face. "Well, yes, it is water. But it was snow."
"Water." Naruto argued.
"Naruto..." Kakashi said, smiling at Naruto.
"Snow...?" he watched the small white dots drifting down upon them. "Water...?" he said frowning.
"Both!" he declared gleefully, as if having solved some century-old mystery.
Kakashi burst out laughing as Naruto ran around the small porch and tried to catch snowflakes with his mouth. 'He looks so cute...it's strange. He's like a kid, but sometimes he seems so much older than that.'
He saw Naruto wipe his nose on the baggy shirt he was wearing and decided it was time to go inside before the kid ended up getting sick.
"Come on, Naruto. Let's go inside. We can't have you getting sick now, can we?"
Kakashi headed inside with his coffee cup in one hand but paused in the door way when he didn't hear footsteps following behind him.
"Naruto. Let's go inside. Come on." he repeated, but there was only silence.
Naruto was sitting on the bottom steps of the porch, unsheltered by the roof overhead. Snow began to fall faster, dotting his little form with white specks. His thin arms wrapped around his small frame and Kakashi could see that his shoulders were shaking as he approached.
He sat down beside the boy but Naruto did not even turn to look at him. Instead, he was staring listlessly out into the world beyond his gate, eyes devoid of life, ignoring the cold winter wind that bit at his skin.. A tear trickled down his cheek and dropped off his chin. Naruto didn't bother to wipe it away.
"Naruto? What's wrong? Why are you crying?"
When Naruto replied, he spoke so lowly that Kakashi had to strain just to hear him.
"...nightmare..."
The silence of the night pressed heavily in against them. Naruto continued to cry although he sobbed so silently that the preternatural quiet was not broken. The moon shone its ghostly self through a thick patch of clouds overhead. It was covered up again just as quickly.
"Naruto?" he gently touched the child's shoulder.
That was all Naruto needed. He threw himself against Kakashi unsuspectingly, burrowing his small face into the older man's knees.
"Its okay, Naruto, its okay. You can tell me whatever you want whenever you want." Kakashi said, finally getting over his initial surprise.
Kakashi sat out on his steps in the cold, cloudy night and calmly stroked Naruto's back. He couldn't help but wince every time he felt the roughness of the scars through the shirt, but Naruto made no protests.
Both of them sat out on the porch, gazing out into the world beyond. When Kakashi felt Naruto's small body grow limp against his own he picked up the child and headed inside. The warm air surged outwards like a blast when he opened the door. He shut it swiftly to prevent the cold wind from coming in.
"Naruto?" Kakashi asked, but he was asleep.
He shifted the slight weight of the body to his other shoulder and carried him over to the couch. 'I'm staying awake for the day, so I might as well leave Naruto here with Iruka. He seems much more attached to him than to me. Time for more coffee.'
Kakashi deposited Naruto on the couch, who then promptly rolled up into a ball and settled on Iruka's chest. He couldn't help but smile at the sight. They both looked so cute sleeping peacefully together like that.
Yawning with tiredness not yet banished by caffeine, he walked back into the kitchen and poured himself another cup of coffee. He heaped two spoonfuls of sugar and poured in creamer until the coffee was almost white.
"Ahhh. That really hits the spot." he said after sipping the sweet brew. He had always had a bit of a sweet tooth.
At that moment he realized that there was nothing he could do. It was only 7:30 according to the tiny digits on the coffee pot and work was sure to be canceled for the day. If there was black ice on the road, which there was, then most of the roads would be closed. He decided to flick on the weather channel in his room to check the forecast.
He held his coffee carefully in one hand as he turned on the television with the remote and flipped to the weather channel. He was just in time to catch the end.
"The current temperatures are not expected to lift for another two weeks. This arctic blast is by far the worst cold snap Konoha City has seen yet. The temperature will not rise above the low twenties. Snow and sleet are expected. Power outages are a major problem in urban areas as well as in the countryside. All roads are currently closed due to icy conditions. More on the weather at 9-o-clock." came the voice from the weather reporter.
Kakashi quickly scanned over the forecast displayed on the screen before turning it off. 'Well that settles it then. I guess I'm not going to work today. Neither is Iruka. How are we gonna get the kid proper clothes for this weather? I could walk to a near-by store. Nobody with a decent amount of sanity would be out in the snow like this.'
He took another drink and set the half-empty cup down on his dresser before plopping himself down on the bed. He rolled over to face the ceiling with a half-hearted sigh.
'At least I don't suffer from insomnia anymore. Now I just wake up early...I wish I could go back to sleep, ever if it was just for a little while.'
As he thought this, he felt himself growing sleepy. He yanked the covers over his head and closed his eyes, drifting off into sleep while still dressed in his clothes. Naruto woke him up a short while later with small, gentle prods here and there. They were soft but incessant; the combination was enough to rouse him from his slumber.
Kakashi sat up, rubbed one eye blearily, and stared at the bouncing ball of blond and blue before him.
"What is it, Naruto?"
"Iruka's makin' pancakes!!" he shouted loudly. Then a look of confusion came into his deep blue eyes. "What're pancakes?"
"Umm...pancakes. Well they're-" Kakashi tried to think of the best way to describe a pancake to a child.
"I bet Iruka can show you. Come on. Let's go watch him cook. By the way, Naruto. How old are you again? I don't think I know."
"Nine." he replied. "Now can we go watch Iruka make the pancakes?!"
He proceeded to tug Kakashi by the sleeve of his sweatshirt all the way into the kitchen. Iruka was pouring gooey white batter into a large frying pan on the stove. The mixture sizzled and spattered as it made contact with the hot metal. In another pan large sausages were cooking rapidly.
The tantalizing aroma of cooking meat filled the air thickly. Kakashi heard his stomach growl in anticipation and grinned.
"That sure smells good, Iruka. What are pancakes?" Naruto asked as he stood on his tip-toes to see the stove.
Iruka faced Naruto with a smile. "Thank you for the compliments on my cooking, but don't get too close, okay? This is really hot and you could burn yourself if you aren't careful."
Naruto nodded sagely and took two humongous steps away from the oven.
"Okay. How's this?" he asked after stopping.
"Well, you didn't have to get that far away. I think one really big step would have done it. Why don't you help my friend set the table? When this food is done everyone can eat faster."
Kakashi handed Naruto things to put on the table. The soft clinking of metal and ceramic on wood filled the room. When the older man turned around, he was met with a surprise. Naruto had obediently stacked the plates, cups, eating utensils, and napkins onto the table, but he was looking at the with a curious expression.
The little boy chewed his bottom lip for several seconds and then glanced nervously at Kakashi.
"What are these?"
All sounds in the kitchen seemed to stop momentarily. It was as if everything had been paused by a remote control. Both men looked at Naruto with similar expressions. Kakashi blinked once, twice.
"You don't know what these are? You've never seen things like this before?" he finally managed to get his mouth working again.
'How could he not know what plates and forks and knives are? Did he grow up on the streets. No... That I doubt. There is no way Naruto could have survived his entire life in Konoha alone.'
Naruto looked down at the ground while shaking his head back and forth. 'Please don't be mad at me. please,please,please. I'll learn how to do this right. Please don't yell, please, please, please.' He didn't know he had started to cry until he tasted something bitter in his mouth. Quickly he wiped his eyes and met Kakashi's dark gaze.
"No...no...no."
"Hey there. It's alright. No need to worry because I'm not mad. Come here and I'll show you what to do with these." Kakashi spoke gently as he lifted Naruto's chin. "Cheer up."
The older man wasn't prepared for Naruto's response. His eyes grew wide with fear and he recoiled sharply as if he had been hit. He pulled away further until his back was pressed against the wall, small chest rising rapidly.
Iruka slid the last batch of pancakes onto a plate and switched the burners off. He set the sausages aside on another plate.
"Naruto. Calm down. Nobody is going to hurt you." the chocolate-eyed man said.
Tears squeezed out from between Naruto's tightly shut eyelids. Iruka went over, knelt on one knee, and slowly pulled the crying child into a hug.
"Kakashi is not ever going to hurt you and neither am I. It's okay. You don't have to be afraid of us. You don't have to be afraid anymore."
Naruto wrapped his small arms around Iruka's neck and held on tightly. He stopped sobbing long enough to whisper into the older man's ear.
"I'll try...I'll try not to be afraid any more." he said quietly.
Outside, beyond the curtains hanging in the windows, it began to snow.
Nothing much happened in this chapter and I'm sure the ending didn't make much sense, but I wanted to focus on the bond between Iruka and Naruto. The snow was supposed to stand for a new beginning. Like Naruto's life is starting over again with a clean slate and its his chance to make everything better for himself. Yeah, that sort of thing. Within the next two chapters I should introduce more characters. Happiness. Oh yeah! For those who caught this week's episode of Naruto, it was so cool! The new episodes only come on every Saturday and right now we are on episode #76. And in a few more, my all-time favorite character will be joining the anime. Yay for Itachi!!