The children made Iruka cards for Christmas. They made Iruka feel thankful, thankful that they were too young to understand sarcasm.
"Thank... Thank you. It... it's... lovely."
He wasn't sure what it was. But, it reminded him to take the red crayons out of writing utensil bin. He knew he had been forgetting something.
"I'll make sure to treasure it."
This one he could identify. It was himself and what he suspected was Kakashi. He was in a cage. Kakashi was letting him out of it. It was captioned, 'Iruka-sensei lives in the basement.'
"Oh, more. Great. Great. That's just what I need, thank you."
Just when he had been hoping that was the last of them.
"What is this, Konohamaru?"
It appeared to be a lemon with a ponytail and a line across the middle of it, sitting next to an apple with an orange book. There were little zig-zag yelling lines coming from the lemon.
"Uncle Asuma says you and Kakashi-sensei are fruits."
Iruka laughed humorlessly. "Oh does he? That's very interesting."
He looked forward to putting them in his bizarre drawings which should never again see the light of day drawer with all of the other disturbing doodles the 6-year-olds he trained for combat produced for him.
But, on the way home Kakashi asked, "What do you have there?"
"Nothing." He folded the pile of papers and stuffed them in the inner pocket of his flak jacket.
Kakashi inched in close. Iruka gave him a warning shove. A small scuffle ensued, resulting in Kakashi getting a handful of snow shoved down the back of his pants. It didn't seem to bother him nearly as much as the handful of snow he pressed against Iruka's face bothered Iruka. Somehow someone lost a shoe in the process. Kakashi came out on top, as usual. He helped Iruka up with one hand and fanned the pictures with the other.
"They're all geniuses," Kakashi enthused.
When they got home Kakashi hung the picture labeled 'Iruka-sensei lives in the basement' on the refrigerator. Iruka waited until he wasn't looking to put it away in the drawer.