A/n I felt stuck the past couple chapters so I'm giving in and just doing a time skip… as I'm making this fic purely for my own enjoyment.
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Naruto sat on Jiraiya's shoulders as they walked through the market district, Kakashi silently trailed behind returning any glares or dirty looks tenfold. He would sneak off every so often and return with a new treat for Naruto. Tiny crumbs and sticky finger occasionally finding their way into Jiraiya's hair, not that he would complain much.
Naruto chattered happily about everything and nothing, asking constant questions about how things functioned or why. Jiraiya ignored most of them and told him to ask Tobi-oji when they got home as they made their way gathering supplies for dinner. It had been months since they settled in and started living together. The three of them were still getting used to raising a small boy and breaking the habits he'd learned from being in the street.
The first time, only time, Jiraiya saw the Gaki go over to the trashcan and begin looking for food his heart broke. Hearing about his godson doing it was one thing but to see it was completely different. He nearly choked though when Kakashi sprayed Naruto with a water bottle and told him "no. Bad. Trash is not food" and Naruto sat down with a pout. Tobirama had the not so perfect timing of walking in to see Naruto a little wet, near tears and in a crouched position on the floor. Naruto ran over to him and started crying while dripping his clothes and burying his face in his cloak. They were all lucky Tobirama was the more logical one out of the bunch because they only saw his hand clench in a fist as the other ran through the blondes hair instead of immediately reacting with anger.
Though thinking back on it Kakashi did get creamed by the Nidaime during his scheduled training session but who didn't? Shrugging it off Jiraiya noticed another snack had somehow made it into the boys hands as sticky teriyaki fingers had patted his head and stuck a little. Kakashi muffled a giggle from behind them. "And then, and then Hinata Chan fainted!!!! Right on the ground. I was so worried but her mommy said she would be fine… and this cute boy was laying in the grass watching clouds so I went and lay with him and watched the clouds 2!!"
"Ma ma Naru-Chan you shouldn't call other boys cute" Jiraiya said while looking up at his cute little godson. "They are "… handsome, rugged, friends? He couldn't think of any good descriptions to fill in the gap before Naruto spotted someone familiar in the crowd and teared up.
"Oji-Chan!!!! Frog -Jiji says I'm not cute!" Naruto wailed at the top of his lungs and the whole market place seemed to come to a standstill as Tobirama stood with his arms crossed and Jiraiya visibly panicked with a sticky child lodged in his hair. Naruto started to thrash and attempt to get down but he just got more tangled, twisted and stuck to Jiraiya. Kakashi was quick to take pity and free the child from Jiraiya so he could run to his Oji-Chan. "He said little boys aren't cute and that mean I'm not cute and he prolly doesn't love me because I'm ugly … and … and … WAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH" Naruto sobbed into Tobirama's cloak and rubbed his runny nose against it without any complaint from Tobirama. Memories of his younger brothers doing the same sparked to laugh and he had to hold back a chuckle at the similarity.
A thing brown quirked as he glanced at the toad sage who was wriggling about and almost doing a weird dance as he tried to explain to the kid that he didn't mean it that way and that Naruto was the cutest kid on the planet and that if anyone didn't love him they were dumb…. Cue side glance at villagers….. Tobirama sighed and pinched the ridge of his nose. "Kakashi, explain please."
"Hai, Nidaime-sama. Naruto was describing and incident at the park and described another little boy as cute and Jiraiya-sama was trying to explain that he should use other terms to describe boys than cute."
"But he is cute Oji-Chan, he has these big brown eyes and he's always sleepy… like a puppy or a tiny bear" Naruto exclaimed while peering up at Tobirama with watery crystalline eyes.
"While that does sound cute Naru-Chan, some boys don't like to be called cute and might find it offensive. Jiraiya-San was trying to help you in etiquette." He ruffled Naruto's hair and noticed all the sticky gunk on the chibi and now himself. " Why don't we go home and take a bath?"
Naruto froze. They had had an issue with giving him baths for a long while but whenever they had asked why he would just tell them that baths were something else in the orphanage. Though the three men raising him didn't know what they were yet, it didn't stop the killing intent that leeched off of their skin whenever he trembled at the thought of a bath. Kakashi quickly chimed in " we picked up this new bath toy that would love to take a bath with you Naru-Chan".
Jiraiya also chimes in "yeah and I could summon some toads—-"
"NO!" Both Tobirama and Kakashi yelled in protest as they remembered the last time Jiraiya summoned the toads to the bath. He had used too much chakra and a four foot tall toad landed in the tub next to Naruto sending the water and him all over.
Naruto grabbed Tobirama's hand and they walked home together.
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After Naruto was all cleaned up and nearly dozing off in his bed as Kakashi read him a story and Kakashi had to chance it. "Naru-Chan do you like the baths here with your Oji-Chan?"
Naruto sleepily nodded "yeah, he doesn't hold my head under the water" he yawned and rolled over with a little stretch.
Kakashi froze completely. His uncovered eye wide and slowly his hands started to tremble as he reigned in his killing intent. As silently as he could he turned out the lights and left Naruto to sleep before signaling the other two men to meet outside so they could talk, and hit things, without Naruto waking up.
Both Tobirama and Jiraiya rushed through seals as they slammed their hands to the ground and the entire area was covered in darkness and silence. "I asked Naruto if he likes baths here at home and he said he did because we don't hold his head under the water." The training dummies on the grounds of the compound never stood a chance against the water whip that was spurned from absolutely nowhere and the ground split open underneath Jiraiya's feet as he subconsciously channeled minuscule amounts of sage chakra before releasing his rage on the training field as well.
Water, rock and lightning flew across the enclosed area of the training field. Outside of the contained area everything was near silent as the muffled war raged between men and nature.