Chapter Text
This was not at all what Iruka was expecting when he was called into see Sandaime.
He thought that perhaps Sandaime wanted to play a nice game of Go over some sweets and hot tea -- just one of the things Iruka shared with Sandaime (the tea, not the game, which he wasn’t very good at, but which Sandaime always insisted they play while having a nice talk). Or perhaps, Sandaime wanted to talk to him about the revised Academy curriculum which Iruka had personally redesigned when he realized that the children weren’t progressing as easily as everyone had hoped (it wasn’t a time of war anymore, and the younger generation grew up a little slower -- which was a real relief for Iruka, who already felt they grew up too quickly). Or maybe Sandaime had news about Naruto that Naruto himself would never want to share.
But instead, he found himself in a room with Sandaime, a few concerned medic-nins, and a little boy no older than four or five with a wild tuft of silver hair and large grey eyes, wearing a tiny little blue and white t-shirt with a mask attached and shorts, standing smartly at attention next to the Hokage. He looked quite a bit like Kakashi, Iruka thought when he first saw the boy.
Which would make sense, seeing as the boy was Kakashi, or so Sandaime explained once the medics took Kakashi out of the room.
Somehow, a jutsu went terribly, terribly wrong. Kakashi was caught in the middle, and as a result, now thought he was four years old, with no recollection whatsoever of the rest of his life. In fact, it was important that they treat him accordingly, and if Iruka would be so kind as to take care of the child while they work on reverse engineering the jutsu, Sandaime would be most appreciative.
What he didn’t say was that he thought Kakashi -- the adult one, anyway -- would be as well. But the slight wink he gave Iruka was enough to communicate the unspoken, and made Iruka flush a deep red.
It was well known, after all, that Kakashi and Iruka shared a rather... well, close relationship, even if neither one ever admitted it to anyone else.
“What am I supposed to tell him if he asks where his father is?” Iruka asked, as he signed the paperwork to take custody of Kakashi.
“You can simply tell him that he is on a mission, Iruka.” Sandaime responded, as he took the paperwork from Iruka and began to check to make sure everything was in order.
“And if he asks about the Hokage mountain?” Because when Kakashi was four years old, there certainly weren’t four faces carved on the side of the mountain -- and a child as smart as Kakashi would certainly notice. Iruka was already imagining all the questions Kakashi would surely have, like any other child his age, and could feel the questions pressing up inside his head like an impending headache of doom.
“I’m sure you’ll think of something,” Sandaime said all too trustingly with a warm smile, and Iruka wanted to break something, because what the hell was he going to do with a four year old Kakashi who would be asking all the questions Iruka didn’t know how to answer? What if he did something wrong and permanently damaged Kakashi somehow? What if--
“Iruka.” Sandaime interrupted his chain of thought and Iruka looked up at him, just a touch wide-eyed. “It’ll be okay. You’ll do just fine.”
Somehow, Iruka didn’t think that would be the case at all, but just bowed his head in resignation and sighed. “Yes, Sandaime.”
“Now, why don’t we bring Kakashi in and introduce you to him?” Sandaime didn’t wait for an answer from Iruka, and simply called for the medics to bring the boy in who looked at Iruka -- and Sandaime -- with some degree of confusion in his eyes.
“Kakashi-kun, this is Iruka-sensei. He’ll be looking after you for a little while,” Sandaime said with a smile, and Kakashi turned to Iruka and... bowed. He bowed! Like a polite little boy should! This was all quite baffling to Iruka, who had always been used to Kakashi’s brief nods and half-assed greetings -- if he ever gave a greeting at all to someone new (with the exception of respectable figures, of course).
Then Kakashi looked up at him and said in a soft, polite voice, “It’s very nice to meet you, Iruka-sensei. Please take good care of me.”
And Iruka’s heart did a small skip before melting as he smiled down at the boy, dimples hollowing in his cheeks, and he crouched down so he was at eye-level with Kakashi. “It’s very nice to meet you as well, Kakashi...” A beat. “...kun,” he added on. “Why don’t we go home and get you settled in, hmm?”
Kakashi instinctively looked up at Sandaime for confirmation, and when Sandaime nodded his consent, Kakashi turned back to Iruka and nodded as well. “Okay,” he said, and Iruka smiled brightly, eyes crinkling with it. Kakashi was -- dare he say it? -- unbelievably cute! And so polite, too! Maybe this wasn’t going to be quite as disastrous as he had feared.
Kakashi was just a polite, little boy, and certainly, they were going to get along smashingly.
*
Kakashi was apparently under the impression that all of this would somehow contribute to his training, or so Sandaime informed Iruka. It was important that they keep the guise up, if only because they didn’t know how long it would take to reverse-engineer the jutsu -- which meant Kakashi would expect to go about with his day the way he did when he was four years old. This meant that he would be attending Academy along with the eleven and twelve-year olds -- under a completely different name, of course. Kakashi was told that his usual class was on an exchange program with Suna, but he was to stay behind and practice intel-collection while using a different name -- a good form of espionage training.
While he was a little confused as to why he was the only one selected to perform such an important training, he certainly didn’t object to it. To Iruka’s surprise, he didn’t even have any questions about it, and didn’t ask Iruka anything as they walked out of the Hokage Tower. If anything, Kakashi was abnormally quiet for a four year old boy, despite not exhibiting any indication that he was shy at all. He walked rather confidently next to Iruka and was simply... quiet. Which didn’t strike Iruka as too odd, as adult Kakashi wasn’t prone to be a chatterbox either. But he thought perhaps, at this age, Kakashi would be more social.
Looking down at the boy, it suddenly occurred to him, that perhaps they could go take care of some errands together. Sandaime had provided him with a rather sizable allowance for taking care of Kakashi, and he might as well put it into good use.
“So, Kakashi-kun,” Iruka said to get the boy’s attention, and immediately a pair of dark grey eyes were focused on him. No, Kakashi wasn’t shy at all. “Since we’re going to be spending lots and lots of time together, tell me about yourself! What kind of snacks do you like? Do you have any hobbies? Why don’t we get you some toys to play with, hmm? Would you like that?”
Kakashi’s eyebrows just bunched up a little in a small frown as he looked at Iruka quizzically. Which suddenly made Iruka feel a bit... odd. Because that was an expression he’d seen before on Kakashi far too many times as an adult, except, instead of a frown, it was usually a quirked eyebrow and a sideglance. And it usually meant that Kakashi found something stupid, baffling, or otherwise completely pointless. In fact, it might as well be Kakashi’s patented “are-you-kidding-me” look. But on a four year old, it seemed completely out of place. Four year olds shouldn’t have that expression at all!
But then Kakashi’s eyebrows scrunched up even more, and the expression morphed into something of intense focus and concentration. As though Kakashi needed to think really hard about the answer, because he didn’t easily have it. “I like to train,” he finally said. “And I don’t like snacks. They’re too sweet and salty. Father says they’re not healthy and I shouldn’t eat them if I want to be a strong shinobi.”
Iruka looked at Kakashi flabbergasted. He liked to train. He liked to train?! He was four years old for crying out loud, and the boy’s only hobby was training ?? And when Kakashi continued, with a bit of a frown, Iruka hoped perhaps maybe he would inform him of some other hobby he left out. After all, he was only four, and four year olds had a lot of hobbies, right? But then Kakashi said, “I don’t like toys. Father says they’re dis-tracking.”
Iruka felt his heart break a little. What kind of father did Kakashi have that would tell a four year old that he couldn’t have toys or eat snacks? Four year olds were supposed to love those type of things! Iruka certainly did when he was four -- in fact, he still had a huge sweet tooth and rather enjoyed snacks! This was all wrong, all out of place, but... somehow, entirely Kakashi. Maybe Iruka shouldn’t have felt this surprised, but a part of him had hoped, truly hoped, that Kakashi was just like any other boy.
But it seemed that Kakashi was anything but just a little boy.
Iruka was determined to prove Kakashi wrong -- he would show Kakashi that toys were just fine to play with. He suddenly wanted Kakashi to experience the joy all children experienced at his age when given a new toy to play with and all the time in the world to do just that.
“Well,” Iruka huffed, all sorts of miffed on Kakashi’s account, “since you’re with staying with me for now, you’re allowed to play with toys! We can play with them together! You’ll like them once you get the chance -- you’ll see! They’re really fun!”
Kakashi just sort of blinked at him, confusedly, but didn’t argue, and sort of nodded, which Iruka took as a sign of agreement, and promptly dragged the boy into the nearest toy shop he could find.
Which ended up being almost disastrous, because the toy shop also had a section for weapons training, and instead of going towards the toys, Kakashi kept gravitating back to the weapons, examining all the different blunt-edged shuriken and kunai and blades instead of the colorful toy section. But then, Iruka noticed that Kakashi’s gaze kept curiously -- and discreetly -- wandering over to a certain shelf in the toy section -- and upon further inspection, it seemed that he was ogling a shelf filled with soft, floppy-eared stuffed dogs. Iruka beamed from ear to ear at the revelation and let Kakashi pick out a few training weapons and targets, then told him to wait outside the shop as he happily paid for the largest and cutest stuffed dog he could find -- along with a few other toys, like a sword that lit up when it was hit against something, a set of building blocks, a bouncy ball, and a set of toy shinobi.
Kakashi looked at him funny when he came out with hands filled with bags of stuff, but didn’t say anything. Iruka didn’t care, he was a little too excited and happy at the prospect of showing Kakashi all the things he bought, and announced that they should continue on with their errands.
In the grocery store, despite Iruka’s best attempts to get Kakashi to pick out snacks, Kakashi just went for the healthiest option -- nuts, dried fruit, and rice cakes. And in the clothing store, instead of going for the t-shirts with bright, colorful, or playful designs like most children, Kakashi simply selected very practical clothing with no designs at all in muted colors -- blues and blacks. Iruka picked out a dog-print t-shirt for the boy, which Iruka had a feeling Kakashi agreed to only because there was an adult who was so excitedly waving it in his face (though Kakashi didn’t look that excited about it at all). He also tried to pick out a colorful dinosaur pajama onesie with footsies, but the horrified look on Kakashi’s small face had Iruka hastily (and rather disappointedly) putting the pajama set back in place in favor of the two-piece black one Kakashi pointed at instead.
Kakashi thanked him for everything, and even offered to carry some bags, which made Iruka’s chest swell with warmth -- especially as some of the bags were nearly as big as Kakashi.
He had a feeling, this entire experience was not at all going to go the way he had expected.
*
It turned out that most of the toys were a waste of money.
Over the course of the weekend, Kakashi didn’t even bother with the building blocks, entirely ignored the light-up sword, didn’t so much look at the toy shinobi set, and bounced the ball around once before getting bored of it and putting it back in its rightful place. He did, however, occasionally play with and pet the toy dog when he thought Iruka wasn’t looking -- which made Iruka smile secretly to himself. Even if Kakashi wasn’t like normal kids -- he was a genius after all, and that probably accounted for some of his unchildlike behavior -- he was still a kid at heart. And Iruka wanted him to be a kid as long as he could be -- after all, he knew too well that Kakashi had that taken from him at far too young an age.
He knew Kakashi never did have a real childhood, and even though it wasn’t like Kakashi would be in this child-like state forever, Iruka wanted to give him as much of a childhood as he could in the short time they had together like this. It was what Kakashi deserved -- Kakashi who, even as an adult, didn’t understand the point of building sandcastles or why children played in the puddles when it rained. Or why they believed in things like fairytales or fantastic stories.
“I don’t see the point in giving them something false to believe in,” Kakashi’d said one day, when Iruka showed him a book of illustrated fairy tales he wanted to share with his younger students. “They’re going to grow up and realize those fairy tales are just a bunch of fluffed-up happy endings that don’t really happen in real life.”
Iruka’s face had fallen as he took the book back from Kakashi, hurt welling up in his chest. Not because of what Kakashi said -- but because it was apparent that even as a child, he never was read any fairy tales. He never had anything bright to believe in at all. “You don’t understand, Kakashi,” Iruka had said, as he closed the book. “It isn’t about giving them something false to believe in. It’s about giving them hope.”
Kakashi just looked away then, and that was the end of the discussion.
A thunk knocked Iruka out of the memory and back into the present. Kakashi had set up the target outside and was busy throwing shuriken.
Iruka realized, with a bit of a shudder, that each one hit the center exactly .
*
That night, as Kakashi was getting into bed, Iruka sat down next to him with the illustrated book of fairy tales and the stuffed dog.
Kakashi had already brushed his teeth, washed his face, and taken a bath all on his own, like he had the first two nights -- refusing any help when Iruka had offered -- and was getting ready to put himself into bed without being told that it was bedtime. He knew that it was Monday the next day, and that meant he had to prepare to go to Academy, or so he told Iruka as such, over dinner (which he helped Iruka clean up after eating everything put before him without any objection -- even all the dark green vegetables Iruka hated so much as a child).
“Kakashi-kun, would you like to hear a story?” Iruka asked as he settled down next to Kakashi, and tucked the stuffed dog under the blanket with him.
Kakashi looked like he was about to say no, but seemed to change his mind when he looked up at Iruka. Perhaps it was because Iruka was looking down at him with such hopeful, imploring eyes without realizing it. “Okay, but only one, cuz I have to go to sleep to prepare for tomorrow.”
Iruka beamed and opened the book to the first page, putting his arm around Kakashi’s small shoulders.
“Once upon a time, there was a proud little shinobi...” he began reading, and within a matter of moments, Kakashi was completely engrossed in the story of the shinobi boy who would develop the strongest jutsu of the ninja world and eventually save the world. But before Iruka could finish, he realized that Kakashi had fallen asleep, his little head tucked against Iruka’s shoulder and his arm curled around the stuffed dog. Iruka smiled softly down at the boy, and could see in his soft features, the shadow of the man he would one day grow up to be. But for now, he was still just a boy -- a boy who liked stuffed dogs, enjoyed fairy tales, and fell asleep with words of hope swimming through his head.
Iruka pressed a soft kiss to the top of Kakashi’s head. “Sleep well, Kakashi,” he whispered.
After all, tomorrow was going to be a big day.