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Iruka felt silly when the kids called him “gramps.” He wasn’t that much older than their parents, but children didn’t really understand age. Adults were all old, all the same level of old at least. He was loath to admit it, but the affectionate nickname did warm his heart. Just a bit.
Iruka was watching Boruto, Himawari, and Sarada this evening. It was rare for all three to need babysitting, since Hinata had given up most of her duties to care for her children, but there were times when ceremony dictated that the heir of the Hyūga clan and wife of the current Hokage be present.
Diplomatic schmooze-fests were always so boring, and Iruka was not jealous in the least that he was no longer required (nor invited) to attend.
Sakura reveled in the field of politics, and always attended as successor to Lady Tsunade and head of the hospital. Naruto still had a soft spot for Sakura and couldn’t deny her anything. The fancy reception and dinner for the delegates from Amegakure was vital to try and gain more stability in the region. The most important villagers were expected. He tried not to feel a little miffed that the Headmaster of the academy wasn’t important enough.
Iruka’s musings were interrupted when Himawari flung a large clump of rice in Boruto’s face. Iruka had to act fast, he materialized behind the two siblings right before either one had a second to reach for more projectiles, and grabbed their wrists, lifting them out of their seats and into the air.
Their shocked laughter brought a smile to Iruka’s face, despite the mess he would have to clean up.
“Now, now, children, what’s this about?” Iruka chided.
“Wow! Iruka-gramps! You are really strong. Where are you hiding those muscles?” Boruto asked, poking at Iruka’s torso.
“You don’t have to be showy to be strong. Remember that!” Iruka was embarrassed as Boruto’s poking finger buried a little deeper into guts than he was comfortable with.
“Gramps! Twirl me around!! Twirl me!” Himawari pleaded.
Iruka laughed and obliged. He set Boruto down and took Himawari by the waist before launching her into the air. She fell into his arms and clung to his shoulders, crawling over him like a jungle-gym. She was suddenly standing on his shoulder and touching the ceiling, just barely.
“Me too!” Boruto yelled, jumping onto Iruka and climbing up his frame until he was on one shoulder and Himawari had moved to stand on the other. Boruto had an easy time touching the ceiling and was mocking his little sister for her stature.
Iruka held the children by their calf’s making sure they didn’t fall off in their bickering.
“Catch me Iruka-gramps!” Himawari yelled only moments before swan-diving off Iruka. Boruto followed suite and Iruka barely had time to grab one in each arm before they hit the ground headfirst. Himawari was stifling her laughter into Iruka’s bellybutton as Iruka had pulled her to his front, her knees almost giving him a black eye. Boruto he barely managed to grab from behind by the boy’s knees. Boruto bent said knees around Iruka’s forearm, and clung to Iruka’s thigh, cackling with laughter.
Iruka felt the strain of the position on his shirt. It was already a bit snug in normal wear, so when he was flexing, the arms were clearly too tight. The way he had to twist his arm to catch Boruto was very strained and he didn’t know how the shoulder and sleeve were still intact.
Iruka wanted to yell at them, like he would have to their parents in their youth, but age it seems has settled his raging temper with the young ones. It was hard to be mad at faces he loved so strongly from birth.
“Gramps you’re big!” Himawari yelled, unable to get her arms all the way around Iruka’s stomach. “I can reach almost all the way around Kaka-pops.” Iruka tried not to burst into laughter every time he heard her nickname for Kakashi.
“Ugh, Kaka-pops is like super thin though. I don’t know how he was Hokage. He must have been the worst Hokage in history, right gramps?” Boruto added. “Your thigh is really big too!” Himawari wiggled and squirmed until she was released and flipped rather gracefully to her feet. She hugged Iruka’s other thigh and the man tried not to blush as the children squeezed him tight. Instead he released Boruto’s legs and the boy tumbled backwards onto his butt.
“Wow, you are much bigger than Kaka-pops.”
A forceful throat-clearing brought all three faces back to the table. Sarada had finished her meal in the time they were playing. Iruka had never been more grateful for the interruption. He and Sarada were very close, since he often watched the girl for Sakura. With Sasuke always gone and her job at the hospital taking so much time, he was happy to help.
“I’m sure Iruka-ojii would like a break from you two.” Sarada had inherited Sasuke’s cool demeaner as she glared at her peers. Iruka gave her a grateful look and a nod.
“What’s for dessert?! Gramps always has the best sweets!” Himawari exclaimed as she released her hold on Iruka’s leg.
Her brother followed suite quickly, scarfing down the rest of his food, knowing Iruka wouldn’t budge on dessert until they were all finished.
“Himawari, you didn’t finish your food, and you wasted some on your attack. That means you can either eat one more spoon of veggies, or no dessert.” Himawari didn’t bother making the sad eyes that always worked on her father. Iruka was not so easy to manipulate. She took another spoon of veggies and ate with as much vigor as her brother.
Sarada and Iruka started to clear their own plates and some of the other dishes on the table while the siblings inhaled their food.
“Thanks for stopping them, Sarada, they’re very… enthusiastic tonight.” Iruka smiled to the girl. They were all growing up too fast. She simply nodded in acknowledgement as she ran water over the dishes, getting the sauce off before it crusted. She was a smart girl.
“I got our favorite.” Iruka continued, conspiratorial smile aimed at Sarada, he always got her to crack her cool façade when they were alone. He would have to try even harder with the crazies in the other room.
“The fish?” There was a shine in Sarada’s eye that lifted his heart. He knew what it was like to be lonely and miss you father. Luckily, she had more family to lean back on than many in Iruka’s generation had had.
Iruka nodded to her, reaching into the freezer and taking out the box of vanilla and red-bean ice cream in wafer fishes. She smiled at Iruka, teeth shining and that pure glee children got when their soul focus was on something exciting and loved reflecting off her eyes.
“For saving me from them, I’m willing to give you the extra one.” Iruka loved that smile. He would offer her 100 ice cream fishes if it meant she would always smile like that instead of her usual cool indifference.
“DONE!” The Uzumaki’s chimed in unison, rushing their plates into the kitchen. Sarada lost her smile, but her eyes were still shining and bright. Iruka would still claim the victory.
They eyed the package of fish and whooped excitedly. Iruka just barely got them to gently put the dished in the sink instead of throwing them before they settled at the table, vibrating in anticipation.
Iruka got four packages out of the box and brough them to the children at the table. He would give the fifth one left in the box to Sakura for Sarada later. He didn’t want to give the girl too much sugar before bedtime.
--
The older kids and Iruka were quietly putting together a puzzle of the tailed-beasts when their parents arrived. Himawari was out cold on the couch, lightly snoring, eyes fluttering in dreamland. Kakashi unlocked and gently opened the door, probably hoping not to wake up the slumbering youngster. He always knew when someone was asleep inside his home.
The older kids barely acknowledged the fact that their parents walked in after Kakashi. They just continued to put the puzzle together.
Iruka did get up. He kissed Kakashi on the cheek and smiled at his former students as they shuffled tiredly in.
Sakura yawned and held her hand out, Sarada sighed, but immediately got up. “Thank you for watching Sarada, Iruka-sensei, you’re the best.” Sakura said as she made to exit. Sarada yanked back on her mother’s arm for a moment, eyeing Iruka hard.
“Oh! Right, hold on a moment, Sakura,” Iruka rushed to the Kitchen and procured the box with the last fish in it. “Sarada really saved me tonight, and I promised an extra reward to her.” Iruka winked at Sarada and she came up, gave him a quick hug, took the box, and went back to her mother.
Sakura looked pleased with the exchange and said her goodbyes before exiting.
Naruto had gone in, extremely comfortable in his teachers’ living room, to pick up his sleeping child. Himawari mumbled sleepily, protesting at being moved from her warm spot, but hummed contently as she cuddled into her father’s warm neck.
“Come now, Boruto, we have interfered with Iruka-sensei’s night enough.” Hinata said softly, so as to not to wake her sleeping youngest.
“They were angels as they always are, Hinata,” Iruka said, eyeing the rice covering his dining room floor.
“Himawari threw rice at me.” Boruto tattled, eyeing his sister cuddling against their father. Why didn’t he get to do that? He could have fallen asleep.
Hinata ran her fingers through her eldest’s hair, a couple grains of rice falling to the floor. She looked apologetic at Iruka, who raised his hands, brushing the silent concerns away.
Himawari made an annoyed sound and cuddled further into the collar of Naruto’s Hokage robe. “We should get them to bed. Thanks, Iruka-sensei.” Naruto would never drop the title, would he? Even as Hokage. It made Iruka swell with pride.
“Thank you. Have a great evening,” Hinata said clipped as she gripped Boruto’s hand tightly, clearly not believing the rice incident was entirely Himawari’s fault.
They were gone and the house was silent again. Kakashi snuck up behind his love, arms wrapping around Iruka’s middle. Kakashi’s pale, thin forearms squeezing him reminding Iruka of the jungle-gym incident.
“So, apparently I’m big.” Iruka began, turning in Kakashi’s grip to meet two shining eyes and the ever so familiar tilted smile.
“Maa, Iruka, you have always been strong, but light as a feather,” Kakashi said simply. Iruka laughed as Kakashi lifted him momentarily off the ground. The slight strain on Kakashi’s face should have been more sobering, but the love shining there was more than enough to offset it.
“I guess I have been careless the last few years.” Iruka said, trying to remember the last time he really went hard on his training. Being headmaster meant exercising his brain more than his body, and it was starting to show. Leave it to the children to bring something so rude up.
“Peace has changed many of our bodies.” Kakashi didn’t really have to explain himself. Many of their generation had either gained fat, or lost muscle, some both.
Kakashi had become very thin toward the end of his tenure as Hokage. His days consisted of sitting and signing documents, forgetting to do more than his simple cardio in the morning. He always had a fast metabolism, and it showed. The robes billowed a lot more than they used to.
“It’s strange, Kakashi, I just can’t think of our predecessors being so careless about their bodies, but here we are, enjoying sweets and getting fat.”
Kakashi leaned in and kissed Iruka chastely. “Fat? You are the same beefcake I fell in love with, Iruka.” Kakashi wasn’t sure what Iruka was talking about. He thought the man looked as incredible as the first day he saw him wet and shining. He was just as good a shinobi as well.
“I’m starting to feel closer to the cake part than the beef,” he mumbled. Kakashi laughed and started to unbutton Iruka’s shirt.
“Only because you are so sweet.” Iruka gave Kakashi a deadpan look, clearly not amused. He may have been glaring the whole time, but he allowed Kakashi to strip off his shirt.
Kakashi ran his hands over Iruka’s large biceps, still full and strong, but perhaps with a little more fat overtop. It really just made the man look even more impressive in Kakashi’s opinion. He had never had an easy time keeping weight on. Anytime he had to limit his diet or go on a long mission all his muscle and fat left him quickly. It almost killed him a few times.
“Himawari said I was much bigger than her Kaka-pops.” Iruka finally smiled at that. Kakashi groaned.
“Where does she come up with these nicknames?” Iruka laughed at Kakashi’s indignation. His belly jiggled slightly at the laugh. So, what he was fat and happy? What was there to be upset about?
“I don’t know.” Iruka said as he started to take Kakashi’s robe off, feeling like he didn’t want to be the only one half naked in the living room.
“Eager? I say we move this further inside?” Kakashi wiggled his eyebrows suggestively and Iruka nodded in agreement.
As soon as they entered their bedroom, Kakashi slapped Iruka’s ass, it made the most satisfying smack and Kakashi looked incredibly pleased with himself.
“More cushion for the pushin’, as I always say.” Kakashi winked at Iruka’s shocked face.
“When have you ever said… Never mind, it doesn’t matter.” Iruka knew better than to try and understand his husband. May as well just enjoy him. Kakashi made that part easy as he slipped his hands around Iruka from behind, bodies melding completely against one another. His nimble hands made quick work of Iruka’s belt and started to reach his hands unto Iruka’s waistband.
Iruka lifted his arms and reached behind him, fingers finding Kakashi’s hair as the man sucked love marks into the crock of his neck. Kakashi moved from there to kiss up Iruka’s thick arm, on full display as he worked a massaging pattern into grey hair.
Kakashi’s own hands had pushed Iruka’s pants further down his juicy glute and Iruka could feel Kakashi’s excitement much better through the thin material of his underwear.
“You said something about ‘pushin’’?” Iruka reminded his husband as he turned his amused smirk to meet said husband’s in an open mouthed and deep kiss, craning his neck.
They broke apart and Kakashi pushed Iruka into the bed, eyeing his thick husband with a look so lewd, Iruka almost blushed. “Now, let’s lose the pants.”
Iruka was only too happy to oblige.