Archive of Our Own

“--and this here is the sun room. You don’t find a lot of these nowadays,” the realtor gives them a warm smile as she steps to the side to give the newly wedded couple room to take in the views.

“Wow,” Iruka stares out of the stained glass window panes in awe. The backyard opens up to a thick forest, where right before it a large lake lies glimmering under the afternoon sun as the wind blows the overhanging leaves of the willow tree side to side.

Kakashi comes up behind him and wraps his arms around his waist. “You like it?”

“Kakashi...” Iruka turns as he says his husband’s--god, his husband’s!--name. “Are you sure we can afford all this?”

“I’ll give you a moment. Please, call me if you have any questions,” the realtor smiles at them again as she leaves the room, closing the vintage set of french doors behind her.

“Look,” Kakashi pulls his cloth face mask down as he pulls Iruka over to the glass again to stare out into the grounds. “Imagine-- I could build a decent sized kennel over there for the rescue...and even have a gate to divide it for our own area. We could put a swing set right there for the kids---” Kakashi points over to the side of the house where a patch of mulch is laid out on the ground.

Iruka hums, trying to keep his smile from splitting his face, he feels so excited at the possibilities. He can see it all, too, all the things Kakashi’s suggesting. A little playground for the kids, a separate area for Kakashi to finally expand and build his dog rescue, and Iruka can even picture a small garden of veggies and flowers right on the side of the house, or maybe even a green house back towards the lake for himself to nurture his green thumb...

Kakashi kisses him on the cheek, pushing hard enough that Iruka is forced to the side a bit to accommodate him. “You see it too, I know you do. I can tell. I see it too...come on, babe, tell me you don’t want to.”

“I don’t want to,” Iruka says, smirking, because he was once a little shit and he has never stopped being a little shit.

Kakashi laughs, hugging him tightly. “Let me do this for you. For us. I want to give you everything...”

Iruka turns and wraps an arm around Kakashi’s neck, keeping the other close so he can place his palm on the side of Kakashi’s face, a thumb running down the scar there. “You’ve already given me everything I could ever ask for.”

“But I want to give you everything you’ve ever dreamed,” Kakashi tells him, and, oh, Iruka once again counts all his lucky stars to have found this man, and to have had the blessing to be his partner. Too many times he has been jilted, scorned, and belittled by previous exes, stuck in a spiral of self doubt and insecurity to not know his own worth. It wasn’t until the disaster of his relationship with Mizuki that Iruka finally burned up and forced himself to be reborn, a phoenix rising from the ashes of his old self.

It was only then, after two years of self discovery, growth, and soul-searching did he finally meet Kakashi, who had himself gone through a very similar situation with his own ex.

How could anyone have ever done anything to harm this beautiful, perfect, kind, giving man? This man who wakes up every morning to make sure Iruka wakes up with his favorite glass of cold brew on his night stand? This man who spent weeks teaching himself how to sew just so he could make Naruto a costume for his school’s spring play? This man who took one look at Iruka’s face the first time and said “Hey, look--we match,” while pointing to his face?

This man who has done nothing but meet every single one of Iruka’s needs, and more? Who has shown him what a good, true, healthy love is when Iruka had thought all hope was lost?

Iruka looks into Kakashi’s eyes and the depth of his partner’s emotions and love no longer scares him as it once did, but only serves to settle his soul into a more comfortable position inside his chest, his heart.

“Okay,” Iruka finally lets the smile break across his face. “Okay, make my dreams come true then, pretty boy. “

“Yes!” Kakashi laughs and brings Iruka closer, holding him tightly as he spun them around. Kakashi peppers Iruka’s face with kisses when they stop, grinning widely. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Iruka breathes out, giving him a much less chaste kiss. They break apart at the soft knock at the doors.

“I heard the sounds of celebration,” she says after she opens the door. “Have you made a decision, then?”

“We’ll take it,” Iruka and Kakashi both tell her, smiling.

---

“Damn, and this was how much?”

“I know, right?” Iruka says to his phone, Anko’s face shows almost as much shock as Iruka’s when he first saw the house. He is careful to step around the boxes lined up through the hallway, peeking through the rooms with his phone held out in front of him. “It was just over a hundred grand. Apparently it’s been on sale for forever but no one’s ever bought it.”

“Did she say why? Oh, show me that again! Is that a reading nook?”

“Yes, and Sasuke’s already claimed it as his room. I would be more salty about it if the master bedroom wasn’t what it was...” Iruka moves through the room to get a better look at the small reading nook, pulling the dusty yellow curtain to the side to allow more sunlight in. Anko continues to exclaim her appreciation of the room as Iruka glances out the window to admire the lake view. Something catches his eye and he peers through the glass to the lake, where at the edge of the small wooden dock he could have sworn he’d seen--

“Helloooo, Iruka? I can’t see anything but your damn leg,” Anko calls from the phone.

“Oh, sorry,” Iruka brings the phone back up to cringe apologetically. “I got distracted,” he tells her, looking back out to the lake but the small figure is gone, having been a figment of his imagination. “You want to see the master?”

“Hell yes! But you didn’t answer, why was it so--”

The dogs start barking then, their voices loud as they reverberate through the empty home. “Sorry Anko--the boys are home. I’ll call you tomorrow?”

“Sure, whatever. Love ya,” Anko blows a kiss to the camera. “Tell those brats Aunty Anko got something in the mail coming for them.”

“I will. Thanks, Anko. Love you.” After Iruka ends the call he slides his phone into his back pocket and makes his way down stairs, his steps loud on the old creaking wood. The front door opens just as he’s rounding the landing, Naruto and Sasuke bursting through the doorway in a race to get to the kitchen, bags loaded on their small six-year old arms.

Iruka laughs at them, half-expecting them to topple over. Outside, Kakashi is pulling out more bags from the trunk of his car as the dogs run around them circles, never straying too far. “Need help?”

“Yeah, thanks,” Kakashi breathes out as he adjusts the bags under his arms, his skin so pale they make angry red streaks from the weight of the plastic.

“I thought you were only getting enough for a couple days,” Iruka remarks, peeking through the bags to see that, once again, Kakashi had gone a little overboard in his grocery trip.

“Well, you know how it is. Hi,” Kakashi leans over and presses a kiss to the side of Iruka’s cheek before making his way up the path and into the house, Iruka following close behind. The kitchen is as messy as it has been the last couple days since they’d moved in, but Iruka counts the stripped wallpaper and primed walls as a personal win and sign of progress.

“Iruka! Iruka! Look what Kakashi got me!” Naruto pulls out a thin deck of pokemon cards from one of the bags, waving it in the air for Iruka to see.

“Oh wow, you must have been really good in the grocery store for Kakashi to have gotten you that!” Iruka reaches over and pulls Naruto up into his arms, pressing a kiss to his chubby cheek. When he pulls away, Naruto has the slightly squinty look on his face that tells Iruka the boy had not, in fact, been good enough to earn such a prize.

“Naruto knocked down the entire apple display at the front of the store,” Sasuke says calmly from where he’d been emptying out the contents of his bags and placing the items on the counter into their respective groups--freezer, refrigerator, and pantry.

“Hey,” Kakashi chimes in, ruffling up Sasuke’s already tousled hair. “Don’t narc on your brother like that.”

“Kakashi!” Iruka smacks Kakashi over the back of his head. “Don’t call our kid a narc!”

“Ow, that was actually hard...” Kakashi pouts at him as he rubs his head.

They put the groceries away without much more hassle than usual and afterwards Iruka leads the boys outside for some fresh air. It was fortunate timing to have found the old, traditionally styled house during this time of year--as a teacher, Iruka had the summers off, which meant he had the time to get the house up to shape while also saving some money on any child care expenses until school started again in the fall.

“Sasuke! Think fast!” Naruto shouts before throwing a bright yellow ball in Sasuke’s direction. Before the other boy can even catch it, however, one of the dogs jumps up into the air and snatches it with their jaws. “Hey!”

Iruka laughs, taking a seat on the porch steps as he watches them play. “They actually like it here, huh?”

Iruka looks up behind him to Kakashi who had stepped outside to join them. He’s looking rather handsome in his collared button-up folded up to the elbows, one side tucked into his black jeans. “Come here,” Iruka reaches his arms up in a grabbing motion, which his husband indulges with a soft look. “I have a secret...” Iruka whispers into Kakashi’s ear when he finally sits beside him.

“Hmmm, do you now...” Kakashi lightly pressed his lips to Iruka’s nose, right on the bridge where his scar reaches across.

“Mhhmm...” Iruka chases after his lips, needing more and so heady in love with this man, with this house, their kids, and their lives. “I like it here, too.”

Kakashi pauses before melting into Iruka’s embrace, tucking his face into the crook of Iruka’s neck. His voice is soft when he speaks. “Never thought I’d ever have a home again...”

Iruka looks over to the boys who are chasing around the pack of dogs with bright, smiling faces as the afternoon sun brings everything into an even brighter clarity, his heart feeling at least three sizes too big with just how much love he holds in this moment, and knows that while their pasts had been tinged with grief and loss, it was all worth it to be here now.

“Welcome home, Kakashi,” Iruka smiles, pressing a kiss to his husband’s grey hair, not at all noticing the small hand that reaches out from underneath the lake’s wooden dock to scratch at the post before disappearing into the water again.

---

Sasuke wakes up with a small groan, turning in his bed and rubbing at his eye as he sits up, looking around the room.

It’s dark.

The faint moonlight coming in from their window creates long shadows across the floorboards, but with the nightlight that Iruka had gotten for him special, he can see just fine. Sasuke climbs down his bed, careful not to wake Naruto as he makes his way out to the hall bathroom.

He’s washing his hands when something in the mirror catches his eye. Looking behind him, Sasuke gets a funny feeling in his stomach. He shuts off the tap and dries his hands slowly, instinct telling him not to make too much noise. He jumps when a loud scratching noise screeches on the little window above the bathtub, but he is quick to calm himself, scoffing at the shadowed tree branch hitting the glass with the wind.

Sasuke turns around and steps out into the hall, flicking the light off behind him only to stop dead in his tracks, heart thumping loudly in his chest.

There, at the end of the hall, is a shadowed figure of a girl, her head hanging low. Droplets of water drip down from her hair and hands, splattering softly on the floor, creating small puddles.

Sasuke’s breath freezes in his throat. Terror rakes through his body as he takes her in with wide, fearful eyes. The girl slowly lifts her head, and even with the distance between them, Sasuke can see how the entirety of her eyes are pure white, lips tinged blue and skin slightly bloated with veins visibly running under the skin. She opens her mouth, but instead of words, a torrent of water falls out, falling down her chin, her chest, and onto the floor.

Sasuke runs.

He sprints back down the hall and straight to his room and hurries under the covers, shivering. Naruto moves around in his bed across the room, mumbling incoherently, and Sasuke realizes that he might be in danger, too, and slowly peaks out from underneath his blanket.

The girl stands next to Naruto’s bed, mouth open wide and water falling out. She raises one hand slowly towards him, reaching out with clawed hands--

This time, Sasuke screams.

---

Iruka sighs softly as Kakashi presses soft kisses along the length of his neck.

They’d finally gotten the bed set up, and it’s been days since they’d had any physical contact. What with them being so busy putting the house together and taking care of the kids, they simply hadn’t had the time or space alone to indulge in their more carnal desires.

Now, though.

Kakashi is slowly making his way down his chest, fingers curling around the edge of Iruka’s sweatpants, and Iruka is already hot with want for him, half-hard and obvious through the thin material of his clothes. He moans when Kakashi finally presses against him, the feel of his husband’s body against his own sending another jolt of arousal through his body--

They both jolt at the sound of Sasuke’s yell from down the hallway. The dogs in the house all jump up and start barking, creating a cacophony of noise as they scramble out of the bed. Kakashi is the first to reach the door, scurrying out of the bed and yanking his robe off the wall hook, slamming it open and almost catching Iruka on the nose as it bounces off the wall as he grabs his own robe. They hurry down the hall to the boy’s room, the door already open for them to enter swiftly.

Iruka flicks on the light and searches the room for any intruders, any sign of danger, thinking to himself not again no don’t let it be him-- but he finds nothing. Naruto is awake and sitting up in bed, blinking sleep from his eyes. “Wha’s goin’ on?”

Iruka walks over to him as Kakashi pulls Sasuke into his arms, wiping the child’s face of tears and snot. After checking on Naruto Iruka joins him, arms aching to pull the boy into his own arms. Thankfully, Sasuke seems to want the very same thing and climbs into his lap as soon as he takes a seat on the edge of the bed, his little arms coming to wrap around his neck tightly.

Iruka looks over his head at Kakashi, concerned in surprise--Sasuke is usually not so tactile, especially compared to Naruto. Iruka does his best to rock and console him, rubbing his back and pressing kisses to the side of Sasuke’s head. Finally, after a few more minutes of this Sasuke calms down enough for Iruka to pull back to see his face.

“Did you have a nightmare, baby?”

Sasuke sniffles loudly, jumping at a hiccup that escapes his mouth. “Y-Yes. I saw--I saw a girl. A monster.”

Kakashi leans in close now. “No monsters in sight, buddy. And no one can get into the house without us knowing. That’s what the alarm is for, remember?”

“But she didn’t use the door. She was just there!” Sasuke’s lower lip trembles as he looks over Iruka’s shoulder to the spot where he’d seen the ghastly figure.

“How about you spend the night in our room, hm?” Iruka looks over at Naruto when the boy gives out a sound of indignation, jealous at the thought of his brother getting to sleep in their bed without him. “You can come too, Naruto.”

“Yes!” Naruto jumps out of the bed and runs out the room, his stuffed fox plush in hand. Iruka chuckles inwardly at the boy, standing from the bed with Sasuke still wrapped up in his arms, legs around Iruka’s waist. Kakashi touches his back gently as they make their own way down the hallway at a much slower pace.

And so they all climb under the covers of their king sized bed, the dog’s nails clacking against the wooden floors as they follow and settle around them. Iruka and Kakashi stay awake until Naruto falls asleep, then finally Sasuke. As they sleep, the night air warms as the morning sun begins to ride, and in the shadows created under the willow tree, a small figure stands, encased in darkness.

----

Kakashi pours the wet cement into the hole in the ground, securing the metal pole to the ground as he’s done for the last eight poles. He’s trying to take advantage of his time off for the next month and get as much work done on the new house as he can. Seeing as most of his future plans include running his rescue from home, he needs to be able to have the kennels set up to be able to house the shelter dogs.

Iruka is at work on the other side of the yard, setting up the perimeter to install the fence around the property. It’s a lot of work, but nothing they couldn’t handle together. It helps that the low cost of the house allowed the extra money to buy all the necessary supplies, but both were too stubborn to call in outside help, used to doing things themselves.

He’s hot, sweating through his clothes, and his back aches from all his efforts. And yet, looking over his little family on their little property, he finds that he cannot find one regret in all of it. Not even a little.

Uhei perks her head up from where she had been lying in the small sliver of shade next to Kakashi’s work area. She barks before jumping up and speeding into the trees along the property. “Uhei!” Kakashi shouts, trying to stop her from running, imagining her getting out to the streets.

“She’ll be fine, babe. She never goes too far. And anyways, there isn’t even that much traffic over here,” Iruka says as he walks over to him with two water bottles in hand. “Here.”

Kakashi takes the offered bottle. “Thanks,” he gulps it down thankfully, suddenly parched. Iruka drinks his own bottle down and sits down on a stack of cement blocks next to his husband for a short rest, looking over to the small lake shore to watch the boys as they play on the even smaller sandy beach next to the dock.

The trees are tall and thick, and he knows Uhei is an expert navigator and would never just run away from home, but for the rest of the day he can’t stop looking out the window for her. He gets so worked up over his worry for her that even after putting the kids to bed and snuggling up to Iruka the way he likes, he just can’t manage to fall asleep.

When he finally gives up on the battle to fall asleep, the bedside clock reads one-eleven in the morning. Sighing softly, Kakashi carefully dislodges himself from Iruka’s arms, shushing him quietly when he begins to protest, whispering he was just getting some water from downstairs. Pakkun lifts his head from his pillow on the end of the bed in question, but stays put.

He’s wearing boxer shorts and a tee shirt, so he doesn’t bother grabbing his robe as he walks down the hallway, careful to avoid any squeaking planks. The boys are fast asleep in their room when he peeks through the open door, the twinkling lights of their night light projector floating around the room on the ceiling and walls. Downstairs, the dogs are all fast asleep sprawled around the living room, some one dog beds and some on the couch.

Kakashi is filling up a glass at the kitchen sink when he pauses, stopping the tap from running to better hear what his senses had picked up.

A howl echoes from the treeline, his face reflected in the kitchen window. “Fuck,” Kakashi mutters, looking around the room. Just as he thought, Uhei still hadn’t returned, even with the dog door open all night.

Kakashi makes his way to the mud room to pull on his boots and a black-denim jacket, grabbing the flashlight hanging on the wall as he slips quietly out the side door. Biscuit and Urushi curiously follow him out through the dog door, still sleepy but unwilling to let their master venture out on his own.

Outside, the night air is cool and dark, the waning crescent moon barely visible behind the clouds in the sky. Kakashi waits a moment, flicking on the flashlight and streaming it through the trees, waiting. Finally, he hears it again--Uhei’s howl, long and high pitched as if she were in pain.

He starts to jog in the direction of the sound, picking up his speed to a sprint when he begins to hear even louder growls and snarling sounds--the telltale noise of a dog fight. Kakashi’s mind flashes with scenarios of large coyotes or bears out in the woods surrounding their property, all dangers to his domesticated dogs who probably wouldn’t hold their own against such predators.

He shouts when he trips over a tree root, sending him tumbling through the dirt and a thornbush that scratches at his hands and bare legs. He winces but quickly gets up, Biscuit and Urushi now barking loudly and running around him in circles, urging him on.

He runs, racing through the trees, his flashlight his only source of light, as his breaths pant loudly in the dark air. His heart drops when the snarling reaches a crescendo, followed by a vicious cry and whimper.

“No, no no--” Uhei was part of the last litter of puppies that his father had bred when he was younger. To him, having Uhei around in his life was almost like he still had his father. The idea of losing her felt almost like he was losing his father all over again.

Finally, he breaks through the trees to a small clearing. He stops, panting, jerking his flashlight around to land on the image of Uhei on the ground, blood streaked on her fur. Kakashi gasps, stomach twisting. “Uhei--”

His flashlight flickers before going out. Kakashi smacks it against his hand to try to bring it back to life. It finally flickers back on, and when he looks up again, a figure of a woman in an old, torn up dress stands before him, head hanging low with her long, dark hair shrouding her face. Water drips from her hands, pooling at her feet, making her clothes stick to her skin.

“What the fuck--” Kakashi flinches, taking a step back. The flashlight flickers again before going out, dead. Kakashi’s breaths turn panicked as he tries to get it back on, his fingers beginning to tremble and go numb from the cold.

When it comes back on, the woman is gone. He spins, aiming the flashlight out before him. Another squeal of pain has him jerking the light down to the earth, where both Biscuit and Urushi lie still on the ground, blood on their fur.

Kakashi’s mouth drops open, his foot taking a step back. How--

A snap of a twig has him whirling around, and the last thing he sees is the flash of teeth glistening under the strobe of his flashlight before a loud growl sounds and all goes black.

----

Iruka wakes up to the sound of his phone ringing on his nightstand.

Groaning, he squints his eyes at the offending thing and stretches out of his nest of blankets to grab it, noting it was just past seven in the morning. He thumbs the alarm off and contemplates going back to sleep before remembering the list of things he had planned to do today. Sighing, he shifts to roll over to the other side of the bed where Kakashi sleeps, only to find the space empty and cold.

Iruka lifts himself up, planting his weight on his elbow. Kakashi’s robe is still on the hook, and there doesn’t seem to be anything amiss, but it was rare for his husband to not be in bed beside him in the mornings. Of the two of them, Iruka was more of the morning person, with Kakashi milking every last minute of sleep sometimes to his own detriment when he’s pressed the snooze button too many times.

After a quick break in their shared bathroom, he pads down the hallway in his socks to check on the boys, sweatpants on over his boxers along with a loose hoodie. They are both still fast asleep, but Iruka knows that Sasuke will probably be awake soon, the child sensitive to the light streaming in through the window. Iruka gives them a soft smile before heading downstairs.

His smile turns to a frown when he realizes the dogs aren’t coming up to him, ready for breakfast. His frown is then accompanied by a twist in his stomach when he doesn’t see Kakashi anywhere. He checks the cars and sees they are both in the driveway, so Kakashi couldn’t have left.

“Where did you go...” he says softly to himself, walking to the kitchen on autopilot to flick on the coffee maker. He is standing at the kitchen sink, filling the pot with water, when something in the window catches his eye.

Outside, all of the dogs are sitting on their rumps, facing the tree line where Uhei had dashed off into the day before.

Iruka pauses, staring at the odd scene, the twist in his stomach getting tighter and heavier.

He abandons the coffee and quickly makes his way to the mudroom, freezing in the doorway when he sees the side door wide open and swinging slowly in the wind. He shoves his feet into a pair of rainboots and jogs over to the line of dogs. He counted five, but Uhei, Biscuit, and Urushi were missing.

Iruka peers around him, trying to think of where Kakashi could have gone, when he notices footprints in the dirt, soft and wet from the morning dew. Swallowing, he follows them, a sense of dread growing in his stomach, when a loud splashing sound from the direction of the lake has him spinning back.

“What...” Iruka sees something bobbing in the water. He walks closer, slowly, his vision obscured by the faint hazy fog that creeps along the grass. When he sees a shine of silver hair, his breath lodges in his throat, and he sprints. “Kakashi! Kakashi!”

His footsteps are loud as he runs down the wooden dock, not even hesitating to dive right off of it and into the cold water. Iruka swims until he reaches him, breaching the surface with a gasp as his hands grab hold of Kakashi. “Kakashi,” Iruka calls out to him, afraid and panicked and hoping with everything that Kakashi wasn’t--that he wouldn’t do this, not Kakashi, not his husband, he wouldn’t just leave them all alone like this, and certainly not by suicide---

Iruka finally reaches the shore, hauling the other man’s body onto the sand and rolling him onto his back. He performs all the steps to proper CPR, noting the absence of breath and blue-tinging his husband's lips, cold when he presses his own down on them to deliver air into the still lungs beneath him.

Please please please, Iruka begs as he counts the chest compressions. He sobs out in relief when Kakashi finally coughs up water and begins to breathe. Iruka helps him to his side so he doesn’t choke, rubbing his back and telling him he was okay, I got you, you’re okay. Kakashi pants loudly, clearing his throat roughly and trying to twist himself back to look at Iruka.

He takes a gasping breath before the strength seems to leave him, body falling limp and eyes fluttering shut again. Iruka shakes him, calling out his name. “Kakashi! Kakashi wake up! Kakashi--shit...”

Iruka sniffles loudly, tears prickling in his eyes and nose burning from holding it all in.

“Iruka?” Sasuke stands at the edge of the beach, eyes wide on Kakashi’s form being held in Iruka’s lap.

“Sasuke, I need you to go inside the house and call nine-one-one, okay? Just like we practiced. Do you remember?” Iruka waits for Sasuke to nod, but when the child doesn’t acknowledge him, the urgency of the situation has Iruka snapping forward. “Sasuke! Go call the police. Please.”

Sasuke jerks, looking up to him before nodding and running back into the house. Iruka lets his tears fall then, wondering what the hell is happening, because when Kakashi had turned to look at him, Iruka could have sworn his left eye was a bright, crimson red.

----

“Will Kakashi be okay?” Naruto asks, eyes teary as he looks up at his adoptive aunt. When Sasuke had stormed into the house earlier that morning, Naruto had just made it downstairs, sleepy and hungry. Before he could even get a word in, he watched as Sasuke picked up Iruka’s cell phone on the kitchen island and called the police like they had practiced.

At first, he thought it was another drill. But then he heard the operator talk (Kakashi would always pretend to be the operator so they didn’t actually call) and knew something was wrong.

It was scary, to have all the lights flashing and paramedics come through the house. Iruka had told them to stay upstairs in their room, but both boys were too worried and anxious to sit still, so they had snuck into their parent’s bedroom to look through the window.

Kakashi had looked so small on the gurney as they pushed him into the ambulance, a plastic mask over his face.

Naruto had started crying then. It was too much like before, before Iruka, and even before Kakashi. He doesn’t remember much, being as young as he was, but he does remember the red and blue lights and the smell of burnt rubber and fire from the car accident.

Sasuke stood beside him, stiff and trembling, trying to keep his tears in. Naruto knows it’s different for Sasuke, because he remembers the night his parents and brother were killed. Naruto doesn’t know exactly what happened, he didn’t ask too much after he saw that dark look in his adoptive brother’s eyes, but he knows it had to do with something called a gang and revenge.

After the paramedics left along with the fire truck and police officers, Iruka came up to get them ready to follow them, hurrying them to dress and get in the car. The dogs had all been locked up in the fenced off kennel area, so they had to take a moment to let them out again before they left.

The hospital had been stinky, busy, and cold. They spent so much time there that Naruto ended up falling asleep on the plastic chairs, waiting with his family for any news. Sasuke stayed awake the entire time, holding on to Iruka’s left hand, Naruto holding the right.

Auntie Anko had picked them up from the hospital. He and Sasuke didn’t hear much but they heard things like “no idea” and a word that Naruto didn’t really understand, but knew was bad with how Iruka looked so...sad.

It was a long car ride to Auntie’s place. Naruto was so worried about everything he couldn’t even sleep on the way there, even though car rides usually knock him right out. When they finally get there, they have to climb up three flights of stairs to Anko’s apartment because the elevator was out. “Alright, kiddos,” Anko flicks on the lights inside the apartment, setting their bags on the kitchen table. “Do you need showers?”

Naruto and Sasuke look down at themselves, then at her. They shrug. Anko chuckles and ruffles up their hair. “I’ll get the bath started then figure out dinner, okay? Here, turn the tv on to whatever you want.”

Sasuke takes the remote from her and follows Naruto to the couch, the fabric soft and worn. Naruto scoots closer to him, snuggling up close and not really wanting to watch any tv. “Do you think Kakashi will be okay?” he whispers, as if saying it any louder would make his fears come true.

Sasuke stares ahead for a moment before reaching up and flicking Naruto on his forehead. “He’s our dad. He has to be.”

They don’t say anything after that, knowing that their first dads hadn’t been okay and were dead now. They didn’t want the same thing to happen to Kakashi.

---

Iruka stares at his husband’s still, pale form on the hospital bed with a sense of unease.

The doctors say that there was nothing else they could do for him, that despite his drawing, all tests and examinations showed him to be in good health. There was no reason for him to have fallen into such a deep coma so quickly. No head trauma, no neurological damage, nothing, and no evidence or reason of the flash of red eyes Iruka had seen.

Kakashi’s hands are cold underneath his palms.

Iruka sighs and rubs his hands over his face, tired and hungry and worn. Visiting hours are just about over, and as much as he’d like to raise hell and demand to be allowed to stay the night, he has the dogs at home to think about. He was lucky for Anko to come get the kids, even though she lives two towns away. “I’ll be back in the morning, alright? I love you, darling,” Iruka leans over Kakashi’s form and presses a soft kiss onto his forehead, softly threading his fingers through the silver strands before straightening up and grabbing his bag.

He spends the drive home alternating between crying to the point of having to pull over, laughing out the incredulity of it all, and singing loudly to his favorite playlist.

The dogs are barking loudly when he gets home, and he finally lets them out into the yard through the back door. He fills up the food and water bowls then heads upstairs for a quick shower. When he’s finished, he sits on the edge of their bed, phone in hand, and spends a few minutes lost, flicking through his photo albums.

Naruto had been so small when he’d first adopted him. He’d met the child one day when Iruka had still been volunteering at the group home that he himself had been raised in. Fresh out of college and having just landed his first teaching job, Iruka resisted for months, but, eventually, he made the leap to adopt him, a decision that Mizuki had resented and resisted until Iruka finally had to call the cops to throw him out.

He hasn’t ever regretted it since.

Naruto had only been two, and a terror at that. But one little press of his chubby little hands on his cheek, asking to sleep with him after a nightmare, and Iruka knew it would all be worth it. Two years after that, he’d met Kakashi, who’s own adoption story of Sasuke had been very similar--family killed in a car accident, no survivors, just one scared little boy with no one to lean back on.

Iruka loved them. Loved Sasuke and Naruto as his own children, and loved Kakashi as his partner. He also knew how much Kakashi loved them. It was in the way his eyes softened when he looked at Iruka, or how he made sure to drive the extra fifteen minutes to the grocery store because Sasuke was afraid of bridges, or even in how careful and gentle he is trimming Naruto’s hair when it gets too long.

So why--?

A knocking sound in the hallway pulls Iruka’s attention away from his musings. He looks up, expecting to see a dog through the doorway.

There is no dog.

Frowning, Iruka sets his phone down and walks over to investigate, bare feet padding on the floor, only the lamp from his bedroom lighting his way. He waits a moment right at the start of the stairs, seeing if he could hear it again, but no sound appears.

“Ugh,” Iruka rubs at his eyes, shaking his head. Maybe the stress was just getting to his head. He turns around, ready to walk back to his bedroom, when an unseen force slams into him and sends him falling down the stairs. He tries to grab hold onto the railing, the baluster, anything, but isn’t able. His breath is frozen in his chest when he finally slams onto the bottom floor, pain radiating in sharp points all over his body, especially his right wrist and ankle.

Something wet splashes on his eyelid, and he finally groans, still too scared to move properly in case he makes his hurts worse, but when he opens his eyes, his breath freezes this time for a whole other reason: fear.

The ghostly figure opens her mouth to release a sludge of water down her chest, landing on Iruka’s face. He chokes, sputtering and flinching in the sparks of pain his movements cause, when sharp claws dig into his shoulders and drag him backwards. Iruka yells out, both from fright and from fear, digging his fingernails into the wood to stop his movement.

As he’s dragged down the hallway towards the backdoor, the dogs stand still in an almost straight line in the living room, watching him. The woman makes no pause down the back porch steps, and Iruka’s breath catches all over again at the pain, gasping only when his lungs begin to burn with the strain.

The wood of the dock is cold and damp. “Stop! Stop! No!” Iruka again tries to stop his traction, uncaring if the effort causes his finger nails to bleed painfully against the hard surface, splinters piercing his skin. The woman makes no effort to stop or slow, her body moving in sharp, jerking movements. When his head hangs off the edge of the dock, stands above him, staring with white eyes, mouth tinged blue and water dripping off of every inch of her body, creating puddles beneath her.

“Please,” Iruka cries out, hands up in surrender. “Please, stop, what do you want? What do you want?”

“The seals,” her voice is low and raspy, thick with the water that sludges out. “Show me the seas.”

Something in Iruka stirs.

“What?” he croaks, still very much in pain, fear, and confusion. The woman crouches above him, one leg on each side of his chest, and places a hand on his neck, choking him.

“The seals,” she repeats. “Give me the seals.” Her hand tightens, and Iruka brings his hands up in an attempt to break off her tight grip on his neck, bare feet kicking out against the wooden grain.

“Why,” he grunts out, staring up at the monstrous figure illuminated by the faint light of the moon peeking out from the clouds.

For a quick second, the white eyes turn gold and slitted, much like a pair of snake eyes, and the thing inside Iruka that had stirred in his gut burns even brighter. He latches onto it, leading purely on instinct and adrenalin, but before he can even make a move, the woman lifts his head and knocks him against the dock, hard.

The pain is sharp and causes a loud ringing in his ears. Iruka curls into himself and onto his side, trying to ground himself through the pain. The ringing won’t stop, consuming his every thought, ringing louder and louder and louder until somehow the ringing turns into voices.

“---resisting it! He’s trying to come out!”

“---harder---drain him out---”

“----the kyuubi---”

Iruka’s eyes snap open, and he pulls on that knot that had been stirring inside him, right at the center of his stomach, stopping the flow of chakra enough for the world around him to flicker and disappear.

----

Kakashi wakes up, but years of training keep his body still and his breath even.

His head hurts. More than anything else. His blood throbs inside his skull fiercely, thumping loudly in his ears and sending sharp, shooting pains out into his skull from his eye. He can feel the familiar ache of a chakra drain, as well as the burns up his arm from overusing his lightning jutsu.

“Kakashi-nii?” a small voice asks to his left and Kakashi’s eyes snap open, remembering.

“Naruto,” his voice is low and raspy from disuse, as well as strained from possibly screaming with how raw it felt. He’s tied up, strung up to the ceiling with large, heavy chains, bare save for his pants. Naruto is on the floor across from him, small and dirty and scared, tear tracks staining his chubby cheeks. Next to him, Sasuke lies on the stone floor, still, face obscured by his unruly hair.

Naruto holds up his right hand, palm out, to reveal a familiar seal glowing blue. Iruka, the seal prodigy that he was, had created and placed the specialized protection seal on both him and Sasuke. It had been part of the reason that Iruka had been (reluctantly on the counsel’s part) placed as their guardians, for he had been trained under the Sandaime himself in the ways of sealing, not to mention his own Uzushio heritage.

“Status,” Kakashi barks out, testing his bounds. The genjutsu they’d been under must have been strong to keep him under for so long--his chakra levels are so low that he is legitimately concerned to not have enough to get them completely out safely. At least, not with him.

But he has to. These kids are his kids, no matter how long he had avoided the responsibility. But Iruka had shown him the truth, the gift that they’d been presented. Iruka had shown him a lot of things since they’d first been paired up on that ANBU mission requiring a seals expert so long ago now. Had it really only been four years?

“I’m hungry. I hurt. My head hurts. My tummy hurts. Sasuke won’t wake up,” Naruto’s lip trembles as his tears start anew and fall.

“Have you seen anybody else?” Kakashi quickly maneuvers his wrists out of the chains holding them in place. Whoever had placed them under this genjutsu had relied too much on the possibility of their success, for it was too easy to completely free himself and the chains holding the boys in place. He ignores the pain radiating through his body as he checks them over for injuries or any other sign of harm, feeling a small spark of relief when he finds none. Sasuke still has both of his eyes and Naruto still has the Kyuubi’s seal in place.

“No--but where’s daddy? Where’s Iruka?” Naruto asks him, wrapping his arms around Kakashi’s thigh tightly when he picks Sasuke up into his arms, still asleep.

“We’re going to go find him now,” Kakashi tells him, hoping against all hope that he isn’t lying.

The room is bare, but the chains he is able to dislodge from the wall and wrap around his torso and fist as a makeshift weapon. With just how low his chakra is, he only has one move left in him.

He’ll have to do this the old fashioned way.

The door is easy to pick and open, no traps placed. Amateurish, but Kakashi is grateful for the easy access. Naruto walks quietly behind him, just as they’ve practiced in emergency drills, on hand on his back. Kakashi pauses at the corner, straining his ears and nose to pick up on any movement. When he is sure it’s clear, they walk down the tunnel.

It smells of tightly packed dirt and iron, and he wonders just how far from Konoha they’d been taken. From the way his stomach twists in hunger, he would have to guess at least four days have passed. They could be anywhere.

Kakashi freezes with a hand out behind him when he hears a sound. He waits, Naruto trembling behind him. It is quiet before a loud boom reverbates from somewhere in the distance, causing dirt to fall from the cavern around them. Naruto jumps, startled, but Kakashi does not.

Instead, Kakashi grins, recognizing the familiar flare of chakra.

“It’s Iruka,” Kakashi tells the little boy behind him as they begin to move forward again.

The closer they get, the clearer the sounds of yelling voices are, paired with the sounds of clashing metal, fighting, and even more explosions. They turn down another tunnel, stopping when the wall explodes outward meters in front of them. The air clears of dirt and smoke to reveal Iruka on his knees over an unknown missing nin, kunai in hand.

“Where are my fucking kids,” Iruka growls out, pressing the deadly blade to the man’s neck. His hair is loose and tangled all over his face, chest bare with burns, cuts, and bruises littering his skin. His face is set in a fearsome snarl, teeth bared and bloody from his broken nose. Kakashi has never felt more in love.

“Oh dear,” Kakashi calls out to him, waving a hand up in the air up and down, flapping at the wrist. Iruka whirls toward them and breathes a visible sigh of relief.

“Oh, thank goodness,” Iruka says. The man beneath him tries to take advantage of the moment, but Iruka is faster, sinking the knife into the man’s neck swiftly and without a sound.

Naruto winces and digs his face into Kakashi’s leg. “Are there any left for questioning?”

“We don’t need them, I know how they got in. Baby boy, come here,” Iruka opens his dirty and blood stained arms open for Naruto to run into, crying. Iruka shushes him as he holds him tight, limping over to Kakashi.

When he reaches him, they each hold a hand out to the other’s neck, bringing their foreheads together. They take a moment to breathe in and feel the gratefulness of you’re alive this was too close I love you I love you I love you before parting.

“Sasuke?” Iruka questions, sliding his hand through the sleeping boy’s face.

“Hasn’t gotten up yet. The genjutsu is gone, though,” Kakashi peers around them before walking over to the now dead enemy to pilfer his clothes and weapons, ripping a piece of cloth to tie around his face. “Was this all of them?”

“Yes,” Iruka does the same with another body, pulling on a cloak and pocketing a stack of blank tags. “A small terrorist group, relied too much on this one,” Iruka kicks his foot out at a fallen shinobi with blue hair.

“Good for us,” Kakashi says lightly, slipping shoes on. “Ready?” he turns back to his husband.

“Let’s go,” Iruka smiles at him tiredly before taking his offered hand and leading the way out.

---

“--and then boom! Daddy was just there and it was so awesome and if it wasn’t for me the guy would have gotten Kaka-nii, too!” Naruto exclaimed loudly, jumping up and down in excitement.

Anko laughs, sticking another dumpling in her mouth. “Oh, that’s how it happened, huh?”

“Well, some details are missing...” Iruka teases, coming up behind the little blonde boy with a fond smile and a tray of orange slices and almonds.

Sasuke rolls his eyes next to his adoptive brother, knowing fully that Naruto was probably exaggerating most of the story, even if he had been asleep for most of the action. It had been scary to wake up in the forest with no memory of how he’d gotten there, but once Kakashi and Iruka explained the situation to him, he’d been able to calm down.

They had always made him feel safe.

“A damn shame you took care of them all, daddy,” Anko nudges an elbow into Iruka’s side when he takes his seat next to her at the kotatsu.

“Stop,” Iruka shoves her right back, laughing. “They had it coming. I’m just glad those seals worked. Though we will have to adjust them to repel genjutsu...I hadn’t coded them in as a separate entity.”

“The perils of being the village’s only experimental seals master,” Kakashi intones from his spot on the couch, feet up on the ottaman. He’s still on mostly bedrest, his chakra being drained as it was, but it could have been worse.

“I’m not the only--” Iruka starts up the argument, yet again, as if he really wasn’t the only one. The Sandaime didn’t count--he’s basically retired from all of that stuff since his leadership, focused more on maintaining peace than experimenting on new jutsu.

“Daddy but you are! The best and only one in the whole village! The world! The universe!” Naruto hollars, waving his arms in the air so animatedly he accidentally smacks Sasuke in the face when the other boy tries to grab an orange slice.

“Hey! Dobe!” Sasuke shoves Naruto hard enough to knock the other boy over and onto the floor, agitated and annoyed at his antics.

“Sasuke!” Iruka reprimands him.

“He hit me first!”

“It was an accident!”

Kakashi sighs, turning the page of his book.

Just another day in the life of Kakashi Hatake and Iruka Umino.

Looking across the room to make eye contact with said husband, he knows he would fight more than just a bunch of shinobi-wannabe’s who think they could take his family away with a flimsy genjutsu. Shouldn’t they know that Konoha wouldn’t dare to leave their most important assets alone to fend for themselves?

The sounds of a bickering family fill the small cottage-style home set on the old Hatake grounds, rebuilt and remodeled to rid the past and make room for the future. It’s a sound that Kakashi has come to hold dear.

And when he makes eye contact across the room with his husband, Iruka’s eyes go soft for just a moment. The round of his cheeks lift up with his smile, and Kakashi knows without a shred of doubt that this little slice of happiness, of home, is worth anything and everything he has, no matter how much he’s failed in the past.

Because right here, right now, is where he was meant to be.