Chapter Text
Kakashi wasn't sure what to expect when he was called up to Tsunade's office, but this definitely wasn't it. On the screen of the pad in his hands flashed a picture as soon as Kakashi's shaky finger pressed the button. His breath caught, eyes frantically scanning the picture, the trepidation he'd felt being replaced by confusion. It was a picture of Iruka, looking good he might add, lacking the seemingly permanent rings under his eyes that Kakashi had grown accustumed to seeing him with, but what really caught Kakashi's attention was the thing in his lap. A child, no, a baby.
"You wouldn't have dared..." Kakashi cursed, hastily scrolling down to get to the written message. It was brief, only two lines, but it caused him to pause.
I NAMED HIM KYOSHIRO. I HOPE YOU DON'T MIND.
The message lacked a signature, but the sender was rather self evident. Iruka. Sending Tsunade a picture of the kid he'd had with... Someone who had replaced Kakashi.
"I would like to hear your thoughts on this."
Kakashi slowly looked up. He avoided Tsunade's eyes, letting his gaze land between the grim lines of her eyebrows instead. He wasn't sure he could look her in the eye without breaking down. "I'm not sure what you expect me to say, Tsunade-hime," he said dully.
That damn Iruka...
"Cut the bullshit Kakashi. Do you even realize how much of a scandal this is going to be? Damn it..." Tsunade bit her thumb in frustration. "The Elders are going to have my head."
"Maah... Surely it's not that bad." For Tsunade. It was Kakashi's world being crushed, for a second time in the short span of months, the first having been when Iruka vanished during a raid to their ship. Technically Iruka's disappearance could be considered a rescue since technically he had been a prisoner, but Iruka had been happy on their ship dammit, or so Kakashi had thought.
"You're taking this surprisingly well," noted Tsunade suspiciously. Kakashi shrugged. He was about to have an internal crisis and would probably fall asleep crying into his pillow, but she didn't need to know that. Kakashi had all night to think of what kind of woman might have won Iruka's heart and sired a baby with him. "Well... I suppose that's good. It's not like we run much of a chance of retrieving the kid with how carefully they are bound to hide him, knowing who the father is."
"Oh? I didn't know Iruka was that important of a figure," drawled Kakashi. Iruka had, according to the brunette himself, been a teacher before being brought aboard the Konoha mothership and Kakashi believed him, the observations he'd made of Iruka with children supporting that theory. Iruka was amazing with kids, the ankle biters loved him.
Tsunade sent him a look, the kind which said he was an idiot, which Kakashi wasn't since he was a genious. Lots of people could attest to that. Well, some of them were dead, but surely someone still remained.
"In this instance, Iruka would technically be considered the mother," said Tsunade slowly. Kakashi was pretty sure Tsunade herself did not realize how little sense her words made. "Oh, for the sake of... Hatake, the father is obviously you! How else could Iruka appear three months after we last saw him, with a newborn baby in his arms?"
Kakashi blanched.
"Men!" huffed Tsunade.
"Iruka is a man," said Kakashi, quickly and without doubt. He had checked and since he was a genious he knew what that meant for the biology of them, unless... The look in Tsunade's eyes said she really thought that could be it. "He said it wasn't possible. He laughed when I asked him about it."
"He probably laughed at your ignorance," muttered Tsunade. "He fooled us all."
Tsunade, his leader and a medical professional, was saying she thought male pregnancies might be true after all. That Kakashi might have gotten a man pregnant. That Iruka, a man, might have grown an uterus without him noticing and had now, apparently, carried Kakashi's child to term and had somehow, inconceivably given birth to it.
Kakashi was a quick-witted man, but for once he had no idea how to think or feel.
"None of this would have happened if you could just have kept it in your pants! I bet the Rebels are laughing their asses off as we speak. Do you realize how suspicous will look that you were gone when the breakout happened?"
"Your Highness..." began Kakashi.
"Oh spare me the grovelling. It's not your loyalty I doubt, it's your common sense. Though I'm fairly sure I know who stole it, along with your sperms."
Kakashi winced. "You seriously cannot think..."
"I do," said Tsunade firmly. Kakashi met her eyes and it was both the most fearsome and the most powerful experience of his life to date, his heart starting to drum at an eccentric pace and his breathing feeling heavy. Tsunade's eyes softened, in warmth and in pity. "Congratulations are in order, I suppose. Though the circumstances are not ideal, I belive he would be your first?"
Kakashi swallowed. Somehow he found it in himself to tilt his head in responce to his leader's query.
His first. Kakashi's first. A son. His son. Also Iruka's son. Their son?
No wonder Tsunade thought the Elders might be angry. They would be furious that their enemies had managed to steal a progeny of Kakashi's, which they themselves had been hoping for for years. And in such a sneaky way too.
"Sit down," said Tsunade, and instead of taking the chair several feet away Kakashi slumped into a low crouch, putting his head in between his knees. He felt nauseous, distinctly ill. He hoped he wouldn't vomit, that was always a nasty business with the mask. Tsunade had seen his face, but he would still rather not take it off.
Especially not now. Not when... No. He shouldn't think of that, it only made him feel worse.
He felt Tsunade's hand on his shoulder, and though the touch felt awkward he could appreciate the gesture.
"If it makes you feel any better, I'm fairly certain he doesn't hate you," said Tsunade softly. Kakashi laughed, the sound emotionless and hollow. "He lied to me," he said, brushing her words off. Tsunade made a low noise. "He named the boy after your father though." Kakashi's head whipped up. "Think of it," urged Tsunade.
He thought of it. Kyoshiro. In the message Iruka called the boy, his son, Kyoshiro. Kyo and Shiro. Shiro. White. Like the White Fang? Kakashi had never gotten very well along with his father though. But Iruka didn't know that...
"It could be coincidence," said Kakashi, cautious about making assumptions when his previous ones had obviously failed him where it mattered the most.
"I don't think so. Seems pretty thought out to me," said Tsunade. "It's a rather clever play of words since Kyoshiro honors the Rebels' traditions for names also."
So maybe Tsunade was right. Maybe Iruka didn't hate him.
Kakashi clawed at his mop of hair. That... Minx! He'd always known Iruka had a mischevious side to him, but for the brunette to have planned something so... Something so...
"Are you angry?"
"Furious," responded Kakashi promptly and it wasn't even a lie.
"Do you want me to send you the picture?" Kakashi's breath caught. He slowly looked up.
The picture. Of Iruka's and Kakashi's son, of Kyoshiro. He had a picture.
Suddenly Kakashi wanted nothing more than stare at the picture of Iruka and their son for all eternity. His fingers twitched with the need to grab the pad from Tsunade and claw his way to the picture he had only glanced at before. He wanted to see every detail, wanted to search for every resemblance of Iruka and of Kakashi on the baby's face, wanted to see the happy curve to Iruka's lips and the way the baby curled contently against his chest—
"Yes please," said Kakashi, collecting himself and standing upright. Tsunade gave him a cursory glance, and wether she found what she was looking for or not, she nodded.
"You're dismissed."
And though it wasn't perfect, it was a start.
The next time Kakashi received word of Iruka and the baby was four months later, when Tenzo was released after a period of captivity at the Rebels' hands. Tenzo was bruised and battered, but he had a happy smile on his lips and apparently he had been allowed to hold Iruka's baby in between his interrogation sessions.
Kakashi nearly murdered him for it.