Archive of Our Own ^beta

“You really are moving away from Konoha?”

The woman looked up to see a silver-haired young teen sitting in the window, holding a small infant to her chest. She gave him a tired look. “It felt like the best thing for our family,” she said, “But I don’t want this little one to become a shinobi. Not if I can help it.”

The silver-haired young teen stiffened, craning his neck to get a better look at the small child, only for the woman to shield the child ’s face from him while the infant touched her finger to its hand and she let out a coo, calming the child’s fussing.

“I’m sorry,” the boy gasped out. “I’m so sorry.”

The woman stiffened, turning her head slightly to say she didn ’t want him to apologize, that she didn’t blame him for her daughter's death like others in Konoha did, only to see the boy was gone.

“Are you sure?”

She turned to her husband as the infant, the youngest of their family, fussed, the blanket sliding back slightly so a lock of silver hair slipped out.

“Are you sure we shouldn’t tell the boy?”

“Rin was adamant about not telling him in the first place,” she said. “But it’s for the best. They were both too young, but her death is enough on those young shoulders of his, so it’s our job to protect this little one from having the same fate if we can.”

“I hope you’re right.”

…

Nohara Takumi arrived at the family home, the one they ’d created for themselves away from Konoha, away from the memories of their eldest sister. He set his workload down, frowning as the youngest siblings came running over, worried looks on their faces, yet—

“Where is Takashi?”

“I don’t know,” Riku muttered. “We looked everywhere.”

Takumi ’s mouth tightened. “Just you and Souta?”

“Yuna-nee said we can watch him for a change,” Souta cried out.

“She’s out chasing boys,” Riku frowned, his facial features twisting in disgust, to which Takumi knew he’d have a word with her when she got back. “And Hikaru refused to help.”

“Just shrugged his shoulders!” Souta said.

Takumi frowned, going from room to room, noticing Hikaru in one room, looking relatively unperturbed that their toddler nephew was missing. When he couldn ’t find Takumi in either room, he came back. “Hikaru. We need to find Takashi.”

“Don’t need to.”

Takumi stared, then, “What do you mean we don’t need to?”

Hikaru pointed up, and Takumi turned around to see—

The color drained from his face. “No, no. This isn’t happening.”

“How’d he do that!” Souta called out, as Takashi giggled, quite the pleased little toddler at what he managed to do.

“How’d he what?” Riku asked, then, when he saw it, his eyes widened. “I didn’t teach him that!”

Nobody had.

Hikaru continued watching the giggling toddler. “Do you think this is why his father graduated from the academy early?”

Takumi let out a groan, rubbing the bridge of his nose, wondering how he ’d explain this to his parents. “This seriously can’t be happening.”

Toddlers shouldn ’t have an innate ability to have chakra control without being taught.

But apparently?

It could be a Hatake thing he was seeing in front of him.

And the look on Takashi ’s face, his nephew thought it normal for toddlers to literally climb the walls and stick to the ceiling.

And then—

Then he heard their mother scream, having herself come home to see what her grandchild was very much capable of doing.

...

Explaining to a toddler that, no, grandma wasn ’t angry at him for literally climbing the walls, just scared, wasn ’t easy when said grandma wouldn’t stop crying because at the end of the day, the idea of keeping a confident toddler from becoming a shinobi turned out to be an unrealistic pipe dream when said toddler litterally figured out a shinobi skill on their own.

“And this is why Rin’s boyfriend is so annoying,” Daiki muttered, keeping what he really wanted to say as Takumi and their more banned discussion of a certain Hatake getting put their sister into the family way without realizing he’d done so.

Takumi still remembered simply teasing Rin about the not-boyfriend being her boyfriend, only to learn later that the not-boyfriend got her pregnant one overly stressful night. Rin claimed the Hatake teen couldn ’t even remember that she seemed unkeen on telling him about.

“If you’re afraid of him,” Takumi had said. “Of how he’d react,” he pushed, wanting to tell her they could go to the Hokage to settle the matter.

“Oh. No. He…” Rin glanced away. “Made it clear where his boundaries were a long time ago, and I violated them.”

Daiki eventually figured out that the non-boyfriend rejected Rin ’s feelings, which made him want to hunt down a jonin-level shinobi who was away from the village constantly on missions. At the same time, his sister, their sister, was stuck in the town, hiding her pregnancy by not going on missions and helping out at the hospital instead.

A mortified Rin—

“If he has no feelings for you, he has no business having sex with you,” Daiki snapped.

“I never said that!” Rin said, looking as if she were going to cry. “This is why I can’t talk to either one of you! You won’t get it!”

But then their mother said, “ It ’s why I don’t want Takashi to go down the path of becoming a shinobi. Children shouldn’t be afraid of getting close to people because they’re afraid of losing them. ”

It was after Rin died, and then the Hatake teen became the annoying boyfriend rather than the non-boyfriend, even though he and Rin never dated, because that connection was there , despite everything.

And now?

Now Takumi and Hikaru were going back to Konoha with Takashi, as the family honestly didn ’t know what to do with a toddler who literally could climb walls, with promises of Takashi eventually meeting his papa, which meant a lot of paperwork for Takumi.

Only—

He should have known better to look away, as when he looked up, Hikaru and Takumi were both gone.

“I saw your baby brother slip out of the others’ grasp, calling out for his papa.”

“Nephew,” Takumi said, tensing at what the man just said.

“Huh,” the person in charge looks down. “It says here…”

Someone leaned over, and the other startled.

“Wait? What? That? No way.” The person swallowed, looking at Takumi nervously, which sent a chill through Takumi. “That, uh…”

Takumi took a deep breath. “Please tell me this doesn’t mean more paperwork. ”

“Sorry, but it does?” The man swallowed.

“The babe seemed very determined to see his papa.”

It also seemed Takashi was determined to meet his papa sooner rather than later, and Takumi let out another groan.

…

Hiruzen looked up, feeling the chakra unique to the Hatake clan, expecting to see Hound and Cat reporting in.

He didn ’t expect to see that .

But he did understand why neither Hound nor Cat noticed, as the chakra of the small terror following them was non-threatening and blended right in with Hound ’s chakra, much as Hound’s had blended in with his father’s, almost as if it were a way for the Hatake clan to protect their young in some forgotten time.

Nor was he surprised when the tiny terror literally climbed up the wall and onto the ceiling, heading straight towards Hound, but quickly Hiruzen said, “No matter what, don’t injure my guest, please.”

“Guest?” Hound said, taken aback as he’d not sensed the guess only—

“Papa!” said the tiny terror as it dropped from the ceiling and clung to Hound’s back like the spider monkey Hiruzen very much remembered Hound to be when he was younger.

Hound let out a yelp, reaching for the intruder into his personal space only for the intruder to move out of his way with each, clinging to Hound ’s back with proper chakra control while giggling in excitement as toddlers were known to do. Still, it was apparent the tiny terror was quite pleased with himself.

“Much like the one who brought this little heathen into this world,” Hiruzen said, focused on his pipe as a member of the Nohara clan hurried in.

“Sempai!” Cat called out, frantically trying to get the tiny terror off Hound's back. At the same time, none of the other ANBU made a move to help, likely very much amused at what was a familiar sight to the ones currently there, having remembered Hound as a small child with his father.

“What is this thing?” Hound said in panic.

“A silver spider!” Cat blurted out.

“A silver spider?” Hound’s voice strained. “What…”

“It’s a child. A toddler, to be precise,” Hiruzen said, finding the situation downright amusing.

“A toddler?” Hound squeaked out. “How can,” a pause, then, “A toddler do this?”

The other ANBU didn ’t hide their amusement.

“It’s not funny!” Hound said, trying to sound threatening, as if, as their captain, he would be assigning the worst training he could think up, as Cat tried his best to capture the silver terror on Hound’s back.

Then—

Hound let out a sigh and went limp, going straight to the floor onto his side, tiny terror still clinging to his back. “That’s it. I’m dead.”

Hiruzen let an eyebrow go up. “ Well, that ’s a different tactic . ”

The tiny terror poked at the ANBU mark on Hound ’s arm, then—

“I’m dead.”

The other ANBU weren ’t holding it back anymore, and Cat—

“Sempai! Don’t die!”

And the member of the Nohara clan was watching, head tilted right before another one came in, jaw dropping in horror, a very different reaction from the other one. At the same time, Hiruzen tried remembering which of Rin ’s brothers were now in front of him, watching.

Hound then moved, trying to get away from the tiny terror, only for the little terror to latch on again.

“Don’t hurt the child,” Hiruzen barked out.

Hound let out a groan, going down on all fours as the child secured itself to the lower part of his ANBU vest and then scurried further up, giggling.

“Sempai. Hold on. I’ll…” Cat said, moving forward to try to capture the child again.

Only, on top of evading Cat, the tiny terror decided to showcase another trait Hound was known for at that age, and still at times was—biting.

“Youch!”

“Cat?” Hound turned his head lightly, panic in his voice, but then he sighed, the order not to harm the child standing.

“Hound?” Hiruzen said. “Remove your mask, please?”

Hound reached up, and the mask lowered as he sat up, tiny terror still clinging.

Then—

Tiny hand reached for the other mask. “Mask off!” the tiny terror continued giggling. “Mask off!”

“Stop that,” Kakashi said, pulling the small hand away from tugging his mask down, resulting in it snapping back.

“Sempai?” Cat said, anxious as ever, as he leaned over, looking at the tiny silver spider that was in reality just a toddler that had bitten him.

Then—

Fingers poked at the scar running over Kakashi ’s left eye, toddler curiosity fully there on display.

Kakashi pushed the small hand away. “Don’t do that . ”

“Uh,” one of the Nohara brothers said, which made Kakashi start to turn his head towards him.

Only—

Small hands went for the ANBU sword and—

Kakashi tensed, hands jolting up on reflex, finally grabbing the tiny terror and flipping the bundle of joy over his shoulder into his lap.

“He’s a toddler!” the older of the two Nohara brothers gasped out.

“No!” Kakashi said, holding up a finger. “No sharp objects until you’re older.”

And—

Hiruzen sighed, his personal ANBU unable to hold their laughter back anymore.

Kakashi sent them a glare, and—

“Lord Third,” one of the ANBU gasped, breaking form. “You have to tell him!”

“Tell who what?” Kakashi asked.

Hiruzen sighed. “Good luck attempting to do what nobody was able to do with you at that age.”

“No,” the oldest Nohara brother there groaned. “No, no, no.”

Kakashi looked up, confusion all over his face.

“The wall climbing and ceiling clinging was bad enough.”

“Why are you surprised?”

“Hikaru?”

“I’m surprised everyone’s so surprised,” the younger of the two Nohara brothers said. “Taka-chan’s father did graduate from the academy early for a reason, right?”

To which the eldest reached both hands up, looking completely lost.

“So, effectively, you’re dumping him on me?”

“Hatake,” Hiruzen said.

“Papa!”

“Wait. Sempai?” Cat whimpered, pointing.

“B-ranked babysitting,” one of the ANBU laughed.

“Cat’s turn,” came another laugh, to which Cat turned, looking at them in horror.

“Papa?”

Kakashi looked down, frowning. “You have her eyes?”

The child frowned. “No. Taka-chan has Taka-chan’s eyes.”

“I mean,” Kakashi said. “Your eyes. They’re like,” a pause, then, “Hers.”

“Who?”

“Rin. Your mother,” Kakashi said. He turned. “If you don’t want him…”

“That’s not it!”

“No?” Kakashi’s eyes blinked.

The eldest paused, eyes closing. “We weren’t going to…” He sighed. “Well, we were keeping it from you.”

“Noted.”

“Sempai?”

“Cat,” Hiruzen said. “You can remove your mask as well.”

“Sir?” Cat became confused.

“Hatake pups are B-rank missions,” Hiruzen said. “We learned that the hard way.”

“Hi, B-ranked mission,” Kakaashi said. Then, he looked at the Nohara siblings. “That’s why?”

“Why are we moving back?” the eldest said. “It was planned for you to meet eventually.”

“Meaning?”

“Once Taka was too old for the academy,” Hikaru said. “Preferably.” Then, “That was a stupid idea from the beginning.

“Hikaru!” the eldest said. “You’re too relaxed about this!”

“Why am I the only one expecting Nee-can’s baby to be amazing?”

“Taka-chan’s amazing?” Taka asked.

“Eh,” Kakashi said. “It’s not a lot of fun?”

“Oh.” Taka pouted.

“Say what!” The eldest continued to be flustered. “That’s your response.”

“Sempai?”

“Tenzo,” Kakashi said, holding the toddler upside down, resulting in a ssqual of excitement. “Meet Taka-chan.”

“Sempai?”

“Yes?”

“Toddlers are scary.”

Kakashi looked at the upside-down toddler who was grinning ear to ear, very much looking like Kakashi at that age, minus the beauty mark on the left side of the chin. Then, “Yeah, they are.”

“Toddlers aren’t,” the eldest said, then sighed, as if he were at a loss for words. "They aren't scary. At least they're not supposed to be."

Taka-chan, after all, was a tiny terror and fully leaned into it.

“It should be a good thing for those two,” Hiruzen thought, watching Kakashi and Tenzo. “And perhaps the Nohara family as well.”