•Chapter 5•

When the little Uchiha had woken up, he was no longer in his previous foul-smelled black t-shirt. Instead, he was wearing a baby blue polkadot pijamas and laying in a large bed, a green mattress with designs of sharp boxed thing and a hole in the centre as a repetitive pattern.

The design seemed familiar.

He remembers now, he saw his father holding the object twice, slipping it in his pocket and between his fingers.

Pushing that discovery aside, the amount of times the little Uchiha woke up in a different place seemed to have increase again.  Any more and he would find it normal to wake up in a completely different world when he sleeps.

"Maa? You're awake Riku-chan?" the silver haired man said by the door, he still wore the same outfit as yesterday, just this time there was a brown pug decorating his head.

"Good morning Kakashi-san. Cute. . ." Riku mumbled, eyes brimming with admirations and stars as he stared at the top of Kakashi's head.

"This is Pakkun." Kakashi said, now holding the small brown pug in his hands.

"Cute doggie. . . " the Uchiha said and eagerly pat the pug who had climbed the bed.

The silver haired man chuckled and told Riku that breakfast was ready, making the Uchiha scramble to wash up before he made his way to the dinning table connected to the kitchen.

* * *

Riku stared suspiciously at the breakfast set on the plate; two fried eggs with green chops on the side and a glass milk.

"Do you not like it?" the man ask after seeing that the Uchiha stared motionlessly at the food.

Riku looked up and shook his head to the point it seemed like it would fall off.

"Thank you for the food." the Uchiha mumbled and slowly took a small bite from the egg before he picked up the pace.

Seeing that the little Uchiha was busy eating, the man inwardly sigh in relief. Truthfully, he didn't know what to do. He was a man who didn't even raise the child of his deceased mentor, he was a man drowing in guilt and someone who was not capable of taking care of himself, yet alone another life.

Should he raise the second last Uchiha—the third last Uchiha as his son or keep his distance and only provide the necessities like he did with the child of his mentor?

A part of him was glad the Uchiha he was assigned to care for wasn't a duplicate of his old teammate, but another part was mildly disappointed that he was not.

Clearing the conflicting thoughts aside, the man stood up from his seat and prepared for an outing as he was banned from doing suicidal anbu mission to take care of one of the last Uchiha.

"Where (are you going) ?" Riku ask after he finished his meal though the last part was left unsaid as he wasn't fluent in speaking yet.

"We're going grocery shopping." the man informed and gave the little Uchiha another closed-eye smile.

"Okay." said Riku as he hop of the wooden chair. "Buy what?"

"We'll see" was the only reply he got from the man.

Riku climbed down from the oversized chair and waddled his way to the man who now stood in the doorway. Pakkun sighed befote he followed suite and walked beside the little Uchiha following the Hatake.

* * *

"Did you hear? About. . ."

"Yea. . . I can't believe it."

"Oh my.  .  .  ."

The hushed whispers of the gossiping villagers echoed in the streets of Konohagakure. But before Riku could get a clear idea of what the nosy aunties were talking about, Kakashi had quickly made a turn to the opposite street.

"What are they talkin' about?" Riku asked, curious about today's gossip as he peered above the shoulder of the silver-haired man carrying him.

"It's nothing you should be worried about." the man replied as he firmly hold the Uchiha on his arms and increased his speed for fear the Uchiha would hear about the topic discussed by loudmouthed people who seemed to have too much free time on their hands.

The two walk with a small brown pug beside them to the minimarket selling a variety of things ranging clothing and fresh fruits.

"What would you like to eat Riku-chan? Think of it as an award after your discharge." the man said happily despite the hidden nervousness as he lightly scratch the side of his cheek.

"Sweets. . ." the Uchiha mumbled, staring at a packet of colorfully wrapped candies.

And so, the man bought a packet of sweets and other necessities, earning a sparkly eyes filled with admiration from the little Uchiha. Afterwards they head back home with the Uchiha now snuggling the brown pug in his arms, of course avoiding the hushed whispers along the way.

As the two walk back home, the devilish side of Riku whispered again, "Truly a selfish himan aren't ya? deliberately ignoring the reality before you. Turning a blind eye again?"

It gave a hypocritical titter and sneered one last time before it was unheard of again, leaving the Uchiha frozen in his new room, contemplating the thought he had.

'What was that? Wait- what was I thinking about again?' the little Uchiha pondered over the forgotten recent clip of memory.

* * *

The little Uchiha grew accustomed to the smell of the Hatake house now. He also grew to love the braised fish and other fish dishes made by his caretaker despite showing great dislike for the smell of seafood at first.

Riku also learnt many other things a kid his age would learn. He learnt how to read simple Kanji and Hiragana, as well as the name of the name of that design in his quilt; Shuriken.

He also learnt about ninjas. Kakashi was a shinobi as well, which caused little Riku to feel interested in ninjas and often times bugged his caretaker to tell him more of them.

When Kakashi did tell him more about the cool ninjas, Riku absorbed the information his caretaker said like a sponge absorbing water.

'So the green ugly uniform he saw some people wear were ninjas. . .' he thought and nodded to himself, similar to how one woild expect to see from a scholar.

It was different from what he had in mind, truthfully speaking, he expected black outfits, a bit of armory and maybe some other dangerous gears.

People who were ready to assassinate others and people who were trained to carry out deadly missions.

Oh well.

* * *