5. Orphan

"Naruto as a baby?"

Kakashi was astounded by that question. He was the first adult to learn of this question. A group of children stood opposite him with curiosity bursting from their eyes.

Boruto, Sarada, Mitsuki, Himawari, Chōchō, Shikadai and Inojin were present. Boruto had off-handedly blurted it out to his teammates and Chōchō caught Sarada in deep thought who then spilled and  then dragged along her team too very much like the previous female member of the Ino-Shika-Cho formation.

Kakashi was on one of his much needed breaks from everything where he could just relax without needing to think of anything like most men do when the want to think of nothing. Guy had gone off somewhere with Rock Lee to cheer Metal on while training their youth.

Although Kakashi was busy, Guy would still come to his residence to pester him to play games like 'jan-ken-pa!' and other board games that required less intelligence. His weak body did nothing to reduce his enthusiasm and vigour.

Kakashi thought deeply.

"Well, Naruto as a child was... mischievous and hyper, I would say. He would usually be up to some prank or causing a rukus."

Boruto and Himawari were already aware of this. They didn't know the particulars but they did know that their father was a naughty kid.

All the children were taken with the story of how the Seventh Hokage would sometimes try to prank him and fail most of the time. The story of him taking Sasuke on a wild goose chase for the cat entranced Sarada.

"Poor Grandpa Iruka," said Himawari with a giggle.

Kakashi enjoyed his time as a story teller basking in their eager gazes.

They stayed for a while and started to leave when it was time for lunch.

On the way out, Himawari suddenly asked a question to herself.

"Lord Sixth told us about Papa as a child, but how was Papa as a baby?"

Boruto answered her, "How else would he be? He'd be like any other baby suckling their thumbs and crawling about and vomiting."

Their chattering voices disappeared soon after.

Kakashi pondered over the question again. "Naruto... as a baby?"

Naruto was swamped with paperwork in his little office. That office bore down on him with the pressure from his predecessors who hung from the wall to stare at him.

His eyes were straining against his laptop screen ripping apart the millions of emails he kept receiving every minute. His hands were cramping up already and he was already considering using his Sage mode to wreck everything within the office.

Being Hokage was great and all. He just hated the procedure after procedure he had to go through just to get a single thing done.

He wasn't even ten days into his term at office and he was swamped. That Bakakashi was definitely slacking off right before vacating office.

Just approving a single book's publishing required him to deal with the publishers, the authors, the insurance company and also the freaking elder Council for whatever reason. Why wasn't there a separate media department?

Approving the building of a house required the Land Planning and Development Department! Not him! Sure, he was the Head of the Governing Body of Konoha but that didn't mean he had to look after each and every affair!

He began scanning through all the emails and redirecting them to the relevant departments. Then he created and sent a new email address to the people of importance who answered directly to him and asked them to use that one instead. 

The old address was sent down to one of the digital mail sorters to separate the emails into ones actually meant for him and ones that weren't. If some were actually needed for him to approve, the department that received the mail would get to him again.

Well, it wouldn't be long before he'd have to discard this new address again. They'd just find someway or the other to get this one too to hasten their own works getting approval.  There were already twelve digital mail sorters downstairs and they were almost overworked too.

He really wished they'd hurry up with creating a better encryption system soon. Or a whole new Internet just for his personal use. 

Finally, he typed out a lengthy, furious letter filled with overly polite words to the Elder Council about establishing two or three more departments so his workload would reduce and sent that along too after making multiple copies of it digitally as well as printed.

Having gotten another troublesome thing out of the way, he began going through some urgent papers and stamping away the thickly stapled sheets.

Shikamaru came in then after two knocks.

"Naruto, it's lunch break."

"Yea. I'll be right there when I'm done with these."

"Don't forget it's the Yakiniku restaurant not the Ichiraku one."

"Yea, got it."

The Yakiniku restaurant was an old haunt frequently visited by the members of the old Rookie 9, namely Team 7, 8 and 10 with three members each. Sometimes their team's guide would also accompany them for a celebration. 

Today was one of those days they had decided to get together along with team Guy.

The kids were also asked to come. Currently, the only kid present at the restaurant was Metal Lee.

He sat quietly in the corner waiting eagerly for his friends so the wouldn't be the only awkward kid in this room of big names. Even his school teacher, Shino Sensei, was here! He decided to go to the washroom and kill some time before returning.

The adults were all present except Naruto, Tenten- who received a somewhat large order for kunais which excited her so much- and Kakashi who was usually always late.

Choji decided to take it in his hands to begin the meal. "The meat will be ready when they come." He justified himself and began laying out the meat on the grill.

Kakashi entered the restaurant and was met with the enthusiastic welcome of Might Guy.

Hinata, Sakura, Ino and Karui were confused.

"Lord Sixth, didn't the kids go over to your place? Why did you come alone? Where's my Inojin?" Asked Ino as she tried to feed Sai some mushroom with her chopsticks. 

"They left earlier than I did. I heard they would take a detour."

Everyone sat to eat and fight for meat. Temari felt slightly jealous of Ino's and Sai's display of affection so she tried to force feed Shikamaru some burnt meat too.

When eating together among familiar faces, random topics are bound to come up.

"So, Kakashi Sensei, I keep getting many requests from some of my seniors about whether you'd like a girlfriend~"

Kiba hooted from across the table at Ino's remark.

"Ah, I heard that he flirted with one of the shopkeepers at the bookstore down the corner trying to get a discount for a limited series collector's set."

And thus Kakashi was put on the spot. He knew that if he didn't use some diversionary tactic soon, he would be besieged by this gang of gossipers. Even Guy was beginning to make a knowing smile towards Lee as if he was preparing to send his non-existent sister to him to be his wife.

"Ara, that was just a misunderstanding, she just thought I was flirting, anyway, the kids were rather fun to talk to today. They wanted to know all about Naruto again."

He successfully changed the topic.

Kiba spoke up, "Aaa, all the kids really like those stories of the olden days..."

"Hey, we're still young!"  quipped Ino.

"I told them about the pranks Naruto used to pull off."

"Ohoho, the pranks on the girls were always a blast! Shikamaru also helped a lot with the planning despite him saying it was troublesome."

"Well, I used to just get swept away by your pace. You did promise Choji some BBQ chips in exchange." 

"Ah, Shikamaru was also with you rascals back then?" Exclaimed Sakura who was unfortunately one of the frequent targets of Kiba's pranks.  

The topic went on.

"Kakashi Sensei, I hope you didn't tell Boruto and Himawari about the monument pranks and the O- unmentionable jutsu , yes?" Hinata suddenly interrogated Kakashi with a gelid and genial smile.

"No- no, I didn't," replied Kakashi hastily.

"Yes, we don't want to encourage such pranks so early, am I right?" Her smile was very pressurising.

'Yep. Time for another  diversionary tactic. This is scary,' thought Kakashi.

"Ah, today the kids asked me about Naruto when he was a baby."

Another successful diversion.

Kakashi spat out the first thing that came over the top of his head.

"Baby Naruto?"

"Aa, Boruto told me that they never saw a picture of Naruto as a kid besides our team 7 photo. So they wanted to know how he was as an infant."

The topic brought a hush to the table.

Kakashi almost began regretting saying that thinking he might have accidentally spoilt the mood somehow but then Shikamaru spoke.

"I just remember that the first time I saw him was halfway through the second year of academy. I don't know about him before that. We were about eight maybe."

"Come to think of it, who was Naruto's guardian? He didn't have parents so who took care of him?"

"Didn't he live in that super run down apartment sponsored by Lord Third?"

"Yea, but where was he kept as a baby? Babies require a caretaker to care for them."

"Perhaps the orphanage?"

"I suppose only Lord Third and the people in the Elder Council would know. Lady Tsunade would probably be able to ask the other elders."

"But isn't Lord Sixth also in the Council?"

They all turned to Kakashi.

The food was forgotten and even Choji had slowed down his pace.

"I think I should check the record room with Shikamaru-"

"Hey! Sorry, I'm late. I got the kids with me too!" Hollered Naruto as he carried Himawari on his hips.

"What took you so long?" Asked Karui, Choji's beautiful wife.

"Ah, Mama, see, we got juice after we left Lord Sixth's home and then Himawari really needed the washroom so we were looking for one and then we remembered that there was a toilet at the academy so we went there and then we met Lord Seventh and then we came here."

"But isn't this restaurant much closer to Lord Sixth's house than the academy? Most restaurants have a toilet."

At that statement, the kids smacked themselves in exasperation for their stupidity.

They spent half an hour just trying to get to a washroom and back when they could have gotten to one in two minutes by coming here itself.

"Speaking of toilets, Where's Metal? He's been to the toilet for a long time now. Is he poo-"

"Don't say it, we're eating, Kiba."

"Ok."

"I'm here though," Metal raised his hand.

"Woah, when did you get back?"

"Just now."

The lunch resumed it's boisterous banter and the kids got their own separate table. Chōchō was making delicious combinations for herself, Sarada and Himawari since she was still tiny.

The adults and kids had their own groups. Within the kid's group, only Metal was quiet.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Whispered Inojin.

"I heard our parents speaking earlier," Metal whispered back.

"And?" This time all the kids heard the whispering so they also joined in.

"They were talking about Lord Seventh as a baby."

" Ah, we had asked Lord Sixth about that earlier, you weren't there."

"Yes, but I heard that Lord Seventh was an orphan. They said-"

They pspsed throughout the meal sometimes giggling sometimes quietly exclaiming, sometimes looking over to the adult's table sneakily that caused them to feel like the kids were definitely thinking up some mischief or plot against them.