Chapter Text
Kakashi had politely ignored Naruto falling into step besides him. Just a glance at the boy, and he had known there was something on his mind, as he wore a very contemplative look on his face, eyes and mouth scrunched up, his arms folded across his chest, humming in thought.
Naruto definitely had a question for him. And who was he really, to avoid answering whatever it was until he knew exactly what it was.
But, the boy ended up following him home, and it wasn't until they were on Kakashi's doorstep until he opened his mouth with a rather strange question, "hey, can I look at your apartment?"
To which Kakashi had paused, utterly bewildered by it. Team seven had come by a couple times, so Naruto surely knew what his apartment looked like; like every other jounin apartment in the jounin barracks.
"Any particular reason for wanting to see it?"
"Recon." Naruto bobs his head confidently.
Huh. Alright. He opens his door for Naruto's entry. Might as well see where this is going.
Naruto doesn't really move from the genkan, just studies the room from where he stands. Which, makes sense, it's a studio apartment; the only thing not visible is the small cramped bathroom with the barely enough room to stand and piss toilet and the sectioned off pathetic box of a bathtub. He'd probably be better off bathing outside in a barrel. Or an oil drum. He hoped he'd never had Iruka over, he'd be ashamed of never meeting the man's standards for a good bath.
So, he's not entirely sure what Naruto's looking for here. There's not much really to gather. A few posters, wall hangings, the bookshelf with all his books neatly put inside, his bed with the shiruken print comforter. The few personal trinkets scattered across his windowsill behind his bed's headboard. The plant struggling to thrive with Kakashi's weird schedule.
Naruto turns to leave after a moment, "kay, thanks Kakashi-sensei!"
Kakashi furrows his brow. "What did you get from your recon mission?" He may as well turn his own curiosity of the situation into a learning experience for Naruto.
The boy shifts his weight, humming, "well," he starts, debating if he should actually tell. But then Naruto turns to look up at him, and Kakashi is briefly startled by how much worry is written on his face, "it's about Iruka-sensei."
Kakashi's not sure he can keep the shock from his own voice, keep the look of surprise off his face, "Iruka-sensei?"
"Yeah, Iruka-sensei. He's... his room..."
"What about his room?" Kakashi asks, not quite understanding. Surely Iruka's living space had more stuff in it than Kakashi's did. The man was pretty much village bound, he had more time to collect things, more reason to decorate his surroundings if he had to be there all the time. Kakashi imagines he'd indulge in that behaviour, at least get a better couch. Maybe one of those new PS2 consoles to play that Icha Icha video game coming out.
"It's pretty empty," Naruto says.
That doesn't sound correct, Kakashi thinks.
"I checked, with Sakura-chan's house, and Sasuke's apartment, and hell my own. But, well, that's Sakura-chan, she has a house with a family, and Sasuke and me are orphans too, but the village gave us our stuff. So it's not really... and then I remembered you, you're kinda like him! Old. So, I figured you'd be the best to gauge it."
Kakashi feels more confused now. "Iruka-sensei's apartment is empty?" He flippantly gestures to his room, which really, was probably less filled than the average jounin, and definitely more empty compared to the average chunin or matured genin's.
Naruto nods assuredly, "yeah, nothing on the walls, weird echo, everything's plain. He doesn't even really have any groceries."
Kakashi furrows his brows. That didn't sound right. Iruka was by far the most... surely... Wouldn't his home be a reflection of him? Warm, bright, homely, welcoming.
Naruto shouts goodbye and Kakashi remains posted in the genkan, considering, thinking, wondering.
Kakashi isn't entirely proud of himself for stalking Umino Iruka's movements around the village. But well. Naruto had planted a seed of intrigue in his brain, and like any good hound, he had to sniff it out, find the source. Satisfy his cravings.
And for all the time he's heard his fellow shinobi mock their village bound comrades, the ones teaching or keeping up the bureaucracy of the tower, stuck behind desks, Kakashi always figured those shinobi would enjoy being home.
But. Iruka seems to leave early every morning and return home late in the evening. He hardly ever seems to spend time under the roof he calls home.
He's always outside it, inside the village.
He seems to enjoy home, in the sense of the village being home. But not...
He's at the academy in the mornings, the tower in the afternoons, running around the archives or T&I, in the evenings. Sometimes he's just wandering the streets seemingly aimlessly. He's always stopped for a conversation, everyone seems to know him, smiling wide upon his arrival. Sometimes he'd sit on a bench in the park and just people watch for hours on end.
Especially on weekends or his days off.
Kakashi didn't really know what to make of it. He himself enjoyed spending time in the village a much as the next shinobi, but he also enjoyed doing nothing in his room.
He was starting to get a feeling there was something Iruka didn't like about his apartment. And he wanted to figure out what it was. It'd probably be exciting to finally understand what all this was about. Get a peek into Iruka's person, snoop around for his interests, check out the books he read, maybe he collected VHS tapes instead. Figure out the brand of tea he enjoyed the most.
So one morning after Iruka went to work, Kakashi took meticulous care to undo his stupidly intricate and complicated wards, and nearly two and a half hours later, he was in.
He doesn't enjoy it one bit.
Bare white walls, a layer of dust, a strange uncomfortable echo, no signs of personality, no signs of anyone ever living here beyond the crease in the simple white bed sheets. He spies a picture frame hanging by the bed frame, but it's still got the example image inside it. The eerie feeling of standing in a graveyard overcomes him as he stands in the middle of it all. Of the nothing.
He doesn't enjoy it one bit.
He hears a noise, turns and finds Iruka in the doorway, staring at him, all shadowy and not looking like a person with the bright light of day illuminating the space behind him.
"What are you doing here?" Iruka asks, confusion evident in his voice.
"Building management assignment. Surveying for structural damage."
Iruka's eyebrows furrow not believing him for a second.
"I'll be going now," he nods, his fingers halfway through the signs for a teleportation jutsu by the time he finishes speaking. He barely catches the hard look on Iruka's face before he finds himself standing on the roof of his own building, the ceramic tiles quietly clattering beneath his feet, proof of his existence.
It hits him. There's no proof of Umino Iruka existing. Not beyond his interactions with the village. He has nothing in his apartment that tells anyone he's alive.
And Kakashi remembers watching him sitting on a park bench, smile on his face, clearly loving the life around him.