Summary: Because fatherhood's a journey, especially for an emotionally stunted man like him.

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO OR ANY OF ITS CHARACTERS AND PLOTS. I ONLY OWN MY OC AKI AND ANY OTHER.

Those who trust us educate us.

T.S. Eliot

Origins

Hiroki was a retired shinobi who, after seeing two wars, wanting nothing to do with the shinobi lifestyle ever again. He left Konoha with the intent of living in peace, one where his daughter would visit him once a month and he could just relax. He never wanted to return to his old life, no matter what.

Yet, it returned to him in the form of a basket and a child.

On a cold December morning, he found that his only daughter died in childbirth without stating who the father was, which left him the only remaining family to take care of that child, his granddaughter. At first he was shocked and grief stricken. Who wouldn't be, knowing that the girl he loved and raised was gone from this life before him? He didn't want the child; he was so tempted to just hand the basket that contained her back to the caregiver that came to give her to him. But the child started to cry when he lifted the basket, almost as if she knew that she was about to be left again. So he looked – he lifted the blanket that covered the basket and looked at his granddaughter. Feeling his chest warm up at the tiny hand that reached for him, Hiroki took the child in under his care and raised her. Yumi, his daughter, named her child Aki, which meant autumn. It fit the child that was born during that season.

As Aki grew, Hiroki had a narrowing suspicion as to who her father was. At first, he was in denial. How could he not when the person who he thought was the father was someone that was known for being a bachelor with absolutely no relationships? He tried to convince himself that the child he cared for was one from the Inuzuka Clan and just had a hair color coincidentally matching with said bachelor, but by the time Aki was five years old, he knew that she was the child of that man. The hair, the facial features, the teeth, they all resembled the Hatake Clan.

Despite never actually seeing the famed Hatake Kakashi without his mask, Hiroki had worked with the man's father at one point and noticed that his cute little granddaughter had an uncanny resemblance to Hatake Sakumo. When he finally admitted to himself that Aki was, in fact, the child of Hatake Kakashi, Hiroki knew he was screwed. Once enemy-nins found out that the Jounin from Konoha had a child, they would come after her whether it be shinobi from Hidden Villages or rouge-nins.

So he prepared himself. He retrained his tired and old body while making sure to keep his granddaughter out of public sight. But like he expected, someone had found out about Aki. That fight resulted in Hiroki killing someone for the first time in over two decades. He didn't let it phase him and continued his daily activities, despite the overwhelming number of attacks and kidnapping attempts that occurred.

That was, until today.

Like usual, Hiroki got out of bed and began to prepare breakfast. However, something did not feel right to him, something felt…off – call it a shinobi's intuition. But he continued what he was doing and after finishing preparing breakfast, he woke his granddaughter up and began to eat. But only thirty minutes into eating, Hiroki felt a spike in chakra in the town he lived in.

"Grandpa? What's wrong?" Aki asked him when he suddenly stood up, pushing his chair back.

"We're leaving right now." He grabbed his granddaughter and led her to her room. "Get changed and then grab that emergency bag that we have prepared, okay? I'll be in the room right next to yours." She nodded her head and began to change.

He left her room and went into his own. He walked to his closet and opened it, seeing that accursed Jounin uniform he hated so much with his Konoha headband hanging from one of the pockets. He vowed to never wear it after he retired. He said he was done with fighting.

…But it seemed like he would have to break his vow.

Grabbing and changing into the uniform, Hiroki tied the Konoha headband around his forehead and went into Aki's room. She was dressed and prepared, just like they had practiced.

"You got everything you needed?" She nodded her head and squeezed the kappa doll he had given her for her birthday even tighter.

His head shot up when he sensed the familiar chakra spike of an explosion tag in the living room downstairs. Picking Aki up, he shunshined from her room to the forest outside a second before the house exploded. He brought Aki to her chest to protect her from the heat. When it died down, he turned around and looked at the house. Or, what was his house. He internally cursed as he looked at the damage that he would never be able to repair.

Well, at least he paid off the mortgage on the house…right?

Hiroki ran in the opposite direction of the town but he couldn't help but look back one last time. He saw the town in flames and there were screams that could be heard from where he stood. "Kami…" He breathed out, shocked at what was happening. All of this for a child? This was just too much!

"Grandpa?" Aki tapped his cheek. "The smell of snake is really really strong. I don't like it."

Snake?

Wait…does that mean –

No.

His blood ran cold and he felt like cursing to the gods that didn't exist. That was why there were so many shinobi and killings. It was all because of him. Hiroki wouldn't make to Konoha like he wanted if the man he thought was after his granddaughter was near, he'd have to take Aki to the nearest Konoha outpost a few miles away instead.

Hiroki was running when several chakra signatures popped up about a couple of yards behind him. "Fuck. What should I do?" He asked himself, letting out a curse. He was at a disadvantage with a child hanging from his neck if it came down to a fight. Not only that, but the injuries he sustained during the Third Shinobi War were starting to act up, causing him pain in his back every time he ran too fast or jumped a little too hard.

He was so close to the outpost, only about two miles away – so what was he supposed to do?

Hiroki ran as fast as he could and stopped when he knew he had to fight. He set down Aki and hid her as well as he could behind a tree. "Aki, I want you to know that I love you so much, okay? And that we'll go to Konoha like we always talked about, okay?"

"Y-You're leaving?" Tears started to swell up in her eyes – eyes that were so familiar to Yumi's. It broke his heart to see her crying and he wanted nothing more than to just keep her safe from this life. To just take her to a place that she could do whatever she wanted without looking behind her back every damn minute. "I don't w-want you to leave!"

"I know, but I have too, okay?" He felt his voice crack a little. "I love you so much." She threw her arms around him one last time before he pulled away.

"I love you too."

"Now whatever you hear, you cannot leave this place until you see someone with this headband," He pointed to the leaf mark on his own. "and when you do see them, hand them this piece of paper." Despite being five, Aki was smarter than she led onto be. She was more composed than the average child, knowing when the moment to listen to instructions being told.

Patting the silver haired child, he stood up and faced the oncoming enemies but not before alerting the shinobi about a mile away with his chakra.

"Grandpa?" Aki called out, coming out of her hiding spot. She knew that her grandpa told her to stay where she was but she couldn't smell any more snakes. All she could smell was her grandpa.

She peeked her head around the trees and gasped at what she saw. There were people lying everywhere and in the middle of the field was her grandpa. "G-Grandpa!" She ran towards him and shook his shoulders, trying to get him to wake up.

It worked – to some extent anyways – and he opened his eyes. "A-Aki." His voice was weak and he lifted his hand to her. "I…told you to…stay put."

"But I can't smell anyone."

He smiled and turned toward the Konoha-nin that were approaching them. "Well…you'll be safe…now. In…Konoha."

"Aren't you coming with me?" She gripped her stuffed animal even tighter. "You promised! You said you were coming!"

"I…can't."

"Sir, identify yourself." Aki whirled around and screamed at the man that suddenly appeared behind her.

"008794." Recognition lit up in the shinobi's face before he nodded. "Aki…hand that man…the letter." The girl looked at Hiroki hesitantly before reaching in her pocket and giving the man the letter. He read the message and Aki noted that he kept looking at her in surprise or curiosity. "Aki…listen to…this man." Hiroki smiled before turning his head towards his granddaughter with all his strength. "I love you." But before she could say anything in return, he let out his last breath.

"Grandpa?" She started to shake the old man. "Wake up!"

"Aki-chan, we need to leave." She felt the Konoha-nin touch her shoulder but she pulled away and continued shaking her grandfather.

"Grandpa, wake up! You promised that we'll go to Konoha together!" She was lifted up but she continued reaching for the man that raised her.

"No! You promised!"

Hokage Tower

One Week Later

"Tsunade-sama, there is a shinobi from the orphanage that is here to see you." The Hokage sighed before reaching for what she thought was a full bottle, but instead was empty.

Damn it, she needed to go for a sake run after this.

"Let 'em in." Shizune nodded before opening the door, revealing a chunin that held a child with…silver hair. Was it just her or did this girl looked extremely familiar?

"Hokage-sama, we have evidence to believe that this child here is one from our shinobi ranks."

"That gaki there?" She pointed to the girl who currently laid sleeping in the man's chest.

Of course, there was always someone idiot that didn't seem to know when to put on a damn condom. The shinobi were told that having kids outside of personal relations were a risk to Village security. It could lead to information being leaked, especially if the kid was to receive a kekkei genkai from the family. It led to people being punished and her having to do even more paperwork.

"Well do you know who the damned father is?" She needed to know so she could start thinking of ways she could punish that idiot, whoever it was.

"Yes. The father is Hatake Kakashi."

She dropped everything she was carrying and stood up at a speed that caused the chair she was sitting in to fall. "What?!" She roared out, causing the poor chunin to wince and wake the girl up. "That is not possible." There was just no way that the lazy, emotionally disturbed, perverted man that she knew would have had a kid. A cute one at it too.

There was just no way.

"You're wrong."

"Well if you would like we can do the DNA tests one more time –"

"Then do it!" She pointed to her assistant. "Take the kid and have her wait here." Shinzune nodded her head and motioned for the child to follow her to one of the seats in the office

This was going to be a long day.

Kakashi was just minding his own business, reading his Icha Icha book when a messenger bird above him dropped a scroll from Tsunade herself. He opened it with a quick insert of his chakra and sighed as he read it.

A meeting. How fun.

He wondered how late he should be this time. An hour, maybe three? The scroll did say to go now though and Tsunade-sama did underline the word 'now.' Maybe he'd be considerate this time and only be half an hour late.

Yeah, that'll do.

So Kakashi continued walking in the park, reading his Icha Icha for another thirty minutes while picking up trash that he came across. After his half hour finished he finished the chapter he was on, stood up, and walked towards the Hokage Tower while wondering what Tsunade wanted so badly from him. An A-Rank mission, perhaps? But that was unlikely since he just came back from one not even twenty-four hours ago.

When he opened the doors to the building, the chunin manning the desk gave him a sympathetic look before letting him through to the Hokage's office. Confused, Kakashi knocked on the door before opening it, revealing a frazzled Shizune, an angry Hokage, and a child holding onto a studded Kappa.

Huh, this was weird.

"You called for me?"

Tsunade threw a cup at his head but he avoided it as smoothly as he could – which was very smoothly. "When I wrote and I quote 'Come now' that meant now."

He smiled. "What can I say, I was throwing away trash."

"Well Hatake, thanks to you I now have a crap ton of more work." She groaned and slammed her hand on the desk. "Hatake, meet your kid."

"…Excuse me?"

Tsunade ignored him and pointed to the girl who now stood next to Shinzune. "Gaki, this is your sorry excuse of a dad."

The girl with the hair so familiar to his looked at the blonde before looking at him. "That's my papa?"

"Yup."

"Uh, Tsunade-sama, there's got to be some mistake here –" Kakashi was currently in denial. He didn't have a kid – he couldn't.

"There's none. We checked like five times. Kami, I need another drink."

"Hatake-san, we need you to sign the paperwork here that states that you'll become Aki-chan's guardian, which then puts her under your name and protection."

Kakashi remained standing there, the reality of his current situation finally hitting him.

"You should be glad that this happened Hatake, the Council was starting to bug me about you having a child because you're the last of the Hatake Clan. Now I don't have to hound you about making one." Tsunade said after she drank half of the sake in the cup she held. "For a while there, we thought you were actually just not interested in women –"

This seemed to bring Kakashi out of whatever stupor he was in. "You thought I was gay?"

The Hokage shrugged her shoulders. "Could you blame me?"

He just shook his head and sighed before looking at the girl that stood in front of him. "Your name was Aki right?" She nodded her head. "Do you think you can do me a favor and sit outside on the couches next to the door?" The blue-eyed child blinked at him before nodding her head again. She left the room and the moment she did, Kakashi looked at Tsunade pleadingly. "I can't take care of a child, especially a four year old one! A boy? Maybe. A girl? No! I don't know a single thing about taking care of a girl."

"She's five for your information."

"So what. The point is being that I failed to look after a group of twelve year old genins! Look at what happened! How the hell am I supposed to take care of her?" He couldn't do this!

Tsunade sighed before leaning back on her chair. "It's better than being sent to the orphanage Kakashi, believe me. Imagine what kind of people would take advantage of that if she were to go there. She might be a child but she's yours. She's a descendent of the Hatake Clan, a Clan that once was one of the strongest in the Shinobi Lands. They'll kidnap her and you'll never see her again." Kakashi knew what she was hinting at. People like Danzo would want her for Root, while enemies that he'd made would want her for leverage against him.

"…Fine. Give me the paperwork and show me where to sign."

Five minutes later Kakashi walked out of the office, his punishment being a fine and having to do several missions he wouldn't usually do. He turned to the seats outside of Tsunade's office and saw the little girl talking to her toy, his new responsibilities hit him in the face with full force. "Aki-chan?"

The little girl turned to him and smiled before standing up. "You're my Papa, right? That's what the lady with the big chest said."

"Uh…yeah." He kneeled down to the girl. "We need to go shopping for some things okay?"

"Okay!" Kakashi was relieved. This girl wasn't going to be as big of a problem like he thought. He's seen some children her age throwing a fit and being hysterical – he never understood how people dealt with that.

He stood up but before he could start walking, the girl grabbed his hand. Kakashi let out a weird sound before turning to Aki. "What's wrong?"

"I gotta pee."

Kakashi was holding a pair of children's clothing as if it was an explosion tag, unsure of what to do. "Um…which one do you want?" He held the pink pajamas and the purple one towards her.

Girls liked these kinds of colors right?

"I don't like it." She held up a pair of green pajamas instead. "I want this…uh please?"

Kakashi took it from her and nodded before placing it in the basket that was already full of things he thought children her age needed. "I think you're going to need some towels and undergarments."

"Can I get the ones with doggies on it?" She tried to reach for the bag that had the dog patterned undergarments but failed because of her height. Instead, Kakashi picked it up for her.

"I think we have enough here." He walked towards the cashier, Aki following after him like an obedient dog – he knew full well that comparing the girl to a dog was not very…smart of him, but that was his method of dealing with his current situation. "I'd like to buy these." The store clerk looked at the basket with glee and little by little, he felt the money in his wallet disappear.

Kakashi and Aki walked out of the store once the clerk finished bagging the clothing, which took only about five minutes. "We'll go get dinner once I drop everything here off at my house." She nodded her head and they started to walk towards the shinobi apartment he lived in.

Halfway in their walk, Aki suddenly stopped walking and froze. "Hey, what's wrong?" The terrified look on her face scared him. What was going on, what was wrong? Kakashi saw tears in her eyes and his own eyes widened too.

Oh Kami, what was he doing wrong?

"Aki –" The girl barreled into his legs and if he didn't see it coming he would have fallen. He kneeled down and looked at the child worryingly. "What happened?"

She looked at him, tears still falling down her face. "I smell snake."

"Snake?" The first thought that went through his head was a pet store. They did just past one. "You mean the pet store?"

She shook her head. "No, like the bad people that smell like snake." Kakashi internally groaned and he looked up at the sky. Shit, she's encountered Orochimaru or his weird minions/experiments. But it's alright, the Snake Sannin wouldn't be stupid and return to the village that he just attacked about two years ago. No, she was safe.

For now.

"It's fine, okay?" He extended his hand towards the girl – no, his daughter. She looked at it before holding onto him and he stood up. "If something were to happen, the shinobi here will protect you." He might have had to lean a little for her to continue holding onto it but he didn't mind. Honestly, he wanted to let go of her hand but with the way he felt her grab onto him a second ago, he couldn't help but feel a little sorry for the girl. He let himself catch the scents of the emotions she was feeling and knew that he couldn't push her away right now. She was sad, nervous, and terrified.

No, he would let her hold onto his hand.

A/N: I should probably be working on finishing LIHE and IWNF buttttttttt I really wanted to write this story. I've been reading a bunch of fanfics of Kakashi being a dad and holy hell there are some good ones.

Just in case you guys were wondering why Aki was taking her grandfather's death so easy, it'll be explained in the next chapter!

This story is heavily influenced by Surprise Arrival by What is Insanity. It's an amazing story that is obviously a Kakashi Dadfic story. It's freaking amazing and so go check it out!

The chapters for this story won't be published on a schedule but depending on how well this story gets (follows/favs/reviews) the chapter will come out faster.

SO REVIEW! REVIEWREVIEW!

I get so motivated to write when I get reviews, that's why. Lol sorry.

SO UNTIL NEXT TIME, DON"T FORGET TO FOLLOW AND FAVORITE THIS STORY SO YOU CAN FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS TO AKI AND KAKASHI!