"Hello, Takahashi-kun!" The boy he now knew to be Gato. Takahashi shares a wary glance at the stranger seemingly annoyed with the revelation.
Just as the boy with dark brown hair spoke, the other child at his side spoke after, this time it was the girl, there was three of them, two boys and a girl. "I'm Neko, you can call me nee-chan, okay?" she beamed a bright smile at him before continuing, "Now let me introduce you to everyone, this is Aoi-san, Gato-san and our sensei, Hayata-sensei." The girl pointed to each one of them as she introduced them, all of them sharing a smile one he had yet to even return.
As she finished speaking, he snapped his gaze towards his fathers retreating back, that traitor! He didn't need these people! Takahashi had Kakashi in his arms after the boy had a tantrum earlier, his arms were growing tired, after all, he was still small, only three while his brother was a year old now.
He was already missing Akira, but she was sick, and his father decided it was best for him to get a team to take care of him and Kakashi.
He doesn't blame the man for not wanting to leave a one-year-old in the care of a three year but how dare he leave his children in the care of three 12-year-olds and some random man that looked dead on his feet.
Just as Kakashi started wiggling, he knew the boy wanted to be let go so he let the boy down on the floor where he began to stand beside him clutched to his clothing staring suspiciously at the strangers finally realising their father was nowhere to be seen.
"Tou-san? Where's tou-san!" Kakashi asked glancing around, Takahashi was just about to respond but the Jōnin sensei was faster, but Kakashi definitely wasn't haven't it, he couldn't blame him. After he turned one which was two months ago their father stayed home for those two months spending more time with him and Kakashi, so this felt strange for Kakashi.
The boy began to wail. He was sure if it was Akira that was with them, he wouldn't panic as such but there they were being taken care of by a couple of strangers. He wished the sensei luck in getting Kakashi to stop crying.
While their sensei struggled to calm Kakashi down, he took this opportunity to see what he could get from this whole situation.
"Can I go outside?" he asked in his small voice, with a hopeful gaze to the three remaining members after their sensei walked around with Kakashi who was just not having it.
The three of them shared a look of uncertainty, "Shouldn't you eat breakfast first?" it was Aoi that spoke first the boy took a glance over to where his bowl of porridge was, he was definitely not going back to that. He had already forced himself to take a few bites, but he couldn't eat anymore of it, it made sense since his father made it. Was there anything their father couldn't ruin?
"Tou-san never makes me finish" he lied with a head tilt, "So can I go to the garden now?" he questioned again, drawling it out. He was faced with a beat of silence before one of them spoke again, "Alright."
He beamed at them, "Thank you Aoi-nii, Raiden-nii and nee-chan!" he spoke out as he rushed out to the garden, 'bleh', trying to be the cute toddler was tiring and disgusting at times. They followed him out while leaving their sensei to his demise.
He laid sprawled on the grass only for a few seconds before he sat up staring at the young genin's, and spoke with as much childish conviction he could, this wouldn't work with his father but a couple of children? Surely.
"You're not ninjas" he stated with a small pout, acting confused as he stared at them.
"Huh? we are! See, forehead protectors" Aoi responded as he pointed to his headband with confidence before crossing his arms.
He narrowed his eyes with 'suspicion', "Ninjas do cool stuff" he declared, crossing his arms not 'believing' them.
They conferred with each other silently. The solidarity was reassuring.
He hid his smile; they rose to the bait as he hoped they would do.
"We can do cool ninja stuff! Okay, now look over there at that target post" he allowed his jaw to drop as he watched Aoi one of the two boys swap places with the log, then switched back.
"See? Ninjas" the boy confirmed confidently nodding to himself, having just proved himself to a three-year-old.
"I want to be a ninja, teach me, please?"
The three of them shared a look once more before shrugging, "Here" Neko said, she crouched down to his level as she continued explaining it.
"Shape your hands into the Ram seal- let me help… oh, never mind" she looked slightly shocked, well he was sure it wasn't every three-year-old that actually knew the 12 hand seals, it was actually one of his first picture books in this world his father had gotten him.
"Now focus your chakra like..."
He nearly rolled his eyes, he thought they were stupid, but they actually weren't they just showed him to do the Ram seal, they were setting him up for failure but then again, they were just entertaining his game of make-believe. They didn't mention how he needed to use a longer sequence of Ram, Boar, Ox, Dog and Snake was needed for the justu to work. Since it's hard to read hand signs on the fly, they 'tricked' him.
He would indulge in them for a little while and try it out later.
--
"Kakashi!" he shouted as he rushed to where his brother was sitting, "Nii-san" the boy in question beamed at him.
"Takahashi?" his father called out from the couch he was sitting at.
"Oh, hey. I'm taking Kakashi outside, okay?"
"Ah, okay. Have fun."
He took his brother by the hand and lead him outside.
As he closed the door, he looked at his brother with a large smile, "I'm going to show you something awesome, okay? A cool trick" that cool trick being the replacement justu those idiots taught him a while back, he finally perfected it.
He sat his brother down and ran over to the log, "You see this? Watch" he took a few steps away from it then his hands, Ram, Boar, Ox, Dog then Snake, concentrating his chakra no longer was he was standing but where the log was.
Kakashi's eyes went wide, "Wow, nii-san is so cool!" the toddler spoke in awe, making him swell with pride, puffing his chest out, "Of course, I'm cool Kashi."
"And where did you learn this?"
"AHHH!" he screamed, jumping into the air as their father mysteriously appeared behind him.
"Tou-san? How? You know what of course you're here, you nosy old man." He mumbled to himself only receiving a flick to the back of the head. Turning to see his fathers amused look.
"I was able to trick some genin to teach it to me, while they thought they didn't they actually did. I just copied the seals they used and practised" He answered, his father just stared at him, then a few seconds later he ruffled his silver hair, sighing.
"You really are a little prodigy Hashi, so quick to learn things, aren't you. I'm sure you could get early admission to the academy like you've been asking for."