Under the Orange Jumpsuit

Chapter 1: Eat Your Greens

Ever since Minato announced to Kakashi that Kushina was pregnant with their first child, Kakashi had been tasked with the overseeing and protection of their unborn child. Two precious lives entrusted to his very hands, by the man who he looked up to and honored the most in his life. Though, he wasn't assigned to Minato's guard any longer, he at least could do right by making sure his family was safe

So when the Kyuubi attack had occurred, and Naruto's care was instead put in Hiruzen's hands, Kakashi had shrugged it off at first. It wasn't surprising at all coming from them. It's not like he was in the best mental state at the time to take care of a small infant, let alone their only child, who Kakashi was sure, Minato and Kushina would have wanted to grow up under someone stable.

But as time passed, it was evident, that even Lord Third wasn't best suited for the job either.

So, even though Kakashi wasn't his official guardian—no one was really, now that Naruto was older and living on his own—it didn't stop him from at least watching the boy from the shadows. No, he wasn't the best role model for the kid, but he could still make sure the little blonde-haired hellion didn't do anything over-the-top stupid.

So he watched. Observed the boy run around the village like a chicken with its head off, pulling pranks and being an ever present nuisance to many of the village folk. He, of course, never stepped in, knowing that Iruka, who had taken a shining to Naruto and even took on a role of both brother and father figure to him, had it all handled in the end.

But he couldn't rely on Iruka for everything, as he came to realize.

Because, even with Iruka being more responsible than Naruto, and Kakashi could trust he'd keep the kid out of harm and danger, he too had limited experience in other areas.

Iruka himself had lost his parents early on, and even though he did his best to cope and take care of himself, he did however skimp on certain things, such as having a well balanced diet amongst other neglected good practices. And it seemed that the bad habits were starting to rub off on Naruto.

As he took note, Naruto's diet mainly consisted of junk, most importantly, ramen. He couldn't even remember the last time he saw the kid eat something green.

And since Iruka wasn't doing much to discourage the unhealthy habit, Kakashi decided to take it upon himself.

He started small and as expected, anonymously. He wasn't going to outwardly confront the boy about it, when he was sure Naruto didn't have a clue who he was, so what right did he have, to suddenly appear out of nowhere and lecture him about his poor choices.

So really, it was only inevitable that he wound up sneaking into Naruto's apartment when the boy was at the Academy or off with friends, stocking his fridge and cupboards with actual food, even tempted to take the stock pile of ramen Naruto tended to hoard, and dumping it, but he knew that wouldn't end well so he left it be.

Should he say he was surprised when he found out later that Naruto actively avoided everything besides his precious noodles? Kakashi felt defeated at that point, and dropped the subject entirely after countless secretive attempts to make sure the boy ate better.

As time passed and Kakashi was appointed as Team 7's squad leader and sensei to one Sakura, Sasuke and apparently Naruto, which he wasn't sure was a blessing or curse just yet as he watched the young boy, hyper as ever, run around the field and accost him at every chance he got.

The day he organized the training exercise was nothing but a disaster with the young kids, especially Naruto, who didn't seem to think one needed strategy before planning an attack on an enemy.

"Right here, right now, just you and me!" Naruto bellowed as he charged head on towards Kakashi, who wasn't even batting an eye at his rash and pig headed decisions. He simply weaved and dodged, whilst reading his book as casually as ever, and the longer he did it, the more it ramped up Naruto's temper.

Naruto seethed, resorting to his shadow clones which Kakashi had witnessed a few times in secret before. He did find it impressive that the boy could manage a solid copy of himself, not to mention many of them at that. And he found it even more impressive that Naruto had managed to get a slip on him at one point with said clones, but he wasn't about to throw the dog a bone.

"Little tricks will only get you so far here, if you can't devise a real plan to get my bell, well then I already see whose the dead weight here." Kakashi spoke in a low, nonchalant tone as he opened his book again to his previous page, and as expected the kid charged again and again, relentless as ever.

"I'll show you who's dead weight!" Naruto screamed as he tried his hardest to land blows and swipe at the dangling bells.

Kakashi found it amusing, dodging each grab and kick effortlessly, and managing to up the boy's rage with quick quips and insults, hoping that it would force Naruto to think instead of blindly attacking.

Looking back on it now, all the harsh words he sputtered may have been stepping a bit too far at the time.

By the grace of whatever god that was watching, the little team of his finally got the gist of the exercise—even though their incredibly thick skulls made that an initial issue—and they passed

He hadn't thought they'd make it, as of all the teams before them, failed miserably, but maybe he had been wrong with this bunch, maybe they won't be as bad as he had thought in the beginning.

As a reward, he treated them to Ichiraku's, which the kids—Naruto especially, as he watched the boy inhale every bowl set in front of him—had been very appreciative about.

He knew he needn't indulge Naruto's already unhealthy obsession with the food staple any more than Iruka was already establishing, but it was only this once, besides he was determined to teach his kids how important diet played into their performance, and how healthy practices go a long way as Minato had instilled in his own team so long ago.

Naruto loudly slurped up his food, Sakura huffing and puffing over his terrible table manners, and Sasuke simply scoffing and finishing his own bowl at a more reasonable pace than his idiotic teammate. Kakashi sighed softly to himself, "You know, Naruto. A ninja's health is his most important asset, more important than any other tool in his arsenal." He hummed softly.

Naruto looked up from his third empty bowl, "Eh? Okay, so what? Why are ya telling me?" He frowned up at Kakashi. Sakura turned to the blonde then, smirking, "Well isn't it obvious? Sensei's just pointing out how much of a pig you are. What's that? Your third bowl, oink oink." Sakura teased him, and everyone there could tell it was only in good fun, however Naruto, with his furrowed brow, frowned to match it.

''Hey! I just worked up a really big appetite from the exercise!" Naruto defended.

"We all just did the exercise, you don't see us pigging out, do you?" Sakura smirked again, Naruto pouting as he looked down at the empty bowl. Kakashi watched him.

"Ah well, whatever! It's no big deal anyways! Besides, Sensei is starting to sound like Iruka sensei, always talking about eating better, and he still won't admit to putting those stupid vegetables in my fridge, saying he has no idea what I'm talking about!" Naruto huffed.

Kakashi chuckled at that, "Now now, Naruto, he's just looking out for you. Don't you want to have more energy to fight, you can't just eat ramen and other junk food, it won't energize you."