My Lover's Keeper

1. The Blond With The Yellow Umbrella

Naruto had gotten home unusually late that night. The moment the door clicked, an angry Iruka was in front of him.

"Where have you been?! Curfew is nine. Do you know what time it is"

"It's currently 11:30pm." Naruto replied nonchalantly. "I was at the cemetery and I lost track of time"

He stood at the entrance removing his shoes, he was soaked head to toe. His umbrella didn't seem to do that good of a job against the rough winds and it consequently broke.

Iruka didn't say anything else to the teen about the matter. He instead got some towels.
"Come on lose the clothes" Iruka handed him the warm bathrobe to wear after he'd gotten naked.

He rubbed the small towel on the wet blond locks of his son. "Kakashi, can you make him some hot tea?" He asked as he guided him to the living room, helping him sit in front of the fireplace.

"Already ahead of you" the english literature teacher had brought the tea to the teen. "Here you go, Naruto"

The blond drank it in silence, his tears crashed on his lap absorbed by the material of the bathrobe.
"Naruto-…."

"I know...I know...you said it a hundred times before...it doesn't change anything...they're gone." His voice vulnerable, seeking comfort.

Arms gently wrapped around him.
"Kurama's still here...we can go see him tomorrow after school ok?" Iruka calmly reminded him and the boy sniffled.

He visited the cemetery, today was October 9th. Tomorrow's his son's birthday. Probably why he had remained in the cemetery longer than he usually does.

It didn't take long for the blond to fall asleep right in front of the fire place.

Iruka casually took the clothes to clean, wiped the water and looked at the yellow umbrella. The same umbrella he had found him and Kurama hiding under years ago.

The redhead was eleven at the time, he had long straight hair, a slender face with the harshest set of purple eyes a child could ever have.
Naruto was a mere toddler, hiding behind his older brother, tears in his big blue eyes.
Seeing them both choose to live on the street rather than a foster home, triggered something inside of Iruka's heart and he decided to adopt them.

The umbrella was torn but Kurama held on to it still. So Iruka fixed it knowing it meant a lot to them.

He could still just see the joy that was on their faces when they both saw it almost brand new.
Then after Kurama's accident, it seemed to be the only thing keeping Naruto from sliding into insanity.

"Did it break again?" Kakashi wondered as he joined after tucking Naruto in bed.

"Yeah...probably why he lost it too. I can fix it" the man smiled. He worked for hours making it as sturdy as he could. He glued the layers, that he had added every time it broke, together. Then he assembled the whole thing.

It was three am by the time he had finished but he was proud of the outcome.

🍥🍙🍥🍙🍥

Naruto opened his blue eyes, seeing yellow. It was his umbrella, yellow top, red handle with the initials U + N which he knew were the initials of his parents' last names. It worked well as initials of his own name too.

He got downstairs with the umbrella in hand and hugged him so tight.
"Naruto I got a hot pan in my hand!!" The adult panicked, being careful as to where Naruto was moving so he wouldn't accidentally burn himself.