Iruka Umino sighed into his hands, hanging his head in exasperation. Across from him sat a disinterested Kakashi Hatake and a fidgety little girl who was clearly his. Like her father, she wore a mask over most of her face, leaving her expressive dark eyes and straight brows exposed. Her hair was a mop of light brown curls, too short to fall neatly but too long to be kept in check, not at all like her father's—her entire clan's—iconic silver mane. She seemed to shrink in on herself every time she caught Iruka's gaze, looking down and away and oh so small.

"Let me see if I have this right, Hatake-san," Iruka began, trying desperately to keep his annoyance from his face. "You want me to enroll your daughter—Hanako?—in the Academy the next term in January, but you want me to place her in the class due to graduate, almost all of whom are twice her age, instead of in her own age group. Was that correct?"

"Yep."

Ah, he was going to pop a vein at this rate. Poor little Hanako looked so embarrassed. A flush was creeping up her face from under her mask.

"Alright, that isn't impossible," Iruka said as graciously as he could, pulling out the requisite paperwork from a drawer. "Of course, we'll need Hanako-chan to take a leveling exam before we admit her. Just to make sure she's placed in the class that will best suit her needs."

Kakashi nodded along amiably, but Hanako looked positively green.

"Is that something you'd like to do, Hanako-chan." Iruka used his kindest teacher voice, smiling at the little girl.

She looked at him, holding his gaze for a long moment before whispering, almost inaudibly.

"Can I start from the beginning, please?"

Iruka's brows rose and her father turned to her in surprise.

"What's the matter, kiddo?" He asked, dropping a hand on her head with a rather loud whap. "You've got what it takes to speed run this, you know." She shook her head, eyes watering. Kakashi immediately dropped his flippant façade, voice serious. "What's wrong?"

Her hands shook as she wiped away her tears. "I-I can't read. No, no I can read," she added hastily, meeting her father's gaze with what looked like panic. "Just not that."

She pointed a little finger at the papers on Iruka's desk. The words were written in the standard Kanji-Hiragana blend used by all the Nations. It was part of every compulsory education program in the Land of Fire and was the only writing system known to everyone save a few isolated clans.

Kakashi held out a hand to Iruka. "A pencil, if you would."

Hanako took Iruka's pencil from her father, darks eyes still wide and watery. At his instruction, she wrote out a line of text on the edge of a paper. It was strange, unlike anything Iruka had ever seen. Straight lines and careful curves going right to left looked up at him, almost taunting in their foreignness. Hanako used the eraser end of the pencil to point at the text as she read it aloud.

"My name is Hanako Hatake. I am five years old and I live in Konoha."

Incredible.

Kakashi picked up the paper and had her read it to him another two times before sighing. "Welp, I guess you will need to start from the beginning, huh, kiddo?"

She cringed bodily. "I'm sorry."

Her father scoffed and ruffled her hair, sending wayward curls every which way. "Nah, don't worry about it. I should've asked about this stuff before I went about making plans on my own."

Iruka smiled a little at the display of affection but had to ask. "Sorry for being so forward, but is there a reason you haven't learned to read standard writing, yet, Hanako?"

She waited for her father's nod before answering. "My mother's clan has their own system, and I learned that one first. I started learning, a little bit, but..." She trailed off, unable or unwilling to finish.

Kakashi placed a hand on her shoulder, jostling her roughly. "Don't sweat it, kid. We can get some practice books or something and have you ready in time for the school year."

They were a cute duo, if a bit odd. They were at once overzealous and hesitant. It was good balance when maintained, but they didn't seem quite in sync, yet.

That, too, was odd.

It wasn't Iruka's place to question parent child dynamics, though. As surprising as the newest Hatake's existence might have been for him, as long as there was nothing overtly worrying going on he had to respect their privacy. Hanako clearly thought the world of her father's opinion, but whether that was good or bad could only be determined after more observation.

"Do you still want to go through the placement testing?" He smiled gently at Hanako's delighted surprise. "I can give it to you orally, if you like. That way you know what you need to catch up on before the term starts."

"Yes, please!"

Kakashi laughed at Iruka's stunned expression as he stepped out of the exam room behind a chipper Hanako. The Chuunin felt like he'd seen the Great Sage himself, eyes wide and mouth hanging open in disbelief. He shook his head, then shook it again.

"She's..." He stared at the space between his hands, floundering. "How?"

Kakashi's smirk was clear despite his mask. "She's my kid."

Iruka leveled an unimpressed glare his way. "She's a genius, is what she is. If it wasn't for her reading, I'd suggest petitioning the Hokage to graduate her now. A mind like that would be a godsend for Analysis." Her pool of knowledge aside, Hanako's cognitive reasoning was far beyond anything he'd ever seen in a child her age—heck, he knew a few adults without her level of skill. If she continued to grow beyond that point, she had all the potential to be a legendary shinobi.

"So, you'll bump her up?"

Iruka gave a long suffering sigh. "If she can pass a reading comprehension test before the start of the term, I'll put her in one of the older classes. There are some kids in there she should get along with." He was already rearranging his list of potential teams, factoring the little genius and trying to find a match.

Kakashi nodded. "Got it."

Hanako's eyes glowed with happiness. "Thank you, Iruka-sensei! I won't let you down!"

He smiled warmly, privately struck by the strange blend of maturity and innocence she presented. Child geniuses were often that way, however, and Konoha had been blessed with several in the last few generations.

"Don't hesitate to ask if you need anything," he told her father. "I look forward to working with you both."