"Is there anything you wanna to say to me?" Naruto asked as he poured himself a glass of orange juice.

Kakashi looked up from his coffee and blinked. "I drank the last of the milk?"

"That wasn't what I meant," Naruto replied. His hair was mussed and his pajamas were rumpled and he looked grumpier than usual. "Anything else you feel like mentioning?"

Kakashi thought carefully and gave Naruto a blank look.

"Never mind!" Naruto grouched and stomped out of the room to get dressed.

The rest of the day seemed fairly normal, or so Kakashi thought until that evening.

"Did you like dinner?" Naruto asked.

"The ramen was wonderful," Kakashi said, secretly wishing that Naruto would learn to cook something besides ramen.

"Is there anything you'd like to tell me?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi stared. "It would be nice if you'd learn to cook something besides ramen."

Kakashi slept on the couch that night.

"Shikamaru invited us over to his place," Naruto reported the next morning. "Well, actually what happened was Temari stomped on his foot until he invited us over. I think his dad will be there, too, in case you want to, I dunno, talk about the good old days or something."

Kakashi gave Naruto a look. "You say that like we're old men..."

"You are," Naruto replied bluntly.

"We aren't that old," Kakashi said.

"Oh, by the way," Naruto said. "Do you have anything important to tell me?"

"I don't think so."

Naruto frowned.

After an excellent dinner at the Nara's house they made it home.

"I gotta admit they make a cute couple," Naruto said.

"I suppose," Kakashi said. "Though I'm a little disturbed by how casually Temari hits him with that fan of hers."

Naruto laughed loudly. "Yeah, some people have different ways of showing affection, I guess." There was a very meaningful silence after his sentence. "Do you ever feel like hitting me with a fan, Kakashi?" Naruto asked.

"Uh... no?"

Kakashi slept on the couch again.

"I think he's going insane," Kakashi said, explaining the situation. He was standing in the ANBU break room, which was where crazy jounin went to relax.

Genma stirred his coffee with a senbon. He had put nothing in his coffee, but was stirring it nevertheless. "Yeah, that happens to ninja a lot," he said. "Though I am concerned that this is the hokage we're talking about."

"Last night he asked if I wanted to hit him with fans."

Genma raised an eyebrow. "Like... in a kinky way?"

"I don't think so," Kakashi said.

"Oh," Genma said. "Then I can't help you with that."

Kakashi sighed.

Kakashi met Naruto for lunch as they did whenever they had time to spare. They were having tea at the dango shop when Rock Lee passed by, training his genin team and loudly proclaiming the virtues of youth.

"Ah, youth," Naruto said, watching them go by. "Ah, springtime."

"It's autumn," Kakashi said.

"Ah, springtime," Naruto persisted. He was the hokage. He could make it springtime if he damned well pleased. "It reminds me of something. Do you know what springtime reminds me of, Kakashi?"

Kakashi did not know, and told him so. Naruto gave him an unhappy look. "I have some paperwork to do," he muttered, leaving Kakashi to finish his tea alone.

Kakashi still wasn't sure what the problem was, but he thought it might help if he made a nice dinner. And by "make a nice dinner" he meant beg Kurenai to cook something for him in exchange for one anything-you-want favour she could call in whenever she needed. (Anko had offered to do it for free, but she had learned how to cook from Orochimaru, and Kakashi did not have words for how much that terrified him.)

"Just heat them up and serve them," Kurenai said, handing over several plastic containers.

Kakashi thanked her and hurried home.

Dinner went well, though Naruto had guessed Kakashi hadn't prepared it by himself (or at all.) Still, Kakashi hoped that Naruto was back to normal and would stop asking him strange questions. It wasn't until they were both settled in bed that his hope was shattered.

"So I've been thinking," Naruto said. "Remember what you said a long time ago about looking beneath the underneath? Well, springtime doesn't remind me of paperwork, and if I had Temari's fan, I'd whop you over the head with it."

"Naruto... what are you talking about?"

Kakashi dodged Naruto's suddenly flailing arms. "How can you be this dense!?" Kakashi found himself pinned to the bed a moment later. Naruto glared down angrily at him. "Do you love me or not!?"

"Yes!" Kakashi said.

"THEN WHY THE HELL WON'T YOU SAY IT!?" Naruto screamed.

"Because the last time I said it you freaked out!"

"That never happened!"

"Yes, it did!" Kakashi protested. "When we were training with Yamato when you were sixteen!"

"THAT NEVER- Oh, wait, yeah. I remember that now. I guess that did happen."

"You told me not to say things like that, so I didn't," Kakashi said.

"Yeah, but that was years ago! Things have changed! I wouldn't mind it so much now," Naruto said.

Kakashi grabbed the blanket and knocked Naruto off-balance. "If that was all you wanted you should have just said so instead of asking me vague questions and making me sleep on the couch!"

"Oh," Naruto said, settling down under the covers again. "Well, okay then."

"All right," Kakashi said. "I'm glad we understand each other." He fluffed his pillow and pulled the blanket up over both of them. Naruto inched closer and then stared at Kakashi until he opened his eyes again.

"It would be totally okay with me if you told me you loved me," Naruto said.

"Noted," Kakashi said.

"Like, really," Naruto insisted. "Wouldn't bother me at all."

"I get the idea."

"And I would not freak out in any way."

"Naruto?"

"Yes?"

"I love you," Kakashi said. "Now shut the hell up and go to sleep."

And for once Naruto did.