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The boy sighed.

He was definitely not in the mood for this today.

Instead of receiving an A-ranked mission like he'd been hoping, he was stuck with "protecting one of the future elite" as the Hokage so kindly put it. But all-in-all, it meant the same thing: baby-sitting.

Being 19, he expected something a bit more challenging for a mission. With better pay as well.

Was this karma? Was this because of the other day when he used sharingan to get out of his and Gai's "Taijutsu-only" spar?

He chuckled a bit remembering that day.

Oh well. This mission was only supposed to last a couple of hours. How hard was it to watch a little brat play with toys?

He walked a few more miles towards a humble looking neighborhood. This was the part of Konoha that always gave him a sense of peace. He didn't know why, but he just felt that simply walking through these parts could calm just about any man.

When he came up to a certain house, he knocked on the door and waited. After a few seconds, a frustrated looking woman opened the door. He couldn't blame her, seeing as he was about ten minutes late.

Once the lady realized who it was, she gave a knowing look. "I should have known it was you Hatake." She shook her head. "I swear, you are JUST like your father. He was always late for everything."

The boy gave a small smile.

Kakashi Hatake. He'd become a jounin at the mere age of 13 and was regularly given challenging missions to fit his rank, but for some reason, the Hokage decided that he "needed a break".

Kakashi scoffed. A break? The old geezer must have just run out of mission requests.

The woman in front of him led him inside of her home.

"Thank you Kakashi for doing this. Kizashi and I are so grateful. We just needed a day to spend together. We love our daughter and all but," she sighed. "She's beginning to become a handful…"

Kakashi gave a confused look but didn't ask what she meant. "It's no problem Mebuki-san. And don't worry. I'm pretty sure I can handle a five year old."

Mebuki seemed to have given him a sympathetic look before opening a door at the end of the hallway.

Kakashi looked into the room and his jaw dropped at the sight.

The walls had been embedded with what looked like hundreds of kunai and shuriken. Targets were placed everywhere: ceilings, walls, floor…What the hell was going on?

Mebuki looked at the boy's face a laughed. "This used to be her room. We've added onto the house so that she can have a new bedroom, while this serves as her training room."

Training room? Wasn't this kid five? He turned towards the woman next to him. "Um…maybe you should get your daughter into new habits…this isn't quite what one would consider…normal…"

Mebuki raised an eyebrow. "This coming from the kid that graduated the academy at 5 and became a chunin at 6…"

Kakashi shrugged. She had a point.

Mebuki tucked a strand of dark red, loose hair behind her ear and began walking back towards the front of the house. Not knowing what else to do, Kakashi simply followed. They eventually wound up in the kitchen, where he saw yet another familiar face. Only this one being for not-so-good reasons.

Kakashi sneered. "Kizashi."

Hearing a male voice from the other side of the room, Kizashi looked up from his meal. Upon seeing who it was, he shot a glare right back. "Hatake."

Mebuki noticed the tension between the two and sighed. She knew she was never going to hear the end of having let Kakashi watch their daughter from her husband.

"Alright Kakashi," she finally spoke. "We're going to go on ahead and be on our way. We'll be back in about 2 hours, give or take. So please watch over her and make sure she isn't getting into too much trouble. OH! And the scrolls are off limits! She knows this, but she still tries to get into them every once in a while. Make sure she doesn't, ok?"

Kakashi simply continued to have his glaring competition with her husband, but showed that he was listening with a slight nod of his head.

After a few more minutes of Mebuki getting ready and Kizashi putting his dishes into the sink, the two left to spend some quality time together.

Once he heard the front door shut, Kakashi let out a sigh of relief. He would never understand how a woman so beautiful and seemingly perfect could wind up with a man so heartless and cruel.

He scowled. Well at least, based on what he knew, Kizashi loved his family. His wife was the love of his life and his daughter meant the world to him. His protective nature was just about the only good trait that he had in Kakashi's eyes-

Which suddenly widened in realization. It took everything in his will-power to not smack himself:

He'd forgotten to ask where the brat was…

Oh well. He'd just have to sense the small chakra signature that she had developed throughout her growth thus far.

Once he found it, he let out a breath of relief and began walking in that direction. It always sucked trying to seek out a child's chakra signature, seeing as how small they were because of their young ages and petite figures.

He reached a door at the back of the house and slid it open, knowing that it led outside.

Once he opened it, he quickly raised his hand and caught a kunai that had been aimed directly towards his face. After a few seconds of examining the item in his hand, he heard a small voice come from the opposite side of the back yard.

"Hey! Watch it!"

Kakashi looked towards where he heard the voice and saw a little girl that must have been no taller than a little past his knees. Her cheeks were puffed out in frustration and her eyebrows were knitted into that of annoyance.

Kakashi raised his eyebrow. "And how is it that I'm the one that needs to watch it? Shouldn't little girls being playing with teddy bears and dolls anyways?"

The girl rolled her eyes, choosing to ignore his comment. "I was aiming for my target." She pointed to the door. "See?"

"Hmm?" He looked beside him at the door that he had opened, only to find out that there was, indeed, a target on it. And based on the way it was placed and the position of his face, if he hadn't opened the door, she would have gotten a perfect bulls-eye. And from the looks of it, it would have been on the first try.

Kakashi, although not too pleased with her attitude, was very impressed with her skills.

Smiling slightly, - unbeknownst to the child due to his mask - he decided that it might not be too bad watching this girl. She was pretty interesting for a kid.

"What's your name?"

She put her hands on her hips and blew some hair out of her face before answering, "Sakura. Haruno Sakura."

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