Minato stood quietly in front of Sandaime with his request. The Hokage smiled, "Yes, I believe it's a brilliant idea. However, I'm not sure if the council will approve, for as you know, they like to keep the boy as much in the dark as possible."

Minato nodded and sighed, "I know. But how much longer are they going to hide him from society, eventually he'll grow up, and eventually, he'll find a way to leave."

The third nodded in agreement, "I shall call the council together, and I'll inform you of their decision later. You may go now."

With that Minato used his teleportation jutsu and was gone.

Kakashi and Rin both stood in front of Obito's memorial. It had been a week since his best friend's death. Kakashi sighed: Why? Why did you leave…Obito? Why did you save me?

Rin still cried, still torn over the fact that Obito loved her. She wished she'd known sooner. They stared down at their old teammate's name engraved in the black stone. Suddenly they heard a poof next to them, it was Minato-sensei. He frowned, seeing his students in this state depressed him. Rin wiped away her tears and attempted to smile at him, "Hello Minato-sensei."

He smiled back, "Hey guys, anyone up for a mission today?" trying to lighten the rather depressed mood about his remaining students. Kakashi shrugged, "It sounds fine sensei," he was trying to hide the pain inside of him.

"Great, let's go."

Several hours later.

"Sensei, didn't you say this was a B-rank mission?" Kakashi began as he glared at the piece of trash that floated down the river by his feet. This had to be a joke. He could just hear Obito whining about the mission. Of course, once again, the sadness of his friend's death came back to him.

"Kakashi, it's not healthy being on B and A rank missions all the time," Minato replied.

Kakashi glowered but kept on picking up the trash from the river. A while later a messenger hawk landed on Minato's shoulder. He took the scroll off and read it, "Kakashi, we're being summoned by the Hokage. Rin, you're relieved of duty, you can go home now." Rin nodded and smiled to Kakashi, "See you later."

"Kakashi, I'm assigning you to a S-rank mission, I want you to take care of someone."

So you mean I have to babysit. He sulked, "How is that an S-rank mission?"

The Hokage motioned to Minato who opened the door and let someone in. A boy about ten years old wearing a t-shirt and shorts and a faceplate like the second Hokage's came in.

"Tenzou is a chuunin, an orphan, take care of him Kakashi."

Kakashi stared in disbelief, "You want me to babysit him? Can't he take care of himself; I did when I was his age."

Sandaime only smiled, "You both suffer from loneliness; perhaps you'll be able to comfort each other. Misery loves company."

Kakashi couldn't say no to a mission, however, he didn't want to be a babysitter. Minato walked up to Kakashi, "Just try it." Kakashi sighed, "Alright, fine."

As they left, Kakashi turned on his heel to survey Tenzou a little more closely. He had big, brown, almond-shaped eyes. His hair was a darker shade of brown. He sighed as they continued to stare at each other, neither of them breaking the silence.

Why? Why do I have to babysit this kid? He sighed, he had no choice though in the matter. Finally he retreated to his apartment, "Do you want anything to eat?"

Tenzou swallowed shyly, "Umm…no thank you."

Kakashi shrugged and took out a spare mattress from from his closet and put it down on the ground, then took a pillow and a heavy blanket, "You can sleep here."

After that Kakashi made dinner for himself. He didn't know what to do with the boy. The boy was looking around at his rather boring looking apartment, but was careful not to touch anything. He was so shy. Oh well, Kakashi liked shy. He decided he ought to at least try and make conversation with the new visitor in his house, "You're a chuunin, right?"

Tenzou nodded slowly, Kakashi was never good at initiating conversation and he always felt like he was butting in someone's business when he tried to talk to them. He continued anyways, "When did you become one?"

"Four years ago."

Kakashi smiled, "You must be talented, I was six too when I became a chuunin."

After a while they went to bed. Kakashi rolled onto his bed and then spotted the picture of his team and Obito. He sighed and slowly, he fell asleep.

"Get away! No please, go away! Go away!Ah!"

Kakashi woke with a start to the screaming and yelling. Slightly disorientated, he looked around in attempt to figure out the source of the yelling. He found it beneath his feet. Tenzou was shaking and sweating uncontrollably in his bed.

"Tenzou!" he crouched down and attempted to wake the boy out of his nightmare, "Tenzou, wake up! WAKE UP!"

Slowly, the boy's almond shaped eyes opened. He was still shaking and sweating in Kakashi's arms.

"W-what h-h-happened?" Tenzou stuttered.

"You were having a nightmare."

"Oh," he responded as though that sort of thing happened rather often. Kakashi wondered what could be hidden in the boy's pas that would cause him to have such severe nightmares. He sighed, deciding that if Tenzou ever wanted to tell him he would.

He detached himself from the boy as soon as the shaking stopped. The boy sat up rubbing his stomach a little.

"You must be hungry. Let me get you something to eat."

He got up and walked off to the kitchen. After hearing the rattling of several pans, Tenzou watched him come back. He suddenly felt guilty for waking Kakashi like that, "No, it's fine. I'm not very hungry."

His stomach seemed to think otherwise and rumbled. Kakashi smiled in amusement and chuckled, "Sounds like your stomach says otherwise."

Tenzou blushed a little and Kakashi sat down next to him.

"Sorry, about that," Tenzou said, a few moments later.

Kakashi shook his head, "Don't apologize, I understand, I used to have nightmares too. I'll help you get rid of them." He put his hand on Tenzou's shoulder. Just then they smelled something awful. Like something was burning. Kakashi's eye seemed to widen three times its regular size, "Oh shit!" he ran to the kitchen followed by Tenzou, and sure enough, the fuood had burned and much worse was the fire near the bottom of the pan. Kakashi was busy trying to find the fire extinguisher when Tenzou made a few hand seals and quickly the flames were extinguished by water soaked wood. Kakashi could only stare. He had just found the fire extinguisher when this happened. Now he put it down and examined the slightly charred wood as it suppressed the flames. Then he looked at Tenzou. How can he use wood-style? I thought that was a kekkei genkei that only the first possessed, Kakashi thought. Suddenly Tenzou realized what he'd done and quickly retracted the wood. He sighed miserably and left the kitchen. Kakashi had many questions that he knew would most likely go unanswered, so he didn't even bother pursuing them. Instead he threw the burnt pot into the trash and followed Tenzou out to living room.

"Aw, don't be so downhearted, Tenzou, we'll just have to find something else to eat, that's all. Here why don't we go to Ichiraku, I haven't had ramen in a while."

Tenzou still downhearted looked at the clock above Kakashi's bed, "I don't think there are any restaurants open at two in the morning."

Kakashi blinked, well there went that idea. He went back to the kitchen and took out a cup ramen and a piece of bread, smearing some butter on it. Tenzou meanwhile wondered what happened to Kakashi and whether he was mad at him. He lay down miserably onto his bed and stared at the ceiling.

But just as he was about to fall asleep again, someone tapped him on his head. He opened his eyes to find Kakashi grinning at him behind his mask.

"It's not exactly the best food, but I figure it'll do," and he handed the boy a Cup Noodle.

"I thought you gave up with dinner after it was burned," Tenzou said.

"You need to eat something; I'm not going to just let you starve to death you know."

After a few minutes of eating in silence, Tenzou looked up again, "Sorry about the burned food."

Kakashi laughed, "Tenzou, there's no need to apologize, after all you are the one who put out the flames. Don't worry about it, I burn something at least once a month," he smiled again. Tenzou smiled too glad that Kakashi didn't pursue the matter about him using wood style. When he finished the two of them slipped back into bed and for the rest of the night, Tenzou slept soundly.

The next morning, Kakashi woke to find the bed next to him was empty. The sheets and blanket were folded neatly on top of the mattress, with the pillow. He looked around, had Tenzou left? Kakashi rolled out of bed, "Tenzou?" he asked the seemingly empty apartment. He explored the apartment trying to find the boy. But every bit of the apartment seemed empty.

"Where could he have gone?" he wondered, continueing his search to the kitchen. Just as he was about to leave, he spotted a figure sitting outside on his balcony. He slid the door open and saw Tenzou staring out at the whole of Konoha.

"Tenzou?" he asked.

Tenzou looked up, "Oh, good morning, Kakashi."

"What are you doing out here, Tenzou-kun?"

Tenzou looked confused by Kakashi's sudden use of his name in that way, "I wanted to see the sunrise."

Kakashi looked up, it seemed as though he'd missed the sunrise. He sighed and just when he was about to usher Tenzou in for breakfast, the young boy spoke, "Kakashi, can you show me the village today?"

Now he was really confused, was Tenzou being serious? How could you live in a village for ten years of life and never have seen it before? Tenzou took Kakashi's hesitance as a no and sighed, getting up and walking over to the apartment. He muttered, "Never mind, I'm lucky they actually let me come this far."

Kakashi blinked, what the hell is he talking about? He stopped Tenzou, "No, no, no, of course I'll show you around. What makes you think I wouldn't?"

"You didn't answer right away."

"Sorry, my bad, Tenzou."

Tenzou smiled happily and after breakfast Kakashi took Tenzou out to the village with him. Luckily there was a fair that day. On the way there they met up with Minato and Rin. Rin leaned down to Tenzou and smiled, "Kakashi, who's you're new friend?"

"His name's Tenzou, the third hokage asked me to take care of him. Tenzou, this is one of my teammates, Rin." Tenzou smiled back at Rin and she laughed "He's so sweet."

During the fair, they went on some rides, bought icecream, played multiple games, one of which Kakashi was able to win Tenzou a plush stuffed animal. Tenzou couldn't remember a day in which he had more fun than this particular day. He was beaming with joy which he'd never felt before. On the way home, Kakashi gave him a piggy back ride and soon he was sound asleep. Kakashi grinned at the boy, he hadn't had this much fun in a while either. Rin smiled, "you're a great babysitter, you know that Kakashi?"

He only continued smiling, "Looks like I'll be babysitting for a long time to come." Minato smiled to himself, already, a bond had grown between the two boys, and they'd been able to ease each other's pain.