Kakashi woke up. Kakashi rolled over. Kakashi fell asleep.
Naruto woke up. Naruto rolled over. Naruto found a shredded sleeping bag under his head. What! Naruto studied the sleeping bag. Even ripped into so many pieces it was obviously the same one that he had put away in the seal last night, so what was it doing out? Kami, had someone found it? What were they doing with his seals? The young man began to rage silently, before forcing himself to calm down. Anger still bubbled beneath the surface (how dare someone he trusted fiddle with his seals? How dare they almost find out Naruto's greatest secret?) but as there was no-one to direct it at, the blonde decided to bide his time.
All throughout that day Sakura and Sasuke (if he paid attention) could tell that there was something up with their teammates. One was distracted and kept looking for the other, whilst the other was very angry and ignoring the first one. Inner Sakura snorted.
"Boys. Why don't they just confront each other and get it over with. Cha, idiots, the two of them!" Sakura berated her, but couldn't help but agree with her inner self. Finally, at the end of the day, when they set up camp she took first watch, put Sasuke on second watch and shoved her sensei and Naruto into a tent to make up.
Kakashi stared at Naruto. Naruto stared back. Kakashi put up privacy seals. Naruto rolled his eyes. Naruto undid the privacy seals. Naruto activated the ones in the tent material. Kakashi felt foolish. Kakashi sat down. Kakashi stared at Naruto. Naruto stared back.
A sigh echoed. Kakashi raised a mask covered face and looked at Naruto and said nonchalantly
"Maa, maa Naruto-kun. What are you so angry about?"
"I think you know sensei. You've been daydreaming all day," Naruto spat back. Kakashi cringed and went to explain.
"I'm sorry Naruto. You see, I wanted to know what my cute little Naru-chan was doing with-"The blonde cut him off.
"Don't try to reason with me sensei. You know that I don't like people to meddle with my seals. What if it had been one that I modified? What if you had decided to fiddle with a seal that blows up everything in a 100 metre radius if you don't give it the right chakra, like I stopped Sasuke doing? Why don't you trust me?" By the end Naruto was panting, fists clenched tight as his eyes glared accusatively at the jounin. Kakashi replied softly
"So you're angry because that could have hurt me or this team, because you think I don't trust you. But what if, what if I opened it so that you could trust me? So that you could trust me with your secrets? Don't think that I haven't noticed how you make sure that all of your inventions work how they should alone, how you never show any side of yourself to us than the happy-go-lucky blonde?" Kakashi leaned forwards and stared straight into Naruto's eyes, and pulled him into a tight hug.
"I love you Naruto, as do the rest of this team, Iruka, Hokage-sama, all of the Rookie 12, Konohamaru and the majority of this village. It's time to let the past go,"
Kakashi felt as Naruto started shuddering, huge gasping breaths rasping as eyes welled up with tears. Kakashi stayed there with him as he finally let out all of the tears that he never cried when he was younger. Finally, after hours had passed (Kage bunshin had been sent on watch), the jounin found himself holding a sleeping blonde.
That night, Naruto slept peacefully.
