Sakura stared at the peculiar face in front of her. The- person, she suppose, was smiling, well, it looked like she was smiling, wait, was it even a girl?

She had been crying her eyes out behind some bushes, upset and frightened by some of the ninja family girls that had teased her about her forehead. Small and different with her bubble gum pink hair, Sakura was the butt of most jokes, unable to defend herself, her civilian family name inadequate to defend her. She had been enrolled into the 'ninja' academy due to 'subsidies' just like other civilians, she didn't know what these 'subsidies' were, but it seemed important enough to make even her solemn father smile once in a while. This usually happened when a messenger bird drops by with more of these 'subsidies'. The day she was accepted into the 'official program', the whole family had had barbecue at Moritake's. Even father, who usually refuses to eat anything not made by his own hand. They were bakers by trade, and had plenty of leftovers to eat most of the time.

So when the other children teased her and made fun of her, Sakura would bite her lip and say nothing when she got home. Her parents were happy, and she wanted to keep it that way. However, sometimes the bullying gets too much, and she cried herself to pieces. Tearing herself apart trying to decide what to do. The one time she had hinted that something bad was happening at school, mother had wanted to pull her out, and father looked grim for days. There had been an official report and the other kids backed off for a while. Unfortunately children had short memories, and now they were at it again.

Sakura always had a good head for remembering things. She knew all the shop's specials and could recite five different kinds of bread recipe by heart. Sometimes, mother wouldn't even bother with a recipe book with Sakura there. She would say, 'Sakura, how much butter do I need with Papa's nut bread?' and Sakura would answer without hesitation, "Two sticks and cream it well," from the other end of the room, father would smile into his own dough and wave a floury hand at Sakura.

The person before her could not compute in Sakura's mind, she had never seen her?him? before. Maybe. Still, Sakura felt shameful and sorry that someone saw her crying, yet some part felt relieved. She had been hiding, but she wanted to be found somehow, to be comforted. She wanted to believe this person to be a 'friend'. So she sniffed and asked, "What's your name?"

The eye disappeared into a cheerful curve, "Me? What do you think?"

Sakura frowned, what kind of answer is that? "What kind of answer is that?" she said out loud.

"Maa," a hand crept up to scratch at yellow, pink and red fuzz, "I guess that's because it depends on whether you are asking about my real name, my everyday name or my secret name," the hooded person winked.

Wait, can a person with only one eye wink?

Confused, and a little angry, Sakura scowled, "That's not funny, a person have only one name and one name only," She stomped her feet and glared at the weird scarf covered in faces.

"Neh, in this case I'll tell you my everyday name," Naruto stuck out a hand, "Hi! I'm Noriko, Kakashi-san calls me Nori-chan and the villagers called me that Evil Brat and Iruka-sensei calls me little Teruteru-chan!"

"Teruteru-chan?" Sakura mused, she could understand the 'Nori' from Noriko but Teruteru-chan seemed a bit random to her.

"Well?" Nori-chan demanded.

"Well what?" Sakura was getting annoyed.

"What about you? Tell me your everyday name!"

"Ah, I'm Sakura," she paused, and muttered under her breath, "… and the others calls me Forehead Girl or Billboard Head…"

"REALLY!" was the very shrilled reply and a huge blue eye stopped within an inch of her face.

"Gyaah!" Sakura jumped and floundered backwards. "Don't do that!"

Noriko was currently looking at Sakura through a little window created by both thumb and index fingers. A fox's window, thought Sakura nervously, blanching under the tight scrutiny. She could imagine the tip of a tongue sticking out in concentration under the scarf.

"I don't see it…"

"See what?" Sakura dug her toes into the dirt nervously.

"Your forehead, it's like a normal forehead," the voice was oddly disappointed, "It's not big at all,"

"But it's huge!"Sakura was fairly indignant. She brushed her bangs back, "See!"

Noriko's one visible eye squinted, "It's normal, this is boring," she flounced back to the bushes, "Let's talk about something more interesting, like lunch!"

Sakura had opened her mouth to argue, but caught herself in time to realize how ridiculous she'd sound. One hand crept up to touch her forehead, and for once, the hairless patch of skin did not felt overly wide and large against her palm. Smiling, Sakura picked up her own lunch and crept into the bushes behind her new friend. It did not occur to her until later to speculate about Noriko's covered face.

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Two minutes after getting to know her, Sakura concluded that her new friend, friend, Noriko-chan, was completely weird. The first clue was the way she treated Sakura's forehead, calling it 'boringly normal' and just dismissed her pain just like that. Of course, considering the scarf and cloth around her face, Sakura could only conclude that Noriko-chan must have had even worse facial scarring to not be bothered by her forehead. Suddenly, Sakura felt ashamed by the fuss she made about her unmarred forehead. Here was a girl who could not even show her face in public, and was comforting her about her 'large' forehead.

Squaring her shoulder in determination, Sakura made a vow to never ask Noriko about her face, no matter what. They ate in companionable silence, Sakura looking down at her food while Noriko tried to be sneaky about popping pieces of her fish nugget into her mouth without being seen. Kakashi had shown her how to eat without showing any part of her lower face, but it takes practice to perfect the technique.

Naruto still had mixed feelings about having Kakashi as a 'guardian'. Especially when the man looked so young, so earnest about earning Noriko's trust. The man had presented Noriko with a small teruterubozu at their first meeting. It was a simple square cloth tied to look like a head with a fluttery body. The classic henohenomoheji as its face, Naruto later found that the 'head' was stuffed with soft mochi, sweets which he made a snack of after doctor Minami's check-up session. Naruto soon had a good collection of these things. Each of them held something special, once taken out or eaten, Naruto would stuff the head with bits of cotton or bandages to puff the head back into its round shape and hang it up by the shelves built especially for Noriko's collection. Today, as a first day of returning to school present, Kakashi had given Noriko a bigger, slightly better made version of the usual thing as a stuffed toy.

Touched, Naruto had hugged the man by his knees and put eggplants into their breakfast miso. Kakashi had scratched the back of his head at the breakfast display, "Araa, you shouldn't have gone to such trouble,"

"But, Kakashi-sensei! Everyone must contribute in a household," Naruto had cheekily chirped.

"Ano," Kakashi looked around the room, "I'm sure you do the dusting in here, and the laundry and the sweeping and the cooking and…" he narrowed his eyes, "I believed those curtains were grey last week,"

Naruto just gave him the classic curve eye smile. In truth, he had been investigating the house, using 'cleaning' as an excuse. Kage bunshins are so useful. At any rate, he felt no guilt about taking Sasuke's place as Kakashi's favourite. If there was ever a person Naruto could hate was Orochimaru, although, over the years, Sasuke came closed. The moron's sheer stupidity and arrogance grated over his nerves. Not to mention all the unnecessary pain and sacrifice needed to redeem an unredeemable man. The Sasuke now was pretty lucky to have the Uchiha's backing, otherwise, Naruto would have snapped the scrawny neck of the world's most stupid person in a flash. Genjutsu or not, it would be perfectly satisfying.

Popping another roll into Noriko's small mouth, Naruto mulled over his options. The belief that this is just an elaborated genjutsu fades every passing day. The sheer pointlessness of it was the first clue. One way to confirm either way was to consult the demon within him. However, Naruto knew he was being watched closely, Kakashi was a professional even though he acted silly over Noriko's well being. He would suspect something if Naruto were to drop into a trance to check on the demon.

"Noriko…"

Not that there's any real special reason to visit the demon. He really doubted it would tell him anything useful anyway. Its contribution would likely be something like Rawr! Die! Meat Bag! Growl! which does little to help him in his current situation.

"Noriko,"

Iruka-sensei was charmingly nervous as a young tutor, Naruto couldn't ever remember Iruka being nervous before, even when faced with the infamous Copy Nin of the future. Kakashi was the one who had acted sheepish around Iruka. Come to think of it, Kakashi's reaction towards the Iruka now was similar to how he had acted before in the past, future, past, whatever.

"Noriko!"

Naruto jumped a little at the shout, and was surprise to see an angry Sakura with puffed up pink hair glaring at him. Oh, he'd lost himself in his own head again. Something that everyone swore is going to get him killed one day. Opting for a surprised reaction, Naruto widen his exposed eye and tilt Noriko's head thirty-five degrees to the left.

"Nyeh? What is it?"

If anything, Sakura's hair stood up even more, "I've been calling and calling you," she glowered, "weren't you listening?"

"Un, I get lost in my own head sometimes,"

"Eh?" Sakura face vaulted.

"Yeah, it's a really mixed up place," Naruto eye smile her, "What was it again?"

"I said, how come I don't see you at school? I know all the girls at school,"

"Nyeh, that's cause I'm in a tutoring class, see? I had a bad accident and had to skip for a few months,"

"Oh,"

Naruto didn't bother to tell her that 'Noriko' was in the advance class. Naruto had been in three 'advance classes' before children his age caught up and finally graduating with them by the skin of his teeth. By then, he'd been badly disillusioned by the notion of studying and was concentrating on pranks instead.

"So, so I guess you're really, really good?" Sakura asked in a small voice.

"Just a little bit," Naruto replied modestly.

Sakura seemed to curl in herself even more. "I'm very bad at all this ninja stuff, I mean learning is fun, but I'm not so good in flowers and taijutsu and stuff,"

"Nyeh, all that takes is a little practice," Naruto wrinkled his nose, flowers? He knew a weed from an herb of course, but flower arrangements? Bleh!

"But, I'm really, really bad!" Sakura burst out, "I'm really bad in star throwing and hand fighting and flower arranging and I really, really don't want to look stupid," she finally whispered.

Stupid Sakura? Now that was an oxymoron if he ever heard one, thought Naruto. The Sakura he knew was always confident, if desperately so, sometimes. He had never really known Sakura as a little girl, only starting to notice her as a potential partner at twelve years old. He knew about the forehead thing of course, who wouldn't with Ino yelling it at every intervention, but he'd never knew how deep it went.

"Sakura-chan," Naruto paused, should he do this?

Sakura sniffed pitifully, and he made up his mind. He will make Sakura a competent ninja, so much so that she will never look at that traitor Uchiha as anything but a weak arrogant boy. Yes, the crux of the girls attraction had been Uchiha's 'tragic survivor' look, if he could interest Sakura into medical ninjutsu early, and perhaps graduate earlier than the Traitor…

"Hey, hey," Naruto smiled foxily at Sakura, "Wanna go throw some stars later?"

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The Uchiha police force was filled with clones of Itachi and Sasuke, was Naruto's first thought. He had completely forgotten about the whole massacre thing that had crawled up the Traitor's butt and died a grisly death. In some ways, he wondered about his own amazing skill in forgetting. He had come across a bunch of Uchiha that day, they had looked at Noriko's little form with a little fear, Kakashi's lanky person with hatred and just a little less fear and then turned up their collective Uchiha noses on them. Man, it was like they shared a mind or something. Hive mind, thought Naruto intelligently, remembering that obscure time where he'd sat down with Shino to talk about… stuff.

Kakashi squeezed Noriko's fingers, "Don't bother about them,"

Naruto blinked, "I'm not worried,"

"You aren't?" Kakashi asked in surprised.

Naruto suddenly realized how potentially dangerous this conversation could go. Fortunately, his brained kicked in and his mouth replied, "'Cause I got Kakashi-san with me, yeah?"

For a moment, Naruto thought Kakashi would actually go 'aww'. Naruto hoped he wouldn't actually do it since it would be really creepy, especially since Iruka-sensei's already doing it on a regular basis. He'd stashed the stuffed teruterubozu at home to avoid being 'awwed' at so often. Sakura-chan had been coaxed into the remedial classes with Iruka-sensei, Naruto had strong armed her into coming with Noriko. He'd also bribed Iruka with an apple stuffed teruterubozu and introduced her to Kakashi as 'My bestest friend ever!' Both men had melted according to plan, though no doubt Kakashi immediately went to check up on Sakura's background. Naruto was not worried, Sakura's family are civilians through and through, nothing to be wary of.

Though he may have been too optimistic and spoken too soon as usual, thought Naruto as he eyed the stern looking man before him. A stone face man who is also known as Haruno-san the baker and Sakura-chan's father. The gooey eye trick did not work on the man, nor did the cute blush. He did notice however, that Sakura's mom, Hana, had brown hair. Does this means that-

No, no, no, he was not going to go there. Casting another suspicious eye at the bandana around the stern man's head, Naruto thought Haruno Takahiro wouldn't look out of place with a few screw holes on his scalp.

"Daddy, Mummy, this is my best friend Nori-chan and her daddy, Kakashi-san," Sakura shifted her weight nervously.

Naruto beamed reflexively, who cares if no one could actually see it. Naruto had perfected the art of radiating happiness, "Please to meet you, Haruno-san!"

"Ah, please to meet you," Kakashi scratched the back of his head. He'd never had to interact on a social footing with anyone before, let alone civilians. Noriko was different, Noriko was Noriko.

"Welcome to our home," Haruno-san sound anything but welcoming.

Both Kakashi and Noriko bowed politely, murmuring pleasantries. They are here for a small slumber party between Noriko and Sakura. The Harunos hadn't want Sakura to go off to a strange man's house, ninja or not. So Kakashi had brought Noriko over instead. It was part of Sandaime's plan to get him socialized. The walk here had not been unpleasant, save for a few evil eyes from the Uchiha clan members, most had been quite respectable. They were similarly respectable towards the Hatake ward, not many knowing that he had the Kyuubi child with him.

Noriko had been quiet during the way, as she was wont to among strangers. She had been unusually chatty with that young chuunin Iruka and made friends with Sakura, but that was it. There was a definite wariness about her when she saw the Uchiha police officers, then again, she may have been intimidated by their imposing presence. Kakashi knew they hated him for having Obito's eye, that hate may have been transferred onto little Noriko.

"Please come in," Haruno Hana was more pleasant, gesturing for them to come in.

Both ward and caretaker sat together. There were tea and orange juice on the table, Kakashi wondered if this was such a good idea. Sakura trotted in from the kitchen with her father bearing trays of teacakes. She sat the tray down with a clatter and smiled at the visitors.

"Papa made them," she announced proudly, "and I helped,"

Hana dished some cakes out onto small plates and placed some toothpicks next to it, "Please try some, it's the week's special,"

Kakashi sipped his hot tea through his mask. Noriko poked one of the small cakes with a toothpick and keeping her mouth hidden behind the scarf, popped the little morsel in. The Haruno's blinked, but did not comment, clearly Sakura had brief them about the strangeness of the Hatakes. Kakashi was glad for her foresight. Now for conversations.

"Maa, Sakura-chan is getting very well with her studies," he tried.

"Ah, our Sakura-chan is quite good with her memory, but I'm afraid is a little bad with everything else," was Hana-san's comment.

"Oh, no, no, Sakura-chan is getting better with her throwing stars and chakra control," Kakashi inverted his eye, "In fact, she's better then Noriko-chan in fine arts and kunoichi skills,"

"Ah, but I heard Noriko-chan could always hit a target she wants and so strong!"

"Maa, Sakura-chan is so much better in-"

And so they went on, complimenting the other child and putting down their own. Small talk between parents under the bored eyes of the children. Haruno-san had disappeared into the kitchen halfway through. Sakura tugged at Noriko's sleeves.

"Come on, Papa's making cream puffs for tomorrow, let's help,"

"Un, Kakashi-san…?"

"Ah," Kakashi rubbed the back of his head, he turned to Hana, "You don't mind?"

"Oh no, please go ahead," she waited until the pattering of feet disappeared, "Kakashi-san, I must be frank with you,"

"Aaa," Kakashi became wary.

"About Sakura-chan," she hesitated, "My husband and I, we aren't from a ninja clan, we aren't poor, but we're not rich either."

Kakashi kept his silence.

"Sometimes, I wonder if we made the right decisions sending her to the Academy. It seems such a dangerous world, but-" She moved her hand helplessly.

"I understand," Kakashi set the cup down, "How far she goes is all up to her, but I will keep an eye on both girls,"

Hana's eyes misted a little, "Thank you,"

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When it was time for Kakashi to leave the Haruno's, Noriko came out of the kitchen to hug Kakashi by the leg and bid him a cheerful goodbye. Kakashi patted Noriko on the head, the red and blonde fuzz had grown out in chunky spikes, he wondered if length would changed its texture the way it did with Kushina.

"Bye-bye, Kakashi-san! I'll bring you cream puffs after we made them, kay?"

Ah, perceptive as always, "I'll be fine, Nori-chan, play nice with Sakura-chan," he looked up to see the pink hair girl watching the exchange anxiously. Such a nice little girl, Kakashi thought, on impulse, he ruffled the pink fluffy hair as well. "Take care and don't make too much trouble,"

"We won't!" came the twin chorus.

Aww.

He waved at the little girls until the house was out of sight. Then, shoving his hands into his pocket, Kakashi wondered about the streets of Konoha. He was on leave from Anbu and was given some time to readjust to normal life. Whatever normal is. He never had it normal before, he didn't know if he was normal enough for Noriko. As he meandered about the streets his feet took him to the memorial stone. Ah yes, this was normal for him.

Kakashi studied the stone, the flowers surrounding it, the newly chipped names crawling behind old ones. Someone had died recently.

He didn't know how long he stood there, but the sun was setting when he heard the voice that intruded his thoughts.

"Kakashi-san?" the voice was mellow, young.

Kakashi turned just enough to catch the shadow of a perky ponytail. It was Noriko's chuunin sensei. Ordinary brown eyes studied him curiously.

"Um, not to sound rude or anything, but, you've been standing here all day,"

"…all day?"

"Aa, I passed by this place on the way to the mission office, that was half passed two, it's close to dinner time now,"

"… technically, that would make it half a day, wouldn't it?" answered Kakashi just to be contrary.

"Well, I'd thought you'd be spending the day Noriko-chan, not a block of stone," Iruka sounded a little accusative.

Kakashi couldn't blame him, but he didn't want to be painted the villain either. "She's at Sakura's, slumber party,"

"Oh, er, I see," realisation dawn on the sensei's face, Kakashi was amused to see the blush formed around the scar.

Kakashi decided to rub the salt in a little, "So you see, there's just me, and this block of stone here," he patted the memorial stone fondly.

"Ah," Iruka paused, obviously casting about for something to say. "Er, I was just going to this new ramen stall, would you like to come?"

"Ramen?" Kakashi mused, to properly eat ramen, he would have to take off his mask and slurp the noodles. Perhaps the teacher wanted to have a look at his face? He wouldn't be the first one. Kakashi weighted his options, he could continue to keep vigil here, or he could go with the sensei. Noriko's worried blue eye wafted before him. Well, he did promise Noriko to look after himself a bit.

"Oh, alright, maybe I'll have a bowl,"

The chuunin's relief was palpable. Kakashi was a little amused to see such an expressive shinobi. He followed the young sensei, letting the inane chatter of the teacher's day wash over him. It would be nice to have dinner with someone. Besides, there's this new jutsu he intended to test out…

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Iruka was a little nervous about eating with the legendary ninja. Without Noriko around to act as a buffer, the presence of the man was more obvious. However, he could not bring himself to leave the man alone. Kakashi-san had looked so lonely for a moment that Iruka just blurted out the invitation. Now, he could not take it back. Seated at the new ramen place, Iruka ordered regular miso, he heard Kakashi ordered the same dish with an absentmindedness that usually preceded marking time. Evening time was usually marking time for him. However, it would be rude to do so in front of such an illustrious person, so Iruka refrained.

They made small talks. When the tea came, Iruka couldn't help but stare when Kakashi drank his tea through his mask. Eww. Quickly looking away, Iruka tried not to think about drinking, mask and socks at the same time. He must have not been very successful in hiding his horror because Kakashi was soon arching his eyebrow and asked, "Now, what's so interesting, sensei?"

Iruka was not going to answer, he was not! But he was still new to this whole sensei thing and being addressed so nicely by the famous jounin made his toes curl and his stupid, stupid mouth to blurt out-

"It's your mask,"

"Oh?" Now the jounin looked more than amused.

Iruka quickly tried to dissuade his interest, "It's nothing really, your mask is fine, I mean, it's just the way you drink. I just had a horrible flashback from it. Um, I'm not talking anymore."

Now Kakashi was beyond piqued, "Oh, come on, sensei. You can't just tell me all those stuff and expect me to forget about it,"

Iruka kept his mouth closed and shook his head.

"You do realise that, as a jounin, I do have ways to torture information out of unfortunate victims," Kakashi leered. Not that Iruka could see it, but he suspected. Terribly.

Then again, as a chuunin, Iruka had undergone training to resist torture. He could do this!

Kakashi took another sip of his tea. Through his mask. Iruka broke.

"It was Kotetsu! It was all stupid Kotetsu!" Iruka finally burst out frantically.

"Interesting,"

Oh god, Iruka could see the damp outline of where the tea had gone through the mask.

"It was our first time leaving the village, our stupid jounin-sensei who shall remain nameless but also known as Ibiki left us on our own in the middle of a wood that was not Konoha and told us to look for a snake with pink diamond patterns on it and oh god, I'm going to puke!" Iruka slammed some money on the counter and began walking away.

Kakashi was beyond piqued or interested now. "So, what happened?"

"Why are you still following me?" Iruka demanded, "I have told you, it was all Kotetsu's fault, it was Ibiki's fault too, and keep your mask away from me!" Iruka shied away from the damp mask that was hovering just a little too close to his ear.

Curiosity was eating Kakashi now, he had to know!

"Iruka," he said calmly, "as your superior I hereby-"

*Poof!*

Kakashi blinked at the dissipating smoke and leaves before him. Huh, whatever the secret it was the chuunin was desperate enough to teleport away from him in mid sentence. Suddenly, the ridiculousness of the situation hit him and Kakashi began to laugh. Crazily and whole heartedly in the middle of the street, he barely stop when several shadows materialized around him.

Anbu Cat approached the crazy jounin warily, "Jounin Kakashi, it is time for your bi-weekly psychiatric meeting,"

In response, Kakashi merely laughed harder.

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Err, yeah, I'm not exactly sure where the story will go, and um, sorry for those who are looking forward to Iruka at Hogwart's update, I've been having a little problem choosing a plot for the story without making an over powered Naruto or a seriously angsting Iruka. Hmm, now that's a thought, I could put up an extra fic section for 'rejected plots'. It would contain various scenes I've considered, written and finally rejected from the main plot of all my stories. What do you think?