AN:

Last chapter, explanation after the end of this short last chapter.

So without further ado.

Chapter 7: First Things First

"Naruto", said Kakashi firmly, "don't ever offer Lee sake ever again", he finished as he looked at the bar around them. The scene was that of a post-apocalyptic piece of literature. The walls were melting. Chairs and tables staying midway through them. There somehow even a small crater in the middle of the bar. All from the tiniest sip of Sake.

Once Naruto saw Kakashi and Guy rushing into the bar it had been too late. Realizing how bad things were going to get Naruto switched to his Tailed Beast Cloak and immediately knocked Lee out.

"Hehe", chuckled Naruto, "I guess I got a little too excited".

'If this you just a little too excited then perhaps the Council and me were correct to wait on making Naruto Hokage', thought Kakashi to himself.

All of a sudden an ANBU Black Ops appeared out of nowhere.

'Fuck', thought Naruto.

"Lord Fifth requests your presence immediately, Naruto", said the Black Ops member.

'Double fuck', thought Naruto. "I'm on my way", he said rather sluggishly, "I guess I'll see you later Kakashi-sensei".

"That's if you're not dead", Kakashi said jokingly.

As the ANBU Ninja disappeared and Naruto strolled towards the Hokage Tower, Kakashi remembered that someone was in the background being ignored.

"Sorry Guy". Kakashi apologised, "you're just naturally stealthy that I consider you better at that than me", he concluded with a little white lie.

"Really", said Guy who was almost beaming in delight, "well nothing less from the Leaf's Handsome Devil".

'Right...handsome', Kakashi thought.

"By the way Kakashi", said Guy, "I do believe you need to see a certain someone right now and do it tonight as it's only 11:37 and she should be awake still".

"Right", said Kakashi as prepared to roof jump towards Kurenai's, "thanks Guy".

Naturally red eyes stared off into the starry sky that meshed well with the city lights below. Her eyes sighed as she changed her gaze towards the direction of Kakashi's house. It is without a doubt that Kurenai is madly, stupidly, childishly, and irresponsibly in love. And she wouldn't have it any other way. She even got a little dressed up for the evening telling herself that she's going to let Kakashi know how she feels about him. Going as far as letting Little Asuma sleep over at his friends house just so that she can have enough time to talk to the Kakashi Hatake.

'Hatake', she thought to herself. 'Kurenai Hatake'. she continued as she chuckled to her innocent thoughts.

By the end of the night she couldn't muster up the courage to confess her feelings. Let alone getting out of the front door.

'Unbelievable', she argued with herself, 'I've been on countless dangerous missions on which I could've lost my life in, yet, I can't even get out of the door and...confess', she sighed. Truth be told she's never actually been quite expressive with her feelings. She's never confessed her feelings to anyone before. What happened with Asuma was more of a mutual understanding. She can't even remember if she ever actually verbally expressed her love to Asuma. Maybe once or twice, but never often. Love is never easy.

Even though she's moved on from Asuma enough to accept her feelings for Kakashi, there is still some trace amounts of guilt left within her stopping her from saying those three words to the Copy-Ninja.

She decided to take things slow starting tomorrow at Anko's wedding. 'He should be there', she thought, 'he is the Best Man after all'. And so she started walking away from her balcony, but then heard a rustle behind and immediately threw a punch to the person's jaw and she heard as the person fell to down to the balcony's floor.

She looked down and saw the one man she didn't want to see hurt. "Kakashi", she yelled.

"Why in the world did you do that for", he asked as felt his jaw.

"Well you startled me and I didn't know it was you", she replied.

"Ow", he said in pain.

Almost by instinct Kurenai knelt down next to Kakashi and softly laid her right hand on Kakashi's mask. "I'm sorry", she said almost shyly, "at least let me check if it's not broken". Without knowing she had been resting her hand on his jaw for more than the amount necessary enough to convey if a jaw is broken hurt. Even so, Kakashi did not say a word. Perhaps when feelings are mutual, you need not speak. And as their eyes knowingly met, both Kakashi and Kurenai don't need to feel the stings of pains past. To begins looking forward to a more complete future.

'But first things first', Kakashi thought as he laid his hand on top of Kurenai's. "Will you be my date for tomorrow", he asked.

Kurenai then leaned forward, and for the first time in a long time she took the initiative by replying with a kiss that's much too late.

AN:

So that's then end of my first ever story ever posted on FanFiction. Truth be told, when I began this story I had much more time on my hands and less stress, but as the year went on things got in the way of my story. Truthfully, I felt bad for not posting as quickly as I've said I would. I'm sorry to those that I may have bothered, because of it. I was also going to include one more chapter after this, but I concluded that it would not have made sense to this story.

I began writing this story, because I thought there weren't enough Kakashi/Kurenai stories out there. And not enough truth to a relationship stories. So for those that were hoping for some lemons. I'm sorry, but perhaps my next story may include one or two lemons, depending on the prices my local grocery has them at.

That's right, I've already begun writing up another story and it's saved currently on my FanFiction account. I'm not going to reveal too much about this story, but let's just say it will be another Naruto based story set around two years after the war. It will include some elements from this story, but will not be set in the same universe. Also the images of the characters will be based on the character designs from The Last: Naruto the Movie. So you can use that as reference (somewhat). Other elements from my next story will also take inspiration from other Anime, Forms of Art, Music, Literature (Comic Books, Manga, Books, Poems etc.), and Movies. Not directly, but those of you that know the elements will know which is which (so no direct crossovers).

So until my next story. Thank you for reading.