Naruto charged across the street towards the Uchiha compound, heedless of his dad calling for him to be careful and Kakashi's amused chuckles. He was filled with boundless excitement, and there was no one he wanted to share it with more than Sasuke.

Naruto skidded to a halt at Sasuke's front door and knocked frantically, desperate to see his friend. He had been grinning so hard that his cheeks ached, and when the door opened to reveal Sasuke standing in front of him, with his shoulders slumped and a miserable expression on his face, Naruto squealed happily and threw himself at the other boy.

"Sasuke!" he yelled, right into his friend's ear and Sasuke stumbled back into the hall beneath Naruto's weight, "Kakashi's moving in with us! We're going to get his stuff now, you have to come!"

He leapt back and grabbed Sasuke by the wrist, fully intending to drag the boy out into the sunshine and to Kakashi's stupid, old apartment to help them pack. But Sasuke dug his heels in and held onto the doorframe, causing Naruto to be yanked back towards him.

"Huh?" Naruto spun around, "come on! What are you waiting for? Didn't you hear me? Kakashi's coming to live with us!"

"I can't come," Sasuke replied softly, with a pathetic expression.

"Why not?" Naruto frowned, "are you grounded? What did you do?"

Sasuke straightened up, and set his features into a determined mask, "I'm not grounded."

"Then let's go!"

"I'm not allowed to play with you anymore."

Naruto blinked in surprise. It took him a moment to understand Sasuke's words, and when they had sunk in he released his friend's wrist and frowned at him, "what do you mean?"

Sasuke was staring over Naruto's shoulder rather than meeting his eyes. He was standing as still and stiff as stone, "my dad says I'm not allowed to play with you anymore. You almost got me killed and you… you're a bad influence."

Naruto gaped at him, "but… I didn't… that wasn't…"

Sasuke's determined mask cracked a little as he met Naruto's eyes. For a split second he looked as upset as Naruto felt, but then his eyes hardened and he turned away. Naruto tried to speak, but his words were lodged behind the lump in his throat.

"You don't want to be my friend anymore?" He asked, his voice wobbling on the last word.

Sasuke's lips were pressed together, and his face looked paler that it usually did, "I'm not allowed."

Naruto's hands were shaking. He balled them into fists to stop the tremors and screwed his face up into a scowl to fight the prickling behind his eyes. All of the excitement he had been feeling caved inwards, creating a gaping hole in his stomach, making his tummy ache.

"Fine!" he spat, "I don't care!"

Sasuke's eyes widened. The boy looked frightened, and when Naruto took a step backwards, glaring heatedly at his ex-friend, Sasuke's cool façade shattered. He stumbled out of the doorway towards Naruto, looking at him with desperation.

"I tried to tell him," Sasuke said hurriedly, "he wouldn't listen to me…"

"I don't care!" Naruto yelled again, "I never wanted to be your friend anyway!"

Sasuke's face fell. He looked completely destroyed but Naruto didn't care, he spun around and raced back out towards the street, ignoring Sasuke plaintively calling out his name.

oO0Oo

"Whoa!" Kakashi grabbed Naruto by the shoulders before the boy could run into his legs, "what's the hurry? Where's Sasuke?"

"He's not coming!" Naruto shouted up at him, with a furious expression and water welling up in his blue eyes, "I don't want him to come! I hate him!"

Kakashi was lost for words. He looked to Minato, who was frowning in concern down at his son, "did the two of you have a fight?"

Naruto wrenched himself away from Kakashi and marched off in the direction of Kakashi's apartment.

"I thought he was you best friend," Minato called after the boy, smiling in a bewildered way.

"No he isn't!" Naruto screeched over his shoulder, "I'm never going to play with him again!"

Kakashi watched the little boy storm away, and felt an undeniable need to charge into the Uchiha clan house and demand to know what Sasuke had done to upset Naruto. But Minato's hand fell onto his arm and steered him in the direction Naruto had taken.

"Come on," Minato said, shaking his head slightly, "it'll all blow over. By tomorrow they'll be as thick as thieves again."

"How can you be so sure?" Kakashi asked, trying to disguise a shiver as Minato's hand stroked down over his arm before falling away.

"Believe it or not," Minato grinned at him as they fell into step, "I have vast experience dealing with hyperactive little boys and their broody, stuck up best friends."

Kakashi narrowed his eyes and looked at Minato suspiciously, the man was looking at him with fondness mingled with regret, and he realised that they boys he was talking about were not Naruto and Sasuke. "You're talking about me, aren't you."

Minato laughed, "don't be ridiculous. You were never a hyperactive little boy."

"I was never stuck up either," Kakashi told him firmly.

"But you don't deny that you were broody!" Minato said gleefully.

Kakashi rolled his eyes. As happy as he had been just a moment ago, something close to sorrow began to seep in around the edges, just as it did every time he thought about Obito. He could see the same sorrow gathering in Minato's eyes and hastened to say something to break the sombre atmosphere.

"Whatever you say, sensei."

Before he could prevent it, Minato had whipped his hand out and pinched Kakashi hard on the arm.

"Hey!" Kakashi slapped his hand to his bicep and gaped at Minato, "what was that for?"

The man raised an eyebrow at him, "I'm going to pinch you every time you call me 'sensei'," he replied, before hurrying after Naruto.

oO0Oo

Minato caught up to Naruto, who had stopped just outside Kakashi's apartment building to talk to two little girls from his class. He had meant what he said to Kakashi, he fully intended to pinch him whenever he called him 'sensei' rather than his name. He was determined to train the propriety out of the younger man.

"Dad!" Naruto cried, grinning happily, all prior anger forgotten, "Sakura and Ino want to help us move Kakashi's stuff!"

"I don't have that much to carry," Kakashi said as he joined them.

Minato hid a smile when the two little girls squealed in unison, looking between Minato and Kakashi with wide eyes and rosy cheeks.

"Naruto," the little blonde girl said, yanking Naruto's arm, "I'll be back in a minute, don't start without me!"

Minato watched her jerk around and run through the crowd, while the other girl, Sakura, clasped her hands behind her back and swayed from side to side, smiling shyly.

"Good morning, Hokage-sama," she said.

"Good morning, Sakura-chan," he replied, amused when the girl giggled.

"Let's go!" Naruto grabbed Sakura's hand and dragged her up to the entrance of Kakashi's apartment building.

"Is that the girl that Naruto never shuts up about?" Kakashi asked.

Minato nodded, grinning manically, "they look so cute!"

Shaking his head, Kakashi stepped around him and followed the children into the building.

oO0Oo

"This is Mr. Ukki," Naruto said as he handed the plant carefully over to Sakura, "you have to be really careful, hold the pot like that, and don't drop him."

"I'm not going to drop it, Naruto!" Sakura huffed.

"I know," Naruto beamed at her, "that's why I want you to carry him, 'cause you'll take really good care of him."

Sakura's glowering face twitched, until she was smiling back at Naruto, "oh, alright then."

For some reason, Naruto's dad was sitting on the kitchen worktop, watching the two of them with a stupid look… the one he always wore when Naruto did well on a test, or hit the target during kunai practice.

"What are you going to carry, Naruto?" Sakura asked.

Naruto straightened his back, "I'm going to carry these," he held up the straps attached to the scabbards of Kakashi's swords.

"I think not," Kakashi swiped the swords into the air and in the blink of an eye replaced the straps in Naruto's hand with Pakkun's dog bowl, "you can take this."

"Meh! Stupid! I can carry the weapons!" Naruto scowled after Kakashi as he stalked back towards Naruto's dad, but Naruto's gaze halted at the open door. Standing in the doorway, Ino waved.

"I'm back!"

"Where did you go, Ino-pig?" Sakura frowned.

Before Ino could reply, Chouji's face peered around the doorframe, "hi, Naruto!"

"Chouji!" Naruto shuffled around the piles of books towards the door.

"Move it, Chouji!" Kiba's voice growled, and by the time Naruto reached the doorway Kiba had elbowed his way to the front. Ino was standing behind him, scowling at the back of his head, and Shikamaru was behind her, leaning on the wall.

"Hinata and Shino are on their way," Kiba said, "so… can we come in? Or will we all get stuck inside and nearly die?"

Naruto grabbed Kiba's jacket and heaved him inside, "dad! We have more helpers!"

Kakashi peered around the corner from the kitchen, "I don't have that much stuff you know."

Naruto grinned at Kiba, "here!" he thrust the dog bowl into Kiba's hand, "you can carry this!"

The rest of Naruto's friends elbowed their way into the apartment, and Ino charged straight for Sakura.

"What's that thing?" Ino peered down at Mr. Ukki held in Sakura's hands.

"It's Mr. Ukki," Sakura said, holding the plant pot away from Ino, "Kakashi-san's pet plant. Naruto wants me to carry him because I'll be careful with him."

"Pff," Ino sneered, "you'll drop him! I'll carry him."

"No!" Sakura stumbled backwards as Ino reached for the plant, "I'm carrying him! Get your own!"

Naruto felt his stomach drop when he thought that Sakura would drop the plant pot, and he stepped towards them, fully intending to rescue Mr. Ukki. But before he reached them there was a knock on the open door, and everyone turned to face the new arrival.

Naruto felt his breath freeze in his lungs when his eyes met Sasuke's.

For a split second Naruto felt a smile attempt to claw its way onto his face. His heart practically burst at the sight of his best friend, the one person he had wanted to bring with him to Kakashi's apartment. But he forced his joy down and crossed his arms over his chest. Sasuke wasn't his friend anymore.

"What are you doing here?" Naruto snapped.

"I want to help," Sasuke replied, seemingly hesitant to step over the threshold.

"Tough!" Naruto snarled, "we have plenty of helpers, and Kakashi doesn't have that much stuff."

Sasuke opened his mouth to reply, but no words came out. He simply stared at Naruto for a few moments, before Naruto's dad jumped from his seat on the kitchen worktop.

"Come on in Sasuke," he called, "I'm sure we'll find something for you to do."

"No!" Naruto yelled, "he's not allowed! His dad said!"

Naruto's dad turned to frown at Naruto, "what do you mean?"

Naruto's expression darkened, but his lower lip was starting to tremble despite how angry he wanted to be, "he isn't allowed to play with me anymore."

Naruto's dad frowned and turned back to Sasuke, but Sasuke refused to look away from Naruto.

"He wouldn't listen to me!" the boy cried, taking a step into the apartment and towards Naruto, "I told him that you'd still be my best friend no matter what he says, but he never listens to me! So… so I snuck out."

Naruto's scowl faded, "really?"

Sasuke nodded, "I don't care what he says."

Naruto let his arms fall to his sides and the smile that had been trying to break out across his face finally succeeded. His dad was looking back and forth between them and everyone else in the room had fallen deathly silent.

"So…" Sasuke scuffed his foot over the floorboards, "can I help?"

Naruto let his lips quirk into a pleased smile and stepped closer to Sakura and Ino, so that he could sweep Mr. Ukki out of their feuding hands and cross the room towards Sasuke.

"Here," he said, holding out the plant, "you can carry Mr. Ukki."

oO0Oo

Kakashi bit his lips to fight off his smile. He looked at Minato, aware of the way the man had been watching Naruto and Sakura, as though he had already started to plan the wedding, but it would appear that Sakura had been dumped in favour of a broody, stuck up little boy.

But Minato was scowling across the room at the two boys, and as Kakashi took a step towards him, Minato turned to pin him with a chilling smile.

"You'll be able to handle this lot for a little while, won't you Kakashi?" Minato asked.

"Why?" Kakashi frowned, "where are you going?"

Minato's smile turned menacing, "Fugaku and I need to have words."

Without any more warning, Minato vanished in a flicker of colour, leaving Kakashi alone with a room full of little people.

Kakashi swallowed and turned to face the army of midgets that had invaded his apartment. They were all staring at him, blinking in unison, and Kakashi shuddered and fought the desire to hunch in on himself.

With some sort of collective consciousness, every last child seemed to decide that the excitement was over and that it was time to make noise. The room was suddenly in uproar as Naruto's friends clambered over one another in their haste to pack up Kakashi's belongings. He had to whip up his weapons so that none of them would inadvertently impale themselves, and he stumbled over Hyuuga Hinata on his way to rescue his Icha Icha collection.

"Oh god, they're multiplying," he muttered to himself, he was sure that there were more children than there had been a moment ago. He dumped his erotica on the kitchen table and scratched his head when he realised that he wouldn't be able to carry both his weapons and his porn. Damn Minato for abandoning him.

There was a thud and a yelp that had him moving across the room in a blur of colour. He managed to grab the corner of the bookcase in his hand before it could fall any further and crush the little blonde girl. She blinked up at him with wide, startled eyes, and swallowed hard.

"What were you doing?" Kakashi asked as he thrust the bookcase back into its rightful position.

"Looking for something to carry," she replied, "everyone else has something."

"Well you can hardly carry the bookcase," Kakashi said as the bookcase rocked back against the wall. He glanced down as something small and grey toppled from the bottom shelf and rolled across the floor to hit his foot. Curious, he reached down to pick it up, and stared at the grey crayon in his hand in confusion.

He shrugged. Plenty of useless junk had been unearthed during the packing, and as he turned to dump the crayon with the rest of the trash that had accumulated in the kitchen, Naruto screeched.

"You found it!"

Kakashi grunted in surprise as Naruto leapt on him, snatching the crayon from his hand with unnerving enthusiasm.

"It's my grey crayon!" he squealed, "I thought I lost it!"

"Excuse me," called a new voice, "Kakashi-san."

Kakashi turned and raised an eyebrow at Uchiha Itachi as the teenager graced his apartment.

"What can I do for you, Itachi-kun," he asked in a bored tone as Naruto scrambled off him and raced back to Sasuke's side.

"I've come for Sasuke," Itachi replied, "our father didn't give him permission to…"

"You can't have him!" Naruto bellowed, waving the grey crayon over his head, "he doesn't want to go!"

Sasuke was standing behind Naruto and watching his older brother with steely determination, "I'm helping Kakashi-san move house."

"If you want him," Naruto cried, "you'll have to go through Kakashi!"

Kakashi and Itachi exchanged a glance. Much to his amusement, Itachi seemed to inch backwards.

"Relax," Kakashi said, waving his hand in a carefree way, "the Hokage has just gone see your father, I'm sure they'll sort it all out."

He turned back to the pile of brightly coloured books piled upon the table and smirked behind his mask.

"Here," Kakashi grinned, dumping his precious pile of Icha Icha books into the teens hands, "you can carry these."

Itachi surveyed the garishly orange cover on the top of the pile, and Kakashi strode into the centre of the room and cast an eye over the chaos.

"Oi!" he bellowed, drawing attention to himself, "everyone, grab everything that's not nailed down and follow me."

A cheer went up as Kakashi picked up the bag his weapons were collected in and strode towards the door, with his army of mini-ninja marching in his wake and Uchiha Itachi taking up the rear, juggling Kakashi's porn collection in his arms as he simultaneously turned the page of the book on the top of the pile and continued to read, turning bright crimson, much to Kakashi's fiendish amusement.

oO0Oo

Minato followed the sound of children's laughter and dogs barking until he reached the dining room, where the partition had been pulled aside to reveal the garden. He stumbled in surprise when he saw Uchiha Itachi sitting at the table, hunched over a book and completely engrossed in whatever he was reading.

On the veranda he could see Ino and Sakura cooing over Pakkun, who was wearing an expression of grim defeat, and out on the grass the rest of Kakashi's ninken were wreaking havoc with Naruto and his friends.

Kakashi was nowhere to be seen.

"Sasuke!" Minato called out to the boy clambering atop a dog big enough to swallow a man whole. The boy scrambled back onto the grass and raced towards him, with dirt smeared across his face and a grin making his eyes sparkle. Naruto saw his friend running across the garden and chased after him.

"Yes, Hokage-sama?" Sasuke asked, breathing heavily as Naruto joined him in front of Minato.

"Would you like to sleep over tonight?" Minato asked.

Sasuke's grin grew impossibly larger, before it fell from his face, "my father…"

"Your dad says it's fine," Minato assured him, "he gave me your toothbrush, pyjamas and a change of clothes," he held out the bag Fugaku had packed.

"Really?" Sasuke beamed, taking the bag from Minato.

"Yes!" Naruto laughed, "can we camp in the garden dad? Kakashi has a tent, Shikamaru carried it here!"

"Can we stay over, Hokage-sama?" Kiba asked suddenly, holding onto Hinata's arm.

"Me too?" Sakura squeaked.

"And me!" Ino leapt to her feet.

"Well… if your parents say it – "

He was interrupted by the excited cries of a garden full of children, before they all charged past him and through the dining room, presumably to tell their parents that they were going to be camping in the Hokage's garden for the night, but not before leaving a trail of muddy footprints across the tatami mats in Minato's dining room.

Minato groaned at the mess.

"Did you just invite Naruto's entire class to a sleepover on my first night as your new lodger?" Kakashi asked. He had appeared from nowhere and was slouched against the doorframe, one eyebrow raised accusingly.

"You're not the lodger!" Minato scowled, trying to ignore the way Kakashi could make slouching look inherently graceful.

"Kakashi-sama?" came a voice. Minato's eyes went wide when he looked down at Itachi, who had moved towards them and was watching Kakashi with a sort of reverent awe. Minato looked back at the jounin and blinked at him.

"Sama?" he croaked.

"Yes, Itachi-kun?" Kakashi asked nonchalantly.

"The books…" Itachi glanced up at Minato out of the corner of his eye and turned a delicate shade of pink before focusing back on Kakashi, "may I borrow them?"

"Hmm," Kakashi tapped his chin with his forefinger, "I don't know…"

"I'll take good care of them, I swear," Itachi said in a breathy, desperate voice, making Minato choke on his own spit, "I'll return them to you in exactly the same condition they're in now."

Kakashi smiled, "alright then."

Itachi blinked, apparently shocked that he was getting his way, and then dashed from the room before Kakashi could change his mind. Minato watched the boy go, frozen in shock by the young man's lack of ingrained poise, before he turned suspiciously back to Kakashi.

"What did you do?"

"Hm?" Kakashi gave him an innocent flutter of eyelashes, "I don't know what you mean."

"Why is Uchiha Itachi calling you Kakashi-sama?" Minato demanded.

Kakashi shrugged smugly, and despite the mask Minato could see his smirk, "all I did was introduce him to soft core porn, now he thinks I'm some sort of god, or something."

Minato felt all of the colour drain from his face, "please tell me you did not just let the apple of Uchiha Fugaku's eye leave this house with your Icha Icha series."

"He's a teenager," Kakashi said, as though that absolved him of all guilt, "he needs to learn about sex from somewhere, and he's not likely to learn anything from his parents, those two are as asexual as…"

Minato interrupted him with a groan and staggered towards the chair that Itachi had been sitting in earlier, "after today, I won't be surprised if the Uchiha clan decide to plan a coup."

"Tell me what you did to Fugaku," Kakashi said, with glee dripping from each word as he hopped up to sit on the table beside Minato, placing one tantalising thigh right in Minato's line of sight.

"Uh… nothing," Minato forced his eyes up to Kakashi's face, "we just had a conversation."

"Did you make him cry?" Kakashi was practically bouncing, and Minato had to smother a smile.

"Don't be ridiculous," he doubted Fugaku had ever shed a tear, he had probably been born with frown lines on his forehead.

"You should have taken me with you," Kakashi whined, "I would have held him down for you."

Before Minato could reply, Naruto and Sasuke charged into the dining room, around the table and then into the hallway, where they grabbed what had to be Kakashi's tent so that they could carry it back through the dining room together.

"Admit it," Kakashi said, watching their progress, "you only wanted me here as a fulltime babysitter. You're going to abandon me to the little demons later aren't you?"

Minato chuckled, "the thought had crossed my mind."