Making Arrangements

by CrownsofLaurels

It takes a Village to make a relationship-Or, at least, a bunch of over-reaching grumpy old farts, a military leader with a bit too much to drink, a nosy but well meaning kunoichi, eight ninken, and the power of youth. And a really cranky chakra monster with nine tails and a penchant for swearing. Kakashi/femNaru

21. Lost on the Road of Life

Story: Making Arrangements

Rating: M

Author: CrownsofLaurels

Beta(s): ElectraSev5n (who did an amazing job of being a patient sounding board for this chapter and helping me figure out why certain things were going wrong and what might be done to salvage this mess).

Chapter Twenty: Lost on the Road of Life.

Summary: In which we see progress. FINALLY.

Disclaimer: Naruto is the property and brainchild of Kishimoto. This is a piece of fanfiction based off of the world he created for which I am in form or fashion financially compensated, nor do I seek such compensation.

A/N: What is this you see? Is it…could it be…dare I say…IT'S AN UPDATE! Yes, it's an update people, feel free to tell me how much you love me. Quick notes, remember this is not canon finale compliant, which means certain things and techniques that exist in Naruto don't here. READ: IF ANYONE SNIPES THAT KAKASHI SHOULD HAVE USED KAMUI I WILL PRINT OUT YOUR REVIEW AND SET IT ON FIRE AND LAUGH MANIACALLY IN PLEASURE AS YOUR WORDS DIE, BURNING PAINFULLY AWAY INTO NOTHINGNESS. So, *cough*, other than that, I'd love to hear from you all.

Seriously though, special thanks to the 237 people who reviewed the last chapter and specifically to kimchi759, who recently took the time to read and review each and every chapter of this monster and remind me why I love writing this thing, and to Dizzy Whimsical, who left a list of praises so long I don't think my ego will ever finish reading them. Please let me know if you like it, what you like best, what made you laugh, and why you still reading this thing even after I've left you hanging for a year.

Also, fanfic net is doing something weird to links. So, for those who've asked, my Tumblr name is crownsoflaurels1020. I'm more likely to answer any questions through that medium, and there you'll also find talk about this fic, and preview scenes when I have any.

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Chapter Twenty: Lost on the Road of Life

"It's three am and you are in my kitchen," stated Sasuke, unamused as he greeted his kitchen intruder in his pajama bottoms and a hastily donned shirt.

"What is all this stuff on the table anyway?" Naruto asked in lieu of explaining her presence. She shuffled through one of the stacks of papers that littered the room. Reports and scrolls and file folders were stuffed in boxes and strewn across every available surface.

A shuriken hit the table next to her hand and she withdrew it with a hiss, turning to scowl at the grumpy homeowner. "I wasn't hurting anything."

"Don't touch," the Uchiha grumbled, refusing to move further into the room. "It took Sakura and I hours to get all that organized, and we aren't done yet."

"Oh," Naruto gazed at the piles in comprehension, "Is this all police stuff then?" She took her companion's silence as confirmation of her guess. "Shit," she whistled in appreciation at the extent of Tsunade's spur of the moment punishment. Sucks to be Sasuke. She grinned fiercely, "found my file yet? I was told I took up two whole drawers by the time I was eleven," she boasted, straightening her posture to better beam with pride.

"It's three in the morning and you are in my kitchen," Sasuke bit out once more, eyes narrowing with impatience. He looked spectacularly unappreciative of her significant contribution to his current assignment.

"Yeah, see," Naruto began, fingers twitching as if they wanted to return to examining the forbidden contents spread across the table. "Is there a question in there because I don't—"

"Naruto," Sasuke growled, deep from his throat, tone implying there were more shuriken where the first had come from.

"Ok, ok," Naruto slumped dramatically in her chair with a prolonged sigh, "It's like this, see. There's this guy, and I like him and I know he likes me, but I'm pretty sure he has some type of complex and he thinks he's not good enough—"

"Did you," Sasuke cut her off sharply, sounding as if someone waltzed into his kitchen and told him Tsunade had decided he should now start tending pigs in penance, "Are you trying to talk to me about boy problems?" He said the last two words as if merely speaking them might have summoned unspeakable evil into his home.

"Yes?" she answered, wondering why the answer appeared to make him choke on a hairball of some kind. Naruto sniffed the air cautiously, because Sasuke looked like he smelt something distinctly unpleasant. It must be the dogs. Uchiha are cat people traditionally, and I have been spending an awful lot of time with dogs lately.

"No," Sasuke made a strange motion with his hands, and then aborted it at the last minute. Probably some type of jutsu which would forcibly eject Naruto from his house until he remembered that if he tried to do so it would trigger an alarm which would have ANBU swooping in to play football with his head.

Nothing better than a captive audience.

Sasuke set his shoulders back, turned, and began to walk away.

"Wait," Naruto cried in alarm, darting after him and latching on to his arm, dragging him back into the light of his kitchen, "Where are you going?"

"Back to bed," muttered Sasuke, trying to pull her off and not succeeding, "Because clearly I'm dreaming. Or hallucinating." He looked at the empty cups littering the room with deeply ingrained suspicion. "Sakura's done something to my sake again."

"No, no," Naruto huffed, waving her hands—then that statement caught up to her. "Wait, what?"

Sasuke ignored her in favor of inspecting the contents of the empty glasses on the table.

Naruto put her hands on her hips and stomped her foot, "This is totally serious, believe it. I need your advice and I'm desperate or I wouldn't be here."

"That makes it so much better," Sasuke grumbled, but let himself be bullied into a chair, still blinking around in confusion as if he expected his surroundings to melt away into mist. He tugged the shuriken that he'd recently thrown out of the table and tested the sharpness of his blade.

"Right," Naruto said, ignoring the boy's actions, "Like I was saying, I'm pretty sure he's convinced himself he's no good for me—"

"Why aren't you going to Ino or Sakura for this," said the Uchiha abruptly, "Don't they spend most of their time discussing things like this anyway? I'm not—"

"I've gone to Sakura and Ino about this," Naruto rolled her eyes dramatically, "Several times. They've had advice, but it's not working. I'm beginning to think it's because they're socially well-adjusted and well, he's not. So I thought I might go to someone who was similarly situated and try to get things from their perspective. You know, see if one man with a traumatizing childhood, overly-developed fear of loss, and chronic untreated PTSD might understand another."

Sasuke stared at her flatly for a good five seconds. "Well that's flattering."

"I thought it was a sound strategy," nodded Naruto, ignoring the deadpanned sarcasm. "But like, Ino and Sakura had advice on how to dress and how to act and what to say and while I think it's worked in the sense that he no longer sees me as a child, it hasn't worked to actually make him, you know, do anything."

"Naruto," Sasuke sounded as if someone were digging an elbow into his rib cage, and looked as if he hoped an exit sign might suddenly start magically flashing over the kitchen window. He ruffled his hair in aggravation and scrunched his face up, "You can't make someone like you, you know."

"That's debatable," said Naruto promptly, eyes sliding toward Sasuke as if his existence might be the very example for her ability to break that rule. She pulled a kunai out of a pocket and spun it around her fingers.

Sasuke bristled.

"But anyway, I know he likes me; he told me he likes me," Naruto's confidence quickly faded and she physically drooped. She looked forlornly at the table and started absentmindedly picking at the grooves in the wood with her weapon.

"Stop that," snapped Sasuke, snatching the kunai away and tossing it into the sink before he was tempted to do something productive with it. "Look—" he hesitated, "You know he likes you? As in, likes you likes you?" Immediate shock and horror tore across his face at the fact that those words had left his mouth. "Never mind that," he smacked a palm to his face. Nope, still awake. "You can't force someone to act on a romantic attraction," he amended his earlier words, "it's their choice; you don't get to make that for them. No amount of dresses or makeup will change that." He sniffed superiorly, "And you shouldn't be 'changing' things to make someone more attracted to you anyway, that's just setting yourself up to build a relationship upon a foundation of lies."

"Yeah, but," Naruto bit her lip and looked down embarrassed, "but what if I like dressing up like a girl every once in a while? It's kind of fun—just now and then, not all the time."

"Oh my god," Sasuke twisted away from the table in exasperation, accidentally hitting his knee against the tabletop as he rose too quickly. "Then dress like that when you want to, do what makes you happy. That's fine, I don't care. He shouldn't care either, I mean, he should appreciate—nrggh." Sasuke' lips twisted as if he'd eaten something particularly sour. "We are not having this conversation. I'm going back to bed, and when I wake up you will be gone."

"No, Sasuke, no, please," Naruto turned liquid blue eyes upon the boy, "You're one of my best friends and I have a problem and nothing else has worked and I have to leave on a mission in, like, six hours and I'm going crazy and—"

"Okay, okay," Sasuke cut her off by holding up a single hand. He lifted his head and looked at the ceiling, took a deep breath, counted to ten, and then let out a long stream of expelled air. "Five more minutes," he stated, "and then we're done and this never happened." His dark eyes promised retribution if that last criteria wasn't met.

"Deal," agreed Naruto, pulling up her legs and resting her chin on her knees. "He likes me Sasuke, I know he does, he's just," she struggled for the right words. "Scared he'll hurt me? Scared I'll leave?"

"So. He's just scared." Sasuke shrugged, "a lot of ninja feel that way about relationships. Our profession doesn't exactly encourage us to engage in shared emotional intimacy and tender, pro-longed cuddles."

"I know that," Naruto blushed, "but I want, more, and I want it from him and I think he does too, just—" she trailed off with a huff, tugging on a pigtail.

"Then tell him that," Sasuke crossed his arms and leaned his back against the kitchen counter. "Like I said, it's his choice on how to respond, but you have to start by being honest. If it's one thing I've learned, it's that lies don't build stellar familial relationships."

Naruto stared forlornly out the window, "It's not that easy Sasuke-kun."

"Then it's not worth it and he's not the right person for you to be with." Sasuke was more than done with this conversation. He rubbed his face, trying to ease the pressure he could feel building in his head. He didn't even want to contemplate the idea of Naruto liking someone; this would only bring him further grief, he knew it. Ughh, she'd start dragging him to team lunches and she'd want Sasuke to be nice and social and talk with the weirdo. And she thinks we have things in common already, she's going to want us to bond. Nonono. "Why would you want to be with someone you couldn't be honest with anyway?"

Naruto's expression dropped in surprise. "I guess I really wouldn't, would I?" She tapped a finger against her cheek, looking alarmingly pensive.

"I have no idea, I can't even begin to fathom how your brain works," said the Uchiha dryly. He pretended to look at an imaginary clock behind Naruto's head. "It's been five minutes." It'd only been three. Maybe.

"Yeah, yeah," Naruto waved him off, "Don't act like you don't enjoy our heart-to-hearts."

Sasuke spit up a bit in his mouth, "Is that what this is?" How appalling. He hadn't been talking about feelings, had he? Had he been tricked? He turned a dirty glare on his female teammate.

"You're the best male friend with a complicated history that a girl could ask for," beamed Naruto, darting forward for an appreciative hug.

"Na—"Sasuke began to refute the accusation, but ditched his efforts in favor of physically dodging the unwanted show of affection.

Naruto sighed, gazing at him in mock disappointment, "is it so hard to accept a simple thank you?"

"I imagine it would be easier after dawn," retorted her teammate, opening the door and gesturing for her to leave.

Naruto batted her eyes at him as she let herself be herded outside, "Really, Sasuke-kun, where would you be without me?"

"Asleep," deadpanned the other ninja. "Like the majority of sane people in Fire Country."

"I doubt that," Naruto squinted up at the taller chūnin in a teasing, considering manner. "You'd probably be wandering aimlessly around the continent on some half-assed, indefinite journey 'to find yourself.'"

Sasuke rolled his eyes and slammed the door. "At least it'd be quieter," he muttered, firmly locking the door in her wake. He paused, feet stilling against the cold flooring. He turned to look at the door with pursed lips. How the hell did she undo my wards in the first place?

XXX

Naruto watched the sun rise slowly into the sky from her vantage point on top of the village gates. The chūnin guards occasionally stirred from their posts to cast curious glances in her direction, but she'd simply acknowledge them with a wave and a grin. She wanted to be left alone to think, and they seemed content, for the most part, to let her do so.

She clicked her sandals together idly, wiggling her toes and watching the orange paint on them glow softly in the morning light. Kakashi had wanted to leave at dawn, which meant he'd be by in a few hours now. She was already packed though; she had been before her last minute decision to crash Sasuke's house when she finally gave up on sleeping. She'd left a snoring Pakkun curled up in the nest of blankets and had taken a page from Kakashi's book, slipping out his bedroom the window.

Sasuke hadn't had much advice, but what he said made sense. If she really did care for Kakashi, why would she want to build a relationship on lies? That wasn't nice. It wasn't what teammates did. It certainly shouldn't be what people who were closer than teammates did. Not that she'd ever had a family of her own to put the notion into practice.

It wasn't what you did to someone you thought you loved. But the mission parameters, she groaned and rolled her shoulders back, before gripping the wooden posts tightly and kicking her feet against them.

She knew exactly what Kurenai and Tsunade would say, but she didn't think they'd be right this time. It made her stomach twist into knots, the idea that she was contemplating breaking away from her orders. It wasn't the first time she'd gone against her superior's directives. In fact, it might be the first time she hesitated to do so. But she was trying to be more conscious about breaking the rules now that she was older. She was trying to be better at finding 'loopholes,' as Shizune called them, rather than engaging in blatant disobedience. She was trying to be more conscious and avoid leaving the clean-up of the messes she made to others.

But they're stupid rules, they're not right. Her internal grumblings woke Kurama. She could feel him unfurling languidly, fuzzily attempting to swat her discontent away as he might an impudent kitten.

Why do you care so much? The massive fox-ish concentration of chakra sent its query rolling through her bones, slow and deep.

Because I want, Naruto puffed out her cheeks, not certain how to put her feelings into words. She fell onto her back on the flat gate-top, glaring up at the sky as if the fluffy morning clouds were responsible for withholding the answer to her ailment. I want more than this mission, she admitted, to both herself and Kyuubi. I want to be together with him, for a long time. I want it to last.

That sounds spectacularly awful, declared Kurama, four tails flicking in bafflement, You have such strange wishes. You're never going to get rid of the dog smell if you do that.

Naruto rolled her eyes at the unhelpful creature, and went back to trying to plan the conversation she wanted to have with Kakashi. When he inevitably showed up. And how he might respond.

She whimpered, rolled to the side slightly, and realized that she was so nervous she was chewing on a piece of hair. She spat it out and sat up. Really, she jumped to her feet, dredging up the fathomless enthusiasm she was known for. "Uzumaki Naruto is not a coward," she bellowed at the sunrise in greeting, "Believe it!"

She could feel the chūnin startle in the gatehouse, poking out their heads to stare at her.

She grinned down at them.

It might be wise to wait a few days before talking with the dog, Kurama offered, nonplussed at the girl's battle cry.

"What?" Naruto blinked, "Why?"

Can't run off if he's in the middle of the hunt, purred Kyuubi, liking his gigantic paws.

XXX

Kakashi was studiously refusing to look at Naruto. They'd been travelling to the northwest borders of Rain Country for three days now, taking their time to visit some of Naruto's eccentric collection of "pen pals" along the way. Naruto was cheery and social and Kakashi was that silent, awkward tall guy trailing her around for "security." The duo hadn't found anything promising yet, but these first few visits were more to reaffirm Naruto's social network while they had the opportunity to do so. Neither of them believed they'd reveal any concrete leads to the resolution of their mystery with these first few visits.

For the first time in weeks, Kakashi had released his entire pack back to their own realm and was enjoying the feeling of being back to almost full chakra capacity. Tsunade would be setting up a physical watch in the ninken's stead. The presence of actual people would hopefully deter any visitors to the site and keep them around Ame's borders (if that is truly where their prey was basing operations).

Travelling with Naruto was—strange, at the moment. She was friendly enough when they stopped to gossip with civilians, but she was uncharacteristically taciturn and contemplative as they ran, not keeping up her usual one-sided babble. It made Kakashi nervous.

For the most part, she acted like their kind-of-kiss mishap the other night hadn't occurred. But, at the same time, Kakashi felt her silence was indicative of an internal monologue in which she was trying to think of the best way to address the issue. Perhaps he was wrong, but Naruto usually took perverse pleasure in digging up the most awkward topics of conversation she could think of at the least opportune moments.

He still felt that he'd been right to stop the, well, whatever it was. No matter what Kurenai said, he could not see any possible benefit for Naruto if they continued down that road. She was one of his most precious people. Not some one-night stand or whimsical fling. He wasn't stable enough to provide what she deserved. He was simply too broken to be what she needed.

With the mood between them so dense with anticipation, he wasn't too surprised when Naruto slid into a chair across from him that evening after their merry host and his wife and their ten obscenely boisterous children had gone to bed for the evening. This man hadn't had any offspring abducted either. However, he did have a friend who had a cousin whose kid went missing, so they'd be setting out to look into that tomorrow. It was to be expected, since they were getting closer to the 'problem area' they'd identified on their map.

His blonde companion set her elbows on the tabletop and intertwined her fingers, resting her chin on her hands. He already knew he wasn't going to like this conversation. He peeked over the worn pages of Icha Icha Tactics, narrowing his visible eye at his former/current student/ minion/housemate/something. No wonder he was a bit confused lately. He cleared his throat and raised his eyebrow inquiringly when Naruto didn't automatically start the conversation.

Blue eyes blinked back at him. "I have something to say," began Naruto, "and I don't think you're going to like it."

Kakashi'd guessed as much, but considering it'd taken her three days to work up to saying anything at all, he thought he'd wait a few minutes before completely derailing her.

"I want your promise that you'll stay here and listen to everything I have to say before you leave," she stressed her words and maintained eye contact with him.

Well, that's an auspicious start to the conversation. "Is it going to interfere with the mission?" Kakashi kept his book up as a shield and began to mentally recount the available exit strategies.

"Eh," Naruto fidgeted uncomfortably before giving in with a sigh and a slump of her shoulders, "Probably," she finally admitted, before immediately perking up, "But I'm going to say it anyway because it's going to interfere with life no matter where we are and at least right now you can't run away from me."

Kakashi leaned backward an inch, his chin rising ever so slightly, as if in acceptance of her challenge.

"Try it and I'll scream this conversation at the top of my lungs as we travel tomorrow," grinned Naruto, with a bit too much teeth.

Kakashi narrowed his eye further, reminding himself that she wasn't a dog summoner, and therefore didn't realize how much her statement challenged his authority. Of course, he reminded himself as she slouched back confidently in her chair, She's also got Kurama, so it's entirely possible she does.

"You won't leave, right?" Naruto asked again, a wavering uncertainty in her tone undermining her assertive poise.

It was enough to tug at Kakashi's conscience and remind him that he probably owed her the courtesy of at least listening to what she felt she needed to say; it didn't mean he had to respond.

The chūnin seemed to sense his acquiescence, and took a deep breath. "Were you aware," she began, "that sometimes the Village, well," Naruto swallowed and averted her eyes from Kakashi's, focusing on the table top. "Sometimes they assign missions to help ensure that, in the future, the Village will still be strong?"

Kakashi blinked his eye, uncomprehendingly.

"Right," Naruto nodded to herself, "That probably is a bit vague." She swallowed and grasped her drink tightly with both hands, staring solemnly at the liquid and biting her lip. "What I mean is that sometimes the Village is a little more proactive about that, in the sense that it wants there to be strong shinobi in the future too. So when the Village elders see that certain bloodlines are in danger of ending, they might interfere to make sure that the bloodlines continue. And the Hokage might give orders to see that happens."

Kakashi blinked again, novel still protectively clutched in front of his face, but not effective in keeping the puzzle pieces he'd gathered over the past few months from clicking together in an ominous way—Naruto's seduction mission, her time closeted with Kurenai, how insistent Tsunade was being that Naruto hone certain skills and be on the fast track for jōnin—"Has Tsunade-sama ordered you to marry someone?"

Naruto ducked her head further, voice small, "Not exactly."

Kakashi lowered his book a few inches, taking in the hunched shoulders and light blush beginning to creep across the girl's face. He took another stab at guessing based off the prior few sentences: "She ordered you to have a child?"

Naruto muttered something unintelligible.

Kakashi felt indignation and anger well up in his gut until it rapidly cooled as he recalled the particulars of the sequence of events of the past few months and how the only man Naruto had been close to was—"Tsunade-sama ordered you to have my child?" His ears registered a muted thud, and he realized dully that his book had slipped from his fingers and hit the table. There was a rushing in his ears and he felt a bit faint and like he couldn't breathe and now would be a wonderful time for something else to happen, like, oh, say, be ambushed by Iwa nin. Yes, that sounded very agreeable. Where were they when you needed them? Ah yes, shock. Hmmm, he'd almost forgotten that feeling.

Naruto's eyes were large and round and wide in concern, but she hadn't left her seat (yet, thankfully).

"Umm, yes," Naruto's face grew even more red, her voice still uncharacteristically quiet.

Kakashi's fingers twitched. He needed to leave, he needed to breathe, to think—

"You can't go yet," Naruto squeaked and pushed herself across the table, pulling back her hands at the last minute as she recalled vague lectures on why one shouldn't try grabbing panicking jōnin.

She's not done? That was horrific. What more could there be to say? Kakashi swallowed, took an actual breath. She didn't smell of deceit—nerves, fear, embarrassment—not deceit. Did that make it better or worse? When, how—

"I didn't understand at first," Naruto blurted out, the words coming fast now that the initial confession had been made, "She said she wouldn't have asked if she thought we were incompatible, but she said because I already cared about you we'd do well together—I didn't get it because you'd only been Sensei before and now you were more and I couldn't help—we got closer and I paid more attention and I realized—" She choked up and stuttered to a stop, snapping her mouth shut and laying her palms down on the table, stretching out her fingers.

Kakashi just focused on breathing, too many feelings and thoughts and colors and scents swirling in his head—too much, too much.

Naruto took a shuddering breath and then those intense blue eyes looked up. "I want this." She put so much sincerity and emotion into the word that something in Kakashi's chest tightened even more, to the point where it felt like it might shatter.

"Put aside the whole kids thing, forget about that ridiculousness," Naruto babbled, "I want you. It's cliché, and cheesy, but I like being near you all the time and I like the way you make me feel when you laugh and you smile; I like your stupid not-excuses; that you're always late but always there, and my heart hurts when you're sad. I miss your ridiculous dogs, and the bizarre way you can't talk about feelings without having a panic attack, your inability to put the toilet paper on the thingie the correct way and your irrational hatred of my cosmetic box, and I even like those perverted books though I swear I'll never admit to that again—"

Kakashi started to shake his head.

"I'm not done!" Naruto hissed, and it sounded painful.

The smell of salt was faint in the air and Kakashi uncomfortably realized that that Naruto's eyes were tearing up. "It took me so long to realize that I didn't just like you, Kakashi." Naruto paused and swallowed.

Kakashi made a pained noise, trying to cut her off but he wasn't quick enough, too slow, always too slow, too late—

"I love you Kakashi, and I want to be with you." Naruto was doing her best to remain composed, trying, and failing, to hide how much this admission was costing someone who'd been on her own for so very long. "And I know that you, at the very least, like me too. And I know you're scared of being with me, that we'll mess it up, or we'll only be hurt, or nothing good can come of it but you're lying to yourself—"

Kakashi was gone.

Book abandoned on the table, out the window, away-away-away.

He ignored the pained cry of his name.

He focused on the grass flying under his feet. He couldn't think about—Long blonde hair, light laughter, comfortable smells—her. About this, about—what he wanted, what he broke, what was good and bad and golden and untouchable—He couldn't deal with -her, with them, with everyone. He couldn't.

And so he ran, focusing on putting one foot in front—

"Ooof," Kakashi gave an undignified grunt as he Naruto tackled him at the knees, taking him down to the ground.

"Goddamitall," Naruto growled, eyes flashing as her fingers dug into the fabric of his pants.

He twisted as he fell, hitting the ground with a thud and rolling in the grass onto his back, elbow digging into the dirt and the scent of mud assaulting his nose. He kicked his legs out, careful not to hit her in the face, trying to shake off his problem with a glare. Surely she could take a hint that he needed some space right now?

"Stop it," snarled Naruto, right hand flying up to get a better grip, snagging his jacket and tugging as she pulled herself up even with him. "Just stop it already!"

"Let go," Kakashi ordered, still trying to get away, reigning in the urge to use more effective moves that would certainly get him free but might actually hurt the girl.

"No," yelled Naruto, both hands now wound firmly in the front of his vest. She shoved him back against the ground, maintaining her handhold, and his own fingers slid to her wrists to pull her away.

"Stop it," she cried again, "Just stop—"she stuttered, choking on the words, taking in a big gasp of air, and letting her full weight fall on top of him. Her head fell onto his chest, resting in the curve of his neck.

He paused as the tremble of her body was echoed in her voice, too paralyzed by the recent events to react in any way at all.

"Stop running." Her voice lowered, exhaustion creeping into it. She flexed her fingers as they clutched his vest, but otherwise maintained her position, using her weight to keep him pinned down.

Kakashi forced himself to push down the panic, focusing on the smell of clean grass, the sound of her swallowing, her rapid pulse beating strong under his fingertips.

"Aren't you tired of running?" Naruto lifted her head, blue eyes turned toward him brimming with something.

And Kakashi shouldn't have looked at them, because now he couldn't look away from the sheer force of the wanting in her gaze. Couldn't move to stop her when she surged forward. Couldn't keep a hold of her wrists as they rose to bring down his mask; instead, he let his hands slide down to her waist. Couldn't keep himself from moving forward to meet her as her soft lips crashed against his.

He let his eye flutter shut, intent on savoring the dream for just one moment. And for that instant, it was gentle and warm, cautious and tender—nothing that should belong in his life.

She pulled away and all Kakashi could feel was the coldness of the air against his exposed face, the receding warmth as he pushed her up, pushing her away a few inches, refusing to meet the yearning inquiry in her eyes.

"No," was all he managed to say, not able to keep the sorrow from his voice, brushing his thumb against her cheek as he rose. A weak apology, but the best he could bring himself to offer. At least the word sounded firm even if his voice was hoarse.

It hurt to lose the closeness, wasn't as reassuring as it should have been to pull up his mask. It felt like he was swimming against the current as he took one step away, and then another, leaving one of the most important people in his world sitting in the grass. Alone.

But they had a mission to complete.

And he needed some time to think.

XXX

When they finally got to the house of Naruto's pen pal's friend's cousin, the only words that had been exchanged in the past twelve hours had been between Kakashi and an aging farmer. The farmer gave them instructions to the place they were looking for. It was the "new" Nakamura place; three hale bales down the road, then ten miles farther than the Watanabe's barn that burned in the big fire five years past and had yet to be rebuilt yet by his lazy good-for-nothing-son-in-laws, not that he would consider them competition should anybody ask.

Naruto seemed content to let Kakashi gather his thoughts, although there was a tension to her movements that let Kakashi know she was just gathering energy for the next round of combat in their-whatever it was—a stubbornness in the way she held her chin and shoulders that implied she didn't consider his prior rejection to be the final word on the matter.

Kakashi himself had a hard time recalling when he had last felt so emotionally uncomfortable and compromised on a mission. Maybe it was the ill-sanctioned trip to Wave, the C rank that wasn't. That one point it had seemed like he was going to lose all three of his students before he'd even really started to teach them. He felt equally unbalanced now, as if he might be about to lose something he hadn't realized just how much he treasured—and as if he were trapped and the right answer to the problem was just out of his reach.

So they were physically attracted to each other. He snuck a glance at his companion as she wandered ahead, pushing down the thoughts that had plagued him so recently about how pretty her hair was when it caught the light, or how nice it would be just to brush against her arm or rest his hand in the small of her back—The point was, a lot of people were physically attracted to each other, that didn't mean it was a good idea to act on the attraction. Even if the village apparently—

This mission. Focus on this mission. Kakashi felt unwelcome pressure beginning to curl up in his head, heralding the oncoming of an unappreciated migraine.

He was going to have to mentally quarantine any personal issues until the job was done.

He watched the road, calculated where the best places for an ambush might be given the terrain and the recent weather. He mentally took stock of their equipment and rations. He recalled each and every relevant report he'd read in preparation for the mission. He readjusted his calculations of the team's fighting capabilities as the day wore on and Naruto grew more impatient with the lack of conversation and his non-responsive grunts, beginning to bounce on the heels of her feet like she did when she was trying to hold back classified information.

He ignored his companion's ramblings, knowing she didn't truly want him to answer the questions she voiced. What she wanted was an answer to the throbbing, unspoken 'why not?' that was just as painful as it was pressing, curled cautiously underneath each statement she made.

If he answered anything, the trap would spring, and he'd have to answer everything.

So he said nothing, at least, not until they found the house they were looking for and he rapped his knuckled against the wood of the door. Whereupon Naruto gave him the stink eye and a frustrated huff, crossing her arms and stepping back so she was a few paces behind the jōnin.

A harried woman with frizzy brown hair escaping a bun answered their knocks, wiping her hands on her apron and looking like she had a hundred more pressing matters on her mind. "Can I help you?" She shrunk back in her doorframe when her eyes finally took in their faces, lighting upon their hitiate.

It took a few seconds of silence for Kakashi to realize that his normally sociable and less visibly threatening partner wasn't going to take the lead on introductions as she normally did. Apparently this was her retaliation for his own uncooperative silence.

He cleared his throat, "We're looking for the Nakamura residence. Is this the right place?" He kept his tone light, smiling behind his mask and tilting his head to the side in a manner calculated to make him look less intimidating.

"Yes," said the woman softly, her brown eyes somber, "Is this about Yuichi-kun? Have you found him?"

From her tone, it was clear she didn't expect their answer to be the one she wanted to hear.

"We're not sure," explained Kakashi, "we've been sent to investigate the disappearances, and we'd like to ask you some questions about them."

She looked doubtfully at them, "We've already had some Ame-nin come by to look into things; they couldn't help."

"Aa," Kakashi scratched his chin, "We have some new information they don't have access to, and it looks like this may be a multi-country problem, so we've been brought in to assist in resolving the matter."

She hesitated, fingers nervously tracing the door frame, "My husband is at work."

Kakashi nodded, expecting to be asked to return at a later hour.

"No," the woman reached out with her hand, before quickly thinking better of the gesture and retracting it. "I'd rather talk to you now; he gets upset when asked to talk about it. I don't—I'll talk, but you have to leave before he comes home."

"We'll be gone," he promised, slipping inside the traditional home. Naruto dutifully dogged his steps, silent in a way younger partners were expected to be (but she never was).

Nakamura-san was an excellent hostess, and had them seated with refreshments before relating the story about how her eight year old son had been playing with friends one day and not come home. She also was just as excellent a repository of local gossip, and could recall every detail about the other disappearances that occurred within a fifty mile radius in the past two years. Boys and girls, six to eight years of age, all had gone out to play and simply not returned.

"And their friends go missing at the same time?" Kakashi asked quietly, cradling his tea cup and appreciating the warmth that seeped through his glove.

"No," the woman shook her head, a few more strands of hair escaping her bun, "it's only one at a time. They all go out to play games and eventually notice that someone is missing. It's not too odd, we're all so spread out around here. Kids realize they've stayed out later than they're supposed to and slip away from the games, and no one walks miles out of their way to check and see if they made it home. It's not even strange—or it wasn't," she corrected herself, "for our kids to spend the night at other houses if a game went too late or if a few more hands were needed at someone's farm for whatever reason. Sometimes it could be a few days before anyone noticed anything wrong." Her voice wobbled on the last few words and she ducked her head.

Kakashi gave her a few moments to compose herself, "And none of the children have ever been found?"

Nakamura-san raised a hand to muffle a sad hiccough, "No."

Naruto set down her own cup onto the table, blue eyes dark and troubled.

"Well," amended the house-wife, "I heard there was one child, over in Namida no Toshi, that came back. But it's just a rumor. We don't have many visitors from that area, and don't travel that way often ourselves."

Kakashi filed the information away, "Do you know anything more about that incident?"

The brunette shook her head, "I'm sorry. That's all I heard, but it supposedly happened only a month or so ago."

"We'll do our best to find him and bring him back to you," Naruto's promise was abrupt, and the woman blinked up at them.

Kakashi stared at the dregs of his tea, clinging to fragile blue porcelain.

"We're not sure what we'll find," he added, not wanting to get the mother's hopes up for the impossible, "But we will do our best to figure out what happened, and we'll let you know whatever the result."

"Oh," the housewife swallowed, nodded, "Thank you." She directed Naruto to the restroom before they left, looking curiously up at Kakashi as she collected the empty teacups. "Did she lose someone too?"

"What?" Kakashi asked, blinking back into awareness from his own internal ponderings.

"The girl you're with," murmured the woman, "She just looks a little sad. Did she lose someone too?"

Kakashi slipped his hands into his pockets, carefully not looking in the direction Naruto went. He turned the question over in his mind before giving an answer. "No," he finally said, running a hand through his hair, "She's not lost anyone; she's just worried she will."

The woman gave an empathetic hum, "I hope it all works out for her. I didn't think about it so much before losing—before Yuichi-kun went missing," she corrected herself, eyes still downcast, "But now that's happened and it feels like it's the only thought that's ever in my mind."

Kakashi shared a sad smile with the woman, and thanked her for her time with a small bow as he and Naruto returned to the road.

XXX

They made it to Namida no Toshi, a more centralized town with an emphasis on sheep herding, while the sun was melting into the horizon line; Naruto's favorite color vividly swirling through the sky. A few probing questions from Kakashi led them to the correct house, where a man with a scruffy beard ushered them in and cheerfully invited them to dinner with his family.

"You must be hungry, shinobi-san, and we've plenty to spare at the moment," the man's attitude was buoying after hours of enduring his own companion's gloomy temper.

Naruto accepted the food easily enough, sitting much farther down the table with a horde of the man's children—and perhaps nephews, or something, the explanation of how everyone was related to one another went straight over Kakashi's head. She seemed to find the company of children cheering, and took it upon herself to provide entertainment so Kakashi could interrogate the adults of the household.

Kakashi sat across from Fukada-san and his quiet wife, while Fukuda-san's very outspoken mother took the head of the table.

"'Bout time someone looks into this mess," muttered the imposing woman, squinting dark eyes at the symbols on his uniform.

"We're all glad to help, sometimes it takes inter-village cooperation to solve issues that span the borders of several countries," said Kakashi with a practiced smile. Naruto was usually much better at chit-chat than he was, but she was ignoring every attempt he made to catch her eye and request an intervention. With her bright countenance and well-practiced story-telling, the children had latched onto her quickly, begging to see "ninja tricks" and hear about her heroic escapades.

Kakashi shook his head, "I missed that, come again?"

"I said it's not your border, I don't understand why you'd be sticking your nose into this at all," drawled the woman, turning away from him to demand that her daughter-in-law refill her drink.

"Mother," scolded Fukuda-san, stroking his beard, "he only wants to help."

"You think everyone wants to help," said the woman, sniffing superiorly, cheap jewelry clinking on her feeble arms.

Fukuda-san sighed, tapping his fingers against the wood of the table, "Well, I certainly don't understand how the information he wants can hurt anyone."

High pitched squeals caused the four adults to simultaneously turn toward the end of the table, where Naruto had three little girls hanging onto her clothes and chattering. She grinned sheepishly at them, hand clapped around the youngest's mouth. "Sorry," she rubbed the back of her head, "we'll be quieter." The children babbled even louder at that, in prompt contradiction to her promise. "I'll just," Naruto stammered, standing and making shooing motions toward the door, "take them all outside to play for a while. Yeah?"

The mother-in-law glowered at the cacophony as they made their escape and picked at her food, "Hana-chan," she scolded, "You undercooked the meat again."

"Sorry, Mother," the woman muttered obediently, too tired to even blush.

Kakashi cleared his throat, "The food's been wonderful after a week of rations."

Fukuda's wife smiled thinly at him, "I think you want to speak with Reiji-kun—"

"Not that'd it do you any good," muttered the older woman. She huffed and waved her hand dismissively, "Girl has a handful of daughters that can't shut up and one boy that can't speak a word—"

"That's enough, Mother," the coldness of Fukadu-san's voice appeared to be the only thing that could silence the woman, but it didn't put her off her dinner and she continued to eat.

"I'm afraid Reiji-kun can't speak," admitted the timid Hana-san, fingers locked tightly in her lap, "But he disappeared for around a week about a month ago. We thought he'd been taken, but he reappeared after five days safe and sound. He was a little tired and jumpy, but he hasn't been able to tell us who took him or where he went, so—" she trailed off, picking at her clothes.

"Boy's fine," Fukadu nodded gruffly, "But you might be able to find something out from him, maybe we've just not asked the right questions."

Kakashi forced himself to keep up the small talk with his hosts until he'd cleaned his plate, making sure to ask his hostess to save Naruto's unfinished one for later. Then he slipped outside, following the laughter of the children to find Naruto entertaining them with her kage bunshin. She raised an eyebrow when she saw him, but he shook his head, signaling that she should keep the brats occupied for a bit longer.

Instead, he headed for the boy who'd isolated himself from the rest, using a stick to draw things in the dirt.

"That's pretty good," Kakashi carefully didn't react to the child's jump of surprise. He kneeled down and peered over the boy's shoulder at the drawing of the horse in the ground. "He needs a tail though, doesn't he?" He picked up the stick and made a few marks to finish the drawing. "And maybe a dog, things are always better with dogs." He tried to draw Pakkun next to the horse. Tried. The boy giggled. "You can probably do one better than mine," the copy ninja admitted, handing the stick back to the boy.

The child bent over, attempting to fix the "dog" that Kakashi had drawn.

"Your name is Reiji-kun, right?" Kakashi watched as the child nodded, hunching down and refusing to look up at the older man.

The jōnin rolled back his shoulders, wincing as something in his back popped, and then settled into a more comfortable crouch. "I've been sent by my village to find some children that have gone missing and get them back to their homes. Your parents told me that you disappeared for a few days not that long ago, and that you came back. Did you come back on your own?"

The boy peered up at him silently from under scraggly brown bangs. He clutched his stick tighter.

"I just want to get everyone else home too," Kakashi added mildly, watching as the child failed to react to the statement. The boy looked down at his drawing, and scratched out the dogs with his thumb.

"Someone told you that you weren't supposed to talk about what happened, huh?"

Brown eyes looked up in fright.

"It's okay," Kakashi reassured, "I'm one of the best. And that girl over there," he pointed over his shoulder, keeping his gaze on the child, "She is the best."

The boy looked skeptical.

"I know," Kakashi whispered conspiratorially. "She's really orange and really loud, but don't let that fool you, it's all an elaborate act to make people underestimate her. She's the scariest woman I know, and I know a lot—"

"I can hear you!" Naruto's voice came from afar.

Kakashi faked a shudder, "See. She's so strong she's going to be the next leader of our village, and she'll be in charge of commanding all the ninja that live there. But first, we've got to make sure everyone is safe and where they belong, even the kids way out here."

The boy bit his lip, eyes darting to the side toward his house. Then his eyes slid up, toward Kakashi's hitiate, and narrowed.

Kakashi brought his hand up toward the headband, tapping the symbol, "You've seen this before?"

The boy held his gaze, chin set stubbornly.

"Because if you have," drawled Kakashi, "I really need you to help me. If somebody's been taking children while wearing this," he tapped the headband again, "they aren't doing what they are supposed to and it's our job to go get them and make them stop. If they were ninja from our village, we need to find them and take them back, and none of the kids they've taken are going to be safe until we do."

The boy bent his head and picked up his stick, dragging it through the dirt some more.

Kakashi rocked back on his heels, smothering his sigh. He'd have to go get Naruto and see if she could work some of her "everybody loves me magic" and get something more from the brat. Wait, the copy ninja thought, leaning forward slightly, that squiggle looks an awful lot like a river, which would make this a—"map," Kakashi hummed the word softly and bent down to more closely examine the landscape that was forming under the boy's hands. Well, Kakashi thought, eyeing the very squiggly, not-to-scale marks, it's an attempt at a map. He was lucky he had one in his pack to interpret it with. It's not like the kid had cartography lessons, after all.

XXX

The pair of ninja set out the next day, mostly because Kakashi was eighty percent confident that Naruto wouldn't tackle him while Kakashi was sleeping in a civilian living room which half a dozen children snuck through on their way to the kitchen for midnight snacks.

He considered himself lucky that his hypothesis was correct; although, judging from the increasingly impatient glances she was sneaking his way, if they found a similar sleeping situation tonight he'd bet the likelihood of confrontation would increase to 50%, no matter how many children might traipse through the room.

He was glad that she'd apparently decided to work with him again, instead of passively working against him. They did work well as a team when both of them were focused, and it was nice to have a partner he could trust to—

"Thank god we're away from the mother-in-law from hell." Naruto blew her bangs out of her eyes impatiently. "One more hour with her and I'm pretty sure some of my shuriken demonstrations would have gone awry."

Kakashi made an agreeing noise deep in his throat as they crested the hill overlooking the river the Reiji-kun had drawn. He was equally pleased to escape the haranguing woman; the harridan wasn't someone he wanted to waste too much time thinking about.

"I'm glad you got the kid to be helpful too," the blonde babbled, tugging on the straps of her pack, "it was nice to see you getting along with him, nothing I tried seemed to pull him out of his shell to play with the other kids."

Kakashi grunted as he surveyed the landscape. The boy had been taken too long ago for any of his scent to be picked up by the dogs on this trail, but they should recall the scents of the ninja who'd been visiting that old stash of Danzo's. It was possible they might be able to pick up a trail here, if one existed.

Naruto's prattle took on a wistful tone, "Are we going to talk about—"

"No," said Kakashi, abruptly cutting her off as he bit his thumb and flipped through the summoning seals.

Naruto made a displeased clicking sound and scuffed the ground with her feet.

"Yo, Boss," greeted Pakkun. Guruko and Akino barked their own 'hellos' as they flashed into existence beside him.

Naruto scowled, "You can't just keep ignoring me!"

"We're looking for the ninja who we've been keeping watch for back in Konoha," Kakashi plowed on, ignoring Naruto. "We don't want them to know we're here, so be quiet and subtle," he stressed the word, looking pointedly at Guruko, "and don't stray too far from us."

"Right, on it Boss," chirped Pakkun. Turning, the pug nosed the other two in the haunches and they ambled off in separate directions, faces to the ground. They snuffled through the grass, but made sure to keep pace with the two ninja as the humans continued making their way down the hill.

"Are you really never going to talk about us," protested the chūnin after they'd been exploring for most of the day and the sun was slinking beneath the horizon line.

"Not now," repeated Kakashi, for what he felt was the tenth time in the past two hours.

Akino's ears perked up and swiveled backward to better catch the conversation.

"If you would just tell me why," insisted Naruto, wrapped up in her fit of obstinacy, "If you could give me one good reason—"

"Mission first," he interjected, hand flying out automatically to catch her as she stumbled and slid down the incline a few feet. He steadied her and they continued walking.

"Well," said Naruto, after what she probably considered to be an appropriate dramatic pause, "I liked it. And I wouldn't mind doing it again—"

"Naruto," the words came out pained, and Kakashi was grateful to notice Guruko's body stiffening in a point, indicating he found something worthy of their attention.

He reached behind Guruko's ears, giving the dog a good scratch in just the way he liked as a reward for successfully holding back the barks clearly wanted to give.

Pakkun plodded over to the group. "It's faint, but it's there," the pug agreed.

"I know," Guruko huffed, offended, "I wouldn't have called Boss over if I was wrong."

Pakkun gave the younger dog a look, but refrained from explaining the idea of 'second opinions' to the other dog. Which was probably for the best, most dogs didn't excel at oral argument.

Kakashi turned around and discovered that Naruto had her arms around Akino, cuddling the ninken and scratching under the dog's chin.

He sighed, shoulders slumping, there were bigger issues to deal with than Naruto's dog coddling tendencies (and his ninken's encouragement of the behavior). He made the signs for "follow" and "slow" and dismissed the younger two dogs. Pakkun was enough now that they'd found the base scent to track.

Unfortunately, the sunlight was completely gone by now. They'd been traveling in darkness for a while, and they needed to stop and get some rest for the night. No possible chaperones in sight, except for a pug. Kakashi felt his head start pounding again, but Naruto obediently followed his orders to make camp and they soon settled in the treetops, eating a dinner of travel-friendly leftovers carefully packed by Hana-san. Naruto sighed in the silence, and then she was in front of him, Pakkun scooped up in her arms.

"It's cold," she said defensively, turning around to sit against him when he grunted in protest.

It might have been to her, a little. Kakashi felt fine, but they weren't starting a fire tonight in an effort to minimize the chances they'd be noticed before finding their prey, and Naruto was wearing those orange shorts instead of the long pants Kakashi favored. He resigned himself to being used as her personal heater and kept his eyes focused forward on the darkness since he'd agreed to take first watch.

Naruto twisted to press her face against his shoulder and drew her sleeping bag more tightly around her.

"It's not because you don't want me, right?" She asked in an impossibly quiet voice.

Kakashi rolled his head back against the tree trunk.

"Kakashi?" She queried, voice managing to cut through the darkness in spite of its softness.

He waited a few more minutes, trying to find the words, the right words, to say to her. "That's not it," he admitted quietly, feeling his muscles relax, tired from fighting the inevitable conversation. "But I'm not what you need."

Naruto pushed more closely against him, wrapping her arms around his chest, "That's a bit presumptuous of you, don't you think?"

Her voice was calm and familiar, her breath warm against the mask on his face.

"Shouldn't I be the one deciding what I need," she added, tone implying that the question wasn't one he should answer. She pressed even closer.

"Naruto," he groaned in warning, this was pushing the 'using him as a heater' privilege a bit too far.

"Kakashi," she murmured, fingertips brushing his cheekbones, echoing the gesture he'd made earlier in the week. Only this time, the caress was far from an apology.

"Still here," muttered Pakkun blithely.

A few seconds of silence.

Naruto gave in to the urge to giggle, and muffled her snickering against his vest.

"Just thought you should know," confided Pakkun.

Kakashi rolled his eye, but one hand came up to rest against the back of Naruto's head and the other wrapped around her waist. He rested his chin on top of her head as she drifted off to sleep, trying to come up with the argument that would counter the blonde's. He wondered at how all the reasons why he'd been so vehemently against this had apparently been swallowed by the darkness.

It really wasn't fair. How was he supposed to come up with arguments for her to leave when it felt so nice just to hold her in his arms like this? He sighed miserably into her hair, but she remained asleep, her body warm against his, her steady breathing more comforting to Kakashi than it had any right to be.

When it was her turn to take watch, he rescued Pakkun from his stint as a stuffed animal. And then he pushed Naruto out of the tree.

Gently.

It wasn't that far a drop.

However, the indignant screeching was inexplicably soothing to the frayed nerves he had accumulated the prior day.

"You're supposed to be more mature than that!" Howled the blonde, throwing a handful of pebbles in his direction.

"Probably," agreed Kakashi, shrugging nonchalantly.

XXX

The next morning, the trio kept tracking the scent trail. They followed it out of the woods, through a bog, a meadow, a few more hills, and back into the woods some time later.

Eventually, after much grumbling from Pakkun about being expected to follow old scents, and from Naruto about the accumulated mud in her hair and how Ino would never forgive her, they found a rundown cottage a hundred yards into a wooded area. It was off the path, but not truly hidden. Not hidden in the way it should be if a ninja never expected it to be found. Kakashi hesitated, Pakkun waiting at his ankles for further orders. He blinked at the blonde, but he'd only just signed "clones" before Naruto blared into sage mode, golden chakra fanning out around her.

Kakashi felt his eye twitch.

She straightened as she released the gathered energy. "It's ok," she assured her companion, "there's no one around for miles."

"Of course," Kakashi bit out, "had there been, every single possible enemy would be alerted to your presence."

Naruto frowned "Well, no one did notice, because, as we've seen, the freshest scent we've found is several weeks old."

"But it would have been safer to use kage bunshin, the chakra flare wouldn't nearly be as noticeable," countered Kakashi. "And that's the order I gave you, you're still my subordinate on this mission."

"Sage mode tells me more than a kage bunshin can," protested Naruto, "It's the better option here, and I can tell you, there's nothing troublesome about the shack!"

"You can't know that," insisted Kakashi, single eye crinkling with stress. "There will always be traps out there you've never run into, dangers you can't see and can't avoid. It wasn't your decision to make!"

"Your being irrational," the girl snapped back, lips pursing in displeasure, "And we're supposed to be partners on this mission—and you're supposed to be practicing letting me take charge of strategy, that's what we talked about back in Konoha—"

Kakashi cut her off with an inarticulate noise and a choppy hand gesture. He took a moment to take a deep breath and forced himself to reign in his temper. Naruto was right in a way, he was supposed to be letting her take the lead in non-emergency scenarios, and there was no imminent danger or unusual pressure here. He was just upset she'd ignored his order and decided to do things differently.

"I'm going in," muttered Naruto with a scowl, strutting forward into the shack.

Kakashi pushed his fingers up under his hitiate and rubbed his head wearily. He was going to have to get used to her taking charge of the missions eventually. She was going to be the Hokage. One day.

Pakkun's gaze slid up to meet his summoner's.

"Don't say anything," warned Kakashi, not wanting another lecture from a canine about Naruto's new position in the pack and how fighting the new roles would only be hurting the overall hierarchy.

"Wasn't gonna," denied the pug, trotting after the jōnin as they followed the impetuous chūnin into the dilapidated building.

Kakashi stepped into the ramshackle structure cautiously, testing the way the wood creaked underneath his feet and giving his eye a moment to adjust to the dim lighting. Pakkun stuck close to his feet sniffing hesitantly at the floorboards.

The dog snuffled further into the first room, which looked like it had once been a living area with a kitchen, although it lacked any appliances. Just a used fireplace and a rusty pot off to the side, abandoned kitchen utensils. No used knives.

Naruto strode back into the main room hand on the doorframe, "That one's just a bedroom, nothing in there at all." She ducked into the only remaining door, "This looks like it was an office though," she called out, sounding excited.

"They were all three here, at one point in time," muttered Pakkun, nose to the floor as he traced Naruto's previous steps into the bedroom.

The copy ninja followed his human subordinate, grabbing her arm as she made to open a drawer.

"Careful," he stressed, holding the girl's wrist securely as he used his other hand to raise his headband and examine the area via sharingan. "Sage mode won't catch every trap."

Naruto made an exasperated noise, but let Kakashi complete his examination before she started opening the drawers. "Papers!" She sounded excited and she handed part of the pile to Kakashi as she flipped through her own.

Kakashi flicked through the pages, keeping most of his attention on Naruto's continued exploration of the drawers and boxes in the room.

"More paper," she brought over the new documents and put them on the desk. "Some scrolls too, but they're all empty," she set them down on the desk and went back to her search.

The majority of the papers in Kakashi's hands were full of numbers that were meaningless to him. They didn't match any code he knew (and he did know all of Konoha's, thanks to the sharingan). They didn't appear to be coordinates for anything. They seemed like mathematical calculations, but for what he didn't know. This one looked like a grocery list and on the back a childish drawing—"Pakkun."

The dog was there immediately, sniffing at the paper.

"Kids," agreed the pug, "Don't know them, though."

"Didn't expect you to—"

Naruto's surprised gasp echoed in his ears, and he turned around as she fell to the floor, a puppet whose strings had just been cut.

Pakkun was by her side in an instant, sniffing at the scroll that had fallen to the floor with her.

Kakashi was frozen, his chest cold—pain, until he realized that the pain was because he wasn't breathing. He approached numbly hand reaching up to automatically check the pulse point in her neck—even though he knew Pakkun would have said something if—he still couldn't help but collapse forward a bit when he found her pulse, slow and steady as if she was only sleeping.

"Some type of seal in the scroll," growled Pakkun. "I can smell the chakra, but I don't know what it does."

Kakashi carefully pulled the scroll toward him, using his sharingan to watch the activated chakra seep slowly from the seal on the pages and evaporate into the surrounding environment, its purpose accomplished.

He didn't recognize the design. It wasn't something he'd seen Minato use. Or Jiraiya. Or anyone else for that matter.

Well, shit. He rubbed at his face tiredly.

He turned his attention back to his teammate with a frown. To Nar—no, his teammate. Just his teammate right now. He couldn't think about how she was more. He wouldn't stop thinking then, and he had to—to fix things.

Protocol.

He'd established she was breathing.

Basic diagnostic revealed nothing, even her chakra stores seemed at full capacity. He opened her eyelids, peering at the blue orbs beneath them. Nothing unusual. No demonic chakra hopefully meant that Kurama's seal wasn't affected, and yet, at the same time, it dashed the hope that this was something the chakra beast could remedy.

It was a seal, so genjutsu was probably out, but just in case, he ran his chakra through her system, trying to disrupt any illusion that might have taken hold.

Nothing.

She slept on, breathing steady and deep.

He pinched her cheeks. Called her name. Poured some water on her.

Nothing.

Eventually, he tore his gaze away from her and faced the other occupant of the room.

"Orders?" asked the pug, sounding far too calm for the situation.

Kakashi blinked at the dog, dazed, not entirely sure what to do. Nothing was working. He couldn't wake her up—what if she never woke up—

"Boss," barked the pug, "If you can't fix her, we need to get her back to Konoha, stat."

"Right," agreed Kakashi, shaking his head, locking the things that were keeping him from operating into a box in the back of his mind. He shoved a few of the papers he'd picked up into his pack, grabbed the problem scroll, tried to make it look like they hadn't been there—but they'd stirred up the dust and he didn't have time to—their scent—

"Let's go, Boss," commanded the dog.

So they went.

XXX

Kakashi didn't remember much of the return trip to Konoha. He remembered releasing Pakkun, because he was faster alone. He remembered running, and taking soldier pills to keep going, and stopping to give Naruto water every now and then because he knew that she needed it but she wouldn't wake and she needed food and he needed a medic—why was there no medic on this mission Tsunade-sama always had medics on the mission now that she was in charge and—

"Sensei," gasped Sakura, as he slid into the Emergency Room, so thankful to find a familiar face on duty—he'd bypassed the gate check and probably raised a few alarms, but he didn't have enough energy left to be bothered by it.

"She won't wake," he managed to rasp, it had been a few days since he'd spoken, his throat was so dry. When did he last remember to take a drink?

He tried to follow them, as Sakura single handedly took Naruto from him and carried her away—but, she bossed some gawking aides into taking the copy ninja's arms and pushing him into a chair. The weight of his teammate taken from him should have been a relief; she was getting help.

Kakashi just felt panic at the sight of the person he cared about most being carted motionlessly from the room. Out of his line of sight. Just like Sakumo, Rin, Minato, Kushina—

Someone pushed a cup of water into his hand, and he tried to drink it, but his hand was shaking so badly he dropped it. Why was it shaking? Another cup was placed into his hand and the person helped guide it to his mouth. And then there was healing chakra flowing into him and the room grew dark.

XXX

He woke to the steady beeps of the heart monitor, reassuring in their repetitiveness, if annoying. He sighed and relaxed his shoulders into the pillows. Not again. His mind was fuzzy and struggling to pull itself back together. Ahh-chakra exhaustion, good to see you again old friend. He couldn't feel his toes—nope, there was that strange electric tingling. Good. At least he still had toes.

He could smell the sodium chloride in the IV attached to his arm, the ache where the line connected, and the chakra of—

Bright lights, cold hands, he grimaced, flinching back and blinking his tearing eyes up at the intruder filling his line of sight.

"Good morning, sweetheart," drawled Tsunade as she pulled away, voice laced with enough irritation to make sure he knew that she was going to cut him up and serve him to Suna on a platter if he didn't snap to it and answer her questions.

He shook his head and squirmed, trying to bring back the feeling to his limbs quicker so that he could respond, he needed to respond—he'd been on a, a mission, with his teammate—with Naruto. And Naruto had tackled him because she said—she said there'd been another mission—

Kakashi's eyes flew open in indignation, "You! You owe me an explanation," he said. Tried to say. It came out very slurred and dry because he'd not had water in forever and not at all as scary as he meant it too because Tsunade looked like she was about to laugh and—he tried to sit up and fell over on his elbow.

Tsunade reached over and righted him, "Well I'm not so happy with you either mister, what made you think you could take my successor out on what was supposed to be a hike in the woods and come back with her comatose?"

"Naruto!" Kakashi cried in alarm, she wouldn't wake up and he brought her here because she couldn't—he ran a palm over his face in frustration, fingers catching on his mask.

He accepted the glass of water Tsunade handed him and took a few minutes to sip at it while his brain reordered itself.

"She's breathing, but stuck fast asleep," explained Tsunade as the copy ninja collected himself, "It's not a true coma, the brain readings are consistent with sleep not coma, but we can't wake her. And the only person who knows what happened over did it and passed out from chakra exhaustion when he arrived at the hospital," added Tsunade dryly.

"It was the scroll," Kakashi elaborated when he finally felt like his throat was back in working order, ignoring the Hokage's jibe at his propensity to ignore his own needs for the sake of his teammates. "She opened it and then just fell," he gestured helplessly, "like that. There was a seal—"

"This thing," asked Tsunade doubtfully, pulling out the scroll in question from Kakashi's mission pack.

"That thing," agreed Kakashi.

Tsunade frowned, "we found it in your belongings, but no one I've shown it to has recognized the design. I put someone in research on it just in case this was related but they haven't found anything yet." The village leader sounded cross, as if Kakashi and Naruto had done this purposefully, just to ruin her day.

Kakashi ran his hands through his hair, "Have they looked at Jiraiya's journals?'

"No," snorted the Godaime. "You have Jiraiya's journals. And Minato's. And Kushina's. All carefully locked tight in your well-trapped apartment because you've presumably been using them to train Naruto," she added cheerfully.

Kakashi scowled, "I'll go get them."

"Not today," stated the woman firmly, pushing him back down on the bed, "Naruto's status is completely stable and has been for almost a week now. You, however, are a mess." She wrinkled her nose at the man.

"I need to help," fumed Kakashi, batting her hands away.

"You need," stressed Tsunade, "at least one more day of rest. What good are you going to be if you're so tired you can't think straight when you go through those notes? Get some sleep, get a bit more chakra, and then," continued Tsunade, pausing before she stepped out the door, "when you can complete a shower without falling over," She gave him a look that implied he needed one badly, "then you can start your research."

Kakashi shrank back into the covers. He wasn't sulking. Really.

XXX

The next time he woke, it was to the smell of coffee and the sound of pages being turned precisely every forty-five seconds. It was easier this time to wake, and it only took a minute for his mind to re-gather itself and for his heavy eyelids to blink open to greet his guest.

"Sakura-chan," he murmured, watching as the familiar green eyes jumped up to greet him.

"Sensei," breathed the medic nin in relief, setting her coffee and textbook on the table. She scooted her chair closer toward him and rested her hands on the edge of his bed.

"You've got to stop doing this to yourself. And you're late for practice." Her tone was a mixture of scolding and tearful, and Kakashi internally winced. He'd forgotten how good she could be at guilt trips.

"Naruto's fault," he said somberly, the words intended to be teasing but coming out as pained. It was an honest excuse, but not one in which he took pleasure making.

"I heard," the pink-haired girl said softly, eyes dropping.

Kakashi reached over to pat her hand. "She'll be fine," he said, hopefully projecting more confidence than he felt.

Sakura's weak smile implied she didn't believe him.

"I just need to get up and get started on researching those seals," he struggled to sit up to emphasize his point. His body was heavier than he expected it to be, and he held back his grumble at having to accept Sakura's assistance.

"I heard that too," Sakura admitted, "So I went and got your notes. I thought bringing them to you might keep you here a little bit longer and get you started on what you needed earlier."

Kakashi blinked in surprise, "You brought my …?" He trailed off as Sakura leaned over and hauled a large box up onto his hospital bed.

"Your notes," continued Sakura, "or at least, all the notes in your apartment that had to do with sealing."

"But I had them locked up," wondered the copy ninja, picking a journal up out of the box and skimming through it, verifying that it was indeed Jiraiya's.

"About that," confessed Sakura, feigning embarrassment, "Hypothetically, some completely anonymous individual may have commissioned a C-rank mission specifically for Sasuke-kun, to break into your apartment and retrieve certain journals."

Kakashi gazed blankly at her, not too sure how to feel about his students breaking into his personal belongings.

"Gai and Lee volunteered to supervise," added Sakura, "so it was all legal."

As if that was reassuring.

"And Sasuke appealed the ranking because he thought the level of traps should make it B-rank at least, but Iruka-san and Shizune were on the appeal board so he got shot down."

"Wonderful. My apartment only rates a C-class mission." Kakashi fingered the binding on the journal and tossed it aside, digging further into the box. He would need Minato's notes most likely, he had always been better at sealing theory. Kushina acted more on intuition, and Jiraiya didn't document his thought process with as much detail.

"Only for someone with a sharingan," said Sakura in an attempt at consolation.

XXX

Once he was cleared to toddle around on crutches like some broken old man, Kakashi made his home in Naruto's hospital room. He dumped out all his scrolls and notes haphazardly across the chairs and commandeered Naruto's visitors (particularly Konohamaru) into running errands to the research department and fetching his food.

He'd not found the seal in any of the notes, not that he was surprised. He'd looked through all the pages before, and none of them had popped into his head when he'd first seen the problem seals design. However, supposedly, this seal came from a ninja who'd studied in Konoha. Someone who'd been working for Danzo. So, he'd copied the seal and sent it to Tsunade, who'd sent it off to whoever had sorted the recent Danzo files he'd found to cross check them for anything resembling the seal.

They'd not found a match so far, but they had pulled a few articles on sealing out from the collection and sent them on for Kakashi's review. They were not novel articles, and mirrored some discussions between Jiraiya and Minato. It was as if a third party had been involved in discussing the theories the two had developed.

Kakashi didn't remember anyone else studying sealing with his teacher, apart from Kushina. And she wasn't really into the theory. For Kushina, seals either worked or they didn't. And mostly they did. Like Naruto. Which frustrated and baffled Minato endlessly, and wouldn't Minato be flustered to realize Naruto took after her mother that way—

Kakashi shut the journal he was working on with a loud snap and threw it at the wall across the room. It smacked loudly against the wall and then fell to the floor with a sad plop.

"Wow," came the voice from the doorway, "What'd that poor book ever do to you?" Kurenai stepped into the room with some take out bags held in front of her like a peace offering. "My darling nephew said you needed dinner?"

The copy ninja sighed and waved her in, taking the food with a tired "thank you."

"Ramen." He said flatly, looking at the contents of the package as the door shut with a click.

"I suppose I thought that if we ate it in front of her, she might wake up," Kurenai teased wistfully, eyes dark as she watched the rise and fall of the girl's chest.

Kakashi didn't comment, stirring his food halfheartedly.

"Konohamaru-kun says you're spending all your time here," the kunoichi stated lightly, "says you only leave to use the restroom when one of your students comes to visit." She paused to take a dainty bite of food, but continued when it became clear the copy ninja wasn't going to speak. "It'll be ok if you leave to get some fresh air, you know, it might do you some good, be refreshing—"

"Stop!" Kakashi scowled, the word came out louder and harsher than he meant it too.

Kurenai paused, food half way to her mouth, eyes wide with surprise.

Kakashi glanced down at his hands, took a few moments to even out his breathing and relax his grip on the arms of the chair. He didn't want to leave—if he left she might, what if something—she'd be gone when he got back if she left. She couldn't—she couldn't disappear if she was right here in front of his eyes.

"She's not going to vanish, Kakashi," said Kurenai softly, as if she was reading his mind.

Kakashi glowered at his food, "You don't know—"

"I do," insisted Kurenai gently, "I've read her charts, talked with Tsunade, she's absolutely fine. Whatever's happened isn't affecting her chakra stores. It's just sleep. She'll be the most well-rested kunoichi in Konoha when we finally wake her up. Until then, her room is guarded by ANBU constantly, and that's not including you—"

Kakashi snorted. He wasn't much of a guard right now. He could probably get in one good whack with his crutches but otherwise—

"And she'll be perfectly fine if you step outside—"

"Why did you tell her to take the mission?" Kakashi asked without preface, dropping his chopsticks into his takeout box with disinterest.

"I—what?" Kurenai stammered in genuine confusion at the abrupt topic change.

"The mission to seduce me," hissed Kakashi, hands running over his face, "The one you and Tsunade-sama thought was apparently a brilliant idea, considering she has absolutely zero experience in that area and, of course, I'm clearly such a pervert that I'd go for—"

"Stop that," snapped Kurenai.

Kakashi looked up at the thick anger in Kurenai's voice and posture. To her credit, the woman didn't ask how he'd found out about the mission, or even how much he knew.

"That's not what we thought at all," Kurenai was rigid, mouth pursed together. "I—" she twisted, looking over her shoulder to make sure the door was shut. "I don't know what Tsunade-sama was thinking, I was assigned only after Naruto took the mission."

Kakashi felt his stomach knotting. His throat closed as his fists clenched once more. "You had no business interfering—"

"But I did!" Kurenai's eyes flashed as she defended her actions. "The Hokage assigned me as an advisor to Naruto, and I admit," she took in a deep breath, "as first I was going to tell her to let the assignment go, that it probably wouldn't be worth it, it might ruin your relationship for good and the both of you—you both needed each other."

An oppressive quiet settled over the pair, broken only by the steady heart monitor chirping its electrical reassurance of Naruto's continued existence.

Kakashi felt the woman's words settle into his bones with the heavy weight of truth. He worked to hide any embarrassment that he felt at the idea that someone else could see he hadn't been—hadn't been enough on his own.

"She doesn't need me," grunted the male jōnin finally, breaking the stalemate.

"Yes, yes she does," sighed Kurenai wearily.

"Why," Kakashi prompted, needing the answer, trying to figure out how to deal with the wounds Kurenai's actions had left in his spirit and still trust her. Trying to understand why anyone would think Naruto needed him.

"Kakashi," Kurenai said slowly, carefully releasing her words a few at a time, as if trying to minimize the damage, "When I sat down with her on my couch, and talked with her about what she was feeling, why she'd accepted this mission—I realized she already loved you," Kurenai gave a lopsided smile as she gazed at the floor. "And then, when I talked with you, I realized you loved her too."

Kakashi made a wounded noise, and something in his chest throbbed in sharp pain, as if someone had lodged a kunai in his rib cage.

"Naruto is the type of person that needs to love others," continued Kurenai, "and she so desperately wants that love to be returned. You were doing it so well already, but if you could each give the other just a little more—" Kurenai trailed off, staring out the window.

"You're both my friends, you know" confessed Kurenai, still not meeting his eyes. "I just want you both to be happy. You were both so lonely, both so unhappy. It takes so much, for you especially, to let someone close to you like that, and she already was. If you both loved each other already," the kunoichi hesitated, biting her lip before she finished, "if you both loved each other already, the only thing preventing you from being happier, was the misperception that such a relationship wasn't ok, or the belief that the other didn't want you that way, or," she finished gently, "it was the belief that you weren't good enough."

"All of those," Kurenai shook her head, pushing her hair back behind her head, "all of those were just excuses, false thoughts, lies. I wish I'd let myself have more time with Asuma, and not let stupid excuses get in the way for so long. I didn't want you and she to have the same—the same regrets." She swallowed, "So I'm sorry, I know I probably hurt you. I've been manipulative, and perhaps what I think is in your best interest isn't what you believe to be in your best interest."

Kakashi said nothing, still running her words through his mind, lost in the assertions she made so confidently. Trying to examine the situation from her perspective. Consider the idea that Naruto needed him, and how that might be true.

"I'm so sorry that I hurt you," Kurenai rose to her feet, wrapping her arms around her chest, "and I truly hope this doesn't ruin our friendship, but"—her voice broke, catching Kakashi's attention.

He raised tired eyes to meet her torn expression.

"If she makes you happy Kakashi," pleaded the kunoichi, "If you truly love her, the only thing stopping the two of you from being together is you. If you stop fighting yourself, it won't be perfect. There will be fights and misunderstandings and disputes over who is taking up too much of the closet, but I promise it will be wonderful. It will be worth it. But you have to fight for it, Kakashi, not against it." She snapped her mouth shut, visibly using all her will power to keep from saying anything more. She clasped her hands together and bowed deeply, dark hair falling over shoulders.

"Kakashi," she stopped at the door, turned toward him, "You say she doesn't need you, and yet," she tapped her finger against the door frame, cast one more sad look at the bed, "you're the one who's here, aren't you?"

And then she left.

Kakashi stared at her empty seat for hours.

And then Konohamaru stumbled into the room with a pile of papers and a sneezing Udon, and he made the boy go pick up the book he'd thrown across the room before his aunt had so rudely interrupted him.

XXX.

"It is unusual to see her so still," Sai commented, although not in irritation, considering the contentment he was exuding as he ran sweeping brushstrokes across the canvas he'd set up in the easel in Naruto's hospital room.

"I'm sure she'd appreciate you using her coma as an excuse to make a decent portrait," drawled Sasuke, arms crossed in displeasure as he glowered darkly at the bed. He was either trying to set it on fire by using handseal-less ninjutsu, or personally offended that another person was sleeping when he decided to grace them with a visit. Knowing Sasuke, it was probably both.

"Yes," agreed Sai placidly, "she complains so much about staying still for extended periods of time in real life, I'm sure she will find the fact that I made good use of this time most pleasing when she realizes I'm required to paint her portrait as Hokage."

"Please tell me Naruto's official Hokage portrait won't be of her in a hospital bed," groaned Sakura, looking up in alarm.

Sai hummed noncommittally.

"Have we been her only visitors?" asked Sasuke suddenly, the unusual question causing everyone in the room to turn their heads toward him.

Sakura's response was stiff, "I've checked the visitor log, but so far it's just been us, and Kurenai-sensei and Konohamaru-kun and his friends."

Sasuke grunted and resumed his brooding.

"Were you expecting someone else?" Asked Kakashi, frowning at the odd tension between his two students.

"It's just that," Sakura flicked her green eyes at him hesitantly, "she'd mentioned meeting someone recently. We thought he might come see her."

Sasuke shook his head. "It doesn't matter, and it's not any of our business" he said decisively, "Everyone important to her has come so…" he trailed off with a shrug.

"Has anyone told Iruka-sensei what happened?" inquired Sai, not bothering to pause in his painting.

Sakura blanched. "No," she drank the last of her coffee and stood up, brushing imaginary wrinkles out of her hospital uniform. "I'll go let him know now."

"I'll go too," Sasuke rolled to his feet.

"Really," Sakura squeaked, looking baffled.

"Kakashi's the only one who's being any help here," Sasuke grumbled in discontent as they walked out of the room, "I'd rather feel like I'm doing something productive than be sitting here gossiping—"

"It's not gossip if we're trying to figure out who it was. She really liked him," snapped Sakura. "It'd be nice if he were here when she wakes up, you know how lonely she gets—"

Kakashi stared blankly at his notes for a few minutes as their voices faded down the hall.

XXX
"Sunflowers are a perfectly appropriate flower, Hinata-chan," bossed Ino as she and the Hyuuga heiress hauled in another two vases of the ridiculous flowers, Shikamaru following behind in beaten obedience with another table to hold them. Chouji was eating an apple from a basket of fruit he'd brought for the girl—who wasn't actually able to eat the food.

Shino stood awkwardly against the wall for three whole minutes before walking out.

Nobody paid him any mind; he'd be back tomorrow to do the same thing.

"And no, Kiba, I don't care that they make you sneeze," hollered the blonde, loudly enough so that her voice carried into the hallway. "You don't need to be in here anyway!"

Kakashi let the girl rearrange his crutches and nodded along to her mindless babble. When the crowd left, the Hyuuga heiress stayed behind.

Kakashi raised his head to look at her when he it registered that her feet had been standing in the corner of his vision for the past fifteen minutes.

"Can I help you with anything?" The girl asked quietly when Kakashi met her eyes.

Kakashi was about to shoo her away, politely of course, when his stomach growled loudly. He carefully did not look at the trash can in the corner that was overflowing with empty take out boxes. "I could use some food," he admitted, "some real food."

Hinata smiled back at him, perking up a bit, "I can do that."

When she returned, she sat with him as he ate his meal.

"It's nice to know she has you," said Hinata, as he was trying to swallow a carrot.

Kakashi looked at the heiress carefully, "She has a lot of friends. I know she'll appreciate that everyone came by."

Hinata laughed softly, "But you're the most important, you know?"

Kakashi froze, not sure what to say when faced with Hinata's perceptiveness.

"I was worried about her for a while," explained Hinata, as if she wasn't exposing secrets Kakashi was struggling to face himself, "she's so strong most of the time. But, where she's weakest, it would be easy for another to take advantage of her. I'm glad you have each other; you complement each other nicely."

Kakashi made a pained noise.

"It's not that she's said anything specific," Hinata added gently, "But there are only a handful of men in the Village who can actually keep up with her Hatake-san. It wasn't hard to figure out who she's been mooning over the past few months."

She stood, sweeping her hair over her shoulder with a graceful movement. "Please let me know if you need anything else while you're here." Her gaze travelled to the bed, eyes pained, "I know there's not much I can do to help her right now myself; but I can at least take care of you, so you can take care of her. Right?"

She gave a small bow and left.

Kakashi looked on, bewildered.

XXX

"—I have run 13 additional laps around Konoha today and I will run 14 tomorrow," assured Lee vehemently to the nonresponsive body resting on the bed.

"You only ran ten," countered Ten-ten from where she sat on the bed, brushing the snarls out of Naruto's long hair.

"Oh no!" Lee gasped with dramatic sincerity, "I shall remedy my error right now by running twenty more laps. On my hands! Backwards!" His yelling continued as he ran down the hospital hall, but his voice grew muffled by the distance and Kakashi couldn't make out his additional tasks of contrition.

"Ten-ten," Gai said with a frown, "that was not very youthful."

"I'll stop when he stops falling for it," said Ten-ten, humming as she continued to braid Naruto's hair.

Gai gave her his best disappointed look, and Ten-ten tied off the braid with a sigh. "I'll go join him," she grudgingly sighed, before taking a leap out of the window.

Gai took the seat next to Kakashi when she left, for once letting companionable silence fill the room as Kakashi scratched away at an outline of a counter-seal.

"I think I might have it soon," said Kakashi wearily, tracing the design.

Gai grinned, "that would be most wonderful! I imagine she will be overjoyed to be awake once more. Such a sleep does not suit her at all," the jōnin added, glancing at the bed.

"No," mused Kakashi in agreement, "It really doesn't."

They sat together quietly for a few more minutes, the steady beeping of the heart monitor and the scratches of Kakashi's brush the only thing interrupting the afternoon.

"I think I love her, Gai," murmured Kakashi with a sigh, shoulders slumping.

"What a youthful sentiment, Rival," Gai hummed in acknowledgement. "It's good to hear you say so."

Kakashi spared the man a flat look, "You already knew."

"Most certainly," agreed the taijutsu expert, teeth gleaming.

"I didn't know," the copy ninja crossed his arms with a scowl.

Gai gave him a good-natured whack on the back which scooted the other ninja's chair forward a good five inches. "I'm glad to hear that you've finally tapped into your youthful spirit!"

Kakashi leaned back in his chair, watching the sunlight filter in through the blinds. "You're calling me old again, aren't you?"

XXX

It took three weeks, four days, and thirteen hours for Kakashi to deconstruct the sleep seal and construct a counter. It took him ten minutes to test his creation on an overly eager Guruko. Two minutes to paint one on the back of Naruto's hand. Five seconds to activate it. Thirty seconds of holding his breath while Naruto remained still, until her fingers twitched under his hand, and the blue eyes he hadn't seen in far, far too long, finally opened.

"Hey," she said weakly, voice rough from disuse, familiar smile widening at the sight of his face.

He blinked several times, Obito's eye acting up again under his hitiate.

Her smile fell a bit, "Why are you shaking?" She raised a hand up to his face, fingertips touching his mask gently.

Kakashi grabbed her hand and sank down in the chair he'd pulled up next to her bed. He dropped his head gently on her stomach, the hand clutching hers still gripping it tightly.

"Why are you shaking?" She repeated, voice still hoarse, raising her free hand so that she could run her fingers soothingly through his hair.

"It's ok," her voice was faint in his ears.

He was so tired, so tired.

"It's ok."

XXX

It was two more days before Tsunade released Naruto from the hospital. She'd wanted to make sure the girl was completely rehydrated and had put the younger blonde through a battery of various tests. Fortunately, the exercises a Nara clan aide and Sakura had run Naruto's body through routinely kept the muscles from atrophying too badly. Kakashi was sure Tsunade would rather Naruto stay longer, but Tsunade was rapidly tiring of her successor's near successful attempts to taunt Sasuke into a spar in the exam room. Furthermore, Sakura was running out of clipboards with which to hit people.

"And so, I opened the scroll and the seal activated as soon as I did," explained Naruto, legs kicking against the bed as she sat on its edge. "I wasn't expecting it to do that, but the next thing I knew I was just so sleepy—"

Tsunade removed her glowing green hand from the girl's head. "Well, there doesn't appear to be any lasting damage, but please try not to repeat this episode. You're lucky it wasn't an area effect seal. You and Kakashi are our only sealing experts. If it had hit both of you— I might have eventually figured out what happened, but I have a Village to run," the Hokage huffed and put her hands on her hips. "I wouldn't have had the time to spend three weeks ceaselessly researching a solution."

Naruto blushed and looked down at her bare feet, "I know."

The Godaime leaned forward and ruffled her hair. "I'm releasing you from the hospital, but I still want you under supervision for a week or so, just to make sure you don't have some kind of relapse. With my luck it'd hit you while you were in the tub, you'd drown, and I'd be stuck with this damn hat forever."

"I'm not going to be done in by a bathtub, believe it!" Naruto whined indignantly at the older woman.

Tsunade snorted, "So, will you be staying with Sakura-chan, or are you still fine staying with—"

"Yeah, no," blurted Naruto, "I mean, I'm good. I'm still staying" her eyes widened suddenly and her head turned toward the man slouching next to the doorframe, "I'm still staying with you, right? I mean," she blushed, "we're still good right?"

Kakashi closed his eyes, "We're good."

Naruto beamed, grin so wide and bright that Kakashi could feel the warmth of it from across the room.

Tsunade rolled her eyes, "then pack up and get out of here, I don't want to have to deal with any more written reports about you getting into wheel chair races in the halls."

"Kiba dared Lee and me!" Naruto huffed indignantly, "You can't turn down dares—"

She continued to mutter protests as Tsunade strolled from the room, Kakashi following in her wake to give the chūnin some privacy to pack up and change.

The walk back to Kakashi's apartment was quiet, neither party wanting to give voice to their current thoughts in public. Kakashi had ditched his crutches several weeks ago, but he'd only gone home for the first time yesterday, to make sure it was mostly habitable. He'd slept for ten hours and returned just in time to stop Naruto from summoning a toad to put in her neighbor's bed.

He had no idea if Naruto's own apartment was livable again, he hadn't checked.

Naruto hummed happily as she followed him back home, cradling a vase stuffed with sunflowers in her arms which she set on the kitchen table.

Kakashi sat on the couch and interlocked his fingers, resting his elbows on his knees. He watched the blonde bob about the kitchen, happily babbling about a recent conversation with Hinata. She retrieved an orange from the refrigerator and peeled it apart, picking at the slices. She slid up on top of the counter to eat her treat, but paused when she caught Kakashi's serious, contemplative gaze.

"Are you ok," she lowered the fruit, brow furrowed in concern.

Kakashi thought about saying yes, of course, why shouldn't he be. The words lodged in his throat.

Naruto slid off the counter, abandoning the orange, and approached Kakashi cautiously. She stopped in front of him, knees bumping against his.

Kakashi swallowed, looking up at her imploringly. "You can't ever do that again." He wasn't sure if he was giving an order or making a request.

Naruto leaned down, letting Kakashi pull her into his lap on the couch and draw her close.

He buried his face in her hair, trying to memorize the way she felt in his arms, warm, breathing, awake, and alive.

"That can't ever happen again," he repeated, firmly. It was more of an oath this time. It couldn't happen again. It couldn't ever happen again.

"You can't keep me safe from everything," protested Naruto, although she didn't fight his hold.

"I can try," he growled.

She hit him gently, laughing, and pulled back to look him in the eye. "No, you really can't. But we were being safe you know, and there will come a time when even though we check you and I are going to miss something—"

The pressure in Kakashi's chest felt immense, as if his heart were caught in a juicer and being squeezed.

"But it will be ok," continued Naruto, running her hand up and down his arm reassuringly, "You know how I know?"

Kakashi humored her, "How?"

"Because I know I can trust you to have my back, and figure out what went wrong, and fix it," Naruto smiled up at him, "And I need you to trust me to do the same for you."

Kakashi released a shuddering breath and let his forehead rest against hers.

She pressed her lips against his cheek, a chaste kiss against his masked face. "I am sorry, though." She buried her face in his neck, "I'm so sorry I worried you so much. But I'm so happy you stayed with me," she swallowed, pressed closer, "And I'm so happy you were there when I woke up."

She pulled back briefly, rearranged her legs so they were straddling his lap, bringing up her hands to frame his face. "Is this," she hesitated, blue eyes gazing at him intently, "is this ok?"

Kakashi didn't flinch when he met her gaze this time, didn't pull away. "This is fine," he said instead, felt his lips twitch upward underneath his mask.

Naruto's eyes widened, hope spreading across her features. "Seriously," she asked, hesitating as the edges of her fingers hooking into his mask, ready to pull it down but still waiting for him to give permission, testing to see if he'd pull away one more time.

Kakashi's eye crinkled with smile, "This is more than fine." His hands tightened around her waist, slipping under her shirt to stroke her sides encouragingly as she pulled down his mask so her mouth could crash against his own.

It wasn't sweet and tender, not this time. This time it was eager and forceful, the passion in the collision making up for any inexperience.

"It's not going to be easy, Naruto," said Kakashi, slightly breathless, when Naruto finally pulled away for a moment—which was due more to the fact that she was struggling to get his vest off than that she had any inclination to stop any time soon. Still, Kakashi thought he should take the time to explain while he could, however distracting Naruto's fingers were as they scrambled to undo buttons or her thighs were as they tightened around his own. "I'm going to mess this up," Kakashi stammered, desperate to make her see that this was, most likely, yet another horribly bad decision in the string of inevitably horribly bad decisions that made up the life of Hatake Kakashi.

Naruto dropped her head into the curve of Kakashi's neck, pressing joyful kisses against his jaw. "I'm going to mess up too, you dork," she giggled, finally getting his vest undone and tugging it off of him, and tossing it carelessly somewhere behind the couch. He heard it hit something that toppled over with a crash, but was a bit too distracted by the energetic blonde pressing against him to see if anything had broken.

"Naruto," he protested, although it came out more like a moan than a plea for her to calm down. "This could go very badly, we should probably talk—"

She laughed in delight, pulling back so that she was looming above him, running her hands through his hair once more, only with more energy this time, more urgency, tugging off his hitiate as she went. "I am so done with talking," she said with a happy sigh.

His sharingan blinked open reflexively, capturing that grin she had, the one he'd seen once before, when she tricked him into falling in the mud after avoiding training her teammates all day—and the same feeling was back, that stirring in his gut that he'd known meant trouble and had, at the time, done his best to push away, ignore, deny, and re-direct. Now he let the heat grow, as his own hands moved up, bringing with them the edge of Naruto's shirt, tugging it up and over her head before it was sent to join his vest. A lovely, anticipatory flush covered Naruto's face as she surged back down, mouth melting against his with fervent yearning.

He certainly did not yelp when her cold hands pushed roughly up under his own shirt, but he did enjoy the squeaks she made when his hands dipped into her shorts in retaliation, trailing around the curve of her ass. He pulled her even closer against him as she tightened her legs around him reflexively. He obligingly rolled them over, pressing her firmly into the couch cushions.

They'd talk tomorrow.