Ok, you guys, I'm sorry it's been so long ;

I need to write more for this, so this'll be the last chapter for a month or two...but it's extra long to compensate:)

"Nori-!"

"I know, Mom. I heard." Nori smiled, coming into the kitchen.

Her mother and Kakashi stood there, and both looked in surprise at Nori. Neither of them had seen her looking that good since before Iruka's death. Immediately, Kakashi felt flustered. This was the woman he had fallen for, even before she and Iruka had dated.

Nori, however, was having a similar reaction to the way Kakashi was dressed. He was wearing a pair of dressy slacks that were blacker than midnight, and an open-collared shirt that was the ashy color of soot. He was wearing the mask this time, not wanting to repeat the awkward moments of their last 'friendly adventure', but even that seemed to hug his face and neck in just the right way to make it sexy.

All in all, they were both feeling pretty flustered.

Nori, however, had learnt a long time ago that no matter how insecure she was feeling, if she acted confident, guys would buy it. So she pulled herself together and said, "Well, Kakashi, you ready to go?"

"I...certainly. I see you're ready as well."

"Of course." She smiled, but Kakashi saw the corners of her mouth wobble as she did and knew in that instant that she was just as nervous as he was, and that put him at ease.

"Well then," He said, the awkwardness gone from his voice. "I suppose it's time to go."

"Right." She answered. "Don't want to be late to the movie, now do we?"

"Of course not." He replied, now rather enjoying their game of masking emotions. "We'd better go. It was great seeing you again, Haruno-san."

"It was lovely seeing you too, Kakashi." Answered Nori's mother, masking a smirk as she realized that Nori and Kakashi were acting like school children with their awkward gestures and comments. "Have fun, Nori. Stay out as long as you'd like."

"Mom, we're going to a double feature that starts at 7:30. It'll be over at 10:30."

"Oh, I know, honey, but if you'd like to go somewhere afterwards, feel free. I won't wait up for you."

Nori rolled her eyes. "Thanks, Mom. See you later."

She swept past Kakashi to walk towards the door, and he followed her as if in a trance, almost forgetting to say goodbye to her mother in the process. Meanwhile, Mrs. Haruno just smiled and turned back to her dishes. 'That girl...'

Sakura, meanwhile was watching from the top of the stairs as Nori and Kakashi walked out into the foyer, and she stared at Kakashi in surprise, nearly revealing her position. 'I've never seen sensei in clothes except for his Jounin uniform. I...I can see why nii-san would think he was attractive!' She thought in shock.

Kakashi opened the door for Nori, and she smiled at him. "Thanks." Then, she paused for a second. "I think I left the curling iron on, Sakura. Could you check for me?"

Blushing, Sakura hurried from her hiding place to Nori's room. Nori laughed as she headed out of the house and Kakashi followed, shutting the door behind them. "Did you really leave the curling iron on?"

"No." Nori laughed even more. "I didn't even use it. I just figured she should know she can't sneak up on me yet."

Kakashi laughed as well. "Well...that's one way to do it."

"You bet." Nori smiled.

After a long silence, Kakashi asked, "So, how's Sakura's training as a medical ninja coming?"

Nori and Kakashi discussed her training for a while, until Kakashi thought to ask, "Nori, you're one of the greatest medical ninjas ever. Why is Tsunade training her?"

"Well..." Nori looked somewhat thoughtful. Kakashi assumed that she was trying to think of reasons, but she was just wondering if it would be alright to tell him. "The council thinks that I might go easy on Sakura because I'm her older sister. Also...my powers aren't exactly up to par right now, and Tsunade and I are equal as medical ninjas when I'm fully able to heal. So Tsunade was the only logical choice."

Kakashi sensed that Nori was a little sore that her powers still weren't up to par, so he changed the subject. They talked for most of the walk to Ichiraku, but grew silent as they entered the restaurant. They were happily greeted by the old man.

"Ayame! Look who's finally decided to show up!"

"Nori-chan!" Ayame exclaimed. "Oh, and Kakashi-san! Hello!"

Kakashi nodded with a smile, and Nori smiled in reply. "Hello Ayame, hello jii-san."

The old man smiled. "You haven't been here in quite a while, Nori. What'll it be?"

"The old favorite." She grinned. "Miso pork."

"How about you, Kakashi-san?"

"Today's special sounds good."

"Coming right up." He turned around to start cooking their food, leaving Kakashi and Nori alone to talk.

Nori was a little disoriented. She now realized that it might have been a bad idea to ask him to take her to Ichiraku, seeing as how she and Iruka had had their first date there. Looking over at Kakashi, she saw Iruka sitting there for a split second, and it threw her off. Her smile wavering, she looked down into the bowl that was placed in front of her sadly. 'I shouldn't've come here...not tonight.'

She picked up her chopsticks at the same time Kakashi did, and he smiled at her. For some reason, the smile he gave her cheered her up and made her, if not forget her troubles, at least push them to the back of her mind.

Kakashi and Nori didn't talk much, both of them feeling too awkward. Instead, they chatted happily with Teushi and Ayame. Jealousy boiled in Nori at the way Ayame looked at Kakashi, but she hid it, as any half-decent kunoichi would. Finally, they were finished with their noodles. Kakashi looked over at Nori. "We'd better get going, eh? We've got fifteen minutes until the movie starts, and we've got to walk the whole way across town."

"Yup, we'd better get moving." She stood, stretching her back out. "How much?"

Kakashi opened his mouth to protest, but Teushi beat him to it. "It's on the house."

"Huh?" Asked Nori.

Teushi looked at her sadly. "Nori, you used to come here all the time. Ayame and I consider you a part of the family because you came here so much. Since Iruka's death, you haven't been here once. It lifts my heart to see you out and about again, even if it's just going to a movie. It's on the house."

There were tears in her voice as she answered, "Thanks, Teushi-jiisan." But there were none on her face.

Kakashi, looking at her, wondered why. Then, he jumped in surprise and sadness as he realized that she wasn't crying because she didn't have any tears left to cry. As they left the shop, thanking Ayame and Teushi, he slid his arm around her shoulders. She looked up at him, surprised, and he looked back down at her. "You don't mind, do you?"

She looked down for a while, and then looked back up at him with slightly surprised eyes. "No." She said wonderingly.

He smiled as he realized that she was surprised at herself. Then, looking up at the moon, he tightened his grip on her shoulders. "See that, Nori?"

She looked up to see what he was talking about, and then she tilted her head in confusion. "That belt there...is that the milky way?"

He smiled. "Yup. I've never seen it before, but I've seen it in pictures, and that's definitely it."

"I've never seen it either...we're lucky to be seeing it, hmm?"

"Yeah." Without tilting his head back down, he turned his eyes toward hers to see her looking up at the sky with wonder. "I'm definitely lucky to be seeing this."

Nori was out of practice at reading the undertones in men's voices, especially this man's, so she didn't realize that he was talking about something other than the milky way. Instead, as he turned his eyes back to the stars, she gasped. "Did you see that, Kakashi?"

Underneath his mask, he was grinning. "Yeah, I saw it."

A shooting star had shot across the heavens, streaking them with gold for a split second before fading back to normal splendor. Kakashi looked at Nori. "You know what that means, right?"

She looked back at him with a smile on her face as well. "Yeah. Time to make a wish?"

When he spoke, laughter mixed with his voice. "You bet it is. Shall we get into 'proper hand alignment'?" He teased.

Her cheeks turned red, and his knees turned weak, but she was oblivious. "Well, I didn't know what to call it, ok?...but yeah."

In the middle of the street, they stopped moving. They put their hands together, and Nori looked up into Kakashi's eye with a smile in both of hers. Looking down into her bright blue orbs, he was smiling as well. "Well, Noriko?" He asked, his voice husky-sounding. "What should we wish for?"

"I'm not sure, Hatake Kakashi." She returned. "You pick."

"Hmm..." He thought. "We already wished for happiness. How about we wish for luck?"

"Luck?"

"Sure. Why not?"

"No reason. Alright, let's do it."

They looked up at the star and wished frantically, then looked back down at each other.

"Do you think it worked?" Nori asked.

"I don't know." Kakashi shrugged. "But I do know that if we don't get a move on, we're going to miss our movie."

"Right!" Nori laughed. "I'll race you!"

He grinned through the mask. "You're on!"

"Ready, set-"

"Go!"

Laughing, he sprinted forward. She raced after him, laughing. "Cheater!"

"I'm not a cheater. I'm a ninja!"

And, laughing like she used to before Iruka had died, she chased him.

I added some fluff in...but yeah. Like I said, it'll be a while until more chapters are up. If you'd like, I have some other stories up that are interesting! Mainly Suicide and Psychos, and Never Say Goodbye, but my personal favorite is To Protect the Aburame, because Shino needs some lovin' too:)

BlackDragon333, out...for quite a while!