You were done. The training had left you completely exhausted. It's not that it had been more intense than what you were used to while training with sensei Jiraiya, but the two days before arriving in Konoha you had been on the road only resting a few hours at night to sleep. And then the night before, you preferred to spend it with Sukea than to rest, so now you were breathing hard and your legs were shaking. But you had pushed yourself and it seemed that Tenzo was happy with your performance.

You were drinking from your water bottle when Yugao came talking to you.

"Tenzo pushed us hard, didn't he?"

You smiled at her glad she was making conversation with you.

"Yea. I think he is used to training hard and expects the same from the others. But it's nothing we can't handle, right?"

She smiled too and gave a nod.

"So I'm going out tonight. Do you wanna come too? I'll introduce you to my boyfriend and his friends. You actually know some of them already."

You were surprised. "Who do you mean? I don't really know many people here."

"Kotetsu, Izumo, and Genma have talked about you, two years ago if I remember it right. And then yesterday Kotetsu mentioned he had seen you arrive."

You were tired and preferred to go straight to bed after dinner, but you were new in town and you wanted to make some friends. You had enough of being alone as you were back home. So you agreed.

In the barracks, you took a shower and let the warm water relieve some of the tension you had in your muscles. Afterward, you rested a bit on your bed. Well, you ended up falling asleep and after waking up, you needed to hurry to eat something before the time you had agreed to meet Yugao at the bar.

You found a little ramen shop 'Ichiraku' and decided to eat there. As you approached it, on the other side of the street you saw a little blonde boy hiding while looking hungry, with drool coming out of his mouth. You remembered how sensei Jiraiya said that there were many orphans such as you were too, and that boy just looked so alone. You took pity on him and decided to approach him.

"Hey kid, are you here alone?"

He looked at you with big blue eyes and gave a small nod.

"Are you hungry? You wanna eat with me?"

At first, he shook his head "no" but his stomach gave him away with a big rumbling. You gave him a smile and said gently:

"I am here all alone. If I buy you dinner would you like to make me company?"

The boy gave you a big smile and nodded happily. You ruffled up his hair.

"I'm (Y/N) and you?"

"Naruto!"

You smiled at him while getting up and extended your hand to him which he ended up taking.

Naruto sure seemed hungry, he swallowed his food in an instant and then began to talk happily.

"I'm the best student in the academy and one day I will become Hokage, believe it."

You smiled at his dreams and hoped that he would make it.

"If you work hard enough then you can make your dreams come true."

Since you were almost running late you paid the bill and said goodbye to Naruto with a kiss on his forehead. He ended up blushing slightly and looked even cuter.

As you were walking through the streets you heard someone calling your name.

"Hey Kotetsu, Izumo. Free from gate duty tonight?"

Both of them were smiling at you but the first to talk was Kotetsu.

"Yea, finally we have a night and day off. You seem lost, can we help you?"

You got all embarrassed but ended up saying: "Yes, actually I am. Yugao told me about a bar that should be next to a flower shop but I can't find it."

"Good thing we headed there too."

"Yes, I know. Yugao said that you would be there too. I'm on her team now and she was nice enough to invite me out."

You three made small talk until arriving at the bar. There were many shinobis, most of them using their standard uniform. Yugao saw you three and waved to you. Next to her was a man with the standard Konoha uniform too. He had short brown hair, dark eyes, and dark markings under his eyes. As you came close to them, Yugao introduced you two.

"I see you had help to find this place. This is Hayate, my boyfriend."

"Hi, I'm (Y/N), Yugao's new team comrade."

Kakashi was walking slowly to the bar. He didn't have any interest in going out, but he had lost a bet against Guy and this is his punishment. His rival had found him after he had talked to Jiraiya and had challenged him. He was about to refuse because it was already the second time this month that Guy had challenged him, but it would make a good excuse for not showing up at his team's training session. But to prevent his friend from bothering him again soon he added a bet to their dispute. If Kakashi would win, Guy wouldn't bother him with a new challenge for the next three months, but if he lost then he would have to go out with their friend that night. So here he was. At least he had the book from Jiraiya to distract himself and it was a rather good distraction.

As he entered the bar it was quite full of people and he had some trouble finding his friend, but Guy had seen him come in and quickly came by to drag him to the table where Asuma, Kurenai, Genma, and Anko were already sitting.

Kakashi said hi to everyone, avoiding Anko as good as he could. No one of their friends was aware of their short affair and he hoped it would stay so. After ordering a drink he looked around and couldn't believe his eyes when he saw you. He had made everything he could to avoid you and now here you were once again in the same room as he was. To hide himself he opened his book and put it in front of him trying to read, but he couldn't help himself and from time to time he peeked over the book in your direction.

At your table Yugao had seen him coming in. Turning to you she said:

"Who would have thought that our captain would go out tonight."

You looked around to see where he was, curious as to how he looked like without the mask. And then you saw his gray hair. You were dumbfounded to discover that he had more than half of his face still covered even without his ANBU mask.

"That old guy, has he some problem with his face or what?"

"Old guy?" Kotetsu looked at you surprised. "Kakashi is only a few years older than us. How old do you think he is?"

You blushed in embarrassment. "I only saw him with his ANBU mask and because of his grey hair I thought he was old."

Kotetsu used the opportunity to get to know you better.

"And how old are you?"

"I'm 20."

"You are as old as me then." He said happily.

You smiled at him before glancing back at Kakashi who was looking at you over his book but before your eyes met, he covered his face with his book. You found that rather infuriating. After the way he had treated you earlier how did he dare steal glances at you like that? You decided to keep an eye on him.

As the evening progressed you got to know the people that were with you at the table better. Your belly was hurting because Kotetsu would keep you constantly laughing. You felt more and more welcomed and were happy with the life you were building here. But Kakashi kept peeking at you and you had enough of it. You saw him getting up and went to the counter so you decided to confront him.

As he ordered his drink you got next to him on the counter.

"Captain Hatake, I'm sorry to bother you. I only wanted to introduce myself now without a mask on. I'm (Y/N), your new team member.

You saw his ears turning red and wondered what was going on with that guy.

Kakashi had almost a heart attack when he saw you standing next to him.

"Uhm, hi. Yes... I'm sorry about earlier today." He scratched his neck searching for some excuse. "I wasn't expecting a new member today and I was a bit busy but I still wanted to meet you."

Now it was your turn to blush. You were sure he had something against you, but now that he explained himself you felt embarrassed. He was a captain after all and had for sure many responsibilities.

Maybe the reason that he was constantly looking at you tonight was that he had recognized you from your file or something like that and was searching for an opportunity to apologize. You scold yourself for being so impulsive and for embarrassing yourself in front of your new captain.

"Of course you were. Sorry again for bothering you, I won't take more of your free time, sir."

Kakashi was relieved because it seemed you didn't recognize him. But now he felt bad how he had treated you, especially because you seemed to be embarrassed now. As you were about to turn around and leave, he reached out to you and made you stop.

"No, I'm the one who needs to apologize. I was rude to you, and I at least should have talked to you tonight. And please don't be so formal with me, especially if we are not in service."

You relaxed and gave him a half-smile.

"Why don't we start over then. Hi, my name is (Y/N), the newest member of your team."

You extended your right hand to him which he accepted and gave you a closed eye smile.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Kakashi, your new captain. I'm looking forward to working with you."

Somehow your stomach made a flip, the way he smiled at you (not that you saw his smile, but the part of his visible face was very expressive). Before you could embarrass yourself more, you said goodbye and walked back to your seat. Only then you realized that not only the people on your table were watching you two but also the people where Kakashi had been. As soon as you sat down, Yugao asked:

"What did you say to him? I think I have never seen Kakashi so bashful like that."

Against your will, you felt your cheeks get flushed and Kotetsu looked at you curiously.

"Nothing, I just put my foot in my mouth, nothing new about that."

It was true. Somehow you had the ability to always make a fool out of yourself and this situation was no different.

All at the table laughed at your embarrassment and didn't ask more questions, what you were thankful about.

Kakashi composed himself and drank his drink before going back to his table. Kurenai was waiting eagerly for him to return.

"Who was that girl Kakashi? You have been the whole night staring at her and looked quite embarrassed when she talked to you."

Kakashi was expecting someone to question him. Konoha is a small village where everyone knows everybody, especially the shinobis and gossip is a preferred pastime of many.

"That was my new team member (Y/N). We had a rough start today but we cleared things between us." He discarded the question.

Later when you were getting tired you said goodbye to everyone and excused yourself, but Kotetsu offered to accompany you home.

"No need to, I can take care of myself. And I'm going to the barracks since I have no place of my own yet."

Kotetsu was nice, but you didn't want him to fall for you as Jiraya had insinuated. But he was one of a few that you could maybe call friends here and you didn't want to shoo him away. So you ended up letting him accompany you.

Kakashi saw you two leave and the good mood he had been after talking to you was gone again. Somehow you were messing with his head and he didn't like it. He didn't want a woman in his life right now, especially one that was in his own team. He needed to get over the night he spent with you or else it would be difficult working together.