You were waiting for Naruto to show up at Ichiraku to eat with him. You had made it a habit to treat him once a week. That kid reminded you of yourself when you were at the orphanage and would always pull pranks. But Naruto seemed even more lonely than you were. You had friends back then, but for some reason, it seemed that people would ignore him and force their children to do the same. You hoped you would make a difference in his life but you hated not being able to do more for him. You didn't know how because you never had to take care of a kid. If you were out on a mission you would pay Teuchi to feed Naruto.

Lately, you have gone more often on missions, not always with the howl team though. But Kakashi would always go with you, or better said, you would go with him. You suspected that he had to watch out for you. Probably the Hokage didn't trust you completely yet. While you were still in the barracks, you had heard that the ANBU was doing surveillance on the Uchiha. You had read about the Uchiha clan. They were strong and proud, and before Konoha had been founded, they were feared. Now they were mostly responsible for the police force, but there had been some unsettling reports of misusing of their power. But you had never done surveillance. In fact, you only knew about those problems because you had heard other ANBU members talk while you were in your bed or showering back in the barracks. But now that you had your own apartment, it was more difficult to know what was going on.

Your thoughts go back to Kakashi. Now thinking about this, if he was to keep an eye on you, that could explain the way he had treated you in the beginning. He was different now towards you. He didn't ignore you that much as before, hopefully, because he thinks you were thrust worthy.

You now began to understand why your team colleagues would have the most respect for him. You had some opportunities to see him in action and the way he fought was just amazing. His speed and his strength were maybe only overmatched by his intelligence. Once again you had to rethink the opinion you had about him. He was like a completely different person during the fights. So full of confidence and concern about his team. His nickname 'friend killer' just left you confused.

But your thoughts were interrupted when a loud voice could be heard.

"Hi, (Y/N) sama. Finally, you're back from your mission!"

You smiled. Naruto sure seemed happy to see you. It had been almost a month since the last time you were able to eat with him.

You ruffled up his hair. "Hey kid, yeah it's been a crazy month. Let's go eat."

Naruto seemed a bit distracted. He didn't swallow his ramen as fast as he used to.

"Is something on your mind kid?"

He didn't talk so you gave him a light push. "You can talk to me, you know."

Reluctantly he spoke. "Why are you so nice to me (Y/N) sama?"

The way he asked just took you off guard. His big blue eyes were piercing yours. He surely wasn't used to people being kind to him. "You remind me a bit of myself when I was a kid. I never knew my parents too, you know. The first time I met you, I was new in Konoha and since I had no friends, I thought maybe you could be my friend."

His face lit up. "A friend, really?"

You smiled back at him. "Sure. But don't think I'm just selfless. When you told me you are going to be Hokage I thought that this would be a great opportunity for the future Hokage to be in my debt. So you are to become strong so you can be Hokage one day and pay back all the meals I'm paying you, deal?"

This made him just more happier. "You can count on that, believe it!"

It seemed as he was back to himself and you smiled inwardly. If he had someone that believes in him, you hoped he wouldn't give up on his dream.

After the meal, you walked Naruto home. He became very quiet again and you just didn't know what else you could say to him to make him happy. But in the end, he told you about his struggle.

"(Y/N) sama, you are strong, aren't you?"

"Well, I'm surely not the strongest but I train hard to get better. Why do you ask?"

"I wanted to ask you if you can help me train." He said in a little voice, not sure if you wanted to spend that much time with him...

"Hum, I don't have that much free time" you began saying and noticed how Naruto let his shoulders hang, "but if you are willing to get up early I think I can manage to help you a bit before you go to the academy."

He began to jump in excitement. "Really, you would do that for me?"

"Sure, but I have never taught before, so you have to have some patience with me. But I warn you, I am demanding with myself and expect you to be the same with you."

He got all serious. "You can count on me. I will work hard and I won't disappoint you."

"Great, now go sleep and be ready early in the morning. I come to pick you up."

As he disappeared to his apartment you made your way downtown. You would meet up with Yugao, Kotetsu, and the others. But then you heard a voice behind you. It was familiar, but you couldn't remember who it belonged to.

"Nice to see you again (Y/N). I can see you have made a new friend?"

You looked back and recognized him in an instance. You didn't think you would see him again. "Sukea? Hi, well I'm just like that, I make friends with anyone. So you're back in Konoha? What's your article this time about?"

He gave you a chuckle. "I'm not working this time actually. How are you settling in your new life here?"

Kakashi had seen you walking with Naruto. Although he didn't intend to see you again as Sukea, his curiosity as to why you would be with him got the better of him. But then again, you didn't know that he was Minato's son and had no idea that he is a jinjuriki.

"I'm still adjusting, but it's going good, I even have my own place now."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. As Sukea he just couldn't resist teasing you. "Really? Are you saying that just for saying or do you have intentions of taking me to your place?"

You blushed but you could play the same game. "I haven't thought of that, but I definitely wouldn't mind showing it to you." You said suggestively before adding "but not tonight. I am about to meet with some friends. Do you wanna come too? They are fun to hang out with."

Kakashi couldn't deny he felt a bit disappointed that you wouldn't cancel your plans to be with him, but it was probably for the best. "Thank you for the invitation, but I think I'm gonna pass."

"Oh. Well, maybe we can meet at another time then."

"Sure, I would like that. So have fun tonight. Bye, (Y/N)."

"Goodbye Sukea." You had a feeling that Sukea didn't intend to meet again, or else he would have asked when to meet. You were a bit disappointed although you always knew that the night you spend together would probably be only a nightstand.

You pushed those thoughts aside when you entered the bar and saw your friends sitting by a table. There was Yugao, her boyfriend, Kotetsu, and Izumo as always but this time it seemed as Genma had joined as did some friends of his. You had seen them in the bar quite a lot but you didn't know their names. There was this man in a green jumpsuit and a woman with violet hair tied in a short spiky ponytail.

"Hey guys, sorry for showing up late."

Kotetsu made you some space on the bench for you to sit between him and Izumo while saying "Don't talk nonsense, you're not late."

You tried to make your way to him and sit down but the man in the jumpsuit stood up and stretched his hand out to grab yours and shook it enthusiastically while introducing himself.

"Hi, I'm Guy Might, Leaf's Noble Green Beast. You are (Y/N), right? I have heard of you, you're in my eternal rival's ANBU team. It's an honor to meet such a beautiful and youthful woman as you are."

You stood there shaking this stranger's hand without knowing what to reply to him. "Nice to meet you too" ('I guess'). You were then interrupted by the violet haired woman.

"Calm down Guy or else you will just scare her away. Hi, I'm Anko. Nice to finally meet you. Kotetsu just wouldn't shut up about you." She gave a sheepish smile to Kotetsu and he tensed up.

You weren't sure what was going on so you just sat down. "You make me feel just like a superstar or something like that. All of you know about me and I just don't know who you guys are..."

After a while, you became used to Guy's unique personality and ended up laughing with him. Anko seemed fun too and you learned that she was also an ANBU member. You loved these moments with your friends because you could forget about the harsh and sometimes brutal missions you would do. It was exhausting sometimes for you to socialize because you weren't used to, and most days you would get up early to train or study all day. But you had the intention to live a better life than what you lived back in your world, and having friends was definitely something good.

But as you looked at your watch, you realized it was already getting late, so you excused yourself and stood up to leave. Kotetsu stood up as well...

"I'm going home too, this day has been tiresome for me."

After you had talked to him that you only saw him as a friend, it had passed some time before you met up again. After some awkward moments, he quickly went to his old self and you continued to enjoy his company as before. He had never tried anything with you again and you thought he was over you, so when he asked to walk you home you had nothing against it.

"So you're finally out of the barracks?"

"Yea, I'm surely not gonna miss living there. It's so good to have my own place and my privacy."

"You said you are going to be busy tomorrow, are you going again on a mission?"

"No, I'm actually promised a kid I would help him train."

Kotetsu was surprised. "A kid? Are your motherly instincts kicking in?" He said laughing.

"Of course not." You felt the heat rise to your face in embarrassment. Motherly instincts were the last thing you thought you had. "Naruto just seems so lonely and in a way, he reminds me of myself."

Kotetsu got serious. "Are you talking about Naruto Uzumaki?"

You stopped and turned to face Kotetsu. If he knew the kid's name then probably knew something more. "Yes, I am. What do you know about him."

Kotetsu immediately regretted what he said. The events about the nine-tails were classified and people shouldn't talk about it. But he just couldn't hide things from you and when you insisted on asking him about Naruto, he ended up telling everything that he knew. Since Naruto's story was a long one, you had reached your apartment and invited Kotetsu in while he told you everything.

"That is just cruel not telling the kid about his parents. And he doesn't know he has the nine-tails sealed in him? Isn't that dangerous?"

"I think you're right, but lord third has prohibited telling him anything so please, don't tell the kid, or else I'm screwed for telling you this.

You didn't like this one bit, but you ended up promising Kotetsu you wouldn't tell Naruto a thing.

You had made tea for you two and were now finishing it while lost in your thoughts. Kotetsu wanted to change the subject.

"It's a cozy apartment you have here."

You chuckled. "That's a nice way to say it's small."

"It's not what I meant." He became embarrassed, afraid he had offended you."

"But it is small. But for a person only it's enough. Don't need much time to clean up."

You finished the tea and Kotetsu stood up. You accompanied him to the door.

"Thank you for the tea (Y/N), sleep well." Kotetsu gathered all his courage to kiss your cheek without showing his embarrassment. He hasn't given up on you yet, but didn't want to show it yet. "Good night."

You were surprised for him to kiss you, but as you observed him, it looked like he had no other intentions than say goodbye to a friend, so you smiled at him and said goodnight too. You were happy that he had stayed your friend. You sure enjoyed his company.