Thinning Line Between

by Bethie82

Hound is a broken man who has a mission he can't refuse or fail. Harumi is a medic who can't say no to her siblings. What do these two have in common? A young blonde who needs to be kept safe from someone or something. AU where Kakashi becomes Naruto's guardian and his life is turned upside down by a medic and her family.

44. Ending 1

Bracing for the cold hands of death, Kakashi kept his eyes focused on Obito. The chain wrapped around his chest. Obito pulled his arm back, Kakashi's upper body was yanked forward, off his feet.

Obito's hand smashed into Kakashi's face and Kakashi fell to the ground. Kakashi just couldn't bring himself to care that he was dying.

"I should take my eye back, after all, you don't need it anymore," Obito sneared. Kneeling on Kakashi's chest, dropping the chain and he reached into the weapons pouch on his back, Obito brought out a kunai. "Do you think your medic will be able to reattach my eye?"

Kakashi frowned, "Why are you asking me? Just kill me."

"Maybe I will wait. Maybe I should kill your medic in front of you, just like you killed Rin in front of me," Obito hissed.

Kakashi ignored the spit hitting his face as Obito continued to yell at him. Why wouldn't Obito just kill him? Why does he have to keep talking?

Kakashi was lost in his own thoughts, not fighting, just waiting for Obito to finally put him out of his misery.

"Why are you not fighting me?" Obito yelled, hitting Kakashi in the chest with the back of his kunai.

Kakashi just stared at the man holding him down, the chains loosened as Obito continued to hit him.

"Fight me Bakashi!" Obito screamed.

"No, I will not fight the person I called my friend. The person I still mourn," Kakashi answered.

"Liar!" Obito screamed, hitting Kakashi's face.

Kakashi could feel his cheek start to bleed on his mask, the same mask that is currently preventing him from spitting out the blood in his mouth. Running his tongue along his teeth, he determined they were still intact.

"Fine, Bakashi! If you won't fight me, maybe you will fight for your medic."

Kakashi frowned, "What does that mean Obito?"

Obito gave something that looked like a smile, but there were too many teeth on display and his eyes were more crazy than usual. "Oh now you show life. What happened, Kakashi Friend Killer, finally found a friend not afraid of you?"

"She is not my friend," Kakashi tried to sound convincing. Difficult to do when his face hurt, but this was not the plan. He was supposed to die, not Harumi. Taking a breath, Kakashi forcefully shoved all the hate and self loathing away. While it would be poetic to have Obito kill him. As a shinobi of the Hidden Leaf, he would not allow another to be harmed because of him. Especially not someone who had so many people depending on her. Kakashi might die, hell he prayed for death on most days, but he wouldn't die until he was sure the threat to Harumi, to Naruto was gone. He had to trust his team could take care of the one calling himself Madara. Kakashi's job was to eliminate the threat to Harumi, even if that threat was his old teammate.

The one who gave him his eye.

The same eye that burned.

Obito must have seen something, because his grin grew more manic. "So that is what it takes. Stay here Kakashi, I will be right back and you can watch your medic die in your place."

"No!" Kakashi screamed, charging at Obito, the chain had become loose enough that it didn't pose much of a problem for Kakashi. He pulled the last kunai from his pouch, he dug deep and pulled his chakra together and formed a chidori around the kunai.

Obito ran at Kakashi, his own metal rod protruding from his hand.

Kakashi felt the whole world slow down. He heard that when you are dying, your life flashes before your eyes. Kakashi wasn't sure about that, but as he was charging towards Obito, he saw the boy he once was, the one that wanted nothing more than to be Hokage, who just wanted Kakashi to acknowledge him as a good shinobi, a teammate. Kakashi could see the boy with goggles, ill fitting jackets and couldn't show up on time to save his life.

What should have taken just a heartbeat or two, seemed to last for minutes.

For hours.

Moving through mud, Kakashi pushed himself to move faster.

Faster than he had ever moved before.

This was one battle he could not lose!

He will not lose.

One foot. The other foot.

One foot.

With dizzying speed, the world returned to normal speed.

Kakashi planted his foot, braced himself.

Kakashi blinked. He gasped for air as he flexed his fingers, the chidori fizzled out, the high pitched chirping sound dying quickly. He dropped his kunai and flexed his fingers again.

"I just want you to know, I have always called you my friend, even when I had no idea what a friend was. I will always remember you as you were. I will always wish things ended differently. I just want the Obito you were to be at peace," Kakashi gasped, trying not to cough as he said the words he needed to say. To say his final words to the man who was his friend. Coughing up blood, Kakashi felt a dull pain in his chest. Taking a shallow breath, Kakashi summoned his strength and pulled his arm from Obito's chest.

A wet sucking sound filled the air between the two men. Kakashi watched as Obito coughed up blood and spit it on the ground. Obito tried to pull away, but Kakashi held on.

Groaning as Obito pulled the metal rod from his chest, Kakashi tried to keep his hold on Obito's arm as his vision went black with pain.

"You think this is the end?" Obito sneered, "You think this is how it will all end?" Obito coughed more blood and this time, spit it at Kakashi.

"We are dying, Obito, unless you know a way to heal that," Kakashi pointed at the holes in both his and Obito's chest.

Obito tried to shake Kakashi off his arm, but Kakashi tightened his hold, focusing his remaining strength in maintaining his hold.

"You can die if you want, but I refuse to die like this!"

Kakashi watched in horror as Obito started to disappear. Kakashi focused on Obito and activated his own Sharingan to try and counter whatever Obito was doing. He was too late to stop him, but he did manage to maintain his grip on Obito.

His vision went black as his chakra surged as the Kamui portal engulfed both Obito and himself. Working through the… pain, the weakness, the bloodloss… Kakashi tried to focus.

"Kakashi!" Harumi yelled as two men appear in the middle of the burned area, running over to them.

"No!" Kakashi yelled. Struggling to move, his body heavy and sluggish.

Obito didn't seem to have that problem as he pulled a kunai out from nowhere and lunged at Harumi.

With a final surge of.. Something, Kakashi grabbed Obito's head and twisted.

The snap pop echoed through the whole area.

Harumi didn't slow down as she ran, falling onto her knees next to the two men. Tenzo, already using tree roots to tie Obito to the ground with the Uchiha cousins, checked to ensure this man was dead.

Harumi ignored all of this as she shoved her chakra into the hole in Kakashi's chest and forcefully stopped the bleeding. It would take hours to get this wound closed, but none of it would matter if Kakashi continued to bleed out. Once the bleeding had stopped she did a quick diagnosis to ensure that there were no other life threatening injuries. Kakashi was sliding further into shock. If she could get fluid into him, then Kakashi would be stable enough for her to either move him or.. Well something.

Harumi reached for her medical kit on her back. Her hands encountered air, "Shit! Yugao, you wouldn't happen to have an IV would you?" Harumi called out.

"Not on me," was the answer, "But I have the basic kit."

Harumi absently nodded as her mind flew through the alternatives. Kakashi was in shock, it wasn't life threatening now, but that could be from the adrenaline pumping through his body. He needs fluids and oxygen now. She could deal with regrowing his skin later once he wasn't in danger.

Yugao opened the basic field kit and set out what she had, Harumi spotted a small bottle and breathed a sigh of relief. This could work.

"I'm sorry Kakashi, this is going to hurt," Harumi muttered as she took a deep breath and concentrated. This was a technique she hadn't used in years, one that is taught to all medics during the war, she learned it only because she harassed someone to teach her. "I need some water," she told the people around her.

"Here," a canteen was shoved at her.

Nodding her thanks, Harumi opened the canteen and added the contents of the small bottle. With a gentle flick of her wrist, she mixed it all together and then focused on her hand. Once she was confident she had enough chakra built up, tilted the canteen, a small trickle of the water mixture came out and Harumi set her finger against Kakashi's chest. With a concentrated push, she shaped the chakra in her hand into a hollow needle, pierced Kakashi's chest and forced the water into a vein in his chest.

Even with the slow flow of water, Harumi managed to empty the canteen quickly.

"Hold him down," she muttered once the canteen was emptied. Tenzo brought more roots out of the ground and wrapped them around Kakashi's limbs. Jiraya came and knelt next to Kakashi's head and forced his shoulders down.

Once Harumi was satisfied that Kakashi was imoble, she forced her chakra back into Kakashi's body, she latched her chakra onto every bit of the fluid she just forced into Kakashi and with a hard push, she pushed that fluid into every part of the body. She braced herself as Kakashi tried to rear up as the liquid raced through his body, through the veins and arteries. Harumi was told it feels like your blood turned to fire.

Painful, yes, but now that the fluids were distributed to the body, Kakashi's heart rate should return to normal, his body could start working on replacing the blood he lost and the oxygen his body desperately needed could finally reach the parts it needs to. Checking once again, finding his body slightly more stable than when she started, Harumi once again pushed her chakra into her hands and set them near the gaping wound.

The bleeding had stopped, now she was going to start forcing his body to knit back together, rather than delicately stitching each piece, she was going to do a less precise method, just flood the area with chakra and let the body naturally take care of itself. While this method isn't the most comfortable for anyone, it does leave less chance for error.

It was once explained to Harumi that chakra not only gives us access to the forces in nature, but it helps to enhance the body's natural processes. For instance, shinobi don't often get the colds that wreck the civilian population, this is because chakra helps to enhance the body's natural immune system. The same process is used for injuries. Chakra just gives the body a jolt to heal at a faster rate, because the body is primed to just work better at this. There are some theories out there that state the reason chakra helps to heal the body is because chakra itself harms the body. It has always been an interesting thought, one that is discussed around the table during Nara clan meetings. For being notoriously lazy, the Nara men have a weakness for games and debate. Most of the women were too busy to get pulled into debate or games.

One time, two uncles' discussion got so heated, that the elder women left and then came back with buckets of ice water. After tossing it on the two men, the women stated that the next time a discussion got this heated, the offending parties would be stuck tending the deer for two weeks. The elders have only had to go through with this once, but it is still a threat we all take seriously.

Harumi forced what chakra she had left into Kakashi's body, focusing on keeping the stream of chakra consistent while also making sure to not overwhelm his system. Thankfully Kakashi's chakra was already working on healing him, so she was able to add hers to the mix to speed it up even more. A large soft scab formed on both sides of the puncture wound first. Then the swelling happened. Harumi was pleased with this progress. She pushed more chakra in, making sure to support Kakashi's chakra and not cause him further problems.

"Is he going to be okay?" Tenzo asked, nodding at Kakashi.

" Well he isn't bleeding out and his body isn't in shock, so I am going to say that he will be fine. At least until he realizes that he will be in the hospital for a day or two then on bed rest for weeks after that," Harumi answered.

Both Tenzo and Yugao laughed.

Jiraya stood up and walked over to the body of Obito, "What do you want to do with him?"

Shishui shrugged, "I mean technically he is already dead, so we don't need to bring him back to bury. Not that a lot of people will want him at home after what he did."

"What about his eyes?" Jiraya asked.

Itachi blinked, "What eyes?"

"The ones in his…." Jiraya's words halted as he knelt down and took a closer look at the body in front of him. "Where are his eyes?"

Harumi turned her head just in time to see both boys shrug.

"Did you want to burn him also?" Yugao asked.

"As long as we don't need his body of proof for our story, I would like to, yes," Itachi answered.

"There are enough of us that saw what happened, we shouldn't," Shishui replied, "Besides there are two Uchiha's here, so if needs be, we can have one of the Yamanakas check out our brains."

"Burn him and collect his ashes, same with Madara's," Yugao suggested.

The two Uchihas nodded, Shishui bent over and with a grunt slung the body over his shoulder. They walked a distance away from the group.

"Jiraya-sensei? Is everything good now?" A soft voice asked.

"Yes!" he boomed.

"I understand that Madara is dead, and it looks like Tobi is too, is that correct?" The woman in purple asked.

Yugao nodded, "About as dead as one can be with a broken neck, and about to be burned by Uchiha fire."

"What is going to happen now?" The man with the orange hair asked.

"I will talk to the Hokage and we will see what we can do. I don't think sensei will be opposed to opening talks with Ame," Jiraya answered.

"Do you have a medical facility near? I would like to get Kakashi on an IV," Harumi asked.

The woman with purple hair nodded and held her hand out, a small paper crane appeared, "Take this with you, it will grant you access to anything within the medical building. I should warn you, it will not be as advanced as what you are used to."

"I don't need advanced, I just need some needles, tubing and IV fluids. If necessary I can send for it, but that would be a delay that I don't want to have," Harumi answered.

Nodding, the woman looked over her shoulder, "Nagato, could one of the Pein's help carry this man to the medical ward?"

The orange haired man nodded before jumping away to a tower near the center of the village.

"Pain will be back in a moment," the woman said.

"Thank you," Harumi replied, "I'm Harumi, a medical ninja from Konoha. If I can be of service while I'm here, please let me know."

"I will keep that in mind. We don't have many medical ninja," she replied before walking over to where the bulk of her group stood, "Please let me know if you need anything while you are here, but I suspect you will not want to stay long." With those ominous words, she disappeared in a whirlwind of paper.

Moments later, another man with orange hair appeared and walked straight over to Kakashi. Harumi stood between Kakashi and the new man.

"Peace, medical ninja, I'm here to help you carry your injured to the medical building," the man spoke.

Harumi stared at the man in front of her, he had longish hair in a high ponytail. He had multiple piercings on his face, but he did smile at her. Wishing the purple haired woman had given her something else to work with, other than Nagato was sending her someone named Pain.

"Pain?" Harumi asked, even if it should be obvious, she wasn't taking chances now.

"Yes, you can call me that, although this one is called Chikushōdō, so you could call me either."

Harumi nodded, "Okay then. Let's get Kakashi to the medical building, and while we walk could you tell me about what we will be walking into?"

Chikushodo nodded, then with a small hand gesture, a large multi headed dog appeared in a puff of smoke. It was taller than she was by far, but it wasn't so tall the it couldn't walk under the tallest trees in Konoha.

Harumi sucked in a deep breath, and watched as the center head bent over to smell Kakashi while the right head turned to stare at her. Holding her hand out, she kept her voice light, "Thank you for helping me, Chikushodo and Chikushodo's summons. Does it have a name?"

The orange haired man stared at her unblinking for a long while. "It doesn't have a name, at least not that it has told me. If you will be calm, I will have him carry your injured. You and I can walk next to him. It isn't a long distance to walk."

Harumi dropped her hand, nodded and took a step back, "Of course, let's go."

Chikushodo bent over and was able to pick up Kakashi with care before setting him on the dog's back, resting in a spot between the heads. Two of the three heads moved into a position that cradled Kakashi then it started to walk away.

Chikushodo gestured to Harumi and together they took off after the dog creature.

"So the woman said that the building wasn't advanced, does this mean you don't have many medical ninja? Also I did offer my services if someone needs it. I might not be able to do much until my chakra is replenished, but I will do what I can if it is an emergency."

"Do you always offer to help after you were kidnapped?"

"Well," Harumi laughed, "I can honestly say that this is my first time being kidnapped, but I usually offer my services when I am staying in an area that may or maynot have regular access to a ninja healer. It helps to kill the boredom of waiting around."

Chikushodo nodded, "We have a fully stocked medical building, but I've been told Konoha has one of the most modern medical facilities. You could think of our facility as more of a rural hospital than a large city one."

Harumi nodded, "Okay, that is easy enough to work with. Do you have diagnostic imaging or no?"

"Would you believe me if I told you I have no idea?"

"I would," Harumi shrugged, "most people don't have much idea of what goes on in a hospital. They just want to know they will get fixed, or their loved ones cured. They don't care about the inner workings."

"I will introduce you to the staff I do know. Just make sure you keep the crane with you, that way everyone will know you are here with our knowledge and blessing."

"Oh, what happens if I lose it?" Harumi was curious, not that she would lose it.

"Let's just say that shinobi don't last long if they are not here with our blessing," was the cryptic, but also very threatening answer.

"Well okay then, don't lose the crane," Harumi answered, forcing her tone to still sound cheerful.

The dog walked straight up to a short building with a small symbol carved into the wall above the door. It stopped and waited. Chikushodo walked in the door and Harmi stayed at the door with Kakashi. A quick visual check showed no noticeable change, which was good.

A moment later, Chikushodo and two people walked back through the door. One of them carried a stretcher, Harumi watched as the dog knelt down and the two people slowly moved Kakashi onto the stretcher.

"This is Harumi, she is the medical ninja who is in charge of this one. Please help her as if I were asking you. She has offered her services if there is anything she could help with."

"Yes, of course Pain. Thank you for your trust in us," one of the people bowed.

"I will go now," Chikushodo turned to look at me, "If you need anything, let the staff know, or if you can't find someone, rip a corner of the crane and we will know that you need help."

Harumi bowed and expressed her thanks, all while trying to figure out what the hell was going on. But the reality of the situation was, she was putting a lot of trust in Jiraya that this was a safe place. Not what she would prefer, but she was not going to turn down some extra medical help with Kakashi.

"Oh, before you go, if you happen to see the rest of the team, could you let them know where I am. I know they will want to see Kakashi when they have finished what they are doing," Harumi asked.

"Of course, I will tell Jiraya sensei and he can pass the message on," with a wave both the dog and the man disappeared leaving Harumi with two medics and an unconscious Kakashi.

"If you will follow us, we can show you an empty room to finish treating your patient." The male medic said.

"Of course, lead the way. I wasn't able to get much information about what you have available, but would you happen to have some IV fluid, if it is formulated for severe blood loss or injury that would be the best, but any fluid will work."

"We have three different types of IV fluid available, I will bring you one of each and you can let me know which one you want. In the room you will find the basic equipment, IV poles, heart monitor and blood pressure machine," the woman replied, "After the IV is there anything else you will need?"

"I will need some bandaging materials. It will be a day or two before I can completely seal up the wound, depending on how quickly I can replenish my chakra."

"Of course, we have plenty of bandages. Lord Pain said you wanted to help, is there something specific you wanted to help with?"

Harumi shook her head, "Not really, I just want to offer my services. While I know that the civilian way of healing is good if not better than some of my ways of healing, however sometimes the shinobi way of healing can make things easier. So if something comes up and you would like my help, I will gladly help. Even if it is distracting babies while they get their shots," Harumi laughed softly and was pleased with the two medicsm also laughed.

It didn't take long for Kakashi to be wheeled into an empty room. It had a bed, a simple monitoring system and a sink in the corner. The three of them managed to move Kakashi from the stretcher to the bed with only a few grunts.

"I'll be right back with the fluid and IV kit," the woman said right before she walked out of the room, pushing the stretcher in front of her.

The man went over to a cabinet near the sink, opened it and started to pull stuff out. Harumi recognized the packages of sterile bandages and gauze. He also pulled out a bottle of saline water, putting these along with a couple creams on a tray he brought them over to Harumi.

"This should be everything you need to bandage your friend."

"Thank you," Harumi whispered as the two of them walked over to the bed, the man set the tray on the table next to the bed.

"There are also some extra large gauze squares if you wanted to clean him up a bit," the man answered as he walked out the door, "If you need something, there is a desk at the other end of the hall and there is almost always someone walking around."

"Thank you so much," Harumi said again, moving to the sink to wash her hands. A quick wash and she opened one of the gauze packages, soaked the gauze with the saline water and cleaned the area around the wound. She then got a new piece of gauze and started to wash the blood off his face. With the creams, there were a few alcohol pads, which Harumi opened one and wet the area right around the wound. At this point she wasn't terribly worried about infection, because she was confident that she could stop any infection quickly. Smearing some antibacterial creams onto the soft scab and the area right around the wound. It might be unnecessary step, but it was drilled into her head and she was mostly running on habit.

Habit and routine has saved more than one person, because it frees the brain to work on other things. It has also been known to kill people because they don't pay attention to new information, but in this instance, it is a good thing. Using gauze and water to clean up the blood off Kakashi's skin was a good way to help calm down and reflect.

Today had been nothing but a huge roller coaster of craziness. First she woke up as a prisoner, then she heard that Kakashi was her, next there was the huge fight between Kakashi and the formally deceased Obito. Of course one couldn't forget the insanity of the battle with Madara when the two men disappeared which lead to the formerly thought dead Uchiha really being dead. And now Obito was truely dead and Kakashi was working through shock and blood loss.

Oh and she couldn't forget that apparently Jiraya had students that are not Naruto's dad and were living in Ame, working with the now dead Uchihas. Harumi shook her head, this was just nuts. Even as a book plot, it would be unbelievable.

"How can I let people know we are all okay, Kakashi? It isn't like I can summon your pack and ask for their help and honestly I'm not sure they would listen to me," she muttered while continuing cleaning the blood off, discarding gauze squares when they become too soaked with blood to do any good. "Well maybe I could ask one of the others if we can use their summons. This isn't really something we should trust to the hawks."

The metal clang of a cart hitting a wall had Harumi spinning around with her hands up in front of her. Seeing the woman from before she sighed softly and turned back around to cap up the water and push the unused supplies away from the edge of the table.

"Here you are, I brought the three types we have, along with everything you would need to insert the IV and keep it in place."

"Thank you," Harumi said again as she walked over to examine the different fluids. After a short time, Harumi grabbed one and grabbed the small package that had all the tubes, catheter and special bandages.

"Will you need my help?"

"If you don't mind, I could use an extra set of hands. Putting an IV into a unconscious shinobi can be difficult. But I'm hoping that he recognizes me enough to not cause problems," Harumi laughed, "although he hates hospitals so much, he might be a bigger pain because it is me."

The woman smiled, "Sounds like most men I know, unless they are literally on death's door, they won't come to the hospital. And even if they are on death's door, they will only stay long enough to move a step or two away."

Together the two women set the IV bag on the pole, attached all of the tubes necessary, made sure to use alcohol wipes on all the end pieces. Harumi then set all of the parts for the catheter on the bed next to Kakashi's hand.

"Okay Hatake, I am going to put an IV in your hand so you can see it, not so you can pull it out the second you wake up. This is only to give your body a huge amount of fluids in a short amount of time. However if you continue to sleep, then it will be to keep you hydrated. I know how much you hate this, so wake up and tell me. Until you do, I get to make these decisions." Harumi grabbed Kakashi's hand and found a vein. "I will need you to hand me everything we need, I will have to concentrate on getting the catheter in and for it to stay in. His body will most likely fight me on this, but I'm hoping not."

"What do you mean fight you?"

"Well the easiest explanation is his chakra is going to start pushing the catheter out as soon as I put it in. So I will be working on two levels, one to keep the catheter in and also to convince his chakra to let it stay."

"That sounds complicated," she whispered.

"Honestly, at this point it is second nature. Most of the time, the shinobi is able to do this themselves, or they know they are safe and their chakra doesn't go into over protective mode, but he just finished a huge battle, is in shock and still very injured. So I'm not sure what his chakra will try to do." Having finished, Harumi focused her chakra into one had, and with the other, pushing the catheter through his skin and into the vein. Using her own chakra to combat Kakashi's chakra, using it to sooth it. She gently stroked Kakashi's hand and quickly pulled the needle out, left the catheter in and with help from the woman, she was able to get it taped down. All while using her chakra to counter Kakashi's own chakra. Thankfully it didn't take too much, even in this state, Kakashi must have recognized her as someone trying to help.

"Okay, I think we are good for the moment," Harumi said.

The woman nodded as she grabbed the trash from the procedure, and shoved it into a bag under the sink. "If you need anything please let us know. I will leave you to finish washing him up. If you want, we have some clothes to put him in, if you are going to try and get those bloody clothes off."

Harumi nodded, ignoring the blush that flooded her cheeks at the thought of undressing Kakashi, "I will keep that in mind, thank you again."

"No problem," the woman bowed and walked out the door, taking the cart and also closing the door behind her.

"Okay Kakashi, I'm going to flood your system with this IV fluid. It has stuff inside that is similar to what your body needs to heal your wounds. I'm going to finish cleaning you up, probably take off your shirt to ensure that everything is still good. Then I will start sharing my chakra with you, which will help speed up your recovery. Oh and Jiraya knows where we are, so you will want to wake up before everyone finds their way here and they see your face."

Not expecting a response, Harumi moved to do exactly as she said she would. Opening the fluid control to a steady stream, Harumi the pulled pulled and tugged at Kakashi's shirt, before finally just taking her chakra blade, which was mostly used for surgery, and sliced Kakashi's shirt up the sides and around his arms so the front and back pieces fell apart. Focusing on cleaning the remaining blood off, she then sent her chakra into Kakashi, setting the fractured ribs, adding some chakra to hold them together, she moved to checking that all the small fractures were healing, the cuts were sealing well and that infection was not setting in.

Eventually Harumi became aware of her surroundings again. She heard the familiar sounds of an active hospital, the unique squeak of hospital shoes on a shiny floor, the low murmur of staff as they discussed cases as they walked the halls. Looking around confirmed that she was still alone, but something pulled her out of healing Kakashi.

A soft knock on the window had Harumi's head jerking to the sound. On the other side stood none other than the rest of Kakashi's team. She shook her head as she walked over and opened the window.

"Come on in, Kakashi is good. His body is healing quickly and getting what it needs to continue to heal," she answered the question before it was even asked.

"That's good," Tenzo said nodding.

"Did someone let the Hokage know that we are all okay?" Harumi asked.

"Not yet, we wanted to make sure the Kakashi and you were okay," Yugao answered, "Itachi here is going to send a couple crows to relay the message. We wanted to know how much time you think we will need before we head on out."

"I will have a better idea once Kakashi wakes up, but we should be able to leave in a day, two at the most."

Itachi nodded, "Would you like me to include a message for your family?"

Harumi paused for a moment to think, "Maybe just a message to Oji, letting him know I'm fine. He will be able to tell the kids, or at least tell my aunt and she will tell the kids."

"I will go to the roof and send the message, it will be a simple we are fine, with more to come later, update, but that should keep everyone from worrying too much."

Harumi watched as Itachi leapt up, presumably to the roof. She turned her attention to the others, "Seriously, do you want to come in?"

"We don't want to be in the way," Tenzo answered.

Harumi moved away, "Get in here. The room is big enough that you can all lay down on the floor and barring an emergency, will stay out of my way. Besides, I think Kakashi would appreciate knowing that you all are here to help protect him while he is down."

Tenzo laughed, "Not that we will tell him that, most likely we will say that we are here for you."

Yugao nodded as she came into the room and walked over to Kakashi, "You have been busy."

Harumi nodded, "I am letting the IV do some work before I try to continue to heal him. It is better if he has the building blocks in place, it will take less energy from both of us."

Yugao smiled, "No I mean you cleaned him up quickly."

"Oh, well I had some time between when we got here and when the IV fluid was available, so I thought I would get started on some of the routine stuff. Speaking of, does one of you have his stuff? I figured Kakashi would want to be in his own clothes and these ones are trashed."

"Itachi has it," Shishui called from the window.

Harumi nodded, "Okay then." She moved back over to Kakashi and quickly checked his vitals before grabbing the saline solution and the gauze pads, "If you want to clean up a bit, you can use these. I'm sure we could ask someone about a shower, but that is up to you."

"We can take turns showering. Jiraya said that he would get us a room somewhere so we could clean up and sleep while Kakashi recovers."

"Alright, but for now, let's get most of the blood and dirt off," Harumi handed a wet gauze to Tenzo, then another to Yugao.

"So what did you all do with the ashes?" Harumi asked, as Itachi and Shishui climbed in the window.

"We have some in a package, separated so the medics can run dna to confirm who they were," Shishui answered.

"That's good."

The group lapsed into a comfortable silence, just trying to relax after the battle that wasn't. Harumi sat on the floor, in a patch of sun and meditated, working on getting her chakra reserves up. She would need to eat a large meal or two before her reserves were back to normal, but resting and letting her body focus on recovery was a good substitute for the moment.

Time passed. Jiraya brought some food and took Tenzo to the rooms he had set aside for us. The hospital staff came by and showed Harumi where the shower was in the room, so she asked if she could get a set of scrubs from the closet and took a quick shower. She then washed her clothes in the shower and hung them up to dry.

The others came through after getting cleaned up and the five of them waited for Kakashi to wake up.

The sun had been down for a while now, but the night was still young. Harumi was sitting next to Kakashi's bed and was holding Kakashi's hand, letting her chakra stream into him. Her eyes took longer and longer to open after she blinked, until finally her eyes stayed closed.

Minutes, or hours later Harumi's hand jerked waking her up. Her head snapped up off her shoulder where it had drifted while she was sleeping.

"What?" she asked, looking around. She saw Kakashi's eye looking at her. She made sure to put a small patch over the Sharingan to help his chakra settle. "Kakashi! You're awake!"

"What happened?" Kakashi's voice was hoarse.

Harumi stood up, grabbed a cup leftover from dinner and filled it with water, "Drink this," she told Kakashi as she checked his blood pressure, chakra reserves and just his overall health.

"Thanks, but where are we?"

"Well we are in the hospital in Ame. You were gravely injured during your fight with Obito. I will yell at you later when the hospital isn't sleeping and your team isn't guarding the area and can hear it. I was able to stabilize you, we brought you here and have been slowly patching you up."

"Is the team okay? What happened to Obito? Where is Madara?"

"Yes, your team is just fine, just some scrapes and some bruises, nothing a day or two won't fix. Obito and Madara are dead. Itachi and his creepy cousin burned them to ashes in keeping with clan tradition so no one can steal their eyes."

"Why is Shishui the creepy cousin?"

Harumi 'hmm'ed as she focused on the IV in Kakashi's hand, so he was going to avoid talking about Obito or Madara, okay then. "He has been hitting on all the medical staff that ventrue in. It has gotten to the point where no one wants to come in and if I need something, I have to go out and find them."

Kakashi smiled, "Well that is one way to keep the room secure."

"What?" Harumi exclaimed.

"It isn't a tactic we normally use, but it is a good one. I mean, people will avoid this room because of him, so you know if someone is coming this way it probably isn't for a good reason," Kakashi explained.

"I don't get that, but okay I guess."

"You work in a hospital and you are a medic, as ANBU we think differently," was the only explanation Kakashi was going to give. "So who is on guard duty?"

"Itachi and Yugao, I suspect they will be here in a moment, it is almost time for them to check on me."

Kakashi nodded, "Can I get up?"

"As long as you promise to move slowly. Your chest isn't fully healed yet and neither are your broken ribs." Harumi was already moving to lower the bed, so Kakashi could easily set his feet on the ground. She helped to move his legs over the side of the bed and pushed them into a better position. Standing in front of him, she watched carefully as Kakashi put weight on his feet and slowly stood up.

He swayed a bit, but was able to stay on his feet. Harumi moved with his as he slowly walked to the bathroom that was attached to the room. The bathroom where Harumi took her shower not hours before.

Harumi quickly stripped the bed, and was in the process of remaking it when the door opened. A glance showed her it was Yugao and Itachi, with someone else.

"Is he..?" Yugao asked, looking in the direction of the bathroom.

"Yep, he woke up a few minutes ago. I think he will want to be leaving soon."

"Harumi-san, this person wanted to talk to you," Itachi interrupted.

"Of course, what can I do for you?" Harumi asked, turning her attention to the person standing in the doorway.

It was almost impossible to tell anything about the person, because they were standing in the shadows, wearing a full surgical uniform, which covered an individual from head to toe. It could keep the individual's clothes free from blood and was easy to throw away if necessary.

"I was told you are a medical ninja?" The voice was smooth and about midrange, so it could either be a high pitched man, or a low pitched woman.

"I am."

"Someone came in with an injury to their lungs and we were wondering if you could help."

"Of course, do I have time to let my teammate know?"

"We have a couple minutes, yes," the individual replied.

"Thank you," Harumi bowed her head as she headed over to the bathroom. She knocked lightly, "I'm coming in."

"Okay," came the muffled reply.

Harumi walked in and saw Kakashi standing in front of the mirror, his hand on his chest, near the wound. Harumi met his eyes in the mirror as she walked forward and closed the door.

"You didn't say anything about my face," Kakashi whispered, gesturing at the fact his face was maskless.

Harumi shrugged, "Looks are irrelevant, Kakashi. They fade and change, what doesn't change is the character of a person. Besides, Mother always told me that when you let people into your heart, how they look doesn't matter, because they will always be handsome or pretty to you."

Kakashi grinned, Harumi felt her breath catch in her chest.

"I have it on good authority that a picture of my face is worth enough to cover rent for a year."

Harumi laughed softly, "Feel free to put your own clothes on, they are right over there," she pointed to the pile on the counter, "I have been asked to help with a medical problem. Itachi and Yugao are here, so if you need something, let them know." Turning around to go, now that she had delivered her message, she was pulled to a halt.

Kakashi grabbed her arm, "Take Itachi with you please. I don't want to explain to anyone that we got you back, just for something to happen to you."

Harumi smiled, walked over and wrapped her arms around Kakashi's body, "Nothing will happen to me Kakashi, but if it will make you feel better, I will bring Itachi as far as I can. I might be in the surgery ward, which means he won't be able to come far."

Kakashi let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding, Harumi wasn't going to kick up a fuss about him worrying. "Have Itachi get Shishui to cover for him if he is worried."

Harumi nodded, her cheek rubbing against Kakashi's naked chest. "I'll be back soon. Make sure you drink and eat what you are given. If you can manage to be here when I'm done, we can discuss how quickly we can be on our way back home."

Kakashi's arms wrapped around Harumi's smaller body, gave her a single squeeze before Harumi took a step back.

Harumi stared at him, before she shook her head, much like Pakkun did when he was confused, not that Kakashi would ever tell her, and walked out the door. Picking up his clothes, he slowly got dressed, grinning as he saw the shirt Harumi laid out for him had the mask attached.

Harumi walked out of the bathroom and nodded to the person who came to get her, "Itachi-san, if you would please send a message to Shishui to come and take your place, the captain has requested that you come with me."

The person still standing in the doorway made a noise.

"Just as far as he is able, and is safe. If we are going into surgery, then he can stand either in the observation room or outside the surgery room doors," Harumi said before any objections could be raised. "We never let our people move in a forgien city alone."

"So long as you are able to keep the area sterile, I don't see harm in it," the person answered.

Itachi nodded and walked to the window, with a small puff of smoke, crow hovered for a moment before flying away. "I'm ready."

Harumi nodded, "Lead the way, medic."

The gates of Konoha stood proud in front of the group. Kakashi sent Tenzo and Yugao, a head of them to let the Hokage and ANBU know we were arriving at the gates. It took a few hours of talking before it was agreed that we would come through the gates and not through one of the many entrances that shinobis use for missions. Harumi argued against this, she said that she was taken in secret, so she could just return in secret, just let people think she was on a mission.

Kakashi disagreed mainly because his team made a little bit of noise when they left, and knowing the kids, they would have said something. Also this was a way to subtly let the village know that everything is safe.

Harumi eventually gave in, but only because she was tired of arguing. She had a headache from the sun and she was feeling a little cranky because of the lack of sleep while traveling. Traveling sucked when you didn't have your stuff, she was able to go shopping and pick up a few things, a pack, sleeping bag and a couple changes of clothes, but she kept her purchases to a minimum.

Taking a deep breath, Harumi felt some of the tension from the past week melt away, she was home. She was safe.

Kakashi walked over and put his hand on her shoulder, gave it a squeeze, "You're home. Once you are done with the Hokage and medical you can go home, take a bath, put on your own clothes and relax. I'm sure your family will have dinners for the next month in your freezer. I can pick up the kids from…."

Whatever Kakashi was going to say was cut off by two voices yelling "Nee-chan!"

Harumi's and Kakashi's heads snapped in the direction of the gates, just in time to see two boys, one with black hair the other with bright yellow, running as fast as they could towards them.

"How did they?" Harumi asked.

Kakashi shrugged.

Harumi dropped to her knees so she wouldn't fall over, and waited for the two boys to reach her. They didn't slow down and ran full speed into her arms. She wound her arms around them, patting their heads and backs.

"I thought you were dead!"

"I'm happy you're back!"

"Don't ever do that again!"

"I missed you! But I knew Kaka-nii would save you."

Naruto and Masahiro were talking over each other trying to finish whatever they were trying to say.

Harumi just held them and let them get it all out, she whispered, "I'm back. I'm fine. It's okay," over and over until they calmed down.

Masahiro's tear stained face looked up at her, "I'm glad your back."

Harumi smiled and kissed her little brother on the forehead, "I'm glad to be back too."

"Come on!" Naruto said as he pulled at her hand, "It's like the whole village is here to see you."

"What?"

"Well Tenzo said you would be home, the Shikaku-oji said you would be busy most of the day with the Hokage so, we came to see you," Masahiro answered.

Harumi blinked, before turning her glare to Kakashi, "I wanted to come home quietly," she hissed.

"I don't control Tenzo's mouth," Kakashi shrugged.

"I don't know how, but I know you are behind this. When I figure it out, beware Kakashi!"

Moving to the children Itachi asked, "I thought you two would be in school."

Masahiro shrugged, "The whole Academy is here."

Harumi stopped, "What?"

Naruto stared up at her, "Well you see I told the teacher that you were coming back today and he told someone else, and next thing I know, we have a field trip to the gates!"

"Wait, how does oji telling you that I am coming home lead to the whole Academy showing up? I thought you were just missing class."

Naruto's hand came up and rubbed his neck, "Well you see…."

"It was my idea," a new voice chimed in.

Harumi looked up and saw a little Sasuke standing near the group.

"I thought that it would be nice to see you all. Nii-san is always so tired after he is done with his report and medical checkup, that he sleeps for the whole day. So I thought if we saw you before you did all of that, we could see you…" he trailed off.

Harumi smiled and ruffled Sasuke's hair, smiling as his lips flattened in displeasure, but he leaned into her hand slightly.

"Where is everyone else?" Kakashi asked.

"Oh, they are inside, Naruto and Masahiro got too excited to wait so they ran away," Sasuke replied.

Harumi laughed, "Sounds like something they would do, but why are you here?"

The group continued walking.

Sasuke's ears turned red, "I came to make sure those two didn't get into trouble."

Harumi laughed softly, as she glanced at Itachi who was walking closer to Sasuke.

"That is very good of you Sasuke. Could you make sure Itachi stays with us and doesn't try to disappear so he avoids the crowd?" Shishui asked. Then he started laughing as Itachi turned and glared at him.

"I can do that!" Sasuke said and moved away from Harumi to walk next to Itachi, not holding his hand, but close enough that he could.

When she walked through the gates Harumi looked around and was quickly able to find her family, her brother and sister were standing with their teams, her aunts, uncles and cousins were all standing together. Next to them were the Yaminaka and Akimichi clans, then there were her old teammates, standing in the midst of the Academy students. At the far end of the group, was a small group of Uchihas, much smaller than the other groups, but Harumi was pleased they had come to see Itachi and Shishui.

Masahiro pulled Harumi over to their siblings who proceeded to hug her as soon as she was within reach.

Maiko held tight and whispered, "I'm so glad you are back."

Hideaki whispered, "Thank kami you returned, I couldn't stand being the oldest a second longer."

Harumi smiled and gave both of them kisses on the forehead. Then she moved over to Shikaku. He studied her, his lazy, piercing gaze took in the clothes that are not her own, the scratch on her cheek from a branch she wasn't able to avoid, and the slight limp from a blister on her heel. His gaze returning to her and he gave her a nod.

Her aunt was crying as she pulled her into her arms, "I was worried. You don't have to worry about cooking, we will make sure you have food for a while, until you are rested. I have your room ready for you at my house, so after you are done with your debriefing, come by and rest."

Harumi smiled, "We will see, I might just want to sleep in my own bed in the quiet."

Oba smiled, "Maybe," she then turned to Kakashi, "Since Naruto-chan is staying with us, I have a room set up for you also. Maybe you can convince Harumi to stay with us since you will be there too."

Harumi laughed as Kakashi stood there, blinking. She could see the faint outline of his mouth that had dropped open.

"Obaie, if you can convince Kakashi to stay at the house, then I will be there," Harumi laughed. "I am going to say hello to my teammates now, Naruto, Masahiro, go stand with your classes please."

She turned and walked straight into a group hug. Her old teammates said much the same things that the others have said. She then walked over to the small group of Uchihas.

"It is good to see you well," Sasuke's mom stated with a smile.

"Thank you," Harumi bowed slightly. "If it wasn't for Itachi, this could have turned out very badly. He is everything a Uchiha is and should Uchiha's are lucky to have such a good son in their ranks."

Harumi straightened, just in time to see Fugaku's eyes widen slightly. Sasuke turned his big eyes to Itachi, "Do you save Harumi, Nii-san?"

Itachi gave Sasuke a rare wide smile, "I didn't do it alone, the whole team worked together."

Harumi smiled at the head of the Uchiha family and moved over to the couple standing in front of Shishui.

"Ah, the girl that has caused so much fuss," the older woman said.

Harumi smiled, "I do my best not to, and yet, here we are." She waved her hand to encompass the whole area.

The older man nodded, "I won't worry about it too much, something will happen soon and you will be forgotten."

"Don't be so sure, if your son and his cousins continue to associate with this one, we will be seeing more of them. And," at this point her voice was rising, "because she is not an Uchiha and will do something to cause more trouble!"

The old man shook his head at her before turning to look at Harumi, "You just keep doing what you are doing. Let the old women gossip," he then turned his gaze to Shishui, "If you were smart, you would get this one to fall in love with you, this clan could use some new blood."

Shishui sputtered, "What?!"

Harumi laughed so hard she doubled over and had tears running down her cheeks. After a few moments though, a hand appeared in front of her.

"You shouldn't do that, you will fall over in front of all these people," Kakashi told her as she put her hand in his and he pulled her up. "So what was so funny?"

Kakashi's innocent question had Harumi laughing again, this time hanging onto his arm. Shishui was slowly inching his way away from Kakashi when Itachi piped in. "Oh my uncle was just telling Shishui that he should start courting Harumi and marry her quickly."

Kakashi's head snapped over to where Shishui was, unsuccessfully, sneaking away, "Oh he did, hmm? Are you going to take his advice?"

Shishui froze, not looking at all like one of the most feared shinobi in all the world, but more like Sasuke when he got caught eating the tomatoes from the garden.

The older woman turned and smacked the old man in the back of the head, "Stop that! You and the whole village knows that Hatake has staked a claim. After the way he ran out of here when she left, only an idiot would think otherwise. Besides," at this point she turned to look at Shishui, "I already have someone in mind for our son."

Harumi turned to ask Shishui a question, but it died on her lips at the look of abject horror on his face. Which of course sent her into another laughing fit.

"Well would you look at that," Shishui said, pointing up to a hawk flying overhead, "I think that's for us. Gotta go. See you at home. Bye!" and in a shower of leaves, he was gone.

Harumi nodded, walked back over to her family, gave the boys an extra hug and told them to behave. Gave her sister and aunt a hug also, before turning to head to the Tower.

Kakashi and Itachi trailing behind her as they slowly made their way over to the tower. Once they arrived at the tower, they were told to go straight to the Hokage, apparently he was eager to hear their report. The three of them walked up the stairs, moving swiftly.

The door was wide open when they arrived at the top floor, Genma sat at the desk.

"Welcome back! Go right on it, they are waiting for you. Oh and this weekend, we are all going out, so mark your calendar," Genma whispered.

Itachi stared at Genma who continued, "Yes young Uchiha, even you and your cousin are invited. We are celebrating a successful mission. I already told Shishui, Tenzo and Yugao. One of us will post something in the hospital for all of Harumi's friends. We already have the place, you all just need to show up."

"But what if I don't want to," Harumi asked.

"Then we will hunt you down and make you come. It is just easier if you come on your own two feet. Just ask Kakashi, he isn't allowed to miss out on these gatherings either."

Harumi sighed, "I remember a time when my friends didn't drag me out to go drinking after a mission."

"That would be because you were too young to go out drinking when you were on active duty," Shikaku answered as he walked in with Inoichi. "Now come on, you don't want to make Hokage wait."

"Fine, but this isn't over Genma!" Harumi shook her finger at the man before she turned and walked into the Hokage's office.

The Hokage was sitting at his desk, the other members of the team were standing against one wall and Harumi was convinced Tenzo was having a conversation with one of the hidden ANBU in the room.

Hokage looked up from the scroll in front of him and nodded, "Good you are all here. I have read your individual reports. I have a few questions before we call in some of the clan heads. I would also like Inoichi to examine all of your memories now so we can authenticate them before the council and the clans assemble."

The team formed a loose circle with Harumi at the front. Shikaku and Inoichi moved to stand next to the Hokage.

"Harumi, you said that you figured out Madara and Tobi were two different people, explain how."

"The mannerisms of the two men were very different. One held himself similar to you, while the other held himself like a child. So the options were either they were two different people, or two different personalities. While different personalities are not common, it is not that uncommon. But it was confirmed when they took me out of the cave they were holding me and brought me to where Kakashi and the team were waiting."

"Very well. How did you manage to beat Madara? I find it hard to believe that a child such as yourself was able to kill a shinobi that was equal in skill to the first Hokage," the Hokage continued.

"I can't say it was this huge elaborate plan, to be honest, I was just trying to make him mad so that he might make a mistake. We had established that the one calling himself Madara was not a full strength which Itachi confirmed when he told us that Madara was using his chakra in place of his muscles or just to support them. So as most old men are, Madara is full of pride, so we just belittled him and treated him like he was old and senile, needing our help because he was just that old and frail."

"Why do you think that worked?" Shikaku asked.

"I would say the tipping point was when Itachi scolded Madara as if he were a child, we all noticed that Madara was acting differently after that," Yugao answered.

"How did you come up with the plan?"

"Honestly, I am pretty sure I just started talking and found something that worked then proceeded to use it."

"How did the rest of you figure out what Harumi was trying to do?"

"I might not be a genius like some people, but we are shinobi, trained to exploit any weakness. So it was obvious when Harumi started to whine and question Madara's abilities, she found a weakness," Yugao answered.

"Kakashi, tell us what happened in the," the Hokage looked down at the scroll in front of him, "kamui," he finished.

"We fought, and in the end I won," Kakashi answered.

"How did you come back?" Shikaku asked.

"Well from what I understand, since the Sharingan I have was originally Obito's eye, the Sharingan's cancel each other out. So when Obito tried to leave, I just wouldn't let him leave me behind. You could think of it like a child holding onto their parents in a crowded room."

"You understand that there are those that are going to question if you even fought the real Madara," the Hokage said.

Harumi shrugged, "That is their right. We can only say what we know. We know there was a man calling himself Madara, we know there is one calling himself Tobi. We know that most of Ame thought they were the same person, while we know that they were actually two. We also know they had the Sharingan, which unless someone was going around stealing Uchiha eyes, we must assume they were telling the truth."

"We have someone looking into that now. Speaking of the Sharingan, Fugaku is going to want to see the eyes."

"He is welcome to ask for them, but unless Itachi and Shishui are walking around with pockets full of eyes, the Sharingans were burnt with the bodies," Harumi stated.

"I would like each of you, one at a time, to accompany Inoichi to a different room and he will scan your memories. One he finishes that, you are to report to medical. I will be made aware of any changes to your body," Hokage was staring at Kakashi as he said that.

"Can I go first," Harumi asked, "I really want to go home, so the faster I can get all of this done, the faster I can sleep."

"Of course, Harumi-chan, if you will follow me," Inoichi strode from the room and walked straight into one of the empty meeting rooms. "Please sit," he said, gesturing towards the chair next to where he was standing. "I know you already know this, but please remember, this won't hurt. I need you to focus on the first moment after you woke up after being kidnapped."

Harumi nodded as she sat down. Focusing on the memory of Madara after she woke up, she felt the gentle pressure of Inoichi's chakra. She forced her chakra to settle, it was still a little stressed from all the craziness of the past week, but Inoichi was familiar.

A little while later, Inoichi sighed. "Very good Harumi, I have what I need. Thank you. Please go get medically cleared and head over to your aunts house before she tries to kill us all."

"Okay, I can do that. Besides I need to sleep in my own bed," Harumi said as she slowly stood up.

"Send one of the Uchiha boys in here please," Inoichi added as he sat down and started writing.

"Will do. Would you also like me to send some tea or some food to you?"

Inoichi smiled, "I'm good for now, but some tea would be nice in an hour or so."

Harumi nodded, "I'll make sure the desk shinobi knows. Is auntie going to throw a party?"

"I wouldn't be surprised if she has the other wives on stand by and now that you are back they have started."

Harumi sighed, "Well I better get my medical checkup so I can get some sleep before then."

"Cheer up, Harumi-chan. You are home. You are safe, the rest can wait."

"I'll remember that," with a small wave, Harumi walked out the door, "Itachi, Shishui, he will see one of you."

The boys shared a look before Shishui sighed and walked into the room.

Itachi walked over and said softly, "After medical can we meet up at your house? There is something Kakashi and I would like you to do."

Harumi nodded, "Of course, if I'm asleep, feel free to wake me up."

Itachi nodded.

Harumi walked down the hall, made sure the shinobi at the desks knew to bring Inoichi some tea and a small plate of food in one hour. Having finished that, she made her way down the tower and walked over to the hospital.

The medical checkup was easy, she was ordered to three days rest and good meals before she could return to duty. After a brief stop at her office to grab some paperwork to keep her occupied while on resting, Harumi headed to her house. She did stop and pick up some takeout, because she just wasn't in the mood to do any cooking, even if it was as simple as heating it up.

Walking into her home, unlocked something inside Harumi that she didn't know was locked away. A weight she didn't know she was carrying was lifted. She felt safe. This was home, the place where she was able to let all of her worries and stresses of the day go. The house looked the same. There were some differences, Masahiro's books were not on the table, nor were Hideaki's shoes near the door. All signs that they hadn't been living here while she was gone. But those things would come back now that she was home.

Setting the takeout on the counter, Harumi kicked off her boots, and walked upstairs to her room. She had already showered at the hospital, standard procedure after the types of exams she had to endure. But she was still in borrowed clothing. The moment the door closed behind her, she shed the borrowed clothes and opened her wardrobe. Pulling out a soft pair of black sleeping shorts, a purple sports bra, and an oversized hoodie she quickly got dressed and went back downstairs to wait on Kakashi and Itachi.

She went to the kitchen and made herself some tea. Simple tasks were the key to a smooth return from a mission. Something her mom had constantly told her after every mission. Small and simple tasks. Tasks that could help signal to the body that you were home and you could relax. These tasks were different for everyone. Hideaki will do laundry for the first couple days after a mission. Maiko would go to the garden, where she would either weed or plant, depending on the time of year. If their garden didn't need attention, then she would go visit the Nara compound and if that wasn't available, the public gardens.

Taking her tea, she went back to the living room, set the tea cup on the table next to the sofa, right next to the book she had been reading before she was kidnapped.

Harumi took a few sips of her tea, to get used to the burn before she drank the whole thing. She was tired, so she curled up on the couch and closed her eyes. Kakashi knew how to get into the house, even with the security seals in place, so she wouldn't worry about being a good host. For that matter, at this point Kakashi and Naruto spent the same amount of time here as they did at Kakashi's place, so she didn't need to be a host, they practically lived here. Satisfying the part of her that had courtesy and rules drilled into her head for years by the women in her family, Harumi was able to drift to sleep peacefully.

Waking to whispered voices, for just a moment, Harumi forgot where she was. The feeling passed quickly when she saw where she was, but in that one moment, she was still in the cave. All it took was opening her eyes to see the room was filled with sunshine and she was in her living room. Turning her head towards the voices, she was not surprised at all to see Kakashi standing in the doorway between the kitchen and living room.

"The Uchiha's are eating all the takeout, so I am going to go grab some more, I already sent Pakkun to order it, I just need to pick it up," Kakashi said.

"Well don't hurt yourself," Harumi muttered as she passed him.

"I won't, I'm off duty for the next two weeks. Apparently you gave me a huge head start on the whole healing thing, so the rest is mostly because the medics are being cautious."

"Come back soon, I'll make some tea."

Kakashi nodded and with a small salute, he was gone.

Harumi walked into the kitchen and smiled. Itachi and Shishui were relaxing in her home. For the first time, Itachi actually looked like the teen he was. "I hope I got food you like?"

"Of course, any food I don't have to cook, or comes with expectations or guilt," Shishui answered.

"Speaking of guilt, who was that couple?" Harumi asked.

Shishui mumbled something before he shoved another mouthful of noodles into his mouth.

"What?" Harumi asked.

Shishui took his time chewing before he answered, "My parents."

"Ah, then I won't worry about the Uchiha trying to get me to marry someone in the clan then."

"Well," Itachi started, "They could still try."

"They could try, but so long as it isn't either of you," Harumi pointed to the two boys in her kitchen, "then I can get out of it."

"Why us?" Shishui asked. "I get Itachi, he is the clan head's heir, but why me?"

"Because you are Shishui of the Body Flicker, one of the more feared shinobi in the known world. I would really not want to start an incident where Oji would have to get involved. I really just want to go back to being a no faced medical ninja."

Itachi smirked, "Good luck with that. After all, the whole village believes that you and Kakashi are together."

Harumi blinked, "What?"

"Well more than one shinobi saw Kakashi tear out of here, like he was on fire. Not to mention the fact he almost tore up part of the forest while we waited for permission to leave. Then of course everyone heard Naruto throwing a fit when you didn't come to pick him up and the added security around Naruto, Masahiro and Sasuke."

"So the only conclusion they could come to was that Kakashi and I are secretly together?" Harumi asked incredulously.

"Not sure if it was the only conclusion, but it was the one that most people wanted, so that is what was spread."

"Wait, if the shinobi were the ones to think this, why do the civilians know this theory?"

Shishui spoke up, "Because this type of juicy gossip wouldn't stay within the ranks, especially since you have civilian friends."

"Why didn't any of my friends, or even Kakashi's stop the rumors then?"

"Probably because Genma is the world's biggest gossip," Kakashi answered. While they were talking, Kakashi had returned and his arms were heavy with food.

Harumi laughed when she saw the sheer number of takeaway containers, "Are you wanting to feed the whole family?"

Kakashi shook his head as he deposited his burden on the table, "No, I only ordered these two," Kakashi pointed to the two bags in right hand. "However once they saw it was for me, they asked if I was picking up something for you too, and I said yes. Next thing I know is I have a whole bunch of people giving me stuff, like I was a celebrity or something. Some of this stuff was given specifically for you, because you love this one," Kakashi grumbled.

"Pook Kashi, did the civilians gang up on you?" Harumi asked, laughing at the pure unadulterated grumpiness radiating from Kakashi. He wasn't angry, just unhappy about this.

"They wanted me to give all of this to you," he grumbled, "How did they even know you were gone? That's what I want to know, this was supposed to be a secret."

"I think it has to do with Naruto throwing a royal fit when I didn't pick him up," Harumi told him.

"He is too old for that," Kakashi sighed.

"Not really a good argument, I've seen grown men throw fits to rival that of a toddler over the fact they need to get shots," Harumi told him.

Kakashi sighed, "Eat," he said, pulling a box out of the bag and handed it to Harumi.

Harumi sat down and slowly ate the gyoza in the box. Kakashi pulled out another box, and it was full of stir fried noodles. Harumi put half of the gyoza on half of her box and held it out to Kakashi, who quickly and efficiently took the gyoza and replaced it with the noodles.

"So what did you want to talk to me about?" Harumi asked, once she had eaten most of her meal.

"Shishui and I retrieved Obito's eye and we think it should be implanted into Kakashi's eye, so he has the matching set," Itachi answered.

Harumi just blinked at the teen.

"Why would I need the other eye?" Kakashi asked.

"For one thing, you would have access to the full measure of the Sharingan. Secondly, by implanting an eye, you will stop the negative effects of the Sharingan."

"What effects are those?"

"The one that would be the most relevant would be blindness. Other than that, madness and insanity seem to be prominent," Shishui answered.

Itachi reached into his vest and pulled out a small jar. Inside a single eye floated in clear liquid.

"Do I even want to know why you are running around with a jar full of preservation liquids in your vest?" Harumi asked.

"You don't," Itachi answered.

"Well okay then. What makes you think I could even do this, first of all. Secondly, doesn't the Uchiha have people who could do this better than I could?"

"Honestly, I think it would be better if no one knew that Captain had this second eye. That way he could be safer from enemies."

Harumi sighed, "So what makes you think I could do this?"

"You are smart and have the medical knowledge. I have some knowledge of what is supposed to happen, so I figure between the two of us, we should be able to figure it all out."

Harumi sighed, "Tell me what you know, then I will tell you if it is even possible for me to do this. I will not be the reason Kakashi goes blind or worse."

Harumi grabbed a small notebook left of the counter for making shopping lists and started to take notes. Itachi knew a surprising amount about the procedure.

"Do I want to know why you know about this, Itachi?" Harumi asked when he was done talking.

"Probably not," was Shishui's answer.

"Okay then," Harumi studied her notes, "I don't see why I couldn't be able to do it, after all, this can be done quickly on a battlefield. However I do have a few reservations, first of all Kakashi isn't an Uchiha, he may have the Sharingan, but he isn't an Uchiha. How do you know that he will get the same side effects as the other Uchiha?"

"I suspect that Kakashi would have some of the effects worse than for a fully blooded Uchiha," Itachi answered, "After all, our chakra has developed over generations to be able to do this."

"So if we don't do this, Kakashi could go blind in one eye?" Harumi asked to clarify.

"If he hasn't already. I don't know if it would affect his other eye, since a single Sharingan hasn't happened," Shishui answered.

"That also means he could go blind in both eyes," Itachi added.

"Then I will say that I'm pretty sure I could do this, however I need to know this is what Kakashi wants," Harumi decided, "I don't know if he was given much of a choice when he first got the Sharingan, and I'll be damned if I do the same."

Kakashi smiled at her, big enough Harumi could see it through his mask, "If it means I can travel like Obito did or even be half as strong as he was, then I want the second eye."

"Why?"

Kakashi stared at Harumi, "What do you mean why?"

"You are already one of the strongest shinobi in the world. I don't even want to know what the bounty on your head is. You can already move faster than most people, so why is it important for you to get even stronger? Even faster?"

Kakashi sighed, "Is it enough that I want to be a better shinobi?"

"Well of course it is, after all we all need to continually improve, continually grow. But that shouldn't necessitate getting this done. In fact, getting this done will in the short term take you down so you are not able to do all the things you need to do."

"True, but if it works, I could be one of the strongest shinobi in the village and people will think twice before attacking us because they don't want to have to deal with all of us.

"In the short term, yes, but in the long run, this will be worth it. So if you are feeling any guilt, know that I am going into this with both eyes open and I know that the reward is going to outweigh the risk. Besides, I have a week to recover and if I need more time, I know you will be happy to make that happen. These two," Kakashi waved at the two others in her kitchen, "have promised to help out as much as possible and they can help me train."

Harumi was still sceptical, but in the end, it wasn't her decision. "Okay, since I don't have much else, we can get started. Into my laundry room, Kakashi."

Kakashi nodded and walked into the laundry room. He laid down on the cot there and took off his mask and forehead protector. Setting both on the small table next to the cot, Kakashi got himself comfortable.

Harumi walked in with a tray that had the eye in a bottle, some extra gauze, a bowl of water and some green stuff that Kakashi didn't want to think about. Kakashi slowly opened his Sharingan eye, the whole room came into sharp focus. The slight shadows under Harumi's eyes grew to dark shadows. The shadows hiding Shishui's eyes disappeared.

"I'm going to put you into a deep sleep, Kakashi. This is so I can remove your eye without the need for serious pain medication. If you are uncomfortable with this, I can have Shishui or Itachi put you into a genjutsu so you don't notice the pain."

"Genjutsu won't work, because his Sharingan will just cancel the effect," Itachi muttered.

"Not if Kakashi lets himself be taken under," Shishui countered. "Which he will because of Harumi and her need to not hurt him."

Kakashi sighed as the two Uchihas argued back and forth while Harumi washed her hands and waited. "Have Shishui put me under, Harumi. That way if I'm needed, you can pull me right out."

Harumi nodded.

Shishui came closer and smirked at the now maskless captain, "I could tell the whole village about your face."

"You should just take a picture, according to Yugao, it would be enough for all of us to buy houses and not work for a long time," Itachi added.

Kakashi rolled his eyes, "I am about to have surgery, the least you two could do is be nice."

Shishui nodded, "Just trying to get your mind off of what is about to happen. Don't worry Kakashi, Itachi knows what he is doing and Harumi won't do anything to hurt you more. Well I mean she might if you piss her off, but for now you can play the 'I got injured trying to save your life' card so she might yell but that is the worst that will happen."

Kakashi nodded, "Since we are in the genjutsu, can we go someplace nicer?"

Shishui nodded, "Where ever you want to go."

"How about Hokage mountain? I think I would like to look over the village and remember why I'm doing this."

"Of course," Shishui smiled and the next heartbeat, the two of them were standing on the mountain, looking at Konoha with the sun rising over it, throwing their shadows far behind them.

Kakashi sat down and just looked. Occasionally he would twitch, but Shishui was quick to re-enforce the genjutsu. It helped that Kakashi was willingly there.

"So why haven't you told Harumi that you like her?" Shishui asked.

"What makes you think I do?" Kakashi countered.

"Please, you can fool some people, but not me, not us. We have known you for a long time. Itachi and Tenzo might not understand because they have never had a crush that developed into something more. But Yugao and I have, so we know the signs. Also Madara wouldn't have targeted her if you didn't have feelings for her."

Kakashi nodded slowly, "I really didn't know that I liked her as something more than a comrade. It started as someone that Naruto could learn from. Someone who was a good influence, who showed him what friendship and family were all about."

"Well yeah, she is nice like that."

"It was more than that, she is nice to most people, but she seemed to go out of her way to help Naturo, and me. She offered to help in ways I didn't even think of… Sensei and Kushina would have liked her."

The last was whispered, but Shishui heard it anyway, it was his world after all. "That's good then right? I mean it is always important to have your family like your girlfriend."

"So I've been told. But it is more than how she treats Naruto. It is more than how she got a whole clan to take Naruto under their wing. I know that if something were to happen to me, the Nara clan would take Naruto in and set fire to anyone who dared to mistreat him."

"Of course, you can't date someone because of what they can do for your kid."

"She doesn't get upset when I read instead of focusing on her. She encourages me to read and then we talk about what I read. She doesn't judge my choice of reading material like so many others have. She accepts it and moves on. Do you remember my birthday party?"

Shishui nodded, "You mean how she ambushed you after a mission? Yeah I remember."

"She managed to scrounge up all the people I can stand and put them all in one place. She even set up a small area for me to disappear if I got overwhelmed. It is as if she understands what I need without me telling her."

"I heard from Genma that she did some reading up on you. Also talked to lots of people to help her understand why you do what you do," Shishui said.

"Why would she do all that? I understand why she would do this for Naruto; Masahiro is his best friend, or at least one of them," Kakashi amended, after all Naruto, Masahiro and Sasuke have become a team. Kami help them all when they are old enough to get into real trouble.

"It could be that she likes you, Kakashi."

"How could she, Shishui? I don't even like me most days."

Shishui shrugged, "How can Genma be so happy all the time? How does Hokage-sama stay sane? These are the mysteries of life. But if I can give you some advice, don't screw this up. You have found probably the only person in the world who is willing to overlook your brand of crazy and even finds some of it good. You have something that most people never find, something we are all looking for."

"What do you mean?"

"Most people are looking for that one person who will become home for them. The person that can help shoulder your burdens. The one who helps to make the shadows not seem so dark. Leave it to you to find a Nara to help your demons. And Kami help your children. They will be little geniuses driving everyone crazy, especially with Naruto, Sasuke and Masahiro to teach them how to get into trouble."

Kakashi's mind was suddenly filled with little girls with silver hair and kind dark brown eyes, little boys with black hair and mischievous gray eyes, sitting around a table filled with laughter. Kakashi and Harumi sitting next to each other, maybe holding hands under the table as their children talk about their day. A sharp pain shoots through Kakashi's heart, so fast he gasped.

"Kakashi?" Shishui asked.

"It was nothing, just a passing thought," Kakashi replied. "So you think I should try?"

"I think you should at least tell her. If she wants to try, then go for it. There are so many people who want you to have a happy ending. Your start in the shinobi world sucked, but you don't have to let that continue to the end." Shishui walked over and put his hand on Kakashi's shoulder, "Kami knows that you had so much bad, you deserve some good. Harumi could be the start of that good."

Kakashi stared at Shishui for a long time before he nodded, "I'll think about what you said."

Shishui nodded, "That is all I ask."

"So now where the hell is all this intelligence normally?"

Shishui grinned, "It is easy to have people underestimate you when you act stupid all the time. Besides, it is more fun this way, people don't have tons of expectations on you."

"So now that Madara is dead, what do you think is going to happen to this rebellion?" Kakashi asked, switching to a more serious topic.

"I don't know, honestly. I want to say that Itachi and I will be able to overcome the obstacles, but we could have just delayed it."

"Did you ever figure out who was working with Madara?"

"We have a few ideas," was all Shishui said.

"Well just so you know, if you need help, you just need to ask. And if Harumi ever figures out what is going on, she will be on the front lines to help."

"That helps. I will let you know if we need the help." Shishui then tilted his head and nodded, "Well it looks like they are done. Are you ready to go?"

"Yes," was the relieved reply.

Kakashi opened his eyes, or at least he tried too. His Sharingan was currently covered by a giant piece of gauze. When his hand reached up to grab at it, his hand was stopped.

"Leave it alone for a bit, Kakashi. Just until tomorrow, then you can go back to just using your forehead protector to block out the light if you want."

"Harumi? I take it the procedure was a success?"

"As far as we can tell. We are letting it heal today and tomorrow I will take off the bandage and check if you can still see, then you will have to keep it covered while your body heals and your chakra adjusts to the new eye."

"How long until I can train with it?"

"Well it depends on how quickly you heal and how quickly your body adjusts. You will need to work on your reserves again though."

Kakashi nodded slowly, hoping the slow movement would stop the pain from moving his head around. It didn't.

"How will we explain the bandage?" Kakashi asked.

"Well if you and I hole up here for the night, sending a note to my uncle that I am not handling being around so many people right now, then we can keep it a secret for now. If that doesn't work, then we can always say that you overworked your Sharingan and this is our compromise now that we are safe."

Itachi nodded, "I like that one best. Everyone knows that Kakashi did some crazy things with his Sharingan this mission, so it wouldn't be unusual for him to overwork it."

"And everyone knows how much Harumi bullies Kakashi into taking care of himself. So no one will question it if you say Harumi made you do it," Shishui added.

"Then that is what we are going to tell everyone. In fact with that excuse, I might be able to wear this bandage longer," Kakashi decided.

Harumi smiled, "The longer you leave it bandaged, the better I will feel about it."

"Good, now Itachi and I will see ourselves out. Get some sleep you two. Remember what we talked about Kakashi," Shishui said with a glare in Kakashi's direction. Which Kakashi returned with one of his own.

Harumi shook her head, "Go on, boys. Make sure you get plenty of rest. Don't let your families interrogate you until after you have had at least twelve hours of sleep. Doctor's orders. If they choose not to obey them, there will be problems."

"I will let them know, Harumi," Itachi assured her. With that, Itachi and Shishui left in a puff of smoke.

"Come on, let's grab you a pillow and we can crash in my room. This will help lend credibility to the fact we are tired and I can't handle people," Harumi said.

Reaching for his mask, Kakashi nodded and followed her out of the laundry room. Harumi quickly walked upstairs and grabbed an extra pillow. Continuing, to move she walked into her room.

"Come on Kakashi, let's get some sleep before my family comes and drags us away."

"Are you sure you want to share your bed with me?"

"Of course, we have shared a sleeping pad for the last couple days, shared a room before that. And honestly, I am not ready to sleep by myself."

"If it will help you sleep then I will stay here," Kakashi answered.

Harumi set the extra pillow next to her pillow and pulled down the covers. "Your clothes should still be in the same place, so if you want to get changed or showered, you can. I'm just going to lay here and try to sleep."

Kakashi nodded, "Can I use your shower?"

"Of course, your stuff should still be there. Don't get your head wet!" She raised her voice to add.

Kakashi disappeared into the bathroom with a wave. Harumi drifted to sleep to the sounds of the water turning on.

Kakashi stood at the foot of the bed, wondering if he should even get into bed with Harumi or go and sleep in Naruto's bed. He studied her face, it was relaxed, the small stress lines around her eyes, the small wrinkle between her eyes when she was thinking, all smoothed out. Reminding him just how young she really was. Kakashi gave a small huff of amusement when he realized she was just a couple years younger than he was.

Did he really want to tell her what she meant to him? Shishui seemed to think he should, in fact he implied that it would insult everyone if he didn't. Something about throwing away that which everyone strives for. But was the risk worth it? Sensei seemed to think so when he asked Kushina to marry him. He knew most couples thought it was worth the risk, but he had also seen what happened when it ended badly. Look at what happened whenever Anko got bored with her latest lover. Or if that lover happened to piss her off.

"I can hear you thinking from over here. Stop it and come to bed," Harumi interrupted his thoughts.

Kakashi blinked and saw that Harumi's eye was open and staring at him. When he met her eye, she pulled the covers back and patted the bed there.

"Think about it when we wake up Kakashi, right now I want to sleep in my own bed where I know I'm safe."

"Are you sure?" Kakashi had to ask again.

Harumi opened both eyes and glared at him, "Shut up and get your ass in bed Kakashi. I'm tired. I am not going to sleep if we continue having this argument. Think about whatever you are worrying about later."

Kakashi just nodded and slipped under the covers. Harumi settled on her side, facing away from him. The toes of her feet barely brushed against his leg as she curled up, her hands curled around her pillow. Kakashi listened as she took a deep sigh and settled.

Kakashi lay on his back with his hand behind the pillow under his head. He slowly reached up and fingered the bandage on his eye. What was it he told Harumi, some things are worth the risk. But the real question was, is the reward worth what he is putting at risk.

"Sleep Kakashi!" Harumi muttered, "Don't make me knock you out."

"Okay, I'll sleep," Kakashi relented. Then he closed his eyes and fell into a light sleep.

Harumi woke up to the sun shining on her face. Without opening her eyes, she smiled, she was warm and safe. Her eyes flew open when her head moved and she felt air blow across the back of her head.

"Are you awake now?" a whisper asked.

Harumi could feel the chest rumble under her head with the question. She slowly lifted her head and turned to face Kakashi. The first thing she noticed was Kakashi's mask was off and he was smiling at her. The second thing was that the sun was giving Kakashi's face a soft glow and made his hair sparkle, even though it was still blond.

Harumi smiled at how young and relaxed Kakashi looked. "I'm awake. How did I get over here?"

"At some point you had a nightmare and when I put my hand on your shoulder to wake you up, you kind of freaked out. Then I started talking to you and you calmed down. Then you just laid your head down on me and went back to sleep."

"I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable."

Kakashi shook his head, "Not really. I was glad I was able to comfort you. I am not good with that sort of thing."

Harumi smiled and laid her head back down on Kakashi's chest, "Just put your arm around my shoulder, stroke my back a little." Grinning when he did exactly that. "This is how you comfort someone."

"Umm, okay."

For the first time, Harumi was able to see the full blush on Kakashi's face, not just the subtle pink over his mask.

"I like this," she sighed, closing her eyes and listening to the drum of his heartbeat.

"I do too," he whispered back.

Harumi felt her grin grow wider as she just lay there enjoying this moment.

Time passes, but neither seem to care as they enjoy the quiet and sunshine.

After the two had some breakfast, changed out of their sleep clothes, they sat in the back garden with a pot of tea between them.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Harumi asked.

"About what?" Kakashi countered.

"Whatever was keeping you up," she answered.

Kakashi was quiet, so Harumi drank her tea and allowed the sounds of the village to help sooth her soul. In all honesty, she was going to have fewer nightmares than one would expect, but while she was kidnapped, nothing else really happened. She was well treated, no one tried to harm her, she wasn't interrogated, all that happened was she was kidnapped and held. So having any nightmares seemed strange to her, but the brain is a funny thing.

"I was thinking about you," Kakashi broke through her thoughts.

"What? Me?" she was shocked.

"Well I guess about us," Kakashi amended.

Harumi's eyes flew up to stare at him. Kakashi's cheeks were pink but the area between his eyes were wrinkled, he was biting his lower lip. Whatever he was talking about was causing him stress, was the only conclusion she could come to.

"What about us?"

"Well if we should become… us..?" he tried for confidence, but his statement came out as a question.

"Is this about the rumors around?" she asked.

"Kinda, but also it is about how you let me read my books in peace. How you throw me a birthday party then make sure i can escape if it gets too much. How you are so willing to open your heart to Naruto. How you don't make me talk." Kakashi paused, chewing on his lower lip, "You…"

"Kakashi?" Harumi asked as she reached across the table and using her thumb pulled his lip from his teeth, "you are going to hurt yourself."

"I just don't know how to do this," he sighed.

Harumi smiled at him, Kakashi noted it was a softer smile than the ones she gave her siblings, but similar, "You are doing just fine. So let me see if I can figure out what you are saying. You like me. More than a comrade, more than a friend. And you don't know what to do with that. Am I right?"

"Almost, I know what I should do, after all people have been telling me what to do since we got back. I just don't want things to go south, because they will."

"Well how about this, you can list the pros and cons of your decision."

"But it isn't just my decision!" Kakashi interrupted, "what you want matters."

Harumi laughed softly, "Kakashi, if you want to date me, you can just ask. Although I will be able to tell you that dating me won't be much different from what we have been doing. We hang out, we talk, eat together. The only thing that would change is we would discuss if we wanted to move things in the physical realm."

"Would you want to?"

"Are we having the conversation now? Is the hypothetical us resting on the answer to that question?"

"You know what? I told Shishui I was shit at this. Just forget that I said anything." Kakashi got up from the table.

Harumi jumped up and grabbed Kakashi's hand, "Don't go. We can forget about this if you want to. I just don't want to make you uncomfortable. I value your friendship, Kakashi. My brother calls Naruto his best friend. So I don't want to do anything that will make you run."

Kakashi sighed, "I won't go anywhere Harumi. I'm not sure I could, even if I tried."

Harumi smiled and moved closer to Kakashi, "Then to answer your question, I would be very interested in a physical relationship with you, if that is what you also wanted. Like I said, I like what we have and am content to keep that going."

"I don't know how to do a relationship and I know I can't do what I normally do with you."

Harumi nodded understanding what he was saying, after all most shinobi don't settle down until they are retired so they have friends they will spend the night with. There are also civilian men and women who are not looking for anything more than a night, or even just a quick roll in the leaves before the next bout of fighting.

"You are already in a relationship with me, Kakashi, we are talking about if we are going to change the nature of our relationship." Harumi was confused, but she shouldn't be. If rumors were true, then she was the first person Kakashi let close to him who wasn't tied to a mission. Although she admitted that she did start as part of a mission, but like his friendships, their relationship grew and changed.

In a very rare moment of vulnerability, even more than the decision to not wear his mask this morning, Kakashi asked, "Why?"

"Why?"

"Why are we having this discussion? Why me?"

Harum smiled and moved back to her spot at the table to sit down. She pointedly looked at the chair that Kakashi abandoned a moment ago. With a sigh, he sat down.

"Did you know that when I woke up in that cave, I wasn't scared."

Kakashi blinked, confused in the seemingly change in topics. "No," he hesitantly answered.

"Because I knew you would find me. Not that Lord Hokage would send a team to find me, but that you, Kakashi Hatake would find me. I knew that you wouldn't rest until you had found me. So I wasn't afraid. After Madara and Tobi told me their side of things. Why they were doing what they were doing, I wasn't scared, afraid or even upset, because I knew with a bone deep certainty that you would come. I could ask you all the questions I wanted when you came so until then I would wait for you." Harumi leaned forward and lightly touched Kakashi's hand that was resting on the table. "I will continue to wait patiently. I don't need to know all the things about you all at once. I don't need to know the inner workings of your mind. I don't even need to know the full story of Rin and Obito to know that you will always come and find me."

Harumi took a deep breath, "There is a peace in knowing that I would be missed if I were to die. But there is something even better in knowing that there is someone who is willing to fight anyone overcome any obstacle to ensure that I am found. I have that with you. Honestly I treasure that part of you. So I am willing to risk all the unknowns about your. I'm willing to risk our friendship on the fact I know you will always come to find me."

"What happens if you find something you don't like? What if you don't like the rest of the story of Rin?"

Harumi took a sip of her tea, trying to gather her thoughts. "I can't say if learning the darker parts of your past won't upset me. However I do know that the dark parts make up who we are and it is who you are that I like. Also I am pretty sure there are things about me that you won't like, it is what makes us human. What matters is how we deal with those things. I personally like to talk things out. I understand the need to stop and take a moment, to get rid of some of the more overwhelming emotions, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't work on the issues."

"Do you know that we could?"

"Well I don't think it would be easy. Hell I still get into fights with my fellow medics over things. It isn't easy but we have a common goal so we make it work. I don't think this," Harumi waves her hand between the two of them, "is any different in theory. I know in practice it will be, because we need to find a common goal, also we will have lots more information and more weapons to use to get our point across."

"Do you think we could?"

Harumi shrugged, "Again, I don't think it would be easy, but between the two of us, we are very stubborn, so we would either get stuck in our own arguments or we would just decide that we worked too hard to let this disagreement be the end of us and we work on it until we are satisfied with the outcome."

"How do you see that happening?"

"You are a genius, how do you think we could work out our issues?"

"Well if we were teammates and it was a huge problem, we would need to stay in close proximity until we could have a conversation. Another option would be that we would train out our differences. Or spar until neither of us were angry then we could talk."

"Those are good ideas, which do you think would work best for us?"

"While I think sparing would be difficult due to the difference in our skills and skill level. But we could train, I seem to remember your genin teammates saying something about running until you could think straight."

Harumi smiled, "That was our sensei's standard problem solver."

"If running wasn't going to work, then we could always do chakra control exercises or something similar. Those tend to wear people out fast."

Harumi smiled, "Those are all great ideas Kakashi. Do you feel comfortable with them?"

Kakashi nodded.

"Now back to the first question, would you feel comfortable with a physical relationship?"

Kakashi nodded, "I would, but not all at once. I can't be like Sensei and Kushina where they liked to hold hands and kiss in public, but I could do something like that in private."

Harumi smiled, "I'm not huge on public displays of affection, but if we are sitting at dinner somewhere, I would like to hold your hand, especially if I'm sitting next to you."

Kakashi nodded again, "Is it strange we are talking about a relationship this way? I always thought it was supposed to just happen."

Harumi shrugged, "You and I are not children and honestly we have children in our care, so we can't just leave things to chance. You know how much Masahiro and Naruto mean to each other so we can't just not talk about this stuff, because that is a fast way to ensure small problems of misunderstanding. Besides I have been around you long enough to know that you like having boundaries and things that are expected. This means if I want to hold you hand, I will sit next to you in a restaurant and we can hold hands under the table. If I don't then I can sit across the table from you."

"What happens if I don't want to hold you hand while we are out?"

"Then before we sit down you can hold the chair out for me and sit across from me, or just say "I'm not wanting to hold hands right now.""

"And you won't get upset?"

"Well I can't say that I won't get my feeling hurt, but I won't be mad."

"What if I don't want to hurt your feelings?"

"I don't want you to be uncomfortable. I will want to hug you and hold your hand during emotional times, such as when you get home from a mission or after a fight. But I understand that you might not be in the same place. So long as I get the hugs and hand holding at some point, I won't get mad."

"Are you sure this isn't strange? I don't want…" Kakashi stopped talking and Harumi watched as he turned red.

"What?"

"I don't want people thinking less of you for being with me. If I'm not holding you hand or hanging all over you, won't people think it is strange?"

"Kakashi, from what I heard at the hospital and what you said happened at the market, people think we are in a relationship. They won't think it strange if we don't do all the physical things, in fact they might freak out over us just walking next to each other and I touch your arm. You are not known as the most emotional guy, so people won't expect much. Honestly, they will all stop and stare if you walk through town with me without a book."

Kakashi laughed, his eyes lit up as his mouth stretched into a huge grin, "That is true. So are we going to do this?"

"What? Date?" Harumi laughingly asked.

"I guess we could start with dating," Kakashi agreed.

Harumi blinked at him, sobering quickly, "Kakashi, I promise I won't freak out, but you were talking about dating, right?"

Kakashi's hand practically flew to the back of his neck as his face turned red enough to rival the tomatoes Sasuke stole from her garden.

"I guess?"

Harumi froze as she started putting pieces together, Kakashi was asking how to make a relationship work. He wanted to know about how to work on the problems that would happen. Kakashi was talking long term. Of course he would think in terms of forever, Kakashi Hatake doesn't do things halfway.

Standing up she walked around the table and sat on Kakashi's lap. Laughing at the look of pure shock on his face, Harumi put her hands on either side of Kakashi's face and stared into his uncovered eye.

"Kakashi, I want to be the one to plan our wedding, so don't even think about it. Well more accurately, oba will want to plan it. So before you start thinking about where we should live, let's start small. Take me out on a date, just the two of us. Hold my hand while we wait for our food."

Kakashi nodded, "Okay I can do that. Do you want me to plan the date?"

Harumi nodded, "I would prefer someplace where I don't have to dress up or where we have to worry about being stared at the whole time, but other than that, you know what foods I like."

"I can do that, would this date include a kiss at the end of it?" Kakashi's voice grew slightly husky.

Harumi smiled, "It could, but there is nothing saying we have to wait until after the date to kiss." She slowly leaned forward.

Kakashi slowly moved forward.

They both stopped when they felt each other's breath on their lips, then Harumi looked into Kakashi's eye and leaned forward the rest of the way. Her lips collide with Kakashi's. They were soft and warm, one was surprising, the other wasn't. She slid her hands up his chest, careful to avoid where he was stabbed and slipped her hands into the hair at the back of his head. Kakashi opened his mouth as his hand gripped Harumi's hip and pulled her closer.

"Harumi-chan! Where are you!"

Kakashi and Harumi tore apart and stared at the back door.

Harumi shot up as Kakashi pulled his mask up over the lower half of his face.

"Naruto?" Harumi called out, "We are in the back."

The thunderous sound of multiple feet running through the house heralded the door flying open to reveal Naruto, Masahiro, Sasuske, Shikamaro and Choji.

"What are you doing running in my house?" Harumi demanded.

Five sets of eyes widened and stared at her.

"We were worried about you, nee-chan," Masahiro softly replied.

"And being worried gives you the right to run through my house with your dirty shoes on?" Harumi demanded.

"No?" Naruto answered, although it sounded more like a question.

"Correct," Harumi moved to where the boys were standing, "Now that you know I'm fine. What are you going here?"

"Oh," Shikamaru said, "Mom was worried because you didn't come over last night, so she sent us to find you."

"Oji said that you were complaining that you wanted to sleep in your own bed and just came home instead of their house because you are a stubborn woman," Masahiro helpfully provided.

Harumi sighed, "Well Oji was correct. Now that you know where I'm at, why are you not at the Academy?"

"Oh, well we are heading there…" Naruto hedged.

"Oh really?" Kakashi said, "Then where is your adult minder?"

"Adult minder?" Naruto asked.

"Babysitter," Shikamaru answered, "he means where is our babysitter."

"Hey!" Naruto yelled, offended by the fact he needed a babysitter, "I don't need a babysitter!"

"What makes you think it is for you?" Sasuke asked.

"You need one," Masahiro said at the same time.

"Hey!" Naruto was very offended now.

Harumi started to laugh, "Well you are here and not at the Academy like you are supposed to be, so I'm going to say that you do need a minder."

Now all five boys look offended. Harumi and Kakashi shared a grin.

"Well I guess I can take you," Harumi said as she grabbed Naruto and Masahiro, pulling them with her. "Let's go boys, you don't want to be late."

Kakashi grabbed the two cups and the tea pot and followed the group in the house. He dropped the dishes in the kitchen and followed the group out, pausing long enough to put his sandals on. Looking around, he caught the eye of two ANBU, which means the boys were not alone on the trek over to Harumi's house. And knowing Shikaku, he knew ANBU would follow so he just let the boys think they pulled a fast one on the adults.

A jerk of his head, had the two ANBU moving away, Kakashi would take care of the group. Kakashi pulled his book out and trailed behind as the boys, mainly Naruto and Masahiro, told Harumi about what happened while she was gone. Sasuke would pipe in when the other two would exaggerate or leave something out that Sasuke thought was important. Shikamaru and Choji followed the conversation and would nod occasionally.

It didn't take long to get everyone to the Academy.

"Be good," Harumi told her brother and his best friends, "I should be here to pick you up, if not then I'll see you shortly after."

"Why wouldn't you pick us up?" Masahiro demanded.

"I could be busy with the Hokage or at the hospital. I was gone long enough that I probably have paperwork waiting for me."

Masahiro nodded, "Okay, but I will see you for dinner. Right?"

Harumi ruffled her brother's hair before leaning down and giving him a kiss on the forehead, "I will be there. If you are good and do your homework without complaining, we might even have time to do some training before bed time."

"Alright!" Masahiro yelled before yanking Naruto and Shikamaru into the Academy. With Sasuke and Choji following dutifully behind.

Harumi laughed, "At least it will get his homework done quickly."

"It is good to see you, Harumi," Tamotsu drawled.

"You saw me yesterday at the gate," she countered.

"Yes, but this is better, because this is normal."

"True, normal is good today," Harumi agreed.

"So what are your plans for the day?"

"Well I need to check in with the Hokage, make sure there isn't anything else he needs me for. Then I have to go and do some shopping, while I know my family will make sure I have plenty of meals, I would like to buy some fresh fruits and some more tea. Then I don't know, rest and take things easy?"

"That sounds like a good idea," raising his voice Tamotsu looked at Kakashi, "Make sure she rests, yeah?"

Kakashi nodded.

"So I guess there is a welcome home party at some point," Harumi said. "Genma is organizing it."

"Yep, already got my invitation, so you better show up."

"Hey I'm not the antisocial one!" Harumi protested.

"Just don't forget to show up," Tamotsu said as he moved to go back into the Academy.

"I won't!" Harumi yelled at him.

Once they were alone in the yard, Harumi slid over to Kakashi's side, "Did you want to go to the memorial stone?"

"Should I even bother? I mean, Obito wasn't dead, and he was one of the one's I spoke to. He kidnapped you because he was mad at me."

"Honestly, if it wasn't me, it would have been something or someone else. The boy you knew as Obito died a long time ago. From what I was able to gather, both Madara and Obito were crazy and you just can't reason with that brand of crazy. They both thought they were doing the best thing for the world."

"But what about.."

Harumi put her finger over Kakashi's mouth, "There are lots of things that we can lay at your feet, but this isn't one of them. Don't take responsibility for something that isn't your responsibility. Obito made his own choices, it doesn't matter if those choices were coerced or he was just plain insane after being held captive for years. He made those choices. He could have chosen something different, he could have looked for alternative explanations. Instead he just followed the one he was given and let that drive him. That isn't your fault or responsibility."

Kakashi stared into Harumi's bright blue eyes. The emotion he saw in there, confused him. But the one thing he understood was the truth, she believed what she was saying. Kakashi had a choice, he could take this burden and add it to his already large burdens or he could let it go, like Harumi suggested.

"I don't know how to," he whispered.

Harumi nodded and gently put her hand on his shoulder, "We can find someone who can help you figure it out."

"I don't want to talk to a stranger," Kakashi answered.

"Well it doesn't have to be a stranger, I'm sure Oji has a friend or two who you know that can help you sort out that brain of yours."

"Have you ever talked to someone?"

Harumi nodded, "After my parents died, I talked to a distant cousin. I was lost in grief that was multi-layered. First I lost my parents, then I lost the career that I worked towards as long as I could remember. I also had a difficult time figuring out the balance between parent and sibling. I needed someone who wasn't too emotionally involved to help me just talk through some things. Honestly I spent most of my time talking and complaining, but she didn't mind. We would drink tea and just talk."

"Are you going to see her again?" Kakashi asked, gently maneuvering them to walk down the street.

"I might," Harumi answered. "It will depend on how I'm doing in the next day or two."

"Does it help?"

"It does me, like I said, it allows me to think through different things, it gives me someone to talk to that won't judge me."

"What would someone judge you on?"

"Honestly, there are times when I wasn't happy that I'm my siblings guardian, when I just wanted to be a normal chunnin. There have been times when I have questioned if I should have healed someone that I healed. Like when I am brought in to heal someone in Interrogation. Did you know that they will beg the medics to just let them die?"

Kakashi just nodded, he had been there during interrogations, hell all ANBU were trained in interrogation techniques. He was also trained to withstand such techniques, so he understood what happens in those rooms. He had also been there to escort the medic in when they needed a specialized medic. As far as he knew, he never escorted Harumi in, but he might have.

"So yes, talking to someone helps," Harumi concluded.

The two fell silent, but not an awkward silence, but one that was softer and just radiated comfort. It didn't take long for them to make their way over to the memorial stone. Harumi smiled and walked away from Kakashi so "you can have your talk, I'm going to lay in the sun over there."

Kakashi just smiled.

"Hi Sensei, Rin. Sorry I haven't been around much. I was on a mission. I know you figured that part out. It went well, everyone came home safe. We rescued Harumi. Killed the bad guys. All in all a successful mission. Harumi says I should talk to someone, not you about some issues this mission brought up. Mostly that Obito was the one that kidnapped Harumi, and wasn't dead." Kakashi brought his hand up to scratch the back of his neck as he stared at the stone, "I think I might. If it will help me to be a better boyfriend or husband, I can do it." Kakashi grinned, "Yes, you two heard that right. I have decided that Harumi and I are going to be together. Not that it should surprise any of you, you both were always so much better than I was at emotions. But Harumi says that I am worth the risk. If I need to talk to someone to be able to agree with her, then I guess it is the least I can do."

"Naruto is doing good. He seems to be fitting in well, the Nara clan love him and the rest are falling in line. But really, it doesn't matter to him, Naruto has two best friends, a larger group of friends that he plays with. He seems to be content and overjoyed with that. He still struggles with math and writing, but his reading is getting better. The boys have been working on their ninja skills, it has been a good thing. Naruto is growing, working towards his goals and has a family unit that holds him up. With all of those things, I can't see how he won't thrive."

Kakashi stood quietly once he was done talking. He really didn't know what to say. Well not true, he had lots he could say, but he wasn't sure he wanted to say them in front of Harumi. He did get the big things out of the way, so it was good.

A hawk's cry had both Harumi and Kakashi lifting their faces to the sky. The hawk swooped down and sat on the memorial stone.

"Me?" Kakashi asked.

The hawk trilled.

"I guess I have to go," Kakashi said.

"I'll go with," Harumi started to say, when the hawk trilled again. "Well looks like we both need to go." Standing up she walked over and moved Kakashi's forehead protector to better cover the bandage over his eye. "I will look at the eye when we are done."

Kakashi nodded and with a nod, the two shishuned to the front of Hokage Tower.

Genma met them as they walked in the door, "Nope, turn around and put your best shinobi clothes on boys and girls, you are being called in front of the council," he made a shooing motion with his hand, "Make it quick though, so go away."

Harumi looked at Kakashi, "I am pretty sure I still have a uniform somewhere."

"Nah, you should go in your medical uniform, that would throw them off. I'll get a clean uniform on and meet you here in ten minutes?"

Turning to Genma, Harumi asked, "Do you know why we are being summoned without prior notice?"

Genma frowned, "Apparently the Council of Elders heard about what you did and are pissed, so they went behind Hokage-sama's back and called this meeting. Hokage-sama is delaying them so that you can go and make sure you look presentable."

Harumi sighed, the Council of Elders is a pain, honestly. Danzo is the worst. "Does that mean the clan heads will be there too?" Harumi asked, hopefully.

Genma nodded, "Yep, so hurry up. You have people there, but it won't go well if you don't get moving!"

WIth a nod, both Harumi and Kakashi left in a puff of smoke.

Harumi pulled out a clean outfit, what Kakashi called her medical uniform. Black short sleeved shirt, black skirt, the purple obi and her heeled shoes, she topped the whole thing off with pulling her hair into a braid and slipping on her slightly larger hoop earrings.

Slipping her forehead protector into a fold in her obi, Harumi decided that she looked professional enough, even if her skin was pale and she had dark circles under her eyes. Oh well, it would lend itself to the fact she had just gotten back to the village and by all rules should have a full day's rest before she was required to attend any meetings or do anything other than sit in her kitchen and drink tea. This, she concluded, was a power play by the Council of Elders.

Harumi quickly went to the Tower where Genma was waiting for them. Harumi smiled at him, "So I hear you are the reason people keep staring at me?"

Genma grinned, "Nah, you are famous all on your own, after all you got the ice cold Kakashi Hatake to act like a normal human."

"I don't think I did much honestly."

"Well you took care of Naruto in ways I couldn't, and because I couldn't get away, you just took care of me," Kakashi replied, appearing next to the two. Kakashi was wearing the traditional jonin uniform, with his mask pulled up over his face and his forehead protector firmly down over his eye.

"Where did the bandage come from?" Genma asked.

Harumi turned her full attention to Kakashi's face and saw just a corner of the bandage sticking out, and she sighed and reached up to fix the forehead protector, "Here, let me.."

Kakashi grabbed her hand, "Nah, I'll just let it be."

Genma stared at the two.

Harumi sighed again, "Kakashi might have strained his eye during the fight and didn't bother to tell anyone until we got back to Konoha. And since I don't trust him to rest his eye, I'm forcing the issue."

Genma laughed, "Okay you two, important people are waiting for you." Then he walked into the Tower and started up the stairs.

Kakashi and Harumi followed a few steps behind.

"You did nothing wrong, they probably want to know about Madara and Obito. Just stick to what you know, don't speculate," Kakashi whispered.

Harumi nodded, "I gave my report, they just want to hear it from our mouths, and they did it behind Hokage's back, so we should be fine."

Kakashi blinked, "Then this will be fun, really we will have to just stand around, answer a few questions and then listen to all the heads argue. It will be fine."

"Been there before?" Harumi asked.

"More times than I want to count really. Although it is mostly the Hokage and his council. It will be interesting to see how the clan heads fit into this."

"Well I already know that Shikaku-oja will not be happy because if oba hears about it, then no one will be safe."

Kakashi grinned, "True, it would be horrible if your aunt were to find out that the elders were being mean to her niece."

Harumi sighed, to hide her delight at this side of Kakashi. The side that doesn't come out often, "Kakashi Hatake! You wouldn't be looking at setting my aunt on the village elders would you? They are Hokage-sama's trusted friends."

Kakashi widened his eye dramatically, "Would I do that?"

Harumi laughed softly, carefully ignoring the way people were staring at the two of them as they walked up the stairs.

"They are waiting for you," Genma interrupted their discussion, his senbon missing from his mouth and his face set in a neutral expression. He opened one of the largest rooms in the Tower, used for well meetings like this one.

"Thank you Genma-san," Harumi muttered as she walked past him. She kept moving until she was past the chairs and tables.

This room was a circle with the Hokage in on a slightly raised part of the room, the clan heads around the outside of the circle. There was a break in the tables to allow for people to walk into the center of the circle if necessary. Behind the main circle, were more tables and chairs, these were for the assistants of the clan heads or department heads. This was also where extra people could sit if necessary. Today most were empty, but the heads of the different departments, that were not also clan heads, were present.

Any small talk that was happening, died when Harumi and Kakashi stood at the edge of the circle, facing the Hokage, both standing straight, with arms ridgedly by their sides, the position of attention. One that isn't used often, unless you were in trouble, but probably was necessary in this instance.

"Shinobi Hatake, Medical-nin Shimizu, thank you for joining us so quickly," the Hokage said, once Genma had closed the door after them.

"Of course, Hokage-sama," Harumi answered. "What can we do for you?"

The Hokage didn't give anything away as he opened a scroll, "Some questions have come up and I thought it would be prudent to have everyone who has questions be able to ask them all at once. Now who has a question?"

Danzo stood up, "Can you tell us what happened? How were you able to kill the one who claimed to be Madara? Can you prove that he was actually Madara? What did you do with the bodies?"

Harumi blinked, "Unless Hokage-sama declassifies the information, I can give you what I can about what happened. But I can tell you that I didn't kill Madara. As for what happened with the bodies, the other members of the team took care of it. I was busy trying to make sure Kakashi didn't die."

"So you did nothing?" Danzo sneered.

"I wouldn't say that," Kakashi replied, "as the best medical nin in the team, Harumi did exactly as she was trained to do."

"What happened to you, then?" Danzo asked Kakashi.

"I was fighting and as Harumi said, I was gravely injured."

Danzo's face turned red as he turned to look at the Hokage, "So what is the point of this, Hokage?"

"You wanted this meeting, it is not my fault that you are not getting what you want."

"I want the other people from the mission called!"

"The other members of the team are not available nor do I have to let you interview them. These are my shinobi and I don't need to keep you informed of what I have them do."

"Isn't it standard practice that shinobi returning from difficult missions are allowed one day of rest, more if medical deems more time is needed," Shikaku broke in.

"Harumi has been evaluated by a Yamanaka," Inoich asked right after.

"Harumi-chan, you should come by for dinner after you have a chance to rest," Choza broke in.

"This is an important meeting," Koharu said over the Hokage and Danzo, "Not a social engagement."

Harumi glanced at Kakashi and she could see the slight smirk under his mask, but the rest of his face didn't give anything away. So Harumi turned her attention to her uncle and his friends, although at this point she could also call them her uncles. Shikaku-oja was staring at the two arguing over what information they needed to know, while the other two were looking at the rest of the clan heads.

Harumi turned her head slightly to see what Fugaku thought of this whole thing. The fact he looked surprised, was a shock. Although it wouldn't be outside the realm of possibilities that neither Itachi nor Shishui said anything to their clan head, because as the Hokage said, this was a highly classified mission, well rescue mission turned assassination mission. But can it be called an assassination mission when the two who are dead were trying to kill you? Harumi mused on that thought for a bit while until the two old men had finished their argument.

The final blow was when Hokage-sama took his hat off and asked if he missed the part where there were two hats in the village and "until you are Hokage, you will be content with only what I choose to tell you. However seeing as you have found information you are not supposed to have, that means there is a problem." Hokage-sama's words held so much meaning, Harumi wasn't sure if it was a threat, a promise or something in between.

"Kakashi, Harumi, you two are dismissed. Effective immediately you two are on leave for the next week. Relax, hug your family and get drunk," Hokage-sama said, "This meeting is over. If anyone has any questions," this was said with a subtle glance at the Uchiha head, "ask me later. For now everyone, go home."

With a short glance at Shikaku-oja, Harumi turned quickly and walked out the door. Kakashi followed at her heels. Once the two cleared the room, they sped up and moved down the stairs.

"Home?" Harumi whispered.

Kakashi nodded and once the two were outside the tower, they quickly shishuned to Harumi's house, landing in the backyard the two walked up to the back door and slipped in, hopefully undetected.

"Let me look at your eye, then I'm going to change into comfortable clothes, then we can either sleep, read or sunbath."

"Why are those our only options?"

"Because I'm tired and honestly if we stay here, we are not likely to run into anyone."

"True," Kakashi agreed, "you know that Danzo is going to be a problem, right?"

Harumi nodded as she gathered the different bandages for Kakashi's eye, "However I am not going to think about it right now," setting everything on the kitchen table, she walked over to wash her hands, "I told you the plan, Kakashi. Sit down and let me look at your eye. If you need to find comfortable clothes, you can do it after."

Kakashi sat down and carefully took off his forehead protector and his mask. Closing both eyes he smiled as Harumi's fingers gently touched his face.

"Okay, open your eye slowly, don't try to do anything with it, just let some light in."

Kakashi did as she requested, wincing slightly as the light hit his eye.

"Okay, you can close it," Harumi quickly put a new bandage on his eye and taped everything down. "It looks good, no swelling or outward signs of rejection, so we will just leave the bandage on for the next week and check again. Just let me know if it starts hurting, you notice any swelling or anything leaking from your eye."

Kakashi nodded.

"Good, now I'm going to clean this up and get changed. Feel free to go and change if you want."

Kakashi quickly went home, packed a few sets of clothes for both him and Naruto, and much to Naruto's dismay even packed his calligraphy brushes and paper.

The afternoon flew by with the two of them reading in the sunshine, talking about interesting parts in their books when they happened. Kakashi was shocked by some of the things Harumi found interesting. It was mostly how the author would describe human interaction, good or bad. While Kakashi would talk about how something was or wasn't believable.

The two of them left to go and pick up the boys from the Academy, then they all walked over to the Nara compound, after they dropped a pouting Sasuke off. Apparently Sasuke didn't want to miss out on any cool training.

Harumi was quick to promise that neither she nor Kakashi would be doing any training today, so he shouldn't worry about missing out on something.

Walking into the Nara compound was fairly uneventful, but that was mostly because everyone was busy cooking for the clan dinner tonight.

After dinner Harumi and Kakashi walked back to her house with all the kids in tow. Sending them all to bed, reading bedtime stories and generally going back to their routines was a great thing in Harumi's eyes.

Harumi didn't have a nightmare that night, but she did the next three nights. She would wake up when it was still dark and momentarily forget where she was. Kakashi always woke up with her, although they shared the same bed most nights now, they haven't done anything other than sleep, much to Hideki's eternal gratitude.

The welcome home party was crazy, which was pretty normal. All siblings or children were sent away for the night and the adults were drinking heavily. While some people blinked when Kakashi and Harumi walked in together, with Kakashi's arm around her shoulders, their friends quickly moved past it and just celebrated. And if Kakashi's friends were celebrating the fact their friend wasn't living with one foot in the grave, well no one would know.

Six years later

"Today is the day!" Masahiro yelled as he walked into the kitchen his forehead protector wrapped firmly around his head, keeping his hair out of his face. Wearing what has now become his standard, now that it was cooler, black pants with a weapons pouch tied around his thigh, a sleeveless green shirt that would have a dark green hoodie over it before he left.

"Stop shouting!" Naruto yelled from upstairs, "Nee-chan will kick your ass if you wake up the baby."

"You won't have to worry about Harumi, because I will end you, if you wake up the baby," Kakashi growled from in front of the stove where he was heating up some food for breakfast. Raising his voice, "Naruto, if you don't hurry, you will miss your own graduation then you won't get on a genin team!"

"Coming!" Naruto whisper yelled as he thundered down the stairs. Causing Kakashi to wince, Harumi was going to hear this and be mad, but not for long. His wife couldn't stay mad at "her boys" for too long.

The longest was that one time Naruto, Masahiro and Sasuke got into a huge fight and none of them were talking to each other for a week. When Harumi found out what happened, she sat them down and informed the three of them that she was so disappointed in them. That they would let their emotions lead them down a path where they would dare say what they said. She also told them that she wasn't going to force them to makeup, but she was going to treat them as they were treating each other. That lasted for just over a week before the boys couldn't stand it.

"Are you going to come to my graduation?" Naruto asked Masahiro as the two boys fell into their seats at the table.

"Yes, sensei knows and said that we can delay our mission," Masahiro answered.

Naruto smiled, "Are the others coming too?"

"Hideki should be, he just got back from a mission a couple days ago and Miko isn't scheduled to leave until this afternoon," Harumi said from the doorway.

Kakashi turned around and grinned, his face on full display. He stopped wearing a mask in the house a long time ago, at least when it was just them, if people came over he still put it on, after all he needs to maintain appearances. He also wore it when he had to go on missions outside the village. Nothing crazy, just a week or two missions, but none that were too dangerous. Well at least not that anyone had to know, he did have to maintain his 'flee on sight' status after all.

Harumi walked over and pressed a soft kiss on Kakashi's shoulder, "Morning, love. You might want to make more, the older two will be coming by any minute."

Kakashi turned his head and captured Harumi's lips in a firm but quick kiss, "Morning. Is that why you made too much last night?"

Harumi smiled.

"Did they tell you?"

"Nope, but when have my siblings ever passed up a free meal at home?"

Kakashi laughed, "True."

Harumi moved the rice and eggs over to the table. She then turned and pulled some pickled vegetables out of the fridge and set them on the table. "Need any help?"

"I am just finishing up the fish, then we can eat," Kakashi answered.

"Eat Naruto," Harumi told him, "You have to leave earlier than we do. Masahiro is going to save our spots. After the ceremony we will go get ramen before we send everyone off to where they need to go." Harumi walked over and put the two cooked fish filets on two plates and brought them over to the two boys at the table.

"Yes! Ramen!" Naruto said, at a volume slightly quieter than a shout.

Before either adult could say anything, a soft cry came from upstairs.

Naruto turned bright red, "Sorry," he whispered.

Harumi moved over to where Naruto was, ran her fingers through his hair, "You are excited. As you should be. She needed to wake up soon anyway. Don't be late, you two." Harumi moved upstairs to get the latest member of the family. Little Himugi arrived not even a month ago, but she was excited to see her big brother graduate. Harumi picked up her daughter and sat in the comfortable chair Kakashi brought in so she could feed this little one in peace. The door opened slowly and Kakashi walked in with some tea and a small bowl of soup.

"I was just called to the Tower, so I'm going to walk with the boys, head over to the Tower and be back before you have to go. Food is done, your siblings know how to dish themselves up. I left a note," Kakashi said as Harumi lifted her shirt. He leaned over and gave his little girl a kiss on the forehead, gave Harumi a longer kiss on the lips and walked out the door, closing it quietly behind him.

Settling into the chair, Harumi drank a sip of tea while she got lost in her memories.

It was about two years after the kidnapping incident that Kakashi brought up the idea of holding Naruto back, to put him in a class with his peers. Kakashi's reasons were sound, while Naruto could do basic taijutsu and he could do two of the three required jutsus to graduate, Naruto still struggled with math, reading and logic. Now some of that could just be because he didn't have the attention span to deal with non physical aspects of the Academy, or it could be because he was neglected for years and wasn't taught until Kakashi became his guardian.

Harumi privately also thought it had to do with Kakashi not wanting Naruto to become a shinobi any faster than he had to be.

After a long talk with Harumi and then with Shikaku, Kakashi brought the idea up to Naruto. While ultimately it was Kakashi's decision, he wanted Naruto to be okay with it. At first Naruto was upset, but after thinking about it, and learning that they would push for Naruto to be in Sasuke's class, Naruto agreed that he should be moved into the class with his peers.

Masahiro was not happy, not at all. He pouted for weeks. However after spending the weekend with Shikaku-oja, when Harumi had enough of his attitude, Masahiro came back, if not enthusiastic, but at least tolerant of the idea his best friend/brother wouldn't be graduating with him.

However that extra time turned out to be for the best, because while Naruto will never be called a genius by Nara standards, he was able to get his academic marks up to where he was fighting Sasuke for top marks. This caused Itachi and Harumi to joke about their eternal rivalry and how it was very similar to the one Kakashi had with Guy. Much to Kakashi's dismay.

Masahiro had graduated last year and was placed on his new team. This team was being trained to be hunters and trackers. Kakashi knew the sensei of the team and was able to confirm that the adult was a good shinobi. Harumi was not happy that her brother was being trained to go after some of the scariest things out there, but he was happy, so she bit her lip and moved on.

The older two moved out slowly, as they moved from genin to chunnin, and in Hideki's case to ANBU, they decided they wanted to grow their own wings and fly. They said it was because they were getting more missions that had them coming in at strange hours of the day and night, and they didn't want to worry or wake the younger boys up, but Harumi saw through that reasoning. She didn't get mad, all she asked was for a once a month family dinner, depending on everyone's schedule it could change. Those once a month family dinners were more like once a week when they could all make it. Also like today, they would all get together to celebrate things. Birthdays, graduations, promotions.

Honestly Hideki was still upset that Kakashi knew about his acceptance into ANBU before he did, but hey, what do you do when your brother in law is still one of the best shinobi to have gone through ANBU? It did lead to some interesting pranks being pulled on both Hideki's side and the side of his new teammates. Pranks Harumi wasn't made aware of, but could tell from the way Kakashi would smile, they were good ones.

When Maiko took the chunnin exams in Suna, Harumi was convinced everything was going to go badly, after all Miako hates the heat. However Kakashi went as part of the Hokage's honor guard, which ensured Harumi didn't worry too much. She took both Masahiro and Naruto out of school for a week so they could all go and watch the finals as a family. Hideki was on a mission for the finals. But that didn't stop him from being there with a brand new set of armor for his little sister when she came home. He left it on her bed before his mission, confident she would do well. Miako cried when she saw it, but Harumi was sure they were happy tears.

As for Harumi and Kakashi, well they have been a couple for six years, married for two. Despite Harumi's warning that her aunt would plan their wedding, the two got married while on a mission. They were tasked with taking supplies to Ame, it seemed knowing that his students were alive, lit a fire under Jiraya to do more than just gather information and write books. In fact he was instrumental in drafting a treaty between Ame and Konoha that changed Ame's goals. Harumi was a frequent visitor to their hospital and after she wrote to Shizuni about how much help the hospital needed, Lady Tsunade could be found there when she needed more funds for her drinking habit.

Kakashi and Harumi took some time off to have a little vacation in Ame, away from the family, not on a mission and still safe. It was one evening during a rare break in the rain, that Kakashi asked if Harumi wanted to get married.

Harumi blinked, "Yes Kakashi I would love to get married to you."

"Great!" Kakashi said, right before he pulled a necklace out of his pocket, "I wanted to get you a ring, but between working at the hospital and occasionally going on missions, I didn't want you to accidentally lose it because you would take it off and put it back on all the time. So I got you this necklace that you can use to put, this," Kakashi pulled a box from the same pocket, "on."

Harumi could feel her eyes fill up with tears, Kakashi had not only gotten her a ring, but he got her something to ensure the ring was always with her. "I love you," she whispered, slipping the ring on her left hand before threading her fingers through his hair and pulling his lips to hers.

Later, Kakashi put the necklace around her neck and showed her how it worked. There was a small locket attached to the necklace that held a small storage seal inside, so Harumi would just have to push some of her chakra into the seal and seal her ring inside. It wouldn't hold much more than her ring, but it would ensure she wouldn't have to leave it behind.

One their way back to Konoha, the two of them took their time. They stopped in towns that looked interesting. One of their last nights before returning to the Land of Fire, they stopped in a medium sized city. It was one that Shizune had mentioned was one of Lady Tsunade's favorites. While wandering around the market, Harumi and Kakashi saw a small temple that advertised specializing in fast weddings.

"Do you want to?" Harumi asked him.

"But.." Kakashi seemed very confused, "what about your aunt? I really don't want to be gelded by her."

Harumi smiled, "I know you don't want a big ceremony, so we could just get married here, then let Auntie throw a huge party, after she is finished being mad at us."

Kakashi's eye widened in shock, "You would do that for me?"

Harumi laughed and wrapped her arms around the man that had become so essential to her life in the last four years, "There is very little I won't do for you Kakashi Hatake."

Kakashi leaned down and kissed her, right in front of everyone! Before he grabbed her hand and took off running towards the temple.

Turns out, that the temple wasn't lying. They had everything you could want to get married, they even had some kimonos or dresses you could rent for the occasion. They provided witnesses, the marriage scroll and even some snacks after the ceremony. Harumi and Kakashi got a couple pictures taken for their friends and family, but they tried to keep it simple.

Well Harumi tried to keep it simple, Kakashi was the one who felt guilty for not being able to give her the wedding Harumi deserved, in front of all her friends and family, so he insisted they get dressed up, after the ceremony the newlyweds went out to a fancy dinner, rented a fancy hotel room for the night and drank too much champagne.

Even now, two years later, Harumi is filled with unimaginable joy when she thinks of their wedding. She frequently touches their wedding photos that joined the wall of family pictures.

When they got back to the village, the two of them carried on like nothing happened. They did file the appropriate paperwork with the Hokage to prove their marriage, but other than that, they just didn't tell anyone. Harumi wore her simple silver wedding ring all the time. Although to call it simple would be slightly misleading. The wedding band looked like it was three bands twisted together to give it a look similar to a ring puzzle. However what made it entirely unique was if you looked closely, you could see in the places where all three rings met, a small kanji symbol was engraved there. Three kanji symbols total could be found on her ring, the first two were Harumi's and Kakashi's name, these were engraved on the inside, while the third was engraved on the outside, it was the symbol for love. It was engraved twice on the outside of the ring.

Now most people didn't notice the ring, because Harumi only wore it when she wasn't on duty, but everyone noticed the new necklace. When asked about it, she would smile as she fingered the small locket and say it was from Kakashi. It wasn't until the first family dinner, about one month after they got married that someone finally noticed.

They were over at the Nara clan compound, celebrating someone's birthday. There were tables filled with food, kids running around, teens pretending to not want to run around. Food was out, so you could eat when you wanted and people would refill the food when it emptied. Thank you Akamichi clan for teaching everyone that trick.

So Harumi was talking to one of the many cousins when one of her cousins screeched "You're engaged!?" Said cousin grabbed her hand and stared at Harumi's ring.

"No, that isn't an engagement ring," another cousin answered, staring at the ring, "engagement rings have a precious stone in them, this is a wedding ring."

"You're married?!" came from across the courtyard. All heads snapped towards Yoshino-oba at her yell, only to have everyone move out of her way as she stormed across the courtyard.

Kakashi, being the brilliant man he was, decided that now was a good time to go stand next to his wife, so she didn't have to face her wrath all by herself. He walked over and gently wrapped his arm around Harumi's back and pulled her in close, Harumi wrapped one arm around Kakashi's waist and snuggled close, before looking at her aunt.

"We are married," Harumi stated.

"You didn't tell anyone?"

"When did this happen?"

"When did you get engaged?"

"Why am I just hearing about this now?"

The last statement was said through the gritted teeth of Auntie. Harumi rubbed her cheek on Kakashi's chest before walking over and wrapping her aunt in a hug, "Honestly, the wedding thing was a spur of the moment and we didn't want a big deal made. We were going to tell people, but it just never came up. Besides we knew you would want to throw a huge party, so we couldn't let someone else know before you."

"That doesn't answer why you didn't tell me sooner," Auntie whispered back.

"Honestly, we have been busy, and after a while it became a game to see who would figure it out first," Harumi whispered back.

Auntie grinned, "So are we the first to figure it out?"

"Yes, although to be fair, I don't wear my ring when I'm working."

"Does the Hokage know?" Shikaku-oja asked.

Kakashi understands the real question, because there are rules about couples and missions, and answered "We told him when we reported in, even gave him a copy of the marriage scroll."

Harumi gave her aunt another hug and asked, "So do you want to throw us a party?"

"Of course I will! I will throw you two the biggest party of the year!"

Shikaku sighed, "I'm afraid of that."

Auntie turned and glared at him, "Don't think you will get out of helping either!"

Shikaku sighed again, "Of course dear."

Said party was huge, at least it was much bigger than Harumi had envisioned. Almost the entire shinobi army and the hospital staff had made their way through the party. Thankfully it came in waves, so Harumi was able to breathe, and Kakashi didn't get overwhelmed by so many people. Both Harumi and Kakashi wore brand new kimonos, bought by Auntie, which Kakashi was convinced was to ensure that Harumi and Kakashi couldn't run away.

Harumi's kimono was black with a lavender collar and around her knees, the black faded to white. It had white and lavender flowers scattered along the fabric. The underskirt was white, with the same lavender lining. The whole thing had silver thread running through, giving the whole thing a shimmery quality when the sun hits it just right.

Kakashi's kimono was also black, with a white pattern that looked similar to lightning, across the whole thing. The jacket was mostly white with black branch-like lines, which looked to be a stylized tree. When you put Kakashi and Harumi next to each other, it looked like they were wearing parts of a whole. Kakashi the tree and Harumi flowers that covered the tree.

After the wedding celebration, life returned to normal. Kakashi and Naruto had moved into Harumi's house after being together one year. However after they had been married for six months, Harumi and Kakashi talked about getting a house that is their house and not Harumi's house. That was the first time they talked about having children.

Eventually, the two of them decided to move back to the Hatake compound, which wasn't huge, it consisted of three buildings, but it had some land to build more and it had two training areas within the walls. It took six months of work before Kakashi was satisfied that everything was fixed up enough to be safe for his wife and family. Harumi made sure to have an area dedicated to just gardening. A bonus to moving to Kakashi's old home, was he got to be in his old house, but it also wasn't the same house. From what Harumi was told, Kakashi basically leveled the original house, only taking a few things. He left the original training building intact, but he did put in new floors, mats and new mirrors. The third building was much smaller and they decided to use it as a guest house and storage for now. They made sure there were enough rooms in the main house for all of Harumi's siblings and Naruto along with a few extra rooms. Kakashi also made an office area on the first floor, so that Harumi could do some work from home if she wanted. Everyone started to use it to write their mission reports, because it was an unspoken rule that no one is disturbed while in the office area.

The door opening pulled Harumi from her thoughts, she glanced over and saw Kakashi leaning against the doorframe.

"Why were you needed at the Tower?" Harumi asked, as she stood up and handed the now fed baby to Kakashi. "She needs to be changed again."

"Ma, well I will tell you after the ceremony," Kakashi answered, taking the littlest Hatake over to her changing table and went about changing her.

Harumi handed Kakashi an outfit to change Himugi into, it was a dark blue long sleeved onesie shirt with pink and blue flowered pants. A pink bow around her head and pink fluffy socks finished the outfit.

"I'm going to get dressed, then we can go," Harumi told him as she walked towards the other side of the room. For now, the nursery was in what used to be a sitting area in their room. At night or during nap time they would close the thin doors to keep the sound down, but it allowed the couple to have some privacy and the new baby to have her own space. Not that it was used often, but it was the principle of the matter.

Grabbing a simple black wrap dress with a silver and white design near the bottom of the skirt, Harumi was able to dress quickly. She pulled her hair up into a quick bun. Then she walked back over where Kakashi was waiting for her.

Together the two walked down to the kitchen. Her siblings were at the table, eating breakfast. They were talking about their latest missions. Harumi smiled and walked over and gave both of them a kiss on the hair before grabbing some fish to finish her breakfast. Miako stole her young niece and the talk shifted to the upcoming graduation and of course the new teams formed.

"Do you think Naruto and Sasuke will be on the same team?" Hideki asked.

"Well they did launch a pretty persuasive campaign to be on the same team," Miako laughing replied.

Harumi smiled, "You really think the Hokage wants to deal with the fallout if they are not on the same team?"

"Or if they have a sensei that is 'less awesome' than Masahiro's sensei," Hideki continued.

"That is true," Harumi finished quickly and set her plate in the sink, "Just leave the dishes, we can take care of them after we are done. We have to go now if we want to make sure Masahiro got us good seats."

The other two got up and set their dishes in the sink and the four of them, plus the baby quickly put their shoes on, Harumi grabbed a long piece of cloth and began to tie it around her upper body, when she was done, she held out her hands and with Kakashi's help they slipped their little on into the space, fixing her feet and making sure her cheek was pressed against Harumi's chest, the family left.

The family walked quietly, enjoying the peace before the craziness that is bound to happen once they get to the academy.

Once they arrived, Harumi quickly spotted Masahiro talking to his sensei, arms waving about as he told a story. Harumi walked over with her siblings, while Kakashi broke off with a soft, "I'll be right back."

"Thank you for saving our seats, Masahiro," Harumi said, claiming the seat on the end, where she could slip away if needed, "Itachi, how are you doing? You never come around anymore."

Itachi gave Harumi a rare smile, "I have been busy being a sensei and working with my team."

Harumi laughed, "Well I heard that one of your genin is kind of a pain. So just let me know if you need me to smack him or something."

Masahiro let out a yell at the insult, "Hey! I'm not that bad!"

Harumi ruffled his hair and smiled, "Of course you aren't, right now." Harumi turned her attention back to Itachi, "Are your parents coming?"

"Mother is," Itachi answered, "Father is unhappy with something and said he will try to make it," Itachi shrugged, but Harumi had been around the young man long enough to know that his father's latest excuse was not sitting well with Itachi.

Since the whole 'Itachi killed Madara' thing, Fugaku has been less and less happy with the clan heir. Itachi was loyal to Konoha and by extension to certain people. Last year when Itachi was awarded the honor of becoming a sensei, Fugaku was 'upset' which Harumi translated into he threw a royal fit. But in the end, Itachi was friends with some pretty powerful families, so he couldn't do much to isolate Itachi. Well at least when he tried, Harumi learned to send Naruto and Masahiro on a "save Itachi mission" which almost always led to the Uchiha compound having some prank pulled. The most memorable one was when they used exploding balls of paint that were set off in the Uchiha temple whenever Fugaku said certain words. Personally, Harumi was sure Itachi helped with that one, but hey, she wasn't going to say anything.

Shishui thought this was the best type of entertainment and would do his best to make sure no one could trace it back to Naruto and Masahiro, but of course everyone knew it was them. Mainly because if Itachi was being isolated, Sasuke was too. Everyone in the village knew how close those three were, in fact if people saw only two, they would get concerned because that meant the third one was either in trouble or about to be in trouble.

Kakashi slipped into his seat, next to Harumi a few minutes before the ceremony began.

"So Kakashi," Sasuke's mom said as soon as Kakashi was settled, "I heard you asked to be a sensei this year." Even Masahiro could hear the teasing tone of her voice.

Kakashi nodded, "Yeah, well I have a promise to keep."

"What promise is that?" Harumi asked.

Kakashi grinned, "To train my sensei's son, of course."

Harumi gaped at him, "What?"

Itachi started to chuckle, "So that was where you were."

Harumi stared at Kakashi, "You are Naruto's sensei?"

Kakashi nodded and Sasuke's mom smiled.

"He is going to kill you, you know this, right?" Harumi asked. "I need to revisit the 'don't pull pranks in the house' rule at dinner I think."

Hideaki laughed so hard, he fell out of his chair, "Are you kidding? Please tell me that Sasuke is on the same team at least?"

Kakashi nodded, "Yep, I got both of them, and a promising civilian born young lady named Harino."

"We will have to find her during the ceremony," Harumi promised. She leaned over and whispered to Kakashi, "Why do they have the boys on the same team?"

Harumi could see Kakashi's frown, "More Sharingan's in case the fox gets out of hand."

Harumi sighed and leaned her head on Kakashi's shoulder, "It will be fine, and if it gets bad, we send for Jiraya. There hasn't been an incident in a long time, the seal is holding up."

Kakashi nodded.

Itachi meanwhile was watching how his mother was taking the news. She didn't seem surprised, but she didn't look too happy.

"Mother?" Itachi asked.

"Your father will not be pleased," was all she said.

Itachi nodded, "But Sasuke will be, and he will have one of the best senseis in the whole world."

She nodded, "That is correct, Itachi. It doesn't hurt that he is on a team with his friend and rival. I know they will grow together and be great."

"Well I don't know about the rest of you, but I feel sorry for the girl," Miako interrupted all the side oversations.

"Why?" Kakashi asked.

"Because Naruto and Sasuke practically grew up together and they have been training together for years. You said she is from a civilian family too? Well she is going to be outclassed in everything."

"Not necessarily, she wouldn't have been put on the team if she wasn't competent. Just because those two have had extra training, doesn't mean they are better than she is," Itachi said.

"It also means that they boys will have someone else to train and kami knows she won't lack for long, not the way those two train," Kakashi finished.

"Quiet!" Harumi hissed, "It's starting."

Hokage-sama was standing at the podem on the stage that some genin team had to put together last night, "Welcome families to the yearly graduation. As you all know, graduating from the Academy is but the first step in becoming a shinobi of the leaf. These young ones entered this Academy as children and they leave here on their journey as shinobi. Remember, while you have graduated from the Academy, you will still face many trials ahead. Remember what your instructors have taught you, learn from those around you and you will succeed."

Slowly the graduating classes walked across the stage. Harumi's siblings stood up and made a huge amount of noise when Naruto walked across the stage, they did it again when Shikamaru walked, who just looked at them and sighed. However the best reaction was from Sasuke when Itachi stood up and joined in the spectacle. Harumi didn't know Sasuke's eyes could get so wide, but it was worth it.

They took pictures with the boys and their brand new forehead protectors. The family did go to lunch with Naruto, who managed to rope Saskue and Itachi in coming. Miako, invited Haurmi and Kakashi to the Uchiha celebration later that night, they promised to stop in. Shikamaru would have his own celebration tomorrow, because it was a Nara tradition to have a huge gathering with the Yamanakas and the Akamichi families, so it takes place later.

Kakashi looked around the table, his life was so different from seven years ago. Seven years ago, he viewed himself as a tool to be used, a weapon always ready. He would take missions that no one else would take, he volunteered for the worst of the worst. He didn't care if he lived or died, because as far as he was concerned, he was mostly dead anyway. However that all changed when he was called to take care of Naruto, because he would have been killed if Kakashi wasn't forced to leave ANBU. It was through Naruto that he met his wife, who brought so much color into his life. Color that he forgot had existed. She brought feelings back. She showed him that you can be a great shinobi, and still be able to have meaningful relationships with people. She made it safe for him to feel. Harumi never asked him to change, but she encouraged him to be better than he was today.

With Harumi came a family that accepted him, they also didn't push, unless it was necessary. Like the time Harumi went on a mission and Kakashi was at home. It was during that mission that Harumi got hurt, nothing serious, just a number of cuts. He didn't handle it well and Hideki threw a bucket of soapy water to get Kakashi to snap out of his head.

Shikaku would take Kakashi out for lunch and they would talk about how to be married. It was also during these talks that Kakashi would talk about Obito and his guilt. Come to find out, Harumi asked her uncle to be his sounding board. Kakashi didn't get too upset when he found out.

"Hatake," a voice called out, "the Hokage requires your presence."

Kakashi looked over to see Genma standing at the door of the raman shop, raised his hand to show he heard and slowly stood up. Giving Harumi a kiss on the cheek, telling Naruto again how proud Kakashi was of him, Kakashi walked out the door.

Who knew that a small sentence, one uttered almost daily in Konoha, could change a life, no change lives, for better?

AN: Here we are, the end. Two words that are wonderful and awful at the same time.

I hope you have enjoyed this journey with me. If Obito's death isn't to your taste, feel free to check out the second ending. Thank you all who have stuck with me through the years.

If you read Ending 2 first, which one did you prefer? Let me know in the comments.