It was safe to say Naruto got an indefinite suspension on seduction missions.

"You ran off by yourself on a team mission and compromised yourself and quite honestly compromised Ino!" Tsunade sauntered into Naruto's hospital room, ranting and raving in time to the clacking of her heels. Naruto sunk deeper into white linen blankets, trying to hide her guilty face.

"…But it all worked out in the end, didn't it?" The youthful blonde muttered, narrowing her eyes while trying to avoid Tsunade's sharp glare. Tsunade stomped her foot like an angered rabbit, "that is not that point!" She barked.

"You!" Tsunade pointed at Naruto's disgruntled face. "You're already suspended from seduction missions! Let's add to that, why don't we? You obviously don't care much for teamwork. 6 weeks, banned from ALL ranked missions."

Naruto squawked, sputtering, trying to form her words. "Y-you can't be serious!?" Naruto ripped the white linen off from her in outrage. "I'm getting a pay cut because I didn't do well enough on a shitty mission that we succeeded in!?" She shook her head in denial and stared at Tsunade once more in disbelief.

"On what authority, old lady!? You're retired!" Naruto exclaimed defiantly. Tsunade smirked before sending a cutting glare to a certain man occupying a chair beside Naruto's bed. Who at this point, was trying to pretend he didn't exist by covering his with a familiar orange book.

"On the authority of the other idiot in this room, who also on suspension from his duties as Hokage after he thought it would be a good idea to leave a shadow clone in charge of the village." Tsunade hissed. Kakashi only brought the book closer to his face, making it obviously impossible to read at such close proximity.

Naruto gawked at the man. "Woah, seriously!?" She exclaimed with stars in her eyes. "What did you do, Kakashi-sensei!? Where did you go? You can tell me, c'mon" She grinned mischievously as Kakashi tilted his head, turning to look at Naruto dubiously. His book still raised high to block him from Tsunade's scorn.

"I really don't want to talk about it…" He muttered, sending Naruto a pleading look. Was he pouting? Naruto immediately avoided eye contact, settling for staring at the ceiling, that all too familiar annoying flush threatening to crawl its way onto her cheeks. She'd almost forgotten that Kakashi's attention induced that light fluttery feeling in her gut these days.

Tsunade harrumphed, breaking the awkward silent tension that had begun the accumulate between the two disparaged shinobi who were temporarily cut from their duties. "I don't have the same reluctance in talking about Kakashi's escapades into wa-"Tsunade was cut off as Kakashi was up in a blur. His hand smothered Tsunade's mouth before she could finish her spiel. The honey-haired woman continued to scream, most likely profanities, at the man as he dragged her out by the scrape of her heels.

"We should let Naruto rest now, Tsunade-sama." Kakashi chuckled nervously, throwing Naruto one last reluctant smile as they exited the room in a scuffle.

Naruto leaned back against the bed frame, her eyes narrowed scrupulously at the doorway. "I don't even need any rest." She stated blandly to the empty room. Throwing the linen off once more, but this time with more flourish, she made her way to the window with the full intention of abandoning her medical stay and going to Ichiraku Ramen instead.

She moped into her rich pork broth while contemplating her budget for the month and a half. It really wasn't fair! Yes, she would be the first to admit she could have done things differently but 6 weeks off duty? That's a bit excessive.

Two pairs of feet crunching on dirt immediately perked Naruto up, recognising the steps like second nature. She swiftly twisted her body around and called out, "Sakura, Ino! Over here, yoo-hoo!" She grinned excitedly while waving one arm in the air.

Sakura looked over to Naruto briefly in surprise, then worry, and then absolute irritation. "Naruto…" She growled, linking her arm into Ino's, pulling the girl over to Naruto, who continued to look at them cheerily. Ino yelped at the abrupt change in direction, almost tripping over her own legs while begging Sakura to loosen her grip.

"Naruto, you are supposed to stay in hospital for at least 24-hours!" Sakura growled, her other hand reaching over to swipe Naruto by the collar of her jacket and drag her right back to where she came from. Naruto quickly ducked and averted the hand.

"Sakura, please don't make me go back," Naruto cried. Her arms formed a barrier over her hunched body, Naruto's scrunched face opened one big blue eye to look up at Sakura beseechingly. Sakura faltered. The irritated tick that had formed assertively on her forehead dimmed back into smooth skin. Naruto's arms relaxed a little, and her own face relaxed enough for both her eyes to look at Sakura blearily in the ultimate pity-me pout. "I promise, I really am fine," Naruto added.

The gut-wrenching abilities of such a pout were enough to make Sakura look anxiously between Naruto and Ino in hopes of finding the answer of how she should handle this stray, unwilling patient. Ino looked at Sakura pityingly and shrugged with a heavy sigh. "What can you do? If you send her back, we'd have to tie her up to keep from leaving."

Naruto stiffened at the mention of being restricted, unwilling memories flashing briefly over her thoughts that she thickly swallowed down. She plastered on her fakest grin and scratched the back of her head uncomfortably. "You wouldn't really do that, would you? Tie me up, I mean…" She trailed off, attempting to sound as casual as possible.

Sakura opened her mouth to retort something badgering in response, fully ready to tell Naruto that if she was going to act like a child in the face of medical treatment she may as well be treated like one. However, the stern look from Ino and the awkward tension exuding from Naruto is waves were enough to hold her from talking. She linked her other arm into Naruto's, making the blonde jerk in surprise as she is pulled off her stool and lead away from the ramen stand.

Naruto continued to vocalise her protests until Sakura interrupted her. "Shut up idiot, if you're not going to stay in the hospital, the least you can do is let me look at you at home." Naruto was effectively silenced.

In Sakura's bedroom, she had a desk set up with all kinds of medical equipment, notes, and diagrams. It wasn't nearly as well endowed as the local hospital. Still, it was undoubtedly more than what medical shinobi had in their first aid kits.

She started by checking on Naruto's blood pressure. At the same time, Ino got herself comfortable in Sakura's bed, hugging a cushion to herself, unusually quiet as she watched the two. Sakura hummed nodded at Naruto's blood pressure, "it's a little high, but that's not too unusual…" She commented before opening her desk drawer to pull out a folded pouch of sterilised needles.

"I'll just give them a second clean to make sure they are completely sterilised," Sakura said while Naruto nodded merrily along.

Ino threw the pillow on the floor in pent-up frustration causing Sakura to look at her in utter disbelief. "Excuse me?" She raised an eyebrow at Ino, who was literally vibrating. Ino slowly brought a fist together and pumped in front of her face, her eyes wide in excitement. "You're excused," Ino said offhandedly to Sakura before focusing all her attention on Naruto.

"Go on!" Ino grinned, "what happened with you and Kakashi!?" She squealed. Naruto bodily jolted back, away from Sakura, who had been lifting her hand up to take a blood sample. "What!?" Naruto's voice climbed to impossible octaves as it broke on the syllable. Ino rolled her eyes, her fist that was pumped in that air fell back to the mattress to lazily support her head. Ino watched Naruto indulgently waiting for her fellow blonde to speak up.

It was an expectation Naruto had no idea how to live up to. "W-what about me and Kakashi ," She stressed on the name of her old teacher, utterly perplexed. Ino snorted, "well, you know. "She stated simply. Naruto frowned, her eyebrows growing heavier and heavier as each second passed. During this time, Ino's eyes pivoted searchingly over Naruto's features before the hand she was resting her head into slipped. "Oh god, you don't know, do you?" Ino exclaimed, astonished.

If possible, Naruto managed to frown even further. Ino whistled. "Well, I might as well spell it out for you…" Ino hummed more to herself than anyone else. She smiled cheekily at Naruto. "Well…" She trailed off, trying to build some extra drama. "What if I were to tell you, Naru-chan, that you're little crush on Kakashi wasn't fully one-"Naruto perked up and cut Ino off before she finish her glorious attempt at playing cupid.

"Oh yeah, that, I've been having second thoughts about that, actually!" Naruto quirked. Ino paused, her sly expression slowly becoming blank. Naruto looked awkwardly at Ino's face and peered at Sakura, who was looking all kinds of dubious. Naruto fidgeted and gave in to the need to explain herself further.

"Well… I'm not going to lie and say he doesn't make me feel all fluttery and weird." She averted her gaze, a blush pinkening her nose. "I think it's pretty obvious that maybe I like him more than just as my old sensei." She muttered. But then, with new conviction, she looked at the other women in the room, "but I have a solution!" Naruto declared, neither Sakura nor Ino budged from staring at her, devoid of all feeling.

"Okay, I will explain then. I think I might have met someone with who I would have a better chance with. We don't have all as much history and me and Kakashi-sensei, so there's no way he could see me a just a kid." Naruto smiled. "Sakura, do you remember Sukea?"

Sakura's head slammed violently into the desk.

Ino's eyes widened at her friend's display of masochism as she connected the dots. "Sukea?" She echoed at Naruto, while Naruto continued to nod enthusiastically, only slightly off putt by Sakura's reaction. Ino scratched her chin thoughtfully.

"Did he happen to have brown hair? Dark eyes and a little beauty mark," Ino pointed under her lip while Naruto continued to smile and nod. Ino grinned sadistically as Naruto paused, "hey, how did you know that? Did you meet him? I knew I saw him! Where did he go?" Naruto continued to ask her unending plethora of questions, one after the other, with no chance of getting a response. Her ramblings were cut off.

"Oh, Naruto," Ino sang. "You really are head over heels over this guy, aren't you?"

Naruto blushed deeper and sputtered a little. "I mean- I hardly know him, but I do have eyes. He was cute…" she trailed off. Ino nodded in agreement. "You know, I do remember I once said that Kakashi must be very attractive under that mask he likes to wear…" Ino continued. Naruto looked at her perplexed, "what doe-". Ino continued to talk over her, "I'm so happy to see you agree with me~" She sang merrily.

Naruto just sated at Ino silently before some akin to horror began to dawn on her face. Ino's eyes widened, larger and more excited with every expression that crossed over Naruto's features until her compatriot's face exploded into a wonderful blood red.

"I'm so hopeless…" Was all Naruto could utter at the revelation that the only two men she could openly admit she was truly attracted to was one and the same.

After Naruto's examination, Ino quickly took over Sakura's desk while the other women sat cross-legged on the floor.

"Class will now be commencing," Ino clapped while both girls scoffed up at her. "Oh yes, laugh now, but you won't be laughing when Naruto's mouth will be locked with Kakashi's. Especially you!" She pointed at Naruto directly, "your mouth will be too busy to laugh." Naruto blushed in indignation.

"I love you both, really," Naruto started. "But this is Kakashi-sensei, you guys. Sakura put it perfectly ages back. He doesn't see us as women," she pouted. Sakura snorted from next to her. "Where was this hesitancy when you were insisting that you were in love with me all throughout our years in the academy."

Ino tapped the desk with impatience. "As much as I would love to reminisce on Naruto's brief stint in lesbianism, we only have 2 weeks of unlimited Kakashi time to get him to admit that he's desperately in love with our heroine."

Naruto added in thoughtfully, "why only two weeks?" She queried. Sakura decided to answer this, "He was taken down from being Hokage temporarily after he abandoned his post to rescue you, Naruto," she deadpanned. Naruto looked affronted by this information. "I knew he was suspended, but only for two weeks!?" Naruto continued to curse Tsunade in the background about inequality before Ino cut her ravings off.

"Yes, that's the key to how we know this will work out. Kakashi basically stalked Naruto down specifically. Why? Because he's obviously obsessed with her and either couldn't stand the idea of Naruto being used to seduce other men or was worried about her wellbeing. Most likely both, if anyone bothered to ask me about my opinion of this whole double identity fiasco." Ino flipped her hair arrogantly, and she continued to talk about her unasked opinions on this topic.

"Anyway-"Ino announced to the bored faces on Sakura's bedroom floor. "First, we need to get Kakashi cornered with Naruto, preferably for longer than just small talk. I suppose we could do a group meeting the first time, maybe a BBQ to celebrate something. Sakura use your brain to make a good excuse to party, will you?"

Sakura frowned.

"Cheers!" Everyone declared with a clashing of beers, people talking happily over each other while Shikamaru looked thoughtfully over all the faces at the long table. Most of the ninja here he was familiarly acquainted with. That wasn't particularly unusual. Honestly, the only face that made him raise a curious brow was the addition of the old team sevens sensei, Kakashi.

Kakashi and no Kurenai or Gai or any other of the older shinobi? The silver-haired man was sticking out like a sore thumb amongst the others who were years his junior.

He looked to Sakura, who was sitting to his left, "could you remind me what exactly we're celebrating?" He asked her. Sakura, who had been smiling until he questioned her, suddenly went utterly still. Her expression quickly becoming blank.

"…" Sakura stared at him.

"…" Shikamaru stared back.

"… The anniversary of my dead cat who passed away five years ago." She stated, her expression never changing. Shikamaru, who had gone to take a sip of his beer, choked, "and we are celebrating that!?" He coughed, hitting his chest to dislodge all the liquid he accidentally inhaled.

"…yes.." Sakura then turned robotically back down to her meat, which was now apparently sufficiently grilled. Shikamaru frowned at the unusual reaction from his usually level-headed comrade and took in the people's interactions around the table with new interest.

Naruto chatting excitedly to Kakashi, despite his strange appearance at the BBQ, that wasn't out of character for either of them to be together. Neither was Kiba sitting across from them, staring wistfully at Naruto. Ino however. She was looking at Naruto, Kakashi, and Kiba with such intensity that something had to be up.

Deciding this must be the point of interest, Shikamaru also settled for watching the three with disguised blatancy. Kiba said something especially crude and obvious towards Naruto, something about how the room must be way too hot for her to keep wearing her jacket.

Naruto gave him an odd look because the man himself was all rugged up in a puffy fur jacket. Shikamaru had almost lost interest, as Kiba's incessant jabs at Naruto to try and get her attention or shed her clothes was an annoying habit that he had grown accustomed to fading out.

But the subtle narrowing of Kakashi's eyes, barely even a twitch, as they locked onto Kiba was not something he had expected. Kakashi was typically aloof. It wasn't often that Shikamaru saw anything remotely serious about the guy when it wasn't at the forefront of battle.

Naruto gave Kiba one last withering glance before turning her attention back to the man sitting next to her. Her cheery infectious grin seemed to remove all the tension in Kakashi's face as they continued to talk about God only know what. He strained his ears to isolate their conversation from many others around them. Having no success, Shikamaru gave up and resumed eating.

"Bothersome…" He muttered at Sakura, who pretended she didn't hear anything.

The following day Naruto was ambushed at her front door by the relentless Ino and Sakura. Ino immediately scrutinised the state of her apartment, which was offensive really because it was respectably clean. A common misconception was that Naruto was messy, but if anything, she was just spartan. Frugal through and through.

"Well, he didn't stay the night. That's alright. It was a bit optimistic of me to assume immediate results like that." Ino shrugged while Naruto choked on her slice of toast resulting in Sakura having to smack her harshly on the back to dislodge the piece of food.

"So… you two were talking a lot last night. What did you both talk about?" Sakura asked pleasantly. Naruto cleared her throat and smiled brilliantly. "It was great! It felt so good to be able to talk like Kakashi the way that we used to before I started… well crushing on him," Naruto finished a little awkwardly. Ino slammed her hand on the table. "Talking the way you used to!?" She yelled, looking frustrated. Naruto paused from her cheery musing, "Uhm. Yeah, that's not good? It felt good at the time," she continued perplexed.

"No! It's not good. We want to progress your relationship, not regress it back. Please tell me you didn't waste this opportunity to talk about nin-jutsu," Ino hissed. Naruto had the audacity to look offended and pouted, folding her arms defensively in front of herself. "It was fūinjutsu, actually ." She sniffed. Ino slumped to the nearest surface.

Sakura threw a glare at Ino before smiling pleasantly at Naruto. "Well, I think that's wonderful, Naruto. I'm glad you had a good time." She comforted Naruto, who in turn relaxed again. She went on to talk about all the details of her and Kakashi's conversation.

"And he's going to teach me how to make the seals we used during our mission, it's not too complicated so I should have it covered and be ready to move onto some more complex stuff pretty fast!" Naruto beamed at Sakura. Ino perked up at the mention of training.

"He said he will teach you how to seal, him, personally?" Ino queried. Naruto nodded hesitantly at Ino's shift in mood. "Did he say when?" Ino pressed. Naruto scratched the back of her head thoughtfully. "We didn't really talk about when…"

Ino jumped up, her miserable slumping over. "No time like the present!" She cheered, clapping her hands. "Naruto! You need to wear that skirt Sakura bought you. And maybe just a little make-up, not much. I'm thinking eyeliner and a little colour on the lips." Ino nodded to herself while Sakura ushered Naruto towards her closet. Ino cut in again, "scratch that, make it gloss on the lips! We want her mouth to be distracting!"

Finding Kakashi wasn't a challenging task. He was only ever in two spots when he hasn't vanished into obscurity. From their place behind a tree in the cemetery stood two very confident women and one more hesitant Naruto Uzumaki. She looked dubiously at their solemn target.

"I don't think this is a good idea." She stated, Naruto was ignored as Ino gave her a good shove from their hiding spot.

Ungracefully, Naruto stumbled with a yelp. Her pigtails bouncing as she swiftly attempted to not look like she was fumbling over to her unrequited crush.

Kakashi, who had been standing by the memorial stone for his dearly departed, considered his options. For ninja, Ino and Sakura weren't exactly subtle in their attempts of orchestrating a run in between himself and Naruto. Now why they were doing that was enough the raise alarms in Kakashi's head to cause him to carefully decide what he should do about it.

Don't think for one second that he forgot Ino's wayward comment about him being a love-struck pretty boy.

Time was wasting. Naruto had apparently gained some momentum. Her steps remained hesitant, erring on the side of caution. Kakashi slowly turned his head to take in stock of what Naruto was up to. She was staring at him intently, her lips pursed and her shoulders terse.

She was upset. Slightly more concerned, Kakashi turned around to greet the woman. Before he could even get a word out, the kunoichi spoke. "I'm sorry!" She bowed quickly before looking up at him, worrying her lip. It was so unexpected his hands immediately went up placatingly. What was she sorry about? She was fine last night, wasn't she? She was her usual bubbly self just the night before at Sakura's cat's anniversary.

Two pairs of keen eyes shot out from behind a tree with harsh mutterings. " That was not part of the plan!" Hissed Ino. " Shut up, you're being too loud!" Sakura whisper-yelled, funnily louder than Ino. It seems that Naruto could hear them too, not that it wasn't hard to. A sweet blush began to form across her face in her humiliation.

"I told them you would be teaching me those seals we used on the mission…" Naruto finished lamely, averting her gaze. Kakashi raised a brow, "that's all they're interested in?" He queried. Naruto tensely nodded her head. Ah, she always was a terrible liar. That once again only raised more questions than answers.

"I told them we should have waited until you were finished-"she gestured towards the memorial stone behind Kakashi guiltily.

"It's fine." Kakashi cut her off, his hands shoved into his pockets as he sauntered closer to Naruto. He leaned down towards the shorter girl to talk to her quietly, "I just don't understand why they are hiding?" Naruto burned up even more. As cute as it looked, it only caused Kakashi to be more concerned. Were there lasting effects from the sealing jutsu that she broke while in wave country?

Frowning further, Kakashi pulled out a hand. He placed it over the flustered blonde's forehead, leaning in to observe her closely. Naruto's spine went rigid as her eyes widened. Her mouth pursed together as she silently screamed into her mouth.

"Mmph!" Naruto would be blowing steam out her ears if it were possible. Kakashi quickly pulled back as if burned. She didn't have a fever, but her reaction threw him completely off-kilter. Naruto's eyes pivoted to him nervously and back to the tree, where two women burst out into laughter. Naruto's hand snapped to her forehead where he had touched her.

"I'm- Uhm." She stammered, realising what a scene she made from simply being checked for her temperature. She gave one last look of utter mortification towards Ino and Sakura before her hands slid down her forehead and onto her flaming hot cheeks.

"Y-you!" She addressed Kakashi now, who was looking thoroughly taken aback. "I'll see you later, Kakashi!" She yelped before vanishing into a yellow blur. Before he could stop himself, Kakashi panicked. "Naruto- wait!?" He yelled, jumping after her, determined to figure out what was wrong with his favourite ex-student (sorry, Sakura)

The two women, who were previously shaking in fits of giggles, paused and looked towards each other. "Well, that wasn't part of the plan either," Sakura said open-endedly. Ino frowned, "No, it was not." She affirmed.

"I think it's good, though, isn't it?" Sakura questioned lightly while Ino's frown deepened. "Now I won't know what's going on! Those lovesick nerds!" She yelled into the sky with her fist held high.

It didn't take Kakashi long to catch Naruto. Jumping building to building with her long locks flying wildly behind her, Kakashi reached out towards her after gaining enough momentum to overtake her. His arm wrapped firmly around Naruto's waist mid-air.

Naruto's horribly hot face, not yet over her earlier embarrassment, twisted to look at him. Kakashi continued to look ahead, focusing on landing while Naruto's hair whipped him in the face. Releasing wind chakra and channeling it to his feet, he slowed their descent. He landed them softly onto the rooftop of one of the single-story buildings.

Naruto's placidity was only cause for further concern. Letting go of the smaller woman down, she immediately slumped down into a sitting position as Kakashi tightly took hold of her shoulders. "Naruto…" He started carefully, looking deep into her azure eyes. "Do you trust me?" He asked, rearing Naruto's dazed look back to like. She looked at him with perfect clarity with the slightest tilt to her head. "Of course, I trust you!" She blurted enthusiastically.

Kakashi nodded slowly. "Are Ino and Sakura… are they using you for something?" Naruto frowned thoughtfully at that. When she made no response, Kakashi decided to elaborate. "Are they blackmailing you, Naruto?" He asked again. The two of them were obviously up to something, and it was distressing Naruto and involving him . If Naruto could explain what their devious plan was, Kakashi could put a stop to it. Or, at the very least, disrupt it so thoroughly they wouldn't think of trying whatever it is they were doing again.

Naruto's eyes widened a fraction as she immediately shook her head vehemently. "No!" She denied, "they are trying to help me!" She amended frantically. "Help you?" Kakashi echoed, his grip on her shoulder relaxing immensely.

Naruto nodded, her hair bouncing with enthusiasm. Whatever ailed her before seeming to be taking the back burner for now. "Yes. Help me." Naruto stood up, forcing Kakashi to stumble back a few steps as to this point he had be towering over her seated form. "They are trying to help me with you."

And Kakashi was stumped. How could they possibly help Naruto with him? In what way could two of the girliest shinobi in Naruto's generation aid Naruto with himself? And why did their 'help' consist of shoving Naruto onto him wearing a skirt too short to be deemed appropriate fighting attire and shiny lip-gloss that drew in attention to her already full and soft looking lips- as if her big eyes weren't aggressive enough? There really should be a mandate to wear contact lenses over eyes that stare as pointedly and aggressively as Naruto's. Maybe he will introduce a blue-eye ban once he's back in office.

Said eyes shone with conviction as Naruto focused on him intently. She took a daring step closer. Kakashi in turn, took another step back, lurching ever so much closer to the end of the rooftop. Naruto saw his reaction and paused hesitantly, before that same bright flame lit up again in her (irritably-distracting, dear lord stop looking at me, blue) eyes. She soldiered on, the both of them taking one step at a time, Naruto forward and Kakashi backwards until his only choice was to stand still or jump off the building (which really, he was considering doing, to hell with social niceties, it's not like he adhered to them anyway.)

"I wanted to thank you," She said, her gaze softening. Kakashi paused from his fretting. Could this blonde please stop confusing him with her intentions? He relaxed and gave her a closed-eye smile. "Maa, Naruto, you don't need to thank me for any-" Naruto cut him off.

"I know you're Sukea, I know you came after me when I- I screwed up," She went tense, looking down the cement beneath them in shame. "I have to thank you for that Kakashi." When did she stop calling him sensei?

"And I need to tell you because I think once I say this, I will stop feeling like an idiot whenever I'm around you. But I love you." Naruto looked back up at him with those damnded eyes. They swirled with waves of emotions, yearning, relief, anxiousness, and affection.

And there was nothing he could do about it.

Frozen stiff, he made no reaction, but Naruto was not deterred. She grabbed one of his stiff hands and pulled it towards her cheek, forcing him to admire just how small and fragile her head looked when enveloped by his larger hand. It stirred something in Kakashi's gut, a fierce passiveness that he was loathed to admit to, as in this moment, Naruto looked absolutely precious.

She wasn't done speaking yet. "I won't stop loving you." She stated, and a single tear gathered in the corner of her eyes. She let go of Kakashi's hand, allowing it to fall back uselessly to his side as her eyes scrunched shut and her mouth stretched into a smile. It was all so obviously painful for her to keep talking, so obvious she had already made up her own conclusions but was battling it anyway.

"Sakura and Ino know, and they think you might feel the same way," She let out a chuckle that resonated straight into Kakashi's frigid heart. "But it doesn't matter if you love me back or not, because I won't stop loving you, even if you try and convince me otherwise. But I promise that now that I've told you, I will never bother you with it again." Naruto let out another choked-up chuckle and reached to rub her eyes aggressively, refusing to let a single tear drop.

Love .

Naruto was saying she loved him. He had done nothing to deserve any affection from her. He was too late to save her back then, and yet she was thanking him for even trying? He couldn't do anything for her. She was better off without him. If he were to leave her here, break her heart in the short term but leave her infinitely happier in the future, he would be doing her a favour.

I will never stop loving you .

Yes, she could, and she would. Once she saw him for how truly inept and useless he really was, she would stop loving him, maybe even come to hate him. The idea that Naruto could one day come to despise him left Kakashi feeling sick inside.

"I'm sorry." She apologised again. Why did he keep making her feel like she owed him any condolences. He pulled her into himself, holding her tight as she went rigid against him. Kakashi buried his head in her hair, inhaling deeply. Naruto truly smelt like home, and it made his heart soar.

"Don't apologise to me." He muffled into her hair. Naruto's arms automatically wrapped around his back, holding on just as tightly to him as he was to her. Both afraid of when the other would let go.

He loved her. He loved her so much, he couldn't even tell when his feelings changed from caring for her to loving her the way he does now. To want her, and for her to never belong to anyone else now that he had her heart. But if he were to take what she was offering to him so freely, her heart, soul, and love, he would be acting out of selfishness. Naruto was not his to have.

"I love you too, Naruto." His traitorous mouth echoed his heart's sentiments. Naruto pulled back harshly. Her neck craned up, and she looked at him with such momentous unabashed joy. Her eyes went glassy as her arms pulled away from him, not quite letting go.

And then she leaped, her feet kicking off the ground pushing the both of them off the building. Kakashi's own eyes widened in shock as she gleefully laughed while they sailed through the air. His arms wrapping impossibly tighter around her as they fell into the dirt streets of Konoha with a painful thump.

Kakashi, being the obvious cushion to this fall, winced as he came to realise what loving Naruto meant. It was painful, exciting, and fun. Naruto sprawled over the top of him, laughing into his chest, the shock of the fall easing some of Kakashi's nerves as he fell in tune with her and began to laugh along. Disgruntled civilians walked by shaking their heads, truly over the eccentricities that came with living in a hidden village run by shinobi.

Naruto continued to lay on top of Kakashi until her laughter died down. Pulling herself up onto her knees so that she could hover above him, she peered at him, face to face. Her hand moved to caress his cheek as she smiled down at him dotingly. When he made no move to stop her and she pulled down his mask.

"Kakashi, you're beautiful." She stated and softly descended on his lips, her eyes fluttering shut. It was nothing like when she was being passed around in that nightmare classified as 'training'. Her heart sped up, his mouth moved with hers, his arms that had never left her waist began to caress her back. One hand moved to firmly hold the back of her neck as his tongue swiped along her lip, but then when it pushed past and into her mouth, everything went blank.

White noise, she couldn't think of anything, only the wonderful buzz in her head. She moaned appreciatively, and Kakashi's kiss only became more intense. He pushed her down, making her knees slip as she was held firm against him. He rolled Naruto onto her back as she panted to catch her breath, so lost in the kiss she had forgotten that she could still breathe.

"Naruto, you're the only beautiful one here," Kakashi told her before he dived back down to catch her mouth once more.

No longer hiding behind a tree, but now staring from behind the corner of a wall were two invasive but ever-doting friends. "Don't you just love happy endings?" Ino commented while Sakura sighed wistfully. "I knew him chasing her was a good thing," The pink-haired girl smiled.

Ino nodded along before she pouted. "Yeah, it's great and all. But I had two weeks' worth of plans set up!" She moaned, "what are we going to do now?" She pouted at Sakura, who just sweatdropped.

"We could try and set Sasuke up with someone? He never left after he came back for Naruto's training. He has been holed up in the old Uchiha compound this whole time," Sakura offered hesitantly. Ino raised a brow.

"I thought you liked Sasuke?" Ino said pointedly, looking at her friend curiously. Sakura scratched her head, embarrassed, and blushed a little. "Well… I thought I did too…" She trailed off, looking to the ground bashfully and then glancing back up at Ino's curious face.

"I had a change of heart…" Sakura tried, hoping that would be enough to quench Ino's thirst for crush-related gossip. Ino was not moved. "You mean to tell me that the guy, that you almost destroyed our entire friendship over. That same guy you went chasing across the country for. You're saying you've had a change of heart over him?" Ino scoffed, her arms crossing defensively over her chest.

Sakura averted her eyes. "Yes." She said meekly. When Ino didn't respond immediately, she sighed. "Things happen. Sometimes you don't realise how you feel until you have almost lost that person…" Sakura trailed off, hoping that didn't reveal too much of her inner feelings.

When she looked back at Ino, she did not expect to see the look of utter shock, of the faint dusting of pink. "Oh," Ino blinked, her teal eyes looking into Sakura's searchingly. Bravely, Sakura took Ino's hand into her own and intertwined their fingers together.

Ino blinked, a sweet smile growing on her lips before she started to giggle. Not a cruel or mocking laugh, just a twinkling giggle. "I should have known all along," She used the hand Sakura had locked onto her to pull the girl closer.

Sakura just blushed further, and Ino watched indulgently. "Okay, we'll find a nice girl for Sasuke together. It's only right that his old fans be the ones to set him up."

The end.

Thanks for reading!