*Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in it. I simply borrow them for my own musings and fantasies and do not get paid for their use in said musings or fantasies.

Thanks to everyone who has been favoriting and following this story. And a special thanks to those of you who have reviewed and let me know what you think. I'm baffled every time I refresh the page and see that the hits count has increased by hundreds within just a few hours. I really can't describe how much I appreciate you guys. Please continue to support me and I'll do the best I can to keep providing you with an awesome story. :) –Nira

Chapter 10

"What brings you here in the middle of the night, Kakashi?" the elder man inquired, his weathered face showing his concern. "And in your pajamas, to boot."

"My apologies for my unprofessional appearance, Hokage-sama. I came to inform you that Yuriko's apartment has been broken into and that her door, and possibly the frame will need replacing as soon as possible," the silver-haired male stated.

"By who? Do we know their motive?"

"It was me, Hokage-sama. She'd been screaming and it had woken me and a few of the neighbors up, but when I surveyed her apartment, there were no signs of a forced entry anywhere to indicate that there had been an intruder."

"… Go on…"

"I forced myself in to find her still asleep in her room but gripped in a night terror and screaming. When I'd shaken her awake she attempted to placate me by saying that she was fine, but when a loud clap of thunder shook the building, she screamed and curled into herself, shaking in terror. I calmed her down, offered her a cup of tea and put her to bed in my apartment for safety and security reasons, seeing as her door no longer performs its intended purpose at this point in time."

The Hokage sighed, his pipe clenched between his teeth as he processed the new information.

"When you woke her… did she say anything? Anything at all about what she had been dreaming about?"

"No, she didn't and please don't ask me to gather that information from her. I know all too well about the hauntings of the past and it would be cruel of me to make her relive something that traumatic for the sole purpose of reconnaissance."

"No, no, of course I wouldn't ask you to do such a thing. Please continue to provide me with reports about any noteworthy occurrences. As for the issue of her door, I will have someone sent to replace it first thing in the morning."

Kakashi nodded in understanding and took his leave with a bow, quickly returning home, hoping that he hadn't been gone too long and that Yuriko was still soundly asleep. When he'd returned, he washed the teacups that he'd left on the end table, drying them and replacing them in their proper places in the cabinet.

He shoved his hand into his pocket and walked down the hallway to his bedroom, cracking the door open a bit further, slipping into the dark room and standing beside the bed to gaze at Yuriko once again in her sleeping state. She'd turned onto her side and her expression had remained calm, he'd noticed, though the blanket was pulled up to her nose leaving only her eyes and the halo of platinum hair splayed out beneath her visible.

He wasn't sure how long he stood there, but when a yawn forced itself out, he made his way back out of the room, closing the door a bit more behind him again. As he was getting comfortable on the couch, he sighed, staring up at his ceiling, thinking about everything he knew or had discovered about Yuriko since the time they'd first met. When his mind started to wander to thoughts about how vulnerable and fragile she'd seemed when he'd awoken her and the thunder had scared her in comparison to her usual rough, stoic demeanor, a flash of attraction crossed his mind but he quickly brushed it off and closed his eyes with a sigh allowing sleep to take over.

The first thing that greeted Yuriko when she slowly fought her way through the fog of sleep was the contrast of the warmth of the sun on her back, its rays penetrating through the blankets and heating her to the core, and the coolness of the room. It made her curl into herself more, pulling her knees closer to her chest and the blankets closer to her nose.

The next thing to catch her intrigue was the scent. It was a clean scent, but it was not a familiar one to her, even in her still hazy half-awake state. There was a faint trace of a masculine and pleasantly musky and warm scent, but at the realization that it was a masculine scent, her eyes shot open and she glanced around, taking in her surroundings.

The room she was in was very simple with no decorations and the closet was slightly ajar with a few shinobi uniforms seen hanging up and a small pile of clothes on the floor. She sat up with a slight sigh of relief that she was alone. She didn't recognize where she was but she noticed that the layout of the room was identical to her own, so she scooted out of the bed, shivering as her bare feet met the cool wooden floor. The bedroom door had been left open a bit and she made her way into the hallway as silently as she could as the events from the night before slowly resurfaced to her mind.

When she had made her way to the living room, she paused at the sight of Kakashi sleeping on the couch. His silvery hair was more wild than usual and he'd slept with his mask on so she could only see the clearly defined angle of his jaw through the fabric. He'd fallen asleep with his elbow propped against the pillow and arm of the couch, his hand resting palm up over his eye and Yuriko smiled, thinking that it looked as though he'd fainted in a theatrical manner and had yet to recover from it.

She noted the smooth curves of his bi- and triceps and the tautness of the skin as it was stretched over the strong muscle beneath it and followed his arms to his torso, his pecks and the outline of his abdominal muscles defined through the thin fabric of his tight short sleeved t-shirt. She'd seen it in its entirety just the night before and she remembered it very clearly, but she pushed the thought aside. He'd offered her tea and a place to stay where he thought she might be more comfortable. He had slept on the couch in his own house and the sheets on the bed had smelled clean like he'd changed them, knowing that she'd seen a woman leaving his apartment the day before. And he'd even carried her to bed and tucked her in. Maybe he wasn't such a bad guy after all, she thought.

As a thank you, she made her way into the kitchen, rummaging through the cabinets and peeking in the fridge to see what she could prepare for breakfast for the two of them. His kitchen was as simple and bare as the rest of his apartment, and deciding that because she was unsure how long he'd be asleep, she'd just wait until he woke up to make breakfast of eggs, toast, and tea.

In the meantime, she sat in the lounge chair and noticed that Kakashi had left his orange book on the coffee table and picked it up out of curiosity, turning to the back cover to read the summary. She noticed that it was labeled with an "18+" indicator at the top corner and the interest got the better of her. As she read the summary, she felt her face flush warmer, the epiphany dawning on her that it was an adult romance novel and looked to the still sleeping Kakashi wondering why he read it. Not only did he own the book, but he read it in public without even a glimmer of a sense of shame in his expression or demeanor as if it were just another random story that anyone would read in public. Her better thinking of him regressed a bit. He was a pervert and a womanizer. There was no denying it.

Not seeing anything else to do, she turned to the first page and began reading. It hadn't even been fifteen minutes that she'd been awake, but before she could even finish the chapter, she snapped the book shut in distaste and set it back down in boredom as she looked back over at Kakashi's still sleeping form.

"How long is he going to be asleep for, I wonder?" Yuriko thought as she felt her stomach tighten with hunger again before growling low.

After a short moment of debating with herself about whether or not to wake him up and if so, how, she gave up with a sigh and leaned over the back of the couch, calling to him, "Senpai… Kakashi-senpai, wake up."

She got no immediate response and frowned with a slight pout, furrowing her brows while she gently shook his shoulder. It was firm to the touch, just as it looked like it would be when she'd seen it the night before and a slight blush arose on her cheeks at the realization but she shook the thought away and shook him a bit harder. He had slowly been waking up after the first few time of hearing his name called. His right eye fluttered half open and he stared up at the silver-haired figure whose tresses had begun to fall loose from behind her ear to tickle his open palm and who was still gently shaking him like a child, the slightly flustered expression on her face bringing a slight grin to his lips before it was replaced with annoyance that she'd woken him up and that she was still shaking him.

"What time is it?" he yawned, trying not to show his irritation.

"Seven thirty-ish."

"No… too early…" Kakashi grumbled, turning his back to her and pulling the blanket over his head to prevent her from shaking him any longer and Yuriko was taken aback, withdrawing her hand.

"But… the sun is already up."

"A pain, isn't it?"

"Well, I'm not going back to sleep so it might be more comfortable if you moved to the bed."

"Perhaps…"

"What do you mean 'perhaps'? It's your bed," she stated, cocking her hip and resting her fist on it.

"Yes. And you are more than welcome to return to it," he heaved, wishing she'd get the point and go back to bed.

"But I'm not going back to sleep. If you are, you should move to your bed."

"That requires effort and to leave the warmth and comfort that I am experiencing here on the couch right now."

"But wouldn't the bed be more comfortable?"

"Probably. A bed is just a bed, though. It's just a place to sleep, and so is a couch and since I'm already on the couch, there's no point in moving." His patience was growing thinner as the pointless conversation continued and was waking him up more and more so it'd be more and more difficult for him to go back to sleep.

"That's not how I see it…" Yuriko stated, her tone darkening a bit and Kakashi noticed, his interest now piqued and focus more alert. "A bed is a home to me."

Kakashi's heart wrenched. He'd never thought of it that way. The only times he hadn't had a bed to return to were when he was on missions, but even when he wasn't, a bed had always just been a bed. What was it like to not even know when you'd ever get to sleep in one again? He gave up on the thought of getting back to sleep and slowly uncovered his head with a yawn, glancing back up at Yuriko from the corner of his eye. Before either of them could open their mouths to continue the conversation, there was a loud crack from outside making them jump and stand on guard as they rushed to the door and threw it open. They were greeted by a couple men in hard hats working on Yuriko's door who smiled and waved before they continued the demolition of the frame to replace it.

"That was fast…" Yuriko thought aloud.

"Well, so much for getting a bit more sleep…"

Yuriko's eyes widened as a thought hit her. If they were fixing her door, she wouldn't be able to get into her apartment. She didn't have any clothes to change into with her and the only form of entertainment that she had was her book that she was almost finished with. Her stomach then growled to remind her that she hadn't eaten yet, either and her eyes narrowed at the awful timing of everything. Kakashi's eyebrow raised and it just then occurred to him that she must have been hungry, hence why she'd woken him up.

"I don't have much of a selection and my cooking skills aren't nearly on par with yours, but I'm willing to share what I have," Kakashi stated as he walked back into his apartment. "It is my fault that your door is needing repair, after all."

"I don't want to impose on you any more than I already have," she responded, really wanting to say that she didn't trust him enough to stay for even longer than breakfast since she'd planned on leaving once they'd eaten.

"Where are you going to go? You can't get into your apartment with them working on the door and you're still in sleeping clothes so you can't go out into public like that."

Yuriko remained silent, glaring at the back of his head. He had a point as much as she hated to admit it. Kakashi went to the kitchen and brought out the ingredients that Yuriko, herself, had planned on using to make eggs, toast, and tea, and he made just that. It wasn't long until he'd finished and the two sat in awkward silence at the kitchen table, eating their food. When they'd finished, Yuriko thanked him and sulked to the lounge chair with her book and Kakashi folded up the blanket and pillow he'd used, returning them to their place in the hallway closet. He grabbed his own book and took a seat at the couch. Within a couple of hours, Yuriko had finished her book and sighed as she closed it, gazing out the window.

"Senpai..?" she mused.

"Hm?" Kakashi hummed.

"How did they know my door needed fixing?"

"I told the Hokage that I broke into your apartment and he had someone come to fix it."

"Why did you do that? What else did you tell him?" she demanded, turning enough to glare at him.

"I figured he should know, seeing as he's the one who has invested quite a bit of money and trust in you to give you a place to stay and a high ranking position within our society. I told him the situation; nothing more, and nothing less."

"I asked you not to tell anyone."

"He needed to know. He trusts you as an elite Konoha shinobi. If I hadn't shared that information with him, it could have compromised a later mission if it had been revealed in the middle of a critical mission. You are not the only one in the ANBU who has secrets and demons, but the only one who knows enough of everyone's to prevent mission disaster caused by those shadows is the Hokage."

Again, she huffed, realizing that he had a good point. If she hadn't had that conversation with Iruka in the graveyard and if it hadn't just happened to storm the same night it wouldn't have even been revealed. It would have remained a secret that she had night terrors and screamed and was terrified of thunderstorms and she wouldn't have to be stuck inside with this loathsome womanizer and nothing to do for the day until her door was fixed. After another half hour or so of the continued construction, Yuriko grew antsier and Kakashi noticed, especially since she had no way of staying entertained with him not being used to hosting a guest and her having finished her book.

"Sah, Yuriko-san?" Kakashi started, uncomfortable with the silence and growing tension from her restlessness. "There's no sense in just waiting around for your door to be repaired. Would you like to get out of the house for a while?"