Disclaimer: Characters/techniques/names do not belong to me except for Kumiko.

Wow, it's only taken me a month to write this! I'm so proud of me…

Chapter Five:

Lady of the lake

Kakashi cast yet another worried glance over his shoulder at Kumiko. Aside from snarling viciously at Kano when she woke up, she'd been serene and polite to everybody else since. It was like last night had never happened. He frowned briefly. Maybe last night hadn't happened. He shook himself. Of course last night had happened…just…nobody else had to know.

Kumiko's cry from behind brought him back to the present. He looked up…and wondered what the heck the matter was. He nearly tripped himself when he realized that the ground was making grabs for his feet and grasped that the sand ninjas had found them. And they were so close the Kumogakure border. Almost abruptly, the sand at his feet stopped grabbing at him and faded back into the ground. That could only mean that the creator of the technique had purposely dropped the attack or had been forced to drop the attack.

"Sakura! Naruto! Sasuke! I want you to—" he glanced at them and found they had already formed a ring around Kano.

"—right. Good job."

He ran into the forest to take the attack away from its target and he saw Kumiko run into the trees in the opposite direction. Almost immediately after she disappeared behind him, she was suddenly in his face.

"The other two are this way," she whispered in her passing.

He blinked and realized that she'd already been this way and had fooled everyone by using the art of substitution.

"You go," he told her. "I'm going to keep an eye on Kano."

She nodded and disappeared.

Kakashi stood still, concealing his presence while mentally searching for one of the attackers but couldn't understand when the only people he could feel were his genin and Kano. Suddenly, an attacking ninja ran right by him and onto the path where the genin were standing…and he was somehow closely followed by Sasuke. Kakashi frowned when he realized that Sasuke was still standing guard, and was running at himself at the same time. The attacker seemed taken by surprise as well and wasn't sure which Sasuke to prioritize. He attacked the one closest to him, the one chasing, and after moments, found he was fighting both. Within moments, both Sasukes appeared to be out-matched. One of them was struck and disappeared with a poof and the remaining Sasuke found he was fighting for his life. Naruto and Sakura were still standing guard around Kano but were slowly moving their ways away from the fight to keep Kano safe. Kakashi had excellent aim but with Sasuke fighting that close, the chances of not hitting him were slim. He needed to provide a distraction that would force both ninjas to pause to determine if the distraction was on their side or not. When the ninja's back was to Kakashi, a figure of Kakashi stepped around a tree trunk behind Sasuke with a large rustle. Both of them paused for only half a second but it was enough time for the real Kakashi to throw a knife that struck the enemy ninja in the back of the neck, breaking his spinal cord.

Kumiko appeared beside him. He looked at her and she nodded. "I took care of the other two." He nodded back and then they both walked out onto the path.

"Sasuke, are you alright?" Kakashi asked. There was a large gash in his upper pant leg that revealed blood. Sasuke's eye twitched in pain but narrowed his eyes in annoyance as Sakura descended upon him. Then he smirked lightly at Kumiko, "She doesn't seem to be doing too well either."

Kakashi looked at her and watched her sleeve darken with blood but she said, "I'm fine but Sasuke may need stitches."

"What's wrong with your arm?" he demanded.

"It's just a small cut when one of them grazed me. It'll heal all by itself but I don't know that Sasuke's will."

"What?" Kakashi sent her look of surprise, "You mean you're not a talented medic, too?"

She cast him a glare. "No, I'm not."

"Then let's bind it and go."

Despite how Kakashi made that statement, making it sound like they'd be off within the next five minutes, they spent twenty carefully washing the wound, which was deep. Then Kakashi pulled out a roll of bandages and wrapped the cut.

"If you can't walk on it, let me know. You'll only injure yourself further if you push yourself," Kakashi said as he helped Sasuke to his feet.

"I can do it," Sasuke replied.

Five minutes later Kumiko was scouting ahead for the closest town with proper medical supplies and Sasuke was riding piggy-back on Kakashi.

"Oh, yes! I can do it! Not!" Naruto snickered.

"Shut up, Naruto!" Sakura reprimanded, "At least Sasuke leapt in to protect Kano."

Naruto shut up and held a sullen silence until Kumiko returned.

"There's a small town just inside the border if we head northeast," she reported.

"Excellent," Kakashi replied and turned to Kano. "Is it anywhere you may know of?"

Kano thought about it and then nodded. "I believe I may. Small town, fountain near the hospital?" he asked Kumiko.

She nodded.

"Then, yes, I even know the doctor there."

"Speed up," Kakashi ordered, and they increased their speed to a run.

They reached the town within two hours of Kumiko's report and the doctor was able to stitch Sasuke up. Unfortunately he was instructed to not use it at all for at least a day which forced the group to remain where they were. The Hidden Village of Light and Shadows was only another day away, but Sakura and Naruto were forced to spend the day training, while they waited for Sasuke's leg to heal well enough for him to walk.

They arrived in Kumogakure the following day and Kano reported to Raikage with the important object that he'd been transporting. They hadn't found out what it was, but then it wasn't their job to know. It was being transported out of their country, and therefore not their business.

Kano invited them to his place for dinner and offered they stay the night before they left the next day.

Kano owned a nice house that sat next to a lake, which the river they'd been following ran into. The house was furnished in good taste and everything matched, making Kumiko wonder if he'd furnished it himself or if he'd hired an interior decorator to do the job. The entryway opened up to a large living room/entertainment room and across the door was a grand staircase that lead up to the kitchen and dining room. The deck was just outside the kitchen and was made from a rich, dark coloured wood and was decorated with plants.

The six of them sat out on the deck trying to enjoy the pasta that Kano had cooked up. He had decided to make one last stab at impressing Kumiko and decided to show her that he had a 'passion' in cooking, too. Unfortunately, his pasta stuck to itself and the sauce (made it himself) tasted strongly of spinach and crab.

Of course, he didn't notice it himself, as he'd stayed in the kitchen while it was congealing and had become accustomed to the smell, but everybody else did. They were respectful and said nothing but good things because he was letting them spend the night, he was a client, and he might employ them again.

However, Kumiko wordlessly got up and took her dish with her and walked back into the kitchen. She went through all his cupboards until shortly, Naruto joined her. She smiled and took his plate from him and set it on the counter next to hers after scraping the sauce from the pasta back into the pot. She added a few things, stirred it around and Naruto swore he'd watched a miracle happen. She let him try it after she did and couldn't believe how edible she'd made it. She respooned it back onto their plates and went back outside. Kano looked questioningly at them.

"Needed more," Kumiko replied with a smile.

He smiled dashingly back at her, entirely convinced.

After watching her and Naruto eat contently for a few moments, Kakashi, Sakura, and Sasuke got up and went into the kitchen. When they returned, smiling, Kano exclaimed, "Why, I had no idea how great my cooking was!"

"Yes," Kumiko replied, "It's amazing just how you come up with such different tastes."

"I must admit I put a little extra effort in to it, but I was trying a new sauce this time. I'm glad it was such a success!"

Everyone around the table hmmed and hahhed, in agreement, but of course their mouths were all full so they were unable to actually say anything complimentary.

Kano's house had a master bedroom, two smaller bedrooms, and a guestroom but because Kano lived alone, he slept in the master and used the rest as guest rooms.

Sakura and Kumiko shared one of the rooms that had an ocean theme to it. Kumiko sat on the bed while Sakura used the bathroom that was attached to it.

"Couldn't you have done anything about the sticky pasta?" Sakura asked around her toothbrush. It actually sounded like 'Oodn't Oo av un nytin boutt teh icky asta?' but Kumiko understood her.

"No. It was sticky because it had boiled for too long."

Sakura nodded in understanding before turning to spit in the sink. After rinsing her mouth, she came out of the bathroom, saying, "Well thanks for doing what you did with the sauce. It made it so much easier to pretend that he'd done a good job."

Kumiko grinned and got up from the bed. She brushed her teeth and then told Sakura that she was going for a run.

"A run? At this hour?"

"Yea," Kumiko replied. "Don't you ever get the urge to run or practice?"

"Well, I wouldn't call it an urge. More like a duty," Sakura admitted.

Kumiko nodded, realizing that she almost expected that kind of an answer from Sakura, who wasn't a very hands-on kind of fighter. They could work on that.

Kumiko closed the door quietly behind her and tiptoed down the hall, passed the boy's room and passed Kakashi's room. When she slipped out the front door, she could have sworn she'd heard a bedroom door closing, but when she froze to listen, she heard nothing, and so she left, shutting the front door quietly behind her.

She walked down to where the lake was lapping against the shore, did a few basic stretches, and then took off at a light jog across the lake. There was a splash behind her and Kumiko turned. Her face was cautious, but then the ripples washing over her feet told her that her pursuer was underwater. It was probably whomever she had thought had closed the door before she'd left, but then she couldn't be too careful. She leapt back twenty paces. If they were going to come underwater, she could at least make it more difficult for them to reach her secretly. She was out on the lake far enough that if they'd dove in near the shore, they'd need to take a breath before they got within twenty feet of her.

A hand grabbed her ankle and she squawked in surprise. She twisted out of the hand's grasp but before she could regain her balance, the other hand grabbed her other ankle and tripped her. She prepared her chakra to let her land on the water, instead of in the water, but the hand still on her ankle forced chakra into her leg, interrupting her chakra flow and she crashed into the water. Knives out, she attacked at whomever had dared get her hair wet after dark but as soon as she had this thought, she knew exactly who had done this. And he was going to die.

She attacked him viciously with her knives but he was prepared and countered with his own. They parried underwater until, finally, he rose to take a breath. She popped up beside him and found he was laughing. She dunked him underwater, which of course didn't prevent him from laughing, but he did come up choking and spluttering.

"Kakashi, do I look angry to you?" she demanded.

Still unable to speak due to much laughing and choking, he merely nodded.

"Did we not go over what would happen if you got my hair wet again after dark?"

Again, Kakashi nodded, but this time he forced, "Kano has a hair dryer," out.

Kumiko paused.

"But that hardly matters," Kakashi said, "because I would have done this anyways."

She smacked him upside the head.

"Ow! Okay! I'm sorry!"

"Good." Kumiko hauled herself out of the water and onto the water. Again, it was bothering her that her stomach was doing interesting flip-flops and she was mentally cowering in a corner, wondering why the world was torturing her this way.

She sat on the water, dangling her calves and feet under the surface, and Kakashi soon pulled himself out of the water and followed suit.

"So, what are you doing out here?" he asked her.

"Being mad at you," she responded childishly.

This pulled a wider smile out of him but then he nodded gravely. "Yea, it's hard work being mad at me. You really do need to sit on a lake with wet hair after dark to accomplish it."

She pushed his shoulder, a smile pulling at the corners of her mouth.

"How'd you manage to stay underwater for so long?" she asked him out of curiosity.

"I converted my chakra to oxygen, of course," he replied. He watched her face as she worked out what he'd said and then figured it made sense.

"You mean," he started slyly, "that you didn't know that?"

She stiffened. "I was wondering what method you used."

"Admit it! You didn't know you could do that with chakra!"

"Fine. I admit it."

"…really? That's it? You're just admitting it?"

"Well what else could I do?"

He snorted, "You could have said something lame like using a bubble head charm or gillyweed."

She gaped at him.

"What?" he asked, affronted.

"You mean you read something other than porn?"

He sniffed, "It is not porn. It is beautiful literature about the union of men and women."

"My butt is beautiful literature!" she scoffed.

"Is it?" he asked with a serious expression.

She stared at him and he grinned. She made to knock him playfully in the shoulder, but he grabbed her hand and interrupted her chakra flow again, sending her down into the water.

Her head popped back up and she glared daggers at him.

"So why were you out here, again?" he asked her.

She smiled evilly. "Burning chakra," and she grabbed his leg and did the same thing to him.

He rose to the surface and, still grinning, said, "Now, now, Kumiko, no grabbing my leg above the knee."

She blushed, not realizing that she had even done that. She watched him carefully. "You know, you'd be so much easier to read if you didn't wear that mask," she said, irritated.

"Maybe that's why I wear it," he said. "You, on the other hand, are very easy to read sometimes."

"Am I?" she asked, her voice confident, her nerves shaky. "What am I thinking then?" the second the words left her mouth, she wished she hadn't said them.

He reclined on the water, "You're thinking—"

"Because if it has anything to do with racing across the lake, you'd be correct," she interrupted.

Something passed through Kakashi's eye, but she couldn't decipher it fast enough before it was gone and replaced by a competitive look.

He grinned up at her, "Fine. You run and I'll swim. And when I win, I'll tell you what you're really thinking."

"You can't possibly swim as fast as I can run," she jeered, nerves prickling her skin.

"On your mark, get set, go!" Kakashi grinned and took off.

Kumiko cursed and leapt out of the water and took off at a sprint. She overtook Kakashi quickly and then started to take huge jumps and made it to the other side of the lake within minutes. Kakashi pulled in some minutes later, puttering around half on the surface, half swimming, a ticked off expression on his face.

"I thought you were running," he said.

"Yes, and I thought you were swimming. You were using chakra to propel yourself forward."

"You were using chakra, too!" he protested.

"Yea, to stay on top of the water."

"Oh please, you cannot jump that far without chakra assistance."

There was nothing she could say without sounding immature, so she said nothing.

"And," he said, lazily swimming circles around her, "you were thinking that it was time to get yourself a mask so you can hide all of your other expressions that betray what you're really thinking."

She stared blankly at him before saying, "You didn't win."

"Yes I did. You cheated first which means that you were disqualified. I won."

"Prick," she muttered.

"Tell me I'm right," he smiled sweetly.

"I just did."

"Oh. Well, about those other emotions that you want to hide—"

"I'm tired. Are you ready to go back?" she asked as though she hadn't just interrupted him.

He opened his mouth to point out she didn't need a mask to hide behind because she was already hiding, but realized that she didn't want to talk.

His hand reached out of the water, grabbed her ankle, and she ended up in the water again.

"Gee, Kumiko, if you keep ending up in the water, I'll have to start calling you 'Lake Lady'," Kakashi teased, changing the subject for her.

If looks could kill, Kakashi would have been drowning, but Kumiko then sniffed and said "I prefer Lady of the Lake, thank you."

"But, of course!" Kakashi leapt out of the water and made a sweeping bow. Like the gentleman he was pretending to be, he offered her his hand. She took it, surprising him, and then he ended up in the water.

"Watch out that I don't start calling you the Pond Prince," she chortled.

"Hmph, I'd prefer a more dignified title like yours. Lord of the Lake doesn't sound too shabby."

"No, no, no, that title is too dignified for you. Pond Pauper is better."

"Oh, you wound me!" he made a stabbing motion at his heart.

"Besides, if I'm Lady of the Lake, you being Lord of the Lake would imply that we're a unit," she gagged, "Which we aren't."

"Oh, is the idea really so repulsive?"

"Of course it is," she said, while thinking the opposite, "You read…what was it again? 'Beautiful literature about the unity of men and women,' I believe."

"And that's really so terrible?"

"Of course. It's degrading. Something the Lord of the Lake would not do."

He grinned, "But I learn so much from them."

Kumiko pulled a horrified face at him, "I did not need to know that."

He laughed, "What else does the Lord of the Lake do?"

"Well…" she thought about this, wondering what he was really asking her and why he was asking. "Not much else that's different from who he really is…but really, that literature issue has to be fixed."

He nodded, while walking up onto the bank, "Of course. What does the Lady require him to read?"

She took his offered hand, like a lady, and walked up beside him on the beach, "What ever else he wants to read that's appropriate in front of everybody else. Of course, what he reads in private is his own choice."

Kakashi nodded in agreement as they set off around the beach. "And of course the Lady is perfect as she is?"

"Of course," she said lightly.

Kakashi cast her a wry look, "Aside from the fact that she isn't very open with who she is."

"She's very paranoid, you see," Kumiko retorted, "because people keep trying to kill or capture her."

"But of course her lord is happy to assist her in defeating her foes. You see, he wants to be her friend, too."

Kumiko nodded slowly, turning that sentence over, "Assistance is good. But giving her space is good, too. The Lady doesn't like to be too crowded, as she is accustomed to living alone."

"But she doesn't have to live alone anymore."

Kumiko sighed and gave up. "I know that. I'll get used to it."

"Good," he smiled, "We'll all be waiting for you when you do."

She nodded and looked away before looking back, realizing that he was still holding her hand. She looked at their joined hands and then back at him. He responded with a blank, questioning look. She smiled and shook her head and looked back across the lake.

When she extracted her hand from his so she could let her hair out of its braid so it could dry and took off her shoes so she could feel the sand on her feet, Kakashi only just noticed that she'd still been holding his hand. He'd still held hers. Well it hardly mattered which way it went, only that it had happened.

'Does she…?' he asked himself. 'Or did she do it by accident and think it was my idea? Does she think I…?' Kakashi tortured himself with his own thoughts while Kumiko hummed softly to herself.

Kakashi looked sideways at her. 'How could I possibly think I like her if I know so little about her? I mean, yea, I'm attracted to her, but she's beautiful. And fun. And creative.'

Kakashi had never been in love before. Something about him made women picture him as flakey, shallow, and once they found out what he liked to read, they tended to leave and not really come back. He'd therefore dedicated himself to being a ninja so he could protect the people who did like him and who he liked. He messed around and trained with Gai and Asuma sometimes, but they were guys, too. Kumiko was a lot of fun, maybe even more so than they were, but she was a woman and you could only ignore that for so long. Or so he thought. As for her liking him?

'Not a chance,' he decided. 'She doesn't trust people, she's lived a very hard life, and she may even have ties to the past that I can't compete with.'

He felt slightly miserable at this realization. He could just ask her, but of course that might set off their friendship and ruin everything. Kakashi, as a cadet, had never told girls when he liked them, and they had never told him they had liked him. He was very much in the dark about what to do. In his books, the characters always had a mutual liking for each other, even if it was very deep down, and by the end of the books they were often married. Fortunately for Kakashi, he understood that life didn't actually work like that. Unfortunately, that didn't help him at all.

"Still feeling tired?" Kumiko asked him, bringing him out of his confused and melancholy thoughts.

He arched his eyebrow, making her smile, and said, "I thought it was you who claimed to be tired."

"I was saying it for you." She said, "You used quite a bit of chakra out there on the lake."

His insides squirmed because of how right she was. "No, I'm not tired."

"Want to race back?"

He looked up and saw that the house wasn't too far away. He took off without replying.

"Hey!" she cried indignantly. Her hand grabbed his ankle and he tripped. She flew over him and leapt for a tree.

"Owww! My hair!" she exclaimed as he grabbed a few locks of it. He noticed its softness before saying, "You shouldn't have taken it out!"

She pounced on him and slid his headband over both of his eyes. She snickered as he nearly ran into a tree trunk.

The two of them fell onto Kano's driveway breathing heavily and sporting light injuries. Kumiko's arm injury she'd obtained the previous day from their fight had reopened and was bleeding lightly while Kakashi's hands were raw from having braced him for landing so many times.

"Shall we call it a draw?" he asked as they quietly walked up the front porch and Kumiko nodded.

Locking the door behind them, the two of them stared up the flight of stairs to the second landing where their bedrooms were. After burning chakra, racing, outsmarting, and fighting, the stairs looked like they were going to be more of an obstacle than they really were.

"Couch?" Kumiko yawned and pointed at the antique-looking piece of wood and cushion.

Kakashi wrinkled his nose. The couch matched the rest of the furniture but looked like it might break if sat on too heavily.

"Stairs," he said.

They dragged themselves up the enormous flight and fell onto the bed in the first room. Kumiko slept soundly, but Kakashi's sleep was interrupted.

'Argh, did she mean to take my bed? Or was she just really tired? Or did she not want to wake Sakura?' He glanced at the clock that read after midnight. 'Yea, that's it. She didn't want to wake Sakura and she's really tired.'

He glanced at the deeply sleeping Kumiko and willed himself to sleep. Unfortunately every time his mind started to drift off, his body started to drift towards her.

Growling with irritation, he rolled over and finally dropped off.

Kumiko squinted as the sun rose and spilled into the room onto her face. She buried herself more into the pillow and covers, willing sleep to come back, but all of her muscles tensed when she felt the weight at her back.

'Sakura?' she wondered briefly before remembering the previous night. Her cheeks flared as she realized it was Kakashi whose arm was draped over her waist. Whose body she was leaning against.

Kumiko rolled out of bed so quickly, she landed on her butt, instead of her feet, the thud waking Kakashi.

"Eh? Kumiko?" he peered over the edge at her bleery-eyed form on the floor and realized whose side of the bed he was on.

'Gah! There shouldn't even be a side-of-the-bed!' he thought frantically as he rolled as fast as the sheets would let him onto his side of the bed so he could get up. Sheets are devious things, however, and while they may make you think you've rolled neatly over to where you're supposed to be, they show you that they have the upper hand when you try to stand.

Kakashi ended up on his face.

Kumiko stood up from where she was and saw what had become of him. She started laughing and he looked at her frantically, "Shut up! If the rest of the team finds out we slept together, it'll be the talk of the town when we get home!"

"Oh give me a break!" Kumiko said, stifling her laugh. "It's not like we slept together. Besides, you look like a burrito. "

There was a knock on the door.

"Kumiko?"

It was Sakura.

Their smiles were wiped off their faces. They gave each other wide eyes and then Kakashi rolled under the bed, taking all of the sheets with him.

Kumiko stifled a snicker and thought she was going to die trying not to laugh at the scene Sakura found when she entered the room.

The bed was sitting perfectly naked with the comforter on the floor and the sheets gone.

"Err, Kumiko, where are the sheets?"

"They're, uh, gone," she said and then mentally slapped herself. She swore she felt the bed quiver from Kakashi's suppressed laughter. "What are you doing here, Sakura?"

"What do you mean, gone?" she asked,

"Gone. I've misplaced them. They aren't here. Now, what was it you wanted?"

"Oh, I woke up expecting you to be there, but your half of the bed was unslept in. I thought I heard your voice coming from Kakashi's room so I came to check." She glanced around the room. "Where's Kakashi?"

"I'm sure he's the reason the sheets are missing," she said and because she was on the opposite side of the bed, Sakura couldn't see Kakashi's hand dart out from under the dust ruffle and flick Kumiko irritably on the ankle. Kumiko stepped on his fingers, suppressing a grin. "We'll find him before breakfast."

Sakura nodded in acceptance. "I'm going to see if Kano's up yet to get us breakfast," and she left, closing the door behind her again.

Kakashi rolled out from under the bed, griping his fingers in pain, opened his mouth to make a snarky remark about his fingers while he began to untangle himself from the sheets, when Sakura opened the door again.

She froze and glanced at Kakashi.

"Err," Kumiko stuttered, trying to find something plausible to say but settled for, "I told you Kakashi took the sheets."

Kakashi snorted.

Sakura backed out of the room, apparently forgetting what she'd come back for, and once more, shut the door behind her.

Kumiko gave a short bark of laughter and then walked over to give Kakashi a hand.

"Back off, finger-crusher," he warned.

"Ooh, Great insult," she said dryly and grabbed one end of the sheets and pulled. Kakashi rolled out.

"Oof! I hope Kano isn't up. That way you'll have to make us breakfast."

Kumiko cupped her hand around her ear, "What's that? Do I hear a compliment? Coming from Kakashi? Surely not!"

He grumbled. "So you're a great chef. Big deal."

"Chefs go to school. I'm a cook."

"Whatever."

She smiled. "Thanks."

They arrived home five days later, moving slow because of Sasuke's injury. When they did return, Naruto felt gypped because they'd only been attacked once.

"I mean, that was more like a 'C' level mission," he complained. "We've done harder ones before!"

"You should be grateful we only encountered an enemy once!" Sakura snapped.

"But how are we supposed to improve if we don't fight?" he asked her.

"With training, of course!"

"Sakura-chan, that isn't the same thing!"

"Ah, here we are," Kakashi interrupted.

The five of them strode up and into the red building to report to Hokage.

"What took you guys so long?" Hokage asked with a smile when they approached his table in the request room.

"Sasuke, here, was injured," Kakashi replied.

"It's healing," Sasuke said indifferently.

"Sasuke-kun was sooo brave," Sakura cooed.

"As you know, Kakashi," Hokage said, changing the subject, "we are in the midst of setting up for a carnival. We expected you back sooner so you could help, but there are still a few things needed to be done. If you and Kumiko could help out with that for a time today and tomorrow, I know that would help speed things up."

Kakashi nodded as Naruto rushed forward. "Can I help, too?"

Hokage smiled around his pipe but said, "I'm sorry, Naruto, but you need to be 16 to help with the construction. You are, of course, invited to attend."

Naruto looked down as they left the building with their earnings so Kakashi promised that they'd take a training day to have a battle, which cheered him up considerably.

"So, are you going to go help with set-up today?"

Kumiko shrugged in response, not really sure.

She and Kakashi were walking home after dismissing the genin. Both were tired but Hokage had asked them to help out…

"I'll go tomorrow," she decided.

Nodding, Kakashi said, "I'm going to go today but after I nap," and as if on cue, he yawned.

Upon reaching their separate houses, Kumiko thought about it and then said, "I might show up after I sleep, too, but my sleep is going to come first."

Nodding, Kakashi replied saying, "See you later," and then the two parted.

Kumiko unlocked the door and found a note lying on the front hall mat. Bending to pick it up, she discovered it was from Kurenai and it said that she and her team had left a few days ago on a mission and were expected back some time tomorrow.

Unpacking, Kumiko took in the silence of the house and wondered about the peculiar feeling she was experiencing.

'This is home,' she thought pensively.

It was a feeling of gradual familiarity and possessiveness that she hadn't experienced since she was ten years old.

Walking up the stairs, she pushed open the door to her room and looked around. It didn't really feel like her room, but as she compared her room to Kurenai's she decided that Kurenai's had a number of personal items, like the posters and window hangings, that she didn't have.

'That'll change,' she thought with a smile as she lay down on her bed.

Shutting her eyes, she let sleep claim her as she vaguely considered setting her alarm and then decided against it. They could set up a carnival without her.

Tadaa! Chapter five!

Half way through this chapter, I got bored with what was going on so I started writing another scene. I am happy to say that this other scene is going to be the start of chapter six, so I've already got at least a page written of the next chapter. Yay!

Anyways, again, tell me if you like the speed that Kakashi and Kumiko are getting together. It had better not be too quickly (if it goes any slower, I may explode from impatience). This chapter I'm really interested in how you think the plot is coming. Am I going too slow? That's one of my reoccurring problems. I write too darn slow. The story barely moves. But let me know of your opinions.

I will promise that chapter six is going to be devoted to the carnival. Yay! (it only took me, what, three chapters to get there?). No promises on how long it'll take me to write the next chapter, but I hope it's as quick as this one…

Review!

-Kirara