DISCLAIMER: I own nothing from the Naruto universe but I do have an imagination of my own. I will end up using it, I promise!


Thinking

Emphasis

Biju, etc. speaking

Biju, etc. thinking


"Things will be touch and go for a while, especially over the next week as far as her health goes..."


It had been over a week since the return of the young woman from the graveyard. Yes, there was no doubt that the person the Rokudaime Hokage brought in was a woman, and yet somehow that same person had proven to be, through blood and chakra testing, Uzumaki Naruto. On the five-day mark, with Sakura supervising, the nurses attending had taken out the ventilator that was supporting the young woman's breathing. She had responded well, he was assured, although it had scared the shit out of Kakashi. The one good thing that had occurred at that time is that he had seen the woman's blue eyes for a moment or two – even though she was obviously confused, drugged, and coughing the tube out. When they were at the Memorial Stone Kakashi was almost certain that Naruto's eyes were violet, but unlike her mother, Kushina's, they were more of a reddish hue then, he thought.

How many times had he held and kissed her hand since he had been living in her hospital room now? How many times had he asked her to forgive them – to forgive him – for leaving her alone in the ground when they thought she was dead that day months ago? Still, she laid there on the hospital bed, hooked up to so many machines and wires that she needed just to live. At least now she only had on an oxygen mask rather than the tube down her throat. Will she ever forgive me?

The bruises and cuts were fading from her body, especially on those fragile hands of hers. The IV was doing its work, too, in rehydrating her. She looked much better – much less like she was on death's door, thank Kami.

Kakashi? He had been told often enough that he didn't look so great. He was forced to eat by the medical staff whenever they realized he had gone too long without eating. He fell asleep on top of paperwork that he was doing in the hospital instead of in his own office and did so only when he could no longer keep his head up. He showered and changed when Sakura had moments to spare and could watch over "their" patient, but even then he hurried at an extreme pace because he felt he could trust no one else to watch over the young blonde's safety.

Sakura was trying to decide whether or not to just throw him out, and it had only been a week!

The two had also been arguing over the name of "Naruto." Kakashi felt that it was the name for a male so he didn't want to use it. Sakura, however, said that the name meant either maelstrom or something you would get in ramen. She was practical like that, and it was kind of pissing Kakashi off. The other thing Sakura wasn't thrilled about was that Kakashi had carried in a large shoji screen and put it in front of the young woman's bed, thus shielding her in case any of his ANBU had to enter the room, or even look in to speak to him. Sakura understood, but it meant extra steps and workarounds for her and her staff. They were very busy after all, and she also felt that Kakashi was getting very possessive and a little creepy about their former teammate.

On day nine of his exile from the Hokage Tower/no-her-name's-not-Naruto-because-that's-a-guy's-name-Watch, Kakashi nearly jumped out of his skin when an alarm blared in the room. Looking around fearfully, he realized that a little clip was on the floor and that the young woman's hand was twitching. The oxygen monitor! Naruto – no, that's not her name anymore - Not-Naruto had moved her hand and the monitor had come off, which meant... Is she waking up? Not-Naruto squinted her eyebrows together and made a face under her oxygen mask, and Kakashi realized that she was trying to bring her right hand up to get it off her face. He froze. It was only when she finally opened her eyes, which were in an obvious haze, as she clumsily tried to get the mask off her face that he finally reached up to help her.

The oxygen mask was off! He could finally take in her appearance in full. She still had the three little whisker marks on each cheek, although they were thinner, shorter, and seemed to be further back. They made really intoxicatingly exotic features. Big, remarkably blue, unfocused eyes, a cute slightly upturned nose, and twitching golden eyebrows... dry pink lips that were twisting up into a very displeased expression. Oops. Get a grip, Hatake!

"Uhhh - you're awake," Kakashi stated in a grand display of his genius. Her response was nearly crossed eyes, but her head did turn in his direction. He may have laughed at her expression in another scenario, had the situation been less serious, but Kakashi was frankly scared to death. After a few moments, she seemed able to focus on his body, and finally, her gaze moved up to his masked face. He noticed that she seemed scared and felt his heart ache. She blinked her eyes hard then nodded, and he moved towards her.

"Are you in pain?" he asked her. It took her a few moments to register his words, it seemed, but she shook her head. "Thirsty?" Kakashi asked. She made a face and nodded, while he quickly grabbed the pitcher that sat on her nightstand and filled it with ice water. The young woman leaned her head back and closed her eyes, looking up at the ceiling before gazing back at the silver-haired man before Kakashi leaned down to help her take a drink from a glass.

Kakashi sat down next to the blonde and placed his arm around Not-Naruto to help her drink the water and felt her breath fan against his ear, and shivered. He had been suppressing his sexual desires for a loooooong time. Those desires came roaring back to life with a vengeance at just that simple feeling. He swore out loud as he grabbed the ice water and pushed it to her lips. He wasn't helped at all as he watched her lips move against the glass. He felt like even more of a perv when he noticed her eyebrows shot up and that she was looking at him quizzically. However, her head had fallen against his shoulder as she drank, which was a win for him. Where is Sakura? If she was here, I wouldn't be dealing with my own shit, and I could run home and take a cold – no, a freezing – shower!

Not-Naruto pulled her head away from both Kakashi and her drink, sadly for the Hatake. She coughed harshly, covering her mouth as best she could in her weakened state. "Do you feel better now, or would you like some more?" the man asked in his silky baritone. The young woman shook her head at the masked man as he seemed to smile at her (maybe?) and moved away, pulling the covers up around her.

"Where am I?" she asked with a throaty, soft, unused voice, after looking at this person who had so much of his face covered. He looked a little cooky. He was also wearing some weird stuff if you asked her.

Her voice was so soft, so fragile. Kakashi sighed as he took her hand in his, standing up again next to her bed. He hated seeing her looking at him with those big, concerned, or perhaps even frightened eyes. Surely, she wasn't scared of him, was she? Please don't let that be the case. "You are in the Village Hidden in the Leaves. I am the Hokage: I am the leader of the village."

"Oh... okay. Why am I here, though?"

"You were born here. You are one of its people," he replied.

"But I guess... I did something bad, right? I mean," Not-Naruto's eyes teared up and she looked away as the Hokage tried to alleviate her fears.

"No!" Kakashi stated. "What are you talking about? Absolutely not! You didn't do anything bad or wrong. Never!" He smiled at her, but he was having trouble getting her to look at him now. He gently reached out and brushed her bangs from her face with his fingers.

"Well then, why was I..." she looked up at him with wide blue questioning, child-like eyes, "why was I b-buried?" She noticed that the tall man with the crazy hair then got a terribly pained look on his face and just stared at her for a bit. She almost thought he would cry and felt terribly guilty. She hunched her shoulders in and realized that he was taking deep breaths. She never should have asked that question.

"I'm so sorry. I can't even begin to tell you how sorry that we are that you were trapped like that. How sorry that I am. We didn't know that you were alive..." She was horrified, and that showed on her face, too.

Kakashi reached out and framed her face with his large hands and leaned over her. "Stop. Please. Please stop looking so scared. We made a horrible mistake and thought you were gone when you weren't. We are so unbelievably sorry for causing you so much fear and misery. Please don't look so scared anymore. It will be all right now. It's just... It breaks my heart to see you looking at me like this now." The words were so gentle and seemed to be so genuine. She sat stunned, especially when he placed the lightest kiss on her lips before letting her go, only to walk a few steps away to stare out the window.

She knew that she had had more questions. She thought she did, anyway. But now the one and only thing that she could think of was that sweet kiss the stranger had just given her. Who was he? And who was she to him?