Katsumi sat on the sofa and sighed, she hated being woken up. Kakashi smiled and sat next to her.
"I miss the old days when we went on missions." Kakashi said with a small smile and Katsumi raised a thin crimson eyebrow at him.
"How? Everyone use to complain if they had an Intel mission with me." She asked confused and Kakashi just shrugged.
"It was funny. Seeing you get woken up, your blood red hair sticking up at weird angles and you storming over to us, yelling about your precious sleep, and completely ignoring the struggling prisoner." He started to reminisce with a smile. "Then we would withhold your coffee until you got the information from them. Watching them go from being cocky with you to practically wetting themselves was the best." He added with a chuckle.
"Sometimes I wonder if you're sane when you say shit like that." She told with a smirk. Kakashi was glad to see the old Katsumi coming out again. He should have realised something was going on when she changed to being overly polite and only speaking when she was spoken to.
"Katsumi-chan." He called her to get her attention after a short pause. She hummed in acknowledgement. "How about you come back? I'll give you your rank back no problem." Kakashi asked and saw her eyes light up.
"Really?" She asked to make sure she wasn't hearing things and Kakashi nodded with a smile. Suddenly she jumped on top of him, hugging him with all her strength. Kakashi took a deep breath in.
"Katsumi." He wheezed out when she didn't let him go. She quickly let him go and smiled. He thanked her with a big smile, he missed having her around and he was sure most of the other ninja's were, they just wouldn't admit it. "Get your gear on and report to my office at noon." He told her and she nodded, running up the stairs as fast as she could. Kakashi smiled and put the mugs in the sink to be washed up later.
Kakashi sat in his office and heard a knock at noon and called for them to enter. Katsumi walked in with her crimson hair tied up in a ponytail, her black one shouldered top with the long sleeve and skin tight ninja trousers and grey sleeveless hooded cape. Kakashi smiled, he had missed his old teammate. "Right on time." He said looking at the clock. He knew the marks were still visible but he was glad to see her in her old ninja attire.
"Well, today I decided not to get stuck on the journey of life." She teased him lightly and laughed. Kakashi chuckled and stood up.
"I think this is yours." He dug into his pockets and pulled out her old forehead protector.
"You kept it?" She asked in shock as she took it from him and tied it around her waist. Kakashi nodded and smiled. "Thank you!" She flung her arms around him and hugged him. Kakashi laughed and hugged her back before stepping back to speak.
"Now go do some training, you're a bit out of shape at the moment. As soon as you're back to your normal self you can go on missions." He told her and watched her jump around excited. At times, she was a little like Naruto.
When Kakashi got home from his office he found Katsumi crashed out on the sofa. He chuckled to himself before picking her up in his arms, she must have overdone it on her first day back training. He knew she was excited and keen to get back out on missions but she needed to wait for her energy levels to get back to how they were. Sometimes, Kakashi wondered if she was somehow related to Naruto due to how she was when she got excited and because she won't stop until she had mastered something. But also because of her red hair, it was as bright and long as Naruto's mothers. He had asked her before if she was an Uzumaki but as far she knew she wasn't related to any.
The days running up to Sasuke's return, Katsumi started to become nervous. She didn't know how he might react and if he would come after her. Kakashi had tried his best to reassure her but she was still on edge about it. Iruka had tried being there for her but there was only so much he could do when he wasn't meant to know.