Warning: Sexual stuff ahead. Don't like, don't read.

Kakashi's View:

I didn't even have a chance to recover after my mission before I had to run back out and save Naruto. Despite my warning, Sasuke had left. Apparently after I'd left him in the tree, four sound ninja cornered him, showed him his weakness and the power of the curse seal.

Tsunade informed me about everything going on, regret forcing its way into my mind. All of the boys from the rookie nine was out there too, fighting to save Sasuke. Unfortunately, he might choose not to be saved. I feared the worst for them as well. I left the office before Tsunade could hand me another assignment.

It hadn't taken long, with the help of my hounds we tracked them down. They were heading towards The Valley of End. I was naive to think they wouldn't hurt each other. My mind came up with every possible scenario I'd come upon as I rushed to get to them.

Forgive me...I just hope I make it in time!

The rain started to fall and I feared we'd lose their scent.

"Pakkun?"

"It's alright, I still have it!" Pakkun assures me. "They're here." He said, landing suddenly. I followed suite, and a pang of pain shot through me.

"Am I too late?" I asked myself, seeing Naruto laying in the dirt, broken rocks laying around him. He wasn't moving and far too still. I leaned over him, my heart aching, I felt that I had failed at everything. I'm sorry sensei...I couldn't protect him.

"Naruto…" I whispered, hoping he heard me and would open his eyes. He didn't.

"Sasuke's." Pakkun commented as he sniffed a headband laying next to the fallen blonde. The leaf sidgle had a deep slash through it, a sign he had defected from the leaf. I grabbed it before picking up Naruto.

"If I'm too late...forgive me." I told him, hoping he wasn't fainted to die here. I looked around for any sign of Sasuke being near, but saw none. He'd run off, most likely coming to grips with what he had done. He couldn't return now, not without consequence. But in the back of my mind, I hoped he would, before it was too late.

I could feel the faint beat of Naruto's heart against my back. He was alive, but barley. The rain chose to stop right then, Pakkun told me he couldn't smell Sasuke any more. Naruto was more important right now anyway.

Half way home Naruto had awoken, confused at first, but ok. He asked about Sasuke, but I couldn't answer him before medical ninja arrived to look him over. They relayed the situation and where everyone was. It could have been worse, none on our side had died but many were injured. I guess the Sand Siblings had even lent a hand and saved them. I was grateful that they saved them.

I dropped Naruto off at the hospital, seeing almost everyone there. I sighed, walking out of the hospital to go relieve Iruka from Aurora and explain what all happened. Though Iruka might know more about it than me. He was actually here while I...I wasn't.

I made it to the door before running into said Chunin. He held Aurora in his arms, who looked excited and surprised to see me, holding her blue bunny tighter in excitement. They'd come to wish everyone well.

"Ma, sensei, I didn't expect you here." My voice holding its normal bored tone to hide the fact that I wasn't ok. I had hoped to have a few moments to myself while walking to his house to clear my head, knowing he'd bombard me with questions. To my surprise, he wrapped his free arm around me, pulling me into a strong, half hug.

"Kakashi…" was all he said, but I knew he wanted to say more.

"Sasuke left." I told him point blank. This caused Aurora to pout, but there was nothing more to do. Iruka released me, looking me in the eye. He seemed worried and hurt, but not for himself. "I was too late. Naruto is safe and recovering." His face softened a little, relieved he was ok.

"You did your best. That's all that can be done." I never realized how calming he could be. Just hearing his voice, those words...it put me at ease to hear it had been out of my hands. That didn't change the guilt I still felt over it.

I saw Aurora reach for me, but a sudden feeling came over me and I couldn't bring myself to take her. I can't protect her. The thought had me reeling. If I couldn't protect her, how can I continue raising her? Maybe she'd be better off without me, maybe I should have never taken her in...I took a small step back.

Iruka saw this, and a stern look crossed his face. It was almost as if he read my mind, but he couldn't say much without Aurora over hearing. She was right between us after all.

"Kakashi, you couldn't have stopped him. He chose to leave on his own. No one could have reached him…" he tried to reason, but it didn't change the fact I had yet to hold my daughter. She was starting to get teary eyed, confused as to why I wouldn't take her. She only held love for me, and I couldn't love her back at this moment. I had to leave, clear my head. I made the hand signs and vanished to the memorial stone, Iruka yelling after me as I left.

At the stone, I talked to my fallen friend, Obito. I told him I had a team, but as always I had regrets about him not being here. About Sasuke leaving...and now about how I wasn't sure I could be what Aurora needed.

"Even with this eye...I couldn't see what was going to happen. If you were still here, what would you say, Obito?" But the only answer was the wind. He'd probably say I was being stupid and an asshole.

A flare of chakra alerted me I wasn't alone. I glanced over my shoulder to see Iruka had followed me. He set Aurora down, wiping tears off her face and telling her something that made her nod and sit in the grass.

"You…" the Chunin growled as he stomped towards me. "Do you realize what you've done? Your child thinks you hate her! She thinks you don't want her anymore." He had the right to chew me out. I'm the one who made her think this. Can I do anything right?

"I don't know if I can…." I said softly, so she couldn't hear. I watched his face turn red, but he didn't say anything. "What if I can't protect her? What if I fail her too…" I turned back to the stone as I spoke, not wanting to see how he looked at me.

"Kakashi…" he started, but he didn't sound angry like he had been before. He sounded like he pitied me.

"I don't need your pity." I scoffed. "I want you to take Aurora...raise her like I couldn't…"

"No." He cut me off. I turned to look at him, his face wasn't red anymore. He looked more concerned than anything. "You're her father. I know it's hard and...I know you're not taking Sasuke leaving very well, but I will not let you abandon her. She needs you, and damn it you need her too." He put his hand on my shoulder, turning me to face him completely. I saw Aurora behind him picking grass and pretending to feed it to her bunny. It hurt me to think of how much I hurt her.

Every fiber inside of me was telling me to flee, to leave it all behind. Iruka forced me to look at him again by putting his hand on my face, grounding me here.

"Don't let your pain hurt her too. She's just as lost as you." His words cut me deep. How was he able to read me so well? Before I could respond, a flash of red hair appear next to him, pulling on his pant leg. Aurora was looking up at us, holding a small yellow flower in her other hand. I noticed she had yet to look up at me, just Iruka. What have I done?

A few moments of silence passed before I decided I needed to fix what I'd done.

"Ma, did you find some pretty flowers, caterpillar?" I didn't break eye contact with the Chunin still holding my face.

Iruka realized how close he had gotten and turned a pretty shade of pink as he let go. I caught one of his hands before he moved it away and pressed it into my cheek with my hand. It had the desired effect and I got to see him blush fully. How long has he loved me? I asked myself, realizing he didn't just chase me because of Aurora. He had genuinely been concerned about me, about how this was affecting me.

"For you…" Aurora held up the small flower, a common dandelion. From her, it was the sweetest thing.

"Thank you." I said to her, but meant it for Iruka as well. I let go of his hand, which he slowly took back while looking me in the eye. He nodded, speechless as we both seemed to come to the same conclusion; we loved each other. Not just as comrades anymore. "I'm sure you two must be starving. Let go get something to eat, eh?" I gave them an eye smile as I took Aurora's hand. She stuffed the dandelion into my pocket and beamed up at me.

Iruka was right, I couldn't just abandon her like that. She was far too precious to me, and Iruka would never forgive me if I did. I couldn't live with that either.

The next few days were a slight blur. Jiraiya took Naruto with him on a special training mission, while Sakura had begged Tsunade to become her apprentice. Everyone was recovering well enough and back to their normal duties. That left me time to patch things with Aurora and Iruka. Aurora forgave me quickly, wanting nothing more than love and lots of hugs. Iruka on the other hand, we'd been doing a dance around the topic of our feelings for one another.

Today I wanted to breach that topic, but I had to come up with a plan. So far the only one I had in place was rocky at best. It all depended on Aurora running into him at the academy archway while I watched from a distance.

So far, she'd been hesitant to get too close to the doors. The students were leaving at this time and most about ran her over in the rush to get home to their parents. The few that noticed her mostly avoided her or gave her a high five as they passed. So far the elusive teacher hadn't left, making the plan more difficult. He was supposed to exit, see her and ask where I was. Then I'd come in, saying she was so excited to see him and go from there. But as usual, my plan didn't go that way.

An hour passed, Aurora found the swing outside the academy and was happily swinging on her own. I perched myself above her and waited, growing impatient. Another thirty minutes passed before the Chunin finally made an appearance. He saw Aurora before she saw him.

"Aurora? What are you doing here alone? Where's your father?" I heard the accusing tone, he was out for my blood. Perfect.

"He's in da tree!" I forgot she'd yet to learn to keep secrets as she pointed up to me. Iruka looked up, sighing as he did.

"And may I ask why?" The question was directed at me.

"Ma, she wanted to see you so badly. I thought I'd bring her here." I jumped down beside Aurora, pushing the swing a little to her delight.

"Fader said he wants to take us to dinner!" She said gleefully. This of course reviled my small lie about it being her that wanted to see him. I saw the mischievous glint in Iruka's eyes.

"Does he now. What's the occasion?" Crap, he's on to me…

"Well, I figured I had yet to pay you for watching her last time. So why not?" I eye smiled, hoping that answer would do. Luck was on my side for once, he agreed, seeing as I was paying.

Deciding that this was kind of like a date, I took them to the barbeque place Asuma and his team frequented. Aurora was fascinated by the grill at the table and watched quietly as the meat cooked. She knew better than to touch it, having learned that the stove at home was hot when she was two.

"So, what is this really about?" Iruka asked after a while, looking between me and Aurora. He seemed worried I had bad news.

"Ma…well...you know I'm…" I stopped, suddenly extremely nervous. Aurora looked up, feeling my anxiety.

"You're…?" Iruka snapped me back to the conversation. He was leaning over the table a little more, mindful of the grill.

"You remember when Sasuke left. How you stopped me...well from making a terrible choice." His cheeks darkened again, I was starting to like making him blush. "I've been thinking, what are your feelings for me?" That practically broke the poor brunette, his face turning a bright shade of red in embarrassment.

"I...you mean a lot to me." Iruka confessed, but he wasn't saying everything he wanted to. "I mean…" he faltered, nervously wringing his hands. I put mine on his to calm him, noting how he stiffened a little.

"You mean a lot to me too." I caught his eye, making him look at me finally. "I just didn't realize it until that day." It was my turn to blush, and I thanked the gods I had a mask on.

"Fader, fire!" I was interrupted by Aurora's voice and looked at the grill. A piece of steak had indeed caught fire, but before either Iruka or I had a chance to do anything, her chakra flared out of control, dousing the fire and the grill in a solid block of ice. The entire restaurant was slowly being engulfed in a light frost, all resonating from our table. I quickly laid out our money, and some extra for damages, before grabbing her and ushering both her and Iruka out the door. This was not the place to explain what happened.

"Care to explain?" Iruka grabbed my shoulder, stopping our escape a few blocks away. He looked at Aurora, who was in my arms, then to me. She looked very sorry for what had happened, but we assured her, again, that it was ok.

"Well, you see, she didn't take after me." I joked. "She has a kekkei genkai, one that is very rare." I explained in a more hushed tone.

"And you were going to tell me when?" He crosses his arms, obviously not really annoyed, but playing the part. Honestly I was surprised he'd never seen her lose control.

"Today." I smiled, feeling a cold chill from the little girl in my arms. She accidentally froze a button on my jacket and was trying to unfreeze it. I let her, knowing she couldn't really hurt me.

"How long has this been going on?" Iruka took her hand and helped her focus her chakra to unfreeze the button. This delighted her and she did it again, making a game of freezing and unfreezing different buttons.

"A few months. We've been working on it, but it's controlled by her emotions. Eventually we'll get there." Iruka had a look of concern.

"I hate to say it, but we need to try to get control over it. If the wrong person sees her…if they knew she was from the Yuki clan..." So he knew about her bloodline too then.

"I know." I was still hung up on the fact he said we. As in us. "You think we can do it?"

I had more missions thrown at me because "I had too much free time," as Tsunade put it. With none of my students around, she used the excuse to keep me busy. This left little time for me to dote on Aurora or Iruka, which left a piece of me yearning for them during each mission.

It shocked me how much my mind wandered to the Chunin. How was he doing? Was Aurora safe with him, asleep? Do they miss me as much as I miss them? Even Tenzou had picked up on my anxiety.

"I'm sure she's fine." He said as he sat next to me, handing me a ration bar. He had no idea about Iruka, I intended to keep it that way. At least until we were official.

"Ma, I know…" she was safe, but that's not where my mind was. What I really wanted to know was how Iruka's lips felt against mine. How his skin would feel against mine...I stopped those thoughts, not wanting to have to take care of the problem that came with those thoughts. I decided then that as soon as I got back, I'd find the answers.

We were delayed a week by some bandits. They weren't very skilled and easy to take down, the problem was there was a lot of them. They'd been terrorizing travelers between Konaha and Suna for a while and our mission was only to deal with them as needed. They made it more difficult by trying to fight us off. Most were not deterred by us, but some were smarter than that and fled. The ones that didn't, well their blood now stained the gravel and grass on the road.

Finally the gates were in sight, all I could think about was getting to Iruka's. I handed the report off to Tenzou quickly and rushed off, not realizing I had bandit blood over the front of me.

Iruka was startled when I jumped through his open window. Honestly, it was on him for leaving it open in the first place...

"Gods Kakashi, can't you use the door? Are you hurt?!" His tone changed to worry at the sight of blood. I looked down sheepishly, seeing how much there was. It was a wonder he didn't stripe me down to stop the bleeding of the nonexistent wound.

"Ma, I'm fine. Not mine." Iruka didn't like that answer either.

"You can't have Aurora see you like this." He glared, motioning for me to follow him to his room. I noticed Aurora was curled up on a chair, fast asleep and oblivious to me. Finally, I have him alone.

Iruka gave me a set of clothes to change into, though the shirt was a little small. Iruka may be built wider than me, but I still had height on him. It just came to above the waistband of my pants. I caught Iruka watching me before quickly turning away, the cute blush dusting his cheeks.

"See something you like, sensei?" I teased him, watching the blush creep to the back of his neck. "You don't have to be shy."

"I-I'm not…" He voice cracked a little. I crept up behind him and hugged him around his waist. I felt him jump, but he didn't resist or pull away. "K-Kakashi?"

"Hm?" I laid my head on his shoulder, pressing my cheek against his ear. He felt delightfully warm and smelled of sandalwood; I wish now I had left my mask down to feel his skin against mine.

"I'm glad you're back." He said so softly, I almost didn't catch it. That broke me. I pulled my mask down and turned his face towards mine, the look of shock on him wasn't lost to me. I let him take in my looks for a moment before closing the gap between us, crashing our lips together in a heated kiss.

His lips were how I imagined, soft but slightly chapped. I felt him turn in my arms, not breaking the kiss to wrap his arms around my neck. I playfully bit his lower lip, which made him moan, allowing me to explore his mouth further.

He surprised me by how good he was. As our tongues battled for dominance, he somehow backed me into his bed, both of us crashing down with him straddling my waist. I reached up and tangled my hand into his hair, tearing it from the ponytail he had it in and letting it fall lose. I moved to bite his neck to distract him as I flipped us over, changing our position. I looked down at him, his hair splayed out in a halo around him and decided to ask him if this was ok. If we went to far, I wasn't sure I could stop.

"Iruka...do you" he cut me off by pulling me into another deep kiss.

"If I didn't, I would have thrown you out the door." He smirked as he ground his hips up into mine. Damn him…

With a grunt I pushed him back down, pinning his hands above his head as I bit and kissed at his neck while my other hand found its way under his shirt.

It hadn't occurred to me how loud we were until both of us were practically naked and Iruka looked at the door. He gasped, which I took as excitement. That was quickly squashed when he yanked my hand away and sat up. At first I thought I'd done something wrong until a little voice told me, no I'd done it right, but we had company.

"Daddy?"

"Aurora?" Iruka's voice was surprisingly steady for a man who was just getting a handjob.

"What are you doing?" She no longer looked sleepy, but shocked and worried I was hurting our lovely Chunin.

"Ma…we're training." I lied, but what was I gonna tell a three year old? I hadn't realized she'd seen my hand in Iruka's shorts until she blurted it out.

"Why were you touching Uka's no spot?" I'd told her no one should ever touch someone there after an incident with Gai. She hadn't meant to of course but she'd kicked him there while playing. She asked why it hurt him so much and of course Gai explained in the only way possible; Enthusiastically. In great detail, I might add. There were questions that I had no idea needed to be asked. I told her a lot of people won't appreciate a three year old knowing the word penis, so I told her to call it a "no spot." I thanked the gods she didn't say penis in front of Iruka. He might have snapped my neck.

This was not going to be easy to explain. That's when Iruka decided to step in.

"Well...you see, when two people are...in love." He blushed and paused for a moment. "Sometimes they will touch there. But you have to ask first and you are far too young to be doing that!" He said sternly, hoping not to confuse her too much. Sex wasn't easy to explain to children.

She looked confused, probably because as far as she knew it wasn't ok for anyone but her or a trained doctor to touch there. I wasn't a doctor or anything close to that, so why was it ok?

"Why?" Called that question… Iruka did not, his mind wasn't processing fast enough to answer.

"Some day, you'll understand." I covered. She huffed, crossing her arms, but knew that was the end of it. She hated when I pulled that card.

Iruka squirmed under me, alerting me of both our problems still between us. I was able to maneuver a blanket from the foot of the bed up to us and covered us from the waist down. I also moved so I wasn't on top of him but cuddled into him.

"Are we staying?" Aurora was excited by the fact that we might be having a sleepover. I wasn't planning on us staying the night, but I couldn't really go anywhere right now. To be honest I wasn't sure if I wanted to leave, ever.

"Er...well I-I suppose that's fine." Iruka seemed to have recovered a bit, but was probably distracted by my hand going back up his leg from under the blanket. He gave me a warning look, one that told me I should stop, but I wasn't going too.

After a happy goodnight from her she skipped away, leaving us in a very awkward situation. I wanted to continue, but Iruka had turned so red I thought he might explode.

"I completely forgot she was here…" he admitted. I couldn't help it and burst out laughing. That got me a hard slap across my chest.

"Sorry, sorry. Ma...I should have placed a silencer seal." I smiled, hearing him laugh was my new favorite sound.

Waking up to someone next to me wasn't as usual any more. Waking up to a naked Chunin entangled in my arms...that was new. Last night came flooding back to me, making me have to bite my lip to keep any sounds from escaping.

Iruka and I had more than confessed our feelings, despite the little interruption. We'd left our marks on one another and I was particularly proud of a deep purple hickey across his left shoulder. He'd left a decent one on my hip though as pay back.

I didn't want to wake him, but I knew at any moment our little girl could burst in. I did not want to explain why we were naked and what was drying on Iruka's back. Gently I ran my hand through his tangled hair, causing him to stir.

"Morning." I smiled at him as he finally opened his eyes. He seemed a little shocked at first, probably not used to waking up with someone either.

"Morning." He said sleepily, cuddling closer into me. I really didn't want to move now. I traced lazy circles on his arm, not wanting this moment to end. "We should get up…" he sounded like he was almost asleep again.

"Hm...I suppose. We might have a visitor soon." This made his eyes shoot open, suddenly very aware we were naked. "Ma, after all we did, you still get all flustered?"

"Kakashi…" he warned playfully. "Fine, you explain to her what we were doing." Iruka smirked, getting up and pulling his pants on. He threw mine at me while asking what to do for breakfast. I could get used to this…