AN: Here is the new chapter. sorry that it took so long D: I hope that you enjoy it.

chapter 6-Progress!

The next morning, I moved quietly so that I didn't wake him up while I made us breakfast. I'm glad that I had gotten the food yesterday before visiting Okaa-san, finishing up the omelets and rice I turned to go wake up Naruto. I came up short when I saw his fluffy hair popped up blinking bright blue eyes at me blearily. As soon as he saw me, a grin of pure relief came over his face.

"You're real Hime-chan! I was scared for a second that you had been just a dream, but you're real!" He laughed and ran to me pulling me into the first hug since that day surprising me so much that I just melted into him and did not flinch at all.

I laughed breathlessly before saying, "Hai, I'm real Sunshine-kun and I made breakfast!" With a grin I pulled him to the table where he sat down with wide eyed wonder at the food laid out in front of us.

Seeing him poke a red bell pepper, then sniff it, bite a tiny piece, have his eyes go wide, before he started shoveling food in his mouth, I giggled a bit causing him to blush and stop. "There's plenty more Sunshine-kun you can always have as much as you'd like. There is no need to rush, I don't want you to choke." I put more on his plate and we both continue eating though he watched me for a second before trying to copy mine eat quick bites. After a while he got the hang of it causing me to grin at him, and for him to blush but grin back.

As we started cleaning up I told him about how I had just found my Otou-san. That I was really nervous about meeting with him, and then I didn't know what to say to an Otou-san. Naruto immediately declared that he would come with me to protect me, "Just in case!" Blinking back tears, I hugged him tightly making him grin at me again.

When we headed to the restaurant we weren't holding hands however I started to notice hostile looks being ended us, no not us, Naruto! I blinked then glared at the next person who dared to curse at my Sunshine-kun. I grabbed his hand then dragged him up to the rooftops with me causing him to flail a little in surprise, before he landed wide eyes on me. "Sugoi! So cool! How did you do that when you had to carry me with you? Will you teach me?!"

Blinking slightly at the sudden onslaught of praise I blushed slightly and said, "Of course I'll teach you! We can go to a training ground after our meeting."

Getting a "Yatta!" In return I smiled back at him and we finished our journey by rooftop. Stopping on the roof across from the restaurant I squeezed Naruto's hand, and took a deep breath when I saw Hatake-san outside standing on the steps. Naruto smiled encouragingly at me, then we jumped down and looked up at the slightly wide dark gray eye.

Before I could say anything Naruto-kun pointed accusingly at the now really wide-eyed Shinobi, "My name is Uzumaki Naruto and this is my new best friend Raiu-hime-chan. If you ever do anything to hurt her I will hurt you 1000 times worse!" At the end his voice turned a little growly and his purple eyes got a little bit of a slit in them, causing the Shinobi's chakra to shoot through with alarm and tense up as if in preparation for something before I tugged on Naruto's hand.

"Sunshine-kun pointing is rude." With that I gave him such a warm smile he blushed, and bright blue eyes blinked sheepishly at me. not once did the warmth leave nor did I feel threatened which cause me not to care about whatever had just occurred. He would tell me when he was ready.

"Sorry Hime-chan! But he's gotta know not to hurt you! You've been hurt too much." I pretended not to hear his last mumbled sentence as I turn to see Hatake-san eyeing Naruto thoughtfully before he nodded decisively.

"Hello Naruto-san, Raiu-chan, my name is Hatake Kakashi. I promise to never hurt Raiu-chan and accept your promise of retribution if ever I do hurt her. Now, would you like to join us Naruto-san? Any friend of Raiu-chan is more than welcome." His solemn voice caused her to blink before she smiled softly at his acceptance of her new friend.

Naruto nodded solemnly back until she squeezed his hand again causing him to grin at her. When they walked in the hostess immediately smiled and motioned for them to follow her. Seated in a corner next to a large window I took note of the various privacy seals located on or near the table. The hostess set down their menus and asked them to ring the bell when they were ready. As soon as the hostess left Hatake-san activated the visual and sound obscuring seals. He seemed to hesitate briefly, eye flickering between Naruto and I, before he seemed to steel himself and removed his mask. It seemed as if he was expecting something and looked resigned when Naruto's jaw dropped until he heard what was said then he just looked surprised, then chagrined.

"Hime-chan! He looks just like you! Except not as pretty!" Pausing once he realized what he said Naruto then blushed, causing me to huff out a laugh.

"I hope not, I might be a little worried if he was prettier than me." Here I smiled is Naruto choked then burst into Giggles. When I looked up Kakashi-Otou-san was looking at us a wistfully, as if he was remembering something long past now. What followed was a whole lot of small talk followed by carefully ask questions on how I was settling in, did I need anything, was there anything he could do to help. the last coming after I pretty much told him I had everything figured out and was starting the academy on Monday. I was about to just say no, when I noticed he looked a little bit lost. Thinking about it I slowly asked, "Could you show me some escape jutsu? Some that I can eventually do without hand signs? And how to dislocate my thumbs? I also need help with my stealth, endurance, and speed." Here I paused as his chakra was steadily overwhelmed with grimness and excruciating pain.

"Ne-ne, Hime-chan, that's all boring stuff! Why don't you want any cool Jutsu! Then you can take out tons of enemies at once!" Naruto's absolute conviction and excitement made me really want to agree with him. However, I had first-hand experience on why that wouldn't always be a good choice.

"Because, because with big Jutsu, if your teammates are mixed in with the Enemy, you are just as likely to kill your teammates as you are your enemy. Sometimes, you have to use stealth and speed to overcome your enemies. I have recently found that I am, severely lacking in these skills." As I spoke I glared down at my hands that I had fisted in my skirt.

"I will gladly instruct you in these areas. They are actually one of my specialties so I'm very suited to help in them. If you'd like we can start today?" He sounded so hopeful that I almost immediately said yes, before I remembered my promise.

Sliding my eyes to the slightly less exuberant blond beside me I said, "I already promised to help someone today. Do you mind if we do it tomorrow?" Instantly I knew I said the right thing as Naruto beamed at me.

Hatake-sans eyebrows went up slightly in surprise before he nodded seriously and said, "Promises are important. Tomorrow will work for me is 0700 too early?" I smiled slightly and murmured my agreement.

After we finished eating Naruto and I headed to his favorite training ground. There were targets placed in the trees surrounding a fairly small clearing with a small stream off to the side. It was actually pretty perfect for what they were about to do.

"Okay. So, in order to do what I did, you need to be able to walk up trees. You gather chakra to the soles of your feet and use it to stick to the tree. Make sure to let it sink in only little otherwise you will leave dents and traceable amounts of chakra, which is bad because then enemies can track you. Why don't you try, and I will let you know if you need to adjust your chakra output?" As I was talking I calmly walked up the side of the tree and under the lowest hanging branch to hang right above Naruto's head. He tracked me the whole way with wide awe filled eyes.

With a loud, "Yatta! Let's do this!" he started running at the nearest tree. My eyes widened and I shouted a warning of, "Too much!" Just slightly too late and he flew back with a loud crack! Jumping down I neatly landed before rushing over to where he laid with wide eyes.

"Are you OK?! I'm so sorry! I didn't take into account your huge reserves! I should have told you to use a tiny bit." My hands fluttered around him looking for any injuries, instead only finding leaves and grass stuck to him.

"That was awesome! But I guess I shouldn't do that again huh?" he chuckled sheepishly. "OK! I'll use just a tiny bit this time!"

He made it three steps before he made it crack again, all three steps leaving footprints in the bark. "Hmm, so about 3/4 of that amount will be perfect." getting a confused look, I blinked before grabbing 4 leaves. "So, you used this much chakra you need to use this much." First showing all four then taking one away. "If you used only half," here I show the four then two, "you would slip. So, 3/4 would be best." Looking up into his eyes I saw understanding, then awe fill his eyes.

"Wow! How come no one else explains stuff like that? School would be so easy!" His wonder filled voice made me blush and shrug.

"I taught some kids in one of the villages we passed through while Okaa-san was doing a fitting. This seemed the best way to explain fractions to them." I ducked my head slightly before saying, "Want to try again? You're so close!"

He nodded in determination before focusing again. We spent the next 4 hours like that until it got dark. With me telling him too little or too much he managed to get 3/4 of the way up the tree. "Ok, so now you just need to work on keeping that same amount of chakra constant. Then you can stand underneath, then we can work on just how much to use to jump from Branch to Branch. It differs a little bit but not too much. Good job today! I bet you have it down by the end of tomorrow if you try as hard as you did today!"

I grinned at him as he lay sweaty and panting on the ground with a silly smile on his face. The whole time I had chakra skated on top of the little stream to help try to build my reserves. So, I was sweaty and out of breath too. "Do you want to head back? I'm going to shower then go visit Okaa-san if, if you want to meet her, you could come with me?" I tried to tell myself I was too old to feel this unsure about a friend wanting to meet my mom. But, the truth was, I was still a bit wrecked, and all of my emotions were a little out of whack. So, when Naruto grabbed my wringing hands I looked up into bright shining blue eyes.

"I would love to meet your Kaa-san. Let's go take showers so we can get there before visiting hours are over!" He grabbed my hand and we started running back home a laugh puffed out of me before I let a smile settle on my lips. It's probably wrong for me to feel so attached/reliant on an 11 almost 12-year-old, but he was one of a kind.

Introducing Naruto that night as, "someone interested in sewing," they spent three hours laughing as Naruto kept poking himself with a needle with squeaks of pain before he determinedly went back at it. We managed to skirt around how omasa would rock and hum to the doll she was holding. I barely registered how the nurses had made it look slightly older since the day before.

That night we slept in the pillow for it located in my living room once more, when I woke up I left some breakfast and a note on the table before heading out to find Hatake-san. Stepping out of the building, I realized I didn't know which training ground to go to. Thus, when Hatake-san landed on the ground slightly beside me, I only jumped a little before exchanging greetings.

Looking at what looks like a memorial stone in slight curiosity, I turned and looked at him when I heard what sounded like chimes. Seeing the four bells dangling in front of my face I looked at Hatake-san questioningly as I carefully took them.

"To help with stealth tie these around your ankles and wrists, when you can move without making them sound, we can move on to the next step. You already moved very fluidly so I don't think it will take you long to do so, maybe a month or so? For the escape jutsu do you know the Rope Escape?"

"Yes, Iruka-sensei taught me during my test Friday." I said a little ruefully.

Hatake-san nodded thoughtfully before saying, "Ok, this next one takes about a B-C ranked amount of chakra and is ranked high B due to the necessary amount of control. This is not usually taught to anyone below chunin due to these requirements so do not feel bad if this takes a while to master. It is not really considered a jutsu but more of a skill. You have to permeate whatever it is either tying or binding you and either untie or pick the lock with your chakra. Now the amount of chakra needed depends on the type of material. While basic hemp rope only needs low C rank amount, I have seen some chakra resistant shackles that need an A rank amount or just incredible chakra control. While someone with S rank control could get away with using E rank amount of chakra, someone with E rank control might have to push out A rank amount of chakra. Do you understand so far?" At my decisive nod he continued, "So to start out try to get your chakra to completely infuse this rope. Feel out every last strand of fiber carefully."

Sweat started to bead on my brow as I focused on his methodical instructions and slowly managed to completely infuse the three feet of hemp rope. "Very good, now using your chakra try to bring the two ends together." Furrowing my brow, I attempted to do so, getting the whole thing to shiver before one end twitched and I lost my concentration with a gasp. Panting I wiped my forehead before reaching for the rope again. I continued with small corrections for the next 3 hours before I couldn't continue and I lay gasping for breath. I had managed to get the ends to touch and then to cross into a sort of pretzel by the time I ran out of Chaka. The now mostly silent man beside me reached out of hand causing me to flinch violently as I had briefly forgotten he was there. When he kept his hand steady and his chakra calm I tentatively reached my hand out and accepted the help up.

I blinked at our clasped hands as while there wasn't Naruto's warmth there was a cool tingle that was reassuring and surprisingly did not cause me to cringe back in expected fear. When he began to withdraw his hand, I tightened my grip slightly without looking at him. Feeling the pleased/happy feeling shoot through his chakra, before he seemed to have a deliberation he dropped down to one knee and turned away from me looking over his shoulder at me hesitantly.

Nervously I reached out slowly after releasing his hand and put my arms around his neck. When he stood and put his hands under my knees I turned my face into his neck to hide my tears. I never thought I'd get to do this again. My dad had died Before when I was 5 so my piggy back rides had ended long ago. I had forgotten how much fun they were. And how comforting they were.

"Is, this okay? Are you okay?" Hearing how worried he was I sniffled slightly and tightened my arms and legs. His chakra rang out with happiness before it settled into a wistful sort of contentment. "Do you like dango? I know a place nearby that makes the best in Konoha." he chuckled when I nodded enthusiastically. "All right, dango it is then."

Walking through the forest clinging like a baby koala to him will forever be ingrained in my heart. This precious moment would forever be cherished no matter what hardships may come.

AN: Heya! hope you liked it! I tried a new dictation app so hopefully there aren't too many errors. If there are feel free to point them out and I'll correct them as soon as I can! Thanks guys! :D