Author's Note: Wow it's been a long time since my last update, I'm so so sorry! Work has been taking up all my time over the last few months, but as always I try to find time to write the draft whenever I can so don't worry I haven't given up on it. Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading chapter 10 as much as I did writing it!

Feel free to review/fav/follow it makes me happy to hear your thoughts, and I always try to reply to any questions. Also like I mentioned in the previous A/N I would love to read any Kakashi story recommendations you may have!

Thanks To: paigemitchell98, NinjaChipmunk, Askash, tabetaisu, Vixen of mischief, sweetsmilez, JellOtaku, cutelittlekitten18, MikaHimura, Grisen97, cloudsomniakitty, Ethereal780, *11mar, TheDarkAngelCreed, Miss OtterDiva, AngelofDeath999, fanfictioner22, Loveina, Ida-J, squadlevi, Moon565, pure1ruby, onimiyuu, koreanlover21873, cherrypeachblossom, BasslineJunkie1, lunatarimoon, alyzzaalindogan, LizziePixie-Aiko, princessyuki08, Meilong101, SliverLuna, dragongirl077, MidnightFlower246, briannadavis, UPLOAD (Guest)

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any characters, story, ideas that are associated with it. What I do own is my OC Toshiko Akatora and any other OC's that may turn up.

=^.^=
10

She awoke early the next morning, so early that there was still a slight chill in the air and the sun was little more than a hazy glow on the horizon, getting out of bed with a yawn Tosh headed for the shower.

The water was scalding hot as it rained down hard on her bare skin, soothing her muscles and revitalizing her in a way no hospital visit ever could. She let the water rush over her, dispelling the tension that had built up during the last mission, it was good to be home however brief her visits were, she relished every minute she spent here.

With a sigh Toshiko turned off the taps, the comforting downpour dissipated until it was nothing more than a dwindling drip, and she grabbed a fluffy pink towel from the airing cupboard. Wrapping it around her she walked back to the bedroom. The sun was halfway through its morning climb as Tosh pulled back the cherry blossom patterned drapes, filling the room with warm light softened by thin net curtains. She was about to turn away when a shadow caught her eye, pushing aside the shear material the mysterious figure came into view. To her surprise Kakashi was on the small balcony sitting in a deckchair, the ever present orange covered book in hand.

He turned his head at the sound of the opening sliding doors, "Pink and fluffy? Now I've seen everything."

"Hey, I've had this since I was a kid..." Blushing slightly as she looked down. "It used to be longer."

"Clearly." He observed, eyeing the verging on inappropriate hemline that showed the majority of her bare legs.

"Perv." She threw a cushion at his face, which he subsequently dodged with little effort.

It sailed past the frustratingly cool ninja, over the railings to the street below. "Didn't think that through, did you?" He chuckled.

"Oh no! Look what you made me do, 'Kashi." She ran over to the balcony's edge, but ducked back seconds later as a soft thud shortly followed by an "Ouch! Hey watch it up there!" rang out from the ground bellow.

"And how is this my fault? He looks really angry by the way." He was finding it all too amusing. "Although my guess is he'll probably forgive you if you apologize dressed like that..."

"I've just had a shower, how ELSE should I be dressed?" She retorted, flustered. "'Kashi, would you...?"

"Sure." He replied smoothly, teleporting in a puff of smoke.

Seconds later he was back, rescued pillow in hand. He walked up to Toshiko and leant towards her ear, she could feel the soft tickle of breath on her neck through the mask, "I'll be downstairs, take your time." On the way out he placed the pillow back onto the bed.

She turned her attention to the wardrobe, skin tingling where his breath had touched her. Trying to regain control of her own body, Tosh rummaged around for an outfit that was neither ripped nor scuffed from her ninja lifestyle, she eventually found a relatively unworn sundress and started getting ready.

The sight that met Toshiko's eyes as she descended the stairs, half an hour later, pleasantly surprised her; the usually alert Kakashi had fallen asleep sprawled out on the sofa, guard completely down and a forgotten Icha Icha Paradise left open in one hand. She knelt on the floor beside him, he looked so peaceful there; he had taken off the well-worn forehead protector so the silver hair fell in an annoyingly perfect spiky mess, there were no frown lines marking his brow, the subtle but ever present look of a veteran she always saw in the depths of his eye was temporarily gone. He appeared to be truly free of it all in this one rather rare moment.

As she sat there gazing down at him a single word popped into her head; mask. *Oh, my tailed beasts! This could be my chance, he's so out of it he won't even notice!* she could hardly breathe through her excitement and trepidation. *I can't believe my luck right now, I'm actually nervous! Calm down, Tosh, you can do this, just… just go for it…* a hand slowly reached out towards the masked ninjas face, only halting half an inch away from the fabric's edge. *I've waited so long for this moment and now it's here, literally at the end of my fingertips, and yet I honestly don't think I can do it. What is wrong with me?*

Seconds passed, though they felt like minutes or hours even, and the young woman just sat there motionless, on the floor with one hand outstretched, a mental battle raging inside her head over what she should do. *I desperately want to know what's behind his mask, it's one of the great mysteries of the age after all, but this just doesn't feel right... It takes all the fun out of it if he's asleep, and it'd be like I'm breaking his trust... Gaah! Why does my conscience have to kick in now? Of all the times it picks this very second, ugh, I can't do it. Damn it all, conscience, I hate you.* She withdrew the hand begrudgingly and stood. *I better go and get breakfast, maybe if I'm lucky I'll catch a glimpse while we eat…? I suppose I can settle for that.*

=^.^=

Upon her return from the bakers her spirits were once again brightened, she had been temporarily put out by her inner angel for the lesson in morality, but had quickly gotten over it after seeing all the tasty looking freshly baked pastries on sale. And having bought a little too much she came home to find Kakashi pretty much in the exact same position she'd left him in an hour earlier.

"Hey Kakashi! Wake up, breakfast is here." She called over but to no avail. "Get up copycat ninja, or I'll eat it all myself..."

But alas yet again he remained fast asleep, so she tried a different tact, "Oh no! Kakashi! Your Icha Icha porn book is on fire!"

"Hmm? Did you say something?" His lazy eye opened sleepily and looked at her. "You took your time getting dressed. I hope you didn't go to such efforts just for me, I would have been content with just the towel-"

"I've been out buying breakfast, silly scarecrow. You've been asleep for a couple of hours." She replied, ignoring the lecherous comment.

He rubbed his eyes and sat up, "I must have been tired. I didn't really sleep last night."

"Is that why you're here early for the first time ever?"

"Early? That depends on your point of view."

"You got here at half 6... I would call that pretty early."

"True, but I originally planned to come over last night. I took a shortcut on the way here."

"You're idea of a 'shortcut' is a little skewed, you only live, like, five minutes away… and last night had better not have been for a booty call Kakashi..." She raised an eyebrow at him.

"My, my, Tosh, that mind of yours jumps to all manner of naughty little conclusions..." He laughed, continuing before his friend could protest. "No I promise that wasn't the reason. I just wanted to see how you were after yesterday at the hospital, you couldn't get away quick enough."

The subtle blush from his previous comment developed into a burning red that almost matched the fresh vine tomatoes she had bought earlier from the market, "Oh, err, well there's really nothing to talk about, I was just really stressed about my hand and I really did need to talk to the Hokage."

"Tosh, are you sure that's all it was? Because you've just said 'really' 3 times in 10 seconds. I am a ninja you know, I pick up on these things." He didn't stop there, he had a habit of carrying on until she had to just tell him everything, and it was rather frustrating. "I mean, was it really that bad? We share a romantic moment together and you run away, as if you just made out with a leper. My feelings were hurt, my heart torn into a thousand..."

She sighed and raised her hands in defeat, "OK, OK, you can stop all of that nonsense. I felt so embarrassed that I may have overreacted a little. That's why I ran off."

His only open eye softened from a hidden smile, "Silly Tora, you know, it was just a kiss, it didn't mean anything."

"Yeah… right… just- just a kiss." Frowning at the ground as she repeated his words, as the syllables rolled off her tongue she felt a lump form in her throat, making it harder to swallow. "Kakashi, I need to tell you something… I- I'm leaving."

"Leaving? But we were going to have breakfast?" He did nothing to hide the disappointment in his voice as he spoke.

"Huh? Not now, idiot." She laughed. "I mean Konoha, like we talked about?"

"Oh." Came the short response.

"Oh? As in 'Oh, that's great'? Or 'Oh, that sucks'?"

"Just... Oh." He said, the disappointed tone had been replaced by one more unreadable. "Why now? Your mission was a success."

She sat quietly for a few moments before elaborating, "It was, but it was mostly down to luck." She paused, trying to think of the right words. "I want to be the kind of ninja that everyone can depend on, you know? Not a loose cannon who could potentially get you hurt. I feel like a, I don't know, a baby deer? You know how they have more leg than they know what to do with, and stumble every few minutes?"

"You think you're too 'leggy'?" He sounded mildly amused. "Trust me, Tosh, I've seen your legs and although they are very nice that's definitely not the case."

Tosh stuck out her tongue at him, "Ha, ha you know what I mean. I want to be fierce and strong, like a tiger. To have my opponents fear and respect me, like they do you."

She bared her innermost hopes and fears only for her companion to start shaking with laughter. Toshiko frowned, this was not quite the reaction she had expected, "'Kashi… I know it's a rare occurrence but I was going for serious, you know? So why are you laughing?"

He wiped away the tears of mirth that had formed in his eye, and managed to take a breath, "I'm sorry, really, but you just reminded me of something you said when we first met."

Her brow furrowed as she tried to bring up memories from long ago, "I don't recall...?"

The copy ninja let out a sigh as the laughter subsided, "I would have been 5 and you were 3, your father had taken you to- was it the 7th training field? And I happened to be there training for the Academy...

…The little girl finally managed to give her father the slip and had found a cool, shady group of trees to shelter from the scorching summer heat. The sun's rays shone through the gaps in the leaves above, creating a mosaic of light and shadow dancing across the short daisy strewn grass as she sat playing with her favourite stuffed toy, a white cat with its whiskers bent and half chewed off on one side.

She was quite content sitting there amongst the flowers until a butterfly stole her attention, and then she was off. The delicate, pale yellow butterfly flitted through the air closely followed by the small girl skipping along barefoot, for she had long since discarded her sandals, through the small thicket of trees.

Somebody yelled out to her "Hey! Watch out!"

A Kunai shot silently just above her head, burying itself in a tree trunk to the girl's side but she hardly noticed it, the butterfly had fluttered up to rest on a bunch of cherry blossoms that bloomed sweetly far above her head. At that moment a boy appeared before her, the spiky hair on his head shone like starlight and he appeared to be a couple of years older than her 3 yearold self.

"This is a training ground you know, didn't you see I was doing target practice?" His tone was stern but not unkind.

She grinned and pointed towards the blossom where her dainty prey had taken refuge, "I was following Mr Butterfly."

"Well just be more careful next time." He ignored the juvenile butterfly comment, wanting to get back to his training.

The girl turned her attention fully on the older boy now, "My name is Toshiko, and this-" She held up the white cat toy for him to see. "-Is Hoshi, what's yours?"

"Kakashi, I'd better get back to-" He started to turn away, but tiny Toshiko paid no attention.

"Why is your hair grey?" She stared, completely awestruck, at Kakashi's spikyhair.

"It's silver, not grey." Came the curt reply, he really just wanted to get back to target practice.

Unfortunately for him, she had other ideas "Mama says only old people, like Granddad, have grey hair."

The boy frowned, "I said it's not gr-"

"Why are you wearing a mask? Are you sick?"

"No, I wear it bec-"

"I'm supposed to be playing ninjas today but I got bo-o-ored, are you playing ninjas here too?" She interrupted, brushing a rebellious strand of brunette hair off her rosy cheek as she spoke.

"Playing ninjas? What are you-" But he didn't get a chance to finish his question.

Toshiko gazed up into the sky and let out a sigh, "Papa wants me to practice so I can go to the ninja cademy. Like him and Mama did."

"I think you mean 'academy'. Ninja Academy." By now he could feel a vein in his temple start to pulsate, this kid talked far too much, and most of which seemed to be utter nonsense.

Toshiko on the other hand looked rather excitable and full of energy, her eyes sparkled in the sunlight as she grinned, "Can I tell you a secret?"

"No, I'd rather you didn't-"

"I don't want to be a ninja."

He looked blankly at Toshiko, she was completely ignoring him, "I said no…?"

"When I grow up I want to be a tiger! Like Hoshi, but bigger and with stripes." Once more she held up her soft cat toy with both hands.

"Uugh, what are you talking about? You're a human, you can't be a tiger." Usually this kind of childish imagination frustrated him to no end, and had this been any other occasion he most likely would've left, but for some reason he was still here almost enjoying the company… even if she was a little odd.

"Oh yes I can, my name means tiger." She said, as though this would explain everything.

"That's not how it works…"

"Well, being a tiger sounds much more funner than being a boring old ninja."

Kakashi gave her a stern look "Right, first of all that's not a word, you just made it up, and secondly being a ninja isn't about how fun it is, or how good you might look. It's much more than that."

Toshiko stared at him with her big brown eyes, as though waiting for a story, so he continued, "The role of a ninja is very important; they protect the villagers so they can live in peace, they bring money into the village from taking on outside missions, as well as so much more. It's an honourablepath to take, and you have to work hard at it but it's worth it."

Kakashi expected her to start babbling on about tigers again but instead the little girl, with a look of awe upon her face, exclaimed "Wow! Are you a ninja, 'Kashi?"

"It's Kakashi." He really didn't like nicknames, but at least she was finally listening to him. "And no, not yet, but I'm hoping to graduate from the Academy soon, that's why I'm here training."

She was about to ask another question when a faint popping noise rang out and a tall man, clad in the distinctive leaf ninja gear, appeared on a nearby tree branch; his short, scruffy, dark hair blowing gently in the breeze, "There you are Toshi, that's enough hide and seek for today, young lady, your mother will tell me off if we're late for dinner. And she probably won't be too happy that you dodged out of training… again, I'm so getting an earful later…" He paused as he caught sight of Kakashi, and recognition flashed across his eyes. "You're Hatake's boy, right? I hear you're turning out to be quite the genius, keep it up kid. Come on little one, time to go."

"OKPapa." She said, then turned to Kakashi a huge smile plastered across her face. "I've decided you are going to be my bestest friend ever from now on 'Kashi, K?, Goodbye!"

The silver haired boy raised his hand and patted the top of her head, "I get the impression I have no choice in that, OKthen, see you around Tiger."

She giggled and ran after her father, leaving the young boy to finally get back to training. *So that's her father huh, Kyo Akatora, if she ever becomes a ninja she'll have great potential…

"You thought I had potential." Toshi gloated, as her friend finished recounting their meeting.

"Even the greatest minds can be wrong on occasion." He teased. "Besides, I was mostly complementing the skill of your father."

"It's too late to take it back, you thought I was great and that's that." She grinned smugly at him, taking one of the sweet breads from the table. "Oh, I just remembered…"

Kakashi had leant forward on the sofa and placed his hands on either side of her face, and those familiar doe-eyes looked back at him enquiringly "What… what are you doing?"

"Measuring." He replied as though it were obvious. When all he received was a blank, confused stare he continued with a chuckle. "It's just as I thought, Tora; your head is growing larger by the second."

Comprehension dawned inside of her and she batted his hands away playfully, failing to stifle a laugh "Hey, you cheeky scarecrow, paws off! There's nothing wrong with my head thank you very much."

"OK, OK I'm sorry, I just couldn't resist." Came the amused voice, his eye crinkled in a grin as he leant back in his seat. "Now, I think you were about to say something?"

"Oh right, yeah." She thought about the realisation she had had after the old memory had been brought up. "I just remembered, that was the moment I decided I wanted to be a ninja after all, and it was because of you."

"Really? What did I do?" He inquired, all former amusement vanished as her revelation piqued his interest.

"Well before I met you my parents had tried to encourage me to follow in their footsteps, saying how it was expected of me." She said, looking down out of mild embarrassment. "They went on and on about duty, importance, status etc. well, mother did anyway, my father was far more easy going. Anyway, being 3yrs old I obviously found it all utterly boring. But then I met you, this older kid with nice hair, and although I never said it at the time I thought you were kind of amazing, to hear someone my own age talk about it with such passion made it sound like the best thing in the world."

Kakashi's eye widened in mock surprise, "I had no idea I was your idol, Tosh."

"Look who's getting big headed now." She laughed. "And I never said 'idol' you were more of a role model... For a short time anyway."

"Ah yes, because you seemed to hate me after that, I never did work out why though." He said thoughtfully. "What on earth did I do?"

Tosh sipped at her tea thinking back to their second, not so pleasant, meeting.

"In a word? You were a bit of a jerk. It also didn't help that when I was younger I was fiery tempered and completely headstrong." The kunoichi explained. "Back then I didn't really understand what you went through after your Father's death, so I took what you said to me very personally."