Author's Note: Happy leap year day:D Since today is so special, I thought that I should probably put out chapter 6, and well, here it is! This chapter is not meant to be humorous in the slightest nor is it full of angst and it is much less eventful than the previous one so I hope that no one is too dissapointed. Thank you to all the readers and reviewers for taking the time to read/review my work; it has made me quite satisfied and I hope that you too feel like this isn't a waste of your time. Please enjoy my lovingly crafted chapter. :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

On a cool yet particularly sunny day, while Kakashi was at the market buying groceries, he started thinking about his life and other miscellaneous things, and he began to realize just how much everything had changed. Of course there was the absence of Obito, who had tragically passed away giving his life for his friends, and the current lack of Minato, who was becoming increasingly preoccupied with his duties as Hokage and as a soon-to-be father.

It wasn't just that though. Pretty much everything in Kakashi's life had pulled an almost complete 180, ranging from his attitude towards others, to his home life, to his life as a shinobi.

After nearly 8 years of solitude, he now had someone sharing his living space, a female no less. The change had definitely taken a lot of getting used to, for he couldn't now just parade about in his house after a mission solely in his boxers nor could he fill his body with instant food also known as junk. He was not allowed to leave the house without having tidied up and the dishes could not form stench-filled piles in his sink. He was forced to manoeuvre his hands throughout the bathroom cupboards, which were now filled with not only his hygiene products, but also his roommate's; though, he usually managed to find his things easily in the otherwise mass of bright colours.

Despite these all being inconveniences of having a roommate, after thinking about it, Kakashi could honestly say that he was more than happy to give those things up for the comfort and companionship that came along with having someone else in the house.

So he couldn't parade around in his boxers but on the flip side; he now always looked more than decent and didn't have to plead his landlord to turn the heat up during the winter months.

So he couldn't fill his body with junk food; Rin's cooking tasted much better anyway.

So he wasn't allowed to leave the house without tidying up or washing the dishes; it was a nice change to not find ant infestations that he had to spend his weekends killing.

The need to manoeuvre around his cabinets had most definitely been good for his body's physical state since he needed to bend over more often.

To add to his growing list of positives, he'd have said (in his mind, not aloud) that it was nice to have someone to discuss your day with, someone who would be content just sitting down with you during a meal and listening to you vent your frustrations and relay any good news. Going more in-depth with his thinking, he pondered that perhaps he enjoyed it so much because it was a luxury he hadn't had for most of his life. His father had usually been away from home a lot when he'd been alive, and his mother had been the same story. After both their deaths, Minato had popped in occasionally but after he started dating Kushina, the visits had become less and less frequent, until, eventually, they'd stopped altogether.

Even though living with another person meant having to look after someone else's safety and that, without a doubt, put an extra amount of stress and worry on one's self, it was sort of comforting to be preoccupied with something else, to know that you at least had someone who was worth caring for.

It really had been true; the past year's experiences really had changed him, and for the better. Where he hadn't been one to look for the positives in a situation, he could outline them quite easily now. Kakashi took note of this with a small smile, taking his grocery items up to the cash to pay for them.

Walking down the street, he'd been so absorbed in reflecting on his thoughts that he'd nearly missed his apartment building. Mentally berating himself for letting his mind wander like that, he climbed the stairs to his door, stuck the key in the lock, and entered his apartment.

"Oh good," a voice immediately greeted him from the kitchen, "you're back!"

Rin walked out of the small kitchen space, smiling warmly at Kakashi when she noticed the grocery bag in his arms. She took the paper bag from him, inspecting the contents while asking, "Did you get what I asked you to?"

Kakashi nodded. "Yeah, what do I get for it?"

Rin paused, tapping her finger lightly on her chin, as if deep in thought. "You get the inner satisfaction that comes along with completing an assigned task," she replied grinning.

Kakashi rolled his eyes and sighed, obviously dismayed by his so-called 'prize'.

"But," she added jovially, "The good news is that the consolation prize is a free dinner!" With that, she hurried back to the kitchen, leaving Kakashi to complete the mission report for his team's last mission.

Seated at the newly bought desk in the bedroom, Kakashi hurriedly finished his mission report, the smells wafting from the kitchen distracting his mind and stomach from the task at hand. He had just put down his pen when Rin popped from behind the doorframe, calling out, "Kakashi! Dinner's ready!"

"Hmm," he responded and Rin, having been taught how to speak the foreign language of the male, took this as "I'll be right there".

Meeting her at the pine table, he quickly sat down and began to eat. By this time of the day, Rin was rapidly amused at how messy of an eater Kakashi was. She would have thought that someone who carried him or herself with an air that practically commanded respect would have been more of a slow and neat eater. As she watched him eat with mild amusement in her eyes, she proceeded to tell him all about her day at the hospital and how she'd spent most of her chakra healing a severely injured ANBU in the OR. The good news, she'd told him, was that one of the patients she'd spent the last week treating had finally recovered and was discharged today.

He paused slurping up his noodles to comment to her, "That's good. You've given that person and their family the best news they've probably heard all week, maybe all their lives even."

She nodded, silently agreeing with him, the piece of chicken in her mouth preventing her from providing a more coherent response.

After dinner, she remarked that she was very tired from all her work today and he quickly took this as a signal to offer to do the dishes, a favour she was grateful for. She expressed said gratitude in the form of multiple thank yous and had disappeared into the washroom, probably preparing herself to sleep by doing the common evening rituals.

When they finished what they were doing, both collapsed onto their respective mattresses, finding that lately, life had become more exhausting but neither complained for life had also become more inspiring.

Before falling asleep, Kakashi's thoughts that had manifested themselves in his head in the market place, the image of Rin's smiling face at the dinner table, and her light, rhythmic inhales and exhales of breath that were slowly lulling him to sleep, combined to form a solid, epiphanous conclusion in his head: It was nice having someone to come home to.

Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed it! To prevent myself from sounding too repetitive, I will simply thank each reviewer for their review and suggest to all that more constructive criticism be added in. I really enjoy finding out what you liked, what you didn't, and if there were any spelling/grammar/punctuation errors. Thank you to:catgirl9696, Hikari Minamoto, JoiZ.D, Sakra-chan, YebbadebbaOnee-chan, chibibrain94 and snappa for the reviews on chapter 5!

And for bonus marks: Without googling anything, can any of my lovely readers/reviewers tell me what Neophyte's serendipity is in common words? Good luck! ;)