Early summer had arrived in Konoha, soaking everything in sunlight and sending the cicadas into a frenzy. Stores and restaurants left their windows open and their fans spinning like lazy pinwheels, and convenience stores with air conditioning and ice cream suddenly became the most coveted commodities in the city. The trees lining more populous areas provided spots for picnics and peaceful reading, as well as much-needed shade and relief from the sudden blaze after months of balmy spring.

The heat, unfortunately, was especially detrimental to those who locked themselves inside their apartments without running water or air conditioning. Kakashi, nearly melted to the old leather of his sofa, forgot that he'd turned off his utilities before leaving for his last mission and was now regretting his inherent sense of frugality. It hadn't been bad last night, but in the daylight it was pretty fucking awful.

His whole place smelled like dog, more so than usual—not only because his ninken weren't exactly clean, but because they were panting constantly to stave off the high temperature. They were asleep on the floor next to their owner who'd crashed on the sofa after eating dinner. Pakkun rose out of the heap to jump up onto the sofa, butt wiggling as he trotted over the back of it.

"Hey, Boss," he said gruffly while poking Kakashi's head with a paw. "Think we can crack a window or somethin'? It's a little stuffy in here."

"Get Urushi to do it," came the mumbled reply, his voice cottony from sleep and dehydration.

Pakkun sighed. "You put those seals on 'em, though. We can't undo those, 'member?"

Kakashi sighed too, louder as he tugged his mask off and tossed it somewhere behind him. "I'll do it later."

"Aww, c'mon! It's like a sauna in here!" Guruko whined from the floor.

"That's the point. I'm on a cleanse. Gotta sweat out the impurities." The leather of the cushions squeaked when Kakashi tried to roll over. Sweat was making his skin stick to it and he had to peel himself off just to move an inch.

Shiba turned onto his back and pawed the air. "Man, it's hot as balls."

The rest of the dogs were waking up now and chimed in with similar complaints. It didn't take long to convince their boss to get up once and for all with an irritated huff.

After undoing the seals with a few quick hand signals, Kakashi shoved the windows open, jamming the lower panes up into awkward angles so they would stay put. He'd never gotten around to fixing their frames. Oh well. The air outside was a few degrees cooler than inside, and the initial wave of it felt unbelievably good washing over his sweat-damp shirt. Being able to breath properly again was an added bonus.

He turned to walk to his bedroom, bare feet picking up fur and grazing some of the excited ninken as he made his way. One set of paws clicked on the hardwood as it followed him down the hall; he didn't have to look to know who it was.

"What's up, Boss?" The pug hopped onto the rumpled comforter strewn across the unmade bed. "You're in a crappier mood than usual."

Typical Pakkun—man's best friend or not, his blunt honesty wasn't always appreciated.

"Dunno what you're talking about." The window in the bedroom was also shoved open, sending dust into a glittering sunlit flurry around Kakashi and coating his already-dry tongue.

"Well, for starters, you were all quiet last night and forgot to bring us some food…and now you're still sittin' in this heat, not doin' anything, and it's already three in the afternoon." His dog was eyeing him skeptically as he rummaged through his drawers, throwing some underwear and clothes into a heap at his feet.

"I'm up now, aren't I?" He pushed his hair off his face and combed his fingers through the sweaty clumps. God, it was hot—where was his headband? Maybe he could use it to keep his hair back like a kunoichi.

"The last time you were all weird like this was a while back, wadn't it?" Perched on tiny legs, he watched with droopy eyes as Kakashi lackadaisically paced around the room looking for his hitae-ate and a semi-clean towel. "Y'know, when you got wrapped up in all that Hokage business or whatever."

Kakashi instantly stopped, meeting his dog's eyes with a dead expression of his own, and Pakkun wheezed out some kind of shocked response.

"Aw, hell. Not again."

"Yup." He twirled a towel around his clenched fist and sent it spiraling into the clothes pile.

"I thought your kid was gonna do it. The loud one."

"Yeah," Kakashi said around an exhale, "I did too."

"Damn." The pug shook his head, his grimace a little too human for a minute. "I guess me and the boys'll be outta commission for a while, then."

He pulled on his sandals and a mask and collected the items off the floor, then stepped over to scratch Pakkun behind the ears. "I'll figure something out." Before either of them said anything else, he went to perch on the windowsill, slowly slipping his legs out and crouching to fit his head beneath the panes. "Meet me at the training field in an hour. The one with the pond."

"All of us?" Pakkun asked, already toddling his way off the mattress.

"Whoever wants a bath and food." Then Kakashi leapt out of the window, yanking it closed as he descended toward the neighboring rooftop.

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After he'd sweet-talked his landlady into getting his utilities running again, despite it being a Saturday afternoon and not during the business week, he ambled over to Naruto's place down the main road. Since he was apparently still out on an ANBU mission, Kakashi looked forward to having a nice, quiet shower in his ex-student's (hopefully) clean bathroom.

When he finally made it to the door of the apartment, complete with a swirl mark carved into its wood, he didn't even have to pick the lock or mess with the deadbolt—in his absence, the kid hadn't even locked his damn door. Kakashi chuckled as he went inside and lazily kicked the door shut behind him.

It didn't look like much with the lights off, tidy as the space was, but once the curtains were opened it became a wonderland of mismatched furniture and decorative trinkets, all crammed into a single space.

On the walls were old movie posters, probably nabbed from theaters after their runs were over, and newspaper clippings, mostly comics from the Sunday papers, hanging by an Ichiraku flyer. A piece of scroll paper tacked to the wall had his name inked into it, reminiscent of the ones they used to give out at the academy for graduation. By the bed on the nightstand were a black-and-white hat shaped like some kind of animal's head—likely the same one he used to wear to sleep on longer missions—and an empty mug shaped like a frog, as well as a framed picture of their team once they became Team Seven, the same one Kakashi had on the shelf behind his own bed.

It started to get a little odd after that, though. By the television was a floor plant, a huge wilting fern, that was situated inside…was that one of Sakura's old boots? There were other, smaller plants inside shorter shoes as well, duct-taped closed at the toe to contain the soil. One look at the heel of a blue sandal revealed tiny words written in black: PROPERTY OF UCHIHA SASUKE—RETURN PROMPTLY IF FOUND. A sandal of Kakashi's, too, was on the television stand, and the only reason he could tell it was his was because of the distinctly canine bite marks on the sides. Huh. He'd definitely thrown those away.

There was a picture in a pretty nice frame hanging to the right of the window and to the side of the desk. Kakashi expected it to be a picture of something sentimental and close to Naruto's heart; maybe an old photograph of his parents, or even one from his early genin days with the Sandaime. Instead, though, it contained a photo of a pale woman with silky black hair, wide makeup-heavy eyes, and rather large breasts posing in a translucent babydoll dress with matching stockings. In the corner was a handwritten note:

Come see me again when you're Hokage—I'll give you the presidential treatment. xoxo, Honey Baby.

Not only did she look startlingly similar to a certain lady of the Hyuuga clan, but Kakashi instantly recalled the horrendous tidbit Sakura had shared with him a few days before. He didn't even want to know if or how that correlated, so he immediately looked elsewhere.

Naruto didn't have books that weren't manga geared specifically for kids, save for the occasional girlish teen romance thrown into the stack. On his desk beside them was a multitude of colored gel pens, some with sparkly caps. Kakashi was pretty sure Minato had used ones like those to sign legal documents, much to Kushina's endless delight. Naruto didn't seem much of a writer, however, given that his desk was free of any paper that wasn't an old mission scroll, a scrap of paper covered in doodles of Uzumaki swirls, or what looked scarily like Killer B's lyrical brainstorming.

Hanging above the desk were some pictures bordered by shiny silver duct-tape frames. There was a picture of Naruto giving a thumbs-up, face flushed most likely by alcohol, with a disgruntled Sasuke beside him. It couldn't have been more than two or three years old, Kakashi thought, since they looked the same as the last time he'd seen them together. Next to it was one of Naruto with Sakura, Ino, and Hinata, the former two kissing his grinning cheeks while Hinata politely peace-signed at the side.

There was a cluster of pictures, mostly of Naruto with Gaara, forming a sloppy asterisk shape. In one, he wore Gaara's Kazekage cap; in a few others they were with an unamused Shikamaru and grinning Temari, or Kiba and Akamaru with Kankuro making obscene gestures behind their heads. In the middle was one taken after Gaara was retrieved from the Akatsuki. Kakashi grimaced to himself as he saw that he'd been piggybacking Gai at the time while everyone else surrounded them. Naruto was with Gaara and Sakura at the center, arms around both.

The collage made Kakashi feel a little burst of warmth that turned his mouth into a nostalgic smile. No matter how hard Naruto's life had been growing up, he was truly, genuinely happy and loved by so many. That couldn't be said for just anyone—especially not after all they'd been through and seen.

He knew deep within himself that Naruto had the qualities of a leader. Really, he did. He was fiercely loyal to Konoha and its people, and he was always willing to learn for the sake of his passion and need to protect. He had everyone else's best interests at heart before his own. He had experienced war and had only come out stronger with the same disposition as always. He was a hero through and through, and everyone knew it and revered him for it.

More than anyone else, Naruto deserved to be Hokage. Kakashi would have to find a way to convince Tsunade what he already knew long before he'd had to think about it. There had to be a way to show her that the kid had matured into someone capable of leading the country.

He felt good, secure with this plan formulating in his mind as he stripped off his sweaty clothes and stepped into the shower. Or at least he had felt good until he noticed the huge, orange, penis-shaped showerhead spewing water all over the molding floor tiles. He stepped under the freezing stream and sacrificed the last vestiges of his dignity for the day, feeling it run down the drain along with his temporary optimism.

Well…as long as he kept Jiraiya's influence on Naruto out of the equation, Kakashi figured he might actually be able to pull this whole thing off. Maybe. Possibly. Unfortunately for all involved, it wouldn't be easy.

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A quick pilfering through his ex-student's pantry produced some cup ramen and stale animal crackers which he gladly munched on after his somewhat traumatizing shower. He was a little late to meet the dogs, sure, but they'd be fine, mainly since he scored some sliced beef off of Ayame at Ichiraku. A little harmless flirting never hurt anyone, especially not if it resulted in free food.

His muscles felt strained with each step as he made his way to the training grounds, and by the time he actually got there, his enthusiastic ninken ran toward him, jumped, and managed to take him down with them. He hissed as he hit the grass, praying the lingering soreness wasn't a sign of aging. There had been a few too many of those lately for his liking.

"Off," he muttered, and the dogs all moved to circle him a few inches away. The paper bag of food was crushed beneath his spine, so when he sat up the delicious scent of seared meat surrounded them. "Who's hungry?"

Some barked, some yelled "Me!", and Akino just came to calmly sit in his lap, tongue wagging in anticipation. Kakashi handed them all a few pieces each and smiled placidly under his mask at their delight. It'd been several months since he treated them last—espionage missions called for the utmost subtlety, of course, so he'd only been able to summon Pakkun in private for tracking.

They all headed to take a swim into the pond after eating, Akino still staying behind while Kakashi lounged by the water, holding Icha Icha in one hand and scratching the dog's soft belly with the other. If Naruto hadn't been low on shampoo after his shower, he would've brought the bottle to give them all a real bath, but the cool pond would suffice on such a hot day.

The sun laid in long, golden fingers over the grassy field, glinting off the clear water and silhouetting the dogs paddling through it. The heat was mellowing now that it was later in the day, but the high, keening buzz of summer insects and the sun on his face refused to die down. He crossed and uncrossed his legs to try and loosen them up to no avail. He knew he still hadn't gotten his stamina back to remotely normal levels—even the short trek around town had worn him out. Resigned, he laid the open book over his face for a long while, hoping a nap would distract him from his discomfort until later in the evening.

Sometime later, amidst the light sounds of splashing and playful yapping came the soft pats of footsteps approaching from behind. One purposeful flare of their chakra later and he knew exactly who it was.

"Thought I'd find you out here," Sakura greeted once she got close, bending down to scratch Akino's stomach. "How are you feeling?"

"Tired," he replied from beneath his book as she flipped the hand resting by his dog over, checking his vitals through his wrist with chakra.

"Hmm. I can tell." After a few seconds the flow left his system since she'd moved to allow Akino into her lap. "The puppies sure look like they're having a good time."

"Puppies?" Kakashi scoffed mildly, scooting the book down over his nose. "In dog years, they're older than the Sannin combined."

"Well, in human opinion, they're the sweetest little puppies ever, aren't you, buddy?" Her voice took on that quality it did when people addressed babies and animals, that dopey babble his ninken usually didn't take too kindly to. Akino, on the other hand, was joyously thumping his foot and tail against the ground, licking Sakura's chin and wrinkled nose as she giggled.

Slightly offended by Akino's traitorous affections, Kakashi didn't respond immediately. Instead he decided to wait for Sakura to state her reason for tracking him down—somehow he doubted she'd walk through all this heat just to take his pulse and pet his dogs.

He suddenly felt his leg being pulled upward into a right angle with her hands encircling his bandaged calf. When he slid his book further down to see what the hell she was doing, feeling a pull all the way down his hamstring, she only smiled at his inquisitive look. "Physical therapy, remember? I figured I'd go ahead and start since you're three hours late for your appointment."

Shit. He'd completely forgotten about that. "Well, you see, there was this little old lady who was stuck on top of the Hokage Monument, and—"

"Save your breath, Kakashi-sensei," she mumbled, tone flat as she rolled his ankle back and forth and pushed the top of his foot back and upward. It wasn't even the leg he'd broken, but whatever she was doing to it was a spectacular relief.

"Oh yeah…about that whole 'sensei' thing." He'd been meaning to bring this up since he was hospitalized, but hadn't seen much of her without Tsunade or Gai or someone else present. "You don't have to do that anymore."

The movement paused. "What do you mean?"

He tried to look nonchalant as he lifted his book in front of his face, feigning sudden interest in it. "For starters, I haven't been your teacher since you were twelve." He turned a page. "I don't think I taught you anything to begin with. You knew all the basics coming into training, and then…" His wrist whirled lazily around to make a flippant, all-encompassing gesture.

Sakura was quiet, contemplative, but continued her work on his leg, sending a warm, slow thread of chakra through the muscle. "You don't have to feel bad for ignoring me. That was a long time ago. I still respect you all the same."

"It's not out of guilt, Sakura," he told her, though it didn't mean he wouldn't always feel awful for the way he'd handled their team. "You're a jounin now, and you have been for several years. We're equals. And you've kept me from dying more than once."

Without looking, he knew she probably had a bashful smile on her face from the pseudo-compliment.

"Okay. I'll drop it, then." She put her hand below his knee, using the other to bend his leg once, twice. "I think it was a force of habit for nostalgia's sake. It might take me a while to get used to calling you just Kakashi." When he glanced discreetly over his book, he saw that her expression was strange, like she'd just eaten something and wasn't sure if it tasted good.

"See?" He chuckled lowly under his breath, putting one of his eye smiles. "That wasn't so hard."

"Maybe not for you." She carefully placed his leg on the ground and prodded at his ankle and foot before moving to the other, repeating the same gentle motions. It was quiet as she concentrated on the bone in his leg—he could feel where she was working just slightly harder to repair it, but it didn't hurt at all; it just felt like he was stretching tightly.

"You're really tense." She set that leg in the grass, then extended a hand toward him. "Can you stand up for a bit? I want to get a sense of how your chakra's recuperating."

He took her hand and let her pull him up, telling himself it was more out of politeness than an inability to get up at a normal pace. Standing behind him now, she patted his shoulder.

"Arms up." The pads of her fingers pressed between his shoulder blades, searching for something. "Now out." Since he'd forgone wearing a flak jacket, he could feel the full pressure of them digging into the muscles down his neck and spine. "Your posture is terrible, you know."

Just as he was about to make a joke, chakra entered his system through the base of his neck, trickling down his spine from where her fingers sat at the edge of his collar. He couldn't contain the shiver that wracked his body—there was a whirring sensation that traced through the pathway of his own chakra as if she'd opened up a floodgate of energy.

A slight tap of her chakra sent another pulse through his system, testing the current and flexibility of the wavelengths. "Better?"

"Uh, yeah. Much." There was a gentle breeze blowing through the field that slipped into his shirt, cooling the fabric and skin beneath it, and he finally felt like he'd come at least halfway back to life. "What did you do?"

"There was a blockage—" She stopped when the breeze blew again, taking a few sniffs. When she did it once more, he risked a glance over his shoulder, eyebrow raised.

"Did you shower at Naruto's?" Her eyebrow was also raised, eyes slightly narrowed. How did she know everything?

"I would never," he replied in his dead monotone.

"There's only one man in Konoha whose hair smells like honeysuckles, and it's definitely not you. Well, except for today."

"What does my hair normally smell like?" He didn't quite like the way she emphasized definitely.

"Wet dog. Duh." Sakura smiled before pushing his shoulders down, standing at his side while bending him at the waist. "Touch your toes and hold it for thirty seconds. Try not to bounce."

He felt the blood rush to his head and fingertips as he followed her order, hands dangling above his feet. His hamstrings were tight enough to make him wince. Sakura's hand on his back was firm, trying to keep him from coming back up, and she felt his resistance.

"You are seriously tense. Jeez."

Yeah, no shit, he felt like saying, mostly to himself. "Can I come up now?"

"Just twenty-five more seconds."

"Pretty please?"

When Sakura didn't respond, he chanced another glance over his shoulder and saw her worrying her mouth with it scrunched to one side. She noticed and reached to turn his head back straight, but not before he'd registered her expression.

Oh no. He remembered that face—she knew something she wasn't supposed to, but was too curious not to ask about it—and prepared himself for whatever was inevitably coming.

"Keep your head down or it'll hurt worse, Kakashi-sen…Kakashi." From this vantage point, he could see her toe pointed in the grass, foot rolling around nervously.

"What is it?" he mumbled.

"Most likely it's from disuse since the bone reduction, but—"

"No, I mean…" He exhaled a long breath, his lungs forcing air out in his upside-down position. "Go ahead and ask me, Sakura."

"Ask you what?" God, she was a terrible liar.

"Whatever's on your mind," he replied vaguely as usual. "It's been thirty seconds, by the way."

Reluctantly, she lifted the chakra-enhanced weight of her hand from his back to allow him to stand straight. Kakashi only stared down at her as he stretched his loosened muscles and she glanced skittishly around the field.

"Are you—" Sakura pushed her hair behind her ears, fiddling with one of the strands and looping it around an index finger, before she finally looked at him again. "Are you really becoming Hokage?"

He blanched a little and blinked a few times before formulating a response. Before he could, Sakura pushed on anyway.

"I saw a note on Tsunade-shishou's desk that said something about 'cornering Hatake at the hospital' and then a bunch of bullet points about the council." Rows of pink ran across her neck where she was scratching at the skin, preoccupied. "There might have been a few obscene doodles of you with the Rokudaime cloak on, too."

"Obscene how?"

"Mostly just her putting her sailor mouth to good use." Sakura suddenly frowned. "Wait, don't change the subject. Is it true?"

"That Tsunade has a sailor mouth? As far as I know, yes." He turned back toward the pond to sit by the dogs and scooped up his book on the way. He thought he heard Sakura stomp a frustrated foot, but the training field would've been crumbled into dirt if she had.

"I'm serious, sen—Kakashi! This is really important!" She marched over to where he was reclining, snatching the orange novel from his hand. "Is this why we have to go meet with all the other Kages?"

Kakashi marveled again at how Sakura seemed to know everything. Trying to hide anything else would only further irritate her, so he gave up with a noncommittal shrug. "Yeah."

Sakura was stunned into silence, it seemed, and she turned his book over in her hands absently. He prayed her ridiculously powerful palms wouldn't accidentally compress it into a single piece of paper.

"Shishou didn't even tell me she was stepping down yet." The statement made her seem years younger—not because it was made out of childish petulance, but rather because Sakura felt like her master was still treating her like a kid instead of an adult and confidante. Kakashi recognized it because he'd accidentally done it to her more than a few times in the past.

"Well, to be fair, I don't think she'll announce it until we get back. So far it's just the elders and jounin council that know." He paused, rubbing at his jaw through his mask. "Shizune probably found out when I did."

Sakura nodded, contemplative, probably doubting his attempted comfort as she fell quiet for a long moment. Kakashi spent it looking at his peacefully snoozing ninken, their damp fur gleaming in the light of approaching sunset as they laid in a big pile by the water. After a bit, though, Sakura's silence grew uncomfortably tense.

"Tsunade tried to nominate you, you know," Kakashi blurted, trying to keep his tone casual. That was most likely a tidbit he was not supposed to share, but it had the desired effect—the gloomy atmosphere dissipated, as did the worried line between Sakura's brows. Her seal twinkled as she angled her head out of the sunlight and toward him.

"Really?" She bit her lip to contain a smile, especially after Kakashi nodded. "I'm glad it didn't work out, though. I wouldn't want that job for all the money in the world."

He huffed once with bleak amusement, staring out at the pond. Imagine how I feel. The words sat against his tongue like a block of salt, turning the roof of his mouth raw the longer they lingered.

"I guess you can't really back out of it now. From what I've seen, going against the council is…rough."

"Mmn." A few pieces of grass were plucked from the ground as he ran his gloved fingers between the blades.

Sakura's sympathy extended far enough to realize when to let go of the subject. "So, what country are you looking forward to visiting the most?"

"Definitely not Iwa," he murmured, recalling all of his less-than-savory trips there, specifically the last one.

"Why not?" She playfully nudged his arm. "I hear the Tsuchikage's daughter is hot, single, and ready to mingle."

"No thanks."

She scoffed, almost defensively. "Have you even met her?"

"Don't need to." Kakashi spared her a droll glance. "Imagine having the Tsuchikage as your potential father-in-law."

"Ooh, someone's confident." She wrinkled her nose, teasing. "But really, he can't be that bad."

"Try serving as a war general under him," Kakashi retorted, raising a brow.

"Touché." A soft wind lifted her hair off her shoulders and permeated his sweater, cooling his skin as it passed. "I'm looking forward to making some new memories, you know? The last time I went most of these places, it was…well, not so great."

He nodded slowly. No further explanation was required—he'd been there for a lot of the events she was probably thinking about. Not to mention that he'd had a few rough encounters in his own time.

"It'd be nice if we could all go as a team again," she hummed, eyes closed as she soaked in the fading sunlight. "For old times' sake."

"That can be arranged." An idea was brewing from her sentiment—this could be a great opportunity to get Naruto in on this Hokage business.

A green eye cracked open. "Sasuke? Yeah, right. Do we even know where he is?"

Kakashi scratched at the back of his head. "Maybe not Sasuke, but definitely Naruto."

"That's true. I'm sure Tsunade will jump at any opportunity to get him out of her hair." Sakura smiled slowly, her lips stretching with amusement. "Plus, Naruto will be thrilled to see Killer B again."

"I changed my mind," Kakashi mumbled, and Sakura laughed out loud, the happy sound echoing through the placid field.

"Aw, come on! It'll be fun. A little chaotic as usual, but good for all of us, I think."

He nodded again, knowing Sakura was right. It would be nice to spend time with the two of them after years of little contact. Now that there was no threat of battle to bring them all together, they'd be able to simply spend time together and enjoy a long vacation, just as Tsunade said.

And, if Kakashi played his cards right, it really could be good for all of them. He'd just have to figure out exactly how to make it happen.

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a/n: thanks for your patience, peeps. now that I'm free for awhile I hope the updates will be at least slightly more frequent.