"Yes. Our Naruto is in there somewhere. but there is no telling when she will remember anything beyond what she already knows." Kakashi said sagely as he took a sip of the herbal tea that Iruka had made for him and glanced over at Naru, whom was still watching TV.

Iruka looked between Naru and Kakashi, a look of utter disbelief and pain and something else, something buried deep inside of the chunin, something that Kakahsi hadn't seen in a good long time in the chunin's dark eyes, sparked, and flared to life in that instant.

Hope.

The hope that what Kakashi said was true, that the girl sitting on the chunin's couch was hisNaruto. Hope that this wasn't just another sick and fucked up joke that someone had decided to play on him and everyone else. Iruka swallowed past the lump in his throat and looked back at Kakashi. "Y-Your absolutely fucking sure that that girl-" Kakashi looked at Iruka through narrowed eyes. The chunin had just spat the word 'girl' as if it were the lowest of insults and Kakashi found that that bugged the hell out of his raw nerves right now. "Is Naruto. Your totally sure? You had blood work done and her chakra checked and-"

Something dark and malicious reared it's head in Kakashi's mind and he found himself slowly getting to his feet and glaring at Iruka as if he'd like to cut him open and spill his insides all over the floor. His chakra flaring a little bit, indicating that he-

The current Hokage, did not like being questioned in such a way. Nor did he appreciate what the chunin was trying to insinuate about him and his level of intelligence. He was not a fool. He was not being conned. The girl on the couch was Naruto. He just knew it, somewhere deep down inside. He could feel it in his bones and in his marrow and in his heart and soul.

Naru was his lost former student Naruto. Naru had been given birth by Nartuo's 'death' and he for one was not going to let the poor girl suffer any more than she already had as Naruto. Enough was simply enough.

Iruka could be the doubting Thomas if he wanted, but Kakashi knew the truth. He saw it every time he looked at Naru, he heard it in the innocence in her voice and just knew in his heart that Naruto had been given another chance at life with them. A clean slate to live his-er her life. Without fear or judgement.

Naruto had done so much for them all before he had died. He had saved each and every person that he could, and had helped hundreds and thousands more. He had been their guide, their savior, their light. He had done everything that the village and it's people had asked of him and more.

And now that he had been given a second chance... Kakashi figured that it was time to return the favor.

He would protect the village's greatest hero and treasure. Even if it killed him.

He didn't say another word to Iruka. To be perfectly honest he didn't have too. Iruka could see the disappointment in the man's mis matched stare as he set his tea cup down and said in a very calm and gentle voice. "Naru, I think it's time that we left. Iruka has to go to work tomorrow and we've intruded enough." There was a soft click, as the Tv switched off and the girl stood and walked-no that wasn't right. She didn't really walk, she glided.

Iruka watched her move and compared it to Naruto's walk.

Before he had died Naruto had trained under the best shinobi the village had ever created. There was Kakashi, who had taught the boy the basics. And then there had been Lord Jiraiya, the toad sage, one of the three legendary sanin. He had taught Naruto stealth, enticement, and assassination skills that couldn't be learned in the village anymore, the skills that only another student of the late third hokage or sanin would possess.

Naru stopped right in front of him and bowed slightly at the waist. "Thank you for letting us visit Iruka-sensei." Iruka studied the girl as he nodded his head and forced himself to smile a little bit. There was something weird about the way she called him Iruka-sensei. Something that almost had a sense or mind of it's own. Almost as if she were trying to say, I know something you don't know. And I'll never tell.

It sounded both innocent and antagonising all at once. It set the chunin's teeth on edge and make him long to lash out and hurt her. But he held his temper and watched her interact with Kakashi as the silver haired Kage reached out and slipped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her against his side and smiled down at her. In that instant something, some part of the puzzle that was Hatake Kakashi, instantly fell into place.

Kakashi looked like a man who was absolutely head over heels in love with the person next to him. He had such an adoring look on his face that Iruka felt the bottom drop out of his stomache a little bit. Oh god, now Iruka understood what was going on.

The girl looked enough like Naruto to pass for him in his female form, and he had already known that Kakashi had been in love with the boy before he had died, no one had mourned him as much as Kakashi had. Not even the other kids. Not even Tsunade.

Kakashi had been so sick over Naruto's death that he had started trying to revive him any way that he could. What if he had somehow managed to do that? Or what was worse, what if an enemy nin had found out about his little project and decided to place one of their own in the village and make it look like it had worked?

They could easily kill Kakashi and destroy the village if that was what had happened!

And Kakashi was still so sick over Naruto's death that he might have just fallen into their trap...