Wow. I've got forty chapters to this story so far and I'm still not done.

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A month later-

He woke up feeling slightly chilled and glanced towards his bedmate with the vague recolection of falling into bed with her and slipping into an exhausted sleep as soon as he got back from work and got a kiss from her after showering.

It had been this way for a while. Almost over four weeks since he had walzed into Tsunade's office and demanded that he be put back on Anbu duty and assigned as Naru's bodyguard.

Both of which the woman had readily agreed too.

But with a few minor conditions that he had shrugged off since he was basically fulfilling them anyways. Condition one- he had to move back into his childhood home. Apparently Tsunade was a mite slow on the draw since he'd already done that behind everyone's backs. Mainly because he had felt that doing so was in his best interest since he was going to be settling down.

Another reason for doing everything in secret was so that he could woo Naru and ease their way into an actual relationship without feeling rushed. The only problem was that he and Naru had been seen cuddling by Hyashi Hyuga and Gai.

Which had sparked the gossip mills until he had gone to every blue haired nobles home and threatened to burn them down with the old biddies inside that is.

And then there was condition two- he had to marry Naru.

Not try too. But actually do it.

As in he'd been given an order by his Hokage and couldn't disobey.

Again, she was a mite slow on the draw. Not that he could blame her any since he had silenced her only sorce of info within the village for his own selfish reasons. But dammit he wanted to take his time and give Naru the perfect romance before popping the question. And he could only do that if everyone else butted out.

So natrually he was taking his time and driving Tsunade crazy while he was at it.

He rolled over on the twin size bed that he had gotten just so that he could get used to sleeping next to Naru and cracked his eyes open to see where the blanket went and snorted in amusement when he saw Naru had rolled herself up in it to the point where she looked like a caterpillar in a cacoon with only her face peeking out at the top.

This had become a daily occurance in the past weeks since they had moved into the house. For some reason that Kakashi couldn't fathom, Naru seemed to think that a window somewhere in the house was open or cracked.

And it was because of this inane belief that every night inbetween the times of four and seven a.m. an imaginary wind would blow and find it's way to the bedroom- and she would steal the covers and wrap herself up in them.

Frankly he knew better than to argue with an overly hormonal woman, but he thought she kept getting chilled because she had poor circulation. He yawned and rolled over so that he was facing Naru and just sat there for several moments, enjoying the peace and quiet while Naru slept and tried to think of something romantic that he could do with her today since it was his day off.

He supposed that he could start by getting up and fixing her breakfast since she would be as hungry as a pack of wolves when she woke up, but he was relunctant to move.

Besides... She was cute when she was asleep. So much so that he had become fascinated with watching her when he was awake.

Propping himself up on one elbow he reached out with his free hand and ran his fingertips along the bridge of her nose just to mess with her. He was curious to know if she could wiggle out of that blanket if her nose started to itch. It took a second or so, but inevitably Naru started to squirm and wrinkle her nose in her sleep. Making her look like a bunny.

The imagery was funny. Almost as funny as watching her squirm around for nearly ten minutes before finally managing to free one hand enough to scratch her nose while muttering curses in her sleep. Kakashi had to bite the back of his hand to keep from laughing out loud and waking her.

She was just too funny!

But it was time for her to get up now.

So reaching out again, he repeated his earlier actions until she started sneezing then quickly drew back his hand and rolled over and closed his eyes and pretended to still be asleep as she slowly opened her eyes and used a finger to rub the underside of her nose as she slowly and clumsily sat up.

Glancing down at Kakashi she wondered tiredly if she had accidentally woken him up, then after a second or so realized that he was the one who had woken her up and muttered about him being a jerk and not letting her sleep in today as he opened his eyes and feigned still being asleep.

She knew better. After being on team Kakashi and then living with him these past two months- She knew that the man could go from out to awake and aware in the span of 0.2 seconds. "Good morning Naru." He said in that rough almost purring tone that his voice took on early in the mornings when he was the most content.

She glared at him for a second, feeling irked that he thought he could get away with waking her when she didn't want to wake up. But the feeling vanished easily enough after a heartbeat or two. "Mornin Kashi." She said in a drowsy tone as he sat up and leaned in and kissed her cheek.

It had become a ritual of sorts for him.

He had even drawn out a chart for them so that she wouldn't feel smothered or overwhelmed. The chart went something like this- One kiss on the cheek in the morning. Another on the forehead and on her stomach, before he went to work. A kiss on the lips when he came home from work. And at night before he fell asleep, he gave her another kiss on the cheek.

It was sweet of him.

But she wished he'd make more time for cuddling and holding hands herself.

She saw a hand wave in front of her face and shook herself from her thoughts and looked up at Kakashi whom was crouched down on the bed in front of her with an anxious look on his face and realized that he must have said something to her and gotten worried when she didn't answer.

"Sorry Kashi, I zoned out. Do you mind repeating what you said?"

Kakashi gave her an unblinking look as he slowly nodded his head and visibly relaxed some. "I asked if you would like to go out on a proper date. It occurred to me of late that we've never been on one and I wanted to take you on one-" He flushed some as he contined. "Or if you're too tired to walk around town being lovey dovey with me then maybe I can fix something up here at the house. A picnic or something... Maybe..."

By the time he was done speaking you could have fried an egg on his forehead- he was so red. Naru thought in amusement as he fidgeted a little bit, clenching and unclenching his fists in the bedsheets until it looked like he may rip them to shreds. Reaching out she quickly grabbed his hands and pulled them away from the bedsheets and smiled at him.

A date with her Kashi. Now that sounded like it could be fun.

"I'd like that. What did you have in mind?" Naru asked curiously. Kakashi looked as if he'd been slapped for a moment. He was so stunned. But the second he recovered he started talking excitedly about a carnival that had just come to the village, some window shopping, lunch, then going over to the flower shop-

He threw out so many alternative things to do that Naru's mind was reeling from it all. But after a few minutes or so she finally managed to put something together. Window shopping, flowers, lunch, then they would come home and curl up together on the couch and watch some movies until they fell asleep.

She even said that they could get snacks before coming home and set things up so that the only reason they'd have to leave the livingroom was to use the bathroom.

Kakashi mulled it over for a minute then wrang the promise out of her that if their plans were too much for her that she would mention it to him so that he could bring her home early. He didn't want her passing out from exhaustion and possibly winding up in the hospital.

Naru promised and they shook on it and quickly bounded out of bed in their usual morning fashion to see who would get to use the bathroom first.