Waking up in her sensei's apartment was still weird the second time, even though it was less weird on his futon than waking up alone in his bed. With a solid night's sleep behind her—judging by the sunlight filtering through the windows, and the fact that the sun had yet to set when she fell asleep, she'd been out for a while—Naruto felt a lot better, and true shame about crawling into the jōnin's bed like a little kid finally set in, making her flush as she looked up to the ceiling. Gods, she'd cried into his neck, too, and after he'd been so nice about helping her with her hair. Could she be any more of a stupid, useless little girl?

She was distracted from her thoughts by a repetition of what had stirred her, though, which was the sound of knocking at the door. She sat up, looking uncertainly at it, unsure if she should answer her sensei's door, but she didn't have long to wonder before the owner of the home appeared, fully dressed with his hair floppy and wet over his hitai-ate. He didn't look at her as he passed her by, making her feel quite like part of the furniture, but she shoved that feeling down as the door opened and admitted Iruka, holding a cardboard box under one arm and a take out bag with the other.

"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto called, excited as she pushed herself to her feet. "Good morning! Did you bring breakfast?"

Kakashi shot her an amused look, taking the box from a smiling Iruka and turning to set it on the dining table, but his tone was flat as he teased, "What, I don't get a good morning unless I have food in my hands?"

"Good morning, sensei," she corrected herself with a swift bow and an embarrassed blush. "Sorry, I just got up."

"I know, I was beginning to worry you weren't going to wake. You slept for almost fourteen hours."

"Did she really?" Iruka asked, concerned, and Naruto grinned as big as she could, desperate not to make him worry about her more than he already was.

"Oh, but I feel so much better now!" she insisted, ducking under Iruka's arm to give her old teacher a hug. "I'll be good as new after I eat, believe it!"

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught the two men exchanging a look she didn't understand, but she kept up her broad smile as she made a show of nosily looking in the cardboard box. "My plants!" she crowed, delighted. "Wow, I can really keep them here, sensei? You have much better light than I did in my old apartment."

"Put them wherever," her sensei waved her off, indifferent. Then, as he began opening cabinets, "Thank you for breakfast, Iruka. You'll join us, won't you?"

Naruto tuned the men making polite conversation out, fully aware that they had little in common other than her, and instead concentrated on determining which windows faced east-west and which faced north-south. The apartment had an unusual amount of windows, the complex lacking a second layer of units behind the first, and it was a corner unit, to boot. Her aloe and echeveria were placed lovingly in the kitchen window, her pothos in the bathroom window, and the rest got lined up on the windowsill in the living area. She surveyed them with her hands on her hips, satisfied, and turned only to unexpectedly make eye contact with her sensei, who appeared to have been watching her considering how fast he averted his gaze to focus on finishing setting the table.

Breakfast turned out to consist of omelets, rice, and miso soup, which was perfect because Naruto was starving and there was plenty of extra rice. She barely looked up from her meal as she listened to Iruka-sensei and Kaka-sensei discuss the upcoming crop of genin and their perceived value, even if the genjutsu the jōnin used to eat while appearing to still wear his mask was interesting. She was quite content to leave their boring conversation alone until Iruka-sensei unexpectedly complimented her hair.

"You're getting better at braiding," he praised, reaching out to pluck at the end of one of her braids. "It looks really nice, very pretty."

Naruto could feel her blush staining her cheeks as she ducked her head, unused to receiving positive comments about her appearance. "Kaka-sensei did them," she deflected, eyes flicking up to the man in question, only to find him staring straight ahead with no expression on his face or movement in his body, still like a statue.

She didn't quite get why until Iruka-sensei choked back a laugh, his brown eyes scrunched and sparkling with repressed amusement. "Did he?" her teacher asked, trying and failing to pull a straight face—his lips were twitching in the corners. "It would seem your sensei is a man of many talents."

This still garnered no response whatsoever from the jōnin, who appeared to be testing the hypothesis that if he was still enough, they wouldn't see him. Naruto reached out and tugged his sleeve, feeling guilty, and pleaded, "Sorry, sensei, I didn't know it was a secret! They really are pretty, you did a good job." The man's single grey eye traveled slowly to where Naruto's hand clutched his sleeve, then up to her face, expression utterly blank. It felt like he would speak, but in the end, he just jerked his head in a nod of acknowledgment, and stood to begin clearing away the remnants of their meal, so Naruto turned her attention back to her teacher. "He learned with the sharingan, isn't that cool? I thought he could only copy jutsu, but I guess he can copy anything!"

"Well," Iruka reasoned, still visibly amused as he directed a smile at the man's back. "They don't call him the copy ninja for nothing."

…

Kakashi was being forced to recognize that letting Naruto into his life and home meant letting others in, too, and while regret wouldn't be his first choice of words to describe his feelings on the matter, consternation and irritation would make the short list. In hindsight, it made perfect sense that Iruka would come into his home and share a meal; it was Naruto's home now, too, and of course Iruka would spend time in her home. And it made sense that Naruto would tell people he'd braided her hair if asked, no matter how intensely intimate that moment had felt to him. And it made sense that Sakura would show up at his door while his other student was out with Iruka, shuffling her feet and asking how her teammate was faring.

Sakura was going to be a fine kunoichi. She was a tad older than his other students, her fourteenth birthday having passed a few months prior, the consequence of her civilian parents making her wait a year to be sure she wished to join the academy. She was mature, and smart, and responsible, even if she had a nasty temper and a preoccupation with her teenaged hormones, and really, Kakashi was proud of her for taking initiative… just not in his apartment.

"Fine," Kakashi answered her shortly, pausing for longer than was natural before he stepped aside to admit her. "You heard she was staying here?"

She waved her hand dismissively, clearly more interested in her visual investigation of his sparse apartment than in their conversation. "You know how the rumor mill is. Ino ran into Iruka on his way to pick up her plants, and she told Chōji, who mentioned it to Tenten, who asked me about it. And now I'm here." Seeming to have satisfied her curiosity after an examination of where Naruto was sleeping, she put her hands on her narrow hips, and looked up at him expectantly. "How can I help?"

Kakashi started to say she couldn't, or give some empty platitudes about being there for Naruto or whatever, but he realized there was some utility in recruiting a female peer to help Naruto recover some of her security in her body. He hummed, wondering how to phrase the nebulous thoughts he'd been having on the topic, and belatedly gestured for her to sit down in his armchair, taking his own seat on the couch. "I've been thinking…" he began, then decided he needed to back up and present his reasoning. "That is, I'm seeing some of Naruto's idiosyncrasies in a new light given what we've learned about her… circumstances." Sakura winced. "It might be productive to increase her sense of ownership over her body. Are you following me?"

Sakura hesitated, sounding uncertain as she ventured, "Are we… Are we talking about how she doesn't take very good care of her hair and skin? And how she always wears the same ugly clothes? Not—I'm not judging her, sensei, she's very pretty, but those choices always felt, um, calculated?" Her nose wrinkled up. "Did you know she uses one bottle of product as her shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and face wash? … Can you imagine how pretty her hair would be if it wasn't so dry?"

Kakashi roundly ignored the last question in favor of encouraging Sakura's main train of thought. "Yes, that's it. I thought she might feel more confident if she were more invested in caring for and presenting herself. Do you agree?" After all, Kakashi was not now, nor had he ever been, a teenaged girl, but Sakura was nodding like everything he was saying made perfect sense. "Maybe you could step in and act as her big sister, help her learn to take better care of herself. She's never had anyone to teach her."

"I can do that. I have some money saved up from babysitting and my genin stipend, I can get her some things and—"

Kakashi cut her off, withdrawing his wallet from inside his vest and counting out some bills. "No, Sakura, you earned that, keep it. Will this be enough?"

The girl briefly eyed the proffered cash, dubious as though it might bite her, then met his gaze, expression bright with curiosity and soft with affection. "You care more than I thought you did," she acknowledged, a smile playing at her lips.

He inclined his head, keeping himself impassive and unreadable. "By design. Don't tell the others." The echo of the conversation he'd had with Naruto amused him, and he briefly entertained himself by imagining an opportunity to tell Sasuke the same thing.

This seemed to be sufficient for Sakura, who accepted the cash and tucked it away into her bag. "Okay, sensei. I'll get Naruto what she needs, open all of it so it looks like it's been used, and tell her it's stuff I tried that didn't work for me." That was clever. "I don't think she'll take it from me otherwise… But how do I convince her to actually do it...?"

Kakashi had thoughts on that, actually. "I would suggest you frame it as a bonding activity, something you two can foster friendship over. She values quality time with her special people." That's what Iruka was doing with her just then; he'd invited her to come help him set up a training exercise for the academy students scheduled the next day, and she'd practically glowed at being extended that offer. He hummed, trying to remember how teenaged girls had worked when they'd been his peers. "Perhaps you could tell her that you usually do this activity with Ino, and that you're currently fighting. Ask her to step in."

"That could work," Sakura mused. Then, humor sparkling in her eyes, "You speak girl pretty well, sensei."

He rolled his eye at her. "Lifetime of observation. Do you accept your mission?"

She gave him a winning smile, nodded. "Of course. We'll do a little at a time."

"Good, good." He sighed, scrubbed his hand over his eye. "Now let me enjoy my time alone, will you?"