They fell into a rhythm so easy and soothing that Kakashi felt as though Naruto had always been there even as he simultaneously marveled at the novelty of their cohabitation. He found himself lingering over the new bottles in their shower, and the hairbrush by the sink, and her toothbrush next to his. He loved finding hair ties on the kitchen counter, and long blonde hair stuck to his clothes. He liked seeing her sprawled out on the couch, or puttering around the kitchen, or bent over her journal writing by the light of the lamp through her cracked open bedroom door. He was happy. Happier than he'd been since he'd lived with Minato and Kushina, a lifetime ago.

Their daily routine was sweet. An early riser by nature, Kakashi would wake her and lay out her clothes for the day, then eat while she got ready, and present her with a simple breakfast when she emerged from doing so. If she needed it, either fresh from the shower or having mussed them in her sleep, he'd rebraid her hair while she ate (its new texture made this more challenging, but also more beautiful and entertaining), and if not, he'd tell her about what they were going to be doing that day. They'd walk to the training grounds together, and eat the lunch Naruto packed for them both during the break built into the training day. Then they'd walk home together, and Naruto would make dinner, and they'd hang out on the couch in the living room, closer than they needed to be as he read and she studied or journaled, or they talked.

Nearly every night, he would check on her a bit after they'd said goodnight, and she'd be up and looking distressed, and he'd offer to stay with her until she fell asleep. Each time, she'd look like she was on the verge of saying no, looking guilty and embarrassed, but ultimately, she always agreed. He loved every second of his days with her, and only his joy at seeing her smile made him able to shoo her away to spend time with her teammates in the late afternoons.

It was gorgeous. It was everything he'd ever wanted, and it opened up a yawning chasm in him of wanting more. Of wanting her back in his bed, wanting her to close the gap between her feet and his thighs when they sat together on the couch in the evening, wanting to hold her and move her braid to the side to kiss the nape of her neck. He wanted.

And despite what an amazing gift this awful situation had given him, Kakashi was still angry. Pakkun reported in each night, usually describing endless bureaucracy. He'd only been allowed to check three homes so far, all negative. Kakashi itched and burned with the need to avenge his girl, maybe to alleviate his guilt that he hadn't protected her. After all, how could he possibly deserve her if he couldn't make those who had hurt her suffer for it?

Saturday was a departure from their usual rhythm; what would have been a training day had been converted into a group study day. It was an old program, technically, in which genin furthered their general education through joint lectures by various jōnin sensei and guest lecturers. Kakashi had never participated in it, the program having been deemed unnecessary for the genin raised in the war and not re-implemented until a few months before he took on his team, but he generally thought it was a good idea. They rotated through various topics, with two 90 minute lectures in the morning and two in the early afternoon, and as an added benefit, the genin tended to engage in group activities afterwards, strengthening their bonds.

Asuma's history and politics lessons were popular, but less so than his occasional chakra control and theory lectures. The genin generally acted like they disliked Guy's literature, art, and poetry lessons, but they seemed like they were trying too hard at their poems and paintings to be as disinterested as they pretended to be. Kurenai's lessons on life skills and personal finance weren't particularly lively, but the students seemed to appreciate learning how to balance a budget and fix household appliances and perform first aid.

Kakashi, being the only wartime-trained jōnin sensei to have independently pursued such topics, taught math, physics, chemistry, and biology, and only the biology lessons were even remotely popular. Generally, when he took to the chalkboard, there were groans and sighs of distaste. But he was mostly taken seriously, apart from math, as the genin understood the applications of many of his lessons to their training. Well, except for Naruto, but she was hard to make listen to any of the lessons.

It was going to be physics of electricity and applications to lightning release chakra first thing in the morning today, maybe with a demonstration of his chidori if it will get them to stop looking like Kakashi was putting them through a torture session with Ibiki. (But he wasn't bitter about being the least popular lecturer. Really, he wasn't. It was fine that they preferred Guy screaming haikus at the top of his lungs.)

Naruto had made him coffee that morning, which was awfully sweet, because it meant she remembered he always arrived with a thermos on Saturdays. Of course, she had no idea he typically filled the thermos with some kind of mixed drink, and that the various drinking containers carried by the other jōnin sensei tended to be equally inappropriate for daytime consumption. He pretended to need something in his bedroom, drank about half the coffee, and topped it off with brandy from a bottle hidden under his bed, because he would rather die than teach physics to children sober, thank you. Public speaking made him nervous under the best of circumstances, but to a crowd of unimpressed genin? Awful.

Kakashi had a pleasant, mild buzz going by the time they reached the academy, where a classroom and the teacher's lounge were unlocked for their use. The caffeine in combination was actually kind of nice, uplifting, and he was almost looking forward to explaining electron flow. He was even close to being on time. He'd start by asking them a question, he thought as he continued to ignore Naruto's chattering as he opened the door to the classroom for her. Kurenai said questions improved student engagement, so he'd say, who remembers what an electron is? And—

The sound of a dozen conversations clattering to a halt finally caught his attention, just in time to avoid knocking Naruto over where she'd frozen in his path.

Ah. He'd forgotten that no one had seen her other than Sakura and Sasuke, who were trying for a friendly, casual wave at the blonde and glaring furiously around at those who were staring at her, respectively. Naruto clearly wasn't prepared for the attention, and he nearly drew her back and gave her the day off, but she squared her shoulders and kept her chin up, staying his hand.

Shikamaru was the first to make a move. He stood slowly, straightening up with that languidness that permeated all of his motions, and took his time approaching Naruto, hands in his pockets. Kakashi wished desperately he could see her face, but he remained still, sensing that he shouldn't interfere.

"Really sucks what you had to go through," the boy said, blunt and straightforward yet sympathetic. "We were all really sorry to hear about it. And we know you're strong, and you're going to be fine, but we want you to know we're here for you."

Naruto's shoulders trembled, the motion so subtle that Kakashi couldn't have possibly noticed if he wasn't looking for it, and at the first sign of the boy opening his arms, she threw herself into them, embracing him tightly and saying thank you, Shika as the other genin chorused their support. She pulled back after only a moment, and turned a wide, only slightly teary smile on the class at large. "I'm okay, I promise," she swore. "Nothing will slow me down, believe it."

Good, that had gone well, better than he could have guessed. The mood was pleasant, and warm and intimate, and Kakashi took that as his cue to start ambling towards the front, reactivating the genjutsu that appeared to keep his face covered to take another swig of his spiked coffee as he reached the white board. "Who remembers what an electron is?" he asked, gesturing for Naruto to take a seat, and there was a round of groans as the upbeat mood withered and died, prompting him to take another drink.

…

The best part about these lecture days was hanging out in the teacher's lounge, getting as trashed as they dared as they alternately waited their turn to teach or celebrated that their lecture had been successfully completed. Asuma went after him, a calculated move to lift the genin's energy after listening to Kakashi drone about potential energy and go off on a tipsy tangent about how cool electron transport chains were.

"Gods, I hate teaching," he sighed as he slid into his seat at the round table they hung out at in the lounge. Kurenai made a sympathetic noise from where she was standing on the counter by the coffee maker, fishing out the emergency handle of whiskey they kept hidden in the ceiling.

Guy disagreed, and they rehashed the same exchange they had every week. "Teaching is beautiful!" he insisted. "Imparting wisdom to the youth is our responsibility as their elders, their senpai! It's our great contribution to the future of our village!"

"Easy for you to say," he drawled, letting himself sound grumpy. "You get to fingerpaint with them, while I'm explaining mendelian genetics and euclidean geometry."

"Thought we'd need this," Kurenai said as she returned with the bottle. "How have you been holding up?"

The realization that they wanted to talk about Naruto and how her situation had impacted him emotionally hit him belatedly. "Fine," he answered, cautious even as he unscrewed his empty thermos and let her top him off. "Adjusting."

"And how is the youthful, beautiful young lady?" Guy asked far too loudly.

Kakashi shrugged, uncomfortable, taking a sip through his still-active genjutsu. "Fine," he repeated, appreciating the burn down his throat. "Adjusting." Then, feeling something in him crumble at the mournful look in Kurenai's eyes, he found himself confiding, an unusual activity for him. "I worry about her. She has trouble going to sleep, and now that we're living together, I'm realizing that she compulsively hides her body except her hands and face, and she has this weird complex—" He waved his hand nebulously. "—about being a girl, and I have no idea how to handle it. I… probably wasn't the ideal person to take her in."

Kurenai made a sympathetic sound, and Guy murmured something about tragedy in such a young life. "Kakashi," she soothed, "All you have to do is be supportive, and consistent, and present. And I know those things don't come naturally to you, but they're doable. You don't have to fix her, you just have to give her a safe place to heal, and a safe person to be broken around. Does that make sense?"

Hesitating, he nodded, feeling his throat close up. The sensation made him realize he'd passed tipsy into intoxicated, and he peered down into his cup to find that perhaps he'd taken a gulp of whiskey, not a sip. He tended to be an emotional drunk, not something he particularly liked about himself, but, shrugging and taking another drink, he figured that ship had sailed. "It's nice having someone around my place," he admitted softly, eye on his hands around his thermos. "It's like she brings sunshine in with her. And she's a great cook."

Guy boomed How wonderful, that two lonely souls have found solace in one another! at the same time Kurenai's brow drew together and she asked, "Wait, Naruto is cooking for you?"

Roundly ignoring his self-identified 'greatest rival,' Kakashi addressed Kurenai directly. "She insisted. She's taken over the kitchen as her domain, and she's demanded a shopping list to get groceries tomorrow. She also said she's going to be doing all the laundry, but she hasn't yet, and I've been hoping she'll forget she said so."

The kunoichi across the table from him looked concerned, like she was trying to figure out how to say something complicated. She took a long swig from her opaque water bottle, then placed her hands flat on the table, and warned him, "Kakashi… girls that age can get their wires crossed very easily, and mistake platonic affection for romantic affection. You need to be really careful to maintain boundaries with her."

Kakashi stared numbly at her, thinking about how he'd come into her room half-dressed and tucked her into bed. "You know me," he answered her, lifting his drink in a sardonic toast. "King of boundaries." Then, rolling his cup between his hands, he asked hesitantly, "If I need… Maa, feminine advice? … I can ask you, can't I?"

Kurenai's any time was interrupted by Guy's enthusiastic, "Of course, my friend! I am a veritable expert on the feminine mystique!" prompting groans from the other occupants of the room.

…

Asuma entering the room relatively sober made them realize they'd overdone it, especially as Kurenai staggered upon standing, and whispered, "Oh dear gods, how am I supposed to teach them how to balance a checkbook like this?" She turned a desperate expression on Asuma, who looked rather stunned, and demanded, "Do you think I could make them create household budgets in pairs? Might give me a little time to sober up… Oh, thank god, I'm monitoring lunch first, aren't I?"

The man chewed on his unlit cigarette as he nodded, clearly afraid to engage any further, and sent her on her way. "Women," he sighed when the door shut behind her.

"Tell me about it," Kakashi griped, now thoroughly sloshed. "Always crying about weird things. I set up a bedroom for Naruto, and she liked it—tears! Utterly incomprehensible."

Amusement pulled up the corners of Asuma's mouth as he took a drink straight from the bottle on the table. "So that's why we're going hard today," he mused. "I'm game."

Guy could hold his liquor like no one else Kakashi had ever met, but it still made him tearful, and he was rapidly approaching full-blown sobs as left to go teach two hours later, having decided that his planned lecture on the history of the Hokage monument would have to go by the wayside to instead write free verse poetry, about the beauty and tragedy of adolescence! Kurenai looked like she deeply regretted drinking, but still accepted a shot from the glass Asuma had produced seemingly from nowhere.

Kakashi had nearly forgotten his mission by the time they were escorting the genin out of the building and locking up behind themselves. It was seeing Naruto looking completely overwhelmed with the rest of the female genin surrounding her like ambush predators that made him remember, and he called her name a little too loudly, drawing a few confused glances from the other students, but largely he was ignored apart from the little blonde that bounced up to him with a questioning look on her face.

Her nose wrinkled up as she drew close, and her eyes were far too astute as they bit into his own. They widened comically, and she lowered her voice to an urgent whisper as she demanded, "Sensei, have you been drinking?" prompting a giggle from Kurenai and a snort from Asuma. Her critical blue gaze flickered between the other jōnin, and a scandalized look crossed her cute little face, making Kakashi smile dumbly down at her. "You've all been drinking! I knew there was something off about lessons today…"

Kakashi raised a finger to his covered lips in a shh gesture. "Secret," he urged her, and she rolled her eyes as she nodded. Then he started digging out his wallet, and explaining quietly, "I'm getting your stipend now, and I'm saving most of it for when you're older, but I thought you should have an allowance, especially since it goes so much farther without your rent eating into it."

He handed her some cash, and when she turned big, shocked eyes down at it, he belatedly realized he'd given her too much. But he wasn't going to try to remedy that, especially not as she asked so sweetly, "But sensei, shouldn't I be paying you rent?"

"No, no," he insisted, starting to turn her around by the shoulders and send her off. "My jōnin sensei never charged me for anything, and I lived with him for years. Go have fun." The gaggle of girls were waiting for her, watching their exchange from a distance with intense interest.

She looked back at him, confused. "Wait, sensei, you lived with—?"

"Shoo," he said, with a gesture to match, and she gave him a crooked, affectionate smile that he returned before she obeyed him, running to go catch up with the other female genin. Sakura gave him a little nod, and they were off.

Kurenai punched him on the arm, and, secure that their students were out of earshot, accused him playfully, "Oh my gods, Kakashi, you are so soft for her. I didn't know you had it in you."

Asuma looked like he'd seen a cryptid, an odd, consternated look on his face. "That was weird," he breathed. "Had I never seen you smile for real before just then? Or am I just trashed?"

Kakashi was feeling thoroughly humiliated and considering running away, but Guy must have sensed that, because a muscular green arm was thrown around his shoulders, and he sniffled as he cried, "Repaying the debt you owe her father! How chivalrous, how gallant, how honorable!"

"That's it," he acknowledged stiffly, awful guilt closing around his throat, trying to pull away even as Guy resolutely began to tug him towards their designated post-lessons dive bar. "I owe it to sensei."