A long, hot shower after an extended mission was a lovely enough feeling that Naruto's mild disappointment that Kakashi wasn't home when she got in melted away under the spray of water. She'd been expecting it anyway—they didn't typically get home from training for another hour—and really, she'd had no idea how attached she'd gotten to her bathing routine until it had been disrupted. Who knew she'd miss conditioning her hair, or having nicely shaved legs?

Scrubbing away the grime of travel was incredibly satisfying, and by the time she'd lotioned up and combed out her hair, she felt fresh and clean as a daisy. She put her hair in a towel (Sakura had taught her how to make it like a hat a few weeks ago, but she struggled to see the point, and usually just wrapped it so that it hung down her back) and wrapped a second one around her body, figuring that if Kakashi wasn't home, she could just sneak across the hallway and get changed there—

Naruto squeaked, startled, when upon opening the bathroom door, she was immediately accosted, long limbs pulling her against a hard chest, and she was enveloped in Kakashi's familiar smell, subtle and clean and masculine. She couldn't help it; for a moment, she melted into him, pressing against his body, heedless of her near-nudity in the face of how profoundly she'd missed him. In the next moment, though, reality came crashing back, and she tried unsuccessfully to pull away, saying with laughter in her voice, "Let me go, I'm not dressed! And I'm going to get your clothes damp."

"I don't care." His words were immediate and allowed for no compromise as his arms tightened around her. "I missed you. Do you forgive me?"

She smiled against the fabric of his shirt, even as her discomfort concerning her underdressed state increased. "Of course I forgive you, you dork. But you still have to grovel. And you gotta let go."

He practically knocked her off her feet with his next words, all spoken low and urgent into the towel on her head. "Your mother was beautiful," Kakashi told her, like it was vital she heard it immediately, like he'd been bursting with wanting to tell it, and Naruto suddenly couldn't breathe. "She was kind and funny and stubborn and you remind me of her every day. She was the only thing like a mom I ever had, and I worshipped the ground she walked on. I let her kiss where I'd been injured almost up until I made jōnin, and she used to make me hot cocoa and let me run my fingers through her hair when I was upset. She was a great cook, but she made the most awful cupcakes I've ever eaten in my life." His shoulders jerked, just once, but his words were steady, and Naruto's eyes stung as she held onto every one like a lifeline. "Your father was a born leader, and I would have followed him anywhere. I followed him into hell on earth and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Everything good in me, I learned from him, and I'm not half the man he was, but I'm the man I am because of him. He was incredible, the best Hokage we ever had, and I see him in you. That's… That's what I wanted to tell you, Naruto."

Naruto pulled back, just far enough to look up into her sensei's covered face, into his watery exposed eye. He looked tired, like he hadn't been sleeping, and she wondered if it was obvious to him that she hadn't been, either. Despite his obvious exhaustion, though, the corner of his eye crinkled up as he looked at her, and he hummed his joy as he wiped a tear from her eye with his thumb and began to rain masked kisses down on her forehead. All she could think was I love this man, and there's no way he doesn't love me back. It was stupid to doubt it. Out loud, though, she just said in a small, overwhelmed voice, "I missed you, too, 'kashi, but you really do have to let me put pants on."

Kakashi stepped back, then, finally releasing her, and looked her up and down just once, perfunctorily, causing her face to grow hot. He'd never seen her in a towel, and logically she knew it was less of her body than he'd seen previously—the towel fell nearly to her knees—but it felt naughty in a way that made her sex pulse and her throat go dry. For his part, her sensei grew awkward, and cleared his throat as he averted his gaze to the side. "Of course. I apologize. Could—"

He cut himself off abruptly, clasping his hands behind his back and refusing to look at her. She connected the dots without any trouble, though, and told him with a fond little grin, "Yeah, you can lay out some clothes for me." Kakashi shuffled his feet, almost shy, but jerked his head in a nod, and led the way into her bedroom, where her bed was made with her Pochi sitting up on the pillows. As Naruto followed him, she added teasingly, "But once I'm dressed, you're gonna have to start groveling. Just because you're forgiven doesn't mean you're getting out of it."

He didn't turn to look at her as he dug through her drawers, pulling out her pale orange shorts and a grey t-shirt, but she could hear his smile as he agreed gamely, "Of course. Groveling will commence shortly. You'll find that your bedside drawer has been stuffed full of chocolate, and when you get hungry, we'll go out to Ichiraku, and I'll get you all the ramen you can eat. Is that a good start?"

Turning, Kakashi offered her the bundle of clothing he'd collected, and Naruto accepted it with a wide grin. "I'll eat you out of house and home, sensei, you might regret saying that. But yes, good start." She hesitated, but teased with a put-upon air of arrogance, "Then you can spend some time telling me how pretty and wonderful I am, and maybe rub my feet."

"Sounds great," her sensei returned, eye crinkled up again. "Get dressed."

…

Coming home to find Naruto's boots by the door and her field pack slumped on the dining table after three agonizingly long weeks had practically liquified Kakashi's joints, relief washing over him over and over like the tides. She was safe. She was home. He could hold her again, as soon as she was out of the shower. It was good luck, too, that he had a minute to make his bedroom presentable. He made quick work of disposing of the multiple empty bottles of liquor strewn around, and replaced Naruto's stuffed dog on her bed, unwilling to allow her to know he'd been sleeping with it tucked against his chest.

He probably shouldn't have been waiting in the hallway for her, impatiently pacing by the door only to fall still and stare at the doorknob for long minutes as the shower shut off and he listened to her get ready. Holding her again after so long apart was bliss, though, worth it entirely. The feeling of her humid warmth against his body made him want to curl around her like a snake and squeeze, made it hard to let go even as she asked him to repeatedly. He wasn't able to make himself release her until after he'd poured his feelings out into the rough fabric on her head, demonstrated to her how much he'd loved her parents. He hadn't fully processed that she was in a towel until he stepped back and looked at her, and while her underdressed state was titillating, he was fascinated by the fact that his eye on her didn't seem to scare her, only produced a flush.

The best word to describe how he felt as he braided her hair and took her out for an early dinner was awe. He couldn't believe how lucky he was that Naruto had returned to him. Couldn't believe that big, beautiful smile was all for him. Couldn't believe that she had forgiven him for keeping her very identity secret from her, that she was laughing and elbowing him as they ate as though nothing were wrong. After everything he'd fucked up and sullied, even after almost kissing her on the head of the Hokage monument carved in her father's likeness. But maybe he shouldn't have been surprised… Naruto was one of the most forgiving people he'd ever met in his life. She wasn't capable of holding a grudge in the face of a sincere apology. She wasn't built that way, she believed too strongly in fairness and second chances. She was made of love and steel, and he adored her for it.

Kakashi had kind of expected her to grill him about her parents, but no questions were forthcoming as she finished her fifth bowl of ramen and bid Teuchi and his daughter good night. He had a few guesses as to why—either she was afraid of becoming emotional in public, or she'd already drunk her fill from what Jiraiya had to say. Or, maybe, she was simply excited to tell him about her journey. He was regaled with tales of things she'd seen and tried and eaten, people she'd met, the harrowing story of how she'd convinced Tsunade to come home (learning his girl had been injured was bad for his blood pressure, but he mostly managed to keep his head on straight, only demanding to see the healed injured spots himself)… Curiously, though, she mostly skirted around discussion of Jiraiya, and as they walked home, Naruto's hands wrapped around his arm as he escorted her, he asked her why.

Naruto scowled adorably in an expression he would have called a pout if not for the odd look in her eye. "I don't know, I haven't decided yet if I like him," she ventured tentatively. "I want to like him, but I don't like the way he talks to the women he wants to sleep with or the way he treats me like I'm his little girl. He's gotten better ever since he swore off taking photos of girls who don't know they're being photographed and burned his collection of creepshots, though."

Head whipping down to stare at her, Kakashi nearly stumbled. "You… convinced him to stop?" he asked incredulously. It's not like Naruto was the first person to try to talk some sense into the man, after all. He was in his sixties—he'd taken several harsh beatings and dozens upon dozens of lectures, a couple from Kakashi himself when he was younger. He was under the impression that Tsunade had once almost killed him for peeping. And Naruto accomplished the impossible in only a couple of weeks? He wouldn't have believed her if she'd been anyone else.

"Yeah…" She dragged the word out, not returning his gaze. "I told him about the photos of me, told him he's the same kind of guy as my landlord. I think it shook him up a little. He said… what was it…? Oh, um, that he wants to be the kind of man I can look up to." Kakashi was not given time to process this before she added flippantly, "Then he starting teaching me the rasengan. I've mostly got it down, now that my chakra is so much easier to work with. Oh! Did I tell you Jiraiya fixed my seal?"

They clambered to a stop, Kakashi's feet refusing to cooperate and Naruto jarred by his sudden stillness. He hesitated, his mind full of images of he and his girl curled up together on the couch, going to bed together—but he was her sensei, too, dammit, and a glance at the sky told him that the summer sunset was plenty of time away despite the relatively late hour. As he pulled her towards the training grounds, he demanded urgently, "Did you say rasengan? Did I hear you right? Gods, you left not able to stay upright on water and now you're working on the rasengan? I… have to see this. And what did you just say about your seal?"

…

Kakashi had firmly believed that in most things, Naruto was destined to be a 'genius of effort,' as Guy would say. The only thing that had ever come to her easily was her shadow clones, and even those had been recklessly wasteful of her chakra; everything she'd accomplished was through her hard work and wit. He'd thought she was simply so stubborn she made up for her lack of raw talent.

He had been wrong.

He almost felt like he was having an out of body experience as he watched Naruto walk up the side of one of the massive trees surrounding the training grounds as easily as any shinobi, only to give him a minor heart attack as she demonstrated her ability to hang upside down from a branch by only one foot, or her palm. Then she'd demonstrated the rasengan, first the messy, unstable one she could make alone, and then the one she'd used shadow clones to help her with, which was apparently capable of reducing one of the massive, mature oak trees lining the grounds to splinters.

"Oh, and he taught me how to summon a massive toad," she added with her hands on her hips, surveying the damage she'd inflicted on the flora of the training grounds, oblivious to his frantic reconfiguring of his perception of his girl and the world. "Like—really really huge. His name is Gamabunta, he's kind of a dick."

"You summoned Gamabunta." It was supposed to come out as a question, but his inflection was all wrong, and instead it was a breathy little acknowledgement, causing Naruto to shoot him a curious look.

"What, do you know him?"

Kakashi stared at her, having no idea whatsoever how to explain that Gamabunta was, in fact, an old war buddy. So he didn't answer her, instead asking for the third time, "What was it Jiraiya did to your seal?"

Clearly a little frustrated by being asked to explain again but trying to hide it, she huffed lightly, then plastered a patient look on her face and— … Huh. Showed him her stomach, beautiful and flat and golden and kissable, and he was stuck halfway in a fantasy about sticking his tongue into her navel when suddenly, a black seal flared to life across her perfect skin, the same one he'd seen years and years ago when he'd found her and her parents' bodies in the wreckage. The world tilted under his feet for a second, and it took a few blinks to stop seeing the village going up in flames instead of the training grounds, but he managed to catch the end of what she was saying about it. "—apparently does that any time I concentrate my chakra, but he punched me in the gut and changed the configuration or something like that. See how there are those little swirls in between the spiky parts? Those are new since the configuration changed and allowed the chakras to flow together or whatever."

"Can you draw on the fox's chakra freely?" he managed to make himself ask, disappointed as her sensei and relieved as someone who loved her when she shook her head with a little frown.

Naruto hummed, looking down at her hands and clenching them as she thought. "No, still only when I'm really scared and in danger, like when Jiraiya threw me off that cliff—" Wait, what? "—and I summoned that big warty jerk. It feels… I don't know, I felt it in the Wave, too, it feels like—" She paused, chewing on her lower lip. "Like he's stirring. The fox, I mean. Like he wakes up just enough to keep me from dying and then goes back to sleep. But I don't even know for sure if he's asleep, and I don't really get what makes me think so…"

Her blue gaze flickered up to him, clearly searching for insight and wisdom, but Kakashi had none to give her, so what he said was, "I have a terrible feeling that we're going to learn more. Let's play it by ear until then, okay?" Unable to contain his need to physically assure himself that she was safe, he reached out and smoothed his hand over the back of her head, melting a little at her soft, pleased sigh as she nodded her agreement. "Let's go home, Naruto."

…

Being with Kakashi again made Naruto feel like she was floating, like she was at the center of his universe and he at hers. The way he looked at her—like he needed to drink every bit of her in or he'd die—made her feel hot in the shells of her ears and low in her abdomen, made her feel giddy with the pleasure of receiving his attention. And after three weeks of Jiraiya mostly only ever half listening to her as she talked, it was refreshing to have someone hanging on to her every word as she told stories and expressed herself. She hadn't had any idea how badly she needed it until Kakashi gave it to her, without being asked and with no expectation of anything in return.

Nothing made her feel more wanted or more like she was a real person who mattered than being with her sensei.

They ended up on the couch, facing each other with their feet up on the cushions and their backs against the arms, having reached the point in their conversation in which anything and everything feels natural to say, so Naruto wasn't surprised by the sudden change in topic away from the fact that no, really, she'd never had sushi before a week or so ago. In a comfortable, short lull in their conversation, Kakashi sighed, draped his arm over the back of the couch, and said with a strong note of relief and a smile, "I'm so glad you aren't mad at your father. That was one of the main reasons I was afraid to break the taboo and tell you who he was. I was afraid you'd hate him."

Naruto blinked at him, unsure how to respond. She couldn't think of any reason to be upset at the Yondaime. He'd died the same day she was born, how could he have possibly done anything bad to her? Something like dread was gathering in her stomach as she forced out a nervous little, "Why… why would I be mad at him?"

Kakashi's eye widened, staring over her shoulder with that blank face/panicked eyes look he always got when a conversation didn't go the way he expected. He cleared his throat, straightened his posture, and pulled his legs into a crisscross position as he appeared to think over what he wanted to say. When at last he spoke, though, all he said was, "Jiraiya didn't tell you."

Naruto slowly drew her sprawled legs up to chest and wrapped her arms around them, setting her chin on her knees as she eyed her sensei warily. "Clearly not," she told him, prompting, and he cringed away from her just a little.

Twice, as he stared over her shoulder, his lips parted only for no sound to come out. Then his eye locked on hers and he lowered his voice into something gentle and soothing as he told her steadily, "Your mother was the village's previous host of the nine-tails. I don't know exactly why, but Minato chose you to have the fox sealed inside you. He is the one who made the decision to make you a jinchūriki."

Pain seared through her like fire, and Naruto let out a tiny noise of absolute anguish. She'd known that her father had performed the seal, but not that there had been other options. "He… he knew how people would treat me, didn't he?" she asked, hoping the answer was no, but Kakashi nodded his head with a mournful tilt to his mouth. "Why would he… why would he want to do that to his own daughter?"

With a helpless little shake of his head, her sensei shrugged. "You're the only one still alive who was there. We might never know for sure. But if I were to guess… I'd say it was because he believed in you. Given what Jiraiya said about your seal, I'd add that he believed you could be trusted with immense power. He loved you to pieces, you know that, don't you?" He paused, and she didn't answer, merely hiding her stinging eyes in her knees, so he pushed on, "He used to sing to you every night while Kushina was pregnant. He started way before you would have even had ears. He was so excited to be a father—to be your father. He and I set up your nursery together, and baby proofed the house together… He wanted everything to be perfect for when you came along. He told me he wanted your life to be… What was it? Ah, 'comfortable, safe, happy, and colorful.'"

"It's certainly colorful," Naruto intoned sardonically, rubbing at her eyes. "Real fuckin' colorful."

They sat in silence for a moment, and she used the pause in conversation to collect herself, dry her eyes and steady her breathing. She didn't like crying, especially in front of people, especially in front of Kakashi. A broad hand wrapping around her ankle startled her, but she allowed her leg to be pulled straight until her foot rested on Kakashi's crossed shins. She watched him, puzzled, as he removed her sock, held her foot between his palms, and dug his thumbs into her arch. She gasped and flinched at the unfamiliar sensation—nobody had ever touched her feet like that, and nobody had ever massaged any part of her body—her toes curling, and she was so focused on the new sensation that she was unprepared entirely for what Kakashi had to say.

His words were delicate, like he wasn't sure if what he was saying was okay. "You're pretty," he told her, his dark eye piercing and his voice soaked through with sincerity. "And wonderful."

Whiplashed by this sentiment, she wasn't prepared for the firm stroke pushed into her, smoothing across her arch to dig into the ball of her foot. She made a sound that made them both blush, and in her embarrassment, she rushed to fill the silence. "Nobody has ever touched me like that," she whispered, trying to keep the awe and pleasure out of her words as she stared at how small her appendage was in his hands.

"… D'you want me to stop?"

"Gods, no, I'm not stupid. Keep it up."

He laughed, and with a ticklish brush across her toes, she was giggling alongside him. Offering her one of his rakishly handsome broad smiles—so few and far apart—he agreed, pulling her other foot into his lap as he acknowledged with mock seriousness, "Of course. I'll grovel to your heart's content, princess."

Jiraiya had called Naruto his princess, exactly once, and earned a busted lip for his efforts. The same word on Kakashi's lips lit her face on fire and liquified her knees. All she was able to say was a breathy little, "Good," earning her an expression she didn't think she understood.