Guy decided to leave as Kakashi brought Kumiko to the bakery. When he asked Kumiko what kind of cake she wanted, she took a moment to look at the ones displayed before pointing at the chocolate cake.

Once they had the food, they went to sit at one of the tables outside. The table was round, and had four chairs around it. Kakashi had to help the girl onto the chair because she was still a bit too short to manage on her own. Kumiko ended up sitting in the chair beside Kakashi's chair because, even though she was eating, she still refused to let go of Kakashi. She held his shirt's sleeve with her left hand as she ate with her right hand.

Once she was seated, Kumiko scooped a small bite of cake onto her fork, and almost seemed hesitant yet excited to try it. When she ate the bite of cake, her face lit up with a bright smile, as if she had never had such good food before. Though, Kakashi supposes that even if she had, she probably just didn't remember it.

Kakashi had to admit that, although he didn't want to be the one responsible for looking after this child, seeing her bright smile warmed his heart. It was such a genuinely happy smile, the smile of a child experiencing some of the good things in this world for the first time. It made Kakashi wonder if she had ever experienced these small joys before she lost her memory, because if she did, it certainly didn't seem like it right now.

As Kumiko continued eating, two familiar faces approached. "Hey Kakashi-sensei." The rounder of the two greeted.

When they noticed Kumiko, the two looked at her curiously, and probably confused, for a moment. "Who's the kid?" The lazier one asked. Both Shikamaru and Chouji were curious to hear the answer.

"We found her outside of Konoha, and she has amnesia." Kakashi explained. The answer made enough sense to the two. But…

"Why are you the one looking after her?" Shikamaru asked.

In response, Kakashi held up the arm that Kumiko was holding on to, showing the two that the girl was attached to him. The two understood what the answer was.

Not long after, the two excused themselves as they continued on their way to meet up with Ino since their team had been assigned a new mission.

"Hey, did you guys hear about the kid following Kakashi-sensei?" Ino asked the two.

"We ran into them on our way here." Shikamaru answered.

"I was surprised when I saw them. At first I thought it was Kakashi-sensei's kid. I wonder why she chose to cling to him, though. She wouldn't even let me cut her hair for her without him there."

"Cut her hair?" Chouji asked.

"Yeah. Her hair was a bit burnt, so I offered to cut it." Ino responded. "Anyway, are we sure he's the best person to be looking after a child?"

"I'm sure it will be fine. Why wouldn't he be able to look after a child?" Chouji responded. Shikamaru found himself agreeing with Ino's concern. To him, Kakashi didn't seem like the type to be good at taking care of children. But who knows? The Hokage seems to trust him…

When Kumiko finished eating, they resumed their walking while Kakashi thought of what the next step would be. What else does he have to get for her? What else do they have to do? And what should be next?

Though, it seemed that he didn't have to think too much since it wasn't long until Kakashi noticed that Kumiko was walking slower, and seemingly less balanced. When he looked to see if she was okay, he saw that she seemed quite tired.

"Are you tired again?" He asked the girl. She looked up at him for a moment before responding with a nod, as if it took longer to process his question, which further proved to him how tired she must be. She's been sleeping a lot in the short time he's known her, and it almost concerns him. Why is she so tired? Is this normal for her?

Her exhaustion was a sign to Kakashi that he should bring her home to sleep for now. Noticing the tired way in which she was walking, Kakashi stopped, then offered to carry her on his back. And now, he's walking back to his apartment while carrying a sleeping Kumiko.

When he got to his apartment, he started setting up a pillow and blanket on the couch before gently letting the sleeping child down so she could lay down. Kumiko was sound asleep.

She didn't wake up until the next morning. When she woke up, the apartment was flooded with the smell of breakfast. She sat up, curious at the scent of unfamiliar food. "Awake, Kumiko-chan?" Kakashi asked once he walked into the room and saw the girl sitting. In response, Kumiko nodded. Kakashi almost smiled at how adorable it was that she felt the need to answer the question so honestly, as if he wouldn't actually know the answer until she responded, even though he did.

"In that case, you should come eat breakfast." Kakashi told her. The girl got up from the couch and headed to the table where Kakashi was setting down plates with a simple breakfast of toast, eggs and bacon. Kumiko didn't get to eat supper last night, so Kakashi was sure to make a fair amount of food for breakfast since she's probably hungry now. All she had yesterday was a piece of cake.

He had to once again help Kumiko on the chair, since the chairs at his place were just a bit too tall for her to manage on her own.

As expected, Kumiko seemed to be hungry as she was easily able to finish all the food on her plate. Kakashi quickly finished his own food before putting the plates in the kitchen then returning to where Kumiko was sitting.

"I have to go meet with my team for training this morning." He told her. Before he could choose to say anything else, Kumiko had already gotten up and walked over to grab the sleeve of his shirt again. He honestly should have expected that reaction…

"I take it that means you want to come?" He asked and the girl nodded, not wanting to be left alone, and not wanting to be separated from Kakashi. He brought her with him to meet with his team. For once, he was actually almost on time! He was only a few minutes late, and that's because he didn't realise how much slower he had to walk when he was with Kumiko.

His team was shocked when they saw him. Kakashi was (essentially) on time. That wasn't something that just happened everyday! Sakura was the first to notice Kumiko with Kakashi.

"Hello Kumiko-chan." She greeted the girl with a smile. This caught Naruto and Sai's attention.

"Kumiko? Is that that girl's name?" Naruto asked. "And why is she following Kakashi-sensei?"

"She has amnesia so Kakashi-sensei is taking care of her." Sakura explained. She then crouched to be closer to Kumiko's height as she took out something from a bag she had been carrying. "Anyway, Kumiko-chan, here." She said as she offered the stuffed bunny to Kumiko.

Kumiko hesitated, though mostly out of curiosity, before she reached out with her spare hand to accept the bunny. "Don't forget to thank Sakura." Kakashi reminded the silent girl. She looked up at him, the same look of confusion and unknowingness he'd seen when he mentioned the word 'cake' for the first time.

Kumiko tilted her head slightly in confusion. "Thank?" She asked. The group was a bit confused for a moment, until Sakura thought of something and spoke up, though still in thought.

"She is still young, so maybe it's possible that her amnesia caused her to forget about manners and stuff." Sakura suggested, before returning her attention to Kumiko to speak to her. "Kumiko-chan, when someone does something nice for you, you say 'thank you' to show them you appreciate it." She explained.

The girl silently processed the explanation then smiled at Sakura. "Thank you Sakura-Oneesan." It was the absolute cutest thing Sakura remembers having ever seen, and it just warmed her heart. She couldn't help but give the adorable girl a hug before deciding to stand up again.

"Well, I know I'm the one who arranged for us to train today, but I can't really do much to help. You guys can train with each other without me, and I'll supervise." Kakashi told his team.

"What? Why can't you help?" Naruto asked, somewhat complaining, somewhat curious.

Kakashi slightly lifted his arm that Kumiko was still holding onto as he answered. "I doubt she'll let me." It wasn't that the girl was trying to stop him, he knew, but it was a consequence of her being clingy. He can't actively try to help them train if he has a child attached to his arm, after all.

"Has she been stuck to you the whole time since yesterday?" Sakura asked. Kakashi nodded.

"Except for when she fell asleep."

It wasn't until Tsunade was trying to decide which team to send on the new B-rank mission she'd received that she remembered the "probably not important" thing she'd forgotten the previous day. And it almost amazes her that she could overlook such a thing.

If Kakashi has a child stuck to him, he can't go on missions, especially ones as potentially dangerous as a B-rank! And naturally, anything ranked higher was also out of the question! It would put the girl in danger if she followed, but seeing as she didn't seem to want to be separated from Kakashi before, Tsunade doubts she'd be okay if he was to leave the village for missions that could take anywhere from a day to weeks.

It's not too big of an issue for now, since she can send 'Yamato' to lead Team Kakashi in his absence, but she can't leave it like that forever. Kakashi is one of the more skilled shinobi in the village, so not being able to send him on missions for god knows how long while they try to help Kumiko regain her memories would be disadvantageous.

And besides, shinobi make their money by going on missions, so Kakashi would probably eventually run out of money if he was kept away from missions for too long, especially with an extra person to take care of. All the more reason Tsunade has to try to figure something out. Even though it would take a long time for him to actually run out of money, so this wasn't actually a major concern to her. She wondered if it would be what bothers Kakashi, though.

She could choose to send the team on easier missions, or missions where it would be easy enough to protect Kumiko while still doing their job, but then Tsunade would have one less team to tackle the more difficult missions. Also, she wasn't sure the rest of his team would be very happy about having lower ranked missions all of a sudden.

Even though having Kumiko stay with Kakashi might have been a good idea for the girl's emotional state, Tsunade just wishes she'd thought about this sooner. At the very least, she could have found a way to try to convince Kumiko to attach herself to someone else before it was too late. By this point, Tsunade doubts Kumiko would be willing to change her mind about who she feels most comfortable around, especially with her seemingly clingy nature.

Tsunade would have to think of a solution, but she decided that she'll worry about it later. For now, she'll just have to arrange for Yamato to lead Kakashi's team on their next mission. Who knows? Maybe the problem will just resolve itself.

When it became time for lunch, Kakashi's team decided they would all go and eat together. And of course, with their ramen-obsessed blond teammate, they went to Ichiraku's.

It was Kumiko's first time trying ramen, or at the very least the first time she can remember, which isn't really saying much. The young girl didn't even know how to hold the chopsticks properly, but once she managed to be able to use them well enough to manage, the girl happily ate the bowl of ramen she had been given. From the smile Kumiko wore on her face as she ate, Kakashi can guess that she liked it.

Somehow, his team managed to get him to pay for everyone, saying something about how 'if he wasn't going to help them train, then he should at least pay for their lunch'. He just didn't feel like trying to fight it this time.

When they returned to the training grounds to continue their training, Kumiko and Kakashi went to sit off to the side, by the trees. It didn't take very long for Kumiko to fall asleep, as she had that morning as well. She sleeps a lot. Once again, Kakashi almost finds himself concerned, wondering if this is normal. Sure, some kids like to sleep quite a lot, but not this much. At least, he doesn't think.

But if something was wrong with her, he's sure that it would have been noticed yesterday when she was in the hospital. Surely. Who knows? Maybe this is just a consequence of the amnesia. Since Kumiko is so young, there's a lot that she has to relearn about the world, so maybe the sleep is her brain's way of trying to keep up with all of the information?

The next time Kumiko was awake was when training had already ended, and it was time for them to eat supper. Kakashi had decided to just try to make something himself rather than find somewhere to go.

When they were eating, Kakashi noticed just how much Kumiko seemed to eat. It's not an unbelievable amount, but for someone so tiny, it's quite a lot of food. This isn't much of a problem though. He just takes note of it to make sure he's not giving her too little food in the future.

Kumiko went to sleep that night holding the stuffed bunny Sakura had given her. Even if only a bit, it seemed to make Kumiko seem more peaceful as she slept.

The next day, Kakashi's team was called for a mission, excluding him. He understood why he wasn't called, since it had been something that had crossed his mind previously. He can't go on any missions while Kumiko insists on sticking to him. It would be fine though. He can go back to going on missions once they find a way to recover Kumiko's memory and send her home.

As the week passed with his team gone on their somewhat long mission, nothing very eventful happened in Kakashi's life. He just spent the time with Kumiko, seeing as there wasn't much else he could do with her clinging to him.

Throughout the week, the girl tried various new foods. It was always obvious whenever she really liked a particular food because her smile gave it away. Such a bright, happy smile whenever she found something she liked. So far, Kakashi has yet to find a food that she dislikes. He finds himself being glad that she doesn't seem to be a picky eater.

Nothing to note happened during the week until the sixth night since his team had left. Kumiko fell asleep early that day, as she usually does, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

Not until around midnight, when Kakashi was sleeping, and a scream could be heard from the other room. Kakashi reacted quickly, as would be expected of a shinobi of his level. He ran straight to the room where Kumiko was supposed to be sleeping. He wasn't sure what he expected to see, but it wasn't much.

Kumiko was sitting up, her breath slightly heavy as if she had been terrified. When Kakashi didn't see anything wrong with the room, nor sense any other presences, it took him a moment to realise what was wrong. It was likely that Kumiko had had a nightmare.

He decided to go sit on the couch with her, on the other end of the couch near where her feet were still covered under the blanket he'd covered her with once she had fallen asleep. He was about to reach out a hand to try to help calm the girl, but he didn't reach her before she launched herself in his direction. Her tiny hands gripped the fabric of Kakashi's shirt while she cried into his shirt, and Kakashi realised she was trembling. For a moment, he wasn't sure how to react.

Eventually, he brought back the hand he had initially reached out to pet the girl's hair in a calming way to help reassure her that everything was alright. He wasn't sure what kind of dream had the girl so terribly terrified, but it must have been awful.

She just cried for a while, and Kakashi didn't dare move. Eventually, the girl finally went quiet and her breathing returned to being calm, which was an indication that she'd managed to fall back asleep. She was still attached to Kakashi though, and he didn't want to risk waking her up again, so he decided to stay there. Eventually, he fell asleep as well.

When Kumiko woke up the next morning, she was laying down again, covered up to her shoulders with the blanket and with her bunny sitting beside her. She grabbed the bunny and hugged it for a while, appreciating the mild sense of comfort the hug gave her.

Not too long after, she decided to get up. Not long after she approached the table, Kakashi walked back into the room and noticed her. "Good morning Kumiko-chan." He greeted then helped the girl up to one of the chairs as he asked: "Have you ever tried pancakes?"

Kumiko looked at him for a moment to process the question then shook her head. It's likely, Kakashi realises, that she once again doesn't know what he's talking about. "Is that some kind of cake?" She asked curiously. Kakashi was glad to see her still acting as her usual self.

"Not quite. It's a bit different." Kakashi answered as he returned to the kitchen to grab the food to bring it to the table. Kumiko was excited to try the new food, especially because it had 'cake' in its name. Cake, after all, was her favourite food so far.

Kakashi sat down as he watched Kumiko take her first bite, her eyes lighting up in the way that proved that she really liked the food. But when Kakashi looked at the girl's bright blue eyes, he couldn't help but remember the terror and tears that had clouded them the night before. It almost hurt to think about it, but why? It was just a nightmare. It's not like something bad actually happened.

But it was the first time he'd seen such an emotion in the girl's eyes. Even when she had woken up in the Konoha hospital when they'd first found her, her eyes were filled more with confusion than anything. Seeing such fear in her eyes reminded Kakashi that she was still just a child who had likely gone through something that could have been traumatic if she'd been able to remember it. He was reminded of just how human she was.

And it was unpleasant to realise that she would feel negative emotions too, just as the others around him did. But seeing someone who smiles brightly at learning about the world around her, the girl whose whole face lights up when she eats yummy food… seeing that same child so fearful was almost painful. But since when did Kakashi start caring so much? She was just a random child who chose to stick to him, who made it difficult for him to train with his team or go on missions, who he would happily return back to her home once she remembered where that was.

Once he'd finished eating, and once Kumiko finished eating, Kakashi thought of something. "Hey Kumiko-chan, the others are supposed to come back today. Do you want to go see them?" He asked. The girl smiled and nodded as she got up from her chair, then proceeded to run over to Kakashi and grab the sleeve of his shirt, as she normally does. He finds that he's so used to it by now, after having had to go through this for a week already, that he doesn't really mind.

He led the girl to the area near the Hokage tower where his team would surely be giving their report about the mission to Tsunade. The timing ended up being perfect since, just as the two got close, Kakashi's team and their substitute leader had just recently left.

Kakashi waved to his team as he approached them. "How was the mission?" He asked.

"Booooring." Naruto answered, his tone highlighting just how boring he thought it was.

"The only reason it was ranked so high for a simple escort mission is because the person was rich. The biggest problem we encountered on this mission was our client not paying attention and falling into the river." Sakura responded, sounding just as unenthusiastic about their mission as Naruto had.

When Sakura noticed Kumiko, the pink haired girl smiled. "Hi Kumiko-chan." She greeted. Kumiko smiled and waved in response.

"Is this the kid I heard about?" Yamato asked when he noticed Kumiko. Sakura nodded.

"That's Kumiko-chan, the girl who's stuck to Kakashi like glue." Sakura introduced her to their substitute leader.

Not long after, they ended up deciding to go eat lunch. Since he ate breakfast so late, Kakashi ended up not having lunch, but Kumiko gladly ate a bowl of ramen, as if she hadn't just eaten less than an hour before. Kakashi realised that the girl seemed to be eating more recently.

Shortly after they all finished eating and left, Kumiko nearly fell asleep as they walked. When Kakashi ended up carrying her, she fell asleep almost instantly. He's fairly used to her randomly getting tired while walking, so it wasn't an issue. But he noticed she also seemed to be getting tired more frequently. As days passed, she would be sleeping for more and more of the day. It was starting to get a bit concerning.

Author's Note:

I had the second chapter ready before I posted the first, so I might as well post it right after! I mostly just wanted to show a few people's reactions to seeing Kumiko with Kakashi in this chapter, as well as try to show a bit about how Kakashi feels about Kumiko. The next chapter will be introducing something important to the plot, though it's still just an introduction to it. It won't be explained until later. Sorry. If anyone has any feedback or suggestions, either about the chapter itself or about ideas for the future of the story, please let me know! Thank you for taking the time to read all the way to the end of chapter 2! Hopefully I won't take too long to write chapter 3, and I hope you all enjoy it!