DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything from the Naruto universe. This is my Mito, though.

Thinking (+ flashbacks, "Mito speaking to Kurama in her mindscape," etc.)

Emphasis

Bijuu, etc. speaking

Bijuu, etc. thinking

Mito was awed. "You can really cook!"

Kakashi hummed and found that it was nice cooking for someone else. If she would just stop touching everything! He lightly smacked Mito's free hand with his spatula.

Mito made a sad, pouty noise and held a happy Bisuke even closer to her chest. She was sneaking him and Kakashi's other ninkens treats and what she could of his delicious-smelling food. There was a lot more than breakfast here. "Mou, I want to help."

"Mhm. And I would let you… but I don't want my poor excuse for a kitchen to burn down."

Insulting or not, Mito could understand that. "I'm not too bad about cooking outside, ya know."

Kakashi made a noncommittal sound but he had heard her say that before (although her kawaii tracking team implied that even in the field on missions, what Mito cooked wasn't great.) The kids also said that Tsume-san had helped Mito begin to stop turning meat into charred jerky, which he supposed was something. "So what's stopping you from doing the same indoors?"

Mito shrugged, not really wanting to get into how much her stove and kitchen appliances hated her. "How did you learn to cook so well?" Kakashi might not be as good as her great aunt Momo but he could still be a shinobi chef or something. He had more pans going than he had burners - don't ask her how, Mito was afraid if she did the accursed stove would realize its mortal enemy was near and turn on both of them - plus Kakashi's knife play/cutting and dicing was downright arousing. "Kakashi?"

"I initially learned by reading recipes, " he said, really drawling the last two words especially hard and chuckling at how pink Mito's cheeks turned. "We both know you can read, hime-sama."

"Yes, I can read - and stop calling me that," she breathed. "Or at least don't call me that around other people or da babies," she said, grinning apologetically at the now insulted ninkens under their feet. "I'm sorry." They were just so cute, though.

"I'm a warrior, not a baby," Bisuke growled. Now he wanted down, just when Kakashi finally brought a nice female to their den.

"You are - and no can do." Kakashi smiled again as he sent a pepper flying and sliced it up mid-air. He winked at her and lamented that Mito probably couldn't tell because his Sharingan was closed. He had his headband off both for comfort and because he had noticed several times how Mito would look almost longingly at how his insane hair fell over his forehead with it off. (He hoped that's what it was, anyway.)

"So mean. Anyway, I really have tried to follow recipes but… There just always seems to be something lacking." Kakashi looked amused but Mito was serious. She couldn't eat or one day serve bland things: why would she bother? (Aside from hunger or occasional boredom.) "Then there's the whole stove thing."

"Ah, yes. The haunted stove."

"I doubt it's haunted," Mito grumbled. "It has too much malice toward me not to be alive or sentient: it's so highly motivated."

"Uh-huh. Maa," Kakashi began but winced, wondering if he should continue. In a quieter voice, he did. "Your mother actually showed me a thing or two around the kitchen - giving me the confidence to cook again. Even to branch out from cookbooks." For a while, anyway.

"Really?" Mito asked.

Kakashi was glad that she was smiling although Mito's heterochromatic eyes looked a little misty. He guessed that her smile was reason enough for him to continue. "Yes. I know she tried to teach you, too."

Mito smiled, remembering her mother trying repeatedly - whenever she was home. Keyword being tried. "I was SO bad at it." She giggled just thinking about her Mom patiently trying to teach her when she was little - while Mom's hair crackled with chakra, proving that she was getting frustrated. "Ahhhh, but Mom was patient no matter how bad anything I touched turned out. When you were there with us, I… Well, I really wanted to learn so that she could get off her feet, ya know? But then again, knowing how I tended to unexpectedly explode or set things on fire in the kitchen, I was too worried about doing something wrong since she was pregnant and all." Kakashi was staring at her, his dark, open eye was pretty and accepting. "What did she teach you?"

Kakashi felt a slanted grin grow under his mask despite himself. Quickly, he looked back at the pans on the stovetop. Usually, he felt so much guilt when he thought about Kushina but with Mito here, it ended up not being so bad. "Mainly to trust my instincts - and my nose," he said, tapping the side of it. "She was big on 'fresh, subtle seasonings used together to make a big impact.'"

Mito hummed. "Maybe that's it. I've never been exactly subtle."

Kakashi nodded with a smirk, agreeing with her. "Subtle but interesting textures and great seasoning make the dish:" those were Kushina's words.

"...And I swear to all that is holy that if you swallow my amazing food whole again, Hatake, I'll prank you senseless, dattebane!"

He held out a large spoon with the sauce he was working on. "Try it."

Mito pulled her hair back on one side and leaned forward, her eyes going wide at the rich taste. "What did you do?!"

Kakashi would not admit how much feeding her pleased him. "I wonder. Although you have been watching. Maybe you need to be more observant and focused." Mito grumbled but leaned on him, wrapping a hand around his bicep. Kakashi felt his formerly cold heart start beating faster again. I am so fucked. "I only cook a few times a year," he admitted.

"Really? –I would've never guessed," Mito said quietly.

Kakashi looked down at her. Mito didn't seem to realize that she was rubbing almost like a cat pretending not to rub (cats are idiots, he thought;) only its whiskers on his arm. Cats Mito fortunately almost never smells like.

Tiny little whisker marks on the top of her cheeks!
So much cuter than bratty Naruto's.

She smells so nice. Kakashi needed a third or fourth mask when Mito was around or he was going to get himself into trouble. Maybe he should just put an old laundry bag over her head to give himself a break. I'd be down a laundry bag and at least one limb if I tried it.

"Do you cook for your girlfriends or something? Or boyfriends?"

"I'm straight." Kakashi frowned a bit - only because he was irritated at the reminder of how she thought he might be dating Gai of all people. The idea made him shudder. "I usually only cook on… my mother's birthday, my father's," he sighed, "and Kushina's." His mother may not ever have had a chance to cook for him but his father told him that she had taught him how to cook; his father had supposedly been terrible at it before she schooled him after finding out she was pregnant. Kakashi's eyes widened when he felt Mito kiss his shoulder.

Kakashi had a hunch that whatever had gone down between Mito and that Chiriku asshole had caused her to be more careful... How quickly would I go to hell for killing a monk?

Reminding himself not to rush things - not that he was that kind of guy - he sighed and decided to tease her. "Hime-sama's wondering about my girlfriends, hmm?"

"What?!" Mito stood up straight, realizing what she'd done. Internally, she was raging! Can you not just KEEP YOUR LIPS TO YOURSELF, NAMIKAZE?! She looked away, knowing her face was on fire. "You wish!"

"HiMe-SaMa gave me a kiiiiss," he sang in a deep, mocking voice. She's so easy to rile up.

"Sh- shut up, you! I wasn't thinking! I was just… really moved by what you said!'

"Maa, maa! Hime-sama Doesn't Ask Permission."

"Kakashi! –Oh, my God. …I am SO sorry!" Kakashi began chuckling at her reaction and even snorting while at it. It wouldn't be until later that she realized how charming (and of course, how doofy) that was. "You- you -you dork." Mito's eyes went wide when he leaned over and pressed a masked kiss to the top of her head.

And then he just went back to cooking! The top of his ear she could see was quite pink, though. She was positive her face was far redder. "You tease me too much. …What am I going to do with you?"

Kakashi smirked at her. "For now? Just enjoy what I've made." Mito nodded and licked - and then bit at - her bottom lip nervously. She really needs to stop doing that! "Maa, then you can do the dishes and clean my kitchen."

Mito huffed. "I was going to offer to help with the dishes."

"I thought I'd better be sure. …If you do a good job, I'll even let you… scrub my bathroom!"

Mito rolled her eyes but couldn't help it. She ducked her head, snickering. Of all the stupid things to say. "I'll be sure to throw a cherry bomb down your toilet while I'm at it."

Both of Kakashi's eyes went wide, looking concerned that she would really do it. Mito laughed: she wasn't even sure it would work and she definitely wouldn't do that to a friend. "All this food: it's like a Kaiseki."

"Maa, you are a bit of a pig so I figured we'd need it."

"You are so rude! Hey, we should do this with sashimi sometime!"

"Hmm. Hime-sama assumes I'll cook for her again," Kakashi fake-grumbled

Mito grinned: Pakkun had finally gotten close enough again to grab him so she could smooch his wee-widdle-wrinkwy face. He snatched a piece of chicken and immediately dispelled, making her pout. "My mother's birthday is coming up, so yeah! You know what? Before then, you can come to Uzushio with me! We'll go surfing and have fun at the beach and we can catch some good fish; seal them up and slice and dice," she said mimicking what she'd do if her hands were knives.

"Just us?" Kakashi asked. Was she giving him a chance or even asking him out? Probably not. Mito was a cunning kunoichi who could be ridiculously oblivious about personal things.

Mito tilted her head, thinking about it. "We can bring Asuma and Kurenai…"

The grin under Kakashi's mask had a lot of teeth. "Hime-sama thinks we're dating."

"Ee-eP! Shut up! You wish AGAIN. No, I also need to bring Tenzo."

Kakashi gave her a dry look; he thought she was over him. "Oh, hell no."

"Not to perve on," she exclaimed and then realized that she definitely would. She may have finally given up on Tenzo but he was cute and foine. "Anyway you LOVE Tenzo. No, I need him to look at a building."

And so, for the rest of the morning and into the afternoon, Mito and Kakashi discussed what surfing entailed again and her plan to seal an Uzushio building up and turn it into a museum in Konoha. Kakashi had some great ideas for having vendors on the ground floor and creating a gift shop to help fund it…

As soon Minato had signaled for the rest of his guard to leave, he gave Genma a nod, wondering why he wanted to speak to him in private. "What can I do for you, Gen?"

Genma took a deep breath and stood up a little straighter. "I would like your permission to ask Mito-hime out… On a date. Or to date her, period."

Minato went back to his paperwork - or tried to look like he was concentrating on it, anyway. "I thought you two were dating," he muttered. That was an absolute lie. Unlike what seemed like the rest of Konoha's female populace, Minato wasn't sure that Mito was attracted to Genma - but he wanted to see how the man would react.

Genma grimaced. "I've taken her out for ramen a few times…"

"At least 13 times." –And that was when Minato stopped counting. Genma apparently needed to know that the Hokage knew what was going on in his village. "I understand she almost always pays for her ramen, herself." He allowed those words to uncomfortably sink in. "Hmm. That's no way to treat my daughter."

Genma re-schooled his shocked features even though his Hokage wasn't looking at him. He felt Minato's chakra all over him, searching for deceit. "All those times, I've never intended for her to pay. …She just gets up and flashes off so quickly!"

Minato hummed and then looked up and gave Genma an understanding smile. "Well, she is quite proficient with the Hiraishin. …Tsk. Running off so quickly, though: it almost sounds like she doesn't want to be with you." Genma turned white and Minato almost broke: laughing at him. He was too good of a ninja for that, though: no matter how much fun this was. "Thank you, Genma. Send everyone else in, won't you?"

Tenzo was so disappointed in his senpai. Why was Kakashi standing on a floating kiddie paddleboard? "How is this training?"

Kakashi gave him an eye smile. "We're working on your water jutsus."

In return, Tenzo gave Kakashi a look. "I mastered water almost two decades ago."

Kakashi was not going to make a fool out of himself in Uzushio, in front of Mito, more than he normally did. "Yare, yare. Just push me around. Then I'll do you."

"He'll do you," Yugao snickered from behind her book. Tenzo and Kakashi didn't even look at her. She sighed, disappointed in herself: that was normally the kind of thing they said to her! How many times did she hear "That's what she said" when they were all teamed together? "I've seen Mei-sama and Mito surf, Taicho; I'm not sure you can recreate what goes on in the ocean in a pond. They made it look fairly easy but Mito-chan said it was hard at first."

"We can try." Kakashi felt that was reasonable. Tenzo surprised him with a hurricane-like water jutsu that sent him and the paddleboard flying.

Later -

Minato uncomfortably smiled down at his kneeling daughter, whom he'd requested through a seal. Mito was in her Fox mask - grrr - and had been training with ANBU again. She'd also run a couple of missions with them, just to escort decent nobles who would pay almost too highly to be guarded by his family. "Report, Fox."

Mito looked up at him and tilted her head. "About what?"

Minato snorted. Mito was so much like her mother: Kushina understood formalities and decorum but never cared for them. "At ease." Mito stood up and he came around and sat on the edge of his desk, closer to her. Although she was in uniform (and looked as if she had boring brown hair,) he wanted to give her a hug and wished that things weren't in any way complicated between them. "How are you enjoying your training with ANBU?"

"It's good! People are afraid of me so that means they're extra careful not to get hurt." She heard Kakashi snicker from the rafters and gave him a thumbs-up. He knew that she was being honest: even he had been extra careful lately while they'd run diplomatic escort missions within Fire Country together for the past week. He'd be so much better off with a new eye.

Minato glanced upward, too, wondering how Kakashi, especially, would react to what he was about to say. He had a strong feeling of exactly how Mito would.

He smiled: Step One.

"So. Genma-kun requested a private audience; to ask permission to date you." He noted Kakashi didn't outwardly react. That was good.

Mito, on the other hand, reared back as if struck. Her hair began rising. She put one hand on her hip and waved her hand in the air back and forth in sharp motions, snapping her fingers, and getting very sassy about it as she even twisted her hips and shoulder this way and that. "I Don't. Need. PERMISSION To. Do. Jack. Shit."

"Well, I wouldn't go that far," Minato chuckled although he tried not to. His daughter was in the military after all. Mito was grumbling absolutely horrible curses about Genma and had pulled out her trusty prank journal. "Awwww! Mito-chan's so kawaii!" Mito looked up at him in horror but Minato couldn't stand it.

Plus this was the beginning of Step Two! It hadn't started that way but would still work. She WAS so cute, still carrying around a prank journal!

Minato sniffled. "Naruto's not home - and I'm all alone and… Mito-chan, give Daddy a hug!"

Mito didn't realize she reflexively hissed at him. "Gross," she mumbled, all hunched down and horribly embarrassed. The other two ANBUs in the office were openly snorting at her expense. She took off her mask and inched forward, finally opening her arms, and was nearly knocked down by her father. "Please don't call yourself that."

The other guards sunshinned away. "Are you alright?" she whispered. Her father obviously wasn't.

Either that or he's playing some kind of Daddy (blek) Knows Best Game.

Something about calling her father "Daddy" had never sat right with Mito. Yuck.

Minato nodded and wiped away his real tears but kept one arm wound around her shoulders. "Maybe we should go see Naruto, eh?"

Mito smiled at him genuinely. "I'd like that very much." She looked back at his desk and grimaced. "Do you really have time?"

"Hmm. I guess I need to make time."

Mito was very serious when she said "Yes. You do."

Mito wasn't sure what Jiraiya had been doing with Sora and Naruto other than chakra control and some taijutsu stuff. Now that they were all together, Mito wasn't surprised that after their discussion over dinner in the mess hall, Minato had gone off with Jiraiya. She understood that her godfather probably needed to report. "So guys, how goes the training? Really?"

"It's okay," the boys both said at once and then looked at each other.

"Really?" Mito asked because… Well, maybe they were holding back on what they'd talked about. It didn't sound like they'd gotten an awful lot done. They'd been here for a while.

"We've been working on water jutsus," Sora mentioned.

"And other ones," Naruto added, wrinkling his nose. "Just D and E-ranked stuff."

Mito's eyes narrowed and Sora figured he'd better explain fast. "Stuff we need, though! Like summoning, medical ninjutsu - and fire jutsus, to um… you know."

But Jiraiya's crap with medical ninjutsu; you two could get so much better training in that type of thing in Konoha! "Destroy evidence and such with the fire techniques," Mito guessed. And bodies…

"Right," Naruto huffed.

Mito smiled at him, amazed at how growing his hair longer made Naruto look even more like their father somehow. Oh, their mom's features were certainly there but Naruto's face was beginning to slim down; he was growing up. It made Mito want to throw a fit. "Do you feel your time's being used well?"

"We've been working on sealing, too," Sora said. "I'm terrible at it."

"You're fine," Naruto tried to assure him. "I mean, your barriers are better than mine it's just that your calligraphy's not great."

"I'm trying!"

"I know," Naruto smiled. "Anyway, um… Can you keep a secret?" Mito nodded, eager to hear something juicy. "We went to Wave and saw Inari and his family. Wave's doing great!"

"Plus we're going to Suna soon," Sora grinned. "We're supposed to meet the Kazekage placeholder."

"Placeholder?" Mito asked herself more than the boys. Is that what they're calling Temari? " Who's going to be Kazekage?" Both boys zipped their lips making her hold back a snort. "Okay, okay. You don't have to tell me." She saw her father and godfather returning and her father looked anxious to leave already. Granted, he'd stopped by to see Naruto a few times since he'd been gone but Mito had only come to visit her otouto once during that period. "Do you guys still have my kunai, to call on me if you need me?" Both boys nodded, Naruto rolling his eyes. "Okay. Well, it looks like Tou-san wants to leave but how about if I stay and teach you guys a cool jutsu?"

"YES!"

"Oh, and sensei: don't tell Hokage-sama about our little trips, okay?" Sora whispered. They were supposed to visit the Fire Temple too, soon. Sora missed his friends.

"As long as you're careful and keep one of my kunais with you, 24/7." Mito needed to talk to Jiraiya, though.

While the boys slept, Mito sat down in front of a fire with her godfather. "Do you think those missing kids are here?"

Jiraiya grimaced and shook his head. "No. Not most of them anyway but between the two of us… I think Sarutobi's onto something - something more, I mean." Mito nodded, not looking surprised. "I think there are other kids that have been recruited into something: ones not on the books." He'd been more focused on training the boys and keeping his contacts safe and on the move as he monitored the Akatsuki and other threats from afar, however.

"Something that Tou-san controls or does not?"

Jiraiya took a long sip of his hot tea as their eyes remained locked on one another's. "He's Hokage."

"I am aware. What I'm wondering is whether he has a separate division of something like ANBU that he keeps off the books - something that maybe the clan heads don't know about, even. OR if he's got someone undermining him."

Jiraiya raised his eyebrows at her. "You know how the shinobi world is, Mito."

"That's not really an answer," Mito smiled in a melancholy way. "Jiraiya, I want to be put on that mission to get those kids back."

Jiraiya laughed. "That's gonna take some time and a LOT of preparation." He thought that Mito was perfect for the job, too. She just needed more infiltration experience, which he planned to begin shortly. He figured that when her term as ambassador ended, they might be nearly ready to retrieve their people - if they were lucky. "I do have a mission for you: when you're back in Kiri."

"Oh?"

"I've got a guy who will meet you. He's not in the regular Kiri forces but he fought in their civil war."

Mito perked up. "Really?"

"Mmhm," Jiraiya hummed, trying not to grin. He knew Mito well. He also knew the author of that Sea of Love series she was so fond of - and of the man who inspired it. "He's a pirate."

Mito's eyes popped out of her head. Oh boy! Yes, Mei may have implied that pirates weren't "suitable husbands" but Mito wasn't planning on getting married and she was positive that Jiraiya wouldn't send her to some bloodthirsty ghoul like some of those guys at the end of the war.

"How do you feel about infiltrating the Kiri navy for me, kid? Mizukage-sama's in on it. It'll only be for around a week."

Mito took a deep breath and tried to keep her voice composed and even. "Yes. I think um... I could do that."