Haruhi clutched the pocket inside worriedly.

Their day off had passed and she and Kakashi were heading, (two hours late) to team seven's meeting place on the bridge. Haruhi wasn't in the habit of biting her nails but if she was they'd be stubs by now. She had actually wanted to wait longer but Kakashi actually insisted on leaving a bit earlier than their normal three hours. It was like he wanted her to confront the students or something.

"Oh Haruhi, I forgot to tell you. The Hokage has declassified you."

"...What?"

"Well, you weren't a very well kept secret in the first place, but now that you'll be staying here longer you can be out in the open." He said before adding quickly "That is only if you want to of course."

"Oh."

That was nice but she had more important things to worry about. Like what the genin would say. She squealed at the thought and covered her ears, ignoring Kakashi's bemused look.

They were in the forest now and the bridge was just up ahead. Distantly she could hear Sakura yelling at Sasuke and Naruto, telling both of them to knock it off. Kakashi stepped over the top of the hill and they quieted like someone hit the mute button.

She shrank down into the pocket and curled up at the bottom, too worried to actually look out of her peep hole. Speaking of which, she'd found the floss cutter while moving all her stuff around the other day. It had been a pleasant surprise when she had found it, but was only able to perk up her mood for a little bit.

Kakashi went on to explain they should go and see what missions were available and the three nodded before descending into silence.

"Where's Haruhi-sensei?" Naruto asked(demanded).

She sunk even lower. She should just face them already but apprehension was grabbing her gut and twisting it. She had to get out before Kakashi pulled her-

"She will speak when she wants."

Wow okay.

But Haruhi felt...cowardly curled up at the bottom of Kakashi's pocket- especially when he was defending her like that. So she took a deep breath and hauled herself up. She was done hiding.

"Haruhi-sensei!" Sakura and Naruto shouted before falling into a nervous silence. Sasuke dug his hands in his pockets, Sakura put her hand to her mouth and Naruto flailed around.

...Were they just as worried as she was?

Barely daring to hope, Haruhi cracked a small, shy smile.

The tenseness melted from their frames and Naruto burst out bawling.

"We're s-sorry, Haruhi-sensei!" Naruto wailed.

Haruhi was blown away. She expected them to be mad, not relieved to the point of tears. Naruto was making grabby hands at her as she was on Kakashi's shoulder and she decided to comply, jumping down as he pulled himself together.

"I'm sorry too. I didn't think I was such a big deal." Haruhi ran a hand through her now damp hair from Naruto.

"But Haruhi sensei, you promised you'd help." Sakura pouted. Naruto sputtered some gibberish.

Yeah, she did do that.

"You're a part of team seven! You're important!" He sniffled. Sasuke gave a jerk of his head that might have been a nod.

Since when did that happen!? She was expecting emotions to run high, but not this whiplash! She guessed it didn't matter anymore, considering she would be here for a while longer by the looks of it. She hadn't heard a peep about the chunin exams and Jiraiya only came back after the forest of death. She had months to go and doing what she was doing before would be pointless. She had already failed miserably at trying not to change the plot.

"A mission! Let's go!" Naruto shouted. Haruhi jumped over to Sakura to Kakashi's disappointment, and with everyone in a much better mood they made their way to the mission desk; Haruhi standing proudly on Sakura's shoulder. She started to have second thoughts as soon as they made their way through town towards the tower. At first nobody noticed, but when they did, they exclaimed loudly and pointed.

"What is that?"

"Look as his shoulder!"

Because he made her feel safe, she'd jumped on Kakashi's shoulder and hid behind the green ruff by kneeling on his clavicle. He seemed not to mind. News traveled fast and by the time they reached the tower people were blatantly stopping and staring.

They walked in and the desk chunin stood up behind their desks, but seeing her with the copy nin had them sitting down again. Whispers and stares followed them and her face was a bright cherry red by the time they got to the mission room,where Iruka gasped in shock. She blushed and waved.

Iruka waved back, in a sort of shell shocked way.

The Hokage was smiling (smugly?) as he smoked his pipe.

"Team seven successfully completes an A-rank mission and is back only after a day of rest." He stated. The genin shimmied with repressed energy.

"Yeah yeah! Give us another mission old man!"

"Hmm..."

"C'mon!"

"It's standard to have at least a week of rest after this high of an A ranking mission."

"We already rested after we defeated Zabuza!" Naruto yelled.

The Hokage kept up his thoughtful expression.

"Well, then the five of you can get acquainted-"

"Huh?" Said everybody, except Naruto as he didn't know what that word meant.

"-With your newest team member. "

The Hokage signaled somebody with a wave of his hand and they waited with baited breath as they went to go get the newest teammate. Haruhi had an inkling as to who is could be but she didn't want to get her hopes up...

Naruto screamed.

"HAKU!" He cried, jumping the poor kid. Haruhi grinned as the other two greeted Haku a bit more gently, Sasuke almost in fact completely ignoring him. The kid seemed to be doing a lot better, burns completely healed with a bit of scar tissue on his face and, she realized with a jolt of guilt, on his hand.

"Kakashi, isn't this great?" She breathed excitedly in his ear. He nodded.

"Team seven's official mission of today is to relax and show Haku Konoha. There is an initiation period for everyone entering Konoha and he will be spending that time with you." Lord Third leaned back, smoking his pipe contentedly.

And with Iruka still gawking at her, they turned and walked out of the Hokage's office. The grin slid off her face, all the nin still gawking at her. She supposed it was a good thing as it took the spotlight off of Haku but the pointing was annoying. None of the nin dared approach her when Kakashi was right there, so she got off the hook.

That is, until they got outside.

A crowd of curious onlookers had amassed in front of the tower- all whispering and pointing and Haruhi flushed. When they spotted her some squealed in excitement and started walking up to Kakashi. This was a crowd of civilians who wouldn't be intimidated by Kakashi's rep. Wide-eyed, she didn't know what to do.

"So cute~" A woman cooed.

"Do you think he'll let us hold her?" Whispered one loudly to his friend.

"HEY! You're making Haruhi-sensei uncomfortable!" Naruto shouted. The crowd halted at Naruto's words, and started muttering to each other, obviously nothing nice. But Naruto squared his jaw bravely and stared them down until they mostly dissipated, still shooting curious glances at Haruhi. Wasting no time, she slid down into the pocket and curled up into a ball. She would have to say thank you later.

She listened in as they showed Haku around Konoha. She peeked out a couple times and instinctively pulled away when someone approached.

"And then here's the Ramen. It's the best food in the world." Naruto bragged.

"I can't say I've ever had it." Haku said. He seemed pleased enough to be here, but...something was off.

Naruto gasped in horror.

"RAMEN!" He shouted, like it explained everything."We're having Ramen!"

And then he dragged Haku off to the stools. And since Haku was everyone's mission they had no choice but to follow. Haruhi didn't recall ever having ramen either. Making sure the coast was clear she leaned out and climbed onto Kakashi's shoulder.

"Is Ramen good?" She asked Naruto.

Naruto slid off his chair, apparently dealing with many strong emotions at once. He clutched at his chest and breathed heavily.

"Dobe." Sasuke said with no real venom, which piqued Haruhi's interest for a second- until her stomach rumbled and took that away. Kakashi shot her an amused glance as she had had a pretty small breakfast this morning due to nerves.

"Why don't we find out." Kakashi said, and sat down on the stool the the left of Naruto.

"Hello and welcome to-huh!" Haruhi grinned and waved at the girl behind the counter. If these people were kind to Naruto, they couldn't be too bad. The girl went wide eyed, covering her mouth with both hands. Haruhi wondered why everyone reacted like that.

"Hi." She said breathlessly. "What's your name?"

"Haruhi." She grinned. She liked the reaction she was getting-especially from the ladies.

"RAMEN PLEASE!" Naruto bellowed. She snapped out of it and went to the back of the shop.

"What's this? Said another voice behind the counter. "Naruto, you've brought some friends with you again." Naruto blushed and grinned.

"Some of them haven't had ramen before!" He said as if this was an outrage.

"Really? Who?"

"Them!"

"There's only one."

"Hello!" Haruhi jumped down onto the counter. Ichiraku, much like his daughter, gasped in delight. His daughter peeked from around the corner.

"Can I..." He laid his palm flat.

"Sure!" Haruhi climbed on and Kakashi crossed his arms. She had no problem with being held as long as they were respectful.

"You came to my shop for Ramen?" He asked happily. She nodded. Putting her down he went to the back, talking about how he had just the thing for her. She beamed happily. Maybe this declassified thing wouldn't be too bad. She was busy beaming and waiting for whatever they brought out when talking caught her attention.

A crowd of people stood around Ichiraku's pointing and whispering at her. She sweat dropped.

At her response a few of the braver ones approached and bombarded them with questions. Kakashi was overwhelmed with the social interaction and sat there in a panic. The same with Sasuke. Naruto didn't care about them.

"Hey, One at a time!" Sakura snapped from her position in between the two boys. She seemed to be taking her position of peacekeeper to heart.

"Okay, where did you get her?"

"Can I hold her?"

"Can I borrow her sometime?"

"Awe, she's so cute!"

A man snapped his arm out towards her and Haruhi yelped and closed her eyes. A weird snapping noise caused her to look up and see an annoyed Kakashi gripping the mans arm. He didn't say anything... just glared and let him go.

Haruhi fled and hid behind the napkin dispenser only to be greeted with more cooing. For a second there she was reminded of the man who had tried to kidnap her. They were talking about her like she was a particularly smart pet and she wasn't okay with that.

"Shoo! Go unless you are going to buy Ramen. You're disturbing my customers!" Ichiraku came over, carrying bowls of ramen on each arm. The crowd again dispersed with some of the people staring in interest at the ramen.

"Thank you." Haruhi said.

Grinning, he put down a mini bowl of ramen with smaller utensils right in front of her. How considerate. She dug in along with Haku who ate more daintily than her. But that was a given. She smirked in amusement. The three genin couldn't decide whether to watch her or Kakashi.

"So you guys like it." Naruto stated, as a no answer was unacceptable. He slurped on his own ramen.

She nodded, mouth full. She grinned at Haku who smiled placatingly back at her.

"It is very good." Haku said, taking the smallest bite humanly possible.

"Yes it was." Said Kakashi, putting down his chopsticks in an empty bowl. He leaned back lazily rubbing his stomach.

"HUH!?" The genin shrieked. Kakashi's eye gleamed with mirth from under the lid but he hid it very well. Haruhi snorted into her ramen, receiving three frustrated looks from the genin. Haku carefully ate his ramen, the side of his mouth with the burn scars sloping slightly. At this, Sasuke shifted uncomfortably and went back to staring at his ramen, which he had ordered of his own accord instead of being elbowed into it. He had yet to take a bite.

Interesting.

Out of them all, Sasuke defiantly had the coldest relationship with Haku. If you could even call it that. Could it be because of the burns he sustained from Sasuke? She hummed, bringing a bit of bread to her mouth.

"I just think it's so interesting!" Sakura gushed. "I've signed myself up for small volunteer positions at the hospital, and I've been studying the human body too!" She smiled, then shot a shy look at Haruhi.

"That's great Sakura! But uh, what for?" Haruhi said.

"Oh, well..." She blushed nervously before squaring up. "I want to be a medic nin. I have the best chakra control on our team so I already have a head start."

Haruhi grinned and nodded. Kakashi voiced his approval too and to everyone's surprise, Haku spoke.

"I could help you."

"Really?" Sakura's face flushed in surprise, before she smiled. Haruhi remembered him gathering herbs in the forest.

"Yes. I was very adept at healing wounds and am very knowledgeable with herbs." He smiled again, seeming to perk up from before. Haruhi could tell healing was a passion of his.

"But Haku! I thought you were gonna be a ninja, not a medic!" Naruto whined. Sakura smacked him over the head.

"You can be both idiot!" She growled.

And then Haruhi realized the problem and had to refrain from smacking herself. Haku's eyes blanked out again, and his chopsticks hovered for a second. In order to preserve Zabuza's legacy and to protect himself as a missing nin, Haku had to come along to Konoha. And be a ninja. Something Zabuza stated destroyed him from the inside. What good was Haku coming here if he would waste away anyway? In a way, it was crueler than a Chidori to the chest.

"Haku, do you want to become a medic?"

"..."

Sakura dropped her chopsticks.

"...I...Didn't think I could. I thought I had to be a ninja. I was assigned chunin rank already." He spoke slowly.

"Well, you can go with Sakura to the hospital, see what you can do." Haruhi offered. Sakura was quick to nod her agreement. "You guys can ask Kakashi for help if you need it."

"I might be able to pull a few strings." Kakashi agreed, looking away briefly in embarrassment when Haruhi sent him a beaming smile. It was perfect. Haku was a kind soul and would see very little battle if he worked at the hospital. He could help instead of harm. It would be perfect for him.

"And Haku, I'm sure we can work together!" Sakura said, putting a hand on his shoulder before pulling it away, blushing and tucking a piece of hair behind her ear.

SNAP.

"Sasuke, your chopsticks!" Naruto cried out in shock. Indeed he had gripped them so tightly they broke in half. Sasuke grunted, before reaching for a new pair. Haku picked up his own pair again and dug in, humming in appreciation as he took a large bite.

"This is very good Naruto. You have excellent tastes." Haku said warmly. They continued to eat in silence for a bit, the general atmosphere picking up as Naruto slurped his noodles, opened his mouth, and spoke.

"I've been working on some cool new techniques!" He said around a mouthful of ramen.

"Naruto. Swallow." Haruhi chided.

He sheepishly swallowed before speaking again.

"I've been working on some stuff with my shadow clones." He bragged. "Let's go to the training grounds after this and I'll show you!" With that in mind, they finished their meals only to find it was on the house. Haruhi thanked them exuberantly, along with Naruto and Sakura. He smiled and nodded, before waving in the line of curious bystanders who wanted to eat at the same place the tiny woman did.

Naruto chatted animatedly all the way to the training ground, waving his hands and running circles around their group. His chatter helped distract Haruhi from the glances of the villagers. Naruto powered on through, and she couldn't help but admire him for that.

When they arrived at the training ground, it was already fully occupied. It seemed a lot of ninja had off days today.

"Next one." Kakashi said.

That one was empty. Emptier.

Naruto broke into a couple side lunges, kicking up dust. Voices picked up and what seemed like two dozen civilians were there, watching them raptly. They stood on the sidelines, talking to one another and pointing obtrusively. And getting in the way of Naruto's moves.

"Argh! We need somewhere private!" Naruto yelled, clutching his hair and shaking his head back and forth. they all stood and tried to figure out the problem when Sasuke unexpectedly spoke up.

"Follow me."

"Why?" Naruto demanded.

"...I know a place." Then, as an afterthought, added "dobe."

Naruto scowled, but followed anyway. Haruhi looked down from Kakashi's shoulder curiously as he took off after them. They plodded after him, Sasuke occasionally throwing discreet looks over his shoulder to make sure they were still there. As they moved on, it got quieter, almost...eerily so. It was a part of Konoha she had never seen before, including during all those D-ranks. As time went on, Sasuke's shoulders microscopically tensed up. He was obviously uncomfortable. They passed a row of empty houses and she felt Kakashi tense up, eye on Sasuke.

Oh.

OH.

They were heading into the Uchiha compound.

If she had been drinking something it would have been a marvelous spit-take. She hunched over and studied the houses, the silence was stifling and the genin picked up on the mood, Naruto falling mostly silent. Sasuke turned away from the row of soulless buildings, and turned towards a wooded area. Haruhi relaxed her grip on Kakashi's jacket. It seemed the mood had gotten to her too.

She actually felt bad. Out of all of team seven including Haku, she had bonded with Sasuke the least. Heck, she bonded more with Haku than Sasuke and he was on the team first! They were basically exactly how they were when they first met.

They stopped at a training ground. It had gone slightly to seed, with weeds at the edges, but otherwise was empty and fully operational. A shed with what she assumed was filled with training equipment was tucked away in the corner. Impressive almost unmarked wooden beams stood in the middle of the field.

"Wow!" Naruto yelped. "This is great Tem-uh, Sasuke!"

"Hn."

Sasuke shifted uncomfortably, jerking his head and stuffing his hands in his pocket.

Naruto launched into an explanation of his jutsu.

"Here's what I came up with!" He shouted.

He formed three of himself, each clone forming a hand sign. For contrast, the two clones were wearing slightly different colors.

"Replacement jutsu!"

The two clones switched spots.

"See I can switch with myself! Replace with a clone where there's no log! Pretty neat, huh?" He grinned, looking up sheepishly.

"Yes...That is very smart of you, Naruto." Kakashi said, impressed. " Since the clones are solid and not just an illusion, they have mass and weight to them, making it entirely plausible for you to switch with them. Good job!"

"Hey if Naruto can switch with a clone, what about the others?" Haruhi asked. "Can you guys do it too?" She aimed this at the three younglings. Still impressed by Naruto's bout of cleverness, they took a moment to mull over what she said.

Sakura cracked her knuckles. As the second smallest to Naruto it was only logical she went first.

"Replacement jutsu!"

A clone stood where she once was.

"Naruto this is really clever!" Sakura said. "We could do a lot with this! You could make the clones for us and we could use the clones to get closer or farther away from an opponent. This is huge!"

Kakashi was about to burst with pride. She could feel him brimming with happiness as the four converged, thinking up ways to use the clones to their advantage.

"They grow up so fast, don't they?" Haruhi said.

"Yeah." Kakashi sighed.

"-Maybe we could use the clones as bombs! Like one of us is cornered so we replace with a clone who is equipped with a tag or-"

"We henge as Naruto clones so they can't tell us apart from the clones and the real thing so they would be caught off guard and we have the advantage of surprise-"

"-What if Naruto made clones that looked like us instead of him? As decoys or doubles?"

When Haku threw out something about his clones and the mirrors Haruhi had to take a little break. All of them were so clever she had trouble keeping up. Sasuke seemed to have mostly shaken his case of the blues, and was leaning over and listening intently to something Sakura was saying. She paid attention to how the light breeze (which had picked up in the last ten minutes or so) rustled the dandelions.

Kakashi's mood dropped like a rock.

His neck muscles tightened as he scanned the treeline-which suddenly looked ominous. The gently shaking trees and the rustling scraped along her ears. The four of them were still talking loudly about their various plans and none of them seemed to notice anything was wrong or off.

Kakashi shifted, blocking her from the view of a place in the treeline where his sharp eye had rested.

"Kakashi...is it him?" She whispered.

Kakashi stood up.

"Maa maa, I think that's enough for today team!" Kakashi said, adopting his usual relaxed look. He nonchalantly placed her in his pocket and she didn't fight it. "It's time to go. That's enough for one day."

"But Kakashi-sensei, we were just getting started! Haruhi-sensei! Tell him!"

"Uh, that's enough for one day."

Kakashi's resolve strengthened with that and he firmly escorted them off the compound- taking extra care to see Sasuke to his apartment. Naruto complained loudly before asking Sasuke if they could come back. Kakashi interrupted.

"Maa, I need to be there, and none of you can be at that location by yourselves. Team rule." He said as way of explanation. Sasuke cast them a suspicious look before grunting as they waved goodbye.

As they walked home by themselves Haruhi peaked out.

"Is he gone yet?"

"Hm." He waited until he was inside to talk.

"I'm not going to lie to you Haruhi, I'm not sure who he is. If he was after Sasuke or Naruto or me I would understand, but for all intents and purposes he's after you." He was getting noticeably frustrated.

"But, how did he get inside Konoha? How has he stayed undetected for this long?"

"I don't know." He snapped, sliding against the door onto his backside.

"Well, excuse me." She snapped back. She huffed and jumped down, landing on shaky legs. She turned her back and folded her arms, nose turned up.

He sighed.

"Sorry. I just don't know who it is, or what he could possibly want with you." He ruffled his hair with one hand, the other in his lap. She relaxed her arms, angered features softening into a worried look as she glanced at him.

Then his eye turned to steel.

"But I know one thing. I won't let him get to you."

The poll is up now!

I'd like to state a few things about Haruhi x Kakashi because I've received a few questions about their relationship. Some say it may be weird or gross but the entire point is to put a barrier in between the two-and watch them grow closer despite it. The barrier won't last forever.

As I've said in previous chapters it's the definition of unconventional. If you want something more normal there are other Kakashi x oc fics. The point is to make them seem like star crossed lovers, it's part of the charm. As one of my reviewers said, it's a relationship based off of 'emotions and physical presence.'

AND I FINALLY FOUND THE FIC THAT INSPIRED THIS! It's called The Day I Became Stranded By Ten-Shi Hikari. It's a Naruto fic in a Kakashi x oc community.

Thanks to reebajee for editing this! It wouldn't be nearly as good without their editing!