Enjoy!

"Alright, how do we feel?" Haruhi asked.

Naruto twitched, Haku stiffened and a muscle in Sasuke's jaw jumped. Kakashi just sighed. Again. Haruhi wiped her sweaty palms on her black pants. So caught up in making sure they looked good and had something nice to wear, she had forgotten about herself. One emergency trip to Kasumi's and then she had a form fitting pair of black pants and a nice blue blouse. Kakashi had also been in a mood lately. He didn't even complain when she demanded they go to the shop, and there was the small little thing of arriving early instead of two hours late. He was carefully staring straight ahead.

"Okay then, we have officially five minutes before the door opens. You all look dashing, Sakura's parents are cool and no worries."

They didn't look convinced, though Naruto did stop twitching briefly. He had probably never experienced anything like this, considering how much he was ostracized. Haruhi self consciously fluffed her hair. There were a lot of times when she wished she was bigger, and now was one of them. Despite being smaller she felt like the spotlight was on her. Sakura's parents knew she was small, right?!

"…"

Haruhi wasn't even sure who she was trying to reassure with that. She was beginning to really understand why the three boys were so worried. Haruhi tapped her fingers against her thigh, Impatiently asking someone to knock- better get it over with.

Haku volunteered to knock. Just when her knuckle brushed the door it was yanked open, and Haruhi was struck by the weirdest sense of deja vu.

The man's hair was a dusty pink, and shaped like Patrick Star from spongebob. The wide smile on his face was almost an exact replica of Sakura's. Haruhi was reeling and missed his vocal welcome. She did catch Sakura in the background from her perch on Kakashi's shoulder whose face was as pink as her hair.

"-This must be Haruhi!"

She blinked.

"Y-yeah, Hi." She smiled and hoped there was nothing in her teeth. But not like he would be able to see it if there was. At least he knew she was small.

"Sakura's said a lot about you." He said with a 10 megawatt grin. "We heard all about this amazing "Haruhi sensei"-we're so glad to finally meet you!"

"Dad!" Sakura blurted in embarrassment. The three boys turned towards the sound of her voice, but didn't see her due to her father being in the way. She was tastefully dressed in a white sundress with a cherry blossom pattern and a green sash. Haruhi could appreciate that. Haruhi could also appreciate the kind smile Sakura's dad was giving her and she almost immediately felt her worries melting away. Her worried smile became genuine.

He laughed and rubbed his head, and Haruhi was reminded of Naruto.

"Come inside! Dinners ready." He stepped out of the way, revealing Sakura to the boys. Naruto immediately laid on the compliments, probably trying to get into Kizashi's good books.

It was Haku's and Sasuke's reactions that interested her. Sasuke's eyes bugged out for a second before he blinked and smiled microscopically. Haku tilted her head. The color coordination of pink and green-blue between the three of them made Haruhi's inner crayola fantic squeal in joy. It almost looked like a painting or something.

"Looking sharp! Come in." Her dad said.

They took off their shoes and walked through the hallway that Haruhi had previously been in when she had helped Ino and Sakura. Pictures of a young Sakura and her family decorated the wall, while a delicious smell drifted from the kitchen.

Stir fry.

Sakura giggled, seeing Haruhi's face.

"I know how much you like stir-fry, Haruhi-Sensei, so I told mom to make some for you."

Haruhi beamed, mood lifting like fog in the morning. Entering the Kitchen first was her and Kakashi, who looked supremely uncomfortable with being there on time. Haruhi couldn't blame him really. In a better mood, Haruhi peered over her shoulder make sure everyone was in the hallway (Mebuki went out to greet them) before leaning on the side of Kakashi's face.

"Kakashi," She whispered "If you want to leave and come back later that's cool. You can go and I'll tell them you had to leave and do something important."

Haruhi really didn't want him to leave- it would make her feel exposed- but she didn't want him to be uncomfortable either. She was enough of a bother as it was, and she still felt bad for dragging him around. She wiped her still sweaty palms on her pants, nervous about facing Sakura's parents alone.

"Maa, that's okay." He said, eye smiling in a way that told her it was not okay.

Alright. They'd suffer together. While feeling bad for causing Kakashi stress like this, she did not like being in social situations for very long especially not with people she didn't know yet. All those new people crowding her and wanting to pick her up like a gerbil had her twitchy with meeting new people.

She was glad Kakashi decided to stay with her. It made her feel better. The chattering became louder and she heard Naruto's grating laugh sound from the hallway.

"Kakashi-san! It's nice to see you again." Sakura's mother entered the kitchen, everyone else following behind her. Yes, it made sense for Kakashi to visit his student's parents. Mebuki had a V shaped bang covering most of her forehead and dark green eyes.

"You too." He smiled, and if Haruhi hadn't known what to look for she wouldn't have been able to tell how out of his depth he was. They took their places around the table; Naruto, Haku, Sasuke and Kakashi sitting on one side while Sakura and her parents took the other. Food steamed in its various containers and with a sinking feeling Haruhi realized she didn't know where to sit.

Would it be rude to stay on Kakashi's shoulder?

She didn't see anything wrong with it, but she wasn't sure how to eat.

Well, she wasn't hungry.

But wouldn't it be rude to come here and not eat?

"Oh, Haruhi!" Mebuki exclaimed. With an uncomfortable feeling Haruhi lifted her head to meet her eyes. "I made a special spot for you!"

Right smack in the middle of the table, in clear view of everyone and directly under the kitchen light was a square of yellow cloth that clashed horrible with her blue blouse. The blood drained from her face as she forced a smile.

"Oh! You...shouldn't have!"

"Really, it was no problem." Mebuki smiled. She and Kakashi exchange nervous looks. Her being in the middle meant being separated from him. In this situation with new people and high stakes, they really didn't want that.

The four kids trooped into the kitchen, Sakura filling the air with a nervous chatter and Naruto laughing obnoxiously. Haruhi wanted to tell him to stop, but the thought of the attention it would draw halted her in her tracks.

The Haruno family took one side of the table and the rest took the other. With extreme hesitation, Haruhi slid down from Kakashi's shoulder and silently sat in the middle, knees in from and sitting on her feet. It was an extremely uncomfortable position, but she felt sitting criss cross applesauce was too casual, and asking to move to the side of the table by Kakashi would just draw attention to herself.

She fought to control her blush, embarrassment causing her to overheat slightly. Her rosacea was enough as it was.

Mebuki placed plates in front of them. A feeling of trepidation took over her. Her size was an issue as she normally just took food from kakashi's plate or someone gave her something. She stopped at Haruhi to put a baby plate down.

A baby plate.

Her mouth ran dry and suddenly she couldn't speak, overcome with surprise and feeling strangely paralyzed.

It was plastic and not much smaller than a tea plate. It had wavy rims and was a bright hot pink. A baby plate. Like for a baby no bigger than the one she and Kakashi had calmed on that one D-rank mission. A pair of toothpicks rested in the middle of them, still a little too big for her, but at least it was something.

There was a beat of silence and suddenly everyone was staring at her. She must have missed something.

"I'm sorry, what?" She asked. It felt like when she zoned out during her teachers' lectures back in High school and suddenly she had no idea what was going on, all eyes on her.

"Well, My Sakura has told us so much about you. Before it was all Sasuke-kun!" Her father raised his voice into a high pitched squeal before dropping back down." But now it's this Haruhi-sensei she talks about!" Her dad laughed. Sakura blushed, studiously keeping her eyes down.

"Oh really?" Haruhi said. She didn't know Sakura held her in such high regard. Mebuki nodded, a soft gleam in her eye- the thanks of a mother. Great. The yellow cloth was some sort of seat of honor then. Haruhi grew even more uncomfortable, restraining herself from shifting nervously. A bead of sweat trickled down her neck, hidden by the curls of her hair.

"Yes! So, a jutsu accident, huh? What's it like being small?"

Oh, you know, crushing for your self esteem, feelings of helplessness, dependence, unbalancing. Haruhi couldn't say that though.

"It's rather unique." She sugarcoated. That got laughs from Sakura's parents and she relaxed the slightest bit.

Mebuki started spooning out the food and Haruhi retensed. How much should she eat? How much could she eat? God, she was never doing this again.

Mebuki leaned over, and very gentle spooned the rice and veggies onto Haruhi's baby plate while everyone else got their own food. Ignoring her burning ears, Haruhi thanked her. The portion she had been served was small in comparison to everyone else's, but it was about the same size as Haruhi. She cringed as she thought of her waist line.

Sasuke's eyes widened and against his will an appreciative hum slipped out. He had just bitten into a piece of the tomato.

"I'm glad you like it! I cooked it myself!" Kizashi exclaimed.

Sasuke flushed, noticeable on his pale cheeks. Haruhi had told Sakura before that Sasuke's favorite food was tomatos, just in case she wanted to make him a bento box or something.

"It's very good." Sasuke said, and given how antisocial and nervous he was, Haruhi thought it was a miracle they had gotten that out of him. Naruto chimed in agreeing. Using the distraction Haruhi awkwardly picked up her makeshift chopsticks and lifted a small piece of tomato. Closing her eyes and sniffing, images of her and Kakashi's first dinner appeared in her mind. Rolling the onion, watching in awe as he effortlessly chopped the vegetables, and the tentative peace that seemed to settle between them. She took a bit and almost let out an appreciative hum of her own.

"-ruhi?"

She had apparently zoned out again. Great. Sakura's parents probably thought she had holes in her brain.

"Yes?" She asked after swallowing her bite of tomato.

"Well, we just think it's wonderful how Sakura is taking the ninja life seriously now. She talks nonstop about her team." Mebuki said, speaking for both her and her husband who nodded with his mouth full.

"I'm right here!" Sakura said, embarrassed.

"Really Sakura-chan!?" Naruto said excitedly. His baby blues shined with excitement at the thought of Sakura talking about him.

Sakura's dad laughed, and was probably about to say something embarrassing when Haku spoke up for the first time.

"Thank you for having me."

The way he said it made Haruhi think there was more to it than just thanking them for dinner.

"No problem at all!" Kizashi said, having finally swallowed his food. Feeling like Kakashi, Haruhi quickly took another bite of the pile of food while the attention was off of her.

There was still a huge amount on her plate. She felt like it was a metaphor for her life or something.

Naruto was talking about one of their training sessions much to the delight of Kizashi, going into depth about his shadow clones and all the tricks he wanted to try out. Sasuke and Haku finally relaxed, the topic something they were familiar with. When Sasuke complemented Sakura's control and improvement, the two parents beamed.

"I must agree." Haku said quickly, nearly cutting Sasuke off, "Sakura-san Has better control than even I, and I am a Chunin." Haku said gracefully.

"A chunin you say?" Sakura's dad said excitedly.

"I only ever got to Genin myself. I was always more of a tradesman." He turned to Sakura, clearly impressed with Haku. "You have very impressive friends."

Sasuke bit down on his food with a little more force than necessary.

"They are impressive. They've all grown considerably since I first took them on." Kakashi said.

"Thanks to you." Mebuki beamed, putting more food on his empty plate. Kakashi nodded his thanks, and ignored the intense looks everyone was giving him.

The discussion continued, and Haruhi kept pulling on the collar of her shirt. She was super hot for some reason, which was weird considering the food wasn't spicy.

"Do you like it Haruhi-san?" Mebuki asked. And suddenly all eyes were on her again. She could feel her face heat up as she looked at her baby plate filled with a pile of food she could never eat.

She nodded, uncomfortable.

It was clear that Sakura's parents weren't done with asking her questions and just as Kizashi opened his mouth to speak, with no doubt to say something else to put her front and center someone else spoke up.

"D'his is delicious." Kakashi said, mouth full and cheeks bulging under his mask. They all looked away from her and she breathed a small sigh of relief. Kakashi dipped his head and winked at her, everyone else missing it.

Bless that man. Haruhi felt a spring of gratitude and affection, and to her horror, she felt tears gather in her eyes. She quickly stamped them down, flooded with confusion. She quickly took another bite with her giant toothpick chopsticks. What was wrong with her? Was the stress finally getting to her?

Mebuki and Sakura cleaned up and brought out dessert- something with strawberries. Haruhi wasn't really paying attention.

Sasuke didn't like sweets, but when Sakura said she made it, he bravely ate a few bites. Naruto exclaimed his love for the sweets, and Haruhi found herself enjoying it too, despite the awkwardness of it all. She only really felt comfortable eating when she wasn't so exposed, or when it was just her and Kakashi.

They continued to talk and laugh, Mebuki taking out a camera and snapping a picture of them when they were in the middle of a board game, Haruhi having been reclaimed by Kakashi and sitting on his shoulder.

"Sasuke cheated!" Naruto bellowed as he lost for the fifth time in a row.

"Maybe I'm just that good." Sasuke smirked.

Naruto growled and reset the board. Sakura and Haku-chan chattered in the background, something with their medical textbook while keeping up a conversation with her parents. She was in the middle of picking apart the conversations they had over dinner and wondering if she could talk about anything else with Sakura's parents when Kakashi tensed.

"Is it him?" She whispered worriedly.

A slight shake of his head told her no, but he didn't relax.

"Well!" he said loudly. Naruto startled and looked up. Sasuke took the chance and switched some of the pieces.

"I had a great time here. But It's time for Haruhi and me to leave now."

Haruhi blinked in surprise.

"Really?" Mebuki said, a bit disappointed. Her husband nodded, and looked at them questioningly. The four children looked up in surprise, before shrugging and going back to their board game. Haruhi sensed Mebuki's mood and quickly spoke, seizing the opportunity to leave.

"Yeah, it's about time for us to leave. I loved my time here though, I'll have to visit again." She smiled.

Mebuki nodded and everyone said their goodbyes.

"Alright Team Seven! Meet at our usual spot tomorrow. It's gonna be a big day."

The original three members broke out in whispers, since the last time Kakashi had said something like that it involved them getting bulldozed in the bell test. But Haruhi never heard their speculation, as Kakashi was already gone and out the door. They dashed over rooftops so quickly is blurred, but Haruhi recognized where they were heading seconds before kakashi stopped at his doorstep.

He opened it before quickly snapping it closed and bringing her to eye level.

"Are you hurt?" He asked, eye narrowing.

...What?

"U-uh, no, why?" She managed.

Kakashi remained silent for a moment, before something clicked. His eye widened and averted itself. He strode over to the guest bathroom and flicked on the light, plopping her on the counter.

"I-I'll let you take care of it." He stuttered, closing the door with a snap.

Huh.

She breathed deeply, before letting out a huge sigh of relief, a strand of her hair swaying with her exhale. The tension leaked out of her shoulders now that the dinner was over. The dinner definitely didn't go as well as she would have liked, but it could have been worse.

She thought of the baby plate and cringed.

Her spare set of sleep clothes was in the drawer, she just had to change and brush her teeth. Exhaustion weighed heavily on her mind as she slipped off the blue blouse and tugged down her black pants.

...Why was her hand wet?

She narrowed her eyes as she brought up her fingers to her face and held them up to the light bulbs

Realizing what it was, she closed her eyes and counted to ten. She striped herself and clean herself off, washing blood off her pants and underwear before ripping up a bit of cotton and wrapping that in the tiniest bit of bandages before putting it in a new pair of underwear. One less thing to worry about, she guessed. Or maybe it was one more?

She climbed down the installed mini staircase, thoughts of her life swirling in her head. She had never expected to stay here long enough to meet Sakura's parents, much less have dinner with them. It was dangerous here, being that everyone was either a child soldier, part of a corrupt system, or just batshit insane. And being next to the main characters, small, and a civilian, her chance of death just skyrocketed.

Sensing she needed some time to think, Kakashi said good night, and studiously read Icha Icha as she went under the dresser to her bed.

Ever since the beans were spilled about her existence to the rest of Konoha, and that man had tried to kidnap her...she thought every new person was just gonna snatch her up and run, and there wouldn't be anything she could do about it. Even if she was big, there would still be very little she could do. That wasn't being irrational. She wasn't a ninja, and had no plans of being one.

Sleep was harder to come by and sometimes she would startle awake for no reason other than a sense of paranoia. Kakashi was an amazing security blanket, but he couldn't always be there.

The dinner was bad.

It had never been so apparent until that moment just how much she didn't fit in. Literally, she did not fit in. Some part of her used to think everything here was the wrong size but really, it was just her. Having to sit on the middle of the table, be served on a baby's plate, making Sakura's parents go out of their way to cater to her, it was degrading.

She felt like she was too big and too small at the same time, as impossible as that sounded. The odd one out.

Her hand twitched into a fist and she swiped away the tears welling in the corner of her eyes.

She had done everything for herself, ever since she was a small child she got herself up and ready for school, made dinner, and even got a job in highschool to pay for her car. To be suddenly completely dependent on Kakashi, needing help for everything was too much for her. It was nice at first, someone else caring for her. Her Father couldn't care for her and her mother was working to support them, so it was nice. But it got old really fast.

She wanted to go home.

She didn't care how lonely it was now that her father finally passed.

Her dad had been on a downward spiral with his health for years. It was something they knew would come, but when he passed in his sleep from a stroke when she was a senior, Haruhi felt like she was living in a daze. Her mother threw herself into her business after that, unable to cope with the loss of her husband.

Haruhi didn't care how big and empty it was, it was still home and she wanted to go back.

Haruhi wanted to go somewhere to relax, just cry and let it all out, but it was too dangerous. She flinched at the idea, images of a spider-like hand flashing across her mind. She couldn't stray from Kakashi.

She felt like a mouse caught in a trap.

"Hamster Haruhi…" she murmured ironically.

She hated being small, but at least she could curl up and almost disappear completely.

"Okay team!" Kakashi said. "I have something very important for you all!"

Haruhi looked from her perch on his shoulder. She had an inkling…

"What is it sensei?" Sakura asked.

In response, Kakashi whipped out three sheets of paper, with text she couldn't read from this far away. It was obviously a form of some sort.

"Kakashi-sensei Kakashi-sensei! There are only three papers but four of us. Are you gonna make us fight again, is this another test!?" Naruto shouted, scowling.

"Naruto, I think you're finally learning!" Kakashi beamed. "And yes, this is a are the forms you three need to fill out for the chunin exams, and Haku already has the rank of Chunin, so he won't be needing one."

Kakashi's eye crinkled.

"I know you three can do it."

Haruhi closed her eyes and slid down into the pocket.

So... It's been awhile, huh?

I may have bitten off a little more than I can chew this semester, but thanks to Thanksgiving break, I was able to get this done. And I have something very important to announce, something I think we all knew was coming; I'm going on Hiatus.

I want the best for my readers, and as such, I will be going back and editing old chapters, correcting grammar and spelling mistakes, as well as adding a few more details. In the meantime, may I suggest my other Naruto stories, Doggy Days and Miko, which have their own merits.

I am by no means stopping this story. I have every intention of continuing and seeing this through. I already have a resolution in mind as well as a basic outline for the rest of the story.

Thank you to each and everyone of you who took the time to read this. Comment what you like about this story and chapter, what you think I should fix, or something you think would be cool to see in future chapters.

Question of the chapter: How do you think the longer stay is negatively affecting Haruhi? How can you tell?

Many thanks to reebajee.

See you!