Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto!

Time Period: After Chapter 699 except Kakashi keeps his one Sharingan eye.

Pairing: Fem!Naruto/Kakashi

Rating: T/M (honestly, I don't know)

Summary:

They don't say much, but they need one another more than they realise.
(In which two-emotionally stunted people are denser than the Earth, where everyone saw the attraction between the two except the two.)

Volatile

Naruto hugged a leg to her chest as the other limb draped across hardened, durable sand, her head lying on her raised knee for support. Her cerulean blue eyes catalogued every change in the skies as her village began to awaken, lights embracing the levelled ground and the inner fittings of shops and homes. She sighed, her blonde tresses shifting with her tilting head, revealing the white cloak she donned on that had orange flames rising upwards from its hem, reminiscent of another figure.

The Hokage drank in the sight peacefully, her hands clenching subconsciously as she swore to protect this fragile beauty that was her village once more, just as she had in many sunsets and rises. Konohagakure no Sato – the home that once shunned her as a demon, revered her a hero, acknowledged her as being more than a vessel and granted her wish with recognition. 'How conflicting….' She mused, memories flitting in the back of her mind.

She basked in the sun rays that beckoned a new dawn, her sun-kissed skin glowing with the clouds that were illuminated by rising colours.

She doesn't turn when she hears carefully concealed footsteps approach her from the back. Nothing ever went unmissed by her these days; not a twitch of a facial expression, not the sound of singular books flipping the crowd or the smell of ramen a few streets down. With the Kyuubi working with her in a symbiosis, it had heightened everything, giving her a greater appreciation for inscrutable beauty. But to him, she would always be unguarded and trusting, knowing that if she placed her heart in his hands, he would never abuse the privilege.

He doesn't say a thing either as he stops a few feet away from her, taking in the comfortable silence that spread between them. His grey eye stares at her in strange devotion, resisting the temptation to lift his hitat-ate to record the moment with his transplanted Sharingan eye. The Rokudaime Hokage looked harmonious with her backdrop – as she should, he realized – the sunrise blessing her with an unearthly glow, bringing out the reddish highlight in her golden blonde hair that fell down her back like a waterfall. The white cloak that she wore was a close duplicate to his deceased sensei as she had insisted on keeping him alive in memory when his time of glory had been cut short. Her longing figure looked so small yet outstanding against the expanse of the skies, greenery, and buildings before her, displaying the perfect picture of solitude. 'If Sai were to paint this' he wonders, 'would the future generations understand her importance as the sole figure in the masterpiece?'

Would they understand that she had once held the weight of world's peace on her shoulders, and the tireless hours she worked to achieve the fearsome reputation that she now held? Would they understand the power that once dwelled in her chakra coils, the lifespan that she burnt out from all the insane things that she had done?

There was no doubt in his mind that she would go down as one of the greatest Hokages. However, it irritated him that her value would depreciate as the ink of her scriptures started to fade, and she would become an irrelevant relic. It pained him to think that she would no longer be remembered, following the lane of the forsaken like Uzushiogakure no Sato, where the red swirl emblazoned on the vests Chūnin and Jōnin and on the metal plate of the hitat-ate would lose its meaning beyond aesthetics, merely a blast in the past.

The lady was not unaware of the dilemma that he faced, or rather; she chose to ignore it, knowing that her companion would confide in her if he found it necessary. Years in his company had taught her enduring patience when it came to his secrets, carefully stowing away each revelation like it was a treasure. Their friendship was odd: awfully tranquil at times albeit chaotic for one that involved the knuckle-headed, loudmouth Uzumaki. Sometimes, neither felt the need for words to assure with one another, content by being in the presence of one another. He had been her sensei for nearly half of her life, a confidante and friend for a quarter and an advisor for two years, his status imperceptibly moulding into a solid rock that she could always depend on.

With Sasuke doing some soul-searching on his own and occasionally providing Intel and Sakura caught up in her duties as the Head of Konoha Hospital, Team 7 had been scattered by their responsibilities. Even Sai had risen to the ranks of a respectable ANBU captain, even though his retarded gimmick-naming remained more for amusement rather than naivety. Kakashi surprised her by staying with her through her Hokage apprenticeship and negotiation missions that she took in her stride, quickly building a rapport with her. He became her voice of logic, her anchor, her sometimes-reckless partner when he gave into her ridiculous whims. If her twelve-year-old self was told that she would stand beside the famous copycat-nin proudly as an equal and have each other's back, she would have laughed boisterously and called it bullshit.

As time passed, no one questioned the pair, knowing that wherever the original blonde kunoichi was, there would be a gravity-defying silver-haired male following closely behind her, his nose tucked into his worn-out copies of the Icha Icha Series. Their ludicrous banter would still happen in the office or out on the streets, one that was incredibly agitated and another that was mirthfully lazy, filled with too many private inside jokes that a bystander could never hope to comprehend.

"Are you going to the memorial stone soon, sensei?" She asked, breaking the silence.

His slouched posture crafted with laziness and nonchalance shrugged. "Probably."

Sighing exaggeratedly as she got to her feet, her cloak rose along with her in a flourish and she swept away the imaginary dust on her clothes. She skipped towards her and hooked her arm in his, knowing that there was no point in changing a habit that her sensei stuck to zealously.

"I'm making up for those who do not have time to pay respects to the dead," he once explained, leaving the blonde student baffled whether he was being genuine or it was an excuse. There is something relieving about mourning for the dead and talking to them as if they were still alive, she supposes, but she had always preferred to honour them with her actions. Her lips pursed as she thought of all the good men's names that were engraved onto the cenotaphs and the endless graves. They left too soon.

She says nothing as she stands beside him while paying respect to the sleek black memorial stone, all its edges filled with the names of the dead from the Third Shinobi War. His grey eye only shifts from one side to another, towards the names of his dead teammate that had changed his worldview. Her eyes, however, remain closed as her lips softly utter words of veneration and her fingers interlock with his as she had done so many times before. Naruto incorporated visits in the early morning to her routine when she became closer friends with Kakashi, insisting upon him her presence, saying that he shouldn't always be alone. The first time she suddenly held his hand had irked him but he slowly came to accept the warmth that her fingers transmitted to him.

Another similarly-shaped cenotaph had joined it a few feet away, although it was more complex, representing both the coalition of the five villages and the names of all the dead Shinobi. He fervently wished that another war didn't have to exist after witnessing his first but there were benefits that came out of working together with one another.

忍 – To endure. To encourage the tolerance of the villages' differences, a simple kanji that was engraved in their hitat-ate to signify that they were allies. Those that fought in the war kept their hitat-ate as a memento and it was perhaps the greatest reminder that collaboration was possible and they could put aside their petty differences from the previous wars to form something even greater.

She releases the hand she was holding with a rueful smile, folding them across her back. "I have a hearing with the civilian council that I'm presuming you will be late for." Her cerulean blue eyes glint with mirth before she teleports to her office with Hiraishin, probably getting the material ready for today's meeting.

He looks at the memorial stone intensely as if he was gathering his thoughts – "You've raised a great daughter, Minato-sensei."

..

Although he was a few blocks away from the Hokage Tower, he could see that she was fuming. He winced when he saw another book slam into the concrete wall, blonde hair whirling back and forth in the room as she ranted to thin air, probably to the unfortunate ancient chakra that was sealed in her stomach. He sighed, wondering where Shikamaru was. 'Being the lazy Nara he is,' he concludes reluctantly, bracing himself to deal with the fiery Hokage.

Kakashi opened the window and jumped into the room, catching the book that she flung at him in reflexive anger. "Use the door, for Sannin's sake!" She shrieks, her fist slamming into the poor wooden table.

'I really should have invested in that metal table they offered…' He thought as he shared a looked with the clone that was sorting and stamping papers at the side of the room, both exasperated and amused at the same time. The broken ink pad that lay on the floor, however, made him decide that it was more of the former than the latter.

"Maa, there is no need to take your anger out on the furniture. Calm down and read some Icha Icha," consoled Kakashi apathetically.

Blue eyes dyed violet glared at him. "You wanted me to read at this shitty timing?" She yelled shrilly. "That teme Takashi said that girls should just stay in the house and be good wives when I was introducing the advanced education program!" She growled, raking her fingers through her hair. "He looked at me like I was invalid and that I didn't deserve standing at the head of the table!" The jinchūriki threw a pen. "I earned my place as the Hokage, 'ttebane! The amount of misogynistic comments he made—"she sneered haughtily –"in the face of his FEMALE SUPERIOR is ridiculous!"

"He basically trashed on baa-chan, Hinata-chan the matriarch of the Hyūga Clan, Sakura-chan, and the Mizukage – everyone basically! Good housewives my foot, he is lucky I have more class than to punch his deformed nose in!" The Kyuubi clearly echoed her sentiments as her voice took a turn for a deeper and feral tone in the last line.

His grey eye flashed with an unknown emotion for a second before it was replaced with nonchalance. He trudged leisurely towards Naruto, tucking her head in the crook of his neck and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. "Hai, hai, Takashi is blind to all the powerful kunoichi that shape our world and his words are empty as Tsunade's bank account while we have actual evidence. You cannot blame them for their ignorance and you have been trying very hard to remedy that."

Arms snaked around his waist as the tension left his body. "It's so frustrating sometimes, 'ttebane."

"And what have you done?" He asked knowingly.

"We might need a new conference table," she confessed. Her demeanour took a turn when she suddenly smiled brightly, looking up at him. "Oh, and I told Anko-chan as well." She chirped mirthfully.

He prompted on. "And…?"

"He might find his clothes chewed up by summon snakes… Or end up in Training Ground 44 dead in the night." She muttered, not even feeling an ounce of guilt. Kakashi shrugged. Takashi might just end up with the hellcat Tora scratching tapestry off his walls as it had suddenly developed an irritation fear for ninkens.

"Should I even bother asking why you and Shikamaru were not even present at the civilian council hearing?" She asked, her voice muffled by his flak vest.

"Troublesome." He cheered, his eye crinkling. The blonde growled, punching him lightly in the stomach.

"Stop using Shikamaru excuse, 'ttebane!"

"I got lost on the road of life?" He retorted hopefully.

"I hate you kaka-sensei."

…

Hatake Kakashi was with her when she retrieved Jiraiya's body at the outskirts of Amegakure no Sato. She cursed and screamed for a sixth of an hour when she received the news, screaming that she wasn't thorough enough in her search. She was so angry with herself at her own incompetence, angrier than she had been when she failed to save Gaara from the Akatsuki. It was one of the rare moments that she took a break from being a Hokage, asking Shikamaru to run the village in lieu of her. She refused to allow any Shinobi – alliance or S-class Jōnin be damned – do what she was supposed to do as his protégé.

They reached Amegakure no Sato in record time, even to the extent that she teleported him with the skilful use of Hiraishin. And if he disliked the vertigo that hit him with every use, he didn't mention it, in fear of being thrown into the marshlands as deadweight. Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto was a woman on a mission: the desperation clear on her face as she refused to sleep until Kakashi was forced to knock her out, insisting that she had to be at her best performance to properly find him. It made his left eye ache when he registered the heart-breaking grief on her face, realizing how much of an influence and family Jiraiya had been to her when she was a child.

The Toad Sannin – eternally worthy of his respect not just for the books he wrote – fixed her bleeding heart caused by the tangible hatred that clouded the village, picking her up slowly and giving her haven. Jiraiya did what he was supposed to do as her Gennin mentor, becoming her irreplaceable family and gave her the happiness that she deserved.

She doesn't talk much about the experiences she shared with him, memories that she wanted to keep in pristine imperfection, something that was incredibly sacred to her. He doesn't bring them up because he knows all too well about how difficult and heart-wrenchingly beautiful some memories can get.

It was raining heavily when they arrived.

The skies seem to echo her feelings as she sprinted towards his body with the materialized Isobu next to it, not even caring that he looked mutated after being drowned, bringing his broken body into her embrace, ignoring the salty and rotted smell that hit her nose. The bloated body and his wounded back did nothing to deter her from tightening her hug and her cloak of Kyuubi chakra flared. It was dazzling in the gloomy rain, like hope that awaited spring.

Alive met the dead, so different in conscious and both soaking wet to the bone. "What's with that stupid grin you have on your face, Ero-sennin?" She sobbed, crying even harder when she received no reply. She had looked up to the overcast skies, her tears mixed with the pouring rain, roaring out despair.

And before the copycat-nin eyes, she carefully reconstructed everything in his body, down to the molecular level. His body lost its blue hue and returned to a tan, rosy shade, shrinking and filling itself out. Wounds disappeared and brought forth tender skin, his body a renewed vessel. She constantly coaxed her chakra into him as she cried, her figure bent over his still frame, shaking and muttering words that were drowned out by the rain.

Kakashi thought it was fitting that no one could hear her final words to her godfather, something so intimately personal that it felt wrong to intrude upon.

No one loved Jiraiya like a father more than Naruto.

No one ever believed in Naruto more than Jiraiya.

They were both dead last, but they both came out ahead.

Like father, like daughter.

It must have been hours – it was hard to tell in the rain – before Naruto finally moved her head away from her godfather's chest, her eyes bloodshot. Her body felt exhausted emotionally and physically, the crying taking a toll on her throat and her head. Her vision blurred as she stumbled to her feet, head throbbing while fumbling with the seal that she had stored for the occasion. She barely made it through the entire ritual of sealing in her tiredness but gathered enough strength to send another surge of her chakra as a conduct to preserve his body into the seal, smiling bitterly in satisfaction when the deed was done.

Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto had looked at him with tormented eyes that were filled with closure, her arms wrapped around herself as if she was trying to hold herself up. She looked smaller and more vulnerable than he had ever seen her and for a moment, he remembered that she was just a twenty-one year old with too much on her shoulders. An intense urge of something rose within him as he stared at her shaking petite frame and he doesn't know how to explain the attraction the blonde lady held over him despite all her obvious flaws. But it doesn't matter, he quickly concludes, because she was just a strong kunoichi bearing her own wounds with a hundred-watt smile on her face, moving forward the only way she knew how. His left eye ached as he stood rooted the ground, his back uncharacteristically straight and his hands tucked in his pockets.

The Hokage tried to muster her best grin, her lips curling downwards whenever she tried to tilt it up. She shook her head and tried again but her body had other ideas.

Before she fell to the ground after her eyes rolled to the whites, his bodily movements kicked in. Her long wet hair covered half her face as her head tilted backwards without support, her body going limp in the arms that caught her. The copycat-nin rubbed away the water in his eyes in annoyance, pulling the fragile lady closer and pressed his masked lips to her forehead, swearing to protect her in the Sannin's stead.

…

The Toad Sannin's second funeral was not a quiet affair under the adamant wishes of the Slug Princess and the Rokudaime Hokage. And with the combined influence of the two matriarchal figures, any protest fell on deaf ears. They refused to allow Jiraiya to go without a bang even if the act of returning to the well - poetic for toads - was befitting. Back then, they neither possessed time nor resources to hold him a proper one due to the dangers of Akatsuki drawing near and it has always been one of the many regrets that Tsunade always had. (Naruto didn't even attend the funeral, some realized.) It felt wrong to not pay proper tribute to one of her greatest friends that stuck it out with her even though he infuriated her with his antics to no end. She wanted to tell the world about the gallant man that fought for his village, not just a fleeting whisper about him in history.

He was a legendary Sannin, a Toad Sage, she argued roughly, and he was going to go out like one.

They threw their heads into planning the grand funeral, budget completely disregarded. It even made Shizune sweat at the scale that they were going for and she thought that she had seen the worst cases of splurge spending. The posthumous grave outside the village would remain bodiless after much consideration. They decided that Jiraiya would have wanted his body buried in Mt. Myōboku as an honorary summoner, an arrangement that the toads readily agreed to.

So she stood proudly in front of the hundreds in attendance in her usual outfit with all the feminine grace she possessed, absolutely repulsed by the fact that the rest had worn black. 'Jiraiya would be probably rolling in his grave,' she shuddered, shaking her head. That stupid man always hated black. The only difference about her attire was that she wore her old black hitat-ate on her forehead, showing her Sannin pride.

"Shikamaru!" The Godaime Hokage barked. "Where the Hell is Naruto!?"

The Nara heir straightened his back at her voice, wincing when he realized that he was so used to answering to her commands. Just as he was about to reply, a huge cloud of smoke appeared in the empty field next to the gathering, dispersing with a great blast of chakra wind.

Toads in varying shades of autumn appeared, some of them humongous and daunting, their yellow eyes and rectangular pupils condescending. Some people jumped at the sheer magnitude of the surprise, not expecting more than a dozen of toads being summoned at once. Gamabunta took the front spotlight, having been the Toad Sannin's closest familiar and the current boss of the Toads. His son Gamakichi stood next to him, tanto in hand, with a familiar figure standing on his head.

Paper petals descended onto the masses just as the figure jumped down, her red Haori billowing behind her. They looked up at the skies in wonder, watching the fragments fall like snow. Carrying a bouquet of paper rose flowers with bandaged fingers, her yellow eyes and pigmented orange eyelids focused solely on the open coffin. She lived and breathed with nature: her footsteps caressing the ground as the winds carried her, moving with all that surrounded her in fluid grace, not a single stray petal touching her head. Her golden blonde hair flowed with the breeze in its classic pigtails and Iruka's hitat-ate tied to her forehead, redolent of her teenage days. Equipped in her orange jumpsuit and mesh armour underneath, she appeared before his corpse a dutiful student rather than her current title. She clasped the paper flower bouquet in his slim fingers, brushing against the bump on his right middle finger before her hands drifted upwards to straighten his red Haori and green kimono. She leaned down and kissed his metal protector, silently thanking him for everything he had done for her.

No one made a sound as she finished paying her respects, eyes glued onto her visage as she faced the crowd. Her expression was serene as she gazed at the people who meant something to her godfather, tears quickly welling in her eyes. Clearing her throat, she amplified her voice.

"Jiraiya was probably the biggest super pervert in the Elemental Nations," she began by admitting, causing the entire crowd to chuckle with laughter. She smiled ruefully at Tsunade who had already started tearing, using her emotions as strength to continue on. "While he took pride in his self-proclaimed title and always announcing himself as such with a god-awful dance, he was also a dear son, a hilarious and infuriating friend and a great teacher."

"But perhaps his greatest pride-" she shook, her words lumping in her throat- "was that he was an inspiration and a father to his students, even though he was horrible at avoiding the Three Vices of a Shinobi. He loved every student like his own child, never minding the fact that we could have been more trouble than potential. He always believed strongly in fate and the Child of the Prophecy, even declaring that a knuckle-headed ninja like me was it. But what he never considered was that he was far more precious than the destined child he tried to find, creating so many miracles in his pursuit, not realizing that the man who created was incredible as well."

"Words cannot begin to describe the absolute gratitude I hold towards this man who left us far too soon, words are not sufficient to fully explain the glory of his tales. I'm not the writer because he was," she confessed, miserable laughter bubbling, "he was always the one who seemed to have the right words to the hardest questions; he was the person that kept me going in my darkest moments. He touched all our hearts in his own idiotic way but 'ttebane, I loved him like a father I never had. He's probably smiling down at us with that shit-eating grin, teasing us for crying."

"Asshole till the end," Tsunade muttered.

Naruto laughed. "Let us thank Jiraiya, the Toad Sannin of Konohagakure no Sato from the bottom of my heart for all his contributions, all the blood, sweat and tears that he has invested. Without him, the world would never have had an Uzumaki Nagato, Namikaze Minato, and Uzumaki Naruto. As I toast him this bottle of sake," she raised her beverage to Gamabunta, "let us observe a minute of silence in appreciation of him."

She downed the entire drink with Gamabunta who had a cauldron, ignoring the burn in her throat. Tears leaked out from her eyes and spilt down her cheeks as she chugged, the precious memories that she had with him flashing.

"Mahna, you've become strong."

She clasped her hand over her mouth to silence her sobs, her tears getting harder to contain. She turned to stare at the open coffin, suddenly wishing for him to wake up to see the Shinobi he raised. 'Ero-sennin, for one last time, can you tell me that you're proud of me for achieving my dream? Can you give me one of your hugs and share with me one of those ice popsicles again? I miss seeing your broad back, I miss your perverse jokes, and I miss your late-night peeking sessions that I have to bust you out of. I wish you were here. Nothing feels right without you around 'ttebane.'

The Rokudaime Hokage crumbled to the ground under the force of her own thoughts, the sake bottle tossed to the side in wasteful abandon. Her shoulders were hunched and shaking, her other hand grabbing fistfuls of grass in attempt to steel herself. She doesn't flinch when someone hugs her and her tears drip onto a well-manicured hand, feeling her companion's tears drip onto her Haori. There was something relieving about shamelessly crying; a weight being lifted from her shoulders after so long.

"We'll be okay," Tsunade croaked out, shaking her apprentice. The question in her words was clear as if she was struggling to convince herself as well. "We'll be okay."

It sounded like an oath.

For the next few days, Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto knelt in front of her godfather's grave, unmoving like a statue even in the rain. Her hunger did nothing to make her falter from her meditative state, fully intent on staying for her self-imposed duration. She reasoned that she was making up for Ero-sennin deceased students as well and they would have appreciated it if she did. Tsunade and surprisingly Orochimaru (he gave the security of the village a headache) joined her for the first full day, staying with her until dusk and warning her not to overdo it.

Kakashi and the Rookie 9 merely observed her from far, taking shifts to ensure that their friend was safe. And even though the scarecrow took most of the shifts, he certainly didn't complain.

…

"Are you seeing anyone?"

Choking on her food the moment the words registered in her brain, Naruto coughed violently as she tried to force the food down the right pipe. "And where do I have the time for that?" She snorted, taking a big gulp of the miso soup.

The pink-haired kunoichi flicked her best friend's forehead. "The world doesn't always need saving, you know. Akatsuki is no longer around, the world isn't going to end anytime soon – are you seriously telling me that the idea of settling down has never crossed your mind?"

"No, not really," she muttered, pushing a tendril of hair behind her ear. "It's just weird to consider myself with someone, 'ttebane. It has always been looking forward to being a Hokage and being good at my job." The words hung in the air with its true reason being left unsaid and the medic-nin couldn't fault her for it.

That didn't mean she didn't find the irony of her most emphatic friend being unable to find someone to connect to romantically. Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto grew up an orphan and the first emotions she faced was hate. Sure, she had friends that she extremely loyal to and some that became akin to family; it did not change the fact that her earlier years have thwarted her mindset about emotions towards her.

She was a pretty darn cute as a child although she was sickly thin but no one ever told her. She was beautiful as a teenager with her blessed curvaceous figure and exotic birthmarks but she refused to discard orange jumpsuit that hung loosely on her. Half the time she was covered in scars and battered in bruises to care for her appearance, insistent on training and proving herself.

The way her worth was judged by morphed into a different animal, where her actions, gender be damned, played the bigger role. She was a Shinobi before a Kunoichi, a brawler rather than grace. And it carried onto adulthood and she became a worrisome workaholic at times.

"Interested in someone at least?" She pressed on.

A tan nose scrunched. "Who can I even properly consider?"

"Shikamaru?"

"Temari," she quipped back easily.

"Gaara."

"Are you persuading me to commit incest?"

"Sai?"

"You're kidding right?" Naruto chuckled. "He calls me a bimbo and he's clearly interested in Ino!"

"S-Seriously?" Sakura sputtered before letting out a raged outcry akin to a dolphin. "Why didn't that Ino-pig tell me?"

"It's just a hunch," said the Hokage mildly, pointing the end of her chopsticks at her friend. "But from the looks that they shared after missions and the unnatural amount of time that Sai spends drawing flowers at the Yamanaka flower shop-" she laughed sarcastically- "it's pretty official at this point. I won't be surprised if Sai painted on her."

Sakura groaned at the obvious insinuations, muttering something about losing her touch while Naruto ate another mouth of her miso ramen.

The pink-haired lady brightened, "Kakashi?"

The blue-eyed Hokage burst into hysterical laughter with rosy cheeks, choking on her ramen for the second time.

…

"Naruto?" Shikamaru murmured after he knocked on the mahogany door.

A voice drawled out on the opposite side of the door. "Just come in quietly."

Frowning at the odd comment, the strategist pushed open the door gently, a smile threatening to rise as he looked at the scene before him.

One of the side windows was left open, ventilating the room with the cold spring wind. The room was dyed in the orange shade of sunset, casting its luster on the Hokage who was lying on the table; her head nestled in her arms that acted as a barricade from the light. A blanket was draped over her shoulder as she snored softly while the person sitting at the side of her table casually read through an A-rank mission report, his eye glazing over the contents.

"Back on active duty already, Kakashi?" asked Shikamaru as he raised an eyebrow.

The said person sitting on the table gave an eye smile, saluting him with two fingers. "Maa, it's not like the job of an advisor is strenuous. Naruto is naturally efficient." He glanced at the two clones toiling away at the side that sent him a mutinous glare.

"You should stop landing in the hospital after missions by the way," the Nara heir reminded, his eyes searching for any visible sign of pain on his fellow advisor. "No one in Konoha needs to her in a worried wreck again. It's troublesome." He furrowed his eyebrows when the memory of Naruto panicking in the office after she received the message that the copycat-nin was injured surfaced. Panic was etched on her face as she told the pink-haired medic-nin the news, her hands constantly running through her hair in frustration. Worry, he learnt, was not a good look on the usually knuckle-headed ninja that he had come to know.

"Worried wreck?" Kakashi looked at him in a perplexed manner. "She's always worried about everything. What's the difference?"

Resisting the urge to slap himself, he sighed, looking at the ceiling hollowly. "Are you serious?"

'Kami, I don't deserve to deal with this shit right now. I just wanted to sleep.'

The last word of his thoughts brought something to his attention, remembering how she over-worked herself to resist from going to the hospital. "We should probably be bringing Naruto home though. There is no way she can work after pulling several all-nighters."

He moved forward to wake the blonde Hokage up (because he decided carrying her back home would be a hassle), only to have a gloved hand grab his wrist tightly. Shikamaru looked at the person in surprise, meeting a sharp grey eye that told him explicitly to cease his actions. "It's fine, I'll bring her home later when she wakes up on her own. Let her sleep."

"Troublesome," he muttered under his breath, pulling his arm away and shaking his wrist. 'This is going to leave bruises,' he noted. Scratching his head, he stared back at the copycat-nin and repeated. "Honestly though, are you serious?"

Kakashi shrugged nonchalantly, returning his attention back to the report. The black-haired male shook his head at the sheer denseness that filled the Hokage office before he walked out. If he stood there for another second, he was going to lose his mind. There was probably a theory about smart individuals being emotionally stunted that he needed to read up on to survive.

The room plunged back into comfortable silence with the occasional rustling of paper after the Nara Heir's departure, the sun moving below the horizon slowly. Kakashi was about to shelve the scroll that he finished checking over before a hand grabbed his shirt. He turned back curiously, quirking an eyebrow at the half-asleep lady. She gazed at him with half-lidded eyes, still nodding off. "Bakashi, stay." She ordered softly.

And for some twisted reason, he did that without complaint, settling himself back onto the table and ruffled her hair. "Go back to sleep, Naruto. I'll be here and when you wake up."

The blonde lady hummed, her cerulean blue eyes closing.

…

Pale fingers grasped the handle steadily and lifted the lid of the pot, placing it on the cloth beside her. She ladled the hot water out carefully and poured it steadily into the cup while tilting it at an angle, watching closely as the powder and water began to mix. She placed the ladle down gently and passed the tea to her guest before preparing her own, her movements like fluid water – practiced, meandering and deliberate. When she was done with her tea-pouring duty, she placed her hands on her lap, lilac eyes gazing the lady in front of her.

Her guest held a cool mask of indifference, her body language loose and controlled while her posture mirrored her host. Her golden blonde hair was piled on top of her head in an intricate fashion and from the little skin that her white kimono embroidered with a red-gold phoenix allowed, a translucent green crystal gem laid between her collar bones.

"Hokage-sama," she greeted pleasantly. "What matters have brought you my clan's humble abode?"

Naruto pursed her lips, displeasure flooding her expressive blue eyes – before she promptly burst out laughing, unable to take all the formality that she just went through. The matriarch of the Hyūga Clan cracked a smile at her friend, seemingly surprised that she lasted that long. "Your restraint has improved immensely, Naru-chan." She praised, taking a sip from her tea.

The said person grinned. "It's all thanks to you Hinata-chan. Tea ceremonies have become more… tolerable, after I got to know the processes."

Returning her line with a chuckle, she cocked her head to the side. "Is that so? What has brought you to my Clan Compound? It's rare to see you outside of your office."

The blue-eyed Hokage slumped slightly and muttered some words quickly.

"Naru-chan, you need to speak louder," reminded Hinata dryly.

"The council is pressuring me to pick a proper partner."

"Ah."

She slammed her hand against the tatami mat crossly, whining. "And I'm only twenty-two, 'ttebane!"

The Byakugan user sighed inaudibly, placing her tea cup down. "Naru-chan-"she cautioned, her blank eyes looking at her companion earnestly- "It's not an invalid request. It appeases the council when powerful bloodlines are paired off to ensure its survival, especially one as famous and endangered as the Uzumaki Clan. Furthermore, most of the Hokages were married and it was a sign of their loyalty as they brought forth the future generation."

"I understand the need to pass on the Hi no Ishi." Naruto grounded out. "But I'm just frustrated, 'ttebane. I hate the fact that they tossed me a dossier of potential candidates like they are slabs of fresh meat in the butcher's market. They didn't even consult my advisors about it."

"But it's not confirmed. The council understands your hesitation. You are young and in your prime," Hinata chided. "However, we are at a rare stage of peace with the alliance established and there is no better time to begin since the dust of the War has finally settled. You still have time to find your partner and choices to choose from. As long as the person is loyal to the Village and a respectable Shinobi, they will respect your decision."

Hyūga Hinata allowed her words to sink in as she steeped another cup of tea for both of them. "And at least you have a choice." She murmured, her ebony braided hair shifting.

"Hinata-chan, if you don't want to follow your clan's traditions, you don't have to." The Hokage affirmed lowly. "No matter whatever endeavour you take I will support you no matter what, even if it means reforming your clan. If you hate the marriage, I'll find ways for you to get around it. If your husband is a teme, I'll kick him into next year."

The dark-haired beauty's heart warmed at her words, a smile gracing her lips. Alas, she shook her head. "My partner must come from the branch house to break the Caged Bird Curse Seal. I promised Neji-niisama that I would break the segregation that has plagued our clan, bounding slaves to master. Everything is just beginning: I refuse to allow my selfish whims to deter me. It's for the sake of the future generation, for our little Kings and Queens."

Her hands tremble in anger. "I don't ever want my children believing that they are superior to their cousins. I don't want the future generation to be blinded by discrimination despite having the all-seeing eyes." She clenched her fists. "I used to believe that someone would come to change the clan because I was weak. But for my clan," she spoke with fierce devotion, her Byakugan eyes involuntarily flaring, "I will change it with my own hands. I will stomp the adversity with my own feet."

Naruto laughed breathily, reaching forward to hold Hinata's hand. "And I'll always be right next to you as you purge that ugly seal into non-existence." Her smile was deliciously sweet and mischievous. "Hinata-chan, if I was a male, I would have married you in a heartbeat. You are so breathtaking and strong and I'd be the luckiest man on Earth if I was given the honour."

Hinata giggled. "You jest, Hokage-sama."

She retracted her hands and puffed out her chest. "The Rokudaime Hokage, jest?" She scoffed, feigning hurt. "I would never."

The matriarch of the Hyūga Clan resisted rolling her eyes, remembering the time she called Code Orange because she was peeved that some Shinobi was not taking their duties seriously. "So who were your possible candidates?"

"Lee was one of them."

The lilac-eyed kunoichi paused, her snack halted at mid-consumption. "The council are lacking in taste, aren't they?"

The blonde jinchūriki snorted. "No kidding."

"Who else?"

"Shikamaru."

Another asinine choice. "I heard he is quite smitten by Temari-san."

"Exactly. Even Bee knows it and he's from Kumo and he's not exactly the brightest crayon in the box."

Hinata sighed, her approbation of the council plunging while she prepared another cup of tea to soothe her nerves, toying with her porcelain cup. "I pray that the next choice is decent."

"They recommended Kakashi as well," Naruto mentioned casually.

Her posture became rigid as her mind cried out in relief. Finally. Maybe she didn't have to transplant her eyes in one of the council members after all.

"Et to…. Hinata-chan?" Naruto called out anxiously.

A saccharine smile appeared on her face. "Yes, Naru-chan?"

"Your tea…?"

The Hyūga heiress coughed, pouring away the ruined tea in the small drain and waving off her mistake. "A small mishap. Is Kakashi-san a viable choice to you?"

The Hokage scrunched her nose. "He's a close friend and my sensei."

"And you never considered him as anything else?"

"How else should I consider him then?" She asked incredulously.

'Stop answering my question with a question,' she groaned internally before trying again. "As someone who will always stands beside you through thick and thin, perhaps?"

"He already does that." She replied, an unconditioned smile tugging at her lips.

The sheer confidence present in her friend's voice gave her a surge of hope. "Would it be hard to consider him as your significant other then?" asked Hinata is a soft, persuasive tone.

The blonde lady opened her mouth to reply before she shut it, genuinely considering the possibility for once. She imagined the copycat-nin being more than a friend, and being able to hold his hand and standing next to her, always. It was a pleasant thought. She tried to imagine a world without him and instantaneously, she felt as if her heart was ripped apart. Her eyes widened involuntarily and she reached up to clutch the pendant lying on her chest, playing with the familiar gem as if to console herself. 'Just when did he affect me so much? When he became my teacher? Or was it much later?'

Mortified at the influence the silver-haired Shinobi held over her, blood crept up to her cheeks causing her to slap her face several times, shaking away thoughts of that perverted scarecrow. "N-No? I mean, yes?" She replied hesitantly.

Lilac eyes stared at her sincerely. "For someone who dares to challenge the hatred buried deep in us, why do you hesitate, Naru-chan?"

Cerulean blue one refused to rise from the tatami mat. The raven-haired beauty sighed, shifting her legs forward carefully without wrinkling her kimono too much. She stretched her hand forward to brush against her friend's chin, lifting Naruto's head gently.

Just like how the Uzumaki saved her from her self-deprecating twelve-year-old persona, the Hyūga would return the favour and pull her out of the trench that the village had neglected for far too long. She gazed at her lonesome friend without scrutiny or judgment, offering her a pained smile of her own when she saw parts of her past self reflected back onto her. Sometimes, all a comrade could do was gather pieces and tell them it was broken because sometimes, the person was oblivious to the fact and the mending of the wound required a specific person. And more often than not, the person was not her, but she was okay with that. If she could hold the pieces together as long as she could, she felt that she had done enough.

"Naru-chan, you are one of the most powerful and magnanimous person I've ever met in my entire life. I've seen all sorts of characters with my own eyes and trust me when I say that your beauty dwells not just in physicality and internally as well," the kunoichi began in a hushed tone and yet it possessed a strong thrum. "You are not a monster and for all the power that you have, you are not invincible and you are still human. You are susceptible to making mistakes, capable of breaking and loving all the same, down to every fibre of your body. You can love without shadowing or being a burden to your significant other. You are worthy of love just as much as the next person but the question lies in whether you allow yourself."

"You give the people around you so much love and loyalty and yet you expect nothing in return. But tell me Naru-chan, why are your eyes always in disbelief – as they are now – when someone reciprocates?"

Her face visibly pales when she realises the truth in her words, utterly dumbfounded by the human flaw she never seemed to notice. Her hand drops from her pendant that she held in her grasp and goes limp on her lap, her posture ashamed. She suddenly felt incredibly tired as doubts flit back and forth in her mind, emotions that she had pushed back because she deemed them unnecessary in her pursuit to be recognised.

She shudders out a breath and unknowingly lets her defences crumble. "I just can't imagine anyone loving me. It has always been demon, vixen, destroyer and monster." She pressed her hand against her open seal. "I've never hated Kurama but it hurts to think that if I didn't exist, my father and mother would have been alive, even if they were glad that I was born. I don't like killing but I have killed more than an average Shinobi. But there are times, my dark urgings get better of me and I actually enjoy it. It's hard to picture myself with someone else when from the moment I was born, I have destroyed. Everything in the world feels so fragile in my grasp and sometimes I'm scared I'll just crush it because I can. I know at some point in my life I had wanted to."

"And to Kakashi?" She gestured wildly to the side, a laugh slipping past her lips. "I am my father's daughter as much as he is my father's student. He is my teacher and I cannot begin to fathom how he could see me as anything other than his knuckle-headed, loudmouth student."

Hinata casually sipped on her tea. "For all your misconceptions that run too deep and can only be corrected with time, I don't think you've mentioned Kakashi-san as 'Kakashi-sensei' or 'Kaka-sensei' like you used to."

…

Hatake Kakashi was not annoyed at all. It totally didn't irk him at the sudden professionalism that Naruto decided to adopt one fine day, causing a strange gulf that he didn't know how to bridge. It was one of those moments in his life he started questioning if he did something wrong to offend the blonde lady, aside from his perverse habits that she was immune to after the company she kept for three years. In retrospect, the distance made him think about a lot of things.

While they still talked, she didn't joke around with him as much as anymore. She didn't give or ask him for random hugs like she used to and she certainly didn't smile as brightly as she did with the Rookie 9. Although he would rather bury himself than admit that he missed the close proximity that they used to have, he still missed it. And from the looks that the other Konoha Jōnin gave him when they came into the office for missions, he knew that he was missing something that he should have noticed a long ass time ago. He groaned internally when he remembered the set of blinding teeth attempting a smirk.

But that was not the only reason why he was staring at the blue-eyed Hokage from his peripheral vision, hoping that she didn't notice (although she definitely did). Her war with paperwork was dwindling day by day as she caught onto the ropes of successfully managing it and compared to all the other Hokages he served, he could actually see her head from the mounds of paperwork.

"Hatake, if you have time to read your smut or stare, I'd suggest you make yourself useful by reading the mission reports at the side," she spoke, shocking him out of his observation as she gestured towards one of the shelves. And the next moment, she flung the pen she was holding towards the window before picking up another one conveniently situated on her desk and continuing with her writing. "Teme, use the front door. I know you're there."

"Hn," the Uchiha heir huffed out as he climbed into the office, jibing back on reflex, "Whatever, usuratonkachi."

"Why do you even bother?" Naruto asked rhetorically, completely ignoring his groundless jab. "The only reason why you're allowed to walk around in the village is because I guaranteed that I can sense you even if you're ten miles out."

He threw the pen back at its owner, aiming for her jugular. "Hn, are you up for a spar?"

"If it's a ploy to indirectly involve me in destroying Konoha, I will respectfully decline," retorted the kunoichi absent-mindedly as she caught the pen without even looking. "I'm sure Sakura-chan won't mind, though. The hospital is on your left with two stone structures in front of it, in case you've forgotten."

The copycat-nin would have laughed at the scene if it was happening a few years ago. But now that he was in the presence of the two unofficial Gods of Shinobi, it really wasn't funny to consider the damage they could do even if they didn't try. He didn't know how much the black-eyed Shinobi had grown but he certainly knew the recent addition of jutsus in Naruto's arsenal that spoke volumes during the Hokage candidate selection.

A tick appeared on the black-haired male's forehead. "There is nothing wrong with requesting a spar and you are the one I want to spar with."

Crystalline blue eyes stared at him coldly. "I do not have to answer to your every whim, teme. With your intent being darker than death itself, I'm sure Sakura-chan will be willing to tear you a new one as she shatters all your bones and sever all your nerves. And for the cherry on top, she can be the one in-charge of your delicate surgery and your rehabilitation to get that self-righteous stick out of your ass." She propped her arm up and rested her head against it, her countenance apathetic and authoritative. "Even though you're like a brother to me, forgiveness and trust is earned. It would also do you well to stop underestimating one of the top Shinobi of Konoha as belittling another is a sure-fire way to die. Think about it before you ask me for a spar again."

Kakashi masked a giggle with a cough when he saw Sasuke's crestfallen face when the blond beauty didn't get his intentions. Perhaps he didn't have to be annoyed at his own beloved student after all. He patted the Uchiha heir's back. "Maa, Sasuke, let Naruto do her paperwork. I'm sure Sakura is willing to practice taijutsu with you at least."

The said person grunted in defeat before he jumped out of the window he came from. Kakashi ruffled the lady's hair as he passed her, earning an irritated glare from her. He gave her an eye smile in reply, quickly pressing his masked lips on the crown on her head before jumping out of the window as well.

He couldn't help the smug smirk that appeared beneath his mask, oddly pleased with himself. At least that will give the puzzling blonde something to think about.

"Bakashi, you owe me ramen!" The embarrassed Hokage yelled. He smirked even wider, looking pointedly at his dark-haired student who probably noticed the exchange.

"Hands off, Sasuke-kun," he drawled out the last syllable, taunting his aggravated student quietly. "There are other candidates for you to choose from for the CRA."

"And if I don't?"

A grey eye peered at him lazily at him, yet sharp with killing intent as energy crackled in his right hand briefly. "Maa, I'm not quite sure…"

He didn't miss the fleeting fear in his student's eyes. Even if he was stronger than he was right now, the copycat-nin was confident that his experience would ensure that the Uchiha heir wouldn't even have a chance to strike. And he hoped fondly that Sasuke remembered the month where he ran him to the ground with training because he was willing to give it a repeat.

Is this what tough love is?

…

Training Ground 7 was an absolute wreck (although some might argue it usually is).

Mini craters were present everywhere with violent skid marks skirting around it, and shattered rubble and wood were scattered throughout the entire field. A pair lied in the middle of the disaster zone, panting breathlessly. They had limited their spar to taijutsu and kawarimi and the ability to use their chakra affinities to power their movements but in the end, they still managed to wrought havoc to the land. With an Uzumaki linage priding in stamina and a tailed beast to boost the host's regenerative ability and a lightning-type affinity, things were bound to go south.

'I feel too old for this,' the scarecrow sighed as he gauged the soreness of his limbs despite knowing that the statement was a lie. There was no way the sliver-haired Shinobi was out of practice especially when the blonde demon constantly sabotaged him into dealing with Gai's absurd physical challenges and forcing him to regularly spar with her when someone got on her nerves. He sulked when he thought about his status as advisor was being degraded into a proverbial punching bag – an opinion which amused her greatly – especially when she kept finding new ways to torture him.

The Rokudaime Hokage for one would never send him places with simple negotiations like Suna, purposefully sending Shikamaru while slipping in snippets about a handsome Suna Shinobi she saw recently. The Nara Heir probably knew that it was someone she conjured from her mind but that didn't mean it was any less effective in spurring the lazy strategist into action.

She would always hand him a negotiation mission to Iwakagure or Kirigakure with a bright smile on her face, spouting some nonsense about 'the other Jōnins having other missions to go for' or 'you are my advisor, so do your job'. He couldn't even argue because she would kick him out of her office soon after, promising that he would never see his Icha Icha series again if he didn't go; and considering her natural superb skill in Fūinjutsu, he didn't dare to consider the possibility of living without his books. He was left to deal with the cranky Tsuchikage with back problems and absolutely angsty that he was dealing with the student of the Yellow Flash, which made transmitting information Hell. While the Mizukage Terumi Mei wasn't as volatile (the irony), there were times where she tried to hit on him or bemoan the lack of partners. It was slightly more tolerable but it was still pretty bad. He wasn't sure if he was proud or terrified that the blonde Hokage had inherited his sadistic tendencies.

And as to where the prerequisite for advisors to go on negotiation missions rather than dispensing advice to the Hokage, he certainly didn't see it in the metaphorical contract that he signed. And if the other Jōnins were really unavailable, why did he see half of the Rookie 9 sitting at the dango shop, chatting with Anko Mitarashi?

"So what do you want for your birthday?" Naruto asked as she panted shallowly, snapping him out of his reverie. She groaned when she tried to move a limb, the after-effects from the vigorous spar hitting her.

Kakashi tilted his head to look at the trees, frowning when he realised the varying shades of the leaves. While it never snowed in Konoha, the leaves seemed to change with its indiscernible seasons, its vibrant green changing for reds and russet orange. "It's already the time of the year…." He mused. "And birthday presents are called presents for a reason."

The blue-eyed kunoichi sat up rapidly, wincing as she tried to muster a convincing glare. "But I don't know what to get for you, Bakashi. The last time I bought you a present, you didn't even use it."

"You bought me a book, Naruto," he reminded.

"A perfectly respectable work of fiction that is a bestseller in the Elemental Nations," she rebutted back hotly. "And you didn't even read it!"

"Blasphemy!" He mock gasped, clutching onto his heart. "Naru-chan, I didn't know you were so cruel to try and separate Icha Icha and me!"

"Stop speaking about that smut series as if it's your lover!" hissed Naruto. "Some people are already questioning your work ethnics when you read porn in public!"

Kakashi fake sobbed, squeezing out tears from his one eye. "Naru-chan, don't you want Jiraiya's works to be remembered? I'm just being a loyal fan."

Naruto chucked a rock at him. "Not like this," she assibilated. "And stop changing the subject and tell me what you want for your birthday, 'ttebane!"

"Anything."

Naruto growled at his single word answer. "So you won't complain if I sic Tora on you?"

Kakashi chuckled. "The paperwork for that D-rank mission is the bane of your existence."

She chucked another stone at the infuriating silver-haired advisor before lying down to stare at the moving clouds. After a few moments of silence, she asked again. "Honestly though what do you want?"

"I want you."

The blonde jinchūriki froze for a moment. "If this is some kind of sick joke…" she warned cautiously –

"– To be my personal maid for the entire day."

He instantaneously regretted his dirty comment when he saw Naruto's reaction.

Well shit.

Her cheeks and ears were flushed with anger as she gathered chakra in her hand, "Ka-Ka-Shi Ha-Ta-Ke." She thrilled, enunciating every syllable of his name slowly. Her cerulean blue eyes bled violet as the Rasengan began to form in her hands, wind whirling around her like a maelstrom.

His eye widened as he took in the enraged female towering over him. And then he scrambled to his feet to run, a tempestuous woman hot on his heels. He was just glad that he had previously told her to leave her set of tri-pronged kunai in the office.

…

"You need to stop denying it, kit." The Kyuubi no Kitsune intoned, looking at his host with one red eye.

The blonde jinchūriki moaned, banging her back against his orange fur, causing the nine tails that cocooned her to shift slightly, "Not you as well, Kurama."

The Bijuu barked a laugh which echoed throughout the entire sewer mindscape, briefly wondering if denial was a consistent trait within the human species. "For all the intelligence that you humans claim to possess, you really hate owning up to things. And more often than not, the only thing that complicates your desires are yourselves."

"Shut up, Kurama," Naruto grumbled. "You don't admit that you like me either."

The said fox gave her a foxy grin. "Say what you want kit, but I use actions to prove that I tolerate you at least. You, however, are stuck in a perpetual state of denial that was caused by the past that only you hold yourself to."

"And can you blame me?" She snorted, twirling her hair between her fingers.

Kurama sighed, nudging his host. "Part of the blames lies with me, kit. I do not deny fuelling your anger with poisonous words or using your hatred as a tool for me to escape. However, as someone that has been with you since you were born, you are one of the only humans that I will ever bother respecting. That Hyūga descendant has a point but you have not fully acknowledged all of it. You deny that you can be loved by that man."

"Hinata usually has a point," the blue-eyed kunoichi admitted. "But Kakashi though? Everyone in the Elemental Nations knows he's a great Shinobi and all the glory he has, a person with a destructive nature like me doesn't deserve to stand next to him."

"And why do you lie to yourself when the evidence is in front of you?" He countered, causing the jinchūriki to look at him oddly. "You are a great Shinobi – which is still a surprise to me – whose reputation is equal if not more than his. You trust him with your life and he responds in kind, so why are you making things so difficult for yourself?"

"That's different," she protested weakly while scowling. "I trust him with my life because I've spent a lot of time with him and he's just… always been there, even if he clearly didn't like something."

The fox burst out into laughter again. "I have never pried you to be so blind, but with your selective vision, I suppose I will have some quality entertainment at least. You have a lot of things to figure out Kit, and I suggest that you begin with that silver scarecrow first. It's been going on for far too long."

"I don't exactly know what you mean but whatever, 'ttebane. I'll talk to you again soon."

Kurama waved lazily as she left, settling back down. "At least she has taste."

…

When his birthday came around, he wasn't sure what to expect. His previous parties weren't really parties – it was just individual friends finding him at his usual spots and giving him presents before rounding the night off with light drinking. On worse days, he would be on a mission, fighting off dozens for his life, too concentrated on the battle to remember that it was the day he was born. On better days, he would be spending his day with his old team on the training ground, trading innocent jibes and sparring. His left eye ached when he dredged up the specific memory.

If anything, he was surprised that he survived to the age of thirty-seven. Kakashi of Sharingan was certain that he would be one of the many Shinobi that would die early in the line of duty from half of the things he did. He never expected his broken psyche to carry him so far despite the suicidal and long-term infiltration missions that he took on in the past to distract himself.

"You're probably surprised as well, Rin, Obito." He said after he thought about the entire situation critically. In his mind's eye, he could see an older version of Rin with longer brown hair and her arms crossed behind her back as she leaned forward, giving him her humbled smile. She would giggle as she watched Obito sling his arm around his shoulder, congratulating for finally reaching thirty-seven.

A familiar figure suddenly stood beside him, cloak fluttering as she placed a bouquet filled with an assortment of flowers in front of the memorial stone and clapped her hands to pray. The figures of his old teammates dissipated as he focused at her impassively, watching her lips moving quickly as she murmured her respects to the dead once more.

This time, he takes the initiative as well when she drops her hands to her side to reach out for his, meeting in the middle of the space between them. Fingers interlock easily as he feels the friction of her calloused skin against his, eye-smiling at her when she turned to look at him in surprise. She doesn't say anything as she inches closer to him, arms brushing, and they just stand there, their eyes scanning the list of names carved into smooth stone for the thousandth time.

"I need to get to the office," she mumbled reluctantly, letting his hand go.

Before she broke apart from his warmth, fingers curled around her hand again. "I'll walk you there," he stated, squeezing her hand once before pulling her forward as they trekked towards the red tower.

The streets were quiet as the activities of the day had barely begun and they take comfort in the rare silence. He doesn't admit it but it feels nice to steal her attention away from her duties for once, just concentrating on how their hands swing back forth slowly and their incongruous footsteps light on the soil pavement. They arrive at their destination too soon and they separate, but not before she initiated a hug with dusted cheeks, saying a soft 'Happy Birthday'. She settled herself comfortably in her chair afterwards, summoning another clone to sort out the papers with her. The copycat-nin settled in an inconspicuous corner of the room and started reading his Icha Icha Paradise.

The day passes in a laissez-faire way with nothing too unexpected. Sakura was the first to burst into the Hokage Office with her present, insisting that he accept the advanced compact medic kit especially with his recent run-in with the hospital. He thanked her graciously with a hug and the pink-haired kunoichi disappeared out of the door soon after to go for her hospital shift.

Sasuke arrived a few minutes after his previous student, tossing him a tanto from his own clan's armoury. He whistles softly as the finely-carved and maintained blade although there was barely any thought behind his gift. Weapons were hardly even counted as gift to any ninja – it was a pure necessity – but he remembered that a long time ago he mentioned that his own tanto had broke on a mission. It had been an ANBU-issued one and it felt weird to stride back into the compound to retrieve another one; and Kenjutsu had always been linked to one of the darker moments in his life. He repeats his thanks and he doesn't bother to hide his amusement when he sees the dark-haired heir walk towards direction of the hospital.

The silver-haired elite Jōnin closed his eyes briefly, images of his three students flashing. Nothing particularly distinct pops up in his mind other than a familiar fondness and perhaps nothing could be more perfect than the fact that his team was together again, rising through their ranks with their own power and all capable of protecting themselves. He realized that sometimes the simplest things can bring him peace; yet it would be the same things that would probably tear him into irreversible pieces. Should one of them die, he would probably follow. He opened his eye to gaze at the blonde lady, resolution forming in his mind. She notices his stare and cocks her head to side curiously but he just shakes his head and goes back to reading.

They don't have to hold that conversation, but he thinks that's okay.

Later that evening, Naruto dragged him towards Yakiniku Q that was specially reserved for the occasion. The owner was more than willing to close the shop for the day, she tells him with a smile and he jumps slightly when confetti showered over him.

The party passed in a blur as the presents pile up in the corner of the room. The fifteenth and sixteenth generation of the InoShikaChō trio paid for the food collectively and the Inuzuka gave him a bone necklace which signified that he was eternally an ally to them. Shino and Sai invested more in crafts, gifting him a pair of gloves and a calligraphy set respectively. The Hyūga gave him a case worth of tea explaining that it helped with strained eyes and thanked them apprehensively. While he appreciated the sentiment, the way Hinata shoved box into his stomach a tad bit too hard, her lilac eyes glinting with unsaid warnings was quite unsettling.

Lee and Gai gave him yet another set of weights with a bone-crushing manly hug. His oxygen-deprived face quickly became the joke of the party and he couldn't help but roll his eyes. Tenten followed up by giving him the most elaborate set-up of weapons and the seal work had him awe. He praised her improving skills but he doesn't miss the flash of emptiness that he recognises all too well. He doesn't really offer her any comfort because he knows te truth – only time and company would help her, but like him, she can never bring herself to forget.

Kurenai brought her child, who possessed the likeliness of Sarutobi Asuma along to the party to meet him. And the child with all his innocence, hugged and thanked him. He couldn't help the guilt that pinched him when he recalled how the event went down, knowing that no child should ever have to grow up without their parents. It reminded him of his deceased mother that he regrettably never knew well and his father who committed suicide in guilt. He doesn't feel the pain of losing them as deeply as he had years before but he still knows the choking loneliness like a mother knew her child. Unconsciously, he hugged the child even tighter, mentally wishing that he would never ever have to lose another person close to him. Even if it was a foolish wish in this line of work, he still hoped.

He doesn't realise how tired he was until he sits down on his own couch at the end of the night. The blue-eyed lady smirked in amusement while she sat on his kitchen table, her legs swinging while she watched the silver-haired Shinobi stare at the ceiling.

"So where's my present?" asked Kakashi lazily.

Naruto merely looked her own nails uncharacteristically. "You never told me what you wanted."

The sliver-haired male laughed, pushing himself off the couch as he walked towards her with deliberate slowness, his grey eye glinting dangerously. "I did tell you what I wanted," he corrected, "you passed it off as a joke if I recalled."

Cerulean blue eyes widened in surprise, "you can't be serious, 'ttebane."

He positioned his arms on either side of her body and he met her shocked gaze at an equal level. "While the idea of a Hokage being at my beck and call for an entire day sounds appealing, I was referring to first line I said." He clasped her left hand under his. "And even if it's just once," he murmured quietly, wisps of sake apparent, "let me speak what I truly feel for my birthday. Even if you don't feel the same, we'll just forget it after today."

She couldn't tear her eyes from his hypnotic gaze and her right hand lifted the hitat-ate that obstructed his transplanted eye. "And if I say no to whatever you're saying?"

The Sharingan eye glowed in the darkness of the night, unwavering as it recorded the entire moment. He shrugged. "Maa, I guess I'll have to try again next year."

She doesn't know why her voice sounded so foreign to her. "Then out with it."

His grip on her hand tightened as if trying to convey the conviction in his words. "I want you. Not as a student, not as a friend. I find myself wanting you desperately and I don't think I can let you go. I just want Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto because I realise that I love her."

She blinked away her tears, not caring if his face was impossibly close. "You can't be serious," she croaked out again. "Why would you love me when there are others?"

He nodded pensively. "But I am." His left hand brushed away the stray tear that fell from her eyes. "I love the Rokudaime Hokage that is impossibly beautiful inside and out—"he brushed a stray lock of hair back—"who made me believe that maybe, there was much more to life than dwelling on the dead. I" His breath fanned her cheeks. "I love her because she's unpretentious, hardworking and over the top. I love her because she has the capacity to care for so many people, capable of standing up whenever she fell and I love her because she is no one else."

Her tears start spilling although she tried to make it stop, feeling overwhelmed by the confession she thought she would never hear. "This isn't even supposed to be my birthday," she whispered hoarsely, shaking off his grip and snaking her arms around his neck.

The copycat-nin took a second to register her response before his arms wrap around her slender waist, pulling her off the table and closer towards him. "Is… Is that a yes?" He asked hesitantly.

"For someone so confident just now," Naruto babbled through her tears, "you're awfully stupid. I'm telling you I love you as well, 'ttebane. I love you despite your tardiness and your public smut reading sessions and your sadistic tendencies, Bakashi."

They stumble backwards and onto the couch while they were still in their embrace and the blonde lady immediately took to straddling his lap. They soaked in every feature of the other, their eyes roving and seeking before they met. Her right hand shifted towards his masked face and she traced the scar that marked his Sharingan eye before ending at the edge of his mask, her expression quizzical.

He tightened his hold on her waist as a reply, and slowly, she dragged down the mask like she had wanted to for so long. She gasped as she committed his rugged features to her memory, her fingers caressing his high cheekbones and his nose. Other than the prominent scar, his face was flawless. His jaw line wasn't as sharp as she had imagined and he certainly didn't have any blip lips or buck tooth. A perfect set of white teeth peeked out from thin, parted lips, harmonious with the rest of his face along with the beauty mark that lied beneath.

Unable to take the silence and tension, he moved forward and captured her lips with his, holding one of her hands to his face. He closed his eyes just as she does, enjoying the moment as they kissed, starting with a few chaste ones to test the waters before it developed into one full of passion and longing, lips latched onto one another. Her hands grab onto soft, gravity-defying silver hair and her hips roll against his, eliciting a delightful groan from him. One of his hands pressed against her lower back to move her closer while the other explored the curvature of her ass beneath the cloak, smirking against her lips when she squealed from the contact.

Sometimes they don't need words to assure one another, especially when they became so much more. His eager lips latched onto her tan neck, sucking and kissing every possible surface while he pushed off the cloak that she wore. She tilted her head and moved her hair aside to give him more access as she fumbled with his flak jacket, cursing the inventor of steel buttons for making it so complicated.

He chuckled breathlessly as he aided her with the last few buttons. She growled, her eyes flashing red for a moment before she claimed his lips again.

They definitely didn't need words.

…

"Who won the bet again?" Ino grumbled as she drank her cup of coffee while nursing her hangover.

"Hinata, Temari and I did," Shikamaru answered triumphantly.

The blonde kunoichi groaned in pain as she remembered all the money she lost, "That bet is was too heavy for my heart."

The Nara Heir almost cackled at her misery.

The aforementioned bet happened four years ago when Lee noticed Kakashi and Naruto standing together in front of the memorial stone (and wisely kept quiet and changed his running route the next day) within the Rookie 9, excluding Sakura who couldn't keep a secret from her team even if her life depended on it.

All of them chipped in a 1000 ryo, adding another 1000 ryo every year to the pool. They were allowed to change their bets under the condition they paid a 1000 ryo fine. With two-emotionally stunted people who were denser than the Earth, everyone saw the attraction between the two except the two. The relationship constantly danced around the brink, taunting and mocking, it caused the dates that they bet on to change a lot.

And somehow, even the other Jōnins and Chūnins in their social circles came to know about it (even their parents) and they bet accordingly to the year that they joined. It even went to the extent where Shinobi from other villages started betting when they saw the couple (including the other Kages) and all in all, there was a lot of money in the betting pool.

It was the reasons why the two winners walked with a skip in their step as they walked away with the prize money because they had betted on the day after Kakashi's birthday. While they technically got together on his birthday, the bet explicitly stated that it had to be the day where they announced it either by their body language – verified by experts – or verbally. From Inoichi's perspective, even if he was begrudging to admit it, he just regretted not sneaking into the sliver-haired Shinobi's house to confirm it the day before so he could have a dip in the prize money.

But then he considered the need to spend the money on bleach and decided it wasn't worth it.

This story was very much inspired by Making Arrangements by CrownofLaurels and Shinobi Rules by Squishfie. I didn't think that I would spawn a word monster when I first started out this fanfic. But in a sense, I loved this piece of mine (no matter how much of a torture it was at times) because it allowed me to write a farewell scene to Jiraiya (I've always hated the fact that his body was never retrieved), develop Hinata's character and portray a mellowed out/sassy/slightly angsty Female Naruto that I've always imagined. Writing about two people who were dense as shit was surprisingly fun.

So… Leave a review and tell me what you think and maybe I'll get into one of the Fem!NaruKaka communities I've been stalking intensely ;)