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"Argh, damn that Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto groaned. "How can he be late to his own office?"
"You know he's always been like that," Sakura said with a helpless shrug.
"But he's the Hokage now! You think he'd learn to be a little more responsible, ya know!"
Sakura's expression became scornful. "Really, Naruto, you're someone to talk about being responsible!"
"What?" Offended (and not wanting to admit she had a point), Naruto slapped a hand to his chest. "Come on, Sakura-chan, give me some credit. I'm super responsible!"
"Yeah, if you mean responsible for all the trouble that happens in the village."
"I mean responsible for saving the whole shinobi world!"
Naruto regretted his words the instant Sakura seized his ear and leaned in to shout at him, her voice shrieking like a siren. "Oh right, because you totally did that all by yourself, huh, you big goldfish brain?"
"Ow, ow, Sakura-chan! That hurts, it hurts, ya know," Naruto whined.
After a while she let go of his ear, though he was sure it'd be sore all day. Scowling, he rubbed his ear and glanced around the office. Kakashi had called Team 7 here this morning, and now the sun was shining bright in the sky and the Hokage's chair at the desk remained unoccupied.
In a way, Naruto was glad Kakashi remained the same as he always had, but that didn't mean he had to like waiting around in this dreary place. It looked just the same as when Tsunade had occupied it, down to the towering stacks of paperwork on the desk. The portraits of the previous Hokages glowered sternly down at him. Naruto shifted from side to side, feeling uncomfortable.
"Geez, Naruto, you look like you have to use the bathroom," Sakura complained. "You're just like a little kid."
"The bathroom's down the hall, take the second left," Sai supplied helpfully.
"I don't need to use the bathroom, damn it!" Sometimes it felt like those two just liked ganging up on him. Sighing, Naruto began to pace circles around the office, glancing around in boredom, even though there wasn't much to see. Just boring books and scrolls and maps and writing supplies on the shelves.
Kakashi had added some personal touches, though; one whole shelf was dedicated to the entire Make-Out Tactics series with the books all arranged out of order, and he'd put up photographs of him with Team 7 and Guy-sensei. Naruto smiled fondly at the last photograph that he, Sakura, and Sasuke had taken together. It stood next to the old one where he and Sasuke had been glaring at each other. How much things had changed....
This couldn't amuse Naruto for long, though. Another five minutes passed, judging by the ever-ticking wall clock. Kakashi still didn't show. Even Sakura had started fidgeting. Only Sai remained as calm as ever, but Naruto could've sworn he saw a slight twitch to his eyebrow. Or maybe he was just imagining things.
As Naruto's pacing carried him around the desk, a brilliant idea struck him. Grinning, he reached for the desk drawer and pulled it open.
Sakura looked ready to have an aneurysm. "Na-ruuu-toooooo! What do you think you're doing?"
"Granny Tsunade used to keep some really interesting things in here, ya know," Naruto said. "Like her old lottery tickets and betting sheets....wonder what secrets Kakashi-sensei's hiding?"
"That stuff is only interesting to you!" But even as Sakura scolded him, she moved a little closer. Sai walked over to him as well, though his expression remained as bland as ever.
Unfortunately, Kakashi's drawer was a lot less interesting than Tsunade's. Just a bunch of boring official papers. Naruto was giving up on finding anything interesting when he reached the bottom, but then he saw it - a bunch of photographs, old, faded, unframed.
"Hey, hey, check this out!" He picked them up and started sorting through them. These were photos he'd never seen before - in fact, they all seemed to be of Kakashi's younger days. There were pictures of him in his ANBU uniform, pictures with Obito and Rin, even a couple that must have been from his Academy days, which mostly consisted of him looking bored while a young Guy made ridiculous faces at the camera.
The pictures were worn and frayed at the edges - they had obviously been handled a lot. Naruto gulped, for the first time feeling like he had perhaps gone too far in invading Kakashi-sensei's privacy.
"There's your parents," Sai said suddenly, and Naruto stood still as he stared down into his mother's and father's smiling faces. They were leaning close to each other, and Minato had his hand on Kushina's round belly.
Something went tight in Naruto's chest. "And me," he said quietly.
He didn't know if he wanted to stare at the photo until it was burned in his memory, or if he wanted to put it away and forget he'd ever started rummaging through Kakashi's things. He thought he'd gotten to see every picture there was of his parents, but he'd never seen this one before. They looked so joyous, so full of dreams for their upcoming family.
"Have you had enough?" Sakura hissed over his shoulder. "Naruto - "
"What's this?" Sai picked up the last photograph in the drawer and Sakura broke into mindless sputtering. Probably because she hadn't expected him to get drawn into this game too.
Glad for a distraction, Naruto squinted at it. It was one of the ANBU pictures, but unlike the others it didn't show Kakashi alone or as part of a group. He was standing with his hand on the shoulder of an unfamiliar shinobi.
"Who's that girl?" Naruto wondered. "She's kinda cute."
"Wow," Sakura said, her voice dripping with enough sarcasm to drown a small city, "you're so desperate, Naruto. You know she's got to be Kakashi-sensei's age now, right?"
"Eh?" Naruto rubbed his chin, frowning. "I feel like I'd have met her, though...she looks really close with Kakashi-sensei."
"Oh." Sakura's eyes widened. "Then it couldn't be...."
"Yeah, probably," Naruto said, solemn once more. Yet another person who Kakashi had lost - though he'd never known his sensei had once had a girlfriend. Besides Rin, maybe? Naruto wasn't too clear on how that whole deal had worked out and Kakashi sure wasn't telling.
"There's so much we don't about Kakashi-sensei, hmm?" Sakura looked thoughtful. "He had a girlfriend...that's kind of romantic. In a sad way, I guess."
"Say, doesn't she look kind of like Yamato-senpai?" Sai piped up.
Naruto stared at the photo in disbelief. "Really? No way, Captain Yamato's scary, this girl's cute."
"It's her eyes, I think," Sai said.
"Now that you mention it, I do see a resemblance," Sakura said.
"Huh?" The gears in Naruto's mind turned wildly. "So you think - maybe Captain Yamato had a sister? You were in ANBU too, Sai, did you know - "
Sai shook his head. "No idea. Besides, Root shinobi never know our own families. We're taken in when we're young and raised without any attachments."
"Maybe it's just a coincidence," Sakura said, frowning.
"Or! Or! Maybe!" An entire story was starting to spin together in Naruto's mind. "She was his long-lost sister! And neither of them knew and then she died on a mission and Captain Yamato didn't know she was his sister but he felt some kind of connection to her and that's how he and Kakashi-sensei became close, ya know!"
Sakura and Sai were both staring at him like he'd eaten something weird, or left the house wearing his underpants on the outside.
"Naruto, you've been watching too many soap operas, haven't you?" Sakura said, her mouth twitching. "Maybe you should stop visiting Ino? Just a thought."
"But - but they're so good! And they always end on a cliffhanger so I gotta come back to find out what happens - "
Sai smiled his fake smile. "That's quite an imagination you have," and the passive-aggressiveness in his voice could have roasted Naruto alive.
"Okay, okay, maybe I got ahead of myself." Embarrassed, Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "But it's not like you guys could've come up with a better story...."
"Is that what we're doing?" Sakura leaned toward him, hands on her hips. "Making up stories based on old photos? Grow up, Naruto! And put that away. I'm sure Kakashi-sensei will be here soon."
Naruto heaved a sigh, but he had to admit she had a point. Kakashi-sensei had kept these photos in the drawer for a reason - surely he never had intended for his nosy students to lay eyes on them. Feeling a stab of guilt, Naruto quickly buried the photos back under the papers and shut the drawer.
But Sakura had been worrying about nothing, because it took Kakashi another thirty minutes to show up.
All Kakashi had wanted, it turned out, was to treat his old team to some ramen. Seemed kind of overkill for him to call them to the Hokage's office, but Naruto wasn't complaining.
All through lunch, though, he had been unable to stop thinking about Kakashi-sensei's mysterious girlfriend. Okay, maybe she wasn't his girlfriend and just some random ANBU. But why would Kakashi take a picture with her? And they looked way closer than mere colleagues; Kakashi'd had a hand on her shoulder and they'd been leaning toward each other. Any closer and they'd have been just like his parents in that photo.
Naruto had found out a lot about Kakashi's past, but he couldn't believe his sensei still had a secret like this in store. Even though he knew he ought to leave it well enough alone, he couldn't stop burning with curiosity.
Imagine that! Kakashi-sensei had dated at some time in his life! Naruto found it almost as hard to picture as Guy-sensei dating.
And it had a tragic ending, too - it had to have. Okay, so it wasn't like Naruto knew all of the shinobi who were in ANBU, but he had the feeling that if this girl was still around Kakashi would have at least introduced her to his students by now.
Was she another grave that Kakashi visited every morning? The thought filled Naruto with the same painful ache he felt when he thought about his parents.
"Hey, guys, I have a great idea," he said one afternoon when he had nothing else to do. "Let's find out more about Kakashi-sensei's girlfriend!"
Sakura, of course, reacted with scorn. "Haven't you had enough poking into Kakashi-sensei's personal life?"
"Naruto, if you're bored you should perhaps watch more soap operas," Sai said with sincere concern.
"I can't! The season ended!" Naruto wailed. "Now I gotta wait who knows how long to see if Tomako and Sousuke get back together - but that's beside the point! Look, I was just thinking, Kakashi-sensei's like an old man now and he's still single. Wouldn't it be great if we could set him up with a lady?"
Sakura blinked, once, twice. Triumph surged inside Naruto - he knew he'd gotten her now.
"So we should find out more about his girlfriend, so we know what kind of lady he likes, ya know," Naruto finished with a bright grin.
"You've put some thought into this, haven't you?" Sakura almost sounded impressed. Almost.
"But where will we even start?" Sai mused. "We can't ask him directly...."
"Sai, are you sure you don't remember someone like that from when you were in ANBU?"
"Naruto, I would have been a kid at that time, so no, I don't," Sai stated as calmly and cordially as he always did, but with an unmistakable condescending lilt, like he was trying to explain a very simple concept to a very stupid child.
Which pissed Naruto off, but...well, Sai was right. Which left them back on square one.
Then a new idea occurred to him, and all his confidence returned. "Then we could ask Captain Yamato! He's got to know the same people as Kakashi-sensei, right? Even if he doesn't know she was his sister or whatever."
"That story exists only in your head," Sakura grumbled.
"That is true," Sai said, tilting his head. "If Kakashi-sensei was dating anybody, Yamato-senpai would know. They were on the same team in ANBU, after all."
"All right, sounds like a plan!" Naruto pumped his fist. "Let's get this mission on the road!"
Both Sakura and Sai looked less than impressed. "Since when was this a mission?" Sakura sighed, shaking her head.
It took some searching around the village, but Naruto finally found Yamato supervising a couple of ninjas who were putting up a new building. Since he had nothing better to do, Naruto decided to pitch in.
Thanks to his shadow clones, they got done in record time, and Naruto got his chance to shake down Yamato for some answers. As they sat down on a bench with sodas for refreshment, Naruto said, "Say, say, Captain Yamato, I've got a question to ask you."
"A question? What is it?" Yamato blinked at him, and Naruto had to admit his resemblance to Kakashi's girlfriend was uncanny. Still, he thought it'd be rather rude to ask if Yamato had a sister, and besides if Sai was right they wouldn't even have known they were related anyway.
"It's about Kakashi-sensei, ya know," Naruto said, trying to fake casual as took another sip from his soda.
"Kakashi-senpai?"
"Yeah, uh...." Damn, this was proving more awkward than Naruto expected. It was kind of embarrassing to talk about grown-ups' love affairs, wasn't it? But, he reminded himself, he was doing this for Kakashi-sensei.
"You know, back when he was in ANBU...did he ever have a girlfriend?"
The next thing Naruto knew a stream of soda sprayed him in the face. Screeching, he jumped off the bench, but not in time to keep himself from getting drenched. "Eww, gross," he whined, trying to wipe the sticky mess off with his hands.
"Sorry, sorry, Naruto," Yamato said when he was done coughing and wiping his mouth. "It's just - I - what would make you ask that?"
His incredulous grin made Naruto suddenly feel very stupid. Had he completely misjudged the situation? But a guy and girl didn't touch each other like that if they weren't dating, right? "I just, I was just curious...," he mumbled, not wanting to confess that he'd been rummaging through the Hokage's personal things.
"Ha ha, I suppose you are the age when you get curious about these kinds of things. But as far as I know, Kakashi-senpai has never had a girlfriend. It's kind of hard to imagine, isn't it?"
"Yeah," Naruto said glumly. He wouldn't have been able to imagine it if it weren't for that stinkin' picture. Then what explained it, if she wasn't Kakashi's girlfriend?
Or maybe - a new thought struck Naruto like a lightning bolt - he'd kept her secret? Maybe their romance was forbidden? Then why would they have a picture? Somebody had to have taken it.... Or, wait, some cameras came with automatic timer things, and damn, Naruto couldn't believe how much brainpower he was dedicating to this. But he was curious.
Worse, Yamato was still laughing like Naruto had told the funniest joke in the world. "Kakashi-senpai, with a girlfriend? I'd feel sorry for her every day!"
"Okay, okay, I get it!" Naruto yelled, flinging up his arms. "Forget I ever asked."
"What made you ask, though?" Yamato said, and there was definitely a twinkle in those terrifying eyes of his. "Could it be, Naruto, you have someone - "
"No way! You've got the total wrong idea, ya know!"
Okay, so the first part of the mission had ended in failure, but that didn't mean he had to give up. Yamato might not know about Kakashi's secret romance, but that didn't mean there weren't other people who did.
It was Sakura who came up with the idea. "Guy-sensei! They're best friends, aren't they? They know each other well, so I'm sure he must have confided in Guy."
"Yeah, and even if he didn't," Naruto said, excited, "Bushy Brows-sensei has to have guessed something! He's just that sorta guy!"
So that was why he and Sakura had come to visit Guy's apartment under the pretext of giving him some gifts. Already Naruto couldn't wait to be gone; the place reeked of sweat and those green jumpsuits hanging up everywhere were giving him the creeps. If they didn't get out of here soon, it'd only be a matter of time before he and Sakura found themselves in the selfsame jumpsuits doing five thousand one-handed pushups.
Unfortunately, Guy's reaction to their question dashed all of Naruto's hopes. He tossed his head back and laughed uproariously. "Kakashi, with a girlfriend? Never! It's unfortunate, but no girl would have any sort of interest in a gloomy guy like him. No, women like youthful vigor, powerful muscles, strong features, and hot-blooded passion!"
With that, he winked and flashed a thumbs-up. The air seemed to sparkle around him.
"Great....Bushy Brows-sensei, have you ever had a girlfriend?" Naruto sighed, pressing his palm to his cheek.
"Now, now, now!" Guy's entire face turned red. "This isn't something to discuss with children!"
So Guy really had no idea. This was a waste of time, so they'd better get out of here quick. Naruto darted a longing glance to the door and began running through excuses to leave. But before he could speak, Sakura asked, "Then, Guy-sensei, do you know what kind of girl Kakashi-sensei likes?"
"Huh?" Naruto bent down to whisper in Sakura's ear. "Sakura-chan, what are you going on about? We gotta get out of here!"
"Idiot," Sakura whispered back. "We're not doing this to find out who that girl is, we're doing it to find a new girlfriend for Kakashi-sensei!"
Well...she was right...but Naruto had hoped to be able to satisfy his curiosity too.
"Hmm." Guy's voice, low and contemplative, snatched Naruto's attention. The bushy-browed sensei was rubbing his chin, looking deep in thought. "Hm. Let me see. He did once say...he likes long hair?"
Sakura turned pink. "Just like Sasuke-kun, then?"
"But as for me, it's not the girl's appearance that matters most! No, no, no! For a woman to be worthy of Might Guy, the Green Beast of Konoha, she must be exploding with passion! With vigor! With youth! Yes, her youth must shine brighter than the stars themselves!"
Yeah, Naruto was certain Guy had never had a girlfriend.
A week passed, and they couldn't scrounge up much more information than that. Naruto felt like he'd interrogated almost every adult in the village around Kakashi's age. He'd even once sought out some ANBU members only to have them run away laughing like hyenas.
Naruto was feeling very defeated indeed as he joined Sakura and Sai in Ichiraku.
"We didn't even find out that much about the kind of girl he likes," Sakura sighed, listlessly stirring her noodles with her chopsticks. "All we got was what Guy-sensei told us, and that's not terribly helpful."
"That's right, there are a lot of girls in this village with long hair," Sai mused. "For example, there's Ino, and also Hinata Hyuuga - "
Naruto didn't know why, but he felt a spark of rage upon hearing Hinata's name as a candidate for Kakashi's girlfriend. "No way! No, no, no! And double no!"
"No what, Naruto?"
The familiar drawl sent ice crawling down Naruto's spine. Slowly, all his joints creaking with effort, Naruto turned around and found himself staring at the Hokage himself, in the seat just one down from his.
You could hear a pin drop.
"Wh-when did you get here, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto shrieked, almost falling off his seat.
"F-fancy seeing you here too," Sakura said, high and breathless. "Want to join us for some ramen?"
"I was looking for you kids, actually," Kakashi said, tilting up the brim of his Hokage hat. "You see, I've been hearing some very interesting things from the villagers...."
"Like what? Are there rogue ninja on the loose? Just let me at 'em and you won't have to worry about a thing, ya know!" Naruto slammed his fist into his palm with rather too much enthusiasm.
"No, no, nothing of the sort...how should I say this...." Kakashi sighed. "It seems you've been going around pestering people about my love life."
It was like a giant stone had fallen from the sky and crushed Naruto's head. So - so - so Kakashi-sensei had found out. And...he didn't seem terribly happy about it.
I guess we can say goodbye to the mission, Naruto managed to think through his internal screaming.
"Well, we weren't exactly subtle, were we?" Sai said, as usual unable to read the mood. "If you think about it, it was only a matter of time. We were asking the adults who are the closest to Kakashi-sensei, so it stands to reason they'd eventually tell him."
"So where did this come from? Could it be my students are worried because of my age and they want me to settle down with a nice wife?"
Kakashi's tone was light and teasing, and Sakura started nodding vigorously. "Yes, yes, that's it exactly, sorry if we were too forward about it, sensei, but we just were looking out for you - "
It took Naruto a moment, but he caught on. Yeah, this way they wouldn't have to reveal they'd been snooping. "Yeah, yeah! We just want you to get married, ya know!"
"Good grief, I'm not that old yet," Kakashi sighed. "I appreciate your concern, but it's nothing you should worry about. Maybe I'll get married, maybe I won't. It should be my choice, shouldn't it?"
Naruto couldn't deny the wisdom of those words. "Yeah, sorry, sensei...."
"Now, now, it's kind of flattering to know that my nosy little students care that much."
Okay, good, the situation was under control. The mission was a bust, but at least they'd settled things with Kakashi. Naruto vowed to just forget about the girl in the photo and keep his questions about her to the realm of his imagination.
"But what gave you the impression I had a girlfriend when I was in ANBU?"
Naruto was glad he hadn't been eating at the time, because he would have definitely choked on his noodles. Sounded like Sakura wasn't so lucky, though.
"Er, um, you see, that is...." Naruto furiously rubbed the back of his head. Oh, he was so, so bad at this kind of thing! Why couldn't Sakura finish coughing and hacking soon so she could take over? And Sai, that unhelpful jerk, was just sitting there watching. "We kinda...we heard rumors...."
"Hm." Kakashi blinked. "From who?"
Sweat rolled down Naruto's neck like a waterfall. Sakura didn't seem ready to stop choking and Sai didn't seem ready to start talking. Shit, it's all on me now. I gotta, I hafta, I need to make something up!
"Naruto....." Naruto did not like the way Kakashi drew out the syllables of his name. "You look like you're trying your hardest to come up with a lie. Is there something I should know?"
The sound Naruto let out was not meant for human ears to hear. He could've sworn Kurama groaned a complaint somewhere inside him. But still - still -
"Don't play dumb! You were in a photo with her, weren't you!" he screamed, jumping on top of his stool. "When you were in ANBU!"
Behind him he heard Sakura choke and sputter again. Meanwhile Kakashi blinked as innocent as a deer at him. "What photo?"
"You know what I'm talking about! That chick - "
"Chick?"
"He means girl. It's slang, you see," Sai explained.
If anything, Kakashi just looked more confused. "What girl? Oh, do you mean Yugao? What about her?"
"Not her! I know what she looks like, she's got purple hair, right? The girl in the photo, she had long brown hair!"
"Her face looked somewhat like Yamato-senpai's," Sai added. "Come to think of it, she was wearing a forehead protector like his too. Could it be Yamato-senpai had a sister?"
"Cough cough hack stop hack!" Sakura wailed into her bowl, but nobody listened to her.
"A sister?" Kakashi rubbed his chin. "I've never heard about anything like that."
"You were, like, touching her! Being lovey dovey, ya know!" Naruto continued yelling. "We got you, Kakashi-sensei, so quit lying about your girlfriend!"
More foolish blinking from Kakashi. Then he sat up straighter and lifted a finger. "Ah, you must be talking about Tenzo."
"Tenzo? As in - as in Captain Yamato?" To his embarrassment, Naruto's voice came out a squeal.
"Yes, that's right, I took a picture with him shortly after he joined my team." Kakashi continued to look thoughtful. "He did have long hair back then, didn't he...."
"No...no way." Naruto's jaw dropped open. He wasn't the only one; Sakura had finally surfaced from her bowl with a dazed expression like she'd been hit in the head, and even Sai's eyes had widened. "No way. So that - that cute girl - is Captain Yamato? Seriously?"
The full realization of what he'd done crashed down on him. Clutching his face, he screeched, "I thought Captain Yamato was a cute girl! I thought he was Kakashi-sensei's girlfriend! Agghhhhh!"
Even beneath his screaming, he could hear Sakura rapidly apologizing. "Sensei, we're sorry, we're sorry! Naruto just got all sorts of crazy ideas and he just - we got dragged into it - "
"What, so I'm the fall guy now? You were interested too, ya know!"
"By the way," Kakashi said, and there was no mistaking the fake cheer brightening his voice. "I have to wonder. Wherever did you kids find this photo? As far as I remember, I don't have it on display in my office...."
Oh, crap.
What Naruto wouldn't give to be somebody, anybody else at this very moment.
Being the Hokage could get quite tiresome at times, Kakashi thought as he headed back into his office. Not for the first time, he swore he was going to spend the rest of his life relaxing at a hot spring after he retired.
For now that was just a far-off fantasy. Kakashi sighed, not without fondness, as he opened the door. Those kids. It had been kind of cute seeing them like that - reminded him of the old days, when they kept trying to come up with schemes to see his face. Seemed like they'd graduated from that to something a little more pernicious.
Well, he was certain none of them would even think about snooping in his private belongings for a long, long time. He hoped.
A whole new stack of paperwork greeted him when he went inside, but Yamato was there too, as the Hokage's bodyguard. He really had come a long way from the boy Kakashi had met so long ago.
Kakashi wasn't one to reminisce much about the good old days, but who could blame him? His...conversation...with the kids had left him more than a little nostalgic.
"Welcome back, Hokage-sama," Yamato said, ducking into a slight bow. Kakashi sighed.
"No need to be so formal. It's kind of unsettling, especially if it's us, you know?"
"Of course, Senpai." Yamato quickly straightened and flashed Kakashi a smile. He walked closer to the desk as Kakashi sat down. "By the way, why were you gone for so long?"
"Dealing with a certain problem...."
"Problem?"
"Well, I don't believe those kids will go around pestering people about my dating life anymore." Kakashi ran a hand through his hair and gazed up at the ceiling. "So it's all good."
"That's a relief. I was wondering why Naruto was suddenly so interested in something like that."
"He just happened to get the wrong impression. Seems like he was snooping around and found that old picture of the two of us. Remember? When you first joined Team Ro." Kakashi turned toward Yamato with a twinkle in his eyes. "Seems he thought you were my girlfriend, Tenzo."
"What?" Yamato's entire face flooded red and Kakashi was amazed steam didn't start shooting out of his ears.
"Not to worry, he said you were a cute girl."
Yamato turned even redder. "This - that - it's not - Senpai - "
"You were pretty cute back then, actually." Some part of Kakashi felt bad for this, but most of him found too much fun in teasing Yamato. "Why don't you try growing your hair out again?"
"Kakashi-senpai!" Kakashi couldn't make out the rest of what Yamato said; it was just incoherent sputtering.
"Of course, you're fine just the way you are, Tenzo. No matter what, you'll always be my adorable junior," Kakashi said, finishing with a wink.
Oh, it'd been a while since Kakashi had seen Yamato blush like this. He actually turned away and hid his face behind a hand, and Kakashi's spirits shot higher than Mount Hokage.
Sometimes one had to take joy in the simple things in life.
"Senpai, you've always been like this. Such a bully," Yamato groaned into his hand. "Honestly, you...."
"Can't help it when you're just too cute," Kakashi didn't say so much as purr. "Say, are you free tonight, Tenzo?"
It had been a while, after all. Being the Hokage kept one really busy.
"Ahem. Excuse me." Yamato coughed officiously and straightened. Most of the blush was gone by now, but two spots of color remained in his cheeks. "Don't you have work to do, Hokage-sama?"
Well, Kakashi supposed, if he finished his work quickly he'd get to spend more time with Yamato. A date with his "girlfriend," he supposed, and it took all of his training as a shinobi to keep himself from giggling at that.
Unfortunately, first he had to get through his date with this giant mound of paperwork.