Those Little Moments (Hatake Kakashi)

12

Kakashi and I returned to his apartment and immediately I asked to go to Naruto's place.

"I would've thought you'd be tired by now."

I hadn't noticed until he'd said it, but making my new friend had drained me of a lot of energy. "I have enough energy, I swear."

Kakashi's expression didn't waver, but he acquiesced, and soon we were at Naruto's door with the sun setting behind us.

"Emiko-oba-chan! What are you doing here?" Naruto exclaimed when he saw us at the door.

I grinned at him, ruffling his hair. "I need to make sure your living space is up to standard, don't I? Also, I'm not that old."

"You're my aunt, though." Naruto shrugged, though I felt myself smiling at the remark. "How come you're here too, Kakashi-sensei?"

"I'm in charge of making sure she doesn't get in trouble." As I looked over, I saw that Kakashi had his nose in one of those books and almost started laughing again. 

"Are you gonna let me in, Naruto?" I asked. He nodded, and as I followed him into his apartment, my jaw dropped. Turning to Kakashi, I glared at him and punched him in the face (gently, kind of). "Hatake! How can you let my precious nephew live in such a dump?! As his sensei, you should be aware of his wellbeing!"

I felt immensely satisfied that I got that punch I'd missed earlier, especially witnessing Naruto snickering at his sensei, and as Kakashi nursed his cheek, still deadpan, I got to work. Hundreds of empty ramen packets were thrown out, I cleaned all his dishes, the counter, and even the floor. "Are you gonna help me Kakashi?"

"No."

I scoffed, continuing to scrub the counter. "You know, you don't get to go to sleep until I do, so might as well help out." I could feel myself yawning once I finished.

"That's ok, I'll just wait for you to tire yourself out. You have a habit of passing out from exhausting yourself." 

I huffed angrily, staring him down. "You know, you're really good at making me wanna punch you."

"It's fine, you don't punch as hard as when you were a kid."

The reminder felt like a punch to the gut. Part of it was I had less holding me back when I was younger, but it was all just a testament to how much everything had changed. After that, I worked only in silence and kept my head down.

A few minutes after I had quieted, I heard Kakashi sigh, and he halfheartedly started helping out. By the time we had finished, the sun had long gone down.

"Kakashi! Don't get ready to leave yet! I wanna have dinner with my nephew!" I exclaimed as he started to leave.

Kakashi turned to me, looking dead in the eyes (eye). "You're tired, I'm tired, don't you think that would be better to do tomorrow?"

"But... I only just met him, I wanna spend time with Naruto." I yawned as I spoke, but I genuinely felt sad to be already leaving.

Naruto beamed at my words, seeming shocked, and shook his head. "It's ok, oba-chan. We can have dinner tomorrow, right? And you can come train with us too!"

My lips curved into a small smile and I ruffled my nephew's hair again, something I found myself already growing fond of. "You're such a sweet kid. Can you get dinner for yourself then?"

Naruto nodded, and I pulled him into a tight hug, grinning. "I'll see you tomorrow, then, Naruto. And I'll make something extra nice for dinner tomorrow!"

Naruto grinned back at me. "Lookin forward to it! Believe it!"

I finally managed to pull myself away, waving goodbye to my nephew as I followed Kakashi outside. As we left, I couldn't stop the smile on my face from growing and I was almost skipping all the way back to the house.

"You seem pretty happy." Kakashi commented.

I giggled, twirling halfway to look at him while walking backwards. "Why wouldn't I be? In the span of one day, I find out that one of my precious comrades is alive, and I have a nephew, the legacy of my sister. Not to mention, I have a new friend too. This world is really beautiful, and I get to experience all of it! What more could I ask for?" The wonder shone through my face and I felt like I was dancing on moonlight. Kakashi's eye seemed wider than usual as he looked at me.

"I haven't told you yet, but I'm really happy you're alive too." His voice wasn't any different than it had been all day, yet something in my heart warmed even more.

"You know, in a way it's more shocking that you said it out loud than if you hadn't said it at all." I grinned. "I'm glad you did though, I was starting to think our friendship was one-sided. Not that you need to feel pressured to be friends with me or anything, I mean I did just come back, and I punched you in the face, so I'd totally understand if you didn't really care, it's totally understandable—"

"Emiko. I already said I cared." Kakashi interrupted me, not making eye contact with me, though I swore he rolled his eyes.

"Hehe, right, my bad." I laughed sheepishly.

I turned back to face forwards again, breathing in the night air contentedly, the slight skip in my step staying.

Deciding that we were both too tired to cook, though I argued with him, Kakashi picked up some takeout. I think, considering I yawned in the middle of stating that I wasn't tired at all, that my argument fell flat. Either way, the food was delicious, and I ended up very much appreciating his decision to pick up food, although my cooking skills had definitely improved since that first time with Jiraiya.

After eating, I started making my way to the office, only for Kakashi to say, "Take the bedroom, you shouldn't have to sleep on the air mattress."

I crossed my arms, raising an eyebrow at him. "As if I'm going to kick you out of your own bed."

"You're my guest, I'll sleep in the office." 

Narrowing my eyes at him, I started running towards the door, only for Kakashi to slam the door shut again just as I'd started to open it.

"It's not going to kill me to sleep on a mattress, Hatake. Sleep in your own bed." I demanded, refusing to let go of the door handle.

"Stop being stubborn, Emiko, and just take the bed."

I glared at him, knowing that I would feel guilty for making him sleep on an air mattress instead of his actual bed. "Hatake, there is no scenario in which I agree to let you sleep anywhere but your own bed. If you manage to get in the office, I'll just sleep against the door, or if the door's unlocked, I'll just carry you to your own bed after you're asleep."

"Can you even lift me?"

"Don't get sidetracked! And yes, probably, as long as you're not moving. Anyways, I'm sleeping on the air mattress and if you don't let me into the office, I'll go sleep on the couch or the floor."

Kakashi and I stared one another down for a minute before he relented, begrudgingly taking his own room while I happily went into the office, crashing down on the air mattress with a grin. I won.