Hidden behind the mask

7

It took us two days to get back to Konoha and the banshee just kept on complaining about our speed. Finally arriving in Konoha I took off immediately towards the Hokage tower. 

I arrived at the old man's office and simply barged into the room. At my arrival, all the Anbu simply left and the Hokage frowned down at me. 
"Will you start knocking?!" 

Simply ignoring this old man's outburst I handed him my report. 

"Anbu Kitsune reporting back on the C-Rank escort mission. The brat is back safely and Gato is dead. Zabuza Momoichi is watching the small town and making sure no harm comes to it." 
With a hum, the old man starts reading my report. I also put the scroll with the two Demon brothers in it on his desk addressed to Ibiki. Putting my transformation back in place I start going through the stack of papers that were on the Desk. 

I got through the stack before Team 7 even showed up and was now making the old man sign his papers standing next to him behind his desk. He wasn't too thrilled on actually doing work but simply signed what I told him to. I was rudely interrupted by a knock on the door. Gramps gave me a pointed look that I skillfully ignored and called in whoever just saved him from doing work. 
Team 7 walked in and Kakashi bowed respectfully while his students simply stared at me standing next to their leader. 
"Welcome back you three. How was your trip to the wave?" 
Not caring a bit about their story I simply started going through the files in my hand again. Whoever thought paperwork was boring was more than just right but it definitely topped having to listen to some boring report. I could practically feel Sasuke stare at me with his annoyed gaze. He probably wanted me to be all over their report and be super jealous. Which he now sees I'm not. I honestly couldn't have cared less about them dying in a ditch.
"Now Naruto was a huge help. Don't even worry about it. He even promised to help me out more with my paperwork." 

I did what? 
I sweatdropped at his 'promise' but didn't interfere with his little delusion. I would get back at him eventually. 
"Jiji. Stop getting distracted. These papers had to go out three months ago. Now sign them so I can finally get rid of them." 

With a huff, the old man signed the last few papers that I had still in my hands and I sorted them out for him. 
"Here is your pay for the C-Rank mission. You two are dismissed until tomorrow. Report here at 10 am." 
With that, the two Genin finally left with their money. As soon as the door closed my transformation dropped and the rest of the paper landed on the old man's desk with a thud. 
"You should really start doing some actual work. All this paperwork laying around is pathetic." 

"Ignoring your insult. You two hopefully know that in 8 Months the Chunin exams will start and after Naruto refuses to further watch the Uchiha. With this situation at hand, we will have to make sure Sasuke becomes a Chunin. Kakashi, you will focus all of your training around the Uchiha making him strong in teamwork and in power. Naruto, you will go out and find Tsunade and Jiraiya and bring them back to the village no matter what. Afterwards, you will scope out Orochimaru together with your Anbu team and kill him, his experiments and his accomplices. Destroy whatever he even touched in that retched hideout." 
I could feel Kakashi's hand tighten on my waist while we were told our mission for the next 8 Month. I wasn't happy having to leave this village just to scope out these old people that were supposed to take care of me. Plus, I had to leave Kakashi behind but we still both gave our leader a nod. 
"Good. Now, you two will do some D-Rank mission together before each of you will start your missions in two days. Report back here at 6 am. Dismissed." 

With that, Kakashi and I bowed in respect and left the office. With Kakashi by my side, we walked out of the tower. I didn't bother putting my transformation back up. Kakashi was walking next to me as close as humanly possible. 
"Naruto."
The voice of the white-haired Jounin was almost silent and laced with fear. I didn't understand what his fear was for but I simply looked up at him silently telling him I was listening to him. 
"Will you move in with me? With our new mission, we'll start seeing each other less and I want to be able to spend as much time with you as possible." 
All through his question he refused to look me in the eyes and the fence behind me seemed more interesting. The fear was still present in his eye and he seemed very uncomfortable in his situation. 
"I would love to live with you but are you sure you want to take in the demon brat?"

Surprised about my words Kakashi finally looked into my eyes. A small smile started appearing on his face. 

"Don't say that. You're important to me and I want to have you close to me. If you want we can make sure no one that is not supposed to know about it won't know about it."

I was pulled closer to Kakashi and engulfed in his warmth. 

"Let's go and get whatever you have in your apartment and go home." 
He gave me a big smile and started walking before he noticed that I wasn't moving from my spot. He turned towards me and looked at me questioningly. 
"I have nothing in that apartment left. Let's just go home." 

With a smile, Kakashi grabbed my hand and pulled me towards his apartment. He happily talked about making space for me in his apartment. 
On our way home we stopped for some ingredients for dinner. While Kakashi was cooking for us he went on about what I could move around and what we would need to go out and buy. 

We ate in peaceful silence and after we cleaned up we started going through the things that I had still with me. Kakashi started making a list of what I needed. 
"Well, we definitely need to go clothes shopping. You have enough weapons for the next five years. We'll just have to see what we can find." 
With one more look towards Kakashi, I carefully unsealed my parent's belongings. Kashi watched me closely and almost stopped breathing when he set eyes on his old Sensei's jacket and his wives katana.  
"Where did you get these?" 
He carefully picked up my mother's katana and slowly stood up. A few seconds later her katana was hung over the couch in the living room. 
I gave him a small smile and looked at the jacket of my father. 
"The Namikaze estate. I went there and got a few things before I sealed it back up." 

Kakashi smiled at me and walked back to me to pull me off of the ground. 
"Let's get some rest" 
Climbing into his bed and scootching closer towards Kakashi I let his warmth soothes me into slumber.