Chapter 4: Kids and Friends

As boring as desk work could be some days, working for the Hokage also brought surprises. Some were deadly (thank you dear ANBU and bodyguards for your good reflexes) and some were just… eccentric.

When I came back one day from a trip to Human Resources to hear a child screaming in the hallway, I only glanced up after realizing that this was slightly more than the usual Naruto Tantrum. There was a tension that tingled at the back of my neck.

Hatake Kakashi was the babysitter of the day (of course: Uchiha Mikoto never brought Naruto here and Nohara Rin only allowed it for very special occasions and emergencies). He was leaning against a wall, as usual, but his book was nowhere in sight. He seemed tense, not to say ready to bolt.

Haruka was unusually distressed, staring at the blond tornado without knowing what to do. Genma and Raidou were standing right in front of the office's door to stop Naruto from barging in with their arms crossed. Genma's senbon was twitching in a show of irritation.

To make things worse, this afternoon there were several people waiting to see the Hokage, and they were all gawking at the display.

I had the feeling that Naruto had said something awful to get all those reactions. Something like…

"... I wish mom was there instead of him! She would listen and stay with me and play with me and cook and…"

… that. That would do the trick, yeah.

"Naruto, that's enough," Kakashi tried to intervene and catch the kid as he ran around.

"Don't touch me! I hate you!" Naruto bellowed.

Although his expression was difficult to see, the young jounin recoiled at the declaration.

I had my reservations about him. He had always been terrible at dealing with Naruto, but I knew he loved him dearly. He didn't deserve that.

Getting ready to walk into the warzone, I sighed and threw the files I had brought on my desk.

"I hate you and you and you..." Naruto was screaming as he pointed at Haruka and the guards.

I stepped forward. He was getting ready to point at me when I slapped him without warning.

The silence which followed was deafening. Naruto himself gaped at me as he touched his cheek. It wasn't red: the slap hadn't been hard, just enough to make a point.

"There, now you have a good reason to hate me," I said before glancing up at Kakashi and making the hand signs for "SitRep".

The jounin was startled enough that it took him a second to reply with "Park. Group activity. All clear. Then sudden aggressiveness. Trigger unknown."

I sighed. It wouldn't do to be annoyed at him for being so clueless. Kakashi hardly had a normal childhood. He probably didn't understand a kid's mindset. At the same age, if anything bothered him, he had more likely dealt with it by beating it into submission.

I crouched down to be at Naruto's level. He seemed unable to decide between crying or blowing up again. "Do you want to tell me what the mean bullies said?"

That tipped the scales in favor of crying. Ugly crying with heavy sobbing, stuttering and hands going up to dry his cheeks. "Th-they said t-that Dad didn't care about me because he's the Ho-hokage, and that I g-got mom killed and t-that's why I always have different babysitters! Because no-one cared!"

I lifted him into a hug, cradling the back of his head and rubbing his back; never mind that I immediately got my blouse covered in tears and soon probably with snot. "There, there. You should never listen to the bullies, Naruto-kun. They're jealous and say mean things to make themselves feel better." I walked to my chair to sit down — that boy was getting heavy — and I helped him settle on my lap.

He was crying loudly and heavily, letting the tension, anger and sadness out.

I stroke his hair gently. "Your dad cares very much about you, Naruto-kun. He's always speaking about you. He gives Haruka-san and I some headaches when he decides to change his schedule to spend more time with you. Your mom was a very strong and stubborn woman who always did things like she wanted to, so you better believe that she died the same way. She would kick those bullies' ass to even suggest anything like that."

Naruto looked up, his tears slowly calming, although he hiccuped as he asked: "You think?"

"I know so. As for the idea that no-one cares for you, that's just down right silly, really. I mean, if I didn't care I wouldn't let you cry on my blouse, that's my favorite you know. It's green and I reaaaally like green," I said while widening my eyes comically.

Naruto giggled as he rubbed his cheeks. "All your shirts are green, Maiko-san!"

"True. And I let you dropped tears and snot and ink and ramen and many other things I don't want to remember on my clothes, so obviously I must like you a whole lot, don't you think?"

He giggled again and nodded slowly before hiding his face against my shirt once again. He was probably getting embarrassed after his outburst.

Gently, I brushed his hair. "People say mean things when they're hurt, angry or jealous. They feel bad and they want to hurt other people to make themselves feel better, but it doesn't work that way, Naruto-kun. You can lash out and find all good reasons to be angry and unhappy. You can look around and see all the things you want and can't have, to become jealous of everyone and angry at everything. You'll just become even more unhappy. Is that what you want?"

He shook his head against the fabric. I twirled a strand of his golden hair between my fingers.

"So here's what you've got to do to be happy: for everything that makes you sad and angry, you find something that makes you feel good. For example, your dad sometimes can't have dinner with you but everytime that happens he makes sure to have ramen at Ichiraku with you afterwards. Your mom isn't here but you've a family with an older sister, an older brother, a father and a weird godfather and they all do their best to be there at your birthdays. Sometimes you're scared at night and you can't go to sleep with your parents but you just have to ask and your big brother will summon all his ninkens to protect you from the monsters under the bed." I could go on and on. The Hokage liked to share a lot of details about his son...

Naruto put a finger in front of his mouth in a demand of secrecy.

I smirked and leaned down to whisper: "I'm very jealous of that. I wish I had lots of ninken to protect me from the monsters under my bed."

"You said that being jealous isn't good," Naruto pointed out with a frown.

"You can feel jealous but you shouldn't let it matter. I would like to have ninken to protect me, but I'm happy that I'm strong enough to fight the monsters myself if I need to, so it's alright. Do you understand what I mean, Naruto-kun?"

"I think so. I have to think about what makes me happy," he said with a nod.

"That's right. And don't listen to the bullies."

"Because they're just mean, sad and angry and I'll become just like them if I do!"

"Exactly. Then they'll win and we can't let that happen, right?"

"Yeah!"

"Good, I'm glad we agree. But now there is something else very important we have to talk about," I said firmly.

"What is it?"

"Do you remember what you said before I arrived?"

The kid took a few seconds to think about it, gnawing on his thumb as he did so. When he remembered, he slouched and lowered his head. "Yeah."

"What did you say, Naruto-kun?"

"Mean things."

"That's right. Really mean things, Naruto-kun. That's not alright to say those things just because you're angry and they didn't let you do whatever you wanted."

The boy looked ready to cry again.

I patted his head to comfort him. "Sometimes it happens though. We say bad things. What do we do when it happens?"

"Say sorry," he mumbled very quietly.

"That's right. Go on then."

Naruto climbed down and immediately sprinted to Kakashi. The jounin was leaning against the wall, just opposite to my desk. The kid tackled-hugged Kakashi's legs and squeezed them with all his strength. "I'm sorry Kakashi-nii-san! I didn't mean it! I love you very very much. I'm sorry."

The inscrutable one-eye stare left me to look down at the kid. Kakashi pushed away the little arms to be able to crouch down and hug Naruto more evenly. I couldn't hear what he said in reply, but Naruto nodded his head eagerly and hugged him a little more. Then, the little blond ran to Haruka's desk and bowed as he made his apologies. He was immediately forgiven so he went to do the same to Raidou and Genma, who seemed more intent in making him squirm.

Watching the show from the corner of my eyes, I was distracted by Kakashi, who stared at me pointedly. I raised an eyebrow at him and he took a few steps forward to lean against my desk.

"Can you teach me that?" He drawled.

I couldn't help but snort. "Sure, if you lend me your ninken." I glanced at Naruto, who was pulling on Genma's shirt while insisting he was really really sorry to have kicked him. "Just remember that being overindulgent doesn't help anyone. He needs some discipline." I played with a pen and pointed it at Kakashi's face. "Just like puppies."

There was a squeal of delight as Genma threw Naruto in the air and caught him under his arm to mess up his hair. "Oh, are you, uh? Are you really sorry, Naruto-kun?" Genma teased him with a smirk.

"Yes! Yes, I am!" Naruto squeaked as he flailed around.

"Good. You're forgiven," Genma said as he put him down. "Don't do that again, kiddo, you've a mean kick."

Naruto ran back to Kakashi and hid behind his legs to stick his tongue out at Genma. His babysitter grabbed him by the back of his shirt and threw him on his shoulder.

"Alright," Kakashi said, "that's enough excitement for the day. Let's leave Maiko-san to work, shall we?"

"Ok. Bye bye, Maiko-san!"

oOo

Late in the afternoon that same day, the seal in the corner of my desk started to glow gently. I stood up and grabbed a notepad and a pencil before walking to the Hokage's office. I smiled at the guards and cracked open the door. He might just want a cup of tea. "Hokage-sama?"

He was standing in front of a window, his back turned to me. "Come in, Maiko-san."

I obeyed and closed the door behind me. I stopped in front of his desk, the notepad clutched to my chest. His silence made me uneasy. He probably had heard of the altercation with Naruto this morning. What if he was upset I had slapped his son? Kami, that was stupid of me. I was taking too many liberties. Just because my boss was kind to me didn't mean I could do anything I wanted!

I gave in first and asked tentatively: "What can I do for you, Yondaime-sama?"

He hummed and shifted slightly, his chest turning toward me but his gaze lost over the roofs of Konoha. "You were the first to call me by that title with complete sincerity, you know."

I blinked in surprise and needed a few seconds to remember the day I first met him, when I announced to him, his girlfriend and his team my desire to become the Hokage's assistant.

"Years ago, you asked me to remember you… and I did. You made a strong impression that day, Maiko-san." He finally turned and offered me a lopsided smile.

Flustered, I stared at the ground, looking up through my lashes when the Hokage stepped forward. He stopped an arm's length away and leaned against his desk.

"You're very insightful, overall. You understand how the village works, how people — whether they are shinobi or civilians — work… and even how my own son works when he's sometimes a mystery to me."

That… sounded like compliments. Right? I felt a "but" coming...

"Yet, I've been led to believe that I haven't seen your full potential." His hand came up slowly and lifted my chin, forcing me to look him in the eye. "Do you remember when I gave you this position, Maiko-san?"

Of course. I wouldn't forget that anytime soon…

o

… It was four months after the tenth of October. The Hokage had been in office for eighteen months. I was a chuunin for twenty-one.

Nara Yoshino had to quit her job seven months ago, when her pregnancy became too advanced for her to work. She had appointed me as her replacement; which meant that I spent seven months running after the Jounin Commander, the last four being a period of crisis that blurred in my memory as I spent too much time sleep deprived.

Being the Jounin Commander's assistant wasn't really hard, despite my doubts when Yoshino-san dumped this on me. Years of Genin Corps as a fetcher and paper-pusher had prepared me for this job far more than I would have thought.

I also had the advantage of an early growth (and, of course, of my previous life's experience). At fourteen years old, I was already 170cm tall, which was quite good for a woman in this world. My young age wasn't obvious. Nara Shikaku was so lazy that I had to do most of the legwork and interacting with shinobi was much easier when you didn't look too green.

After seven months (including one week of following Yoshino around and listening to her advice, because she was professional enough to tutor her replacement), I felt confident that I could foresee Shikaku's needs. He was predictable enough for a genius.

I proved it to myself when I had to assist him during an emergency Council meeting. I was standing on his right, just behind him, with a pile of papers in my arms. I wasn't the only assistant around, but I was by far the most active. Every few minutes, I dropped a paper relevant to the subject at hand in front of Shikaku. He didn't need to say a word or even blink to ask for it, it always ended up in front of him before he even needed it. It was the first reunion during which I was able to predict all his needs, and I was getting extremely proud of a job well done. Nevermind that I had to drink coffee even though I hated it to stay focused. I was rocking this!

Five minutes before the end of the meeting, the discussion suddenly turned to a subject that no-one was expecting. While most were missing the details they needed to make an appropriate decision, I fought with my pile of papers to extract a file from it and made a victorious noise when I found the one I wanted. When I looked up to give it to Shikaku, I discovered that several members of the Council had turned toward me, including the Hokage.

I blushed but stayed on-task. "My apologies. Too much coffee. The report you're speaking about, Shikaku-san."

They went back to their discussion, and I thought it would be the end of it. However, at the end of the meeting, the Hokage came to speak to Shikaku… or tried to anyway because the Jounin Commander said "no" before the Yondaime could make a noise.

Far from being offended, Minato laughed and said teasingly: "I don't think that's your decision to make, Shikaku."

"Don't poach my assistant, Minato. I just trained her how I like."

"With all due respect Sir, you didn't train me, Yoshino-san did," I pointed out without thinking, distracted by what I thought they were saying but was too wary to hope for.

"Which amounts to the same thing," the Jounin Commander grumbled, leaning his heavy head on his hand.

"Kamizuki-san, right?" The Yondaime asked me, ignoring his friend.

"Yes, Hokage-sama," I breathed.

"Are you still interested in—"

"Yes," I replied, blushing as soon as I realized I didn't let him finish.

He laughed cheerfully and sent a smirk to Shikaku (who was sulking as much as a laid-back man like him could). "Excellent. I'm giving you a week to find a replacement and tutor him or her."

"A month," Shikaku tried to bargain.

"Two weeks, not one more. My assistant is overwhelmed," the Yondaime replied before turning to me with a smile. "I look forward to your care, Kamizuki-san…"

o

"Shikaku held it against me for weeks. He could see your potential too and thought you could have done with more experience in his division. He might not have been wrong, but I believe you did well as it is."

"Thank you," I murmured, still wondering where he was going with this.

"I do not consider my shinobi disposable and interchangeable. You even less so. I do not plan to loose you anytime soon, short of a disaster, and that's a decision which is only mine to take. Do you understand?"

I blinked and nodded slowly. "Yes, Hokage-sama."

"Good. I expect to see nothing but your best from now on, Maiko. Alright?"

"As you order, Hokage-sama."

"I count on you to care for what I hold dear as much as for myself. You proved you're capable of it today."

I bowed immediately, understanding the implications. He was giving me his blessing in handling his son today. That trust was more touching than anything else he could have done.

I left his office in a daze.

Haruka stepped in after me with the schedule for the following day.

I went to order my desk to leave for the evening.

Genma came to sit on the corner and watched me silently.

Knowing what he wanted, a reaction, I barely glanced at him. "You're a telltale."

"I am the eyes and ears of the Hokage, just like you."

I knew. That's why I couldn't be upset with him. The Hokage was to us what my mother used to be in my previous life: the exception to every promise of secrecy. The difference is that my mother would have kept it for herself, while the Hokage acted on it as he pleased… Yeah, the comparison wasn't really appropriate. Still, I understood.

He knew it because he didn't even bother to look apologetic. On the contrary, he was smug, the asshole. "See? I was right."

I huffed and shook my head. "I'm still not wearing that blouse at work."

"Damnit!" Genma cursed, pretending to be upset and disappointed for a second before laughing.

I chuckled and nudged him. "Idiot," I said fondly before grabbing my coat.

"Raidou and I were planning to go out for dinner. Do you want to come with us?"

I glanced over my shoulder at Raidou who gave me one of his rare and small smiles to show he agreed and that wasn't just Genma imposing his will.

We often ended the day quite late and cooking then seemed like a chore. I wasn't rich enough to eat out every night but once would be fine, especially if it was to spend time with… friends.

I smiled and nodded. "I'd like that. What did you have in mind?"

"You have to decide for us. Curry rice or okonomiyaki?"

"Curry sounds good."

"Heard that, Raidou? You win."

Genma threw an arm around my shoulders. Raidou walked on my other side with his hands in his pockets.

Outdoors, the weather was windy and cold. The boys were in perfect position to shield me from the wind, both of them being ten centimeters taller than me and I used this so shamelessly that Genma laughed at me when I hid behind him at a crossroads.

"Fear not, young maiden, I shall protect you from the wind," he joked with an exaggerated tone.

"Yo," a voice sounded out just behind me before I could reply.

Startled, I turned around to see Kakashi. He was accompanied by Nohara Rin. The medic-nin was a tokubetsu jounin and one of the most promising doctors from what Yondaime-sama told me. It was rare to see her out of the hospital unless she was babysitting Naruto and taking him to the park.

"Hey, Kakashi, Rin," Genma greeted them with a wave of his hand. "You're not dining at the Hokage residence tonight?"

"It's private time," Kakashi replied with a shrug.

"Considering how upset Naruto was this morning, Minato-sensei wanted some alone time with him," Rin explained.

"Makes sense. We don't want a repeat performance of that, right Maiko-chan?" Genma said, smirking at me.

"That would be preferable… for your shin. How is it? Are you sure you should be walking, you poor thing?" I replied with humor, tilting my head with mock sympathy.

He pinched the back of my neck in retaliation and I laughed, trying to get away from him but only managing to get him to pull on my hair. "Not the hair, you, heathen!"

"Oooh, sorry. Of course the hair is off limits, I don't pull the pigtails of girls, that's just rude," he said playfully, although he stopped and probably meant his apology.

Raidou — being much more well behaved — ignored us and offered the newcomers to join us for dinner. They accepted and we moved on, walking a little faster now that the night had truly fallen and it was colder.

My bun was coming undone. I undid it, removing each pin and the senbon I hid in it.

Genma did a double take as I did and whispered jokingly: "Did you steal one of mine?"

"Please," I replied with feigned snobbism, "I wouldn't use one of yours. Kami know where they have been."

He pulled on my ponytail in revenge, but not to tug on my hair: he removed the elastic band, freeing my long brown hair in waves. Some strands fell in front of my eyes and I blew them away huffily while giving Genma a reproving look.

He grinned cheekily and gave me the elastic back. "You never let them down at work. I like it. Aaand we are here."

I had been expecting one of the cheap restaurants offering rice drenched in sauce and a small windy room where you sat on stools in a row in front of the kitchen counter or nearby. I rarely went out to eat but when I did it with friends from the Genin Corps, that's what I had been used to (and I didn't like it, which might also explain why I didn't do it often).

That place was definitely a level above. It was warm and friendly with wooden tables and comfortable chairs. When the food arrived, the rice was forming a dam holding back the perfect amount of sauce. My wallet was going to cry about this but, damn, it was worth it.

"First time coming here?" Genma asked when he saw the face I made at my plate.

"Yes. This is great," I admitted cheerfully before catching my first shrimp covered in sauce and tasting it. I hummed in pleasure. The sauce definitely was homemade, which was rare. "Really good." I eyed his plate, full of fried pork cutlets instead of shrimps and pointed my spoon at them. "Want to share?"

"What do I get if I say yes?" Genma teased me.

"My shrimps," I replied dryly. "Take example on Raidou for once. He's a gentleman."

Raidou and Rin were sitting face to face and they had shared their plates with barely two words needed.

Genma smirked at that and exchanged a look with Kakashi pointedly.

I blinked several times, feeling like I was missing something. The raised eyebrows of those two and the caring behavior of the two others finally tipped me off. "Oh," I mouthed, wide-eyed. "They are…"

Genma waved his fingers in a handsign for 'ongoing'.

That was… That's so sweet! One more example of how I managed to changed things: Rin was alive and soon in a romantic relationship! I refrained from squealing in delight by attacking ruthlessly Genma's plate and snatching one of his cutlet.

"You little minx!" He protested, laughing.

I was already eating it to avoid retaliation. I simply pointed out to my plate to invite him to get his share of shrimps. When I looked at it, I was surprised to discover that several of them had already disappeared and were replaced by mackerel. The only one having ordered this was Kakashi, who blinked at me innocently. I smiled at him, swallowed my mouthful and turned to Genma. "See, even Kakashi-san is better at sharing than you."

He huffed and replied: "If you want to taste everything, you should just come back later."

I focused on my plate and replied quietly without looking up. "You know I can't afford it too often."

Raidou and Rin were talking together and didn't hear me (or so I thought), but Kakashi did and I felt his stare on me.

"I don't get it," Genma said, lowering his voice to respect my privacy. "You have good wages. It's not A-class but still."

I played with my spoon for a few seconds before deciding to be honest. Genma was a friend (and a nosey one, who wouldn't stop pestering me until he got an answer) and it's not like I was ashamed of the truth. "My mother is a resident at the Senju Nursing Home." I looked up to find everyone staring at me.

Genma was frowning. "I don't know what that is."

"It's a facility which cares for the seriously injured veterans," Rin explained. "It offers re-education and physiotherapy but also residential care to those who need continual nursing care beyond the abilities of their families. Part of the cost is covered by the Veteran Fund but not all of it. It's still costly."

"Shit. Maiko, I'm sorry," Genma immediately apologized for pushing.

"It's fine. It's not a secret and I'm not poor. I just need to be careful with money. And if you're going to offer or try to pay for my meal, I'm going to hit you," I warned him, pointing at his chest. "Just give me another cutlet."

He pretended to grumble but gave it to me anyway.

I nudged him gently. "See, that wasn't so hard."

We exchanged a soft smile and went back to our meal.

A few minutes later, Rin, who was sitting on my right, leaned toward me. "Maiko-san… I… I know we don't know each other much but if you ever need help regarding your mother's medical care, don't hesitate to ask me."

That was so unexpected that I needed a few seconds to get over my surprise. "That's… kind of you Rin-san, thank you."

She smiled at me, just as sweetly as her sensei. "I heard a lot about you. You take care of others. I do too. We shall help each other."

Damn, she was so cute… And I would probably embarrass myself if I didn't answer right now instead of gawking. "I'd like that."

She grinned fully. "I'm glad. I don't have many female friends."

I groaned in empathy. "I know what you mean. Shinobi corps are so not conducive to female friendship. When is your next day off? We could do something together? I was thinking of going to the hot springs sometime…"

Her face lighted up. "I'd love to!"

Matching our schedules wasn't easy, but we agreed on a date. She seemed ecstatic. I wasn't sure why. I didn't agree to anything outlandish.

The explanation came from an unexpected source, as we were leaving the restaurant one by one after paying. Kakashi had been first and I followed him.

"She meant it," he told me bluntly. "She doesn't have many friends. She focused on becoming one of the best medics for years."

I tightened my scarf around my neck and my coat around my chest. I watched him thoughtfully. "You make quite a pair, don't you?" I shrugged. "Don't worry. I meant it too. I'd be happy to spend time with her. I think we'll get along great."

"You made the same face to her as you did to Minato-sensei the first time you met him."

I was turning towards the restaurant, waiting for our friends. His remark made me gape at him, wide-eyed. "You remember that?!"

He stared instead of replying.

"It's their smile," I grumbled defensively. "They have the same. It's a fucking weapon, I swear." I squinted at him. "Is that what you're hiding under that mask? Another disarming smile?"

He snorted and turned his head away to hide the crinkles of his eye and mask.

"You totally are," I teased him with a nudge of my elbow. I knew for a fact that was true. Damn it, now I wanted to see his smile in real life!

"Did we miss something?" Genma asked as he arrived with Rin and Raidou.

"Nothing important," I dismissed. "Now, it's getting late. I have to go before I freeze on this sidewalk. Rin-san, it was a pleasure to meet you. I'm looking forward to our date."

"I'm walking you home," Genma stated just as Rin was returning my courtesy.

"You don't need to," I refused, surprised.

"I insist," he said seriously.

"Alright," I drawled, choosing to go with the flow instead of making a scene. "Raidou-san, Kakashi-san, have a good night."

His arm went around mine as we walked toward my home. He was playing with his senbon in an unusually agitated way.

I glanced at him, frowning. "What's wrong? If this is about the money thing…"

"Nah. I get it. You don't want to make a big deal out of it, and you don't want pity or charity."

"Yes," I confirmed, pleased by his understanding.

"No, that's nothing to do with it. I wanted to talk to you about it before dinner actually. Look, do you remember when you asked me to train with your cousin? At first, I thought you were asking for yourself and it got me thinking… maybe we should train together."

"Genma, I'm so far out of your league it's not even funny," I pointed out.

His senbon went up and down in disapproval (you could learn more about his feelings by watching his senbon than by watching his face, and somehow I had gotten used to it). "Don't put yourself down like that. No matter that you come from the Genin Corps, you're still a chuunin. I'm just a tokubetsu jounin."

I snorted. "Please," I drawled with a roll of my eyes. "You're one of the Hokage's bodyguards. I'm sure you could become jounin if you really wanted to."

He glanced at me with a hint of surprise before he smirked. "So much faith in me…"

"In the Hokage, actually. I trust that he chose his bodyguards well."

He threw an arm around my shoulders and squeezed me against his side in retaliation. "Anyway. My point is: you're not as bad as you pretend to be but you're not as good as you could be, and an assistant of the Hokage should be ready for… basically anything. So we should train."

I stared at him, but he ignored me, looking in front of us steadily. "There is something you're not telling me… How do you know how good I am and how good I could become?"

He sighed and tilted his head. "Fine. I might have watch you train with Izumo and Kotetsu. It wasn't exactly planned, I just found you in the middle of your training."

It had been weeks ago. Izumo and Kotetsu were already in Suna for the Chuunin Exams.

"You little spy!" I poked him in admonition but, really, this was a shinobi village, being watched without your knowledge wasn't as shocking as in my previous life (as long as it wasn't infringing on your privacy that is). "And? Verdict?"

"Your taijutsu, shurikenjutsu and tessenjutsu are good, but you don't use any ninjutsu or genjutsu and you're weak against them."

I shrugged. "Never was taught much about it. When Kuma-sensei helped me train, he focused on taijutsu. That's his specialty."

"I gathered as much. We could easily work on it."

I put an arm around his waist to make our position more comfortable and leaned my head back in the crook of his elbow. "Well. Refusing instruction is the privilege of idiots. I'm in."

"Good."

"That is, if I can find some time for you in my suddenly very busy social life," I joked.

We were turning around a corner.

Genma suddenly pressed me against a wall."Are you saying I am not a priority, darling?" he whispered in my ear, his skin brushing mine, his warmth enveloping me.

Anyone else and I would have felt uncomfortable enough to immediately push him back, but Genma had always been good at looking nonthreatening, and he had wormed his way into my defenses. I felt safe… and flustered. I licked my lips nervously and noticed his eyes following the motion.

"I'll make room for you," I promised a little breathlessly.

"Good." A hand brushed my hair. His lips dropped a kiss on my temple. He tugged me back on the street gently.

oOo Bonus - Kakashi's PoV oOo

Kamizuki Maiko was nothing special. That was Kakashi's belief since he first met her. He never understood Minato-sensei's interest for her (Was it an ego thing? Because she was the first to believe he would become the Yondaime?), nor Genma's infatuation for her (she was pretty enough, but Genma could find better).

Well... Kakashi had been proven wrong before. It wasn't often, but it wasn't new either.

She had a way with people, there was that. She was smart too especially in an emotional capacity — which admittedly he was rubbish at. She had caught his attention, just like she had caught Minato's years ago, and Kakashi should really know better than ever doubting his sensei.

If she became friend with Rin, he might see her more often. In which case, it was just natural for him to spend a little more time than before learning to know her... It made perfect sense. If, while he did so, he learned a few things about how to tame the little blond devil he had to babysit, it was just a bonus.

Enemies were truly easier to deal with than kids.

Dam curry rice exists. Take a look on Google Images, it's funny. =)

I'm currently thinking about adding some Kakashi/Maiko and Genma/Maiko/Kakashi starting in chapter 8 (yes, I'm ahead on the writing, that's how I can publish so often; I don't promise it will always be like that). Kakashi is one of my favorite characters and my muse tends to give him a good place in the plot even when he isn't planned... EDIT: To be clear, Maiko/Genma is a given, they will be together. The question is if Kakashi will be part of the romance, somehow.

Also, if you're interested, you can find me on tumblr, same username as here. It's a sideblog I opened for manga/anime.

EDIT 30th of July 2017: Bonus added.