Chapter 1

Sensei's daughter is born on a Tuesday, and the event is exceptionally anticlimactic. Now, Kakashi's no expert, but he's fairly certain that childbirth is supposed to be more painful. There's supposed to be shouting, and crying, and something more chaotic than a few pushes and a blond-haired child that falls asleep only minutes after she's born (right after the nurse has cleaned and dressed her).

The entire thing just makes him uncomfortable. While he can objectively understand why sensei has tears rolling down his face, and why sensei's wife looks just as teary-eyed, he sheds no tears of his own. He's really only present in case of an emergency, like an attack on sensei's wife while she's weak, or an attack on the infant herself.

It all just seems so… undemanding? He doesn't want to say easy, exactly, because he has no idea, as he didn't go through the birth himself, nor did he carry a child for nearly ten months, but the fact of the matter is this: Kushina-Sama didn't even break a sweat!

"Would you like to hold her?" Sensei whispers three hours after Kushina has fallen asleep. Kakashi starts, blinking confusedly at Minato's smiling face.

Hold him? Kakashi, hold a baby?

"I'm on duty, sensei." Kakashi doesn't want to wake the child or Kushina, so his voice is even softer than Minato's.

"It's okay, Kakashi. Just hold her for a few minutes while I go to the bathroom and stop to speak with the doctor." With that, Kakashi is tugged closer to Minato's side and brings his arms up because there's nothing else for him to do

the infant is tucked into his hold and his sensei has escaped the room.

The bundle in his arms shifts, blue eyes blinking up at him. The child doesn't have a name yet, but Kakashi isn't concerned with that. He doesn't think he'd make a good caretaker anyway. No, but he can at least do his best to watch over the babe from a distance. After all, this is the daughter of the next Hokage, the daughter of Kakashi's sensei. An important baby if ever there was one.

He isn't sure how long his gaze has been locked with the infant's when his sensei returns. All he knows is that those blue eyes are going to be ingrained in his memory for years to come.

"She's awake!" Minato crouches down beside him, and Kakashi relinquishes his hold when his sensei reaches out. "Kakashi, were you having a staring contest with my daughter already?

"Kakashi only hums, stepping back toward the wall, a silent guard.

(There was something about the depth of those eyes.)

TimeSkip after 20 month's

"Good, Obito! Kakashi, this is your future teammate, not your enemy, but…" Minato trails off, head swiveling around as he searches the field. "Narumi? Narumi~! Ne, Narumi, where did you go?

"Something hot and sharp rips through Kakashi's chest when he realizes that he let his frustration at Obito divert the attention he'd been splitting between their spar and sensei's daughter. He forfeits the fight immediately, trying not to panic when he realizes he can't actually sense her.

The blood rushes in his ears, drowning out everything but the spike of panic in his chest. "Sensei-"

Minato nods. "Split up. Find her. How far could he have gone?"

"Twenty minutes ago, She was still in my peripheral. Knowing how fast she is, maximum distance is four kilometers." Kakashi answers, focusing on facts in order to suppress the fear that's trying to claw its way to the front of his mind. "I let myself get distracted, sensei, I'm sorry."

Minato turns to him, the look on his face making Kakashi's chest ache. What is this feeling? "Kakashi, it isn't your fault. Team seven split up. Send word if you find her."

Kakashi is already gone before the last syllable leaves his lips, already following the scent of the girl with the deepest blue eyes he's ever seen. He hates the worry and fear that's filling him up-he feels weak like he can't focus he can't breathe. Ever since his-

Ever since that day, Kakashi has sworn off his emotions. If having feelings can do that, then he wants no part of them, but… But now, breathless at the idea that something has happened to… Now, Kakashi isn't so sure that emotions are something he can avoid. It stings, realizing that he's not strong enough to shut them off completely.

Flashback

(What does it mean, to be strong?

"It means that you know what is truly important. You understand what is precious and you will do everything in your power to protect what is precious to you."

To be strong… I want to be strong, Father.

"And you will be. But you must remember, son. True strength lies not in the body, but in the heart.")

Kakashi takes a left, a right, another right, and pauses. Center market? Where are you going? He leaps, perching on a rooftop for a better perspective. There! Is that-ah, but that hair is the wrong shade.

Kakashi moves, but the child he finds has dark hair and green eyes.

Through his earpiece, he hears Rin's "Negative. No sign of her on the west end." Obito also gives the negative, and Minato growls out that he hasn't found Narumi, either.

"I traced her scent back to Center Market, but She's no longer in the area."

"Keep looking, Kakashi."

He finds the toddler in a meadow in the forest behind the Academy, little hands fluttering above her, clumsily mocking the movements of a butterfly. The girl is only twenty months old, but she moves quickly and almost steadily, for a child (and, she is the daughter of the Yellow Flash). It really doesn't surprise Kakashi that she's made it this far, nor does it surprise him that the child doesn't even look tired.

"Narumi," he hums, ignoring the rough quality his voice has taken on.

"Ka-shi!" Narumi leaps toward him, blue eyes locking onto his grey ones. "Kaaaa-shi! Look!" Two little hands wrap around his wrist, tugging him further into the meadow, and Kakashi lets himself be brought to the center, where the blond flops onto his bottom and points.

The Chunin uses his free hand to turn on his communicator after dropping onto the grass beside the girl. "I have her, sensei. Narumi followed a butterfly.

"Three sighs fill his left ear, making him grimace, but Narumi tugs on his sleeve to gain his attention back. Suddenly, those blue eyes are taking up his full range of vision, because Narumi is standing directly in front of him. "Kakashi? Butterfly?"

"Yes, Narumi-chan. Do you like the butterflies?"

A firm nod. "They're really pretty, Kashi." She squints, eyebrows scrunched together. "Are you pretty?"

He hears a burst of laughter through his headset but chooses to ignore it in favor of leaning a little closer, nearly bumping noses with the child. "You tell me."

Wide eyes blink at him before those small hands reach up, pushing his mask out of the way, more gentle than he would have expected a two-year-old to be.

Kakashi's almost nine, now, and while most kids are only just now going into the Academy, he graduated at the tender age of five. But nobody outside of a handful of medics in the hospital has ever seen his face, until this moment.

Narumi grins. "Very pretty, Kashi!" She throws herself forward and presses a sloppy little boy kiss to Kakashi's cheek before she drops down into Kakashi's lap and promptly falls asleep.

Kakashi fixes his mask and stands with Narumi tucked against his chest. I understand now, he thinks, though he banishes any other thoughts of his father on his trek toward Minato and Kushina's house. she is precious, and I will do anything I can to keep her safe.

Timeskip

Being Hokage is a lot of work, and it's a job that Minato is happy to do, but he will be forever thankful that Sarutobi-Sama had the foresight to allow his Thursday training sessions with his team. Not only are they a welcome reprieve from the perpetual pile of urgent paperwork, but they allow him to assess his students and keep his own skills from slacking.

And their teamwork is better than ever, now. Things had been changing for a while, but even more so since his little daughter's detour through the village. His students hadn't even batted an eye despite the fact that two of them are still in the academy, they plunged themselves into the search for her without even thinking about it. Even Kakashi.

It's not that he'd thought Kakashi wouldn't help, or was heartless or anything, but the boy has been so closed off, so crisp and cold, since his father's suicide. And yet, he was the one who'd nearly gone into a panic when he realized he'd lost track of Narumi. He was the one who located Narumi and carried her home when the girl fell asleep.

That's another thing: Kakashi watches his daughter like a hawk. If he's within range, he's most certainly keeping an eye out. But since that day, he doesn't even try to be discreet about it. It almost seems like he's dubbed himself Narumi's private guard. He's only nine years old, but Minato suspects that Kakashi has already chosen to put Narumi's life above his own.

Not that Minato wouldn't do the same, for his daughter or any member of his village, but…

The fact of the matter is: Kakashi has changed, and in turn, so has team seven. Kakashi is the quietest of them, but he's always been cut from a different cloth. Minato can only hope that this change is better for them in the long run. How couldn't it be, when his first student has finally begun to open himself up?

"Sensei, can I ask you something?"

"Of course you can, Rin."

"Have you noticed that… Kakashi has been different lately?" The girl looks up at him, concern and something happier warring in her expression. She's changed a lot, especially recently, and Minato hopes that whatever remaining crush she has on Kakashi will evaporate. He doesn't think their resident genius will ever be interested, not to mention the fact that he hasn't even hit puberty yet. He'll feel much better when everyone on the team is on the same page as far as emotions go.

"I have, Rin. What are your observations about this change? Care to share them with me?" He offers her a smile to let her know that he has his own ideas, but he really is curious about her thoughts on the subject.

"Narumi." She laughs, soft and genuine. "He's completely taken with Narumi. He's never looked twice at any child we've ever been around, but there's just something about your daughter that Kakashi has deemed precious. I won't be surprised if he never leaves Narumi's side.

"Never leaves… Narumi's side?

Ever?

He supposes he hasn't quite thought that far ahead.

Maybe this will be good for them. Both of them. Narumi will have somebody outside of Kushina and myself who will always support her, and Kakashi has found somebody he wants to live for.

I think Kushina will agree that it's for the best.

"Thank you, Rin.