Her

"Take care of her, Kakashi." His mentor had pleaded, a small smile forming on his lips at Kakashi's nod that was in strict opposition with the sadness in his eyes. Before his eyes, the yin Kyubi chakra version of his sensei dissapeared.

Kakashi shook his head, the golden girl didn't need anyone to take care of her, not per se.

Yes, she her smart mouth got her in trouble more times than he could count. And yeah, she'd probably die of eating too much ramen if someone didn't keep a close enough eye on her.

He watched the sun reflect off of her hair, the same rich color of the sunbeams a goofy grin on her face.

She may be flawed but who wasn't?

Her flaws were greatly outweighed by courage and heart.

It shown right through her, glowing so bright it burned away the darkness in people. There wasn't a person she couldn't win over with her determination, she'd even gotten through to his shriveled heart.

He had lost his sensei and his sensei's wife-a surrogate mother figure to him because of her. Or so he had thought until she had been placed on his team. He had thought her a bratty knucklehead, a kid sister he never wanted, that the kyuubi shown through her personality more than it had Kushina's.

He had never been more wrong.

Kakashi closed his eyes, the ferric smell of blood hitting his enhanced nostrils.

His golden goddess had just defeated Sasuke, yet the two laid beside each other, grins on their faces despite Naruto's right hand and Sasuke's left hand being blown off from the strength of their combained powers.

"Don't you dare take off again, Teme," Naruto snickered at her lifelong rival and best friend.

A smirk played at Sasuke's lips, "I have no doubt you'd find a way to bring me back, dobe."

Kakashi made a move to go over and help them but Killer B and Sakura ran past him.

The large kumo ninja threw the blonde over his shoulder, ready to sprint to the medic tents, "Now what the hell have you gone and done that for? You kinda need your hand, kid!"

Naruto shrugged, a merciless cough tore through her throat, small blood drops spraying out onto her pink lips, "Sorry uncle, I guess we're going to have to go lefty for fist bumps."

Killer B howled with laughter, "You always got somethin' to say don'tcha?"

Sakura crouched near Sasuke and began healing his other wounds, "Killer B-san can you please put Naruto down? They've lost too much blood to make it to the medic tents, I'll have to work on them here."

Killer B placed Naruto near Sasuke, joining Kakashi were he stood so both could look on helplessly as the rosette did her thing.

Tears brimmed in Sakura's eyes as she went to put her hair in a short, spiky pony tail, "But really you two? Was losing your hands necessary? After everything that's happened what else did you have to prove?"

Naruto and Sasuke didn't see perturbed, there eyes were closed peacefully, the sun on their faces...

Kakashi had never see so much blood in all his years as a ninja, Naruto and Sasuke had torn each other apart and all they could think was what a good fight they'd had.

Kakashi shook his head, it would no doubt be recorded in the history books.

They both began to pale, losing more blood despite Sakura's excellent treatment.

Kakashi watched on helpless, heart in his throat.

---

The next time he saw her was in Konoha's main hospital, sitting on her gourney bed with a sheet pulled over her lap. Loose coins littered the bed, Gama-chan's zipper open had rolled to the floor. Sunlight streamed through the windows, lighting her hair with a glittering blaze, not even the coins glinted as bright as she did.

She had her new right hand splayed in front of her face, she twisted it about, opening and closing her fingers, "I can't even unzip Gama-chan without an issue."

"Strange huh?" Kakashi walked in, not bothering to knock.

She grinned up at him, "Damn straight it is, Kakashi or should I say Hokage-sama?"

Kakashi rolled his eyes at her, "Oh please, you've never used a respectful title a day in your life."

Naruto laughed hard but her face fell into a pout, "You ever hear about a phantom limb?"

At Kakashi's nod, the blonde continued, "I swear I can still feel my old hand, sometimes it's from the exact moment I lost it, I feel a rasengan in my hand, sometimes I feel like I've got chopsticks in it, about to dig into some ramen with Iruka-sensei, sometimes it's forming my shadow clone henge and sometimes I feel like it's grabbing Jiraiya's cloak collar, dragging him out of some titty bar."

She eyed her hand and looked back at him with curious eyes, "Old lady Tsunade made me this new one, it was cool as hell watching it grow but I'd be lying if I said it feels right. I can still feel my old one. Even as I have it open like this, it feels like it's got a rasengan in it."

Kakashi took the seat near her bed, an uncomfortable folding chair, he observed her hand, "I'm sure it'll feel strange for quite sometime, Tsunade did a great job of turning it into a living hand that your body wouldn't reject, she attached it to your chakra system but the flesh it was made from was her ancestor who was distantly related to the Uzumaki's, but he was a man who was not a jinchuriki like you, it's going to take awhile for it to adjust to the massive quantities of chakra you and the Kyuubi have."

Naruto pouted, "Kurama says it smells wrong."

"Kurama?"

"The Kyuubi," Naruto smiled, "The Kyuubi has a name, it's Kurama."

"You're on a first name basis with the Kyu-Kurama?" Kakashi asked, not shocked a bit, the girl with sunshine in her hair could win anyone over, even a tailed beast.

"We're friends now," Naruto grinned, "Now that he and I are on the same team and now we're unstoppable, so when're ya going to hand over the protection of this village to me huh?"

Kakashi laughed, "You don't know how much paperwork it is, you'll hate it."

"Nuh uh! Old lady Tsunade was already showing me how to do the paperwork! I can do it! Believe it!" She pointed at him with her left hand, "Hey, wouldja mind counting out the change for a soda for me? I guess the only things I can do with lefty are eating and fighting"

She gave him a sheepish grin, so adorable it almost made the feared copy nin blush.

Kakashi counted the change in rapid fire and sprinted from the room.

"What's the rush?!" Naruto yelled.

---

The next time he saw her was at the memorial, kneeling next to Neji Hyuga's marker. Sunflowers in one hand and white lilies in the other. The noon sun streamed through her hair casting glowing beams of light on the pale memorial stone, making it look molten and alive. Wind rushed through the area, tossing her hair about.

Kakashi clenched the bouquet in his hand and stayed back a bit, listening in.

"Hey grouchy, I'm sorry it took me so long to visit, I was in the hospital, I lost my hand fighting with Sasuke-teme," Naruto plopped down next to his name, on her butt, "Oh and I got a new hand, don't ask."

"Don't worry I kicked the teme's ass," Naruto laughed, "I knew you would like hearing that."

She set the flowers down in front, the pale lilies and vibrant sunflowers colliding in a way that oddly worked, "It's weird bringing a boy flowers, wasn't sure what to get. Hinata-chan said lilies are the funeral flower of the Hyuga because they're the same color as the Bakugan. But the pale white is boring so I gotcha some sunflowers. I figured you would be bored here and would need some brightening up but I got both just in case, I know you were a bit traditional."

She put her forehead on the memorial stone, she closed her eyes and sighed, "I want to thank you for your sacrifice, you saved my life and I honestly don't know how I could ever repay your kindness. Because of you, we were able to save the world, you're a hero Neji. I think the only way I could ever repay you is living my life to the fullest, I honestly don't know how else I could ever do so, believe it, I won't let you down Neji!"

Naruto stood up but didn't turn around, instead she brushed dirt off of her fitted black pants, "Done spying Kakashi?"

"Not spying, just letting you have a moment," Kakashi walked over and when she turned he gave her his eye-crinkle smile, "You can't sense chakra very well, how did you know I was here?"

Naruto grinned and flicked her nose with her right hand, "I'm downwind, Kaka."

Kakashi rolled his eyes, obviously, ever since their team 7 days he would always forget about her jinchuriki senses, perhaps it was too painful because it reminded him of how Kushina always knew when Kakashi was there and that he was ready to pull something on her. Kakashi squeezed his eyes shut for a moment and exhaled before opening them again to look at the blonde jinchuriki before him, "You seem to be getting better control of your new hand."

Naruto laughed, "Nothing keeps me down for long, chop sticks were the worst to relearn how to use, Kiba had to feed me my ramen once, he was so terrified he'd lose his own hand to my teeth."

Kakashi couldn't help but chuckle at that.

"You know how strange it is to see you in your Hokage robes? I keep expecting to see old man Sarutobi's face but everytime you take that hat off it's you."

"Now you're saying I have the posture of an old man? My former student, how you wound me!" Kakashi clenched at his chest in mock betrayl.

Naruto snickered, "Speaking of ramen, I'm starving! Some silver-haired tattle-tell told Sakura-chan about my hand spasms and now I'm on mandatory physical chakra therapy. She worked me to the bone all morning and I haven't eaten yet. Wanna go get some?"

A big hopeful grin spread across her face, making her whisker marks appear to pop out of her face, he froze.

She seemed to sense his apprehension and clenched his hands and began to bounce around him like a hyper ninken, "Come on Kakashi! For old times sake! We can invite Iruka-sensei!"

Kakashi vaguely wondered why Iruka always got to be sensei, he didn't really want her to use the honorific but it was kind of odd but had the girl ever not been strange? He gave in with a sigh, "Okay, I'll meet you in an hour, I have some friends here I need to visit too."

"Awesome!" Naruto smiled, "Don't be late! I'll order you some ramen and if you want it hot, you better arrive on time!"

Kakashi nodded before turning his eyes toward the memorial.

"See you in an hour Kakashi!" She ran off.

---

An hour later he arrived, actually on time, to Iruka sitting alone at the ramen stand, Iruka turned to him, "Hello, Hokage-sama, were you roped into lunch with Naruto-chan as well?"

Kakashi nodded, "Is she not here?"

Iruka shook his head, "She ran into me on the street and invited me and not two seconds later did Konohamaru-kun drag her off to show her his new jutsu, she promised she'd be here."

Kakashi laughed, "How is Konohamaru-kun?"

Iruka sipped at his drink, "He's good, has a hopeless crush on Naruto-chan, Moegi-chan is absolutely depressed about it."

That wasn't any new news, Sarutobi-sama's grandson had always been a bit smitten with the loud, boisterous girl.

"I'm sure she'll be here soon, with the boy in tow," Kakashi sighed, he was starting to understand Konohamaru a bit, "So how are you Iruka-san?"

"I'm well," Iruka gave him a somewhat sad smile, "Since Jiraiya-sennin's death, I've been assigned as Naruto-chan's legal guardian for a few months until her eighteenth birthday, her old apartment was destroyed during the attack so I've been sleeping on the couch and she has my room."

That was some news, Kakashi had no idea. He definitely loved his solitary living but he couldn't help but feel a tinge of jealousy. Shame bloomed in his chest, he should'nt think like that. Iruka was her teacher in every sense of the word and he was just a dirty old man.

"Hey guys!" Naruto appeared, looking to Ayame the ramen girl, "Can I have pork ramen, Ayame-chan?"

She turned back to them, hopping into the stool next to Kakashi, Sasuke following and sitting on her other side, "I managed to escape Konohmaru-tan and bumped into Sasuke on my way here, the teme actually wanted ramen."

Sasuke gave the two other men a look that indicated 'no he did NOT want any ramen'.

When they all received their ramen, Kakashi realized what was going on there, Sasuke rarely left the Uchiha compound, Iruka rarely left his own apartment or the academy, and Kakashi, himself, was more than a bit of a recluse.

His eye began to twitch at the betrayal, was this adopt a shut-in day?

When he looked at her all his anger drained away, she was positively glowing with happiness, Kakashi looked around, no sunlight peaking into Ichiraku at all, it was all her.

Maybe he had thought of it wrong before, it wasn't for them, it was for her. Save for Sakura, the three closest people to her were here.

Kakashi couldn't take his eyes away from her.

---

He didn't see her for quite sometime after that, her 18th birthday came and went and the day after that she left to Mount Moboku for more sage training.

Years passed and he heard of her escapades across the land, how beloved she was by people of all nations.

Somewhere along the way she and Killer B saved the world again.

Another time, she showed up to Sunogakure just in time to save the Kazekage again.

She had somehow gotten the idea in her head to bring together the remnants of the Uzumaki clan that had spread across the land after Uzushiogakure had been destroyed, sending him a plea for safe passage and permission to deem it as an official doujustu clan of Konoha.

A few years after that, he sent her a letter of her own, for her to return and before a crowd of all their friends and allies he placed the Hokage robe over her shoulders and the hat over her blonde pigtails.

As the mass of people around the clapped, she lifted her hat and jumped up on her tippy toes and planted a large kiss on his lips.

Kakashi gasped, looking around, ready for the crowd to turn on them and pull out their pitchforks and torches.

But the crowd just cheered louder. Kakashi could see the tears in Sakura's eyes, the small smile on Sasuke's lips, Tsunade and Killer B's aggressive cheering, even the Kazekahe Subaku no Gaara was cheering.

He looked back to the blonde goddess to find her smiling at him, her blue eyes glowing like aquamarine gems.

She laughed, "Are you done freaking out yet?"

"I'm fine," Kakashi shook his head, still in shock, "We're fine."

"Good because I'm going in for round two," She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and went in for another kiss.