Kakashi was quietly focused on his dual tasks of crushing sugar and intentionally making a mess with said sugar while Airi watched him work. If he was honest it was surprisingly relaxing, perhaps it was the mundanity of his task or perhaps it was the fact it was something so far disconnected from his normal day to day. Once again if he was honest, he would know it was because of Airi. He was just able to relax around her, he trusted her and she in return trusted him. It wasn’t something he could say about a lot of people in the village, outside of missions that is. His reputation as a fantastic team worker only barely overshadowed his past reputation from killing an ally in the field.

But none of that mattered as much while she was around; the past was kept firmly in the past and he was able to simply enjoy the moments of the present that he had while not worrying about the future. It was why when she hugged him from behind he paused in his crushing and just enjoyed the moment, glancing back at her he could gather bits of what she might have been thinking, but focused only on the message she was trying to send him. The plain honesty in her frame was humbling, and his worries about speaking up about his feelings faded away. He wasn’t sure how everything was going to play out, but that wasn’t going to stop him from repaying her honesty with his own.

He chuckled along with Airi as he took in his successful mess making, and felt it was entirely worth it just to hear her laugh. “Indeed we are” Was Kakashi’s reply as he took the offered cinnamon roll and sat down at the kitchen table.

[hr]

The Kakashi-clone resisted the urge to face palm at Naruto’s blunt statement and wondered for a moment if this was payback for staying silent, before dismissing that idea. None of the kids were aware of Gai’s and Airi’s current relationship as far as he knew. 

The other Jonin was taken aback for a moment as he processed what Naruto told him, and couldn’t help but give Kakashi a look, still getting the answer that he was so desperately seeking had Gai rearing to go [color=orange]”AND YOU LEFT HER THERE ALL ALONE!? MY RIVIAL YOUR YOUTHFUL FLAMES ARE DIMMING” [/color] He shouted before taking off towards Kakahi’s house another dust cloud being kicked up in his wake.

This time the clone did let out a sigh “Well that changes things”

[color=blue]“How so?”[/color] asked Sasuke as she stared at the retreating dust cloud.

“Because Gai isn’t known for his patience” replied the clone “I’m going to go and make sure I still have a house to return to we can pick up training tomorrow”

[color=yellow]“Aww man, this sucks”[/color] Whined Naruto at the prospect of losing out at the chance to try and needle out information from Kakashi.

“I’ll make it up to you three by teaching you all more about clone techniques next time” He offered before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Both of the boys had perked up at that and didn’t think much of the disappearance of their sensei. Sakura on the other hand couldn’t help but think that the poof looked like Naruto’s clones when they were popped and resolved to ask about that later.

[hr]

Kakashi had enjoyed breakfast quite a bit, good food and better company went a long way into making that true. “..So I ended up hiding out in the hay cart for the rest of the day all because of that one superstitious commander” The masked ninja finished explaining about one of his more humorous solo missions. It was a comedy of errors where things just kept going a little bit wrong in weird ways. It had been brought up by some of the banter the two always exchanged.

“What about you? Any-“ He stalled midway through his question and just blinked for a moment before letting out a small sigh. A little known truth about Shadow clones was that the clones returned all of their memories to the original upon the dispelling of them, it was one of the reasons it was a forbidden technique for the normal forces.

“Seems we will be having company in a bit” Kakashi said, his tone notably annoyed, “Seems someone told Gai about what happened last night and Naruto mentioned that you were here.” The silver haired Jonin was not looking forward to this confrontation but sometimes things just don’t go the way you want them too. “Which makes this perhaps the worst time to mention it but breakfast is done, and it’s now or never seemingly.”  The buildup was mainly for Kakashi’s benefit as it gave him a second or two more to ready himself for what he was about to say.

“I am falling in love with you”