Naruto Uzumaki stared at the silver-haired teenager with a mask on his face. His mouth hung open, a finger stuck inside it. He had ringed the doorbell.

Kakashi Hatake knew it was going to be one of 'those days'.

Anko Mitarashi grumbled from her spot on the couch. "Is it the brat?"

"Yep." Kakashi sighed, letting the boy in and closing the door a moment later. He remained in front of the closed door.

"It's another one of those days?" She sighed, stretching up from the sofa as the blond boy settled just next to her, before grabbing a pillow and trying to use it to hide himself. Anko grinned, and stood in wait for the 'final'.

There was a loud knock at the door.

Kakashi opened it.

"Is that stupid idiot here?" Sasuke asked, before looking around and zeroing in on the blond locks that seemed to emerge from beneath a hastily placed pillow-fort. "I can't believe it!"

Kakashi closed the door, and remained where he was.

There was a louder knocking.

He opened once more.

"Hello, I'm sorry Mister Hatake, but have Naruto and Sasuke perhaps come by?"

Iruka had a stressed smile on his face.

Now the pillow fort held both Naruto and Sasuke, hiding from the Academy instructor.

"I don't have the faintest clue," Kakashi said. "Did you lose them again, teacher Umino?"

Iruka hung his head low. "Really, those two…some days they just act up and disappear like this. Are my lessons really that boring?"

"I wouldn't know," Kakashi replied. "They'll come home eventually, and when they both do I'll be sure to sternly reprimand them."

"Please do," Iruka said. The Academy teacher left, and Kakashi closed the door.

He waited a heartbeat.

There was a polite knock at the door.

He opened the door once more and Shimura Danzo let himself in. "It is preposterous," he said calmly, as he took five steps inside before receiving a blond bullet to the stomach.

"Grandpa!"

"I am not your grandfather!" Danzo exclaimed. "And you should be at the Academy, studying, to become a shinobi."

Naruto happily ignored the 'not' in his exclamation, as well as the rest of his words. "But it was boring!"

Kakashi closed the door.

He waited.

There was another knock.

He opened the door and let Yamato inside.

"He's in here, isn't he?" the Anbu said, with a defeated sound in his voice. "They both are, aren't they?"

"Yep, it's one of those days," Kakashi said.

Yamato groaned.

Kakashi closed the door, and waited.

Five minutes later and there was a furious knocking at the door that nearly unhinged it.

He opened and sidestepped Tsunade, as she marched inside. "Damn brats!" she roared. "I received another call from the Academy! Is it possible you can't stay a month without causing trouble!?"

Kakashi closed the door.

He checked his watch.

There was a soft knock.

He opened and sighed.

The Hokage sighed back, biting onto his pipe as he stepped inside. Kakashi closed the door and followed him. "It's another one of these days, uh?" Hiruzen said, stepping into the larger living room. Danzo and Tsunade were both yelling loudly —quite more than what was good for their age— towards the two squirming children in front of them. Well, Sasuke was squirming.

Naruto was happily ignoring it all and just nodding in rhythm.

Anko was chuckling while holding a dango stick in hand, shoving her elbow into Yamato's sides as she pointed at the random faces Naruto made when the two 'lecturers' ended up closing their eyes in the heat of their words on 'responsibilities' and 'bright future ahead of them if they didn't follow lessons seriously'.

Kakashi rolled his only visible eye.

"I still cannot believe this works out."

Hiruzen nodded sagely. "I should have thought about this a long, long time ago."

He sat down at a nearby chair, waiting for the story on 'duty, honor and above everything else not making anyone worry' to die down. He had an amused face on.

It had all begun with the Kyuubi attack, years before.

He couldn't just leave Naruto to live for himself, and he couldn't just leave him to anyone in particular.

Therefore, he had left him to Kakashi.

Only, he couldn't actually leave Kakashi alone in checking on a new born baby, and so he had forced Tsunade back by paying her debts —and Konoha was in need of the sannin anyway, whether she liked it or not.

Afterwards, Orochimaru had left the leaf, and he had once more ended up having to find a home for both his apprentice and his experiment —although they could have been pretty well both experiments.

Since they both needed routine medical check-ups anyway, he had made them live in the same place as the sannin.

It hadn't ended there, because of course Danzo had been against letting Orochimaru's apprentice —a traitor— stay in the same house as the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki.

Thus Hiruzen had found the perfect, uttermost exhilarating solution —he still laughed at the thought— that a 'retired shinobi with nothing to do all day, Hokage-sama, and no, I am not leading Root at all' could do.

He had placed Danzo inside the house too.

Hiruzen had to bring a hand to his mouth to cover the smile that still menaced to erupt from his lips at the thought of Danzo's face when he had been told he'd be personally checking on the situation by himself.

The Uchiha coup dealt with, but thankfully, Itachi had done it on a day Sasuke had been 'sleeping over' with Naruto —and because he had suggested to the boy traumatizing his younger brother would not work at all.

Sasuke hadn't taken it well, but Naruto wasn't easy to ignore and, since Sasuke couldn't live alone anyway…

Hiruzen mentally applauded his genius hindsight.

He would have preferred not to have to exterminate a founding clan of Konoha, but there had been no choice on that matter.

Still, with everyone around him being happy…that was a reward by itself.

The pleasant lull of the days to come…ah, how they soothed his old heart.

Author's notes

…

Fluff-Filled story.

I regret nothing.

I REGRET NOTHING.

*Escapes through the Fluff-Mobile, as the Angst-Muse gives chase on a side-car motorcycle*