Kakashi narrowed his eyes, and the young teenager simply returned Kakashi's expression with his usual, placid smile "I did not know you were acquainted with Kagome-san." He began, as they walked into Kagome's apartment.

Before Kakashi offered a response, he looked around the young nurse's home. The apartment was small, but neatly arranged. Ornaments decorated the rooms so it had a warm, welcoming feeling similar to one the young woman emanated herself. Kakashi looked back at Sai, his eye creasing into a smile. "Maa, I got to know her pretty well after I got hospitalized. Kagome-san was my nurse."

"Ah." Sai said knowingly. "It was a blessing in disguise that your weak shinobi abilities managed to get hurt on the job and meet Kagome-san then." Kakashi inwardly rolled his eyes. This kid thought he could get to him huh?

"Yeah, pretty lucky of me." Kakashi responded simply, refusing to react to Sai's barbs. "Where should I put the bags, Kagome-san?"

Kagome who had been watching the exchange and looking a little confused, blinked rapidly before motioning to the kitchen counter. "Thanks again for the help, Kakashi-san. I'll make you a nice dinner to return the favor." She said, smiling prettily.

"I'm sure it'll be delicious." Kakashi agreed, remembering fondly the scrumptious dinner she had whipped up last time.

"Sai-kun! You sure are close with Naruto, huh? I've been seeing you around here more and more." Kagome said pleasantly, draping an apron on herself that Kakashi had to admit make her look even cuter than usual.

"We've been sharing many enjoyable conversations on the finer nuances of art. Naruto has quite the creative mind when it comes to my paintings. " Sai answered, making himself at home by moving to Kagome's kitchen. Kakashi cringed inwardly. For being a member of ROOT for who knows how long, Sai sure sucked at lying. Sai, despite the fact he had been improving rapidly, still had less than stellar social skills. The older man supposed it might be kind of funny to see how this played out.

"Naruto and art?" Kagome said thoughtfully, as she continued to make herself busy in the kitchen. "Didn't know the kid had ability to focus on anything else besides training. He does seem to enjoy drawing with Shippo though." She nodded her head towards the corner of the room, drawing Kakashi's attention to a series of crayon illustrated papers decorating the wall.

Kakashi moved closer, and suppressed a chuckle. He was sure a certain knuckle-headed blonde ninja had drawn a crude representation of Team 7 surrounding Naruto eating bowl after bowl of ramen at Ichiraku's, along with several other barely discernable scenes. Kakashi paused on a drawing Shippo had obviously done, a family portrait of himself, Naruto, Kagome, and a figure Kakashi couldn't identify. The man was clad in red and seemed to have silver hair much like himself, but had… dog ears?

"Kagome-san, I can't seem to recognize the person in this picture. Is he from Konoha?" Kakashi asked, curiosity getting the better of him.

Kagome looked over, and Kakashi caught shock flit across her features briefly, before her lips stretched into a melancholy smile. "Ah… well.."

Hi guys! I'm back and have recently been inspired to update again. Sorry for the long wait... I kinda had writer's block and kept putting the story off until I realized it had already been this long since I updated Anyways! I'll try to update more but I'm currently studying abroad (in Japan whooo!) so not too sure how my schedule will be.

Thank you everyone for all the encouraging reviews! I love to see them so I'd be grateful if they kept coming hehehe

Disclaimer: Inuyasha/Naruto do not belong to me