A few days later you were back in the village and back at work. You'd left before team 7 claiming that since the threat had been taken care of, you should take your report to the Hokage. The real reason was that you couldn't handle another night of listening to Kakashi relieve himself. You'd figured that he'd have it out of his system after the first night, so you'd stayed for a second night. But sadly he'd kept you up the same way again, so you left in the morning.

The new book had been a hit and had sold out within a day of you being back at work. You'd ended up having to order more. It was so popular that even people that generally looked down on Jiraiya's books were buying them. Jiraiya had also told you to start working on your next work, since he had gotten requests from his editor and publishers for more of your work, with the same characters. So you had been working on some new stuff before coming back to work.

You looked up as the bell above the door rang. It was Iruka. You'd managed to convince him to buy a copy just the day before. "Ah Umino-san. How are you today?" He walked over to your desk, his eyes continually darting away from you. "Good afternoon Yoshe-chan. I'm...alright. I have a question though, that I'm hoping you could answer for me." You smiled at him and nodded. He was one of the only people in the village that still called you by your last name. You used to tell him to call you by your first name, but you had realized how hypocritical that was since you call almost everyone by their last names.

You waited for Iruka to ask his question, but he seemed to be having troubles with it. After a few minutes he managed to force words from his mouth, "You know the second author right?" You smile fell and you opened your mouth to ask him what he meant, but he cut you off, "I mean...do you know how to contact him? I...I want give him this..." He held up a piece of paper that was heavily folded. "What is it?" He glanced around the store to make sure no one else would overhear, "It's...a fan letter." You could feel the heat radiating off his body from his embarrassment. You were somewhat surprised, and admittedly, you didn't know how to react, "Umm, why not just give it to the Sennin? I'm sure he'd know how to get it to Katsu." Iruka shook his head frantically, "Jiraiya-san wouldn't be subtle about it. And as a teacher I need this to be kept secret. Can you please deliver this to Noboru-san?" You took the letter into your hands slowly, "What makes you think I know who to give this to?" "You call him by his first name. You only do that with people that you are very close with." You mentally slapped yourself for the slip up. Since Katsu Noboru wasn't the name of a real person you hadn't felt strange about using the first name

You sighed and pushed your reading glasses up on your nose, "Alright Umino-san. I'll make sure Katsu gets it, but don't let anyone know that I know Katsu ok." Iruka nodded happily, "I know how to keep a secret Yoshe-chan. Thank you so much for this." Iruka bowed and quickly left the shop. You looked at the piece of paper in your hands. You wanted to read it, but you knew you shouldn't read it at work.

Your first piece of fan mail...

A grin spread across your face and remained there for the rest of your shift. It was still on your face when you walked home. You pulled the paper out of your pocket and grinned at it as you began climbing the stairs to your apartment.

"You look happy." You jumped and looked up to see Kakashi leaning against your door. "Kakashi! You're back. Umm, hi!" Kakashi smiled and pushed away from the door, "Yeah we got back an hour ago. I didn't know you were working today or I would've walked you home." You walked to your door and began unlocking it, "Yeah I got asked to cover for someone that was sick." You opened the door and walked in, leaving it open for Kakashi. You were trying your best to not be awkward, after all, he didn't need to know that you'd been awake all those times he'd taken care of himself. You set the letter from Iruka down on your desk and went into the kitchen, "Want some tea?" You called when you heard Kakashi shut the door. You stood at the stove, putting a kettle on to boil, waiting for Kakashi's answer when you felt his arms wrap around your waist, "I'd love to have some of your tea. By the way, why do you have a bunch of fan mail for Katsu Noboru?" You turned your head to look at Kakashi, "A bunch? I only have the one, and it's cause Umino thought I'd know how to get it to Katsu without it becoming public knowledge." Kakashi shook his head, moving one of his arms from around your waist to pull something from his bag. It was a small stack of letters, "While I was waiting for you to get home Jiraiya came by. He had these letters on him and he was bringing them here. Now why would Jiraiya bring you these letters rather than just bringing them straight to Katsu Noboru hmm?"

What was Jiraiya thinking?!

You just stared at the stack of letters, trying to think of some excuse. "I don't know what to tell you Kakashi. People seem to think I know Katsu." Kakashi pulled away and began moving into the other room while mumbling something. "What was that Kakashi?" You heard Kakashi move over to your desk, "...just saying that I was gunna put the letters on your desk...you know, so you can send them off."

*I'm gunna have to tell Kakashi soon. All this lying and the secrets are getting to me. I'll have to figure out how to tell him though.*

You poured the water into the tea kettle and let it steep, moving to make some sandwiches, figuring that Kakashi would be hungry after getting back from a long mission. Kakashi was oddly silent while you worked. You put the sandwiches on your table along with the tea, "Kakashi?" You heard him hum in response. "I made a snack." You heard a shuffling sound and a few moments later Kakashi walked back into your kitchen. His eyebrows were furrowed, and he looked deep in thought. "You ok?" He startled slightly, "Uhh yeah, yeah. Those sandwiches look great." Kakashi sat at the table and picked up a sandwich and nibbled at it.

He picked at his food slowly and no matter what you tried, he just wouldn't get into a proper conversation. He kept getting lost in thought and he seemed distracted. After you finished your sandwiches and tea you sat and stared at him while he zoned out again. What could he be thinking about to have him so distracted?

"Kakashi, are you sure everything is ok? You've been off this entire time." Kakashi locked eyes with you for a moment, but then he looked away, his eyebrows furrowing again, "It's...nothing. I think I'm just tired. I think I should just head home..." He pushed himself to his feet, not even putting his plate with his half eaten sandwich on the counter before leaving. He didn't even say goodbye.

Had you done something wrong? Was he angry with you? Maybe...maybe over your behaviour and rejection during the mission? But that didn't make sense. If he was mad at you he wouldn't have come over in the first place.

You picked up the dishes and wrapped his leftover food, walking into your main room after, still wondering at Kakashi's behaviour. You walked over to your desk, deciding to try to get some work done since Kakashi clearly wasn't going to be coming back over anytime soon. You flopped into your seat and slid your rough draft papers towards yourself, most of them already covered in your writing. Your hand nudged the pile of letters when you reached for your pen. You smiled, thinking about reading them before you started writing, but you paused as you reached for them. The letters had been placed on the top of your desk, mere inches from where your writing had been resting. Suddenly you remembered Kakashi's long silence when he'd gone to put the letters on your desk and how his behaviour had changed right after.

He wouldn't have read your papers, would he? Kakashi would never invade your privacy like that...right?

But...Kakashi was only human. You looked at the top sheet of paper. There in clear letters were the words,

By Katsu Noboru

If he had seen those words, he wouldn't have been able to help but read a little more, especially with how strongly he'd reacted to the first story. And if he'd looked at anything more than the first page he'd have recognised your writing. And he would've seen that the story was only partially written. There was no way you could try to use the excuse of being the contact between Katsu and Jiraiya with a partially written story. No author would send off an unfinished story.

You had no doubt, if Kakashi had read even a single word, then he knew your secret.