An Unexpected Friend (Book 1 of the Unexpected Series)

Summary: Kakashi is a hard parent to please and Naruto just needs a friend... or a training buddy.

"Get up, Kokoro," Kakashi said monotonously as Kokoro laid on the ground. Her body was twisted and her palms laid flat on the ground. Her face was screwed up into a grimace as she tried to hold back tears from leaking out of her eyes. She had failed over and over to land a hit on him, so over and over she fell to the ground. She pushed herself off the ground and stood up on wobbly feet. She tried to paint a brave face on her person, but she couldn't help but let out a quiet sob as she stared up at him. He wasn't even trying to hide his disappointment.

"I was able to land at least ten hits on my father every spar by the time I was your age," he continued.

"I'm trying!" Kokoro shouted in frustration. Tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Try harder."

Kokoro charged at him and swung her fist at him. He dodged and threw a punch at her with his right hand. She blocked it with her left forearm and grunted under the power the punch had held. He threw a punch with his left hand, and she blocked it with her right forearm. She pushed her left forearm against him to create some distance between them before she grabbed his left fist and pulled him towards an oncoming punch. Kakashi ducked underneath the punch and twisted his arm before he kicked backwards and connected with her ribs. Kokoro yelped in pain and fell to the ground, clutching her midsection and breathing heavily.

"We're done for the day," Kakashi stated as he started walking off. He came back after digging into his bag and pulling out some medical supplies. He started applying cream to her newly forming bruises.

"I'm trying," Kokoro repeated quietly as she allowed him to treat her.

"I know."

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Kokoro held her dad's hand as they walked through the village market. A bag of groceries was in her dad's hands and a bored look graced his face. She chatted mindlessly about the things she learned in a book she finished last night. She knew he wasn't paying attention to a word she was saying, but she liked the fact that he tried to hide it by giving hums here and there. After living with her dad for so long, she began to pick up on some of his habits. She even learned some of them for certain situations. For example, her dad was good at schooling his features and hiding his emotions. At first, Kokoro wasn't good at it because she generally acted before thinking everything through, but through a lot of practice, she's gotten better at it. Now at 6 years of age, she was able to school her features when she wasn't feeling overly emotional. However, if she gets too angry or too sad or too anything, her mask breaks. That happened more than she liked to admit.

The only thing she refused to allow herself to inherit from him was his tardiness. She hated when people were late because she hated to wait. She was impatient. So far, he hadn't been late for anything involving her. Well, he was late to pick her up from Kurenai Yuhi's house once, but that was because he slept too long after his mission. Kokoro wasn't too hard on him for it. She understood he needed rest after being out for so long. Still, she was a bit miffed because she hadn't seen him for over a week and desperately wanted to hug him.

She felt his hand tighten around hers one moment and in the next a blur of green rushed in front of them. Kokoro instantly smiled and let go of her dad's hand. She ran up to the large man and hugged him as best as she could. He picked her up and threw her in the air before catching her and repeating the action. She laughed in amusement and continuously asked him to repeat his actions.

Kakashi sighed and gazed at the two with a mask of boredom.

"Gai, put my daughter down before she throws up," he said plainly. Gai loudly laughed and settled Kokoro on his shoulders.