I STILL don't own Naruto or its characters...

FTR I'm temporarily stopping my other story, so if you happen to be reading that, you can stop XD

But yeah, once this story gets 'caught up' to it, I'll pick it up again.

Kurenai dragged her feet back and forth pacing through her house gently bouncing a crying Naruto up and down.

"Sleep... pleeeease" the bags under her eyes had been steadily growing darker and darker of the past weeks, until now they looked like permanent shadows under her blood shot eyes.

A mere 3 weeks had passed since she took Naruto in and it wasn't as if she was regretting it... because she wasn't, after the first few hours maternal instinct took over and Kurenai looked at him as he were her own.

But right now she was seriously considering placing a sleeping Gen-Jutsu on the little fox.

"Eugh! I can't do that, it would border on child abuse! Can I ikkle Nawuto-kunny-wunny?" she lightly tickled his stomach and to her relief the crying was replaced by a giggle, swiftly followed by a yawn... 15 seconds later he was asleep, Kurenai look at the sleeping baby, stunned.

'What just happened?' she decided to save that question for later, she swiftly but carefully placed Naruto in his crib and used Jounin level stealth to creep out of the room and slump on the couch.

A small sigh escaped her lips as she sensed a presence approach the apartment, she walked across the room and turned on the kettle. At the same time Naruto burst out crying, again as an Anbu appeared in the centre of Kurenai's living room.

"Damn that kid... ruined my entrance" the Anbu member spoke in a bored tone and his silver hair gave away his identity almost immediately.

"Kakashi, Can I offer you some coffee?" he shook his head

"Tea?" he shook his head again

"No thanks, I'm fine. The third sent me to give you a mission, Based on his appearance... anyone can tell the Naruto isn't your real son... so the third has come up with a scheme... you are to go the whirlpool country and 'adopt' him" he sat on her couch and began to examine his finger nails as he spoke.

Kurenai looked at the wolf mask that Kakashi wore and sighed.

"How long will I be gone?"

"It'll take you about 3 weeks to travel there... 3 weeks back, I'd say about 7-8 over all, you won't be going alone though, after all your still only a Chunin after all" when the Anbu said this Kurenai could have sworn she sensed a smirk trailing on his voice...

"your leaving in the morning, I suggest you pack for a Whirlpool winter" he stood as he spoke and shook his gravity defying hair.

" You may not be able to hide his characteristic blonde r and blue eyes... but you can hide those tell tale whisker birthmarks of his," he pulled off his mask to reveal that his visible eye was making an eye smile, and he peeled off one of his many layers of masks and handed it to Kurenai.

"A mask? Like a Hatake? Um... thanks Kakashi..." she threw the mask into an open bag on the coffee table, followed by a number of diapers and bottles of milk.

"Are you coming along? With your dad... I mean" she glanced at him for a second, before retreating to fetch a still crying Naruto. When she returned the apartment was empty and Naruto stopped crying.

"Hm... why do you cry when he's around?" she extended her arms high and held Naruto near the ceiling... he liked it up there, she didn't know why, and didn't try to find out, as long as he didn't cry she was happy.