Disclaimer: Does anyone think there's any possibility Kishimoto would honestly sell me the copy-rights to his number one hit show? Much as I'd like to say otherwise, if you do, then you have better dreams than I do. Needless to say, Kakashi is still Naruto's and Naruto is definitely Kakashi's.

Kakashi: Hey I got mentioned first!

Rose: Only as regards you belonging to my little cherub boy.

Kakashi: Hey! Naruto isn't yours. He's mine.

Naruto: (Glares at Kakashi) I do not belong to anyone. I am my own person, damn it.

Kakashi: Gulp. Hai, Koi. I know that.

Rose: Anyway, sorry this took so long but I needed to do some thinking on it and make some decisions on the support characters and their interaction. Don't forget to review. I like my reviews. I like them very much. :)

Chapter Twenty-one: The Proof

A few days later Sakura, after being reassured by a confident Tsunade the images she held were true, caught up with them again at the bar-b-que restaurant. She was carrying an envelope with her and looking smug. She sat down without an invitation and proceeded to tell them just why she was intruding on their lunch. "I just came by to prove to you the photos are real and not fakes. It is Naruto and Kakashi in them and they are lovers. Shishou has performed too many operations on both their hides not to know when she is seeing them as they really are. She says it's them and I believe her. She swears no clone could withstand what she knows they've done. And what's more, Ino-Pig, after you see the pictures, you'll know it's them also. They may only be sex buddies, but they definitely enjoy being with each other."

Ino took the envelope with a hand that shook slightly but she didn't open it. Shikamaru looked at Sakura and asked her, "Just what did Kakashi-sempai ever do to you to deserve your doing this to him? If you want to disrespect your superior, I guess you have that right, but spreading dirty pictures of him to others who do respect him as well. . .?"

"I respect my Sensei," Sakura answered.

"Sure you do. That's why you just handed Ino porno pictures of him."

"It's just proof that Shishou read them both correctly. It's not porno. Besides, if Sensei really cared what people think of him, he wouldn't go everywhere reading that book he's always reading. Baka-brain not knowing they would be spied on is one thing but no way can Sensei claim the same."

"I'm sure Kakashi-sempai would say the same if it was pictures of you and Naruto in that envelope. I wonder what he would do if someone did have pictures of you in the all together apparently having sex with someone."

Sakura flushed. Her anger boiled to the surface and over flowed her control. "As if. That would never happen. I am apprentice to the Hokage, the Slug Sennin of the Legendary Sennin. I have to take care of my reputation for how my every action can affect her. I would never get caught in that situation where someone could get pictures that would serve to even indirectly demean her but Naruto and Sensei are not in the same position. Their behavior does not relate to her in any way," she shouted. "Besides, I'm not as thick-headed as Naruto or as stubborn as Sensei so I wouldn't need a special room at an inn to get my satisfaction."

Before anyone could react the sound of a resounding slap was heard. All conversation in the restaurant had ceased as Sakura's temper had flared so everyone clearly heard not only her words but the slap as well. With wide eyes she looked up to see who had slapped her and found herself staring into the green eyes of her Mother.

In a deadly quiet voice, the council woman told her daughter. "I may not like your teammate and I might wish to see him expelled from this village for the safety of everyone who calls this village home, Daughter, but never assume I do not like and respect your Sensei. Yamanaka Ino, give me that envelope. Now!" She held out an imperious hand and Ino quickly placed the envelope into it.

Before the council woman could open it, Shikamaru had it and vanished with it. No way did he want the Haruno woman seeing those images. Sakura personally thanked Kami, Shika was so quick on his feet. Meanwhile Ino had hidden the real envelope under the table and she was careful to let Chouji know they needed to stay put until the Haruno duo had left.

Mrs. Haruno didn't stay long once Shikamaru vanished with the envelope but she knew the boy well enough to know he would not open it and would more than likely destroy it. Truth was, after what she'd heard her daughter saying, she wasn't going to open it either. She grabbed her daughter by the arm and pulled her out of the restaurant promising Sakura they were going to have a long talk about respecting her superiors and elders and just what and who came under that heading from what and who didn't. "You will come with me now, Daughter. I think it is high time I took your apparent disrespect of your superior in hand. Maybe a few days of lowly chores will you remind you of your true station."

And in her mind, that did include Naruto as well. Haruno Kiku might think Naruto was a danger to her daughter and to the village, due to what his seal harbored but she also thought he was a human being and if what she heard her daughter saying the pictures contained was what they really were, than he deserved more respect than that also. He deserved the same privacy in who he chose to have sex with, or when indulging in any other activity where she would not like to be exposed herself. Nor find out someone had exposed her daughter in.

Besides she was having a very hard time understanding how Sakura, whom she knew professed to really care about her teammates could even begin to think those pictures were anything but disrespectful and invasive. Sakura had told her more than once how it was Naruto with Kakashi's help who kept her safe on missions. Kakashi would fight the bad guys while Naruto guarded her. So any picture that exposed a private moment between the two really didn't fit in with how she professed to think of them.

Sakura didn't say a word as she walked alongside her mother listening to the tirade. She knew it was a good thing her mother had not seen the pictures she had brought to Ino but she still didn't see how she was being disrespectful to her Sensei by showing them to Ino. If he didn't want them getting out, then he shouldn't have done those things with Naruto in that room. Naruto would have survived the drug. Kyuubi would have purged it from him sooner or later whether Naruto wanted the demon to or not. And in Sakura's mind he clearly hadn't wanted the demon to take out the drug. Truth was, Naruto had set Sensei up to force him to reveal his feelings and then he had played on them because the Baka hadn't thought things through.

But Sensei was an old hand and he knew they would be taped and photographed in that room. Therefore, if he didn't want to be photographed in that compromising that way, he should have refused to service Naruto's drug related problem. And it wasn't fair that he had played on Naruto's vulnerability to him that way. She knew, though, Kakashi had just been waiting for such an opportunity as a drugged up Naruto gave him. He hadn't hesitated to jump on what Naruto had been offering that night. Therefore, Sensei had taken advantage of Naruto. The contradictory nature of her thoughts on the couple never bothered her consciousness at all. Nor did the fact that she knew for a fact Kakashi had been resisting Naruto for months before the Inn Incident. She'd grown used to the way she could mentally take both sides of the same argument and effectively blame both sides so long as one side wasn't herself.

Neji and Hinata had arrived at Kakashi house with Hiashi. Neither teen would tell the Elder a word of what or who they were meeting in the house other than Kakashi. Both made it very clear that, not only were they angry with Hiashi, they were disappoint in him as well. Hinata let her expression imply she was more than a touch creeped out by him as well, which really confused and bothered the upstandingly correct man. But upon being told Kakashi was waiting for him in the house, he closed his eyes somehow having a feeling Hokage-sama's little plan had been discovered. His life was gonna become hell as soon as his daughter knew for certain he knew Tsunade's plan and had done nothing to hinder it. He hoped Inoichi was gonna be present. Somehow he had a feeling he would need his help to get out of dying from his gentle daughter, who he knew full well was not nearly as gentle when someone crossed her personal moral lines and if in crossing those lines the person involved Naruto, in whatever they had done, he knew there would be no saving them from her wrath.

Hanabi did not scare anyone half as much as Hinata in protective, affronted mode scared him. Hanabi was exactly as her name implied. A firecracker that burned bright and hot for a moment and then died out but Hinata. . . Hinata was just the opposite. She took her time when picking her precious people just as she did about declaring someone an enemy. It was the same with her emotions. She took her time, preferring the even keel of a calm, peaceful feeling of a sunny place as her own name suggested. But when she got angry she was every bit as scary as a summer storm in a drought blighted area and not nearly as quick to spend that anger as the storm might be. She would let you know, very painfully, exactly what you had done that you should not have and she would keep at you, very painfully, until you begged to be forgiven. And no one was immune from her anger. Not even her Father. Especially not her Father. Hiashi knew without a doubt, he had failed to uphold her very strict moral code of conduct and as his heir, she would make him pay for it. Dearly. His reputation was, in a way, her reputation and vice versa, as he had pointed out to both his daughters more than once as they were growing up to keep them from acting out of character for the clan.

At the restaurant, Ino waited until she couldn't see Haruno's anymore before she gave a sigh of relief and pulled the envelope from under the table. She indicated for Chouji to pay their bill while she hid the envelope under her clothing. She had to use the bathroom to do it but no way would she take a chance of them falling into someone else's hands who would use them to hurt Kakashi-sempai and Naruto. When she came out of the restroom, Chouji was waiting for her. He would act as her bodyguard until they could find either Kakashi, Naruto or Shikamaru to turn the envelope over to.

The rest of the rookies were arriving with their council seated parents except for Sakura and her Mother. No one had felt Kiku should be present because not only was she an enemy of Naruto's but no one could say for sure she wouldn't repeat every word to people they didn't want knowing every detail. But Tenten had been assigned to bring Koharu while Lee was to bring Homura. The Ino Shika Cho were supposed to bring their own parents but since they were trying to safeguard the pictures Sakura had brought Ino, the elder trio were making their own way to the Hatake clan house. Kiba had brought his Kaasan while Shino was escorting his Otousan.

Kakashi looking was out looking for Ino and Chouji since Shika had told him what had occurred at the restaurant. He finally found them not too far from his house and looking very nervous and upset.

"Come on. I'll take you to my house. Hinata and Shino got all the parents together and we're just waiting for you two. Shikamaru stopped by earlier and told me about the pictures. He said you thought fast and kept them out of Mrs. Haruno's hands. Thank you."

"It's the least I can do after Sakura was gloating about what she saw in some of them," said Ino. "But I seriously doubt if these are the only ones Hokage-sama has. I'd say these aren't even the only copies of whatever is in this envelope. Sakura can be sneaky when she wants to be."

Kakashi closed his eye and sighed. "Yeah. I suspected she'd seen them already and I'm very aware of how sneaky she can be."

She hurried to relieve his mind. "I didn't look at them. I don't want to, either. You and Naruto both deserve my respect and I can't believe you'd want me to see them."

"We don't. But neither of us are the type to let another suffer when there isn't a damn good reason for it. Pride isn't a good reason. Not when you really care about the person doing the suffering."

"You really do love him, then. It's not just a forced bond by the demon he harbors who took advantage of the situation. Is it?" The look on her face was unintentionally hopeful but as he answered her it faded to resigned acceptance.

"I really do love him and he really does love me. We didn't even know Kyuubi had forced a bond between us until Iruka said something about it. But can I see what the pictures are, Ino? I have to know what she has on us before I can determine what to do about it."

"Uh sure but um. . . I used the bathroom at the restaurant to hide them under my clothes so ummm. . ." She flushed red as embarassment conveyed for him where the envelope might be right then. "Could we please wait until we get to your house? Please?" Her face was red, providing a stark contrast for her purple outfit, as she thought about how exposed she'd be trying to pull out the envelope now.

Kakashi chuckled and nodded. "Sure. Just as I don't want to be public display number one, I don't want you to be either." They reached his house without incident and he showed the pair inside, directing Ino to a spare bedroom where she could bring the envelope out of hiding.

She quickly disrobed and laid the envelope on the bed as she redressed. Then she took it and opened the door to put it directly into Kakashi's hand. Her Father was standing there with Kakashi and she greeted him gravely, remembering they had agreed to be stern with their parents over everything Naruto and Kakashi were being put through. Inoichi actually gulped. Being a closet reader of the same books Kakashi liked, he did try to sneak a peek at the pictures Ino had handed to Kakashi. His Princess got in his way with a very disapproving glare in her eye. "Otousan. Move to the other room with the others," she said imperiously while pointing a single finger in a demanding manner towards the room she meant. He nodded and spun to go join the gathering in the den. Yep. Definitely her Kaasan's daughter, he thought.

Kakashi had turned to Naruto and between them they hid the contents of the envelope as they took a look at the pictures Sakura had deemed important proof of their relationship. For Kakashi, the chest shot of him sitting apparently naked on Naruto's groin was the most incriminating one in the batch. For Naruto, the one of Kakashi kneeling between his legs was the most incriminating.

But though the pictures were pretty clear what was going on, neither actually showed anything of exactly what was occurring. Both pictures could have innocent explanations as well but anyone who knew Kakashi would know damn well what was happening since he wasn't wearing his face mask as was clear enough in both photos. It wasn't so much the lack of their normal covering though that would make the pictures work for Tsunade though. It was more what the looks on their faces had said was happening. Their expressions had told it all.

"Crap," they said together. "We're screwed," said Naruto.

"No. I won't give in to blackmail like this," Kakashi said, getting over the rush of memories of which incident had led to each shot. "Remember what Shikamaru said? These," he tapped the pictures he held, "show it'll still hold. And Tsunade-sama knows I can make up to three of those clones just as well formed as you make them. That she managed to convince Sakura the pictures are trully of the two of us and not clones is neither here nor there. If we stick to the story, she will have to prove we're lying. She can't. Not off these."

"You know this is mild compared to what else she is sure to have. And I won't let her ruin you like this," Naruto said.

Kakashi's eye flashed fire, as he ground out, "These won't ruin me. They may show my face but that is all they show that hasn't been seen before. I was doing missions long before you were born, Koi, and they weren't all the nice little go beat up the bad guy type we do now. Nor will these ruin you. You're a teenager. You're supposed to get horny in this kind of situation. For the rest," he shrugged. "We'll discuss it later. But know this, Koi. If I get ruined, she is going down with us. But right now, one thing at a time. Right now, we have a house full of important people who are wondering why their children are angry with them and why they have been brought here instead of to their own homes."

Author Note: Ok I know this chapter is very short for me but it was just a character movement chapter and I really believe the next one is longer. I apologize for the long wait between updates. I hate to admit it but I do have a life outside my keyboard and with three kids in school the end of the year gets pretty busy for me. Plus my computer has decided now is the right time to give me problems over whether or not I have enough memory chips on the mother board. Of all the lame brain issues. . . . anyway please review. I do like reviews.