DISCLAIMER: I own nothing from the Naruto universe but I do have an imagination of my own. PLEASE REVIEW MY CHAPTERS! I will take advice and suggestions from my readers while continuing the story.

Thinking

Biju, etc. speaking

Biju, etc. thinking

Emphasis


Kakashi eventually took Naru's hand in his and led her to her room. She asked him to stay for a minute and changed into a nightgown in her en-suite. He got off the bed to allow her to get in: he planned to tuck her in and say goodnight, but she took his hand and led him to his own room. She climbed into the bed and held her arms out, and he collapsed into them.


Kakashi woke up to the soothing feeling of nails raking gently through his hair. He knew it was Naru, of course - his sense of smell is the most enhanced of all his senses… He heard a raspy attempt at humming and glanced up into extremely tired blue eyes. Naru seemed zoned out until he moved his head. Having gotten her attention, he nuzzled back into her chest. "Morning koi." He scratched his nose and asked her how she was feeling this morning.

She coughed a bit, clearing her throat. "Me? I want to know how you are this morning. You had a rough night last night, ne?"

Kakashi pushed himself up to prop himself on his elbows to look at her. Suddenly all the memories of Naruto hit him again, and he flinched. Naru looked at him with sadness and concern as she continued stroking his scalp - on the side of his head now. She held his cheek on the other side with her hand. She bit her lip and Kakashi got a good look at her. She looked terrible! For her, that is. "Did you stay up all night for me?" She shrugged her shoulders - it was obvious that she did. He shook his head at her in disbelief - he couldn't even remember if anyone had ever done that for him - and began to speak when his bedroom door opened. Instantly on alert, because that door should seal whenever he entered it - a perk of being the Hokage - he jumped in front of Naru, grabbing a kunai.

In walked… a copy of him? He stood in shock until the imposter scratched the back of his head in a very Naruto-like manner. The expression was all him - or Naru he supposed - but closer to Naruto than Naru. He took a step back as the strange form turned around to shut the door. It was holding a large mug of soup and changed its appearance back into Naru. "What?" the clone - it must be a clone - asked rather rudely.

Kakashi stood there in shock, looking back and forth between the woman in his bed and the matching one holding soup and looking at him sourly. "Boss said you weren't feeling well and she wanted you to have something, but how the fuck do I know how to cook?"

"- - -" Kakashi felt like he'd gone into a parallel universe. Yes, it SOUNDED like Naru had made a clone when she was with the Nara brat, but seeing it was something else entirely.

"I think it would be good for you to eat, Kakashi," said the blonde in his bed. "You were really having a hard time until you woke up just now."

"How… How did you know how to henge your clone?"

"Hmm?" they both asked at once. Kakashi shook his head hard, wondering if he was still dreaming. No, it couldn't be that. He knew that if he were dreaming of two Narus they'd be having a two-person plus clones orgy. He'd had that dream many times. Just to make sure, he pulsed his chakra, whispering "kai!" Nothing? Okay, this is real. Plus now that he'd opened his eye, his Sharingan would have made a genjutsu obvious. He groaned.

"Ano, she told me how to do it," the Naru in his bed said, pointing to what he figured was the clone.

"No, I didn't! How the hell would I know how to do it if you didn't?! For fuck's sake, Boss!" Yes, Kakashi was now positive the rude clone was the one standing, and the blonde who had been holding him in his bed had been the real Naru.

"I think she's a competitive swearer. Is that a real job?" The real Naru asked Kakashi with a little smirk on her face. Kakashi was standing still in stunned silence watching the madness in front of him. "I think you should apply for that," she added as if she was serious, speaking to her clone.

"Tch! Whatevs… Idiot," that dis was followed by a loud snort from the clone. "Eat this, dammit! I took the time to cook it, I guess," the clone said, shoving the mug into his hands.

"You guess?" Kakashi asked, a little dumbfounded by the clone's words and attitude, as he took the soup from it. He began to take a bite: it smelled good.

"Just eat, sensei." The clone turned and dispelled while Kakashi spit soup in all directions. Naru patted him on the back worriedly.

Kami-sama! It - er, she called me "sensei!" With shaking hands, he unsteadily sat his soup on the nightstand nearest him. "Naru - did you remember something else? Something important? About your past…?"

"I don't think so," she replied, tapping her cheek in thought. "Maybe she did?" Kakashi's eyes widened.

"Well that would be odd, but maybe not unusual for... Considering that his clones were always way past weird," Kakashi said to himself out loud as he scratched his unmasked prickly chin.

"Who? Your student?" Naru asked with a frown on her face. He wasn't quite sure what to make out of her expression, but it wasn't pleased - that's for sure.

"How do you know about… that. I mean, my former students? Aside from Sakura." Kakashi asked suspiciously.

"Well, you were talking a lot in your sleep, plus they kinda let me know…" She shrugged. Seeing his worried expression she continued to explain, "The other mes - I mean the girls, ya know?" Naru vowed to never tell anyone what she now knew. She'd only recently accepted the fact that she was really in love with Kakashi, and respected him, too - not that she'd burden him with the former thing. It just made her sad that… She sighed and shook her head, putting a stop to that thought immediately. He'd helped her so much; she would never betray him. It was just a shame they couldn't really be together like she had hoped.

"Naru-chan," Kakashi began as he moved closer to look her directly in the eyes, "when you say the girls were telling you stuff, what exactly do you mean?" Naru seemed to be avoiding looking him directly in the eye, and that worried the hell out of him. "And I can't believe I'm asking this, but how many girls? You mean clones, right?"

"Oh!" she finally looked him in the eye as she nodded. "I don't know! A whole lot, I can tell you that much! They just kept coming and coming…"

Kakashi's glut clenched, thinking of his village filled with Naru clones - ones that so resemble Naruto. I knew I should've sent news out about her "awakening" before this mess started! I was being too damn selfish! He made a sound between a cough and a slightly-hysterical laugh, then cleared his throat as he tried to figure out how bad things were going to be outside. He needed to look out of the Tower's windows at least…

The Rokudaime grabbed his robes and put his yukata on Naru. Grabbing her hand he left his bedroom and headed towards the office, throwing a genjutsu on her as always. He didn't even hear his ANBU trying to question him or simply say hello. Shutting the office door, Kakashi hesitantly moved towards the window.

"Oh, gods… Oh my - Naru-chan. What did you do?!" He looked at the laughing woman in horror. She laughed so hard as she looked out the window that she was now having a coughing fit - but she continued laughing as tears poured down her cheeks. His village was basically under attack! Not funny at all!

There were at least a dozen Gai's running and jumping around… JUMPING! As in no wheelchair! He also saw at least a few copies of himself waving like an idiot to stunned and growing crowds. Then there was the clincher: oh no! Sakura's going to kill us! The Hokage Monument had been painted once again, and there were what looked like a pair of twin celebrating head medics, now high fiving each other as they hung from ropes from Lord Second and his sensei's head. His own mask had been painted green - the nerve! - and his hair was pink! Kakashi ran his hand through his hair in frustration then observed a huge pyramid of ANBU painting something underneath his masked face. He heard a cheer of women's voices at just that second as the fake ANBU went scurrying away in all directions. Right under his head, they'd painted the words, "One Fine-Ass Motherfucker!"

"Naru-chan: I need you to dispel them, dispel them now!"

"What?!" Kakashi had never come close to yelling at her before, and she'd never seen him looking so angry. She also didn't know what he was talking about!

"Naru, PLEASE! Dispel your clones now," Kakashi said weakly, holding her by the shoulders and melting further down in front of her, seeming to get shorter and shorter.

Naru panicked, "I don't know how! They do it themselves - and they make themselves too!" Kakashi was holding his head at his temples before sinking down on the edge of his desk. He nodded quickly then jerked her toward him.

She squeaked as she landed on him. Looking at the expression on his face she knew she'd somehow blown it. "Naru." Kakashi took a deep breath. "I need you to," he let out a weird high-pitched breathy sound; "I - I need you to put your hands like this… that's a good girl." She had placed her hands correctly although her pouting, quivering lips told him that her composure only had moments left before she'd begin to cry. "Say 'kai.'" She did, and he looked up to see the insanity still taking place throughout the village - now there was even a bar fight with dust being kicked up everywhere. "Kami help me!" he growled quietly. "Naru-chan… did you put chakra into your release?" Seeing her sniffling but scared expression, it was obvious she hadn't.

"What's chakra again? Is it that…" she was cut off by a snarl from the copy-nin and tore off running to her room, locking herself in. He followed right after her. Little things like locks weren't anything he would ever worry about, but her loud sobbing was. His instincts told him to kick the door down, but he knew that would scare her even more - plus he could tell now that she was sitting up against the door, further holding him back.

ANBU along with a few Jonin came running to him from all directions, trying to all report at once. He tried to silence them with his hands, to no avail. It seemed most of them were being blamed for painting "things" about their Hokage on the Monument, and they were pissed. Suddenly a massive cheer went up outside, and Kakashi ran to the nearest window. Puffs of smoke were dissipating, and the villagers seemed to be... happy? He and his minions stood there in shock as applause and yells continued to ring out throughout the village, finally beginning to return to the calm place it had been - minus a few colorful areas.

Now what everyone in the room could hear more than anything was the absolute sobbing of a woman behind that door of the Tower - the room the Rokudaime kept top tabs on. Ooooh, Hokage-sama fucked up was the silently agreed-upon opinion of the operatives who left very quietly and quickly to leave him alone with what had to be a scary woman - considering the expression on their leader's face. And yes, they finally saw his face! But none of them would dare speak of it, not while sober anyway! He is the man with over a thousand jutsu after all, known by so many aliases it's nearly crazy. There was only one jackass in the village who would dare challenge Sharingan no Kakashi, and in a wheelchair or not, that guy was a green maniacal monster of a ninja! Screw that!


It was just too much! First, the other hers" her "CLONES" just kept popping up, crowding his room as she tried to help Kakashi-sama sleep, then they began leaving looking like other people: she hadn't known what to do! Especially when the clones were making other clones as they left! Naru had been happy that they were all so happy, and at that time she only was thinking about keeping them quiet as Kakashi-sama was finally sound asleep. She let out another wail of despair as she thought about how things kept getting worse all day.

Although she thought it was funny at first watching all those clones run around acting silly, Kakashi got SO MAD at her. Her sobs increased and Naru grabbed her pillow, putting her face in it to try to silence herself. The worst part of it all, though? Finding out from her clones that the man she now knew she truly loved actually loved a man named Naruto - his former student. He basically backed that fact up as he unknowingly talked in his sleep! No wonder he was always so adamant that she not use that previous name of hers: it had been his lover's name, too! After moving all her furniture against the door, she cried herself to sleep. Nothing will ever be the same!