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

Thinking

Biju, etc. speaking

Biju, etc. thinking

Emphasis

Kakashi was REALLY worried about his dad.

He had been gone for months now, and he was no idiot, no mere child… He was about to become a Genin of Konoha, so he had to be prepared - and he was! Still, though, he reached down to add some supplements to a new wolf mother's water bottle who had just given birth to her first litter of pups. The birth was early, and although Kakashi had been raised and had always felt that he just instinctively knew most of what he needed to do, it was weird that his father hadn't come home to oversee this. He'd never been truly left alone to supervise a birth like he had last night, but everything went fine. Maybe this showed how much his dad trusted him to take charge? That had to be it, he hoped.

Normally Minato-san or Kushina-nee would force him to stay with one of them, or Kushina-nee would stay here, as she had nearly all the time when he was younger. They had been out on their own missions for over a month now, though. He knew that the Hokage was unnecessarily concerned with him "living alone and unsupervised at such a young age," so Sandaime-sama normally staggered the couple's missions with his father's as best he could. The fact that he hadn't seen any of them in so long probably meant one thing: war was even closer than he had earlier thought it was.

The notes Uzumaki passed to him from his father through one of his "Uncle Jiraiya's" toads - he wishes I'd call him that - were coming less frequently now. It made going to school even less tolerable than it already was. He once again wished that his father hadn't forced him to enter the Academy, and had let him just take the Genin test. But no: his father said he needed socialization beyond the pack.

He didn't enjoy the attention he received at school, the bad or the supposed "good." Aside from Anko and Naruto, the female students he was forced to deal with in one way or another from the Academy were a complete pain: a disgrace to kunoichi. Naruto and Anko might still be girls which was just ugh, but he could respect their desire to become competent kunoichi. Every time he would think that even the idea of the goofy girls becoming shinobi at all was doomed, they seemed to show improvement or at least begin to pay attention in class. Their taijutsu had especially improved lately. Considering it, he went to his backyard to work out his worries and frustrations on the training dummies there.

Anko had become faster and even managed to land a few good hits on him that he was unable to block the last time they sparred. He had seen her asking the Hokage's son for advice a few days ago, and had even seen them having what he could only call an instructional spar along with that brown-haired girl… What's her name? Kurenai or something? His dad was friends with her dad - that's all he knew about her. Naruto? Well, Naruto's fists hit like a brick now, and she was already incredibly fast. Over the last week, it had been decided by everyone he bothered to listen to that when sparring with Naruto, you either blocked or would lose consciousness. Kakashi was pretty sure that Naruto was keeping a tally of everyone she knocked out in that ridiculous prank notebook of hers.

And what was with that book that it seemed like she and her father were writing together? When their sensei realized that she once again wasn't doing what she was supposed to be, sensei nearly got it away from the girl. The messenger toad sitting next to her grabbed it with its gross long tongue and disappeared, leaving a scarlet-faced Naruto. What in the world had embarrassed her so much?

Honestly, it should embarrass HIM how much he noticed things about the short blue-eyed girl, but school was just so boring and she was always doing something she shouldn't. When it looked like she was taking notes, she was drawing weird pictures. When they were instructed to read something, she'd have the cover to the intended book over a book that was about seals, instead - something they didn't really teach much about in the Academy. She promised to let him borrow her copy after she finished it, "as long as you're not a tattle-tale and give it back! It's Ero...Dad's." He was interested to see if the book was worthwhile, so he agreed to her ridiculous request. It's not like he would've bothered to tell on her, anyway. She was such a baby sometimes.

Akiro, the new mother's mate, walked up and hit Kakashi with his nose, bringing him out of his katas. "Someone's here for you, pup. You'd better go check it out: I think it's important."

Great, just great. Now that he was paying proper attention, he could smell her already. Once again, he wondered why she had the smell of a fox on her. Crap: I need to get to the Inuzukas! We're nearly out of supplements! Kakashi scolded himself for letting his responsibilities get away from him. He still had enough to last through the end of the week, but what if something happened and he couldn't get away as he could now?!

Naruto stood at what she could only hope was the Hatake Clan's gate. It totally smelled like hounds and stuff, nearly as bad as the Inuzuka's. She had never been here before: never knew of it, or had ever seen in either lifetime the insignia she was now staring at, however, she sensed that Kakashi was here. She had to see him, this was an emergency! She felt a little better upon talking to the big wolf - and wasn't that a trip? - but how long could that lackadaisical boy take to get his pompous ass over here?! Finally seeing him sauntering along the path, masked as always with his hands in his pockets, her mind briefly superimposed her old sensei on chibi-Kakashi's form. She shook the image off. This was life and death!

"Kakashi! Get your lazy ass moving!" Naruto winced at the volume of her completely appropriate words, looking down into the box worriedly.

An Hour Before -

Naruto was totally getting that girl back! How dare she call her a foreign whore? She was in a five-year-old body, for crying out loud! And any kind of slur against "foreigners," or any kind of slur actually, really set her off. Inuzuka or not, that bitch was going to pay!

Her target stopped in her tracks, then sniffed the air. Naruto quickly snuck into an alley, waited a bit, then made a clone to henge and continue tracking the Inuzuka meanie from a farther distance. Maybe I need to take a bath? Meh, I'll jump in the river later. She noticed a funny smell - it was a little familiar, yet not - and decided to follow her nose deeper into the alleyway.

She stopped in her tracks, horrified at what she'd found. A puppy… could it even be called a puppy? Was it a puppy? It was so small, it was hard to tell. The poor thing was trying to scooch itself into the corner of an old box and could barely move!

Naruto had no idea of what to do with a puppy! Tadpoles? Sure! Puppies or whatever this super tiny thing was? No! Okay, okay, okay, she tried to make herself stop panicking only to feel Kurama stir in her mind from his long nap. If I found a damaged tadpole, I'd summon a toad. That makes sense… right?

"What's with the ruckus, brat?"

"I - I found this puppy-thing. I guess that's what it is?! Look at it, Kurama: it's so pathetic! Oh my God! What if it dies? Okay, okay: I know you don't care, so… so I'll take it to the Inuzukas. That nasty girl's there, but this is too important to…"

"Don't."

"What?!" She didn't care right now that Kurama's ears went back from her shriek of outrage. "You damn fox, this isn't some kind of 'juicy rabbit' you want to eat!"

"Naruto!" Kurama waited for his loopy partner to listen. "You don't sense it? You don't recognize what this is? Think!" Realizing that the ditz was too scared and worked up to pay proper attention and heed his words, he continued. "Naruto… You just found a summons: I believe that may even be Pakkun, or what will be Pakkun. Tch!" He couldn't help but enjoy the way Naruto's eyes got so big that they looked like they'd fall out of her empty head.

"Oh - oh gods… I gotta find Kakashi!" It didn't matter that she didn't like him very much: this was HIS summons! His main summons! If anyone ever came between her and her toads, she didn't know what she would ever do! I'd probably die. Hearing Kurama angrily scoff, she chose to ignore him. He really didn't like her allies, after all.

Kakashi lazily strolled toward his totally weird classmate. Seeing her having a hissy fit and then yell only made him want to delay their meeting even more. At least that was until a newborn puppy scent entered his sensitive nose. It was a little different from a normal pup's scent, but he began jogging to see what might be in that box of hers.

"I need your help! Please," Naruto begged.

"C'mon inside," Kakashi said, completely forgetting himself after seeing the pup's condition.

The two children quickly entered the Hatake estate and went through the hallways to a back room. "It's so young. I've gotta tell you, I don't know if I can even keep it alive from this young, or if…" His concerns were interrupted by Akiro, who knocked him back on his rear. Kakashi braced himself for the kind of reaction the wolf might have and looked over at Naruto, who had tears pouring down her whiskered cheeks. "Naruto, you need to look away."

"Hmph," the wolf sat down, looking straight at Kakashi. "It's good to be wary, pup, but not with this one. I'll speak to Akino."

"Who - who's Akino, Kashi?" Naruto sniffed as she continued to look worriedly upon what she thought might be the world's smallest puppy. If this really was Pakkun, he just looked so pathetic and defenseless!

"Akiro's mate. She just had her own pups last night. Four of them. Oh, and that was Akiro, obviously," Kakashi replied.

"Akiro and Akino: cute names, ne?" Naruto said shakily as she wiped her face, embarrassed from having such an emotional outburst in front of such a stoic jerk. "Did you name - they'll help, right Kakashi?! Please! If they don't, you HAVE to help him!" She paid no mind to how large Kakashi's heavily lidded eyes became. "He's special, and…"

"Girl's got good instincts, pup," Akiro said as he came back, before scratching at his ear. "It's been decided. Take the new pup in and see." Kakashi helped Naruto up, but it seemed Akino had one more thing to say. "You smell like a fox. No, you smell like you are a vixen."

"I'll take a real bath as soon as I leave. I promise!"

"That's not what I mean! Gah - puppies!" Akiro shook his head at her childishness. "Go see. We'll discuss it later little vixen."

Naruto ran to catch up with the silver-haired boy, meeting him at the place where Akino rested with her pups. Snuggled in amongst the wolf pups was the tiny little summons now, suckling the mother wolf, too. Naruto could have cried again in relief but left for a moment to go back to the big gray male.

"Akiro-sama?" She asked, and was relieved to see that Akiro noticed and either approved of the honorific she used or was amused by it. "Can - well, would you mind keeping my uhm - 'foxiness,' I guess you'd say - on the down-low?" Naruto grimaced, hoping that she hadn't just made the wolf even more curious: curious enough to tell his masters who might later try to investigate more later.

The wolf chuckled and walked back toward his mate. "Sure, pup: whatever you say." Naruto had already begun to bow to thank him but he bumped the top of her head with its nose. "For now, pup. For now."