DISCLAIMER-Plus: I don't own anything from the Naruto universe.

I want to sincerely thank so many of y'all for favoriting, following, and reviewing this story. Your support means more to me than I can express, especially right now while my family's dealing with health issues.

Thinking (+ flashbacks, Naruto speaking to Kurama in her mindscape, etc.)

Emphasis

Bijuu, etc. speaking

Bijuu, etc. thinking

When the sirens blared three times, signaling the all-clear, Naruto finally began answering Tsunade's incessant questions as the world's greatest med nin fed an occasionally whining Jiraiya her healing chakra. His wounds were nearly healed and Naruto would swear that he was purposely flexing his muscles under his torn-up clothing for the woman he was still supposedly mad at.

"My leg's still a little wonky, I guess?" Naruto told her, still on the ground, watching what was going on around her but also interested in the first scars she'd received in this life. They littered the outside of her leg and she knew that she should be proud of them - that was a cultural thing among ninjas for the most part - but her leg was kind of a mess right now.

"'A little wonky?' A little WONKY? What does that even MEAN, Naruto?" Tsunade roared, making her granddaughter shrink back in fear.

"It's just funky..?" Naru began but quickly interrupted herself, trying to be more serious or precise. It's not like the whole situation wasn't serious and precisely fucked up, it's just that Tsunade's problem was in the way she worded things, the younger blonde guessed. "Okay, so it's not being normal - but what can ya expect, 'ttebayo? It'll be FINE! My leg's still healing: it's tingling and definitely still burning, and I still can't move my foot quite right, and UGH. My skin's back now and I'm sure there are people out there that need you more than me and the pervert!"

Tsunade knocked her back to the ground as she began to get up. Naruto cursed in surprise but didn't really mind the violent woman's actions.

Jiraiya agreed with Naru's earlier musings but he still wasn't letting his granddaughter out of his sight. His hand was gripping some of the ragged material that used to be Naruto's awesome black cargo pants.

He was definitely being way too overprotective. Both of them were, Naruto thought.

What Naruto did mind was that JiJi was purposely avoiding looking at her - and what was that about? She even felt Kurama getting riled up about it. When he walked past her in the widest arc possible, (considering the new chakra burned trees Senju Hashirama brought to life,) as he quietly ordered others around, her grandfather figure and Hokage smelled afraid: a scent she had learned to decipher from Kakashi.

Was the Sandaime afraid of her?

Naruto continued to observe, feeling more and more insecure and saddened as the minutes went on because of the Hokage's actions. She was also really worried about Kakashi, even though he was off somewhere with her deceased father - and who knows where the two of them took off to? "Baa-chan,"

"Naruto, listen to me," Tsunade whispered - something that as far as the younger blonde remembered, Tsunade never did - "I need to get you away from all of this and I want you to stay hidden."

"What?!"

Minato appeared just outside of the Konoha gates. He incapacitated six Oto nin while Kakashi took out four men without hitai-ates. "Good job, Kashi-kun." Looking toward his apprentice, he was surprised to find that Kakashi looked angry. Very angry.

"I have an assignment… My wife needs me."

Minato watched as Kakashi disappeared in a silver shot. Wow! He had really wanted his child and student to follow and surpass him, and from the silver flash he just saw, at least one of them had certainly managed his most difficult jutsu on his own. He felt enormous pride, but also a sense of loss that he hadn't seen Kakashi get married of all the wonderful things, presumably to the love of his life.

Sadly, that could mean that his little Naru-chan's feelings may have been left hanging if they were the same for his student as he remembered.

He put his fingers back to the ground, feeling for threats against the village, but was distracted even as the all-clear signal rang out. Remembering his previous life, or at least the one in which he'd been reanimated, it had been clear to him that Naruto had a crush on his student. And worse - and he at one point punched his apprentice for it - Kakashi seemed to have a thing for his tomboyish little Naruto. Oh, Kakashi swore that Naruto was merely his student, but Kakashi didn't treat and look at his other two students the way that he looked at Naru-chan.

Surely the wife Kakashi mentioned wasn't his little princess? No, of course not! She's way too young to be married. Minato only hoped that this meant that both of his kids had found happiness.

Happiness with other people, he thought darkly. Although Naruto's too young for any of that, he reminded himself happily. She had been 16 the last time he saw her and although he didn't know the year he was in now, it didn't look like Madara had turned the world into a hellhole yet. Hopefully Konoha's dead co-founder and first traitor would never again get the chance to ruin the shinobi world.

Minato had spent a lot of time in the Shinigami's belly. He had spent years there following Naru-chan's original birth, of course, then was brought back along with the other Kages into consciousness by Orochimaru to fight a war that was even more horrible than the two he had experienced as a child and then as a Jonin.

At least the Fourth Shinobi War was a short one. That was the only thing "positive" about it.

After the war ended successfully, he bid his daughter farewell and returned to his beloved Kushina's side. He was pretty sure about that.

Time in the Pure Lands was as difficult to track as it had been in the Shinigami's belly, but it felt like he had spent mere moments with his dear wife. Before he knew what happened, there was a flash of light, then suffocating darkness. He assumed (although wasn't convinced) that this was simply PTSD or the Shinigami messing with him as he was then celebrating Kushina having given birth to his baby girl. He was so shocked at seeing them, he nearly fell on top of her. He thought at first that he must have fallen into that infinite genjutsu. ...Which promptly caused him to lose control of Kushina's seal, and then her entire presence as he rushed to save his child from "the masked man."

Again?

Oh, Obito. What am I going to do with you?

Before he knew it, he was summoning the darned Shinigami again because Kurama-san was not cooperating at all and Kushina thought he'd lost his mind. Or maybe he had. Kushina didn't seem to remember anything he described in his panicked ramblings. She had been even more terrified that he'd lost his cool, something he deeply regretted.

In the belly of the Death God once more, Minato had a lot of time to consider what Madara had done to overcome the Edo Tensei. He was sure he'd figured it out but had a strong feeling that even if he was now able to return to his previous state, he'd soon die. His half of Kurama had no intention of staying with him, and had, in fact, been sending quite insignificant amounts of his chakra intermittently to Naru-chan. Supposedly.

Sneaky fox: Minato had no idea of how the fox was doing it, and Kurama wasn't talking. ...Or the nine tails had just been trying to escape, but Kurama seemed to like Naruto - and who wouldn't? - but Minato was a suspicious, careful man. He needed to check Naruto's seal to ensure that Kurama didn't suddenly pop up yet again in Konoha.

Even one-half of the great fox was much too much for a shinobi village to handle if he decided to rampage.

Minato thought that if he was able to stay on the mortal plane for a while, he could get to know his daughter a little better. Kushina would be angry with him, as she was when he may have first found himself in the Pure Lands, but this time he could tell her more about their daughter's life when he returned to her. He could tell her more about Kakashi. ...More about the village and everyone they loved.

Surely she would be happy about that! And as much as he missed his beautiful, loving, (and furiously angry?) wife, he owed it to Naruto to stick around.

He was the one who failed his little princess and Obito the most.

Naruto was just managing to sneak away from her... grandparents - still hard to believe that's what they really are, she thought - when she fell over, toppled by Kakashi's sudden weight. He was coughing and almost gagging from using the Hiraishin again, but didn't throw up this time.

Tsunade and Jiraiya both grabbed him, and Naruto found herself bound and floating up in a rather rubbery bubble. She didn't even have to look at Utakata to know it was him, although she hadn't sensed his presence nearby. One doesn't forget being put in a transparent bubble or the person able to do such a thing. In her mind, Utakata's (and Saiken's ) jutsu was right up there on the weirdness scale of Sai's ink creations, although Sai's did a lot less damage. She immediately held up her hands and signaled to those below her that she was fine and to stand down.

As if a Genin ordering such a thing would be truly recognized.

Fortunately, squeezing through the tops of the new Hashirama trees helped eventually shield them, although Kakashi looked absolutely murderous, especially when she and Utakata's bodies were pressed together as the bubble contracted in a series of weird shapes to get through the treetops.

Or maybe he just didn't like her being pseudo-kidnapped. Either way, she was able to wave and smile at him and, hopefully, she looked genuine. She really was glad to see Utakata again, even though she remembered him being kind of a butt.

As soon as they were above the highest branches, Naruto gave the other jinchuuriki a dry look. "Utakata, good to see you again."

The brunette was giving her an amused look.

"Good to see you, too, Naruto. Chan," he smirked before giving the girl a playful wink. "Looking good. Girl." After letting his eyes travel across the somewhat exposed beautiful blonde a few times, he looked down toward the ground: Konoha truly was a village hidden in the leaves of trees. "I always knew you were female. Your teammates were idiots." Naruto snorted and got comfortable in the bubble. He thought she was even cuter with her cheeks all pink from what he'd said, and her bright blonde hair long - although it was a disaster.

"I didn't even feel your approach," Naruto complained, knowing she should have. The guy was a fellow jinchuuriki, had enormous chakra reserves, and she was a sensor, for Kami's sake!

"The bubble can shield me from whatever," he said idly with a shoulder shrug, not really revealing much. "So how you doing?"

"Fine. Abducted, apparently," the blonde replied. Utakata chuckled quietly and seemed a little different than how she remembered. "So you remember everything, too?"

The bubble-wand user nodded his head as his expression turned pained, but only for a moment. "This time I stopped my master from going through with his foolish plans and took an apprentice of my own. Yagura killed himself and although the war carried on, Kiri is in a much more stable position..."

Naruto's mouth dropped open with what he just said. "Wait! Killed himself?! Why?!"

"No idea," Utakata shrugged. "I never trusted my former Kage even though he was kind to me after I became a jinchuuriki. Perhaps that was because he was there when I was given Saiken. THAT was when I remembered the past; well, my memories came soon after I became a jinchuuriki... Everything up until being killed by that strange, strong group of ninja and such."

"The Akatsuki," Naruto interrupted.

"Hai," he said before blowing another bubble around them that seemed to reinforce the one they were in and make it darker. "Saiken wants me to give you chakra, and I wanted to say hello."

Naruto's head shook in disbelief. Kurama was chuckling in the back of her mind. She could feel how pleased he was to be close to another one of his siblings, especially one he didn't consider annoying. "You've got a dry sense of humor..." She then groaned when Utakata held out his fist. Reluctantly, her fist met his. "Hello, Saiken-sama."

Kurama snorted. "You're not going to call her 'Mother' are you?" he asked his sibling. Chomei and Shukaku were giving or shrieking (in Shukaku's case) their greetings to the six-tailed slug.

"I wasn't planning to, but I didn't recall the female being so polite. Perhaps I will call her Mother," the slug said, its voice high but quite friendly.

"Please don't," Naruto pouted as Chomei laughed and Shukaku encouraged his sibling to do just that. "How am I going to deal with all this chakra?" Kurama's smirk made Naru nervous.

"Just wait until I get my hands on your sire. I'm going to suck him dry!" He paused before yelling at the tanuki and Naruto to stop being perverts regarding what he'd just said.

"I wasn't being a pervert! Just wait, though: I don't want that to kill him!" Naruto implored, pulling at the fox's fur. "Or whatever it is that might do to an edo-tensei..."

"Maybe he should have thought about that before he sealed half of me away."

"Stop yelling," Utakata said with a yawn as he leaned against Saiken. He did jump a bit when Gaara and Fu appeared next to their partners. Fu jumped on top of the beetle's head. Gaara simply crossed his arms and nodded at the others.

"Using Naruto as a medium for us to meet is convenient," Gaara said, making Naruto squawk. "Suna and Taki have reached an alliance," he continued. He was thankful his announcement shut her up: as much as he loved Naruto, she was a very noisy person. "We will protect Fu until the Akatsuki threat is neutralized."

"That's great!" Naruto said, beginning to bounce on her toes when she saw the way that Fu blushed as Gaara looked away from everyone. The blonde squealed like the fangirl she secretly was and received Kurama's paw squishing her into the... ground? "Let me up asshole!" Kurama sneered as he did so and Naruto told him he was the worst.

"Kurama's always been the worst," Saiken teased.

"Oh! It might be crowded here, but you and I are going to get along just fine," Naruto said, smiling like a loon.

"Idiots," Kurama mumbled, his snout in the air.

Utakata really was a butt: he dropped her from his bubble without saying goodbye or letting her prepare at all. Fortunately, Kakashi caught her from a high branch. Unfortunately, his chakra felt like it was going to explode into a storm that would wipe out the village. "Kash," Naru started to say, but Kakashi tugged Tsunade's necklace over her head and sunshinned them away.

Arriving at his destination, Kakashi jostled his little wife up and over his shoulder, giving her a really hard smack on the ass as he did so. He couldn't help himself: his dead sensei was up and flashing around the village, dragging him along for the ride. His mate seemed to have been half-willingly bubble-napped and smelled like an unknown plus that Akimichi and the Toad Sage. And fire. And sand. And molten rock. And burned flesh. And blood. "Shut up, Naruto." Thankfully, she did.

Kakashi focused on brooding.

His deceased "Flee On Sight" sensei, who was, unknowingly on Minato-sensei's part, his father-in-law now...

...His little wife who was something of a pain in his ass, seemed to care little for her safety, and constantly threatened.

The Sandaime who had wanted him to kill the love of his life...

How long would Minato-sensei's reanimated form be able to "hang around?" Kakashi kicked an intricately carved wooden gate before hopping over it when it failed to open. He carefully put Naru down on the third home's front porch as Tsunade-hime had instructed; the front door opened by itself. "It worked," he said to himself before pushing Naru in. "Let's go." He closed the door behind him. "We're in the Senju compound," he said in a quiet voice.

The gentle thrum that Naruto had felt going from Tsunade's necklace's crystal into her chest when she entered the compound had startled her, and the crystal almost sang to her when Kakashi finally put her down. "Is this the Shodai's or Tsunade's home?" she asked in just over a whisper, afraid to sit down although her leg was really beginning to hurt again.

"Maa, for all I know it could be the home your mother lived in with Mito-sama," Kakashi said, not sure of what to do now. Seeing how shaken up Naruto looked made him automatically move toward her, but first, he checked her leg and side. Her clothes were in tatters.

"You're a mess," he said before pulling on both of her hands. He gently shook them. "Promise me that you'll never do anything like that again." Naruto bit her lip and asked which part of what she'd done he was angry with her about. Kakashi chuckled, but it wasn't a happy sound.

She could feel how incredibly irritated he was with her.

"I'm a ninja: it's my responsibility to protect people, and I screwed up," she began and gulped. "I changed my plans on the fly, and only reacted when LAVA came flying at me," Naruto admitted while scratching her hairline, her eyes welling up with angry tears. She tried to turn away from her husband but he pulled her down to sit in his lap on the kotatsu. His arms wove around her waist as he encouraged her to put her injured leg up.

"It was hotter than I... No," Naruto said more quietly, her face pinched, "Kurotsuchi was just better than me. Maybe if I hadn't been prohibited from doing anything that would associate me with Mom or Dad, but no. I lucked out when she collapsed! I'm guessing she had chakra exhaustion."

Kakashi gave his wife a singular nod when she finally looked him in the eye for a few seconds. He wanted to call her out for worrying him so much, for putting herself in so much danger, but the sad, defeated look on her dirty face pulled at his heartstrings.

Heartstrings Kakashi realized he apparently had! Son of a bitch!

"I'll probably even be in trouble for the exploding clones: that was something Ero-Sennin said Mom used, even though I'd been doing that with them for years... Since that was the case, I decided to use them anyway," she sniffed.

Kakashi sighed and dragged his fingers through his tangled hair. Naruto was more likely to be in trouble for letting the fox out, even though she saved the Hokage's life by doing it. He put the fox issue aside for a moment, however. "She's a Jonin, Naru-chan," he began. The Iwa kunoichi had years of experience on Naruto and her rank was known to ANBU! "As... aggravated as I am with you, between us I'm furious with Sandaime-sama. He should have never allowed this to go on." He meant the entire exam.

He glared at Naruto, anyway: she was the only one here, plus she smelled like too many males that weren't him. "Who was the bubble guy? I know he's from Kiri."

"Utakata," she said simply. Her leg began to itch and she winced before scratching around the pinkish-red spots and little silver areas. Kakashi pinched her side and she elbowed him in return. "He's the jinchuuriki of the six tails."

"Of course he is," Kakashi sighed again, rolling his eyes toward the heavens as he did so. "Were you trying to rile me up with the Akimichi?"

Naruto didn't understand at first. "What? Choji? OH MY GOD! No! And you have got to stop being so jealous! He's my childhood friend and he was nervous!"

He surprised her when he only said, "I know." Kakashi stared at her a while longer before pulling the red scrunchy out of her tangled, burned hair ends where it had been used to hold her ponytail. Seeing her discomfort, he picked her up and carried her with him as he looked for a full bathroom. Tsunade had told him that the water and electricity, etc., worked in the place she'd directed him to, and told him that no one else would be able to get in.

"Hide her and make yourself at home there, Young Pervert." No matter how sarcastic, that's what she'd said, so that's what he'd do.

He turned on the shower, hoping that the water would heat up as Naruto sat quietly - which was odd for her - before taking off her destroyed red haori. "Take it all off."

"I don't have anything else to wear. Oh, fine," Naruto replied. She'd just put it all back on until she could get home; her skin was too itchy to turn down a shower, even if it was cold... Which it wasn't! Humidity was beginning to build in the small room. "Shouldn't we be out there doing whatever we can to help?"

Really, she should have asked that a while ago.

"No," Kakashi said as he pulled off his headband, masks, and gloves. His little wife tried to push him out of the room, but there was no way he was leaving her alone even for a second. "Get in there," he ordered, pointing toward the shower as he took off his shirt. He bit his grin back as he watched her blush even as she scowled at him. "Do as I say, vixen." She did, but he was positive the woman used wind chakra to nail him with her balled-up clothes as she tossed them over the top of the tall wooden shower door all at once. He got in behind her and tried to ignore her.

But it had been a long time since he'd been with her like this: almost a month. By the time he stripped and got in, Naru's hair was full of suds that smelled like flowers and forest. He opened his borrowed Sharingan as he watched her rinse her long hair out, but closed it when he saw her pull handfuls of blackened hair from the ends, her expression sad. The little scars forming along her side, along with the redness on her legs made him feel sick.

He opened up a box of new soap and lathered up his hands, beginning to quickly wash her back. Was it weird that his family's crest on her skin turned him on? He paid particular attention moments later to the little dimples on her lower back and the curves of her hips and ass. When she turned around and looked up at him, her hair drenched and eyes teary, he sighed and began slowly washing her breasts.

He was just being helpful.

"You're mad at me," she pouted.

"I am," he said, trying to distance his brain from his increasing hard-on. Naruto pushed him into the water, something between that pout and a smirk on her face. Damn her: that expression was incredibly attractive. She reached up high to try to wash his hair for him, so he put his head down for her. She pressed the breasts he continued carefully attending to up against him. "You're so short," he said with a breathy groan.

"I will knee you," Naruto lied. Kakashi growled at her, and damn he looked good. She'd already forgotten all about her itchy leg, something she'd washed as soon as she got in the walk-in shower. She took the soap bar that he'd done a pretty thorough job with and began washing him in return, finally getting down on her knees. She looked up and bit her lip, trying not to grin as she soaped up her hands, going for his balls first. Seeing her sopping wet husband look so shocked before his mismatched eyes rolled to the back of his head was a complete turn-on. She continued lathering up and up and up. "So big and thick. I can only hope," she mumbled before humming thoughtfully.

People always said she had a big mouth, so what the hell. "When in Konoha" and all that... "Rinse off and turn back around."

Her order gave Kakashi pause, bringing him back from his perverted bliss, but only for a second. "Yes, ma'am." He quickly rinsed off the soap, then turned back toward his wife - so pretty when she's all wet and on her knees. His dick was leading itself toward her mouth, or maybe it was her little breaths that hit it: he was pleased to see that he didn't even have to move since he was frozen. He finally reached for her cheek instead, his mind dizzy with anticipation. Between the nose bleed that started to take the small amount of remaining blood in his head and the tongue he felt moving up the underside of his cock... And the way that his partner's hands were softly tending to his balls, he had to throw his arms back and to the sides in order to stay upright.

Naru pulled his hips toward her, using her face to move his dick out of the way. He couldn't help but groan as she nibbled at his abs and around his belly button before plunging her tongue inside as she simultaneously smiled up at him. He closed his eyes, cursing.

Then he felt her incredibly hot mouth surrounding him after pulling his dick down. The teeth just barely grazing his cock made it all the more erotic. 'Fuuuck," he moaned; he could barely remind his knees not to buckle. He looked down into beautiful azure eyes that were staring up at him as she blew him and was glad that the Sharingan was recording all of it. She took him more and more into her mouth until she backed off to lick a large circle over the head of his dick as if she had a particularly tasty ice cream cone.

"Is it okay?" she asked him - (somehow innocently, he recorded and remembered later) - as she took another curious lick up and down the slit she'd been very curious about. Kakashi didn't say anything that really made sense so she opened her mouth wide again, humming as she considered the taste as she bobbed up and down a couple more times. "Reminds me of ramen."

Kakashi would have laughed if he wasn't trembling or could speak coherently. His little wife continued to suck him off, her big blue eyes focused on his mismatched ones - his cock repeatedly sliding all the way into the back of her throat - but then stood up and moved away from him. It took him a minute to get his wits about him. He didn't know what the fuck he'd been saying. Naruto looked concerned as she handed him a washcloth.

"Your nose is bleeding really bad," she said, pressing it against his face. Then she got back down to business. She smiled to herself as she felt Kakashi's balls do that thing she'd read about. Seeing her powerful husband coming so completely undone was very empowering after everything she felt she'd screwed up today.

Then she felt hands on her hips. She tried to pull away, but after obviously holding himself back as much as possible for so long, Kakashi had begun thrusting into her mouth. "It's just me," he muttered before completely withdrawing, harshly panting and a bent-over, absolute wreck.

Alarmed, Naruto turned back only to be pushed down by another Kakashi at the same time.

"Oh no you fucking don't," the first Kakashi darkly threatened his clone.

"She's so wet," the clone said in a low, rumbling voice, glaring back at its original. "I'm taking her."

"No and Fuck You," Kakashi growled. He substituted with his clone before dispelling him. "You're mine, Princess," Kakashi growled as he almost plowed into her. "So fucking tight," he cursed before his mind blanked, driven by mind-blowing lust and a primal need within him. He came out of his animalistic trance, his soaking wet wife cumming around him just after he did. He pulled out but seeing her ass in the air made him completely hard again. It always did.

Naru began to giggle as she came down from her high, feeling almost boneless. Sighing happily as she put her forehead down on her hands, she finally asked the question that was earlier on her mind. "Did I imagine you arguing with your clone this time?"

"Hush, you," Kakashi said, giving her ass another smack before pulling her up by her hair first. She always seemed to like it. "Let's clean up and get dirty again." Naruto laughed and began asking questions like she always did. As precarious as their situation was right now, life, he thought, was pretty damn good.

Minato entered the Senju Compound warily, the damned part of the fox he was stuck with howling with laughter as his heart pounded. He gulped down his hysteria, barely able to speak. "If I'd known this is what… I'd never have…"

Jiraiya's big hand clamped over his shoulder. "What's that, kid?" he asked; Tsunade was still quiet as she stood beside him.

"I know you're a sensor maggot, and you can feel their chakra just like I can! Who'd think we came back just to find your precious little girl being railed by your student!"

Blinded by anger, Minato took off running toward one of the houses in front of him only to be bounced back and electrocuted. "Oww." Tsunade was on him in an instant, running a diagnostic but clearly not knowing exactly what to do. "I'm fi- ...No, I'm not fine."

"Ohhh," Tsunade said, realizing what her son's - her son's! - issue probably was. His face had turned a sickly green. "They're newlyweds, what can you expect... Right Pervert?"

Jiraiya held up his hands in surrender: he was the girl's godfather, after all. "It was sensei's idea! The good news is that they're really happy, especially considering it was an arranged marriage. Kakashi's almost weird now when you consider..."

Minato didn't hear anything else that his sensei was saying. "I'm going to kill Lord Third."

"Get in line," Tsunade said darkly but thought differently when Minato flashed away. Her eyes wide, she turned to her teammate. "Do you think he'll do it?"

"I don't know, Tsunade," Jiraiya said as he put his hands on his hips and looked around, "but things are definitely going to get even more complicated."