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

Thinking (+ flashbacks and Naruto speaking to Kurama, etc.)

Emphasis

Bijuu, etc. speaking

Bijuu, etc. thinking

Although civilians might never believe or know it, higher-ranked shinobi were often married or in monogamous relationships for years or even decades, if they managed to survive that long. Having one person to count on in every way, someone who could understand the job and the nightmares that came with it? It was something any supposedly normal shinobi could dream about, even if Kakashi had never previously given it much thought.

He hadn't planned to live to the ripe old age he was and until recently, he hadn't wanted to.

"I'm angry for you, Naru-chan," Kakashi muttered, coming out of his thoughts as he ran his thumb across his wife's chin and cheeks, stroking them repeatedly as he looked down on her. The Jonin had been deep in thought, frowning for almost the entire hour after he and his wife were dressed. "Where is Minato-sensei?" he wondered sourly. It… bugged the crap out of him that his little wife understandably kept looking at the door and out of the window as if her father would come in at any moment.

Had his form already perished?

"Sorry, Kakashi," Naruto said brokenly. "This compound's so sealed up that I can't feel anything outside." She looked up at him and saw his furrowed brow. Unable to stop herself from smoothing it out gently with her fingertips, she asked if they could please go outside again. He had denied her earlier, but she hadn't used her "eyes" on him before. Shikamaru always said that she could get away with anything by simply using her Puppy Eyes no Jutsu. She batted her eyes twice slowly, needing very little to make them well up with tears at this point. "Please, Kakashi? I feel like I'll go crazy not knowing what's going on."

Kakashi glowered at her but couldn't stop his mouth from saying what he didn't want to. "Fine." He got up after his little wife and using her shoulders, directed her to the engawa that faced the back of the property.

"I don't feel anything," she complained out loud. Oh, she could sense plenty, once outside, but she couldn't find her father in the mix of chakra signatures in the village.

"I don't feel my other half either."

"Do you think he's dead? Would he really have taken your other half with him?!"

"Asshole," Kurama said regarding Naruto's father, dismissing the idea that Minato wouldn't have had a choice. "I wouldn't put it past him, but there are other possibilities, Naruto. What have you learned from the Toad Sage that isn't perverted?"

Naruto had to think about that for a minute. She'd learned how to contact her grandfather's publisher - but that was still something that could be linked to his perversity. And in THIS lifetime, she hadn't learned the Rasengan from Ero-Sennin, but she had learned different things: how to reverse summon herself to the Mountain; she'd learned exactly how to call upon the toad or the type of toad she wanted, something she'd never been very good at before. She'd learned to cooperate so that she could use her wind or Kurama's fire affinity with whichever toad was willing, and she'd certainly learned that the foxes were almost totally uncooperative. She'd ALMOST managed to summon that giant toad's esophagus, and Jiraiya had scolded her for being so grossed out by it: apparently, that was the main reason she wasn't successful, which was just strange. She'd gotten better at moving underground, although she still left too much of a trail behind and above her. She'd learned how to make ice from a SUBSTANTIAL amount of wind chakra added to a water source, or water contained in a... "Oh, duh! Seals! Or he taught me more about seals anyway!"

"Took you long enough."

"Yeah, but… you mean Tou-san could have sealed off his chakra or disguised it or something?" Maybe she was just being childish, hoping that her deceased father's consciousness was still around.

"He was a seal master; anything is possible," Kurama replied bitterly. He could also picture The Pervert aiding his yellow-haired nemesis in doing something to seal his other half away from him. It was unfortunate that killing Minato again would upset Naruto, although Minato was already a "zombie" as Naruto referred the many Edo-Tensei to herself back in the war, (aside from her sire.) When he'd referred to Minato as a zombie at one point, Naruto had verbally attacked him in her mindscape and nearly lost her head outside of it from the distraction.

Kurama would have to throw a private party with his siblings if Minato was dead, but would it really be a party if the bigger yellow brat had taken his other half with him? No, it certainly wouldn't warrant one. "Fucking asshole ruins everything!"

"Did… he say anything to you?" Naruto asked her husband. "I mean, I know you two were close and you don't have to tell me if…"

"I left his side to come back to you," Kakashi said. Naruto thought he looked angry.

"I'm sorry; you didn't have to…"

"Yes, I did, and I wanted to."

Naruto smiled sadly up at him, wondering if that was really true or not. She actually tried to sniff him out, to see if he was telling the truth, but he caught her. Grabbing her by the waist and pulling her down onto his lap, he laid his head against hers.

Onoki was fucking miserable.

Over sixty of his shinobi in custody?! He didn't exactly send his shinobi to the Leaf on a mission of peace, but he did NOT expect so many of his shinobi to both infiltrate and act on their own when he and very specific, trusted underlings primarily came here for espionage!

(And maybe a little kidnapping, whittling down Konoha's forces, etc.)

Yes, he knew of Orochimaru's plans. The Snake Sannin had come to him, and he figured that the snake had gone to every hidden village, searching for allies in his plans to attack his home. He'd sent the creepy man packing months ago, but then he'd received intelligence that the Yellow Flash had spawned a brat.

A fast one.
A strong one.
One who would be competing in the Genin exams.

And after the first stages, his granddaughter had confirmed it, plus let him know that the brat had held off Orochimaru, a Sannin, in the exams! And then came the intelligence from "that" organization that described the exact girl had not only fought off the Kazekage and his brat jinchuuriki son but had also manifested chakra chains - something only an Uzumaki could do.

He feared that she was already the monster her father was. Or worse.

Thankfully, he'd never personally encountered Uzumaki Kushina, who had to be the brat's mother, but he'd known and avoided many other Uzumakis back in the day. Fucking crazy redheads... He'd never trust a redhead as long as he lived after knowing those "people," whether or not they were related to that supposedly defunct clan.

Then he saw it for himself during the Finals, or felt it, anyway: they'd waited too long. The brat was something akin to a sage. Aaaand a jinchuuriki, he now knew. He tapped his fingers against his upper lip, grumbling to himself and wishing he could ignore the others in the room. Especially one of them: Gods, he hated that man!

"What were you thinking, Minato?"

"About what exactly, Tsuchikage-sama?"

Damn that mass-murdering brat's polite demeanor! It's not like Minato would fool him!

Well, at least Hiruzen didn't seem any happier than he was - and what was that all about?

Naruto looked up at Kakashi hours later as he sat reading his book and being her warden. She whispered to him, knowing he was in a terrible mood. His twitchiness had put her so far on edge, she thought she might explode. A distraction was in order! "We had sex in someone else's house," she whispered in a humorous tone. Having done such a crazy thing in the middle of an international crisis had been on her mind; she didn't know what the hell she'd been thinking! Even when they argued about leaving the compound she'd thought of how crazy it was, but this was as good as any topic to cheer her and her perverted husband up over their anxiety regarding her father's whereabouts.

"I know," he said sleepily, offering a lazy thumbs up which made his little wife quietly laugh. He opened his natural eye only slightly as he looked down at her. The recliner they were in wasn't nearly as comfy as his own, and it was a lot smaller. He wanted to go home, too.

Would it really be their home since Minato-sense was here?

The guilt had been twisting his gut for hours but now he only felt numb. And what was he thinking anyway? It wasn't like his sensei was truly alive.

But alive or not, he had a lot of explaining to do to his mentor.

"Maa, I'm going to name my Nara chair Chairiel. This recliner's not bad, but I like mine better and it deserves a name." Naruto hummed and scooched her head closer to his heart, something he thought was cute. She apparently found his comment not to be humorous, so he poked her in the side. "I must be getting old: you wore me out."

Naruto snuggled further, trying to concentrate on being in the moment. There was too much other shit going on in the village, but Kakashi was committed to staying in place until he or they were called back to duty. Reminding herself of that, it left her seething and wanting to escape. She felt little but guilt in this very... civilian role she was playing in this house these last several hours.

She didn't know that they were ordered to hide and stay put by Shikaku through Jiraiya. Shikaku was the Jonin Commander, so Kakashi had to follow those orders and stay quiet about it. He was (mostly) happy to do so.

The couple had borrowed kimonos that were hanging in a bathroom closet while their non-ruined clothes were now in the drier or hanging up to dry after going through the washer. (Naru had snooped around and found that there were kimonos of all sorts in every dang closet.) She and Kakashi were now nice and clean. And mostly dressed again. "You're not old, aaaand you were pretty fast in the shower to prove it," she said with a snort. "Faster than ever before," she remarked with a smirk.

"I'll show you fast," he threatened. It wasn't much of a threat when a snore immediately afterward made him nearly jump. "Sorry," he said, scooting down and burying his head in his wife's chest. "Didn't sleep well when you were gone."

Naruto smiled and began running her fingers gently through his thick silver hair. It was nice to be missed or maybe missed. She kissed his head, reminding herself to keep quiet about how in love she was with him. The last thing she wanted was for him to disappear again because she was sappy - although then I could make a run for it.

How pathetic was that?

"I want to go home," she pouted a half-hour later, but Kakashi didn't move. "You really think it's okay that we're hidden away? I feel like I'm being so… derelict in my responsibilities!" And you're a fucking Jonin: we should both be out there! She felt a finger lightly graze up and down her side before it moved up to her breast. Kakashi moved Tsunade's necklace - the one Naruto had worn proudly for years before she and Kurama shattered it a lifetime ago - toward her collar bone. "We're gonna get caught," she deadpanned.

"Makes it fun, ne?" Kakashi said, half-committed to following through. He was really tired but wanted to go out with a bang, since at any moment, Minato-sensei would definitely show up to end him. He deserved it, but wasn't quite ready to die, surprisingly enough. Kakashi knew he should really tell Naruto that he loves her, although he had left a note that was fairly expressive. He hoped he'd get it together and have a moment to tell her when his sensei came to kill him. Or when sensei finally shows up to see and spend time with his daughter.

Kakashi would be different with his own pups, if he lived long enough to father them. - That thought made him shudder a bit, but he committed to being better to his own, just the same - and just in case… His wife being so close to him meant he could sniff out any… changes. Thank God it seemed that she wasn't pregnant.

He feared he would be a shitty father.

Sweet-talking while being honest was easy, Naruto thought. What an awful human being I am, but she'd learned from the best: the man she was pressed against. "You're pretty fun, wherever we are," Naruto said quietly. "And sweet," she added, determined to find a way out of her cozy prison.

"Maa, Naru-cha. No one's ever called me sweet," Kakashi said comfortably. Seriously, no one ever had. He'd been quite the brat or bastard his entire life.

"Maybe no one else sees what I see in you," Naruto said sincerely, " or maybe I'm the only one who sees you like this?"

Kakashi shifted their positions again. "That you are, koi. That you are," he said before kissing her sweetly. He could feel Naruto's heart speed up dramatically and gave her a roguish smile before kissing her deeply. If he was going to kiss her before being murdered by his sensei, he was going to do it right. "You like being called that, don't you?"

"Maybe," Naruto smiled between more kisses. "Yes," she then drawled before gasping. Kakashi pulled her hair back against her scalp so he could deepen their kiss again. He took control of it more easily this time and began to use his incredible talents on her throat and shoulders.

"I do like it - and shut up." She felt him laugh against her skin.

"Bossy woman," he murmured as he caressed her breast with one hand, playing with her nipple as it hardened even further under his calloused fingers. His other hand moved to grab her ass. "You're so beautiful," he whispered against her lips, pulling her closer.

Naruto moved his head away from her other breast, blowing out something near a whistle as she tried to keep her wits about her. "I'm not doing this so close to the door," she whispered as she tried to wiggle away from him. She squeaked when Kakashi instantly picked her up to take her back to the master bedroom. "You can't be serious!"

Kakashi wiggled his eyebrows at her, nodding, then tossed his wife into the bed. He loosened his belt and dragged off his kimono, letting it fall to the floor. Seeing Naru's gorgeous eyes darken, he decided to have a little more fun. Watching her get a nosebleed for once when he began slowly stroking his cock was a kick. "Open your kimono," he softly ordered, wanting a show. He watched her do so and groaned, although he couldn't help but glare at her when she tried to cover up her incredible body.

Her body was his: she should know better. "I want to watch you get yourself off," he said, his hand moving up and down his shaft nice and slow.

"Oh my God! You are such a pervert!"

"Yes, I am. Do as I say, koi." His breathing picked up as she tentatively began. It seemed that "koi" was the magic word… He'd have to remember that. He let out a suffering groan as his blonde began to caress and play with herself - it was made even harder for him as her beautiful eyes, once again, rarely left his.

He wasn't able to stay away from her for long. Goddammit! He was even wildly jealous of her touching herself! Further opening her smooth, tan legs to hover over her, kissing and touching everywhere her hands had just been, he finally began obsessing over her hot, juicy little cunt. As he lowered his face, he was interrupted by an urgent knocking on the front door. "You've gotta be kidding me," he complained as Naruto completely came unglued, shrieking as she grabbed her kimono and even used the blankets underneath her to cover herself up all the way, burying herself inside of them. "I'll get it," he muttered angrily, as she rolled to the floor cursing. He grabbed the kimono he'd had on earlier (and a nearby towel to cover his erection) throwing what he had on earlier before grabbing a clean mask out of the laundry room.

Kakashi opened the small part of the heavy wooden door that served as a peephole. "Jiraiya-sama?" Tenzo was with him.

"We've got Jonin and council meetings," Jiraiya sighed bitterly. "Prepare yourself, kid. Tenzo's clone and mine are already there but don't mention it. Tenzo's going to stay here to guard Naru-chan." The Toad Sage backed up to allow Kakashi to step onto the front porch.

He shut the door behind him so that Naru couldn't hear them. "What has happened to Minato-sensei?"

Jiraiya closed his eyes, opening them when he looked to the heavens. "He's back, Kakashi-kun, and he has his an agenda."