This chapter is dedicated to InkDagger, Louna, The Beauty, and Pinkypi! I really appreciate everyone's reviews and questions - and thank you all so much for reading my stories.
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 from my readers while continuing my story.
Thinking
Biju, etc. speaking
Biju, etc. thinking
Emphasis
Naru immediately began feeling sleepy after having been given pain medicine through her IV. As much as she hated the thing being in her arm, she appreciated the relief she felt in her head, especially. Her entire body hurt, but the back of her head and neck were worse than sore. Looking up at Kakashi, she began to relax until something important occurred to her. "Why did that spinny man go after me, Kakashi? What did I do wrong? I was just going to ask him a question…"
Kakashi was still sleepy, and really wanted Naru to answer his own question about being his girlfriend, but would humor her, for now. "I suppose he thought you were a threat, Naru."
Naru didn't believe it for a second. Me? A threat? Give me a break! She had somehow managed to be found in a NINJA village, of all places: the idea of which was a little ridiculous to her. When she had been out to visit places - even the hospital - she had seen what she could only assume were ninjas jumping from building to building, running up walls and even on water! She even freaked out once when she saw a guy blow fire out of his mouth at some posts in a clearing. What could she do against all that?
"Kakashi, there are things you aren't telling me, right?" The silver-haired man looked down at her with a blank face: a forced blank face, she thought. "There is, I know it. And seriously, what kind of threat could I possibly be? What about that Shikamaru guy? Why did I get…"
"Naru-chan, can we talk about this later?" The Hatake asked her lazily. Keep her off track. Honestly, what kind of threat?! Not that Naru was a threat, per se, but considering that her past self was undoubtedly the strongest shinobi in the world? Troublesome.
Down the hall, a dark-haired man sneezed in his sleep.
Naru decided to give up for now - Kakashi did look incredibly tired. Plus she was getting a little woozy. She just needed to remember to continue this conversation with him - or even with Sakura-chan. She snuggled up against the man sharing her hospital bed and fell asleep quickly. Kakashi sighed in relief.
Hours later, Sakura woke up beside her husband and began to completely heal him. Even though she now had enough chakra to do it easily, her ankles were swollen, she hadn't brushed her teeth, and generally felt like hell. Even though I knew what to expect from this pregnancy, it's not making it any easier. Especially not after all that had gone on the night before. It was just last night, right?
Lee offered to share his breakfast with her, but Sakura insisted on him eating it for his health and she decided to go to the cafeteria. She peeked her head in at Shikamaru - who was completely out - before deciding that she needed to grab something for her sensei, too since he would no doubt refuse to eat Naru's food. Kakashi had always hated absolutely anything to do with hospitals - food included - no matter how nutritious and good for him it was. He just does it on principle, stupid man.
Kami, what a terrible excuse for sleep she'd had! Sakura's dreams - or nightmares - were filled with her sensei's paler than death ass, bouncing on her teammate, then to dance music, and on to things she had to try to put out of her mind as she gagged, sitting next to Lee again. If only bleaching my brain would actually make me forget about it as they say. His old ass is not nearly as good as my Lee-kun's buns of steel though! Squee!
Naru woke up next to the Hokage and shyly disentangled herself from him. He was reading an orange book which he was holding up in front of his face and had his other arm wrapped around her neck. The man didn't even notice that she was awake as he used the arm wrapped around her to turn the page, inadvertently shoving the book in her face. "So read to me."
"Hmmm?" Kakashi replied, not really paying attention.
"If it's so good, read to me!" Naru requested, a little put out that the man wasn't paying her any mind. She did wonder why he started blushing.
Finally, Kakashi looked down at her then nodded his head. He was determined to make this woman his bride, so she really needed to understand the importance, allure, and lifestyle that was Icha-Icha. He turned back to the first page of the book and began reading. "Pounding Dunaste into the mattress with his throbbing length, Raija twirled his tongue around.."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Naru stopped him. "What the hell?! That's the first line of the book? What are you reading?!"
Kakashi nodded his head eagerly, his face alight with excitement. "Oh yes, it's a flashback, I think - although they never actually go back to it. It's also not again referred to… See, when you read most of this series, you use your imagination to put things together. It's one of the many wonderful things about Icha-Icha."
Naru couldn't believe it. Kakashi was so into it, it could be considered cute - but that book could also be considered porn and was definitely smut at the very least! She had noticed as he thumbed back to the beginning of the book that some pages had pictures while others may have had drawings or diagrams. Now she worried over what they had been depicting. "It sounds like some old horn-dog wrote down his fantasies at random and you're giving him an excuse."
"How dare you, madam," Kakashi said without heat. He was still obviously reading, his thumb in the spot he'd been reading before. "This is great literature. And Naru," he leered over her in a way-too-obvious manner, "...we all have fantasies." He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at her, making her laugh.
"Whatever you say, you lecher. Keep reading." Naru put her head back against his arm as he did just that. Someone tried to open the door to her room but was stopped by whatever Kakashi had done to it - the kunai she supposed - and then a loud THUMP was heard from the wall next to the door. The room shook.
"Shit. Sakura's gonna bust through the wall." Kakashi was out of bed like a flash, dropping the kunai in the door and disengaging a seal he had placed there. He opened the door, turned around, and grabbed his mask, throwing it over his head. Turning back, he offered her a sunny expression. "Good morning, Sakura! How are you this fine morning?"
Sakura gave him the evil eye. "Why the hell couldn't I get in here? I gave you strict orders with Naru-chan here not to be up to your perverted nonsense, sensei…" Kakashi was pouting behind his mask,
"Hey! We were just talking about perverted stuff!" Naru chirped.
"WHAT?!" Sakura squawked. Damn, she was loud.
"Well," Naru replied, scratching the back of her head, "reading about it, anyway."
"You don't mean," Sakura began to ask before noticing the orange book that sat on the bed. "For Kami's sake. I'm surrounded by perverts… Honestly, Naru-chan: how can you stand that crap?" She placed her hand over Kakashi's masked mouth, knowing that he would defend his favorite book and series at length if it were up to him.
"I don't know, Sakura-chan - I guess I was just giving it a chance? It's kinda explicit, but it seems important, ya know?"
Sakura stood still and stared at her, a fond smile growing on her face. "Naru, you just called me Sakura-chan."
"Yeah, is that okay? I mean," Naru felt like a fool! "...I can call you Sakura-sama. I will, okay? Gomen." She bowed her head, then got smacked on the top of it. "Oww!"
Sakura had tears in her eyes. "No, you baka! You keep calling me that! I didn't know how much I missed being called Sakura-CHAN rather than Sakura-san." She sniffed loudly, wiping tears away from her eyes.
Pregnancy hormones make people crazy, Naru thought, Then she noticed that Kakashi was also looking at her with such affection that she blushed. Okay, the hormones have filled the room. Suddenly she was crushed in a hug by a pregnant pinkette. "Oww, oww, owwie!"
Sakura moved off of her. "Dork!"
"Wow, you've got a great bedside manner, doc." Naru deadpanned, rubbing her neck. She needed to watch out, though. Sakura-chan's an emotional mess!
"Here, baka: let's take a look at your wounds." Sakura moved Naru's head one way after another, using her healing chakra to examine, then unwrapped the remainder of her bandages. "Unreal. She's healed. Must be nice to have those genes!"
"Ohhh-kay," Naru replied. "But you didn't look at my jeans," she said, pointing towards her pants that were stacked on a corner chair. Both Sakura and Kakashi face-palmed identically, embarrassing her, "OH! You meant those kinds of genes. Hehe."
"Maybe we should hit her in the head repeatedly to get the old girl back. Guy, whatever - you know what I mean…"
"Pakkun! Don't even say that!" Naru chastised the little dog coming out from under her bed carrying a newspaper. Is he wearing glasses? He is! Kuwaii! Naru continued tilting her head in different directions, dealing with the soreness and feeling of what must be ointment or something in her hair.
"Hmm… I can't say that I like that idea, but can we do something similar?" Kakashi asked seriously, ignoring his beloved's shout of "Oi!"
"You can't be serious, sensei!" Sakura asked, all smiles.
"What the hell is wrong with you two?" Naru asked heatedly, She didn't want to get smacked around by Spinny Man or anyone else for that matter. Kakashi and Sakura continued to babble about things she didn't understand, but she finally got the impression that they were talking about stimulating something - which brought her mind back to that little orange book - and they were not actually considering popping her in the head.
In the end, there was an argument between the two about staying in the hospital overnight for observation, but Sakura lost that one when she had to agree that she was taking Lee home as they both had the weekend off. Naru was happy that she'd be getting out of the smelly hospital.
"Sakura, when you release Nara, I want him taken to The Hole," Kakashi ordered in a light tone of voice.
"Seriously sensei, you guys are going to have to deal with this thing between you." The silver-haired man yawned but nodded his head in agreement. "And I mean the three of you!" Sakura stated.
At that, his eye darkened. "I'll deal with Shikamaru when he's in The Hole and not a moment sooner. We have much to… discuss." Sakura rolled her eyes.
"That Shikamaru guy! He stabbed me! Then I exploded or something!" Naru eagerly added. The conversation came to a halt as Sakura and Kakashi seemed to stare at her like she was crazy. "He did! He stabbed me with chopsticks, I think. Or the other me… you know what I'm talking about! Then all of the sudden, the real me…"
"Naru honey, did you make a clone?" Kakashi asked.
"Yes! Yes, that's it!" Naru responded, snapping her fingers. "That's what it was! Then there was all this..." Naru gestured wildly at her own head, trying to describe what had happened but had no words for it.
"You got memories back from your clone," Kakashi translated.
"Oh, yes! That must have been it! You know I tried to summon your dogs but nothing happened." Kakashi and Sakura looked at each other with wide-eyes.
"Yeah, don't do that, Naru-chan," Sakura said seriously. "Sensei has a contract with his ninken, so you won't be able to summon them."
Kakashi stopped her from saying anything else when he placed his hand on her shoulder. The last thing he wanted was for Naru to actually succeed in summoning and have a giant battle toad bashing through the Tower. Sakura was grimacing, meaning she was probably having similar thoughts of her precious hospital being accidentally flattened by Gamabunta. ANY colored toad would be a problem, considering there was only one person with the contract, he felt.
Naru pouted at them. She quite liked the idea of making magical talking animals come to her. "But I wanna," she said childishly. She got laughed at which made her pout more. She turned her head away from them. "Tch!"
Sakura barked out at that. "She sounds like Kurama," she said quietly, picking up her bag to go,
Kurama… Naru knew that name - knew it in her heart! Who was Kurama? Who is Kurama? Where is he? He's a 'he,' right? Yes!
"Naru?" Kakashi asked, looking at her worriedly. "Are you ready to go?"
"I want to see Kurama."
