The next three years passed slowly. And Wolf took up the mantel of leadership in his old Anbu unit and carved out a bloody path through the village enemies. He killed and maimed so many that it felt as if he had lost himself completely under all of the layers of dried blood coating his skin. And finally after the three year mark, the Hokage released him of his service in Anbu.

Freeing up his time enough to let him search for Kitsune.

Every morning after he visited the memorial stone, he would hit the market place and choose a nice sunny spot against a building or on a roof top and he would sit and watch for Kitsune since this was the only way that he could track her since she had been a truly cunning girl and had used a jutsu to change her scent often. Never really letting him catch her real scent in the long two in a half years that they had worked together.

He sat there and observed the people below him. It had been six months since he had started watching for Kitsune and he had yet to find any traces of her. Maybe she had left the village. He doubted it, but one never knew. For all he knew Kitsune's parents had decided to move from the village to some place else. For all he knew, she could have been kidnapped or killed, or maybe she was in hiding for some reason.

He saw something shine below and craned his neck and zeroed in on the person.

One good thing about the ring he had had commissioned for Kitsune was that it's shine was unmistakable. He had picked out the absolute best quality stones to go into the rings settings just in case Kitsune might accidentally lose it, the glow of the stones would make it easier to find.

He stepped off of his perch and landed lightly on the balls of his feet and stood to his full height and started to walk, keeping the person he had found well with in sight as he weaved his way in and out of the crowd until he was close enough to the person to see them well and compare what he knew about Kitsune. Things like hair color, size, age, height.

He stopped several feet from the person, a girl with mid back legnth blond hair, she was a bit taller than he remembered Kitsune to be, but she could have hit a freak growth spurt sometime in the past three years, so that didn't change the fact that he was maybe staring at the girl who had abandoned him and broken his heart.

She picked her way through the vegetable stall in front of him and his one uncovered eye widened when he saw the little diamond and sapphire ring on her left hand's ring finger. She handed the peppers, carrots, celery, and avocado to the man running the stall and watched him bag her things before paying and thanking him. Wolf moved in just a little closer, comparing her voice to the girl that he had known. So far this girl was an almost exact perfect match to his Kitsune.

And when the girl started walking, he followed, needing to see what she would do next, needing to follow her to her home and see how she had been living for the past three years and six months.

(**************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Naru had the oddest feeling that she was being watched. She could feel someones eyes on her, making her stomach flutter nervously, and her skin tingle. It was the strangest feeling. And every few minutes or so she would pause in her tracks and looked around the crowded market. Wondering why she was getting such a strange feeling, and wondering if she would have to defend herself again, like she had when she had woken up this morning.

But no matter where she looked, there were people everywhere making it difficult to pin point where the feeling was coming from. She continued her shopping, figuring that she needed the food more than she needed to worry about who was following her. And why she was being followed.

It took about an hour, but she finally finished her shopping and started for home knowing that Genma-san was probably waiting for her since he had promised to cook her lunch today. She walked away from the market and was almost home when Shikamaru Nara and Sauske Uchiha jumped down from the roof tops and called out to her.

"Naru!"

"Naru!"

Naru sighed and hung her head. God why was it she was always the one singled out by everyone? "Yes boys." She said tiredly.

"Come over to my place for dinner tonight." Shika said with a grin as he reached out and took two of the heavy bags from her before she could protest. Sauske shoved him aside and glared at her.

"She'll be busy later."

"Oh. I wasn't aware that I had already made plans." Naru said as she stared at the Uchiha. He smiled at her.

"That's because I haven't talked to you yet."

"If this is about fighting with you again, forget it. I'm not your damn target and you're not going to useme for practice again." Naru growled at the raven as Shika glared at him.

Behind her Wolf listened to the teens as they talked and figured that he should intervene and save his Kitsune. The raven laughed and reached out to brush her blond hair away from her face and Wolf felt a surge of jealousy so great that he couldn't stop himself. He walked up behind Kitsune and wrapped his arms around her and dragged her back against his body before she could so much as scream in surprise and glared at the two teens that had been trying to woo his girl.

"You were right. Naru is busy later. She's having dinner with me, now get lost." Before I lose my temper and kill you. Wolf thought darkly as the girl twisted around to try and look at him.

The Nara boy cocked his head and looked at him curiously then smiled. "Hello Jounin-san. You know Naru?"

Wolf gave the teen a predatory smile behind his face mask. You mean my Kitsune, right. Wolf thought in irritation. "Yes. We go way back."

"Bullshit. There is no way that Naru knows you. You're lying." The Uchiha snapped at him. Wolf squeezed the girl a little bit tighter and glared at the raven. How the fuck would he know if she knew him or not? Had he been stalking her or something?

The thought of the younger male following Naru, and spying on her as if she were his pissed Wolf off a lot more than he thought it would. But then he had only himself to blame for that one since he had assumed that his Kitsune would still be single and unattached. Not having a few beau's sniffing around her skirts.

"She does know me. It's just been a while. Now buzz off so that we can talk a little bit." Wolf growled at them. The Nara took the hint and set down the two bags that he had taken from the girl and grabbed the Uchiha and waved bye to them and vanished into the shadows. Leaving Wolf and the girl alone together.

Wolf let her go and picked up the bags that the Nara had set down. "Show me where you live." He said as he looked back at her and frowned at the terrified expression on her pretty face.

"Kit?"

"W-Who are you? What are you going to do to me?" Why was a jounin running off her classmates and claiming that he knew her, she only knew a handful of jounin and this strange silver haired man wasn't one of them. She'd have remembered him if he was.

"Nothing that you don't want me too." He said honestly, genuinely puzzled by her reaction to him. Something was wrong. Something was honest to god wrong with Kitsune. But he didn't know what it was. He couldn't detect what it was, not right off the bat, but her fear of him seemed to be genuine. Did she think that he was still angry with her for leaving him? He had gotten over his anger a long time ago and had slipped quietly into acceptance.

After a little over five years of working as an Anbu he more than understood why she had left like she had. He still wished that she had at least said a proper goodbye to him. Maybe given him a week end to be with her alone, but he had understood that she wasn't so great at goodbye's and had wanted to slip out without a fuss, without breaking down and crying in front of him.

"Kit? Do you know who I am?" Wolf asked as he moved towards her, she took several steps back away from him, trying to stay well out of arms reach. It was a futile endeavor since Wolf could easily reach her no matter how much space she tried to keep between them.

She shook her head no. She didn't know him. She had never met him before in her life.

Liar. You know him. He is the one that you cried for the day that you woke up in the hospital.

A voice said in the back of her head. Naru shook her head again, this time denying that she had just heard some strange voice in her head. Wolf set the bags down and closed the distance between them and grasped her shoulders, startling her. "Look at me Kit. Do you really not know me?" Wolf asked as he shook her a little bit.

Her eyes went wide and she started to hypervinilate as she shook her head no. "I-I've never met you before!"

Wolf growled and grabbed her left hand and held it up in front of her face and snapped at her. "Stop jerking me around Kit! Your lying. I know that you know me because you're wearing my ring!"

"No! I don't know you!" Naru cried as she tried to jerk her hand out of the strange man's grasp. But he tightened his hold on her hand, started to crush her fingers in his grasp. She cried out again, this time in pain and started to cry. Help! He was hurting her! He was scaring her!

Help! Someone help!She didn't want to be here. She wanted to be at home right now, with Genma-san, laughing and talking. Her head started to hurt and she cried even more, it felt like her skull was splitting open and she couldn't stop it. Even when everything went dark and she collapsed against the strange man.

Wolf froze as Kitsune started to fall and quickly let go of her hand and grabbed her and pulled her against him before she could fall back and hit the ground. Jesus Christ! What just happened? He wondered as a sliver of worry entered his mind. He started to check and see if he had hurt her when he felt one of her hands come up and touch his chest a moment before she raised her head and he found himself staring into a pair of glowing ruby red eyes.

"Hello Wolf." She said with a smile as she pushed against his chest, catching him off guard and sending him flying back a good thirty or forty feet away from her.

He skidded back across the ground and flipped himself several times before coming to a complete stop and stared at her as she stood up and dusted herself off. "Kit?" He was confused. One second she didn't know him and the next she did. What the fuck was going on?

She smiled happily at him and made a tisking sound."I knew that you would find me, but I never expected it to be so soon. I know that you do not understand my Wolf, but I need you to stop presuing my memory. Or you will end up killing us both." She said as her smile faded. He stared at her, his confusion mounting. What was she talking about? Was she telling him to leave her alone and to back off?

Why was she acting so strangely? He wanted to ask, but couldn't get the words out as she walked towards him. "I can see you are confused and while I would like to explain. All that I can say is that we are not the same person that you knew before. We are different now. Warmer. Untainted. And we can not be together in the same ways because we are different now. But I do still love you my Wolf. I still cry for you every day and night."

"I don't understand what you're saying Kit. Why are you speaking so cryptically?" He asked curiously as she drew closer. Her words weren't making any sense. She reached out and framed his face with her hands, and he closed his eyes and grasped her hands in his and held them in place against his cheeks, wishing that they could stay like this forever as he felt her brush her lips against his masked one before she pulled back a little bit and said gently.

"We need you to watch us, Wolf. We are more vulnerable now than we were back then. We used a memory jutsu to erase what we could of our sins. But we could not carve everything from our heart. And because of that we are full of such pain and sorrow and fear... We are tired now." She said as she took a shuttering breath and gave him a sad smile.

He grasped her waist and pulled her closer as the red faded from her eyes and she fell against him unconscious before he could reply.

Kit... He thought sadly as he held the girl against his chest and whispered. "Gods Kit. What did you do to yourself?"