Naru stood on the hill overlooking the wall into the leaf village. It had been three years since she had left with Jiraiya to train and a sense of nostalgia ran over her. She had missed the leaf and not a day had passed that it wasn't in her thoughts. Naru wondered about the friends she had left behind, how much had they changed? Would she even recognise them and them her? Naru had changed, not a lot but enough to be noticeable. Her blonde hair was now past her shoulders and had a slight curl to it that made it impossible to style; this caused her to tie it back most of the time so it wouldn't get in the way. She had also grown a few inches in height, enough to be taller than Sakura but slightly shorter then Ino. She had also filled out in her body, showing more of a curve in her slim waist then previously. Naru had also ditched her orange tracksuit, replacing it with an orange shift dress that stopped at her thighs and white strapping underneath it that hid one of two equipment pouches; the other one sitting on left hip.
"Are you ready Naru?" she nodded, smiling at her mentor. Jiraiya had stepped up with her training since the Genjutsu incident and she was thankful for it. Her taijutsu had increase so it was close on par to Lee's although his speed would outclass her greatly and she had mastered many Ninjutsu techniques after they had established her affinity for wind. Jiraiya had also taken her to Mount Myoboku to begin her sage training which she was still in the process of.
"I think I'll go my own way though" Jiraiya smiled. He knew she was nervous, especially since she was still struggling with her inner turmoil. Once Naru had acknowledge her dream was actually a memory she had been faced with many trials, one being that it had been affecting the nine tails seal. He had often caught her conversing with the beast and noticed she had gradually begun to gain some sort of control of the foxes chakra but there were time's it became too much and he was forced to tighten the seal, severing that connection until she was ready to unlock the seal completely. Naru was angry at him for doing it but she understood why, there was too much hate in her towards Sasuke that it would be easy for the fox to take control of it and run ramped. Naru had grown and Jiraiya was partially responsible for it but it was Naru's determination to not be seen as a victim that was the main influence. Naru left the toad sage behind and quickly made her way to the front of the gate, giving the guards a quick glance at her so they knew she wasn't an intruder; she couldn't help but chuckled at their bewildered faces when they realised who it was. She sprung from rooftop to rooftop until she landed on a familiar patio and warmth grew in her at the sight of her small apartment. Naru knew it was flash, it was more on the run down side then most apartments but she found it comforting as she knew every crack and every hole in it. It was her home and her sanctuary in the village. She carefully unlocked the door and stepped inside, smiling as it looked exactly the same as she had left it, except for the thick layer of dust that covered everything.
"Your home" her sensei's voice reached her ears and she smiled. She had missed Kakashi sensei, even down to his perverted obsession with Jiraiya's Icha Icha books. Naru spun around, a bright smile gracing her lips as she greeted him warmly. Kakashi was perched on the railing of her patio, one hand stabilising his balance and the other putting his book away in his pouch behind his back.
"Kakashi Sensei!" she resisted the urge to run towards him and hug him, she didn't want to make him uncomfortable "I have a present for you!" the silver haired man raised his one visible eyebrow in disbelief "It's nothing special, it's from Pervy sage really, he asked me to pass it on" She grabbed a small package out of her backpack and quickly placed the heavy pack on the ground. Kakashi jumped off the rail and placed his hands on his hips, leaning forward so they were eye level. Naru looked at her feet, a slight blush spreading across her cheeks. She had often found herself thinking how attractive her sensei was while she was away and having him stand so close to her brought up her thoughts about him again. She didn't know why she started to find him attractive, she knew she shouldn't either and she cursed under her breath, it's not like he would even look at her that way anytime soon.
"Well are you going to give it to me or not Naru?" she swore she could see him smile under his mask and she shoved the package into his hands quickly before turning her back on him to hide her embarrassment.
"I don't understand why you like Pervy sage's novels so much. I had to read that entire thing to help him edit it and didn't find it overly interesting" Naru cringed at the memories of hours of sleepless nights, pouring herself agonisingly over each page as if she had been sifting through quick sand; Jiraiya often telling her it was good practice on raising her patience and focus for her chakra control. "Kakashi sensei?" she turned around, suddenly aware that she could no longer sense his chakra near her and found him nowhere to be found. Naru sighed, that man was as bad as Pervy sage but at least his nose was in a book and not peeking into the women's hot springs. She picked up her back pack and went back into her room, time to unpack.
…..
Kakashi sat above a park bench in a tree, his nose stuck in Icha Icha tactics. He had been trying to engross himself in his new book but his mind kept drifting to his newly returned student. Naru had defiantly grown up and he found it hard to stop himself from admiring her as he would other women. He smiled under his mask at how cute she looked when a blush heated her cheeks to a rosy red and sighed, mentally scolding himself for thinking of her in such a manor. Naru was his student, his sensei's daughter and he shouldn't be thinking such thoughts about her. But she is nineteen now…a little voice niggled in the back of his mind but he pushed it away. It was wrong, he was her teacher and it was his job to maintain that bond with her, to take it further would go against the teacher student relationship he vowed to uphold.
"Enjoying my newest book i see" Jiraiya appeared next to him, sitting lazily on the branch with one foot underneath him and the other hanging down. Kakashi closed it and put it in his pack with his other book in the Icha Icha series. "You ran into Naru then?"
"I did…" the toad sage smiled at him then looked out to the horizon. Kakashi knew this wasn't a casual visit, the older man only showed his face when he wanted to.
"I'm leaving today, after I relay the information I've gathered back to Tsunade" Kakashi remained silent. He had assumed as much already knowing Jiraiya would have postponed more dangerous Intel missions until he had returned Naru. "How did Naru seem to you?"
"She seemed older, more…mature" he found it hard coming up with a word that didn't lead the Sannin to his previous thoughts. "Is there something wrong?" Jiraiya shot him a knowing look and the copy ninja's stomach dropped. For three years he had been plagued with what he saw happen that day, knowing there was more to it then Naru had let on.
"You saw something that day didn't you" the air was thick, the conversation filled with tension.
"I'm not sure what I saw to be honest…" it was a lie, Kakashi knew exactly what he saw but he didn't want to betray Naru's trust by blabbing what he had seen without her permission.
"Did you see Sasuke do it Kakashi?" steely eyes peered down at him and Kakashi suddenly felt very small.
"No…I stopped him" Jiraiya sighed, mumbling under his breath as he tried to piece the timeline together.
"It must have been before then" Kakashi didn't know if he was still talking to him or not but he didn't press the issue, restraining himself from finding out much needed answers "Naru's…fragile right now Hakate"
"She seemed fine to me…" Kakashi thought over their newest meeting, the only thing that seemed out of place was the cute blush she had when he came near her.
"She's not fine Hakate…That Uchiha brat forced himself on her at some point" Kakashi felt as if his heart had stopped, his worst fears coming true as the Sannin's words screeched his thoughts to a stop. He had wondered ever since witnessing their fight how far it had gone, hoping that what he had seen was the worst of it. "Listen Hakate, you can't let her know I have told you anything but someone here needs to know so they can monitor her"
"What the hell happened on your training!" his fist's began to shake, angry at his rouge student who had hurt Naru in such an unforgivable way and angry at himself for not picking up on it.
"It was a few months into our training. I decided to teach Naru how to break Genjutsu but something went wrong…I don't know how long she had been having that dream but Gamariki pulled it out of her subconscious so she would have to push herself in the training…" Kakashi stared intently at Jiraiya, taking in every word and memorising it "The whole time she believed it was a dream, her minds way of making sense of whatever you saw the day Uchiha went rouge but it wasn't"
"Her dream was a memory?" Kakashi put the pieces together quickly. From what Jiraiya was saying at some point Sasuke had raped Naru and Naru's mind had locked the memory away deep in her subconscious to protect herself from it. "The fight must have triggered it then, forced her brain to remember it"
"It seems that way…that's not the only issue though, its left Minato's seal weakened" The implications of what Jiraiya had said hit him hard and fast. "I've managed to tighten it and buy us some time but it won't hold, eventually it will start weakening again and the beast's chakra will start leaking into Naru's own"
"What happens to her?" he felt as if a weight had been pressed onto his chest, the burden of what Jiraiya was placing on him already weighing on his soul.
"Naru has the ability to control it to some extent and I believe over time she will completely master control over the nine tails but right now her limit is three tails" The Sannin turned to Kakashi, his eye's serious and determined "Naru must never reach four tail's Hakate, you must stop her before it happens or you will see something you will never be able to forget"
"What happens to her? How bad is it?" Jiraiya handed him a piece of paper with a sign on it "What's this for"
"If she starts to loose herself place this on her, it will immediately immobilise her but you have to do it before she reaches four tails or it won't work" Jiraiya stood up, looking towards the Hokage building. "I trust you Hakate, protect her or ill have your head" Kakashi stared down at the piece of paper in his hand, the happiness he felt at his student's return turning into sickening worry. He truly had failed her and now she was suffering more than he ever realised she could.