A week after their return to the village, Naru was discharged from the hospital despite Sakura's and Tsunade's protests about her health. Which was fine if anyone bothered to ask. However there were certain things about her health that Tsunade and Sakura and Shizune were worried about.

For starters, when Naru had been raped she'd been ovulating and Kakashi hadn't been allowed to pull out. And since so much time had passed (far too much time for an morning after pill to take effect) they worried that she may end up pregnant. Which was also something that Kakashi himself was worried about since that was just bound to raise some questions from the girl.

However they decided to cross that bridge once they got there and merely perscribed some vitamines and suppliments to help keep Naru healthy just in case.

They also hadn't figured out what was going on with Naru's memories. Though they had narrowed the cause for her memory loss down to two things, self preservation instinct must in some way be suppressing the trauma and then the second, Kyubbi.

Kyubbi seemed much more likely since Kakashi had told Tsunade that he had spoken to the demon at one point (he didn't say why, he wasn't stupid enough to break his contract and run the risk of hurting Naru again) and had told her that the demon had referred to Naru as it's 'kit' which meant that the demon held a certain amount of affection for the girl.

There were other things- like Naru's chakra being out of whack even in the smallest sense. It just wasn't normal for that to happen, but again they figured that it had to do with the Kyubbi and left it at that knowing that her chakra would straighten itself out on it's own in a few days or so.

Then there was the fever she'd been running and the fact that by the time they had reached the village Naru's small fever had morphed into a raging one as high as one hundred and four degrees. Which had alarmed everyone so much that the entire Kakashi/Naru retreaval squad had spent three days in the hospital waiting for Naru's fever to break before they had finally gone home to rest.

Leaving the copy nin behind to sit at Naru's bedside until she was well enough to go home, after which he'd slipped out of her room window and disappeared without a trace.

No doubt to go and get some rest.

Or at least Tsunade hoped that he had gone home to get some rest. She may have to send an Anbu to track him down and check on him in a little bit, but right now she needed to talk to Naru and determin if she should be alone or not.

She walked into Naru's room half expecting the girl to be curled up crying. She wasn't exactly sure why she had expected this when she knew that Naru didn't recall what had happened, but some part of her had expected it. So when she walked into the room to find her gaki laying back against the pillows she'd been given, looking exhausted- well, Tsunade didn't know what to think.

"Naru, gaki, are you okay?" Tsunade asked in a concerned tone as Naru opened her eyes and looked at her.

"I'm fine baa-chan. Just-"

"Just what?" Tsunade asked curiously.

"I was just wondering why everyone has been acting so strangely around me recently. And I was sort of giving myself a headache thinking about the reasons because nothing that I've come up with so far makes sense to me. I mean, Kakashi-sensei said that we weren't on a mission. So why were a bunch of medical nins and guards sent to pick us up?"

Uh-oh- Tsunade thought while keeping her expression carefully blank. Of course Naru would have noticed that. It was a little hard to miss the number of people that had picked her and Kakashi up and escourted them back to the village. So it was natrual that Naru would wonder about it. Still, that didn't mean that Tsunade was going to tell her the real reaosn why. Not when Naru was in a fragile place and didn't need to know the truth.

"Uh well, everyone but you and Kakashi had been on a mission and met up somewhere between here and where you were and when you started to run a fever, Kakashi sent for help and everyone decided to pitch in and so they came and got you." Tsunade lied.

Naru gave her a calculating look for a moment, wondering why Tsunade felt the need to lie to her before pushing the thought away knowing that if Tsunade was going to go to the trouble of lying to her then she probably didn't want to know what was really going on. But it didn't stop her from feeling curious just the same.

"Ah. Well that makes sense." If your strung out on drugs, that is. Naru thought as Tsunade got her something for her headache and then got her a drink of water and handed them to her. Naru took the pills without question, feeling a mite grateful that her baa-chan had realized just how badly her head was starting to hurt as she downed the water and set the cup aside.

"Thanks Tsunade." She said, using just the woman's name for the first time since the day they had met. Surprising the Kage a little bit.

"No problem gaki. Now before I let you go, tell me if you want to be alone or not-"

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Kakashi stepped into Naru's apartment with a feeling of apprehention and dropped the duffle bags that he'd brought with him, containing his clothing, a pair or so of shoes, some civilian clothing, his brush, toothbrush and a few things that he hadn't wanted to leave behind at his place.

He looked around and took a deep shuddering breath, trying to squash the nervous feeling in the pit of his stomach. This was his home now. His and Naru's. From now until the day they both died, just as he'd promised Kyubbi-

They would never be apart.