Tenten shifted uncomfortably next to Neji as he read the copy nin's lips, his expression going from curious to unsettled as Kakashi talked with Ibiki. Old ghosts? He wondered as Kakashi paused when Naru shifted on the couch and moved instinctively closer to him. Even in her sleeping state she sought him out.

It was something that the young Hyuga would never understand.

But then he didn't really care about that. He'd come here after seeing Kakashi leave Anbu headquarters and had followed the copy nin at a distance so that he could learn something.

Anything about why Sakura and Tsunade got that haunted look on their faces whenever someone said Naru's or Kakashi's names. Or how about the sad look that Shika got whenever he managed to visit Naru for a bit.

The same sad look that he'd had on his face the day Asuma had been lain to rest.

Neji blinked as Kakashi picked Naru up off of the couch, still wrapped in the blanket and caught a peculiar expression on Ibiki's face an instant before the man blanked it and asked. "How will you keep the ghosts from taking her?"

Neji saw Kakashi's shoulders shake slightly and got the impression that the copy nin was laughing.

It must have been a humorless laugh because Neji could see the curving of Kakashi's lips as they twisted under his mask into a silent snarl before he replied. "I'll make her so untouchable hat daring to get close to her would be considered an act of war."

Neji blinked again thinking that what the copy nin was saying was impossible while nearly ripping his hair out in frustration.

Dammit! He hadn't learned anything from this trip with the exception that Kakashi was nuts!

There was no way to do what the Hatake had said he would do. Even with help from the Hokage and the fire nation daimyo's, his plan still wouldn't work. Not without someone with a lot of political power standing behind them all.

He saw the door to Ibiki's apartment open and Kakashi stepped out with Naru cradled against his chest, sleeping as innocently as a child and sighed. Well...this whole trip has been a bust, hasn't it? Neji thought as Kakashi waved bye to Ibiki awkwardly then started moving.

Tenten shifted next to him again and he finally looked at her, knowing that she was probably glaring at him for dragging her along to spy on one of their own. He turned his head to look at her and saw that glower on her face and deactivated his Byakugan and sighed again. "Something on your mind?"

"Yeah. Let whatever you're after go." Tenten snapped at him. Neji looked at her blankly as if to ask, Would you let something go if it hurt your friend? Or would you hunt down the source and beat it to a pulp? Tenten banged her head on his shoulder to show her frustration over this mess then sighed.

It wasn't that she didn't understand where Neji was coming from. She did.

Naru had proven herself to be one of the single greatest friends the Hyuga had ever had aside from Lee and their sensei. So it was only natrual that he would be worried in this way... Although if it were her; she'd simply sit back, watch and wait for Naru to come to her instead of stalking her all over the place like a freak.

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Kakashi stopped walking and looked back over his shoulder at the building a ways back and narrowed his eye. He could sense the Hyuga boy and another from Gai's team. He wasn't a fool, he knew that they had been there the whole time. That was why he had been careful in choosing his words during his talk with Ibiki.

He hadn't wanted the Hyuga to know anything about what was going on. Still... the boy was far too persistant for his liking and would need a good talking too.

Turning back around, he started walking again and felt Naru press her face against his neck and had to struggle not to drop her as he flushed under his mask. Now this was his idea of nice.

Having Naru curled up against him like this. Knowing that she and their child were perfectly safe. He would do anything to make time stop so that he and Naru and their baby could stay like this forever. But he was a realist and knew that there was no way to stop time.

Still that didn't mean that he couldn't be a whistful man. And even whistful men knew when to draw the line in the sand.

He reached up and slipped one hand under Naru's hair at the nape of her neck and smiled a bit when he heard her murmmer, "Your hands are cold." He chuckled in amusement and slipped his hands into her hair, letting the silken strands slip from between his fingers as he sobered.

He had a lot of work to do to make his girl untouchable. And only a few months left to do it in. Which meant that he would have to rejoin Anbu- the black ops, then talk to Naru about quitting being a shinobi completely.

That way if anything ever happened to him, at least their baby would have her.

Everything else he'd figure out as he went along.