"Dad! Dad!" Kakashi called as he ran up to Sakumo, dragging a rattled looking Naru behind him. Sakumo jerked around at the sound of Kakashi's insistant voice and looked at his son and niece from behind his helmet. And frowned.

"Kakashi what's wrong?" Sakumo asked as he pulled his helmet off and knelt down so that he was face to face with the two kids with a worried frown on his face. Kakashi came to a stop in front of his dad and very quickly shoved Naru into the man's arms.

"Nalja and his goon squad scented Naru." Kakashi said in a serious tone. Sakumo stared at his son for a moment, his words not really registering at first. But when they did, he felt like he'd just been punched.

The breath left his lungs in a low hissing sound as he wrapped his arms around his niece and seemed to stare into space for a moment before picking the crying girl up. And paused for a second and looked down at her. When had she started to cry? He wondered with a frown as he kissed her cheek and made soft shushing sounds as he tried to think of what to do.

It was never a good thing when Nalja and his friends caught the scent of a mortal girl. Even more so when said girl was half mortal.

He didn't doubt that Nalja had been able to catch the scent of Naru's fae blood. And if that was the case then he and his friends would eventually be beating down his castle doors, demanding that he hand her over to them for whatever reason.

They would likely do to her what they did to his wife. Turn her into a mindless toy for their amusment. Or arrange a political marriage for her to some fae lord that was ten times older than her and would abuse her.

Or they would have her killed.

Sakumo's arms tightened around Naru as he ran one hand through her silken hair and tried to calm the frightened girl down. Finally after ten minutes or so Sakumo managed to calm the girl down and noticed that some of his soldiers were staring at him pretty strangely.

Causing him to hand Naru off to Kakashi, whom staggered a little bit under the small girl's slight weight while Sakumo ordered his goblins back to go back to their sword play. Then once he was sure that no one was paying attention to them again he said, "Kakashi, take Naru back to my private chamber and stay with her until I come to you. I'll deal with Nalja and the other lords. And once that's done I have a very important job for you."

Kakashi thought it was a little bit cruel to lock Naru away when there was so much stuff that she could be exploring. But he didn't bother arguing since he knew that his father only wanted to protect the girl. He nodded his head and set Naru down and grasped her hand.

"You can count on me dad. I won't let any of those bastards near her."

Sakumo smiled at his son and waved the two kids off then stood there watching as Kakashi led Naru back towards the castle where she would be locked in Sakumo's private chambers. Where Nalja and his fellow lords wouldn't be able to touch her because of the wards that were a combination of ancient human and fae magicks that were carved into his door.

Hopefully it would be enough to protect her from the lords for the time being while he dealt with the fools sniffing after her skirt.