Kakashi ran through the woods absently knocking down trees and such before catching himself and wondering if he'd been able to do that before since all he'd done was brush his fingers along the trunks before they had fallen. He'd guess no since doing so usually required the use of chakra. But then he'd never really paid attention to things like that before.

Everything now however, was starting to come together for him.

Like why the council had been so insistant that he marry and breed. They must have known ahead of time that he would under go physical changes that would make him bigger, badder, and more lethal than he had been before.

He wasn't sure he liked that since it meant that they were privy to other things. Nor did he like much what those things could mean for him and Naru. For example he worried about the fact that they might decide to place his mate and offspring in the middle of a political battle if he refused to do as they wanted.

Perhaps they would even try to hold them hostage in the village and not allow him to see them.

He curled his lips back from his teeth and let out a loud rumbling warning growl. The mere thought of them going after Naru and his young- of seperating them from him, and making them defenseless was enough to send him right over the razors edge.

He caught sight of the elder up ahead and felt his mind shift back to the task at hand. He'd worry about the council when he returned to the village since he wouldn't be able to hide the changes he'd been through already. Hopefully by then, he'd be stable.

He sped up and managed to get in front of the elder carrying his mate and stopped only for a second while debating on if he should climb the tree next to him and knock the man out of the trees, but quickly dismissed this idea since his mate was running too low on chakra to prevent herself from falling and being injured if he did. It was his fault, he knew, that she was running so low on chakra.

The truth of the matter was that he hadn't been trying to weaken her so that she couldn't run away. He'd been trying to pull her back from wherever in his head she had been. He'd been worried that she would get hurt in some way.

He'd just...gone a little too far on his siphoning.

He heard her voice, it was much softer and more tired sounding than it had been before and his heart clenched in his chest out of guilt. He'd have to fix her a nice cozy den somewhere secluded to rest in until his transformation ended.

He'd have to let her regain her strength before he could mate with her anyways. And he would like having cuddle time to reconnect with her while she regained her strength.

He saw the elder pass over him and tipped his head back and curled his lips back in a silent snarl. But before he could think about anything else, he would have to deal with the elder. He just wished that there was a really, really steep cliff nearby that he could toss him off of.

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

Konoha village was in a little bit of an uproar about Kakashi, and Naru being MIA. It hadn't been such a problem at first for Tsunade, but then Kakashi's day of retirment came and he had been strangely absent from the party the village had been throwing him.

Which had caused the council and some of the clan heads that were friends with Kakashi, to complain endlessly about his absence. Then when Sakura accidnetally let it slip that Kakashi had taken off after Naru, whom had been absent from the village for little more than a week now- Well everyone had flipped out then.

The rookie kids had been looking high and low for the blond in the hopes that she had merely gotten away from them within the village. However upon not finding Naru anywhere rumors began to circulate that she had been kidnapped in the dead of night. While other rumors started about her finally getting fed up with the village and leaving to live her life as a rogue nin.

Natrually everyone flipped out again because they didn't know what to believe which had led to Tsunade taking drastic measures and confining everyone to the village where they had to entertain Gaara- The newest Kazekage of the sand village and Naru's predo brother- while he visited the village.

Today however Gaara had foisted the lot of rambunctious/worried nins onto his siblings and run like hell. He had found his way to what was left of Naru's apartment then headed straight to Iruka's where he sat and visited with him and his students for a while before moving on to the Tower so that he could sit with Tsunade who had been busy pouring over a blackened file with a worried look on her face.

"Ah, Gaara. Come in and sit down. I think I might need to speak with you about the Biiju."

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

Jiriaya knew he was in over his head when Kakashi not only caught him, but bound him and partially buried him in the ground before scooping up Naru and lovingly nuzzling her cheek as he ran his hands along her spine, checking for any injuries that she may have gotten when he'd tackled the man, before looking at the elder and hissing, "Annoying..."

"You bastard! You've buried me up to my neck in the dirt and worried me endlessly and I'm annoying... I am going to hurt you so bad-" Jiriaya yelled in a incredulous tone before continuing his rant. "You know those books you love so much? Consider them gone. I will never publish another porn story for as long as I live. And if I do publish any more, they'll be about you and Gai and how you take it up the-"

Kakashi shifted his hold on Naru, trying hard not to wake her now that she seemed to have fallen asleep and pulled a dirty rag out of his weapon's pouch and stuffed it in Jiriaya's mouth before he could say anything more and got a disgruntled look from the man before he straightened his spine and gave the man a cheeky looking grin before he turned and vanished into thin air.