This chapter is dedicated to BusGrunts! I really appreciate everyone's reviews and questions - and thank you all so much for reading my stories. BTW, I've posted new ones!

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Thinking

Biju, etc. speaking

Biju, etc. thinking

Emphasis

Naruto was pulled more-than-firmly away from the kitchen by a completely infuriated Shikamaru. "I saw what you did!"

"Let go of me, Shika!"

The Nara heir continued to pull Naruto through the house and out the door, heading straight into the forest. Once he felt they would have privacy, he turned around and pulled his hair. "Kami-sama, Naruto! What were you thinking? Healing him? Healing?! Are you insane?!" As she began to speak, he continued, "Kakashi wasn't even that badly hurt! And what did you do? You used Kurama's chakra…"

"I know that damnit!" Naruto hissed. Why was he making such a big deal about this? It was already done; there was no need to have a conniption fit! "And anyway, Kakashi thought it was an Uzumaki healing ability. I guess he meant like that bite that what's her name? Karin? The one she used to have." Shikamaru was making a nasty face at her: she couldn't make out its meaning. "Gross, can you imagine that? I think she liked the bastard biting her though… he he."

Shikamaru brought his hands down roughly over his face. Why did he have to time-travel with someone like this? Naruto might be hella-powerful - or she would be one day - but she was so far past troublesome that it often gave him headaches. "Naruto. We've discussed this before: we can't give away our abilities right now," he began.

"I KNOW! I believe I was the one that first brought that up - and you were the one that agreed." She took a deep breath. "Probably because you're still lazy," Naru reminded him.

Shikamaru groaned. "You know I'm not lazy anymore, Naru-chan."

"Lazy compared to me!"

"That's because you're hyperactive," Shikamaru replied with complete sincerity. "No one can keep up with you and your activity-level: what with your clones, your… Never mind! Seriously, Naruto, we cannot give away our abilities! If I didn't know better, I'd be afraid you'd whip out a Rasengan!"

"Actually I did finally try," she said sheepishly as the Nara's eyes went wide. "Don't worry: I was alone. There was a problem with it though: it ended up making a tree again."

Shikamaru looked at her as if she had grown a new head. "A tree. So now if you do a Rasengan, they're going to think you have Mokuton or something." Naruto shrugged. "Don't act like that's not a serious issue, Naru!"

"Meh, what can ya do?" she answered, shrugging her shoulders.

Honestly, this woman was going to give him either a heart attack from stress or a stroke from just driving him up the wall before they even got started in their plans to save the world. "Tch. Yo, Kurama, stop making Naruto do Mokuton."

"He's asleep - or pretending to be." She paused and waited in her mindscape to see just what the fox was up to. "Yeah, pretending - such a bastard. ALL RIGHT, ALL RIGHT: a figurative bastard. I'm telling you Shikamaru, Kurama has so many daddy issues, you'd think…" Naruto grabbed her head and fell forwards a bit. "It was a joke alright?! Kami! You know I respect your father too much to…"

"Naruto: you're talking to him out loud again." the Nara stated, unamused.

Naruto jerked up to look Shikamaru in the eye while her face turned a deep, deep red. "You… you were talking to him, too! And you can't even do that, I don't think anyway. Well, we both know - no all three of us know that old fuzzy is sleeping most of our lives away."

Shikamaru counted in his head to ten. "Naruto, since he's not sleeping, can you please ask Kurama-sama if he can stop the Mokuton?"

"It's not Mokuton: I thought you knew that," Naru answered. "It's like his natural, pure energy or something. I don't know. I guess we should be glad I'm not lighting up in gold flames or whatever."

Oh gods, that would be a nightmare - more of a nightmare than Naru is, normally! "Naru-chan, can you just ask him if he's doing it on purpose? Or if he can shut off whatever's causing the trees to pop up again so that you'll be able to eventually make a Rasengan without making everyone in this village think you've somehow acquired Mokuton?"

Naruto's face blanked for less than a second, as it sometimes did when she was having a serious conversation with the fox. It still amazed him that they could have what he'd later find out were incredibly lengthy conversations in less than a second. Considering Naruto's brainpower, he wondered how it was even possible.

"No, he can't stop it. Something about us being all but merged after all this time?" Naruto wasn't exactly sure, but she didn't feel that the issue would turn into anything problematic.

"Troublesome."

"Oh, and when I finally remove the seal? That's when we'll have to deal with the glowing chakra and all. Oi! Don't get all pissy-faced about it! It wasn't like I was walking around last time like that 24/7!" Naruto paused. "And you have to admit, it made me look badass!"

Shikamaru sighed, considering that he would never normally hit a girl unless they were in a spar… Or if he had to deal with someone like that Tayuya chick again from the Sound 4... Okay, so maybe he would hit a girl, but only if he had to, he thought in finality. But the one standing in front of him? Just for a moment, he wished he was female so he could whack her. "So no tearing the seal off then, until sometime after Jiraiya-sama trains you, or…"

"No, Shikamaru that won't work." Naruto interrupted, shaking her head. "Things have gotten really tight in there: Kurama's bigger," she began, seeing Shikamaru's surprised and concerned expression. "Stop. Incoming at 6 o'clock: your dad."

"Right," Shika sighed. "Let's head back. But we need to discuss this."

"Hai, hai. Oh, can you go with me to the furniture place later? Kakashi's got a mission. I'm pretty sure everything will be in scrolls, so it shouldn't be a big deal, plus I can show you the house!" Naru chirped.

"Troublesome. I'm meeting up with Choji at noon, so we can do it afterward I guess," he replied with sagging shoulders as they walked back through the forest.

"Mou, Shika-kun! You're so sweet to help me! And it won't be such a drag, plus maybe we can get some food at Choji's, ne? I'll accompany you to Choji-kun's, too - since I'm such a wonderful little sister."

"Troublesome," came twin voices. The older Nara they met up with continued, "Where did you two run off to? Dragging Naru-chan behind you after she made us breakfast… you know what that means, young man!"

"More training?!" Naruto answered cheerfully for him.

"More training."

"Fuck," Shikamaru whispered, but not quietly enough.

"Language, young man. Now drop and give me 50!" Shikaku ordered.

"I haven't even had breakfast," Shikamaru whined.

"And who's fault is that, brat?" He pointed at the ground; Shikamaru followed, beginning to do his assigned push-ups. "And this is just for cursing! Be glad your mother didn't hear you or you'd be doing this with soap in your mouth." Shikamaru uttered any Nara's most favored word as Shikaku continued. "After this, you and Naru can go in and eat. But following that, I have some time before work, so your ass is mine!"

"This place is incredible, Naruto-chan," Shikamaru said as he stood holding scrolls of furniture and household items as they stood outside Naruto's new estate. Naruto and Kakashi's… what a drag.

"It is! Wait until you see the inside, Shika!"

"This place is huge… Shall we begin putting things away or whatever? Such a drag. Kami, Naruto: you could fill up this place with kids and have yourself a baseball team." Naruto tripped over absolutely nothing, sending her scrolls all over the floor before turning to glare at the Nara. He got down on the floor to help her pick everything up. "Yare yare. How are you a ninja again?"

Naruto decided to ignore that. "I don't know if I should put stuff away, considering I don't know exactly where Kakashi wants things," Naru muttered, looking around.

"He's not going to care. Give me a tour!" It really was a big beautiful place and had a lot of land too. No doubt that it came with so much because it was intended to be a gift to the Yondaime, who would, after Naruto's birth, have been given the title of Clan Head of a new Namikaze clan. He finally asked her if that was the case, but Naruto didn't know. He felt something was wrong about that. "Say, Naruto. What about the Uzumaki clan complex? There is one, right?"

Naruto stopped in her steps. "Ya know, I never asked about that: never heard of it either, Shika. Hmmm, it seems like if there were such a compound, JiJi would have given Kakashi and me that choice to live in too." She put down her scolls on the floor. "Oh! Jiji did mention that my mother lived in the Senju complex with Mito-sama when she was young. I don't know about after that, though. Well, obviously she moved in with my dad at some point." Shikamaru nodded his head. "Ne, Shika-kun, guess what happened this morning?!"

"What?"

"Kakashi kissed me!" Naruto smiled brilliantly while Shikamaru scowled. He didn't want to hear about stuff like that, especially after he already saw it happen earlier. Seeing it was definitely worse, and until now he had been successful in not thinking about it again.

"Naruto: a kiss on the forehead doesn't count," he answered as if he was the Sage of Kissing.

"Pervert! You were watching!"

"I happened to walk in on it; neither of you was even aware." Naruto looked like he had given her a victory of some sort. "Troublesome. You remember Ma and Dad kissing you on the forehead, too, ne?"

Naruto pouted. "It felt different from when they did it."

Shikamaru looked at her like she was an idiot, even knowing that she hated that expression. He couldn't help it. "That's because number one, you are the one who is a pervert, and number two, your whack job of a husband was wearing a mask." Naruto deflated significantly.

"He's a pervert, too!" Naruto argued as if that would somehow mean that she was right about the whole thing.

"Just don't get all hung up on it, Naru-chan. I don't want to see you hurt," Shikamaru said as he reorganized their scrolls off to the side of the living room floor. What kind of room is this? "Oh, and you just admitted you're a pervert!"

"No, I didn't!" Suddenly her mind was filled with images of her riding that silver-haired bucking horse she'd dreamt of. In an instant, that horse became a man, courtesy of Kurama. A masked man at that. She blushed furiously and shook her head. "Knock that off you deviant fox!"

"Your nose is bleeding," Kurama replied gleefully.

"Why do I put up with you?" Naruto asked while wiping her nose. She couldn't help but continue to watch the dream scene play behind the fox. Kami, he loved to torture her!

"It is I that is forced to put up with you, insect. Don't forget it! You are graced with the profound magnanimity that is me, the greatest of the Bijuu..." Kurama's stylings on his importance to all things in this world and beyond went on and on. Naruto finally got fed up and tried with all her might to send an image of Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara having very loud sex and Kurama finally stopped. Naruto was kicked out of her mindscape so hard that she fell on the floor. Again. "Imagine anything Madara-related again and I will chew my way out of you!" The Bijuu was shivering in disgust.

"We're leaving," Shikamaru stated. "You can't even stand up or walk straight. Did our training with Choji really tire you out that badly? I know you've had a long day, but really this is just pathetic."

Naruto really wanted to hit Kurama even more now. Troublesome fox! It's not like she could admit to her aniki that her head was filled with perversions to the nth degree! "Maa… yeah. Guess I'm tired. Let's go."