DISCLAIMER: I own nothing from the Naruto universe but I do have an imagination of my own.

Thinking (or flashbacks, etc.)

Emphasis

Biju, etc. speaking

Biju, etc. thinking

Sailing through the trees and away from their little love nest in the middle of his creepiest safehouse and land, all Kakashi can feel at first is anxiety. There's anxiety about this mission, anxiety about the fact that he took his sensei's daughter's innocence away… anxiety over the fact that he can't do it again right now. What the hell is wrong with him? Oh, that's right. I have a mate to look after, and she's going into gods only know what kind of hell at the Wind border… His thoughts regarding his new responsibilities continue to spiral until he feels Naruto's concern through their new bond. Glancing back at her - she's just a step behind him - she smiles at him and he feels much of his stress melt away, at least for the moment.

Kami-sama, I love that woman!

Naruto nearly faceplants in a tree and Kakashi can only laugh at her. "Are you alright?"

"Don't laugh at me," she says in a scolding voice. "Ahhh, I'm fine; let's just keep going."

They'll have to stop for the night and Kakashi already knows an inn on the way with a keep that owes him a favor - several, actually - so the man will keep his mouth shut about seeing him bringing in an incredibly beautiful kunoichi into his room with him. Maybe I'll introduce them. Kakashi is proud of having Naru as his wife, and it bugs the hell out of him that he's supposed to keep it a secret. Maybe once she's a Chunin we can go public. As much as Kakashi wants that, he wants to ensure that she's safe more and wonders when the danger will end for her.

He's gotta train more, that's all there is to it. The Akatsuki and Danzo need to go down. And something needs to be done about the council… Kakashi can almost feel Naruto grinning at him, which makes him smile back at her from underneath his mask. "Naru-chan, are you keeping your senses alert?"

"Hai, taicho," Naruto says, giving him a little salute. She closes her eyes for just a little longer than a blink since she's hopping through trees to really focus on her surroundings. It's nice that she can feel Kakashi's intense but compacted and nearly concealed, dense white lightning-like chakra now, and that Kurama's given up on hiding her husband from her just for shits and giggles. "Just animals and civilians a little ways off. We're totally good. Don't worry: I won't let you down!"

"I know you won't."

Naruto beams at her husband from behind him then gets serious once again. She's nervous as hell about this mission, but Kakashi has assured her that he's had missions many times wherein he had to get more intelligence from an information broker. He's said he knows many that live or operate along the Wind border, and even across the border, although they're committed to not crossing during this mission. Even though Wind and Suna are allies right now, shinobi traveling from one country to another have to have passports, orders, and formal agreements from at least the ambassadors of each country to move into the other country. What a hassle. If we can achieve peace, maybe we'll find another way. Or maybe that's just wishful, lazy thinking.

Plus there's war ahead of us, she thinks sourly. Gods, they are getting so close to the beginning of the Chunin Exams beginning, they'll barely make it back in time for her to rest and prepare. She can only pray that her mindset after this mission isn't totally broken. Naru chews her bottom lip with worry and finds herself wishing that her earrings worked long-range so that she could talk to Shika.

"It's alright, sweetheart. We're going to stop for tonight in about an hour. Stay sharp and try to stay positive," Kakashi says, feeling her distress.

"Hai." I can't believe he called me "sweetheart!"

Departing early in the morning from the little inn Kakashi found, Naruto knows that later they'll check into another hotel so that she can get fixed up and put on one of those stupid dresses again. Even though Kakashi was... wonderful last night, Naru feels dread at not knowing what she's expected to do. Worse still, she can also definitely feel shinobi at the edge of her heightened senses, and they'll need to avoid them fairly soon. Kakashi seems calm about everything, but somehow she can feel his worry over her safety, which only makes her feel bad because of all that's been forced upon him. Me, especially.

"We're good for about the next half hour: it's almost weird how there are no shinobi really close by," she tells him.

"Maa, you'll see that each of us has our own preferences for routes to go through Fire Country, especially," Kakashi says as he stops on a tree branch. Turning to look at her, he explains more and points to the trees in front of him. "We're on a course you'll sometimes see ANBU use, but even then we try not to leave a trace."

"That's why there's not a path on the ground and the trees are branchier!"

He snorts at her word choice but agrees and can't help but pull his mask down to kiss her briefly before taking off again. I'm turning into a sap!

"When we were traveling with Tazuna-san, we were on a really well-worn path. Why was that?"

"It was the team's first mission outside of the village, Naru-chan," Kakashi says with a longer than average leap to the next tree. "We took the civilian route: the main avenue to Wave until we met up with the Demon Brothers." He glanced behind him and was relieved to see that his wife only winced for a second after he mentioned her first kill. "Civilian routes aren't always the smartest, but they are the most direct. Genin teams - well normal Genin teams - are usually on those routes, and they're easier to get to if they need reinforcements. ANBU also regularly runs more traveled routes to ensure that the civilians and Genin are safe."

Naru had no idea of that - she hadn't even learned that while living with the Naras. Shit, she had fought in a war as a Genin and there was so, so much she didn't know. Like how to complete a seduction mission...

Three hours after zigging this way and that through Northcentral Fire country, Naruto smiled and could've almost cried in relief - at first. "We've got shinobi dead ahead: Tenzo, Sai, and the Teme are about 15 minutes in front of us, also heading North." She stopped and closed her eyes and concentrated, asking for Kurama's help. He was being lazy, but she did feel her senses sharpen even more. "ROOT. Those blank bastards are in front of them."

Kakashi considered that then nodded. "There's no way they'll attack Tenzo. Or the last Uchiha, for that matter. And Sai - well..."

"Sai's one of them," she grinned a little, feeling a bit better. Closing her eyes again, Naru concentrated on identifying those she felt sneaking into her sensor range behind them. "Dad's guard. We've got backup!" Suddenly horrified, she winced and curled into herself before leaping to the next tree, Kakashi hot on her heels. "Genma: if that guy sees me in a dress he's going to make so much fun of me!" It wasn't long before she and Kakashi were running full speed through the increasingly barren land, closer and closer to their country's northern border.

Naruto looked at herself in the mirror and once again felt sick. This was the second time she'll be going to that bar - apparently to be hit on by numerous losers - since whoever her target was hadn't showed up the night before. ROOT, her team, and her Dad's guard were all in the general area but were just observing, which made her anxiety only heighten. Her shadow clones had helped with her makeup and straightened her crazy hair as much as possible, and she supposed it looked better than last night. "Maybe the guy showed up before, saw me, and didn't like my hair? Or just how I looked in general?"

"That's dumb, Boss! You looked good!" the idiot clone said while giving her two thumbs up. The bright smile was so big and sparkly that Naru had to look away. She hoped that SHE never smiled that way: the clone was smiling so hard that its eyes were shut. It bounced on its toes and shook the clone next to it. "She looks even better tonight, huh?"

"Yeah! You go, Boss!"

"Oh, gods." They were really too much. The original Naru stood up and cursed Kakashi - just a little - because her hips were aching and now she had to spend the night in heels, too. When they'd been on the way here, Kakashi had treated her like she was really precious to him, and she truly felt that he'd made love to her in that little inn. It was really something else, she thought dreamily. Last night, though, he'd been almost desperate in the way he touched her and had just - well - straight out fucked her hard. She snorted, considering that she really liked that, too. "I am such a damn perv." Thankfully all the marks he'd given her - all over her - had faded away.

"Use that to your advantage!" Clone 1 said.

"Don't say that, you idiot! She's sensitive!"

"You're both idiots," Naru said with an appreciative pat on their shoulders as she initially thought to dispel them. The last thing she needed was her clones to riot against her. "Oh wait! We need to do the thing with my hair so that no one can see that giant thing on my back!"

"He's not gonna like it," Clone 2 reminded her in a sing-song voice.

"Yeah, well he's the one that decided to put a giant Hatake advertisement on my back. He'll just have to deal with it!"

Clone 1 put a copy of the seal that Naru had used the night before which would basically paste a layer of her hair against her neck and shoulders, stopping at her dress. Naruto had so much damn hair that she figured it would work. I mean, there are multiple senbon hiding as hair pins in there, so it shouldn't make a difference.

"He's gonna punish you again," the clone reminded her.

Naru couldn't help it: she gave the clone a thumbs up and a sassy wink before all three began laughing. Naruto dispelled them and walked out of the bathroom to inevitably face her doom once again. Stop being dramatic, Naruto! She summoned a smallish toad and handed it their stuff that was all sealed away. She'd summon him back once this mission was either over, or later tonight if her target didn't show up again.

Kakashi was out of his Jonin vest and had on a pair of slacks or something like that that looked less like shinobi clothing. (She was no fashion expert!) The masked shirt was a dead giveaway to his identity, though. And the hair. And the eyepatch! "You look nice," he said tersely after looking his little wife up and down, circling around her.

Naruto looked away from the aggravated man and could only think, 'Gee thanks,' as she grasped her hands nervously. She knew that Kakashi was upset about this mission just as much as she was, plus he seemed like he might be jealous of her being dressed up for someone else. It's not like I want to be! If she was going to go through all of this to look special, she only wanted to do it for him. Just like the night before, he kissed her forehead, tossed a small backpack over his shoulder, made a clone, and walked out the door. Naru left seven minutes later, Kakashi's clone following close behind her, out of sight.

Naru had already turned down drinks from three losers when she felt him enter the bar. Whether or not this was her target - because who the fuck knew what she was supposed to even do here - a guy with a highly-repressed earth-natured chakra signature waltzed rather elegantly into the bar, head held high as he looked around. He spotted her pretty quickly and Naru averted her eyes and took a deep drink of her sake. Kurama was on high alert and ready to pounce on someone, and it took the blonde a moment to re-steady her breathing and heartbeat.

She knew that the man was probably henged and that the guy's chakra signature was familiar from somewhere... No, no it wasn't. Stumped, Naruto's thoughts were interrupted by the bartender.

The aproned man brought her another drink, saying it was from the gentleman sitting at the nearest corner table, and Naruto nearly rolled her eyes but sent a nod his way in acknowledgment. Genma was sitting there, big and bold as day, giving her a wink as he rolled his senbon in his mouth. She didn't know who he was sitting with - whether the woman was a waitress or just another girl he wanted to flirt with - but couldn't he have at least henged himself?

She could almost feel Kakashi's irritation from the far corner's shadows.

Maybe Genma being who he was just part of his plan. There were a few other shinobi here, after all.

"Is anyone sitting here? I have a proposition for you..."

Well, that's bold, Naru thought as she shook her hair off her shoulder to be able to better see the jerk as the man sat down.

Kakashi watched from the shadows as his little wife eventually fully exposed her perfect shoulder to the fucker that decided to sit down beside her. He could almost see his clan's crest, but her hair was still in the way, just a little. Genma, (who he deeply felt was being an ass,) was probably trying to calm Naru down by annoying her with a drink sent her way. Most of the other guys who had sent his mate drinks - and sometimes notes suggesting something he didn't want to think about - otherwise had left her alone. Naruto, he felt, was simply so damn gorgeous that it intimidated men. With the way she looked tonight, he could admit that HE would be too intimidated to do anything other than maybe sit down next to her if he didn't know her. If she wasn't mine.

He was too far away to hear the conversations she was having, but he could definitely read lips. "...I have a proposition for you," the arrogant smooth-talker said. Kakashi wanted to Chidori him already.

Knowing that his Sharingan would shine in the dark, he couldn't determine whether the guy was henged or not, but he radiated enough chakra for him to know that the man was a shinobi, and probably a powerful one at that. The brown-haired guy ignored his wife's little glare as he ordered an expensive wine bottle that the barkeep had to open a locked door below the bar to retrieve. The almost too-plain looking potential target poured himself and Naruto a glass, and Kakashi could only be glad that he'd seen the wine's seal be opened. Her drink's not poisoned.

He felt his gut twist as their conversation quietly began.

"To think that it would be you, Namikaze-hime." Kakashi felt his eyebrows lift just as much as his wife's did as the man seemed to chuckle while he took a sip of his wine.

"I'm not sure I know who or what you mean," Naruto said as she looked at the asshole with calm big blue eyes. He wasn't sure whether or not she meant to bat her long lashes at the man twice, but the look was adorably innocent.

Fuck, this is hard, Kakashi groaned to himself.

The man laughed again and asked the blonde to try her drink. She did and Kakashi could see that she was surprised by its quality or taste. She smiled at the probable target and thanked him. He felt his hands twitch as she quickly finished off her glass. The unknown shinobi refilled her glass and Naruto seemed to relax. They must have sat together for five more minutes in silence, and it pissed Kakashi off to no end, seeing the guy gaze up and down his woman several times. The target - he was almost sure of it - thought he was being subtle about it, but let's face it, Hatake: she's more than worth checking out.

The odd thing was that the man looked puzzled for some reason.

"Let us be frank, hime-sama," the man finally began again, his nose slightly in the air. "I am in need of your services. I have been assured by my backer that you will be able to perform this task splendidly." Kakashi wanted to throttle him. "As you must," the man continued. Several more minutes ticked by, along with another glass of wine before Naruto became obviously annoyed.

"Look asshole, I don't know what you want or who you think I am, or even what you think I must do. So if you're not going to tell me why don't you just piss the fuck off?!" Kakashi could only be glad that she angrily whispered what she'd just said; unfortunately, she was loud enough for Genma to apparently hear. His posture had changed, then the senbon-sucker snorted loudly.

The man looked highly uncomfortable, and Naruto looked like she was ready to blow a gasket before she settled back down again. Kakashi wasn't pleased that she'd downed two more glasses of wine but hoped that like the night before, the alcohol wouldn't really affect her. Finally, the target handed her a very small scroll.

Naruto's eyes went wide as she read part of the "mission" he handed to her, then felt nothing but rage. Fast as lightning and using Kurama's chakra, she dragged the man across the bar and straight through the wall, senbon pointed at his jugular. Dust was flying everywhere and began swirling around her, ripping into her skin and clothes.

"If you think I'll ever betray my brother, you were dead wrong asshole! You've got to be the worst father that ever lived!"

He grabbed her around her neck, both horrified and pleased by the girl's strength. "Only a jinchuuriki can kill another jinchuuriki! Do not think I haven't tried!"

"Gaara deserves so much better than you!" she cried. His attacks were cutting into her skin and the best she could do was put up a sort of wind barrier around her, but it wasn't working well.

Kakashi was further horrified when an immense amount of dirt dropped from the sky over where he'd followed her outside. She was screaming! He didn't think Naru could have survived it until the sand - it was sand - cleared a little and a red-haired man with a gourd on his back was standing next to his wife, with his hand on her shoulder. He fired up a Chidori, but couldn't get through the sand then the barrier that Naruto had thrown up with fucking chains that had sprung out of her back and stomach! Naru slumped to the ground, panting, and the redhead's eyes turned furious. He said something to Naru then rose up on a cloud of sand before beginning to battle the fucking Kazekage, pushing the Sand's leader back over the border.

The Kazekage had been her fucking target!

The chains were still laying all around her and Naru looked completely bewildered. She was gasping and crying while bleeding all over by the time Kakashi reached her, and he could feel ROOT agents approaching. "Remember the plan, Naru-chan! C'mon: you can do it," he urged as he grabbed his Jonin vest out of his backpack and threw it over her torn, barely-there anymore dress.

She nodded her head as she bit her thumb. "Kuchiyose no jutsu," she whispered. Gamabunta poofed into existence underneath them, grabbed the couple, and threw them into his mouth before disappearing again.