DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything from the Naruto universe.

Thinking (+ flashbacks, "Naruto speaking to Kurama in her mindscape," etc.)

Emphasis

Bijuu, etc. speaking

Bijuu, etc. thinking

"What's wrong?" Pakkun asked once Naruto came out of the shower. Bisuke jumped over the shower ledge and began licking the floor. Naruto offered to get them clean water, but Pakkun reminded her that Bisuke was still young and thus silly. "I asked you a question," he reminded her, sitting down to get snout rubs and a little light cleaning.

"Nothing," Naruto said, wrapping a towel around her very damp hair before getting a thin cloth to clean Pakkun's cutie-patootie wrinkles. "My boss is a jerk, and even though it's nice having him gone, everyone's running around not knowing what to prioritize. Unfortunately, Captain Creep was extremely good with seals. And with running the joint, it seems."

"So is Kakashi," Pakkun said before reconsidering it. "He lacks creativity with seals, but he's memorized any that he's been allowed to - plus some that he recorded enemies using."

"The Sharingan's pretty damn useful; that's for sure." Kurama began snarling at her, his attention diverted from his sibling's retelling of a battle he was in decades before.

"I'm sure the fox has seen his share of seals," the pug commented as he curled up on her lap.

"Oh my gosh. You are so smart, Pakkun!"

"I know that. You wanna feel my paw?" Naruto had pleased him by proving that she had common sense for once, so why not?

Naru began absently rubbing it as she went into her expanded mindscape.

"Whadya say, Kurama? Can you teach me seals? And why haven't you before?" Kurama turned away from her. "What's wrong?"

"That's my question," Goku sniffed before poking his oldest brother. "Why haven't you taught her sealing, Kurama?"

Kurama glared at his big-mouthed brothers. "Tsk. Do you really want a human with Uzumaki blood knowing more sealing? After the things I have seen?"

"Shame on you, Kurama," Shukaku said angrily. "You've upset mother!"

Naruto was… She didn't know how she felt! No; she was angry - then even angrier because tears came to her eyes. "I - I'd give my LIFE for you - ALL of you, ya know?! And you… You don't even TRUST me? After everything?!"

She pulled Pakkun to her chest and refused to go back there for a while. –Which was difficult because all of those bakas were in her coils and always there in her mind! "I'm going back to work."

She left a few clones to make a late dinner and to entertain the ninken.

Kakashi left the Hokage's office again in the evening, refusing to speak with Minato-sensei after he told him that he would not be allowed to go on the mission he'd just requested. Minato was even "considering whether or not to send ANYONE out to the original Kannabi Bridge site.

…and now he's beyond pissed. He's pissed that his sensei implied that Madara could really be Obito, pissed at Obito for… for possibly surviving and not coming back to them! He's pissed at himself for allowing such a potentiality to even be feasible: he should have gone back after his sensei flashed him and Rin all the way back to Konoha, as soon as he was able to walk! Or after the war.

He's pissed at himself for contemplating his sensei's insane ideas at all. And at Minato-sensei's inaction tonight…

And if that was Obito that had his hands around Naru's neck - WHOEVER that fucker was that had his idiotic orange mask against his mate's face and body on top of hers… Whoever the man was that the Hokage attempted to protect from Naru-chan's maneating fox even though she belongs to Kakashi: it all just pisses him off more.

He thinks about his little wife, bleeding but absolutely ferocious as she not only defended against but went after two S-class shinobis; he thinks of how she's in yet another bingo book with an even bigger bounty - EVERYTHING about her and he just wants to keep her hidden in his den, wrapped in his arms.

No, there's another thing roaring in his head and through his veins: dark and powerfully strong. There's only one thing he wants to do right at this second, and he's NOT going to do that because he's her Alpha, and they can't afford…

His footsteps changed directions again.

He's more than pissed at Naruto-chan's former slimy supervisor as well. Considering it more, even more KI rolled off of him as he roof-hopped to the Barrier Division. He knew that at this point he was basically poisoning the air, but couldn't find it within himself to care. He waited outside the building she was in, even flared his chakra, but his mate didn't come to him.

That was a mistake on her part.

In the meantime, Naruto was waiting for Iwashi to finish his explanation of a new seal along with the connected story of how it came to be - which led to him complaining about his relationship with a few of his age-mates, (and his parents for some reason,) and… What is Kakashi doing here? Naruto smiled encouragingly at Iwashi and gave a meaningful glance at the seal again so that he might get back on track.

Which was when Kakashi stormed in, looking furious and literally sniffing and half-snarling at everyone in the building. To Naruto, (and probably anyone else,) it was clear that her comrades were afraid of him - or at least of the way he was acting. "Ano," she began warily, "you alright there, Kakashi?"

"Great," he snarled sarcastically, running his hand through his hair. "You done?"

"Definitely," Iwashi interrupted (his voice in a higher-than-normal pitch.) "Go on home now, Naruto. Good work tod-." He stopped mid-sentence because Kakashi had picked Naruto up over his shoulder and sunshinned out.

"That was… intense," Kotetsu mused after a beat as he picked the cards he and the other guys had dropped when Hatake came thundering in. "Did I miss something?"

Naruto wasn't sure of what to do. The ninken had scattered so quickly that when she and Kakashi entered, she almost wanted to bolt. Usually, they were all over Kakashi when he came in, especially, or at least wagging their kawaii doggy tails at them affectionately. Now they were hiding, and Kakashi's nose seemed to be nearly attached to her neck. She'd tried moving or asking him what was going on a couple of times, but he only growled at her.

"Do you want me to sit in your lap?"

"Yes," Kakashi said, enjoying it when she did that. "No talking."

Naruto nodded and climbed astride his lap and rested against him, wrapping her arms around his neck and running her fingers in the back of his hair: it was getting long. Kakashi let out a sad sound - something between a whine and a groan - and eventually fell asleep with his head in the crook of her neck after the ninken came back and surrounded them.

"Don't move, hime," Pakkun advised. He didn't know what was going on with his summoner, but Kakashi was not in a mood to be challenged.

Naruto sighed, wondering for the millionth time how this was her life - but was also surprisingly happy and content again. She snuggled against her weird, snoozing husband and soon fell asleep, too. When Kakashi began moving around, she woke up again.

"Hmm? Oh! I bet your legs are falling asleep." Naruto knew that she was kinda heavy despite her… stature. Yes: "stature," that was a good word. Kakashi pulled her ass so that her core was against him and she realized that wasn't the issue. "Oh! Is that how it is now?" she whispered into his ear flirtatiously.

Kakashi didn't want to talk. He didn't want to play around. "Take off your clothes," he ordered. Naruto pulled back and blinked at him a few times. "Did you hear me?"

"Yeah," she drawled before standing. "Are you okay, though, Kakashi?" she asked quietly as she took a few more steps back. "You wanna talk? You're being kinda different, ya know." She had seen him like this before, but he was being more severe than he'd been in the past. Maybe.

Kakashi stood up, having had enough backtalk. "I'm taking you upstairs, and I'm going to knock you up."

Naruto gaped - probably several times until Kakashi dashed forward. She hauled ass out of that house so fast, that she literally left a golden comet-like flash trailing behind her.

"Oh-ho-ho, Naruto," Kakashi chuckled to himself as he shut the door behind him and his ninken. "The hunt only makes me more determined."

"KAKASHI'S BEING CRAZY!"

Yoshino's eyebrows rose behind her bangs. "Is he now? What did he do?" Naruto turned beet red and looked around as if she might hide in a cabinet like she used to do when she was little, but straightened up when the Nara Matriarch twirled the frying pan she had been holding.

"He was being we-ird, then he told me he was going to 'knock me up,'" she said using finger quotes before crossing her arms under her chest and pouting - looking everywhere but at her. Yoshino shook her head.

"Children," she sighed to herself. "Kakashi-kun knows that this isn't the right time for such things!"

"Exactly," Naru agreed. "And something's bothering him: something serious."

Something was bothering Yoshino, too, the more she thought of Kakashi acting irrationally in Naruto's eyes (since Naru had an entirely overly broad view of what "normal" or "rational" was.) There was also that thing she'd read about the Inuzukas... –And had caught a few of them doing, which gave her a little thrill. She cleared her throat and turned away from her daughter.

Yoshino knew that she had always been a sucker for a dark-haired man. A dark-haired man with a wildness that bordered on or equaled animalistic? Well – A girl could not-so-secretly dream, couldn't she?

When Sandaime-sama had arranged Naruto's marriage, Yoshino couldn't find much information on the Hatake Clan but had been advised to look into the Inuzukas, who were most similar to them. She was glad to! And there was the fact that Kakashi had Inuzuka blood running through his veins, too.

Naruto began to fidget and pace as she looked in one direction, an action Yoshino had long ago learned that meant she was sensing incoming trouble. "I'll smack him in the head if he shows up. Don't worry about it." Naru nodded, and seconds later, there was a polite knock on the door.

"May I speak to my little wife please?" Kakashi asked - his one eye looking a little silvery and crazed, Yoshino thought and blushed at how attractive it was. "I know she's here."

"She is," Yoshino answered, looking the younger man up and down, drinking in his appearance - even though he was so unfortunately pale... A pervy grin crept up her face: Lucky Naru-chan.

Shikaku sunshinned in behind the Elite Jonin and sighed, immediately resigned at seeing that look in his wife's eyes - but he was tired. It had been a long, long day, and now it looked like Yoshino was horny.

"I need Naru-chan," Kakashi growled.

"Oh, my," Yoshino unintentionally murmured, fanning herself.

"Troublesome. Just… go get Naruto, Yoshi."

"Shikaku! I didn't see you there," she said, grinning as the man slumped. It was funny! "Naruto's said that Kakashi-kun, here, wants to - and I quote - 'knock her up!'"

"What?" Shikaku drawled in disbelief before grabbing his son-in-law's arm and hauling his dumb ass into the living room. "You know better than doing something like that right now. We're probably going to war soon."

"It's true, though," Kakashi said, sniffing the air. "It's time."

"It is not, you moron," Shikaku said and slumped into a seat by his large shogi board. "You're being irrational. What's going on?" He almost laughed when he saw Kakashi's lips form into an eventual pout behind that mask of his. The brat crossed his arms over his chest and began sniffing around again, headed toward the kitchen. "Sit, or I swear I'll send you back to the Yamanakas," he ordered then turned to his wife, who was being a voyeur, it seemed, on top of everything else. "Yoshino," he said in a dark, rumbling voice, "I'll deal with you later, woman." Yoshino nearly bounced away, looking thrilled.

Shikaku rolled his eyes and activated a seal that restricted anyone from hearing them at the table. "Troublesome. You, young man, have just made my day longer. Make a move," he ordered his subordinate, "that's an order."

As they played a silent game of shogi, Shikaku watched Kakashi's shoulders eventually relax and then tense as he became more and more serious in his strategies. He wondered what real-world battle scenarios were playing in that genius but sometimes savage mind of his. "You have a lot on your mind."

"I do," Kakashi agreed before making what Shikaku considered a rash move on the board.

"Care to share?"

Kakashi looked up at him, considering it before moving another piece into place. "What if one of your men was doubting his Kage?"

"I'd say he's human," Shikaku said easily, beginning to take Kakashi's silver general before realizing the younger man had set up an interesting trap that he hadn't seen in DECADES. "Nice," he complimented absently, wondering if he'd win this game after all. "Both the Hokage and the Elite Jonin doubting him are human. …Speak freely, son."

So Kakashi did. He also eventually got his little wife out of the cabinet under the sink in which she'd been hiding from him. "You are such a child," he scolded as they walked home together.

"I'm a 33-year-old woman," Naruto informed him for the first time. Fortunately, Kakashi seemed to only roll his eyes at her honest declaration. "And I made you laugh, didn't I?"

"That you did, Naru-chan." He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and took her home.

In the meantime, Shikaku pulled off his shirt as he nearly stomped into the bedroom. "You're a bad girl, Yoshino-chan."

"Me?" Yoshino teased.

"I'm going to punish you, you pervert."

Yoshino's face lit up like the sun. "You think you can?" she asked challengingly. Shikaku slammed the door behind him, exciting her even more.

"I'll show you what I can do and make sure you never forget it."

"Yes!"

Unlike the Naras, the Hatakes only cuddled that night. At least at first. Wrapped in her arms, Kakashi let go of his dark thoughts. One day at a time, he told himself.

He still wanted to knock his little wife up - fill her with puppies - but now "the wolf" in the back of his mind was under better restraint. He had other things to do - to ensure - so that his pack was protected and secure.

Naruto didn't get to sleep until the early morning, having recognized that her husband was not only possessive and obsessive but at least a little newly "puppy" insane - not to mention that Kurama had been holding out on her all this time and didn't trust her.

She eventually woke up alone and got up, wondering what time it was since she was ravenous. Oh right: I forgot to eat last night. Making her way downstairs, she found her husband drinking at the kitchen table, which was a first - at least him drinking alone like that. "Hey." Kakashi waved at her and clumsily put on his mask.

"I'm not going to ask whether or not you're okay, because it's obvious you're not," she said as she moved to warm up some of last night's leftovers. "I'll make you something to eat, and ya know: just know that if you want to talk, I'm here to listen." When he did talk, she wished he hadn't.

"I was never a breast man," Kakashi said importantly, raising his glass and considering it more. "Small, large - somewhere in between: they were all fine."

Naruto moved to the refrigerator where she had some ghost peppers for just this sort of thing. Unfortunately, as she madly diced them - and Kakashi continued lecturing on his preferences (and how he only wished that she was taller) - he smelled the danger and caught her hand.

"Ah ah ah! What do you think you're doing, Naru-chan?"

"Trying to decide if I should shove these down your throat or straight up your ass."

Kakashi threw his head back and laughed before his eyes narrowed, glaring at nothing. "Speaking of asses, your father… Maa, maa! You've got a nice ass." Naruto grumbled and Kakashi rested his weight and head against her as he rubbed his hand up and down that nice ass. "When you compare it to anything else on you - maa, you've got big blue eyes and huge, stellar tits. YOW! Don't hit me!" She'd slapped him with a spatula! "That was a compliment!" He spun her around and grinned at seeing her furious little blushing face. He tried to kiss her but was wearing a mask.

Why was he wearing a mask?

"You're drunk," Naru said, stating the obvious. It was one thing when he said things like that in the "throws of passion" or whatever but really different when he was all boozy, alone in the kitchen's bright lights, talking about her as if she was an object. And yeah, she'd heard the comment about her father being an ass, so she figured there was a story there, but knew to wait for Kakashi to reveal anything he really wanted (or perhaps didn't want) to say. Plus, her father was kind of an ass.

"I'm… a little, maybe. But only a little. C'mon baby. Have a drink with me!"

"It's 0400," Naru said, walking him back to the table. "I can't allow myself to drink around you while you're baby-crazy!" Kakashi slumped and went back to the table where he began softly hitting his head on it. Naru quickly grabbed some towels and put them between him and his target, softly laughing despite herself when she saw him snuggle into them. "And I have work in a few hours, my love."

"I don't want you out of my sight or to leave the den," he admitted when she returned to the table with some food. He pulled down his mask and Naru melted at seeing him actually enjoying her food slowly, even though she was watching him. She brought him some water before digging into her own food. "You eat a lot!"

Naru raised a golden eyebrow at him but continued to eat - almost to spite him although she really was hungry. "I'm going back to bed." He pulled her into his lap, though, shuddering against her. She stroked his hair and wrapped herself around him. "I love you, even though what you've been saying isn't very wise!" She thought he was asleep again when she, for some unknown reason, said something out loud that she'd felt for a long time. "I've been a failure lately for wanting to stop." Or wanting to move on.

"To stop loving me?" he asked groggily - or maybe he was upset?

"You are so silly," she said, cradling his face. "I couldn't stop loving you, no matter what. Nothing and no one in the world could stop my love for you, Kakashi." She looked into his sad eyes and put her forehead against his. "Sometimes I'm tired of trying to get stronger - which is super dumb, considering our careers - but then I look at you, and that tiredness is gone. I want to protect you and everyone else I care about," she said, thinking about that ungrateful bastard, Kurama. "But especially you. In such a short time, you have become my center… My reason for moving forward."

Kakashi looked up at his mate, forcing the effects of the alcohol down. "I'd burn down this world for you, Naruto. I'd destroy anything - and ANY one for you," he said in a snarl as he pulled her hair back. He crashed his lips into hers, kissing her deeply, and carried her back up to their bedroom.

Gaara might be a jinchuuriki, but that didn't mean he had unlimited stamina. So when Nara Shikamaru came to him, all he felt was irritation. He might have been able to get away with being rude as the Kazekage - Kami knew his father did - but he was a simple shinobi of Suna now. – So he had to be polite to the new ambassador from Konoha. "What?"

Shikamaru pulled a face. He'd been waiting to speak with Gaara and his brother alone, but it looked like his timing was bad, despite what Temari told him. Actually, he should've realized that Temari was potentially setting him up! "Troublesome," he sighed.

"Nara, let's not mix words," Gaara said as he poured himself a glass of water and offered Shikamaru some as well. He was pleased that his family still lived in his ancestral home - not that they would've given it up - even though it was (formerly) attached to the Kazekage Tower. Naruto had popped up in his mindscape one day, chatting her head off and letting him know that she would put silencing seals throughout his home the next time she was in Suna, "so when you're getting busy with Fu, ya don't have to worry about your boss hearing you going at it, ya know?" - Kami: she was so shameless. He felt his lips twitch. By the Sage, he was tired. "What are your plans for my sister? That is why you're here, right?"

"It is one reason," Shikamaru admitted, swallowing thickly before thanking him for the water. "I want to marry Temari-hime. I've loved her since I was 16 - the first time - so, for an entire lifetime." He was actually surprised that GAARA looked surprised.

Shikamaru realized that Naruto was right (although she was a little too obsessed with them for a while:) Gaara's eyebrows were a little distracting, but they certainly made it easier to read the formerly stoic Kazekage. And those red brows made his future brother-in-law a really good-looking man! How odd.

"She will make it difficult for you."

Shikamaru smiled: at least Gaara's answer wasn't an immediate "no," and nodded. "She already has." Gaara snorted and sat down in his chair. He looked exhausted. "How are you holding up?"

Gaara swept his hand out in a gesture to have the Konoha nin sit down with him although he only wanted to collapse in bed. "It is tiring… With Shukaku's help, I am able to keep the sands around Suna moving most of the day." And night. Pakura-sama had agreed to have him use his sensory abilities, his third eye technique, for areas that were on the far side of the village, and he had even begun to use a few kage bunshin to aid him in making more. He didn't know how Naruto's mind dealt with so many of those odd memories they produced. Suna went on orange alert when he had to sleep, so it was tiring for everyone. "I look forward to the Akatsuki being destroyed."

Shikamaru nodded, agreeing. "You took out Sasori?"

Gaara nodded at him hesitantly but was too tired to play politics. And wasn't this commonly known? "He was a traitor to my village and country; a terrorist." I enjoyed crushing him to dust: it was almost like old times. Yeah, that probably wouldn't be a good thing to say out loud.

"The only country that hasn't seen at least one attack or 'little visit' from the Akatsuki is Lightning, as far as we know."

Gaara nodded; Pakura-sama had passed on Jiraiya's information to him. "I'm sure that is because they have two strong jinchuuriki."

"Perhaps," Shikamaru said. Kumo wasn't the only village with two, but it was the only village that reportedly had two completely LOYAL jinchuurikis - aside from Suna now that Fu was here. "It is troubling that they refused to have their Genin compete in the Chunin Exams."

Gaara's eyes narrowed. "Do you have intelligence from Kumo?"

"Very little. Since the Hyuuga incident, they've been very quiet."

"A-sama and the word 'quiet' are inharmonious, wouldn't you say?" Shikamaru nodded, but Gaara's eyelids were beginning to drop. "We'll discuss this more. Good luck with Kankuro," he said darkly as he walked the ambassador to his door and shut it in his face. He dropped to the nearby couch and slept until it was time for his next shift.

"Thanks for coming, Naruto," Minato said happily from his desk. Naruto nodded but hid a yawn. "I've got a mission for you!"

"Really?" Naruto asked, brightening up. "Something different?"

"I'd say! I'll be soon flashing you and Kakashi to Lightning Country."

Naruto gasped, almost unable to believe it. She was going to see Bee again. "Awesome! Just - just awesome!"

"Hai, hai," he said as he handed her a scroll. "A's - Raikage-sama has, rather - been oddly quiet since the Hyuuga incident, so I want you to be on your toes, alright? And be careful how you act around Lord Kirabe. Kakashi's… possessive."

Naruto nodded absently but was thinking about what her father had said before mentioning the obvious thing about Kakashi. "Was - um - was there a Hyuuga incident?" Naruto asked, not remembering anything about it, but Hizashi was alive this time, wasn't he? "And how did you know?"

"Jiraiya and the Hyuuga twins," he said simply. "Why don't you sit down, Naruto, and I'll tell you a story. It's about a beautiful little princess who saved another from a terrible fate, thus saving her family."

"Sounds lame," Naruto replied, crossing her arms under her chest. She didn't care that her father closed his eyes and raised his eyebrows, and looked thoroughly exasperated: it did sound lame. "Say. You're not like, sending me off to Turtle Island to lock me up or anything, are you?"