A.N. I do not own Inuyasha or Naruto.

Tendrils of worry began to slip into Kagome's thoughts as she glanced at the full moon. "They should have been back yesterday morning. My mission estimates were for no longer than three weeks." She did not need to turn to know Kakashi stood behind her on the roof.

"You believe he lost control?" Kakashi asked, his tone light and not belying the worry he felt since she had told him the truth about his student.

"I hope not." Kagome smiled wanly. "Sakura has a failsafe though." She truly hoped that she did not have to use it though, the beads would only have about five uses before she needed to bless them again.

"Hm." Kakashi came to stand beside her, one visible eye sliding to peer at her profile. "I believe we have a date tonight."

Almost laughing at his abrupt subject change, Kagome nodded. "I believe you're right." She reached out and took his hand, lacing their fingers. "Moonlight walk and a light dinner at my place?"

Amused, Kakashi squeezed her fingers lightly. "Do you plan on getting me past your guard, or letting Genma catch me slipping in with you?"

"Well, you are supposed to be my boyfriend, so let's just see where things take us." Kagome smiled and the two disappeared.

x~x~x

"Do you want a scandal?" Shizune demanded of her Hokage the next day, barging into the office without stopping for Hinata.

"I'm sorry, Hokage-sama-" the Hyuuga heiress began, looking embarrassed at failing to stop the woman who had occupied her position previously.

Holding up a hand, Kagome smiled at Hinata. "It's fine. Shizune never requires an appointment. You may leave us."

Hesitating a beat, Hinata withdrew and shut the door behind her.

"Well?" Shizune asked, her patience thin. "Why did I overhear two jonin gossipping about Hatake Kakashi slipping out of your bedroom window at three this morning? If you want your dalliances, that's fine, but you can't appear as if you don't have the ability to cover up-"

"I don't want to cover it up, Shizune." Kagome smiled a little bit. "I'm no stranger to scandal." She mentally chuckled as she recalled parading around feudal Japan in her school uniform before focusing on her longtime friend anew. "I want people to know that I'm involved with him. Involvement means ties, ties mean support for my office. Sure, some might think I should be more discreet as I did not try and hide it, but I'm an adult woman and if I wanted to spend the night with a new partner every night, it really isn't anyone's business."

"So, you wanted this?" Shizune asked, deflating a bit.

"Yes-I'm glad it was you to confront me about being indiscrete. It gives it a little more realism to have an old friend remind me that I need to be careful." Kagome smiled at the outrage in her eyes and remembered a time when she had been just as hot blooded.

"You could have just told me that was your plan." Shizune sat across from her, a slight frown tugging at her lips. "And why get involved with someone you can't stay with?"

"Believe it or not, I do have needs. And I've discussed this all with Kakashi. I'm not so cold that I would begin a temporary relationship without informing the other party of its temporary nature." Kagome opened her drawer and tossed the other woman a chocolate before popping one into her mouth.

Accepting the sweet, Shizune eyed her. "Have you heard anything from Nara's team?"

"Nothing yet," Kagome admitted, her mood darkening. "If I hear nothing by tomorrow, I'll be sending another team after them."

"Do you think it was wise to send Naruto without someone who knows about him?" Shizune questioned softly, a point she had brought up with her Hokage weeks before.

"I made Sakura aware of must be done." Kagome smiled when Kirara came through the window and stroked her ears gently when she leapt onto her shoulder. "I gave her the subjugation jutsu."

Shizune nodded after a moment. "Well, I suppose I'll let you get back to work." With that, she stood, her posture still not fully relaxed.

"So you know, I meant what I said, Shizune. You and I don't need appointments with each other. You are my friend." Kagome smiled at her gently before picking up the hated stamp.

Soft yet urgent knocking began at the door before Hinata cracked it just enough to slip her face inside. "Hokage-sama? There's been some sort of disturbance at the gate. Nara Shikamaru's team is back, but they appear to have taken a prisoner from Sound."

Smile slipping from her lips, Kagome stood with a certain resolution. "Is it the Uchiha?"

Shaking her head, Hinata stepped fully in. "It is Yakushi Kabuto. He is alive, but very injured."

The Hokage frowned. "Everyone else? What is causing the disturbance? I understand that he is hated for good reason, but prisoners can be dealt with in a discretionary manner."

"Well, it isn't him per say. Naruto-kun was met by Kakashi and was telling him about Kabuto when he suddenly went after Kakashi-san." Hinata looked a little worried.

Kagome disappeared without another word.

x~x~x

"Stop it, Naruto-kun!" Sakura shouted, watching her teammate attack their former sensei with dread in her belly. She fished in her pocket, feeling the rosary beads and swallowing thickly. She jumped when a hand wrapped around her wrist and she met her Hokage's eyes. "I-I never had to use them. Why-?"

"You will brief me fully later," Kagome told her before launching herself between her two shinobi. "Cease!" she ordered firmly, stopping Kakashi in his tracks before he came to her side.

Naruto's red eyes were locked on his prey and he was not coming to a stop. "You-!"

A pink barrier erected before Kagome and Kakashi and when the youkai-nin crashed against against it, he went flying back. The barrier dissolved and Kagome caught Naruto by the back of his shirt and swung him around in the air, letting him fly.

Kirara, fully transformed, swooped in and caught the boy's jacket in her jaws and the two flew towards the Forest of Death.

Turning her attention to Kakashi a moment, Kagome looked deeply irritable. "Did I not warn you about kitsune senses? Did I not tell you that I should speak to him before you two interacted?"

"Yakushi Kabuto is dangerous. I needed to know that he was in fact detained," Kakashi justified, not even slightly remorseful.

"And Ibiki-san already has him, because while you two were busy with your scuffle, he was dealt with. Stay away from him a few days." With that, she turned on her heel to go after the blonde.

Kakashi caught her wrist. "Be careful." With that, he released her.

Turning to face him again, Kagome looked livid. "I would not have to be dealing with this right now if you had been!" Saying no more, she disappeared.

x~x~x

Naruto groaned as he woke up, his head feeling like it had been split in two. His blue eyes cast about, finding Kirara in her larger form staring at him intently just ten feet away, her body poised to pounce. "Hey, why are you looking at me like that?"

"Because she knows you are inclined to make a spectacle of yourself," Kagome declared, walking around the tree he was leaning on. She watched memory flicker through his expression and delivered a swift kick to his chest when he tried to surge to his feet. "None of that. I talk, you listen."

"You and Kakashi-sensei-and you said-!" Naruto was sputtering, his eyes narrowed at the 'injustice' of it all.

"Kakashi and I have agreed to be in a relationship. It is mutual and informed and it has absolutely nothing to do with you. You are my student, my successor if you can keep a cool head on your shoulders, not my lover." Kagome's tone was resolute and she let him get to his feet this time, meeting his gaze evenly and without a shred of fear.

"But I love you! Kakashi-sensei doesn't! Why can't you see that I'm the one that can stand by you for-" Naruto was smarter this time and caught her wrist before she could strike him.

The Hokage would have smiled if this was normal training, but she simply wrenched free. "You say love, but you mean it in the most childish sense, Naruto-kun. You love the idea of me, but you do not understand yet what you really would be sacrificing to be with me."

"We would be better together-" Naruto pressed, hoping to convince her.

"No, we would not. You have a bright future, if only you learn to think. You want to be Hokage, but that will never happen if we're together. The villagers will not see your strength, only that you were the Hokage's playtoy. Because that's what you'd be seen as, a young man that an older woman took advantage of. And even if you were willing to give up being Hokage, I leave in ten years, regardless of connections I build here. You have a life to live out here. One day you will need to move on, but you won't be ready for that in ten years, probably not in twenty!" Kagome's normal calm had broken, her anger palpable.

"Shouldn't that be a choice I make?" Naruto demanded, not backing down and rising to meet her rage with his own.

"Yes, and you believe that I should live by your decisions then?" Kagome fired back, reigning it in as she remembered that she was speaking with someone so very much younger than herself. "I'm not in love with you, Naruto. I'm not looking for forever. I want someone who will understand me and let me go when it is time. More importantly, I want someone who understands I am my own person, not just the other half of a relationship, or this object to be possessed and coveted."

Eyes downcast, Naruto's shoulders slumped a bit. "Do you love him?"

"That isn't the point, Naruto-kun." Eyes softening, Kagome stepped forward and rested a hand on his shoulder. "There is time for you to find the connection you want. But you need to accept that you will not find it with me. Up until today, you maintained a decent level of control from what I can tell, and you brought a very useful person here."

"I almost killed him," Naruto admitted. "It was hard not to… But I knew you could get information from him."

Nodding, Kagome stepped back. "I'm going to leave you now. I will take reports from the others. I want you to stay in here a week. Call it survival training. Kirara will come and check on you for me. Get your head on straight, Naruto."

x~x~x

"The mission was relatively routine until Kabuto showed up. We dispatched most of the Sound-nin we encountered pretty quickly. But when Kabuto came, all hell broke loose. I don't think he realized we were there at first, or maybe he did and splintered off his group intentionally so they would get by. It was troublesome and drawn out, but we finally captured him. He nearly escaped a few times, which was why we took so long. We did not send word ahead because we worried Orochimaru might intercept a message to get his right hand back," Shikamaru finished, handing in a scroll with his full assessment.

Accepting the scroll, Kagome nodded to the Nara. "Thank you. Please, rest up. I'm sure I will have another mission for you in a few days."

Bowing his head, Shikamaru disappeared.

Sakura walked in next, her own report in hand. She set it, and the ag of rosary beads on the desk. "Hokage-sama." She bowed and waited for a nod before beginning. "Naruto maintained control almost the entirety of the mission. When fighting to detain Kabuto, he did have trouble stopping." Shivering at the memory of his eyes, she cleared her throat. "I had to remind him that he could be useful to you to make him stop. It never got to a point that I thought I would need the beads until we got back today."

"Thank you Sakura. And thank you for your discretion in use. I know he can be a handful." Smiling, Kagome opened the scroll to read through for more detail. "You can head home. You have shifts at the hospital in the morning."

. Groaning at the thought of her early morning, Sakura bowed. "Thank you, Hokage-sama." With a final smile, the pinkette disappeared.

"The kid is pretty enamored. You think your survival training will make him prioritize? I told him once that I could only make him a great shinobi if he gave up on Sasuke. He refused," Jiraiya told her, suddenly sitting in the window.

"And you trained him anyway. He believes he can will all he wants into being. He must learn that in life we don't always get what we want, only attaining a fraction of it." Kagome looked at the Sannin with a sad smile. "You and I know this lesson well."

"As does he. You forget how shunned he was," the white haired man pointed out.

"Yet he still does not understand it." Kagome leaned back in her seat. "You should play matchmaker with him next."

Snorting, Jiraiya shook his head. "I only work for beautiful ladies!" His grin was broad and more than a touch perverse.

Kagome threw a stamp at his face.

x~x~x

"You're getting better," Shikamaru complimented idly, even as he finished Shizune off after two hours. "So, why did Hokage-sama inform Sakura of Naruto's control issues and not the mission leader?"

Shizune sighed and looked at the board to see her mistakes. "Naruto needs someone he implicitly to rangle him in those situations. He would have been more likely to attack you, which you know or you would have gone after him at the gates. You let Sakura try and mediate until Hokage-sama arrived."

Shikamaru studied her a long time. "You would have told me."

"I know you better than she does." Shizune got to her feet and smiled. "I'll see you later."

Looking peevish, Shikamaru looked up at her with a slight frown. "Would you like to get dinner with me?"

"Are you asking me out?" Shizune shot back immediately, shocked.

Cheeks tinting pink, the Nara shrugged. "It's a drag having to define things like this."

Amused, Shizune leaned in and pecked his cheek. "Sure. Let's go."

x~x~x

Onyx eyes shined with contempt that was quickly masked with a polite smile as the Hokage came in. "I apologize for my appearance, but I was not allowed to clean up for this audience, Hokage-sama." His smile was sweet, almost sincere.

"Spare me the niceties, Kabuto-kun." Kagome looked at Ibiki and nodded. "I will speak with him."

The heavily scarred shinobi nodded and exited to the observation area.

"I offer you my respect, Hokage-sama. I have been learning about you… You don't have fame yourself, but you're in the books all the same. The 'miko-nin'…." Smiling, he looked up at her with eyes that seemed devoid of his own identity. "A walking contradiction."

"Does it help soothe your fractured mind to exude this mimicry of Orochimaru's nature?" Kagome countered softly, tilting her head in a fashion that seemed purely curious.

"Who says my mind is fractured? I am the right hand of Orochimaru-sama, a shinobi of great skill," Kabuto declared with the same false smile.

"A lost little boy, pretending to have the same nature as a twisted adoptive father is what you are." Kagome came close to him, her hand glowing pink.

Flinching a moment, Kabuto met her gaze with loathing. "Are you going to burn out my chakra network?"

Ignoring the question, Kagome cupped the side of his face with her glowing hand and caressed his cheek with her thumb. "Little Kabuto… How lost you are." She tapped his temple and looked into his eyes, seeing recognition flickering through him. When he suddenly went slack, she set his head down gently on the table and took off his glasses.

Ibiki walked back in, wondering at the gentleness that had not been evident in the last mean she had interrogated and frowned. "Hokage-sama?"

"Kabuto is a man and will have to answer for his actions. But when he wakes, he is more likely to remember who he is." Kagome met Ibiki's gaze steadily. "Keep me informed of his progress."

x~x~x

Kakashi ran his fingers over the bare flesh of Kagome's hip, his lips pressing to her shoulder. "You seem to be somewhere else."

"Mm, well, you tired me out here." Kagome smiled slightly and caught his hand, threading their fingers. "I'm sorry that I was so… snappy today. But you should really take care to wash my scent off. Naruto is going to take some time to get over this."

"Ah, so you were naked and thinking of Naruto?" Kakashi asked lightly, his eyes amused.

"Kabuto actually," Kagome corrected, feeling his body tense behind her. She released his hand to turn fully towards him. "His eyes… He seemed completely not his own person."

"He killed many Konoha shinobi," Kakashi pointed out, his tone almost conversational.

"Yes. He will pay for that. But he lost himself somewhere. I'm curious if he'll remember it all in that trance state I put him in." At her lover's look, she chuckled. "He'll be more open to questions if I don't turn him into a hollow shell."

"Like the last one?" Kakashi asked, his eyes belying a certain curiosity.

"That one was beyond help." Kagome sighed and sat up, looking around for clothes. "Now, where did you toss my bra?"