An annoying ringing sound wakes both you and Kakashi up. You hear him reach for his phone cursing at how early it is. He answers.

"Yeah?"

You listen quietly trying to hear the voice on the other side.

"When?....in an hour?...ok."

He pauses for a moment, you can hear a males voice speaking to him.
"What class?" He asks.

"Alright, doesn't sound so bad." He replies and says a few more yeahs and uhuhs before hanging up.

You sit up and watch him drop his phone onto the bed staring up at the ceiling.

"What's going on?" You ask.

"That was Gai, He needs help with a mission." He replies bitterly.

"I thought you were retired?"

He looks over to you, running his eyes up and down your body. You still get butterflies when he does that.

"Me too. But we've been so short in numbers lately they've been calling everyone to help out."

You sweep your hair to the side looking down at the sheets thinking about it. And you begin to worry about him which he notices right away.

"I'll be fine. It's a D class mission. We are delivering a couple packages not far from here. They need someone who knows the roads well."

But you really don't want him to go. For some reason you have a bad feeling about it and you're not sure why. It is probably just anxiety but still... Then your phone gets a text message.

You look at the screen and cringe.

"What now?" Kakashi asks.

"It's Naruto...doesn't anyone know what sleep is around here?"

Kakashi smiles.
"Not really."

You open the message box and read it.

"Hey Hana, I would like to schedule another training session today. We are getting close to our deadline. You have a lands hokage hearing in two days and we need to show them that we have established some sort of control. I would like to meet at noon in the dojo this time."

You sigh heavily.
"Oh good, another training session...."

Kakashi sweeps the blankets over and sits at the side of the bed turned away from you stretching out his arms and yawning.
"Damn it's early. I'm going to shower, you should try and get some more sleep before training."

But you're too anxious to sleep now. You lie back down on your pillow nervously chewing your lip.

"But Kakashi, who's going to heat up my chimichangas after training?" You pout.

He laughs as he walks towards the bathroom stripping the rest of his clothes off. You gaze at his impossible backside drooling shamelessly. God damn...

"I plan on being back before you're finished. Like I said, this will be an easy mission." He replies and walks into the bathroom leaving the door slightly ajar. You lie there quietly coming to a resolve over your worries. Kakashi will be fine as it is only a D class mission. Nothing to worry about....Right? You begin to wonder what Naruto has in store for you this time. Hopefully your stone doesn't get the better of you. You're getting tired of being tired for god's sake, it is time to get control. That shifts your thoughts in the direction towards that lands hokage meeting.

Hopefully they haven't found out too much about your past or everyone will be looking at you differently. You wonder how many hokage will be there and what they have to say and worst of all what they want to do with you...

"It's going to be fine, kitten." Kakashi says from across the room, breaking you from your thoughts. "Just focus on the chakra balance. And don't worry about me, I'm super human, remember?"

You sit up in the bed watching him flex his muscles for you. Superhuman Huh?...he is definitely something else.
You are yet to see what this man can really do.

"You are super, but you're still human and bleed like the rest of us and I thought you were just a delivery boy today...." You reply while nervously fiddling with the sheets.

He tsks and comes to sit down beside you. Hair wet and spiked so perfectly wearing just his white towel.

"You could call it something cooler than a delivery boy you know..." He places his hand on your cheek lifting your eyes to his lovely smile.

"Hey...delivery boys are heroes too." You reply.

He laughs softly and kisses you deeply then presses his forehead against yours.

"I gotta go. Stay as long as you want, there's a key under the carpet at the front door...or you can use the window." He says and leaves you to get dressed.

A key?....

"I get a key already?" You ask slightly shocked.

He pulls a on black tight shirt adjusting it as he replies.
"Don't get all excited about it. It's just a key and it's always been at the front door, you just chose to use the window."

He closes the drawer to his dresser and opens another, pulling pants from it.

You curse under your breath at him. Smart ass...but secretly you're pretty happy about this as you now have a key to his house. Which means you can truly come and go at any time and that also means your relationship, or whatever it is, is a lot stronger than you had originally thought.

"Thank you." You say and you mean that from the bottom of your heart as he is doing everything he can to make you feel safe even while he's gone on mission.

"Yeah yeah." He replies, brushing it off. "Alright, I'll see you later today. Try not to blow anything up and be nice to Naruto. He is really trying to help you."

You scowl.
"I'm always nice!"

He raises his brows and says nothing, staring at you with authority.

"Oh alright...I'll be nice." You say sourly.

He chuckles to himself.
"Good girl."

He gives you one last kiss before he finishes getting ready and leaves you in his house alone.

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Hours later....

The dojo was pretty much the same as when you last destroyed it. However, they had made some improvements to its structure, even adding glass that is almost impenetrable. So Naruto says. You are yet to test out that theory...

"We can't have you destroying the dojo, everytime you train." He said.

You shrugged back at him as there is no guarantee these windows will still hold up to your power. You promised to keep the walls intact as best you can and he seemed satisfied with that.

"Ok, Hana! We are doing things differently this time. I have been researching that stone and it looks like small draws of its power is a safer bet. We will postpone any jutsu for now and focus on combative training with the use of the stone and chakra to balance out the energies." He says squaring off with you in the middle of the dojo.

You think about how to even put the energy together. It seems impossible at this point as nothing you have tried so far has worked.

"Don't look so doubtful..." He scolds and pulls out his Kunai. Looks like he means business today.

You roll your eyes.
"I don't have the best track record in training, remember?"

He sighs thinking on it.
"You're right. I guess all we can do is try."

...fists up...

You get into position noticing his similar stance to yours. A lunge stance with your weight shifted onto your back foot. Although you have many stances this one is your "go to" when it comes to testing an unknown opponent.

"Ready?" He asks.

"Always..." you reply.

He smirks, then in a fraction of a second he disappears. You scramble to meet his speed only seeing the streak of an orange colored shadow dashing by. He may even be faster than Kakashi. Then you hear him call out to you.

"Stone!" Signaling you to pull energy.

Instinctively you tap into the rock in your chest letting a small pulse of power enlighten your abilities. In turn, this gives you the upper hand as now you can see his movements more clearly. He is still a streak of light, but a slower one.

He circles you with ease then calls to you again.

"Chakra!"

You do as he says and quickly picture the chakra energy building in your root chakra. The second you fill it, Naruto appears in front of your blades slicing at all sections of your body. You block and dodge his unique speed and duck under a high kick.
"Stone!" He says as you skid on the tops of your feet rounding to his back. You tap in and reinforce a side kick into his back. He grunts loudly, tumbling feet away from you although he still manages to land gracefully onto his feet.

He pauses a moment to rub his back and praise you.
"You're very good, Hana. It's obvious you have mastered some taijutsu." He says with a wide grin.

You blush slightly.
"I have trained for a very long time." You reply and bow.

"Good." He steps into his stance again, flipping his Kunai in his hands. "Stone."

You comply and tap into the stone again and both of you explode towards each other. He dashes forward, his speed much faster than before and you barely side step his stab towards your stomach. He throws an elbow up to counter your dodge aiming for your head and you block with your forearm pushing him back.

He stops and shakes his head.
"That was a fair move, but you could be faster....Chakra." He calls.

You huff and pull more chakra letting it pulse into your next pool feeling that tingling sensation of electricity zapping your body.
"Good, Hana. I can feel it, keep it up."

Both of you reposition yourselves and raise your fists and weapons.

"Stone." He calls before you move.

You nod and draw in your stone's power, the air picks up quickly whipping around your hair until you feel that feverish tightness in your chest. The world seems to slow down when you do this, even the wind in your hair slows like the long pull of tidal waves. And you move forward testing your ability to hold this all together.

He moves as you do, swiftly and smoothly. You had no idea he was this quick. Both of you are completely in sync this time and you are able to maneuver around him just as fast. You slide by his blades around to his back then call forth a small but effective blast of your stones power through your fists and drive it home. He grunts and is suddenly sent into the air twenty feet away, but Naruto being who he is, regains himself mid-air. He handsprings back on the ground and lands up on his feet sliding to a stop still holding his Kunai.

You gasp, hoping you haven't broken anything.

"I'm sorry Naruto!"

"Now that's more like it." He shouts."What are you sorry for? I'm teaching you control, don't ever be sorry."

You curse yourself for being so soft. He is right, there is no room for sorrys here.

"If you're afraid of hurting me, we won't get anywhere. Stone." He says as he walks closer to you.

You blow out your fears with one deep breath and get into position once again. He takes his own position, and this time you close your eyes pulling a substantial amount of your stone's power just like he had said to do. It is enough to lighten the weight of your body. You feel as if you are floating although your feet are still planted on the ground and this catches his attention. But only because the loose dirt and rubble around you both begins to rise into the air. Naruto looks around nervously.

"Chakra!" He shouts.

And you pull chakra filling yet another pool. You open your eyes, sighting your target. He sees your determination and spins his blades into position, he takes the lead. However his movements have slowed like you had bent the wheel of time somehow. You lower your stance watching him gradually strike and as if you were just stepping aside, you easily dodge his movement while he raises his blades, slashing horizontally at your neck. In the motion you hook your leg onto his tripping him then kick his backside and let go of the one chakra pool. Naruto crashes into the dirt below tumbling twenty feet away. It was then you noticed the prickling of the stone's power around you, light wisps of blue specks circling the air as the world around you returned to its natural gravitational pull. A sharp sudden pain strikes your chest. You ignore it not wanting to show Naruto that you may have messed up the balance in your energy pulls.

Naruto skids to a stop on his stomach losing his kunai in the process and groans coming up onto his knees. He looks up at you astonished.

"What kind of jutsu is that? You disappeared!" He says.

You shake your head.
"I was right here the whole time."

He stares at you confused and stands brushing off the dirt from his clothes.
"Hana...Have you ever stopped time before?"

You think back on the many times you have caused havoc around you. There hasn't been an incident where you remember stopping time completely. Maybe this has to do with the chakra and stone's power working together.
"I haven't, maybe the two are working together now?"

He blows out a breath and sweeps a hand through his air obviously awe struck by what you just did and you didn't even know you were doing it in the first place.

"Stone." He says in a more serious tone, recovering his Kunai from the ground not too far from where he stands.

You tap in once again and square off. It was your turn to start first and you lunge at Naruto sweeping low with a fist, he spins out of the way and stabs at your head with a blade. You duck under his weapon and meet his wide eyes with two fists glowing in the stone's energy. He crosses his arms holding his blades then braces himself taking the hit with his them, and astonishingly he forces your fists to the side. You rebound with a spin around to his back darting by his vision. Before he can defend himself you send him soaring into the air once again. However, this time you had not anticipated him to throw his Kunai at you in the same instance. They come barreling towards you and instinctively you tap into your stone's power once again.

With a swift dodge you miss one but take the other right into the shoulder. It wasn't until you felt the pain of the sharp metal piercing your skin that you realized you had pushed your stone too far. That last pull sends you back into the realm of your cohort instinct. Your eyes lock with his, despite you trying desperately not to make the connection. He forces you. Almost as if he has more control over you than before....could it be the chakra?

"chakra, Hana!...CHAKRA!" Naruto shouts.

Then the world around you stops, the sounds muffle out into nothing and your vision blurs.

Panic...

You are losing yourself to your cohort and fall to your knees unable to stop it. You give into the feverish dream your instinct needs and he takes over your mind.

Panther POV:

A low growl in warning erupts from your mouth.

Pain thrashes at your shoulder where something silver protrudes from.

You fixate your golden eyes on the enemy in front of you. The one who threatens your life.

His energy is strange to you. Not something you have experienced before. As if he harbors a power you have yet to taste...and his blood smells heavenly.

Your stomach growls, you are hungry and this yellow haired man is the perfect size.

He speaks to you...

"Hana, pull chakra! Do it now, or you'll turn again."

But you understand nothing. He doesn't speak your language and you don't speak his anymore.

All you know right now is to kill or be killed.

"Do you understand me, Hana?....HANA!"

You tear after him, drooling from the mouth fixated on the largest arteries pumping that blood you so desire.

Not only do you smell his blood you smell the fear radiating off him. Those wide eyes meet yours as you close the distance and the fight is on.

"Hana! Stop!" He manages to blurt out as you throw your body on top of his. Then sink your teeth into his neck. You both skid to a stop and he forces a hard knee into your gut throwing you a fair distance away. But that doesn't phase you one bit, for you have now gotten your taste of his flesh.

All you see is red now. You want him, you need him, and won't stop until you have him.

"Shit..." He curses holding the gaping wound on his neck. You give him no time to regain himself. You are on him again thrashing at anything to stay attached to his body. ...you need him badly.

You whip around to his backside and trip him with a hooked leg. He falls to the ground with a grunt, drawing chakra at the same time. He is about to unleash something fierce against you. You can feel it in the air, prickling your skin and before you can get a grip on him again he has forces a large wave of wind into your stomach knocking the air from your lungs sending you back again, tumbling across the ground.

However, this only angers you. He is really starting to piss you off as your primal instinct to eat him takes over. You hiss at him and growl loudly.

He in turn speaks in that language you don't know, panting while holding his neck.
"Hana! Please, snap out of it!"

By now you have had enough. It was time for the kill, as he is growing weak from the blood spilling onto the ground. You praise yourself for carefully biting into that artery in his neck. He will succumb to his injury soon. You crouch down low gathering energy from your stone. A crack of Thunder strikes the sky outside, lighting up the dojo which has taken substantial damage to its stone floor.

Your eyes lock onto his. Those fearful eyes that are begging you for mercy. Then his eyes close, his hands move with impossible speed, and flaming chakra begins to swirl around him. Now is the time to make your move before he attacks you.

In swift movements you stride towards him to finish what you started. Then suddenly a voice echoes through the room. A voice you know very well but can't place.
"Don't do it Naruto!" It says.

Then a lovely scent floats by you, slowing your pace. Still striding towards your target, you become distracted and stumble in your step. Out of nowhere a figure appears in front of your prey, arms held out towards you in surrender.

Silver hair triggers a memory you haven't yet experienced in this half human half cohort form. You slide to a stop on your feet and stare at the man standing tall in front of you.

You know him....but from where?

He kneels down before your arms still raised, stopping you from going forward.

You tilt your head as visions repeatedly flood your mind. Soft, sweet, loving visions. Then that scent fills the air again reminding you of who he is, and who you are.

You look down at yourself and remember.

"Sunaneko." He says. That name you understand for that is your name in this form. This man has just named you causing your cohort instinct to lose its connection. In that moment he releases you, retreating back into his jungle realm. You fall to the ground on your side, exhausted, confused, and in pain.

"Hana..." He calls and rushes to your side.

You groan up at him, basking in those stormy familiar eyes, your body and mind coming back to its regular self as Hana Hoki.

"I'm sorry." You whisper.

"It's not your fault." He replies and turns to Naruto in anger. "What the hell were you thinking?!"

"What do you mean?! She was using both chakra and Gelel power consecutively in small bursts!...it was working!" He argues.

"Really?! And stabbing her with a Kunai? What the fuck was that for?!" He shouts, then turns you on your back to look at the wound.

"God dammit, Naruto..." He says under his breath, as Naruto kneels down beside him.

"I didn't mean to hit her with it. I thought she would have blocked it. I'm sorry Kakashi.." He confesses.

Kakashi sweeps the strands of hair stuck to the blood soaking your mouth out of the way. "This is going to hurt a lot." He warns you then grips the Kunai and pulls it from your shoulder. You cry out latching onto his free hand hard.

"Hana, I'm sorry, I thought we had control." Naruto says.

And Kakashi snaps back.
"The only one who has control is me! Can't you see that?"

Naruto sits dumbfounded staring at Kakashi. You watch the wheels turning in his mind, most likely replaying Kakashi's interference and realizing how right he is.

"You stopped her." Naruto whispers.

Kakashi sets his focus back on you and lifts you into his arms coming to his feet.
"Of course I did." He replies sourly.

"How?" Naruto questions.

Kakashi turns to Naruto and says only one thing.
"Trust."

Naruto curses under his breath and stares at the newly formed cracks in the floor. "You..." he begins.

"Do you see it now?!" Kakashi interrupts.

Naruto nods shamefully.
"You're the only one who can't stop her when she loses control....I see it now..."

"Right! And you took her away from me! You are damn lucky I showed up, she nearly killed you." He replies.

Naruto scowls while holding the wound on his neck with a bandage Kakashi had handed him before he had stopped you.
"It was just a scratch."

"Right, the blood soaking the floor tells a different story. You need to remember that she is immortal, and you aren't. Every attack she makes in her cohort instinct is meant to kill. They will all be fatal if they land on you. Now go get yourself healed before you bleed to death."

Naruto nods quietly with no response to that.

Kakashi turns away from him with you curling up in his arms listening to the two battle this one out.
"Let's go home." He says softly, looking down at you sympathetically.

He walks you towards the door to the dojo and Naruto stops him.

"Kakashi wait!"

He pauses at the door.

"I'm going to need your help...The boundaries I set between you and Hana are revoked. I need you to stay by her side for now, at least until she has absolute control."

You look meekly up at Kakashi who is now grinning from ear to ear. Was this all part of a plan?

"I've always been by her side, Naruto." He says and walks out the door leaving Naruto shocked and ashamed.

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