DISCLAIMER
I do not own the Naruto anime, or its characters.

A/N: This thing's been in my head for over two years now, so I'm sorry if it sucks.

Chapter 1: The Birthday Fiasco

'Where is everybody?' wondered Sakura, as she walked through the academy. Even though it was Saturday, there was always one group or other having a meeting here. 'Why did Ino tell me to meet her here?' she thought, as she almost walked into her longtime friend. "There you are! Where've you been?" Ino shouted, and without giving her friend a chance to answer, started to drag her to the rear-training field.

"Ino, what's going on?" Sakura asked, as she finally yanked her wrist free. "You'll see." That was all she got, as Ino started pulling her again. When they got to the door leading outside, Sakura yanked herself free again and said, "Listen, Ino, I don't know what you're planning, but if it's going to waste my time, no thanks. Now, if you don't mind, I would like to start celebrating my eighteenth birthday, so goodbye!" As she was about to leave, Ino opened the door and shoved her through. The next things she heard were shouts of "happy birthday!" She opened her eyes after a minute to find that all of her friends were there.

But there was only one person that caught her eye at the moment, though. Kakashi was standing near the outer fringe of the group looking unbelievably hot in a form-fitting T-shirt that showed his slim arms and well muscled chest, a pair of jeans that showed a pair of long, lean, well-muscled, legs, and a collar that she couldn't quite see from this distance. She'd had a crush on him for a few years now and she noticed that he'd gotten a haircut and that his spiked hair was now relatively even, very short compared to the last time she'd seen him (the longest hairs were probably five to six inches long making him look like a sheep dog with a hair cut) and actually paying attention to gravity. But the thing that had really caught her attention was that he wasn't wearing a mask and that he had a face that could have put Botticelli angels to shame.

Then someone hit her on her back and snapped her out of her reverie; it was Naruto. "Hey, Sakura, are you back on Earth yet, or are you still in outer space?" Damn, when did he get so observant? Everybody finally dispersed and Sakura finally saw why Ino had told her to bring her swimsuit; there was an Olympic-sized pool in the back of the field.

"Sakura, come on!" she noticed that some of her friends were in the pool. She also saw that Anko had gotten out and was walking (more like sauntering, in her opinion) toward Kakashi, she saw them talk for a minute, Kakashi said something, Anko got pissed at whatever it was, and walked away with a confused scowl on her face.

Next thing she knew, Ino was standing next to her, apparently asking her a question. "Wh-what?"

"I said, are you going to go change and get in the pool or not?"

"Oh, y-yeah, just give me a minute."

"Okay, just hurry up."

Sakura went into the changing room and changed into her black two-piece swimsuit. Ino had bought it for her seventeenth birthday. She'd had her misgivings about it (mainly about how much it showed), but now she kind of liked it (because she'd gained a missing asset). She's developed a lot more of a chest since last year, when she'd had almost nothing. She smiled and remembered the past year, when she'd gone from an a-cup to a c-cup. Guys had definitely noticed it too. She remembered the one who'd somehow overcome the fear that he'd get hit through a wall for asking.

FLASHBACK

She had come out of the clothing store with a few bags of shirts (she'd out grown most of her old ones for obvious reasons) when some guy had walked up to her, eyes on her chest, and stuttered out a request for a date. She'd taken pity on him and started a conversation, purposely avoiding answering his question. Then he'd pulled out his pick-up line,

"You know, I've actually been on a mission with some guys from ANBU." he bragged.

"Really?" she asked, humoring him.

"Yeah, I was the only one who survived the mission."

"Then why aren't you in ANBU?"

"I would be, but the guys up top might be scared of me, though."

"Wow, he must have really thought this one out before using it," she thought slightly impressed.

"Could I get a look at the file?"

"Sorry, it's level-three classified."

"I must admit, Mataro, you've got me a little curious now. So what's the file number, again?" said a very familiar voice from behind her. She turned to see Kakashi, as usual, in full uniform.

"K-kakashi-sampai! Wh-what are you doing here?" Mataro asked, a little flustered.

"I was in the café, and heard you talking, and I got curious. So, I ask again, what's the file number?"

"Kakashi-sempai, if you were listening, then you must have heard me tell Sakura-san that it is level-three classified."

"Oh, yeah I heard, but it's okay, because I've got clearance at that level." He stated, smiling as if he found it amusing that this kid was trying to act superior to him.

"You're lying!"

"Well, if you think I am, how's this?" He pulled out his wallet, opened it, and showed them two ID cards, one showing a picture of him in an ANBU uniform, a diagram of the regulation mask off to the side, his present stats, and his starting rank, should he ever be reactivated (a general? Shit, how many times did he get promoted?!), the other showing him in plain clothes, with a mask (no duh), saying, plain as day under the picture, 'KAKASHI HATAKE: LEVEL-SEVEN SECURITY CLEARANCE.'

Sakura turned to see Mataro's reaction, and saw that he'd gone to about thirteen shades off white; not five seconds later, he went paler than a hospital bed sheet, turned, and ran like the hounds of hell were on his heels; he didn't look back. She turned back around and was just able to catch a glimpse of the look that had sent him running; the look on Kakashi's face might have frozen Orochimaru's blood. She felt the urge to follow Mataro's example. She wouldn't have been surprised that if Armageddon had come right then, and it had had a face, it would have had that look, no doubt about it. He turned to her and gave her a warm smile that completely contradicted his expression of a second ago.

END FLASHBACK

She shivered, shaking herself out of those thoughts, took a few deep breaths, and walked out of the changing rooms; almost every male head turned her way, including the one she wanted. He looked her up and down with open appreciation for what he saw, they made eye contact, and she felt a shock run through her. She started walking toward the pool when she reached the four feet of concrete surrounding the pool; she felt something on her back (a hand?) and fell to the concrete. When she was about a foot from making contact, she felt two bars wrap around her middle. When she was back on her feet, she realized that the bars were arms; she turned to thank whoever had saved her and was about to accidently kiss… Kakashi. His hand was stopping her from turning it into a full kiss. At the moment, her nose was even with his throat. When she inhaled she got a nose-full of cedar, rain, and cinnamon. All of a sudden, she got the urge to… attack him… sexually; she shocked her self with that one; she had a crush on him, but surely it wasn't strong enough to want to attack the guy, was it? She shook her head slightly, clearing it. She promised herself that after this, she would breathe through her mouth around him.

While she had the chance, she examined the collar he was wearing. It was black leather, embossed with blood red, sickle-shaped, crescent moons with the tips pointing toward the top of the collar, with two ANBU issue dog tags hanging from two one inch chains on either side, and one smaller, more delicate chain, connecting them. She also noticed his eyes (since the Akatsuki, they'd found a way to give him enough control over the sharingan to activate and deactivate it at will; since then it had changed from Uchiha-grey to an odd shade of cobalt-blue-and-silver that highlighted the equally odd shade of garnet-red-and-gold in his right eye)… something wasn't right about them, besides their obvious bi-coloration, but she couldn't figure out what it was.

He let her go, turned around, and said, "Fine, I'll do it. But only this time; got it Naruto?"

"Got it!" and then he ran off (most likely to tell fifteen other people, who would then continue the chain until everybody knew).

"I wish I'd thought to train him to control his mouth." Kakashi muttered under his breath.

"Your fault on that count."

"I know," he sighed, "well, better go change, see you later."

"See you, and good luck."

"Thanks, I'll need it."

He went to his bag, grabbed his swim trunks, and went in to the changing room. While he was doing that, she jumped into the pool and talked to her friends. A few minutes later, she heard someone sigh and then a thud, most likely meaning that whoever it was had fainted.

She turned and later could have sworn that her heart had stopped beating for a moment. Kakashi stood there in only his swim trunks, looking like some god of temptation that she had never heard of, with a complexion that most women would murder for, muscles showing that he wasn't built entirely for fighting, but that he could certainly hold his own, and that he could keep up in a race with out too much problem. Dressing the way he had for the last few years, she never would have guessed at his build being, not skinny, but slim, and she would have bet everything she had that he had the grace of a hunting panther (with the silence to match, though she already knew thanks to prior missions with him), and his face… it wasn't fair; nobody should look that good. His jaw was fairly strong, but it was round enough to give an idea of youth, lips that she wished he hadn't stopped her from feeling earlier, a nose that was a little long but fit his face to perfection (no wonder he wore a mask); when someone (Yumi? She thought her name was) shoved next to him intent on getting a picture with him he shoved her aside with something that sounded (and looked) suspiciously like a snarl, and she saw that he had straight, white teeth, with fangs that looked like they could be longer than an Inuzuka's and that could probably rip out a good chunk of some body's throat. He walked to the diving board, climbed the ladder, and dove. It was nothing special, but he got quite a few whistles from the women. She guessed that he would be getting quite a few phone numbers later on. He broke the surface of the pool, swam to the edge, got out, and just for show (she thought at the time) shook off any excess water on him like a dog would; in fact, she was surprised that he didn't sprout fur right there. A breeze blew by, carrying his scent to her, and she inhaled it for the second time that day. There it was, that urge to attack him.

'Figures that he'd have a scent to match his looks,' she thought to her self.

'You're telling me,' replied her inner self.

'Gods, I wish he were just a little less attractive, so that I could actually have a chance at him!'

'What the fuck are you talking about?!'

'Think about it, do you think we have a chance against all the other women he's probably been with?'

'Of course we do. Didn't you see how he pushed Yumi away so roughly? She's considered a goddess to all the other guys!'

'Well, now that you mention it, he really doesn't seem to take an interest in women like her, in fact, I'm pretty sure that he's been paying a lot of attention to me lately.'

'Yeah, now if only he would act on those looks.'

'Mm-hm, Kami-sama I wish he'd invite me over to his house.'

'May I ask why?'

'So I could get ready to have some 'fun' with him.' She realized what she'd just thought. 'No! I can't believe I just thought about doing that!' She screamed in her head.

'Well, you did.'

'No! How could I? I mean, he's thirteen and a half years older than me!'

'So? You've been thinking about him for years.'

'But not like this!'

'You're eighteen now, it's legal.'

'But it still feels so wrong.'

'You're just saying that. Face it; you want him. Who could blame you, anyway? He's a fucking sex-god!'

She didn't have a reply to this.

She'd been in the pool about an hour doing laps around the perimeter, and talking to everybody, when Naruto shouted that it was time for her to open her presents. She got out of the pool, changed back into her clothes, and walked over to the tent that obviously held the presents, food, and drinks (Choji and his dad went all out, preparing for a very big group).

It went by rather quickly; she got a metal edged (and obviously lethal) fan from Neji and Tenten, a book on different sex positions with very detailed pictures from Ino (she made sure no one saw that one), a book on medical studies and theories from Hinata and Naruto, some scrolls showing how to execute complex genjustu from Kurenai and Asuma, a weekend pass to a spa in Sunagakure (she was going to have to thank Gaara, Kankuro, and Temari for that one next time she saw them, since they'd only stopped by long enough to drop it off), lingerie from a few other girls, and a Siamese kitten from Kakashi; she tackled him for that. It was then that she realized that Kakashi seemed to be trying to make sure that she had a good time without any problems, and she wondered why.

Then Naruto came up to her and she caught an unusual scent coming off of him.

"Naruto, what's that smell?"

"Huh? Oh, well I fell into some catnip on the way here; I didn't think anyone would notice."

Three things happened next; She inhaled, Kakashi, who had been a few feet away, freaked out and grabbed Naruto, yelling at him, and she sneezed.

The next thing she knew, she had a long, black tail sprouting from her tailbone, and claws that were one and a half inches long; she saw her reflection in a tray that had slid to the ground, and saw that she had round, furry, ears to go with the tail, amber-colored eyes with slit pupils, and inch long fangs overlapping her lower lip. Everyone looked at her, and then the only thing she heard was screaming; it hurt her new ears. The only thing she saw was running; the colors were vivid to her new eyes, so much so that she had to close them and curled into a ball. When everything was quiet again, she uncurled and saw that she wasn't alone; Kakashi stood not twenty feet away, with a look of reluctant acceptance on his face; she noticed several others with him, including Kiba and his mother, and Shino and his father. Then she understood, they'd known; they'd known and they hadn't done anything to stop it. She made a sound like a large cat yowling and passed out.

When she woke up, she was in an unfamiliar room, on an equally unfamiliar couch, with her only company being a large mound of fur that appeared to be an animal, and asleep at that. She looked down at herself and saw that she still had the claws and tail. She looked around for a clock and found that she'd been out cold for four hours.

"So it wasn't a dream." She said with a sigh. She noticed the mound of fur move, and looked over at her companion; it had uncurled and she now saw that it was a sleek, white, dog that was big enough to be a wolf; the proportions were right, but except for the legs and head, the build was that of a fox; she also noticed that the paws, ears, and the last three to four inches of fur on its tail were black. Then she saw its eyes; they were red with football shaped pupils, as though its eyes couldn't decide whether to be round or slit like hers most likely still were, and the look they had in them… she could have sworn that she'd seen these eyes before, but she couldn't place where; but the really odd thing was that it had an almost human look in its eyes. Then she noticed the collar it wore, black leather, embossed with blood red crescent moons, with two dog tags hanging from one inch chains with a smaller chain between them; she guessed that Kakashi must have been this dogs owner, meaning that this could be his house.

"You're almost as unusual as me."

"Actually, I'm just as unusual as you," said a velvet-smooth, clear, very male voice.

"Huh? What was that? Who's there?" She asked the room, looking for the source of the voice but finding no one there.

"I'm over here." The voice said with some amusement.

She looked over at the dog, "Are you… talking…to me?"

"Yes and no. Are you alright, though?"

"Um, kind of. What do you mean 'yes and no'?"

"Well I suppose that that's the best that I can hope for at this point. And when I say 'yes and no', I mean that while it is true that you can hear me, I am not speaking to you through my mouth but through my mind. Does that make any sense to you?"

"I suppose so."

"Again, all that I can hope for. I must admit though, I'm surprised at how well you're taking all of this in, although I have the feeling that that's only because the shock of it all hasn't set in yet. Would I be right in that assumption?"

"Probably."

"Yes, well I would love to explain to you right now, but I'm afraid I must cause you one more shock before that. Wait! It's best that you stay, so that we may get it over with." (She had gotten up to leave.)

"Okay, lets get this over with." She sighed sitting down again.

"Now, there's just one thing that I ask of you, and that is to stay calm. Understand?"

She nodded.

Suddenly, the dog lost its form and became a quivering mass of black in the most basic shape of a dog. Then it started shifting, and after a moment it had the basic shape of a human, but it retained the ears and tail of the dog, although they were proportioned to the human shape now. The next thing she knew, she was looking at her former teacher and crush, Kakashi. During all of this she'd had an extremely scared look on her face, but she'd kept quiet, not because she was supposed to, but because she was too scared to make a sound. Then he looked over at her and asked her, concern foremost in his voice, "Sakura, are you alright?" (She'd looked like she was about to pass out again.)

Kakashi reached out to steady her, but she cringed away with a look of fear and confusion on her face. As she sat there, Kakashi looked at her with an expression of resignation on his face. Finally, he broke the tense silence,

"Alright, Sakura, what do you want to know?"

A/N: I would like to thank linkinparkguurl51 for the beta and helping me get this thing out of my head, my cousin for helping me come up with it, and my friend for the extra set of eyes. And I know that I messed with some thing's, but too bad!