Okay… yah not much to say today… I'm not quite sure how I feel about this chapter I find that I like writing Sakura and Kakashi more than Naruto and Sasuke. But that's the fun in writing you get to try and analyze your characters brains. So… Yes… Editing kills me but that's normal. Do know what else is normal? Not a single person on this site owning any of the original characters. This includes me.

(10-11-14
Well editing this one was a bit more rushed but it should now look more presentable.)


Mountains hide the wolf as the night hides the thief. - Kazak proverb


It took a long time for Sakura to fully wake up.

For a long time she lay there in a half aware state slowly letting the faint sounds of moving water and the smell of damp earth pull her in to conscience.

Her world felt fuzzy, in the sort of way that Sakura only felt when she really didn't want to get out of bed in the morning. Awareness brought the faint sound of moving water, and the more attention demanding scents of rain and ozone, campfires, and the smell of the forest durning autumn, mixed in with something that took her sleep filled mind a long time to identify as fox. Much more powerful then these smells, was the smell of dirt, wet stone, and flowers.

For a long time Sakura felt content just to lie there, half asleep not really having to worry about anything, but at the same time aware of the different things around her. But the longer she stayed only half aware, the harder it was to stay in that state.

Her waking up started with her slowly identifying where the different smells were coming from. It smelled of dirt because she was in a cave, it smelled of wet stone because last night team seven had made it into said cave soaking wet. Flashes of the night before passed through her mind each memory filled with fear, anger, loss, and confusion. Only bits and pieces of her memory were clear the rest was a blur.

Following Kakashi-sensei across the room past what seemed like hundreds of dogs,

Jumping in what she was sure was a crazy plan,

A fence standing as an impossible barrier,

Racing through the woods, the barks and howls of dozens of dogs behind them,

Saving grace in the form of a stream that would let them survive,

Pushing her muscles to the limit trying to move faster than the water, and the fear that came from knowing how slowly they really were moving,

Cold, so, so cold,

A wall covered in flowers,

Dry land,

and finally mismatched eyes that told her it was okay to sleep now, it was okay to escape from the confusion and emptiness in her head.

The confusion wasn't as heavy as it had been the night before, but the loss was still there. Inner Sakura was gone, leaving her feeling empty and broken. Sakura had always been logical however, and she supposed the disappearance made sense. She had thought over what the two men who she had seen last night had said. There were multiple seals on them and at least one of them was wiring their brains to be able to function as wolfs. Wolves didn't have multiple personalities. She doubted that her second personality was actually gone, just pushed away. Once they got back to Konoha things would go back to normal.

That would be a relief. At the moment, Sakura doubted she was even strong enough to live without her inner shadow. The Shadow represented all of her strength; it was a part of her, without it she felt lost.

Still she would manage, with the prospect of getting back to Konoha and therefore back to being human. Sakura knew she could make it. She would just follow Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke-kun and everything would turn out all right. It always had before, and it would now.

By the time this resolution had been made, she was fully awake. Opening her eyes, she flinched back as the light hit her. The sun was shining through the vines that covered the cave entrance and reflecting across the water and into her eyes. She shifted slightly and looked around, the cave was rather large. The front part was completely submerged in water. The swirling patterns of barely there waves were just enough to show that the river was only just connected to the pool that took up a little over a third of the cave space. The sun streaming in reflected off the water and onto the ceiling and walls making the cave much brighter than it had been last night. The cave felt like a gift from heaven, absolutely perfect. She could see the safety in it. Because the cave was right on the river no dog would be able to track them. It was so well hidden, that it would be almost impossible to find if you didn't already know where it was.

Sitting up Sakura continued to looked around. To her left, Naruto was still very much asleep, and to her right, farther away, Sasuke-kun was curled up as well. There was a brief flash of panic when she didn't see Kakashi-sensei right away, but a moment latter her fears were soothed when she spotted him near the entrance sitting on a slab of rock. He was hidden slightly in the shadows making her feel slightly justified for not seeing him at first glance.

His form was relaxed as he stared out of the thin cracks in the curtain of vines. Sakura had never seen Kakashi-sensei like this. While his manner was relaxed it wasn't lazy, and it suddenly occurred to her that technically she was seeing him without his mask. The thought made her want to laugh and cry all at once.

Not knowing what to do she walked over to the edge of the pool but didn't cross the shallow water to get to the slab her teacher was sitting on. It was oddly soothing just sitting there staring at the lightly rippling water in the pool.

In that moment of shared silence, even if she wasn't next to him, Sakura could feel a sort of connection between her and her teacher. The quiet stretched between them like a bridge. She didn't cross that bridge but it was there. Sakura hadn't known that she had ever really felt separated from the rest of her team. But sitting there in silence and feeling the bridge, she realized that she had always felt at least somewhat excluded when it came to Kakashi's teachings. As far as actual teachings went, the only thing Kakashi-sensei had really taught them was tree climbing. Still, there had been mornings, before they would leave to do the D-ranks for the day, when Sasuke and Naruto would be sparing and Kakashi would compliment them and give subtle encouragement. But Sakura had never participated in any of the spars and therefore had never really been taught.

Now in the silence of the morning, Sakura could almost hear Kakashi telling her that if she wanted something, all she had to do was ask. Sure, she had never wanted to take training seriously before, what would Sasuke think of her if he found her all sweaty and gross. But after last night she couldn't help but wonder if she could have done something more than just follow if she had known how to react to the situation. But then again, Sasuke had done the same thing she had so in this situation it really didn't matter. Right?

Her mind automatically went back to their last mission. She hadn't really done anything there either but in that case Sasuke, and even Naruto, had done their best to help in the situation. Was it possible that she could have done something? Sakura found she really didn't want to think about it. Still in a way she supposed that now that the bridge was there she might find enough courage to cross it someday. Once, of course, she got her inner courage back.


Sasuke had been awake since the moment Sakura had stood up.

But he didn't move. If he moved he would show her that he was awake and he didn't want her to start fawning over him. He would wait until it seemed like Naruto was awake, then he would let the idiot keep her attention mostly off him. Sure she had been mostly quiet the night before, but he had seen the fear in her eyes, the weakness. He really didn't want to have to deal with an In-Need-of-Comfort-Sakura at the moment. That small quiet part of his mind whispered that it wasn't just fear in her eyes last night. It was loss and he knew loss he should ask what's wrong. Sasuke let out a light growl and made the voice be quiet. Because he didn't care what his teammates did, they wouldn't matter in the long run.

Sasuke sat in silence, surprised that Sakura hadn't immediately started talking the moment she was up. Instead the room was filled with peaceful silence. Sasuke couldn't remember the last time the silence around him had been peaceful. Silence had always been something Sasuke tried to keep to a minimum. He wasn't loud about it, but he stayed away from that complete quiet that reminded him to much of one too quiet night years ago. But now there was a quiet that was only accented by the quiet murmuring of the water, and it was truly peaceful. Opening his eyes, he could see the sunlight reflecting on the wall. There was a shadow that showed where Sakura sat in front of the pool. Sasuke laid there in the silence for a long time he didn't know when the last time he had been this relaxed was. He didn't allow himself to enjoy it but he didn't try to push it away.

Finally, when he felt like he might fall asleep again, a loud yawn was heard from the idiot's direction. Sitting up silently Sasuke watched as the tan wolf stretched out. From the shadows near the entrance Kakashi stood up and walked through the shallow edge of the pool back to the back of the cave. Sakura had jumped slightly when Naruto had started making noise, and was now glaring at the used to be blond boy.

"Wow, I'm hungry. Hey Sensei when can we get some Ramen." Naruto was loud and much too cheerful for just waking up in the morning.

"Naruto, you idiot," Sakura's voice, while scathing, seemed less… angry than usual. "We're stuck out in the woods, there isn't going to be a Ramen stand around for miles."

"Not to mention," Kakashi's voice, on the other hand, seemed to have reverted back to the lazy tone that Sasuke was used to. "That until we return to human I doubt you'll be able to eat ramen anyways."

Naruto's face was frozen in an expression of horror, Sasuke noted with exasperation hinted only slightly with amusement.

"No-No-No-NO RAMEN!" Even though Sasuke knew the outburst was coming he couldn't help but jump slightly. He immediately cursed the idiot for always forcing him to raise his expectations of Naruto's vocal range every time the dobe opened his mouth.

"Naruto," Sakura and Kakashi's voice's blended perfectly. Kakashi using the tone that he used last night. Serious and demanding attention, the only reason that Sasuke respected Kakashi at all was because of that voice. Sakura's voice was strict and full of worry. It was odd how they mixed so well. The two of them glanced at one another. Sakura didn't keep his gaze for long her head bobbed slightly as she looked away. Kakashi chuckled for a moment before he turned his eyes back on Naruto.

"Naruto, you have to be quiet. While we can speak, seeing as the river will keep our voices from traveling, if you yell then we will be caught." Sasuke snorted quietly. Naruto really did deserve the title dead last. Sasuke waited for Naruto to start complaining about the arrangement, but was mildly surprised when nothing happened. Glancing over, his surprise bumped up again as he saw what he could have sworn was seriousness pass over the boys face.

Sasuke was going to snort when he felt something furry brush the bottom of his front foot. It was Sakura's tail. It had only brushed his leg as she pulled it to the other side of her, but the action made Sasuke stop and stare at her. This entire situation was probably the most bizarre thing he had ever seen or done. Sakura was a girl, a girl who had pink hair and green eyes, and was an annoying fangirl. This animal in front of him was not her. Yes the eyes were still green, but instead of being filled with emotion and… love. They were worried and calculating. Even if the white of her fur was tinged with red occasionally, it wasn't Sakura's bright pink. And while he knew a pink wolf wouldn't have been possible, some part of him rebelled at the obvious change in his teammate.

But for the most part he was scared of the change. Because this was out of the norm and whenever his life left the norm everything would change. The first time his life had taken a break from the usual, things had been dark and dangerous and backwards and after that the norm had changed. Instead of a life with the family, that looking back, he hadn't appreciated enough. His life became a constant cycle of training and the occasional necessity of life.

The second time his life had changed had been graduation. It was in fact, an expected change. But it was a change none the less. The rest of Team Seven was defiantly beyond his version of normal. Or at least they had been. After a month and a half of dealing with their different quirks Sasuke had quickly found that it was easy to work around their differences. It had taken awhile, but as time went on he found that his team was at least bearable. The reason for this, was that they were predictable. Naruto was loud and frustrating, Sakura was annoying and a diehard fan girl, and Kakashi was the always late and aloof sensei. They fit together, they were predictable, and that was the way he liked it.

But now the change had happened again… he hated it, he hated the humiliation, the uncertainty, and the overall the feeling… or maybe it was the knowledge that like every other change that had happened in his life the norm was going to change after this… and he doubted it would be for the better…


Naruto was worried, no he was terrified.

He hadn't had time to think about it the day before because of Team Seven's race to get away. But after last night, when his dreams had taken a turn away from the usual ramen filled happiness, to the sight of Iruka-sensei bleeding and Mizuke-sensei standing over him telling him that he was the Demon and that no one cared. Not even the bleeding Iruka-sensei. That had quickly been followed by the day on the bridge when Sasuke was dead and he was so angry and everything turned red, and Naruto had almost killed someone. The darkness and pain that had filled him was pulling him in, and a quiet voice whispered that death would be a mercy if the fox got out… And that was all that it came down to. How would his transformation into a wolf affect the seal that held the Kyuubi?

Naruto never really dealt personally with seals before. The only one he had constant contact with was the one on his stomach. Sure he had memorized it, but that didn't really help him much, especially right now. Still, as he had studied the seal throughout his life he had come to see the balance in it. The seal was formed in spiral and every part was so detailed that messing up any part of it would have huge consequences. He could feel it.

Last night had been filled with such an adrenaline rush that he hadn't had time to think about anything. Let alone the fact that this transformation was made with seals. But now that he thought about it, he could feel the panic spreading. What if by turning him into a wolf the Kyuubi seal had been unbalanced in some way? He didn't feel demonic or anything, but in his mind's eye he could just picture losing control. Becoming less wolf-like and more fox like and then the world would be covered in a red haze and he wouldn't be able to tell what was going on.

The panic that he was feeling was very real, but he had always been good at running from his emotions. He would have to tell someone, he would prefer if he could talk to Iruka or the old man but seeing as they weren't there, he would settle for Kakashi. His question about ramen was more habit than anything else, it was the norm for him and he felt that it was needed in a situation like this and he really was hungry.

Naruto frowned when the need for silence was mentioned. He could understand it, but he had always felt more comfortable when there was noise. Noise meant distraction, which weather as a ninja or the self proclaimed Konoha's best prankster, was a good thing. Still, he didn't complain about it, he knew what was important.

Naruto was abruptly brought out of his thoughts when his stomach growled rather loudly. Sasuke snorted, and Naruto felt his hackles rise Sasuke was such a jerk there were days when he wasn't too bad but most of the time he was the most annoying, stuck up person he had ever met. He was about to jump onto the black wolf, when a soft rumbling could be heard from Sasuke's own stomach.

Naruto burst into laughter, and was surprised to hear Kakashi laughing along with him. And then there was a soft, nearly silent, sound of a female snort. Naruto gasped, but he was also laughing at the same time. This turned out to be a very bad idea, as he immediately started choking. As he was trying to clear his throat, out of the corner of his eye he saw Sasuke tense as he growled. And then, with almost no warning, Sasuke jumped on him.

The sudden weight left Naruto breathless. However his instincts kicked in the moment he felt Sasuke's teeth just starting to put pressure on his shoulder. Growling he pushed Sasuke off him. Feeling the small tear the black canine had made in his shoulder made him furious. Growling low and deep in the back of his throat he jumped onto the other boy and they two of them went tumbling.

Rolling on the floor the struggle to gain the upper hand was a thrill, and it felt good to be doing something that was so familiar. It was like a breath of fresh air. In the back of Naruto's mind he could almost tell that Sasuke felt the same way about the interaction. What they were doing right then made sense. Naruto while he understood Sasuke had problems, (and maybe he wasn't that bad all the time) he also understood that the boy needed some sense beat into him. And who better to do it then Konoha's future Hokage. This was all at the forefront of his mind, yet in the back he could still feel the panic that he was not prepared to face just yet.

Naruto was blown out of his thoughts when Sasuke's hind legs came out and kicked Naruto off of him. Naruto growled and was about to jump back onto teme when Kakashi was suddenly between the two of them. Naruto gave a yelp as he tried to come to a stop, and ended up skidding into the silver wolf that was now baring his teeth and growling low in his throat.

"You two can be real idiots sometimes, can't you?" His voice was low and harsh and Naruto flinched, "I just told you that we have to be quiet, and what do you do? You start making enough noise alert anything within a hundred yards that we're here. If one of you gets hurt we won't be able to heal or help you at all. In a sense we are completely defenseless. We already have nearly a hundred dogs after us, and an unknown quantity of people, who may or may not be ninjas. The odds of us getting to Konoha without conflict are slim as is, and if either of you gets hurt those odds will lower even further." Kakashi took a deep breath, and seemed to calm down. Naruto looked away. He already knew what Kakashi-sensei was talking about, and understood the gravity of the situation… okay, so maybe he hadn't considered ninja's being involved. But considering the fact that there were seals involved in this mess the option seemed rather likely.

"I know you're hungry," Kakashi started again, "But we're going to have to wait at least a day." Naruto frowned slightly. Why did they have to wait? He could understand not leaving the cave, but if they could catch fish or something…

Sakura was looking thoughtful, her tail was twitching slightly, "That makes sense. We can't go outside right now because we could be seen, or our scent tracked. While I suppose we could try fishing, most creek fish eat bugs, and it'd be impossible to fish while we're like this. We're too big to swim without disturbing the fish and the water hole in here is too deep to just reach into."

Naruto frowned, they were going to have to eat some time. Kakashi nodded, "Yes that's one point however there's another reason. Can any of you tell me why we should wait a while longer?"

There was silence for moment before Sasuke spoke up. "The dogs are still looking for us. The longer they can't find us, the more tired and spread out they'll be."

"Good," Kakashi said voicing his approval. "We're going to wait till sunset. The dogs will be really spread out by that point, and while it means more chance for one of them to come across our trail, it also means that it's more likely that we can take care of any dog pack that finds us." Kakashi paused "Now the three of you are going to have to be patient for the next little while. The sun isn't going to go down for maybe seven or eight hours. So in the mean time just try and be patient. I don't want any fighting. However, it is very likely that we will run into some dogs tonight. I will take turns with each of you and make sure you can at least put up some resistance."

Naruto felt a part of him relax. While Kakashi hadn't done too much teaching, he was always asking them questions, trying to get them to realize their own mistakes. This was normal, even though things had changed, the basics of their team dynamic had not. The sky was still blue, the grass was still green, and (hopefully) the fox would not get out. No matter what happened, Naruto would not let anything hurt his teammates.


Kakashi was not happy.

His students arguing, while it was normal, wasn't what the situation needed at the moment. He had to forcibly remind himself that they were still just children. Even if they were ninja, they needed some form of comfort, and it seemed that they were going to revert back to how they usually acted in order to get that comfort. He would indulge them for now, but they would need to calm back down in time for that night. As it was he was already thinking of how to get back. They would have to be careful especially considering what he had seen that morning.

He had woken up with the sun, which is what usually happened when he was on a mission. Stretching he had made his way over to the edge of the pool and had cautiously lapped up some of the water. He could feel his shinobi senses once again pointing out how dangerous their opponent must be if he was able to completely rewire a person's human motor function without completely destroying the mind. Something was off about that, he could feel it. He had made his way across the shallow part of the cave towards a rock slab near the entrance. He sat there for a while, watching as the sky turned pink and then blue.

It was about that moment that the bushes on the other side of the river started shaking. He had immediately been alert. Out of the bushes came a group of dogs the smallest one sniffing the ground intently. Kakashi's eyes narrowed. There were twelve of them, all different shapes and colors. The largest was a brown female that was growling lightly.

"Where are they stone? We must find the wolves for our master before anyone else gets to them."

The smaller dog whirled around from where he had been sniffing the banks of the river. "You are not helping, so shut up." The dog spat out. The larger dog growled, her hackles rising. Kakashi blinked in surprise as meanings flashed though his mind. Every action the dogs made seemed to mean something. They were able to communicate without making sounds.

"Are you really challenging me?"

The smaller dog responded with growling. "Yes, you do not deserve it."

Before things got out of hand, a gray dog got between them. "Stop, we'll split up, cover more ground. Stone will lead one group, and Pine will cover the other." The two dogs were glaring at each other, but they nodded and split up.

Kakashi had watched the interaction with growing worry. They way the dogs had spoken was much more complex than any dog who wasn't a summon or an Inuzuka bread should've have been able to. The idea had been playing in his mind last night, but he hadn't really had time to think on it. But this, this was almost as good as proof. There was still a chance he was wrong. But at the moment with the fact that their previous captors had known exactly how to turn them into wolves, it made sense that they weren't the first people they had done this to. The fact that there were seals involved in this also seemed to point towards ninja involvement. All this and adding in the number of dogs that they had seen last night, it seemed like they were up against something that was much bigger then he had first thought. By the looks of it, they had been doing this for years and the fact that his team was the first to escape, meant that no one knew what exactly was going on.

Team Seven had stumbled upon an enormous undertaking that was going on right beneath Konoha's nose. They had to get back. If no one knew about what was going on, then things could escalate to a point where Konoha wouldn't know what had hit them.

He stayed at the opening to the cave for a while after that staring out at the water his mind flying through scenarios that may or may not work. It looked like the search parties were starting to spread out to cover more ground. The longer they waited the more the groups would spread out and split up. However, if they waited too long, the groups would make their way back to the base and they would be in a lot of danger. Someone would realize that their scent had disappeared along the creek and that would start a search through the water itself.

By his calculations the best time to make their dash towards Konoha would be that coming night. They would have to run straight till morning to have any hope of making it. There wasn't any way to get to Konoha without leaving a trail for the dogs to follow and with the dogs possibly being ninjas it would be even more dangerous. The moment one of the dogs found their trail it would be a race. Even if they ran the whole way it would take all night to get to Konoha but once they made it there they would be safe. The thought had made him relax slightly.

A soft shuffling sound had made him glance over to see Sakura sitting up. She looked much more collected then she had the night before. He faced the river again and waited to see what she would do. He knew that he had neglected Sakura even more then the two boys. Knowing that she wasn't ready to learn. She wasn't ready to even be a shinobi in the first place. When she had mastered the tree climbing on her first try, he had been incredibly surprised. It had taken him three tries to master the exercise. The only people in Konoha to beat this record had been Itachi Uchiha and the Slug Sannin herself with two tries each.

Watching Sakura make it up the tree like she had been doing it her whole life had been astounding. He had stayed up later that night then usual thinking about whether or not he should put the information into his report. The sounds of Sakura fawning over Sasuke in the kitchen had convinced him not to. The moment that the village found out about her already perfect control it would mean intense training in medical jutsu and genjutsu so as to not let the talent go, and if she wasn't going to search for that herself then she wasn't ready to have it thrust on her. Ninja broke when that happened. It was a Jonin sensei's responsibility to find skills that the academy had missed and make sure that the student sought after those skills by themselves. When they were forced into something they never really mastered the skill and when the time came to use it people died.

The silence had stretched between them and Kakashi felt like she was finally starting to understand his reasoning. What had happened last night had shaken her, and maybe if she was smart she would let herself become ready.

And now here he was, trying to comfort a bunch of twelve year olds, when it was very possible that they weren't going to be okay. To be perfectly honest he was incredibly annoyed. Even if they were twelve, they were still ninja, they needed to grow up at some point. And yet there was a voice that sounded remarkably like his sensei, that just laughed and told him that they were just kids.

After he managed to calm down a bit, he couldn't help but worry himself. There were so many things that could go wrong. The fact that he had no access at all to his chakra, made him worried. And the most panicking was the thought of what the seals on him had done to the Sharingan. He could tell it wasn't activated. For the first time in thirteen years, there wasn't a drain on his chakra. The thought of losing Obito's gift sent a wave of numbness through him. But he didn't let it show, his students needed him now. Something about that thought tugged at him and made his emotional whirlpool worse. There was a mixture of panic at the thought of losing his last real connection to his (could have been) best friend, and the idea of failing this messed up backwards reflection of what almost was.

He couldn't fail them now.


Yah, kind of a filler… But the next chapter will be better. More action, After all we have to get to Konoha eventually. (Evil Grin)

-Savvywolf