Author's Notes: Ahh…it seems I have been asked a question that may be on the tip of several people's tongues. What is it that changes Iruka into a snow leopard by day and Kakashi a wolf by night?
Not to worry my dears, those shall be revealed quite soon, perhaps I might even drag it out a bit, keep you questioning for another chapter or two. Hehe…it will all be explained sooner or later.
Their story
"Rise and shine my little sleeping beauties!" Kakashi's much too cheerfully voice echoed in the early morning air. His eye was once again curved in its usual half-moon as he beamed down at the two thieves, huddled subconsciously together during their sleep.
"We wouldn't want to be caught by the Hokage's ANBU now do we?" The silver haired man's voice got a bit edgier as he yanked the warm blanket that had been draped over Naruto and Sasuke. He was crouched by the two boys, making a mental check of things he had need to do for the morning, but waking the boys seemed to be the last on his list.
"Too early." Naruto moaned, turning to curl closer against the source of heat beside him. Sasuke on the other hand had snapped both eyes open at the sudden realization of whose body was snuggling up against him and immediately shoved the boy away in panic.
"Teme! What the hell was that for?" Naruto shrieked
"Dobe." Sasuke grunted in reply, ignoring the rest of whatever his blonde friend had to say. Never the less, both were up on their feet soon enough. Sasuke pausing wearily by the door, "That couple…" he murmured, sparing a fleeting glance outside.
"We should run along now children." Kakashi hummed, merrily making his way out the barn, the snow leopard loping by his side easily.
"B-But he said it was a dream!" Naruto spluttered, staring at the bloodied earth. It was a sorry sight to see and not one he wished to look upon so early in the morning. He and Sasuke hurried to catch up with the silver headed man, "I don't get it! Where did he go? Was he really a spirit?" Naruto muttered in confusion, mostly to himself.
Kakashi's keen ears however, easily caught the words and he grinned in a way that suggested he already knew the answer to the question he was about to ask and was merely humoring the poor boy out of sheer amusement. "What's this about spirits Naruto? Did something happen while I was out?"
Sasuke gave a snort, obviously showing that he had never believed the other man to be a spirit. Though he was curious as to where this man had disappeared to, along with the large grey wolf as neither was to be seen. And where had Kakashi been all this time?
"I'm telling the truth when I tell you this Kakashi-san! I wouldn't lie about this, I swear it was a forest spirit!" Naruto's voice carried on rather loudly and excitedly as he retold the events of the past night. Several exaggerations were thrown into the story, only to have Sasuke comment with a few tidbits here and then, generally shooting down whatever claims the blonde made.
"Forest spirit?" Kakashi interrupted, "Start from the very beginning." He commanded, amusement twinkling in the unfathomably dark blue eye.
"I'm not lying Kakashi bastard!"
"Never mind that, just go on." The lanky traveler waved his hand in a bored fashion, effectively cutting off any reply Naruto had been about to give.
"As I was saying," Naruto started, "After you left, we heard that weird couple talking. They heard us, because Sasuke-teme was stupid and made a noise."
"Dobe, At least I was trying to get out, you were just frozen to your spot like a baby."
"Teme!"
Kakashi interjected at this point, each hand grabbing the two boys, holding them an arm's length apart, "Now now children, that's enough. Naruto, continue with your story please."
Naruto huffed and crossed his arms, "Anyway, that crazy couple were going to kill us and they were chasing us. Almost killed me to, but then this HUGE grey wolf got to him! Tore his throat right out like it was nothing! It was like a demon or something, it had to be! So me and Sasuke ran for the barn."
Naruto paused here, shaking slightly as the memories of last nigh replayed in his mind, "That wolf went after the girl too. But then this brown haired guy comes walking out of the forest all carefree and like! And I was thinking, does he not see that demon out there?"
Kakashi blinked several times, laughter welling in his chest, threatening to erupt from his mouth, "I didn't notice anyone else around and I don't see any body with brown hair."
"That's because he didn't get eaten! That demonic wolf started playing with the guy like some little puppy! And they just walked into the barn, totally ignoring the fact that me and Sasuke here were totally ready to fight if we had to." Naruto rattled off, ignoring Sasuke's amused snort because the blonde had omitted the fact that he'd grabbed a bucket for a weapon.
"He took out ramen from a pack that looked a lot like yours Kakashi-san." Sasuke suddenly spoke up, eyes staring straight at the man, "In fact, he knew our names too. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that would you? Is that man after us or something?"
"Now Sasuke, did this pair…this forest spirit and his wolf, did they harm you two in any way?" Kakashi raised his eyebrow, twisting his head to get a good look at the two boys.
Sasuke seemed to frown even further and Kakashi was sure he was trying to fuse them together. "Well, they did kill that couple…"
"But that crazy couple tried to kill us!" Naruto interrupted loudly, after all, he was the one who'd almost been sliced in half.
"Either way, I'm sure it was me there after." Kakashi tore his eyes from his book and craned his head upwards to view the sky, beneath the dark mask, he seemed to sniff the air, but neither boy could really tell, "Maa…let's take a break soon. It's going to snow. Plus I've covered our trail, so Kabuto's incompetent men should be far behind us."
"Snow?" Naruto blinked, he thought the weather seemed quite nice considering it was winter, but Kakashi had been rather right about last night's chill. His face flushed when he recalled the position he'd woken up in.
"You do not like Kabuto." Sasuke stated curiously.
Kakashi growled, pausing before a clearing that he deemed fit to rest upon, "Kabuto is traitorous fool who will take any chance that pops up to bring him higher up in the world. In any case, he is in the way of my mission, so he will be eliminated soon enough." Kakashi snarled.
"And what is your mission?" Naruto piped up, curiosity at its peak.
"To free Konoha's people."
"Ha. Why should you help them? They are nothing but two faced liars, hiding behind an innocent façade."
Kakashi blinked at the sudden anger emanating from his two charges as they moved to help set up camp, "Explain."
Naruto grabbed several pieces of kindling of the ground, dumping them roughly in a pile, "I'm an orphan. I've never known my mother or my father. When I was seven I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and all of a sudden, everyone hates me! No one cared about me, they always tried to hurt me and the only way for me to survive was to steal clothes to cover my body and food to fill my own belly!"
"Wrong place, wrong time?"
Sasuke spoke up this time, his voice quieting as he recalled the unhappy events of his life, "The Uchiha massacre. My own brother killed my entire clan. Naruto showing up there was the only reason why I'm still alive and yet the entire city blames him. They look down upon me as well for hanging around him as well as the shame my brother placed on my family's name."
"Ah….I remember this massacre." Kakashi's voice was heavy, watching the two boys with an indescribable look in his eye, "Orochimaru will pay for his actions. I found out that he murdered the late Yondaime. He only seeks power and now that he has it, he is abusing it in the worst way. And he will pay for the actions he has taken. I will deliver his punishment myself."
"And how exactly are you going to get into Konoha and be close enough to do that?" Kakashi grinned cheerfully, looking pointedly at the two thieves.
"Why I have you two of course!"
"Oh no." Naruto backed up a step, blue eyes wide, "There is no way I'm going back there, NO WAY!"
"You two got out, you can help me get in." Kakashi didn't blink, "Was everyone in Konoha really so horrible to you two?"
Sasuke flinched at the question, "We…we do have some friends." He looked away, "They are in the prisons."
Naruto shook his head, "No way. No, no way. I don't want to leave them there either, but I'm not going back in now. I just got out, they'll kill us on the spot!"
"You don't have a choice because I'm not giving you one." Kakashi stated in a seemingly bored tone, however there was something else in eye.
"You may have saved our lives and I'm in debt to you for it, but you'll have to kill me if you want me to go back there." Naruto edged for an escape, only to be cut off as a kunai was suddenly buried to the hilt in the trunk of the tree before his face. The blonde swallowed and grinned weakly towards Kakashi. "I'm ahh…just going to get some more wood."
Kakashi beamed innocently, even as the snow leopard curled at his side looked up reproachfully at him, "Excellent idea! It's going to be pretty cold tonight!"
Night came quickly. Along with it came the biting chill that often accompanied the first winter dusting. The small crystalline pieces of ice covered the brown earth, bringing its own natural beauty in the eerie darkness of the forest. Moonlight reflected off the snow, creating a sparkling earthy version of the sky.
In the distance, a lone wolf howled and Iruka crouched behind a bush as he prepared himself. "There!" he hissed quietly, dashing from his spot to ambush the rabbit as it appeared.
A look of pure joy crossed the brown haired man as he raced through the trees. He reveled in the wind blowing past his face, his hair had been twisted into a ponytail by a hastily made tie.
Just as he caught up with the rabbit, Iruka was about to throw his kunai when a shout startled both predator and prey. He looked up to find Naruto and Sasuke tied to the upper branches of trees.
"Ano…Mr. Possibly Forest Spirit sir? Could you please help us down?" Naruto cried out. Sasuke snorted, wriggling in his bonds.
"Kakashi must love you guys." Iruka laughed, hands reaching up for a branch to swing himself up.
"Not funny! We've been up here for hours!" Naruto whined indignantly.
"He's going to get made at me for sure, but then again I can't leave you two here all night and he knows that." Iruka hopped up onto their branch as he reached over to release the knots.
Sasuke grunted as he dropped to the ground, ignoring Naruto's following yelp, "How do you know it was Kakashi that put us up there?" He crossed his arms, "It could have been Kabuto's men."
Iruka laughed, puffs of steam floating into the air like clouds, "Please, ANBU would have killed you. Kakashi's the only one who'd do this entirely for its entertainment purpose." He turned to face the two boys with a grin. "Plus, he's the only one who--shit."
Iruka "Kashi us going to kill me now." He groaned, finding both boys had disappeared from sight.
Orochimaru stalked across the room, yellow snake-like eyes narrowing in anger, "This will not due Mizuki. I do not tolerate failure." He smirked as the hunter's body tensed in fear.
"I've killed a large amount of wolves Orochimaru-sama. I can't kill every fucking wolf in Konoha." Mizuki snarled angrily. Orochimaru frowned at the display of impudence, but he couldn't very well kill them silver haired man.
"I don't want every damn wolf killed. I want one." Orochimaru turned to face out the window, "A young man, kind and innocent, hair and eyes the color of bittersweet chocolate. He has a scar that runs across the bridge of his nose. He travels by night for the moon is his sun."
The Hokage smiled, "His name is Umino Iruka. Find him and you find the wolf. A large gray wolf not seen in these parts, the wolf that loves him. Kill that wolf and you will be rewarded with riches you have never seen the likes of."