A/N: Sorry this took so long. Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Shifting Life
His Soul Offers no Solace

"You want to what?" Sakura asked, aghast. Kakashi was fast asleep in his fox form, curled into a tight ball beneath the shade of a stinted apple tree, and as she watched him, Sakura could not bear the idea of what Yamato was telling her.

"I want to capture him," Yamato said, "and take him to the king."

"But why?" Sakura asked, still shocked and puzzled, as well as deeply upset. This was Kakashi, and no matter how much he hated her, she loved him with all of her heart. To send him to the king--to send him to his death--seemed the most horrible gift someone in love could possibly give to the object of their affections.

"The king knows old magic, deep magic. It's the kind that runs through Kami's veins," Yamato said. "He of all people will be able to reverse what your grandmother's done."

"Then you sentence him to death!" Sakura shrieked, beginning to shake. The urge to slap the man next to her was great and tempting. "The king will not be as generous as Grandmother Tsunade, and she is not generous at all, to be sure!"

"Hear me out, love," Yamato continued, taking her hand and kissing it gently. "We will pretend that you are bound to him, and that if the knights kill him, so then do you die."

She looked at him, quizzical and skeptical, and pulled her hand away to her chest. He followed it to her and kissed her on the lips, but she was unresponsive.

"The king will be more than happy to unbind the two of you; then, if we're lucky, we can escape."

Sakura stared disbelievingly at her lover for a moment, then leaped upon him in a fit of joy, hugging him fiercely and kissing his cheeks and lips again and again. "Tenzou, Tenzou, my dear heart!" she cried. "You are a good man!" Then she pulled away. "But Kakashi will never go along with it. He'll think it was a plot to just get him out of the way." She spat in his direction.

"Come here, to this tree. Will a spell wake him up?" Yamato asked, striding over to the opposite side of the tree where Kakashi lay sleeping.

"A spell?" Sakura asked, following him. She pulled her cloak more tightly around her shoulders. She had never seen a spell. She shivered. "You're a Witch?"

"Yes," Yamato said. He placed his hand and forehead against the rough bark, and sighed. "Will he wake up?"

Sakura shook her head.

"I'm going to call the knights here. We'll head towards them with Kakashi. Both of us, when we see them, will pretend to be hostages, all right? I'll take the opportunity to grab Kakashi from behind and blindfold him to relax him."

"It's a good plan," Sakura said, "but are you sure it will work?"

"No," Yamato said. "But hush. I have to concentrate."

And then Sakura witnessed something that fascinated her. It looked as though Yamato was courting the tree, stroking and kissing its bark, singing softly to it, asking for a favor with a tiny smile turning the corners of his mouth up. He paused, and then whispered to it, "I am under the guard of a Shade. My lover is under his binding spell. We make our way to Konoha from the west."

There was a sigh from high above in the boughs of the tree, and the leaves began to rustle, though there was no wind to move them. Three broke off of their branches and fluttered away to the east, carrying the simple message. One leaf for each statement: how incredible!

"All right," Yamato said, patting the tree trunk lightly. "Wake him up. We need to go. The knights will head our way as soon as the leaves come to them." He walked briskly to the side of the shack where his horse was tied and began to swiftly tack her.

Sakura reluctantly moved to where Kakashi lay sleeping and nudged him sharply with her booted foot after regaining her nerve. He jumped up, startled, and then grunted when he saw that it was only her.

"What do you want?" he asked, either unaware of Yamato's preparative actions or blatantly ignoring them. Frowning, Sakura guessed it was the latter.

"Let's go, Kakashi," she said. "Tenzou has to get back to the castle and we've wasted time waiting for you."

Kakashi stood as a human and snapped, "So why doesn't he just go himself?" standing over Sakura almost threateningly.

"Because I love her," Yamato said, striding toward Kakashi with his sword drawn. The Shifter took a few steps back as the blade slid flat-sided along his neck. He glared at it with distaste. "I don't see any problem with that, Shifter."

"I see no problem with loving her either, human," Kakashi said, and he practically spat the word. If he was without a mask, he no doubt would have. He shoved the sword aside and held it in a hand now protected by scales. He squeezed the metal until red blood made its way towards the hilt, then he released it. "It's making love to her that I'm warning you against."

Yamato flicked the sword, scattering the blood into the dust, then sheathed it and made for his horse again. Kakashi's eyes followed him for a moment before they suddenly darted to the side, and he gazed, unsure, out at a man in the distance. A crow's caw from the far-off figure relaxed him, and he howled back, cupping his hands to his human mouth and spilling his sweet song into the air. Sakura sighed, loving the sound.

The man came rushing forward upon hearing the invitation until he only stood across the road. He had neck-length brown hair, straight, and brown eyes, and he strode toward Kakashi warily, eyeing Sakura and zigzagging and shifting from foot to foot when he came to a standstill a few yards away from them.

"It seems you have a rapport with humans, brother chimera," the man said.

Kakashi stiffened. "Chimera? What are you talking about--I'm a Shifter, like you, sir."

"It's not an insult, if that's what you're wondering, brother," the Shifter said. He had a long toothpick in his mouth; he took it between his fingers and spat into the dirt. "The crows call me Shiranui Genma. Come and talk with me, brother, away from the prying ears of this girl."

"I am bound to the girl," Kakashi said, straightening and blocking Sakura slightly from view, "by old magic that runs deeper than the fires of the earth. I am Hatake Kakashi. But you say the crows named you? And you say I am a chimera? I don't care whether it's a compliment or not--I'm not one of those creatures."

Genma nodded sympathetically, but seemed to ignore Kakashi's later questions. "Yes--my mother was burned before she could name me; my father took me south and then died from a Shadebane arrow."

"Took you south?" Kakashi asked, interested, though Sakura could tell he was slightly annoyed at Genma's insolence. "Why are you back here in this country? Is the south a safer place for us?"

"Shifters, chimeras--yes," Genma said. "I called you one because of your eye." He gestured to his own. "That looks rather painful, brother. Shades have their own section of land. Humans who fear the knights of this country and others live there as well."

"And the king?" Kakashi asked. "But, sir, I am not a chimera. My eye has nothing to do with it."

Genma shrugged. "A just man, but a man nonetheless, a fugitive from this regime. And I shall take your word for your own blood, brother."

"Come on, girl, stop being so damn stubborn!"

Kakashi whirled around at the sound of Yamato trying to get his mount to cooperate. For a moment he thanked whatever god there was that the horse was so afraid of his wolf form, then he whirled back to Genma and grabbed him by the shoulders. They were almost the same height, with Kakashi only the slightest bit taller, but nonetheless, the movement made the other skittish. He pushed back against Kakashi's chest, separating himself from the other, and fingered his crow-shaped necklace nervously.

"You must go!" Kakashi hissed frantically. "A knight of this regime guards me." Sakura saw Genma stiffen considerably. "Fly as a crow back to the southlands, to our people--under no circumstances must you stop--and get yourself to safety."

Genma nodded and pulled away, flying high into the air as an unassuming crow, with only his necklace as a symbol of his heritage, dangling slightly as he flew.

Kakashi watched him go, then turned back to Sakura as though nothing had happened, though she saw the fearful look in his eye. She would tell Yamato nothing, but she longed to cup her protector's face, to pull down his mask and kiss him just once, lightly--but in that sense, she could not, because Yamato must not know of her undying love for this creature, and he had finally managed to pull his horse into the open.

"Sakura," he called, "would you like to ride, or would Kakashi like to keep you close to his person?"

In response, Kakashi glowered and became a proud-looking dapple-gray horse, quite a few hands larger than Yamato's bay mare, with a long mane hanging past his neck and a tail that he had to lift almost constantly to keep from dragging. He was fully tacked as well, and used this to hide his necklace, and he offered his shoulder to Sakura grudgingly.

But for a moment, Sakura could only stare in shock. Kakashi had never become a horse for her, not ever. Clearly he was on edge around Yamato, and so not to seem suspicious, she pulled herself up onto his back, unused to stretching her legs so far apart. She shifted uncomfortably, and Kakashi narrowed his back slightly.

She took the reins as Kakashi began trotting in step besides Yamato and his horse. The Shifter kept snapping at the mare whenever she got too flirtatious.

"I'm not interested," he said to her sharply when she nibbled at his mane, and let out a coughing neigh to make his statement clear.

They traveled together for nearly a month and a half, stopping at small villages and towns where Kakashi had to pose as different creatures, all of them belonging to Sakura. Sometimes, for some extra money, they all hired themselves out for some menial labor. Kakashi, at one point, was nearly gored by the oxen he was herding, and took his rage out on the lamb leg Yamato tossed to him that night, tearing it apart and flinging it side to side in his anger.

"Calm down, Kakashi," Yamato said to the wolf as he brought a rice ball to his lips. "The lamb is dead. Besides, you'll hurt your neck."

"I'm pretending it's that stupid ox!" Kakashi snapped, tearing away some of the bone fibers and spitting them out before going back in for the marrow. "That damned thing nearly killed me!" He whipped his head from side to side, not even bothering to really chew his food as he swallowed, before finally tossing it away and laying down, licking his muzzle free of blood and stray pieces of meat. He sighed and gazed into the flames. On some inner level, Sakura knew that he wasn't angry at the ox.

But Kakashi's initial powerful feelings toward Yamato had toned down by now, and though they were far from being friends, they tolerated each other. Yamato no longer kissed Sakura any lower than her face, as once Kakashi, as a human, shoved him up against a tree and punched him sharply between the ribs, muttering something about humans and their stupid sense of love. It once led the knight to ask, "Then what the hell do Shifters view as love?"

Kakashi looked at him strangely. "I wouldn't know" he said simply. "I have never been in love." And then he looked back into the flames and said no more that night.

They woke one morning bright and early, Kakashi stretching his spine until it popped and rubbing his neck as a human, grunting something about it being sore and that maybe he should have taken Yamato's advice and calmed down. Sakura was slightly surprised that he would even admit to that, but he was obviously in some sort of pain--as she mounted him that day when he became a horse, he seemed drawn into himself and asked her ahead of time to shoo away any flies that came too close so that he would not have to move his head or neck.

It was just as the sun was beginning to set that the knights came.

They were first alerted by shouts in the distance, and Yamato dismounted, helping Sakura down from her seat on Kakashi. Kakashi became a human and hid his eye with an eye patch and his necklace with his cloak, and Yamato swatted his horse away. She galloped off back they way they had come.

Kakashi looked at Yamato questioningly, because now the knight had lost his mount, but then he stiffened as a group of three knights came trotting forward.

Yamato leaped toward Kakashi as soon as the knights began to slow. The Shifter was too afraid to react properly, and Yamato twisted his arm behind his back and choked him slightly with a tight arm around his throat.

"So here's the Shade," one of the knights said, a woman with long dark hair and vivid red eyes. She knocked an arrow to her bowstring and drew it back to her cheek.

"What?" Kakashi snarled. "I'm a what, Yamato?" His mask disappeared suddenly and he bit Yamato's arm with the fangs of a wolf, taking satisfaction from the man's pained shout. The blindfold he had been holding fluttered to the ground. Yamato released Kakashi's arm and the Shifter elbowed him roughly in the stomach, sending him sprawling. He turned his attention to the five knights that had now surrounded him, cutting him off from Sakura.

"Don't loose your arrows just yet, men," another knight said, a tan-skinned man with a small cylindrical pipe in his mouth. "The girl's bound to him, remember?"

"We don't have to kill him," another dark-haired knight said.

"But it will hurt the girl," the woman knight said.

The man with the small pipe leaped down from his gray horse and strode toward Kakashi, holding a serrated knife to his throat. Kakashi glanced at it and growled.

"Oho," the man said, laughing slightly. "The Shade is looking for a fight. I wouldn't fight though, Shade. This blade is covered in Shadebane--freshly dipped, too."

Kakashi could smell the acidic stench of the poison on the knife and shied away from it. The dark-haired man from behind wrapped a loose rope around his neck and tightened it until he had trouble breathing, then tied the end of the rope to his horse and bound Kakashi's hands together behind his back. In six hours, it would start, he knew.

The betrayal still had him frozen, and only when he realized that Sakura and Yamato had mounted horses when the two male knights had gotten down from them, and the one Kakashi was tied to started walking, did he know that it was time to move.

They rode, stopping briefly every hour or so, and when Kakashi began to feel the itch, he immediately turned to Sakura as though she might help him.

"Sakura, I…" A punch across his face had him lying on the ground, curled up with his stinging cheek pressed to the cool earth. The rope around his neck tightened dangerously as the horse continued walking, and the knight called for an all-around halt. Kakashi's vision blurred. The rope around his neck was loosened by some strong hands.

"You'll not talk to her, Shade," the man with the pipe said, kicking Kakashi in the ribs. He coughed feebly. Sakura covered her mouth with her hands, trying to hide her tears.

"Kakashi," Kakashi murmured.

The knight raised an eyebrow. "What was that?" he asked.

"My name's Kakashi," the shape shifter said. "I have a name…" Another kick to the ribs silenced him. These were much more painful than Sakura's kicks, whether because he was tired or whether because she had always been holding back, he didn't know. All he knew was that he tasted blood in his mouth, trickling down his chin.

"And my name's Asuma," the man above him said, digging his heel into Kakashi's side. "What were you going to say to the girl?"

"I need to change," Kakashi whispered.

"He says he needs to change, Captain Yamato," Asuma said, turning to look at his comrade.

Yamato swung down from his horse. "I think you've hurt him enough, Asuma," he said. "He won't run." He came forward, but a growl from Kakashi stopped him in his tracks. It was a weak growl, but one from deep within his chest. His visible red eye glinted angrily in the moonlight.

"Don't touch me," he said. But it seemed that he couldn't move, so Yamato took a knife and released his bound arms. Instantly, there were fangs in his flesh, crushing down on the bones in his arm, and wild eyes gazing at him with such hatred that if Yamato didn't die from a bite, he would surely die from those eyes.

Asuma stabbed his sword downward into Kakashi's side without a second thought. The wolf let out a yelp and lay still, back to a human, holding a hand to his wound as the knight drew his sword back out, slowly, wriggling it side to side with Kakashi's flesh. Kakashi groaned.

"Damn you knights," he said. "Damn all of you to hell!" But the words took too much effort, and he slipped into darkness.

He awoke sometime later with a cloth over his eyes, but struggled upright anyway. The cloth slipped from his face and a rough hand pushed him back down. He twisted. A needle slipped. A curse was spoken from Sakura's lips. His eyes snapped open to look at her, the woman knight crouched beside her. Kakashi found himself bare-chested and without a mask, his skin stained with his own blood. The rising sun told him that he'd been asleep for quite some time.

"You shouldn't do that again, Asuma," the woman knight said.

"What's it to you, Kurenai?"

"Lady Sakura looks weak, and she's our only healer."

Kakashi suddenly felt very, very afraid. No normal fear could hold him in such a transfixed state of terror, like a hare right before it dies freezes as it gazes at a pair of oncoming jaws. Suddenly he wanted nothing more than to curl around Sakura's neck and fall asleep there, snuggled into her warmth, but then he pushed himself away from those putrid thoughts.

"You're awake," Yamato said. Kakashi looked up at the man standing over him. "I'd brain you for what you did." He brandished a bandaged arm angrily.

Kakashi merely laughed, his teeth still slightly pointed in threat. "I'd do it again in a second," he said, "if I could move." All told, he felt rather feverish. His muscles were clenched and refused to unwind. And then he realized something. His back arched and he opened his mouth in a silent little scream, unable to speak. Something hurt. Something hurt somewhere deep, and it wasn't a wound. Where was it? Where was his necklace!?

"Ah!"

Who the hell was wearing his necklace? His jaw shivered and trembled, his eyes wide with pain, and then he closed them and sat up roughly, trying to stand, and he struggled against the hands that held him down.

"She's not done yet, Kakashi-san!" Kurenai said.

"Don't give him such respect, Kurenai," Asuma said. "He doesn't deserve it. Gai, isn't that his?"

"This necklace? Yeah. I'm seeing what he does. I'm pretty sure that reaction's not from Lady Sakura's healing." Gai jangled the necklace against his chest as he crouched in front of Kakashi's shaking form.

"Bastard!" the Shifter shouted, and reached for him, but Kurenai held him back. "That isn't yours!" He blanched as Gai held it between his fingers, twisting it in circles. It made Kakashi feel queasy.

"Are you sure you didn't steal it?" the knight asked with a smile.

"I've had that since I was born!" Kakashi snapped. "My mother carved it! Return it to me!"

"I don't think I will," Gai said. "Tell me more about it. I've always been curious about Shifter culture."

Kakashi went ahead unwittingly to speak of the necklace. He just wanted it back. He was trembling so badly Sakura had given up on her needle and now it was dangling from his side, unnoticed. That was his single most precious item in the world that Gai was holding, and if he lost it, he would go insane.

"A Shifter's father carves a necklace for his daughter, and a mother carves it for her son," he said, "just after they are born. They're carved in the form the baby comes as--I am a wolf, so my mother made my necklace a wolf's necklace before she died--and they become the child's soul. That necklace is my soul--my everything! I'm begging you, give it back!"

"Born as a wolf, huh?" Gai asked, staring at the necklace in his palm. It did look quite a lot like a grown wolf. Then Gai looked up sharply. "Shifter? I thought you were a Shade?"

"Does it matter?" Kakashi said earnestly. "Give it back!"

"Yes, it does, and if it keeps you in check, I'm keeping it for now," Gai said, standing. "Will we have to tie you up? I don't like seeing people that way."

Kakashi shook his head wildly.

"Good."

Kakashi tried to stand and stumbled. His legs were hardly able to support him, they were shaking so badly. He reached down with a claw and cut the needle away from his body and stared at Gai with a wide, disbelieving eye.

"No, please," he said. His voice was almost a whimper. "I need it back."

"It's your soul, you said?" Gai asked.

Kakashi nodded.

"How would you feel if someone tore your heart out?" Yamato asked suddenly, snatching the necklace from around Gai's neck and placing it back over Kakashi's. The Shifter quailed and sank to his knees, hunching his back and dry heaving. "You can't do that, Gai, even if he is a Shade."

"He said he was a Shifter," Gai said, eyes narrowed.

"Either way," Yamato snapped. "Call him what you like--you can't do that to somebody."

"What is he, Shifter or Shade?" Gai asked.

"It doesn't matter," Asuma said, pulling Kakashi up by the shoulder. "He's a shape-changer, and we've got to get the girl unbound from him, so we're taking him to the king to do that before we kill him."

"Don't touch him anymore," Yamato said. Asuma released Kakashi's arm, and the Shifter became a snake, curled shivering at his feet. "He'll stay close by. Sakura?"

Sakura looked up sharply, having been silent until this point.

"Are you all right?"

She nodded, and picked the snake up in her arms. He became a cat and immediately pressed himself close to her. He shook beneath her fingers, frightened, in pain, angry and violated, and she held him to her chest as unassumingly as she could. Nevertheless, Asuma and Gai looked at her with suspicion. She hated their cool, calculating eyes and what they had done to the creature in her arms. She hated them. She understood Kakashi a little better now, somewhat.

Sakura rode tiredly for the rest of the journey. Kakashi stuck close to her and stayed away from the knights (except for Yamato--it seemed the Shifter had a newfound respect for him), always in some protective form like a wolf or cougar. At one point he offered her his horse's back, but the Kurenai said that he would need to either give up his necklace or put the rope around his neck. Neither option was very appealing. Kakashi had never had his necklace stolen from him before this, and just the thought of not having it now terrified him. So he allowed Sakura some comfort instead by curling up in the saddle with her as a small cat, allowing her to stroke his fur every so often.

It actually felt rather nice, he reflected while she pet him once. The castle could just be seen on the horizon, and at the sight of it, Sakura's hand immediately fell to his side. His wound had healed by now, but it was still sore, and when she pet it and sent her healing energy through it, he couldn't help but softly purr.

And still, the knights looked on with suspicion. This was very odd for a hostage situation, though a spell upon the girl seemed quite likely. They'd seen Warlock Shades before, and had managed to kill all of them after destroying their spells. This Shade would be no different.

Upon reaching the gates some days later, Asuma grabbed Kakashi by the scruff and pulled him out of the saddle, holding him suspended in the air. His gaze flashed over the necklace around the Shifter's neck before he threw the cat to the ground in disgust.

"Get up, Shade, and start walking."

Kakashi pulled himself slowly to a stand as a human and walked near Sakura's horse, holding himself as tall as his wounded dignity would let him. His mask was back in place, and he stared only at the ground, saying nothing.

As they made their way into the city, citizens began to gather, and Asuma tightened a rope around Kakashi's neck to keep him from bolting or snapping at those who came too close.

"What are you doing to that poor man and his wife?" a woman in an apron asked, storming up to the band of knights.

Asuma merely laughed. "Man, fair lady? This thing is no man. He is a Shade." The knight grabbed Kakashi and whirled him around so that he could show the woman his necklace. She gasped, her hand to her mouth, and stumbled away.

"You're sick," Kakashi snarled, his vocal chords quivering with a wolf's snarl. "I mean no one any harm, and I am no Shade!"

"Tell that to the king," Gai said. "He won't listen."

"I'll make him listen!" Kakashi snapped. "Ask Yamato. He's seen a real Shade and knows the difference."

The knights turned to Yamato expectantly, who sat up straight in his saddle and said, "His race is worse than animals. Shades and Shifters are the same. That thing ate one of his own."

"Liar!" Kakashi screamed. Asuma held him back from leaping at Yamato. "You filthy liar! Tell them the truth, you little piece of shit!"

"That is the truth," Yamato said. "You drank its blood."

"You're the one who killed him!" Kakashi said wildly. A crowd was beginning to gather. "You're the one who saved my life! Tell them the damn truth!" His words were beginning to choke together into desperate sobs, and Asuma was pulling him back and back, tightening the rope until the Shifter could scarcely breathe. And then Kakashi let out a wretched howl in his human form, and it shocked everyone in the square to silence. The howl sounded distinctly like "Yamato!" before Asuma cut him off by punching him soundly in the stomach and hoisting him over his shoulder.

"That's enough, dammit," he said. "Let's go."

And now, with the Shifter fully unconscious, they made their way to the castle.