Chapter 2/2 posted on 2/5! Thank you so much for reading and reviewing...for those of you who were waiting, sorry, and I hope you enjoy these two chapters!


Kakashi felt something warm spark in his chest as he trailed behind Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura through the streets of Wave. The villagers all turned and smiled at the three young teens, offering them samples of food and small wooden and paper toys. They each already adorned leafy crowns from another stall and had bracelets with tiny, colorful rocks on their wrists.

Though the sun was nearly set, the festivities were still in full swing, the light from the stars and the many fires in the wall sconces lining the buildings keeping the darkness away. It had been nine days of resting and then finishing building the bridge, and already the first traders had arrived, enabling everyone the means to celebrate and look forward to a better life.

It had been rocky for the first day or so, Sasuke still recovering and confused as to why Sakura kept avoiding Naruto. When Sasuke had finally had enough of the tension between the other two, he snapped.

"What the hell is going on with you?"

Sakura had scoffed and pointed at Naruto. "It's not my secret to tell. Why don't you ask him. He should've told us a long time ago."

Naruto had looked hurt and then angry. "What? Told you what? That I'm a monster? And then just let you take me back to Konoha to be locked up again?"

Kakashi had tried to lean back further into the tree behind him and raised his orange book to hide his face. On one hand, he knew sometimes letting teammates fight it out was good for them, they'd eventually resolve their conflicts themselves. On the other, his old team use to fight all the time and never seemed to reach a resolution. Eventually Minato-sensei had just given up and let them bicker back and forth constantly, only stepping in when it was a danger to a mission. Then again, his team also almost all died because they couldn't stop fighting anyways. And, his team was broken now in a way he couldn't repair. So, maybe he should do something.

Sasuke was staring at Naruto with a blank look. "All of that red chakra that took down Haku…that was you. I could see it, even while unconscious."

Sakura shuddered. "Why the heck didn't you tell us, Naruto? What happens if you lose control?"

Naruto went stiff as a board and refused to answer. After a few moments of silence, Kakashi closed his book with a loud snap, causing the three to look at him in surprise.

"Maa, lets all go do a little training. Working when you're stressed and tired builds great character."

"Sasuske's still injured." Sakura glared at Kakashi.

He just flapped his hand at her. "Don't worry. He'll still be able to do what I have planned."

Kakashi had taken them to the uncompleted bridge. He'd made them hang under it using only the chakra in their fingertips. At their protests and complaints, he'd pulled out his kunai and pointed it at them.

"If you try to get back on top, I'll be there. If you fall into the water, I'll be there. If you move to walk along the bridge with your feet, I'll be there. You'll find a kunai in your foot. It's a life or death situation, so no matter whether you're tired, scared, injured, you do what you have to, to survive."

"How long do we have to do this for?" Sasuke was glaring at him petulantly.

Kakashi shrugged. "Until you can talk to each other without arguing."

They'd hung in silence for about an hour. Kakashi was slightly proud of their chakra control and stamina. But it couldn't last forever, and Sakura was the first to cave.

"Naruto!" She'd yelled. "Tell us you at least have control over it."

Naruto had groaned. "I don't. It's a demon. It's literally only caged by a seal."

"So what do you do if you lose control?"

"I don't know! I don't remember what happens okay?"

"Why didn't you tell us, dobe?"

"Why would I?" Naruto snarled. "Its my secret. What would I have said? 'Hey, guys, I have a deadly monster sealed in me. Chakra is poisonous. Watch out I could burn you if I use it and not my own. Or I could lose control and kill you in two seconds. Please take care of me.'"

"Well a little warning would've been nice." Sakura snapped.

"And have you either take me back to Konoha so I'd have been locked up again? Or decide to abandon me in the forest when I've never been outside of Konoha much less outside of my cell? I think I was right not to say anything at all."

"Did you think we'd never find out?!"

"I had escaped Konoha! No one would ever ask me to use the Kyuubi's chakra again and I certainly had no plans to ever use it for myself."

"Then what the heck happened while fighting Haku?!"

Naruto had gone silent and refused to answer. The three hung there for another half hour before Saksuke groaned.

"Kuso, Naruto, just answer the question. I don't think I can take this much longer."

Naruto was silent for a few moments more. "I…I thought you were dead. Haku was just standing there, he asked me if you were the first precious person I'd lost. I was so angry..." Naruto let out a deep sigh. "It hurt."

"And then you lost control." Sakura said quietly.

"No." Naruto's voice was raw. "No, I-I asked it. I asked the Kyuubi to help me."

They were silent for another ten minutes and then Sasuke fell into the water. Kakashi had shunshined below and caught the kid, he was obviously too exhausted to walk on the water.

But once they were all on dry land and back in the clearing in the forest, he turned and tossed his kunai into Sasuke's left foot. The dark-haired boy fell to the ground with a curse and a cry, and Sakura and Naruto had each given an ugly snarl before turning to try and attack him.

They lasted less than a second, of course. Exhausted from their training exercise and too blind by irritation and anger to even put up a fight. Once he'd twisted them both to the ground next to Sasuke, Kakashi heaved a sigh.

"Looks like you'll have to heal him, Sakura. Hopefully your control isn't shaky."

The girl had tried. Green chakra threading from her fingers to the bloody wound, but it was faint and slow and obviously not doing much in the way of healing. After watching her struggle for a few minutes, Naruto timidly held his hand out, one of the ugly seals already taken from his pouch and placed on his palm.

"S-Sakura. You can use it if you want. Like last time. It won't hurt you, I promise."

Sakura reeled back. "No, but it'll hurt Sasuke, won't it? I won't."

Naruto had slowly dropped his hand, his face flushing red and Kakashi noticed his eyes watering. Kakashi met Sasuke's eyes, the boy glaring at him with all his strength. Kakashi didn't look away. If he didn't wear a mask covering half his face, he'd have mouthed to him man up. The dark-haired had brat rolled his eyes.

"For the Nidaime's sake, Sakura, just use it. Nothing can hurt worse than having a fricking kunai stabbed through my foot."

Sakura had fidgeted, but in the end, she held out her hand, refusing to look at Naruto.

Two days later, Kakashi had made them do the exercise again. It'd worked so well the first time, he thought he'd give it another go. And finally, finally, they'd talked.

"Have you always known you're a jinchuuriki?" Sakura was obviously trying to keep her voice kind and not biting.

Naruto grunted. "Yes."

"So…did they ever train you? To control it?"

"Well…it wasn't so much as training to control it. Just basic ninja training in hopes that if they ever needed to use the Kyuubi, the jutsu I knew would be memorized and subconsciously used."

"Who trained you?" Sasuke asked.

"Danzo-sama. The Sannin, Orochimaru-sensei. And Shisui-nii."

"How much do you know about jutsu and chakra, Naruto? Would you say you're at a genin level?"

"I don't know. I know a lot about sealing from Orochimaru-sensei, in case I needed to repair the seal holding the Kyuubi. Shisui-nii tried to teach me more about…life stuff, I think. Since I'd never been outside the underground cells. He taught me kunai tricks and jutsus too, but so often he was too tired. So he just talked a lot."

"And Danzo?"

"He taught me how to survive, I guess. Lots of…combat training. And mental games."

Sitting cross legged on the water below the three teens, Kakashi gripped his orange book tightly. He didn't want to read too much into what Naruto was revealing about his time under Danzo, assuming the worst was what was likely closest to the truth, but it made hot anger curl in his stomach.

Sakura's voice was much softer when she next spoke. "We wouldn't have turned you in, Naruto. Besides the fact that we're wanted by Konoha too, we wouldn't have done that."

"But you sure as heck would've abandoned me."

"In the beginning…maybe. We didn't know you. But you were so…cautious and timid. You got sick every time you ate anything too heavy or well-flavored. You couldn't sleep at night because the sky was too big and the wind too annoying. First you were afraid of the trees because they were too tall and then you were afraid of the prairies because they were too open."

"What she'd trying to say, dobe, is that except for the fact you were good in a fight, you were helplessly pathetic."

Naruto yelled and tried to kick at Sasuke, but the other boy just swung away like he was dangling from monkey bars on a playground.

Sakura swung herself in between them. "But you grew on us, Naruto. We liked you. You became our friend."

Kakashi watched Naruto flinch and then snarl. "Monsters do not have friends."

"Oh, yeah, dobe? Then why did you help me kill that Root-nin when we first met? Why did I jump in front of Haku's senbon for you? What do you think we've been doing all those weeks traveling and training and working together here in Wave?"

"You're not a monster, Naruto." Sakura was pleading now. "Yes, I'm afraid that you're a jinchuuriki, yes I'm afraid you'll lose control. But you're still you. Just Naruto. So…please…I'm sorry."

The three teens hung in silence for a few moments before Naruto shifted. "I have more chakra transfer seals…if you both want to use the Kyuubi chakra."

Kakashi watched amused as they worked together to get two seals out of Naruto's pouch and attached them to his back. Sakura had the better chakra control to hang from one hand for the longest, but Sasuke had the strength and agility to curl his feet up so he could take one of his sandals off. Once they each had a sandal in their mouths and a foot on Naruto's back, the blond began channeling orange chakra through the seals and into Sasuke and Sakura.

However, it wasn't long before the burning chakra started sizzling at the wooden beams of the bridge, startling the three exhausted teens and causing them to fall into the water. Kakashi found himself laughing.

Now, Kakashi was trying to savor the feelings of happiness warming his heart as he watched the three play carnival games and jostle each other up and down the streets. All night they'd been turning around to him, calling him Kaka-sensei and it made his eyes sting and his throat grow tight. He lifted his hitai-ate and watched their smiling faces in the firelight. Maybe in another world, or another lifetime, he could have been their Kaka-sensei, one that wouldn't leave them.

When the festivities had finally died down, he led the three stumbling, tired teens back to Tazuna's house. It was dark and cold away from the firelight. Tazuna, Tsunami, and Inari had already turned in for the night, and Kakashi stopped them before they entered the house.

"Let's go to the clearing, for a minute." He whispered.

Sakura rubbed her eyes and Naruto and Sasuke grumbled, but they all followed him. As they sat in the grass in front of him, he studied the way the moonlight washed the color from Sakura and Naruto's pale hair and Sasuke's pale skin. How the shadows seemed to cling to Sasuke and make the bags under his eyes more prominent. How Naruto's scars seemed carved deeper. How Sakura's bitten lips seemed drier. His heart ached.

"What do you three plan to do next?"

They looked at him blankly.

"W-well…I suppose keep looking for a lead on where Jiraiya-sama is…" Sakura started. "Since that was our original mission."

Kakashi hummed. "That's good. I'd suggest you not hesitate in traveling to other nations in your search. Konoha has internal problems they're dealing with now, but someday, external problems will arise, and they'll need help from allies if they can get it."

Sasuke's dark eyes were narrowed and a bitter scowl was beginning to form on his face. "You're saying you want us to go out and become Konoha's liasons? We're thirteen. And missing-nin on top of that."

Naruto gave him a suspicious glance too. "And, you're saying you're not coming with us. What will you be doing?"

Kakashi pressed two fingers to the markings on his kunai belt and took his Akatsuki cloak out of the storage seal. "The organization I work for, they are hunting your kind, Naruto. Offer aid to your demon's siblings when the Akatsuki come for them."

"You want us to use Naruto as a bargaining chip?" Sakaura had her arms crossed.

"Yes. Remember, you three are shinobi."

"And you're leaving us now?"

"I have stayed away for quite too long."

Six eyes started at him, anger and hurt boring holes in Kakashi's heart. He rustled his cloak, emphasizing the red clouds. "Anyone who wears this cloak is your enemy…I hope we don't meet again."

Kakashi turned and started walking into the dark forest. But Naruto's voice stopped him briefly.

"Then why did you help us…Kaka-sensei?"

He didn't turn back around. "I owe it to my sensei, to do what I can."

Three days later, Kakashi's pockets were jingling from the third of Gato's bounty he'd taken, and the reward money from the Demon Brothers who he'd recently hunted down. It was Deidara who greeted him on his way back to Ame. Kakashi made sure not to flinch at the clay bomb that exploded in his face.

"What on earth took you so long? You've gone two weeks over your allotted time for gathering funds."

Kakashi gave the younger man an eye smile. He gently pried a freshly bound, perfectly uncreased or damaged orange book from inside his cloak. "You wouldn't believe how long it took me to hunt down this perfect-condition-original-signed copy of Icha Icha!"

He shoved the book toward Deidara. To the blonde's credit, his only reaction was a sniff and a quick duck away. "You get to explain that to Leader-sama then. I, however, heard rumors…"

Kakashi hummed. "What sort of rumors?"

"That you and three brats took down Zabuza and that mob boss, Gato, down in Wave."

"Zabuza was getting annoying, always refusing to join us. The three brats…barely even counted as missing nin but thought they could take care of Gato themselves."

"So, you 'helped them out' and then took all the reward money."

Kakashi gave a shrug.

"Well did you find out any useful information while away?"

He needed to give something so that Deidara wouldn't suspect anything. "Maa. I heard Konoha's looking for Jiraiya."

Deidara let out a sharp laugh. "Good thing Jiraiya's already dead, then. Also, we've already found who they've sent to search for him."

It was all Kakashi could do to not react to that statement, but his heart pounded harder the closer they drew to the rainy city.