"Normal speech"

'Normal thoughts'

"Demon/Summon speech"

'Demon/Inner Sakura/Summon thoughts'

Jutsu name

(author comment) - not a lot of them

flashback/memory

~locations and transitions~

To all my readers! I have heard your cries and I must tell you….read to find out :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Chapter 20: Tears of goodbye

Kakashi found himself sitting in a chair, in the guest room that was given to him and his team to use during their stay at Wave but right now it only had two occupants in it. Kakashi was staring at the second occupant, Naruto, as a multi tailed fox who laid on his side, in the bed unconscious, as he thought about what happened yesterday 'what is going on with you Naruto? And how am I going to explain this to Sakura and Tazuna? The two must have seen what happened'. He was brought out of his thoughts when he heard movement coming from the bed. Moving his hand to his kunai pouch he wondered if Naruto was still in control or if the fox had taken over.

Naruto felt like crap. He felt like he just went through another shift but he knew it wasn't possible since he still had a few days left until he had to shift back. As he regained some of his senses he realised that he could feel his tails but what made him worry was the fact that he felt like he was on a bed, which shouldn't be possible since he would never sleep in a bed if he was in his fox form. Another thing that got his attention was the feeling of anxiety and apprehension but it wasn't coming from him

"Well seems you finally woke up"

Naruto shot up to his feet, ignoring the stiffness he felt from his legs to face the one who spoke and to his shock he saw it was Kakashi 'oh no!'

Kakashi could see the look of distress coming from the fox that stood on the bed in front of him but he didn't let his guard down yet since he still wasn't sure it was his student "I would like to say you look good, all things considered but as you are right now I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing"

Naruto let out a whine as his ears and tails drooped and he sat on his haunches looking at the ground 'all that to work to keep this a secret and now it's over'

Kakashi saw the way the fox looked depressed and it calmed him down a bit because the way he saw it, the fox looked like it was a child that was knew he did something bad and was waiting for the yelling "well, I would like to ask you some questions…..Naruto-kun"

Naruto looked up with a bit of hope once his sensei called him by his name and not the kyuubi. He felt his worry almost disappear when he saw his sensei do his traditional eye smile, which caused his ears to pick up and his tails wag a bit

Kakashi chuckled at the wagging tails "Well, I guess I will have to keep it at yes or no questions, unless you can talk like that?"

Naruto didn't hesitate, and immediately henged himself to his human form "I can't really talk when I'm a fox but when in a henge I can" he said with a smile until he looked down and noticed that he was naked "aaaahhh! Why am I naked?!" he screamed while covering himself with the blanket

Kakashi laughed at his student and felt that his fear was unneeded. After allowing the blonde to get dressed into another set of his clothes that he brought, he began to ask his questions "so Naruto, why don't we start with…..well….that" he asked not really knowing how to ask the question (me either really)

Naruto brought his right hand to hold his left arm looking everywhere but his sensei's eyes. He tried to think of any excuse that could get him out of telling the truth but he was caught so taking a deep breath he looked at Kakashi and began to tell him what happened during the graduation exam and what he was told about his eighth birthday, keeping what Rama told him a secret

Kakashi listened to his student explain, he knew about Naruto turning into a fox at the age of eight and he was a little miffed at how one of the academy instructors had used Naruto in such a way. Naruto had gotten to how the Hokage already knows about this and that most of the time he uses a henge 'hmm now that I think about it, most of the time something would dispel the henge he would use the Kawarimi or it would be a clone. But what about the spars?'.

Naruto had come to his reunion with Rama and he was tempted to just leave it out but a part of him wanted people to know that Rama wasn't evil, he wanted to put in a good word in.

"You don't have to worry about that kit"

Naruto jumped when he heard Rama speak 'Rama-tou-sama?'

"Who else do you know with a voice like mine and at least your not dumb enough to actually speak out loud" Kurama spoke in heavy sarcasm

Naruto grew a tick mark at being treated like an idiot 'hey! I'm not dumb!' Naruto thought loudly in his head and he could hear Rama laughing

After Kurama finished laughing he continued his talk "kit I know you want people to think I am good but the truth of the matter is that it doesn't matter if they think I am good or a being of pure evil, there will be people who will not care and still want my power despite their thoughts". Kurama could tell that Naruto was about to make an argument about this but he cut him off "kit, if you want to tell him than it is your choice. I am fine either way, just keep in mind that not everyone will see your side of things"

Naruto made up his mind about it. He will keep his relationship with Rama a secret for now. He ended his explanation with how he was able to shift his body on his own when he needed it but that brought some things up. When did he shift back, who saw him shift, and what happened at the bridge. Then something hit him

"HAKU!"

Kakashi was a bit startled by the sudden shout but from the panic he saw in the boys eyes, he wanted to see what he remembered "Naruto-kun how much do you remember from the bridge?"

Naruto looked down in thought "I remember stopping the thugs at Tazuna's house, the ice mirror dome, saving Sasuke, talking to Haku and telling him about what Gato had planned…...and then…...nothing? What happened Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi let out a breath of relief at the fact that Naruto didn't remember his rampage and made up a story "well Naruto from what I could tell you were knocked out by the hunter-nin, who you call Haku, and he went to help Zabuza out against me but during the fight he was taken down. Afterwards Gato came by with a group of people and said he wouldn't be paying. Zabuza attacked Gato and with my help we beat everyone and put Gato under arrest and taken away". Kakashi saw that Naruto was listening to all of this and there was no sign of him remembering any of the massacre that took place. As he took note of this he thought back to what happened the previous day

Flashback

Kakashi looked down at the hunter, that Sakura was sitting next to, seeing the hole that he made in the shoulder. He thought back to when he saw the hunter-nin came out of the mirror and the shout he heard from Naruto. That predicting ability of the Sharingan, the surprise of the sudden appearance and the shout from Naruto caused him to shift the path of the Raikiri and impact into the shoulder instead of dead center. He was brought out of his thoughts when he heard harsh coughing, he looked down to see that the hunter-nin was still alive but barely.

Zabuza rushed up to them and knelt down "damn it Haku! You useless boy, you just had to block that jutsu with you body didn't you?"

Kakashi hearing what Zabuza had called him, realized that Naruto must have met him and became friends. The first thought he had was to leave them be, since they were not comrades and from seperate villages but thinking on what happened to Naruto, he knew that the blonde would be angry if he did nothing to help. He knew he needed to do something to seal the wound or else the boy would die but he had nothing to use. He heard footsteps making there way towards then and looking at them he saw that they were the townspeople 'lucky me, hopefully one of them is a doctor'.

Inari had led everyone he could get to join his march against Gato onto the bridge. He wanted to help in the fight against the mob that Gato had and prove to Naruto that he could do something. He was also worried that team seven would need help since it's a mob against Naruto and his team 'hang on Naruto-onii-san, help is coming'. Once they made it to the bridge they saw that it was covered in mist and some most of the workers were unconscious with the few awake trying to move the others off the bridge. After leaving a group to help, the rest went on to where the battle was and saw that the fight was over. Fortunately the bodies of the bandits were further down the bridge and not visible from where they were

Kakashi once seeing the people quickly acted, he pulled out a sealing scroll, tossed it to his clone, who unsealed a blanket from it and draped it over Naruto to cover him up since his cloths were now burnt away leaving him in just his jacket and to hide the fox features before it picked Naruto up and jumped away. Once that was done he turned to Sakura "Sakura-chan, whatever you do you are not to say anything about what happened here!"

Sakura was shocked about this "but Kakashi-sensei…!"

Kakashi shook his head "no! You are to keep all of this a secret, am I understood!" he said with no room for argument, and Sakura could only just give a shaky nod "good! Now go see if any of them is a doctor and if he can help out with this one"

Zabuza looked at Kakashi with a curious gaze, ignoring the pink haired genin "why help us Kakashi?"

Kakashi didn't look at Zabuza as he dug through his jacket for any food pills and if he had any gauze for the wound "I'm not doing this for you really. I'm doing it because one of my genin seems to have befriended your partner and he would torment me if I didn't help" he said as Sakura came back with one of the towns people

Flashback end

He was pulled back to reality when Naruto called out to him "hmm, sorry Naruto-kun, what did you say"

Naruto grumbled at being ignored "I asked where Haku-san is?"

Kakashi rubbed the back of his head as he answered "wweeeeelllll…"

~in the second guestroom~

Sakura sat in a chair taking care of the hunter-nin who had a rag on his forehead, breathing heavily and sweating. She took the rag off his head and soaked it in a small bowl of water, wringing it out a bit and placing it back on his forehead. She had volunteered to do this since she felt like she needed to do something to help, since she did nothing during the fight "I wonder if Naruto-san is ok. I haven't seen him since the fight" 'I also want to know what it was he did' "and Sasuke-kun doesn't seem to care, I mean…...I know he wasn't hurt so bad, other than some cuts and bruises but he wakes up and walks off to train" she sighs as she looks back at the hunter-nin and looked at the wrapped up shoulder "Kakashi-sensei told me that you are friends with Naruto-san, so you can't be all bad" as she said this her eyes wandered to his bare chest, since they had to remove his shirt to wrap up the wound, and blushed a bit. Shaking her head she continued to sit there and watch over him

~back with Kakashi and Naruto~

"He's fine. Sakura-chan is looking out for him while Zabuza is outside, since Tazuna isn't really comfortable with him around"

Naruto had a sigh of relief since he had a feeling of dread about what happened to Haku

After reassuring Naruto he went back to one concern he had "Naruto-kun, you said you could shift from your fox form to your human form and vice-versa but is it supposed to cause you so much pain?"

Naruto realized that Kakashi had seen him shift back and nodded his head "yeah and I had Hokage-jiji give me some tags to keep the yelps or screams of pain I let out….."

Kakashi took a shuddering breath as he remembered what his clone saw

Flashback

Kakashi's clone made it back to Tazuna's house and as he walked inside, towards the guest bedroom, Tsunami walked up to him with a look of worry "Kakashi-san is everyone ok?! Who is that you have there?" she asked as she pointed at the covered body that was over his shoulder

Kakashi's clone slowed his pace but kept walking "everyone is fine but Naruto is extremely tired so I'm taking him to the guest room, also I would expect the rest of the team to be arriving soon with a wounded boy". As he made it to the top of the stairs he looked back to see Tsunami at the bottom of them "it would be best if you tell everyone not to enter our room for the time being" he said with an eye smile before he went into the room he rested in the first day.

When he closed the door, he pulled off the blanket that was over Naruto, made his way to the bed and laid Naruto down "ok…...now what to do?" as he looked down at the boy wondering what to do, he saw a paper tag sticking out of one of his jacket pockets. Pulling it out he realized it was a privacy tag "why would you have this? From what I can tell it doesn't keep the room secured, it only keeps sound from escaping the room but why?" he got his answer when he heard a pained groan coming from Naruto. He looked towards the boy and saw that he began to roll around on the bed and gripping his ribs, which soon lead to his groans turning into grunts which soon became silent screaming and Kakashi could see it was going to get loud, so he reacted by slapping the seal onto the wall and activated it and just in time as Naruto began to scream in pain. Kakashi didn't know what to do, he wasn't a medic and he didn't know what was happening so all he could do was hold the boy down to make sure he doesnt hurt himself. After twenty minutes of the struggling, Kakashi noticed the slight changes that were happening. Small hairs were growing from Naruto's face as well as his nose slowly changed shape "damn it! What the hell do I do! Is the Kyuubi trying to escape!? Damn it Naruto! You need to control it" 'Shit I hope the boss gets here fast, cause I won't last long with this'

"AAARRRGGGHHH, AAAAHHH, GRRRRRR, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH"

For the next 15 minutes, the clone had held the boy down watching in morbid fascination on the changes the boy went through. He was relieved when he felt the chakra of the original and using one hand he covered the mouth of the boy to keep any noise from escaping as he waited for the original to arrive at the room. Once the original came in, the clone told him to close the door, once that was done he wished him good luck before dispelling and sending the info back to Kakashi who immediately went to hold the boy down regardless of how tired he was. He spent the next hour and a half, listening as the screams turned into yelps of pain and safe to say he hated every second of it

Flashback end

Kakashi shook his head of the memory "Naruto don't do that again"

Naruto grumbled when he heard this "everyone keeps telling me that. It's not like I enjoy do it"

~15 minutes later~

After Naruto was finished with the explanation, he got out of bed, leaving Kakashi in the room and went to check on Haku, who was still unconscious. He was surprised to see Sakura giving a lot of attention to Haku and not even realising he was standing behind him "is he ok?"

Sakura fell out of her chair in shock and spun her head around to see who it was "Naruto? Don't sneak up on me?!" she hissed at him

Naruto sweatdropped when he was yelled at 'thankfully she didn't screech that out' "I came in normally. You were just so focused on him" he looked towards Haku "so…...how is he doing?"

Sakura picked up the chair and sat back down "he still has a fever and hasn't woken up yet but his breathing has evened out and he isn't sweating so much" she said as she replaced the rag on his forehead

Naruto could see that she was really focused on Haku's care and he was glad that Haku was alive "it's good to see that he has someone taking care of him….."

Sakura just nodded as she continued to watch Haku

Naruto decided to leave the room "well I'll see you later Sakura" he said as he saw that Sakura just nodded again not even looking at him "...okaaaaay…." and he left the room

Sakura sat there for a few more minutes before she went to grab the rag on Hakus forehead but she was stopped by a sudden gasp coming from Haku and his eyes shooting open "oh my kami! Are you ok?"

Haku took gasping breaths as he looked around but stopped when his eyes landed on Sakura "y-you are one of Naruto-s-san's teammates"

Sakura nodded her head "yeah my name is Sakura Haruno, but you need to get some rest, you still haven't fully recovered yet. Don't worry, I'm here if you need anything"

Haku nodded his head as he closed his eyes to get some more sleep "thank you Sakura…..-chan"

Sakura blushed at the suffix but continued to watch over Haku

~outside Tazuna's house~

Naruto walked out of the house to see Zabuza leaning on the side of the house "if your worried about Haku, he looks like he will be ok…...after a while"

Zabuza scoffed, pushed himself off the wall and began to walk away

Naruto watched as Zabuza walked away "you know you could go see him"

Zabuza stopped walking and turned his head to look at the blonde "he no longer matters to me, he is now just a broken tool with that wound, and I'm no longer getting paid so I'm done here"

Naruto scowled at the man but he felt that what he said about Haku was a lie "So what?! You going to throw him away?! After everything he did for you?! He told me that you were everything to him, that he would give his life to you and you just say he was nothing but tool!" he took a deep breath before he continued "you say he means nothing to you but you lied. Why are you really leaving?"

Zabuza turned to face Naruto "you're naive to think that I cared about him. He was a useful tool that could get me closer to my goal, nothing more" Zabuza turned around and began to walk away "now I gotta find another job that will pay me"

Naruto just turned around and began to walk in the other direction towards the forest but before he was out of ear shot he spoke again "why don't you go steal some of Gato's money from his house or something? It's not like he will know it was you while he's in jail!"

Zabuza paused when he heard this 'Jail? Does the kid not remember what he did? And why keep this from him kakashi?'. He continued walking towards the forest until he reached the edge of it, he stopped and looked to his right "why hide the truth from him…...Kakashi?"

Kakashi walked out from behind the tree Zabuza was looking at and crossed his arms as he leaned on the tree "he doesn't need to know about what he did. If he forgot about killing Gato and the bandits than he can stay the way he is for a while longer. besides …..he doesn't need that baggage on him just yet. Let him be a kid a bit longer"

Zabuza shook his head in disapproval "hm the sooner they get used to killing the better. They stopped being kids when they put the Hitai-ate on, unless Konoha is just a bunch of kids" he paused for a minute before he turned to Kakashi "I want you to do something for me Kakashi"

Kakashi raised his eyebrow, not knowing what Zabuza could possibly want from him, he motioned for him to continue

Zabuza turned to face Kakashi "take Haku with you back to Konoha. I doubt he will be of any use to me because of what you did, so you can have him live the soft life like the rest of you" 'he deserves that kind of life after working fro me for so long' and then he continued to walk away into the forest.

As Zabuza walked by Kakashi, Kakashi nodded his head "I will but I want you to do me a favor as well" seeing Zabuza paused his walk he finished "keep what happened to Naruto-kun a secret, I already ask Tazuna-san and Sakura-chan to keep this a secret, you are the only other person that witnessed the event so I just want to make sure you keep quiet"

Zabuza just nodded and continued to walk. Once he was deep in the forest, a thought came to his mind 'hmm steal from Gato's home….I might just do that'. He stopped walking and turned to look back towards Tazuna's house and a single tear fell from his eye 'take care of yourself Haku'

~2 weeks later~

It had been two weeks since the battle on the bridge and everyone was finally back on their feet. Haku was distraught when Kakashi told him that Zabuza left without him but Naruto told him that, he actually cared about him and that there must have been a reason he left. After a week Haku did feel better with the help of Naruto and surprisingly Sakura, who took it upon herself to help the boy with anything she could, including retrieving medical plants that Haku knew of that could help with his injury.

Now Team seven and Haku stood in front of the townspeople next to a completed bridge saying their goodbyes. Haku had his arm in a wooden sling so not to move the arm. With the help of Sakura, they were able to get some herbal plants that will dull the pain in haku's shoulder, at least until they make it back to Konoha, where he can get it fixed up

Sasuke kept scowling at Haku and Naruto, hating the idea that he lost to the ice user and hating Naruto for defending him during the fight

Sakura stood close to Haku with the intention of helping him out in case he needs it

Kakashi stood behind his team, with his hand twitching close to his weapons pouch where he kept his precious book, that was given back to him by Tsunami, saying that she didn't want it in the house where Inari could find it. He wanted to pull it out and read it but Tsunami was standing next to Tazuna and she had a frying pan in her hand for some reason

Naruto was giving the final goodbye to a crying Inari "I promise I will come back someday, maybe when I'm the greatest ninja in the world!"

Inari smiled as he wiped away his tears "you better Naruto-onii-san!"

Naruto placed his hand on Inari's shoulder "you know it's ok to cry. Tears just show that you care and that is never a bad thing"

Inari smiled as he just let the tears fall and hugged Naruto. Tazuna was happy to see his grandson have his spirits back, he was also happy that team seven were leaving because he hasn't been able to have a drink in a long time.

Tsunami smiled at the interactions between Naruto and Inari. She had her own tears, happy that Inari has gotten the light in his eyes back.

After Inari and Naruto said their goodbyes, team seven began to walk away, waving at the townspeople. As the townspeople waved goodbye to their heros, Tsunami looked at Tazuna "so, what will you name the bridge?"

Tazuna brought his hand to his chin in thought but before he could say anything, Inari spoke in a normal voice "The Great Naruto Bridge" as he kept looking at the shrinking form of team seven

Tazuna looked at Inari and smiled "I like it. It's a great name"

~later at night~

Once the team had set up their camp, Kakashi got everyone's attention on who would be on look out "so do any of you want to volunteer for the first watch?"

Naruto raised his hand when this was heard "I can be on watch for the whole night Kakashi-sensei"

Kakashi looked over at the blonde "you sure Naruto-kun? You did the watch for us throughout most of our time in Wave"

Sasuke just scoffed "let the Dobe do it! If he wants to lose sleep doing it, let him" (actually forgot about him for a bit)

Kakashi sighed at the attitude Sasuke now had. Ever since he got his Sharingan, he started getting more arrogant and believes that everything is below him now

Naruto ignored Sasuke and kept his eyes on Kakashi "it's fine Kakashi-sensei" turning his head to Haku and Sakura "Sakura-san is being medical support for Haku-san and he won't be able to do it because he's hurt" shifting his gaze to Sasuke "the Teme will just argue about it or complain or something so….no". Looking back to Kakashi "and I enjoy being outside at night" (foxes are Nocturnal)

Haku didn't like the idea of Naruto staying up all night "Naruto-san, you shouldn't have to do that. I can take watch for some time if you'd like"

Naruto shook his head and smiled at Haku "It's fine Haku, besides your hurt, what kind of friend would I be if I let you do something that could hurt you"

Sakura was grateful towards Naruto for telling Haku not to do it "Haku-san you should only be focus on resting, so you aren't allowed to do anything during the night but sleep" she said in a bit of a lecturing voice

Kakashi just sighed in defeat "ok if you are sure Naruto-kun"

Naruto just nodded as he made a few clones which all jumped into different trees surrounding their camp with Naruto doing the same.

After a few hours pass and eating, everyone went into their respective tents with Sasuke in one, Haku and Sakura in another, in a professional manner of course and Kakashi in the last. Naruto had told Kakashi that he would be on watch the whole night and that he felt natural when outside during the night so he would have the stamina to stay awake all night and still have the energy for the journey home. A few minutes after everyone went to their tent, Naruto could hear Kakashi talking to himself "finally I can read in peace" which was followed by some perverted giggling

"Pervert" Naruto just leaned back on the branch, with his back on the tree and turned his head to look at the full moon

End of Chapter

Well that's the end of the Wave ark

This chapter was shorter than the usual and nothing really happened in this chapter apart from Kakashi finding out and watching the shift (it's official I'm just going to call the change between the forms "Shift" or "Shifting"), what happened to Haku, Zabuza leaving and Team seven heading back to Konoha

You now know Haku's fate, everyone kept asking me to let Haku live and all I can say is that, it was the plan from the start.

Next chapter we make it back to Konoha

Please read and review