Well, here it is, folks. Final chapter, and there is an epilogue after this, so don't worry about any lose ends, if they aren't addressed here, they will be there.
Disclaimer: I don't won Naruto. Sasuke would never have worn the white shorts, Sakura would have been a bit more capable, and none of the characters would have been idiots, unless for comic relief. By idiots I mean betraying kohona, then helping someone that a certain someone else died trying to make sure you wouldn't meet. (CoughidiotSasukecough)
Pack Mates
"You know, I've been thinking."
"Uh-oh." Naruto muttered into his rice bowl at Sakura's statement. She glared at him, before continuing.
"Fang needs a bath." Both boys and dog looked at her.
'No I do not! I'm perfectly fine.' Kakashi's ears went back. Sakura had both boys scared of her wrath now, especially since the bathroom incident. 'Someone has it out for me.' Kakashi whined as Sakura proceeded to coerce both boys. He took off like a bullet, as they turned to catch him.
In the end, Sakura and Naruto tackled him, and Sasuke got the leash on his neck. Kakashi dug his paws into the ground as Sasuke pulled him to the bath that Sakura had drawn up.
'Goodbye dignity.' Kakashi whimpered as he met the water. He didn't make it easy for them though.
The Sandaime coughed as Team seven arrived, their sensei turned dog right behind them. Kakashi had been cleaned, and Sakura had tied a spare hiate-ate around his neck, embarrassingly as a bow. Two mournful dog eyes stared at him.
"Yes, well . . ." the lessons continued as normal. The Sandaime trying not to look at the unfortunate dog.
Hours later, team seven was eating ramen, Kakashi having a bowl of diced meat. At some point during the day, a few more memories slipped away . . . and strangely, he no longer cared. His mind had come to the conclusion that he protected the three, but the whys and hows didn't seem important anymore. He just protected them.
"Hey, want to stop at the park?" The Trio and their wolf/dog proceeded to do so. It was fun, and 'Fang' understood that when they threw a round disk, he was supposed to get it.
"Good boy Fang." Sakura rubbed his ears as Fang brought her the Frisbee. She glanced up at the fading sunlight, "Hey, guys, we better get going."
"Okay! Coming!" As Naruto came from his corner of the triangle, a man bumped into him.
"Watch it you, Brat!" The man had raised his voice and his arm to strike Naruto, only his arm never came down on Naruto's head. "YAHHH!"
"RRrrr . . ." Fang had clamped down on the man's arm. Teeth sinking into flesh.
"Naruto!" Sakura and Sasuke both got to their friend's side. Sakura whirled on the man. "How dare you harm an innocent kid!" Fang released him, moving to stand in front of Naruto.
"Innocent? Hah, you don't know what you're talking about." The man was a little inebreiated, and Fang didn't like the smell of his breath. Sasuke didn't have a super sensitive nose, and he could smell it. "He's a demon! He killed so many people." Naruto paled, but he was frozen, he couldn't think of doing anything but stay still.
"Naruto's not a demon!" Sakura snapped. "He's my age!"
"He's the Kyuubi no Kitsune!" The man became angry. "The Fourth didn't kill it, he put it into that thing!" He pointed at Naruto, and Sasuke noticed the color had drained from his friend's face.
"Naruto?" Sakura noticed as well. "He's not lying, is he?" It was the only possible explanation for Naruto's reaction.
"Uzumaki Naruto, the Kyuubi brat!" The man sneered, about to lunge. Fang snarled, deterring the man only a moment. Sasuke threw a fireball at him, knocking him down and out. But the moment was enough.
"Naruto!!" Sakura just missed the moment where her teammate and friend disappeared into the woods nearby. "Sasuke, what do we do?"
"Find the dobe. Get his side to the story. You and I both know he's not evil." Sasuke took a breath. "An attention getting idiot, but not evil." That's what my brother is.
"You think he was telling the truth?"
"Sakura, why else would everyone hate him? Don't you remember how he was ignored? Some of the teachers wouldn't even look his way in class. Even now, when we walk about town, people always look at him with hate."
"Fang, find Naruto." Sakura's voice was a little flat.
"Sakura?"
"I don't care if he is evil incarnate. I'm getting my friend back." She tried to ignore the small stab of pain in her heart.
Fang followed the one who smelled of water and foxes. The one who smelled of Pink tree blossoms and earth and the one that smelled of blood and fire were right behind him. The two were concerned and that made him concerned for his lost packmate.
They found Naruto by the lake. He was trembling.
"Naruto?" Sakura quickly grabbed him, Saskue and Fang surroundin him. "Please, tell us everything . . . we won't abandon you, I promise."
"I . . . I didn't want you to hate me. You weren't supposed to find out . . . it's an SS class law . . . adults and other children weren't to tell anyone under the age of five about the demon fox being sealed inside me. The Third . . . told me, after Mizuki spilled the beans and told me." He shook. "I didn't know . . . that the fox was the reason no one would pay attention, or find an excuse to accidentally hurt me . . . I didn't want you to hate me." He repeated. "You're my only friends . . ."
"Why was it sealed into you?"
"Bad luck?" Naruto shrugged. "I don't know, I just know I was born during Kyuubi's attack."
"Naruto, we won't hate you." Sakura chided. "you said it was sealed, didn't you? That means you weren't the fox turned into a little baby, now."
"I guess . . . we'll have to tell the Sandaime, it's still a law, that the man broke . . ."
"You're not going anywhere, unless you hand over the dog." Several masked nin appeared. The lead one had a rather cultured accent. "I'd ask about what law you're talking about, but I could really care less." Fang growled, he didn't know who that person was, but he wasn't going to let his pack get hurt by him.
"What do you want with him?"
"He's a rare prize. An S class ninja, I don't get a chance to turn many of those into dogs." Several dogs appeared by the nin.
" . . . Then you're not getting him back." Sakura snapped. Quickly all three threw the colored smoke (Naruto also throwing a stink bomb, which confused the other dog's noses.) They disappeared into the trees, Fang right behind them.
"One of us has to get to the Sandaime." Naruto looked at Sasuke and Sakura.
"Sakura's the fastest." Sasuke looked at her.
"But, I- . . ."
"You're not being sent because we think you're worthless, Sakura. You really are the fastest of us three." Naruto recognized the look. "Sasuke and I will stall for time, okay? Get the Sandaime and come back."
"Right." She took a breath, and shot off through the trees. Fang whined, not liking the fact one of his pack was out of his sight in a danger situation. The two boys looked at each other.
"All those years with pranking are going to pay off."
"This might be fun."
The nins chasing them suddenly were intangled in nets, trapped in pits, and tied to trees after being painted pink. Sasuke kept an eye out with his level two sharigan, and they did rather well.
The real threat turned out to be the dogs. One Barked sending a sonic boom, knocking both boys over. Another moved fast, almost getting Naruto's arm in its teeth. Fang snarled, and suddenly one of his eyes glowed red, forming the level three sharigan.
"Kakashi-sensei?" Sasuke found his mouth suddenly dry. Naruto's eyes widened, a second before he dodged a fire jutsu from another dog. Kakashi snarled, and with quick succession copied the three attacks, sending the three dogs unconscious.
"Stop!!" The lead nin from before appeared, holding a struggling Sakura. There were bloody marks on her ankles were two dogs had bitten her to stop her. "How about a trade?"
"Sakura, the dog's Hatake Kaskashi!" Sasuke noted that four more dogs came up. Letting this bastard know he's our sensei wouldn't be smart right now. Where's Naruto? A split second later, he and Kakashi dodged a swipe from a metal clawed dog. For a second, Sasuke thought it looked familiar.
"Crap!" Naruto cursed, a second metal clawed dog had swiped his side, grazing the skin as he failed to get completely out of the way.
"Ahh!" Sakura had bitten the man's arm. As he released her, she got a kunai out, but failed to get away from a large dog that pinned her to the ground. She struggled to keep it's jaws from her throat, while Kakashi fought three other dogs, Sasuke and Naruto tangled with the remaining two.
Naruto saw red when he saw Sasuke go down, and heard Sakura yell. A second later, the air around him heated up and turned red, as he proceeded to scare off a few of the dogs, especially the ones harming his teammates, and slam the leader into a tree. So lost in the rage, he failed to see the two metal clawed dogs come behind him.
Kakashi snarled and got between his packmate and the two, a swipe down his back from one of their claws made him yelp, a split second before he fell to the ground. Naruto barely regained control, suddenly exhausted.
"Sensei!" Sakura struggled up, running to the dog version of Kakashi. Sasuke kept Naruto from falling over. A moment later, the forced henge suddenly dissolved, revealing the rather beaten form of one human Hatake Kakashi. "Sensei?" He's actually kinda cute without the mask . . . Ah, no! Bad Sakura, Bad Sakura!! Fortunately, he still had his pants on. Kakashi moaned, opening his eyes. "Sensei?"
Kakashi found himself looking at his three . . . not really packmates, but students. He remembered that. Their names were . . . "Sakura, Sasuke . . . Naruto?"
"Welcome back." Sakura hugged him, careful of his back. He blinked, dimly aware of the fact he was missing a shirt and his mask, though he didn't really care right then. There was something around his neck . . .
"Why is this in a bow?" Naruto laughed, and Sasuke coughed, trying not to draw attention. Sakura turned a few shades of red, and quickly got the spare hiate-ate off his neck, and then over his sharigan eye. "Thanks . . ."
"Missed you, Sensei." Naruto passed Sakura his black mask, which she also gave him.
"Me too . . ." he muttered, giving one last smile before passing out again. The three genin were too tired to really think, (a failing that Kakashi would later fix through several drills) and absently curled up near their sensei, also falling asleep. They were like that a few moments later, when Gai, Asuma, Kurenai, the Third and a few Anbu arrived.
"Well, looks like we weren't needed." Kurenai smiled, Gai for once not saying anything dramatic, and moving to check on the three genin. He almost got stabbed by Sakura, who had snapped awake. The two boys were a split second behind her.
All Sakura could focus on was the fact she was looking at a large amount of green. And has she hadn't met Gai, that all came to one person. "Lee?" The green mass chuckled.
"I see you've met my youthful student! I'm Maito Gai." She couldn't really focus on him. She was aware of someone bandaging her ankles.
"It's alright you three, you did good." That voice they all recognized. Too tired to question it, they found themselves slipping back into sleep.
"Hatake Kakashi . . . what an honor to have you here . . . I trust you are comfortable." He just glared at the man through the bars of the large cage. He was restrained by a chain around his neck and fairly drugged . . . he couldn't even twitch. "Don't worry, eventually you'll forget all about Kohona and will happily serve me."
They took him to a place where he was forced down on cold metal, a seal painted on to his back . . . pain, and the next time he woke, he was back in the cage, furry. His moment for escape came, and he took it, running to Kohona.
" . . . ow . . ." He came back into consciousness, which also included pain.
"Considering what your body has been through, that would be the appropriate response." He focused on the Third. "You're lucky, a few more hours and you wouldn't have been able to turn back, ever again." He shook his head. "The bath your genin gave you wet the seal, made the process reset a bit."
"Bath-? Oh, Kami." Kakashi groaned. The memory of his time as a dog, and everything else came back. He jerked. "Are they okay?"
"Naruto needed some stitches, Sasuke had a concusion, and Sakura needs to stay off her feet for a bit. They want to see you." He helped Kakashi sit up.
" . . . I'd like to see them." The Third nodded, and got up.
"You can submit your report later." he opened the door and slipped out.
"Sensei!" Sakura was followed by the two boys.
"Miss me?" He eye smiled.
"Not really." Sakura tried to reign in her emotion.
"I see . . . can we all agree not to mention the more embarrassing aspects of my being a dog?"
"Yes." The three nodded.
"But you were cute as a dog, sensei." Sakura hugged him.
"So I gathered . . . nice work on training, by the way." He shifted. "Naruto, are you all right?"
"I'm fine sensei."
"Alright . . . we'll get that drunk later, for breaking the law." Kakashi nodded. "You're not in trouble for further explaining it."
"Speaking of being in trouble . . . Kakashi-sensei . . . why did you mess up with my mom's sheets?"
"That Dog food was awful." A few moments later, laughter could be heard from the room.
The End.
I hope you enjoyed it. And I'm sorry it took so long to finish.
Till next time.