Kakashi found himself running though the forest, his body low to the ground. He made his ways though the trees and undergrowth so effetely it was like they where moving out of the way to let him pass, feeling his team behind him he moved on.

Something felt different some how, he had chased down a lot of enemies but it had never felt like this, the forest around him, his team behind him, and the taste of his prays blood in his mouth. No this was not normal, but somehow it felt right, it exhilarated him and made his run faster.

Then it came into view, the brown and white form of a deer, but before he could question why he was after the animal he was upon it and had slashed it open, its body fell to the forest floor lifeless. He turned around to face his team, who he had yet to lay eyes on, but, they where gone, he could not even feel them anymore.

Panic started to slip into him as he looked around, the forest that was lush and green was now a nightmarish vision, petrified trunks with bare gnarled limes, the ground was dry and they sky was scorched, even the air was hot like it was ready to burst into fire. The deer's body was nothing more then a rotten and maggoty mess.

A roar echoed across the land causing the ground to tremble and Kakashi to cower, heeding the call twisted forms of humans and animals crawled out of the shadows, shrivelled limes and blackened skin, blisters and boils with puss matted hair or fur adorned everyone of the hellish things. Their arms reached out for him with ungodly hunger burning in there eyes.

Kakashi's body would not move, he closed his eyes tight not wanting to see anymore.

He could feel there breath on him, the heat around him, the smell of rotten flesh and then…

"Kakashi, Kakashi-kun wake up!"

His eyes snapped open meeting Sakura's green ones, he sighed in relief, it was nothing but a dream - a really bad dream.

"Good morning, Sakura-chan." he yawned as he stretched lazily.

"Are you ok? You where breathing heavy in your sleep." she asked, a hint of concern in her voice.

"I'm fine." he gave her his happy eye crease to reassure her.

Dawn had already broken over the land as Kakashi reached for his pack, rummaging around in it to find his food he played over the dream in his mind, along with Sakura's question the night before. But the nightmare took up the foreground of his mind, he had nightmares that bad before, about his father, his friends, but this one seemed almost random he had never hunted deer, or seen a hellish forest like that before.

It was seaming a bit to real.

Sakura sat with her back to him giving him a bit more privacy to eat, it was not that she had given up on trying to see his face, she just knew food would not work. Anyway she had to save her energy, but not for travelling mind you.

Kakashi played the dream over and over in his mind, something was telling him that there was more to the dream then meets the eye. The way he was running was not normal to him, was he on all fours? It did feel like it. He did not even know what he used to kill with, there was no feeling of a kunai in his hand that he could remember, and as his mind rolled over the darker part of his dream there was something more. He had missed it when in the dream, but it had burned itself into his memory, one of the monsters said something.

The word was hard to grasp, like breath on a cold day, but it was there. It rested there on the tip of his tongue bittersweet and demanding to dominate his mouth. But he still could not grasp it, what was it? Garrun? Garau?

"Garou." it slipped out before he had time too realise he had said it.

But that one word had made his heart jump.

"Did you say something Kakashi-kun?" Sakura asked still with her back turned to him, respectful of his privacy.

"Nay, Sakura-chan." he said lazily as he got up to stretch himself fully.

Hearing him get up Sakura took it as a sign that it was ok to face him again.

"Ready to get going?" she asked as she picked up her backpack.

Kakashi already had his pack on his back and his trusty orange book in hand, a simple nod from him signalling he was ready to go. Sakura rolled her eyes at the man as they set off, they knew they would easily reach the town by nightfall so they did not travel as fast as they could.

This day was much like the last one, pleasant weather and pleasant company, the duo talked about anything as they made there way along. Though Kakashi was wondering how long before she would ask that question again.

He had no idea on what to say to her when she did. But he really did not know how this change over him happened, it had seemed to creped up on him slowly then jumped him in the night. The odd dreams he had been having started around the same time as well, there where small at first and would have been easily overlooked but they had grown into something more disturbing.

Maybe it was stress over what happened with Sasuke among other things. Maybe he was thinking into the dreams too much. Maybe he would be fine in a few days, but there was that one word, the single word uttered in his dream. Garou.

Garou…

He had never heard the word before yet something deep inside of him recognised it, it felt important to him in some way. It felt like a key to unlock the questions he had about himself, but it was dangling on a thread just out of his reach.

"Finally" he heard Sakura sigh.

Looking up from his book he saw the town on the horizon, something inside him shifted, something bad was going to happen, he could feel it.

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"Are you ok, Kakashi-kun?" Sakura asked as she sat her pack onto her bed of there shared hotel room.

"I'm fine Sakura-chan." he said eye fixed out the window on the night sky.

"You sure? It took you all day just to read one page of that perverted book of yours."

"It was a really good page." he grinned

"Hentai." she murmured under her breath.

"I heard that."

"Good." she huffed as Sakura flopped onto her bed.

"If you really want to know, I have been thinking about what you asked me last night." he said, still looking outside.

"And?" she asked after he stayed quite for a moment.

"There's a storm coming." he said quietly.

"I did not ask for a weather report Kakashi!" Sakura growled as him.

He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and gave her his happy eye crease.

"Whatever" she shook her head at him and rolled over to get some sleep, "good night sensei."

"Good night Sakura-chan."

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Smoke. He could smell it. Smoke and blood. Kakashi's eye snapped open when he realised what he could smell, he found himself standing on top of Hokage Mountain looking down on Konoha.

It was a war zone, the hidden village lay in runes ablaze, great plumes of smoke and ash raised up towards the night sky like arms trying to strangle out the starlight. His gaze followed their reach towards the havens what he saw made his heart drop to the bottom of hit gut.

The moon hung in the sky broken in two, and beside it blazed a red star, crimson dust swirling around it. He knew that it was not the red star that you could see from the star village. This one was bigger more sinister somehow, just looking at made him feel like he had been stabbed in the heart.

The earth trembled beneath him causing buildings to tumble into piles of rubble, he saw it, a crack in the ground made it way across the village, as the gash started to open it felt like his chakra was being drained into it. He saw fires starting to burn in the pit, a sickly yellow-green spread across the bottom of the hollow, but still leaving a gapping blackness in the middle.

A pupil.

He could feel the gaze of this hell spawned eye on him, draining his sanity with every passing second, he closed his eyes and grabbed his head as his mind started to spin. But he could still see it. Still feel its gaze, it got worst, but just before he was about to go insane, it let go, leaving his mind quite and calm, echoing with a single word.

Garou..