-1He really did not know haw he was still moving, every step was agonizing. Every movement of his lungs felt like they would snap his ribs, his arms felt like they would fall off as he held Sakura as tight as he dared. Even in the spirit realm, surrounded by the healing engagers of the Wyld, his body still screamed out in protest of every step. Spirits of small birds and mammals followed them cursedly as they made there way to Konoha, it would have been a lovely sight to behold, Kakashi carrying Sakura in his arms, the spirits of the trees looked like they where on fire with there forms constantly shifting, the small animals dancing around them, yes it would have been a lovely sight. If it was not for the batted state of the two ninjas, there clothes where shredded and soaked in blood, mostly the copy-nin's. He knew he would have some more scars by the time he was healed.
Even in the Umbra the gates of Konoha was a welcoming sight. The lesser spirits did not follow them pass the border, but Kakashi did not pay much attention to them, his attention was tracking Sakura's breathing.
"We are almost there," he placed a hand on the back of her head, "keep your eyes closed."
"Where are we?" her breath was hot on his neck.
"The spirit realm." he felt Sakura's breathing hitch as she tighten her grip on him, "I used the Gift I stole from Zakmive to bring you here, my guess that is how they got you to there den."
He was tempted to side step right then and there. He wanted to get Sakura out of this realm and back into the physical, but appearing as they where would raze some major questions. The Umbra was always dark, save for the glowing red light of the Anti-Sun, so he could not tell if it was night or day. But by the way the Spider spirits where sleeping, and yes spirits do sleep, it was night.
He pulled himself into his apartment, pushing the balcony door open. His legs finally giving out, they landed with a thud and a grunt as Kakashi managed to turn himself so he did not land on Sakura. Somehow he also managed to step-sideways in the fall, luckily getting back to the physical was a lot easer.
"Kakashi!" she looked up at him, feeling him arms fall away from her.
Straddling him hips, she made a few hand signs and began to heal his gaping chest wounds. Looking at the four cuts along his body, there was no mistaking them for anything but claw wounds. As the medic-nin stopped the bleeding she knew they would scar. Kakashi looked up at her as she worked on him, fresh sweat started to form on her brow as she forced more of her chakra into the now closing wounds. With a sigh she wiped the sweat from her brow.
"The claw wounds still have some healing to do, but that is the best I can do at this time, I need to work on your arms."
Carefully she lifted his right arm and pushed up his sleeve, the blood soaked cloth stuck to him like a second skin. Impressions of the chain links where left burned into his arm, needless to say she had never read up on how to heal silver wounds on a werewolf. Sakura decided that the best rout would be to treat the silver burn like chakra burns; Kakashi lie there quietly as her chakra soothed his painful arms.
"I thought doctors liked a challenge." he grinned under that mask at the sight of her confusion over his burns.
"This was not something I thought that I would be doing." she scowled, eyes staying on the task at hand.
"What? Healing your poor old Sensei?"
"No," she huffed, "Healing silver wounds on a werewolf."
"Oh," she sighed as he pulled his arm away from her, "can you move please your sitting on a… improper spot."
She mumbled an apology as she moved off him and sat by his side, picking up his other arm she began the healing process over again.
"I'm sorry if I offended you." she said quietly.
"Don't worry about it, I am a werewolf after all," he put his good arm behind his head, "it seems odd thinking about it, that I am and never was human."
"You are Kakashi, human, werewolf or other you have always been the same man, at least you have to me." she never looked at him as she spoke, eyes fixed on the wounds, like they where the most interesting thing around.
He watched her as she continued to heal him; her green medical chakra soothed every inch of his burns. Kakashi relaxed a bit more, he was starting to understand why Kinflock where so important to Garou. Sakura would never look at him like he was a monster, she would never understand him like another of his kind, but she was the next best thing.
"How long do you think it will take before they come for us?" Sakura's voice brought him out of his thoughts.
"We will have some time, they did not attempt to follow us into the Umbra, so my guess would be that are waiting on there leader to get back before they make a move." he felt her put his arm down.
"That is all I can do right now, I don't know if they will leave any kind of scaring, so you may have to thing up some explanation for them at your next physical." she tried to make the end part sound like a joke.
"I'm sure they will heal fine." he said as he held his arms in the air to get a good look at her work.
They both sat there quietly, thinking of what to do next. Sakura got up and allowed herself to stretch, it seemed hard to believe that not long ago they where both imprisoned, but where now safe back at home. It was easy to dismiss it all as Genjutsu, but looking at Kakashi brought back the harsh reality of what happened. The pink-haired medic rubbed her shoulders, thanks to the gullible Dancer, they did not hurt what so ever. Generally it was not a good idea to let an enemy heal you like that, but she had to go with it.
"What are we going to tell shishou?" Sakura asked as she gazed out the still open balcony door.
"We will have to sort that out tomorrow," the copy-nin sighed as he pulled himself to his feet, "tonight we need to rest, we cant go to the Hokage like this can we?" he jested to the bloody state they where in.
"I agree," she tucked a stray strand on hair behind her ear, "ill come back in the morning so we can decide."
"Wait!" he grabbed her arm as she was going to leave, "stay here."
She blinked at him, "Kakashi?"
He rubbed the back of his head, "They are going to strike out at us as some point, it would be wise if we stayed together for now." he gave her that eye crease she knew so well.
"Ok," she sighed, "but I need to go and get some things."
"Ill go," he said as he let go of her arm to disappear briefly into his room, "go and have a shower." he nodded towards the bathroom as he handed her some of his clean clothes.
She smiled at him as she took the clothes and said her thanks, heading to the bathroom he could tell by the way she walked that she was extremely tiered. Kakashi stood there quietly as he watched her disappear into his bathroom and softly closed the door behind her, his sigh covered up by the sound of the running water, she was not acting like herself. But considered what she had just been through it was understandable.
The wind howled as the silver haired werewolf stepped outside, there was a full moon tonight; he could feel it pulling on his blood. At times like this, the lines between his human side and his other became blurred. He grabbed control on himself, he had to be careful, if he let his mind wonder, if his hold on his Rage slip for even just a second. It would have fatal consequences. Puling his hand on the railing he vaulted over the edge with no effort, landing almost soundlessly on the road below, in the darkness of the night his bloodied form would of gone unnoticed by any passes by. Kakashi walked strongly showing no outward signs of injury, there was no fresh blood on him that would glisten in the moonlight or alert a keen nosed shinobi. But most of all, Sakura's apartment was not too far from his; so running into someone at this time was slim.
Purchasing on the windowsill he looked into the moonlit room that was Sakura's bedroom. Even though the window had been left open it still strongly stunk, even to a normal human. The relentless stink of urine hung in the air, but it was the other kind of stink that made Kakashi not want his pink-haired medic back anytime soon, the apartment stunk of the Wyrm. He slid into the room and picked up the bad she used for long missions and started to pack some of her clothes and underwear - he knew he was going to get a smack for that later - but as he went to go to her bathroom, he stopped.
The moonlight gleamed on the silver frame that stood on the dresser beside her bed. He recognised the pitcher instantly, he had a copy of it as well, the photo of when Team 7 was first formed. His smiled looked so forced in that, but no one but him could tell as of the mask, it seemed odd looking at his old self, the masked man totally ignorant of what he really was. Sakura in front of him smiling, happy to be in the same photo as her crush, and the boys glaring daggers at each other. He wondered how they where doing, and what where the true nature of the forces they where dealing with.
"If the Sharingan has the same energy as the Eye of the Wyrm, what does that mean for the Uchiha Clan? And I wonder what the nine-tailed fox really is."
His lone eye drifted to the photo sitting next to the one of Team 7. It was of her parents, he did not know anything about them, but it did make him wonder, did his mother know about his fathers true nature? Was his mother Kinflock like Sakura? He grabbed the bag of toiletry from her bathroom and made his way home, hoping that nothing had happened to her in the short time he was gone.
Any small fears he had where unfounded as he found her sitting on the sofa, dressed in his clothes and drying her hair with a towel. There was something about seeing her wearing his shirt, something that stirred him on a primal level, or maybe that was the full moon, it was hard to tell nowadays.
"Thank you Kakashi-kun." she smiled at him as he set her bags down next to her.
"Think nothing of It." he waved back as he disappeared into the bathroom.
He locked the door behind him; just encase Sakura got any ideas. He played with one of the frayed edges on his shirt; in an effort to vent even a smallest portion of his rage to tore the clothing off his frame. Kakashi ran the water as hot as he dared and let the droplets pound his skin, the water ran red as it left his body, the copy-nin rested his head agents the tiled wall and growled. The skin of the shinobi rippled now and again as the spiritual trauma or what he endured became apparent. He bit his lip; a long canine fang cut the flesh, casing a small trail of blood to trickle down his chin.
"The world is dieing around you and don't deny it! I can feel it as well, so if you can feel it and I can feel it how can you deny that it's not the case?"
His jaw tensed, digging the fang even deeper.
"Hell maybe this world wants to be dead. Did you ever think of that?"
The blood trailed down his neck, not wanting to drip from his skin.
"No matter how much blood drips from your claws."
His mind was ignoring every cry of pain from his flesh.
"Balance through destruction is still balance is it not?"
The fang had fully pierced his lip now, but still he bit down.
"Monsters among monsters."
The trail of blood had grown cold as it made its way over his chest.
"We are not human, and therefore we are not subject to their laws!"
"Not human? That is one thing I agree with you on." he growled to himself as he started to scrub his skin, not caring about aggravating his wounds.
He turned off the water and licked his already healed lip; he had almost list it there. Kakashi started to wonder if it was a good idea to keep Sakura here, with him at a seemingly delicate mental state. The young Garou grasped at his heart, wondering if some taint had managed to seep in. The Black Spiral Dancers where like a slow acting poison, and so where there methods, you would not know when you where infected, but slowly the poison would kill you one cell at a time and they would enjoy watching you ride in agony. But in the case of the copy-nin a slow corruption could be inshore, he could only hope that sit spirit was strong enough till he could get help from the old werewolf Sight-of-Snow. Wrapping a large towel around his body, he started to dry himself off.
"Kakashi?" Sakura nocked on the door, the water had been turned off sometime ago but he was still in there, "are you ok? Kakashi?"
She tried to open the door but the damned fool had locked it, she could just break it down but that would be a last resort. Still no sound from the other side, Sakura took a step back and assisted her chakra levels, she had enough to for what she wanted to do. She had not preformed this jutsu properly before, but now seemed to be a good time to try, making the necessary hand signs she found herself enveloped by smoke. How he managed to always travel like this was a mystery to her.
"Kakashi." she called to him as she waved her arm, trying to clear the smoke.
The silver haired shinobi was sitting on the floor with his back to the wall, knees pulled up to his chest and arms wrapped around them, the white towed covered his body and his face was hidden by his arms.
"Kakashi-kun?" she whispered.
His dark eye stared off into space, carefully Sakura brushed the damp hair out of his face, and he was not shaking, as she through he would be. He did not move as she put her arm around him.
"Kakashi? What's wrong?" she asked as she rubbed his arm in a comforting manner.
"I'm just tired." he said as he leaned into her.
"You take the bed tonight then."
"No ill be fine," he smiled as her, "I guess I'm just relearning my limits again, even Garou can be worn down."
"Are you sure? Your not acting like yourself."
"Just some withdrawals from not being able to read my book." he joked.
She rested her head against his shoulder with a sigh, "You had me worried." she admitted.
"I'm sorry," he yawed into his arm, "you take the bed and get some sleep, you have used up most of your chakra" he saw her about to argue with him, "Don't argue Sakura-chan."
"I mean it, don't argue, please."
She scowled at him, but agreed. Kakashi waited a few minutes after she left before moving.
Sakura could not sleep. Kakashi's bed was comfy so it was not that; it smelt strongly like him too, like the forests outside the village after a heavy rain. She rolled onto her back and sighed, it was not that she was worried about her safety either, she knew what she was up against and Kakashi was just in the other room. But try as she might, she could not will herself to sleep. Giving up, she swung her legs over the side of the bed and ran her hand through her pink locks.
Kakashi was sprawled over the couch asleep when Sakura opened the door, wearing nothing more then his shots and his mask, with the orange covered book that lay open on his chest. Sakura walked over to him and gently brushed the ends of his hear.
"Can't sleep?" his voice almost startled her.
"Sorry did I wake you?" she dropped her arm to her side as he sat up.
"No, I was faking," he rubbed the back of his neck, "I can't sleep either."
"It's a full moon out, don't you want to…"
"No," he chuckled, "but I do want to sleep." he grinned, with one swift movement he picked the medic up in his arms.
"What?! Kakashi what are you doing? Put me down!" she demanded as she struggled in his arms.
"If you insist." he said as he dropped her onto the bed.
"What do you think you are doing?!"
"Helping both of us get to sleep."
Before she could say anything a grey wolf jumped up onto the bed and snuggled up next to her. It took a moment for her to realise what he was doing, but she then put her arm around him like he was a normal dog.
"I did not think you would want to take that form again, not after what you went through." she murmured into his shoulder.
"Its not so bad." he growled back as he felt her fall asleep.
--
As a cool dawn broke over the ninja village, an unfamiliar individual passed through the gates. The tall blond haired woman sighed in relief at finally retching her destination; she was no older then 23, wearing baggy camo pants and a black t-shirt. She adjusted her backpack as she approached the guards.
"State your business." Kotetsu demanded from the stranger.
"My name is Shiroi To, I arranged my visit awhile ago." the blond haired female smiled at them.
Kotetsu looked at his partner, Izumo as he looked over a scroll. He nodded to Kotetsu, showing that her visit was approved.
"I studded rumours of the supernatural, ghosts, vampires, werewolves, stuff like that." she spoke up, not able to stand the quiet.
"Werewolves?" Kotetsu laughed at the absurdity of it all, "Well what ever, enjoy your stay."
"Vampires?" Izumo laughed when she was out of hearing range, "what kind of Genjutsu did she get stuck in?"
The two went back to their guarding duty, getting over the amusing start to their morning.