Kakashi was able to leap away in time to avoid getting crushed by one of demon fox's many tails. The Rage that rolled off the mighty beast easily drowned out his own, as the fox and wolf started each other down, surrounded by the burning rubble of the village they both use to call home. Fire scorched the sky as the smoke chocked what was left of the living, the bloodied and war torn werewolf climbed what was left of a fallen building, trying to get a better view of his surroundings. It was much, much worse then Kyuubi's first attack on Konoha. Shinobi corpses lay scattered and broken like a child's toys, screams cracked the night as another wave of a red furred tail sent more souls back to Gaia.
Kakashi let out a deep howl. He howled in rage, in sorrow. He was pissed that he could not do anything, that he let this happen. The red haze settled on his mind as he lunged at the fox in his war form. The Kyuubi just laughed as it easily grasped the frenzy Garou in its giant paws.
"You brought this on yourself, sensei." the voice it spoke with, was not the demon's own, but with Naruto's
Time seemed too slow as Kakashi was hurled skywards by the 9-tail's. Black spears of smog pierced the sky as the air turned hot, the smell of disease grew stronger, with his back to the earth below him Kakashi could not see what was happening, he did not need too, he could feel it. Death beyond death, to the depths of no return humanity sank, Luna above him hung shattered, torn asunder by the same calamity that as now ravaging his home.
Not Kyuubi, he could not do anything like this.
Pain shot through him as his body jerked then stilled, he found himself no longer falling. He shuddered ones then began to turn back into his human form, the copy-nin started to drown on his own blood as his dead weight dragged his body down the sickly green and scaled dragon tail that he had been impaled on. Kakashi could only watch as Fire country was burned in green flames, twisted monsters crawled out of hiding in its wake, set on devouring the flesh of the living and dead alike.
"I won't let this happen, you hear me?" he screamed to whatever spirit had been guiding his dreams.
The ground split below him as the tail's owner trashed against the last restraints of its prison, trying to escape to this realm. Kakashi knew he would be the last to die here, both as a shinobi and as a Garou. A new tightness came over his chest as he willed himself to wake up.
Kakashi's eyes snapped open. The sunlight came flooding into his room, everything was ok, none of it was real. Except for the tightness of his chest, the large grey wolf struggled to look down, trying not to wiggle and wake his friend. He saw Sakura's arms draped around him; this made him more aware of thier current positions. She was peaty much spooning him, her face was in the fur at the back of his neck, and his tail was pined between her legs. A wolfish grin slipped onto his dark lips, it would be too easy for him to slip back into human form, but something told him that Sakura would just end up hitting him.
He sighed and relaxed into her embrace. They would have to report to the Hokage today, and he knew that they had to come up with something really good for the 5th to believe, something to explain everything but tell nothing. But the copy-nin did not worry; he was confidant that they would come up with something convincing.
Sakura stirred slightly as she tightened her grip on the wolf. Kakashi knew that worrying about the Hokage could wait for now.
"What time is it?" His fur muffled Sakura's voice.
"8:15." he growled, reading the glowing red numbers on his clock.
She grunted and bearded her face deeper into his fur, not wanting to get up yet.
"How are you feeling Sakura-chan?"
She could feel his tail wag between her legs, "I'm fine, but how is your legs? I did not have the chakra to heal them last night."
"They are fine." he said as he rolled of his side and onto his stomach.
Sakura looked half asleep, one of her arms still draped over him lazily. He pressed his nose to hers, she did not push him away or anything the like, and she threaded her fingers through his thick, soft fur. Kakashi was surprised by this but did not complain, as he found her genital scratches behind his ear to be relaxing, but he had to wonder. In this form did she stop seeing him as Kakashi-sensei, the man she had known from when she was 13, or did she see him as a tamed wolf who looked a bit like her old mentor?
"I'm sorry." she said as her green eyes rested on his single golden.
He frowned, putting his ears back, "What for?"
"For punching you, when we parted way after the incident at the club."
"Don't worry about it."
"No please lesson," she pleaded, "I realise now that we may never see each other again after every goodbye and-"
"And you don't want our last to be in anger." it was a statement, he knew what she meant.
The pink-haired medic wrapped her arms around his neck tightly, "I already lost Sasuke and Naruto, and I don't want to add you to the list as well."
He twisted around in her arms, letting his body turn back into its human self, slowly as not to startle Sakura with sensation. Pulling her closer to him, he rested his cloth covered chin on top of her head.
"It will take more then a pack of Black Spiral Dancers to take me away." never did he think that he would be comforting Sakura in his bed.
"How can you be so sure? All they need to do is get lucky ones."
"They wont, " he rubbed her back, "common we need to get ready, we have to see the Hokage."
She sighed, not wanting to face her shishou today. But she did not resist when Kakashi moved away and pulled her up.
--
"So, your fully coming to terms with you fathers death?" the honey-eyed woman raised an eyebrow, going over what her parents and the copy-nin had just told her.
"Hai, mostly all that he went through leading up to the event." the copy-nin said, with his hands in his pockets.
"I suggested it to him a few months ago, that's why he has been a bit out of character." Sakura added in, they agreed that she should do most of the talking.
"So you thinking of moving back into your old home?" there was a glint in her eye that made the copy-nin nerves.
He rubbed the back of his head, "Well not for some time."
"Well then," she sighed, "Hatake, your on standby till further notes, Sakura, if you think you are fit we need a hand at the hospital."
"Right away shishou." the pink-hared woman bowed before leaving.
Kakashi gave a small bow of his head and went to depart.
"Kakashi," the Hokage's voice rooted him on the spot, "as you have not been her sensei for some years now the laws against student-teacher relationships does not apply to you, but let me tell you, a lot of people won't like it."
"There is nothing like that between us."
The blond Hokage smirked at him, "You keep telling yourself that Kakashi, you have to be blind not to see the effect she has on you."
"She is an important person to me," he was looking off to the side as he spoke to her, "more important then I ever realised." he then poofed himself away.
"Cryptic basted," she sighed as she pulled out a hidden bottle of sake, "and what are you hiding from me?"
--
He normally would have gone home to await any orders, but it had been too long since his last visit.
"Hay, sorry it has been so long," he looked down at the old memorial stone, "Its been hard, juggling shinobi life and…" he stopped, racking his hand through his silver mane, "I'm a werewolf."
The wind picked up, covering up Kakashi's sigh.
"I'm not a man eating monster or anything like that," he sighed, "how much do you already know? How much did you know, before."
The copy-nin stood there in quite contemplation, anyone who saw him would not suspect anything out of the ordinary.
--
Sakura knew if there was any justice in this world, it was not to be found at the hospital. She had just had a day trip to hell only to be worked to death in its counterpart, the pick haired medic sighed as she put away another file, it seemed a months worth of paperwork had been dumped onto her desk and it had to be done in a week. Scowling at the stack that still remained, maybe she should of taken Zakmive up of his offer, surely working for the Wyrm could not be any worse then doing all this damned paperwork.
A nock on the door brought Sakura out of her concentration, "Come in." she sighed.
A tall, blond haired woman, who she was unfamiliar with, entered the room, "Hello, you must be Sakura?" she smiled.
"Hai, how can I help you?" she asked, hands folded on her desk.
"My name is Shiroi, I was wondering if you could help me, I need information."
Sakura rose an eyebrow, "You know we have patent-doctor convadentualety."
"That is ok, what I'm after is not the victims themselves, but the wounds, you see I have been tracking something dangerous."
The medic's brow furrowed, "Dangerous?"
Shiroi nodded, "do you have any records of someone being attacked and injured, but they don't know who attacked them?"
Sakura was not fully scowling at the blond, "Shiroi-san, this is a ninja village, a lot of the men and women we treat don't know who attacked them."
"Ah, sorry let me rephrase that, I meant by don't know who attacked, they have no memory of how the got the wound."
Sakura leaned back in her chare, "Are you talking about amnesia?"
"No, well, sort of, its hard to describe," she laughed, " this never gets any easier to explain, the only thing they can't remember is getting attacked, but find out they have bite and claw wounds the next day."
"No sorry, the only bite wounds we treat are from ninkin and tigers, and everyone remembers how they got them."
Shiroi sighed, "Ok, thank you for your time Sakura-san." she bowed to the medic.
"If you don't mind me asking, what is this dangerous thing you are tracking? Surely if it was so dangerous we would of already heard about it." Sakura asked before the blond reached the door.
"You wont believe me if I told you." she replied, eyes cast down.
"Try me," Sakura grinned, "I have come across some pretty weird stuff."
"I'm hunting down, Vampires, Werewolves and stuff like that."
"W-Werewolves?" Sakura blinked at her.
"I know you don't believe me," she laughed, "I'm sure to that look, thank you again for your time Sakura-san."
Sakura sunk back into her seat when Shiroi left and nervously began chewing on the end of her pen. This was bad; this stranger knew about the Garou, she needed to talk to Kakashi about this, to worn him to lie low. She would have to run over in her lunch brake or something, but hopefully he would just stay there and read his perverted books.
"Yo!"
Apparently he was not going to make this any easier.
"Kakashi-kun," she hugged him, "I need to talk to you." she glanced back at the door to make sure it was closed.
"Oh? What's wrong?" he tilted his head to the side.
She leaned into him, "You know when you transformed at the club, and that you need to keep the Garou thing a secret?"
He hummed and nodded his head.
"Well what is stopping someone from remembering and finding out?"
He could see the worry in her eyes, "That won't happen, when someone sees me in my war form they will suffer from the Delirium, they will be so overcome with fear that they will run, the mind and spirit can't handle the shock of the ordeal that they simply forget about it, they wont remember even if they get wounded."
She rested her head against his chest, "Getting wounded, but not remember how they got It." she mumbled to herself.
"But you never answered my question Sakura-chan, what's wrong?"
"Kakashi-kun," she sighed, "I think we have a problem."
"Another?" he chucked, "What is it? Did more tainted food show up?"
"No, it's, there is someone who knows about the Garou."
"Someone who knows?" he stepped back to get a look at her, "Did anything happen? How did you find out about them?"
"They where here, just a moment before you showed up, they where asking if we had treated anyone with bite or claw wounds but they did not remember how the got them."
Kakashi scratched the back of his neck, "Well my guess they are not kinflock, if they where they would not be asking about stuff like that so openly."
Sakura sat back at her desk and gazed her work, "Do you think that she is not human?"
"Can't say, not without meeting her anyway, even then if she is she may now show her true nature unless she has too," he sighed, "and the Delirium is not totally foolproof, there are some who can resist it."
"Like me?"
"No," he sat on the edge of her desk, "as kin you are not effected by it, the Delirium is the scar of The Impergium, so when they see us, me, in our war forms, all the anger, and fear, comes rushing back."
"So they will try and kill you?" she racked her hand through her hair, "another one to add to the list."
He chuckled at her and ruffed her hair, "It will be fine as long as I stay away from them, just tell me what they look like?"
"Tall, blond, wearing camo pants and a black T-shirt, she looked a bit like an older Ino really," Sakura sighed, "are you sure you will be ok?"
"I will be fine," he grinned at her under that mask, "I only transform for you Sakura-chan."
She responded by pushing him off the end of her desk. He pouted at her with mock hurt as he landed on his feet.
"Shouldn't you be waiting at home for orders?"
He shrugged, "I have left a clone there to take messages."
Sakura just rolled her eyes at her ex-sensei, leaving a clone was typical Kakashi.
"Is there anything I can do to throw our new friend off any trail?" she asked.
"Just give her ninkin attacks if she comes back." the pulled out his book and sat himself back on her desk.
"Kakashi."
"Sakura?"
"Why are you sitting on my desk?" she asked with a razed eyebrow.
"Because I don't want to move if you get any more visitors."
"But why are you staying here? You need to get home!"
"No can do, we have to stay together remember." he said plainly as he turned a page.
"Fine," she huffed, "but I still need to get all this work done." she gusted at all the remaining paperwork.
"You wont know that I'm here." he gave her that happy eye crease.
"Some how I doubt that." she mumbled to herself.
The only sound that filled the room was the scratching of a pen, and the gentle turning of pages. Sakura was not off put by him being there, she found it to be quite comforting in a way she had not felt for sometime. Her eyes drifted from the forum she was reading to him briefly, she still have the memories of last night still burning in her mind, the sight of him almost drained seemed surreal, sure she had taken care of him when he ran on out chakra, but this seemed to be on a totally different level. Then came the images of them in bed, he was unbelievably warm and soft it made her stomach do back flips, the last time she had slept that well was when she was a small child, she had a soft toy that was about as big as her that would help her sleep.
She turned over to the back of the forum, just to make it look like she was doing something and not daydreaming. But she could not stop thinking about the morning, they would have been killed, figuratively speaking, if anyone had found them like that, she could tell how gentle he was being when he turned back into a human. From watching him shape shift she could tell it was a violent act, and had most likely hurt when it first happened, but at that moment, when she was holding onto him, it flowed like water.
"Would you really do it?" she asked, almost out the blue.
"Hmmm?"
"You said you would transform for me, would you really do it?"
"Of cores." there was no hint of tease in his voice, it was a real answer.
"Funny, you would show me all your forms, some would say your darkest secret, but you wont show me your face."
"You have seen it." his eyes stayed on his book.
"I did not, it was to dark to see, and anyway my mind was having a hard time taking everything in."
"Oh? I see."
They where quite and still for a few moments, neither reading nor writing. Kakashi's gaze was fixed out the window, whilst Sakura's was fixed on her work.
"Thank you, Kakashi-kun." she said under her breath, but regardless, Kakashi heard it.
--
The self-proclaimed hunter of all things supernatural was enjoying a drink at one of the local teashops, causally going over her notes. She had not found anything new so far, but that was normal considering that she had only been at the shinobi village for a day. Finding anything in the first day was slim.
The blonds attention was shifted from her writing as she noted the familiar sight of pink, "Hello, Sakura-san." she smiled at the pink-haired medic waving at her.
"Hi Shiroi-san," she smiled back and sat down at her table, "I found something that may interest you," she handed the blond a neatly folded piece of paper, "a dog bite on a civilian, he did not know about it till he showered in the morning."
"Thank you! So, does this mean you believe me? Or just humouring me?" she grinned at the medic.
"Well it could be some strange form of jutsu, something worth looking into." Sakura just smiled back.
"Or a disease," Shiroi mumbled to herself, she then glanced at her watch, "shit! Sorry Sakura-san, but I have to go." she hastily gathered her book and notes into her bag.
"Good-bye, Shiroi-san," she waved, "and I'm sorry but I have to find out how much you know." she said under her breath.
The pink-haired medic pulled a tan covered book from under the table. The hunter did not really think that a medic would have some ninja skills, hopefully she could get all she needed from the diary before Shiroi realised it was missing. Making the necessary hand signs, Sakura managed to poof herself back to her ex-sensei's apartment. Chocking as she waved the smoke away.
"How in Kami's name can you travel like this all the time?" she glared at the silver haired man sitting next to her.
"Find anything?" he asked without looking at her.
"I managed to get one of her books, hopefully it will have something in there."
"You know just taking the book will make her suspect you if she finds out," he sighed, "How did you get her to drop her guard?"
"I gave her a medical report about a man getting bit by his pet puppy." she grinned.
"Interesting move, now, anything in that book?" he asked, his own book now laid closed on his lap.
"Hai, Hai give me a moment," she said as she flipped through the dog-eared pages, "I saw it again, the monster must not of sensed me as it shed its human skin and reverted into its true form, the towering bipedial wolf with light grey fur," she looked up at him, "sounds like she saw it shifting into its war form, " her brow furrowed, "grey fur, sounds like you!"
Kakashi just shrugged, "Grey is a common colour for wolves, and our fur does not always reflect the colour of our hair, so I doubt its me she is talking about in there, unless there are any notes about fur markings or scars."
Turning back to the book, Sakura flipped through some more pages and began to read, "I can report news of another sighting, this time at a club called The Phantom, the wolf started fighting another supernatural - possibly undead as it was only seen with a human shape - and I glimpse it guarding a pink-haired woman, a pack mate? A human breeding partner? Or has she simply been fooled into believing it was some sort of jutsu?"
She shot him a nerves glance, if Kakashi was worried about this, he was hiding it well.
"After talking to some of the people after the incident they all refused what they saw, just like normal, why? Why can't they believe what was right there in front of them? Sometimes I wonder am I the only one that can really see what it out there?"
Sakura turned the page, almost dreading to read on.
"Kami is on my side, I found some one who was able to give me a vage description, but it's a lead, a man saw a grey haired male wearing a cloth mask covering the bottom half of his face and what seemed like one eye, but he could not be sure if the missing eye was just a trick of the light. But if the mans hair to be silver, not grey, and he really did have one eye, that would make him the legendary Copy Ninja."
Sakura locked eyes with her ex-sensei, "Kakashi-kun?" she bit on her bottom lip.
"Check her last entry." he said calmly.
"I found the pink haired woman, her name is Sakura, she did give the reaction I was excepting but it was hard to tell after that, she did not outwardly reject everything unnatural like some others have, ill have to ask her about the Copy-ninja if I can get…"
"It ends there, that must be when I walked up to her." she sighed.
Kakashi just gave his normal half-lided stare, " Looks like she is a smart one, she found out as much as she could before coming here."
"But Kakashi-kun, we have a problem, a really big problem."