yayness! new chapter. this is mostly an explaination chapter, so sorry, but not much action. oh yea, and there if a few vauge references to religion, and transgenderisation here. i honestly mean no offence, and i'm sorry if anyone finds it offensive.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

"Explain." she demanded.

"I am your Kami give protector. As such, it is my duty to remove you from any and all dangers or negative influences. In my opinion, a drunk womanizer, a hyperactive pyromaniac and a reckless, violent, impulsive demon container with the ability to invoke the demonic bloodlust consist of both things I am to protect you from, by any means necessary." He rattled off the speech, military commander style.

"Any means necessary?" She raged.

"And you deem reviving my (admittedly emotionally neglective) adopted parents and turning them into violent maniacs necessary?"

"I-I just wanted to help." He looked crestfallen. "Besides, I didn't revive them, just accidentally imbued their rage into an illusion. I didn't intend for them to hurt you." And he looked so sincere and sorry, that she couldn't help but believe him.

"Didn't intend for them to hurt her? You've got to be mad if you think I'd believe that!" Naruto growled.

"I honestly didn't think they would. Sakura, I've been with you for you're entire life, But there were…certain clauses that kept me from revealing my presence to you before you turned eight, and after that, the unconscious rage you constantly felt prohibited me from taking a physical role in your protection until you could let go of that anger you still felt towards your family. For your parents dieing, for your adoptive parents leaving you on an island, for all of them dieing in the fire… but I got impatient. I thought if I brought their consciousnesses back, you could find closure but-"here he looked supremely embarrassed. "- I brought back the wrong part of their consciousnesses. Instead of bringing back their personalities like I meant to, I accidentally brought back their rage. I didn't notice until it was too late and I had to let the illusion play out. I truly am sorry."

"But the question remains, why did it get that far in the first place?" Genma questioned, his eyes darkening dangerously.

"I'm new at this guardian thing. Basically, guardians are a whole other race. But I was, at one time, a regular human. This is a one time deal for me, Sakura-Chan here will be the only person I ever pledge my life too, whereas other guardians are normally – how should I put this- recycled. They watch over one person for that person's entire life, usually not interfering at all, and then, when that person dies, the guardian would receive a new charge.

Basically, 'because I died before my time and for the greater good, Kami gave me a choice. Go on to wherever I would have, or get a new body, keep my memories and spend my new life protecting someone worthy of said protection. I wasn't too keen on leaving it all behind, but I didn't just want to pledge my life to some random, so I was given one week to watch over her and see what I would be doing if I chose the guardian path."

He turned suddenly to sakura. "Remember when you wished for a friend? You were so lonely."

"Hai." Sakura had a far away look in her eyes. "And then the tiger cub turned up. He was hurt, so I looked after him, well as best a three year old could, anyways."

"Yea. And you named him-"

"Cedric. It was all he would answer too." She giggled. "But he disappeared."

He smiled.

"That was me. It was then I decided that I would spend the rest of my life with you. As long as you live, I live."

Anko looked a cross between freaked and down right pissed off.

"So you've been stalking her for her entire life? What the hell brat? And hey, people seem to be forgetting the fact that this kid tried to take part of our team away!"

Cedric looked unrepentant.

"All three of you are bad influences. I do not regret that attempt, but… as it seems that Sakura-sama is attached to you, I will not remove your presence from her life until she asks me too-"Naruto cut him off, smiling.

"Well then, why don't you stay here, and we'll just lea-"

Cedric cut back in.

"-Though I will be present to supervise all your interactions."

Naruto face planted.

"Wait! Your not coming with us, bastard!"

Genma sighed. "Well, it seems we have a new permanent fixture to our team." Seeming as Anko was about to cut him off, he quickly finalized.

"Think of him as a pet."

Anko smiled. "Now there's an idea, turn back into a cat, brat!"

Cedric smirked, triumphant. "Gladly."

And his form was engulfed in fire, and where the tall boy once stood, now stood a giant Tiger, easily larger then a stallion.

"Nice….Kitty." Genma muttered. He had never been fond of cats, dammit!

"Erm… Cedric? You might want to turn back." Sakura prompted, ignoring the annoyed looks from Anko and Naruto, and the relieved one from Genma. "You know, so you can fit through the doorway and all."

"Fine brats! Let's just set up and go train!" Anko yelled, figuring she couldn't do much about the situation presently, but she really needed to take out her frustration on something… that kid just rubbed her the wrong way for some reason.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Training for sakura proved lacking, as every time an attack was launched at her, Cedric jumped right in and deflected it.

After the sixteenth time this happened, Sakura pulled him over to the side of the Academy training grounds, in the shade of a tree.

"You know, as much as I appreciate you protecting me, I'm never going to get stronger if you keep doing so while I'm meant to be training."

He smiled. "You don't need to get stronger! That's why I'm here!"

"I can protect myself, you know." She grumbled.

"Like I said, you won't ever need to, now that I'm here!" he repeated, exuberantly.

"No one on my team would intentionally hurt me, you know. This is just training."

He patted her head. "This is something you'll never have to worry about again. You can just go home, put your feet up and… knit or something. Leave the fighting to the men… and, err the transvestite woman." He said, pointing to Anko, who looked up from pummeling Naruto to glare at him.

"YOU SEXIST JERK!" An enraged sakura pulled a large mallet out of thin air, and dragged the still smiling Cedric into the woods

Twenty minutes later, a somewhat appeased sakura came out; dragging a beaten Cedric, and tied him to the tree they had been talking under previously. She then turned to her still frozen team.

"SO. Training?"

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

yea. sorry about the wait. I'm been studying for the yearly exams. troublesome.

oh, and yea, Cedric got his name because i was watching harry potter 4. so its not really meant to be a crossover ( nope, no Hogwarts or anything of the sort in this fics future, sorry.) But, seeing how vague Cedric from this story's back story is, if you really wanna think of this as a crossover, then go ahead i guess.

thanks to Softball91, Deathdingle, and xazngrl06x for reviewing the last chapter!

bye bye, now.