In his mind they were all guilty of killing Naruto. In his mind they didn't deserve to be saved. They were all horrible, and uncaring people who had ruthlessly trampled on the heart of a sad and lonely child before they had killed him.

Naruto's blood was on their hands, all of them.

Even his own.

And there was nothing that they could do to erase the stain.

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Everyone was quiet for the longest time before someone-Lee finally said, "Your right Kakashi-sensei." Kakashi turned his head and looked at the teen as everyone else did too. Everyone looked shocked, though some were more shocked than others.

"Oh?" Kakashi said as he studied the boy.

"Yes. You are exactly right. Because all of us-everyone here at one point, truely disliked Naruto. If given a choice between saving him and watching him die...many of us would have chosen to let the worst happen-"

"Lee!" Tenten cried as she turned to looked at her team mate in shock. She had never heard Lee say so much as a bad word against Naruto! Why would he be saying this? Why was he agreeing with Kakashi?

"Because he was loud, and brazen, and he acted without thinking. He stuck out more than anyone. He appeared so weak, yet in fact was so very strong. It was annoying. We thought him a pest and wished him to disappear." Lee said gently.

Sakura looked at Lee as if he was insane. Why was he saying these things? Naruto had been their friend since the beginning, speaking about him like this, now that he was gone, it was cruel!

"However...even though Naruto was a pest and got on our nerves. I-myself would not have let him die if I had been given the choice. And since we failed him all of those times that he was replaced, then we owe it to the one here to take his place now-to care enough not to make the same mistakes. One piece of Naruto, is better than none at all."

Kakashi was about to say something when Hinata stepped forward with Sai and Ino. "Lee is right. We may have failed our friend before, but he sent something precious to us and it would be cruel not to take responsibility for our failures and protect her. If she is a part of Naruto as you say she is, then it should'nt be too hard. She is probably a very kind person..." Just like Naruto was. Hinata thought.

Kakashi snorted and looked away from them, finally the brats got it. It had taken almost ten years, but they now, finally understood. And they wanted to take responsibility for what they had done. He was'nt sure if he was happy or not, but he could'nt help but admire them for wanting to protect the part of Naruto that was currently running around the country side.

"Alright...you get one chance-" Kakashi said without looking at them. And if they failed their one chance...he would go back to his original plan and kill everyone. He looked at everyone over his shoulder and nodded his head. He was'nt going to tell them the rest of his sentance, but from the wide eyed, pale looks on all of their faces he was pretty sure that all of them understood.

Kiba sighed as Shino stepped forward. "Then lets go find our new friend."

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Naru broke out of the dense under brush and stopped to look around her ears flattened back against her head. Well, she had'nt been sure of it before. Especially with the mist rolling in off of the lake, but she was sure now. She was lost. Hopelessly lost from the looks of it. She'd now recognise that damn patch of poison oak anywhere. She sighed and sat down on a tree stump just a few feet away from the poision oak and glared at the bothersome plant as her tail twitched back and forth in irritation.

"I hate you."

The plant said nothing. Honestly she would be very alarmed, maybe even scared if it did. But it was'nt the plant's fault that she was lost so she would just have to get over it. She hung her head and rested her elbows on her knees and wondered what she was supposed to do now.

Normally she was'nt so bad at getting lost.

It was'nt that she was directionally challenged or anything, normally she could find her way from point A to point B rather easily. But the fog...god it was diorienting to her, especially since she was'nt able to access all of the former Naruto's memories just yet. She knew the damn things were in her head, some stuff had been popping into her mind at random.

It might take another few days for that to stop happening and for her mind to settle. Until then, she was more or less stuck. She sighed again then looked up when she heard voices just a short distance from her.

Her ears twitched a bit then flattened back against her head again as she caught bits and pieces of conversation.

"Are you sure that she's this way Pakkun?"

"For the hundredth time, yes she's just up ahead. Now stop asking." Someone snapped in irritation.

Naru's ears twitched again as she slid off of the stump and lat her head against the ground and counted how many people she could hear coming towards her. She needed to know if they were friends-she snorted, she was'nt entirely certain that she had friends here but she needed to know if she was dealing with hostile strangers or hostile leaf nins.

"We could try calling her by name." Someone said in a small voice that was barely above a whisper.

"But we don't know her name, or if she even has a name." Someone else said and Naru sighed and got to her feet and quietly debated with herself. Should she run, should she stay? She didn't know what to do. All she knew for sure was that the group coming towards her were the leaf nins. But she was'nt entirely sure she should see them. There was no telling what they wanted.

She started to get nervous the closer that they got to her. She could see them now, the outline of their bodies in the thick fog. They looked dark and menacing to her, so much so that she started to turn and run when she heard the leaves to her left rustle a bit and felt a hand close around the tip of her tail and squeeze. She stiffened and made a funny sound as she looked back at the person grasping her tail.

He was wearing a mask to cover the lower half of his face, his headband was slanted so that it covered his left eye, leaving his other uncovered. He stared at her for a second before he started to rub the soft fur of her tail with his thumb without letting go of her tail. A name rose in her mind, in big bold blood red letters followed by a mailstrom of information that cause her head to ache so badly that it nearly brought her to her knees.

Kakashi Hatake... Copy nin, SSS class, do not engage. Sensei, team mate, friend... Pervert.

"Good job Pakkun. You can leave now." Kakashi said gently as he stared at the girl's pale face, she really did look almost exactly like his Naruto. If not for the ears, tail and the tits he would swear that she was his Naruto.

And just like his Naruto, her expression mirrored her thoughts, and she looked terrified right this moment. He could see it in her eyes, could feel it in the slight tremor that worked it's way down her spine, causeing her tail to shake a bit in his grasp. He wondered what it was that scared her so, and took a second to look around and make sure that there was'nt anyone else in the little clearing but him, her and-

Sakura, Hinata, Lee, Kiba and Akamaru, Tenzou, Shizune, Sai, Shino and Ino broke through the bushes and stopped when they saw the girl. Akamaru made a whimpering sound and walked up to her and pushed hsi head against her stomach, the girl stumbled back a bit and put her hands up to push the dog away when he pushed her a little bit again, this time pushing her back against Kakashi's body so that the copy nin could let go of her tail.

Kakashi took the subtle hint from the large dog and wrapped an arm around the girl's neck and held her in place against him without choking her. The girl made another funny sound and tried to pry his arm out from around her neck, it didn't work, but Kakashi would'nt hold it against her for trying.

She was so distracted with trying to pull his arm out from around her that she didn't notice Sakura moving towards her until the pinkette reached out and touched her cheek. The kitsune girl froze, every muscle in her body tensed as she looked at Sakura. "Are you okay?" Sakura asked the girl, and the girl blinked for a second, looking like she had been slapped and nodded her head.

Sakura smiled at her, kindly and moved back as everyone else moved forward, all of them asking questions.

"Why do you have fox ears and a tail?"

"What kind of things do you like?"

"Why were you going to run away again?"

"Are you really a clone?"

"What's your name?"

"How old are you?"

Naru leaned as far back into the hard body behind her as she could, her hands reaching back to grip Kakashi's upper thighs through his pants, the action reminding the copy nin of whyn Naruto had first become a genin and had been trapped by Sakura for one reason or another, because Kakashi had refused to let him hide behind him like a child, and looked just a little put off by everyone's sudden enthusiasm.

He would have bruises on his skin where her fingers were digging into him, and for once he really didn't mind that fact.

She turned her head to look at him almost pleadingly and he smiled behind his mask and leaned down a bit and rested his chin on her shoulder and said. "We talked about it and decided that we don't mind having you around. So go ahead and answer them."

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Yay. i've got 30 reviews. Now all i need for this story is 20 more and i can die happy.