A/n: I will try my best to keep posting one chapter every day, but finals are coming up really fast, so I might have less time to write.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Shino, Hinata, and Sakura remained by Kumo's side for the rest of her stay in the hospital of Suna, talking to her, keeping her company. Kumo was especially interested in befriending the girls. She had never had a friend besides for Shino, and she had never really talked with a female before. She decided she liked them. They didn't put her on the spot, ask her about her past or treat her like a failed experiment. And they laughed! She hadn't heard many laughs in her lifetime. Her torturers/mad scientists hadn't laughed. Her father hadn't laughed much, and Shino didn't laugh. When she brought this up in conversation, Sakura and Hinata told a rather amusing story of Shino and Naruto having to be stand-ins at a funeral where they weren't allowed to laugh, and Shino being given a laughing potion. She tried to picture Shino laughing hysterically and failed. It just didn't seem right.

When Kumo was finally cleared to leave the hospital, she traveled back to Konoha in style. If in style meant riding in Shino's coat pocket as a desert lizard so as to avoid the sun hitting her still-sensitive skin. Sakura and Hinata were originally worried over whether she was in any shape to transform, but Kumo resolved the issue by transforming while they were still discussing it. She didn't mind riding in Shino's pocket. It was much better than being bound and tied to his back. She snuggled against his hand and settled down for the ride.

When they came before the Konoha hospital, Kumo poked her lizard head out of Shino's pocket and saw where they were headed. The hospital. Again. She curled up in a tight little ball in the corner of the pocket and hooked her tiny claws in the material. Shino stopped and looked at his pocket in puzzlement. He looked inside and tried to gently pry her free. She clung to the material tighter. Sakura and Hinata were trying to muffle giggles at the sight of Shino having a tug-of-war with his pocket.

"Kumo, this is ridiculous. Your stay in the hospital will just be long enough to be checked over. You may rest at my house again." The little lizard released the fabric of his pocket and just lay in the palm of his hand making tiny pathetic noises. "You will be fine." Shino told her firmly.

After two more days, Kumo was given the all-clear, though she was warned to take it easy at first. She immediately headed for the training grounds, ready to take out her anger and confusion on some wooden posts, but she avoided the training ground where she had confronted Kakashi.

Exhausted from her training, Kumo decided to just lay back and enjoy the sunshine in her wolf form, one of the first she had learned. She was almost asleep when she heard a low voice. "Kumo."

She sprang up, whipped around, saw the silver-haired jounin, and tucked her tail between her legs as tightly as she could, crouching on the ground and exposing her neck, one of the most submissive postures a wolf could adopt. The jounin crouched on the ground, bringing himself down to her level. "I came to apologize. What I did was unfair to you. You were truly a gifted student. My lateness was an indirect acknowledgement of that. If I had thought that you needed every minute of the lesson, I would have shown up on time. My lateness was still inexcusable, and I will understand if you still want a different sensei." The wolf stayed crouched on the ground at his feet, not looking at him, ears still half back. "I am sorry, Kumo. I don't know if you can forgive me, but if you still would like to learn from me, I will be at training ground 2 at nine tomorrow." When there was still no response from the wolf at Kakashi's feet he stood and left, not knowing how to fix his mistakes.

Shino's meditation was interrupted by the knocking at his door. "Kiba, what is the matter?"

"Come on. I'll fill you in on the way there."

Puzzled, Shino followed his agitated teammate. "What is going on?"

"Kumo has been at the training grounds for hours and won't stop. Neji says her chakra is getting really low, but she won't listen to us or turn human to talk to us. She seems to trust you, so we thought you could talk some sense into her. Isn't she supposed to be taking it easy?"

"Something must have upset her." Probably someone with silver hair. The emotion that he had identified before as anger returned. He wrestled to get it under control. Being out of control and angry is definitely not going to help Kumo regain her own control. He passed the last of the trees surrounding the path to see the training grounds. In the center, a slightly bloodied and gasping for breath spider faced an equally bloody and exhausted wolf. The eyes of Kumo and her shadow clone met, and they surged forwards to do battle once again, changing forms rapidly. Fox vs. snake, bear vs. eagle, mountain lion vs. rhinoceros, and they stood apart again gasping for breath. "Kumo."

Her name, spoken quietly and calmly broke through her haze of hatred towards herself for overreacting about Kakashi, and for not having the courage to face him. When her adrenaline rush left her, her shadow clone disappeared, she regained her human form, her legs collapsed and she closed her eyes, waiting for the impact with the ground that never came. She felt warm hands holding her up and leaned against Shino. He wrapped her in his coat and motioned to Neji and Kiba, indicating that they should leave, that he would handle it.

"Did you see Kakashi?" Shino asked gently.

Kumo nodded into his shoulder that she was leaning on. "I shouldn't have wanted to kill him…he said he was late because I didn't need every minute of training…he said that was his way of acknowledging me…I tried to kill him for acknowledging me." She cried brokenly into his shoulder.

"It was not your fault. He should have acknowledged you directly."

"Why are you siding with me? All I've ever done for you is cause more trouble and wait for you to bail me out."

"Because you were willing to be my friend, regardless of the fact that I wore 'creepy' glasses and have insects living within me. Because you endured much longer than you needed to during your episode in order not to hurt me. Because you cared enough about me to be able to control your rage towards Kakashi."

Kumo cried into his shoulder and he simply held her, letting her emotions run their course.