CHAPTER FIVE

KAKASHI HATAKE

As soon as the strange man seemed to regain some of his composure, he sat up. Kim was scared, though she tried not to show it. She had scooted back; her back was resting against the door. Her thoughts were too jumbled up to even think about running out of the bathroom, or to cry out for help. To top it off, all the fear that was bubbling inside of her was not doing any good for her stomach, which was spinning in in violent circles. Her stomach started spinning faster when the man looked at her. Even faster when he stood up.

"Hello, my name is Kakashi Hatake," the strange man greeted her with a crinkled eye smile and a small wave. Her stomach could no longer take the spinning, and begged to be emptied. She clasped her hands over her mouth, and ran over to the toilet. Kneeling down she opened the lid of the toilet, and proceeded to empty her stomach of its contents.

Kakashi stared in shock, and then quickly assessed the situation. He looked at it from her point of view, and realized his mistake. He should have tried to console the girl, and reassure her that he was no threat. Instead he let his excitement of being transformed back get the better of him, and cloud his judgment - it was such a Naruto thing to do. He quickly snapped out of his stupor, and looked at the girl. She was kneeled over the toilet, her hands on either side of the bowl, and she would try to hold her hair back whenever she could. Kakashi walked over to her and kneeled behind her. He felt her tense when she felt him near. He gathered her hair in his left hand, and calmly started rubbing soothing circles on her back.

"I am of no threat to you, or anyone else."

Only then did she allow herself to relax. She was then hit with another wave of nausea. Kakashi stayed behind her soothing her until her stomach was thoroughly emptied. He cursed his luck at having to be stuck consoling a vomiting girl, but then he realized that it was his fault for scaring her enough to make her sick. He just hoped the other two wouldn't react in the same manner.

When her sickness passed Kakashi got up to get her a cup of water from the sink. The two of them were leaning against the bathtub. She downed half the cup in one gulp.

"Who are you?" He opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off. "You're Kakashi Hatake. I got that, I mean what are you? Are you even human? Can you turn back and forth from a cat to a human? Are you some type of alien race? A Humcat? Were-cat? Animagus?What if the government comes to take you away? What if they take me away too? What about the others, are they like you too? Do you guys have super powers, like super strength? Where do you come from? What planet are you from?" Kim fired of her questions in rapid succession, her eyes widening after every question, not giving Kakashi enough time to respond.

Kakashi clamped a firm hand over her mouth, effectively stopping anymore questions from coming out of her mouth. She still kept on talking even though her mouth was covered, then she finally quieted down when he gave her a look. He took a moment to gather his thoughts. He sighed once and turned to look at her.

"A ninja. Yes. I'm not really sure. Umm, no. What is that exactly? There haven't been any full moons lately. I don't know what that is. I highly doubt that. Yes. You could say that. The Elemental Nations. Earth. Now does that answer all of your questions?" Kim could only nod. She pulled his hand off of her mouth.

"Heh heh. Forget about the whole Humcat and Animagus thing," she said meekly, playing with a piece of hair in embarrassment. Her head snapped up. "Um. There is no country on earth called The Elemental Nations, and people can't turn into cats. I'm sorry, but that just doesn't happen. The only places that would happen are in comic books, or Si-Fi movies. Look I believe you. I try to look at life with an open mind, and judging from what you're wearing I can tell you're not from around here." She said motioning to his form. "Your name though... Kakashi... it kind of sounds Japanese."

It was true. To Kim he was dressed strangely. He had white hair, and from what she could tell lightly tanned skin. He wore a headband with symbol that resembled a swirly leaf over his forehead and his left eye, and a dark blue mask that covered half of his face, leaving only the area around his right eye visible. He wore a dark blue shirt, the same color as his mask, under a green flak jacket with an red swirl on the back. His pants were the same color as his shirt. He had white wraps around his right thigh, and ankles and part of his shins. A blue holster was strapped over the whit bandages on his thigh, and a khaki pouch at his waist.

"Well, it's good to know that you believe me," he sighed, stretching one leg out. "Me and the others have talked this over, and the only plausible conclusion is that we all somehow jumped dimensions. The only thing is we don't know is, how we did it. You wouldn't happen to have any ideas as to how?"

"I'm not a scientist of any sort, but my dad has a love for these types of things." She paused for a bit, thinking it over. "Whenever this happens in the comic books, something significant has to be happening. Usually the characters are all gathered together, before they get transported. Mainly because the idiot of the group pushed a red button. Before they leave they feel a huge gathering of energy around them, and then get sent away in a flash of white light. The cat part though, I don't really know." she shot an apologetic look at him. Although from all the cat fan fictions she read, it was usually at the author's whim. So... God?

"Nothing important has been happening. We, most of us anyway, were in the middle of rebuilding our village. Nothing significant. None, well maybe a few, of us were really gathered together. Three of us were dead, actually. There wasn't a red button, but I can think of someone who would've pressed it if there was." He paused for a few seconds. "Though I did feel a large amount of chakra building up all around me. I don't know if the others felt it too. Now that I think about it there was a flash, but I wrote it off as a camera flash." He held his chin in his hand. "We couldn't come up with anything to explain the cat part, either."

"What's chakra?"

"A combination of spiritual and physical energy," he replied off handedly.

"Okay," she agreed with wide confused eyes, question marks seemingly floating around her head. "Should we go and change the others back now?"

"I guess we could," he said in a lazy drawl, standing up and offering a hand out to Kim. She accepted, and followed him out the door. Before he could walk out her bedroom door, she put a hand on his arm. He looked down at her curiously.

"Can you not... mention what happened... you know... back there... in the bathroom," she trailed off nervously.

"Don't worry. It can be our little secret," he responded, his visible eye crinkling in a smile. He moved out of the way to let her through. As she went she muttered a quick and quiet 'thank you'.

"JADE! Where are you?" she shouted out into the house.

"I'm in the kitchen!" was the immediate reply.

"They're in the kitchen," she told Kakashi.

"So I've heard." Together they walked down the hall to the kitchen. Kim motioned to Kakashi to stand back until she was ready for him to come out.

She walked in to the kitchen first. There she saw Jade sitting at the bar eating a piece of pie. The other nine cats were nowhere to be seen. She slowly walked over to stand in front of the other girl. She stared until the older girl decided to look up at her.

"Hey Jade."

"I'm eating."

"Obviously." She took a deep breath. "I have something to tell you-"

"You didn't kill the cat did you," Jade asked frantically.

"What! Why would you think that? I'm not you."

"Hey! I never killed a cat. I may have overfed my goldfish, but I never killed a cat," she defended herself.

"Jade, shut up for a bit." When Jade stayed quiet Kim continued. "It's about the cats. You see... I was going to take Blaze a bath, but when he got wet... something happened." She started messing with her hair. "Well, you see..." She started rocking on her feet. "Um... How about I just show you what happened." She walked out into the hall and came back pulling a white haired man by the arm.

"Hello," Kakashi said waving at Jade. Jade just stared at him.

"You see, Jade. When Blaze got wet into turned in to this man. Jade meet Kakashi Hatake, and Kakashi meet Jade." Kim waited nervously for Jade's reaction. She was a bit disappointed when Jade just shrugged it off. "You're not freaked out by this?"

"No, not really. I mean, yeah it's pretty weird, but if you trust him I trust him." She stopped to think for a bit. "Does this mean that the other cats are like you too," she asked pointing at Kakashi. He nodded in response. Kim was about to say something when Jade ran out of the room.

Jade returned a few seconds later with Noodle and a cup of water in hand. The other eight cats were trailing after her. All nine of the cat's eyes widened at the sight of Kakashi in his human form. Kakashi and Kim tried to stop Jade from pouring water on Noodle, but they were too late. Just like the first time there was a pop and a lot of smoke.

"AHHHHH! KAKASHI-SENSEI SAVE ME! IT'S KILLING ME! I'M BEING CHOKED! I'M DYING! I'M GONNA DIE! SENSEI SAVE ME, I DON'T WANNA DIE! I HAVEN'T BECOME HOKAGE YET! I CAN'T DIE!" A blonde boy was rolling around on the floor where Noodle should have been.

"Naruto, calm down and stay still. You're not going to die," Kakashi said to the boy. He had bright sunshine blond hair and bright azure eyes. He also had whisker marks on his face. He wore orange pants with a matching jacket that had black on the shoulders and around the bottom, and it had the same red swirl as Kakashi's jacket on the back. He also wore black sandals and a black headband similar to Kakashi's.

"Aren't you going to help him," Jade asked.

"Huh? Oh yeah. I guess I should," Kakashi said in his lazy drawl. He walked over to the flailing blond boy. He ended up having to sit on him to get him to be still and be able to remove the collar. They spent the next ten minutes taking off collars and turning the cats back into their original forms. The two girls soon learned every one's names.

Deidara had icy blue eyes, and long blond hair, the same color as Naruto's, which he wore partly in a ponytail and covering his left eye. He wore a dark pale blue half-shirt over a black mesh shirt. He wore matching dark pale blue pants, and black sandals with white socks. He wore a black headband with an image of rocks that had a slash through it. The thing that stood out the most about him was the mouths on his hands. They most certainly were not tattoos.

Itachi had red eyes with three comma like things swirling around his pupil, and long ebony colored hair that he wore in a loose ponytail. He wore something similar to Deidara the only difference was that he wore a V-neck shirt and a necklace with three rings on it. His headband was similar to Kakashi's; the only difference was that there was a slash through it.

Konan had amber colored eyes, and blue hair that she wore with a small bun and a paper rose. She wore a black cloak with red clouds, and heeled sandal boots.

Nagato was kind of tricky. As a cat he had orange fur with black markings, and purple ringed eyes. When he got turned back he still had the purple eyes, but his hair turned red. He had straight red hair. He wore gray pants similar to Itachi's, with black sandals and white socks.

Hana had onyx colored eyes, and long brown hair that she wore in a ponytail with two strands framing her face. She had two red-purple fang like markings on her cheeks. She wore a green flak jacket without any pockets, green wrist warmers, dark blue shorts, and dark blue sandals. She wore a leaf symbol headband around her thigh.

Hinata had pale lavender eyes, and waist-length straight indigo colored hair with bangs. She wore a baggy light purple and white zipped up hoddie over a mesh shirt, short blue carpi pants, and heeled sandals. She wore her leaf symbol headband around her neck.

Sakura had sea foam green eyes, and shoulder length pink hair. She wore a red zip-up sleeve-less shirt, a pair of tight black shorts with a light pink apron over them, light pink elbow protectors, knee high sandals, and her red leaf symbol headband in her hair.

Sasuke had onyx colored eyes, and oddly styled ebony hair. He wore a light gray zip-up shirt unzipped exposing his chest, black pants, a giant purple rope butt-bow, and black sandals.

"So... which ones are the zombies," Kim whispered to Kakashi. She tried to make her voice as low as possible, but apparently it wasn't low enough. Everyone in the room heard her, and immediately turned around to face her. She started to turn red from all the attention.

"Ha ha! Zombies, good one! I like you! Dattebayo!" Naruto shouted and draped an arm around Kim's shoulders. Everyone in the room started to laugh save for Itachi and Sasuke, they just smirked. "The zombies are Deidara, Itachi, and Nagato," he said pointing to each in turn.

"Wait why isn't Sasuke a zombie I killed him, un," Deidara shouted indigently, pointing a finger at Sasuke.

"Apparently you didn't," Jade stated. Deidara rounded on her with a fierce glare. Jade returned that glare with just as much fervor.

"A crappy ass artist like you wouldn't the first thing about my art. There was no way he could have survived that last explosion, un! Because art is... an explosion!"

"Okay. I have to agree with you there," Jade said with a nod.

"Well... wait what, un?"

"Art is an explosion. I agree with that. Also, I've never met you before, different dimension and all, so of course I wouldn't know anything about your art. I think we're going to be great art buddies. What kind of art do you specialize in?"

"Sculptures." He stuck his hand in one of his pouches and pulled out a lump of clay. Moving his hands expertly. He then opened them again to reveal a white clay rose. "What about you?"

"Sketches. I love all the detail you can achieve with charcoal. Though I prefer to use my finger over a rubber. I guess it easier that way for me. I especially hate it when people interrupt me."

"Exactly. Like when people insult my work. That gets to me. I work so long and hard on a piece, and it pisses me off when people-"

"Hey! Um, guys. We still have to figure out what we're going to tell my dad when he gets here," Kim said nervously looking at everyone in the room. Jade stayed quiet for a bit before responding.

"Looks like your cooking dinner tonight!"