Chapter 1.


October 10th, two years after the Kyuubi Attack.


The eye was acting up again. Kakashi could feel it burning through his body, making his legs go numb and his fingers tingle. He lay still in his bed and tried to remember how to breathe. Surely, the feeling would fade.

It didn't.

Kakashi had been dealing with nightmares for years, really. He knew the routine of waking up in the wake of terror only to find the rest of the world was still exactly as he had left it. He had learned how to calm his mind and body and return to the real world within a few minutes.

But Minato – Minato. Minato had complicated things.

"Mikoto-sensei," he had asked, a year and a half ago, idly plucking at the grass he had been sitting on," would you say there is a correlation between the Sharingan and emotion?"

"A correlation how?"

"As in, the more powerful the user's emotion, the more powerful the eye?"

She had looked surprised at the question, pausing what she had been doing for long enough to meet his eyes. "Emotion awakens the eye, that much you know. Some say it is also emotion that allows it to evolve. The more common belief is that it evolves through hard work, though."

"Your people aren't sure?" He had asked.

"Perhaps we were once, but information is easily lost as it is passed down through the generations," she had shrugged. "Why do you ask?"

He hadn't answered. He hadn't told anyone, in fact. Well, Rin knew, obviously, but she had seen it.

Obito had once bragged about how his clan's bloodline limit would grow stronger over time; how it started with only one marking but ended with three. Mikoto had explained the process again, in rather greater detail.

Neither of them had ever said anything about waking up from nightmares with the unsettling sense of certainty that their eye was about to swallow up the room.

It was a feeling Kakashi was becoming rather well acquainted with. It always followed dreams of Minato – particularly those where he could no longer see the difference between Minato, Sakumo or Obito, where they all merged together into one faceless being just slightly out of reach.

One time, Kakashi had reached the bathroom mirror in time to see the sharp geometric pattern that had appeared in Obito's eye. Just looking at it had made him violently ill. If he would push chakra into it, the eye would probably eat him alive.

He had tried to come up with solutions. For a while he would bandage his eye shut whenever he slept. Then he had tried not sleeping at all. Then, sleeping pills. Not one of them could seem to stop his chakra from burning through him and into the eye.

Rin thought he had to tell Mikoto. Kakashi thought that would probably land him on an operating table as they surgically removed the eye. He had made a promise to Obito. He would keep it, even if Obito's eye was somehow malfunctioning.

His stomach flipped nervously. His chakra roiled angrily through his body, almost like a separate entity. There was no way he could fall asleep like this. He threw the blankets off and got out of bed. 4 AM. Rin usually woke up at seven. Plenty of time.

Kakashi made no sound as he put on his clothes and slid open the window. He dropped down the two floors that separated him from the street and landed without so much as a sigh. The air felt cold on what little skin was exposed. There was no one in sight.

His body didn't seem to remember it was 4 AM. He moved with a reckless energy and reached the training grounds in no time flat. He breathed in deeply through his nose to try and calm himself down.

"Hatake, this is a tremendously stupid idea," he muttered. Then, he smiled. Obito had always been a proponent of tremendously stupid ideas.

He took position in the middle of the grounds and eyed one of the nearby training posts. He widened his stance and did a few stretches to warm up. An owl hooted. The ground smelled of recent rain and dirt. He couldn't sense anyone human nearby.

Right. He had waited for far too long already. He pushed his headband up and opened his left eye. Energy surged through him fast enough to leave him lightheaded. He blinked. "Okay, okay. Let's go." He clapped his hands together, and pushed chakra into Obito's eye.

What followed felt a little like unplugging his finger from a dam. The eye didn't just take the little sliver of chakra he had offered, no, it clawed at it greedily and then kept pulling. Oh, Kakashi thought dizzily, oh.

He could feel chakra rolling around him like a thunderstorm, pulling and pushing at the world like it was made of cardboard. His knees buckled. The training grounds seemed to disappear around him. The eye took and took and took –

"No!" He wrenched his chakra back into his body and forced his eye shut. He gasped for air. The world spun. The grass felt wet underneath his hands, but he couldn't remember when he had ended up on the ground.

He rolled onto his back. The owl had disappeared. His body felt so heavy.

Footsteps in the distance. Hurried ones, too. A voice, ordering someone to stand down. More footsteps, slowly approaching. He should probably care more about that. A face appeared above his own.

"Shimura-san," he said, automatically. He was surprised he could speak at all.

Shimura Danzou's one good eye was wide in alarm. He looked pale in the moonlight. "Hatake," he croaked. "What on earth –" he blinked and beckoned someone over. A moment later there were strong hands helping Kakashi sit up. Some Aburame, by the look of him.

"I was on my way out the Council room when I sensed a disturbance," Danzou said. "Was that you?"

Kakashi blinked slowly. Did he even have a body anymore? He wasn't sure he could still feel it. "Ahh – I think so."

"You think so?" Danzou's companion asked incredulously.

"Yes. I can't feel my face."

Danzou was still staring. After a moment, he shook himself out of it. "Torune, please go on without me. I will make sure Hatake-kun makes it back home."

"But –"

"Just do it."

"Yes Sir."

Danzou turned back to Kakashi. "Do you think you can walk?"

Kakashi considered this. "I sure hope so."

Danzou snorted. "Not to worry. It's not an uncommon result of depleting a lot of chakra very quickly. You'll be right as rain. Come on." He held out his hand.

After a moment of wondering what on earth the hand was for Kakashi figured out what the idea was. He took the hand. Danzou was surprisingly strong for a crippled old man. A good thing too, because Kakashi's legs still felt like jelly. Not unlike his mind, come to think of it. This would all undoubtedly be very embarrassing once he could think again.

The trek back through the village was rather awkward and slow, between Kakashi's loopy limbs and Danzou's bad knee. Danzou was quiet at first. Thoughtful, perhaps. Or focusing on not falling on his face, like Kakashi.

"You're an ambitious young man, aren't you?" Danzou finally said.

Kakashi considered telling him his brain was still taking a dip into Lala land and this really wasn't the best time for him to talk, but that didn't seem like the kind of thing you said to an esteemed councilmember who had just saved you from hypothermia in the cold grass. "I can be," he said instead.

"Do you dream of following in your teacher's footsteps, perhaps?"

Kakashi considered it. "No. Not particularly." Perhaps he had once, before his father had died, and briefly afterwards because what better way could there be to save his family name? But it seemed like a childish dream now. Unreachable and utterly pointless.

"Then why do you fight? Why do you go to the training fields in the middle of the night and exhaust yourself?" Danzou's voice was deep and steady. Kakashi couldn't sense any of deceit or mockery.

"I have promises to keep," Kakashi said.

"Ha. Don't we all?"

"And people to save."

Danzou's brows furrowed and he went quiet again for another block or so. "Nohara-san?" He finally asked.

"She can do her own saving."

Another frown. Another pause. "Uzumaki-san," Danzou guessed. "And her boy."

"Someone has to." And why not him? Kakashi kicked at a pebble. He missed, but he didn't floor himself. He counted that as an improvement.

"How do you save someone who cannot be saved? You are no medic," Danzou sounded puzzled.

"I'm not."

"No one in the village has been able to wake her. I'm not sure – oh. Ah." Danzou's expression shifted subtly. "I seem to remember you met Tsunade-hime a few years ago."

Kakashi's chin dropped to his chest. He hadn't meant to let that slip. "There's no point. I can't find her during my missions, not without completely breaking protocol. It's a pipe dream," he said. An old and familiar anger bubbled up within him. If the Hokage would just do more.

Danzou's grip on his arm tightened briefly. They had reached Kakashi's apartment block. "It doesn't have to be," he said unexpectedly.

Kakashi blinked. "What?"

Danzou's face was unreadable. "Go home and rest. Find me when you are feeling better. Then we will discuss the matter more closely."

Kakashi nodded numbly. "I – all right. Yes. Thanks."

Danzou smiled thinly. "No, thank you."

It didn't occur to Kakashi until much later that Danzou hadn't needed any guidance to find his address.


11 AM.

Usually, Konoha's military hospital was marked by a solemn calm, interrupted only in the face of emergency. It maintained this air of solemnity with a quiet pride; they were known throughout the world as one of the best hospitals that had ever existed, after all.

It figured that the only other interruption to that dignified quiet would be caused by an excited Uzumaki.

Naruto tried to squirm out of Rin's arms for the third time that day. Usually, he liked to screech or employ his little baby teeth in the pursuit of freedom, but this escape attempt was marked only by little grabby hands and an impatient little chorus of "Le'go, le'go!".

Rin tightened her grip on the toddler. "You see, Kushina-nee? Didn't I tell you he is just like you?"

Kushina didn't reply. She never did. The heart monitor beeped to the rhythm of her pulse.

Rin sighed. "The nurses have clipped your hair again," she said. With the toddler in her arms once again in control, she reached out and brushed her fingers over Kushina's forehead to swipe away the now short, red hairs. "I'm sorry."

Kushina looked strangely small without her trademark mane. The nurses said looking after her was easier this way.

"Mama!" Naruto crooned, and gestured at Kushina. Rin smiled. He didn't usually recognize his mother.

"That's right. Say hello to your mom, Naruto."

"Yellow."

"Well – that's close enough. I'll let it go because it's your birthday."

"Birthday!"

"Yup. You'll never guess what we got you."

"Mama!"

"Well, yes, but – actually, you'll find out when we get home. Did I tell you you get to stay with us tonight?" Rin smiled a little and pressed a kiss in Naruto's downy blonde hair. "Wish we could keep you."

"Kashi-nii and Rin-nee?"

"That's right, Kakashi will be there as well." Rin let out a long breath. "He came home from his mission just for you." Which wasn't a total lie, so.

Good enough.

Naruto pulled on his colorful T-shirt and started to babble, having lost interest. Rin ran a hand over his head and looked back at Kushina where she lay in the hospital bed. She looked so small. Diminished. "We're still looking. We'll get you out of this," Rin said softly. "I promise."

"Promise!" Naruto parroted.

Rin chuckled wetly. "That's right. Say bye-bye to your mom now, Naruto."

"Bye-bye!"

Rin rose up slowly, hefting the toddler up with her. It was strange; as much as she hated coming here, she hated leaving even more. Two years of this. Two years of Minato sensei dead, and Kushina in a coma. Two years of watching the guilt eat at Kakashi. Feeling it gnaw at her own conscience.

Naruto was the only good thing that had come out of that day, but the parents who had so anticipated his arrival had never gotten to meet him. Instead he lived with a caretaker, a rather severe woman by the name of Ushio, because she was the only person both willing to and capable of looking after him.

The only person of age, anyway. Rin was only allowed to visit once a week. Kakashi was too, but he didn't go nearly as often. He liked Naruto, gave him piggybacks and everything, and like Rin he railed at the way some adults would speak about the boy – but Naruto looked so much like Minato.

Rin had been close with Minato. To Kakashi, Minato had been the closest thing to family he had left. He struggled, sometimes.

That, and he had been taking a lot of missions lately.

"We gonna have cake?" Naruto asked, and that was a seriously impressive sentence structure he'd made there. Rin smiled encouragingly.

"Yup."

Naruto cheered as they left the hospital.

"Got something for you," Kakashi announced, when Rin and Naruto entered the apartment. She could tell Kakashi had only just woken up from the way his hair stood on end, and the fact that he was dressed in a loose white shirt that just revealed a sliver of collarbone. There were dark circles underneath his eyes. He waved a scroll at her with one hand, and brushed Naruto's hair with the other in greeting. "Hey, big guy."

"Kashi-nii!" Naruto cheered, and then there were more grabby hands that necessitated a trade-off between the toddler and the scroll.

Rin cracked a grin as Naruto squeezed his arms around Kakashi's neck in what was either the world's smallest garrotte or a very enthusiastic hug. "What's this?" She asked, shaking the scroll.

"Open it."

Still bemused, Rin walked over to the kitchen table and unrolled the scroll. She gasped. "You – they finally gave their permission?"

Kakashi rolled his eyes. "Had to browbeat them into it, silly mutts. Go ahead and sign it. Don't want them changing their minds before you do."

Rin gave him a giddy smile. "Oh, I will! I will – I've been waiting for this for ages."

"Gift for Rin?" Naruto piped up.

Kakashi snorted. "What's this, are you using full sentences now?"

"Senseses?"

"Sentences. Rin?"

"Hmm. He's starting to use two-to-four word sentences," Rin said, still looking at the scroll. She pulled out a kunai (from where it had been duct-taped under the table – really, Kakashi) and cut at her own thumb. "Just my name and fingerprints, right?"

"Lock off your hair, too. What? It's so they have your scent. I don't make the rules," Kakashi shrugged.

Rin hummed. There were only three other names on the scroll. Hatake Kakashi, Hatake Sakumo, and a slightly more faded one she thought said Hatake Sayuri. She bit her lip. "It's still kind of a family affair. Are you sure?"

"Absolutely. Sign the damn thing."

"Damn thing!" Naruto cheered, because of course he did.

"Kakashi."

"Mahh mahh, sorry. Naruto, that's a bad word."

"Thing is bad?"

"No, it's – the other word, you know – you're riling me up, aren't you? You know which of those words is bad."

Rin chuckled and signed the last character of her name. The fingerprints were a little bit trickier to do, but Sanbi would heal the cuts in no time flat – it was hardly a reason not to sign a full-blown summoning contract. "Any idea who will answer?" She asked.

"A puppy, probably. They will want to test you. Pakkun and I have vouched for you, and they like you overall, but they can be a little stubborn. I think it's mostly for show at this point," Kakashi said, placing Naruto on the floor. "Look, there's some toys in the corner. You see them?"

Judging by the quick pitter patter of tiny feet that followed, yes, Naruto saw the toys. Kakashi sighed and appeared at the table. He raised one eyebrow slightly. "Well?"

Rin sighed theatrically. "Farewell, carefully cultivated luscious lock of hair," she said, and reaching up, cut a lock of hair from a place where it wouldn't be too noticeable. It wasn't particularly hard, with how long it had grown over the last year or so. She placed it on the seal, where it was promptly absorbed by the chakra paper.

Kakashi gave her an unimpressed look. "Carefully cultivated, really?"

"Well, unlike some I do actually brush it," Rin said primly.

"Ouch."

Rin bumped her shoulder into his. "Naruto's birthday party first? We can try summoning after."

His eye curved into a smile. "Sounds good."

Naruto was a very easy person to please, fortunately. He didn't mind that the cake was wobbly and the icing uneven, so in return they didn't mind when he splattered the cake with saliva trying to blow out the candle. He loved the presents too, even though they'd only been able to afford a few small things. But to Rin, the best part of the day was when the three of them sank down on the couch and shoved one of Naruto's favorite movies into the VCR. It didn't really seem to matter that Naruto fell asleep only a few minutes in.

"Did you find anything? Any hints at all?" Rin asked softly, turning the TV off.

Kakashi rubbed the back of his head. "Maybe. I – "he sighed. "I did find a lead, on my last mission."

Rin nodded. "Okay." They had found leads before. It didn't have to mean anything.

"I think she may have gone to the land of Earth," he said quietly. "Obviously, it'll be hard for us to follow her there. But you know, she can't stay there forever." She could tell there was something he wasn't telling her, but she knew he would come through eventually. He always did.

One of Kakashi's hands came up and, after brief hesitation, landed awkwardly on Rin's head, as if it couldn't quite decide between a comforting ruffle or a – well. A slightly gentler sort of gesture.

He'd been getting a little bit more awkward around her, lately. After five years, Rin didn't really want to read too much into it. So instead, she just enjoyed the warmth and size of his hand, even if the positioning was a little odd.

That was Kakashi – never quite what she wanted him to be, but always what she needed.

"Ushio-san will come for Naruto first thing tomorrow," Rin said, changing the subject.

" Ushio-san is a dirty old crone."

"She's not that bad."

"She's not good enough."

"… No. No, she's not."


Perhaps the strangest thing about the past two years was that the majority of them had been utterly normal. Dull, even, on the days where grief didn't overrule Rin's mind.

The third Hokage had taken up office again. There had been no major conflicts as the war slowly petered out into an uneasy armistice – Kiri had kept its silence. Konoha continued as it always had. As though Minato's time in office had hardly taken place at all.

His proposition to raise Academy standards and graduation ages had been quietly and effectively ignored.

Rin still rarely saw her father. She still stayed with Kakashi, because the thought of living anywhere alone was stifling. Kakashi was still a little aloof, still spent too much time training with Mikoto, still spent too much time away on missions. Continued to grow as a shinobi and a team leader, when Rin's career had essentially been put on hold.

She hadn't left the village in almost a year. Kurenai thought she was going to retire and continue on as a civilian, instead. That she just hadn't quite made her mind up yet.

As if Rin ever could.

There were burn scars on her left arm from an incident six months ago, where she had nearly lost control of Sanbi. If not for Uchiha Fugaku, she would have.

Without Minato and Kushina, training properly was nigh impossible. Fugaku did his best, but between his clan, his job and his family, as well as the fact that he wanted to keep his involvement hidden, there weren't a lot of opportunities for them to meet up and train.

She still wasn't sure why he was so secretive.

"Speaking of status, did you apply to the Hokage yet about the jonin exam?" Kakashi asked, out of the blue. He slouched down on one of the kitchen tables, tucking a small and brightly colored book away into his pockets.

Rin blinked. "No – I haven't. I doubt he would let me."

"You won't know until you try. You deserve a promotion."

"What's the point if I can't do anything with it? "Rin said defensively. She didn't particularly care for this subject. If they were never going to let her out of the village, why bother trying? She would only be disappointed.

"Then prove to them you can do it," Kakashi shrugged, because that was his modus operandi; if people doubted him, he would just keep at it until he could prove them wrong. Because of his talent, he usually succeeded.

He had gotten his promotion to captain, last month. Youngest captain since Uchiha Kagami, because Kakashi could never resist the urge to beat a record.

But Rin was no Kakashi. She was clever, yes, and she had a natural aptitude for chakra control. She could also keep a cool head in most situations – or she had been able to in the past, anyway – and Sanbi had significantly boosted her attack power.

But she had never led a team, or won a solo battle (because Sanbi counted as a separate entity, dammit, so the word solo stopped applying the moment he got involved), and her control as a jinchuuriki was meager at best.

No one had expected her to take charge before. She had been a medic, licensed to give orders when necessary, but not expected to come up with battle strategies or lead teams.

Kakashi watched her mull it over, before he sighed and looked away. "All right. Different subject. Maybe you can try summoning?"

Rin brightened. Right, the contract. She had signed it for a reason, after all. She got up, careful not to disturb Naruto, and inspected the summoning contract." So, how does it work? Do I have to use the scroll?"

Kakashi huffed. "No, just –" He lifted his hands and ran through a series of seals, too fast for her to follow. "Like that."

Rin gave him a despairing look. "Kakashi… More slowly, please."

He rolled his eye and repeated the sequence, slow enough for her to follow. Then, he raised his left hand to his mouth and mimicked biting it. "Or you can use a knife and cut yourself."

"For those of us who don't have Inuzuka ancestry," Rin agreed, smirking. Her eyes lingered briefly on Kakashi's left wrist. Without his usual ANBU gloves, she could see the awkward scarring of the skin graft he had needed after his encounter with Kuriarare. She knew the scarring was worse on his shoulder.

She shook herself out of it. If he didn't mind, she wouldn't either. Or... She would at least try not to mind. Or feel too guilty about his shoulder.

She practiced the seal sequence he had shown her twice, each time a little bit faster, until she could replicate it perfectly. Then she grabbed the kunai she had used earlier and sliced the pad of her thumb until a drop of blood welled up. Her stomach did an excited flip. "Kuchiyose no jutsu!"

Nothing happened.

Rin blinked. "I must have used the wrong dosage of chakra..." She trailed off uncertainly.

Kakashi frowned. "No, I could definitely feel something. I think..." He groaned unexpectedly and marched off to the bathroom.

Rin watched him go with a growing sense of befuddlement. She heard him say something else and then – a high-pitched yip followed. A moment later, Kakashi came marching out of the bathroom holding a young dog underneath its armpits. It was outrageously cute, with its oversized, pointed ears, large dark eyes and yellow and white coloring. "This is their sense of humor," Kakashi said, and nodded at the poor dog's lower body. It was dripping wet.

"Don't tell me…"

"They made her land in the toilet, yes. Har har, very funny."

Rin's hand flew to her mouth. The dog's little nose drooped sadly.

Kakashi held her out to Rin. "Go on, then."

Rin hurried forward and embraced the little dog, trying not to mind the toilet water getting in her clothes. "I'm so sorry. They didn't really like the idea of my entering a contract with you, so I suppose..?"

"Oooh, this is so embarrassing!" The dog whined. "They told me I couldn't do it, and then I did mess up." Her voice was high and reedy, and more than a little dramatic. "Now look at me!" She wiggled with her legs.

Rin stared at her. "Oh. Well. You could take a bath, if you like?"

Kakashi seemed to have different priorities. He rolled his eyes. "It wasn't your fault. They just gave you the wrong instructions. Always land close to your summoner, not feet away."

The dog flattened her ears in her neck, keening all the while. "I'm not very good at being a summon," she admitted. "I'm far too clumsy."

"I really need to have a chat with the boys," Kakashi growled, and stalked off.

Rin looked at the little heap of canine misery and willed herself to smile encouragingly. "You know what? Never mind all that. We've got a contract, you and I. My name is Nohara Rin. What's yours?"

The dog's ears perked up and her eyes went shiny. "Oh! Do you really mean that?" Her tail started to wag.

"Absolutely," Rin said.

"Oh, oh, oh!" The dog barked happily. "My name is Toboe! It's so very nice to meet you, Rin-chan!"

Rin smiled back. "It's nice to meet you too. Now," she clapped her hands together, "how about that bath?"

Toboe whined.


For all that Kakashi had wanted to become part of ANBU, the reality was nothing like the dream. Milestones he would once have considered victories had become little more than anti-climactic, over the past few years. He'd made it to jounin and lost a great friend. He'd made it to ANBU and lost the one man that position should have enabled him to protect. He could have been named Hokage, and still not be strong enough to actually change anything.

So his goal had become something entirely different: to find the one person capable of awakening Kushina and teaching Kakashi how to minimize his greatest weakness.

Too bad Senju Tsunade was a traumatized drunk who never stayed in one place long enough for anyone to realize she was there. He could gather all the Intel he liked, take on a mission that would take him to her latest known location, and find she had already disappeared.

Even his dogs couldn't seem to pick up on her scent.

But now, perhaps he would finally have a chance.

Akino nosed at the palm of his hand. "You still mad at us, boss?"

Uhei pressed against his side. "We thought it was funny. Toboe is funny."

"But she's not a complete idiot," Pakkun said, stretching out across Bull's back. "She just needs a bit of guidance. We're not cruel. It's good practice for your girl, anyway."

"She's not my girl."

Bull gave him a mournful look from where he lay on the bed.

Kakashi snorted."Toboe had better not be an idiot," he grumbled. "Rin can't be compromised, you know that."

"Of course we know," Bisuke said, tongue rolling out his mouth as he panted. "We're not idiots either."

"You know, I used to believe that..." Kakashi trailed off, and grinned at the chorus of whines and angry yips this got him. He pushed himself up to his feet. "You made your bed, you sleep in it," he said. "Help Toboe, then I'll forgive you." A bit of tough love usually did the trick, where the dogs were concerned.

The dogs gave a big collective sigh, but none of them seemed particularly surprised. "All right boss." One by one, they vanished into thin air as they returned to their home world. Only Pakkun remained behind.

"We wouldn't have nominated her if she didn't have potential," he grunted. "Her hearing is phenomenal. She'll make a good sensor when she's grown."

Kakashi sighed as well. "I figured. Still, warn me next time."

The pug nodded, and then followed his brothers into the void.

Kakashi padded out his bedroom and into the living room. Naruto was still fast asleep, and from the sound of things Rin was bathing her brand-new summon. Kakashi gave an amused snort. Poor Toboe.

Still, this lull in the day was just what he needed.

He stuck his head around the bathroom door. "I have to hand in my mission report. You mind if I pop out for a moment?"

Rin shook her head. "Don't worry about us, we'll be just fine."

Kakashi threw her a salute, pulled on his sandals and grabbed the mission report. The front door fell shut behind him with a bang.

From one floor above, the landlady screeched: "Careful with those doors! You break 'em, you buy 'em!"

Kakashi sighed. He put one hand in his pocket and ambled away, taking his time to observe the village on his way to ANBU headquarters. It was a quiet day out, not too warm or too cold. Not unlike the day Naruto was born – his left eye stung sharply. No, better not go there.

He didn't run into any familiar faces until he entered headquarters through the secret entrance. Inuzuka Hige was at the desk, a smile appearing on his face as he saw Kakashi approach. He was Team Kakashi's official tracker, two or so years older than Kakashi, with a mess of long dark curls, brown eyes and cheekbones that would have made a sculptor weep. He was the kind of guy that would probably have a lead role in one of Jiraiya's novels if they ever turned them into movies. Kakashi gave him a lazy wave, not at all in the mood for his colleague's small talk, and moved on, making sure to speed up once he had rounded the corner so Hige wouldn't be able to catch him.

Handing in the papers themselves to the commander was the work of five minutes at most. Happy to have it over with, he stuffed his hands in his pockets and turned away from the commander's office to go and find Danzou.

The unfamiliar smell of sharp spices and antiseptic hit his nose, pausing him mid-step. Speak of the devil. Shimura Danzou stopped midstride and blinked.

Danzou tilted his head slightly."Hatake-kun. What a pleasant surprise."

Kakashi gave him a slight bow, as his position demanded. "Shimura-san."

"How fortuitous that we should meet again so soon. The commander told me you have been promoted recently?"

"I have, yes. Thank you for your interest." He shifted impatiently.

Danzou smiled faintly. "Quite impressive. Well done, young man. I'm sure the esteemed Yondaime-sama would have been proud of you."

Kakashi almost bit his tongue. Danzou's words sat strangely in the air between them, more loaded than they should have been." Thank you, Shimura-san," Kakashi managed.

"Of course, Minato-kun was planning to change the regulations, wasn't he? Yes – yes, that's what I seem to remember. He disapproved of placing such young men in such grave danger. But I suppose Sandaime-sama disagreed," Danzou pursed his lips as if to commiserate. "Such a shame. Just be mindful not to let it hold you back." He shrugged slightly.

"Hold me back how?" Kakashi blurted out.

"Oh – well, don't you think it odd that Sandaime would take such risks with so promising a young shinobi? Sometimes, I worry – well, never you mind." Danzou smiled again, but it was devoid of humor. "That's what I am here for. I understand your concerns, and I think I have devised a way to deal with them."

Kakashi's chest felt tight. "You have?" He tried not to sound too excited.

Danzou reached into his robes and pulled out a mission scroll. "This is a rather rare type of mission, and I can only give it to you once," he said, pulling Kakashi to the side and lowering his voice. "I will find an alternative captain for your team while you are gone and explain it to the Hokage."

"While I'm gone?"

"One month. This scroll gives you permission to leave the village for a month. Like I said; it is a rare privilege indeed. I've had to pull some strings to receive it. Use it wisely," Danzou pushed the scroll into his hands.

Kakashi's heart quickened. A month wasn't long, but it was better than anything he had had so far. "Thank you. I will," he managed. "I – how can I repay you?"

Danzou smiled that thin little smile of his. "Consider it a favor. One day, perhaps, you can pay me back. But first, go and save your friend." He pushed the scroll further into Kakashi's hands. Then, he stepped away. "Now, if you'll excuse me... Best of luck to you."

Kakashi watched him go. His fingers tightened around the scroll. He had never heard Minato sensei say anything particularly good about Danzou, but then Minato sensei wasn't here to offer him any better solutions. Besides, Danzou was doing more to save Kushina than Sandaime himself. That had to count for something.

He slipped the scroll into his pocket. He would have to prepare carefully. What would he even tell Rin?

And what had Danzou meant, earlier? Hold him back? Take risks with promising young shinobi? What had he meant?

What was Sandaime playing at?

With Danzou's words still playing through his mind, Kakashi went home, feeling almost as lightheaded as he had the previous night.


He woke up, once. Someone was shaking his shoulder. Called him, "Mizukage-sama!".

Was that his name? Was that who he was?

He couldn't open his eyes, or move his limbs. He couldn't do much of anything.

He wasn't scared either. He didn't know enough to be scared.

He just…

He just couldn't shake the feeling that he wasn't at home.

His body moved. His right eye opened. "I'm on my way," his mouth said. "Leave me."

The someone, whoever he was, did.

His body stretched. It wasn't him, who moved it. It wasn't him, who clad his mismatched limbs in dark robes.

Perhaps, he thought, as sleep once again claimed him, that should have scared him more than it did.


AN:

Yay for sequels? I'm really enjoying this universe, you guys. I'm setting up the plot in this chapter and it may be a bit exposition-y, but I hope you also like the fluffy interactions. Let me know what you think!

This story will probably be shorter than Regeneration, but if I'm still enjoying it by the time I finish I'll follow it up with more stories.

Notes:

Kushina is still in a coma. The shock of having the kyuubi extracted from her during childbirth only for half to be forced right back in was too big a strange even for her. Obviously, the kids are trying to find a way around this.

トオボエTōboe, lit. "Howling". Wolf's Rain, anyone? And yes, she is a corgi.