This may be confusing at first but it should make sense at the end.

Disclaimer: Yuuki is mine and Hatake Rin is mine. Everything else belongs to Kishi-sensei *all hail*

Hatake Kakashi was not a happy man after the mission was over. His 12-year-old students were misbehaving even worse than normal – even Sakura was acting out to a degree. After delivering the team's mission report, Kakashi requested a two-week long excursion with his team. Now, one would normally think that he would want to get away from the kids for two weeks – but he had an idea and he was running with it.

The Third Hokage puffed on his pipe and asked, "Why?"

"I want them to meet Yuuki."

The old man smiled at this, "I see…" He sat and thought for a few moments before saying, "You may have your two weeks. Good luck with them."

Kakashi thanked him and went to pack and grab some sleep before the two-day hike to get to Yuuki. He would tell his team in the morning and let them pack then.

Surprisingly enough to the students, Kakashi was early to their training session that day.

"Go and pack, quickly and lightly. Just the basics, we'll be gone for a few days, but only a few," he said in an uncharacteristically sharp way. "I want you back here in thirty minutes or I'm leaving without you." The trio just sat there, a little stunned. "Well? Go," he told them. "Thirty minutes, no more." They left and were back in twenty minutes, except for Naruto who clocked in at 29.5 minutes.

Wordlessly, Kakashi motioned for them to follow him and started the two-day hike to a small province outside of Konoha – the only reason that it would take two days to get there, is that they would be walking at a civilian's pace.

"Kakashi-sensei ~ we're on a mission, shouldn't we be going faster?" Naruto whined loudly.

"Yeah, this doesn't make a lot of sense Kakashi-sensei," Sakura agreed and promptly went back to fawning over Sasuke in her mind.

"You'll see," he gave an eye-crinkling smile back at them and just kept walking.

They were tired and hungry when they set up camp that night. Each team member, Kakashi being no exception, helped with all the chores, ones which were normally split up. They all collected firewood together, set up tents together, fished together and cooked together. The catch was that none of them ate the exact fish they cooked and they weren't allowed to sleep in the specific tent that they set up. When they asked why, Kakashi's only reply was the same cryptic: "You'll see."

Kakashi was getting a headache by the time that they arrived at their destination.

"Well guys," he interrupted Naruto's long tantrum, "This is our home for the next two weeks."

"This stinking, falling apart warehouse?" the blonde's face was one of utter disgust.

"Yes, this warehouse is where we will be staying for the next two weeks," Kakashi told him firmly. "Now, would you please quiet down so she can hear me knock?"

He sighed and turned back to the door and rapped five times on the slightly rusty metal door, "Yuuki?" he called. "We're here."

There was a distinct clanging of metal from inside the warehouse. The door opened slowly revealing a pitch black interior. Kakashi stepped inside without hesitation and he noticed that the kids weren't following him, "Well – are you coming? We're on a mission."

He ignored their protests but smiled softly as he descended further into the dark warehouse, easily navigating through the towering piles of junk and trash. He heard the kids stumble through the crowded passage and doubled back to lead them through.

"If you had followed me the first time," he said, helping Sakura and Sasuke dig Naruto out from under a pile of rubble, "You wouldn't have had all that stuff fall on top of you."

"You big dummy," Sakura chastised the blonde as they dug him out. They never noticed that where there were once four people, now there were five – but the fifth disappeared into the darkness as soon as Naruto got up.

"Thanks guys," he chuckled nervously.

Kakashi held out his hand, "Make a chain and follow me."

When they reached the other side of the building the darkness was gone and sunlight flooded the warehouse.

"Yuuki," Kakashi called out, letting go of the kids' hands. A young woman stepped out from behind a fifteen foot tall junk pile with a broom in her hand. She had black hair tied up in a short, high ponytail and lime green eyes. She covered the lower half of her face with a short but wide, black scarf. She wore a navy blue tank top and normal shinobi pants, but there was no headband in sight. She nodded at them, eyes crinkling shut in a smile.

Kakashi ushered the kids forward, "Guys, this is Yuuki. Yuuki these are my students: Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke."

"I'm going to be Hokage one day!" Naruto cheered, making the junk towers around them wobble at the sound.

Yuuki raised a finger to where her lips would be, a smirk hidden in the scarf. She walked up to Naruto and studied him for a moment. She then held out and hand and motioned for him to come to her. He looked at Kakashi for assurance, but his sensei only said:

"For these two weeks, I am not your sensei. She is. Do as she says."

Naruto wanted to ask, but the look he received from Kakashi made him swallow his question and go to Yuuki. She handed him the broom and pointed to the floor.

"What?" he asked in confusion. She just pointed to the ground again. "You want me to sweep?" he furrowed his brows. She nodded and walked away, only to emerge a moment later with four other brooms. She handed one to Kakashi, one to Sakura, one to Sasuke and kept the fourth for herself. She pointed to the ground again and started sweeping as did Kakashi.

After several hours of sweeping, much of that time being filled by whining from Naruto, Yuuki stopped sweeping and disappeared into the piles, motioning for the others to follow her. They set their brooms down where they were and followed her, Naruto was still whining and Sakura was complaining a little too.

"Kakashi-sensei…" Naruto began to whine. "I don't like this."

"Naruto, I told you: For these two weeks, I am not your sensei – Yuuki is. When we are here, I'm just Kakashi," he corrected his student, "And I don't want to hear it."

Yuuki had sat down in the middle of a low, wide pile of junk and began digging through it with gloved hands. She motioned the others over and held out something. It was an old, faded wedding picture – whose wedding, no one knew – but it was a beautiful picture all the same. After they had all taken a good long look at it, Yuuki took it back and placed it in the middle of the large clearing in front of the pile. She then pulled something else out of the pile, a broken alarm clock, and set it beside the picture. Once she had a good square meter filled with junk, she began another layer but this time motioned for the others to help and handed them gloves. They worked late into the night and only had three feet built up by the time Yuuki motioned for them to stop.

"Do you ever talk?" Naruto asked rudely.

Yuuki just smiled, turned around and motioned for them to follow her. She led them to a small bathroom with a towel, a toilet, toilet paper, and a sink. She washed her hands and dried them and silently told them to do the same.

"I don't get this," Naruto groaned for the millionth time that day.

Yuuki and Kakashi shared masked smiles as they passed each other. Once everyone had their hands washed and dried, they sat down at a makeshift table. On the table there were five bowls of ramen. On one side of the table there were three chairs sitting normally, facing the table and on the other side were two other chairs facing away from the table. Yuuki motioned for the tweens to sit in the three properly facing chairs, with Sakura in the middle. Kakashi sat in one of the backwards chairs, ramen bowl in hand.

Naruto excitedly dug into his ramen, only to find that his noodles had been cut into inch long pieces. Yuuki placed her chair beside him and took his chopsticks from his, and silently told the other two to watch. The young woman pulled out a small bite of noodles from the bowl and raised it to Naruto's mouth. He opened his mouth to complain but she stuffed the food in his mouth instead. She then set the chopsticks down for a moment and waited for him to swallow the noodles. Once he had swallowed, she waited for ten seconds before repeating the process of feeding him. Soon, all the kids were eating by themselves, taking one small bite at a time and setting the chopsticks down in between bites. When Naruto tried hogging out like he normally did, Yuuki stood up took his bowl and dumped half of the ramen on the dirt floor. She set the bowl back down and kicked a few pieces of junk over the spilt ramen. Sakura looked horrified when Yuuki also did this with her ramen when she offered some to Naruto. Sasuke, who had done nothing but brood and eat, got the same treatment when he called Naruto a "baka".

After supper, Yuuki led them to a clearing outside of the building and threw five sleeping bags on the ground. Each person took one, unrolled it and prepared for bed.

"I have to pee!" Naruto whined. Yuuki just pointed to a bush in the distance. "Why can't I go inside?"

"The warehouse is locked," Kakashi told him. "It's always locked when Yuuki's not in there."

Naruto went off to the bush, grumbling. They all told each other good night, except for Sasuke who didn't care, and Yuuki who had yet to utter a single syllable. For the next two weeks they got the same treatment: they stack junk into a tower, ate short ramen, and slept outside. There were no showers, no rivers, no way to clean yourself except for the roll of toilet paper that Yuuki was generous enough to supply them with when outside. At the end of their two weeks she asked just one question, the first words she had said to them in the entire course of their stay:

"Do you understand?"

The kids shook their heads.

"Good. Some day you will." With that she disappeared back into the darkness of the abandoned warehouse.

The kids soon learned that whenever they misbehaved, Kakashi would take them to see Yuuki. For two weeks of every month, Kakashi was just like them – following Yuuki's orders. If a junk pile had fallen down, they would just build it back up. Every time they left she would ask, "Do you understand?" and the answer was always, "No."

Years later, after Sasuke's betrayal, after the death of the Third Hokage, after Sakura's training with Tsunade and Naruto's training with Jiraiya, after they saved the world from the clutches of the Eye of the Moon Plan, Sakura and Naruto returned to the village. Kakashi met them at the front gate.

"C'mon," he said, "We have a mission."

"But Kakashi," Sakura told him, her medic side kicking in; "You're injured."

"We're going to visit Yuuki," he told them. "C'mon."

"Kakashi-sensei," Naruto started, "The village –"

"She wants to see you," he told them firmly. "We need to go – it's alright, Tsunade gave us explicit permission."

They relented and followed Kakashi on the now familiar path to Yuuki's warehouse of junk.

"What's her story?" Sakura asked. "We've known her for years but we know nothing of her."

"You know a lot about her," Kakashi chuckled, "You just don't realize it."

"You're as cryptic as she is," Naruto muttered and yawned.

"I'll tell you when we get there, if she'll let me of course," he smiled at them.

They arrived, knocked five times on the door and opened it. What they saw was not the warehouse they had known – all of the towers of junk had fallen, not a square inch of floor was visible. Yuuki showed up behind them.

"What happened?" Sakura asked.

Yuuki smiled under her scarf and pulled her bangs out of her face, "Life."

"What will you do?" Naruto asked.

She looked at him, "Rebuild it of course."

"You're chatty today," Kakashi chuckled. She shrugged.

Sakura noticed the bandages, "How did you get hurt?"

"In the war," the older woman said.

"But you're not a shinobi," Naruto retorted.

Yuuki shook her head, slightly amused and looked up at Kakashi and nodded.

The thirty-one-year-old sighed, "Yuuki is a kunoichi. She has served 1,978 D-ranked missions, 854 C-ranked, 237 B-ranked missions, 184 A-ranked missions and 102 S-ranked missions."

"That's impossible!" Naruto cried and winced when Yuuki whacked him on the head, just like she did when anyone said the word "impossible". He huffed, "Fine. I don't believe it."

She just rolled her eyes at him.

Kakashi continued, "She's been tortured seven times, killed more than 8,000 people and turned down an offer to become Hokage."

"How long have you been doing this?" Sakura asked Yuuki and motioned towards the warehouse. The woman shrugged.

"A long time," Kakashi told her. "Come on – let's get to work."

They spent the next two weeks working on the first new junk tower, eating short ramen, and sleeping outside.

Ten years later all the junk piles were standing tall again and Yuuki was sweeping the floor. Naruto visited her and picked up a broom out of habit. For hours they just swept the floors, no words spoken.

"Well Hokage-sama," Yuuki said, "I'm glad you kept your promise."

"You asked me to visit you when I became Hokage," he said and smiled, "I'm Hokage now – just started two days ago. I left after they dismissed me from the ceremony."

Yuuki smiled and started sweeping again. That afternoon they swept and that night they ate short ramen and slept outside. After breakfast the next morning Yuuki took the broom from the Sixth Hokage.

"Naruto," she said sternly, "Do you understand?"

He smiled softly, "Yes."

He could see the smile in her eyes, "Good. Then go home and teach them."

Uzumaki Naruto nodded and hugged his unofficial sensei.

"Thank you for everything sensei," he whispered.

Yuuki smiled at him and watched him walk away. They both knew, at least subconsciously, that was the last time either of them would ever be in the warehouse.

"No Naruto," she whispered even though she knew he could not hear her, "Thank you."

She locked up the warehouse one last time and went home.

Twenty years after that and Konoha was prospering like it never had before, but on one day it rained like it never had before. The Sixth Hokage – the greatest Hokage ever known, his wife Uzumaki Hinata, an elderly Hatake Kakashi, and a young, black-haired, lime green-eyed woman stood in front of a tombstone at the head of a freshly turned up spot of soil.

"I miss her," the woman sobbed quietly, holding onto Kakashi.

The old man readjusted his glasses and gave her a small squeeze with one arm wrapped around her shoulder, "I miss her too sweetie."

Naruto looked over at his former sensei, "Why didn't you tell us that you two were married?"

The Copy-Cat Ninja just shrugged, "It was just something that we decided during one of the wars and it stuck."

The Hokage sighed and wrapped his coat around his very pregnant wife when he felt her shiver in his arms, "I told you, you should be inside. I don't want you getting ill – it's not good for you or the baby."

"I'll be f-fine," Hinata stammered – it was a habit she never managed to kick.

Naruto looked back at the tombstone:

Here Lies Hatake Yuuki

Beloved Wife, Mother, Friend and Mentor

After many minutes of just staring at the new grave, they said their final goodbyes.

"Goodbye my love," Kakashi whispered as he ran his fingers over her headstone. "I have a feeling that I will see you soon enough."

"Bye mom," the young woman choked out between sobs, "I miss you so much. I wanted so much for you to be there at my wedding."

Hinata had never met Yuuki but said a sweet farewell and went inside at Naruto's ushering, Kakashi and his daughter, Rin, escorting her.

Uzumaki Naruto stood alone in front of the grave of his unofficial sensei.

"Thank you Yuuki," he said. "You've made me into the man I am today. You're the reason they call me the greatest Hokage of all time. If it weren't for you, I don't think I could've made it as…patiently as I have. I miss you – but I'll see you again in the next life. Goodbye for now, my unofficial sensei – and let this stand to show the world what you mean to me." He set the framed paper off to the side of the headstone.

Here lies a dear friend, a humble woman. The woman that made me the man I am today. In this grave lies my unofficial sensei who taught me many things – things that the world needs to learn:

1) The word "impossible" is the worst word you can and should be morally illegal.

2) Nothing is beneath you.

3) Let pride take over prejudice and humility be your pride.

4) Actions speak louder than words.

5) When something falls down, you can always build it back up – and better than before.

6) Beauty is found in the strangest of places.

7) Treasures hide in the junk.

8) Never judge a book by its cover or a warehouse by its walls.

9) Appreciate the little things in life – don't hog the ramen.

10) Take your time; it's all you've got.

11) The more you complain the more work you have to do to reach your goal.

12) The hardest lessons to learn are the best ones.

13) Respect others.

14) Respect yourself.

15) And don't be afraid to use a bush as a toilet.

Uzumaki Naruto walked away from the grave of his unofficial sensei and hugged his wife, "I know what we're going to name our baby girl, Hinata."

"Uzumaki Yuuki," she tried it out for herself. "I like it."

He kissed her sweetly, "I only hope our Yuuki grows up to be at least half the woman that Hatake Yuuki was."