A/N: So, the beginning of this chapter starts with a scene from the manga, edited to fit my needs. Most of the beginning dialogue is a direct quote, however, no matter how strange Guy’s lines seem xD. I was just going to dive into the feels, but thought I’d remind you guys about the other major event that happened before I did. Oh, and a lot of the ending stuff is fluff...ish, thought I’d give you a bit of a breather from all the drama!

The first sign of the end of the battle was the release of the barrier that had kept the Leaf shinobi from interfering with Orochimaru and the hokage’s fight. A cold feeling settling into the bit of his stomach, Kakashi watched as the enemy Sound shinobi took off, their master easily supported between them. The moment that he realized they were leaving, Guy clenched his fists, preparing to launch himself forward.

“Kakashi! They’re moving, should we chase?”

He shook his head, shoving a hand into his friend’s path despite the anger flooding through him. His face was calm, his emotions carefully concealed. No matter what had happened, they couldn’t rashly charge after Orochimaru- it would spell disaster for them both.

“No.”

“Ah… when you don’t have good battle ground information, you don’t like to move around much for fear of falling into the enemy’s snare,” an amused voice announced.

His eyes were cold, flickering back to their opponents as he lightly clenched his fists at his sides, the only indication of his feelings on the matter. Standing before them in the center of the arena were Baki- the sand triplet’s jounin- and a masked ANBU member. In a stark contrast to Kakashi’s cool, collected attitude, Guy allowed an uncharacteristic scowl to touch his lips.

“Of course we agree with those words a hundred times over,” he announced. “There could be traps and unseen areas. Plus, it's wrong to lose sight of an enemy. That’s what a Leaf Shinobi is.”

“After all…you,  our enemy, is right before us… Kabuto,” Kakashi finished for him.

A soft chuckle hit the air as Kabuto inclined his head, removing the ANBU mask from his face. The earlier sound forehead protector he’d been wearing had been discarded, no longer needed with his business taken care of.

“Completely exposed. However… should you really be focusing on me?”

Eyes narrowing, Kakashi opened his mouth to demand an answer just as a loud, booming crash came from the inner workings of the arena. Kabuto chuckled again, raising a brow in response to the echo to his words.

“I paid a friend a little visit and told him to let go a little. Such a shame, really, that boy having to suppress himself for so long. Even a Kurama should have a few moments of freedom, don’t you think?”

As realization flashed across Kakashi’s face, Kabuto laughed again, dropping the ANBU mask to the dirt as he clasped his hands in front of his face. While Kakashi debated his how to handle this, Baki shot a questioning look in Kabuto’s direction.

“What do we do?” Baki questioned.

“Slowly retreat,” Kabuto answered immediately.

That caught Kakashi’s attention.

“Now you’re going to run away from me?”

“Of course,” Kabuto replied, shrugging as his hands flashed through simple signs. “I’d rather not have you copy all of my secrets, Copy-Ninja. I’m sure you’ll have your hands full enough without me.”

As soon as the last word had escaped his lips, Kabuto disappeared.

He could only hope that they did as he predicted and in the resulting chaos of the attack, forgot to mention his betrayal to Kazue. It’d be easy to overlook that matter in mess they had to repair- he was counting on it, really.

Afterall, he wasn’t finished with her just yet.

______________________________________

“Sorry, sorry, it was an accident!”

Tenten, her hand raised in full preparation of hitting Jun, looked vivid.

“How do you accidentally set off a chain of explosive tags?” she demanded. “You destroyed the entire hall! We barely made it out without getting caught in the debris!”

Sheepishly, Jun held both of his hands up, searching for a good method to use to enforce his innocence. Afterall, he couldn’t very well say he was erasing all evidence of his break-down. If there were no bodies, there was no proof. No matter what happened, there was no chance he would admit to what had happened. No proof, no confession, no re-sealing.

That was about as far as his plan had gone.

“I… I forgot I’d deployed them while fighting?” he suggested.

That much was the truth.

It had been Kurai Jiko’s idea. He hadn’t realized it until his eyes had noticed the tags placed on several of the bodies as the three genin picked their way past them. The monster wasn’t eager to be sealed away again. It would help him.

Until then, he’d never been so aware of Kurai Jiko as something...else. He’d known- it was impossible for him not to- but it’d never completely sunk in. He’d given the feeling a name, but it’d been just that, a feeling. He’d retained no memories of that side of himself being free. Unlike Yakumo, it’d never been obvious how strong the dormant personality constructed by the overwhelming power of the bloodline was. The seal had seen to that.

He knew now.

He’d heard the bodies fall, felt the chakra surge from him without thought or movement. Jun had known the moment the chakra signatures began to disappear from around him, the moment that the cries of pain had ceased coming.

Yet he’d been unable to do anything about it. The euphoria had been overwhelming, enough that it hadn’t occurred to him. When he was killing those shinobi- slaughtering them- he couldn’t stop. The split second he’d even considered it, the thought had been wiped clean away.

Kurai Jiko.

All the stories of his family said this was where it ended. That when the other personality had fully developed, it would take over. That he would become a danger to everyone around him- that the only thing the monster cared about was the protection of the lone Kurama that it had once been.

As he made sheepish excuses to Tenten and clutched his head with his good hand when she slammed her fist down on it, he came to a decision.

No matter what, he wouldn’t allow himself to harm anyone. He wouldn’t allow himself to be resealed.

And most importantly- he wouldn’t allow himself to run no matter what happened.

Jun wasn’t a traitor.

He was the one thing that he’d always dreamed of being- no matter how many dirty looks and whispered comments about being the child of a traitor he’d received as he’d grown up. It was his redemption, his way to finally be accepted no matter his heritage. Jun wouldn’t be the child of a traitor and a family whose history inspired fear in anyone who knew it.

He would just be a shinobi of the Leaf.

Not would, he was. Jun’d managed that much.

Monster or not, he’d continue to be one.

_______________________________________

The moment they stepped through the village gates- having decided that attempting to scale the walls in their state would be rather difficult- the group drew ANBU attention. In the wake of the attack the special division of shinobi were crawling all over the village. It was only seconds before Miki, despite her protest, had been relieved of their prisoner. Asuma, despite himself, soon departed as well, dragging the two genin off to the hospital to make sure they were alright. He knew that leaving the red-head alone might be a bad idea, but he also knew that the kids needed attention.

Besides, he needed to see his father. He’d want to know that he’d been right, that… Yukio had shown. That name seemed to be the most fitting anymore, there didn’t seem to be an ounce of his brother left in that body.

Miki might have considered followed him, but her mind was spinning. No matter how important making sure Kazue was okay, was, she just couldn’t bring herself to focus on that matter. If she couldn’t focus on it, there was no reason to be there.

Yukio was in the custody of the Leaf.

Somehow, it didn’t make her feel any better. Hayate was still dead. People had still been injured. Yukio had been caught, that threat was finally subdued, but at what cost? Orochimaru had been in the village- he’d brought this attack.

Was this really the end to everything? Or was it just a new beginning?

For awhile, she wandered, helping out when ever she’d see somewhere to step in. A board here, a gash there, any sort of job to keep her hands occupied. To keep her from searching for where the ANBU had taken him. Her thoughts never calmed, the cold, numbness spreading through her never breaking. She just didn’t know how to react.

How was one supposed to react when the closest thing they’d had to a parent for the first of their life- as horrible of a relationship as it might have been- had been caught? When that same person had been the one to ruin her friends’ lives and to steal away the life of her first mentor? Was there a rulebook somewhere to tell her what she should feel? How to think? That explained what someone was supposed to do in a situation where everything felt… off-kilter? If there was, she needed someone to show it to her. Everything seemed to be breaking before her eyes.

The village was in pieces.

Someone had told her that they’d heard that the third- the first person to ever give her a chance- had been gravely injured in the attack.

Perhaps all of those thoughts were why after a concerned villager had caught the jounin’s attention and directed him her way, she didn’t even notice him at first. She simply continued helping drag chunks of rock away from where they’d been thrown after the giant snake that Orochimaru had summoned crushed one of the buildings. There was little chance that someone had been caught in the collapse, but she’d volunteered to clear it away none-the-less. It wasn’t until a pair of large, calloused hands helped her with a particularly heavy piece that she even noticed there was someone standing next to her. When the rock was thrown to the side where all of the debris was being gathered, she lifted her eyes to thank them and froze as her gaze landed on the piercing, blue eye studying her.

“... oh.”

His lips twisted up behind his mask, as humorless as the situation was.

“Oh?” Kakashi echoed.

She shook her head, spinning back around to drag another stone away from the mess.

“I was just surprised, that’s all. Shouldn’t you be taking care of your students?”

He caught her wrist, drawing her back towards him. Lips pursed, she stubbornly tugged her hand back towards her chest, eyes focused anywhere but him. Kakashi knew her too well, he’d be able to see past the numbness, somehow she just knew that.

It scared her.

It seemed that every time something happened- every time she broke or even just came close to breaking- he was there. He would pick up the pieces and then, as suddenly as he’d appeared, they’d be back to their usual positions as friends. They’d tease each other, they’d laugh, they’d spar. That she could handle- after all she’d always been searching for ways to spend time with him. It had long since become something that described her. Kakashi’s stalker- a label that had been jokingly given and she’d accepted without protest.

Each time the pieces fell, though, something changed. There was a new feeling behind the laughter, there was a new spark to the sparing. When he would catch her hand- blocking an attack- an electric feeling would flash across her skin. Her breathing would catch.

Heat sometimes flooded into her cheeks, hidden by stray strands of hair.

Anymore and he might notice the changes. What would she do then?

“Shouldn’t you?” he questioned. “I saw Asuma leading Kazue and Shikamaru into the hospital as I was leaving. Her entire chest was covered in blood.”

“She’d healed by the time we got back. He just wanted to be careful.”

“Miki.”

His tone was firm. Still clinging to that small, stubborn strain of emotion, she turned away and returned to work. A soft sigh escaped his lips and when he caught her wrist this time and spun her to face him, he easily captured her other hand as well. When she attempted to tug away this time, he simply tightened his grip, raising a single brow.

“Do you honestly believe I’ll let you go when you’re like this?” he questioned.

She pursed her lips.

“One could hope.”

He narrowed his eye slightly, then allowed a small, careful comment to fall from his lips- one that he typically would have kept to himself. In this situation, it seemed to be the easiest way to get her to react. The only thing that might have caused him to hesitate is unlike the night he’d escorted her home from the bar- she wasn’t drunk. She’d remember the words.

“I’d imagine that you’d want me to stay close.”

She froze, his words when combined with her thoughts sending a faint flush across her cheeks. Surprised, Kakashi’s grip on her wrists loosened slightly and she wrenched them away, tucking her hands behind her back. Whatever he might have expected her response to be to his words, it wasn’t that.

“It’s not like…I mean-” she began, then cut herself off with a shake of her head. “I’m fine. Just trying to figure out how to react to all of this.”

He studied her for a moment, resisting the urge to clasp her chin and make her look up at him so that he could try and figure out what was running through that mind of hers. In the years that they’d known each other he’d learned three definite things. When she didn’t want to talk to him was when she needed to. If Miki wouldn’t look at him- it was because she was hiding something. Finally, if she didn’t want to be near him- she was on the edge of breaking down.

It wasn’t egotistical to believe those things- it was simply the truth of the matter.

Instead of pushing her any further, he watched as she once again attempted to cut off the conversation and return to work. Without a word, he leaned down next to her and grabbed a larger piece of debris and chucked it onto the pile. When she shot him a questioning look, her brows knitted together, he simply returned it with a closed-eye smile.

“I said I wasn’t leaving.”

Miki stared at him for a moment before shaking her head and shoving her hands beneath a stone.

“Jerk.”

He rose a brow.

“How does that make me a jerk?”

“It just does.”

_____________________________________________

In the time following the attack and the third’s funeral, Miki’s team scattered. Kazue had been ordered to take it easy- she’d lost a lot of blood even if her body had sealed the wound rather quickly. Jun had completely disappeared from the public eye, his nose stuck in a book every time that someone could even catch a glimpse of him. Any questions were shrugged off with a cheeky smile, informing the questioner that perhaps if they read a bit more they’d be able to guess what he found so intriguing about a book covering chakra signatures.

Noriaki, predictably, hung around Kazue’s house, annoying the girl to death by hovering and blatantly ignoring any complaints she’d make. In return, she refused to allow him to know what was so fascinating about the letters that would be dropped off randomly by a messenger bird. She even went so far as to put them in a trapped box. When doing so, she’d declared that if he tried to open it, the box would burn, taking the letters with it. With the skill difference between her ability to set traps and Noriaki’s ability to defuse them, the boy had reluctantly given her that little bit of privacy.

As for Miki, she’d found herself with entirely too much free time on her hands. She’d been warned-off of visiting where Yukio was being kept, seeing as the one time she’d been allowed to see him, the shinobi had made a smart comment that had sent her lunging towards him, only held back by Ibiki’s latching onto her arms from behind. After that she was told that perhaps it’d be best if she just stayed clear of the criminal. When Miki had opened her mouth to argue, Ibiki and Kakashi had exchanged looks, the younger gripping her arm and steering her out of the building.

The time period following that was one of the only times since entering Konoha that she purposely avoided Kakashi. As such, it proved to create rather awkward situations for their friends on several occasions. Kakashi, unused to being ignored by someone who could easily be said to be one of his closest friends, had decided something needed to be done. Miki, obviously, had an opposite opinion on the matter.

“She was with you,” Kakashi observed.

While Hikari took up a sheepish expression, Hisoka looked like the entire situation amused him to no end and gave a vague shrug in response to the statement. When Kakashi’s eyes shifted the third figure left at the table, Guy valiantly decided to take up the red-head’s cause and surged to his feet with a typically serious expression on his face.

“Kakashi! It’s been too long, we should have-”

“Hikari,” Kakashi cut in, narrowing in on the one person out of the three who seemed most likely to crack. “Where’d she go?”

A frown worked it’s way onto his lips behind his mask. Later that afternoon he was scheduled to meet with Sasuke, which meant he didn’t have hours to spend searching her down to fix this problem. Sure, he could have waited until after the meeting, but the longer this stretched out, the more comments he would have to overhear about  how “cute” it was to see the two of them having a “lover’s spat” and how everyone just “knew” something was going on.

How her avoiding him for agreeing that she should be forbidden from visiting Yukio and them having a “lovers’ spat” had been connected, he wasn’t quite certain. Although, he was almost certain that their group of friends’ fantasies might have been at the center of the rumor. That when combined with the fact that most people didn’t know the reasoning behind their disagreement...

“Who?” Hikari replied slightly sheepishly, focusing her eyes on the book propped open between her and Hisoka, as if she hadn’t been previously complaining about reading it for him. “I’m not-”

“Hikari-”

“Hika-chan’s right,” Hisoka interjected with amusement, offering a smug smile in Kakashi’s direction as he dropped his cheek against one of his hands. “We have know clue who you’re talking about. We know a lot of girls- you’ll have to be more specific. Who is that you’re so set on talking to?”

“Hiso-kun, don’t be so rude! Teasing him isn-”

“I’m not teasing him, I’m just asking!”

“Jerk!” Hikari snapped, flicking the blonde’s forehead.

Hisoka instantly let out sputtering complaints, clutching his forehead.

“You know who,” Kakashi interrupted, pulling on his last reserves of patience.

“-it’s been so long since we’ve had a battle of youth-”

“We really don’t!” Hisoka declared, ignoring Guy’s continuing speech beside them.

Sighing, Kakashi almost considered just summoning Pakun instead of playing their game.

“Miki.”

“Why would you be searching for her?” Hisoka continued, his grin turning teasing.

Ignoring him, Kakashi continued to focus his attention on Hikari who shifted uneasily beneath his gaze. Wordlessly, he rose a brow, well aware that the girl wasn’t someone who handled these sort of secrets very easily- no matter the circumstances. She might have been able to keep her mouth glued shut about anything she read at work, but when it came to personal matters… she was an open book. Squirming in her seat, now, she shifted her gaze back to the book, nervously slipping her fingers over the text.

“I don’t see why you don’t just check to see if there’s a braille version of this…” she mumbled, switching back to her previous conversation as if Kakashi wasn’t even there.

Instantly, he settled his hand down on the book, snapping shut the page she’d begun to turn. Hikari squeaked, sheepishly bringing her eyes up to him.

“I don’t know!”

He rose his brow again.

“... I… well… I didn’t… she isn’t hiding or anything… it’s not like I’d…”

Hisoka pursed his lips, attempting to keep back the snickering that threatened to escape him. As Hikari flushed red in response to the sound, he simply shook his head, casting his hair all around his face.

“I’d try her usual hiding spot. That abandoned house she bought with Hayate. Can’t believe you haven’t checked the-”

“He’s already gone, Hiso-kun,” Hikari interrupted.

“... damn, that was fast.”

True to Hisoka’s words, it was instantly obvious that someone was at the house, the door leading inside being slightly ajar when he arrived. The house was one he was rather familiar with, the site of a rivalry game that Miki had been pulled into when they were younger. The building was rather worn down, unless you wanted to spend a lot of time with it, the door was rather difficult to get completely wedged shut, and almost impossible to shove open from the inside. As such, when someone was in, it was always left ajar.

A few months back, before everything had started falling apart, Miki and Hayate had both gone in on the long abandoned property. Hayate had purposely avoided any questions about it, but Miki had openly declared that they planned on fixing it up, because a family needed space to grow and he had the intentions of getting married to his current girlfriend. The shinobi had turned red and fallen into a fit of denial accompanied by coughing, but no one had doubted her announcement. The only surprising thing was that they’d chosen a place that needed work when both of them seemed to be constantly busy. Miki had gone on to explain that she was rather fond of it and hated seeing it sit empty.

Kakashi had been rather grateful that no one beyond himself could figure out why she was so fond of a run down building that- as far as they’d known- she’d never entered. As was to be expected, very little progress had actually been made. Between Hayate’s ANBU work and Miki’s team, neither one had actually had the time to do anything. As he stepped inside now, he could easily spot the giant hole decorating the ceiling above him and instead of chancing the questionable stairs, he collected a small amount of chakra in his feet and easily launched himself up to the attic.

Almost instantly, he spotted her.

Curled up next to the circular window built into the side of the room was Miki. Her arms were lightly clasped around her legs, her chin settled atop her knees as she peered out at the street. For a moment the sight seemed to mirror the first time he’d met her in this building- the only difference being that instead of a pile of dirty cloths, Miki had settled against an old blanket she’d dragged up into the attic at some point. To be honest, Kakashi wasn’t all that surprised by the discovery. She seemed to like being in a position where she could watch others without being seen, it would only make sense to make her seat a bit more comfortable.

As he stepped towards the window, Kakashi was well aware that she’d noticed his arrival due to how tense she seemed to be. It was far from the relaxed feel the room typically gave off. Without a word, he settled himself in front of her, his back braced against the wall of the building. His attention was drawn away from her for a moment as the flooring gave a low groan beneath them. He was reminded of the fact that they’d been the ones to cause the current hole in the middle of the floor and the absent hope that they didn’t create another hole in the sketchy flooring crossed his mind.

Her eyes torn away from the window, Miki studied him without shifting her head from her knees. If there was anything that described her feelings in that moment, it’d be apprehension. Sure, she’d known that avoiding him might lead to him purposely tracking her down- and perhaps on some level she’d been hoping for it- but that didn’t make the fact that he’d done it any easier to take.

For a moment, they simply watched each other.

“I’m not broken.”

That single sentence hit the air with the more weight than perhaps an entire speech might have done. When Kakashi didn’t respond right away, she narrowed her eyes slightly, but said nothing. To his credit, Kakashi managed to quickly make the connection between the current situation and her seemingly warrantless words. After Orochimaru and Yukio’s reappearance, her brother’s death, her break-down in his arms, Asuma’s report that she was only inches from killing Yukio when he’d already been subdued due to Kazue’s actions, her throwing herself at him with similar intentions when the man made a flippant comment about his father’s death, it wouldn’t be hard to come to the conclusion that Miki was in a rather fragile state. It was no stretch to imagine that one more incident would probably shatter her.

At the same time, that wasn’t Miki. At least, not to him.

After a long, silent moment he simply inclined his head, offering that closed-eye smile of his.

“I know.”

She studied him for a moment, the tension slowly draining out of her frame. In response, he seemed to relax as well, shifting his arms so that his hands were hanging loosely in his lap. In that single moment, their unspoken argument was forgotten. Those two words meaning more to her than anything else he might have said.

“... I guess this place is mine, now,” she commented quietly, pulling her eyes from his.

Slightly surprised, Kakashi studied her, attempting to figure out what was going through her mind. As her gaze shifted over the room, the faint light shining through the window hit her face, revealing the faint, watery gleam to her eyes as well as the faint flush to her cheeks.

“Hey… Kakashi?” she muttered.

“Hm?”

“Do you ever…” she began, then shook her head, turning her gaze from the room back to him, unwilling to continue without any indication of what he was thinking. “Do you… was Hayate naive?”

Unable to quite make the connection between her words and her thoughts, Kakashi allowed for a few moments silence to stretch between them as he considered how exactly to respond. Eventually, he gave in.

“Naive how?”

She hesitated.

“To want this,” she replied, freeing one hand from her legs to gesture at the room around them. “Even though he was a shinobi, an ANBU at that.”

It took a moment, but finally her question when combined with the light flush to her cheeks clicked. Rather than instantly denying the strange feeling that flooded through him, Kakashi simply considered the question, then slowly shook his head.

“I don’t think so. It’s not naive to dream of a future that includes a family. Not everyone is destined for lives like… like the ones we’ve had. Shinobi or not- everyone has a right to…” he trailed off, the word on the tip of his tongue, but unable to escape his lips while her eyes still met his.

Faint, humorless amusement fluttered across her face.

“A right to love?”

This time, Kakashi was the first to break his gaze away, turning his attention to the room around them.

“Yes.”

“... even me?”

There was something barely similar to a teasing edge to her voice, which caused his lips to twist up in return.

“Perhaps.”

The amusement that made it’s way into her expression this time was real.

“Perhaps?” she echoed.

Kakashi nodded in return.

“Perhaps,” he agreed. “It depends.”

“Oh what, exactly?”

For a moment, he looked like he might answer. His mouth opened, he shifted uncomfortably where he sat, but then he abruptly shut it, remembering the agreement he’d made earlier to meet Sasuke at a sweets shop.

The conversation… it shouldn’t be held on a deadline.

At the abrupt manner at which he suddenly stood, Miki’s face fell. He instantly shook his head, pulling up the needed words to fix the expression that had appeared.

“Drinks.”

She blinked.

“What?”

“Drinks,” he repeated, awkwardly running his hand through his hair as he turned his back to her. “That’s… tonight, let’s meet. We’ll have drinks and…”

He trailed off and slowly her expression warmed once again.

“Discuss what that depends on?” she suggested.

Relieved, he nodded, turning back to her, his hand still buried in his snowy hair.

“Right. That.”

She actually chuckled, slowly nodding her agreement.

“It’s… a date.”

A/N: Tada! I wonder... how many of you guys know what's about to happen? Hm? *evil grin*