Prequel to "Resonance" and "Reverberations"

Keiko, and inuyoukai travels through a portal to other worlds after having been cast from her clan for caring about humans. Upon her return to her world, she is nearly killed before she can escape. She finds herself in a world of shinobi. This world is somehow different than the others she has visited. She is free, but little more than a prisoner. She finds herself the ward of an ANBU operate, Hatake Kakashi. His familiar demeanor is shrouded in mystery at first. They both continue to test the waters until something new is born. Could it be love?

This might be longer than the other two because there's more time to make up for

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She woke in the darkness. A cold rain had seeped through to her very bones it seemed, threatening to take her consciousness from her as her senses swam in and out. Someone was coming. She could feel blood from the wound in her side mixing with the mud that puddled mercilessly around her. She willed herself to stand, but her body didn't respond. No more time, she thought. They had come.

All at once, several unfamiliar scents surrounded her in the trees. She closed her eyes and cracked them as much as she dared to watch the strangers as they approached. Hopefully they would think she was unconscious. One of them held up a glowing orb in their hand from the trees, bathing pale light over a small area. It was quickly swallowed in the woods beyond. She could see the outline of their faces-Masks. She wasn't familiar with their garb, although she was fairly certain she had managed to make it through the portal before blacking out. She didn't sense the cave nearby. How had she gotten in the woods? Maybe she didn't make it, she thought, maybe she had died. Maybe these were reapers come to take her to the next life.

One of the figures started to approach her as the rest watched perched in the trees. "Who is she, Kakashi?" one of the masked voices asked the approaching figure.

"What is she?" Kakashi thought to himself in response as he looked over her face. She had purple stripes tattooed on her face and a crescent moon on her forehead. This wasn't the mark of any clan he was familiar with. She had a fluffy boa that was soaked in the mud, but it appeared to have once been white. Something about her didn't seem completely human, but perhaps it was his imagination. Maybe she was a noble from one of the nearby villages. After he was confident she had no intention to move, he kneeled down and removed his Kitsune mask to get a better look.

"Ah, Senpai!" the other voice protested.

"It's alright, Tenzou," said Kakashi. "She's injured pretty badly. I don't think she will be fighting for a while."

She continued to watch him through her lashes. He was handsome, even with the vertical scar above and below his left eye. She thought she saw that eye glared back at her with a deep red glow. There was something about his eyes she recognized; not that he was someone she knew, but that he was someone she related to. She had those same eyes; loss, pain, regret, purpose. He leaned closer to her. She vaguely wondered if he was going to suck out her soul.

"I know you're awake," he whispered near her ear. Her eyes opened cautiously to meet his. "Who are you?"

Her heart beat faster as she sensed his closeness and was overwhelmed with his strange scent. "Keiko…" she gasped. A throb in her side made her world spin, and she knew no more.

Kakashi listened to her shallow breathing. It appeared this time she actually was unconscious. Blood and mud soaked through her white and blue kimono. Even through the dirt he could tell she had beautiful white hair. It still struggled to shimmer like starlight through the grit in the pale light cast on it. He touched her cheek, then her forehead. She was burning up. "Isamu, can you see if you can patch her up until we make it back to the village?" Kakashi called.

"Hai, Senpai."