Why am I running?

I had been running for hours, but I had no idea why I felt I had to run.

Where am I going?

I felt like I was being guided. I had no idea where I was. I somehow knew where I was supposed to be heading… I needed to find him, my brother.

What happened to me?

I was covered in blood. I didn't know if most of it was mine or someone else's. I couldn't remember what had happened to me. I knew who I was, but it was as if someone had removed my memories. The past nine years were blank. There was a gaping hole where my memories should have been.

I had woken up in the mountains just before sunrise. I had no idea where I was, but I felt like I knew where to go. I started running, letting some invisible force guide me, and I continued to run as my surroundings slowly became more and more familiar.

I've been here before…

It had been dark for hours, but I recognized my surroundings. I knew this territory. I had run in this forest before. When I could see the soft glow of lights, I finally realized where I was. I knew why I had been running to this place. It was my home. I hadn't been here in so long that I had nearly forgotten the village I was from.

Konohagakure…

I finally gave myself a break when I could see the village gate; I slowed down and walked closer. Just before I reached the gate, I collapsed. Two men came running out once I was on the ground. One man had spiky hair and a bandage going across his nose, the other had his hair covering one eye. I couldn't hear what they were saying; I was too close to unconsciousness to try to listen. As the man with spiky hair picked me up, I leaned my head on his shoulder. I felt safe here, and I felt like I knew these men.

I'm home… brother… are you still here?

"Kakashi," Hamaki said quietly to the silver haired man, "the Lord Hokage wishes to speak to you right away."

"Alright," Kakashi sighed and turned back to the three young ninja before disappearing, "training is over for the day. We'll continue tomorrow at noon."

"Aww man," Naruto shouted, "I was just starting to get the hang of this! Why do we have to stop now?"

"Sasuke?" Sakura ran after her crush, "where are you going?"

"Home."

"Why? I was hoping we could do something together!"

"I'll spend time with you!" Naruto ran toward the pink haired girl.

"No!" she hit him and turned away, "why would I want to spend time with you?"

"Sakura…" Naruto watched her walk away from him. he was ho busy ranting about Sasuke that he didn't notice the person running up behind him.

"Watch it!" Kiba growled after tripping over the blonde boy.

"You watch it!" Naruto yelled, "You're the one who tripped over me!"

"That's only because you were dumb enough to be in my way!"

"Why you-"

"Will you stop arguing already?" Sakura yelled at the boys. She had turned back to see what was going on.

"Shoot! Naruto, you idiot! You distracted me!" Kiba started running again.

Naruto laughed at the other ninja, "well, dogs are stupid that it's pretty easy to distract them."

Akamaru jumped out of Kiba's jacket and started growling at Naruto.

"Naruto you-"

"Distracted you from what? Why are you in such a big hurry?" Sakura asked before Kiba could get mad again.

"There's someone in the hospital," Kiba's head snapped up when he remembered that he had been going somewhere. He tried running again but he was stopped my Sakura.

"So," she was confused, "people end up in the hospital all the time after missions, what's so special about that?"

"But it's a girl," Kiba growled.

"So?" Naruto didn't understand why Kiba was so excited.

"So she's supposed to be really pretty, and no one knows who she is," Kiba finally managed to pull himself out of Sakura's grip, he was getting impatient. He was in a hurry, he didn't have time to explain it to the blonde idiot and his girlfriend. "Everyone's trying to get a look at her just in case they take her away!"

"Why would they take her away?" Naruto ran after Kiba, wanting to see the girl that apparently had everyone talking.

"You really are an idiot," Kiba rolled his eyes, "if no one knows who she is, she could be a threat to the village."

"What's going on down there?" Kakashi mumbled to himself. He was sitting on a roof, watching the people pushing to see in one of the hospital windows. He couldn't see who was in the bed, but whoever it was sure had a lot of visitors. There had been a swarm of people in the room but they were all pushed out a minute or two ago.

"Sasuke," Naruto yelled when he saw his teammate a short distance from the hospital.

"What do you want?" Sasuke groaned.

"Did you come to see the girl too?"

"What girl?"

"The girl in the hospital," Naruto sounded excided to know about something before his rival.

"Why would I care about some girl," Sasuke rolled his eyes and walked away.

Naruto quickly ran over to the window and pushed his through the crowd so he could see in the window.

Even though he said he wasn't interested, Sasuke turned his head so he might be able to see who Naruto was talking about. Unfortunately, no one outside could see her well so they had to get the people who had managed to get into the room to describe her.

"Hmm," Kakashi couldn't see the girl well from his perch, the only thing he could make out was a bit of red hair, "maybe I can get something out of the Hokage."

"You're late," the Third Hokage stated when Kakashi stepped into the room.

"Sorry, I got distracted. There's quite a commotion by the hospital," Kakashi apologized, he wasn't going to make an excuse with the Hokage… and he wanted to know what was going on.

"That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about," the Hokage walked out the room, followed closely by Kakashi, "this morning, Izumo and Kotetsu found a young girl was found outside of the village. She was injured and is currently in the hospital. We haven't found any records that suggest she is a threat to the village, so she can stay her if she wants to."

'I don't see what this has to do with me," Kakashi could see the hospital now, the crowd had actually gotten larger.

"She's going to be living with you; you're going to take care of her."

"What?!" Kakashi was shocked, "Why me? Why not get someone else to do it? Iruka or Izumo, or let her live on her own like Sasuke and Naruto!

"I thought you would be the best choice," the Hokage turned into the hospital and stopped in front of one of the rooms.

"Why?!"

"Well," the Hokage opened the door, "she is your sister."

But Kakashi knew who it was before the Hokage told him. As soon as he saw her face, he knew. He didn't notice the people looking in the window, or the nurses looking at him. He didn't even notice the Hokage close the curtains so the children couldn't watch him. The only person he saw as he walked over to the bed was the young girl.

"Shade," he mumbled into the sheets and he hugged the still girl.

Shade had disappeared nine years ago, she had just turned five. No one knew where she could have gone. People searched for her for a while, but most gave up hope rather quickly. Their father was one of the first ones to stop looking for her; he was convinced that she was dead and he slowly made all of the other villagers believe it too. Kakashi was the only one who never really gave up hope; he wasn't sure what had happened to her, but he had refused to believe she was really gone.

She looked so different, she had grown up a lot, but she still looked like her. Her hair was shorter now, it went to her shoulders instead of her waist, but it was still silver with red tips. She looked like she was smiling in her sleep; she always used to smile, he was happy that hadn't changed. He knew her eyes wouldn't have changed; they would still be the deep crimson they used to be, the same color as blood.

The only things that were really different were the markings on her body. There was a black mark that started at the temple and almost went to the corner of her mouth on the right side of her face. There was a perpendicular line that intersected it just under her eye. There were three on her upper right arm, almost like tiger stripes, and one on her right forearm. There was an X on her left shoulder and two more stripes on the left forearm. Kakashi pulled down the sheets and saw that she was wearing baggy shorts and a tank top that ended at her midriff. There was a black like poking out from under her shirt and several similar markings on her legs.

"Those markings…" He lightly brushed the ones on her cheek.

"We aren't sure what made them, they aren't normal tattoos."

Kakashi didn't know what to say; he just pulled the blankets back up so they were covering the girl again.

"If you don't want to have her live with you," The Hokage smiled, "I'm sure I could get someone else to take her."

"No, I'll look after her," Kakashi looked at the Hokage, "I won't accept anyone else taking care of her."

"Her clothes are over there," the Hokage gestured to a chair in the corner, "don't forget them. She will be tested by Iruka once she's awake. We need to know how much ninja training she has had."

"What? But she disappeared before she could start her training."

"You know that she had a lot of potential before she went missing, it's highly likely that she's had some sort of training."

"I've missed you," he said quietly after the Hokage had left. He pulled down his mask and kissed her forehead before pulling a chair over and sitting down to read Icha Icha Paradise. After a few hours of reading, he started to get tired.

How long are you going to sleep? He sighed as he leaned back in his chair and let himself drift off.

"Kakashi!" the small girl yelled as she ran to the silver haired teen

"Yes?" he picked her up and held her in his arms.

"Are you leaving?"

"I have a mission," he set her down and ruffled her long hair.

"But I don't want you to go!" she had tears in her red eyes, "you're always gone!"

"I'll only be gone for a few days," he knelt down in front of his sister, "I'll try to hurry so I can come back sooner, okay?"

"Okay…" she wiped the tears from her eyes.

"Now come on, I'll give you a ride home."

"Yay!" she jumped onto his back and held onto him while he carried her, "aren't you going to be late now?"

"I'm always late," he laughed.

"Why?"

"Well," he turned his head so he could see the young girl, "I guess it's because I'm always with you."

She sniffled and started to cry again.

"What's wrong, Shade?"

"You're always getting in trouble because of me…"

"No," he set her down and wiped her tears away, "I get in trouble because of me. It's because I like making sure I get to see you before I leave on missions."

"Oh…" she smiled her brother, "So it's not my fault!"

"Kakashi!" Might Guy yelled from behind the two, "I thought you had an important mission, did you chicken out?"

"No," Kakashi turned, "I wouldn't want them to send you in my place; you'd only mess it up."

Before Guy could reply, Shade kicked him in the knee. "Be nice to my brother, creepy man!"

"She's pretty feisty," guy smiled at the child, "she's got spirit! I like that about her. She's going to be a fine ninja!"

"Pervert," Kakashi picked up Shade to keep her away from his rival.

"What was that, Kakashi?"

"You'd better not try anything with her," Kakashi continued walking home with the girl, "she's twelve years younger than you."

Shade stuck out her tongue at Guy; she didn't like him. He was creepy and he was always arguing with her brother. However, Guy thought her attitude was cute. He couldn't wait to see what a good ninja she would be.

Kakashi walked back into the village when he was done him mission. He had been gone for five days. He looked around the village but he couldn't find Shade.

"Guy," Kakashi walked over to his rival, "do you know where Shade is? I told her I would go see her as soon as I was back."

"You don't know?" Guy looked confused, "she's gone."

"Gone? What do you mean gone? Where is she?!"

"That's just it, no one knows where she is," Guy frowned, he thought Kakashi would have heard about it by now, "she disappeared the day after you left. We've been looking for her, there's no way a child that young could vanish like that… we can't find any trails from the ones who took her."

"No," Kakashi didn't believe it; she was so young… who would have taken her?

"Kakashi?" Guy asked him.

Kakashi didn't answer him.

"Kakashi," Guy sounded weird, almost like a woman.

"Kakashi?" I whispered to the man who was using my legs as a pillow.

He mumbled in his sleep and I giggled.

"Kakashi."

He didn't respond.

"Wake up!" I pushed him off of me and he fell onto the floor.

"What?" he sat up and rubbed his head, "oh, you're up?"

"What time is it? Are we in the leaf village? How long have I been here? Why are you sleeping on me? Where are my clothes?" I had a lot of questions I wanted to ask him, "when did you get so old?"

He stuck his head out of the room and asked someone a question before coming back into the room. "6:47 AM, yes, about a day, I was tired, on the chair in the corner, and I'm not old."

"Why were you sleeping in here?"

You're my sister, I wanted to see you when you woke up," he handed me my clothes, "but the Hokage wants to see you too, so let's go."

"But I'm tired," I sighed as I pushed him out of the room so I could put my normal clothes on.

"Really?" he asked when I stepped out, "go put the other clothes back on."

"Why?" I asked.

"You aren't a ninja, you don't need to dress like that or carry around those weapons. No go put the other clothes back on."

I sighed and went back into the room. I didn't see what was so bad about my clothes. I had a tight red shirt that ended a few inches above my waits and a short red shirt with a slit up the side. Of course, I was wearing shorts under the skirt. I was also wearing black gloves and had twin tanto attached to a belt.

"Better?" I asked when I stepped out of the room wearing the other clothes.

"Yes," she could hear the smirk in his voice, "now let's go."

"Fine, but you can carry these," I pushed my clothes into his hands, "it's your fault we have to carry them anyway."

I couldn't answer most of the questions that the Hokage asked me because of my missing memories, but he seemed to understand. He told me that I could stay in the village if I wanted to, and I told him that, that would be great. Arrangements had already been made for me to stay with Kakashi, but I didn't have any problems with that. Now I just had to see this Iruka guy to get tested.