Disclaimer: I do Not own Naruto.

Chapter 1

"I am sorry," Tsunade sighed, "I truly am, but I can't allow you to go. The war cost our village far too much. We need you here to help with the rebuilding that must be done."

"She is out there damn it, and I am not going to just set around here and rebuild while she could need us," the shinobi before her argued with a passion that was rare for him.

"Kakashi think about it," the Hokage sadly told him. "The whole team was dead, there is no way that she could have survived. I am sorry that you weren't with them, but chances are if you were the you would be gone too."

"Goddamn it she isn't lying in the morgue," the copy nin growled. "If she was dead then she would have been with them. But she wasn't she may be lost, but she isn't gone and I will not rest until I find her."

"You know as well as I do that there are some jutsu which don't leave a body," Tsunade felt her stomach roll even thinking about it.

"There is no evidence that anything like that was used. You know as well as I do that a jutsu so destructive as that would leave signs that it had been used," Kakashi argued.

"None of the team had any healing even attempted on them. If that doesn't convince you that she is gone than I don't know what will," tears gathered in her eyes, but she wouldn't let them fall. She was the Hokage; she had to be strong.

"Maybe by the time that the fight was over there was nothing left to heal," he growled at her. "You don't know, and until I do you won't be seeing me."

"What are you doing?" Tsunade demanded when the silver haired man started to remove his forehead protector.

"I told you that I am going to find her," Kakashi fixed her with his mismatched eyes. "I really don't care if I do it as a shinobi of the Leaf or not."

"Fine," the blonde woman finally gave in. Konoha had suffered far too many losses already. She didn't believe that Kakashi would find her, but if he needed this time to remain a Leaf shinobi then so be it. "You can go, but I honestly don't believe there is anything out there for you."

"With all due respect I believe that you are wrong," he told her before teleporting himself away.

"Well did she give you permission to go?" Naruto nervously asked as soon as his sensei appeared before him.

"I didn't exactly leave her much of an option," Kakashi replied to him as he shouldered his pack which was setting on Naruto's sofa. His own home had been destroyed during the war so all of his worldly possessions now fit into the confines of this one bag. It didn't matter though, he would give all of it and more to recover their missing teammate.

"I knew you could do it," Naruto cheered. "Just let me go grab my stuff and we can go."

"You aren't going anywhere," the copy nin told him. "Konoha can't afford to lose both of us right now."

"It doesn't matter," Naruto argued. "If she is still out there I have to help you find her."

"First of all you have to stay to continue your training to take over for Tsunade," Kakashi growled at his former student. "More importantly, I don't need anyone coming with me who doesn't know for sure that she is still alive."

"I didn't mean it that way," the blonde hung his head in shame.

"I know," the older shinobi ran a hand down his face. "Sorry Naruto my nerves are just a little on edge. Listen you have to stay, but I promise you that I will find her and bring her home."

"Alright," Naruto agreed.

"I've got to get going," Kakashi told him on the way out of the door, "too much time has passed already."

Naruto watched the man who hadn't been his sensei for many years, though he would always think of him that way, walk away. He couldn't help but to remember making the same promise to a pink haired girl once; the very girl that their sensei was now going to find. With all of his being he hoped that Kakashi had better luck keeping his promise than he had.

Night came sooner than the copy nin would have liked. As he set by a small fire to fight away the chill in the air he wondered if she was out there cold and shivering somewhere. Tomorrow he would reach the battlefield where Neji's ANBU squad had found what was left of her own team. Not that there had been much left to find. He refused to let that discourage him though; because they didn't find her.

Kakashi couldn't help but kicking himself in the ass over the whole situation. When she had come to him asking him to recommend her for ANBU he had done so. The twenty-one year old kunoichi who had made that request of him was a vastly different creature than the girl who had first came under his care. She had been tempered by war and the life of a shinobi. She had acquired a certain hardness about her that was expected of anyone who survived that long in their world, but she still managed not to lose herself.

The problem was that after she had passed and made it in, as he knew she would, she had come to him again to ask him to rejoin ANBU's ranks. She wanted to be a team again. He had denied her that request. Now he couldn't even allow himself to think her name. The pain of losing comrades was always a bitter one, but this was worse. Again he had personally failed one of his precious people, and this time he wasn't sure that he could ever get over it.

"Another," the woman setting at the end of the bar demanded.

"Don't you think that you've had enough?" The bartender asked as he approached the stranger with pink hair. She had drank more than he had ever seen anyone of her size manage; hell she had drank more than men twice her size could.

"I'll let you know when I have had enough," she grabbed his shirt collar and pulled him down to look into his eyes. "Do you understand?"

"Fine lady," the bartender straightened out his shirt after she pushed him away and quickly set another drink in front of her.

Suddenly two men came in supporting a very wounded third in between them. It took only a few seconds to determine that they were shinobi, and that their teammate didn't have very long to live. The woman watched as they rushed past her and into a room that was behind the bar. Blood splattered on her drink as they carried him past.

"Why the hell are they here and not at a hospital?" The woman asked as she pushed her drink away in revulsion. "I need a new drink."

"We don't have a hospital," the bartender explained as he brought over a drink to replace her tainted one. "The town's doctor will come to see him here."

"He is a shinobi," she sighed as the injured man's cries grated on her nerves, "just call in a med nin."

"Don't have any of those either," the bartender shrugged.

"Oh hell," the green eyed woman sighed in frustration. "How long will it take that doctor to get here?"

"Fifteen minutes tops," he told her as he poured her another drink without having to be prompted.

"He won't make it that long," she informed him as she downed the warm liquor. "That was arterial spray. I would say he has less than five minutes,"

"Look lady unless you are a doctor than there is nothing that either of us can do," he shrugged.

"I guess you are right," she shook her head as she stood from her chair and entered the room. "Get the hell out of my way if you want him to live."

The two who had brought their friend in looked at each other for a split second before they did just that. They didn't know the woman who reeked of alcohol, but if she thought she could save their comrade then it was worth a try. They knew that he probably wouldn't make it until the doctor arrived. Everyone who was in the bar crowded into the room to see what she would do and their eyes widened as her hands glowed green and she placed them above the shinobi's wounds. Within five minutes there wasn't even a mark showing that they had ever been there.

"Thank you," the shinobi that she had healed grabbed her wrist stopping her before she could walk away.

"Don't thank me," she coldly replied. "I healed you because your screams were bothering me, and don't expect me to do it again. Now I need a bottle of Sake and directions to the nearest inn."