The hokage had summoned her on her day off. It was against her politics. They could summon her almost all the time expect for the days where she was off. What was it the old lady didn't understand? Why did it have to be today? Why did it even have to be her in the first place? And what worse was: Why did she have to partner up with someone?

As the fight progressed she was kind of thankful for the decision, but still! That was not how she used to work. Going the Land of Tea was one thing, but going to the Land of Swamps – her very own country was definitely another thing. She didn't approve of being accompanied in any way; feeling they might get in the way, and she accidentally might cause unexpected injuries or even worse – strike at unnecessary points.

"Earth style: Kazan Bushin no jutsu!" slamming her hands together in the hand-sign of 'snake', a mud clone formed itself from Misora's own look, standing the exact same way as the opponent charge towards her. From the air, she could clearly see how the opponent caught on, and as he stabbed his kunai into the clone it exploded with a loud noise.

"Misora, duck!" not given much time to react, the auburn haired adult did just that – just in time before another strike would clash with her worked-up body. This was the reason why she hated team work. She knew where her opponents were; she didn't need someone else to tell her that. Not even if she deep down cared for the man she was teamed up with.

[…]

"You summoned me, Lady Tsunade?" Misora stated as she entered the hokage's office.

"Yes. I have a mission for you in the land of Swamps." The blond female hokage said, folding her hands underneath her chin as her brown eyes locked on the auburn female's form. The land of Swamps. She hadn't been there for several years. What could possibly have gone so wrong they needed back up? Before Misora even managed to ask anything, the door swung open, revealing another shinobi. Kakashi?

"I have assigned Kakashi to accompany you on this mission," the blonde hokage stated, her eyes never leaving the auburn head's form.

"I'm sorry I'm a bit late. I was caught up in the middle of something." The silver haired jounin apologized. This was a joke, right? It had to be. Tsunade knew she never went on missions with others more than necessary. It wasn't that she had any kind of problem or disliked the silvernette, but she preferred to go on missions alone.

"I assume there will be no problem with this decision." Tsunade's voice deafened her thoughts. The ex-ANBU bowed her head in respect of the hokage and agreed the terms. After all, she had a pride as a kunoichi.

[…]

There wasn't many things left to coincidence. The enemies wasn't ordinary bullies who pressured the villagers for money, but skilled ninjas.

"MOMMY! DADDY!" the sound of a child's cry made her head snap into a whole other direction. The sky was slowly becoming dyed grey and golden from the fire and explosions.

"Misora! No! It'll blow!" the one-eyed Sharingan yelled after his temporary teammate. However, his calls fell upon deaf ears as she entered the burning home that would soon be reduced to nothing but ashes. Ignoring his calls she went straight into the flames, using one arm to block out the intense heat. Who would have thought that such a peaceful village could end in ruins? The ruins that were once something she called 'home'? Forcing her way through the burning woods, she picked up a small girl

"WHERE IS MOM!" screamed the little girl atop of her lungs. Misora could clearly make out she was about to go into shock. Misora couldn't blame her. One thing was getting attacked, getting your house set on fire, but if your parents weren't there, the whole world was on the edge of chaos. At least in a child's eyes. Although the jounin wasn't good with showing emotions, she understood the small, crying girl and her feelings and felt sorry for her, though it was not in her nature to hug her and tell her it was all going to be good and her mommy was safe. She couldn't tell her that. They didn't even know the woman looked like. As the woman cradled the small child into her arms, trying to block as much heat and smoke out of her face as possible, the roof started to collapse and a carrying beam to crush down onto her shoulder. Groaning in pain, all she could focus on was to get out of the burning building. Well that was before water suddenly started to soak the flames.

Once outside she let the child run out to a crying woman who must have been its' mother.

"Why did you interfere?" the hazel eyed kunoichi snapped annoyed at the silvernette who seemed to have cleared the area. She guessed that either they had ran off or he simply killed them off. Maybe a mix of both options.

"You went into a burning building for the child. It's only natural that I will aid you on such thing." The man said in a lazy kind of way, which caused Misora's blood to start boiling. If there was something she hated, then it was teamwork. "You're injured. Are you okay?" with an annoyed look on her face, the auburn haired female slapped his hand away from her injured shoulder.

"I'm fine. Don't you worry about me, but yourself." She grunted as she took a seat on the ashy ground.

"Earth style: Iyashi no Daichi" ending the hand sign with 'dog', pebbles and dust from the ground rose in the air, placing themselves into the open wound on her shoulder. The silvernette Sharingan user stood there and watched her for some time, observing how her wounds healed. As much as he admired her for her strong-willed personality, as much he dislikes her refusal of team-work. Of all the people he had ever been teamed up with. Even his own team 7; she was the most troublesome one. Although he fought together with her many times and tried to see behind her opinion on one man-cells, he still didn't quite understand her. However, it was not the case that she wasn't a reliable comrade. In fact she was one of the best. Still…

[…]

"Misora-chan~" Kakashi cooed from the other side of the door that led to her bedroom. The inn was quite empty, which no one really could blame them for. It was until today they had been terrorized by rouge ninjas.

"What do you want?" the auburnette asked from her bed, not really bothered to have a conversation. No, that was wrong. She wanted to talk, but no matter how many times she tried, she simply couldn't bring herself to do so. Especially not to him. She denied so many times to defy her own personal feelings and deny she had anything special with the man who was asking for permission to enter. "I ask you one more time: What do you want? And I told you already it is Kurosawa!" she retorted, barricading her arms over her chest. Although she didn't mind being around the silvernette, she enjoyed time for herself. It was, however, impossible when he was around.

"Easy now. I just wanted to talk, that's all," he reassured her, scrapping the back of his head. Even through the mask she could see that he was smiling… somewhat. Waiting patiently, her hazel eyes locked with his dark one.

"Haven't you thought about finding a man and settle down?" his question caught of her off guard. Remaining motionless, Misora gave him a questioning look. She hated that he knew her. She hated that she liked that side about him. But what she hated the most was the fact that he could read her like an open book; weather he might or not, be aware of it.

"I know no such things as having a relationship. Nor do I desire one." The auburnette claimed.

"You don't have to lie to me, I know that it's not true," Kakashi started, supressing a yawn with his hand. "But you should try and consider it. You might actually like it better than you might think. Not to mention… it probably won't be that difficult for you to find someone out there. That's right… maybe he is already there somewhere. Oh well! Time to go to bed! Just thought I'd give you the heads up. Good night!" with the sound of a poof he was gone. Her hazel eyes were glued to the spot he stood just mere seconds ago. A small, yet genuine smile made its' way over her pink lips. That man.