It has been a particularly long mission, 3 weeks searching for a village that had existed for decades yet had never been found. Rumours had surfaced to the village hidden in the leaves and prompted the disruption of one, Kakashi Hatake. It had taken him a few days to travel there to find nothing, but he did not give up and continued search to find ruins. If a village had been there, it was there no longer and Kakashi knew he must return home.

The weather had been good to him on his trip, the sun constantly shining upon him, with occasional cloud covering at night to cool the tempurature down so he could sleep peacefully enough.(With one eye open, most of the time.)

But he was grateful as he saw the familiar giant gates that opened his home to him. he desired nothing more than to review his findings to his Hokage and slump on his bed, enjoy his passions and catch up with friends, once he had rested.

He could not help but notice the odd glances some of his fellow shinobi gave him as he saunted down the paths of Konoha. Suspicion aroused his interests and his pace increased, to both find the cause and avoid the looks.

The red building before him was quiet, it was late and the hustling shinobi that worked within the walls had probably finished for the day and returned home, something he looked forward to himself. He was defiantly tired he realised as each step he took up the winding staircase seemed more difficult than usual, although his mission had been uneventful to say, he still desired rest.

He stood outside the Hokage's door a moment, gathering himself ready to debrief and go home. He knocked twice before a voice called him in. Pushing the door aside he took in the room, it was always the same, it was just in his nature.

Lady Tsunade sat at her desk, slumped tiredly as usual at this hour with Shizune stood to her left as always, although this time the pet pig was not nestled in her arms. A new form stood in front of the blonde however, a young teenage form with short black hair that flicked out a little at each end, like Sasuke's had and this person donned a T-shirt with a high collar that covered up to the person's neck, like Sasuke's had...

Kakashi, without thinking had blurted out Sasuke's name questionably...

Perhaps this is why some of the Shinobi comrades had looked at him strangely, his old student had returned to the village whilst he had been away. Oh, how Naruto would be pleased.

Alas, a female turned round and Kakashi looked over her with a disappointed twang in his heart. He had not realised until his disappointment the joy he had briefly felt at the possibility of the young Uchiha's return. The female smirked at Kakashi, she too seemingly eying him although her eyes looked bland and disinterested, perhaps irked at being mistaken for a boy.

"Not quite..."

Her voice was like verbal silk and Kakashi visible eye tried not to look so surprised. Two words she had muttered and yet her voice sounded almost seductive. Damn his tiredness.

"Kakashi... Welcome back. This isn't your student I'm afraid, rather his sibling, she arrived in the village early this afternoon. This is Manami Uchiha, the middle sibling of the Uchiha head house."

Kakashi stood agape, Sasuke's sister? The unrecovered Uchiha from the famous massacre, she stood before him watching his reaction. This time his eye widened and for a short period was lost for words, until he remembered his manners.

"Hello Uchiha Manami." He Bowed slightly. " I am Kakashi Hatake, I was your younger brother's sensei before he left."

She smiled lightly.

"It's nice to finally meet you Hatake Kakashi, Lady Tsunade has filled me in on nearly all of Teams 7's history, it's ever so interesting."

Her voice filled his ears making him internally shiver, he was right, her voice was a weapon and she was trying to disarm him with a gentle hint of amusement in those rich tones.

"Manami, I was going to ask Sakura, but can you step outside but seeing as he's here I'll ask Kakashi instead if that's ok?"

The Hokage piped up and captured his interests, ask him what? The girl nodded her agreement and grinned a little.

"Kakashi, obviously I can't put this girl on her own, she's just got here. Not only that for the sake of convenience and that it's getting late. Can you house Manami Uchiha for a few weeks? Please," She put it so nicely, asking his permission but he read the underlining tone in her voice. This was an order, he could tell. "It's more of a mission actually, Kakashi." The Hokage frowned.
"I have my concerns about all of this and the elders will have my ass if I tell them I just let her wander around. Manami understands all this and had agreed."

He sensed bad news and a hell of a lot effort upon his part especially if his speculations were correct in what the Hokage worried about. The blonde woman signalled for the doors to be opened again and Kakashi made took large steps to allow the girl back into the room. She no longer held a confident Uchiha smirk, instead her eyes held concern.

"It's no problem, my house has two rooms anyway." He flickered his glance to the Uchiha before him. "How are your cooking skills Manami?" She grinned widely at him and his joke.
"Terrible." She replied good naturedly smiling all the time.

Within the hour everything had been finalised and the two were on the way to the elders home. Although the silence between the two felt little bit awkward to them both, Kakashi could not complain as he was more concerned with getting to bed rather than entertain this stranger. But it could not be said he did not feel bad, so he tried to converse with the girl. Manami however was not much the conversationalist simply answering yes and no to most of his questions and sometimes shrugging uncomfortably when she didn't wish to reveal something. The only real answer he got from her was her age:18.

They arrived at his home and he sheepishly opened the door for her, apologising for the size and the mannish mess in the living room of dirty pots, laundry and various food rappers. He could not remember a time feeling so embarrassed, but Manami good heartedly laughed it off stated how similar the two are, cleaning was not something she valued highly, but promised to help him tidy when he was less tired.

His home was small but seemingly spacious enough for the two in her estimation, two sofa's in the corner of the room, a small wooden book shelf sat in one corner with a table in the middle of the room. Behind the living room was an open kitchen with an island worktop nearly separating the living room and kitchen. Kakashi showed her up the stairs pointing out his room, bathroom and finally her room, with a double bed wardrobe and a desk. with an eye closed smile he informed her, this is the spare room, but she was freely entitled decorate if she wished. With that little tour over, he gave his apologies and left her, to crawl into his own bed and rest.

No sooner had his head hit the pillow he was asleep and it felt like no time before he was awake again, his left shoulder being gently shook. He grumbled lightly looking up seeing the raven haired girl looking down at him with a small smile on her face, damn girl was always smiling.

"I know you're tired Hatake, but I made dinner for us both. You should never sleep after a long journey without eating my sensei told me, it's err, bad for the body, he said it confuses the mind."

He stared at her bewildered for a moment before coming to his senses, he could smell something and her words sunk in, dinner. However groggy he felt he could not deny food sounded a brilliant idea.

"Thank you Manami."

She grinned prettily at him and she seemingly glided out of his bedroom gracefully.

Manami busied herself in the kitchen, washing a few pots before he came down. It had been a while since she had cooked for someone, let alone been in anybody else's company and in a way she cherished the idea whilst detesting it. Once she had unpacked her rucksack of the few belongings she actually had, she lay upon her bed debating her situation. Whilst she was happy to be back in Konoha, she still had a lingering sense of fright being back there. After all her clan had been massacred the day she ran away. And then the Kakashi situation, she knew the Hokage's decision had been right but she couldn't help feeling irked by the circumstances. Her stomach had soon began to protest and forced her into cooking, out of kindness to Kakashi for agreeing so easily to putting her up, she had cooked, cleaned and tidied the bottom part of his house, blushing heavily when she first found a pair of Kakashi's rather attractive looking boxers on the floor. He blushed even heavier when she thought how they could of gotten on the staircase...

"Ahh Manami-Chan, you shouldn't of cleaned up, that was my responsibility."

He thanked as he plodded down the stairs. she was just dishing up some chicken noodle soup when he came down, she turned to him after dishing up was done and grinned.

"Well you just got back right? Got to make sure you eat properly ?"

She giggled happily as she brought two bowls of steaming food to the sofa where he sat, chopsticks already in her hands, she passed a bowl to him and gently sat on the opposite sofa.

"I hope you like Ramen, I wasn't lying when I said I was a terrible cook, but I do enjoy making it."

He smiled at her but secretly worried how he would eat in front of her, as if reading his mind she smiled and lowered head and became engrossed in her food. Quickly, he lowered his mask and ate as quick as he could. The sound of his bowl clinking against the table signified to her that he was done, as his mask went back up she turned her head with a nervous expression on her face.

"It was delicious. Thank you Manami-Chan, I'm glad you woke me up now. Oh and call me Kakashi by the way, please."

She giggled lightly.

"Ok, Kakashi." She purred.

Kakashi suddenly felt awkward again so he cleared he throat and attempted conversation.

"So, do you know if you're going to be a leaf Shinobi yet?"

"Well, thing is... I start at the academy tomorrow. Lady Tsunade wants me to learn the way of leaf shinobi from scratch, so it's up to the teacher there if I become a shinobi or not."

She replied rather sheepishly, however Kakashi was stunned. Why on earth would Tsunade decide that? Sure every ninja had to go through the academy stages but Manami was 18 and would stick out like a sore thumb.

" I can talk to Tsunade if you want, maybe sort something different out."

He offered, but the girl waved her arm in a dismissive lazy manner.

"Nah , I've already agreed. I'll do whatever it takes to be a great ninja for this village."

Her eyes twinkled with determination and Kakashi felt a swell of rare pride in him, her words almost reflective upon Naruto's determination to be Hokage.

"Have you been trained at all Manami, have you unlocked your Sharingan yet?"

At this the girl blushed and thought a little before answering.

"Well, I was privately trained for a few years, I'm good with weapons I guess and no , as far as I can remember, female members of the clan don't get Sharingan."

"Really? Hm, come to think of it I've never heard of any female's having it."

"Enough about me anyway, what's your story?"

And so the two talked all evening until the late hours, Kakashi telling her some of the battle stories, speaking of friends old and new, team 7 and Manami's future. The two were engrossed in each other and what the other had done, although the age different was slightly vast the two got a long like old friends, friends the two of them could really do with.