Authors notes: I am not sure my normal readers will like this. It is something new, but something I feel rather pasionate about at the moment. The main pairing in this is Kakashi and Rin, but it is about much more than them. It is about their team, the team Kakashi took on, thier village and their sensei. It is about broken promises and dreams that disolve in your hands. Sadness, but joy and all with an under currant of loyalty. This is a story about the bonds of team that can never be broken.

Warning: There will be some sexual content. I don't see it being explicit. There will be some language. There will be violence. Perhaps this warrents the M rating, perhaps not. I don't know, so for now, it will stay an M.


Watching the Leaves Fall

Prologue Six -- years earlier

Blood. Even as he knelt, the boy looked down at the form splayed before him. A chakra-infused, paper seal still in the man's hand and pressed to the boy's stomach. That seal was the only reason Naruto was now Naruto and not something else -- something more primal. They had been pushing the jinchuuriki's stamina and skill, seeing how the demon's cloak of chakra worked, how the boy could control it. Barriers had been broken that should have been respected and left intact. Both shinobi were guilty, perhaps the white haired sensei more so. His fifty plus years of life should have imparted the lesson to him -- those who play with fire are those who get burned.

Two days later, the bloodied toad hermit was looking down a small hill. A little village stretched out, a farming town of no strategic use, probably a place that hardly ever saw a shinobi. They were inside Lightning country, but not far inside, still in that no man's land of border towns. Jiraiya seemed to know exactly where they were going as they walked through the moonlit streets. The sun would be rising soon. People would be going about their day, unaware of who had arrived in their peaceful village.

Jiraiya led them to a small house, a clinic in the front and living quarters behind. They walked through the garden gate, even at night the scent of flowers and herbs filling the air with a relaxing perfume. A soft knock on the door, but it was answered too quick. Dark brown eyes looked back at them, the woman that answered the door was a slight slip, at first you would think she was younger than she was, but her eyes showed her age.

Without a word she let them in, gesturing to the upstairs. Lights in the clinic might attract attention, lights in the living quarters were typical. She led them to a study, a quick flick of chakra lighting the candles. Naruto was use to stares and looks, what he was not used to was how she looked at him. Although she tended to Jiraiya's wounds, stripping the man of most of his clothes and lighting the room with pure green chakra, her eyes kept glancing towards the boy. Those eyes held no fear or scorn, rather something more resembling pain. Naruto was unsure how to react, instead he stayed uncharacteristically quiet and out of the way.

"Nezuchan," Jiraiya's voice was weak, the journey had been difficult in his condition. "The boy needs to eat."

With a shake to clear her head, she stood, "Naruto-kun, help me get this old lecher to someplace he can rest." The tone, even of the insult, was soft. She grabbed the man carefully by one arm and with the help of the blond boy, they placed Jiraiya into what was obviously the woman's own bed. After tucking the man in, she looked back to Naruto, that same soft look to her eyes. "Follow me, we'll get you something to eat."

He nodded, "Thanks uh…" He was sure that whatever Jiraiya had called her was her name. She was still looking at him so strangely. That Jiraiya had never introduced him to the woman had not yet occurred.

"Rin. My name is Rin. You are safe here, Naruto-kun." She fed him, her eyes never leaving him as she watched with that soft stare. For once, the boy didn't feel uncomfortable at having the attention. He felt -- safe'


Thank you for reading, If anyone could spare the time to say what you think so far, I would appreciate.