A/N: Guess who's back? It's me! Who is ready for new content? There are a lot of reasons I've decided to pick this story back up and rewrite it. For the full explanation, please visit my profile page, as it's too long of a story for me to comfortably post here. To clarify, I have removed the old/original chapters. If some of you are upset about that, I can easily upload them somewhere else, but for now, this is will contain only the new, rewritten chapters.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer! I'm about to hit the beach!

Chapter One

The air is cool and crisp. Spring's gentle showers over the night have left the streets damp. The sun is shining through the overcast in fierce retaliation, but the air is still thick and earthy. The humidity catches in Kakashi's lungs as he leaps from one rooftop to the next. The village below is bustling with work, more so than usual. The streets are filled with early morning customers because the rains will inevitably pick up again. Shopkeepers are racing to restock their stores in the unexpected early morning rush.

Kakashi still feels sharp static sparks in his hand, the sweat cool on his brow, the dull ache in his muscles. Sunrise was only a few hours ago, and he's already pushed himself too far for the day. That hardly matters right now. Not when he's been called so urgently.

He received his summons while he was in the training grounds. A masked Anbu, and the words: Hospital. Room 204. It worries him. Besides the obvious, Team Minato was not supposed to meet today. Didn't Sensei have "jounin matters" to attend to? Surely, nothing could have happened to him.

Rin waves at him as he comes to a landing at the hospital entrance. On a day like today, Kakashi suspects she was already here when she got her message. She shouldn't be wasting time waiting for him. He ignores her early morning greetings, but she follows behind him eagerly as they enter the facility.

The hospital is just as active as the rest of the village. The nurses make their rounds delivering breakfast—for the patients that can eat, at least. They whisper to each other as they pass in the hallway but fall silent as they see shinobi walk by, and Kakashi and Rin are no exception. Nurses do not always know the circumstances behind their patients' injuries, but that does not stop them from guessing. Sooner or later one of them will repeat speculation as though it is fact. It was wise to take their gossip with a grain of salt.

When they arrive on the second floor, Minato is standing guard by the open door to 204, brow furrowed with a frustration that will no doubt be burdened to them. Kakashi swears he spots another Anbu body flicker away from his sensei's side. That's two so far.

"Sensei!" Rin calls. "You sent for us?"

Their mentor smiles to greet them, but it does not reach his eyes. "Something has come up." His tone is light-hearted, but his eyes remain steely as he turns his head towards the open door.

Kakashi has known his sensei long enough to know when the man tries to alleviate a serious situation, and they can hear Obito's voice, as clear as day, coming from inside the hospital room. Curiosity gets the best of him, and he steps past Rin to peer inside.

Obito is sitting on the bed with the patient inside, pushing a tray of food towards her while he blathers on. "C'mon, eat something! You must be hungry, right?"

She is a fragile child, clearly a few years younger than himself. She stares down at the tray between them and cautiously examines the soup and bread offered. Her wet hair frames her pale face in a russet hue, poorly cut just past her jaw. A towel drapes her shoulders. The girl was given access to a proper wash, and Kakashi can see why.

While the crisp, white gown the hospital has provided gives no indication of who she is, the kimono hanging from the wardrobe in the corner is much more interesting. It was an expensive garment at some point, but it is in tatters, and he can barely make out the purple floral pattern through the mud and grime.

"Who is she?" Kakashi asks. "The daughter of some daimyo?"

"Not as far as we can tell," he says, his tone level, but Kakashi can sense a hint of frustration. "There haven't been any reported kidnappings, and we haven't matched her to any missing person reports yet."

Rin frowns, and asks the question on both of their minds, "Can't she just... tell you?"

But apparently, things are not that easy. "That's the problem. She doesn't seem to know," he says. "Obito found her on the outskirts near the Uchiha compound this morning."

Kakashi can't keep his voice from raising. "And he just brought her in? What was he thinking?" It would be like Obito to do something so senseless with tensions so high. This girl could be a spy from an enemy village, and he just walked her in through the front gate?

Minato raises a hand to silence his student's worries. "The interrogation force will have a look at her. After that, I'm sure Hokage-sama will decide what to do with her."

Kakashi considers this, watching intently as the unnamed girl tries her meal. Her hands are shaking so badly she cannot bring the spoon to her lips without spilling. If it is an act, it is a rather convincing one.

Obito doesn't miss a beat as he takes the spoon from her with a sad smile. "Here. Let me help." He still hasn't stopped talking. When she stretches forward to meet him, Kakashi sees the yellowing lines of bruises around her throat. A clear imprint of a hand.

The injury does not slip past his teammate either. "What do you think, sensei?" Rin asks.

Minato sighs as he peers back towards the room, and his light-hearted façade finally breaks. "I think she's a little girl who has been through too much, and she is terrified." Kakashi trusts his sensei's judgement, but all the same, this girl must belong to someone.

"Which is why I sent for you—" he starts, gesturing to Rin with a smile. She straightens up immediately. "Obito suggested that she might be more comfortable if you performed her medical examination, and I agree."

Rin turns pink at the consideration. "O-Of course!" And with that, the medic-nin scuttles in toward her new patient.

Obito finally notices their presences. "Rin-chan! I was just talking about you!" the Uchiha exclaims with a grin before explaining to the young girl, "This is Rin. She's going to fix you up, okay?"

When she turns towards Rin, Kakashi spots three butterfly bandages pinching a gash closed that runs across her right temple. His new friend gives a small smile and raises her hand in a shy wave. She seems eager enough to meet the girl Obito has no doubt been talking up for the past few hours.

Kakashi takes a step in after Rin, the young girl's eyes meet his for the first time, and the jovial atmosphere Obito spent all morning cultivating evaporates. At first, he only gets a glimpse before she darts to hide behind Obito, peering over his shoulder. But her eyes. Beyond the bruising and redness, they are a deep purple, like a ripened plum. And the way she looks at him! Like a wounded animal. Cornered and desperate. True, unbridled fear.

He doesn't have time to react to her terror. His sensei's hand darts out to snatch his shoulder, and he is pulled from the room before he can protest. "Come, Kakashi," Minato commands tactfully. "We are needed elsewhere."

There are more shinobi working on this than necessary, Kakashi decides. He's seen five trackers in total, and more than a few Uchiha. The proximity of the compound and Obito's involvement has undoubtedly turned this incident into a "family matter." One of the trackers adamantly disagrees.

They are wasting time. The rains will start again, and evidence will wash away. Kakashi decides not to dawdle. He slips away while Minato tries to mediate the situation. The trackers have placed red markers to map out the mystery girl's path to Konoha, and he decides to follow them. There's no doubt that the trackers will fill Minato in on their findings.

But Kakashi would rather come to his own conclusions. He follows the little red flags and takes extra care not to leave his footprints in the mud. The larger ones indicate a significant change. He counts them as he goes, taking note of their significance.

The first marks the spot where Obito found her. Two—the girl ran. Her kimono snagged on a branch and tore. Three—just an imprint of the girl's form in the mud. Four—drag marks next to a set of footprints. Kakashi doesn't need to guess what was dragged. The marks continue for a long time.

Five—the trail ends miles from where he started, and he faces a familiar crossroad. There are countless tracks in the mud from morning travelers. He sees another tracker here bagging a large, jagged rock, with flecks of dark crimson that escaped the rain. A scene begins to form. It is... unsettling.

His sensei is at his side before he realizes it. He places a hand on Kakashi's shoulder much more gently than at the hospital. "I think we've seen enough."

Kakashi agrees.