A bit later, he opened his eyes again to Mabui's face peering into his face. She removed his broken ANBU mask. She appeared unmarked and seemingly uninjured by the paper bombs. Kakashi thought to himself, 'How is that even possible? She should be dead', before he passed out again.

More time passed and he opened eyes again, this time to Atsui and Mabui arguing above him. With the exception of Atsui's black eyes, they both looked completely fine.

"We should take him to Konoha and leave him at the gate." Mabui was arguing. "Who knows how long it will take them to find him out here? He might bleed out and be dead by then."

"We don't have time for that!" Atsui argued back. "Besides he was going to kill us without a second thought. Why are we wasting energy helping him?"

"Because the order was to get the prisoner out without being seen. Abandon the mission if there is any chance we might get caught." She argued back. "Leaving a trail of dead ANBU behind will definitely get us caught."

"By the time they find his body, we'll be long gone." Atsui retorted, snorting.

Mabui crossed her arms. "I'm not leaving him."

"Fine! Get up, Konoha!" Atsui walked up to Kakashi, kicking him in the chest. Kakashi moaned in response, holding onto the painful wound in his side.

"Stop that!" Mabui moved between Atsui's foot and the boy on the ground. Leaning over Kakashi, she spoke to him softly, noting his eyes were open. "You have a wound in your left side, and you've lost a lot of blood. I've patched you up a bit –but my medical ninjutsu isn't great."

"We're going to get you back to your village as quickly as possible… but you have to help us."

Kakashi reached his hand up to Mabui's face. Falling back into delirium, he could not see her face clearly. "Rin? Is that you?"

"No. I'm Mabui."

"Help me!" She yelled at her teammate. She grabbed hold of Kakashi's arm, pulling him up with the help of Atsui.

They moved as fast as they could with a delirious Kakashi in tow. Atsui complained most of the way and then demanded that they stop for the night.

"I don't think it's a good idea for us to stop this close to Konohagakure with a half dead leaf ninja in tow." Mabui protested.

"We haven't seen anyone else all day. And if we don't stop, he really will die." Atsui looked at Kakashi, who had completely passed out again. His bandage was soaked all the way through.

"Fine." Mabui relented. Atsui was not moving, and she could not carry the boy by herself. She lay Kakashi down on the ground carefully. "I'll change his bandages and work on the wound again."

Atsui rolled his eyes and sat down to keep watch at the edge of the clearing. Mabui worked on Kakashi, giving him a bit of water when he finally woke up again.

"Why would you help me?" Kakashi asked weakly, looking up at the girl who was dressing his wound again. "Your teammate is right. I was going to kill you."

Mabui eyed him cautiously. "Your death could complicate things for Kumo and our Lord Fourth. All the other villages are suspicious enough of Kumo. Our mission was just to recover one of our citizens and then leave without being seen. Leaving a dead ANBU behind was definitely not part of the plan."

"...And it doesn't matter what your intentions were. I was never going to let you kill us."

"I saw you blow yourselves up. With that many paper bombs, you should be in several pieces." Kakashi frowned at her. "How am I the only one who got injured?"

Mabui gave him a sly look. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

She pulled him up and against her shoulder while wrapping the bandage carefully around his torso.

Still weak, he lay his head forward and against her shoulder. It felt good to make physical contact with another human. Besides to kill or to maim, Kakashi had not touched another person in a couple of years now. Not since before Rin died by his hands. "Yeah I would… You must be very powerful."

Mabui turned her head slightly towards the boy laying on her shoulder. "Not really. All my jutsu are defensive. You're the one who is truly powerful. We knew who you were even before you removed that cat mask."

Done wrapping the bandage, Mabui helped Kakashi lean back against the tree and then helped him pull the torn and bloody body suit down over the bandage. She examined the small cuts over the visible portions of his face. The mask that covered his mouth and nose was partially torn and covered with a small amount of blood.

"I heard you. When you were talking about me before." Kakashi said, examining Mabui's face as well, but for different reasons. "You know about my reputation… Cold blooded Kakashi."

Mabui smirked, looking into his mismatched eyes. Then she said, "I'm not so certain about that reputation anymore. You don't seem cold blooded to me. Just very sad."

An odd look flashed through Karachi's eyes. A stunned look, as if he was caught in the midst of something very personal.

"Your mask is torn." Mabui reached towards Kakashi's face, wanting to see more of what lay beneath. This boy intrigued her. He seemed so different from the boys, who she knew in Kumogakure. So serious. His young face held eyes that looked like they had seen a hundred years of pain.

But abruptly, he grabbed her hand with unexpected strength and said, fiercely, "I don't ever remove my mask."

Mabui pulled her hand back. She would try another angle then. She looked at him coyly. "By the way, who is Rin?"

Kakashi pulled his headband down, so his scarred eye was covered again. He looked away and did not answer.

"I was just wondering because you've been calling me that all day." Mabui continued, beginning to place her medical supplies back in her pack. "Is she your girlfriend?"

He still did not answer, nor did he move his eye away from the ground. He seemed to be actively ignoring her.

Not deterred however, Mabui said, "You must really love her. If she's the one you called for while you were so weak."

"It was never like that!" Kakashi snapped. Unaffected by his anger, Mabui continued to look at him expectantly.

Realizing she was not going to leave him alone until he provided an answer, he sighed and said, "She was my teammate… until she died in the third war. She was a good friend."

Mabui looked away now. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have pried."

"It's ok." He said, shifting his body to get more comfortable. He relaxed a bit, feeling some of the weight lift as he spoke about Rin. "I probably should talk about it more."

Mabui nodded gravely. "I understand. My parents died in the third war too. I rarely talk about it, either. At least… not to anyone living."

"You don't understand." Kakashi eyed the girl in front of him coolly. His demeanor changed again, and he became more hostile. He said, coldly. "I got my nickname, cold-blooded, because I was the one who killed her."

Mabui sat back on her heels and looked at him. Well that explained why he seemed to be carrying around so much pain. Crossing her arms over her chest, she said, determinedly, "Well it's still a terrible nickname. I don't know the reason for what happened between you and your teammate, Rin, but if you truly were cold-blooded, you wouldn't be carrying her death around with you, like a noose around your neck."

"And you're right, I may not know your pain, exactly. But I'm a shinobi too – and I was only ten when I fought in the third war and lost my parents. I have my own pain… and too much blood on my hands. Why do you think I fought Atsui so hard to save your ass?" Mabui whispered, so only Kakashi could hear. She frowned, frustrated. "They force me to fight because of my jutsu, but my goal is to get away from this life. It's too much. I want to find a way to be helpful outside of the battlefield. I can't be the reason any one else dies."

Kakashi's face softened a bit as he took in Mabui's distraught expression. He reached up and brushed some of the strands of silver hair out of the girl's face. Finally, he admitted out loud, "Rin sacrificed herself for Konoha… and for me."

He had never said this before. He had chosen to punish himself by making Rin's choice, his choice. But now, he allowed himself a brief moment of solace.

"She must've been very special then. And she must've known how special you were… and worth saving." Mabui replied quietly.

"I'm not special –or worth saving. If I were, I would've been able to save Rin. I should've been the one to die that day." Kakashi glared at the ground, tears in his eyes. He was not sure why it was so easy to talk this stranger. But once he started, he could not stop himself.

Mabui fell forward, wrapping her arms around Kakashi's neck and burying her head into the shoulder opposite to his wound. She whispered. "Sometimes I just want to die too."

In response, Kakashi leaned his head to the side and rested it on top of the head on his shoulder. They stayed like that for a longtime. As the sun set and the shadows took over the woods. The soft purrs of Atsui's snoring as he fell asleep at his lookout post mixed with the night chirps of crickets and cicadas. Still they stayed like that, enjoying the feel of human contact. Soon they both fell asleep too.

The next morning, Mabui woke to find herself, leaning into Kakashi's chest. His right arm wrapped around her. She sat up quickly and wiped her face, checking his bandage to make sure she had not disturbed it in her sleep. Kakashi, who had been awake for awhile, just watched her and said nothing.

"We need to get you back to your village now before we run into anyone else." She looked over at Atsui, who was eyeing the two of them from his spot, looking irritated.

Kakashi grabbed Mabui's arm and looked into her green eyes. He said, "I need to say thank you for helping me."

She smiled at him in response.