Disclaimer I do not own Naruto

'Thinking'/flashback

"Talking"

*Sound Effect*

Chapter 4

Weeks past and Rin soon forgot how long it had been since Kakashi left, she was devastated by his long leave of absence and just wanted to be with him. The futile attempts by her friends to cheer her up were no use. Rin's day was now a strict routine of wake up, work at the hospital, come home and sleep. She only ate when her stomach reminded her and even then she ate little, maybe a piece of fruit but nothing more. Pakkun and Bisuke noticed her change and tried to talk to her but she would only say yes, and no. She mumbled an incoherent word here and there but it never made any sense. On Rin's days off she just stayed inside and slept or daydreamed while looking out the window, on rare occasions she would head out to buy some food but she was discreet about it and no one ever noticed her.

Today was Rin's day off and she lay in her bed awake but with her eyes closed still trying to fall back asleep were she had at least a chance of dreaming about Kakashi. Her dreams were so vivid they felt real most of the time. Usually her dreams were deaths of Kakashi and she would wake up in cold sweat but on lucky nights she would have a sweet dream of Kakashi coming home and holding her in his arms. Rin opened her eyes to the sun lit room, she slowly grabbed a pillow and pulled it in tight close to her chest imaging it was Kakashi. Rin sighed heavily and frowned 'The scent is finally gone' she thought as one of the last reminders of Kakashi disappeared. 'Where are you Kakashi? I want you to come home' Rin's thoughts were interrupted by a scratching at her bed room door

"Rin, are you ok it's almost noon" Pakkun asked

"I'm fine" Rin mumbled, she closed her eyes and fell back asleep.

Minato sat at his desk and stared at the calendar. Today was not so much a special day as it was an important day. 'Kakashi, where the hell are you?' Minato thought while staring at the calendar. *Knock Knock* Minato turned to the door.

"Come in" He mumbled without taking his eyes of the calendar

Minato's wife Kushina walked in and noticed immediately something was wrong when Minato didn't say anything.

"I brought you lunch" She whispered

'Huh?" Minato turned his head to his wife and smiled "Oh thanks"

Kushina walked over to her husband and looked at the papers he was looking at

"What's wrong?" She asked as she got behind Minato and gave him a hug

Minato simply pointed at today's date on the calendar and waited for a reaction. At first Kushina couldn't think of any importance to the date until Minato gave her a hint.

"He was supposed to come back this morning" He mumbled

Kushina gasped "You…you mean K-Kakashi?"

Minato simply nodded

"What are you going to do?"

"If after a week he doesn't show up we will send out a search party but it will be small since are resources are limited because of the war"

"What if you don't find him?"

"If after two weeks we don't find him…He is pronounced dead"

Kushina tightened her grip on Minato "But this is Kakashi we are talking about he was promoted to Jonin at age 12 I am sure he is fine" Kushina whispered

Minato sighed "I sure hope so"


'How the fuck did this happen' were the only words that were going through Kakashi's mind right now. He was cold, wet, and covered in blood. He hadn't slept in days and gave the small amount of food that he had to the small girl he had just rescued. She was asleep in the back of the small dark cave that they were in. It was still raining and this was the only place where they could keep dry. Kakashi watched the young girl sleep while he thought about what got him in this predicament. 'First I rescued the girl and killed the men who captured her; it wasn't that hard they were not as skilled as I thought. I then took the girl and started to head back to Konoha where her father is waiting. Then we ran into two more ninja's how were more skilled than the last and they said that I messed with the wrong people even though the five rouge ninja from before were supposed to be their own private group' Kakashi turned to the little girl who mumbled something in her sleep. She was no more than 5 years old, she was a cute little brown haired girl who hadn't said much even after being captured by rouge ninja's. 'So many organizations are after this young girl her life must be tragic' Kakashi sighed but then almost slammed the back of his head on the roof of the cave 'THAT'S IT! The different rouge organizations have teamed up to capture her, all the information combined from these groups would be more than enough to capture her with ease, that also explains why we keep running into more and more ninjas' The last few encounters were horrible, the most recent one was seven Jonin rank ninja or more and Kakashi was barely able to keep the girl safe. 'Sheesh we have been so busy I haven't even asked what her name was' Kakashi stared at the little girl as she slept and smiled, at least she was safe…for now. Kakashi interlocked his hands behind his head and looked outside of the cave and up at the stars. It was a new moon so only the stars splattered the night sky. Kakashi gazed at the beautiful sight before him and closed his eyes just for a second to capture the pure essence of the silent night. A small yawn was heard and Kakashi turned his head to see that the little girl had woken up.

"Hello mister" She whispered, as she crawled over to Kakashi and sat next him

"Hi"

The little girl sat quietly next to Kakashi and stared at the stars.

"Mister how many stars are there in the sky?" The little girl asked

"You don't have to call me Mister you can call me Kakashi"

The little girl nodded

"To answer your question I don't know how many stars there are in the sky but there are more stars in the sky than people in the world"

The girl tried to count them on her fingers but then ran out of room "Wow, that's a lot"

Kakashi chuckled; he looked at the little girl and noticed she was shivering. Kakashi didn't have a coat but he did have a small scarf that Rin made for him that could act as a small blanket for the girl. Kakashi took of the maroon colored scarf and wrapped it around the girl.

"Thank you" She whispered as she leaned her head on Kakashi's side. Kakashi smiled and stared at the wall, the little moment they shared reminded him of Rin 'I wonder how you are doing right now Rin" Kakashi sighed 'I miss you so much, I wish I could just hold you right now, kiss you, taste you, love you, and just be with you. I will make it back don't worry, and when I do make it back I will make up for all of our lost time together I promise' Kakashi smiled.

"Who are you thinking about?"

Kakashi was stunned at the question

"I know you are thinking of someone you love, my father does all the same things when he thinks about my mother. He doesn't talk he just stares blankly and occasionally smiles and random times" The girl continued

"You're a smart girl" Kakashi whispered

"Who?"

"Her name Is Rin" Kakashi smiled and stared at the little girl who was playing with the scarf

"Why do you love her?" She asked

Kakashi smiled "I love her because…because she is everything to me. Without her I am nothing, she is the greatest women I have ever met. She started off as just a friend but grew to be my lover. I would do anything for her just to see her smile. I have risked my live for her many times and I would do it again if I had to. She is the only person I have left that and if she was taken from me I would fall apart." Kakashi chuckled "She is also the only person to have seen me without my mask on. I love her because she loves me, I used to be afraid to love but she changed me. She showed me that in the short time I might have to live I must not waist any of it and when I am with Rin none of my time is ever wasted. I hope to be with her forever but I know that won't happen. One day one of us will die and we will have to live alone but for now I hope to enjoy the time that we have when we accompany each other, we create happy memories and hopefully we will make more memories in the future that we will cherish forever" Kakashi looked back at the girl and smiled when he noticed she had fallen asleep. Kakashi bent his head back and looked out of the cave and at the stars.

"I'm thinking of you Rin, are you thinking of me?" Kakashi asked silently, and to his delight the night was awoken with the sound of wolfs howling. "Maybe that is you"


Rin's POV

Rin opened the windows to her bedroom and stared out into the night, "I'm thinking of you Kakashi, are you thinking of me?" Rin took out the wolf whistle that Kakashi had gotten her and gave it a mighty blow. Rin listened as the howls of wolfs echoed through the hills. "At least I know you are safe" Rin closed her windows and went back to bed.


Another week went by and no news of Kakashi had reached the Hokage. He sat in his chair staring at a pen and piece of paper on his desk. The pen was your average black ink pen, but the paper was a legal death certificate. The person wasn't actually dead there was just no proof that he was alive. Minato picked up the pen and signed the paper; he then crushed the pen into pieces with his hand. He snapped his ink stained fingers and an ANBU member appeared in front of him.

"What do you need Hokage-sama?"

"Go get her"

The ANBU vanished in a cloud of smoke.


Rin was running late. She burst through the doors of the hospital and tried to sneak past anyone who would get her in trouble. Walking through the hallway she crept silently to her small office and shut the door. She sat down and thought she was safe until there was a knock on the door. 'For god's sake I'm only 5 minutes late for my 3am shift' she thought.

*Hard Pounding* "RIN!? RIN I KNOW YOU WERE LATE NOW GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE!" A lady yelled

Rin sighed and readied herself for the yelling she was about to face, she opened the door and faced her head advisor.

"Rin why are you late?"

Rin looked down at her feet "I slept in"

"Why?"

"I haven't slept in weeks"

"So have many other people and they show up on time"

Rin didn't say anything she just kept looking at the ground.

"Is this because your 'boyfriend' is gone out fighting? Well you know what Rin everyone else's men are out there too so don't think your some special princess because you're sad! JUST GROW UP! Unless you know he is dead don't get all depressed bitch on me alright?"

Rin was about to nod in answer when a cloud of smoke appeared and in front of her an ANBU member stood.

"The Hokage request you" He was talking to Rin

The lady yelling at Rin was very displeased "Well what is this all about she needs to work in the hospital what could be more important?"

The ANBU member turned around to face the mean lady "It's nothing of your concern" Then he took Rin and they were off to the Hokage's room.

They appeared inside the Hokage's office while he was listening to his wife tell some random story about a shopping experience.

"Hokage-sama"

Minato turned his head "Thank you, you are dismissed"

The ANBU member left and Kushina took it as her sign to leave but Minato stopped her. "I think it would best if you stayed"

"Um Hokage did you need me?" Rin asked as she felt left out.

"Ah yes Rin I have some… news for you um how should I put this. When ninja show up late from their missions it's usually common but not from high level ninja's with plenty of experience."

"Where are you going with this?" Rin asked

"Kakashi…Kakashi was supposed to come back almost a month ago"

Rin didn't say anything she just slowly reach her hand towards her chest and grabbed her wolf necklace through her shirt and twiddled it in her fingers. "No" was all she could whisper

"Rin when someone this high level of skill doesn't show up after a month when he was supposed too they are dead." Kushina cut in

"You're wrong" Rin said again on the verge of crying

"Rin you know I wish I was but it's true he's not coming back. If I could have told you he was ok I-

"Rin what are you holding?" Minato interrupted, Minato had noticed that Rin was playing with something.

Rin pulled out the wolf ornament. "Uh yes it's just a wolf necklace that Kakashi gave me before he left—

"A wolf whistle?" Minato interrupted

"Wha- how did you know?"

Minato didn't answer Rin's question he just smacked his head on his desk and mumbled a few curses "Kakashi you couldn't have just fucking told me that all I had to do to see if you were ok was ask your girlfriend" He whispered to himself

Kushina who got lost in the conversation jumped in "Honey what's a wolf whistle?"

"A Wolf Whistle is a whistle infused with the maker's chakra and the stone of a wolf den. The creator of this Whistle, Kakashi, was able to befriend the wolves and infuse not only the stone of the wolf den but the essence of one of the wolves. When that whistle is blown the wolves will howl in accordance to the health of the creator. The magnitude of the howls will be louder and with more wolves if the creator is healthy. If he is less healthy the strength of the howls will drop accordingly to the injures"

"That's so romantic" Kushina whispered, and then she smacked Minato "You couldn't do anything like that for me when you were always gone on those top seceret Hokage preparation missions?"

"Ouch" Minato rubbed his head "Sheesh Kakashi getting me in trouble even when your lost in enemy territory fighting for your life" He whispered.

Minato looked at Rin "So… he is alive"

Rin nodded

"How is he?"

"Well I haven't blown the whistle for about a week now because I don't want to know if he is dead" whispered

"Rin I need you to blow that whistle now"

"Why?"

"If he is still alive and in serious trouble we can find him"

"How"

"You still have Pakkun and Bisuke right?"

"Yes"

"Ok then if he is alive we can use them to track him down"

"Why didn't you use them before" Kushina questioned

"I wanted to save them until things got serious"

Kushina smacked Minato again "What was that for"

"That was for waiting a whole month before getting serious"

"Sorry" Minato mumbled as he rubbed the back of his head. He looked back at Rin and pointed at her necklace "So are you going to blow it or what?"

Rin pulled out the whistle looked at it in her hands; she starred at it for a bit then walked over to the window behind Minato and opened it. She stuck her head out of the window and put the whistle to her lips and gave it a blow. The air was silent for a few seconds, but then there was one weak lone wolf call in the early hours of the morning.

Rin tripped backwards and fell on the ground, "Oh my god" She mumbled

Minato frowned while Kushina stood there lost. "Um Rin is that a good wolf call or a bad one?" Kushina asked

Minato looked at his wife "He is on the verge of death right now we need to move fast."


"Mister, are you sure?"

Kakashi showed a small grin "I'm sure now just stay in that tree and don't come down for anyone except for me ok?"

The girl nodded and Kakashi gave her the last push to get up on a high branch of the tree. He bent some branches so no one could see here and then he got down and sat on the ground. He leaned up against the tree and starred at the forest before him. *Cough* He spit out some blood.

"Mister, are you ok?"

"I'm fine now you can't let talk or people will know that you are there"

"Ok"

Kakashi smiled then set the back of his head against the tree and closed his eyes, but they immediately shot open again. He stood up and pulled out a kunai, He turned to where he heard the rustle come from. He limped over to the bush but before he got there a wolf came out. Its fur was a shiny grey just like Kakashi's hair. Kakashi smiled the limped back to the tree. He lay down then mumbled a few words "I guess the rumors are true that they do come before you are going to die" Then Kakashi passed out.

The Wolf laid down next Kakashi and stayed awake keeping guard of him.