I do not own Naruto.

Weeks past, and people mourned. The process of choosing a new Hokage began and the village slowly began to recover. Yo sat in a chair reading next to the couch where Stark had taken to sleeping lately. She still worried about him even though he continued to insist that nothing was wrong.

Stark yawned as he stood up and stretched, "I am going to go train, okay?" He said with a smile. "Don't worry about me, I'm just going to go work on my taijutsu, like master Lee used to teach me." He said as he quickly gathered his training weights and left. Once he was out of sight of the house he put on his weights and smirked dashing through the forest, "Okay, time for the real fun." Since he had the Kubi's chakra now, he was able to do so much more then he could before, even genjutsu. He was finally getting somewhere. "Time to start, Eight Gates Release: Gate of Opening, Open!" He said, his body tensed as chakra poured into his body, the grass at his feet shifted, "Front Lotus!" He said doing a spin kick snapping through the tree with the heel of his foot. He smirked landing on the ground.

Yo sighed as he ran out. She knew something changed and she had an inkling but she would not pry. She could sense his chakra, but not his in some way. There was a knock on the door as she opened it another ANBU stood there. "We have decided your house arrest and suspension are over, we need all the ANBU for keeping the village calm." Yo nodded and the ANBU vanished. This was good at least, she was starting to get a little bit stir crazy. She decided to prepare some of her packs just in case and rolled them out. Needles check. Kunai, Check. Wire, Check. And she continued down the list. She packed up her stuff and walk outside through town and over to where Stark was training, "Hey!" she yelled sure he already sensed her, "You seem recovered. I'm leaving," she yelled up toward him a hint of sadness in her voice, but she would not impose on him any longer. Her home was in the woods surrounding the village.

Stark almost frowned, "Okay. See you around I guess?" He said softly, closing the gate once more, his chakra returned to normal levels. He walked forward towards her, his body was sweating, tense. The eight gates was a technique that could kill the user if toyed with.

She looked down, "Well it's not like you need me, or really ever even made use of the fact that I would have helped you to do stuff. I mean I can't just keep imposing on you and my suspension just ended so I'm not under house arrest anymore. Besides its not like we don't live in the same village. Right?" she looked up at him. She was so accustomed to seeing him train, so used to being with him it almost didn't even phase her, almost. Other girls in the village would become so nervous around him, trying to impress him. It was annoying to watch.

"Actually, I was planning on leaving the village for awhile." He said softly, "I am quitting the ANBU. Leaving the village." He said looking at the ground, "Thank you for everything Yo, now and in the past. It was great being able to work with you." He said softly as he kissed her cheek and began walking towards his house.

Yo felt numb for a moment, frozen where she was. She quickly grabbed his shoulder somewhat hesitant with what she would say, "Where are you going off to..." she paused for a moment looking down, "without your team?" Yo turned sideways, all of her belongings she held in a bag on her shoulder ready since she had left his house. "A team is a team and you can't just quit it like you can quit the ANBU." She wouldn't be able to stand him leaving, the other villagers didn't accept her and her team was the only ones who would support her.

"It will be dangerous, I don't want you to get hurt." He paused, "I can't let that happen. As an ANBU I've spent my entire life fighting to keep those I love safe, we had to sacrifice emotion, all to make sure those we loved were safe." He looked down at her, "Yo... Akai and you were the ones I loved, my only friends, my only family. I am the last of my clan. The only other person I consider family is Sensei." He shook his head, "I must sound crazy now."

She shook her own head in reply, "No one here is my family either. It's not crazy. You know my story. As an abandoned child, not even from this village, I'm not really accepted, so I really didn't know a family, or friend. No one wants a child from another village, especially one who was learning to control her powers. I was trained since I was a baby to withstand poisons and to fight for this village and the people of it, to be an assassin but never being accepted. It wasn't until you and Akai that I had a friend, now you are my everything. So how can I just sit back and watch as you try and run off on your own somewhere dangerous, when like you say, I have spent my life protecting people supposedly dear to me, when the people who are dear are right in front of me." she leaned against a training post, "But I won't make you do anything, you don't have to protect me." Yo had been abandoned on the outskirts of the town and brought in, the Hokage and the others taking care of her assumed Yo originally came from the Mist village but, by the time they found that out she was a member of the Leaf Village and already an ANBU. Stark was pretty much in the same boat. His family had been killed off, obliterated. No one knew too much about it. It was kept quiet, as things of that nature usually are. Yo tended to hang around Stark when they were children. She often stayed out late at night when she couldn't control her chakra and the mist shrouded her, that's why she lived out in the forests now. Stark and Akai seemed to be the only ones that didn't mind, didn't think she was a freak. They were like her, alone.

Stark sighed looking at the ground, his mask off, "Fine...But the second you get hurt, I am bringing you back here." He said softly looking into her eyes, "We are heading to the Forest of Death, I have to find something." He said grabbing his bag and waiting for her.

She walked over to him her own mask still up, she felt safer with it for some reason, "Why bring me back here? The Forest of Death is as much my home as this is." she grinned and bumped her shoulder into him trying to slightly lighten the mood, "And if you get hurt should I bring you back here? Or just treat you. I mean after all, I may not be as strong as you but I can certainly be considered one of the best healers." She started to walk towards the gate of the village a smirk on her face masked in her cowl.

Stark growled reaching out and grabbing her by the chin ripping off the cowl, kissing her lips roughly, "Just shut up and keep walking." He turned and marched out of the gate not turning back to see her expression or if she was even following. They left the village and were gone.