7


Konoha Riverside.

"Kakashi, your hair is a mess. When was the last time you had it cut?" Nane said when Kakashi arrived at the shop with bento boxes in hand. He acted defeated and hung his head.

"I am gone for weeks on a mission. So, I try to surprise you with a nice riverside lunch and you complain about my hair." She came around the counter and gave him a hug.

"Welcome, home. Hope your mission went well. Thank you for the lunch invite. By the way your hair is a mess." She smiled. "Better?"

"Much, Miss Yuu. Do you have scissors?"

"Later, I am hungry, Mr. Hatake. Lets go." To her sister-in-Law. "Mei-Mei, I am leaving for the afternoon. Tell, ma where I went so she won't worry." Mei-Mei was leaning on the counter gazing at Kakashi. He moved a step one way then the other. Mei-Mei followed him with the same dreamy look. Nane laughed and snapped her fingers under the woman's nose.

"Sorry, Nane. I will tell your mother you are with Hatake-sama."

Nane grabbed Kakashi's hand and left the shop with him in tow.

Happily, Nane walked with Kakashi along Konoha streets to the river. They chatted about different things from novels to music to ninja stories. When they reached a particular tree both silently decided to sit and watch the river. Kakashi opened the lunches and they continued talking and enjoying the cooler weather that had finally descended upon Konoha.

Nane leaned up against the tree and pulled out a book she was just starting. Kakashi decided to get comfortable as well and put his head in her lap. Use to heads in her lap, Nane started reading her book out loud. Absently, she stroke Kakashi's hair as she read. It was something that she did to calm any one of her numerous nieces or nephews before they went to bed. She had done that so often, for so long it was second nature to do so now. Nane did not even register who it was in her lap. It was something normal and comfortable.

Kakashi closed his eye and started to drift off. After a while, he noticed that she had stopped reading, but her hand was still playing with his hair. Opening his eye, he found her to be looking down at him with furrowed brows. He reached up and smoothed the crease with a gentle finger.

"That will become permanent if you keep doing that." He tired to sound playful. Anything to get her back into a good mood.

"What do you see in me, Kakashi?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why are you hanging around me? I am just a low level, newly promoted jonin. You are the great Copy Ninja, Hatake Kakashi with a bounty on your head that is insane. I am mousy and plain. Your….well a Ninja God. So, why are you here with your head in my lap? What do you see in me?"

Kakashi thought for a moment then reached up and stroked her cheek with two fingers.

"I see an insanely beautiful, powerful, intelligent and funny woman. I have fun when I am with you. Your family is huge, loud and utterly wonderful. Though, I swear that you all keep that compound colder than Snow country. I like being around you, Nane."

Nane blushed and continued to play in his hair.

"You really do need a hair cut." She said again absently twirling a long silver lock. Kakashi smiled behind his mask. Gently, he placed a hand behind her head and guided her to him. When their lips touched through his mask Nane reveled in it. Then her brain kicked in. She broke the contact.

"CRAP! I gotta go." She said as she got up quickly. Kakashi barely had time to sit up, lest he get thrown to the ground in her haste to get away.

"Nane?"

She held up a hand to him. Kakashi closed his mouth.

"I will talk to you later. Bye." And she was gone. Kakashi laughed.

"First time that has ever happened." Shaking his head he repositioned himself against the tree and pulled out his book. Hopefully, Nane would be back later.

Nane entered the compound flustered. He had kissed her. The damn Ninja God himself KISSED her! Then she ran away from him. Nane smacked herself on the forehead and realized that it hurt from more than the self inflicted pain.

She was distracted by some arguing from inside the offices; Nane could hear her father's raised voice. Concerned, she walked over to listen.

"I told you that we could not protect her anywhere we went. It had gotten worse over the intervening years. This village was the only choice. Our last choice, and even this is proving unsafe."

"The blocks are breaking down, Hiro. I think the chakra overloads are adding to the deterioration of the genjutsu."A female voice said.

"Then fix them. I don't want Tinane to remember ANYTHING that snake did to her or this family. She should not have to live in fear."

"He has already tried for her twice. We know he is getting to the point where her skills…"

"Where she would be forced to use her powers, I know. He knows just about as much as we do about her potential. If we can keep it locked up for a little longer, perhaps the danger will pass."

Potential! Her thoughts went immediately to her testing mission and the tree.

"I understand and agree that she needs to be protected. However, she will start to wonder why she is not going on more missions."

Nane finally recognized the Hokage voice.

"Then lie to her, Tsunade. Tell her anything. Just don't let her out of the village."

"Hiro, you also have to understand that she may not physically be able to handle the power if it isn't allowed to evolve and grow into it. Kakashi told me about the nightmares and the increasing occurrences of her headaches. He told me that she has piles of chakra tags. Soon, she won't have time to do anything else, but to siphon off her own energy to keep it from killing her. You cannot expect…"

"The siphons…"

"Are a stop gap. That is why she needed to become a ninja. She has to use that excess. You know that. Otherwise, it just keeps building. Hiro, you need to tell her."

"No."

Tinane opened the door. Hiro turned to her and his face dropped. Tsunade just looked in the girl's direction sadly, and then dropped her own gaze to the floor.

"'No', father? 'Truth in all things' is what you taught us. Yet you have been lying to me. I am the reason that we moved the family so much? I am the only one who gets her memory wiped? Does the whole family know about this but me? Who is after me?"

"Orochimaru." Hiro flashed Tsunade a withering look. Nane felt a cold shiver run down her neck.

"Why would this village's worst enemy be after me? We are not even from Konoha." Nane's head was aching greatly and increasing quickly with her anger and fear. She applied pressure to the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes to try to alleviate the pain.

"Your chakra molding skills can help him fix his jutsu's. He was one of the specialists involved in your case when you were living in Snow." Hiro said as he sat down behind his desk.

"Wonderful. So the attack on Kakashi and I, and the one here in the village when I went out with Genma?"

"Organized to kidnap you and bring you to him." Tsunade confirmed quietly.

Nane shook her head. It was becoming harder to think.

"No one ever decided that I was old enough to deal with this? No one trusted me?" She looked at both of her elders. "I am twenty three years old and a tested jonin who and be asked to risk her life for this village and you don't feel that I can take care of myself or deal with the fact that a crazy person is after me!"

She put a fist to her head and closed her eyes again. It really hurt now. The pain was throughout her head and starting to run down her neck. When she opened her eyes they glowed, startling both Hokage and her father. Turning on her heel Nane left the compound in ninja fashion. Over the roof tops.

Finding out the Hard Way.

When Kakashi returned from the river, he found Nane sitting on the stair just outside his apartment door. She had her arms and head were balanced on her knees as she rocked back and forth. Hearing his approach, she lifted her head from her arms. Her tear streaked face made his heart break, but when she opened her eyes, his gut sank and he began to fear greatly for her. Nane's eyes glowed that impossible green.

"Nane?"

She stood as he came closer. Her hand clamped hard to the railing next to her. She sniffed before she spoke.

"I couldn't stay at home, and I didn't know where else to go, Kakashi. I'm so mad right now! " She lost her balance and stumbled into him. Nane grabbed at his vest trying to keep upright as the world suddenly spun. Scooping her up into his arms, the silver haired ninja carried the woman into his apartment.

"Nane, you need to discharge some of the chakra." He said as he deposited her in a chair. She waved her hands at him.

"Can't concentrate on that right now. I still can't believe that they all lied to me."

"Nane, calm down. You have to get rid of the extra chakra." She shook her head, and he noticed a twitch in the movement. He tried to recall anything from her file that would help him.

"Talk to me. What's happened? Why are you so upset? Who lied to you?" Perhaps if he found out what was making her angry he could calm her enough for her to balance herself off.

"Theylied to me, Kakashi. My own family lied to me." The disbelief and disgust dripped from her voice. "The attacks in the forest and here in Konoha were meant for me. Orochimaru is after me for some crazy reason." For a moment she was quiet as pieces fell into place for her.

"Are his the eyes that I see in my dreams? I can't remember what he did to me, Kakashi, but I see these eyes and I am terrified. The Hokage knew! At least she was trying to get him to tell me. I am twenty three for gods sake! Ow ow."

Nane's headache was reaching blinding proportions. She leaned back into the chair.

"Augh, I just want it all to stop, Kakashi. I want to be normal."

"Nane, listen to me. You need to calm down and discharge."

She opened her eyes and looked at him. He was concerned. At some point he had removed his hiate and activated the sharingan which was swirling slowly as he looked at her. He could see the state she was in.

"I just want to sleep, Kakashi."

Kakashi knew that rang a bell. He really had to get to her file in the nightstand.

"Stay there. I will be right back." He stood and started for his bedroom.

"Kakashi…"

"I am not leaving, Nane." He called from the back of the apartment. In his bedroom he went to the file and started to page through it. He had just found the entry stating that her wanting to sleep was a bad thing, especially, if she hadn't gotten rid of the excess chakra, when Nane appeared at the door.

"What is that?" She asked fearing the answer. Kakashi closed the file and she saw her name. She gripped the door frame hard enough to make her knuckles blanch. Nane closed her eyes and started shaking her head in disbelief.

"You knew too? Does the whole damn village know, but me?" When she opened her eyes, Kakashi saw that they were approaching the level that he witnessed in the forest.

"Nane we have to get you to the hos…."

"No thanks, Hatake." She said with a slicing motion. "I have been there before and you know how well that went. " Nane stumbled back to the living room leaning heavily on the hallway wall. She was looking around moderately confused, trying to figure out what to do. He was noticing more spasmodic and erratic movements of her body as the imminent chakra overload edged closer. Kakashi knew he needed to get help, but he could not leave her. In her current frame of mind she would run. Then, when she overloaded, no one would be able to help her.

"Nane…"

"Was any of what you said at the river, true?" She said as she turned to face him.

"Nane…" Kakashi took a step towards her, arms open. She took a step back shaking her head.

"Apparently, not. I understand." She laughed with a slightly hysterical edge. "I am just another asset of the village like the Nine-Tail, or the Uchiha that needs to be controlled or contained."

"Nane stop this." Kakashi took another step closer, praying that she would not find out that she was capable of killing him in an instant.

"I hate my family, this village, you, Orochimaru and myself for being what I am and not being normal…" By the last, Nane was yelling. Kakashi closed the distance between them, catching Nane as her eyes rolled upwards and she started to collapse. She slowly blinked and looked into Kakashi's eyes, her own burning brighter than a star.

"You did your job well, Hatake. Great acting job. I almost believed you…cared."

"Nane.." He whispered as her eyes rolled back and she began to seize in his arms. Wasting no more time, Kakashi picked her up and rushed her to the hospital. As he ran, a tear fell from the eye that was given to him.

When she opened her eyes again, Nane found the headache to be stellar. Sunlight streamed into her hospital room and she hated it. Add it to the list, she thought miserably. Slowly, she raised a hand up to her eyes to rub them. Off to her side, some one started to move.

"Nane?" Kakashi asked as he closed his book.

"Go away, Hatake. I release you from what ever assignment you were given. Tell Tusnade that I fired you." She waved a hand in his direction. Nane couldn't look at him. It was too much of a blow to her self esteem and her heart. She had been right, why would anyone of his caliber even look twice at her without being paid or ordered to.

"Tinane, listen to me." Kakashi started.

"What so you can tell me how you were just doing your job. Everyone has lied to me, Kakashi, lied to me for years apparently. You were no different; you just got paid to do it. Just leave me." Nane curled into a ball, tears rolling down to the pillow.

"I never told you what I knew because I was ordered to. It is not just you that we are trying to protect, Tinane."

She sat up and glared at him.

"I can't bring myself to care anymore, Hatake. I have been through a hell that I can only remember in my dreams, and I blow things apart because of them. I am being shackled mentally and physically, "she held up her wrists showing the siphon bands, "lied to, and attacked. I am feeling broken and used. I am tired of caring about the greater good, because, contrary to my naive brain, the greater good is going to burn me down just to prevent me from possibly helping Orochimaru. I know that if I become too much of a liability I will disappear."

Kakashi stared at her with his one visible eye.

"Get. Over. It. Worse things go on that few in this village can even imagine. You, Yuu Tinane are a jonin of the Leaf. Your pledge is to do anything your Hokage commands you to, with the gifts and skills that you have." His voice was colder than anything she had heard before. He continued, "If, in completing the tasks, you are used and broken, then you have honorably portrayed your role as a weapon of Konoha. You are not the only one who has been through hell. You just need to find your way back and be stronger for it."

Kakashi's eye narrowed. He knew she was trying to drive him away. It hurt him to see her feeling so alone and crushed. Nane lay back down, her back to him, once again curling in on herself.

"Just leave me alone, Hatake. Don't worry, pass along to anyone concerned that I will protect your precious Konoha. If Orochimaru gets a hold of me, I will make sure he can't use me. Just look for the crater. Now, go away."

She looked so little in the hospital bed. Kakashi stood there for a few more moments then disappeared in a puff of breeze.

When he was gone, Nane cried herself to sleep.


AN: Well another update. Hope you enjoy. I am still liking this so I will continue. Possibility for tweaking of the chapters, but I will tell you when it happens. Fluid tales. :)

TB