Chapter Eight:

In the morning, Kakashi stood outside a local flower shop in his Jounin outfit with his hands tucked into his pockets. He glanced at the sky, quite ready to see a message bird fly overhead indicating a new mission for him. He was surprised that none of them concerned him.

"Kakashi, you coming?" Misa called from just inside the doors. Kakashi turned and nodded, following her inside. He had never come the Yamanaka Flower shop, or any other plant store for that matter, and felt rather awkward, despite the fact that they were alone at the moment. Misa on the other hand seemed to be enjoying herself very much. With a cheerful smile on her face, she looked around at all the colourful flowers and bent down to examine some of them more closely.

Kakashi stood close to the wall and watched her with his one visible eye. By the time they had reached his apartment the night before, she had regained most of her jovial behaviour, which had continued in the morning. She hadn't mentioned Nagi again, and he didn't press the matter either, though he was not certain whether by 'lost Nagi', she meant that he was killed or taken captive. In either case, however, he had no right to question what she didn't want to discuss.

The door to the back of the shop opened and a middle aged woman walked through with a sobbing baby in her arms. "Welcome," she said distractedly to Misa and Kakashi before walking over to the counter and placing the teary baby on it momentarily. "There, there, Ino-chan, ugly Daddy's gone now, don't you worry." She carefully wiped away the tears on the infant's face and then lifted her off the counter and onto the floor. "Now be a good girl while I help the customers." The woman sighed as she straightened and brought her attention to the two. "I'm sorry," she said. "Can I help you?"

Misa smiled and shook the apology away. She brought forward two small bunches of flowers and put them carefully onto the counter. Kakashi didn't move from his position while she paid and played a little with the infant who had come around to her. Finally after a few minutes, they left and Kakashi took Misa through the village towards the graveyards. Since Obito's death, Kakashi hadn't come to Midori's grave as often as they had done in the past. Now he realised that the reason must have been, that walking through the small forest and up the stone stairs and the rows of tomb stones brought back too many memories of Obito. He was slightly surprised to find that the memories did not assault him as fiercely as he had expected. They were there, hovering on the edges of his vision, but they didn't close in on him.

Misa knelt and arranged one set of the flowers in front of Midori's family grave and lit several incense sticks. Then she brought her hands together before her face and closed her eyes, praying. Kakashi stood beside her, staring at the stone. Then he reached out and brushed off a few lone twigs and leaves absently from the stone top.

"Midori-san, thank you," Misa said softly. Her eyes were distant and her hands had dropped onto her knees. "Because of you, I managed to remember things that I had forgotten, and because of your team mates, I could regain what I had lost. I will never forget, and I wish to someday return this favour in one way or another."

Misa rose to her feet and then turned to face Kakashi. He glanced at her and then began to walk away from the grave, down the long rows of stones. Misa followed him quietly until they reached the stone stairs and then began to talk about unimportant, day to day events in her village and her job in the hospital.

"A little boy came in the other day," she was saying when the Memorial came into view, "helping another girl who had tripped and cut her chin open. It wasn't a serious injury, but the boy was almost shouting at me in panic to get her healed." She chuckled. "There are times when I think that children are just a pain, but it makes me so happy to see their unstained innocence."

Misa squatted down and placed the nicely arranged flowers in front of the black stone and smiled gently. Then she brought her hands together once again and closed her eyes in silent prayers. Obito, I'm sorry about last night. I was too shocked and I couldn't even pray for you. I still can't believe that you're dead. Being dead and being Obito doesn't go well together, you know. I couldn't express my feelings yet again, I guess…

She slowly opened her eyes and a small sigh escaped her.

"Sorry," Kakashi said, which drew her attention. She tipped her head back and looked at him with a questioning frown. "I would have brought you to his real grave where his ashes lay, but that's in the Uchiha graveyard." He didn't need to say any more. Misa, having grown up in the midst of the war like Kakashi, Obito and Midori, had heard a decent amount of the Uchiha Clan, the strongest in Konoha.

She shook her head. "Don't worry about that," she said. "Besides, you come here as well, don't you?" He nodded and she smiled. "Then Obito probably comes here more often than to his grave."

Kakashi simply shrugged. Misa continued to peer curiously at his face, and when she didn't look away after a few moments, he returned the look, raising an eyebrow. "What?"

"I've just been wondering since last night why you wore your hitai-ate like that," she replied. Then a look of slight realisation flickered in her eyes. "You didn't lose the eye did you?"

"I did lose it," he said, bring up a hand to his face. "But I received another." Misa frowned and he pulled the hitai-ate up to show her instead of explain it in words. Her eyes widened when she saw the three tailed, red eye and the horrid scar.

"The Uchiha Sharingan," she muttered, and she stood up to look at it more closely. "How do you have it? The Sharingan can only be activated by one with Uchiha blood. Unless you're…?"

Kakashi shook his head. "No, I'm a Hatake, not an Uchiha. This is Obito's eye."

"But…" Medical principles and transplantation methods rushed through Misa's mind without much effort. She stood, speechless for a moment while Kakashi lowered the forehead protector over the eye again. "Even if you managed to successfully keep the Sharingan activated through the transplantation, it shouldn't cause such a scar, assuming that the scar is from the operation."

Kakashi broke their eye contact as he looked towards the trees. "The person who transplanted this wasn't a medical ninja," he said.

"Why did you let them do that then? I'm sure Konoha has medics experienced and skilful enough to undertake the transplantation without any damage to the receiver or giver." Misa waited for an answer but Kakashi would say nothing as he continued to stare at the trees, though she could see that he wasn't really looking at any of them. When long moments passed without any change, she finally dropped her eyes to the ground and sighed. "Sorry," she mumbled. "I know this isn't any of my business." She sighed again, but it sounded more like a huff. "Your friend is really too careless, Obito," she said in a lighter tone. Then she snorted and added, "Sorry, I told the wrong person; you're probably worse than he is." From the corner of her eye, she noticed that Kakashi had brought his gaze back to the stone and it wasn't so distant anymore.

"I agree," he said quietly and she smiled without commenting further.

"I need to go," she said after a small pause. "They didn't give me a holiday, after all. On the contrary, I thought my superior's eyes were going to pop out when I said I wanted to take a leave for a few days."

She turned away from the Memorial and walked with Kakashi across the training grounds in silence for a while. It was a nice day, she noticed while they strolled down towards the village. She had never been to Konoha before, and was surprised and delighted at the same time to see the different architecture and overall atmosphere. As they headed down, she paused for a moment to look at the whole village from a slightly higher altitude. Unlike the Hidden Rock Village where the large mountain cast half of the houses in shadows, all of Konoha was bathed in sunlight, radiating a warm feeling. She was also strangely relieved and happy to see the people, not as enemies on the battle field, but as normal citizens of another village. Even from the gate guard the night before, she hadn't felt any potential threat being thrown at her. If she had had the time, she would have wanted to see much more of the village, especially the hospital and the medical centres and also meet some of the people. Some older shinobi in her home village still held grudges, accumulated through the long years of war, against the Leaf ninjas, but Misa felt none of that. Although she hadn't been present at the last battle, Nagi and Kakyou were there and had told her about what the Hokage had said. The past cannot be forgotten, but the future can be changed. Misa felt it was right to believe in those words.

Caught up in her thoughts, Misa had hardly noticed that the Gate had come into view. She quickened her pace for a few strides and turned in front of Kakashi, though she continued to walk backwards.

"Ne, Kakashi, can I come back again to visit?" she asked, but even as she said this, she felt an unknown weight drop into her stomach. What if I come back and you're no longer here? Her thoughts must have appeared in her face, since Kakashi's eye momentarily dropped to the ground before coming up to meet hers again.

He nodded. "Even if I'm – "

"No," she cut him off quickly. "I'll come back to visit you. Promise me…promise me that you won't…"

"I can't promise you that," Kakashi said in a low voice.

Misa stopped when she passed under the Gate and looked away, trying to push away the disturbing feeling she still felt in her stomach. She knew, and she understood that he couldn't promise her to stay alive until she came back again, and that was what pained her. Her left hand reached over her stomach and grasped the sleeve of her right arm tightly. Then she drew a slightly shaky breath and raised her eyes.

"Still, I'll come back and visit you," she said. Kakashi seemed to hesitate for a moment, but then he nodded again, and Misa managed a small, slightly relieved smile. "And if you ever need something, send me a letter or a message and I'll come as quickly as physically possible. I owe you so much; I can sacrifice so many things if it would help you. I just want you to know that." Kakashi made no reply and Misa simply chuckled. "Well, I guess I'll be off then," she said. "Do keep in touch though. You can at least promise me that, can't you?"

Kakashi, whether it be for good or bad, was not given the time to reply to her. They both felt the presence of a number of people rushing towards them and they looked up. There were two ANBU and one other shinobi. As they leapt over the Gate, the ANBU in the front looked down at them.

"Hatake! Come!" he shouted, and Kakashi immediately recognised it to be none other than Yuki. "Emergency mission!"

Kakashi faced Misa for a second, meeting her eyes, then he ran past her. "Sorry," he muttered before he leapt up into the trees. But as he joined Yuki and the group, he heard her shout his name and he glanced back over his shoulder.

"Kakashi! Remember that a bottle has an entrance and an exit!"

They swerved sharply to the left and Misa disappeared behind the forest trees, which left Kakashi to blink and think about what she had said. It hardly made any sense and it didn't seem to be anything important, so he gave it a mental shrug.

"She your girlfriend?" Yuki asked, though he never dropped the fast pace. Banto, who was wearing casual trousers and a plain shirt made a strange noise that might have been a laugh smothered into a cough. The other ANBU turned out to be Ryo, who shook his head at Yuki's inquiry.

"No," Kakashi said, suppressing the urge to roll his eyes. "She's an acquaintance from Iwagakure."

"Iwagakure?" Ryo repeated, turning his head to look back at him through his mask.

"You see Ryo, our little Hatake has become a fully bloomed seducer around all the Countries," Yuki said with satisfactory nods of his head. Banto whistled enthusiastically and Kakashi threw both of them a rather nasty look.

"Rather than comment on such stupid topics, would you care to tell me about this emergency mission?" Kakashi managed to say through tight jaws. Both Yuki and Banto immediately sobered and became serious.

"We received an SOS message from the spy in the Hidden Cloud Village," Yuki explained. "Ryo and I happened to be at the Headquarters when it arrived, really just five minutes ago. There was a desperate urgency to it that didn't allow us to plan this out and arrange for a special squad to go and help the spy. Kouyama-san ordered us to get whoever we could and head straight for Kumogakure."

Kouyama Shuuji was currently the head of the ANBU, and Kakashi knew that an order from him was an absolute. There would be no room for negotiation, disagreement or even hesitation. To climb to the seat of ANBU Head was just as good as saying that he was the second strongest shinobi in Konoha.

"I see," Kakashi muttered. "But there is a price for picking at random, Yuki-san; I have none of my gear with me, save a few shuriken and two kunai."

Banto snorted. "Hey, at least you have that. I have absolutely nothing; Captain hammered me out of my bed."

"Well your house was conveniently right in the way of our route towards the Gate," Yuki reasoned innocently.

"I knew I shouldn't have picked that place," Banto grumbled.

"You should be grateful," Ryo said. "You were being listed for a daimyo escort mission."

Banto grimaced, contorting his whole face and mouthed, "Thank the lord."

Yuki grinned and threw them both an ANBU mask. Kakashi caught it and raised a curious eye brow when he realised that it was his canine mask. He heard Banto groan softly, which told him that the other held his own mask as well and was thinking along the same lines: Yuki had already chosen who to bring with him when he had left the Headquarters.

"And how do you intend to help the spy?" Kakashi asked while he pulled off the hitai-ate, placing it in his back pouch, and slipped on the mask, keeping the Sharingan eye closed.

"It depends on the situation," Yuki replied. "In most circumstances our priority will be to bring him back to Konoha. But if he's been tortured and interrogated already, that would result in us taking other actions."

None of them were as inexperienced as to ask for clarification on the term 'other actions'. There were very few shinobi, even those well trained, to resist any long term torture and interrogation. Sooner or later they would break and spill whatever information they have. If such was the case with the spy, they would have no choice but to kill him along with those suspected of knowing any secrets. There was a problem to this, however, since it was not only one of the Hidden Villages, but one of the Five Great Shinobi Countries. Sending spies was not uncommon anymore, and Kakashi was sure that the Cloud had sent one into both Konoha and the Sand. Rather, if a group of shinobi was killed by the ANBU, Kumogakure would certainly not stay quiet.

One bad turn of events during the mission could rekindle the Shinobi War.

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I know, a tad bit short, but it was a decent place to cut it off. School starts in two days, so I'm not sure how frequent the updates will be from now on, but please keep looking.

Thank you all!
.LinSetsu.