Author's Notes: Here you go! Now that I have other ongoing projects out of the way, ToBToF is the only multi-chaptered fic currently taking my attention. And I'm in love with the enigma of Yuugao all over again.

Notes: I do not own Naruto and am making no profit from this fan fiction.

Turn of Blade, Twist of Fate

By Nessie

Chapter Ten: Abated Concerns

On the first and fifteenth days of each months, Yuugao visited the place where Rin was buried. It was a personal limitation she had placed upon herself; as a kunoichi, she could not allow any emotion, not even grief, to attain total dominance over her mentality. Paying respects more often than this would have led to other thoughts mired in vengeance, and that was precisely the thing Rin had requested Yuugao not pursue.

On this particular fifteenth, in October, Yuugao made obeisance to the headstone bearing her friend's name. Rin had been luckier than countless ninja whose bodies had not been left after a battle to be properly buried. A private grave was a rarity in Konoha. Yuugao was thankful that she could visit without others mingling to do the same.

A distance behind her, Hayate waited. He had not known Rin long, but he did not mind accompanying his teammate and lover. They would be leaving for a battle soon, anyway. It seemed inappropriate, somehow, but both wore ANBU uniforms. For Yuugao to slip into her feline persona was a simple matter of lowering her mask into place. Once she rose from her kneel, the porcelain descended. It was only after she joined Hayate that Kakashi appeared.

"You're late," she uttered lowly. But even as she spoke, Yuugao knew his timing had been too perfect, late but just barely. Kakashi had certainly been watching them from someplace unseen.

"Today," Kakashi retorted gently, "it makes no difference to you."

Hayate coughed and asked, "What are you talking about, senpai?"

Kakashi, who wore basic shinobi gear unmarked by ANBU, smiled at them – if the crease in his mask was any indication. "As of today, I am no longer a member of your team."

It shouldn't have been unexpected, but Hayate and Yuugao claimed a certain degree of surprise. They both had known, had even discussed, that Kakashi's presence on their cell was approaching its end. He had stopped training with them months ago.

Yuugao was still curious about her senpai's situation. "Which team will you be moving into?"

"None." The two did not so much as shift in request of explanation but nonetheless he said, "I have been asked by Iruka to take on a Genin team as my students. I think the process could be...enlightening."

She caught his choice of wording, as well as his tone. It was one thing for Kakashi to train ANBU-level ninja, but to make him responsible for the training of inexperienced (and impressionable) Genin? It was something she would have to see for herself to believe.

"Anyway, I won't be needed on this mission of yours. From these last months I can tell that you, Hayate and Yuugao, truly understand each other."

Kakashi's words carried too much implication to be lost on his ex-teammates. Hayate went slightly pink in the ears. Yuugao's embarrassment manifested in an arching of eyebrows, which Kakashi could not see while she wore her mask.

"You are to go to the southern border of Fire, where you will find a group of five Chuunin missing-nin originally from Earth. They're in the bingo book." His tone leveled. "You know what to do."

"Thank you, Kakashi-sempai," Hayate returned. Turning, he leapt into a tree and started off, knowing Yuugao would soon catch up.

"It should only be an overnight trip," Kakashi added to the remaining kunoichi. Correctly interpreting her responding wordlessness, he asked, "Are you upset with me, Yuugao?"

She shook her head, her expression perfectly blank even behind the face of the cat. "No, sempai. Not upset."

"But unsettled?"

Yuugao studied him momentarily, and her impression of never truly understanding him was renewed. "It's just that I think there is still more I can learn from you."

"Perhaps," he acknowledged. Kakashi's silver hair gleamed as he turned to look back at Rin's headstone. "But you'll probably have a lot more missions with Tenzou now, and his abilities differ greatly from mine. Besides, there are younger ones who may need my lessons more than you."

This was true. Devoted parents were more accepting of their children's desires to be taught combat skills than they had been in recent years, yet there was still a lesser number of new students in the Academy than was desirable. And Yuugao was certain that Rin would approve of her old teammate's decision to become a teacher.

He folded his arms. "It's just..."

"What?" Yuugao queried.

Kakashi shrugged, than faced her again. "I've grown accustomed to our good teamwork. A Genin cell will have to prove to me that they're capable of that before they'll have me as their sensei."

She came close to smiling; Kakashi would make that demand above all else. "I'll be leaving now," she said, knowing this discussion had lasted long enough for the both of them.

Her friend nodded only once. In perfect synchronicity, they about-faced and took off. Yuugao joined Hayate halfway to the gate.

"Do you think things will change without him?" Hayate wanted to know.

As they exited the village, Yuugao expressed her disbelief with a short silence. "I think, if anything, things will improve."

"How so?"

She allowed herself the slightest smile concealed behind the cat's face. "We won't have to put up with his incessant reading."

---

Yuugao was certain that Kakashi was perfectly aware of her status with Hayate. In fact, her suspicion that he had anticipated the shift in proprieties was a small strain on her mind. She supposed it no longer mattered. The closeness achieved with Hayate, the smile reserved for her in his dark-ringed eyes, had not as yet been a detriment to their work in ANBU.

When they surprised the resting missing-nin just after dusk, and the time it took for dispatching them was considerably less than expected, Yuugao wondered if their relationship might have actually strengthened their combined technique.

"We could make it back to the village by midnight," Yuugao said as she cleaned blood from her katana with a folded cloth. "Kakashi-senpai thought it might take the whole night."

"But it will." She looked up to see Hayate erecting the miniature tent used on missions. He sent her a slow grin. "There's blood in our clothes."

"So?" It was not as though this was new for either of them.

"They'll need to be soaked. For hours."

Her lips parted in realization, but then Yuugao flipped her blade and slid it neatly into its hilt with a soft click. Turning her head so that her violet hair fell completely behind her shoulders, Yuugao helped him finish righting the tent. With a word of agreement, she stepped toward him and did not offer protest when Hayate reached out to remove her protective vest.

"It does take a long time to clean blood," she agreed in an amiable tone.

But both of them forget to put their clothes in water.

---

"I saw your mission report from last month," Yuugao's new teammate told her when they met in ANBU headquarters to discuss an upcoming assignment.

She did not know very much about this man other than the fact that his given name was Tenzou, yet he preferred to go by his code name, Yamato. "It was simple," she replied, watching for a reaction. She knew she often came off as terse and unyielding to those unused to her. But there was no indication of offense or annoyance in Yamato's startlingly deep eyes.

"So I gathered. But you and Gekko-san stayed the night at the border before returning the following day."

His tone was a little too insinuating for Yuugao's patience and she said, "You're playing games."

"No," refuted Yamato, "merely prying."

"Why?"

"I have no problem with working with both you and Gekko-san, Uzuki-san." He smiled and took a gulp from the tea he had brought into headquarters in a disposable cup. "Actually, I'm looking forward to it. I've heard little criticism for your team."

Yuugao was grateful for the years she had spent on Kakashi's team. Without them, she would still be stuck in her former habit of avoiding as much talk as possible and deserting a conversation when it began to slide downhill. After all, the notion of disfavor for her, Kakashi, and Hayate was unheard of.

"What criticism?" she asked rather than leaving.

Yamato paused to recover from the derailment of his topic. "Well...just thing around the..." At the anticipatory expression beneath her fringe of bangs, he said, "Criticism regarding your performance on Kakashi-senpai's team."

"My evaluations have mentioned nothing."

"No, they wouldn't," Yamato conceded, almost sighing. "To be perfectly honest, my concerns involve that very issue. Please understand, as a servant of Konoha you have earned my full respect. But as a kunoichi..."

He spoke the word as though it were the title of some fate-mandated misfortune. Yuugao was intimately familiar with the tone used for that word in the way she was intimately familiar with every man she had killed under ANBU orders. Every time it reached her ears, her mind automatically translated it: if only she had been born male.

"If my skills impress you," questioned Yuugao, "then what about my gender concerns you?"

"Your relationship with Gekko-san is unadvisable. It is often accepted that appropriate emotional barriers between teammates are necessary."

"You're saying you think that mine and Hayate's 'emotional breaching' will get us killed, even though we have been together for over six months." Her voice was level enough for her meaning to run across the space between Yuugao and Yamato and kick the shinobi in the head. "Don't."

Yamato seemed relieved; her bluntness had spared him from posing the questions he had been uncomfortable with asking. In the next few seconds, his smile formed anew. "Fine."

That was unexpected. "Really," she stated, her dubiousness coming through even without an upward inflection.

"Yes. Your honesty truly settles my fears. As the 'criticism' of Kakashi senpai's team is nothing except the croaking of old men still adjusting to successful kunoichis, I rest any of my objections to what you decide to do with your life, Uzuki-san." Yamato bowed.

After only a moment's hesitation, Yuugao gave a bow of her own. She experienced the rare feeling that she could grow to like this man.

"Call me Yuugao," she invited him, her stance warming. "Now. Let's talk about the mission, shall we?"

To Be Continued