It's been a little while since I last updated! I haven't forgotten this story just gotten stupid busy. Enjoy!

"Fine," Shinjou said, sheathing her sword. "I accept your challenge."

Nayamae continued to stand on the roof, looking down at the courtyard below. Kakashi kept his face covered with his hands, not wanting to see what would happen next.

Shinjou crossed her arms, snarling up at Nayamae. "What are your conditions?" she asked. All of her men stood still, staring between the two women.

"A fight to the death," Nayamae said. "If I win, I control everything you own. That includes your home, your men, and your trades and anything else you may have. It'll belong to me." Kakashi glanced up at her, peeking from behind his fingers. "If you win, you get the satisfaction of killing a kitsune. And you keep control of everything you own. However, I ask for one last thing."

Shinjou snickered. "I like the idea of a dead kitsune," she commented loudly. "What's your final condition?"

"If you win, the Leaf shinobi lives. You let him go back to his village alive and stop trading within his village."

Kakashi removed his hands from his face, staring at her in mild shock. "Nayamae!" She ignored him.

Shinjou considered her conditions for a moment. "Fine," she agreed. "I promise I won't kill the Sharingan user. I accept your conditions. However, you can't use any of your fox fire. That's not exactly a fair weapon, you agree?"

Nayamae frowned. "I wouldn't want to waste my fire on you anyway," she gritted. "Swords and fists is fine by me." She began to walk down the roof, but Kakashi's voice stopped her.

"How do you expect to win?" he asked, now standing. "Do you really think she'll let me go alive if you lose?"

She paused, breathing deeply. "Then fight your way out alive," she said without turning back to him. "There's no telling if she'll keep her word, but I also don't plan on losing."

"Not to be rude, but I've literally never seen you win in a fight before." Kakashi told her, almost wishing he could take back his words as soon as he said them. She was stung, but she jumped down to the courtyard before he could say anything else.

"This should be quick," Shinjou said with a sneer as she unsheathed her sword.

Nayamae had just unsheathed her own sword quick enough to block Shinjou from cutting her throat. She had barely given her any time to defend herself before attacking her. Though Shinjou was older, she certainly didn't act like her age was affecting her ability to fight. She was able to block and parry just as quickly as Nayamae, but she was more methodical.

She chased the kitsune throughout the courtyard, her men running to get out of their way. They came at each other intensely. Kakashi was surprised how well Nayamae was doing, but it was only the beginning of their battle. Their fight continued for several minutes, until both women had paused to catch their breath.

"Your swordsmanship has gotten dull," Shinjou commented.

Nayamae snickered. "It's a blade I'm not exactly used to using," she replied, showing the older woman the dark sheath.

Shinjou's eyes expressed confusion, then widened as recognition dawned on her face. "HOW DARE YOU DESECRATE RYU'S SHRINE!" she shrieked, coming at Nayamae with an increased speed.

Kakashi could tell Nayamae had shown her the blade on purpose. Shinjou wasn't moving as tactically as before, instead moving rashly, which soon earned her a wound across her arm. This made her even angrier. Nayamae was getting too confident. He could see her face was cracked into a small smile, but it didn't last long.

Nayamae suddenly tripped, falling backwards to the ground. Shinjou immediately took advantage of this by stabbing her middle as she fell. The kitsune gasped, grasping at the blade. Shinjou smiled evilly, twisting the blade and driving it further into her. Nayamae cried out in pain, yelping loudly when the sword was mercilessly pulled out. Blood pooled around her fingers as she tried to stop the bleeding. She could feel it was healing already, but she didn't have time to worry about her injury. She still needed to defend herself from getting killed. Her eyes went red and her skin felt hot. She could feel the fire right at her fingertips, just waiting to burst out.

Shinjou then did something unexpected. She didn't finish killing her off like Nayamae thought she would, but instead began to run towards where Kakashi was standing on the roof. She wasn't sure what she was doing at first, but quickly realized Shinjou had changed her target. With a lot of difficulty, she pulled herself up, her head swirling, and began chasing after her, but it was not a very fast pursuit. Everything around her slowed down. Kakashi opened his sharingan as lightning charged in his hand. Shinjou came at him with a loud yell, attempting to swipe her blade at his chest.

Just before he could defend himself against her sword, Nayamae had jumped onto Shinjou's back from behind, pulling her back and holding her sword under her chin. The older woman scrambled to get the younger off of her, while struggling to keep her balance on the roof.

"Your fight is with me!" Nayamae gritted, pulling upwards with her sword.

Shinjou gasped, suddenly losing her balance on the roof. With a shout, they both rolled down the slope, falling hard to the ground below.

Kakashi went to the edge of the roof. "Nayamae!" he shouted after her.

With a still bleeding wound, the kitsune struggled to get up from beside Shinjou and grabbed her sword. "Your fight is with me!" Nayamae repeated, pushing the tip of her sword under Shinjou's chin. "I told you you wouldn't live to see the next day if you touched him," she snarled, bunching the front of her shirt into the fist of her empty hand.

Shinjou was barely moving, but her eyes were fixed on Nayamae's. The fall from the roof was painful enough to nearly paralyze her. Nayamae raised her sword, preparing to drive the blade into Shinjou's chest, but she hesitated. She looked as though she was struggling to bring the sword down.

The older woman smiled, showing bloody teeth. "You… you're not strong enough… to kill me…" she gasped out.

Nayamae growled at her, holding tighter to the front of her shirt. "You don't know me," she countered, shaking her. "You don't scare me ANYMORE!" With a final loud cry, she plunged the sword into Shinjou's heart.

Her cry echoed and faded. The whole courtyard became silent. Shinjou's men stood frozen, staring down at them. Kakashi jumped down from the roof, landing next to Nayamae. He put his hand on her shoulder, prompting her to look up at him. He took the bloody sword out of her hand and cleaned it before putting it back in its sheath.

"It's over," he told her softly. "You won."

Nayamae nodded slowly in reply. "I did." Kakashi helped her stand and she turned to face everyone in the courtyard. They all stared at her in anticipation, waiting for her to speak.

She took a deep breath. "Take anything of value out of here, money, food, and supplies. Take Shinjou's body and place it on her bed. Burn this place down with her in it," she ordered. "I don't actually care if any of you come with me or not, but I won't be continuing her trades. Those end tonight." Her voice sounded authoritative, but Kakashi could tell she didn't quite believe her position yet.

The men stared at her, but a few gradually moved to follow her orders, moving behind her to pick up Shinjou's body. She turned to Kakashi. "Let's get out of here," she said quietly, reaching for his hand.

A half hour later, Kakashi, Nayamae and what remained of Shijou's men were watching the compound burn to the ground. It's high walls and beautifully shingled roofs were lapped up in bright flames. The intense heat could be felt even from their far away spot. Nayamae stood with her arms crossed, staring blankly at the burning building. The wound on her torso was almost fully healed.

Kakashi looked at her. "Are you going to be okay?" he asked. "You're in charge of a lot of people now."

"I'm sure I'll be fine," she replied without looking at him. "I've told the ones that stayed that I don't plan on making any drugs or participating in weapons trades. They seem to be okay with that."

"Then what do you plan to do?" he asked curiously.

She shrugged. "Not sure yet." She turned to face him. "I want to help undo the damage Shinjou's caused. There's a village on the other side of these mountains that are heavily dependent on the drugs she made. I want to help them first."

Kakashi nodded. "You won't come back to the village with me first?"

She shook her head. "I can't. I'm sorry, Kakashi. Maybe we'll meet up again someday." She looked beyond the darkness of the trees behind him. "Besides, your village is coming to you anyway. I'll see you around, Kakashi," she said, gently kissing him on his cheek. Nayamae yelled out an order and immediately everyone began to follow her deeper into the mountains around Shinjou's burning compound.

Kakashi stayed where he stood, watching them all leave. Within minutes, he heard the barks of his ninken, Pakkun leading the way. Other shinobi followed close behind, including Guy and Asuma. Pakkun got to him first, but had hardly said a word before Guy had greeted Kakashi with heavy sobs and a tight embrace.

"KAKASHIIIIII!" Guy sobbed. "YOU'RE ALIVE!"

"We saw the flames and got here as soon as we could," Pakkun told him once Guy had let him go so he could breathe. The other ninja worked to put out the fire so it wouldn't catch fire to the few trees nearby. Kakashi sat down, suddenly feeling very tired. His ninken surrounded him, smelling him and nudging his hands with their noses. "Are you alright? What happened?"

"Shinjou's dead," he replied tiredly. "I'll be better once we're back in the village."

"We came after you when Pakkun wasn't summoned a second time," Asuma said as he approached where Kakashi was sitting. "Oh! You probably don't want to lose this. Found this on the side of a mountain on the way here," he said, holding out something in his hand for Kakashi to take. It was his headband.

"Thank you," he said, taking it and tying it around his head.

Pakkun looked around. "Where's the fox?" he asked, sniffing the air. "She was here."

"Nayamae's gone," he replied, covering his eye with his headband. "I'll tell you about it later."

Asuma and Guy frowned. "We'll head out first thing tomorrow morning," Asuma said. "Get some rest, Kakashi. Leave this all to us."

Kakashi nodded in reply, leaning against his largest dog, Buru, quickly falling asleep.

A few days after getting rescued, Konoha Hospital.

"I'm glad to hear about Shinjou, but I'm sorry about Nayamae," Hiruzen Sarutobi said once Kakashi had finished telling him everything that happened. "I know you had grown fond of her."

Kakashi lay in a hospital bed, feeling much better physically, but felt a pang in his chest at the Hokage's words. "I don't think she would have liked coming back here with me anyway," he replied. "Staying in one spot doesn't seem to suit her."

Hiruzen laughed lightly. "No, but if she did stay, she might get herself into less trouble."

He shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not."

A soft knock sounded at the door. Kyrie's head appeared from around the door. "Excuse me, Hokage-sama, I'm sorry to interrupt."

"Don't worry about it," he said, getting up from his chair. "We were done here." He turned back to Kakashi. "Get some good rest, Kakashi. Take all the time you need."

Kyrie held the door open for Hiruzen as he left the room. She let the door shut softly behind him as she took his seat beside Kakashi's bed.

Kyrie was silent, sadly staring down at her lap. "She's gone isn't she?" she asked, sounding as though she was about to start crying.

"Nayamae's not dead, Kyrie, if that's what you're thinking," Kakashi said reassuringly.

She looked up at him, moving her glasses so she could wipe the tears from her eyes. "Is she okay? I heard she challenged Shinjou and won!"

He nodded. "Barely." Briefly, he told her what happened.

"Well, is she going to come back to Konoha?" Kyrie asked hopefully. "I hope I haven't seen her for the last time."

He shrugged again. "I honestly don't know." The pang in his chest returned. He wasn't sure what the feeling meant, but he just knew he didn't like the idea of not seeing Nayamae for a long time either.

"Well, I better let you rest. Iruka-sensei told me that they should have another group of students graduating soon." She stood and adjusted the blankets around his feet. "Having new students should keep you well occupied!"

"If they pass my test there shouldn't be any issues," he replied nonchalantly.

Kyrie put her hands on her hips. "Aren't you being too hard with that bell test of yours?"

"Absolutely not."

I could not get this chapter right for nothing! Battle scenes are hard! But I think I did a semi-decent job on this one and did some good character building for our leading fox-lady. Also that was the second reason I took so long to update for this chapter.

Tell me what you think in a review!

Thanks for reading!