Author's Note: Hello people, this responds to the request I get most often for this conglomeration: could you do more stories during the time when Kakashi and Mei are younger and aren't married or dating yet?

Normally I don't have much material for that time since they're both very much living their own lives during the war and after. Then, one morning, this idea popped into my head.

This story also sort of responds to fluffpenguin who's always asking things like (I'm paraphrasing here): are you going to talk more about the Rin/Mist issue since Kakashi is marrying someone from the Mist even though the Mist sort of kidnapped and killed Rin? Then fluffpenguin and I talk in a circle about how it was Madara's fault and we agree that Kakashi doesn't really hold a grudge against the Mist. And yes, we understand that Madara was controlling the Fourth Mizukage, and that Madara turned Rin into a jinchuriki knowing that she'd die no matter what happened, thus solidifying Obito's allegiance to him. Well, here you go…sort of.

Also, if you guys don't remember ANYTHING about the scene where Obito finds Kakashi and Rin with the Mist ninja, you may want to brush up. I believe it's Shippuden 345 and 346. In the manga you should be looking for volume 63 number 605.

Picking Up the Pieces

"You shouldn't have let them go ahead without us," Mei muttered, irritated. "Something this important? We should have all gone together." The rain poured down on the pair as they hurried after their comrades.

Ao grunted in response as they rushed through the dense forest. His short gray hair only just stuck up over the edge of his Mist ANBU mask. "What we should have done is stayed in the village. Who knows what will happen when we're gone?"

Mei frowned. Things had been…difficult since the Mizukage revealed his grand plan.

The plan was bold, and completely idiotic, in Mei's opinion. Several weeks back, Lord Yagura had revealed to his top jonin that a threat from the Leaf was imminent. The only way to stop the destruction of the Mist at the Leaf's hands, he'd said, was for him to sacrifice himself.

The Fourth Mizukage had killed himself by releasing the tailed beast within him. In due course, the Three Tails manifested once again and the Mist ninja went to work. The Sealing Corps managed to reclaim the beast, sacrificing most of their master sealers in the fight to regain control. It had been a risky plan in the first place and now, Mei knew, it could not be repeated, they'd lost too many people.

What followed had been weeks of anarchy. The Mist ninja forces had been in disarray, battling amongst themselves while still attempting to maintain a front on the war in which the entire world was entrapped. A plan this risky at this late stage of the conflict, it would be a wonder if the Mist survived at all.

Many had thought that the Mizukage was mad, reckless with the lives of his soldiers and the Mist village in general. Ao and Mei had been planning a coup for months and gathering support, but the Mizukage's proposal had brought everything to a grinding halt. The Fourth's sudden will to sacrifice himself, and at such a young age, had brought hope back to their ranks. Despite what the Fourth had done in the past, people wanted to believe that he wouldn't order them to do anything he wasn't willing to do himself. Mei gritted her teeth at their folly. They couldn't afford rash sacrifices, not at this time.

Still, there was no stopping the Mist ANBU now. They had carried out the Mizukage's final order and sealed the beast into the Leaf chunin. Mei frowned every time she considered this part of the plan. The Mizukage had been very specific about which Leaf ninja it was to be. Mei had assumed that he'd wanted to use the Yellow Flash's own student as a way of twisting the knife in the wound. However, he had been adamant that they use the female. Why? Wouldn't the male have suited their purpose just as well?

Ao suddenly slowed, the veins around his recently transplanted eye bulging. Mei slid to a stop next to him. The continuous rain made the ground slick. Mei stuck her hands out to steady herself, her fingers sunk six inches into mud. It didn't bother her, mud had been her ally before so she ignored how it seeped into her gloves.

Ao cursed at what he saw beyond their cover, making Mei feel cold. Were they too late? She crept forward only to feel Ao's hand on her shoulder. She glanced back at him, her Hunter masking making it hard to see him without turning entirely around. Ao shook his head.

Mei shrugged his hand off and crept further forward. Ao cautiously followed. They peaked out through the tall grass, careful to remain hidden.

They were two spirits hiding next to a field full of ghosts. The ground was soaked in rain and blood. Their comrades lay scattered and broken, dead. Several large, unnatural looking trees loomed over the field. They were spindly and leafless, like claws reaching for the clouds.

"What-" Mei whispered in shock only to stifle her own words. The enemy was also on the field.

There were about nine in all and they were fresh, without a single bloodstain on their green flak jackets; they were simply wet and thus, had just arrived. The Leaf ninja were scattered among the carnage, searching for something.

What did this? Even as the thought crossed Mei's mind, one of the enemy shouted to another. Several ran back to the center of the massacre. Mei strained her damaged ears to hear, gaze zeroing in on the first ninja who'd called out. He had knelt near the Yellow Flash's student. She was dead, Mei observed. Something had punched through the jinchuriki and hollowed out her chest. That wasn't what drew the relief squad's attention though. There was another body nearby, a man about the same age as the now lifeless jinchuriki.

"What are they saying?" Mei finally whispered to Ao in frustration.

"There's a Leaf ninja over there, the other student of the Yellow Flash," Ao replied softly. Mei could barely hear him. "He's alive."

"Alive?" Mei responded in surprise. "Did he do this?"

Ao had no answer so he became quiet. They continued to watch breathlessly.

Having found the Mist ninja to be dead, the remainder of the Leaf ninja had gathered around their comrade's bodies. Green chakra lit up a small area in the center but it was not enough for the Mist ninja to see what was happening.

There was movement and then a sudden scream. Mei and Ao minutely flinched at the sound. It pierced the quiet air like the call of a dying animal. The Leaf ninja appeared to recoil from the green light even as it went out, widening the already loose circle around the survivor. They stepped back further when the screams formed into words that even Mei could hear.

"Who did this?! Who took down the enemy?!" There were no responses to the survivor's demands. "What killed the enemy?! Who-" Then the medic's hands were green again and the voice fell silent.

"So it wasn't him?" Mei asked rhetorically. Her eyebrows furrowed in thought.

"Either that or he's gone mad," Ao remarked with a grim shrug. "Leaf ninja never could handle themselves in a crisis. He probably killed them all in a mad rage and blocked his memory of it."

"Hatake killed them all by himself?" Mei asked skeptically, finally remembering the name of the Yellow Flash's only living student. "The bingo book says he's good, but not that good." Mei looked out on the corpses of her fellow Mist ANBU. Some of them she'd fought with personally. The Hero of the Sharingan, as he was called, was skilled and maybe could have taken on several of them, but all of them at once? It wasn't possible.

Mei and Ao watched in silence as the Leaf ninja collected their wounded and dead comrades. Mei began to creep forward again but Ao, once again, stopped her.

Mei glared back at him. "We should at least try to get the body," Mei protested. "The Three Tails-"

"The Three Tails will have already departed the host," Ao advised. "And you know we don't have the strength to bring it to heel now."

Mei tightened her hands into fists and then released them. She turned away, knowing what Ao was going to say before he said it.

"We need to act now. We've waited long enough," Ao urged. His voice belied the expressionless white mask he wore.

"I'm not ready," Mei confided.

"None of us ever are," Ao replied. "You're the best chance the Mist has. The jonin will follow you and we can force the Feudal Lord's hand." They'd had this discussion before, he'd said these words before. He never understood why she hesitated when she could strike.

Mei took a breath and began moving back into the forest, away from the carnage. She could send a detail to retrieve their dead once the Leaf ninja were gone, there was no need to lose more lives. "We'll have to withdraw from the war, as much as possible," Mei changed the subject to political matters. Her eyes were hard, set on the task before her. She had always hoped there'd be another way, now she realized there wasn't. If the Mist was to survive, she would have to drag it out of the bloody swamp it was rotting in with her own two hands.

Ao walked by her side as they weaved through the trees. "That won't be a popular opinion." He did not disagree with her however.

Mei elaborated, "we put everything we had into this plan and that was only to take the Leaf out. It won't be long before the other villages sense our weakness and strike."

"So what's the plan?" Ao asked, eyeing the dangerous woman beside him.

"Withdraw our forces but put up a brave front, don't admit defeat. There have been whispers of peace treaties, despite what the Fourth said. If we can save face, it will protect us while we rebuild."

Ao nodded his agreement. "And the coup?"

Mei smiled. She couldn't remember if they'd ever actually used that word before, although they'd both thought it. Treason was another word they never spoke aloud but often thought of. Mei's smirk remained as she said, "it isn't a coup, I'm taking control from no one." I'm picking up the pieces. No one can fault me for that.

The Mist kunoichi removed her mask and put it on her hip. She looked up into the crying sky, letting the rain wash her face. The mud dripped off of her fingers and mask, merging with the forest floor. After a moment, she shook her hair out and looked back at Ao. She did not put her mask back on.

"Let's move."

Author's Note: The more I looked into this time period to make sure I got my facts straight, the more I realized how much Madara screwed up the Mist. He: 1. Controlled and later killed their Mizukage 2. Stole their tailed beast during wartime 3. Pretty much made sure that the Mist wouldn't be able to recover until long after the war was over. I can't imagine being Mei and coming to the realization that the Mist's power was slowly destroyed by design and not just by a series of unlucky circumstances. And yet Mei prevailed. She started work on rebuilding her world even as Kakashi's fell apart.

Thanks for reading everyone!