A/N: Part 2 to the chapter I just posted.

Chapter 15

Kakashi watched the two children closely as they exited the warm building after their near-awkward dinner together. Naruto was grumbling to himself at the change in temperature, and Charlie was shuddering in her coat as the cool wind buffeted her small frame.

Night time had taken over the now quiet village, and everyone who had been out as the trio had entered the barbeque place had gone inside for the day. Indeed, besides shinobi, Charlie and Naruto were probably the only ones out so late on a weekday.

Beside the two shivering children, the jounin had his hands in his pockets, nothing to protect him from the frigid air besides the flak jacket that covered his torso. The only indication that he was cold were the goosebumps raised on the visible portions of his forearms.

It wasn't that big of a deal. He'd had way worse. Besides, he had his image to protect.

"Let's head home," Charlie sighed, pulling her hood over her head, "I hate winter." Not only had they had to reduce the time they trained lately, they'd also started earlier to eek out every last bit of sunlight. Kakashi could understand her frustration, though it wasn't like him to voice it. Winter was... inconvenient.

Kakashi hummed in approval, and made to depart from the two youngsters before a small hand gripped the elbow of his shirt. He turned, one eyebrow raised. Charlie removed her pinching fingers from his person with a faint smile. "I would also like to talk about our training going forward tonight, if you're up for it."

There was something in her hazel eyes that spoke volumes.

He shrugged, and followed them quietly, allowing Naruto to fill the silence with his complaints. "Can't believe it gets so cold here at night... Isn't this supposed to be the Land of Fire?... Charlie, will you go buy gloves later... Man, I should've got the tea..."

Inconvenient was a word for winter. Quiet was another. The trio didn't even have the company of crickets on the freezing trek home. 'I should really teach them the shunshin,' he thought to himself, groaning internally at the slow pace. Perhaps if he were to push the rest of the lessons back after they gain good control of their chakra, he could do so? But perhaps it would interfere with the clone technique he had penciled in for the next month...

Kakashi sweatdropped. Had he really become so invested in these brats? It really hadn't become intentional, training them. He had been content to receive the paycheck every couple weeks or so and just show up for a few minutes every week to give them a new task. That had changed quickly, and now he was making plans for the future.

He wondered when the kids had crossed the line he'd drawn in the sand. Perhaps it was when Charlie had overexerted herself. When Naruto had been so desolate without her, so pained at the absence of his friend... Yes, perhaps then. It wasn't like he'd grown soft on them- they could attest to that. He ran them ragged every session. But perhaps he cared more for them than he would for any random brat off the streets.

Naruto, especially. God, did that kid have a way of getting under his skin. He didn't even have to be his father's son, either. Naruto was a person one couldn't help but care for, at least once they met him fully. There was something about the determined glint in his eye, the way he bore the village's hatred, the way he kept getting back up. He would make a good ninja one day, or dare he say, even a great one.

Charlie was an enigma he had yet to crack. He had to confess that her prodigy-level skills when it came to memory and knowledge in general were astounding. She had progressed leaps and bounds under his tutelage. Her smarts had led her to Naruto, and her compassion had brought the kid out of the dark- something to respect. She was shrewd, too, uncomfortably so. If she wasn't a ninja already, she would be soon, and he wouldn't be surprised if someone like Danzou decided to pick her up.

She also still felt painfully familiar to him, something that bothered him greatly. She seemed to know that he was suspicious of her, too. She would shift uncomfortably under his stare, give half-answers, avoid him when she knew he wanted to talk seriously to her. There was something secretive about her, and though the Hokage trusted her, even after all this time Kakashi still could not. Not as much as he'd like to.

"Night, Naru-chan," Charlie said, which took Kakashi out of his thoughts. Unbeknownst to him, they had come all the way to the two's apartments, and were now parting ways.

"Night, Charlie, night Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said cheerily, and waved as he unlocked and entered his apartment. Kakashi gave a short wave to him in response.

Charlie took a deep breath as the boy's door pushed shut, and looked at him over her shoulder. "Come on." She unlocked her apartment and shoved it open with a shoulder as the door protested. They really didn't give these kids the best of apartments to live in, huh.

She flicked on the lights silently as she shucked off her shoes, and Kakashi took the moment to glance around. It was neat enough that he could believe no one lived here, if it werent for the few pieces of furniture. Her living room consisted of a small couch, rug, and coffee table. There were no pictures on the wall, no trash or junk lying around. The only shoes she had at the genkan were her ninja sandals and the wooden geta necessary to attend kunoichi class.

It was kind of weird, to be honest. Reminded him of how his apartment looked, back when he was her age.

The redhead invited him into the living room with a wave of the hand, and went into the equally spotless kitchen to put a pot of tea on the stovetop. She was quiet as she methodically filled the pot with water and set it to boil. Kakashi sat on the lumpy couch, staring at the bare wall. She really hadn't wanted the place to look lived-in at all, did she?

"To answer the question you haven't asked, I have pictures and books and trinkets in my bedroom. I just don't think company needs to see it, is all," Charlie said, leaning against the frame to the kitchen with a small grin. She'd shucked her coat, and looked disturbingly young to have eyes so dark.

Kakashi blinked at her. "Why did you invite me here, Charlie-chan?"

Her thin shoulders slumped, and she smiled ruefully at his frankness. "I suppose I'm tired of you looking at me like that." The kettle squealed, and she turned to pull it off the heat. "I only have matcha. Is that okay?" she asked as she pulled a bag of powdered tea from a cupboard above her head.

Kakashi shrugged. He wasn't really here for the tea.

Charlie returned soon with a wooden platter. The teapot steamed atop it, and glass clinked as she set it on the coffee table. She filled two cups silently, and let them cool as she sat down seiza-style next to him. Facing him. He turned towards her, surprise that she was now being slightly more open with him. She never struck him as that way.

"Ask away. But beware that I may not have all the answers ready for you." Her hazel eyes were unreadable as her small fists clenched in her lap. She kind of looked like she expected to get slapped.

"If it's that painful to talk about your secrets, you should probably keep them secret," Kakashi advised cautiously.

Her lips twitched up at the corners. "It's not like I have such a dark past or anything. I just hope you won't look at me in disgust when this meeting is over."

"Why would I? Killed anyone recently?"

She balked. "N-no!"

"Stolen?"

"Are you joking?"

"Betrayed our secrets?"

"Of course not!"

"Then why would I see you differently?"

She didn't answer him, instead choosing to take a cup of tea into her hands. It probably burned her fingers, but she held it still.

He quirked his lips to the side. "Why do you seem much older than you are?" His first question was one of his more pressing ones. Sure, he had met a few children in his time that acted more maturely than they should. He had been one, at one point. But Charlie had the countenance of an adult in a child's body, and there was a difference. There was a difference between being hardened by years of abuse and neglect, and whatever Charlie was.

Charlie smiled at him a little. "I should preface this by saying that all that I'm about to tell you, I've also told the Hokage. So if you think I'm hiding anything from him, or if I have any ill-intent towards the village, you would be wrong. Yamanaka Inoichi has already done a mindwalk, so I am vetted." She winked at him. "Anyway, to answer your question with a question: would you believe me if I said I am?"

"What do you mean?"

She lost her smile. "I am. An adult in a child's body. I'm not a kid who acts older than she is. I'm not burdened by the ghosts of my past. And I'm not just well-read. Technically, I'm 18 now." He breathed in sharply, but she didn't seem to see him anymore, and was staring down at her small hands, her small body, as if it offended her. "I don't just age well, either. Where I'm from, I was... I was normal. My age seems to have reversed since I came here."

"Where you're... from?" he echoed, still trying to get his head around what she'd just told him. She had just said she'd been vetted by the Hokage, but this was... hard to believe.

"Perhaps this will make my age reversal a bit easier to understand. I don't come from here. At all." She leaned forward, as though she were gossiping rather than revealing her deepest secrets. "I come from a different world. Where I'm from, we don't have chakra. We use electricity. Cars to get around, cellphones to communicate with people across the world, airplanes to fly us through the sky when we travel. Our doctors use medicine to treat our illnesses. Ninjas are things of the past. Oh, and school lasts at least 13 years for most kids in many countries."

Kakashi blinked uncomprehendingly. Another world? Was this kid crazy? She didn't really seem like the type, and she was staring him in the eye as though she was genuinely serious, but... how could he believe that? How could he begin to believe that? He stood, eyebrows pulling together in a frown. "Charlie, you need to go to bed. You're-"

"Listen to me, Hatake Kakashi. I'm not done." Charlie stood as well, crossing her arms over her chest as she glared seriously at him. "I'm not crazy, either. You can talk to Hokage tomorrow, or even go and wake him right after this if it makes you feel better. But I'm not lying to you. So sit down and keep asking questions. I'm doing this against my better judgement, and you won't be getting much else out of me if you leave now."

He took a deep breath in, and slowly sat, clenching his fists against the anger he felt rising in his chest. This kid was jerking him around, she had to be. He didn't know her to be a prankster.

"If you're from 'another world'," he began, air quoting the words to show further his disbelief, "then how did you get here?"

She rubbed her jaw thoughtfully. "That's hard to explain. Truthfully, I don't fully understand it either. And there are... some things that I don't think you're ready to hear yet. But here is what I do know. I was in a job shadow- hard to explain, I was basically following a doctor around for the day to see what he did- and all of a sudden, I blacked out. When I came to... well, when I came to this world, anyway, I was naked and in this body. I was outside of Konoha's gates. Naruto found me because he was skipping school, and took me to the Hokage."

Kakashi sipped at the now cooling tea. It was a bit watered down, but it did the trick to abate the awkward silence. How was he supposed to respond to that? It sounded so... outlandish, and yet she was explaining it casually, so truthfully. Could that really be the truth? Could it?

"And..." she added softly, staring down at her drink. "There's one thing I have to tell you. Something that you wouldn't think to ask, but I think you should know anyway. There's a reason Naruto is my best friend, beyond the fact that he's a super sweet kid and I love him very much. I also recognize the potential in him. I know how good he is, I know how great he will be in the future. I want to foster that, because there are things in the future that I would rather avoid. I want to stand by his side as he- no, as we all fight for peace. This is my goal. He is the reason I have fought so hard all this time, the reason I have not given up. There is a future for us all, one worth fighting for. I've seen it.

"You don't have to believe me when I say this, because I'm sure you won't until you talk to the Hokage and Yamanaka-san, but the reason I am fighting so hard to better myself for a village I didn't grow up in is because where I'm from, all of this is from a book. It's all a story, or at least I thought it was. I know what has happened in the past, and I know what will happen in the future- or at least, what is supposed to happen."

He said nothing, staring at her. Her lips lifted humorlessly. "Here's the part where you quiz me," she said.

"Charlie-chan, you realize I can't believe this." The words came softly, softer than he'd meant them. He'd meant for them to be harsh, harsh for wasting his time, for dragging him here and serving him watered down tea as she lied straight to his face. But they were soft. He wished he could trust her. He wished she wasn't so infernally difficult to get to know.

"Then let me prove myself. Ask me something I shouldn't know, and if I know, I'll tell you the answer." She nodded determinedly at him.

He didn't say anything.

Her eyebrow quirked. "Kakashi, I'm trying here. You wanted to know my secrets, and now you won't accept them."

"Fine, then. What's so special about Naruto-kun?" Kakashi burst out the first question that came to his mind, and regretted it immediately. They weren't supposed to tell the children that anything was amiss with him, and here he'd just blurted it out to an 11-year-old. Foolish.

"He has the Kyuubi sealed inside him. Though he goes by Kurama, just so you know. The fox was sealed into him by his father, Namikaze Minato, after his mother, Uzumaki Kushina, lost control of it during Naruto's birth. Minato's also the one who assigned you to protect Kushina while she was pregnant. You were in ANBU back then, right, after everything that happened with your team? You have the ANBU tattoo on your shoulder to prove it."

The anger that Kakashi was beginning to feel seemed to blare in his chest, and he got to his feet again, towering over the smaller girl. He'd ask her how she knew this, but he knew what her answer would be.

"'Those who abandon friends are worse than scum'. Those are the words he told you on that day. I know what happened that day, and I know what happened after." Her eyes welled with tears as she looked away from the (no doubt furious) gaze he was boring through her. "I know that you got your Chidori from trying to enhance Minato's Rasengan. I know about your dog summons, and I know that Pakkun is very proud of how soft his paws are. But more importantly, the reason I sought you out at all, is because I know you better than almost anyone."

She was staring downwards now, not meeting his stone cold eye as the tears that had been filling hers dropped to wet her tactical pants. "I know you're a good person. I know you feel things deeply, despite who you may portray yourself as. I know you're exceedingly angry with me right now, but I also know that despite your cold exterior, you were kind enough to stay when I told you to, and listen through all of this despite how you felt. So you can curse my name all you want to, but I've given you the answers that you wanted. I've told you facts about yourself that by all means I shouldn't know. And I know that though it may take a while, you are kind, and will forgive me for knowing them."

Kakashi grit his teeth, and turned.

The door shut with a slam behind him.

The next morning, before the roosters began their dawn calls, Kakashi was shunshinning to the Hokage's office. He had been kind enough to wait until 6 AM to bother the old man, but no longer. And if he wasn't there yet, he would stand there until he was. It was only a matter of time.

To his surprise, the old man was there, almost as though he'd expected a visitor so early. He was sipping a cup of tea and watching the sun break over the horizon. It painted the sky a pretty hue, gold mixed with pink mixed with purple, but Kakashi was not one to become distracted by such things.

The ninja stood there silently, waiting to be addressed. Finally, the old man turned, giving him a knowing smile as he walked forward to set his cup down. "Kakashi-kun," he greeted. "Good morning."

"Good morning," Kakashi managed through gritted teeth, "Hokage-sama."

"You look like a caged tiger this morning. Any reason why?"

"Shimizu Charlie has told me some interesting pieces of information. I have to wonder about the veracity of such things." It was the most polite way he could put it, but how he was chopping at the bit to get the pleasantries out of the way.

The Hokage sat down with an aged groan behind his desk, and fiddled around for a moment in one of his drawers. He pulled out a long pipe and a can of tobacco, grinning cheerily. "Nothing like a morning smoke, eh, Kakashi-kun?"

"I wouldn't know, Hokage-sama."

He waited impatiently as the old man lit up. His leader took two puffs, before sighing. "She's telling the truth, you know. All of it."

The jounin couldn't quite believe what he was hearing. "All of it?" he repeated uncomprehendingly. "Being an adult, being from a different world, knowing things she should not know?"

His Hokage blinked once. "Yes, that's all true. I've seen her memories. Do you really think I would give her my seal of approval if I hadn't verified things myself?"

"Well, no, Hokage-sama, it just seems..."

"Improbable. Or perhaps impossible. I know, I thought so too. But she proved me wrong." Sarutobi gave a goodnatured grin. "I truly do like the girl. Surely you do, too?"

Kakashi forced his scowl into an unreadable expression. "'Liking' her is not the issue at hand here-"

"There is no issue at hand," the Hokage interrupted. His dark eyes were cold and serious now, a far cry from how lax he'd seemed earlier. "The only 'issue' with Charlie-chan resides in people's heads, and that alone. I trust the girl, and as a ninja in my highest regards, it displeases me that you do not. I would not have assigned you to her if I thought you couldn't handle learning who she is. Do not prove me wrong, Kakashi."

"She knows too much," Kakashi ground out. "If she were to get captured, or sell our secrets-"

"She would not do such a thing. And I did not assign you to be her tutor just to teach her. I hoped that you would form a friendship with her so that the whole 'protection detail' aspect would be obvious. This 'B-rank mission' of yours is twofold- to protect her and Naruto from harm, and to train them to where they can protect themselves. Well, threefold if you think about it, because I really did want you to take students and stop being such a lone wolf, but anyway.

"If we're being honest here, I know that you know that deep down, you really do like her. And you want to trust her. And now that she's revealed her secrets to you, you feel as though you've been betrayed. That's fine, feel that and get over it. She's a good kid. You know Charlie-chan almost as well as I do now- do you truly believe that she has a bad bone in her body?"

"Until last night, I feel I did not know her at all."

The old man sighed in exasperation. "Everything that kid does is for a reason. If she felt comfortable enough to reveal that part of her to you, you should be grateful. You are one of the three- well, four- people who know her true identity. Naruto-kun himself doesn't even know who she is. For obvious reasons, it's an SS-ranked secret. For her to trust you with such information, you should feel honored. Not betrayed. She is a good girl with a strong heart, and I believe in her and what she is trying to accomplish. So please, don't push her away for trying to let you in. Do this for your Hokage."

Kakashi pinched the bridge of his nose as the headache surged behind his eyes. "And I suppose you won't tell me what else she's hiding? I'm sure there's something. You said I know her 'almost' as well as you do."

The Hokage's wizened face cracked into a grin. "Nothing gets past you, does it, Kakashi-kun? You're right. There is one more thing. It's quite trivial, really, but if she didn't feel comfortable enough to reveal it to you then I certainly won't be doing her any favors by doing it myself, would I?"

The silver haired jounin sighed, and bowed. "I will come by later today for a mission assignment, Hokage-sama."

"No need," Sarutobi said, pulling a scroll out of the recesses of his robe. "I meant to call you here with Asuma-kun earlier, but Charlie-chan told me you might be stopping by, so I brought this with me. You two leave tomorrow, do let Asuma-kun know."

Kakashi frowned as he took the scroll from him. "Charlie was here even earlier than I was?" Did the kid ever sleep?

"Of course. Who do you think brought the tea?"

Kakashi glanced in the cup.

Watered down matcha.