"Sorry Tsunade-sama! I thing I broke this by accident," the loud special jounin held up a shattered picture of the fourth Hokege, before the picture slipped out and fell to the ground. She quickly scrambled to pick it up. Tsunade sighed loudly.

"Just leave it Anko. You arrived back from your mission yesterday, ne?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama!" Kasei suddenly got a headache. Just looking at her bouncy, cheery form caused him to become annoyed. But he tolerated it.

"And you were absent from the meeting awhile ago, right? You did not meet the Moon-nin who arrived here, did you?"

"Moon-nin?" her cheery personality suddenly changed. "What Moon-nin?"

"A ninja from an unheard of village, the Hidden Moon, stumbled in to Konoha awhile ago. She has some rare bloodlines and was taught under Orochimaru, and we were wondering if you knew her. Her name is Koumei. Tsuki Koumei." Anko froze, remembering.

-Flashback-

"OROCHIMARU-SENSEI! Koumei's run off again!" a fifteen-year-old Anko called as she rushed up to a dark form ahead of her. It spun around and glared at her.

"Find her now! Why do you always lose track of her like this!? SHE"S YOUR RESPONSIBILITY!" exploded Orochimaru. Anko shrunk back. She hated this man.

"Hai, Orochimaru-sama," she scowled, turning back. This is how it had always been. Koumei would get hurt or lost of she would run off, and Anko would get yelled at or beaten. She was tired of it. She stomped off to find Koumei.

She found a ten year old Koumei sitting out on a branch overhanging a waterfall. Trying to end her life again, most likely.

"Get down, Koumei! Otherwise Orochi will kill me!" shouted a desperate Anko, stopping a few feet away.

"If you're not going to make this easier, then just leave me alone," Koumei's eyes were bloodshot from crying as she looked from the rushing water to Anko and back, pouting. Anko softened up a bit. She hated talking her out of things like this, there was only a few ways to do it and it always resulted in her either exploding on her, or running off crying.

"If you try this again, Orochi will go after Haku. You should know that by know. Just come down and get back to training, Koumei. Killing yourself is the easy way out. And Orochi won't hesitate to take your brother hostage. Again."

"No! Please don't! Haku's only a little kid, he never did anything. Why should he suffer?"

"It's not my descision to make, Koumei. Just come down and get over here!"

Koumei's eyes welled up with fresh tears. "I'll be good, I promise! Orochi-sama scares me..."

She slowly backed off the branch, and ran up to Anko, squeezing her tightly and crying into her clothes. Anko wrapped her up in her arms, shielding her from the world. It was back to reality for the small girl.

-End Flashback-

"WHAT!?" Anko backed into Kasei before regaining balance. She sure can yell, huh, thought Genma as he opened a lazy eye.

"But she died! I saw it. She beat Orochi, and he ran, and she died! How could she be back!?" Anko was now loosing balance again and she flopped down into a nearby chair.

"So you did know her? We need you to tell us more about her," said Tsunade, leaning back in her chair. "Please start from the begining, Anko, and leave nothing out."

"H-hai, Tsunade-sama. When I was eight and still training under Orochi, we were passing through the Hidden Mist on a mission. We found a small girl training in a clearing with her father, at least I think it was her father. I was going to continue on, but Orochi made me stay and watch. We heard her father telling her that she had some sort of 'special power' due to an experiment, and he was trying to explin it simply. I was suprised when the child managed to channel her chakra and preform Henge no Jutsu, using only one hand on top of that.

"Orochi was impressed, and we abandoned the mission in order to kidnap her. She never even cried, it was as if she had no feelings at all. But she said that she wanted to say goodbye to her brother, Haku, before she left. It was as if it were the most natural thing to be kidnapped. She went into her house and without even telling her parents, she went to her baby brother, before gathering her few belongings and simply leaving.

"She trained with us for until she was thirteen, and an Anbu squad leader. But during that time, Orochi moulded her into a killing tool. It was easy to do, but he often had to enforce his commands by threatening her with the life of Haku. She would then come crying to me. So, Orochi put me in charge of looking after her, like her sister I guess. Every week she would try to commit suicide, but I always got there in time.

"Orochi developed her two bloodlines to such an extent, that she doesn't even need to announce half of them in battle. When she turned thirteen, Orochimaru decided she was too powerful and cursed her, sealing a Demon inside of her. Soon, ninja from the Hidden Moon village began stalking her. They wanted her bloodelines. And she wanted away from Orochi to join them. But she wouldn't stand the pain anymore, I guess, and ended up fighting Orochi.

"The fight lasted about a day and a half, but Orochimaru eventually ran off, telling me to find him elsewhere, and then Koumei just... died... The Moon-nin moved in and I left. But it hurt. She was so small and innocent and Orochi had used her for killing hundreds of shinobi. I was the only person she cared about aside from her little brother. She basically hated eveyone else, herself included. She would sometimes spend days crying, or stay up all night cutting at her arms with kunai. She told me that sometimes she thought it was all a dream and that she needed pain to insure she was still alive. It was really depressing to watch her suffer. To hear she survived is almost... impossible."

"How is it impossible?" asked Tsunade, making a few notes on the scroll in front of her.

"I looked at her body, and basically every bone in her little body was shattered, and she wasn't breathing at all. Her stomach was sliced open and so was her throat. Her lips were blue from bloodloss. I was sure she was dead."

Anko finished, and now all traces of her usual self had vanished. Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes and she spoke up again.

"Tsunade-sama, can I see her? Is she still here?"

"Ah, Of course Anko. Kasei, please take Anko to Koumei's room, and report back to me before going off. Genma, you are dismissed. I've got alot more paperwork to finish." She stared at her desk, covered in files, and frowned. Genma left, followed by the peacock and then by Kasei and Anko.

"So she's teaching you to be Wing-nin?" asked Anko, some of her cheerfulness returning.

"Hai. How did you know?"

"Because of your bird. He's very beautiful. He's a Phoeninx, ne?"

"Hai."

The two ninja neared the hospital and entered the large double doors. Kasei absent mindedly followed the usual path to Koumei's room. He turned left and headed for her door. Room 118, read the golden plate on the door. He moved aside and let Anko enter.

Koumei was standing at the open window once again letting the room drop to freezing levels. Her elbows rested on the sill and her face was buried in her hands. Her dark hair fell down slightly past her shoulders, no longer in a bun, and fell softly over her white hospital robes. Her hunter-nin mask lay abandoned on the floor.

Koumei did not turn when she heard the door open, if she heard it at all, and remained standing at the window. Anko walked in slowly and stopped. As Kasei walked in after, he thought she was going to start crying again. But after a moment of frozen thoughts, Kasei cringed as Anko yelled loudly and ran up to the form by the window who turned around.

"Koumei-chan!!! It's me! IT'S ANKO-CHAN!!!"

"What? Anko-Ch-" but Koumei was cut off as a large form in a trenchcoat collided with her, knocking her back towards the window.

"You left me all alone with the scary snake freak, and I had to carry your stupid necklace for like six years! WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!?"

"Gomen, Anko-chan," replied Koumei, trying desperately to push the form hugging her away. But she was trying so hard that when she did let go, it almost sent her through the window. Anko removed something from her neck and held it out. "Here."

Koumei stared at the necklace, but pushed it back to Anko and turned away. "You can keep it."

"Wha?" Anko paused for a moment before smiling. "Is the 'don't touch me or I'll kill you' Koumei-chan actually showing generosity?" Whn she got no reply she continued. "Oi, how's your brother anyways?"

Anko sat down on Koumei's bed and did not notice that she had stiffened. Kasei unplugged his ears intrested in the conversation. But unfortunately, Koumei noticed the movement and turned to him.

"Kasei, I f you're waiting for Anko, please wait outside."

Anko looked at her friend, confused, and Kasei slowly left the room, brushing hair from his eyes.

He leaned against the hallway wall and folded his arms. Rey came and sat comfortably on his shoulder. 'That Anko woman is really loud. I bet if you pay attention, you'll get the flow of the conversation as long as she is excited and yells like normal' the voice of Rey cut through his thoughts.

"Your probably right," replied Kasei through his mind. He leaned closer and closed his eyes, pressing his ear against the door and earning looks from passing nurses. Big mistake.

"KAKASHI!? WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN!?" Anko's voice erupted, echoing down the halls and Kasei almost fell over from the sudden blast of sound. He couldn't hear anything for awhile. When he regained his senses, he leaned back against the wall and listened to Anko rant.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS HE DOING!? HAKU WAS JUST A LITTLE KID! I'M HAVING A TALK WITH HIM!"

"NO!" this time it wasn't Anko's voice, but it was around the same volume. It was Koumei. Kasei strained to hear the rest of her conversation, but her voice had dropped back to it's normal level. There were a few minutes without yelling, before the doorknob turned again, and Anko came out with a slightly red face. She looked at Kasei, who had his eyes closed and was still leaning against the wall.

"Oi! Kasei-san! Let's go! I'm going to Kakashi's house, you can leave if you want'" she said loudly causing him to cringe. I had better go warn him, thought Kasei. He stood up straight and left, going the opposit direction from Anko. When he reached one of the hospital's back doors, he sprung to the rooftops and bolted to the Copy Ninja's house.

When he reached it he found Kakashi's bedroom window open and he flipped onto the sill, looking around. Suddenly, a masked face appeared inches from his, almost causing him to fall from the window.

"Gah! Kakashi! Watch it!" Kasei straightened himself and jumped in.

"Now what is it?" said Kakashi, returning to his bed and picking up an orange book. Kasei shivered in disgust.

"I'd run if I were you. Anko's coming with a death wish," he said casually, picking at a corner of his uniform.

"What? What did I do?" his eyes were still on that gross book.

"She's gonna whip you for killing that Haku kid. Apperently she's best friends with the Moon-nin, Koumei."

"But it wasn't my fault, he jumped in front of me!"

"You don't need to get so defensive! I was just telling you that-" he was cut off as the bedroom door slammed open, revealing none other than Mitarashi Anko.

"TELLING HIM WHAT!?"

"Goodbye, Kakashi!" said Kasei as he rushed to the nearest window, opening it and jumping out. "Nice knowing you!" A glass, full of water, was thrown at him, narrowly missing his vanishing head. He cringed as he heard things that he had not thought breakable, breaking at a furoius pace, interspersed with Anko's yelling. Have fun, Kakashi, he thought with a smile. Faces turned in the streets as the battle commenced.

'Was it a good idea to leave him there?' asked Rey.

'It is now,' replied Kasei as the pages of Kakashi's gross book rained down from the window for all to see. He smiled again and headed home.