"You can't know too much, but you can say too much."

- Calvin Coolidge

~ ҉ ~

To say Kaiya was nervous would have been an understatement. She reeked with anxiety as she leant against the wall opposite the entrance to the Hokage's office.

As usual, her face kept up the illusion of calm in the presence of the ANBU that had brought her and Naruto here. Her face was easy to control, her heart hammering so hard she thought it was going to jump out her throat was out of the question.

Naruto had gone inside the office alone twenty minutes ago. The Hokage, according the Mr. Wolf-Mask on her left, wished to speak to them both separately. This wouldn't be a bad thing except that she still hadn't thought up her cover story yet.

If the timeline she believed she was in was accurate, it meant that the person behind that door was the Copy Ninja, Kakashi Hatake. Kakashi wasn't easily fooled, he might not have the sharingan anymore, but he was still an S-Rank shinobi. Out right lying to the man would be a bad idea, no matter how much knowledge she had.

Knowledge really was her curse in this case.

Kaiya continued to wait and started picking at her cuticles. Glancing up she noticed in the corner of her eye that the ANBU agent was staring at her, or at least the mask was facing her direction.

"Is there something you wanted?" She asked with brows raised.

The ANBU turned his head back to facing the door, "Your scent is weird."

My what?

"Excuse me?"

Her eyes narrowed at him as he turned back to face her, cocking his head to one side.

"Your scent," he responded, "it's weird, it screams 'I'm an outsider' but whispers 'I belong here', and it's odd."

She stared at him trying to make sense of his words. How can anybody smell something like that? More to the point, how and why was he smelling her? He wasn't even that close to her.

An idea sprang into her head and her mouth acted on impulse before she could think.

"Isn't a wolf mask a little too obvious for an Inuzuka?" She commented dryly.

They both tensed, both for different reasons. Him, she assumed, because she was right. He must be an Inuzuka. Which Inuzuka she wasn't sure, but with the height and body type this ANBU had it was hard to tell, but she had her suspicions. Regardless of who he was, she knew she had put her foot in it.

She had fucked up.

Just as Kaiya heard a slight growl erupt from the ANBU's chest, the Hokage's office door unlocked and opened.

Naruto walked out with his hands behind his head looking like the cat who caught the canary. He paused and briefly took in the light tension before making eye contact with Kaiya and beamed further.

"Go ahead," he gestured with his head.

Kaiya let out the breath she didn't know she was holding and steadily entered the room and shut the door behind her.

Naruto glared at the wolf-masked ANBU, "Really dog-breath? I could feel her fear the whole meeting."

The ANBU shrugged and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

The Hokage's Office washed a sense of familiarity over Kaiya when she entered. It looked just like it did in the anime and manga, abet with a few differences.

The pale tan rounded walls, the light timber floors, and the odd green ceiling were all the same. Large photo frames with past Hokage's adorned the walls and the back windows had bamboo blinds pulled up showing the view of the village below. Under the windows was all book shelves, filled with paperwork and scrolls as well as various nick-knacks and ninja tools. The large desk with the yellow leaf symbol plaque was clear with only a small lamp at its corner. Sitting behind the desk in full Hokage robes minus the hat sat the man himself, his grey hair defying gravity and his focus glued to the Icha Icha book in his hand.

On her third step inside, he closed the book, placing it on his desk and looked up towards her.

Kakashi eye-crinkled, showing he must have been smiling under his mask, "So this is the stray Naruto brought home, Kaiya was it?"

"Yes, it's an honour to meet with you Hokage-sama," Kaiya bowed politely.

"Kakashi, please," he insisted, "Oh and don't pay any mind to Nara, as my assistant he will keep everything said here in confidence."

No way… not him…

Kaiya turned around warily.

On her left just behind her next to the door, there was a small desk half the size of the Hokage's with a small shelf full of scrolls and thick tomes connected to it. The desk itself was covered with piles of what looked like mission scrolls; other scrolls laid open in the centre, varying in stages of completion. Sitting behind the desk, leisurely writing and stamping sat a ninja that Kaiya really hoped to avoid while in Konoha.

Shikamaru Nara.

Of all the shinobi in this village, she had to come across him on her first day here. Trying to fool Kakashi was going to be hard enough. Fooling Shikamaru would be impossible; it would be easier teaching frogs to do flamenco, and that's regular frogs, not sage toads.

Whelp, there goes my anonymity.

The lazy genius barely raised his head to look at her, eyeing her with a bored expression. He yawned and tightened his dark ponytail while stretching then brushing off his jonin uniform. His gaze changed after that, from bored to slight interest as his eyes narrowed.

She had been staring for too long.

Kaiya whipped her head back around to face Kakashi, hoping she didn't just blow it all out of the water. She just needed to remain calm and ignore Shikamaru and get through this meeting without getting his attention.

She could do that.

She would do that.

Turning her attention to the masked Hokage, she saw his eyes were passive. He pulled out a draw in his desk and grabbed a small scroll out of it and spread it out in front of him. After a few moments of skimming through it he spoke.

"So Kaiya, it says here that you spent three days in our hospital, and that Naruto had found you approximately 28 hours before that at the border in quite a state," he began, "The staff also stated that you denied them information regarding your injuries, why is that?"

Kaiya's eyes widened slightly, but quickly pacified. Well, straight to the point…

"It's not something I'm comfortable talking about." She said quietly.

Kakashi hummed lightly and directed his gaze to a section of the scroll, "'Four rib fractures, punctured right lung, hairline collarbone fracture, bruised right kidney, bruising covering sixty-three percent of the epidermis, severe abdominal trauma, torn right and left earlobes…' Shall I go on? Even for a ninja, these injuries are nothing to scoff at," He said seriously, "And Naruto tells me that your friends did this to you, though you were delirious at the time."

Kaiya stared at the floor sadly, she didn't realise she had told him anything. She didn't even know how she got here let alone being found.

He continued after a moment, "Your secrecy is a moot point. Trauma like that, especially if it was done by someone you trusted, I can understand your hesitance. But that isn't what concerns me the most."

She raised her head to find herself locked in his focus. "The items found on your person when you arrived, along with the location you were found begs a lot of questions, the kind of questions that would suggest that you're not as you appear."

Before Kaiya could properly grasp the meaning in his words, he took something green out of the same draw he got the scroll and placed it on top of the scroll.

She could no longer keep her composure, she let her façade go as she saw what it was.

It was the purse that matched her prom dress.

Kakashi watched her for a minute before emptying the contents.

Out fell a packet of orange tick-tacks, the lipstick she wore that night, bobby pins, her iPhone, its charger, cordless headphones and a small art book. Kaiya didn't understand how this made her suspicious, but she guessed some of those things did seem strange in this world.

Kaiya was about to try and explain herself before Kakashi interrupted her.

"You have two choices, allow us access to your memories via a Psycho Mind Transmission jutsu," he paused, "Or tell us everything now, and don't try to lie, both Nara and I will know immediately."

Kaiya knew she'd be had. There was no way she could talk her way out of this.

Either way she was going to be meddling in this world and changing it. She would not remain anonymous. She knew too much, and in a world full of shinobi, her knowledge could have her killed, by any of the great nations. Her memories were too valuable.

At the same time, she couldn't talk about what happened. She had already had one panic attack that day and she didn't fancy another. Also without knowing how she got here she would still seem suspicious. Really she only had one choice, but she needed more clarification.

"Who would perform the Jutsu?" she asked quietly.

In a heartbeat Kakashi answered her, "To make you more comfortable, if you were to choose that option, we have a konoichi called Ino Yamanaka on standby."

She winced, the gossip queen of Konoha was not someone who should be trusted with her knowledge.

"As the Copy-ninja, you know many Jutsu's, do you know this one?"

"I do."

She took a deep breath. "I will undertake the Jutsu, it's too painful to talk about what happened to me," Kaiya paused, "But only if you perform the Jutsu."

Kakashi raised a single brow at her. He watched her for a few moments, seeming to be looking for something. After an eternity long minute passed he stood and walked around the desk towards her.

He was tall compared to her, and his presence was intimidating as he stood in front of her. Another moment passed and he gently placed a hand on her head.

"Very well." Said Kakashi in a serious tone, before making a few signs with his other hand and closed his eyes.

Kaiya had braced herself expecting some slight pain or perhaps a feeling of being invaded but found she felt nothing. All she felt was Kakashi's grip on her forehead, firm but steady.

His eyes were closed when she looked up at him. At first she thought the jutsu had failed, but noticed the rapid movement under his eyelids; it was like he was dreaming.

She wandered how the Copy-nin would react after seeing inside her head, and also how much he would see before breaking himself out. From what she could remember about this jutsu, the user would see a day per few seconds, at this rate, he was going to see at least a month back, possibly more if he doesn't-

Kakashi abruptly releases his hand and staggers back slightly, his eyes wide.

-stop.

Kaiya's gaze was locked with his. Anxiety quickly grew within her, his silence was deafening as he stared at her with a calculating expression.

"Shikamaru, leave us," Kakashi uttered finally.

She could feel Shikamaru watching her and used all of her will power to not turn around. His curiosity was spiked enough, she didn't need to egg it on further.

It was a few moments before she heard him leave and shut the door behind him, allowing her to feel like it was safe to breathe, for now anyways.

Kakashi took a step back and sat on the edge of his desk, sighing deeply and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He no longer looked at her, rather choosing to stare at the ceiling with furrowed brows.

Again he was leaving her standing there in silence.

"Hokage-sama…?"

She had to break the tension in the air. She didn't care what he did at this point. Kaiya was used to being treated like she was invisible, but there was no way in hell she was going to let him treat her this way, not when he had intimately accessed her mind.

Kakashi suddenly chuckled as if he knew her annoyance. He faced her again, eyes crinkling and slouched, "A woman who has seen my face doesn't need formalities." He revered warmly, all while removing his mask showing a crooked smile, "Of all the things I expected to find, nothing came close to that."

Shock marred her features as she half gaped at him. His face in person was incredible, both the anime and the manga didn't do it justice.

She shook her head and snapped out it, now was not the time to gawk at the Hokage.

"How much did you see?" she asked cautiously.

He frowned mirthless, "Enough," he murmured. Straightening his posture he stood slowly, "The incident…" he took a step, "…the events leading up…" another step, Kaiya's face fell, there was no looking at him now.

She stared at his feet for a few moments before she felt him place a hand on her shoulder. A shaky breathe escaped her lips and her vision blurred.

"…And the inner workings of a girl who loves this world more than her own."

Kaiya didn't know how to act. She didn't know which shamed her more, her behaviour or the naked feeling she had. She knew he would see, she knew the results, but having him stand there… him knowing her thoughts, dreams… nightmares… she shut off. No protection was left now.

The worst part of all this, was the realisation that after one peek inside her head, this man knew her better than anyone ever has. She never felt more alone than she did at this moment.

~ ҉ ~