A/N: Just a heads-up... This is the last part I have written on this story. Technically, it's the end of this short (cough cough not really) story. I know, too sad... HOWEVER, whether I begin to write Shippuden (maybe even some Boruto), will entirely depend on the feedback I've received so far and whether people are actually reading and enjoying this story. So, if you're one of those people, do not distress, for I am up and entirely willing to keep on writing this story. If you forgot to review any previous part, go back now! Tell me what you liked, what you didn't like, I'm all for constructive criticism, enough to go back and edit some parts if necessary. Then, come back here and enjoy this last delivery of Rivals.

I also have made some fan art on this story, if you're interest on seeing some of it, let me know and I'll make it possible for you to see it, since all you can see right know is the cover art (which I did). I guess that's everything for now. ENJOY!


Genma Shiranui remembered his own chunin exams with the same clarity he remembered how his dinner of the previous night went down with his most recent date: nothing, except for the face of the girl. The girl in question (no, not the one from his date) was Gillie Nohara, his genin teammate and the first girl he had ever loved.

He had fallen in love with her since the first time he saw her, when she was introduced to them after some modifications in the teams with her joining the official shinobi of the Leaf. Initially, it was meant to be him, Guy and Raido (or Ebisu?), but then the last one got taken out and sent to some other team and the girl took his place. And she was so unlike all other girls he had met that were quiet, shy and delicate in manners but without ever resulting vulgar like Anko, for example. She had a smart face, was quick-witted and dry-spoken, if only a bit insecure or overly-proud, from time to time, and bitter: she was perfect.

Not that she had ever noticed him. She had shown since very early she wasn't interested in boys, which was a shame for young Genma. When talking about it with his father, that he liked the nomadic shinobi girl from his team his father had gone overboard with his support on him to try to catch her eye with no result, even going to the extents of buying an onyx sword he said would impress her. It had been so foolishly expensive and Genma never used it again anyway, preferring his senbons and kunais.

Later, in his childish attempts to raise her interest he acted as if he was interested in her sister, Rin. It had been such a pain in the butt having to do so. Not that Rin was it, no, Rin was very cool. But still, it wasn't like Gillie had ever noticed.

Then, Rin died with the end of the war, Minato Namikaze became Hokage and he was placed into a new team with Raido and Iwashi to protect him. Gillie isolated herself to the point that her existence almost went too unnoticeable by the village that if Guy hadn't been following her steps no one had ever known she had been kidnapped by Orochimaru, as well. Everyone had been searching for Anko at the time and Genma himself had been so busy at it that he had felt ashamed afterwards for not taking proper care of his own teammate and the girl he said he loved.

After Orochimaru, he noticed Gillie grew to visit the Namikaze household frequently to visit Lady Kushina and, finding her in a healthier environment and trying to avoid worrying her with the dangerous missions he was carrying out at the time, he thought the best was to allow her to heal instead of suffocating her with his still existing feelings for her.

Not that she had ever noticed.

And after the Nine Tails attacked she disappeared with Jiraiya-sama, leaving him only with a mask that wasn't even hers, but Rin's, and didn't return until 12 years later.

The end.

He'd had feelings for her, alright, but his cold welcoming (or lacktherof) of her back to the village had nothing to do with them, because first and before all they had been best friends: Guy, Gillie and Genma. He had considered them his best friends enough to accept that silly name Guy came up with of Triple Gs for them to use in missions. Guy was G1, Gillie G2 and Genma, the last one, G3. In fact, he had allowed her to take the G2 that was supposed to be his. Because, ladies first, right?

Bah! How could he ever loved a girl with no ounce of loyalty towards her best friends to even say goodbye?

It was so long ago, though. He had been 14 when she left and he was 26 years old now. He had dated so many girls that he couldn't even count them with the fingers of his hands, one after one, after one... He was an experienced man, so over his first non-corresponded love...

So, why did his eyes kept on traveling towards the bleachers where the woman, he kept on acting cold towards and worked actively to avoid, stood giving the last advice to the little ball of orange energy that was Naruto Uzumaki before it was his time to jump into the arena? Why did she keep on smiling his way whenever she caught him doing so, before snapping his eyes away? Why when all hell broke loose in the arena as the infiltrated enemy attacking Konoha took out their disguises, bringing the Chunin Exams to a sudden end, did she run to his side to fight alongside him?

Despicable woman.

But every bit as beautiful as she had been and even more now as an adult. She was a better fighter than he remembered, he wouldn't have expected otherwise after those 12 years she spend alongside Jiraiya-sama. There was also something more in her eyes and her movements, that hadn't been there before, some type of confidence only stemmed from self-discovery. She must have seen and learned a lot in her absence.

"Genma! The Third is trapped inside!" Raido as member of the three-man Hokage guard, yelled coming their way with Iwashi. "He's fighting Orochimaru!"

At the sound of this, their heads snapped upwards towards the visible barrier keeping the Hokage from escaping Orochimaru's clutches: the man would never do it without trying his hand on finally defeating his ex apprentice. With this little distraction, he missed the enemy attack coming his way and his eyes opened wide noticing someone had stepped in to try and block it, missing the second kunai in the process and getting stabbed on the abdomen.

Gillie Nohara fell on her back and it was his time to block an attack to keep her safe, soon replaced by Raido and Iwashi to cover while he dropped on his knees to help the aimed shinobi. The wound did not look good.

"What are you doing?! Those have an extreme poison in them, you idiot!" He said just as she pulled out the encrusted weapon from her body. She sat up by herself and leaned on her hands leaning towards him, drops of sweat rolling down her face.

"That means we have to defeat these bastards before it propagates through my blood, huh?" She panted staring him right in the eye and smirking, leaving him both stunned by her madness and hazel eyes. "How many more blows should I take before you deign to speak to me?" He gaped and she manually closed his mouth by his chin. "Calm down." She said reaching for her long braid and pulling off the lace in it. "I'm not going down before having a word against that snake." She nodded at him and Genma sat motionless for a few seconds that felt an eternity before he nodded back at her.

"I'll cover your back from getting a haircut." He teased and she smiled at hearing his familiar words he told her many times as kids. He helped her up, just as Might Guy and Kakashi Hatake ran towards them and the injured shinobi.

"Gillie-!" Guy began but shut up watching her hand signs activating the strange ability she had always possessed.

"Save your tears for later, Guy. I've got some unfinished business with Orochimaru and I cannot head there until I'm done with these Suna-nin." She blinked looking towards Kakashi. "Where's Naruto? And Sasuke?!"

Kakashi shrugged sheepishly at her before twirling a kunai of his own on his hand and jumping towards blocking an enemy from reaching her. Gillie hissed at his turned back, before looking back at Genma and Guy.

"Ready, Team 4?" She asked them.

"OH, THE WHOLE TEAM BACK, HOW THRILLING!"

"You bet." Genma smirked before tossing his senbon towards an enemy aiming at her head.


"Master?" The weary voice of Gillie stole his eyes off the sunset and towards the young woman's face. "I am starting to believe I am cursed."

Jiraiya crossed his arms from where he sat cross legged not too far from the sitting girl hugging her legs and the sleeping boy laying next to her.

"What makes you say that?"

"Huh... Where should I start?" She grabbed her chin. "How about this? The last up-scale attack to the village happened 12 years ago before we left it, we lost the Fourth Hokage that day... It's been one month since our return and this happens. We've lost the Third and... innocent civilians... right after I got here- I-" She shrugged out of words, before leaning her chin on her knees. "Those Sand shinobi... They knew my weakness, they were aiming at me-"

"Just as Orochimaru was aiming at the Third and those giant snakes were aiming at me." Jiraiya irked a brow at her. "My, Gillie, has your ego turned insufferable." He joked with no success at obtaining a reaction.

"Sometimes... sometimes I feel some author out there has taken the task of writing my life a living hell." She said before burying her face into her knees. Jiraiya frowned at this and his eyes went to Naruto.

"Gillie, look at the boy." He said making her raise her head and following his gaze. "He is perhaps the one person with the highest load on his shoulders... and what do you see in him?"

The tense features of the girl softened as she scanned the boy, whose spiky blonde hairs almost touched her feet. Her blank stare slowly turned into a smile.

"An idiotic smile, even while he sleeps." She muttered.

"Would you dare to tell him he's been cursed?"

"No!" She replied quickly, with a frown in her face after having heard what life had been like for Naruto in the village, the past 12 years.

"Then, why would I, you idiot, ever dare to tell you that indeed you are cursed if it were the case?" The girl thought about his words for a moment before scoffing with a smile, Jiraiya laughed some himself before tugging his own chin. "In my experience as an author, a writer's job is not write the obstacles in the hero's journey, but to write the hero's journey against the obstacles. Unless we talk about the villain, in which case, the task is to write their rise and ultimate downfall. Now, tell me, Gillie, are you a hero or a villain?"

"I..." The girl was left speechless again. "I don't know." She irked a brow, looking lost. "For many years, I thought I had it clear but... Now I wonder... After we left, we and Orochimaru... we retrieved what stole and he kept on coming and coming after us. Then it was the other way around. A cycle. And now... This was also a trap for us, Master Jiraiya, he knew we would be coming... What does he want now?" She looked back at him. "Can I... even be a hero?"

He paused staring at her.

"Whatever happened to that book of yours, the one you were working on?"

"I..." Her cheeks burn red and she looked away. "It was terrible, I- I don't think it's my thing to... you know..."

"Hn." Jiraiya leaned back on his hands. "If you had kept on writing, you might have noticed that sometimes characters come alive. No matter how detailed is the writer's plan for his storyline, some characters won't listen and force the author to go in another direction." Gillie was now looking at him. "You also get a say on who you want to be, Gillie." The girl looked back to the sunset again and leaned her head down. Watching by the corner of his eye, Jiraiya looked down at where her battle wound was currently hidden beneath her robes. "How're you recovering, mmh?"

Gillie gulped, hesitantly.

"I'll be okay."

Jiraiya scoffed.

"You foolish girl-"

"I wasn't-" She shook her head and squeezed her eyes. "For once, I wasn't... I was trying to protect a friend."

"Mm... And how well did that turn out for you?" He questioned sincerely. She didn't speak for a while. Her eyes traveled down to Naruto again and almost unconsciously she began to comb his hair using her fingers.

"At least, Genma and I are in speaking terms again."

"At least, something good came out of it..."

"Yeah." She agreed with a half-smile that seemed too forced to Jiraiya. He didn't take his eyes away from her face.

"You know... I've decided to go search for Tsunade." At this the girl's expression changed, she turned to him open-mouthed. "It's only a matter of time before the council comes to ask me to become Hokage." She meant to reply, probably to tell him she should take the position. "I'm in no way interested, which is why I thought of her. You will be coming with me and this time I'm not asking." Understanding his reasons, the girl nodded repeatedly. "It can happen at any moment. Be prepared."

"How long will we be gone this time?" She asked looking a bit concerned, he couldn't blame her. She had finally reconnected with her old friends after leaving only to leave again.

"For as long as it takes until we find her."

"What about the boy?" She asked looking at Naruto.

"Why, he is coming, of course!" Jiraiya's tone cheered at the announcement as well as his demeanor. "Specially since he's grown so very attached to his Gillie Nee-chan." The scowl on Gillie's face made him crackle up.

"I've told him a thousand times not to call me that-"

"I know, but... Gillie-sama?" He found it too comical to pass and her cheeks turned red again.

"It's-it's my right of antiquity, okay?"

Jiraiya crackled up too loudly, enough for her to scold him and shush him with a finger on her lips before looking down at Naruto. Jiraiya saw her anxious face staring at the boy and her eyes scanning the village in the process of repairing.

"You know, kid-"

"I'm not a kid."

"-about this thing on feeling cursed-" He continued ignoring the interruption. "-you can be certain that, even if many more in the future, for matters of destiny or any other reason leave you alone, I will not be one of them." Jiraiya nodded at her and instead of having the opposite effect in her, her face only grew more anxious.

"Thank you." She muttered, before looking away and a minute later stood up from the ground, dusting off her backside. Jiraiya looked up at her with and irked brow. "But I will be the one to leave you." He felt confused before her face morphed into a funny one. "There is some place I need to go right now." She explained her joke pointing over her shoulder. "See you later, Master." She said, bowing once.


Gillie walked down the streets with a paper in her hands, the piece of parchment she had researched on right after walking out the hospital, after Orochimaru's attack to the Leaf. It was her parents she needed to know about, her adoptive mother and father, who she kept on neglecting to meet and during the attack and her recovering time were the only persons she could think about. What would onee-san say if something happened to them and she hadn't even had the time to see them before? What would Gillie herself do if, once again, she lost her opportunity to say goodbye to her adoptive family?

With the help of Genma she had investigated her Mother's whereabouts and Gillie arrived at the apartment complex not too far from where she was staying and took her time to climb each stair towards the fourth floor, where she knocked on the F4. At first, she worried the woman wouldn't be home, but the door opened and in it appeared a vision that almost felt it belong to another life. Coming back to Konoha was like realizing she had, in fact, lived a thousand lives.

"Mama?"

She was soon embraced by arms struck with misbelief.

"My little girl..." Mama sobbed in her ear, and soon as second pair of arms, Papa's, were engulfing her in an embrace. It was good to see the two of them had found each other again in her absence and none of them had been entirely alone.


Kakashi tried not too look dismayed by the sudden appearance of the still recovering Gillie Nohara standing next to him. Analyzing the situation up-close, he noticed Gillie's eyes scanning Kurenai and Asuma standing behind him and, more specifically, at their closed eyes.

"Don't look! If you do, you'll die!" He yelled only too late. Itachi Uchiha's sharingan had already trapped Gillie into some type of paralyzing genjutsu and, by the look on the face of his fellow shinobi, she could not look away.

"You, I don't know." Itachi' s voice came from across the river red eyes staring at her. Kakashi felt himself frozen place fearing Gillie Nohara would drop death at any moment.

"What are you doing to me?!" She said, eyes burning with rage, as if her try to unstuck them away was provoking the tears. "Let me go and fight like a real shinobi if you dare!"

"My Mangekyo Sharingan is nothing but the purest representation of what a real shinobi is, pathetic girl."

"We won't let you get anywhere near Sasuke. You've had and taken enough of him. "

Itachi seemed to find her words amusing, especially because he had yet to confess his motivations behind his presence in Konoha.

"Is that why you think I came?" She seemed to be at a lost, and Kakashi felt himself sweating, wondering how come Itachi hadn't finished her off, but if keeping him entertained was it, he hoped Gillie Nohara would not stop talking.

"I think I have no idea what goes into that sick, little, twisted head of yours, boy, nor do I want to know. But you will not get away with this. As you will soon learn, genjutsus where never my to-go skill. However, since a very young age releasing mind tricks was my specialty!"

Out of the sudden, she seemed to break out of his mental hold making Itachi, almost imperceptibly, look startled by it. She threw a kunai his way that he barely got the time to evade. A scowl appeared on Itachi's face, watching the spot where the kunai had disappeared into the water and then back at them, where Kakashi was currently staring at Gillie only through his sharingan, disturbed and wondering how come was she able to defeat Itachi's sharingan. He had so many questions, yet this wasn't the moment to make any of them.

"Then I will have to take you somewhere you cannot defend yourselves. This special jutsu of sharingan called Tsukuyomi. Only someone with the Sharingan and the Kekkei Genkai can defeat me." Kakashi looked back at Itachi, his red eyes being the last he saw before departing reality towards a world of pain and red moons. He spent 3 days in that torturous place, while only a few seconds passed in the real world. Once he was back, he found Gillie Nohara laying in fours, similarly to himself, over the water.

Itachi was back in Konoha, but not because of Sasuke as they both had thought, but for Naruto.

"You won't- We won't let you-" Where did Gillie Nohara get the strength to keep on talking to the teenager, Kakashi did not know. "You will not touch one strand of hair... of Naruto's hair..." She gasped, eyes still in some kind of trance.

"I see that wasn't enough to break you. Perhaps, a few days more in Tsukuyomi will-"

"It was enough to break anyone... Your perception is just as bad as your fashion taste-"

"Gillie, I don't think it's wise to-" Kakashi heard Kurenai's wavering voice.

"But you don't need to bother to defeat me..." Gillie continued. "I was just making time... pathetic boy." He saw Gillie fall over the water and begin to submerge in it, before being pulled out, unconscious, by Genma Shiranui. Guy had also arrived. Only then, Kakashi allowed himself to let go and submerge himself into darkness.


"What do you think you're doing? Who gave you permission to do this to the honorable Gillie-sama?!"

"Calm down, Rock Lee!" Ino motioned her hands to ease the Green Beast on crutches.

"I-We apologize, Lee. We promise we weren't doing anything bad to Gillie-san." Sakura said quickly jumping from her seat on the unconscious woman's bed, where Ino and her had been sitting.

"Yeah, of course! We just thought it would be nice if we helped braid her hair a little while she's out-"

Rock Lee's teeth gritted watching the flowers the girls had placed on the honorable Gillie-sama and waved a crutch up in the air.

"Why, it is my duty as ordered by Guy-sensei to protect the honorable Gillie-sama from any villainy that could come to happen to her unconscious self!"

Sakura and Ino looked at one another looking clueless, for what could happened to the woman being at the hospital, especially with those two Might Guy and Genma Shiranui always patrolling her doorstep?

"Forget it. I'm out of here." Ino said waving her hand away and grabbing her basket of flowers, before walking out of the room with her nose stuck up in the air.

"Lee, we weren't doing anything bad to Gillie-san. I would never do anything bad to Gillie-san!" However, Sakura could see that this had more to do with the mood the boy was currently in these days, after waking up from his injuries at the chunin exams. Most probably, he was taking his guarding duty more seriously than any other mission he might have done in the past, since it was the only type of mission Guy sensei would allow him to do now: sit next to Gillie-san and look after her.

"Why, I haven't seen any of you doing these misdeeds at Kakashi sensei's or Sasuke Uchiha's lying frames!"

"Stop it, Lee!" Sakura raised a hand in front of him. "You forget I am also very fond of Gillie-san. In fact! I met her way before you did, so if I say this is something she would have found a nice gesture and not as a misdeed, you ought to trust me!" The decisiveness in her green eyes as they stared directly into the round ones of the boy, made him falter before looking away with gritted teeth and burning cheeks.

"I apologize, Sakura. Perhaps you are right and I have over stepped my limits..."

Sakura sighed deeply, watching the boy recoiling back into his quiet shell. Some days she missed the loud, confident and explosive Rock Lee.

"It's okay, Lee... But let us take care of Gillie-san together, hn?"

The boy nodded reluctantly before going to take a seat next to the bed.

"How is Sasuke Uchiha doing?"

"He..." Sakura hesitated, looking down at her hands with concern for it felt like lately Sasuke was always unconscious in some hospital bed. "He was lucky your sensei brought him so quickly, Lee. I am very grateful with Guy sensei for it."

"It's only because Guy sensei is a very devoted man to the wellbeing of the future youth of Konoha, he is one splendid shinobi and teacher that anyone would be proud to call his-"

Lee snapped his mouth shut and both him and Sakura snapped around watching the woman from the bed sitting up on her place and groaning while rubbing her eyes, as if waking up from a simple nap.

"Gillie-san!"

"Gillie-sama!"

The lady in question turned towards them, before looking around herself realizing where she found herself at.

"Where is Kakashi?!" She asked looking around. "And-and Sasuke? And Naruto?!"

"Gillie-san, please calm down, let us call a nurse and maybe later we can take you to-" But the woman was already searching for her clothing and shoes.

"Gillie-sama! What do you think you're doing, Gillie-sama?! That is not something you should be doing, Gillie-sama! No-!" Lee exclaimed running after her around the bedroom in his crutches.

Worried with what else to do to calm down the woman Sakura found herself blurting out everything that had happened, explaining the woman her and Kakashi sensei had been taken out by Itachi Uchiha, that Sasuke had gone after him when he heard his older brother had been in town searching for Naruto, that Jiraiya was with Naruto and they had gone on their own to search for Tsunade since Gillie hadn't shown up to their appointment, that Sasuke had found Itachi and been injured in the process and was currently resting in another bedroom after Jiraiya, Naruto and Guy sensei showed up to save him, that her Master knew she was recuparating and had continued to search for Tsunade to bring her to Konoha and make them all better, and that currently only she had awakened between the three of them: Kakashi sensei, Sasuke and her.

"How it is possible is what I cannot explain myself. Even Kakashi sensei shows no signs of waking up soon- Please, Gillie-san you need to sit-" Gillie snapped around and placed a hand in both hers and Lee's shoulder.

"You said master Jiraiya isn't back from searching for Tsunade?"

They both nodded.

"And that Kakashi and Sasuke are still unconscious?"

The nodded again.

"Where are they?"

"Please, Gillie-san, if we take you to him, would you promise to come back to bed and rest?"

"Listen to her, Gillie-sama. As my sensei's rival I know Kakashi Hatake's level, and only a blow too powerful would leave him in such a state, in which case it might be dangerous for you to keep on-"

"I promise, guys! I promise!" She said straightening up and putting her hands behind her back. "Now, where are they?!"

They took her to Sasuke's bedroom first, finding a startled Ino that had moved to Sasuke's bedroom after Lee's interruption and followed them towards the next room, not too far from Gillie's bedroom, which was Kakashi's. Sakura observed closely the face of her recently made older friend, noticing the terror growing on her face watching her fellow shinobi in such a state. No, not terror. It was a bone-chilling dread.

"Now, Gillie-san, let's go back to-" She began slowly and stopped mid sentence watching the woman bite her finger open and placing a hand on the floor.

"Summoning jutsu!"

Lee, Ino and Sakura jumped away scared at the sudden action before walking closer to see, as the smoke clouds disappear, a creature sitting over the hospital floor in front of Gillie-san.

"Gi-Gi-Gillie-san! " Sakura had seen Kakashi-sensei's summon dogs, but this was- "What is that?!"

"I am a snake, can't you see?" The creature scolded her with an accusing tail before turning towards the woman. "My, whatever happened to your face, Gillie, you look awful-"

"Thanks, Guppy." The woman said sarcastically.

"Guppy?" Lee tilted his head with interest.

"Oh, sorry. I forgot. Children, this is Guppy, Guppy, these are Rock Lee, Sakura Haruno and uh..."

"Ino Yamanaka." The girl finished for her.

"You heard her."

"Huh?" Guppy showed his fangs, scanning the children. "What a scrawny, ugly trio of friends you've made, Gillie."

Rock Lee sweat dropped while Ino's and Sakura's eyes burned with rage.

"What did you call me?!" Ino snapped.

"Now, now Guppy," Gillie stepped in to avoid further confrontation between the creature and children, "I need you to find master Jiraiya, for me, huh? Can you do that?"

"If I must..." The creature groaned before sliding towards the window and jumping out of it. The four of them followed to watch from the window as the creature dived into the earth, disappearing beneath it, searching under ground for trails of Jiraiya. Gillie turned around and faced the kids.

"Gillie-san, but you promised!" Sakura exclaimed, watching her intentions of leaving the hospital in search of the others. "You promised you'd go back to bed after watching Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei!"

Gillie-san rubbed her forehead and sighed tiredly.

"Why, of course she is about to do that, Sakura! Gillie-sama is one honorable shinobi whose word is-! Er, Gillie-sama, where are you going?" Lee turned around watching the woman walking towards Kakashi's side of the bed.

"Sorry, children, but..." She bounced on her toes with shame, before turning around to face them with her hands up in the air and fingers crossed. "I crossed my fingers!" Ino, Lee and Sakura's jaws fell to the floor, while the woman turned back to the bed and leaned over it. "I'll be back soon." She whispered to Kakashi, lowering her voice. "I'll bring Lady Tsunade and you and Sasuke will be brought back to health in no time." She showed her opened palms in front of him. "That I promise, Kakashi." She gulped, before straightening up, holding in a grunt of pain, and turned around. The vulnerability the woman allowed herself to show for a moment, immediately disappeared as she looked down to the children. "You cannot mention this to anyone." She said sternly.

"Gillie... san?" Ino asked hesitantly, being the less acquainted with the stranger woman. In fact, this was their first interaction so far. The woman nodded at her. "I-I don't understand. How-How are you okay when Sasuke and Kakashi sensei- My, even Kakashi sensei! When they are still..." She pointed at the bed.

Gillie walked towards them one last time and, once again, leaned down scrunching her face with pain to be at the level of their eyes.

"Genjutsu." The woman said placing a hand on her right temple. "They always target the weaknesses of my psyche, because it's where my deepest fears lie, ignoring my physical pain receptors, and well... " Sakura, Ino and Lee frowned, listening intently as the woman scoffed. "No one, no matter how powerful, can try to torture me with things I already know well about myself."

With that, the woman disappeared with a poof, leaving the three children dumbstruck at her words. Then, Lee tossed a fist up in the air.

"Gillie-sama is too awesome!" He exclaimed with stars for eyes.


"The old man is right, you know?" Tsunade did not look back to see the girl sitting next to her, staring back at her poignantly, while Tsunade slowly drank a cup of a second bottle of sake. "He might not at measuring his drinks, but..." The girl hesitated and Tsunade scowled on the opposite corner of her mouth. If Jiraiya's protégée hadn't found them, by know she would be on her merry way, leaving the unconscious body of Jiraiya in that forsaken bar. "He is right when he says it's not smart to listen to someone like Orochimaru-"

"A drink?" Tsunade insisted a second time, making sure of offering a cup from the first bottle, the one she had altered.

"No, thanks." The girl repeated in the same intently way as before, eyes lost in front of her. "I just don't want you to make the same mistake I did." The girl continued and Tsunade found annoying to have that kid, still a child in her eyes, patronizing her in... well, anything. "The type of offer he makes... well... it's not the type you want to take."

Tsunade scoffed.

"Do you really believe what you're saying?" Tsunade laughed humorlessly. "Are you sure you're not saying this only because you didn't get to obtain your end of the deal when it was presented to you?"

The girl remained silent for a moment.

"At first, I thought so. Yes... I was even... furious everyone had stepped in the way. You, Master Jiraiya, The Third, the Fourth, Guy... And then I realized..." Tsunade saw the young woman's eyes flickered towards the sake bottles once. "Following through would have been an insult to Rin."

"Mm..." Tsunade served an altered cup and placed it in front of her, while Jiraiya snorted behind Gillie Nohara. "Tell me more about Rin."

"Rin..." The girl's eyes stuck on the beverage offered to her. "She was pure. Completely... Hence, if Orochimaru had... if he had held on to his part of the deal... it would have been like killing her myself again, all over again."

"Again?" Tsunade lost sight of her scheme for a second, and irked her brow at the girl looking on a very fast route towards a hospital bed again.

Gillie Nohara didn't know when to stop did she? Where was the vain young woman Jiraiya had told her about? The one in front of her hadn't clearly seen herself in a mirror in ages, and didn't show interest on doing so anytime soon. In fact, Tsunade wondered if she was aware of the flowers stuck in her braided hairs.

Tsunade' s eyes stuck on those braids.

Gillie nodded.

"I've come to accept responsibility on the death of my sister." Tsunade frowned at the girl, sounding delirious. Even she knew Gillie Nohara hadn't been within a 10 mile radius when Rin Nohara died, there was no way-" Sure, it wasn't on my hand. Heavens! It wasn't even on Kakashi's hand. Rin took her choice... But perhaps, she would have never needed to take that choice if she hadn't been in the position she found herself at, perhaps she wouldn't have found herself at that position if she hadn't been kidnapped, perhaps she would have never been kidnapped is she hadn't been at the mission where it happened. She wouldn't have been there if she had been at other mission, at mine, for example. She would have been at my mine if we hadn't been fighting and we would have never been fighting if we hadn't grown apart. Maybe we would have never grown apart is she hadn't seen me acting in a certain way I knew would hurt her... Maybe if I had hold on to my part of the deal with my Master... Maybe if I hadn't listened to other voices... Or maybe simply if I hadn't done what I ultimately chose to do. Maybe if I hadn't been me, if i had been any other type of naive, silly girl, with other naive and silly aspirations... But, you see, Tsunade-sama? This is how small decisions lead to everlasting problems."

Tsunade scowled again and bottomed-up her own drink.

"Jiraiya was right. Your ego is too big." Tsunade said. "You believe you can have that much power over destiny, don't you? That that's simply how things work? You almost sound like Orochimaru-"

"Perhaps, you are right. I do sound like Orochimaru. Very much." Tsunade frowned staring at the girl , before reaching for the bottle of sake again and accidentally sending it to the floor, where it broke in a many pieces.

"Great." She groaned, leaning down to retrieve some of the largest pieces. Gillie Nohara ignored her while she did so and kept on staring at the opposite wall.

"Come with us, back to Konoha." The young woman said. "Please." At least, unlike Orochimaru, she still had the decency to ask for things. "We need your wisdom and expertise, now more than ever." But like him she knew how to flatter. "We need you, Legendary Medic-nin." Not even a Medic-nin could make miracles on someone who looked like her. Tsunade wondered whatever journey she'd gone through to find them, or what she'd been doing before to look in such a state. She almost pitied her state.

"If I ever do return, you can count on my diagnostic on you, kid-"

"I'm not a kid."

"Physically and mentally."

"Can I count on it right now?" Gillie turned to face her, staring at her with a blank stare. "I need to know why my master's chakra points are chemically sealed leaving him in such a state."

Tsunade kicked her into the ground, keeping her on a lock face down on the floor, with her arms twisted behind her back and with a piece of broken ceramic in her hand.

"I am truly sorry for this, Gillie Nohara." She told Gillie before cutting off a braid of one inch of thickness out of her lustrous hair, sending the girl into a state of shocking pain, consequently leaving her unconscious. That would keep her off her trail enough to go meet her old teammate.


Naruto kept on looking back, over his shoulder and yelling:

"Come on, Nee-chan! Is that all the speed you have? That is shameful for the pupil of a Sannin!"

"NARUTO!" The young woman would growl and increase her speed after him.

He hadn't understood well that crash course Jiraiya and Shizune had given him on Gillie Nohara's crazy hairs, all he had heard was bla bla chakra reserves, bla bla, the reason of her jutsu, bla bla weakness. That head of hers was the main reason she had that crazy justu where her dark mane would grow like an octopus.

Apparently, Granma Tsunade had abused her information on this matter, giving her a haircut to keep her out of the game enough for her to run towards Orochimaru and accept the deal where she would heal his arms, destroyed by the Third Hokage before dying, in exchange of reviving two members of the family she had lost. That had been dirty of Granma Tsunade, just as it had been drugging the Pervy sage, but now they were on their way to find her before it was too late, and the only way he could inspire Gillie Nee-chan to give her best, given her current condition, was putting her rabid.

They found Tsunade to realize the woman hadn't been planning to join Orochimaru but quite the contrary. She had been trying to further destroy It was showdown time and both Orochimaru and the Sage Jiraiya acknowledged one another across the field. Then, the pale man turned towards the younger woman a step behind the Toad Sage.

"Hello, Gillie, dear."

He knows her as well? Naruto growled under his breathe. Even hearing Orochimaru saying the name of Nee-chan put him on edge. He knew how dangerous the man was, he'd seen it after the Third's death and after what he had done to Sasuke... Even thinking of him coming near Nee-chan made him shiver with rage. No one was touching another hair of her.

"My, do you look not so good... If only you allowed the little present I gave you last time to come out..."

Naruto gritted his teeth, before turning towards Nee-chan questioningly. He waited expectingly for one of her witty remarks.

Come one! Show him what you got!

He completely forgot about the other two Sannin, Shizune and Kabuto, as he mentally cheered for her, before his mind grasped that piece of information. Little present? What little present?

"It's been a long time..." Gillie began, panting after the run. She took a deep breath to stabilize her breathing and nodded once. "Father." She spat disdainfully and Naruto's face exploded into a series of different emotions.

"HE'S YOUR, WHAT?!" The kid blurted out, at the top of his lungs.


Sasuke got treated and awakened by Tsunade-sama. She arrived suddenly, accompanied by Naruto and Gillie-san, after a long travel back from wherever little town of the Land of Fire they had been at. Tanzaku?

Sakura's eyes stared wide with interest while the woman worked her abilities on her sensei and stood silently while the older jonin got scolded for weakness by whom would become the Fifth Hokage. Everyone (Naruto, Guy sensei and Tsunade) left Kakashi-sensei's room in search of the next patient to attend, Rock Lee, who Sakura was interested to see being mended by the Legendary kunoichi.

However, her inner Sakura kept her glued inside the room, behind a curtain just as she was headed towards the exit when by the corner of her eye she saw something interesting, to say the least: Kakashi sensei's tired body slumped frontwards towards Gillie-san who was still sitting on his bed facing him, his face falling on her shoulder, making Sakura's cheeks burn with embarrassment. Heavens, she wasn't supposed to be watching this! But, oh, was inner Sakura having a feast on spying!

"Thank you." Sensei's voice came out raspy and coarse.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about. A-anyone would have done it for any fellow shinobi-"

"Mm?" Kakashi sensei asked still leaning his forehead on her shoulder. "Would they?"

She hesitated, clearly resistant to speak, an certainly affected and nervous for his forbidden closeness.

"I..."

"I'm waiting."

She hissed and touched her temple.

"Well, I... it's just... it was always the other way around, you know? You were always the last one standing... and when I saw you lying there all I could think was there had to be something terribly wrong. I- I had to bring Tsunade-sama at any cost."

"She is right... I was too weak for someone of my experience-"

"Kakashi, no. That- that genjutsu was-"

"How did you do it?"

"Huh?"

"Breaking Itachi's genjutsu..."

Gillie-san sighed deeply after a while and moved to help him lean back down on the bed.

"We can talk about it later, yes? I promise, I'll tell you... all the things I've learned and done these past few years... Now, you need to rest." Sakura saw her tucking her sensei in bed, feeling her own cheeks burning the whole time and biting her nails. Just as Gillie-san was about to leave, Kakashi sensei grabbed her by the arm, and Sakura had to bite her tongue not to squeak watching the woman turn back again.

"I'm sorry." He said. "For... everything." Sakura couldn't see Gillie-san's face from her position, but she did see the woman slouching down and rubbing her face.

"It is I the one who should apologize... I should have never left like that. You don't do that to a... friend." The woman sniffed. " I promise not to leave again like that." She heard her sensei chuckle with a groan.

"You always come back, anyway."

Gillie-san sat back down on the side of his bed, and Kakashi pulled her closer by the arm.

"Gillie..." He muttered and Sakura's eyes almost doubled their size, having to lean further to hear.

CHAAA, why is sensei speaking so quietly?!

"Yes?" Gillie-san's stranged voice came out of her and Sakura's heartbeat quickened with a thousand romantic scenarios in which this could go. She had just made her mind, hadn't she? Gillie Nohara and Kakashi Hatake had to be together! Somehow, someway, she needed to know and see more of this couple!

"Can you sense it?" Kakashi sensei's voice whispered amusedly, Sakura chipping all of her nails down to the cuticules in the process.

"Yeah, should we...?"

"Mmm-hmm." Kakashi sensei agreed and cleared his throat, "Sakura, would you mind coming out behind that curtain?"

Sakura was literally taken out of the room on a stretcher after having fallen into a state of shock, by the nurses.


"What is this?" Kakashi arrived looking curious at the drawing on the dirt the ex Team 4, the everlasting Triple Gs, found themselves sitting around. Genma kept on analyzing it, while Guy and Gillie looked up.

"Isn't it obvious? We are trying to reimagine our strategy of attack. Heading that way using the same formation from before not only would be foolish but also suicidal." Genma answered before any of them could. Guy and her nodded once, agreeing with him. Kakashi crossed his arms.

"That won't be necessary." He said, now catching also Genma's attention. "I've received an urgent message. I need to head back to the village immediately."

"Is everything okay?" Gillie asked with an irked brow.

"I don't know." Kakashi said seriously, and these days, she had soon come to learn, this Kakashi so resembling of the one he had been as a kid, only showed up sporadically, only when in a grave situation. "But as I said, it is urgent."

"Shouldn't we stay behind and continue the mission ourselves?" Guy asked stroking his chin.

"Not only would that be foolish but also suicidal." And, there it was the arrogant Kakashi, though where she found it amusing, Genma and Guy did not. "We are outnumbered as it is. You might have Gillie, but even she is not entirely immune to Itachi's Tsukuyomi." Kakashi's eyes scanned her for a moment, but she squirmed in place, uncomfortable with the idea that he might still deem her weak, considering he had noticed her current visits to Tsunade-sama. "For now, we'll need to pospone this mission to retrieve information on Akatsuki."

Her ex teammates looked at one another in silence.

"I think that is reasonable." She finally said. "As eager as I'm to have a second round with that little punk of Itachi Uchiha, we have made enough advances. We should listen to Kakashi, even more with something urgent demanding his presence in the Leaf."

She saw Genma twirl the senbon inside his mouth and Guy still stroking his chin.

"As you say, Gills." Genma nodded.

"Let us go then!" Guy jumped up on his feet.

With growing disappointment for having her first mission back with her original team (and Kakashi) being cut short, Gillie stood up slowly from her spot, noticing Kakashi's warily eyes on her in the process again. She nodded at him and he nodded back.


It was a race against the clock, with Pakkun leading the way towards a final, dreaded destination. Kakashi traveled at the fastest speed his body allowed him to, his mind clouded in thoughts on whether he would, once again, be late. He almost missed the sound of someone following him, but after noticing he worried some rogue had caught side of him and wanted to take him for the bingo book reward. It wouldn't be the first time this happened, but when he briefly looked over his shoulder it was Gillie Nohara the one following him.

He didn't say anything to her and kept on going, worried at the moment on how much longer would it take him to reach Sasuke and Naruto. By the time he reached the Valley of the End, the rain was falling heavily, Sasuke was gone and Naruto laid defeated over the ground. While he analyzed his broken body and depleted levels of chakra, he noticed his quiet female companion looking around, searching desperately.

"He's gone." Kakashi said knowing well it was Sasuke she was looking for. Pakkun had yet to confirm it, but if his instincts told him as much, by the way he had left behind the boy, whom he was certain Sasuke considered a friend, he would be long gone.

"And the rain has stopped." Pakkun noticed. "What's important now is to take Naruto back to the Leaf to be attended."

Gillie did not take her daggering hazel eyes from the distance. She was like an irked statue, frozen in time.

"Gillie?" Kakashi asked softly, taking her out of her reverie. She blinked repeatedly, looking down at Naruto and her eyes softened instantly. She nodded quietly.

Kakashi noticed she didn't left Naruto's doorstep while Tsunade-sama attended the boy. There had been many other kids injured during the mission to retrieve Sasuke, who had left the village in their absence; Choji Akimichi, Neji Hyuuga and Kiba Inuzuka, however she did not go to see them and instead remained on the waiting bench, stoically staring at the floor, but her hands showing internally she was a nervous wreck. Kakashi stared at her face while he slowly took a seat next to her.

"Many times, I tried to get closer to Sasuke." She licked her lips still not meeting his gaze. "Every time I did, he would... give me a face and look away." She smirked, "Now I get how it feels to be at the receiving end..." Kakashi sat quietly, still observing her face. "He was just another victim of the situations, just a kid. But," she sighed, "right now, I don't know whether I should feel like a failure after having said I would keep him away of Orochimaru or if this is a means to justify this..." She raised a clenched hand over her chest "anger I feel, after watching him doing this to Naruto."

Kakashi had noticed how protective she'd gotten over his student (over the three of them actually, but more specifically Naruto) and had thought it had something to do with him being the son of Minato sensei and Lady Kushina, as well as spending a lot of time training the kid alongside Jiraiya-sama. Also, being realistic, as insufferable and knuckleheaded as Naruto got, he wasn't hard to grow fond of (Kakashi would ever admit it aloud though). He was realizing this ran deeper than that if this incident was enough to turn Gillie Nohara's feelings about Sasuke, the one she had initially came for to protect, in the oposite direction.

There was also the matter of... her father. She had been truthful to her word that day at the hospital and told him about what she had discovered in her absence. For a moment, Kakashi thought she had joined him on his quest after the boys out of friend loyalty, but now he realized it'd had little to do with him and a lot to do with Naruto, Sasuke and Orochimaru.

"He's just like his brother Itachi." She said with a severe tone. That Kakashi didn't know, finding Sasuke just another lonely, terrified, mislead yet dangerous boy, even after the aftermath of the Valley of the End, but then again his perception wasn't being clouded by his feelings as he knew Gillie's were being.

Yes, her feelings for Naruto had grown to run deeper than mere mentor-student in such a short amount of time. His hypothesis was, that Gillie obviously found in Naruto the source of hope, Kakashi had once thought he had found. Naruto was a flickering light in the otherwise dark historial of Gillie Nohara, if Kakashi had learned as much on her, that she needed to protect.

"Why are you too fixed on Itachi?" He asked her in a low tone. "Since the first time you met him, you sounded-"

"Because he's a heartless, contemptible excuse of a sibling." She shook her head slowly. "And I've had enough of those." She snapped, looking up at Kakashi. "Sasuke is too, if he dared to do this to Naruto. Naruto... He... admired him, so much." She said looking visibly hurt, before her attention went back to her hands.

For now, Kakashi didn't ask furtherly into it, but he understood her thoughts and feelings were not only torn on Sasuke leaving after Orochimaru, or Naruto and Sasuke's showdown, but also somehow related to Rin.


Gillie found herself sitting next to Jiraiya on a booth of Ichiraku's. They sat quietly eating as Gillie swirled her fideos with her chopsticks, lost in thought, when her master cleaned his throat.

"Have you been to the hospital yet today?"

"Hn." She answered nodding her head.

"Was it Tsunade or Naruto?"

"Both."

"Mmm..." Jiraiya sipped from his bowl in deep thought. "I was there yesterday... I went to tell Naruto that I'm leaving for a while."

Gillie looked up and blinked.

"Where are we going?" She asked him.

"I'm going somewhere you cannot come." Gillie felt the frown appearing on her growingly pale face, but before she could say anything her master continued: "I need you to stay here, keep an eye on Naruto and continue the treatment Tsunade is giving your... er, you know what."

"How long will you be gone?" She asked insitingly, knowing that if Jiraiya-sama had made up his mind there was nothing she could do when the man was serious. However, her heartbeat was beginning to increase inside her neck each second he didn't answer.

"A while. But I promise..." The man looked her way. "I will come back for you." He said while placing the narutos in his plate inside her ramen bowl as an offering. "And then, you, the kid and I, will leave together."

Gillie continued eating her ramen quietly with a frown on her forehead, but accepting the plan trusting him to be back.


Months passed, without news of her Master. Naruto had recovered a 100%, and perhaps, a bit more for he was more energetic and was a bigger headache than Gillie remembered him to be. Or perhaps it was Tsunade's workings on her that were depleting her energies these days... With Sakura becoming Tsunade-sama, that is, the Fifth Hokage's apprentice in the medical field and with Sasuke gone, Naruto was being placed in other teams for missions, which allowed Gillie to get to know some of Konoha's current youth-

My, was she beginning to sound like Guy.

In fact, she had also grown to spend time with these children of his: Neji, Ten Ten and of course, the now healthy Rock Lee, which was almost a tiring load as Naruto, if only sweeter and more accommodating in nature. Ten Ten was an amicable girl and prodigy of weapons, meanwhile Neji... Well, perhaps, Gillie and him didn't get as much because of their similar, sometimes pessimistic, personalities.

She was also spending more time with her teammates and family, having moved back with them for the time being. Life was beginning to feel like she hadn't left Konoha for 12 years; she had Mama and Papa, her teammates, she had grown closer to some other jonins like Kakashi and Kurenai, and was not only carrying out missions but also somewhat teaching alongside Guy and leading chunin missions. When would Tsunade-sama dare to grant her the title jonin already?

This thought is what she was thinking about while eating Mama's food one day during lunch when the doorbell announced the presence of someone.

"I can answer." She told Mama to keep her from bothering to stop her baking.

Gillie opened the door and a smile appeared on her face.

"Hello, Genma! Are you-? I mean, of course, you're looking for me, what else would you be doing here?" Gilllie scrunched her nose and shrugged, shaking her head. "What's up?"

"Yeah, about that..."

Gillie tilted her head, watching the young man rubbing the back of his head.

"Do you need help sharpening those senbons again?" Man, did those senbons need tons of maintenance for all the times she had already helped him at it. "Did Guy strained his wrists again? My, I told him he couldn't carry a wagon up the Hokage Mountain on his feet while walking on his hands-!"

"No! Not, it is not. This has nothing to do with Guy..."

"Huh?" Gillie leaned on her door frame with and irked brow and analyzed the man's stance and possible reason for being there on their free day.

She had heard from Kurenai about what she'd miss during her absence, specially regarding their classmates. She'd gotten acquainted with the information about Genma becoming some sort of casanova of the village, however watching him standing in that manner in front of her doorstep, Gillie couldn't understand how that could ever be possible. She was watching the same boy she remembered as a kid, nonchalant and always a little bit nervous. If only, he seemed the most different when in the battlefield, he had grown a lot as a shinobi.

"I... well..." His teeth were gritting visibly and he wouldn't meet her gaze. "with the festival coming, I was wondering if you'd... want to come with me?"

That is it? Gillie crossed her arms, brows raised. That wasn't so difficult to ask, was it? Why wouldn't I want to- Oh!

"As... you mean as..." She said dropping her arms.

Could it be?

This wasn't the first time a man came to her with such a proposal. This time was different, though. She wasn't Kiko Mitsuha now, she was Gillie Nohara.

"As a date." Genma looked up slowly and now her face was the one to burn a bright red.

Not even a minute later, Gillie found herself back again on the kitchen table, eating her food slowly.

"Who was it?" Mama asked over her shoulder, passing buy.

"Genma Shiranui." She said before turning towards the woman. "Does Mama remember him from my genin days?" Mama turned around, leaning over the counter behind her and nodded with a sweet smile.

Heavens, when she does that... A shiver traveled down Gillie's back. Especially, now that Mama wore her hair short, it was like watching onee-san. An older version of her, but without the characteristic purple marks in her cheeks, that she'd only ever wore trying to look like Gillie with the red stripes of her clan.

"I think I just accepted going to the festival with him... as a date."

"Hn?"

"Hn?" Gillie asked confused.

"What is wrong with that?"

"I didn't say it was wrong. What makes Mama think that?" Mama pointed at her face, Gillie touched the frown on her face and relaxed her features. "Oh."

"Mm-hm." Mama said before turning around to keep on working on the cookies she'd be selling during the festival. "I see nothing strange in his request, dear. Why, that kid was always interested in you."

But that wasn't true, she knew... Genma had once said he liked Rin. Watching down at her hands over the table, Gillie felt that familiar sentiment that visited her from time to time, that took her once again into a dark place of guilt and grief. Would it ever stop and leave her alone? Listening to Mama calling her dear and having the boy that once said to have liked her sister come to ask her out... She felt like a thief.

"I only said yes, because I don't want to be alone." Gillie said. "It is my first festival of Konoha in many years."


After many years, this would be her first festival of Konoha and Kakashi didn't want her to be alone.

He hadn't been in one of those in a long time, they tended to remember him of times of old when he would go out dressed in his traditional attire to see the fireworks and scarecrows during the fall, or reluctantly eating ice lollies with Asuma during the summer. He had spent the past decade going out on missions every time one was happening, but he had heard Gillie Nohara hadn't been given a mission for the day and knowing her self-pessimistic nature, she would probably spend the day locked inside her parents house, while everyone ran down the streets on the hot summer day, eating icicles, except for her.

Festivals, everyone knew, had been a thing of Rin and Gillie, and he knew she liked her sweets. Very much.

It was bothersome to do this, but Kakashi found himself walking towards the front porch of the new Nohara household, wishing her Mother wasn't around. That woman was very nice to him, but tended to be suffocating towards the man she'd knew her sweet Rin had been in love with, and also troubled on the fact it was on his hand she had met her demise. Somehow, the woman always ended up crying when they met.

Also bothersome was having to put on the old robes of his father (for his own didn't fit anymore), and having to spend the afternoon and evening in the hot summer air. He wasn't thrilled to be doing any of this. Why was he doing it again?

Oh, right. Festivals were a thing of Rin and Gillie, and she couldn't miss the sweets. She liked her sweets very much.

"What a drag." He said rubbing his eyes before knocking on the door.

A mile away, Shikamaru Nara experienced a cold shiver that sent his ice lolly to the floor, making Naruto Uzumaki openly laugh at his face with a finger pointing at his tragedy.

"Maaan, what a drag." Shikamaru grunted.

Back at the Nohara household, Gillie opened the door visibly confused to find Kakashi standing in front of her.

"Kakashi, hello."

"Yo!" He said with a hand up in the air and smiling. She looked down at him, noticing his clothing and a warmth smile also appeared on her face.

"My, Kakashi. Are you also coming to the festival?" So, she had also thought about coming.

That... was...uh... unexpected.

He got his turn to analyze the woman, swiftly not to be noticed, and Kakashi had to conclude if only a bit reluctantly, that Gillie Nohara was one stunning woman, especially in her traditional feminine clothing, very different to the loose nomadic clothing she had adopted during her 12 years away from the village. Even with the slight paleness showing on her skin these days.

"I was thinking you could join us all, me, Kurenai and Asuma?" Kakashi asked scratching the back of his head, with a smile still on.

"Do you really think that would be a good idea? Stepping in between Kurenai and Asuma?" Maybe he should've thought of a better excuse. He wasn't even sure those two would be attending. "I'm sorry, guys, but I'll have to pass. I..." Kakashi observed the rosy tint blooming in her cheeks as she looked away. "I have a date."

Kakashi blinked once, brows raising for a moment before turning to his previous smile just as she looked back.

"Maa... I guess we were late to come up with the invitation." He complained and raised a hand up in the air. "Have fun then."

"Thanks." She nodded before closing her door, noticing his intention to leave now.

Kakashi walked away robotically with a good hearted smile etched on his face, looking calm and serene for the untrained eye. A civilian kid playing on the streets with his paper kite saw the silver haired jonin with the mask and eye covering walking past him, and a second later when he looked back the ninja was gone. A block away, standing on a roof, Kakashi knelt on his traditional attire and his eye covering removed, using his sharingan with curiosity eating him alive for knowing who this mysterious date of Gillie could be. Obito would have also been curious, he was sure.

When had he became so nosy? But...

Could it be Guy?

His own eye and Sharingan grew wide watching Genma Shiranui walk into the Nohara porch and knock on the door. Gillie opened and looked sheepish after a comment Genma made that not even Kakashi's sensitive hearing was able to grasp. After he watched them leave, dissapearing into the festive streets, Kakashi looked down at his own robes and sighed deeply.

"What a drag." He repeated again.

Two miles away, Naruto Uzumaki exploded into a fit of laughter watching Shikamaru's second ice lolly falling to the floor.

At least, Kakashi was glad, she wouldn't be alone today.


Gillie stood in the middle of a bridge, staring down at her open palms and the water beneath her, thinking about many things: Naruto's insistence on finding Sasuke, Master Jiraiya's lack of signs of life, Orochimaru's possible whereabouts and next move, her own deals with Tsunade-sama's. To add to her load: Genma's proposal. She sighed heavily rubbing her face between her hands.

"I wonder, what could possibly be so bad?"

She raised her gaze, startled by the sudden appearance of chakra above the arc leading to the bridge and found Kakashi squatting over it looking down at her. He was grabbing his chin in an obviously sarcastic gesture.

"Get lost." Was her knee-jerk reaction, before hearing onee-san's voice inside her head, telling her that wasn't something nice to say to a friend. "Sorry." She squeezed her eyes and then looked up again. "I'm just not sure I want to tell you." She honestly confessed and shrugged."You'll find a way to make fun of me." She frowned and shrugged as if saying "Wouldn't you?" He shrugged too as if saying "Fair enough."

She looked back at her hands again, while Kakashi jumped off the arch and stood next to her, also leaning on the railing.

"Still. Test me."

Gillie smirked suspiciously, looking at his amicable face by the corner of her eye. Returning to Konoha, she had began to know other faces of Kakashi that perhaps hadn't been there before she left, or that perhaps she simply hadn't had the chance to meet until now. Things these days seemed to be better between them and the jonin seemed to have grown more comfortable around her. Saying she hadn't around him too would be a lie.

"Among many other things, Genma wants me to..." Her face burned and shoulders tense, looking like a turtle going into its shell, "to be her girlfriend. For real, I mean."

"And here I thought you were dating, for real, already." Kakashi said sheepishly. She couldn't blame him, she had been going out on several dates with Genma after the festival.

What was I thinking?

"It's silly to think about this, don't you think? With Master missing and..." She irked a brow, turning her hands around in front of her. "With everything going on." She gulped afraid to look down at her own reflection, where her previously rich brown skin was stuck at an olive one, her cells fighting a war against Tsunade-sama's knowledge and skills.

"Mmm... Do you want to be with him?"

It took her a while to answer, and that by itself spoke volumes.

"I love him." She said, "He's one of my best friends... but, no."

"Then?" Kakashi shrugged. "Don't."

She scoffed a smile, looking up at him.

"It's not as easy. You know?"

"Why not?"

She scoffed again.

"Clearly, for a 27 year old man, you haven't had much experience-"

"I reserve the right to declare."

"-but sometimes liking someone doesn't mean you should be with the person and not liking someone doesn't mean you shouldn't either."

"Maaa, do women like to complicate their lives..."

"It's not as simple as logic, Kakashi. Feelings aren't... You know?... If you're not careful you can hurt someone... Messing with someone else's feelings should be a crime. It can lead to... awful scenarios." She finished her mind spiraling down towards one dark direction, as was usual of her mind to do.

"You talk about my experience as if you had any idea, but what about yours? Haven't you been in any similar situation in the past?" Kakashi placed a hand on her head, making her face grow red. "Surely, you have."

Gillie squirmed away and cleared her throat.

"I reserve the right to declare." She said snobbishly before turning away.

"Mmm..."

A part of her dreaded this would not be the end of their conversation on either of their love lives. That's what friends did, didn't they? Talk about this type of stuff.

"Have you talked with her about this yet?" Gillie blinked turning back, understanding right away who he meant by her and what he meant by this. The searching eyes of Kakashi were clear on what he considered important, they were no longer talking about Genma. "It helps me when I find myself at a crossroads." He confessed seriously. "In any case," He shrugged, back at his dismissive tone, making Gillie nauseous on how quickly he went from topic to topic. "Genma's a grown man, it's up to him to decide acting as a sore loser or man up to your answer."

"You speak as if I've already made my mind."

"Haven't you?" He irked a brow her way and she gritted her teeth, looking away and scowled.

"I'll talk to Rin."


Gillie visited Guy's training to find Lee improving exponentially after Tsunade's surgery on him. The boy was admirable , in any way there was to see it.

Ten Ten and Neji were also there, battling one another, and Ten Ten turned around to wave at her beamingly, receiving only a nod from Neji. Gillie smiled their way and continued her way towards Kakashi, sitting under a tree with a book in front of his face.

"It's like our positions have reversed." Gillie said aloud for him to hear, but he kept on reading. "Er- Kakashi?" No response. "Kakashi, I'm talking to you." She exclaimed with her hands on her hips, exasperated by his ignoring behavior, a part of her feeling self-conscious that he might be purposely ignoring her.

"Did you say something?" Kakashi asked looking up from his book, making her eyes fire up. "Maa, there's no need for belligerence." He said raising his hands in sign of peace.

"Forget it." She scoffed, crossing her arms and looking away, with her nose up in the air.

"Okay." Kakashi said before going back to his book as if nothing, to her own frustration. She seethed and meant to go and snatch his book, but just as she was about to, he disappeared in a poof and reappeared instantly on a branch above her head, eyes still on a book.

"Ugh, I don't even know how you can read that trash." She crossed her arms again. "I had a better, more decent image of you, pervert... What could you possibly even like about it?"

""It opens a window into another realm I can visit temporarily and I become whoever I want to be even if its only during its length of pages."" Kakashi said, before taking his eyes off the pages and smiling. "Something like that."

Gillie raised a finger.

"I... Didn't I..." She fumbled for words. "At some point, in the past, I said that, didn't I?"

"Did you?" He asked with that tiring, unabashed game of his she was growing tired of. Kakashi seemed to notice her growing exasperation, because he also raised a finger and explained himself: "I find it impossible to forget a secret told to me, even if I want to. On the other hand, I find impossible to tell a secret told to me, even if I want to."

"Huh... that's reassuring, I guess." She had only told him so much about her in these past months. He was a curious one, if she knew one. She looked hesitant, before raising a finger to her mouth. "So, do tell, do you prefer to become the bachelor Ren or sweet waitress Akiko?" Catching her tease, a dark cloud appear over Kakashi's head, before he jumped off the branch and back on his previous seat, followed by Gillie sitting not far from him leaning back on her hands and looking towards the training chunins and their sensei.

"I didn't know you enjoyed reading so much. I never took you for a reader and you know what they say: it takes one to recognize another one."

"I always did. You just didn't know." He said good-heartedly.

"Huh..." Gillie said crossing her arms.

"I just wanting to avoid ettiquetes. Like book-worm." He looked at her. "I used to call you that."

She gaped at him, glaring murderously his way.

"You, self-perpetrator..."

Kakashi shrugged dismissively and went back to his reading, making Gillie feel invisible and uncomfortable with this sentiment. She cleared her throat, hoping to gain his attention again.

"That book you're reading..." She gritted her teeth, cheeks burning red and quickly finished her sentence, coming out intelligible even for her.

"Eh?"

"I said... I edited it." She said almost painfully. "I am... the editor." Kakashi's eyes narrowed with suspicion, but she nodded and snatched the book, tossing its pages to show him her name on the credits. "See?"

Edition by Gillie Nohara

Kakashi audibly gasped, for Gillie's own surprise.

"You're the-You're the-the-"

Gillie found herself delighting on the moment, enjoying to meet this side of Kakashi, and to further amuse herself leaned towards the man covering her mouth as she whispered something in her ear.

Neji stood meters away with this back facing their way but Ten Ten somehow knew exactly what he meant when he asked:

"What do you think is going on over there?"

She grabbed her cheeks and shook her head, face squeezed in a pout.

"Isn't it obvious, Neji?" She sighed with an air of being in love herself. The boy in front of her grunted while she kept on looking over his shoulder towards where Kakashi sensei exclaimed:

"A SEQUEL?!" Before losing consciousness. Or seemingly.

"He's faking it." He told Ten Ten, before turning around so they would both be directly observing the couple, where the young woman was freaking out trying to wake up Kakashi sensei.

"It might be, Neji, but it seems to me Guy sensei's rival is having fun."

As in cue, and explosion happened behind their backs and they turned around to see both Lee and Guy sensei flying in opposite directions in the air. Ten Ten groaned with haste of having her attention stolen by those two.

"I'll get them." She told Neji before going to retrieve the bodies.


"Hello, Rin. It's me again." Gillie said sitting in front of the rock. "I'm here because maybe I won't be coming so much around here for a while... I received a message from Master Jiraiya... Yeah, he finally deigns himself to do so. He's on his way back and might he arriving at the village at any moment. I don't know how long he'll want to stay before we leave, and I don't know for how long we'll leave again, but um..." She sighed deeply, looking down at her hands while her eyes glazened. "It seemed to fit only too perfectly with the timing, um... Tsunade-sama... she says it's inevitable so... It is happening... I'm just glad I'll be far away as it does... I wouldn't want anyone to see me going through it, but..." She sighed looking up at the sky, to keep the tears at bay. "Hey, I'm used to this, okay? This is my life." She sang, before clenching her jaw, "but I will get my revenge... You'll see." She quickly rubbed the one tear that fell away and continued: "I believe things will be better this time around... I'll make sure to properly say goodbye to everyone. Kurenai, especially, we have grown to be very close, and all I ever wonder is why we didn't before when you were around... Or, well, I guess I know now. She said it was related to the fact that I always got to escape her genjutsus, which she couldn't stand..." She snickered, "Also, Mama and Papa, of course, but they will be fine, I'm sure. They have one another... I'll miss the children the most, if only to keep an eye on them, especially Guy's kids, Choza sensei's kid and Sakura and Ino... There's also that cute Hyuuga girl, always around hidden behind trees. I still don't know what she's doing following me all the time... There's also Kiba, I like his puppy Akamaru very much, event though I was never a dog person before... Yeah, from the top of my mind I think that's what I will miss the most about the village-"

Gillie heard someone clearing his throat and when she looked over her shoulder she saw a boy with a black cloud over his head staring down at her behind a dark pair of glasses.

"You didn't say my name." Shino Aburame said leaving her open mouthed after he walked away before she could say a word. She was left speechless, for a while, for the sudden interruption of the stingy boy she very rarely interacted with.

"What did you do to that poor kid?" Kakashi appeared as a second interruption to her moment alone in front of the Memorial Stone.

"I don't know!" She whispered, eyes still stuck on the rock, at a loss.

"Mmm." Kakashi said before placing down his own flowers.

Noticing his time alone had arrived, she shook her head and quickly stood up.

"Where are you going?" He asked her.

"I..." she dusted off her pants and raised her hands. "Thought I'd leave you to your...er..." Kakashi irked a brow at her, and she pointed over her shoulder. "I was headed to the Dango shop, actually." She said sounding not too sure. " Then..." She raised a hand and began to turn away, before hearing the exasperating complain of Kakashi, that automatically popped a vein in her forehead.

"So very rude..."

"What?" She snapped turning around.

"Not even extending an invitation for a friend-"

"You don't even like sweets!" She exclaimed with exaspearation.

"Who said anything about eating sweets?"

"Why else would you visit a dango shop, huh? Drink water?!"

"I am kinda thirsty." He said, acting as a victim. Gillie seethed, rubbing her face and waved her hand over her shoulder.

"I'll wait for you then." She conceded and pointed away. "Over there."

The pair of Jonins (having recently, and finally, declared as one herself by the Fifth Hokage) found themselves hours later walking out of the dango shop, while Gillie ate of a dango stick, when she saw coming down the street the colosal figure of Master Jiraiya. She gasped at the sight of him, and forgetting about her companion ran towards the man.

"Master!" She found herself saying incredulously after months of not seeing him. It had been the longest they had been apart for 12 years.

"I see you've found back your foot at Konoha, Gillie Nohara." Jiraiya-sama told her looking over her shoulder. She turned around to see Kakashi absentimendly staring at the dango stick she had given him to take care of before running away, before he noticed their gaze on him and straightened up, bowing once. Gillie turned back to her sensei. "My, haven't you gotten enough summer sunlight?" He asked leaning down to search on her face. "Then, I guess I arrived at the perfect moment." He straightened up, "Are you ready to leave?"


Saying goodbye to her parents first was harder than she'd thought it would be, but not as hard as saying so to Rock Lee, who only promised to keep the information to himself under the assumption that she would soon inform his sensei, which is what she would be doing that same night. She had promised herself she would never drink again after the blackout she experience the first and only time she did so, however, as an special occasion she wanted to meet with her closest friends and knowing how fond they were of drinking...

Guy and Genma came, as well as Kurenai and Asuma. Kakashi too, of course. Stranged by the behavior of Gillie Nohara on joining them all together (she tended to interact more individually with each of them), they all seemed dubious on the reason of meeting at the restaurant bar, except perhaps, Kakashi and Guy, looking more weary than anything. After they had all arrived, Gillie grabbed a beverage of what she promised would be her one and only during the night and stood up.

"I gathered you all here, to say my proper goodbyes."

"Goodbyes?" Kurenai asked. "Are you leaving again?"

Gillie nodded once.

"Jiraiya-sama has returned from his journey and we're leaving at dawn." She explained.

"Oh, Gillie, it's too soon..."

"When duty calls..." Gillie shrugged her shoulders with a smile. "But I didn't want to leave in the same way I did 13 years ago, so..." She sighed staring at the red eyed kunoichi. "Kurenai, in such a short time you have become a dear friend inside my heart." She bowed down deeply. "Thank you for that." Gillie gasped straightening up. "I had forgotten what it was like to have an onee-san around." The usually stoic Kurenai looked at her and bit her lip, nodding once. "Asuma..." She turned towards the man. "We all know she needs no protection... but do protect her heart, will you?" She told the man, with a cigarette between his teeth, who in respond placed an arm on the seat behind Kurenai's shoulders. He nodded at her, while his girlfriend's cheeks turned a rosy pink. "If you fail to do so-" Gillie pulled from the lace on her long braid and enrolled it around her wrist, while her long hair cascaded freely. "Well, you don't want to know." Asuma chuckled nervously at her implicit threat, before her attention turned to her team. "Guy, Genma... you guys are my best friends." She sighed, "You've always have been." She looked at Guy, with arms crossed and pouting looking away. "Did Lee tell you?"

"Of course, he did! Why, Lee tells me only everything!"

Gillie smirked before turning towards Genma, her smile turning upside-down. She bowed down again.

"I am sorry if I ever hurt any of you, guys." She said squeezing her eyes shut, before slowly straightening up. Genma sighed looking away, before turning the senbon in his mouth.

"It's okay, Gills." He said, an unspoken conversation happening between the two of them, before he smirked and looked back. "I don't give up so easily, you know?"

Gillie fought the smirk coming to her face, but she nodded as if she hadn't expected anything else from him. She joined her hands together.

"Thanks for everything, guys, I will miss you very much."

Then, she turned to Kakashi, who was stoically looking back at her, arms crossed, looking impassively. She balanced on her feet, from side to side.

"Is this better?" She asked, signaling around at her proper goodbye. "Is this..." He was giving no signal and for a moment she feared that whatever friendship they had grown to have the past few much, which she held very dearly to her heart (not that she would ever admit to that arrogant of Kakashi) would be lost again.

He hesitated

"I'll give it a year or two." He shrugged using his hands. "You'll be back soon." Those words were enough to make her let go of her contained breath and snort.

"You're right." She said before looking at them all. "If things go well," She said with an undertone that no one in this room would understand, only Tsunade-sama and Jiraiya-sama, "we should be back in two years." She looked back to Kakashi, who shrugged again.

"You cannot return without my sequel book copy." He nodded agreeing with her words and smiling. "I am okay with that."

Gillie looked at each of them again and raised her glass.

"Cheers!" She exclaimed.


Naruto's eye twitched watching the young woman arrive after the time they had explicitly accorded to meet at.

"You're late, Nee-chan!" Naruto threw an accusing finger at the woman who didn't seem in the best of moods.

"Oi!" She bonked him in the head. "It's onee-sama for you, onee-sama!" She huffed, leaving him rubbing the ball on his head, before turning towards Jiraiya sensei.

"Good morning, rising star!" Jiraiya said looking amused. "Why, you look terrible pale!" He joked and she seethed with a vein poppin on her forehead, before Naruto saw her rub her head.

"I got a terrible headache this morning."

"Why?" Naruto asked.

"I went out for drinks with some friends last night." She slouched in defeat. "I'd promised I'd never drink again." Jiraiya sensei crackled once up to the sky, grabbing his belly, at her confession.

"I just hope you didn't made a fool of yourself this time, kid. Did anything interesting happened to you?"

While Naruto lost some respect for the young woman before him, onee-sama's face strained to retrieve any memories (if any) from the previous night.


Might Guy fell on his face flat down on the table, mouthing in some language he invented by the self-inducement of alcohol, before Genma patted his back and threw one of his arms over his shoulder.

"Come on, pal." He grunted. "Let's get you home."

Kakashi raised his eyes at the sight of this and Genma nodded at the dreamy eyed women sitting between them.

"Will you keep an eye on that one?"

"That one? This one has a name..." Gillie scrunched her nose at him.

"Heavens, Gills, you're one terrible drinker." He jumped in place, shaking the barely conscious Guy on his shoulder. "On so are you!" The man looked up to the ceiling. "Why was I put on the team with the worst drinking buddies in Konoha?" He turned back to Kakashi.

"What are friends for?" Kakashi shrugged with a nod.

"Hn." Genma nodded before tossing Guy over his shoulder and disappearing together in the night.

"Hey, where did he go? We were having so much fun..." Gillie pouted looking back at Kakashi, before this one smiled at her and patted her hair.

"There, there. He'll be back before you notice."

Gillie's eyes gasped, eyes wide with awe.

"Do you promise?!"

Kakashi hesitated. Even though she probably wouldn't remember in the morning, if her cluelessness on what had happened last time told him anything, he didn't feel like lying to the drunk woman.

"I'm sorry, Gillie." He said still patting her head, only for her to lean her head down on her arms with an annoyed face.

"Hey, keep on doing that!" She said reaching again for his hand after her pulled away and placed it back on her head. "It feels nice." She closed her eyes, leaning back down over her arms. Kakashi rolled his eyes but ultimately decided to entertain her wish, his hand going from simple paths to caressing the soft strands of her hair, his eyes becoming more focused on it. He had never told this to anyone, but for so long he had been curious on touching that strange kekkei genkai of hers, even now being deactivated. Sure, he had pulled from it at some point during their childhood, but this time was different, they weren't fighting.

He brought a long strand in front of his eyes and analyzed it up-close, entirely sober, for just like sweets he didn't appreciate the taste of alcohol in large doses.

"What are you doing?" The muffled voice of Gillie said from the table and he smiled.

"Studying."

"My hair?"

"Mmm-hmm."

"It is gorgeous, isn't it?" She said arrogantly, even in drunk state, "Why, it is only my best feature."

"Humph." Kakashi let go of it and straightened up on his seat, crossing his arms, fighting the urge to contradict his friend.

"Yours isn't so bad." She said seemingly growing more sleepy by the second. "I've always fancied the color, since I was a girl... but shhhh." What a strange pair they were, Kakashi thought, fixated on each others stylistic attributes. He smirked, before a hand poked at his arm. "It adds to your sex appeal, my friend."

Kakashi blinked twice before frowing. He leaned his own elbow over the table and leaned his head on his hand, looking down at her. He had probably heard wrong.

"Sex appeal?" He asked unsure of whether to feel disturbed or amused.

"Mysterious and sexy, yes" She nodded with her eyes still closed and then opened to stare at him. "Don't give me that face... you know what I'm talking about..."

Well... yes... he supposed, he wasn't blind to his own appearance and the mysterious effect as a result from wearing the face mask, but-

"The sky is blue..." Gillie continued slurring with heavy lids and nodded. "My hair is pre-tty..." She nodded again before scrunching her nose. "Guy is terribly loud... And Kakashi Hatake is mysteriously sexy." She shook her head. "It's just how things are... there's no need to be ashamed."

Kakashi snorted.

"Thank you." He said sounding amused, by her innocence even when talking about such topics.

"Mmm-hmm..." She seemed so peaceful, with her eyes closed again and a smirk on her lips. "Don't tell that jerk I ever said that-"

"Who?"

"Kakashi... Don't tell him... He'll never let me hear the end of it..."

Then, she was sleeping leaving Kakashi Hatake to his own thoughts for a while.

When the bar man came to ask whether they wanted to order anything else, Kakashi said they would leave now. He left a tip on the table for all of their consumption, since everyone had left too drunk to remember (but, hey, that's what friends were for). He stood up, carrying Gillie out the table and placing her on his back, on a piggyback. He walked slowly and calmly as to not disturb or wake her up, looking up to the moon an wondered for a moment what life would have been like if Obito and Rin where still around. Would it be him and Obito taking both Rin and Gillie back home as he was doing now? Their absence was still present in the moment, but at least this time Kakashi wasn't alone, Gillie would be here sooner than he imagined, and when that happened...

Well, first of all, he wouldn't encourage her to walk into a bar again.

Kakashi knocked the Nohara household's door, looking embarrassed at waking up her Mother and Father so late at night, but they were grateful with him for making sure she was back home safely. He bowed at her Mother, after her Father disappeared into the house half-carrying Gillie, and then left towards his own home.


"Onee-Chan!" Naruto exclaimed with frustration by her lack or response, snapping her out and bringing her back to reality with a jolt.

"And, well?" Jiraiya asked Gillie, who now scratched her head with a grin in place.

"Yeah... No... Nothing." She shrugged dismissively. "If something important happened, I'll eventually remember it. Like that time you took me to the hospital? I bet it was pretty forgettable." Jiraiya only irked a brow at her, looking oblivious, and shook his head.

"Whatever you say, kid-"

"I'm not a kid!"

"Now, let's go! We're running late as it is!"

"Running late where, old man?" She groaned at him. "Could you be any more specific?"

"Hey! Hey, wait for me!" Naruto ran after the two bickering pair, having been left behind and joined on the argument as the three of them marched together and away from the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

None of them noticed the jonin standing on top of the vigilance wall, squatting by the edge looking down at them. Kakashi Hatake, for the first time in his life, was looking forwards to see Gillie Nohara again.

"See you in 2 years," He said with a smile, "girl friend."


A/N: Gillie says I'm having too much fun making her life a living hell, what do you think, guys? Am I really that mean? Well, that last scene with Kakashi surely forecasts a rainbow after the pouring rain I've given her, huh? That's funny... As if you didn't know me already, buahaha!

We got many things going on this last delivery, more specifically, we learned MANY important things. Where you expecting that part with Orochimaru? I mean, Rock Lee finds Gillie awesome but I find her almost as big as an emo as Sasuke, and I think since very early in the story it was clear the girl had some er... tendencies for the darkness.

I don't know about you, guys, but my favorite scene, SO FAR, in all of this story has been Sakura behind that curtain, I just found it so cute and funny. Also, Shikamaru shivering every time his phrase is stolen and stingy Shino? Comedic gold. I don't understand how Shino is SO overrated, the kid cracks me up every time he appears on the screen and I find him so adorable as Boruto's sensei.

We got some Genma drama(poor dude) and FINALLY those two, Gillie and Kakashi are FINALLY friends. Let's see how it goes in the future.

Remember, if you want me to keep on writing this story, DON'T. FORGET. TO. LEAVE. A. REVIEW.

That's it for now. Toodles.