Present

Chapter Seven: Precarious Boundaries

Itachi wasn't the careless type, so Kakashi was thoroughly surprised to find the door of his office left ajar while the man in question was nowhere to be seen. Feeling for the chakra signatures around him, he picked up Itachi's signature located down the hall, thereby banishing all of Kakashi's thoughts of rummaging through Itachi's office. Even if he did decide to go through with it, there was no way that he would get away without raising even more alarms. With his Sharingan, Itachi would certainly know if a single item was a single millimeter out of place.

Kakashi opted to leave, making a mental note to come back later with his mission report. Making his way down the hall towards the exit, Kakashi immediately squashed his chakra signature when he felt a flare of chakra rising from the room where he had pinpointed Itachi to be. Pressing his back against the wall, Kakashi slowly crept towards that room, eyes sweeping both ways to make sure no one was coming.

With his back pressed against the spot right next to the door, Kakashi could hear voices. One was Itachi's for certain, but Kakashi couldn't quite pinpoint who the other voice was, even if it sounded vaguely familiar.

The chakra spike had settled down, reverting to its normal level.

"We are losing the war," the unknown person hissed angrily. The sound of erratic footsteps floated to Kakashi's ears. "You cannot put off the alliance with Oto any longer. With their added numbers, their assistance will be invaluable to help us turn the war in our favor."

"We cannot form an alliance with Oto. You know Orochimaru is up to no good. If he gets a better offer, he will betray us in a millisecond. We don't need allies who will betray us at a moment's notice."

The other man scoffed. "You know Orochimaru will never work for the Senjus again, so who is there for him to betray us for?"

"He is a snake," Itachi stated firmly. "Who knows what kinds of things will happen if I allow it."

"Then what are you planning to do about the war? At the rate we are going, we won't be able to hold out much longer. You need to keep your soldiers on the battlefield much longer and assign more field medics with each team."

"This is a war that my father left behind, one that I never wanted to fight. If you are that concerned, then you can go convince the council to agree to a ceasefire with the Senjus."

It hit him. That voice belonged to Natsuo Uchiha, the head of the council composed of prominent figures in the village, including the clan heads.

"Peace? Be glad that you aren't proposing this in front of the council otherwise they will perceive you to be a weak leader. You should already know that most of us aren't satisfied with a lot of your decisions lately, don't push your luck."

"I am weak? Perhaps I am doing what is best for the village. There's absolutely no point to this war. All we are doing is sending people out to die."

"The council wanted your father to step down after he called a ceasefire in the last war," Natsuo said. There was a warning tone in his voice. "We didn't oust him, but don't believe that we won't with you, even if there is no successor in line."

"And if you do that, then there's a zero percent chance that you will win the war." There was nothing but confidence oozing from his statement, enough to force Natsuo into a couple moments of silence.

When Natsuo spoke again, all of the conviction was drained from his voice. "Don't do anything that the council won't approve of. I'm here to warn you that the council is unhappy that you allowed the Senjus to overtake Hokuto."

Hokuto? One of the eight important defense sites surrounding the Uchiha territory. With Hokuto under their control, the Senjus would have access into their territory from the northeastern side. It was only a matter of time before they tried to take Kita, the watchtower in the north.

"I already sent Shisui to Kita and I'm working on forming an offensive team to retake Hokuto. I'll even go out there myself if I need to."

"Good. I'll trust you to keep to your promises."

Kakashi retreated down the hall to linger in front of Itachi's office. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Natsuo exiting the room, muttering something incomprehensible under his breath.

Itachi didn't follow Natsuo out of the room; instead, his chakra signature remained positioned in there with no indication that he was going to move anytime soon.

A single look at the open door propelled Kakashi's curiosity, but he quickly suppressed the feeling. If he was going to help them win the war, Kakashi needed to be able to stick around much longer, to gather information on the other six outposts. In the year and a half since war began, Kakashi had only been assigned to Hokuto and Kita and at times, part of the ambush group. Without any information on the strengths and weaknesses of the other six outposts, it would be difficult for the Senjus to make their move.

He needed to bide his time.

Ten minutes later, Itachi finally emerged from the room. The lines on his face seemed to become even more prominent than when Kakashi last saw him yesterday and the bags under his eyes were notably darker. His eyes flickered to the mission report in Kakashi's hand.

Itachi motioned Kakashi into his office, shutting the door closed before he crossed the distance between the door and table. Rounding his desk, Itachi pulled out his chair before sinking down into it.

"No sleep?" Kakashi inquired, even though he already knew the answer to that.

Itachi forced a small smile. "Couldn't say no to Sasuke's requests to help him train so I had to stay up all night to finish my work."

Kakashi placed the report on Itachi's desk, sliding it towards him. "What would you like me to do with the supplies?"

"Ask the medic to restock the supplies at the hospital and then send the rest to the outposts. I made a list of the village needs, so keep these amounts in the village. Divide the remaining items into eight sections and we'll send it to the outposts."

Eight? Kakashi questioned himself, but he didn't voice that thought aloud. He wasn't supposed to know that Hokuto had been taken, yet.

Itachi continued to ramble on with instructions and by the time Kakashi left his office, it finally hit him that he was in charge of handling everything from sorting to delivering.

There was no way he was going to do inventory count on his own.

It was a good thing that Obito still owed him a couple of favors.

Stumbling back into his apartment at midnight, Kakashi made a beeline towards his room in the dark. At one point, his foot accidentally kicked one of Kenzou's books, to which he let out an angry hiss and a couple choice of words.

Kenzou was lucky that he was already asleep; otherwise, he would be on the receiving end of Kakashi's wrath for the nth time for leaving his things lying around. Snatching up the book off of the floor - not because Kakashi wanted to clean up after his messy roommate, but rather he wanted to save his toes from any further pain - he tossed the book onto the counter, not caring that it landed upside down, book open and most certainly wrinkling the pages.

For such a slob, Kenzou was super peculiar about keeping his books in pristine condition. That would teach him to stop leaving his things scattered around the living room.

Kakashi made it safely to his room without another injury. Flickering on the lights in his room, he immediately began pulling off his clothes, tossing them in the laundry basket on his way to the bathroom. Swiping the set of clean clothes that he laid out on top of the dresser this morning, Kakashi entered the bathroom to take a long, hot shower to soothe out the aches in his back from bending over all day to do inventory count.

He'd much rather be training.

Stepping out of the shower with a towel draped across his shoulders, Kakashi moved to sit at his desk, ignoring the urge to go straight to bed. His notepad, containing his to do list, sat at the center of his desk, seemingly mocking him.

Sighing, Kakashi reached for a pen and added another item for tomorrow: find Rin.

Flipping to the second page, Kakashi began writing the message for his sensei, containing the information that he had gathered in the last two days. When he finished, he tore the paper off of the notepad, rolled it up into a miniature scroll. Nicking the pad of his thumb, Kakashi performed the hand sequence for summoning.

Only instead of his dogs appearing, it was Kosuke, one of Minato sensei's messenger toads and the only toad that Kakashi could actually summon, despite having signed the summoning contract. A red toad was perched in the center of his desk, with a vial dangling from his neck, along with a note.

Kakashi retrieved both items from Kosuke's neck, replacing it with his note.

"Oi brat, don't summon me so late," Kosuke growled, slightly irritated. "Toads need to sleep too." Kakashi muttered his apologies, knowing that toads were quite fickle. It was already good enough that Kosuke always came when summoned, especially since Kakashi formed no bonds with the toad summons.

He still preferred his dogs for a reason.

Placing the vial off to the side, Kakashi unfurled the note, knowing that all of his questions would be answered in the note.

Kakashi,

Lay low for a while. If you ever think you've been found out, run. Your safety should be your first priority.

Thank you for the intel. Itachi is willing to negotiate for peace, yet it is the older generation that is more fervent in their opposition. With your information, we have successfully taken Hokuto and will move to Kita next. I will wait for your update before we move into Kita.

Your feelings are normal. You should have received a vial from Tsunade; she informed me that it's poison. She hopes that it will aid you on your mission.

Be careful.

The next morning, Kakashi's first stop was the hospital, only to be informed that Rin's shift didn't start until noon. After leaving the hospital, his next destination was her apartment. As he clambered up the stairs to the third floor in her apartment complex, he mentally went through the list of things he needed to complete. With Obito's help, most of the sorting was finished, save for the medical items. In the best case scenario, Kakashi could start delivering tomorrow and gather intel at the same time.

He just needed to make sure Obito doesn't decide to offer his assistance with delivering…

Kakashi was jolted out of his thoughts when he finally realized he had already arrived at his destination and had been lingering outside of her door for at least five minutes. Her next door neighbor had conveniently passed by, shooting him an odd look before she disappeared inside her own apartment.

His fingers curled up into a fist, raising it to knock twice on the door.

The door swung upon, revealing Rin, who was dressed like she was ready to go out despite her shift not starting for another four hours. Opening the door a bit wider, Rin invited Kakashi in, lingering by the door until he crossed the threshold and then shutting the door.

Kakashi took a seat at the kitchen table, turning down Rin's offer of tea. There was no way that he could get away with Rin not getting a glimpse of his face, not when she sat right across the table from him. Not when she stared at him so intently, studying him like she had just met him.

Kakashi cleared his throat loudly, jolting Rin out of her reverie. A sheepish smile formed on her face as her eyes darted to everywhere but on him. Her fingers busied themselves by maneuvering the mug in her hands in a circular arc.

"Did you need something?"

"It's about the supplies," Kakashi began. That was all he said before he witnessed the energy drain right out of her. The mug stopped spinning in her hands. The cheerful look in her eyes became clouded with something else, something that looked suspiciously like, disappointment?

Kakashi had more to say, but the words remained stuck in the back of his throat when he witnessed the subtle changes in her mood.

"What about it?" Rin forced herself to smile. Kakashi could tell it was forced; it was hardly even a shadow of the smile she had given him two days ago, after he had promised to help with her training…

It suddenly dawned on him. The details of their conversation may have slipped his mind, but Rin certainly hadn't forgotten. She must have thought that he was here to uphold his promise…

While he explained to her what she needed to do with the medical supplies, his mind was reeling. Pretending like the conversation never happened was the easy way out, but when the image of her face popped up in his mind - with her huge smile that practically radiated joy - Kakashi couldn't find it in his heart to crush it.

What was wrong with him? Kakashi was hardly the type to care about these things.

"I know I promised to train with you, but I'm going to be busy in the next few days because of this mission…" There were a lot of things that Kakashi deemed to not need an explanation; this was one of them, but his mouth moved on its own accord.

It was an instantaneous reaction. The joy shimmered brightly in her eyes. Her lips fidgeted, almost like she was trying to suppress the smile that threatened to appear, leading her to form an awkward half grin.

"That's alright! I can train on my own for the next couple of days." Rin really tried to hide the excitement from her voice, but it ended slipping out anyways.

"I should get going. See you tonight?"

Rin nodded. The excitement bubbled in her stomach, threatening to burst, but she managed to hold out until Kakashi left her apartment. Her back was pressed against her front door as she simply stood there, with a silly grin spread across her face.

He was the first to actually agree to train her, as Obito was always too busy to teach her much beyond basic target practice. Rin had heard numerous stories of Kakashi's skills on the battlefield, courtesy of Obito, so she felt extremely confident that she would improve tremendously under his guidance.

Then she would be one step closer to achieving her goal of becoming a field medic.

Teaching wasn't Kakashi's forte as he lacked the patience for explanations and the energy to be an encouraging instructor. Kakashi thought the training session would have been a one time thing; he would teach Rin something and then they would go their separate ways. Yet he was surprised to see the burning determination in her eyes - reminding him of a former classmate who was always clad in green - when she showed up to each meeting.

It became a routine that after each meeting, Rin would approach him to ask when he was training next. Whether it was before the sun even rose or late at night, Rin showed up to as many training sessions as possible. During one of their many training sessions, Kakashi had offhandedly questioned how she was always able to cooperate with his schedule, to which she responded that she often swapped shifts, often taking the overnight shifts to clear her schedule during the day.

If there was one thing that Kakashi really admired about her, it was her determination.

Kakashi knew that his explanations were often lacking, but it so happened that Rin had studied a lot of the theories behind most of the concepts, so there wasn't too much trouble for her to understand. And when she didn't understand, Rin didn't bother Kakashi; instead, she went scouring the library for additional information. It came as a surprise to him when he went to the library to return some jutsu scrolls to find Rin sitting at a table reading up on how to break out of a genjutsu.

Rin hadn't been lying when she said she was self taught, Kakashi quickly found out, when she revealed that she picked up on medical ninjutsu from reading books. That worked in his favor as it allowed him to work on his own training while she practiced whatever he taught her that day.

By the third week of training, Kakashi decided it was time to see exactly how much she had improved.

"Let's spar."

Her astonished "what?" quickly followed, followed by a few moments of silence as Kakashi watched the gears practically turning in her mind. "I don't think I'm ready yet."

"Then when will you be?"

As he predicted, Rin didn't have an answer for him.

"With that attitude, you won't ever be ready. I'm not expecting you to be able to beat me; I just want to see your progress."

Rin hesitantly agreed, moving to a fighting stance. Kakashi simply stood there, not even bothering to raise his arms to defend himself.

"You've been working on your taijutsu. I'll be on defense. Your goal is to land a hit on me." The look on Rin's face said it all; she thought it was impossible that she would land a hit on him. What she didn't know was that Kakashi had decided to go easy on her, lowering his level to match hers so she didn't feel too overwhelmed just yet.

Rin charged at him, her right hand curling up into a fist. Kakashi nodded in approval as he noted that she made a fist correctly, contrary to when she first started. His arm shot upwards, blocking her fist with his forearm. Her leg jutted outwards, sweeping in an arc beneath him as he jumped into the air. Pulling out a wire attached to a kunai, he launched the kunai towards the nearest tree and tugged on the wire to move him out of the trajectory of three of Rin's shuriken while in midair.

His feet landed on the base of the trunk. Abandoning the wire, Kakashi ran up the tree sensing Rin's chakra signature following him. Hopping onto a nearby branch, he ducked to the left, allowing a kunai to whiz by his left ear. The corner of his eye caught a familiar piece of paper attached, his hands finished executing the signs for a substitution jutsu right when Rin made the tiger seal to detonate the paper bomb.

Landing on the soft grass, Kakashi lingered there for the next five seconds as he waited for Rin to catch up to him. She did, appearing behind him with her chakra suppressed to the point where he hadn't sensed her until she was right there. His fast reflexes saved him; he whirled around just in time to counter her kunai with his own. The metal clang rang out. Kakashi placed more strength on the kunai and watched as her arm began to quiver under the strain.

Rin was quick to realize that she wouldn't win the strength contest. Pulling out a kunai with her other hand, she flung it at Kakashi's side. The move forced Kakashi to dodge, loosening his grip on his kunai, giving her an opening to knock the kunai out of his hands. Kunai forgotten, Kakashi quickly moved to counter the series of kicks and punches that followed.

Her taijutsu had improved tremendously, Kakashi noted, as he ducked down to avoid a kick at his head. His right hand caught her next punch, fingers curling around her hand to stop her movements, yet with a surprising burst of strength aided by chakra, she broke free of his grip.

Her raw strength was still lacking, yet her clever use of chakra could help her to overcome that particular weakness.

"You won't be able to overpower most people, so you'll have to use your speed to your advantage," Kakashi lectured in the midst of dodging her next strike. Frustration was written all over her face, possibly stemming from the lack of progress, but her emotions hadn't clouded her mind, just yet.

"Your current speed can rival an average shinobi," Kakashi continued. A brief childhood memory popped up in his mind: Gai, running around the village while wearing leg weights in a quest to improve his speed.

He turned the tables on her, forcing her onto defense as he began to strike back. An alarmed look morphed on Rin's face and her mouth opened to say something, but Kakashi didn't give her the opportunity. He made her force all of her attention on avoiding his hits.

Rin had been marginally successful in doing so, until Kakashi increased his speed, completely overwhelming her. Every other hit landed on her. Her calm and focused state quickly transformed into a frantic one. Rin lost focus, her body didn't seem to move in accordance to what her eyes were registering. She was flailing, desperately lashing out in hopes that it would accomplish something.

In under a minute, Kakashi had pinned her on the ground, with the tip of a kunai pointed at her throat. Her face was flushed from the exertion, droplets of sweat rolling down from her forehead. Her chest rose up and down heavily as she took in deep breaths.

"You panicked," Kakashi stated, tucking the kunai away in his weapons pouch. "You need to remain level headed at all times, so that you can properly be aware of your surroundings at all times."

Scrambling to get off of her when it finally hit him in what kind of position they were in, Kakashi sat in the grass next to her, all while trying to calm his beating heart that had nothing to do with the spar. Rin didn't seem to notice; with the aid of her elbow, she pushed herself upright into a sitting position.

"You were so fast. You were holding back a lot during the beginning, weren't you?"

Kakashi refrained from telling her that he had been holding back, even in the end. "You can't compare three weeks of training to two decades worth."

"Two decades? You were what, three?"

"Four," Kakashi corrected, even though that was besides the point. "You need to work on your speed and reflexes. Your form is good, but your left foot is always half a second late to react. Work on fixing your openings, then try to find different people to spar with so you can start studying on spotting openings and taking advantage of them."

"Thank you. I have to pull double shifts for the rest of the week, so I'll see you next week?"

"Word has been going around that another group will be sent out soon, so I don't know how much longer I will be staying in the village."

"What, why?" Rin questioned. "It's not time yet."

"Our forces have been stretched quite thin recently," Kakashi explained. "I'm sure you heard that the Senjus have taken one of our outposts."

"Do you think that I'll have a chance to be assigned to the outposts this time?"

Kakashi recalled that she once said being able to go out into the field was her dream. To be able to help more people, she said, yet when Kakashi opened his mouth to dissuade her from wanting to go - there was nothing glorious about being on the battlefield anyways - a thought crept to the recesses of his mind.

If Rin was killed on the battlefield, it wouldn't be his fault. More importantly, Kakashi wouldn't have to be the one to do it.

Three weeks. That was how long he hadn't thought about his mission. In those three weeks, she created an antidote to another one of Tsunade's poisons, saving at least ten people. She should have been dead three weeks ago.

Kakashi wasn't quite sure what he was stalling for, especially since he had already worked out multiple contingency plans with Sensei following the completion of the mission.

"You can ask Obito. He's been working closely with Itachi since Shisui went to the outpost."

She nodded. "Thank you."

A/N: Hi again!

Question for you: do you think Kakashi is really going to kill her?

I definitely tried to make him seem indecisive. On one hand, Kakashi does take his missions seriously and there is a stigma concerning his father's death (ie Kakashi doesn't want to make the same 'mistake' that his father did), but at the same time, he's slowly warming up to her and well, Rin hasn't done anything to harm him. So which side do you think Kakashi will fall on in the end? Curious to know your thoughts.

I'm super excited to share the upcoming chapters with you. Not sure if you're enjoying the story or not from the silence, but I certainly had fun plotting and writing this story. Thanks for reading and until next time!

-MM