"It's your choice to take this personally." ~Rick and Morty

…

.28

The former Root operative currently known simply as Yamato aggressively hurled kunai at a very poor and defenseless training dummy. He wasn't in a particularly good mood at the moment. Because of course on the day that he'd finally return to village after being on an extended recon mission in an undisclosed location on that very day he learned that his fears had come true and that his student had done exactly as he thought she would.

His apprentice had not been taking good care of herself it seemed. Accepting missions back to back. Over extending herself. No breaks in between, not allowing herself to recover. He knew from personal experience that doing such never ended well. Yamato hurled another kunai into the training dummy. It soared over its head, embedding into a tree behind the dummy. Splitting the bark in the process.

To make matters worse, he's been confronted by another Jonin about the situation. Blindsiding him. He should have known, should have stopped her from being so reckless. It made him angry. But not at Asuma, he was actually glad that there were others looking after his eccentric and often careless student. Glad that there was someone there to keep an eye on her when he wasn't around to do so.

No, currently he was angry at himself.

Someone else could have taken the three month long mission, or the month long guard mission for the Daimyo before that. But he's known they'd keep him out of the village, and if he wasn't in the village then he wouldn't have to keep seeing her. Wouldn't have a constant reminder of his failings, he could push away his guilt. So he should have known that Mitomi would do the same thing. She was too much like him sometimes, he'd been her teacher to long for his own shortcoming not to rub off on her.

No he just felt worse. He thought that if he left he could work through it, and get over it. But to come home and learn that she'd done the same thing. To see that they both weren't dealing with their guilt well. It only complicated his already compromised emotions further. If he had stayed, maybe they both wouldn't be so fucked up right now.

This was the first time she experienced loss of someone who she truly cared for. Someone who had cared for her in return. He had just abandon her to deal with it on her own. Yeah, he was defiantly dealing with a strong amount of self-loathing right then. It was the whole reason he was out here hurling kunai at the dummy, Yamato needed to work off some steam.

"Poor bastard."

His snapped around quickly, his eyes met the single dark gray eye of his former Anbu captain. Kakashi stood a few paces behind him, his hands llazily stuffed in the pockets of his flak jacket. He bit back a sigh, his tachio never really changed. Yamato shook his head and went to collect the scattered kunai. The silver haired jonin watched him, not moving from his spot. His visible eye followed the younger man's movements half assed.

Kakashi had wanted to be the one to inform the Mokuton user what his student had been up to while he was gone. But Asuma found him first. The Sarutobi hair was still seething. Not really towards kouhai but at the shitty situation the village was allowing to happen. No one in their right mind would generally allow a fourteen year old girl to do such reckless things. Like jeopardizing her own life or the life of those sent out with her. Eventually the lack of time off, lack of sleep, all of it would catch up to her. It wasn't anything he wanted to see happen. Kakashi actually liked the red head, no matter how much she reminded him of the Forth and his wife.

But then again, he thinks warily, the village had stood by while he did a similar thing after the death of his team. After the Kyuubi attack. Kakashi needed an out and they'd allowed him one.

"I'm sure he's seen much worse." Yamato mutters a bit to himself as he joins the other man. He was probably right.

"Sah, still." Kakashi gave the dummy one last look, Yamato had really done a number on it. The thing would probably need to be replaced. They should do that, but they don't. It be a problem for the next person who used this field Kakashi decided as he turned his attention back to the brunette.

He'd never seen him the bristled before. In that moment Kakashi was reminded of how much Yamato really cared for the girl. The Mokuton user wasn't originally meant to be her teacher, at one point the Third had been considering him for the role. Her father had been his teacher, apprenticed him like they wanted to do with her, it was only fair. But he hadn't been is the right mental place at the time to do so, it wouldn't have been fair to her. Kakashi was hardly in the right place now if how his own genin team had turned out was any indication.

So he suggested Yamato, the man was one of the few assigined to protect the twins at the time. He was familiar with her from observation, he could put aside the whole jinchuriki thing and be rational about it. Kakashi hadn't realized that by doing so Yamato would actually come to think of Mitomi as just orders. She was his student. His. The ANBU operative had come to care for her. It was a true testament to how much he had changed since their first meeting. Kakashi felt a brief sense of pride over the fact.

There was some good from this.

"Tachio, are you following me for a reason?" Kakashi lazily blinked at the question, shrugged his shoulders before giving this answer.

"I'm avoiding Gai." Yamato rolled his eyes at the obvious bullshit but didn't comment. Not sure why he expected anything else in the first place. Typical Kakashi.

"Do you know when Mitomi will be back?" Kakashi shook his head. The details of her current mission were tightly sealed. Something about allied village confidentiality. Which personally he thought sounded fishy, but that had been Tsunade's call.

"Possibly a few weeks, apparently it was urgent." He rolled his eye. So maybe he was a little annoyed by the situation too. Yamato sighed at the answer.

So there was no time table for when she'd return. He'd been afraid that was going to be the case, regardless the moment she was back and rested they would be having a conversation. It was long past due. Yamato had let her avoid him long enough. Haku would have never wanted this for either of them.

Although the Yuuki hadn't been in his care as long as Mitomi he still considered the boy his student. At the end of the day he liked to think he knew the boy well, and Haku would have never been happy about how they'd handled his death. Yamato decided, with all of that in mind. That this distance he had allowed to form between them it was ending, no more. It was over.

He wasn't about to let her digress. Not after all the progress she had made. The infiltration specialist swore he'd be better. For both of them. Losing one student was hard enough. Yamato didn't want to lose her too, and if this kept going he would.

He'd really like to avoid that.

XOXOX

Short chapter, but I'm back writing for this story. I lost inspiration and the direction I wanted to go with this for a while there. But it's back now and I hope to have another chapter out by next week! Please let me know what you think!

Thank you for all your kind reviews in the last chapter, I hope you enjoyed this one just as much!

Sincerely, La'Rae