Forgotten

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Naruto (Shippuden). This is a story inspired by the original made up for entertainment purposes only. - Krystal

Chapter 11: An ANBU's mask

Recovered from her terrible sight loss and painful headaches, Yuki was ready to head back to the Hidden Leaf Village. She found the person she was looking for, gave her the information that she needed to give and was feeling much better now. As she was packing her things, the woman entered her room and asked:

"Are you sure you are good to return to the village?"

"I wish I could stay longer, but it is about time I return now. They are always short on staff and I've been away for too long."

"You talk like you are an adult. You are almost boring. Being so young, you should enjoy life a little more." the woman said as she yawned.

"Tsunade-sama..." started Yuki. "I will start enjoying life when I'll get to your age."

Tsunade frowned: "I'm really not that old, you know?"

Yuki smiled. She liked teasing her mentor. They've always had a great relationship. They would joke around with each other. Yuki felt at ease around Tsunade and so did Tsunade. As they were talking and saying there goodbyes, Yuki heard a hawk messenger tapping on the window. On its back, there was the Fire Country emblem.

"It seems you have a new mission already. I really don't miss those." said Tsunade as she opened the window, grabbed the message and handed it to Yuki.

"Trouble in the Land of Waves... Kakashi's team sent, but has asked for backup. The details are not known... has something to do with Gato. Your most recent report showed that you were in close proximity, here are the coordinates..." quickly read Yuki. "Well, I guess I won the bet against Kakashi seeing his team is out completing a mission."

"A bet?" asked Tsunade with interest. "Ha, I taught you well."

Yuki buckled her backpack and waved a silent goodbye to Tsunade before heading out the window by which she got the message from.

The location that was indicated to her wasn't too far away. It was a small village, known to be quite poor. Gato was a rich business man who had no ethics whatsoever. He was ruthless when it came to making money. He was notorious for it. He was also notorious for being able to hide his tracks after bad deeds were done. He often hired some of the most dangerous and talented ninjas. He nurtured many missing-nins. Kakashi, as strong as he was, had to fight those potentially highly skilled ninjas and protect his three new genins who, obviously, did not have much experience in fighting. There was also a client to protect as well. At those thoughts, Yuki increased her speed to join with Kakashi's team. She passed the path that they would need to take in order to make it to the village. It was the best way to allow herself to follow them. She had no intention in letting them know of her presence until it is absolutely necessary. As she got closer, she took out her ANBU mask as a precaution to hide her identity. The mask now allowed her to stay unaffected emotionally in any kind of situation. For some reason, she feared that this mission would make her feel fear, pain and sadness. She did not want to allow such emotions to appear.

She was now entering the area just before Team 7 would have to take a boat to get to the village. A dense mist was covering the area. She couldn't see well through the mist. It wasn't a normal kind of mist. There was no doubt about it. The mist came from a jutsu. There was chakra flowing in that mist. Yuki had always been sensitive to different chakras. Although she wasn't specialized in sensory, she was definitely not bad at it. Although the mist made it much harder, she could definitely sense 6 different chakras; four from Team Kakashi, one chakra was filled with murderous intent, one calm but cold chakra and one from someone who isn't a ninja. She clearly recognized Kakashi's chakra. They did, after all, work together for many years. He wasn't molding any chakra nor moving much. Meanwhile, the murderous chakra's owner had split his in half. One body of chakra was static and the other was in battle with two other chakras' owner: Naruto and Sasuke.

Yuki could have jumped in to help the two boys, but she decided not to. Instead, she was more curious about that other unknown chakra filled with calmness and coldness. She moved to a higher place, on a branch where the mist was a little thinner. She could now see the shadows of Kakashi's team fighting against a much bigger shadow. As the mist cleared a little further, she could identify that shadow to be the one of Zabuza, a missing-nin from the Hidden Mist Village. He was in her Bingo Book, a book that contained all the names and information of people wanted dead or alive. As much as Yuki was interested in the fight that was happening below, she was most curious about that unidentified chakra's owner. She moved around, suppressing her chakra as much as possible, trying to find that person. A little further away, she spotted a person, also observing the battle and wearing an ANBU mask with the Hidden Mist logo on it. That person was not much taller than her. He was definitely around her age. He didn't seem to have noticed her. He didn't seem to want to take action either even though his target was, most likely, Zabuza. As Yuki was observing that person, she heard a loud water splash. She could also sense an increase in Kakashi's chakra. He was back in the fight. She continued looking at the inactive ANBU. Suddenly, she saw him move towards the battlefield. He threw out a long needle towards Zabuza and knocked him out completely. Zabuza collapsed on the ground lifelessly. He interacted quickly with Kakashi before taking Zabuza's body away. It was an unusual action for an ANBU. Had it been Yuki, she would have destroyed the body right there. She was about to investigate further, but she then saw Kakashi collapse. He had exhausted his chakra by overusing his Sharingan. There was no medical ninja in his team. His team members were also exhausted from the fight against Zabuza. Sakura managed to catch him from his fall, but she was in no state to take him all the way to the village. Yuki had no choice but to intervene.

"Let me have a look at him." she said as she descended from the tree she was hiding in.

"Who are you?" asked Sakura shielding her sensei away from Yuki.

"Can't you see?" Yuki asked as she pointed to the Konoha emblem on her mask.

Sakura didn't answer back. She still had a look of suspicion on her face.

"Kakashi, can't you let them know that I'm a friend and not a foe?" asked Yuki slightly annoyed.

He grinned weakly and nodded. Sakura let her guard down and allowed Yuki to approach Kakashi. Yuki quickly assessed Kakashi's state, helped him increase his chakra flow enough to keep him conscious and said:

"Good news is that you are not injured. Bad news is that you've completely drained yourself and won't be able to move around easily for the next few days."

"Good news is also that, I assume, you'll stick around to watch over them?"

Yuki nodded.

"Should I introduce you or would you prefer to do it yourself?"

Yuki stood up from beside Kakashi and turned to the three young genins.

"I will be standing in for Kakashi for the next few days until he gets better. You'll address to me as Captain. Don't ask any questions about who I am. I won't answer to those. Don't ask me where I am going, I won't answer to those either. I'm also not familiar with working with genins, so bear with me if I treat you harshly."

They looked at her with a confused and stunned look.

"You are even worst than me." said Kakashi. "Any kind words for them?"

"Sure... I'm otherwise very easy to work with and I will ensure your safety. Alright, no questions? Let's head to your client's home now."

Sakura and Sasuke helped support Kakashi as he was too weak to walk by himself. Yuki walked alongside the client with Naruto to get the details about what has been happening.

"That's a Leaf ANBU, right Kakashi-sensei?" Yuki heard Sakura whispering to her sensei.

"Yes."

"She's a little..."

"Cold? Unapprochable? Intimidating?" asked Kakashi.

"Uh huh. A little."

"Just talk to her like a friend, she's your age after all."

"She's..." started Sasuke as he stared at her back.

"Yeah. She's just a kid like you, same with that Mist ANBU we met earlier... Speaking of which..."

"It was weird, wasn't it?" interrupted Yuki before he could call her name out. There was a reason for her to keep her mask on and Kakashi was about to reveal her identity. "Shouldn't he just get rid of the body right there? Why did he take Zabuza's body away?"

"You thought so too, eh?"

"Once we've reached Tazuna-san's house, I will investigate on that. I'll leave one of my clones here with your team in case something happens."

"Sounds perfect."

End of Chapter 11

Thank you for reading!

xoxox

Krystal