"All I ask is that you be extremely careful," Kyrie urged Nayamae, uncrossing her arms as her eyes turned from white to their normal yellow. "I can tell a difference in your kitsunebi over the last several months. It's subtle, but it is getting fainter." She returned her glasses to her face. "What you're about to do is dangerous, but if you must use your kitsunebi, use it only in an emergency and use it sparingly."

Kyrie's warning echoed over and over in Nayamae's head. It made her anxious to use her kitsunebi at all, even if she was in real danger. Any confidence she may of had before leaving to go after Shinjou was fading fast.

She and Kakashi had been travelling for barely four hours. Kakashi felt like they hadn't made much progress anywhere. They had hardly spoken a word to each other since they left the Leaf Village. He walked behind her, following where she was leading, but she was completely lost in her own thoughts.

"Hey, Nayamae, you do know where you're going, right?" Kakashi eventually asked, breaking the silence between them. "Nayamae?" He caught up beside her. "Hey, Nayamae!"

She looked up at him, seeming surprised that he was next to her now. "Huh?"

"Where are we going?" he asked. "You do know where you're heading, right?"

"Of course I do," she replied incredulously.

"Do you?" he asked. "We've passed the same rock formation a good four times within the last hour." He pointed to a set of rocks several yards away. "What's the deal?"

"Sorry," she apologized half-heartedly.

"Come on," he said, "let's take a break and eat something."

They went and sat on the nearby rocks, each pulling out a lunch of rice balls and dried berries. They ate in silence.

Kakashi couldn't take the quiet much longer. "Nayamae, about last night-"

"We don't have to talk about it, Kakashi," she said shortly, taking a large bite out of a rice ball.

"I think we should," he insisted. He felt so awkward and uncomfortable, but felt like they needed to clear the air between them.

She swallowed the bite of rice with a bit of difficulty. "We had a spontaneous, intense make-out, Kakashi, what more is there to talk about? It happened, now just forget about it. It didn't mean anything."

He creased his eyebrows. "Didn't mean anything?" he repeated.

"We both were drinking last night so something foolish was bound to happen," she continued without looking at him.

"I had one drink last night and that certainly wasn't enough to get me even tipsy. I don't know how many drinks you had, but you didn't act like you weren't sober," he argued.

"What do you want from me, Kakashi?" she demanded suddenly. "Do you want me to 'confess my undying love' for you or something?!"

"I only want a straight answer," he replied, calmer than he actually felt. "Whatever happened between us last night has an explanation. You used me to try to make yourself feel better and got angry with me when I stopped it. Whatever the reason behind it, you don't have to tell me now, but just try talking to me next time before it gets physical."

Nayamae was still, staring at him. She wanted to continue arguing with him, but realized it wasn't worth the trouble. "Fine," she muttered, turning back to her riceball. She was more annoyed than anything of his ability to read her like a book. "Was that all you wanted to talk about?" she asked, taking a much smaller bite this time.

He shook his head before tossing a couple of berries into his mouth. "You're worried about your kitsunebi, aren't you?" he asked between chewing. She nodded. "Rightfully so, I think."

"I'm afraid to even use it," she whispered. "It's the only thing that's keeping me alive."

"I wouldn't worry about it now. If we get into a tight spot, I'll do my best to keep you from having to use it at all," he assured her.

"Thanks," she replied, giving him a small smile.

They finished their lunch and started their journey again. When they stopped for the night, Nayamae told Kakashi they had made good progress.

"We should be in Shinjou's territory by tomorrow afternoon at the earliest," she said, sitting on an overturned log. "From there we can stake out and watch for her while we wait for the others."

Kakashi nodded, pulling out a small tackle box he kept in his pack. "I'm going to see if there's any fish in that river," he said, breaking off a long branch from a nearby tree. He took a kunai knife and cut off the extra sticks, giving them to Nayamae to use to start a campfire. From his tackle box, he took out a small spool of clear fishing line, cut off a long piece, and wrapped it tightly on one end of the stick. On the other end of the line, he tied a small metal hook with a small weight attached above it. He stood at the edge of the water and cast the line upstream.

After nearly an hour, Kakashi managed to catch two good-sized fish for them to eat. He brought them over where Nayamae was sitting in front of the fire she had built. She had a small book open on her lap. Her face was skewed in intense concentration as she focused on trying to understand what she was reading.

"Dinner," Kakashi announced, holding up the fish he caught.

She looked up from the book. "Great! I'm starving!"

"What are you reading?" he asked, putting the fish on sticks to cook by the fire.

"Well," she huffed, flipping a page in frustration, "I'm trying. I only recognize a few characters, so I'm missing quite a bit of the story."

"Let me see," he said, sitting beside her. Much to her surprise, Kakashi had snatched the book from her hands, closing it with a loud snap.

"Hey!" she exclaimed. "What's the deal?"

"Did you get this out of my pack?" he asked. She nodded, unsure of his odd behavior. "You don't need to read this," he said quickly, shoving the book back into his pack. "I'll get you better books."

She put her hands on her hips. "Then why are you reading them if they're not any good?"

"Trust me, you wouldn't like them," he insisted.

She frowned. "Fine." She looked at the fire, putting her elbows on her knees and her face in her hands. "Keep your porn away from me then. I don't need to read that garbage. It's just a bunch of unrealistic expectations anyway."

He frowned, but kept silent, attending to the fish. Once they finished their meal, they sat back by the fire as the night grew darker.

He was watching her quietly, as she looked up to the stars between the openings in the trees. "Can I ask you something?" he asked, his voice cutting over the noise of the chirping crickets and the river that flowed nearby.

"Depends on what it is," she replied, still staring up at the stars.

"Tell me about Abba," he said gently. "It seems easier for you to talk about him than Ryu."

She took a deep breath and sighed, taking a moment to think about her answer. "In short," she started, looking over to him, "he was the only father I ever knew. My earliest memories start with him finding me wandering in some burnt down village." She shrugged. "I don't know anything prior to that; whoever my real parents are, if I had any family, or even a life before Abba. He always told me he speculated they were killed during the war, but I have no memory so I assume he was right."

"How old were you?" he asked, poking a stick into the fire.

She thought for a second. "I think I was maybe ten? Fairly young. If anybody else had found me, I probably would have been sold to human traffickers. I was with him for about five years." Her voice trailed off, her face dropping quickly.

"What happened to him?" Kakashi asked softly after she hadn't said anything for a while.

"Abba's gone," she answered in a small voice. "He apparently died of some sickness that had been spreading around the area, but I think Shinjou had been slowly poisoning him with something. I took care of him until he died, so I had time to say my goodbyes to him."

"Is that another reason you want revenge against Shinjou? You think she murdered him?" Kakashi asked.

Nayamae nodded. "I know she did. She murdered him to get rid of him to indirectly get rid of me. She didn't approve that he kept me around after he found me. And she didn't like Abba's competition against her authority. It's because of her that I got caught up with Orochimaru after Abba died." Briefly, she told him how Orochimaru had first approached her, asking her if she was the thieving kitsune he had heard about. "I also think Shinjou told him about me, but I'm not too sure on that one."

"That's a lot to speculate about one person," Kakashi told her, his eyebrows raised slightly.

"You don't believe me?" she asked.

He shook his head. "No, I do believe you. It's just a lot."

"You're telling me."

They were quiet again. Kakashi pulled out an empty scrap of paper, writing a message by the firelight. Nayamae watched over his shoulder curiously. As he wrote, he explained every character and what they meant. Eventually, Nayamae stood up and stretched.

"We should think about getting some sleep," she said, trying to suppress a yawn. "I can take first watch."

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said, waving her hand. "Go ahead and sleep. I'll wake you up if a few hours. Besides, if anybody is nearby, I'll sense them before they can get too close."

Kakashi had a weird feeling about letting her take first watch, but eventually decided he wouldn't have much of a choice either way. One of them was going to have to stay awake for one half of the night.

"Let me send this message to the Hokage first," he said, pulling a small scroll out of one of the pockets on his vest. Nayamae watched in amazement when a small dog wearing a Leaf headband and a blue vest popped up on the seal from the paper. "Ah, Pakkun! Good to see you again," Kakashi greeted.

"It has been a while," Pakkun said in a much deeper voice than Nayamae thought would come from such a small dog. He sniffed the air then looked directly at her. "A fox…?" he said, sounding confused.

"She's a friend, a kitsune," Kakashi told him, holding out the paper he had written on earlier, which was now folded and sealed. "Take this to the Hokage for me. Tell him we should be in Shinjou's territory by tomorrow."

"We'll be heading through the mountains in the North," Nayamae added before the dog could leave. "Shinjou's home is in the middle of the range."

"You're not planning for something to go wrong, are you?" Pakkun asked distrustingly.

"No," she replied sheepishly. "It's just a precaution…"

Pakkun huffed and took the paper from Kakashi. He gave another quick glance at Nayamae, then vanished with a small cloud of smoke.

"I didn't know you could summon dogs," Nayamae said.

"I have quite a few dogs actually," Kakashi replied, pulling a sleeping mat out of his pack and spreading it on the ground. "They're my ninken. I use them on special occasions to help me on missions. They're very skilled in combat and tracking."

"I've never seen you summon them before," she pointed out.

He shrugged. "I don't summon them unless I feel it's absolutely necessary."

"That's fair."

He finished setting up his sleeping mat and laid down to sleep. After what only seemed like a few minutes, Nayamae was already shaking his shoulder to wake him for his turn.

Just as the sun was beginning to peek through the trees, Nayamae was already awake before Kakashi could bother waking her.

"We need to move," she said urgently, hurriedly folding up her sleeping mat. "We're close enough to Shinjou's territory that we shouldn't stay in this area much longer."

Kakashi helped her clean their area, putting out the final embers of the fire. "Why didn't you tell me about this last night?" he asked.

"Because I didn't sense anybody nearby last night," she informed him. "Come on, we need to hurry."

Nayamae led Kakashi along the river's edge, only pausing for a few minutes to scarf down a quick breakfast. They continued to travel at a quickened pace until Nayamae finally slowed down to a stop.

"Where to now?" Kakashi asked, looking around. The river was long gone and the trees were getting thinner and far between. They were now standing at the bottom of a rocky mountainside.

"We go up," Nayamae answered him, taking a deep breath before starting up the mountain. Kakashi followed after her. A couple of hours later, they stopped for a quick break. "We're almost there. We've made better time than I thought," Nayamae told Kakashi, taking a seat on the rocky ground. Sweat was dripping down her face as she took a drink of water from a canteen. "Over that other mountain is Shinjou's home."

Kakashi took a drink from his own canteen as he viewed the land below. "Do you sense anybody nearby?" he asked, looking to her.

She shook her head before taking another sip of water. "If I did, I would let you know. Whoever it was behind us this morning must have lost track of us somehow." He nodded, looking back to the trees at the bottom of the mountain. "By the way," Nayamae began while closing her canteen, "who's Rin? You kept saying that name last night while you were sleeping. It seemed like you were having a bad dream."

Kakashi immediately looked at her instead of out towards the ground below. "She was a teammate of mine," he said bluntly, turning away from her. "I killed her."

Nayamae was silent, staring up at him. "Oh." Kakashi stared down at his right hand, clenching and unclenching his fist. "I'm so-"

"Don't. Don't say that." He wasn't looking at her.

"I was only trying to-" she started when she suddenly froze. She turned her voice to a whisper. "Kakashi, get away from the edge. Quickly! Hide!"

They hid behind some rocks that formed a small crevice in the mountain that was just large enough for them to squeeze into it uncomfortably. Several intense minutes passed until they heard groups of footsteps surrounding their hiding spot. Kakashi could feel Nayamae become increasingly tense beside him. Both of them quieted their breathing, not daring to move and accidentally make a sound. From their hiding spot, she could barely see through the entrance of the crevice.

"Now, I know I heard somebody over here!" a man's voice said. Briefly, Nayamae could see a head with yellow hair, searching around the spot where she was just sitting. Slowly and carefully, Kakashi reached up to raise his headband to uncover his eye.

"They can't have gone far!" a woman's voice said. "Search thoroughly! Find them!" A group of voices shouted their compliance. Nayamae stiffened, suddenly gripping tightly to Kakashi. Her eyes were now wide with fear. Shinjou.

He squeezed her hand gently, staring out the entrance. Neither of them made a sound. All of a sudden, the entrance was blocked and a much brighter light was shining in their eyes.

"Hey! In here! I found somebody!" a voice shouted. Hands reached in and dragged the two of them out of the crevice and pushed their faces into the dirt. Immediately their hands were tied behind their backs and they were forced to sit up. They confiscated of all their weapons and their packs were tossed aside after being emptied of their supplies.

"Who dares trespass on my mountains?!" the woman's voice demanded, approaching them. Out of the corner of his eye, Kakashi could see Nayamae shaking terribly. She kept her eyes to the ground as the woman came into view. She was much taller than Kakashi remembered seeing her in Nayamae's memories, but her cruel demeanor was definitely the same. Her long, dark hair was more gray now, and was braided down her back. The scar running through her face and neck had not aged as well as she had and was rather a horrid looking blemish on her skin. Her green eyes pierced through the two of them.

Shinjou.

Dun dun duuuuuuunnnn! What's going to happen next? Stick around for the next chapter to find out!

Thanks for reading!