"DAMN IT KŌHĪ! Why the hell did you have to do that?" I yelled at her.

"HEY! I didn't make you come down!"

"Yeah, well, Natsūme DID! And she went down after you!"

"I didn't make her do anything either!"

"YOU JUMPED DOWN INTO TEAM KAKASHI'S TAIJUTSU TRAINING! YOU WERE BEGGING TO GET KILLED!" I almost screamed, pacing back and forth, gesturing madly.

"But I'm part of the Leaf Village! Why would they kill ME?"

In response, I gesture angrily to her Sand Village headband. "Because it looked like you were attacking them, BAKA!"

"…Oh…."

"EXACTLY! YEAH! And because of that, we had to save your stupid butt. And now Kakashi is going to KILL ME!"

"Well why would he kill you if he thought I was from an enemy village?"

"I hate you. He's going to kill me because," I took a deep breath," YOU JUMPED DOWN THERE AND I HAD TO SAVE YOUR ASS AND THEN I GOT IN A FIGHT WITH THAT EMO BASTARD SO IT WAS OBVIOUSLY ME! AND I TOLD KAKASHI THAT ONE OF MY FRIENDS ALWAYS WEARS A SAND HEADBAND!" I screamed.

"Ooooooooh….."

I began to punch the wall, when Natsūme came up behind me and threw me on the floor.

"Don't break the wall."

"Sorry, Neko-chan."

She handed me a shopping bag filled with Jolly Ranchers.

Ooooooooh….So that's where she's been for the last few minutes.

"He's going to ground you. You might as well have these, since he definitely won't give you any ramen."

"Ugh….why do you have to be right?"

"And we're going to get our asses handed to us too. Tsunade is going to kill us. Which is why I got this."

A squeaky little mouse popped out of her pocket. I could tell it was taking all of her self-restraint not to chase it like a cat. Instead, Kōhī grabbed it and started to snuggle it against her face.

"Umm….why did you get a mouse?"

"It's one of Sai's little spy mice. It's a special kind, which only disappears if he kills it. It'll sneak around and we'll send messages."

"You and Kōhī share a house…why didn't you just get a pair of radios?"

"Because, baka, Tsunade is going to have us on lockdown inside of our rooms. Kakashi's just gonna keep you in the house."

"DAMN IT ALL!"

"Yeah. I know."

"No that's not what I mean. I mean, why are we still getting grounded? We're almost seventeen, but we're still getting grounded." I growled.

"Oh shit." Kōhī muttered.

Natsūme and I both turned to stare a Kōhī with wide eyes.

"Kōhī? Did you just cuss?"

"Shut up Natsūme. Ijōna, I'd advise you to run."

"Why?"

"Because I'm a sensory-type. Right now, I'm sensing Tsunade and Kakashi. So, run."

"SHITFIRE!"

I shoved the bag of Jolly Ranchers into my weapon bag, and ran into Natsūme's room. She followed after me.

"WHY ARE YOU JUMPING OUTTA MY WINDOW?"

"Cuz it faces another roof. Not the street."
I yanked open the window, kicked out the screen, and launched my self onto the next roof.

I was two roofs away, when I heard her say, "Bitch kicked out the screen! KAMI TSUNADE IS GONNA KILL ME!"

…

I dived through my open window (which I always kept open if I needed easy entrance to my room) and landed on my bed. I jumped up, and rapidly began to change into my house clothes, just to try and see if it would fool him enough so he thought I'd been home all day.

I yanked my top down, covering the large scar than ran down my chest.

I buttoned the last button, and looked over and up-

To see Kakashi sitting in my open window sill, reading his book.

"HOLY SHIT KAKASHI! HOW THE LONG HAVE YOU BEEN THERE?"

"Since you changed your socks."

"….Kakashi…I CHANGED MY SOCKS FIRST!"
I chunked a book at him, but he easily dodged it.

"You can't do stuff like that, Kakashi." I groaned, mentally puking. "It's called pedophilia. And since you have your porn, DON'T BE WATCHIN' ME GET DRESSED! YOU HAVE YOUR ENTERTAINMENT!" And I threw a barrage of hangers at him.

And then he was behind me, picking me up by my shirt collar and throwing me onto my bed.

"RAAAPE!" I shrieked, when I fell on my bed and saw him looming angrily over me. Then he smacked his hand over my mouth to shut me up.

"Shut it. You think you're funny? You know what, its not. You're going in the wrong direction for a respectable shinobi. You're seriously overdue for a reality check." He took his hand off of my mouth, and loomed over me, arms crossed over his chest.

Craaaaaaaaaaap…

I sat up, and crossed my arms and legs, glaring at Kakashi.

"A "respectable shinobi?" I AM a respectable shinobi!"

"You remember that night we met?" he said softly, his voice thickly muffled by his mask.

"Yeah? Why?" I snapped.

"Just think about it."

**seven years ago**

I stood in front of the memorial stone, trying not to cry. Not that it would make a difference, it was already raining.

…

Mama and Daddy. Killed in action. No one ever found their bodies. That four man team of mine and Natsūme's parents was slaughtered. Her mom came back, and died within an hour of crawling through the gates, half dead and losing blood. The little she had left anyway…

Her dad had disappeared with mine.

I let my fingers trace the characters of my mother's name.

"Shigana Wotamari"

I'm the last Wotamari. No relatives, no parents. I'm on a one way track to an orphan's life, at the age of 9. I'm perpetually hopeless.

Natsūme has been claimed by her great-aunt, the woman came last week. The blonde, pig-tailed woman had taken my best friend and disappeared with her.

I've been in the orphanage for two and a half weeks, and now I've become friends with Kōhī Takigata, whose entire 15 person family had died when her family shrine had caught on fire, and she was rescued by a sand shinobi, who gave her his headband. She has this promise to herself, that she'll always keep the headband safe, and when she meets him again, she'' give him the headband and they'll fall in love. Happily ever after.

Kōhī is an innocent-to-the-core girl, who didn't deserve this. She still wakes up screaming about fires and matches. I have to hold her or she won't calm down, she'll just shake and stare blankly.

It's horrible. She didn't deserve anything that happened to her.

Looking at the black stone as it gleamed in the moonlight, I thought,

Did I deserve this?

I stared at two of four freshly carved names.

"Shigana Wotamari"

"Hiroshi Wotamari"

And then the tears that I had been holding back for weeks broke through the wall of my self control.

I collapsed to the ground, clutching my knees against my chest. I gasped for air, as my face was pelted by unforgivingly cold rain. My clothes soaked through with water, and my body felt heavy. I began to convulse with exhaustion and cold. My teeth chattered violently as I shook, and I wondered,

If I die now…will anyone notice that I disappeared? Someday I'll be nothing but a name carved into a stone. Why put off the inevitable?

As I began to feel dizzy, lying down on the concrete, a sharp pain slashed across my chest. I choked, and then a feeling of warmth washed over me.

So this is death? I didn't expert it to be so…warm. Maybe it's the blood. I can smell it.

And then I felt movement, like I was being carried through the woods separating the Village and the memorial stone.

…I was noticed.

**end flashback**

KAKASHI P.O.V.

Ijōna's eyes glazed over as she thought back. I let my thoughts flash back to that night too.

**seven years ago**

I felt that old familiar pull, that tell-tale force that tugged me to the memorial stone. I could spend hours in front of that stone, just thinking.
I walked indifferently through the rain, just walking steadily towards the stone. I had visited so many times over the years; I get there without even thinking about it anymore. As I neared, I heard a sound like screaming and crying.
A small figure was hunched in front of the stone, making those sounds. She shook, whether from her sobs or from the cold, I couldn't tell. As I got closer, I decided it was probably both. Her sobs quieted, and she slumped hard onto the concrete.

She let out a faint sound, something between a moan and a whimper, and I picked her up. Her hand slipped over the stone, leaving a muddy streak. I slipped my sweatshirt over her head, trying to warm her up some. She felt like ice.

The mud was quickly being washed off by the rain, and I looked to see which names she had been mourning over.

…Shigana and Hiroshi Wotamari. They had died about three weeks ago…leaving a sole heiress. Named Ijōna.

Her body was still cold, but one part of her chest was warm. And wet. And sticky.

And it smelled like blood.

I tried to heal her as best I could with one hand while I ran through the trees. The wound did nothing but bleed slower. She was really shaking now. She must be freezing…the blood isn't flowing throughout her body anymore.

I set her gently on the ground, and quickly drew a seal on a tree with the pooling mud. I transported us directly into the hospital, not a foot from the reception desk.

Several people jumped at the sudden appearance, but all the nurses quickly took the girl from me. One stayed to ask me a few questions.

"Kakashi-san, who is this girl? How do you know her?"

"Her name is Ijōna Wotamari. I found her at the memorial, with that huge gash, crying her heart out."

"Ijōna Wota-….Kakashi she's an orphan. We can't do anything besides sew up her wound. We can't even administer medication! Wait, Kakashi-san don't go-KAKASHI-SAN!"

I teleported into the Hokage's office, slamming my hands on his desk. I would get hell for being so rude later, but right now, only one thing was on my mind.

"Hokage-sama, I need to talk to you about an adoption."

**end flashback**

IJŌNA P.O.V.

I woke up in a bed softer than mine, in a room warmer, and cleaner, than mine. I wasn't at the orphanage, that's for sure.

A nurse was at the foot of the bed, scribbling on a clipboard. The sounds of her scratching pen must have woken me up.

"Ummm….Ma'am? Where exactly am I?"

"OH! You're awake! You're in the hospital, sweetie."

"The…hospital?"

"Yes. The hospital. Now, does it hurt? I'm supposed to be administering your medication."

"No…it doesn't hurt….And I thought you couldn't administer any medication to an orphan."

"Awww…Honey, you were adopted!"

"…I was?"

"Mhmm…now I have to go! Bye bye!" and with that she ran off and disappeared out the door.

"WAIT DON'T GO! WHO….adopted me…."

I looked around, getting no answers to the creepily bare walls.

I scooted backwards to sit up, and a massive surge of pain seared through my chest. I gasped for breath, and slumped back down to the pillows. I choked, and puked over the side of the bed. I laid there for a few minutes, trying to calm down.

After my heart had stopped trying to pound its way out of my chest to join my puke on the floor, I stabbed a little button on my bed control thing. A little bell sound went off directly outside of the door.

Well if they put me that close to the nurses' station, I must have really screwed myself up.

A new nurse came in, then called another one in when she saw that I had spewed my guts all over their fancy shiny floor. As one cleaned up, the other changed out my IV and needled in some funky lookin' purple stuff with the clear liquid dripping through my veins right now.

They both left, so I began to flip the channels of the crappy hospital TV, very slowly.

I leaned into the pillows, getting drowsy, when I spotted the nurse's clipboard, which she had set sown when she changed my IV. I reached over slowly, deciding going through that little episode again wasn't exactly high on my list of priorities at the moment.

I snagged the clipboard, and dragged it closer to me, then brought it close so I could read it in the dim light. (Thank god they turned off the fluorescents. They hurt my eyes.) I flipped through the pages, searching for my name.

Ijōna….Ijōna…..Ijōna…..Where the HELL is Ijōna Wotamari-Wait…..

I flicked back one page, and scanned it to find another name.

Ijōna…Hatake?