Pain gripped her body, her strength ebbing away with the flow of blood from every open wound that now dyed her attire crimson. Every limb felt like lead beneath the jaws of several dogs that held her viciously still. Shadows blurred the edges of her vision as will alone kept her conscious. There across from her stood the one that she had been sent to kill, Hatake Kakashi, his white hair such a vibrant contrast to that single scarlet eye. She'd known it was futile the moment she was told of her target but there was more at stake here then money. More than her own life and not one guarantee that things would be set straight in the end.

"Don't drag it out. Just kill me already."

For a brief moment, her thoughts were revealed in her eyes; the sheer hopelessness she felt and the acceptance of her own demise. It gave him pause and he lowered the kunai that was poised to finish her off watching her tremble from pain and fatigue in the clutches of his Ninken technique. Between them both lay the marker of those fallen, his friends; brothers and sisters in his field. Time and silence stretching out between them as he looked back trying to figure out why she what kept her going.

When she arrived he had been watching the setting sun. The sadness in her deep brown eyes had him hoping that the warning his senses were screaming were wrong. Short cut black hair shaped her head adding to the soft sculpted lines of her heart-shaped face. Long, loose, traveling robes concealing the shinobi's uniform that lay beneath. The sun had become a thin line on the horizon when he had asked her reason for visiting Konoha. Tinted light turning soft tans and browns into new shades of red and orange. From his experiences he had never expected her to speak truthfully.

"I am here on an assignment." When he had simply remained silent, she rose from where she had settled near the edge of the overlook, stepping away from him until midway to the forest path. "I came to bring back proof of a man's death."

Every muscle in his body had stiffened on the word assignment and though he still sat there as if nothing she said affected him, he was preparing for whatever would come next. Those sad eyes looking back at him over her shoulder were dry, soulless, orbs and he had known then that the fight would come.

A blur of motion and both were moving. Blows parried and returned, streaks of blood splattering the ground when a hit would connect. Her own chakras were barely being touched, as if she refused to fight at her full skill; as if she had already resigned herself to losing. For a moment they broke apart staring at each other across the expanse but it didn't last long before the silence was shattered by battle once more and it was made clear that she was no longer willing to hold back. Blood was on his palate from the blow that slipped through his defenses as her technique gave the illusion of six arms. Like a flesh and blood Shiva doppelganger limbs hid the true strike.

He had not intentionally released the Sharingan; instead, one of her strikes had forced away the cover of his protector; the sight startling her and giving him the advantage. His blow sent her skidding on her side and set the stage for her to fight with no holds barred. The moon illuminating her motions he finally called upon his special technique. From the beginning something wasn't right. There was desperation to her actions that went beyond a simple assignment. He was still prepared to kill her. If he had to.

"Don't drag it out… Just kill me already."

Those were the words that had decided it for him. "Why are you so ready to die?"

"Is that not our life? It's obvious I've failed. End it because I will not stop."

Was that regret in her eyes? Certainly sorrow had been there in the depths all along but now he witnessed regret as she watched him come to stand before her. Their faces mere breathes apart he pressed the tip of his kunai beneath her chin feeling her pulse through the tempered metal and watching fear finally rise to the surface of her gaze. "I could kill you but I'm not going to."

Putting away the weapon he stepped back and called off the dogs catching her as her legs gave out. Shock riddled her expression while trembling fingers clutched his arms, he wondered if she even realized that she had begun to cry.

"No… No, please… my…"

"Tell me why." Lowering his protector back over his eye he eased her down to the ground pressing his hand over the worst of the wounds upon her side as he watched her curl into a trembling ball in his lap.

"They took her. They have my sister's child. If I don't bring back proof of your death or die myself, he's going to kill her."

A deep frown creased his mask for a moment before she was drawn up into his arms and they were on their way down to the village to get help. "Tell me where they are."

She could not understand why he was being so gentle. No, that wasn't true. She had been watching him for days with his students and had come to understand far too much. Where he had first been merely a name, albeit well known, she was given a chance to see him as a person and had grown to despise her assignment; she understood, and with that, she told him her niece's name and where she was to bring the wanted proof.

Just before he gave her over to the medical-nin, he left her with a promise, "Let them help you. I will bring her back and I will make sure she is watched over until you are well."

Fitful sleep plagued with worries for her niece and the man that was honorable enough to take on her burden kept her from resting as she should. When they had not returned on the eve of the third day she feared the worst had happened. Not wanting to believe it but unable to deny the possibility. Only medicine had been able to get her to sleep and upon her waking she was certain that she was still dreaming.

Sunlight poured into the room as a warm weight lay against her side. Soft breathing and the scent of soap brought her gaze down to the head of deep brunette hair upon her breast. Tears flooded searching eyes that only needed look to her right to see him sitting there. His book closed and tucked it away at her waking as the movement of a smile shadowed his mask.

"Thank you. I-I owe you everything. Anything. Thank you."

He simply continued to smile and reached to brush a fallen lock of hair from the young girl's forehead, "You don't owe me anything." His gaze cut to her silencing any protest as her niece shifted without waking. "My promise remains. Go back to sleep and get better."

Nodding happily, she bound the child in her arms and with a delicate kiss to her crown let the weight of sleep draw her down into pleasant dreams.