Also this is completely unbeta'd! ^_^"

Eiko watched as Akiko walked down the well-travelled road, her steps taking her further away from the small inconspicuous tea house on the edge of fire country.

Eiko stares into the distance, Akiko's form long gone, stuck in the contemplation that this young child has brought before her. Something…different.

Eiko is no spring chicken, she's old, tired and cracked around the edges. She's lived through two of the great Shinobi wars and hopes never to see a third. And with all she's seen, there is still a bounce in her step though it is much smaller than when she was younger. She's had her children, she is currently looking after her only grandchild, she-devil though Fumiko can be.

But even so, she's lived a long life. Eiko has seen the rise of Hokage's and great men like Minato and Sakumo and seen them fall too. She's seen the aftermath of the nine-tailed fox spirit's rampage through the Leaf village, seen the destruction and the grief on the faces of all the citizens, on all the ninja. They all grieved for the death of their Hokage.

She's seen the start of the third ninja war, the breaking point and the spill over where all the blame was placed needlessly on the shoulders of a single father doing his best to raise his son. She saw the guilt and the miss-placed shame, she watched as the man became a shell of himself, no matter how hard she tired. She saw the way those filthy ingrains treated Kakashi, she saw the way the villagers turned on Sakumo like rabid dogs, pointing the finger all at one man who wouldn't let his pack mates die.

Eiko saw and hated it. She hated the way Sakumo reacted, hated how he turned to suicide and left his only son alone to face his life and challenges and the villagers. She saw and hated.

Eiko tried to help Kakashi, tried to take him in but the boy was too stubborn to listen to her. He was young and stupid, Eiko snorted at her own thoughts.

'He still is.' She shook her head in exasperation as she went through the early morning motions of preparing the tea. Even though Kakashi wasn't here that damn boy could still give her a headache.

In the end, after Kakashi had been assigned to a team, Eiko had formally moved out of the Leaf village and on to the outskirts of the country. While she had told her friends and other nosy people that it was an assignment or that she was testing the waters, the reason was completely different. Eiko left because she couldn't stand to be in the same village as the people who drove Sakumo to suicide and then turned their sights to his son, both praising and insulting him in a single breath.

She couldn't do it.

If she had stayed, there would be a noticeable decrease in the numbers of the civilian population.

(To this day, she still hates them even if her hate has simmered to a cold flame.)

In the end, she had found this nice and cozy tea house just along the borders of Rain and had a steady amount of customers from everywhere and a steady amount of information flowing in both directions.

Just when she had started to get her small tea house up on its feet, Kakashi lost Obito.

Eiko hired some help from a nearby farmer and hightailed it back to the leaf village.

While the boy was devastated, he wasn't broken. He still had his other teammate Rin and his teacher Minato.

After a couple of months of staying in the leaf village, checking up on her family and Kakashi, Eiko returned to her small tea house, this time bringing with her a small pit of shame. She knew what she was doing. Eiko was running away.

Eiko wasn't sure if Fate was targeting Kakashi but it certainly had something against the poor boy, as after just a year had passed, Rin died.

Once more Eiko rushed back to the leaf village to check on the only son of one of her closest friends.

This time, Kakashi was broken. Eiko couldn't fix this. She didn't know how.

(She did try but every time she did something Kakashi would push her away. Keep her at a distance. Eventually, she respected his wish. Even so, she didn't like it. It was her own fault, she had been gone too long.)

Minato, that damned pineapple yellow head sure as hell didn't make it any better by putting the poor boy in ANBU. Eiko had been there herself and even when she was there, unbroken as Kakashi was, she had a hard time keeping herself together and sane.

If she had that much trouble as a ninja who had been declared 'sound of mind' then she dreaded how Kakashi would react.

It's been five years. Kakashi still hasn't left the shadows.

Eiko worries about Kakashi, just as she worries about her own children no matter how old they are now, no matter how old they will be.

So when Eiko saw a young woman come in with Kakashi unconscious and covered in blood though the kitchen window, her heart *stopped*.

And when this strange woman laid him down on the table, for one fleeting moment she was crushed by her guilt. She should have been taking better care of Kakashi, she should have been there for him when he truly needed it.

That moment passed as quickly as it had come as the new person demanded Eiko's attention as she worked to save Kakashi's life.

Eiko's own training as a makeshift field medic kicked in as the woman spoke in the tone of the demanding doctor and if listening to her will save Kakashi's life then Eiko will put aside her pride.

Eiko hands her the required instruments and implements as she watches on, impressed by the civilian who has such steady hands and keen eyes as she stitches up the visible vein in Kakashi's leg.

As an ex-operative of ANBU she had learnt to shy away from the blood of the dead and dying, of the corpses of her teammates but there was something about the sight of Kakashi's limp body and his blood that had sent shivers down her spine. It had caused a knot of fear to form in her chest and a weight of lead to settle in her stomach.

Even though this strange woman is a civilian, she still saved the life of the boy she thought of as her own grandchild and she is grateful.

Never had she seen a civilian so brave as to restrain and treat an injured ninja who was so clearly deep in the throws of a nightmare. Civilians were always scared of the very people that protected them, scared of their power and their abilities. Fear. Something that could turn a peaceful country in a battleground. All because they were scared. She had seen it before and Eiko didn't that wouldn't happen again, perhaps not in her village, perhaps in another.

Eiko was old and not blind, she had seen the hits taken from Kakashi. There was also the scar that would forever remain on Akiko's face, all from her kindness. And then there was that look in her eyes. Eiko had seen that look in Akiko's eyes before, she had seen that urge to run and run and run and to never stop. Sometimes Eiko still sees it when she looks in the mirror.

'Such a young thing, what could she be running from?' Eiko wondered as she continued to watch the sunset.

The woman sighed as the sun sank and the sky was alight with the same burnt orange that coloured the young woman's hair. Eiko had a feeling that Akiko would return.

Hey there! Look! An update! Well...Sorta.. :) Also...this hasn't been beta'd yet.
I'm more than halfway through the next chapter of TWW so there!
Also! Check out the tumblr that I've started for this fic, they'll be updates on that site earlier than anywhere else! And even maybe some art that'll come along as the timeline moves on!
it's called: the wandering woman of naruto, just remove the spaces and add the customary ending!
Thanks!