Sorry about the long wait. I haven't been inspired lately! Thanks for all the reviews though! And keep them up, they were awesome this chapter, just the thing I needed to give me a good kick in the butt.

Day 9614

About a half a mile north of the primary ANBU compound, there lay an ever-expanding tract of land, dotted by precisely spaced rows of small stone cubes. Each stone cube is marked only by the animal codename of the ninja whose ashes are interred within the cube, no dates, no real names. These graves are kept clean and polished, a job often left to the hot-headed, reckless ANBU, (she had polished these graves more often then she cared to remember,) but there are never any flowers, no notes left for the deceased or incense burned for the souls of the dead.

Because even if a wife knew her husband's codename and could find the graveyard, which of the ten or fifteen 'Boar's or 'Rabbit's do you burn incense for?

You see when an ANBU is killed in action, there are three things that happen: their next-of-kin is notified privately of their death, they are cremated and buried on ANBU property, and a new ANBU receives their mask.

With the exception of the Hokage and other ANBU members, who are forbidden to speak of it to anyone outside of ANBU, no one will ever know how an ANBU died. It's as if they simply disappear into thin air. One minute so-and-so is there the next minute they aren't. Complete anonymity.

In fact if she hadn't known in what section of the graveyard they were buried, she wouldn't have been able to find the four ANBU killed by Kabuto Yakushi.

She sat down, pulled her knees to her chest and laid her masked forehead against her knees.

How could one Genin take out four of Kohona's finest and then get one over on Kakashi? It didn't make sense.

She fisted her hands against her legs and gritted her teeth. The next time she saw Yakushi would be the last time anyone saw that little chickenshit bastard.

"You shouldn't be here." Kakashi sat down a couple feet from her.

She didn't look at him and they didn't touch each other.

"I think out of the two of us, you shouldn't be here more than I shouldn't be here."

Kakashi chuckled briefly before sobering. "I assembled that team. Their deaths are on my conscience, you don't need to try and take the blame too."

She lifted her head and set her chin on her knees. "ANBU can't contain this..." She chuckled humorlessly. "Hell, I'm still having nightmares about Orochimaru. How can I keep my teams alive when I can't even stop the tremor in my hands?"

Kakashi nodded. "They are all experienced ninja, Weasel. They only need you to watch their backs."

Ume scoffed and stood. "I need a shower and clean clothes. I've been under this mask for a day and a half."

Kakashi stood as well, tracking her slow, stiff movements. He watched her as she said a quick prayer, hating the hollow emotionless ANBU voice she used and the mask that hid her emotions from him. When she lifted her head again, he moved closer to her. "When did you get off duty?"

Rubbing a hand over her sunburned neck, she rotated her sunburned shoulders and walked away from the graves, Kakashi matching her stride for stride. "4 AM."

Kakashi looked up at the sun, it was just now dawn, around 7AM. "You've been out here since four?"

Ume shook her head. "You know I haven't been. You tailed me from the Hokage's office."

He shook his head and chuckled softly. "I wondered if you had noticed me."

Ume looked up at him and he was sure that there was an arched brow under that mask. "You were making enough noise. I don't believe for a second that you didn't want us to know you were there."

Kakashi shrugged.

Ume stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around her body, bending over at the waist she wrapped her long blond hair in a towel. She dried off quickly, putting on underwear. On the floor outside of the bathroom, she found one of Kakashi's over-shirts. She slipped it on over the towel on her head and walked into the bedroom, towel drying her hair.

"That was a long shower." Kakashi sat up against the pillows, his ever-present book in his lap.

Ume smiled sheepishly "I sat down in the tub and fell asleep."

Kakashi pulled his mask off of his face and smiled. "I took a nap myself."

She dropped the towel in a basket by the door and walked towards her dresser. Picking up her hairbrush and pulling the thick mass of blond hair over her shoulder, she caught Kakashi's eye.

"When are Naruto and Sasuke going to start training?" She sat on the end of the bed, next to Kakashi's hip and started to brush out her hair.

"Naruto has already started to train. I'm going to give Sasuke a couple more days to heal up. No sense in training when he's still out of chakra."

Ume frowned. "Who is Naruto training with, if not with you?"

"My original plan was for him to train with Ebisu."

Ume snorted. "Did you really think that was going to work? I can't even respect Ebisu and I was one of his Genin teammates."

Kakashi chuckled and lackadaisically defended the man. "He is an elite tutor and his specialty is chakra control, which Naruto needs a lot of help with."

"Okay, so what if he is?" She sat her brush on the side table. "Asking a kid like Naruto to train with someone he doesn't respect, while you, someone he respects a lot, trains his rival, is like asking for trouble. In fact, training with Ebisu is torture to begin with. He's an elitist jackass and I can't imagine he thinks highly of Naruto."

Kakashi smiled, running a hand up her back. "He might be the only person you don't like."

She sulked. "He doesn't like me back, so no one's feelings were hurt, believe me."

Kakashi massaged the back of her neck. "I never understood why you never got along with either of your teammates."

Ume spared a dry glance at Kakashi. "Our team was doomed from the get go. A thirteen-year-old grad, a ten-year-old grad and a nine-year-old grad in one team. We couldn't stand each other. They never took me seriously and once I figured out that I couldn't make them my friends, I just gave up trying." She shrugged and ran her fingers through her hair.

"Then to add insult to injury, I was the only one from our team to make Chuunin in that first exam. Me: the no-talent civilian-born ninja was chosen over the a ninja born with a silver spoon in his mouth and one who thought his family name made him awesome." She smirked over her shoulder at Kakashi. "I think it stung at their pride a little.".

Kakashi shrugged. "I don't think Ebisu minds Naruto all that much, in fact I kind of think he likes him, but it doesn't matter; Ebisu informed me that in typical Naruto fashion, Naruto went and found his own sensei." Kakashi paused and rubbed his hand down her shoulder, causing his shirt to slide off of her shoulder. "Naruto is training with Jiraiya."

Ume stiffened and turned to face him fully, sitting cross-legged on her bed. "Jiraiya? As in Three Sannin, Toad Mountain Sage, Jiriaya?" Kakashi nodded grinning and she continued, eyes still wide. "Well, it certainly worked out for better. Think of all the things Jiraiya can teach him."

Kakashi nodded and tried to persuade her to lay down. Smiling, she brought her hair over her shoulder and began to braid it. Kakashi grabbed her hand. "Leave it, I never see your hair down."

She nodded. "That's cause it's a bitch and a half to brush out if I don't braid it before I go to bed."

"Leave it."

She shook her head and did as he asked. Laying down next to him, she sighed and made to speak.

"Don't think about it, you'll just make yourself sick," Kakashi cut her off.

"I can't stop thinking about it." Ume sighed and swiped a hand over her face. She huffed lightly and turned towards Kakashi. "Promise that if I die on duty," She paused searching for words, putting a hand to Kakashi's mouth when he tried to interrupt. "Just promise to tell my parents what really happened and help them to visit my grave every once and a while. I don't want to disappear."

Kakashi reached a hand to her cheek and pulled her down closer to his mouth. "You won't disappear."

"Promise."

He smiled. "I promise."

She always woke up slowly on her days off, her mind cloudy and confused, working harder than normally necessary to piece together the where and how of her situation. As she turned over, she tried to focus on guessing the time without looking at her clock. Judging by the light-

"It's about two o'clock in the afternoon, I went and got lunch."

Ume sat up, accepting the bundle from Kakashi. "Let's go eat this in the kitchen." She made a face. "No crumbs in the bed." She stood and followed Kakashi out into the living areas of the apartment.

Sitting down at the table, they dug in silently, munching away at the tempura Kakashi had picked up.

When they were done, Kakashi slouched back in his chair. "We have a meeting in two hours. You need to get dressed, I don't think the Hokage would appreciate you showing up in my shirt."

Ume frowned, her brow furrowing in confusion. She started to gather dishes and question him from the sink, "What meeting? I don't remember a meeting being scheduled."

"The messengers came when you were asleep. You didn't even try to wake up, you were so tired-"

"Messengers? As in plural?" She turned to look at him. "Why were there multiple messengers?"

Kakashi sighed. "An ANBU messenger stopped by about an hour after you fell asleep. I chose not to wake you up-"

"What happened Kakashi?" She leveled a solemn look at him. "Who died and how?"

"Hayate Gekko." Kakashi stood and walked towards her. "And we don't know how it happened just yet, that's what the meeting is for."

Ume paused. "Does Yugao know?"

Kakashi paused. "Yes, Yugao's team found him."

Ume sucked in a sharp breath. "She was the messenger... wasn't she?"

Kakashi nodded.

"I wasn't there when she needed me."

Kakashi shook his head. "She's on duty, she shouldn't have even stopped by your apartment, she broke protocol. You're on-"

"I am her captain, Kakashi! Her fucking captain." Ume was seething. "And one of very few female ANBU. The only friend she has that understands what she's going through. If she can't trust me to be there when she needs me, who can she take this to? Boar? Fox?"

Kakashi shoved to his feet. "Ume! Calm down." He steered her towards a chair and sat back on his haunches to look into her eyes. "Calm down and take care of yourself for a change. You've actually literally worried yourself sick. You've lost at least ten, maybe even fifteen pounds since the beginning of the exams and it's been barely three weeks!"

She waved him off.

Kakashi sighed. "I don't understand what the problem is. You've lost men before."

"Never this many." She shook her head and looked away from him. "I can deal with a failed recovery mission, we can always do that again, find another way to get at whatever objective we have. But if I fail this time... Kakashi, if I fail, we all could die, every single last one of us."

"You aren't on your own. You have ten squads, forty ninja out there, who are willing to lay their life down for this village and for you. You moping and not taking care of yourself doesn't help them and it doesn't help you." He stood and pulled her up with him.

Ume sighed and nodded. "I can't fail, Kakashi."

Kakashi kissed her quickly, sighing. Patting her on the butt, he pushed her towards the bedroom. "Get dressed the Hokage wants us."

"I'm sorry."

Yugao swiveled towards Ume on the tree branch, her mask hiding her features. "What for? Hayate's death had nothing to do with you."

Ume shrugged. "I still feel responsible... And I could have at least been there for you when you called on me."

Yugao shook her masked head. "Don't be. We all know that out of all of us, you've been having the hardest time sleeping. I was hoping to catch you before you fell asleep."

Ume nodded and turned to leave. "I can't be here and you can't be distracted... I'll just go-"

"Ume?" Ume looked over her shoulder at Yugao.

"Yeah?"

"What would you have done if it had been Kakashi?"

Ume gasped sharply and then shook her head. "Kakashi and I... Well we don't have the same kind of relationship you and Hayate had..."

Yugao scoffed. "Yeah... right. That's complete bullshit. Just because you refuse to name it doesn't mean it doesn't exist."

Ume shook her head. "Really... it isn't-"

"Don't let him die without knowing, it is not a pleasant feeling."

Ume nodded. "Hayate understood...I know he did. And I promise you: we will get revenge. I know that for a fact." She turned to leave.