Sorry for the late update, I just haven't felt like writing. Thanks so much for the reviews though! I always read them even if I don't respond. Read and Review!

Day 9677

Kakashi sighed as he entered Ume's apartment closing the door behind him. The room was uncharacteristically filthy, clothes everywhere, her ANBU uniform wadded up and thrown in a corner, still covered in dried blood and riddled with small kunai holes. He shook his head and made his way to the closed bedroom door.

Filth yet again... but to no Ume.

Kakashi sighed left the bedroom and quickly moving to lock the door to the apartment before performing a quick set of hand signs. Next he checked the memorial stone, then the ANBU graveyard and there wasn't a blond-headed kuniochi in sight.

Gritting his teeth in frustration, Kakashi ran through a list of other possible locations. He soon ran out of ideas and raised his head, wiping a hand over his face. Glaring out at Hokage Mountain, he chuckled suddenly.

Why hadn't he thought of that?

A second later, he reappeared on top of Hokage Mountain and the beginning of the ramp that led to the left side of the Third's monument. He started down the ramp, spotting a little blond speck tucked into a corner. As he got closer he realized that she was leaning back against the side of the monument, her arms wrapped around her knees. He sucked in a breath, there were deep bags under her eyes and she had lost yet more weight in the month and a half since the Third's death.

The temporary suspension of ANBU operations until the next Hokage was named had given her more time than was healthy for her to sit and mull over the Chuunin Exam debacle. She had been impossibly upset after the Third died, now, if possible, she was worse.

Kakashi squatted down in front of her, brushing her loose hair from her eyes. "Ume?"

She looked up, her eyes bloodshot and glassy.

Kakashi waited for a response and never received one. "I haven't seen you in a while."

She shrugged and tucked her chin into the circle of her arms, breaking eye contact.

"How long have you been out here?"

"Midnight."

Kakashi cursed and moved to lift her to her feet by her arms. Ume flinched away from him, protesting weakly as he swung her into his arms.

A swift succession of hand signs brought the two back to Ume's apartment. He set her down on her feet and as he unlocked the door, she tried to move away from him towards the stairs out of the apartment building. He grabbed her arm and tucked her against his body as he jerked the door open.

Closing and locking the door behind him, he gently pushed her into the living room of the apartment, watching perplexed as she stared, almost horrified at her ANBU uniform. He walked pass her, picked up the uniform and brought it into the kitchen, hiding it from her view.

Walking back towards her, he ushered her into her bedroom. "Go get cleaned up." Kakashi tugged on her shirt, trying to persuade her to lift her arms.

She stared blankly at him.

"We're going to lunch with Asuma."

She winced. "No."

Kakashi shook his head and pulled a kunai out of one of his utility pockets, literally cutting the shirt off of her. "Do you want the rest of your clothes to survive this encounter?"

She glared at him and began to remove the rest of her clothing, looking so completely miserable that he laughed despite the rather depressing circumstances. "I'm asking you to take a shower, not to go drown yourself, calm down."

She just glared at him and moved towards the shower.

Kakashi sighed, and listened for the rush of water. "You have ten minutes and then I'm coming in there!"

The shower turned on and five minutes later, he was stripping out of his own clothes. He entered the steamy bathroom and pulled open the shower curtain. Ume was sitting under the shower head, arms wrapped around her knees.

She glanced up at him, her eyes tired and resigned. "I'm not drowning myself, you can rest easy."

Kakashi stepped into the shower, squinting as water hit him full in the face, and pulled her to her feet and into his arms. "Do you really think that the only thing I am worried about is you not killing yourself?"

Ume shrugged listlessly against him, her head against his shoulder. "You seem to waste a lot of time and energy keeping me-"

"It's never a waste, Ume."

She chuckled mirthlessly. "Are you sure?" She lifted herself from him and stepped back, wrapping her arms around herself and turning from him.

Kakashi picked up a bar of soap and, lathering it in his hands, he rubbed his hands across her shoulders, squeezing gently.

Ume stiffened under his hands and tried to pull away from him. "I failed royally, Kashi. There's no coming back from this."

"You're being overdramatic." His dropped a kiss behind her ear. "You did the best that you could. The intel was faulty, you had no-"

She pulled completely away, rounding on him with more emotion than he had seen since he made her come home. "Stop offering excuses for me! I failed, Kakashi. I lost six ANBU ninja under my command and a Hokage! I killed the Third Hokage. I let him die!"

"How could you have stopped it?" Kakashi rarely ever raised his voice and Ume jumped, staring at him wide eyed. "How, Ume? You've seen Orochimaru in action, so how would you have handled him? What jutsus would you have used to disable him? You saw what the Hokage resorted to and Orochimaru survived even that! So how would you have done better?"

Ume looked down and away. "If only I could have bought the Hokage some time-"

"You would have never survived."

"I would gladly-"

"Don't you dare." Kakashi's jaw clenched.

"It's a reality of our work, Kakashi, you're ex-ANBU, you-"

"So it's okay if you suffer and die for the village but the Hokage needs your permission to die-"

She glared at him. "We need the Hokage, Kashi, his death has torn the bleeding heart out of this village, we mourn-"

"I would mourn-"

She was getting impatient, which was out of character for her. "It's not the same, Kashi. You know this. The Hokage... Hiruzen-sensei's death has had effects beyond the immediately obvious. My death-"

"-Would break Anko, Kurenai and Asuma's hearts."

"-Would be almost completely anonymous, I would be just another black marble cube in a sea of black marble cubes. The sixteenth Weasel to be interred in that cemetery." Her face was blank and cold. "Did you know that my predecessor died on his first mission as an ANBU? He made a careless mistake ended up at the bottom of a ravine. The Weasel before that was captured by enemy operatives and tortured. And before that, Weasel was poisoned on a mission and didn't make it back, he was only seventeen, had been an ANBU less than a year. I'm the only Weasel to ever make past five years of service and the only captain. When I got my mask, my training captain laughed and said that it figured that I got the Weasel mask. He said that Weasel's never make it very long." She chuckled lowly. "I'm living on borrowed time as it is."

"Stop it." Kakashi leaned over her, caging her against the tile wall of the shower, nearly growling as he glared down at her. "Stop acting so glib about death. It doesn't suit you."

"Maybe it should." Ume shrugged. looking down at her. "Maybe life would be easier if I was comfortable with death."

Kakashi cursed. "A month ago you were begging me to make sure you didn't disappear, now it seems you're rushing towards anonymity, make up your fuckin' mind and pull your head out of your ass." He slung the shower curtain open violently, water spraying everywhere and stepped out of the shower with his back turned to her. "Stop trying to be noble and accept the gift the Hokage gave you." Kakashi turned towards her. "He loved you like a daughter, treated you better than your own father did. There is no way he was disappointed with how you handled yourself on the battlefield, but he'd be ashamed of you if he could hear the way you're speaking now. Get out of the shower and get dressed. It's time for lunch."

"We have a new Hokage."

Ume's head jerked up from her ramen. "Who?"

Asuma smirked, knowing he had got her attention. "Well, Squirt, if you hadn't isolated yourself from the world this last month and a half, you would have known that they have been looking everywhere for Lady Tsunade."

"Tsunade?" Ume nodded. "She is a good choice. She will make a fine Hokage."

Asuma shrugged. "She's not my dad but she will do."

Ume winced away from Asuma, shifting on her stool. Whispering into her bowl, she apologized, and Asuma stared back at her.

"What are you apologizing for?"

Ume took a shaky breath and met his eyes skittishly, shrugging.

Asuma growled and looked at Kakashi. "What the hell is going on?"

Kakashi grunted. "She fels responsible for the Hokage's death."

Asuma laughed sarcastically. -_"Don't tell me Ume, are you a Sound spy too?"

Ume glared at him. "No I am not."

"I'm joking, Runt." Asuma pulled her into a half-hug. "My dad used to sit up and worry about you when you were on missions. He would sit up all hours of the night wondering if maybe he pushed you too hard, or allowed you to push yourself too hard. He used to call you his favorite child. Said that unlike his actual children, you were quiet, respectful and obedient."

Ume chuckled and called for a bottle of sake. Pouring herself some, she shook her head. "My dad was always disappointed with me. I was always too much of something and too little of something else. Too tomboyish, not feminine enough to attract a good husband. Too ambitious, not content enough with the simple life. Too obstinate and stubborn, not willing enough to take good advise when it was given." She downed her first saucer of sake. "I don't know if you guys remember, it was a while ago, but when I was fourteen, I caught a sword in my shoulder during my first mission as a jounin. It was the first time I had actually been seriously hurt during a mission.

"I went home, expecting my father to ignore me and some hysterics from my mother but my father told me that he had told me so, that he knew that I was going to get hurt or worse killed. He demanded that I quit and find a different job, one that was less dangerous and would allow me enough time to get married and have children. I told him that he was crazy and that I loved being a ninja, despite the danger. I then went a step further and told him that in the ninja world, I was an adult and that he couldn't make my decisions for me anymore. He told me to get out of his house, that I was his biggest disappointment in life. And now it seems that I have disappointed an entire village and let down the only other parental-type figure I had."

Kakashi shook his head, and poured himself some sake. "Don't be stupid. You fought hard for him and he knew it."

"Regardless, I failed."

Asuma reached for the bottle and sighed. "Then we all failed."

"I can't believe I let it get this bad." Ume swiped a hand across her face before beginning to clean. Within the space of an hour, the apartment was neat and tidy, dishes clean and put away and clean laundry hanging on a line.

Kakashi sat himself on the couch, watching impassively as she erased the evidence of her depression over the last couple months. He pulled his book out of one of his utility pockets and Ume disappeared into the kitchen, putting a pot of water on to boil and rustling around the cabinets. "Feel better?"

Ume walked back into the living room, shrugging with the tattered remains of her ANBU uniform wrapped around her hands. Quickly and efficiently, without much thought, she began to shred the uniform.

Kakashi watched as she then opened her uniform hiding spot and threw the shredded fabric into the floor space by the trunk. "Do you have another?"

Ume nodded. "Of course. But I have to remember to take this to headquarters so I can dispose of it."

Kakashi nodded and patted the seat next to him. "You need to sleep tonight."

Ume chuckled. "I haven't been sleeping well."

"That much is obvious."

Ume flopped onto the couch next to him and opened her mouth to speak.

"Nagasaki-taichou."

Ume sighed and stood from the couch, walking over to the sliding glass door that led to her balcony, where the Lion-masked ANBU stood waiting.

"Lion, how have you been?" She walked out onto the balcony, closing the door behind her and shooting Kakashi a look. He immediately stood and walked into the bedroom.

"I am well, thank you Taichou. Your presence has been requested by the Hokage."

"Thank you, Lion. When?"

"Thirty minutes."

Ume nodded, dismissed the messenger and reentered her apartment, quickly undressing and donning her uniform and white cloak. Kakashi exited the bedroom and sighed. "Now?"

Ume nodded. "The... the Hokage calls."

Kakashi shrugged and watched her silently as she placed her mask over her face. "Hope it won't take too long. Be here when you get back."

Ume nodded and after a quick succession of hand signs, disappeared in puff of smoke.

"Your records are impressive, Weasel-taichou, especially considering that you are civilian-born."

Ume nodded slowly. "Is that what you called me here to discuss, Lady Hokage?"

Tsunade laughed. "Hell no, but I must say: I am impressed. You are not only the only civilian-born ANBU captain in Black Ops history, you are also currently our most experienced captain, with a little over eight years under your belt. The Third has recorded you main strengths as taijutsu and leadership, with a definite penchant for Earth-Release ninjutsu. You are normally calm and rational, slow to anger, but you have a tendency towards over-simplification, naivety, and biting off more than you can chew. And once you do loose control of your anger, you are hard to reign back in." Tsunade levelled a frank stare at her and Ume blushed under the mask. "And it appears that you do not know how to feed and take care of yourself."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Every ANBU that I have spoken to today holds you in high regards, Cat and Boar are especially fond of you." Tsunade sighed deeply and shuffled the papers on her new desk. "Let's get down to it. As you know, one of the causalities of the invasion was Aikihiko Harada, the only other captain with experience comparable to yours. You two were the unofficial head-captains of ANBU and now I am suggesting that we make it a little more official."

Ume's head shot up. "Excuse me, Ma'am?"

"You are going to help me run ANBU. I have been gone too long, I don't know my ANBU as well as you and I can't make informed decisions based on my lack of information. So I will need you."

Ume snorted. "I am wholly unqualified for the position, Lady Hokage."

"Because of the Third's death?"

Ume flinched and nodded.

"Yeah, Cat mentioned that you have an overly guilty conscience, too." Tsunade smiled. "But you don't have a choice. Report by my office tomorrow morning, we have missions to plan."

"Yes Ma'am!" Ume bowed and left the office.

Kakashi looked up from his book as Ume wandered into her bedroom, still wearing her uniform sans mask. "What happened?"

Ume chuckled shrilly. "I think I was just promoted."