Five days had passed since their return to the village. Hisa hadn't seen Oki since then, and she understood why. Both of them were trying to move on and not think about Nawaki. Seeing Oki would make the memory hurt more. Neither of them had been called for a mission, so there was no real urgent need to see each other.

Hisa spent most of the time holed up inside the house. She went out for a while every day to practise controlling the Sharingan, but she trained alone. Somehow, half the village seemed to have heard about her sharingan, and she was getting sick people staring at her closed eye, as if she was going to open it and Amaterasu them at any second. She didn't even have the Mangekyo! Naruto had seen the looks, and had decided to pull her out of the Jonin Exams. She hadn't really minded.

On the fifth day of doing nothing, Hinata had suggested that she leave the house and wander around Konoha for a few hours. She had started to object, but the look in her mother's eyes convinced her that Hinata wasn't going to take no for an answer.

So she had wandered around town aimlessly for a bit, until she saw Obito and Toruko. They were sitting on a bench and talking, but Hisa didn't pay attention to their conversation. It was unusual to see Obito without both of his teammates, and she wondered where Kawa was. She remembered what Obito had told her about Kawa's new training area, and suddenly she knew what she wanted to do today.

!

It only took her twenty minutes to find him. The training ground was good, filled with heavy boulders and rubble. It was perfect for working on jutsu like the Inuzuka Clan's.

She watched quietly as he braced himself, Kiiromaru at his side. His nails had turned into full claws, and his canines had gotten sharper and longer. He tensed, before jumping into the air.

"Fang over fang!"

The air was filled with dust and the sound of drilling. When the dust showed no sign of clearing, Hisa opened her sharingan to see what was going on. Her chakra flow jerked slightly, but the impact of using the Sharingan had begun to lessen.

Once it was activated, she could clearly make out two forms grinding a boulder into dust. She was impressed. Although Kawa should have mastered the technique years ago, his current form was flawless and the boulder didn't stand a chance.

He finished the jutsu and skidded backwards, panting slightly. It took Kiiromaru a bit longer to finish, and she could see Kawa frown at the lack of synchronisation. He watched the boulder expectantly. There were two perfect spirals drilled into it, and it wobbled for a few seconds. Hisa thought that it would collapse, but in the end it steadied itself.

Kawa cursed and punched it hard. The boulder shattered and more dust blew into the air. Hisa winced slightly; punching a boulder without any gloves had to hurt.

She watched quietly as Kawa straightened up, his back to her. He didn't do anything for a minute, and Hisa wondered if he was still angry. But when he spoke, there was only light teasing in his voice.

"Are you going to lurk around and stalk me all day, or are you going to come over here and talk to me Princess?"

She rolled her eyes. 'Princess' was getting old, she wished that he would drop the nickname, or give her a new one.

"Seriously," she called as she stepped forward "What is your problem with the name 'Hisa'? It's just four letters!"

He grinned at her, unable to see her clearly through the dusty air.

"Nicknames are better." he smirked "They piss you off, which makes me laugh. I don't see the problem."

She would have replied, but she had finally gotten close enough for him to see her new eye. His smirk slid slightly when he saw her fully, and his stared at her eye in confusion. Hisa looked at him, silently begging him not to ask. That was the reason that she came to him. Being around him was easy, and she needed that right now.

He seemed to understand, and ignored the sharingan. His smirk came back full-blown.

"So why did you come out here? Are you hoping to learn some of my superior training methods?"

She snorted.

"Keep guessing. If I wanted to know how to do one of the easiest Inuzuka jutsu, I would have asked a genin."

His eyes saddened slightly, and Hisa cursed herself. She knew that Kawa's lack of talent with Kiiromaru was a sensitive subject for him.

"I was shit, wasn't I?" he said grimly, all laughter gone from his tone.

She shook her head quickly.

"Your technique was fine; it's not your fault that the boulder didn't break. Besides, you did break the boulder in the end, just not with an Inuzuka jutsu."

That seemed to satisfy him, and the teasing grin was back on his face.

"So why are you here? Finally decided that I was irresistible and came to confess your undying love for me?"

She grinned and got into a fighting stance.

"Keep dreaming Inuzuka, I came to train."

He mirrored her stance, gesturing for Kiiromaru to stay out of the way.

"Aw. You've crushed my heart. Really. How will I ever cope with your rejection?"

She punched him in the gut and sent him crashing into a boulder. Smirking triumphantly, she watched as he dragged himself out.

"I think I'm over it." he muttered, before punching the ground and sending tremors through it.

Hisa threw herself into the fight, forgetting all of the trauma about Nawaki and focusing on his gift to her. The sharingan was especially useful when Kawa used his smoke bombs. It took her ten minutes to pin him to the ground with kunai. She could have left then, but she was enjoying the fight and it wasn't like she had anywhere else to be. So she stayed and trained some more.

By the time she got home a few hours later, she felt better than she had in days.

!

Nawaki wasn't sure how long he had spent in Obito's underground home. He occasionally saw bits of daylight, but he could never tell when a day ended and the night began. Obito's training was intense, and Nawaki took every opportunity he could to take a nap. This meant that he couldn't judge the time by his sleeping patterns either. If he was to guess, he'd say that he spent five to six days here.

He could finally use the Rinnegan for thirty seconds without needing to sit down. Nawaki had no seals to hold the Paths, which meant that he could use all six. The problem with that was that they were all so complicated. He had attempted one Almighty Push and instead summoned the King of Hell. He had been so terrified that the King had assumed that he was the target and tried to devour his soul. Thankfully, Obito had stopped it, but they had agreed to work on chakra control and basic jutsu before trying the Rinnegan again.

The Wood Style was just as hard. Nawaki was extremely reluctant to use it, as he felt like he had stolen it. It belonged to the First Hokage, and unlike Nawaki's rinnegan he hadn't been given permission to use it. Only when Obito had shown him the damage it could do did he agree to learn how to use it. He didn't want it to suddenly flare up and cover Konoha in trees.

But learning to control it was much harder than he thought. The first time he had tried, his whole right arm had turned to wood. Nawaki had been scared that he would be permanently stuck like that, but once again Obito had saved him. Nawaki was reluctant to admit it, but staying and training with Obito had been the right thing to do. He was pretty sure that without Obito's help, he would either be a tree, or lying in the stomach of Hell. Neither option sounded appealing to him.

Obito was delighted by the strength of his rinnegan, especially after being informed that Hisa could only use four of the Paths. But he had seemed slightly disappointed at the weakness of Nawaki's Wood Style. Unlike Obito, Nawaki had only needed to transplant minor parts of his body with a clone of Hashirama. This made his Wood Style a lot weaker and although Nawaki didn't mind, Obito seemed slightly annoyed by that.

Currently, Nawaki was having a small break. Obito had left him alone for a while, and Nawaki was taking the time to think about everything that had happened. As he lay on the rocky ledge, he thought about the past few days.

If he was being honest, he still couldn't believe everything that had happened. He had been so careful in Konoha to keep his sharingan a secret from his team, but that had all been blown out of the water in a few days. All it had taken was one sword swipe, and the next time he woke up he had a Rinnegan and could use Wood Style.

He could also empathise with how Hisa felt about the Rinnegan. You would think that being as overpowered as he was would be great, but it wasn't. For one thing, he couldn't control them at all, which meant that he could barely use them. For another, the Rinnegan sucked up far too much of his chakra, and although the Wood Style boosted it, it felt alien to him.

Nawaki had had a small group of fangirls back in Konoha, which had caused both his mother and his teammates lots of amusement. He had tried to be civil to them and treated them normally; even the one that fainted every time he said hello. He hadn't really cared about any of them, since he had only been focused on maintaining a friendship with Oki, but they had helped him be confident in his body.

Now it felt like he had gotten plastic surgery. The Sharingan was natural, in his blood, so he had never felt uncomfortable using it. The past experience with the Sharingan also helped him adjust to the Rinnegan. It still took a lot of energy, but he was starting to adapt to it.

The Senju DNA was a whole other story. Every time he used his chakra, he could feel the Wood Style flowing within it. To him, it felt wrong. It was unnatural and uncomfortable. He knew that it had saved his life, and he knew that he couldn't live without it, but he still couldn't bring himself to like it.

He turned his head slightly when he heard the sound of footsteps. Obito must be back from… wherever; it wasn't like he was going to tell Nawaki. One thing that annoyed Nawaki about Obito was that you never knew where you stood with him. Even after his big long speech, Nawaki still got the feeling that Obito was hiding a lot from him.

He suddenly wondered how Konoha had never found this place. If it contained the clone of Hashirama Senju, then shouldn't it have been guarded?

Obito entered the cave, and Nawaki voiced his thoughts.

"I was just wondering, how did you manage to keep this place a secret?"

Obito put his gunbai fan down, and turned to face Nawaki. After the second day, Obito had stopped using a mask to hide his face. Nawaki supposed that it was some kind of symbol of trust.

"It was quite simple actually. I faked a cave-in when they came to explore. It was a bunch of Kumo ANBU, but they weren't very good. All it took was some of the outer caves crumbling and they were convinced that the whole place had been buried."

Nawaki sat up then and swung his legs off the ledge. Keeping his right eye closed, he placed both feet on the ground and stood up. Once he was standing steadily, he opened his eye.

The effect was instantaneous. His chakra kicked into overdrive, pumping harder and harder to keep the Rinnegan going. Nawaki grit his teeth, but kept his eye open. Obito watched silently, but there was an approving smile on his mouth.

Nawaki kept his eye open for a full minute before letting it close and slumping back onto the ledge. He took a few seconds to catch his breath, before raising his head to look at Obito. Obito was grinning proudly.

"I see that your stamina has improved. Well done."

Nawaki grinned slightly. Here in the cave, Obito was the only person he had contact with. This meant that if he wanted criticism or praise, Obito was the only one who would give him any. Nawaki found himself wanting to please Obito, to make him proud. That scared him a bit.

Obito moved over to sit down on another ledge. Nawaki frowned. Normally when Obito returned they would jump straight back into training. Something strange was going on.

"I have a pleasant surprise for you." Obito announced. "I've managed to make contact with your mother."

Nawaki's heart leapt. Sakura was coming here? He hadn't realised until now how much he had missed her. With everything that had happened to him, he needed someone who he knew would always be there for him. He needed his mother.

"Where is she? Is she coming here? When will I see her?"

He was standing know, staring beseechingly at Obito. There was a glint in Obito's eye that he didn't like, but he would worry about that later.

"Calm yourself child. She's travelling here as quickly as she can. She heard about what happened and she wants to say that she loves you and isn't mad about you revealing your sharingan."

Nawaki sat back down again. His mother was coming. He would be safe. Somehow, it didn't matter anymore if Obito was manipulating him. As long as was with his mother, she would protect him.

He shook his head slightly, because it wasn't good to think like that. He knew that his mother couldn't protect him from everything, but after all that had happened, the thought of seeing her gave him hope. Maybe this could all work out in the end.

Obito stood up and gestured towards the door.

"Come. Let's continue your training."

Nawaki sighed slightly, but obeyed.

!

Two days after her training session with Kawa, Hisa decided to visit the memorial stone. Nawaki's name had been carved onto it yesterday, and Oki had already been down.

She wasn't surprised to find Kakashi waiting there. Even after finding out that Obito was alive, he still visited the stone a lot. She assumed that it was for Rin and Minato, but maybe he had other reasons. You never knew with Kakashi.

They stood there in silence for a while, staring down at the stone. Hisa thought that Kakashi had fallen asleep, until he made a little snorting noise. His body shook slightly, and Hisa stared at him in wide eyes. Oh Kami, please don't let him be crying. She really couldn't handle that.

To her surprise, she realised that he was chuckling slightly, not crying. She stared at him in confusion, and he turned to stare at her. Although he kept chuckling, his eyes were sad.

"It's funny, isn't it?" he said casually. "How Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura took after the Sannin? I thought that it was a onetime thing, that history would never repeat itself so closely. Turns out I was wrong." He chuckled again. "You're the next generation me. One teammate dead on a mission, the other heartbroken but trying to stay strong. Heck, you even have the transplanted sharingan"

She didn't know what to say. She had never seen Kakashi be so personal. He was always detached when he talked to them. Kind and funny, but not open. Seeing him like this was strange, especially since his words were partly true.

"Trust me on this; don't waste your life blaming yourself. It happened, and it wasn't your fault. You didn't cut his lungs open. Who knows? Maybe he's exactly like Obito, out there somewhere with Senju DNA pumping through his body."

Hisa smiled slightly. If only.

"I wish that was true." she murmured. "I'd like him to be alive, but there's no way he can be. No one was out there to save him. He's dead."

Kakashi shrugged slightly.

"In that case, treasure his memory, but move on. Help your teammates too. I've seen Oki around town, but Konohamaru has disappeared off the radar, I'm starting to worry about that kid."

"I'm touched Kakashi. Really."

They turned to see Konohamaru lazily sitting on a tree branch. His eyes were dull and he had a blank expression on his face.

"Where've you been?" Hisa asked.

"You look like shit." Kakahsi added helpfully.

Konohamaru shrugged slightly and dropped off the branch onto the ground. He walked over slowly to them and stared down at the memorial stone.

"I've been having sex with Hanabi." he muttered. "I'd forgotten how good she was."

Hisa grimaced, while Kakashi looked vaguely intrigued.

"Sensei, I did not need to hear that." she said.

He shrugged again, his eyes on the stone.

"I've been your sensei for years now, and yet you guys barely know me." he said "I know you, Hisa, pretty well thanks to Naruto, but Nawaki… he barely knew anything about me. I'm not going to let that be the case with you and Oki."

Kakashi put his hand on Konohamaru's shoulder.

"A word of advice." he said gently. "Start with things like your favourite colour or your favourite book, not your sex life."

Konohamaru chuckled, and the sombre mood was broken.

"I heard what you said earlier," he said "About Hisa being the new you. If that makes me the new Yellow Flash, then I'm fine with that."

Kakashi's mask crinkled into a smile.

"Good to know." he said. "To be honest, I've no idea what I was talking about. It just popped into my head how similar the two situations are."

Hisa wasn't paying that much attention. Her mind was filled with images of her sticking a Chidori through Oki, while Nawaki watched. Thankfully, she knew it would never happen. She didn't know how to do a Chidori, and she doubted that she would ever have to kill Oki.

She tuned back into the conversation just as Konohamaru explained why he was here.

"Naruto told me to get both of you. Apparently you're going on a mission, along with him, Oki and Sasuke."

Hisa frowned. Why would Naruto want her and Oki on a mission with him and Sasuke? If the mission was dangerous enough for the Hokage and his Second, not to mention Kakashi, then why the hell was he bringing two Chunin along?

When she asked Konohamaru, he just shrugged.

"Don't ask me. Naruto just told me to get you two, and that I would be filling in as Hokage while he was gone. It seems pretty important, so you best hurry."

She took off as soon as he finished, Kakashi following behind her at a much more leisurely pace. As they made their way to the Hokage building, Hisa couldn't shake the feeling that this mission somehow concerned Nawaki. She suddenly thought of the Edo Tensei jutsu, and wondered if someone had done it on Nawaki. If she was forced to fight him, she didn't know if she could handle that.

A/N Once again, sorry for the wait in updating. The next few chapters will be heavy, and I want to get them right. That's the main reason why it's taking so long.

A quick note for Dave Brooks, who left an anonymous review saying that he had drawn some fanart for this story. Thank you so much! It's an honour to think that people like this story enough to do that. If you want to PM me with a link to the picture, I'd love to see it.

Once again, thanks for the reviews and I'll try and update by next week.