"Dad?"

Kakashi looked over at his daughter from the stove. "Yeah, sweetheart?"

"You're leaving tomorrow to go back to the ANBU, right?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Why do you ask?"

"Taio's an Earth affinity, but he didn't know. Could I take some of your scrolls and teach him?"

Kakashi blinked, surprised. "Sure."

"Thank you!" She ran over and hugged him.

{|}

The moon twinkled in the night sky. Its brilliant luminescence washed over the sleeping world and into the bedroom of Nakasha Hatake. At the doorway to said room lingered the Copy Nin, simply watching the girl sleep. Her face was angelic, her pale skin and silvery white hair hazing together in their borrowed radiance. Above her head rested her graduation photo and a photo of her team.

I'm going to miss you.

He stared on, deep into the night, wishing that he didn't have to go back to work. His baby had become his world over the last six years and despite the fact that he hadn't spent every waking moment with her, he was always nearby. His mission tomorrow would lead him into the Hidden Stone, which was farther away than he wanted to be.

I don't want to leave you.

{|}

Anita looked around. "Where's Nakasha? I thought for sure she would be there to see us off."

Kakashi shook his head silently. Tenzou's jaw fell open.

"You didn't even tell her you were leaving!"

"I told her that I had a mission today, but I didn't wake her up to say goodbye, no."

The moon still illuminated the night sky with a hint of a red dawn overcoming the horizon.

"We better make a pit stop then at Kakashi's to tell that sweet little girl that we're off." Guy said, as if the idea was the most natural in the world.

"No. She's sleeping." Kakashi protested. "We leave her."

"Jerk!"

The four ANBU spun around. Nakasha nearly tackled Kakashi to the ground with the force of her hug. She had on her gear, albeit messily. Her hitai-ite was partially covering her left eye and her neck material was caught around her chin.

Kakashi, however, was mesmerized. In the faint, distant light of the dawn, Nakasha's hair was no longer a gleaming silver, as it was at night, or a dull white, like it was in the day. No, now it was an inky red, like blood. It looked like the tips of her hair had been soaked in blood.

She adjusted herself in his arms, looking more like herself than her father. Then, she pouted.

"Didn't even bother to wake me up! Jerk. This is your first mission since I was born and you'd just vanish on me? What if I woke up scared only to find that you're not there? What do I do when I don't even know you've left yet?" The sass in her voice calmed and took on a breathy, whisper-like tone. "What if the fear wouldn't go away?"

Kakashi crushed the girl to his chest. "I'm sorry, baby. Never again, okay? Here." The Copy Nin pulled out a ring of white gold with silver characters etched into it.

She took it curiously, slipping it onto her finger and marvelling at its dull red gleam. "Whose was it?"

"I got it as a gift from an old teammate of mine." He smiled at his daughter.

"Who was it?"

"You wouldn't know him." Kakashi smiled again and put her down. "Say goodbye to the others because we have to go soon. Hokage's orders."

"I'm staying home alone, right?"

"Yes. I've already talked to Shikamaru and you go to him or Naruto if you have any problems. That includes ones with Daimo."

"Okay Dad. I'll be good." She scampered over and hugged the other ANBU in his team, kissing Tenzou's cheek swiftly as she made her way back to her father. "Maa, you be good too. I don't wanna have to break you out of prison."

"Ne, I will be." He smiled at her. "Go back home and get some rest before training begins. We can't have you follow us to the gates, no matter how much I'd like you to."

"Bye guys!" Nakasha gave them one last wave and a smile before vanishing into the reddening moon.

{|}

It was one in the morning and after a long, tiring day with his genin, Shikamaru was dead on his feet. He groaned to himself when a soft, shy knock on his door stopped him from falling into bed like he'd planned.

Something in him, however, told him to answer the door instead of ignore it, like he normally would have.

"She's prone to night terrors." Kakashi had explained.

The Nara man trudged over to his front door and unlocked it.

"I think it might have to do with me. I never cover my eye around her and I think my Sharingan might be bleeding into her subconscious a little at a time."

Before him, soaked to the bone in the pouring rains that had decided to come that night, was a shivering little Nakasha Hatake. She was only wearing a small pair of shorts and her father's shirt with a small ring. Lightning struck and she jumped, curling in on herself.

"S-S-S-Sh-Shikamaru-s-sensei?" She whispered, her voice cowed with fear.

Without a second thought, he swept her up into his arms, bringing her to his bathroom and filling the small tub. He helped her out of her clingy clothes and lowered her ghostly-chilled body into the steaming water. She yelped at the sudden sting of the heat, but melted into it after she thawed. Shirtless and in his sleeping pants, Shikamaru sat on the edge of the tub stroking her hair until she calmed. She'd fallen asleep not too soon after she stopped shaking completely.

Gently, Shikamaru pulled her out of the tub, draining it, then drying her. He found an old shirt of his own and bundled her in it. He threw her clothes into the dryer with his and let the machine run.

"What happened to you?" He asked softly, laying down next to the little girl. "They must have been bad for you to come here in this weather."

She cuddled the hand with the ring closer to herself and snuggled further into the baggy cloth of the shirt she was in.

"You're so small for a girl your age." He wrapped his arms around her, resting his head there. "Please be okay."

{|}

Nakasha awoke to sunlight in her eyes. She grunted and tried to roll over only to be blocked by a solid wall of muscle. She looked up to see her sensei's sleeping face over hers.

She didn't even remember anything since she went to bed. She recalled the faint rumblings of thunder . . . but that was it. Nothing that would have made her act this way. Kakashi had said she could go to Shikamaru whenever she needed something, so she'll probably remember later what it was.

For now, she turned to face her sensei's chest and just let his warmth seep into her body.

{|}

"No fair! Now Shikamaru-sensei is playing favourites!" Daimo shouted, complaining a lot louder than Taio wanted him to.

"No, that's not it." Taio said back, voice low and eyes focused. "Something happened last night. Something bad."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"See the way Shikamaru-sensei looks at her? He's concerned about something to do with her. Something's not right."

"Tch. Who cares?" The taller boy snapped back. "If she's so ready, then why should he be worried? She's a brat and that's all it is. She's an only child with one parent who dotes on her."

Taio glared. "If anyone's a brat, it's you."

"Shut up! You get all the attention too!"

"Maybe if you stopped being a child about everything and grow up a little you'll finally be our calibre!" Taio screamed, his voice echoing across the training grounds and out into the forests.

"You pampered little shit!" Daimo screeched, body tensing.

Like lightning, as poetic as it was, Nakasha was on him, grappling him to the ground with strength it didn't look like she had. She held his face to the ground as she pulled his arms back, straddling his back. "Keep still and this will hurt less."

"I don't want your pity!"

"Why would I pity you? You've never lost anything, never had to fear. What is there about you to pity?" She asked, leaning over him more.

"You don't even know what those are!"

Nakasha rolled her eyes and looked to Shikamaru. The man nodded and she got off.

"One more stint like this, Daimo, and you're off the team." Shikamaru said solemnly, looking, above all, disappointed. That was what hurt him the most.