Crossing Rubicon's

by Saphri

Rin has finally returned from her mission in a far away land. Having met up with Kakashi she realised that he still had a gravitational hold on her and resisting urges that stemmed from childhood is harder than she thought. KakaXRin.

16. Velvet Box

Hey all, I cannot apologise enough for my inactivity over the past several months. In all honesty I was so close to deleting this fic because of situations that have cropped up in the manga completely killed the muse I had to write this. But the muse was revived somehow and I VOW that I will finish this! Thank you all so much for sticking with me on this, your support has really spurred me on to keep going. I love all of you! Here's hoping that this was worth the wait and yes, I will continue to upload this fic to this site :3

Enjoy, Saph x

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Disclaimer: Naruto - Not mine, at all, how I would change it so dramatically if it was!

Velvet Box

The afternoon was pleasant, much like the morning had been, but the mood was dampened by the mission the group had been sent to complete. It was going to be a grim day by all accounts and Kakashi had a gut feeling that neither one of the squad was particularly looking forward to it. He knew he wasn't but probably for different reasons than the others.

After rendezvousing at the little tea house with very little verbal exchanges the four of them silently made their way towards the hospital which was conveniently situated out of sight of the rest of the town behind the clinic they had visited the day previous.

Rin led them down a long tree shrouded gravelled path. Small stone shrines not yet worn by weather and some with offerings of fresh flowers and the odd fruit were dotted along the track supposedly in memory of those that hadn't made it to the hospital grounds. The thought that people had died from this horrible illness along this very path sent a frosty chill up the length of Kakashi's spine. It wasn't in his nature to be bothered by such things, he hunted and killed people for a living after all, but the thought bothered him nonetheless.

He chose to focus his visual attention on his destination just as the huge behemoth of a building came in to view from behind the tall trees that shrouded the path. The hospital was a cold, sterile building and looked more like a warehouse from the outside than a place to house the sick. There wasn't a window in sight which made the shell look more bleak and lifeless. The build was modern, that much was obvious but it seemed that very little care was taken to design it around the backdrop of the village it was stationed. It was so surreal and out-of-place for want of a better way to describe it.

Kakashi hated hospitals, hated the smell, the clinical atmosphere and the idea of being surrounded by sick people. It was a shallow perception of such a place. Any town or village would fall apart at the seams without one and the copy ninja had spent more than his fair share of time within the walls of one hospital or another. He was thankful for the care he'd received over the years but that didn't mean he particularly liked it. Nine times out of ten he would be forced on a liquid diet, his stomach far too fragile to even contemplate solid food and he would lose far more weight than he could stand to lose in the first place. That and most of the medication he would receive during his time there would often make him sick which all but obliterated his appetite anyway. It was rare he left feeling any better than when he was first admitted.

At least Konoha Hospital was friendlier on the eye than this place…

Eventually they reached the entrance path to the hospital bordered by pretty hedges and shrubs that completely contradicted the building's ambience. Kakashi mimicked Rin's motions as she slowly ground to a halt before her feet hit the paving stones that lead to the hospital doors. There was no breeze that played with her hair or clothes, no sounds to tell that she was speaking or even movement to suggest that she was even breathing. It was almost as if she had been frozen in time by the sight of the hard construction in front of her.

Tenzou and Sakura did the same and came to slow stop either side of the copy nin as they all seemed to wait for her confirmation to continue although Kakashi was more than aware that Rin was merely preparing herself to step forward. The trio stood behind her didn't speak even though the minutes were ticking by. They all felt her apprehension be that for personal reasons or simply empathy.

She hadn't said anything else when they had both been in the hotel room, just merely requested an extra five minutes of his time, to pretend that she didn't have to come here, to pretend that she wasn't here at all. The more time Kakashi spent with her on this trip the more insight he managed to get of her state of mind and now she was in a very dark place. The only way he could describe the vibes he was receiving from her was like she was trapped in a nightmare but he was at a complete loss about what he could do about it. The only thing he could physically do now was just be there.

Eventually, sensing that she was again struggling with that inner demon that was preventing her from moving on, Kakashi stepped warily around her and stopped by her side. He shifted his gaze her way in the slim hopes that he would gain a reaction to be rewarded with a slight grimace pulling her mouth downwards and the tight knitting of her dark eyebrows.

Opening his mouth he prepared to speak to simply ask her if she was ready to keep going but she intercepted him by flicking her unreadable eyes his way which in turn caused him to clamp his mouth shut.

"Welcome to hell," she croaked eventually with a grim smile before she sluggishly began to trudge down the path towards the huge double glass doors of the complex.

---

The hospital was just how she remembered it; grey, cold, sterile and dead to the core. Sure there were people and medical staff milling around like in any other hospital but this place had an atmosphere about it that made it different to any other place she had worked. Rin swallowed audibly if only in a frail attempt to still her pounding heart from springing right out of her chest as she continued to force her herself forward towards the long white desk at the far end of the front foyer.

An older woman sat behind it in her throne of worn polyester but her scornful face was just as unwelcoming as it had ever been back in the day when Rin used to actually work here. The woman shot her cold steel eyes upwards as she approached and fixed her with that very same chilling glare the sent those old familiar pangs of fear shooting through her gut.

"You're late, Nohara" the old silver-haired woman snarled baring yellowed teeth as she spoke before dropping her horrible eyes back to the paper work her attention had previously sat.

"Late?" Rin repeated not understanding how she could be late seeing as she had only been sent here little over five days ago.

"Your arrival was due yesterday and we can do without dead bodies littering our morgue as it is. Doctor Kenshin is less than pleased. But with you that's no surprise, is it?" She explained in a much more regal manner than before, sitting up in her old battered chair and folding her hands over the papers on her desk.

How dare she. How dare she speak so callously of a man who had done nothing but help this wretched town, a man who'd gone the extra mile and sacrificed his own life in a bid to save thousands. It took every ounce of willpower Rin had not to lunge across the desk and bury her fist in this evil woman's horrible face. Biting her tongue hard the brunette simply narrowed her eyes at her but chose not to argue. Her efforts would be fruitless; no one ever won a debate with this woman so there was no point even trying. Not only that but arguing her point would just waste precious time. The less time she spent here the better for her sanity.

This was someone else Rin had never been all that fond of though she had managed to brush this woman's taunts and jibes away for the most part. She was just an annoyance more than anything but she had spent most of her years trying her best to avoid her. The medic had known this woman for a decade but she had never bothered to learn her name, though it was mentioned to her on more than one occasion. Rin simply addressed her as Ma'am, as did any other medic-nin who was stationed here. She wasn't kunoichi or anyone of a medical profession, she was simply an admin but this title didn't stop her from talking down to everyone that addressed her.

She was one of Kenshin's lackeys; she could do no wrong in his eyes which gave Rin the sizable hint that there was something going on between the pair of them. This had since been disproven by various sources of proof but it usually gave Rin something to giggle about when she had a spare few moments, those of which were pretty rare, just one of her guilty pleasures back in the day.

When Rin declined to answer (as it seemed the older woman was indeed fishing for an argument and was openly disappointed when Rin didn't retaliate) she reached for a large time-worn book to her left, dragged it over the desk in front of her and jabbed at one of the pages with a long bony finger.

"Sign the register and make your way to Doctor Kenshin's office. He wishes to speak to you but your friends will need to stay here," she taunted with a dry knowing smile.

Rin picked up one of the many pens scattered around the desk before she answered flatly, "This is my squad. I'm not going anywhere without them. If Kenshin has anything to say to me then he can say it in front of my team, ma'am."

The woman twisted her mouth in distaste obviously noting the defiant tone in Rin's voice. Perhaps this would be one instance where she wouldn't try to argue back and judging by the harsh sigh after she had taken a good long look at the other members of Team Kakashi it seemed Rin had actually won this one. Her victory however was meaningless. Rin had hoped an audience with the vicious Doctor Kenshin could be avoided and now it had been confirmed that – yet again – he was unhappy with her she had yet something else to dread. Today was going from bad to worse very quickly.

A thick silence dropped between them as the group quickly signed the visitor's book before the older woman began to speak again. "You know where Doctor Kenshin's office is. And you have my condolences," she grumbled dejectedly as she pushed the book to one side and continued to stare with a desirable interest at her papers.

The four members of the troupe seemed to crowd at the desk as Rin eyed each of them over apprehensively. She secretly hoped her strong demeanour was showing at this point, but one member of the team in particular was especially gifted at reading her mannerisms so she highly doubted her fear had simply passed his senses.

Eventually she nodded once and beckoned them to follow as she led them into the bowels of the hospital towards the one glass paned door that sometimes kept her awake in the small hours of the night. Rin silently hoped Kenshin showed a little restraint in front of her team though she wasn't entirely certain what she should expect. How she wished she wasn't here, how she longed to see just one friendly face but unfortunately most of the people she had become friendly with here were long gone, either home or to an early grave and all that was left now was the misery.

---

They'd been in the room all of ten minutes and already the atmosphere was so thick and stifling it could be sliced with a blunt knife. The four of them stood in formation, Rin at the front while the rest of them stood in a row at her rear, not the best possible place to shield the victim from her attacker. Not that there was much Kakashi could actually say or do at this point but it was plainly obvious to see that she was petrified of this man. Each time he flailed an arm in her general direction as he shouted obscenities at her for displeasing him in this way or that she flinched as though expecting an impact of some sort. Her movements her subtle but they reminded the copy nin of a child being scolded by an aggressive parent. When she wasn't cowering from invisible missiles she stood rigid with both hands fisted by her sides and her head bowed, this wasn't the Rin he knew now and he didn't like it one bit.

She had never mentioned the name of the man who had requested an audience with her today and by the way he spoke (or more rather spat) at her there was no surprise that she had kept quiet about him. She had introduced him to the squad as Doctor Nashi Kenshin (not that he was in the least bit interested in the rest of the group), supposedly the founder of this hospital and the chief of medicine. Perhaps the two latter pieces of information were indeed true, but Kakashi knew this man as something other than the alias he had given to the people here. It was any wonder that he hadn't been pulled up on it long before now but it seemed that he had lucked out for all these years.

Even so, this new alias he had given himself did little to keep his profile low. He was venomous and Kakashi noticed the drop in Rin's tone and meek mannerisms towards him as soon as they entered the small office. As far as he was concerned he knew nothing about this man other than the bounty that had lain on his head for the best part of thirteen years. But for now he would keep quiet even if that white-hot spear plunged into his mind every single time Kenshin opened his mouth and was causing him to lose his usually monstrous grip on his almost nonexistent temper. He couldn't depict the mood of Tenzou or Sakura who stood either side of him, his attention squared solely on the man who was tearing the woman in front of him to shreds.

Eventually that red haze descended on him as that secure grip on himself became more difficult to support, clouding his vision and flooding his head making it impossible to think rationally. The fury in his stomach as it came to the boil frothed into his throat while he stood and listened to the vicious words coming out of this bastard's mouth. He wanted to hurt him, to draw his kunai, slice him open and watch his guts spill out on to the table beneath him. Nothing would please him more now than watching this disgrace of a man die on his feet.

The carnal rage he could feel within him didn't show itself often, Kakashi wasn't quick to anger, but when it did rear its ugly head it was next to impossible to control. He was very much like his father in this aspect, he could stay cool for so very long but once he snapped there was carnage and it could be hours until he would finally come to his senses and cool off but not after venting the steam that had built up so much pressure akin an industrial boiler blowing up in a foundry. It was something the White Fang had so affectionately named 'The Red Haze'.

He kept the dog within himself at bay with a worn leash held together by a mere thread of will power as it clawed and snapped at his mind dying to break free and sink its teeth into Kenshin's withered face. The muscles in his hands twitched next to his weapon holder and the ones in his legs bracing for takeoff but he had to bide his time carefully lest the others get suspicious. He had no intentions of stripping the man of his current title, the bounty on his head was too little for such a risk, and he didn't particularly care about the crime he had committed either. But the woman he was screaming at was his, and no one had the god given right to talk to her the way he was doing. No one.

The more the doctor spoke the further Rin withdrew not knowing where to put herself or her eyes, he wouldn't give her the opportunity to speak or even defend against what he was accusing her of which served to put her further on edge.

"You never think do you? How many times have I told you to buck your ideas up? I told you to sign the contract before you left, you stupid girl! And to top it all off, not only did you have the audacity to leave the complex without authorisation from me, but you have the brass to turn up late when called upon again!"

"But, doctor, y-you said the hospital c-couldn't a-a-afford..."

"I didn't ask you to speak!"

"Y-yes, Doctor, I ... I'm sorry..."

Kakashi had found himself wondering since her return home why such a huge experience and such a high knowledge of her chosen career hadn't yielded her any confidence or rather much more than she'd had already. The way in which she'd held herself was different from all those years ago but the odd glimmer of doubt had shone through every now and again. He hadn't wanted to ask at the risk of upsetting her further but now he knew. This man had whittled her down to the bone, picking at her constantly with his verbal abuse telling her she was useless , a waste of space, time, money and energy. Goodness knows how many other people he'd targeted.

Rin was a fragile creature, like a rare flower growing in a desolate wasteland; she needed nurturing and encouragement not beating over the head with a length of steel. She was the new pride and joy of Konoha hospital, Shizune had told him as much in passing so Kakashi knew better than most how passionate Rin was about her work. Kenshin had probably done the same to countless others and no one within these walls felt they had the power to put him on his ass.

He was about to get the shock of his life.

Quickly unsheathing his sharingan Kakashi focused on the twisted man behind his desk. The very second Kenshin's gaze accidentally settled on his the jutsu activated, that simple touch of eye contact was all it took. He could feel the tomoe of his eye spinning, creating its magic. The pulse in his own brain throbbed set the illusion of time slowing down while the air around him compacted and froze everything in sight other than himself and the man on which he focused. Kakashi's team were nothing more than detailed statues within the confines of the room, now it was just Kakashi and his victim.

The man continued to spray his obscenities despite the fact that Rin was no longer reacting, it seemed the power trip this man was experiencing was so fucking good he simply didn't notice the sudden shift in atmosphere. He obviously found a sick pleasure from beating people down into submission.

"She can't hear you. None of them can," Kakashi stated matter-of-factly. He stepped away from his standing position, leaving behind his ghostly form that had been frozen before he performed the genjutsu, and watched as the man in front stared at him in horror.

"Get back in line, ninja! I am not addressing you," Kenshin snarled, his body snapping rigid as Kakashi stepped closer. It was surprising that he hadn't noticed he was now trapped within his technique, but Kakashi guessed that after all this time he had forgotten even the most basic of what he once knew.

"You weren't, but you are now seeing as it's only me that can hear you and I don't believe I like your tone," he responded smoothly stepping around the desk and watching as the self-proclaimed doctor shuffled back towards his oversized chair.

"What do you think you are doing? I said get back!" the old man hissed barring his teeth at Kakashi like a dog as if this would frighten him in some way. The action served only to make him chuckle under his breath. What a pathetic little man he was.

"I'm thinking that maybe you would like to pick on someone a little bigger than you, to show you how it feels to be on the other side for a change," he droned flatly ensuring eye contact maintained.

"You like to bully people don't you, Kenshin? To see them squirm and submit like frightened little puppies at your feet. You like to punish them for your own failings, make them suffer for leading a life in which you failed so miserably. Jealousy is a terrible illness, Doctor, sometimes it's even fatal." He spoke calmly not helping the odd twitch of his mouth as he tried not to grin at the man in front of him watching him begin to fall apart inside himself while he started to piece together exactly what was happening.

The jutsu Kakashi had Kenshin under lasted milliseconds in the real world, but here it could last minutes, hours, days, weeks or even months if he wanted it to. This wouldn't be the first time he had used this torture technique, though this time would be nowhere near as brutal as the times he had used it in the past.

The intention was not to break the man completely, but merely to show him that not everyone was as afraid of him as he liked to think. Kakashi liked to lead with a firm but educating authority which earned him the respect of his teams, this man liked to lead with sheer power and aggression, those beneath him too frightened to oppose him. He imagined he had physically hit a few defenceless people in his time just to feel that surge of power over them. Tsunade had her moments when she was still alive, where she would lash out, destroy things in her bare hands and scream until their ears bled. But she'd had respect for her followers, and she'd trusted them. Not like this man. Just looking at him made Kakashi feel sick to his stomach.

"Is that a threat? Because I'll have you know ..." before the doctor could finish speaking a clone stood behind him planted a hand on his shoulder and forced him into his chair. Kenshin dropped into it with a startled cry as he tried to grab the copy's wrist before it was swatted away with a violent slap.

"Sit down and shut the fuck up!" the clone spat viciously making the man wince in his chair. Kakashi had little control on how the clone reacted, his concentration being taken up with maintaining the jutsu, his copy was merely mimicking the anger he was feeling though Kakashi himself was acting as calm and collected as ever.

Kenshin grabbed hold of the arms of the chair as if to stop himself falling through it as Kakashi's clone kept him pinned to the spot.

"Control your bunshin!" the doctor yelped obviously feeling the burn from the pressure his copy applied to his shoulder.

"I'll decide how my clone behaves, thank you," Kakashi replied flatly noting that Kenshin was probably aware that he was under a genjutsu by now and saw no use in trying to fight against it. He was weak-willed as it was; he would only hurt himself if he tried.

"If you don't stop this now I will have you arrested! You'll be executed for harming a civilian!"

"I don't think so," Kakashi chuckled with a slow shake of his head. "You see, my name is Hatake Kakashi. I'm an elite Jounin of Konohagakure and a highly respected and skilled shinobi at that. I don't mean to blow my own trumpet or anything, I'm not one for gloating, but I don't think anyone will believe what you have to say over me."

"Sh-Sharingan Kakashi... The C-Copy-cat Ninja...?" the man whispered in nothing more than a shaken breath. "I will see that Konoha has your head for this..."

Within the second Kakashi was in front of him, both hands straddling the chair in which he sat with his face thrust into that of the doctors earning him another one of those startled gasps.

"Ah, so you've heard of me? That's quite strange for someone who claims to be a civilian living in a small town such as Machenich. I imagine rumours pass through such little places but civilians don't usually take much notice of grapevine from the ninja classes. How curious..."

"No-Nohara said ..."

He felt the dog within bite again at the mere mention of Rin's name, its teeth sinking into his senses and telling him to destroy this man where he sat. Considering what he knew about him now it would be no less than he deserved. The man was a deserter, a traitor to his people. Scum.

"Don't you dare blame her. I know for a fact she never once mentioned my name to you," Kakashi snarled, his voice dripping with a venom he wasn't sure he liked but had no power over at the time. He disliked this man using her name for anything and he was damned if he was to let him say it again. Kakashi glared at the old man, who looked far frailer now than he did before the genjutsu hit, not that he was going to let that faze him. The man was a criminal he deserved no better treatment.

"Would you like me to tell you how I know this?" he mused, raising an eyebrow at him while keeping the man's gaze trapped in his own.

Kenshin didn't answer and simply stared at him with dull grey eyes. Kakashi didn't know that Rin hadn't mentioned him to the doctor but by the way he spoke to her - or rather spat at her - just now he doubted very much that she said anything to him socially at all. The way he snapped his mouth closed suggested that she hadn't mentioned him and that was enough for Kakashi to take the next step of the routine.

"I can see everything, I can see your fear of me, I can see the spilled blood from the people you left to die in the dust plains of Earth, I can see into your soul and all the pain you caused all those years ago. You used to be a shinobi in the war, didn't you? Dishonourably discharged for the mass manslaughter of the men under your command. You were branded a coward, shunned by your village and your clan..."

"I didn't kill them..."

"You left them to die by the hands of your enemy while you retreated into the mountains. You had the ability and the opportunity to help them but your own skin was worth more to you than those of your men, those that depended on you and your guidance. In my book that is as good as murder. No shinobi worth his salt would abandon his own squad. Not unless a mission depended on it, and it seems that was not the case."

Kenshin's expression didn't change and the only time he broke eye contact was when the clone dug its nails into his shoulder as Kakashi spoke making him hiss inwardly and squirm in his seat. This man held no shame and Kakashi had never felt more disgusted to be in a man's presence.

All the information he held on Kenshin was from outdated bingo books although there was still a warrent out for the capture of this man, for betraying his people and leaving them to die.

His real name was Saito Akira, a wanted deserter from Earth Country who abandoned his team when he discovered Suna had crossed the border they were sent to patrol. Rather than order his team to retreat he just ran and left them there. All of them were slaughtered the entire area had been a blood bath and the talk of all the lands for years.

Somehow he'd escaped from any execution penalties and put himself into exile. He had disappeared off the face of the planet and miraculously ended up here as a frail old man, in front of Kakashi, pinned to a chair by his bunshin and trapped in a genjutsu so powerful he could render him into dust with a single movement of his eye.

"How do you think your hospital team will react if they were to conveniently find out about your dark past, Akira? May I call you Akira? What if Machenich found out that you were once one of us, that you abandoned your own squad to face their deaths without even a second thought or a glance over your shoulder? Do you think you would be so well-respected then? Because I highly doubt that."

"You wouldn't..."

"That depends. Are you going to play nice with us today? Or do I have to break some bones?" The clone squeezed down on his shoulder again making him wince and emit a small groan as the grip he had on his chair tightened.

"Your co-operation on this really matters to me," he deadpanned, placing a hand over his chest as if to signify how important it was. Not that it mattered at all, Kakashi was confident the old man would submit to him and he would learn a valuable lesson from it. That there were bigger, meaner people out there and he should start to watch his step. He couldn't hide behind his powerful role forever and Kakashi had just proven that point to him.

"What do you want from me, copy-cat?" the old man ground out between clenched teeth.

Kakashi hummed at him as he reached for a stray grey hair that rested on Akira's shoulder and flicked it away. If there was one thing he knew made men like this increasingly uncomfortable it was little actions like this that simulated affection. It showed disrespect and total disregard for personal space and it seemed with the harsh narrowing of his deep grey eyes that he was not impressed by the action at all.

"I want you to end this meeting and send us on our way; we are working to a schedule after all. And I want you to amend the way you treat your medics. These people were sent to help a town that desperately needed it and you should show more respect, they risked their lives for this place and some even died because of it, one of those we are collecting today," Kakashi explained in the most courteous tone he had. His next spiel, however, was delivered much more darkly, "Also if you so much as look at Rin or any other member of my team the wrong way again while we're here I will make your existence very uncomfortable. Do I make myself clear?"

"You're not the first to threaten me..."

"I'm not surprised, but I imagine I'm the first one to actually mean what I say. I know what you really are, Akira, and I can make things very difficult for you."

Akira tried to drop his gaze but the hypnotising swirl of the sharingan prevented him from doing so as he thought about his options. He swallowed hard eventually realising he didn't have much choice but to comply.

"Will you release the jutsu if I agree to your terms?"

"Yes."

"And you will keep what you know about me to yourself?"

"...Yes." Kakashi didn't want to agree to the last part of this verbal contract, he could quite happily turn him over to the hands of the village and let them deal with him, but that would make him no better than the doctor himself, just another callous bastard with no morals.

Akira had obviously tried to turn his life around, he was running an entire hospital after all, but that didn't mean he should be treated as any less than a criminal. Kakashi wouldn't be the one to turn him in; he had no mission on hand that requested he be captured and his name hadn't been raised for years so he was safe enough to keep quiet about his whereabouts for now.

The only personal gripe Kakashi had with this man was how he had treated Rin, how he had all but destroyed what little self-esteem she had, he didn't much care about anything else, that and the ninja Akira had abandoned were enemies of Konoha at the time. During the war it didn't matter what happened to them as long as they stayed the hell away from the borders of Fire Country.

Kakashi would always hold a deep resentment for Rock ninja, it was them that had kidnapped Rin, took away his eye and killed his best friend. It wasn't something he could just forgive and forget, though he had put his bitterness towards them away when the villages became united many years ago, but that simply wasn't enough to cull the pain he still felt, that Rin still felt.

"Then I agree, now let me go..."

"After I tell you the conditions of the release. You are to follow the orders I just gave to you, but if I hear that you have failed to keep to your side of the bargain then I will have no choice but to inform the Tsuchikage of your whereabouts. You will be captured and tried for the manslaughter of your squad. You will lose everything you've gained here so it's in your best interests that you do as you're told. Is that understood?"

"When you leave here you won't even know..."

"I know a lot of people around these parts, Akira, so I have my sources. And believe it or not, I'm not a very nice man when you fuck with me and the things I care about. You're not going to do that to me, are you?"

He didn't answer.

"What I'm asking isn't unreasonable. Keep your head down and be nice. Do those things and you'll have nothing to worry about."

Again Kenshin didn't speak, but Kakashi took his silence as an agreement. He raised a hand and patted the side of the doctor's face in a purposely patronising manner.

"There's a good boy. See? It all works out in the end when we just learn to play nicely together, don't you think?" he quipped giving him a concealed smile that was far more menacing than friendly. Kakashi knew he was considered as something of a scatter brain, aloof and away with the fairies, but he meant business this time. And he was certain Akira knew what would happen to him if he tried to approach his team again while they were in Machenich so there was no need to voice any more threats.

He stood up from his crouch and backed away towards his original standing point, his shimmering silhouette still waiting for him to return.

Reaching that spot next to Sakura he released the clone to which Kenshin moaned in relief hunched forwards on his chair and rubbed tenderly at the shoulder his bunshin had used to keep him seated.

It didn't take long for the room to return to normal, the stifling air cleared, the clock above the door began to tick again as the rest of the team gradually came back to life while Kakashi stood in his original spot looking like nothing had happened. He adjusted his hitai-ate on his head to conceal his most famous weapon as he allowed the darker of his two eyes to drift over to Rin.

She still stood with her head hung low on her shoulders so chances were that she wouldn't have known a thing about the jutsu with her emotions overruling her senses. He sensed Sakura glance his way which caused him to tilt his attention to her. She knew what had just happened with that stern expression in her eyes that said 'you should have let me deal with him' but she soon turned her attention back to the desk. She knew better than to question him about it.

Akira – or Kenshin as he liked to be called now - busied himself with papers strewn about his desk, simply playing along with the rules of Kakashi's game for a few moments until he lifted his head. His gaze ghosted over Rin but only briefly until his grey eyes settled back on the copy nin with whom he was unable to keep eye contact with for very long.

"I've said my piece. Now get out, I have work to do," he rasped turning his attention to a document and began to scribble on it with the quill he snatched from the inkwell on his desk.

Not as pleasant as Kakashi had hoped but it was enough to get them out of there. The group turned on their heels and left but Rin was the last one out of the room.

She closed the door behind her and leaned against it resting the back of her head on the wood with a long shaky sigh as the others crowded around her.

"I'm so sorry you had to see that..." she quivered lowering her head towards her feet as she sighed again deeply.

"The guy's an ass, Rin-sensei. You shouldn't let people talk to you like that. If that were me I would have punched him right in his foul mouth," Sakura bit out, raising a gloved fist in demonstration. Kakashi felt her input wouldn't help but it served to make Rin chuckle a little at the thought of smacking the guy in the face.

"I'll keep that in mind for next time, Sakura, thanks," she giggled.

Kakashi was more than certain there wasn't going to be a next time.

"We should get going," Tenzou interjected prompting the troupe to turn and begin making their way down the long corridor.

Kakashi took only one step until a strong hand slapped him on the chest forcing him to stop in his tracks. He turned his attention to Rin who was preventing him from moving with her arm, she was still glaring at the floor and he could feel her body shaking through the vibrations in her hand thrumming through his vest.

"I know you did something in there. I felt it happen, it was so quick I didn't have the time to react but I know you did something I'm not supposed to know about," she murmured as though she feared being heard by anyone else as she flitted her watery eyes at him. Fresh tears were clinging for dear life on the rims of her lower eyelids and stray strands of hair that fell over her hitai-ate bobbed around her face as her whole body shivered. She was still shaken up over the ordeal and Kakashi opened his mouth to speak, if only to try to calm her down but was silenced by a sharp movement of her other hand.

"I don't want to know what you did, and I don't want to know what you said to him. But thank you ..." her voice broke at that point.

"... Thank you for just making him stop," she whimpered squeezing her eyes shut and allowing one single tear to escape her eye and roll down her cheek as she lowered her head.

"Hey, don't cry," he whispered at her, lifting her head back up with a single finger under her chin before using the thumb of the same hand to wipe away that one single tear as she opened her eyes again. "You don't have to worry about him anymore, okay? All you have to do now is focus on what you need to do next. Forget about Kenshin, he doesn't have a hold on you anymore. I'm here to look after you and that's what I'm doing."

He saw her smile her lips thin yet genuine as she closed her eyes again and nodded her head confidently.

"Are you okay?" he asked again only to gain some reassurance from her.

"Yeah, yeah I'm okay," she replied still shaken but more herself than before.

He offered her a smile of his own and used the opportunity to run his fingers over the soft skin of her face one more time before he offered a hand out in front of him for Rin to lead the way to the morgue. This was a moment he knew she had dreaded the second she had found out her team leader had died here. This next step was going to be the hardest one for her to take and even Kakashi wasn't looking forward to the fallout of this one.

---

The team was led by Rin into an expansive office area with a large desk at the far end of the room. Huge steel double doors sat behind it that led to their final destination for that day. Rin eyed them over feeling that sickening knot of discomfort roll around in her stomach as she approached the young girl sat typing rapidly into a computer at the desk.

"Hi, Tsusami, I hope I'm not interrupting anything," she said softly placing her hands on the table as the red-head in front lifted her head and eyed her over.

"Rin-senpai!" She squealed lunging across the desk and catching the dark-haired medic in her arms almost to the point of ending up in a heap on the floor.

"Wow, pleased to see me?" Rin chortled as she gently wrapped her fingers around the girl's shoulders and pushed her back to get a good look at the girl who had technically been her apprentice for the past five years.

She was young, seventeen if she remembered rightly and she was very loud and boisterous. Tsusami was no kunoichi, being the daughter of one of the council heads of the town it was forbidden for her to have any extensive ninja training. But there was no harm in teaching her a thing or two about research into the deceased. She was genuinely interested in that field and Rin had hoped that one day she would be mature enough to take over her role at the hospital. By the looks of things she had a long way to go yet.

Tsusami had begun her time at the hospital when she was just thirteen as a personal assistant to one of the doctors who had worked alongside Rin in the pathology department, but after he retired and left Rin with the responsibility of running the department poor Tsusami had seemed a little lost and out of the loop. She had no one to serve anymore and it upset her, though she still turned up every day and offered assistance where she could.

Rin had felt pity for the young red-head and had offered to show her a thing or two about pathology if she so wished it. Tsusami had jumped at the chance and the two of them had spent many a shift learning and dissecting together. Not a romantic image by any stretch of the imagination but it had meant something to both of them and they had developed a strong relationship between them so she guessed it didn't matter what anyone else thought.

"Pleased? Pleased? I'm so happy you came back! I didn't want you to go, Senpai! Are you here to stay?" she cried just as she clocked the other three members of Team Kakashi standing to her rear. It was then she felt the girl go completely rigid finally realising the reason she had come back to Machenich and understanding that it was in no way a social call.

She lowered herself from Rin smoothing her small dainty hands over her shoulders as she took to staring blankly at the space between them before she spoke, the sound of her voice a mere vibration against the refrigeration unit connected to the morgue.

"I'm so sorry. I... I wasn't thinking..." was all she said before she shot her coy eyes about the team once more. "You're here for Satoshi-san, aren't you?"

"Yes, Tsusami... we won't be staying long. I'm sorry," Rin replied softly, stroking a loving hand on the young girls arm. She looked disappointed then, her brow knitting together as Rin spoke. Her expression made the brunette feel somewhat hollow but there were no two ways about it. Tsusami had asked questions about Rin's past and her village, had even shown an interest in travelling with her when she had announced she was leaving. But Rin couldn't take the girl with her no matter how much she'd wanted to at the time.

"Who will be entering the morgue? We only allow two people of an identifying party because of health and safety regulations," Tsusami reeled flatly.

"Just me..." Rin started as she was interrupted by Kakashi who had stepped out from the crowd of the team and was now stood at her side.

"And me," he said somewhat listlessly. It sounded like he didn't particularly want to go into the morgue so Rin used his tone of voice as an advantage to throw him off. She didn't need him to hold her hand through this; she had seen more dead people than he'd had hot dinners. She was quite capable of handling this herself.

"No, Kakashi, I can do this on my own," she growled feeling more than annoyed when he turned his flat unreadable gaze towards her.

"I'm not giving you the choice," he droned flatly.

Rin narrowed her eyes at him, how dare he. Kakashi was there for support yes, but he wasn't there to make her feel like a hopeless child playing an adults game. But even with the hideous glare she gave him his expression remained focused and unfazed which caused her to eventually be the first to break eye contact. Rin decided to let the comment slide for now but she was certain there would be a harsh exchange of words between them when this ordeal was over. Kakashi had totally disregarded how she wanted to handle this situation, had taken her own judgement into his own hands screwed it up and threw it back in her face and she was going to make him realise it by the end of the day.

She turned her attention back to Tsusami who stood with her head lowered and her hands folded in front of her. She nodded once, turned on her heel and led Rin and Kakashi through the large metallic doors that led to the refrigerated hold of the dead. As the doors swung open and the moment the chill hit her full force Rin felt her body still to the core, her head screaming at her to turn and run before it was too late. She didn't want to see Satoshi lying on his bed of hard metal, she didn't want to see him lying there ... dead. She wasn't ready for this, she just wasn't ready.

Just then a warm gloved hand made itself known on her shoulder which startled her and caused her to turn her head briskly to gaze at Kakashi who was looking down at her with that eye that was almost unreadable, almost, but not quite.

'This is why I'm here,' was all his expression said and then she understood why he had invited himself into this room, because he knew she didn't feel ready, he knew she wouldn't be able to handle this by herself. He knew how weak she was... she hated him for that, she hated herself for that, but she loved him for steering her along and forcing her to get on with it. Kakashi was the fire in her furnace and his flame was burning brighter now than she ever recalled.

Closing her eyes Rin sighed deeply as she lifted a hand and gently placed it over his. She felt his fingers press into her shoulder as she squeezed his hand just to let him know how grateful she was for him just being there. Were it not for him she wouldn't have even stepped into through the town gates for a second time because Kakashi was the fire in her furnace driving her forward, making her feel stronger than she felt she actually was.

---

The room was bitterly cold and sterile, the walls lined with small narrow lockers each one designated to a corpse. The idea that he was surrounded by dead people was a little unnerving but this was certainly not the first time he'd been inside a morgue. That didn't mean he would ever get accustomed to it.

Kakashi took the time to gaze around the area, not that there was much to see in here as the girl led them to the far side of the room. No one was talking, which was no surprise, there was a time and a place for conversation and now certainly wasn't it. Eventually they reached a drawer sunk into the wall at waist height as young Tsusami gazed up at Rin apprehensively.

The brunette simply nodded once, obviously wanting to get this over with, the quicker the better Kakashi could imagine. Tsusami didn't respond as such, she merely turned towards the drawer, grasped the handle and began to pull it out walking backwards as the drawer revealed its contents.

Plumes of frozen air billowed out of the drawer and forced both Kakashi and Rin to shield their eyes from the blast, but the corpse that lay on his bed of stainless steel soon became visible as the icy clouds began to dissipate. He heard Rin suck in her breath as she laid eyes on the body of her team leader which caused Kakashi to focus on her initially.

A hand was clasped firmly to her mouth, her other arm hugging her midriff against the cold of the room. Her eyes were wider than he'd ever seen them and he could see her trembling through the slight vibrations her body sent through her hair.

He allowed his eye to drift to the body on the drawer bed and as he focused on the corpse he felt nothing but pity for the poor man. The skin of the body was almost white possibly due to the chilling process used to preserve the carcass but even then Kakashi was able to actually see the effects the illness he'd contracted had on him.

There wasn't an ounce of muscle, the body wasted away and all that remained were the jutting bones and sagging flesh. There seemed to be lesions on his skin which he could only assume were the sores Rin had spoken of when she described the Rot to him and his team. It was unclear just by looking at the corpse exactly what had killed him, be that a bleed out or organ failure, only the post-mortem would yield such answers and it seemed the operation had already been carried out via the Y-cut carved into his chest.

The sight was nauseating which in turn caused the copy nin to turn away habitually. Never before had he seen anything so grotesque and stomach churning and his unintentional audible swallow caught the dark-haired medic's attention if only for a second. Fleeting images invaded his mind, images he didn't want to see but was forced to witness regardless. It was so easy to think of the if's the but's and the why's and that was exactly what he was doing right now.

"It could have been her..." that horrendous taunting voice chimed in his head forcing mismatched eyes closed in a frail attempt to stem the thought from consuming him whole. Yes, that body in front of them could have been her, there was every chance that Rin could have been infected with this debilitating disease... but she hadn't and Kakashi refused to allow himself to think so negatively for a single moment longer. That was until the brunettes voice broke the silence so deafening against the thrum of the unit that kept the room so bitterly cold.

"Papers, Tsusami," Rin demanded listlessly to be handed a distinctive brown folder that supposedly held the details needed to transfer the body back to Konoha.

Kakashi watched as she opened the file and began to filter through the pages with nimble fingers her expression changing rapidly from one of grief to horror. Twice she turned back to a previous page before snatching it back to repeatedly read briskly through the ones that came after.

Something was terribly wrong...

"Tsusami, who was in charge of Satoshi's care after I left?" she asked, her voice now holding a tremor of what Kakashi had supposedly mistaken for anger.

"Yumi-san, senpai..." the girl answered somewhat meekly.

"Is something the matter?" Kakashi interjected taking a step towards the older woman in the hopes that he could gain an insight of the information in that file that was no causing more distress than was really needed. He was rewarded with a vicious glare from the dark-haired medic before she snapped the file closed and stalked past him all but knocking him out of her path as she exited the refrigerated room.

"Rin?!" he called after her though by the time he'd reached the opening she was already making her way back into the corridor. To say that he knew something was wrong was an understatement. He'd never seen her react like that before and the fact that she'd pretty much ignored his own concern was a worrying factor all in itself.

Both Yamato and Sakura who were now sat on the many chairs that lined the room seemed equally as shocked as he was as they both stood to attention and eyed the copy nin over apprehensively.

Whatever was going on, Kakashi had a strong uncomfortable feeling that this Yumi was at the source of the issue and this did not bode well.

"Kakashi-sensei?" came the quizzical feminine voice of Sakura silenced only by the raised hand he offered her to confirm that he was dealing with the situation.

"You and Yamato need to deal with Satoshi's remains. I'm giving you authority to sign the relevant paper work," he drawled as legs that didn't seem to belong to him began to carry him towards the threshold that led to the main body of the hospital.

"Then what? Kaka-sensei?!"

A quick turn on his heel to address them didn't halt his journey instead trotting backwards towards the door, if he stopped now there was a chance he could lose Rin in this labyrinth of a building. A risk he felt he couldn't take.

"Rendezvous with me at the tea house in two hours. I'll issue new orders then. Just make the document transfer for now."

With that said he span back towards his destination, searching for the girl he was chasing with an extension of his own chakra to seek hers. Lucky for him she wasn't too far away.

---

How could she, how could she after all the advice and caution Rin had given her how could she retract the medication perscribed to Satoshi and allow him to degenerate into an early grave? How could she?

They both knew he was dying, both knew that there was nothing else they could do for him other than make his stunted existence as painless as possible with the hopes that the treatment he was receiving would extend his life as far as it could possibly go. But no, Yumi had to take it into her own hands and take him off the medication allowing the Rot to eat him alive. There had to be a reason, there had to be and the only thing on Rin's mind right now was getting to the absolute bottom of it. The papers didn't suggest a replacement drug, not a specific one...

How could she?

Rin would find her and make her pay for what she'd done, for all but murdering their team leader for forcing him to die before his time and before long after skimming the main corridors she had found her in the locker rooms situated on the far side of the hospital.

The door swung open almost coming away at the hinges with the force Rin had applied to it causing it to crash and rattle against the lockers behind it. The girl in front of her spun around and stared at her for a second as though she didn't recognise the woman she had worked so closely with for the best part of a decade.

"Hello, Yumi," she bit out through clenched teeth as she held up the file in her hand. The blonde in front of her smiled suddenly until she registered the tone of Rin's less than happy demeanour and dropped her gaze to the space between them.

"Rin-senpai... let me explain..."

"Oh you'll do that," she snapped stepping into the room, the anger frothing into her gullet, a horrible sensation she hadn't felt for a very long time and one she had hoped she would never feel again but had no will to fight at this point. Today had been devastating and to think that this one person, this girl she had called her friend for the majority of her life since joining Konoha Academy as a child, had allowed a man in her care to die without the treatment he so desperately needed was enough to make her sick to her stomach.

"You can start by telling me why you denied Satoshi his medication!"

---

It was common knowledge that one didn't run in a hospital hallway but Kakashi, as much as he strived for rule and order, had been slightly bending this rule to catch up with the woman he was pursuing. Skidding around corners and almost bumping into the throngs of medical staff and patients wasn't doing him any favours. Each one was offered a listless apology but most were rewarded with less than amused scowls or a click of the tongue.

But still he drove on in the hopes that he would catch up to Rin before she did or said something she would later regret.

'Fantastic job you've done on keeping a tight hold on this situation, Hatake.' His inner voice chanted in that same vicious drone as always. Kakashi growled inwardly trying to banish the thoughts back to the bowels from which it came at first unsuccessfully until he spied the brunette he was searching for push her way through a glass panelled door.

Briskly Kakashi followed forcing his way into the room to find himself submerged in a flurry of angry shouts from one party and the meek stutters from the blonde girl opposite, a girl that he knew but only vaguely recognised from many years ago. It seemed by the way Rin was still waving her file in her hand and accusing the girl in her line of fire of being 'corrupted' and 'negligent' that she hadn't noticed him enter the room that was until the blonde raised her eyes at him as he made his way around Rin to come between her and her victim.

"That's enough, Rin! You of all people should know not to drop off the deep end in regards to such sensitive subjects," he warned ensuring his body blocked her target from view.

She looked at him with hateful eyes the fire within burning so deeply he swore he could feel the heat from the pyres in her irises on his skin.

"Keep out of this, this has nothing to do with you," she bit out leaning to one side to gain another viewing of the girl behind him only to be disappointed when Kakashi mimicked her movements.

"Senpai, please..." Came the whittled call from the blonde, what was her name again... Yumi?

"I really think you should take the time to listen to what she has to say, Rin," he drawled widening his solitary eye at her to make sure she was aware that she was in fact being irrational.

Rin gasped at him, seeming to struggle for breath as she raised a hand and pointed it accusingly at the girl behind him. "You're ... you're defending her?" She breathed blinking up at him with astonishment.

"I'm not on anyone's side, Rin, but you need to calm down and think about what you're doing," he said a lot firmer this time. He reached towards her to grasp her shoulders thinking that the contact would still her nerves long enough for her to realise how unreasonable she was being, but she swatted his hands away viciously fixing him with that hateful glare that burned into him.

"Don't tell me to calm down! Who the hell do you think you are? You're supposed to be here to support me!" she squealed thrusting a finger in his face an action to which he merely narrowed his eyes in displeasure.

"Rin-senpai, please..." Yumi whimpered from the background. It was clear the girl was crying by the quiver in her voice but Rin wasn't herself and she merely shot her vicious eyes and her accusing finger in her direction before screaming, "Shut up, Yumi! Just shut your mouth!"

Kakashi felt himself snap at that point, he needed to nip this in the bud before it got way out of hand. He grabbed Rin by the wrist and twisted her arm upwards to which she whimpered more in shock than anything else. The action wasn't enough for it to hurt but enough for her to at least realise that he was serious.

"That's enough!" he shouted knowing he shouldn't have let it get this far in the first place. "What's all this going to solve? Do you really think blaming Yumi is going to put all this right? You sound like that Kenshin when you're like this!"

The words had left him before he'd had the chance to fully process them in his head and the horror he could see in Rin's eyes confirmed that the insult had not been taken all that well.

"Rin, I..." he started in an attempt to retract his earlier statement, suddenly interrupted by a harsh shunt to his ribcage as the brunette slammed the file in her hand into his chest. Kakashi grunted in response before looking down at her offensive hand and raised his own automatically to take the paperwork from her.

"Save your breath, Kakashi," she hissed through barred teeth before whirling herself around and stalking through the door back into the corridor.

The hurt in her features coupled with her vicious tone stung but he guessed it was the best reaction he could have received from such a callous mishap on his part. She thought he was overstepping his boundaries; perhaps he was though his only goal had been to try and make her see sense. Not that he had any inkling about the problem in the first place.

He sensed Yumi move from behind him as he stood there watching the woman he was trying to help walk away, the echo of her heels hitting tiles ringing in his ears. She wasn't going far, he was sure of that much, just to find that part of herself she'd lost here, that part of herself that she had briefly spoken about the night before. She would find him again before the day was out; if not then he would go looking for her. For now he would grant her the space needed to collect the scattered fragments of her mind.

"Let her go, Yumi," he droned as he saw the ex-medic-nin try for the door. She turned to look at him with saddened eyes as if looking for a second confirmation that she should obey his word though she did silently as she allowed her hand to drift back to her side.

Kakashi took the time to scout over the outer fold of the file in his hand, crumpled slightly in the centre by the impact of having it thrust into his chest. Opening it, despite his lack of authority to do so, he examined the fine print presented to him with a picture of the man he had not long saw lying derelict on a steel slab. At lease the copy nin could only assume it was the same man.

With short raven black hair and a smile fit for grabbing the attention of the ladies, the person staring up at him from the folder could have been anyone other than the corpse lying in the morgue. He was handsome, by Kakashi's standards anyway and he recognised him as one of Konoha's many male medics. He didn't know him personally, had never known his name until very recently but to think that this was the same man his team had been tasked to collect was sad in every sense of the word.

He flicked through the papers not quite understanding the medical terms used in the diagnostic of his condition and rapid deterioration but one simple statement stood out among the rest and clarified Rin's sudden outburst.

Medication not suitable for patient. Alternative treatments prescribed, proved ineffective.

There was no other information within the folder that explained why the treatment had been changed or why it didn't work hence Rin's reaction to the file back in the morgue and suddenly her spat with this girl stood sheepishly in front of him made a lot more sense.

"You were in charge of the prescriptions?" he asked dully.

"Yes."

"Any reason why the paper work wasn't completed then, Yumi?"His tone was a little darker than before as he shifted his lone grey eye to focus on her.

She swallowed audibly before dropping her gaze to the space between them with a heavy sigh. It was more than clear that the blonde knew the file was incomplete and the shame of her actions radiated through her meek demeanour.

"Do you even realise how serious this is? You could lose your job over this, Yumi, what were you thinking? You're lucky it was Rin that picked up on the blunder and not someone higher up the chain," he scolded, more concerned about getting to the bottom of the situation than getting her into any sort of trouble.

"I know, I know," she whined eventually. "I didn't leave it unfinished on purpose, but Satoshi-san was my team leader too... it's not just Rin-senpai that had to deal with it, when she left I was expected to pick up where she left off and it was hard, Kakashi-san... it was really hard..." She trailed off, pulling her arms around herself as if to protect herself from a non-existent chill. ".. That's no excuse I know. But... I dunno, Kakashi-san, I guess I was afraid of his death being so... so final."

They were the words of a little girl in denial. There was no excuse to leave such important documentation incomplete regardless of what that documentation actually meant. Even so, Kakashi declined to argue her point and with a heavy sigh he closed the file in his hand and passed it to the girl in front of him.

She stood there staring with a desirable interest at the tiles at her feet for a while before coyly lifting her gaze to meet Kakashi's once more. "Are you going to report me, Kakashi-san?"

"I'm not going to say anything but this needs completing within the next two hours. Do you think you can manage that?" he drawled as Yumi wearily took the folder from him with a small nod of her head.

"Do you think Rin-senpai will ever speak to me again?" she asked quietly wincing awkwardly as she gazed up at him with saddened blue eyes.

He shrugged a response shifting his weight from one foot to the other before he spoke. "It's been a less than pleasurable day. But I'm sure she'll come to her senses soon. Give her time," he reassured with a concealed smile to which he was rewarded with an uncertain smile of hers. A silence dropped into the room at that point which Kakashi took as his cue to leave.

"Just drop the file off at the morgue when you're done with it, Yumi," he said flatly motioning to leave before having his attention pulled back to her with a tug of his sleeve.

"Wait, Kakashi-san. I have something that belongs to Rin. Satoshi wanted me to give it her but..." she trailed off as she pulled her lower lip into her mouth seemingly searching for words she couldn't find until finding a will to continue. "I have to pick up my daughter but I can have the files done within the hour. Will you meet me at Hime's tea house... please?"

---

It was a rare occasion that the copy nin would find himself being left alone with a young child. More often than not these occasions were awkward and traumatising for both parties, especially him.

Kakashi wasn't terribly fond of children, not that he couldn't appreciate them, hell, he had been a child himself once upon a time. He guessed his unease with the younger generations came with not having them forced upon him in his youth like so many other people.

The Hatake clan consisted only of him and his parents before they passed away and he had been the last remaining member as far as he knew since he was seven. There were no nieces or nephews, or even brothers or sisters for Kakashi to play with as a child. He was an only in every sense of the term.

He vaguely recalled informing his father that he wished to be removed from the academy so he could study away from the "stupid people" who were actually his peers. He had only been five years old at the time but when one was brought up only by adults without much interaction with those your own age it was surprising how much of a difference it made when it came to interact. It wasn't like he hadn't tried... or maybe he just hadn't tried hard enough, he wasn't sure.

He was more than a little surprised – mainly at himself – how different this situation was and purely because the little girl that kept offering him her pretty flowers she was picking from nearby baskets was anything but shy as most children were when meeting new people. She seemed to like the challenge which suggested she had been in day care from a very young age. It was refreshing to see but none the less a little scary.

"And this is a peony! You remind me of this peony because your hair is pretty and white like this peony! What do you think, Hatake-san?" she questioned him loudly as she handed the small flower to him.

Kakashi took it from her and examined it, feigning a playful interest in the plant while he waited for the girl's mother to return with their drinks from the small tea house he had tried to avoid earlier that day.

"Well, my hair is actually more grey than white. But I think I understand what you mean, Terra," he replied softly before offering the flower back to her to which she dramatically declined with a swift shake of her head.

"You can have it, Hatake-san. I picked that one for you. Now I need to find one for Rin-san and my mom."

Hatake-san wasn't a name Kakashi was particularly fond of. It was his father's name, but young Terra had difficulty pronouncing his first. Her pronunciations ranged from catnip, cactus, cashew and various other words that sounded nothing like the name she was trying to say. It was wretchedly adorable to see her try so hard but it was painfully clear how frustrated she was getting when she repeatedly failed at each attempt.

The Jounin watched with an amused interest as the girl made her way back to the baskets. Vaguely he wondered if Hime would actually allow for to pick at the flowers that grew on the edges of her tea garden until his attention was dragged towards the table with the distinctive clink of porcelain on wood.

"Thank you, Yumi," he uttered with a smile as he accepted the steaming mug blew habitually at the plumes of steam before gingerly raising it to naked lips.

"Here, the document," Yumi said somewhat breathlessly as she rummaged through her large purse and handed him the same brown folder as the one almost used as a weapon back at the hospital. "I can't apologise enough for the mess I've caused with this..."

Kakashi took to the file from her and placed it flat on the table before resting his elbow upon it. "Forget about it for now, Yumi. The important thing is everything has been finalised," he drawled with a reassuring grin before taking another sample of his hot tea.

The blonde seemed to relax a little, exhaling a sigh as she settled into her chair with a brief nod.

"You haven't changed much, how old were you when I last saw you, fifteen?" she commented casually with a humerous glint in her eye.

"Heh, probably, yeah."

"How old are you now?"

"Thirty."

"Wow, and I've been here ten of those fifteen years. Time sure flies, huh, Kakashi-san?"

"Tell me about it..."

She was right in what she said. Time did fly and the older he got the quicker it seemed to pass him by. Far too long had it taken him to grasp the finer things in life before it was too late to turn back. An uncomfortable silence settle between them, both unsure of how to continue the conversation. They didn't know each other, not really, Yumi was Rin's friend, not his and it was instances like this that the copy nin realised how inept he really was when it came to casual conversation. Even so it was him that broke the silence in the end.

"You said you have something you wanted me to give to Rin?" he mused curiously, folding his hands over the table top.

Yumi blinked seemingly confused about his question until a sharp intake of breath and another reach for her purse confirmed that she remembered just what it was that she had to give him. Her search produced a small black velvet box that she cradled in the palm of her hand for a few seconds before setting it in the centre of the table, her index finger firmly pressed on the top.

As he took in the exterior of the box it took him a few seconds to register exactly what it was; a ring box for a special type of ring bought only when life changing decisions between two parties were being made.

"Yumi...?" he started, his brows furrowing as he lifted his gaze before he was quickly interrupted by the harp raising of a feminine hand.

"Don't judge her too harshly, Kakashi-san..." he muttered unable to hold his gaze for too long. "... You don't know what it was like living here back then, though I'm sure Rin has told you plenty..."

Well... obviously not everything, ne, Hatake?

"...They were lonely, that's all, we all were," she finished before finally shifting her hand away from the velvet container.

He sat and regarded her for a while longer, unable to process the information he was being force fed as his gaze was dragged back to this little black box of secrets. He knew what was inside, it didn't take a genius to figure that one out but he couldn't help but feel hurt about the fact that Rin felt the need to keep such an important faze of her life from him. It seemed Satoshi-san had meant more to her than Kakashi had been led to believe.

---

Somehow, he didn't know, Kakashi had made it to the medical research department nestled in the bowels of the hospital. Yumi had told him that this was where Satoshi had spent most of his time and his gut told him that this would be where Rin would find her safe place. That and he was vaguely aware that he had left some belongings for her to collect and assumed this would be where she would find them.

The building was like a gigantic concrete maze and he had found himself just spinning in circles wondering how the hell he was going to leave this place alive when he was certain he was completely lost. But he had found it nonetheless and he found himself just aimlessly sauntering down a dark lonely corridor, the only sound echoing around him being that of the odd air conditioning unit and his own footsteps.

There was an ominous glow coming from behind a glass panel fitted into a large door at the far end of the hallway and Kakashi was more than certain that would be where he would find Rin. As he approached he found his suspicions were right though it wasn't all that often that his intuition was actually wrong. He placed the flat of his hand against the door panel though hesitated to open it as he chose to watch what was happening inside.

She was alone, huddled in a corner on the far side of the room, her head on her knees wrapped in her own arms while a ghostly green glowed around her. Her long hair floated around her form in the wisps of green light like she was underwater. Kakashi had never seen anything quite like it before and he focused himself just to understand it a little more. The glow was her chakra, to some on the outside looking in it would look like the chakra was taking over, consuming her but it wasn't. He could feel how controlled it was, how soft and soothing it felt and how it seemed to be healing wounds that weren't even there. It was like an embrace, a source of comfort and he imagined she had used this technique more than a few times in her past.

He'd always known Rin was one of the most talented chakra manipulators in all of Konoha, even better than Sakura who was considered to be one of the best, but he had never imagined that she was so skilled to be able to let her inner essence flow out of her and encase her form in such a controlled and somewhat powerless way.

Whenever Kakashi began performing his trademark move - Raikiri - his chakra became erratic and difficult to control so he could admire Rin's skill at maintaining such massive concentration especially when she was feeling so especially low on herself.

After a few moments of witnessing something so sad yet at the same time so beautiful he decided to open the door. She had probably just been sitting here all night on her own wondering what to do or where to go. The door creaked open as he walked through it and as Rin span her head around in her shoulders to see who was intruding the green glow seemed to be sucked back inside of her and her hair fell about her face and shoulders in long messy strands.

She regarded him for a few seconds seeming that she didn't recognise him at first before she scrabbled to her feet and pressed her shoulders against the wall. She held herself as though feebly standing to attention, her body rigid as she played the hem of her skirt in her hands, even from this distance Kakashi could tell she was trembling.

"What are you doing here, Rin?" he asked softly daring to take another step towards her not feeling too confident that she wouldn't flee out of the window to the side of her.

"I didn't know where else to go," she croaked.

"You should have come back to the hotel. I've been waiting for you to turn up for hours so I came looking."

She lowered her head, her hair shielding more of her face as she lifted her arms and crossed them over her chest.

"Where are the others?" she asked quietly.

He could only assume that she was asking about Sakura and Tenzou.

"They've gone home. Their part of the mission was to take Satoshi's body back to Konoha. So I sent them back."

"Why didn't you go with them?"

The question pulled at his chest as he watched her turn her head to gaze out of the window. He wasn't certain if the comment was meant callously or whether she genuinely thought he would abandon her here of all places. Not that he had any intentions of leaving without her at all; the thought hadn't even crossed his mind. But even so, the comment was painful and Kakashi felt no shame in letting her know that she was hurting him despite her grief.

"Do you really think I would just leave you here?"

"I don't know... I wouldn't have blamed you after the way I behaved..."

Kakashi sighed at her as he moved closer feeling more confident that she had no intentions of trying to get away from him. She was feeling ashamed of herself that was all. He stopped toe to toe with her and hooked a finger under her chin forcing her to turn and look at him. Her eyes were sore and puffy like she had just been sitting here in the dark crying for hours. And her skin was so cold he could feel her trembling through his hand.

"Don't talk silly," he murmured with a concealed smile as he ran a thumb over the soft flesh of her lower lip. Although it seemed that Rin wasn't in the mood for any kind of human contact as she quickly drew her head back and stepped away from him creating a chasm of distance between them.

Kakashi's heart sank at that point, he'd been here before not too long ago and he couldn't help but think he was losing her all over again for a third time.

"I need you to tell me something, Kakashi," Rin uttered, her voice a mere vibration against the air conditioning unit in the room.

Turning towards her, only to be greeted with her back as she gazed out of the window he waited for her to continue not quite sure what to expect or if he wanted to hear it at all.

"What do you see when you look at me?" her question was phrased harshly as she turned her head slightly into the room.

What kind of question was that? Kakashi didn't know how to answer. What did she want him to say exactly? It was obvious that she was looking for something that stemmed a lot deeper than her mere shell of skin and cloth but he wasn't certain what it was she was seeking.

"I... I don't quite underst-"

"What do you see, Kakashi?!" she interrupted somewhat viciously as she spun her entire body on the spot to glare at him, not though hateful eyes but through irises that glowed with so much hurt and self doubt that it almost broke his own heart. The rage he had seen from her earlier that day had long since died only to be replaced by the pain caused by such horrific circumstances.

"Rin, I..."

"Don't skirt around it! No riddles or metaphors! None of your usual bullshit, Kakashi, because I'm not in the mood for that right now. Just the truth. Have I grown... at all? Am I a woman now? Or am I still that pathetic excuse for medic that I was all those years ago?!" Her voice cracked towards the end of her flurried and rather angry words as she repeatedly jabbed herself in the chest as she spoke. The sheen of fresh tears twinkled on her cheeks and the odd sniff here and there was more evidence than Kakashi needed to see that she was suffering. And yet still he hesitated, uncertain of what he was supposed to say until his hand accidentally brushed against the keepsake given to him back at the tea house.

"Tell me!" she squealed, her tone prompting Kakashi to lift his gaze to hers as he drove a reluctant hand into his pocket and wrap calloused fingers around the velvet box he had once thought about tossing into the sea as he strolled aimlessly across the beach none too far from here mere hours ago. It was in that instance he knew the jealousy was unfounded, his need for information on this relationship of hers undignified and pointless. It was clear she loved Satoshi but love came in many forms and it seemed her feelings for this man had not reached far enough for her unrivalled commitment to him alone.

A silence fell upon them, if only for a moment, but it was there, thick, stifling and difficult to breathe in before he took a single step towards her.

"Right now, what I see when I look at you, and please correct me if I'm wrong..." he started as he carefully pulled the ring box from his pocket, watching as Rin's eyes suddenly focused on his motions as he placed it on the wooden desk beside him without giving the object a second glance, his focus lying purely on her. "... is a woman who's feeling lost and confused because she feels the man she's lost so needlessly should have meant more to her than he actually did."

Rin stood and stared at the tiny box now laid on the table, the horror shining in her eyes consuming whatever emotion had been there before as her gaze flitted from that to him sporadically as she took it in.

"Where did you get that?" she croaked, her question emphasised by an audible swallow as her body stiffened in an attempt to gain back what little composure she had left.

"Yumi gave it to me to return to you," Kakashi answered simply, a statement that was rewarded with a sharp shake of the brunette's head.

"It's not what you think, Kakashi, please..."

The lifting of a gloved hand silenced her instantly as the copy nin dropped his gaze to the space between them.

"It doesn't matter what I think."

Silence again, deafening as the atmosphere was dense before she found the will the traverse towards the desk and sit on the chair that still resided behind it. The light of the moon and street lights from the outside world illuminated her face, her eyes puffy and raw with the tears she'd shed for this mission. She saw this as a weakness but was a foundation of humanity. She was hurting and Kakashi wouldn't deny her the need to vent her pain in any way she saw fit.

That little box between them, a catalyst for the discussion they were about to have, sat there like a rock in ones stomach before Rin reached out and opened it with a swift flick of her wrist to reveal the small piece of jewellery within. A piece of jewellery that symbolised a unity between two people, a unity she had denied a dying man.

"I turned him down..." she breathed. "He asked me to marry him... and I turned him down."

"Why?" Kakashi mentally slapped himself for such a question. He didn't want to know the ins and outs of it all. It was nothing to do with him when all was said and done and yet his mouth had run ahead of his brain, not for the first time. Perhaps there was something inside of him that wished to know why Satoshi hadn't been good enough for her.

After a moment of supposed soul-searching she lifted her head, her gaze locking with his before she answered meekly, "I told him I was in love with somebody else."

Her confession chilled him to the core. Had it merely been an excuse to get out, or was it indeed a truth? In spite of Satoshi's ill-gotten fate, Kakashi didn't like the idea that he may have been the one that prevented her from making a full connection with someone else. Despite his own selfish desires that had indeed brought the medic back to Konoha in the first place, it wasn't like he hadn't tried to move on with his own life. He had entered relationships with the hopes that they could become that source of warmth he craved so desperately in the small hours of the night. They had filled that void but only temporarily until they grew tired of him and cast him aside for someone who could give them whatever it was that Kakashi himself was keeping from them.

Needless to say that he didn't know how to respond and found himself merely crouching beside her and placing a hand on her knee as she continued in spite of not wanting to hear it.

"I wanted to... I wanted to love him like he said he loved me but..." She trailed off with a slow shake of her head, pulling her lower lip into her mouth and bowing her head as a semi-stifled sob escaped her. "... but I just didn't. Not like that."

She shrugged with a shameful chuckle and a feverish rake of a hand through her hair. "We didn't part on the greatest terms either, he begged me to stay but... I didn't belong here... I needed to go home. I... I needed to..."

"Rin..."

"I hurt him so much and I'll never be able to tell him how sorry I am..." with that her voice cracked, hands flew to her face as the tears began to pour again her body wracked with agonising sobs of a breaking heart that Kakashi had no idea how to mend. Instinctively he reached towards her, grasping her shoulders and pulling her into an embrace into which she fell somewhat limply. There was nothing he could do or say, his apologies would fall upon deaf ears, all he could offer her as she cried in his arms was his love... and his sympathy. He would wait for as long as it took for her tears to dry as they sat in dark office with nothing but each other and that tiny box of unwanted memories.

---

Kakashi was struggling to keep up with the words in his new book. He had found himself re-reading the same line at least three times which suggested that he should finally get his head down and get some sleep. It had been a long exhausting day and he knew the trip back to Konoha wasn't going to be as easy as usual. There was a funeral to attend when they got back and he had a feeling that this would be playing on Rin's mind more than she'd like.

He sighed heavily, finally defeated as he snapped the book closed and placed it carefully on the end table that separated the two beds in their new room. Just as he lifted the duvet to rearrange himself so he could shimmy down the mattress and actually lie down his gaze ghosted over the girl on the other side of the room causing him to pause midway.

She hadn't said anything or even moved for good couple of hours which had given him a sizeable hint that she was already asleep, but even with her back to him he could see her eyelashes flutter each time she blinked against the light of the lamp between them. She was awake, and probably had been for all this time.

"Rin?" he called softly.

She turned her body ever so slightly his way before she replied, "Hm?"

"Are you alright?"

She slumped heavily back into her previous position pulling an arm under her head. "Hm," she responded before emitting a deep sigh.

Of course she wasn't alright, after the way she had behaved today she must be feeling more than ashamed of herself and the episode in Kenshin's office had done very little for her self-worth that was sure. The fact that she had finally been faced with her dead team leader had just been the last straw that had broken the camel's back, it was no wonder she'd lost control... it was so much to try to absorb in one go. No amount of mental stability and training could prepare someone for a situation like this and Kakashi could only sympathise with her. He had no idea how he would react if he was the one stepping in her shoes. She had shed a lot of tears today and had complained of a headache before she told him she was going to try and get some sleep, so chances were she didn't much feel like herself.

She probably hadn't felt much like herself since stepping back into the town only a day ago. This place brought out the worst in her and all she wanted was one simple thing; to go home, to step back into routine as quickly as she could. It wasn't unreasonable, she was only human after all and Kakashi could understand her craving for normality more than most.

Without saying another word Kakashi threw back the covers, swung his legs over the edge of the bed and got to his feet. He padded across the dimly lit room until he reached the edge of Rin's single bed and tugged at her duvet causing her to turn around and look at him with those sad brown eyes of hers.

She didn't say anything as he dropped himself onto the mattress and pulled the covers back over them, she just draped an arm over his stomach as he leaned over the end table and flicked the small switch on the lamp plunging the room into darkness. Turning himself to face her he allowed her to shift herself against him, resting her head in the hollow of his shoulder as he used that arm to rest beneath her head and stroked his hand through her soft hair.

"I can hear your heart beating," she whispered, smoothing her hand from his stomach upwards over his night-shirt until she splayed her fingers softly over his neck. The sensation her soft delicate hands left behind was delicious and he couldn't swallow the shaky sigh that passed his lips. Her touch turned him on almost to the point that was painful, but that wasn't why he was in bed with her...

"You should inform Sakura of your amazing discovery. She sometimes tells me I have a heart of stone," he chuckled as Rin did the same.

"She doesn't know you like I do," she replied softly but the slight rise in pitch to her voice suggested to him that she was smiling while her fingers caressed random circles into the skin of his shoulder.

He moved his free arm under the duvet, trailing his hand across the sheets until he found her warm body and settled his own fingers on the round of her hip. He stroked a thumb over the soft supple flesh and relished in the way her breath hitched and her body quivered against his skin as he did so.

She shifted herself against him closing the space between them as she continued to stroke her fingers slowly over his neck, his shoulder and back again. The touching was nice and the heat was beginning to build between them, but this wasn't about sex. It was about simply being together, being close to someone warm and inviting and forcing that empty void of loneliness back into remission as they just lay there in the dark.

"Can I ask you something, Rin?"

"Sure."

"You turned down Satoshi's proposal because you said you were in love with someone else..."

"... yeah?"

"Was that someone else ... was it me?"

She didn't answer for a painfully long time and her soothing movements stilled as she seemed to find an answer for him. He already knew what it was, but he couldn't help but selfishly lie in wait for her to confirm it.

"Maybe..."

"I'm going to take that as a yes," he responded with a smile feeling his head flood with that warm fuzzy feeling that was beginning to force his eyes closed.

"I've always loved you..." Rin whispered just as she shifted herself against him again in a bid to get comfortable.

"I know."

The room fell quiet again and Kakashi could feel his eyes starting to close of their own will that heavy yet satisfying sense of sleep hanging in his head waiting to plunge him into a dream. A nice one he hoped sleepily.

"Kakashi?"

"Hm?"

"You asked me once why I was with someone like you, I ... I think I know why now."

Kakashi didn't reply, he just laid waiting for her to continue which eventually she did.

"Because when I'm with you nothing matters anymore," she murmured sleepily.

"That's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me," he responded in nothing more than a whisper.

He felt her move her head and the warm soft pressure she applied to his neck as she kissed him sent an electric surge running through his body before she spoke for the last time.

"I'm sure that's not true." With that her breathing became heavy and more regulated as she drifted asleep in his arms though her fingers still caressed his neck for several minutes after.

The room fell silent as they both lay there in the single bed wrapped in each other's arms as they drifted on the edges of sleep. There was no passion in that bed that night, no tearing at each other's clothes, no kissing or a desperate need for release. It was just that simple embrace, that warm touch confirming the last ten years had been worth the heartache and loneliness they both suffered through to just lie together now in the night.

Right now, at this moment life was good again.