Author's Note: Long-ish chapter because I'm done with this arc and I want it to end. This was supposed to be three fucking chapters and I went overboard just to hit a wall we all know as 'writer's block' so these chapters haven't been my best work (in my opinion.) Sorry about the angst. At least we're going to finally get answers and get back on track soon. I probably won't finish the arc until the next chapter, but you might notice I'm going to make this chapter's length be determined by content and not word count. We have better things to do with the actual plot of Naruto and we haven't even gotten to the Chunin exams yet.

You didn't forget the events of the Prologue yet, right? We have a goal to get to and we're in for a long ride.

Chapter Note: Is Avurin biting off more than she can chew or will she embrace the chaos?

—

The walk back to the mansion was silent, Avurin brooding over the hard talk she'd had with the pug. Pakkun seemed content to let her stew in the information he'd given her as he led her back to the gate of the property, dispelling himself before even attempting to enter. She let herself in and walked to the front door, her mood still not any better. She closed the door behind her and walked into the kitchen, taking out a large pot and lighting the wood in the oven so she could boil the water. She heard shuffling and a grunt followed by uneven footsteps. She turned to the doorway to see Kakashi standing in the doorway between the kitchen and the sitting room. He was leaning against the frame to take his weight off of his injured hip while he barely avoided accidentally ruining the makeshift sling holding his arm for the sake of his healing shoulder. She scowled.

"Lay back down. You won't heal if you keep aggravating your injuries." She knew her words sounded harsh to her own ears, but the slight widening of Kakashi's visible eye had her quickly turning to stare at the pot in front of her as she started pouring water from their canteens into it.

"Everything alright?" he asked. Damn him and his soft concern for her. He was always so attentive to everything involving her and she could see how his obsession with her could be overwhelming. Knowing why he was that way, she'd been willfully ignoring it, yet she could acknowledge that the way they interacted and his hyper-attentive observations of her were not normal.

"Everything's fine. Just thinking." she muttered as the water started to steam. Kakashi moved further into the kitchen and she bit her lip to not snap at him to lay down. A hand gently tugged at her shoulder and she turned to face him, meeting a concerned eye.

"Did Pakkun say something to you?" he gently pressed. She let out a sigh and slumped.

"That obvious, huh?" She avoided his gaze again, instead focusing on the papers visible on the coffee table through the doorway.

"I can smell that he was pretty close to you and you were gone for a bit longer than expected. I'm assuming he gave you some sort of shovel talk?" A hint of amusement colored his tone and she brought a hand to rub at the bridge of her nose in frustration, huffing.

"Something like that. Just… just be honest with me for a minute, please. If I were to walk away from this today, in a week, in a year, would your reaction to it change? Would it get worse? Or are you already so bonded to me that the worst thing would happen right off the bat if I said something to end this today?" she asked, not able to bring herself to meet his eyes. The twitch of his fingers and the way she felt the air tense with unexpected bitterness was enough to have her wince slightly.

"It would be the same," he answered quietly. She closed her eyes tight and clenched her fists.

"Then I guess I'm in this for the long run, aren't I? Do I even get a choice?" she grit out, still not looking at him. As soon as the words left her mouth, bitter on her tongue, the hand on her shoulder jerked back as if burned.

"No, you have a choice. My feelings don't mean anything if you don't want anything to do with me. It's just a part of me I can't ignore. I can try, but it's hard. I can't pretend everything is normal if that were to happen, though. Is that how you feel right now?" His confidence was shaken, she could hear it in his voice. He was hurt. She finally chanced a glimpse at him and felt her own heart shattering at the look of complete dejection on the man's face.

"No, that's not how I feel right now. I want this now but what if I decide I don't in a week, a month, a year? Are you going to go and get yourself killed because I rejected you? It only hit me after the talk with Pakkun that this isn't normal, at all. This is a lot. I might get overwhelmed. I want things to be calm, to be normal again. I miss the comforts of things just being normal." The admission had her curling in on herself, her arms crossing to hug herself tightly. "I'm just… I like knowing I have options. I don't want this to be sealed as my fate so early if I give in right now. I know I want this right now, I know I like you, I know I like how you pull me close and hold me like I'm the most precious thing in the world, I like how you would find me first in a room before anyone else, I like that you're willing to do anything to protect me. Things can change, though. And I don't want you to die just because I might one day say I don't want it anymore."

Kakashi was silent for a few heartbeats before Avurin found herself pressed against his chest, his good arm holding her tightly and his chin resting on top of her head.

"I can't guarantee anything in the future. I can't guarantee what I would do if you one day walked away from me and went on with your life. Yet, I don't think anyone can promise such things. I know this is a lot and I know it's not normal. A chance with you is worth anything to me. Nothing will change between today and ten years from today on what I'll feel if you choose to move on without me. I feel my own mind tearing itself apart to get to you every chance I can. I can't help it. As a human, though, I will always let you have your choice. You aren't responsible for any of my actions. If you are ever in a position that you don't want to be with me, I fully expect you to completely turn your back on me and not look back." A hand ran through the back of her hair which had been left down after they had gotten out of bed.

"I understand," she mumbled into his chest. She felt a little better, but the reality of the situation was still concerning. She worried for him. Yet, that worry for his wellbeing also solidified her thoughts on the matter in her own way. She cared about him and what would happen to him. She pulled herself back slightly, ignoring his startled growl at her pulling away, pushing herself on her toes to bring her lips to his. His mask was pooled around his neck like it had been earlier in the morning and she took advantage of the exposed skin to bring a hand up to his face and run her thumb along his cheek.

He groaned in response and she licked at his bottom lip, tempting him to open his mouth to her. He was quick to oblige, letting her slip her tongue into his mouth with a softness that didn't reflect the chaos in her head. Her whole body felt warm and her stomach was fluttering from the heady feeling of kissing him again. His available hand ran down her back, scratching lightly enough to make her gasp into the kiss. As quickly as it started, it was over and they both pulled away to pant only an inch from each other's faces.

"Water's boiling," he mentioned quietly as he caught his breath. Her mind caught up with her current situation and she quickly turned away from him to take the pot of water off of the heat to set it on a cloth on the counter. She needed to wait for it to cool before she put it back in their canteens. Turning back to Kakashi, her gaze caught the readjusted sling for his arm and the slight wince as he readjusted his footing.

"Go lay back down. I was serious about you aggravating those injuries, especially your hip. You said it felt like you had just pulled something near the joint?" she asked as she ducked under his uninjured arm to help hold his weight and lead him back into the sitting room.

"That's what it feels like. Just sore at this point. I don't think anything is broken," he reassured her as she set him down on the couch again, helping him adjust his legs to take the weight off of his hip. She crossed her arms and sat down at the coffee table, eyeing the documents sitting on the table.

"I've been debating whether to get you back to Konoha for medical attention or sending a message to the Hokage to let him know that we'll be extending our little trip for the sake of 'further research' so you have a chance of healing before we head back. I have a feeling I'm still missing something big here but I'm not exactly equipped to help you and we're going to run out of painkillers pretty quick." She watched his gaze sharpen before he replied. She wanted him to have a choice in this matter since he was the one that knew his injuries best in this situation. Going back to Konoha while he was still injured would extend their travel time but it would be worth it to get him into a hospital sooner if his injuries warranted it.

"We should stay. This is hardly the first time I've been injured in the field and pulling things is hardly severe enough to need immediate medical attention. We can continue to investigate things here for a few more days and head back when I can make the trip without having to be carried." She nodded with his answer.

"That's fine. I just wanted to give you the option. This place is suffocating and I need to find something decent soon that isn't traumatizing or boring or I'm going to start ripping my hair out." She looked at the document sitting on top of the stack on the table, sighing at seeing a simple 30-year-old mission assignment from Konoha that had been kept for some reason. Kakashi chuckled from his place on the couch.

"Well, not everything can be war decrees and peace treaties and instruction manuals on tricky kekkei genkai," he replied and she let out an unamused huff.

"I know but I didn't expect this to be so damn boring aside from nearly dying. As much as we could joke about it, I was actually hoping to find something about this stupid kekkei genkai like different ways to use it or how to train it. My family had to have procedures for this, wouldn't they? So where would those kinds of secrets be stored for training future generations?" she grumbled, running her hand through her bangs. She certainly felt cleaner after her dunk in the torturous death tank the day before, but she was already missing the comforts of warm running water in Konoha. She'd only had access to proper amenities for a few weeks and she was already missing the luxuries the village provided compared to her cabin.

"When I scouted the outside area of the estate, there weren't any training grounds or anything that would indicate any training happened here. Either the information was verbally passed down through family members or there's written documents here that we just need to find. Was there anything in that room yesterday that would have been important enough to trigger the trap?" he asked. They had avoided talking about the room throughout the morning since the memory of the trap was still fresh, yet Avurin knew that such an extreme trap had to be protecting something in that room.

"Yeah, actually. The seal activated when I attempted to open a big chest in that room. It didn't float when the water started rising so it had to be pretty heavy. Whatever was in there, especially if it was an actual training manual written on paper, has to be ruined by now. Everything was made of stone and I doubt the room has a way to drain so it's likely the whole room is still sitting there full of water." Her eyebrows furrowed as she glared at a blank scroll sitting on the table in front of her. Kakashi must have switched to manually writing down information, meaning he still didn't have a lot of chakra for his Sharingan. "It has to be in that chest. We need to figure out how to get in there without flooding the house or drowning again. It's not like we can go back through the top and drag the chest out. It'll be too heavy. And the door I walked in through opened inwards so the weight of the water will be pressing against it to keep it closed." She sighed, dropping her hands to pick at her nails in frustration.

"Well, I don't see why they would set a trap like that unless they had a way to drain it. Worst case scenario, if you're absolutely sure that the chest has something important in it, we can use one of my jutsu to drain the room by making a hole in the floor. I can't guarantee that it won't flood the house though." Kakashi offered, also looking frustrated with the thought.

"What if we sent Pakkun down the tunnel to see if the room did drain? Maybe there's a timer set to activate a seal to drain the room considering my family apparently dabbled in a few seals for warding and traps anyway." Avurin looked towards Kakashi for his reaction. He nodded.

"Give me a day to get my chakra reserves back up and we'll summon Pakkun. For now, we should focus on getting the rest of this information either recorded in scrolls or I'll look at them with my eye. We still might find something in all of this." Kakashi sat up with a small wince, eyes taking in the information that they had already recorded and what was being disregarded. The Okita family had kept very thorough records over the years and so far, it had all been routine documents with only a few correspondences with Konoha. They were recording the information that seemed relevant and would sort through everything later, making connections and comparing notes back in Konoha when they had the luxury of time and possibly extra eyes.

Avurin personally wanted these notes kept hidden in the Hatake compound until she knew who she could trust with any information related to her clan. Just from going through what they had found, the clan was secretive and had kept everything locked down in the estate. Her own parents hadn't kept any information about the clan on-hand, only giving her vague answers when she had questions about the Okita kekkei genkai or about her family in general.

She wouldn't claim to know who to trust in the village right now, aside from Kakashi, Gai, Asuma, and Kurenai. Even then, she was only comfortable with sharing this information with Kakashi. If that chest had the kind of information she was looking for, he would also know her weaknesses and training methods by the end of this trip and she had no intentions of sharing that information with anyone else. She had a feeling there were people in power, especially on the Council that had been holding her back, that would literally kill her for this information. Bloodline thieves hadn't been around for several years, yet she knew she couldn't be too careful. This kekkei genkai could have a removable part similar to the Uchiha's eyes.

"Let's get to work, then. Save your energy and we'll tackle it tomorrow."

-The Next Day-

"Pakkun, I need you to run down into the tunnel and let me know if the water in the room I pulled Avurin out of has receded. If it hasn't, we need to come up with a plan to drain it." Kakashi directed the pug from the entrance of the crawlspace in the bathroom. Avurin sat on the edge of the tub with her arms crossed, currently pouting after being dragged out of bed early by a particularly motivated Kakashi.

The previous day's work of manually recording documents together from the upstairs office and other parts of the house had grated on their nerves and really stressed that they were wasting time with otherwise irrelevant documents throughout this mission. They had found a mention or two of noble families being 'influenced' by members of the clan during political talks over fifty years ago, yet they couldn't directly say that it was a mention of the kekkei genkai and Avurin already knew she wasn't going to investigate it.

Aside from that, there had been no mention of the family using their power for anything other than regular missions passed along through Konoha. Nothing was personal, no mentions of how the clan felt about their distance from Konoha or how they were treated on missions due to their concerning amount of power, nothing. Needless to say, they both went to bed without saying much to each other. Lack of results on a mission after a harsh reminder that they were on a mission would drive any shinobi into a sour mood.

"You got it, Boss!" Pakkun took off into the tunnel with enthusiasm, likely also sick and tired of running around through the same house for days on end. Avurin watched Kakashi as he kept his eyes on the entrance of the tunnel, waiting for Pakkun to get back.

"So, I say if we find this information today, we pack the whole thing up in a storage scroll and get out of here. I'm ready to get home." Avurin mumbled as she waited for Kakashi's reaction. She saw how his shoulders slumped as he sighed.

"That's probably for the best. We can sort everything out back in the village. We'll take today to figure this out and leave first thing in the morning if we don't run into any trouble. We're approaching the deadline as it is and I already know I'm going to slow us down." Kakashi grumbled, his good arm moving down to lightly massage his hip. He hadn't needed a crutch to get around but he was obviously still in pain. He described it as just being sore but after a few days of travel, that pain could become agonizing. Avurin already planned on carrying him on the last day if she could tell he was in too much pain by then. Kakashi kept his arm in the sling for the sake of letting his arm heal while they were relatively safe, but she already knew he could use it if he needed to.

"The water has gone down, Boss! I couldn't see into the room but it appeared clear and I couldn't hear any dripping that would indicate standing water in there. Should be safe to enter." Pakkun reported as he walked out of the tunnel. He shook himself to rid himself of residual dampness and kicked his paws out against the floor a few times, leaving streaks of mold that had clung to his paws.

"Good work. I'll call on you if I need you again sometime today. We're going to wrap this up and head back tomorrow morning." Kakashi informed the pug before he was dispelled. Both of the shinobi let out a sigh of relief. If the water had drained, they could at least attempt to open the door from the other side. Or, at least, Avurin could. They still had to avoid the wards behind the bookshelf in the downstairs office so Kakashi would have to wait until she came out. Pulling out a heavy duty storage scroll, she held it up to him and he nodded. She was going to store the chest in the scroll and bring it out of the room before attempting to open it. A secondary trap following the one that had already been set off wasn't a high possibility, but they needed to be careful.

"Let's go"

…

Author's Note: We'll find out what's in the chest in the next chapter. Until then, what do you think is in there? Is it what Avurin thinks she'll find? Are the characters properly reflecting how tired I am of digging into these secrets?