Wind roared through the side streets, kicking up small bits of ice, loosening icicles from the eaves overhead as Mina ambled out of the telegram office. She loosened a hair pin, letting her curls fall down her back. It had been over a year since she last cut it, and she didn't dare go to a hairdresser in the Land of Fire. They would only butcher it. Samui was excellent at cutting hair. Gods did she miss her. And Yugito? The woman was a genius who knew everything about everything. There wasn't a single topic in the world she couldn't strike a conversation about. Intelligent conversation was in short supply out here in the Land of Fire.

In a few short days, Mina would be home again, following up on Bee's orders to reconvene. Darui would hold her again, she'd apologize. They'd make up. Then make out. Make love until dawn broke. In retrospect, leaving home had been a rash mistake.

The wind picked up again, lifting some of the lighter silver strands. She remembered one time the women were having a 'kunoichi night in' at her apartment. Drunk on wine, with green clay on their faces, their freshly painted toes in the air, Darui walked in, then immediately walked back out without ever fully opening the door. It was adorable. She could hear him next door in C's apartment, playing some sort of card game.

She smiled when she thought of the next morning. All three of them were still sleeping in various piles around the apartment. Yugito had claimed the couch, Samui had claimed Mina's bed, leaving her with Darui's. Darui quietly crept back into the apartment around dawn. She could hear Yugito throw a pillow at him, his quiet apology, and the closing of his bedroom door.

The bed was far too cold without him, though it was still soaked in his comforting scents. Her head pounded when the sun dared breach the small crack in the solar curtains. She covered her eyes and let out a soft moan.

"Hungover?" Darui whispered quietly, closing the curtain.

She mumbled, daring to peek at him, haloed in dawn's light. "You're such a beautiful man."

He smirked. "Still drunk, then?"

"Mmph." Mina rolled back over in the bed. The mattress dipped under his added weight as he climbed in under the covers. His hands felt so good against her skin as he pressed her body against his.

"You're naked," he commented quietly, stroking her back. Soft lips caressed the crown of her head.

She moaned again, covering her ears this time.

"Very dull of you to be this drunk at six a.m." he teased in a hushed voice. His hand trailed lower, caressing the top curves of her ass.

"Darui, shh," she complained, placing her hand over his mouth. Belying her request, she swung her bare leg over the top of his hip.

He gently bit down on her hand, pulling it from his mouth, and placing it on his chest. He let his hand meander down her body. "Orgasms are an excellent hangover cure."

"You're fucking with me. That's not true."

"I'd rather be fucking you," he whispered, laying hot kisses on her neck. "Besides, you did deprive me of my bed last night."

"We have guests," she lightly protested, reaching down to grab his cock. He hissed as she slowly stroked him. Dropping his mouth to her naked breasts, he rolled her on her back, sucking a nipple while palming the other. A moan fell from her lips, her back arched up, begging him to continue.

"Shh, we have guests," he teasingly reminded. "Make another noise and I'll gag you."

She sighed quietly, running her fingers through his hair.

He glanced up from her breast, with narrowed eyes. "What do you say?"

"Yes, Master," she said mischievously, the only warning she gave before—

Someone landed on their feet near her, and she startled out of her memory. Shisui grinned widely at her. "Nice day," he commented. "You okay? You're a little flushed."

She could feel the blush spread down from her cheeks. "I'm fine. H-How're you?"

"Were you having dirty thoughts?" Shisui winked, taking her bag from her and slinging it over his shoulder.

The blush deepened, her face growing hot despite the frost in the air. "M-me? Dirty? No. Never."

His grin widened. "If you want, I can help you take care of that." He winked again, causing her to roll her eyes.

"I was not thinking dirty thoughts."

He stopped in front of her, embracing her closely, his hand dipping dangerously low against the back of her belt. Dropping his lips to her ear, he whispered, "I know you're lying, Kaminari. But I've always enjoyed a dirty girl in my bed."

Mina reared back to slap him. He sauntered out of reach, adding to her ire.

"So charming." She rolled her eyes again, continuing the walk to her crummy boarding house. "If you're not careful, Uchiha, I might tell my brother on you."

He put a dramatic hand on his heart. "Oh, you wound me. Siccing your poor, poor brother on me."

She laughed at his dramatics, pulling the key out of her pocket. "Are you really going to follow me to my room like a creepy stalker?"

He shrugged. "Thought I might take you out to dinner."

"Oh yeah?"

The stairs creaked beneath their feet, every step uneven from the next. Old wallpaper peeled from the sides of the water-stained walls. Shisui was close now, the heat of his chest was against her back, his hand underneath her sweater, innocently caressing her hip.

"I'm not sleeping with you," she warned, looking over her shoulder at him.

"Wasn't on the menu, anyway."

The corners of his eyes were tight beneath his carefree expression. She stopped outside of her room and fully took him in. There was a tic in the muscle of his jaw beneath the smirk. His shirt was wrinkled, the tanto holder slightly askew on top of his uniform. No blood though, not that she could smell, anyway.

She cupped his cheek with the palm of her hand. "Are you okay?"

The smile he gave failed to reach his eyes, the purple smudges only deepened. "I'm great. I'm about to take a beautiful woman out to dinner."

"We can always stay in, if you want? I have an exciting variety of ramen. In a cup."

He chuckled, holding the bedroom door open. He was avoiding eye contact now, shifting his weight from one foot to the next.

"Shisui?"

He roughly exhaled, closing the door. "I'm curious, is all of the stuff in here yours?"

Mina shrugged, plopping down on the bed. "Yeah, pretty much. Everything except the furniture. Though, I'll probably leave the bedding when I have to run. I don't have the space in my ruck."

"Yeah?" Shisui pointed at the holey blanket on the bed.

"Oh, not that. That's special," she joked, yanking it out of the disorganized nest of bedding. "Killer Bee gave me this, see?" She pointed to the small embroidered octopi on the border. "He picked it up in a craft fair down in Aioi, a coastal town in the Land of Lightning. Gave it to me when I was ten, I think? I was having a hard time with nightmares when he was out of town."

"Yeah? And he raised you?" Shisui furrowed his brow, sitting down next to her. He took a corner of the blanket and traced the embroidered octopus with the tip of his finger.

"No, S did. He was my mentor and on Bee's team back in the day. Took me in when I was eight. But he and Bee were lovers for a bit, so they lived together for a few years. Bee is more of a free spirit, he likes to roam. And S, well, he liked to stay at home."

"I see."

"S was a good guardian. He taught me how to take care of myself. His mom had hair similar to mine, and so he learned how to take care of it from her, then taught me. I had the coolest hairstyles in the academy."

Shisui smiled at that. "You were always the coolest girl in the academy."

"Obviously," she joked, flipping her hair over her shoulder. "He really liked to do these fancy little braids, then he would weave them together. Said it promoted dexterity which is essential for a medic. Really, I think he just enjoyed showing off to the other parents. He liked making anything and everything a competition."

"He sounds like a good guardian."

She smiled at him, knocking her temple against his shoulder. "He was. Not much of a cook, I'm afraid. We had a lot of burnt dinners, and nights out." She got up, and pulled out a carton of miso ramen. "This was his favorite. He tried, though. Gods, did he try."

Shisui laughed, pulling his knee underneath his chin. He stared at the carton in her hand, the corners of his eyes still tight.

She dropped to her knees in front of him and put her hand on his leg. "Shisui, what's wrong? You seem really stressed."

He absentmindedly stroked the top of her head, letting her lean against his knee. "I'm fine, just some work stuff going on."

"If you say so." She moved to get back onto the bed. She sat closer to him, resting her head on his shoulder, holding his hand. "Do you want to hear more? It could be distracting."

He rested his cheek on the top of her head. "It's helping."

"Right. Well, S was a medic. So our steady diet of ramen was unappealing to him, from a medic's perspective. At one point, he just started ordering double dinners from the hospital cafeteria. He had them deliver it to his office. The head cook got so mad at him, until he explained the situation."

Shisui huffed a small laugh and took the carton of ramen from her.

"Let's see. I used to do my homework in his office. In Kumo, the academy is structured differently for advanced students. So he'd pin my physics or advanced calculus tests to his wall when I did really well, which I always did. 'Excellent,' scores all around.

"There was this one test when I was…maybe thirteen? It was an advanced organic chemistry final for this distance learning course from the Land of Lightning University. I stressed about it so much, I couldn't sleep at night. But when I got that final score of 'above average,' I cried. Absolutely sobbing, I felt like I let him down, because he was the director of the hospital. And you know what this man did?"

"What's that?" Shisui gently whispered.

"He pinned it up higher on the board than the others. Said all of the hard work I put into it made it worth more than all of the 'excellent' test scores combined. He still had it on his board when he passed—heart attack. It's a common way to go for medics. We're a stressed bunch."

Shisui kissed the crown of her head gently. "I have something I have to do tonight," he finally admitted. "I'm scared, though."

"Why's that?"

He let loose a long sigh, stroking the back of her hand with his thumb. "I'm worried that I'm in the wrong. That I'll lose my honor."

"I see. Do you feel justified? And will the end result be worth it?"

"I think so. And, yes. I need to do it to protect my friend."

She kissed the side of his jaw, nuzzling him with the bridge of her nose. "I think we'd all do a manner of unethical things to protect a loved one. The ultimate question is if you're willing to live with the cost it takes on your soul?"

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

He leaned down, taking her chin in his hand. She closed her eyes as he gently caressed her lips with his. He laced his fingers through her curls, then lifted her body onto his lap so she was straddling him.

He was hot against her hands, as she held the back of his head. All too soon, he broke apart, he stroked her cheek with the side of his thumb. His hand was tight against her lower back as he pulled her closer to his body.

"Mina?" he asked, kissing her gently one more time.

"Yeah?"

"It's for your own good."

Alarm filled her, as she fought against his iron grip. His irises flooded with scarlet, shifting into a spinning pinwheel. Far too late, she tried to close her eyes against the impending attack.

"Kotoamatsukami."

"Shisui, stop…" A tear fell down her cheek as everything faded to black.

Shisui could feel the tears prick his eyes as Mina's body went slack in his arms. Her hands released the front of his shirt as her head lolled back. He held her against his chest, letting the loose curls tickle his face. His tears fell onto the front of her lavender sweater, staining the soft merino yarn, with diluted teardrops of pink.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, as he rocked her. Whether the comforting movement was for himself or her subconscious, he wasn't sure. "I'm so sorry. It's for your own good."

There was a knock on the bedroom window. He laid Mina down on the bed, jerking the covers over top of her body. Her eyes were still closed, and he made a mental note to bandage them shut before they left. After there was another hard knock on the window, Shisui moved the cardboard cover and opened it. Obito dropped to the floor and put his hands on his hips.

"What a dump," Obito commented, toeing a loose floorboard. "Kakashi wasn't happy about this plan, but I convinced him there was no other option. I can't believe he let his sister live here. Did you get the intelligence report?"

Kakashi's sure footsteps tapped on the roof of the patio. "To answer your comment, I didn't let my sister live here. I don't control her. Never have been able to. And neither has anyone else." He glared at the two cousins before continuing, "I'm simply choosy about my battles."

Obito snorted in response.

"I haven't written the report yet."

"Get to writing while we pack up. Everything, every detail, passwords—"

"I know how to write an intelligence report, nii-san," Shisui glowered, clearing the last of the blood-tinged tears from his eyes.

"Fine. Kakashi go settle things with the landlady. I don't want to lose her trust. It could be useful in this part of the capital."

Kakashi inclined his head, and left. His footsteps echoed down the hall. The scratch of the pen on paper was beginning to grate on Shisui's nerves. Every line felt like a betrayal in its purest form. She trusted him, and he betray—

"Stop thinking about it," Obito said, interrupting Shisui's thoughts. "What's done is done. You did what was expected of you as a Konoha shinobi. It's a solid plan, and it returns her home. You still have a year and a half left as the Daimyo's guard. By then, she'll be fully assimilated in the village, and you won't feel so guilty."

"You say that like you've done this before." Shisui returned his attention to the small booklet of paperwork he had on Mina's desk. The front left leg was wobbly, forcing him to hold the desk steady with each stroke of the pen. "If I hadn't left her on that river bank, she wouldn't be in this position."

"I told you, part of being a man is making tougher decisions for others. Boys are indecisive. Men are not. Don't feel guilty about the past for following protocol. That shit wasn't your fault."

Obito picked up the rucksack in the corner of the room and started packing away the clothing in the dresser. The dog bowls were placed on top. He threw in the holey blanket on the top of the bed.

Opening the bedside table, Obito clicked his teeth. "Condoms and sex toys, imagine that. Must be genetic to be a closet pervert."

"I'll pack those," Shisui laid the pen down on the book, and pulled a storage scroll from his pocket. "Kakashi shouldn't have to see these when he gets home. Mina and I had a code we worked out to hide things from him when we were kids. I'll put that on the outside of the scroll."

"Works for me. I don't want to touch them."

An hour ticked by slowly, as Shisui filled in line after line of information regarding Kumo. When Obito had finished packing, he perched himself on the end of the bed and started reading a book about the legal policies from the Land of Wind. By the time Kakashi returned from finding the landlady, Shisui had a writer's cramp, yet all of the intelligence he had gathered was neatly written down. He held up the stack of papers and handed it to Kakashi.

"This is everything. You should probably run copies."

"Will do. Is the blanket ours?"

Shisui nodded. "Mina bought the bedding. She said she was planning on leaving it behind."

Obito glanced up from his book and raised a brow. "I would think the cutesy dogs on a purple background would have given it away."

"What genjutsu did you put her in?" Kakashi asked, rolling Mina onto her side and wrapping the comforter around her.

"I used that dojutsu. Then I followed it up with a dream genjutsu. Should wear off in three days, maybe less. She's a medic, so I'd bet on less."

Kakashi was silent, gently moving the curls from his sister's forehead.

"We discussed this," Obito warned quietly, turning a page in his book.

"I don't recall a discussion. A discussion is when both parties equally contribute."

Obito sighed, closing his book with a snap. "He can't undo it, Kakashi. Be happy your sister is going to be home, in your arms."

Kakashi sighed, scooping Mina off the bed. He nuzzled the top of her head as it lolled listlessly into the crook of his neck. Obito picked up the rucksack and easily swung it over his shoulder. No doubt, he left his own supplies and clothes back in Shisui's apartment. The couple left through the window. Not long after, Shisui turned off the lights, opened the bedroom door. With one last glance, he too left the rickety boarding house.

Jounin Apartment #53, Kumogakure

Frigid air blew through the empty cracks of the missing mortar in the underground fortress built into a seaside cliff. Ten of the missing Kumo shinobi huddled together as the winter gale forced its way into the poor excuse of a shelter. Rotten seaweed and algae perfumed the air over the dried iron of their wounds and the cold steel of the manacles on their wrists.

"We're a Shinobi Recovery Team from Kumo," Mina whispered quietly, urgently with her gloved hands raised.

Words were caught in Darui's throat as he assessed the situation—it was far graver than the two of them had experience for at seventeen and eighteen years old. Half of the shinobi looked closer to the grave than they imagined. Their intelligence had previously suggested that most of their missing ninja was scattered across Kiri in relatively good condition, not imprisoned in a dungeon. Even having Tsu and C on hand with them would not be enough.

Clearing the back of his throat, he touched the back of Mina's arm. She glanced toward him as he nodded. "Samui-taichou?" he asked the jounin at the edge of the group. Though there was no hope for a response, the man's eyes were glazed over and traced the seam of the stone floor.

A genin from the back of the room piped up, "She was pulled aside during their shakedown, sir. We haven't seen her since."

Green chakra glowed softly to the sides of the room as C and Mina split the worst of the casualties. A soft gasp of relief replaced the bitter moan that was heard over crashing waves.

Tsu shifted through the open door with his sword at the ready and glanced around nervously. "We need to move, taichou. Someone's coming. Someone big. Jinchuuriki big."

"Understood. Mina, C, we're moving out."

Two affirmatives were whispered amidst the wind, hope flickered in the missing-nins' eyes.

Time was lost in the darkness of his dreams before he inevitably found himself back on that cliff side. The survivors had long been sent away in the hull of a ship to the mainland with Tsu and C. Mina refused to leave him to search for Samui alone. She was standing at the edge of the cliff now. Chakra exhausted, wavering on her feet, dark circles smudged beneath her eyes. Tattered remnants of her coat sleeve fluttered in the bitter wind as the winter storm raged. Lightning filled the distance between them as a Kiri-nin twice her size approached her.

A kunai sliced through the side of his bicep, the sting of it barely registered as he watched the giant throw Mina's unconscious body over the edge of the cliff into the raging torrent below.

"Mina!" he screamed out, forgetting the codename of 'Kanna the medic,' they had agreed upon. It didn't matter, the storm drowned out his voice on the waves below as he thoughtlessly hurled himself in after her. The Kiri ANBU team wouldn't follow the teenagers, assuming their deaths would be all but assured between the stormy night's sea and the jagged rocks that hugged the coastline of the island.

The water was ice cold against his body as Darui struggled to pull them both over the raging currents. Bubbles escaped from Mina's mouth below her closed eyes. Strands of silver hair floated through the water and reflected the pale moonlight above the surface. Saltwater sprayed against his face as he forced Mina's unconscious body to the open air beside him. It stung his nose and mouth, even as the undertow forced them both beneath the crushing waves.

He could feel his consciousness slip and used the last of his strength to bind her against him with a bit of ninja wire. At the very least, they would be together in death. She wouldn't feel abandoned in the afterlife. The sea pushed them up to the surface again and he took a deep breath.

"Please," he whispered. To the god of the sea or the god of the storm they found themselves in, he didn't know. The beach was in sight now, yet he didn't have the strength to swim with both of their weights. "I swear, I won't leave her behind," he gurgled against the saltwater spray. "I will not leave her behind."

Lightning flashed across the sky, muted above the water as it dragged them down through murky depths.

'I will not leave her behind,' he thought as the edges of his vision went black. A distant horizon rumbled with another burst of light. He floated away into the nothingness.

Darui shot up from his bed, allowing the covers to pool on his lap. Kiri, again, for the fifth night in a row, ever since he sent Mina her last orders. He couldn't have left her, even if it would have saved his own life. For a man of few vows, it was an easy one to make before a god of storm or a god of sea: he would not abandon her. He couldn't.

AN: Thank you so much for reading! If you have time, please leave a comment.

Funny enough, Darui's dream was not part of the original chapter that was written back in August. But, re-reading some of this through, I realized we needed to know if he felt it when Shisui wiped her memory. If he subconsciously knew something was wrong. And I also needed to show the Kiri rescue mission, and how they got their claim to find as the best shinobi recovery team in Kumo.

Beta'ed by: CherryBerry12