It had been weeks since Kakashi and Ari's fight. She knew Kakashi wanted to be in the ANBU but Minato wasn't allowing it. Which she also felt was part of the problem. Team Minato had been away on missions and Ari's team had been pulling their rotation of gate guard and patrol. Every time Team Minato came back, Kakashi wouldn't meet her gaze.

It was a day off and three days til the young Kunoichi's 14th birthday when she had heard her brother's team had came back from a rough mission. Ari had stopped by Minato's house to see him, but he was in a meeting with the Hokage. Kushina hadn't been home either. So Ari decided to go check on Kakashi.

After Obito, the two had gotten close and Ari missed Kakashi, even if he was an egotistical ass sometimes. His apartment was close to Minato's house so the walk was short. Ari was about to do something rare and be the bigger person.

Walking up to his apartment door, a chill ran down her spine, despite the warm day. His door was cracked open and inside, she heard clattering and muttering inside, and pulled a kunai from her thigh holster. Ari slowly pushed open the door and peeked around. She sighed with relief when she saw Kakashi at the sink, but froze when she noticed his apartment was a disaster. It was always clean, almost neurotically.

"Kakashi?" she asked.

There was no response, however she could hear him muttering to himself. It was like he didn't even realize she was there.

"Kashi?" she prodded lightly, approaching the silver haired ninja and holstering her kunai.
"...wont come off...it wont come off..." he muttered.

Ari looked into the sink. The water was steaming and he was scrubbing his hand so hard it was red and bleeding. He still hadnt noticed her.

"It wont come off," he repeated over and over again.

Ari realized something had happened on the mission. It had to have. Kakashi wasnt like this. She approached the sink cautiously, not wanting to startle him. Once she was sidled up next to him, she gently grabbed his hands to stop them, his whole body went rigid, she turned off the tap and grabbed a towel from the counter.

Ari glanced at his face. His mask had been torn and he looked like hell, but Ari saw something in him that scared her. She saw a scared child. Thats all they really were. Scared children, and for the first time, Kakashi looked like a little boy.

Ari proceeded to gently dry his hands with the towel, making sure to he careful of the cuts he had inflicted with his harsh scrubbing. When his hands were dry, Ari held the affected hand between hers and channeled her healing chakra. Her hands glowed green and the cuts began to steam as they closed.

"It's okay, Kash, there's nothing there anymore," she said softly.
"I killed her."

This caught Ari off guard. Who did he kill? They killed on missions all the time, why did he feel bad about this one?

"Who Kashi? What happened?"
Ari saw his regular eye well with tears. She had never seen him cry.
"I used Chidori... but she... she..."
"It's okay Kash, you don't have to talk about it..."

Honestly, Ari was scared. Who had died? Surely it was a comrade. He wouldn't be this broken up over an enemy. But to make Kakashi Hatake, neat freak with no emotions, this upset... she feared the worst.

"She jumped in front of me... I couldn't stop..."
"Kakashi..."

Finally, Kakashi met Ari's eyes. She saw a broken, sad, scared little boy, not the fighter she knew.
"Rin's dead because of me..."

Ari could tell her eyes went wide with shock. Kakashi had killed Rin? But that can't be...

"Kash," Ari pulled him into a hug.

Due to the height difference, Ari came up to his chin, but she wrapped her arms around his neck anyway. He froze at the contact but then Ari felt him melt. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and buried his hand and face into her dark hair and sobbed. It was the most heartbreaking sound she had heard in her life. They sank to the floor and she pulled him to her chest. They sat there on the floor for hours before he finally passed out.

Ari channeled her chakra to her arms and easily lifted Kakashi and laid him in his bed. She took off his shoes and headband and covered him up, but she didn't want him to be alone, so she curled up on the couch and fell asleep.

A few days had passed and it was Ari's birthday. It was an unspoken agreement between Ari and Kakashi that she stayed with him at night. His couch was comfortable and Kakashi didn't want to be alone as much as Ari didn't want to leave him alone.

On a day that was normally a happy event in the Namikaze household, was the day of Rin's funeral. Ari had learned through Minato that Rin had indeed killed herself by using Kakashi. Ari had flared up at that, but before she could react, she had been told that Rin had the Three Tailed Turtle sealed in her and had basically been a time bomb.

Everyone gathered for the funeral and Ari didn't leave Kakashi's side. It was a beautiful service but Ari still held onto a small bit of hatred for the girl they were burying. It was wrong, but Ari couldn't let this one go. Obito had loved Rin and she barely acknowledged it, chasing Kakashi instead, and then jumped in front of the Chidori to kill herself. Now Kakashi had to live with that the rest of his life.

It was later that night, when Ari went to Kakashi's apartment, that something changed. When Kakashi opened the door, he was wearing a sleeveless shirt, his mask seemingly sewn into the fabric, and a familiar porcelain mask attached to hip. Ari knew what he had done. Its what he always wanted to do. Her stomach tied itself in knots.

"So you did it, huh? Finally joined the ANBU?"
"I joined after that night. I didn't want to tell you, not yet. But I have my first mission in an hour."
"I see," Ari gave him a closed eye, tight lipped smile and scratched the back of her head. "Well, I hope you do well, Kash. Make sure you come home, okay?"

Ari's eyes welled with tears but she wouldn't let them fall. Not in front of him for something like this. This is what he wanted. She was happy for him.

"I got you something though, for your birthday," Kakashi retreated into his home and Ari followed.

She couldn't explain it, but her heart beat a little faster and her stomach exploded with butterflies. After everything that's happened, he remembered?

Ari waited in his living room while he went to his bedroom. When he came back out, he was holding a box that easily four feet long, just barely shorter than Ari.

"Its not much, but I thought you'd like it," he said, handing it to her.

Ari took the black box and sat on his couch. She placed it on the table and carefully unwrapped the baby blue bow. Lifting the lid of the box, Ari gasped.

Sitting in a black silk placement was a katana. The hilt was alternating black and navy blue and had a small Leaf Village charm, along with two specialized engraved charms. She recognized one, being the Namikaze clan symbol of wind, but the other one was foreign to her. It was a diamond with several small boxes inside of it.

"I thought you would like it, since you like weaponry," Kakashi said, his voice hesitant and almost nervous.
"What's this one?" Ari fingered the different charm.
"That's the Hatake clan symbol. So you always remember who gave it to you..."

Tears welled up again and this time she let them fall. It was such a thoughtful gift, and Kakashi had remembered during such a rough time. It meant the world to Ari. She shot off the couch and wrapped Kakashi in a tight hug.

"Thank you! I absolutely love it!"

Kakashi seemed to have been caught off guard and almost didn't return the hug, but wrapped his arms around the shorter girls shoulders at the last moment.

"Of course. You and Minato-Sensei are all I have left... I'm sorry for not telling you about the ANBU... and honestly I'm sorry for going off on you in the Hokage tower..."
Ari pulled back slightly and looked up at the masked teen, "Kakashi, i'll always forgive you. You're my equal and my best friend. We go through alot with our jobs, we cant fight amongst ourselves, even if we do piss each other off."

Ari let go of Kakashi, grabbed the katana and sheathed it, and attached it to her back. They agreed that Ari would walk him to the gate and see him off. It was a weird feeling. Ari's heart raced and she couldn't help but feel sad and anxious. She didn't want him to go, but she wanted him to come back even more. She knew she'd worry about him the entire time he was gone.

What Aria didnt know was just what would happen while he was gone, nobody in the village would be prepared for it, especially Aria and Kakashi.