DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything from the Naruto universe.

Thinking (+ flashbacks, speaking to Kurama, etc.)

Emphasis

Bijuu, etc. speaking

Bijuu, etc. thinking

Kakashi walked up slowly to the girl who had called him out. He felt terribly uncomfortable with not only her but being in this sacred spot, of all places, with anyone. On the other hand, Mito just wanted to be left alone at the only place she felt that she could properly visit her friends and protectors who had passed. She knew that she had disturbed Kakashi, but the teen had been standing there for at least two hours since she first arrived. It's not like she stood around waiting for him to leave the Memorial Stone as he'd been doing since he finally allowed her to step up to it! She had left the area and come back a few times, waiting for him to finish his discussions and prayers.

"Should we," Mito began and cleared her throat, "visit them together?" She looked away quickly feeling awkward - and more than a little aggravated. "I have some other people to pay respects to."

Kakashi said nothing and as time passed she finally looked back at him. Although Rin always defended him, Obito had said that Hatake Kakashi was an oddball, and boy could Mito see why now. She eventually turned back to the Stone and pulled some incense that she'd stored out of her chest plate. She said a prayer, finishing quickly - unfortunately - when she remembered something vital.

Kakashi watched as the girl stood up and faced him in alarm, at attention.

"I'm sorry I'm speaking while masked. Will you report this incident, Hatake-senpai?" Kakashi stared at her, snorted, and looked away. Well, that doesn't answer my question, Mito thought. It's too late to worry about it now, I guess. When the silver-haired Jonin continued to be silent, she finally gave up, figuring that if she was going to talk to those on the other side, she was going to have to do it in something like a silent prayer.

Which sucked for lack of a better word. She talked to her dearly departed "internally" every day: today was supposed to be special.

"I'm sorry," he eventually said, making Mito look back at him.

"What are you sorry for?" she asked genuinely, then realized that she could guess since she'd heard what happened to both of his Genin teammates. She saw Kakashi clench his fists, so stood back up to face him. They both had their ANBU masks pulled up now, which probably wasn't allowed. She really needed information about some of these things from her father. Her senseis were rather lenient, but she wanted to do a great job for him.

Mito scratched the back of her still-hooded head uncomfortably. "Kakashi-kun, umm... I have to get back so can you please say what you want to say?" They were spending a lot of time in silence, after all, and the sun was beginning to go down.

Kakashi cleared his throat and looked up at the sky. "It's my fault they're dead," he admitted. He'd admitted it out loud many times, but it never got any easier. "I know 'sorry' doesn't cut it, but..."

"It wasn't your fault," Mito said, feeling her temper rise. She pursed her lips and shook her head. "Dad told me what happened to Obito-kun: that was Iwa's doing, not yours, and Rin-chan," she breathed with her heart clenching. She heard an unfamiliar dark chuckle come from her own throat, silenced it, then looked up at the sky, herself. "Rin-chan: I'm - and I've told her this, although not here and out loud - I'm a little mad at her!"

Kakashi almost gaped behind his mask. He couldn't believe she said something like that - and here of all places! "Rin-chan's just about the nicest person in the world!"

"I know that! Do you think I don't know that?" she sassed before turning around to pace, moving more toward the nearby training ground, away from the Stone. "But Kakashi-kun, Rin-chan was a medic like me. Do you... I'm just going to say it!" Mito swallowed down her frustration: she really felt for what this boy had been through, and she really missed her friends. "Rin-chan knew how to take lives as well as save them as a medic-nin. We learn not only to do that for others but for ourselves, too." She felt her heart beating louder, and when Kakashi didn't say anything as he stared at her with so much anger while saying nothing - again - she felt tears begin to well up in her eyes. She'd always worn her heart on her sleeve when she wasn't on duty. Finally continuing, she shook her head as she struggled with the right words. "She could've found another way to kill herself. To do that to you of all people?" She bowed low and apologized for what her deceased friend had put him through.

Kakashi stared at the squirt in disbelief. "I thought they were your..." He couldn't find the right word. He was so fucking angry and emotional from what she'd just said, he wanted to jutsu something.

"They were two of my only real friends. I mean, I have Shizune-nee and love her, of course, but... I just wish I'd known them longer. Like you got to," she confessed.

Kakashi pushed down his anger and finally scoffed after she went back to the stone. In one way, he felt that after what she'd just said, she shouldn't be allowed to be here. On the other hand, he was certainly worse: he'd got them killed/killed them. "I was an ass to them."

"Yeah, I heard," she giggled quietly before standing up again. She was really uncomfortable with Kakashi being here right now, the conversation as a whole, and it made her feel jumpy. It was hard to stand or sit still.

"Great," Kakashi said dryly. He scratched his hand underneath his glove but wouldn't look at it: if he did, he knew he'd see Rin's blood that wasn't really on it. He'd gone to the therapy that Minato-sensei forced on him to get over his PTSD but disregarded what he'd learned. He deserved to feel this way.

"Obito-kun would've been glad to give his life for you, Kakashi-kun," Mito said, looking back at the stone with both fondness and sadness, thinking about her deceased friend. "I really know how he feels now," she said quietly before looking up at his shocked eye with a serene smile, still half-full of baby teeth. "I have a little brother now, too - pretty much - and I'd do absolutely anything for him already!" She walked back to the stone and moved the flowers she'd put down so that they were more aesthetically pleasing - to her, anyway.

What a weird girl. Kakashi watched her for a while until she nearly snarled at him.

"Will you go away or something so I can talk here?! It's embarrassing!"

"I was his commanding officer on that mission," Kakashi replied simply.

"Who? Obito-kun?" Mito asked.

"Yes... Obito-kun," Kakashi said, wincing at his friend's name while rolling his eyes: Mito-chan was really like her mother. "Why would you compare... that... Obito and me - to you and Naruto-chan?" He'd gotten used to calling the yet-to-be-born Uzumaki-Namikaze baby by the name his parents were going to give him; Kushina didn't like him referring to it as Fetus-chan.

Mito's smile widened. "Because it's like me and Naru! Obito thought of you kinda like his little brother! ...There was a rivalry and everything, although a little backward, ne?"

Kakashi's eyes widened in shock and a little bit of horror. "That's ridiculous," he snarled, still quite angry. Looking toward the sun, he realized that he'd once again lost track of time - with a chibi halfwit, no less. "I have to go." As he sunshinned away he closed his eyes and concentrated on his destination despite his great irritation, hearing her yell at him:

"It's about time, you ass!"

Mito hid in a tree branch days later, watching the green boy go wild on a training dummy. Her father wasn't giving her any missions, wanting her to relax which was... stupid in her opinion, but he had promised to train with her tomorrow morning. She was going to learn that Hiraishin or her name wasn't Namikaze Mito! She'd managed to learn his Rasengan over the last few months; surely the Hiraishin wouldn't be much more difficult.

At least her mother was teaching her more about fuuinjutsu every day while she was off. Her mother was also preparing Mito to "lead the clan," something Mito couldn't care less about, technically. She knew that it would be her responsibility someday to lead their small clan, and now that she had a brother on the way HE could worry about repopulating it. She had a career to focus on! She wanted to protect those that she cared about the most and her village as a whole.

The boy in front of her shattered the training post and Mito couldn't stand it any longer! It was so exciting! Reaching her senses out, she ensured that they were out of the visual range or earshot of anyone else and jumped out of the tree, startling the tall boy with the bowl-style haircut.

"ANBU-san," Gai said, surprised. The chibi-ANBU had really snuck up on him and he couldn't tell what animal her mask represented. It looked like his Eternal Rival's mask - oh, how he missed challenging him - but more feral.

"I am Fox," the child said simply. "Your taijutsu is impressive. May I ask your name, and would you care for a spar?"

Mito was alarmed when the green boy began to cry. "I'm sorry! I'll just go," she said, bowing and carefully watching for either an attack or his breakdown, as she backed away from the emotional boy. She'd been observing Sir Greenness for a couple of days and hadn't realized that he was beating posts and trees to pieces because of grief or anger.

"WAIT!" he yelled before pulling his fist down through the air dramatically. "I am Maito Gai, Konoha's Sublime Green Beast of Prey, as I'm sure you've heard?"

No, she hadn't ever heard of his moniker. "Forgive me, Maito-san. I have been out of the village, so I haven't had the pleasure. If this is a bad time..."

"NO! It is a perfect time! We must celebrate the Springtime of Youth!"

Mito swallowed a large lump that had come up in her throat. Is this really a good idea? she wondered. Well, it's too late now. "Indeed. How do we do that?"

Gai let out what Mito thought was a rather dramatic wail. "We fight with passion and fury... In a spar between comrades, of course!"

"I believe I can do that," Mito nodded and "put up her dukes," as Tsunade-baa-chan liked to call the Slug Sannin's opening stance before whooping her and Shizune's asses. "When you're ready." The intense look in Gai's black eyes was a little intimidating.

"Hajime."

Mito trudged into the house after making sure her father wasn't home. "Tadaima," she said with a sniveling whimper.

"Okaeri," Kushina said cheerily. "And you're late, young lady!" The redhead's happiness left with her breath as she looked at her beat-up daughter. "WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?!"

Kakashi came around the corner to look at her, then went back to the couch. They hadn't really talked much since the whole Memorial Stone thing and that was fine with him. What she'd said was bizarre.

"Training! Just training, Mom. I promise." Her mother didn't seem appeased by that at all, but what could she say? Mito had heard many stories about how hard The Habanero trained in order to get where she is today. She grimaced at hearing her mom curse while she found a jar of healing balm, which she applied way too harshly. "Ouch ouch ouch!"

"Don't be a baby," Kushina scolded before carefully looking over her daughter's bruises and giving her a kiss on the forehead. "If your father sees you like this," she sang, "there will be hell to pay," She held Mito's pretty face in her hands a few moments longer, squeezing and patting her cheeks.

Mito snorted and dropped the arm guards she'd been carrying, stretching to pop her back before beginning to take off all of the rest of her gear. She knew that she should do it upstairs, but she didn't think that she had the strength to get up there! Maito Gai was a fearsome competitor. It was no wonder the boy had just made Jonin. His punches weren't even chakra enhanced, but Mito swore that he hit as hard in a spar as Tsunade. Tsunade could level a mountain when she really wanted to, as she'd told the boy. She encouraged him to add chakra to his punches and hoped that he would at least try out the technique she'd described so that he might even better protect himself.

She was so jealous! And he wasn't even interested in using chakra! What a weirdo, she thought with a smile. She really liked Gai-san, but he was... different. "I met the most interesting person today."

"Do tell," Kushina said with a sadistic smirk. Mito could only see the side of her mother's face, but her red hair was already flying up a foot or so, and definitely separating as it crackled with chakra. She was also beginning to get dangerous with the vegetables she was stir-frying, barely keeping them in the wok as she smacked at them. Mito knew that she needed to be careful with her words and possibly assign a couple of clones to keep an eye on Gai-san in case either of her parents attacked him in retaliation.

"I think I made a friend today," she said quietly. She saw her mother's hair fall back to its absurdly long length, hanging down near her ankles and felt her soft gaze upon her. "Do you think that maybe we can invite him over for dinner?"

"Him, huh?" Kushina smirked. "Got yourself a boyfriend already?"

"No. Mom, I'm 10," the girl deadpanned.

Kushina sighed, unhappy that she couldn't rile her daughter up yet about boys. She also wasn't sure what to do. She'd LOVE to have Mito's friends over: it would certainly help the serious girl make friends. But allowing others to know about Mito was dangerous. The more people that knew that the Yellow Flash had a daughter, the more chances there were for word to get out to their enemies. "Tell ya what, dear. I'll talk to your dad about it." She knew that her husband would say no, but Mito was a little more respectful of her father than she was of her. Which wasn't fair.

Although he is the Hokage and she's so determined...

Kakashi had left for the couch and Mito sat down on the other side of it in relief. He was on guard duty and had a clone on the roof - or maybe she was sitting next to the clone and Kakashi was on the roof: who knew? Mito could tell that the depressed boy or clone was bored out of his mind. This mission, she thought, was good for him, though, no matter how skilled he supposedly was. Hopefully, a new life, a new person to love, would do him good when Naru-chan was born.

"Who is the boy you wanted to have over, anyway?" Kushina hollered from the kitchen.

"Oh, he's really nice. His name's Maito Gai," she yelled back. Mito heard her mother begin to laugh hysterically, while Kakashi began choking. She moved over to hit his back, wondering what in the world had gotten into both of them.