Kakashi outlined Team Ro's training schedule then dismissed everyone for the day. Compared to the ANBU training regimen Misaki was used to from Team Fist, team Ro's seemed lax, but it wasn't her place to question her captain's decision.

Shinto seemed eager to get home. He was the first to leave, only briefly pausing at the door when he realized Misaki wasn't following him. Misaki motioned for him to go on without her. Misaki knew he would probably wait a short distance from the hideout for her, and there was something she wanted to do before she left today.

Yamato, Yugao and Itachi all slowly filed out of the room. Misaki was glad to be working with her new teammates. Thanks to her byakugan, Misaki had already known what Kakashi, Yugao and Yamato all looked like. Each of them was present when Kumo's Head Ninja attempted to kidnap her clan's heiress. They had been the ones to prevent Hinata from being taken. Misaki owed them all a debt for their actions that day.

Itachi was new. Misaki had never encountered him on any missions prior to meeting him today. He was young, but Misaki did not hold that against him. On the contrary, Misaki saw his age as a reason to respect him. Both she and Shinto had been drafted into ANBU young, and it was no boast to say that she and her fiance were great assets to ANBU and the village as a whole. She expected Itachi would be the same.

Misaki silently stood in the room as it was slowly cleared. She owed Yamato, Yugao and Kakashi a debt for aiding in the defense of her clan, but that was not the reason she stayed behind. No, her mind was on another debt she had to pay.

"Was there something else, Misaki?" Kakashi asked her when the room had cleared. They were now alone.

Misaki inhaled a long breath to calm her nerves and bowed deep to Kakashi. "I wished to offer you my gratitude, captain."

Kakashi tilted his head. "There's no need for that. The Hokage was the one behind the team placement."

Misaki did not move. "You misunderstand. I am honored to be on your team, but my gratitude is for your instruction several years ago." Misaki had the eyes of a Hyuga. Even without her clan's gift, she would have remembered the appearance of the ANBU in a dog mask that once taught her how to coat her hand in lightning that could be used to sever everything she had so far used it against.

There was a shift in Kakashi. Misaki would not have seen it had her byakugan not been active, but she did not want to miss a single detail of this exchange so she had activated her kekkei genkai the moment she bowed to her captain.

"Oh that. There's no need to thank me for that." Kakashi said, a forced smile on his face, visible to Misaki's eyes beneath his balaclava.

"Respectfully, captain, yes, there is." Misaki straightened out her back to look Kakashi in the eye. She could see the crimson red orb hidden behind the bandana wound around his head, but she focused instead on his visible eye so as not to cause offense. "Without your instruction, I would be dead. I would have died several times over. Had I gone into battle without the technique you taught me, Shinto may be dead as well." Misaki bowed once more. "You have my gratitude, captain. Additionally, I feel I owe you a debt."

Kakashi's smile was gone. There was a sad frown on his face. He walked forward and gently hooked his fingers under Misaki's shoulders, pushing her back up into a standing position. "You don't owe me anything, Misaki. I didn't teach you the chidori seeking some reward."

Misaki's lips pulled down into a frown, mirroring Kakashi's. "May I ask why you taught it to me?"

Kakashi looked over her shoulder, his eyes seeing something a thousand kilometers away. There was a small, sad smile on his face. "I saw so much of myself in you and Shinto both. I didn't want history to repeat itself." Kakashi turned back to her, his head tilted to the side, the corner of his eye crinkling as he smiled brightly at her. "I'm so very glad that you and Shinto have each other. Rest well, Misaki. We have team training in the morning." Kakashi patted her shoulder and walked past her, heading towards the exit.

Misaki stared after his back, frowning. Despite the fact that his back was to her, Misaki could still see his face clearly thanks to her byakugan. Kakashi's smile was gone; he had a look of great sorrow on his face as he left the room. Misaki wanted to go after him, but she didn't know what haunted her captain or how to help him. She feared she would only make things worse.

It wasn't her intention to cause Kakashi distress when she stayed to talk to him. She wanted to express her abundant gratitude for supplying her with the tools to defend herself and Shinto, but her thanks seemed to have had a negative effect on Kakashi.

Misaki didn't know what she could do to help him, so she let him go. He flickered away the moment he was out of the building. Misaki hurried after Yamato and explained things to him, hoping he would know something that would be able to help. Yamato thanked her for telling him, then flickered away himself, heading in the direction Kakashi had gone without Misaki telling him where Kakashi was going.

Misaki felt she had made a mistake thanking Kakashi for his aid, but there was nothing else she could do to make up for that mistake now. She stood in the street, unmoving, her mind aflutter. She'd seen the sharingan in her captain's head. He was no Uchiha, and there were clear scars around the eye betraying the fact that it had been implanted. What happened for him to receive that eye? He…He'd said he didn't want history to repeat itself.

Misaki was suddenly back in that crater. Her hand unconsciously went to her stomach, to the large scar she still bore. Misaki had never been so afraid as she was when that axe sunk into her flesh. She was cold. Her vision was blurry, a malady she'd never known before thanks to her dojutsu. She felt herself slipping away. Had Shinto arrived even a minute sooner, she would have died. Perhaps she would have had time to say a few words to him before passing. If she did, she'd want him to keep fighting, to carry a piece of her with him.

And he'd been missing an eye.

Misaki desperately desired to apologize to her ANBU captain, to go back and not say the words she'd spoken, unknowingly stumbling over his trauma. He had been through something just as dire as Team Fist's fight with the swordsmen. Half of Team Fist had died in that confrontation, yet Misaki couldn't help but think her team had fared better than Kakashi's team had when he received the sharingan in his head.

"Are you alright?" Shinto asked as she walked up to him. Like she expected, he was waiting for her so they could walk together.

Wordlessly, Misaki pulled him into a hug, holding him tight against her. It took her a moment to realize there were tears in her eyes. She squeezed Shinto even tighter.

"Misaki?" Shinto said, sounding concerned as he returned the hug.

"I'm very glad I have you, Shinto." Misaki said quietly.

Shinto was quiet for a moment, his arms tightening around her. "I'm glad I have you too, Misaki."

Misaki pulled back and took his hand. Hand-in-hand, the two walked home.

X

Kakashi Hatake stood in front of the memorial stone, staring down at the accusing rock. He noticed as Yamato walked up beside him, but he didn't say anything. Yamato didn't speak either, just stood at his side, silently offering support.

When the Hokage told him about his new team members, Kakashi had been uncertain at first. Like everyone in the village, he had heard Shinto Nara and Misaki Hyuga's names before. Like everyone in ANBU, he knew the circumstances that led to them joining his team.

Team Fist had completely disbanded. Half of the team fell while the other half all sustained serious injuries. The team's former captain took on a genin team while the two remaining members put in for a transfer to a new ANBU team that would allow them to stay in the village.

Team Ro was built to fill any role that was required of them. During the war with Kumo, Kakashi led Team Ro deep into Hot Water to force the Kumo nin out. When the time came for Konoha to advance into the Land of Lightning, Team Ro had fought on the frontline. His team was one of the lucky few that survived the battle between two Tailed Beasts and the Two Strongest Uchiha unscathed. Kakashi's prior experience on the front lines of the Third Shinobi War had been invaluable to many of Ro's accomplishments during the past conflict.

This most recent war with Kumo was not like the Third Shinobi World War. Team Ro had some close calls, but Team Ro suffered no permanent casualties, only minor injuries. In the wake of the Third Shinobi World War, Kakashi lost everyone, everything. His teacher, his best friend, a crazy lady with red hair he'd grown to see as an aunt, Rin – Kakashi reached the end of the war only to look around and see no one standing around him.

Kakashi went to war young, learned what it was to feel abject loss young. When he heard about the events of Misaki and Shinto's chunin exams, he was suddenly back at that bridge. Kakashi was all too familiar with the weight of losing someone so young. He couldn't do much for Misaki and Shinto, but he did what he could.

Kakashi was there in the aftermath of Team Fist's final mission. He saw what was left of Team Fist after meeting Kiri's Swordsmen on the field. Chiaki was pale from untreated blood loss. Shinto's eye had been removed with a new one in its place. Misaki's ANBU uniform was red from the blood that seeped out of the wound in her stomach. Had circumstances been slightly different, it was very likely that all of Team Fist would have fallen against the swordsmen.

Kakashi made the right choice that day.

"Yamato?'

"Yes, Kakashi?"

"I think I like our new team. I want us all to do our best."

"We will, Kakashi."

Kakashi had lived through war. Yugao had lived through war. Yamato had lived through war. Misaki had lived through war. Shinto had lived through war. Hopefully, Itachi would never see war. But no matter what came, Kakashi would do everything he could to help his team.

He owed that to his fallen friends.