Hey, everyone! So sorry for the delays; posting twice a week may have been a bit ambitious for me with a job and college courses. I'll aim to post on Sundays until things calm down. I seriously appreciate every comment and view! Getting feedback has become a serious highlight of my week. Thank you all 😊

Rei didn't know why she was surprised when she saw the entire interior of the house was made of wood.

It was a small, one-story building, but it could have easily been lived in comfortably with some electricity and plumbing. And comfort items. Even so, it was preferable to standing in the windy winter forest, especially after having the underground of the woods rained down upon her.

"I hope you know exactly how much you rocked the ground out there," Rei quipped, brushing her fingers through her hair and stretching out on a wooden approximation of a sofa. It was quite uncomfortable, and all she had was a scroll that definitely wasn't carrying camping supplies, so she didn't complain.

"We're far enough away from the village to remain undetected," Tenzo said, sliding his forehead protector off and setting it carefully on a counter by the door. His bangs fell over his brow, covering beaded sweat, and he exhaled hard.

Rei raised an eyebrow. "You know, it would really suck if we were attacked right now. You look like you're about to fall down."

"I'm fine," he said, leaning both arms on the counter. "It just takes me a minute to recover."

It took him more than a minute to recover, as he was still breathing hard when two chakra blips showed up on the edge of Rei's consciousness. "That better be your team. If you get me killed just before I find my friends because you had to build a house, I will come back from the dead just to kill you."

Tenzo actually laughed at that, and Rei couldn't help but smile back. "A man with a… strange chakra in one eye, and a girl that isn't Kina. Is that them?"

"Yeah, that's them." Tenzo stood up straight, fitting his forehead protector back to his face. "Late, as usual."

Rei followed Tenzo onto the house's small, covered porch to wait, and she kept a kunai tucked subtly inside her sleeve. The new arrivals seemed strangely mismatched when they arrived: a slender teenage girl with long violet hair in full Anbu garb, white and red porcelain mask included, and a tense sense of urgency; and then a silver-haired man probably just out of his teens in the uniform of the regular Leaf Shinobi forces and an unmistakable air of leisure.

Although the entire lower half of his face was covered in a form-fitting black mask, Rei recognized him, and it sent a shiver of terror through her, which she tried to quash immediately. They were here to help her.

"We must really be late if you went out of your way to build such an elaborate shelter," Kakashi of the Sharingan said, obviously amused.

Tenzo, who was finally recovering his breath, said, "I was preparing for the worst-case scenario."

"The worst-case scenario would be the council sounding the alert and sending squads on pursuit missions." The man's legendary eye was covered by his regulation headband, but the other focused squarely on Rei. "If that happened, I'm sure your house would have protected you."

The Anbu girl seemed to be losing her patience. "We need to get further from the village before stopping for any extended time. You were foolish to expend so much energy and chakra."

Tenzo opened his mouth to reply, then let it clamp shut on whatever words had been on the tip of his tongue.

"Can we just go?" Rei found herself asking timidly.

All three Leaf Shinobi looked at her for a moment, and while Rei's heart tripped into double time, the man whose face had made it onto 'Wanted' posters in the Mist Village nodded once. "Yes, we can go."

Tenzo took a moment to reabsorb his house into his body, a process that once again made Rei gape like a fish. Headmaster Iwa would kill to meet this guy. "I don't suppose you have a reason for taking so long?" he asked as his chakra levels rose steadily.

"As a matter of fact," the girl said, shooting a sharp glare to her superior, who had raised his hand apologetically, "we were called back by Lord Third before we were permitted to leave. Let's talk while we run."

With her weapons pouch back on her waist, The Bastard strapped to her back, and the ability to taste all the chakras in the air around her, Rei ran shoulder-to-shoulder with the Leaf Shinobi. She couldn't keep from sneaking glances over at Kakashi Hatake. He was probably more famous than anyone she'd met before, even among her own countrymen. He definitely noticed her noticing, and he offered an invisible smile behind his mask, making her turn away at once.

"Lord Third is doing everything in his power to turn attentions away from you tonight," the girl said, leaping over a fallen log gracefully. "The Jonin Council has gotten suspicious since the Mist boy's guard never sent back any kind of missive before the ship was to depart, and they want to send reinforcements."

"How did he plan to stop that?" Tenzo asked.

"He didn't," Kakashi said. "He sent us."

"Nice."

Rei had so many questions. She got that the Hokage wasn't in favor of senseless murder. That in itself made him a completely different leader than the Mizukage, but why would he go to these lengths to get an orphan from an opposing country back home?

The night stretched on, growing even darker and colder as midnight became the early morning hours. Rei had been stuck in one place for over a week now, unable to stretch her legs beyond pacing the length of her cell, and her cramping muscles protested at the sudden exertion.

No, she told herself. If I let myself stop, they'll catch me.

They bypassed several small towns, and Rei took note of how the landscape became gradually more rural as they moved further away from the Leaf Village. Just before daybreak, Kakashi signaled them to stop. They'd come upon a tract of farmland, and the trees had thinned so that there was little cover for them.

"We'll stop for now," he said. "Even once they discover what we've done, they won't reach us before we start again."

Rei's legs had progressed from the feeling of fire to absolute numbness hours ago, and she knew they were giving out when the ground suddenly rushed up to meet her. Before she had to catch herself with her hands, the girl grabbed her and helped her to sit in the snow. "Thanks."

Nodding in acknowledgement, the girl looked to Tenzo. "Think you've still got enough juice to make that house now, when it'll actually be useful?"

Ignoring the jibe, Tenzo created an exact copy of the house he'd made before, settling it just inside the treeline where it was less likely to be noticed by anyone passing by. Except this time, he nearly lost consciousness from the effort. Kakashi caught him before he could fall and shook his head in exasperation. "Two down. Yugao, help the girl into the house."

"This is why you're not supposed to run to the border and back and then try to run back to the border within a week," Rei heard the man mumble as he settled Tenzo's limp form on the floor inside. Yugao, the violet-haired girl, offered Rei a hand up and Summoned a pile of blankets and pillows from one of many scrolls in her pack. "Take what you need and get some sleep. We'll start again at midday. That should get us to Inaho Village by nightfall, hopefully."

Kakashi shook his head. "Probably not. We've taken a small detour to stay off the trails. It won't throw anyone off for long, especially if they've got hounds, but I'm hoping our intervention keeps the Council from sending anyone else for another day or two. Anyone hungry?"

"Oh, and I suppose you packed a bunch of fresh ingredients?" Yugao retorted over Tenzo's strained voice saying "Yes" as he lifted his head in exhaustion.

"You and I both know that fresh food doesn't keep well in scrolls," he replied, pulling a kunai from his weapons pouch and twirling it around a finger. "Keep watch and I'll go find something."

"Oh, please." Yugao strode towards Kakashi and snatched the blade from his hand. "You'll get distracted by your book or something and forget to come back. You keep watch; I'll find something."

Yugao walked out the door without looking back and Kakashi crossed his arms, clearly pleased. "My apologies. She gets a bit snippy when her plans change."

Rei had just grabbed a pillow and blanket from the pile and was laying them out near the door. She couldn't quite drown the feeling of maybe needing to flee from these Leaf Shinobi. They had done nothing to suggest that was a possibility, but old habits didn't die. "It's fine." She curled up under the blanket and closed her eyes.

When she opened them again, it was much brighter in the house and the smell of a rich seafood broth pulled her from her makeshift bed. She ran a hand back through her tangled hair and tied it into a rough ponytail, seeking out the scent. She hadn't really eaten anything substantial since arriving in the Land of Fire, and whatever was cooking smelled better than about anything she'd ever tried.

Tenzo still slept hard, as he should, and Yugao was asleep propped up against a far wall, a blanket pulled up to her chin. She'd abandoned her Anbu mask, revealing a face as pretty as Rei had known it would be.

She found Kakashi outside the front door, reading a book as he slowly stirred something in a metal pot over a smoldering fire. He glanced up at her when she hesitated to come nearer. "I need a taste-tester, if you're up for it."

Her boots crunched over the snow that covered the few feet between them and she knelt next to the fire, reaching for it. The small flames held such delicious warmth, and she turned her gloved hands over, absorbing as much as she could.

Kakashi set his book down. "I thought someone from the Mist would be more accustomed to the cold."

She almost didn't answer him. Her earliest memories that were so easy to forget these days had a way of reappearing when she least wanted them to. "I'm accustomed to it. Doesn't mean I have to like it." She wished she had some kind of proficiency for Fire Style chakra. She'd leech as much of it into her body as she could. "I slept outside in the streets during the winter more than once when I was little."

She saw him blink in surprise at that, and she forced herself to hold his gaze. He looked away first, dipping a wooden ladle into the soup. He brought it out full of broth and pieces of greenery and some kind of meat. "Try it. I think it still needs something."

Taking the ladle from him and spilling a few precious steaming drops onto the snow, Rei tasted it, then decided she'd never want to eat anything else in her entire life. She inhaled the contents of the ladle and dipped it back into the pot herself for another helping.

"Wait, wait, I'll get you a bowl."

When they both had a serving before them and Rei was halfway through it, the man who had so intimidated her a few hours ago set his bowl aside and looked intently at her face. "So, how does a girl from the Mist Village end up as a prisoner of the Leaf?"

Rei came up for air after a moment. "They didn't tell you?"

He shook his head. "Honestly, I was pulled into this mission at the last possible moment. So I know the basics, and I know what's happened since you've been in the village. But I admit, I'm curious. You were found with one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, a Tailed Beast, and you were being apprehended by a group specifically sent by the Mizukage. I know what I was told, but I'm certain there's more to the story."

"It's a long one."

"Hey, I love stories." He set his hand on the book by his side as if to prove his point. "Try me."