Dawn would start creeping in through her window any moment now, and Kyoko hadn't slept. She stared up at the ceiling, blanket twisted in her hands. She'd never really been one for counting days. Shisui had, and Kakashi had had a calendar hanging on his fridge that had days circled without explanation. But the day she'd died and woken up again was burned into her memory, and she was all too aware that it had been a year now without the progress she wanted. She had no guarantee that her plan would work almost five years from now. She had no idea what her Mangekyo did. And she had a mission to leave for in two hours despite getting no sleep.

With a sigh, she got up and spent the next fifteen minutes making sure everything was packed and getting a fast breakfast. She wrote out a note for Obito that she would meet him and the others at the gates. And then, body dragging with exhaustion that she hoped wouldn't affect the day's travel, she left.

It felt strange, showing up at the memorial to find it abandoned. She was so used to finding Kakashi already there, often standing with him for hours or pulling him away. Once, it had been storming, and it had still taken her almost a half hour to convince him to head inside. By the time he'd let her drag him into the safety of his apartment, they'd both been soaked and shivering and wind-bitten.

No one was at the memorial now, and the stone was empty of the names she and Kakashi used to come for. Empty of Obito's and Kagami's and Rin's and Shisui's. Empty of hers and all of the other Uchiha that died. Though . . . that was assuming they'd been etched in at all. With the Sandaime in charge, she wasn't sure.

She lingered for over an hour, staring at the spot where she hope Shisui's name would never be. And then she headed for the gate to wait, no less tired than she had been before. She ended up setting her pack aside and settling into a light kata routine to keep herself moving and awake.

"Good morning, Kyoko-chan!"

She looked up, holding a wide stretch. "Good morning, Rin-san."

"You're here early," Rin commented, coming to stand next to her. She peered around. "Is Obito-kun here?"

"Not yet. I came separately."

"Oh." Rin laughed, sitting down and moving her pack to rest in her lap. "That makes sense. I've never seen him be early."

It wasn't too long before others joined them. Tsunade and Dan were close behind Minato, and Kyoko's sensei greeted her with a disgruntled nod before sitting down and leaning against the gate with a massive yawn. And then Kakashi showed up and frowned at Kyoko.

"What's wrong with you?" he asked.

"Kakashi!" Minato looked blindsided.

"I didn't sleep," Kyoko muttered, kicking out at Kakashi's ankles as he got close.

He knocked her foot aside with one of her own, snorting. He slung his bag off of one shoulder and opened it. As he dug through it, he said, "You're supposed to be well rested for missions." Then he headed off any possible comeback when he presented her with an orange from his bag.

Kyoko shifted out of her stretching to sit criss-cross, taking the fruit. "Thank you."

Kakashi grunted, dropping down to the ground next to her. "Waiting for Obito?" he asked Minato, a frustrated tinge to his voice.

"It isn't meeting time yet," Minato said, pulling his stare away from the orange.

Kyoko glanced sideways at Kakashi, ready to defend her brother if need be. But that gave her a glimpse of Obito himself approaching from far down the street. He wasn't alone.

"Kagami-san," Minato greeted, nodding to her father.

"Minato-san," Kagami said in returned, sparing him a brief smile. He bowed his head to Tsunade and dropped a hand to Obito's head. "I just came to see mine off." He glanced at Kyoko.

"Oh. Sorry." She got to her feet, orange in hand. She walked over to Kagami. "Sorry," she said again. She and Shisui had been in and out of the Village so much that they'd left notes instead of expecting to always catch each other. Kagami's insistence that she always see him before leaving had been over a decade ago; since becoming a genin again, she hadn't had to think about it much.

"It's alright," Kagami said, smiling. He had dark circles under his eyes. "It just means I got to help Obito get here on time."

Obito huffed. "I woulda been here on time anyway."

"Of course," Kagami said absently. "Be safe."

"I will," Kyoko said obediently.

"You too, Obito."

"Of course. And I'll take care of Kyo-chan. Trust me." He grinned and slung an arm around her, dragging her close.

She didn't correct him on who was taking care of whom, instead sinking into his side.

Kagami smiled, the tense line in his shoulders softening. "I'm sure you'll both be fine." He glanced at Tsunade and bowed his head. Then he nodded in Minato's direction. "I leave them in your more than capable hands, then."

"Let's go, Sensei!" Obito pulled Kyoko with him as he turned and started marching through the gate. "I bet we can make it in a day!"

"It's at least a four-day travel to our first location," Minato said in amusement, quickly moving to take the lead.

"Two days, then!"

"We're not halving our minimum travel time, Niichan," Kyoko protested.

"Well, we've gotta set some kind of record. This is our first mission together. It's gotta be historic!"

"Isn't it enough that this is our first mission together?"

"I'm sure something memorable will happen, Obito-kun," Rin said, coming to walk alongside him. "I don't think we've ever had a boring mission."

"Speaking of, Rin-san," Tsunade called from where she was walking with Minato and Dan. "You and Tiny will both be doing some work with me. I've heard you're a decent medic."

Rin lit up. "I would be honored to work with you!"

Tsunade waved a hand towards her in acknowledgement. "And Tiny, don't think for a second this gets you out of strength practice."

Kyoko nodded, but she could already feel the soreness in her arms. "Hai, Shisho." She finally started peeling her orange. After her first couple of bites, she went for her water only to find— "My bag! Hold on, I left—"

Just as she started to turn, her bag was held out in front of her. "You keep forgetting things."

"I don't always forget things," she muttered, taking her bag from Kakashi. "Thanks."

He hummed, moving to hold onto both of his own backpack straps. "Strength practice still not going well?"

"It's going fine," she protested. "It's just . . . a harder learning curve than I was hoping."

It was when they'd stopped to rest for the night that Tsunade called Rin and Kyoko's attention to her around the fire. "Kyoko," she said, "convinced me to take her on as a student when she cut her thumb open and fixed it in front of me."

Minato nearly choked on his stew. Obito snapped around to stare at his sister. "Did you really?" he demanded. "Does Tousan know that? He never said that. Why would you do that!"

Tsunade cleared her throat, frowning. "The point of this story is that Kyoko showed me from the beginning what she could do. I had an idea of where I was starting with her. I need to know where I'm starting with you."

Rin straightened, glancing at Kyoko. "I do supervised work at the hospital. I haven't had a consistent instructor, but I study regularly, and I do training rounds at the hospital whenever I can."

"A good base to work off of," Tsunade murmured. "How is your chakra scalpel?"

Rin hesitated. "It could be better."

"Kyoko, go ahead and demonstrate while I explain."

"What was that?" Kakashi snapped, storming towards her and clutching his bleeding and limp arm.

Kyoko stared at the blood oozing from between his fingers. "You need to put better pressure on that," she mumbled, head spinning.

"Better— I'm only hurt because of you!"

"Kakashi!" Minato said sharply. "Kyoko's never been in combat with our team before. There were bound to be mistakes."

Kakashi's eyes were blazing, and he didn't turn towards his sensei. "Mistakes? That was—"

"Kakashi!"

Kakashi finally looked over at him.

"Get the treatment you need," Minato said firmly. "And then we need to keep moving. We're almost to the our next drop point."

Kakashi didn't look at Kyoko again as he made his way over to Tsunade. Minato spared Kyoko a brief glance before moving to check in on Rin, who had been shaken by a particularly strong genjutsu. Kyoko's hands were shaking.

"You doing alright?"

Kyoko looked up and squared her shoulders. "Yes."

Dan smiled, and there was something sad about it. "Alright. Good job in the fight."

She narrowed her eyes at him. Dan didn't strike her as the mean type, but she had just gotten Kakashi sliced open. She opened her mouth to say just that.

"You recovered from your mistake and took that shinobi out before he could do any more damage to Kakashi or anyone else. That's a pretty good job to me."

She was saved from confronting Dan's sincerity by Obito shoving his way into the conversation, grabbing Kyoko's shoulders.

"Don't listen to Bakashi. He's an asshole, okay?" He held her out at arm's length. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," she said, gritting her teeth and trying her best not to bristle. "And he's not."

Obito wrinkled his nose. "I'm not just gonna let him get away with yelling at you, Kyo-chan."

"It was my fault," she said. "I'm messed up. He's right to be upset about that."

"He talks a big game, so he should've had no problem. I mean, you—"

"I lured an enemy shinobi towards him," she interrupted, balling her hands into fists. It had been a duo attack that Kakashi himself had created and taught her. Years of it being an attack they could always rely on together meant she hadn't been thinking about how this Kakashi didn't know it. "That's on me."

Obito's expression screwed up, but Minato cleared his throat loudly from where he was standing by Kakashi and Tsunade. "Let's head out," he called.

Rin leaned in as close as she safely could to watch as Kyoko closed up their patient's chest. "You're really good at this," she murmured. "I've never stitched bone before."

"It's the same principle as skin or muscle tissue."

"Is it going to scar? That's something I've been working on."

"It might a little." The new seam in their patient's skin was pink and raw, but most of it would fade as he finished healing. Though she didn't know how much rest he'd be able to get, given that they were at one of the encampments closest to the fighting. "I'd rather a scar over dying."

Rin giggled. "Obito-kun's talked about wanting a really cool one. And a story to go with it."

"Tousan has tried to convince him that it's not worth it."

Rin's gaze flicked from Kyoko's to over her shoulder. "I don't think it's worked." She straightened and smiled. Then she hesitated. "Do you need anything from me?"

"No." Kyoko returned her full attention to the patient and placed both hands over his chest. "I'm just going to do a diagnostic so we can chart for improvement."

"Okay. Let me know if you need me." Rin stepped away from the cot and moved past Kyoko, her steps light. A moment later, Kyoko heard, "Is your arm feeling better, Kakashi-kun?"

Kyoko grit her teeth and focused hard on her diagnostic jutsu. It was as she was writing out the data on the clipboard that she became hyperaware that someone had come to stand to her right and just slightly behind her. She didn't say anything as she finished. She hung the clipboard on the side of the cot and moved to the wash station. He followed.

As soon as she'd finished washing her hands, Kakashi said, "You were looking for some kind of two-person attack strategy."

"I'm sorry," she said firmly, finally turning to face him.

He shrugged, though his shoulders were still tight. "It was supposed to be a two-person attack strategy, right?"

That was how he'd proposed it to her in the first place. "Yes."

"Okay. When we're back in Konoha, you're going to teach me what you were trying to do."

She hesitated, gaze flicking to where his arm was resting in a soft sling. Tsunade had healed it, of course, but it was always good to let some natural healing happen where practical. He'd be wearing it for another day at least.

"You'll still owe me."

She snapped her stare back up to his. "What?"

"After you teach me the duo attack, you'll still owe me."

She nodded, pressing her lips together. "Deal."