'Cause I've done some things that I can't speak,
And I've tried to wash you away but you just won't leave.
So won't you take a breath and dive in deep,
'Cause I came here so you'd come for me.

[…] I'm begging you to keep on haunting;
I know you're gonna keep on haunting me.

-Haunting, Halsey (2015).

"Japanese, what everyone speaks, including the main character."

"Chinese, what our main character and others will very occasionally speak in this chapter."

Pretty much, if it's in italics or this Language Key dictates otherwise, anything other than Japanese is in italics. Or emphasis.

'Thoughts.'

Day Sixty-four.

So, it seemed that I had the pleasure of Mr. Badger's company until further notice. I almost didn't recognize him at first, considering that, you know, he wasn't wearing a mask. But I recognized his voice and had the vague memory of him popping through the window. Not to mention that he was wearing parts of that superhero uniform and the rest were upstairs on the dresser, the badger mask included. To think that I had subconsciously recognized him somewhat from that party was actually a little funny.

I had thought that I wouldn't be seeing him again for long time, but I guess not. Perhaps it was because the superhero had taken a liking to me, just as I had to him.

It certainly seemed that way, considering that he seemed more involved in my sporadic activities, following me around and trying to engage me in different pastimes. I didn't mind overly much, as it kept things interesting not being mostly left to my own devices like I was when at Kouki's place. Not to mention, he had superpowers and wasn't shy about using them either, even more so than Chi-chi. Seeing him casually start walking up the walls while completely horizontal was one trick that I had originally thought only my white-haired caretaker was capable of… As well as move at speeds that rivaled a car to jump up to the high branches of what could have easily been a sixty-foot pine tree, but I digress. Thinking back on it, Mr. Badger kind of had to be able to do that, so he could keep up with Chi-chi when they first brought me here.

I suppose that it just hadn't occurred to me because I had no reason to really think too critically about it until now. Right this moment. When Mr. Badger and I were at the top-most section of one of those aforementioned sixty-foot pines. I was having regrets about mentioning the stupid bird and teasing the other man about his age.

All I had wanted to know was the species of the bird, having never seen one of that particular shade before. It looked like a vibrant purple to me, pretty close to an almost lavender shade. "What that?" I had asked, gesturing towards the brightly colored songbird.

"'What's that'," Mr. Badger corrected absently before answering, "That's a bird, Fune-chan."

"What's that?" I already knew the names for several animals already, but, unfortunately, I didn't know the word for 'species' or even 'type'. So, I made do with what limited vocabulary I did have.

"Bird, Fune-chan. Bird."

"What bird that?" I clarified with a kernel of annoyance. I understood that it was a bird, I just wanted to know what kind of bird it was!

Realization finally, finally entered in his expression and he answered somewhat sheepishly, "Blue bird."

I squinted at him before taking another look at the feathered creature. I didn't know the word for 'lavender', but I was pretty sure that it wasn't the same one used for the color blue. "Purple bird," I tried instead. "What purple bird that?"

"It's a blue bird, Fune-chan. It's literally called a blue bird," Mr. Badger chortled.

At this point, it was more to spite him than anything when I began to argue with the unmasked superhero about the color. I already realized that I was probably not going to get the answer I wanted out of him. So, back and forth we went, saying the words 'purple' and 'blue' before I finally snapped, "Purple bird, Ojii-san, it purple! No blue!"

Mr. Badger faltered at that, looking somewhat at a loss as he choked out, "But… But I'm not even all that old…?" Smug now, I took it as my victory and proceeded to continue walking in the small clearing. This time altering my course so it was aimed towards the tree housing the bird that caused all this trouble in the first place. I ignored my sitter's mutterings of, "Hatakes… I should have known that one thing he would have passed on would be his terrible eyesight…"

Really, it may had been petty and childish of me to essentially call him 'old man' instead of the more appropriate 'ji-san' or 'nii-san', but I didn't much care at this point. It had also been pretty foolish for me to just blatantly disregard and ignore a superhero that I basically just insulted, because that merely left me as an open target for retaliation. It really shouldn't have come as much of a surprise as it did when Mr. Badger swept me up from behind at high speeds and bounded up the branches of the tree to get near the top of it.

But I honestly wasn't the most sensible of people, so there was that.

One of the first things Tenzō noticed after their misadventure in the old Hatake training grounds, was that Fune didn't have much in the way of toys. There wasn't a lack of anything else like clothes or coloring supplies and such. She even had several learning and picture books. It was just that all her actual play toys were the ones she had gotten from the party. Which… Honestly didn't leave the Anbu agent all that impressed with Kakashi. If you have a child, how could you not buy them toys?

What he didn't know was that Kakashi was well aware of the lack of toys. That he had tried to rectify that on many an occasion by bringing Fune to different stores that sold them, each time coming out with books instead. He had eventually given it up as a lost cause at this point, as Fune didn't have much of an interest in said toys, always doing something else to occupy herself. If she had shown any interest, there was no question that the elder Hatake would have gotten whatever had caught her attention.

Kakashi would be willing to buy half a store for her, having the means to do so considering how frugal he has always been with his money. But he didn't, because what would be the point? Fune didn't care for things such as that, had given not even the slightest indication at all that she did. She would rather go for books and colors and paper, so Kakashi would buy her plenty of those, but that was about it. Beyond those paper products, he didn't know what else to get her.

(There were always the ninja-oriented toys, but those were certainly out of the question. The only exception being when visiting with her friend, Kouki, because there really was no helping that. Not to mention, at least Anko had gotten her the rubber kunai and shuriken…)

But as it stood, Tenzō was unaware this, so he took it upon himself to rectify this 'problem', which made another one arise:

What did girls even like for toys?

'Dolls… They — They like dolls…' He hesitantly decided. 'Right?' He could do that, maybe… hopefully. He really hoped that it wouldn't end up like his last attempt at making something vaguely humanoid. It went unsaid that it had been an irredeemable failure that time, but maybe this time it wouldn't be nearly so bad? He would start out easy, though, dollhouses were pretty straight forward things. Being outside, there was plenty of room to do what he liked and be a smidgen more ostentatious about his jutsu.

Fune, meanwhile, could only stare uncomprehendingly as large tentacles of wood sprouted out from the ground, weaving and twisting into each other to form… a little playhouse? It was mostly wood but the roof and siding had living greenery on it. Little wildflowers decorating the top amongst what was probably a type of moss and vines clung to the sides and let little purple morning glories sprout merrily, giving dashes of color to the otherwise neutrally toned structure. After receiving an encouraging smile from the brunet, the not-toddler cautiously approached the small building that pretty much just appeared from out of nowhere in particular.

Still, unsettling abrupt appearance or not, she had to admit that had been a pretty cool display of a superpower. Not to mention, if Mr. Badger ever wanted to retire from fighting crime, he could always take up a job as a groundskeeper with gardening skills like that.

'Or possibly an outdoor furniture-maker,' she amended, taking in the inside of the playhouse and its nearly perfect proportions for someone of her size. There was even a little table with three tiny chairs. 'Oh, God, that's adorable.' And impressive. Like, seriously, did he only just need to eyeball how tall she was and go from there? Serious ninja skills for a superhero.

Turning back to face the somewhat apprehensive teen, she put any worries he had at ease with a grin and a double thumbs up. "Awesome! Good, very good!" She babbled, trying to remember any and every words of praise that she knew of in that language. "Extreme! Youthful! Hip and cool!"

Tenzō choked on laughter, just imagining the look on his senpai's face had he been present to hear that, before thanking his charge for her heartening —as much as she was able to — words. Feeling little better about his fine control over the jutsu, and realizing that a toddler wasn't likely to critique him too harshly over the resulting product, the Anbu agent took a stab at making a pair of dolls. Dolls that ended up being his best try yet, despite looking a bit on the blobby end of the spectrum.

Said lopsided wooden dolls were very similar to manikins, having entirely moveable joints with living vines for attachments. Which, again, magic superpowers. Forget climbing up walls like Spiderman and leaping over buildings with a single bound like Superman, Fune would much rather having this Groot-like ability to grow living plants from practically thin air. It was ludicrously adaptable and amazing.

Hmm, she did quite like the sound of that…

"Mr. Groot-Badger," the youngest Hatake murmured out loud in an almost scarily-contemplative sort of voice as she gazed in Tenzō's direction.

He wasn't quite sure if he should be alarmed or not, especially since it was almost dark sounding. The same sort of dark that Senpai would get when a particularly nasty idea popped into his mind, one that was almost but not quite mean-spirited in nature before he messed with a fellow ninja. Not always, but usually Ngai. What was even more alarming was the idea that Kakashi had, had the opportunity to use that tone of voice when Fune was near him to witness it and was now in the situation where she would use it herself.

Especially when she turned to look at him when doing it.

It was bad enough when she called him 'Ojii-san', because of the resulting mortification when he realized that, no, she actually did mean to essentially call him 'old man' and not 'uncle' was really very embarrassing. And any attempts to persuade her to use 'Oji-san' only drove her more firmly in her usage of the former. Leaving him to wonder if it was more just to annoy and tease him at this point than anything else. 'Mischievous, indeed.'

And now this? Well, Tenzō felt that he was justified in feeling wary.

But he needn't have worried too overly much, as all Fune did was politely ask him to help personalize the dolls in her limited way of speaking. She seemed slightly disappointed when he didn't use a jutsu to help him with the facial shapes but was quick to perk up when he brought out a kunai was began to whittle them out instead with steady, experienced hands. Never had Tenzō been so thankful for the long quiet hours spent waiting while on the job with nothing but his weapons on hand and a small chunk of wood that he would occasionally bring along with him.

After he finished carving out the facial features and created more wood on the head to carve out hair, Fune insisted that she would color the faces, to which Tenzō responded that they would need to get paint for that. That had ended up being an adventure in and of itself, after the not-toddler had carefully stored the dolls away safely inside the playhouse.

Fune had taken it upon herself to choose out all the paint, having firmly in her mind the vision of how both she and her sister had once looked like before all of… this… had happened. She was careful to get small canisters of paint in blue for the eyes and black for the outlines. A tan color for skin, white for her hair, and, after spending much more time searching for red paint than she would like to admit, a dark blood red for her sister's hair.

(Tenzō was quietly impressed with the not-toddler's restraint in how much paint she selected.)

The woman-turned-girl had also tried to carry it all home by herself, but that was one thing that she quickly realized wasn't going to work out for her very well. After several long minutes of stubbornly dragging the canisters down the road, Fune reluctantly handed them over to her sitter. The five cans of paint were swiftly clipped to his belt and his charge secured firmly on his back before, with all the grace and speed his occupation required, the two of them took the ninja-highway back to the Hatake estate; Fune shrieking with laughter the whole way.

The pair of dolls were removed from their places at the table in quick order and placed outside of the playhouse so as to properly dry. The first layer of paint was the 'skin' of the dolls in a light tan color and then the hair in the dolls' respective colors. While the two of them waited for that to dry, they enjoyed a light lunch of salmon onigiri that they prepared themselves and some pickled vegetables that had been set aside in the fridge before returning to the task of painting the dolls.

Not wanting to mess up the eyes, Fune had first lightly drew in pencil to ensure she did it correctly before outlining the pencil in black paint. She then painted both pairs of eyes blue; her sister's eyes being a tad darker after she mixed a small amount of black with the blue paint. A picture firmly in her mind of a kind face, a beaming smile, a thick mane of curly burgundy red hair, and eyes so dark blue that if you stare at them too long you get sucked in. She understood very well that the doll in front of her was a sad mimicry of the real thing and had to do some mental juggling so as not to dwell on dark thoughts lest she start crying then and there.

At this point now, all that had need to be done were the mouths and eyebrows which were completed in short order, before the not-toddler went inside to find some extra clothes. Ones that didn't fit her anymore now that she was finally gaining weight like she should and could be freely used as clothes for her dolls. She may not have been much for playing with toys, but she certainly wasn't an ungrateful brat and could appreciate the gesture for what it was. And right now, she just needed an excuse to catch her breath in private so as to collect herself.

Fune knew that suppressing her emotions was not in any way, shape, or form healthy. But old habits were hard to stop and she had always been a bit of a coward at heart when it came to matters like this. Avoidance was something she could do and do well, planning on holding off thinking too deeply or critically for 'just a little while longer'…

Because, out of the two of them, she had always been the weakest. Case in point, being how attached she was to Chi-chi. She had, in essence, made him her world, which implied a rather unhealthy amount of dependence on him used as a crutch to compensate for what she had lost. Playing the part of a child? A diversion from an imminent breakdown that would make her episodes from the nightmares look like mere hissy fits.

With her bottling up her emotions and grief like that, it would only be a matter of time before she exploded… Which is why she indulged in so many childish and selfish whims, because it helped release some of that pressure and beg off the inevitable eruption.

Like what she was doing right now with the left over paint.

Admittedly, originally, she was going to paint on the wall behind the couch because reasons… Said reasons being that a little chaos never hurt anyone and her sitter was asleep on the job, so she was morally obligated as a toddler to get into things. And she was curious to see just how she could press the boundaries by actually doing something particularly naughty. But thinking it over more critically had made her realize that in the long run, it would probably not be worth it to do something that might just end up being permanent. Pranks that are harmless don't have long reaching or long lasting results.

So, she went with the next best option: paint on Mr. Badger's face.

(She had the sneaking suspicion that he was, at least, partially conscious throughout the whole thing, and probably knew exactly what was going on, but Fune wasn't going to let such a small detail like that stop her.)

She started out with the classic mustache and glasses combo before adding a goatee to the mix. It looked pretty good, but it didn't seem like it was enough. So after some consideration, the woman-turned-girl painted on some cat ears a little above each temple, cat whiskers on each cheek, and a little inverse black triangle on the nose… Then she noticed the headband with the starting-to-become-iconic snail symbol on it and impulsively filled in the grooves with black paint, making said snail stand out starkly. She was rather proud of herself because she didn't even smear any of it once.

(Fune didn't know this now, but the Konoha insignia would forever stand out in such a way where everyone's eyes would be drawn to it first before anything else on his person. He had, thenceforth, been inadvertently labeled as one of those pro-Konohagakure enthusiasts and entirely unable to do anything about it.)

When Tenzō 'awoke', he didn't know whether to be amused or impressed at her handy work when he got a good look in the mirror. Fune had an amazing talent for drawing for someone her age. Tenzō supposed that this was probably passed down from Aoko and that one of the many ways she had entertained the little girl was by giving her plenty of supplies and time to draw. Too bad Fune hadn't felt so inclined to display this unexpected talent on his face. The wood user eventually decided to keep it on and show Senpai later.

Kakashi hadn't failed to impress both parties with his reaction, even with the mask on.

Day Seventy-eight.

Besides Kouki and his mother —Auntie Yu— Fune was mostly baby-sat by Anbu. Usually Wolverine, whom she knew as 'Mr. Badger' and 'Oji-san', having finally decided to play nice and stop calling him 'old man'. However, there were obviously days where he couldn't stay the whole time or watch her at all. In which case, there were various replacements, most notably 'Tanuki', who was normally a part of the Hokage's personal guard. Tanuki was also one of the few whom Fune actually knew the assigned animal name for the mask.

Although, the woman-turned-girl had still argued with herself for the next few hours after if 'Tanuki' meant 'panda' or 'raccoon'… until she realized that the panda was a part of the raccoon family so the point was moot anyway.

There wasn't much that she physically knew about Tanuki — considering the Anbu agent never took the mask off — other than female, mocha-colored complexion, mid-back mane of curly brown hair, some serious muscles, and a tenor voice. Personality, on the other hand, was much easier to figure out. A mostly reserved individual, overly polite, and very traditionalist. Also, had a dry sense of humor that was very subtle; where if you weren't paying close enough attention, it was likely to go over your head. Overall impression of Tanuki was a kind, if distant, caretaker with the patience of a saint. Which, she had to be to teach Fune anything, considering that the woman-turned-girl still wasn't entirely fluent in the common language, what she figured to be something like Chinese, probably.

(It was strange trying to learn two languages at once, and sometimes very frustrating and confusing. But thankfully it was easy to separate when the two were used. If it was family friends like Auntie Ko or Auntie Yu or Kouki or Chi-chi, she used Japanese with it's simple combination of constants. If it was the Anbu or strangers, they used Chinese, with it's different cadence and dictation. Thankfully, somethings, however, didn't really need too many words, such as making a decent pot of tea or origami, just a sort of do-as-I-do teaching method. And she was physically two. People weren't going to be too critical of her for the most part quite yet.)

Then, there was also Mr. Bat, Spider, Cobra, Ms. Sparrow, and Ms. Doe as well as multiple other Anbu characters that she hadn't seen a reappearance of.

Between all these various sitters, Fune rather missed Kakashi; going anywhere from a day to a week or more without seeing him with only a few days to sometimes a week in between each job he did. The first day always being spent sleeping and recovering while the others were spent training and preparing for the next job. There wasn't much Fune could really do beyond cling to him like a limpet and blab to him about everything he missed while he was gone as much as her steadily growing, but still limited, vocabulary allowed her. Sometimes she helped with training, serving as an extra weight when he was doing something relatively low-key like pushups.

There really wasn't as much time to bond or spend with him as she would have hoped since he had gone back to work aside from that one time where he had to take off work for two weeks because of an injury. Frankly speaking, though, Kakashi had mostly certainly needed the break to unwind somewhat and was able to at least get a head start on fostering his daughter's budding tracking potential.

Bringing out the Training Kit, he made sure to start with the strongest smelling herbs and spices, like rosemary and peppermint, and would allow her to have a decent sniff of the particular scent before placing it in the box. The box was a one meter by one meter container with several empty slots inside of it and little slits on the cover to let each scent waft through. Without Fune seeing, he would place the target scent into one of the slots and direct her to 'find it'. Every time she managed to locate it in under two minutes, he'd ruffle her hair with a word of praise and offer a konpeitō, her favorite sweet.

The first time he did this, she had given him a bemused look before huffing, as if affronted, and stuffing the treat into her mouth in an ornery manner. By now, eighteen days later, there was already a sizable improvement, being able to sniff out a level two scent (such as freshly overturned dirt, a pretty distinctive scent when by itself but easy to miss when covered by stronger ones) in under a minute. And she was used to his training methods, almost imperiously putting out her hand before he could he offer her the sweet, but there was a twinkle in her eyes and a slight curve to her lips that told him she was treating this as a game more than anything else. Which was exactly the point of the exercise, make the training fun and appealing to keep her attention and interest long enough to learn the lessons he had to teach.

Eventually — within the month, going by the pace she was setting now — he expected to move on to actual trailing in the inner garden, starting once more with a level one before working their way down. It wasn't much that he could offer as an apology to make up for all the time spent on missions, but it didn't stop him from trying to include her in as much of her heritage as a Hatake that he could that was still not completely shinobi in origin. That were things that his own father had taught him when he was her age. Actually, he would have considered getting her a dog of her own, like Sakumo had for him, if things were a bit more stable than they were, but he would put it off for a little while longer.

Let her grow up a little more before he tested her maturity by giving her the responsibility of another living thing's life.

Day Eighty-seven.

"Auntie Ko!" Fune squealed before burying her face in the physically older woman's skirts.

"Ah, hello, Fune-chan, Kakashi," she greeted warmly, purple clan marks crinkling as she smiled at the two of them before accepting the black backpack that the elder Hatake handed over.

"Thank you for doing this, Rin," Kakashi sighed. "I feel bad for relying on you and Yui so heavily, but I really don't trust anyone else for long term babysitting."

"It's no trouble," his teammate insisted. "We're family, ne? Plus, why wouldn't I like to spend time with my cute little niece? Not to mention, I'm the most stable option out of your choices. I'm not going anywhere."

Kakashi huffed out a laugh before giving an agreeable nod, mood lightened enough to tease, "Well, you're not wrong there, Kozō-chan."

"Does it never end? You know that nickname is about as accurate as calling you a hentai-fiend." The older teen hurriedly shushed her with a strangled 'not in front of my daughter!' and melodramatically covered the not-toddler's ears as he fought back a smirk of amusement. Fune gave her oba-chan a long-suffering look and kunoichi snickered. "See? I'm just supremely stealthy as you are an adult-romance reader. It's off just enough to be almost offensive — and just what do you think you're doing?" Run snapped, the latter part of her statement in harsh Chinese, formal and stiff.

The eldest Hatake froze mid-action of pulling out his wallet under his teammates suddenly hard-stare. "This is for watching…" His voice petered out into an awkward and unsure pause as he took in the look Rin gave him that all but screamed out just where he could take his money and shove it. A stare-down ensued between the both of them, leaving Fune to alternate in glancing at either adult in the clash of wills.

Eventually, reluctantly, Kakashi stored his wallet away with grumble and Rin nodded in satisfaction. He had recognized that she would see it as a slight, however small, against her capabilities as a caretaker. It hadn't been his intention, which she had understood, as that was just how Kakashi was, never one to leave a debt or favor unpaid if he could help it. But even so, she saw that they would have to come to an agreement, since this wasn't a business transaction but a family matter.

"Bye-bye, Chi-chi," Fune cooed out quite abruptly, defusing whatever tenseness that had been accumulating between them all. "See you soon?"

"I'll try, but it might take me a week. Tough job," the teen warned her as he made sure to enunciate his words clearly.

The woman-turned-child rolled the words around in her mind, translating the meaning, and then nodded, "Big mission, long time," she agreed, mustering an almost sage-like air about her. Almost, but not quite. Her childish appearance and voice ruined whatever effect she had been attempting to mimic, forcing the other two to hurriedly suppress their laughter to let her save face.

(By Fune's miniscule wince, they hadn't exactly managed to do so quickly enough.)

After giving his daughter a final pat on the head and once more thanking Rin for her generosity on such short notice, Kakashi disappeared in a flurry of leaves, leaving the pair to their own devices.

Waving the smaller girl into the house, the three-tailed jinchūriki closed the door of the modest apartment behind them and set about packing away everything in the backpack sans the few toys within. As she did so, Rin couldn't help but notice that there was something rather… lacking in the small sample of Fune's wardrobe. It wasn't glaringly obvious, but if one was paying enough attention, it certainly would catch their eye.

In case she was wrong, the physically older woman waited for Fune to pause in her recounting of what mischief she and her friend, Kouki, had gotten into the other day before asking, "Fune-chan, is this all you have?"

Set off-kilter by the seemingly non-sequitur, the not-toddler asked, "What you mean?"

"Weeell," the teen stalled, "Do you have any dresses or skirts? Shirts with pastel, ah, I mean, light colors?" It was entirely possible that none had been packed for the seven-or-so-day stay, but unlikely. Because Rin knew that it was just as possible for Kakashi to not have gotten his daughter anything feminine either. Whether it was because Kakashi didn't know what little girls usually wanted to wear or because Fune didn't want to wear them remained to be seen.

"No." Rin grimaced at the perplexed expression on the not-toddler's face and flat answer. As if realizing her mistake, the youngest Hatake added, "Don't have any. It's okay. Maybe later."

Well, that certainly wouldn't do, and the kunoichi would be more than happy to do the honors of going out shopping for cute clothes for an even cuter niece. "How about now?" She offered before standing up and brushing off her pants. "A day on which a decision is made is the best time to do it!"

"Eh?" Fune asked, scrunching her face up in confusion.

"That just means that we should do it now," the brunette explained patiently to her charge before leading her back to the entryway where the both of them stuffed on their sandals. "It's an old piece of wisdom people say."

"An idiom?" Fune wondered out loud to herself in English, "Must be the same as 'no time like the present' or something." She was still a bit unsure as to what was happening exactly, but she shrugged as she follow her 'aunt' outside.

It truly was a nice day. Fune wasn't sure of the year or month anymore, but felt like an early summer to her, temperature remaining steady at what had to be the upper sixties. It was partially cloudy with a slight breeze, and it seemed that everyone was out and about today, enjoying the nice weather. Especially in the market place. Business was booming, the stalls alive with customers and sellers hawking their wares. Superheroes were racing and bounding across rooftops; some of them kids who were probably still in middle school, if not in primary anymore.

Rin maneuvered through the crowd with enviable ease, her hand coated in chakra to ensure an immovable but gentle grip on the tiny not-toddler. This, Fune didn't mind too awfully much, despite not having much of a view, what, being at about knee-height and all. Finding a store that she had been keeping an eye out for, the teen brought her pseudo-niece inside hastily in the hopes to escape the worst of the crowd.

Inside the establishment, it was a bit better, the amount of people around them having significantly thinned out from 'chock-full' to merely 'bustling'. Satisfied by this, the brunette chirped, "this way, Fune-chan", as she lead her shopping companion towards the left-side of the store to where the more overtly feminine wear was held. And the moment she saw the most adorable outfits for little girls, Fune knew that she was going to get along just fine with 'Auntie Ko'.

The two of them spent maybe a little more time than what was strictly necessary in trying on various outfits of all shades and styles, only to pick out a four things in the end — three dresses and one lavender skort. It was more than what Fune had owned to start with, and it wasn't as if she needed to create a whole new wardrobe for herself. But still, there was something to be said about how satisfying it was to wear a colorful yellow dress, when all she had been wearing for the past three months were dark neutral t-shirts and shorts combos.

It was a bit unfortunate about how she was unable to show it off around town the next day because of heavy rain, but her sitter was quick in ensuring that Fune wouldn't sulk over the missed opportunity (not that she ever would; though she may not look like it, she was an adult!).

So, stuck inside the apartment for the foreseeable future — or at least until the rain died down in its intensity — Rin thought it best to broaden Fune's vocabulary, teaching her parts of the human body. Kakashi's daughter was a delightfully attentive student for someone as young as she was, sometimes even asking somewhat 'advanced' questions, drawing a (shockingly good) doodle of a bone/heart/organ/etc and asking what it was called.

One thing led to another and soon the kunoichi was gazing down at a picture that depicting what she guessed to be a glowing hand. "Oji-san make wood, fooooop, to little house with that. What is that?"

"Well, that sounds like chakra," Rin hedged. "He must have used a jitsu."

"Jit-sue?"

"Ah, no, chakra," came the hesitant correction. She felt that explaining how the life force of the world could be manipulated with practice and will to do fantastical and almost magical feats to a toddler would be more complicated than what was strictly necessary with how little she could understand. For now, it was best to keep with the basics, and what better way to do that than by demonstrating?

Teaching Fune how to access her own chakra — because undoubtedly the curious child would want to learn — would easily eat up several hours before the white-haired girl would be able to detect the flickering flame within, especially if she wasn't particularly sensitive to it. Although, Rin had her doubts about that being the case, if one were to take into account the sheer density of the famed 'white chakra of the Hatakes'.

Normally, blue in color for most of the population, there were very few instances to when it would change its shade. The most commonly witnessed variation from the norm would be the green of medical chakra. White chakra, the genetic mutation hereditary to that ninja clan, was made possible by it being so utterly thick and lightning inclined that it gave the appearance of white fire, like a lightning bolt.

It would be interesting to see how Fune's would manifest.

Drawing her chakra to her hands, she let it passively rest there in her palms, emitting a soft blue-ish green glow, as Rin hadn't bothered to perfect blend and purify her physical and mental aspects. "This is chakra. Everyone has some inside of them. It's what keeps us alive."

"Ooh," Fune gasped in delight. "Can I have, please?"

"'May I touch, please'," came the gentle correction, "And, yes, you may. Give me your hands."

Fune clasped her hands with Rin's and marveled over the fact that they weren't burnt from the 'green fire'. Even though it gave off a heat, even though it appeared tangible, Fune could almost believe that it was merely a figment of her imagination. Chakra was reminiscent of wearing rubber gloves before immersing them in hot water: warm and… smothering? Something shifted in her stomach, and the woman-turned-girl felt as something in her gut turned sour, like a heavy and uncomfortably hot lump.

She only had about five seconds to rip her hands away and run over to the trash can before violently throwing up.

Startled but entirely unsurprised by this, Rin sighed, "Takes after her mother more than I thought."

And it was true, Aoko had been very sensitive to invasive non-medical chakra, to the point where she had a medical alert on her file that had explicitly stated that she be given non-Yamanaka psych-evals. To the point where her main practicing doctor had been a Hyūga back when she was still alive, because their chakra was just about a balanced and clean as one could get. Rather than let it be a hindrance, Aoko had used this sensitivity to help her sleuth out genjutsu and eventually created her own unique branch of the craft. One that had proven to be quite lethal on its own a number of times.

A kinjutsu that was as hard to shake as one could get, something about not fooling the senses but the mind itself? No one in the S.A.I.I — Scientific Analysis & Innovative Investigations — Division could quite figure out what she meant by that, for wasn't it one and the same? To fool the senses, you must fool the mind through them: a circular logic without much explanation. It left a heavy aftertaste of dissatisfaction behind, but the riddle couldn't be solved and Aoko had been unable to provide a more comprehensible description.

It would take an unlikely strike of good fortune for Fune to have inherited such a talent. Though since she definitely had the sensitivity there was a higher chance, it might do some good to expose her to basic genjutsu concepts when she got a little older.

Setting those thoughts aside when Fune's gagging stopped, Rin went to fetch the child some water; the taste couldn't be pleasant and it served as a reminder to the med-nin that things would need to be taken slowly.

Baby steps for now, she told herself. There's no hurry for her to grow into that life yet.

Day Ninety-eight.

Shizuya Hikawa blinked lazily before moving her black hair out of her vision, eyelids heavy from lack of sleep, having spent way too much time last night up reading a book about the various ways ninja wire could be utilized efficiently. She yawned; it was way too early to be up after such a late night or to deal with a high-maintenance ninja family (which, admittedly, pretty self-sufficient in consideration to other peers and family).

"Ah, Shicchan," a blonde greeted blandly, muted grey eyes giving a slow blink before the owner unleashed a yawn herself. "C-ahhh-ver your mouth next time, would you? That's contagious."

"Sorry," she apologized insincerely, black eyes narrowing in challenge. "Maybe I will, if you stop calling me that."

"Probably not," her teammate disagreed. "And in any case, Shicchan is Shicchan. It's just the way things are, just like Sensei and his horrendous sense of humor."

Shizuya made a face, "Gross, Michi. I hate the nickname even more now that it's associating at the same level of those God-awful jokes."

There was a pause. Then Michi Hayashi retorted, "Just think, it could be worse, Shicchi."

"Oh, God, it's evolving!"

"Ah, wh-what is?" A humble voice interjected, an unfortunately short boy joining the two, nervously eying them and bracing himself for the worst case scenario. "You're not talking about that weird mold again are you? I mean, I thought you said you 'took care of it for good'."

The noirette tensed before whirling to face him, gripping the lapels of his shirt and bodily hauling him up, shaking him slightly in alarm, "I did! What, did someone tell you different? Did you see something? Did it come back?!"

"N-No, I was just asking what you meant by something evolving!" Naoki Hamasaki yelped. "P-Please put me down, Shizuya."

"Careful, or you'll strangle Nao-chan and we'll have to find a new one," a voice mused teasingly, announcing the abrupt presence of the nearing-middle-aged Jōnin. His students were startled, but managed to hide their surprise thanks to countless spooks he had given them as part of their training (the penalty had been an extra hour in Training Ground Forty-Four for every tell of them being caught off-guard… They had accrued enough hours to add up to nearly three months of visiting time there before they were able to condition themselves to not react in a way that would leave them vulnerable).

"That gets less and less funny every time you say that, Yorisou-sensei," Shizuya groaned. "Please, for our last mission as a team, could you not…?"

The Jōnin instructor made a dismissive gesture, but his expression was that of sentiment. "I suppose. Just this once." He smiled softly, brown eyes almost damp looking, as if misty from tears. The three teenagers pretended not to notice. "You make such fine Chūnin. Even if we're not an official team after this, we will still see each other and can always depend on one another. It's important to remember that."

"Yes, Sensei," the trio chorused.

"Good, now should we get that scroll? A nice C-rank would do, I think. Maybe we'll even get to go on a trip outside the village," Yorisou mused, beginning to amble inside main building adjacent to the Hokage tower where the mission's office was located.

Shizuya moved on ahead, flanked by Naoki and Michi. Even though they still squabbled and bantered like Genin, they were mature ninja now. A lot of the behavior was out of habit and the security they felt around each other. A lot of it was also just them still being kids, even trained assassins could act childish sometimes.

The Chūnin manning the desk took one look at them before immediately picking out a mission scroll to give them before they could even begin to ask for what they were locating for. At Yorisou's frown, she shrugged before sheepishly explaining in Chinese, "Sorry, but your group is the first I've seen to fit the requirements all day and it's time sensitive so…"

"Fair enough," he allowed. "Rank?"

"Not enough for a B, but it's a bit more than your regular C. It's babysitting a minor-clan child who's in a political tight spot at the moment."

The team exchanged glances, the teacher remaining silent to let his student decide among themselves whether or not to take it. Not that there wasn't much of a choice, but the illusion of there being one was nice. Eventually, they accepted the mission and got out of the way to look over the details inside the scroll in peace, the three teens huddled around it while Yorisou read over their shoulders. His eyebrow twitched.

"Where the hell did that come from?!" He hissed in shock upon seeing the name of their young client, mind going into a tail-spin. It was the last thing he could have ever expected; never in a thousand years would he have thought this would happen. He barely heard Michi shooting off a cheeky answer.

"That came from the missions' office, Yorisou-sensei, just moment ago. We are in Konohagakure. We are your one and only Genin team. You are safe."

"For now," Shizuya muttered in the vaguely-ominous way she tended to do. "What's the matter, Sensei?"

"…It's nothing. I just recognized the last name and it surprised me. I never thought my old, ah, work partner would have a kid. He was just the last person to come to mind when I think of a parent."

Naoki squinted at the name again, "...Hatake..? Never heard of this clan."

"You wouldn't, because up until recently, there had only been one surviving member left. In any case, it would be rude to keep them waiting, let's go."

A/N: Yes, yes, I know, an obscenely short addition to the chapter after such a long time between updates; it's practically criminal. But it's just a show of good faith that I'm not, in fact, dead and have no intentions to abandon the story... I have just had many (critically important) life-changing events happen at the tail-end of 2016, big enough that I had neither the time or motivation to write.

But I'm not dead, and neither is the story.

I can't promise an exact time frame (you saw what happened last time I tried that;;;) but more stuff will be coming your way... Eventually;;;

So, please, bare with me a little longer. Your patience and understanding mean more than you could ever believe!

(also sorry about the false notification earlier, something went a little screwy;;)

Happy New Year,

Stars.

A/N 2: So I just finished a major rewrite! Lots of little details and ambiances have changed and hopefully for the better! Don't know when the next chapter will come out yet, but I'm aiming for the US Thanksgiving, but definitely before the end of the year. I'll explain a bit more in then.

In any case, peace out.