Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own Naruto or any of the other characters in it; however, I do own Aria and other characters in this story so HA!

Kakashi sighed and leaned against the doorframe of the restaurant. His visible eye wandered over the three other members of his squad. Sauske had grown to be a powerful ninja in the past few years and was nearly as tall as he, Naruto had transformed from the gangly blonde troublemaker to a formidable ninja who possessed amazing amounts of chakra and knew how to use it; Sakura was an experienced medic-nin. Loud shouts jerked Kakashi from his musing and he looked around lazily. They had just finished a simple B-class mission and were replenishing their supplies before they set off back to Konoha. Unfortunately, Naruto had found a ramen restaurant that he just had to visit.

Kakashi looked over at the three teenagers. Sauske and Naruto, though they had gotten close over the years, still fought with each other the same way they had four years ago. Suddenly, Sakura jabbed Kakashi's arm, earning a sharp glare from him.

Sakura tilted her head toward the bar. Kakashi lifted his eyebrow, but turned his eye in the direction that Sakura was indicating. Standing near the bar was a blonde woman who was dressed in a black rather revealing dress. When she saw Kakashi looking at her, she waved and began to saunter over, wiggling her hips. The rest of his team had miraculously stopped fighting and were all snickering behind him.

Great, just what I needed, a bunch of sixteen-year olds hanging around me. I really need to find some friends my age.

Kakashi turned to look at the woman who was now sliding up in the booth next to him. "Hey handsome," she giggled, "I couldn't help noticing that you were sitting here with those little children; you look like you need some adult company."

Behind him, Kakashi would practically hear the rest of team fuming. He smiled from beneath his mask and put his arm around the woman. "I am in your eternal debt for rescuing me, my fair lady; I don't think I could stand those children for a moment longer!" The woman flushed and leaned closer to Kakashi. "Hey kids, go get me and this fine lady cup of coffee."

Kakashi turned to his team and lowered his voice to whisper. "Your sensei gave you an order, what are you waiting for?" he smirked as he saw a vein in Sauske's temple begin to throb. "Go on, children."

Naruto opened his mouth to retort…

CRASH!

All the members of team 7 were on their feet in an instant. Kakashi took in the image through his right eye. Broken glass littered the floor around a single figure dressed in a red Jounin outfit. The man's eyes were rimmed with red lines and blood poured freely from his shoulder. Kakashi's eyes widened as he recognized the rouge ninja and spun around to warn the others.

"Sakura get out of the way!" he nearly screamed. Sakura turned toward him, but the rouge ninja caught sight of her first. He moved with inhuman speed and soon had his kunai pressed against the girl's neck.

"No one moves," he whispered in a deadly voice, "especially you, 'the Great Copy Ninja' or this girl's head will be rolling at your feet."

"Stand down." Kakashi growled to Sauske and Naruto who had resumed the fighting stance.

"But Kakashi-sensei-" Naruto began.

"Shut up Naruto." Kakashi hissed and turned his gaze back on the rouge ninja. "Let her go Rashi."

The ninja turned to him and smirked, showing off his pointed teeth. "Hey Kakashi, long time no see. I see that you have been well, I'll make you a deal, you back away and hand over all your supplies and I just might let this girl live, of course she will be accompanying me in my travels."

Kakashi's mind reeled as thousands of scenarios whirled in his mind, but no matter how he looked at it, Sakura always ended up dead. His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a muffled voice that sounded from the corner of the restaurant.

"Let the girl go now."

Kakashi shifted his glance to the source of the voice and his eye widened at the sight. A figure was leaning against the wall. The figure's body shape was impossible to determine, black pants hung loosely over the legs and over tall black boots; a black cloak obscured the top half of the figure's body. Black veils were wrapped around its head, covering everything except a sliver of light skin that displayed golden eyes that were void of all human emotion. Kakashi instantly recognized the figure as the Golden Assassin. Though Kakashi had never seen him, it was well-known that he never lost his prey once he decided to go in for the kill. No one had ever seen his face, though it was rumored to be disfigured beyond human recognition.

The assassin's brilliant golden eyes were trained on Rashi and Sakura. Rashi had turned deathly pale at the voice and drew the kunai closer to Sakura's throat, drawing a trickle of blood that ran down the girl's neck.

"Get away from-" Rashi's threat was cut off as the assassin appeared behind him. The assassin held Rashi's weapon with one hand and the other was curled around the rouge ninja's throat. Kakashi watched on in silence—he hadn't even seen the assassin move. By the looks on Naruto's and Sauske's faces, they hadn't either.

In a flurry of motion, Rashi twisted around and snatched another kunai from a pouch that was secured around his leg. Rashi lunged for Sakura with the weapon raised, prepared to kill. Kakashi's heart skipped a beat and he moved to protect his student when the sickening sound of metal piercing flesh filled the restaurant. Kakashi looked up and saw that the assassin had let go of his prey and had planted himself over Sakura. Rashi's kunai was sticking clean through his arm, blood dripping on the floor, staining it red.

In a quick motion, two twin daggers appeared in the assassin's hands. One was the exact shade of its owner's eyes and the other was dyed a deep purple. Before Rashi could utter another word, the assassin had severed his spinal cord, leaving Rashi to sink to the floor, dead before he knew what had occurred.

Without a word, the assassin took a blue vial from his cloak and poured the dark liquid down the fallen ninja's throat and silently tucked the two twin daggers into his sleeves. Kakashi was suddenly aware of how quiet it had gotten in the restaurant. He spared a quick glance around and realized that the customers were all the same shade of deathly pale and each was shaking like leaves in the fall.

Kakashi exhaled and realized for the first time that he had been holding his breath. As soon as the relief had come it vanished as the figure turned around and knelt down near Sakura. In a flash, Kakashi moved to Sakura's side and glared at the assassin, knowing that he wouldn't be able to defeat him, but willing to sacrifice his life trying.

The assassin's golden orbs met his obsidian eye, sending an involuntary shiver down his spine. Then the assassin spoke in a ghostly tone, his eyes still locked on Kakashi.

"Your friend will live, the kunai left a shallow scratch, but you should clean it twice a day with this." The figure produced a small vial filled with a clear liquid and held it out to Kakashi. For a moment, the Jounin could only stare dumbly at the vial, shifting his gaze from it to the assassin's veiled face.

"It's not poison, here look" the assassin said with what Kakashi could have sworn was a annoyed sigh, he uncorked the vial with a gloved hand and poured a bit onto his own wound, not even wincing as the liquid seeped into his bloodstream. He quickly corked the top again and pressed it to Kakashi.

Kakashi numbly took the bottle and nodded his thanks. The assassin returned the nod and stood up, only to bend back over Rashi. He plucked the fallen ninja's headband from his face and tucked it inside his cloak with his good hand. Next, he reached down and plucked a small bag from the ninja's belt.

Kakashi was still staring at the assassin and realized that the pouch was Rashi's money. To his surprise, the assassin took seven gold pieces from pouch and handed them to a small urchin child who had been sitting at the next table. He tossed the pouch over his shoulder and it landed at the restaurant owner's feet.

"That should cover the expenses, I apologize for the disturbance." With a last glance at Kakashi, the assassin seemed to vanish out the shattered window.

With the assassin's disappearance, everyone in the room seemed to breathe again and the normal roar of the restaurant returned. Kakashi felt someone tap his shoulder and turned to see the owner of the restaurant motioning franticly for his team to follow him to the kitchen.

Naruto was at Sakura's side in a flash and effortlessly lifted the limp girl into his arms and looked at Kakashi for further direction. After a moment's of hesitation, Kakashi nodded and signaled for them to follow the old man to the back of the restaurant.

After carefully depositing Sakura to the ground, Naruto spun around and faced Kakashi with murder in his eyes.

"WHO THE HELL WAS THAT?" he screamed.

"Naruto, use your 'indoor voice'" Kakashi scolded automatically and turned to the shopkeeper for an explanation.

The shopkeeper shifted nervously and drew a sweaty palm though his black hair. "That, young man was the Golden Assassin."

Naruto, Sakura, and Sauske all took in a sharp breath in unison. Kakashi turned to the shopkeeper and saw him fingering the pouch of money that the assassin had given him. "Somehow I didn't imagine the Golden Assassin to be the type giving to charity. He is wanted in every village. It is said that he is merciless and ruthless, killing anyone who gets in his way. I'm having a hard time fitting that man to this description."

The man in front of them exhaled and looked around the room briefly before meeting Kakashi's eyes again. "The Golden Assassin always finds the target and has no qualms about killing them, but the assassin is certainly not bloodthirsty. I have often seen the assassin around the village, hiding in the shadows, careful not to cause panic." The shopkeeper chuckled, "We are associated through various circumstances, but I can assure that this assassin is different from the rest. There a code that is all but forgotten, it is called the 'Assassin Code.' This code has a series of rules that assassins must follow. The rules include forbidding the assassin to lie, to never kill unless in self defense of oneself, another, and, of course, on a job. The Golden Assassin is one of the rare assassins that follow the code to the book."

Kakashi's eyes wandered over the man before him for a moment and then asked, "Why are you telling us this?"

The man's eyes suddenly turned dark and he met Kakashi's eye with a hard stare. "The reason that I am telling you this is because you must learn not trust all that you hear and I guess I am beseeching you to not go after this assassin. I saw the wound that Rashi inflicted and I know that it is serious. I also know that the bottle of medicine that you hold in your hand now was the last of the supply. The medicine that you have could have healed the damage that Rashi inflicted, but it is yours now. It was given to speed up the healing process of that girl's scratch." The man's voice was filled with both anger and accusation and it made Kakashi flinch inwardly, but he refused to turn away.

Finally, Kakashi turned and scooped Sakura in his arms and began to walk out the door, motioning for Sauske and Naruto to follow. When he reached the threshold, he turned around and regarded the shopkeeper coldly, "Thank you for the tale, sir. Your food was lovely." With that, he walked out into the cold rain and toward Konoha.

The Golden Assassin crouched on the riverbank and took off the already soaked gloves and carefully placed them on the sand. Scanning the surroundings with the golden eyes that were the source of the ridiculous name, the assassin saw no threat and carefully removed the outer cloak and the veils.

Carefully, the assassin leaned over and splashed water on the deep wound with the limpid water. The assassin turned and studied the reflection looking back. Flaming red hair tumbled from the purple ribbon that normally held it in a ponytail displaying the normally beautiful face of a young woman. The assassin's smooth face was blanched pastel from the loss of blood and was lined with buried pain. She smiled faintly as she met the reflection's eyes before splashing frigid water on her face and then returning the veils to her face. A muffled chuckle escaped the veils as she looked upon her face as she looked at her cloaked body—no wonder everyone believed her to be a man.

She had completed her task; she had killed the rouge ninja and had collected her money. The mission was fulfilled successfully; she was free to die without obligation. A hidden smile still on her lips as assassin passed out and fell forward into the chilly torrent of water.

No one in Team 7 was inclined to speak that night. They were a good sixteen miles from the village where they had encountered the assassin and it would be another day before they reached Konoha. Sakura hadn't spoken since the attack and Kakashi was worried, eventually he sent Sauske to gather fire wood and Naruto to get fresh water, leaving him alone with Sakura.

When the two boys were gone, Kakashi turned to Sakura and looked at her intently. "What are you thinking about?" he asked suddenly, breaking the silence.

Sakura looked up at him with her green eyes for a moment before answering. "That assassin, when he looked at me, he looked, well genuinely concerned. I know that it sounds crazy, but if it is true that the vial was his last hope for survival, then he gave his life for me…"

Kakashi regarded her thoughtfully before leaning against a tree. "That assassin has killed many people, without discrimination. He has never spared a target; I have to admit that it is strange that he chose to spare you, but we can't let the actions of a murderer haunt our minds forever."

Sakura nodded and fingered the vial thoughtfully before rubbing the clear liquid on her scratch, now almost invisible. A scream suddenly ruined the silence that had ensued. Kakashi was up and running before Sakura could react. They had both instantly recognized the scream as Naruto's and it had come from the riverbank.

When Kakashi had reached the river, he leapt from the bushes with kunai in hand. He had expected enemy ninja to have attacked and was completely unprepared for the sight that greeted him. Naruto was hauling a mass of black cloth from the river, when he caught sight of Kakashi, he called out. "Oy! Kakashi, I think it's still alive."

Curiously, Kakashi approached the form, with the kunai still in hand. Naruto had successfully dragged the figure from the water and onto the sand. The blonde boy stood up and wiped the sweat from his brow and reached down to flip the figure over. What met their eyes made them both inhale. It was the Golden Assassin.