A/N: This is a companion piece to my first Naruto-verse story, The Ultimate Defence that takes place before this but it's not necessary to read it to understand this one. I hope you will enjoy and a special welcome back to everyone who read the first one!

Kakashi entered the Kazekage's tent, spotted Gaara standing behind the table with the map of the troop movements. Next to him was little Sayuri, you seldom saw one without the other these days, except in battle where the Konoha research ninja probably would be more in the way than anything. She did better from behind her desk and just a few weeks ago she had devised the plan that took out a quarter of the clones in one strike. Coincidentally that was how she had first met Gaara.

She was a head shorter than him, with shoulder length brown hair and eyes the colour of a midnight sky - currently shining at Gaara. Anyone could see the love between the young Kazekage and the pretty Konoha ninja and he knew that with the exception of a few jealous Sand kunoichi everyone was happy for their beloved Commander. As he saw the look of love, understanding and shared laughter that passed between Sayuri and Gaara he suddenly felt like he was intruding even though all they were doing was standing in the same room, looking at each other.

"Kakashi, there you are," The Kazekage had spotted him and he nodded his greeting to both and Sayuri sent him a radiant smile. He smiled back; few could resist that 100-watt smile when it was directed at them. He couldn't help the sadness that tinged his response; Sayuri and Gaara were so young, just starting out in life, newly in love and forced into this war.

"You sent for me?" Gaara nodded and motioned for him to come closer to look at the map spread on the table.

"You see here," he pointed to where a thin tongue of forest stretched in enemy territory with open plains on both sides, "Sayuri has come up with a new idea for our offence but she can't finish the plan until she knows the conditions there, as well as how many enemies are in the territory. You are the best at moving unnoticed as well as being able to defend yourself, should anything happen. But, Kakashi, this is deep in enemy territory and-" Kakashi could see Gaara was struggling to ask him to go. It certainly was risky, but the last time Sayuri had had an idea success had followed so he nodded his assent.

"I'll go. Just tell me what you need to know." Gaara's shoulders relaxed slightly as Sayuri looked worried, biting her lip.

"Thank you, Kakashi. I'd never ask if it weren't absolutely necessary. I'm not sending you alone, though, the Mist sent for one of their best to go with you. Akiyama-san?" From behind the partition in the tent stepped a tall, blonde woman and surprised he hadn't sensed her presence in the tent he turned and froze.

"Narue?"

"Kakashi-sensei," she said coolly and he suddenly had a flashback to the last time he'd seen her.

Six Years Earlier

"What? You're sending me away?" Tears glinted in the eyes that haunted his sleep at night.

"You failed, and I'm sending you to the Hidden Mist to try at their exam," he said, his voice as expressionless as he could make it.

"This is my home, why can't I train here? Why can't you train me?" Standing in the stadium for the exams, facing her for the last time, the sun beating down from a clear blue sky he could feel his heart breaking. He could never tell her the real reason she had to disappear. He couldn't tell her that for the last year he'd been plagued by feelings for her, his student, eight years his junior and forbidden to him in more ways than he could count.

He'd always prided himself on being a sensible, logical person, not given to emotional outbreaks and above all knew himself well enough to be reasonable. But not now. For the last year he had felt as if he had a fever in his blood, walking in a haze of feelings he had wondered if he would ever experience.

He'd watched his friends and classmates fall and fall again, describing themselves in love and had thought himself abnormal. He never felt anything close to what they tried to convey when he asked about it. Sure, he found women attractive and enjoyable company when the mood struck but he had never felt that one of them was the centre of his universe, that life without them was lesser than before he met them.

Then, when he'd given up all hope of ever having that, he'd fallen, and hard, for someone he couldn't have. Guy had once jealously remarked that Kakashi probably could have any woman he wanted. Not the one he wanted, Guy, he thought bitterly. Not the one who could match him in strength, who made him laugh, who was caring and intelligent and the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. She was off limits and the strong need for her was mixed with self-repulsion. He was her teacher, he was supposed to be better than this.

He had thought it would pass, he was infatuated and it would fizzle out and die. He'd spent a year struggling, trying everything he could think of to get over her. He took on more S-rank missions than before, they were the only ones that distracted him enough, he slept with more women, he practiced harder than ever. And at the end of it she was still there, lodged in his heart like a thorn of yearning and the need sharper, the longing more painful.

After a year of plaguing himself he was so wrought out emotionally that he had realized he needed to get away from her completely to get over it. He'd thought of getting another of the teachers to take her on but had no excuse; she had already surpassed most of them in any case. He couldn't send her on a long mission since she was still a chunin and wasn't allowed on a single person mission, no matter her skill level. He couldn't go anywhere himself, a senior ninja of his skill would never be accepted by any other village. In the end sending her away was the only thing he could think of. After he failed her - even though she was more than prepared to become a jonin. He'd always be ashamed of that; he'd failed her in so many ways before doing it literally.

"Narue, I've taught you all I know. The next jonin exam is in the Hidden Mist in a year. You'll go there to train and I know you'll pass next year." The ground was scarred from the battles that had taken place earlier, among them Narue's when she had amazed him yet again with her performance against a much older ninja from the Hidden Stone.

"But why can't I train here with you and then go to the Mist for the Exam?" She asked again as the tears she had been holding back started to fall. She was grimy from the battle, the tears ran clear paths down her cheeks, her long hair was tangled, the golden strands dulled by dust and her shirt torn in several places. She had never looked more beautiful to him.

"I think you'll achieve better results in the Mist where you can't be distracted by friends and family", he lied, hating himself for every word.

"I won't." The tears stopped falling, the hurt confusion in her storm-cloud eyes was replaced by anger. "I refuse to go, I'll go to the Hokage, I'll-"

"The Hokage already approved it." He'd had to work hard on the Third to make him agree but something in Kakashi's plea for her relocation had convinced him and the move was now definitive.

Narue's eyes changed once again, storm turning to ice cold as she straightened and looked him square in the eye.

"If you think that's best…sensei," she said in a voice he hardly recognized as Narue's it was so cold. Then she turned and walked out of the stadium.

Early the next morning he watched her leave, a lone figure in the swirling morning fog. It was for the best, he tried to convince himself, he was doing what was best for her. She'd acclimatize to the Hidden Mist, she'd make friends, she'd meet a nice boy her own age, marry, have children and work in the Hidden Mist for the rest of her life. And in his heart she would always be a heartbreakingly beautiful sixteen-year-old girl, the memory of her the only thing he'd ever be allowed to have of her.

Present

And now here she was. The last six years had turned her from beautiful girl to stunning woman. She wore her hair longer, it fell to her waist but the colour was the same, the dark gold he remembered, her eyes still the dark grey of thunderclouds, an almost violet tinge to them as in the minutes before lightning strikes and the air is charged with the violence of it. She was a bit taller than she had been and her figure had matured, a hand-span waist matched with full hips and bust carried by long, slender legs.

"You know each other?"

POV

Narue cursed inwardly as she spotted him. He was still every bit as handsome as the last time she'd seen him. She'd hoped for some horrible disfigurement or at least some ungraceful ageing - a receding hairline or potbelly. But he stood as tall and lean as always, his features hidden by his customary mask but she knew the face of an archangel under it as well as her own. She saw it often enough in her dreams.

"Narue?", he said disbelievingly. At least he remembered her name.

"Kakashi-sensei," she answered, finding small satisfaction that no emotion could be heard in her tone. He'd never know how seeing him again had shaken her. Just like she'd never give him the satisfaction of knowing he had been her first love. Her only love, so far.

It had started as normal hero idolization of her teacher but as she grew older it had developed, deepened. It hadn't been as trivial as a teenage crush for her, it had been the kind of yearning of body and soul that made her doubt she'd ever feel it for someone else. It had burnt her out. Her friends, the few friends she had in the Hidden Mist, had all wondered why she never dated, all of them claiming she could have anyone she wanted. But there had only been one person she had ever wanted and he had made it very clear he didn't want her.

"You know each other?" The Kazekage asked. Kakashi just stood stony faced, his hands in his pockets. She shifted to meet the eyes of the Sand leader.

"I was born in Konoha. Kakashi-sensei was my teacher until I was relocated to the Hidden Mist six years ago."

"Relocated? Why?"

"Kakashi-sensei? Why don't you fill them in on that? I've always been a bit fuzzy on the details myself." Did she see pain flash in his uncovered eye for a split second? Probably imagined it, she thought, he'd always been difficult to read.

"Narue has the innate ability to draw nature chakra from the air, passed down in her father's family, matched with an affinity for air that approaches your Ultimate Sand Defense, from her mother's side. Because of the amount chakra she has is almost inexhaustible she can practice techniques longer and learn faster. She is the only one who has ever come close to learning almost as many techniques as me. Because of this I felt she had learned what she could from me and the Hokage agreed that a relocation would suit her specific training." He was facing the Kazekage now and talked about her in a monotonous voice like a recorder, listing her abilities. The Kazekage looked unconvinced but seemed to shrug it off and turned to her.

"An Ultimate Defence of Air? Do you mind showing me?" She nodded her assent, she was curious about the sand shield they called the Ultimate Defence. Gaara of the Sand pulled a shuriken out and Kakashi stepped back to clear the way. She could feel him watching from the side and for a brief moment she felt as if she were back in Konoha six years earlier, when he was her teacher, when she'd been trying so desperately hard to impress him. The young Commander was fast, she had to give him that, the shuriken had been hard to avoid in battle. As usual the shield passed down from her mother, made stronger by the amounts of chakra she had from her father's side stopped it effectively. To the naked eye it looked like the shuriken just slowed down before dropping.

She could feel the shield around her but she couldn't see it the way Kakashi could see it with his Sharingan. He'd explained it looked like a floating mass of chakra around her that grew denser whenever something that could harm her came close. She had always imagined it to look like mist swirling around her, growing impenetrable in the places under attack.

Knowing what it looked like had helped her develop her control over the air and she now knew that the simple truth of the matter was that the air did increase in density when the shield was disturbed. And after uncountable hours and concentration she could increase the air density on command, in any place within her range, effectively stopping any foe.

The Kazekage held out his hand in a summoning movement and sand rose from the gourd on his back, dancing through the air. Fascinated she mirrored his movement, felt the air shift. More for the sake of the spectators than for herself she let the air she was moving become visible by adding to the humidity in it, making it carry mist. The mist and the sand met in the middle of the room and amazed she felt the power of the sand hum through the air, reverberating back to her. From the look on the Kazekage's face she guessed he was feeling the same on his end from her air. The sensation reminded her of dragging rock against rock, a grating sensation that made you think you could almost smell burning from the friction of it. We'd both die, she thought to herself, if we unleashed full power in battle against each other. Letting out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding she let the air escape her control and spread in the room. The sand danced back into its container and the Kazekage gave her a wry smile. By his side Koizumi Sayuri was scribbling furiously as she mumbled to herself.

"I think there is a new plan on the way," the Commander said and Sayuri looked up.

"That was fascinating! The two natures, I wonder if they could work together? I'm going to need to test it. When you come back, will you let me work with you, Akiyama-san?"

"Narue. Sure, I'll be around." No one mentioned the possibility of not coming back. She nodded towards the couple and left, not bothering to see if Kakashi was following. She knew he would. They had a mission to complete and there was no way Hatake Kakashi would let the young Kazekage down. She could hate him for a lot of things but he had always been unfailingly loyal to his village and his leaders. She kept walking through the camp and as they reached the quieter end of it she could hear his footsteps behind her.

POV

"Are you sure about this?" Sayuri asked when the two ninjas had left. Gaara sighed and unbuckled the belt carrying his gourd, rolled his shoulders to get rid of some of the tension in them and sat down.

"No. But if it's like you say we could spare many lives. I hate measuring life against lives – Kakashi is a friend and I'd save him any pain if I could." Sayuri sat down on his lap and his arm automatically snaked around her waist to steady her. She put her arm around his back and he leaned his head on her shoulder. "Besides, he knows the risks and if anyone can manage this it's Kakashi. I don't think we've seen even half of what he can do."

"I guess you're right. I just hope nothing goes wrong. I'd feel terrible if something happened to either of them on a mission I instigated." Gaara couldn't see her eyes but he could hear in her tone that Sayuri's insecurities were playing up. He knew she wished harder than anything that she could carry this mission out herself instead of putting others in danger but due to clumsiness and poor coordination Sayuri would never be skilled in battle. He hugged her tighter.

"I'm the one who sent them, they're acting on my orders, I'm as much if not more to blame. All we can do is trust Kakashi and…"

"Narue, her name is Narue." Sayuri couldn't get rid of the feeling that something was about to happen and she furrowed her brow. "I wonder what their history is, something obviously happened between them."

"My guess is that she wouldn't have been to happy about being relocated. I've never heard of anyone being relocated for training purposes. It can't be too much fun to try and settle in a different village. I don't think Narue is so popular in the Mist – she's obviously skilled but until now she'd been left behind in the village on guard duty and I've never heard of her before. Isn't that strange?" Sayuri nodded and her heart wrenched for the older kunoichi. She'd never seen anyone she thought she'd pity less, she was everything Sayuri wasn't – tall, blonde and outrageously beautiful – and yet she thought she could understand what it felt like to be an outsider in your village. And so, she thought, could Gaara. She decided to try and ignore what Narue looked like and try to be her friend. That is, if she came back.

A/N2: I hope you liked it!