SL: WLB Prologue

Prologue

The freezing rain whipped across the white dog mask covering the woman's face so violently that she raised a hand to steady it in case the straps around her head decided to give. The cold slush stung her exposed fingers yet somehow the pain brought relief. It kept her rooted to the field where she stood overlooking the eerily quiet village through the cluster of trees ahead, eyes searching for any sign of movement.

The thigh-high grass hissed as someone approached. She didn't turn away from the village as the man stepped beside her. They had spent their childhood together; it wasn't hard to determine his chakra from someone else's. He was nervous much like he had been when they were Genin, a trait Ami had thought he'd grown out of. The ANBU corps had forced them to grow up quickly and sometimes it seemed they had grown twenty years over the two they had been enlisted.

"Something doesn't feel right," Kai observed solemnly. Ami stole a glance at her former-teammate. He had finally started to grow taller than her a year after being promoted to Jounin at fifteen. His height hadn't changed much over the past four years, a fact that Ami frequently used to tease him. His wild straw-blonde hair was pushed back by his own ANBU mask, formed in the shape of a monkey's face. Underneath it, Ami knew his grey eyes would be alive with a spark they all got before a mission was played out.

"Everything will be fine." She tugged on the single braid of hair that draped down his back and shot him a reassuring smile even though he couldn't see it.  He squeezed her shoulder with a heavily bandaged hand and forearm. Guilt shot through her body and she turned her attention back to the village. Underneath those bandages were deep scars that had been caused by her when they were training under the Sanin, Lady Tsunade after their original sensei, Orochimaru had gone rogue years ago.

"I know. It just feels different than other missions." He admitted with a sigh.

"Do you want to take Ryu?" Ami offered. For the first time since taking post, the large furred mass beside her stirred and glanced up at his human partner when hearing his name spoken. Kai looked at the black wolf-dog with gray dipped highlights on one of his ears, legs and muzzle. The dark red bandana around his neck looked like blood in the sparse moonlight. Kai swallowed hard and looked away from the brown and blue eyes of the dog.

"No, you keep him." He sighed again, summoning his strength. He let his hand fall from her shoulder as he turned away.

"Are you sure?" She grabbed his wrist. He nodded and she let go as he walked back to his assigned position. Movement to her left made her jump. Another man had silently joined her, making his way through the ranks alerting the squad that it was almost time to move. Tenzō, a man that had been experimented on by her former-mentor as a child, stepped close and lifted his own ANBU mask to reveal his face. Ami followed suit.

"Nervous?" He asked her. His large black eyes twinkled with a familiar spark she knew would be mirrored in her own hazel eyes.

"Excited," she corrected him. His fingers brushed back strands of her dark red hair that had fallen forward before outlining the fang mark on her cheek. Her heart fluttered when he touched his lips to hers.

"Be careful," he told her and kissed her again.

"You too," she smiled and they slipped their masks back on. Tenzō disappeared behind her without another word. Ami reached down and slipped her fingers through Ryu's coarse fur. He whined softly. "Ready, Ryu?" She whispered. Her right hand played idly with one blade on the staff she had strapped to her back. The sound of a bird crying through the woods made her heart jump. It was time.

Ami slipped forward through the brush. The squad around her disappeared into the scenery as they charged the village. Here in the depths of the Konohagakure forest, an international terrorist known as Bokujin had taken the citizens hostage and claimed the once peaceful community as his new headquarters. Images of the staked heads they had passed surrounding the village ignited a rage inside Ami. This man deserved to die.

A familiar aura came up on her left, a few feet away.

"Most saves wins," Kai hushed. Ami smiled.

"Loser buys drinks," she added to their challenge. She reached out her hand to him and he took it, giving it a quick squeeze.

"Be careful, Kai." She told him before letting go. They went their separate ways as the woods gave way to the village of wooden huts and the squad rushed in like fog rolling over a lake.

The first scream rose and fell like the howling of a wolf.

The squad leader had made the first kill of the night in a wooden house of a woman being kept as a slave by one of Bokujin's cronies. In the blink of an eye the village was alive with violence and fear. Torches had been lit and men were rushing to light all the lanterns around the houses. Ami slipped into one and came face-to-face with a young boy attempting to lead his younger siblings out. Their mother lay lifeless in the far corner.

Before he could say anything, Ami put a finger to her lips and then touched the ANBU sign on her bicep. He seemed to understand or knew that Bokujin didn't employ women because he turned to hush his little brother and sisters, all under the age of seven. Ryu dove into the small living room and paced. Quickly, Ami loaded the two smallest children onto his back.

"Hold tight", she told them. The girls nodded. Ami turned to the two boys. "Stay close to me." She stepped through the doorway and into a blazing inferno.

Someone had dropped a torch onto the dry underbrush and the village had gone up in a flash. Ami turned and picked up the smaller boy before sprinting through the chaos, careful to keep step with the oldest boy. Ryu dashed ahead of them, aware of the safe zone for dropping rescued citizens beyond the trees. Once within a safe distance, Ami set the boy down and told his older brother to continue forward. She signaled the scout in the trees and headed back to the village. Ryu was quick to join her.

"Ami!" Kakashi Hatake, the squad leader, shouted to get her attention. He jumped from the roof of a hut and rolled out of the fall. A Bokujin follower leapt after him. Ami quickly pulled her staff out and stepped in front of Kakashi as the silver-haired shinobi got to his feet. One swipe of her Tsume no Ookami opened the man's soft belly and when he fell to the ground, he didn't get back up. "I could have handled that," Kakashi told her.

"Don't deny me my blood bath," she slipped her bladed staff back into its straps with a grin. Kakashi let her comment slip.

"There are children in the longhouse. It seems that's where the majority of them were being kept. Get them out of here." He ordered her. She nodded and was gone. Since her childhood crush on Kakashi, he had always held a special spot in her heart. Seeing him in good health had been uplifting, now if only she could spot Tenzō and Kai. There was no door on the longhouse to break down. At least thirteen children were huddled in one corner and they screamed when she and Ryu entered.  

"Hush! You're fine. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm here to save you." She tried to calm them down. Tears poured down their cheeks as they grasped each other tightly. The oldest girl, around twelve years old stepped forward, a baby in her arms and a toddler hugging her leg tightly.

"Are you from Konohagakure?" She asked bravely.

"Yes. Yes I am." Ami lifted her mask and smiled. The girl smiled back softly before turning to the other children.

"She's going to save us. You better listen to her." She told them. Their crying dwindled to sniffling. Ami surveyed the group. There were at least four babies, six toddlers, two younger than ten and then the girl. How did she pick who she would take first? She wanted to take them all, but knew it was more dangerous that way. She slipped her mask back on, shut her eyes and took a deep breath. She would get them all out, no matter what it took.

"Come here," she pointed to two of the older toddlers. She loaded them onto Ryu and told them to hang on tight. They didn't have a problem with that. Their tiny hands were wound tight in his fur, knuckles white. Ami untied his bandana and threw it over her neck and under one arm. "Hand me the baby," she told the oldest girl. There was no hesitation.

Ami slipped the baby carefully into the makeshift sling and then knelt for another toddler to climb onto her back. She turned back to the group.

"I'll be right back for you." She told them and made for the door. The older girl stopped her.

"I want to go with you. I can carry two of them too." She insisted. Ami shook her head.

"I need you to stay here and keep them safe. They'd panic without you." Ami rubbed the girl's arm softly. "Okay?"

"But," the girl began to argue.

"Don't leave us!" One of the children came forward to tug on Ami's pants. She pushed his hand away softly.

"I'll come back for you all. I won't leave you here." Ami told them; then to the girl, "They need you." This time she didn't argue. Ami went out the door. Ryu followed closely as they wound their way through the flames.

"Bastard, I'll take you all with me!" Someone suddenly roared to their left. Ami whirled. A large man charged them, an ax swinging wildly.

"Ryu, go!" Ami commanded. The wolf knew better than to disobey or hesitate. Ami pulled two kunai from a pack on her waist and turned to run. She could at least try to distance herself from the crazed man. He gained distance on her within seconds and lifted his ax to strike. Tree roots suddenly erupted from the earth and coiled around him, stopping him in mid-step. The force behind his blow diminished and Ami was able to block the blade with her staff without hurting either of the children she carried.

"Ami!" Tenzō yelled from behind the man who was slowly being encased by living wood. "Are you alright?"

"Thank you, Tenzō!" She shouted back before taking off. She didn't have time to stop and chat with her lover. She needed to save the children that had given her their trust. When she got close to the drop zone, she was happy to see the number of rescued had tripled. She handed off the baby to a village woman and was gone. Ryu waited for her impatiently in the line of trees that separated the village from the field.

"Let's go, Ryu!" She tore passed him. He caught up to her easily, braving the flames to accompany his lifelong partner in another exhilarating rescue. Ami dodged debris from a collapsing house just in time to see Yugao, the purple haired woman on the squad run by with a baby in her arms and a toddler on her back. Ami stopped, trying to determine if the children were from the longhouse. It shouldn't have mattered and it cost her precious time. She cursed herself as she took off again at full speed.

I can carry two babies, a toddler and then Ryu can carry two toddlers. The older girl can carry a baby… I can get them all out this time. She planned out her strategy.

Something from the right plowed into her like a train, sending her reeling through the air and into the flames of a burning house. As her senses came back and the world ran in slow motion, Ami heard the unmistakable sound of Ryu fighting. The heat from the flames sent her adrenaline rushing at an all time high and Ami scrambled from the wreckage, ignoring the pain that shot through her body. There was a ringing in her ears that made everything else sound far away.

For a moment, all that Ami saw were the flames engulfing the village. Then, the large figure that swung fists the size of boulders at Ryu distinguished itself from the fire by stepping away from the light. Ami grabbed her staff and jumped forward. She swung Tsume no Ookami twice around her head to gain momentum before delivering two deep gashes on the giant's crossed forearms. Ryu dug his teeth into the man's thigh and was torn away quickly. Blood spilled across the ground.

Ami jumped back, shoving her staff away before quickly forming the seals to the first step in her father's clan's special jutsu technique, Mūndansu.

"Maboroshi no Ōkami!" She shouted as she finished the last hand seal. Random spots on the giant exploded in blood as canine bite marks appeared on various parts of his body. He staggered in surprise and lurched forward again. "Dammit!" Ami pulled out her staff to block his advances. Where was the rest of the squad to take care of this mutant? She needed to save the children.

Ryu grabbed the man's wrist and managed to pull him down. Ami unleashed a whirlwind of attacks with the blades of her staff on his rippling back before he managed to toss Ryu away. The back of his hand met her cheek and she was launched back, stars dancing before her eyes. Shaking, she began to form the seals to the next stage of her attack. Her eyesight was blurry, but the man's size made it easy to spot him.

"Kiba no aru saiken," she managed to mutter as she finished her hand seals. The giant froze a foot away from her crumpled body. His arms were suddenly pulled back and held out like a crucifixion model, wolf bites deep in the soft flesh of his wrists. His skin began to blister and burn around the marks, and he cried out for the first time. His feet were spread by an invisible force and marks appeared on his ankles, flesh burning.

Ami struggled to her feet and Ryu limped to her side, helping her stand.

"We have to save the children," she told him and they shuffled away as the man behind them struggled to free himself from the phantom bonds holding him back. Ami's foot caught on a rock and she fell to the ground. Ryu whined and licked her face.

"Ami? Oh my god, Ami!" Kai rushed forward after delivering a fatal blow to his opponent with his katana. He knelt beside her and lifted her face to the light. "Ami, what happened to you? You have to get out of here!" He stood up and picked her up around the waist. Ami cried out in pain and resistance.

"No! I have to save them!" She coughed up blood down the back of his white vest when he put her over his shoulder. He used his foot to kick up her staff and caught it in one hand.

"Save who, Ami?" He looked around them for a way out of the growing fire.

"The children, the longhouse, there's more." She was out of breath from the fight and struggling against him. Soon, her body refused to move and she lay limp, breathing heavily.

"Ami, stop fighting. You're hurt bad. We have to get out of here. The others will save the children." Kai told her as he ran through a path through the flames. Ryu followed behind and Ami watched him as long as she could. She pulled her mask off and held onto it tightly. Her eyes shut and when she opened them again, Kai was laying her down on the grass near the drop zone.

"Kai?" She blinked rapidly, trying to focus. Then she remembered and cried out, "the children!" A scream rose from the village almost as if in response. A fresh bout of adrenaline forced her to her knees and she fought to stand.

"I told the rest of the squad about them. They'll save them I promise." Kai held her down.

"Promise?" Ami grabbed his wrist, pleading.

"I swear," he promised.

"Kai! There were more hiding outside of the village, we're outnumbered!" A shinobi informed them as he ran passed to meet the enemy at a safe distance from the rescued.

"Shit," Kai cursed. The healing chakra that had started to glow around his hands faded away and he stood up. "Stay still. I'll heal you when I get back."

"Kai! Don't go," Ami reached out to grab him but he was out of reach. With horror, she realized that no one was headed back into the village to retrieve the children. She pushed herself to her feet and stumbled after Kai.

"Ami, what the hell do you think you're doing?" He growled and shook his head. He turned around and jogged back to her. Ami lifted her face just in time to be sprayed by a thick, warm liquid. She dropped her face toward the ground, trying to shake it off. The more she wiped at it with her hands, the more there seemed to be of it. And then she realized why as the sick sound of gurgling reached her ears.

Someone was leaning on her bent-over body. She reached out, feeling up the man's body. He was ANBU. His mask fell to the ground but she couldn't see what animal it had on its front. Ami held him up and away from her so that she could see his face. Kai's mouth opened and closed wordlessly, a river of blood flowing over his bottom lip, down his chest and onto her arms. His grey eyes were wide and terrified.

Ami screamed.

"Kai!" Her throat grew raw. He fell to his knees, clutching at the katana blade that had pierced him just below his collarbone. Ami caught him and eased him into her lap. Behind him, his attacker was rushing forward. Ami whistled and Ryu appeared as a blur, flying through the air and grabbing the man by the throat. The dog's body swung around the man before his esophagus gave way and Ryu ripped it free of his body.

Ami turned her attention to the dying man in her arms. Her hands shook uncontrollably as she tried to decide how best to help him. Kai made the attempt to reach behind him to pull the sword from his body. She wasn't trained as a Medic-nin, but she knew enough that you were never to pull a weapon out of you without a squad around you that was trained to handle the bleeding, both internal and external. Kai was in no shape to try healing himself. Still, she helped him remove the blade. A fresh gush of blood flowed over her legs.

"Kai, I don't know how to help you," she told him, trying to keep her voice steady. Kai took her hands and put them over the wound. She choked back a sob when he tried to exert pressure and couldn't. So she did it for him. Other squad members were moving around them, coming to and fro from the fight on the edge of the village. "Help me!" Ami called to them desperately.

A familiar mask appeared from the tall grass. It was Yugao.

"Ami, what happened? Kai!" Yugao dropped to her knees at Kai's head. He was starting to shiver.

"Oh god, Kai, please stop! Please stop it!" Ami begged him. He clenched his teeth tight and grabbed her hand, looping two of his fingers with hers and squeezing them tight. His movements became jerkier as he raised her fingers to his lips and gave them a weak kiss. His eyes locked onto hers. Her heart raced, her breathing labored and her body felt even weaker than from her own wounds. Kai kept her fingers to his lips as he started to gasp for air hard enough that his body jumped with every breath.

One gasp, two gasp.

"Kai?!" Ami leaned forward and touched her lips to his forehead, holding him close. With one more lurch of his body, Kai went still. "I love you Kai, I'm so sorry." She whispered. His last breath eased from his lungs along with any sense of feeling for Ami. She felt suddenly numb to it all. The man in her arms was dead. That man was Kai. Kai was one of her best friends, like a brother. And now he was dead. It fell into a confusing jumble that wouldn't click together in her mind.

She tried to breathe calmly. It wasn't hard. It should have been. She should be crying.

No, think of my training. A shinobi dies in the field. Complete the mission no matter what. Complete the mission. Complete the mission. I still have a mission. Ami took a deep breath and sat back. Two more shinobi had joined them. They looked stunned. One of them was the young girl Kai had taken under his wing. Ami couldn't remember her name. She didn't care either.

"We have to keep going. There are more people in that village that need our help. A loss on our side is no reason to quit." Ami said coldly, standing up and turning away from Kai's lifeless body. Her injuries seemed to melt away, as anger flowed through her body. The other squad members shifted uneasily.

"Ami", Yugao began. Ami didn't let her finish.

"We have to move," Ami said coldly as she stepped through the tall weeds toward the flaming village. The rain should have tamed it some, but it burned on angry and defiant. There should have been the roar of the flame, the sound of battle, but all the Inuzuka woman could hear was the rush of blood in her ears.

"Ami."  A man stepped in front of her. It was Kakashi.

"What?" She demanded, annoyed.

"Come here?" He requested. Ami glanced at her fellow shinobi, embarrassed that she was being singled out by their leader. Their eyes held none of the teasing that would have normally been there. Her throat grew tight and she huffed, stomping through the grass to a more secluded area, hands still shaking violently.

"We're in the middle of a mission, Kakashi. We don't have time for this." She turned to him.

"If you don't stop, you're only going to get more people killed." He slipped off his ANBU mask, but let the fabric over his mouth and nose remain.

"I didn't get him killed, he did!" She shouted, defensively.

"Ami," Kakashi grabbed her shoulders gently, his mask falling to the ground. "There's no one to fight. Bokujin got away."

"Please let go of me." She hardly heard him as she stared into his grey eyes, so different from the lifeless ones of Kai.

"I know how you feel," he told her. "I hated Obito for dying for the longest time. And then Rin… you haven't even noticed that the villagers we weren't able to get out have stopped screaming. They're dead, Ami. Just like Kai."

"We don't know that." She broke from his grasp.

"Yes, we do Ami." He grabbed her again. "Tenzō and I checked for survivors while you were with Kai and Tenzō is still looking. There's no one left."

"They're alive in there, Kakashi. We have to save them!" She grabbed his vest.

"Ami, we have to get the survivors back to base." Kakashi said slowly and firmly.

"But they're alive! He's alive!" She shouted at him, "He has to be! He can't die! I said I would save them, I said I would come back. I told him to be careful! I told him to take Ryu! He just wouldn't listen, and now he's gone." Ami began to sob as she looked into his face, pleading with him. Kakashi pulled her into a tight hug, catching her by surprise.

"Please don't cry, Ami." He said into her ear.

"Kakashi…" She said uncertainly, and then buried her face into his ANBU vest and cried. He petted her hair in a softer version of the Kakashi she had grown up with. It was a side she found she liked despite the strong urge to push him away.

"Shhh, it wasn't your fault Ami. Death walks hand in hand with the shinobi life, you know that. He knew that and he died saving lives—your life. I don't know a better way to go." He rested his chin on the top of her head.

"I shouldn't have let him go. I should have gotten up faster," she sniffled and looked up at Kakashi.

"No, you would have been killed too. We were lucky that only one slipped through our line." He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Kakashi, I feel like I killed him." She confessed. Her voice broke. He rested his forehead against hers.

"I know Ami. I still blame myself for Obito to this very day." His arms rested comfortably around her.

"Does it ever go away?" She released her grip on his vest and tried to smooth away the wrinkles she had created.

"It didn't for my father." He sighed.

"I'm sorry." An awkward silence passed between them as they realized the position that they were in. Kakashi cleared his throat and said, "No, I'm sorry. I should have known about the forces in the woods."

"Ami!" Tenzō ran toward them. He stopped a few feet short of them and the two shinobi broke apart abruptly. Tenzō barely noticed as he pulled Ami into an embrace, ripping his mask from his face. He kissed her neck and cheeks. "Ami, are you okay? I was so worried! I'm so sorry about Kai, sweetie." He held her close. She didn't know what to say. Everything worth saying, she had said to Kakashi. The silver-haired man picked up his mask from the ground and put it back on. Their eyes met for a moment and then he was once again the cold, distant shinobi she had known for so long.

                                         

The slow drizzle of the night's rain stopped just as the sun settled in the sky on the horizon, shining in through the thin curtain of Ami's apartment window. The young woman lay wrapped in her sheets in bed, ignoring the light dancing on her eyes. She stared at the picture on her bedside table, willing time to go back to the happy memory.

Ami sighed and rolled onto her back, her arms sprawled across the width of the bed, and found herself zoning out. The roof wasn't much better to look at. No matter if she shut her eyes or what was before her when she opened them, there was only one face that she saw. His straw-blonde hair was wild except for the tamed braid that draped down his back. His grey eyes were always laughing. And then in a flash his hair was stained with blood and his eyes begged for her to save him.

A knock at the door broke the spell and Ami sat up.

"Who is it?" She asked, not bothering to do much more.

"It's me," Tenzō announced. Ami's throat tightened in a pinch. He'd spent the first few nights with her after Kai's death before she kicked him out, wanting "alone" time. She hadn't wanted to be alone. She just wanted it to feel like something had changed. With Tenzō around, she was happy and things seemed like normal. Things weren't normal. Kai lay dead in the morgue being prepped for his funeral. She should be mourning. The whole village should have been in mourning, but it seemed like most of the people hadn't even heard of his untimely end.

Was that how it would be when she died?

"Ami?" Tenzō called for her, worried.

"I'm coming," she said softly. Probably too quiet for him to hear, she realized and cleared her throat. "Coming." She said louder. It felt good to sound confident again. Strong.

Ami took the first step out of bed and felt butterflies erupt in her stomach. Why was she nervous to see her boyfriend of two years? He would make her laugh, make her forget. Forgetting sounded good. Ami felt the familiar tug of a smile on the corners of her mouth. She went to the door, a new spring in her step.

"Are you okay?" Tenzō wanted to know the moment she opened the door. Ami stepped close to him on the tips of her toes and wrapped her arms around his neck. She inhaled the sweet scent of his body wash, sweat, and under that—wood. It was uniquely Tenzō. He wrapped his arms around her waist and hugged her tight.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have made you go." She told him.

"That's okay. You needed your time." He let her slip out of his arms. He noticed her pajamas as she stepped into her apartment. "You're not ready?"

"Ready?" Ami turned to him, brows knitted together in confusion.

"Kai's funeral…" Tenzō was cautious mentioning her recently deceased best friend. He watched as a light bulb flickered on behind Ami's eyes.

"It's Friday?!" She looked to the wall where her calendar had been hung since she'd moved into the apartment. It was gone. She vaguely recalled tearing it down. That didn't matter right now. She would not be late for Kai's funeral! Ami went to her closet and dug through her wardrobe. The ANBU uniform didn't seem appropriate… she'd have to find a civilian outfit. Finally, she found what she was looking for—the black wrap-dress that she had worn to her father's funeral a few years prior. Hopefully it would still fit. "Give me ten minutes!" She told Tenzō and disappeared into the small bathroom.


"Are you sure that outfit is appropriate?" Tenzō asked nervously. He'd asked the same question three times now. His gaze lingered on the large portion of her breasts that showed where a button had once been. The mesh armor didn't help as much as she had hoped. The collar stood tall where it was supposed to be and the length fit nicely, but Ami had forgotten that her bosom had blossomed since the last time she'd worn the dress.

"As appropriate as it gets. I'm lucky that button wasn't any farther down. Doesn't the mesh help?" She adjusted herself as they walked down the shop street of Konohagakure toward Hokage Rock. Ami looked up at him expectantly.

"Uh, yeah." Tenzō scratched the back of his head as he lied. "It looks better now," he looked away.

"Good," Ami wrapped herself around one of his arms. Now that they were getting close, she could see more people dressed in black. She found herself looking for Kai in the crowd before she could remind herself that he was gone. An awkward smile teased her lips. She'd just been looking for Kai at his own funeral.

"Ami," Anko Mitarashi, the third member of Ami's team as a Genin, slipped an arm around her waist and hugged her. Ami fell into the hug easily. She didn't want to let go. Somehow it reminded her of when Anko had returned from Orochimaru's grasp. If only they were crying because of that. Finally the girls separated. Anko quickly wiped her tears away. Ami, on the other hand, was surprised that the most she had wept was a single tear.

"I tried to come over," Anko sniffed.

"I'm sorry. I was in my own little world." Ami rubbed her friend's arm comfortingly.

"Hey Tenzō," Anko acknowledged his presence. He nodded back.  Ami took Anko's hand.

"It'll be starting soon, we should go." She smiled. Anko smiled back weakly and followed Ami's lead.

Ami found herself naming off the shinobi that filed into the platform just below Hokage Rock. The crowd was a sea of black. Many of the faces she couldn't recall names for until she realized they were civilians; strangers that she may have met once or twice when walking with Kai. Of all their comrades, he was one of the only men who spent the most time among the civilians. Where the majority of their friends jumped at the opportunity for out-of-town missions, Kai was always the first to volunteer when it came to Konoha's citizens. He'd often help out Genin teams that weren't his too.

Ami felt the corners of her mouth twitch. She wasn't the only one who would miss his smile. The same smile that now stared out at the gathered mass via the strangely lifeless picture that stood next to an ugly urn on a table at the front.

Tenzō led the girls through the crowd until they were in the first line of people. He left Ami's side once to hug Akina and Fusa, Kai's mother and twelve-year-old sister before returning and urging her to do the same. Ami stole a glance at the grief-stricken family. Fusa's grey eyes, so much like Kai's, caught her gaze. The abandonment she found there was too much to bear and she went to the little girl, stealing her from her mother's arms. Fusa held on tightly to the older girl, tears rolling freely down her cheeks.

"I'm so sorry Fusa." Ami whispered against the girl's brown hair. Akina, a once renowned gentle healer suddenly snatched back her child. Her eyes bore holes into Ami's, full of anger and betrayal.

"How could you let him die?" She hissed. "I should have kept him away from you when you tried to kill him the first time."

"I tried to help—", Ami stuttered, shocked and shamed.

"Oh but you've never been very helpful have you!" Akina was relentless.

"I don't know what you mean. Akina, I tried to save him. There was nothing I could do. I tried!" Ami raised her voice in a hopeless cry. The rows of people next to her grew quiet. Tenzō rushed forward and took her by the arm, stepping between the two women. He apologized as he pushed Ami back to their original places.

"Are you okay?" He asked her, a hand on her cheek. She pushed it away.

"What a great idea, Tenzō." She turned and fled down the middle aisle that had been left vacant.

"Ami!" Tenzō called after her. Anko held him back.

"I'll go after her." She told him and disappeared after her friend. Tenzō looked after them, shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot. Before he could follow them, the Third Hokage had stepped forward and called for the crowd's attention.

At the back of the crowd, Ami was taking the steps leading away from the platform in two's in her rush to distance herself from Kai's mother's accusations. She had done what she could. She hadn't asked for Kai to save her from the villages' flames. She hadn't told him to go back in. It was his own fault that he had died. The sooner she forgot his smiles and laughter, the sooner she would see the mistakes he had made and the evidence that she was innocent would become visible.

"Ami!" She heard Anko call from the top of the steps. Her head turned automatically at the sound and she picked up speed.

"Am I late?" Another voice made her stop abruptly. Kakashi stood on the steps just below her. She felt the anger she had been trying to cool suddenly rise in her throat. She opened her mouth to say something rude but thought better of it.

"They just started," she told him and moved passed him.

"You're not attending?" He asked her. She stopped and looked back.

"It's better if I don't." She felt her temper rise to the point that she could taste blood when she bit down.

"Ami, come back!" Anko was almost to them. Kakashi glanced at the purple-haired Kunoichi and then back to the flustered Inuzuka.

"What happened?" He asked. She shook her head.

"Nothing. I just remembered I had more important things to do." She forced a smile.

"Ami." He pushed.

"I'm fine, Kakashi." She told him more sternly. She turned to leave, but Kakashi grabbed her arm.

"You don't have to pretend like everything's alright", he told her. Ami looked back at him and smiled brightly.

"I don't know what you mean, senpai."  

"Ami." He said, frustrated.

"Kakashi, people die. The quicker we forget about them the better it gets. And I'm pretty anxious for the better part." She shrugged out of his grasp. Underneath his mask, Kakashi's mouth opened. He stepped back from her, disgusted.

"I know grief does a lot to people, but don't let this consume you. This isn't the real you."

"And how would you know? Maybe I like this me." She cut him off.

"Maybe you're right." He raised his voice. "Maybe I don't know you."

Ami held out a hand to him as Anko reached them, "Oh, really? Ami Inuzuka, nice to meet you."