Arina was already thinking that their predictions were not justified, and the trip would pass without any incidents. Having spent the rest of the day and the entire following day at the capital, on the morning of the third day they left the Daimyo's residence. They were joined by a nobleman who had, of all things, an actual carriage pulled by four horses.

They stopped for a small snack at a picturesque lake, and soon they would already be in the village where they spent the night on the way to the capital.

The girl was quite satisfied with this layout.

They moved a little more briskly to the stopover spot, but Arina had the opportunity to train her legs again the rest of the way.

The nobleman with the carriage – his name was Okumura Kisho – tried several times to lure the girl to him, but she kept laughing it off, referring to the fact that the carriages made her dizzy, and merely stroked the velvet nose of the nearest horse. Hiruzen, seeing this, chuckled to himself: before that he, too, not particularly eager to get involved in the conversation, avoided the company of the nobleman in the same way.

To keep herself entertained, Arina sometimes talked with Hiruzen, and sometimes listened to the stories of shinobi carrying a palanquin: they had visited various corners of this world, so they could tell a lot of interesting things.

She was chatting with one of the shinobi walking in front, when suddenly a masked figure rushed to the palanquin – one of the Anbu squad members.

"Hokage-sama!" was all he said before rushing off again.

The palanquin thundered to the ground, and the carriage braked noisily behind it.

The four Shinobi synchronously performed some jutsu, following which two of them remained near the palanquin, and the other two followed the Anbu operative. In the silence that descended, Arina heard the sound of approaching battle.

"Rina, get inside, now!" Hiruzen barked.

However, before Arina managed to react, she was jerked sharply to the side. Almost the same moment the beam behind the spot where she was previously standing, was hit with several shurikens.

The motion stopped as abruptly as it had begun, and right in front of Arina's face was the familiar fox mask.

The next moment Arina shuddered: Kakashi twitched, and his mask burst into pieces. One small fragment pricked the girl on the cheek, but she didn't even notice it, her eyes locked with Kakashi's. It seemed to her that the gaze of his mismatching eyes reflected her own confusion, but almost immediately he had the look of severity and focus back.

Shoving Arina into the palanquin, Kakashi rushed away, working his katana skilfully. The girl watched his deadly dance with a wildly beating heart, trying to not pay attention to the seemingly slight tingling where he had previously held her: around the waist and the shoulder.

She hadn't seen him in action for a long time – but even what she had already seen, she tried to push from her memory as soon as possible. Now he appeared in all his murderous glory – swift, ruthless, punishing.

After another well-calibrated blow from Kakashi, accompanied by a strangled scream from the enemy shinobi, Arina turned away hastily and looked at Hiruzen, who was still sitting calmly in his seat – he even began filling up his pipe with tobacco. As it seemed to her, Hiruzen was glancing in Kakashi's direction with disapproval.

"Hiruzen-sama," Kisho called out cheerfully to him, leaning out of his carriage, "if this fighter can protect me at least half as zealously as this girl, I would not mind taking him!"

Arina raised her eyebrows in puzzlement: what was he talking about?.. Once again, it seemed to her that Hiruzen winced slightly.

The battle ended soon enough: the ambush failed, and realizing that the advantage was not on their side, the attackers retreated, leaving the bodies of their killed comrades. Kakashi turned to Hiruzen for permission to pursue the retreating ninjas, but Hiruzen only shook his head, not failing to gently reproach him that initially it was necessary to rather capture the attackers alive, than unfold a massacre.

Fortunately, no one was seriously injured from the Leaf side, but they had to make a small halt nonetheless, to treat the minor injuries that were still present.

Arina tried to assist with the wounds, but she was quickly turned away – she didn't have much experience, and she hadn't mastered the medical chakra yet, – so she ended up just standing at a small distance, hugging herself by the shoulders and trying not to look in the direction where the dead were already beginning to be stacked on the side of the road.

Despite being somewhat discouraged by Hiruzen's reprimand – Arina was nearby and heard everything, – Kakashi decided to approach her after all.

Arina turned her face in his direction, and he noticed the scrape on her cheek.

"Are you alright?" he asked gently and, as if forgetting himself, reached out to her, intending to clean off the blood.

The girl twitched a little, not letting him touch her.

"I'm fine, thanks," she looked down uneasily.

"You've got... there..." Kakashi pointed to his cheek awkwardly, when Arina glanced at him again.

The girl touched her face, and then looked at her fingers in surprise and began wiping off the blood.

Kakashi watched her edgy movements with concern, then asked again:

"You sure you're okay?"

"Yes... I'm sorry, I just... I don't know, it all happened so fast... I've only just now really understood... Thank you for pulling me out..." She hugged herself again, as if she was cold.

Kakashi wanted to hold her close to him more than ever. He even made an attempt to approach the girl, but she retreated again and turned away, once more apologizing in a barely audible voice. Kakashi at this point grinded his teeth in frustration. Was she really so unable to bear him? Or did he frighten her with his ferocity?

He realised that it was not quite the right time to sort out their relationship, especially in front of everyone, but he was already beginning to get fed up that Arina frankly shunned him, and did not want to even just talk decently, whatever the circumstances of their relationship were – it's not like he was harassing her, after all. However, before he could say anything, Yugao came up to them:

"Kakashi... sorry to interrupt. We need your expert opinion..."

Kakashi cast a mildly annoyed look in her direction, but then sighed and followed the girl to where the dead enemy shinobi lay.

Left alone, Arina rounded the trunk of the tree nearby and sank to the ground, closing her eyes. Although everything was over, while she was standing idly, a belated wave of panic rolled over her, and she could barely hold herself together while talking to Kakashi, fighting nausea. How fortunate it was that Yugao interrupted them...

☙ ❦ ❧

There were half a dozen shinobi killed in total, and they decided to take three with them.

Arina, looking at how the corpses were somewhat casually piled up on the back of the carriage, shuddered once again and hardly suppressed a new attack of nausea. She spent the rest of the journey huddled in the palanquin and stunned in silence, trying to not even look in the direction of the carriage.

Hiruzen, writing off her mood to fright from the attack (which was only partially true), tried reassuring her, somewhat awkwardly, and when the girl admitted that at that moment she was more concerned about the dead they took with them, he explained why exactly this was being done. Arina did not feel any better, but rather the opposite, and the elderly man also fell silent in embarrassment, not knowing how else to comfort her. They did not say a word more all the way to the place of their overnight stay.

☙ ❦ ❧

Kakashi promised himself not to do this, but he couldn't hold back. Deep into the night, when it was his turn to rest for a few hours, he slipped into Arina's room. He knew that he was acting, to put it mildly, wrong, but he couldn't help himself.

Arina slept soundly, exhausted by the day. Or rather, because of the saké which she drank at dinner at Hiruzen's insistence.

Kakashi's palms tingled slightly as he recalled snatching the girl from under the shurikens. It had been so long since he'd touched her... and he probably never would again....

He grimaced, remembering the embarrassing incident with the mask – how could he have been so distracted to expose himself like that?..

And all this also happened in full view of that nobleman... So it was him who was looking for bodyguards?.. It's good at least that he turned out to be with a sense of humour...

I need to speak to Hiruzen about it.

Then, for the umpteenth time, he felt cold at the thought of what would have happened if that shuriken had passed a little further away from him, and a little closer – to Arina. And how relentlessly he'd subsequently dealt with that enemy shinobi who'd dared throw those shurikens – it would have been fine if they had been aimed at himself, but a defenceless girl?.. The bastard...

And she saw everything... and heard Hiruzen's rebuke... He was right, of course. Kakashi did allow himself excessive ferocity. Yes, Arina almost got hurt. But... it wasn't just that... in the course of this fight, he was also letting out all the accumulated irritation. And if the first excused him to some extent, the second was already completely unacceptable. How much effort he had put into trying to eradicate old habits. And it turned out, nothing had really changed. Which was bad, very bad...

This time there was no question of revealing himself – not after all that had happened these days. Whatever impression he got when they met before leaving the village – it was a mistake. But he still couldn't deny himself this little weakness – just to be with her this one last time. After all, if anything, he could always make sure that she had no reason to reproach him for invading her privacy. Although he hoped it wouldn't come to that.

And so he just sat there against the wall, looking at the sleeping girl almost without interruption, until it was time to return to his direct duties.

Before leaving, he approached Arina cautiously, kneeled down and lightly brushed her cheek with his knuckles. She didn't move.

Kakashi looked at his hand, encased in a tight dark glove, and sighed, clenching his palm into a fist with a slight crunch. This glove seemed to symbolize the eternal impassable barrier between them... He could see her, he could even touch her, but he could not feel her properly... He hesitated but did not remove the glove after all.

Straighteningup, Kakashi slipped out of the room silently, pausing only for a moment in the window opening to look back at the sleeping girl one last time.

Tomorrow they will return to Konoha, and everything will be as before. Or maybe it won't. If everything works out, he would leave Konoha for a long time. And there, perhaps, he will finally be able to overcome this weakness, dishonourablefor a ninja. It was time to finally accept this fact: she didn't want to have anything to do with him. Even knowing that her chances of returning to her former life were negligible, or even completely absent. Even at times when anyone in her place would need support – from anyone at all. But – no.

He did everything that was in his power.

☙ ❦ ❧

Kakashi froze, kneeling, as required by the customs, bowing his head slightly.

"So what is it that you wanted to talk about, Kakashi? Get up already..."

Kakashi obeyed.

"Hiruzen-sama... regarding Okumura Kisho..."

Hiruzen raised an eyebrow.

"He needs a personal guard, doesn't he?"

"Well, supposing he does," Hiruzen narrowed his eyes. "What's it to you? This is not an Anbu-level task."

"If... the candidate has not yet been appointed. I would like to... ask you... to let me... And he kind of mentioned himself that I... meet the requirements..."

Hiruzen hummed. It was obvious that the white-haired Shinobi was seriously nervous – usually all his communications were concise, clear and filled with calm confidence. It was not a good sign if anything was able to affect a shinobi of his level this way...

"Are you aware that this position implies a long-term contract?" Hiruzen tilted his head slightly to the side.

"Yes, that's why I'm asking you about it."

"Is it really that unbearable?" Hiruzen suddenly asked sympathetically.

"You saw everything yourself, Hokage-sama..."

"Does it not bother you that some girl influences you in this way, forgive me for asking?"

"I know," Kakashi closed his eyes wearily. "It does. But I can handle it."

"But, out of curiosity, let's say, one day you find a more successful love interest. What then? At every disagreement, will you take out your annoyance in this way? Or if you, Gods forbid, break up? Should I expect you to level Konoha to the ground?"

"Hiruzen-sama, I would never..." Kakashi wilted completely.

"And you think that by leaving the village, you will be able to fix your condition?"

"I have to try. It's... not normal – I understand it myself... I need a little time and to not see her..."

Hiruzen looked at Kakashi in silence for a while.

"I could send her away instead. I won't say that it will give me pleasure: Rina helps me a lot, and every day she proves herself more and more, but I'm ready to do it if it helps you."

"No. Don't do this, please..."

"Interesting. Why so, may I ask?" Hiruzen bowed his head.

"I know how much she wants to... find her place. And now, especially when she started to succeed... no, I don't want to, I can't let all that she was able to achieve be taken away from her again," Kakashi shook his head bitterly. "Please let me leave instead... After all, well, you never know what could happen to me... and it's not forever..." He dropped his head, waiting for the Hokage's decision.

Hiruzen answered after a short pause:

"Kakashi, you are one of the best ninjas of Konoha... and after what happened with Itachi... I'm relying on you, very much. And I'm not sure I'm ready to let you go for such a long time. This is a waste of your potential, don't you understand yourself?"

"Hiruzen-sama..." Kakashi looked at the Hokage again, and something very similar to a desperate plea flashed in his gaze.

This time the pause dragged on longer.

"Fine. I'll consider it," Hiruzen finally said reluctantly. "Now go."

With these words, Hiruzen stared at the papers in front of him, thereby indicating that the conversation was over. However, when Kakashi left, he put down the papers and looked at the door that had closed behind him, clasping his hands under his chin, as if completely forgetting about the work.