Kakashi watched as blood fell from Chiisai's parted lips. His hand twitched on the other side of her, and his chidori flickered out. Her small form spasmed, and tears welled in Kakashi's eyes as he yanked his arm out of her chest cavity.

She reached for his hand, but her fingers went limp. Her eyes widened as she fell backward. Kakashi reached for her, but his movements were painfully slow.

He had failed her, just like Rin and Obito. He had broken yet another promise, and there was no one to blame but himself.

But then she froze, and Kakashi watched as the image of her fractured like glass. He sank to his knees as she fell like dust through his fingers. The scenery changed, and he now sat in a grassy field on a sunny day.

The weight in chest suddenly lifted, and he took in a haggard breath. The pain was gone, his mind clear. It was as if he could suddenly feel again.

Now his senses were alert, and he realized someone stood behind him.

He quickly pulled out a kunai, turned, and threw it before realizing who it was.

He made a definite thunk as it landed into Chiisai's shoulder. Her breathing was labored, and tears fell down her face and dripped off her chin as she staggered back. She yanked the kunai out of her body, and blood gushed from the wound.

What was happening became painfully clear.

"I'm dreaming," he said.

She nodded and dropped the weapon. He watched as her skin patched itself back together, the sound like leather stretching. The kunai disappeared.

His eye narrowed as he stepped towards her. If she could do this, then how close was her seal to breaking? Concern flickered in his haze as he said,  "Has your seal broken? You're crying."

Chiisai wiped her face and sniffed, replying, "No, but my powers are slowly coming back. I don't think it's going to hold out for long."

He turned his head to where Chiiisai had once stood. There was nothing but grass and hills. It was peaceful, and birds flew in the sky, the breeze tugging at his unkept hair.

He breathed in the flower-scented air. Everything felt so real, and he was beginning to understand Chiisai a little bit more. He gestured around him and asked, "What did you do?"

Chiisai took a deep breath. Her words were low, as if she had admitted doing something wrong. "I absorbed your nightmare, so you wouldn't have to feel it anymore, and I replaced it with something else."

Shock passed through him as he took her in. The pain in her face, the tears, the dried blood on her hand.

She didn't meet his gaze as he said, "You're feeling what I should be feeling."

"Yes," she nodded, rotating her shoulder. "And don't give me that look. I've done this plenty of times, with a lot of different people."

He reached for her, paused, and drew his hand back. Shame rose inside of him, yet again, and he forced it down. "You didn't have to do it," he said.

"I did," she replied. Chiisai straightened and added, "There's a reason I'm here. Apparently, since I can do this now, it wouldn't hurt to prepare you in case something happens."

"Like what?"

"I don't know," she shrugged. "I just have a bad feeling." She crossed her arms and added, "And it would be good for you to train here, to experience what I do, before my chakra lashes out or something. It would be good for me too, I think."

She looked nervous, and he didn't blame her. So far, her chakra was acting normal, but when would that stop?

He raised his eyebrow and said, "Training?"

She pointed at his eye and said, "Just activate your Sharingan."

He nudged up his headband. His Sharingan opened, and he watched as the field disappeared around them. They now stood in a grey expanse, with no end in sight.

"So it is like a genjutsu," he said.

Shurikens appeared in her hands, and she flung it towards him. He was quick to dodge. He frowned and asked, "What was that for?"

She said, "What we're doing right now is lucid dreaming. I can do anything I want, create anything, be anyone. And every time I do something new, it's like a new genjutsu."

Shurikens appeared once more and flew through the air toward him. This time, he didn't move, but flexed his Sharingan. The weapons disappeared.

"I see," he said. "Then I'm one of the very few that can counter you." He was beginning to understand why Lord Hiruzen had paired her with Itachi. The ninja has been a trusted ally, and it was a good way to keep Chiisai in check.

She nodded. "You can lucid dream too, you know."

She extended her hand out to demonstrate. A purple butterfly appeared above the palm of her hand, and the scenery changed back to the hillside. The small butterfly fluttered to the nearest flower, its wings leaving a silvery trail behind it. "What you believe, you create," she explained.

"Explain."

She placed her hand on her hip. "Well, picture what you want in your mind- its smell, size, dimensions. And then summon it as if you were releasing chakra...I think. I can't actually release chakra in reality, so there's that, but that's what someone has told me before."

There was a tension in the air, just like when he was bandaging her wounds earlier. Her voice was too tight, too forced, and she was struggling to look him in the eye.

He shrugged and replied, "Seems easy enough." He kept his voice casual.

She nodded. "Now go ahead and try to create something small." She placed a hand on her chin. She rocked on her tiptoes and back to the heels of her feet before saying, "Like mochi ice cream."

"Mochi..." His reply was unenthusiastic.

"It doesn't matter what kind," Chiisai crossed her arms. "Just picture it, how it looks, tastes, smells." She stepped closer, showing a chocolate mochi ice cream in her hand. "Believe in the mochi and its existence. Feel how cold and sticky it is?"

Raising an eyebrow, he repeated, "Believe in the mochi?"

"Discriminating it's existence-  I'm disappointed." She shook her head. And sighed. She threw her dessert in the air, where it expanded, grew wings, and transformed into a bird. "Maybe that was too much to start out with," she mumbled to herself as she watched the bird fly away. "Maybe a feather would be easier. Or a small rock."

"Maybe this?"

She blinked back at Kakashi. In his hand sat a single rosebud, its petals as red as his Sharingan. She picked the flower from his hand, feeling the petals with the tips of her fingers. The rose sat silent between him.

He didn't know why he had picked that to make, but he rationalized that a rose was both specific to detail and smell, making it a challenge to recreate.

It most certainly didn't have to do with the woman standing in front him.

The rosebud slowly vanished. Chiisai tilted her head to the side and said, "I'm surprised it disappeared so quickly. What else can you make?"

Kakashi sighed and closed his eyes. He was being ridiculous, he knew, and it was unlike him, but he still remembered the charge in the air earlier when he had studied her wounds, had lifted her shirt up, had pressed his thumb into her skin.

Focus.

When he opened his normal eye, they were in his bedroom, and sunlight filtered through the open window. Icha Icha appeared in his hand.

Her eyes widened and she spun around. "Is this- is this where you live? It feels so empty."

"I'm not home a lot," he said simply. He watched as she walked around. There was little to look at but a bed with neatly tucked sheets, a desk, and a shelf. Her gaze settled on the window sill, and she smiled, turning to him.

She pointed and asked, "This is Mr. Ukki?"

He nodded as her fingers grazed it's leaves. It was good to see her smile.

"How are you so good at everything?" she asked. "This feels so realistic." Chiisai tilted her head to the bed, where there were two bookshelves built into the wall. "Everything's so clean- no wonder you couldn't stand the state of my apartment. And you have a lot of books. Oh- I have that volume set too!"

"I study a lot," he replied, following her line of sight.

She jutted her thumb and replied, "There's also an entire row dedicated to romance novels."

He scratched the back of his neck. "What else do you want to teach me?"

"Right." She stood opposite him, and sunlight cast her hair in different shades of red and brown. "Lucid dreaming is harmless to you. However, even here, you can still use your chakra, and that becomes dangerous."

"Like my Sharingan."

She nodded. "Now, I can summon lightning to my hand like your chidori, but it's still lucid dreaming." Lightning crackled in her hand, casting the room in flickering shadows. The shrill sound echoed off the walls. She opened her mouth and am started talking, only to realize she couldn't hear herself. The light in fizzled out, and she added, "Sorry, forgot how loud that is. What I just did would feel like it would hurt you here, but it has no effect on your body in reality. If I hit you with it, you'd just wake up."

"Makes sense." He crossed his arms, watching her. It was as if she had rehearsed this. It was actually sort of...cute.

"However," she continued, "say I was actually using my chakra, and I made the hand signs." She did, and the chidori crackled again. "If I killed you with it here, your consciousness would die. And you'd be a vegetable in reality."

He tilted his head, watching her. "How did you use my chidori so easily?"

"I studied it," she replied. "I studied every unique jutsu I could find." The lightning flickered out, and she added, "Not that I could use it effectively, but still. It's nice to know. C'mon, there's more to show."

He was impressed, and even more curious. She had demonstrated channeling a chakra-transformation effectively. What was her natural affinity?

And it was becoming more obvious that she hadn't been one of Orochimaru's experiments. If he knew of Chiisai, he'd have her caged in one of his hideouts. She'd be far too valuable to him.

Kakashi watched as she motioned with her hand. A portal appeared, and a different terrain could be seen through the opening. "I can actually do a lot more, but my abilities are coming back slowly. Like I'm in your dream, but I can't even figure out where your mind and memories are." There was a pause, and she added, "Not that I want to see your memories or anything, but you're giving me a look like I was about to change your brain or something, which is not the case."

"You're rambling," he said, amused.

"Just c'mon," she replied, extending her hand.

He took it, and she pulled him through the portal. There was that feeling again- the comfort of her skin against his, and he ignored it, locking the thought away.

"This," she said, "is the dream world. Those floating things up there are people's dreams, and they give me access to each person's mind."

Kakashi saw a giant tree in front of him, and his gaze followed its trunk as its bark twisted and spiraled to the sky. It was massive, and he couldn't see the top. Like hanging fruit, the glowing orbs hung from its branches, flashing images like a tv screen. There were thousands of them, and they cast the tree in different colors of light.

"This is incredible," he said. "This is where you go when you sleep?"

"Here or in someone's dream," she replied. "I never quite figured out why I go to certain places first."

He turned his attention back to her. They were still holding hands, and Kakashi coughed, pulling his hand away. "You're incredibly powerful, and you seem to be in control of your chakra."

"For now I am," she said. "But who knows how long that will last. Can I ask you something?"

"Yes?" He glanced at her. She seemed nervous, like she was asking someone out on a date.

Again, a ridiculous thought. Why couldn't he keep his mind clear around her?

She pressed her hands together and asked, "Can you spar with me?"