You aren’t really the revenge type. You’ve always lived by forgiving and forgetting because you believed that people are inherently good. But maybe you’re far too young to understand how the world works. You have never seen how cruel the world could be firsthand. Your mother doesn’t know if she’s supposed to be happy about that or not.

“We have information on who might’ve killed your father.” This gets your attention and your mother’s.

To be able to put your mind and heart at ease, you just had to know who it was and why they did it. Your next course of action will depend on those. It came natural to you to think before doing anything and the only time you slipped was that day you found out your father died.

Your mother, on the other hand, won’t stop until she gets her justice. It has always been what she stands for. Your father had always been worried about this trait of hers, he thinks it’ll get her in trouble someday. But you weren’t worried, you know she wouldn’t do something stupid. Something unpredictable maybe, but not stupid. That’s why she was a squad leader in ANBU after all.

You hear your mother’s breath hitch. “Who?”

“It’s Konoha’s business and we can’t really tell you about it unless we know you’ll cooperate…” It made sense, logically speaking, if they had plans to subdue the killer, then they had to make sure you both weren’t going to ruin their plans. Most especially your mother.

“Fine.” You say. “When do we leave?” You didn’t even want to put up a fight. You just wanted to know and get over it.

Kakashi was surprised by your response but he doesn’t show it. Your personality came off strong and hostile to him that he was actually expecting a little more resistance from you and a lot more persuasion on his side. In fact, he had already planned what to respond in case you disagreed and demanded to know immediately. Maybe he was wrong about you. 

Kakashi looks over from you to your mother. The choice was up to her now. “Sensei?”

“Can we… Can we head out now?”

You both nod at her. You understand why she wanted to head to Konoha as soon as possible. The need to know weighed heavily in your minds.

You were all done preparing in no time, and started the two-day journey back to Konoha. The beginning of the journey was silent, just walking at a normal pace. Without warning, your mother speeds off, jumping from branches to branches, “Can’t we go faster?” She asks as if she wasn’t speeding off already.

Kakashi looks over to you and you just shrug. Without hesitation, you sprint to catch up with your mother, Kakashi trailing behind you. 

When the night comes, you all set up your sleeping gears. Kakashi offers to keep watch first.

You pretend to sleep until you could hear your mother snore. You’re awfully guilty for being so hostile with the man, it just wasn’t like you. When you were sure she was asleep, you got up.

“Excuse me.”

Kakashi turns his head to you. He keeps silent which urges you to talk.

“I just — I just want to apologize for how I acted earlier. I was rude and I shouldn’t have been when you didn’t do anything wrong.” You bowed your head. “I’m just a little bit on edge lately with what happened, but that’s no excuse. I hope we get past this.”

It seems that Kakashi did judge you wrongly. You sounded mature for your age and so sincere. His eyes crinkle again as he smiles. His right hand goes to rub the back of his neck, “It’s fine, that’s no problem.”

You sigh in relief. “Thank you. Please let me know when you get tired, I’ll stay guard.”

He just nods.

You bowed your head again and smiled before settling down.

You slept for hours when he did exactly as you told and you took over watch. You stayed up, the next thing you knew, the sun was rising already and it was time to go.

All of you sprint off to head to Konoha. And you start to think of what your life would be there. What would it be like to actually stay at a place permanently? How would it feel like to actually have a home? There were so many things running on your mind. But you always go back to the thought: what am I supposed to do now?

“Will I be a shinobi of the Leaf?” You suddenly ask no one in particular.

Your mother’s eyes soften, “Do you want to be?”

It’s nice to have a choice.

“Yes.” You answer without missing a beat.

“I think you’ll be great shinobi.” Kakashi says.

The compliment warms your heart. “Will I have to attend the academy too?”

For a moment he didn't reply, he himself was unsure whether you should attend the academy or you would become a genin already. He rubs his neck and sheepishly says, “I’m not sure about the technicalities. I’m sure the Hokage will know what to do.”

You hum in response and the conversation is dropped. The journey back to Konoha becomes silent again. 

It was a couple of hours after that when you started sensing the presence of shinobis. Too many, not the usual three-man team that go on missions. There’s at least ten people at the location. Something was off, and you wanted to find out what it was.

So you abruptly changed your direction. “Oi where are you going?!” Kakashi asks while he and your mother follow you.

“I just want to take a look somewhere. I have a bad feeling about it.” You look into your mother’s eyes, she knows what you’re referring to.

“I’m surprised you could sense them at this distance.” She smiles.

“What are you talking about?” Kakashi asks. “The mission is to bring you back to Konoha safely. You shouldn’t be running into trouble!”

“Relax, Kakashi. We’ll just take a look and see what it is. We won’t do anything stupid. If there’s something wrong, we can always just retreat. You should trust me and Michiko.”

If it was only you who wanted to go, he might’ve been able to stop you but since your mother was insisting too, he knew there was no other choice but to concede. With a sigh, he follows the two of you.

You all stop near the location, close enough to observe but far enough so you don’t get dragged along the commotion.

There seemed to be three shinobis — two males and a female — fighting against ten others. “The three are from the Leaf,” your mother says while looking at their hitai-ate. Kakashi nods, changing his stance so he’d be ready to go down if the situation calls for it. They’re outnumbered and it was obvious they were struggling.

The female with long blond hair fell down hard from a kick to her head by one of their enemies. The enemies were approaching her with intent to land more blows but then the guy with black hair tied in a spiky ponytail threw shurikens at them but they quickly dodged it. This, however, gave the guy’s opponents an opening to attack.

You watch the movement of one of his opponents. Your eyes widened when you recognized his hand signs were for the Dragon Flame Bullet jutsu. There was no way he’d be able to dodge it in time!

Without thinking, you jumped out of the branch, praying that you’d be able to make it in time. You were still on the air as you started the hand seals for the Water Formation Wall jutsu. As you landed, a barrier of water was formed, just as the fire style user breathed fire from their mouth. You made it!

Your sudden arrival surprised everyone as you heard a collective yelp. In no time, Kakashi was beside you.

“Sorry,” you say to Kakashi while still maintaining the water wall. He just replies with a grunt.

“Kakashi sensei!” The blond girl exclaims.

“What are you doing here?” The male with the spiky ponytail asks while he was dodging blows from his opponents.

“Let’s talk about it later,” Kakashi replies while he eyes the opponents in front of him.

“Reinforcements, eh?” One of the attackers says. “Huh, it’s Kakashi of the Sharingan. This will be fun.”

You release the water wall you made and grab a kunai from your bag. The man who used the fire jutsu starts throwing shurikens at your direction. You block ev