At a Crossroads #Wattys2015

For My Sake- Kakashi

It was chilly out, Kakashi observed, halfheartedly. He was surprised it wasn't snowing. The village's temperatures often dropped like this at night. Kakashi's toes were numb.

But he didn't care.

No, all that was on his mind now were the odd events that had just taken place between Mizuki and himself. She was going somewhere where she didn't want him to follow. But why? She couldn't be betraying the village could she? If that were the case, Tsunade would kill him for allowing her to leave under such undisclosed circumstances.

She would probably kill him even if the situation weren't so out of the ordinary. He had not done his job.

But then again, he did not care. What could be so secretive that Mizuki couldn't tell him about it? They were colleagues, for crying out loud. He wanted to be able to trust the mysterious girl, but she didnt exactly make it easy.

Mizuki's performance as a jounin was spectacular, but he still knew very little about her. Kakashi was unsure why the Hokage had not assigned Mizuki her own students. Her potential as a sensei was off the scales. Her brute strength alone was unsettling in its massive quantity. She could teach Genin ninjas of the Leaf village things that other jounin ninjas couldn't.

Kakashi had been on several missions with her in the past but they had rarely made conversation. For some reason, Kakashi had always gotten the feeling that Mizuki couldn't stand him. Maybe it was because of her signature glares. Or her constant cold and distant demeanor. Or maybe it was the fact that she had told him she couldn't stand him. Numerous times, as a matter of fact.

Kakashi had simply thought of Mizuki as someone who needed their space. That was, until they were on one of the same S-rank missions, far away from the village.

During the night when Kakashi, Mizuki, and Ebisu had been camping in the small clearing of a forest, Kakashi had awoken at the subtlest sounds of movement. The large tent was quietly unzipped as someone exited it.

After several long moments, Kakashi arose from his sleeping bag. Ebisu lay facedown on his pillow, snoring and murmuring in his sleep. Mizuki was gone.

Curiosity being one of his strongest trademarks, Kakashi had wondered what she could've been up to. Searching around the area, Kakashi eventually found the mysterious shinobi girl sitting on the edge of a cliff, looking down onto the beautiful lake below. She had not spotted him for he stood concealed in the forest's trees behind her. The sound of rushing and crashing water, which had originally led Kakashi to the location, belonged to a waterfall which produced gentle wakes, disrupting the otherwise smooth-as-glass surface. The water was like a mirror, reflecting every light source in the starry night sky above.

A gentle breeze ruffled Mizuki's long white hair. As Kakashi moved stealthily to the right, he realized she was not looking at the scene before her at all, but at a small opened journal in her lap.

Kakashi's vision was excellent. He had been able to distinguish every detail that was on those dry parchment pages. They were covered with pictures.

A small white-haired girl with pigtails, beaming displaying several missing teeth filled one of the photographs. The same little girl hugging a woman with long dark hair filled another. A third photo depicted the woman with dark hair embracing a tall man with longish white hair- the same color as Mizuki's. Could those be her parents, he had wondered?