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Chapter Two: Recognition - Kakashi's POV

I was trailing behind the three kids, thinking about Kaile, yet again, and wondering where she was. If she was still even alive.
Ahead of me, Sakura and Naruto were bickering, and Sasuke was walking further on, probably preoccupied with thoughts of his older brother.
I jumped a little when I realized Sakura and Naruto were walking beside me, staring up at my face.
"Sensei?" Sakura asked from my left. I turned to face her, halting mid-stride. Naruto stopped beside me on my other side, but Sasuke continued down the path, oblivious to the fact that the rest of Team 7 had stopped.
"Yes?" I said. There was a note of worry in her voice, so I had paused to find out what was the matter.
"Is something wrong?" Naruto spoke up and I turned toward him.
"Why would you --" I started to say, but Sakura cut me off. Vaguely annoyed now with the tennis game they were playing with me, I turned back toward the pink-haired girl.
"You seem rather worried and busy, not really focusing on what's going on," She explained, her green eyes wide.
"If that's all it is, you two should focus on your third teammate," I said, gesturing to the small figure ahead of them and chuckling slightly.
"Sasuke-kun!!" Sakura yelled, running forward to catch up to him, instantly forgetting her worry about me. Thank goodness.
Naruto looked after her, then grumbled something under his breath and stomped after them. I laughed again and followed. I silently thanked Sakura for pulling me out of my thoughts and I desperately resisted being dragged back into the dark circle that they had become. I focused instead on the young trio in front of me.
Sasuke was now behind Sakura and Naruto, who were again bickering about whether or not Naruto was an idiot.
"You are too, Naruto. I mean, just think about all of the evidence. You say 'Chatora' instead of 'Chakra' -" Sakura was explaining to Naruto with a martyred air. Sasuke chuckled, and Sakura blushed. Naruto scowled at his feet.
I grinned to myself and looked over the three genins' heads, then grabbed Sasuke's backpack in shock. I needed something to steady myself on.
It couldn't possibly be....memories of a distant summer flashed through my mind.
The black-eyed boy looked up at me in surprise.
"Sensei?" he said, his eyes narrowed as he took in my shocked expression.
Sakura and Naruto kept walking and arguing.
A feminine figure was lying prone in the middle of the pathway, her back to us. Her hair caught the sun strangely, but that was probably because of the strange colors in her hair. Most of it was a normal color, an average medium brown, but the tips of the rather short hair were dyed blue. She was clad in black pants and a black shirt underneath a green jounin's vest.
Naruto and Sakura were getting close to falling over the girl if they didn't come out of their argument when I finally came to my senses. Letting go of the Uchiha's pack, I flung myself forward and ran to the woman. I probably startled Sakura and Naruto when I practically flew past them, and I could feel their eyes burning into my back when I knelt beside her and held her.
Sakura squeaked and Naruto jumped about a foot when Sasuke ran past them also, and stood beside me.
"Sensei?"
I didn't answer. I stared at her face, the side that I could see. My heart pounded in my throat. She was so warm.
Naruto and Sakura had realized what was going on and circled around us to see what all the excitement was about.
The left side of her face was pressed into my shoulder, but it was still impossible to not see that she was stunningly gorgeous. She looked about my age, maybe a year younger, twenty-five-ish. Her eyebrows were thin and expressive and she had small-ish girly lips, thick eyelashes around what would be large eyes if they were open and a well-balanced straight nose. Her hair was probably one of the most interesting things about her. It was styled boyishly, short in the back and spiked up, but with long bangs and longer hair towards the front. It was an unremarkable medium brown in most areas, but the tips of her brown hair was dyed blue, and her bangs were dyed black. These black bangs hid the symbol on a ninja band she wore as a forehead protector, but I knew it would be a leaf, like mine. My arms were wrapped around the girl's torso, obscuring her body, but what you could still see of her silhouette beneath her baggy, tomboy-styled clothing, she was very feminine but also very muscular and solid. Despite her being unconscious, nothing about her seemed vulnerable or delicate. She hadn't changed that much, except that she was definitely prettier than I remembered her.
Sakura nearly fell over with surprise when I stood up, holding the woman tenderly in my arms. Despite her obvious physical capabilities, I still wanted to protect her. At least that hadn't changed either. I looked at my students, surprised to see them. In the last few minutes, it felt as though I had traveled back in time.
"We need to get off the road. Follow." I turned away from their perplexed expressions and headed out of the warm sunlight into the forest, not looking back to see if they were trailing behind me.
I heard them move after me, first one, and then the other two a moment later.
I didn't notice the roughness of the terrain, I only focused on getting Kaile Ikari away from the road. I tried not to think about who had left her there, as though for dead, and tried to ignore how soft and pliable she felt in my arms.
Oh, Kaile, what have you gotten yourself into now?!
I walked blisteringly fast through the forest, ignoring the nins behind me for about ten minutes. Suddenly, the dense forest opened into a tranquil glade and I stood stock-still. Sasuke, who had been closest behind me, held out his arms to keep the other two genins from crashing into him.
I laid my Kaile down gently on the leaves, then turned to the genins.
"I apologize for the rush and lack of explanation. Please just do as I tell you. You might know what is going on in time." I struggled to keep my voice level and calm, but it came out rather hoarse.
Naruto opened his mouth to speak, but Sakura stepped on his toe. Hard. What came out of his mouth was, "Wha-AARGH!!"
I looked at Naruto, who wobbled shame-facedly beside a blushing Sakura. Sasuke had put down his pack and was looking expectantly at me for some reason.
I looked at him. Looking only at the black-eyed boy, I said in a toneless voice that sounded nothing like me, "Find firewood. It's getting dark." Sasuke nodded gestured for one of the other two genin to follow him. Sakura leapt forward to follow and the two were quickly swallowed by the forest.
I turned my back on Naruto and knelt beside Kaile. Naruto crouched behind me.
"Ikari -" I muttered, brushing back Kaile's hair from her forehead. Yes, her ninja band had a leaf on it. That hadn't changed, either.
"Is that her name?" Naruto asked. I ignored him.
Silence echoed in the glade. Naruto looked up with relief when his fellow Team 7 members reentered the dell, arms loaded with dry sticks.
"Here, sensei," Sakura smiled at me as she put her pile down on my right side. Again, I didn't respond. Sasuke put his firewood on top of Sakura's, but he kept several large ones in his hands.
Pulling a match out of his kunai pouch, a reasonably sized fire was burning merrily within a few minutes.
While Sasuke had started the fire, I had been examining Kaile, checking her pulse, looking at her pupils and checking for broken bones. I looked up at my students. They were standing, staring at me in confusion.
"Thank you," I said before turning back to the comatose figure.
Sakura sat down on the other side of the fire, the two boys following her lead. I put a hand on the Kaile's head, and the other on her belly and I prepared all my chakra in a healing mode. A hush settled sleepily on the clearing and I pushed my life force into the lifeless form underneath my hands.
Darkness had taken a firm grip on the world and Naruto and Sakura were drowsing off when I had given her all that I could without seriously draining myself of energy.
"Sensei, who is she?" Sasuke asked.
Sakura and Naruto jolted upright, their focus on my exhausted form.
"She is an old friend of mine," I looked gently at the comatose form beside on my left. I yawned widely and lay back. "I am worn out....I gave her some Chakra so that she will wake up from her sleep soon," I added at their questioning looks.
I fell into a light dose within moments, a series of memories flitting through my sleeping mind. Several times, I felt that I had clenched my jaw or fists, and I wondered what the three children thought of my dreaming behavior.
As I drowsed, my subconscious mind realized something. I knew Kaile's energy almost as well as I knew my own. Something had changed in her; as I had been giving her Chakra, she had felt harder, colder, and detached; something I didn't remember in Kaile at all.
A screech broke through the stillness of the clearing and Sasuke bolted onto his feet, clenching two kunais in defense. He blinked. Sakura was sitting up, eyes wide, and Naruto was also standing up, fists clenched, but I was already at Kaile's side, who was sitting bolt upright, gasping. Sasuke and Naruto relaxed slightly, and Sakura's jaw dropped.
"Kaile! Kaile, Kaile, you're alright, just breathe, Kaile, it's me, it's Kakashi, come on Kaile, you'll be alright, Kaile," I murmured, saying her name as many times as I could, just tasting it. I brushed the hair out of her face, and began rubbing her arms. She was trembling. Her eyes stared uncomprehendingly into my uncovered eye, and I was relieved to see that they were the same strange reddish-amber color that I knew so well. Her lower lip trembled and water welled in her eyes.
She blinked and a tear dripped down her cheek. "Kakashi?"
"Hey, Kaile."