After the attack from the stranger, Naruto went to go meet up with Sakura and two new people while Aceso went to go check on Kakashi. 

"How are you feeling?" Aceso asked as she walked in, Kakashi opened his eyes and glanced at her.

"Shouldn't you be at home?" Kakashi asked as he slowly sat up.

"Couldn't sit still," Aceso answered. "Plus, I wanted to start back at the hospital."

"I hear that Naruto is being sent on a mission," Kakashi brought up. "If you can't sit still, maybe you should go on it."

"And risk running into him?" Aceso asked. "I'm not ready for that." She sat in the chair next to his bed and looked away. 

"I'm guessing it was that bad," Kakashi noted. He's never seen her repel a mission unless she had to be at the hospital.

"Yeah," Aceso breathed softly looking up at him.

"You should take a few days off," Kakashi suggested. "No one will hold it against you."

"No, I like working," Aceso answered. "Especially in here in the hospital."

"Then as your dad, I order you to take a break," Kakashi ordered. "You can come in here and work, but no more than 5 hours, no 12 hours shifts...next week you can start again with the 12 hours shifts, but until then it's a no."

"But-" Aceso began.

"Please," Kakashi said. "It hurts me to see you this upset and hurt." Aceso paused...she never meant to hurt anyone.

"I'm so sorry, Dad," Aceso apologized. " I didn't want to hurt you."

"You did nothing wrong, don't apologize," Kakashi said. "But please...take a break...you haven't even been back for a day."

"Okay," Aceso gave in. "Starting tomorrow." She looked out his window, to see Lee looking up at the windows. Kakashi looked back, then at Aceso.

"Don't avoid him," Kakashi said. 

"I'm just not ready to talk about what happened," Aceso said.

"Take your time," Kakashi said. "Though if you talk to someone, it may make you feel better."

"I'm not sure it will this time," Aceso denied.

"Can't hurt to try," Kakashi said. Aceso nodded, standing up.

"I'll go check on some other patients and then come back," Aceso said.

"See you later," Kakashi said. 

Aceso went to check on other patients, and as she did so she couldn't help but think about what Kakashi said to her. She didn't mean to avoid Lee, but for some reason, she couldn't find the courage to face him. For months, she longed to see him again, but after what she did to those medical ninjas, she couldn't face him. Aceso knew Lee doesn't like it when people are unnecessarily cruel to others. 

Aceso was now back in Kakashi's room, Master Jiraya was there as well. Kakashi was giggling as he read a book Master Jiraya had given them.

"Look at you, doctor Mastuba," Jiraya greeted. "You've grown into a fine young woman...rumor has it you have gotten stronger as well...taking out Orochimaru." Kakashi looked over his book.

"I didn't take him out, I just gave him some sleeping pills," Aceso answered. "Crushed it up and mixed it with some spicy curry that he requested."

"Curry or not, you still managed to escape from his clutches," Jiraya said. "Did you take out his four eye friend the same way?"

"Yes, sir," Aceso answered.

"And what about--" Jiraya began.

"Well, sounds like they're finally here," Aceso said cutting them him off. Kakashi eyed her, he gave her a look.

'Stop avoiding his name,' Kakashi said with his eyes.

'I didn't take Sasuke out with curry,' Aceso said with her eyes. Kakashi raised an eyebrow in curiosity.  

"Kakashi, may we enter?" Tsunade asked knocking on the door.

" Come on in," Kakashi responded. The door opened traveling Lady Tsunade, Shizune, and some random man.

"Ha, long time, no see, Kakashi," the man greeted.

"You?" Kakashi asked.

"Who is that?" Aceso asked. 

"It's been a long time hasn't it?" the man laughed. "I'm not surprised you don't recognize me." Aceso looked at the man oddly.

"So, this is the Yamato you were talking about, go figure," Kakashi said.

"That's right," Yamato said. "While I'll be filling in as interim captain for Team Kakashi, Yamato is going to be my code name, sir."

"You don't say," Kakashi said.

"Which leads me to why I brought him here," Tsunade said. "If he's to be heading up your team, Kakashi, I want him to know exactly what he'll be dealing with."

"What we're about to tell you is the main reason you were selected as Kakashi's replacement," Jiraya said.

"Is this about Naruto, sir?" Yamato asked.

"Exactly," Kakashi answered. "You already know that Naruto has the Nine-Tailed Fox Spirit sealed inside of him, right?

" I do," Yamato confirmed. 

"There are times the nine tails chakra start to leak out of Naruto's body and take on the Fox Spirit's form," Jiraya explained. "We've been referring to it as the Nine-Tails Cloak."

"The Nine-Tails Cloak?" Yamato repeated. "My god, how often has this been happening to him?"

" As recently as our last mission," Kakashi answered. "When he's overcome by his emotions the Fox Spirit's chakra begins to surface engulfing his entire body and revealing the Nine-Tails Cloak. Just before the second tail formed, I was able to suppress the chakra with a seal that Master Jiraya gave me. If I hadn't intervened, who knows what might have happened."

" I see, so it's just as I feared," Jiraya said.

"Judging by the shape the chakra was taking, the numbers of tails will probably grow," Kakashi said. "And eventually, there will be nine."

"That about sums it up," Jiraya said.

"Master Jiraya, how many tails have you seen?" Aceso asked.

"Hm, in all my years of living, I've come close to death only twice," Jiraya answered as he began to take off his jacket. "The first time, I broke six ribs, both arms. and ruptured a handful of internal organs." He lifted up the mesh/fishnet shirt underneath. "That was when I was caught doing 'research' at a hot spring and Tsunade beat me like a drum. The second time--" He fully took off the clothing pieces, there was a large hole scar in the middle of his chest. "The second was back when Naruto and I were off training together and the fourth tail appeared. His anger acts like a trigger. The number of tails increases along with his rage. He was able to maintain consciousness with the appearance of the first three tails. But after the fourth, his mind was overpowered. All that was left was a hunger for destruction. He was like a smaller version of the nine-tailed fox."

"That far gone?" Kakashi asked. "Even with the fourth Hokage seal?" Jiraya put his shirt back on.

"I can't say what's causing it, but one thing is for certain. The fourth Hokage seal formula seems to be weakening, near as I can tell anyway," Jiraya informed. 

"The fourth Hokage sealing Jutsu?" Tsunade asked. 

"Hard to believe," Kakashi said.

"There's more," Jiraya brought up. "When Naruto is cloaked in the chakra of the nine tails. I know it looks like he's being protected, but the truth is his body is continuously being harmed by that same chakra. When the fourth tail emerged, his whole body suffered severe injuries. He ran amok covered in blood." Aceso's eye went wide. "Once the cloak had finally disappeared. Naruto's internal nine tails chakra began healing his body. But if he continues this cycle of egregious harm and rapid recovery, his body will pay the price and the span of his life will be shortened." Everyone stayed quiet taking in the information.

"That's exactly why we need you for this mission, Yamato," Tsunade said. He looked at her. " After all, you carry the cells of the First Hokage in your blood."

"You alone possess the ability to control the jinchuriki now," Jiraya said. "It's in your blood. Luckily, Naruto also wears the First Hokage's necklace. We're counting on you." After that Yamato went to set off for the Tenchi bridge with Team Kakashi, and Aceso went home to get some rest. 

It was now the middle of the night, Aceso was fast asleep, she laid on her stomach, she was facing the window, and her bed was more comfortable than she remembered. Her sleep was interrupted by the sound of the bedroom door slamming open. In the reflection of the window, she saw Lee lighting a candle.

 "Time to train!" Lee exclaimed as he climbed onto the bed, sitting on her. "You said you wanted to train right!" He started to shake her, trying to get her to budge.

"It's four in the morning," Aceso said as she shoved her face into her pillow. 

 "It's a perfect time to train!" Lee insisted as he started to shake her more, she laughed lightly into her pillow. Lee then looked at her arms, almost every inch of them was covered in scars or burns. He reached down and touched her arm gently, she jumped from this and tensed up. "I'm not going to hurt you." Aceso glanced back at him. He pulled the covers down a little, and his eyes immediately located the numerous scar marks. Aceso yanked the covers back up, and Lee immediately pulled them back down. Lee scooted back and lifted her tank top a little, with even more scars and burns. Old ones from when they tried to rescue Sasuke, one from the second time Sasuke tried to abduct Red Rose...Lee was growing furious with himself. 

"Please Lee," Aceso said as she tried to push her shirt back down."We can train around 7, but I got work at 10," Aceso informed as she looked back at him before looking back at the wall.

"7 is good," Lee agreed as he retracted his hand. Aceso turned to her side, pulling up the covers. Lee climbed under the covers and put his back to hers. 

"What are you doing?" Aceso demanded as she looked back at him. 

"It's just like the old days," Lee said. " No, need to fret," Aceso recalled the few times, Lee put his back to hers as they slept, either on a mission or after babysitting. 

***
Just as promised Aceso trained with Lee the next morning before going to work, she was now giving a patient some medicine after completing the surgery. She walked out to see Lady Tsunade waiting outside the patient's room.

"Lady Hokage," Aceso greeted.

"Doctor Matsuba," Lady Tsunade greeted. "I can finally talk to you about the mission."

"Oh, right," Aceso said.

"You did well on coming up with new medicines and keeping an eye on the Akatsuki," Lady Tsunade said as they walked down the hallway.

"Thank you," Aceso smiled at her.

"What did you learn about Orochimaru?" Tsunade asked. Aceso grew a bit tense at the question.

"They move locations about every three weeks," Aceso revealed. "He's doing well in training Sasuke."

"I'm surprised you told me," Tsunade admitted. 

"Dad says I need to talk about some parts little by little, it will help with healing," Aceso said. 

"It will," Tsunade confirmed. 

"How is the village?" Aceso asked.

"Much more stable," Lady Tsunade answered. "And the Land of Lighting sends us thanks for your help. We have better ties with them and the Land of Stone now."

"I didn't exactly get to the Mist Village, my apologies," Aceso said.

" Do not apologize," Tsunade said. "You went above and beyond, we are very thankful for the work you did out there."

"Thank you," Aceso breathed. 

"Show me how you made those chakra patches, we may need them in the future," Tsunade said.

"You want me to teach you?" Aceso asked in surprise, Lady Tsunade is known as a world-class medical ninja, she is a Sannin and Fifth Hokage.

"Don't look so surprised," Tsunade said. "In case you have forgotten, you are a world-class medical ninja as well. I feel comfortable calling an equal."

"Really?" Aceso asked.

"Yes," Tsunade said. "When it comes to you, the one thing I regret most is not teaching you myself."

"How come?" Aceso asked as they headed into a lab.

"If I taught you, then you would follow my rules of being a medical ninja," Tsunade answered. "No going on the front lines, into immediate danger."

"I can heal and fight at the same time," Aceso said. 

"I know that," Tsunade smiled. "Thanks to that, you can ignore my rules." Aceso spent the rest of the day teaching Tsunade about the medicine Aceso has made over the two years, the antidotes, and some poisons.

*****

Two days have passed, it was the middle of the night Aceso was back at home fast asleep, she was at work longer that day than she planned. She only went home when Kakashi caught her walking past his room. As she slept, she started to toss and turn a little, moments after that she squirmed, and whimpered a little. She woke up startled at a hand touching her. Aceso jolted awake in tears, she started to back up in a panic.

"I'm not going to hurt you," a voice said. Aceso jumped at the startle of the voice, her hands went forward in a natural reaction to avoid being hit. Two hands grabbed her wrists to prevent her from being hit. "It's just me." Aceso looked up to Lee looking down at her, he was still wearing his Chunin jacket. He stared at her, Lee has never seen Aceso become so scared and distraught.

"Lee," Aceso breathed softly.

"What happened?" Lee asked as his hands moved to her face. 

"Bad dream," Aceso answered looking away.

"Do you want to tell me about it?" Lee asked. He finally realized he was going to have to take things slow to get an answer about everything. 

"How was your mission?" Aceso asked avoiding the question.

"I'll tell you about it over tea," Lee offered as he wiped a few tears away.

****

Two nights later, Team Kakashi still hasn't returned from their mission, Aceso was a bit worried, but she kept telling herself that they should all be fine. At the moment she was sitting in her bathtub, her hair was pulled up in a high bun, she was curled up in a ball, holding her knees. Her thoughts became interrupted when she felt someone's back against her own back. Her eyes grew wide, she tensed up and looked back to see the back of a familiar shiny black bowl haircut.

"Get out," Aceso ordered as her face grew red.

"I'm sorry for invading like this, but I need answers," Lee answered as he looked back at her. His face grew red and they both look straight ahead. Keeping all this from Lee was hurting him, and Aceso doesn't ever wish to hurt Lee, it was hurting her that she was hurting him. "You are hurting and I have no idea how to help you."

"Don't you have training?" Aceso asked.

"It's 2 am," Lee pointed out. "You're not at work."

"My shift isn't till late tomorrow," Aceso said.

"And I'm done training for the day," Lee said.

"Lies," Aceso denied. "You're always training."

"And you've barely come home, didn't Kakashi-sensei order you to take it easy?" Lee pointed out. "Is something bothering you?"

"This couldn't wait till the sun was up?" Aceso asked.

"I heard what happened while you were away," Lee brought up. Aceso's eyes went wide. "I'm not mad, not even a little."

"But it was so unnecessarily cruel," Aceso answered. "You hate when people do those types of things."

"You saved more lives than you killed," Lee reminded her. "It may have been cruel, but what they were doing was much crueler."

"Lee?" Aceso asked as she glanced back a little.

"What you did was cruel," Lee said. "But I was more satisfied with you coming home alive rather than being dead. I'm not sure what I would have done if you died."

"I didn't mean to worry you, I'm so sorry," Aceso apologized, she looked forward. 

"You have nothing to apologize about," Lee said. "It may take a while before you tell me, but I will always be here for you." He turned around to face her back, he looked above the water, at her back. "The person who hurt you...it was Sasuke, wasn't it?" In a blur, Lee saw Aceso turn around, tears rolled down her face, and she pulled him into a hug sobbing, digging her face into his chest. He just put his arms around her and pulled her closer to his chest. In the flash second, Lee saw even more scars and burns. He began to wonder how bad Sasuke was able to hurt her, he looked at her back and saw the marks trailed all the way down. He didn't have to wonder for long, he came to the conclusion, that Sasuke hurt her in more than one way. Lee grew even more furious with himself for not being able to protect her. Ten minutes, Aceso's crying came to a silence, Lee pushed Aceso's head back a little to find her fast asleep. He turned back and unplugged the tub to drain it. Very carefully, Lee stood up while holding the redhead, he carefully stepped out of the tub and grabbed two towels from the cabinet. He somehow manages to get a towel around her and one around his waist. Lee walked into the bedroom, pulled back the covers, and placed her down on the bed gently. He pulled the covers back and sat down on the edge of the bed, he stared at the light coming from the bathroom. (There are two doors to the bathroom.)

'Once again I was not there to protect her,' Lee thought to himself. 'If I was there, then Sasuke would have never gotten a hold of her, and she would be much happier. Darn it!' He put his head in his hands. He looked back at Aceso, she seemed to be at peace, for the first time in a long time, and she seemed to be fully at peace as she slept. 'Maybe I am not meant to be her hero." He turned his head back forward and started to get up. He felt someone grab his hand, he looked back to see Aceso holding on to it.

"Stay just a little bit longer," Aceso requested softly.

"You should really get some sleep," Lee advised as he took his hand away from her.

"Please," Aceso whispered.

"Just a little bit longer," Lee agreed as he got under the covers. The two scooted close to each other, Aceso got under Lee, and placed his head on top of her chest, and put her arms gently on top of him. Lee was very taken back; he was sure he was going to be the big spoon. The big spoon is mainly the more protective one. Did this mean, Aceso was more protective over Lee, than Lee was over Aceso? "No."

"No?" Aceso asked. He turned around, and brought her up to his chest with one arm, before flipping them onto his back, so now she was on top of him. He wanted to be the more protective one. "You said just for a little bit longer."

"Guess that means, I'm here for the rest of the night," Lee said with confidence. He was expecting her to say something, instead, she just wrapped her arms around him and fell back to sleep. He looked down at her, he turned a little red, he forgot that they were both only in a towel. Then Lee put his arms around her, pulling her even closer into his chest. He kissed the top of her head before going to sleep himself.

*****

The morning came around, the sun was just starting to rise. The village was slowly coming to life. In Aceso's room, Lee started to wake up the minute the sun entered the room. He woke up to feeling someone on top of him, he looked down to see Aceso was still on top of him. She looked so at peace. He felt at peace, he somehow got the answers he needed, Aceso didn't say much but it was good enough for him. He was also feeling something else...oh no...anything but that. Lee started to panic, he didn't want her to wake up, he didn't want her to think lowly of him. His manhood has grown hard at some point during the night, and it was pressed right up against Aceso's stomach. He looked down, from the sides, he could see that Aceso's towel had shifted during the night, it wasn't helping his situation. He was very thankful for the towels they were wearing. He tried his best to get up without waking up the doctor, but his mission failed. 

"Just a little bit longer," Aceso pleaded in a morning voice as she tightened her grip around him.

"Come on Red Rose," Lee said as his face grew red. Aceso liked the way he sounded in the morning for some reason. "It's morning, time to train."

"Couple more minutes," Aceso requested. They had never cuddled before, and Aceso did not want it to end. As Aceso started to come around a little, she felt something hard against her stomach. And it was quite large. A ton of memories, Aceso tried to suppress soared back to her head. She quickly rolled off of Lee and went closer to the window. "Right, time to train." She stared out the window as the sun rose higher into the sky while Lee sat up, placing his feet on the floor. Lee looked back to see Aceso stretch a little, at the same time the towel slid down, even more revealing her nipples. He stared at them for more than a few seconds, they were hard. He also noticed a ton of scar marks from the collar bone and down. Every inch of her was a complete work of art. Lee himself wanted to hold her a bit longer, but he knew he had to get on with training. Lee reached over and pulled the towel back up.

"Sorry," Aceso apologized as her face grew red. She then realized that he saw everything last night and grew even redder. She rolled more towards the window, to block everything. Lee looked forward with a small smile. Aceso then started to realize, that Lee never tried to make a move on her, he respected her boundaries and didn't even try to take full advantage of the situation. The only advantage he took, was having her lay on top of him, so he could hold her instead. Lee was nothing like Sasuke, not even a little bit.

"Get some more sleep, you work the night shift later," Lee advised. He kissed the top of her head before heading into the bathroom. He left the bathroom door open as he started to get into his suit. Aceso glanced over her shoulder to see him standing in the bathroom, trying to make his erection go down. He was so focused, that he didn't even realize that he was facing the rest of the room. Lee was extremely fit, he was pure muscle. Aceso watched Lee push his manhood down, just to have it fly up hitting him in the stomach, before bouncing back into where it stuck out. He was at his full length, so that must have meant, it was already big, to begin with. Aceso turned bright red, before facing the window again and closing her eyes. About fifteen minutes later, Lee left the bathroom fully dressed, he looked over to see that Aceso had her back towards him. He smiled towards her, Lee then left to go train as he planned.