We are finally at the finale of Part I! And as a surprise to those who waited a long time for it... it's a two chapter update! Enjoy ;)

2 years later

Feeling grim was something Kakashi had become familiar with through out his life. Tragedy after tragedy had left him numb. Now at twenty-years old, he had learnt to live with the feelings, and in more recent years, to hide them.

But he found himself feeling more crummy than usual after today's mission. He stood in front of his locker in Team Ro's locker room, tuning in and out of Tenzo's constant chatter at his back.

"By the way, what happened to the replacement? Our team is short a member." Tenzo asked as he rummaged through his locker.

"There's no rush," Kakashi responded, placing a hanger back inside his narrow cubby. "We're not in the middle of a war or anything. But the Hokage sent for me when we got back to the village. I assume it's for that." He shut the small wooden door with a groan and a click.

Tenzo looked up from his locker with an easy smile. Now at sixteen, the teen had grown taller, his voice had gotten deeper, and he had cut his hair so it barely brushed his shoulders. He still had his youthful features, but he was losing those by the season.

"That's good news then." He said.

Kakashi didn't join in on his smile like he usually might have. Instead, he turned and stared straight ahead towards the doors of the locker room. "I guess so. Someone was bound to come sooner or later."

He merely walked away, leaving a confused Tenzo behind.

The walk to the Hokage's receiving room was a blur as Kakashi let his feet take him in the familiar direction. His mind had been occupied by the usual thoughts he got after using Chidori during his assassination missions.

One would think it would get easier with time now that seven years had passed since Rin's death  and eight since Obito's. But it didn't, it was only that Kakashi became less reactive to the memory of it during his waking days. Night were different though...

These thoughts were likely the culprits to his current mood, but he couldn't do anything about it as he opened a door and stepped into the Hokage's receiving room and bowed.

"Kakashi, welcome." Hiruzen said as the young man knelt down on the matted floor. "As you know, Team Ro is down one person after the injury of your previous member." The Hokage continued, his now white hair standing on end like it always did. "So a new member will be joining your team."

"Is it the one we previously discussed?" Kakashi asked.

The Hokage nodded. "Yes, he's extremely capable. I believed he'll be a good addition to your team."

"Perhaps, but... he's very young." The Anbu Captain pointed out, his voice coming out uncharacteristically soft.

"Danzo recommended him that he gain more experience. And I trust that he will be safe in a capable team like Team Ro. And with a capable captain like yourself." The Hokage explained, and that was it.

"Thank you, Lord Third." Bowing at the praise seemed to be the only appropriate response, despite the way Kakashi felt about having someone so young— a child— join the Anbu.

There was nothing Ahsoka Aoyama hated more in the world than having to write mission reports after she let them pile up. Though that was her own fault for letting it happen, when she choose to spend her little free time practicing her instruments instead— the shamisen and the lyre today. She cursed herself for it when she felt her hand cramping as she wrote another sentence detailing the events of her latest mission.

She felt sorry for the scribes who had to transcribe a whole shinobi village worth of reports almost weekly.

She looked up from her desk by her bedroom window to glance at the time. She was supposed to be meeting the rest of Team Ro down at the private Anbu training fields in five minutes, but when she looked down at her last unfinished mission report she cringed.

Perhaps she could be a little late. Her place in Team Ro had always been different from the rest due to the fact that she was often called away on solo missions due to her skills set.

They wouldn't miss her too much.

Her black boots made no sound as Ahsoka eventually dropped down to the training fields. It had taken her all of the five minutes she had before the meeting and ten extra for Ahsoka to finish her report. But it only took her a minute to get to the training fields.

She walked towards Kakashi, who stood close to the tree line of a small clearing along with Tenzo, who had risen in the ranks to basically be substitute second-in-command when Ahsoka wasn't around.

They were watching someone— who Ahsoka could only guess was a merely a boy by his small stature— standing in the middle of the small clearing, clad in Anbu gear. The rest of the team was also watching from the other side of the clearing, shadowed beneath the leaves of the trees.

The boy suddenly jumped high into the air and twisted so his head was towards the ground, making his dark haired ponytail whip in the wind. He tucked his arms in tight and twirled in the air countless times before setting loose a barrage of kunai in every direction.

He twisted in the air once more, taking out two kunai and throwing them. They collided with two of his previous kunai and redirected them. Then one by one the kunai began to hit the circular wooden targets in the trees. Dead in the center.

The boy landed on the ground in a crouch facing towards the tree-line, and the Aoyama could finally see the single red triangle detail on the forehead of his Anbu mask.

"He's good." Ahsoka spoke up from the spot she had taken at Kakashi's side. Neither men were surprised by her presence given that she hadn't bothered to hide her chakra when she arrived, so all three continued regarding the boy.

"He's talented, yes, but making an exception for someone so young is rather unusual in the Anbu...he's only eleven." Tenzo pointed out.

"Lord Danzo recommended him." Kakashi explained, and Ahsoka felt her fingers grip her bicep a little tighter.

"No kidding?" Tenzo said, "He doesn't really fit the mold though."

Kakashi turned to him. "What do you mean?"

"Lord Danzo has his own personal set of criteria for Anbu and Foundation agents." Tenzo said, then went quiet.

Ahsoka leaned forward to look at him from Kakashi's other side. "And?"

He looked away. "I just can't see him..." He trailed off in thought while the other two stared at him expectantly to no avail.

Kakashi placed a hand on his hip and broke the silence. "I guess that doesn't matter. Our superiors assigned him and he looks talented enough to have earned his spot." He then turned to Ahsoka. "I'll introduce you." He raised a hand and motioned the boy over.

Ahsoka took that moment to really look at Kakashi. The years had gone by so quickly she had barely felt them. But she could see the physical proof of them in Kakashi.

He was much taller now. Tall enough for Ahsoka to have to look up at him when she stood this close to him. His voice had gotten much deeper, now it had a lower, rougher and raspier timber than before. And he had lost the softness of youth in his body, as well as the awkward proportions of the teenage years. He was now all lean muscle and broad shoulders. A weapon in of himself.

Kakashi gestured at the boy as he stopped in front of them. "This is our new recruit, Itachi Uchiha."

Ahsoka blinked her surprise behind her mask. There weren't a lot of Uchiha in the Anbu. The clan had always been held at an arm's length by the village since the time of the Second Hokage Tobirama Senju, and the attack on by the Nine Tails six years ago hadn't helped their case.

The clan was relocated to the outskirts of the village after the incident, and had been kept under close supervision ever since. The elders spewed bullshit about the relocation being due to the reconstruction efforts for Konoha, but it was common knowledge among the Anbu that the Sharingan could be used to control a Tailed Beast. And it was also common knowledge that the elders didn't trust the Uchiha because of it.

So it was rare to see an Uchiha be placed so deep in Konoha's shinobi intelligence units. Ahsoka herself had barely worked with any Uchihas in her career...not since Obito.

The boy removed his mask, revealing a lightly handsome face for his age, with the characteristic dark eyes of the Uchiha, and eye-lines that seemed way too deep for someone so young.

He gave her the slightest nod of his head. "It's a pleasure to meet you." His voice was silky smooth, filled with the poise of a well mannered boy.

Kakashi then gestured to Ahsoka. "And this is Ahsoka Aoyama, my official second-in-command. Though you won't see her as much as the rest. She has her own agenda to complete."

The dry joke and wasn't a complete lie. The Hokage hadn't given Ahsoka her own team to lead only due to the fact that she was sometimes called away for special missions. Assigning her to a team made more sense. Specially if that team had shinobi that she already worked well with like Tenzo and Kakashi.

But regardless, Ahsoka took off her mask and bowed her head in return. "The pleasure is all mine, Itachi."

Kakashi then turned to the rest of the group, raising his voice. "All right, we'll start with warm up drills before we begin. I want to run through every one of our formations so we can get used to the dynamic with a new member."

The team called out their confirmations and scattered to do drills, including Itachi and Tenzo, leaving Kakashi and Ahsoka standing alone.

For a little while, the only sounds were the birds chirping and the distant clatter of blades. That was until Ahsoka broke the silence.

"He's young." She said softly.

Kakashi was quiet for a moment, then said, "I know."

He was only a couple of years younger than Ahsoka and Kakashi had been when they joined the Anbu themselves. Yet, they had also only been just kids. They knew the horrors that came with joining so young, but there was nothing they could do about it.

Ahsoka turned to Kakashi, suddenly grinning with a sly smile. "You're not going to reprimand me for being late?"

She heard a low chuckle from behind his mask as he reached up to take it off— laughing at the call back to his younger days. The sound was intoxicating.

"I'm sure you had your reasons." He said, turning his mismatched eyes that crinkled with amusement towards her. "I'm not truly in a position to judge now anyways."

He truly had changed so much since she first met him as that stern boy who only cared about the rules. It felt like a lifetime ago. A whole other person ago.

It made her smile before she could help it.

She huffed and shook her head, almost bittersweetly. "If a younger version of you could see you now, he would throw a fit."

Kakashi scoffed, then grumbled. "I'd probably end up throttling him."  Ahsoka knew he meant it as a joke, but there was something strangled in the way he said the words that gave her pause.

She looked up at the hard planes of his face— the handsome face she only got to see once years ago—and hasn't forgotten a single detail of it— and finding the distant and far away look of shame and regret that she saw reflected in her mirror more often than not.

It came about whenever she thought back to the past, and she could see the echoes of it in Kakashi.

Before she could regret it, she placed a hand on his arm. His gaze snapped to her hand, then up at her eyes. She met his surprised stare unflinchingly, and gave him a soft smile.

"You might want to throttle him. But that kid has come a long way. I'm proud of him." She said, the words coming from the heart.

His eyes softened, and Ahsoka felt him relax under her hand as if all that built up tension in his body had washed away. "Thank you..." he said softly.

There was more she wanted to say to him, but now was not to the time, so she reluctantly let her hand drop, and instantly missed the warmth of his arm.

She instead let the corner of her mouth quirk up. "All right, let's go Captain. You have a team to train."

He merely chuckled before they strode deeper into the training fields, his hands in his pockets.

The daimyo's assembly chamber had stayed the same as it was since the first day Hiruzen Sarutobi had entered it as a newly appointed Hokage many decades ago.

The large circular room had minimal decorations, with the only notable one being the sizable purple banner at the head of the table behind the daimyo's chair with the kanji for Fire.

The room was dark, save for the dim light that came in through the lining of windows near the top of the tall ceiling, but it was still enough to see the daimyo's councilors on the other side of the wide rectangular table, whose tall black hats almost reached the tops of their large chairs.

"Threats to Konoha have been increasing exponentially in the past couple of years." Homura said from Hiruzen's left, looking at the daimyo from over his square glasses. "The numbers are at an all time high since the end of the Third Shinobi War."

Hiruzen lowered his head at the worrisome truth. Many of his shinobi had dealt with an alarming number of groups who benefitted from sowing chaos in the shinobi world, and were determined to do so.

"There have been movements led by rogue shinobi. Groups of individuals who are willing to do anything to disturb the peace between the Five Nations." Koharu elaborated from Homura's left.

The daimyo fanned himself as he looked at the each of the three Konoha elders— Danzo, Koharu, and Homura—before his drowsy eyes landed on Hiruzen, who sat in the seat of honor to his left. "What say you, Lord Third?"

It was a tricky problem, and one Hiruzen had been debating heavily in his thoughts lately. And one he had not yet made up his mind about.

Instead of giving a straight answer, he said, "I think we need to root out and dispatch them all before they become a harder threat to control. Konoha's shinobi have been doing an admirable job in this task. But it is—"

"But it is not enough. Whatever we are currently doing is not enough." Danzo suddenly interrupted, his voice cutting through Hiruzen's like a knife.

Everyone's heads snapped towards the lord in shock. Anyone else would've gotten a reprimand for that... but this was Danzo, things didn't quite work that way with him, so nobody wasted their breath.

"These organizations are gaining more and more power and influence through out the nations. And sending shinobi to deal with these vermin using a direct approach clearly isn't effective enough anymore." Danzo continued.

"We have seen great success when we send in shinobi undercover in these situations. You have to look no further than the Sanin Jiraiya." He motioned towards Hiruzen. "Lord Hokage's own student. His work gathering intel and spying for the village has been unparalleled."

Hiruzen narrowed his eyes in assessment. What was he getting at here? He searched for an answer in his old rival's expression, but the man would not look at him, his hawk-like stare was solely fixed on the daimyo.

"To dismantle the problem from the inside seems to be the only true way to combat these threats." Danzo concluded.

The daimyo's eyes gleamed behind his fan like a curious child. "Espionage work you say? Sounds thrilling." He turned to Hiruzen expectantly, "So what would you have us do?"

Hiruzen's eyes widened as he took in the question. But he blinked it away, answering with more confidence and steadiness than what he really felt, "I suppose increasing the amount of missions focused on gathering intel would be wise. The more shinobi we have out—"

"Just sending random shinobi out on missions won't be enough." Danzo grounded out, making Hiruzen grit his teeth.

"Sending shinobi that are untrained in espionage would be a waste of manpower. Not to mention that a greater number of shinobi coming and going in and out Konoha to report and gather their next assignment would be both, a waste of time, and too risky for the village if the shinobi are caught in such acts. The ones we send out on this task must be highly trained and completely unaffiliated with Konoha during their mission. No communication with anyone from Leaf, and no returning. They must be as good as dead as far as anyone else is concerned— they must be a ghost."

Hiruzen's first thought was that that would be a hard task to take on for anyone, but he couldn't completely argue with Danzo's logic. That was the thing about Danzo— he always had a way of reasoning through even his most questionable decisions.

The daimyo hummed. "So...who would we even send for such an assignment?"

None answered at first as the people around the table adverted their gaze. Then, almost predictably, Danzo stood up, and Hiruzen suddenly felt his gut inexplicably plummet.

"I believe that we have a clear candidate for the job from the ranks of our Anbu." Danzo began, and Hiruzen felt that same sense of dread envelop his chest. But there was nothing he could do about it as the words came out of Danzo's mouth. "I nominate Ahsoka Aoyama for this mission."

Hiruzen went still as death. Gasps went up from around the table, then murmurs. Neighbor turned to neighbor as they discussed their shock, then their approval.

And Hiruzen knew. He knew that this had been the plan all along.

How many signs had there been? How many times had he been warned about Danzo's habit of undermining his authority? How had he not realized that the grudges Ahsoka and Danzo held ran so deep?

Two years. It has been two years since the incident at the Foundation Headquarters. Yet it seemed that this had not been enough time for the bad blood to run dry. Now Hiruzen was beginning to doubt that any amount of time would've been enough.

This was Danzo's way of getting his revenge. His retribution. Just like he said he wanted years ago.

Ahsoka Aoyama had crossed Danzo one too many times, and this was the price.

The inkling of smugness on Danzo's face was not lost on Hiruzen as he continued, "She is a disciple of the Fourth Hokage and of the Sanin Jiraiya specialized in espionage and assassinations. And her natural talents and skills set as an Aoyama make her an unparalleled spy."

Hiruzen braced his trembling hands on the table. But he could not loose his composure.... he had to try to make this right somehow.

The daimyo nodded from behind his fan excitedly. "She seems perfect for the job!" He then scanned the crowd seated around him, "In that case then—"

"Forgive me, my Lord," Hiruzen spoke up with more authority than he had used in a long time at this table, making all heads snap to him, "But I strongly oppose this."

Hiruzen could feel Danzo's eyes boring holes into the back of his skull, but he ignored him as the daimyo raised a brow. "Oh? Why so, Lord Third?"

"Ahsoka is an invaluable asset to the village. A mission like this could end up leading to her demise, to her death...thus leaving Konoha without one of its best shinobi."

Hiruzen could see the daimyo pursue his lips as he and the others in his council considered his words. But they did not look convinced.

"That is why she must be the one we send. A mission like this could mean death or capture for any shinobi. But you said it yourself Hiruzen, Ahsoka is one of the best, and has the greatest chance of succeeding." Danzo argued back.

The daimyo nodded slowly in agreement, almost absentmindedly. The others did the same— including Homura and Koharu—and Hiruzen knew he was outnumbered.

He had lost.

The realization hit him like a ton of bricks. The weight of the defeat falling on his weary and old shoulders.

He watched Danzo scan the room in satisfaction before his eye met the his, gleaming with the content of triumph as it always had when he beat Hiruzen at something. The same gleam he's had since they were rivaling teens.

Danzo eventually adverted his content gaze and turned back to address the council. "Since I believe most of us are in favor with this arrangement... I offer myself to personally oversee her missions, assign them, and report back her findings—"

"No!" Hiruzen interrupted forcefully, making everyone's head snap to him at his outburst, including Danzo who watched him carefully as the Hokage calmly stood up from his chair.

This was his last chance to turn the cards in his favor, and he was not about it let it slip away.

"I will oversee her missions and assign her assignments." He looked over at Danzo, eyes sharp like a fox and gleaming with a danger that his old rival seemed to often forget. He was still Hokage for a reason.

"You would have to report her findings back to me anyways, Danzo." he continued calmly, "and the less people that know about it the better, isn't that what you said, Lord Danzo?"

The Hawk looked at him with pure, unfiltered hatred. But it didn't matter to Hiruzen, not as the daimyo closed his fan with a snap as he addressed the table. "Then it is settled then." He stood up with a push of his chair and everyone else followed suit, bowing at the waist as he began to walk away.

Everyone filed out of the room soon after. All except for one. Hiruzen could feel Danzo's rage as he left him behind at the table, could feel the holes being bore into the back of his Hokage hat that he had just placed on his head.

But once again, Hiruzen found he did not care. Not when this was Keiko and Shota's daughter they had been talking about, not when this was Ahsoka. And he had just agreed to send her to her likely demise.

A/N: Oop...sorry not sorry for what's coming :D

These chapters were originally gonna be one single one but it ended up being way too long, so I decided to split them up for your convenience!

In case anyone hasn't noticed... these chapters' titles ties in with the title of Chapter 6: Colorful Tints in which Ahsoka meets Kakashi....

I did say this was fanfic took a lot of inspiration from 'Your Lie in April'...no?