Chapter 2:
Meeting to old friend

The four ninja from Yukigakure left their hotel room early the next morning.
Rin had met again with Tsunade yesterday.
The ninja would split up and support other groups.

Rin himself would be in charge of Naruto, along with Kasumi.
Hiroki and Takeru would each be assigned to a group and perform tasks together with them.
The three of them just nodded.
They weren't thrilled because all three of them had a mission that Rin didn't know about. You were here not only to support Konoha, but also to protect Rin.

"Well, let's go then. Hiroki, Takeru, report to Tsunade-Hime in the academy. She will then assign you to the groups that you are supposed to accompany."
The two boys nodded and then disappeared.
Even if it wasn't really their mission, they would always obey Rin's orders.

"Kasumi, you go into the forest and see if you can find the boy.You already know his description. "
Kasumi nodded.
She was the youngest of the group and not long Chu-nin, but her medical training would probably serve more well here.
"I have other things to do first, but I'll join you later, all right?"
"Yes, Sensei!", Kasumi confirmed and also disappeared.

Rin himself headed the other way.
Indeed, she still had something to do, had to visit someone. That was firmly resolved.
She jumped through the village and finally landed on the platform in front of the stone portaits.

She raised her head and looked up at the huge faces.
She bowed slightly to each one and said a prayer.
Finally she got to Yondaime.
Her bow was deeper than the others.
She still adored him.
Yondaime, her friend.

// I'm here again ... after this long time I'm back ... // she thought and kept looking up at the portrait.His eyes were grim, but that must have been artistic freedom, because he had seldom been seen like that. Usually he laughed a lot.
She remembered the time when she had trained a lot with him.
He hadn't been the leader of her group, but she'd begged until he trained her for the Chu-nin exam.

She smiled at the thought.
Finally she said a prayer for him too and left the plateau.
She wanted to visit someone else.
Someone who was perhaps more important to her than Yondaime.

It started to snow again.
The weather was really unusual at the time. Usually Konoha didn't have snow this early in the year.
Rin didn't care.
She was used to snow. Had lived under the snow in the village for years.

Their way led them out of the village and along the south side to one of the training grounds.
Again she remembered a scene from her youth.
Here she had met her master.She entered the sandy field on which three pillars had been erected. Back then she was often tied there, along with her friends, when they were too brutal again.
She had to smile.

But then she discovered the stone.
Snowflakes had accumulated on him.
The stone on which the names of the heroes of the village were carved.
Slowly she walked up to it and read through the names that were written there.

The last one let tears well up in her.
Sarutobi, Asuma ...
// So you too ... //
She knelt down in front of the stone and traced other names with her finger.
Asuma, Sandaime, Yondaime and finally she got a name that made her tears well.
Uchiha, Obito.
Her twin brother, her best friend.

She bowed to the stone, to the heroes of the village.
Finally she said another prayer.
A long one.
In Yukigakure she had become religious and now believed in an afterlife.She kept praying and wishing them all luck, peace of mind.

Then she reached into the slung bag and took out a small bundle of silver-white flowers.
Snow roses.
These flowers were only found in Yukigakure.
With a rustle she put down the fragile flowers, bowed again, and then stood up.

She was relaxed and put a hand on the stone, thinking about the time she had spent with the deceased.
But suddenly their attitude changed.
Her muscles tensed.
She felt someone near her.

Someone came from the forest to where she was.
He seemed to be carrying something.
There seemed to be no danger from him.
Nevertheless, Rin did not trust the situation and decided to observe first and then to act.

Without making a sound, she jumped into the little grove that surrounded the square and watched the way.
Her vision was good and she was sure that she couldn't be seen.Finally the person came closer and Rin caught his breath.

She knew him, knew the man who came up to the stone and also carried a bouquet of flowers with him.
This hairstyle, the silvery-white hair, the headband pulled over the left eye.
She couldn't believe it.
// He of all people ... // shot through her mind.
She couldn't stay.

But he already knew she was here.
She knew that.
She couldn't hide from him. He was a professional, even more so than she was.
Rin closed his eyes.
Why he of all people?
Why did he come to the memorial stone that day?

But Rin knew the answer.
Today it was 15 years.
Her brother died 15 years ago today.
So he also mourned Obito.
// He meant more to you than you would have admitted ... what Kakashi ... // thought Rin.

She turned around quietly and was about to leave when he began to speak.
"I know that you are here ..."
His voice was cold.She had never heard him speak so coldly before.
Apparently he had changed too. Just like you.
He might look the same on the outside as before, but inside it had to look different.

Rin made no sound and took a few steps back, but she had barely moved when her back bumped into the ninja.
//Fast…//
He grabbed her hands and tried to hold on to them, but Rin freed himself and jumped forward.
She didn't turn around, nor did she need to.

When she wanted to jump up a tree, she suddenly felt a weight on her leg, which she pulled down and landed on her face in the soft, wet snow.
She didn't expect him to react so quickly.
So he was still better than herself.

But she didn't give up, she didn't want him to recognize her.
She didn't want to become Mayumi Uchiha again.
Because if she recognized someone, everything would get complicated, but she knew very well that she could not avoid it.But at least she had to try.

She pushed herself off the ground with her hands and swung up so that she could break loose her left leg and kick her opposing ninja with her right leg.
Finally she stood again and her opponent landed a somersault across from her.
The two looked at each other and Rin thought he saw a twitch in his face. Was she wrong?

"Who are you?", Kakashi asked and continued to look at her, watching her very closely, ready to make her try to escape.
"My name is Rin Katakura. I'm from Yukigakure and here to support the village," she said with full conviction.
She continued to look at her counterpart and he returned her gaze in the meantime. His visible eye stared into her black eyes.

"Why are you lying?", Kakashi asked after a while and Rin's eyes widened.
She was frozen and stared at Kakashi.
"What do you mean?" She asked and forgot to speak to him politely, as strangers would have done."Why are you telling me that your name is Rin? Why are you lying to me ... Mayumi ...", Kakashi replied and she completely lost her composure.

He recognized her.
He knew who she was.
She had to get out of this somehow.
"I really don't know what you're talking about ...", she just said and turned to go, but she could barely take two steps when his hand gripped her wrist with an iron grip and he held her back.
"We all thought you were dead ... why Mayumi?"

She didn't even try to tear herself away, knowing he was stronger than herself.
She bowed her head and her voice was very low when she answered him.
"I died .... Mayumi Uchiha died ten years ago. My heart had stopped beating ... if it was only for two seconds. I was dead.
But then it began to hit again. It was like being born again. Without a memory and without a past.
I was accepted into Yukigakure and took the name Rin Katakura.I'm no longer the Mayumi you used to know, Kakashi ... "

Kakashi continued to stare at her.
She felt his gaze on her back.
"Then why are you back?" He asked her after a while, his grip loosening.
Finally he let go of her completely, but she wasn't about to leave. That no longer made any sense.
"An order ... we should support you"

There was silence again.
The wind rose and blew between them.
They stood in a row and did not look at each other.
Mayumi stared at the floor and a thousand thoughts flew wildly in her head.

Finally Kakashi broke the silence again.
"here…"
He had approached her unnoticed and now pressed something into her hand.
When she opened her hand, she saw her necklace lying in it.
The necklace that had once been Obito's gift and that she had given him herself ten years ago.
She twisted the locket through her fingers.
It appeared to be a flat pendant, but there was a small mechanism to open it.May pushed a fingernail into a very small opening that was barely visible and the locket popped open.

There was only one engraving inside.
You could still read what her brother had once written there for you.
They were just simple little words.
"Never far from you ..."
She closed her eyes and tears welled out from under her lids.
As much as she resisted it, she couldn't keep from crying.
Even if she didn't want to admit it, if she didn't want her old life to go on, she had to admit that Mayumi was still after all.
Another Mayumi, but still a member of the Uchiha family, whose home was Konohagakure.

She turned to Kakashi, who seemed surprised by her reaction to the locket.
"Thanks ..." she breathed.
He understood what she meant. Even if they hadn't seen each other in a long time, they still understood each other.
When May had calmed down, she looked