Title: The grand design

Rating: Action, romance

Pairing / Characters: Kurao Shizuko / Hatake Kakashi, Uzumaki Naruto, Genma, Tsunade

Word Count: 2, 830 words

Warnings: Er… nothing really

Summary: A mission goes horribly wrong for our hero

A/N: Part two of my little "Kakashi arc"! As you'll notice, I've tried to portray Kakashi as a real man – someone who laughs and cries, who hurts, who loves, who is romantic yet ruthless, deadly and competent yet gentle with his students and the woman he loves. I think it's turning out rather well : )

"Where has that old friend gone?

Lost in a February song

Tell him it won't be long

Until he opens his eyes

Opens his eyes"

Josh Groban, February song

Kurao Shizuko sleepily stretched her hand out, expecting to feel the warmth of the man she loved, and was startled into full wakefulness by the cold sheets. Sitting up and blinking to clear the sleep from her eyes, Shizuko glanced around the small room.

'Kakashi? What –'

He was standing at the window, the pale moonlight giving his hair and skin an ethereal glow. As always, Shizuko found it difficult to believe that he was a warrior at times like this, when he seemed more like an angel who had lost his way.

She got out of bed and crossed the room, shivering at the coldness of the floor under her feet. Reaching Kakashi's side, she wrapped her arms around his waist, pressing her cheek against his shoulder blade.

'Hey.'

'Hey yourself,' Kakashi answered, sounding distracted. 'You should be sleeping, sweetheart.'

'So should you,' Shizuko said tartly. 'However, since neither of us are asleep, why don't you tell me what's wrong?'

Kakashi turned in her arms, studying her face. Her large grey eyes still held a trace of sleepiness, her blue-black hair was tousled, and there was a faint pink flush on her cheeks. Smiling, Kakashi dropped a kiss on her nose.

'I love you,' he said softly.

'I love you too, but what's going on? Kakashi, you're scaring me…'

The jounin turned back to the window. 'I'm sorry, that's not my intention.'

'I know,' Shizuko whispered. 'Please Kakashi, talk to me…'

'I'm leaving tomorrow morning – I have a mission. S-class, personally assigned to me by Hokage-sama herself. It's dangerous, possibly the most dangerous mission I've had in years and for the first time, I wish I didn't have to go. It's my duty, and if I'm successful, it will mean great things for Konoha. I would never say no but something about this is bothering me.'

'Kakashi…' Shizuko pressed a kiss to his bare shoulder, lips tracing a thin scar. 'Come back to bed, rest. You'll feel better in the morning.'

As she tugged him backwards, Kakashi laughed suddenly. 'You know Shizuko, for someone so small, you really are a bully.'

'But that's why you love me, remember?' Shizuko teased.

'Nah,' Kakashi told her cheerfully. 'It's more than that, Shizuko.'

Shizuko raised an eyebrow. 'Really?'

'Of course,' Kakashi told her, sounding hurt. 'I love you for your body as well.'

Shizuko's jaw dropped. 'Hatake Kakashi!'

Grinning broadly, Kakashi slid into bed, patting the spot beside him invitingly. 'I thought you wanted to come back to bed. Don't you know it's cold?'

Shizuko glared at him. 'You're hateful.'

'But that's why you love me,' Kakashi told her, reaching out and tugging her into bed.

However, long after Shizuko had fallen asleep, Kakashi was still awake, staring up at the shadows on the ceiling above their bed.

'Ne, ne, Kakashi-sensei,' Naruto called, flying over to the gates.

Kakashi turned. 'Naruto?'

Naruto beamed up at his sensei. 'I'm stronger now, you know. I've been training a lot lately.'

'I know that, Naruto. What does that have to do with me?'

Naruto grinned engagingly at him. 'Well, if you get into trouble, I'll come and help you. It's a promise.'

Kakashi rapped him over the head none to gently. 'Such arrogance, you little brat,' he said, a trace of laughter in his tone.

Naruto rubbed his head, scowling. 'Very funny, Kakashi-sensei.'

Kakashi chuckled. 'Don't worry so much, Naruto. I won't be gone long.'

'You'd better not be,' Shizuko told him sharply. 'I'll be waiting for you, don't forget it. Oh, and Kakashi?'

'Hmm?'

'Don't do anything stupid or I'll kill you myself.'

Kakashi looked wounded. 'Ouch, Shizuko. Would I do a thing like that?'

Shizuko glared at him. 'Oh, go on with you,' she said grumpily. 'You don't want to be late.'

Kakashi raised one hand and walked away. However, as he gathered himself and leapt up into the tree line, his smile faded.

There was every chance that this mission would kill him before Shizuko had the chance to.

Shizuko was unable to stop her tears from flowing as she watched him leave. In the past three or so months since their first meeting, he had left on many missions, but never before had she heard him as dispirited as he was the night before. She started when a small hand slid into her own.

'Naruto?'

Naruto glanced up at her. 'I made a promise, nee-chan. If anything happens I will go after him – and I never, ever go back on my words.'

Oddly comforted, Shizuko managed a smile through her tears. 'Thank you, Naruto.'

Naruto grinned up at her. 'Why don't we go eat some ramen?'

Kakashi dived beneath the swiftly falling door, rolling clear of the poison tipped spikes as they plowed into the ground.

His flak jacket hooked on the curved metal tip and Kakashi twisted his arm, freeing the material from the spike.

He swore suddenly as a sharp pain in his shoulder told him that he hadn't been as successful as he first thought in avoiding the poison, and he leapt to his feet, reaching into his weapons pouch and pulling out a handful of kunai.

He threw them towards the gate just as three shinobi appeared, and their screams of pain told him that his aim at least, had been successful.

Kakashi flew for the cover of the trees, hearing shouts behind him.

His arm was aching, and an icy numbness was beginning to seep through his muscles. Pausing briefly, he turned to assess the situation, and growled softly.

At least six enemy shinobi were pursuing him, and at the rate the poison was saturating through his system, he wasn't sure how long he would be able to hold out. Again, he reached into his weapons pouch and this time, withdrew several exploding tags. If he couldn't outrun them, he would at least delay them long enough to get to a safe distance to fight. Using a clone, Kakashi laid out the tags swiftly, before turning and heading off.

Already, his movements were beginning to lose their gracefulness.

In the shadows below him, a figure watched silently as the wounded jounin fled.

Naruto dropped the bowl he had been holding, and crossed over to the window, a frown on his face. He couldn't explain it, but something somewhere just felt… wrong. Grimacing, he picked up his hitae-ate and went to go and see Tsunade no baachan.

Tsunade sighed, and reached for her tea, glancing around before she sneakily poured a large amount of sake into the empty cup. Raising it to her lips, she was about to take a sip when a knock on the door startled her.

'Come in,' she called, swearing under her breath as she wiped up the spilt sake.

'Tsunade no baachan, I've got something I want to talk about.'

Tsunade glanced up at Naruto. 'Again? Really, Naruto –'

'It's not about Sasuke; it's about Kakashi-sensei.'

Tsunade's eyebrows shot up. 'What about him?'

'I'm worried. I think something is wrong. You have to let me go after him, Tsunade no baachan.'

Tsunade frowned. 'He can handle himself, Naruto. He's one of the elite after all.'

'That doesn't matter – the Third was Hokage and he died,' Naruto pointed out.

'And what do you think you can do? You don't know anything about the mission I sent him on.'

'It doesn't matter,' Naruto said firmly. 'Please? Please?'

Tsunade studied the seriousness in his expression, and relented. 'All right, go. You were going to anyway, weren't you? No, don't answer that. Come and look at this.'

Naruto crossed over to her table and glanced at the map she laid out.

'I would suggest you start here and work your way towards this area near the caves – there's a village there that he was supposed to infiltrate…'

It was as far away from the village as he was going to get. Narrowly avoiding a shuriken, Kakashi dived behind a tree for cover, contemplating his options. Running further was out of the question. His entire body ached now, the poison spreading faster with his movements. Two of the shinobi pursuing him had been lost to his exploding tags, but there were still four more. In his condition he wasn't sure how long he was going to hold out, but he had never given up, and didn't intend to start now.

Kakashi moved out from the cover of the trees slowly, hands at his sides.

At the sight of the clearly wounded leaf shinobi, his enemies laughed mockingly.

'The poison spreads quickly, doesn't it? Within an hour at the most, you will cease to exist – and all we have to do is to wait for you to die before we take back what belongs to us.'

'These belong to Konoha now,' Kakashi told them, surprised to hear how steady his voice was. 'If you want them, come and claim them!'

Without hesitation, the four of them came towards him at a dead run, and Kakashi's expression turned steely.

'Kanishibari no jutsu!'

The four nins froze in their tracks. 'What the hell –'

Kakashi didn't move, in actual fact, couldn't move. 'I just made sure that none of you could escape me,' he told them dismissively.

'Very nice, Kakashi-san,' a soft voice said from behind him.

Kakashi's eyes widened. Clearly, the poison had already begun to damage his mind, because he hadn't even sensed the speaker's presence until he had actually spoken.

'An ANBU technique if I recall – temporary paralysis, wasn't it?'

Kakashi didn't turn around. 'Well, I was an ANBU member, if you recall.'

'And very good at it you were too, Kakashi-san.'

'Were? I'm hardly past my prime, Itachi.'

Itachi laughed softly. 'You haven't forgotten me.'

'Of course not.'

Kakashi felt Itachi move towards him. 'How does a wounded man intend on killing four of his enemies?'

Kakashi grinned bleakly beneath the mask. 'I may be wounded, but you're forgetting what I'm capable of.'

Three seals that were too swift for even Itachi to follow, and Kakashi braced himself, gathering his chakra.

'Your only original technique… raikiri. I am impressed, Kakashi-san.'

Kakashi ignored him, and taking a deep breath, ran ahead, bringing his arm around. Neither of the nins saw it coming; just a silver and blue blur that cut through them so swiftly two of them were dead before they hit the ground.

Kakashi dropped to one knee, panting. Just a single raikiri and already the world was dimming. Shaking his head to clear his vision was a mistake, as a sharp pain shot through his temples. Kakashi's breath hissed out, and he clenched his fist.

'Wha – what are you doing here, Itachi?'

'I followed you,' Itachi told him calmly, activating his sharingan. 'I owe you a debt it seems, sharingan no Kakashi. I don't take humiliation lightly.'

Kakashi laughed softly. 'Are you still upset about that? Come now, Itachi, we're hardly children.'

Itachi just looked coldly at him, and Kakashi caught his breath at the sight of his mangekyou sharingan. Only once before had he fought against it, and he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was in no condition to do so again.

'Tsukuyomi,' he whispered as the world around him went black and red.

Naruto slammed his fist into the tree trunk, a look of fury on his face. His dark red eyes surveyed the landscape below him where he had last seen Kakashi, and despite the numerous injuries he had sustained, he somersaulted backwards, landing on the ground between the trees. The grass was stained with blood, and there were signs of jutsu use everywhere.

Naruto's sense of smell had become sharper with the aid of kyuubi's chakra, and he could smell both the blood of the shinobi Kakashi had been fighting, as well as the blood of Kakashi himself.

Scowling, Naruto began to walk through the area, looking for signs of his sensei.

Shizuko paced her little shop restlessly, swiping at the tears that streaked down her cheeks. Only hours ago she had seen Naruto running towards the gates, and she had known, had felt that something was wrong, remembering Naruto's promise that he had made.

'Oh Kami, please don't let anything happen to him,' she prayed aloud, unable to still the fears rising in her heart.

It had barely been five hours when an orange blur shot past her shop. Startled, Shizuko ran out, wondering why Naruto was back in Konoha without Kakashi. Fearing the worst, she locked up and ran down towards the gates.

A shinobi was standing there, a senbon in his mouth. He glanced at her, brown eyes filled with some nameless emotion as she said 'Pardon me – did I just see Naruto come past?'

The shinobi shook his head. 'Not him, his clone.'

Shizuko's eyes filled with tears all over again. 'I knew it, I knew it – something's happened to Kakashi…'

Straightening, the shinobi now surveyed her carefully. 'You know Kakashi?'

'He's my – my –'

Genma blinked. 'Hold on, are you Shizuko?'

'Yes… '

'Kakashi's told us about you,' Genma told her, pulling her into the shade of guard stand. 'Perhaps you'd like to wait here? I think Tsunade-sama is sending out a team to fetch him.'

Shizuko glanced up at him. 'Is – is it that bad?'

'I don't know,' Genma answered honestly. 'We need to wait for the news first – Naruto didn't tell me anything.'

'Oh my god…'

'Shizuko-san, listen to me. Please don't worry – if I know Hokage-sama, she'll send out the best shinobi to his aid. Gai and Asuma and Anko are among our elite jounin, and they'll be able to recover him soon.'

Shizuko nodded, already feeling the tension tightening the muscles of her neck and shoulders.

The door of her office was slammed open, and Tsunade winced. 'What the hell –'

The rest of her sentence died on her lips when she saw Naruto, the chakra of the nine tails swirling around him. His expression was frantic.

'Tsunade no baachan – I need help – you have to come quickly – Kakashi-sensei is dying!'

'What?' Tsunade got to her feet, a horrified expression on her face. 'What are you talking about?'

'I don't know what's wrong with him! He's unconscious and I can smell something funny on him but I don't know what it is – and his heartbeat is slowing down… and he's hurt! There's blood and cuts and –'

'Why didn't you bring him back with you?' Tsunade demanded.

'I thought it was safer to send a clone! Someone has to stay with him!'

The Hokage blinked. 'You're a clone? I should have realized it…'

As she spoke she was moving, grabbing several bandages, ointment, and a blanket, bundling everything together and throwing it into a bag.

'Tsunade no baachan – there's something else… I could feel someone else there… and I recognized him…'

'Who? You recognized who?'

'Uchiha Itachi…'

Tsunade blanched. 'Itachi? Oh dear god, this makes even more sense now –'

'What is it? What makes sense?' Naruto asked, not liking to see the Hokage so rattled.

Tsunade turned troubled eyes on him. 'There was something off with this mission from the start – I didn't even want to send Kakashi out there, but I had no choice. You know how things are, and Kakashi is one of our best… but now… Naruto, Itachi bears a grudge towards Kakashi. If Kakashi was taken by Itachi, we may never find him. Not only that but if we do, it could already be too late. Kakashi is the only one here who survived Itachi's Tsukuyomi, but even the elite copy ninja may not be able to withstand it a second time. You and I both know the results of the first time he faced it.'

Naruto blinked. 'Moon of the underworld?'

Tsunade inclined her head. 'Yes. Naruto, we have to leave now – we're running out of time. The first available jounin I see is coming with us, and you're going to have to take us straight there. I'm counting on you, brat!'

The two of them ran flew out of her office, past a startled Shizune, a wide eyed Kotetsu and Izumo, and down the stairs. The first person they saw coming out of a bookstore, Lee in tow, was Gai.

Tsunade grabbed his arm. 'Gai, emergency,' she said crisply. 'Come with us.'

Gai didn't even blink. 'Right behind you.'

With Naruto in the lead, the three of them ran past the gate guards, not even noticing Shizuko or Genma, the latter whose jaw dropped.

'Hokage-sama…'

Shizuko was on her feet, watching them go, hand pressed against her heart.

Genma took her arm. 'Shizuko, I was wrong… she didn't just send our best – she went herself…'

'Hurry,' Shizuko whispered. 'Oh Kami, please hurry…'