It is the first story I've ever written. And it's a test to see if I can do it well or not. So I will be very happy if you review.
Also,English is my secondary language. So forgive any error you see.
Forest was black in the night. Some moonlight shone through The trees, but couldn't light the ground. The air was still damp from the earlier rain. Sound of night creatures and the whisper of wind in the leaves was the only sounds within the forest. The man moved slowly among the trees. His movements were without sound. There was a white mask lifted above his head. But his face couldn't be seen. It seemed as if his whole face was black. His features were obscure. It was like he was part of the night himself.
But if you looked more closely, you could see a hesitance to his gait. He moved from tree to tree. One of his hands was on his shoulder and the other was on each tree he passed. Like he was trying to keep himself upright. And if you looked more closely still, You could see a trail of blood behind him on the dark ground.
The man stumbled, stopped and looked above. He sighed and shook his head. He knew that he could not go on like this. There was no guaranty that he could make it alive to the village, and delivering the information he was carrying was too important to be left to chance. He sat on the forest ground carefully. His breathing was labored. He took his hand to the wound on his shoulder and used his blood to perform a summoning jutsu.
A little pug appeared in front of him in a puff of smoke.
"hey boss. How's it going?" The dog stopped speaking and sniffed the air. "you're bleeding. You know that? Right, Kakashi?"
he asked worriedly. Kakashi rolled his sole eye that was the only uncovered part of his face and removed a scroll from one of his many pockets.
" Take this to the Hokage. Its information is very important. Can I count on you?" He asked. His breathe wheezing.
"You know you can boss. But what about you? You've lost a lot of blood, and I can say from your appearance that you've also exhausted your chakra."
"That's why I summoned you, Pakuun. I can't trust my body to reach the village in this condition and the information must reach Sandaime. It's not an emergency, but the contents will be very beneficial to the village."
"So what will you do? You can't continue to walk like this. And you can't stop either. These parts are dangerous. You don't know who might pass by."
"I know. I'm just stopping to get a second wind. I will follow as soon as I can."
"At least summon another one of the pack to protect you."
"You were the only one I could summon without killing myself from chakra drain. The sooner you reach the village, The sooner you can get me help."
"OK. But you better not end up dead on me, Kakashi!"
"Relax. You know I don't have a death wish, In spite of what people think."
"I sometimes wonder." Pakuun muttered under his breath.
"Stop muttering. Until I can be of any use to the village, I will continue to try my best to stay alive." Kakashi said. "It's the least I can do to honor their sacrifices." He whispered gloomily.
"Yeah. Yeah. OK." Sighed Pakuun in exasperation. "See Ya." He looked at him worriedly as he jumped on a branch, and soon disappeared from view.
"I hope so." Sighed Kakashi.
He took off his armor and checked the wound in his shoulder. Its bleeding should have gone down by now, But unfortunately it was still bleeding more than he could afford. If it continued, He would lose consciousness in about 10 minutes. He then looked at the wound on his leg. At least that one had slowed bleeding. But not by much. There must have been something on the weapons to prevent the wounds from clotting.
Damn, Why didn't I smell Anything suspicious?
Kakashi sighed slowly. There was no escaping it, He was in grave possibility of losing his life, if he didn't do something soon.
He got to his feet painfully and started looking around. He saw some firewood a little further away, walked there and tried to gather them in a Woodpile in front of a tree with his foot. Then he sat down, leaned against the tree and removed a flint from his hip pouch.
He squatted painfully and tried to ignite a fire. But the wood was damp and wouldn't catch fire. After a couple of more tries, He put away the flint with a sigh.
Well, Here goes nothing. I can die with this little jutsu, But that's life. Full of Gambits. He thought.
He made some hand signs, lowered his mask and puffed a tiny fireball on the timbers. They ignited instantly.
Kakashi almost lost his consciousness for a minute. He leaned against the tree and tried to take his breathing under control. After his vision got as clear as it was going to get, He straightened.
"Well, lucky me!" He muttered and took a kunai out of his pouch and put it in the fire. He then reclined back and watched the kunai with heavy eyelids.
After a few minutes he stirred suddenly, as if coming out of a trance. He put himself together enough to take off his sleeveless top, wrap some bandage around his hand as insulation and put some between his teeth. He then leaned forward and grabbed the kunai by hilt, took a deep breath and put the kunai's blade on his shoulder wound. A sizzling sound raised and the smell of burned flesh filled his sharp nose. He gritted his teeth through the bandage and tried to hold the kunai on the wound, But suddenly collapsed in a dead faint.
When he came to, He realized that due some miracle the kunai hadn't burned some other part of him when he was unconscious, and had fallen to the ground. He stirred and tried to change position, but even that small a movement seemed beyond his ability.
Well, what now? He thought.
Give it a minute. You have to start walking and you will do it. Just give it a minute.
Suddenly he became alert and cursed listlessly under his breath.
Some genius you are. If anyone has been near, now they know your exact location, thanks to the fire.
Kakashi leaned forward slowly and scattered the fire with a stick. He then checked the wound. It wasn't a clean burn and some of the wound was still bleeding sluggishly, but it was going to be enough.
I have to move right now, or who knows what might happen!
He tried to stand, Staggered badly and ended up leaning heavily on the tree, wheezing. Ater a few seconds, he straightened as much as he could, took a look at the stars for direction and started stumbling in the direction of home.
He walked for about a hundred meters before his vision started to become hazy and he started to pant heavily . He gritted his teeth and continued walking stubbornly. He needed to at least get away from the fire enough, before losing consciousness again. Or he would probably end up killed by a foreign ninja come the morning.
Kakashi continued walking like that, until he wasn't sure anymore of the direction he was moving in. At that point the only coherent thought in his mind was just walking and walking. He couldn't even remember why he was walking, But he knew that it was important.
Asuma couldn't claim to be Kakashi's friend. He had tried many times to stablish such a bond with the nin, in fact many of his peers had tried, But Kakashi was not into relationships. It seemed as though he recoiled from any form of human contact. And after Yondaime's Death, Kakashi had completely withdrawn from his group of peers, and as a result of him being an Anbu, no one knew much about him anymore. He never joined the jonin meetings, never was seen in any of the pubs around the village or anywhere else for that matter, And now after about 8 years, he was practically a stranger to all his old acquaintances. In fact the only place you could see him was at the memorial where he was silent and brooding and rarely in a joint mission with Anbu, where he was hidden behind a mask and unapproachable.
Despite all this Asuma liked the man more than he showed. Because Kakashi was a good man, albeit a damaged one. From when they were little, he always felt jealous of the boy's genius. It seemed like everything he did, he was always several steps behind Kakashi, despite being older tan him. But after seeing tragedy after tragedy in the boy's life, all that remained was a profound feeling of sadness for the unfortunate man.
And now he and two medic nins where following Pakuun among the trees, speeding toward him for the slim chance of finding him alive. He prayed with all his heart that they could make it in time. Because it was just so sad to think that Kakashi may lose his life without experiencing any joy in his short life.
"How much further?" Asuma asked.
"About ten minutes." Answered Pkuun.
"You think there is any chance of him being alive?"
"I really don't know."Pakuun answered. "Wait a minute. I can smell him. He has been moving in this direction, but the scent veers here. This way." Pakuun continued. "Why would he start going toward Sand?" He growled.
"I don't know, maybe he was being chased and was trying to lose them." Answered Asuma.
"I don't smell any human but him. But something's good." Said Pakuun.
"What?"
"I don't smell that much blood on his trail. So his bleeding must have stopped."
"Well, that's good to hear."Said one of the medic nins.
"Don't get your hopes up. He was in a pretty bad way when I left him." Answered Pakuun.
"so maybe lack of blood isn't that good of a sign after all." Muttered one medic to the other.
"His scent stops here" said Pakuun.
They all stopped and looked around. There was nothing around them. Just trees stretching in every direction. Pakuun started sniffing the ground carefully and reached a gap in the roots of a big tree.
"Here" He shouted. And started trying to dig the ground and push the leaves aside with his little paws. Asuma and medic nins hurried toward him.
"Step aside" said Asuma worriedly. He couldn't sense any chakra from the gap. He dropped to his knees and started pushing the leaves and dirt aside hastily. A hand appeared. He exclaimed and continued digging. One of the medics came near and took Kakashi's hand and tried to find a pulse without any hope. At first he didn't sense anything, But when he focused more he could make out the faintest beating of a pulse.
"He's alive!" He exclaimed.
"What?" Cried the other medic and rushed towards them.
"Thank god." Asuma panted and continued pulling out Kakashi from the ground.
"He hid himself good, Regarding the condition he is in!" said one of the medics, awed.
"Of course he did. He's a bloody perfect Anbu." Replied Asuma.
Helping each other, they got Kakashi out of his hiding place and the medics got to work. They removed his armor and sleeveless top and looked at his wound. "Wow. He cauterized the wound himself. With his current state, that's the only reason he stayed alive until now." Exclaimed one medic.
"He really is a prodigy!" said the other medic. Asuma smiled faintly. "Well, Does he have a chance?" He asked anxiously.
"We will give him a Hematopoietic pill to accelerate his body's speed in making blood. And these wounds are still bleeding. I suspect there is some kind of poison in them that prevents clotting. I will heal his leg wound, but the shoulder wound, due to extreme burns can't be healed here. We should stop the bleeding another way. "The medic replied.
"I have something for that." Said the other medic and took out a syringe.
They started treating Kakashi, and Pakuun and Asuma tried to relax and scout the area for any danger.
"We've done all that we can. We should get him to the village for further healing" Said one medic. They started assembling a stretcher to put Kakashi in, but Asuma interrupted. "It's too slow. I will carry him. This way we can make it much faster." He said.
"But you are our escort. You are supposed to protect us." Said a medic.
"I will scout and inform you of any danger. Don't worry." Said Pakuun.
"OK." Said the medic reluctantly.
Asuma bent and lifted Kakashi in a fireman's hold. Pakuun started ahead of them to scout. And they all took to the trees.
Sarutobi prided himself on knowing all his shinobi pretty well. He always tried to keep tabs on them and be there for them in time of need. Especially when they were little and had no family to support them, and in a war-torn city that percentage was high.
But Kakashi was Minato's student and he hadn't spend much time with the boy, because he was confident that he was in good hands. Minato often spoke to him about the boy, always was worried for him. He was sad that Kakakshi had never experienced a childhood and did his best to make the boy unwind some. But he wasn't successful most of the time. Sakumo's suicide had left so big a scar on the boy that nothing seemed to work. And after what happened to both of his friends, Minato became desperate. Beacause it semed that there was nothing left of Kakashi anymore. He was just a shell of his former self, one who sat in front of the memorial stone for hours on end and hardly spoke anymore.
Minato asked him for advice and Sarutobi suggested for the boy to join Anbu. His reasoning was that being in a strict program and having to be the best he could for the sake of missions was the best thing for the boy's depression. Minato heeded his advice and for a little while, it seemed that things were better. But then Minato and Kushina both died to seal the nine-tails fox in their son and everything crumbled again. Kakakshi shut down even more (if that was possible) and slowly withdrawn from all who knew him. Sarutobi tried to talk with him about his issues one time, but the boy stood there on attention through all of it and said nothing.
Sarutobi deemed it his duty to Yondaime to care for the boy as much as he could. He always read the boy's Anbu evaluation to be sure of his physical and mental health. But being an Anbu was different than being a regular jonin. What Anbu deemed important in his members was their ability to be without emotions and be ready to do any atrocity for the sake of the mission. And it seemed that Kakashi filled that role perfectly. They described the boy as the "perfect assassin". In fact he scared even some of the more experienced Anbu with his cold attitude. But despite that, It seemed that many wanted to be on his team. Because mortality rate of his team's missions were always low.
Sarutobi had to confess that if he really wanted to honor Minato's wishes, he had had to remove the boy from Anbu many years ago, because it was obvious that their mentality was doing so much harm to the boy. But he was first of all a leader and a shinobi leader for that matter, and his first duty was to keep his people safe. And in those years, after so many heavy blows to the village, he needed to show the world that they were still a force to be reckoned with. And for that goal he needed as many good ninja he could, and Kakashi even at 14 years, was one of the best. So he ignored his conscience and let the boy remain in Anbu.
In the past couple of years things had settled and his village was as safe as it could be. But he was mortified to notice that he had forgotten the promise he made himself to relieve the boy when he could. The boy really was a prodigy. He had remained in Anbu three time more than the average Anbu, and hadn't cracked. Sarutobi didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. He hadn't seen Kakashi face to face for a long time know, just a faceless man behind a mask. It seemed as if the man had simply discarded his identity for the sake of Anbu.
Now After sending the rescue team. Sarutobi sat behind his desk and read the scroll Kakashi had sent. By the end of it, he was scowling heavily. He knew that the boy didn't regard his own safety very high, and risked himself for his comrades and his missions constantly. But this was worse than he thought. This Information wasn't in any way essential for the village. It could help the village politically, But in no way was as important as the life of one of his people. In fact it was not even the mission's objective, but a bonus.
As Pakun had explained the situation, Kakashi was probably dead by now, and Sarutobi thought despondently how he was going to ask for forgiveness from Minato if that was the case. He would hope for the best though. After all, the boy had gone to the point of death many times and returned worse for wear. If the man returned alive, he would visit him in hospital and decide about him personally. He had ignored his duties as it was and couldn't postpone it any longer.
Most certainly he had to remove him from Anbu, but he knew that Kakashi would not accept it easily, so first he would give him an extended leave and then gradually reduce his duties so that he could regain his normal life and then remove him from Anbu. He had to find a new role for the man to help him settle in a normal life.
Oh! Jonin instructor is perfect. Let him deal with children on a daily basis and he will be all right eventually.
Happy with his decision Sarutobi started to read and sign the forms in front of him.
Kakashi was walking and walking. He couldn't remember where he was going. But he continued walking still. He reached a cave, when he ventured closer, he saw a dreaded scene that he saw too many times in his nightmares. Obito was crushed under a huge rock. He stumbled forward and tried to move the boulder. But it was too big. Obito smiled a bloody smile and said. "don't waste your strength Kakashi. I've been dead for a long time now. You can't save me. When are you going to accept that?"
Kakashi dropped to his knees and hung his head dejectedly.
"Obito, I'm so s…." He started.
"Don't start again, Kakashi. And tell me what are you doing? Are you trying to kill yourself?"
"No, I'm not."
" Then why do you keep getting injured to the point of death so much? How can you be so careless. I didn't give my life for you to die that pointlessly! You owe me your life. So you Have to use it well for the village!"
"Me too."Said Rin. He was standing there, with a gaping hole where his heart was supposed to be.
"You owe me to. You were the one who took my life. So you have to live instead of me and do all I could not for the village."
"How can you be so careless, Kashi?" Yondaime said with bloodied lips. "I gave my life to protect you and this village, and now you, the only student of mine who is still alive is trying to get himself killed. Is living such of a burden for you?"
"Yes! Yes it is." Kakashi cried desperately. "How could you all die and leave the burden of living on my shoulders alone? How could you do that to me?"
"So that's why you 're trying to die prematurely?" Asked Yondaime.
"No sensei. I wasn't trying to die. All these years I've been doing my damndest to stay alive despite my own wishes." Answered Kakashi dejectedly. "And you all know this as well. Because I see you guys all the time in my dreams and we discuss it every time."
"If we all know it so well and you are trying your best, Then why are you having this dream so much Kakashi?" Asked Rin despondently. "Think carefully and answer us. Do you honestly believe that you are trying to stay alive? Or are you subconsciously pursuing your heart's desire to die?" Obito continued.
"I… I don't know. I don't know."
"Well Kashi, you have to stop doing it. Because we won't forgive you if you die in vain. So put your act together and start living to the fullest instead of us."
"I'm doing all I can. I've joined the Anbu. I'm taking every important mission I can to help the village. I'm protecting our home with everything I have. What more do you want from me?" Kakashi asked brokenly.
"Well Kakashi, It's a question you have to answer for yourself. Cause we're all just part of your imagination and can't answer that for you." Said Obito with a sad smile.
"Well, It seems you have to wake up, Kashi. Be safe." Said Minato sensei.
"Bye Kakashi." Said Rin.
"Live a long life Kakashi." Said Obito.
Kakashi opened his eye. His vision swam. He blinked and tried to look around. Everything was white around him. A beeping sound was coming constantly.
Hospital again It seems. He thought.
"well, you've decided to return to the land of the living!"
Kakashi looked toward the voice. Auma was seated on a chair near his bed. He hadn't seen him in such a long time.
"What are you doing here?" He rasped.
"Wow, how cold of you. I'm devastated." Replied Asuma with a grin. "I was in your rescue team, and wanted to make sure you would make it."He continued.
"Why?" Asked Kakashi.
"Why what?"
"Why would you care?"
"Why would I care?!" Asuma exclaimed. "Because believe it or not Kakashi, all your comrades care about you and don't wish to see you dead." Said Asuma angrily.
Kakashi turned his face away without saying anything and started watching out the window. Asuma sighed and said "Anyway, I'm happy you're OK. I hope you will get better soon. I should go now."
He stood and started walking toward the door. He opened it, stopped and turned.
"You know Kakashi, there's much more in life than killing and being killed. Maybe it is time you started living." He said and left.
Kakashi turned and stared at the closed door.
Started living! What did he mean by that. I am alive! He thought.
After a minute had passed, or maybe hours, Kakashi couldn't say for sure, The door opened again and Sandaime walked in.
"Hello Sandaime sama" Kakashi bowed awkwardly from the bed.
Sandaime sighed and sat down in the chair Asuma had vacated earlier. "What should I do with you Kakashi?" He said sadly.
"Sandaime sama?" Asked Kakashi bewildered.
"How did you think that Gaining that scroll's information was worth your life?"
"I am a tool for this village and my duty is serving it. Of course it was worth it." Answered Kakashi with conviction.
"But Kakashi, you are not just some tool that can be used and then discarded. You are one of our respected and loved people. And as such it is your duty to protect your life."
"But if I do so, How can I guaranty the success of my mission?"
"Not everything is the mission my son." Replied Sandaime sadly.
"But Sandaime sama you know better than anyone what Shinobi Rules dictate. Finishing the mission is the most important thing for a shinobi!"
"But you don't believe it any more, do you? You haven't believed it for a long time now!"
"Yes. You're right. I believe now that my comrade's lives are more important than the mission."
"well, you've changed your beliefs once. Can't you change them again?"
"B..but Hokage sama…"
"Oh, never mind. You're so exhausted right now. You probably can't think straight. I'm glad you're all right. You have a month of leave. Use it wisely."
"But Hokage sama, I don't need a month!"
"You're getting it nonetheless. Try to think about what I said in the time you have."
"H..hai, Hokage sama"
"Rest now." Said Hokage with a smile and left.
Kakashi sighed. He was so tired. He couldn't focus on everything he's heard in such a short amount of time. He didn't even want to think about them, but think he would. It was the curse of his life, Thinking, always thinking. He did everything he could to stop his mind from doing that. Many ninja drowned themselves in the bottle to stop their mind, but Kakashi had more discipline and self esteem to stoop that low. He never liked losing his mind's faculties in any way, and drinking just made his sorrows bigger than they already were (if that was possible). So he tried to train as long and as hard as he could, he got as many missions as they allowed him and even when none of those was available he took refuge in his books. But even so it was never enough. His mind just would never stop. Sometimes he wished he wasn't a genius. That he was an average ninja with a low IQ and lesser worries. And he was aware of the irony that none of these tragedies would have happened if that was so.
Hhh…h. Stop wishing for something that cannot be. Kakashi thought.
He was so tired. He needed to rest. His body was still on the verge of exhaustion. He closed his eyes and prayed to god to have a dreamless sleep.
Author's Note:
This story will be two or three chapter at the most.
I will try to update soon, but won't promise anything.