Well, here we are! Another story! Another Kakashi story, no less! Damn, I really should get around to writing a fanfic for another character (or at least, finish one I started a while back ¬.¬) but anyway, this has been started now, so it'll be finished! At least this time, its a KakaXOC story! Hope you enjoy! (I'm not even going to pretend to give you an estimate on how long this one will last! ^.~) Also: I'm aware that I took some inspiration from Shippuden episode 191 'Kakashi Love Song', but the (if any) similarities will end very swiftly!
I~I~I
Hatake Kakashi || Inner Self || The Prologue May Take Some Time To Explain
I~I~I
He found her less than ten miles from Konoha's outer perimeter; bloodied, bruised and unconscious – he was hesitant, at first, unsure whether to suspect an enemy nin playing possum or a genuinely injured woman who'd die from the next night of exposure. After staring at her for a good few minutes, he crept cautiously over to her and checked her pulse (alive, but weak) and upon finding her completely unflinching, he gently rolled her onto her back, but there was still no sign of consciousness.
Hesitating for less than a spilt second, he lifted one of her eyelids as well as his haitai-ate and cast a careful genjutsu on her – causing no pain or discomfort, but one which would keep her unconscious and unaware for a further five or so hours. The Copy Nin then lifted her off the ground, and darted away, back towards his home village – if she began to stir, he'd become aware of it very quickly and, if needs be, then he could unleash his sharingan and knock her out in seconds.
He ran swiftly, his senses heightened from the woman in his arms and whatever trail he might be leaving behind him – returning from a solo S-class was never pretty business and always left him on edge – but his sense of honour or duty never left him. Even if his mission was to go out to kill, he held his honour and his duty.
And as a citizen, and ninja, of The Village Hidden In The Leaves, he protected the vulnerable and the weak. Right now, at least, this woman was both – Tsunade, would know what to do with her, regardless of whom she turned out to be; but the chivalry in Kakashi couldn't turn away from someone who might need his help. It might be a trait he wasn't good at showing, but Kami knows he felt such things keenly, having grown up alone in the worst ways meant he tended to be especially sensitive to such things.
That didn't mean to say he couldn't rationalise morality when needs be – on an S-class assassination, for example – but when he wasn't in single-minded-mission-mode, he was a sensitive individual (in that damn annoying, effeminate way, that couldn't cope with his outward image...thank you very much!) and it didn't take much for him to be able to read another's reactions – and even if he wasn't sure how to handle it, he was most aware of it.
All of this, in turn, meant that he didn't deal very well with unconscious people – and unconscious people who looked suspicious (such as being heavily beaten and left in the middle of nowhere) left a lot of nasty questions. Even so, Kakashi managed to make it back to Konoha without so much as a mid-sleep twitch; he didn't slow down even slightly as he flew past a lightly snoozing Izumo and a reading Kotetsu on his way to the Hokage tower; neither of whom gave any indication they'd even noted him. He knocked on Tsunade's door only to barge straight in, much to the spluttering of the Kage,
"Tsunade-sama, I apologise for the interruption," The Hokage, Shizune and Sakura all turned their eyes onto the Jounin and the woman limp in his arms,
"K-Kakashi? What on earth-?" Kakashi swiftly explained,
"My mission was a success, but I found her about ten kilometres outside of Konoha, completely unconscious with no one in the vicinity," Tsunade didn't react, at first, only staring at the woman beofre she barked some orders,
"Take her to the hospital, Kakashi; Sakura, follow him and begin to heal the worst of her injuries, but put her under sedation and keep her that way until I give orders otherwise...Kakashi, as soon as she's in a bed, report right back to me, here,"
"Hai, Tsunade-sama,"
"Hai, Tsunade-shishou," They both answered near simultaneously and tuned on their heels to march from the room; Tsunade thought for a moment, what was it that old-bag of a councillor had warned, about a young, purple haired operative, due to check in sometime soon?
It took too many seconds of battling with her fatigue riddled eyelids before they'd open upon her command, as soon as she managed the feat, she was met with an uncomfortably bright room; she allowed out a silent and subtle breath as just a means to prove she was alive.
"Looks like you're awake," An unfamiliar voice resounded to her left, startling the young kuniochi, although she didn't show it; instead she shifted her gaze and turned her head, as best she was able, toward the source of the voice, finding a blonde sat in a chair, staring right at her.
"Wh-re am I?" The bed-ridden woman croaked, her voice crackling with the stress of disuse,
"Konoha,"
"K-no..ha?" It took a moment for the words to register, "...ird," Her voice again crackled and failed her, she tied to clear her throat but it only resulted in a coughing fit, forcing the blonde near her to raise out of her seat, to set the scroll in her hands aside and reach for a cup of water and gently help the patient to drink from it; "...I need to see the Third," The blonde shook her head as a slow negative,
"I'm sorry, but the Third's dead; I'm Hokage now...my name is Tsunade," The dark blue eyes of the stranger's suddenly widened in surprise,
"W-When?"
"Almost a year ago," That was not something she'd been expecting, and bluish-indigo eyes slipped from the apparent-Hokage's honey ones and back over to a pasty, magnolia hospital wall, trying to get a grip on the sudden implications of the recent information; Tsunade retook her seat on the nearby chair and lifted the scroll she'd previously been reading.
"It says here, that the Sandaime made contact with a potential agent over five years ago – one who was close to Orochimaru – and one whom he believed could be a great asset to Konoha," The woman on the bed didn't even flinch, her eyes remained staring, unseeingly towards the wall in front of her, "The description given is of a young woman, in her early twenties, with dark purple coloured hair, blue-indigo eyes, a slender stature, of average height,"
Tsunade paused mostly for effect, glancing again up at the young woman, who – if it weren't for her eyes still being open – could pass for being unconscious, "She is said to be especially gifted in the arts of ninjutsu – having Fire and Lightening natured elements, though above average skills with some Wind and Earth elemental jutsus...she had trained as an academy student in Konoha but left, at age eleven immediately after her Genin inauguration and wasn't heard from again for more than a decade, after which, she'd-" Tsunade was cut off from her rambling by a knock on the door,
"Tsunade-sama?" A pink-haired girl peeked around the door,
"Yes?"
"The Daimyo-sama's advisor is here...he's reque-demanding to speak to you personally," Tsunade only just managed to resist rolling her eyes and lifted herself from her seat, grumbling lightly,
'Can't that old fart take a hint?' "Fine, fine, I'll go and see to him; stay here with our guest, will you? I'll send Shizune down to relieve you in a few minutes, check up on her vitals in the meantime," Tsunade re-rolled the scroll and marched from the room in seconds, leaving the two younger kuniochi eyeing each other for a few moments before Sakura stepped into the room proper and closed the door behind her. Sakura immediately began to check over the prostrate kuniochi,
"What's your name? I am Haruno Sakura," She offered a small, but comforting smile, as she spoke checking the IV inserted into her arm; she chose not to answer, doubting what the pink-haired nurse could do to her and so remained stock still, making no move to reply or even acknowledge the young kuniochi.
"Um…Kakashi-sensei said that he found you some way out in the woods…what were you doing out there?" Sakura faltered as the patient only closed her eyes in a silent but effective gesture; conversely, the injured kuniochi's attention suddenly spiked 'Kakashi'? Why does that name ring a bell? He's been in every bingo book for the past decade, for sure, but…why doesn't that answer it completely? She felt the blanket on her shifted away from her torso and a hand glowing with chakra pressed to the right side of her ribs,
"It's healing nicely, your lungs are still in a delicate condition, as are your ribs, you certainly won't be allowed to do any strenuous activity for a few weeks whilst you heal," The medic moved around the bed and tended to the other wound on the kuniochi's left calf – that was, by far the worst injury, the muscle had been nearly sliced clean off.
Thankfully, the medical prowess of Konoha was apparently nothing to be sniffed at; all too quickly the pink-haired medic left and was replaced by an older, dark-haired one. Whilst the kuniochi could sense that this new medic couldn't be as easily swayed or dismissed as the younger, she made no effort to acknowledge the new presence and kept her outward appearance to be that of someone asleep – it wasn't long after, however, that she truly fell asleep from her exhaustion.
After a few solid days of rest, Tsunade was satisfied that her 'guest' was well enough to leave the hospital for a short time so as to meet her in the Hokage's office; the Godaime had a number of highly confidential things to discuss with the kuniochi and to that end, the hospital had more ears than Tsunade truly liked admitting.
Shizune had been the one to escort her from the hospital – the dark haired medic nin hadn't left her side for a vast majority of the time that she'd been in Konoha; the walk through the village had been tiring too, although not long, it was busy and came with a happiness that seemed utterly alien to her. Her previous recent experiences of civilisation had been of his bases – one in South Eastern Fire, right on the border of River Country, where Orochimaru had been himself staying up until approximately ten months previously.
She'd continued with her assignments and training as ordered, but he'd left Kabuto behind for an extra month, as he'd needed to cultivate a few extra herbs for a sooner-than-expected transference of the legendary Sanin.
She couldn't be sure, but it had almost seemed as though the serpentine shinobi had given her a strange sort of smile as he'd left, like he knew and it sent cold shivers down her spine just to think about it; Kabuto had tried to reassure her, but it was difficult to tell what was a worse sign, that he could see her fear she'd thought she'd hidden so well, or the fact Orochimaru seemed to have noticed her existence.
And when Orochimaru's attention had been spiked, it usually ended in something grim...just as it had done so when he'd called for her, six months later.
"Ah, you're here, good…leave us, Shizune and make sure no one comes within fifteen feet of this room,"
"Hai, Tsunade-sama," The Hokage nodded, but kept her eyes fixed on the kuniochi in front of her, just as her assistant closed the door behind her, she offered a seat,
"You must be tired by now, anyway, that calf injury of yours was a nasty piece of work,"
"Arigato, Hokage-sama," She gingerly lowered herself into a seat, her torso aching with the pressure put on it,
"The Third claims, in this file, that you have been working for Orochimaru for the past five years…If that's true, then you must know that Orochimaru is no friend of ours, so I'm offering you the opportunity to explain everything that you have seen, heard and know about with regards to Orochimaru, his plans of action, bases, experiments and any knowledge he possesses – either against Konoha or its allies, here and now."
Tsunade began, flicking her eyes up the kuniochi momentarily, "If you refuse to cooperate, I'll hand you over to my interrogating squad and they will extract the information one way or another; I'm offering you this opportunity first, simply because of the fact the Third has such an extensive and highly classified file on you - and he wasn't a man to act needlessly; do you understand what I'm saying, Suumitei?" Something must have flickered over her face, causing the Hokage's eyebrows to pinch in slightly, in a concerned frown, "What?"
"That name…why did you address me by it?"
"It's the name given in the file,"
"It is? The only name?"
"Are you usually called something different?"
"…Only in Konoha…but if the Third officially changed it, then I'm sure he thought it wisest course of action," Suumitei's eyes averted down and right slightly, her expression generally passive, but not completely blank – an underlying flash of realisation, was it?
"So 'Yusa Suumitei' is merely for the benefit of your undercover work?"
"Yes, I shed my name as soon as I left Konoha…my parents were…fairly well known here, as well as elsewhere, so I took on an alias… The Sandaime knew me by that name, though, and always addressed me by it…but if it helps you may call me 'Suumitei',"
"What was your name before you left Konoha?" Suumitei hesitated for a moment, her eyes easily meeting those of the Hokage's,
"Will you try to look up my file if I tell you? If the Third saw fit to change my name on that file, I suspect he will have done so for the others,"
"Your parents' files, as well? I still wish to know…if it helps, think of it as a gesture of good faith, to tell me, I will be the one deciding your fate after all," Suumite's eyes narrowed slightly, mildly irritated by having her own words (which were really quite polite) thrown back at her,
"Aeyaki Nakua…my parents were Jugichi and Mika – her maiden name was Oshima…" Tsunade's eyes didn't change as the kuniochi spoke,
"I don't recognise those names," Nakua shrugged,
"You asked for them,"
"Remember who's turf this is, Nakua, I'll be looking into your past very, very carefully, but first, let's get down to business, how is the old Lizard-skin?"
"Still as evil as ever…and over the moon at having a new toy to play with," Tsunade only just managed to hide her eye-twitch of disgust, "Sasuke was a fool to play right into his hands, but I doubt you need to be told of that…at least the boy had decent timing," Tsunade raised an eyebrow, "Orochimaru had to change bodies before Sasuke arrived, so there's another three years at least before he can transfer to any other body,"
"…" Tsunade didn't verbally respond for the moment as she reached into the draw beneath her desk (currently reserved for use as her exclusive mini-bar) and pulled out a large bottle of saké and a cup, immediately pouring some in the cup and knocked it back; Nakua merely raised an eyebrow at this, smirking lightly,
"You're a drinker…the Third was a smoker…Orochimaru was a bit, well, twisted…so who 'round here has trouble with women?" Tsunade scowled at this, (and the mental image of a drooling, bloody-nosed Jiraiya),
"Shut it." She knocked back the second cup and immediately refilled it, although allowed that one to stand for a few moments, "The Third remained adamant that you were an ally, despite your long term involvement with Orochimaru…you must have a lot of information gathered, but I'm curious, first of all, to know how you protected yourself, how you covered your tracks and how you're certain that you remain a hidden mole," Nakua smiled ruefully,
"No matter how well hidden they are, no mole can be truly sure of its security…but Orochimaru mostly left me alone as I was stationed in one of his hideouts…for a long time up in Lightening country and recently down to the one on the River/Fire border," That sparked the Godaime's attention,
"What? There was one in the Fire country?"
"Yes, for about three or four years…any shinobi that came too close were captured and experimented on,"
"And you participated in these experiments?"
"No! Well, not on the living, anyway... I specialised more in herb cultivation and cell analysis of dead tissue," There wasn't so much as a flicker on the aubergine-haired woman's face, a very well-practiced blankness,
"How many Konoha shinobi were worked upon, in that base?"
"I don't know for certain…it would look suspicious if as I asked too much…but from what I could work out, ten at least. Taken over a four year period, I was under the impression that Kabuto would create fake bodies and then dispose of them in the way he would for any enemy ninja…well, ones he didn't think he have a use for," Tsunade sipped slowly from her cup of rice wine,
"What sort of experiments were they?" The two kuniochi didn't meet eyes,
"A lot to do with chakra and the pathways through the body…but since I wasn't directly involved with them, there was a lot I couldn't get a hold of, since it returned, with Kabuto, to Orochimaru's side on a near weekly basis...although there were certain things I could tell through looking at the state of the bodies after they'd finished with them," Nakua's expression soured just the tiniest twinge as she spoke, easily transmitting the brutality of the experiments...and the fact that the kuniochi wasn't completely unfazed by them; Tsunade reached down and fished out a second cup and placed it in front of Nakua before pouring out some rice wine into it, again refilling her own cup alongside.
"Tell me more about the work you conducted," Nakua stared at the wine for a moment before gulping it down and shivering slightly at the potency;
"Chakra is a funny thing, Orochimaru wanted to know how taking over the body of someone with a very strong blood-line limit would interfere with his own chakra and personality when he took them over…"
…
"Ibiki, she called for you, too?" The stern interrogation-master merely nodded as Inoichi fell into step beside him whilst they traced the steps to the Hokage's office, before the Yamanaka could form his next query, they arrived at the door, and Ibiki raised a black, gloved fist to the door and rapped harshly, both men entered the office upon the Hokage's call,
"Inoichi, Ibiki, I have a special case for you both," Ibiki carefully eyed the back of the woman's head, automatically collecting every scrap of information he was able to out of her, "I'm sure I don't need to say how sensitive this particular case is, and I want you on your toes at all times…this is Yusa Suumitei, a mole sent to work under Orochimaru on behalf of the Third, she's already told me a lot, but there is a great deal still to be learned…there isn't a question I don't want answered, got it?" The both nodded sharply, "But be careful as well, I want this one returned to me still alive and cognitively functional at the end of it,"
"Hai, Tsunade-sama," The woman rose to her feet and followed without trouble after Ibiki and in front of Inoichi; as soon as the three had left, she called for Shizune to bring her a newly reconstituted ANBU team; this was really turning into one hell of afternoon.
"...Memorize the location on the map as swiftly as possible, its base recently used by Orochimaru…there were experiments carried out on a number of Konoha shinobi over the past four years. You have two weeks to find out all that you can about who the nin were, the experiments, any possible other locations, anything you think is of value."
"Tsunade-sama…how did you come to know about this?" Kakashi asked carefully, from behind all three of his masks – the two physical ones and his mental one;
"…That's not of concern right now, finding out all that you can, is. I want you to leave in an hour and leave absolutely no trace that you were ever there – and be on guard, the enemy may still be occupying or watching the base for all we know."
"...I understand, Hokage-sama," Kakashi always seemed to be able to read between the lines,
"Good…Get going," Four puffs of smoke were left as the team disappeared, materialising close to the main gate. Shizune reappeared in her office,
"Tsume-san has returned with her team from the latest mission,"
"Ugh…" Tsunade couldn't quite help but roll her eyes, after the afternoon which had just happened, she was most certainly not in the mood for, her damn, sunny attitude, "Fine, send her in."
"You fully understand, don't you? I won't tolerate a single foot outside the parameters that I've set for you,"
"I understand, Tsunade-sama,"
"Nakua…I'm allowing you move freely, but all of my shinobi will be watching you very carefully…I will allow you to continue your training, in your personal time, but you will have the access level of a civilian… I won't even allow you in the library unescorted, got it?"
"Hai, Tsunade-sama…I'm grateful for you even allowing me to remain in the villages with the freedoms you've granted." Tsunade pursed her lips,
"I'm assigning a kuniochi to you who will watch you, primarily, but will also help you find your way around the village and will answer any questions…if you suspect anything or if something springs to mind, she'll be the first one you talk to."
"Hai, Tsunade-sama,"
"You may enter," The Hokage raised her voice as the door opened, and her 'guardian' walked in, who, much to her surprise, also had purple hair – although it was a slightly lighter hue than her own,
"Uzuki Yuugao, this is Aeyaki Nakua, I've already briefed you what you need to know, but I want you to be aware, that Yuugao will check up on you every morning at eight o'clock and from there you will train together…Nakua, I expect nothing short of exemplary behaviour from you. Yuugao," The ANBU kuniochi nodded and gestured for Nakua to follow her, after they both bowed in respect to the Hokage.
The ANBU was quiet and stern, Nakua recognised the look immediately as being one from someone who'd heard of her affiliation, and, upon the assumption that that was the end of the story, did not approve.