The clouds obscuring the moon were dark and heavy with rain, making the night even blacker. A stray beam of moonlight pierced through the clouds and glanced off a shock of silver hair. The clouds shifted and the moonlight slid aside revealing a young, masked, Jonin. He was a bit short for a ninja of that level but at 14 he hadn't quite got his growth spurt yet. His deadly skills and recently obtained Sharingan also compensated for the lack of height.
As the moonlight once again faded, Kakashi adjusted his headband. He had pretty much gotten used to covering his left eye but, even after a year the eye still gave him pain at times. He looked around noting the positions of the four other ninja in his squad, as he did so he ran through the mission details in his head. A small village to the south of Konoha had recently been plagued by a group of bandits. While a few of these bandits were run of the mill, the bulk of the force was made up of rouge ninja. As such a representative from the village had approached Konoha and had requested help dealing with the problem. Since the rouges were not very skilled, the request was labelled as a B rank mission and three Jonin and three Chunin were dispatched to complete the mission. Kakashi and his squad had arrived at the village a few hours earlier, had sent the villagers into the nearby caves for protection and had left a Chunin to guard them. They were now waiting in the tree cover outside of the small town for the villains to show themselves.
A slight movement caught in his peripheral vision brought Kakashi out of his musings and into full alertness. He carefully watched as a group of eight figures crept into the silent village. Kakashi raised his hand to give the signal to attack but hesitated for a moment; the request had detailed the band was made up of twelve so where were the other four? The crash of a door being broken in prompted him to give the signal and five more figures, weapons flashing, fell upon the unsuspecting eight creeping through the town.
As the non ninja combatants were killed the force thinned but the battle became more intense. The rouge ninja, seeing their numbers thinning, began using more destructive techniques and the village began to take the brunt of it. Ducking behind a building, Kakashi prepared a fire ball jutsu. As his cover was destroyed, he leaped out and unleashed it upon his enemy. He then quickly followed it up with a few precisely thrown kunai before his enemy could recover from the fire. As his enemy fell, Kakashi surveyed the scene before him. The village was barely standing, just a few outbuildings were left and they either had holes through the walls or were burning. The last few rouge ninja were being taken care of but the number was still only eight, the other four had not joined when the battle had began. Uneasiness assaulted Kakashi's mind as his suspicion grew. He waited silently, searching, his senses straining. There! A spike of chakra activity coming from… oh crap! The caves! There must have been a spy in the village, but why hadn't the Chunin signalled or raised an alarm?
Kakashi sped off towards the caves, dreading what he would find. He imagined finding all the villagers slaughtered like sheep and the Chunin under his command lying dead, the first one killed. Kakashi shook his head trying to dispel the images. There's no way he would let that happen, he had to get there in time. He would not let his comrades die!
As he neared the caves he slowed his frantic pace and observed the scene. No blood marred the area where he had left the guard, which was a good sign. Cautiously he peered inside the cave, he noticed an unfamiliar guard standing near the entrance, and the Konoha Chunin lying bound and unconscious behind him. A quick look with the Sharingan revealed that the ninja was caught up in a genjutsu. Kakashi couldn't see the three other ninja but, he surmised from the sound of the voices, they were probably around the corner where the villagers were hiding. A shout from deeper within the cave caused the rouge guard to turn and expose his back to Kakashi. Bad move. Kakashi took that moment of distraction and silently assassinated the careless ninja. After lowering the dead weight to the floor Kakashi turned his attention to the unconscious Chunin. He untied the unconscious man, placed his hand on the ninja's shoulder and whispered "release". The Chunin slowly opened his eyes and blurrily starred at Kakashi. After being silently reassured that the Chunin was fine, Kakashi instructed the ninja to return to the main group and inform them of the situation. As soon as the Chunin had left, Kakashi ventured deeper within the cave.
Finding cover behind a large rock, Kakashi silently spied on the three rouge ninja before him. They had cornered the villagers in a large room and were interrogating the village leader.
"Alright old man, tell us were it is and don't give us that 'I don't know what you're talking about crap.' We know it's around here somewhere." The leader remained silent and the interrogator became enraged. "Fine if that's the way you want to play it!" he struck the old man with the back of his hand and he flew into the wall. A young boy, about 12, cried out in distress and rushed to the old man's side. The interrogator turned to speak to another rouge; from his authoritative air Kakashi assumed that he was the ring leader of the bandits. "The old guy won't talk at all, what should we do? No one else would know anything about it. You think we really might have the wrong place?"
The boss pondered the interrogator,s words before he replied. "It is a possibility that we have the wrong place. We have searched the area thoroughly and no one seems to know the whereabouts or heard of the item. I suppose the only thing to do is dispose of the witnesses and move on to the next area."
The third ninja raised his head, "What about the Konoha ninja?"
"They should have finished up with the useless ones by now," The boss replied, "so we need to hurry up here and leave."
"Right lets clean up the evidence shall we." The third said with a sadistic grin. "Lets start with the useless old guy." He chuckled evilly and moved toward the helpless old man lying in a heap on the floor. Suddenly a rock flew through the air striking the ninja on the cheek. The man flinched and brought his hand up to his cheek, cursing as he felt a warm trickle of blood. He glared at the culprit, the small boy who had ran to the old man's side.
"Thanks for volunteering to be the first to die." The third growled. "Don't worry this will hurt a lot!" The boy shivered and cowered against the wall. The rouge struck at the boy with his sword but the powerful swing was stopped with a jarring clang. Confused the ninja looked down and found himself staring into a fierce, steel grey, eye. Kakashi pushed the startled ninja back and ordered the young boy to a safer position. Once he saw the boy was safe Kakashi pulled up his headband, revealing his Sharingan, and prepared for a fight.
Ta Da!! The first chapter of my first FanFic! I really hoped you enjoyed it. Sorry if you find the chapter short but I really wanted to get a chapter posted. Please review and tell me what you think. :^)
