Four Days Later.

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It was a scene of carnage, destruction, and devastation. As far as the eye could see there were overturned wagons and shattered barrels, bodies of merchants young and old, women and children. Anything unbroken had been broken, anything bent had been bent more, until it was a mess barely recognizable as a merchant caravan. Half of their equipment lay strewn about on the ground too, their merchandise tossed about as if the attackers had grabbed it and been forced to drop it in their haste upon fleeing. There were a few bodies of dead merchants here and there, but not many, and tracks running southward indicated where the rest had gone.

Some of their attackers were present too, although no longer a danger. They were as dead as those they'd slaughtered, kunai and shuriken dotting their forms, blood pooling at the ground. They wore dark masks and headdresses to keep out the sun and cut down on the windburn, as well as keep their identities secret.

All in all, it did not look promising, mused Kakashi.

Graceful as a panther, the copy ninja leapt down from his perch on the canyon wall and into the middle of the destroyed caravan, casting his single eye about with a careful glance. So far, not a single sign of Naruto, Shikamaru, or the Sand Team. They weren't among the dead, that was for sure, but he saw no signs of them alive either. And truthfully, by now, he was getting more than a bit worried.

Tsunade had expected the mission to take no more than a day, and maybe another day for the team to report back to her office with all the information on the (hopefully) vanquished bandits. As it was, over three days had gone by, and she'd started to get nervous. Naruto might've gotten lost in the woods trying to get home but Shikamaru wouldn't, and he'd have headed straight back to her to give his report. So that meant something had gone wrong. So she'd plucked Kakashi, recently returned from an S-rank mission, and sent him to investigate and, if necessary, provide back-up for the Genins.

Carefully, he investigated the caravan, forming a mental image of what had happened based on the evidence.

"So they were attacked," he mused aloud. "Bandits ... at least ... two dozen or so," he said, counting the bodies on the ground, which numbered only about a third of that. Footprints and disturbances in the ground told him the rest, roughly. "Shikamaru tries to halt their advance," he said, noting a spot where the footsteps came to an abrupt, sudden halt. "Only caught half of them ... Gaara attacks," indicating where the sand had risen up and crushed several of the attackers. Idly, he crouched down, brushing away the sand from the poor soul crushed beneath it, examining his face and dress.

Shinobi. Unmistakable.

"Missing-nin," he stated with a sigh of disgust. "Sand mostly ... maybe some Rain," he amended, spotting a broken umbrella to the side. "No loyalty to their governments certainly ... renegades. But they must have a leader ... probably not here," he added. If they were ninjas, their boss would be too, and they'd probably be the toughest to take down. He saw no indication of that anywhere.

Kakashi again made his way around the edge of the caravan, examining one of the overturned wagons, which looked like it'd been hit by a localized wind gust. "Temari getting overactive ... no ... something else. This is too concentrated." Idly he knelt down to examine the wagon. It was overturned but virtually nothing else in the area was. This was very focused wind-blasts, nothing like what Temari could do. Her attacks were characteristically big and destructive. She was anything but subtle.

Kakashi's head suddenly snapped up, his one eye wide.

He was not alone.

If pressed, he wouldn't have been able to say why. He hadn't heard anything, he hadn't seen anything. But ninja developed a sixth sense early on to alert them to danger, and Kakashi always listened to his. If he hadn't, he'd have been dead years ago.

His head snapping up was quickly followed by his body as he wasted no time in launching himself skyward and into a mid-air flip, dodging a flurry of shuriken that embedded themselves into the wagon where he'd been standing seconds before. Wasting no time he grabbed a kunai from his pouch and lifted it up, even as he landed in a crouch. A good move, for his attacker charged forward suddenly and his kunai struck, blocking the attack meant to take his other eye.

Kakashi got a decent look at the attacker, heavy padded vest, turban and cloth drawn up over his face, only one eye visible in the shadows. Then his attacker kicked some sand up and Kakashi leapt backwards to keep his vision. He hurled his kunai wildly at his foe. It missed, but it was mostly to prevent a follow-up attack. Kakashi followed it up by launching two shuriken, forcing his foe to duck out of the way and sending him further back, batting aside the two shuriken with his kunai.

"Who're you?" he asked, deciding to forego studying him and just going straight for questions. "One of the bandits?"

"Don't insult me," barked the other man, who's gender was discernible by his voice if nothing else. He reached up and indicated the headband around his forehead, the symbol of the Hidden Village of Sand was unmistakable. "I'm not one of these lowlife renegades ... as I see you're not," he managed, with a flick of the eyes upwards at Kakashi's own forehead protector. "I recognize you now... Hatake Kakashi," he stated after a moment's thought.

Kakashi considered this. Hidden Leaf had dispatched him to aid the genins, could it be that Sand had shared the same brilliant idea? Or even planned something like this?

"Your voice is familiar too," replied Kakashi, though he was bluffing. "Care to show me your face?"

The figure hesitated, then shrugged. "I don't see why not," he replied, reaching up and tugging down on the bottom part of his ensemble, exposing his face. Half of it, anyway. The right half, which bore two distinct, claw-like red slashes along his cheek. The left half remained hidden behind a veil made specifically for that purpose.

Kakashi recognized him instantly, by that trademark alone. "Gaara's jounin instructor," he said, taking a moment to find his name. They'd been introduced during the Chuunin exams, just before their kids came in for the preliminary elimination. "Baki."

"That's me."

"I presume you're here to investigate as well?" he asked, slipping his hands into his pockets and relaxing into a casual stance. It was deceptive, he could still move lightning-fast if Baki caused him any trouble.

"Obviously. What've you found?"

Clever, he thought. Give nothing, and ask for everything. Kakashi decided to play his game. "Pretty obvious what happened here," he replied dryly, giving away nothing. "Both our teams were here though..."

" ...question is where they went," finished Baki.

One-eye met one-eye, and in that moment, both special ops jounins saw their goals were one and the same. Above all, they were really concerned for their students. Why shouldn't they work together on this matter?

Kakashi's hand came up and he ran it across the side of the overturned wagon, nicking his thumb on a stray nail that was poking through to draw blood. He then formed together seals, careful to move slowly so Baki could see he wasn't making an attack. His hand came up and he lightly slammed it down on the ground.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu."

A puff of smoke later, and on the ground before Kakashi sat a little brown dog, dressed in blue ninja gear and wearing a sour expression. He raised his paw in greetings and gave an unenthusiastic "yo."

"Pakkun," said Kakashi, "We need you to locate our students. Their tracks might be hard to follow, likewise their scent. It's been a few days."

"I'll manage something," replied Pakkun, going onto all fours and sniffing around while Kakashi and Baki watched him quietly.

"I have something," he announced. "Smells like blood ... old blood."

"That'll be Gaara," remarked Baki. "His sand ... carries the scent of old blood. Anyone he's killed."

"Then that's the way we go," agreed Kakashi.

As one, they took off. And hoped they'd be able to find their students alive and in one piece.

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Author's Notes:

I never really thought about the similarities between Baki and Kakashi until I wrote this story. Eerie.