Best insult ever: "You stay right there, you quazi-totalitarian cardassian!" –Cptn. Braxton, ST Voy – 08x3 'Future's End' – LOL! I've really got to use that at some point! No one would see that one coming! XD

Also! I've found the time to draw some fan art! ^-^ Yosh! Please see my profile page to a link to it! (It is actually for Inner Self but one for GNF is next on the cards!) Are there any requests for artwork for my stories? Were there any scenes in my stories you particularly want to see? XD

I~I~I

Hatake Kakashi || Inner Self || Can The Victim Choose A Just Punishment For The Crime?

I~I~I

"So, talk to me, what's wrong? You're not normally this sullen," Yuugao's eyebrows pinched into a frown a Kurenai's words,

"Are you aware that we've had a new…addition to the village?"

"That woman Kakashi found? Sure," Yuugao resisted the urge to roll her eyes, did anything remain a secret in this damn village? No, don't be silly.

"Yea, her…the thing is, Tsunade-sama ordered me to be a…chaperone of sorts, to help her find her way around the village and generally keep an eye on her,"

"…And?" Kurenai raised the cup of tea to her lips, unsure why her friend was make such a big deal of a fairly simple situation,

"…And, she's…spent the past five years working for Orochimaru," Kurenai – in just retribution, Yuugao thought, for her blasé attitude – immediately chocked on the sip of tea and was caught up in a coughing fit, her spluttering and cursing even brought the shop proprietor over. An extremely nervous fellow by nature, he clucked around the barely recovering kuniochi as he dabbed at the spots of tea spat on to the table,

"Um…Kurenai-san?"

"H-hai, Yukatai-san…I'm fine," She finally regained her calm, "My apologies, my friend was just telling me a strange joke," Kurenai fixed Yuugao with something of a glare, as Yukatai looked nervously between them;

"Thanks, Yukatai-san, but Kurenai's fine," he hesitated for a moment, apparently unsure whether to trust it, but he dipped his head and walked away, still keeping his eyes and ears on the pair.

"Why the hell did you say that? Right when I was taking a sip?-!" Yuugao shrugged,

"I thought you were supposed remain calm no matter what the situation? That is the essence of a ninja, isn't it?"

"Who remains calm at the mention of Orochimaru? Besides, what in the hell is someone like that doing here? Is Tsunade opening the gates to our enemies now?" The ruby eyed kuniochi's harsh whisper full of as much hate as Yuugao's had been earlier that day,

"What am I supposed to do, Kurenai? I've got to look after her," The Yuuhi gave a derisive snort,

"She's the enemy, that's all; you've been given your assigned task, just get it done and don't waste words with her sort."

"I don't think it's that simple," Yuugao took a tentative sip of tea as she pondered,

"Of course it is…if she works for him, then she doesn't deserve any leniency! How much has he taken from you already? And yet you're thinking she deserves to be treated like one of us?" Yuugao frowned slightly, it wasn't as though she didn't know already, but somehow, there was something that seemed so very childish about seeing only the surface. The ANBU sighed and took another sip of her tea, whilst Kurenai pondered, "I wonder what she was doing alone in the woods like that, anyway…maybe he was done with her?"

"If he was, then why didn't he kill her? It wouldn't have made sense to dump a lackey but not kill her,"

"True…but then, do you think she was sent here? He wants her to gather information?" The two kuniochi met eyes and a brief moment of silence passed between them, but it was just as soon again broke,

"Nah, don't be stupid Kurenai, you sound like a five year old with an over-active imagination, besides, Tsunade wouldn't have allowed her here unless she was sure there was no significant threat to Konoha," Kurenai's eye's narrowed slightly,

"Of course, but if Tsunade wanted to be truly sure, then she would have killed her – that's all…no one just 'stops' working for Orochimaru," Yuugao hummed a noncommittal response, some part of her knowing the truth to her friends words, but another part not really wanting to acknowledge them.


The second Kakashi's arm rose to block the strike from his opponent, the kunai gripped in his right hand darted under, between them and lodged itself into his heart, beneath his ribcage and easily severing the vulnerable flesh of his diaphragm. The man was dead as soon as his strike had landed, but Kakashi kept his grip on the corpse and deflected a sudden volley of kunai; he tossed the body aside and threw his hands into seals for a large Goukakkyuu.

The shinobi dodged, but he was no match for an angry Copy Nin's sharingan, as soon as the second goon had landed in a crouch on a nearby tree branch, Kakashi was upon him and he thrust his hand through the enemy's chest – his flattened, pointed hand transformed into solid rock as it crushed bone and soft organ alike, killing the man in an instant.

Even he was aware of how rushed and angry he was feeling – normally, he would tend to draw out flights, not by much, but enough for opponents to give away their major techniques and styles – but here, his patience had been burnt to a cinder the second his realisation had hit home. He couldn't be bothered with these pathetic excuses for shinobi right now, he needed to get back to Konoha and answer the questions which had been plaguing him for over a decade.

He span around on the branch and looked down to see how his team were faring, Hiro was doing well, but Tsuki looked to be in trouble – he couldn't even see Riichi from where he was; but Kakashi dived into action before he could give it much more thought. He pulled two pairs of kunai from the large pouch on his hip and darted forward, he landed on his right foot and pivoted around, swooping his heel into the side of his enemy's head. As he span, his sharingan caught sight of a kunai whizzing towards him from behind the treeline of the clearing they were fighting in, on sheer instinct and muscle-memory, he thrust his right hand up and deflected the incoming projectile, but too late, was Kakashi able to spot the attached kibakufuda [exploding tag].

Tsuki and his enemy both reeled backwards coughing and spluttering at the dust kicked up from the violent explosion of the tag; Kakashi-Taichou was around here somewhere but-Tsuki didn't have any more time to ponder as he spotted the shadow in the tree line and he thrust his hand into his pouch and withdrew a fistful of sebon. They flew at blinding speed towards his target just the great sound of earth splitting behind him caught his attention and the young ANBU turned to see the shinobi he'd been fighting as he was yanked beneath the earth, a horrible, strangled scream emanating from him as Kakashi made an appearance.

The scream fell short, and his had lulled backwards as Kakashi again flashed through the seals for his raikiri as he charged forward; Hiro landed on the far side of the clearing, at the same time dropping into a roll to avoid another volley of shuriken. Hiro retuned a volley as he began to mould his chakra to form a jet of water as the nin closed on him; Kakashi paused in his original attack as he could see that the other shinobi was also lightning natured and Hiro's jutsu wouldn't hold up against it.

He darted back and just as the enemy threw a shuriken with wire attached, the glow of chakra surrounding it unmistakable. The shuriken hit its mark and Hiro immediately froze, unable to counter the foreign, electricity-like chakra that paralysed him; but the enemy nin couldn't celebrate his victory as Kakashi was upon him and driving a fist full of chidori through his chest.

"Kakashi-Taichou!" Tsuki's voice alerted him as soon as he'd kicked the body off Hiro,

"What is it?" He darted away towards the sound of the gnashing metal, and resounding, unfamiliar laughter.

"Kuso," Tsuki swore as Kakashi landed beside him, seeing another enemy stood high on a tree branch, holding Riichi's unconscious and limp body,

"Since you took my teammates, I'll be taking one or two of yours…you might want to check on that water-boy of yours," The man grinned and suddenly disappeared,

"Shit…kuchiyose no jutsu!" Kakashi slammed his palm to the ground as his eight nin dogs appeared, "There was an enemy stood on that branch moments ago, catch the sent then follow it," Kakashi barked his orders before turning to Tsuki, "Go check on Hiro,"

"Hai, Taichou," The ANBU darted away as Pakkun landed at Kakashi's feet;

"There's nothing, boss…there's no scent up there but of the tree…the others are out searching around, just in case but I can't detect any human scents but yours and your teams…well, those and the three bodies,"

"Hmm…" Kakashi did not like the sound of that,

"Taichou!" Tsuki's concerned shout drew his attention, "Hiro's in really bad shape! We need to get him back to the village as soon as possible,"

"…Alright, let's prepare to move," Kakashi walked over to his two remaining teammates, seeing that Hiro was indeed flagging, he pulled off the nin's weapon pouch and clipped it to his own belt, before hoisting Hiro onto his back and looping wire around his chest so that he'd be able to run swiftly, he turned back to his other teammate,

"Ready?"

"Hai, Taichou,"

"Then let's get the hell out of here," Kakashi growled as he shot off into the trees as fast as he could manage with the extra weight.


The initial reaction was just the same as the first time he'd set eyes on her.

Screeching and squawking as if she was doing her best to murder the poor macaw, but again, she spoke softly – if not inanely to it – and the balding, scarlet bird eased its pitch to a light chirping. She placed the shopping bag down on the small chabudai [small, short legged table] the owner of this apartment had left behind, the bird cawed slightly, in what – if Nakua didn't know better – sounded like a small coo of curiosity; he cocked his head aside slightly, watching her carefully as she unpacked a newspaper and a small bag of wood shavings as well as a few large bags of fruit.

She approached the cage slowly, again speaking carefully as the macaw flapped its wings and screeched at her again, obviously wanting her to remain firmly on the other side of the room. The kuniochi cautiously, and with deliberate, but slow movements, unlatched the cage door and opened it, carefully reaching her hand in to unhook the water and food cups, before tugging, gently, away at the newspaper (or what she hoped was) to remove the worst of the mess.

It surprised her that the parrot was quite well behaved – he clucked lightly in what she guessed were warning noises, but he didn't move to attack her as she finally removed all of the soiled newspaper she again closed the cage and threw the crumpled paper into the bin before she quickly grabbed a cloth from the kitchen sink and lathered it with soap before gently rinsing the bottom of the cage.

It wouldn't be the most effective, but it was certainly better than nothing, as she scrubbed away at the remnants of mess she could see before washing away the soap and laying down fresh sheets of newspaper, as well as a light covering of the bark. She then walked away to carefully wash out and refill his water and food dishes – which looked disgustingly green for the supposedly red plastic.

"The guy who was living here said his friend…or cousin dropped you here a few weeks ago, right? It doesn't look like that man hadn't cleaned you out once…I don't wonder you're so grouchy." She returned the full cup of water to his cage as she washed her hands thoroughly before beginning to slice up different types of fruit for his little bowl; the bird hopped slightly as he watched her, leaping to grip onto the sides of the cage as he bobbed around, in a vain effort to get closer, apparently eager for the change of diet. She walked back over to the cage, he flapped violently, darting back to the far corner as she stepped too quickly,

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry…here," She put her fingers to the latch and he immediately squawked again, unhappy at her proximity as his feathers rose up in an aggressive posture, remaining in the far corner of the cage, "Still not happy, huh? I guess I can't blame you, I think there are a lot of people who're unhappy with me being around,"

The parrot cocked his head again and seemed to understand as his shuffled slightly and lowered what remaining feathers he had, she took it as a show of good faith and swiftly opened the door and hooked the container to the side before retreating her hand. He remained still, eyeing her warily as she stepped backwards slowly towards the window; when Nakua was at a distance he seemed satisfied with, he hopped over to the food, gripped a large slice of mango in his claws and devoured it…as fast as he could.

"I'm not really surprised that you hate me…I guess I can understand your distrust if you've been bounced around and then not taken care of properly, I guess it's inevitable. It's so easy to hate, isn't it? Only takes a few knocks or a few scars and suddenly it seems like that's all there is left…like that's the only thing worth feeling, it sticks around and stays, it clings – where all the positive emotions are so easily swept aside and crushed by someone else, what's the value in believing in them?"

Nakua sighed as she leaned on the window still, looking at the fading light of the setting sun, "Sometimes all it takes is just one particularly bad knock, and you're lost forever…haa, I guess I caused a lot of those knocks for people in this village…I guess it doesn't matter if I was sorry, doesn't matter if I feel regret and seek to put right what's happened, it doesn't even matter that I'm not the one truly responsible, it just matters that I close to the one who is, I'm just manifestation of what they hate and what hurts them and that in itself is reason enough to want to kill me." She sighed again and looked over her shoulder at the parrot, who was bobbling lightly on the edge of his food dish, squawking lightly,

"You're still hungry, I take it?" He chirped in affirmation, eliciting a light smile from Nakua as she sluggishly shifted herself upright and walked cautiously over to the cage. The same routine ensued as he hopped away and she slowly retrieved the now empty dish; as she set about re-chopping the remaining fruit, "I wonder if you'll be around long enough to learn how to trust me?" She snorted at herself in derision, as she turned back to approach him, "Even if you were, and learned to like me, I'd betray you in the end, and I'd leave you behind in the end – its better you hate me, I think," She returned the bowl to him and turned her back, quickly putting away all of the bird-care-related items onto the side of the kitchenette counter before picking up the bag – still half-full with items she bought for herself,

"See ya later…whatever your name is, I'll come see you again in the morning," He twittered in response, in a much calmer and non-aggressive or defensive fashion, she smiled ruefully to herself, "You're welcome."

"Ready?" Yuugao's words were solid but clipped, giving away almost nothing;

"…Yea," Nakua replied slowly as she closed the door behind her, and turned to lock it,

"Here," The kuniochi turned around again to find Yuugao holding out a pouch, "It's a weapons pouch, in there are kunai, sebon and shuriken as well as a few smoke bombs and some wire…you're not allowed any poisons or kibakufuda, if you are found with these or using them, it will not be tolerated," Nakua barely managed to resist rolling her eyes, ignoring the sour look Yuugao was giving her,

"Yea, yea,"

"Good, then let's go…we'll head to the training grounds and spar;" The both walked down the set of steps and down the populated street as Nakua clipped the pouch to her hip, "Tsunade-sama informed me that you are still quite injured, so I'll be going easy on you,"

She knew it was bait, but Nakua couldn't quite resist the angry frown which darted onto her face, if only she was up to full health, she thought ruefully, then she'd like to think she'd be able to hold her own; but she hadn't fought ANBU for a long time and regardless of what the final outcome, it would certainly prove to be an interesting experience. Nakua's leg still didn't feel much better from the day previous, but her ribs were on the mend - even if they were liable to begin acting up again as soon as she put any strain on them…damn, it would not be the best day for a spar – but by no means under the worst conditions she'd worked with.

"For our spar…will we be using any nin or genjutsu?" She asked, keeping the ANBU firmly in her peripheral vision, but not looking directly at her,

"No, we'll be sticking to taijutsu and weapons only…this time," They lapsed again into silence and remained as such for the remainder of the journey, the blue-eyed kuniochi silently memorising the route there, should she ever desire to train by herself, when she was well enough or not being chaperoned by Yuugao. It wasn't long before they left the streets behind and walked out onto open fields, dusted with copse and a large woodland a little way off in the distance; they continued on until they came to one of the more dense copse of trees,

"Alright, we'll spar here…if you really need to stop, say so, but I won't stand for any messing around and we'll keep to close-by this copse,"

"Hai,"

"…Begin," Yuugao didn't miss a beat as she darted forward and threw a punch at Nakua who successfully blocked it and returned with a punch of her own, but the ANBU moved back just far enough that the strike missed; Nakua could immediately feel the nasty tug on her ribs from the extended movement and sighed to herself. She pulled back and leapt away a few paces, allowing her to feel in just what kind of condition she was in – not a great one, but not completely helpless either.

Digging her hand into her pouch she felt around a little checking where everything was before she sent a second hand in to help quickly tying wire around a kunai, Yuugao took this as an open shot and darted forward again. The alien kuniochi managed to dodge the first blow and yank her left arm back around just in time to block the foot that was sent to her face, as she locked around it and forced Yuugao still for the moment, as she pulled two sebon from her pouch and threw them at her.

Yuugao bent back to avoid them and, using her hands a leverage, pulled back sharply on her trapped leg and kicked out with her other, forcing Nakua to release her grip; the darker haired woman stumbled a little, her own leg not liking the sudden pressure put on it. She crouched down for the moment, carefully eyeing Yuugao's stance – her weight was mostly on her left leg and that mean a strike with her right fist would be best favoured…she sent a hand back to her pouch to pull out a kunai – she deal with tethering one in a moment or two, when Yuugao's eyes weren't directly upon her.

Nakua gathered herself and tensed, rising to her feet, she threw the kunai aiming ever so slightly towards the other kuniochi's right, forcing her to dodge to the left and into the copse of trees but not before she faced a nasty left hook from her opponent; Yuugao just about managed to block the worst of it, but she wasn't quite so lucky with the second punch Nakua issued. Yuugao was forced to dart backwards, flipping from her hands back up to her feet as she skidded backwards; Nakua immediately followed up hurling a second kunai and a smoke bomb which blanked out the distance between them.

The blue-eyed kuniochi thrust her hands into her pouch but the harsh gnash of metal sent the kunai flying back at her, relying on muscle-memory above all else, she flopped forwards, bending near right angle at the waist to avoid the projectile; the action made her cough with the stress and she fell to her knees, but managed to finish looping the wire around her weapons.

The smoke was quick to disappear and Yuugao was nowhere in sight, Nakua slowly pulled the wire tethered kunai clearly into her hands, along with the rest of the wire as she crouched and scoured the trees before her; it a shadow of a feeling that alerted Nakua to the incoming threat. She flung her kunai towards the target, allowing plenty of give on the wire – the other end of which was looped around a shuriken carefully concealed in her clenched fist; she heard the thunk of metal into wood and Yuugao flashed out from the trees and bore down on her.

Nakua held her ground and waited for Yuugao to approach close enough, when she was, the blue-eyed kuniochi flung the shuriken in her hand around so that it would loop around the ANBU – but she was a fraction too fast, pushing off the ground to leap up to avoid the wire, but it still caught her foot. This proved too little too late as Yuugao was upon her and pinning her to grass with a kunai to her neck;

"You lose," The ANBU's voice was completely dispassionate as her eyes seemed just as cold as ever, but looked right through Nakua, like the other kuniochi wasn't really there.

"…Evidently," The pressure of the kunai was slow to ease off her throat, but ease it did, as Yuugao rose to her feet, waiting for Nakua to do the same; the darker-haired kuniochi gradually gathered her weapons back up as the ANBU kuniochi kept her back to her,

"We'll call it a day here…I'll escort you back to your apartment."


"I see," Tsunade's eyes fell from the mask covered face of the ANBU as she digested the information he reported back; her eyes glanced over the documents open in front of her, "Was Riichi still alive when they took him?"

"I do not know, Hokage-sama," She paused for a few minutes and let out a silent breath – the loss of a shinobi to death was one thing, but the loss to potential torture and interrogation was quite another;

"How do you think they knew you were there? Did you trigger any traps?"

"Hai, Tsunade-sama, a single trap just as we entered the compound," She raised an eyebrow,

"How long before they showed up?"

"A few hours…but I find it unlikely that that was the reason they attacked,"

"Hmm, you're probably right…what about experiments?"

"There were…a number of them, tissue sample analysis from shinobi they'd captured," Kakashi was thankful for his mask covering the entirely of his face, for even he couldn't quite resist a twitch of his eyebrow at the memory;

"I see…I'll look over these documents and I'll expect your reports first thing in the morning, dismissed," Tsuki bowed and immediately turned on his heel and walked a few steps away but paused as he noticed his Taichou hadn't moved, he hesitated for only a split second but continued walking out of the door. The young ANBU was eager to get out of his sweaty uniform after having run for so many hours – Taichou sure had push hard to get them back to Konoha as fast as possible; if Tsuki didn't know better, he would have thought there was something more biting at his team leader than the urgency brought on by an injured comrade.

"Is there something else, Kakashi?"

"…Tsunade-sama…where is that woman I brought in a few weeks ago?"

"What?"

"That woman I found…where is she?" The Godaime wasn't sure she liked just how flat his voice sounded, a little too clinical;

"Why do you wish to know?"

"I would like to talk to her," He remained stock still with his arms behind his back, his right hand gripping his left wrist, the tension increasing along with his agitation,

"She won't know anything about what happened here…no matter what it might look like-"

"It's not about that, Tsunade-sama,"

"Oh?" Her eyebrow raised again as she cocked her head slightly, Kakashi wondered if he was going to escape this with both wrists still intact, but he made no move to answer her question. The Hokage narrowed her eyes at him slightly and a terse silence hovered over them for a few moments, "Give me your report first, dismissed," Kakashi forced himself to bow, determined not to give away more than he had to, as he turned and walked from the office, it required all of his self-restraint not to slam the door with all his might on his way out.