Summary: Dying and getting thrown into another world can be really liberating, especially if it's the world of Naruto. Just imagine the possibilities, with the future knowledge you would have to boot, they are truly endless. Or so you thought. A story in which our OC has to fix the Naruto timeline but ends up becoming a little too preoccupied trying to survive one of the deadliest destinies in the Naruto world.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Warning: Rated T for violence, language, and suggestive adult themes.

Chapter 3

I flew back a good 10 feet through the air before landing on my butt with a thud. Boar did not pull his punches, even when fighting a little kid. He said it was for getting me used to fight stronger opponents since I was such a weakling.

What a charmer Boar was.

I knew he was saying that just to motivate me though, and I had to admit it was working wonders. My pride might just be my demise one of these days. So, whenever he knocked me back, I kept getting back up and attacking him with all I had. During our Taijutsu practices, Boar would usually let me have a go at him for a while before hitting back. I would punch, kick, elbow, and knee him. Or at least I tried to. Every one of my blows was met with a block and the rare ones that made it past his defense were dodged at the last second. It was infuriating. And I think he was going around our spars that way just because of that. To help me get rid of any emotions during a fight. So, he taunted me as much as possible… how ironic.

My form was still sloppy too, but what I didn't have in skill I had in energy. We would have at it for a good hour before I was spent. Not bad for a child of 4. Of course, after I was completely exhausted, he would make me keep going even then, to drive me past my limits. Also, to teach me that, apparently, you can't choose to stop for a break in the middle of a fight for your life. Curious, that. After about a year with Root, the concept of fighting for my life was still a bit foreign. Such a thing in my past life was almost unheard of. You would have to actively search for a way to endanger your life to have that experience. But what an experience that was. What a thrill.

Every day that went by here I found myself enjoying having to fight for my life more and more. I knew that wasn't exactly a good thing. No sane person should relish going through that, but I guess that's what they wanted here at Root. Soldiers. Nothing more, nothing less. You lived for war, and only in war, you could be alive. At least for now. They had been doing this to us since our six-month initiation period ended. Changing us from pure survivalists to warriors.

I knew that this was not all there was to a Root member though. You couldn't just be a nut case with a fetish for killing. No. You were a soldier, sure. But you were also an infiltrator, an assassin, an escort. You were anything Root needed you to be. This was just the first step. Turning us into fighting machines.

"That's enough for today, Kai," Boar said after knocking me down for the last time. "Yomu should be finished with Cat by now too. I expect you both on time for your morning lessons tomorrow."

Cat had kidnapped Yomu right before our afternoon spar with Boar that day. She said his Kenjutsu was still lacking and that she wouldn't have a disciple who couldn't hold his own with a sword.

The tip-less tantō was our weapon of choice during the Kenjutsu part of our Bukijutsu lessons, as it was with most other Root Anbu. Cat was our usual weapons instructor and boy could she be a meanie. I wouldn't leave a session with her without being covered in cuts and bruises. In fact, I still have a handful of scars with her signature throughout my body to this day. I liked her though, weirdly enough.

She was conditioned alright. Thoroughly too. But I suspect that overseeing two young kids daily had an effect on her. I always heard that no love could compare to a mother's love and although she did not mother us in the more normal sense of the word, I could tell she had grown fond of Yomu and I. In a distorted Root-way of being fond of people, but fond, nonetheless. Perhaps that was why she was so thorough with us. She knew only the strong survived here.

Our lessons with her would usually take place just after lunch, every day. Proficiency with the tantō was a must to Root Anbu as the use of shurikens and kunais were to most ninja. We, of course, practiced with them as well.

After being chosen by Danzo, Yomu and I had been put into a strict learning regime that encompassed everything a ninja needed in his arsenal. The only things we had not started learning yet were Elemental Ninjutsu and Genjutsu. We were apparently still too young for that. Not too young to learn torture and interrogation techniques though, not that, God forbid. At least they had taught us the three basic Academy jutsus necessary for graduation. I had to say, even though I did not agree in the slightest with Root's training methodology, Konoha's Academy was so fucking lacking. The standard age for graduating is 12yo, and one of the main tests for that was using Kawarimi, Henge, and Bunshin no Jutsu. Like really? At 12?

Anyway, it was while learning to torture and interrogate that I had my first encounter with one of the Naruto characters besides Danzo.

Fū was the third member of our little three-person class on that subject. Him, Yomu, and I would weekly partake on real torture session with one of Root's prisoners. Not one of the mocking sessions we had, a real one. If someone had told me while I was being a subject to one of our mock torture get-togethers that there was a big difference between a real and a mock session I would not have believed. So, him being of the Yamanaka Clan I can only suspect that Fū was supposed to become Root's future interrogation specialist, and although he would probably only need his Clan's Jutsu to get the information he wanted, he too was taught the more… primitive… techniques a regular torturer needed to know.

I tried to befriend him, I really did. Even though I needed to maintain the mindless drone in-training cover I still approached him and talked about what we learned to get to know him better. It felt kind of weird using torture as an ice breaker, but it was all I had. I didn't particularly remember anything specific of him from the shows, so I went with that. It was useless though. Try as I might the conversation stayed on that unsavory topic. Fū was already in too deep. He was a full-on drone.

Besides learning how to remove nails in the most painful ways possible and to poke nerves with senbon needles as a way to get the answers you want, I was also instructed in the other shinobi arts.

For now, infiltration and assassination were taught to us in a theoretical way. Together with strategy and battle tactics. After all, drones or not, Danzo couldn't be on the battlefield with us and the Captains had to come up with the necessary plans to come out victorious.

I knew Danzo had plans of mitigating the theoretical assassination part soon enough though. He would probably start us off with finishing off a prisoner that had outlived his usefulness. No killing of animals like they do in the academy here in Root. That was too soft even for newbies like us. The first kill was to be human.

I would also think that in a few years they would start sending us off in missions too. Probably after they finally taught us Nin and Genjutsu. Whenever that might happen.

Besides Boar, Hinoshi would often instruct us in Taijutsu. No, he didn't teach us the Jūken, the Hyuuga's Gentle Fist (although I did pick up on a few tricks knowing how useful it could be). Danzo might be his boss but he was a regularly recruited Anbu and Danzo couldn't order him to give his Clan's secret Taijutsu away. What Hinoshi did was coach us in the uses of chakra to strengthen one's body and one's blows. Being a Hyuuga, Hinoshi naturally had a talent in chakra control, and as a practitioner of the Jūken, he was more than qualified in teaching us how to use chakra to damage others and strengthen yourself. Not only that but by using his Byakugan he could detect the flow of chakra in our bodies and help us in redirecting it the right way and in the right amount.

With my knowledge of the whole Naruto world, I was well aware of just how important chakra control was and what could be accomplished with mastering it. Things like Medic ninjutsu relied heavily on it, and characters like Tsunade and Sakura after her based their whole Taijutsu style on releasing chakra at the moment they make contact with their target. And they were crazy strong mainly because of that. Other things like creating a chakra scalp and simply not wasting chakra while using your jutsus were all dependent on chakra control.

With that in mind, I knew I had to master it. So, I would always try my best during Hinoshi-sensei's lessons. I gave everything I had in every session. As luck would have it though, I was absolute trash on it. No talent at all. In fact, Hinoshi made sure to let me know just how bad I was compared to others he could see with his Byakugan. Which was great for my self-esteem… I could still perform a Bunshin, barely. I wasn't as bad as Naruto at least, the Bunshin didn't come out all gooey and white like his did in the show. It just wasn't perfect, or anything close to that. Granted, I didn't have as much chakra as him, Naruto being a jinchūriki and all, but I understood his plight.

To top it all off, Yomu had to have been a natural at it. I, of course, being at least ten years his senior, was definitely NOT jealous.

That was mine and Yomu's relationship in a nutshell. Even knowing what would be asked of me in the future (I had no intention of going through with it, of course), Yomu and I quickly became the best of friends. Rivals too. I don't think we were quite at Naruto and Sasuke's level of rivalry, but we had our moments. None of us was a brooding emo or a complete idiot, so we were friends before we were rivals. It felt strange being best friends with a 6yo, but luckily Yomu was mature for his age. Imagine having to deal with an actual 6yo. Although I doubt any Root initiate maintains the annoying kid quality all children have for long.

I was lucky that I got him as a partner too since he was like me. Yomu was, thankfully, able to maintain his personality after the many trials we went through at Root. Whenever we were training with the other Foundation members we were as stoic as them, but when we knew we were alone we could be ourselves and salvage whatever childhood we had left. Well, he had left anyway.

"Of course, Boar-san," I replied getting back up and bowing at the waist. Boar might be rough around the edges, but he was an alright guy. Drone-ness aside.

I stayed in the secluded training ground for a few minutes more after he left. Being outside gave me a false sense of freedom that I tried to cherish whenever I could. The place had a barrier around it that, like the one around Konoha, wouldn't let intruders in without warning the Foundation. The difference though is that leaving the barrier without permission would also set off the alarm and, having Root's base on one side, blocking the way to Konoha, and endless forests to the other, where I would be easily outpaced by Root members after me, gave me no chance of escaping.

I tried to not even focus on that possibility at this point. Sure, I still looked here and there for any chances but with the cursed seal on my tongue, the persona I had to maintain, and the fact that I would not leave Yomu behind no matter the circumstance limited my searches.

Not wanting to leave Yomu waiting for long I went inside and headed to where his practice with Cat was. Most of our Bukijutsu training happened in one of the many indoor gymnasiums Root had. From the anime, I always thought Root's bases consisted of only those weird pipe-rooms and whatnot. Turned out that, at least prior to being disbanded, Root was a well-funded organization that boasted impressive resources and training facilities for its members. Not only that, but the sheer number of either in-training or full on Root Anbu impressed me as well. I suspect the number of 'affiliates' would go down by a lot in the next years, leaving only the most loyal (read: conditioned) and committed to Danzo's cause.

I didn't have to wait long for as soon as I arrived in the hall leading to the gym, I bumped into Yomu, all cut up with his clothes in tatters.

"Fun session?" I whispered sarcastically at him. My only response was a shrug and a quick chop to the back of my head for my problems. The bastard was taller than me by a head and had free access to the top of my skull. Sure, he was two years older, but it still stung. One of the worse things about being reborn as a kid was having to get used to the diminished field of vision and the shear blow in my pride.

We walked silently the rest of the way to our room, passing by a few Anbu and many Root trainees like us. We didn't have much contact with any other kids so a quick nod of the head to each was all the necessary formalities. Root had a very efficiency before tradition approach to this kind of things. Except when Danzo was concerned, of course. We would have kneeled faster than (your mom) a church congregation on a Sunday if he came our way.

Finally closing the heavy door behind our backs, we let our stoic drone mask drop. Our room was pretty isolated from the rest of the base, and since we usually only came back to sleep in it, Danzo didn't waste his resources spying on us here. We were one of his most successful soldiers on-the-making and, so far, we had kept the façade of emotionlessness in front of him perfectly after all. It's not like he trusted us, he just didn't suspect us.

"Ahh, Cat can't be ruthless when she thinks we are slacking," Yomu sighed tiredly and plopped himself on his bed. Cuts and all. "It's not as if I'm doing it on purpose either, I'm just not good with a sword. Give me a Bō staff any day of the week. The one time I tried it when Lizard was subbing for her, I completely destroyed you too."

My forehead grew a huge tick, but I ignored the jibe. He was just doing it on purpose to annoy me too. To see my reaction. Yomu liked making people squirm, I found out. It was a little out of his character, but I liked the dry humor he developed. Banter is a two-way street, it wouldn't be fun if I was the only one provoking.

"I wouldn't say completely, but you did best me that day," I conceded. "Why don't you just ask her to use the Bō, then? If you're that good at it she won't take it away from you."

Yomu turned his head from the pillow it was buried in and looked at me with incredulity in his face. "You really think Cat, of all people, would let me use something besides the tantō without fully mastering it first?"

"Fair," I said simply.

We spent the next few minutes in companionable silence as we changed into less ragged clothes and Yomu cleaned his wounds. We had an hour before a session on Chakra Control with Hinoshi and took the rare break to rest in our respective beds after getting ready. Looking at the ceiling as if contemplating something, Yomu was the one to break the stillness.

"Hey Kai," Yomu said without looking at me.

"Yeah?"

"Have I ever told you about my family?" Yomu asked quietly. I opened my eyes and sat up at that. Despite our friendship, we had never talked about his family, and I had never asked. I had told him about my past before, which was not much. I just told him that I didn't remember anything before I was found by Konoha nin when my village burned. He also didn't pry further which I was thankful for. I had tried but not only could I not speak about my future knowledge, I also couldn't utter a word about the circumstances of my arrival in this world.

"No, I don't think you have," I replied after a moment.

"Hm," Yomu hummed and was quiet for a minute after acknowledging my answer. "Would you like me to?" He finally asked.

"If you need someone to listen to you, I'm here," I reassured him. Sometimes people don't need to talk about something, but they do need to be listened to. As weird as that sounds.

I always felt that part of his buoyant demeanor was a way of coping with what happened to him prior to getting here. The way he stayed cheerful even in the moments of despair we had felt while here was a little too much, even for an optimist like him.

"I came here from an orphanage, you know, just like you," he started his tale, still looking at the ceiling. "I still have memories from before that though. I remember living with my mother and my twin sister in a small village by the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Fields, where Kusagakure(Grass) is."

"It also burned like yours. Every single house was torched, and no adults lived to see another day, including my mom." He continued his story with no emotion is his voice. It wasn't like his voice showed it didn't matter to him, what happened. It was more like it was firm and unwavering, with no weaknesses. "I still have no idea why ninja would do that. We had nothing of value and didn't pose a threat to anyone. Not only that, but Konoha and Kusa were not at war with each other or with anyone else, so it just doesn't make any sense."

"Anyway, my sister and I were also brought to an orphanage by Konoha nin like you. We didn't stay there for long though, so I don't even know where it was. Three days later, together with another half a dozen kids, we were chosen and brought here. We were the only ones from our village to be chosen too. My sister was so happy she got to be a shinobi. She said it was her dream to become an Iryo nin, and that good things could come out of bad ones. Like her being able to follow her dream after our village was burned." I gulped then, already knowing where this was going. If he had not mentioned his sister before, and I had never seen him speaking to anyone besides me, there was only one thing that could have happened.

"She died on the third day of our first punishment week during one of the group beatings," Yomu said quietly, confirming my theory.

'Fuck'

"I didn't even have a chance to talk to her the whole time we were here. Our group would always stay on the opposite side of the room where the girl groups were brought in from and I didn't see her at all during the testing week. After the beatings began, I would always look to the other side of the room to check if she was okay. She had always been fragile too. I don't even know why she was chosen." He said, his hands shaking. Not with tears, no. With rage. Suppressed rage.

"They beat her to death." Yomu growled, his eyes were red with anger and spittle flew with every syllable he uttered. "They beat her until her head caved in and her brain was splattered on that goddamned floor."

He stayed quiet for a few minutes after that, calming himself. I had no idea what to say at that point, or that I should even say anything. What could I say? I wouldn't bring her back and I doubted he wanted my pity, so I held my tongue waiting for him to continue.

"You know what's the worst thing about it?" Yomu asked rhetorically. "I can't even blame the people who beat her. They are all fucking robots. All of them. They didn't do it out of pettiness, or because she might have annoyed them or in a burst of rage. No, they did it because that man told them to." He spat, disgust heavy in his mouth when mentioning Danzo. "He ordered them to kill her, probably as an example of what weakness brings."

"I thought I would try to kill him the next time I saw him, or that I would yell and rage at the Root agents that did that to her." Yomu looked me dead in the eyes for the first time during his story. "All I felt as I looked down at my sister's body was determination though. Determination to get strong enough to rid the world of the stain that is Danzo and everything he represents. I know I can't do it right now, or that I probably won't be able to for a long time. But one day Kai, mark my words," Yomu said, getting one of his kunais out, slashing his left hand's palm and closing it in a fist. "I will kill Danzo Shimura and destroy Root… this I promise."

We stared at each other for the longest time following his vow. I could see that while he trusted me enough to tell me that, part of him was still afraid I would betray him and tell Danzo of his promise. I thought of playing with him and pretending to be insulted by the threat to our supposed idol but decided otherwise.

"I made that promise to myself six months ago, Yomu," I smirked at him and pointed behind my back. "You better get in line."

Yomu was slightly taken aback by my answer but he soon regained his composure and grinned manically at me. I had never seen Yomu look so… predatory, but I liked that he had a dark side to him. He would need it if he planned to go ahead with his ambition.

We got up and grasped forearms, faces grim with purpose and determination.

"If not me, you. If not you, me." Yomu said as we shook on our promise to ourselves and to each other.

XxX

Weeks passed following our promise without anything noteworthy happening. We trained, and we trained, and we trained. There was nothing outside of that. We were too young to go on missions and it's not as if we could just take the day off and go for sushi in Konoha. No, we just trained. It wasn't even boring, training every day like that. It was just mechanical. For three weeks our routine didn't change in the slightest. Boar and Cat stayed at the base, so we didn't get any new teachers and Danzo didn't prepare any special surprise for us. Which he usually did from time to time. It's not as if just because we passed the six-month initiation period that the beatings and torture sessions were beyond us, they just became more infrequent.

Yomu and I were on our way to spar with Boar and with each other at one of the outside training grounds. Even though fighting Boar or one of the other Anbu Black Ops was always more challenging it was still awkward due to the height difference, so Boar would usually show us a thing or two before pitching us against the other.

When we arrived at the grounds, we had a little surprise waiting for us. Well, not so little and not for us, exactly, since it was more of a surprise for me. It wasn't unusual for Boar, Cat, or Hinoshi to bring another shinobi to our lessons, or just send one when they were busy, so I assume Yomu was taking the other person's presence in stride.

I, on the other hand, was fucking hyped.

Standing beside Boar was Kakashi fucking Hatake, in the standard Konoha Anbu uniform and wearing the same mask he did in the anime. 'Holy fuckkk', I thought as I stood in the same place I had been when I saw him first. I didn't want to fangirl Kakashi that much, but he was one of my favourite characters in the whole story. Hell, he was one of my favourite characters of all stories. He was always dropping knowledge on Naruto and the others, had a sad ass backstory (pretty common in the Naruto world though), and he's just overall fucking sick.

I reigned in my excitement as much as I could and reminded myself that I had a persona to maintain. I had to act professional and stoic, I couldn't just go up to him and ask for an autograph or something.

'Can't I? NO, remember what you're here for.' I mentally reprimanded myself.

Boar looked up from the stack of paper in his hands and acknowledge us with a nod. "Good, we can finally start now that you're here. I have a few reports to write, so he is going to be subbing for me." Boar said pointing at Kakashi.

The silver-haired shinobi examined us for a moment then simply nodded at us both. I couldn't tell for sure, but I think he was surprised at how young we were. Even for a guy that became a Chūnin at the age of 6 at least the small red hair-ish child must have looked too young to be there. Especially since we weren't at war any longer. Well, not officially at least. Small skirmishes and covert operations still happened all the time.

I was happy that, for a change, Yomu and I had decided to wear masks today. We don't, usually, but we had been trying to get used to them for the past week and tried to have it on as much as possible. I had every intention of leaving Root at and joining the normal society at some point, and I didn't want someone like Kakashi to know I had been one of Danzo's goons. He would try to as he did with Sai, but he would be wary to trust me if he recognized me as an ex-Root.

"I just told him to spar against you two and correct any mistakes you make," Boar continued after our little nodding exchange.

"What do we call you?" Yomu asked looking at Kakashi. I was about to ask the same thing, just to see if he would give us his real name.

Boar, however, had other plans and answered for Kakashi before he could say anything. "He's going to be subbing for me, so just call him Boar."

I sweat dropped at that. Conditioned people can get really uninventive with anything personal.

"Alright then, get started. Danzo-sama is waiting for these." Boar said stacking the papers in a neat pile and walking away after nodding at Boar 2.0.

Kakashi exhaled heavily and turned back to us. I don't think he was super excited about having to spar with two kids. "You two against me. Show me what you got, and don't hold back."

"Hai!" Yomu and I exclaimed, jumping back a few meters to get some distance between Kakashi and us.

(3rd Person POV)

Kai and Yomu looked at each other and nodded before unstrapping their respective weapons. Kai took out his tip-less tantō and Yomu reached for his bō staff. He had finally convinced Cat to use it after practicing with it enough to display appropriate proficiency with the standard Root weapon. They both rushed at Kakashi, occasionally crossing their paths trying to confuse him. When they finally reached within striking distance of him, Kai took the lead and went for an underhand vertical slash only to stop as soon as Kakashi took out his katana to block and jumped over the man. Kakashi turned to look at Kai landing at his other side, only for Yomu to appear in his now blind-spot and swing at his head with his staff. With reflexes built by years of experience, Kakashi was able to duck the blow at the last second. He planted both hands on the ground and lifted both his legs, spinning them around to kick at both his opponents. Kai and Yomu were able to block the kick, Yomu with his bō staff and Kai by crossing his arms in front of him, yet they were still forced back with the impact of the kick.

Shrugging off the numbness in his arms, Kai ran to circle Kakashi, taking out three kunai, throwing them his way, and running right after them. At the same time, Yomu ran straight at Kakashi, wanting to present a double-front for him, but also not wanting to stand directly on the other side of the projectiles in case Kakashi dodged them.

Kakashi must have understood the position they wanted to leave him, so he sheathed his katana and jumped straight in the air, pulling out four shurikens in each hand and sending half of them at Yomu and half at Kai.

Coming up with an idea, Kai let the shuriken hit him straight on. He knew, from the previous pause Kakashi did when Boar introduced them, that he considered Kai to be too young, so he knew that Kakashi would be worried when he saw that his shuriken had sunk home. Yomu saw the slight hesitation in Kakashi's posture as he was coming down and used the opportunity to hit a round-house kick to Kakashi's ribs, sending him flying.

Kai had delayed the use of the Kawarimi as much as possible to give the impression the shuriken had actually hit him and Kakashi became too worried with having possibly just killed a child to look past Kai's ploy. 'Hum, that will make him take us a little more serious,' Kai thought as Kakashi stood up and brushed himself off. He really wanted to see Kakashi pull some serious moves.

"I see," Kakashi said, looking at the perforated log where Kai had been last. "I have underestimated you both due to your age."

"It won't happen again." Kakashi rushed at Yomu first, pulling his katana out and going through a flurry of thrusts and slashes that Yomu was barely able to parry with his staff.

Kai, seeing this, dashed after Kakashi while throwing at kunai at his head. Kakashi sidestepped the projectile and caught it with his left hand. Using the same kunai, Kakashi blocked Kai's slash with his tantō and immediately went down to swipe at his legs while at the same time dodging Yomu's swing at his head.

Kai backflipped out of Kakashi's kick and brought his tantō to a defensive position in front of him. Yomu was again engaging Kakashi with his bō and was having problems maintaining the weapon in his hand. Kakashi, although holding back, was still several times stronger than both of them. Kai once again rushed at the pair determined to help his friend. He got close to them just in time to stop Kakashi's next swing with his tantō, as Yomu's bō was sent flying out of his hands by the Anbu's previous blow.

Yomu took out two kunai in a reverse grip and followed up on Kai's strikes as best as he could, trying to find any openings in Kakashi's defense. Kai jabbed with his tantō at what seemed to be an opening in Kakashi's left side and realized too late that Kakashi had left it on purpose. Kakashi stepped in on his thrust, hooking his left arm on Kai's sword arm and elbowing him in the mask. As soon as his elbow connected, he pivoted on his right foot and swung his left at Yomu, hitting the boy on the chest with the back of his ankle.

Kai groaned, picking himself off the ground. Yomu doing the same not far to his left, rubbing at his soon-to-be-bruised chest. Kai's mask was cracked, but he was glad it didn't fall off and Kakashi saw his face. He had always wondered how the Anbu masks stayed in place when in the anime the characters would simply position the mask on their faces, not bothering to strap it on or anything. It turned out that the masks had built-in chakra receivers and dispensers on its borders. The mask absorbed a minuscule amount of chakra and it automatically dispensed it onto the skin again, gluing it to the wearer's face.

"You have great teamwork and use each other efficiently to distract your opponent while the other attacks from the blind spot," Kakashi said breaking down their fighting style. A glimpse of his battle brilliancy Kai saw on the anime coming out. Kakashi hadn't been sparring with them for more than fifteen minutes and he had already figured out the way Kai and Yomu always fought when they went two on one on someone.

"The trick with the Kawarimi was well-executed too. You knew I would underestimate you, didn't you?" Kakashi asked turning to Kai, who just nodded in return.

"Good job, then." He turned to Yomu then and pointed at his staff. "You are also very good with that. Keep practicing with it and work on using more fluid movements, not just the ones in Katas. That goes for both of you, with either the tantō or the bō. Katas are very good, but your movements become predictable if you rely solely on them."

"Hai!" Kai and Yomu exclaimed at the same time and readied themselves for another bout.

(Back to 1st Person POV)

"Ughhhh" I groaned into the pillow. As soon as we got back from training with Kakashi Yomu and I had thrown ourselves into our respective beds and hadn't gotten up since. We had gone for another four rounds after the first, and Kakashi had bested us in each of them. Not only that, but it turned out that Anbu Kakashi and Jōnin Kakashi were very different from how they treated their students. One thing I criticized Kakashi for during the anime was that he had never really driven Team 7 as much as he should have. Well, he drove us alright. By the end of the fifth bout Yomu and I could barely stand up, and Kakashi hadn't even worked a sweat. I had massively underestimated the difference between a fully trained ninja and two green kids like us.

After his first moment of hesitancy, Kakashi didn't present any more openings. At least not one that we could see, he wasn't all-powerful of course. The only time we did find openings it ended up with one of us on the ground, regretting being too overeager.

It was a great learning experience though. I could confidently say that Kakashi was stronger than Boar, Cat, or any other shinobi we had practiced with. Even though they all held back against us, it was clear Kakashi was the superior ninja. A true genius, to be better than training machines like the Root Anbu members.

Kakashi corrected several of our mistakes. Sometimes after the bout had ended, sometimes in the middle of it. Our forms, stances, postures, and moves. Nothing went by uncriticized. Even the way Yomu held his bō and my irregular use of chakra throughout the body, Kakashi made sure to let us know our shortcomings so we could work on them. Frankly, he had more of a real shinobi teacher vibe now than he had in the show.

Kakashi left right after our practice when a messenger hawk summoned him. He probably had to go on a mission or something like that. If

Something weird happened though. Kakashi had been about to declare the end of our practice session when a messenger hawk summoned him. Alright, nothing unusual about that, but the thing is, there were dozens of messenger hawks in the sky. You could see them flying around in the distance, all throughout Konoha. Something was happening. Something big, I just didn't know what.

(3rd Person Danzo POV)

Danzo laid in his bedroll thinking about what happened earlier that day. He had sent two squads of Anbu to ambush and assassinate Hiruzen on his way to meet the Daimyo, only to be betrayed by Kakashi and have his attempt foiled by the boy who had been disguised as the Third. Hiruzen had caught him red-handed sitting on the Hokage chair, and he had to go through the embarrassment of being forgiven by his former teammate.

'Tch, forgiving me like this. He is still as soft as ever,' Danzo thought. This softness would kill Hiruzen one day, and Danzo had told him just that. If their parts had been reversed, Danzo would have had no mercy in dealing with him. Just more proof that Hiruzen is not right for the Hokage job.

A soft thud outside his door alerted him of one of his Anbu's presence. "Is that you, Kinoto?" Danzo asked, more for the sake of appearances than anything. He already knew it was him.

"Danzo-sama, there's an urgent matter…" Kinoto trailed off. It was unusual for one of his Root to no be forthcoming with a report. It could only mean that something serious must have happened, and Danzo could already guess what it was.

Danzo got up quickly and donned his usual robes. It was the middle of the night, so only a few Anbu were stationed in strategic positions throughout the underground base. They all bowed to him or went to their knees as he walked purposefully to the center of Root's headquarters. The place he usually addressed the senior members of the Foundation was an open-roofed crossroads of four underground tunnels that connected different wings of Root's base. He came out of the northern entrance while contemplating the situation he been made aware on the way there.

"Hiruzen himself is leading them?" He asked out loud to no one. It only made sense though, Sarutobi must feel responsible for this since it was one of his own students. Danzo had told the man that they needed to lay low for a while, and that the Third was going to make his move as soon as he had proof. Danzo was lucky he had erased all evidence of his dealings with Orochimaru, but he didn't expect this to come so soon.

Now that Orochimaru had to flee the village, his plans would have to be delayed. "Damn him, he's gone too far." Danzo cursed the Snake Sannin. They would still proceed with it though. This would be his trump card in his battle to ascend to the Hokage position. They could make it work even with Orochimaru on the run, he just had to make sure the man got away.

"Kinoe, are you here?" Danzo asked when he reached the cemented center of the crossroads. In a blur, a young brown-haired boy appeared in front of him. He wore the standard Root overshirt atop a navy-blue shirt, complete with a tanto and an Anbu mask.

"And even with that… No, it's because of that, Hiruzen will not be able to kill his student Orochimaru. Just for times like this, we have another secret meeting place." Danzo said to the boy. It would be a difficult mission, but this one was another of his aces, and the boy had been groomed to be loyal and had proved to be so.

"Kinoe, go on ahead and wait for Orochimaru," Danzo had too much at stake in this. If Hiruzen got to Orochimaru first, not only could he not go forward with his plan, but Orochimaru might sell him out for leniency. "He must not be captured by the Leaf. At any cost," Danzo reiterated. "Go!"

A/N: This chapter had the first fight scene I ever wrote and I'm still not sure I like it. I doubt I will change it, but I want to make the future ones more energetic and dynamic. Let me know what you think of it and the rest of the chapter. Also, feel free to tell me about anything you want to see in the future here or any suggestions.