Ramen never tasted so good. How Teuchi concocted this heavenly broth was beyond him; the man is a genius, he's convinced. The way the meat seems to soften between your teeth, the way the flavours burst in your mouth at every bite – if there was a jutsu for making ramen, he wouldn't mind copying this skill. Ramen truly is the best pleasure.

Speaking about pleasure, the next volume should be already out by n-

"Aren't you already late, eh Kakashi?"

Kakashi knew that voice. The last time he and his father spoke was in the camp-fire during the invasion of Pain and strangely, no other Hatake Sakumo was more real for him. He was able to meet him after dying and maybe because he was at the brink of death that Kakashi could hear his father's voice again.

"What kind of lame ass excuse are you going to give him this time, eh son?"

Kakashi takes an icy breath of life. He hears the far off muffled rumble of the lingering storm and notices that nature seems to have held her breath too. He shifts slightly from his seat, cracking a thin layer of ice wrapping his whole body. With the help of an eerie glow from the moon, he notices the door of the cave was blown away. The moonlight outlined a strange feathery clump near his feet and Kakashi springs up, ready to strike at the enemy.

However the small, snowy owl was already dead. From how the feathers were scattered, Kakashi could tell that the small bird had crash landed outside and crawled its way into the warmer confines of the cave. With a closer look, Kakashi discovers a small tube attached to its leg.

Intermittent.

Kakashi's hands tremble and the light paper slips from his fingers. He rarely, almost never, lost control but right now his hands were shaking in fury. Damn them, damn them all. It was the Kage's rule to let no one see Sasuke, with the five of them as exception. Don't they have the decency to appear in front of Sasuke and tell it to him face to face? The promised time was three days before and the message was only being delivered now?

If it was their decision to let him stay another month, then let it be so. Sasuke could accept imprisonment, even death, as a punishment but to be thrust aside like this, without explanation, was truly far too cruel. Especially for Sasuke who, despite having never trusted anyone before, wholeheartedly placed his fate in another's hands.

Will Sasuke be able to trust people again?

Kakashi unclenched his fists. Was he too late after all?

"We're late, aren't we?" Kakashi mumbles. In his eyes, the snowy owl looked rather unfulfilled in his death. His wings were spread wide, feathers frozen, long, sharp icicles hanging from each vane. The little bird must have avoided the path of the snow storm like him, only to be blasted away by the blizzard that followed. He must have met the blizzard head on, risking his life, not wanting to waste more time, knowing the importance of the message he was carrying.

"I don't know how you lived," Kakashi picks up and rolls the paper before placing it back at the owl's leg. "But you died like a real shinobi." He would have liked to dig a grave for it but if someone were to find it, they would know an unfriendly visitor was roaming about. Kakashi was wise enough to know not to attract suspicion to himself.

After checking if he had left other traces in the cave, Kakashi swiftly hastened towards the mountains. He travelled on through the darkness, senseless and instinctive, taking one step after another, transforming into a machine moving forever forward.

Sometime during the night of the next day, Kakashi was stopped by a familiar image of clumped feathers in the middle of a frozen lake. He figures this was a predecessor of the young snowy owl peacefully resting in that cave. Did it fell during the return journey? Or did it fail to deliver the message too?

Kakashi stopped briefly, tempted to go out the frozen field and retrieve the message. But since it may be a trap, he brushed the thought away and pressed onward. He couldn't be delayed any longer.

However, the closer he approached the underground fortress' entrance, the more difficult it became to continue. Lowering his chakra was to an undetectable level benefited him tremendously. He kept bumping into Frost shinobi who were setting up sentry wards infused with sensing chakra. It looks like they were lying in wait; like they were expecting someone to break in.

Had they known that an outsider was trying to infiltrate? Had Tsunade -?

No. Something was wrong. Even if Tsunade named him a deserter, her warning wouldn't travel as fast as he had. Summoned animals couldn't make it through the blizzard. Any chakra-made carrier would be distorted at the atypical levels of natural energy present here.

Kakashi feels worried with every step. He's tempted to use Sharingan to get a grasp of the situation. How many enemies was he expecting? What kind of skills do they posses?

If he were captured then he might be taken to the underground fortress. However, there was a slim chance that they would spare his life. If he reveals his position now and attacks, he would be straying from his true purpose.

Kakashi pushes onward. His mission is to infiltrate and escape the fortress undetected. Depending on Sasuke's condition and state of mind, he'd like for this visit to be unknown to Sasuke too. If Sasuke wasn't being maltreated and neglected, if he wasn't feeling alone and abandoned, then Kakashi might consider not showing his face. But if it came to it, he was prepared to do all he could to make sure Sasuke didn't stay that way.

Finally, having endured the long and harsh journey, Kakashi arrives at the entrance of the underground fortress. There was a giant opening in the foot of the mountain. Kakashi found it odd that protective barriers were not set-up.

Kakashi was equally disturbed by the lack of shinobi on guard duty. There was only one to guard the wide entrance. He was more alarmed when he found out that only a dozen shinobi were patrolling the multi-levelled fortress. There was only one way in and out and being underground posed a challenge for break-ins but it was unbelievably easy to slip past their security.

Had he walked straight into a trap?

Without much difficulty, Kakashi was able to make it past torch lit hallways and down stone spiral staircases unnoticed. Like a hound, he relied on his acute sense of smell to locate Sasuke. He decided to start at the bottommost floor – a practical area for maximum security.

True enough, he detects a faint smell coming from one of the steel reinforced doors. Upon a closer look, the door had every binding spell imaginable. It made no sense that it was slightly open.

Kakashi feels his stomach drop when he gets a whiff of the air coming from the inside.

"Aren't you already late, eh Kakashi?" his father's voice echoes in his head.

Is that… Sasuke's blood?

-=oOo=-

A/N: Is the story good so far? Worth continuing? I'm dying to know what you think! Please review and thank you!