Whatever they were wading through was warm and sticky, and it had permeated Kakashi's sandals and was now seeping up the leg of his pants. They stuck to his calves, hot and itchy and uncomfortable, and he shook his foot irritably as though trying to shake out a cramp. This place was disgusting - the further they went on, the stronger the fetid smell became. It reminded him of rotting milk, but tinged with blood in a vomit-inducing bouquet.
Meanwhile, Tenzou was acting oddly: first he shook his head like he was trying to deter an annoying bug and then he was rubbing his temples, just behind his mask. Kakashi observed him with a raised brow, starting to form niggling doubts about the boy's mental health - then Tenzou slapped the back of his own head, and Kakashi was a little disturbed.
"Is something wrong?" he said, peering at Tenzou.
"Mosquitoes," was all Tenzou gruffed in response, and although Kakashi wasn't sure he believed him, they sloshed on.
Soon, they came to a fork in the tunnel; one route was a dead end where the tunnel ceiling had crumpled in, so they went the other way. The channel darkened as they progressed, and Kakashi noticed that Tenzou was creeping a little closer. His kohai had been keeping an exaggerated distance from him up until the fluorescent lamps became less frequent; as it grew dimmer, he edged nearer, acting antsy.
The system of winding tunnels was like a great disgusting animal's glut of blood vessels and nerves, slicked with a greasy patina of who-even-knew-what, and that foul, heady, organic stench. Any ordinary person would've found it innavigable - but the nose knows. A silken thread of a floral perfume was pulling him forward.
"How do you know you're going the right way?" Tenzou said tentatively. Really - the kid was all alone in an increasingly darkening tunnel, with only Kakashi to rely on, and he doubted his new partner already? Kakashi rolled his eyes.
"I know his smell," he explained, a little sharply, and then a familiar, fresh evergreen scent hit him - it was sweet and minty cool, with an undertone of rich soil. "Is that you?" Kakashi said irritably.
"Is what me?" Tenzou said, looking blankly at him.
"That smell," Kakashi said, wrinkling his nose, "It's not bad, but it's putting me off." Actually, it was pretty nice. Tenzou smelled like a forest in early spring.
"Uh, sorry," Tenzou said, probably wondering what he'd ever done to deserve any of this.
Suddenly, Kakashi stopped; the scent trail had ended. Now, he stared at a circular hatch that was set in the tunnel wall to their right. It looked remarkably nondescript; in fact, they'd passed by several that looked just the same, down to the rusted lever set on its surface. But his nose had led him here, so this was the one. He reached out to it, but a sudden fizz in the air as his fingertips neared it told him no, and he snatched his hand back immediately.
"Don't touch it," Kakashi warned Tenzou, as if that hadn't already been obvious.
The hatch was protected by some strange and old technique, the kind he couldn't identify by surface observation. As he stared at it, he bristled; waves of years-old malintent washed over him, trying to push him away, to send him running home screaming. This was definitely the one, but until they knew exactly what was protecting it, they were stuck. Sighing, Kakashi relinquished his ANBU mask, giving it to Tenzou to hold, and then pushed up his forehead protector. Tenzou was leaning in for a closer look just as Kakashi opened his left eye.
For a second, everything was thrown out of focus, and as it shifted back into clarity he noted the unease radiating from Tenzou. His Sharingan was kept under wraps usually because there was no way to turn it off, and being constantly aware of every movement of chakra and every shift in feeling was incredibly draining. As a general rule, the people who he was forced to use it against were very, very unlucky.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to use it on you," Kakashi said, fixing him with his mismatched eyes, but this didn't seem to settle Tenzou one bit. He turned his stare back to the mysterious hatch, which gazed back at him, daring him to try and plumb the depths of its secrets. He could see now that a lurid violet light was burning around the perimeter of the hatch - Orochimaru's chakra. He looked down at his own hands, and as he watched, a flicker of blue light, like a tiny flame, slipped away from one fingertip and hit the hatch; he glanced at Tenzou to see that a little chakra was slipping from the boy's shoulder.
He'd seen this type of seal before, and it wasn't kind.
"You might want to stand back," Kakashi said, "It's a seal that absorbs chakra."
Tenzou took a few steps backward as Kakashi stared deeply again at the hatch. What can I do to open you? he thought, eyeing it, and as though it had read his mind, the seal on the hatch again drew out some of his chakra in a narrow thread that connected the end of his finger to the surface of the door. It wanted a donation, but it was trying to deceive him.
"Can you break it?" Tenzou asked tentatively, keeping well away.
"Yes," Kakashi said, feeling his energy flicker as the seal tapped at it, "But only by overwhelming it with chakra."
Lifting his hand, Kakashi broke the line of glowing energy that connected him and the door. This was just like Orochimaru, from what he had heard - first, weaken the victim, then sit back relishing their struggle and suffering before finally striking when they were near-incapacitated.
"Then let me," Tenzou said, and made to step forward, but Kakashi held out his arm.
"Stay out of the way," Kakashi warned him. He'd combed through Tenzou's chakra, and the kid didn't have nearly enough in his reserves to break a seal this vindictive. In fact, Kakashi wasn't even too sure if he had the strength in him to overcome it - but a mission was a mission… and that was to say, imperative.
"You're going to do it?" Tenzou said, in disbelief. It was a clever ploy on Orochimaru's part; the seal could only be broken by someone strong and with plenty of chakra, meaning that if a group approached it, its toughest member was neutralised immediately. It was unfortunate, though, and it was obvious that Tenzou was resistant to the idea - but they had to get through.
"Kid, you'll pass out if you even try," he responded gruffly, and then, gathering his strength, he slammed both palms down hard on the hatch and forced chakra from the very tips of his toes through his body and out of his white-hot hands in one enormous burst like a tidal wave; he felt his fingertips split, unable to resist the sheer strength of the surge, as his skin blistered. It was over in a second; he twitched back, shaking his burnt and bleeding hands as he doubled over, panting. The hatch had given only a little click to show that it had been defeated.
"Are you okay?" Tenzou said, inching closer to him.
'Okay' was probably not the first word he would've chosen; his hands felt like someone had run them over with a lawnmower, his heart was rattling somewhere at the top of his throat, and his lungs were flopping around like two useless fish. It felt as though somebody had set every one of his bones on fire and replaced his blood with corrosive acid. He took a deep, raspy breath, winced against the caustic pain, and just about managed to push his forehead protector back down over his stinging Sharingan.
"I've been better," he said, hoarse, taking his ANBU mask from Tenzou. He replaced it, and somehow this made him feel a little stronger. It was fine. Just a minor inconvenience. He could carry on with about a twelfth of his chakra left, no big deal, just as long as nothing untoward happened.
Crap. They were ninja. Untoward was a way of life.
He slouched towards the door, but his bloodied hands were useless, and when he tried to lift his arms, furious pain exploded behind his eyes and made it impossible. Tenzou stepped forward and pulled down the lever on the hatch; it then gaped open outwards, and light was thrown in on the room behind it… a room that hadn't been touched by light for years.
Kakashi tried to move towards it. He managed to shuffle about an inch forward before he slowly started to keel over, but Tenzou caught him by the shoulder strap of his chestguard and held him up.
"Maybe you should wait out here, and I'll go inside," Tenzou said, but even as he said this he seemed absolutely terrified. Kakashi eyed him, to see that Tenzou's dark eyes were wide and damp behind his mask.
"What if something happens to you?" Kakashi rasped back.
"With all due respect, senpai… you're about as useful out here as you would be in there," Tenzou joked, but his voice shook. There was no way in hell Kakashi was going to let him go in that room alone; he was obviously petrified.
"I'm good, Tenzou. Help me through," he said firmly, and together they clambered through the hatch.
It was obvious that this place had been hastily abandoned, for there were papers scattered all over the floor, and the few cots that were lined up against the wall were in disarray, sheets strewn and ripped. Thick dust that covered every surface muffled Tenzou's footsteps - he'd left Kakashi sitting on the ground, despondent, just inside the entrance. Trying to ignore the slow burn of exhaustion and pain that withered his last remaining strength, Kakashi watched Tenzou as he ransacked the room.
There were cabinets stacked high against the walls that had probably once been stuffed with papers - but when Tenzou threw them open, they were empty. Soon, Tenzou had moved out of sight, vanishing into the farthest shadowy corner of the room, and suddenly it occurred to Kakashi that it seemed almost oddly quiet in here, and if there were no physical traps… then Orochimaru certainly would've left some mental barriers.
"Be careful, because some of the things in here might be protected by -"
A sudden heavy thud made Kakashi jump, which set his nerves on fire. He had been about to say 'genjutsu', but Tenzou appeared to have just conveniently dropped to the ground in a practical demonstration. With an exhausted snarl, Kakashi struggled to right himself, pain crackling up and down his spine. It was useless; there was no way he was going to be able to stand up, so he belly flopped onto the dust and dragged himself with blood-smeared hands across the flagstones, to where Tenzou lay. It took several excruciating minutes before Tenzou was finally within reach.
He wrapped his ravaged fingers around Tenzou's wrist and hauled him out of the shadows to a spot nearer the hatch, where it was lighter, then collapsed on his back at his kohai's side, panting desperately. Tenzou was gripping a scroll in his hands; that, obviously, was the information they sought, but the price to be paid for collecting it was great.
Kakashi threw off Tenzou's mask, which skidded across the room, to see that he was now pale as snow, and he was trembling violently. His dark eyes were opened wide, but staring endlessly at nothing - he was seeing something that Kakashi wasn't. He was still breathing, just about, but it was coming in ragged gasps, and a little drool was leaking out of the corner of his mouth.
"It's - all - right," Kakashi grunted, scowling in terrible pain as he rolled himself onto his side, facing Tenzou. He didn't think the boy could hear him. "Don't - worry."
Kakashi knew two ways to break a genjutsu. The first - flooding Tenzou with his own chakra - would probably kill him. The second - using his Sharingan again - would also probably kill him. He'd take his chances with his eye, he decided, flinging his ANBU mask aside and tugging his forehead protector up with urgency. Then he stared deep into Tenzou's huge, dark eyes, which expanded, and swallowed him whole.
Suddenly he was facing an abyss framed by two white sickles, and crowned by a pair of terrible yellow suns. A snake, he realised in half an instant, of course - Orochimaru's signature. The last vestiges of chakra left in him gave an urgent tug at his insides as they began to wisp away - now or never, you big idiot - and he swiftly turned on his heel to face illusion-Tenzou, who was staring at him desperately.
The last thing Kakashi saw before he passed out was a dream of his own creation, weaved to free Tenzou from the horror of Orochimaru's genjutsu.
The snake disappeared, melting into air, as the scene shifted to deep night, an endless bow of sky… and a red moon hanging.