CHAPTER 4

Fifteen years earlier. Kakashi (21), 7 aNb

It had been almost ten years since I joined the ANBU but our last mission had been the worst I had to complete in all these years. My team had been sent to the Uchiha compound to pacify a brewing rebellion, only to find the entire clan dead. And thus, our orders had been to collect all the corpses from the compound and clear the area before the village awoke.

On top of carrying the bodies of the unfortunate members of the Uchiha clan that had been annihilated, I found out that the culprit of that massacre was no other than Itachi, a former member of my team and who was merely thirteen years old.

I had been a failure as his captain, completely unaware of his intentions and unable of having a better influence on him. Could I've changed anything if I had realised before, save any lives? What had driven such a talented and sensitive shinobi to commit such atrocities?

Standing by the sink of my kitchen, I washed my hands again. I felt the blood of the countless bodies embedded into my skin. It felt like that time again when the blood of another Uchiha lingered on my hands for months after he died… Obito, would you have also been along the rest of your clan if that boulder didn't crush you to death?

Death, blood… death and blood. Over and over again.

In this shinobi world that was the only things I was getting. I didn't want any part of it anymore. I just wanted to live a simple life, doing a normal job and then coming home to read and rest. Was that so much to ask for? I had to find a way to leave this way of living before I'd lose my mind.

"Kakashi-senpai." Tenzō's* voice called out through the entrance door.

I sighed, instead of spending time on finding a way out of this, I'd been summoned to yet another mission.

"Are you sure about this?" Tenzō asked behind me. After a couple of months of arrangements, we were at the summit where the meeting of the daimyō of the Five Great Countries was about to take place. I'd just used the transformation jutsu to change into a man with average facial appearance. I began to remove the mask covering my new face and although Tenzō was about to see an unknown man's face, he seemed to be wary of it.

The risk of using this technique was the constant emission of chakra while mentally maintaining the form. It was only an E-rank technique but if I were attacked by surprise, for example, I could lose control of my chakra and thus, the jutsu, ending up revealing my face. Something no one had seen, at least no one alive.

"Yes. If everything goes according to plan, I won't have to engage in a fight so I'll be able to maintain this form for many hours a day." I answered as I turned to look at him.

Tenzō's eyes were wide as he looked at my face. Even though it wasn't my real face, he looked at it intently, as if trying to look through it to see my real one.

Tenzō was disguised himself as a daimyō of the Land of Water while I acted as his personal bodyguard alongside Kō, one of the members of my ANBU team. The mission was simple, gather information in regards to the daimyō of the Land of Earth to find out if he was the one in contact with Orochimaru and the organisation he had apparently joined, the Akatsuki. The real daimyō of the Land of Water had tipped the Hokage on this information and had given us his permission to pose as him while he stayed hidden.

Even though no one had seen my face, many people knew of my father so I couldn't simply show it while posing as a shinobi of the Land of Water. It was too easy to make the connection thanks to our resemblance, hair colour and style. I had kept my height but made my body a bit more muscular.

I opened the doors into the meeting room. Everyone was already at their seats, leaving Tenzō's seat the only one unoccupied. As he sat down, Kō and I, stood behind him as we observed the members sitting on the table and their respectively escorts.

Kō was a member of my team, Team Ro. When Itachi was assigned to this team, Kō was upset since he believed the Uchiha were behind the Nine Tail's attack, the one that killed his younger sister. He had been monitoring Itachi's movements and was very hostile towards Itachi. Not that I couldn't blame him after the Uchiha massacre.

However, he was an important member of my team thanks to his great sensory skills. He had volunteered to this mission in this goal to locate Itachi, who had also joined the Akatsuki organisation, and who he wanted to eliminate to avenge his sister.

"We can now start." The daimyō of the Land of Earth spoke. Behind him, a sole escort stood, it was a female. She had very long blond hair but it was her beauty that struck me. At this point in my life, I knew appearances were deceiving but I couldn't help but wonder if the daimyō had chosen the right person to be in charge of his protection.

When she realised I was staring at her, her eyes bore into mine in a way that made a shiver run down my spine and, what I thought would follow, a scorn, turned into an inviting smile.

Perfect. The best chance to gather information from the daimyō of the Land of Earth had just been laid at my feet…

"Tera-san?"

I turned to look at the blonde that had called my false name. I had just left the building and was heading to get some lunch for the "daimyō". Like the rest of the guards, we were to fetch their respective daimyō's food due to the risk of an attempt to poison their lunch. I was surprised to see that she had left the daimyō of the Land of Lighting by himself.

"I'm just a shadow clone. He's safe." She said without me asking.

"Funami-san, isn't it?" Her name was probably the only one I remember after everyone was introduced.

"Yes. Do you mind if I accompany you?"

"Not at all." I replied.

"This summit will take several days. It's going to be a drag…"

I chuckled at her comment.

"If you feel lonely at night… I'll be happy to keep you company…"

I stopped in my tracks. I wasn't ready for her forwardness. My plan was to seduce her, and here I was being seduced instead.

"That's an offer hard to refuse. What is it exactly that you're after?" I asked.

"You want to find out if our daimyō is the one dealing with the Akatsuki, is it not? I'll save you the trouble. He is."

"W-What are you saying? Should you be telling me this?"

"As a shinobi of the Land of Lighting, no. But I had enough of this shinobi world, the wars, the hidden plans and consequent deaths. I don't want to spend the rest of my life like this. I want to leave it all behind…"

It took me a moment to find my words. Not long ago I was telling myself the same things.

"Leave it all behind… it sounds impossible." I murmured. "As shinobi, we have a duty towards our countries. It's not as simple as requesting to cease our responsibilities, the village will resent us and life won't be pleasant in what we now call home."

"It's not impossible. There's no need to stay in our village. There is the Land of Silence in a distant continent where shinobi can live as normal people. The only request to join them is to desert your village and the people you know so you can start from scratch. No one will look at you with accusatory eyes and you'll be free from the obligation that your village has forced upon you."

That actually sounded too good to be true.

"Why are you telling me this?" I asked her.

"I've been thinking about going there but haven't mustered the courage to do it as of yet. When you walked into the meeting room, I saw in your eyes the same expression I've been seeing when I look at myself in the mirror. I know you want out just as much as I do. So I thought… if there was someone else going there with me then I'd finally do this once and for all."

"So you need a companion."

She'd already given me the information I needed, saving me the work, so there was no need to follow the seduction strategy. The only thing missing was the details of the daimyō and the Akatsuki's collaboration. So, why was I even considering this? I didn't need to pretend to be interested in her or her plans.

"It doesn't hurt that you're a treat to the eyes…" She said in a sensual voice. It seemed like she knew what she wanted and would not back down until getting it.

I looked at her face closely. Her skin was flawless, her big amber eyes were bright as she eyed me. She had the kind of beauty that would stand out in any place, turning heads around as she walked, men and women. Her body was lean but it also boasted curves in all the right places. One of the heroines of the Icha Icha books I kept reading popped into my mind as I ogled… well, this was getting out of hand. I seemed to have lost all control of my manners.

On top of that, she was offering the thing I desperately wanted. A way out of the life lonely existence I'd been living and hating for the last sixteen years.

At that moment, I couldn't find a reason to deny her.

Like a man about to die of thirst that had been offered a glass of water, I reached out and grabbed her arm, pulled her towards me, making her body collide with mine, our faces separated by a mere inch. My head automatically leaned down to close the distance but the burning in my left eye, the one that was hiding the Sharingan under a thick contact lens, stopped me in my tracks.

As I looked into her eyes with my Sharingan, I noticed a thread of chakra that had linked her body with mine. It was similar to the puppet jutsu that controlled the movements of puppets like marionettes, only in this case, the threads were invisible to the naked eye, they didn't originate from her hands but from somewhere inside her mind and it wasn't really controlling my body but the workings of my mind.

I let go of her instantly, forcing the link she had made with my chakra to snap.

As soon as I did, I regained some clarity of my thoughts. The lust I had felt until a second ago almost vanished. Almost.

"Ah… you caught me." She said shamelessly.

"Why were you trying to control me?" I asked angrily.

"Controlling is not the right word. I was merely enhancing some of the feelings that I sensed from you."

"What do you mean?"

"I was merely giving you a push to thoughts that your subconscious had, things you would not normally do, like taking something you wanted."

"How do you know what I wanted?"

"I saw it in your mind…"

My eyes widened at the realisation of her words. I had been caught up in the moment. Ignoring that vague sensation in the back of my mind and not realising that she had entered my mind and read my thoughts. How much had she been able to gather?

"You compelled me to be attracted to you… is that how you want your future companion to be by your side?"

"You felt an attraction towards me when you first saw me. You can't deny it. I only tried to make that drive forward. I didn't force anything in you." She answered.

"I would appreciate if you don't invade my mind again." I said, turning around and walking away from her.

It was hard to understand what had just happened. This woman had been in my mind, the place where I hid all my private thoughts and feelings. I felt exposed, bared to a woman I've just met, and yet, for some inexplicable reason, I felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders.

Had seen been able to see the details of our mission for Konoha? She was about to desert her own village so I hoped that wouldn't ruin it for me and Tenzō. Even if I considered abandoning the village, I wouldn't put them in danger by failing this mission. We had started it and it had to be completed.