As the other four members of his team crouched into a small cabin below deck, Kakashi wedged himself against the bench in the back wall, facing the door. He tried to relax and loosen his posture, slouching, holding his hands together over his stomach instead of having them crossed so hard that he looked like he was angry. He'd be trapped down here either way, it was raining outside, had been since about an hour into the voyage.
Diagonally from Kakashi, to his left and next to Sai (who was doodling), Darui sat down last, his face mirroring the cool that Kakashi was trying to project. Ai was to Kakashi's right, twisting a lock of her hair around one of her fingers, and next to her was Choujuro, who thankfully left his enormous sword in the cabin where they had their bunks. Kakashi's fingers twitched, impatient to pull out Icha Icha Paradise, but he resisted the urge.
"This is the real mission right here," Darui said, tugging out a small scroll from a pocket underneath his chest armor, and unrolling it with care.
"The real mission?" said Sai, looking up from his sketchbook, his dark eyes widening.
"What now?" Kakashi grumbled, disliking the surprise.
He was expecting a briefing on how they would approach the shore and from there track down their target. So if that first scroll had been a fake, it might mean that the Lightning Country was really going all out in obfuscating their intent. He wondered if the Raikage was suspicious of a high-level spy within Kumogakure itself, but had to shelve the thought, because Darui was grinning now, like he couldn't believe what he was going to have to ask of them.
"We're not going to be trying to track down the killer ourselves. Even if we did know who it was or where they were hiding, they have too many advantages in terms of simply hiding. No, instead we're going to do a little something to shake things up on the Fading Island, altogether." He turned the scroll around, holding it up for them to see its contents. "Not even Sakura-taicho knows about this. The only other people who do are the Hokage, the Mizukage and the Raikage and their assistants."
"Why the additional secrecy?" asked Kakashi. They were already on an S-class mission – Darui was saying it was beyond that, a suicide mission with a side of questionable ethics.
"Read it," Darui replied.
He'd thought the team divisions were a little odd at first, leaving them completely without a healer, but now it made sense. It was a task Tsunade thought that he and Sai were more suited to carrying out than Sakura and Yamato; this task would require stealth and speed and power and a cool head. He suspected that Tsunade thought that he and Sai were less likely to question these orders, as well. "This is crazy," he said.
Simply put, they were to sneak into a pair of temples, one called Kiriryuu and the other Tenryuu, which were on opposite sides of a valley from each other and steal the two huge chakra crystals that maintained the island's fog shroud.
Darui released the scroll to him, as he tugged it forward. Kakashi's eyes widened as he fully absorbed what looked like an exact recording of the Raikage's dictation. Ei's secretary seemed able to capture his loud, scowling tone perfectly with her nimble brushstrokes. "Obtain these items by any means necessary, using any ability at your command, regardless of any human interference," he read aloud. It was outright permission to carve a bloody path straight to their goal.
"Getting in will probably be the easiest part," Ai said, reading the scroll after Kakashi passed it on. "But even if we get that far and then have them in front of us, what do we do with them? There's no pictures of them, what if the things are as big as a house?"
Chakra crystals weren't necessarily something you could just carry around in your pocket, though Kakashi knew Tsunade had passed a small one on to Naruko once. The bigger they were, the more powerful they were – and if the legends were correct they sometimes acquired a will of their own. After all, they were just masses of pure, condensed chakra, which was very similar to what a tailed beast was.
"You'll be given a storage scroll to seal the crystal in, then whichever of us is still in good shape can hurry up and tell Sakura we have them. I'm expecting utter chaos to break out, so we will have to hit the ground running to reach her before they can move to obstruct us. Her orders are to stay in Noumugakure or wherever she and her escort are staying – or being detained - until we can meet up with her. If we are successful, we will then have something to bargain with to get both the Daimyo's killer and a treaty with the island's leadership," Darui said.
It sounded so tidy when he put it like that, not like they were disrupting the daily lives of a whole country of people. He didn't mention if they'd actually give both of the crystals back or what they'd do if they failed. Though complete failure meant they'd all be dead or as good as dead.
"Pass that over here, Ai-san," Choujuro said, and adjusted his glasses as he read down the length of rice paper. "This plan is insane. It's not like those things are vulnerable, or someone would have done this a long time ago. Not even the Seven Swordsmen have ever tried anything like this. I didn't even know that these temples existed."
"It is a closely guarded secret, and we did still have a treaty to keep it as such when we learned of them. Our only intelligence is from thirty years ago, but as you can see, the source was able to provide photos of the temples, a rough map and the movements of the people within," said Darui. "It's not certain if they know that we are aware of them."
Kakashi wondered if whoever procured the information, was from the island itself. Someone seeking asylum perhaps, or instigate change within their country, or even wanting to hurt their own people out of vindictiveness. He'd seen it before, with Orochimaru and certain members of the effectively dead Uchiha clan, so it was within the realm of possibility.
"So all the information is totally out of date," said Sai, his face holding a hint of an inappropriate smile.
Darui nodded, his own expression a bit more solemn. "It's the best we've got. We're counting on their overconfidence that their relics are safe from intruders, and maybe they haven't had a good fight in years and are out of practice. Our only other real advantage will be surprise, which means we have to arrive on the island undetected and then be in and out of the temples like lightning. Two teams of two to infiltrate the temples themselves and capture and one other to neutralize the garrison in the valley itself."
Ai shook her head. "That's basically suicide for the guy going for the garrison though. No one to cover your back, and if you get penned in from both sides in the valley -"
"I agree this will be the hardest role to fill, which is why I've already volunteered myself for it. I've got a couple of tricks left in me," Darui said with a cold-eyed, gallows grin. "Ai and Kakashi, you two will take the Kiriryuu temple, and Sai and Choujiro will take the Tenryuu temple. First though, we have to make land, and this ship is not taking us all of the way to shore. I hope all of you like to swim."
Muscles aching as he moved forward through water that was nowhere near body-temperature, Kakashi focused on keeping his chakra distributed evenly through his body, warming his limbs. He was keeping up with the other members of his team, who were fanned out to his right, well enough. Soon, he could see something in the water ahead, dark and solid like it could be the shoreline. The closer he got, the more it took on a rust-red tinge, blocky and looking man-made.
The length of the barrier was crusted with barnacles and long uneven spikes like a sea urchin, as it wound down the seafloor; he supposed this had to be the infamous and aptly named Wall of Iron Spikes. If he approached it at the wrong angle he'd be slammed into it by the surface current, impaled or cut to ribbons. He watched as two others ahead of him both swam higher in the water, surfacing to try to evaluate the width of the barrier. Kakashi knew it was futile though, since the fog was so thick above. At least the sun shone through enough to make seeing underwater unproblematic.
He swam at it faster instead of slowing down, picking his target, one spike that stuck out from the rest, grabbing it with firm hand and feeling the oxidized metal crumble a little under his taloned glove. Once he had his bearings, like an eel he slithered his way around the rest of the rusty projections, careful not to let his equipment or his suit snag. The shore couldn't be too much further ahead, and he pushed himself hard forward in the water so he wouldn't get swept back against the barrier.
There, not much further. He could sense the wide, solid expanse of land ahead, weighted with people and other living things. It was impossible to tell if anyone or anything would be waiting for them, however.
As the steady even waves helped propel him along with his companions up onto the vaguely-defined, rocky shore, Kakashi pulled the diving gear from his mouth and face and took in a gulp of fresh salt air. The fog was so thick that it had been easier to see underwater than it was here on land. He looked over and saw Sai, only a few lengths from him, already on his feet. He grinned at Kakashi just enough that only the corners of his mouth turned up, like he'd won some sort of contest only he knew about.
"This is going to be a challenge, isn't it? I can barely see you over there. We all are probably going to die if we can't get out of this fog." Sai said, his usual calm indifference gone, looking almost happy as he stripped off his pack so he could get out of the diving suit.
"Yeah," Kakashi nodded and did the same. Sai was an excellent shinobi, but sometimes Kakashi wanted to punch him. The man still didn't understand that there was a right time and a wrong time to say certain things.
His entire body ached from swimming the mile from ship to shore, and the others couldn't be in much better shape, even though they managed to pass the rusted-out barrier of spikes unscathed. If the water had been just a little bit rougher, he wasn't so sure that that would have been the case. There was still no sign of the guardian beast, which was a relief. Hopefully, it wouldn't come inland or have gone after Sakura's ship instead.
From what he could see, the shoreline was largely barren except for clumps of sea grass and lichens. Within the shroud of heavy fog he could smell evergreens in the distance, but couldn't get a sense of how thickly forested the area was ahead.
"According to reports, the fog should thin out about a quarter mile inland. We'll have to move with extreme caution until we reach that point." Darui said, as everyone piled their diving equipment neatly next to a scroll that would seal it all away until they needed it again.
"Also, try to limit using your chakra for anything more than enhancing your movements, until you have encountered a legitimate threat. We don't know how strong of sensors they have here. For all we know the fog might part of a sensor array."
Kakashi shook his head. If the fog shroud really was such a thing, they would stick out even from a distance to a decent sensor who knew what they were looking for. "Maybe I should summon a few of my dogs, taicho. They'll be able to guide us with their noses better than we'll be able to see with our eyes, and I can send a couple ahead to scout," he said.
"Good suggestion. We're going to need every advantage we have. Move single file, and don't let the person in front of you get out of sight. If you don't already have your compasses out, get them out. We'll, bear southwest until the fog breaks and from there we should be able to pick our route. Ai, you take point with one of Kakashi's dogs, I'll bring up the back. Any questions?" Darui said, looking around at each of them.
"No sir," Kakashi said, as he cut himself enough to bleed onto the rough stones of the beach, did the proper seals and slammed his hands onto the ground. In a puff of smoke, three blue-vested nin-dogs appeared, all members of the pack he'd befriended and taken into service. He was relieved to see Pakkun's wrinkled, world-weary pug face.
"Whatcha need, boss?" said Pakkun, sitting on his haunches between the two slightly larger dogs – Guruko, a golden mutt who had long, brown ears and long whiskers and Uhei, who was brown and slender like a greyhound, but had huge paws and wore bandages around his head.
"We've got to get past this fog, so I'll need your noses. I'll tell you the rest as we go." Kakashi said, and seeing no need for further hesitation, the group set out.
The nin-dogs turned out to be as invaluable as Kakashi thought they would be. Even after the fog largely dispersed, it still was a presence. Large swathes of the rocky terrain ahead often faded in and out of sight, as a cloudy wall would drift through and then away.
Guruko stayed in front with Ai, while Pakkun and Uhei took off in different directions, reporting back periodically. It would have been much harder to find the temples without them, hidden as they were upon the tops of two forested, cleverly fortified hills.
Around them were stands of tall, white pine and full-skirted spruce and cedar, smelling pleasant and making a spongy mat of needles underfoot. These were planted or cut back in a fashion that created what looked like natural paths and breaks, but designed to direct interlopers down the hill if they did not know the correct path. The dogs could tell with their noses instantly where humans had tread most often, and even in the fading light of the late afternoon picked out the proper trail with ease.
Thus far, they'd managed to avoid four pairs of white and green clad sentries and the almost invisible traps set up throughout the uneven ground. Kakashi had his sharingan uncovered, and was continuously scanning for human chakra. That they made it this far without having to kill anyone was fortunate, but he didn't know how much longer this would be the case. He wasn't quite as experienced as Sai was in that department, but he wouldn't hold back if he thought there was no other option.
Having Ai run point turned out to be a good decision. Halfway up the ridge, Kakashi swore he saw the pair of sentries before she did. By the time he had his katana out and was poised to attack, literally in the blink of an eye, the sentries had already been wrapped head to toe with her black ropes and pulled up high into a nearby tree. He heard scarcely a cry from their throats and not a single drop of blood was spilled.
"You're good," said Sai, while Kakashi and Choujuro just gaped.
"The ropes are infused with a contact poison that the people of my clan are immune to, but will knock most others out within moments. Don't get in my way," she said with a wink as they moved on, turning her wide, bright grin on Kakashi as he glanced up at her handiwork.
He was glad she was on his side – and that he was wearing gloves.
"I'll keep that in mind," Kakashi said. He was going to have to work with her, and it was boggling how little they actually knew about each other's skills. He supposed he picked the wrong person to spar with the other night.
As they crested the final ridge, the sun had set and the shadows were already deep and cold, the mist settling back in. Darui stopped and held up his hand. "Okay crew, this is where we split up. Circle around for final orders." In the twilight, the two stone temples on either side were almost invisible between the drifting fog and thick foliage that made them hard to pick out. Kakashi knew they were there, he'd seen the pictures of hunched gray-green structures and the tall fortifications around them.
"The rally point is here," Darui said, pointing to a spot on the map. Kakashi had the map memorized already and mentally he made a little red dot to the north of where a bridge was demarcated. "Each team has a half an hour to complete the objective and meet up with the rest of us. You know what to do if you don't think you're going to make it. After that we will make haste to rendezvous with Sakura's team."
"Shouldn't we destroy the bridge behind us to keep them from following?" asked Choujuro.
"If it's a viable option at that point, yes – though keep in mind that they might have the chance to destroy it ahead of us to slow us down, too. Concern yourself with getting there first," Darui replied, tucking the map away. He then distributed a pair of sealing scrolls, one to Kakashi and one to Choujuro, since they were the members of the two teams standing closest to him.
Kakashi gathered his dogs around him. "Uhei, you go with Sai and Choujuro, Gururo stick with Darui no matter what, and Pakkun you'll come with me, as usual."
"Right," the dogs said in unison, and the three groups shot away from each other, all moving fast in the direction of their targets.
As they ran up the dark, wooded hill, Ai kept pace with him, Pakkun trailing slightly behind. "How do you want to do this?" she asked. "According to the map the crystal should be ensconced on the top of a pillar in the middle of the temple."
"The write-up said that around the base is a wide pit which is lined with swords. We have to get over that somehow – and we don't even know if that's the only trap," he said. The challenge intrigued him, but there were so many unknowns it also made him uncomfortable.
"True. If I can get on top of one of the buildings I can lariat the pillar and swing over while you cover me," she said. "I'm a sensor, I should be able to pick out any traps, and that eye of yours is supposed to be proof against genjutsu."
"Yes, but what if roping the pillar pulls the whole thing down? We don't want to destroy the crystal. Besides, you'll be too easy of a target just hanging there," he pointed out.
Ai glanced over at him as they ran. "Don't worry about that. I won't just be hanging. I'm pretty sure I can do it without busting the pillar if I use two ropes – one on either side."
"Fine then, I can cover you while you do that, but what's our back up plan?" If she fell, or died, he'd still have to try and get the crystal.
"I'm thinking. Do you have any elemental jutsus? I've got lightning and wind," she said.
"Mostly lightning and water. I've been working on some earth jutsus but I'm not good at them yet," he admitted. He'd started working on the earth techniques well before the water ones, but he had more of a knack with water – though not as easy as with lightning.
Ai laughed. "Pretty young to already have mastered two elements. Ever done chain lightning with another person?"
He didn't think she seemed old enough to be calling him young, but he didn't complain. "I've seen it done and I catch on quick," he said. It was supposed to be tricky, but any pair of elite shinobi who could both use lighting should be able to pull it off. It would create a wide-ranging field that would stun or potentially kill a large number of assailants - or in this case, defenders.
"We can use that to knock out at least the first wave of response and then I'll set up my ropes. If I get hit you can still use the ropes, I won't use the poison ones, I'll use the steel threaded ones instead," she said.
"Sounds good. It'll be easier to catch them in the chain lightning if I put some water down first. Oh, and you should probably take this," he said. He pulled the sealing scroll from his pouch and held it out to her, since she was going to be the one going after the crystal. As they ran, she took it from his outstretched hand, like a baton from a relay race.
"Got it. It's going to expend a lot of chakra to fill that much space with water," she said.
"Well you're sticking your neck out pretty far. I think I can afford it. So I'll cover you then, and you get in and out," he said. He was imagining Sai painting himself and Choujuro each a bird and them swooping down to grab their crystal with ease. "I wonder if the opposition will have air support, too" he pondered.
"I don't know, I guess there's only one way to find out," she said smiling over to him. She seemed so eager, he was catching some of her enthusiasm.
It faded quickly, and Kakashi cursed, as he sighted a group of armored men standing waiting, weapons out. A moment later the soldiers were running at them like a wall spears.
So they knew they were coming. It didn't matter though, they had their orders. If he had to cut a path through them to the objective, he would. The only way they were going to succeed, was if they could get in and out before any of the defending shinobi could get off any big techniques.
"Let's do it," he said, grinning at Ai from behind his mask, and she smirked back. This wasn't anything personal to him, but Ai might feel differently, since it was her daimyo that was murdered. The Leaf was merely assisting a valued ally, but he would do his best.
Kakashi focused the sharingan on a group of his targets and filled his outstretched hand with lightning, until he could hear it screeching in his ears. He ran at them like the wind, dodging arrows, torches, knives, swords, shining spears, cut through the line of helmeted soldiers with a razor of light, disabling as many as he could, and didn't slow down until he reached the temple wall.
Once there, Ai, with blood streaking her dark face and abundant curls, followed in his wake, scrambling up the smooth, stone edifice with him. They scurried like spiders running into the shadows, with chakra in their hands and feet, neither of them stopping to look back. Many more opponents were probably inside, guarding the stone. They had to keep moving, projectiles coming at them from the guards above and below.
Kakashi threw a kunai with an explosive tag ahead of him onto the top of the parapet, the resulting blast of which rained dust down upon them. He threw two behind him for good measure, light and heat from the explosions washing up over them. They reached the top to the sight of the bodies of three archers splayed out, either dead or unconscious. Once Kakashi could see the sheer number of people amassed against them below, he almost laughed.
The intelligence hadn't lied, but there were definitely more than two hundred. He hoped there was still someone in the valley below for Darui to fight, because he was fairly certain at least half of the soldiers who were supposed to be stationed there, were already here. The cover available on the wall was insignificant, so Kakashi grabbed Pakkun, and the three of them jumped to the top of a narrow, upcurving roof across from them.
Not bothering to call his attack as he landed, Kakashi did the seals for the Great Waterfall technique. He dumped enough chakra into it that a huge flood of water raged down into the wide stone courtyard from beneath his hands. Tens of the flailing soldiers that had surged in their direction, were pressed back by the current until they hit up against a white-washed building or the wall, or each other.
Ai was using her lightning chakra with her special ropes behind him, the wired ropes shooting sparks at the men who continued to try to get at them from below. He felt a fire technique flicker past, and someone down there was deft with the water bullet jutsu, but his armor held. Fog was billowing up from the left hand side of the temple, and soon the darkness wasn't going to be their only handicap.
"I see the pillar," Ai said, when he was done with his deluge. "Give me your hands and merge your chakra with mine, quickly."
He did as she asked, overcoming the small wave of anxiety that was generated by doing such an intimate thing, by not looking at her. Ai's chakra had a warmth and mellowness to it that gave him flashes of early autumn in Konoha; he could only wonder what she felt from his own.
"Now together we do the seals, mold the chakra in your hands to lightning and pull back, feed in as much as you want," she said.
It was strange mirroring the three seals with another pair of hands, but it happened fast enough that he couldn't think about it much other than to concentrate on the correct movements. From small sparks, a steady stream of electricity rose from their hands and they swiftly moved away from each other, keeping the stream going.
"Raiton – Double Chain technique," Ai called.
Together they jumped down into the pooling water in the courtyard and standing back-to-back, simultaneously slammed their hands down onto the just-submerged flagstones. This sent what looked like a jagged white net jumping and sparking through Kakashi's previous water technique.
Those soldiers and monks who were closest and standing in the water didn't have a chance, though some started to run once they saw it coming. It was too late though, the shining field of chain lightning was constant and strong and reached as far as his deluge did, throwing up radiant streams and knocking down everyone in its path.
Screams echoed in his ears, and he knew he was going to be hearing them for a lot longer than the technique lasted. Kakashi could already smell burned flesh and scorched hair and clothing, but the lightning continued screeching out, rushing from their hands.
"I'm letting it go," Ai yelled, warning him so that he didn't get backlash and get burned.
"Do it!" and Kakashi cut off the steady release of his chakra. While their power dissipated, together they leaped back to the rooftops. This time the taller building that was adjacent to the one they'd just left. There were five buildings in totaly all just close enough to the walls and each other that a skilled ninja could zig-zag across one to the next, as they intended to do.
"Cover me," Ai said, as she flung out a rope and jumped to another roof and then another.
Kakashi rained hell down on her pursuers, throwing explosive tags, shuriken, and here and there a roof tile. He finally had a chance to look at their goal – a long, fluted pillar of the local stone, with a large mass of hexagonal crystals at the top. The mass of crystals was about the size of a man's head, he thought. They seemed like they were clear but picked up the yellow-orange glow of the lanterns and torches below, giving them their own innate lambency.
He had the strangest sense that the shining stone was watching them and smirking.
Ai threw out her first rope and it looped over the crystal and went taut.
Kakashi lost sight of her then, between the darkness and the billows of fog, and he ran to another rooftop, avoiding a new round of attacks. The defenders were so riled up now, he was going to have to keep moving.
"Pakkun, can you see her?"
"Over there!" Pakkun barked.
"Shit."
He saw the second rope go over the pillar – and he could see men swarming up the building, trying to cut the first rope. Kakashi ran back the way he'd come, the yelling and angry cries intensifying as he closed, and threw down a smoke bomb on either side of the roof he stood on. This didn't stop the arrows coming from the wall behind him, however, and he had been grazed already more times than he wanted to consider.
When he looked up again, Ai was running across the tightrope she'd created. He watched as she was struck by an arrow, once then twice, but didn't falter. Soon, she was on the pillar, balancing with her feet on either side of the crystal, with the scroll out and was hit again. This time he knew she felt it. She held steady though, with the scroll open. As the seal activated the crystal started to incandesce throwing out tendrils of light, almost like it was resisting.
"Ai!" Kakashi cried out. He got as close as he could to her from the rooftop without stepping on the rope she'd anchored there.
She seemed to struggle for a moment, and then the crystal was sealed. Still, Ai was faltering, and Kakashi could do nothing as she was struck again with multiple arrows. He watched as she knelt down, balanced on the empty pillar top and she wound her arm back and threw the scroll in his direction.
"Run for it, kid!" she yelled, her voice hoarse and pained.
Tracking it's path through the air, Kakashi jumped to reach the flying scroll, but it over arched his grasp. As Kakashi fell, Pakkun used his back as a springboard, and jumped; so high that Kakashi thought that Pakkun was going to miss the edge of the roof and break his neck. It didn't help that explosions were rocking the entire temple. Ai must have set something off while Kakashi wasn't looking.
But Pakkun caught the scroll in his teeth, and made a solid landing. He scrabbled over next to Kakashi, who was sprawled back on the gray tiles, staring at Ai kneeling on the pillar. The kunoichi was starting to glow intensely, and Kakashi was hit full force with the fact that he couldn't do a damn thing to help her.
"Snap out of it! She knew the risks, now come on," Pakkun said, holding the scroll under one of his paws.
"I-"
He'd known and mourned members of ANBU who were forced to use the suicide technique that made their bodies disintegrate so no information could be obtained from their corpses. However, he'd never seen anyone carry it out on a mission. She wasn't using the standard jutsu either, and looking at the patterns from the chakra her body was expelling, she was planning on taking out as many of the defenders as she could with her death.
"Move it, Kakashi, there's no time. We've got to get out!" Pakkun nipped his arm, and Kakashi scrambled up, fixing his eyes on the wall he was going to have to jump onto to leave. There were obstacles with scorched hands and raging faces and sharp shining implements pointed at him. Ai had known she was probably going to die, and she trusted that he'd follow through; Tsunade trusted that he'd follow through; Sakura trusted that he'd follow through He drew a single kunai and jumped, caught in the light and the shockwave of Ai's final attack.
Carried over the wall with the blast, he and Pakkun fell. Kakashi had just enough time to tuck his head in and hit the ground at a roll. This was also the moment that he realized he had an arrow sticking out of his back, pushed deeper with the fall.
The pain immobilized him, and for a moment all he could see were iridescent stars. Pakkun had his jaws around his shoulder tugging him up, but he was a nerveless heap.
"Get up, Kakashi, don't quit now!"
Vaguely, he could hear the clunking rhythm of a hundred hard soles on stone, and he tried to move. This was not where it was going to end; his body wasn't listening though.
At his head, Pakkun was growling and barking at something, probably one of the guards coming down at him – though it was hard to focus, hard to breathe. Get up! Get up! Get up! He could hear another dog barking frantically, coming closer.
"Gu-Gururo?" he groaned. Lightning cracked overhead, and he was blinded, the smell of earth and ozone wafting around him.
One blurry, excruciating moment later, he was dragged to his feet by a strong hand under his arm. He could hear screams as his dogs tore into another soldier. Darui looped Kakashi's arm around his shoulder and supported him just under his injury. It took all of Kakashi's will to not pass out from the pain.
"No one was in the valley, except the garrison staff," Darui said, as he took off running faster, starting to leap, Kakashi keeping his feet, ordering his body to obey. "I came up your way since you two seemed to be making the most noise."
"Ai's dead," Kakashi mumbled.
"Yeah. You got the crystal though." Darui's voice didn't waver or hold any discernible emotion regarding Ai, and Kakashi didn't expect it to. She had been a comrade, but was dead and thus indifferent to being mourned. It could be done later when the living members of their squad weren't still in danger. The important thing now was to meet up with Sai and Choujuro and hurry to where Sakura was headed.
"Pakkun has it, don't worry," he affirmed, hearing the dogs following behind them through the thick evergreens that Darui was navigating by starlight alone.
"Where are you injured?"
"Busted off an arrow in the right side of my back," Kakashi said. There were plenty of worse places to be struck, and it didn't seem to be poisoned. If it shredded any of his major organs, he'd be dead in a few hours; if not, he'd still be in a world of pain until he could get even the most basic field dressing and take a soldier pill.
"You're breathing pretty normal, so it didn't go through your lung. Probably cracked your rib real good though," he assessed as they ran. "We'll have to wait until we've got some light to try and get it out."
That sounded about right, but he might still bleeding internally which at the moment they could also do nothing about and could kill him anytime really. "You should leave me behind," he said, though he wanted to push on.
"Sorry, but no can do. We need your dogs, and I'm not convinced you're done. Maybe if you got your leg shot out I would," he said, and Kakashi had little doubt he was serious. He could send the pack on without him, but once Kakashi was dead the dogs' contract would be up and it would be up to them whether or not to fulfill the mission. They probably would, but he hated the thought of them going on without him. It was selfish, just like his desire to not be abandoned.
"Heh, you just don't want Sakura pissed at you." Kakashi said, through gritted teeth as Darui leaped again, which jostled his injury enough to make his vision dance.
"If you can joke you're in better shape than I thought. Hang in there, kid. We've still got a long way to go."