The Copy Ninja - Part 1
Cats and Dogs
His blood dripped. His heart pounded. Pain and adrenaline numbed his thoughts and sharpened his senses. All of which was more than could be said for the corpses facing him. Life and death. Death and life. Someone, somewhere had crossed a line. Pain, adrenaline and ever-growing fury. And deep inside he knew. I was born into a world of hate. I was born to kill. Sure, I have a few other talents, but I have no other purpose. I've been walking this line for long enough. Maybe I've also earned the right to cross it. Maybe I just don't give a fuck about lines anymore.
Everything that'd brought him to this moment. Killing old friends. Watching great men reduced to pawns on a chessboard. Discovering that once again he'd failed spectacularly to save someone he loved. And now here he was. His life falling away drop by crimson drop; his world unravelling one wound at a time. Now where had he heard that before? The past stretched further than the future ever could. Maybe this was it. Maybe it was time to find out.
It would be wrong to say his life flashed before his eyes. First, very little of it was actually his life. It was a life and he'd lived it, but it'd never been his. Second, life didn't actually play a major part in the flashbacks – it would be more accurate to say the deaths of countless innocent people and a few right evil bastards flashed before his eyes. And third, in reality, the only things flashing before his eyes were the prisms of sunlight, refracted and reflected off the sheets of blood-spattered ice as they shattered at his feet with a strange, perverted beauty. To this spectacle, his fleeting existence was merely background music: persistent, distracting and quite undeniably tasteless.
But there was one section of his life that required some attention. He'd left something there and a voice was shouting, growling, that now was the time to go and pick it up. In his mind, the reel of his life wound on, but he could now sense a common thread. He pulled it. And the words he'd heard so recently that he could still hear their echo on the icy breeze, played themselves again.
'General Kakashi, there's something you should know…'
He knew. He already knew. The recent memory dragged him further into the past. Very soon, for the first time in half a decade, he was going to wake up. And in the present, the past began to play.
He watched Tenzo move; every motion was precise, planned, accurate – predictable.
You're thinking too much.
A frown crossed the young ANBU's wooden features.
Kakashi smiled. Just relax, don't fight yourself, just flow.
Wood doesn't flow, Senpai.
Of course. Doesn't flow, doesn't bend, doesn't stretch. Wood breaks. Wood burns. But at least wood can grow.
Make it flow, Tenzo, also watch your back.
Tenzo ducked in time to avoid a spray of water bullets. Kakashi's Sharingan revolved lazily. A couple of ninja found their day dampened by a water bullet to the head. Admittedly not the most useful jutsu he'd picked up that day but efficient enough.
"Come and face us yourself, Copycat, Copy Wolf!"
"We're bored of playing with your little dogs."
Do me a favour eh, Tenzo?
Tenzo settled into a relaxed crouch, sharpened stakes gleaming down from the ends of his arms.
Show these worms that my dogs can bite.
There was a pause.
Senpai, as I'm pretty sure I've mentioned, I'm actually a cat.
Damn that stupid mask. Cats are impossible to train. What the hell was a wolf supposed to do with a cat as a subordinate?
Do cats bite?
Not usually.
Fine. Damn well scratch their eyes out then, Tenzo. That's an order!
Yes, Senpai.
Wood can flow. Wood can bind. Wood can kill. Wood can dance!
Tenzo, jump!
The ANBU leapt. The earth shook and Kakashi was given full view of the enemy ninja's hand signs.
Tenzo landed, just in time to stake a few more enemies through the chest. Not enough finesse to be a cat. Not enough aggression to be a dog. But too much potential for a Senpai to know what to do with. Don't fuck this up, that's all I've got to do.
Tenzo! Three O'clock!
Senpai, I-
Fuck.
Lightening stabbed through Tenzo's ribs. There was no blood. Instant cauterisation – useful. But of course Kakashi was already sufficiently familiar with what happens when you run a bolt of lightening through an enemy's body. That didn't make it any easier, watching it happen to his own student. Tenzo's body went limp. Paralysis – also useful. But generally a bolt of lightening through the chest will get the job done with or without the helpful side effects.
Kakashi jumped down from the foliage. He landed between the remaining enemies and his injured student. Very pointedly not drawing his katana. He flexed his fingers; they felt stiff in the cold air.
Use a clone next time, okay? You have more chakra to spare than lungs – remember that.
Yes, Senpai.
"So we finally get to face the Copy Monkey."
"The least imaginative shinobi in all Five Countries."
Kakashi unclipped his medical pack. The one Rin had given him. ANBU were issued just enough supplies to see them through to the end of the mission. Another way to ensure that failure was synonymous with death. Kakashi's medical kit could save a person's life, whether they deserved it or not. He dropped it in Tenzo's lap.
You have thirty seconds.
"We know all your tricks. You worthless Parrot!"
Kakashi's knuckles gave a satisfying click. "Kill me if you can. Just please, spare me any more metaphors."
Water. His hands flowed. Earth. His fingers blurred together. Lightening. Signs flashed invisibly through the air. There was a moment of absolute stillness. Just long enough for the beginnings of scorn to creep onto the ninja's faces. It froze there, and didn't have time to fade. Nine water techniques, fifteen earth and three lightning came alive at once. Knowing how to use a jutsu is not the same as knowing how to defend against it. Most of his enemies learned that the hard way.
Ninja fell. Some died, some just fell. Some fled. A few stayed standing. But Kakashi's time was up. He felt chakra-drain dragging at his consciousness. He dropped to a crouch, head pounding. He had to keep his Sharingan open just a bit longer. Long enough to see Tenzo finish this.
Go! Even maintaining their mental link was becoming a challenge.
Tenzo handed Kakashi's med-kit back to him and he immediately palmed some chakra-boosters, enough to get him home without passing out – he refused to let Tenzo carry him. He watched his protégé straighten up. Each of his fingers ended in a wooden point as fine as a toothpick and, as Kakashi knew from experience, as tough as steel.
Scratch their eyes out, right Senpai?
Kakashi smiled and let his student do the rest of the killing. When there was one left alive he pushed himself to his feet. It was unprofessional to let your subordinate finish what you started.
"That it, Wolf? Pathetic son of a pathetic traitor. This freak the only student they'd assign you? No one gave a shit when the White Fang died, except the people who celebrated. When your little pet dies no one's gonna celebrate, no one's gonna mourn. You probably won't even give a shit yourself, eh Copy Ninja? A bit more blood under your claws, not much of a difference for a mons-"
Sorry, Tenzo. I hope I won't be too heavy.
The lightening set his hand on fire, it burned him, this close to his pitiful chakra limit. He plunged his fist into the ninja's chest, crushing his ribs, then his lungs, then his heart, then his ribs again. A bit more blood on his hands. It was true, he barely even noticed.
'Copy Ninja,' I kind of like it. What do you think, Tenzo?
The ANBU Wolf was unconscious before he hit the ground.
Back in the present, with blood still pooling between his feet, Kakashi reflected that perhaps in another world that memory would have been pleasant, perhaps vaguely comforting. A world where what'd happened next hadn't.
Those few brief, un-poetic sentences that formed, for now, a bridge between the present and the past continued to play.
'…We've just received word. There's been a battle on the Island…'
"Okay, I think you can put me down now, Tenzo."
"Of course, Senpai."
There couldn't have been a trace of disappointment in his Kohai's voice. That would've been ridiculous. Now that Kakashi was conscious he would either walk under his own power or Tenzo would damn well leave him there. He'd returned to the village so many times with one arm draped around his student's shoulders that people were starting to talk.
"How're you feeling, Tenzo?"
"Fine, Senpai."
"Right." Kakashi ground some chakra boosters between his teeth. He probably would have been able to move unaided days ago, if he hadn't been squandering his sluggishly replenishing chakra supplies on healing Tenzo's injury. And probably Tenzo would've been healing a lot faster if he didn't have to constantly support the majority of his Senpai's weight. When they got back to the village they were definitely going to have to devise a more efficient way of doing this.
"What about you, Senpai? I've heard that the side effects of taking more than a few chakra pills are –"
"I'm fine."
Tenzo visibly wilted under Kakashi's stare. Godsdammit, this is ridiculous. The pressure behind his temples increased. He walked a few steps on his own. Was it even possible for ligaments to throb? Tenzo strolled alongside him, one hand casually tucked into his pocket, clearly not at all maintaining pressure on his wound to stop the pain of moving from incapacitating him. Well, good to know they both felt fine.
It was, in short, a routine end to a routine mission. And it would have stayed that way. Maybe if they'd tracked down the enemies who'd fled. Maybe if they'd killed everyone in the first place. Maybe if the group of ninja hadn't been part of a much larger, more powerful syndicate. Maybe if this syndicate hadn't had certain views about being humiliated by two Operatives who were not even old enough to engage in the kind of vices that evil syndicates, as a rule, specialised in. Maybe if they'd been moving a bit faster. Maybe if Kakashi'd had enough chakra to scan the surroundings. Maybe if Tenzo hadn't been too distracted by his injury to sense the rustling of the trees. Maybe things would have ended differently.
All these potential scenarios were swallowed up by painful reality. About ten seconds later they were surrounded. Exactly what happened next Kakashi never properly remembered. Exactly what happened after that, he doubted he'd ever forget.