Chapter 10

Arrival

The emotionless Operatives had been on guard for hours. They were the best in the entire organisation. That was not arrogance; it was factuality. Their presence was concealed to the extent that their very existence had become dubious. And as expected, their target did not notice them. By the time that the dart – coated with a powerful sedative – had been released, it was already too late to prevent it from hitting. Their target fell to the ground and they went to collect him. Sedation had been a necessary precaution. Mainly because the mind that they'd been ordered to infiltrate belonged to a highly dangerous shinobi: the son of a former Hokage.

Asuma woke in a stifling, dank room, with no recollection of how he'd gotten there. The last thing he remembered was entering the village in a hurry to submit the report from his team's painfully monotonous B-rank escort mission. Shikamaru, Ino and Choji had gone straight to Yakiniku Q to celebrate another successfully completed assignment. And Asuma had told them that he – along with his wallet – would be joining them soon. Then he'd headed in the direction of the Hokage Tower Missions' Wing. The final memory he had was of the sturdy familiar building, the playhouse of his childhood, coming into view. After that, there'd been nothing but darkness.

The first sense to fully return to him was his sense of smell. The room was rife with the overpowering stench of sweat and excrement. And with mounting disgust, Asuma realised that it was his own. He must have been here unconscious for days. Next came his sense of touch. He could feel cold metal pressing against his wrists and ankles and an unrelenting stone wall behind him. This was not good. Had he been captured by an enemy?

As his hearing returned, Asuma quickly ruled out that option. He was able to catch vague snatches of conversation. And from what he heard, the Jonin deduced his captors' deference to a certain Konoha shinobi whom they referred to as "our Lord," and their appreciation of the convenient new interrogation cells built beneath Hokage Tower – in the last few days no less. Obviously someone had been in a hurry to extend their hospitality to him – and whoever else was currently being held in confinement beneath the Leaf Village's iconic tower of freedom. These shinobi must have been quite skilled to be able to build an entire detainment facility so quickly under a pre-existing structure. Either that or the punishment for failure had provided rather effective motivation. Asuma then wondered who this 'Lord' might be. Needless to say, he had his suspicions.

Finally the Jonin's vision began to clear, and these suspicions were promptly confirmed. The aforementioned Lord had just entered the room. That vile, treacherous, cantankerous Lord.

"Danzo!" His name was like poison in Asuma's mouth.

"Asuma Sarutobi. What would your father say if he could see you now?"

"He'd probably ask you what the hell you're doing in his hat," responded the Jonin through gritted teeth.

Danzo's face remained firmly passive. "He never was the brightest of shinobi, but I assume even he would've been able to work that one out."

"Impossible," Asuma stated with blunt aggression.

He watched the bastard trying to suppress a smirk.

"Apparently not." Danzo's tone held more than a touch of complacency.

There was no way that this bastard could've become Hokage practically overnight. No one would ever accept it. Least of all Tsunade. Asuma added this to his growing list of things that were making absolutely no sense right now. Also high on that list was what on Earth he was doing in Root captivity. All Asuma could do was hope that this was some twisted nightmare. He wanted to wake up, return to the village to submit his report and finally be able to catch up with Kakashi.

It was then that the Jonin began to understand the true reason behind his confinement. Danzo must've been trying to get information out of him pertaining to Kakashi's whereabouts. But he was not going to reveal even a single detail to that scumbag – and no amount of torture would change that.

"I know what you're doing," stated Asuma defiantly after a minute of complete silence. "And you'll never get anything out of me."

This time Danzo smirked in full. "I thought you might take that attitude. That's why we took the liberty of extracting all the details we needed via genjutsu. Of course nothing nearly as strong as a Mind-Scrape was required, in fact it's almost disappointing how easily the information was obtained."

There was no way. He was a Jonin. One of the best. How could he have fallen for a mere genjutsu? Granted, Root had some talented Operatives. And he hadn't really been concentrating on anything other than getting his report filed as quickly as possible when they'd likely struck. But still, he refused to believe that a Jonin of his level could be so easily tricked. Sadly though, the next words uttered by one of the Operatives left very few other possibilities.

"Apparently the Akatsuki hideout is eight hundred and fifteen Ri north-north-west of the northernmost point on Konoha's border."

"Interesting," Danzo responded in an unemotional voice.

Asuma clenched his fists as the Operative continued.

"It seems that they'd intended to arrive there within a week. And they left six days ago."

The bandaged shinobi nodded slowly. "So perhaps they've arrived already. But we cannot trust all the information we've been given. Even he," Danzo indicated Asuma, "may not have been told the true plan. The Copy-Ninja could be in league with the Akatsuki after all. In which case, the only appropriate course of action would be to terminate him, and the rest of that unruly organisation."

The Operative nodded. "Yes, my Lord."

Asuma snarled. "If you so much as touch Kakashi, I'll kill you."

Danzo raised an eyebrow ever so slightly. "I highly doubt that. Although you will be coming with us. You'll serve as a bargaining chip if needs be. Because even if the Hatake has abandoned his village, something tells me that he won't so easily be able to betray his comrades."

The Jonin didn't respond. Whatever was going on, both in the village and wherever Kakashi was, at least he'd be reunited with his friends – one way or another. But still, Asuma swore at that moment to get revenge on Danzo, even if it was simply for having the hubris to wear his father's hat.

"Symptoms," Yugao demanded, as the captain of the med-team readied a notebook beside her.

Yamato ran through all the details and effects of Kakashi's injury in his mind before giving his firm response. "A severe abdominal wound resulting in grade-three blood loss, haematemesis, nausea, disorientation, periodic loss of consciousness…" Yamato glanced up at Yugao's pale face. "Should I continue?" he asked mildly.

The ANBU medic answered. "I think that's all the information we need for now, Tenzo-san."

Yugao nodded. "It's certainly enough to know that an increase in pace is required."

Yamato smiled dryly as he, along with the rest of the ANBU squad, began to run as if their lives – or rather the life of his Senpai – depended on it. And in the meantime Yamato could only hope that it didn't.

Despite their increased speed, Yamato and Yugao managed to maintain their conversation, the latter asking an endless stream of questions about her Senpai's mission. With her former team-mate trying to answer them as best he could, bearing in mind what he thought Kakashi might not wish to be revealed.

"So if this is Plan B, then what was Plan A?"

"Does it really matter?" responded Yamato, his patience wearing thin. "We've had to abort it. It's no longer important."

"You know that's really not very helpf-" she broke off, and when Yamato looked up he quickly realised why.

In front of them, where the entrance to the final valley should have been, there was a semi-translucent towering wall, fully sealing the gap between the two cliffs. It was a shocking, florescent turquoise, so radiant that it was almost painful to look at. Yamato had only ever seen such a vivid azure hue in one other place. And that was when it'd been held defiantly in the hand of his Senpai.

With panic exploding in his chest, he broke away from the group and sprinted to the foot of the barrier. Then the stricken ANBU sank to his knees in front of the lightning-wall and shouted profanities to the heavens in a sky-splitting voice. Half a minute later, Yugao caught up with him.

"This can't be what I think it is!" she exclaimed in an awed tone.

With immense effort Yamato pulled himself together enough to respond, his voice was subdued and held an emotionless edge to it. "Well it is. Kakashi-Senpai has refused our aid. It's all over."

"Don't you think you're being just a touch melodramatic, Tenzo?"

The normally calm ANBU did nothing to try and hide his anger. "Well what do you think? We've come here with a full squad of ANBU ready to fight alongside Kakashi, and he's decided to turn it into his own private suicide mission! No amount of chakra, and no amount of skill will be enough to break this barrier. And he's on the other side of it, half-dead already, having tricked us all into thinking that we might actually be able to help him!"

"Calm down!" Yugao replied harshly. "We'll wait here. If the barrier disappears we'll go in. Until then there's nothing else we can do."

"I know that!" came Yamato's stern retort. But when he saw the tinge of desperation colouring Yugao's steely gaze, he felt a brief pang of guilt and his voice softened slightly. "Unfortunately, we need to be realistic. This barrier is completely impregnable. There's only one way that a jutsu of this calibre can be undone."

Yugao looked at him steadily, her fists clenched, unshed tears shining in her eyes. She then whispered the words that Yamato had barely even dared to think. "The death of the one who cast it."

Kakashi hadn't felt this out of it in a while, and that was saying something. Of course he could normally either conceal, or completely ignore exhaustion. And he was more than used to feeling the effects of chakra drain, but this time things were different. His body felt weighed to the ground by a force ten times stronger than gravity. That part he was used to. He knew all too well the pain and effort of even the slightest movement when he was this low on chakra. What he wasn't used to however, was this intense unrelenting nausea. Every motion, every breath, made his head spin and his stomach protest violently.

He could no longer recall the last time he'd eaten, and tried not to think about it. Even the thought of food was making the Jonin want to throw up. It was clear that this was the next – and probably final – stage of the poison's backlash. His body felt like it was being pulled inside-out, torn apart, and each of his internal systems seemed as if they were slowly grinding to a halt. One moment Kakashi's skin was ice cold, the next he felt as though he were being burnt alive. His vision came in flashes and for moments at a time his mind would go completely blank, causing him to forget what the hell he was even doing there. Somewhere within his subconscious, a voice was telling Kakashi that, slowly but surely, he was dying.

"Shit!" he swore after a momentary blackout nearly caused him to lose his footing.

Genma was at his side in an instant. Neither of them spoke, but the Tokubetsu Jonin placed a hand on his shoulder, as if to steady him. Kakashi was glad that his stubborn friend had finally accepted that they would not be taking any breaks for the short remainder of the journey. Because the Copy-Ninja knew that if he rested now, he might never get up again.

After only a minute, they set off once more and Kakashi was thankful for Genma's silence. He wouldn't have wanted to try and make conversation right now. While they were in motion, the Jonin was sure that bile would come more readily to his throat than words. But in spite of all this, Kakashi did not regret his actions. All he had to do was make it to the hideout alive, and stay alive until Genma was safe. He had already taken care of Yamato and the ANBU that he'd undoubtedly gone to fetch. Kakashi tried not to feel bitter about his friends and the Hokage having made a secret Plan B. It might end up working to his advantage. Or at least that's what Kakashi was determinedly telling himself. This was nothing more than one of the hundreds of possible outcomes that he'd accounted for. And he'd already set up his counter-measure.

Asuma was still a bit of a wildcard, but even if he did reach them, surely he'd just be in the same situation as Yamato and the ANBU currently were. The barrier was impenetrable, it was as simple as that. Even if it had been Kakashi himself encountering such an obstacle, he wouldn't have been able to break through it by any conventional means. And he knew that the Akatsuki would have prevented entrance to their hideout from anywhere other than the direct route. The only way in which that barrier was going to be broken was by his own death. Which was another reason why Kakashi had to make sure he stayed alive at least until his job was done.

As if mocking that thought, the dull throbbing of Kakashi's wound began to intensify until he felt as though he were receiving it once again – over and over. This reminded the Copy-Ninja of the last time he'd felt like he was being repeatedly stabbed. But unlike then, this was no genjutsu, Kakashi's body was simply trying to tell him that it would not be putting up with such abuse for much longer. It was fortunate that they were nearly there.

As he ran, Kakashi's thoughts returned unbidden to the making of the barrier, and the events that had followed. Even in his near delirious state, the Copy-Ninja could vividly recall every single detail of that experience – and he knew that he'd never forget it. He'd reserved just enough chakra to keep himself more or less mobile, but hadn't moved on straight away. Because, as he'd known it would, the effect of the poison had almost immediately begun to manifest itself. This time however, with no comrades in sight to try and kill, Kakashi had witnessed an entirely new aspect of the compound. For at least a full minute, his mind had turned into a completely blank canvas. And he'd strongly felt that it could easily have been dyed any colour. He'd almost longed for someone to show him where to go, and whom to strike. But swiftly the feeling had passed.

It'd then been replaced by undoubtedly the most severe agony that Kakashi had ever experienced. The Copy-Ninja was not one to yield easily to the influence of pain, but at that moment he had been rendered utterly incapacitated. His vision and hearing had both faded completely and he'd been left in silence and darkness, alone with his suffering. He had retched dryly for minutes on end and had barely been able to breathe when he was finished. His body had been shaking uncontrollably, to the extent that movement had become almost impossible. And his head had started to feel as if it were being repeatedly smashed against the cliff face. It was then that Kakashi had realised that the next time he used his chakra, it would without a doubt be his last. But somehow he'd managed to pick himself up and had gone to find Genma, hoping that his friend would not have realised what he'd done. Not that the Tokubetsu Jonin could have done anything about it. Even if he'd decided to try a sedative on him again, it would not have helped the ANBU squad get through the barrier.

With that, Kakashi's thoughts went to Yamato, and the distress that he was likely to be in. He greatly regretted the fact that it'd come to this, but dwelling on it would do nothing to improve their situation. Out of the shade of the valley, the sun was probably rising. But trapped between these towering stone walls, it may as well have been the middle of the night. If he'd known it might be the last time he'd see it, then perhaps yesterday Kakashi would have taken a moment to appreciate the beauty of the rising dawn. But this was no time for sentimentality. As the walls of the valley began to converge, Kakashi was finally able to see his destination nestled between the unyielding, unassailable precipices. For the first time in many years, the Copy-Ninja felt something close to genuine fear. But it was not for his own life or safety. He'd given up on fearing death back when he had been still a child. No, this was the close gripping fear of him failing to save his friends, and the unconquerable dread of being the one to kill them.

Genma then uttered the only words that he'd spoken since they'd last set off. His voice was firm and thrown to Kakashi like a lifeline. "It doesn't matter what those bastards did to you. You're Kakashi Hatake; you never let your comrades die."

Perhaps if he could have seen the sun rise, heard the dawn chorus, or smelt the fresh dew-coated grass, Kakashi would have believed his friend's statement. But here in this dry, dark and silent valley, his hope had been left far behind.

"Thanks," he replied in a raw, mechanical voice, before slowly adding, "For all of it."

Genma nodded slightly and they made an unspoken decision to walk for the last five minutes. With every single step, Kakashi had to repeatedly defeat the determined resistance of his mind and body. But inevitably, they arrived. The hideout spanned the full width and half the height of the valley, although, it was hewn from stone and would have seemed like a third cliff were it not for the perfectly smooth, arching boulder that with the application of chakra would clearly become a door.

All throughout the final stage of their journey everything had been too still, and too silent. Kakashi knew for certain that they were being watched. Now that they were here, the Akatsuki would have no choice but to grant them entrance, before they could escape, call for backup, or reveal the hideout's location to anyone else.

Gradually Kakashi realised that with each passing moment his breathing was becoming more laboured. The pain and fatigue he was feeling had begun to increase exponentially while all his other senses were starting to dull. With this, Kakashi knew that he would no longer be able to stop consciousness from leaving him. And at that point, all memory, recognition and feeling momentarily faded. All that was left as Kakashi drifted into a feverish stupor was the ominous sound of stone grinding against stone. As well as the vague knowledge that his soon-to-be captors were not going to let him die that easily.