Gomen! I'm late again but you see, my fluffy little kitty Inspiration got lost on the road of life and caught a cold, so I had to warm her up… eh.

Answering TegzTsinelas: I lacked inspiration :( I wanted to update almost daily and instead my brain blocked. Plus, I was busy on the first of January. The chapters I'm doing still don't convince me, but oh well… Happy new year to you too! ;)

Thanks to Prescripto13, Yungsun and buterflypuss too for their reviews! Plus, Lupanari pointed out an error in the last chapter and I corrected it (I mean, I replaced the chapter with the mistake fixed. I hope it's better now) ;)

Sometimes I forget to write I don't own Naruto. But I think it's pretty obvious I don't.

Chapter 9: What did you do?

Kakashi didn't exactly consider himself the luckiest person in the world. But getting thrown off a damn cliff in a river with Obito was just too much.

The current was mercilessly rushing over the two boys, basically throwing them around like rag dolls in its fast flow. Every time they tried to breathe, their lungs were filled with water.

Obito was failing his arms in panic, trying to yell but instead worsening his situation. Kakashi, on the other hand, managed to stand wobbly over the water (he never tried water walking on raging rivers!) and tried to grab Obito's hand. The current always dragged the Uchiha out of Kakashi's reach and further from their teammates.

The Hatake considered abandoning the other boy, but Kurama furiously ordered him to keep trying to save him and a distant corner of his mind felt relieved that Kakashi was following the fox's command. The water's rushing became louder and he saw, with an increasing amount of dread, a really high waterfall.

"Kit! Leave me control!" Kurama snarled and Kakashi quickly retreated in his mindscrape. The demon wasn't really sure the boy's body could hold too much of his chakra, but he didn't have much choice. Kurama was too far to climb on the rocks, so he had to continuously focus to maintain his footing on the rushing water. He gathered a lot of chakra around his left arm and hurled it forward, forming a red claw.

Obito was falling (and screaming) when he felt something grab his left hand. It was almost unbearably hot and it slightly burned his skin. He managed to look up (the goggles' usefulness!) and saw something red and definitely not normal grab his had tightly. He screamed again (or tried to – his lungs were still filled with water) when he felt it launching him backwards.

For a moment he thought he saw Bakakashi under him, then he landed painfully on his stomach over a tree branch. He looked downwards and paled when he saw he was too freaking high! Obito coughed to expel the water from his lungs and to not panic (he was, like, twenty meters over the ground!).

Something landed beside him and, when he heard a cold "You better not be dead after all this trouble", he immediately knew who saved him (even if he didn't want to admit it).

The jonins were persistent, Fuuyuki had to admit. She knocked out cold the two who kept her busy and she was currently engaging the others with the four kids. The kunoichi was sure that Minato would slaughter her when he discovered two of his students disappeared under her watch.

One of the Kumo jonins charged at her with his sword, determined to kill her. Fuuyuki fought him and kept searching for a possibility to use her chakra scalpels and tear apart his muscles. Much to his disbelief, the kunoichi cut the upper leg and, when he lost focus, she slit his throat.

Fuuyuki looked around searching for the last enemy, but she didn't see anyone other than the genins. The Sandaime ordered her to avoid skirmishes when possible, but did it mean she had to abandon two little kids to fend for themselves against a jonin?

"Where are Kakashi-kun and Obito-kun?" the girl with purple marks on her cheeks (Rin, right?) asked worriedly. Her arms were covered in bruises and cuts and she was struggling to just stand up. Kurenai and Asuma (in a little better condition) looked around as well, searching the silver-haired boy and his teammate. Raido was waiting for orders, but Fuuyuki saw his quiet fidgeting, revealing his worry for the missing duo.

She began healing them with the chakra she could spare, but then?

"SANDAIME-SAMA! MY ETERNAL RIVAL DIDN'T RETURN YET?" Gai asked loudly with tears flowing from his eyes. The Hokage frowned at the green boy. The two teams weren't expected to come back until the next morning, but the genin in front of him was acting like he knew something happened. The Sandaime looked at his teammates, a couple of steps behind the green boy.

The Sandaime raised an eyebrow. Genma gulped when the Professor's look settled on him and stuttered an answer to the unspoken question of 'why is he acting like this?': "Uh… sometimes Gai has his moments… I-I think he has a s-sensor or something… he becomes m-more emotional at random times, like two weeks ago! H-he ran off searching Kakashi!"

Hiruzen himself was worried about the little boy, but he couldn't leave and check on him. He couldn't afford to send another team either.

The Hokage assigned some D-rank missions to the genin squad in front of him and tried to shake off his uneasy feeling.

'Kurama, what did you do?!' Kakashi yelled mentally. His left arm felt like it was on fire and the angry red of his skin made him shudder. The demon's chakra was trying to heal the damage, but his body kept rejecting it and slowed the process.

"I used a chakra claw to save him" Kurama answered bluntly "But right now you don't have time to ask me! Didn't you notice that ninja heading towards us?!" He finished with a growl. If the little Hatake didn't pay attention to his senses it was useless increasing them.

Not a second later, a Kumo jonin appeared and tried to cut him with a sword. Kakashi jumped back and started forming hand signs (the agony of the burnt arm!) when he noticed the other was doing the same.

"Suiton: Tidal Wave no jutsu!" "Raiton: Lighting Strike!"

The water was rushing quickly towards Kakashi who, with a surge of demon's chakra, strengthened the thunderbolt that cut through the wave. The jonin moved out of its way and jumped over it to attack with his sword.

Kakashi somehow managed to land on another branch and dodged the sword's slash with a Kawarimi. He took his tanto (that miraculously was still with him) and started dueling with the Kumo jonin.

Obito didn't know how Bakakashi saved him, but he wasn't about to have a debt with him when they returned to Konoha. He watched the two shinobis dodging, blocking and slashing with their weapons (the Uchiha still couldn't believe Bakakashi was keeping up with a jonin) and slowly swallowed his fear.

He formed the hand signs for his jutsu. Obito would be damned if he was going to be dead weight ever again!

"Katon: Supreme Fireball no jutsu!"

Obito channeled the chakra he could master in his breath, fueling the fireball and directing it towards the Kumo jonin's back.

Kakashi noted the jutsu first (were his eyes red?) and forced the older ninja to stay still for a moment too long, preventing him from dodging the fire. Both the silver-haired boy and the jonin appeared on other branches. The latter had some burns on his back and his stance wasn't too stable.

The Uchiha didn't even see another Kakashi jumping from a branch and landing a lethal blow on the jonin's neck.

The Hatake he saw first disappeared in a cloud of smoke (when did he do a Bunshin?!) and Obito stared wide-eyed at his teammate (and the corpse at his feet).

He was putting his tanto on his back and his eyes (definitely red and creepy with slitted pupils) were staring unfocused at the corpse, like he was listening to someone Obito didn't see. Only now that Kakashi was still the Uchiha noted the painful-looking burn on his left arm and slightly labored breathing.

"B-Bakakashi!" Obito exclaimed to catch his attention. When the chuunin's gaze settled on him, his eyes turned to their normal black colour (fortunately for the Uchiha) and he raised an eyebrow. Obito tried to clean his orange goggles when he continued "Y-you killed h-him!" He couldn't believe his teammate (ten years old, for Kami's sake!) managed to kill an enemy while Obito still froze in the middle of the battle.

"Of course I did" Kakashi answered in a 'Captain-Obvious' voice "He tried to kill us, we did the same. And…" he seemed to struggle to say the next words "…thank you for helping me with your Katon". He looked away and his right eyebrow twitched in annoyance.

Obito was speechless. What actually happened to his teammate?

"…let's go back to Fuuyuki-san" Kakashi eventually ordered after a moment of awkward silence.

Fuuyuki resembled a gaping fish for a second before schooling her features in a stunned look.

The two little boys she worried over while healing the other four almost fell off a waterfall, engaged a Kumo jonin… and won. A ten-years-old chuunin and a genin who froze in battle. If the little Hatake wasn't staring at her with a 'no-duh' look, Fuuyuki would have thought this was a prank or something.

The kids did have a good head on their shoulders.

Obito wasn't injured but he was dripping wet (how did he manage to perform a Katon was beyond her). Kakashi was slightly drier, but he had some cuts and a strange burn on his left arm. It just refused to heal with her chakra!

Fuuyuki was going to run out of chakra if she tended to his injuries, so she gave him what remained in her medi-kit and decided to walk towards Konoha until evening, eat, rest and tree-hopping the last part of their journey.

'Kurama, why doesn't it heal?' Kakashi asked during their walk. The demon seemed to think for a moment. "I may have burned slightly your coils to use the chakra claw" he finally answered "right now, my healing chakra is flowing slowly because of that. If I forced it, your hand would either combust or aggravating the burn. I never tried so I don't know." Kurama felt sincerely curious about the consequences. Kakashi gave the impression of an eyebrow's twitch without moving any facial muscle.

"Uhm… Bakakashi?" Obito questioned hesitantly. The chuunin looked at him. "A-ano… when I almost fell in the waterfall…" he frowned "something red grabbed my hand. What do you think it was?" the Uchiha finished.

Kakashi blinked. And now what he could say? "You're a genius. They can't question it if you invented a new jutsu. They know there's always something they don't know" Kurama said, pulling off the mental version of an eye-roll.

"It was a new jutsu I was creating" Kakashi responded with a 'you-didn't-know?' tone "it allows me to extend my chakra and shape it". Seeing the disbelief on everyone's faces, he continued "It isn't finished yet and it burns my hand when I do it" Kakashi waved his left arm a little to empathize his point.

"…I don't know what the poison did to you, but you definitely changed for the better" Obito hesitantly stated. After all, Bakakashi saved his life even if he knew it would hinder him in combat.

Rin giggled and nodded with a warm smile. Team 3's genin raised collectively an eyebrow and wondered how Kakashi was like before he was 'poisoned'.

Fuuyuki smiled slightly. Minato had certainly good students who looked out for each other.

A/N: YAY I DID IT! *squeal of delight*

I finally finished the Kumo ordeal in this mission! The start really sucks, but I think the chapter became better the more I wrote. :D

Ask me what you want! In the next chapter I'll answer as I can!

Beware of the Kitsune's rage!

-Shiiroi Kitsune21