Chapter 11
"A New Fire"
It was one of those rare moments where she hated Itachi for being right. It went beyond hatred, she decided.
They were beginning to seal the Gobi. It felt like they were pulling fire from every pore and every opening and every possible place on her body, scorching, burning, singeing, hurting. And what could she do about it? Nothing. Nothing but live for a moment longer and accept it until it finishes her off. Nothing but silently cry as visions of her friends, even her family, flit around inside her diminishing head. She couldn't see, couldn't hear, couldn't taste, couldn't smell – could only feel the white-hot fire absorbing her entire being…
…killing her.
Meanwhile, Naruto screamed as he launched himself at the first Akatsuki he saw, which incidentally happened to be Itachi. His claws reached for the Uchiha's face but were kicked away and the kyuubi was thrown to the ground. Itachi slowly returned to the sealing jutsu.
"If you distract all of them at once, I believe you can completely disable the jutsu and rush Chiharu out of there," Pakkun had said when he returned. "You just need to keep yourselves together-" he had pointed to Kakashi, Naruto, and Sakura "-because the sight of her in there might just make you lose your grip. You've got to get in and out of there as quickly as possible."
Naturally Pakkun had been right, at least about Naruto losing his grip, but as soon as Naruto hit the floor, he put the plan into action, realizing what he had just done.
"Argh!" Naruto said, but immediately put his hands together. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Five Narutos appeared behind each Akatsuki member. Within the same second, Kakashi and Sakura leapt to the spot where Haru was projected to fall once the jutsu was interrupted, arms ready. They couldn't afford even a second more than they'd already wasted – Itachi may have been content to ignore Naruto's attempts, perhaps believing they would fail anyways, but the Akatsuki leader's reaction likely wouldn't be the same.
Naruto focused on his jutsu intently. Then, every clone reared back their fist.
The fire was gone.
And truthfully it worried Chiharu - why would it suddenly disappear? Was she already dead? Why was she conscious?
But then there was a feel of falling, a feel of halting, and a feel of wind, so she knew something else was wrong. She wasn't dead, because she could feel the burning sensation of breathing in her lungs, the ache in her stomach where the Gobi's seal still lied.
But she miraculously found out that the demon was no longer being extracted, for she could smell what should only be hallucinations of her loved ones, could hear someone else's labored breathing in her ear. She still couldn't see, still felt only half-conscious, but she knew that she was okay.
She was alive.
Kakashi wished he could take any one glance at Chiharu, just to prove to himself that it was really her that he was carrying, but there was absolutely no time - they had to get Chiharu and Naruto back to Konoha as soon as physically possible, lest they risk Akatsuki catching up to them when they were alone and so few in number. It had been risky enough to enter the lair in the first place, but the last thing they needed right now was to get killed in the middle of the forest by Konoha's current greatest enemy.
So Kakashi focused on running and leaping faster than ever before while still dodging trees and anything else that might decide to get in his way. Kakashi led the way, Naruto behind him, while Sakura brought up the rear. They were still miles away from the village, but at the speed they were traveling and knowing this time exactly what direction to head in, it wouldn't take long.
Kakashi held fast to Haru, praying, hoping, shouting in his head that she would be fine – and that she would awaken soon.
Then the kunais started flying from behind, and one skim on the sleeve of Kakashi's shirt was all it took to send him flying even faster, if possible, through the forest, more intent than ever to get far, far away from the cloaked group that now followed them.
But Itachi had always been faster than almost every ninja in Konoha.
Kakashi growled furiously as Itachi caught up beside him, knives in hand. Kakashi leapt to the sky to avoid him, and could see the outline of Konoha easily on the horizon. They were so close.
But Itachi knew this, and seemed to be attempting everything he could think of to keep them from reaching their destination. He jumped after Kakashi easily, catching him by the foot and throwing him to the ground. But both he and Chiharu vanished in a puff of smoke, and were instead fifty yards ahead of the Uchiha with the rest of their group. Itachi frowned and leapt after them once more.
It was Sakura he dragged down next as she attempted to knock him out mid-leap. She sprung right back up and shot at him, fist reared back and flaming with chakra. Itachi spun mid-air and grabbed her fist as she threw it, spinning completely around again as she turned painfully with him before he threw her into a nearby tree. He pressed on, passing Naruto gracefully. But Naruto threw a wire netting at him as he passed, entangling him with metallic string strong and thin enough to amputate a few limbs, had Itachi not used a replacement jutsu before flinging ten shuriken at the chuunin and leaping further away.
Sakura had caught up by then though, and taking a lead from Naruto threw another wire netting at Itachi once she was close enough, this time anticipating his replacement jutsu with a barrage of kunai and another wire netting. He dodged all but the edge of netting that caught his foot, and with a surprised scowl disappeared into the treeline, his foot too tangled to run without disposing of the net first. Sakura flew past where he'd disappeared and triumphantly caught up to her team.
After an hour more of travel, Kakashi hit the ground, sprinting easily through the gates of Konoha so fast that the guard ninja at the side didn't even have the time to note the hair color, let alone figure out who in the world could possibly be running that fast into the village. Kakashi slowed down a bit, heading for Hokage Mansion while Naruto halted at the gates to explain to the guards what was going on and that it would be fairly wise to get as many skilled ninja on watch and guard as possible, favorably the really strong ones. Then he charged on to follow his sensei to the Hokage, leaving the guards in a distressed, confused, and panicky scramble. It was then that Sakura flew past in a frantic pink blur, only serving to confound them further.
Tsunade stamped her last piece of paperwork for the day, sighing contentedly before taking a quick sip of sake and standing from her seat. She stretched exasperatedly, ready to finally get some sleep, no matter how early into the afternoon it was - she had been doing those papers since noon the day prior, and she was well ready to leave the office and go home - to settle in with some different scenery.
So she was just about ready to scream when Shizune ran in, scared out of her wits.
"Oh, what now?!" Tsunade demanded, shoulders slumping.
"Lady Tsunade!" Shizune said, clipped and almost hysterical. "They're back! They're back! And ohhhh-!"
"Who's back?" the Hokage inquired, now slightly worried, but still mostly annoyed.
"Kakashi's team! And-"
"What?!" Tsunade yelled, stepping around her desk. "Did they-"
"They got Chiharu back, yes, but-"
"Oh thank Kami," she sighed sitting back on her desk. "Are they alright?"
"Mostly yes, but-!"
"We'd better get Chiharu to a hospital - what are we doing dawdling here?"
"Lady Tsunade!" Shizune shouted, but blushed when she saw that she finally had the Hokage's attention. "Akatsuki followed them."
"SAY WHAT?" Tsunade demanded, grabbing her assistant's shoulders in complete disbelief.
"Akatsuki followed them here - they're somewhere around the borders of Konoha. Team Kakashi got in safely, and Kakashi is with Chiharu at the hospital right now, but-"
Tsunade's face was stern - completely and gravely serious to the point of looking ten years older than she was. "Get ANBU and all elite shinobi on every corner of the village border; get every woman and child to safety, with the exception of ninjas above chuunin rank; send notifications to every ninja on missions to pull back and get home, but to be on their guard; make sure that every single ninja is ready for battle as of immediately. We need every possible protection - alert the Kazekage and see what he can do… this might last for a long time…"
Shizune nodded as she rapidly scrawled down Tsunade's instructions, but paused for a moment. "Lady Tsunade… just how long do you mean?"
"…Months, maybe; there's no telling." The Hokage walked speedily to the office door.
She turned back, an extremely mixed emotion written across her face.
"We could be at war."
A/N: Please let me know what you think of the story in a review~ Thanks so much for reading!
