A/N: Some punishment/bondage going on later from here. Won't be too graphic, but if you're uncomfortable with BDSM you might want to wait until chapter 27. If you have to ask what BDSM is, you're too young. Wait for chapter 26.
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"You wanted to see me, Tsunade-sama?"
"Sit down Kakashi." The Hokage was unusually somber. She placed a mug opposite the jounin. "Have a drink."
"What is it about?"
The Hokage sighed. "A number of issues." Kakashi leaned back in the chair. He knew it was coming for the past week; it was only a matter of how severe the scolding would be.
"Firstly, your behavior during the mission. It was, frankly, unacceptable. I thought you would have demonstrated better control over your own emotions, Kakashi," said Tsunade, her eyes grave. "But I accept that there were mitigating circumstances, so I shall just make a small note of this in your records."
"Secondly, it's about the witches."
Kakashi's shoulders tensed. "What about them?"
"The leaders – Toshi and Hoshiko – killed themselves last night." At Kakashi's vindicated look, she snapped, "They should've faced the judgment of their victims' families, not the right to kill themselves!"
"What about the rest?" asked Kakashi. His fingers flexed and tightened. That witch had caused him quite a bit of heartache, and he badly wanted to kill her himself. He still didn't know what the ritual was for, and he had lost all interest in the answer.
"The twins face the gallows in the capital city. And the teenagers are going to serve twenty-five to life sentences for aiding and abetting the kidnap and murder of baby Yumi Morioka."
"Good. They should pay."
"You're not supposed to be a vindictive person, Kakashi."
The quiet of the office turned into tension. Tsunade broke the silence first. "There is the third thing, which I want you to listen very calmly to."
"What wrong with Aya?" Kakashi shotupright in his chair.
"I said 'listen calmly'. If you won't heed my advice I'd punch you into unconsciousness myself." Tsunade sipped her tea. "She's been catatonic for a week. ANBU and medic can't break into her mind. I can't even find signs of mental activity. Kakashi, as a doctor I think she's -"
"She isn't," stated Kakashi icily.
Tsunade slammed her desk. The table splintered apart. Papers and folders fluttered to the ground. "Stop fooling yourself, Hatake Kakashi! Aya Fukuda's mind is dead, there is nothing there to revive! Stop thinking that this is a story and that she's a princess you can wake with a kiss!"
Kakashi got to his feet as well. He looked at his superior and saw the concern beneath the brusqueness. "Tsunade-sama, I'm not denying anything because I want it to be so. I just know she's still fighting, alright? She hadn't had the training – the training Gaara and myself have had, the strengthening of will and mind. But I know Aya. She's not one to give up. That's why she risked her life coming all the way out to the desert, that was why she came to beg you for details of my mission, that was why we... that is why I love her. She wants something, she won't give up."
"What if she wanted death, Kakashi?" That quietly brutal sentence stabbed into his heart. Kakashi swallowed the furious retort.
He turned on his heel and marched out of the Hokage's office.
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"Where's Kakashi-sensei, Sakura-san?" Lee asked as they jogged around the track.
Sakura sighed a little. "He's holed up in the medical library, as he was yesterday, and the day before. Either that or he's researching the sharingan abilities. I just wished he'd let us help him research, but he turned us down."
"It must really be painful for him to be at a loss, Sakura-san."
"I guess. I haven't lost anyone close to me before. Or yet."
"Me neither."
Lee and Sakura ran on quietly, matching step for step.
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"Where's Kakashi, Asuma?" asked Kurenai as they walked down the winding path. She held the bouquet he gave in her arms loosely.
Asuma exhaled the cigarette smoke. "He's still in the library, when I checked out a book this afternoon."
"I wish there was some way we could help him," murmured Kurenai as Asuma pulled her closer. The two of them strolled on, arm in arm, praying for their colleague.
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Sasuke pulled the hidden scroll from his storeroom. It was an old one, and he wondered if he should show Kakashi. Right now only he and his brot – that man knew of its existence. It listed a lot of information about the sharingan. It could help.
But it was the secret of the Uchiha family, wasn't it?
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Iruka walked, with Naruto's aid, to Aya's ward. They saw a silver-haired jounin sitting beside the bed.
Iruka and Naruto paused by the door. Kakashi held Aya's fingers in his own, as he combed through her dark curls with his other hand. Unable to hold back the emotion, Naruto turned away and tried to stifle his tears.
"It's alright, Naruto, Iruka, come on in," said Kakashi without turning around.
"You look horrible, Kakashi," chided Iruka gently. He placed his hand on Kakashi's shoulder and gave it a squeeze. Naruto stood behind his sensei and sniffled a little.
Kakashi gave his student a hug, a silent thank you for his support. Iruka smiled sadly and led Naruto out of the ward.
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"You're insane," said Tsunade.
"I've thought about this. Send me in."
"I won't risk losing you to such a stupid venture!" yelled the Hokage. Shizune shrank against the wall. Accustomed as she was to Tsunade's outbursts, she had seldom seen such pain and anger directed at anyone.
Kakashi stood his ground. "She has no family here, the only one she's close to is me. If it doesn't work, pull my mind out again. I'm sure ANBU can do that."
"You might get stuck as well, Kakashi."
"Then at least I'm stuck with the woman I love," retorted Kakashi heatedly. He softened. "Let me try, at least."
Tsunade looked away and gritted her teeth. "I hope I don't regret this. Shizune, bring her to the special room. Get medic Team One in on this."
"Yes, Ma'am."
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There is no room for error.
Three hours and thirty-four minutes, no longer.
We will keep a light trace in your mind.
You must be sure that you are you, none other.
Even if it doesn't work, we will rescue you.
Kakashi let the advice wash over him, a monotonous symphony of negativity. He sat beside Aya, his left hand on her forehead. His eyes watched Tsunade set up the room with crystals and Shizune paint the sealing wards about the perimeter.
"You'll focus on the flaw in the crystal I give you, and then you'll go under," said Tsunade for the third time. "Shizune will monitor your physical responses and I will maintain the watch on your mind. And Kakashi?"
The jounin looked at the Hokage. She had a very tender smile on her face, tinged with worry and understanding. "Be careful, Kakashi."
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The world was a wash of pain. Kakashi walked down an unfamiliar path, only to see it end in a small hut.
There was a small girl seated at the doorstep. Without asking, Kakashi knew that was Aya. He'd met her before.
"Hey."
"Hi," said child-Aya. She had dark, bouncing curls and a wide, gap-toothed smile. Kakashi felt a surge of affection for her. "Who are you?"
"I'm Kakashi."
"That's a funny name," she giggled. Suddenly she stood up and ran into the house. Kakashi followed. He knew what was coming.
Inside the house was a stone dungeon. He would see her.
He turned and saw Aya chained to the wall. Adult Aya, not child-Aya. Naked, with lash marks crisscrossing her torso and legs. Scores of scars, some too fresh.
He ran to her, and saw, with the same horror, burn marks across her breasts and limbs. Kakashi choked back a cry.
Aya looked up, one of her brilliant amber-golden eyes milky and blind. "You did this. You hurt me."
"I didn't, love, I swear I didn't," Kakashi recoiled.
"And how are we today, pet?" A familiar voice resounded across the dungeon. "Have we been a good little girl for her daddy?"
Kakashi strode in, in a black leather outfit. Kinky, thought Kakashi – real Kakashi – humorlessly.
But there was something fundamentally wrong about the other Kakashi: he was hard, and cold, and cruel.
That was Kakashi when he was younger, a Kakashi in the world of death and destruction, in ANBU. He stood right before Aya, his mask brushing her cheek. Oddly her face was unblemished, save for the blinded eye. Aya whimpered and tried to lean away.
"I asked nicely, Aya-chan. You want me to ask again?" The other Kakashi squeezed her exposed breast. "You want to be punished for not answering, hmm?"
Aya drew in a shuddering gasp – not of desire or lust, as she had often done in the waking world, but intense pain – and replied weakly, "I've been a very, very good girl, daddy."
"Liar." Nightmare-Kakashi punctuated the comment with a lash to Aya's legs. Kakashi tried to interpose himself between the battered Aya and the distorted image of herself, but he was like a shadow: the lash whistled past him again and again. She screamed, then cried out, then softened to a whimper. Nightmare-Kakashi pushed himself against Aya, his hand sliding up between her thighs. His touch drew Aya back to herself, and the pain. "Tell me again: have you been a good girl?"
"No, I haven't," said Aya dully. She licked her lips.
The other Kakashi ran the lash slowly across her raw nipples and then kissed her on her lips. When he pulled away, Kakashi saw blood spilling from her lower . "Now, what shall we play today, Aya-chan? Daddy's bored."
Kakashi saw the nightmare Kakashi gaze at a wall of implements. Blunt, sharp, hot, cold... they were all arrayed there on the stone wall.
"He's gonna hurt her again," said a child's voice. Child-Aya sat on the stairs where Nightmare-Kakashi came from. She held up her hand to Kakashi. "You can't help her here."
This part was new.
"Where can I help her then?" It tore at Kakashi to leave her here, but he knew he was wasting time. He had to find her real subconscious, not this nightmare implanted by that Toshi woman.
He'd seen this the last time the witch gave him a glimpse. It had hurt him then, and it hurt him now.
He followed child-Aya solemnly up the stairs, into the bookshop.
He could still hear the screams.