Living in the Mist (Chapter 25)
Disclaimers: Not mine.
"Kakashi's right. He's really taking me to the underground prison," Iruka took in his surrounding and concluded that he was indeed in the tunnel that Kakashi mentioned to him. The punishing hold on his limbs never let loose for even one second and he was starting to feel dizzy due to the pain.
"You're here already," the familiar voice caught Iruka's attention instantly and he turned his head in a painful manner just to snarl at the owner of the voice. "Seiryuu!"
"Yes, anything?" smiling sweetly at Iruka, Seiryuu asked. Her cape was gone again and the dim light in the tunnel made her exposed tan skin shone in a most exotic way. The dragon tattoo was not visible because of her long hair obscuring the full view of her back. Iruka was glaring ferociously at her until he saw the two lifeless forms laying unceremoniously on the floor, not too far away from him.
"Akio-san! Junko-san!"
"I never knew you're in good term with your assailants. They're not dead, don't worry," walking over to the two unconscious forms, Seiryuu drawled as she kicked Junko's side lazily. The sharp intake of breath by Iruka caused her to smirk slightly as that was the exact reaction she was anticipating for.
"How could you treat your own people like that…" Iruka whispered under his breath in disbelief. Even though he already knew that the clan was using its own members, seeing and knowing it were two different things. The fact that they shared the same surname was more than enough for Iruka to treat them as family members and not some necessary tools to reach a goal. "They're your family, how could you…"
"Exactly. They're my family, so I could," striding away from Junko, Seiryuu answered as she walked towards a small stand in the middle of the room, reaching for the black box rested there. The seals on the box were obviously unlocked because Seiryuu could open the box easily despite all the visible drawings of seals crisscrossing on the box and the stand. Iruka on the other hand, was totally stunned by her answer. "Aren't family members supposed to take care of each other? Why are they doing this…"
"The Umino Clan is really famous for their soft hearted ninjas," looking at Iruka's befuddled look, Seiryuu said softly, contradicting the disgusted look that she shot at Iruka. She was definitely not proud of the statement. Before Iruka could say anything, the old man who restrained him and never uttered a word after that finally spoke. "Enough. Stop wasting time."
"You do know we still have some time left, Genbu," Seiryuu smiled and replied, lifting the pendant out of the box, carefully avoiding the kanji in the middle.
"Iruka-san, it'd be best if you don't die on us. So when I ask you to stop your chakra, please do. You can choose not to, we have plenty of people to use," Genbu explained calmly as he used his hair to move Iruka to Seiryuu's direction.
"I couldn't let them suck my chakra. I won't have enough to teleport if they did it. I need to break from the hold of the hair first. But how?" Iruka's mind was whirling when he felt the tightening of the grip on his limbs. The pendant was dangling from Seiryuu's long fingers and the bright blue glow on part of the kanji in the middle was clear for the sight of all. Almost one third of the kanji was already filled with chakra. Iruka could not help but wonder how many people they had used to gain this much of chakra. His train of thoughts was disrupted however when Seiryuu swung the pendant right in front of his face and drawled in amusement. "Iruka-san, are you ready?"
"Think, Iruka. Think!" staring at the gorgeous tanned skin lady, Iruka gulped in a mouthful of much needed air and chanted mentally. He was running out of time and his brain still refused to supply him with a kick-ass plan that would get him out of there.
"Genbu," Seiryuu looked at the old man and called out gently. A slight nod was her only answer and without wasting any time, Seiryuu moved the pendant to Iruka's forehead as Genbu slowly released his hold on Iruka, not wanting to be another victim of the chakra sucking pendant. Iruka's eyes widened as he felt the hair slowly loosened its grip on his limbs. Clearing his mind, Iruka took a deep breath as he thought grimly, "I'm going to do this right or I'm going to die."
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"Ah, it's good to be underestimated," Kakashi smiled to himself as the corded muscles of his biceps stood out clearly due to the force he was currently exerting from them. Beads of sweat were sliding down his temples and forehead, causing him to shake his head a couple of times before he got back to concentrating on what he was doing again. A small creaking sound made him grinned as he knew that his effort was fruiting. He just needed more time before he could get out of the prison.
"What did they use to make these bars? They're as hard as metal," Kakashi grumbled to himself as he applied more force on his arms, trying to pull apart two of the bars so that there would be a space wide enough for him to slide out. "Oh right, they're metal," he shook his head at his own dry humour as he continued his tedious task. The bars were definitely giving him a hard time and he could not use his chakra before he managed to escape from the prison. However, his own musings was cut short when the bars suddenly fell apart from their original position and Kakashi had to take a few steps back to regain his balance. He raised his brows in amusement as he looked at the crooked bars on his hands. "I never knew that I'm this strong," chuckling slightly, Kakashi threw the bars that he ripped out with his brute strength to a corner and slid through the narrow opening in one swift move. This was one of the few moments that his lean built actually helped him in a mission.
Once he slipped past the prison bars, Kakashi popped a pill into his mouth and sighed at the familiar feeling of steady chakra flow in his body. Almost instinctively, he closed his left eye and suppressed his chakra to the lowest level as he made his way to the room where he first discovered the secret tunnel. Silently, he thanked every god that he could remember when he actually did not come across anyone during his little journey. However, a reasonable side of his mind pointed out that most probably the clan members were already captured by their evil leader, causing the lack of people in the mansion.
Kakashi ended his little mind talking session when the view of the familiar room came into his sight. Cautiously, he stretched his senses and was immensely glad when he felt the steady chakra signal from Iruka. After he made sure that no one was in the room, Kakashi went into the room stealthily and he was not surprised when he found out that the seal was actually unlocked, leaving the entrance of the tunnel wide opened.
"How cautious of them…" Kakashi thought sarcastically as he entered the tunnel without hesitation, all the while suppressing his chakra to prevent himself from being noticed. His previous journey to the tunnel had given him a very good outline of how to move in the tunnel and he managed to reach the entrance of the underground prison within a short amount of time. Scanning his surroundings, Kakashi spotted the skinny old man in one of the cells, hands chained to a wall and head hung low in a defeated kind of look.
"Oi, old man," Kakashi walked towards the cell hurriedly and called out in a hushed tone once he made sure that there were no traps around. His voice immediately triggered a reaction from Ryuichiro as the old man hastily raised his head and looked at him disbelievingly. "Kakashi…"
Kakashi did not fail to notice the disbelief look plastered on Ryuichiro's face but he chose to ignore it for now. His priorities now were to free this old man, teleport themselves out of this place and meet up with Iruka at the gate. "Tell me how to disable the traps," wasting no time, Kakashi studied the hidden seals on the door as he asked Ryuichiro impatiently, his brows furrowed together in concentration.
"You can't disable…"
"Why?" before Ryuichiro could finish his sentence, Kakashi cut him off and asked but he immediately realised why Ryuichiro said that the traps were impossible to be disabled. "I understand already. I'm going to get you out," without giving Ryuichiro any chance to speak, Kakashi continued his one sided conversation as he focused his chakra on his palm, creating a mini size chidori. Ryuichiro seemed to disagree with Kakashi's rash action as he protested in whispered words, "They'll know! Stop this right now! Just escape…"
Noting the regretful tone of voice, Kakashi stared right into the skinny old man's light coloured eyes and said determinedly, "If you're feeling guilty about my father's incident. Don't. Konoha's ninjas never leave their teammates behind. That's the reason why I'm doing this." Once he finished his sentence, Kakashi slammed his palm on top of the lock of the cell, letting his chidori to blast a hole right through the bars effortlessly. Unfortunately, that also triggered a series of traps.
"Behind you!" Ryuichiro yelled urgently once he noticed the barrage of arrows aiming at Kakashi's back. There was no point to keep his voice down anymore because once the traps were triggered, they would be found out sooner or later due to chaos. Kakashi did not need Ryuichiro's warning to sense the attack behind him. Forming hand seals at incredible speed, he turned to face the attack and sent a huge fireball to melt the arrows, at the same time leaping backwards into the cell and hauled Ryuichiro's skinny body up. However, he halted his action when he noticed the swords that were starting to extend from the wall and the various jutsu that were charging towards them in a blur of speed.
"Leave!" Ryuichiro attempted to struggle out from Kakashi's death grip as he yelled into the stubborn ninja's ears. Kakashi being the ever stubborn ninja did not loosen his grip even for the slightest as he muttered darkly, "Screw this…"
"Wha…"
"Old man, you can stand a bit of pain right?" without waiting for a reply again, Kakashi forcefully pulled the skinny man's wrists from the confinement of the cuffs, wincing at the sight of tear skin and the blood that started to gush out from the wound uncontrollably. He did not want to treat Ryuichiro like that but the situation right now did not allow him to actually try and unlock the cuffs so he had no choice but to take advantage of Ryuichiro's small wrists and freed the old man in a not so comfortable way. However, Kakashi admitted that the respect he had for the Yamanaka just went up a notch when Ryuichiro did not flinch or made a noise at the sudden pain. The only signal that showed Ryuichiro really did feel something was the tightly sealed lips and the beads of sweat sliding down his forehead down to his chin.
"C'mon, let's go," gripping Ryuichiro's arms, Kakashi leaped from side to side as he dodged the attacks, not bothering to fight back. Instead he concentrated on finding a place where he could just land for one second and teleport their asses out of the place.
"There!" turning his head to the direction of one of the corners, Ryuichiro said to Kakashi urgently once he spotted the tiny area at the far end of the prison which was not hit by any jutsu yet. Kakashi nodded and wasted no time leaping towards the safe zone as he continued to dodge the attacks, trying to ignore the pain on his injured ankle. He was so close to landing but a sudden pain on his ankle told him that he was not having the best luck after all.
"Die! Scum!" Kakashi cursed inwardly at the sight of an old man standing at the entrance of the prison, his white hair flowing freely. Some of the strands that attached to Kakashi's injured ankle tightened its grip impossibly under the control of the old man. A loud crack was heard and Kakashi willed himself not to scream at the bone-stabbing pain that shot up his entire body at the instant his ankle got broken. Instead, he used the last bit of his strength to pull Ryuichiro closer and started to form hand seals as fast as he could, his eyes never leaving the hair that was charging at them viciously.
"You're not getting away!" their attacker snarled once again but Kakashi's returned it with a smirk this time as he completed his hand seals right before the hair reached him. In a swirl of smoke, Kakashi and Ryuichiro disappeared from the prison leaving a fuming white haired man behind.
"We made it…"
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A/N: Sorry for the delay. Evil coursework... I've been working on another fic which I didn't post here due to formatting problem. Feel free to visit my homepage to have a look at it. It's called LJ Entries.