New chapter yayy! I have been waiting forever to get to this part, you have no idea! I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! Oh yeah, and hold on to your butts, it really only gets crazier from here! *evil cackles*
Oh yes, special shoutouts for my lovelies TheAuthorHaru for being with me since the very beginning, cathyscloud9 for their constant and continued support as well as my good pal 'Guest' (don't know who you are but you rock!), vickienna for giving me advice on my bae Harune and finally, TheFanficBaka, for your most amazing reviews that make me smile like a total goof at my screen. Love you all!
Hugs, kisses, read and review my darlings!
Kakashi didn't make a sound, not even as the three kunai were wrenched out of his back, Orochimaru putting extra care into twisting them slowly as he yanked them out of his torn flesh. He had been trained to deal with situations like this; ANBU operatives were always more likely to get captured, and if tortured, they had to be prepared to die silent so as to protect their country.
"What did you think would happen if you took Harune's place?" the snake-resembling Sannin sneered, dropping the last kunai onto the dirt floor. Kakashi considered shooting some sort of sardonic one-liner back at him, but that would do nothing but make his life more miserable; being hung from the ceiling by shackles and chains on his wrists didn't really put in him the mood to be all that sharp with his comments anyway.
"Che, aren't you well-desiciplined," Orochimaru jeered, quickly losing interest in Kakashi's unresponsiveness. "I would always get a rise out of Harune; she's quite the interesting character," he reminisced.
"Don't you fucking dare talk about Harune like she's some old friend of yours," Kakashi growled suddenly, rattling the chains on his wrists in fury.
"Oh, and now he speaks," Orochimaru cackled, slipping out from the darkness of the room and into the dim light shed by the single torch hanging up against the prison chamber. "She really is something to you, isn't she?" he noted, slithering up to Kakashi so that their faces were hardly an inch apart, snake eyes looking at him with an insatiable thirst for blood. "Well, it's not like the feeling isn't mutual; that little terror of a kunoichi wore that ratty red scarf everywhere she went—" Kakashi's eyes glared death at him, prompting Orochimaru to smirk, "—What, you think I didn't know where it came from or why she did? That thing stank like dog," he emphasized the last word, taunting the ninken summoner.
"So," Orochimaru continued when it was clear that Kakashi wasn't going to so easily lose his temper again, "I'm willing to bet little Haru-chan will tear the world upside-down just to find you, so lucky for you, I'm going to keep you alive, for now. Because I know that if she does find you here, dead, well, I won't have any leverage, will I?" he reasoned aloud. Kakashi just scowled.
"She's smarter than that," he snarled, to which Orochimaru freely laughed.
"She is," he agreed, "but she's not going to care. Harune is impulsive, and when she's angry, she's brash. We both know she'll be coming here for you. It's only a matter of time."
"You're wrong," Kakashi spat, denying his greatest fear. If Orochimaru was right, then Harune would be willingly putting herself at risk of becoming his next vessel, all for his sake. And if that were to happen, Kakashi would never be able to face Obito. Fuck, he'd dig out Obito's Sharingan just so he wouldn't have to witness how much of a worthless fucking failure he had turned out to be.
"Ugh, enough of your stupidity," Orochimaru drawled, clearly annoyed now by his prisoner. "I was hoping to have a little more fun with you, but it turns out I'll just have to wait until the main act comes along," he hissed, and with a single finger pressed against his forehead, Kakashi was immediately swallowed by an unrelenting darkness.
He had lost count of the days.
Perpetual darkness.
That's all he knew right now. This was one of the quiet stages, where either Orochimaru had business to take care of or he had gotten bored of tormenting his captive with genjutsus. The snake-resembling Sannin wasn't a fan of "good old-fashioned" physical torture, as he had so eloquently referred to it; he was a man who preferred psychological warfare.
And psychological warfare he used.
It hadn't taken much poking around Kakashi's consciousness to find his weakest links, and Orochimaru was thrilled when he found that he wouldn't have to get his creative juices flowing too much to successfully make the ANBU captain suffer immensely.
Anyone who knew Kakashi at all would know that any mention of his past sensei and genin team would be enough to get a rise out of him, but any mention of Harune would break him, and Orochimaru absolutely loved that.
From time to time Orochimaru would replay the nightmares of Obito and Rin that had haunted Kakashi since their deaths, but the defected Sannin took far more pleasure in implanting image of Harune herself being tortured and experimented on in Kakashi's persecuted mind than anything else.
Kakashi would be forced to watch helplessly from afar as Harune would be sliced, empoisoned, beaten, and manhandled by Orochimaru and his henchmen. Not all of what Kakashi believed he witnessed had happened, though the S-class criminal had no doubts that seeing what his best friend had actually suffered at his hand would most assuredly destroy his prisoner.
The worst scene that the malevolent convict had subjected Kakashi to was the time Harune had been branded by the Curse Mark. Orochimaru had let Kakashi see the whole thing; from the moment he had sunk his serpentine fangs into her neck to the moment she awoke from her excruciating coma, transformed into the winged demon of the Second Stage. Kakashi pulled viciously against the chains binding him to the ceiling by his wrists, his howls of unabated rage blending in the air with Harune's violent screams of agony as the chakra of the Mark ripped through her system like a thousand poison-tipped daggers. The image of the then 14 year old Kamineko writhed on the stone-cold floor of his prison cell for what felt like an eternity, and all Kakashi wanted to do was break free of his chains and take her into his arms, caressing her hair and rocking her until the pain subsided. Even more, Kakashi prayed to anyone who could hear him to take the pain away from Harune and let him bear it on her behalf. Only Orochimaru could hear his internal pleas, and he more than happily obliged, though instead of relieving the imaginary Harune of her suffering, the air was now filled with both the ninjas' cries, and it was music to Orochimaru's ears.
But right now, all was silent, and Kakashi wasn't sure whether he was conscious or not as he stared hopelessly down at the damp dirt floor beneath him, his body much too weak to even lift his head up as he heard the small footsteps of Kimimaro.
"Drink," the tiny boy commanded as he appeared below Kakashi's limp body with a canister of water hardly large enough to satisfy even Pakkun. Kakashi just hung there, defiantly refusing the water, but couldn't even bring himself to react to the sting of the needle piercing his forearm as the boy injected some sort of God-knows-what into him so as to keep him alive, even if just barely. Orochimaru had been adamant about keeping his prisoner alive as bait to draw Harune in. Having been one himself, Orochimaru knew that all Konoha shinobi were trained to kill themselves upon capture if they had absolutely no chance at escape. He made sure neither option was made available to Kakashi.
He would get Harune.
There was absolutely no way in hell she was waiting. Even if Genma was right, Harune knew Orochimaru better than even the Sandaime himself; a "couple of days" as the rogue Sannin's prisoner felt very well like an eternity in hell if he so desired, and usually, he did.
Harune could feel her body object to every move she made; apparently seven bowls of Ichiraku ramen, though delicious, weren't nearly enough to push her to a full recovery after a week-long coma, but the weary kunoichi wouldn't be able to rest easy until she knew Kakashi was back home safely anyway.
The Kamineko racked her brain for any possible alternatives to having her sensei sense out Kakashi. Being such a rare ability, Inoichi was the only sensor nin Harune knew, and he himself had been shocked when he discovered that his student possessed the potential to master such a coveted skill, much to her pride. The Yamanaka Clan Head had promised to teach her what she had always believed was one of the most useful skills a shinobi could have before she had undertaken the perilous task of infiltrating Otogakure, but he had never gotten the chance.
The Byakugan of the Hyuuga, Harune thought, was helpful, but nowhere near a worthy substitute of the sensing arts.
Harune hadn't the slightest clue as to how many shinobis' chakras she had stolen; there were hundreds of reserves branded onto her body that she had always kept so carefully concealed by chakra, but she had already begun removing the mask as she bounded across the village rooftops and into her apartment.
Hundreds of reserves, and only one was of a sensor. He had been one of her last, and Harune remembered having had to resist the greedy urge to kill him and make his ability hers permanently. She shuddered at the very Orochimaru-esk thought as she stripped her clothes off, searching her body for that one, precious cache. It was difficult to locate as her eyes quickly scanned that mess of scars and tattoos that marred her dark skin, but finally, she found it; the faded white marking of the kanji that read "feeling", practically blended into the large X-shaped patch of scar tissue raised on the kin under which her heart lay.
Harune snorted at the irony of such obvious symbolism, but prepared her body for the influx of unfamiliar chakra that she was about to release into her system as she focused on the mark.
"Kan: Release," she said steadily, carefully blending her own chakra with the chakra of the man her conscience was thankful for not having murdered.
The effect was sudden, and Harune almost keeled over from the onslaught of sensory stimulation.
All shinobi were trained to recognize and analyze chakra signatures to some degree, but the extent to which a sensor could feel these signatures and pinpoint their exact location was overpowering, and Harune's head hurt as she mapped out the presence of literally everyone in the village. Genma and Gai were still with the Sandaime, undoubtedly receiving orders to keep a close eye on her to assure that she wouldn't do anything rash.
Broadening her range, Harune first searched the entire Fire Country, cursing internally when she found nothing.
She winced as she forced herself to expand her range even further; the massive headache only worsening as she searched the neighbouring countries, both large and small.
Harune began to panic as she felt the reserve wane down to nearly nothing, fear enveloping her mind as she thought about what would happen if she didn't find Kakashi.
Much to her relief, the shinobi instinct within her kicked into overdrive, vanquishing her rather pointless and unhelpful emotions and forcing her to focus on making the last bit of foreign chakra count.
Harune released the Assimilation Jutsu the second she found Orochimaru and Kakashi, not daring to use the alien chakra any longer than she needed to. She had to keep the side effects of the jutsu to a minimum if she wanted any hope of being able to rescue Kakashi.
Night had already fallen by the time Harune had prepared a new set of supplies to take with her, but the impatient kunoichi didn't dare wait for sunrise.
"Going off unauthorized again, Harune?" the worn voice of the Third Hokage held the brazen kunoichi back from leaping off into the intimidating darkness of the Fire Country's forests.
"I'm going to get you back one of the greatest damn shinobi Konoha has ever seen," was her response, keeping her back turned to him. She ignore his hint that he had already been aware of her first departure from Konoha a couple of weeks prior.
"Did you find anything while you were out there?" Hiruzen asked, coming out of the shadows of the village gate.
"Sasori of the Red Sand. He was my partner in Akatsuki. Not much else," Harune replied in a clipped tone. Hiruzen nodded, not that she could see.
"Well, I'm glad that you are beginning to remember. We'll continue the investigation when you and Kakashi return," he said. Harune whipped around, her breath trapped in her lungs as she studied the Hokage. She had been anticipating resistance, punishment, scolding, essentially anything but his cooperation, let alone his support.
"Don't die," the Sandaime said, with a warm and knowing smile. Quickly recovering from the shock of only a moment ago, Harune chuckled before flashing him a mischievous grin. Hiruzen only beamed wider; this was the Kamineko Harune he knew.
"Don't worry, Sandaime-sama," the jonin kunoichi assured the old man, and disappeared.
Orochimaru had taken refuge in one of his much smaller, much more inaccessible hideouts in the overshadowed Land of Sun, a tiny country tucked between the lands of Fire and Lightning.
It was one that Harune had never been to before; she assumed it was relatively new, and although she knew that all of Orochimaru's bases were built on the same scheme, Harune remained ever-vigilant as she navigated the dark and eerily empty halls.
Harune soundlessly checked everywhere, the uneasiness in the pit of her stomach growing with the number of empty rooms she searched.
Finally, just as the Kamineko was really beginning to panic, she felt the faint pulse of Kakashi's chakra coming from the end of the last hall. Not bothering to remain wary of her surroundings, Harune sprinted down the corridor, busting the locked door down with one chakra-loaded kick.
Too late she noticed the faint tingle of chakra brush against her skin as she stepped into the room, prompting her to retreat almost instantly, but the kunoichi couldn't do anything to escape the barrier that now confined her.
She didn't let it faze her, though, and quickly resumed her search for Kakashi. She could still feel his chakra signature beating weakly through the damp air of the hideout, and, activating her Byaku-Sharingan, she followed the faded blue trail deeper into the shadows.
Finally, the trail thickened and grew more distinct, until Harune found him.
The sight was horrifying, even by shinobi standards, and had Harune not spent three years as Orochimaru's right hand, witnessing the conditions in which he kept his prisoners, she would have puked.
Coated in patches of dried blood and clothes shredded, Kakashi hung unconscious by shackles on his wrists, the miserable amount of chakra he had left churning a raging disaster within him; he was under a genjutsu, no doubt, and Harune didn't want to know what sort of fucked up illusions Orochimaru had planted in Kakashi's mind. She was by his side in a split second preparing herself mentally before she more closely examined the damage the rogue Sannin had done.
Tilting his head up, Harune noticed that Kakashi's mismatched eyes were bloodshot from starvation, dehydration, and lack of sleep, but he hadn't actually been unconscious.
"Kuso, Kashi-kun," Harune cursed, hating herself for the tears that began to sting her Byaku-Sharingan eyes as she lifted her fore and middle fingers up to his face.
"Release," she commanded, and immediately Kakashi focused on her.
"Haru…ne…" he said hoarsely, and Harune flung her arms around his neck.
"Kashi-kun!" she cried, ripping the remainder of his mask off his bruised face and crashing her lips against his, locking her hands in fistfuls of his messy silver hair and holding his broken body as close to hers as was humanly possible.
"How the fuck did you get yourself into this mess?" she breathed, reluctantly pulling away, but resting her forehead against his. Not waiting for an answer, Harune took the katana she had forged from her own kinton metal and cut Kakashi down from the iron shackles.
"Let's get you out of here, yeah?" Harune said tenderly, supporting Kakashi's near dead weight on her shoulder.
Byaku-Sharingan eyes searching desperately for any signs of an escape route, Harune quickly summoned Kuroda, relying on the panther's instinct and heightened senses to locate an exit. But when her trustworthy summon found none, Harune resigned to her last resort.
Laying Kakashi gently on Kuroda's back, the Kamineko gathered a fearsome amount of chakra in her right fist as she explained her plan to Kuroda.
"I punch that wall, you run through with him. Run right through; don't look back. And once you make it out, bring him straight to Konoha. Don't you dare wait for me, understand?" the kunoichi directed in a hushed voice, already feeling Orochimaru's sinister aura approaching from the same way she had come in. Kuroda sensed it as well, and although she looked disinclined to abandon her summoner, Harune knew she could count on her lifelong partner.
"Good," Harune nodded. She bent down beside Kuroda until her eyes met Kakashi's; hers clouded with tears as she tried to smile reassuringly, his wide and panicked as he realized what she was planning on doing.
"Harune," he choked out, unable to vocalize a more articulate protest. His mind was still hazy with the after effects of the genjutsu, and his body was feeble from his days in captivity.
"Shh, it's okay. You'll be okay," Harune whispered, pressing her lips against his once more, this time softly, tenderly, and with all the love the emotionally battered kunoichi had left.
"Don't…don't do this, please. We'll go back to Konoha together, and we'll come back and kick his fucking ass," Kakashi begged, willing his body to either get up and fight by her side or take her to flee with him, to no avail.
"This is my chance. It might be my only chance. If I don't do this now, it will never end. This is my fight, Kashi," Harune argued, though there was nothing in her tone that said she was anything but deeply, painfully sorry.
"I love you," Kakashi choked out, urging Harune to rethink her decision and cursing his body to hell for not allowing him to do anything more than plead with her.
"And you're the only one insane enough to do something as foolish as that," Harune smirked, but her voice cracked and she had to try to chuckle in a desperate attempt to keep from losing what remained of her composure.
Her eyes shot up to the doorway as she began to hear Orochimaru's snake-like hiss echo through the halls before she kissed Kakashi once more, urgently this time. Kakashi could taste the salt of her tears as they rolled down her cheeks and onto her lips, and when he pulled away, those dark, anguished emerald eyes, careless, thick black tresses of gorgeous hair, and that fucking addictive, sweet, metallic fragrance that surrounded the Kamineko seared themselves into his memory.
Say it, Harune, please. Say it, just once, Kakashi prayed silently, searching the kunoichi for any intentions she might have had to say those three words he so desperately needed to hear from her.
But she didn't say it. Instead, she stood, wasting no more time in demolishing the wall behind her with a single chakra-powered blow. As promised, Kuroda dashed through, the battered walls collapsing in her wake.
Not a moment later, Orochimaru entered the destroyed room, the malicious grin stretching his snake-like face proving that he had already known what he was walking into.
"Harune," he hissed gleefully, "You've finally come back."