Chapter twenty-five

Sonea stomped through Konoha a week later with Storm, Star and Seth walking behind her, holding in their laughter behind red faces from laughing earlier and clutching hands to their heaving ribs from laughing to much as they tried to keep their stiff jaws relaxed. She slammed Tsunade's office doors open and Tsunade opened her mouth to shout at the intruder as she looked up but ended up spitting her sake out and laughing her butt off, clutching onto her stomach as her team joined in once again and she huffed, crossing her arms with annoyance.

"It's seriously not that funny." Sonea said with annoyance. She had her hair tied back in a high ponytail, wearing a bra covered with spikes as decoration with tights on underneath a silver belly dancer's skirt and pumps on her feet, nails on her hands and feet painted with fake nails and black nail polish… Yes the mission was a success but with the humiliating down side of actually having to dress up and belly dance… She now knew why she was specifically asked to do this mission.

"You should see how mortified your beautiful face is!" Tsunade shouted out with laughter and now Sonea could hear the hidden ANBU laughing as well. She had on so much make up it wasn't funny, with mascara, eye liner thickly around her eyes, so much base and blush to cover a whole village and lip stick just to top it all off and she had so much make up on the rest of her body as well as she released her suffocating killing intent and the laughter died down instantly and Tsunade cleared her throat.

"Well done Team Sonea. Infiltration complete and so I'll be giving you all two days to recover and…" Tsunade didn't get to finish her sentence as a dull thud and panting was heard and they turned around to see a beat up Pakkun lying on the ground and Sonea rushed over, scooping him up into her arms quickly and healing his wounds.

"Come on Pakkun, stay with me." Sonea stressed to the exhausted and hurt dog as he relaxed into her arms. Pakkun's breathing evened out as he battled to stay conscious as Sonea worked on him with a lump sitting in her throat… Kakashi would never allow one of his ninken to get hurt and send them out unless it was an absolute necessity and he had no other choice as she swallowed hard against her dried throat.

"Pakkun, I need you to explain to me what happened." Sonea asked the pug slowly with each letter pronounced carefully as Pakkun struggled to stay awake.

"Boss and the team were watching the Oto nin… We got seen and attacked… Used himself as a distraction to let us get away and the enemy took him before coming after me." Pakkun explained then his body went limp as he fell asleep and Sonea scowled, her lips pulled into a thin line as she watched the hurt and tired dog resting in her arms.

"Tsunade-sama, find Inuzuka Hana immediately to look after Pakkun, I'm going after them." Sonea said with glowing red eyes and an angry and dangerous look to her face as she stroked the dog with possessiveness.

"You've just come back from a mission, I'll send someone else." Tsunade explained calmly and Sonea's eyes glowed as her form shifted to Jyuubi chakra mode.

"They're too hard to track… Sonea's the only one who could find him." Pakkun said weakly, waking up temporarily again before passing out again.

"What does he mean by that?" Tsunade asked as Hana rushed in and took Pakkun away to be treated properly. Sonea pulled off her skirt and began wrapping her strappings on her thighs and putting her holster and pouches on, putting her leg on the couch to complete the action then took off the spiky decorations off of her top.

"He means exactly that Tsunade-sama." Sonea stated harshly, turning back to her behind her desk.

"They're connected." Storm elaborated and Tsunade seemed confused then slightly angry.

"So… You two are involved?" She asked and Sonea nodded determinedly as she dropped back to demon mode but her eyes still glowed brightly for the daytime. "A bigger reason not to let you go then." Tsunade said stubbornly and Sonea's lip twitched as she growled in her throat.

"You can either give me permission or let me go get my 'rest' Tsunade-sama, with all due respect… If Pakkun says I'm the only one then I'm the only one who can find him with the connection we share plus I've heard you want them disposed of… I'm the perfect team." She smirked with anger, almost arrogantly and Tsunade back up a little in her seat and swallowed.

"Fine then… Take your team with in case the other four are injured, find Kakashi and dispose of every Oto nin you can track down. Those are your orders." Tsunade said with reluctance as Sonea nodded stiffly and swiftly left the office with her team behind her in a brisk walk to the gates and began running in wolf form, following Pakkun's recent scent to find Team Kurenai and Kakashi.

It was still early morning when they came across the destroyed and abandoned campsite the Oto nin were using as they examined the damage and gauged what type of battle took place there the previous night.

"Scatter… If Team Kurenai is injured, they won't be far but don't approach them alone, report back in five minutes." Sonea ordered as she returned to her human form and began digging around the site for clues and the three wolves took off to do their job. By the damage done, it was like she could see the whole battle playing out in her head as she watched and turned to look at the damage caused by bodies and ninjutsu… Shino's bugs, Hinata's gentle fist, Inuzuka's ninken team work and lightning damage caused by Raikiri, Lightning Edge. Some scuff marks caught her attention in the dirt as she followed them and they disappeared and she jumped into the trees to find disturbance in the flora around… it was a large scale battle that took place and many scents of blood, including Kakashi's and she growled.

"Sonea." Storm's voice caught her and she turned to face her team. "We've found them." They took off towards a rocky area nearby and entered the cave carefully in their human forms. The scent of blood got stronger as well as faint presences and chakra preparing for battle as they had already been sensed.

Sonea ordered her team to wait by the mouth of the cave and she barely dodged Gatsuuga heading right for her then a wave of bugs she had to take out with her storm cutting senbons. Barely enough time to engage and dodge attacks made by the gently fist but the movements were calculated and slow as Sonea managed to grab Hinata's wrists gently and restrain her back against her and calm her down.

"Calm down, we're from Konoha as back up, we're friendly I promise. I'm Sonea… Remember from the first chunin exams you guys took?" Sonea said with some stress to her voice but also as calming as possible and soon Hinata ended her struggling and collapsed with Sonea helping her onto the ground with Kiba, Akamaru and Shino rushing over as well as her circle rushing in to help with injuries.

"We must apologise for attacking, why you ask? It's because we sensed your ominous chakra and within our weakened state did not remember or recognise you and your chakra." Shino apologised as their wounds were looked at by Star and Sonea focused on the unconscious Hinata in her arms.

"I understand and was prepared for it. You three have good teamwork, I barely missed you attack combos so well done." Sonea praised with a small smile.

"Heh, we should be promoted to jonin." Kiba said tiredly but still cockily as Sonea smiled and petted Akamaru carefully after taking care of Hinata's injuries and began on Akamaru's with Sage.

"You were fighting for survival, you can't do it all the time. Now let's get back to your camp a little deeper in the cave and we'll talk about the mission quickly so I can end it quickly." Sonea said as they moved deeper within the cave. Kiba and Shino explained the mission details and where it all went wrong and Sonea scowled and bit her lip as she listened then caught something Kiba had said.

"So you know this forest like the back of your hand?" She asked him and Kiba nodded.

"Yeah, I always take Akamaru out for walks and we go pretty far, why?" He asked and Sonea leaned back on her hands and thought this over.

"Have you noticed anything different, maybe like a fallen tree or something stupid like that?" Sonea asked and Kiba seemed confused.

"Yeah… There's this one tree we walked past that I remember was down on its side but there was no evidence of it being new or anything." Kiba mentioned and Sonea wanted to punch something.

" They're hiding there… Genjutsu of the sound type just like their village. Can you take me there?" Sonea asked and Kiba nodded determinedly. "The rest of you stay here and recover, I'll find Kakashi and finish off the mission."

"Take at least Star with you in case Kakashi's wounded." Storm said calmly as Kiba thought they had gone mad.

"We couldn't stand up to them for a second yet you're only sending two people?" He asked in worried outrage and Sonea stood up with him and placed her hands reassuringly on his shoulders and smiled.

"You can feel my chakra and my power and you know I'm nothing like anyone that you have met before… Trust me on this." Sonea said and Kiba sighed.

"Fine but if you die, don't say I didn't warn you." He said, already leading them out the cave as Sonea and Star followed him and began running through the trees. They came up to a tree fallen between two trees and supported by rock formations on each side as they hid in a ditch. Sonea watched with rippling sharingan and sighed… How did Kakashi miss this? "Akamaru said the rocks don't smell like all the others around here." Kiba said in a whisper as they stayed hidden.

"And you'll smell why in a second… Look at the two smaller rocks in the centre of each formation and smell what is carried by the wind." Sonea explained as the wind picked up and Kiba sniffed and stiffened.

"Human scents… How did we miss this?" Kiba wondered with annoyance.

"They used that specific type of rock, volcanic rock to cover their scents and its not natural rock to this type of terrain by the peaks of the rocks… Remember that and compare the shape to others… Now you two wait here until I give Star the signal, understand Kiba?" Sonea asked carefully as she shifted to Jyuubi chakra mode. Her wings forming in iron already as well as the blades on her arms and her ten chained tails covered in purple chakra. Kiba seemed annoyed but nodded reluctantly as Sonea hopped over the ditch and slid down the loose gravely ground down to the rocks and in a flash took out the two guards as they collapsed to the ground and saw through the genjutsu to the entrance.

She slipped in silently, walking on the balls of her feet and put her wings away in the narrow space and continued down the halls of brown swirled walls, finding six other chakra signatures and one faint one as four of them were crowded around the weaker one and she had to hold herself in check as she headed for it, checking around corners and heading down long and thin narrow hallways, barely wide enough for one body, maybe two if they twisted slightly to avoid each other.

"What the…" A voice said out loud but she had hit him across the head and lay him down silently and continued on, she wasn't expecting one of the two men to the side to move so quickly and find her as she turned a corner.

'Blood… Kakashi's blood!' Sonea thought angrily as she caught the scent and she had to concentrate to keep her chakra hidden so she had the advantage of surprise attack. Her eyes glowed sharply through the darkened halls as she continued to move silently deeper into the hideout, head whipping around, eyes wide and alert as she snuck through the halls, all the muscles in her body tense as her tail stayed wrapped around her waist for now. There was still that random nin on the other side of the hideout but she couldn't think about him right then as she told Star about him and to keep watch in case she missed one and continued on.

She gasped with pain in her chest as her eyes went wide and began to water a little with tears… Kakashi was screaming… pure pain filled screams of terror rang through the halls as her breathing picked up with pain and anger as she felt like she wasn't moving quick enough but she had to be cautious as she had already been caught once. They had taken out an ANBU squadron and she was no different and a one-man army. Finally reaching the signatures, blood and screaming, she came to a six inch metal door that looked like a safe as she stared at it but it had its flaws as she found out.

"My name is Hatake Kakashi, Jonin of Konohagakure no Sato of Hi no Kuni. Registration number 009720. Son of Hatake Nozomi and Sakumo, Konoha's White Fang…" He kept saying in between screams and breathlessly. It was an ANBU protocol and she gritted her teeth as she focused on the other chakra's in the room and thought of the best plan of action that wouldn't endanger Kakashi at the same time.

She decided on surprise attack as she took one last deep breath and let her chakra run wild as her tails ripped the doors to shreds in a split second and was engaged in battle right away with the four men, using her sleeve blades to cut them as her tails restrained them quickly to take them out as she was attacked ruthlessly. One down as she moved on, eyes darting to keep up with the movements and predicted attacks as she twisted, ducked, flipped and cut into flesh as her flesh was cut into but not felt as the Jyuubi relished in her anger as she pushed on.

Two down then three down and she stopped as a sound of a sword being unsheathed and held against a hollow neck was heard and she looked up from her crouched position to see Kakashi being held as hostage, katana against his neck while the nin smiled. He was in a bad way, his mask was barely there anymore, shirt and such missing showing scalding burns from boiling water, fire and branders as well as whipping marks and other cuts, bruises, fractures and breaks as he dangled in the man's arms, barely conscious. The blade began to dig into Kakashi's neck as he twitched and blood ran down his bruised and bloodied form and she didn't know what happened but he was dead without her moving then she caught Kakashi's chakra as the man dropped down dead and Kakashi fell but she caught him in her arms and he hugged her weakly as she tried to shift him in her arms carefully.

"Kakashi! Come on, stay with me, we'll get you fixed up. Please just hold on!" She begged with panic as she lifted him enough to wrapped her arm under his back and the other under his knees and picked him up and headed for where Star was already advancing, giving Kiba the order to kill the last one if he wanted to but not the unconscious one and he happily went after him with the rest of the team that had arrived once Hinata woke up.

Sonea skidded to a halt on her knees as Star rushed up and began working on Kakashi's broken and battered body while Sonea held him carefully and began working on him as well as her hands glowed the same green and purple like the last time but it was efficient and quicker than Star's green chakra as she vaguely noticed. He looked so terrible as she continued to wipe away tears with the back of her wrists as she worked. He had a large gash in his hair line that had spilt blood down his face in stripes into what was left of his mask, jaw fractured in three places, loose teeth, broken nose, bruised eye like they tried to gouge out his sharingan but failed. He had a concussion as he battled to stay conscious as she continued to look at his other injuries, he had strangulation signs across his throat as well at the deep gash by that katana, broken collar bone, dislocated shoulder and broken upper arm and wrists from struggling with rope burn, broken fingers. He had broken and fractured ribs, bruising already and whip marks with some bruises on his stomach and burn marks with the Otogakure signature and water marks from water as well as what looked like wire burn marks all across his skin.

"I don't have the chakra to heal all of it." Star said with strain as Sonea's chain tail touched her and began feeding her chakra as she grimaced and focused on her control.

"Do what you can for now, I don't have a lot either." Sonea said sadly and Star laughed with strain.

"You have a monstrous amount so don't worry too much, a little chakra exhaustion would be good for you." She mocked and Sonea cracked a slight smile.

"Heal what will keep him stable and save his career." Sonea responded seriously again as she looked at the rest of his injuries. Lower down, she could see his hips had taken some beatings as she saw burn marks on his thighs with whip marks but nothing broken but a fracture or two, just external injuries as she got a little dizzy from the massive amount of chakra being used up as the group met up with the hostage carried between Storm and Sage.

"Sonea-san?" Hinata asked with concern but she gave Team Kurenai a reassuring smile with strain.

"I'm fine, I trust you guys will take care of me if I faint from chakra exhaustion." Sonea said seriously and Hinata nodded while the rest watched on with worry.

"Are you sure that's wise?" Storm asked.

"I'm dead serious, Kakashi's in a bad way but he'll be okay, the more we do here the better the outcome of his healing… I've never seen such bad torture injuries." Sonea said with sadness as she wiped away a tear again and continued as the dizziness got worse but she stayed concentrated. Her vision got fuzzy as she fed Star the rest of her chakra and she passed out, subconsciously missing Kakashi as she dropped Jyuubi chakra mode and fainted with his head on her lap still as they both slipped into unconsciousness.

All he remembered was screaming as he woke up to the worst sound… Beeping. His left eye was bandaged closed while the right one felt stuck together like glue and decided to keep them closed for now if the light shining onto him was bright enough already. His whole body felt numb as he tried to remember how he got into a hospital by the smell and the odd numb feeling of the disinfected sheets starched against his skin. He remembered repeating the kidnapping protocol over and over, not listening to the actual questions anymore then hot water hissing against his skin and screaming and blood, his blood. Then the room lit up and chakra surrounded the room so comforting he wanted to die but then there was pain against his neck again and his lightning natured chakra just reacted then soft skin against his burns.

'Kakashi! Come on, stay with me, we'll get you fixed up. Please just hold on!' Sonea's voice he remembered her saying with such panic… What was she doing there? He remembered, the Oto nin wanted information on her and he refused with the torture as he felt her bite marks burning comfortingly as he concentrated on that sweet pain and went through the rest.

'Sonea…' He thought as he remembered lying on his back and looking up at her… She was all bloodied as well, was she okay, then there was other voices and it went blank as he fell asleep again to recover further.