Ok, so I apologise for how dramatically my story will differ hereafter this chap to the actual manga (cough, direct contradiction) but hey, this is the world of fan fic where we can change or bend the rules as we like, mwahhahah! XD
Also, reading chap in Naruto – I am PRAYING that it will actually be Kakashi and Sakura to save the day instead of the the last-minute-hero twins lol and I do feel like Sasuke deserves a punch to the ear for his comment about Kakashi and Sakura 'just happening to be there' – ever the douche ¬.¬
Storm Cloud – Chapter 03 – The Box That Pandora Sealed – Season 02
"Tsunade-sama," Kakashi greeted as he stepped in front of the Hokage,
"Kakashi, I assume you are here to hand over those items of your mother's?" She nodded to the rucksack he had on his back,
"Hai, there aren't many items in here, but I'd like a chance to finish cataloging everything I've found before I hand anything else over," He spoke with certain, unapologetic words and Tsunade eyed him for a moment, before nodding;
"Well, knowing you, I suppose I should be grateful you bothered to even tell me about them in the first place," Kakashi didn't respond, not feeling a need to validate what Tsunade had already asserted to be true. He slipped the pack off his shoulders and walked over to her desk, rummaging a hand in to withdraw the first item, a rather simple looking kunai,
"This kunai is one of many weapons possessing chakra channeling qualities – when I first picked it up I felt a charge of residual chakra still within it," Kakashi spoke fairly plainly and Tsunade eyed the weapon skeptically she reached a hand out to take a hold of the knife and just as her fingers touched the faded bandages around the handle, it suddenly crackled and almost burned the kuniochi,
"Ah! What the hell?"
"Oh…I thought the residual chakra had been drained…" Kakashi eyed the knife carefully, "Oh, sorry, Tsunade-sama, I hadn't realised this weapon reacted unfavourably to incompatible chakra," The Hokage rubbed her fingertips over the palm of her other hand, frowning slightly,
"That certainly makes it interesting, but the team will have a tricky time analysing this if they can't touch it,"
"It's interesting that you can't touch it," Kakashi spoke almost without thinking, piquing the Sannin's interest,
"What do you mean?"
"Sakura isn't hurt by this knife and she can use my chakra knives – she guessed it was because her medicinally trained chakra made it more flexible than average so she'd be able to utilize them," Tsunade stressfully rubbed two fingers over her forehead,
"First of all, Sakura knows about these things? The store, too?" Kakashi nodded, "And Sakura is able to touch this knife without getting burnt?"
"Hai," Tsunade raised an eyebrow,
"Interesting…and what 'chakra knives' are you referring to?"
"Ah…" Kakashi swallowed, unwilling to give up he knew found weapons so soon; still he reached into his pouch and withdrew the pair, "These, apparently they too were designed by my mother and used by my father; they can connect a chakra link between them and store chakra," He offered a quick demonstration, the narrow, electric blue line drew Tsunade's eyes for a few mesmerising seconds,
"Incredible…" She held out a hand to take a hold of one of the knives as Kakshi cancelled his chakra, "These won't burn me as well, will they?"
"No…they shouldn't do," The kuniochi frowned irritatedly, but bravely took a hold of the heavy metal, finding it as inert as any other kunai, she gripped it tightly for a second but found no opening or responsiveness from the metal that allowed her chakra to move any further.
"Sakura can use these, too?"
"Hai," He responded a little stiffly, Tsunade's eyes searched the kunai, then the man himself carefully for a few, silent moments,
"You both seem especially well suited to one another…" If Sakura's confession earlier that day hadn't shocked Kakashi enough, then Tsunade's indirect approval of their relationship certainly had,
"Wh-what?"
She merely shrugged, though, "You're lucky – it's hard enough to find people that are compatible with our characters, let alone our chakras," She handed the knife back to him, "What else have you brought?"
…
Genma leant back casually on the sofa in the Jounin lounge as he watched Sakura's hand glitter with green medicinal chakra, some of which he could feel small traces flit through his own system, he knew better than to try and talk to the kuniochi when focusing on something, but Sakura half-wished he hadn't slouched so much – with his shirt open and his arms stretched out either side of him on the back of the sofa made her feel like she the scene looked a lot more innapropriate from certain angles.
"Ok, Genma, as I expected you too are a carrier," She pulled a hand away from his chest and he reubuttoned his shirt, "Could you please detail as many of the meals you ate in Iwa? What were your living conditions like? Was the water clean? Did you receive any medical attention whilst on your mission?" Sakura strung her questions together as she scribbled a few sentences down on her notepad,
"Wh…well, everything seemed pretty clean and maintained, but that was probably because we were in the administration building of Iwa,which hosted a lot of daimyos so I reckon the food and water must have been safe enough," He shrugged, but grinned at the woman sat next to him,
"Has Kakashi told you he loves you yet?" Genma had to bite his tongue from laughing out loud at the reaction he got: Sakura's head shot up to look at him so fast he wondered if her neck was in danger of snapping,
"What? He…has he what?" He could easily tell she was doing her best to look incredulous, but he could also see the faint tint of red to her cheeks – right on the money he congratulated himself silently, though carefully schooled his next words into a tone of honest, non-judgemental observation:
"He was so worried about you whilst we were in Iwa, I told him you were more than capable of handling yourself, but since he kept on sending Pakkun to you, I figured something must be especially worrying him,"
"Uh…well, we kept in touch, it was useful to know the situation in Iwa as well as Kumo," Sakura tried to defend, looking back down to her notes as Genma was unable to resis his scoff,
"Yea, because nin on missions always confer on mission half way across the continent from each other and it wasn't as if we knew that Iwa had anything to do with the virus," As Sakura listened to his words, she sighed as a her sign of acquiescence and finally Genma could contain his grin no longer, "So..?"
"So 'what'?" She tried to shrug off, returning her attention to her notes and flipping through them, "Besides, Genma, you still need to answer a few questions – did you feel ill, or a little 'off' at all, during your mission?"
"I didn't, but I'm sure Kakashi did, despite what answer he might try to tell you," He raised another eyebrow initially before offering a breath of laughter in return for Sakura's huff of irritation. She rose to her feet and shot him one last look of mild irritation – one she usually reserved in her days of hospital duties, when dealing with a particularly irritating patient – before turning and marching from the room. Although she was doing her best to refocus her mind onto detailing her findings to the Hokage, the smile on her face seemed to have a mind of its own despite her attempts to hide it for what Kakashi had already told her: the same as what Genma had apparently guessed.
"Who is it?"
"Sakura,"
"Come in," The Hokage called, not taking her eyes off the items scattered over her desk – most of her paperwork having been pushed aside to make space for the artifacts of Kakashi's mother's.
"Tsunade-sama, I have completed the examinations of Genma and Raidou – both of whom are, unsurprisingly infected as well," Sakura spoke as she walked up to the desk, scanning her eyes over the weapons and scrolls laid out, "Oh, you're going over the things from the store?"
"Yes…" Tsunade eyed the curved weapons of Kakashi's, as the younger kuniochi picked one of the up and flipped it in her hand before gripping it properly and the blade suddenly flourished with blue-twinged chakra as the kuniochi charged it. A thin beam of chakra darted from its tip to connect, for a split second with its mate still lying on the desk, the kuniochi almost shivered as she could feel traces of Kakashi's residual chakra still within the metalwork, although a sensation she was used to, it still registered a deep intimacy – to have her chakra touch his.
Her eyes locked to Kakashi's in a moment and although he wasn't holding the other blade, he seemed to almost be aware of what she was feeling, it took a lot of self control to stop a blush creeping over her face as Tsunade's cough drew them back to the present;
"If you're finished? We really need to talk about this mission, Sakura,"
"I request to be placed on this assignment, Tsunade-sama," Kakashi cut across instinctively, forcing the Hokage to roll her eyes in irritation,
"So it took you all of five minutes to blab to him?"
"Ah…sorry, Tsunade-sama,"
"Kakashi you have been to Iwa most recently, and are respected there on diplomatic terms…despite how you nearly destroyed part of their administration building," Tsunade rolled her eyes at this statement, apparently not that bothered by it; "I know how well you work as a team, but I am concerned about the change in your relationship status…though I am not doubting your professionalism, neither of you are naive enough to think that it will have no impact on missions you complete together. Admittedly, this mission is more intel-gathering, I am still working over the finer details – as to whether to send you as a recon party or speak directly to the Iwa council…
"Honestly speaking, I have doubts as to whether you you are capable of completing missions together with the same level of smoothness you could before you became involved, particularly whilst this relationship is still so…fresh," Tsunade's words reverberated around the room as both Kakashi and Sakura avoided each other's glance, still, the former spoke first,
"You are right, Tsunade-sama, the next mission you send us both on has a vastly higher probability of failure than had we not gotten involved," He spared a glance at Sakura, who had the same expression of incredulous curiosity at his bold words, "But given the circumstances, my having been to Iwa, as a Taichou recently, my being infected and my knowledge of the policital workings of Rock in peacetime make me a valuable candidate to accompany her on this mission." Just as Kakashi's deep voice rippled the silence, it returned to it's own, almost sentient calm as Tsunade processed the information he'd given away.
"…Infected as well?" Tsunade shared a glance to Kakashi, "…"
"Yes, Kakashi is a carrier too, didn't he tell you until now?" Both of the women's eyes fixed on the man in question, who cleared his throat in a guilty manner,
"Kakashi…" Tsunade sighed loudly,
"Ah, I'm sorry, Tsunade-sama…it's dormant at the moment-"
"That isn't the point, damnit! I need to know when there is something afflicting my shinobi,"
"Tsunade-sama," Sakura interrupted, as politely as she could, "Kakashi's status as a carrier does also give me a valuable opportunity, I would be able to test any potential cures on him, without having to come back to Konoha first," She offered keeping her voice as professional as she could, strangely hopeful, despite her own misgivings about how uneasy she would be having him so close – playing on her emotions – she also knew this would be a valuable opportunity to prove that they could sill be effective mission partners. It was different whilst they were on separate missions, she knew that she viewed Kakashi as the ultimate point of return – she'd be home and safe from the mission as soon as she could share a kiss and a hug with him, but on the same mission? That would definitely throw her and she could deny her feelings of unease.
Still, Tsunade eyed them both with a discerning gaze, as if weighing the positive points against the negative – neither of which were negated in their validity by the other, she took a deep breath,
"Whilst you both work exceptionally well as a team, and have done so for many years, the aspect hat you two are now romantic partners adds an unquantifiable aspect to this mission – one which, despite my own…experience in such a matter – could still cost the mission objective and a large number of lives as a result," She paused again to rub her fore and middle fingers over her temple, she took a breath in to continue her sentence, but was interrupted by a sudden knock at the door,
"Hai?" She answered impatiently, as if almost a fraction grateful not to have to finish her verdict. The door opened to a rather rushed looking young man,
"Sore wa kankoshi Daisuke desu, [It is nurse Daisuke,]"
"A nurse?" Tsunade asked to herself, before rising swiftly to her feet in realisation, "Riika!"
Riika jolted awake, her chest aching with the sudden movement, gasping for air roughly as she pushed herself into a propped position, trying to gather her bearings – where was she? Everything was clean, white and by the bed and surrounding curtain, she guessed it was the hospital. She breathed more slowly, but still as deeply whilst memories of her dreams returned to her: so many things had happened in her long life, many of which she'd believed she'd forgotten – Eiko and her troubles with the Uchiha, her change from nosy child to shrewd and sneaky ninja (and through the secret training of Izuru) had been called a gifted reconnaissance ninja.
Her memories of returning with the Leaf ninja as she dreamed, had been strange – not exactly as it had happened, they'd travelled at night, but why was it so bright in her minds eye? Riika recalled, stopping on a tree trunk and as movement caught her eye she found a figure running through the trees – shockingly the elderly woman recognized it as a her daughter – her long dead daughter – physically looking to be in her mid twenties chasing through the great forest of Fire. Barely a moment passed before Riika realized that the resurfaced memory twinned with the improvisation of her imagination was not something she should keep to herself any longer. Not with the recent events.
"Nurse! Nurse!" She shouted as loudly as her parched throat would allow, she shouted a few more times, until someone finally heard her call,
"What is- Kami-sama! Urushima-san, you're awake!" The young nurse was wearing a surgical mask over his nose and thing cotton gloves over his hands,
"I have to speak to Kakashi immediately! Go and fetch him!" She ordered, though the nurse seemingly ignored her and walked to her bedside,
"I'm sorry, Urushima-san, but Haruno-san discovered you are a carrier of the virus, though aren't displaying any symptoms,"
"Nevermind about that – find me Kakashi!"
"But, Urushima-san…"
"No buts! You, young man, will bring Kakashi to me, or you will bring the Hokage!" Riika – despite still being confined to a hospital bed and being a number of decades older than him, she still had the gumption of feisty middle-aged woman; the man shrank back slightly,
"Um…I believe the Hokage-sama wanted to be informed of when you awoke," He soon disappeared and Riika settled back against the pillows, the effort of fighting the young nurse draining her already low energy reserves – she did her best to focus her mind to what she needed to tell Kakashi – and how she might be able to phrase it to him, had he any idea of what was waiting for him in the forest?
Despite her determination, she could feel her eyelids begin to droop, though she willed herself to remain conscious – what was taking the nurse so long?
"Riika?" A voice and gentle hand on her shoulder roused her,
"Hgn? Kakashi?" She queried before fully conscious, though as her eyes cleared, she could see that it was Tsunade at her shoulder,
"Riika-san, how are you feeling?" The Hokage asked again, helping the elderly kuniochi to sit up more, as she looked around she found Kakashi at the foot of her bed, beside Sakura,
"Fine, but if I may, Tsunade-sama, I wish to speak to Kakashi alone for a moment," The room seemed to hesitate for a moment,
"Riika-san, I would really like to examine you immediately,"
"I know, but I have to speak to Kakashi whilst I can still remember what I need to tell him," The two medic nin shared a glance, unnoticed by Kakashi, and they two left the room and so Riika and the Copy Nin alone, as Tsunade closed the door behind them, she eyed Sakura with unwavering authority,
"I can't even guess what answer you'd like me to give about this next mission," Tsunade asked almost gently, as if the Sannin was the teacher again and she thirteen and naive enough to believe she knew all the answers; Sakura let out a breath of indecisiveness,
"That's because I don't even know what I want…yes, I believe having Kakashi around would be a great benefit – not just to my research, but because I've always felt the most comfortable with him on missions – I've done so many with him that I trust him implicitly, but…I have no idea how I'm going to react with him on a mission together with one so highly weighted," She shifted her whole body around to look at her former shishou – an uncomfortable reminder of what had happened during the war in soraku [sky area], where she and Kakashi had had a dire argument surrounded by the nin cats of the old Uchiha hideout, "If I'm too cold to him, he'll think something's up and we can't work together as a team, but if we're too affectionate, we won't focus on the mission…"
Tsunade looked at the expression on her former student's face – once which mirrored so well the first time she had come to her asking for advice about a patient which had two options for treatment, both equally risky, but one which promised health and the other a continuation of further suffering – her student had had to learn that hard way that time, even with her guidance. But now, Tsuande wasn't sure which was the right option – Kakashi was both the best and the worst choice to protect her prized student, yet…
"I wish there a few smaller missions I could have sent you two on to get adjusted, but the longer this gets put off, the worse it will be when there's another serious mission."
"I'm surprised we haven't been on a mission together yet," Sakura shrugged, not really thinking her sentence through,
"…How long have you been together?"
"Uh, a few months…" The young kuniochi cringed slightly, as Tsunade sighed,
"So the assumption of that monk who died, that you two were married wasn't that far off the mark, then?"
"Well, that was a good deal of time before we actually…got together, but no, I guess not,"
"You two have clearly had enough time to get over yourselves in that case," The Hokage frowned a little as she spoke, "And you're not teenagers, go on the mission and behave like ninjas – I'll sort out the rest of the mission details with you in a day or two," Sakura opened her mouth to respond to the confirmation, but was interrupted by footsteps approaching them,
"Sasuke?" She queried,
"I heard Riika was taken ill," He supplied, his voice as cool as his demenour, though his presence spoke volumes,
"She was, and has just woken up, good timing," Tsunade shrugged, secretly amused by the idea that it had been Kakashi's grandmother that had been the most successful in getting through to Sasuke's 'good' side out of everyone else in the world. Even Naruto couldn't hold a candle to Riika's results, she smirked to herself: nothing sorted out troubled young men like a no-bullshit grandmother figure.
"Can I go in?"
"Wait a few minutes, she's talking with Kakashi," The Hokage halted his hand on the doorknob, and he stepped back, slouching against the wall with his arms folded; the silence persisted for a few more minutes until the door opened and Kakashi spoke immediately,
"Tsunade-sama, I absolutely must go on this mission,"
"That's fine, I've already decided to send you both…what did Riika say to you?"
"Ah…" His eyes slanted to Sasuke,
"We'll talk later; is she alright?" The Hokage pressed,
"Exhausted, but fine, I think," He stood aside as the three in the corridor immediately entered the room to fuss over their patient and friend; Kakashi meanwhile, his brain buzzing with the information Riika had just told him as he darted away to find the old store – he needed to be on the top of his game if he was to be capable of finding and deciphering the things apparently hidden in great Forest of Fire.
"Hey!" Kakashi smiled up at her as she stepped over the threshold of his kitchen, where he was sat in an informal kimono and a pot of tea at his elbow, he leaned forwards to accept the light kiss she offered before she took a seat on the zabuton opposite, "I've already eaten dinner, but I have some left over, if you're hungry?" He offered, the book previously in his hand closed and set aside; as gratifying as it was to have his full attention on her and to let him take care of her, she shook her head signifying a 'no', she didn't want to be distracted from the awkward conversation she'd come to address,
"No, thanks though, I actually…wanted to talk about something," She couldn't resist averting her eyes from his, feeling uncomfortably awkward and as her eyes found him again, his own sensitivity to her unease was mirrored on his bare face, lit only by the soft light of the kamado [traditional fire pit generally for cooking].
"Is it about the mission?"
"Hai…I think we should talk a little about how we're going to…approach this mission," The silence hung for a moment, "I really don't want to either screw this mission up and nor do I want to repeat what happened in that old Uchiha hideout…I know arguments are a part of relationships, but they're something that can't be afforded on missions," She did her best to keep her voice even and un-accusatory but it was a sensitive topic, and one that could spark as much of a fire as it could dampen one.
"I know and you're right, Sakura, we do need a strategy for how to cope with each other in the mission setting…we won't be equals on this mission, with one of us appointed as Taichou, if nothing else…but it might be wise to try and set up some boundaries or guidelines to help up regain focus if we find our emotions getting the better of us. Even if we just have to put off the damn argument until we're back safely on home turf," He offered and Sakura was unable to help her own wry smile,
"Good old lateral thinking Kakashi," She joked and Kakashi's small smile, one that was little more than a tug of his lips that made him look handsome and, to her mind, a touch devilish.
"Do you have any ideas about how we could mitigate any arguments in advance?" He continued and she sighed lightly, already feeling more relaxed,
"I think doing our best to keep in mind we aren't in Konoha…but, I don't know, whenever I find myself in an argument with somebody, I just seem to get caught up in it and can't help but fight until I win…you know what my temper's like," She grimaced slightly, under no illusions about her own nature,
"I know, I can't say I'm any better behaved when it comes right down to it…but, this mission is simply reconnaissance, if it goes well, all we'll need to do is hide in the bushes," They shared an awkward glance, resisting the urge to burst in childish sniggers,
"I will have to sneak into Iwa and potentially steal medical records,"
"Well, you know how good I am at stealing those…maybe we shouldn't over think this too much, Sakura, perhaps the best thing we can do is keep on reminding ourselves that we're on a mission and the stakes are higher than our respective egos," He offered, taking a sip of his tea as Sakura nodded in agreement,
"You're right," She reached her arm across the table to place her hand into his, "I promise to try to keep my temper in check and remember those words," She did her best to make her words sound sincere, but somehow, she couldn't quite keep her lips from twitching,
"And I promise to try to keep to those words, too," It took all of about three seconds for them both to indeed start sniggering like idiots at their respective statements, Sakura calmed herself before asking what it was that Riika had said to Kakashi, he tilted his head, effectively showing his lingering curiosity,
"She said she remembered Eiko had hidden a box somewhere in the forest of Fire and that she had gone to great pains to hide it – and actively prevent any Uchiha getting their hands on it," His words sparked Sakura's own memory,
"That time we were bringing Sasuke back!"
"I'll bet that's where the box is hidden,"
"Did she say anything about what was in there?"
"No, Eiko never told her, just that the box was out there somewhere…I want to try and look for the box, I'm still barely half way through all of the stuff in the store, but to think there's still more out there? I can't sit on that," He shook his head and drained the last of his tea from the cup,
"Did that woman even have time for missions? I don't know how she got so much done in such a short space of time,"
"Hai, she couldn't have been any older than 26 when she died, amazing, really," Sakura frowned slightly at the rather depressing turn the conversation had taken as Kakashi rose to his feet and picked up the teapot and cup to carry them over to the sink; as he walked, her eyes still downcast couldn't help but notice the fact his footfalls happened to land on every cloth joint of the tatami on his journey. The same when he walked back over to her a few moments later, Sakura wasn't one to believe in superstition, but her spiritually overly zealous mother had obsessed over such small details whilst her daughter was young and hence made the kuniochi hyper aware of them. 'Stepping on the cloth seams between the tatami mats will only invite bad fortune, Sakura-chan, the whole foot on the same mat, or don't step at all!' Her mother's voice rang clearly in her mind and even then the young kuniochi had frowned at the illogic of the statement – how could she not step? – but it was her mother's order and she couldn't very well disobey.
As Kakashi held out a hand to her and pulled Sakura to her feet, she put the thoughts to the back of her mind and Kakashi leading her into the bedroom for the night erased them completely. Tomorrow was a new day and a new mission.
They'd been travelling for little over a day and had made good progress, the forest, though losing its leaves from the approaching winter was still a beautiful place – despite the almost ingrained paranoia of all shinobi to never believe they were truly alone when out on missions, to Sakura, it seemed as if there were a thousand miles of silence between them both and any one else. They ran in silence as they covered the miles and Kakashi could again feel the wind through his hair and freedom that running gave him. Still his mind was engrossed in trying to figure out just where the box might be hidden (interjected occasionally by pleasurable memories of the previous evening with his kuniochi) – he assumed in the middle of the area covered by the tags, but without Sasuke's Uchiha blood or Naruto's sage mode he had no way of knowing where exactly the tags were and the area could, potentially be large.
As paranoid and secretive as the Uchiha were, how likely was it that they'd advertise any possible weakness against them? Impossible, by almost all standards especially as they were, during Eiko's lifetime, still in their prime and gaining ground over the Third in their police responsibilities. No, Kakashi justified to himself, the last thing they'd do is advertise a weakness; but what did that tell him about how the box might be hidden? How much area would it cover? Would Eiko have left any markers that he might be able to follow? Unlikely, that'd probably be too much of a risk, but an area to be too large would start raising questions if ever an Uchiha had to undertake a mission with one of the other village members.
"Kakashi!" Sakura's sudden voice snapped him from his thoughts,
"Hmm? What is it?" He glanced over to her before looking down to pinpoint the next branch before stepping off his current one, he knew they were now roughly in the right area - give or take a couple of kilometers.
"You've been so quiet all this time and have a really grumpy expression on your face, what's bothering you?"
"I'm just…thinking about where and how that box could be hidden, there's a potentially massive area that it could be hidden in and in a multitude of ways, I…I don't even know where to begin,"
"I agree that this won't be a simple stumble-upon and we have next to no details – what size is the box? Is it buried? Has it any protective jutsus? What does it contain? Has it even managed to survive all these years? I know how important this is to you, and I won't pretend that I'm not in the least curious myself, but we do still have a mission to consider – we can't linger in the area for more than a couple of hours, maybe a day,"
"I know," Kakashi responded, half nodding to himself rather than her knowing that if she wasn't there to drag him away then he was liable to stay there and look for the damn box for as long as it took: a day, weeks, decades…his appreciation for time had always been a bit lackluster.
"Well," Sakura began again, thinking aloud to herself, "Why don't we start by finding that rotten stump where the first tag was located?" She was starting mostly into space but the sudden movement of Kakashi's head whipping around to face her caught her attention,
"That would be a start at least, let's fan out," Kakashi immediately made three clones and the miniature identical party all spread out, darting off in a semi-circular formation. Sakura sighed, the words 'don't use any chakra' on the tip of her tongue, doomed to remain unspoken; she didn't act as quickly as Kakashi and instead tried to remember the area – the small nuances of the area where they'd made camp and tested out the tag on Sasuke; although there'd be no evidence of their having been in the area, it was a small gap between a handful of the larger trees, barely more than three or four feet, grassy and smooth beneath her tired legs of all that time ago.
She walked slowly looking carefully around for anything which might match her mental picture, she was wary however, time had a way of distorting memory and it was all too easy to embellish what was once a clear picture with other facets which belong to similar, though otherwise unrelated images. What she wouldn't give for one of Sasuke's eyes and eidetic memory right…
"Kakashi!" She nearly shouted, jogging away to try and find him, feeling like an idiot for not having realised it sooner, his gifted eye gave him an eidetic memory. She leapt out as quietly as she could from behind a tree, "There you are! With your sharingan–" The man himself turned around to reveal his headband abnormally parallel and his natural eye closed, "…Oh…you figured it out,"
"I didn't figure it out it just slipped my mind for a moment,"
"Right, anyway, anything looking exact yet?"
"No…but I can't help but feel like I'm really close…it seems like-"
"Its just over there?" Sakura queried, her memory wasn't quite on a par with a sharingan user's, but she prided herself on it being above average,
"Yes, like it's just around the corner," The Copy Nin continued, assuming Sakura's words were more of a metaphorical nature,
"No, I mean look over to your left, Kakashi, about eight o'clock,"
"Huh?" He span around and took a moment to scan his eye over the area, walking forwards a handful of paces to better allow his eye to take in the information his brain was desperately analyzing, "I think you're right, Sakura, this does look a little like the clearing we made camp in…so the tree stump must be this way – if Iwa is in that direction…" He turned slowly, allowing his eye to look over the surrounding woodland in every direction and it wasn't long before he felt certain it matched his mental image. He strode forwards and after several paces, they came to an old, rotten trunk, half of which was lying on the floor from where Naruto had kicked it in half over a year previously.
Said silver-haired shinobi eyed it for a moment before biting his thumb, summoning his chakra and slamming his open palm onto the ground before him, revealing a droopy eyed little dog,
"'Sup, Kakashi," He greeted passively whilst the Copy Nin covered his sharingan and straightened his haitai-ate,
"Pakkun, I need you to find a metal box for me," Although Kakashi spoke hurriedly, the little ninken merely lifted his rear paw to scratch behind his own ear,
"In the middle of the woods, why? And after the last time I nearly died, I wanted a cooler mission…not to sniff out some crappy box. And hey, Sakura-chan,", especially since he'd hardly been used at all over the past few months since the war and his illness – whilst it was nice to have extra time for eating and sleeping, Pakkun did have a work ethic: he was starting to get restless and chasing the butterflies in his home valley just wasn't cutting it.
"Please Pakkun? There's a secret box that was hidden here by Eiko years ago, it's imperative I find it," Kakashi explained quickly whilst the small dog narrowed his eyes, "I'm sorry I haven't called on you often recently, but I promise I'll set aside some time for training once this mission is over, okay?"
"Fine," Pakkun acquiesced and rose to his feet, "Any ideas where I should start?"
"Go with half a kilometer's radius with this tree stump as the focal point,"
"All of that? You seem to be in a hurry, why didn't you call the rest of the pack?" Kakashi pursed his lips as a silent expression of the irritation bristling within him at the delay,
"Because we're on a reconnaissance mission right now, Pakkun, will you please just get on with it?"
"Alright, alright," The ninken sighed before trotting off, as if he were some elderly pooch talking to some young whippersnapper; the silver-haired shinobi still crouched on the ground looked up at his girlfriend and slowly shook his head,
"He gets worse every year…it's like the worst cross between a grandfather and a child," Sakura could only grin in response,
"How old is Pakkun?"
"A little younger than me, I got him when I was nearly six,"
"Whoa! I know he's a ninken, but I didn't expect him to have lived for so long," Sakura hadn't meant her words to be so insensitive, but as she saw Kakashi's face fall slightly she rushed to reassure him, "Ah, sorry, I'm sorry,"
"No, it's fine…I guess I just hadn't thought so much about the prospect of him dying. He's prone to living much longer than ordinary dogs as a ninken," The moment of silence pervaded before Sakura saw it wise to distract him with a more pressing matter,
"Well, whilst Pakkun's busy with searching, I'd really like to run over some plans for once we get to Iwagakure,"
"Of course, I assume you'll need to visit the hospital and any archives, but is there anywhere else you want to take a look at?"
"I'm not sure yet, you said that Iwa had been slit up into different districts? Do you think its likely each district has its own administration office?"
"We weren't allowed to see anything of Iwa, really, but when I slipped out to find Riika it all seemed very shabby – as if the borders had been hastily put in place; I seriously doubt each quarter had any real organisation to it…I think finding any real structure left will be tricky,"
"True…I'm worried there'll be no useful records kept from which we can extract the information we'll need, I doubt we'll be able to ask around either, but perhaps if we could examine a selection of people, we might get a better picture of whether there is or was an out break in Iwa,"
"It still doesn't explain how the virus could have gotten there, or why it would have been introduced to Rock,"
"Well, it was more of a faction operation in Kumo, we never proved that the hierarchy of Cloud had any involvement with them," Sakura countered, running a hand through her hair,
"Perhaps the faction was in alliance with one district and they tested the virus on the others?" Kakashi suggested, his intuition nodding in agreement with his hypothesis: there was strict control of crossing between the areas…but it was still more than likely it would have gotten out of control. Before another word had been spoken, though, a sudden and very human voice called out,
"Woof! Woof!" The two shinobi looked at each other suspiciously for a moment before darting away to the source of the sound, where they found Pakkun sat lazily on a clump of leaves beside a fairly deep hole he'd apparently dug into the earth, "Woof," He called out sluggishly again just as they appeared in front of him,
"Can you even bark?" Sakura asked immediately, before Kakashi was even able to open his mouth; Pakkun looked a little put out by her comment,
"I can do many things, Sakura-chan, the fact is that I choose not to," He replied tersely as Sakura merely rolled her eyes; Kakashi meanwhile was already crouched over the partially revealed box,
"Is this the only box in the area?"
"How many people bury boxes in the middle of nowhere? Of course it is," Kakashi didn't acknowledge how unsatisfactory Pakkun's answer was and instead busied himself by allowing his hands to dance over the metal box as he brushed off the dirt, still struggling to believe that he'd actually found it and as soon as his fingertips touched the cool metal, he could register the sudden tumultuous sensation that coursed the his bloodstream, it seemed. His hands jerked away initially, but quickly returned as he realised its lack of malicious intent;
"What is it?" Sakura asked, crouching beside him,
"It's…it's like there's chakra bouncing around inside the box, it's incredible," Kakashi's words were almost hurried – to himself the best way he could conceptualize of it was as though he'd just gotten into a hot bath after having had a chill, when he could almost feel the water stabbing at him, as if he could almost feel the individual molecules bouncing off of his skin in a chaotic charge of energy. It took a moment before he could bear to tear a hand away to reach for a kunai, slipping it beneath the join between the lid and body, jamming the heel of his hand down on the handle to snap open the lid, much as he had upon first encountering the hidden box in his parent's house right after moving in.
As the lid sprang open, it revealed a surprisingly and slightly disappointingly empty box, with only a single, loosely rolled scroll sat unassumingly in its centre. After a brief scan for any kibakufuda [exploding tags] he tentatively lifted the scroll, unwinding it slowly, cautious to uncover any hidden tags which might bring him an ill-timed injury. Upon finding none, he looked at the scroll, which was covered, smeared almost in tiny writing, and various drawings of hand seals, which made sense, but was still unclear as to what they pertained to – it made no sense to any jutsu Kakashi had come across. Sakura moved to look over his shoulder, the words she read made sense linguistically, but it didn't make technical sense: the instuctions on how to flow and control one's chakra appeared a contradiction – one moment it asked for sharp, narrow weaving through the widest pathways and in the next it wanted almost chaotic, maximum-flow through the naturally narrow, twisted conduits of of the fingertips and of the…
"Optical nerves?" Sakura questioned rhetorically as she read, glancing to Kakashi, whose profile told her that he too was uncertain what such a specific directive was trying to suggest; they looked at each other for a few moments, an unspoken question between them before Kakashi reached for his headband, pushing slowly up to reveal his crimson eye. Sakura's eyes focused on the three small tomoe before he turned back to the page, scanning it quickly, her breath was bated though he answered her quickly,
"Nothing…nothing more I can read than the words already here,"
"…What about with the Mangekyou?" He looked to her again, before closing his eyes and forming the draining jutsu within his gifted eye, the sharp angles and cold contrast of the black to red indeed made him more frightful, but the eye moved back to the paper – this time more absorbed. He didn't speak a word but placed the scroll on the ground and began making seals – one which the scroll, to Sakura's eyes, did not ask for – and after a moment of nothingness, he flashed a movement, bending his head down to an open palm which cupped his sharingan eye, as if in pain.
"Kakashi!" She whispered, as loudly as she dared to, her hands rushing to sides of his head, trying to pull his fact towards hers in an attempt to find whatever was wrong with him and fix it if she could; he grunted sharply in pain even with his hand still clamped over his left eye, slowly, though he allowed her to pull his wrist away from him and as his eye opened again, Sakura was – for one of the few times in her life – truly speechless.
But only for a moment,
"Are you shitting me?" She questioned, staring into his eye, which was now a pale, almost grey purple, it looked weak though – as if there wasn't enough power or chakra to allow the full eye to form; as if a gently ripple of purple had just managed to wash over the whites of his eye, but not enough to turn it truly a different colour.
"Are…can you…does anything look different?" As she spoke, the colouration faded as did Kakashi's Mangekyou, whilst his hand again rushed to his head as if in pain,
"Ah, no, thing looked a little fuzzy for a moment but I didn't notice anything different…what happened?"
"Your eye…turned purple, slightly, like a Rinnegan colour, but I don't understand how that could be possible, its ridiculous,"
"I… I don't understand – its not possible for me to obtain a Rinnegan – it's a ninjutsu far above my level and I'm not even a true Uchiha nor Senju…and besides, I there was nothing different in my vision or how I felt; this seals must pertain to something different - some other jutsu,"
"What about the seals? What jutsu did it say you were casting?"
"Ah…well, it didn't say, I could just see them overlaid the text with the Mangekyou,"
"So you just cast them without any knowledge as to what they were?" Sakra asked slightly incredulously, that sounded like a stupid move any way she looked at it. But why wouldn't Eiko have spoken about what they were? If this was indeed a page torn from her archives, it would have made more sense for her to explain to her reader exactly what they were looking at…even if that reader had a sharingan.
But at that time, Eiko hadn't had Kakashi, had she? Let alone known he'd later obtain a sharingan so why would she have written it for a user? Or rather, how could she have written such a text which would have needed the eye to even scribe it. Wait, what?!
"Kakashi – is this your mother's writing? Her handwriting?"
"Hmm?" He scanned his eye over the page, "Yes, it is exactly,"
"But how the hell could she have written the seals in such a way it would need a sharingan to read? She couldn't have written this without a sharingan and some exceptional mastery over it in the first place," Kakashi seemed to be finally catching up,
"But… how? Eiko was only an enemy of the Uchiha – she wouldn't have had any allies within them and neither would she have been able to steal this – not without getting killed in the process,"
"Didn't Riika say anything? Maybe she would know of anything else about Eiko's relationship with the Uchiha – other than their animosity – of course,"
"Possibly, but even if she did, it wouldn't explain how this scroll got out here in this box surrounded by Uchiha-specific protective tags."
"Can I go yet? If there's nothing else for me to search for…" Pakkun interrupted the terse moment,
"Yes, thanks Pakkun, I might need to call on you again soon,"
"Alright…see ya," He lifted a lazy paw and disappeared in a small poof of smoke. Kakashi sighed again clearly at a complete loss, Sakura dropped a gentle hand onto his shoulder,
"I don't understand this any more than you, Kakashi, but we still have a mission to attend to – if you can seal the scroll away as safely as possible we'll ask Riika as soon as we get back to Konoha. The quicker we get on with this mission, the sooner we can return." She couldn't seem to help herself as her hand shifted up to brush over the back of his neck, he shifted slightly to look at her and silently agreed, knowing she was right.
"Okay… I know you're right; I can analyse this better and hopefully find out what its for back at home." He stood up to full height, re-rolling up the scroll tightly before biting his thumb and smearing ashort but thick line of blood over the edge; holding it in one hand he fetched another scroll from the front of his flack jacket, opening the latter with a flick of his wrist. His hands flashed through some complex seals before he slammed the new-found parchment onto the open page richly decorated with calligraphy kanji – in a swift moment and a coiled plume of smoke, the first scroll disappeared and the second rolled itself up tightly (even the small bow redrew itself into a tidy knot).
"Alright, let's go," Kakashi spoke with his confidence apparently none the worse for wear, as he slotted the scroll back into his breast pocket and fasted the tab closed.
Gerimaru watched the two nin battle carefully from behind folded arms and a guarded expression; the two were fairly evenly matched: the female ninja was quick on her feet and skilled in ninjutsu but she still lacked heavy hit power – allowing her opponent, a male, an open advantage.
"Gerimaru-sama? What do you think?" The now-leader of Uzushiogakure turned his head to look at the kuniochi beside him, though he didn't immediately answer her question; he allowed his eyes to drift over the view of his village he had from his vantage point,
"She still lacks brute force, that will cost her dearly in a real fight…and he still lacks maneuverability, he's too heavy on his feet and doesn't move well in close combat,"
"True,"
"But they both use ninjutsu well and they've come far in a short space of time,"
"We could really start to use Konoha's help at this point, we could do with some specialist nin to come and train us in some techniques – medical ninja would be particularly useful," At her comment, Gerimaru had to resist the urge to lift his hand to his chin in memory of the last time he'd pissed off a medical ninja – and an abnormally strong one at that.
"We do need their help and they're good allies to us, but we have a lot of work still to do here – we can't call on Konoha until they can see we're no longer in ruin and we're a village strong enough to defend our own secrets," The Kenjin-san [wise man/ Uzu leader] rebutted,
"We can't linger too long – what if we get attacked? We can't afford a conflict with one of the great nations, our jutsu knowledge is too limited…the lull of the war has been good business for us with the rise of escort and body-guarding missions, but that will change soon to more combat orientated roles."
"I know Kumo are still a threat, but a lot of the nations are still struggling post-war which has given us and edge plus the advantage that none of those countries are eager to engage in more costly conflict until they've enough resources and finances to justify it…but we need to develop some more internal strength first," Gerimaru spoke with a cold maturity, a form of him the kuniochi was still getting used to – since the death of Wazishi and the need for the younger man to take up his mantle, he had become one Masami almost no longer recognized – she'd had her doubts before, but he had truly adapted to the role and had unmistakably earned her respect.
"But first, Masami-san, we need to get on with finishing the organisation of the administration building," Gerimaru unfolding his arms and turning to walk away, back towards the slowly re-growing Uzushio. Over the past few months they'd managed to clear a lot of the debris and erect an administration building and half a hospital – it didn't look like much, but they didn't have a vast population and the rubble of the old Whirlpool had sat for so long it was by no means an easy task to clear it. Still, Gerimaru had worked tirelessly to find and categorize all of the old documentation and make new files for future missions and ninjutsu – he had kept them all carefully sealed away using one of the more advanced sealing jutsus Wazishi had taught him before he died.
Of all the things Gerimaru wanted to uncover, though, was more information on the White Chakra that Uzushio had come by decades previously; he'd found no such information on it, but was fascinated by the procedure. He'd been told very little by Wazishi, only that a sample of the chakra had been implanted into Ashaya Umika and she had apparently taken well to it – become an exceptionally skilled shinobi before fleeing to Konoha – and later becoming Kakashi's own grandmother. Gerimaru was fascinated, though by where the chakra came from and how it could have been gathered and stored without it degrading…chakra could be stored but it was only ever by means of binding it to a paper or specialist ink medium…but only after the ink had dried. The idea that chakra could be held in liquid suspension was truly a revolutionary idea and so incredibly advanced that it gnawed at his very bones with the desire to regain that level of ninjutsu control in his future shinobi village.
His mind turned to Kakashi – and subsequently to the time when the party from Konoha had first arrived, aside from snorting lightly in amusement as he recalled his own suspicion of them which had turned very swiftly to admiration and even affection once he'd visited Konoha – but would the Copy Ninja trust him enough to share that kind of information with him? Germairu kept meandering through the rubble of the old eastern quarter of the village as him mind kept mulling over the name Hatake – there had been a family by that name in Uzushio, so where had their house been? Could they have kept their own records? Perhaps even Umika herself might have kept journals on the procedure done to her.
Gerimaru suddenly picked up his own pace of searching, scanning his eyes over the rubble, looking for any symbols he didn't recognize or houses he might be able to discern; nothing sprang immediately to the fore and it took almost three days of solid searching until he found the remains of the house he was beginning to doubt existed in the first place. Gerimaru searched alone through the remains of the house – much to the confusion and slight worriment of his shinobi, who he'd instructed to continue working on the buildings and to leave him be, as the leader shifted much of the rubble and saved every scroll and piece of paper he could find. Setting them all aside until he'd found everything that he could, he sat down to read them all; he eliminated nothing until he'd read it all thoroughly, whilst a lot wasn't particularly relevant from some of Fuyu's personal journals (mostly detailing his youthful hatred of Wazishi as well as his own disgraces) there were a handful which definitely looked to be promising.
The closest thing Gerimaru found was a half ruin scroll written probably by Fuyu's father, though it was confusing at first as to why he should be writing about such a topic but it soon became clear:
-the procedure in a few days; I believe Ashaya Umika is a good choice though the same procedure has failed on several other shinobi – they even rejected the initial test samples whereas she responded very favourably to all tests. I still have my doubts – the medical teams are skilled but I fear they still reply on the old, clumsy methods that tend not to favour the comfort or safety of the patient as much as it should.
There is still the part of me that regrets what we did to the Rokubii Bijuu – he had been free for a long time and Uzushio had served as a great haven for it – we never attacked the Bijuu and our introverted nature meant we kept its presence here hidden and inadvertently defended it from any who might have chosen to attack it. In return the great beast blessed our village with much of its vitality and life energy – so giving rise to the great legend of long lived Uzushio shinobi – it was true, but it was not to do with the strength of the Whirlpool nin by themselves.
I resent the decisions of my father – Iwao – damn power hungry and warmongering monster he was, couldn't stand to sit with such a powerful beast on his doorstep and do nothing to gain the advantage. So after many years of truce with what was probably the most agreeable and least malevolent of the tailed beasts, he organsiesd the mission after coercing the Kenjin-san to agree that they needed a strong upper hand, they set out to steal a sample of the beast's chakra.
One month, fourteen shinobi killed and one pissed off Bijuu – whilst Iwao hailed the mission a success, parading the small vial of suspended chakra as though it were a nobleman – Saiken had lost his trust of the Uzu nin and fled our surrounding forests where he was happy in his natural state and instead fled where he was captured and fell into possession of the Mist. Goddamn that fool of a father – if his arrogance doesn't destroy Uzushio then whoever the Jinchuuriki of the Rokubii is will have knowledge of the defences and capabilities of the Whirlpool nin - and so end our proud village.
..
.
A/n – The story…it LIVES! ~in lab coat with crackling lightning all around~ XD
Just in case the family tree is confusing anyone it goes like this: Hatake Iwao – (father to) – Fuyu's father – Fuyu – Sakumo – Kakashi
Make sense?
And before you all start going 'FFS now Kakashi has a rinnegan?' NO he doesn't - I'm teasing you with comparisons and whatever the hell it was Eiko was really up to :O
I also apologise for weird mix of UK and US English in this chap - my word document containing Storm Cloud's spell check has official crashed so I have to use the spell check on my web browser which - although I tell it I am a UK English speaker, it always seems to default to the US version -_ -'''