A/N: I did say that there would be a lot of time skipping until we got to the end of the story. True to my word, here it is! I must confess, there isn't as much "big stuff" in this chapter as I had intended when I wrote the author's note to the last chapter, mostly because I've decided to make this one shorter (see previous for my difficulty dealing with fewer than 5 parallel story lines). It took a while to post because I got sidetracked from writing this with a Bleach oneshot (that turned into 7 short chapters, I don't know how). Six years in the making and Who I Am is nearly done. Not sure how many chapters are left, but I know there aren't that many events that are left to happen. Thank you for sticking with this wild ride for so long. Happy reading!
Chapter 52: Return
Kakashi burrowed into his sheets as he pulled his green shuriken blanket up to his chin. Tomorrow would mark the fourth anniversary of his time as Hokage. Upon taking up the post, he had insisted it would be temporary. Now, it seemed anything but. In the years that had ticked by, Tsunade had shown signs of waking, but never regained consciousness. The council had had his face carved into the mountain next to hers after he spent two years in office, arguing that even though he did not truly consider himself the Sixth Hokage, the entire village did.
The Hokage privately thought that the villagers would not think so highly of him if it had gotten out that his sharingan had stopped working less than a week after he was inaugurated. Shizune and Sakura had both tried their best to fix it. They read late into the night, combined their knowledge, and tried experimental procedures with their chakra in his eye socket. But his left eye remained sightless. He was still a formidable shinobi without his sharingan, since he retained all the jutsu he had copied, but he agreed with the council that it was best to keep this fact quiet while he served as Hokage. Only a handful of people were privy to the information that his sharingan had gone dark: the council, Shizune. Sakura, Tenzou, Shikaku, and Shikamaru. Technically, the latter two had deduced it rather than been told, much to the council's irritation. The rest of the village, including Sasuke and the blabbermouth-security-risk Naruto, still assumed that his eye was in full working order.
Luckily for him, the everything had been remarkably peaceful since the invasion. The Akatsuki seemed to have failed in their quest to capture all the Bijuu. All five countries had reported sightings of the first through seventh tailed beasts wandering free, and no trace of the red-and-black cloaked criminals. Any attempts at capturing the Bijuu were unsuccessful, occasionally thwarted by a black wolf who was much smaller than the massive bulk of the tailed beasts, but wielded just as much power, if not more. With one failure after another, the attempts to seal the Bijuu had died down. Now, their locations were simply being tracked, to keep shinobi out of their paths.
Within Konoha, things had also been quiet. In two weeks, the third batch of recruits were due to graduate from Sasuke's two-year program, ready to join the slowly-growing ranks of Konoha's Police Force. Kakashi would be at the graduation ceremony, as he had in previous years, bearing a box of police badges for the Force's newest members. They were in the shape of the Uchiha fan, but with the red portion coloured in a deep green. The colouring represented the village they protected, and fan shape the clan that had comprised the original Police Force. The badges would be pinned to the dark blue uniforms of the new graduates, officially welcoming them to the Force.
In a few short years, Sasuke had done remarkably well. Things had been a bit slow at the beginning while the first recruits were being trained. That, and the fact that Sasuke had hired Ino as interrogation specialist, only to have her quit after he rejected her advances. As far as he was concerned, his life partner was Konmaru and he was married to his work. Nowadays, civilian crimes were at an all-time low. Both Yamanaka Inoichi and Morino Ibiki were finding their workload had decreased, and Sasuke showed no sign of letting up on his efforts anytime soon. He was determined to restore the Force to its former glory, and surpass it if he could.
Sasuke wasn't the only one in his graduating class that had achieved impressive feats. Shikamaru had moved to Sunagakure, as the first permanent ambassador. Some, Ino specifically, speculated that his move wasn't entirely motivated by political reasons, and had more than a little to do with romantic interest in a blonde fan-wielder. In exchange for Shikamaru, Konoha had become home to Kankuro. A very strong alliance had formed between the villages, which was helping both of them thrive. Miraculously, they were both avoiding the economic downturn that historically haunted military villages when the world was too peaceful.
Hinata had been acknowledged as head of the Hyuuga clan though her father still lived. Shunned, Hiashi, Hyzuko, and a few who wanted to keep the Branch Family had left the compound to live on the outskirts of the village. With Hinata as the head of the clan, for the first time anyone could remember, an infant from Branch Family hadn't been branded with the curse seal. Henceforth, no Hyuuga would have to suffer that fate. On the romantic side of the clan happenings, first Naruto, then Tenten, had moved into the compound. He was dating Hinata, she, Neji, and given the years-long relationships, the entire clan was speculating about engagement announcements. Peaceful times meant that love was in the air. Tenzou had tied the knot with Inuzuka Hana a few months ago, and Kakashi had never seen his best friend happier.
As Kakashi lay in bed, he heard the sound of voices, muffled by the closed window. A few of them, likely four, talking and laughing together. Another mission done, another team home safe. He smiled to himself and closed his eyes, falling asleep.
In the morning, the Hokage nodded his greeting to the secretary as he stamped the snow off his sandals. Heading up the stairs, he caught sight of four shinobi that had fallen asleep in the chairs outside his office. The one seated closest to the double doors of his office, he assumed to be the cell captain. She looked the most careworn of the four, and was clutching a plain scroll tightly in one hand. He reached out and shook her shoulder gently, ready to pull back his hand in case she reacted violently to being roused, as many shinobi tended to. Thankfully, she awoke peacefully and looked up at him, eyes still a little unfocused from sleep. "Intel could have gone to the secretary downstairs," Kakashi said, glancing at the scroll in her hand. "There was no need to wait all night for me."
She pursed her lips and shook her head. "Not this one."
He frowned. "Come in." He opened the doors to his office and settled into his chair while the shinobi filed in and lined up in front of the desk, all standing to attention. "Report," the Hokage ordered shortly.
"I am Koga Midori, the captain of this cell. The mission was to locate a young man, a shepherd, who had gone missing from a small mountain village near the border of the Land of Fire. The request was submitted by his grandmother."
Kakashi nodded to show he recalled the mission and she need not continue with background information. The grandmother had become worried when the family's flock had returned with only the sheepdog to guide them. In her request, she had noted that there had been a landslide in the nearby Land of Grass, and that she feared her grandson, who frequently crossed the border for the sweeter grasses, had become trapped. "You didn't find him?" Shinobi tended to report mission failures in person, rather than by paper report.
"In fact, Hokage-sama, we did find him. He was relatively unharmed. We returned him to the village and received payment from the client. When searching the landslide, we found a woman as well. She wasn't from the shepherd's village, nor any nearby, so we brought her back with us."
At this, his eyebrows snapped together in displeasure. "We're not a refugee camp. Why didn't you leave her in a mountain town to trade labour for food and shelter?"
"She insisted on coming with us," came the answer. Midori was still standing to attention in front of him, showing no signs of remorse for bringing a security risk into village.
The man stood up sharply and slammed his hands on his desk. "Since when do the shinobi of Konoha bow to the whims of random mountain strangers?" he demanded. They didn't even react to his uncharacteristic rage. "We don't take in civilians left, right, and centre because they are a security risk. Take her to Inoichi and see how much she remembers about your journey here. If she doesn't remember enough to find Konoha on her own, take her back to the mountains. If she does, bring her here so Shikaku can figure out what we'll do with her. And do all this with her blindfolded," he growled, irritated that this cell was so stupid that he felt the need to voice the obvious.
"Yes, Hokage-sama," the captain replied firmly, acting oblivious to his anger. "She also said to give you this." The woman stepped forward to place the scroll on his desk and retreated back into line with her teammates.
Weary, Kakashi produced a clone to open the scroll. He didn't trust unaddressed, unsealed writings from strangers, especially since he had become Hokage. He watched his clone unfurl the scroll. The other grey-haired man's eye widened and promptly vanished. The clone had dispelled from surprise. Kakashi picked up the scroll to double check what his other self had seen. He could hardly believe his eye. On the cream-coloured paper was a portrait of himself. He had seen the same pencil sketch once before, when he had been taking ANBU missions like a madman. In the middle of the night, Kiba had showed him Kurotsuki's old sketchbook as he lay in the hospital, recovering from his injuries. The word 'Promise' written beneath a drawing of himself, looking affectionate and happy, had brought him to tears that night. This time, there were more words.
I kept my promise.
There was no way. Kurotsuki was dead. Or she should have been, with the strain of Kagami leaving her body. Despite this very sound argument, the message was too specific to be from anyone else. Perhaps, his caution warned, Kiba had shown the sketchbook to others. It wasn't too difficult for an enemy to have seen it and crafted this scroll to lure him somewhere. But stronger than his caution was his desire to know whether Kurotsuki was alive. He wanted to know, he had to know. Against his better judgement, heart pounding, he asked, "Where is she?" The cell captain answered immediately and he barely stayed long enough to hear the holding cell number before vanishing in a cloud of smoke.
An instant later, he reappeared outside the stone building that contained Morino Ibiki's prison and interrogation rooms. His pulse was racing with excitement. He strode brusquely down the hall that contained the holding cells, cave-like rooms outfitted with chains bolted firmly to the walls. Kakashi signaled one of the ANBU patrolling the hall to follow him. As he approached the room he was looking for, a faint scent grew stronger, a siren song he could enjoy for hours on end. It hadn't graced his nose for nearly five years. He stopped outside the room he was looking for and commanded, "Open it." He watched as the ANBU operative unhooked a set of keys from his belt and selected the appropriate one. The lock turned with a loud click and the masked man pulled open the door, holding it for him politely. The strength of the scent increased sharply with the draft of air that came flowing out of the room. His haste evaporated, excitement giving way to apprehension – what if it wasn't her? – and he walked slowly into the room. A single lightbulb hung from the ceiling, casting a yellowish light onto the figure in the room.
The woman was bound in chakra-sucking chains, as procedure dictated. Her shackled wrists were lying on either side of her as she sat cross-legged on the stone floor. Long silver hair was tied up in a ponytail and she wore plain black clothes; a loose long sleeve shirt and pants along with standard issue sandals. The woman's chin drooped to her chest, eyes closed, dozing.
Kakashi could hardly believe it. The scent matched his memory exactly. The hair was the same glistening silver and her frame and build were right. But there was one thing that would definitively prove her identity, even more firmly than a name. The man took another step into the room, letting his sandal tap on the floor. She stirred, and from the motion of her silver eyelashes, he could see that she had opened her eyes. "Look at me," he whispered. Kakashi's eyes remained fixed on her, staring. In this moment, nothing else in the world mattered.
The woman raised her head. Ultramarine stared back.
Around mid-morning, Shikaku rapped once on the doors to the Hokage's office and let himself in. He frowned. Well, this is odd. In the room, a cell of shinobi stood to attention, with the Hokage himself nowhere to be seen. "Is Kakashi out?" he asked.
One of the women turned around and answered him. "I am Koga Midori, the captain of this cell. Hokage-sama left about two hours ago."
"So why are you still here?" he sighed, perplexed.
"We were not dismissed," she answered.
"Surely–" He stopped. Something was wrong. "Kai," he muttered, forming the appropriate hand seal.
The four ninjas in front of him started, as if awoken from a waking dream. Midori shook her head vigorously, clearing it. "We brought someone back. She put us under a genjutsu and convinced us to bring her here with us."
A trap. "Who?" Shikaku demanded sharply.
"She never gave a name," one of the others replied.
"She convinced us to give the Hokage a scroll and he went to her holding cell after he unrolled it," the woman explained. "We never saw what was inside. She had silver hair and – and I can't remember what colour her eyes were."
Sharingan. They couldn't break the genjutsu because it was a sharingan's work, and that's why they can't remember her eye colour either. Fuyuuno Kurotsuki has returned and Kakashi ran off to find her. "Where is she?" the Jounin asked, unaware he was repeating the same scenario that had occurred that morning. Once he had his answer, he followed in the Hokage's footsteps, pondering the severity of trouble Kakashi could have gotten into in the past two hours. Shikaku summoned the ANBU in the hall of the holding cells to his side with a wave of his hand. He noticed that one of them, stationed outside Kurotsuki's room, hadn't moved. He turned to the three who were standing before him. "Get me two cells, restraining and sealing specialty, here, right now," he said to one, who vanished promptly to obey the order. "I need Chouza and Inoichi. We might have a fight on our hands." Another masked shinobi left. "Come with me," he said to the remaining ANBU. He summoned his chakra, in case he needed it in a hurry, and proceeded down the short hall. He stopped short of the young ANBU who stood watch at the door. "Open that cell, quietly," Shikaku whispered, not wanting to alert Kurotsuki to the fact that she had been found out.
The man shook his head. "Hokage-sama has said that he does not wish to be disturbed."
"Hokage-sama needs to be disturbed," the black-haired man hissed back. "What's happened so far?"
"He looked at the prisoner, commanded me to unchain her, and closed the door, saying he did not want to be disturbed. For any reason." He put strong emphasis on these last two words.
"Oh no," he groaned, rubbing a hand over his face. "You unchained her?"
"It was a direct order from Hokage-sama!" the young man said defensively.
"She's a missing-nin. A very dangerous one with personal ties to Kakashi that she's exploited to get him alone in there with her." At that very moment, there was a muffled cry from inside the cell. A female's voice. Possibilities raced through his mind of what was taking place on the other side of the stone door, ranging from they've gotten into a fight and he's got the upper hand to they are more romantically involved than I thought. "Now will you open the door?!" Shikaku growled.
Looking alarmed, the operative fumbled with the keys at his belt as the people Shikaku had sent for arrived. The eight ANBU arrayed themselves in two lines on either side of the door to prevent crowding, while Chouza and Inoichi unquestioningly drew weapons. The door clicked as it unlocked and it was pulled outward.
The black-haired man took two large steps into the room, his sides and back covered by his teammates. What he saw was, astonishingly, not among the possibilities his incredibly intelligent brain had pictured a moment ago.
Fuyuuno Kurotsuki sat with her back against the wall, a few paces from where the unlocked chains lay. Her chest was heaving, no doubt due to the pain her left eye caused her. Fresh blood ran in rivulets, from her silver lashes down her cheek, dripping off her chin into her lap. The sunken appearance of her closed eyelid told him that the eye itself was no longer in its socket. His theory was confirmed by a small jar she held, smeared with the blood that was all over her hands. Through the clear glass, he could see a sharingan eye, floating in green fluid. Large squares of white cloth were spread out to cover the ground around her, a makeshift surgical space. Steel surgical tools lay on one square, a small mass of bloody tissue, crushed beyond recognition on another. A third had been used as a blood rag and was red through and through. On a fourth, Kakashi's head lay. He was unconscious, breathing deeply and evenly, completely oblivious to the fact that his left eye socket was empty and oozing blood. The woman raised the jar shakily. "Take this to Sakura. She should be able to implant it and fix him up in a snap."
Shikaku approached her slowly, warily keeping a kunai in one hand. He took the small jar from her, and nodded to Chouza to pick up the unconscious Hokage. He asked gravely, "What have you done?"
"What I had to."
A/N: I don't have much to say in this author's note. I would love to hear from you in a review, should you be kind enough to leave me one. Thank you again for your incredible devotion to Who I Am!
