Chapter Nineteen
Invisible hammers pounded at the sides of Kakashi's skull with fatigue as he watched the cleanup detail work. As he rubbed his temples, Kakashi marveled at how energetically Naruto led the team clearing the overgrown area around the ruined safehouse. Naruto, himself was carefully buffing the stone memorial to Lord Third's wife – a statue of her holding a baby Naruto. I can't believe it's been twelve years!
The tree Kakashi had used to stand watch from lay sprawled behind the ruin. Judging by the recent rot, it had blown down in a storm not too long ago, although the tree still bore scars from the fight – bits and pieces of brick, plaster, and splinters peppered the upper trunk. It was just another victim of the events of that night.
"You all right, Kakashi?" Asuma asked, his voice gruff as ever.
Kakashi looked back at the building, or what was left of it, peeling back the layers of time. He had been the sole survivor of the ANBU bodyguard detail. He could still see Minato, Kushina, and himself scattered outside the house after the explosion. Obito's swirl mask had been blow away sufficiently to reveal the now grown Obito's deformed face. He saw Kushina, bleeding with a splinter of wood the size of a human forearm impaling her through the abdomen. Minato was thrusting the newly born Naruto into his arms, ordering him to meet him at the hospital with Naruto.
"Kakashi?" Asuma asked.
"I'm fine," he lied. That night had almost broken Kakashi. He could do nothing but sit and watch as six of his teammates were cut down in short order, coming up on his opponent to the grizzly sight of Lord Third's wife and her assistant dead on the floor. When it came time to confront the assailant, Kakashi had driven a kunai through the man's neck, severing muscle and nerve alike. Then came the horror of the explosive tags bursting and seeing Obito's face – the teammate he'd left behind. Had I not left him behind, had I thought of something, anything!
Kakashi had determined to kill himself after getting Minato and his family to safety – final atonement for causing so much suffering through his inactions. One thing stopped him: the blonde baby thrust into his arms and the promise of a Hokage that all the dishonor heaped on his family would be erased. Something about holding the helpless newborn forced Kakashi to reconsider his decision. Suddenly, he was responsible for a new life more important than his own. Not wanting to leave another life permanently scarred by trauma the way his father had left him, Kakashi decided to get help. Lady Tsunade and some of the counselors at the hospital had been a tremendous help, reminding him of what he could yet achieved after saving the Hokage's family. If he taught the baby, trained him properly, he would grow to erase the mistakes of Kakashi's past. But Kakashi had to stay alive and not give up in order to see that dream realized. The dream of seeing his nephew, the son he'd never have, grow up to be a better man than he was the one thing that kept him getting out of bed in the morning, especially when all he wanted to do was lay down and never get back up.
"I'm fine, Asuma," Kakashi said a firmer than before. "Where are we with clean up?"
"Almost done! The kids really came together," Asuma said, cracking a smile. "Even my lazy bunch." Azuma pulled out a cigarette, his fingers shaking as he withdrew a lighter from his pocket, flipping on the flame. Kakashi recognized Asuma's pack a day nicotine addiction for what it was, an addiction. Unexpectedly, Asuma flipped the lighter shut and put the little white roll of death over his ear.
Kakashi almost asked what had Asuma spooked when he saw Kurenai approaching. Ah, that. Few things were secret to Kakashi: he knew Naruto and Hinata had both left camp last night for something other than just using the restroom, he knew Sasuke had gotten bored and fallen asleep on watch last night, and Kakashi knew Asuma had taken the opportunity to sneak into Kurenai's tent to be with her last night. After losing both his parents at a young age, Kakashi never had anyone to explain to him about love and relationships. After Rin's self-sacrifice, Kakashi never wanted to be close to anyone romantically, even though they were never involved. Some things just had too much potential to be painful, and he couldn't imaging unloading his baggage on anyone.
"Kakashi, we're all done," Kurenai said. Kakashi noted she had her camera around her neck. Kurenai was the mission's official documentarian, and until today, she had been snapping pictures of the kids and the everyone for both the mission log and her scrapbook that she kept of her team's adventures. "Why don't you two get together for a photo?"
"We're supposed to be on alert, Kurenai," Asuma replied, standing next to Kakashi begrudgingly.
"Lighten up," she said, "Jiraiya and Hinata are currently on watch, and the others are getting ready to leave! What's the worst that could happen from taking a picture?" She aimed the camera and snapped the photo.
Kakashi was about to answer the rhetorical question, but he thought better of it. He took a last look at the ruin of the house. He chided himself for one last failure involving Rin: the fact that he went to her grave to talk with her before Naruto's birth was probably what got everyone here killed that night. Obito must have been listening to the conversation he had with her headstone – it was the only way he could have known that the birth was happening; otherwise it was a closely guarded secret. After that terrible night, he had never told her again what was happening in his life, fearful that he'd get someone else killed. "By the way," Kurenai called over her shoulder as she walked away, "Your nephew had something he wanted to talk to you about!"
He looked back at the kids, now gathering in formation. This is ridiculous! You screwed up then when you left Obito behind, and you screwed up here because you told a dead friend your life issues! Get over your self-pity here and now or you'll end up planting all nine of those kids standing there! Kakashi straightened himself. There was no time for further sulking. His one and only objective now was getting the teams back safely, and he needed to focus. Obito would not be merciful if he attacked. Kakashi stared at the memorial statue to Lord Third's wife; he had no intention of saving baby Naruto only to lose him at this age.
As he approached the group, Naruto ran up to him excitedly. "Uncle Kakashi," Naruto brandished his field map, "I've got something I want to talk to you about!"
"Easy, Naruto," Kakashi replied in a hush tone, inviting his nephew to keep his voice down, "What's up?"
"Sasuke and I were looking at the map," he pointed to a series of red marks on the field map. The rendezvous point with the ANBU detail sent to meet them was marked with a red "X" and there were a series of crude calculations drawn along the trail from which they came and one following the nearby river. Naruto continued, "and we noticed the river trail would easily shave almost two hours off our trek – we could be there and home by nightfall."
Kakashi looked at the boy's crude calculations; he was indeed correct. The original mission profile had them stopping periodically to do training exercises; even with that part of the mission gone, they had an eight hour hike home on their original course. The river trail was geographically a much shorter distance on a map, but the map did not show the fact that the trail followed steep bluffs overlooking the river it flowed with – all of it going uphill on the outbound leg versus the gradual, meandering woodland path they'd taken. "Naruto," Kakashi replied, "You do realize that path is closed this time of year?"
Naruto nodded, "I know, prone to rockslides and landslides, especially during a rainy autumn," the boy turned his hands up and shrugged, "but it's been unusually dry the past two weeks, and we'd have the advantage of going downhill the entire time. Besides, it also gives us the advantage over Obito if he attacks?"
"How so?" Kakashi was curious as to how Naruto came to that conclusion.
"Well, if we take to the woodland trail we used on the way out, he has an infinite number of spots he can attack from, right? And he's also expecting us to take that trail."
Naruto was not wrong. "Go on…"
"Well," Naruto shifted, "if we follow the river trail, he can't attack from the river itself, not in any practical sense, and…"
Kakashi was astounded – this was actual tactical decision-making from this nephew. "Go on," Kakashi said intently.
Naruto nodded, "…and the steep hillsides will limit his ability to attack from the side, meaning he can only attack uphill – in which case we'll see him coming – or downhill from behind. In that case, we can at least predict from where he'd attack."
"Color me impressed," Kakashi nodded. "Tell you what, we have a ways to hike before we reach the point where have to decide which trail to take; let's decide when we get there, okay?"
"Okay!" Naruto ran off to grab his gear. The kid has potential.
The group moved cautiously down the trail, moving in a three-ring formation. Sakura, Ino, and Kurenai – the healers of the group – traveled in the center ring. The rest of the genin formed the middle ring and Kakashi occupied the out ring with Asuma and Jiraiya. The hilly terrain was slowly becoming more forested than open ground. As they crossed the initial tree line, Kakashi felt butterflies circling in his guts.
It doesn't make any sense; where the hell is he? Obito wouldn't put in an appearance like last night unless he was planning something. The night he'd attacked the safehouse, Obito had gone for the dramatic, attacking the ANBU with flair. Even when he held Naruto hostage, he'd aimed for the dramatic, tossing the child while planning on impaling him.
Obito's flair and arrogance had been his downfall that night, but now Kakashi surmised that was the point of last night. Everyone was exhausted, on edge, and prone to mistakes. Every rustling of leaves in the wind or wild animal shaking in a bush was a potential enemy. Obito wanted them to suffer, wanted them to be dull when he attacked a group this large.
Kakashi spied the group. Kiba kept his dog, Akamaru, tucked in a pouch in his backpack, probably the only one of them properly rested. Sasuke put on a brave face, even managing a mild grin. Kakashi, knew better – the boy's hands shook, knuckles turning white as he clutched a kunai in each hand. The other point of concern was Hinata. She had been using her Byakugan almost continuously since this morning, and she had not slept except for a short nap while Naruto had stood watch this morning. Darks circles of exhaustion pooled under her eyes, and her pale purple Byakugan was now almost sickly pale, with red spiderwebs tracing the rest of her eyes.
Kakashi took several deep breaths, trying to center himself against exhaustion. They were almost to the fork in the road; soon they'd have to decide to take the woodland path or the river path – neither was particularly appealing.
Hinata's right hand shot up over her shoulder, in the hand signal to hold position. The formation stopped instantly. Kakashi scanned with his eyes and strained his ears. He heard nothing but the beating of his heart. There were not birds, no animals, not even wind. An uncomfortable sensation began stinging him in the left eye. Kakashi closed his eye firmly, only to open it with his Sharigan had activated.
Kakashi barely got his left arm up to block Obito's Kunai as the other man appeared next to him, jabbing the Kunai toward Kakashi's neck. Kakashi turned to follow up with a cross-punch, but Obito had vanished as Kakashi's cut empty air! He sensed him coming again, and Kakashi turned, again blocking a lethal Kunai blow. This time, Obito didn't disappear, instead ramming into Kakashi with his full body weight. Obito was not the skinny kid he'd been. He's pretty buff for a guy who should be dead twice over!
Obito swung with a kunai in his left hand in a wide arc. As Kakashi blocked, he noticed no telltale scar along the man's neck. Clearly, Obito had access to something that could regenerate extreme wounds. Any normal person would have lost use of their arm if they'd survived such a stab wound – Kakashi had severed the nerve plexus off the neck that supplied the entire left arm.
Obito hit him with his right hand square in the chest, sending Kakashi flying backwards, but Kakashi managed to recoil and land on his feet. Kurenai, Asuma, Jiraiya, and the rest of the genin moved to assist, but Obito used an earth-release attack, sending a tremor through the ground. Everyone else was knocked off their feet. The temporary distraction gave Kakashi enough time to use a light release to charge several shuriken; however, Obito dodged the thrown weapons with impunity.
Obito again launched himself forward in a flurry of attacks; thanks to the Sharigan Obito had given him, Kakashi could at least predict the attacks enough to block them. However, his own return blows were almost equally useless as Obito blocked every attack before it was even launched.
As the team got back to their feet, Kakashi saw his opportunity. "Jiraiya! Get the kids out! GO!" he shouted, making a forward cross-kick toward Obito's deformed face. Kakashi had initially worried Obito was after Naruto or Hinata, much the way he'd been after Kushina the last time. Thankfully, Obito seemed content with just trying to kill him. He breathed a short sigh of relief as he saw the group fleeing from the corner of his eye.
Any relief was soon dashed as Obito disappeared and reappeared behind him in a blink of an eye. Before he could move, Kakahsi felt Obito's right arm around his neck in a chokehold, and he felt the sickly sensation of metal up and under his left ribcage in back. The cold sensation of death chilled Kakashi to his core; he almost threw up in his mask it had been so painful. A sick, sucking noise filled him as Obito withdrew the Kunai.
Kakashi, tried breaking free, but again he felt the kunai pierce his side, further forward this time. Kakahsi's eyes became unfocused as he began to slip into shock. He had to move, had to stop the next one or Obito would kill him! While his mind was acutely away of this, the rest of him failed to react. Kakashi watched in slow motion as Obito's left hand traced an arc that would end with the Kunai piercing Kakashi's heart.
"GAHHHH!" Obito left out a shout of alarm and shook violently. Kakashi felt the man's grip weakening, and he turned and rammed his right elbow first into the Obito's solar plexus before winding up again and driving the point of his elbow into Obito's ribs, breaking at least two of them with sickening CRACK!
Obito shoved Kakashi away toward a nearby tree. Kakashi nearly rammed the tree face-first, but he managed to stop himself. "You rotten little brat!" he heard Obito yell as he kicked a familiar blonde-haired boy backwards. Obito limped for a minute, and Kakashi again charged lighting-release, squarely punching his opponent squarely across the jaw with enough intensity to send the man through a nearby tree.
Naruto heard the order, "Jiraiya! Get the kids out! GO!" There was a tugging at his collar as Jiraiya dragged Naruto away from the scene of the battle. The others followed suit, but he couldn't turn his eyes away. Naruto could only watch in horror as Obito disappeared and reappeared behind Kakashi, stabbing a Kunai in his back and side.
"Uncle Kakashi!" Naruto screamed as he broke free from his grandfather's grip. Naruto sprinted faster than he ever knew possible back up the trail. He could see Obito winding up for a killing stroke. Naruto skidded the last several feet, driving one of the kunai his father had given him into the back of his enemy's left leg.
"GAHHHH!" Obito shouted as Naruto jerked the blade back and forth, severing muscle and tendon alike. Naruto was rewarded with an expanding torrent of red spilling from his enemy's leg. A short scuffle, and Kakashi was free. He had saved his uncle!
Naruto's triumph was short lived, as the wound closed itself before his eyes with a disgusting sucking noise. The retracted wad of muscle and tendon reformed under the skin like an alien creature burrowing in the man's leg. Not possible! The man recoiled back with the leg, punting Naruto backwards. "Little brat!" Obito hissed as Naruto felt himself smash into a tree trunk. Tiny red stars exploded in the field of Naruto's vision.
Obito was walking slowly toward him, brandishing a kunai in his sickly pale right hand. Before Naruto could get back up to fight, Obito had his left hand around his neck, choking him. Obito came eye to eye with him, "I'm going to do what I should have done the day you were born, you little shit!"
Naruto expected to be staring at his heart beating in the man's hand momentarily. His life flashed, thinking of his parents, of Kakashi, of Hinata. He couldn't leave them, refused to leave them! Naruto lashed out with something he'd scarcely felt before. The burst of strength sent Obito staggering backwards. Naruto's body burned feverishly – Nine-Tails was taking control.
Normally, Naruto was scared to even try tapping the immense chakra Kyuubi presented. Mom, Dad, and Kakashi made it abundantly clear he was still too young to unlock Kurama's full potential. However, this was beyond normal circumstances. The man or whatever it was standing before him had tried killing, had tried killing Uncle Kakashi and his parents, and had killed Lord Third's wife – his friend's grandmother. Nothing in his conventional arsenal of weapons or ninjutsu would have any effect. If there was a time or place to unleash his primal anger, here and now was it!
Fiery chakra swirled around Naruto, and his field for vision turned a violent shade of red. The smell of Obito's blood filled his nostrils. It made him thirsty, and hungry. He snarled as teeth morphed into jagged fangs and fingernails extended into fine pointed claws. "Come and get some, you ugly son of a bitch!" Kurama growled through him, latching onto his hatred of the man that had ruined his family's future, had permanently disabled his mom, robbed him of the chance of being a big brother, and forced him to become a jinchuriki at an age far too young!
Naruto charged at the man, full fury. Obito tried skipping time and space, but Naruto nailed him in the stomach, knocking the wind out of the man with a loud "OOOFFFFF!" Naruto kept pounding the ground with his feet, ramming his target through one tree, another, and another, building steam off each impact. Kurama took control and swiftly kicked Obito where his manhood would be; the pasty white demon went flying out of view.
Kurama roared through Naruto, pleased to have been off the chain. Deep down, Naruto was horrified. Oh my god! I can't stop it! Kurama's chakra continued to burn throughout Naruto's body. "Now then, my child, let's have fun with this group!"
Naruto began running toward his friends, all petrified by his sinister appearance. He managed to slow himself, but he couldn't hold back Kyuubi's murderous intent. "Stop it Kyuubi! PLEASE!" Tears began streaming from Naurto's eyes at the thought of hurting anyone.
"Why should I stop now!" The voiced echoed in his head. "Time for me to be rid of you and the girl!"
Fear filled Naruto. "Hinata! NO!" He had taken the gamble trying to save Kakashi only to sacrifice the whole group to a monster. Now he was going to pay for his lack of foresight. Naruto charged at the group, Hinata dead in his sights.
"Naruto-kun, please stop!" her gentle voice cried. She slowly stepped in front of the group. Naruto's heart froze at the words, as did his charging legs. Restraining Kyuubi was taking everything he had; muscle cramps squeezed his legs painful as he fought for control of his body. "Please, come back to us!" she walked closer to him.
"Hi…Hinata!... RUN!" he heaved, unable to hold much longer.
"Please, come back!" she pleaded, her hand touching his shoulder. Kyuubi's strength began to dissipate, but it was still holding him under its control. Kyuubi lashed at Hinata with Naruto's left hand. Miraculously, she caught the intended strike in her hand. Tears were streaming from her eyes. "Naruto… please… come back!"
Like a candle blowing out in a high wind, the glowing chakra around him extinguished. Naruto regained his sense of self-control. He also regained the sense of sharp pain in his foot from punting Obito into the stratosphere. The pain radiated up his leg, fighting with exhaustion for attention. Exhaustion won as he collapsed forward into Hinata's arms.
"Naruto! Can you hear me?" Naruto opened his eyes to the sight of Hinata staring down at him. She gently caressed the side of his face, causing his lips to involuntarily curl into a smile. It felt great . At first, he thought he'd overslept in camp, but soon the memories flashed in his head. "Hinata…" he said, embarrassed, "I-I'm sorry!"
"Don't be," she smiled, a few tears gathering at the corners of her eyes.
"I don't know, maybe we should make him sorry for doing something that stupid," Grandpa Jiraiya's voice was salty. "Seriously kiddo, you and I have to have a major heart to heart about doing dumb shit like tapping into a tailed-beast's chakra when you're clearly not ready for it!" Jiraiya pointed a finger at Hinata, "And you, young lady! You realized how close you just came to dying? Do you have any idea how much of an ass-ripping I'd get from Kushina and your mom if something had happened?!"
"You forgot Granny Tsunade, Grandpa Jiraiya!" Naruto reminded him.
Jiraiya grinned thinly; Naruto knew it was for show. He had been concerned but wasn't anywhere near as furious as he pretended to be. "Yes, there is her, too," he nodded. "And yet somehow, you managed to save Kakashi in all of this," he grinned larger, "which sadly means he's obliged not to punish you both too badly for being monumentally stupid… something we call brave."
"If it's all the same," Kakashi approached, "I suggest we refrain from doing that again any time soon." Kakashi looked awful - bruises complimented dark circles under his eyes. At least the large cuts in his side had been healed by Ino or Sakura.
Naruto sat up slowly, the sensation of having someone cracking his skull with teaspoon followed him up. "What happened to Obito?"
"You punted him somewhere out into the woods, kid!" Jiraiya explained, "He's probably halfway to the Village Hidden in the Sands by now!"
Kakashi shook his head, "I wouldn't bet on him giving up so easily."
"But Kakashi, no one could get up after that!" Naruto protested, "Could they?" The thought of Obito surviving such a powerful strike, much less coming back for round two made a chill crawl down Naruto's spine.
"I almost cut his head off once, Naruto! I cut through his neck muscles and the nerves to his left arm, and he regenerated like nothing happened."
"And I cut his calf muscles and achilles tendon clean through, but they regenerated right in front of me!" Naruto again felt a chill and his bladder tightening. "Nobody can do that though; that's crazy!"
"Nobody alive, at least," Jiraiya commented.
Hinata's eyes met Naruto's and both shot bold open at the suggestion. "Are-are you saying," Hinata stammered, "He's some kind of a yokai or something?!"
"Or something," Kakashi said, extending a hand to Naruto, "Can you stand because I really don't want to sit around waiting for him to come back."
Naruto got to his feet with Kakashi and Hinata's aid. "So, what now?" he asked.
"Well, now we put your little theory to the test," Kakashi said. "If we go deeper into the forest, there's a strong chance we'll run back into Obito, especially since you sent him flying in the direction we were planning on going. So, we're taking the river path!"
Naruto felt a pang of regret. He wished Dad could just teleport in and rush them all home immediately. Naruto wanted to go to sleep in his bed, enjoy Mom's cooking, or even just cup ramen right now in the safety of his own bedroom. Stop thinking that way! You're a ninja now! "Okay, the river path it is!" Naruto reminded himself that this was his first mission. He had met every requirement but returning to the village safely after five days. He wasn't about to let some pasty-white freak of nature ruin his first mission.
"You sure you're up for this, son?" Jiraiya asked. "It's going to be a pretty dangerous path."
Naruto responded the only way he knew how. He raised his thumb and winked at his grandfather, "Believe it!"