A little while later
"Do I really have to stay right here?" Harumi asked, glancing around the small clearing.
"Yes," Kakashi answered.
"Are you sure I need to have your nin-ken here too?"
Kakashi looked at the eight dogs laying around Harumi, "Yes."
"Why?"
"There is someone after you and I'm not taking any chances while I am out training with my team. We will be close, and Pakkun can always run to find me if you get into trouble."
Harumi frowned but before she could say anything, Bull bumped into the back of her knees and Kakashi "helped" set Harumi down on the ground against a tree. Bisuke crawled into her lap while Pakkun laid his head on her legs.
Effectively trapped, Harumi chose to glare at Kakashi, "Not fair using your ninken to trap me."
Kakashi smirked, Harumi could see the outline of his lips through his mask, "Ninja, we are supposed to use every advantage we have." Kakashi watched as Harumi was surrounded by his pack, Bull made his way to her feet, while the others laid down around her, ensuring Harumi could reach all of them. Harumi followed the directions of Bisuke and slowly scratched him between the ears. Pakkun nosed his way over to her other hand and she quickly scratched behind his ears.
"Fine, but you owe me lunch for this," Harumi grumped.
"Sounds good, now just stay here like a good med-nin and let me focus on getting my team into shape."
Harumi laughed, "You mean punish them for coloring your hair blond."
Kakashi grinned, "That too."
With a wave, Kakashi disappeared in a flash of smoke. Harumi looked at the eight ninken around her and sighed, "I guess this means I'm supposed to rest while you are guarding?"
Pakkun nodded, "You are a smart human. Besides, the rest of the gang want to know who Naruto-chan keeps talking about. So, you just keep petting us and answering some questions, and everything will be fine until Kakashi gets back."
"If you say so Pakkun."
Bull gave Harumi's leg a gentle sniff and gave a low bark in Pakkun's direction.
"Yes, bull she is the female we smell on Kakashi and Naruto. She is the one that Naruto-chan keeps talking about. The one Kakashi doesn't talk about."
"Wait, Kakashi doesn't talk about me?" Harumi asked.
"To be fair, Kakashi doesn't talk about a lot of people, but he won't talk to us about you, which makes you special. In fact, when we ask him about your smell he will ignore us."
"Yep, which makes it strange and noteworthy," Bisuke replied.
Shifting slightly, to lean more comfortably on the tree, Harumi sighed, not sure what to do about this information. Kakashi either didn't think she warranted mention, or she was special as the dogs were implying.
"Don't worry about its Harumi-san, Kakashi wouldn't leave you with us if he didn't trust you."
"More like, likes you," one of the other dogs called out, causing the rest of the dogs to chuckle.
"Why would you say he likes me?" Harumi asked.
"Because Kakashi doesn't let anyone into his space," Pakkun replied. "The fact we can smell you on him often tells us that he is at least close to you often. And you have his scent all over you is also a good indication that the two of you spend lots of time together."
"It could just be that we are in my house because of Naruto," Harumi offered.
Pakkun laughed, "Kakashi doesn't have to be in your house to guard Naruto, he could have just stayed outside to make sure that Naruto was safe. But Kakashi willingly spends time in your house, which smells like you," Pakkun gave her hand a subtle sniff, "And his scent in on your hand, means he more than tolerates you, and does like you."
Harumi blinked, "I'm not sure what to do with this information," she told the ninken honestly.
"Nothing. It is up to you and the Boss to figure it out. We just wanted to meet you and see if you are worthy of the Boss," Bisuke answered.
Pakkun nodded, "You passed the test, so be nice to Kakashi. He doesn't let his scent be on many people any more."
Harumi nodded and leaned her head against the tree with another sigh. With the warm sun on her legs and the heat of the ninken surrounding her, Harumi found herself slipping into sleep.
A crash had Harumi jumping to her feet looking around. The ninken were also standing alert. A high-pitched whistling sound was the only hint they had. Harumi fell to the ground as a kunai embedded itself into the tree behind her, where her head was a moment ago. A glance had her using a substitution jutsu before the exploding tag went off.
Kakashi's pack had scattered. Bull and two other ninken ran towards the person who threw the kunai. One had gray fur and the other a light brown.
"I'll go and get Kakashi," Pakkun said as he stuck his nose in the air and ran in the opposite direction of the three.
Harumi pulled her own kunai out and jumped into the trees, focusing on suppressing her chakra. Silently jumping from tree to tree, she slowly moved forward. She could hear Kakashi's pack move with her, two in the trees and the other two on the ground. She could also hear Bull's low growl and used that to tell her where to go. Surprisingly, she realized she was moving to the direction of one of the memorial stones near here.
Stopping a few trees from the clearing, she could see Kakashi's ninken surrounding a single person. He was wearing a black cloak with red clouds on it. He was wearing an orange swirl mask with only one eye hole. He had short black spiky hair. He seemed to be playing a game of tag with the ninken. He would tap the ninken on the head whenever they got close enough to attack, then he would give a high laugh and dance around to get into another position.
Harumi saw a small opening and threw her kunai. She watched it arc through the air and pass right through the man! His head snapped towards her position and Harumi could feel the triumph charge through the killing intent. Before she could blink, the man charged towards her.
Harumi jumped back quickly, using chakra to send her further into the trees. The ninken came running from behind the man as he followed her into the trees.
The man jumped to the tree right in front of her and tilted his head, "Hello there pretty lady!" His voice was a higher pitch, almost childlike in his speech pattern. "Do you want to play with me?"
Harumi looked at him, "Is that what you are doing? Playing?"
"Of course," the man jumped up and down on the branch waving his arms about, "Playing tag is fun!"
Harumi swallowed, "Can you tell me why you threw a kunai with an exploding tag attached at my head?"
"What is a game of ninja tag without explosions?" The mask moved as the man tilted his head to the side, "At least that is what sempai says when we play."
"Sempai?" Harumi asked.
"Of course, every great ninja has a sempai! Mine keeps telling me that I will be the death of him, but I'm sure he is just being silly."
"If you want to play ninja tag, do you think we can do it without exploding tags?" Rushing she continued, "It isn't very fair to the dogs, after all, they can't use exploding tags."
The man nodded his head frantically, "You are right, pretty lady! So the normal ninja tag it is. Did you want to be "it" first?"
"Sure," Harumi drug the word out as she watched this strange man nodded his head and waved his hands excitedly.
"Now, close your eyes and count to ten."
Harumi closed her eyes and started to count, she couldn't hear the ninja move, but she could feel two of Kakashi's dogs move and lean against her legs, "One, two, three." Harumi took a step backwards and landed on the ground. "Four, five, six." Harumi took a small step backwards, heading in the opposite direction that they found the masked man. Kakashi's dogs were gently herding her backwards as she continued to count. "Seven, eight, nine." Turning her head in the direction of the slight sound of leaves moving. "Ten, ready or not, here I come!" Harumi opened her eyes and studied the area around her. She couldn't see the man, nor could she feel his chakra.
"Do you know where Kakashi is?" Harumi whispered to the dogs next to her.
The gray dog nodded and turned it's face to the left, Harumi took a few steps in that direction.
"Are you over here?" Harumi asked, as she glanced behind a tree as she passed it. "How about over here?" Harumi glanced around another tree. Continually moving towards the direction, the dogs pointed out as the direction where Kakashi was. Taking off in a light jog, Harumi continued to call out to the mystery man, "Are you over here?" She became more and more confident that he was hiding in the opposite direction and didn't figure out she wasn't looking for him yet.
The trees thinned, then parted and Harumi found herself in another clearing. Kakashi and his team broke through the clearing on the other side, Pakkun leading the way. The dogs running with her, took off to go and meet their master.
"Kaka-"Harumi started to call out when a sharp pain in the back of her neck and her vision went black.
Kakashi watched in horror as a man in an orange mask appeared right behind Harumi. Then within a second, Harumi pitched forward. Before Harumi hit the ground, the man caught her and held her up. Her head lulled to the side, on the man's shoulder, the black kunai a dark mark in front of her throat.
"Hatake Kakashi, late once again," The man in the mask said. His voice was deep and had a rumbling quality to it.
"How do you know my name?" Kakashi asked, struggling to keep his voice steady, to not show the panic he was starting to feel.
"I know all about you Kakashi of the Sharingan. I have been waiting for you."
"I'm here, so why don't you let the woman go?" The man laughed, it floated across the clearing and sent shivers up the ANBU's spines. This was not a joyful laugh, but one full of pain and the promise of sharing that pain. It also carried a note of insanity, which scared Kakashi and Itachi to their core. Insane people couldn't be reasoned with.
"Why would I do that? You see, I need her to ensure you will follow. You can find me in Ame, atop the highest tower."
"And what about the woman?"
"She will be there too. Now, let's see if you can get there in time, for once" the man moved the arm with the kunai down Harumi's body.
Kakashi watched in horror as first her body, then the masked man's body disappeared, leaving only two heads and a hand holding a kunai. Then just a moment passes, when Kakashi watches even those parts disappear. Then the final words of the man reached Kakashi's brain, having been frozen in his ears through the horror of what he was watching.
Breaking out of his shock, Kakashi glanced at Shishui and Itachi, "Look around, see if you can see anything. Find a trace of them." Glancing at his pack who were circling the area where Harumi was just standing! "Yugao, go inform the Hokage of what just happened, Tenzō, go make sure Naruto is still at the Academy. There is a teacher there, Tamotsu, let him know he needs to watch over Naruto, Masahiro and Sasuke until one of the registered adults retrieves them."
"Yes taichou," the two answered before disappearing in a puff of smoke. Kakashi ran over to where his pack was, "Do you smell anything?"
"Nothing boss," Pakkun replied, "It is like she vanished into thin air. The only trail is the one she made getting here."
"Does the man smell familiar?" Kakashi took three large sniffs, sorting and filtering the smells one by one. First and the easiest by far is the scent of the forest, the damp earth with old leaves, the smell of the trees. Next was the scent of tea, soap and the tang of that smell that is unique to hospitals, Harumi. Kakashi automatically filtered the scent of his pack and his team, which left the smell of something burnt, the smell of smoke and something that was sweet smelling. It was very similar to Harumi's stalker, but the sweet smell was different.
The scent of fire and smoke was common enough, they were in the Land of Fire, which had many fire users, even if you don't count the Uchiha clan. Because Kakashi was concentrating on sorting the smells around the area, he wasn't surprised when Shishui and Itachi dropped in front of him.
"Report," Kakashi growled through clenched teeth.
"We didn't find any sign of Harumi-sama or the masked man. We did find a tree with new scorched marks, most likely from an exploding tag," Shishui replied, his back straight and his voice lacking the carefree attitude he normally displayed. That was the thing about Shishui, the more serious the situation, the more carefree he acted. The fact he wasn't even trying now, meant something really bad was about to happen.
"Taichou, that disappearing thing the masked man did, Madara did something similar. Although it wasn't as flashy as what we just saw. And the mask was different."
"That would explain the smoke and fire," Kakashi said, straightening his back. "We will follow the trail and see if we can find where this Madara came into the village. Then maybe we can find Harumi," not waiting for an answer, Kakashi took off in the direction of Harumi's trail. This was where she came from, where the whole thing started.
Late again, always late. Too late to stop his father. Too slow to save Obito. Too fast to avoid hitting Rin. He was not going to be too late to save Harumi! Kakashi was not going to lose her too! With renewed determination, Kakashi moved faster, trusting his pack and his teammates to keep up.
In just moments, Kakashi, his ninken and the two Uchiha stopped in the clearing where he left Harumi to rest with his ninken.
"This way," Pakkun said, taking Kakashi over to the tree that had the scorch marks on it. "This is where the whole thing started, Haru-chan was resting when an exploding tag kunai was thrown from the opposite direction. I ran to get you and the others broke into two formations, one to attack the one that threw the kunai and the other group to protect Haru-chan."
"Did you see anything that would help?" Kakashi asked the rest of his ninken.
"The man didn't attack us, he played something like tag?" Bisuke said, the question evident in his tone.
"Yeah," Shiba called out as he moved to where the masked man was.
"His voice was different too," Urushi added.
"Different how?" Shisui asked.
"It was higher," Urushi said, "and more like Naruto-kun when he is trying to get out of his chores."
"Why would such an accomplished ninja play tag?" Itachi asked out loud.
"I don't know," Kakashi said.
"To throw us off the trail?" Shishui asked.
"No," Bisuke said, "He only used the high voice with Harumi, therefore it was only for her benefit."
Kakashi nodded, "She would have treated him like a child or would have underestimated his abilities. Harumi has a soft heart and he would have used it against her."
"So where does that leave us?" Shishui asked.
"Waiting for permission to go to Ame," Itachi answered for Kakashi.
Kakashi nodded, "We will leave as soon as we have the mission for Lord Hokage."
Meanwhile
Sarutobi's peaceful morning of paperwork was interrupted by a flash of smoke in his office. One of his ANBU stood in front of him. Her mask was firmly on her face, hiding her identity. But he knew all of his ANBU, her purple hair was also a give away.
"Lord Hokage!" Yugao said, with her head bowed, "Taichou ordered me to inform you that a masked man had kidnapped Harumi-san. He taunted taichou before he disappeared, asked if taichou would be late again, but informed him to meet him in the Village Hidden in the Rain to see if Kakashi could be on time."
"Describe this masked man," Sarutobi ordered.
"He was tall, wore a black robe and had on an orange mask with a swirl design, only his right eye was showing. He used an unknown jutsu to appear and disappear taking Harumi-san with him."
"Damn it!" the Hokage muttered to himself. "I take it Kakashi wants to leave right now?" he asked louder.
"Yes, Lord Hokage."
"Inform your team to meet here in ten minutes for your mission brief," Sarutobi said, this was going to be a nightmare. Kakashi wasn't going to take this well and he would need to be in top form to get Harumi back. On the other hand, Sarutobi was going to have his hands full at home, dealing with the Nara family patriarch and Naruto. Sarutobi gave a small sigh as the ANBU left his office. "Genma!" he called out.
Genma opened the door, "Yes, Lord Hokage?"
"Get Shikaku, tell him it is about his niece, that should get him to hurry up."
"Right away Lord Hokage," Genma bowed as he closed the door. Something was wrong with Harumi, Genma thought before rushing down hallway to find the Jounin Commander.
Meanwhile
Tamotsu was proud of himself, he didn't even jump when the masked ANBU appeared in the middle of his class. "May I help you ANBU-san?"
"Yes," came the monotone voice used by all ANBU, "I need to speak with you privately."
"The hallway then?" Tamotsu asked. The ANBU nodded and walked out the door first. "Finish reading your chapter then start writing the answers to the questions on the board," Tamotsu said before following the ANBU into the hallway. "What can I do for you?"
"You will be in charge of Uzamaki Naruto, Shimizu Masahiro and Uchicha Sasuke after the Academy lets out. You will follow the protocol established and hold them until one of the registered adults comes to retrieve them. Be sure that the registered adult also follows protocol."
"Something happened," Tamotsu guessed.
The ANBU inclined his head just slightly, "Follow protocol, Tamotsu-san."
With a single hand sign, the ANBU disappeared in a flurry of leaves. Leaving Tamotsu to wonder what just happened.
Back in the Hokage's office
Team Ro knelt before the desk where the Professor sat, smoking his pipe, Shikaku Nara stood just to the right of the desk. Both men had unreadable faces as they looked at the five masked ANBU in front of them.
"Team Ro," Sarutobi began, after taking a deep pull on his pipe, "Your mission is to meet up with Jiraiya outside the borders of the Land of Rain, there you will infiltrate the Hidden Rain Village and retrieve Shimizu Harumi. Take out the person who kidnapped her, if you can. Taichou," Sarutobi paused until Kakashi's mask looked up at him, "Use any and all abilities and weapons at your disposal to accomplish this mission."
Kakashi put his right fist over his heart, "Yes, Lord Hokage."
"Any questions?"
"No Lord Hokage."
"Then Team Ro, you are dismissed." Sarutobi blinked in surprise, Kakashi was out of the window before he finished his sentence with the rest of Team Ro right behind him. Sarutobi ran his hand over his forehead before glancing at Shikaku, "Anything to add?"
Shikaku turned and studied his leader, "Have you figured out what you want to say to the kids?"
Sarutobi shook his head, "You know your family better than I do, what should I tell them"
"You will need to tell Hideo and Maiko the truth and maybe a small bit of truth to Masahiro and Naruto, they need to be prepared if something were to happen to either Harumi or Kakashi."
Sarutobi nodded, "What about the Uchihas?"
Shikaku shrugged, "As far as they should be concerned, Itachi just went on a standard ANBU mission with his team. The normal precautions are being taken, especially since Harumi was the one who was supposed to pick up the boys."
"If that is how you want to play it, I take it you will be picking the boys up after school?"
"Of course, Lord Hokage," Shikaku replied bowing his head slightly, "As you command."
AN: Tada! The very first scene that I saw for this fic. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I know it is short, but so much happened!
To all the new people, welcome! I hope you continue to enjoy this story.
Now to give you all a heads up, I still haven't decided the ending to this story ¯\_(ᗒᗩᗕ)_/¯
So after having a nice conversation with a few people, I have decided to write both endings and then I will either post both at the same time (which translates into some crazy long chapters) and let you decide which ending you want to make your own. Or I will fall in love with one and post that one. Still not sure which way will happen, because honestly, I love both planned endings. But the main purpose for this head's up is to let you know that posts will be even more sporadic than they have been. I have about 3 chapters pre-written and will post those as they are edited.
So there you go. I hope you all are continuing to stay safe and healthy. Find the things that make you happy and find a way to enjoy those.
