Chapter 19: Barrier

Kakashi watched as Genma held Hermione, soothing her as she cried. She didn't shy away from Genma, as she had with him. The moment he would come closer to her, she visibly flinched. He wasn't the only one who had noticed it. The rest of his team did as well. He just didn't understand why. They had been on relatively normal terms before he went on the mission, hadn't they?

They had to move, though. It wasn't smart to stay out here in the open. He signalled the team to start moving. They could figure things out when they had found somewhere that provided cover. This was a much bigger mess than he had originally thought it would be. They had just broken into a Root-building, one they weren't supposed to know about and they weren't on an official mission, which could cause problems as well.

His team swiftly moved away from the building and headed back to the forest where they had been before. It wasn't ideal. Hell, it was anything but ideal. Unfortunately it was the only cover they had in the area, so it would have to do for now. It was important that they got the dead body sealed up and Hermione healed up enough that she wasn't in pain, which she clearly was. It would make the journey back much easier.

It only took them about ten minutes to reach the forest, Yugao and Tenzou had run ahead to find a somewhat safe place that gave them the advantage if it would come to a fight.

As they reached the two of them, Kakashi dropped the body on the ground and reached into his pouch, taking out a sealing scroll. Nodding at Tenzou to give him a hand, he rolled it out as his kohai moved the body into proper position. Behind him he heard Shisui coo at the child as Genma softly spoke to Hermione to keep her awake for now.

"Yugao check her, will you?"

She nodded in response and made her way to where Genma held her. He lowered her to the ground so that the purple-haired woman could look her over. He watched her hands turn green as she checked the wound on Hermione's head. In the meantime he kept his eyes and ears open. He really didn't want to get ambushed and while they weren't out in the open anymore, they still weren't safe.

Having successfully sealed the dead wizard's body, he turned to check the progress of the healing session. He was glad to see that Hermione didn't look as sickly pale as she had before. She still looked troubled. Kakashi wondered what exactly had happened to her. Besides the small amount of blood they had found in the forest, there hadn't been a lot of blood at the building. There weren't a lot of physical injuries. Psychological torture, then. It would make the most sense with how she was acting.

Yugao luckily was quite skilled in healing superficial wounds, so the wound on her head was quickly taken care of. Her leg would take longer to heal, there was probably some physical therapy needed as well to be sure Hermione would be able to use it properly. That would have to be taken care of when they got back into the village. For now, they would need to find some shelter. The trees only gave them so much coverage. Which reminded him…

Making his way towards Genma, Hermione and Yugao, the latter had finished up and passed him as she made her way to Shisui.

"The injury on her face is pretty much healed. There's not much I could do for her knee, though. An actual medic will need to take a look at that."

"Got it, thanks, Yugao."

"Of course," she responded with a nod.

Giving her a nod in return, he continued towards the other two. "Hermione-san, can I talk to you for a minute?"

She looked up to him, eyes wide. Still afraid of him, then. Damn. He didn't think he'd ever say this, but he rather have sassy Hermione than this one. It angered him to know that they had messed with her mind to the point of her reacting this way.

"Boss, you sure that's a good idea? I mean-"

"Not now, Genma. It's important that I do speak with her and it can't wait."

"Right." He said, before turning to Hermione, "you want me to stay?"

Kakashi had to bite his tongue to not let his annoyance show at the senbon-user. He needed to talk to her in private. Not with him right there.

"I-it's alright. Thank you, Genma-san."

"Alright, I won't go far."

He assured her as he stood up. He gave Kakashi one last look that said enough but only fueled Kakashi's annoyance even more. Who the hell did he think he was? Genma acted like he was her freaking boyfriend or something. Which he wasn't, so he needed to stop acting like it.

He sighed as he turned back to the woman in front of him, squatting down as he reached into his pouch. "Here," he said as he handed her wand to her. She looked up to him in surprise, eyes once again wide.

"H-how? And why?" She took the wand with a shaking hand. Looking at her hand, before looking back up at him.

"The Hokage ordered me to give it to you. Don't make him regret this decision."

"O-of course. But I don't understand. Why give it to me now?"

She asked.

"I need you to do something for me."

Hermione looked up at him curiously, he needed her to do something for him? She was in no condition to do anything. Sure, the woman was kind enough to heal her head wound, but her leg was still busted. It annoyed her. She hated being vulnerable like this. Plus, she wasn't able to take care of Teddy like this. She kept a close eye on him, though it seemed the dark haired teen was doing alright with taking care of him so far.

That reminded her, Teddy had adopted the teen's hair and eyes by the looks of it. Damn it. That's probably what Kakashi wanted from her. To know about Teddy's abilities. She would definitely need to put another glamour on him, which would be super easy now that she had her own wand back. The moment she grabbed it, she felt the energy course through her just like it had when she first got it.

"What do you need me to do?" She hesitantly asked him, as he never elaborated.

She glanced at his face, slowly meeting his eye- oh, eyes. She hadn't dared to actually look into his eye before but doing so now, she saw he had both eyes open. So he did have two eyes. His left eye was vastly different from his right one. Hermione had expected him to have two grey eyes, not a grey and a red one. Come to think of it, the red one matched the one from the teen holding Teddy.

Hermione wasn't shocked to see his scar. It would make sense to keep it hidden and it wasn't the first time she'd seen someone with a scar on his face. She'd seen plenty of those back home.

"I wanted to ask you about the barriers you had created. The ones you used to hide Teddy?"

"Eh?" Okay, she did not expect him to ask that.

"The barriers?" He repeated impatiently, with a hint of annoyance.

"I got what you meant, yes. You just caught me off guard. I thought you wanted to talk about- about something else."

She watched as one of his eyebrows rose, "Oh, you mean the fact that Teddy can change his appearance at will?"

Hermione winced at that. Busted. "I- yeah."

"Oh, don't worry, we'll get to that, Hermione-san." He was smirking. She could hear it. She was screwed, wasn't she? Shit.

"A-anyways, the barriers? What did you want to know?" She asked, changing the subject. The longer she could go without telling him, the better. Luckily, Kakashi went along with it. No doubt he'd corner her when they were back in the village. She'll have to deal with it then. It would give her some time to come up with a plausible answer that wasn't entirely truthful but enough to feed his curiosity.

"Can you create them around this camp? Or is it only for smaller areas?"

"Can I- Wait, you want me to create those barriers? Why? I thought we were just resting before going back to the village."

"It's not safe if we do. Not right away, not if we're carrying the two of you. It's not far, but we'll be wide open and I'm not sure how many of them are coming after us."

She nodded in understanding. It made sense. Here, at least, they could hide in the trees. It would be safer to fight them off here. "Right, I get what you mean, I think." Hermione looked around the area. "I suppose this is manageable, it's not too big to create the barrier. I just need to get all sides covered and we'll be fine."

"Okay, good. Do you need to stand?"

"Preferably, yes."

He started to reach towards her, probably wanting to help her up so that she could perform the necessary spells. Even with him moving slowly and completely in her sight, she was unable to stop the flinch as he almost touched her. As she flinched, he paused his movements, his eyes flicking to hers.

"I-I'm sorry. I know it's not your fault, but-"

"They tortured you." He stated, it wasn't even a question. He knew they had tortured her, which is why he moved slowly towards her, instead of grabbing her like he would have done before.

"Yes." She didn't need to respond to that, she knew that, but did it anyways.

"Whatever it was they showed you. While it looked real, it's not."

She almost let out a laugh. Kakashi comforting her, in his own way, wasn't something she had expected. It was kind of him, though. It would seem he has experience in this department.

"Did you feel anything when I touched you when they were torturing you?"

That got her attention. It crossed her mind, but everything seemed so real, she didn't think anything of it. He was right, though. Completely right. She hadn't felt a thing. Hermione watched his hand creep closer once again. His hand softly touched her arm for a moment and the second his fingers touched her skin, she felt it. There was no faking this, she knew.

"This is real, Hermione-san. It takes time, I know. But you'll learn what's real and what's not."

All she could do is nod, looking at him in wonder. He kept surprising her didn't he?

"Good. Now. Let's go." He said, voice once again void of emotion. "We need to get that barrier up." And, back to his old self again. Honestly, the guy was going to give her a whiplash one of these days.

He reached out again and she fought back a flinch. She knew he still noticed it, but didn't mention it. With his help she was able to get back on her feet, taking care not to lean on her injured leg and hop a few yards to create the first barrier. Raising her wand, she cleared her mind, remembering all the incantations she would need for the protective enchantments to create the barrier.

Pointing her wand she softly said " Protego totalum" to which she felt Kakashi stiffen beside her. Did he feel the barrier create itself? Glancing behind her, she noticed the others look her way as well, checking to see what Kakashi would do. She turned back, focusing on creating the barrier. " Repello Muggletum." She wasn't sure what the effects would be for the shinobi that were with her, but as long as they stayed inside the barrier, they should be fine. Alright, last one; " Cave inimicum ," with that they should be completely hidden from any attackers.

She thought about using the other protective spells she had used when she had been hunting for Horcruxes but decided against it. Those were solely for magical folk, and they were anything but magical.

She turned to look at Kakashi, who was eyeing the enchantments in wonder. "I'm done on this side," she said.

"And they won't be able to see us?"

"If everything went well, they won't be able to see, hear or even smell us."

He just nodded silently and guided her to the other sides of their temporary camp. Within five minutes she had successfully created a barrier, hopefully hiding them from anyone looking for them. Kakashi then set her down, so that she could lean against a tree. He then walked towards the teen that was watching over Teddy, speaking softly to him. A moment later he handed Teddy to her, to which she smiled up at him in thanks.

"Hello, my little boy," she cooed.

"Mai!" He squealed, throwing his hands up in delight.

She laughed at his enthusiasm. He was adorable like this. She hadn't seen him this happy since back at Remus' cottage. Oh dear, he desperately needed a diaper change though, and of course she had nothing here. She doubted that any of the shinobi did as well. While she rather did it herself, a quick " Scourgify" would have to do for now.

"Mai, mai!"

"Yes, yes," she chuckled. "Mai's here."

"Senpai?"

"Hm?" Kakashi kept his eyes on Hermione a moment longer, before turning to Tenzou.

"What did you ask her to do?"

He glanced back at the brown-haired witch, before responding. "She created barriers."

"Right. I gathered that, but why not let us create the barriers?"

Kakashi shook his head. He had considered that, of course. But the Root would definitely be able to find them then. With the ones she created, they most likely wouldn't. He remembered the feeling he got when he got near to where she had hidden Teddy. No doubt she had rushed at that time, but it still was very effective. The only two reasons he didn't give in to the urges to turn around, was that he knew he had to find her and that his pack indicated something had been there.

"It's safer this way, trust me."

Tenzou looked at him incredulously, "I don't know, senpai."

"I'll explain later, Tenzou. For now, trust me, okay?"

His kohai was not trusting his decision, that much was clear, but he accepted it nonetheless. Kakashi had saved his life more than once, so he deserved at least that much. Tenzou nodded in response and walked to the edge of the barrier, scouting ahead. He did the same on the other side of the camp. They may be hidden from view, but they still needed to be alert. If there was one thing Kakashi knew, it was not to trust anyone in Root.

Honestly, Kakashi was surprised it took Root this long to hunt them down, but it was half an hour after the barrier had been put up that he spotted the first one. He quickly signalled his team to get ready. On instinct, all of them hid from view, hiding their chakra signature as well. It proved to be unnecessary as the Root members didn't even look in their direction.

For the second time that day, Genma let out a "I'll be damned." Kakashi watched him turn to look at Hermione in wonder. He felt another pang of rejection when from the corner of his eye, Hermione looked up at Genma and smiled a soft smile.

Shaking his head, he turned his back to her and checked the area. More Root operatives were nearing their camp. While they could try and wait it out, they would find them eventually. The barrier only did so much. It was still close to the building, close enough for them to have memorised this area.

They would need a distraction. A good one. And a quick getaway. His team could each make sure there's a distraction but how the hell would they be able to get Hermione and Teddy out unseen?

"Kakashi-san?"

Behind him, Hermione tried to get to her feet, failing miserably as she's also juggling Teddy in her arms. He waited another moment which proved to surprise him as she managed to actually stand up, leaning against the tree and not putting any weight on her injured leg.

"I'm guessing we won't be able to stay here much longer?"

He looked at her, trying to think of where she was going with this. What was she going to do? Fight? He almost scoffed at the idea. She couldn't even stand properly. There's no way she would be able to fight any of the shinobi hunting them.

" Kakashi-san?" She repeated, cocking her head. "Did you-"

"I heard you."

He interrupted her.

"Right. Okay, so-"

"What do you suggest you're going to do? You can barely stand. There's no way you're walking out of here without any of our help."

He interrupted again.

"I know that, but would you please let me finish speaking?" She sounded quite exasperated.

He raised an eyebrow in response. Folding her arms he waited for her to finish what she was going to say.

She let out a sigh before speaking again. "What I was going to say before you so rudely interrupted me,"

"Get to the point."

He interrupted again.

"I can get us back to the village, I think." She looked at him expectantly.

"And how do you propose we do that?"

"The same way Dolohov took me away the first time."

It made Kakashi think. She had a point. The guy did disappear without a trace when he took Hermione with him. He had no idea what to expect of it though. How far would she be able to go? He didn't really care about his team getting out. He knew they were more than skilled enough to take care of themselves.

"Can you get all the way to the village in one go?"

"Yes."

"And you'll be able to get to the Hokage's?"

"Yes."

Kakashi looked around the camp, keeping an eye on the Root operatives that were moving around between the trees. He signalled his team to get ready. They would move out the moment she left. It would keep them busy until they found out she wasn't with them anymore.

"Okay. Do it. I'll meet you back at the village." He said, turning towards his team.

"Kakashi?"

Something in her voice made him stop and turn back to her. Cocking his head in question.

"Make sure you all make it back in one piece, okay?"

While she couldn't see it, he smirked at her. Softly shaking his head, he said "don't worry about that, Hermione-san. We'll be fine. Now get going. I won't tell you again."A second later, a soft pop was heard as Hermione and Teddy disappeared from sight. Kakashi let out a sigh, mentally preparing himself of what was to come. He didn't like the idea of fighting his comrades but he also knew that the shinobi in Root didn't share the sentiment.

"Alright, team. Let's give them a good distraction."