Chapter Thirty Six: Bounty Hunting

After five hours of mind numbing paperwork, Tsunade desperately needed a drink. It was perfect too; both Shizune and Sakura weren't around to stop her. The only thing that could stop her was her conscience, but Tsunade couldn't care less. Her fingers reached for the bottom drawer, pulling it open before shoving aside the mess that laid within. Reaching the bottom, Tsunade removed the fake panel, revealing her hidden stash of sake. Just as her fingers curled around the neck of a bottom, a chunin came rushing into the office.

Shoving the drawer closed with enough force to make the entire desk shake, Tsunade demanded to know why the chunin had deemed it appropriate to barge into her office like that. Only Anbu and certain jonins had the permission to do that. Last time she checked, the mousy brown haired shinobi standing in front of her was neither.

To his credit, the chunin didn't stutter as he forced the words to come out of his mouth. "There has been an attack at the Fire Temple. My team is currently hauling the surviving monks to the hospital, but most of them are dead. Chiriku san's body is nowhere to be found."

Tsunade's teeth gnawed at her bottom lip as the chunin gave a detailed account of the disaster that he and his team had stumbled upon on their way back to the village.

"I see. You did well," Tsunade told him once the chunin had finished recounting his findings. Her mind was already whirling with the potential team that she would send out to investigate. Naturally, her first picks had been Kakashi and Rin before she remembered that she had just sent them out for a diplomat mission three days ago. Tsunade inwardly cursed the timing of it all.

It was only when the chunin cleared his throat did Tsunade realize that the kid was still there.

"I'm not sure if this is relevant," the chunin began, digging through his weapons pouch and retrieving a small black book. "But we found this at the site. You might want to look through it."

Placing the book on the desk, the chunin bowed before taking his leave. Tsunade sntached the book off of the edge of the desk, her fingers moving to thumb through the contents of it. Judging from the cover, it was a typical bingo book, so Tsunade wasn't surprised to see all sorts of high ranking ninjas enclosed.

Except it was different from the rest. Rather than being grouped by nations, the ninjas in the book were ranked by their bounty amounts. The black circling around the bounty numbers indicated special emphasis by the owner. Half of the nins in the book were already crossed out, including Chiriku.

The confidence associated with the gesture was concerning. To be confident enough to kill Chiriku to cross out the name beforehand meant that he wasn't an ordinary missing nin. Not to mention, Chiriku wasn't an easy opponent either...Tsunade was most definitely dealing with an S class missing nin.

To make matters worse, when Tsunade finally turned to the final page of the book, Kakashi and Rin's face stared back at her. It was a special entry by the bounty hunter, all of the notes detailing their skills and abilities were handwritten. The bounties placed on both of them were absurdly high, rivalling the likes of the Yondaime's amount.

None of that should have been concerning; it was perfectly normal for two notorious shinobis of Konoha to have a spot in the bounty book. What was concerning was the fact that both of their pictures had a black mark through it.

Just like Chiriku's.

The bounty hunter's next targets.

Rin wished that Kakashi was with her as she traversed the high altitude terrain belonging to the Land of Lightning. Scaling the rocky mountainside to reach Kumo was boring and tedious and she wished that there was someone she could talk to. That someone was supposed to be Pakkun, but the pug had decided it was time for a nap and had settled for climbing into her backpack to do so.

Her wish was unfounded and she knew it too. Logically, there was no need for the both of them for a simple diplomatic mission, so it was decided long enough that they would split up. Her to Kumo, while Kakashi took Kiri. At the very least, Rin was thankful that she didn't have to step foot into Kiri, not while the last time had been on very unpleasant terms.

A shiver crept up her spine as the memories of that time resurfaced in her mind. Squashing away all thoughts of that time, she recited everything that she knew about Kiri now. It was no longer known as the Bloody Mist. Kiri didn't hate Konoha any longer. It was now under the ruling of the Fifth Mizukage, not the Fourth.

It was all in the past now.

If Kiri could look past Konoha being the cause of the deaths of five out of seven of their Legendary Swordsman and make peace with Konoha, then Rin should do the same. But it was ridiculously hard to get past the trauma of having a tailed beast sealed inside of her, to be used as a weapon against Konoha, and practically dying.

She was still alive, Rin tried to console herself.

It didn't work. In the end, Rin decided to put forth the entirety of her concentration into scaling the mountain to prevent her thoughts from wandering. It was an effective plan for all of ten seconds.

The moment that Rin stepped foot at the top of the mountain, into the Village of the Hidden Clouds, two Kumo nins immediately intercepted her. Brother and sister if Rin had to venture to guess, based on the identical hair colorings and facial structure. Except the woman had a stoic look on her face while the man simply looked bored.

The blonde woman and Rin traded the customary "state your business" and confirmation of her identity while the younger man was sent off to inform the Raikage of Rin's presence, while the woman continued to grill her on every detail of her visit. Tactfully, Rin managed to evade most of her most prodding questions, as the details of her mission were for the Raikage's ears and eyes only. If the woman was to know of the details, then the Raikage would notify her in due time, but that wasn't up to her.

The woman caught on to Rin's tricks and perhaps even understood the reasoning behind it, but continued her relentless barrage of questions. Rin had never been more grateful to see another Kumo nin, this time one with a darker skin tone and hair coloring similar to Kakashi's. Even with the lollipop in his mouth, the man spoke to the woman, informing her that the Raikage wanted to see their guests.

With the lollipop boy flanking her right, slightly to the front leading the way to the Raikage Tower and the woman flanking her left, slightly to her backside to deter Rin from breaking rank and attacking the village, Rin felt thoroughly claustrophobic. It was such a contrast to visiting Suna, where Gaara practically gave her free reign around the village. Many of the smaller villages and towns didn't have the manpower to spare to follow her around (and she suspected many of them knew it wouldn't make much of a difference if she had guards or not), so Rin had total freedom. In Iwa, many of them were suspicious of her presence, but Onoki's word was law. No one bothered her there, save for the whispers behind her back.

Kumo was a whole different experience altogether, but Rin supposed it could be worse. At least she didn't have to stroll through the village in a henge, with her hands chained, then consequently thrown into the dungeons when her identity was busted the first time she visited. With her guards though, it certainly felt like she was on her way to jail.

Rin was in the middle of formulating her fifteenth escape plan, out of habit, when they finally arrived at the Raikage Tower. Lollipop boy opened the doors for her, gesturing for her to step inside. Rin did, with a blonde woman at her heels. The door was shut behind her.

The Raikage was sitting behind the desk, his Kage hat placed on the table in front of him, while two more men stood on either side of him. One Rin didn't recognize, but the other was definitely Bee, the Raikage's brother. Also known to be the host of the eight tails.

The brothers probably didn't remember, but it wasn't her first time meeting them. Once long ago, Rin had been dragged on a team full of jonins to serve as the team medic, lead by Minato sensei. And that had been her first time witnessing the to be Raikage in action.

Ay's presence was intimidating to most outsiders, but Rin had no qualms as she stepped forward, laying down a lone scroll on his desk before retreating. Each step she took had the occupants in the room tensing, except for Bee. The unknown man on the Raikage's right had even reached to touch the handle of his blade when she took her first step.

Rin didn't have any ill intentions, but of course they couldn't have known that.

While she waited for Ay to read the contents of the scroll, Rin busied herself to formulate her escape routes once more. On her fifth plan, her concentration was disrupted by Pakkun, who had woken from his nap and stuck his head out of the unzipped portion of her backpack. That sudden movement wasn't taken lightly by the woman, who launched a kunai with her lightning fast reflexes. Rin simply side stepped while Pakkun stuck his head back into the safety of her backpack, allowing the kunai to clatter against the tiled floor.

Five seconds passed before Pakkun deemed it safe enough to stick his head out once more, thankfully not warranting another kunai in their direction.

"Is it safe?" Pakkun asked as he crawled out of her backpack and darted up the length of her arm before coming to rest on her right shoulder.

"Sorry about my summon," Rin told the blonde woman, who looked irritated at the fact that she overreacted to the presence of a dog. "Travelling without company is boring. It slipped my mind to dispel him when I arrived at Kumo."

Pakkun wasn't her summon anyways, so she couldn't dispel him. Not that she wanted to...there was a good bit of traveling that Rin had to do before she met up with Kakashi for the trip home to Konoha.

Rin and Ay spent the next hour negotiating the terms of the trade agreement.

To be honest, Ay hadn't expected the girl to actually be a decent negotiator. Ay first proposed a revised agreement, twisting the terms in Kumo's favor thinking that the girl would defer to the Hokage's judgment and continue the negotiation at a later date or would foolishly accept the new terms. Ay was thoroughly surprised when the girl responded with amended terms that got rid of all the ones that favored Kumo. She passed his test, so Ay took the details of the trade agreement seriously from that point forward.

"That will be in Konoha's favor," Samui cut in, right after Rin proposed allowing Konoha access through the Hozuki Passage in exchange for valuable medical knowledge. "The Hozuki Pass is critical to Kumo's defense; we can't just let foreign nin strut through it like it's their home."

Without even looking up from the scroll where Rin was currently writing the amended details of the agreement, Rin responded to the woman's protests. "It's all a matter of perspective. For one, most of the traders that will be going through the pass will be civilian merchants. At most, they may hire a genin team to ensure the safety of their goods. Secondly, Hozuki Pass may be critical to your defense, but what will you have left to defend if your people are dying?

"Konoha has the best medical resources and knowledge among the five great nations and that was a result of over three decades of hard work," Rin continued. "All that Konoha requests is a safe passage for our merchants through your territory. If I may be frank, I do believe three decades worth of medical innovation is much more valuable than the revenue that Konoha may generate off of the additional trade. But like I said, it's a matter of perspective and if you feel that Kumo will be at a disadvantage, then I do believe this negotiation is over."

The sound of the paintbrush slamming against the table echoed through the room. Samui was left speechless.

"Very well, we will accept your terms," Ay declared. "And who will you send to reform our medical program?"

Picking up the paintbrush once more, Rin added the term to the agreement.

"Most likely my student. She may be young, but she became a top tiered medical ninja in less than three years. If you want the change to be quick, then Sakura will be the person for that."

"And not you?"

Rin laughed. "As you can see, I'm not much involved with Konoha's medical department. Somehow I got roped into becoming a diplomat, even though there are better candidates than myself."

That, Ay could attest to. From first glance, just based on appearance, Ay wanted to question her competency. The girl didn't look much older than twenty, even though the Raikage knew she was older; otherwise, the bingo book wouldn't list her feats during the Third Great Ninja War. And as far as Ay knew, the girl was an exceptional medical ninja, but beyond that, she wasn't known for much.

Her teammates were strong, but was she?

Sometime during the process of negotiation, Pakkun had hopped off her shoulder to roam around the room. Bee didn't seem bothered by the dog's presence. Samui had to use every bit of her self control to keep herself from attacking the summon once again. Darui...well

"Ah shinobi san," Rin said. "I would advise you to not electrocute my summon, thank you."

The man in question blinked and instantly stopped molding his chakra. Darui hadn't even been aware that he was subconsciously molding his chakra as the dog came near him, sniffing at his pant leg.

"Oi, this brat was the one in the mountains. The sixth chakra signature that you never found."

The mountains, what?

Neither the dog nor the owner cared to clear up Darui's confusion. Instead, Rin finished rewriting the contract and handed it off to Ay, who scanned through it and signed off on it. Rolling the scroll back up and tucking it into her weapons pouch, Rin stood up, exchanging the usual pleasantries with the Raikage.

Ay simply grunted for most of his responses.

"And a simple word of advice, look after your jinchuurikis. There are people who are after them. You are in possession of the two and eight tailed beasts, no?"

All of the occupants of the room were startled to know that Rin knew. It had been common knowledge long ago, but over the generations, the knowledge waned to the point where only the leaders of the village knew about it.

"And what of it?" Ay grounded out defensively.

"I'm sure that you heard about what happened in Suna," Rin said. "The Akatsuki is an organization composed of ten S ranked missing nins from all over the nation. Their goal is the collection of all of the tailed beasts. I believe it is in our best interests to prevent them from capturing them."

"I understand."

"And it seems that they are collecting them in order, so the two tails should be next-"

Rin was cut off when a Kumo burst into the room, informing the Raikage in between inhales of air that Yugito was found dead. Yugito...the jinchuuriki of the two tails.

That was not good news.

While Kumo was sent into a frenzy to track down the killers, Rin took the opportunity to slip out of Kumo. Most likely if she had stayed any longer, Ay would certainly grill her on everything that she knew about the Akatsuki and she was not looking forward to another interrogation by another Kumo nin.

So she left.

Pakkun had parted ways with her earlier, to inform Kakashi of the new findings. Now all Rin needed to do was head home as soon as possible, find Akemi and Momo so that she could get in contact with Itachi and Shisui. Rin needed to know the Akatsuki's plans. When were they going to come after her? Who was coming after her?

Following the mission to rescue Gaara, both her and Kakashi had burned the contents of the scroll detailing the Akatsuki's skills to memory, but there was still so much information that was missing.

Apart from Deidara, the only other nin that Itachi and Shisui had gathered a substantial amount of information on was someone named Hidan. Reportedly, Hidan was immortal so that posed a significant problem as to how she was going to defeat him.

Kisame was one of the Legendary Swordsman, so it didn't take much to draw some conclusions as to what skills he might possess, but there was still a lot unknown.

Kakuzu, Pein, and Konan were practically mysteries aside from Pein possessing the Rinnegan.

Zetsu wasn't a combat type, so Rin didn't have to worry about him coming after her. She also highly doubted that the leader would come after her himself, so she crossed Pein and Konan off of the list. That left the Uchihas, Hidan and Kakuzu, or Kisame. A fight with any of them didn't seem appealing at all.

After three days of travelling, Rin had gotten her answers when a man with a red scythe attempted to hack off her head and would have succeeded in doing so, if her reaction speed had been a fraction of a second slower. Eyeing the scythe warily, Rin moved to place a considerable distance between the two of them.

A long range battle would be in her favor. The problem was keeping it a long range battle, when the terrain was dry, with little trees in the vicinity, leaving her unable to use any of her water or ice jutsus without utilizing a large amount of chakra.

A second man lazily joined his comrade, his green eyes fixated on her.

Kakuzu.

"If you just give up, we can make this as painless as possible. Rest assured that we won't harm you too much as you still need to be recognizable so I can collect the bounty on your head."

That was from Kakuzu and Rin almost wanted to scoff at the irony of his statement. Won't harm her, but was here to kill her?

"That won't be happening," Rin responded haughtily, her hand already reaching into her weapons pouch to feel for a familiar three pronged kunai. Fighting Hidan wouldn't be a problem as long as she stayed out of his range, but fighting both of them was a different story. Especially since she knew practically nothing about Kakuzu's abilities.

"I'll do it," Hidan announced before he began to run towards her at top speed. Capturing him in a genjutsu, Rin turned toward Kakuzu, who was yelling about Hidan's stupidity. Yanking out the kunai, she tossed it straight towards Kakuzu, who easily dodged it. Smirking as Kakuzu paid no heed to it, Rin launched three senbons at Hidan, piercing three of his vital points before he finally realized he was in a genjutsu.

"You baka-!"

Kakuzu was never able to finish his sentence as a blur appeared behind him. A moment later, a chidori was thrusted straight through his heart.

Capitalizing on Hidan's distracted state at his comrade's death, Rin jumped to attack him, engaging him in a series of punches and kicks. Kicking at his knee, Rin followed up with an uppercut, which Hidan leaned back to avoid, giving Rin more than enough time to yank out her flute. Using it to block the scythe that came down upon her, the metal clashed against each other.

Hidan froze.

Rin took the opportunity to wrangle the scythe out of his grasp and turned it on him, using it to slash it across his chest, deep enough to cut through some major nerves. Hidan recovered from the genjutsu just in time to avoid her second slash, aimed to sever his head from the rest of his body. Catching the tip of the scythe with his bare hands, he attempted to retake his weapon. Rin held strong with the aid of chakra, digging the blade into his hand even further to the point where it pierced through the entirety of his hand.

Hidan grinned, his tongue moving to lick the blood that splattered on his face. Eyes widening as she registered another presence behind her, Rin retreated, yanking the scythe along with her, ripping through Hidan's hand just as a blast of fire scorched the spot that she had been moments before.

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of a black creature with a mask before it was joined by another. Both of their mouths opened, sending a heavy blast of wind and fire in her direction. With shunshin, Rin dodged the attack, regrouping with Kakashi who was actively engaged in a taijutsu fight with Kakuzu all while avoiding the lightning creature.

"Five hearts," Kakashi informed her as he continued to scale up the tree to follow Kakuzu. "Got to kill him five times."

Kakuzu merely hmphed. "Like you can."

"Catch!" Rin called out, tossing the scythe to Kakashi. Nodding in understanding of the plan, Rin jumped back down onto the ground, narrowly avoiding a lightning strike. Running around the area in circles, the lightning creature continued to follow her, zapping the ground every so often.

Hands forming the familiar seals for a C ranked water jutsu - it was going to cost so much chakra but it would be worth it - Rin managed to create a puddle in the clearing just as Hidan jumped in, swinging a black rod at her. Ducking to avoid the hit, her feet carried her out of the puddle. Her hands caught the black rod as Hidan swung it at her once more. With sheer force, Rin broke the sharp tip of the rod.

While Hidan stared at his broken weapon in shock, the lightning creature emitted lightning from its mouth, hitting its mark in the puddle. Seeing a battered Hidan being electrified was surprisingly satisfying, but Rin didn't have much time to gloat as the lightning creature turned on her. A wall of ice emerged from the puddle, blocking the worst of the lightning attack.

Sliding out from beneath the ice wall, Rin marked the tip of the rod that she had broken before hurling it towards the lightning creature's mask. It responded against the offending object with another blast of lightning, but the rod remained intact. Flashing to the rod after the streak of lightning died out, Rin slapped an explosive tag on its mask, then shunin away before it attempted to electrocute her again.

The blast resonated through the area as the creature turned into a pile of black goo, its mask cracked into at least ten pieces.

Time to aid Kakashi.

Only to be interrupted as Kakuzu hopped down right in front of her, his arm shooting out to grab her by the throat. Teleporting out his tight grasp, Rin rejoined Kakashi who was currently warding off both the fire and wind creatures. Exchanging nods, Rin took the scythe away from him once more before leaping down to face off against Hidan and Kakuzu.

Kakuzu hardly looked amused to see that another one of his hearts had been destroyed.

"Tsk, I will take both of your hearts to replace mine," Kakuzu vowed.

Three more hearts and an immortal being to get rid of. Tossing three kunais attached to explosive tags at Kakuzu, Rin allowed them to detonate before she tossed a few of her senbons into the fray. Teleporting to them, she pinpointed Kakuzu's location in the thickness of the smoke and swung the scythe in a wide arc, slicing through Kakuzu's arm. Abandoning the scythe, Rin retreated.

Spinning around, Rin blocked Hidan's punch. Swinging her foot in a wide arc, she forced Hidan to jump. Latching onto Hidan's arm, she used his momentum against him, tossing him and sending him crashing straight into Kakuzu, who had just recovered his footing.

That sent Kakuzu crashing back down onto the ground, while Hidan caught his fall with an unsteady backflip. Kakashi teleported to Kakuzu's side, then to Rin's side, allowing the fire and wind masks chasing him to hit Kakuzu's body with their combo.

Wordlessly, Rin placed a hand on Kakashi's shoulder, already channelling her chakra to replenish his. She had been able to fill him up to about half when Hidan jumped out of the smoke, swinging his scythe down at her. Casting a simple genjutsu while Rin teleported Kakashi out of the way, then she rolled across the ground out of Hidan's reach.

Blood dripped at the tip of his scythe. With maniacal laughter, Hidan licked the blood off of his scythe, turning his flesh black with outlines of his skeleton. Stabbing himself in the leg, Hidan used the blood to draw a circle around him with the soles of his feet.

The ritual, just like Itachi had described in the scroll.

"Die!" Hidan yelled as he raised his scythe, stabbing the tip straight into his chest, where the heart was located. Silence permeated their surroundings as Hidan rammed his scythe deeper into his chest. Confusion was evident on Hidan's face as he registered that the woman was still standing, with no signs of keeling over.

Instead it was Kakuzu who fell over, clutching his heart as his body writhed in agony. Before Hidan had a chance to utter a single word, Rin teleported to the seal on his scythe. Using her chakra scalpel, she cleanly sliced through his neck, separating head from body. The head fell, bouncing against the ground, muttering all of the expletives known to man while the body collapsed chest first into the dirt.

Kakashi took over with burying Hidan's body underground with a doton jutsu while Rin kept an eye on Kakuzu, who was currently recovering after taking the heart from the wind mask.

Two more to go.

The fire mask launched a fireball at the two of them, which was countered by a water jutsu on Rin's end. Leaping onto the trunk of the dead trees, Rin weaved in and out of the fire creature's sight as it launched fireballs all along the length of the trunk. At the top of the trunk, Rin leapt to the ground as the fire creature scorched the area where she had been moments before. Running at top speed, she slid underneath the creature, between its legs when it finally noticed her.

It was too late as Rin had begun to scale the fire creature's back, aiming to reach the head. Another explosive tag would do the trick nicely and she would have succeeded if the creature didn't burst into flames. Hissing from the pain, Rin teleported herself off of the creature, dousing her feet with a water jutsu.

The damage was done. Third degree burns from the ankle down. Sending healing chakra down to her feet, Rin was too distracted to notice that the fire creature was still moving despite being on fire.

Self destruction, but it wouldn't go down without one more fireball in Rin's direction. Once again, her sensei's jutsu saved her from being fried to a crisp. Her landing was sloppy, stumbling for two steps before she managed to catch her balance.

Her feet still felt like they were on fire.

Dropping down into a sitting position, her hands moved to her feet, doubling the healing chakra to repair the scarred nerves and burnt tissue before it was too late. Her mouth bit into the fabric of her shirt to help keep some of the pain at bay. It wasn't sanitary, but she couldn't care less in that moment.

And that was how Kakashi found her five minutes later after destroying Kakuzu's last heart, plus the tears that had begun to stream down her cheeks.

Despite being thoroughly chakra exhausted and every muscle in his body aching, he still found the strength to plop down by Rin's side, wrapping an arm around her shoulders as she continued to heal herself.

Burns...the bane of every medic's existence because they were ridiculously hard to heal. Not only did it consume a lot of chakra, it was painful for the victim throughout the long healing process and medical ninjutsu wouldn't be enough to heal it all the way.

When Rin finished, Kakashi helped to lift her to her feet. She hissed as the soles of her feet came in contact with the ground. The bandages would prevent infection, but it hurt to put weight on it.

"It might be a couple of days before I can walk normally," Rin informed him. A couple of days until the tissue in her feet didn't feel so tender and raw.

Kakashi set her gently back onto the ground, before he squatted down in front of her.

"Get on," he ordered. Rin complied, climbing atop of his back and wrapping her legs around his waist, while her arms draped around his neck. Somewhere in the process of the fight, Kakashi had lost his flak jacket and backpack. Her own backpack was barely salvageable, the exterior had been burnt to a crisp, but she hoped that her supplies would still be usable. The amount of money that the two of them spent to replace supplies was… exceedingly high.

While Kakashi carried her towards Konoha, she absently began to channel some of her chakra to him and focused some towards her feet to ease the stabbing pain.

"I'm next. They already got the two tails…"

"We won't let them get you. The Akatsuki is down to four members now. Of the remaining members, two of them are on our side, one is non combat, so there's only three of them left. We can take them on."

Rin wished she shared the same optimism. If today's battle was anything to go by, each member of the Akatsuki had a peculiar trick up their sleeves. Kakuzu with five hearts and Hidam, an immortal being? If she didn't have intel or help from Kakashi, there was no doubt that she would have been dead.

And their leader was supposedly much stronger than the rest.

Asuma was assigned to be the squad leader of a twelve man squad. He didn't even question why the squad was so large, the largest squad that he had ever been in was a six man team during war. All he needed to hear was Kakashi and Rin, along with the word Akatsuki and danger to understand why Tsunade had sent out such a large squad.

If even Kakashi and Rin weren't able to take down the threat by themselves, then Asuma knew that they were going to need a lot of manpower, skill, and luck by their sides.

The Rookie Nine plus Gai's team had been the perfect choice. Aside from the fact that they all happened to be in the village at the same time, the twelve of them covered everything from long to short range. Team Kurenai was an excellent tracking team and was currently scouting for Kakashi or Rin's location as they sped through the forest. Team Asuma could serve as a delay team, to buy time for escape or attack. Team Kakashi and Gai could serve as their combat front.

A yip from Akamaru was the first indication, followed by Neji and Hinata informing the group that they spotted two figures up ahead. Asuma gave the signal to halt, much to Naruto's annoyance, who was itching to get to his sensei already.

"There's no sign of fighting," Hinata reported. "The two of them are headed in our direction."

"Akamaru says it's Kakashi sensei," Kiba added.

"I see. Alright, let's head-"

"No need," Neji interjected. "They'll be here in two minutes."

Just like Neji said, Kakashi appeared into view one hundred seconds later, carrying an unconscious Rin on his back. His lone black eye surveyed the crowd before his lips curled up into a smile.

"My, my, what a welcome party."

Asuma didn't know whether he should be angry that Kakashi was taking their presence so lightly - the man knew even better than him what they had been there for - or just happy that two of his closest friends were still alive.

"Kakashi sensei!" Naruto exclaimed. "You're still alive! Tsunade baa chan said that you were in danger and I thought that…"

"Maa, I didn't realize that you think that lowly of me, but then again, I don't think you've ever seen me at my best."

That Asuma could attest to. For a man known to have over one thousand jutsus in his arsenal, Asuma may have only seen a grand total of less than twenty in the years that he worked with Kakashi. It was evident the man preferred to stick with the same jutsus and use his intelligence to win the battle rather than to overpower the other individual.

As for being at his best, Asuma heard plenty of stories from his father about Anbu Kakashi. They were slightly frightening, but awe inspiring at the same time.

"Are you injured?" Sakura asked, her green eyes roaming over the both of them.

"Mild chakra exhaustion, minor cuts and bruises, you know, the usual" Kakashi responded. "Rin injured her foot, but I think she was able to heal most of it."

Asuma stepped forward, asking the burning question on everyone's mind. The man hadn't seen his friend in such a rough condition with a missing forehead protector, flak jacket, and gloves in such a long time. As for Rin, her backpack was charred and her sandals were missing. Bandages covered both of her feet.

"Who was it?"

Kakashi didn't beat around the bush. "Akatsuki. One couldn't die and the other had five lives."

That certainly explained a lot about their current state of wear. Asuma shuddered at the thought of having to kill an S class ninja five times and fighting another that couldn't be killed.

"Let's head back."

A/N: Hi again!

Not much to say for this chapter. I don't know if you felt that Kakashi and Rin were OP (I know I did so I dragged out the fight a little longer than the original version), but I don't think Hidan's immune to genjutsu and I found that Minato's jutsu is insanely hard to counter. Like what can you do when someone appears in front of your face for a split second? Sorry if the fight was bad.

Next chapter is called Five Great Nations. We are entering into the final arc of the story. :) Who's excited for this story to end? I know I am lol, this story ended up being way longer than I anticipated, like double the length.

Thank you for reading and until next time!