The Wanderers
Chapter 69 – A Long Lost Friend
A/N: I know I said that I'd be resolving some of the things from last chapter, but you know me, I love cliffhangers like any writer and wanted to put this chapter in before going into the next Arc.
Also, if you have an issue with character's dying, I want to remind you that this isn't the main story of Naruto. Besides Neji, the last 'good guy' who died was who, Asuma? This is war, people will die. I'm not going to apologise for killing off characters in ways that I think do them justice. I've had plenty of chances to knock off other characters, believe me.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, Uchiha Madara wouldn't be the final bad guy.
***Previously-On***
With the capture and torture of one of their shinobi, the Quiraji army that had been attacking Kumogakure turned their attentions to the village of Otogakure. Mustering an army of tens of thousands, including a hundred siege engines to break down the walls, the Quiraji army attacked with impunity. However the defence of Otogakure was almost overwhelming, as they sprung trap after trap, rained poison on them and slaughtered them in the thousands. The village was only defended by Kidomaru and Tenten, yet they were able to keep the Quiraji army at bay for a long time before the village was breached. The village was ultimately taken, and the defenders killed when Sensou revealed himself and turned Tenten against her partner, but Neji's village got the last laugh. Upon Kidomaru's death, the entire village went up in flames and destroyed the vast majority of the Quiraji army attacking it. Despite the fact that his force lost the battle, Neji's trap had given them a chance to win the war.
Though it is only a slim chance at best.
***End Summary***
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Konan sighed loudly, waving her hands around the paper birds flying around her head. "This is just ridiculous." It didn't take much chakra to manipulate her paper creations, but it helped keep her mind off of what was happening in front of her.
"Just…give it a few more minutes…"
She turned to her partner and gave him the most loathsome look she could muster, flicking at one of the origami birds that got a little bit too close to her face. Sometimes when she wasn't concentrating they got a mind of their own, but so long as they weren't made from explosion notes she didn't mind.
She did mind sitting in the middle of the day, watching a dog relieving itself in the middle of a patch of grass. She could have sworn it had been nearly half an hour, though it was likely it had been less than ten minutes.
"He's got a way of doing things, Konan. Just let Pakkun go about his business."
"Kakashi, I'm a patient woman, but this is ridiculous. If your dogs were able to track the scent, we'd be there by now. This is just a waste of our time."
The small pug that was the subject of Konan's annoyance kicked a small amount of dirt over his business and stared up at the woman with the same disinterested look he'd been born with. "The scent you gave us was faint at best. These kinds of things take time."
Konan sighed and flicked her nails at the palm of her hand. "Love you too, little dog."
Pakkun huffed and gave Kakashi a knowing look before taking a sniff in the air. He grinded his teeth and turned around to see a blur of motion approaching them from the distance. After a few seconds another hound appeared in front of the three of them, panting softly. He was light brown with a pair of dark sunglasses on his eyes, giving Pakkun a small nod of respect.
"What have you got, Akino?" asked Kakashi behind the small pug.
The ninken looked up at his summoner and spoke in a gruff voice, "It's faint, but I could smell a trace of the scent to the north east."
"How far away?" asked Konan as she hopped to her feet. She brushed off the backside of her cloak and placed her hands out to collect the paper from her flying birds.
"Not more than a day's travel, madam," said the ninken to her.
The middle aged woman glared down at the dog, "I'm not that old, hound. I've told you lot a thousand times not to call me that."
Running a hand through his silver hair, Kakashi tapped his foot on the ground, "Konan, you're pushing forty. It's only right for them to call you madam."
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An hour later Kakashi scrapped himself up from the ground and ignored the amused look in Pakkun's face nearby. He looked around the area to see Konan sitting on a nearby cliff, waving her feet off the edge.
"Let me begin my three part apology by saying…"
She put up a hand to stop him. "Save your grovelling, Kakashi. It's hardly an attractive trait."
Placing his hands at his stomach, Kakashi grimaced as he analysed his internal damage. "Did you have to hit me so hard in the liver?"
Konan slowly clenched her hand in a manner that made his guts drop within his chest, "Yes…yes I did."
Her partner shook his head in an attempt to put the memory of her hitting him aside before turning to the two dogs that had been waiting for him to regain consciousness.
"Quite finished?" asked Pakkun with no small amount of conceit in his voice.
Kakashi nodded and turned to Akino, "You said you found a scent?"
The sunglasses-wearing ninken nodded while scratching at his head with his back foot, "Yes. Bull just reported back as well, we can confirm it."
"That's good to hear. After two weeks of searching it's nice to have a lead." He pulled out a small scroll and scribbled a quick note in code before rolling it up and tying it with a dark blue string. Without asking he knelt down and handed it to the Akino, who took the scroll and stuffed it into the pack on his back. The Konoha Jounin didn't need to ask whether the ninken was rested enough to make the journey, if he wasn't up to it he would have just told Pakkun the information and gone back to their realm.
"Take that to Shikamaru," directed Kakashi. "Tell him we'll be in contact in another week."
Akino barked in response and jumped away in a quick blur, beginning the journey to Sunagakure. For shinobi it would have taken three weeks to get to the desert village, but the ninken was able to make it within a week.
The air was no longer as secure as it used to be; so messenger hawks weren't used as prominently. His hound companions were some of the best messengers left in the shinobi world.
Konan turned her head backwards, "Are we going?"
Kakashi nodded and offered her his hand, which she took with a surprising amount of grace despite having nowhere to plant her feet. She dusted off her cloak and looked down at the pug that always seemed to be nearby.
"Akino mentioned it was not more than a day's travel?"
Pakkun looked up at her, "For a ninken, yes. For you, probably three days." He coughed in his deep gruff voice for a moment before turning around and indicating to the distance with his nose. "It's a village to the north east."
Kakashi glanced up to the sky and took a cautionary sniff before flexing his fingers and telling the small ninken to lead the way. He predicted there would be rain near the end of the day, meaning there was a chance that they'd lose the scent and have to go back to the beginning.
"Do you think he's still alive?" asked Konan as they began to move across the landscape. "It's been a long time since you've seen him."
Kakashi hesitated for a moment; he knew that just because there was a scent, that didn't mean their target was still breathing. "I didn't have much to do with him, but Shikamaru has faith that he's still alive. I trust his judgement."
"He's just a kid though. You people put far too much faith in his intelligence. Kids make mistakes."
"Shikamaru knows what he's doing, Konan. He isn't risking us on a whim. Since Naruto and Hinata showed up, he's the only one that hasn't been accounted for." He smiled when he thought about his reaction to finding out that almost everyone was still alive. "Hell, there are even people I thought had been dead for years still kicking around. Anything is possible."
Konan gave him a grunt in response and concentrated on moving quickly across the land.
Thinking about it for a few seconds, Kakashi turned to her with a curious look, "How come you weren't jealous when I saw Nagisa again?"
The dark blue haired kunoichi scoffed at the notion, "Please. I had nothing to be concerned about there."
"What do you mean?"
Konan glanced over at him and read his expression with amusement. She had no intention of telling him that she recognised the way the Inuzuka female's eyes followed her body during their initial meeting. Granted, Konan had been wearing one of Kakashi's loose shirts and little else, as they'd been staying in their temporary accommodation in Sunagakure. She didn't have the heart to tell him.
She'd save that little piece of information for future blackmail possibilities.
"Konan?"
She shook herself out of her maniacal scheming mode and smiled at him, "It's nothing. Have you thought about what you're going to say to him?"
"Not really. He might not even want to see me." It was a depressing thought, but it had been three years since he'd seen the young shinobi. It was a long time; many things had changed in the world.
He just hoped the young man was okay.
Peaceful Places
Kneeling at the top of a pair of tall pine trees, Kakashi and Konan looked down at the village they'd been led to. Night had fallen quickly in the small country they'd travelled to and unlike some of the other places they'd visited there weren't any street lights or signage to indicate that the village was occupied.
"You sure this is the right place?"
The pug that had been leading them scoffed once and disappeared in a small puff of smoke. Kakashi sighed and ran a hand through his silver hair, "You know, eventually you'll have to get used to trusting the ninken. They know what they're doing."
Konan gave him her usual stoic gaze, her amber eyes reflecting the moon's light in a fashion that only served to accentuate her striking features.
The village beneath them was a simple affair; consisting of a few dozen houses that reminded Kakashi of the small hovels on the outskirts of Konoha. The main portions of the village appeared to be large fields for a variety of crops and livestock. From the outset it was clear the village was self-sustaining.
"How do you want to approach this?" asked Kakashi quietly.
Konan put out her hands to summon a cloud of paper birds to scout out the village, but Kakashi put out a hand to stop her as they both saw a figure walking from one of the houses towards the main field.
She nodded and retracted her chakra, jumping down with him towards the village. They couldn't exactly come in and announce themselves. That was a good way of not making a reasonable impression.
They approached the figure with stealth, figuring it would be better to observe at first then introduce themselves and ask where they could find their target. By using the shadows of the buildings and the relatively dark night they were able to get reasonable close to the figure; though they couldn't quite make him out.
He moved quickly from one part of the field to the other, stopping for a minute at a time before nodding his head and moving to another location. Kakashi gave Konan a hand signal that he was going to approach the figure and stepped out of the shadows.
The moment he revealed himself the figure seemed to hesitate for a moment as if sensing his presence, though he didn't turn around to confront Kakashi. He continued to go about his business, but once Kakashi was only a short distance away the figure spun around and pointed a small blade at the shinobi's throat.
He hadn't been expecting it, but Kakashi still had no issue deflecting the blade with the back plate of his glove. Before even seeing his face, he knew who the figure was. He'd seen the movements enough times to recognise basic Konoha bukijutsu (weapon techniques).
To his surprise, the reason they'd come to the village didn't have the kind of expression that someone who'd just tried to thrust a blade into someone should have.
Rather he was looking at the silver haired shinobi with a wide smile, his cheeks pulling at the spiral patterns that were a bit different from how Kakashi remembered them.
But without a doubt, he'd found their target.
"It's been a long time, Kakashi-sensei."
Kakashi mirrored his smile and withdrew his glove, looking the young man up and down. The last time he'd seen him he had been unconscious and half the size he had been an hour earlier.
In the years since he'd seen him, Akimichi Chouji had grown into a real man. His body was covered in muscles that could only be developed through constant hard labour. He wore basic working clothes that were clearly made for him, with a pair of working boots that were covered in muck. He barely resembled the boy Kakashi had once known, but it wasn't just his body.
He could tell by his eyes that he had become a real man. A man that his father would have been proud of.
"I'm surprised you recognised me," said Kakashi before turning and motioning for Konan to join him.
Chouji watched the Akatsuki robe-wearing woman with interest before turning his gaze back to his old teacher. "You might look rather different without your mask and with two regular eyes, but even without the ability to use chakra I remember what your presence feels like." He gestured to Kakashi's partner, "I assume she's not an enemy?"
"No, she isn't. She is Konan, my partner."
The amber-eyed kunoichi gave Chouji the slightest of nods before turning to the field beside them. "What were you doing?" she asked with her usual emotionless tone.
Chouji motioned to the field with a hand, "Just making sure there weren't any birds messing with our crops. We've had some problems with them lately, but the others in the village don't want a scarecrow because it scares them."
He placed a hand to his chin for a moment before turning back to the pair of shinobi, "The two of you will need a place for the night, I assume? Come with me, I'll take you to my home."
Kakashi and Konan shared a look as Chouji began walking back towards the village houses. Silently she asked him why he wasn't questioning their presence, but Kakashi signalled back that it was better to let him go at his own pace. Chouji had been quite a trusting boy and unlike him probably never doubted his friends.
He probably didn't want to burden them because of what Kakashi was sensing in the young man. Or rather, what he wasn't sensing.
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Chouji pushed open the door to his house and called out as he walked inside. He turned around and waved them inside before nearly being tackled to the ground by an assailant out of nowhere.
Kakashi and Konan shared an amused look and took a step inside as they watched Chouji turned his head slightly and embrace his attacker affectionately. The older couple were surprised to see his interactions with the young woman who'd wrapped her arms around his waist and planted a slow kiss on the side of his neck. She looked up at their guests through honest blue eyes and the type of smile that neither of them had seen for a very long time.
"Are these your friends?" she asked with a slightly hushed tone.
Chouji nodded and motioned to them with a free hand, while the other held her hand around his waist, "This is Kakashi-sensei, one of my teachers from Konoha. And this is Konan, who I just met."
The two of them nodded respectfully, while Chouji indicated to the beautiful girl behind him, "This is Misa, my wife."
Having never seen the silver-haired shinobi without his mask before today, Chouji found the look on his face absolutely priceless. Behind him he heard his wife chuckle softly into his back.
"I still can't get used to hearing you say that, Chouji."
"Well you shouldn't have married me then," he said back with a smirk. Their banter hadn't changed over the years, something he'd never have thought possible considering how he used to be. He used to be uncomfortable just talking with Ino, and when they were teammates he hadn't even acknowledged her as a possible romantic interest.
Misa chuckled again and broke off her hold on his waist, taking a step back and pointing to her bulging stomach underneath a thin shirt. "You didn't give me much choice, did you?"
Chouji just smiled at her and pecked her on the cheek before motioning for their guests to take a seat in their living room. The two shinobi were surprised to see that the young ex-shinobi had made such a reasonable living for himself; gotten a beautiful wife and even had a child on the way.
"Would you like me to prepare some tea?" asked Misa to their guests. They nodded in thanks and the young woman disappeared into the kitchen with a wordless tune on her lips.
The guests turned their attentions back to their host, who appeared to be observing them with a look that Kakashi wouldn't have expected from him.
"How long have you been searching for me?" he asked after a few moments of silence.
Kakashi glanced at his partner for a moment before turning back to his old student. "Not long, although Shikamaru has been looking for you for years. Do you know about the others?"
Misa came back into the room with a tray and gave their guests their tea with a warm smile on her face. She shared a look with her husband before nodding and returning to the kitchen. Chouji slowly rose from his seat as they noticed he hadn't been given any tea.
"If you'd like to stay for the night, we can prepare a room for you. I'm about to make dinner; you're welcome to join us."
Kakashi pulled his tea away from his face and stared at his old student's face, trying to get a read on what he was thinking. It was obvious why they were there; Chouji wasn't so ignorant as to not understand what their presence meant. Yet here he was playing the host as if there wasn't anything going on around them.
It was all very confusing.
Unlike her partner, Konan could understand what was happening and told Chouji they would be happy to stay. The tea was hot and they'd spent a long time on the road. If nothing else they knew their mission was only time sensitive in the long term. They could spare a day or so.
With that, Chouji disappeared after his wife into the kitchen. After a half an hour they sat at a large dining table and ate a surprisingly good meal despite it being apparent that they only had limited resources to provide.
Only once their plates had been removed from the table, did they finally talk with their reason for being there. Chouji did express his knowledge about the other survivors; he seemed to have a working understanding of what had been happening in the world. Kakashi was initially surprised at the revelation, but when he observed his interactions with his young wife at the table he could understand why he didn't jump at the chance to rejoin their companions.
"The only people I know about are Shikamaru and Neji," said Chouji when asked. "They haven't exactly been keeping their presences secret."
"Almost everyone is still around. The only ones who didn't make it are Shino, Kurenai and…"
Chouji's eyes dropped before Kakashi could finish. "Asuma-sensei…" His hands shook under the revelation that his teacher and secondary father-figure was dead. Kakashi went to offer his condolences, but Chouji shook his head and looked back into his eyes.
He's saving his grief to deal with in private. He's become a fine man, Asuma.
"What about Ino?" asked the young man after a few moments of silence.
Kakashi smiled slowly, "She's well. She's living in Suna with Shikamaru as a doctor." His smile widened as he thought of the young woman. "She's raising Asuma and Kurenai's daughter as her own."
"Airi?" Chouji's face lit up upon hearing the news; he'd assumed the baby dead with her parents. "That is wonderful to hear. I'm sure Ino is a wonderful mother. She used to look after Shikamaru and I all the time, so she's certainly practised."
Whenever Kakashi or Konan began to move the conversation towards their purpose, Chouji brought it to a different topic entirely. He was interested in hearing about the lives of their friends, but he didn't want to know too much about what was happening beyond that.
After a while it became clear he had no interest in talking on anything that wasn't surface level, implying that he was aware they were coming. Kakashi figured the young man knew he'd be found eventually.
Before Kakashi could get a proper understanding of why Chouji was acting the way he was, Misa stood up from the table and indicated that they had to retire for the night. The guests were initially suspicious, due to it still being early in the night, but after being shown to their room their fatigue struck them and they realised how tired they truly were.
The moment their heads struck the pillows they were fast asleep. They didn't sleep the whole night, having conditioned themselves on the road to only sleep in three hour intervals.
But it definitely was nice to sleep in a bed again.
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Staying the night at Chouji's house, both Kakashi and Konan were doing their best to figure out what the next course of action was. They'd both come out of retirement at a companion's request and had been enveloped by the war; and here they were about to ask him to do the exact same.
In their discussion during the night, Kakashi had expressed his intention to tell Chouji about why they were there, but Konan wasn't sure that was the best idea. She'd agreed to come back because of her need to avenge Nagato and their people by taking out Shikyo and because she wanted to keep Kakashi safe, but Chouji had no such motivations.
When they emerged from the bedroom they'd been given, the couple was surprised to see that the house was completely empty. Neither of their hosts were anywhere to be found.
The couple shared a confused look for a moment before hearing a strange chanting sound outside the house. Taking a look around the village they'd only gotten a glimpse of during the night, they noticed a large collection of people working in the large field beyond the houses.
Before they could get a better look, they found themselves being accosted by a group of small children. They seemed to be amazed at their presence, with no fear of the adults whatsoever. The children fired off questions in such a rapid manner that it was difficult to work out who was asking what, though they did their best to accommodate them.
To Konan's amusement, she saw a small cluster of boys take Kakashi by the hand and lead him towards the fields. The silver-haired shinobi laughed at the situation and let them take him away, noticing a small number of elderly watching from a small seating area.
The day had only just started, but the weather was already beautiful. Feeling the sun against her face was nice and refreshing, far more than when they were on the road. It was as if the simple presence of other people made everything better.
Looking down near her feet, Konan saw a young girl that couldn't have been more than five staring up at her with a dumb-struck look on her face. She had sandy blonde hair and innocence in her blue eyes that Konan remembered from a long time ago.
The Akatsuki kunoichi leaned down slightly and pulled back a part of her dark blue hair to reveal her face. "Can I help you, little girl?"
"You vewy pwetty…"
Konan's face lit up at the compliment, "Why, thank you. You're very pretty yourself." She indicated to where the other children had taken Kakashi. "Where are they taking him?"
The little girl's head swayed slowly from side to side, as if trying to work out something in her mind. With childlike hesitation she reached forward with a tiny hand and felt at the edge of Konan's robe, her eyes lighting up. "Ooo…pwetty…"
Konan chuckled and stood back up, patting the little girl on the head affectionately before following after her partner. She could see the children had lead Kakashi into the middle part of one of the fields, where there were groups of teenagers working the fields. It wasn't clear whether the little girl was following after her, but Konan wouldn't have minded.
There were many times she'd regretted not having children, particularly during her work at the orphanage during their 'retirement'.
It was simple work, but she could see they were all working hard.
"This is so peaceful…" commented Konan quietly to herself.
She turned to see Chouji slowly approaching her, rubbing his hands on a cloth to clean off the dirt. "We do what we can," he said with a grin. "Through trade we're able to survive and prosper."
"Do you not remember what it was like to be a shinobi though?"
Chouji's eyes changed for a split-second before staring back into her amber orbs. "I do. I remember that I hated the idea of hurting other people. I prefer to cultivate and live with people I love, than to see my friends fall. I can do more here than I ever could as a shinobi."
"That's not why we are shinobi," came Kakashi's voice from behind them. "We fight to protect those we care about."
Chouji turned to the silver-haired shinobi, "There are other means of protecting those I care about without fighting." He looked down at his dirt-covered hands, clenching them slowly. "I can't fight like I once did. My chakra is gone, it has been for years. I'm protecting those I care about here by staying and looking after them." He looked up at the open sky with a far-away look in his eyes. "And I look after my old friends by staying away."
Kakashi looked at Chouji, no longer seeing the boy he once knew once again. Chouji spoke with a wisdom that he likely didn't fully understand, but Kakashi could appreciate it. Without chakra his ability to fight was very little; with the war raging on around them he was a non-combatant.
He didn't like it, but Chouji's choice to remain in the dark might be for the best.
Shikamaru had asked them to find his old teammate for fear that he had perished in a similar manner to Shino, yet Kakashi felt conflicted. He couldn't justifiably take the retired shinobi from his peaceful village, but the war could come for him at any time.
And this village wouldn't protect him at all.
"Is there anything we can do to help?"
Chouji considered his request for a moment before turning to look at another part of the field, "We could use an extra pair of hands at the dam. We need to get more water flowing into the fields, but moving the stones has been difficult because of their size."
"I'm sure I could handle that," said Kakashi. "Show me where to go."
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It felt like a quiet night.
The two 'retired' shinobi were very impressed with how the village operated, it reminded them of more peaceful times before the whole world had turned upside down. Despite the gravity of their mission, neither Kakashi nor Konan had any particular interest in asking Chouji to leave his peaceful home.
They wouldn't want to leave if they lived here.
Kakashi had taken in the new information about Chouji's wife in his stride and slightly changed the offer the Kazekage had told him to give to the Akimichi heir. By what Chouji had told them, there were less than fifty people in the village; the majority being children just becoming the proper age for work.
Sunagakure was a large village these days, far more than when they'd travelled to the village for the Chuunin Exams years ago. By Kakashi's reckoning, Sunagakure could easily accommodate such a small number of refugees; since he couldn't bring himself to bring Chouji out of the community and leave them to rot. It had become clear over the day that the Akimichi's presence was the pillar that held the village together.
That, and the comforting presence of his young wife.
In their internal discussion, the couple had decided that they liked Misa. She had a simple charm to her that they felt had been gone from their lives. She didn't have an agenda; she didn't seem to want anything from them at all. Though she didn't strike them as naïve enough to not realise what they wanted with her husband. Yet the fact that she still received them in her home and put on such a happy expression all the time went a long way to her appeal to them.
Chouji hadn't asked them directly why they had tracked him down; though there was little doubt he already knew. Kakashi suspected the reason why he showed them around the village and how they worked the fields was because he wanted them to see that he no longer had a significant connection with their world.
Unlike them, he'd retired properly. The two of them could respect his ability to do what they could not.
Sitting at the edge of the large bed they'd been given in Chouji's house, Kakashi held his hands together and contemplated their next move. A sound from the bathroom caused his eyes to rise up to see his significant other emerging with a towel around her waist, running her fingers through her dark blue hair. She was a decade older than him, yet she looked younger than he did, something that only caused her to appear even more striking.
Not that he wasn't a looker either. Since shedding his mask and adopting the face he was born with, he'd been approached by enough women that he questioned his original decision as a child to wear the mask in the first place. At first he'd thought the attention would annoy Konan, but the older woman had pointed out that regardless of what seemed to be on offer, he continued to return to her.
"What are you looking at?" asked Konan as she approached him slowly.
Kakashi shook himself out of his retrospective and smiled up at her, "Nothing in particular. Just thinking about what we're meant to do now."
"It's pretty obvious. We have to leave him be." Konan adjusted the top of the towel and walked over to where she folded her clothes. Why she'd taken her clothes off before entering the bathroom was beyond Kakashi, but he didn't complain at the time.
"I don't know if it's that simple," said Kakashi slowly. "Even without chakra, he's still a shinobi."
Doing up the night robe she'd packed, Konan picked up a shirt that Kakashi had taken off and threw it back into his face. The silver haired shinobi pulled it off and gave it a curious look.
"It's going to be cold tonight," she said matter-of-factly. "Your susceptibility to colds is absurd, yet you still don't understand why you get them. You're like a child sometimes."
Kakashi muttered incoherently to himself while throwing the shirt on; she was right, as usual.
"You can't save all of them, Kakashi. There are too many, and the enemy is too powerful. You have to focus your efforts."
The Konoha shinobi stared at her for a few moments before slowly rising from the bed and placing his hands on her shoulders. It pained him to hear her talk like that; not that it wasn't rare for her to be like that. "Konan, it isn't like that at all. It isn't just an obligation. You know that."
"Hn. I wonder about that." Konan reached up and removed his hands with a stare before slowly walking over to the small window in their room. "I know you as well as the next person, Kakashi. While those kids mean the world to you in a way, you push them away because it would kill you to lose them."
Kakashi wanted to dispute her points, but just as before he knew a part of himself agreed with her. He breathed out slowly and went to join her at the window, but a jolt of electricity ran through his back that stopped him in his tracks.
He wasn't like Naruto or Kiba with the ability to just innately feel when something was wrong, but at that moment Kakashi had a terrible feeling that something had happened. His muscles seemed to clench and unclench at the same time, while the instincts that had kept him alive for the past three decades flared up like there was an enemy trying to kill him right in front of him.
Before he could investigate, he could feel Konan going through the same thing, though her eyes seemed fixated on the night-covered exterior. When he tried to look at where she was staring, he noticed that the night wasn't as dark as he had seen earlier. There was a light coming from the distance, something that he couldn't quite make out.
But once he got to the window and got a proper look, the blood ran from his face.
The fields were on fire.
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With their crops burning with every second, the children that made up the village shot out of their homes and started to scream. Their screams drew out the few elderly that remained in the village, though it was clear they weren't in a condition to help.
Even before the shinobi could get outside, both Chouji and Misa shot out of the house and tried to get everyone to calm down. Misa gathered all the children she could find and took them as far from the fire as she could, while Chouji took the oldest and strongest to try and help put out the fire.
There were no indications of how the fire had started, but it was quickly getting out of control. The main field took up most of the outside of the village, but if it spread to the other fields then the village would be consumed within hours.
Kakashi was first out of the house, his hands shooting through a long set of handseals. He didn't go directly towards the fire, but instead he moved to where the fields were connected to the river nearby. The fire was threatening to reach his position, but he completed his ninjutsu and activated the fire handseal. He gathered as much water as he could from the river around him and concentrated on the fire as it made a circle around him.
"Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu." (Water Element: Great Waterfall Technique)
The water raged towards the fire, but just as it was about to strike it, it appeared as though it hit an invisible barrier. Kakashi frowned and tried to get a glimpse at what stopped his effort, but hesitated when he saw a shadow flickering in the raging flames.
Flicking his wrists he clutched at a pair of kunai and waited with learned patience as the water collapsed onto the ground uselessly and three figures appeared with their hands outstretched in front of them.
Kakashi's grip on his kunai clenched as he recognised the clothing being worn by the assailants.
They were Quiraji.
The assailants had cocky grins on their faces; they clearly took great pleasure in denying him. Putting their hands down, they drew weapons and stared at him with the fire at their backs, taunting him.
With Quiraji as his foes, Kakashi knew that ninjutsu would be pointless to use to try and put out the fire without taking them out first.
Not one to let his opponents dictate his actions now that he no longer had a Sharingan, Kakashi shot forward with chakra running through his legs enhancing his speed. As a Jounin in Konoha he'd been one of the fastest shinobi, behind his 'rival' Gai and several others. After his retirement and lack of training he'd slowly down significantly, even with their recent return to active duty.
The Quiraji soldiers could barely track him with their eyes, until he was right in front of them.
One of his kunai shot forward and ended the life of one of the assailants, while the other two tried to cut him down with long swords. Even without his Sharingan, they looked like they were moving in slow motion. He could have parried or blocked their attacks in a dozen different ways.
Kakashi decided it was easier to dodge their strikes and let them get unbalanced before his kunai flashed forward and slit them from ear-to-ear. It wasn't a fate he'd do if he were facing shinobi, but he had no sympathy for the Quiraji.
Their bodies struck the floor as he glanced around to check whether there were any other Quiraji around. Deciding it was safe enough for the time being; Kakashi repeated his earlier technique and threw as much water as could from the depleted river onto the fire.
Large plumes of smoke rose as he could see his efforts had put out almost half the fire in the single effort. If he had more water he knew he could put the whole thing out, but Kakashi's skill with water techniques wasn't enough to generate water on its own, particularly without his Sharingan. The only reason he could do the technique at all was because his body remembered the technique, even with Obito's eye back in its original state.
Looking around the ruined field he could see a number of children tossing buckets of water onto the flames, keeping them from spreading to the other fields. The crops that were contained in the burning field were gone the moment it had been lit, yet Kakashi couldn't understand why the fire had been set. From their presence it was clear that the Quiraji were to blame, but burning crops wasn't something he'd heard them do.
Unless it was to draw us out…
Kakashi grit his teeth at the realisation and looked around for his partner, but he saw he needn't have worried about her. Floating above the ground away from the fire was Konan, her wide paper wings keeping her high while she stared down at her defeated foes. Running over to her position he could see she had killed five Quiraji assailants in quick secession.
Death by a thousand paper cuts indeed.
Konan acknowledged his appearance with a slight nod before slowly drifting back to the ground.
The villagers appeared to be getting the fire under control, though when Kakashi looked around he could see that the damage that had been done to the village beyond the burning of the fields. Several of the buildings had been burnt separately from the field, as if they were targeted.
Kakashi didn't need any chakra to see the bodies that lay on the ground at the edges of the burnt houses. His heart sank as he realised that most of them were the elderly they'd seen earlier in the day. They'd been targeted specifically because of their inability to fight back.
"It looks like they're getting it under control," observed Konan as her feet gently touched the ground and her paper wings folded back to the middle of her back and disappeared into small pieces of paper.
She began making her way to the children who were throwing buckets of water onto the flames, with her partner following quickly behind her.
Kakashi couldn't shake the feeling that it had been too simple for them to defeat the assailants. It could have been that the Quiraji had been simply a scouting force that had detected their presence and decided to take action.
As they came to the children, a terrible thought came to Kakashi like a bolt of lightning.
Quiraji scouts worked in two groups of five.
He went to warn Konan, but before he could open his mouth he felt a hand cover his mouth and another clutch his throat.
Normally he'd be able to shrug off such a grip with little issue, but something about his attacker's grip made all the strength leave his body in an instant. He felt a horrible sinking feeling in his stomach as his legs began to give way; compounding by the fact that he could see Konan suffering a similar fate in front of him.
He tried to grip at his attacker's hands, but Kakashi didn't have the strength to even lift his arms, let alone fight back.
What is this…I can't…
Kakashi began to lose consciousness and felt his breath leaving his body, yet before he wasn't taken down completely he could feel his attacker's grip loosening. The Quiraji's hands slipped from his face and he felt his strength returning; enough for him to shake off his attacker and turn around to confront him.
To his surprise, he saw the Quiraji who'd attacked him reeling back with a pair of kunai stuck in his throat, only needing a small push from Kakashi to fall onto the ground.
Hmm…odd…
Kakashi shook himself out of his momentary lapse and turned around to help Konan, but once again saw that there was no need.
Her attacker fell to the ground as Chouji pulled back his hands from the Quiraji's chest and used them to steady Konan on her feet as she recovered from the attack.
With the last two Quiraji dead, the attack was over. The older children had finally been able to put out the fire covering the field and had collapsed onto the ground, exhausted.
"You haven't forgotten how to fight it seems," said Kakashi with a tired smile on his unmasked face.
However when the Akimichi heir turned to regard him, there was no humour or acknowledgement in his eyes.
There was only pain. Pain and grief.
Kakashi regretted his words immediately; he could see that something in Chouji had changed in the few minutes since the village had been attacked. He hated the fact that it likely helped their mission to bring the ex-shinobi back with them, but there was nothing he could do except help the villagers recover.
Decision
Once the bodies had been taken care of, Chouji organised the villagers to start rebuilding the fields immediately. If they lost that source of food they'd struggle through the next winter; particularly if the neighbouring towns had suffered similar fates.
Some of the younger ones complained about the work, but one stern 'discussion' from Misa set them straight. By his calculation they'd lost more than two thirds of their stock, but Chouji couldn't live with the fact that some of his people had been killed during the attack. It hurt worse than anything he had endured during his time as a shinobi.
Kakashi used his canine companions to ensure that there were no more Quiraji in the area, but judging from the manner of the attack it was clear it was only a coincidence that they'd come to the village in the first place.
Though he knew that both he and Konan's presence was likely the reason they'd attacked.
Their house had been spared the devastation of the attack, yet it felt like their presence was somehow violating it. The shinobi were still on edge from the battle, feeling as though there could be a follow-up at any moment.
Sitting down opposite the two shinobi at the table in his house, Chouji slowly breathed out and ordered his thoughts.
"The others have asked and I've agreed. The two of you need to leave…today."
Kakashi went to make a comment, but he felt Konan's hand on his arm stop him.
The Amegakure kunoichi looked directly into the ex-Konoha shinobi's eyes with complete understanding. "We didn't mean to bring them here. You have to know we weren't followed."
"No, you weren't," said Chouji knowingly. "The Quiraji do not bother us because they don't see us as a threat. We are civilians and not part of the conflict."
"But you are part of the conflict," said Kakashi with more alarm in his voice than he meant. "These are the people that killed your family, your friends! How does that not make you a part of the conflict?"
"Because I chose not to be. The Quiraji leave civilians alone because they believe we want them to overthrow our 'shinobi' oppressors." He tilted his head with a telling look in his eyes. "They wouldn't be completely wrong either."
"That's why there are only children and elderly in this village, isn't it?" observed Konan quietly.
Chouji nodded grimly, "The Quiraji offered us peace with the demand that we don't assist the shinobi. They are not aware that I was once a shinobi, or they are and it doesn't matter to them. Either way…"
"…we can't stay," finished Kakashi. "If you had made that deal, why did you let us stay in the first place? You could have sent us on our way without hiding such a thing when we first arrived."
Chouji slowly clenched his fists on the table; the situation clearly weighed heavily on him. "I took a risk. I still hate the Quiraji because of what they've done…and had hoped that perhaps there was something I could do…" He shook his head quickly, "Those that died during the night are on me. I have to live with that. This attack was a warning. If there is a second, there won't be a third."
Kakashi couldn't bear to look Chouji in the eyes anymore; he knew exactly how he felt. By his observation Chouji had a mixture of survivor's guilt and a heavy burden on his heart that he had no place to interfere in.
"What should we tell Shikamaru?" he asked finally. "He won't leave you like this, you know that."
Chouji hesitated for a moment, it was clear he'd thought about such a thing for a while yet it was still difficult for him to say.
"I love Shikamaru like a brother. He's the only real friend I had when we were growing up…"
"You want us to tell him you're dead, don't you?" interjected Konan. She didn't mean to sound impatient; she just knew a lost cause when she saw one.
The look on the retired shinobi's face was the only answer he could give them.
Failed Mission
It didn't take them long to leave the small country they'd found the Akimichi heir in, yet neither of them felt any need to rush themselves. They didn't work for the Kazekage like some of Kakashi's old companions did. The search for Chouji was one out of obligation for his need to ensure his student's safety, yet it had become clear that Chouji was safer without his presence.
Their mission had been a failure.
The weather quickly turned foul and the two of them took shelter in an abandoned ruin for the night, wary of the knowledge that even though they'd secured the location, the Quiraji were crafty foes and could attack at any moment. If they'd attacked a remote village just on passing because they'd sensed the shinobi presence then nowhere was truly safe.
"We could do that, you know," said Konan offhandedly as she poked at the small fire they'd created.
Kakashi turned to her with a raised eyebrow, "Settle down? We retired once already, remember?"
The Amegakure kunoichi looked up at him through her amber eyes and the silver haired shinobi conceded her point with a sigh. He threw up his hands and sat down beside her.
Konan leaned her shoulder into his and closed her eyes, enjoying the shared warmth of her partner and the fire in front of them.
They didn't love each other; they'd seen enough loved ones die already.
But there was a comfortable partnership to be had between them, much more than either could have expected when they first met. She kept him honest, while he kept her stable.
"We could go back to the village, if you want," said Kakashi after a while. "It's not as if it's that far away. I'm sure the others would take us back without even questioning why we left."
Even though he could only see the top of her dark blue hair and she had a hand placed on the side of his leg, Kakashi could feel her scoff throughout his body.
"That time is gone, Kakashi. We can't go back to those days anymore. Besides, we'd be putting them in danger. You know that."
With a long drawn-out breath, the ex-Konoha shinobi brought up a hand and began to gently stroke the back of her head, "They were fun though. Fishing all day…coming back to a beautiful woman and a hot meal."
"Even though I couldn't cook worth a damn?" asked Konan in an amused voice.
"I didn't say it was a good meal. Just that it was hot."
She reached over and drove her fist into his chest, taking some of his breath away before the two of them shared a laugh and came closer together. It felt like forever since they'd just…laughed.
They sat together for a long time, staring into the fire silently. It seemed to have a mind of its own, flickering in the cold wind from one side to the other.
"What are we going to do now?" asked Kakashi softly, to no one in particular. He was used to having the answers when problems arose, but nothing was as straightforward as in the past. It felt like the destruction of Konoha all over again, without the anger or hatred to propel him forward.
"I still have that bitch to take care of," came Konan's angry reply at a whisper. "I won't rest until she's lying at my feet, paying for her crimes." Her free hand clenched tightly as she imagined squeezing the life out of the woman who had killed everyone she'd cared about.
Almost everyone.
Kakashi found the insistent part of her very attractive, but he worried that she was going to get herself killed in her journey for revenge. For two years she'd kept it at bay and he'd hoped she'd let it lie, but just as he'd seen with Sasuke all those years ago, one sniff of her target and she was off to the races.
He found that all he could do was pat her shoulder and reassure her that he would always be at her side. She nodded in response and nuzzled her head into his chest, feeling his chest rise and fall with each breath.
I guess I should go find Naruto then. If he's here, he shouldn't be difficult to find. Subtlety wasn't his strongest suit after all. The Kazekage was going to the Land of Water and Shikamaru said that's where he saw him. Maybe they're still there.
With a clear and present goal for the moment, Kakashi felt himself drifting off to sleep as the fire dwindled to ashes. He hadn't had a decent night sleep since they left the village they'd 'retired' to, but seeing Chouji dealing with things so well despite what they'd brought down on him, was reassuring.
However before he could get to sleep, he felt electric shocks running through his body that kept him wide awake. Looking down he saw that Konan wasn't asleep at all, but rather she had something else on her mind. It had been quite a while since they'd done the horizontal dance, but from the look in her amber eyes she'd lost none of her passion.
Turns out he wasn't going to get any sleep after all.
Current Status of the Konoha Survivors
Uzumaki Naruto – On his way to Otogakure
Uchiha Sasuke – On his way to Otogakure
Haruno Sakura – Head doctor in Sunagakure
Hatake Kakashi – Searching for Naruto
Yamanaka Ino – Doctor and Mother in Sunagakure
Akimichi Chouji – Retired and happily married
Nara Shikamaru – Head shinobi in Sunagakure, expecting Father
Sarutobi Asuma – Dead
Inuzuka Kiba – Working for Sunagakure
Hyuuga Hinata – On her way to Otogakure
Aburame Shino – Dead
Yuuhi Kurenai – Dead
Rock Lee – Working for Sunagakure
Tenten – Dead
Hyuuga Neji – Otokage, leader of Otogakure
Maito Gai – Dead
Shizune – Retired and living with the Tiger Summons
Uchiha Itachi – On his way to Otogakure
Inuzuka Nagisa – Working for Sunagakure
Author's Note:
The above section is on request. Any time there is a major shift in a large section of the characters, I'll put one of these up. Since the story is so long, it makes sense to do this just to keep up. It helps me too. If you're looking for a timeline of events up to about now, look at the end of Chapter 64.
I've decided that not every chapter has to be 10k or more words. I found that at times I was tempted to pad certain parts of chapters before compensating and adding things that I wanted to write anyway. They'll still be long, minimum of 8k.
At the end of the story it'll still be absurdly long. That's not going to change at all.
I apologise if this feels like a meh chapter. It's a story that had to be told, but I dunno, I felt kind of hesitant while writing it.
Please review and tell me what you think. I try to take each review into account, and believe me I read them all. Tell me what can be improved, what you liked, what you didn't, everything. I'm a writer so I'm always open to criticism.