Yin Dimension: Lightning Hound

The first thing that Kakashi noticed when he came to was that everything hurt. It took entirely too much effort for him to force his eyes open, only for him to be forced to shut them again due to the blinding glare of the sun.

Mechanically, Kakashi ran through the Anbu issued checklist to assess the extent of his injuries. Starting with his left hand, Kakashi attempted to move each finger before moving onto his right. Then he proceeded to move to his hands, then his arm. Lifting his arm from elbow down had been fine, so Kakashi boldly moved his entire arm.

A sharp pain shot up to his shoulders, eliciting a wince from him. Immediately, Kakashi dropped his left arm back to his side. If he thought his left arm had been in a horrible state, his right arm was completely broken. Cracking an eye open, Kakashi glanced over to witness the mangled mess of his right arm, bone jutting outwards at an unnerving angle. Kakashi swallowed thickly, focusing his attention on testing the movements of his legs.

Nothing more than a minor sprain it seemed.

As Kakashi maneuvered himself into a sitting position, all of the pain receptors in his body screamed at him to halt his movements. Yet the shinobi instincts in him knew that he needed to keep moving - that lightning strike had been too deliberate to not be man-made. It would only be a matter of time before the enemy figured out that he was still alive and came to finish the job.

After all, there were a lot of people that wanted him dead. If not for the fact that he was Wolf, one of Danzo's most prized right hand men, then for the fact that his existence was a pain in the ass for the Akatsuki group. Perhaps, it was one of Kumo's shinobis, here to exact revenge on him after Kumo #94's brutal ending.

A Kumo nin? They were certainly known for their lightning techniques, but a lightning technique of that caliber? Kakashi had never seen or heard of anything like that before. The uncertainty and the force behind the attack increased his sense of urgency, pushing himself to stand up.

His legs felt like jelly, knees wobbling as if he would topple over at any given moment. Squinting against the harsh glare of the sunlight, his eyes swept his surroundings. A rocky cliff side to his right, more than a hundred feet tall. To his left, was a raging river, a strong whirlpool constantly moving the water in a circular motion.

Cliff side? Water? Rocks?

This wasn't anywhere near the place where the lightning had struck him. Where were the trees? The grass? The annoying buzz of the insects? Judging from the terrain, Kakashi was out of the Land of Fire by now and that sent another wave of urgency flooding through him.

The enemy had already gotten to him and brought him here, for some unknown reason. Kakashi glanced up to examine the top of the cliffs once more. Eyes sweeping in a downward arc, he deduced a potential path of how he could have ended up here. As Kakashi moved, the stiffness of the fabric of his clothes scratched against his skin. Leaning his head into his shoulder, Kakashi took a whiff of his clothes.

His nose wrinkled in distaste. A musty, damp smell, just like how he always smelled after he dried off following a mission in the rain.

He had been unconscious. The enemy had thrown him off of the cliffs. Kakashi landed in the water, which broke his fall and saved him from an instant death. Upon impact, Kakashi must have landed on his right side, with his arm taking the brunt of the fall. Somehow, he had survived being sucked into the deadly whirlpool and floated to shore instead. He laid there for so long that the water that clung to the fabric of his clothes long dried away.

Kakashi had been here for too long. Far too long. A mental clock ticked away, as if counting down the time remaining until the enemy came to finish him off. Despite the exertion, Kakashi forced himself to plant one foot in front of the other. It didn't matter where he was going; Kakashi just needed to get away. The further away the better.

For someone who didn't have a single self-preservation bone in his body, exemplified by his long track record of suicidal missions, Kakashi was determined to live. All that went through his mind was that he needed to get back to the village to report the mysterious enemy. His botched assassination was hardly on his mind.

Kakashi walked for hours, following the curves of the riverbend, but still seemingly ending up nowhere. It was all the same thing, with no signs of the cliffs receding or the river expanding or shrinking. At the rate he was going, Kakashi would die of starvation or inflammation from his injuries before he reached Konoha.

He needed to warn Konoha.

Gritting his teeth, Kakashi tested his chakra levels by sending chakra to the soles of his feet. The act earned another wave of fresh pain, followed by a nauseating feeling. Kakashi could hear a medic's voice in the back of his head warning him to not do any extraneous activities, but between survival and injuring himself even further, his choice was clear.

Planting one foot after another on the rocky cliffside, Kakashi began to slowly make his way up the cliff. Bile rose in his throat when he shifted into a horizontal position. Kakashi forced it back down. His attention was solely focused on a fixated spot at the top of the cliffs as Kakashi tried to block out everything else.

Think of this as training, Kakashi urged himself. Think of this as opening to the Fourth Gate. If you cannot tolerate this kind of pain, then how will you defeat Gai?

Kakashi repeated the mantra over and over again until his feet finally touched flat, horizontal surface. His knees buckled beneath him, sending Kakashi careening to the ground. Hands instinctively shot out to break his descent, except his mangled right arm was in no position to do anything but lay uselessly by his side. A sharp, pricking sensation ripped through his right side.

If Kakashi was a weaker man, he would have given in and accepted his fate. Yet, the village was counting on him. In the grand scheme of things, he was merely just a pawn for the village. The enemy's greater goal must have been to take down the king. Getting rid of the guard was just the first step.

Cradling his arm to his chest, Kakashi lurched forward. Despite not having the vaguest clue of where he was, Kakashi reasoned that as long as he kept walking, he was making progress. As long as he kept walking, he would have a chance. As long as he kept walking, he was still alive.

His determination eventually paid off when Kakashi reached the border of Kusa. Although Kusa wasn't quite as he remembered it, the land didn't seem to host any signs of human occupation, Kakashi had a direction.

Southwest. Konoha was located southwest of here. Using the position of the sun to point him in the right direction, Kakashi traversed through the stalks of grass with renewed vigor now that he had a clear destination in mind.

Only, his adrenaline rush had been short-lived.

Despite the thousands of other thoughts that flickered through his mind, his calculation of how long it would take until he reached Konoha dominated. If Kakashi was alone and still possessed enough stamina, one day to traverse through the Land of Fire wasn't a problem. If Kakashi was with a team, it took anywhere from a day and a half to two days, depending on how seasoned the other shinobis were.

But a severely injured Kakashi combined with the uncertainty of his whereabouts? It could take anywhere from three days, if he was lucky, to more than a week. By that time, Kakashi would be dead before he set foot anywhere near Konoha.

Would Konoha come searching for him? The answer was a resounding no. Officially, he was on a suicidal mission. The Anbu protocol for being on the verge of death was to destroy his body to prevent secrets from leaking. There shouldn't and wouldn't be a body for them to find, so why would they bother?

Once the morbid thought settled in, the adrenaline wore off. The throbbing sensation returned, sending Kakashi keeling over. For a few minutes, Kakashi warred with himself. In the end, he gave into the temptation and sank down onto the ground. Laying on the soft soil with tall stalks of grass surrounding him on all sides, Kakashi's eyes remained fixated on the horizon. The sun was setting. Soon, it would be dark. And then he would still be here.

Alone. To die.

And to the rest of the world, his very existence would only be a fading memory. Once hailed as Danzo's most valued right hand man, Wolf would only become a distant impression. Someone else would don his mask, claim his title, take his rightful position among the Anbu Root.

From the very start, the person behind the mask never mattered. But that was the life that he had chosen and now, he would bear the consequences.

As his eyes slowly slid shut, using the last dredges of his energy, Kakashi formed a familiar sequence of hand signs. Before his consciousness slipped, the last thing he remembered was slamming his hands down onto the dirt and lips moving, uttering his final warning to Konoha.

When he came to, Kakashi was greeted with the sight of a low hanging ceiling. Slowly, he shifted his head to look to his right, followed by his left, soaking up every single detail of his surroundings.

He was in a room. Did people in hell get their own rooms too? For some reason, that ludicrous picture sent him into a laughing fit. Except, his laughter sounded more like wheezing as the movement sent a sharp sensation ripping through his side.

Wait, pain? Dead people weren't supposed to feel pain, were they?

Despite the throbbing, Kakashi pushed himself into a sitting position in a record time when he heard the door knob turn. His hands instinctively slid under the pillow, feeling for the familiar metal handle of his kunai. Only, he was left grasping emptiness.

There was no time. The intruder had already entered the room. Shooting off of the bed, Kakashi pressed himself against the wall of the door. Right as the woman took her first step into the room, his arm wrapped around her neck, fingers resting just above her pressure points. The woman gulped.

"Looks like you're awake," the woman commented. Although she tried to play off the situation in a nonchalant manner, the rigidness of her backside and tenseness of her muscles betrayed her nonchalance. "And in good shape it seems, if you can already get out of bed."

"Who are you?" The words were barely coherent. His voice was hoarse and raspy. "Where am I?"

Everything happened so quickly that Kakashi didn't even have time to conclude why he was still alive. All that he knew was that if she could see him, then Kakashi wasn't dead.

"You can relax." Like the hell Kakashi would. "If I wanted to kill you, I would have done so when you were unconscious." Slowly, Kakashi released his hold on the woman. Still, he was wary, so Kakashi backed away from her, making sure that his backside was facing the window. A quick escape if necessary.

The woman turned around. An unfamiliar face. "As expected of an elite shinobi."

"Why am I here?" Kakashi narrowed his eye. "What is your motive?"

The woman shrugged. "What other motive could I have, other than saving your life?" Upon seeing Kakashi's blank expression, the woman continued to speak. "On my evening walk, a dog found me and led me to you. By the time I got there, your pulse was already very faint and had I gotten there fifteen minutes later, you would have died."

"You're a medic nin," Kakashi quickly concluded.

The woman nodded. "Healing you practically sapped me of all of my chakra, so for a while, I was just as vulnerable as you were. Who knew if you would suddenly wake up and kill me? After all, I know shinobis have a tendency to attack first and ask later.

"Anyways, the point is that you can trust me. I could have just left you to die. Oh yeah, you should probably sit down before you collapse. Your muscles are still quite weak since you've been asleep for an entire week."

The fact that Kakashi was forcing himself to stay upright didn't escape the medic's trained eye. Cautiously, Kakashi approached the bed. His eyes remained trained on the medic the entire time, watching for any sudden movements. He sat down, perched on the edge of the bed.

"If it makes you feel better, I can leave so that you can rest. I don't want you to injure yourself after all the trouble I went through to heal you." Without even waiting for a response, the medic turned to leave.

Kakashi stopped her. "Wait."

The woman turned back around, her black eyes blinking in surprise.

"Water," Kakashi croaked. Understanding dawned on her features. The medic quickly left the room, coming back in less than a minute. Standing at the foot of the bed, she extended her arm out, holding the glass of water towards him like a peace offering. Kakashi accepted the proffered glass with a nod of thanks.

She watched as Kakashi drank the contents of the glass. Once it was emptied, Kakashi handed it back to her, feeling infinitely better now that the scratchy feeling in his throat was gone.

"Get some rest. I'm Misa, by the way. I'll be in the living room if you ever need anything."

"Kakashi."

Misa smiled at him. "I know." With that, she quietly left the room. The door made a creaking noise as she shut it behind her.

Kakashi laid back down on the bed, feeling a bit more at ease now that the stranger was out of the room. In retrospect, if Kakashi had been following Anbu protocols, he shouldn't have given away his real name. But his muddied brain could hardly process much more than the fact that he was still alive.

Alive.

Maybe it was sheer luck, but Kakashi was more inclined to believe that it was fate. Things always seemed to happen for a reason.

Clearly, he still had some unfinished business.

Misa was stretched across the couch. Black, round glasses were perched on her nose. Her head was bent down, black hair framing both sides of her face. Her finger moved across the page of the textbook perched in her lap. Under her breath, she murmured a few medical terms, like she was practicing the pronunciation.

"It's Bradykinesia," Kakashi corrected. Misa jumped at the sound of his voice.

"Kakashi san, you're awake. How are you feeling?"

How are you feeling? That was one of the questions that reminded Kakashi of being at the hospital. Every time someone dressed in white came to visit him, that would always be the first question that left their mouths. Kakashi was tired of answering, so he simply didn't. Besides, there were more pressing matters on his mind. After having spent over an hour sorting out his thoughts before he emerged from the room, this time, Kakashi came prepared with his questions.

"You said that Pakkun found you and led you to me."

"I suppose? I never got a name, but it was a small pug." Just as Kakashi thought. His last ditch effort to deliver the warning to Konoha was to summon Pakkun, someone he could trust to reliably bring the message. Yet, Kakashi should have known that Pakkun wouldn't have simply left him to die. Pakkun found Misa, and Misa healed him. Then she brought him back here, which he presumed was her home.

The only thing that Kakashi couldn't wrap his mind around was why Pakkun wasn't here. Knowing him, he wouldn't have left him alone with a stranger.

"Then where's Pakkun?"

"He went back. You didn't have enough chakra to sustain his existence."

"Then-" Then his warning never got delivered. If Misa hadn't lied to him, then Kakashi slept for an entire week. A lot could happen in a week. Certainly, they already presumed him dead. His real worry was whether or not the enemy made a move in his absence. The growing urgency to get answers led to a rapid fire interrogation. The intensity of it had taken Misa aback, but Kakashi didn't give her any room to say anything other than answers to his questions.

"Where are we?"

"Kusa."

"How well connected are you to the rest of the world?"

"A good bit, why-"

"Have you heard anything about Konoha being attacked lately?"

Misa shook her head. Instead of feeling relieved like he expected, his urgency morphed into confusion. Something was off and Kakashi couldn't quite place it.

"What are you asking all of this for anyways?"

Her question was met with another harsh one from Kakashi. "How do you know who I am?"

Misa blinked in confusion. Kakashi didn't buy into her act. "When I told you that my name was Kakashi, your response was 'I know.' What's your motive for saving me? Did you save me to extract information from me?"

"I know your name because Pakkun said it," Misa insisted. "And judging from how fast you moved when you first woke up, I assumed that you were an elite shinobi. I thought we were over this distrust, Kakashi san."

She wanted his trust? Just because Misa didn't kill him didn't mean she earned his trust. No matter how much loyalty someone had, most people were too easily swayed by material gain. Too many times, his backstabbing comrades died by his hands. The only person he could ever trust was himself.

Kakashi ignored her. "How long will it take for me to get to Konoha from here?"

"Like three days? That's what the merchants always say. I imagine that it's faster for a shinobi." Her eyes looked him up and down. "With your current condition, you're not fit to travel."

"I know my limits. There's something important that I need to do."

Misa stared at him incredulously. "What is more important than your life? If you go now, you're going to collapse halfway there and this time, I won't be there to drag you back from the dead."

Kakashi inwardly sighed. A wanderer like her could never understand the importance of loyalty to a village. The inhabitants made up the village. It was up to them to protect it; otherwise, the entire village would crumble. And those who betrayed it, like the members of the Akatsuki, were the ones who would destroy it.

Like hell Kakashi would let them.

Misa must have seen the determination written on his face because without him saying anything, she let out a sigh. Wordlessly, she got up from the couch and disappeared down the hallway. Kakashi watched her go. Figuring this was her way of giving him the go ahead, not that Kakashi really cared to obtain her permission, Kakashi headed for the door.

Squatting down at the front door, Kakashi pulled on his clean sandals. Clean, just like how he found his clothes folded in a neat stack on top of the dresser. In all of the absurdity that occurred, it was the first time that Kakashi had gotten a good look at the clothes.

They weren't the traditional Anbu uniform he usually wore. Instead, it was a long sleeved navy shirt with a mesh undershirt and navy shinobi pants. This was the type of clothing that Kakashi remembered shinobis wearing during his childhood, but this uniform became banned after the inner war.

This was also the uniform that the Akatsuki members usually wore, so if Kakashi went waltzing into Konoha in his current state, he would certainly be executed on sight. He didn't want to know how he had gotten his hands on this uniform; all he wanted to do was get rid of it.

Just as Kakashi stood up to leave, the sound of Misa's voice stopped him. "Kakashi san."

Out of respect for the fact that Misa was the one who saved him, Kakashi turned to acknowledge her. In her hands, she was holding a nondescript backpack. Full, judging from the weight and appearance.

Cautiously, Misa stepped forward, almost like she was scared that Kakashi would back away again. His instincts preferred the distance, but if he could take her in a weakened state, then a slightly stronger version of him wouldn't have a problem if she attacked.

Again, Kakashi doubted she would, but he could never be too sure.

"If you're going to go, you should take this." Misa dropped the backpack onto the floor near him before she took three steps back. "It should have everything that you need."

His hand grabbed into the handle, pulling the backpack closer to him. With practiced ease, Kakashi unzipped all of the pockets of the backpack. Rummaging through the contents, Kakashi mentally began to take stock of exactly what was in it. Other than containing more medical supplies than the protocol usually called for, everything matched what the shinobi handbook advised to bring on a mission.

There were even some basic weaponry included: kunais, shurikens, scrolls, paper bombs, and ninja wire. Maybe that was the reason why Misa had chosen to keep her distance; he was armed now.

"How did you know?" Kakashi gestured vaguely towards the contents of the backpack.

"You're not the only one who's a shinobi that came out of a major village. Konoha, isn't it?"

"And you're…?" Kakashi trailed off, eyeing her to see if there was anything that stood out. Yet her entire wardrobe was completely devoid of the distinctive style that shinobis from each village usually wore.

"Kumo."

"Why did you leave?" Kakashi wasn't sure where the curiosity had come from.

Misa shook her head. "There's no point in explaining. You'll never understand why I left for the same reason that I will never understand why you are so loyal to your village."

Fair enough. While Kakashi zipped up the backpack, Misa had chosen to disappear into one of the rooms. When Kakashi left, he didn't bother with a farewell. Chances were, they would never see each other again.

To each other, all they would be was a distant impression in their past.

A/N: Hi again!

First chapter following the switch. This story will be quite slow paced as I have a lot of character and world building to do in both dimensions and I intend to continue the alternate back and forth between dimensions based on how the plot goes.

What are you looking forward to seeing the most in this AU? Thanks for reading and until next time!

-MM