Yang Dimension - Blood Hound

Their team stopped at the outskirts of the Land of Fire. Obito took the lead, red eyes sweeping through the mass of browns and greens for a fifth chakra signature. Once he deemed the area to be clear, Obito motioned to the rest of the team the all clear signal. Obito leaped out from his vantage point behind the bushes, pushing chakra to the soles of his feet to soften the noise of his landing on the branch. In their formation, Obito was in the front and center position. Rin and Kurenai flanked the left and right sides, respectively, of their diamond formation, while Asuma closed the rear.

For the next hour, the only noises that sounded through the dense forestry was the dulled patter of their footfalls whacking against the branches and the slight rustle of the leaves. While maintaining his speed, Obito quickly glanced over his shoulder to gauge how his teammates were faring. After receiving reassurances that they could still keep going from all three of them in the form of head nods, Obito continued to lead the way towards their destination.

Their destination? A clearing in the Land of the Fire.

Under normal circumstances, none of them dared to step foot into the Land of Fire. An unspoken threat that all of the Land of Fire was part of Danzo's territory loomed over their heads. Just by simply stepping foot on his territory was more than enough to warrant death - that is, depending on how much luck they had.

Yet the lightning strike from yesterday had been too peculiar for them to not investigate. The skies had been clear, not a single sign of cloudiness in the vicinity. Then suddenly out of nowhere, a streak of lightning flashed across the sky. Mere seconds later, that had been followed by a second bolt. The timing was strange. The strikes seemed too precise.

Minato had been the first to suggest the possibility that the lightning strikes were man-made. His underlying meaning suggested an enemy shinobi, a powerful one, was lurking in their vicinity.

Although the strike happened within the borders of the Land of Fire, it was still too close to their village, Rougyu, for comfort. If there was a threat, then they needed to become aware of it. Obito had agreed with Minato's sentiment and had been the first to volunteer for the recon mission.

With the enhanced vision that his Sharingan afforded him, Obito saw it before the rest of them did.

The body.

Obito skidded to a stop. Their shinobi instincts were what saved the rest of his team members from crashing right into him, just able to slow their momentum down enough to land on the branch beside him. With his right hand, Obito made the signs to indicate that there was someone up ahead. He followed up that message by informing the rest of them to hang back while he went to investigate. All he needed to see was Asuma's slight nod before Obito jumped down from the trees.

Obito felt his three team members' chakra signatures pulsing strongly from the branches of the trees. In reality, all of them were masking their chakra signatures so it should have been a faint feeling, almost untraceable. Yet compared to the virtually non-existent chakra signature coming from the body, their chakra signatures felt so prominent.

If he hadn't seen that tiniest trace of chakra, Obito might have assumed the man to be dead.

He was lying face down in the grass, utterly still. The remnants of his charred and gooey armor splattered all over his backside, clinging onto his skin. One spot on his backside remained visible, clearly the victim of the brunt of the damage. Splotches littered the visible part, disappearing underneath to the covered areas. Layers of skin had begun to peel away. Bleeding had occurred at one point and the only evidence left of it were the dried blood clots.

The soft grass muted the thud of his land. Cautiously, Obito took a step forward. The man didn't even stir. He took another step forward. Still, no movement.

Holding a kunai out in front of him, this time, Obito took bigger and bolder steps towards him. Once Obito was standing right above him, he paused. Part of him expected the man to spring on him any moment now. Playing dead and then attacking under the element of surprise was one of the oldest tricks in the rule book.

One thing that Obito had learned as a shinobi was that shinobis had no qualms about resorting to these kinds of techniques, as long as it benefited them.

A minute had passed. Still, nothing happened. Obito crouched down next to him. Brushing aside the matted bloody hair - was the original color silver? - Obito pressed two fingers against the base of his neck.

There was a pulse. A faint pulse, but still a pulse nonetheless.

From his condition, it seemed like the lightning bolt struck him directly, on his backside. How was he even still alive? Was that even possible? Rin would probably know more than he did.

After signalling to his comrades above, giving the all clear signal, he didn't have to wait very long for Rin to show up, already in medic mode. In a split second, her backpack hit the ground, partially unzipped. Kneeling besides the prone man, her hands hovered over his back. Soft, green chakra coated the length of her hands.

Asuma squatted next to her, digging out her medical kit from her backpack. He unzipped it, unfolding it on the ground, fingers hovering over the contents ready to assist upon her request.

Rin's eyebrows furrowed in concentration as she poured more chakra through her palms. Beads of sweat rolled down the sides of her forehead, trailing along the side of her face before dripping onto the grass from the edge of her chin. While Rin concentrated on healing the burns, the man's clothing was what captured Obito's attention.

Gray plated armor over a black, sleeveless tee along with black shinobi pants. Why did that combination seem so familiar to him?

"Doesn't the clothing seem familiar to you?"

"There's not much left to go off of," Kurenai commented. Considering how Obito could barely see the gray as most of the armor had been charred black, Kurenai had a point.

"Doesn't he seem like someone from Konoha?" Asuma questioned, his finger pointing towards his head. Or rather, he was attempting to point at his face. "Look, he's wearing a mask. Isn't that the mask that every Anbu Root member wears?"

Obito, who was currently the closest to the man's face, reached out to gently shift his head so that his face was facing the side rather than face planting in the dirt. Just as Asuma pointed out, a dirt-smeared, white porcelain mask donned his face, masking his identity. Fingers reaching out, Obito brushed away the dirt to reveal the red paint lines. The strokes made up an unfamiliar pattern.

"I have never seen this mask before. Have you?" Asuma and Kurenai squatted behind him to look over his shoulder to examine the masked man's identity.

Kurenai was the first to shake her head no. Asuma stared at the mask for a while longer before he finally spoke.

"From my understanding of the Anbu, the lower ranking shinobis have the generic masks. The ones that we usually see, like Cat, Dog, Bird, Ox, and Rat. The higher up your ranking, the more unique your mask is. This mask...I have never seen it before either. He must be someone important though."

"Remove his mask and see," Kurenai suggested. "Maybe we'll recognize his face."

Obito highly doubted that was the case, since their recognition of Konoha shinobi was limited to the masks that they wore. It didn't help that many of them wore the same designs, so who actually knew if it was the same person or not? For all Obito knew, this man could have worn a Dog mask on their last encounter.

Ten years. They had already separated themselves from Konoha for a decade. Obito had hardly reached his double digits when his sensei had dragged him out of the village with him.

Obito had never gone back since. At this point, for this person to be someone that they knew was extremely unlikely. Everyone he knew either defected with him or died or was someone Obito was better off not seeing anyways. Like the rest of his clan members. Not that it would be a clan member since there was no such thing as an Uchiha with silver hair.

Asuma's fingers grabbed the edges of the mask. Slowly, he lifted it from the man's face, only to reveal another mask underneath. Yet despite that second mask, Obito could recognize him from anywhere.

Kakashi Hatake.

When they were children, they never had much interaction. They had been in the same Academy class, only for a short eight months because after that, the next thing he heard was that Kakashi had already graduated. For months afterwards, all the rumors related to Kakashi were about his father's death, rather than his whereabouts after graduation. As far as Obito knew, Kakashi was never placed in an official genin team.

Some villagers speculated that Kakashi either died or ran away, yet passing glimpses of Kakashi in the streets proved those rumors to be false. That was all they really had been to each other, just passing strangers living in the same village.

However, Kakashi made a deep impression on him. Obito didn't know why, maybe it was his unique hair color or the fact that he always had a mask on even when it was burning hot outside.

They had never spoken a single word to each other, yet Obito knew so much about him. Most of them had been through the rumors that floated around the nation, but unlike the rumors from their childhood, these rumors had some truth behind them.

He wasn't the only one to have recognized him.

"Kakashi Hatake," Asuma breathed out, disbelief present in his voice. "He's dangerous. We should stay away from him." Kurenai agreed, both of them taking three steps backwards. Only Obito and Rin remained rooted to their positions, the latter having never stopped the healing process.

Obito placed a hand over Rin's. Green chakra continued to coat her hands. Their eyes met. Obito shook his head slowly. "Maybe we shouldn't be healing him." His eyes flickered back down to the unconscious man. "Asuma is right. Kakashi is dangerous. Who knows what he can do when he's fully healed?"

"So you just want me to leave him to die here?" Rin asked with an incredulous tone. "I've already assessed his condition. If he doesn't receive medical treatment in the next hour, he's going to die."

"He's the enemy," Obito insisted. "What's the point of saving him when he's going to turn around and just kill you? It's not like he's going to be grateful to you for saving his life."

"What about intel?"

Obito fell silent. That was something that he hadn't considered until she mentioned it.

"You say he's a dangerous and formidable enemy, but you forget that he's Danzo's right hand man. Can you imagine what kind of intel he will have? If we bring him back to Rougyu, Inoichi san can get into his mind. When will we have another chance like this?"

Obito opened his mouth to protest, a weak protest, and Rin must have sensed it because she held a hand up to stop him.

"I'm not stupid. I'm going to heal him but induce him into falling into a coma. That way, we can extract the information we need without his presence posing a risk to us."

"Are you sure that it'll work?" This question came from Kurenai, who had hesitantly taken a step closer to the trio.

Rin nodded. "I'm sure. I've done it plenty of times to help patients speed up their recovery. Once I stabilize his condition, I will put him under a coma then we can transport him back to Rougyu."

All eyes fell on him. As the team leader, Obito was the one who had to make the call. While Asuma and Kurenai seemed wary of Kakashi, they hadn't outwardly protested. Rin was adamant and Obito was torn between choosing safety and the prospect of gaining valuable intel.

Rin was right though. When else would they get another chance like this? For years, their group had slowly gathered information through random Konoha shinobis that they managed to run into. Most didn't possess any useful knowledge; Danzo was the type of leader to keep everything under tight wraps. Very few people were privy to his plans and thoughts.

The rest only knew enough to carry out their mission.

And now, they had someone in front of them who possessed a great deal of knowledge. Maybe this was a sign that it was finally their time to take back their village from the tyrannical reigns of Danzo.

Finally, Obito nodded. "Alright, we'll take him back to the village for now. Minato sensei can decide what he wants to do with him."

A/N: Hi again!

Here is a little glimpse of what kind of world the Yang dimension ended up being since this dimension strays a lot more from canon than the other dimension did. Before Kakashi wakes up, I'm hoping to accomplish a little world building through other characters (and also give the other Kakashi a chance to find out certain things before this Kakashi's thoughts reveal it all lol) so the beginning few will feature a lot of other side characters.

What are you looking forward to seeing the most?

Thanks for reading. Until next time!

-MM