Hello to whoever will read this. It's always difficult to write about suicide. I don't want to use it lightly. I want the actions the characters make to have weight. Hope you enjoy.
'Just a little further. Please hang on...' Kakashi Hatake thought as he was leaping from rooftop to rooftop, Yugao's body on his back. She has lost consciousness a few seconds after she stabbed herself in the abdomen. He cursed himself for not being able to run faster to save Yugao, to save Obito, to save Rin...
'Kakashi...' The white haired Jonin heard a voice calling his name. He looked ahead and what he saw shocked him. Rin was floating in front of him. Her bloody face calling his name again and again. A hole was in the place of her heart. She touched the hole and her face turned from sadness and surprise to anger.
'Kakashi! You did this to me! You killed me!' The voice yelled. Kakashi closed his eyes and continued running towards the hospital area.
A few minutes later he looked upward again and he could see the tents in the distance. Unfortunately his eye immediately moved from the tents to a very familiar fan symbol. His Sharingan hurt him. He stopped to rub off the pain.
'Oi.' Another voice called. Kakashi froze. He knew whose voice it was. He looked behind him and sure enough, Obito was standing there. His googles broken and placed on his hair. He was missing his left Sharingan, Kakashi's Sharingan.
"Obito..." The leaf shinobi started but he found it difficult to breathe.
'You've done it again eh Kakashi? You let someone else die as well. Just like you let me die. JUST LIKE YOU LET RIN DIE!' Obito came closer and raised a kunai.
'Make the world a favour and kill yourself.' He gave the kunai to Kakashi's hand.
"I... I can't... she needs help!" The White haired Jonin said looking at Yugao and started running again. Step by step he grew closer to the tents, to a doctor, to help...
He finally reached the makeshift entrance and rushed past everyone, his eyes later focused on the biggest tent he could see. When he reached it, he yelled for a doctor, after a few seconds a doctor came.
"She got slashed by an animal while she was training in the forest" Kakashi said. The doctor acknowledged what he said and took her of his back. When the doctor saw the blood on the Jonin's clothes he asked him if he was ok, Kakashi simply nodded and the doctor, followed by two nurses, went immediately inside the tent.
Several hours later and Kakashi haven't moved from the bench he sat on ever since they took her in. His head was looking down at the dirt of his shoes.
"Kakashi-sensei? What are you doing here? Are you ok?" A voice snapped him out of his dream like state he was in. He looked up and saw one of his students.
"I'm fine Sakura. I just brought an injured person to the hospital and I'm waiting for the doctor to finish." He answered, his voice was betraying his mental exhaustion.
"I can go ask them if you want. But I can't push them to rush things." She said smiling. Kakashi nodded and she went in the tent. The moment she disappeared from his eyesight he returned to look at the dirt. Images from when he was in the ANBU came flooding in his mind.
Flashback
"Eh... let's see... We have a new team member today, she just joined the ANBU but the Hokage placed her with us because she can 'stabilise' us" A Younger Kakashi said, wearing the standard ANBU captain uniform. His Dog mask was placed on his belt.
"Great, we will have another kid to babysit. Sir have you thought about changing carriers? We could open an orphanage and house ALL the kids the Hokage forces us to take care of." Tiger said.
"Oh come on Crow is not that bad. If he just didn't have his clan trademark 'emo mode' everything would be so much better. What you say little crow?" Monkey said. Crow, who was storing his equipment in his locker, didn't answer. He just took off his mask, his bright red Sharingan start spinning... Kakashi's voice stopped the raven haired teen from continuing.
"Enough chit-chatting. Come in!" Kakashi ordered and the door of the locker room opened. A slender woman entered. Both Tiger and Monkey flinched.
"Kakashi-senpai/Kakashi-san..." They both trailed off.
"So. This is Yugao Nii, Codename Cat. She was a Chunnin but her skills with the Katana made the Hokage to take notice." Kakashi said.
"Wait a minute. This is not a kid! This is a beautiful lady!" Tiger began stopping his captain from continuing.
"Easy there Tiger. I might be a Chunnin but, as Kakashi-senpai just said, I know to cut things quite well." Yugao said looking at Tiger's lower body.
"Anyway! Cat. This is Team Ro. The overconfident, underperforming man over there is Tiger. The dead eye, civilian B face, is Monkey. And the cloud of sunshine over there is Crow. And I'm the best Captain ANBU had ever seen. Even though you know my name, when we are on duty we have to address one another with our codenames, so I'm Dog." The ANBU captain said, Cat looked around at the locker room of team Ro, the walls were full of posters of missing nin with a big red X on their faces and an animal symbol underneath them designating which ANBU killed which missing nin.
"Welcome to team Ro" The ANBU captain said.
End Flashback
"Kakashi-sensei, The doctor wants to speak to you." Once again Sakura's voice returned him to the real world. The Leaf Jonin nodded and stood up as the doctor came out of the tent.
"First things first. She will survive. If you haven't brought her in when you did she would have died." Kakashi took a big breath of relief, the doctor's face however told him that he wasn't finished.
"Given the state she was in when you brought her in, and what you told us happen to her, I have to ask. Was she really attacked by an animal? The slash in her abdomen has all the marks that it was self inflicted." Sakura gasped and looked at her sensei to make sense of what is really going on. Kakashi didn't answer at first but the doctor continued.
"If she did in fact did this to herself, you need to tell us, so that we can take the necessary precautions so that she doesn't do it again. A specialist will come to see her and she will have to be put under surveillance. Not to mention I will have to inform the Hokage to pull her out of action, since she might be a liability for her team." The doctor finished with a cold voice.
"I know her for a long time. She would never do something like this. It was an animal, I saw it with my own eyes." Kakashi lied. The doctor signed.
"You ANBU are more stubborn than the regular shinobi. I'm sorry if I was disrespectful, but we can't afford more injured. All I'm trying to do is minimise the casualties." The doctor said with a sad smile.
"We might have fought for the village against the enemy, but your fight right now is even more difficult. Sakura is doing her best to help the Hospital, in and out of the tents. I couldn't be more proud of her." Kakashi answered giving an eye smile to his pink haired student.
"I'm not surprised to hear that. She's so passionate and talented, some times she reminds me of Lady Tsunade." Sakura started blushing from the praises
"So what are we going to do with the patient doctor?" the pink haired kunoichi asked.
"I would love to let her stay here, to make sure she recovers completely, and to make sure she doesn't fight any other wild animal" The doctor eyed Kakashi knowingly.
"But we don't have the man power to help her 24/7." The doctor finished.
"If you give the OK doctor, I can take her to my house. There she will have 24/7 observation." Kakashi said
"Oh, I'm sure of it. Every time I treat someone of your... division, they will always leave the same day." The Doctor gave him a smile.
"The paper work is already prepared. All I need is your signature." The doctor and Kakashi walked towards one of the smaller tents.
Meanwhile, not far from the Hospital, in the Uchiha District, Sasuke was walking down the empty street. Everywhere he looked, the only thing he could see is the bodies of his clan. He had to persevere however, he had to find the houses that could still be inhabited by people. Every house he went, he remembered the family that used to live in it. A few years ago he asked the Third Hokage for the Uchiha Clan registry so that he could memorise everyone that his brother Itachi killed.
He locked the door of one of the houses he just finished inspecting.
"I swear I will avenge you. For now, the village needs your help one more time." He said as he marked the house with the symbol of a tiny house inside a circle. He noted the house in a piece of paper and fold it in two.
At that moment an ANBU appeared on front of the last Uchiha.
"The Hokage wants to speak with you Uchiha-san." The masked elite shinobi said and before Sasuke could respond the ANBU was already gone.
"Maybe we have news about Danzo." The raven teen thought out loud and began walking towards the Hokage tower.
After a while, Sasuke was Infront of his best friend.
"Ok Naruto, I'm here what do you want from me?" The raven haired teen asked.
"I'm sure you've already read the reports that Kakashi-sensei gave you." The blond teen began.
"Yeah, The only thing the ANBU found was ashes. It appears Danzo was ready for us to search his ROOT hideout." Sasuke interrupted.
"Yeah but that's not the main problem. The ANBU investigation has shown that Danzo has left the village with ALL his ROOT shinobi." Naruto emphasized the last words.
"Yeah...The reports say that Danzo trained them to become killing machines. They might be better than the ANBU."
"They sure thing is that they have the numbers to attack our village and hurt us bad."
As the two shinobi talked, Monkey landed Infront of the Hokage's desk.
"If I may Hokage-sama." He asked.
"Of course Monkey-captain-san." The ANBU still flinched from the strange honorific his leader gave him.
"Due to my... abilities... Danzo-sama trained me personally. I have already filled a very extensive report about his organization but I think is necessary to speak to you face to face about what kind of a man Danzo is." Sasuke hearing this, immediately pulled out a kunai.
"You served Danzo?! I will make you say everything you have to say!" The Last Uchiha tried to attack but found himself unable to move. He looked behind him and saw Shikamaru using his clan's jutsu.
"What do you think you are going to accomplish by attacking a freaking ANBU? Even if he had something else to hide, I'm sure when he became the Hokage's ANBU, they would have found it." The lazy genius said as he saw the raven haired teen relaxing.
"Hn"
"Please Monkey-captain-san, tell me what you know about Danzo." Naruto said gaining the attention of everyone. The kneeled ANBU lowered his head and began.
"You see, Danzo is the definition of paranoid. He has contingency plans of his contingency plans. He could start something today only for it to finish years or even decades later. He's not beyond using whatever or whoever he can to achieve his goals. He always said that he does it for the Leaf, but in truth he wants power. And he would ally himself with whoever he can give him that power. Danzo has, in the past, worked with Orochimaru for various experiments..." Monkey trailed off
"What kind of experiments?" Shikamaru asked.
"All sorts. Even on infants." The ANBU answered. Naruto's anger filled the room. The ANBU continued.
"I was one of those experiments. Orochimaru gave me to Danzo and he in turn trained me." Hearing that Naruto calmed down wanting to hear the rest.
Flashback
"Danzo-sama, I managed to create a small tree! Do you want to see?" A small kid with brown hair said smiling to the one eyed shinobi.
"Did you finished the exercises I told you?" The old man asked coldly. The kid's smile dropped.
"No... I saw a broken sapling and it reminded me of all the other kids... I wanted to make a big tree, just like Lord First." Danzo slapped him, the kid looked up in shock.
"I told you. These sentimentalities will only hinder you. Hashirama Senju had tremendous abilities. He was the strongest shinobi to have ever lived. You on the other hand... You can't even finish your basic training." Danzo turned around, back to his report he was reading before he was interrupted. The kid turned around to leave but just before he closed the door Danzo spoke once again.
"The First Hokage was the most powerful man in the world. The other nations kneeled to his power. Power is what makes or breaks someone. You will never be as strong as him. You are a tool made by Orochimaru to serve the Leaf. To serve me. This tool needs sharpening. Dismissed."
End Flashback
"Thanks to Kakashi-senpai and Lord Third, I managed to leave that abyss and found the light I needed." He said as he stood up.
"I didn't tell you this because of my story. What I wanted to say is that Danzo has a history with working with Orochimaru. He might be a strong lead to follow." Monkey said and bowed.
Everyone was silent as the information was been processed in their heads.
"Ok, ok, ok. This is too much. Today is too much... The sun is starting to setting and I feel like this day lasted months..." Naruto fell on his desk.
"Thank you Monkey-captain-san." The blond said and the AMBU bowed once again and disappeared. Naruto then turned to the two teens, his friends, in the room.
"What do you say we continue this tomorrow?" Both Sasuke and Shikamaru agreed and left the office.
Naruto looked through the window, down at the streets and saw some shops closing and others opening.
'Man... I really want to take a walk to relax... Everything today was... demanding.' The blond hero sweatdropped.
'Well, you wanted this. I may not know much about you humans, and I don't want to learn, but what I know is that, power is not what a leader needs to rule.' Kurama began speaking.
'Yeah?' Naruto asked innocently. The Tailed Beast stared at him suprised by how straight forward his 'jailer' was.
'ehm... Yes. I knew the best leader to ever exist! He managed to stop the most dangerous threat this world has ever seen. But he didn't stopped there, he traveled everywhere to make sure he could help anyone who might need his help. In the end, it was his patience, perseverance and diplomacy that made people follow him. He cpuld change people's hearts only woth words and not weapons' The Giant Fox said.
'Woah!!! He sounds awesome!!!' Naruto declared.
'Yeah... He was awesome...' Kurama trailed off. Naruto saw the eyes of the fox sadden, he tried to ask but the fox closed his eyes and turned his head, a gesture Naruto learned that it meant Kurama won't answer anything else. Our blond hero turned around to leave but stopped.
'I hope one day I can become a good leader as he was... Thank you Kurama for telling me about him. I promise you, I WILL become a leader like him. Believe it!' He fist bumped towards the sleeping Fox and left the mental space.
'Like him... Old man... I miss you...' The Fox murmured and fell asleep.
Done. This took way too long. Anyway, If you feel the story is slowing down that's because I want to take my time to flesh out both the characters and the world. Please comment your thoughts. Thank you for reading.