Chapter 3
A/N: Still not much action, but getting there. Next chapter will get interesting (I hope). Warning for you manga purists out there, Kakashi uses a fire jutsu (which apparently he only uses in the anime) (for a guy who apparently knows one-thousand jutsus he doesn't use that many). Hope you guys enjoy and be sure to comment, review, and favorite! They fuel my hunger...
The setting sun makes the map easier to read and helps Kakashi orient himself northward. The parchment is crumbling, and the names of towns are blurred beyond recognition. He wonders if the map is even useful with how old it is. The desert that Kakashi's stranded in takes up a large region in the center, if the tan color and unmarked topography is correct. In the map's desert is a small, deliberate puncture mark, as if it was made from a small tooth or claw. Kakashi's eye curls happily at the clever fox's helpfulness.
But where to go from here? It was obvious that Kakashi should be looking for some way to "save the world" so he can somehow get home, but the scroll isn't really clear on how to do that. He sits down on the roof of the tower and pulls out the scroll depicting his figure. He follows his own advice of "look underneath the underneath" and scans the scroll for any other hint. Kakashi blames the fact that he's still in a different world that he hasn't had the idea to look at the back of the paper until now. He's surprised to find a small mark in the corner that look like badly drawn concentric circles. There aren't any words accompanying it, but the circles are intentionally drawn on with black ink.
He looks back to the map on his lap and finds a similar marking. To the northwest of the desert is a large encircled area made of different rings. The largest one is misshapen to include some of the land's mountains and a lake while the smaller rings grow closer and closer to perfect circles. Kakashi compares the two markings with each other and finds that they're exactly the same. He supposes that as big of a hint he's going to get.
Kakashi stands up, tucking the two papers back into the sack. He looks out into the horizon, spotting a stone structure off towards the north. That would be a good place to rest during the day. It's cool enough to travel without being cooked alive by the sun, but it would still take while to reach it while traveling on foot. He tugs the headwrap back over his head and makes the ram seal with his hands. Kakashi disappears with a puff of smoke with a Shunshin.
He reappears in the sand below a bit away from the library's tower, but he still has the whole night of travelling to reach the stone landmark. Kakashi decides to save his chakra for emergencies only and continues his journey though the desert on foot. While he jogs, Kakashi pulls out one of the fruits he saved from the plates that the fox had given him and snacks on it. He had also refilled his small water pouch bit by bit from the water bowls.
Still, the water will only last so long in the dryness of the desert. Even when rationing it out, Kakashi finishes around half of his small pouch. He doesn't see any green on the horizon other than the odd cactus. Small lizards running on their hind legs are the only other signs of life in the wasteland. By the time he arrives at the large rock, the sun is starting to rise in the east and the temperature is already climbing.
The rock is marred by giant holes all over. Kakashi peers inside to find some kind of thick, opaque honey stuck to the walls. He wonders if there are giant bee spirits in this world as well. At least the floor is clean.
A buzzing sound resonates deep with the cave. Kakashi looks into the darkness to find large flying bodies moving towards him. The sunlight hits the shadows within, revealing a horrendous cross between a vulture and a hornet. Kakashi grabs a kunai from his pouch just as the beast leading the group screeches at him. He can't see how many others are deep in the cave, but there are three already rushing at him.
Kakashi holds his kunai across his body and counts down in his mind. The bird wasps come closer and closer. It opens its sharp beak to attack. Kakashi kicks off the wall and jumps to meet the bird, kunai cutting through its thin neck. The head and body separate in two different directions. The thorax and abdomen crash into the rocks beside him. The other giant bugs ignore their downed comrade to attack him. Kakashi slices through necks, legs, and exoskeleton. The giant wasps keep coming. The floor is stained with dark blood. He ducks and weaves around each one, cutting deeply into their wings and heads.
Their bodies start to pile up in the cave, limiting his motion. When more and more start appearing from the depths of the hive, Kakashi jumps backwards, shoving his kunai back into his pouch. His hands blur through hand seals until he brings one up to his covered mouth.
"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu (Great Fireball)!" A fireball fills the cave, setting alight the honey on the walls. The screeches of the dying creatures are loud. When the fire moves deeper into the stone hive, it reveals the charred bodies of the large bird-insects. He looks to the other many openings of the rock to see other buzzard wasps escape the smoke. A few others spot him, cawing as they swoop down. He takes care of those few swiftly. The rest all fly off into the desert. They'll probably return sooner or later.
For now, Kakashi can make a base within one of the other openings that isn't filled with the bodies of the creatures. He wonders if there are any normal animals in this place.
With a few hand seals, Kakashi slams his palms into the cave's floor. "Doton: Doryūheki (Earth-Style Wall)." A wall of rock springs from the ground and seals off the opening from the rest of the hive. The sun climbs higher in the east, making Kakashi sweat just from the temperature alone. He props himself against the wall, head leaning against the cool stone. He keeps his kunai in his hand, ready for when those giant wasps return.
Behind closed eyes, Kakashi sees the crater that is Konoha. There's a spot of pink hair from under a large boulder and a girl with thick purple markings on her cheeks stares listlessly into the sky. The memorial stone stands tall, casting a shadow over him. When Kakashi turns around, he finds the man orange hair with purple eyes with the body of his blonde student clutched in his hand, holding him by the throat. "You did this," Pein says while pointing his other hand at him. A steel rod extends from his palm and pierces Kakashi's heart. It hurts less than seeing the ruins of his village.
When Kakashi wakes up it's already afternoon, but he doesn't know if it's the same day or not. His joints creak when he stands, and his muscles are outrageously sore. His internal clock is completely thrown off. Kakashi sips at his water pouch and finds it draining. There still isn't a hint of him finding the edge of the desert anytime soon. Kakashi climbs to the top of the rock hive to get a better vantage point.
He looks all around and finds a couple of tan tents with red flags set up. It looks to be a merchant camp from the tiny specks of people milling around. Kakashi bets that they'll be able to trade him some food and water for some of his coins.
So, Kakashi leaps from the rock and makes his way over the flatlands of the desert to hopefully friendly merchants (though with his track record right now, it's fifty-fifty). Luckily, no one attacks him when he arrives at the largest tent. The merchants with beetle helmets just look at him strangely, which is warranted as he somehow found their camp on foot and without company. His bandit disguise also doesn't trigger anyone to attack, letting him walk into the tent peacefully. He does get weirded out by the giant beetle though, not that it was any worse than Tsunade's slug summons.
Kakashi is able to load up on food and water after some haggling in the foreign language, getting extra pouches of resources. If Kakashi got the feeling their trying to scam him, let it be known that he did not eye-smile creepily at them until the beetle merchants lessened their price.
He's in the middle of buying some cloth from one of the smaller tents when two more of those sand sailboats arrive at the camp with others dressed similar to him. Kakashi makes sure to keep his head ducked and continues his transaction but eyes focused on them. They're tugging some giant animal behind them, dragging it across the sand.
Two merchants arrive to deal with the new arrivals while Kakashi tucks a thick navy-blue blanket into his bag. It's when Kakashi is moving towards the smallest of the tents does the white, fluffy giant gives a roar. He looks at the scene before him.
The animal looks like a giant bison… if giant bison had six legs and a platypus tail. There's an arrow marking down the middle of its head, which Kakashi can't tell if its natural or dyed onto the white fur. The bandits have captured it in a crisscross of ropes, some he can tell are tight enough to cut off circulation. The merchants hand off a fancy looking box to the bandits and they get together to drag the animal onto a sleigh with claws to hold it down.
Suddenly, the bison starts thrashing in its restraints. The sand bandits take off with their case of money, leaving the beetle merchants to deal with the giant animal. Kakashi is handing off a silver coin for a rice hat when the beast pushes off the ground with a flap of its tail, dragging the beetle over itself. One of the merchants whips out some blow darts and the bison comes crashing down.
Kakashi spots the saddle on top of the animal and knows that it's been stolen from someone. If it had been the bandits', they would've ridden it on the way here instead of tying it with ropes. As a ninken owner, Kakashi doesn't approve of animal abuse. So when he sees that its struggling to escape, he has to do something about it.
Kakashi approaches the two beetle merchants with a friendly wave. "Yo!"
"Sandbender," one of them growls. "how dare you sell us some troublesome animal!"
"Hey, don't look at me." Kakashi waves his hand nonchalantly. "I'm not with them. But if you could hand over the bison to me, that'd be great."
The merchants turn to each other before looking back at him. They start to laugh so hard they double over. "And why would we do that? There's a circus who would give a lot of money to have such a beast!"
While circuses existed in his world, Konoha had all but banned them after the Inuzuka clan was up in arms about the abuse the animals experienced. Kakashi didn't want to make any assumptions, but an already-owned animal wouldn't make a good circus animal.
Kakashi sighs before his relaxed eye suddenly turns serious. With a silent Shunshin, he appears before the two merchants with kunai inches from their throats. The entire camp is silent. "Because if you don't, you and the rest of your band of merchants will die, and I'll take the bison from your corpses." Kakashi usually didn't like threatening civilians, but he felt this was necessary.
The two merchants gulp, throats dangerously bulging to press against the sharp kunai. Kakashi even draws a line of blood from one of them.
"Al-Alright!" the one on his right shouts. "We'll give you the flying bison! Pl-please, just spare us!" They both start crying.
Kakashi pulls back and they both fall into the sand, weeping heavily. He turns to look at the tents, finding the rest of the merchants ducking behind their stalls. Kakashi turns back to the unconscious bison and the now upright giant beetle, nervously skittering in place. He turns back to the merchants, eye turned into a careless smile. "Hope you don't mind, but I'll be needing your beetle too." They obviously don't say a word of protest.
Kakashi rides the beetle (and isn't that a strange thought) through the desert back to the stone hive. He makes sure to check inside that the buzzard wasps didn't return yet. Kakashi finds a couple that he deals with swiftly before turning back towards the two ride animals.
He cuts the ropes attaching the sleigh to the beetle with a quick swipe of his knife. The beetle scuttles in place, somewhat confused. It seems they were more intelligent than his world's average animals, but not to the level of summons. Kakashi waves the beetle off, "Go on, you're free." And with that, the giant beetle runs off into the desert. He hopes there's actually not something big enough to eat it.
The bison is still unconscious, so Kakashi takes this time to undo claws holding it in place. In case it rampages when it wakes up, he leaves a couple of ropes in place. With its thick, white fur, the bison isn't suited at all for the desert's climate. Kakashi just hopes that it doesn't overheat when it reaches noon tomorrow. Luckily the sun is setting and the sand is starting to cool down.
Kakashi settles down next to the bison, one knee propped against his chest and an arm draped across. He takes the headwrap off, spiky silver hair flying free. Kakashi stays awake for as long as he can, but the nightmares eventually catch up to him.