Notes:

Another friendly reminder to make sure you haven't skipped chapter 17!

Also, someone pointed out that the scene breaks weren't clear, so I went back to fix that. Hopefully it'll all make sense a bit more now :')

Enjoy!

Chapter 18: Rescue

Hiruzen slowly exhaled as he lowered the pipe from his lips. This all was getting a lot more complicated than he'd like. He had noticed the change in Kakashi right away as Danzo had walked into his office. He knew this was mostly due to Kakashi being wary of Danzo after betraying him a few years back and effectively saving his life. Not to mention he took the wood-user away from Danzo. That ought to make a man angry.

As soon as his old friend had left the room, he turned to Kakashi, asking what worried the teen. Naturally, his question was deflected, but the answer he did receive made him wonder. Kakashi was one hundred percent sure she hadn't ran away? How did he go from doubting to being sure? The only thing that had happened was... Danzo. Of course. He wasn't even surprised that he was somehow involved. It did worry him, though. If he got his hands on young Hermione and the small boy, that would definitely be an issue.

And, of course. This completely explained what had happened to the deceased man. The body of Hermione's friend was supposed to be buried, but when locating the grave, it was empty. If Danzo had gotten his hands on him, it would only make sense he would like someone who was alive as well. He knew from reading the autopsy report that these magical beings weren't quite like them. There were the other men that were being kept at the T&I facility. They were more heavily guarded, however. Hermione was the easiest target, especially when Kakashi wasn't at home.

Hiruzen was brought out of his musings at the arrival of the small pug that was Kakashi's summon.

"Hokage-sama. I have a message from you from Kakashi." The pug said around the scroll in his mouth. He placed the scroll on top of the desk and sat down in front of him.

"Ah, Pakkun, good that you're here. I assume Kakashi has already left?" The Hokage picked up the scroll and unrolled it, quickly reading the notes that were written down.

"He has. He took the rest of the pack with him and requested I get his team ready."

Hiruzen hummed at that. Time was of the essence, so he couldn't think on this too long. He knew what he had to do. He had considered it before, but knowing what he did, the choice was easily made.

"Very well. Before you go, take this with you." He took out a small scroll from a drawer in his desk, unsealing it. It revealed another scroll, carefully rolled up. He handed the scroll to the pug. "It is of the utmost importance that Kakashi gets this."

"Understood. I'll be on my way." The pug took the scroll in his mouth and with a nod turned and jumped out of the window.

Well, Hiruzen thought as he stood up, he should probably get back to work. The paperwork won't disappear if he ignored it. Letting out a sigh he went to grab himself a cup of coffee. He was going to need the caffeine.

When Hermione woke up, the first thing she thought was that she really needed to stop passing out. There was no way this would be good for her health. The second thing she thought that she actually might pass out again, this time from the pain in her body. She tried moving but found herself strapped in a chair, not being able to move an inch. She could barely turn her head.

"About bloody time. I have more things to do than waiting for you to wake up, mudblood."

She knew that voice. Shit. How? How did he get out? Hadn't they locked him up? She glanced to her right. And of course. There he was, with that disgusting smirk on his face. Her breathing quickened as he stepped closer to her. Without her wand, she was defenceless and while she knew he probably didn't have his own wand either, it wouldn't matter to him. He could still perform magic, even without his wand. Her only relief was that if he would try to enter her mind, she could at least try and block him out. She just wasn't sure how strong he'd be if he were to use Legilimens on her.

"Ah, yes. We're going to have a good time, together, aren't we, mudblood? The people here were kind enough to let me have my way with you before they would. All they want is some information."

She watched as he stepped closer, coming into her line of sight. Dolohov. She had to deal with Dolohov. While being tied up. Okay, Hermione. Stay calm. Breathe. You need to focus, keep your mind strong.

"What's the matter, mudblood? Cat got your tongue?"

"Screw you." She bit out.

Dolohov chuckled at that. "Very well. Crucio !"

Hermione tried her hardest to keep quiet, she really did. The pain was too much though. Her throat was getting sore. She was screaming, she realised. Her muscles ached as she fought the curse with all her strength.

"Tell them what they want to know," Dolohov said, momentarily stopping the curse to let her speak.

Hermione didn't say anything. She couldn't give him what he wanted. She would have to endure this for now. She feared what would happen if she no longer could, however. No doubt he'd switch to entering her mind. This was just to break her, she knew. He reached out to her, his hand nearing her face. She tried to avoid his touch but being strapped into the chair she had nowhere to go, flinching as he touched her cheek.

"Come now, mudblood. Tell them what they want to know, and we'll get out of here, hm? I'll make sure you'll be purified of that polluted blood of yours."

"Don't touch me," she hissed, moving her head away from his touch.

"No? Well, I guess you won't mind me continuing then. Crucio !"

Her muscles once again contracted in pain as she let out a long, drawn-out scream. She couldn't think, she could barely breathe. All she felt was the excruciating pain that was caused by the curse. The chair creaked as she shook.

"Are you sure this'll work?"

The pain stopped as Dolohov turned his attention to the person entering the room. Hermione struggled to get her breathing in check. After all the screaming, her throat and lungs ached.

"I've done this plenty of times. It'll work. And if not, well, at least I get to have a bit of fun." Dolohov waived off.

"We don't have time for fun. If you don't get her to talk. We will."

A moment later the door closed again. Dolohov turned back to her, a sinister smile on his face. Letting out an evil laugh, he told her "Let's continue."

"No, no, please. No more." She begged. Even Bellatrix hadn't been torturing her with the Cruciatus curse this much.

He suddenly grabbed her throat, choking her as he made her look at him. "Begging won't work, mudblood."

He kept his eyes on her, making her keep eye contact as he cast another, this time nonverbal, Cruciatus. She watched him look at her full of glee as she started spasming once again.

Hermione couldn't keep her eyes open, even if she wanted to. Another scream tore from her as tears streamed down her face. She didn't think she could take any more of this. She knew she'd never tell them anything concerning Teddy, which only meant one thing. She wouldn't be walking out away from this one.

Kakashi waited for the pack to return with information. Usually he'd be right there with them, looking for a trail. Now, with Teddy in his arms, he wasn't going to risk it. The boy had been hidden for a reason and while he could easily fight while holding the boy, it wasn't ideal.

His sensitive ears picked up sounds from where he came from. He quickly hid in the trees. Friend or foe? Kakashi let his trained senses spread out. Focusing mainly on his hearing, he counted four shinobi, fast incoming, and also… something smaller. A moment later he heard a gruff voice call out his name. Ah, Pakkun. And his team. Good.

He watched as his team gathered below him, around the area where there clearly had been a struggle. Kakashi glanced at the boy in his arms. "Time to meet the team, kid," he softly said before jumping down. Teddy gave a small squeal of excitement at the movement, holding his hands in the air.

"Oi, senpai, where'd you get that kid? And.. why does he look just like yo- Oh my god, senpai! I didn't know you w-"

"Shut up, Shisui, this isn't what you think." Of course Shisui would think that. While Shisui knew that Kakashi had Hermione and a child living at his house, he hadn't actually seen the kid. So, it wasn't all that far-fetched.

"Are you sure, boss? It sure as hell looks like it."

"Genma, don't be an idiot. He's not mine."

The senbon-user came closer to the pair, and made eye contact with the boy who pretty much looked like a miniature version of himself.

"I'll be damned," he muttered. "How?"

"That's what I'd like to know. And I'd love to ask her. There's just one slight problem." He said, while pointing and the ground and the blood.

"Blood." Yugao noted. "Hers?"

Kakashi nodded. "Yeah, it's fresh, so there's still time. The pack is tracking their scents."

Yugao nodded and walked off, checking the area.

"Kakashi," Pakkun walked towards him, a scroll in his mouth. Kakashi wordlessly bent down and took the scroll from him. "The Hokage requested I give this to you, said you would know what to do with it."

He looked down at the scroll, wondering what could be in there. He started to shift the kid to his hip, so that he could open the scroll, when the boy clapped in his hands and said, "Shi!"

He sighed as he felt all the eyes of his team shift to the child in wonder. "Shisui, you're good with kids, right? Hold him for a second, will you?"

"You got it, senpai! And you even tried to teach him my name! Sweet!"

"For fucks sake, Shisui." Kakashi groaned as he handed the kid to him.

"Please, watch your language senpai." The Uchiha said in a serious voice.

Kakashi rolled his eyes at that. He wasn't even going to tell him the kid didn't understand their language. Maybe now the rest of them would stop spouting nonsense all the damn time. He turned his attention to the scroll in his hand, performing the necessary hand signs he unsealed the scroll, revealing… a stick? No, this wasn't just a stick. It was a wand, more specifically Hermione's wand. Well, she would definitely need it, now that the other one was snapped in half.

"Uhh, senpai?" Shisui nervously said. The tone made Kakashi look up, watching Shisui hold the child away from him, with a frown on his face. He was about to ask what he wanted when he noticed the kid's hair turn black. Oh, damn. Walking towards them he noticed Shisui had turned on his Sharingan, no doubt to check what had happened to the kid. He wondered if there was something to be seen, uncovering his own Sharingan to check.

Nothing. There was absolutely nothing noticeable going on with the kid, besides the obvious. He paused as he looked at the kids eyes. They had turned blood-red, almost like direct copies of the Sharingan, which was ironic in itself. So, the kid obviously had abilities to change his appearance at will. That certainly was interesting. Did Hermione possess the same abilities?

Shit, he almost forgot. He needed to stay focused, damn it. They could deal with this later. "Pakkun, any sign?"

"Not yet, let me go check." The pug sprinted off.

His team gathered around him and Shisui, all looking at the kid as he looked at all of them in wonder. Not even a minute later, Pakkun returned. "Found the trail. We should hurry."

Shisui held Teddy close to him again as they all took off after Pakkun. If the ninken said they should hurry, they'd better listen. It took them about ten minutes to close in on the pack. All of them gathered around a random spot in a field. To Kakashi and Shisui, however, it wasn't a random spot at all. A powerful genjutsu seemed to be in place.

"Shisui?"

"Yeah, got it."

He shifted the boy in his arms and did a couple of quick hand signals, the genjutsu dispersed and with that a small building came into view. It looked like an old abandoned building, although it was quite clear this was only a small part of it. The rest seemed to be going underground. Now that the barrier was down, they suddenly heard a gut-wrenching scream coming from within. Kakashi froze as he listened to the sound, there was no doubt about who that belonged to but fuck, they couldn't just burst in without knowing what they were getting themselves into.

He couldn't think clearly, however. The only thing going through his head was that he had to go to her. Had to stop those screams that were so full of agony, it made him want to kill anything or anyone that was causing them.

"Boss?"

Kakashi turned to look at Genma helplessly. He didn't know what to do. How could he not know what to do? This had never happened to him before. He always had a level head, well, almost always. Fuck. He was panicking, wasn't he? This so wasn't the time for that. Focus Hatake. Come on. Lives were at stake here. He shook his head, shaking away the confusing thoughts.

"Yeah, let's go. Pakkun, you and the pack stay here with Shisui. The rest of us, go in. Main priority is Hermione. We must get her out of there. Keep in mind we're dealing with Root and this isn't an official mission. Other than that, this is not within the walls of Konoha, which makes it a bit of a grey area. It's extremely important that we do not kill any of them either way. The consequences of that would be too great."

Kakashi moved towards the building, followed by Genma, Yugao and Tenzou. They swiftly moved through the hallways of the building, coming closer and closer to where the screams were coming from. They stopped and hid themselves from view as a door opened, revealing one of the wizards that had arrived here with Hermione. How did he get here? He was supposed to be heavily guarded and in custody of the T&I unit.

He made quick signals to Genma and Tenzou to make sure no one would disturb them, as he and Yugao entered the room. He heard Hermione beg for the man to stop, followed by another scream, this one the worst of all he has heard up until this point. He was too late to stop himself. As he saw the man stand over Hermione as he made her scream without even touching her, the Raikiri came to life in his hand. Not even Yugao was fast enough to stop him from punching his hand through the man's chest, right through the heart.

As soon as he had hit the man, Hermione's screaming slowly died out. Kakashi stood still, hand still through the man's chest as he felt the weight of the man bear down on his arm. He retracted his arm, letting the man fall to the floor like a sack of potatoes. In the meantime Yugao had rushed to Hermione, undoing the straps that tied her to her chair. She tried coaxing answers out of her, checking to see how she was, but Yugao didn't speak her language.

"Let me," he said to the purple-haired woman, softly shoving her aside. "Hermione-san? Can you hear me?"

He got no response, other than a soft groan, which at least indicated she was still somewhat conscious. Turning towards Yugao, he said, "let's get her out of here. She'll definitely need medical attention, but I'd rather not do that here."

Kakashi reached out to lift her out of the chair, but as he touched her she suddenly flinched and tried to push him away. There was no real strength behind her pushing, which wasn't surprising. "Hermione-san, calm down. It's me, Kakashi."

At his words, she seemed to struggle even more, softly begging, tears in her eyes as she looked at him, "please, don't. Please." He didn't get it. Why was she doing this? Did she not realise it was him? "Don't touch me, please." Shit. She actually tried to get away from him.

"Hermio-," he tried again.

"No! Don't touch me! Get away from me!" She started softly sobbing.

"Boss, maybe I should take her?" Kakashi looked behind him to see Genma standing there. Yugao was no longer next to him, no doubt having swapped places with the man knowing he spoke Hermione's language as well.

"I- Sure. Make it quick. We have to go." His tone was flat, masking the hurt he felt at the rejection. It shouldn't matter who carried her. He shouldn't feel like this anyways. Instead, he turned to the man he had just killed while enraged. It would be better to bring the body with them. Picking him up, he threw the man over his shoulder and made his way out of the room.

"Hey beautiful. I'm gonna pick you up and we're getting out of here, alright? You're gonna be fine." He heard Genma say behind him, waiting until the man had Hermione in his arms. Once he had, he made his way outside. Yugao and Tenzou had cleared the way out for them, so they could leave unnoticed. Well, as unnoticed as they could with the sound of a thousand chirping birds.

Hermione didn't know what was happening. One minute she's screaming her lungs out and the next she feels the straps on the chair disappearing. She's so disoriented though, she can't tell left from right. She heard someone talking, a female, but couldn't discern what was being said. When trying to open her eyes again, everything was fuzzy. She did notice a silvery blob of hair. Shit, no. Not this again. Wasn't once enough?

"Hermione-san? Can you hear me?"

Wait. It did actually sound like him this time, didn't it? Damn it, her head was killing her. She groaned at the throbbing headache. She then heard him talk in his own language and then she felt a touch, feeling the all-familiar spark going through her, making her flinch and instinctively push him away. She felt disgusting after what Dolohov had done with her, touching her so tenderly. And now with him doing the same. She couldn't take it. She didn't even know it was really him. Sure, the spark was there, but Dolohov had managed to get into her head, she just couldn't be sure what was real anymore.

"Hermione-san, calm down. It's me, Kakashi." She heard the man say. Yeah right. Sure he was. She didn't trust anything he was saying at this point. Dolohov had seriously messed with her mind. Finding the memories of this happening with Kakashi before, he took serious advantage of that while torturing her with the curse. That man was scary talented if he was actually able to pull that off. Hermione struggled even more as he didn't back down.

"Please, don't. Please," Hermione begged him. No more. She couldn't take anymore of this torture. "Don't touch me, please." She just wanted to go home. Wanted to go to sleep and wake up in her own bed. This was all just a huge nightmare. It couldn't possibly be real.

"Hermio-," he tried again.

"No! Don't touch me! Get away from me!" Why wouldn't he listen?! Couldn't he see she couldn't deal with this? She thought as she started sobbing. No more. Please, no more.

Another man had entered the room, speaking softly in their native language. This voice sounded familiar, but she was too tired to try and figure out who it was.

The response the man got from 'Kakashi' was void of any emotion. It sounded so cold. See? She was right. It wasn't him. She felt him move away from her as another body came closer. "Hey beautiful. I'm gonna pick you up and we're getting out of here, alright? You're gonna be fine."

For some reason, she didn't flinch as he reached out. Really, she was too tired to care anyways. As she felt the man carefully pick her up, she rested her head against his shoulder as he started walking. Within a few moments, she felt a soft breeze and managed to open her eyes. As she looked to her side, she noticed Kakashi wasn't alone. There were people waiting that she hadn't seen before, besides one. Teddy.

She was too tired to even stop the tears from falling as she looked at the young boy who looked completely different. She couldn't even find it in herself to care about the fact that his ability was visible for all of them to see. All she had eyes for was the small hand that pointed towards her and the smile on his face. Relief coursing through her at the thought that he was safe.