Part V | Chapter 7

"Give me your stomach."

"I'm afraid I need it to live."

"All the more reason, don't you think, Kakashi." Gohama answered with a sweet smile. He walked to stand in front of her, half a step in distance, so that she had to crank her neck up to look at him. "I'm going to manipulate your chakra. Focus on being aware of how I move it and how I make it dormant and hide it."

Her palm pressed onto the spot above his bellybutton and she felt his muscles twitch and chakra spike. It was obvious Kakashi didn't like when people invaded his personal space. Gohama could more than sympathise with that.

With only his fitted shirt underneath his flak jacket, she could send thin threads of chakra through the fabric and inside his chakra points. Her eyes closed automatically as she moved her energy slowly and clearly through his pathways, avoiding clashes against his own as it circled around.

First she moved towards the tips of his fingers and toes. Every movement deliberate and showcased. "Notice how I try to wash your chakra towards your core. But there is always some remaining, so I spread it around until it's lost against the natural chakra of your surroundings. It's important that you leave this chakra behind, so there isn't just a blank spot where you should be. The trick is to merge yourself with your surroundings."

Gohama stopped her chakra inside of him. When she opened her eyes to talk to him, she found his grey eye boring into her face and a crease between his eyebrows. For some reason it made her blush a little. "Try it in your dominant hand first."

Now it was Kakashi's time to close his eyes, his brow creasing deeper in concentration. It came easy for him. His lightning techniques already asked of him to have great chakra control in his hands. "The other one and feet."

Slowly her chakra awareness was losing sight of these parts of Kakashi. "Brush the accumulated chakra towards your core, without forgetting to leave some behind. Especially around your organs."

Again his legs and arms were easy, but he faltered when he reached multitude of intricate and less controlled pathways of his torso. After long minutes, he made a sound between a sigh and a growl. Gohama pressed her hand back onto his stomach and pushed more of her chakra so she could guide his own. Kakashi twitched, his chakra spiked and fluttered, losing most of his progress.

She winced under his glare. "Should have warned you. My bad." He growled again and took a little step into her personal space. She put her hands against his chest, so he wouldn't walk any farther. "I was trying to help, if that means anything. It's not really my fault that you're so twitchy."

"Twitchy, hmm?"

His hand scooped both her wrists in his hold, while the other pressed to her stomach. His chakra shoved through her pathways and she gasped. It was incredible intrusive and it also made her own chakra frenzy when they blended, making it difficult to control. All her skin broke with goose bumps and shudders. It was one thing to feel the tickling in her skin, another for Kakashi's powerful chakra to rub through her inside, making all of her tingle.

Gohama whimpered and stared wide eyed at his cocky face. It didn't feel bad, it felt amazing, a dangerous type of amazing.

Before she could let her mind absorb that thought completely, she manipulated her chakra to push his electric one out of her body. Gohama's face was burning up when the sensation of having Kakashi's energy inside of her finally vanished, her muscles still shuddering.

Kakashi crossed his arms and looked down at her with an infuriatingly cocky raised eyebrow. "I guess I'm not the only twitchy one."

"I admit that it feels a little… weird… and intrusive… but—"

"A little? You're all flustered, Gohama."

Her head turned slightly to the side as she wrapped her arms around herself to control the small tremors still lingering in her body. "I'm not flustered, I'm uncomfortable, it's different."

"Your hair isn't going to hide that raging blush." He joked while his hand pulled her front tresses back.

Before he could actually touch them, Gohama swatted his hand. It didn't dissuade his teasing, with a step forward, and a mirroring step back from her, he leaned down to near his mouth to her ear. "Does my chakra inside of you make you blush, Gohama?"

She crushed her eyes closed at the low rough timber of his voice. Kakashi was winning. He never won when they did these little things, he could never go as far as she was willing to go. His daring today only worked in his favour by surprising her. She was flustered, how could she not be when his chakra felt like that? The possibilities… Her eyes widened and barred whatever thoughts and ideas could come down that dangerous road.

Before he could pull away from her, his victory exuding out of him, Gohama grabbed the collar of his flak jacket drawing him even closer to her. Her face turned until his was flush to his masked one, her lips the ghost of a touch on his ear. "There's another thing of yours that would make me blush even more."

There it was. Gohama had come to recognise the way his chakra reacted whenever she did or said something that affected him. "Mm, what is it?" Why did he have to sound so nice?

"You're focus." She pushed him away from her with a rough shove. "Now shut up and start again."

"Three meters behind." Gohama said as she stayed put in the middle of the backyard, her eyes closed, senses sharp to any Kakashi-shaped change in her surroundings. "Left, Right. Behind again. Nine meters now." She described as his signatures jumped from position to position around her. "It's your butt. Can still sense it."

"Then it's not my butt."

"Your lap. Maybe a bit on the shoulder blade."

"Now?" His voice sounded from behind her, but Gohama couldn't sense him. He chuckled the same cocky and dangerous tilt as he realised that too.

Then he moved and his movement made distortions appear in the chakra around them. "You're moving. Don't forget about merging with the surroundings."

He was gone again. "Now." His voice sounded from a different position and Gohama hadn't felt him move.

Her stomach coiled with the foreign, exciting feeling of not knowing where someone was, of not knowing where they would appear next, where Kakashi's low, languid tone would sound again. It felt as if it had been hours that she was standing in the middle of the backyard, her muscles tight as a spring ready to snap, her eyes closed.

The hairs at the back of her neck stood up and a shiver ran down her spine when she felt warmth seep into her back. "Behind." She whispered. The warmth left and she waited until it came back.

It was on her right side, closer than earlier, close enough that she could feel Kakashi's breath tingle the skin of her temple, then her cheek and later her ear. "Now." Danger whispered in his voice.

"Left." Gohama answered steadily.

Kakashi corrected her by taking a step closer, until the front of his flak jacket was touching her side, and letting out his chakra freely. Even through the layers of clothing and flesh between them, it meddled with her own. "Right." She breathed.

The next time he appeared it was in front of her. The closest he had been. Instead of speaking Gohama opened her eyes, but he was using a concealment jutsu. Her hand reached tentatively to touch him where she supposed his face would be and found his jaw. Under her palm, his bone clenched shut and his chakra fluttered through her skin.

His rushing heartbeat thundered through her fingers. Gohama's thumb dragged over the edge of his mask and a silent breath fanned across her face. A tentative hand slid inside her haori and hovered above her hip, light fingertips resting weightless over the fabric of her shorts. Then his palm pressed to her, warm and tingly, giving her a little push into him until her chest touched his.

Gohama raised herself on her tiptoes, her head tilted back so her mouth could reach his ear again. Her fingers glided from his jaw until they was grasping the small hairs of his nape. "Front."

His fingers tightened around her flesh and then he was gone from under her hand, his chakra still ringing in her awareness. He appeared large steps away, usual slouch in his frame.

"I got it now." He gave her a hesitant thumbs up.

"Did you just give me a thumbs up?"

"Yes. Is there a problem with my thumb?" Kakashi asked dryly as he turned his hand to look at it.

"Nothing, it's just that Gai does the same when we finish sparring. It's been only a month and you're already showing signs of withdrawal." Her lips spread into a sweet, merciless smile. "I can dress in a leotard for our next taijutsu training if you want to."

His eye glided up and down her figure, until it finally settled on her face. In his flustered state, Kakashi couldn't even find a weak comeback to her teasing. All he could do was stare at her, as if still trying to understand her words, his thumb still stretching out of his fist.

"Thanks for the lesson, Gohama." His fingers waved in his typical gesture and he disappeared again in a puff of smoke.

Once he was gone, Gohama's muscles sagged, her heart still lively inside her ribs. She had won again, but more than victory there was disappointment in her chest. It all washed away with the realisation that the disappointed was because she had wanted it to become more than a stupid flirting contest. More with Hatake Kakashi, more with the ANBU that had assassinated her parents.

Her legs gave out and she fell onto her bottom, elbows supported on her knees as she brushed her hands through her hair. What the fuck was she doing?

Pakkun's nails clanked on the wood of the engawa as he came to sit on Kakashi's lap. He started brushing the fur around his ears obliviously, as he watched the rest of his pack playing around with Gohama, an odd version of tag that mostly implied tackling her around.

"She has a nice smile." Pakkun commented in a gruff tone and it made Kakashi realise he had been smiling. How could he not be when she was letting out gleaming carefree laughs that seemed to bubble in his chest? "I can see why you like her. Even Bull likes her."

"Of course, he does, she pets him and gives him fresh game meat."

"Still, I thought he'd side with me on this one." His ninken grumbled and his eyes narrowed at the cheerful sight of the pack and Gohama, which only made him look more adorable.

"You used to like her."

"She hadn't turned you into almost a missing nin then."

"I'm here because I want to be here."

Kakashi had wondered why he had wanted to come there before, and it seemed so difficult to answer then, but not anymore. He wanted to be there because he cared about Gohama, because that hollow gaze after Tsukate's death had made his entire soul shake. The burning need to be there for her had come before anything else. It wasn't just compassion, it was something that bloomed deeper and entrenched through and in every crevasse, plane and hole of him. Something he couldn't name, not yet at least.

Gohama had become his priority. Kakashi wouldn't defect for her, but he would walk around the edge, especially because he could, Tsunade wouldn't question his loyalty. His loyalty to Konoha wasn't questionable.

"What does she give you?"

"It's not like that." Kakashi answered harshly at the insinuation of Pakkun. Especially because the ninken knew it wasn't true, becoming intimate with someone was always something that seeped into the person's scent. He had only meant it as a cruel jab at Gohama's character.

"Then what the hell are you doing?"

"Helping Gohama train."

"Does the Hokage even know where you are?"

"We just a need one more week."

"There's no we in this, Kakashi."

"Pakkun, you're my ninken." Kakashi hissed as his hand left his fur and fisted beside his leg. "I tell you what to do, not the other way around."

"I just don't want to see you get hurt."

Kakashi opened his book, making sure the pages covered the sight of Pakkun on his lap. His mood was ruined, why did the nosy ninken have to ruin his mood? Yesterday Kakashi had spent his emotional energy on feeling guilty about letting his restraint fall for a small moment. Summoning the pack had been an attempt at shedding himself of his brooding and maybe helping dissipate the awkward tension between him and Gohama.

It had worked, Gohama was laughing and Kakashi was smiling and now Pakkun had to bring up how wrong that was, how absurd and uncertain their circumstances were. How cruel…

"Are you going to sulk?" Pakkun asked as his paws supported his raised position on Kakashi's chest, his snout trying to move the book away so Kakashi could see his puppy-eyed expression. "I shouldn't have offended her, I know she's important to you. I'm worried, it's just… you're not really acting very Kakashi-like."

"Have you ever thought that maybe this is me? Maybe it's the first time I've finally..."

"I know that, Kakashi. I've known you since you were a pup and if it was any other circumstance… It may be the first time, but it doesn't mean it's the right time."

Kakashi lowered the book to look down at the honest concerned eyes of his dear ninken. "Pakkun, I—"

His spine stiffened at the feel of two familiar chakra signatures as they breeched the protective barrier Gohama had raised around Buki. He looked at her right away and she was already looking back.

"They're…" Gohama started as she stared wide-eyed towards Kakashi.

"Hoshigaki Kisame and Uchiha Itachi."

"The Akatsuki that killed Uncle."

Kakashi jumped from the engawa at her deadly tone, her fingers curled into shaking fists at her side, as her chakra spread, solid and lethal, like a cloud of poisonous smoke. His pack stared at Gohama, their tails lowered and still, not knowing how to react at such a cruel aura.

He stopped right in front of her, grasping onto her upper arm harshly to bring her out of the killing haze. "Gohama, I know it's… hard. But I need you to keep your head cool. Today isn't just about revenge, it's about stopping them from getting Seiryu, from getting you."

"All I can see is Uncle and… and them throwing his body as if he was nothing…"

Her chakra wavered and it exuded not only killing intent, but a dark smothering grief that made Kakashi's throat clamp up. He clenched his teeth, trying to force himself into thinking and not getting consumed by her overwhelming energy.

"I'm going to use the card." He told her softly and she finally raised her head with a confused expression. "You know Tsukate wouldn't want you to fight for revenge over his death. He'd want you most of all to worry about your safety, Gohama."

Gohama just stared, unmoving and his trepidation grew, as he waited for her to slash out at him. Her head shook softly, the corners of her lips upturning into the start of a smile and the smothering atmosphere eased. "You sly bastard. You know how well that card works on me."

Kakashi let out a long breath as Gohama pulled away and turned her back on him. She tilted her head back, her short dark hair reaching her shoulder blades, as her frame heaved with deep breaths, her chakra receding. When she was calm again, or at least in control, Gohama twirled on her feet, the rage from before giving place to determination.

"Here." Gohama pushed a piece of sealed paper into his hand. "Put a little bit of chakra into that."

Kakashi left his hand extended, an eyebrow quirked up as he examined the swirls and characters written on the paper. He couldn't understand them, they were Kyura sealing language. "Are you trying to blow me up?"

"I wouldn't be standing next to you if I were. But it's better if you don't give me any ideas, Kakashi." Kakashi continued to stare at her, waiting for an explanation. Trust didn't mean one could blindly push chakra into a foreign fuinjutsu tag. "It releases a protective chakra dome. Your chakra needs to be in it so you can activate it and enter it, like my locking seals."

"This is useful." He quipped while saving it in his back pouch. "When did you come up with it?"

"Before leaving Konoha. Jiraiya helped me stabilise it, so don't worry about blowing up."

His eyebrows raised at the sannin's name. "You two know each other?"

"We do. He even invited me join him on his intel gathering travels, but I guess that won't happen anymore."

"You were going to accept it?"

"How could I not accept it? Partnering up with a sannin against Akatsuki, it was the best breakthrough I had in years."

She had been planning to leave Konoha before any of this mess happened, before she was forced to never come back. Did her team knew she would leave them either way? "And your team?"

Gohama's deadly piercing glare answered when her words didn't. They hadn't know, probably not even Hansuke. She was challenging him to dare continue down that dangerous path of conversation. He didn't dare, not because he was scared she would hurt him, well, maybe a little, but because it was clear Gohama suffered from the way things had worked out for her team. There was no reason to taunt that, especially not before a difficult battle.

"But now I'm a missing-nin and an enemy of Konoha, only someone as fucked as you would fraternise with me. You're more fucked up than the author of Icha Icha, a man that practically speaks like a kabuki theatre character. That's a little worrying."

And with those jabs at him that didn't hold any actual spite behind, the vulnerability was pushed away from herself and her focus returned to the battle.

"Fuck, he's gorgeous." Gohama breathed out as she and Kakashi watched their adversaries from a high hidden point. The akatsuki were just standing, waiting for them to show up, certainly already aware of their position.

"It's the gills right?"

"Mm, and those sexy beady eyes."

"Maa, Gohama, it's not really practical to fall for the enemies that want you dead."

"I can be sad about the loss of a pretty face."

"Just no challenging eye gazing, remember what I told you about the Tsukuyomi."

"But they're so pretty..." There was a heavy mocking tone to their conversation, but Gohama wasn't lying. Itachi had the most gorgeous eyes she had ever seen, even more beautiful than Hansuke's hazel ones.

"It's really getting to you, huh?"

"A powerful dangerous boy with pretty and deadly eyes…what's not to like? There's just one downside."

"Don't tell me the fact that he's here to kidnap you is a turn off."

"Oh no, it's not that…" His unimpressed look had an edge that still asked her to continue. She pinned him with one of her teasing smirks. "You should know by now that I'm into older men, Kakashi."

Without answering in any way, he turned his eye back to their enemies. "The sword absorbs chakra. Don't let it touch you. And…"

"…don't let you get killed and don't let myself get caught."

"Something like that."

"Don't worry, Copy-nin. I wouldn't let others do my dirty work. You're mine." She let the last phrase roll through tongue like a purr.

"Quoting Icha Icha, now, are we?"

She threw him an over-the-top seductive look and his own words back. "Something like that."

"This is the time to get serious, Gohama."

Gohama had tried to take the tense edge out of Kakashi with her playful teasing, but his muscles were still tight as springs ready to snap and the crease between his brows wouldn't smooth down. It was understandable, from what he had shared of the power and devastation Itachi's mangekyo sharingan held, but it left her uneasy to feel Kakashi, the Konoha shinobi best known for his nonchalance in battle, so apprehensive.

"I can fight him, or at least you don't need to fight the Tsukuyomi alone, Kakashi."

"No. It's okay. I just need you to promise me that if you have to run, you run, Gohama."

"You know I can't promise you that, Kakashi. I won't run. Not anymore."

"If they capture you, you're d—" His masked lips pressed into a thin line. "You're a liability."

The word sent a pang right through her heart. "Of course…"

She shifted on her feet, ready to jump down to meet their enemies, who were patiently waiting for them to join them, but Kakashi held onto her arm.

"Gohama." It took him a little pull at her arm, for her to turn back to face him. His eye bore into her own with the sharpness of battle, and the intensity coiling in it made her blush. "I won't let them take you."

Was Kakashi trying to ease her or ease himself? "Don't promise what you can't keep."

"As long as I'm alive, they won't take you." His hand brushed up her arm to rest on the curve where her neck met her shoulder. Kakashi clenched his jaw and with a frown turned his eye to look over her head. "Seiryu, if you're listening, don't let her do anything stu..."

Gohama flickered away before he could finish, standing right before Kisame and Uchiha Itachi. Kakashi appeared behind her, whispering a quiet, "What did I say about doing stupid things?"

She ignored him, her stare intent on the two ninja standing before her. Her hands closed into tight fists, nails biting into her skin, as she tried to keep her head cool. Just the sight of those black and red cloaks made her blood boil and her chakra rage.

Her skin prickled with the weight of Itachi's gaze. His sharingan eyes bore into them, and even if Gohama wasn't looking back, she could feel them dissecting every little millimetre of her body, shedding away the skin and walls, leaving her open and known. She fought the need to cross her arms and shrink, a futile attempt at hiding.

"We have no interest in you, Kakashi-san. There is no need for you to die." His voice was smooth and deep, perfect for narrations of long poems, and whispered sweet nothings into a lover's ear. Inwardly Gohama chuckled at the weird association her mind had made.

"Maa, that just wounds my pride, Itachi. Is that the way to greet your former taichou?"

Itachi's hand slipped from the high collar of the Akatsuki cloak, one by one he plucked the buttons, the quiet sound stretching between the four of them, until he had enough space to pull one arm out, just one arm.

"There are better ways, yes, Kakashi-san."

Only when it was too late did Gohama see the movement of his fingers, as they held onto a kunai. But the sudden spike of his chakra that accompanied it didn't add up. Had the kunai been a diversion and if so, where was the jutsu coming from? She was ready to jump away when something hit her from the side and two strong arms held her to a chest. As Kakashi pulled her out of the way, Gohama watched the gust of slicing wind hit the spot where she had stood before.

Fuck. Itachi was fast, the fastest she had ever seen.

"Get away from here." Kakashi whispered against her ear, as they flew.

When they landed, his hold didn't loosen and Gohama was straining to rest the tip of her toes on the ground. "I'm not ru—"

"No. Take Kisame and fight him somewhere else." His lips were pressed to her ear, probably so Itachi's sharingan wouldn't read what he was saying. Feeling the hesitation in her muscles, he continued. "Come back me up, after you kill him."

The confidence in his voice as he looked down at Gohama fluttered through her. He put her down gently, both his eyes glued to her own, black tomoe swirling through red, but it didn't unease her. It was the first time after her freak out that he was letting her look at his sharingan outside a spar. "Come back to me."

Then, he turned around to face their enemies and Gohama stared at his back. She was going to ignore whatever that had just been and whatever that had stirred inside of her in favour of focussing on the battle and keeping a keen sharp mind.

The idea of leaving him to fight Itachi alone made dread freeze in her veins, but she understood why he needed it. He would have less elements to take in with his sharingan and could focus only on Itachi.

"Gohama." At Kakashi's order, she was moving.

In an instant, she was standing before Kisame. His massive sword came down on her and she stopped it with her tanto. Her other hand held onto Kisame's arm and she smiled up at him, sweet and merciless. "Hello."

Then, they were flickering away from Kakashi and Itachi.

"Ah, so you decided to fight us apart." Kisame commented with a dragged shrill voice. "Kyura Gohama. Your name has been around the mouths of the world for some time now. Heard you cut Dazai Kenta's dick off."

"Maybe I'll do the same to yours, hmm?" She taunted as her arm extended in front of her, tachi straight and shining as it pointed towards him.

Kisame smirked, and with a lazy movement, he pulled his massive sword from his back and let it fall onto the ground between them. It hit with a loud thud, cracking the soil and lifting up dust. And then they were fighting.

His blows were deadly and Gohama chose evading over blocking. She tried hitting him with her chakra when she thought there was an opening, but he was fast and a master at handling the wrapped sword. Every time it absorbed her chakra it only grew bigger, stronger.

The bindings around it fell, revealing grey prongs on its surface, meant to rip not cut. Kisame exploited one of her openings and Gohama wasn't fast enough at evading. The sword scrapped through her skin and caught there. He smirked again, shark teeth shining with victory, before he pulled the blade away with a rough jerk.

Gohama groaned as her skin was torn and had only time to jump away before the word was falling onto the spot she had been before. Propping herself on the hilt of her tachi, she fought through the haziness of pain, trying to get her bearings after a hard blow, trying to figure out a way of winning. Kisame was superior in kenjutsu and any ninjutsu she used would get sucked up by that sword. Her only option was to take the fucking thing away from him.

Her moment for catching her breath didn't last long, before he was attacking her again. Gohama winced every time she twisted her torso, her wound opening with shots of pain and wet warm blood running down her back.

Holding herself up blow after blow, Gohama waited for an opening. She didn't even have time to think when she saw it. In her other hand was already a tanto and she drove it down into the crook of his neck. Kisame noticed it on time, evading her attack, and still the blade stabbed deep into his shoulder. His hold on his sword faltered and Gohama pushed a wave of chakra from her hand onto his stomach.

The attack shoved him through the air and he stumbled across the ground before finally stopping. Gohama cursed inwardly as she saw his fingers still tightly closed around the handle of his sword. The wound on his stomach closed and the sword shrank as he used the chakra inside it to heal himself.

"Suiro Sameodori no Jutsu." He hissed and after a massive surge of chakra, everything around them was plunged into water, including herself.

Right away, Gohama started swimming in an attempt to reach the edge of the water prison. Kisame had the advantage on water and if he caught up to her, the battle would easily tilt to his side. She glanced over her shoulder to the shadow advancing towards her and realised he had morphed into a shark. Summoning a cloak of Seiryu's chakra, she used it for powering up her strokes.

"The water is moving, kiddo." Seiryu warned, urgency clear in his voice.

Gohama looked down, the blurry reliefs of ground shifting as she swam. The mass of water moved as she did, preventing her from reaching the edge. A glance behind her showed that Kisame was nearing her fast. She put all her energy into long hard strokes, now moving upwards, panic rioting inside her stomach, but she didn't let it consume her, continuing her steady chakra powered movements.

Her lungs were starting to ache and her muscles to burn from the lack of oxygen. The water was becoming more transparent as she reached the top, her hand extended for the cool unsmothering feel of air. Just as her fingers had broken out of the surface, a hand grabbed onto her ankle, instantly absorbing her chakra.

It didn't matter, with a chakra laden hand she pushed herself up and away from the water prison, her mouth wide as she took in much needed air. Kisame still grasped tightly to her leg. Gohama pulled out a kunai and pierced his hand, when the grip didn't loosen, she worked on slicing through his wrist until he let go.

Once free, Gohama ran across the surface, Kisame following her underneath. His hold had taken a bit too much of her chakra, but at least he hadn't caught her inside the water. If he had, she would have been almost dead now.

Gohama flickered to the centre of the dome, sure that Kisame wouldn't reach her right away. With quick fingers, she formed the needed hand seals and pressed her palm to the surface of the water. A wave of mud spread through the edge of the water and inside, filling most of it. Gohama jumped and, using a stream of fire, dried the mud into a thick block of earth.

Kisame's chakra signature continued to shine in her awareness. It was a shame he hadn't died buried with his freaky sword.

Both jutsu wasted heavy amounts of chakra and her knees faltered at the sudden effort, chest heaving with quick breaths. Gohama still had almost half her reserves and Seiryu's chakra, so it wouldn't cripple her, as long as she had time to catch her breath before the next attack or defence. From her high position, she could see Itachi and Kakashi's fight, the tightness in her heart easing at the sight of him alive.

The earth under her knees trembled when Kisame dispelled his jutsu and Gohama was forced to jump onto one of the still standing Buki buildings. He emerged from under the ruins of rocks, metamorphosing back to his normal form, sword in hand. It made her realise that he had merge with that thing.

He extended it upwards to point at her. "Fighting water with earth. Smart. But I still got a good amount of your Kyura chakra. Samehada is very glad." To show his words, the sword opened her mouth, sharp shark like teeth glistering with the light.

"That's an unoriginal name."

"We'll see how unoriginal it is when I rip your flesh with shark skin. Just as I did with your uncle."

Gohama summoned her tachi, chakra exploding with killing intent she didn't even try to control. In an impulsive push of her feet, she jumped towards him, and he met her halfway.

"Control your chakra, kiddo." Seiryu hissed. "Remember the not doing anything stupid."

She was evading direct contact with the sword, but her raging state let her energy seep through her pressure points into the air around her, leaving it free for the taking. With a furious shout, Gohama jumped away, her hand biting onto the handle, as she tried to pull herself together. Kisame laughed and it prickled every inch of her skin. Her brow furrowed, but she forced deep calming breaths in and out of her lungs.

"It didn't even take us two minutes to defeat dear old uncle." Kisame taunted.

"Abstract yourself, Gohama. He wants you to lose control."

"I fucking know, lizard, doesn't mean it's easy."

"Was he really a Kyura? Maybe all Kyura were that weak. It would explain why they fell so easily. In one single night, no more Bukigakure."

"I'll fucking kill you." Gohama hissed towards Kisame. "I need to take that sword off of him. And I think I know how, just need to hold myself in kenjutsu until there's an opening. Care to help?"

"My keen observation skills are all yours, kiddo."

She ran towards her enemy, the fury from before giving place to resolve. They started the same ruthless kenjutsu battle, Seiryu helping her evade the sword. Her arms, even with the help of her chakra, ached from blocking the powerful blows Kisame threw at her, the trembles of her blade following through her muscles. She was growing tired, a heavy layer of sweat soaking through her clothes and hair, almost too tired to keep this type of fight, but then an opening showed.

Gohama pushed a heavy layer of chakra to cover her blade. She could hear Kisame's mocking laugh at her useless gesture. He swung his sword and, instead of parrying the blow with her tachi, Gohama jumped. As she fell, the tip of the blade pointing down, she watched it pierce through the grey scales, her chakra being absorbing instantly. Still, she continued to pierce, pouring more chakra into the blade and more chakra into her hands, tight around the hilt. The sword shrieked as she stabbed deeper, and Gohama felt it vibrate through her hands, felt the pull of Kisame, trying to free his sword.

A smirk stretched through her lips when she felt her blade sink deep into the soil, Kisame's sword was trapped. Gohama crouched on the hilt of her tachi, blazing eyes staring at beady ones.

"Seiryu, you're fun is about to begin."

Her core ignited with the burning overwhelming chakra of a biju, every cell of her body sharp and furious. It spread through her pathways in an instant, the sudden shock wave of energy making Kisame jump away from the impact. Gohama summoned nine more swords, stabbing into Samehada so it wouldn't break free while she fought Kisame.

Without his sword, it was if he had lost his drive. Gohama didn't let her mind linger on it, more than glad that the battle had eased immensely. Soon he was slumped on the ground, his pale blue chest heaving up and down with the sound of wet breaths. His Akatsuki cloak was ruined somewhere and it left him bare for her, the muscles wrapping around his ribs showing her exactly where his heart beat.

"Your heart for killing Uncle."

Covering her hand with chakra, Gohama pushed her fingers through soft flesh and hard bone, the putrid stink of burnt skin making her eyes sting. She wrapped her hand around his still beating heart and crushed it, the muscle spilling between her fingers. His eyes glazed with the blank stare of death.

She stood up, cleaning her hand on her pants. After a quick moment to pull herself together, she was running towards Kakashi. The wide space where they were fighting wasn't nearly as wrecked as hers and Kisame had been when she had left it. Her heart stopped at the sight of blood drops staining the white stone and making a path towards Kakashi. The levels of his chakra, quiet as it whispered in her senses, didn't help her fight the dread.

"Gohama…" Kakashi whispered when his eyes fell onto her, his legs giving out under him.

Before he could fall to the ground, Gohama was already running and catching him in her arms. "I had to come save your sorry ass."

"You look pretty…" He whispered in a faded voice, a hand trying to reach for her face.

"You're in that much pain, Kakashi."

He watched her through semi-closed eyelids until they became too heavy and he blacked out, the frail hold he hand on her arm loosening. She cradled him against her chest, taking careful steps towards the edge of a clearing, where she laid him.

Sharp eyes lifted from Kakashi's pale face to stare at Itachi. "Did you use the Tsukuyomi on him?"

"His spirit will mend." Gohama's guts clenched with his confirmation. "There are better strengths than medical chakra for repairing the spirit."

"Such as?"

"You don't need to concern yourself with that." Gohama was ready to demand an explanation. "It's already mending."

With one last glance at the man laying at her knees and a quiet caress to his masked face, Gohama flickered. She drew out her tachi, extending it to him, her green gaze not leaving his lethal beautiful one.

"Seiryu, if he catches me inside a genjutsu, spike your chakra to free me."

"Already planning on it, kiddo."

There was a deep curiosity in her for Uchiha Itachi. As she watched his gentle face with pensive eyes, the expression echoing the one Uncle had had during his long melancholic walks on the monastery's garden, her certainty solidified. He wasn't a cold blooded killer, Kakashi would have been dead already had he been one. Itachi was a man with a heavy burden. A burden he had taken because someone had had take it. Just as Uncle. Two good man with good intentions in a world made of poison and death.

And Sasuke… Gohama had never met the Uchiha boy, but since the first time she had come to Konoha, his image lingered where she stepped and his destiny seemed marked into her own, as a mirror of great corrupting and decaying powers. Uchiha and Kyura, allied clans. It was only mockingly fitting that they would be allies in death too.

"I won't fight you, Itachi. You may have killed my uncle, but your death belongs to Sasuke."

"Are you trying to challenge me into capturing you without a fight, Gohama-san?"

"You don't care about me. You sensed us that day when you killed Uncle."

"You're full of illusions, Gohama-san."

"We share the same fault then, Itachi. The boy who massacres for peace, the biggest illusion in the ninja world."

Understanding the implication of her words, he caught her in a genjutsu, the scenery around her turning different shades of grey and red, but it didn't last long. Gohama felt the surge of Seiryu's chakra immediately, as it disrupted her own flow and brought her mind back to the real word.

"I'm a jinchuriki. Those don't work when the biju chakra can pull me out of them. I won't leak the information. It's not mine to share, it's yours."

"I don't know what this information is, Gohama-san."

"Of course, you don't…" Gohama expelled with a little chuckle. "I'm sure neither does Konoha, right?"

His expression was drawn in unmoving stone, but Gohama pressed on. Somehow, she felt that she owed it to the two brothers and to Kakashi to share her own understanding and maybe ease Sasuke's pain. It had always been clear to her how deeply Kakashi cared about the Uchiha boy, even after he left a hole in his team when he defected.

"I know how it is to be Sasuke. My uncle, the man you killed, betrayed Buki so he could stop the coup d'état. You should tell your brother the truth before you let him kill you. Sasuke deserves to know the truth from you, Itachi."

"So many illusions, Gohama-san." He spoke in his even smooth timbre, but there was a hint of amusement behind it. "You should have focussed your competence on genjutsu."

"Still, would never beat those dangerous pretty eyes of yours."

He stared, his eyes black as crows, and still they held the same uncomfortable scrutinising edge as the sharingan. When he was satisfied with the information he had taken from her pose, he spoke. "There are superior eyes to mine, eyes that can cover the whole world in illusion. Akatsuki can't be stopped alone, Gohama-san."

He finished his foreboding words and turned around to leave her. She realised he had, more than warned her, given her a little piece of information on Akatsuki's plans. Why would he offer it to her so freely?

"Itachi." He stopped, his back turned to her. "Was it all worth it? Is it still worth it?"

When she thought he wouldn't answer, his head lowered slightly in a nod, so small that, if she hadn't been intent on him, she wouldn't have noticed it. It could have been a false compassionate answer meant to ease her, but Gohama's heart accepted it as the truth. At least she hoped it was, she hoped Uncle hadn't lived with the cruel ache of regret.

"I'm sorry life hasn't been kind to you."

When Gohama could no longer feel Itachi's chakra signature, she took small steps on trembling legs towards Kakashi. She fell onto her knees beside him, her fingers immediately settling against his pulse point. Under them thundered a strong, steady heartbeat. Her head fell onto his chest as she let out a shaky sigh. It was only chakra exhaustion. Not death. Kakashi was not dying.

Gohama stayed in that position for a while, waiting for her strength to return to her legs and mind. When she finally pulled her head up, her eyes fixed onto the uncovered part of his face. She could sense the sharingan sucking in his chakra, as it tried to regenerate from overuse. Her hand cupped the side of his face and she sent thin threads of chakra through the eye's pathways to help it settle down.

A shallow crease appeared on his brow and his grey eye fluttered open. "…hama?"

Her palm soothed through his hair. "Shh. It's okay, they're gone. Go back to sleep."

He didn't even try to pretend he had any kind of energy left and went back to being more unconscious than asleep.

"Thanks for the help, Seiryu."

"Wasn't really into the idea of being kidnapped by Akatsuki."

"Makes two of us…" Gohama shared softly, as she continued to look down at Kakashi, hand brushing through his soaked dirty hair.

"You okay, kiddo?"

"Just tired…"

"What I said, when you first entered the seal… I take it back. I don't need you to honour anyone… You can tell him to go back to Konoha."

"You're supposed to give me strength, not make things more difficult."

"I'm trying to make them easier, Gohama."

"I owe my family. I owe them. I… please don't fight me on this, Seiryu, I need you with me, not against me."

"Okay, Gohama, okay. Just make me a favour and if you go through with it, don't use my chakra."

"Don't tell me you old lizard have a soft spot."

"Under my scales, I have a lot of soft spots." His serious tone turned into a playful one. "And you don't need to be jealous, kiddo, the biggest one will always be for you."

Gohama chuckled a little but it was hollow. Her still trembling hands pressed against Kakashi's stomach and sent probing chakra. A broken rib that explained his rasped breathing, a deep cut down his hip, various bruises and obviously chakra exhaustion. It could be worse, the bleeding wasn't in a life threatening degree and the rib wasn't in a risk of puncturing a lung.

Using wire, she pulled him into a sitting position, while she kneeled between his legs. Her hands wrapped around the back of his knees and hoisted him onto her back, making sure his chin was nicely tuck on her shoulder. With careful, unsteady steps, they both went back to her home, Gohama making a stop by the Kyura vaults, so she could take a chakra medicine instructive scroll.

Once Kakashi was finally laying on his futon, she fell on her butt and took a few minutes to catch her breath. The scroll opened with her Kyura chakra and she searched for suturing instructions. Her reserves were low, but she still had enough to heal the deeper part of his stab wound.

Gohama decided on cutting Kakashi's shirt instead of jolting him even more. Under the tight fabric, his skin was cold and clammy, marred with bruises wider than her palm. There was little Gohama could do for those. With cold water, she cleaned the blood that had seeped from the cut and applied antiseptic. Her green healing chakra seeped into the cut as she followed attentively the Kyura medical instructions.

By the end of the healing session, sweat was dripping out of Gohama's forehead, through her nose. A new respect grew in her for Kisamaru's amazing chakra control. The rest of the suture she did by hand with a needle and thread. All that was left was to wrap Kakashi's torso in gauze and give a little boost to his rib.

It had been almost an hour and Kakashi was still unconscious. Gohama laid her hand against his stomach and neck. His temperature was back to normal, but he still felt clammy. She blamed everything on his chakra exhaustion, too tired to think about anything anymore.

So tired that when she came back to a more lucid state, Gohama caught her hand soothing over Kakashi's muscles on his belly. Her eyes snapped open in shock and her hand pulled back against her chest. It was weird and inappropriate, downright creepy, and Kakashi would have been mortified if he had known. She was mortified herself, even if too tired to actually let the emotion have any effect besides making her even more tired.

Gohama rested her back against the cold floor, her eyes blurring the ceiling until she couldn't leave them open anymore. Later she could take care of her own wounds.

Itachi settled Samehada on the ground and waited. The sword opened its fanged mouth and from it escaped a thin frail looking Kisame.

"Zetsu's clones and Samehada work against a Kyura's chakra sense."

"Useful, don't you think?" Kisame commented, before his brow furrowed at the lack of an unconscious jinchuriki. "Why didn't you take the Kyura?"

"The battle was fast tilting towards her victory." Itachi lied. "We underestimated her strength."

"Maybe, but you also used those eyes on the Copy-nin. If you hadn't spent so much chakra on that, you'd have won." He shrugged. "It's okay, I suppose, the Kyura is vulnerable now and I doubt he'll wake up."

"He will."

The Tsukuyomi shattered the spirit, to wake up from the coma there only needed to be a feeling that mended the broken pieces. And no feeling was more fruitful than love.

Itachi had seen it in Kakashi when his eyes kept flickering to the distant image of Kisame and Gohama's fight, the perseverance as he kept fighting past his body's limits to protect her, and the relief as he watched her alive and allowed himself to let go and fall. Itachi had seen it in Gohama, in the gentle ministrations as she laid him down, and the tender and scared eyes as she looked at his comatose face.

Itachi's gaze moved to the descending dark bird, and he extended his arm so the crow could land on it. He couldn't help but feel a sardonic type of amusement at the timing, as he received this information right after hearing Kyura Gohama's words. She wouldn't change his mind. His path through the shadows had been set a long time ago and he wouldn't diverge from it now.

"Sasuke has formed a team. He is coming for me."