Taisetsuna "Precious" - Version Two

by Aoikami Sarah

Chapter Eighteen

Inside the stronghold after nearly a half an hour of twisting and pulling with only her fingertips, Hikari managed to loosen Yume's bonds enough to free her. In moments, the others were also free, but they remained seated and as still as possible through the whole thing, knowing there were eyes on them.

'Now?' Yami tapped on Hikari's wrist.

'Now.' She tapped back to both. They grasped the backs of the chairs and stood up, throwing the chairs over their heads. Several lesser Anbu soldiers waiting in the wings leapt out at them, brushing the chairs aside. Still with their eyes covered and their backs to each other, the sisters linked arms at the elbows and made seals with their hands.

"Power of Three no Jutsu!" they shouted in unison and a large puff of smoke surrounded them. When the dust cleared the Anbu backed off, unsure of what they were seeing. Three blindfolds fluttered to the ground. "We're out of here!"

.X.

Inside the last enclosure a rather broad-chested woman wearing a heavy leather trench coat stood with her arms crossed. "Oh, Oururi. You're trounced," her captain scolded. "You're not going to be any fun to fight at all!"

Kakashi stepped forward. "Too bad you won't get a chance. I'm going to take you out."

Tancho laughed. "You're in no better shape. And that funny eye of yours isn't going to help you one bit."

Kakashi nodded. "So I've heard." He pulled his forehead protector down over the Sharingan and raised his right hand. His left he folded behind him. "Let's go. I don't want to waste any more time."

"You're on!" Tancho shouted and flew at him. Kakashi vanished and seemed to reappear just behind her. He struck at her with his elbow, but she too faded. "Maybe you should use your Sharingan, pal." She planted the base of her palm between his shoulder blades, sending him crashing to the ground. She threw several kunai at his fallen form as she flipped over him. They struck wood.

'How the hell did he find wood out here?' Oururi thought as she watched the fight. He was good, but he was tired. She knew it was only a matter of time before he could no longer keep up with Tancho who had been doing nothing but waiting for them. She watched the clouds race across the sky. The raindrops were getting larger by the moment. The wind was also picking up. 'Soon,' she thought. 'I can do it one more time. I can…'

Kakashi's eye widened as he saw Tancho's grinning face in front of his own. He doubled over as her fist landed in his gut.

"This is no fun," she mumbled and watched him fall to his knees. Kakashi snorted, his own grin hidden under his mask.

He held his hands together. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Three clones appeared on either side and started laying in on her. Tancho was startled that he had the strength to pull of a high-level jutsu. She dodged and retreated.

"All right. It seems I need to up the ante." She held her hands together.

"What!" Oururi cried. "Ninjutsu? Since when do you use Ninjutsu!"

Tancho laughed "A good Ninja never reveals what he is truly capable of!" She flashed her hands into many seals. "Suna Bunshin no Jutsu!" Five human forms massed themselves from the surrounding sand and launched themselves at Kakashi. Within moments his shadow clones were popped and his own body was being batted back and forth among the sand clones.

Oururi clenched her fists. 'I know your not going to like this, Kakashi,' she thought. 'But I'm not going to lose you now…' She raked her cheek, opening a second wound. The blood trickled down and was wiped onto her first two fingers. "Aono Ichizoku…!" she pointed her hand to the heavens. "Lighting Call Second Strike!" the bolt tore the air open as it crashed down, startling Tancho enough that the clones stopped their attack momentarily. Fully charged, Oururi ran to Kakashi's side.

"Can you jump?" she whispered urgently.

"Yeah." He nodded, only having sustained a cracked rib or two so far. "Oururi…"

"Shut it. I'm ending this now. On three!" she commanded.

"Ok…"

"Oururi," Tancho growled and opened her arms. "You were holding out on us, were you?"

"Just like you were!" she spat. "One," Oururi counted softly.

"You could have been captain one day." Tancho's grin widened, waiting for her attack.

"Two," Oururi whispered. "I'm leaving the Hidden Sand and I'm taking my family with me."

"Kazekage-sama has ordered us otherwise." Tancho took a step forward, reaching behind her for a handful of shuriken.

"I am of the Leaf!" she shouted back. "Three!" Oururi counted to three.

Kakashi launched himself off the ground, jumping backwards. While he was in the air, Oururi reached for the ground. In slow motion, she watched in horror as Tancho anticipated her move and jumped as well. Just as quickly, Oururi smiled as she spied her opportunity. Tancho's movement caused a stream of rain water to flow from her large protective trench coat.

She was still connected to the ground.

Oururi pressed her hand down. "Ground Current Strike!" she shouted and sent the electricity across the wet sand. Tancho screamed long and hard as the energy snaked up the stream of water and stopped her heart. Smoking, her body dropped with a slight splash. The sand clones stood where they were, turned to glass by the heat of the strike.

"That that," Oururi mumbled and winced. She grasped her right shoulder. It wasn't far to fall from her kneeling position, but Kakashi still made it in time to catch her. The final arcs of current crackled as he touched her. She wasn't breathing.

"Oururi!" Kakashi acted fast. He laid her on the ground and uncovered both his Sharingan and his face. Using a few helpful techniques not unlike the Hyuga's Byakugan, he looked inside her and gasped. He gritted his teeth and cautiously began CPR. He held her nose and breathed air into her lungs twice. She was unresponsive. 'Her body should be able to handle the shock,' he thought, his gorge starting to rise at the thought of not being able to save her. 'Her heart must have stopped because she ran out of chakra!' He began chest compressions and in a last-ditch effort, summoned up as much chakra as he could without losing consciousness. As his hands pressed down, he flooded her body with his own power. "Come on, Oururi," he whispered and gave her two more breaths.

As he pulled away to check her pulse, she gasped and her body twitched.

"Thank God…"

She was breathing.

Kakashi looked up to the last gate and took a deep breath of his own. "If we make it through this," he whispered. "I'm never letting you out of my sight again." Carefully, he picked Oururi up and trudged towards the door, her dead weight all the more cumbersome with hardly any strength left to carry it.

Just as he was trying to think of a way to open the huge doors, a sharp cracking sound echoed through the enclosure as the hinges were snapped off from the other side.

The sand-nin standing behind the final gate had her hands up, ready to attack. Her white hair was tied in one long braid down her back. She stared at Kakashi, hard.

'This is just great,' he thought angrily. He then noticed her bare upper arms were tattoo-less. 'She's not Anbu…?' perhaps not, but she was now running towards him with a strangely worried expression on her face.

Kakashi was just about out of ideas when the sand-nin shouted, "Kaasan!"

"Eh?" His eye bulged as he studied the woman more closely. Although she was about his age and roughly 5'3" she bore a striking resemblance. "Girls!" he asked, flabbergasted.

"Yeah," she answered quickly, her eyes not straying from her mother's pale face. "No time to explain. We need to get her to a hospital. You're hurt too, Tousan." Kakashi nodded and didn't argue when the woman took Oururi from him. "Follow us," she said and bounded over the enclosure wall.