Blood. Blood on his hands and in the air. He cut through swathes of faceless foes, passing through the world like a ghost. The road was full of bodies. He couldn't stop himself, couldn't help himself, could only run towards his next foe, teeth bared in a vicious grin.

It was the stabbing pain that woke Kakashi. He gasped into the shadows of his bedroom, his left eye throbbing in its socket. Cursing, he stumbled into the bathroom. The icy tap water soothed the pain, but only a little.

He bowed his head, pressing fingers against the scar bisecting his eyelid. While it was rare for it to ache outside of overuse, it wasn't unheard of. Not for Kakashi.

No, pain was something he dealt in, and dealt out, every day of his life. His dream was only proof of that, the impression of an oddly-familiar street already fading away. Usually, his nightmares were about other things—rocks falling, lightning and rain crackling over his skin, a demon rising over the rooftops while he stood, helpless. Perhaps his mind got bored of his well-traveled hellscapes and decided to mix it up a little.

It was the work of minutes to put on his uniform and leave his apartment. The moon had barely risen over the treetops; the night was still young. But Kakashi knew he wouldn't be getting any more sleep tonight. Instead, he found himself tracing a path over the rooftops that he'd followed many, many times before.

On another night, in another lifetime, Kakashi would have dropped by Naruto's apartment and found him snoring away, blankets kicked down past his knees. He would have gone back home, reassured, only to be greeted by an urgent mission to hunt down Uchiha Itachi, clan killer and missing nin.

Tonight, he dropped into the twins' backyard and found their bed empty, their apartment lifeless.

He was Kakashi now, not Inu. And there was no one around to see.

A press of his thumb against the inside of his shuriken pouch, and Pakkun was there. The dog sneezed, shaking his head at the smoke left behind.

He greeted Kakashi with a gruff, "Boss." A quick sniff; his ears perked up. "This is the pups' den," he said.

Kakashi knelt down, rubbing the pads of his fingers together in an attempt to release some of his building agitation. "They're not in their room. Can you tell if anyone has been here?"

Minako was barely four weeks out of her kidnapping. He'd argued against reducing the twins' guard, but ANBU was strained as it was. They had to cover the investigation for the incident, their regular mission work, and the increased unrest when the Uchiha all but retreated into their compound. If the kidnappers were to strike again, now would be the perfect time.

They could try to hide their scent again. But there were things his Dogs could smell that even Kakashi wouldn't notice.

Pakkun gave the area a more thorough search. Sniffing, he paused, and gave the twins' window a thoughtful look. "Nothing that isn't older than this morning," he said. "And they're all the other residents and the manager. The twins were here too, but they only smell like anticipation, sadness, and sweat. No fear. Nothing chemical, no chakra use." He raised a skeptical doggy eyebrow at Kakashi. "You sure they didn't sleep at the Uchiha's again?"

"Only clansmen are allowed in and out of the compound right now," Kakashi said, even as his mind whirled through the possibilities. Knowing the twins' obstinate and mischievous natures, knowing just how much Uchiha Shisui's death had affected them… "Let's check the path leading to the compound."

His gut roiled with worry as they sped west. If the twins refused to heed the clan's self-imposed isolation, it would be a disaster. People would see it as definitive proof that the Uchiha had machinations towards Konoha's jinchuuriki, and the clan would be punished accordingly.

Kakashi did not want to know what that would do to the already tense relations between the clan and the village.

They swept over Konoha's streets, bouncing from roof to roof. A few of the night guard watched Kakashi pass, but didn't say anything. He was a common enough sight at this hour.

A few streets past the Academy, they found the twins' scent again. The afternoon rush may have muddled it, but it was still fresher than the scent at their apartment. The trail led south, away from the direction of the Uchihas' main gate. Kakashi grappled with worry and relief. On one hand, it meant no political implosion over a pair of clueless kids. On the other hand, where would they be, if not there?

He needn't have bothered. Their scent (and it was their scent, the twins spent so much time together that he couldn't smell one without the other) slowly began to curve west again, until Kakashi and Pakkun were running through the forest that made up the Uchiha training grounds.

Following the twins' scent, with another one weaving in and around them. Leading the way.

Kakashi hadn't believed that Uchiha Shisui had been responsible for Minako's kidnapping. He would have spent more time covering up the scent of blood on his clothes, for one, on the day they had investigated the twins' home. And, contrary to popular belief, drawing out a seal wasn't as simple as copying a manual.

But if the rumors were true… if his clan had really ordered him to kidnap Minako…

Pakkun paused, just a few feet ahead of him. He raised his head, sniffing the air. "Boss," he said, a warning growl thrumming through his ribs.

"What—" Then the breeze hit him. Kakashi's hackles rose at the all-too-familiar scent.

Blood.

He was at the Uchiha South Gate before he realized it, staring down the corpses of the guards assigned there. In the shadows of the trees, they could have just been sleeping. The stab wound through their chests gave it away.

Not even a block down the street was an Uchiha MP, a kunai in his eye and throat. A body slumped over the windowsill of the nearest home. The scent of split intestines drifted from the open front door, telling Kakashi there were more corpses to be found inside.

His hands curled into fists. "Alert the Hokage. The Uchiha are under attack."

He prayed that it was true. That it was present tense, not past tense. That there were still survivors, somewhere under the flickering streetlights. But his instincts told him the absolute silence was the aftermath.

Underneath the blood, the stench of exposed organs, a single scent continued, drifting further down the street.

The twins were in there.

The twins were in there.

Pakkun yipped, darting into the undergrowth. Kakashi was already running ahead, ears straining for any sound of life. A breath. A heartbeat. Anything.

Not even the crickets dared to chirp.

His blood pounded in his ears. Air rushed in and out of his lungs, drying his throat. An MP, hanging from a post by ninja wire. A girl, slumped over a bench. An old man sprawled across the ground, his kunai just a few inches from his limp hand.

He found himself searching for blond hair amongst the black. A scarlet river that wasn't blood. He didn't want to find them. Not like the kid face down over a broken flower pot. Not like the child that had died while he ran.

He didn't know what he would do if they were dead.

Something shifted at the other end of the street. A shadow hunched over one of the corpses, their loose kimono hiding their movements. Kakashi drew a kunai, wary. Should he reveal himself? Or—

Their head snapped towards him.

The orange mask burned in the light of the full moon, a reflection of a sunset marred by clouds of smoke. Broad shoulders filled their kimono with a confidence only power could bring. Shaggy black hair obscured any other sign of the person's identity.

Whoever this person was, they were not of Konoha. And that was enough for Kakashi.

He threw his kunai towards the stranger's head. This much confidence in the middle of a Hidden Village meant they were too dangerous to try to capture alive. He cursed himself for not carrying enough weapons, drawing another kunai to—

His kunai passed right through them.

Kakashi didn't believe in ghosts. He had lost so much and destroyed so much more, but the only spirits he ever saw were in his dreams. The only thing that haunted him was his memories.

Still, in this place that should have been home, so saturated with death, it made him hesitate.

The figure began to laugh. Kakashi switched to a defensive stance, his kunai at the ready.

"Ah, it truly is my lucky day." Their cold baritone was eerie in the utter silence of the compound. "The death of the Uchiha clan, and Hatake Kakashi right in front of me."

Kakashi didn't even question how this man knew him. In certain circles, his hair and slanted hitai-ate were enough to distinguish him.

"Who are you?" he demanded. "How did you get in here?"

"I can wait a little longer," the stranger said to himself, ignoring Kakashi completely. "It'll attract too much attention if I kill you now. I guess it's your lucky day too, Ka-ka-shi."

The masked man wasn't making sense. But Kakashi understood enough to know an exit speech when he heard one.

He burst into shunshin. Too far! "Stop!"

That lone, haunting eye glowed red. Then, the man was gone, swirling into the darkness like the ghost Kakashi had mistaken him for. All he left behind was the echo of a low chuckle.

"Damn it!" Kakashi took a deep breath. He pushed aside the smell of the corpse at his feet, searching for anything that wasn't of Konoha.

Ashes. Blood. Damp moss, like an underground cave, contrasting heavily with the scent of trees. Soft bark, like the young Hashirama saplings at the edge of the great forest surrounding Konoha. And, even fainter than that, a strange scent that made his instincts howl—

A scream rent the night.

He was on the rooftops before it even petered off. When Naruto's cry joined his sister's, he was two houses away. Another shunshin, and he was on the nearest tree, overlooking the main family's training yard. The air was filled with chakra, crackling with the force of a building thunderstorm.

Fury. Hate. The promise of death. The very same chakra from that fateful night, rising like a torrent from the house below him.

Kakashi's throat went dry.

Minako.

"GUHK!"

A small body crashed through the shoji doors. Wreathed in red chakra, Minako flew through the air, smashing through a decorative stone lantern before rolling across the dirt. The demon fox's chakra sputtered, then died. She collapsed into the rubble, unconscious.

Itachi straightened from the kick that had sent Minako flying in the first place. At his feet was a woman's corpse. Naruto huddled in the opposite corner of the room, clutching the arm of a dark-haired boy. The boy's eyes glowed red.

For a second, Kakashi thought Itachi had acted in self defense. Knocking her out was the fastest nonlethal way to put a jinchuuriki down. And it took a lot to put a jinchuuriki down. There was no other explanation for how a boy, who had held her so gently just weeks before, could now throw her aside, just like that.

"You kicked Minako," Naruto said, unable to tear his eyes away from his sister. "You kicked Minako!" Like saying it again and again would warp the words into something that made sense.

"I told her not to get in my way," Itachi said. Dull. Almost patient. The tone of a person who knew he would get what he wanted, and didn't care how long it would take to get there. "Are you going to get in my way too, Naruto?"

He readied his tanto. The click of metal was loud in the echoing silence.

The dark-haired boy sobbed, a wretched, broken little noise. Naruto glanced between him and Itachi, realization dawning. The boy cried out again, a sound made with the sheer terror of knowing he was about to die.

Trembling, Naruto edged his foot to the right. It wasn't much. A snail could have covered more distance.

But it still put him in front of the other boy.

"I won't," Naruto croaked. "I w-won't leave Sasuke b-behind, dattebayo!"

Something unreadable flashed over Itachi's face. His grip on his sword tightened. He stepped forward. Naruto stumbled back, dragging the other boy with him. His sobs joined the other's. But he didn't let go.

"You're lucky to have so many people to hide behind, Sasuke," Itachi said, a sneer tugging on his young face. "But what happens when they're gone? I suppose you'll cower and die, just like everyone else."

"No! You're wrong!" Sasuke—his little brother? That Sasuke?—cried, his hands over his ears. "Otou-san wouldn't do that! You're lying!"

"Deny it all you want. Hate me, despise me, but until you have the strength to kill the ones you love, you will never gain the power that I have."

Kakashi had heard enough.

"Leave him alone!" Naruto screamed, and threw a small box at Itachi's face.

One slash, to cut the box in two. Another slash, killing the minuscule insect flying towards him. All of it a split second's pause in Itachi's steady gait.

A split second for Kakashi to reappear at his back, dark and menacing as a wrathful shade. His kunai cut down, aiming for the back of Itachi's knees.

Itachi blurred. He flipped over Kakashi's arm, landing on the other side of the room.

Kakashi didn't follow through. He planted himself between Itachi and the kids. The woman's corpse lay between them, a battle line drawn.

"Hatake Kakashi," Itachi said coldly.

He was a ruin of the shinobi Kakashi once knew. Cuts littered his clothes. Some were misses. Others weren't. Soot painted his ANBU armor black on one side. His posture was straight, but Kakashi could see the slightest hitch to one foot, telling of an injury somewhere on his leg.

So the Uchiha MPs had managed to get a few hits in before they died.

Kakashi's grip tightened around his kunai. Hurt, fury, betrayal, all raged under his skin like a thunderstorm.

There was only one thing he could say.

"Why?"

Itachi's lip curled. His eyes—were those the Sharingan? No Sharingan had a pattern like that—dragged from Kakashi's face to over his shoulder. Kakashi stepped to the side, a warning growl in his throat. They stared at each other, unmoving.

In this moment, wounded from so many opponents, it would take Itachi a long, brutal fight to get past Kakashi. And both of them knew it.

That cold, unreadable smile widened. "Sasuke," he said.

Sasuke's breath hitched.

"When you have eyes like mine, come face me."

And in one last burst of chakra, he disappeared.

This time, Kakashi was able to track his shunshin over the rooftops before he vanished. Every cell in his body ached to give chase, but he resisted. Instead, he turned to the boys.

"Are you two alright?"

Naruto shrank back, wary. Sasuke didn't even twitch. He still hadn't looked away from where Itachi had been standing.

No. He was looking at the woman's corpse.

Uchiha Mikoto's corpse.

His mother's corpse.

Feeling sick, Kakashi crouched down, blocking his line of sight. Echoes of a gutted body in the twilight burned in his chest. He shoved the memories away.

Sasuke blinked. Slowly, those red, red eyes dragged up to Kakashi's face. A single tomoe spun around each pupil.

"Did he hurt you?" Kakashi prodded. "Any injuries?"

At last, Naruto shook his head. "No, but—Minako!" He jerked towards the garden, then froze. Fear glued his feet to the floor. The pool of blood between him and his sister might as well have been an ocean.

Kakashi wasn't sure what to do. He had been younger than they were now when he had faced death for the first time. He had reported it to the nearest MP himself, had answered all their questions and let his sensei take him to his apartment. None of that applied here.

Sasuke solved his dilemma by collapsing in a dead faint.

"Sasuke!" Caught off-guard, Naruto staggered. Kakashi caught them before both boys hit the bloody floor. "Sasuke, Sasuke!"

Without even thinking about it, Kakashi rested his hand on Naruto's head. "Calm down. He just fainted." A quick peek under the boy's eyelid showed solid black eyes. "Probably from chakra exhaustion."

Kakashi wasn't sure what the chakra drain of a single tomoe Sharingan was. And on a full-blooded Uchiha, no less. But Sasuke couldn't be a year older than the twins. From the little Kakashi knew about clans, it was their youngest kekkai genkai users that were watched over the most. And since everyone and their uncle would have heard about the main family's youngest activating his Sharingan…

He glanced towards the corpse on the ground. Sorrow was a bitter taste in the back of his throat.

At least even the memory of his father's death had faded with time.

Fox arrived moments later, after Kakashi had moved Naruto and Sasuke to the garden. With Fox came the Hokage. Naruto sat next to Sasuke's prone form, hiccuping, while Kakashi examined Minako's. The little boy took one look at the Hokage and burst into tears, throwing himself at the old man's knees.

"Jiji!" he wailed.

Swan silently took over for Kakashi, a green glow lighting her hand. He sat back, resisting the urge to growl at her. Minako would be fine. The blood had worried him at first, but a quick sniff let him know it wasn't hers. The large swathe of bruises along her back and arms already looked a day old. As long as nothing was broken, she wouldn't even need a healer.

The Hokage placed his hand on Naruto's shoulder. "Naruto-kun? What are you doing here?" He searched the yard, taking in the bodies, Sasuke, and Kakashi. His gaze landed on Minako. His frown deepened.

Swan ended her Diagnostic Jutsu. "Heavy bruising," she reported. "Nothing more. The boy is unconscious, but otherwise unharmed."

The Hokage nodded. His chakra hummed with fury, restrained only by the boy hugging his waist. Freed from the immediate concern, he turned to Kakashi.

"What happened?" he growled.

Kakashi took a deep breath. "Uchiha Itachi has betrayed the village."

He had never seen the Hokage look so old.

"Hakuchou. Bring the children to the hospital. Suzume, search for more survivors. Kakashi, you know what to do."

Swan bowed and gestured her team forward. In a swirl of wind and leaves, they vanished, taking the children with them. Sparrow and their team followed.

Kakashi rose to his feet. That rage and hurt now had free rein, a howling storm in his blood. For his comrades littered around him. For the mission.

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

He signaled to Fox, then leapt for the ANBU base. They had a hunt to get started.


A/N: At this rate I should label this arc "people wake up just in time for shit to go down and they're not happy about it"

Also if someone tries to fight me about ANBU Itachi vs Uchiha MPs and/or ANBU Kakashi I'm just going to hold up my hands and point a trembling finger at Tobidara. Coz if Itachi had known he could take down all the MPs himself, would he have bothered hunting "Madara" down for help? They split the work with Madara taking the MPs and Itachi (what I assume are) the civilians and rank and file ninja. So, logically, if the MPs weren't all in one place that night, Itachi would've had more trouble. Which in turn would make him equal to or lose against ANBU Kakashi. I'm only writing this coz when I researched it, people were terrifyingly passionate about the subject. Don't hurt me D: