Run, Naruto, Run


"Sensei, we're here," Naruto whispered.

In stark contrast to the secretive tone in his voice, he bashed through the wooden bars of the small window in the cell.

Kakashi rolled his eyes behind his blindfold.

Of course, the guards took notice immediately, and one started fumbling for his keys frantically.

Kakashi sat there, expressing as much silent disapproval as he could through his various restraints as the three genin executed what sounded like a clumsy, yet effective rescue. It was hard to tell through the blindfold.

Mentally, he took points off for not even one of them thinking to release him first from his bindings. Huge points off for coming to get him in the first place.

D-ranks for three months if we get out of this with our heads, he thought.

When the last guards had either run off or been defeated, Sakura reached for Kakashi to help untie him.

He rose before she could lay a hand though, shaking off the bindings.

He pulled the blindfold off, fixing both eyes on the self-satisfied looking genin.

"And why are you here?" he asked dryly.

Satisfaction turned to apprehension, and Sakura shuffled her feet, while Sasuke fixed him with a defiant glare.

"We never leave a comrade behind, remember?"

"Yeah!" Naruto cheered.

Kakashi pinched the bridge of his nose. knowing that he should have known better than to accept this cursed mission in the first place.

He couldn't even get mad at them, these circumstances were so outside the scope of their experience.

A voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Well, isn't this a circus."

The brunet ninja that had originally been charged with bringing them to the dungeon grinned at the open entrance of the cell, senbon gripped lightly between his teeth.

The three genin instantly went in to battle stances, but Kakashi swept them aside with a single arm as he stepped forward.

"Toromaru, let them go."

"Gotta say, kouhai, we all thought it was funny seeing the Copy Ninja tailed by three children, but you're really acting the part now. Who'd have thought?"

"The daimyo only needs me. Send them back to Konoha."

Toromaru ignored Kakashi. "It's like a little crew of ducklings, all brightly colored. So cute."

He addressed Sakura directly. "Say cheep cheep for me and I may let you go."

Sakura flushed indignantly and raised her kunai again, only to find it slapped down by Kakashi.

Kakashi didn't even spare her shocked face a glance as he continued addressing the grinning ninja.

"The Third will have your head if anything happens to these three."

Toromaru twirled the senbon deftly through his fingers before using it to indicate Sasuke. "Don't you mean that single one?"

Kakashi didn't answer, just leveling a mismatched glare at Toromaru through the bars.

Toromaru shrugged. "Look, the daimyo wants them here. I already let them go once since the worst the daimyo would do if that happened is yell at me, but look, they came back. Can't go anywhere without their mother duck, right?"

He addressed the genin again. "You know with this so-called jailbreak, I can't let you go again, since there's no way the daimyo hasn't been told that you came back. Can't tell him I failed to catch three genin that literally walked into our dungeons. I just can't do it. Not without a cheep cheep."

"I can kill you if that helps." Kakashi offered.

Toromaru laughed genuinely. "We all know Friend-Killer Kakashi is a myth."

"Try me."

Kakashi dove for him through the open entrance. Toromaru's eyes widened in shock before he dodged with a flip. Suddenly bristling with senbon, he whirled to face what he expected to be a Copy Ninja out for blood.

Instead, he only caught the flick of the fleeing ninja's heel as he turned the corner of the hallway.

Toromaru glanced between the empty hallway and the shocked genin frantically.

"Shit."

He chased after Kakashi.

The genin let out a collective breath they hadn't known they were holding.

Sakura sank to her knees.

"I told you we should have gone back to Konoha!" she wailed.

Sasuke crossed his arms, concealing his own shakiness. "We need to figure out what's happening."

"Wha-"

"You want to know what's happening? I can tell you." A familiar female voice cut across Sakura's protest.

"Lady Hinogawa!" Naruto ran out of the cell towards the voice, where the lady sat, looking as composed as ever through the bars of the cell, though there was a rage in her eyes when her gaze drifted once to the shell-shocked looking brother in the neighboring cell.

Sasuke grabbed a fistful of the orange jumper, holding him back. "Don't do anything brash, dobe."

"She can tell us what the deal is with all of this!"

"We already know she's the reason for all this!" Sasuke hissed urgently.

"Not all of it." The lady's tone held no amusement.

Sasuke hauled Naruto back further.

"Don't listen to her."

Naruto shook himself free.

"We should at least hear her out! You're the one who said we need to figure this out, teme!"

Sakura reluctantly got up to join the two tussling in the hallway.

"Sensei's risking his life to give us the chance to go back to Konoha, we should run back while we can!"

"We're not leaving here without Sensei!" Naruto yelled, still clutching at Sasuke's collar.

"As long as the daimyo wants your sensei, he can't leave the capital." Lady Hinogawa interjected. "But I do know how you can save him."

The three turned to her. Lady Hinogawa pulled a scroll from within the folds of her robes.

"You just need to get this to Takihishi Village."

Sasuke pushed Naruto off him with a rough shove, eyeing the scroll suspiciously.

He crossed his arms. "Alright, we'll hear you out."

Lady Hinogawa smoothed her skirts.

"Where to start?"

To Sasuke's Sharingan, it was clear her eyes were calculating something. He opened them wider, making the eerie red shine brighter as a warning.

"Just know, I'll know the moment you lie."

The lady studied his gaze for a moment. "I understand."

When she spoke, it was measured, concise. And true.

"The daimyo knew before I arrived that my father had died. Knowing my brother would have the power he needed to set his plans for war into action, he planned with the Hokage to assassinate his own son in an attempt to blame my family for his death, using Kakashi's presence in the capital as an excuse. It happened to be an unpleasant coincidence that I had invited your team to continue guarding me in the palace itself. With my brother executed for Kiyo's death, it would seem like the faction that has been pushing for war with Earth consumed itself, and the daimyo hoped to prevent war this way."

She looked then into Naruto's wide, shocked eyes.

"But I cannot afford to have our family disgraced in this way because my brother put himself in such a foolish position. I have grander plans, I want to help more people. You know, Naruto."

She paused then, as if contemplating whether to say her next words. Glancing once at Sasuke, she continued.

"So I ordered Toru to kill my brother. "

The lady rushed to defend herself as the three recoiled. "Yes, I know it is an awful crime, but worse has been done in the name of less worthy causes."

Lady Hinogawa continued at speed.

"The daimyo panicked, because it now seems even to the uninitiated eye that the war faction is being quashed. Even lesser nobles, not present at court but with some still simmering anger at the conclusion of the last war may have finally mobilized. My dead brother may at last have had what he'd always wished for, another war."

She closed her eyes, collecting her thoughts briefly.

"I still don't know what led him to arrest us. Most likely the fact that your sensei is the only other known ninja on the premises, and I had Toru imitate Hitoru's poison. But I know we would have been released by the pressure from the war faction, which, though young, is not small in number and has likely only grown."

Her gaze grew harder.

"You would have been fine, your sensei would have been fine."

She spat the last words at the shuddering man in the cell next to her.

"Until my brother served us to the daimyo on a silver platter."

She wrenched her gaze away from the pathetic nobleman, to proffer the scroll again to the three genin.

"Now unless you deliver this scroll to Takihishi Village, your sensei will be executed here. The daimyo's excuse would be that he killed both Kiyomasa and my brother without orders from the Hokage. The Hokage will believe that your sensei will have acted without his orders on killing my brother, and consent."

Sasuke blocked the hand Naruto reached out eagerly.

"What's in the scroll?"

She smiled grimly and opened the scroll to show them.

"What I've been working so long to prevent. War."

Naruto's eyes widened even further. "What—"

"War," she interrupted, "with all of Western Fire Country on Earth's side."

The three genin stood there in shock, trying to grapple with the consequences of such a letter.

The lady seemed to grow impatient.

"There's no time, we must declare our intentions in time for the daimyo to realize, and parlay with me. He will have no choice but to release me and in turn, your sensei."

Sakura spoke, from where she'd been quietly digesting all of this from the back. "...you had that scroll pre-written."

Lady Hinogawa snapped the scroll shut and stood. The snap of the scroll was like the sound Sakura had heard before on that trip up from Takihishi Village, and she realized in that moment that it was one and the same.

"This was always the finale. I had hoped for more time to set the stage for this moment, but I have done enough and there is no other option."

As none of the genin reached for the scroll, the lady reached for Sasuke's chin, angling it up so she could stare into the Sharingan.

"Without the Hinogawas acting to protect your sensei, the daimyo will execute him to hide that he killed his own son. No matter what the Third says. I cannot save him unless this letter is delivered."

Sasuke took the letter.

"We'll do it."

The other two nodded.

"Sasuke-kun, you can't be the runner, we need you on guard," Sakura said.

Sasuke nodded.

"Usuratonkachi, take it."

Naruto took it, grinning fiercely. "Three-man mission! This has got to be S-ranked."

Sasuke grunted, unwilling to admit his own excitement. "More like unranked. Let's go!"

The three disappeared through the hole in Kakashi's cell they'd made so enthusiastically in their rescue attempt.

Hayao spoke hesitantly from the cell across. "My lady, is it wise to leave something like this to three untested children?"

"They're all we've got." Lady Hinogawa said grimly.

She looked to the hole left behind in the wall.

"Besides, there's no telling what they can do if it's for their precious teacher."


As the three genin started their journey to Takihishi Village, Toromaru rounded yet another corner in a far wing of the palace to find Kakashi standing calmly in the center of an empty hallway.

"Toromaru, let's talk. I know more than you do about what's going on."

"I'd be surprised, kouhai."

There was a note to the older ninja's voice that made Kakashi pause.

"You know the daimyo is framing me."

Toromaru shrugged.

"Can you blame him? Now come quietly, we're arresting you for the assassination of the prince."

"I don't suppose the punishment is being sent back to Konoha quietly with my genin?"

"Hah, no."

"The daimyo's picked the wrong team to sacrifice for peace."

"You think you're important enough to the village for the Third to save you?"

Kakashi raised a shoulder. Toromaru lowered his weapons as if to take some time to ridicule him.

"Konoha's small village issues are nothing compared to what's at stake here right now. To prevent a war, you, yes even you, Copy Ninja, can be easily tossed aside. Even that brat Sasuke. The Sharingan only matters to the village, and even then the council has already decided once..."

The dark insinuation hung in the air. Kakashi curled a masked lip.

"But Naruto isn't."

"The skinny little one? What's—"

They both stopped to look around.

As if on cue, there was a sudden weight to the air. A thick, malevolent, evil chakra.

Toromaru had encountered it before as a young jounin, twelve years before.

Naruto's age.

"No," he said incredulously.

Kakashi forwent a reply, reaching out with his senses in vain for the source of the chakra. Naruto was in trouble.

It was fruitless. The thick, choking texture of the chakra seemed omnipresent, blanketing the entire expanse of the palace for as far as he could sense.

He started to run, but Toromaru still grabbed for Kakashi's arm.

"Fine, I'll tell them to let them go, but you can't leave."

A single blow crumpled the Guardian like a paper doll, and he fell to the floor. Kakashi didn't have time to waste on the Guardian anymore.

Kakashi rushed through the palace, flickering through each section like a passing shadow, searching for even the smallest hint of his students. They hadn't spilled blood yet, else he'd have smelled it. His mind raced.

What could have awakened the Kyuubi? Were the other two okay? Would Naruto be okay?

The fear inside him only grew as sector after sector proved to be completely genin-free, and Kakashi resolved to just grab the three when he found them and sprint all the way back to Konoha with them on his back, daimyo be damned.

Anything was better than dead genin.

His heart pounded in his ears still. Leaving could incriminate him all the more, and the outcome of this could influence whether they're going to war with Earth. What if…? Images of his father flashed before his eyes. "Family tradition..." Shinau's voice whispered mockingly in his ear.

He shook the voice away, deciding to search the cells in case they'd been ambushed immediately after he'd left.

They'd be fine. They'd be back to pulling old man Kochiru's weeds by next week.


He didn't find them in the cells either, to his relief.

Lady Hinogawa rose when he appeared, calling out as he prepared to dart away.

"Wait! I know where they are."

He appeared right in front of her door.

"Tell me. Now."

"They're delivering a letter for me. Please, promise me that if I help you find them, you'll help them deliver the letter."

He slammed a forearm against the bars in anger, making the lady stumble back, startled.

Even in this situation, even after she'd gotten them all in a mess that could cost them all their lives, she still believed she could bargain her way out of this?

"No. You've already told me enough. I know they're headed to Takihishi now."

He turned to leave, but she reached desperately through the bars to cling to his sleeve.

"Please, you need to help them deliver the letter, it's the only way to prevent a war."

Kakashi shook her off roughly, correcting her.

"It's the only way to prevent a war on your terms, you mean. I'm fine with some noble dying, and there's definitely no war if you die."

And I die, he admitted silently to himself.

"If I die, every member of the Hinogawa household dies as well. Every retainer, every branch family, the servants and the heads of each village in our control. On your hands."

He turned to leave.

"I have a lot worse on my hands."

She called after him desperately. "Think of every slave I could have liberated."

He paused in his preparation for a shunshin.

Lady Hinogawa fumbled to catch the scroll that he tossed at her.

"Keep that on you. Don't expect anything."

He disappeared.

From his new vantage on the roof of the western wall, he could sense that the malevolent chakra was clearly moving westward now, but as he prepared to give chase, he smelled something else that chilled him to the bone.

Blood.

Sasuke's blood.


They'd come out of nowhere, on Sakura's side. Sasuke had barely managed to block the Guardian's blow, but the force of it had sent him bodily into Sakura, and the two of them fell out of the trees to land with a thump.

"Naruto, keep running! We've got this!" Sasuke yelled, as Naruto glanced back.

The blond hesitated, then accelerated away, faster, much faster than he'd been when they'd moved as a group.

But there was no time to marvel at Naruto's speed now.

Three of the five guardians continued giving chase, while two dropped down.

Asana was one of them.

"I knew Toromaru would let you guys go, that big old softie."

The two genin leapt up, back to back.

"You guys planning to fight? Are you sure?"

Asana sent shuriken flying at a dizzying speed at Sasuke.

Gashes opened up all over his body, open slits that took a second to well up with blood.

"Sasuke-kun!"

Sasuke stumbled, and Sakura dropped her kunai to hold him up. She watched helplessly as blood seeped slowly to dye his clothes a deep maroon red.

"No worries, just flesh wounds." Asana said.

"You- You!"

"Come on, you're the smart one, right? Come along. Don't fuss."

Sasuke tried to stand on his own again, raising a kunai, but was clearly too dizzy from blood loss to keep his footing.

Asana stepped forward, raising her katana like she had with Naruto earlier that day.

"No!"

And in the span of that 'No', Sakura's mind pulled up three facts.

1. She didn't have the strength to stop the kunoichi's blow.

2. She had excellent chakra control.

3. Sensei, way at the beginning of this mission, had said it was possible to control instances of elements.

And so, in the split second before the kunoichi's katana hilt made contact with Sasuke's temple, Sakura caught the kunoichi's raised arm with both hands and pulled as hard as she could with her chakra.

The sound that Asana made was inhuman.

"Auuuuugh!" She jerked back, katana tumbling to the ground from nerveless fingers. "Auuuugh!"

Red chunks landed haphazardly about the forest floor.

Covered in most of it, Sakura wanted to throw up.

Asana's forearm had exploded outward where Sakura's hands had been, exposing white bone.

The other Guardian stumbled back, away from the two.

Asana's keening cry did not stop, as the kunoichi fumbled for her dropped katana with her left hand.

"I'll kill you! I'll kill you!"

She dove at Sakura, who was too shaken to even raise a kunai.

Sakura closed her eyes.

Then opened them, to the clash of metal.

And there, like an answer from above, Kakashi-sensei stood, easily parrying aside the enraged Guardian's blade.

With a well-placed kick, Asana was blown backwards, though she kept her footing to skid to a halt.

She kept her blade levelled at Sensei and charged.

Sakura gasped and flinched as the blade thrust past Sensei as he dodged it deftly, and used the motion to flip the injured Guardian over himself and the huddled genin, towards her teammate.

"Goroku," Sensei called out. "Asana needs a medic. Just take her now, the two of you can't beat me in this state."

The Guardian that'd been standing back in shock hurriedly nodded.

He hooked his arms through Asana's armpits and hauled her backwards as she continued howling.

"No, I'm going to kill that bitch, let me go you bastard"

They disappeared.

"Sensei!" Sakura sank to her knees in relief. Sensei kneeled to grab her by the shoulders, looking her over.

"That's not your blood."

She nodded, then realized the more pressing issue.

"Sasuke, Sasuke-kun, he's—"

Sasuke was on his knees, still breathing heavily, his hands keeping pressure on what wounds he could.

Kakashi-sensei looked him over, then looked warily to the west. He seemed torn for a second, then looked down at Sasuke, resolute.

"Sakura, help me bind him up."

The two made quick work of it, Sakura wincing as she actually took in the sheer number of gashes he'd taken.

"Why didn't you dodge these? You could have easily..." she whispered.

"They'd have hit you, then." Sasuke hissed through the pain.

Sakura flushed, touched.

"Thank you."

Sasuke frowned. "The arm, what—"

He was interrupted with a puff of smoke.

Kuchiyose no Jutsu!

"Yo. I was almost to Konoha, you couldn't have waited a day?"

Pakkun stood there, carrying a scroll on his back.

Sensei took the scroll off the pug's back, and looked at it a moment, in a hand that seemed held carefully steady. He crumpled it.

"Ah... no matter. We'll have to explain ourselves in person."

He stashed the scroll away.

"Pakkun, we're going after Naruto. Help Sakura follow me."

"Huh?" Sakura and Pakkun held identical expressions of confusion.

"No time to explain."

Sensei shouldered a protesting Sasuke easily.

"Let's go!"


Try as though Sakura might, she was left completely in the dust as Kakashi-sensei clawed his way through the trees.

This wasn't tree-running. It was like Sensei was a slingshot adding tension even as it loosed. He was knifing the trees as he went, constantly accelerating.

In the midst of grumbling about Kakashi-sensei sending him on meaningless errands, Pakkun noted her awe.

"You'll get to that level too, one day, kid."

Sakura turned to the pug with shining eyes.

"Really?"

"Ehh… we'll see, kid."


A/N: Finally, we're in the end game. I'm finally fleshing out the scenes that I first had in mind when I thought of this story and it's getting me kind of hype.

A Team 7 in danger, Kakashi trying to keep it all together, the little ones growing bit by bit as they go. That shit's my own personal brand of heroin. I'm going to be tying in all the loose, pseudo-random scenes I'd put in the past now, so please keep watching and enjoy!

-Withered Pages