Present

Chapter Three: The Mission

Everything had been going according to plan: Ren and Kaito didn't get into another scuffle, the replacement team arrived on time, and those set to go home were ready to go by the meetup time. That was, until Toshiro Uchiha keeled over moments before they were set to depart, after exhibiting signs of recovery over the last few days.

Sora Uchiha had been thoroughly unimpressed at the display, muttering something along the lines of the younger generation being weaker. Obito overheard him and wanted to say something back in Toshiro's defense, but Kakashi held him back.

"It's not worth it," Kakashi told him. "What's important is getting Toshiro medical treatment, right away."

Their departure was delayed another hour as the field medic attempted to figure out what was wrong with Toshiro, but came up short. The best course of action was to bring Toshiro back to the hospital to get treated, but doing so meant that the camp's leadership would be reduced from three to one. Sora's second in command wasn't due to arrive for another three days and Toshiro had originally been set to stay.

Obito sent the rest of the platoon along, instructing them to start heading back to the village with an unconscious Toshiro in tow, while Obito and Kakashi stayed behind to hash out the problem of Toshiro's vacancy.

"I think you should stay," Obito told him. "It's not good for an outpost to be only with one leader."

"Me? You know Sora Uchiha hates my guts," Kakashi responded dryly. It wasn't that Kakashi was unwilling, but rather, being under Sora's watchful eye made it infinitely more difficult to sneak out.

Kakashi's meeting with the Senjus was long overdue.

"Yes, but it'll only be for three days," Obito tried to placate. "I'll get Itachi to send a replacement for Toshiro as soon as possible."

"Then why don't you stay?" Kakashi asked, despite already knowing the answer.

"We are of the same rank. Like hell am I going to work under Sora," Obito scowled, annoyance etched across his face at even the possibility of doing so. "Besides, he hates me as much as he hates you, so take one for the team, alright?"

With that, Obito shot him an apologetic smile, patting him lightly on the shoulder before he departed, hurrying to catch up with the rest of the platoon. Kakashi sighed in defeat, steeling himself to be ready to face Sora.

As his feet carried him closer to the commander's tent, every fiber of his being urged him to turn back. Kakashi faked a smile and nodded in greeting at his passing subordinates, while his mind was filled with all of the possibilities of what Sora was going to dish out at him this time.

Multiple times, Sora interrogated him, always trying to paint him out to be disloyal to the Uchiha side. The accusations ranged from Kakashi purposely sabotaging his own units, which - for the record - had never been the case, to him being a Senju informant. His baseless accusations never got him anywhere.

Kakashi simply got the satisfaction of continually moving up the ranks every time he saw Sora, starting from a lowly shinobi under Sora's command to now being second in command of his own platoon.

The last time Kakashi encountered Sora, he had given up the interrogations and instead challenged him to a match. It ended in a draw, but both Sora and Kakashi knew that he had thrown the match for the sake of keeping Sora's reputation and prestige intact. And Kakashi had no doubt that Sora was still bitter about losing the match to this day.

With that in mind, Kakashi forced a fake smile on his face before he stepped into the commander's tent, not bothering to announce his presence. Sora's head jerked up from the table, dark eyes landing in his direction, staring at him intensely.

Kakashi gave a small wave as his way of greeting. "Yo."

Displeasure was written all over Sora's face, accentuating the lines in his forehead. "Get on with it, Hatake. Don't waste my time."

Well, Kakashi supposed this was one of the nicer responses that he received from Sora. Perhaps in their last spar, he had won Sora's grudging respect? Kakashi could only dream.

"Just wanted to let you know that I'm going to fill in for Toshiro until Hiro arrives."

Sora scoffed. "Do you really think that your presence really makes a difference? I can run the entire camp by myself; I don't need your help. Now go make yourself useful by staying out of my way."

Ah, there was the Sora Uchiha that Kakashi knew.

"Sure, if you say so," Kakashi responded cheerfully, in a mocking manner. Sora's eyes narrowed, lips pressed tightly together. "Bye!"

Kakashi took the opportunity to leave the tent before Sora went on another one of his tirades. Another shinobi slipped into the tent right as Kakashi left. He lingered for a few moments, flinching as he heard Sora's booming voice yelling for the other shinobi to leave. Ducking off to the side, Kakashi watched as the shaken shinobi exited the tent, muttering his own choice of words underneath his breath.

Angering Sora had quickly become one of Kakashi's favorite pastimes.

Laughing quietly to himself at how easily Sora was angered, Kakashi took off towards the outposts. If Sora wanted him out of the way, then Kakashi would be.

Kakashi took a stroll around the entire outpost, making sure everyone was in their appropriate positions. One group had the audacity to fall asleep on the job, to which Kakashi frightened the daylights out of them by transforming into the Yellow Flash. At first sight, both shinobis fell out of the trees, landing hard on their asses. Wide eyed, both shinobis hastily attempted to crawl backwards as Kakashi advanced on them.

Figuring that the two of them had learned their lesson, Kakashi dropped the henge, much to both of their reliefs.

"Imagine if I was actually the enemy," Kakashi lectured. "You would have been dead before you could even open your eyes. And then what? The rest of your comrades also die because you failed to do your duty and warn them of the impending danger."

Both of them repeatedly assured him that it wouldn't happen again. Shooting one last skeptical look towards them, Kakashi bounded off to the next watch group, not before making sure the two shinobis resumed their post.

Ren and Kaito were squatting in separate trees, doing their best to ignore each other. Even though they were at least ten feet apart, the tension that radiated off of their bodies was thick enough that Kakashi could barely breathe. He moved away from the duo, leaving the two of them to brood in silence.

Kakashi took a break under the base of a tree, in one of the outpost's blindspots. The same spot that the Senjus had used to infiltrate the area and ambush Toshiro's squad. Spreading out his chakra, Kakashi tried to detect if there was anyone else around.

All clear.

Running through a familiar sequence of hand seals, a carbon copy of himself popped up beside him. He gave instructions to his clone to wander around the outpost to give himself an alibi, but not to get too close with anyone. While his clone slipped off, Kakashi henged himself into his alter ego, which he had dubbed Sukea.

Unruly brown hair, gray contacts, nondescript civilian pants and a green jacket, topped off by a scarf wrapped around the bottom half of his face. To complete the disguise, Kakashi had purple paint above and below his eyes to cover up the scar that ran from the upper part of his eyelid through the eyebrow of his left eye.

Suppressing his chakra, Kakashi slipped out of the Uchiha outpost, careful to stay out of sight from Ren and Kaito's watchful eyes.

It was a self imposed challenge to see how hard it was to slip past the shinobis on guard duty at the front gate to the village. Kakashi could have sent Pakkun to deliver a message to Minato or Hiruzen to inform them of his presence, but he wanted to have some fun.

Kakashi inched forward, flaring his chakra a tiny bit to see if they would notice. They didn't. In fact, one of them looked like he was going to fall asleep at any moment, while two of them were bored out of their minds. The fourth paced aimlessly back and forth, attention on everything and anything but the front gate. The fifth was laying on his back, cloud gazing.

Grabbing a nearby pebble, Kakashi tossed it up and down in his hand while he contemplated the best course of action. He tossed the pebble, letting it strike right below where two of the shinobis were standing. They immediately snapped to attention, but before they had a chance to warn their comrades, Kakashi had already trapped them into a genjutsu.

From there, slipping past a guy who had fallen asleep, one that was cloud gazing, and one that was too busy wearing a hole in his shinobi sandals than actually paying attention, was all too easy. By the time the other two shinobis snapped out of the genjutsu, Kakashi was long gone, already blending himself in with the villagers.

No alarms were raised; both had chalked it up to a figment of their imaginations.

The village was exactly as Kakashi had remembered it. The same bustling marketplace spanning seven blocks long, filled with shopkeepers advertising their products, his childhood favorite food stands, and the quaint weapons shop hidden in the corner of the fifth block famed for creating the three pronged kunai. His eyes lingered on the store signs, worn from years of wear and tear. The familiar faces of the shopkeepers, donning a few more wrinkles than he remembered. The children lining up in front of the dango store, taking advantage of the shop's discount on the second day of the week.

So many things had changed, yet it still felt like home. Fourteen years since he left the village.

Kakashi was jerked out of his nostalgia when he saw Asuma walking down the street in his direction, walking side by side with a raven haired woman. Ducking in the nearest alleway, Kakashi pressed his back against the wall as he waited for his former friend to pass.

Asuma did. A cigarette protruded from the corner of his mouth as he spoke animatedly to the woman next to him, using his hands to emphasize his point. Kakashi forced himself to look away, lest he got any stupid ideas in his head to reveal himself.

They weren't friends anymore. Kakashi had to accept that.

Kakashi should have gone straight to Minato's office. Instead, he found his feet carrying him to the cemetery. He passed the memorial stone, the rows of individual graves, until he reached the very edge of the cemetery. In the very back, away from all of the other headstones. Weeds covered the headstone to the point where Kakashi could barely read the faint writing etched onto the stone tablet.

Sakumo Hatake.

His fingers trembled as he reached out to lightly brush against the edge of the headstone. A million things ran through Kakashi's mind, yet the words remained lodged in the back of his throat. Slowly, Kakashi got onto his knees and bowed his head out of respect.

Tou san, are you proud of me?

His only answer was a light breeze from the wind, sending the tail end of his scarf fluttering in the wind.

I'm sorry.

Two simple words. A lifetime of guilt and regret.

Kakashi picked himself back up, brushing the pieces of grass that stuck to his pants. His fingers itched to pull out the weeds, to restore the spot to its former glory. To the glory that his father deserved. Yet, the rational part of his mind reminded him that it would have been too suspicious. No one ever visited this grave.

And no one ever would.

Leaving was the hardest part, but Kakashi was a shinobi to the core. He had a mission to complete.

Kakashi scaled up the side of the tower, scarf fluttering in the air behind him as he climbed five floors in just under a minute. Taking advantage of the slight crack in the window - his sensei always did like to keep the window open, even if he had been hounded multiple times before about it not being safe - Kakashi pushed up the window and slid into the office, landing lightly on his feet.

Minato's head snapped up, whirling around in his desk chair to launch the nearest projectile, which happened to be the pen in his hand, at Kakashi. Having already anticipated the move, Kakashi cocked his head to the side, letting the pen hit the wall behind him, bouncing harmless against it and falling to the floor.

Kakashi held his hands up in a sign of peace as Minato was poised to launch another projectile at him, this time, one of his signature three pronged kunais. Forming the seal, Kakashi undid the henge, allowing his natural features to take over once more.

"Kakashi!" Minato exclaimed. Seemingly realizing his mistake, Minato stood up from his seat, pushing the window closed and tugging on the blinds. Then he proceeded to form the seals for a sound barrier, before speaking once more. "You didn't tell me you were coming."

Kakashi shrugged. "It was kind of impromptu. Saw my opportunity to slip away, so I came."

Minato frowned. "You're getting reckless."

"It was a calculated move, don't worry. Besides, I got lucky to be assigned with one of the most dense Uchihas."

Minato shook his head. There was always no use in arguing with Kakashi. "Wait here, I'm going to go get Hiruzen san. We have lots to discuss."

Lots to discuss, indeed.

The next hour was spent mapping out each of the locations of the Uchiha's outpost to the best of Kakashi's knowledge along with known commanders in each location.

"Sora Uchiha has replaced my outpost," Kakashi told them. "I'm going to be back in the village for the next three months, so I'll have more time to scout around."

Minato nodded. "How is the poison working?"

"Poison?"

"In our last ambush," Minato clarified. "We were testing Tsunade san's newest poison. I'm not privy to all of the details, but supposedly, it's supposed to be slow acting. By the time they notice, it will be too late."

Kakashi racked his brain to try to remember what the field medic had told him, but he hadn't cared all that much about the details, only that Toshiro and the other men were recovering nicely. Toshiro had recovered so well that he even had the energy to walk around the camp…

Until he collapsed this morning.

"Oh. One of them had recovered, but suddenly collapsed again today. Is it the poison?"

"I think so-"

Minato never got to finish his sentence as Tsunade came storming into the office, seemingly having no qualms in doing so. Each of her steps reverberated through the room, reflecting exactly how pissed off she was. Tsunade slammed a piece of paper down on Minato's desk with enough force to make the furniture shake.

"Read this," Tsunade demanded, sliding the paper towards Minato. Hiruzen leaned forward in his seat, craning his neck to view the paper. Kakashi simply looked over his sensei's shoulders, taking in the five words that had made the Senju's most prized medic so angry.

Rin Nohara found a cure.

"Already?" Kakashi piped up.

Tsunade's amber eyes honed in on him. "What do you mean 'already'?"

"He just started showing symptoms this morning, so he's being brought back to the village to be treated."

Tsunade snorted. "Clearly I have underestimated the girl, whoever she is. If it wasn't for the spy, we wouldn't have never even gotten a name."

"Clanless...what is she doing working for the Uchihas?" Minato questioned. "The Uchiha do not treat those without a clan well, so I am surprised to hear that she is so loyal to the Uchiha."

"The reason doesn't matter," Tsunade stated. "At this rate, we will never gain the upperhand. We need to eliminate her."

"Eliminate?" Minato repeated. "That's a bit harsh, don't you think? What if she was coerced into working for the Uchiha? Or maybe she was manipulated into doing their bidding? Based on what Kurenai told us, there's a lot of orphans that are being held there against their will…"

Tsunade shot Minato a glare. "Soft hearted as always, Minato. What are the odds that someone in Kurenai's position could become a talented medical ninja? Kurenai had an advantage since her father was a shinobi, but many of those orphans are civilians. They don't know what chakra even is, much less use it."

"She's right, Minato," Hiruzen added softly. "Unfortunately, this is war."

"You want to end the war quickly, right? We're currently at a stalemate because both of our forces are relatively evenly matched. We need to gain the upperhand somehow and getting rid of the girl would give us the advantage. Who else will be able to counter my poisons then?"

Minato turned to Kakashi. "Kakashi, I hate to ask, but can you…?"

Kakashi nodded.

"It will be done."

Kakashi didn't bother to go back to camp. The following day, his clone had already poofed out of existence, the memories returning to his mind. One in particular floated to the forefront of his memories, the one featuring Sora curtly dismissing him as his second in command had arrived earlier than anticipated.

Just as well, Kakashi could head straight back to the village.

The travel back was relatively boring. Usually, Kakashi would have Obito chatting his ears off; even if Kakashi was pressed to admit it, he did enjoy Obito's company from time to time. Yet this time, there was nothing but solitude and silence. And lots of greenery surrounding him from all sides.

Thunk. Thunk. His feet barely landed atop of the branches before he was already off, heading towards the next one. To keep himself entertained, Kakashi began to contemplate ideas on how he was going to eliminate the medic without drawing too much attention.

An assasination attempt? Too risky, considering Kakashi had no idea how skilled the girl was. And that was too high profile, the Uchihas would immediately suspect that it was an inside job; Kakashi had no clue if Minato still needed him to act as a double agent after this mission.

His best bet was to earn her trust. And then what? Slit her throat when she was unaware? Fake a suicide? Somehow convince her to be assigned to an outpost and claim she had been caught in the crossfire of war?

None of those ideas sounded appealing, but more plausible to execute than his previous plan. At least that way, Kakashi would get an opportunity to learn her habits, her schedule, and know how long before someone noticed her missing, among other things.

The real question was how he was going to earn her trust. Fake an injury and visit the hospital? Would she even be the one to tend him? Stalk her and magically interject himself into her life? He didn't even know what she looked like.

Kakashi mentally groaned. Why was this turning out a lot harder than it had to be? He regretted not asking for the identity of the other spy; at least, that person would be able to get him an in to Rin's side.

A particular conversation flickered to the forefront of his mind.

As far as I know, she's needed at the hospital. She's a poison expert, so she needs to be on standby to crack Tsunade's poisons.

Obito's friend. Poison expert. Rin Nohara?

If that was the case, then that made his mission infinitely easier. Except that meant using some underhanded tactics.

Sorry Obito.

He had been so engrossed in his own thoughts that he hadn't realized a shinobi had snuck up to him until he saw a glint reflecting off metal until it was a foot in front of his face. Eyes widening, his instincts took over, forcing himself to twist his body. The blade dug into his side, slicing through the flesh just below his ribcage. Blood soaked through his shirt.

The shinobi yanked back his sword, raising it once more, but Kakashi was ready for him this time. Kunai in hand, his arm swung in an upward arc, metal clashing against metal. The other shinobi put a tremendous amount of force on his sword and Kakashi's arm strained under the pressure, but he held strong.

Kakashi found himself staring into a pair of Sharingans.

"Uchiha," Kakashi whispered. "Whoa, whoa I'm not your enemy."

"That's what they all say," the Uchiha hissed. "You do not belong to the Uchiha clan nor to any of our ally clans."

Kakashi had never run into this problem before, simply because he had always come back to the village with a group.

"Look at my arm," Kakashi commanded. The Uchiha did, his eyes flickering to the black armband on Kakashi's upper arm, denoting the Uchiha clan symbol. The black color symbolized his status as a commander. The Uchiha blinked in surprise, relenting his hold on the sword.

"Sorry taichou," the Uchiha said sheepishly, taking a few steps backwards. "Are you okay?"

Kakashi grunted in response, tucking the kuani back into the holster. There was a stinging pain in his abdomen and he was acutely aware that he was still losing more blood, but Kakashi waved off the Uchiha's concerns. Before the Uchiha could offer to escort him to the hospital, Kakashi darted off, encountering no trouble as he slipped through the village gates.

He made it to his apartment in a record time, darting at top speed across the rooftops to do so. Slipping in through the slightly opened window, Kakashi grimaced as the maneuver irritated his wound even further. Stumbling to the bathroom, Kakashi flickered on the lights and kicked the door shut behind him. Squatting down, Kakashi retrieved the medical kit from the bottom shelf and popped open the kit.

Kakashi was careful to slowly peel off his shirt, which had already begun sticking to the wound, to not reopen the wound any further. Rolling his shirt to below his armpits, Kakashi surveyed the damage in the mirror.

It was worse than he had originally thought. Deep enough to require stitches.

Blood continued to drip down from the wound, leaving a trail on his pale complexion before the droplet was soaked by the waistband of his pants. Grabbing a handful of gauzes, Kakashi mentally braced himself as he pressed the gauzes tightly against his wound.

The bleeding wouldn't stop. As much as Kakashi hated going to the hospital, he knew that there was no way to circumvent this visit. If the beginning signs of lightheadedness wasn't enough for him to realize the severity, he needed to go anyways, to restock on medical supplies. Between him and his accident prone roommate, the supplies ran dry quickly.

Hastily wrapping a bandage around his torso to keep the gauzes in place, Kakashi let the shirt fall, covering his torso once more. Running his hands under the sink, he scrubbed off the blood caked on his hands before yanking the bathroom door open, stumbling towards the front door.

On his way out, Kakashi was vaguely aware that his roommate had just come back. He didn't bother to acknowledge his presence nor answer any of his questions as he slipped through the open door.

Never did he think he would be willingly going to the hospital at that moment. Usually, he was too heavily injured to protest or he would be treated by a field medic or he would pretend his wound wasn't as serious as it seemed.

Yet his sensei's words echoed in his head. You're getting reckless.

Kakashi supposed he was.

Too bad he didn't have anyone to ground him in place.

A/N: Hi again!

Sukea had to make an appearance somehow in this story, so here we go. I should mention that Kakashi didn't lose his eye in this story, only that he has a scar that runs through his eyebrow, but it didn't damage his eye. It was actually really weird writing him without the Sharingan because that means he can't use his signature move, Chidori and I had to keep reminding myself of that haha.

Anyways, I planted a couple of hints in this chapter that alludes to the story later on so I thought it would be fun to predict what's coming next.

Aside from Kakashi, there are other spies (both for the Uchihas and Senjus). Can you spot them? Hint: they already appeared/mentioned in the first 5 chapters.

Sakumo is dead :(. Any guesses to how he died? Hint: It may or may not be similar to canon, you decide. :) This is an AU after all.

I vaguely mentioned that Kakashi left the village fourteen years ago. Any guesses?

Next chapter, Kakashi and Rin will meet! Thank you for reading and reviewing and as always, until next time!

-MM