They kept going until the sun started setting and they made camp for a few hours to get some rest.
Neither of them had said much since they left the village. They focused on going as fast as they could and occasionally pausing for a break.
"Let's stop here." Kakashi said. "Rest for a few hours before we keep going."
"I can take first watch." Karan offered.
"You sure?" He asked. "It was a long day."
"I've had longer." She said taking a seat and leaning against a tree.
"Alright then." Kakashi said taking out his sleeping bag and setting it up. Karan was sitting with her eyes closed seeing if she could sense anything nearby.
It was quiet and they were alone in the forest, except for all of the animals and crickets. Kakashi wasn't sleeping either. He just laid there thinking about everything he knew about his new comrade and what she had revealed.
"I can hear you thinking." Karan said.
"What gave me away?" Kakashi said looking over at her.
"Uneven breathing, your eyebrow twitched, and you haven't picked up your book once the entire day which from what I can tell isn't something you do often." Karan said.
"You're observant." He said.
"Job requirement." She said. "Anything you want to ask?"
Kakashi stayed quiet. There was a lot he wanted to ask but he better than anyone understood that everyone was entitled to their privacy. So he decided to deflect.
"Your summons is a dragon." Kakashi said.
"I don't really refer to him as my summons but yeah." Karan said.
"Then what do you refer to him as?" Kakashi asked.
"My brother. He's family." Karan said.
"Hmmm." Kakashi hummed understanding the feeling as he thought of his ninken pack.
"You should sleep, it's a long trip." Karan said.
It was a quiet night and completely uneventful. They each got a few hours of sleep, took food pills for breakfast and kept going. They got to the fort early in the morning.
"You sure this is the place?" Karan asked.
"Yeah." Kakashi said noticing the same thing she had. There were clear signs there had been a battle there blood and shuriken and kunai scattered about. And then came the obvious blood marked sigil of a circle with a triangle inside of it and a dead man pinned to the wall.
"That's not a normal thing around here right?" Karan asked as they looked at it.
"No. It's not." He said.
"Kakashi!" Someone called out.
"Shiro." He said. "What happened here?"
"Akatsuki." Shiro said as Karan started walking around and noticed the same sigil also painted in blood on the ground next to it. Except there was a black rod thrown aside with blood on it. She walked over to pick up the rod and then looked at the ground noticing a crack with a hole in the stone ground.
"That was them too?" Karan asked as she walked over to it looking at the rod. Kakashi looked at her curiously as he watched her walk around as if she couldn't see the bodies scattered about.
"We found it like that. We got called from another outpost but by the time we got here they were gone." Shiro said. "Looks like they wanted to leave a message."
"No." Karan said as she fit the rod perfectly into the indentation in the stone. "It's not a message."
"What is it?" Kakashi said.
"The Akatsuki up until now has been moving quietly. They cover their tracks right?" Karan said.
"For the most part." Kakashi said.
"And they know we're looking for them." She said. "If they were trying to leave a message it wouldn't look like that. It would have been rushed."
"How do you know it wasn't?" Kakashi asked.
"Look at the mark. The lines are perfectly even broad strokes. The sides of the triangle are exactly the same size. They took their time making it. Same as the one on the ground. The two sigils are right across from each other and could be mirror images." Karan said picking up and reinserting the rod in its hole before looking back at Kakashi. "This isn't a message… it's a ritualistic sacrifice."
"Taichou!" Someone called out running towards them.
"What is it?" Shiro said.
"We've done a head count and we're missing someone." They said.
"Who?" Shiro said.
"Kuchiki Aizen." He said.
"The Northern Banshee?" Kakashi asked.
"He commanded the fort." Shiro said.
"We can track them." Kakashi said. "Do you have something of his we can get his scent off of?"
"Hai." One of the men said handing over a bloody headband.
Kakashi quickly formed hand signs summoning his pack of ninken.
"Kakashi." Pakkun said.
"Need you to track down a scent." He said offering the headband and all of the dogs inhaled the scent, becoming familiar with it before they ran off in different directions. Kakashi looked over and noticed Karan staring at the sigil on the wall, focusing on the man impaled to the wall.
"Karan wait up!" Kaien called out.
"Then hurry up slow poke." Karan said as she ran down the mountain path leading to the entrance of a small trading outpost they had gone to many times before to trade goods with the locals but that day was different. The walls were painted red with blood and at the top were heads impaled on spikes.
"You know it's not a fair race when you…" Kaien started before he noticed the grim expression on his sister's face and looked up to see what she was staring at. "Karan?"
"haha you should have seen the look on his face…" A drunk man said as he stumbled through the gates and he bumped into Kaien. "Watch where you're going brat."
Then he looked up at the wall and saw what had their attention.
"Oh get a good looks brats." He said. "You want to know why they're up there? Why they're not hanging with bags over their heads like the rest of their kind? It's a warning to everyone that comes through these gates. To fall in line or end up like them. They were brave… but also very foolish. So remember their faces because if not… one day that'll be you."
"Hey." Kakashi said gently putting a hand on her arm to get her attention.
"Hmm?" Karan hummed snapping out of her daze.
"We should eat something while we have the chance." Kakashi said.
"Don't really have much of an appetite." Karan said before they heard a howl.
"It'll have to be food pills." He said before they ran off meeting with Pakkun. Karan took a food pill as they ran behind Pakkun stopping outside a place that appeared to be an abandoned bathhouse.
"They're in there." Pakkun said.
"Thanks Pakkun, we got it from here." Kakashi said.
"Be careful." He said before he disappeared with a poof.
"It's kind of out of place… even if it is abandoned." Karan said.
"Or maybe it was just made to look that way." Kakashi said.
"Either way, better safe than sorry." She said activating her sharingan as she saw two cloaked figures exit the building.
"It's just two of them." He said.
"Someone's still in there." She said.
"We're not confronting them." He reminded her. "We have orders."
"They're not moving." Karan said as she noticed they were just standing there while one of them sat down to open a briefcase. She closer her eyes and focused on sensing what was going on inside that bathhouse. It wasn't clear but she knew there was someone inside. The two outside, one of them didn't have much chakra but the other was massive and gave her chills. And then…
Karan opened her eyes and quickly put a hand on Kakashi's shoulder teleporting them away just as an arm jumped out about to grab them.
Kakashi jumped a bit about to fall off the branch they were on but Karan's arm steadied him as she silently signaled him to look down and see the severed arm that was exactly at the spot they previously were. The arm disappeared underground. The two members of the Akatsuki got up and left.
"Do we go after them?" Karan asked.
"No we go inside. Find out what they were doing here." Kakashi said "Stay close we don't know what we're walking into."
With that they walked into the abandoned bathhouse.
It was dusty and old. All of the baths had long since dried out. They walked down the hall lined with mats until they hit a dead end.
"Do you hear something?" Kakashi asked and Karan paused for a minute hearing a faint hum like a refrigerator.
Karan nodded the affirmative taking out a kunai.
"Stand back." He said and quickly formed hand signs as he focused pure lightning natured chakra in his hand and blowing open the wall in front of them.
"AHHH!" They heard a scream as Karan ran in after him. It was a sterile room with tile on the floor and walls and metal doors along the wall.
"Y-you're the copy ninja. Hatake Kakashi." The man said.
"I'm going to need you to ask you some questions." Kakashi said.
"Me? But I just run a small bath house." He said.
"Really? Must be hard without water." Kakashi said as Karan walked over and pressed her hand to the cold metal finding the source of the hum.
"What's in here?" Karan asked.
"Oh that's…" he started but she opened the door and out slid out a metal slab with a body in it.
"Dead bodies. This is a morgue." Karan said before noticing a book on a far table. She walked over and…
"That's just some simple accountability nothing you need concern yourself with miss." He said as Karan opened it and saw the photos pulled out from a bingo book with faces crossed out and amount of money for each one.
"It's a bingo book, you pay out bounties for confirmed kills." Karan said lifting up the book so Kakashi could see.
"That's why they took the body. To collect the money." Kakashi said. "Who were they?"
"I'll never talk." He said quickly slapping a paper seal on his arm before igniting in flames and being turned to ash.
"Shit." Karan said and Kakashi sighed before he took out a scroll and sealed the body of the deceased commander. They took the bingo book with them before heading back to fort to hand over the scroll. Kakashi sent Pakkun ahead with their preliminary report before they headed back.
"You shouldn't be disappointed." Kakashi said as they jumped through the trees.
"Hmm?" Karan asked confused.
"Our mission was a success, and you did well." He said.
"Uh… thanks but doesn't this all seem strange to you?" Karan asked.
"There's a lot we don't know about the Akatsuki." Kakashi said.
"Yeah but compared to hunting Jinchuriki doesn't bounty hunting seem a bit… low in their priorities?" She said.
"It does but it also gives us a new lead to follow." He said.
"I guess." She said as they kept going.
It took another day before they got back to the village but when they did.
"Wow." Karan said as they stood at the entrance of the village where they could see a lot of construction going on.
"I think we missed a fight." Kakashi said.
"Looks like." She said. "Does this happen often?"
And Kakashi thought about it for a minute.
"Sometimes." He said. "We should report to Lady Tsunade. Need to file a report."
"Fun." Karan said sarcastically as they walked to the Hokage's office.