A/N: Wow, it feels like ages since I last posted. I wasn't satisfied with my first draft of this chapter, so I had to rewrite it ;)
Warnings: violence, poorly informed medical treatments
Like a row of crows, the ghosts sit side-by-side on the thick black telephone wire. With mounting incredulity, they watch a Henge-ed Kakashi stuff fish and squid into the ventilation ducts of the building opposite, where the last of the ROOT agents have congregated.
"Has he ever been like this…?" Sakumo asks Rin under his breath, wondering if the stress has finally gotten to Kakashi. They've been hitting ROOT outposts one after the other for weeks already, after all. Each ambush and ensuing fight had brought the ANBU duo to the precipice of chakra exhaustion, and none of them were victories easily won.
Shaking her head, Rin leans in and speaks in the same undertone, as if Kakashi might hear them. "It's not a coping mechanism I've seen."
"Your kid's gone bonkers, Sakumo," Hyaku declares with much too much levity. Rin reaches over and pinches her on the arm, hard.
Kakashi fits the grill back and slides down the metal ladder attached to the side of the brick building, slipping back into the dark maze of alleys below. The entire residential area is too closely packed to use their usual combination of barrier fuinjutsu and exploding tags – there would be an incredible loss of civilian life.
"They must have thought of something," Sakumo thinks. "There's method in his madness."
The exposed seafood rots quickly in Ame's muggy weather. Barely two days have passed before the ROOT agents begin to avoid their base in favour of scouting duty. There's a right stink working up in rooms the shinobi have claimed for their own, though none of them have managed to find its source.
Sakumo raises an eyebrow at Hyaku and she just smirks back unrepentantly. "Mad genius," she says, but that could be a jibe just as well as a compliment.
The remaining ROOT agents are expecting an attack, what with all their satellite bases dropping out of contact one by one. They've staked out in their last base in order to confront their attackers once and for all. Even with the success of Kakashi's tactics, there are still six left in the building out of the total of ten, apparently the most diligent and dedicated of the lot.
Hours after midnight and much to early for dawn, Snake twists her fingers through a set of hand seals and activates the set of seals that they have painted around the perimeter of the building. Sakumo knows enough chakra theory to recognise the series of seals even though they aren't a combination he's seen before – the results are startling.
It mixes genjutsu and a little of Hatake clan's older, defunct techniques; a combination that amplifies the olfactory senses until –
The window is thrown open with a slew of curses, the ROOT agent gagging behind his mask.
Kakashi is swinging through the window in a blink, both feet planted into the ROOT agent's throat as he drop kicks the man into the room. Snake is close behind him, her teal hair fluttering over her shoulder as she finishes off the poor fellow with a swipe of her katana.
The ghosts follow in, peering through the darkened room to keep track of the furious multi-sided exchanges of kenjutsu, ninjutsu, and taijutsu. Kakashi is a whirlwind of blue lightning, the shriek of Chidori filling the narrow space as he dances around blade and fist. He brings down the ink-jutsu user with a show of brute force, smashing through the jaws of a black-striped tiger to mix blood, bone, and guts with ink.
Busy extracting his arm from the corpse, Kakashi doesn't realise there's a Yamanaka hiding behind the bunk beds until it's too late. Even as the Yamanaka's own body collapses, his arms falling slack by his sides, Kakashi's stolen hand reaches for the katana behind his back and draws it. The blade twists and presses up against the curve of Kakashi's neck, the honed metal edge glinting from ear to chin.
There's a barest tremor along Kakashi's straining arm – the only indication of the struggle within the confines of his skull. "Hound!" shouts Snake, pushing back the shinobi who are converging upon him like sharks that have smelt blood in water. Hyaku snaps a senbon out of the air with a seal and Rin chops mercilessly at the neck of the nin who threw it, her stiffened fingers coated with chakra.
Just a split second after Kakashi wrestles back dominance over his mind, his Sharingan spinning wildly from reverse-hypnotising himself, Sakumo's Raiton fries the Yamanaka's brain. The justu snaps like an overstretched rubber-band and Kakashi arm falls back to his side nervelessly, the tip of his blade scoring the ground. Panting, Kakashi forces his body back into motion, jerking out of a kunai's trajectory. "Sorry," he grunts.
"Don't lose focus!" Snake barks, taking down another nin with a vicious elbow to the head.
Scowling, Kakashi whips into action again, concentration creasing his forehead. When he finishes the Yamanaka off, not knowing that the man is dead already, the smell of gore on him is almost overpowering.
The palpitation of Sakumo's heart demands that he reach out anyway, just to confirm that Kakashi is really still here. He clenches his fists instead, settling for the sight of Kakashi's sure punches, kicks, and blocks, and the confident agility of his fingers as they shape jutsu after jutsu.
Just as the last of the original six falls, the other four arrive, blowing right through the windows with exploding tags. A smoke bomb releases a thick black smog, a cover that they use to advance on Kakashi and Snake. Their familiarity with the space gives them an upper hand while fighting blind, but Kakashi's nose is good enough to even the odds again. Filtering out the sharp chemical tang of the explosion and the pervasive reek of blood and rotten seafood is difficult, but Kakashi picks out the positions of the four after a long inhale.
The two ANBU have backed up against each other the moment they sensed the ROOT agents approaching, slipping into a well-practiced formation. Kakashi draws his katana and goes on the defensive, warding off their attacks while Snake crouches down and runs through a rapid series of seals. A Fuuton: Daitoppa tears through the room a moment later, strong enough to clear away the smoke and send one of the ROOT agents smashing into the far wall.
The visual clarity won't last long; smoke will swirl about the confined space and eventually spread into an even haze again. Still, it's enough time for one last Chidori that sizzles and pops when it cuts through armour like it isn't even there. Two more down.
"I'll get that one," Snake murmurs before heading for the shinobi who had retreated into the smoke, her form shifting as she borrows the shape of one of the men Kakashi had killed.
Kakashi nods once, his Sharingan eye squeezed tightly shut and nearly staggering with chakra exhaustion.
"We struck gold," Snake says when she comes back dragging a tied-up body. Everyone slumps in relief at the sight. Kakashi's eyes curve into a familiar smile even as he sits down heavily and relaxes into a slouch. There's a nasty cut across Snake's arm that's bleeding freely, but she's sporting a cheshire-cat grin. "It's Otsu."
With an eye heavy-lidded with fatigue, Kakashi peers at the unmasked man. "Huh. Kinda looks like him." He gestures at Snake's wound with a limp hand. "Need help?"
"Nah," Snake says, blowing a Katon across her katana and pressing the heated metal against her wound.
"That's not how you do it!" Rin screeches in full-fledged med-nin affront and Hyaku grabs her flailing arms, laughing.
"It's not?" Sakumo mutters, recalling all the war-time "emergency treatments" he and his team had come up with during the Second Shinobi World War.
Rin stares at him in horror. "NO. Infection, Sakumo-san. Infection."
To his defense, they'd popped enough antibiotics afterwards to kill a horse and Snake looks set to do the same. "Heh," he says sheepishly.
"Who teaches these medical guidelines?" Rin mutters, pacing agitatedly. Sakumo can almost see the reform plan that's taking shape behind her eyes and he can't help but chuckle. "This isn't how you use antibiotics! Dosage, dosage!"
"Maa, Snake-taichou. You have some alcohol?" Kakashi gestures at the cut on his calf.
Rin's angry "no!" resounds through the dawn.
A/N: I'm no medical expert, but pouring alcohol onto an open wound apparently damages cells instead. Hm. Have a good week everyone! :)