A/N: Wow I can hardly believe that we have reached our 100th chapter! Thanks for staying with this fic!
Within hours of finally escaping the place where he'd been imprisoned, Kakashi is back at the Shimura estate again. This time, he has the entirety of the Uchiha Police Force with him. There are a good number of ANBU too. Now that Danzou has been arrested, even Hiruzen can't justify withholding support. With Kakashi and Kinoe's help, the assembled shinobi are briefed and sent out in teams. The mission begins.
The key objectives of this raid are to contain the ROOT forces and collect evidence. Lethal force is to be used only as a last resort. All teams are also assigned an Uchiha member, who will keep their Sharingan activated in order to preserve as much evidence as possible. Danzou may have already instructed ROOT to destroy such evidence, but it is not so easy to erase decades' worth of secret activities.
"You won't do anything to interfere, will you?" Sakumo mutters to Kagami. The Uchiha ghost stands beside him, watching his clansmen surround the estate with a carefully constructed mask of apathy.
"No," Kagami says. "I told Danzou that I would not act against him from the afterlife. I never promised to protect him from the consequences of his actions."
The ghosts quieten as the leader of the fuinjutsu team raises his hand, his fingers folding one by one as he counts down. It is a lucky thing that the Uzumakis had never been on good terms with the Shimura, or else they would be facing much bigger problems with the wards. Yet, the suspicious silence permeating the forest makes Sakumo uneasy.
The fuinjutsu team leader's fist clenches tight: GO! The wards shatter with a muted flash of light and all around the estate, the assembled teams rush in blurs of grey and green. Sakumo hurries through the scattered leaves left in the wake of their shunshin, the ache of his wound (and Rin's firm hand on his sleeve) reminding him that he is in no condition to keep up with Kakashi and Fugaku's teams. They have charged far ahead, cutting through the chaotic combat that fills the forest and the sprung booby traps, but Sakumo and Rin know the shortcuts.
The ghosts head straight for the center of the hornets' nest, slipping through walls and floors until they arrive in the basement floors and the network of secret passages within them. "This way," Kinoe's shouts. Sakumo and Rin fall in line behind the teams as they head towards the walkway running above the sparring grounds and dormitory rooms. "They should be—"
A shuriken goes arcing through the air, shaving off a few strands of Kakashi's flyaway hair as he ducks. "They're fighting!" Kinoe gasps, running to the edge of the walkway and peering down in shock. Fugaku appears beside him, his Sharingan swirling red as his gaze flickers rapidly over the scene below. There is chaos.
Most of the ROOT agents outside were determined to die where they stood, but it appears that the rest have been tasked with moving ROOT - and its members - elsewhere. But some are digging their heels in.
"There!" Kakashi shouts, pointing to the group of young ROOT members crowded by one of the dormitory entrances. There are a number of older shinobi guarding them, using all manner of jutsu in order to keep the other ROOT members away. A wall of flames shoots from one of the shinobi's mouth as the group shuffles along the wall, making slow progress towards the stairwell that leads up to the surface. A kunoichi barges through the barrier and snatches one of the children by the arm, but she's mauled by an ink tiger the next moment. The child crawls back to their group, sobbing. "We should get the younger members out first!" Kakashi says urgently. "If they're taken elsewhere, we'll never find them again!"
Fugaku signals his approval with a quick few signs but holds back Kakashi when the rest of the team leaps over the railing and into the fray. "Stay here," Fugaku commands. "You're in no state to fight and you're a key witness. I'll take Kinoe with me and get the kids out; you need to stay up here, watch the situation, and direct the incoming teams. The team strategy is in your hands now, got it?"
Kakashi is clearly itching to fight, but to Sakumo's relief, he acquiescences. "Got it."
It's a good thing, too. Fugaku's team is immediately swarmed the moment the ROOT agents notice them. Fugaku's doujutsu brings down half-a-dozen ROOT agents at a time and the rest of his team bring down another half-dozen, but it's like watching vultures descend on meat. As Fugaku's team moves away from the group of ROOT children, their attackers follow them, more focused on keeping outsiders away than kidnapping their own.
Every so often one of the teams from outside would arrive, having broken through the ROOT agents holding fort outside, and Kakashi would quickly send them over. "Back up Fugaku's team," he'd say, or "pursue the group that went through that passage." A few shinobi would stay back to fend off ROOT agents for Kakashi, but he'd send off most with a few pointers about specific, powerful ROOT shinobi.
The fighting is intense, but it doesn't last long. Most shinobi battles don't.
"I don't understand it," one of Kakashi's temporary ANBU bodyguards grunts as they drag another unconscious ROOT member to the side. "Why are some of them surrendering without a fight?"
"It's either us or Danzou," Kakashi replies. "They believe in us." Hope still flickers in his eyes despite the heartbroken way he scans the dead and dying. Fighting their own like this... it feels like cannibalism. "Leopard-san, please escort the medical team in as soon as possible."
"On it."
As Leopard runs off, Kakashi pushes away from the railing and strides to the other side of the walkway to peer down. At the nearest wall, the police have gathered the shinobi who have surrendered or have been captured, knocked unconscious, or otherwise incapacitated.
"Kneel with your hands on the wall," the ROOT shinobi tell them. The lower ranking members of the Uchiha Police are busy securing them with rope; saving their limited supply of chakra suppressing cuffs for those who still have the strength to resist.
Kakashi takes off from the railing, ignoring his ANBU bodyguard's shout, and lands on the rafter below. He continues down carefully, from rafter to rafter, until he's close enough to recognise faces. Kakashi scans the uneasy crowd with a conflicted look on his face, his gaze lingering on every frightened expression and furious snarl.
"Oh look," Rin whispers, and that's when Sakumo sees him as well. It's Tiger, staring up at Kakashi with hard eyes as he kneels amongst the group of shinobi who had made it their mission to protect the children. "Don't let us down," he mouths. "Save them."
"Hey! Keep your head down!" one of the Uchiha police shouts as he strides over to Tiger, but the shinobi stops in his tracks when he realises Tiger's line of vision leads to Kakashi. "Uh."
"He's fine," Kakashi calls. To Tiger, he gives a firm nod.
The ROOT shinobi gives him a smile full of teeth.
"Well done," Fugaku tells Kakashi when they're out in the estate's surrounding forest again, watching ROOT shinobi being escorted away. Kinoe follows along with them in order to give the younger members a familiar face to look towards. For those who are too injured to move, the med-nins have laid them out on large pieces of sterilised tarp and started treating them then and there. Just as Kakashi relaxes a little, an ANBU wearing a fox mask rushes up to them.
"Orochimaru's gone!"
Fugaku swears under his breath. "Who's after him?" Fox rattles off a list of codenames and Fugaku nods. "Good... they might have a chance."
"Did you find any survivors in his lab?" Kakashi asks. A worried frown is permanently etched on his brow by now.
Bowing his head contritely, Fox answers in the negative. "We can't access his lab. But we're working on it."
Kakashi closes his eyes briefly, sighing. "Orochimaru must have been ready for this. Fugaku-san, I might have a way in."
Fugaku's eyebrows fly up his forehead. "Let's see it then."
"I just hope she's still there."
"Who?"
"Inoue-san. One of Orochimaru's experiments," Kakashi explains.
"That's... concerning."
They reach the well pretty quickly. Kakashi immediately sticks his head over it, pulling up his headband so he can use his Sharingan to peer through the darkness. "Inoue-san!" he shouts at the top of his lungs. "Are you there?"
The black water ripples.
"Inoue-san!"
Kakashi pauses to catch his breath. Fugaku is staring at him like he's crazy. "She lives in the well? I assume Orochimaru gave her gills?"
"Yeah, and more. She showed me a passage into the lab. Orochimaru also has a whole graveyard of bones in a glowing underground cave. I—"
"Puppy!" Water sprays out of the well as Inoue bursts from the water's surface with a wail, her hair a wet, stringy mess over her face. Fugaku stumbles back, the flames of an aborted Katon flickering in his mouth, but Inoue ignores him. "You're here!" she cries. She sets the wriggling bundle in her arms down on outside the well, her slitted pupils wide with distress. "She's been screaming all week."
Kakashi falls too his knees and pulls the soaked blanket off the weakly flailing creature, gasping when purple hair and a familiar face is revealed. "Anko?!" Rin cries, falling to her knees beside her. Anko's head lolls in Kakashi's arms; she's barely conscious.
"That bastard!" Sakumo stares in horror. Was this why she was missing from Asuma's farewell? How long has she suffered?
Inoue wrings her hands, her long tail churning the well's water into froth, as Fugaku runs off calling for a medic. "Orochimaru put something on her. All the other kids have died. It's only because he ran off that I could break in and take her out of her cell..."
Kakashi grasps Anko's hand and winces as she clutches at him. Her claws are digging unforgivingly into the back of his hand. There are black tomoes creeping out from under the collar of her shirt, writhing like swollen tadpoles up her neck and onto her face. Pressing a hand against Anko's forehead, Kakashi frowns at the heat radiating off her. "Thank you, Inoue," he tells the snake-woman. "We'll definitely save her."
"I know you will," Inoue says, looking much calmer. She smooths back her hair from her face and sinks back into the well as med-nin come running, leaving only her emerald eyes peeking over the stone.
To the med-nins' credit, they only spare Inoue a glance before focusing their efforts on Anko. "The seal is only partially activated," a masked med-nin says after scanning her trembling body with glowing green chakra. "It seems that she's trying to suppress it, but she's weakening rapidly."
"Tell the medical fuinjutsu team to prepare a seal suppression array," her colleague replies. "We'll bring her over now. Kakashi-san, you can let go of her hand."
"Ah," Kakashi says, gently preying Anko's grip off his hand. "Thank you all for your help."
A/N: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Please excuse any errors, I rushed this update because I'm leaving for a holiday and I won't be back until next decade. (Haha.) Have a good time everyone :')