Chapter 9

in which people find themselves in strange situations, certain little books are threatened, and choices have to be made.

AN: thank you for 100+ reviews! Also a little warning, there's some breaking bones, blood and other gross things.

Kakashi came out of the darkness feeling like he'd just swum through miles of thick, cloying jelly. He felt strangely numb, as if the world around them had gone quiet and dull, some of its vibrancy inexplicably lost. It wasn't unlike a feeling he'd had as a boy, when he'd first had to adjust to only having one eye in his everyday life. The feeling of strangeness, of something missing that used to be there.

He couldn't feel his chakra.

He managed to open his eyes. Sand, warm from the sun and soft like a pillow underneath his body. No chakra signatures around him. He was safe – he could breathe again. Slowly but surely, his chest began to feel less tight. His head felt foggy but at least he could think again. No obvious pain anywhere in his body, so he probably wasn't injured either.

Still no chakra.

Next to him, someone groaned in pain. Kakashi flinched away from the sound – he hadn't sensed anyone at all – but then the same person groaned again, and this time he recognized the voice.

Shikamaru was curled up on his side, clutching at his thigh. Blood colored the sand around him dark. Kakashi cursed and scrambled over to him. Shikamaru's dark eyes opened briefly but were clouded with pain.

Kakashi carefully rolled him onto his back, and pried the younger man's hands away from the wound. He hissed in sympathy. Whatever had happened, it had cut Shikamaru nearly to the bone. He was losing too much blood. Thinking quickly, Kakashi undid the belt Shikamaru was wearing and wrapped it around Shikamaru's thigh.

"Sorry, this will hurt," he said, and pulled the belt as tight as it would go. Shikamaru made a stifled sound but kept his eyes on Kakashi's face, looking determined even as his breathing came in hard, fast gasps.

Behind them, something moved. Kakashi shifted just in time to catch the knife coming at his face. It was one of the Sound shinobi who had teleported them here, his face contorted in fury. Kakashi had to roll with the blow. Shikamaru gasped something concerned and pained.

Although the bone deep fatigue of chakra exhaustion was missing, Kakashi couldn't reinforce his arms with chakra, and the weight of the Sound shinobi drove them both down. The knife buried itself in the sand next to his head. The shinobi roared something furious and punched him in the face. Something cracked in Kakashi's jaw and he briefly saw stars.

Kakashi blocked the second blow by grabbing the other shinobi's wrist and twisting it sharply. Bone snapped. Kakashi twisted his hips and, using the broken arm as leverage, rolled them both over. He straddled the man's arms and shoved him face first into the sand. Quick, machinelike efficiency was as easy as breathing after so many years of practice.

More movement – there, the other enemy shinobi was up and running – then he caught a blur of red from his right as Gaara tackled the second man to the ground. No sand, just wiry strength and anger.

Highly uncharacteristic. Was he missing his chakra too?

Unfortunately, the other man was more heavily built, and without ninjutsu Gaara had lost his natural advantage. The larger man scrambled back up onto his feet and threw himself on top of Gaara, reaching for his throat.

Kakashi's fist connected with his opponent's temple without mercy. Shikamaru was injured, Gaara was not a natural hand-to-hand combatant, and they had no idea where the hell they were; intel be damned, survival came first. He grabbed the knife and moved as quickly as he could to tackle the remaining Sound shinobi himself. The Sound shinobi was larger than him as well, but unlike Gaara Kakashi was a close combat specialist – that, and he had a knife in his hand. After blocking a few sharp jabs, he put his knife to the other man's throat and snarled, "Give it up."

Gaara was breathing hard. For the first time since Kakashi had met him, his pale eyes looked uncertain. Not for long, though. When Gaara caught sight of Shikamaru, his usual confidence returned. He worked his way up to his feet and scrambled over.

"Did we win? I couldn't see," Shikamaru panted.

Gaara nodded as he ripped one of his sleeves off. "Yes, we did. Don't worry," he said, and tied the fabric around Shikamaru's leg. "Can you feel your chakra?" He added.

Ah.

"No," Shikamaru said. "You?"

"No," Gaara said, turning to meet Kakashi's eyes. Kakashi shook his head.

A sudden, loud coughing drew their attention. Ebizou. Even Ebizou had been brought with them. The old man was crawling towards them. He must have been hidden from view behind a small dune. He looked ill and exhausted. "Where are we?" He asked.

"I broke the coordinates," Kakashi admitted. "To take away their advantage. Except… Now there's no way of knowing where we are."

Shikamaru groaned. "You really do attract trouble," he said. "We're lost in a desert."

"To be fair, I'm not the one whose leg was split in half," Kakashi returned. "Speaking of, is it still bleeding?"

"It is," Gaara said grimly. "The wound is deep – just a tourniquet might not be enough."

Kakashi nodded. "He'll need stitches. If worst comes to worst, we can cauterize it."

"Just my luck that Sakura isn't with us," Shikamaru groaned. "Then again, without chakra… Kakashi-sensei, you'd better have a steady hand." He was trying to say it lightly, but his voice was too strained to pass it off as anything but nerves.

"Of course! I've had plenty of opportunity to practice on myself," Kakashi said lightly.

Shikamaru cursed.

"If you have material on you, I don't think we should wait too long," Gaara said.

Kakashi nodded. "I always carry something on me. A leftover from doing solo missions. Gaara, you'll have to switch places with me."

Gaara nodded and came over to take Kakashi's place as prison warden. Kakashi jogged back to Shikamaru and felt intensely grateful that he'd paid such close attention to his equipment even for a diplomatic mission. Some habits you just didn't want to grow out of.

Shikamaru was starting to look dangerously pale. The wound itself cut through his leg deeply, oozing slowly but steadily. The blood looked nearly black. The muscles had been cut cleanly – without medical jutsu, that would take a long time to heal. On the upside, the edges of the wound were clean and straight; stitching would be easy.

Kakashi took out his medical kit and set to work. He hadn't stitched up a lot of people in his time, but he hadn't lied to Shikamaru. The last time he'd had to stitch himself up dated back to the fourth war, but it was hardly the sort of thing anyone could forget. Shikamaru groaned when he pushed the wound edges together. He had to wipe away the blood several times to see what he was doing, until Ebizou appeared with a piece of cloth and did it for him.

Up above, the light was slowly starting to fade.

Shikamaru's breathing stuttered and hitched several times throughout the process but he didn't cry out. Instead, he kept his gaze fixed on the darkening sky above.

Kakashi finished off the stitches and tied Gaara's sleeve around the wound again. The tourniquet was still in place, a few inches above the wound. Most of the bleeding had stopped, at least. "That will do for now," he said. "Keep your weight off of it. Actually, just… Don't move. You lost a lot of blood."

Shikamaru looked utterly exhausted, but he nodded. "Thanks."

He would need food and liquid soon, but right now they had neither.

Kakashi's hands were sticky with blood. Now that the adrenaline was slowly fading from his system, his jaw was starting to ache abominably. It would've been nice if his first aid kit had included a cold pack, but hey…

Ebizou walked over to the surviving Sound shinobi and started to unravel the prisoner's long, tight scarf. "We can use this to tie him up."

Kakashi nodded and took it from him. With Gaara's help, he trussed the Sound shinobi like a calf and dragged him closer to Shikamaru, who was the unofficial center of their little camp. There, they tied up the second prisoner as well and huddled together.

"Don't suppose you recognize some of these grains of sand?" Kakashi asked Gaara lightly, peeling of his bloodied gloves.

"Not even the dunes," Gaara said. "Perhaps I can figure out our location when the stars come out." His eyes fell on the dead Sound shinobi. They rested there for a moment, then moved away again.

Finally, Gaara said, "Is this a kind of chakra exhaustion?"

Kakashi and Shikamaru exchanged a wry look. Neither of them had huge reserves, relative to their skill level, but Gaara was still used to having the reserves of a bijuu at his back. He'd likely never experienced anything close to chakra exhaustion.

Kakashi, on the other hand... He shivered instinctively at the memory of pins and needles throughout his limbs, and the agony of his organs shutting down one by one. He'd felt it down to his bones. "Normal" chakra exhaustion – normal for him, anyway – was only a little kinder, but usually resulted in stiff and painful limbs. He wasn't in any pain at all, and he felt as flexible as ever.

"No, this is something else," he said. "I'm thinking it might be a side effect of the transport seal. If they knew this... numbness would happen, they must've thought they'd be able to take us out wherever they were taking us."

"I suppose we make a nice bounty," Gaara said thoughtfully. He looked up at the sky.

"Hmm. Quite clever, really."

"You said the seal would only be able to bring five people. I was standing on the seal with only one leg," Shikamaru said. He had closed his eyes and his face was drawn in pain, but being Shikamaru his brain was still working. "That's how I was injured, wasn't it?"

Kakashi sighed. "Probably. You're lucky you didn't lose the leg completely."

"Right. Lucky."

Lucky by Kakashi standards, anyway.

"We need to build a fire," Gaara said. "It will get cold soon. Without my sand, I can't build us a shelter."

Right. And they weren't exactly going to find a furnished inn in the middle of a desert, either. Kakashi would have killed to have one of Tenzou's luxury lodges right about now. "No wood to burn, though. Don't suppose either of you brought any paper or books?"

Shikamaru actually turned his head to give Kakashi a meaningful look. "You have a book."

Kakashi resisted the urge to hiss. "Other books."

In the end, they pieced together a small and rather sad looking fire out of Ebizou's more useless scrolls. "They contain material for my puppets, but we won't be able to unlock them anyway," he explained.

Actually starting the fire required rather more effort than any of them wanted to admit, but they managed it in the end. Without sacrificing Icha Icha, to boot.

Kakashi considered himself to be rather lucky his companions hadn't questioned him about that any further. He would have given the book up, if he really had to, but if there was a choice… He tried to tell himself it was just because of Jiraiya's signature on the first page, but that didn't quite ring true. No, the truth was that he was fond of the stupid little thing. Not just for its mind-bogglingly silly and delightfully escapist contents, but also because this was the first of the series – the first one Jiraiya given him, and the one that had survived all those battles at his side.

Which was a stupidly sentimental way to think about a cheap little paperback, but there you go.

The next few hours were startlingly uneventful, given that they had just been teleported to who knew where. Gaara and Kakashi explored the direct surroundings of their small camp, discovering a couple of cacti which could serve as water supply and a small rodent, blackened with soot from the fire, and presented to them by Gaara with an air of triumph it didn't quite deserve. It rather reminded Kakashi of the first time Naruto had ever cooked for team 7 – it had also been the last time – and just how happy the boy had been.

Eating without showing his face also proved to be rather tricky, what with how painful Kakashi's jaw was. He ended up simply turning his back towards them as he ate his quarter of the rodent, and ignored their curious looks. Unfortunately, having only two bites of rat for dinner was about as appetizing as it sounded.

Well. He had had worse, in the war.

With their little camp organized, there wasn't much else they could do. Gaara and Kakashi tried to figure out their positioning by looking at the stars, but dark clouds obscured them from view and blocked even the moonlight from illuminating the world around them. Only the flickering orange flame of the campfire kept them company. There wasn't much left to do but rest.

Gaara took the first watch, leaving the others to get some sleep. Shikamaru had nodded off hours ago, exhausted by his injury. Ebizou had valiantly tried to stay awake, but lost the battle quickly after Gaara's declaration. Kakashi sat by the fire for a little bit longer, quietly observing the other Kage, before nodding and curling up next to Shikamaru. They would be warmer together.

After that, nothing. Sleeping on missions had taught him how to fall asleep as quickly as possible even under the strangest of situations, and today was no different. Not even the scroll Shikamaru's injury could distract him for long enough. He dreamt of Minato-sensei and Naruto, cooking together in Kakashi's cramped little kitchen. It was a very pleasant dream, but it didn't last.

Gaara was shaking his arm. "Wake up, now! We're under attack –"

Something huge and fast came out of nowhere and bowled them both over, instantly dousing their campfire with a shower of sand. One of the prisonors screamed as massive jaws snapped.

Something had found them in the dark of the night.

And it was hungry.

Uchiha Sasuke was not as surprised as he should have been when he received a message reading 'Kakashi-sensei may have gotten himself vaporized, is now MIA. Come help ASAP. PS. Don't tell Naruto yet, he will freak out! Sakura.'

He let out a deep sigh. First, Kakashi sent him orders-via-lackey, and now the man had done something mad enough that he'd vanished. Oh, and he'd put Naruto in charge of Konoha while he was away. Crazy bastard.

Suigetsu had been very short tempered ever since he'd returned from his impromptu meeting with the Hokage, but he'd made it clear it had something to do with Orochimaru. The old snake obviously hadn't learned much from his mistakes, and now Konoha might have to pay for it again. In other words, as much as Sasuke didn't want to, he was going to have to help. And let Naruto know anyway, because he would freak out even worse if they didn't tell him at all, whenever he inevitably found out. There wasn't much hope of getting him to stay in the village, anyway.

Sasuke memorized the coordinates Sakura had added to the scroll before sending the paper up in flames.

Juugo gave him a curious look from his seat near the fireplace. "Anything I should be worried about?"

"No, just my old team getting into trouble again."

"Oh. Nothing new, then."

Nothing new, but still… For all that Sakura's tone had been lighthearted, her handwriting was sharper than usual. She was worried. Despite his propensity for finding trouble, Kakashi was also usually very good at getting himself out alive. The only real reason to be worried was because… Well. The incident with Fox had rattled team seven. After they had survived the war, Sasuke had been pretty sure no danger could have been great enough to truly threatened them, but he knew better now. Evaporated, he thought. Hmm. If anything, he knew better than to believe there was such a thing as 'impossible'.

He pulled out a map of Wind Country from his backpack. It wasn't very precise, but it would do to figure out Sakura's location. After a moment's calculation, he frowned. Beyond Sunagakure. He would have to move fast to avoid the guard patrols. Pardoned or not, he wasn't particularly popular amongst most shinobi.

"I have to leave tomorrow," he told Juugo. "You and Suigetsu will have to finish things here."

Juugo blinked. His face was an open book even in the flickering light of the campfire: he was worried. "Is it that bad?"

Sasuke shrugged. "Maybe. I'll see."

Juugo's face relaxed a little. "Well, if it's you and your old team, I'm sure it will turn out all right. How will we contact you?"

"You won't. I will contact you myself," Sasuke said, and wrapped his coat more tightly around his shoulders. He closed his eyes. He would be traveling most of tomorrow, and perhaps the day after that as well if he wanted to spare his chakra. He needed rest, now. He would figure out the rest tomorrow.

Juugo only sighed.

There wasn't any time to think. Kakashi threw himself on top of Shikamaru and rolled them both over, narrowly escaping the lashing tail of whatever had just attacked them. Their prisoner was still screaming, so whatever it was was sadistic. Shikamaru was only half conscious, but aware enough to cooperate when Kakashi slung him over his back. His weight didn't seem as taxing as it should have – Kakashi could feel some of his chakra again, simmering just under the surface, just out of reach. He couldn't use it yet, but it was a good sign. He forced himself up to his feet, thighs burning, and decided that the best way to go was probably away from the monster still torturing the poor Sound Shinobi.

There was no time to pick up their backpacks. They were in no state to fight back. Something reared up from the sand just ahead of him, hissing and screeching, and he only managed to avoid it by throwing his body out of the way. He could feel its hot breath on his skin as they passed. Shikamaru screamed as the fall jarred his injured leg. No time.

Kakashi forced himself back up again and ran. "Gaara!" He shouted. It would be safer to keep quiet, but he had to know where the Kazekage was, and whether he could still be saved. He heard a cry somewhere to his right, and then more hissing at his back.

"Kakashi –" Shikamaru warned him, but Kakashi had gotten there before him and threw himself flat on his stomach. Whatever was chasing them flew right overhead, missing them by barely a foot. Clever little beastie. It was big, whatever it was, and long.

The second Sound Shinobi had started screaming as well, and Kakashi could hear bone snapping. One of the creatures made a delighted whistling sound. Something slithered past, and then the first whistle was joined by a second. Poor bastards. On the upside, the creatures were moving further away. Kakashi worked himself up to his feet again, ignoring chafed hands and knees, and started to run.

Gaara reached them mere moments later, barely visible in the darkness. There was a brief, confusing moment where they gripped each other's shoulders to ensure they weren't actually facing some eldritch monster, and then they were off again. Old Ebizou bounced awkwardly off of Gaara's thin shoulders.

Shikamaru's breathing sounded strangely loud his ears. There weren't any other animals around them, so it was just them, their footsteps and breathing, and the monsters in the distance, their victims' screams slowly dying out.

They ran on. At some point, Shikamaru's head sagged down onto Kakashi shoulder, and he had to readjust his grip to make sure the younger man didn't fall off. His own lack of sleep was starting to show as well; his head felt foggy and flight. He didn't think he'd slept much more than one or two hours, at best. Gaara would probably be feeling even worse.

They should have brought a torch. If only one of them had had their hands free to grab one, at least they could have found their way more easily in the dark. Instead, they had no idea what direction they were running, only that it was away from the nearest threat. They could be running right into the next danger. But Kakashi and Gaara had had to choose: supplies, or their injured friends. Despite what it had cost them, Kakashi was pleased to see Gaara had made the same choice as him.

He tried to count in his head to get an estimate of how much time passed as they ran. It didn't feel quite right, to run away from an enemy instead of fighting it, so he slowed down before he marked half an hour. Those things were fast and had managed to find them in the middle of the desert, so it would be better to find a strategic safe place than one that was far away. Either way, they had probably filled their bellies with the Sound Shinobi; they probably wouldn't have to feed again tonight. He hoped not, anyway.

Gaara noticed he had dropped his pace and joined him at his side. They hadn't spoken much during the run, but now he said, between gasps for air: "are you all right? They were on us so fast, I didn't notice them earlier." There was something wild in his eyes. Kakashi couldn't help but remember the chunin exams, and Gaara's response to being injured. The Kazekage wasn't used to situations like these.

Kakashi's own breathing wasn't much better, and his chest ached again. Still, he nodded as he carefully let Shikamaru down. The younger man was blinking back into consciousness slowly but surely. Some blood seeped through his bandages, but the stitches seemed okay. "We're fine. And it's okay, you couldn't have sensed them without chakra," Kakashi said. There was no point in playing the blame game, anyway.

He quickly explained his reasoning. "We need to orient ourselves before we start running into every other direction. It's better that we find a strategic safe place, perhaps on top of the rock or a mountain, if we can find one, then a place that's just far away from those creatures. Every mile we run could be further away from home, or further away from the nearest source of food."

Gaara nodded. "It will be hard to find anything while it remains dark, though."

"We'll have to use our other senses," Kakashi said, tapping his nose. "I won't pretend this place is a wildfire of smells, but if I should pick up on cooler air… We might be able to find water, at least."

"Can you, without chakra?" Ebizou asked. His voice rasped painfully, and he'd started coughing again. There was a liquid, frothy quality to the coughs that Kakashi didn't like.

"Yeah. Not as well as when I have chakra, but still much better than anyone who isn't an Inuzuka," Kakashi said, shrugging. "I have some Inuzuka ancestry. I think."

"You think," Ebizou repeated, but didn't say anything else.

Kakashi didn't comment. There were more important things to focus on.

They ended up walking, just far enough apart that they could still see each other, each of them carrying an injured companion. Without chakra, food, or water, every step took more effort than the last. It wasn't even the distance, necessarily, just a combination of exhaustion, Shikamaru's weight on his back, his aching jaw, and the lack of sleep and sustenance. It has now been about twelve hours since his last proper meal. Well. Technically, the human body would be able to do without food for several weeks. Of course, it wouldn't actually be capable of much for most of that time. They would have to do more hunting, or get lucky and find more cacti. Maybe cactus meat was more appetizing than it sounded.

Either way, so long as they could find water to drink, the real danger were those creatures. Without chakra or weapons, they were as good as defenseless against them.

AN:

Thank you for reading, please let me know if you enjoyed the chapter!

In case you didn't notice, I really, really like writing suspense. This chapter probably left you with more questions than answers, though… Typical, honestly.