Chapter 4: The Collapsing Cave

The blow doesn't come.

I open my eyes. Two boys stand near the door. A grey haired boy with a mask covering his face, his and a dark haired boy with bright red eyes. The man standing above me had paused his attack to focus on the much older boys.

"Where's Taiseki?"

"In the same place your going!" The dark haired boy yells, as he and the other boy charge at him.

I cover my eyes with my hands so I don't have to watch the fighting. When the sounds stop, I uncover them. The silver haired boy is making a hand seal, dispelling the jutsu the brunette is under. "Kakashi-kun?" The girl asks.

The man who had almost hit me was laying on the ground. I could see the faint rise and fall of his chest.

I push myself into a sitting position. My heart is pounding, every sound seems to have become louder, and everything sharper.

"Rin, I was so worried." The red eyed boy said.

"You came to save me?" The girl… Rin asks, looking from one boy to the other. When her eyes fell on the grey haired boy she blushed lightly.

"Of course, I couldn't leave you behind. I had to convince Kakashi-teme."

"Thank you, Obito-kun."

I stop watching the trios reunion and stand up. I do my best to dust myself off, before picking up my scroll. I can't find the leather rein-straps in the cave. I am still looking around for them when a thin, cold line appears on my neck. A muscled arm wraps around my waist and I am lifted off the ground. He places his body behind mine, using me as a human shield.

"Now, Konoha Shinobi, if you don't want this little girl to die, you will drop your weapons." The two of the three leaf shinobi freeze. Kakashi (I think) doesn't seem all that interested. He just contiunes to untie Rin.

"Stop!" The man threading my life shouts. He presses the knife harder into my neck. It hurts. A lot. I can feel a line of blood run down my neck, and a stinging sensation, that starts slowly spreading. Kakashi keeps moving. As if he is trying to call the man's bluff. I let out a small whimper, my breathing shallow, and uneven.

A close my eyes. I want to wake up from this nightmare. For my mama to hold me, and tell me the everything will be ok. For my dad to tell me about the world. For my sister to sit with my while she does her academy homework, while I color on paper next to her. I just want to go home.

Tears spill out of my eyes.


What happens next occurs so fast that its a blur. The man drops me, does a jutsu that causes the cave to start collapsing, and Kakashi is struck on the head by a falling rock. I'm frozen in place, watching as Obito scoops up Kakashi and throws him into a safer spot. Rocks come tumbling down on top of the red-eyed boy.

Dust is launched into the air and obscures my view. After a minute it clears, and I can see Rin and Kakashi huddled around Obito. He has several boulders resting on top of him. Rin has one hand on each of the boys left eyes. Her hands are glowing green. When she lifts them, Kakashi has Obito's red left eye. Kakashi darts out of an opening in the cave, and soon after, we can hear the clash of weapons.

Rin is holding Obito's hand. Comforting him. I take a few steps over to where she is kneeling.

"It's a shame to die, when Kakashi and I just started to get along." Obito whispers, voice ragged. Tears are rolling down Rin's cheeks.

I sit down beside her.

"What's your name?" I question shyly.

"Uchiha Obito. You?"

"Aimisouma. You can call me Misou. Everybody does."

"Like the ramen?" I flinch a little, but I can't find it in myself to get upset with the injured boy.

"Not quite, but close enough."

"You girls need to leave me."

"What?" Rin gasps through her tears.

"Go." He insists. He lets out a long breath, and struggled to inhale again.

I unroll my scroll a little, just till I find a blank slot. I focus my chakra. I move through the hand seals.

Open Scroll Seal - Outside Seal - Inside Seal - Merge Seal

"You'll be ok." I say to the Uchiha. I touch his leg and the blank slot. His body disappears in a *Poof* with smoke. The boulders shift a little after loosing the support of Obito's body.

I nearly fall over. It uses quite a lot of Chakra to do that.

"Where'd he go?" Rin turns to me. I can see that she is both scared and angry. To tired to respond, I point at where Uchiha Obito is written on the scroll. She doesn't look convinced, but just then the rubble starts shifting. Threatening to squash us to the thickness of naan. Kakashi appears beside us.

"Come on." He says to me. He puts one arm around my shoulders, and jumps. We launch out of the small crevice opening. He releases me long enough to extend a hand to Rin.

I press a hand against the cut on my neck. At first it stung a lot, now its numb. The world is spinning, doing many backflips and barrel rolls.

Kakashi grabs me, and jumps into a nearby tree.

Ninja are everywhere around us.

"I don't feel so good..." I say my eyes drooping.

Rin landing behind me, inspects my neck.

"Poison. It looks pretty bad, but-"

I din't hear the rest of what she said. I felt like I was sinking in a pond. Things were going out of focus, and looking like they were getting further away. My eyelids are heavy. I arms release the scroll, and my world disappears.


Minato


A tingling sensation had been going down my spine for a while now. A part of me knows that my students are in trouble. I've wanted so badly to go and check on them, but he first had had to finish aiding his comrades. With that done, I was now able to go and check on my pupils.

I closed his eyes and extended his senses. I found the special Kunai that he had given Kakashi a few days before.

I pulled a carefully portioned amount of chakra from his reserves and used the Flying Thunder God jutsu.

I was glad that I hadn't waited any longer.

When I arrived, Kakashi was in the middle of collapsing from chakra depletion, and Rin was standing over a child laying on the ground. Leaping, I caught Kakashi before he could hit the earth.

Then I quickly dispatched most the hoard of Iwa Shinobi that were surrounding two of my students. The remainder of the ninja fled at the sight of me. A corner of my lips twitched, but I'm far too worried to smile.

"Rin-chan, are you alright?" She looked a little worse for wear. With her eyes puffy, hair and clothes disheveled. I couldn't see any injuries on her though. I turn my attention to Kakashi. I can sense his severe chakra depletion, and he had a nasty cut extending over an eye. But it appeared to have been already healed by

"Where is Obito-kun?"

"I don't know. He was there, and then she did a bunch of hand seals that I'd never seen before. Then he disappeared and his name appeared in her scroll." Tears started to pool in the corners of Rin's eyes.

"Who is she?"

I don't know, Minato-sensei. She was asleep in the cave when I arrived there after being captured. But then I was in a genjutsu, and I don't know what happened. She said her name was Aimisouma. She got cut and poisoned by one of the Iwa Shinobi."

I nod, showing Rin I understand her report. Interesting. Brave kid, walking into a war zone. Or, perhaps, just foolish. "I'll take the Kakashi and Aimisouma back to the men at the men at the border. Then we can complete the mission." I hand her Kakashi's flying thunder god kunai. I grab both of the unconscious children and the girl's scroll, then activate the space-time technique. I quickly order the border patrol shinobi to guard the young, then flash back to Rin.

Together we plant a large number of powerful paper tag explosives. The bridge crumbles. Rin and I watch as if falls into the deep chasm, rather awestruck at how much damage can be done with a few explosives.

When we return to the border patrol's camp, we are face to face with the team captain."Welcome back, Minato-senpai."

"Thank you, Hamaki-san. How are they doing?" He asked, looking over at the two you, laying on a set of parallel stretchers.

"Kakashi will be fine. He just needs a nice long rest. We don't have the supplies to cure the poisoned girl here."

Hmm. She trapped Obito's body inside of that scroll of hers. We'll most likely need her to release him. "Then, we will take the pair of them back to Konohagakure with us. But for now, we must wait for your reinforcements to arrive."

"Yes, Minato-senpai."