Author's Note
I've had the first 2-3 chapters bouncing around in my head for a while now, especially the second chapter. I figured I'd write it down and see if it goes anywhere. This is my first time travel fiction and it seems like there should be more planning involved. So I have a beginning, and I think I have an end, but no idea what will happen in the middle. I'm open to suggestions. Also open to constructive criticism. I let Kakashi keep his Sharingon and took some liberties with what it can do.
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Kakashi struggled to pull himself up, flailing with limbs which didn't want to work, instinctively keeping low, using the bushes he had landed in for cover. He was near his endpoint. He had one, maybe two, good jutsu left in him and then...well, he'd better make those jutsu count. He had lost track of his team in the explosion. Were they dead? Was he the last one? Again? He swore to always protect his comrades, and once again he'd failed. He shook his head, hands clutching his hair as he tried to get himself together. Deep breaths. Breaths which somehow made his head swim even more. He squinted out into the battlefield, willing his vision to clear. Trees swam in and out of focus, one second a green and brown blur, the next coming into sharp focus, only to fade back.
He saw a sandaled foot sticking out from the bushes about one hundred feet to his left, the rest of the body obscured. Sandals, not boots. Not Sakura. Who then? Alive or dead? He couldn't tell from here, his vision again betraying him. He grabbed the base of the bush in one hand, pushing off the ground with the other to get his feet under him, but the effort was too much. The rushing noise in his ears crescendoed into an all-consuming roar as the world spun and then went black.
He couldn't have been out long. He heard a rumble, felt vibrations in the ground. Not an explosion. An earth jutsu. Or maybe a certain kunoichi capable of cracking boulders and opening crevices in the ground with her bare fists. Maybe. Whatever it was, at least one of his team was still alive. Still fighting. Kakashi closed his eyes and listened. The forest was quiet, all the wildlife having fled or hidden in their burrows at the first signs of battle. A breeze rustled through the surrounding trees. Then something else. The sounds of someone running. They were going all out, snapping tree branches and sending loose rocks flying, valuing speed and distance over stealth. He heard the runner pause at the edge of the blast zone, then divert their way around it, staying in the trees. Suddenly, Sakura dropped to the ground behind their fallen comrade, dragging him further under cover. Kakashi could see her doing a quick assessment of injuries, watching for enemies as she did so, and then start a healing jutsu. Alive then. But for how long? Kakashi could feel the chakra of the jutsu, which meant the enemy could, too. And they were sure to be close behind on Sakura's trail. That she was trying to heal him now and not carry him away to safety meant the injuries were critical, maybe mortal.
Kakashi felt Sakura's chakra flare, faintly heard her talking to the body she was working on before sinking back on her heels, the green glow fading from her hands. She slouched dejectedly for a moment before going through her dead companion's pockets, not wanting to leave anything on him that could be used by their enemies. She then reached up and gently slipped the head band off his head, wrapping the cloth around the metal Konoha insignia before gently placing it in her bag. She ran a hand quickly over her eyes and started to stand. Before she was fully on her feet, two shinobi dropped from the trees on either side of her. Two more stepped from the bushes behind her, cutting off her escape. Just then the three who had been pursuing her showed themselves, leaving her surrounded. Seven against one. The shinobi were all chunin level or above, the newcomers fresh and strong, while Sakura was exhausted and had to be running low on chakra. Kakashi's heart raced, his mind trying to keep up with it. This was it. They were going to kill her. Kill her, or take her hostage. His teammate. His student. The one he was supposed to protect. He had to save her. Had to keep her away from them. He couldn't watch another teammate die. He wouldn't.
He cursed silently. The targets were too close to Sakura to take out with a large-scale jutsu. He'd end up killing her along with them. There were too many for him to take on, even with her help. He could take out one, maybe two, before he'd be dead from chakra drain, but maybe that could give her a chance to escape. But he knew her. He knew that once she realized he was there, she wouldn't run. She would stay and fight. She wouldn't leave her comrade behind. Not even him.
He watched as they started to close in on her. She had a kunai drawn and was preparing to fight. She would take a few of them out with her, but ultimately the fight could only go one way.
He had to get her out of here. Had to give her a chance to escape. To get some place safe. Two had their backs to him, and all were focused on Sakura. He drew two kunai silently from his pouch, throwing one, then the other, hearing them land squarely in the backs of his enemies. He started gathering the last remnants of his chakra as chaos broke out in front of him. His head swam and his eyes watered as he prepared his kamui, feeling his grip on consciousness slipping even as he felt the chakra building in his system. He had to choose a target. Choose one to take out of her way. Out of here. Get them out of here. His eye focused on Sakura, locked in a taijutsu battle with two of them. He had to save her. Had to get her out of here. Had to get her somewhere safe. Back to Konoha. He had to get her there. He had to send her someplace safe. He opened his eye wide and released the power of the Mangyeko Sharingon on his teammate.
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Sakura pushed more of her chakra into her comrade's body even as she felt his heartbeat flutter and grow erratic. She had plugged up all the internal injuries that were causing him to bleed out, but she couldn't make the red blood cells regenerate fast enough. It was over, at least for him, and there were still at least two rogue ninja on her tail. She collected the personal effects of the fallen ninja, wiped the sweat and tears out of her eyes, and stood up. Kakashi had to be around here somewhere. He had been caught in the blast with Kaede, she was sure of it. She had covered half of the perimeter of the blast zone when she found Kaede, Kakashi should be somewhere in the other half. She could do it, she could find him before the missing nin did. Just as she was about to take to the tree tops again, two missing nin dropped to the ground on either side of her. She cursed, drawing a kunai and gathering her chakra in her foot, preparing to cause a little earthquake to knock them off their feet, when she felt two more chakra signatures behind her. She was surrounded, and she had no idea what the capabilities of the newcomers were. They had to be strong to even think of taking on her on. She slowly turned in a circle, kunai ready, eying up each of her new foes. As she turned, she was a movement in the bushes, followed by the dull thud of a kunai burying into flesh. Then another. Kakashi. She barely had time to smile in relief as she used the momentary confusion to throw her own kunai, hitting her closest assailant in the thigh. The fight was on, two on her while two went to search for their hidden assailant. She saw the ninja she had hit with the kunai on the ground making hand signs, looking in the direction Kakashi was hidden. She jumped in his direction, kicking out as she landed, missing his head but managing to kick him in the arm, stopping the jutsu and sending him flying. She turned to face her original two opponents when she felt a sudden lurch in her stomach, like her insides were trying to fold in on themselves. The world blurred and seemed to rotate, and she felt a tremendous pull in her abdomen, a twisting sensation of drawing in. She tried to move out of the pull but it was too late. She new what was happening. She was caught in Kakashi's Kamui. There was no escape.