Even if you cannot hear my voice,
I'll be right beside you, dear…
When Kakashi was eight, his father failed a mission. A very big, very important mission, that quite possibly was one of the last straws on the camel's back when it came to inter-village relations.
It wasn't often that you could say, "Yes, my father did single-handedly start Secret-World-War-III that led to the deaths of countless ninjas and civilians. What are the odds!" Of course, if you had a lick of sense, you didn't say this at all, especially in Suna. It was bad enough that in Konoha, the older generations hadn't quite forgotten about his father's reputation (because as all ninjas know, you're only ever as good as your last mission), but in Suna, the White Fang had a near cult-like status. He was a regular bedtime story villain – the kind who would sneak into your room at night and slice off your ears for no apparent reason.
And while his father's deeds may have been exaggerated and embroidered for the benefit of scaring naughty children, apparently his appearance was something that everyone remembered quite accurately. Kakashi only had to walk down a typical Suna street and see every third person he passed give a double-take. Honestly it was like they'd never seen a white-haired, one-eyed, masked ninja with a blazing orange book of pornography in his hand before in their lives!
Which was why, after forking over forty ryo to his former prodigies, Kakashi retreated to the sanctity of his hotel room. Away from the crowds of Suna citizens and their incredulous eyes, away from the delicious smells of freshly baked sweets, away from his pestering students who wouldn't give him a moment's peace, and more importantly, away from Sakura and that… boy.
He had paperwork to do anyway. Every time a chunin exam came around, he was half tempted to nominate no one and save himself the work. Unfortunately, an irritating spec of conscience always managed to wrangle him into doing the right thing. He would always be the last to turn in the reports, of course, by a margin of at least two weeks. This gave him a lot of time to stare at the white paper scattered across his token hotel desk, put his feet up on said white paper and tilt his chair back to dangerous proportions while thinking of many other things he'd rather be doing.
Like certain pink-haired girls…
The wind had been picking up outside all evening, but at that moment a gust swept past the window so strong that it rattled the glass pane. Kakashi glanced up with disinterest. It was probably just a strong wind, but out in the desert, strong winds tended to lead to more dangerous events like sandstorms. Suna may have been tucked away in the craggy remnants of a canyon and relatively safe from harm, but something about the rattling wind made him uneasy. A whisper of trouble and a promise of danger.
Kakashi was not the superstitious kind. Superstition lacked rationalism and reason; the two things he valued above anything else. Even so, he had to admit the wind was a little ominous that evening.
A distinct crunch of wood alerted Kakashi to his second bad omen only a fraction of a moment before it arrived. Before he had a chance to react, the leg of his chair gave way and he found himself sprawled on his back with a thump and a soft 'oof'. He stared at the ceiling for a while after that, pondering the deep philosophical meaning of this new twist.
A more superstitious man might assume the Powers That Be were trying to warn him of something. But for the life of him he couldn't think what…
Sakura's head was pounding when she woke up. She could hardly breathe for the heavy cloth wrapped around the lower half of her face, and when she reached up to pull it down she realized her hands were tied. She was also upside down and the reason for the mask was probably to keep the airborne sand out of her lungs. Coughing and hacking, she hastily pushed the mask back up and cracked her eyes open to peer around.
The world was a blur of yellow sand. It seemed to be everywhere – on the ground, in the sky, all over her sticky hair. She could see a pair of legs walking beneath her, and after a groggy moment she also realized that she was being carried over the shoulder of a particularly tall man.
"What…?" She pulled at the beige flak vest at the man's back, knowing she'd seen a uniform like it before. At that moment she couldn't place the memory. If she looked up she could just about make out a number of other man-shaped figures in similar dress through the blizzard of snow.
The fact that she was obviously bound hand and foot and being carried over the shoulder of a stranger should have alarmed her. But there was a strange distant, ethereal feel to the scene, as if she wasn't really part of it. The full impact of the situation didn't really hit her until she touched her hands to the sore, sticky spot on her head and her fingers came away with blood.
Immediately everything snapped into focus and she began to struggle, throwing her weight around so much that the man carrying her had to tighten his grip around her hips and thighs. When she tried to summon her chakra to break his grip, she found to her growing alarm that it wasn't there.
Normally her chakra flowed like water, flowing clean and easily, fast and free. It wasn't that her chakra was gone, exactly, as she could still feel it there inside her – she just couldn't use it. What was once like water was now like setting clay. As much as she screwed up her eyes and tried to concentrate, she could only pluck away at it uselessly. She hadn't had this much trouble manipulating her own chakra since she'd had the flu.
And now her head was swimming with the effort and she could barely see straight.
"Alright…" she said groggily, trying to sit up. "Which one of you bastards tried to kiss me and which one of you touched my ass?"
No one felt inclined to answer. Perhaps they hadn't heard her over the gushing sand.
"Where are you taking me?" she demanded a little louder.
Still no reply.
"I'll scream!" she warned.
When she was greeted by more stony silence, she went through with her threat and opened her mouth wide to let lose a shrill scream. Unfortunately she only managed to hold it for a few seconds before her poor head began throbbing painfully and she almost blacked out again. She felt like she was near death. "What have you done to me?" she rasped after a little of her voice had returned.
"Ensured you won't be using any of that special jutsu," the man carrying her said.
"I know you," she croaked. "You're Matsura Jin."
"I am."
"Oh, god…" she moaned, closing her eyes in despair. "What do you want with me? I didn't do anything to you! I just wanted that stupid vase – it wasn't anything personal! I'll even steal it back for you if you want! There's really no need for this-"
"This is also nothing personal," Jin replied evenly, his voice muffled by the high winds and sand. "This is simply my father's wish."
"What is your father's wish?" she ground out.
"That you be brought before him and punished for what you did to him."
"Urgh!" Sakura began struggling with new vigor. Her chakra may have been unusable, but she wasn't willing to just lie over his shoulder like a carpet. "He deserved it and you know it! He was going to rape me! What the hell was I supposed to do – just let him?"
She kneed the man a few times in the chest during her struggles until he managed to hold her down more effectively. "This is pathetic!" she raged. "How come you're doing all his dirty work? Why is it always 'Jin do this' and 'Jin do that'? I've never seen your father do anything for himself. He treats you like his lackey and you just go along with it-"
"Be quiet," Jin snapped. "Or I'll drop you."
Unwisely, Sakura ignored him. "I saw the way he reacted when Kakashi-sensei went for him. He just stood there. He couldn't even raise his arm to block the attack, he was so slow. I could have moved faster than him and I'm not exactly the fast type. You had to save him! I saw it! Your father isn't the one with the real power is it? It's you! So why do you run around after him like some kind of lapdog when you obviously can do better-"
"Be silent!"
Sakura hit the sand with a jarring splatter. Sand went everywhere – in her eyes, in her mouth, up her nose and in the tender wound on her scalp. She alternatively choked, sneezed and moaned in pain and discomfort.
"You have no idea the pain and suffering you have put my father through during the last few weeks," Jin said, an indistinct shape somewhere above her. "What you have inflicted on him goes beyond torture. He deserves retribution, and I am giving it to him. And you need to learn respect for your elders. Someone else carry her."
Another man came forward and began hauling her over his shoulder. Sakura didn't like the pervy laugh or the way his hands groped her naked thighs and backside unnecessarily in order to hold her in place. "No – get off, you dirty freak!" she squirmed. "Jin-san, I'm sorry! I'll be good! Please, carry me again! Oh, get off me! Don't touch me there – get off, get off, get off, GET OFF!"
She wound up kicking and screaming so hard and loud that she was hauled straight off the man and onto a more familiar shoulder. It was an odd moment to find relief in being carried by the enemy, but at least Jin was not interested in trying to stuff his hand down her panties.
Not wanting to risk him getting annoyed at her and slinging her onto one of his more perverted underlings, Sakura didn't speak another word to Jin for a long time. Her consciousness drifted and the sandstorm only seemed to get worse as time wore on. She didn't know how long they'd been walking, but she knew it had to be the middle of the day. Judging by the fact that it had been evening when she'd been taken, they were probably quite far away from Suna by then.
Sighing miserably, she attempted to appeal to any slither of humanity that might reside in Jin's heart. "You can understand, right?" she whispered. "I was just trying to defend myself. I was scared. And it's not like I killed him."
"Sometimes," Jin replied coldly. "I'm sure he wishes you had."
Sakura nearly whimpered. "Please let me go."
But it seemed that Jin's heart was pure stone through and through. There was no soft side to appease to.
Sakura had been kidnapped a fair few times in her life – it was all part and parcel with being a kunoichi who happened to be close to some of Konoha's biggest names. People had attempted to snatch her on five separate occasions, due to her connections with Naruto, Sasuke, Tsunade and even Kakashi in an attempt to use her as leverage against them. But so far, no one had ever tried to kidnap her for her own merit. She just wasn't important enough.
And there was a stark difference between being taken as a hostage to get to her friends and being taken for no other reason than punishment for her own deeds. This time there would be no rescue attempts. It was unlikely that anyone knew where she was or was even aware that she was missing yet. By the time Naruto or Sasuke realized she was gone, Matsura might have already killed her. Kakashi wasn't likely to realize she was missing until someone told him. He'd probably just be wandering around in sheer relief that he hadn't bumped into her yet.
Whatever drugs they'd injected into her posterior the previous evening were still in full effect. Even after what could only be hours of traveling, her chakra was still as feeble and unresponsive as before. Sakura knew of only two drugs that could immobilize the chakra outlets in the body. The first wore off after only a few hours, so it couldn't have been that one. It was more likely the second, which could last anything between twenty-four hours to seventy-two hours, and had added side-effects of fatigue of nausea. If the queasiness she felt had nothing to do with motion sickness, it was definitely the drug they'd used on her.
It was unlikely she'd be getting her strength back any time soon. At least, not before the wind and the sand buried them alive.
Then suddenly the howling air was gone and Sakura could hear again. She opened her eyes and looked up to see towering ridges reaching up on either side of her, like they were walking into an alley not unlike the one she'd been attacked in. The blustering sands fell away, blocked by the rocks, and an almost eerie peace descended on the them. Sakura could hear each crunching football and scrape of sandals echoing off the vacant rock walls around them.
It was a labyrinth of some kind. Sakura lost track of the number of turns they took as they went deeper through the gaps and paths in the cliffs. Eventually the top of the rock walls met and melded together, forming a roof and blocking the sunlight, signaling their descent into deeper tunnels. Sakura stared around tensely as it grew darker and danker. She tried to remember the path, but they took so many turns that it quickly became apparent that without a trail of breadcrumbs, she would be hopelessly lost even if she managed to make a run for it.
"Why are we here?" she asked. The question rebounded off the walls up and down the length of the tunnel, repeating and echoing and probably grating on her captor's nerves.
"My father is waiting here," Jin replied tersely. Strangely, his voice didn't seem to echo.
"No – no – this isn't fair!" Sakura ground out, feeling so helpless and frustrated that she was on the verge of a very real tantrum. "Just let me go!"
"And return empty handed?" one of the men behind her scoffed. "I don't think so."
"Then just leave and run away and find lives of your own!" Sakura snarled. "Why are you obeyed this guy and his dad anyway? I know he doesn't respect your lives! I've seen the way he ploughs through his own men whenever they get in the way – no consideration whatsoever – you're all just canon fodder to him-" she broke off with a silent cry of pain and surprise as a loud slap resonated around the air.
"How dare you spank me!" she shrieked, struggling so ferociously that Jin had to stop or else overbalance.
"I'll do it again if you don't behave and keep your mouth shut," Jin warned just as fiercely. "You're acting like a child."
"I am acting like a grown woman who has been kidnapped and repeatedly molested!" Sakura snapped. "I am not a child! Why does everyone keep saying that?! If you want childish, you should see the Hokage when we confiscate her gambling chips!"
"Wait – she knows the Hokage?" muttered one of the other men. He sounded nervous.
"I am her apprentice!" Sakura hissed at the man in question.
This did not comfort them in the slightest. "Hey, look," a man in a mask similar to Kakashi's held up his hands. "Personal retribution on a nobody is one thing, but no one said anything about kidnapping a kage's apprentice."
A nobody? Who were they calling 'a nobody'? Sakura glared daggers at them, which might have been slightly more intimidating if she could see straight and her prolonged explosion of temper wasn't wearing her out so quickly.
"No one knows where we are and no one saw us," Jin replied simply. "There is nothing to link her disappearance to us-"
"Other than the fact that it's obvious," Sakura muttered spitefully. "I don't have many enemies."
Jin ignored her. "The Hokage is no threat to us."
"What about the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki?" Sakura pointed out. "He's a close personal friend. I – uh – I dated him! And the last Uchiha; I know him too. And I know Sharingan Kakashi as well as the Kazekage!"
Contrary to her intention, this actually seemed to reassure the men. "Yeah, right," they scoffed. "Next you'll be saying you fought the Akatsuki and lived to tell about it."
"I did!" Sakura squeaked indignantly. But by then she was too tired to continue her physical struggles and sagged like a wet blanket over Jin's shoulder.
"Come on," he said to his men, and once more they were trudging through darkness.
Just when Sakura was beginning to think there was no end to these long tunnels and passages, or that Jin was just too proud to admit he was lost, she found herself dumped abruptly on a hard, stone floor. Her head seized in pain and she curled around the rising bile in her stomach. Her chakra still escaped her, so she couldn't even summon the energy to heal the wound on her head.
It took a moment to realize that the flickering light around her had nothing to do with the pain exploding behind her eyes. There was a campfire in the dead center of the chamber she was in, flicking and rolling in the cool breeze that swept through the tunnels. By this fire was man who was not part of Jin's little squad. But he was not Matsura. He was far too thin to be that man.
And yet when Jin addressed him, he had Matsura's voice, though a little weaker and more strained than she remembered. "You have her?" he rasped.
"Yes, father."
"Bring her here."
Sakura was seized by her bound wrists and dragged unsympathetically across the cold ground. She kicked and gasped as the rough rock snicked her dress and scratched her legs, but there wasn't much she could do. Dumped just two feet from the fire, she lay and trembled – more out of nerves than fear.
There was a squeak of stiff sandals and the sensation of hard fingers running through her hair. Sakura clenched her eyes shut, trying to push away the memory those fingers brought to the surface of the last time she'd felt them on her person. Another shudder of revulsion roiled through her and she nearly retched at the sheer physical intensity of her disgust. If he tried anything even remotely similar to the stunt that had lost him a great slice of his manhood, Sakura had a feeling the force of her own nausea would kill her long before Matsura ever did.
"Do you remember me?"
The sound of his low, slurred rumble pained her. How could she ever forget him? He haunted her dreams at night and ambushed her thoughts every quiet moment of the day when she was too tired to be preoccupied with thoughts of Kakashi. She'd never forget his voice, or his black, yellow-streaked smell and the gross disproportions of his form. She wouldn't be able to forget the feel his hard fingers violating her most private place for as long as she lived. Nothing short of a devastating blow to the head would knock that memory loose. Although, considering how hard Jin's men had hit her, apparently even this drastic tactic wouldn't work.
The fingers in her hair tightened and Sakura's head was wrenched up at an awkward angle. Matsura's face loomed before hers, lit in the flickering orange light of the fire that made the shadows stretch across his features.
Features that looked oddly pulled and slack. Instead of the fat, gluttonous man she'd been acquainted with before, there was a gaunt old man. He'd lost an incredible amount of weight. She couldn't exactly call him thin, but he bore the look of a man who'd lost a lot of weight in a very short amount of time. Ill, emaciated, with skin that didn't seem to fit.
He looked as if he was dying.
"Shocked?" He sneered at her. "This is all your handiwork, you know. You might as well have killed me for the state you left me in."
Retorts like 'Who cares?' and 'You deserved it,' and 'Well, that's what you get for trying to rape me,' were comments that would likely land her in serious trouble. Shinobi Rule #19 clearly stated that when in a situation where the enemy had you at their mercy, it was best not to incite them with impetuous behavior. If she was Naruto she wouldn't have cared – he'd spit curses and blistering criticism at his enemy even if they had his neck on a chopping block. But Sakura did not have his confidence that things would turn out all right. For now she had to save her wise-ass cracks and play out the quiet, uninteresting captive act for as long as she could. And if she could convince them she was more timid then she actually felt, perhaps they would begin to underestimate her… to their cost.
"This is why kunoichi are an abomination," Matsura spat. "You have no concept of what is honorable conduct in battle."
Screw rule #19!
"Honor according you!" she snarled at him. "In what world is it honorable for a man to try and force himself on a girl less than half his age and size?! Only you would consider it dishonorable for a girl to defend herself against that, while in fact most people think you're just a sick freak who really should have more than your balls cut off!"
For his emaciated state, Matsura at least still had most of his strength. He picked he up as if she was nothing more than a child's doll and threw her so hard she hit the cavern wall with an impact so hard that all she could see for a few moments was pure white as her lungs were stunned, unable to draw in breath.
Her sight cleared enough to see Matsura stalking towards her with a pronounced limp, at if someone had hammered a stake between his legs. "If you remember," she heard him say with growing rage. "You did cut off more than my balls! Did you forget? Do you need to be reminded?"
"No…" Sakura wheezed.
He was standing before her, unbuttoning his slightly too-big pants. "You should look at your handiwork. Then perhaps you will understand."
"No!" Sakura screwed her eyes shut. She was a medic. She'd seen some pretty horrific injuries in her life, but this was one injury she was truly terrified to witness. It only served to remind her of the circumstances in which it had occurred – something she was battling to forget every day.
"You will look!"
"I will not!"
Grubby, foul-smelling hands were on her face, prying at her eyelids. "Look at what you've done to me!"
Sakura tried to bite him. "Touch me again and I'll kill you!"
Suddenly his hands were snatched away from her face and she felt a hard and abrupt struggle take place next to her. A flailing foot caught her knee and she recoiled against the wall as her eyes flew open.
Matsura was being held immobile against the front of a second man, a kunai pressed firmly against his throat. Words could not describe the immense rush of gratitude and relief that washed through her when she recognized the back of his fluffy white head and the masked profile of his face.
"I'll have to concur with her," Kakashi said mildly. "Touch her again and you will die."
The reaction was instantaneous. Matsura's underlings shot tensely to their feet and Jin unsheathed his short sword. "Release him!"
Kakashi shook his head. "Now here's a phrase you've probably heard at least once before: Matsura-san, Jin-san, could you both please put away your pathetic little tools now. My hand is liable to slip at any moment."
Matsura hastily buttoned his pants with a speed that implied real fear. Sakura was revolted. Some S-class criminal he was – trembling in fear beneath one little kunai! (Although, granted, Sakura would be a little shaky too if Kakashi pinned her with his same scary aura he was treating Matsura to).
"Now if you'd all like to drop your weapons," Kakashi suggested calmly, "I might be persuaded not to slit this little shit's throat."
Matsura suddenly laughed. A weak, trembling and hysterical sound. "You think you've won, you little bitch? You think because your knight is here you're safe? You're both outnumbered vastly – me and my men will never let you – aargh!"
"I do apologize," Kakashi said rather insincerely, and although Sakura couldn't see precisely what he'd done, she did see the drops of blood that dribbled onto the floor beneath Matsura. "But speak to her again and I'll cut deeper. You have forfeited any right to even be in her presence, let alone speak to her. Now drop… your… weapons. It's a simple request."
Nodding hastily, Matsura gestured for his men to comply, but from the way they all looked at Jin before complying, it was clear who they were taking their cues from. Jin himself slowly lowered his sword to the ground and straightened with his hands slightly raised. "Now what do you plan to do?" he asked Kakashi.
"Depends," Kakashi shrugged.
"On what?" Jin demanded.
"On when exactly you plan to throw that shuriken hidden in your sleeve at my head."
Right then, it seemed. Quicker than the eyes could follow, Jin's arm moved and something small and black shot through to air towards Kakashi. The man ducked, releasing Matsura in the process as the shuriken hit the wall above Sakura and lodged there with a ringing clang.
Everything was going wrong. Matsura was stumbling away screaming "Kill them! Kill them!" and the shinobi underlings were picking up their weapons. They were aiming for her and Kakashi, and even though she knew Kakashi could dodge them easily enough, Sakura couldn't.
As the first kunai launched into the air, heading straight towards her, Kakashi moved. She couldn't take her eyes of the kunai, even when Kakashi bundled her into his arms and plunged both of them into the wall. The dirk heading right between her eyes, getting closer as she stared it down, instantaneously disappeared as pure darkness swallowed them up. Sakura gasped as the temperature plummeted and clung onto Kakashi for dear life. She couldn't see, or hear and the pressure pressing in around her was so intense that she realized she would be trapped there forever if Kakashi let go of her now. She could barely even breathe.
Then just as quickly as it has swallowed her, the wall spat her back out. Cold, stagnant air flooded her lungs and a dim blue light lit the narrow tunnel they'd found themselves in. Kakashi quickly lowered her to the ground – and into a rather cold puddle – and in the unnatural blue light she saw him gather a kunai from the holster on his thigh.
"Are you alright?" he asked, cursory and perfunctory.
"Yes," she breathed.
"Mm," he grunted, evidently satisfied with her response. He seemed oblivious to her intense stare as he cut the bonds on her wrists and ankles and gently rubbed the pinched and numbed flesh. "Well, you'll be alright now."
He was so automatic and profession. He was so silly!
Sakura couldn't contain her wobbly smile as she pulled her hands out of his and grabbed him in a tight hug around the neck. Soft lips pressed against masked ones with a kiss of pure gratitude, relief and unspeakable pleasure at being alive. Kakashi didn't even bother resisting or protesting; it simply wasn't the time or place for such deluded acts. His arms enfolded her and held her just as tightly as she held him and returned the kiss with enough pressure to let her know he was just as pleased to see her.
"Yo," she said, smiling through her tears.
"Hello," he replied softly, echoing her smile.
She gulped and gave an embarrassed laugh as she wound her arms more tightly around him and buried her face in his shoulder. "You took your time! I was beginning to think I'd have to fight my way out all on my own. I could have taken them, you know."
"I know. But why should you get all the fun?" His face turned into her hair with a soft sigh, and she knew he was smelling her. That was ok. She was taking a liberal dose of his wonderful smell herself. It was rich and deep and as blue and majestic as it should have been, making her at once feel infinitely better than she had just a few moments ago when Matsura had been standing over her.
All at once she was struck by how right this was. This was the way it should have been between them – no pretence or cagey dialogue, and certainly no cold shoulder. Every touch and word was honest and real. It was so simple and easy that Sakura momentarily couldn't understand why it would be so wrong to fall in love. Not that she could prevent something that had already happened.
"Kakashi, they gave me drugs," she said, pulling back to look him in the eyes. "I can't use my chakra or my strength and I'm all dizzy and icky and why are those blue glowey things on the ceiling moving."
"They're silk worms, Sakura."
"Worms…!" She shuddered convulsively. The dim blue light suddenly didn't seem quite so romantic and calming, and all she could think about were thousands of wiggly little creepy crawlies falling on her head should she make any sudden movements. "Please tell me you have backup."
"Against the worms? No." He shook his head. "Against Matsura… maybe."
"Maybe?" she repeated dubiously.
"By the time I realized you had been taken, the sand storm was already threatening to destroy the trail. I sent Pakkun back to fetch the others, but they would have been much further behind on the trail and I'm not sure if even Pakkun can track through such conditions. I barely caught up to you myself. So I've no idea if anyone else is coming."
"Assuming no one's coming," Sakura said slowly. "perhaps it would be best if we tried to escape now?"
Kakashi sighed remorsefully, and she felt his warm hand smooth her hair in a way that was almost tender. "Perhaps not."
Sakura was close to despairing. "I just want to go home, Kakashi," she whispered.
"We have to settle this, Sakura," he said firmly.
"Can't we settle this later? When we're not so badly outnumbered?"
"If we let Matsura get away now, the chances of ever finding him again are slim," Kakashi told her sharply. "ANBU went back to check on Matsura's compound after our mission, and it seems he's packed up and made a new base elsewhere. The moment we leave here he'll be gone again, and the next time we see him will be the next time he tries to get his revenge on you. We can't allow that to happen… I can't allow that to happen."
Sakura closed her eyes and marveled at just how nice it was to have her hair stroked at a stressful time like this. "What are you saying then?"
Quite seriously, Kakashi said, "We should probably kill him."
"I guess," she muttered reluctantly. "But-"
"It's not debatable," he said with a coldness that surprised her. "He is dangerous, and if we let him live now, we're giving him the chance to succeed next time he tries to hurt you. It's not about getting revenge on him, Sakura. He needs to be put down before he causes more trouble. It's a matter of efficiency."
She rolled her eyes. "Are you really sure it has nothing to do with revenge?" she asked.
"Well, perhaps a little bit. I won't be sad to see him die," Kakashi confessed. "But I wouldn't consider him worth the energy to kill if he didn't pose such a threat to you."
Sakura shook her head. "I don't think it's Matsura we have to worry about. It's his son."
"Jin is the stronger of the two."
"By far," she impressed. "I don't even think Matsura is up to the standard of S-class criminal. Maybe he was at one point, but he seems to make his men do most of his legwork."
"Be that as it may," Kakashi said, rising to his feet, "his influence over others is the main problem. He may not be as strong as he used to be, but he has the command of a few hundred men and he can send them after you at any time as we've already seen."
Sakura carefully climbed to her feet, aware of how weak her legs felt. "I know that," she sighed. "But I can barely stand. I can't fight, Kakashi. I'd just be a hindrance if I tried, and I don't want you taking them on all alone. Last time that happened, you were beaten quite soundly. Remember the hip you broke? 'Blazing agony', you called it."
"I was a little distracted that time," he said, a hint of defensiveness present in his tone. "There's some truth to rule #25. Emotions do tend to complicate things."
"They work for Naruto."
"I'm not Naruto – for which I am still eternally grateful." He plucked one of the larger kunai from his holster and held it out to her. "And no shinobi is a hindrance until he or she is dead. As long as you can still move, you can still fight, otherwise I wasn't a very good teacher."
"You weren't a very good teacher," she pointed out.
"I know, but it sounded cooler that way."
Sakura rolled her eyes at him, but the effect was probably lost in the dim light. She knew how stubborn Kakashi could be when the situation arose, and so could nothing more than snatch the kunai from his hand with a jerkiness that underlined her displeasure. "If we die…" she warned icily.
"If we die, I will admit I was wrong."
"Good."
"But we won't, because we can't afford to," he reassured as he took her hand in his. His fingers were cold, but hers were colder. "Now, come on."
He led her away down the tunnel, away from the tiny blue lights (much to Sakura's relief) and right into complete darkness (not so much to Sakura's relief). Perhaps Kakashi had better night vision than she did, because the only reason she knew where to tread was because he was guiding her. She could see nothing beyond the end of her own nose, and the uneven ground was deeply disorientating. She was reluctant to feel along the wall because she kept wondering how many other unseen slimy worms there were in this tunnel that she couldn't see.
"How did you know?" she whispered through the pitch black air.
"What?" Kakashi's hushed voice echoed quietly.
"How did you know I was gone?"
"Well, you see… my chair kind of fell over and then-"
"This isn't another one of your convoluted lies designed to repel interest, is it?"
"…I don't know what you mean."
"What does a chair falling over have to do with-"
"If you didn't interrupt I'd be able to tell you," he replied loftily. "So I was on the floor, thinking about bad omens, when Naruto and Sasuke barged in to tell me some… uh… good news about a little assignment I had given them. They mentioned that you had been heading my way before them, so I was a little concerned about why you hadn't arrived. I looked around for you and I caught your scent outside the hotel and I just sort of followed it from there. By the time I realized you hadn't just gone for a long walk, I was halfway out into the desert being buried in sand. I sent Pakkun back and followed your trail alone."
"My scent trail?" she whispered, horrified. "Oh, god… I don't smell that strong do I?"
"Mm… well, everyone does in a way."
"Oh, god."
"It isn't a bad smell, Sakura," he said. But he seemed reluctant to expand upon that point and quickly changed the subject. "Either way, if that chair hadn't broken, I might not have had the mind to go look for you. Perhaps it was a sign from above warning me you were in trouble?"
"That, or warning you to lose weight."
"I walked into that one, didn't I?"
She nodded emphatically, even though he probably couldn't see her. "I think your genius is exaggerated, Kakashi-sensei."
"It usually is." He drew to an abrupt halt, causing her to crash into his back. "Here."
"What?" she murmured, not understanding.
"Brace yourself." Then with a firm tug of her hand, she found herself pulled straight into the wall for a second time. It was just as unpleasant as the first time, and even more distressing since her only link to Kakashi was their joined hands. She squeezed him tightly, determined not to lose that one contact in the void, and was rewarded with a light answering squeeze.
Cool air hit her face once more as she was dragged straight out of the wall. She caught sight of a dozen or so men reacting and shouting at their sudden appearance before smoke quickly filled the air, courtesy of one of Kakashi's smoke bombs. That was when his hand left hers and he vanished into the thick, pungent smelling screen of smog. She lifted the kunai in her hand defensively. She knew she was back in the chamber she'd been in before and she knew that Matsura was in there somewhere. They only had to neutralize him and then they would be able to go back home.
A blurry, indistinct shape hurtled out of the smoke toward her. She may have had no chakra and her limbs may have been shaking with fatigue and weakness, but she reacted fast enough to dodge the outthrust katana and used the man's momentum to make the impact of her knee in his gut that much more painful. A quick jab to the back of his neck with her kunai certainly wouldn't kill him, but at least it would ground him for a while.
The smoke was beginning to clear, and the hard thumps and grunts of fighting nearby soon became visible. And even though he was barely more than a silhouette, Sakura knew Kakashi's figure anyway. He was outnumbered, but far from outmatched. He moved like a dancer, as if he'd been practicing the choreography for this fight for years, though it wasn't what she'd call elegant or graceful. Not one foot was out of place as he spun, kicked and threw his opponents into each other in a curt, brutal fashion. There was no messing around here. He had a goal and he was taking the shortest road to get to it.
The fighting disappeared once more as another smoke bomb went off, but Sakura didn't know who had detonated it. She peered around, uncertain of what to do. She hated hanging back and leaving Kakashi to do the brunt of the work, but the smoke was making her feel sick and the dizziness certainly wasn't helping. Indistinct shapes moved throughout the smoke, making her flinch. She knew that she was a sitting duck if she stayed put, and so began circling the circumference of the cavern with her back to the wall and her eyes peeled on the chaos spreading out before her. A flicker of movement caught her attention a second too late, and before she could react, she found herself struck to the floor with a sword arcing straight toward her chest, intending to skewer her to the ground. Sakura had no doubt that would have been her fate had an enormous dog not leapt straight over her and fastened its jaws around the throat of her attacker with the most ferocious snarls she'd ever heard.
"Stay alert!" she heard Kakashi scold her from what seemed to be three different locations at once. She could only hope he was using kage bunshin or her dizziness was even worse than she feared.
Vainly, Sakura tried to struggle to her feet. The impact that had knocked her to the ground had winded her, and the moment she sat upright her whole stomach lurched and twisted, forcing her to double over again and retch heavily. The nin that had attacked her was still struggling with the large black dog attempting to tear his throat out, and in his panic he'd dropped his sword. Sakura reached for it, hoping it was serve more purpose than the piddling little kunai Kakashi had given her.
But before her fingers could close over the hilt, another hand swept into sight and snatched it from her grasp. Sakura looked up. Leveling the sword at her now was the shriveled old goat who'd got her into this mess, and the smirk on his face was enough to make her want to retch again.
"Copy-nin, you can stop now!" Matsura roared. "Make one wrong move and I'll cut her eye out."
Sakura couldn't take the embarrassment. Her forehead hit the floor in a mixture of frustration and a sincere attempt to hide her utter shame. She'd told him she would have been a hindrance in this state. Had he listened? No. Because he was Kakashi! Honestly, she would have been more use if he'd simply buried her in sand and told her to wait. She barely had the energy to stand at this point.
The smoke cleared and settled. Revealed in the midst of it all was an array of casualties and a remarkably calm looking Kakashi.
Jin was behind him, more out of breath than Sakura had ever seen him. The smoke had clearly hindered him, and now that it was clear he wasted no time in trying to regain control. "Hands up," he ordered.
"Ok." Kakashi cheerfully complied.
"Drop the kunai and put your hands on the back of your head."
"Certainly." Kakashi dropped his weapon with a clatter and linked his fingers together atop his hair.
"Now get on your knees."
"I'd rather not," Kakashi told Jin. "I have a bit of arthritis in the left one. An old injury, you understand."
Jin's response was to kick out the back of his knees, making Kakashi fall forward with a dismayed sigh. There he sat on his haunches, hands above his head with his eyes closed, seemingly at complete peace for how vulnerable they were. He was practically meditating.
"Perhaps you should have tried to escape while you had the chance?" Matsura suggested nastily. "Who knows? Maybe you would have lasted at least ten more minutes before my men tracked you down again."
"Don't be ridiculous," Kakashi said placidly, eyes still closed. "The sand storm would have killed us in five."
"You're excessively modest," Matsura said, sounding very disgruntled. "It's highly irritating."
Kakashi apologized swiftly. "Sorry."
"Urgh." Matsura gestured toward his son. "Kill him. He's just being a nuisance."
"Don't I get a last request?" Kakashi asked.
"No!" Matsura snapped.
"Father," Jin's voice held a hint of warning, "it's customary."
"Damn you all!" he raged, slashing his sword irritably, close enough to Sakura's face that she could have sworn the sharp breeze from the blade's wake sent a few pink hairs fluttering to the ground. "Well, spit it out – but nothing unreasonable!"
"I just want to say goodbye to Sakura-chan, that's all," Kakashi said with a hangdog shrug. However, Sakura didn't believe it in the slightest. There was simply no way that Kakashi would give up this easily and resign himself to death.
"You can do it from here," Jin pointed out.
"Naturally." Kakashi squared his shoulders and breathed deeply before saying, in a slightly louder voice. "Bye, Sakura-chan!"
"Bye…" she echoed.
"It was nice knowing you."
"I guess…"
"But we had some fun times, didn't we?"
"I can't remember any off the top of my head," she deadpanned.
"What? Not even that little vacation we had in the thunder country?"
Sakura had only ever been to the thunder country with team 7 once and it was the furthest thing from a holiday she'd ever had to endure. She'd been a chunin at the time, and they had barely escaped their mission to that country alive. Naruto would have died had it not been for his own superior healing speed, and Kakashi wound up in bed for a whole month after having used his mangekyou sharingan for too long. Of course, they would all have died if he hadn't used it, but Sakura hated the sight of him so weak and exhausted that he didn't even have the energy to read his silly books. It was one of the least fun times they'd ever had together. So why did he bring it up now?
Unless…
Catching on, Sakura scowled at him. "Sure. But I wouldn't want to do it again."
"Well, in that case, consider yourself fortunate that we're probably about to die." He opened his eyes and winked at her with his right eye, drawing her attention to a sharingan that seemed darker than usual.
"No 'probably' about it." Matsura grunted. "Are you done yet?"
"One last thing," Kakashi promised. "Sakura?"
"Yes?" she replied tensely.
"I love you, really," he said softly. "But you do insist on getting in the way sometimes."
Sakura snatched a quick glance at an impassive Jin and his posse of gormless wonders. She looked back at Kakashi but his eyes were on Matsura only.
"That was kinda rude…" one of the underlings whispered.
"Yeah," another one agreed.
That was only because they didn't understand.
Taking a deep breath, Sakura suddenly rolled away from Matsura and threw herself toward the nearest stalagmite, wrapping her arms around the cold, jutting formation. Instantaneously she heard a resounding scream tear from Matsura's throat and felt the unnatural pull of gravity tugging at her frame.
When she spared a glance over her shoulder, she could see that Matsura was in agony. His whole body was contorting, squeezing toward the pinpoint of black that had fixed on his chest like a hole. The air around him was warping and twisting toward that single point, dragging in the light and distorting the air, even Matsura's screams seemed broken, as if they were also being pulled into that hole.
"What's going on?" one of the men shouted. "What's happening to him?"
A brighter man had figured it out. "It's doujutsu! The Copy Ninja – kill him!"
"Kill me and this whole cave gets swallowed up!" Kakashi shouted. His breathing was labored and his body was shaking, but he still had the presence of mind to deliver an enormous bluff. But what Sakura knew was an obvious lie made Jin and his men pause uncertainly. Having never dealt with anything like this before, none of them knew what to do.
"Jin-" Matsura's broken voice came through. "Help-!" He's managed to twist himself slightly away from the center of the distortion, enough for his body to escape it. But he was left trying to stab his sword into the ground and hang on for dear life as the justu continued to pull at him, elongating his image and dragging him steadily closer to what could only be oblivion. The pull began to intensify, making Sakura's hair begin to hang sideways. If she let go of the stalagmite now, she would probably get pulled in alongside Matsura.
"Jin!" Matsura shouted again, more angrily than before.
Jin could no longer stand by impassively. It seemed he didn't dare call Kakashi on his bluff and strode purposefully past the crouched man to reach his father. The distortions began to pull at his body too, but he resisted well. When Sakura saw him reach for his father's hand that was clasping desperately at his sword, she wanted to scream. He was going to save the bastard and then Kakashi would be too exhausted to try again! "Don't!" she screamed at him, hoping that for some reason he would take the advice of an enemy over the life of his own father.
Jin's hand closed over his father's and pulled it free of the sword, holding him steady. Kakashi fell forward on one hand with a pained gasp. The jutsu was still focused and gaining intensity, but Sakura didn't think his body could take much more.
Then Jin let go of his father.
Sakura could only watch in shock as Matsura was jerked back, squashing to grotesque proportions as his arm, head and back were crushed into the spiraling hole. The rest of his body soon followed, slipping away so suddenly and easily it was hard for Sakura to wrap her head around. But the sudden disappearance of his father, Jin was also beginning to be pulled in. He too would have disappeared head first into the black hole if it hadn't suddenly vanished with a thin sucking sound. The breeze that had been blasting through the cavern suddenly ceased and Kakashi crashed onto his side, pressing a hand over his sharingan, his frame stiffened in so much pain he could scarcely breathe.
Not caring that they were now both at the mercy of Jin and his men, Sakura got to her feet and stumbled toward Kakashi. She landed on her knees beside him, automatically trying to summon healing chakra to her hands that simply wasn't there. There was nothing she could do anyway. She couldn't heal exhaustion and she didn't know where to begin with something as odd and alien as the sharingan. But it wasn't like she could just sit back and watch him gasp and pant in pain while he clawed at his own eye as if he wanted it out.
"Calm down, it's ok," she lied, placing one gentle hand on his arm and the other beneath his ear to cradle his head off the ground. "Calm down and just breathe. Let me see your eye."
He didn't comply easily, keeping his hand pressed hard to his face like a child while she tried to pull it away. She caught a glimpse of blood weeping from under his scrunched up, scarred eyelid. Immediately she released his hand and let him cover it again. It was getting worse. Every time he used it he did more damage to himself. She had no idea what a bleeding sharingan meant, but she knew from the dark stain gathering on the mask beneath his nose that the mangekyou had wrecked more damage that was immediately visible. She hoped it wasn't as bad as she feared.
A shadow fell over them and Sakura looked up, instinctively leaning over Kakashi and spreading her free arm over him protectively. Jin met her scowl with an apathetic stare.
"You don't have to look at me that way," he said, dragging his words. "I told you before it wasn't anything personal."
"You just killed your own father," she whispered, in case that fact had escaped him.
"No. He killed my father," he murmured, looking to man beneath her.
At that moment Kakashi's body gave a mild shudder and he went still, his head falling lax onto her hand. Sakura's blood ran and she gathered him closer until he was virtually in her lap. He was still breathing, but he pulse was heavy and slow, throbbing throughout his body so hard that she only had to touch him to feel it. She looked up at Jin with fresh resolve. "It wasn't anything personal," she said in a low tone. "So now what are you going to do with us?"
Jin looked as if he was deliberating the answer to this question, but before he could open his mouth to speak, there was a deafening bang and the whole cavern shook. Rocks and clods of dirt began raining down and Sakura threw her hands up to shield bother herself and Kakashi. The darkness of the underground room was suddenly torn away as light began flooding over them in growing shafts. There was so much debris flying around it was hard to see what was going on. She only knew that the ceiling of the cavern was being ripped off.
Eventually the shaking stopped and everyone blinked up at the blinding light spilling down into the chamber like hermits who hadn't seen daylight in years. Sakura could barely make out anything; the light hurt her eyes. But after a moment something moved into sight, nothing more than a pale silhouette against a white background. Her eyes slowly adjusted, enough for her to realize it was Sasuke.
"Who are you?" Jin demanded.
"The last heir of the Uchiha," Sasuke replied coolly, not having to raise his voice much to be heard. "And you?"
Another figure appeared beside him, clad in unmistakable orange. "Don't be so freakin' dramatic, Sasuke!" He gave the Last Heir of the Uchiha a rather impertinent poke in his most ticklish rib, making the other boy jump out of his skin and send Naruto a glare that would have killed a lesser man stone dead.
A third person appeared on the lip of the hole. Gaara. And then Shizune, Ino, Shikamaru, Tsunade, Temari, Sai, Yamato, and then too many people for Sakura to count or recognize. A sob of relief bubbled out of her throat before she could stop it and she hugged Kakashi tighter. At least with Tsunade and Shizune there, he would be in safe hands.
Jin looked around at all the new arrivals and gave the kind of troubled sigh that would have given Shikamaru a run for his money. "That's it for me, I think," he muttered, barely audible to Sakura's ears. She saw him whip a scroll from his pocket and open it with a snap. With one last, unimpressed glance in her direction, he pressed his hand over the seal on the parchment and vanished in a whirl of smoke and dust.
The reaction from the underlings who hadn't been given their own little emergency teleportation scrolls was venomous. "That rat-eyed bastard!"
They were quickly subdued by a mixture of Konoha and Suna ANBU before they could try and escape themselves. Naruto was the first to drop down into the cavern to come hurtling over to where Sakura knelt beside Kakashi. "Sakura-chan! What happened? Is Kakashi-sensei, ok?"
"Tsunade-shishou needs to look at him. I'm not sure how bad it is," she confessed, her eyes far wetter than they needed to be.
"Are you ok?" Naruto crouched next to her, hand on her shoulder and eyes full of blue concern and anger. "Where's the bastard who took you? Me n' Sasuke will go kill him!"
She shook her head. "Kakashi already took care of him."
"What about the one that just disappeared?" Naruto demanded.
"I don't think we have to worry about him," she whispered. "He's not interested in us."
Tsunade was beside them in seconds, shooing them away as she carefully rolled Kakashi onto his back. "Give him some room to breathe – that's it." She checked his pulse and peered in both his eyes. "Let me guess… her overdid it again? He's in a very deep sleep and he's not responding to light. There's nothing more we can do here. We need to get him into a hospital bed," she concluded, before looking up and shooting a similarly critical gaze at Sakura. "You too. You're as pale as a sheet."
"I'll be fine," Sakura replied, passing a shaking hand over her eyes.
"So will he," Tsunade reassured. "Don't worry. You both did well. Let's just get you both home now."
TBC
A/N: Reviewing normality should be returned next chapter. :3