Chapter Eleven
Secrets
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Yawning, Kakashi rubbed at his eyes. He'd been watching the old house for several hours now and nothing had happened. He wondered again why Tsunade had called him back. He hadn't yet fallen asleep after his little session with Iruka and had felt someone approaching. He had sniffed at the wind and grimaced when he caught the scent of Cat. He had quickly dressed and tugged Iruka's trunks back on before the ANBU woman could get closer. Quickly he had jerked his mask up as her silent feet touched down behind him.
"You are wanted back at the village," she had said in her dead voice.
"By whom?" he asked sinking into a slouch. He noticed her eyes lit with humor.
"She won't tolerate your pouting for too long." Cat had let some humor into her voice, which lifted his spirits. She hadn't had very much emotion in her since the death of Hayate.
Sighing he had went back to camp and gathered his things. He felt bad about leaving Iruka in the forest, but he didn't have much time. If the old woman wanted him, it meant he had a mission and that was the most important thing. The mission was the lifeblood of the village. It was the only thing that kept him alive. It made him feel alive. Though he had to admit, chasing Iruka around the last few weeks had been a mission in itself and he felt more alive than he had in a long time.Hell! Just thinking about the way that the teacher had writhed on top of him had been very stimulating indeed.
He'd had a goofy grin on his face the entire way back to the village and didn't stop to change into his uniform. Cat had said she wasn't going to wait long and that meant that he would have to show up in what he was wearing. He had looked down and grunted in surprise. He still had a sticky stain on his stomach. After grabbing a loose shirt, he quickly threw it over his head and settled it around his hips. That would have to do until he could shower and change. A few minutes later he entered the Godaime's office without knocking.
"Don't you ever knock, you brat? Come with me," she groused, running a hand through her quite messy hair, as she motioned him into her private apartments. It was the first time that he had seen her platinum blonde hair out of place. She yawned again and scratched at her leg. What surprised him more, though, was her running around in a very short yukata and it's gaping front. He wondered how she kept those huge things in and not out. "What are you staring at Hatake?"
Kakashi had blinked, but otherwise didn't show any other emotion besides boredom. "Nothing, Tsunade."
"Disrespectful brat." She tripped over a loose rug and toppled onto a huge pile of pillows. "I'll kill whoever put these here." Kakashi was treated to a nice view of the old woman's rather tight ass. He carefully averted his eyes before she spotted him looking. She arranged herself on the pillows and filled him in on why he had been called back to the village. "I know you've been fidgeting lately, so I'm giving you a mission. And don't think that it's a big one either. It's a B-rank and I can't send any of the others out."
Kakashi made a noise in the back of his throat. "So what will I be doing?"
Yawning again, she handed him a scroll. "That will tell you where to go. I want you to watch the target's house and dispose of him. He's been stirring up trouble in one of the eastern villages. The locals sent an emissary that arrived an hour ago. I don't know this man's strength or power, but he was trained as a shinobi." She leaned forward onto her knees and clasped her hands together. "You have your Bingo book? Good, he may be a missing nin from one of the other secret villages. You know the drill." She waved him away.
Kakashi opened the scroll and scanne the contents. Rolling it back up, he glanced to Tsunade. "This is an assasination, I take it."
"Of course it is, you little bastard," she said through another yawn. "Now get the hell out of my sight. I want to go back to sleep and it's three in the morning." Kakashi was almost out the door when she hit him with a parting shot. "Next time, shower before you come to me. You smell of sex." She laughed as he left the apartment with an almost swift walk. Luckily, she hadn't seen the blush staining his face.
He had showered, changed, and had been on his way in less than fifteen minutes. It didn't take him long to find the house and he had sat in vigil ever since. He just wanted to get back to the village and sleep. After the swimming, drinking, tracking, screwing, and then the four hour trek to the house, he had slept only a few minutes. He wanted his bed, preferably with a certain brown skinned teacher in it. Now that he had a new partner, he didn't think he would let him go for a while. True that he didn't keep lovers for very long, he grew bored with them or they became to attached, but there was something about Iruka that he found intriguing and mysterious. It was almost as if he was hiding something inside himself and that made Kakashi want to unravel that mystery. He did so enjoy a nice puzzle.
Movement caught his attention. A rather stout man was exiting the house, closing the door behind him. As he turned Kakashi recognized his target. A dead light entering his eye, he silently made his way down to the man. He needed to gauge his strength. Slipping up behind him, Kakashi cleared his throat and nearly lost a leg. Beneath him, a monsterous mouth opened, revealing rows upon rows of serrated teeth. He stepped back quickly, forming replacements as he jumped back. For every step back, another of those mouth pits opened. He needed high ground. Leaping high, he gained a branch and looked for the man. He had disappeared. Snorting, he called up Pakkun.
"What is it now, Kakashi?" the little pug complained, yawning.
"No time. Track the man that was just here," Kakashi whispered. He couldn't smell anything except the rotten stench from the mouth pits. "My nose can't find him in this mess."
Pakkun scratched at his ear and took off. Kakashi following slowly behind. He still hadn't figured the man's strength but judging from the traps he had used, he was no rank amatuer. Now would be a good time to use your eye, boy. He could just hear it coming from Jiraiya now. Lifting the protector from his face he tracked the quick movements of the little pug with ease and scanned his path for any more traps. Only a few hundred yards ahead of him was another little trap that was easily disarmed. He continued to follow Pakkun until stopping a branch or so behind him.
"We might have a slight problem, Kakashi," the summon chuckled, tossing his head down at the man. "It seems that you will have to kill a woman instead."
Kakashi leaped to the branch and peered down into the glade they had come too. The Sharingan whirled as it took in the appearence of the man. Chakra flows were coming undone as were several layers of clothing. The woman wasn't very much older than himself, with long red hair tied back in two braids that flowed to her knees. She turned and her deep green eyes seemed to find him sitting in the treeline. Her face was angular with a sharp chin and partrician nose. Her lips were amazingly pale against her milk pale skin. He hadn't seen this woman from the village so she was from another village. She quirked her mouth as she pulled her protector from a pouch by her side and tied it around her neck, the scratched through Stone shining proudly. Her shirt was almost non-existent as the white cloth barely covered her breasts and two strips attached the skin tight material to her brief red skirt. Bandages wrapped her thighs down to her calf high black boots. A left handed kunai pouch was snug against her thigh as another pouch swung at an angle from a thin belt holding the skirt in place.
"You can come out, Hunter," her tinkling voice floated to him. "I've known for some time that you were following me. Come out and let's talk." She grinned ferally.
Pakkun turned his bored brown eyes on his master. "She wants to play and I'm tired."
Kakashi snorted. "You can rest here, but I will need you later. I'm still not sure what her game is, but it's not going to be good."
Pakkun sighed and lay atop the branch. Kakashi grinned, covered the Sharingan and slipped into the glade with a lazy slouch. Best to show I don't really care which way this goes. He approached the missing Stone nin with careful nonchalance. She was pretty, if you could dismiss the scar that played across her shoulder and down her stomach. Another pale pink scar crisscrossed her nose and continued down her throat where it stopped above her small breasts. She's dangerous if she's lived this long with those kinds of scars. The way she was dressed seemed to him that she relied on her looks to disarm men. Good thing he wasn't interested.
"Yo," he called as he got closer. "Lovely weather, isn't it?" He smiled as he came closer.
It threw the woman off enough to blink a couple of times. "Yes, lovely." She raised an eyebrow as he came closer. "I think that's far enough, Hatake."
Kakashi blinked in fake surprise. "You know me?" Stopping a few yards away, he watched her through a happily smiling eye. "I'm sorry, but I don't have the pleasure of knowing your name, pretty lady." He blushed for added effect.
She narrowed her eye at him, but replied, "Junko Rai. As for you, I've known about you since you were in ANBU." She spit at his feet. "I've been hunted by the likes of you for years and have survived depsite the best efforts of three villages." Rai smiled ferally at him again. "Want to be the next to fall to my blades?"
Kakashi unslouched and stood straight. He knew this woman now. She was wanted by Sand, Leaf, and Stone. She was worth more to Stone, but Leaf had a hefty purse on proof of her death. A gifted kuniochi and genjutsu user, she was noted to have killed her team when she had graduated into her Chunin status. Vicious and sadistic, she had taken the Genins to a remote location on a routine trip and had spent days torturing and mutilating thier bodies before leaving them to rot. Knowing she would look suspicious if she came back uninjured, she had deliberately cut herself from shoulder to stomach. She waited three days before returning to her village with a wild tale of being attacked by missing nin and had barely survived as she watched her team be slaughtered. It didn't take long before the ANBU from Stone had confirmed what the committee had feared. Before they could arrest her, Junko Rai had disappeared from the village.
Years of practice had only made her more sadistic. She loved to watch as her victims writhed in pain and called out for the release of death. Rai loved to watch men especially. She hated men. Kakashi guessed that at some point in her childhood a man had raped her repeatedly. He could only guess at who, but she had been close to him at any rate or the hatred wouldn't have been so great. He wondered how the Stone Academy could have missed such depravity, but it wasn't his concern. All he cared about was doing his job and getting some sleep.
Kakashi yawned. "I won't fall to you, Rai."
Snarling, Rai jumped forward. "All men fall to me." She bared her teeth in her next smile.
Kakashi chuckled and stuck a hand into his pocket. "I'm not like all men, my dear woman."
She cocked her head grinned. "All men are the same."
"Women bore me."
"This one will make you think about boredom."
"I'd rather sleep with an eel."
"Huh?" Thrown off guard, she blinked rapidly as it to clear the image away.
Laughing to himself, Kakashi elaborated. He was going to kill her anyway. "Women are nothing more than charming, irritating enigmas that bore the hell out of me. Besides, they suck in bed." He added the last part to see how far her hatred went.
Screaming in rage, her hatred overtaking her common sense, Rai rushed forward. Two kunai flew from her hands as she leapt at the last few feet to deliver a flying drop kick onto her tormentor. As he covered his head with his hands, her foot barely touched them as she reared back into a arch, pulling another kunai from her pouch to slash as his knees, stomach, and groin. One handed she pushed off from the ground and spun her legs. Not meeting resistance, she gained her balance. A satisfied smile tickled her lips. Laying at her feet was the bloodied body of the most dangerous ninja in Konaha. She started to laugh.
"I wouldn't celebrate just yet, Junko Rai," a silvery voice said in her ear.
A sharp blade slipped across her throat. Warm wetness painted her skin as it flowed from her veins. She watched as the body turned to a simple branch. She could have kicked herself for the mistake. She turned dimming green eyes to her killer. The Sharingan was whirling madly as it watched her go down to her knees. Her eyes burned now and it was getting colder. She kept herself propped up on her arms.
Kakashi watched with disdain as the woman succumbed to blood loss. It wasn't really a challenge for him, but it was sad to see a good nin die. If only she hadn't been molested when she was younger, she would have been one of the Stone's best ninjas. Bending, he untied her protector and slipped it into his side pouch and pulled out the small camera. After the confirmation shot, he packed it up and headed back for the village. He was tired and needed sleep. The Sharingan hadn't drained him to much, but combined with his sleepless night, it was enough to wipe him out.
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Dust shifted as spears of light filtered through the minute windows of a distant basement. Shuffling floated from a far corner of the nearly forgotten storage room as a woman reached for a box above her head. Barely able to grip the box, she juggled it to the edge hoping that it would get enough inertia to fall into her arms. The small brown box was encased in dust and was well over seven years old if she had read the date right. Could this be what she had spent the last few days scouring the storage room for? As the box fell, she caught it with a deft movement.
"Time to see what's been hidden for so long," she murmured, snuffling as the dust tickled her nose. She carefully placed the box onto a larger pile of boxes to better open it. "I hope I'm right."
Taking a kunai from her holster, she slid the sharp blade under the seal, breaking the tape. Opening the box, she blinked at the contents. A old mask stared up at her. There was nothing on it at all except for a kanji reading balance. Strange. Carefully lifting the mask she noticed that it was broken around the lower left facing. She couldn't tell what had caused the break, but it had been powerful to crack the heavy and reinforced ceramic mask. Under it was piled several papers with nearly unintelligable writing. She could make out a few words but not enough to understand what was being reported. She set aside the papers to read into further and pulled out a tattered and blood stained shirt, if that is what you could call the almost non-existent piece of cloth. It looked more like an ANBU tank than a shirt. Studying it, a glint caught her eye. Buried under what she assumed was a pair of pants, she spotted more bloodstained articles. Resting under the pants was a set of arm guards with numerous scars from weapons. Who could have worn this and why was it buried so deep in the storage areas?
Even more curious were the papers. If they were reports, why weren't they in the mission files? The mask and armor were of ANBU caliber, but who in the village had ever heard of a nameless agent with only a symbol for a name? Sneezing, she picked up the papers again and tried to piece together some answers.
Going over them carefully, she discovered that the owner of the box was called Kinkou. Original. She smirked and read on. Kinkou was very sucessful and only did a few missions of secrecy. Over a three year period, Kinkou had only been in play six times and had always come back sucessful. The documents weren't clear on what Kinkou had done, only that it had been completed. As she read deeper into it, she discovered that eight years ago, Kinkou had broken in a really bad way resulting in retirement. As much as she searched, she could not find out anything else. Growling, she stuffed everything back into the box and tossed it back onto the shelf.
"What the hell is up with this Kinkou and how is he related to Iruka-sensei and Sarutobi-sama?" Anko snarled. "I wonder why Ibiki doesn't know about this." She would have to ask him about it some other time. He was off on a mission and wouldn't be back for some time. It looked as if she would have to dig up the information on her own. But who had been around long enough to know anything about this Kinkou character?
Grinning, Anko went in search of a furry and sneaky little animal.
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The plot thickens! Not really, but it does get a little strange from here on. There is only one more chapter to Whispering Illusions and then we move onto to the next part of the series. This one will be called Illusion's Folly and continue where WI left off. I have, possibly, three more parts to this series before I move on to something else. In between series, there will be a some short 3-4 chapter side stories and a one shot or two. (Kinkou means balance in Japanese for those that don't know.)
I think you'll like how Part One will end. -grins gleefully- It took me long enough to work on it!
Anyway, sorry for the long wait in the updates. Life happened...annoying when that happens. So don't kill me. The next update will be after the weekend as I won't be at home to finish the touch-ups and post. Family visits are on the menu for the weekend. Bleh...
Oh yeah! I almost forgot. I would like to get your feedback on who I should make the first side story about. I haven't decided if I was going to do one about Genma/Raidou, Asuma/Kurenai, or any of the others. Those are usually are my top characters, but I would be glad to work on something you would like to read about.
Until the next update...
Ja!