Chapter 15: Unexpected Visitors
Sakura was dressed and outside the house waiting for Kakashi. She tapped her high-heeled shoe impatiently. What is he doing in there? Kakashi had been in the bathroom for half an hour. Sakura looked at her watch. They were half an hour late. Not wanting to wait anymore, she opened the door and walked down the hall to the bathroom. She knocked on the door loudly. "What are you doing in there?"
"One minute." Kakashi responded impassively. 5 minutes later, Sakura became angry.
"I'm coming in!" She cried and opened the door. The silver hair jounin was sitting on the counter top reading his orange book. His eyes were wide as he read the erotica. Sakura was furious. She focused the chakra into her hand and grabbed Kakashi's ear. She proceeded to drag him by his hear lobe. The jounin was wincing in pain as he scrambled up to catch up with her. When they arrived out side the house Sakura let go of her grip. "We're late because you're too busy reading that smut!"
"It's not smut." Kakashi said mock hurt, "it was just getting good." Sakura scowled.
"Come on let's hurry."
"Ok." Kakashi said, and poofed away.
"Oh no you don't!" Sakura yelled, vanishing in a swirl of sakura petals. The two arrived in front of Naruto's apartment building. Kakashi knocked on the door with his hand, still wearing his fingerless gloves. Naruto opened the door wearing a nice shirt and black pants.
"You're earlier than usual Kakashi sensei!" Nartuo greeted with a wide grin. Kakashi smiled underneath his mask, raising his hand.
"Hi Sakura!" Naruto greeted.
"Hi Naruto!" Sakura returned the greeting with the same enthusiasm.
"Hello, Sakura-san." Hinata greeted quietly from behind Naruto. She was wearing a blue dress that ended at mid thigh. The dress emphasized her figure. Hinata, known for wearing a coat and sweat pants, looked like an attractive woman. Naruto stepped aside to let the couple in. Sakura was wearing a black cocktail dress. She had a black, silk shawl that went over her upper arms and around her back. She had on a pair of black high heeled sandals, which made her not so much shorter than Kakashi. Kakashi walked in next, wearing his same jounin attire. The only difference was that he had a nice men's cologne on rather than his forest smelling soap.
"I had a feeling you'd be late Kakashi sensei," Naruto began, "So I booked the table an hour and a half after I asked you to arrive. But seeing as you arrived relatively early, we have some time to mingle a bit." The four jounins took seats on the couch and began to converse.
Outside the apartment, three shadow figures were hunched behind a bush. "Hatake Kakashi, has fooled us for the last time." One said in a low voice, "he shall live to fear the day he humiliated me." One ninja struck him on the head.
"Shut up! Last time you tried to kill Kakashi, he didn't even remember who you were! No we're here for the bounty on his head. The land of lightning has put a bounty of 1,000,000 ryou on Kakashi's head, and we're going to win it." The three ninja stood up. Their hia-ate's were of the village of smoke. "Kakashi could kill you in a second, that's why I came along." The leader ninja opened his left eye and revealed a sharingan. "I fought long and hard to get this. Now I am up to par with the Copy Nin."
Kakashi and Sakura walked out of Naruto's house, with arms linked. Naruto and Hinata followed in step. "So where are we going Naruto?" Kakashi asked over his shoulder, "Not Ichiraku ramen I hope." Naruto grinned.
"Nope! Chouji's favorite Korean barbeque!" Kakashi pondered a bit. Hmm, I haven't had that in a while. Kakashi's eye curved in a smile.
"Sounds delicious." He said with enthusiasm. Sakura grinned and continued to walk with her man. The four smoke ninja were following close by in the trees. The leader kept his sharingan exposed, following Kakashi's every movement.
Kakashi's eye twitched. What's that chakra? He asked himself. His eye widened. Sharingan?? He sensed a couple of kunai coming his path. "Sakura duck!" The pink haired kunoichi bent low and pulled out a few senbon. Kakashi caught the kunai and lifted his hia-ate. Naruto formed a seal.
"Kage Bunshin No Jutsu!" He commanded. 5 shadow clones of naruto appeared around the four.
"Byaakugan!" Hinata called. She searched around the area and saw four ninja perched in a tree. "Over there!" She cried pointing the a patch of trees in the northeast. Naruto's clones hopped towards the trees.
"Grand fireball jutsu!" Came a voice from the trees. A giant fireball hit all of the clones, each of which disappeared. Kakashi's eye widened even furthur. Sasuke? But who else? He performed a few seals.
"Earth shuriken!" The ground rumbled as rocks came up and shot towards the trees. Three of the ninja cried out and fell to the floor, all with stone shuriken sticking out of their limbs. The fourth hopped down from the trees, with his left eye closed.
"Finally we meet, Hatake Kakashi." His smoke village outfit stuck out to the four nins.
"You guys again?" Sakura and Naruto said at the same time.
"I wasn't with those clowns on their previous engagement with you. My name is Shikijo. I have come for the head of Hatake Kakashi." Kakashi stared impassively.
"Better said than done, Shikijo." Kakashi retorted.
"Oh really," Shikijo opened his left eye, exposing his sharingan, "but I am just like you, Copy Nin Kakashi." Kakashi stared in bewilderment. How? "You must be wondering how I got this sharingan. Well, since you'll be dead soon, I shall tell you. I was at the Valley at the End a few months back, when I witnessed a battle between a man in a black cloak with red clouds, and a beast with webbed claws for wings. I was intrigued and continued to watch. Soon, the beast killed the man. When I noticed more ninja coming, I hid away. Soon, they all left, and all that was left was the body of the dead man. I hurried to the site and was awestruck to find the sharingan still activated in his eyes. Being a medical nin, I performed a transplant on my left eye. I could have taken both, but I knew first hand that, the blood that controls this sharingan, does not reside in me. So I just took one. Now I have the same power as The Copy Nin, Hatake Kakashi." The four nins stood there staring at the new holder of Itachi's sharingan. Sweat poured down Kakashi's forehead.
"So why do you want me?" Kakashi asked, not showing his fear.
"Well I cannot tell you that," He charged chakra into his hand, "Because you will be dead already!" He charged forward towards Kakashi. Naruto jumped in front and charged a rasengan. Sakura's eyes widened at the chakra in the smoke nin's hand.
"Naruto! That chakra acts like a scalpal! Don't let him touch you!" Naruto didn't hear her. He thrusted his palm towards the nin. Shikijo saw it coming with his sharingan, and easily maneuvered around it. His Hand hit Naruto's heart. Instantly, the Kyuubi container fell, holding his chest. "NARUTO!" Sakura screamed and rushed to her teammate. Shikijo charged towards her aiming for her head. Hinata lunged forward and struck the nin on his shoulder. The chakra from her hand passed through his shoulder, incapacitating his scalpel arm. Kakashi charged a raikiri and ran forward. Shikijo saw the attack coming and jumped in the air. To his dismay, Kakashi used his tenketsu, copied from Rock Lee, and appeared behind the smoke nin. Bandages wrapped around him and held him into Kakashi. The two nins turned upside down and went into a downward spiral.
"Secondary Lotus!" Kakashi called. Shikijo's head collided with the ground, and a large cloud of smoke erupted from the earth. Sakura healed the severed artery in Naruto's chest, and looked towards the impact point. Kakashi was holding the smoke nin by his hair and had a charged raikiri held up ready to thrust right through him. "Now what do you want with me, Shikijo?" The smoke nin was sweating bullets and whimpered at the look on all of the nin's faces.
"I…I'm just trying to get some money!" He cried.
"Money? And how would killing me get you money?"
"The…the land of lightning…they put a bounty on your head!" Kakashi was confused.
"Why would the Land of Lightning want your head?" Sakura asked.
"What do they want with me?" Kakashi asked the scared nin.
"There were no details…they just wanted you back, dead or alive."
"Who gave the order?" Kakashi snarled.
"His name was…Yusuke Tanaka." Kakashi almost lost his grip. Yusuke-sama??
"You lie." Kakashi growled, pulling his arm back for a more forceful thrust.
"I swear! Yusuke Tanaka gave the order!"
"Who's Yusuke Tanaka?" Sakura asked. Kakashi let go of the nin's head.
"Get out of here." The nin scrambled to his feet and ran away whimpering. Kakshi continued walking towards the resturant. "Let's go. I'm hungry." He said impassively.
"Kakashi who's Yu-"
"Let's go." Kakashi said again, hinting that he did not want to discuss the subject. The three jounins followed Kakashi to the resturant.
"Kakashi who's Yusuke Tanaka??" Sakura asked when they got home. Kakashi sighed and took off his vest and shirt.
"It's a long story." He replied. He took of his sandals and went into the bathroom. Sakura followed him. She walked in and he turned his face away from her and put his mask on the mirror, so that she couldn't see his face from the reflection. He continued brushing his teeth in silence. Sakura realized that he wasn't ready to show her his face yet. She wrapped her arms around his abdomen and pressed her face against his back, looking towards the shower curtains.
"Please tell me." Sakura asked quietly. Kakashi stopped and bowed his head. There was a long silence, and Sakura waited.
"When I was 13," he began, "I was inducted into ANBU. They sent me on a mission to Lightning Country to rendezvous with a contact and assassinate the dictator. The dictator at the time committed mass genocide on foreign immigrants to the land. I met with the contact. His name was Yusuke Tanaka. He provided me with information and a place to stay. With his help, I knew the dictator's lair inside and out. I knew all of the secret entrances, the back door exits and the exact location of the dictator's throne room. But he wasn't just a contact. Yusuke-sama was a good friend…"
"Why do you keep your sharingan activated all the time?" Yusuke asked.
"I don't know how to turn it off," a younger Kakashi responded, "So I just keep it on. But ever since I got the sharingan, I feel tired and wiped out."
"Hmm," Yusuke thought, "Why don't you cover up that eye then?"
"How? I'd always have a blindspot then."
"Even a great ninja like yourself should know that a blindspot is the most important area to focus on." Kakashi silently agreed. "During your stay here, I shall help train you to watch your blindspot." He reached over and pulled Kakashi's hia-ate over his left eye, keeping it an angle. "There! Now you look like a true shinobi, and soon you will be invincible." Kakashi grinned underneath his mask.
Yusuke threw a wooden kunai at Kakashi's left hand side. He jumped in the air but the kunai hit him anyway. "You must listen to the kunai as it cuts through the air."
"Hai!" Kakashi responded. Yusuke threw another kunai. Kakashi bent back, but the kunai hit him in the arm.
"Focus your senses. Clear your mind, and see the kunai's target before it hits." Kakashi closed his good eye and stood up straight. Yusuke threw the kunai, and hid one its shadow. Kakashi stood there as the kunai came to him. He caught the first one kunai between his fingers. The second kunai came for his head. He threw the first kunai towards the second kunai without looking and hit it in mid air. Yusuke smiled and pocketed the wooden kunai. "That's the trick."
"Over time, I didn't need to focus at all to protect my left. It just came to me. I owe it all to Yusuke-sama." Kakashi closed his eyes. "Then on the day of the assassination, a police crew infiltrated the house. Evidently, Yusuke-sama had been found out.
"Kakashi run for it!"
"Yusuke-sama! I'll protect you!"
"No! Do not forget your mission! Tenshi's police force is here! This is your perfect chance to kill him!" Kakashi hesitated when the door barged open and the police ninja showed up. "Run!" Yusuke screamed one last time, before the police piled on him. One police officer came at Kakashi. He lifted his hia-ate and exposed his sharingan. A third dot formed on his left eye, and the full sharingan was now unlocked. The officer performed a few seals, but Kakashi had already anticipated his move and performed it on him. Lightning erupted from his palm and struck the police officer, leaving him wounded on the floor. The Copy Nin poofed from the house and appeared outside of the lair.
Kakashi walked through the hidden entrances, and came to the last door which was the throne room of Tenshi. He opened the door and silently crept into the room. Tenshi had his back turned, while he looked out the window. "That traitor," Kakashi heard him say, "Housing a Konoha nin. He will pay." Kakashi charged a chidori and ran towards the dictator. His hand went right through his back and cut his heart in half. The chakra soared through Tenshi's body and burnt every cell. Kakashi ripped his arm from his body and poofed out of the room. As he jumped through trees towards the border of the Lightning Country, three hunter nins from the cloud village stopped him.
"Hatake Kakashi, you are hearby under arrest for the murder of Tenshi Kurosawa." They performed seals and the sky turned dark. Thunder and lightning began to roar. Kakashi took stance and performed a seal. "Kage Bunshin No Jutsu!" Two shadow clones appeared and performed the seals that the the other hunter nins had. Lightning came down from the sky and struck two of the hunter nins. The leader struck down the two clones. Kakashi charged forward with a chidori ready for attack. The last cloud nin shot down a bolt of lightning straight towards Kakashi. The ANBU Copy Nin cut through the lightning bolt and continued his lunge forward, striking the hunter nin in the face. Kakashi panted as he looked at his hand.
"My raikiri was created that day." Kakashi told Sakura. He put his mask back on and turned around to see his lover. "I heard no word from Yusuke-sama. Rumor was that he was killed by the nin police." Sakura went up on her toes and kissed Kakashi's masked lips.
"I'm sorry Kakashi," she said soothingly, "let's rest now. We'll see Tsunade-shishou in the morning about the incident." Kakashi nodded in agreement and walked with Sakura out of the bathroom. A note on the window caught Kakashi's attention. He went forward and took it. He looked around for any watchers. Satisfied, Kakashi turned back to Sakura and opened the letter. His eye widened in shock. "What is it?" Sakura asked. Kakashi kept his eyes glued to the paper.
"Keep your blindside covered Kakashi signed Yusuke Tanaka."