I don't own any of the characters within this work of fiction, they all belong to Masashi Kishimoto. :)

The trio are in their early twenties, hovering somewhere around 22 years old. This, of course, makes Kakashi's age somewhere around 36.

I have obviously taken some creative liberties within this story, so it's not going to be 100% accurate to the anime or the manga.

**Please read the below note**

A significant amount of violence and gore will be present from here on out. You've been given a fair warning.

Leave a review if you'd like. Enjoy!

Naruto was acting weird… well, even weirder than normal.

Sasuke knew, from his own body's protesting, that the poison mist the woman had infected them with was definitely inhibiting their fighting abilities. Every single sense he possessed was dull. It made him slow and sluggish, and if it wasn't for his Sharingan he'd essentially be blind. On top of the sensory issues the mist caused, it also made it difficult to handle and mold chakra. Meaning putting the woman in a genjutsu or using his Susanoo was out of the question. At least he could maintain the Chidori for now.

But Naruto appeared to be really straining against the effects of the Jutsu.

Naruto was slightly hunched at the waist, lips pulled back into what appeared to be a mixture of a snarl and grimace. The blonde's breathing was heavily efforted, his chest exaggerating every intake of air. Sasuke could see the sweat sprinting down Naruto's face and noticed the change in the whisker-like marks on the other's cheeks. One eye remained bright blue, while the other was red with a slit pupil. Sasuke was even certain he caught glimpses of red-orange chakra bubbles ominously floating around the other's frame.

Can't forget the giant fucking gash in his side either.

Sasuke tore his eyes away from his partner, and, instead, focused as much as physically possible on their attacker. Keeping the woman in sight, he took a few calculated steps, moving in a way that positioned himself in front of Naruto. He needed to end this, now, before anything worse happened.

Sasuke's fingers tightened around his chokutō, his Sharingan assessing the path of the woman's incoming katana. He swung his blade up to block the approaching danger as quickly as his lead-filled arms could. The sound of steel on steel rang out, the blow reverberating through his sluggish body. Sasuke grunted and pushed against the offending sword with his own, steering it away from his face.

The woman continued to advance, slashing wildly, and forcing Sasuke to hastily shuffle backward in the river. He blocked blows left and right, one right after another, each parry progressively slower than the last. The purple-clad nin continued her advance, refusing to give Sasuke a respite. She swung her blade down from over her head, and Sasuke barely had enough time to slip out of the way. The woman recovered quickly, thrusting her katana forward and forcing him backward again, but not before it nipped into his side.

Gritting his teeth in frustration and at the sting of opened skin, Sasuke flung a handful of shuriken at his attacker. The woman deflected the shuriken easily, but he wasn't concerned – the distraction had done its job. Just as the last few shuriken flew toward the nukenin, Sasuke used that opportunity to feint a blow to the woman's left and then attack from the right.

But he was too slow – the damn poison mist had really done a number on his senses, and he found himself completely open to an attack.

The katana sliced through his flak jacket, then his jonin sweater and undershirt, and then his skin. Fire erupted across Sasuke's chest, burning a trail from just below his right shoulder to his sternum. He slapped a hand across the flow of crimson, gasping as he stumbled backward, trying to distance himself from the woman. His retreat did nothing.

A heeled boot landed heavily in his diaphragm, knocking the breath out of his lungs, and doubling him over. Sasuke hacked up blood – the evidence of his pathetic, desperate attempts at trying to force his rebelling lungs to work. He watched his blood stain the clear blue water red, swirling and expanding around his legs until he appeared to be wading in it.

A dark shadow loomed over him, and Sasuke just knew that the bitch was going to take her time killing him. She'd probably cut him up some more, and let him bleed out slowly into the river before running her katana across his neck. Sasuke entertained his gruesome thoughts as if looking on from afar. His consciousness had tucked itself somewhere deep into the crevasses of his mind, no longer associating himself with the bloody form kneeling in the water.

A guttural, monstrous roar yanked Sasuke back from the dregs of his mind. Thick, boiling, malicious chakra filled the air, making it even more difficult for him to catch a breath. He turned his head when another horrifying howl filled the air, praying to whatever god that would listen that what he thought was happening wasn't actually happening.

Sasuke's eyes, no longer enhanced by the Sharingan, landed on a red, bubbling form of chakra shaped like the Kyuubi. Naruto stood in the middle, encased in the murderous chakra of the demon fox that was sporting five tails.

Kyuubi Naruto had managed to wipe out the entire damn force of lackys the woman had brought and was forming, what looked suspiciously like a Biju bomb, in its mouth.

Sasuke stared blankly at the chaos unfolding in front of his eyes.

"Ah, shit."

The gods never favored him.

Naruto could vaguely register the disturbing feeling of being boiled alive – it was a nagging thought, kind of like when you're starting to wake up but are still dreaming and your brain is trying to figure out what's real or not. He examined his surroundings and found himself standing in the lone spot of light within a sea of pitch black.

What's going on?

From the depths of the abyss came a growl, followed by a voice.

Seems like the poison mist hijacked your chakra network. I TOLD you to get away from it.

Naruto frowned and swiveled his head back and forth, looking for Kurama. When he didn't spot the giant fox, he began to turn his entire body in slow circles.

Stop that! The deep voice growled, reverberating around the abyss. My physical form and our unstable chakra were trapped within your hijacked chakra network. It's now on the surface, wreaking havoc.

Kurama remained silent. Naruto plopped to the ground, his usually bounding energy drained from him. The overwhelming silence and pitch-black nothingness gave him an exceptionally uneasy feeling, so he filled the space with his own voice.

So, I'm locked inside my own head, you're just a voice, and neither one of us has control of our shared chakra… anything else you wanna share?

Uncomfortable with staring off into nothing, Naruto instead settled on staring at his fingers in his lap. He picked at the skin on his left thumb, and when Kurama finally spoke again Naruto had managed to effectively destroy the cuticle.

You need to get control of the chakra network. And soon.

Naruto pulled the finger up to his lips, absently popping it into his mouth to soothe the raw skin before replying.

Ha? It's your chakra that's running rampant! And anyways, how am I supposed to do that exactly?

You're the one who lost control of your emotions, brat. Kurama's disembodied voice snapped. Plus, if you don't regain control, the unstable chakra will continue to break down your chakra network and end up killing us both.

That should've been something you told me first! Quipped Naruto. Got any ideas on how to, ya know, not die?

The Biju made a rumbling noise in the darkness.

The Jutsu caster. Take out the Jutsu caster. And soon.

Uhh, Kurama? How long, exactly, do we have until… ya know?

Sooner than either one of us would like. Now stop asking questions and get to it.

He rolled his eyes at the formless voice. Instead of letting his mind linger on the soured speech of his Biju, Naruto focused on the task at hand. Still seated in his lone section of light, he rearranged himself into the position he took when calling on Sage mode. With his eyes closed and his elbows on his knees, Naruto took some deep breaths, pulling as much air into his lungs as physically possible, and then set to centering himself.

First, he searched for where the tension lingered in his body and consciously loosened the muscles in his shoulders, back, and jaw. He rolled his shoulders back a few times, relishing the lack of tension. He then moved to the task of unraveling the emotions tangled in his gut. One by one, Naruto pulled an emotion to the surface, confronted it, and embraced it.

Rage was the last one he plucked from the mass of tangled emotions. Naruto examined his feelings of anger and where they came from. He soon realized that his rage was linked to the love he had for his teammates and his fear of losing them. He was afraid of losing the people he thought of as family, and, Naruto admitted to himself, he was afraid of being alone again.

He sat with his fear disguised as rage, confronting the anxiety that oozed from it. The fear of losing his teammates reached out, sinking its claws into his heart, attempting to regain its hold on him. A destroyed Kohona flitted through Naruto's mind, and with-it images of civilian and shinobi bodies alike littering the streets.

He caught glimpses of his friends in the chaos. A body in a green jumpsuit hovered over one holding a massive scroll, chakra rods piercing them both. Long black hair and two pairs of pale eyes peeked out from under a collapsed building. An Akimichi clan symbol on the back of a destroyed body shielded two others, one with long blonde hair and the other with chakra blades shaped like trench knives gripped in its hands. An abundance of chakra beetles, red fur, and crimson littered a patch of rubble. The shards of a shattered gourd lay strewn in an ocean of blood and sand.

The images shifted to those closest to him, quickly turning even more gruesome.

A body was splayed on the ground, its limbs cocked in unnatural angles, the green eyes devoid of light, and pink hair dyed red with blood. A masked face and white hair were the only recognizable part of a severely mangled and battered body with a hole punched through the chest, the ninken bodies surrounding the form just as mangled. Fūma Shuriken protruded from the back of a body with the hair pulled back and a scar across the bridge of its nose. Another body with a hole punched through the chest and missing its eyes laid face down in a growing pool of its own blood, the Uchiha crest on its back barely visible.

Naruto's heart hammered in his chest as he gasped for air, moments away from drowning in despair. He pushed at the grip that fear had on his heart and willed his brain to produce happier images.

Him, Shikamaru, and Choji as kids watching the clouds roll by, the gentle breeze rustling through the treetops. Hinata, Shino, Kiba, and Tenten doubled over laughing at the spectacle of Gai and Lee chasing a fleeing Neji with one of those hideous green jumpsuits. The surprise of Gaara's soft smile as he and Ino chatted about gardening during one of his visits to Kohona.

Sakura's green eyes sparkling with excitement and pride when she was promoted to Jonin, her long-time fear of being useless finally squashed. The warmth of knowing that Kakashi-sensei would always be there for him when he needed him. The care and unconditional love of Iruka-sensei that had kept him tethered to the right path. Sasuke's first genuine smile, one that even reached the depths of his obsidian eyes, after he had finally stopped running after the bloodied and hate-filled legacy of his clan.

Naruto smiled to himself as the love of his friends and family gave him the courage to pry himself free of the claws of fear. His eyes fluttered open, and he peered into the nothingness that surrounded him. A wide grin graced his face, spanning from ear to ear, as he stood to address the formless Biju.

Don't worry Kurama! Naruto Uzumaki, future Hokage, is gonna fix this, dattebayo!

A deep chuckle echoed through the abyss.

Future Hokage, huh? Let's see what you've got, kid.

Naruto closed his eyes again, furrowing his brow in concentration. With his mind clear and centered, he tested the binds that were holding him hostage in his own head. He poked and prodded at his chakra network and found that without his fear and anger feeding it, the jutsu's influence on his tenketsu had weakened significantly.

Naruto pushed at the intruding Jutsu, discovering that the hold of the poison mist was weakest the further away a tenketsu was from his heart. He drove the jutsu's influence first from the tenketsu in his legs and then moved to the points in his arms. Unexpectedly, the foreign Jutsu was effortlessly banned from the points in his head, abdomen, and chest. Every chakra point was back under his control, except for the one.

The foreign Jutsu had retreated to the, reinforced its grip on the chakra located there, and walled itself off. Naruto knew that if he didn't reclaim control of that specific node then all the effort put into regaining the others would be pointless. But, if he was too reckless, the poison mist could shred the link that the tenketsu had to his heart and effectively stop the flow of chakra to and from the organ, killing him in an instant. Naruto took a moment to ponder his options: one, do nothing and let the poison destroy his chakra network and kill him, or, two, take a chance at regaining control with the knowledge that the poison could still kill him.

Heh, well, if I'm gonna die either way, thought Naruto, might as well go out swingin'.

Sakura's patience was wearing exceptionally thin. Her little hide-and-seek game with Kakashi was bordering on the side of ridiculous. It wasn't that she couldn't track the man's chakra, the problem was that his damn chakra signature was fucking everywhere. She sat crouched on her toes, her frame obscured behind a bramble of bushes, pressing her fingers into her temples, hoping the pressure would force her brain to think.

Sakura pushed her chakra out wide again, searching. Kakashi's silverish, white chakra was crisscrossed every which way for, at least, the surrounding 5 yards. She clenched her jaw, grinding her teeth together in frustration.

A shinobi must see underneath the underneath.

Kakashi's voice, teasing yet full of warmth, echoed through her thoughts with a memory.

It had been a surprisingly dull day at the hospital. So dull, in fact, that Sakura had taken the rest of the afternoon off, instructing the staff to send for her in the event of an emergency. She decided to take the side entrance out of the hospital, not too keen on running into any of her wayward visitors. Lee was nice enough, though a little too exuberant at times, but if she ran into Kotetsu she'd leave the conversation in a foul mood. No, she wasn't going to let anyone ruin her good day. Sakura descended the last few sets of stairs, pushed open the heavy fire door, and stepped out into the glorious Kohona sunshine. The day was beautiful – puffy clouds hung high in the sky, obscuring the ferocity of the sun's rays, and a constant breeze lifted strands of her pink locks and tugged at her clothes. A smile made its way across her face as she realized that, at this time of the day, her favorite training ground would be completely empty. She took off toward her apartment, racing across the rooftops.

Sakura had made it home, changed out of her scrubs and into a dark blue athletic top and matching leggings that were peppered with little light blue paw prints, braided her waist length hair into a manageable style for training, and made it to training field four in less than ten minutes. To her dismay, the training field was already occupied by a figure clad in the usual Jonin blue pants and a sleeveless athletic top. Her footsteps faltered. She had wanted to train alone today and debated abandoning this particular training area for another when she caught sight of an ANBU tattoo and wild silver-white hair, immediately recognizing who the other nin was. He hadn't seemed to have noticed her, and that suited Sakura just fine. After all, a surprise attack can't be a surprise if the other party had already caught on to your presence.

Hiding behind tree trunks along the edge of the field, she snuck her way toward the large, ancient tree near her prey. Silently, she slipped up the back of the trunk and into the upper branches. From where she perched, Sakura hovered directly over the unsuspecting ninja who was just recapping his water canteen. She smirked, pulling a kunai from her pouch, the anticipation almost too overwhelming as she dropped from the branch and landed lightly behind the white-haired shinobi. He was significantly taller and more muscular than she was, but that didn't deter her one bit. Everyone was taller and more muscular than her, and she had learned to use that to her advantage. In one swift movement, she kicked the nin's feet out from underneath him and pinned his body to the ground with all her weight. Except, the shinobi had executed a substitution jitsu and Sakura was now sitting on long instead. Though that in itself didn't last long. She was tackled from behind and strong, firm arms trapped her own at her side, sending both her and the attacking nin summersaulting.

Sakura was laid out on her back, arms pinned above her head, legs pinned with the man's body weight, and her own kunai nonthreateningly aimed at her chest. She glared up into mismatched eyes, the laughter there not hidden in the slightest. She knew it was childish, but she still jutted out her bottom lip and pouted. The masked nin had laughed at that and leaned down closer to her ear.

"Come now Sakura, you really thought I'd let you sneak up on me?" Kakashi's voice was low and gruff, his masked lips lingering close to her ear for just a moment longer before he was on his feet and offering her his hand. Slightly flustered, she accepted his help. Even through the mask, Sakura could tell that Kakashi was smirking when he spoke again.

"A shinobi must see underneath the underneath."

Sakura's eyes snapped open, and once again she traced her missing Captain's chakra. A triumphant grin spread across her lips when she finally spotted it – the one line of Kakashi's silver-white chakra that wasn't intertwined with the almost indecipherable pale light blue chakra of a ninken.

"Clever, Kakashi. Very clever."

She tightened her grip around the kunai in her hand and took to the trees again. She zeroed in on the Copy Ninja's real chakra signature, realizing that she'd have to back track towards the East a bit before continuing forward. Sakura turned to her left and took off, flying through the treetops at top speed once more. She tracked Kakashi's chakra East for about five minutes before it abruptly changed direction and veered off. Sakura knew why her captain kept himself moving, but it was making her task of locating him even more difficult. She grumbled and followed suit.

Sakura's chakra enhanced legs pushed her forward in giant leaps and she soon caught a blurry glimpse of heavily bloodied bodies beneath the tree branches. She continued her pursuit, not bothering to stop – both men were already dead. Well, one was for sure dead and the other one wasn't too far behind his partner. The presence of Kakashi's chakra and signs of his signature move, the Chidori, didn't escape her notice. Her job was to heal people, but that skill also granted her the knowledge of how to effectively kill someone. There wasn't anything she could do as a medic for the nin, not when half of the man's left lung had been ripped from his chest like that. The brutality of the nukenin's deaths didn't bother her one bit, after all, she had done pretty much the exact same thing to the ones she took out with her poison. She had learned over the last three years while taking missions of higher and higher ranks, that the shinobi world is a kill or be killed kind of place. If you wanted to live, if you wanted your loved ones to live, you'd take a life with no questions asked too.

A twinge of nasty chakra stopped Sakura in her tracks, gluing her feet to the branch she was on. The hateful chakra was startingly familiar, but it couldn't be what she thought it was. Naruto and Kurama were on good terms now, there hadn't been an incident of the nine-tail cloak since Pain's attack years ago. A demonic roar ripped through the air, disturbing the birds enough to send them flying away in a frenzy. Her suspicions were unfortunately proved correct, and she cussed under her breath. She had to find Kakashi quickly and get him to Naruto so that he could use the sealing sigil Yamato had made for this exact situation. Sakura set off again, wondering exactly when this mission went to shit and if they were even going to be able to help the people of that little village. Guilt and concern rumbled deep in her chest, the feelings bringing with it the stinging sensation of tears. She aggressively swiped at her eyes and forced her thoughts to only focus on the ever-growing presence of silver-white chakra. Her captain's chakra was getting denser and easier to pick up on as she flew through treetops. The thought of finding Kakashi soon pushed Sakura to pick up her speed even more, the trees around her now flying by in undiscernible green blurs. The sound of a thousand birds ripped through the silence of the forest accompanied by the flash of a brilliant blue light. Sakura wasn't too far off from where her captain's lightning chakra was decimating a chunk of trees. She bounded from one large tree to another before landing in a charred clearing. The sight was incredible, if not a bit gut wrenching. In the middle of the small clearing, surrounded by a dozen or so rouge shinobi that were either dead or in the process of dying, panting heavily and spattered in blood, stood her white-haired shinobi.

"Kakashi."

His name left her lips in a whisper, almost as silent as a prayer, but, not to her surprise, he had still heard her. He turned on his heel and marched toward her, closing the distance between them in a measly two minutes. She had expected Kakashi to stop in front of her and ask for a status report, as was customary for a squad leader. But, to her disbelief, he had instead enveloped her in his arms, burying his face in what was left of her hair. It took Sakura a moment for the shock to reside, but when it did, she wove her arms around Kakashi's waist, embracing him in return. Gradually, she felt the tension leave his wired body. When his racing heart and heavy breathing had slowed to a more normal rate, he broke the embrace but remained close enough to run his fingers through the hack job she did to her hair. When he finally spoke, though his voice was quiet, it held an edge.

"Sakura… you're okay."

She lifted her eyes from the seeping bandage on his thigh to his face, scrunching her eyebrows.

"Of course, I'm okay, but look at you!"

She gestured wildly before continuing.

"Damnit Kashi, sit down so I can heal you."

The Jonin let her ease him to the ground, and once she had him propped up against a tree trunk she got to work. She kneeled next to Kakashi, the soft green light of medical ninjutsu pulsing as she assed the damage done to his body. The first, and most obvious, injury she noticed was the giant gash on his upper thigh. Sakura worked on stanching the bleeding capillaries and mending the torn muscles. He'd have a large scar due to the suture line, but his leg would be functional and that was all that mattered. She found bilateral broken ribs and minor internal bleeding from a lacerated spleen. She could get everything that was serious taken care of, it would leave her dangerously low on stamina and eat a good chunk of her chakra too, but she could do it. Sakura started with the lacerated spleen, willing the organ to stop leaking into Kakashi's abdomen and ordering the blood vessels in the omentum to get rid of the free-floating fluid. She grunted, pushing the nagging feeling of exhaustion from her body as she moved her hands to his chest, focusing on his multiple broken ribs.

"Your hair," rough fingertips brushed across her cheek, tucking a wayward strand of pink behind her ear, "I like it this length."

Kakashi grunted as a few displaced ribs snapped back into place a bit too quickly. The physical contact had startled Sakura, and she had pushed her chakra into her patient's injured ribs a little too forcefully.

"Sorry…" she mumbled sheepishly before giving the man a bright smile. She offered her hand, pulling the nin up to his feet. "You're good to go, Mr. I somehow manage to accrue life threatening injuries on every mission."

The crinkle at the corner of his visible eye told her that he was grinning back.

"What, tired of taking care of me?"

Sakura playfully swatted at the hand Kakashi was using to ruffle her hair, speaking through her laughter.

"We need to get to Naruto and Sasuke."

Kakashi hummed in agreement. "I sent part of my pack out to find them. Pakkun is getting intel on their whereabouts from one of the runners now. We'll head to them."

Sakura nodded and followed Kakashi into the trees.

Kakashi and his smallest ninken flew through the trees side by side, his keen nose also picking up flashes of Sakura's trail. The scent was a mixture of the soft floral fragrance that always lingered about the medic, a slight tinge of sweat and, much to his growing horror, the sharp, metallic tang of blood. He ignored the consistent flare of agony in his right leg when it took the brunt of his weight as he landed and then pushed himself to the next branch. Each time he flexed and tightened the muscles in his thigh the suture lines pulled taught, threatening to rip through the already ragged skin. Kakashi forced more chakra into his legs, urging his body to move even quicker.

"Pakkun. Rendezvous. Pack."

He managed to squeeze out the garbled sentence between grunts, hoping the ninken would understand. Since he could now distinguish the scent of his medic, Kakashi wanted Pakkun to run intel between himself and the split-up pack. The ninken gave a silent nod and took off in an entirely different direction, no doubt knowing exactly where the rest of the pack members were located. Kakashi made a mental note that the pack and his squad deserved a nice home cooked meal when they returned to the village.

If they all returned to the village. He shook his head, physically expelling the thought. He needed to find his squad and falling into old doubts wasn't going to help. Kakashi pushed forward, the green leaves on the branches flying past him in blurs and the suture lines in his thigh straining with his every movement. He was getting closer and closer to Sakura, the scent he followed developing a clearer path the further he traveled. The problem was, the closer Kakashi got to the pink haired kunoichi, the stronger an altogether different scent also grew. The mingling scent of a dozen or more shinobi was amassed in one area and didn't seem to be moving – yet. His many years as an elite ninja told him that the opposing group was either setting up another ambush or devising some plan of attack. It seemed that they were planning on taking advantage of a surprise attack to use their sheer numbers to overwhelm their victim. Kakashi was having none of it. If a surprise attack was what they wanted, he'd damn well deliver.

A few more leaps through the treetops brought him to the edge of a small clearing where, lo and behold, a group of roughly fifteen nukenin were gathered. The group consisted of primarily chunin level shinobi and were mostly male, save for one blonde kunoichi. The kunoichi was dressed in a rich jewel colored green attire and armor and appeared to be the one in charge of the group. And even though Kakashi could tell that the woman was much younger and significantly smaller than the men, they were absolutely terrified of her. She'd be the only one among the fifteen who'd give him some trouble in his current state. He didn't exactly feel like testing his theory, but with himself and, presumably, the rest of his squad in rough shape, the group before him posed a significant threat. For the sake of his squad, Kakashi needed to wipe them out.

Still hidden in a jumble of leaves and branches, Kakashi opened his left eye, exposing the sharingan he had kept covered to conserve chakra. He mapped out a path in his mind, focusing on effectiveness and efficiency. He'd take out the henchmen quickly, then focus on the kunoichi. A wave of foul chakra washed through the small clearing of trees, startling the kunoichi and her minions. Kakashi's mismatched eyes snapped toward the radiating red haze of chakra floating above the tree line and had a rather good hunch as to the cause. A demonic roar ripped through the air, disturbing the group of rouge shinobi enough to send them into panicked mumbles. Shock and fear marred the kunoichi's face, her mouth hanging slightly open and her lips forming into a little "oh". The expression was brief and undoubtedly went unnoticed by the unnerved men around her. The woman recovered quickly, barking orders at the group.

"Find that pink-haired bitch and the Copy Ninja. Capture them alive. Do not disappoint me again."

And with that the blonde kunoichi vanished in a kiri-shunshin, a flurry of mist the only sign she was ever there. The band of rouge shinobi were still and silent, presumably still processing the orders given to them. Kakashi was never one to pass up such a golden opportunity when presented with one.

He had slit the throats of five shinobi, their bodies thudding to the forest floor one right after another, before anyone took notice of his presence. The deep, dark red of their blood in stark contrast against the green of the grass. Kakashi flicked his wrists, flinging blood from his fingers. Five more shinobi dropped silently, kunai buried in their chest to the pommel, before anyone could manage to move. They weren't dead yet, but Kakashi paid them no mind. Afterall, he not only embedded the offending objects in their bodies just below the diaphragm where the thoracic aorta develops into the abdominal aorta, but the kunai were also laced with poison. He watched the man closest to him choke and gag on the bloody foam leaking from his mouth. Kakashi moved again, taking out three more with deadly precision, severing their subclavian arteries with the poisoned dipped kunai now sprouting from their clavicles. Another tsunami of red warmth flooded the grass at his feet. About the time the last shinobi who was still alive charged in for an attack, thirteen of the nukenin were either already dead or rapidly heading in that direction.

With the nin approaching, Kakashi found himself fresh out of poisoned kunai and moved on to the next phase of his plan of attack. He pulled at his chakra and gathered it in mass in his right hand. Lightning poured from his palm, the familiar sound of his raikiri penetrating the once silent clearing. He grit his teeth and locked his jaw, experience reminding him that the force of punching through a man's chest could, quite literally, cause him to bite through his bottom lip entirely. He met the advancing shinobi in a few swift steps.

Kakashi's lightning encased hand tore through flesh, then muscle, then bone, and exited in the opposite manner – through bone, then muscle, and, finally, through flesh. The nin that he was now wearing as a bracelet spewed blood from his mouth, the hot liquid splattering on Kakashi's neck and flak jacket. Tragically, the nin was still clinging to life and trying to speak. The man's voice was nothing but a whisper laced in gurgling fluid. But Kakashi still heard the nin's last garbled words… because of course he did. He placed his left hand on the, now dead, shinobi's shoulder for leverage and yanked. Muscle and tissue clung to Kakashi's hand and fingers, and, his arm now no longer plugging the giant hole, rivers of red flowed freely. With his right arm no longer anchoring the body, it plopped to the ground, splashing the warm liquid that was once its life force across his legs.

The pain and exhaustion hit him all at once. His chest burned with every heavy, panted breath and a substantial pressure was beginning to settle in his abdomen. The sutures that held the gash in his leg closed were no longer doing their job, the weeping bandage on his thigh soaked with, what he was certain, was his own blood. Kakashi stared blankly at the gore still clinging to his hand, the blood now drying into the fabric of his glove and making it difficult to really move his fingers. He ripped the glove from his right hand, not caring where it landed, and proceeded to wipe the remnants of carnage off on his pants. Surrounded by a lake of blood and dead bodies, Kakashi's thoughts echoed with the final nin's last words.

"We had heard…"

Each breath the shinobi took gargled in his throat, though he continued.

"Cold blooded… ruthless…"

The nin's will to live was nonexistent by this point. His brown eyes were glassy and far off, the light of life extinguished.

"Demon of the Leaf…"

The nin had sagged into Kakashi and with his last ragged breath, graced his murderer with a new name.

A sweet floral scent and his whispered name dragged Kakashi back to the present. He half turned, his right eye settling on the figure just a few feet from him at the edge of the clearing. She looked worn out – her jonin uniform was torn and tattered in places and burnt in others. Her once waist length pink hair was now hanging unevenly above her shoulders. Her bottom lip was split down the middle and the hint of a nasty bruise ghosted across her right cheek. There was blood on her clothes, though it appeared dried and whatever wound had caused it was no longer visible. She was bruised and battered, but she was alive. Sakura was alive.

His Sakura was alive.

Just as the thought crossed his mind, Kakashi was moving across the small distance between them. He wrapped his shaking arms around her shoulders, tucking his face into her still beautiful hair. He felt Sakura stiffen at the embrace and then all at once relax, winding her arms around his waist and settling her forehead into the crook of his neck. The floral scent he associated with the kunoichi was much stronger now, and indescribably comforting. It wove its way into his head and chest, slowing his racing heart and jumbled thoughts and left him washed in a sense of calm. He pulled away from Sakura but stayed near, inspecting her overall well being up close. A wave of relief washed through his body.

"You're okay."

Sakura's brilliant green eyes shot up to his face, her nose and eyebrows scrunching.

"Of course, I'm okay, but look at you!"

Concern seeped into her voice making it an octave higher. She gestured wildly before continuing.

"Damnit Kashi, sit down so I can heal you."

He did as he was told. Kakashi didn't even argue when Sakura slipped his arms over her shoulders, wrapped her arms around his waist, and bore a considerable amount of his weight when she helped him settle against the trunk of a tree. The green light of her medical ninjutsu was settled over his right thigh. The strange sensation of foreign chakra entering his system settled over him. Kakashi generally hated the feeling; he found it cold, intrusive, and rather irritating to his own chakra network. Although, with Sakura, it was different. Her chakra was warm and caring, and where other medics left his chakra network feeling off, she was able to soothe it. Silently, he watched her work. Sakura had moved to his abdomen. There was a crease of concentration between her eyebrows, and as the light of her ninjutsu pulsed as the pressure in his stomach lessened. She leaned back from him, wiping the back of her hand across her forehead and taking a few deep breaths. Sakura positioned her hands over his chest, a tiny grunt of exertion escaping her lips. She was a lot closer now, very much so in his bubble, but Kakashi didn't mind. The loose strands of her hair created a pink curtain, hiding her face from his view.

"Your hair." Absently, he reached out, the fingertips of his left-hand softly skirting over her bruised cheek to tuck the curtain of pink behind her ear, "I like it this length."

There was a small squeak and then an immense amount of pain in his chest as his broken ribs audibly snapped into place. Even though he could now breath without wincing, Kakashi still grunted in displeasure. A soft, sheepish "sorry" stumbled from Sakura's lips before they tugged into a wide smile. She was on her feet, offering him her hand, and he let her pull him up from his spot at the base of the tree. She quired an eyebrow at him, speaking cheekily.

"You're good to go, Mr. I somehow manage to accrue life threatening injuries on every mission."

Kakashi grinned wide under his mask, plopping his cleaner hand on her head to ruffle her hair.

"What, tired of taking care of me?"

Sakura swatted at him but spoke with amusement in her voice.

"We need to get to Naruto and Sasuke."

He hummed in agreement. The intensity of the chakra from earlier had lessened, but it was still concerning that it was still present.

"I sent part of the pack out to find them. Pakkun is getting intel on their whereabouts from one of the runners now. We'll head to them."

Sakura nodded and Kakashi took to the trees, conscious that she'd follow his lead. He beelined for the kyuubi's chakra, knowing that Pakkun would find him along the way.