Grey Dawn, Part Three - Feeling
Beloved, Grey Dawn Remix - VNV Nation
My beloved do you know
How many times I stared at clouds
Thinking that I saw you there
These are feelings that do not pass so easily
I can't forget what we claimed as ours
Fic written for a prompt from Vernajast and because I needed something to fulfill my angst quotient. Semi-AU, post-Kyuubi where Minato didn't die. Kakashi is 17ish. Overall rating M.
Warnings: This chapter is hard R, for dark, mature themes. Implied abuse/rape/murder necessary to plot, not gratuitous, but it's only mentioned in passing. Gore and battle scenes. Profanity.
Two guards from the Uragare estate smiled and nodded to each other as they walked from the shadows into the fading pools of light and remnants of laughing sound surrounding the main house. They hadn't entirely missed the day's festivities. They served a fair master who ensured the guard roster allowed ample chance for all to share in celebrations when possible. Neither had seen anything worth sharing and turned, moving back into the night. Mere moments later, a silent shadow peeled itself away from the darkness. It almost stopped to look across the courtyard where surely another shadow already scaled the wall to the second story.
Minato berated himself for his delay. Kakashi was already well on his way to completing his part in the mission, and he hadn't even gotten inside. He quickly slipped through the door. Once inside, he moved openly, decisively, as if he had every right to be there. Nothing screamed intruder more than stealth or hesitance. He found the stairway, passing only a quietly giggling couple in a shadowed alcove. They would say nothing, would be too unwilling to risk their own discovery. He breathed more freely now, laughing inwardly at his earlier fears. He might be a bit out of practice, but Kakashi surely wasn't, according to the reports even now sitting on his cluttered desk back in Konoha. Kakashi was more than competent and would stand guard and keep him from being discovered while he planted the false information in this minor lord's study.
One, two, three... He tried the next door. It was locked, as he'd been told to expect. A few seconds work with a senbon and a whisper thin trickle of chakra and the door opened easily. He slid the long sliver of metal back into the seam of the haori and lamented not having his normal complement of weapons, although he smiled at the thought of the many weapons pouches and jounin vest atop the traditional garb. He didn't need them, of course; one didn't reach kage level without being skilled in the ninja arts. Still, his own weapons would have given comfort, of a sort. He knew their placement on his person, their exact balance. Any new configuration slowed a fighter the smallest fraction of a second. He stopped that line of thought immediately. If the mission went as outlined to them, there would be no fighting for him, and if it didn't and there was fighting, he carried a wakazashi and tanto, which would be more than enough protection against the few guards here.
The wards around the low window-side table that served as a desk took a few minutes to unravel; he examined then minutely, slipping through small holes and weaknesses rather than breaking them and leaving evidence of his intrusion. Four scrolls were pulled from inside his wide sleeves and slipped in among the others piled in a basket beside the table. He glanced out the unshuttered window and thought he saw a shadow flitting away from the guardhouse. Kakashi has disabled most of their weapons, already. That was fast. He slowly pulled away from the window. One person looking up at the wrong time seeing him there was all it would take to plunge them into a maelstrom of chaos not easily escaped. Stay focused but don't start thinking negatively. Everything is moving smoothly, all according to plan. We're almost done.
He pulled free from the warded space, taking his time, leaving absolutely no trace, and backed towards the door. No sound came through the portal, so he exited the small study. There were still no interruptions, no one in the hallway. It was almost too easy, but he supposed he should have realized Kakashi would never do his job halfway. Now all he had to do was place the ceremonial dagger in the proper bedroom as he'd been instructed and wait for Kakashi's thrown kunai to signal the all clear so he could escape.
He was a bit annoyed at the fact that he didn't know the significance of their actions; he was Hokage of the village and knew no more about what he was doing in the greater scheme of things than a genin reading the objectives for a B-rank mission. Still, it was good to be out of the village and on a mission, especially with Kakashi, so he couldn't be too upset, and he was well suited for what had been required. He turned a corner in the corridor, and walked past closed doors, one on the right, two on the left, and stopped at the next one the right hand side. The door slid open easily and he pulled the dagger free. As he leaned forward to hide the dagger within the folds of the futon, the hair prickled on the back of his neck. He whirled around, dagger in hand, just in time to see another body enter through the door adjoining the next room.
"Where is she, what have you done with Kousen, you monster? I didn't want to believe, but you're here with your bloody hands!" The other man advanced toward him, voice panicked and shrill.
Minato held his hands out to his sides, in plain sight, maneuvering carefully so as to not threaten the clearly distraught man. "I don't know what you're talking about. No one was here when I came in. I must have entered the wrong room." He tried to bluff his way through until he could escape.
"Filthy liar!" The other screamed. "Her maid just came to me and told me what you did! And now she's gone!"
"I didn't do anything! This is all a misunderstanding. I'm sure she just left the room for some fresh air or something, and she'll turn up somewhere..."
"Misunderstanding!? The misunderstanding was coming here, thinking to ally our families! You're nothing like your brother, after all. We'll be lucky if Kousen ever turns up, and if she does, it will be face down in the river! She was just fifteen, you bastard!" The young man was shaking, trembling and pale.
Minato finally reached the windowsill. He needed a distraction to escape. He looked down to find the dagger still clutched in his hand. He took careful aim and threw. The man dropped to the ground with a cry. Minato didn't want to have to kill or even wound the younger man, but he had to get free. The elaborate sheath came to rest by the wall next to the young man, but Minato was already gone, the jeweled blade tossed haphazardly to land amidst the rumpled bedding as he jumped out the window.
He scrambled down the wall partway and leapt to a nearby tree, pulling the dark haori coat around his head so only his eyes showed. He hid in the shadows, waiting for the signal from Kakashi. Stupid, stupid mission and I'm a baka three times over for not asking more questions. Something is definitely going on here that I have missed. And where is Kakashi? He listened carefully, trying to distinguish sounds from his shadowed perch in the treetops. He thought he could detect a disturbance inside the house, but it was hard to tell over the fading remnants of merrymaking coming from the dining hall. He had an odd feeling about this whole mission.
Then it was almost as if the thought had summoned him. He felt the little tug of chakra that told him Kakashi was finished and they could leave. He transported to the spot. He was just outside the guardhouse. Through the broken window, he could see Kakashi standing in a large room looking as if he had been busy, indeed. Dents and rips marred his blood spattered uniform and the fabric mask was ripped and hanging around his neck. He pulled at the door, but it was locked tight. He gathered his breath to call out and see if Kakashi was all right when the door behind Kakashi crashed open. Kakashi spun around, ninjato in hand, and the sound of the blade slicing through the air was almost audible to Minato, standing outside.
Two men fell with the first strike, and he flung a kunai into another's eye within seconds. A poisoned shuriken dropped another to his knees before the remaining six rushed him. Minato could only watch from his position outside, not even able to use a jutsu to help or burst open the door. Their instructions had been very specific. No chakra use except for getting inside the wards of the study and the hiraishin as they left. Neither left much of a lingering residue to track them by if this minor daimyo had access to any skilled nin to hunt them down. Kakashi hit one of his assailants in the stomach, bringing an elbow down on his neck and taking his spear even as the metal head snapped off. He used the impromptu staff, circling and striking, making his attackers back up and keep their distance.
Minato hadn't watched Kakashi fight or spar in almost two years. He had never been clumsy, graceless, although he had been bit off-balance for a few months after he had gained the sharingan. But this... despite the danger, Minato could not help watching, admiring the way his protégé danced, leapt, spun, a whirling dervish of death. Kakashi smashed the iron clad butt end into one man's chin, and saw the sickly red stain on the wall as the head burst open like a soft, ripe melon. The staff continued its arc and he spun to strike another would-be attacker across the torso with a sharp thwack that left him gasping, bright red blood bubbling from his lips where broken ribs had pierced a lung.
Kakashi jumped high in the air, flipping and coming down behind one of the men, pulling a length of chakra wire tight around the man's throat, twisting so the garrote held as he snapped the neck of the man who rushed him from the other side. The remaining two pulled out of range, slowly circling, looking for any opening, any weakness. They struck quickly, almost at the same moment, coming from opposite directions, and Kakashi jumped again, this time kicking one of the men in the teeth and plunging a kunai across the other's jugular on the way back down.
He gathered his weapons and dispatched the dying, leaving no trace behind him other than the scattered bodies. Minato knocked on the window to get his attention just before one last body hurtled through the open portal. Kakashi was facing Minato, but spun, bloody kunai still in his hand, and striking without thought, found himself staring into surprised blue eyes, almost hidden by messy, bright blond hair. Kakashi stopped, watching, blinking at the almost familiar expression. He froze completely and Minato felt queasy as he looked into near identical features on the face of the dying man. Shit. Fuck! Did they think this wasn't important enough to be on the mission scroll? I'm eight kinds of a baka for not asking more questions. I was too excited to be leaving, and with Kakashi. They counted on that, I'm sure. Fucking council and their fucking hidden agendas.
They needed to leave. Quickly. He knocked on the window, trying to get Kakashi's attention again, to come open the door. Kakashi was still, unmoving. He pounded at the window, on the locked door, but there was no reaction. Neither of us will get out alive if he stays like this, Someone screwed up the intel, or worse, and if we don't go now, we're screwed, too. Fuck the directives. Minato gathered his chakra, letting the swirling, tightly focused sphere of wind spiral through the thick, reinforced door. "Kakashi! We need to go, now. He wasn't even sure if Kakashi heard him. He was standing, ANBU mask pushed aside, ripped fabric puddled around his neck, face blanker than the masks. Blank except for his eyes, lost, mismatched pits of despair.
"Kakashi?" Minato pulled on the gloved arm, wincing at the clammy stickiness and the thick, coppery, iron-tinged scent that made him want to rid himself of every meal for the last two weeks. Kakashi dropped to his knees in a puddle of gore, clinging to the cooling body. "Kakashi!" Minato cursed, quietly, but intently. Fluently. Desperately. "Forgive me." He leaned forward, reaching for the pressure point, pulling the limp ANBU across his shoulder when he collapsed, running for the welcoming shadows.