Chapter Four: Itachi
Kakashi stared at the man standing at the entrance of the alley. "Uchiha Itachi. How did you come to be here?" Kakashi demanded, preparing himself for a surprise attack.
"Apparently, whatever brought you here did the same for me. No matter. This just gives me an opportunity, since it is in my best interest to defeat you now so you will not interfere later." Itachi spoke calmly, his voice lacking all emotion.
Kakashi's smirk was hidden by his mask. "Don't you mean if you defeat me, Itachi?"
Shelby watched from where she had been standing the entire time, warily glancing between the two men. Tension clogged the air, making it difficult to breathe. In less than half a second, Kakashi had formed the four seals for the Raikiri, which was steadily growing in size. The three thieves would have run away screaming if they weren't still buried in the asphalt. As it was, they screamed anyway, causing Kakashi to wince at the sudden noise. Itachi took advantage of his momentary distraction to throw dozens of shuriken at him, which were only increased in number by the shadow shuriken technique.
Kakashi dodged the attack and rushed at Itachi, the Raikiri in his right hand obliterating the wall beside him. In an instant he had reached Itachi and punched his hand straight through him, burying his hand up to the elbow in Itachi's body, which suddenly disappeared. Substitution! I should caught it, Kakashi cursed himself for his foolish mistake. Unfortunately, having a pair of his own, Itachi knew how to fool the Sharingan quite well. Moving to pull himself free, Kakashi found he was unable to do so, for at that moment Itachi disappeared, leaving behind sticky substance in his place. Kakashi silently cursed himself for his foolishness; he should have known better than to be fooled by a mere substitution jutsu. Drawing a kunai with his free hand, Kakashi hacked at the mass of goo to free his arm. As soon as he could move a little, Kakashi formed the seals for the Katon: Gokakyou no Jutsu in lightning-fast strokes, burning the gelatinous mass that had temporarily encumbered him.
Realizing that he had lost precious time and chakra, Kakashi turned to face Itachi, only to find it harder to move than he expected. Kakashi glared at Itachi, who now stood in front of him. "Staying in this warless world has made you weaker, Hatake. The great Copy Ninja should know better than to underestimate me. Did you truly believe that was a simple substitution?" Itachi's voice was subtlely filled with scorn, and the way he spoke the name "Hatake" grated on Kakashi.
"A poison this weak won't take me down before I defeat you, Itachi. You know that." Itachi closed his eyes, smiling slightly in that evil way unique to the ex-nin. "I've got better things to do, so I'll finish you quickly." He had opened his eyes again, revealing the Mangekyou Sharingan. Kakashi had no choice - he was forced to face off with Itachi again, even though he had no chance of victory. Sure enough, he found himself in Tsukoyomi once more. This time Itachi would be harder on him for having survived last round.
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Shelby watched quietly as the mysterious silver-haired man fought yet another stranger to her. Although they knew each other, it was obvious that they weren't on good terms. She stared at Kakashi. What was with the "Copy Ninja" remark, and why did the other man have the same mysterious red eyes as the one Kakashi was always hiding?
Something was happening. Kakashi suddenly froze up then fell to the ground nearly unconscious, as if in great pain. Having no idea what was going on but refusing to let anyone die, herself included, Shelby picked up a conviniently-placed length of metal piping, rushing at the man in the black and red cloak. She swung the pipe at him, intending to catch him off guard. Unfortunately, Kakashi wasn't the only genius of Konoha. Itachi easily avoided her blow, counterstriking with five shuriken. Her quick reflexes helped her avoid most of them, but the last one caught her in her left arm, slicing deep. However, in those few precious moments, Kakashi had recovered enough to stab Itachi's left ankle with a kunai, severing the Achilles tendon. Fighting exhaustion and unconsciousness, Kakashi forced himself to his knees, determined to protect those in his charge.
Shelby, noticing that Itachi's attention was on Kakashi, swung the pipe as fast as she was able. Itachi jumped with his good foot, easily avoiding her desperate blow, and escaped. Sighing in relief, Shelby dropped the pipe and sat down hard. Suddenly, she heard a thump. Looking at Kakashi, to her surprise she discovered that he had collapsed.
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Kakashi groaned and looked up, expecting to see the white ceiling of a hospital. To his surprise, it was a gentle blue. Strange, he didn't know of any blue ceilings in Konoha. Maybe Kurenai had been concerned for him and had Gai help her fix up his apartment again. Sitting up carefully to look around, Kakashi realized that although it was an apartment, it wasn't his. Reality set in as he remembered what had transpired. He wondered offhandedly if Shelby had survived, but natural concern got the better of him.
Kakashi forced his feet to walk calmly to the kitchen. Noon was there, holding a box of macaroni, about to make breakfast. "You should probably still be resting. Shelby had the night shift, so after she drove you back, she went directly to work. She'll be back in about an hour," Noon stated, turning toward the silver-haired ninja. Noon glared at him dangerously. "She told me nothing and refused to explain why there was a two-inch deep laceration in her arm. I want to know what happened," she demanded. Still sore, Kakashi shrugged the best he could. "I suppose someone followed me here somehow and attacked me. There's not much to say," Kakashi ran a hand through the back of his hair, wondering furiously to himself why it had to be Itachi. Almost anyone else he could have handled, mainly thanks to Obito's Sharingan, but His was more powerful. This was not good.
---
Watching the ninja carefully, Noon observed his reserved and hidden concern. Maybe he wasn't such a bad guy after all. Turning back to her macaroni, she decided to give the man a chance.
-----
Shelby let out a long sigh. Her boss had given her trouble for being late, but she wasn't about to tell him that a strange man with white hair had turned out to be a ninja and that one of his enemies had attacked them. Smiling at the irony, Shelby closed the door quietly so as not to wake up Kakashi. Setting her keys on the table, she looked up to see him in front of her. "You're supposed to still be in bed, you know." Putting down the book he was reading, he shrugged nonchalantly. "I was never good at that," he admitted. He looked toward her arm. "How's the injury?" Shelby moved her arm around, wincing slightly. "Could be better, but I'm fine." Kakashi hesitated, then said decisively, "Here, give me your arm." Confused, Shelby obliged. Kakashi placed his hand, glowing with green chakra, over the wound, which grew warm and began to heal. When he finished, Shelby inspected the wound, which had miraculously disappeared. "Just go easy on it for a while, 'kay? I'm still a little tired, so I couldn't do as good a job."
"Where did you do that? It's amazing," Shelby exclaimed in astonishment. Kakashi replied without thinking, taken off guard by her open manner. "I picked up a few medical jutus from Rin a while back. It's nothing special." He stopped, memories of his former teammate flooding back.
Shelby noticed. "Was she special to you?" Kakashi gave a start and a short, humorless laugh. "Now you sound like Haku."
Oblivious to his pain, Shelby pressed on. "Who was he?"
Kakashi stood up, hands in his pockets. "He died. It doesn't matter now."
Now fully aware she had blundered across an invisible line, Shelby was quick toapologize. "Sorry, I didn't really mean to offend you."
Kakashi's voice was completely neutral. "It's fine, no harm done."
Shelby mentally kicked herself for committing yet another blunder. Desperate to change the topic, she switched the discussion to a subject that had been plauging her all night. "What happened back then with the Itachi guy? Since he was facing you, I couldn't see what happened, but he did something because suddenly collapsed."
Kakashi momentarily wondered whether to tell her, but decided it couldn't hurt. "It's called the Mangekyou Sharingan."
Shelby nodded. "Sharingan, like you have?"
Kakashi's voice was gravely serious. "Yes, only much worse. The Mangekyou is achieved by killing your best friend. Only one who has the Sharingan can hope even to survive his technique."
"Then you should be able to beat him, right?" Shelby asked, curious.
Kakashi shook his head no. "It's a long story, but the eye is not really even mine, so it's not as effective. Besides, unless I had the Mangekyou myself, I couldn't counter his Tsukoyomi technique."
Shelby stared at him in wonder. The more she discovered about him, the more mysterious he became. A strange, powerful eye that wasn't even his? He looked unusual enough when she had first seen him in front of her car, but she would never have expected anything of this sort to come along!