Two days.
Two entire days with no rest and rare food breaks.
Kakashi had to admit; the scenery they passed while they had been traveling was beautiful. There were herds of unidentifiable animals grazing in large groups or stampeding across the land. There were large valleys and mountains with plants that looked like they came from another world. But all of this paled in comparison to the steady and painful ache in his rear end.
He couldn't fathom ever traveling this way ever again.
The first day went by as he expected. Sasuke sulked on the back of the redheads mount and refused to really look at any of the beauty around him. After a few hours he had expected, or more accurately hoped, that they would stop for a food break, but there was no such stop. Sasuke and Kakashi were fed a broth from canteens by One and Two respectively, but all without even leaving their mounts.
Sasuke had, at first, refused, but it seemed as if One would have none of his sulking and forced the broth down his throat in what seemed like a very painful matter. After he let Sasuke breath and cough up any broth that went into his lungs, Sasuke was much more complacent when being fed.
Night came later than Kakashi had hoped because the ache was slowly creeping in his bum and he daydreamed about sleeping horizontally, even if it was on the cold, hard, ground.
But they never stopped.
At some point he must have drifted off, Sasuke had fallen asleep about an hour prior after trying futilely to keep his eyes open. His head rested on One's shoulder in a position that would leave him mortified when he woke up. Kakashi tried staying awake to see if they would stop and make camp, but he too was tired to his core, mostly because of his struggle for oxygen and also because of his prior terrible nights sleep.
He woke the next morning disoriented and tired, but also incredulous. It seemed as if the three who were leading them to the unknown city never stopped. They looked as fresh as they did the day before, not a sign of fatigue on them and Kakashi could only stare.
Sasuke took another few hours to stir. As Kakashi had predicted, he turned a furious shade of red when he realized how he had fallen asleep, but One didn't seem to acknowledge this. They were fed their broth as the sun rose higher and they did not stop all throughout the day again.
Kakashi noticed that their journey was taking them into a more mountainous region and that they were soon traveling through high altitudes that did not help his and Sasuke's troubled breathing.
The ache in his butt was reaching an unbearable level.
Then in an unspoken signal in the middle of a forested area, they stopped.
And all hell broke loose.
A wall of sand surrounded One along with Sasuke and Two's mount that had Kakashi tied to it. He never even saw Nine and Two move.
But as soon as the sounds started, they were over. And as the wall of sand slunk slowly towards One and formed into the gourds on his mount's side, Nine and Two could be seen surrounded by mutilated bodies.
They were disgusting, and Kakashi had seen some terrible things in his life, especially during the Third War before the cities closed themselves off.
But this, this couldn't compare.
It was obvious that the damage had not been done by Nine and Two alone. The bodies of those creatures, for they could not be called human, not anymore, were torn apart. Skin had been peeled in places, leaving angry scabs and scars across their bodies. Pieces of metal had been shoved angrily into body parts and most could be seen without fingers or even limbs that looked to be chewed or hacked off.
Nine suddenly spit, looking disgusted. "Akujin."
Before Kakashi could ask sounds of trees moving caught their ears and all but Nine got into defensive positions, well, Kakashi tried his best given the circumstances.
Three men dressed in black with cracked masks carved like animals landed before them. All had the symbol of a white sun marked on their clothing and when they saw whose company they held, they kneeled.
Nine spoke with the confidence of a leader, "Report."
The apparent leader of the squad stood at attention while the others stayed kneeled behind him. "Nine-sama. My team was given the task of tracking and eradicating a group of Akujin seen terrorizing travelers in the area. We found their tracks approximately 4 hours ago and followed them to this point." He then looked around the clearing bowing his head slightly at the other two members of the Nine on their mounts. "But apparently we were too late to complete our mission." He said looking back to his leader.
"Very well", Nine spoke, "I won't file this under mission failure because of a mix-up." Suddenly Nine's personality turned a 180 and he chuckled with a smile while rubbing the back of his head.
The leader of the squad along with the rest of the living souls in the clearing sweat dropped at his laid back attitude.
"Our humblest thanks, Nine-sama. We will return to the city to report our mission status."
"Actually," Two spoke for the first time, "it would be better if you joined us. We are headed that way with our guests and we could use the protection."
Kakashi wasn't too sure what she meant by that. It was obvious that the three on them could handle themselves fine even with two captives to protect, but he let it go. No use dwelling on what couldn't be answered.
The squad quickly agreed and bowed to their superior before once again taking to the trees.
Sasuke and Kakashi had never seen anything quite like it. They moved like shadows through the trees. They never made a sound except for the occasional rustle and even that could be mistaken for the wind or another animal.
As the sun soon began to set behind them they stopped for the first time in two and a half days.
Kakashi wanted to cry in happiness.
The squad soon had a fire going and Kakashi lamented the fact that he couldn't walk straight and didn't have the strength to stretch out his extremely sore butt. And if the grimace/scowl on Sasuke's face was anything to go by, then so was he.
Out of its own accord Kakashi's stomach protested loudly and Sasuke's follows soon after. The noise is so loud that everyone around the campfire halts what they were doing and looks at them, some with blank stares and other with incredulous ones.
Sasuke does his best to hide the blush creeping up his neck and spilling into his cheeks, but Kakashi just smiles with his eyes and waves a hand like nothing happened. "Maa, you wouldn't happen to have anything to eat would you?"
Two is the first to break out of her trance and giggle quietly, this leads to Nine guffawing, the squad shaking their heads and One smirking minutely.
Nine takes a skewer with some unidentifiable meat and starts to chew on it, which leads the others eating as if signaled to do so soon after. Sasuke and Kakashi, however, are given two bowls of broth once more, enough to feed them, but not enough to make them less hungry really.
Sasuke looks down at the bowl with distaste. "What we're too lowly to be fed well? I thought you said that we're not prisoners, that you were going to make us want to stay in this god-forsaken place."
Two looks at both of them and though Kakashi tries to hide it he is not that happy with the food arrangements either.
The squad leader is the first to speak, however. "You can go ahead and have some meat if you want, but you probably won't want to when you learn what will happen."
"What do you mean 'what will happen'?" Kakashi asks slowly, eyeing the meat with caution.
"All animals in the waste are contaminated, Cyclops. If you eat them then the radiation will get in your system much sooner than your body can handle. You'll die from the inside out as your organs fail. They aren't used to working with it in your system yet. Your lungs are only now adapting. The rest follows soon after." Two explains.
Kakashi chuckles nervously and scoots a bit farther away from the skewered meat that Two pointed towards his chest while explaining. Sasuke grimaces again and scowls as he drinks his broth.
"We won't have to adapt to the radiation for much longer." Sasuke said, "We're going to this stupid city of yours and then going back to Konoha. Anyways it's the Scavengers that will have to get used to living without the radiation once the cities take their lands back."
The entire campsite went quiet. One and Nine were the only ones who didn't seem to acknowledge what Sasuke had said, quietly eating their meat still.
It was surprisingly the smallest squad member that spoke. "The gods made the earth for all men to share," she surprised them even more by being a woman, "only when the kings come with their crowns and steel swords, they claimed it was theirs." She spoke with contempt in her voice, "My trees, they said, you can't eat them apples. My earth, my water, my castle, my daughter, keep your hand away or I'll chop them off, but maybe if you kneel to me I'll let you touch them." She had taken away her mask to look at all of them. Her hair was red and glowed in the fire, her eyes a deep green. "You call us thieves, but at least a thief has to be brave and clever and quick. A kneeler only has to kneel." As she said her last sentence she looked into Sasuke's eyes. Then she rose, jumped into the trees with one leap, and was gone from all their eyes.
Two followed her with her eyes sadly and her squad followed her soon after they looked to Nine for permission.
Two moved to a bedroll that was laid out near the fire and fell asleep quickly. Nine and One, however, seemed to have no thoughts of falling asleep any time soon.
Kakashi sighed and moved to lie down. All his daydreaming didn't compare to the feeling of finally relieving his rear from its aching pain.
Everyone could hear a muffled sob, however, when he realized that they would be traveling again tomorrow.