Update no jutsu! Enjoy! -Beta-ed by ShipperTrish!
Chapter 8:Angel.
Dragging his feet heavily through the water, Naruto slowly made his way back over to where Sai was standing in front of the large aerial map of Konoha.
"So what are we going to do about that then?" Naruto asked in a low even tone, gesturing at the waterlogged map, the ink on the bingo book pages starting to run in pink blotches down the wall.
"We'll have to destroy it, obviously." Sai replied.
"How did they get hold of all this information?"
"I don't know. I'll write down what I can from the map. You need to look for more files. They'll have more on their plans for Konoha."
Sai took a scroll from his weapon's pouch and unravelled it along the length of one of the drier tables and set to work scribbling down in his neat calligraphic writing what information was still legible from the damp collaged wall.
Naruto grumbled unhappily to himself, once again summoning a small troop of clones who all grumbled in the same solemn tone. They set about righting the collapsed bookshelves and pulling files and folders from the cold murky liquid. Much of the contents of the binders were unsalvageable with the water and black ink having stained the pages, causing them to clump stodgily together so that many of the more promising articles had started to disintegrate into an ugly gray pulp.
Minutes passed by, but it seemed like hours to Naruto who couldn't remember the last time he'd read a book without pictures. Numbers, graphs, facts and figures...It was all just pointless jargon. Why couldn't he just find a nice, brightly coloured folder with the words "Evil Master Plan to Wipe Out Konoha" on the front? Yes, that would have been perfect, but no...
The Narutos scoured every corner of the library to find nothing but ambiguously labelled ring binders, obscurely ordered scrolls, and barely interesting textbooks.
Dispelling the clones in a small puff of smoke, Naruto sloshed back over to Sai who was still scribbling ferociously away on his scroll. Naruto stopped to pick up the small green folder that he had in his hands before they were attacked.
"Ahem!" Naruto coughed into his other hand loudly directly behind Sai.
When the stoic ANBU operative did nothing to acknowledge his presence, Naruto tried again, louder.
"A-He-Hem!"
"What is it, Naruto?"
"I can't find anything."
"Try again."
"Sai, there is nothing here but pointless facts and figures."
"Facts and figures are important. Look again."
A mischievous grin tugged at the corners of Naruto's mouth. Raising the green folder high above his head, he brought it sweeping down towards Sai's head only to have his pale skinned teammate whirl around and block it with his arm at the last moment, his expression blank, but his stance guarded. Naruto's grin dissolved into obvious disappointment, pinching his brows together and sticking out his bottom lip in a childish pout.
"I'm not your lackey. You can't just treat me like your personal secretary! I don't even know what I'm supposed to be looking for! Why don't you let me draw the pretty pictures in the corner while you get prune fingers trying to look through all these soggy books?…Why are you staring at me like that?! Oi, quit it!!!" Naruto seethed through clenched teeth.
Sai's eyes widened slightly in what his limited range of expressions could only be described as a mammoth display of shock, excitement, and complete amazement. He dropped the arm protecting his face from Naruto's outburst and his gaze focused on the small, white label wrapped across the spine of the green folder. The words "Financial Record 1: Armaments" gazed neatly up at him in familiar red marker.
"Naruto, you found something." Sai murmured in clear disbelief.
"Don't give me th…I…I did?"
Sai nodded thoughtfully, snatching the folder out of Naruto's grasp and began thumbing through the contents.
"Where did you find this?"
"It was over there when we came in."
"Can you find 'Financial Record 2' or anything with writing on the spine?"
""Err…okay…but where's Efseekon? I've never even heard of it."
"Fire Country, Konoha." Sai said, his voice flat and unamused.
"Ahhhh!" Naruto replied, turning back towards the sagging shelving as Sai immediately started scrawling down notes from the folder onto his scroll.
It was at that moment that the shrill scream of an alarm pierced through the relative silence of the library.
Jerking their heads up in shock, the two ninjas looked at each other in deep concern.
"Shit! They've found us!" Naruto shouted over the din. "We've got to go now!"
"It's not us they've found." Sai replied calmly. "We have to get those other files."
"What are you talking about, you idiot? If we get captured, this will all have been for nothing!"
"We won't get another chance to retrieve them if we leave now. This is our mission." Sai retorted, his expression stony and determined. Making a series of fast hand seals, the scribbled writing on his scroll bucked and contorted, slipping quickly into the familiar form of several large rats. Haunches quivering in excitement, they scampered off the page and slipped down back into the water, swimming swiftly to the doorway and disappearing from sight back the way they had come. "Kakashi will get the information no matter what. We'll meet back up with them outside when we've found the other files."
Any objections died on Naruto's tongue and he nodded once in grim understanding.
Sai was right. This opportunity could be invaluable to Konoha's safety.
Sai, as an ex-ANBU, was no stranger to doing anything and everything in the name of completing a mission successfully and Naruto, being Naruto, was hardly going to bound up the stairs and leave the artist to his own devices.
Rolling up his sleeves, Naruto once again plunged his hands back into the cold water.
Trying their best to ignore the whirring scream of the alarm, they continued wadding through the sodden contents of Naruto's previously discarded pile of paperwork.
Holding up another file in glee, this time titled "Financial Record 4," Naruto shot Sai his best victory grin.
It was then that they heard - no, felt - the first deep rumble of an explosion.
Kakashi had been so preoccupied by the sheer amount of weaponry and other miscellaneous equipment, that he hadn't noticed the door open behind him. He would later run these events over and over in his head asking himself the same unanswerable questions:
Why didn't he sense something?
Why had he been so careless?
But then again, the threat had approached like a fog, a barely noticeable clouding of vision and before you know it, you're staring at impenetrable white, barely able to see your hand in front of your face.
When the girl watching him open-mouthed from the doorway finally unmasked her chakra, it had felt like he had been plunged into a bath of lava. The hairs on his arms and on the back of his neck shot up as the strange prickling feeling washed over his nervous system and automatically pulled him into a defensive pose even before he had properly registered that he wasn't alone.
Sheer power and fury emanated off her in thick waves that made him both excited and physically nauseous.
He slowly turned to face her, looping a kunai expertly out of his weapons pouch with his index finger and drawing the little steel weapon up in front of his chest as he readied for an attack.
The attack didn't come.
Smiling broadly, she entered into the room closing the door behind her.
He recognized her as one of the girls who he'd seen through the grating, the one who had been playing the instrument. She was just as beautiful as the others: long hair, pale skin, lithe elegant body.
As she steadily approached him, Kakashi fought the instinct to back away, but kept his wide fighting stance and stood his ground, the muscles in his body coiling almost painfully in anticipation.
"Hello, little lamb," she cooed in a sweet, light voice. "Are you a lost little lamb?"
"Yes, actually. I was attending a festival for the summer solstice and was just looking for the bathroom. You couldn't point me in the right direction, could you?" he replied smoothly.
The girl threw back her head and laughed in a shrill singsong voice as she played with her hair. "Oh, you're funny!"
"Thank you." Kakashi deadpanned as they began to slowly circle each other, neither closing the distance between the other nor expanding it. "And you are?"
"Arashi."
"Pleasure to meet you, Arashi. I suppose I should introduce myself. I'm-"
"Copy Nin Kakashi. I know who you are."
Kakashi's dark eye narrowed as the girl continued.
"You're quite famous, you know? I used to have your bingo book page up on my bedroom wall as a little girl. Well, it wasn't really a bedroom, more like a cell...I used to kiss your picture every night before I went to bed. I've always had a thing for mysterious men you see." She smiled again, batting her eyelashes for effect as she traced her fingers along the wooden shelving. "And now I have the chance to nail the real thing to my bedroom wall. You can imagine how excited that makes me," she purred, running one well manicured hand down her thigh provocatively as the other snatched up a kunai from one of the dusty pigeonholes.
Despite his obvious predicament, Kakashi couldn't help the smirk that pulled at the corners of his mouth from beneath his mask. This was an exact re-enactment of chapter twelve of Icha Icha Violence, except that he very much doubted that this would have the same outcome. No happy endings here…
Chuckling lightly he replied, "Nailed to an attractive girl's bedroom wall. That might well be the best offer I've had in a long time, but I'll have to decline."
"Shame." she stated, an almost wistful expression settling over her pretty, pouting features. "I guess we have to do this the hard way then."
Lunging forward, she brought the kunai sweeping up in a wide arc.
The blade hissed past Kakashi's ear as he stepped nimbly out of the way. Ducking low to avoid a sweeping kick, he brought his kunai up sharply, embedding it deeply into the girl's abdomen. The low sucking noise that followed indicated that he had hit a clone and he flipped back away from the replacement as it vanished into a cloud of dark gray smoke which seemed to be rapidly filling the room.
It was an impressive diversion, Kakashi thought to himself, falling back into a defensive pose. Visibility had been practically wiped out, but if he couldn't see, then she couldn't see. Stopping to listen carefully, he waited until the quiet sound of her breathing filtered through the haze. He couldn't hear her move it seemed. The girl was like a ghost, but she wasn't a ghost because she was definitely breathing, somewhere…
Whirling around, he sent a heavy punch into the area behind him and grinned in satisfaction as he felt his fist connect with flesh, followed by a heavy grunt as the wind was knocked forcibly out of his attacker.
Her body flew backwards, landing with a splintering crash as her body slammed into the shelving, sending vials of liquid and glass jars smashing all over the floor.
The smell of gasoline filled the air and soon the acrid liquid was pooling at his feet. This was starting to get messy and too noisy.
Taking the opportunity to gain the upper hand, Kakashi removed his hitai-ate, the now exposed Sharingan spinning as it adjusted to the light. He had to end this quickly before more of them arrived, before he or Sakura or Naruto and Sai were discovered. Had it been long enough? Did they have what they needed?
The sound of glass crunching underfoot refocused his attention. His eyes darted left and right, searching the dark and smoky room before picking up her chakra signature, which wasn't hard since his body was still trying to adjust to the aura she was giving off.
There! He could see her now. Diving forward without hesitation, he fisted her hair in his hand and pulled her viciously back towards him, slamming her face first onto the cold concrete floor. Pushing his knee into the small of her back to keep her steady, he pulled her head back sharply by her hair. He ignored her mewling and pleading and with lightning speed, his kunai sliced cleanly and effortlessly across her throat.
As the dark red liquid spread across the floor, mixing in an oily consistency with the gasoline, the dark smoke started to lift.
Sitting back on his ankles, Kakashi released a sigh of relief and pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to work the sting out of his eyes. It seemed like using the Sharingan at all these days was causing him problems, the tension fanning out across his temples in a rhythmic hum. Then, he started to hear clapping followed by girlish giggling. Springing up to attention, he looked around in desperate confusion.
The now clear room was empty. There was no one but him and the body.
"You hurt me. You cut my pretty little neck…"
Staring down, Kakashi watched in horror as the girl's lips began to move up and down. Each word caused blood to gurgle and spray from her mouth and open throat, yet her voice remained unaffected. Closing his eyes, he bought his hands together in the appropriate seal.
"Kai!"
Opening his eyes again she was still there, smiling up at him with big doe eyes.
"You can't get rid of me like that."
"You're a genjutsu user." he stated blandly. "I have to say, you're really good. Even my Sharingan didn't pick it up."
"It would have if I hadn't been using this smoke as an extra component. The smoke is very real, perfect camouflage and laced with just enough of a hallucinogen based drug to make you readily accept what you are seeing. It was enough to trick your eyes. You don't think I'd be silly enough to use just genjutsu against the famous Copy Nin?"
"Very clever, and here I was thinking you were a bit slow."
Tightening his grasp on his kunai, he drove the blade down into his thigh. Pain exploded hot and fast like a sunburst through his leg. Grunting with excruciation and gritting his teeth hard against the pain, Kakashi pulled the kunai out and quickly pressed his palm down onto the heavily bleeding area.
The image of the body on the floor began to flicker and jump before disappearing completely and then suddenly he was being pushed to the floor, tackled roughly from behind, Arashi's sharp nails tearing into the back of his neck and shoulders as he struggled to knock her off. He could feel the back of his shirt and jacket getting wet as blood ran out of the open wounds she was gouging into his skin, the pain lancing up and down his body as he wrestled to get a hold of her.
Finally, he slammed backwards, knocking her once more against the wall. Her grip loosened enough for him to scramble out from under her. Backing away slowly, he once more took a defensive stance and swore bitterly as he felt the skin on the back of his neck concertina painfully. Forming hand seals at a brilliantly fast pace, the room was soon full of the sound of a thousand birds as Kakashi built the lightening blue Chidori on his open palm.
Arashi let terror flicker across her sunshine expression briefly and stood, moving slowly to the door.
Kakashi set into motion, moving across the length of the room in the blink of an eye. He couldn't let her get away, but then he saw her intention and by then it was too late.
She punched the large red button beside the door frame and immediately the sharp whirring of a siren ripped through the room.
Kakashi pushed the hot crackling Chidori out in front of him. This time he felt the contact, felt the electricity cut into her chest cavity.
In the time it took for the clinical overhead lighting to flicker off and be automatically replaced by orange floodlights, Arashi's eyes were already dead. Her face was blank and emotionless, only the remnants of a smile lending any character to her silence.
And then, Kakashi noticed many things at the same time:
The pool of gasoline spreading around his feet.
The upturned wooden barrels, cracked and broken from the fight.
Dark sand spilling across the concrete.
The low hissing noise emanating from the girl's clenched fist.
His eyes widened in disbelief as her death grip loosened and five sparking notes of paper drifted slowly to the floor, and suddenly he understood her smile.
Walking back towards the bathroom, the first bout of nausea hit her, a crippling cramp screwing tightly in her chest and abdomen. It knocked her almost off her feet. Bent double and trying desperately to hold back the loud cries that threatened to erupt from her, she staggered painfully back into the bathroom. Clutching the basin so hard that her knuckles turned white, she took long, ragged breaths to calm herself. The smoky reflection of Manami in the mirror looked back at her with the same agonized expression. When the next wave of pain shot through her body, she bit her lip so hard that a small trail of blood dribbled down her chin, splashing in a small red crown into the porcelain basin. Looking up into Manami's watering eyes, Sakura could swear they were slowly shifting from brilliant cobalt to a deep shade of marbled jade.
And then there was the siren followed by muffled shouts of outrage.
It was happening too fast and Sakura, her senses blistering with pain, stood shock still, staring at the door knowing that she needed to run, needed to get out of there as quickly as possible, but then there was the pain coursing through her system, her body trying to reclaim its rightful appearance and she found she couldn't move a muscle, as if her feet were joined to the linoleum.
The door swung open and Kawa stood barking orders at her, his voice barely carrying over the screeching alarm, motioning frantically at the now dark corridor, but she couldn't move.
He shouted loudly to be heard above the alarm. The phrase "We are under attack!" drifted past her ears, but still she remained rooted to the spot, dimly aware that she was in trouble.
Storming in, Kawa grabbed her roughly by the arm, his grip tight enough that Sakura knew it would leave bruises.
She tugged back instinctively, trying to distance herself from the enemy as yet another wave of pain jack hammered its way up her spine, causing her vision to swim and distort. She was briefly aware of his change of expression on his pinched face, from annoyance to disbelief and then anger and suddenly she was being lifted off her feet, her back slamming against the tiling on the wall as he held her by her throat.
"WHO ARE YOU?!" he screamed in her face, his grip tightening substantially around her neck, causing the lack of oxygen to make her vision swim further. He ran his free hand through her hair roughly, the dark glossy locks coming away easily in clumps, leaving Sakura's pink hair to hang limply around her face.
"I SAID WHO ARE YOU?!" he demanded, jarring her painfully against the wall again.
The knock spurred her into action, her limbs flailing suddenly and violently against his chest, her nails raking over his pale skin, but he stood there like a brick wall, strong and completely unmovable. Out of pure instinct for survival, Sakura drew her fist back, summoning chakra into her fingers and brought her fist sailing into his face, but there was no chakra, just the sickening crack of her fingers breaking against his face, but she didn't feel it. She was already in too much pain to notice. The adrenalin was kicking in, her heart was pounding in her ears.
But her punch had the desired effect.
Kawa dropped her to clutch at his bleeding nose, bellowing and swearing.
Sakura was off, scrambling across the linoleum floor towards the door, hoping that her teammates were safe, praying she could get out and regroup.
Then, the first massive explosion rocked the room, sending her stumbling to her knees. A sharp tug and tear told her Kawa had caught her again, but she barely had the time to register that fact. Her delicate silk kimono protested further as the floor sped backward and Kawa's fist knotted once again, but more securely into her hair.
The cold bite of a kunai sunk in against her throat and Sakura knew in that instant that everything had gone terribly wrong. She was going to die, her team was probably going to die.
Desperate frustration racked through her. She was not a weak little girl anymore. She was a talented ninja. She knew on a normal day she could probably beat this irritating bookish arsehole six feet under. She was the strongest person next to Tsunade. She knew! But of course today was not a normal day. She was stuck in a foreign body with a vast amount of useless chakra with a kunai held against her throat and in a minute her blood would be spread across the floor and seep into the cracks, leaving a permanent sticky stain that would take a lifetime to scrub clean. At least she could take satisfaction from that. She pictured her headstone:
Sakura the unmovable stain/Died in service to her country/She hit people/A lot
A strangled chuckle escaped her lips and she was surprised at how bitter it sounded. There was still so much to do, still so much she wanted to do.
The pressure on her scalp released and a terrified screaming filled her ears. It felt like it should've been her screaming, but she couldn't tell. She couldn't really tell much of anything right now.
When a bright, crackling light illuminated the room around her, she knew her life had ended. She let the warmth of it spread across her skin and let out a peaceful sigh. Warm secure arms embraced her, lifting her further away from the cold floor and she instinctively snuggled closer. This was followed by the exhilarating sensation of moving at a high speed.
"Sakura? Sakura! Can you hear me?" The voice was so low, rumbling as if all around her.
Somewhere in the distance, she was still aware of the keening. She smiled and nodded once against the warm, hard surface she was cradled against.
"Sakura? Do you know where you are? Do you know who I am?" the voice sounded desperate and a little out of breath.
"An angel." she murmured sleepily.
Did that sound like a scoff?
"Angel? Sakura, open your eyes!"
She didn't want to. She felt so warm and safe. Wouldn't they let you sleep forever in heaven? Slowly, she turned her face up and forced her eyes open.
No, not an angel. Kakashi.
She wasn't dead? With new found alertness, she looked wildly around. They were running down the dark corridors, which were only illuminated by the sweeping arches of orange emergency lighting. Kakashi's pace seemed barely hindered by the burden in his arms as he expertly retraced their steps, running as fast as his legs could possibly take him back towards the entrance, back towards safety. And then, Sakura was suddenly too aware. Her kimono was torn and gaping open, her body almost totally exposed in the lacy twin set. Thankfully, Kakashi didn't seem interested, his gaze locked ahead. If that was because he was trying to protect her modesty rather than get them both out of there alive, Sakura wasn't sure. She might have even congratulated him on being such a gentlemen, but really, this was Kakashi.
"Sakura, put your arms around my neck and hang on. I need both my hands."
She would have argued, but the tone in his voice was urgent. An order. It occurred to her through the confusion that they were in real trouble. Shifting her weight around, she obediently wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. Then, the second explosion hit. The sound was deafening. She felt the corridor around them shift and buckle and looked over Kakashi's shoulder in surprise.
The door was just ahead of them.
Kakashi reached his arms forward, channelling chakra into his hands, ready to push the door out of their way, but all Sakura could see was the wall of tumbling black hurtling towards them, deep waves of rolling red bearing down on them.
All the oxygen seemed to have been sucked from the tiny corridor as the blistering heat hit her. Hiding her head back against Kakashi's chest, Sakura started screaming his name, and then the cold hit her back as the doors were flung open and with a large sucking pop, they were hurtled forward.
The sounds that followed were monstrous as if the earth was tearing itself apart.
When the dark tumbling curtain fell across her falling body, the world went black and still.