Hello. There's swear words in this one :O..
Pseudonym: Copy-nin
Kumogakure: village hidden by the clouds, in the land of lightning.
Iwagakure: village hidden by the rocks, in the land of earth.
Kirigakure: village hidden by the mist, in the land of water
Sunagakure: village hidden in sand, in the land of wind.
And Konohagakure: village hidden by the leaves, in the land of fire.
The five great powers had ended the Third Great Ninja War. Tensions were ever-incessantly changing in post war conditions, and peace conference after peace conference were attended with differing levels of lacklustre. The creed of ninja was pride and glory — concessions token at worst and brutal at worser. Though, with the state of the world in an after-frenzy, the nations had managed a flimsy peace that was fast reaching a decade. Miraculously, it was Konoha and Sunagakure that had first begun to mend international relations, creating an exchange agreement for ninja of both nations and freeing the borders on an unprecedented level.
Namikaze Minato had sped back to Konoha carrying an affirmation for a secret alliance.
The specifics went like this: Konoha already had Suna in it's ranks. An alliance with Kumo would change the entire playing field, effectively alienating the farthest Iwa. Iwa could not afford to be blockaded by a double alliance on the part of Konoha, and with the former Bloody Mist separated by water and dubiously insistent with its isolationist policy, Iwa was marooned.
But this was not wartime. There was no formal declaration and no public admission of animosity. According to the books, all was sunny and well — Iwa could not openly oppose the alliance. And that was the least of their problems, all the ninja they sent had to curb doton techniques to retain secrecy. Whether it was on the orders of the kage, or the Iwa's own black ops institution, hordes of ninja were sent out with one, fairly-interpretable order:
The affirmation of the Konoha-Kumo alliance must not reach Konoha.
There were not enough ninja to spare; the world had to keep turning, the best of Iwa had to continue on missions and make sure the system remained supported. But for the few available — perhaps the rumours grew vapid, tuneless the way the end of a dream seemed weaker than the start, or the end of a myth sounded more and more cliche — people dared, once again, to go after the Yellow Flash.
And they did.
"Kushina," Minato said out loud, scribbling a note on his thigh as he leaned on a rock. Bodies littered the floor in droves and he'd stolen some ink and brush from someone's pouch. He let himself be chased the entire way back. It was important that he didn't kill. Every single ninja within his vicinity was after his blood, but he could not afford to leave corpses. The famed Yellow Flash, despite it all, did not have the stomach for it. And more importantly, many conspicuously dead Iwa nin would cause a very public incident. Since this was a secret mission, it would be totally unprofessional of him. He could tell: the Yellow Flash was all about professionalism.
They came to murder him; he couldn't murder them back.
"I hope the mission was successful, because I don't know. Uhh…I wasn't really allowed to look at the message I was sending…" he 'donked' his head back on the stone, cringing at the letter. "But I hope it was worth it, because the moment I stepped over the border, I've been a magnet for ninja everywhere." He full stopped and mashed his lips. Was he allowed to tell her that he knew it was Iwa nin? Minato huffed, he figured it wasn't safe or anything acceptable for the higher ups'. Though quite obviously, who the heck else could it be if not Iwa ninja?
"About a few separate groups have attacked me and I'm getting increasingly tired from having to be constantly on the move. I know your blood pressure is going to rise reading that last line, but at least it's halved the time for me to get home, right?"
He smiled at his own writing. "So you can expect me back a little early. I'll see you soon, Kushina." And he signed off: Love, Mina.
Eyes narrowing thoughtfully, Minato haunched over the slip of paper, fingers resting under his chin in deep concentration. He picked up the brush again, adding onto the end.
Love, Mina.
xoxo
Minato straightened up next to the unconscious bodies next to him, leaning forward to reread what he'd written. His nose scrunched, his lips pursed, and he touched his nose half a dozen times. Finally, he sighed loudly and turned his head to the man beside him. After a little while of staring, he shifted to untwist his arm. (The man's arm was unbearably languid. He was not going to do try that again.)
"Gah."
With a flick of his wrist, wind chakra ripped up the note into fine shreds. He picked up the ink and paper and tried again.
Red,
I'm fine. The mission is fine. And I finished early this time. Hey! That rhymes!
I'll be back to the village by the third sundown from the time you receive this note.
Love you,
Mina.
He was confident that that was what he was going to do. Cue to three sundowns later. Red had waited for Mina at the Konoha great gates for the entire night. He never came home.
"Let's stop and rest here," Kushina said after a long day of walking.
"What?"
"Oh you know," Kushina gestured to no one, "that thing where you stop and get some damned supper and sleep to function? Remember that, Kakashi? Sleep?"
"Why, yes," Kakashi flit a hand to the back of his head, brushing it through his hair, "Yes, of course." This was an overly open place to make camp, Kakashi thought. "I'll get us firewood."
"No need." Kushina ambled over to the nearest tree. With most of her chakra mouldable again, she placed a hand square over the trunk, and pushed until it cracked. Kakashi's eye widened. The entire tree curled over, wood dust flying into the air. "Done."
She looked up. "What did you bring?"
"Pardon?" Kakashi stammered.
"Food."
"Ah," he smiled, closing his eye. "About that. Actually, I—"
"You were planning to live on food pills, weren't you?"
Kakashi smiled harder, lump in his throat. He did not plan to disappoint Kushina this early.
A thud hit the floor, making Kakashi flinch out of nothing. Kushina struck a pose, putting her hands on her hips. "Well, you're in luck." She grinned, far too toothily. "You're stuck out here with me." Immediately, she went for her pouch, pulling out a scroll that made Kakashi wonder how the heck she had ever managed to fit it in that tiny thing. The scroll unravelled, and instead of weapons or ammunitions, when the smoke cleared from the trees, Kakashi was faced with an entire rack of cooking utensils. A large pot, actual chopsticks and bowls were placed neatly before them.
Kakashi blinked dumbly. He felt a bout of hunger washing over him. Even tomato soup and burnt rice sounded delicious to him now.
"Hot pot," Kushina winked.
He couldn't believe that he had dared think himself decent with his cooking. Not that he had ever tried to make anything fancy, but it wasn't as if he'd never hot-potted by himself. Kushina packed garden vegetables and spices. They went hunting for fish and stoats. He wondered how Minto-sensei fed himself on missions usually, even though he'd been on plenty of missions with him (they packed minute-food). Kakashi finished in record time, Kushina went for seconds, and also, the night was dark, the ground was green. Or, since this was the fire country, the night was indeed dark, the ground was covered in a thick, ninja-swallowing death forest that resulted in consistent and annual traveller deaths.
He fiddled with the pots and pans, trying not to look suspicious. Eyeing in all directions, he could see nowhere to run to, nowhere to hide. This camp site was far too open and airy. Why had Kushina chosen this spot? Kakashi supposed this way, there was little chance of being caught off guard. Usually, he was the one doing the hiding.
"Rest up now," Kushina said, piling all the things back with a poof back onto the scroll. "We'll keep going in this direction in the morning." Kushina flicked her long hair to the side and flopped down onto her makeshift futon.
"Aright," Kakashi answered. "I'll keep a lookout. Just in case."
Kushina sat right back up. "There's no need. Just go to bed. No exceptions."
Kakashi froze, caught.
"Sit."
"But I…it'll be safer if I just—"
"No, no, I wrote a seal on the edge of the camp site. If anyone with chakra enters, it'll detect it, you know."
Kakashi simpered. "But I…"
He made it worse. Her face fell, a strange sort of expression crossing it. Something panicky, before concern rolled over and she opened her mouth mirthlessly. Kushina fully got up, crossed the distance and bobbed down right before Kakashi. "What's the matter?" she asked, slow and resolute not a mocking fibre in her voice.
"What's what?" Kakashi quickly bit back and regretted immediately.
"What's up?" Kushina repeated.
"The moon?"
"Don't be coy."
"Nothing's up."
"Kakashi…you doubt my seals?"
"I dare not."
"You dare too."
"…Alright, you got me."
"No I didn't. Don't lie to me."
"No…really, Kushina-dono, it's not that."
"Then what?"
"I…" He shouldn't have said it, but this was Kushina-dono and he let himself slip. Kakashi sighed and shrugged. "I don't doubt your seals. Nothing with chakra can get past those seals. It's just that — I don't sleep so well. I thought I'll just keep a look out. Just for tonight," he said honestly. "There's only two of us so I should stay on alert. You should sleep, Kushina-dono."
He didn't know what was worse, having to tell her the truth, or watching the colour blanche from her face, even in this dim light. His stomach turned, embarrassment squirming in its place.
"Hey, Kakashi-kun, I haven't been out on this mission for that long. You've been out of the village for a month."
It was months with an 's' in actuality, but hell if he was going to correct her. Kushina had already dealt with too many of his problems.
"And I know. That's why you need to take this chance to, you know, actually get some rest?" Kushina huffed, sat down beside him and Kakashi shrank a little more inside. "Is it the dark? Hey, a heap of ninja can't stand the dark thanks to stress. Is it insomnia? If you're afraid of not being able to wake up, of course I'll—"
"It's this dream," Kakashi blurted out, if only to stop her.
Kushina nodded, listening intently. Kakashi was glad to have the mask covering his face right now.
"It's this dream I keep having. I close my eyes and it's always there. Someone's always reaching out for me — and no matter how hard I reach, I can't get to them in time. There's always another me, and theres always a bright light."
"Well…that's ominous," Kushina said, caressing her chin as if she had a beard. "Who is it?"
"Since I've heard that Minato sensei's gone, it's been him. It's also been Obito. But usually…" Kakashi stopped, his throat feeling wholly tight.
"Usually it's Rin," Kushina finished quietly.
Kakashi swallowed heavily, nodding.
Kushina nodded back, eyes narrowing in consternation and thought, a million racing words no doubt milling around her head. She'll say something that he'd smile and agree with, make a little joke with a cringey punchline and mime a hand to forehead, no matter what it was.
"The dreams, huh?" she started, propping a cheek up with her hand. "I'm not sure how to get rid of them. It's going to take awhile. But avoiding sleep is just going to make it worse when you do get rest," she sighed. "I'm not sure how to help either but…" Kushina pondered, squishing her face into her hand now, "Firstly, Minato is not dead, so you can stop jumping to the worst conclusions. We all do it, but — when I get to him I'm going to pound his head especially for making you go through this!"
Kakashi snapped back, faced downwards and blinked profusely.
"And the other thing. Kakashi, you were eleven during the war."
Kakashi looked up, frowning.
"Barely eleven, barely a double digit age, you know. Does that sound right to you?" Kushina said, voice straining through her teeth. "Eleven, and having to fight for your country." Suddenly, she looked away, scoffing to the skies and quickly swiped a hand over her face. "I know it's hard on you and you can't change what happened, but what you can change is how you think of it. And the truth is, we think we're right but they think they're right. In war like that, there isn't a right, and there isn't a wrong. There's nothing in war, that's why they can promote children to jonin level and send them off like fodder."
Her voice was soft but ragged, breathing quickening as anger came to the surface. But she pushed it down, anger that wasn't aimed at him and wouldn't ever be, anger that she held like smouldering cobalt melting ice and Kushina was angry for all the things that didn't occur to Kakashi that he should be angry at. "Do you think, today, that the authorities could pass a kid as a chunin? Let alone a jonin?" Kushina asked honestly, eyes going wide and satirical again.
"...No."
"Right? Send ninja who can't even order a drink on a mission?"
"…No, Kushina-dono."
"You're a genius, Kakashi," Kushina cooed, sighing.
And with every word she said, she was right. Maybe it was the survivor's guilt, or maybe it was just the mellowing out of a good, traumatic experience, not that Kakashi had particularly held himself responsible for all the misgivings of the world, but more like — there was always more for him to do. He was supposed to be a genius. He should have been faster, should have been stronger, should have figured it out sooner, hit harder, screamed louder…
All those 'should haves' turned into 'could haves.'
He could have done more for his comrades.
He could have saved Rin.
"You couldn't have done more for the past, Kakashi," Kushina answered, breaking him out of his lonesome thoughts again. "Being in that position was already asking the world of you. Your generation was asked too much."
It clicked in him, those words.
"Think about it, obsess over it, but just know that you've done more than enough."
He felt his vision go blurry suddenly, and it alarmed him. He didn't even have anything to say to that — what could he say to that? It felt absolutely terrible. It felt like there was a river in his heart, enclosed his chest, pumping white water around his veins and he could barely contain himself. Tears plick, plick, plicked into his lap, and he sniffed them discretely away. It was too simple a fact, and yet, he never glossed over it, buried it under the mountain of things he tried to forget but Kushina said it like it was — the truth was, they were children. It wasn't going to suddenly fix everything that he'd kept inside him to gather rust, but it was a start. Kakashi slapped his hands to his face, not even embarrassed enough to care about it anymore. Where he didn't care enough, Kushina always cared.
"Now, get some rest, you know?"
"N-no. One of us…still has to…"
Kushina turned up her nose at him, scoffing mildly. "Look, I'll stay up and keep a look out. Halfway through, I'll wake you and make you do the rest, ok?"
He wan't going to win this one. He wasn't going to win anything with Kushina around. "Thanks, Kushina-dono."
"Don't mention it."
She crawled away, sitting on the makeshift futon and cupping her hands on a cup of tea again. And then, after a still, quiet beat, "Do you have to sleep with that mask on? Is it not stuffy? We're literally in the wild."
Kakashi's eyes snapped open again. "The wild isn't going to stop me from accidentally swallowing a bug, Kushina-dono. In fact, it's the opposite."
"Tch."
The cold of the night made Kakashi's breaths feel crisp and new. An soft, pervasive smell of decaying acorns, wet bark and bundled-up leaves followed him as he went further into the dark. The campground was some way behind him and he hoped he'd left enough distance. He knew the dew-damp soil would leave footprints, but there was nothing he could do about that. If anything were to happen, let it happen now and he could be done with it and saunter off back to sleep. That was all that he asked for. Moonlight streamed through the canopy, cutting the light into thin beams that faded before it hit the ground. He thought there might have been a layer of mist at his feet, curling around his ankles as he walked and cracked every single dry leaf he could discern from the dark.
Crunch, crunch, squelch.
Honestly, he was just trying to make as much noise as he could without being an obvious nuisance. Kakashi couldn't see shit. How did he live seeing through one eye up until now? Kakashi sighed, tugging at the cloth over his covered eye self consciously. A sound that was not squelching and grass growing sounded somewhere. Kakashi immediately reacted, leaping to the brightest part of the wood in sight. He craned his neck, saying softly,
"Notice me, Senpai."
An unadulterated cough that sounded suspiciously like air getting sucked into nostrils blared from the dark, chunky and ragged. A man dropped down from whatever plane of existence he was hiding — the paranoid, the ugly or the introverted. There had to be some reason he didn't want to show his face, Kakashi thought.
"Listen here kiddo," he grunted, stopping about a safe eight metres before him, "I'm not your senpai." He stabbed a finger in his direction. "If you're going to play polite, you might as well address me as your Ojichan's Ojichan."
Ah, Kakashi sighed, nodding in an over-the-top dip, so I'm picking a fight with an old man. How comely.
"…But count me as interested. I've followed you like a hawk for days and — did you actually know I was there the whole time? I wonder why you chose to face me now." Kakuzu rolled back his shoulders, frowning. "It's because that woman found out, didn't she?"
Carefully, Kakashi rolled his sleeves back twice, facing the man fully. "So, I take that your after me. My bounty."
"Are there any other, Kakashis' of the Hidden Leaf Village?"
"Fine. You got me."
"Well. There goes my need to profile you the old fashioned way. It was probably preferable, but…"
Kakashi scoffed, rolling his one eye. "So do you want me to call you Ojichan's Ojichan, or do you want to take people of your ages' advice and nicely introduce yourself?"
The man straightened the finger that he had used to point — rude — and sneered with only pair of eyes uncovered by his navy mask. Not quite unlike Kakashi's, now that he thought of it. He didn't know how to think about that. Anyhow, his eyes: dark scleras, green irises. If he wasn't snooping aroung to assassinate him, surely, he was hiding himself for the ugly.
Tendrils burst from his finger. Quite literally burst from his finger from the stitches, jutting out sideways and squiggling like worms swimming through the air. Kakashi took it in with a wide, gaping eye. Of all the thins he had seen, there was no way to unsee this one. This, very admittedly, was disgusting. Right on cue, a slew of tendrils burst from his palms. Then from his wrist, his forearms, his elbow and all the way up to this shoulder. In a grand finish, holes began to open up on his neck, revealing those worm-like projections unfurling from beneath his skin. Kakashi swallowed, reaching for the kunai at his back.
"Greetings, then, kid," he said. The insignia carved into his forehead protector gleamed as he cocked his head without shifting his eyes. Light passed from one end of the gash to the other, a line crossing out his former allegiance. "It's Kakuzu-sama. Formerly of the Hidden Waterfall Village. And when I say formerly," he said, narrowing his eyes into a slant smile. "I mean, not long after the damned flooded place was first founded."
He charged.
Kakuzu flung up his arms, Kakashi parrying them a moment later. The impact shot him backwards, feet digging into the undergrowth as Kakuzu's weight bore down on him. In a sweeping motion, Kakashi hooked around one foot, trying to put off his balance. Kakuzu didn't budge. "Kids these days," he muttered.
Kakashi immediately kicked both feet off the ground with both his arms still backing Kakuzu's, and launched a kick to his solar plexus. Kakuzu let go, but didn't try awfully hard to defend.
"Everybody has to be a goddamned legend these days," he grouched, lifting his head.
Kakashi rounded the thickest part of the wood, appearing on the other end and showering the grounds with a barrage of shuriken.
"Not least snot-nosed adolescents." Kakuzu reached out an arm. Tendrils wrapped around Kakashi's, slapping the weapons to the floor in three great whacks. He finished, drawing the tendrils back before flinching around. Kakashi appeared from the side, throwing a shuriken at extremely close quarters. Kakuzu arched around lightning fast to catch it, leaving him open on the other side. With one deft swipe, Kakashi stabbed a kunai square into his neck. "Hngh—" Kakuzu grunted.
"I'd much rather be snot-nosed than worm infested," Kakashi put mildly. He pulled a shuriken from the floor, eyeing Kakuzu with cold indifference. "Remember my name. Copy. Nin. Kakashi."
He waited for the burly man to double over.
Don't be daft. It's far from over.
"What?"
The burly man did not double over. Instead, his head rolled back against the skies, his mask stretched tight and he began to howl with laughter. Kakashi took a step back, resurveying what the heck had happened. No jutsu that could keep you alive after a stab in the neck came to mind.
Look out.
Tendrils poured from Kakuzu, coiling and writhing and rolling towards Kakashi. He jolted back, but the tendrils caught his legs and began crawling up his body. All he managed to do was chuck the shuriken he was holding. Kakuzu leaned his head to the side, letting it pass unobstructed past his shoulder. A leaf brushed his face. Kakuzu laughed in the peculiar way of a man drowning. Kakashi stiffened as his voice died down.
"Imagine my disappointment. I run around this wretched country looking for the wretched Yellow Flash and when I caught wind of the wretched Copy-nin instead, I counted it as my luck! Hah!" Kakuzu spat, reeling Kakashi in. He twisted and turned, struggling to get free as the coils looped all around.
"Little did I know, the famed Copy-nin is something like a blind runt. Fucks' sake." Kakauzu spat at the root of the tree. Kakashi stopped struggling to wince in a face of disgust. "Suppose it doesn't matter whether you're a disappointment or not. Your head is still worth a bit. Heh," he added snidely. "And I hate religion."
"You know what I hate?" Kakashi suddenly piped up.
"I don't give a crap."
"I hate unsolicited explosions. Yet here we are." Kakashi covered his face as best he could with one arm.
"—You," Kakuzu swivelled around, frantic. The shuriken he let sail over his shoulder was tied to a leaf. On the leaf, were the seals of a paper bomb. "I hate smart f—"
Fire erupted in the middle of the jungle-like woodlands. Kakuzu retracted all the tendrils, getting blown backwards into the bushes. Kakashi laid on the floor, waiting for the fire to go out. Within a minute or so, the burning simmered down by itself and disappeared, leaving only a waft of smoke. Jutsu fire never did that (not unless they were highly skilled or Uchiha), only sealed fire did.
Kakashi coughed, picking himself up and immediately touching his mask; god, how did he keep it up all the time? He assessed the damage. Apart from black soot and black night, it didn't really matter right now. He headed in the direction of Kakuzu, rubbing his wrists. He hoped he didn't wake up the campsite behind him.
Kakuzu shook his head, turing to get his bearings when a foot stood upon his fingers, audibly cracking them, and sinking them into the ground. "Arnngh!" He looked up. "Don't get cocky, Copy-nin."
"…The last time I was cocky, I left a ground full of broken bodies behind," he stated coldly, and Kakuzu balked. It was his voice, maybe, or the way his eye stared down into his — as if he was only half-there, fractured, and void of anything. "What do you are doing in the woods?" he squinted.
"Did…we not just go through this part of our relationship?" Kakuzu growled, clenching his hand beneath his feet and letting the tendrils burst forth. The runt flinched, reflexively lifting the foot to jerk back. Copy-Nin disappeared the next second, reappearing at his side. Kakuzu got to his feet. Both hands burst apart, stitches unfurling as the tendrils pecked and moved his skin and muscles asunder. They writhed out in the open like tentacles, licking and flickering away.
The Copy-nin's face broke out in unadulterated surprise, whitening a degree more. Slowly, it went blank again.
"That's disgusting," he said, deadpan.
"That's innovation," Kakuzu replied, and then frowned. "Hmph. At least before, you kept that thought to yourself."
"I what?" he piped up, frowning.
"Just die, Konoha. I — I mean...get unconscious, Konoha." And with that, Kakuzu charged forward, both elongated arms thrown at him. Kakashi reacted immediately, ducking under the reach of his too-long arms and unsheathing his short sword on his back. Dancing around from where the tendrils burst a moment too late to attack him, he slashed into his arms before pouncing to slice into his body.
Kakuzu yelled, irritated, retracing his tendrils as fast as he could. Without hesitation, without him having to look away at his final target, Kakashi severed Kakuzu's left arm clean off, and sped towards his chest. Kakuzu parried the attack with his right arm, deadlocking them. "Ow," he whispered through his teeth. "You got faster, Copy-nin. Didn't put you as the type to play around before getting serious."
"I'm not," Copy-nin stated. He heaved, sweeping his legs and hooking one under his own to make him loose balance. Kakuzu scoffed in amusement. It didn't work before, why in fucks' sake would it—
"GH—"
Kakashi stabbed his short sword into his remaining arm, wedging a fist underneath his shoulder and, using the centrifugal force of the movement, wrangled the larger man to the floor. This couldn't be possible. The Copy-nin was hiding this much of what he could do? What was the point? Kakuzu pulled himself up, coming at him again. "Fine! To have to use power against a runt is a surprise. But I've had enough of this night."
Copy-nin squinted. "You literally used one move on me."
Kakuzu faltered. He peered up from where chakra was collecting in his hand. "You're…not Copy-nin."
The ninja blinked. "So you are after my bounty. I see."
"You're not the — who the hell are you!" Kakuzu exclaimed loudly.
Not-Copy-nin sighed long and hard without feeling, without tiredness; just sighed as harsh as a sigh could go. Kakuzu gritted his teeth.
"I am Hatake Kakashi, pseudonym: Konoha's Copy-Nin."
Then he pulled up his forehead protector. Well fuck me sideways, I'm getting deja'vu. In that little runt socket, was the irrevocable, indisputable sharingan eye. The war spoil that had undoubtedly got him onto his list of bounties, famed across the great villages and even beyond. He wondered which was more of the legend: the eye, or the boy. Regardless, with a kekkei genkai as rare as that — to be able to flawlessly duplicate a jutsu at will…Kakuzu was ready to bathe in his gold-carved bathtub in his idyllic country house over the mountains. Spend all his money, then go back to collecting his bounties. He squirmed, narrowing his eyes at his prize as he paced around, sizing him up. Definitely underestimating him, the kiddo. But his papers were clear: attack gently for fear of damaging the goods. Not matter what, it was not as if he was going to use his five elements on a runt veteran. But the Copy-nin had sliced off his left arm perfectly fine without the use of that sharingan.
"Whatever you want, you settle with me," the Copy-nin stated, a fact.
Kakuzu smirked from under the mask. "With pleasure."
At once, Kakuzu sped right up to Copy-nin, whacking him square behind the head and ruining his balance. Copy-nin moved, shaking his head and watching him with that beady eye as he struggled not to get KO-ed in one shot. Maybe he did get faster. Maybe he really was a supposed genius. But a runt was still and runt; the second Kakuzu felt like he wanted to end it and go home for drinks, Copy-nin's future only went so far.
Copy-nin jumped, evading his mesh of tendrils before they split apart from the bundle, attacking him individually. Quick successions of slashes glinted in the moonlight, smell of black blood spilling in the air and wafting in his senses. Kakuzu pierced the runt in multiple places and all the runt did was spasm and wince. Not even one call out in pain.
Konoha teens were fucking savage.
He banked left, evading whatever the hell wind-cutter just Copy-nin sent through the air, slicing the line of trees beside him into perfect hedges. Copy-nin grimaced, slapping his hands to the floor and Kakuzu lowered his centre of gravity, narrowly predicting where the dirt upheaved and earthen fangs jut into air to stab him. It should have been a foolproof combo, the kid was proficient and Kakuzu had to give him that. Or at least, that jutsu stealing eye of his. Wind style wasn't Copy-nin's strong point, and he was already panting after use of it. Fire with the leaf-bomb (leaf-bomb? Heh), wind style, earth style, so logically speaking, he should go for—
Copy-nin turned and swivelled, sparks collecting at his fingertips as he lunged forward and spilled a trail of it behind him. He threw back his hand, training his elbow back as far as he could to catch momentum. Kakuzu braced. Copy-nin thrust forward before his hand ignited in electricity, knowing that it would burst alight not a moment too late. "Chidori!"
Kakuzu put on a smile. With one deft grip, he caught the chidori in a fist. Copy-nin faltered. Kakuzu squeezed, annulling the lightning chakra as easily as putting out a candle flame. It really should have been a foolproof combo: no water anywhere for a kilometre, he could use fire, wind, earth — there was no ninja that would have expected lightning too. Too bad he was Kakuzu, master of the elements and man of five faces. Four stitched upon his back and one yours truely on his head. Kakuzu flung Copy-nin to the side, smashing him into tree roots.
"Kuh—" he finally chocked out, huffing.
"You were a fun one in the end, eh?" Kakuzu simpered, lifting Copy-nin by his arm and launching him into another tree. "Didn't expect you to have that much fight in you. I actually had to take this a bit seriously. It's admirable."
"Hngh!" Copy-nin kicked up, crossing over to his arms and sending more shuriken in his direction. Kakuzu battered them away before Copy-nin leapt to close the distance again.
"No more," Kakuzu stated easily. The tendrils burst forth, stopping Copy-nin's decent and tangling around his neck. Copy-nin stiffled, legs dangling in the air as he dropped whatever weapon he was holding to grab at the tendrils. Kakuzu smiled, cooing.
"Nothing personal, Copy-nin. I'm not someone so lame as to indulge my spare time hunting adolscent veterans. But you should know best. Duty calls."
"Du-" Choking, the Copy-nin sucked in air, motioning a hand at him, desperate to make a sound. "Du...ty?!"
"What?" Kakuzu piped up. Slowly, the tendrils receded a little, dragging the Copy-nin in as he neared the floor. Kakuzu stopped just enough for his toes to scrape the ground.
"Y-you.." he struggled, "you're self — self-employed."
"You fucking smartass."
Tendrils beat out from his arm again, drilling Copy-nin into the floor, into oblivion, into the trees and darkness and bad smell of ripped tendrils. So far that Kakuzu squinted into the distance, sighing at his mistake.
"If you fucking die — I swear to your Shodaime Hokage…" he gritted, advancing towards where he'd chucked him.
Notes.
Sorry it's been a while...sigh. I was never satisfied with this chapter so. More lame jokes? Fake political intrigue? I also spent forever with the villain but then in the end I decided that using an existing villain was the way to go. So I guess kakashi had a run in with not-Akasuki-yet Kakuzu ahahahahaha. I didn't want to spend so much time on Kakuzu set up lol but I thought it would be extra funny if everyone imagines that he'd recently killed off his partner. Like...very recently. Both of them had started tailing Kakashi, Kakuzu and him kept bickering until he thought that they couldn't keep the both of them on the down low. So he killed the guy. Straight up. And then went on tailing Kakashi perhaps a little regrettably, because that was his ninth partner, and dang him it wasn't his fault none of his partners could stay alive long enough! Um, I hope it's not too convoluted to get that there's something up between funny Kakashi and dry Kakashi...XD
Thanks, Jleath1234, coral light, Prescripto13, and Tabjoy13
Also, Tabjoy13 bought up a great point: Kakashi developed chidori because he was trying to mimic the rasengan, resulting in his signiture move. So I guess this is canon-compliant except a few points which hopefully you can overlook. Ahaha! Your're right though, what a prick. I have trouble trying to make Kakashi Cool And Smart, but not Overly Pretentious and Impossible on the other hand ._."
Actually, coral light said that when Kakashi was 14, Minato was already Hokage and he's not in this yet...so...I guess theres quite a few divergences lol