"You're here to observe me?" Kakashi repeated dryly, seeming to grip his kunai with even more force, if that was possible. His knuckles were about as white as snow.
"I don't believe I stuttered," Kenshin stated plainly, turning his attention away from the silver-haired Jounin.
Kakashi's eyes narrowed again, his gaze shifting from Kenshin to the Genin surrounding Hiroto, "So once again, you intend to go after a group of kids? How does that help you observe me?"
"It shouldn't be your concern yet," Kenshin stated before he hoisted his sword back up into an attacking position and zoomed towards the squad. Kakashi's visible eye widened and he began to move when he saw Sasuke dash to the front of the formation:
"Fireball Jutsu!" He cried out, sending a large wave of fire towards the oncoming swordsman. To his utter shock, the man sliced right through the flames with his sword.
In shock, but not caught off guard, Sasuke whipped out a kunai, meeting Kenshin's blade and feeling hard pain vibrate through his arm. He cried out in pain, gnashing his teeth together and quickly pulling away from the man.
"Sasuke!" Naruto called out worriedly, running over to his friend. His eyes immediately locked onto Kenshin with a spiteful glare, "I don't know WHAT you want with us, pal, but you're gonna pay for hurting Sasuke!"
"Wait, Naruto!" Sasuke called out, still clutching onto his throbbing arm, "This guy… He's fused chakra into his sword. It's much more powerful than a normal one; be careful!"
"Chakra?" Naruto questioned, still glaring at the samurai, "Huh. Well that doesn't matter to me! Shadow Clone Jutsu!" One clone appeared beside Naruto and they both started to form the Rasengan, "Rasengan!!" Naruto shot forward at Kenshin with the swirling blue orb in his hand.
The swordsman was actually slightly impressed that he knew such an advanced-looking technique, but pivoted to the side effortlessly to avoid being hit with it, "Your ignorance of the world around you will kill you, boy," He spat, prepping to launch an attack at Naruto again.
"Damn it!" Kakashi swore, crashing into Naruto and forcing both of them to the ground a second before Kenshin's sword slammed onto the ground and caused rocks to fly.
"Sensei," Naruto grunted as he tried to get up under Kakashi's weight. The Jounin quickly rose to his feet.
"Are you alright, Naruto?" His gaze was fixated on Kenshin.
"Yeah, I'm fine," The blond responded, getting up and staring at their opponent nastily, "Jeez… Even when I launched the Rasengan at him, he just side-stepped it like it was nothing!!"
Kenshin grimaced, "I was told about your affection for your students, but you seem to be taking their safety into higher consideration than your own."
"You were told??" Kakashi said.
"Once again, you fail to understand that I will not tell you anything. Surely you have enough sense to believe me in that."
Suddenly, the sound of a thousand chirping birds echoed throughout the air, and Kenshin whipped around to see Sasuke holding a tingling ball of electricity in his hands. He shot forward with vicious intent:
"Chidori!!"
Kenshin pivoted around once again to avoid the wild attack, but this time couldn't get away without a chunk of his side starting to leak blood from the sharpness of the lightning. He cursed heatedly.
Sasuke stood right in front of Kakashi, eyes narrowed, "Damn it; I missed him."
Suddenly a gasp was heard from Sakura: "Sensei!!"
Kakashi looked up to her horrified face and then to where she was looking: Kenshin had a hand placed on the side Sasuke had split open and a dark blue color had enveloped it. In moments, he took off his hand and the entire wound was completely gone. The group looked on in horror.
"Medical Ninjutsu?!" Naruto sputtered.
"No, it's not!" Sakura said fearfully. They all turned their heads to her, "It's… Different. That light that surrounded his hand wasn't normal chakra… I didn't recognize it at all!"
The group tensed at this. Sakura had been studying under Tsunade, so she knew what she was talking about in terms of medical ninjutsu. If she didn't recognize that as a normal medical technique, then they were in trouble.
A bead of sweat rolled off Kakashi's face. He had also noticed the abnormalities of that 'healing technique', whatever it was. But it definitely didn't look like any chakra he'd ever seen, and that's what made him uneasy.
"I commend you for actually damaging me, young man," Kenshin said, turning his attention back to Sasuke, "But I'm afraid any attacks will only prove to no avail."
"Damn it," Kakashi muttered again, "We have to get out of here. It looks like we won't even be able to lay a scratch on this guy… I don't know how much I can do without my Sharingan," He thought ruefully, remembering the careful instructions that Tsunade had given him.
Kakashi thought back to the mark, thinking back to it for the first time since Kenshin appeared. He hadn't noticed, but the pulsing seemed to be going in a nice, steady, rhythm, and he was about numbed to it now. That made his fear of using the Sharingan increase. He didn't know what the infernal mark would do if he did end up using it.
However, Kakashi thought that possibility was becoming more and more possible as time went by.
"I'm tired of playing, Hatake," Kenshin said sternly, "Though your devotion to these brats is commendable, I really must put it to a stop."
Carefully starting to make hand signs with his hands while he still held his sword, Kenshin had devoted his attention to Kakashi. The Jounin tensed up when he saw Kenshin making hand signs and tried to decipher what sort of jutsu he was using, though it was considerably harder when he didn't have his Sharingan.
At the last hand sign- Inu –a group of vines suddenly shot out from the trees, grabbing onto Kakashi by his torso, arms, and legs and pulling him vigorously into a large tree, causing an alarmed grunt of pain to escape from his lips.
"Kakashi sensei!!" Naruto and Sakura both yelled out at the same time in panic.
With a horror-filled realization, Kakashi knew why Kenshin had pinned him down. He yelled out to his students desperately, feeling terribly nostalgic of the mission to the Land of Waves over a year ago:
"You guys!! You've got to run!" By the looks on their faces, Kakashi guessed that they had recognized this speech, "This guy is too strong! There's no point in sacrificing everything when we only have a little bit to go!!"
"No!" Naruto immediately said, "You were the one who told us that people who abandon their friends are worse than scum! We're not going to just leave you!"
Kakashi saw a determined sparkle in Sakura and Sasuke's eyes as they silently agreed with the blond shinobi. He groaned mentally, almost wanting to slap himself for saying that right now. But he could've guessed that they would refuse.
"Looks like you've trained them too well," Kenshin chuckled. He immediately shot forward at Naruto, catching the boy off guard and knocking him off his feet with a sharp elbow in his gut. He gasped breathlessly as he fell to the ground, drops of blood spurting out of his mouth.
"Naruto!!" Sakura yelled fearfully.
"Bastard," Sasuke spat, "Fireball Jutsu!!" He shot out flames again, hoping to catch Kenshin off-guard while he had his back turned.
The man spun around with inhuman speed and once again cut through the fire, dashing forward and striking Sasuke in the arm, making him cry out loudly and fall to the ground, clutching the arm that was now bleeding freely.
"Sasuke!!" Sakura cried out, her eyes narrowing at Kenshin, "How dare you!" Racing forward, Sakura reared up her fist to punch right through his idiotic face. Kenshin jumped back and made to grab her arm, when a kunai came racing through the air and made him pull his hand away quickly.
"Hiroto!" Naruto called out, sitting up slowly and wiping the blood away from his mouth.
Hiroto glared icily at Kenshin, "You'll not get any farther," He warned.
"Really?" Kenshin said, glaring right back at him, "You're that ninja that defected from the Sound, aren't you?"
Hiroto's eyes narrowed, "I thought you might know that. But no matter; you're fighting me now," He rolled up his left sleeve to reveal a large device implanted on his arm with several holes lining the outside.
"Hey, that's--!" Naruto sputtered, his eyes widening as he remembered the Chuunin Exam, and a certain Sound Ninja that had that same device on his arm.
"The same that Dosu had…" Sakura muttered, personally not liking to remember him.
Hiroto frowned, "Keh. Dosu. That idiot; running off with my weapon."
"Your… Idea?" Naruto said.
Hiroto smirked, "Yeah. I invented it. And I can assure you that I can use it much better than he could."
Suddenly, Kenshin cringed, looking back up at Hiroto with even more spite, "You truly are one of those snakes, aren't you?" He managed to hiss out.
Hiroto's smirk widened, "Not anymore."
"Wait, did he already attack?" Naruto thought in wonderment, "I can't even feel anything."
"He's so fast with that thing, I can barely catch it," Sasuke thought, his Sharingan scanning over the two men currently locked in combat, "But we should be focusing on getting Kakashi out of that-" His thoughts were jarred suddenly as he tried to move his arm and received a fresh stab of pain, "Augh!" He fell back down to the ground, clutching his wound harder.
"Sasuke!" Naruto and Sakura rushed over to their comrade, kneeling down beside him.
"His arm is definitely broken," Sakura said seriously after taking a glance at the arm Sasuke was clutching onto with a vice grip, "He won't be able to do much of any fighting without receiving more pain."
Naruto nodded seriously, "Right. Then it's up to us to help Hiroto take this guy down."
"Idiot," Sasuke gasped out, "Free… Kakashi…"
A light of realization suddenly came into Naruto's eyes, "That's right! If he uses his Sharingan, than this guy should be no problem!"
Naruto immediately got up to make his way over to Kakashi, who was trying to keep tabs on everyone, and finding his heart beat faster every second they were around Kenshin.
Kenshin fell to his knees, "Damn it," He cursed as his ears started to bleed from the increasing waves.
"He can concentrate the sound waves so that they're only hitting Kenshin," Sakura thought, "Then that gives me an opening!"
She got up, running over to Kenshin and rearing her fist back again, this time catching the samurai at a weak moment. Her fist slammed into his back with as much force as she could get out. He grunted and flew forward a few feet before falling to the ground. Sakura smiled.
"Good going," Hiroto smiled back at her.
"Thanks."
"You fools…" Kenshin stood up slowly, that same dark blue light from before surrounding his whole body as he turned to face them, "You never learn."
"Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said quieter than normal, reaching his teacher, "Are you alright?"
"Yes, I'm fine, Naruto," The response was mechanical.
"I'm gonna get you out of these vine things," He said determinedly.
Kakashi immediately saw the light that was surrounding Kenshin and his visible eye widened, "No, Naruto. You have to get away from me."
"What? Why?" The blond ninja asked in confusion, looking back to Kenshin and getting the same foreboding feeling that Kakashi was getting. But that didn't prove anything to him. He turned back around, "Sensei, you're the only chance we have of really beating this guy."
Kakashi made a short sharp sound that could've been a sigh if it were longer, "Naruto, you don't understand," Before he could finish his thought, Kenshin came running up to them with the same inhuman speed and sliced Naruto in the side, missing vital organs by an inch.
The boy was thrown back, screaming in anguish as he hit the ground. He made to grip his bleeding side with a hand, moving at half the speed it would normally take. Kakashi was mortified:
"Naruto!!!"
Sakura and Sasuke ran over to him in alarm. Sakura knelt down by him, talking to her teammate worriedly. Sasuke stood protectively over the two of them, glaring bitterly at Kenshin and not even taking into notice his own arm that was bleeding way too much.
"You bastard, what do you want?!" Kakashi finally yelled, "If it truly is to observe me, then fine! I don't care what you do to me! Just leave my team alone!"
"Sensei…" Sakura muttered sadly, looking up to him momentarily before looking back down at Naruto. Hiroto quickly came to her side, assessing the damage done to the boy. Naruto grimaced, wincing in pain every now and then. He had to get up!!
"I'm afraid not, Hatake," Kenshin said, "I wish it were that simple," He looked towards Sasuke, "Are you sure you should be standing up right now, boy? Your wound is bleeding quite heavily."
Sasuke, who had begun to pant from the blood loss, just scoffed at the man, "I'm not going to back down from a bastard like you."
"How noble of you," He smirked, "Whatever you wish," Without warning, the man rocketed forward and landed a punch right in Sasuke's stomach. He barely had any air left to scream as he was sent flying back. A snap was heard as he landed on his arm, screaming in sheer torment.
"Sasuke!!" Kakashi and Sakura both yelled, staring with wide eyes at the Uchiha. Trusting Hiroto to look over Naruto, Sakura raced over to Sasuke, tears starting to become visible in her eyes. This was ridiculous: how could someone be so strong? WHAT did he want?
"Damn you to hell," Kakashi spat with as much venom as he could.
"It's frustrating, isn't it Hatake?" Kenshin asked, "Not being able to do anything while your comrades are dying."
Kakashi's fists clenched so hard that it didn't look like there was any blood left in them at all. It was almost like this man was goading him into…
His eye widened, "No…" He said hoarsely. The realizing fear turning into pure rage, he strained his arms up to lift his headband up so that his Sharingan was clearly visible- with such rage and fury that he hadn't felt for thirteen years.
"Chidori!!!" His voice boomed as a ferocious ball of lightning came tingling into his hands, causing the vines around him to snap. He launched at Kenshin with the intent to kill, throwing his electric fist forward in the hopes of taking out his heart.
Kenshin's eyes widened a little as he jumped away, only a second before he would've been given a hole where his chest was. He looked back at Kakashi's vicious face and then prepped his sword. This man had become a beast.
His students, including Naruto, looked on in almost horror. They had never seen Kakashi so bloodthirsty before, and they wondered had set him off in this almost animalistic personality.
"?!" Kakashi suddenly froze, his eyes widening in fear and shock. His arms started quivering, the ball of lightning he had previously held simmering down to nothing.
BA-BUMP!
"Augh!" He winced, wanting to grab for his neck, but found he couldn't, "No…" He croaked desperately, trying to resist the pain, trying to make it recede. But the curse mark kept pulsing, harder, faster, and Kakashi felt as if his whole body was slowly being covered in fire.
The squad looked on in definite horror now, seeing the obvious pain Kakashi had suddenly begun to go through: "S-Sensei…!!" Naruto had slowly sat up, grabbing his side and looking on painfully at his teacher. What was wrong?!
A loud gasp was suddenly heard from Sasuke, followed by a yell, "No!" He was sitting up as well, staring at Kakashi like he was his worst fear.
"Sasuke? What is it??" Sakura asked urgently.
Sasuke didn't respond. He barely heard her. All he saw was Kakashi writhing in obvious pain… As, through the visible skin on his hands and face, he could see black patterns slowly creeping up, covering his entire body.
Suddenly, with one last scream of pain, the Jounin collapsed in a heap on the ground, the patterns that had covered his body still remaining, making him twitch in pain.
"Kakashi sensei!!!!!" Naruto and Sakura both cried out frantically.
Kenshin laughed, his eyes gleaming, "Excellent! This was much better than I expected! Who would've thought he'd be so far along already…" He turned to the rest of the squad, "I hate to leave so suddenly, but it seems that I have… A package to deliver."
Sasuke cringed at those words, shooting up from his spot on the ground just as Kenshin picked up Kakashi and slung him over his shoulder, "Stop!!"
Kenshin waved once before putting his swords back into its sheath and holding one hand up in the sign of the Tiger, "Farewell."
Sasuke raced forward to attack the samurai, striking out just as he disappeared in a flurry of wind and leaves; Kakashi with him. His fists clenched together as he lowered to the ground and slammed them down, cursing madly, "Damn it!!!"
An eerie silence was all that was left as the group took in what happened, "No…" Naruto shook his head slowly, gnashing his teeth together and wincing before he cried out to the wind: "SENSEEEEEIII!!!!"
Sakura's eyes quivered as she tried to comprehend what had happened. Kakashi was gone. He just disappeared. And they didn't even know where to! Except Sasuke. Sasuke knew exactly where they were going after he saw those swirling marks cover Kakashi up. His teeth ground together:
"Kakashi… Why? Why do YOU have a curse mark?! What is Orochimaru planning?!"
Author's Note:
Hello again guys! Sorry about not updating for a bit! I figured I'd repay you with my longest chapter yet! :) But in all seriousness, this was a lot longer than I thought it would be. XP
Okay, a few things I just wanted to confirm with you guys. You'll notice that Sakura is getting her uber strength already, and she knows a little bit about medical ninjutsu. Truthfully, I couldn't remember if she started studying with Tsunade before or after Sasuke left (I think it's after….), but it was the only way I could actually have her DO something. Because, really, before she trained with Tsunade, Sakura was pretty much useless…. (No offense to Sakura fans!)
So, yeah! I'm pretty sure that's it! So I hope you guys are enjoying this! Thank you so, so much for all of your awesomely awesome reviews! They really keep me going!!