Kakashi's eyes opened hazily. Quickly and mechanically closing his left eye, the Jounin lifted his head up as his eye refocused to his dark surroundings. The torches' light had been extinguished, with didn't make it any easier to see.

He moaned slightly at a pang of soreness he felt course throughout his body. A different soreness than the day before, he cracked his neck and moved around his fingers and feet, trying to get some feeling back into them. Sleeping while strapped up to a wall was extremely hard and not the least bit comfortable.

It was definitely not the first time he spent the night in a cell, but it was the first time he'd been strapped up to a wall throughout the entire night. Usually when he was taken prisoner, his captors would at least make it so that he could be on the floor. Sleeping on the hard stone floor would have been much appreciated here.

Kakashi exhaled as he started to feel the blood moving in his hands and feet again. With a semi-shocked expression, he realized that he still didn't have his mask on. He gritted his teeth as memories from the night before plagued his mind; that sickening but satisfied smile that Orochimaru had painted on his face was enough to make Kakashi gag.

The Copy Ninja didn't even want to know what that sick bastard had in store for him… Even though he knew he would find out eventually, whether he wanted to or not. Once again, his thoughts went back to the Curse Mark. His eyes narrowed and his mouth twitched a little in displeasure when he suddenly came to the realization…

The left side of his neck was completely numb.

He thought for sure that there would certainly be some blood pumping where the Mark was pulsing, but there was nothing. Nothing at all. The Curse Mark just blended into the numbness that the rest of that side held. That worried Kakashi…

"The Mark is dormant…" He thought nervously, "But why? I definitely felt it yesterday… The pain was excruciating. I wonder if it's because of a sudden burst of progress …?"

He thought back sourly to when Kenshin had finally provoked the last of him and he broke out of the vines holding him. He had to admit… For a moment, he felt an enormous surge of power that had never been experienced before. It was almost enthralling. The power just took over and made him… Animalistic. It definitely wasn't all the Mark's doing though; Kenshin had done a flawless job of making Kakashi want to tear him apart.

Nevertheless, the Jounin knew that things weren't going to get any better for a while, knowing Orochimaru. But Kakashi was not going to make this easy for him.

………………………………………………………

"Alright!" Tsunade's booming voice easily reached the ears of each ninja standing atop the Hokage Tower, "You are all clear on the task at hand! And for this mission to be successful, you will all need to use extreme precision and caution!! You're dealing with an S-Class Criminal and Sannin, so watch each others' backs!"

Tsunade finished up her speech quickly, dismissing the group, which fanned out immediately to start searching for Kakashi's scent. With any luck, they would find him and get him out of there in one piece, without any casualties. The group split into three separate units of four, searching east, west, and north for any traces of the scent they searched for. Thankfully, Kakashi had spent a number of years with the ANBU as their Captain, so his scent and chakra presence were not foreign to them.

"If anyone acquires any hints at all, notify the other groups immediately," The ANBU leading the northbound squad commanded into a small earpiece, connecting to the other two groups. He got determined responses right away. The ANBU shrugged a long black ponytail off his shoulder before turning to the rest of his group:

"I assume that you both know Kakashi's scent or chakra presence," His statement was directed towards Gai and Hiroto, who were following adamantly behind. Gai nodded seriously:

"I've been around Kakashi for a long time now. I don't have as keen of a nose as you ANBU, but I'll definitely be able to recognize his chakra presence."

The ANBU nodded in confirmation, then turned to Hiroto, "And you?"

"I've only known Kakashi shortly," The man answered, "So I haven't gotten any familiarity with him… But-"

"That's fine," The ANBU interrupted, "That's why we have Fang with us."

The ANBU behind Gai and Hiroto threw his fingers out in a half wave, his messy brown hair rustling like a leaf in the wind. A large husky-like dog accompanied him, "Yo."

"Fang's going to be taking the lead with Kuraru shortly," The ANBU in front motioned back to the tracker and his large friend, "He used to be in the same squad as Kakashi, so that should aid our search greatly."

"He and I worked together all of the time because of our ability to track so efficiently," Fang said, "Even helped me train Kuraru when he was still a pup. I've been around Wolf longer than even Raven has."

"Wolf?" Hiroto looked back up to Raven in somewhat confusion.

"Kakashi's ANBU Black Ops codename," Gai said suddenly, "He was Wolf."

"Oh, I see…" Hiroto murmured in almost awe, looking ahead once more, "I have heard many stories about him... About Wolf. It doesn't surprise me that Kakashi would actually be him."

"Fang, take your position," Raven ordered. Fang immediately replied accordingly, jumping up to the front of the squad with Kuraru to his left. Raven shifted to the back, leaving Gai and Hiroto in the middle.

"Raven," Hiroto said, turning his head around to face the man, "What other ANBU members or Jounin are in the other two groups?"

"Why do you need to know that?" Gai said, his eyebrows lowering just a little.

"I like to know the names of our subordinates," Hiroto continued, "For emergency situations, it may be necessary."

"You know all of us in this squad, obviously," Raven said, beginning to answer his question, "The second squad to the west contains Asuma Sarutobi, Talon, Panther, and Badger," Hiroto nodded to all of the names, trying to commit them to his memory as best as he could, "The squad to the east contains Genma Shiranui, Owl, Phoenix, and Fox."

Hiroto nodded again as he took into account everyone else's names. Gai's eyebrows lowered some more. Usually, he was quick to trust people, whether he was on a mission or not. But not this time. For some reason, this time just felt… Different. It may have been the fact that Gai was still fuming over the bastard Orochimaru actually getting his hands on Kakashi. But for some unexplainable reason, Gai did not feel like this Hiroto character should be going along on a mission of such great importance to the Leaf Village.

Besides, he was originally from the Sound. That in itself made Gai anxious. There was no mistake though; if he thought that Hiroto was any threat to the mission, the village, or Kakashi, he'd deal with him.

"Kakashi…" Gai thought, turning his head back around to the front, "I hope you're still in one piece…"

……………………………………………………

The sudden sound of an iron gate opening made Kakashi lift his head, a glare already set firmly in place for whoever had just come in to 'greet' him. He was sure that they weren't going to be much more hospitable than Orochimaru. Dully, he noticed that the torches had been light again.

"Ooh," The figure that stood before Kakashi, clad in dark blue traditional shinobi clothing flinched back a little with a wicked grin on his face. His red eyes shone brightly, reminding Kakashi vaguely of Kenshin. His brow was covered by scraggly brown hair that stuck up in almost as odd an angle as Kakashi's, "Lord Orochimaru told me that you had a piercing glare, Hatake."

Kakashi's glare tightened, "Oh yeah? And who might you be?"

The man before him grinned wider, "The third born of the Musashi Order: Masaru Tomichi. I can tell we're going to be good friends, Hatake."

Kakashi lifted his head up all the way after Masaru had introduced himself. An uncomfortable feeling twisted its way into his stomach when he announced that he was the third born of the same 'Order' that Kenshin had said he was from too. Masaru's eyes quickly glanced at Kakashi's neck.

"Feeling a little… Sore, today??" He smirked, looking back at Kakashi, whose eyes widened a little and then narrowed again.

"So the numbing of my mark was planned then…" The Copy Ninja thought sourly as Masaru was clearly already able to tell that the left side of his neck was numb, "I should've known…"

Masaru took a few steps forward, casually walking up to Kakashi and leaning over to get a closer look at his neck. The silver-haired man flinched back, but failed to understand what this new enemy could see if there was still cloth covering that area. He suddenly wished that his mask was back on…

Kakashi took a barely noticeable intake of breath and darted his eyes to the side when he saw Masaru pull something quickly out of his pocket that just barely glinted silver in the available torchlight.

His throat tightened up when he realized it was a needle.

"Sure are perceptive, aintcha?" Masaru smirked, lifting up the needle, "Don't worry. You won't feel a thing," He shoved the point into Kakashi's neck, "Literally."

Wincing slightly as the needle was forced into his neck, Kakashi's vision immediately began to go blurry. Cursing to himself, he found that soon his whole body seemed to go slack. The last thing he heard before the world tipped to the side was a jovial laugh from Masaru.

Author's Note:

Oh my goodness, it has been for freaking ever since I updated last!! O.o I'm really sorry about that guys. I've been working on it over the course of this last month, but always got interrupted right when I got into the mood to write it…-.-'

So, yeah ! I hope you're all still enjoying this! I wanted to introduce the search party in this chapter and also move the plot along in regards to Kakashi's prison days… And yes, I did have fun making the ANBU names. XD I'm already toying around with picture ideas for them that I may post at a later date.

Please read and review!! :] You guys are amazin'!