OK, sorry, careful editing thrown to the wind - impatient and lazy, what a combination! But I spent half an hour editing this after uploading and the site made me log back in instead of saving my changes! Argh! That'll teach me not to 'save often'. Well, I'm just having a heck of a time trying to get these up faster somehow so you don't get too bored! Thanks for reading and reviewing!

Chapter Eighteen

He had not been particularly worried about being followed; Even's concerns were centered on remaining undetected by those he approached, to get a bead on any potential prey.

It was a calculated risk. The time and energy to conceal his route could not be justified. If someone chose to take exception to his passing, he would deal with them when they caught up with him, as unlikely as that would be.

As luck would have it, Kotai, the Okami rogue nin, was not one to just let an enemy appear with a challenge and then go on his way without explanation. The intruder needed to be identified and his presence explained, or he might return with others or cause trouble in some other way. The unobscured chakra traces were clear enough for his more than adequate tracking skills; only the speed of his quarry presented a challenge

Kotai had concealed himself upon catching up, just in time to observe the minimalistic rescue of the Konoha nin. He watched the scene play out with growing interest. They did not appear to be comrades, there was no particular warmth or care in the way the armored shinobi extracted the man from his life-threatening situation. It was a little puzzling, because the attitude was far from that of a sympathetic do-gooder or noble hero shot with superiority. It had the flavor of a shopkeeper stocking a shelf - just a mundane function that was merely a part of his job.

The nin had even taken the time to henge before handing off the badly wounded man. There was no one powerful enough in the village to be of any consequence; a shinobi of this caliber would have easily detected that when he passed the quiet settlement the first time. Fooling them with a false identity seemed indulgent. It was a dangerous delay in getting the victim to help for very little reason.

Rather like the aborted attack at their settlement. There was no fire, no heat of rage or passion, no fear or excitement. Just unemotional, concise execution of the matter at hand and an icy disregard that offered no explanations or apologies.

Kotai had only seen such an extreme of this behavior by the possessed, and by puppets. But he detected no such jutsu, and his greatest strength was in sensing and analyzing such things. He followed his instincts when the dark nin resumed his journey away from the village. While he doubted that the disguised man would stoop to bothering civilians, his commitment to protect these people was too strong to just leave without making sure things were all right first. And he had to concede that he was more than just a bit curious.

He marched boldly into the farming village to get a good look at the still gravely injured Konoha soldier. Kotai and his group, as distant neighbors, had a decent relationship with the farmers here; they had at times stepped in to defend the civilians, and in return took supplies when their own stocks were low. None of them bothered to pretend that the interrelationship was legitimate. Kotai's group had been exiled for a number of crimes, and both the villagers and the outcasts were in violation for allowing open exchanges without at minimum posturing as enemies.

But their truce was an easy one nonetheless. Kotai went to the only healer's station and bowed upon entering. He was taken aback at the condition of the injured ninja up close. Had he been in charge of saving this man, he would have moved much more quickly, and shown a much higher level of concern. The medically-trained peace officer nodded back in greeting and waved him in.

"Kotai-san, such good timing! Please - can you assist me?" the young officer asked nervously, clearly out of his league with such a mess before him.

"Of course, Haru-san. This looks quite serious. Do you know where all of this took place, who his opponents were?" Kotai approached quickly as he pushed up his sleeves; he cast his hands over the motionless body, slipping gentle chakra whispers into the worst of the wounds, gathering impressions to assist in their triage. They worked together carefully to loosen and remove the outer layer of wet, soiled clothing. As the muddied, dark cloth came away, the lighter, blood-soaked clothing underneath was revealed. The number and variety of wounds only added confusion as to the type of battle the shinobi had fought in before the restraints had been embedded.

"I know next to nothing. Only that he is a nin of Konoha and needs to be returned to them."

"Who is it that brought him to you?"

"An elite. He gave his name only as Hataki. He said this was a Konoha citizen, and that there might be some compensation if we returned him alive. Then he just turned around and left. I was asking him all sorts of things…but he just left without saying another word. He gave me chills, Kotai, to treat a comrade with such aloofness. Do you know of him?"

"We had a slight run-in, but just as you described here, when we tried to talk to him, he left. Something's very strange about him. He's no comrade of this man; I observed him before he came to see you. His Leaf uniform was just part of a henge he threw on before he revealed his presence to you. I don't like it one bit that he feels so free to barge into our territory and nose around without explanation." His hand paused. "These barbs need to come out right away. That nin was easily skilled enough to have removed them. Maybe he has some alliance with the people that did this."

"I didn't feel threatened by him, Kotai-san. I didn't feel like he even reacted to my presence one way or the other, except to make his delivery and leave."

"Exactly. It makes me wonder what his purpose is, using you as he pleases and acting as if no one else merits a second thought." The bare head bowed in concentration, and the first barb spirited into the water bowl with a splash.

"Maybe this man can tell us when he awakens." Haru pressed down a clean square of gauze smeared with ointment to cover a large, weeping wound under their patient's chin

"Anything is possible. I didn't see any sign that they knew one another, though." Another barb splashed, metal clanging against the bottom of the steel bowl when it sank.

Haru stared at the water darkening with blood, and the level of cruelty behind imbedding the heavy metal deep into soft, sensitive human flesh began to truly sink in. It chilled him to the bone. "We don't want this kind of trouble here. I want to get this man to his village as soon as possible, before whoever did this comes looking for him."

"You make a good point." Splash, clang! "Put some pressure on the removal sites for me, Haru. I'll have to start them healing from the inside or they'll likely become infected."

The largest, deepest barb had been embedded in hip bone. Kotai's considerable skill was tested, but he managed to remove it while leaving the bone as intact as possible. This one had to be coaxed out with both hands, and he dropped the gory thing into the bowl with the others. This would bleed more profusely, and the pale soul on the table had little life force to spare. Kotai applied the pressure and began knitting the damage at this wound first. It was a excruciating location to embed such a thing. He was not sure if the wound would ever be free of pain even after it healed.

They were both startled when a bloodied hand, shaking hard, raised up with tremendous effort.

"No, no, be still. You are safe, shinobi-san. You have been delivered to us for medical care." Haru gently pressed down on the trembling forearm.

An eye twitched open, then squeezed shut in a grimace. Genma's breathing grew ragged, and his whole body tensed visibly.

Kotai moved to the next wound. "What spirit. Even in this condition, he's still fighting so hard."

"Yes, but it's not good for him. Shhh, you must be still."

"Do we know his name?"

"No. Nothing. I would guess from what you say that this Hataki just found him; anyone would know he was Leaf from his uniform markings."

Genma fought to sit up, just achieving a jerk upward.

"Soldier!" Kotai blurted loudly into his face. "You must be still. You're badly wounded. You are no longer in the possession of whoever did this to you. We will return you to Konoha as soon as you are stable enough to move."

Genma's chakra, damaged and weak, flared out irregularly for help. He was only partially conscious, and still in a defensive state. He felt only his pains and did not recall breaking away and fighting past the guards to escape into the cover of the swampy rushes. His involuntary pulses still called out desperately for rescue.

Kakashi and Pakkun had been flying in pursuit, spurred by the need to catch up with Iruka and see for themselves that he had not been made to host the madman's eyes. They had not rested or slowed in their pace, and they were nearly upon the farming village when Genma's clearly familiar connection slapped them both to attention. Kakashi's blood boiled immediately at the level of distress in the jounin's psychic cry for help.

He headed straight in, sharingan uncovered and beginning to spin up as he went up in a long, lofting leap and landed in the doorway, slamming open the door and bursting in on the verge of slaughtering both men poised over the agonized shinobi.

His lightning-fast perception brought him to a halt at once. Genma, grossly injured, was being assisted, not attacked, by these men.

And Iruka's trace chakra was lingering in the air as well.

Kotai went to battle stance and Haru fell back on the floor in fright, calling out with his arms raised defensively. "Hatake!"

Kakashi's brow knit at the sound of his name. "Do I know you?" he asked warily.

"It's not him," Kotai assured Haru. He dropped his defense slightly, motioning to the silver-haired stranger. There was nothing resembling that reserved coldness coming from this man. "You're not the one who brought this man to us."

"No. Explain."

"A nin of dark armor henged into your likeness and left him here to be treated. You know him? He said his name was Hatake."

"I am Hatake. Your dark nin used my name as well as my image, then. What is his condition?" The question was almost rhetorical. One look and it was clear just how serious Shiranui's situation was. It wasn't really a good sign that he was still fighting them. It was energy he could not afford to spare, and Kakashi moved to address the problem, displacing Kotai at the downed shinobi's side.

Genma was twisting weakly, sensing Kakashi nearby. The copy-nin stepped up and laid four fingers lightly across Genma's blood-spattered forehead, easing his reassuring presence into that touch. A part of his mind released and opened up to flash-focus on their exchange, exposing itself to entwine their chi on the level of the distress calls, sending supportive chakra along with his silent message to quiet the fearful pleas. Be still, now, Gen-chan, I'm here now. You're safe. You need to take it easy and let us help you. Relax for me, let go. You must focus your energy on maintaining your strength so we can get you home.

The injured jounin grew quiet and the tension lessened as he absorbed the reassurances and soothing wash of familiar, protective chakra; as soon as he stopped fighting, his body took over and dropped him into merciful unconsciousness once more.

Haru, watching wide-eyed, shakily regained his feet, and timidly tried to direct the silver-haired man's attention to the red-tinged bowl. "Kotai-san removed these from his body. His is in very poor condition still."

"The man that brought him here. Did he have eyes like mine?"

Haru blanched under Kakashi's hard stare, cold sweat beginning to prickle the back of his neck. "No, I thought they were normal...wait, I don't mean it like that...I mean, he had one eye covered, I didn't look him right in his eye...I know it wasn't red. It wasn't anything like...I've never seen anything like that. Like that red eye you have."

That proved nothing ,of course; with a good henge, it might not have been possible to distinguish anything about the true nature of Iruka's eyes, especially since the witness was a civilian. Kakashi, slightly repulsed at the man's submissive behavior, finally released his stare and checked on the metal bowl he had been directed to. He recoiled immediately at the sight. He knew the tortures associated with these embedded restraints. Genma was likely in far worse pain mentally than he was physically. Iruka had done the bare minimum to help Genma by just dumping him off here. His chunin would have been moved to tears at the thought of a fellow shinobi enduring this treatment. He cursed Tsunade and Danzou bitterly in his thoughts once more.

"Genma-kun," he said quietly, doubtful that his words would be heard. "I'm sending for a team to take you back." He turned and crooked a finger at the still open doorway. Pakkun trotted inside.

Kotai and Haru were bemused at the appearance of the ninken, and slightly taken by surprise when he spoke.

"Yeah, Boss? What do we do for him?"

"I'll send a bird with the message, it will be faster…but I want two of the boys to stand guard over him until the team arrives to take him back." Kakashi looked up, with an expression that warned that his question would need to have yes for an answer if they didn't want trouble. "You can take care of him until then? It shouldn't be more than a day. I'm hoping they have someone in the field close enough to respond right away."

"You're leaving without him?" Kotai asked boldly, not cowed by Kakashi's powerful aura. "I can't stay. My trail will grow cold. I was in pursuit when this man's plight diverted me. If we both go, there are no shinobi in this village to protect him. Your comrade will be at risk."

"What trail? My impersonator's?"

"Just so. He came into my encampment and engaged me in battle; but just when we were squaring off, he fled. I must know his identity and his motive."

"I don't think he's a threat to your people. You're just wasting your time." Kakashi finished the note and placed it in the capsule; he pulled out the messenger scroll and retrieved the swiftest bird from the inventory, affixing the note to its leg.

"I'll be the judge of that." Kotai's dark eyes flashed defiantly.

Kakashi went to the door and set the messenger on its way. He bit his thumb and called up four more of his ninken instead of the two he had decided on earlier.

Kotai was reluctantly impressed. He'd worked with men who had a ninken for a summon, some who had two. But never one with five, and never had any of them been capable of such perfect speech.

"We have a problem here, then," Kakashi growled. "I'm on the same trail, and I have far more invested in this than you do."

"Is he in league with the men who administered this torture?"

"No. That's really all I can tell you. That, and that I don't believe he has any real interest in you or your associates. No offense, but if you're their leader, I doubt he would have left any evidence that your encampment or anyone in it ever existed if he'd been so inclined."

"Well, you may have more invested in the pursuit, but you're the only one here with an investment in this man," Kotai gestured to Genma's silent body. "Quite a dilemma."

"If you fuck with me, you'll regret it," Kakashi shot back tersely. "You will stay and you will watch over him. Agree now, and you can follow the dogs and catch up with me as soon as my people come for him."

The look in his eye said that Kotai should already know the retribution he would receive if he disagreed. In fact, Kakashi intended to slay the outlaw without warning and leave a clone to keep watch if need be, both undesirable moves in this situation, but his only other real alternative.

"Please," Haru asked, touching Kotai's flowing sleeve respectfully. "If his captors come to retrieve him before his fellows do, it could be a disaster. They might hold us accountable for his escape. So I'm pleading with you for the sake of this village. Stay until the nin is removed, I beg of you. I'll repay you in any way you ask."

Kotai sneered, looking down at the smaller man and shaking his head slightly. "It's pathetic the way I indulge you, Haru."

Haru blushed and smiled thankfully. He knew this turn of phrase was Kotai's way of saying yes. He turned back to check on the packing he had been placing on the injuries when they had been interrupted, a move that hid the deepening redness of his cheeks.

"His name is Genma," Kakashi said. "He's a good man, so keep taking good care of him. The dogs will stand guard and alert you if anyone approaches. They'll sense intent, so they'll be able to warn you if an attack is coming. They'll also make positive identification of whoever comes to take him; they'll attack and defend him if anyone but a Konoha familiar tries to remove him. Considering the type of injuries he has, you should all be extremely careful of strangers for a while, even after he's been removed. I don't know what he stumbled into, but it wasn't part of his mission."

Haru bowed , and Kakashi set the large white dog and the smaller hound to stand guard outside. The two smallest ninken he left posted inside. Unbeknown to Kotai and Haru, the smaller dogs were there to watch them and assure that they made no false moves, either. But now that they had been educated as to what the dogs were set to react to, any bright ideas they may have had to avoid trouble by dumping Genma outside of the village as soon as he left had just been nipped in the bud.

Kakashi headed out with Pakkun again, shelving his regret at leaving Genma behind. The jounin was still in danger, no doubt about it. But the messenger was swift and the news would reach Tsunade in a few hours. Patrols should be in the area just to the East, although that was not information he was about to divulge to an outlaw nin. Help should reach the senbon expert much sooner than he had let on to Kotai.

He didn't expect to still be in the neighborhood by the time the ninken were free to follow, either. And If he was, he might have some use for the bald nin's help after all.

He followed Iruka's traces, still wondering why they weren't masked; it didn't escape his notice that the trail also followed Genma's blood. Iruka had perhaps diverted to punish those responsible for the jounin's injuries. Genma was a skillful, experienced assassin, difficult to detect and capture, and ferocious when cornered. Judging from the number of defense wounds, he had been in protracted manual combat before he was captured and tortured.

As able as Iruka was, this suggested a very formidable enemy, and the copy-nin couldn't help but feel his protective streak rise up in response.

xxxxx

The blood trail was easy to follow - for Even, that clearly told him a number of things. His new prey, no doubt powerful and dangerous given the evidence on Genma, were not concerned about recapturing the victim or concealing their location. In leaving such a clear and damning swath of evidence, they were confident enough to welcome intruders who might have a predisposition to engage them in battle in response to their abuse of the sandy-haired escapee. They had no apparent worries about being surprised by the timing of that person or group's arrival.

Disregarding an enemy's advantage of surprise would be pure foolishness; it was likely, then, that there was some form of perimeter security and that the area of the blood trail was well-monitored.

Genma's bleeding had slowed as he traveled. Even tried to take a visual measurement of the increasing size of the dark splotches he saw; when he estimated that he'd seen enough to account for most of the ninja's lost fluid volume, he went high into the trees and moved to the limit of his ability to detect the trail.

He crawled the upper level of the branches, creeping with much more interest in remaining undetected than making forward progress.

His patient, painstaking method paid off. He spotted the three men, chakra masked and well-hidden in the underbrush, staking out the blood trail. His intuition had been correct. They were using it to lure in more victims.

After a moment's consideration, he started moving again, leaving those nin to their vigil untouched. He traveled in slow, careful increments. It took nearly an hour to progress out of the sentry's range. He scanned until he found an increase in force, and changed direction slightly. A large, stone turret just cleared a thick screen of evergreens; had he been at ground level, it's camouflaged walls would not have been easily visible. He closed in with care, dropping down a few feet to get a better look.

Three stone buildings were set at angles, creating a triangular courtyard in the middle. No one seemed to be outside, but Even was sure that was not the case. An installation this large would house quite a number of people. The chakra force here, while under a standard detection suppression, was massive.

His fluid plan changed course once more. This was too much trouble, and his odds of being able to grab a lone, unscathed man and get out alive were too long. He began to back away as carefully as he has approached.

An altercation sounded in the near distance, and he felt as much as heard the slap of a missed capture tag. The electrical flare and ground shock turned his head and stopped his retreat. He'd know the signature flash of Kakashi's element from a mile away.

Whatever Kakashi was doing here, he had just made a mistake. The compound's concealment dropped, and red-armored shinobi were beginning to pour out of the doors of the stone buildings.

Even hesitated for a split-second, then committed himself to the fight. With flashing handsigns he skimmed the treetops and landed on the highest point of the building, the roof of the turret.

The door to the roof began to open too late, probably forces coming to man the lookout. But they was foiled by Even's jutsu, slamming and sealing all the doors to the entire compound at once.

A good two dozen shinobi had managed to get out before he locked the rest in. Even hoped that Kakashi had eaten a good breakfast, because the men he saw looked healthy and capable.

It wasn't a dozen seconds before an explosion hurled a chunk or red armor past Even's ear; the copy-nin was fighting fiercely but without distress as far as he could detect. Although he was still out of visual range, the copy-nin's level of controlled chi was strong in the air; he still seemed sure of himself. Another explosion, more red armor…Even deduced that the volume of chakra he'd estimated for the group had far more to do with numbers than the strength of the individuals. Kakashi had scaled down to using tags and projectiles, items with relatively low expenditures of chakra, and had already dispatched with half of his opponents.

Even held his force to keep the doors shut. Kakashi was slicing through the ranks steadily, and the mounting assault on the many doors was beginning to challenge his hold on them.

When Kakashi downed the last man running loose, Even dropped his hold on one door and performed a second jutsu to seal the rest on that building permanently. He nodded to himself in satisfaction. The resulting trickle of nin were no problem for the silver-haired shinobi; as long as Even could control the flow of their numbers, Kakashi could handle them himself.

It seemed like the perfect solution. He would be a stranger within the dark armor, and he might well have a problem convincing Kakashi he had nothing to do with this settlement. He released a door on the second building and sealed the rest for it as well.

The third building's far wall bulged a split-second before stone flew in all directions. A blast from within had succeeded in tearing an opening with ample force to defeat the sealing jutsu. Half of the length of the wall collapsed. Some far more serious looking men charged out, fully armed and clearly equipped for high-level battle. Their armor was heavier and more elaborate. These stronger opponents hatched out from their confines and flew in the direction of the fray.

Even sized them up as he descended and followed just slightly above them, picking them off silently last man first. His first victim went down immediately from the dart in his neck; the second spun and got off one good barrage of chakra leeches before stumbling down to his knees, fighting the drug as he swayed.

The man now bringing up the rear heard something and turned. He was tall, in his early twenties perhaps, upright and fluid in his movement. He had the long, flowing black hair that Even sensed would please Jeninki. His jaw was straight and strong, and his hands moved swiftly in tight coordination.

All this, Even observed in the split second he had before the jutsu launched at him. It didn't surprise him, but it was powerful and swift, and he found himself dodging too many intelligent barbs to be able to stop and strike with his abduction drugs.

He sent a shot of chakra above his head and kept it rising, fooling the majority of the homing projectiles into veering up harmlessly. Two of the barbs went past his shoulder and boomeranged, zeroing in on his torso. They embedded harmlessly in the hard black armor.

Six more swirled around him and he picked them off with the armored plates on his forearm.

It was an effective delay tactic, and the tall ninja sent four razor-edged discs spinning at his opponent in a straight-on attack. A heartbeat later, his other hand lofted up six more of the homing weapons, and they went up in a high arc, curving to fly down at Even from overhead.

Deflecting the discs took precision; they had been thrown with such force spinning at high rpm's, it was likely that a direct hit on the armor might have damaged or perhaps even sliced right through it. By the time he shattered the last one and went to put more distance between himself and his opponent, the taller man had a containment snare unraveling , beginning to form the circle on the ground around him.

Even took the logical path up; he managed to deflect the next rain of descending smart barbs with his armor by twisting his body as he shot up…all but one.

The successful barb spun into the flesh of his jaw through the cloth mask and began working its way penetrate beneath the skin, trying to embed into bone. From the pulse of burning heat, he knew immediately that it was poisoned. He one-handed his dart in reply, so quickly that the subtle motion was concealed from view by his body. It was small and flew unnoticed, and his struggle against the unexpectedly capable attack made it appear that he was completely absorbed in defending himself.

He reached up with his other hand and ripped the barb out, gushing a showy spurt blood. As a distraction, it was first-rate, and the sting of the tiny dart was the first clue the other shinobi had that it had been thrown.

The other nin dropped in flash paralysis. Even still had a brief struggle, the tainted barb had retargeted and began working its way into fleshy palm of the hand that still held it.

He had his man. After dispelling the barb from his hand and disarming it with more chakra then he would have preferred to have spent, he touched a stop to the bleeding as he bent to collect his prize. The rest of the local shinobi were further ahead, engaged in battle with the intruder. He could tell by the ramp-up in electricity that Kakashi was being challenged significantly. It gave him time to properly secure the limp body over his shoulder. This was going to be a little more challenging, since his passenger was quite a bit taller than he was.

The poison in the barb was proving to be slightly beyond his built-up resistance; whether the dosage was too strong or the formulation too different than his body had pre-treated for over the years, he couldn't tell yet. He was sweating from it already, not a good sign. It was slightly harder to hear, and the pain was localizing in the base of his skull. There were too many things going on to stop and address it yet. Men were still shouting, and several heavy impacts shook the ground. He smelled Kakashi's blood, but not a lot of it. He supposed he should at least check on the battle before determining his next move.

He hauled himself back up high and dispatched a stray red-armored nin, surprising him from behind. He had been throwing kunai-like blades down to further pressure Kakashi in his fight. Now his lifeless body fell harmlessly after Even relieved him of his remaining weaponry.

The silver-haired jounin was outnumbered but not necessarily outgunned. His enemy seemed to realized that they shouldn't underestimate him, and were circling around him to divide his attention.

Pakkun was by his master's side, calling out the locations of the enemy to the rear. A coil of chakra wire shot at the ninken from behind, and Kakashi snagged the dog out of the way with split-second timing.

He released Pakkun's summon and the dog disappeared in mid-protest. The distraction of sending Pak away to safety gave the enemy an opening, and they pounced on it.

Sticky black tar shot out and whipped around his legs, and similar snares nearly got his upper body before his charged hands hardened and crystallized the lengths into sparkling, harmless powder. He reached down to do the same for the stuff wrapping his legs and had to divert quickly to fend off a succession of razor-sharp shuriken. Two nin who had worked their way behind him moved in with synchronized handsigns to swell a wave of large rocks up out of the ground and send them crashing down over him.

From his vantage point, Even could see a few more of the lesser, red-armored nin closing in as well. He darted two of them, and decided to take a more active approach. This needed to get resolved so he was free to return home before his condition began to interfere with his movement significantly.

He called up a genjutsu on one of the enemy shinobi as he emerged from cover to check on the stone-covered man. Now appearing to the others as the spitting image of Kakashi, he was caught by surprise and annihilated at once by his own men.

Even nodded, and widened the effect of the genjutsu to the next man, then the next. By the time Kakashi emerged by teleporting and appearing among them, his enemies all looked just like him, and were growing hesitant, unable to tell which one to attack.

But Kakashi, secure in the knowledge that he was the genuine article and able to see through the genjutsu with the sharingan eye anyway, went right to work. The confusion was beautiful, and paired with the jounin's superior powers, he soon had the last of them turning tail and retreating.

The smell of Iruka's blood was close; he was very much aware who his benefactor was.

Now that smell was moving away, heading back in the direction of the trail they had come from.

Kakashi moved swiftly to the buildings and scanned them quickly to look for other torture victims; he found none, but detected that Genma's blood had been spilled in the damaged building; if nothing else, at least they had rousted the right group.

He set tags on all of the structures and leveled the area completely. In spite of his strong desire to get moving, he piled the mortal remains littered about the area and destroyed them with flash fire before starting back after Iruka.

The scent of rarefied poisons were strong in the ROOT shinobi's blood. Kakashi knew it would slow him. If he pushed himself too hard, it might bring him down. He itched to get a visual, to see for himself that Iruka was still all right. He had been like a benevolent ghost, providing back-up and manipulating the odds in Kakashi's favor. The copy-nin cursed in frustration that he hadn't been able to catch so much as a glimpse of those deep brown eyes, setting out again at top speed to remedy that situation.

tbc