This chapter is sadly devoid of Rin, as I need to set a few things up...

Chapter 10.

The chameleon jutsu rippled across Kakashi's face from the top of his crown, dyeing his hair a pale, curly brown and turning his left eye as dark as his right.

"Don't you just love that other villages don't have doujutsu?" Jiraiya smirked." This should stand up to any genjutsu checks they can throw at you, and it won't dissipate as soon as a henge. Just stay within the village and you'll be within my range."

Kakashi nodded and swallowed past the lump in his throat. It was nearing 8PM, and the forest around the village had been quiet for several hours. Kakashi had been awake since five. He was way too amped up.

He felt a little awkward in his borrowed clothes, so he tried out a few quick jumps and maneuvers to familiarize himself with the weight and feel of them. He'd promised Genma to bring the shorts back in one piece, which seemed like a rather ludicrous promise to make in the grand scheme of things, but he intended to keep his word. He was more reluctant to leave Rin's gift behind, but Minato-sensei promised he would look after the blade.

Minato was no longer showing his nerves. At some point during the night, as they gathered the items Kakashi needed, something in his eyes had simply closed off and the worried mentor once more became the collected Hokage. He kept vigil even as everyone else slept, and Kakashi could see fellow shinobi visibly perk up if Minato so much as looked at them. It wasn't that he didn't care or didn't worry, Kakashi thought, he just pretended everything would work out just fine until everyone else believed him.

When the time came to leave, a couple of shinobi gave him encouraging nods and one or two even patted him on the shoulder. Even Genma managed a smile. It was weirdly encouraging.

He had to take a detour so he could approach the village from a logical direction, backtracking all the way around the forest to approach the village from a northern direction. He was finally alone, and suddenly every shadow resembled a shinobi, every smell became suspicious.

He focused on his breathing, and then pushed his chakra all the way down. He felt horribly blind without it. If there were scouts in the trees around him, he couldn't tell. It even weakened his sense of smell, which was worse than anything. Add the fact that he had to keep his left eye closed underneath the chameleon jutsu for a lower chakra output, and all he had to go on were his right eye, his ears, and a much weaker sense of smell than he was used to. It would be so easy for someone to sneak up on him…He swallowed down the urge to vomit.

The first people to visibly notice him were the civilians camping just outside the village. They called out warnings as he left the tree line and entered the pasture surrounding the village. He allowed himself to visibly falter and stare up at the great barrier dome blocking 'his' village from view. He counted the seconds. After half a minute, he started towards the group again, slightly faster than before.

They didn't recognize him, but they still reached out their arms. "Go, you foolish boy! It isn't safe!" One of them even said.

Kakashi thought of Gai's exuberant personality, rapidly rehearsed his fake background story, and abandoned all dignity.

"What's going on? There were shinobi in the forest – what is that thing?" He called out, and pointed at the barriers.

"Hush, they'll hear you –"

"Shinobi in the forest? Oh, there really is no way out..."

"Hush, Kaede –"

"it's like a siege. There's armies everywhere. They won't let us in," the woman said, raising her voice above the din.

"What you mean? They can't just leave us out here. That's our home," Kakashi said, his voice high.

"What's your name, boy?"

"I – oh, it's Kazuki. Shiba Kazuki. I live up on Thrush Street?" Kakashi said.

The speaker, a large man in his fifties, pushed through the crowd and put an arm around Kakashi shoulders. "Come on, you can help. Did you really see shinobi?" He asked, pulling Kakashi towards the barrier.

"I – yeah. I did. Just a few minutes ago."

"Perfect," the man said, and turned towards the barrier. "Hello? Jounin-san? Please excuse me – only there's a boy here who has information for you. Maybe… Maybe you'll finally let us in?"

Thank you, old man!

It was briefly quiet. Then a female voice said, "What kind of information?"

"He says he's seen a Konoha patrol. It was Konoha, right?"

"Yeah, yeah – definitely. They have the swirly symbol and everything," Kakashi nodded excitedly. "That's them, right?"

Another silence. "When did you see them?" The woman, no, the jounin, asked.

"Just a few minutes ago. I guess they didn't see me – or maybe I just don't matter enough," Kakashi said indignantly. "I'll tell you where if you just let me in."

"Tell us where they are," the voice said from the other side of the barrier.

"Nah-ah, not until you let me in," Kakashi said, casting a nervous glance over his shoulder. "I'm a sitting duck out here. I don't want to die."

Someone scoffed on the other side of the barrier. "Little street rat. Alright. Just you."

"Hey, that's not fair!" The man shouted, and the other civilians raised their voices as well to show their support.

"I'm sorry," Kakashi said, effecting a nervous tremor in his voice as a door appeared in the barrier. "I'm so sorry. I'll try to convince them, I will –"

An arm reached out from inside the barrier and snatched him by the back of the shirt. The collar caught on his throat and Kakashi had to fight every instinct he had not to save himself from the awkward chokehold. The grip loosened and his momentum made him lose balance and fall to the floor. It was probably the least graceful thing he'd done in the past couple of years. Heat shimmered behind him as the barrier closed again.

"Well?" The woman from before snapped. She was tall, taller than him, with messy ginger hair that didn't quite cover her Steam headband. A local girl, already recruited by Kiri to do their bidding. They would probably murder her if she didn't listen.

But she was high-ranking, right? What kind of shinobi could have this kind of sway over her, if not whoever used that S-rank jutsu yesterday? And was that person once again within the barriers?

Kakashi swallowed. "Northeast by East," he said. "Near the old watchtower. I think they were checking it out," he said, grateful he had spotted the landmark earlier.

The woman stared him in the eyes. He didn't dare look away, but forced his eyes to flick side to side nervously. A civilian wouldn't dare look her in the eyes. Not when she could kill them with a single move.

"What did they look like? Any noticeable details?" She asked.

Kakashi frowned. "One of them had dogs. I think they saw me." Give her just enough detail...

"Dogs?" The woman frowned and exchanged a look with a Kiri shinobi. "Inuzuka."

The other shinobi nodded.

"Anything else?" The woman asked, shaking him.

"No, no I'm so sorry –"

"Enough whining. Where do you live?"

Kakashi told her.

She grimaced and spat on the floor. "Disgusting little rat. Go on then. You should be grateful you saw those shinobi – scum like you doesn't deserve the kind of mercy I'm showing you."

This must be a cheerful place to live, Kakashi thought. One half of the population despises the other. He nodded frantically and ran away as quickly as a civilian would be capable of (which was much, much slower than he would have liked to go). There was a good chance they would shadow him, if they had the resources.

This is too easy.

The village itself had probably been quite pretty before the jinchuuriki attack, with lots of trees and light, welcoming shops. The buildings were old and the paint slightly cracked, but everything seemed to be well-maintained otherwise. What the people lacked in funds, they had made up for with attention to detail.

Except that the people were all holed up in their houses. Shinobi loitered in the streets, yes, with that inexplicable air of soldiers expecting an attack, but the civilians had all fled into their houses where they hid away, breathlessly waiting for what came next.

The shinobi were mostly Kiri, with their cool coloring and filed teeth. Kakashi could see Steam shinobi curled up in corners, bleeding or dead already. Cowed into submission. The ones who hadn't been killed or injured had probably been taken captive or, like the jounin near the gate, drafted into the Kiri forces on pain of death – or more likely, the deaths of their families.

Kiri was holding the entire village hostage.

Kakashi moved as quickly as he dared, avoiding the main street. He got lost once or twice (Jiraiya's map was not as accurate as either of them would have liked) but fortunately escaped the notice of the Kiri shinobi. He would miss the anonymity of being a kid, if he survived long enough to grow up. No way they would have let him in if he'd been an adult, disguise or not.

The downside was that he could only guess at the shinobi's power levels. Normally you could tell a lot from someone's chakra, but with his own clamped down hard he couldn't sense anything. All he had to go by was posture and how people responded to each other. Some tough-looking guy defers to a narrow-chested, bespectacled boy? The boy is probably stronger.

He probably shouldn't have been so surprised that the red light district was more crowded than the other areas of the city. It also seemed to be the only place where people were still capable of smiling and laughing. They weren't drunk – only an absolute idiot would get himself drunk under these circumstances, and probably get himself executed for his trouble, this being the village of the bloody mist – but they were enjoying the festival games and the sparsely clad men and women looking to profit from the situation. Kakashi had to look away several times, blushing furiously. He should have worn a blindfold. Or… Or not.

He decided to store that thought for later.

He found Tsunade's address or without too much difficulty, after that. It was a hotel, but such a bad one that he could slip past reception without being noticed. There was really only one problem that he could think of, when he reached the door of her room: he wasn't the first to get there.

A girl of perhaps sixteen blinked at him. She had large, black eyes and equally dark hair that framed her face in a slightly disheveled look. She could have passed for an Uchiha, if she hadn't been holding a tiny little pig. She dropped it when she saw him, visibly startled, and her fingers twitched towards her sleeves.

Shinobi Kakashi thought, and couldn't quite repress his own instinctual grab for a kunai.

Her eyes caught onto his fingers. Then she looked up at his face, studied it, narrowed her eyes… And probed at him with her chakra.

Oh, shit –

Only the vague feeling that he knew this girl from somewhere stopped him from trying to break her neck when she rushed forward and placed a hand over his mouth. "Keep quiet," she hissed, "and we might just survive this."

She released her hands long enough for him to mutter, "Katou Shizune, I'm guessing?"

"Yes, and I know who you are too – Jiraiya-sama warned us you would come. Come on," releasing him, she beckoned him towards the door and opened it. The air inside the room was stale and smelled of alcohol. The curtains were closed.

He grimaced. "Just how long have you guys been in here?"

"Oh, hush. You try being stuck inside the same room for days. Shishou? He's here." Shizune said, and let him around the corner where two beds stood.

Whatever Kakashi had expected of Senju Tsunade, it wasn't this. She was sitting – slouching – on the bed, one perfectly manicured hand wrapped around a sake bottle as she raised an eyebrow at him.

She was without a doubt one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen. She was also, without a doubt, one of the drunkest women he had ever seen. As introduction, she burped.

Shizune flinched.

"You're the brat, then?" Tsunade asked. "I thought you looked different. Broodier."

"I didn't realize that was a job requirement," Kakashi said, wary. Could this really be the first Hokage's granddaughter? One of the legendary Sannin? Developer of some kind of crazy genius body modification seal that he kind-of-sort-of-really wanted to steal?

She waved a hand dismissively. "Tch. You try to make a joke. Never mind – what is all this bullshit with the Kiri ninja? I was actually enjoying myself for once."

"I'm so sorry that the war interfered," Kakashi sneered.

The sake bottle snapped in Tsunade's grip, spilling alcohol and ceramics onto the bed. "What was that?"

"Shishou, please. This is important!" Shizune pleaded. "You are our best way of getting out of this. If you just take out the people who are casting the barrier –"

Tsunade flinched. "You don't know what you're asking of me."

"We're asking you to do your job for once," Kakashi said. Shizune glared at him.

Tsunade ground the last piece of the bottle into dust in her hand. She tilted her head, her amber eyes clouded but ever so deadly. "Oh? My job?"

Kakashi suspected that if they hadn't all been clamping down their chakra, her aura alone could have cracked the walls. His eyes flickered towards the diamond on her forehead. He swallowed. "It's important for the village."

"Is it? I don't see how it's going to make any difference whether this village belongs to Konoha or Kiri or no one at all."

Kakashi blinked. Was she for real? "It could decide the course of war," he said slowly, trying to appraise her response.

"War is war is war. Who cares who wins?" Tsunade shrugged.

Okay, that was it – screw her being the first Hokage's granddaughter – he was going to punch her at some point. "How can you say that? Don't you care?"

She let out a long sigh. "Kid, trust me – whoever wins, there's always going to be another war. It makes no damn difference in the long run."

"I wish you wouldn't say such things," Shizune said, crossing her arms over her chest and sitting down on the second bed.

Tsunade made a noise in the back of her throat and swiped the broken bottle of her covers. "Say what you like. I'm not killing anyone. I've done enough killing. Shizune, show him the door."

As they watched, Tsunade slinked off the bed, grabbed another bottle from the floor and lay back down, turning her back towards them.

Kakashi close his jaw with a click. "But –"

Shizune grabbed his arm and pulled him away. "Come on, there's no point while she's like this. We'll just have to think of something ourselves. I could knock something up to put them to sleep. That would work, right?"

Kakashi shot her a bewildered look. There was a look of resignation in her eyes, like she had fought this battle a hundred times before and lost every time. "But why is she...?"

Shizune pulled him into the bathroom. Aside from the usual assortment of bathroom supplies, it held a set of backpacks from which she pulled a remarkable number of pouches filled with herbs and medicine. "She's had a bad day. She's usually more sober than this. Don't take it personally."

"But she's supposed to be a legend."

"And what, legends can't be weak sometimes?" Shizune snapped.

Kakashi flinched and remember his father's blank eyes, how his arms had grown weak and thin in those last few months, how he had been so quiet –

Shizune grimaced. "Sorry. I shouldn't have said that."

Kakashi shook his head and looked away. He felt a little nauseous. Don't think about that, he told himself. Stay in the present. Whatever he had just seen of the legendary Tsunade, she still had a loyal supporter in Shizune. That had to say something about her as a person. "I guess you do know who I am," he muttered.

Shizune nodded curtly. "Jiraiya-sama said they were sending Minato-sama's student. I remember seeing the two of you together, years ago."

"When did you leave the village?"

"When my uncle died. Ten years ago. He was Tsunade's fiancé."

Oh, oh.

Shizune caught his look and smiled faintly, bitterly. "She's been through a lot, you know. But she's always taking care of me."

"When she's not drunk," Kakashi muttered. He could understand pain, but that didn't mean he had to accept all of her coping methods.

Shizune's expression closed off. "Fine, be like that. Come on, I've got everything we need." She opened her dress far enough that she could put a small, thin pouch inside. "Blow darts and something that will put them to sleep. That should be enough, right?"

Kakashi nodded. Great job alienating another person, he thought to himself. "That will work. Let's go."

Shizune nodded. "I've come to know this town quite well. Just tell me where they are and I'll lead you there."

Their second track through the village was significantly sneakier than the first. With the setting sun deep shadows had fallen over the village, providing them with more cover. The Kiri shinobi were setting up to camp, lighting fires and reading houses for food.

As far as Kakashi knew, there were seven barrier casters in total, but taking out a single one would already be enough to destabilize the barrier. If they could take two or three, Kiri would struggle to get the barrier back up in time. Kakashi orientated himself by seeking out the Konoha camp with his eyes, so very far away from down here, and began to lead them towards where he knew the first caster to be.

Kakashi and Shizune had to stop and wait for a patrol to pass by several times, pressing themselves to the wall and hoping to whatever God was listening that they wouldn't be noticed. They set a good pace, despite everything – until they reached a small, innocuous looking clearing, where a team of shinobi had settled down around a campfire.

Kakashi made to sneak around but Shizune stopped him, shaking her head fiercely. "Wait," she whispered. "Look." She pointed.

And… There, slouched in their midst with the kind of confidence that came from knowing he was stronger than everyone else, sat a lanky masked figure with a head full of long, shaggy blond hair.

Kuriarare Kushimaru, Kakashi thought, cold fear curdling in his stomach. The reaper man, one of the deadliest of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, an absolute butcher –

And one of the guys who had killed Gai's dad.

Kuriarare took a long swig from a flask. "– And you know, that was the end of that. You should've seen her face, she never saw me coming, HA!" He slapped his own thigh as he laughed, as if he didn't notice how his allies flinched away from him. As if he didn't have the lethal blade Nuibari laid over his lap as he sharpened it with a whetstone. The blade was unnaturally long and thin, like its owner, and a glint of the light revealed metal wire was attached to the heft. It resembled a needle, and just thinking of what he used it for made Kakashi feel ill.

Kuriarare has his own bingo book entry. It read, avoid at all cost.

Kakashi snuck back behind the wall and took a deep breath. "Okay. That is a problem," he whispered back.

Shizune nodded furiously. "He's a sadist. He's also way too smart for us to just sneak past and knock the caster out without him noticing."

"Can we knock him out without anyone noticing?"

Shizune shook her head.

"All right. How about a distraction?"

"That might work. It might also get you killed," she hissed back.

"Then what do you suggest?"

She hesitated. "We take out another target first. We don't have to go for this one specifically."

Kakashi mulled it over and nodded. They could warn Minato and the others about Kuriarare's presence the moment the barrier came down. "Let's go for the one at our nine. When he drops, the two nearest to him will probably come for us. It'll draw attention, but that's unavoidable."

"Will the barrier disappear immediately after we take him out?"

"Probably. A barrier this big can only be kept alive if everyone's chakra input is completely balanced. If one of them disappears entirely…" He mimicked an explosion with his right hand.

"I don't like that shishou isn't in on this. It'll be chaos the moment the barrier goes down."

"She's made her choice. We've made ours."

Shizune frowned. "That may be, but I will go back for her right away. You do what you like, but I won't just abandon her."

"It's hardly abandoning her," Kakashi scoffed. He checked the fireplace again. No one had moved since the last time he had looked. He beckoned Shizune and together they began to shuffle in the direction of their new target. "She's supposed to be a legend. As strong as the Hokage, right? Only the guy over there stands a chance against her." He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder in Kuriarare's direction.

Shizune scowled. "You're not very good at comforting people, are you?" She muttered.

Kakashi shrugged. "Only stating the facts. Look, she can take care of herself, but I can't tell you what to do. Are you even officially a Konoha shinobi?"

"... Officially, yes. I'm not on active duty so they can't send me on missions."

Kakashi raised his eyebrows. Tsunade must have done an awful lot of negotiating to get that settlement through. Any student of hers could be a hell of an asset to Konoha. It helped to have connections, he figured. Or maybe they did jobs on the side, like Jiraiya. His Intel gathering was the only thing that kept him from straying into rouge nin terrain.

His questions would have to wait though, because they were getting closer to their target. This caster was protected by a small group of shinobi, like the previous one, but at least there wasn't an S-rank psychopath camped in their midst. Shizune took charge and led him to an empty building near the barrier. She pulled a pin from her robes and rummaged around with the door lock until it swung open. They snuck in carefully, wary of any presences.

There was one window overlooking the caster, as Shizune had planned. As Kakashi watched, she pulled out a bottle with a light blue tincture and a couple of other items including a thin, long pipe and a matching arrow. She dipped it into the tincture with practiced movement. Her fingers didn't so much as tremble. Still deathly quiet, she crept over to the window and slid it open just far enough for the pipe to fit through. Her eyes narrowed. It would be a difficult angle. She didn't hesitate once. Her cheeks bellowed out as she fired the shot.

Underneath the chameleon jutsu, Kakashi's Sharingan slowed down the arrow's trajectory so he could follow it until it sank into the target's neck. Shizune and he grinned at each other.

The target slapped a hand against his neck as if swatting away a fly.

"We have two minutes," Shizune whispered, and they were off again.

Shizune, Kakashi realized, was good. She moved without sound even in her long robes and her chakra, even this close, felt like little more than a flicker of light within her. He would have been hard-pressed to mimic that level of chakra suppression even without the Sharingan buzzing away.

The second shot was more difficult. The caster was chatting to another shinobi whose back was blocking their view. Kakashi sniffed and held up a finger. He hesitated briefly before cutting his thumb and using the blood for a summoning jutsu. Pakkun seemed to sense his mood and didn't speak, only looking between his summoner and Shizune, frowning. Kakashi untied the little dog's coat and headband, stuffing them into a pocket. Create a distraction, Kakashi signed. No chakra.

The nice thing about Pakkun was that he knew when not to ask questions. He only nodded, checked out their surroundings, and leapt away from their hiding spot. Kakashi lost sight of him briefly, but then one of the shinobi laughed and pointed and the little pug came waddling out of the shadows, tongue lolling and a blank expression on his face.

The shinobi who first noticed Pakkun was still smiling and got up to greet their little visitor. Pakkun wagged his tail. The shinobi crooned at him, drawing the attention of his colleagues. Kakashi clenched his jaw. A kunoichi crouched down next to his dog and started to scratch him behind the year. It would be so easy for her to reach out and...

Shizune's breath hitched. It was the only warning he got before he heard the hiss of her blow dart. He whirled back to see. At the same time a shout rose up from somewhere behind them. The direction of their first target.

The killing intent hit him and Shizune at exactly the same time. She blanched. His heart dropped to his stomach. Dammit, but he should have brought his new blade –

The barrier was down.

Kuriarare was on his way. Adrenaline kicked in.

Their second target was still staggering drunkenly when Shizune left their hiding space and went running for the streets towards her teacher. Kakashi backed himself up against the wall. Sensei would come soon. Sensei and everyone else –

"You really shouldn't have used that summoning jutsu," a cold voice said, right behind him.

Kakashi was on his feet instantly, but he was too slow. A large hand clamped over his skull and foreign chakra washed over him, dissipating the chameleon jutsu. Kakashi twisted his body at a painful angle to kick at the stranger's hand. The stranger cursed, then laughed, and oh – it was Kuriarare.

The demon butcher of the Mist. Well. Facing down monsters was starting to become a habit.

There was no point in hiding his chakra anymore, not with his hair silver again and his eyes in full view. He threw his hands together in a seal and sank through the floor with a well-timed headhunter jutsu. He landed in a crouch on the floor below. There was no time to check for strangers, so he just leapt for the window and out out out –

"Oh no you don't!" Kuriarare screeched, high-pitched and manic. "Let's play first, shall we?"

Something shiny and metal came flying at Kakashi from behind. He threw himself aside as the blade tore a line across his upper arm. Kuriarare followed, ridiculously fast, and all Kakashi could do was run.

The whole village was on alert by now. If he stood and fought, he'd be facing down not just Kuriarare but every damn mist ninja nearby. Kuriarare must have sensed his chakra when he summoned Pakkun and oh, he was such an idiot, really, Kakashi?

But he could see his way out. Could see exactly where he could climb over the wall with minimal resistance, Obito's eye plotting out the quickest route for him to take. And he was fast too, fast enough for chidori and fighting Minato and certainly fast enough to stay ahead of some middle-aged mist asshole for a few minutes –

What he hadn't counted on was Shizune shouting in the distance. He turned his head to look over his shoulder just once, slowing down just a little bit – don't get distracted, you absolute greenhorn – and then Kuriarare was on him, using his full body weight to bear him down. Kakashi hit the ground hard enough to slam all the air from his lungs. Kuriarare was huge and heavy and at least twice his size, pressing one hand to Kakashi's head and holding his right arm down with the other. The white mask loomed mere inches away from his own face. Killing intent pressed in on him from all sides, pushing and pulling and willing him to give into his terror.

"I know this face," Kuriarare hissed. "I know it. I know you. You're Konoha. You're – I saw you, but where? I saw you."

Kakashi could hardly breathe. He struggled against Kuriarare but there was no point, the other man was stronger. Kuriarare pushed the left side of his face against the ground so he couldn't use his Sharingan, he couldn't see –

He wasn't going to die like this. He refused. He called up lightning.

It danced across his skin in a myriad of light and shadow, screeching furiously and clawing at Kuriarare. Kuriarare flinched away, finally released him, hesitated –

Someone was roaring. An all-out, ferocious battle cry. More killing intent, but this he had felt before, this he recognized. Kakashi used Kuriarare's distraction to scramble right the hell away.

He'd barely made it to the other side of the courtyard when the world cracked apart. The impact threw him to the ground all over again but this, he didn't mind, because this was Senju Tsunade, ripping the very village apart with her bare hands.

When he looked over his shoulder, he saw her standing in the middle of the crater, one fist still pressed to the broken earth. Angry chakra rolled off her in waves. Shizune was just behind her, watching.

Another flash of chakra, this one infinitely familiar. Kakashi grinned. Something yellow flashed at the edges of his vision.

Konoha had arrived, and Kiri could not answer them in time.

AN

I love Tsunade. Or, as keepyourpantsongohan put it, "truly the vodka aunt Kakashi deserves."