Chapter 40

Thank you all for the nice and thoughtful comments I have received since I posted this story, it really makes me happy and helps me to continue to write the story. :D

Beta'd by Black Sparrow

Kakashi swallowed painfully while he closed his eyes and listened to the repetitive beeping of the machines that told him that his comrades, his friends were still alive. That this man in front of him and the woman across the room were still breathing no matter how damaged they were. The silver haired Jounin's head and shoulders gingerly moved against the wall so that he could prop up his beaten body and give it some relief while he thought about how quickly luck had turned on them in the last few hours and how luck once more had kept these two alive until the medics had arrived.

It had all started the moment Kakashi had left his home. The silver haired Jounin had felt how the Fuinjutsu barrier had activated before the stealth function kicked in and the barrier had faded away from his senses, after that only chakra sensors would be able to pick it up. Relieved the former ANBU captain had turned his attention back to his movements through Konoha's woods. They were taking the long way to reach the Hokage tower along the outer walls of Konoha and then split up into pairs to avoid drawing attention.

The group moved covertly through four different entrance points and arrived in the secured room underneath the Hokage tower. Inside Nara Shikaku and Yamanaka Inoichi were already talking shop about the happenings in a few hours. Kakashi gave them a quick rundown about what he and the other members of his team had discussed in his home and together with the two clan leaders the silver haired Jounin polished the rough draft into a workable plan.

Kakashi snorted bitterly, he should have known right at that moment that shit was about to hit the fan, everything had fit together too smoothly.

All three of them had agreed to take down Danzo in the Hokage's office to not give him space to escape or call for backup. The attack team had positioned itself throughout the Hokage floor as to not tip off Danzo before the trap closed around him. Only Genma and Raido were directly in the office, they were easy to explain because both of them served as elite bodyguards for the Sandaime Hokage and were incorporated in the ANBU protection detail of the Hokage anyway even if they weren't official ANBU members anymore, the actual ANBU detail had been sent down into the barracks for the next two hours.

Kurenai had agreed to position herself in the front room of the Hokage office; her excuse was to schedule her lunch break plans for the next day with the Hokage's secretary who actually was a good friend of hers.

Gai, Asuma, Yugao and himself had been in a sealed room that blocked anybody outside of it from picking up on their chakra signature which was directly above the entrance of the Sandaime's office. Anko on the other hand could be found in the small T&I archive the floor held, supposedly searching for some kind of information.

To give the antidote time to work the Hokage and the assault team had all taken it half an hour prior to the pretense meeting Danzo had been called to. Shikaku had carefully monitored Danzo's actions through the Telescope technique before sending out an oblivious ANBU operative to summon Danzo to the Hokage. They had all agreed that the less people knew what was going on the better the chance they had to nail the traitor down, because that's what Danzo was he had committed treason by going against a direct order of the Hokage.

The old shinobi had arrived ten minutes prior the meeting as was his habit and had moved through the secretarial office where Kurenai was talking cheerfully to her friend, both females had greeted the Elder before continuing their conversation the moment he had opened the door to the office.

"Welcome, Danzo," the Hokage greeted while he quickly finished up the paperwork in front of him, his pipe was lit in the corner of his mouth.

Shikaku and Inoichi were seated on a small table somewhat apart of the Hokage desk and simply nodded in the direction of the Elder. Danzo noted their presence absently and tested the air for the particular mix Hiruzen was using before becoming a lot more aware, the Sandaime smoked this particular brand only when he was agitated.

"Hiruzen, why the sudden meeting?" the scarred shinobi asked while he made his way further into the room, absently noticing the chakra signatures on the ceiling and recognizing them as familiar before dismissing them as a threat.

"We have a… bit of a problem Danzo and I'm not completely sure how to handle it," Hiruzen sighed while he moved the stack of paper aside and stood up to walk around the desk.

Danzo was just about to ask for specifics when he felt a strange feeling entering his body, what the… The old war hawk instantly tensed and rapidly scanned the chakra signatures that had moved into the direction of the Hokage office in the last few moments, he could only make out Mitarashi and she could be explainable as representative of the T&I. A sharp glance at Hiruzen didn't help either; his old rival gave nothing away through his expression and both the Nara and the Yamanaka clan head were once more bent over a stack of documents.

The only thing that saved him in the next moment was his decade long experience as a fighter, with the speed that had only slightly decreased since his prime he moved aside and so could escape the fatal blows that came from above. His vital organs were safe but his bandage free arm and back had become numb from the punch he had received from Maito and the electrical discharge from Hatake.

Fucking Hatake, he had been getting in his way for quite some time now.

With as much speed as he could muster up he moved away from the two Jounin only to be blocked by the weapons of Shiranui and Namiashi while Usuki and Hiruzen's youngest brat dropped down in front of the Hokage. Confronted with such a big group of enemies the Root Commander felt himself forced to reveal his greatest weapon, he ripped off the bandages of his newest acquisition curtsey of Orochimaru. Nearly a year had gone by after the Uchiha massacre until Danzo had dared to contact Orochimaru concerning his upgrade. After that it had taken another ten months to get him to agree to the operation which in the end had led to problem after problem with his arm until the last operation only a few months ago had finally yielded some useful results. Of course he had trained with the arm as soon as possible but it was still too new and so the Elder couldn't use it to its maximum capability.

Kakashi's eyes went wide in horror when he realized what he saw on the just freed arm of Danzo's and shouted, "Close your eyes! He has Sharingans in his arm."

Danzo cursed underneath his breath when his Genjutsu activated a second too late and everybody present had already closed their eyes and started their counter measures. He rapidly stopped said Genjutsu when he felt it drain his chakra reserves too fast and in turn triggered the cells of the First Hokage. The Shimura could practically feel how the dead cells crawled up his arm and changed another part of his body. Cornered like this he chose the safest path and turned to jump through one of the windows of the office only to change direction in the last moment and shunshin through the wood door. On his way out he destroyed the wooden construction in a fraction of a second and then speeded through the only partially reinforced windows behind the secretary that was pushed down by a furious looking Yuuhi.

Behind him he could hear loud cursing and as he picked up speed, Danzo could feel eight chakra signatures hot on his heels. Seconds later he could feel three of his Root agents engaging the group and occupying the same amount of ninja, if he wasn't wrong it were Shiranui, Namiashi and Yuuhi. Now only five were left and leading them was the blasted Hatake that he was now making responsible for this whole disaster. Logically Danzo of course knew that he couldn't make the ninja responsible without knowing all the facts but right in that moment it felt more than satisfying. In a spur of the moment the old war veteran changed directions and sprinted in the direction of the civilian hussy the boy had knocked up and their brat. Had Hatake really thought that he could keep them a secret from him? Yes, it may have taken his agents some time to connect the tea house owner with the silver haired thorn in his side but when it had happened and he had heard about the infant Danzo couldn't have been more satisfied. The little girl would be a fine Root agent in a few years when she was out of the toddler stage, furthermore her kidnapping would also hurt the only other viable Hokage candidate in Konoha and a compromised mind would damage his chance to be chosen further. Behind him the Root Commander could feel his pursuers increase their pace even further; especially Hatake's signature was obviously agitated and started to break formation.

Good, make mistakes! Danzo thought viciously while he pushed his body further.

Kakashi gritted his teeth while his heart was beating a mile a minute, this couldn't be happening, Danzo was heading directly to his home, where his family and his team was hiding. What was Danzo playing at? He couldn't know about them could he? The silver haired Jounin cursed inwardly when the answer popped up; of COURSE he knew about his family, how could he have been so utterly naïve? And now the old war hawk was going after his family… like hell he would allow that!

Decision made up he overtook his comrades and poured as much chakra into his feet as he dared, behind him he could feel how another two of his comrades faltered in their pursuit, it seemed as if another two of Danzo's Root members had arrived to help their master. Concentrating back on his task Kakashi caught up to the Shimura within the next ten seconds and was only thirty meters away from him when the Hatake home appeared in front of him and Danzo crashed head first into the Fuinjutsu barrier and unfortunately broke it.

That must have hurt, Kakashi thought idly while he reached the Elder.

The silver haired Jounin didn't waste this precious moment of disorientation and instantly attacked. He got one good kunai hit in before he was suddenly on the defensive side of the battle. The old war veteran was even sprier than Kakashi had feared and he was barely keeping up. At least it seemed as if he couldn't use his Sharingan arm properly, all ten eyes were closed.

Two moments later Asuma and Anko caught up to them and were distracting Danzo enough that he missed the opportunity to put his fist through Kakashi's ribcage. Anko instantly summoned her snakes and sent the beasts right in the middle of the fray while she kept some distance. She was neither as fast nor as strong as Asuma and Kakashi and was fully aware that she would only be an easy target for Danzo and a distraction for her comrades should she try to attack the Root Commander. Her precaution was unfortunately useless because the moment Danzo had pushed both shinobi aside he rushed the snake user, only Kakashi's last minute intervention saved Anko from being impaled by a kunai. In the following melee Kakashi was able to get a hold on Danzo's arm while he deflected the kunai with one of his own but before the Hatake could do anything Asuma appeared behind Danzo and sunk one of his Chakra blades in the strange face of the Sharingan hand and the other partially in the shoulder blade. Kakashi was already calculating how to finish this battle when Danzo moved his hand lighting fast and thrust his cane through Asuma.

The silver haired Jounin's heart missed a beat while he looked at the astonished eyes of the wind user across from him.

An enraged shriek as well as an anguished yell came out of two female throats, followed by a snake that bit into the hand that held the cane lodged inside Asuma. Kakashi's brain stopped thinking and his reflexes took over. In a fraction of a moment he was on Danzo, Anko not far behind him and both of them were attacking anything they could reach. Through the haze of red Kakashi noticed that Kurenai landed beside Asuma and engulfed his chest with green chakra before the two seemingly vanished into their surroundings. Good, she had put them under a genjutsu.

Now the Root Commander became really pressed to win this fight, his wounds were seriously beginning to hinder him and both Hatake and Mitarashi didn't seem to slow down one bit. He would have to put the snake summoner out first, he had already been bitten by one of her beasts and he could feel how the poison moved through his veins along with whatever else he had breathed in at the Hokage tower, another bite and he would be down for the count. With Hatake he could deal later but first was the poison user's due, he HATED poison users.

With a burst of speed Danzo was suddenly in Anko's personal bubble. His left hand snapped out and went for her neck. Desperate to save his friend from death Kakashi's hands snapped out, took a hold of the Sharingan arm and ripped backwards.

What happened next Kakashi could only see thanks to his Sharingan, Danzo's fingers touched Anko's sealed Ten no Juin and it pulsed once before it started to spread over her body. In the same moment the muscles and bones of the old shinobi underneath Kakashi's hands gave in and with a wet ripping noise Kakashi separated the Sharingan arm from Danzo's body.

The clearing was silent with disbelief for a moment until suddenly the snake user started to shriek and writhe in pain. Wide eyed Kakashi turned back to a dry heaving Danzo, the silver haired Jounin knew that he had to wrap this up fast his comrades needed him.

Before him Danzo desperately tried to stop the blood flow from his shoulder while counter attacking Kakashi's jabs with his feet. The Hatake could practically see how the blood loss was taking its toll and with a carefully placed backwards flip and vicious kick he cracked the Elder's spine just below the neck.

The once so revered shinobi lay helplessly on the floor.