Dear Readers,
to head off well meant messages concerning the story Little Purple Book from RosesAreRed14, I gave her PERMISSION to use Mariko's in her story and if you haven't read it yet and like OC's go check it out. ;)
Chapter 43
Beta'd by Black Sparrow
Even with their injuries and exhaustion Kakashi and Gai covered the distance between the Hatake home and the Hokage tower in record time. They arrived only seconds after Genma and Yugao dropped down from the building across from the Hokage tower, unfortunately Kurenai and Raido were still nowhere in sight.
Kakashi let his gaze wander over both of his comrades, they were certainly injured. Genma had a few bled through bandages covering his upper arms and shoulders, the cuts and stab wounds must have been nasty to bleed through the ANBU standard bandages, the silver haired Jounin was sure that the senbon wielder would have to get those looked at in the hospital as soon as they were finished. Yugao on the other hand had the beginnings of a black eye and she was also favoring her left foot.
"Sitrep," Kakashi grunted while he forcefully relaxed his thighs, the bruised muscles were starting to give him trouble.
"Raido, Kurenai and me engaged the Root operatives. We brought three down with some difficulties. One of them was a wind user and he hit me with Wind Blades, so I stayed behind to get them to T&I and get the cuts patched up. We sent Kurenai ahead as backup for you guys and Raido helped me doctor up my wounds somewhat before following her. I sealed those bastards and brought them back to Inoichi, the ANBU medic stopped the internal bleeding but there is something in the cuts that stops chakra healing and they will have to heal naturally," Genma reported in a relative calm voice.
Kakashi nodded before looking at Yugao.
"Gai and I engaged the next Root members; one was a weapon master and the other an earth user. Gai fought the weapon master and nearly won but when the bastard changed direction in the middle of the fight to go after me Gai had to put an arm in front of the hammer the guy was swinging. I'm not sure how bad his injuries are…" Yugao trailed off when she looked at Konoha's Green Beast.
Said man grinned at her and said in a for him moderately calm voice, "It's fine my youthful comrade, it was a clean break and a medic nin fixed it right up!"
Yugao just nodded before continuing, "Anyway, the earth user got me with a surprise hit when I was distracted by an attack from the weapon master, my left foot is bruised pretty badly and he gave me a nasty concussion, not that I knew at that moment. Gai sent me back with the sealed Root members. Oh and Kurenai overtook us while Gai sealed our opponents."
"The concussion?" Kakashi asked slightly concerned, concussions were nasty and could be fatal if not treated correctly.
"The ANBU medic healed most of it after I nearly ran into a wall," Yugao answered dryly.
This elicited a tired grin from her comrades; she hadn't been the first in this group to run into a wall because of a concussion and would probably not be the last.
Kakashi then became serious once more, "Anko and Asuma are in the hospital for critical injuries, I have no idea how they are. Asuma was stabbed with Danzo's cane through the torso and Anko had her seal tampered with, Yugao and Raido are also there but they are more or less fine. On another note the mission objective was fulfilled, Danzo is captured and barely alive. I cracked his spine and I ripped off his Sharingan arm."
The team members were feeling a mixture of dark satisfaction about Danzo's state and worry for their comrades but quickly locked those emotions away when they entered the secured room where a grim looking Hokage along with an uncommonly focused Nara Shikaku waited.
"Mission objective fulfilled, Hokage-sama," Kakashi stated while he handed over the sealing scroll with Danzo inside.
The Hokage looked if possible even grimmer when he noticed half of the team missing. "Causality report first."
"No deaths at the moment but both Asuma and Anko are critical. The rest has moderate to severe injuries but nothing fatal or permanent," the silver haired Jounin elaborated to give his Hokage a chance to get his bearings after hearing his son was injured critically.
"Danzo?" the sixty eight year old ninja asked.
"Barely alive. Broken spine, some serious cuts on the back and I removed his Sharingan arm," the team captain answered quickly.
"Good," was his only reply.
"Cover story?" the Hatake inquired politely.
"Infiltration. Danzo was critically wounded and is under ANBU protection. The Infiltrator was discovered. Your team engaged him and his team members. Classified as SS-rank mission," came the lazy answer of the Nara clan head on the side, he had returned to his normal slump after hearing the news of Danzo's capture.
"Understood," all team members answered before bowing to their leader and leaving the room, the rest would be up to the T&I division and the Hokage.
"Hospital?" Yugao asked tentatively.
"Hospital," Kakashi acknowledged and the four made their way to the most dreaded building in Konoha, at least for the shinobi.
When they arrived at said building they made their way to the second floor, where an entire section of the hospital was hidden from view. Not many ninja and even less civilians were aware of this section of the hospital. It had been added to the original building only a few years ago and contained an ANBU secured ward for high profile clients and ninja. The whole section was placed under a Fuin-Genjutsu which meant that it siphoned chakra directly out of the earth and the plants around the hospital into the Genjutsu. For people to enter it they needed to be led by an ANBU member who was aware of the correct chakra pattern to create a hole in the Genjutsu wall. Furthermore two chakra sensors were stationed twenty four hours at the only spot where the Genjutsu could be opened from the outside. The ninja committed the chakra signature to heart and kept track of who entered and who left. It had been modeled after the spherical barrier around Konoha with a few additional adaptations that made it nearly insurmountable thanks to its reduced size. The inventor had unfortunately died during an ANBU mission only half a year after implementing his idea, since then Konoha's Fuinjutsu force had been trying to recreate it.
When Kakashi's team arrived they at first ignored the hidden section and walked down another corridor that contained emergency rooms for the black ops operatives. With a quick chakra probe the silver haired Jounin had located both Kurenai and Raido only a few doors down in the corridor, hastily he made his way to the two ninja, his comrades hot on his heels. Both ninja looked worried while they watched the two operating rooms in front of them.
"Any news?" Kakashi asked quietly while he sank into a hard plastic seat beside Kurenai.
The kunoichi swallowed before she said, "Asuma went into cardiac arrest two times before we arrived at the hospital, they have been operating on him nonstop since then. Anko was placed straight into a healing coma; apparently she had just enough chakra left to last her to the hospital. They had to do an emergency chakra transfer and then hooked her up to liquid chakra supplements. At the moment they are working to get her chakra system stabilized, whatever happened to it damaged it severely, they can't say if it's going to affect her in the future," at the last part Kurenai's voice had become grim, a damaged chakra system was normally a death blow to a shinobi career.
Around Kakashi the ninja grimaced, Anko's ninja career was her life; it would kill her if she couldn't do it anymore. The silver haired Jounin was just about to say something encouraging when one of the emergency rooms signs reported that the operation was completed. As a unit the ninja stood up and waited for the door to open.
Out came three medic nins and a nurse who wheeled a painfully pale Anko out of the room.
"Are you her team?" after Kakashi nodded in confirmation the medic nin continued, "Well she survived the chakra transplantation and fixing of her damaged coils, so she is not longer in a critical condition. However we can't tell anything about the true state of her chakra system until she wakes up and starts to use it. We are cautiously optimistic but it is still a game of wait and see at the moment," the brown haired man said seriously before leaving along with the other two medics.
Kakashi moved closer to his unconscious teammate and watched her pale face for a moment before he, Raido and Yugao followed the nurse in direction of the Genjutsu barrier. The nurse wheeled Anko in front of the secure ward and waited a moment to give the chakra sensors enough time to imprint Anko's nearly invisible chakra signature into their minds before placing the snake summoner in an empty two bed room. There she connected the purple haired young woman to a few machines and then left the room. Yugao and Raido settled beside her bed while Kakashi returned to the emergency room that contained Asuma.
It took another hour for the light to go out above the operating room and Kakashi's team had organized themselves into shifts so that all of them could get something to eat before returning to wait.
The six people strong medic nin team came out of the ER dripping with sweat but visibly victorious.
The thirtyish woman with the short cropped blue hair nodded at them before saying, "Sarutobi-san is going to make a full recovery."
Simultaneously the shinobi let out relieved sighs and happy grins, at least one of the two was going to be totally okay.
"Sarutobi-san will need at least a week recovery before he can even think about returning to light training but we could repair the damage done to his lung tissue as well as counter attack those pesky smoker lungs," the last part was murmured in quiet disapproval.
Kakashi just grinned before the whole team joined up in the hospital room of their comrades, it was little after eight o'clock after a very tiring day and all of them let their shoulders slump in relief.
Yugao was just about to say something when the Hokage came through the door; automatically all of them came to attention. The God of Shinobi distractedly waved at them, his full attention was on his youngest and only surviving son.
"How is he doing?" the Sarutobi asked no one particular in the room.
"According to the medics he is going to make a full recovery," Kakashi supplied while he settled back into the slightly uncomfortable chair.
Their Hokage gave no inclination about what he thought about Kakashi words but his eyes travelled over Asuma's body and the tubes connected to him before nearly reluctantly turning around and moving over to Anko.
"And Anko?" Hokage-sama questioned.
"She will survive but the medics couldn't say anything about her chakra system or if she ever would make a full recovery," Yugao answered somewhat choked, Anko was one of her closest friends and seeing her like this made her feel sick.
Sarutobi nodded gravely before finally looking at the spread out group, "Keep me updated please."
Affirmative murmurs came from all of them as they watched the monkey summoner leave the room.
They sat in silence while they listened to the beeping of the machines until Kurenai cleared her throat, "Kakashi? Isn't Shiori going to worry about your absence?"
"I told her that I would be checking up on those two after the mission debriefing, so no worries," Kakashi answered easily while he minutely changed his position to relieve some pressure on his bruised torso muscles.
"She is right you know. Asuma and Anko will be out for at least twenty four hours, you could go home and rest," Raido interjected.
"And you will do the same? Yeah right… don't worry guys, Shiori knows that in such cases the team comes first. When I haven't shown up in two days to at least change my clothes and take a shower, then she's going to start to worry," the silver haired Jounin explained amused.
Did they really think he would leave Anko and Asuma without protection? Granted they were in a high security ward and the rest of the team was also here to watch over them but HE was their team captain. Until both of them had returned to consciousness he was going to sit right beside them, small breaks excluded of course.
"Aren't you worried that Root could want retribution?" Kurenai asked curiously, the question had been nagging her since she had arrived at the hospital.
As an answer Kakashi snorted before shaking his head, "It's not Root that is the problem, it is Danzo and he is as good as dead. I doubt that Hokage-sama will let him get away after what he has done. Furthermore Lizard-taicho agreed to have operatives watch over Shiori and the kids, so I'm not too worried."
Lizard Interlude
Shirakumo Hayama liked to think of himself as a rational and analytical ninja. He was in no way near Nara level but he still had more IQ points than the average operative, this intelligence was also one of the reasons why he had been made ANBU captain a few years back. The dark grey haired shinobi was also a very loyal person and loved his village and comrades deeply. So when Hatake Kakashi revealed his family to his and Wombat-taicho's ANBU teams the eccentric Hatake probably KNEW that Lizard would do his best to keep them safe. And it was true; Lizard owed this to this man who had gotten him out of more than one sticky situation. Furthermore working with Hatake had shown him the true value of teamwork and loyalty all those years ago and what it meant to be a good captain and watch over his team. That said man now had a vulnerable family to take care of made his abrupt retirement of the ANBU forces a lot more understandable. To be honest most of them had thought that it was because of the direct wish of the Hokage as well as the upcoming graduation of Uchiha Sasuke… well they thought wrong apparently.
And wasn't this a mind fuck and a half? Hatake Kakashi had a family.
The silver haired ANBU prodigy that was lauded as one of the finest operatives ever entering the ANBU ranks and eternal bachelor to boot as far as rumors went was married to Inoue Shiori and had a toddler daughter with her. Hayama knew that when this was all over he and Wombat-taicho would contemplate this phenomenon over a bottle of sake or ten but until then they had a job to do.
He watched absentmindedly until the black haired civilian along with Hatake's Genin team vanished inside the house before joining the others at sealing up evidence and then destroying any and all residue. With the small child in mind he also had the earth user in their group changing up the grounds, better to take extra care now than having Hatake's daughter accidently falling into the blood residue.
When they were finished Lizard asked into the loose half circle, "Who volunteers for guard shift at Hatake's."
The reaction was instant, simultaneously all operatives took a step forward; all of them were ready to help one of their comrades out.
Wombat sighed, "Right… let's go with one of yours and one of mine and have them change every four hours."
"Agreed," Lizard stated while he nodded at Jackal who was the freshest out of his team.
With that sorted out Lizard quickly knocked on one of the windows to the apparent living room and waved goodbye to Inoue-san and Kakashi's Genins before taking off alongside his team.
The last part is for titpuce86 :D, I will probably continue the POV in the next chapter.