They knew we were here; we may as well come out and face them.
As I was about to jump down, Minato-Sensei held his fist up and spoke. "I don't think that is necessary, we aren't trying to engage in anything, I just want to understand this mission of yours. It does seem strange that the blood mist village would travel this far into our territory without notice you see."
The man with the blue hair had his hand on the handle of his blade on his back. "C'mon captain, let's just take this guy out already." He said excitedly. This guy had no self-control and it was obvious. "Shut up Okura!" the white haired one spoke up. Those two seemed to be the arguing type, how annoying.
"We just wanted to check on some of your friends Minato. You know how these war missions can be." Kurokawa sighed. "We don't need to shed any unnecessary blood here." He went to turn away as if saying that the conversation was over.
Rin's voice suddenly rang through the trees "KAKASHI BEHIND YOU."
AGHHHH
I felt the slice of something ripping through my shoulder blade just as I was moving out of the way, the tip of his sword must have caught me. How did I not see Okura move? I glanced down at the ground gripping my shoulder in pain. He was still down there, but he was smiling up at me with deep green eyes before his body collapsed into a puddle.
A water clone.
Rin appeared behind me, her hands pushing against my wound. "It's deep Kakashi, how did you not see him?" She almost sounded angry with me. "I'm sorry, I thought I had my eyes on him the whole time." She was trying to heal the gash enough to stop the bleeding, but before she could finish I roundhouse kicked behind me, just above her head and landed a blow to the side of Okura's face, sending him flying to the ground with a loud smash.
...
Minato-Sensei was still standing below us, but he now was ready to fight the other two men. "Leave them alone, I can take all three of you myself." He was smirking, I couldn't call his bluff, no doubt he had marked the trees nearby for his flying reijin, making him the fastest man here, not to mention his special kunai.
"Well if it has to come to this..." Kurokawa sighed. "I guess I have to let Ishii here take all of your lives." With that the white-haired man, Ishii, moved his hands quickly signing his next move. Suddenly a thick cloud of mist rolled through the forest, it was thick enough that you couldn't even see your own hand in front of your face. Rin had replaced her hands onto my shoulder blade after my kick, I bought her more time to heal me, but it wouldn't be enough to fully fix it, I would have to deal with it. "Thank you, Rin, I think I can handle it now." I said, shrugging my shoulder, rotating my arm and getting a feel for the pain. It would have to do, we had to guard against attacks.
Minato-Sensei yelled up to us "Trust your instincts!". We both knew what he meant without him having to be specific, the enemy didn't know what skills we had, and they didn't seem to notice my sharingan either, if they did, they would have known that there was no point in visual impairment. Rin had her eyes closed, focusing on the enemy's chakra patterns. She wasn't practiced enough to be able to detect their forms when they were moving, but that didn't matter since I could see them when they got in range.
...
"These brats won't take much Ishii; can't I just do it?" Okura's voice was somewhere in the distance. He got no response. I threw a shuriken to my left as I backed up against the tree trunk, the front of the branch I was standing on snapped where I had just been standing. "Ah, you saw me coming did you?" Ishii's voice was close. I looked upward slightly, but not noticeably enough for anyone who would have been watching. There he was, standing about 10 feet above me with his arms crossed. "It's been awhile since someone caught on to me that quickly." I flickered out of sight and appeared next to him, swinging my kunai at his head. He ducked out of the way, kicking one leg out at my feet as I jumped and grabbed the branch above me. I flipped my legs up to the underside of the branch that I was holding and pushed off with my kunai blade pointing toward Ishii. He moved quickly and I broke the branch in half, landing on the one Rin was standing on again.
"You okay?" I asked her. She nodded; eyes still closed. "Minato-Sensei is fighting Kurokawa, I can't tell who is winning, they are moving incredibly fast."
I suddenly remembered that Okura was somewhere as well, and with his unstable personality, he more than likely wouldn't stay hidden long and when he did strike, Rin was the only open target. I must stay close to her so I can defend if needed.
I felt air whoosh past my right ear as I moved my head slightly. A tree in the distance splintered and part of it collapsed. I could hear a chuckling behind me somewhere. "How is it that you can sense such intense movements?" Ishii appeared in front of me smirking. "Ahh...You possess a sharingan? You must be an Uchiha then. How exciting."
He slashed at me with what looked like small blades under his cloak sleeve as I jumped backwards, still standing in front of Rin. The man cackled "You know kid, I've killed a few of your clan in my time." He took a few steps toward me, I could see the points of the blades poking out of his sleeves, there were five on each hand which meant that they were part of his fingers.
...
I took a quick look around for Okura who still hadn't shown his face. I couldn't detect him at all, and I couldn't ask Rin right now either without giving away my next move. I had to trust that he was either fighting Minato-Sensei or laying low with his own plan. "Actually, I'm not an Uchiha at all." I said as I crouched down. "I'm just your worst nightmare." I sprung into the air and threw a handful of shuriken at Ishii to get him away from Rin and chase after me instead. He took the bait and I could see him moving quickly toward me as I jumped from branch to branch, in a circle around the clearing. I kept my eyes on Rin who still had her eyes closed, focusing on the chakra around her. I knew if something changed that she would call out, but I had to let her do her own thing right now.
I was jumping in strange patterns around the forest, dodging the occasional shuriken and throwing one of my own in return each time to show that I was still interested in the chase. "Come on kid enough running, you aren't scared are ya?" his voice was so gruff, like he had something stuck in his throat. We were only running for about 60 seconds, but he seemed to be sick of it already. I found my way back to Rin and landed on the branch that she was still standing on, Ishii stopped a few behind me. I leaned over and whispered into her ear; "Rin, do you sense Okura?" She nodded. "approximately 60 feet south-east. I don't know what he's doing, he isn't moving". So, he does have a plan, he's just letting us fight our battles first.
That was fine with me, my fight wish Ishii was about to be over anyway. I noticed when he was chasing me that he wasn't as fast as he wanted us to believe, if he was, he could have easily caught up to me and attacked. That must be why he relies on his mist jutsu so heavily, because it gives the illusion that he is extremely fast when his movements are just hidden from his enemy. My sharingan is going to be my most useful tool.
...
I jumped away from Rin and onto the ground and ran about 20 feet away from the clearing and into the forest. Minato-Sensei and Kurokawa were still in the heat of battle, it looked like sensei could have the upper hand though. I turned my attention to Ishii who had come down to face me. "What is the point of this mist if I can see you through it?" I said with a cocky attitude, hoping to agitate him slightly. "It's not like you're going to beat me anyway."
He looked angry, but the scar stretching from his right eye diagonally to the left side of his chin made it a little difficult to read his facial expressions, he kind of always looked agitated. "Is that so? Well why don't you just get on with it then." He crouched down in a defensive position as if waiting for me to attack. I just shoved my hands into my pockets and stood there, leaving myself wide open. "Why don't you make the first move this time. I wont even use my hands." I shrugged my shoulders.
His smile wrinkled the corners of his eyes, I noticed the razor sharpness of his teeth for the first time since we met him. "You just lost this fight kid." He lunged at me, his 'claws' ready to swipe into my body. I kicked off the ground and flipped sideways over him, landing in the spot that he was just standing a moment ago. A shuriken whizzed past my head as I tilted it slightly to the left. I felt the same small gust of air rush past my right arm at the same time, barely missing the fabric of my sleeve.
"Water bullets aren't going to be enough to kill me." I sighed as he kicked off a tree lunging at me again. I dipped my body backwards till I was laying on the ground, my hands still in my pockets, I kicked my knee upward as hard as I could just as he was above me, sending him upward with a loud grunt. I flickered away and then above him, kicking the heel of my foot down against the middle of his back, sending him hurling back to the ground with a loud crack.
I landed in front of where he was laying, trying to catch his breath on the ground. "What...did you...do to ...me". He spoke while gasping between breaths. "Nothing really, I just focused the chakra in my body to my feet, so when I kicked you, I disrupted your chakra network". I smiled down at him. "Just something I picked up from a friend." My friend back home from the academy had taught me how to infuse chakra into weapons, and although I had no weapons to use, I was very good at fighting with my legs because of my speed. "I think we're done here." I put my foot next to his face and gave it a nice swift kick to knock him out.
Alright, I think it's time I checked on Rin again.
At that same moment I heard her through the trees.
"KAKASHI!". Her scream was echoing around the forest as the mist was beginning to lift as I leaped back to the tree that she had been standing on.
"RIN WHERE ARE YOU?" I shouted. Quickly scanning the area nearby trying to catch a glimpse of her. About 50 feet away, just past where Minato-Sensei had been just a few minutes ago, was Rin laying on the ground, her face turned toward me; Okura's foot pushing down on her head.
He was smiling, which made him look even crazier than before. His focus was on me only, which meant that Minato-Sensei wasn't nearby anymore.
He smiled at me, tilting his head to the left and staring at me with those dark green eyes that seemed to look right through me.
"Time's up."
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Thank you to everyone that has continued to read up to this point!
I'm working hard on the next chapters already.
