Kakashi runs straight through Cloud's border. They'll know he was here no matter what he does, and there are so many ways teams of jounin could be just immediately on his ass, so he can't bother sneaking through. He crashes over the chuunin, plowing straight through them, doing his best not to kill them, but not putting a lot of effort in being subtle past that. He runs straight on through Frost, Hot Water, and then through the Konoha outposts on that border, because they're manned with chuunin as part of a demilitarization effort he really does not approve of right now.
His target is Base 83. It is, at his current pace, two hours into the Land of Fire, far enough that any show of force from Cloud would be unavoidable war, and if they're okay with that, then, well, he's got bigger problems.
He's running dangerously low on chakra, so he summons his smallest ninken to give him a ration pill. It'll kill him eventually, but if he stops, Cloud ninja will sure as shit kill him right now. As soon as he's got the chakra for it, he summons his ninken, and sends them out to lay false scent trails, including one straight forward as he curves off to the right.
The two of his dogs that curled back towards the Hot Water border get unsummoned, which means nothing but horrible things. He can feel the weight of being a Hatake weighing down on him, the curse to cause wars by doing the right thing, but he puts it out of his mind. He makes Base 83 in record time, fifteen minutes ahead of schedule, and makes his way through the trapped maze to the entrance, opening it with his blood.
His name is still good, and the door opens before him. He stumbles in, and is faced with three jounin on full alert. Inuzuka Kono, Hyuuga Kanna, and Igarashi Homura. All jounin, but he has seniority on them all, and they snap to attention.
"Who's the commander here?"
Kanna steps forward.
"Kanna, I wish this was under better circumstances."
Kanna inclines her head in agreement.
"I have an unknown number of Cloud ninja after me. There is a possibility of hostile military action." He kneels, and lays Akai and Sakura down on the ground before them. "This," he points at Akai, "is a hostage, our best bet for avoiding war and my best bet for surviving the week. Kanna, check her for internal injuries and poison pills, please." Kanna nods, and activates her Byakugan. She kneels briefly beside Akai.
"She is in no immediate danger," she reports. "And she has no mechanical poison pills."
Kakashi forgot how nice it was to work with a Hyuuga.
"This is my student. She's suffering from chakra exhaustion and an unknown number of other injuries. If you would?"
Kanna kneels briefly beside Sakura before straightening.
"She has a broken arm, several broken ribs, and severe chakra exhaustion. Significant internal and external bruising, but no organ damage or internal bleeding."
He knew about the arm, and splinted it halfway to the Cloud border. He did not know about all of it, though. Fuck.
"Any medic-nin here?"
Each shakes their head. It hadn't been in any of their files, but it was worth a shot. He sighs.
"Keep her safe, please."
Kanna nods. "I will protect her with my life."
Hyuuga are great. "Kanna, what's your range?"
"Depends on what is required."
"I need you to detect Cloud nin."
"Nine miles."
Fucking.
Hyuuga.
"I'm feeling paranoid, so if they get that close, you should assume we're at war, and retreat immediately. Protecting the land around this base from a foreign attack is untenable."
Everyone stiffens, and then nods. Kakashi kneels, and brands his Hiraishin seal into the ground. Eyebrows raise, and Homura gasps faintly.
"Any questions?"
Kono takes a letter from her flak jacket, and hands it to Kakashi.
"For my wife," she says.
Kakashi tucks it away. He looks at Kanna and Homura. Both shake their heads.
"In that case, you have your orders. I'll return as soon as I'm able. Let us all pray for peace—" Kakashi begins.
"And prepare for war," they finish.
By the time they've finished speaking, Kakashi is gone.
Kakashi stands before the Hokage, hands folded behind his back.
The Hokage takes off his hat, and slumps back in his chair.
"Fuck," he says.
Kakashi has never heard the Third curse, but he supposes this is as good a time as ever.
Kakashi lets the Hokage take a moment. He takes several, then pulls himself back forward and sets his hat back on his head.
"Good job coming back to us, Kakashi-kun," he says. He looks Kakashi straight in the eye. "I have learned my lesson, and no matter how this ends, you have my full support. If Cloud declares war over this, that wasn't a war we could avoid. If anyone else says different, they answer to me. Do you understand me, Kakashi-kun?"
Kakashi pushes down the warm and fuzzy feeling, and nods.
"Good. I want that hostage away from the border as soon as possible. The mission scrolls you brought back with orders for noble assassinations should give our Daimyou enough leverage on the Lightning Daimyou to get him to back off, but A's never been as subservient to the Lightning Daimyou as we'd like, and we all know what he's willing to do to get back one of his own. I want her in this village, where he can't just stroll right in and take her back."
The thought of A in Base 83 makes him shiver.
"I'm running on ration pills," Kakashi reminds him.
"Status?"
"It's been two and a half hours and about a third of my chakra reserves."
"I'll send Guy out to meet you. He can carry her the rest of the way."
Kakashi swallows.
"My student?"
The Hokage looks at him evaluatingly.
"How much will she slow you down?"
"Ten percent," he says.
"Take her with you," the Hokage says. "Consider this a personal favor."
Kakashi bows his head.
"I believe this is yours," the Hokage says, sliding the Hidden in the Leaves scroll across his table to Kakashi.
"Can you hold onto it for me?" Kakashi asks. "I'll be going directly back to Base 83."
"Of course." The Hokage slides it back. "Tell the shinobi there to retreat back to the village. I don't want anyone in that base if Cloud track Akai back to it."
Kakashi bows.
"Go," he says. Then, in a voice that's a little lower, mutters. "I have to recall Jiraiya for the second time in two years—he's a spy, you know? Maybe this time Tsunade will listen to me, she was always competitive—it's not like I'm the Hokage or anything, and my word is literally law, no I have to convince her like—"
Kakashi vanishes before he can catch the end of the Third's grumblings, and re-appears by Sakura's side. There is no ground beneath him, and he flails despite himself for a moment before tumbling about thirty feet to the ground.
Kakashi hits the ground running, because, you know, he is jounin, quickly catches back up to the Base 83 team. He checks the hostage as he approaches, and finds her breaths hitched in pain. Even-ish, but rough. Probably asleep, but no guarantees.
A glance with Obito's Sharingan reveals no abnormal chakra activity, but she's suppressed, so that doesn't mean much.
In the corner of his eye, he checks on Sakura, finds her in a similar state. He wants to give her an infusion so that her body can start healing itself, but if her chakra exhaustion is as severe as he thinks it is, he really can't risk it.
Being on the run makes for bad informational security, and he can't split the team to get some good informational security, on the off chance Akai wakes up and can fight.
Which means he needs to take her, and ideally get Kanna to block her Tenketsu. He should have done that immediately on reaching the base, but it's too late to worry about that—
Homura's back arches, eyes going blank, and Akai leaps off of her hopefully-unconscious back into the trees. Kakashi catches Homura, and checks her pulse on instinct, happy to find it's still going strong—she's just unconscious. Small mercies. He tosses her to the Inuzuka, who takes her on the shoulder that isn't holding Sakura, and then he spins to follow Akai, activating Obito's Sharingan to bring the world around him down to a reasonable speed.
Bad news. She's faster without a drop of Chakra than the team he's with.
More bad news: she has a flask in her hand. He should have told the base 83 team she was a drunken fist fighter. She'll be able to drink before he can reach her. Too late now, he can dwell on it later.
It's better to let Akai get away than to kill her. It is, however, much better to capture her alive than both options. Best option there is Kanna, especially now that it's clear chakra suppressors do no good—blocked tenketsu are a lot meaner than chakra suppressors, and can bring even pure taijutsu users down for the count—but that means putting Kanna closer to Cloud. He has no interest in giving them two for the price of one.
He weighs his options, decides having Kanna with him is still his best shot.
"Kanna, on me, Kono, take our injured comrades and run to the village." He throws a sealed kunai at Akai, while weaving the Hiraishin. She dodges the kunai, and turns to him as he lunges towards her. "Guy is coming to meet you, so run like you only have to get halfway."
He vanishes from before Akai and reappears behind her, driving his fist into the base of her spine (most likely to cripple, least likely to kill) but she arches her back just enough to take it to the ribs. They crack, but she uses the force of it spin away from him, a whirling tornado he knows better than to try and touch. As she falls, he sprays Hiraishin kunai around them, because kunai are cheap. He starts another Hiraishin.
Akai lands on her feet, stance wide, but her upper body doesn't stop, using her momentum to slam her cuffs into her knee. They break. Thankfully, they have chakra suppressing properties while broken, but if she can break them in half, she can probably break them the rest of the way off, too.
Tenzou never could beat Guy.
Kakashi lands on one side of her while Kanna lands on the other, Byakugan active, legs spread and hands extended. Akai charges Kanna and Kakashi follows, charging a kunai with lightning as he holds his Hiraishin an instant from activation.
Kanna counters Akai, but Akai's body contorts easily around Kanna's blows, forcing her to spin to stop Akai from landing a blow. It tosses Akai into the air, and Kakashi flashes directly behind her and drives his kunai at her leg. She twists in midair, and he only gets a glancing blow, but that's enough, and her body seizes—
Kanna does not need to be directed, Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two palms already in motion. Akai, even as her body seizes, twitches her body just right, and he can see only half of the thirty-two strikes land.
Akai lands, favoring her left leg, and chest heaving. Kanna pushes her advantage and Kakashi takes point to assist.
Before they reach her, Akai slams her wrists together, and the sound of wood cracking against wood echoes through the clearing a moment before Kakashi has to block a fist to the stomach that slides around his guard to still hit him in his very-recently-broken ribs. Akai meets Kanna behind her with a flail with her left leg that connects with Kanna and tosses her back.
He dashes back, taking advantage of his greater maneuverability, and Akai doesn't overextend herself to follow him, standing in the center of the clearing, favoring her left leg but making it look like an intentional slouch, face a little slack, hands loose at her sides.
If he could kill her, he'd have a lot more options, but, as previously mentioned, that's not an option. They can still run—she can't outrun them in her current state.
"Kanna, any Cloud ninja in your range?" he asks.
"No," she says.
That means they're reasonably safe, even if say, one of them is incapacitated. He has an idea. Before he goes for it, though—
"This is a live-capture mission," he says. He doesn't like revealing this to their opponent, but he doesn't want any accidents. "If you have to kill her to prevent her from running, let her leave."
Kanna's eyes widen, but she nods.
"Huh," Akai slurs. "Well, I'll be damned."
Kakashi charges her before she finishes speaking. Akai shifts her stance infinitesimally towards him, head lolling back to keep Kanna in sight as Kanna matches his charge. His plan's not his best, but it should work.
He charges his kunai with lightning while preparing a chidori, holding it a moment before release. Akai easily dodges the kunai, controlling his hand effortlessly, striking at his now-broken ribs with her other hand as she dodges Kanna's attack with an awkward, ungangly sweep of her back.
The moment her hand touches him, he lights his entire body up with a chidori.
Akai stiffens, and yeah. Kakashi can confirm it hurts like a motherfucker. He grabs her with both charged arms in that first limb-locking moment.
Kanna, always on the ball, has already started her technique, and hits Akai the moment after Kakashi has her restrained. He takes a kick to the knee and a fist to the gut, but this time, Kanna's hands strike true, chakra around her fingers protecting her from Kakashi's failing lightning. Akai gets out of his numb arms, but falls to her knees, legs out of commission. Kanna doesn't hesitate before repeating her technique again, and again, and again, until Akai falls, unconscious, at her feet.
Kakashi, slowly pushing himself to his feet with a wince, gestures to Akai. "Every Tenketsu you can block without killing her. We don't want a repeat performance."
Kanna nods, and kneels before Akai, hands flying.
Kakashi shuts down Obito's sharingan, and grits his teeth against the fatigue. He's down to a third of his chakra reserves.
"Status?" he asks.
"No injuries, most of my chakra reserves."
"Then you carry her." His ribs hurt like a motherfucker, and his arms are screaming at him—apparently they weren't as healed as he though. Kanna heaves Akai up onto her shoulder as he gathers the pieces of the chakra lock Akai shattered, and seals them away. They probably have more, but no reason to make this easier for Cloud than it has to be. He does the same with his Hiraishin kunai.
"We missing anything?"
Kanna points to his last Hiraishin kunai, hidden under a pile of leaves. The first one he threw. He takes it, and tosses it to her. She looks at it in surprise, and then slides it into one of her pockets.
"Let's go. Remember, we only need to get halfway to Konoha, operate with that in mind."
They take to the trees, him on point because he's the commanding officer, even if she'll be more good in a fight than he will.
"Report," he says, running at Kanna's top speed. He won't have the chakra to reach Guy at this point, but that doesn't matter. Kanna will be the one carrying the hostage, so he's just here as backup and communication.
"Cloud scouts were sighted at eight miles. One of them had a Byakugan. We retreated as ordered."
"Were you sighted?"
"Unlikely—I know of only two other Hyuuga members who have that kind of range."
"How many?"
"Team of two."
"Did you see them once you left the base?"
"No."
"How far are we from the base?"
"Three miles."
That probably means Akai woke during the run, rather than in the base. The point is rather academic at this point, but it's good to know.
"I'm sorry for not blocking her tenketsu at the base," Kanna says, and he waves her away.
"I'm the commanding officer, and I knew her fighting style. I should have known better." Too many balls in the air. One of them was bound to get dropped.
"Hold course. If any hostiles are sighted, throw my kunai," he says. Kanna nods, and he flashes to Sakura's side. This time, he falls into step with them without tumbling through the branches. Homura is up and running at full speed, which is a good sign. She doesn't look happy about it, which is less good, but she's keeping pace.
"Report," he says, taking a brief glance at Sakura, and confirms that she hasn't visibly changed since he last saw her. She still looks like hell.
"About two hundred and fifty miles from the village, no hostiles sighted."
Their planned meeting point with Guy is at one hundred and sixty miles.
He tosses Kono one of his kunai, gives her the same orders as Kanna. Once she nods, he flashes to the seal he dropped before the Hokage building. He blinks, and Shikaku is before him.
"Report."
"The hostage escaped, and was re-captured with minimal damage. Kanna has the hostage alone at two hundred and seventy miles, Kono and Homura are at two hundred fifty miles. Homura is injured, but is still mobile. I don't have the chakra left to keep pace with them. I left both groups one of my kunai and orders to throw it if hostiles are sighted."
Shikaku sighs, grumbling a troublesome under his breath. He gets over it. "Go to the hospital. They'll keep you on your feet until we have the hostage inside our walls. Cycle through the two teams every ten minutes."
It takes five hours for Kono's team to meet Guy.
When Kakashi reappears beside Kono and Homura for the twenty-eighth time, Guy says to him—
"You outdo me again, eternal rival!" he says, Sakura over his shoulder. "I will deliver your adorable student back to the walls in three hours or I will do ten laps backwards on my hands through the streets of Konoha!"
Three hours is obviously impossible, but Kakashi appreciates the thought.
It takes him five minutes to collect Akai, and then three hours and fifty-three minutes to get back to Konoha. (Yes, Kakashi was counting.)
The time is utterly preposterous and Kakashi can't help but love Guy for it, as he passes out into Guy's arms while Guy loudly bemoans his own weakness.
Kakashi wakes up to Tsunade's incredibly pissed-off face.
"You shouldn't be awake," she informs him angrily. "Chakra infusions are dangerous for ninja suffering from severe chakra exhaustion. It negatively impacts their natural chakra regeneration for months. Sometimes an awful lot longer than that!"
"We need him at the exchange as a show of strength," Inoichi says from where he stands beside her.
He only barely gets his arms up in front of his face before Tsunade's arm crashes into them, tossing him into the wall with a crunch.
"I shouldn't even be here," she sighs, dragging her hand through her hair like she didn't punch a man literally into a wall. Then: "Stop being a baby," she says to Inoichi as he staggers out of the dent he just made in the wall. Tsunade stalks to the door and looks back at Kakashi, jabbing her finger threateningly.
"Do a single jutsu in the next week, and I will rip your spine out and make you wear it as a hat." She steps out of the door, then comes back. "That includes your damn eye. You hear me, Kakashi?"
"Loud and clear," he says, looking as innocent as he can.
She scowls at him, lips twisting faintly, and then stomps off.
"Doesn't she still have problems with blood?" Kakashi asks, pushing himself into a sitting position, and then standing.
"Cloud doesn't know that," Inoichi says, rubbing at his back.
"We have to stop meeting like this," Kakashi remarks, stretching and feeling remarkably human for apparently having been woken up prematurely for chakra exhaustion. He tests the arm that Cloud had so kindly mostly-healed and finds it…
Perfectly healed.
His ribs are, too.
If he didn't know better, he'd swear they'd never been broken.
He'd bet his apartment that that's Tsunade's doing. The sannin are bullshit.
"Hah," Inoichi says without humor, looking Kakashi up and down. He then tries to punch Kakashi in the gut, which Kakashi blocks easily, because uhh, yeah. Ino comes by her lackluster taijutsu and slow-ass legs honestly. "Good enough," he says. "Come on."
Kakashi falls into step behind Inoichi as Inoichi walks him through the hospital.
"The Lightning Daimyou was not happy about Cloud taking missions to kill the heads of the border houses. He's been trying to make inroads on them, get tariffs lowered, and maybe even re-ally some of them with him, maybe even flip the power balance in the region. All plans there are shot if we leak these scrolls to the right people. It's a nice bit of leverage, and the Hokage was able to use it to arrange a prisoner exchange."
Well, shit.
"One of A's for a Hyuuga branch member they've taken. Kept alive, to keep his eyes from sealing. The Hokage makes it quite clear he expects him back with his eyes intact, or we'll need to do something fairly grisly to our own prisoner."
Kakashi winces.
"We're going out in force—one member from each of the noble houses to remind Cloud why they don't want to fight us. We got Tsunade back for this, so the Hokage will be able to stand with Tsunade to his right and Jiraiya to his left."
"So you're going?"
"Hell no. We're sending jounin, not clan heads. Having the Hokage and his students there is already stupid enough."
"What's my job?"
"You're making the hand-off."
Oh.
Cool.
Most dangerous job.
Cool.
"I know Tsunade said you shouldn't use jutsu, but that's exactly what we're going to have you do. We want you to Hiraishin in. Akai's seen it, so we can't keep it secret anymore. Might as well show it off."
Show of strength indeed.
"I kind of like my spine where it is," Kakashi comments idly.
"The Hokage owns that spine, he can do what he wants with it."
Fair criticism. They stop in front of an unmarked door.
Inoichi pushes the door open, revealing a small body in an adult sized bed, a mass of pink hair around her head.
"She's fine now, just recovering from chakra exhaustion. We leave in two hours."
Kakashi steps into Sakura's hospital room, and the door closes behind him.
Kakashi waits, ten miles from the border, with his Hiraishin held a hand seal from completion.
He's had this jutsu held since ten minutes before the exchange was expected to take place, and the signal is already five minutes late. He has four Anbu arrayed around him, Rat, Monkey, Dog and Rooster. He's worked with three of them before. Rooster is new, but the team is solid, comfortable. It's a good team.
They'll die before they let someone touch him.
Hopefully it won't come to that.
The signal comes and Kakashi completes the last seal, catching his kunai before it hits the ground with one hand, and grasping Akai's arm with the other. He tucks it into his belt, and stands straight.
Several paces to his left is the Hokage, Tsunade to his right, Jiraiya to his left. Jiraiya isn't smiling, the buffoon nowhere in sight, his face tight and hard. Tsunade twitches when he arrives, clearly furious at his jutsu usage. The assembled jounin are standing a step behind the hokage, both Uchiha Kyou and Hyuuga Kanna with their eyes active. To his right is Akai, three heavy wood cuffs on her arms and two sets of wooden shackles on her legs. Kakashi blinks once, and when he opens his eyes, Obito's Sharingan is spinning in its socket.
They're standing in the open gate on the Hot Water side of the Frost-Hot Water border, and the Cloud contingent is standing in the open gate on the Frost side of the border.
A stands at the front, back straight and face hard. To his right is a man who can only be B—the eight-tails jinchuuriki. To his left are two men he recognizes from the Bingo Book as C and Darui.
In a mirrored position to him, Kanashii (healed, not a single damn scar) stands with a hand on the shoulder of one Hyuuga Tsukasa. He stands, unbound, his eyes covered with gauze that is faintly black with dried blood. His skin, where Kakashi can see it, is unscarred, the lines of his fingers straight, and unbroken. His hair is uncut, if a bit matted. His bared forehead has the unbroken Hyuuga curse seal. It seems Tsumetai hadn't been lying about the treatment Kakashi would receive, then.
Behind them stands no one. Five Cloud ninja stand against fifteen Leaf ninja. It does not feel as lopsided as it should.
A is looking at him, gaze evaluating, before he snorts derisively.
"You can't fool me, old man," he booms. "His jutsu is nothing but a pale imitation."
The Hokage doesn't react to this entirely accurate criticism.
"We had an agreement, A," he says, voice even. "One it looks like you've broken. Kakashi?"
Akai doesn't flinch, and before Kakashi can even close his hand around his kunai, every muscle in his body freezes as what feels like two tons of killing intent fall down upon him. He can all but feel A bearing down on him, despite the fact that he can still clearly see him standing still across the border.
"Touch Akai and die, Wolf," A says, and Kakashi does not doubt his threat. Unfortunately, the Hokage's word is law. He draws his kunai, and A takes a single step forward, earth cracking under his feet.
The whole world stops, every ninja present going on alert and preparing themselves for battle.
"A," Darui says from beside him.
A growls, the force of it shaking the earth, and then twitches his head at Kanashii. Kanashii raises her hand to Tsukasa's face, and pulls the gauze from it.
Tsukasa blinks at the sun, squinting against it. The area around of his eyes are matted with dried blood, but his eyes are his own.
"I'm going to need more proof than that," the Hokage says, and Tsukasa's eyes snap to him. He glances at Kanashii, and she gestures for him to continue. He holds one hand up in the seal of the byakugan, and chakra swirls into his eyes in a familiar pattern as his byakugan activates.
"Kanna," the Hokage says.
"No illusions, those eyes are true."
"Any other abnormalities?"
"Hiruzen," A says, outraged.
"No, sir," Kanna responds.
The hokage's eyes flick to Kakashi, and Kakashi nods in agreement.
"Tsukasa. Are you alright?"
Slowly, Tsukasa nods.
"Yes, sir," he says, voice small.
Hokage turns to A.
"I hesitate to ask this of a friend—" Hiruzen starts, and is interrupted by A's booming laugh.
"Ask, Hiruzen," A demands.
"If Tsukasa, while under your care, happened to"—A snorts—"sire children, you understand that his children would be similarly marked."
"I do."
"We, as Konoha, would be concerned if you treated those children as you treated their sire, stole their eyes—"
"Let me make one thing clear, Hiruzen," A says, voice shaking with fury. "If your ninja, while in our land, happened to sire a child, that child is as our child, and I will rip your slave brand out of them myself because the Cloud is not Konoha, and we do not allow our children to be slaves. We are different from you, Hiruzen. We are better than you."
The silence that falls upon the two contingents is deafening.
Slowly, Hiruzen inclines his head.
"This news comforts me, A."
"You sicken me," A says frankly.
Hiruzen gestures for Kakashi to step forward.
"Now wait just a minute, Hiruzen," A says. "I haven't verified the state of my shinobi. What the the hell are those locks? We give you your shinobi unbound, how can we trust you won't kill ours the moment you get your shinobi back."
Yes, that's because Tsukasa was a career genin.
There is a tense moment of silence as the Hokage considers this before gesturing for Kakashi to uncuff Akai.
Kakashi turns to Akai, and he meets her dispassionate eyes. He kneels before her, threading chakra through his muscles in preparation for her to kick him as soon as he unlocks her bonds.
He unlocks her first pair of shackles, and then her second.
"Akai!" A shouts, as Kakashi opens the second set of shackles, and he freezes, all of his senses on alert. "You alright?"
There is a moment of silence, and then the barest hints of a smile play at her lips.
"Yes, sir."
"They treat you right?"
She inclines her head.
"Well enough."
"How long has it been since you had a drink?"
Akai's chest vibrates with a chuckle.
"Way too damn long," she says.
Kakashi relaxes, and stands to unlock the cuffs around her hands. She lets him, and once she is free, he sees her chakra wash through her, reinvigorating her cramped muscles, but only moves to let her hands fall more naturally before her.
"B?" he hears A say as he stands.
"It's her," B confirms.
"Alright," A says, gesturing Kanashii forward.
Kakashi keeps his hand on Akai's arm as he moves forward, although he knows it's nothing but a point of leverage she'll use against him.
"It's sad," Kanashii says, as she approaches, hand on Tsukasa as her eyes drill holes in Kakashi. "If you hadn't gone and killed my teammate, I wouldn't have to hunt you down and kill you, after this is all over." The uncontrolled rage has cooled into a cold, hard hate. "Is that student of yours still alive? I hope I didn't end up killing a kid." They come to a stop, and Kanashii doesn't let Tsukasa go forward, so Kakashi keeps his futile hold on Akai as well.
He waits, and she doesn't let Tsukasa go forward. In the corner of his eye, Kakashi can see A glaring at him, and not Kanashii, so it looks like an answer is required.
"She's fine," he says. It's not something they could keep secret regardless.
"She'll grow up eventually," Kanashii says, releasing Tsukasa's shoulder, and urging him forward. Kakashi mirrors the motion. "I can wait." She wraps her arms around Akai when she approaches, movements soft and sure, years of familiarity. Teams that long-standing don't have weak points. It looks like he never had a chance.
He places a comforting hand on Tsukasa's shoulder, and Kakashi can feel the tension leave the man's body.
"I'm fine," he hears Akai say under her breath.
Kanashii turns her back to him, and then calls over her shoulder. "Watch out, Kakashi. Tell Sakura to watch out, too."
Kakashi, keeping his face impassive, mirrors her motions, even though his every instinct tells him not to turn his back on the enemy. The Hokage nods approvingly at him as he returns to their line. Tsukasa jerks as he recognizes Kanna, and surges forward—
The Hokage motions for Kakashi to let him go, so he does, and turns back to the Cloud contingent as Kanna wraps Tsukasa up in her arms.
"Ane-ue," he says.
"Otouto," she responds.
A sets a hand on Akai's shoulder, and Kanashii pushes a flask into her hand. Akai takes a long drink, her face flushing and tension easing out of her shoulders.
Tension hangs heavy between the two contingents, neither wanting to show their back to the other.
A is the first to speak.
"Go on ahead," A says, legs spread, hands folded, glare on them. Everyone but B leaps away, and then, after a moment of hesitation, B follows suit. A moment later, lightning crashes down upon A, and he's gone.
"Clan representatives, thank you for your service," the Hokage says. "Retreat."
There is a whoosh of air as they leap away.
"Kakashi," he says, once they're back to the Anbu line. "Use Hiraishin to get back to the village."
Kakashi bows his head, and before he vanishes, he can hear Tsunade growling in irritation.
"If you want to make sure he's alright, you can always—"