Anko entered the hideout and Kakashi followed her steps, trying to remember her makeshift map. Hitomi had her Byakugan activated, and was able to confirm Anko's suspicions of where Orochimaru was, and where his experiment subjects were.

"Orochimaru is alone in the lab you mentioned to avoid, right now. I see someone and a child in the place you expected him to be. Both rooms are close to each other, so if that person is a guard, we could get in trouble.

Kakashi frowned. A child. Why was he not surprised? Orochimaru wasn't known for his sense of ethics. If Kakashi guessed, that child was probably the Sannin's next victim, if not already one.

"That guy with the child, I think I can handle them on my own, or almost," Hitomi said. She only pointed out to one of her team members. "Can you be my backup?"

Kakashi, as the captain of this mission, nodded. "I'll go with Anko and Weasel against Orochimaru. Tenzo and the others, can you go track Orochimaru's prisoners? We don't know if Orochimaru has a button somewhere to open all his cells at once. He might summon backup and we need to be aware if he does. We don't know how many of them there are."

Hitomi focused. "I can see at least four of them that are prisoners and confined, for now they won't pose problems unless Hound is right about opening the cells. I can't see if there are others very well, since they might be outside the limits of my Byakugan range at the moment, so there could be many more."

Everyone agreed to the plan, and Kakashi ordered them to disperse. He, Anko and Itachi went in the direction of the dangerous lab as discreetly as they could. Orochimaru had yet to see them. Kakashi didn't even want to let him know they were there. He first thought of the Chidori, but it made too much noise. Besides, it was one of his jutsu that was well known, a telltale sign of Kakashi of the Sharingan, and he didn't want to risk Orochimaru realizing there were Sharingans around straight away. Kakashi knew, from his first life when the Sannin was after Sasuke, that he dreamed of being able to learn thousands of jutsu. To be all knowing and immortal. Kakashi had copied so many jutsu with it, and he knew Orochimaru was after the most powerful of them all. But with a vast repertoire of jutsu, Kakashi had other options than Chidori. He still remembered techniques copied in his previous life as well, and was able to use all five natures.

Kakashi motioned to the others to back him up, and charged at the Sannin. Orochimaru, who hadn't spotted them yet, saw him coming from behind at the last second, tried to stop him by substitution, leaving Kakashi to charge at a piece of wood. Before Kakashi had the time to turn around and face Orochimaru, the Sannin used his tongue to wrap it around Kakashi and prevented him from moving. Kakashi only had a little bit of hand movement left, just enough to reach his pouch full of kunai. Itachi, under the codename Weasel, charged at Orochimaru with a fireball that only ended up burning something on Orochimaru's experiment table. But it distracted Orochimaru enough for Kakashi to attempt to free himself without the Sannin noticing it at first. He let go of Kakashi when he felt the sharp kunai against his tongue. Kakashi winced as he jumped away from Orochimaru, near the burned table. They didn't know what product Orochimaru kept around, so the area was not able to be used to their advantage. As Anko was charging with her snake arm, Kakashi motionned quickly to Itachi to avoid using fire. They didn't know what was inflammable. They couldn't risk explosions. Their goal was to kill Orochimaru, but Kakashi wanted to live longer.

Itachi and Anko started attacking Orochimaru on taijutsu levels, and Itachi also used a sword. Meanwhile the Sannin was distracted, Kakashi was preparing his next move with shuriken and wire. He had spotted an inflammable product on one of the shelves, and his plan was to trap the bottle, opening the cork and getting the product on Orochimaru. Kakashi knew that his plan was risky, and chances were that Orochimaru would see right through it. That was why Kakashi had discussed many strategies with his comrades while they traveled. Inflammable products weren't a part of any one of them, so Kakashi quickly motioned to Itachi with Anbu signs "Bottle, Splash Enemy, Fire."

Orochimaru was giving Itachi a hard-time in a one-on-one battle, using his Kusanagi, so Itachi decided to make some space between both men, as he stepped backwards and started summoning water bullets. That was not what Kakashi meant by Splash. But it led to Anko attacking from behind Orochimaru.

"Do you really think you're at my level, Anko? You're just going to die here, with whoever Konoha's friends you've made."

Orochimaru seemed to mock Anko, not even showing interest in fighting her, as if he wanted to show how superior he was to her, because he disappeared by sinking down and resurfaced behind Itachi.

"Weasel, watch out!" Kakashi screamed.

Kakashi joined in the fight hoping that 3 on 1 attacking Orochimaru would be enough. The Sannin was skilled, so they needed to fight in a group if they wanted a single chance of success. Kakashi noticed the puddle at his feet, a remnant of Itachi's water jutsu, and got inspired by Zabuza's move from his first life, when Zabuza had trapped Kakashi into a ball of water leaving Team 7 freshly genins to fight for themselves. Kakashi copied the hand signs he remembered Zabuza do, but before he could finish the jutsu and trap Orochimaru, Orochimaru sent wind in the direction of Kakashi. The Anbu captain was able to change direction and avoid cuts pierce his body, his hood caught on the draft of wind, and fell off his head, revealing his hair.

Orochimaru snorted. "Silver hair. Seemingly a Sharingan eye. You think you are strong enough to kill me, Kakashi? I didn't think Anko would team with Konoha's Anbu, but she's always been pathetic."

Kakashi gulped. The Sannin had recognized him, and was now trying to provoke Anko. Kakashi copied Orochimaru's latest jutsu, just to mess with the Sannin a little bit, trying to create a diversion for his teammates to attack.

Itachi trapped Orochimaru into a genjutsu, taking advantage of Anko and Kakashi distracting him, and Kakashi thought about using Chidori to end the Sannin, but as soon as she saw the sparks, Anko stopped him.

"I want to do it. Please. He deserves to die by my hands."

Anko was clenching her jaw, it was obvious she had waited for that moment a while now. Her eyes showed the desire of revenge. Kakashi had told Sasuke to give up on revenge once before, and look where that had got him? Sure, things worked out in the end – if you could call almost everyone dying in a war 'working out' – but Sasuke still abandoned Konoha.

"Go for it."

Anko took a step back, building momentum to give herself a swing forward, but as she started charging, Kakashi noticed with his Sharingan someone entering the room. The child Hitomi mentioned.

"Anko, watch out for the kid!"

The child's height was just the perfect size for Anko to go above him and hurt Orochimaru, but Kakashi's warning had distracted her and the attack wasn't deadly. Anko stepped back as little hands tried to push her away.

"Stop!" the kid screamed. Kakashi noticed how small he was, he couldn't be more than four years old, probably even younger. "Don't hurt him!"

Kakashi frowned as Anko's head looked down. She stepped back even further, and started shaking. Kakashi didn't recognize the woman anymore. She was pale as a ghost. She was just barely dodging Orochimaru's attacks. Kakashi didn't know what exactly had triggered Anko, but she was either having a panic attack or really bad flashbacks.

Kakashi didn't have time to react, because Hitomi barged in, fighting with a pale guy with long hair. He was sending white small objects at Hitomi, and Kakashi wondered what it was.

"Kimimaro, help!" the toddler screamed at their new enemy.

"Weasel, keep Orochimaru in your trap as long as you can," Kakashi said, knowing the fight was now not only against one man, but two and a toddler, which they didn't know if he had skills of any sort. Besides, if he was an innocent victim of Orochimaru, Kakashi intended to spare his life. Anko seemed shaken to almost have hurt the child, because she didn't want them to hurt him all of the sudden.

"This guy fights with his own bones," Hitomi announced, trying to spar with him. He seemed to pull bones out of his body to prevent the Hyuuga woman from touching him and closing chakra points.

Kimimaro's goal seemed to be protecting the child, because he immediately went into his direction and attacked Anko who was standing closest to the boy. Kakashi started to wonder if there was something special about the little one. Bone guy was clearly a guard, and whether it was the child's or Orochimaru's guard, Kakashi didn't want to take the guess. Instead he shunshined towards Orochimaru while Itachi still had him in his genjutsu. It was surprising Orochimaru had not yet escaped it.

Kimimaro was fighting Hitomi while protecting the boy, sending the child, who was polite enough to respond to Kakashi's question and claimed to be named Tadashi, to the corner of the room. Kimimaro made himself menacing enough that the Anbu had to go through him first if they wanted to hit Tadashi.

Kakashi heard a woman scream, a painful cry, and small bones flew at him, which looked like finger bones and disgusted Kakashi who dodged just in time even if he didn't show it. That's when he noticed Hitomi falling to the ground. Her chest was bleeding, split open with a bone, which looked to be a rib through her body, and her Anbu mask fell off.

Kakashi approached, dodging Kimimaro's next attack with little space in between him and the attack in itself. Kakashi tried a wind jutsu to distract him. Kimimaro seemed to be very good in close range battles. If Kakashi wanted to save his teammate's life, he needed to either distract Kimimaro, or fight him with taijutsu. But Hitomi hadn't succeeded, and Kakashi knew it was one of her skills, having trained into the Hyuuga style.

"Anko, can you do something?" Kakashi commanded, realizing she was just looking at the toddler and trying to chat with him, as if they weren't fighting around her.

Kakashi crouched next to Hitomi, but he didn't even have the time to assess her injuries when he noticed her forehead. The curse seal was actively disappearing. He was too late. Kakashi slammed his fist in the ground in rage. He had a flashback of Obito, even if he hadn't really died. Kakashi was just too late – forever and always. Even when he gets a second chance. Tenzo appeared behind him, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"They are still watching over the prisoners, but I thought it was taking you too long and came to help."

Kakashi nodded, thinking there were enough Anbu in the other rooms and he needed the new fighter. "Fight this guy, I'll finish Orochimaru with Ita – Weasel," Kakashi said, preventing from using Itachi's name just in time. That was the exact moment Orochimaru was able to free himself from the genjutsu, and if the Sannin hadn't yet figured out who had casted it, Kakashi didn't want to spoil it. It was too risky to be open about the Sharingan around their enemy.