The next chapter awaits! Enjoy.
Hatake Kakashi stood rigid in front of an unmarked grave on the outskirts of the Hatake lands. Moss and countless weeds were growing on the stone, and the grim feelings of pleasure he once had at the sight were now gone.
Looking at it now, the only thing he felt was numbness.
Kakashi placed his hand in his pocket and traced the outline of his chip. The things he learned at Wave kept him up at night, how much of his behavior was influenced? For how long?
All the feelings he held inside... they were tainted.
Everyone who he failed and had failed himself in return, they had been plaguing his mind ever since the night he learned the truth.
Minato-sensei, Kushina-san, Obito, Rin...
Dad.
The ones who died on him and left him alone.
All of the anger, sorrow, and guilt that he's been carrying over the years... pointless.
Utterly pointless.
Kakashi fell to his knees, pulling his mask down to let the cool breeze wash over his face. He closed his eyes and just breathed. When he opened them they were drawn to the unimposing stone once more.
Perhaps he wasn't abandoned after all.
Kakashi fell onto his back and laid in the grass, thinking back on his past. He didn't know when he got chipped, but he was, so the odds of his old team and father being chipped were high.
Were their deaths planned from the start? Did they not have a choice?
Kakashi shifted his head, and let his eye trail over the undisturbed soil, all he had to do was dig and he could find out. If he dug then he could see if his father willingly left him, or if it was all apart of the plan to follow the story. He wouldn't even have to dig, he could use an earth jutsu, or have Pakkun and the rest of the boys dig in his place.
Kakashi had multiple ways to get it done, yet he made no movements and continued to stare at the grave in silence.
He was tired, and honestly the truth didn't matter much to him anymore.
He was done.
Done being angry at his ghosts, of running away from his clan name, of being controlled.
The weight of his emotions that he readily bore before was too heavy, now that the guilt he used to keep it afloat lessened.
It was humbling in a way, knowing that there were a group of...things out there that could dictate his every move. Being a genius mattered little in the scheme of things, still... his blood sung.
It wanted war on the interlopers, to make them leave his home, his planet alone and never come back.
He would give it, the lives of his three students were at stake. As for the rest of it, his inner demons...
He was ready to let it all go.
.
Kakashi appeared in a swirl of leaves and made his way into the missions office. As soon as he walked inside Kakashi could see the Chunin behind the counter pale.
He was slightly surprised at the reaction, only to remember that Hokage-sama forbid him from taking solo missions now that he was a Sensei, and the Chunin must of assumed that was why he was there.
The reaction made sense now, not many chunin had the courage to tell a Jonin no.
To tell him no.
Luckily for the guy on the other side of the desk that wasn't what he was here for.
Kakashi slowly lowered his book and pulled out a stack of money, enjoying the way the Chunin tensed his shoulders at each movement, something he was grateful for to lift his mood.
He let the silence hang in the air before speaking.
"The Hatake Clan would like to request a mission."
Kakashi watched the Chunin's expression sink as he explained the details of the mission and knew the man would be panicking all the way to the Hokage afterwards.
After the payment was processed Kakashi left, and his earlier predication became true when an Anbu abruptly appeared in front of him a few streets over.
Sooner than he expected, but Kakashi knew how to play the game.
He followed.
.
Kakashi watched the Hokage take an inhale of his pipe before slowly releasing a cloud of smoke.
If he was going to be summoned, he would of liked to get the meeting over already, he had already been standing in the office for ten minutes. Kakashi had plans to tortu– ahem train his team before they left, though at the rate they were going he would only have time to meet up, talk with the Harunos, then get ready to leave.
Whatever power play Hokage-sama was doing here wouldn't change his mind about the mission. He made a promise to his genin and he was going to keep it.
"What is this I hear about you requesting a C-rank for Team Seven?"
Kakashi shrugged, making sure to exaggerate the motion as he leaned onto one leg.
"Technically the Hatake clan requested the mission, I was just the messenger." His eye widened innocently as he looked at his leader.
"Right, just the messenger for a clan of one..."
"Just doing my job, I don't make the rules."
"Kakashi, you just came back from a mission, an A-rank mission. The Chunin Exams will be held in a month, is now really the time for this?"
"It's exactly that reason why Hokage-sama. My genin need confidence, the last C turned A-rank unsettled them, and if they are going to participate in the Chunin Exams I want them to be more sure of their skills." The lie rolled off his tongue easily.
He had to hold in a chuckle after he said it, his genin were confident, probably too confident for his tastes. The worst of them being Sakura-chan, Kakashi has no idea how she was raised but she puts the Hyuuga to shame, and he has run missions with Hyuuga Hisashi in the past, so that's saying something.
"So you planned on recommending your Genin? Good, I won't have to force you then. The last Uchiha has to take the exams this time, no exceptions. We have important people arriving and we need the publicity."
Kakashi bit back the urge to spew a sarcastic response as the Hokage contemplated.
It was comments like this that made him hold back on telling Hokage-sama the truth, to check to see if he had a chip in the back of his wrinkly neck. Honestly though, he would rather do a challenge with Gai then have to touch the Hokage's body.
Gai.
He contemplated telling Gai, Kakashi would never admit it out loud, but Gai was like a brother to him, his best friend, but with this...
Kakashi couldn't trust him.
He had a very limited set of people he could trust, and for the first time in a long time, he had to exclude Gai from the list. That's how serious the situation was, there could be no mistakes.
He had no idea who could be used against his team, and Kakashi would die before he ever had to bury any of his genin, though he would rather not die and leave his genin alone to deal with this situation either. Sakura-chan was much stronger than he expected, dealing with this on her own for so long. In fact, he should probably reevaluate his team as a whole, he would do that on the mission.
"Alright Kakashi, I will allow it. Find what you need to find and hurry back, we can't have your genin unprepared for the exams."
Oh, if only he knew.
.
In all of his one hundred and twenty years of life, he could say his current situation was the worst shit he had been through in years.
Looking down at the chip blocking cuffs had him sneering at the black metal covering his wrists. The glowing nature of the blue geometric overlay made him want to bash it against the wall, if only to turn off the irritating light bothering his photosensitive eyes.
He never thought he would be the one to be locked up in a cell, he was too good of a controller for that.
Sure he broke protocol, actually possessing a corpse and making contact with the subjects, but those little ants were asking for it. He worked extremely hard to get that uncivilized world to match the story, considering his predecessor was lax with management, and those insects just had to go and destroy the years of progress he made.
So yes, he had to go down there and show the Useless one a piece of his mind. The world was at the cut line anyways, what does it matter if he caused a little trouble with all the progress he's made? The odds of the Food even appearing were slim, it's not like his actions would change much, everyone at the academy knew that.
A slap on the wrist, maybe a dock in pay he could understand, but this? Being thrown in a cell meant for them, those spineless traitors, and forced to bear such treatment?
How insulting, he didn't deserve this.
His golden blood was boiling at the thought. Number two in his class at the controller academy, forced to take a sucky assignment, and now stuck in a cell.
Unacceptable.
He abruptly stood up and paced the length of his cubic prison, stopping ever so often to glare into the multiple cameras placed on the walls.
When he got out of here he would find out who was monitoring him and end their careers.
"Doors unlocking."
He ignored the automatic system announcement and faced the door. His scowl morphed into a show of teeth at who he saw once it slid open.
"You."
"It's unpleasant as always to see you... it has been a few years, no? It seems you are still the same..." The acidic green eyes of the piece of shit trailed up and down his form. "in all ways, Lieutenant El'kek."
"Bastard."
Said bastard gave him an ugly smirk and with a wave of his hand ushered in two guards. The smaller of the two gave El'kek a slap on the face and forced him to kneel.
"Careful now El'kek, we don't need to add insulting a commanding officer to your file. Do you understand?"
"Fine." El'kek tried to shake off the guard holding onto his shoulder but to no avail. His grip was like a vice and he knew his purple colored skin would be a darker shade in the morning.
"Hah, you must make everything difficult don't you." The man ran a hand through his violet hair before letting it fall to the side. Taking one step forward he kicked El'kek in the gut, causing the prisoner to suppress a groan.
"Address me properly Lieutenant. Do you understand?"
"I understand... Captain El'pen."
"Good."
El'kek's eyes wandered to El'pen's dark blue uniform, taking in the stripes symbolizing his rank. If El'pen didn't screw him over that would of been his promotion.
It was the only thing the bastard was good at though, otherwise there's no way he would have gotten a better first command while being two ranks lower than him at the academy. Who knows who he bribed to get the first ranked graduate's orders.
El'pen turned his back and walked out of the cell, pausing in the doorway to face him.
"I wanted to be the first to tell you... Lieutenant El'kek, you are being relieved from duty and are going back to the Academy for supplementary training. You leave in the morning, I will be taking command instead."
What?
"Cut the bullshit, what did you say?"
El'pen raised a hand and the guard kicked him in the back. El'kek grunted but remained silent afterwards.
"The council has decided you are unfit for duty. Despite it being a borderline planet you acted reckless. The possibility of a chakra fruit being found is worth more than all life on that planet combined, and you threatening to kill the main characters before the Food was summoned crossed the line."
El'pen adjusted his blazer before continuing.
"We lost another planet to the Benu, you should know what's at stake. Your poor behavior is unacceptable."
El'kek could only remain silent, as a cold splash of reality calmed his anger. The war was not going well, and them loosing another colony was a blow. It was why he was so frustrated that they were wasting resources at the cut line. There were other worlds, better worlds, that he could be working on.
El-pen shook his head.
"You should have just gone down to that planet yourself and died, it would have been fitting. Your life is worth about the same as theirs anyways. You're free to leave, go pack your things, Lieutenant."
The taller guard unlocked his cuffs and the trio left the cell, leaving him alone.
When the sounds of footsteps could no longer be heard, El'kek clenched a fist and slammed it against the wall.
He had to go back to the Academy? They were loosing the war and instead of using his talents they were wasting it?
Bullshit.
He would rather watch that world burn then waste any more resources, or El forbid, Food did show up and the bastard got credit for it. If the council couldn't make the correct decision, then he would have to do it himself. El'kek stalked out of the cell and went straight to the controller pods. Opening the door of one he yanked his subordinate out and sat down.
"Lieutenant!"
Ignoring him he closed the pod and connected to the system.
"Chip connecting... welcome back Lieutenant El'kek."
El'kek gave a low chuckle, El'pen was always so full of himself. Didn't even bother to take away his access.
The chuckle abruptly stopped when he saw the number of chips offline. Hatake, Uzumaki, Uchiha... those ones he expected, but Yamanaka too? That useless little girl was getting more annoying by the second, how many more chips was she going to remove?
El'kek swiped his hand on the controller pad to his second favorite dog.
"Chip connecting... Shimura Danzo linked."
He was going to target Team Seven directly, but now that Yamanaka was chipless, well, he knew good bait when he saw it.
It seemed it was time for another child to be inducted into root, then the rest would come running. El'kek typed in a few sequences of code and leaned his neck back as a scanner lowered from the roof of the pod. He glanced at the time, he had sixteen hours left before he had to leave. If he was able to finish establishing a remote connection, he would have all of the time in the world to do the rest.
This planet would burn, for the good of the El'os.
A chapter without Sakura feels weird, but it had to be done. Kakashi has some thoughts and we learn a little more about Inner's race.
Once again, thanks for all of the favorites, comments, and follows.
Next chapter will be out September 10th.
Thank you for reading!