CHAPTER 3: The Chase

A forced break was a rare occurrence in the Anbu ranks. Members of the exclusive organization were trained to their most maximum potential - ready for even a sudden war - yet Kakashi was ashamed to report that both he and Itachi desperately needed the rest. It was also a regret to admit that for once, the two prodigies weren't able to keep up with their target - at least not speed wise this time. They had been running on foot and boosted by chakra for hours since leaving Konoha, and they did not rest throughout their chase. Not to mention that they had embarked on this mission right after a gruesome one, so both were not at their best physical state. It was frustrating for the two to be at such a state, but as shinobis, trained as they were, were still humans. For a ninja able to go on like that without their legs giving up on them earlier on was simply unheard of, and this made Kakashi question if who, or what, they were chasing after was actually human.

They had followed the footsteps and scent of the figure that Pakkun had previously reported, but they had drained themselves halfway through the course from the previous village to wherever the figure was headed. Both Anbu operatives had regretfully set up camp for the night, tying themselves to tree branches in the middle of a forest for safety purposes.

Taking the lookout shift after Itachi, Kakashi tried to distract his lack of sleep with racking his brains out as he re-analyzed their target. This mysterious figure, quite possibly the Hooded Shadow in their Bingo books, had the non-human ability to not drain their physique in doing such a tremendous and continuous escape. In his head, he imagined a more ambitious shinobi than Might Guy, who probably had the most stamina to catch up with this thief had he been the one assigned to the mission. But even then, Guy would probably be at his limits, too.

With his back resting on the tree trunk of his choosing, Kakashi glared at the grounded footprints below him, then back to the trees before him, up the sky and into the empty space, alternating so many times in order to still his focus. He rewound his perspective as the sole witness of the theft, wondering if he had missed anything, because he truly was lost. They were at a chase with minimum information and minimum leads. Kakashi sighed, choosing to stare at the skies instead of the footprints on the ground that kept reminding him of the difficult mission he was trying to accomplish. Nothing he did seemed to roll answers out of himself, no matter how long and hard he tried. Soon, the break of dawn was nearing, and Kakashi had noticed that Itachi was steering in his sleep, about to wake up any moment soon.

Kakashi untied himself from the trees, stretching himself when he finally stood up after being tied up on a tree branch. It wasn't the best place to sleep, but Kakashi was used to it. Itachi was slowly regaining consciousness as well, untying himself and getting ready to jump back to the mission. Kakashi took the nutrition pills he packed before the mission as breakfast, and Itachi followed suit, having the same exact ones packed in his kit. Both swallowed their supposed breakfast and Itachi packed the ropes they had used to hold themselves up the tree. They did everything silently, both being very passive people socially, yet it wasn't an overbearing type of silence.

"Why do you think the thief escaped by ground?"

Kakashi noticed that lately, Itachi was starting to initiate conversations - which he did not hate, but was simply on the process of getting used to at the sudden social growth.

"I wonder, too," Kakashi said instead, another sigh leaving him as he looked at Itachi. "Maybe to continuously run, at that speed and length they had to sacrifice invisibility? Or perhaps it was a jutsu limitation or bloodline limit where they had to be on the ground?"

Itachi only nodded, but he didn't seem fully convinced. But in all honesty, neither was Kakashi. It was a common thing for shinobis to never really understand their opponents. A ninja's techniques develop differently for each person, and that was why there was such a huge variety of jutsus in the world, but complete stamina enhancement was something unheard of.

"Anyways, we still have to catch up. We're going full speed ahead. Hide your presence and don't faint on me."

Itachi nodded again, his Anbu mask already in place.

From the moment she woke up, Rei was unsettled. There was just something about today that irked her to the bones. Maybe she was going to get caught today? She was no sorcerer, but her gut feeling was telling her that something was coming. She knew she was being chased, which was why she had to move quickly. Especially if her chasers could see chakra signatures, which by the way, her masked signature was starting to wear off, then she leave soon. Just being in a civilian village would already make her energy stand out from everyone else, and that was not the best strategy when you're a wanted thief.

After a quick bread theft, Rei scanned the area, finding nothing peculiar in her surroundings. The energy that she had been feeling was like any other civilian village - there was no need for her to be cautious. But alas, her gut was still firm on its stance to run and hide. The intuition she had nursed over years now was the only thing that allowed her to survive up to that day, and Rei knew it would do her good to obediently follow it.

The bread she had stolen was stale, probably a leftover from the previous day. But Rei could only curse and continue to munch on said breakfast without complaints. She didn't buy it after all. She slipped in through the morning crowd in the marketplace, aiming for the one place she knew would take her North without much effort, and gave her a hiding place without a hitch.

Swiftly, she pushed through the crowd, her entire breakfast already stomached as she walked. With an eye on her surroundings, she eyed for suspicious movements or even any pair of eyes that happened to recognize her. When she found nothing, Rei could only hope that it had just been a warning alarm from her intuition, just telling her that her alert signals must be on continuously.

Finally reaching her destination, a fruit stall just before the town gates, Rei slipped to the back, and found the supply carriage that the owner obviously own. It was in a sorry state and the planks that made up the cart stuck to odd places. Nevertheless, it had a tent cover up to keep the fruits from getting hit by direct heat. The size was big enough for her to fit in, and it had been a free shortcut to the North. The owner never knew her, but she had been there on his supply carriage for free trips several times as of then - she knew just when it was time for another stock delivery in snuck in.

But the feeling as soon as the carriage moved was unsettling. It didn't help that she couldn't see the owner as he navigated his horse away because the carriage had a roof over the fruit stock. Rei tried to convince herself that she was fine - she was in transformation, and she had suppressed and distorted her chakra flow to supposedly become unrecognizable. It was a sure thing that her disguise was successful, but the gut feeling remained.

Rei felt her surroundings change, the energy she received was constantly changing and more nature driven, and from the direction the carriage was going at, it was well that she was out to the forest. But when it took a different route than usual, Rei frowned. But she couldn't get herself discovered, so she stayed and focused on her surroundings, feeling the chakra and energy within the perimeter.

After a while, the carriage stopped completely.

The owner of the carriage apparently stepped down and walked away, out of her perimeter limits. As it got more alarming, that she had no additional inputs that she could consider regarding her escape, Rei thought of going out of the carriage. She felt nobody around the area, and it felt like she was still within the forest. It made no sense for the owner to simply leave the supplies in the middle of nowhere. Something was definitely up.

She waited. If bandits had been the ones to catch the fruit stall owner, they would've jumped into the carriage and purged everything away, or just rode the carriage away. But at this point, the supply carriage was still and Rei couldn't feel anyone within her proximity.

Her fingers automatically reached down to her shurikens, ringing one on her index finger as she readied for any kinds of ambush.

Forced to stay still and pretend she didn't exist to possible attackers, Rei compressed her chakra to the most minimum. She tried to focus in order to untangle her physical and spiritual energy, and dispersed the remaining energy to nature or all her surroundings. It left her with little chakra to defend herself at a moment's notice if she would've fought, but there was a better chance at survival if nobody could sense her existence within the carriage at all.

But still, nothing happened. Rei stayed there for a full hour and felt not so much as a rabbit hopping near the cart. It was weird and she shouldn't have trusted that as a sole base of her actions, but she was getting impatient. Either anyone there had left or she was left with no choice but to act first. It wasn't like she couldn't fight anyways. If she truly had been alone all this time, she would simply curse it out but went back on her trail, full speed ahead. If not, then she would have to go out and fight her chasers either way.

With one deep breath, Rei absorbed the energy around her as much as she could. With a sudden burst of energy and chakra, she ripped through the carriage and burst out to rocket herself to North. She planned to just sprint ahead - she was better at escaping rather than fighting anyways. And with the burst of energy, she was sure she could outrun any attackers nearby. But as she passed through the trees, she felt a strong presence on her perimeters, quick on their feet and easily catching up to her.

"Shit."

The shurikens she had been holding was casted away to their direction. Her throws were accurate, but avoided without unnecessary movements. The loss of two pieces of ammo was a small price for information that the ninjas after her were of the higher levels - a Jounin at least. Lower level shinobis would've deflected the attack out of reflexes, or too late on the movements to have completely dodged them. But these shinobis after her had totally avoided them.

Again, she focused her energy and chakra on escaping, her speed now more important than ever. Her chasers were closing in on her, and she could see them clearer now - they weren't wearing the usual Konoha ninja uniforms, so either they were special forces with an entirely different uniform, members from another organization, or they were mercenaries paid by someone with a grudge on her.

They returned her small attack with a bombardment of shurikens and kunais, and the strength of their attacks were augmented, meaning that they could have reached her had she not have fueled chakra and energy into her legs.

"Now, where did you hide the scroll?"

The sudden presence on her back had surprised her, but Rei turned around and pushed herself away just in time to avoid a nasty burn on her face, but it did reach her right arm.

Making sure she had space between them, she grabbed ahold of her right arm with her left, urging her burnt spot be cooled down as she transformed the surrounding energy into a small ball of water. "That hurt, you fucker," she called out.

Kakashi raised a brow (though nobody would have seen it) at the expected foul language said by the unexpected smooth voice, higher than what he imagined. A water user?

"You're actually a girl, huh?" he trailed off, his eyes concentrated on her.

Rei took the time to realize what masks her chaser was wearing before finally mumbling to herself, "Anbu, huh? I should ask for extra pay."

She wondered why they had sent Anbu operatives over a mere thief, but nevertheless was determined to double her pay with this information alone. 'Always so annoying.'

"The scroll, please," the ninja said, nonchalant even after blowing fire at her, shades of grey peeking from his Anbu mask. This one was probably the masked shinobi from before - he felt like the same person through the energy he was projecting.

Rei scoffed. Were Anbu operatives always this cocky? Or was he just naïve? "What made you think I'll hand them over if you said please?"

He shrugged, as if nonchalant. "I tried."

As soon as he said the words, Rei felt an accurate tap on one of her scroll compartments, specifically the one she kept the actual thieved scroll summons.

"What the fu-"

She didn't get to finish when she was knocked away in a swift kick, one she didn't see coming, but managed to block with her hands.

This one, the one with black hair, had just specifically targeted the correct scroll compartment, exhibited just enough chakra to push it out and take it, while at the same time rendered her abilities to actually react accordingly. He had pushed her to only be able defend herself by reflex and took his mission in one go.

Rei stumbled on a tree branch, glaring at the Anbu who had delivered the kick, then returned her vision to the Anbu who had previously spoken to her. She was distracted by the word please? What the hell? These two Anbus were on another level compared to most shinobis or even Anbus she had met. They were able to control their chakra to the utmost detail, and she had been careless to consider ninjas of their level as her possible chasers.

"Fuck," she cursed again. Her arms hurt from that one block, and the burn effect of that jutsu from before still stung. She was outnumbered, too. Pushing to win this fight would be stupid of her.

With one hand, Rei concentrated energy, and manipulated said energy to crystallize into a small bead on the palm of her hand, hidden from the sights of the two Anbu standing a few meters away from her. With a little more focus, Rei gave the crystallized ball of chakra a little bit of her spiritual energy, and let it leak out and connect to her finger.

She steadied herself on the tree branch, her chakra being pushed and condensed into the soles of her boots. In one go, she zoomed to her ambushers, her feet acting as a kick-starter. She aimed for the one who stole the scroll back, and threw fire from her fingers, a distraction to get the crystallized bead of chakra to settle on the side of the dark-haired Anbu. The fire did not do much damage, but it served its purpose.

The crystallized energy she had condensed melted into him and Rei took this as a sign to flee. The scroll was non-redeemable at that point - she was outnumbered and overpowered. The two Anbus weren't ordinary ninjas and surviving was her first priority.

With a step on a branch, her right foot pushed her body away as chakra boosted her speed. Rei jumped back, throwing a pair of kunais at their direction, which they avoided in time, but she didn't care. It was only to keep them busy at that very second. She left the party just as quick as her attack. It was the one thing she was confident she was going to be better than anyone else - speed. Especially in running away.

Itachi was about to set off to chase after her, but Kakashi held a hand out to stop him.

"You're wasting energy," he said through his mask, his eyes still following over the direction the figure had escaped to. "She's fast and can hold out longer than we do, we'll never win in a chase."

Itachi simply stood still, agreeing, but nevertheless wishing he could've done more. He returned the shuriken he already had taken out of his little bag of arsenal back to its place.

Kakashi turned to him, his hand pointing out at the scroll, saying, "Besides, mission complete."

Usually, Kakashi was not keen on admitting things that he found were too difficult to be accomplished - he despised being seen as incapable amongst all things. It had been so for such a long time, and now he had a reputation to uphold, expectations to be met, and there was no time for him to ponder whether or not he was capable. All he knew was that he had to be.

But right then, he was disturbed by something completely opposite of being incapable.

Kakashi didn't want to admit it, but the retraction of the scroll felt too... easy. Two Anbus were practically dragging themselves to chase a singular thief, one who they would've lost trace of very quickly had they missed a single second, or had Kakashi not been alarmed when he saw an unknown chakra signature pondering around the Hokage's Residence. But when they finally encountered the thief, they retrieved the scroll without a hitch, as if too smooth - too good to be true.

While his Bingo book mentioned that she was a mere thief, agile and quick to miss but not quite the fighter, Kakashi still believed that the confrontation should have had more resistance. After all, this thief did break into the Hokage's Residence on her own - she wouldn't have let her stolen treasure go so easily. There was more to it than meets the eye, but even his Sharingan did not detect anyone following them from a radius. Itachi did not seem to pick up suspicious signals around them - and Kakashi trusted the younger's instincts just as his own.

Also, from years of experience, Kakashi's doubts were not to be waved away so easily. His feeling of amiss and discomfort was a sign of error that he should care for seriously, but at the moment he just could not find a cause for being meticulous.

"Kakashi-senpai," his junior called out to him. Kakashi paused his steps and turned to look at Itachi, who was leaning on one of the trees, bringing out his equipment. "I think we should camp the night."

Kakashi looked to his surroundings, and while he did notice that it had became dark earlier, it took another second for him to realize that it had been hours since they've retrieved the scroll and went on their way back home, and it was about time they rested. With a sudden realization of the throbbing in his legs and muscles - he had been going on non-stop, after all - Kakashi nodded and followed Itachi's course of action, taking out his equipment as he searched for a strong branch to stay.

With trained agility, both Anbus were quick to tie themselves on their chosen branches; a precaution to protect them against the wild so they had one less thing to worry about. When they were done, Kakashi's eyes lingered on the location of the scroll that Itachi kept hidden in his pockets. He did so unconsciously, due to the odd feeling he had about it. He would've trusted Itachi with his life, just as he trusted all his previous teammates before, but this time his doubts were driving him towards more doubts.

Did the thief really retreat? And let her treasure go away?

There was no way that actually happened.

"I'll take first watch," Kakashi offered before Itachi could. Itachi only nodded after a brief consideration, pulled his head back to rest against the tree and closed his eyes, letting tiredness take its wheel.

The night grew darker almost immediately, dimming his surroundings to an utmost visual obstruction. Kakashi disliked the lack of moonlight during missions. He had to be even more aware, now that his normal sight was limited. The soft rustles of the night wind was the only thing he could sense without much effort, but its continuous teasing would have lulled him to sleep if he wasn't as trained to hold his fatigue during watch. Instead of vision (the normal vision, because activating Sharingan was draining), Kakashi heightened his sense of smell and hearing, focusing on them as he cautiously stayed awake. He continued to actively scan the area with whatever senses he could afford to use.

It took everything in his power to be meticulous in his watch. He knew he was quickly running out of energy, as he had drained chakra incessantly throughout the day (and the day before, too), and the Anbu was struggling just to keep himself awake. It wasn't like Kakashi to surrender to fatigue especially in missions, but he, too, was human, no matter how genius. This being said, Kakashi felt his eyes closing in, although he opposed it. The air felt heavier by the minute, and slowly the sound of the small night breeze lulled him and soon fell silent on his ears, almost like he was closed off from the world.

But his mind was clear - it felt like he was in a dream. He was out of touch with his surroundings, but he could still be aware of his own condition.

'Am I sleeping? Dreaming? What's happening?'

Just as he questioned his consciousness, a burst of energy from his shoulder radiated and opened up his previously closed up senses.

"Kai!"

Kakashi opened his right eye in panic, and he gasped like he was just pulled out from a lake.

Itachi's eyes were the first thing he saw, and they were red of the Sharingan. His junior was panting, as if he'd been chased down for miles, but Kakashi could spot the remnants of Itachi's camp on the branch opposite of his, just a few feet away.

The hand on Kakashi's shoulder was quickly retracted just as he had came back to consciousness, and Itachi immediately stood up, ready to leave like the trained soldier he was. There was no time to waste in acting surprised or worry about mission failure. Itachi realized they were back to square one and accepted the fact like he had accepted the mission - naturally.

"It was genjutsu. Both of us were affected," Itachi reported grimly, his voice regretful, but direct. "The scroll is gone."

Kakashi didn't think twice to get up and summon his trusted hounds. With a drop of blood, Pakkun appeared loyally right in front of him. "What now, Kakashi?" the mutt asked, rather annoyed, but it was to be tolerated - it was in the break of dawn. "We lost the scroll. The thief got it," Kakashi briefed, rather ignorant to the groggy features on Pakkun. But Pakkun understood his urgency and didn't question anything any further. He received his orders to search around as they head on forward, going sideways from their previous intention to go home.

The ache on his legs had Kakashi missing Konoha, and his bed, all too much. But home and comfort were luxuries he couldn't afford.

If they lost another second, then they would have lost her in more ways than one. She was faster than anyone Kakashi had seen and known, and most people he had known were ninjas, but her techniques were still a mystery.

Both he and Itachi couldn't get their heads off of the genjutsu performed on them. It wasn't the most painful or the most mentally draining, but it was exceptionally fluid. The transition from reality to hallucination was so natural that it went undetected, and Kakashi wasn't even able to realize it as fast as he would other genjutsus.

Had Itachi not explained it to him, he would most likely believed that he fell asleep out of his own fatigue, not because he was caught up in a jutsu.

It was either extreme talent or these were incredibly different techniques than he was used to.

They were chasing after a faded scent and traces of footsteps, and returned to forcing their legs to work extra, understanding just how fast this thief was. Kakashi cursed to himself as he thought, "Just what is she?"