The ninjutsu user regained a spine at the display and grabbed a kunai wanting to support Gou, but Kakashi was quicker. Without a moment of hesitation, Kakashi ducked under the pillar, hand charged with lightning, and rushed in close from Gou's blindside. The ninjutsu user shouted a warning and tried to change course by throwing the kunai at Kakashi instead. His panic and imbalance made him miscalculate the trajectory vis a vie Kakashi's speed. The enemy kunai landed aimlessly behind Kakashi. Kakashi thrust his hand forward. Gou shifted his body to the side. A grunt of pain. The smell of burnt flesh filled Kakashi's nostrils as blood splattered.
A swing of a blade rushed towards Kakashi. He pulled his hand out of his enemy's body as his sensei's kunai met the blade, blocking it from hurting his student. Gou jumped back, but Minato charged after him not allowing him a moment's respite.
I missed, Kakashi cursed. A brief examination of his opponent showed that Gou's left shoulder was bleeding profusely, his arm hanging limply. The man wasn't quick enough to evade a crippling attack but had managed to avoid a fatal wound. I really need to improve my speed, Kakashi berated himself.
Kakashi didn't have much time to dwell on that fact as the ninjutsu user had joined the fray, slashing at Kakashi with a kunai, rage in his eyes. Kakashi swerved away from the attack, pulled out his father's tanto, settled into an offensive stance and shifted his focus to the enemy in front of him. Gou was barely hanging on; his sensei did not need his help.
The Stone ninja wasn't perturbed and rushed forward instead of using ninjutsu. He wants to save his chakra to help Gou, that will be his downfall, Kakashi vowed. Not wanting to delay, Kakashi blocked the next few attacks, and took a step back. The man didn't hesitate in following, and Kakashi kicked some dirt upwards. The enemy raised his left arm to protect his eyes and dodged to the side as Kakashi's kunai slashed forward, creating a cut right above the man's right elbow. Kakashi quickly followed that up with an attack to the man's neck, but his opponent managed to step back in time to avoid the killing blow.
The rage in the man's turned to worry as he readied himself once more, now aware that underestimating the child in front of him would lead to his death. The man threw his kunai at Kakashi and then jumped backwards, launching into a series of hand seals. Kakashi followed pursuit, tilting his head to the side to avoid the kunai. Still, the man was able to finish his jutsu, "Earth Shard," he called out and an earth saber materialized in his hand. The tapered blade was slightly longer than Sakumo's White Fang. The edges of the blade were adorned with lighter green accents, giving off an aura of ancient design. Kakashi internally whistled in appreciation; it wasn't often he came across a new ninjutsu after the thousand-plus he'd seen. He managed to read the seals and filed the jutsu away to learn later.
Kakashi didn't let his interest in the new jutsu distract him though, and he was in striking range once more. As the man raised his guard, Kakashi flipped over him. Now behind his enemy, Kakashi dug the tanto into the ground, balanced on top of the hilt and aimed a kick at the Stone ninja. The man was turning while keep his guard up, expecting a slash but was met with a kick to his lower abdomen instead. Despite Kakashi using his full strength, he was still in the body of the child, and the man only stumbled back a few paces. Kakashi expected as much. Hand still gripping his tanto, he quickly plucked it out of the ground as he landed and threw it at his opponent's face. The man scrambled to bring up his blade to block the tanto once more. The metal clanged against the earth saber as Kakashi rushed in. He grabbed his tanto from the hilt before it could finish its fall and slashed forward. The blade created a dangerous white arc of chakra as it met its mark, nearly skewering the man in half. Kakashi barely registered the man's life leave his eyes, already thinking about how to support his sensei.
Fortunately, his last fight was near the bamboo shoots where his sensei's Flying Raijin kunai still lay. Kakashi quickly jumped upwards onto the bamboo shoots, grabbed the kunai and twisted his body to face the fight between his sensei and Gou. Utilizing his years of experience, Kakashi was able to take in the scene in split seconds and sent the kunai flying behind Gou.
"Corrosive Quicklime!" a spray of white from atop the earth walls blocked the kunai and caused it to dissolve. Chisaka Masaru entered their melee. Minato's eyes hardened as the implications of Sarutobi Koharu and Inuzuka Maki's fate set in.
Unfortunately for Gou and Masaru, however, Minato had already marked Gou's body during their exchange and was waiting for the opportune moment to strike. With the enemy thinking they managed to prevent the Yellow Flash from teleporting, Minato did just that. In an instant, Minato was above Gou, a blue ball of chakra swirling in his hand. "Rasengan!" he called out as he landed his famed jutsu on Gou's back from above. The force of the jutsu sent Gou crashing into the ground.
Masaru yelled in aggravation and jumped down to assist, but Minato was faster and threw another Flying Raijin kunai above the man. In a flash, Minato was beside Masaru and grabbed the man's ankle as the momentum carried him forward. The man's ankle in his grip, Minato spun in midair to gain force and then threw the man into the defensive walls. Kakashi knew Minato charging at Masaru meant that his sensei trusted him to finish Gou.
Not wasting this chance, Kakashi gathered chakra at the soles of his feet and leapt at Gou's prone form, gripping a kunai buzzing with electric chakra. Gou, slowed down by the blood loss and the force of Minato's Rasengan, could only lift himself a few centimeters off the ground before Kakashi's kunai sunk into his back and straight through his heart, hardening jutsu useless to defend against the lightning natured attack. The Stone Guardian twitched for a few seconds, then went still. Kakashi breathed a sigh of relief as he yanked his hand back. Mission complete, sensei.
Kakashi turned to assist his sensei with Masaru but found no need. Masaru was slumped against the wall, blood seeping down his neck as he too lay motionless. In a flash, Minato was next to Kakashi and grabbed his arm. Kakashi's surroundings warped away in an instant and he was in front of the medical teams at the backlines. Kakashi didn't even have time to address his sensei, only hearing a quick "Great assist," before his sensei disappeared.
Shaking his head in amusement, Kakashi quickly scanned the Transport Team lines guarding the medics in search of his squad. As he'd been told, they were holding the line third to the right. The backlines were still devoid of fighting and the squads were focused on bringing in the injured from the frontlines. Kakashi saw Banri carrying an injured comrade back and Taiki standing guard to prevent an enemy from chasing them. Moreover, someone had created a long pillar of stone for Katsu to shoot arrows from to dissuade anyone from chasing after the injured.
Now reassured that his squad were in no immediate danger, Kakashi took this opportunity to observe the current state of battle before joining them. Konoha still had the advantage, but the Stone ninja were starting to target the Special Tactic units with great numbers, recognizing them as the main threat. The path his sensei's team carved out was being widened as more units forged forward. There was a splatter of earth structures all around as the Stone ninja erected barriers, swamps, ramparts, pitfalls and pillars across the battlefield to hinder the Konoha corps.
Without warning, Minato flashed back, carrying Sarutobi Koharu. The smell of burnt flesh wafted into Kakashi's nose as he took her injuries in. Her left leg was mangled and badly burnt, whereby the flesh below her knee completely missing. Blood spilled onto the ground as Minato laid the unconscious kunoichi down. Kakashi immediately went to her side and started to tie a tourniquet around the wound to stem the bleeding as his sensei called out to any medic for assistance.
"Maki san?" Kakashi asked as he got to work, knowing his sensei had to go back and support Uchiha Jiren.
"Dead," Minato replied solemnly before looking up. "I'm leaving her to you, medic san," Minato addressed the two medical ninja that were running over and then flashed away. The senior medic nodded at Kakashi in approval of the tourniquet before waving him away, already peppering his junior with instructions on how to heal the wounded ninja.
With a grimace, Kakashi left the scene, knowing there was nothing he could do. He dashed away from the medical teams and towards his squad. As he made his way over, he winced as he saw a Konoha ninja jump in to defend another. The ninja was alive but was injured badly. Fortunately, his teammate pushed the enemy back and someone was already running over to carry him back to the medical teams. Now close to the pillar Katsu was atop of, Kakashi leaped into an arc and landed next to his squad captain who was launching another arrow into the fray.
"You've made it!" Katsu remarked with a sigh of relief "Glad to see you're still alive. Did your mission go well?"
"Yes, thank you," Kakashi replied "What about here?"
"So far so good," Katsu said as he took another arrow and latched it into his bow. "Iwa is trying to keep up with our assault, so they're not too concerned with the backlines at this point. Lots of injured though. If you and I protect them, we can have both Taiki and Banri bring in the injured instead of just Banri. Save double the lives."
"On it, captain," Kakashi nodded and dove into the action. Currently, Banri was running back while Taiki was defending a fallen comrade until Banri could return to carry him back as well. Kakashi ran towards Taiki, his tanto already out. "Taiki san, you can take him to the medics, I'll hold the line."
"Kakashi kun! No injuries?" Taiki went straight to the point.
"Nope, I got you covered, go," Kakashi reiterated. Taiki bent down, hoisted the ninja and hooked his arm around his shoulder to support him. Once secured, he rushed back, leaving Kakashi alone at the front. Kakashi's eyes darted rapidly from one point to the next, looking for any signs of trouble. He glimpsed two comrades taking the full brunt of a Mud Bomb and falling backwards. Three enemies were descending upon them, and he ran.
"Lightning Senbon," he shot his favorite spam jutsu in their path. One ninja vaulted over senbon, another stopped in his tracks while the last didn't notice them and was shocked in place for a brief moment. The enemy who vaulted over continued barreling forward. Kakashi began charging his feet with chakra. Before he could launch in his path, an arrow whistled past him and caught the enemy in the left shoulder, causing him to grunt in pain and take a few steps back. Nice aim, Katsu, Kakashi praised his captain.
The attack provided Kakashi enough time to stand in front of the two Konoha ninja ready to defend. Yet, there was no need as both had already recovered from the Mud Bomb attack, a little bruised but otherwise uninjured. "Thanks kid," a finger salute in gratitude before they rushed their attackers once more.
Knowing his role was over, Kakashi reluctantly left them to their fight and scanned the battlefield once more, looking for anyone else who'd need assistance. It was only a few seconds before Kakashi spotted another group of Konoha ninja in trouble in front of him. Their enemy had used the Bottomless Swamp Jutsu to trap them in place and were moving in with a follow up attack.
"Flame Bullet Jutsu," Banri's voice projected from his left as a concentrated ball of fire rushed towards an array of kunai thrown by the Iwa ninja, stopping the weapons in their tracks.
"Wild Water Wave Jutsu," Kakashi released a wave of flowing water against the current of the swamp, washing it away and freeing the trapped Konoha ninja. The swamp turned into muddy water and flowed back towards the Iwa ninja in a powerful wave.
"Earth Wall Jutsu," he heard as a wall protected the Iwa ninja from the attack.
In retaliation, Kakashi charged both his hands with lightning before unleashing a torrent of electricity, "Lightning Stream." Despite the wall protecting them from the onslaught of water, Kakashi knew that the water had already pooled around them. Due to the nutrients and impurities in the muddy water, his jutsu traveled quickly towards them, lightning dancing across the surface. The freed ninja, along with Banri, rushed the sides to take advantage of Kakashi's attack. Before the Iwa ninja realized an attack was coming, yelps of pain could be heard as electricity coursed through their bodies. Now in position, the others attacked the electrocuted Stone ninja and quickly eliminated them down from a distance. Their comrades nodded towards them and continued forward, leaving Banri and Kakashi to look for the next trouble spot.
"Lightning jutsu is so useful," Banri smirked in appreciation as he observed the left side while Kakashi turned to the right.
"It's the best element for sure," Kakashi couldn't help but make a dig.
While he couldn't see his expression, Banri's splutter of indignation made him smile, "Konoha is the strongest and we mostly use fire, so there." Kakashi chuckled at the childish retort.
"We're in the middle of a skirmish, focus," Taiki had joined them, voice stern.
"There!" Banri pointed at a group of Konoha ninja that were a few meters inside the frontlines to the left. Kakashi shifted his vision towards where Banri was pointing and saw two Konoha ninja standing in front of another two, protecting those that were injured badly.
"That's a bit too deep," Taiki stated as the trio ran forward beyond the backlines, "so be careful of incoming attacks from the sides."
Just as Taiki finished his warning, Kakashi spotted four enemy ninja rush to engage them. "You just haaaad to jinx us," Banri sighed.
"I'll go protect those up front, can you two delay the others?" Kakashi asked.
"We got it, go and we'll catch up to take them back," Taiki ignored Banri's comment as they both went to meet the reinforcements head on. Taiki was usually the one giving Banri commands, but he realized that he had been following Kakashi's instructions ever since he had joined them. The kid was faster in suggesting a sensible course of action so naturally he just agreed. It was an unexpected observation, but surprisingly not an unwelcome one. Taiki preferred situations where Katsu could lead, but he'd always rise to the occasion if need be. Yet he never saw himself as a leader. He knew, though, that the silver haired ninja running ahead was not going to grow up in the sidelines.
While his teammates engaged the reinforcement, Kakashi saw one of the two Konoha ninja standing guard take multiple kunai to his arms and chest. The three Stone ninja jumped back after a quick sign, and one released an exploding kunai at the four Konoha ninja. Kakashi ran through the familiar sides as he jumped in between his comrades and the kunai, "Earth Mud Wall Jutsu." The wall came up just in time to catch the kunai and protect them from the explosion. Kakashi stood firm as the explosion caused chunks of the wall to fall apart around him, the heat dancing across his arms.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu," Kakashi used his student's favorite technique, creating only one as opposed to his student's usual army. He kept the Shadow Clone hiding behind the wall as he leapt over the damaged but still standing structure, tanto out. Two enemy were already attacking from the left side of the wall, but Kakashi left them to his clone as he engaged the other two standing back.
He saw the ninja smirk in glee once they realized he was their opponent. "Looks like Konoha's forces are worse off than we thought if they're sending pipsqueaks to fight," one laughed as he took out a sword while the other readied a saber.
Kakashi and the saber user both slashed forward, metal clanging as they met. Kakashi used his other hand to grab the man's arm and push him down. The other ninja was already striking him with a sword, but Kakashi rolled over the first enemy's back to avoid it. The saber user, while still unbalanced, slashed at Kakashi's feet as he landed. Kakashi dodged with an aerial cartwheel kick, evading the attack and kicking the man in the jaw at the same time. The man's head snapped back with a satisfying oomph.
The sword user didn't allow Kakashi to capitalize on his attack, throwing his sword at him. Kakashi blocked the sword with an upwards flick, causing it to fly upwards. Still, the sword user was already in front of him and kicked him in his torso, sending him flying into the wall. Kakashi could barely take a breath as he caught the glint of a sword slashing towards him from above. Kakashi rolled to the side, narrowly missing the attack. The sword user twisted and used the momentum from his failed attack to swiftly slash at Kakashi from the side. Kakashi raised his tanto and used his left arm to support it from the tip to block the sword. Instead of fighting against his enemy's momentum, he used the block to lift the sword and glide under it, letting his tanto scrape his enemy's sword away from him. Once in the clear, Kakashi dropped his tanto away from the enemy's sword and stabbed forward, right into the enemy's abdomen from the side. Kakashi continued pushing until the tanto was buried in his enemy up to the hilt and peaking from the other side.
He heard a cry of dismay from the saber user who was still disoriented from Kakashi's jaw attack and was struggling to stand. Not wanting to give him the chance to recover, Kakashi buried his hand in his weapons pouch, picked up a kunai, twirled it in his hand and snapped it into his grip. He then launched the kunai at the saber user as he pulled his tanto out from his now dead opponent with a squelch. The saber user shakily blocked the kunai and prepared to defend as Kakashi rushed forward.
A hand came out of the ground, grabbing the man's ankle and pulling him down into the ground up to his neck. His clone had made an appearance. With a burst of speed, Kakashi was crouched in front of the Stone ninja, slashing at his neck. A spurt of red covered the ground as the man's head lolled back.
The clone burst out of the ground and gave him a thumbs up before dissipating and sending his memories to Kakashi. Noting that the other enemy were dead and that the last standing Konoha ninja was protecting his teammates, Kakashi went to check on Banri and Taiki. As he passed the wall, his eyes immediately found his squad mates fighting the same four Iwa ninja. None had fallen yet, and the clash was at a stalemate. Not for long, Kakashi thought.
Not wanting to waste the element of surprise, Kakashi quietly maneuvered behind the enemy ninja, sandwiching them between him and his team. "Stormy Blockade" Kakashi muttered as he summoned water from the sky that came crashing down on the enemy. Being a C-ranked jutsu, it wasn't enough to do a lot of damage. However, the goal was to disorient.
His squad quickly utilized the attack to their advantage. Taiki rushed them, sword blazing as he disabled two enemies, aiming for crippling blows to their feet since they were protecting their vitals.
At the same time, Banri engaged the other two using Fox Fire. Ten small balls of fire were shot in rapid succession to push the enemy back. Banri aimed the jutsu low, forcing them to jump up to avoid the attack. It was then that Katsu made his presence known once more as two arrows forcefully struck them: one in the chest and the other in thigh. The man with an arrow in his thigh landed shakily due to his injury. Banri, who was aiming for this combo, was already behind the ninja and struck the finishing blow.
"The others?" Taiki asked Kakashi who was jogging over.
"Alive but injured," Kakashi answered him.
They quickly made their way back to the four Konoha ninja. The last-standing comrade was still standing guard over his injured comrades but fortunately none had attacked after Kakashi's departure.
"There are three of you, can you carry one back as well? Kakashi kun is too small." Taiki asked the man quickly. While taller than the average eleven-year-old, Kakashi agreed that carrying a fully grown adult will hinder his movement and it was best to leave the transportation to them.
"Yes of course, thanks," the man sighed in relief as they each supported one of the injured.
"You guys are life-saviors," one of the injured ninja smiled shakily, "Remind me to treat you if we all make it back alive." He clearly didn't expect to live to see another day and was still in a daze.
"We enjoy barbeque," Banri winked playfully.
"We're not out of the woods yet, watch our back," Taiki instructed Kakashi as they started running back to the medical line. Fortunately, the enemy was engaged with other Konoha ninja and Kakashi didn't need to do anything.
Kakashi noted that as their forces advanced, the backline had also advanced and was now moving closer. While the medic team stayed back, the Transport Teams would always move in tandem with the front lines. This was a good sign, they were winning. Once they were close to the area protected by the backlines, Kakashi saw two young Konoha ninja in danger.
"Taiki san, I'll leave them to you" Kakashi called out as he broke formation and ran over; confident that Katsu and the other Transport squads can protect them the rest of the way.
Kakashi grimaced as one of the young ninja fell from an earth pillar to the stomach before he could arrive. Even from this distance, he could see the fear in the face of the remaining Konoha ninja as he faced two Stone ninja. The ninja, who could be no older than fourteen, was outmatched and was barely keeping up with the onslaught of attacks.
One of the enemy caused him to lose balance and the other swopped in, poised to strike with a sword. "Lightning. Beast Tracking Fang," he called out his fastest jutsu. Make it in time, he pleaded.
The enemy didn't even acknowledge the jutsu as his let his teammate blocked it with a Wind Release, Great Breakthrough. The wind jutsu, which is strong against lightning, canceled it out, and Kakashi could do nothing as his comrade was slashed in the stomach.
A squad of Konoha ninja descended on the scene and pushed them back so that Kakashi didn't have to engage the enemy. Instead, Kakashi ran towards the fallen ninja. Please don't be dead, he prayed.
He crouched down next to the ninja and found him barely conscious and breathing heavily. Kakashi grabbed a roll of bandages and quickly tied them around the wound, trying to staunch the bleeding.
"I don't…. want… to die," the teen's voice was labored and filled with fear.
"I got you," Kakashi tried to reassure him as he lifted him up, looping the teen's hand around his neck and grasping it to keep him upright. With the other hand, Kakashi pressed down on the wound, hoping that he could slow the blood flow down and started to run back. Kakashi could feel the teen losing consciousness.
"Stay with me," Kakashi stated forcefully. He made sure that while stern, his voice was calm to reassure the teen. The teen blinked and tried to lift his head up to stay awake.
"What's your name?" Kakashi asked to keep him engaged.
"Touma," he breathed out, blood trickling down from his mouth.
"We're almost to the medics, Touma kun," Kakashi reassured him. Touma didn't reply, barely acknowledging Kakashi's words. Instead, Kakashi could feel the teen going limp in his hands. "Touma kun, we're almost there, just hang on" Kakashi repeated as he saw the young teen's eyes start to close. Despite only being a few meters away, the race across the battlefield to the medics felt like a marathon, each second trickling away the young ninja's life. Kakashi urged his feet to go faster, but he was already pumping them with chakra and was running at max speed.
An arrow flew over Kakashi's head, so he turned around to see an enemy stop to deflect Katsu's attack. Unlike previous attacks, Katsu had attached an explosive tag on the arrow. The enemy's eyes widened when he heard the spark but was too late to do anything as the explosion took his life, allowing Kakashi to continue unhindered.
As Kakashi approached the medical lines, a medic was already running to meet Kakashi. Kakashi lay the teen down in front of the medic, whose hands were already shining in the bright green common to medical ninjutsu. Kakashi glanced at the teens face as the medic worked. The teen's half-lidded eyes started back at him, glassy and unseeing. Even before the medic stopped the glow and removed his hands Kakashi knew, the teen did not survive. He had already died in Kakashi's arms as they raced over. Kakashi had lost many comrades over the years, but it never got easier. Even though he didn't know the teen, the sting of losing a comrade, one that was still young at that, created a bitter taste in Kakashi's throat.
"Do you know his name?" the medic asked sadly as his hand reached towards the ninja's face and closed his eyes.
"Touma, don't know his last name," Kakashi replied softly, his eyes twinged with grief. Without waiting for a reply from the medic, he rushed back to the battlefield. He would mourn the teen later; his job wasn't over.
Kakashi was shaking his hand in an attempt to removed Touma's blood from his hand, when he heard the shout, "Enemy ninja coming from below!". Kakashi turned to the source and saw a Hyuga staring into the ground, Byakugan active, throwing kunai all around the area to mark the location of the Stone ninja.
Although the ideal counter would be Opening Earth Rising Excavation to launch the enemy from deep underground and into the surface, the marked locations show that the enemy is spread out too far. Using the A-Rank jutsu to cover that large of a surface area would deplete my chakra, Kakashi analyzed.
So far, Kakashi had made sure to restrict himself to mainly C-Ranked jutsus to avoid a large strain on his chakra. The only higher level jutsu he had used was the B-Ranked Lightning Stream and the A-Ranked Chidori against Gou. Despite that, he could already feel that his chakra levels were low and knew his next move would force him to remove the chakra stabilizing seal or retreat from the battle.
The thought process only lasted milliseconds. Kakashi jumped into the air and rushed through the Rabbit, Boar and Ram seals as he called out to his fellow ninja, "Jump now!" he ordered. Kakashi was worried that they wouldn't reply due to his age, but fortunately, due to the chaos and adrenaline of battle, his comrades in the line of attack automatically responded to his command and jumped.
"Lightning Burial: Banquet of Lightning!" he called out the B-Ranked jutsu. Knowing that in the time it had taken him to act, the enemy would have moved around 20 meters in circumference of the kunai the Hyuga had thrown. As such, Kakashi charged the jutsu with enough force to hit at a range of 25 meters just in case and used the kunai as a guide for directing the jutsu. The air crackled as thirteen high intensity lightning bolts cut through the air and towards the kunai, breaking the ground around them as the bolts hit with devastating force.
By the time the Konoha ninja landed, the ground was riddled with pits, each marking the strike of a lightning bolt. The battlefield was strewn with debris and injured, or dead Stone ninja lay amidst the shattered earth. Kakashi counted two to three ninja hit at each pit, so he estimated that thirty ninja were thwarted in that attack. He saw his fellow Konoha ninja finish off those that had survived, which was fortunate, as Kakashi needed a moment to catch his breath afterwards, balancing on one knee to do so.
He considered removing the seal but saw the Hyuga approaching him. The ninja would notice a sudden rush of spiritual energy which would lead to some awkward questions. "You alright?" the man asked with worry.
Kakashi simply nodded while his chest rose and fell heavily; his chakra levels were severely low.
It was then that Banri was by his side, frowning, "Stay near the medics to catch your breath. If they tell you to rest, stay there. We can handle it. Do you need help getting there?"
"No no….. I'm good…," Kakashi waved him away in between breaths.
Banri rolled his eyes and grabbed him from the chest and back, lifting him and jumping towards the medics. He was clearly not satisfied with Kakashi's reply. It was only a few seconds until Banri deposited him near a medic. Of course, the teen couldn't help but have the final word as he leapt back into the action, "You need to learn how to pace yourself, genius-kun."
Kakashi scoffed but took the opportunity to rest for a moment. If I'm being honest, mini-me has a large chakra pool for his age and I was able to use quite a lot of ninjutsu. Still, I really need to raise my chakra levels. At least I don't have any injuries, he thought.
"Are you injured?" a medic asked him once she noticed him there.
"Just low chakra," Kakashi shook his head in the negative.
In reply, the medic threw him a soldier pill, "Don't take it unless you really need to get back out there. Once the effects wear off, you'll become a sitting duck for enemies."
"I know, thanks," Kakashi replied. Now that she had confirmation that he knew the dangers and wouldn't act recklessly, she nodded and moved to the next patient.
The soldier pill was risky but would replenish his chakra pools evenly. On the other hand, removing the spiritual energy drain seal would give him the needed energy, but the pools would become imbalanced and leave him nauseous, whereby engaging in taijutsu or kenjutsu battles would be suicidal. Moreover, removing the seal would only allow him to perform ninjutsu with high spiritual energy, thus the jutsu would have precision but lack a strong punch.
So then, what do I do now? Kakashi wondered.