| Come Hell or High Water [Closed to Kakashi and Haruichi] | [May. 12th, 2008|12:09 am] |
Backdated. Set just after Dog of War Meets the Bloodhound, and Marked For Life and before Thicker Than Water
Missions could go wrong at any point; that was something you learned at genin level. It could be a sandal-tie snapping when you were getting ready, a teammate you hated meeting you at the bridge as you left. An alarm ringing out when you were breaking in, or a kunai in the back when you were leaving. It could be anything.
For Kakashi it was the five mist-nin who tracked him all the way to the border before they struck. He knew they'd been trailing him for two days--it was hard not to know with a nose like his (fully working, once a medic had healed his cold) and three dogs with better senses providing a rear guard--but he'd hoped to shake them before he made it back to Fire Country. The mission was more important and he was fairly certain at least three of his pursuers were jounin-level, which did not make for fantastic odds against one fairly exhausted copy-nin. Not if you happened to be that particular copy-nin anyway.
And they were fast.
Kakashi barely had time to register the movement flicker that announced Bad Things before a heavy blade obliterated the rock formation to his left. He dodged, flinging himself to one side, and hammered his chakra into shape before fracturing it into four clones. Five Kakashis and three dogs should've been enough to take down anything that moved.
Should've.
He amended his count to four jounin when they destroyed his clones, wounded a dog, and shattered his right ankle. He fell, biting down a scream at the shock of impact, and forced himself back upright. Adrenaline beat back pain, and pure willpower kept him going. That and the dog snapping at his good heel.
Kakashi stole eleven decent jutsu, killed their lone chuunin and the jounin that tried to protect him, and fled, bracing his injured leg with chakra. He didn't pause to banish the dog they'd hurt, he simply broke the chakra seal as he ran, staggering through the backlash. One remaining dog braced him, Pakkun ran ahead.
He'd stolen an important scroll, apparently they wanted it back.
Another five miles blurred by before the remaining three caught him. This time Kakashi had no warning before a shuriken slammed into the meat of his shoulder, destroying his fragile balance and spinning him into an unsteady crouch. He ripped the blade out and threw it back, scoring a glancing hit. There was no exchange of witticisms as they closed in, backing him into the shadow of another broken rock formation, there was nothing but still faces and bared steel arcing around in an attempt to make him a headless copy-nin. He blocked with his arm, yelped as something went crunch, and kiwarimi'd himself away.
In the half-second before they caught him again, Kakashi shoved the stolen scroll between Pakkun's unwilling teeth and ordered the pug home. They were past the border to Fire Country; it was only twelve hours run to the stones that marked Konoha's own border. Twelve hours wasn't much. He could keep going half a day, and if he died it didn't matter as long as the scroll made it back and the mission was completed.
Pakkun protested, but he ran when Kakashi snarled the command out through hidden bloody teeth. The copy-nin summoned another four clones to cover the pug's escape--each carrying a scroll--and held the mist-nin as long as he could until Pakkun's scent was lost. Overwhelmed by red streaks that soaked into thick moss and made the footing treacherous. A jounin died on the wrong end of a chidori, and Kakashi took a blow that broke his armour rather than his spine, splitting it open in a long line across his lower back. He winced and wrenched his hand free, shaking loose strings of cooked flesh and charred insides before he called up another chidori, holding the remaining jounin at bay with a handful of lightning.
Kakashi was intimately acquainted with the better part of valour. There was no one here to protect but himself; no teammate, and no dogs. Nothing now that he needed to carry home. He waited until his clones closed in, and then he ran. Chakra held his ankle stable just long enough for him to make it to the warren of caves that littered the edge of Konoha's forest. A hidden paper seal slapped over the entrance wasn't going to stop anyone, but the illusion it made might keep him safe long enough for Pakkun to track him down.
Half of a ninja's battles are won based on luck. Kakashi's had always been good.
By the time Pakkun staggered into ANBU's HQ, handed over the scroll to the first Intel agent he saw, and coughed out his message, twelve hours had gone and Kakashi didn't really care much about luck anymore. He didn't really care much about anything. |
|