The first ninja yielded nothing but a snarl, followed by an ugly thump when Kakashi broke his neck. The second put up more of a fight, wicked claws clashing with a ring of steel against Kakashi's sword. It ended in an arching spray of blood when Kakashi dropped to slice the woman's legs out at the knee. She fell with a scream, and yanked up short when his hand fisted in her long hair.

He wrenched her head around. "Two ninja. Little blond and a redhead. Where are they?"

An incoherent scream was his only answer, followed by a wild swipe as she tried to gut him. He sliced her throat open, threw her spasming body at a bellowing archer before the man could set arrow to string, and moved onto a third. Then a fourth. Scattered over walkways and throughout twisted machinery, half lost in the belching smoke, clones waged their own private wars. Fought and died and came right back when Kakashi lashed out with his chakra.

Balanced on an iron girder hanging half-shattered from the ceiling, it was a clone that spotted the steel airducts tearing down. It bellowed a warning, voice almost swallowed in the chaos, and drew Kakashi's attention with a snap of blue-white energy. His gaze jerked up--

And saw a flash of bright blond in the welter of falling metal, plunging straight towards the open maw of a mixer engulfed in flame.

In the frozen, silent moment between understanding and movement, Kakashi thought he felt his heart stop. Then his hands slammed together around the hilt of his sword, fingers twisted seals, chakra wrenched from the core of his chest, and the world shivered and vanished.

He couldn't translocate through the walls, but there was nothing to stop him flying inside the warehouse.

Eight clones died in the flicker of a second it took him to there. He reappeared in a falling shower of metal and fire, snatched the slender body tumbling helplessly through the air, felt something hot and wet sear across his shoulders, and vanished again before they hit the ground.

Three more clones. Five more ninja. Sixteen workers. Kakashi slammed down on his knees with Ginta safely in his arms, heard the distant shout of "Found her!" in his own voice, and lunged back to his feet. A kunoichi raked his hip with a razor-sharp kunai. Sword-hand pinned by Ginta's weight, Kakashi lashed back with a heel aimed at her knee, and dropped desperately to avoid the next blow, shielding Ginta.

A clone swept in and tackled her before she could finish them. Kakashi wrenched away and ran, sprinting towards the clone that held a screaming, blood-soaked woman in its arms.