"Well, he's a lot better off than I thought he would be." Hana began, speaking to Kakashi, even as she performed her diagnosis jutsu. "He's just resting at the moment, and as far as I can see, there's no lingering damage to his head, but it would be wise if he was given a more thorough look-over in Suna. He is suffering from minor chakra exhaustion, but I'll be able to help him with that fairly easily, at least enough to get him on the move again. As far as our actual mission goes, our most pressing concern is his broken bones." Hana stopped her jutsu, the green chakra that had been surrounding her hands as she worked fading away, and turned her attention to Kakashi. "His arm is broken quite severely, and it will take some time to heal enough to move him, even with my medical ninjutsu. His leg, is not so bad, and given there a no complications I can have him up and moving, with help, within a few hours. However as a medic, I'd have to recommend that we keep him still, at least for another few hours, so I can try and cut down on the risk of further damage when we do try to move him. Ideally, I'd need three or four hours hours. But if we absolutely need to, we can be going in two, possibly less if someone helps him move."
Kakashi pondered over what the teams appointed medic had said. In theory, they should stay for as long as needed, in order to make sure Baki got patched up properly before they got moving. But Kakashi had a bad feeling about this mission. The Suna Jonin had gotten a pretty banged up by whoever it was that attacked him, and had managed to take out the Jonin's two team-mates, which meant that they were pretty good. Then there was the matter of Baki's 'cargo', which was most likely the enemies' target, but if that was the case, why did they retreat? Kakashi doubted that Baki had managed to kill all three of them, especially given how much he had been injured, and even if he had, Baki couldn't have moved that far before Kamiko and her squad had found him, meaning there should have been bodies.
All of which led Kakashi to the conclusion that the enemy shinobi would be back. And now it was just him and three Genin that stood between them and their prize. Hana was far more experienced than her rank let on, as she had forsaken the Chunin exams several times in order to train as a combat medic; and as a result she had also realised Kakashi's concerns even whilst performing the diagnosis jutsu, which is likely the only reason she brought up how quickly she could get Baki on his feet.
"We have a few hours, get him ready to move. With any luck we can be out of here and well on our way to Suna before trouble arrives."
"Right. I'll get to work on his leg straight away. Unless you want to speak with him, I won't bother to wake him up. I can work faster whilst he's asleep." Kakashi could see how reluctant the medic in her was to try to get Baki moving so soon, yet at the same time, the shinobi part of her understanding the need to get moving.
"Let him rest for a while, although I will need to speak with him, soon, to see what information he can give us about what we're up against."
"Understood. I'll work as fast as I can, and let you know if he wakes up." Hana hovered her hands over Baki's leg, green chakra already oozing from her hands, even as she spoke to the Jonin.
Kakashi turned to Naruto and Shikamaru, who had been listening intently to the conversation, and were now aware, to some extent, of the gravity of their situation. "I need you two alert, and ready for anything. Naruto, summon a pair of Kage Bunshin, have them patrol the area that we came from. Shikamaru, and the original Naruto; whilst I want you to stay alert, prepare for an ambush. Figure out possible lines of attack, traps, work out counters, do as much as you can. I'll keep watch, and maybe try and input some ideas if you need them."
He watched as the pair got to work. Two Bunshin appeared next to the blonde, without him having even moved, and immediately got to work; whilst Shikamaru sat down cross-legged, an intense look of concentration on his face, his eyes occasionally darting around, observing their surroundings. It was impressive, to say the least. Many fresh Genin would have crumbled from the pressure in a similar situation, but these two, as well as Hana, didn't even appear phased.
This could of course meant complacency on the part of the rookie ninja, however Kakashi somewhat doubted that. Hana already had a years worth of experience out in the field, and that was only so low because missions had taken a back-seat to her medical training. Shikamaru seemed to be as cool and composed under pressure as his father was, and Kakashi knew the Nara wouldn't underestimate the gravity of the situation. Naruto would have concerned him if they were in this position a few months ago, but even a cursory glance at the blonde assuaged most of Kakashi's worry. It was clear how much the Genin had grown since the night he found out about his father, and his time with Yuugao and Jiraiya had pushed him farther forward than anyone, possibly even the Sandaime himself, could have anticipated.
Despite that however, Kakashi doubted that the Genin that made up his squad would be a match for the enemy that had been strong enough to severely wound Baki, and capture or kill the rest of his squad. His lone eye turned it's gaze to the sheer rock walls that surrounded the Konoha ninja and carefully watched the top of the canyon for any signs of movement.
Somewhere up there, he supposed, lurked an enemy that, if they were unlucky enough, he would have to fight in order to give the Genin he had with him any hope of escaping. He didn't doubt the young shinobi that accompanied him were talented, but anybody capable of bringing down someone of Baki's calibre would be, quite simply, out of their league.
Two identical figures cautiously made their way through the canyon back towards where they had entered it in the first place, fully alert, searching for any trace of an enemy. Although they were aware that, as Kage Bunshin, it wasn't a particularly large issue if they were 'killed'; it was vital that if they were to be defeated, they obtained at least a snippet of information about the enemy for the original to use. However this was getting ever harder as the minutes went by. Night was falling, and with it, the scant light the sun provided the inside of the canyon was disappearing, making it almost impossible to see more than a few metres in any direction.
One of the Bunshin paused momentarily, and strained it's senses. He could have sworn he heard a noise from the dense walls of the canyon, almost like a faint scratching – similar to the sound a snake made as it moved across solid ground. That was when he spotted it. Almost as if the canyon's side was a liquid, the surface of the rock began to displace before the Bunshin's eyes, mesmerised by the sight before him, the Bunshin lost focus, and was instantly dispelled as an arm wielding a kunai shot from the rock itself, slashing the blade across the Naruto replica's face. The second Bunshin immediately took a step back from the wall that the threat had emerged from and watched fascinated as the hand withdrew back into the canyon wall.
The remaining Bunshin's instincts screamed at him to move as he felt the air around begin to heat, and he nearly dived to the side too late, only managing to dodge the fire jutsu that had been launched at him by a fraction. The Bunshin got shakily to his feet, only to feel a hand clasp roughly across his mouth and a sharp pain to explode in his chest.
"And I was so looking forward to watching you fucking burn. Even if you are just a Kage Bunshin."
With that, the assailant released his grip on the Bunshin and removed his blade from it's chest; leaving it to begin to fall, before dispelling in a puff of smoke. The figure glanced angrily towards the canyon wall.
"What the fuck was that? There you were lecturing me not to give away any techniques, and you go ahead and use your best one! What about you're chakra? We're fighting Hatake Kakashi. Tonight!"
Slowly another figure emerged from the canyon wall, stepping away from the solid rock as though it were some kind of portal to another dimension.
"Calm down. I didn't show it for long enough for any of them to be able to work out exactly what it was. Besides, did you get a look at his face. We have another of our targets. Activate the seals. We move now."
The first man just grinned widely, and followed the other's instruction, any disagreement forgotten.
Tonight, Hatake Kakashi and the son of the Yondaime Hokage would die by his hand.
----------------------------------------
Naruto inhaled sharply, as the memories of his Bunshin rushed into his head, one after the other.
"My Kage Bunshin have been killed!" The blonde exclaimed, drawing the attention of his entire team.
"Tell me exactly what happened Naruto." Kakashi ordered, his demeanour almost instantly changing to that of a Jonin commander.
"Well, I can't really explain what happened to the first one. And hand came out of the canyon wall and attacked, except it wasn't really like the Doton: Shinji Zanshu. It was almost as if the rock was made from water, and the hand just kind of emerged from it, without damaging the wall at all."
Kakashi couldn't help but be intrigued as to the ability Naruto described. He had heard of a technique like it, but little was known of it's exact details outside of it's village of origin, Iwagakure. He had checked out the list of recent missing nin from Iwa prior to leaving for this mission too, in order to try and prepare for possible attempts on Naruto's life while they were gone.
"I think the second Bunshin was destroyed by someone else, although it was pretty hard to tell." Naruto continued, focusing on the memories he had inherited. "It managed to dodge some kind of Katon jutsu, but the enemy managed to kill it from behind, with some kind of blade, I think."
"That's good Naruto. Any information on the enemy we can get improves our chances massively, although ideally we would want a bit more, so we could try and identify the enemy. Unfortunately, the fact that they attacked your Bunshin, indicates they intend strike sooner rather than later." Kakashi sighed before turning towards Hana, who was still working on Baki's injuries. "Hana, I'm going to need Baki good to go as soon as possible. How long do you need to get him ready to move?"
Hana paused in her work, frustration that she would have to move her patient sooner than was good for his health evident on her face.
"I need an hour at best. I need to ensure his bones aren't going to break again when we move him, otherwise he could be facing permanent damage."
"That will have to do, then. I don't think we're going to be able to stay any longer than that. Unfortunately, you are going to have to move him away from the wall. Given the enemies' ability, I don't think it would be safe to keep him up against it. Naruto, Shikamaru help her, and then get into a defensive formation around Hana. I need you to stay absolutely focused okay?"
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"Hai, Kakashi-sensei!" Came the call from all three of the Genin as they got to work, the two male shinobi listening intently to Hana's instruction on how to move Baki with as little risk as possible, and then proceeding to carefully move the ninja away from the stone wall he had been resting against, and laid him down a few metres away from the wall, resting his head upon the dull green flak jacket that Hana had removed previously in order to diagnose the Suna shinobi.
Naruto created a Kage Bunshin, allowing himself and Shikamaru to form a basic triangular formation around the Genin medic and her patient, and began to focus on his senses, listening for the slight scratching sounds his Bunshin had heard before it had been destroyed, when he had a thought.
"Kakashi-sensei, I don't suppose you've heard of any techniques that let you move through rock like the one my Bunshin saw, do you?" Naruto enquired, being careful not to lose focus on his surroundings as he spoke the the Jonin.
"I do know of one clan from Iwagakure, that had a similar technique as their Kekkai Genkai, but the last of that clan were wiped out during the last Shinobi War" The experienced shinobi's senses flared as he felt a surge of chakra ahead of him in the clearing that his team had occupied. His was moving almost before he had time to process what he had felt as the tell-tale chakra surge of a 'Shunshin no jutsu', a technique that allowed shinobi to move at almost untraceable speeds over short distances. His kunai was already to hand as a single figure materialised before him, ready to land a fatal strike before his enemy could recover from the momentary daze that usually accompanied such techniques.
'But why would he just Shunshin straight into the clearing. It's common knowledge that Shunshin's movements can, to an extent, be traced easily...'
Kakashi's lone eye widened mid-charge as he realised his error, and without stopping his charge, he formed the signs for the 'Kawarimi no jutsu'. At almost that exact moment, single hand armed with a kunai shot from the ground below the Konoha ninja, looking to cause serious damage to Kakashi's legs. Anticipating the attack, the cycloptic Jonin activated his jutsu, the attack inches away from striking him, and the enemy shinobi found himself striking at a large rock that had initially been next to the trio of Genin.
"Hatake Kakashi." The enemy shinobi who had launched the attack from underground began, his face struggling to conceal his apparent anger at the Jonin. "I expected a little more than a basic jutsu like Kawarimi from the man who has copied over one thousand jutsu."
"What's the point in wasting chakra, if all I need to beat the likes of you is the basics anyway?" Kakashi retorted, appearing far more nonchalant than he actually felt, attempting to see if he could get a rise out of his opponents.
"I've had enough of fucking sitting here and looking at you Hatake! I'm gonna tear out that bastard eye and ram it down your damn throat!" The ninja who had used Shunshin to move into the clearing, took a step forward ready to charge at the Konoha nin.
"Hitoshi! Take another step and you're a dead man." The other shinobi hissed the warning to his comrade, his eyes never leaving Kakashi as he spoke. The man identified as Hitoshi narrowed his eyes dangerously, and ground his teeth in anger, but held his position all the same. "Listen, once that jutsu is ready, we can finish Hatake for good. But it can only happen once the jutsu is ready, and even then, we have to work together, otherwise we'll end up like the others. We've waited too long for this to screw it up now!"
The mans words seemed to calm Hitoshi down, if only a little. However, the respite had allowed Kakashi time to analyse the pair in front of him a little closer, and attempt to identify the enemy before him. Suddenly, the name brought a memory to the forefront of Kakashi's mind, a memory that the veteran of the Third Shinobi War would rather forget.
"Isao Hitoshi and Masanori Eiji. Former Genin of Iwagakure..." Kakashi paused; unsure of how to proceed, this being a topic he had fully intended to never have to breach, if he could at all help it. Unfortunately, he doubted he had much say in the matter at this point in time, and was pretty sure that he wanted to be the first one to answer the question the Genin team he commanded would inevitably have. "...And survivors of the 'Raiden Massacre'."
The Jonin looked directly into the eyes of his enemies, and saw the venomous glares of two people out for revenge, no matter the cost. Another two lives warped and destroyed by war, another two lives warped and destroyed by his own two hands.
"I've never heard of the 'Raiden Massacre' before, how the hell does it involve you, Kakashi-sensei?" Predictably, it was Naruto that spoke up first, Hana still trying to get Baki ready to move in case Kakashi couldn't put the two Iwa shinobi down alone, and Shikamaru most likely having heard enough to work out the link between the event Kakashi spoke of, and the Jonin himself.
"You wouldn't of heard about, because your bastard of a Yondaime Hokage filed it away as a black listed mission before the end of the Third Shinobi War, and made it an A-rank village secret. I'm willing to bet there are only two or three people left Konoha who even know the event even happened." It was Hitoshi that answered the question, his words carrying an acidic edge to them, one that made Kakashi mentally grimace.
"That's probable one of the worst things in my opinion." This time it was Eiji who spoke, his words lacking the unbridled rage that his partner's did; instead, carrying a bitter sting to them, reminding Kakashi somewhat of himself after the end of the war. "The fact that the day when 27 Iwagakure Genin, none of them older than 13 years of age were slaughtered by a Konoha Jonin, when they posed no legitimate threat to Konoha, so close to the end of the war; a day that is still annually mourned in Iwa, is a criminal offense to even mention in Konoha, all so your village can maintain it's reputation."
The three Genin, Naruto in particular, looked shell-shocked by the claims of the former Iwa shinobi. Of course none of them had experienced shinobi warfare, nor had they felt the tempestuous fury caused by the loss of comrades, friends, and even lovers. Of course, none of them would fully understand. God willing, none of them would ever have to, although given that the existence of shinobi revolved around the art of killing, Kakashi somewhat doubted that as a possibility.
"And the Konoha nija that committed the massacre? None other than the famous Hatake Kakashi." Eiji enunciated Kakashi's name with the same viciousness that Hitoshi had been speaking with moments earlier, unable to prevent the vitriol from creeping into his voice, momentarily losing the emotional control that most ninja strive to keep.
Kakashi found himself wincing once more at the tone of the Iwa shinobi's voice. He supposed that he could of tried to stop the man from revealing that the perpetrator of the massacre was himself, and avoided tarnishing how the Genin under his command saw him; however, it was likely that them finding out about it was inevitable now that the details of the mission were out in the open. Either way, he was pretty sure their views of him would have been coloured by the way the enemy ninja spoke of him.
"K-Kakashi-sensei, that's not true, is it?"
Again it was Naruto who was first to make himself known, his voice shakily betraying his shock at what he had heard. Out of the all the Genin he had seen that had graduated this year, Kakashi was certain Naruto was the most naïve. It was hardly surprising that his sensei's son was so shocked. All Kakashi could do was explain himself the best he could, and hope that Naruto would eventually come to understand.
"I'm afraid so." Kakashi replied steadily, carefully keeping his emotion out of his voice. "It was during a war that had already been going on for such a long time, and so many had died. I-" Kakashi stopped dead, midway through his sentence.
Several eerily silent seconds went by, until Kakashi managed to lock onto what had distracted him. A deep rumbling sound coming from the top of the canyon, that had been so quiet that it was nigh on inaudible, was slowly increasing in volume, almost as if it was coming close and closer to the edges of the canyon. A few more seconds passed and the Jonin noticed that all three of the Genin had noticed the sound too. Kakashi could feel the vibrations in the ground now, growing ever stronger as the seconds passed.
"Kakashi-sensei, look at the top of the canyon. What the hell is that?" It was Shikamaru who spotted the source of the noise first, as Kakashi hadn't dared to take his eyes off of the pair of shinobi in front of him. Still keeping his senses sharp for movement from the enemies to his front, the Jonin turned his head just enough to get a good look at what was causing the growing vibrations and sounds, that were now loud enough to seemingly shake the entire canyon, causing the looser rocks on the canyon walls to loosen and fall.
And as Kakashi's eyes fell upon the object of Shikamaru's question, he felt his hand instinctively reach for his Hitai-ate that was covering his left eye, and one his greatest assets as a shinobi, and lifted it, revealing his pupil to be a deep red, with three tomoe within the iris.
The rumbling had stopped. And standing faceless, silhouetted against a skyline lit up by the moon light, were the stone figures the group had passed on their way through the canyon; their swords now aimed threateningly towards the group of Genin and the Jonin they stood protectively around.
The statues were leaner than they were before, Kakashi noted, probably adapted by whatever justu the pair of Iwa shinobi had used in order to animate them in order to allow for faster movement. Of course, it was impossible to be able to tell exactly how mobile these things were just by their size, but it was foolish to rule out the idea that they may well be as mobile as an actual person, and it wasn't totally uncommon to see objects animated in such a way by some kind of jutsu. However, how shinobi such as these were able to come by such techniques, given that jutsu such as these tended to be incredibly complex, as well as chakra intensive. The men in front of him were definitely Jonin, judging by their chakra reserves, but one would have to have reached a level Kakashi was not sure even he himself had reached in order to use such a technique to the scale being displayed.
Which, he deduced in the split second he had been pondering this, indicated that they were working for a considerable more powerful enemy. The possible consequences of that particular realisation would have to wait, however, as Kakashi had more pressing concerns. The statues were moving again, one by one crouching, bending at the knees. He was on the move in the same moment that he realised what they were about to do, determined to get back closer to his team, and into a better defensive position.
Unfortunately, it was not to be. Distracted by the arrival of the stone figures, he hadn't noticed Eiji slip back into the rocky ground. Kakashi ground to a halt, only having made it a few metres back, as the missing-nin emerged from the ground in front of him.
"Come now, Hatake. You're fight is with us. There's no getting past me, I can move faster in the earth than even that vile eye of yours can follow."
Kakashi glared at the man standing between him and the comrades it was his job to protect.
"No getting past you, hm?" Kakashi asked, in the nonchalant tone he had perfected over the years. "In that case, looks like I'll have to go through you then." Kakashi retorted, his glare not receding as he bought a kunai to bare.
"And on another day, you might well achieve that goal, Hatake." The man began, the smirk on his face becoming larger at Kakashi's response. "But, today the question is not whether you can get past me. It's 'can you make it past me before those Genin standing behind me have been ground into dust?"
And, as Eiji finished, the very first statue impacted with the ground behind him, after jumping from the very top of the canyon, splintering the earth beneath it. The statue turned to the group of Genin, even as the others followed, shaking the entire canyon as they hit the ground and causing a cloud of dust to almost totally covering their considerable presence, and once again raised it's stone sword towards the shell-shocked Genin.
Naruto was the first of Genin to recover, and had instinctively reached for his weapon, manoeuvring himself so that he was between the statues and Hana and Baki, whilst waiting for the dust to clear.
He had never expected his very first mission to turn out like this, especially as he had already done a fair amount of reading into how missions were ranked so that he would have some idea of what to expect when he started taking missions outside the village. But now, he found himself, a totally inexperienced Genin in the midst of what was a certain A-rank. He knew that, given what himself and Shikamaru were about to face, at least until Kakashi-sensei could reach them, there was an incredibly high risk of getting seriously injured, or worse.
Yet, he couldn't find a trace of fear within himself. All worries were replaced, partly, by a combination of surging adrenaline, and the will to survive. But most importantly, he was filled with the realisation that, given his team-mates' abilities, the chances of them surviving, at least until the Jonin made it past the missing-nin, relied totally on him.
He absolutely couldn't fail. And that didn't scare him. He wouldn't allow his team-mates to die. He wouldn't allow the people he now considered friends to be hurt, even if it cost him his life. That was a promise.
And no matter how much he had matured since the days he would proclaim his promise to be Hokage from the rooftops of the village, Uzumaki Naruto never, ever broke a promise.