Chapter 1
Kakashi scanned the battlefield wildly. He was entangled in a fight against multiple opponents at once, their long swords causing him significant trouble. Just minutes ago, one of them had struck him, viciously tearing his left side from his chest down to his hip. The cut was painful, and he didn’t even have time to assess how deep it was. Something was off about these ninja. According to reconnaissance, they were supposed to be a disorderly mix of shinobi and common murderers. However, it turned out they had been enhanced in some way—they moved too fast, even with his Sharingan, he couldn't keep up. They used simple techniques, yet their effects seemed amplified. The force behind their blows was unnaturally strong. He quickly realized that his five-man team needed to retreat as soon as possible.
He searched for Sai, who was providing aerial support for the team. Tenzou and Sakura were tasked with rescuing a kidnapped trusted official of the Daimyo and retrieving the scrolls he carried. Naruto and Kakashi's job was to lure the kidnappers out of the complex. Everything had gone smoothly—until the fight broke out. Something was seriously wrong here.
He caught sight of Sai’s signal as he descended—mission accomplished, Sakura and Tenzou had completed their task. He exhaled in relief. Time to retreat. Sai would pick them up; they just needed to reach the forest and climb into the tree canopies. He turned to look for Naruto, who had drawn his opponents onto a rocky ledge. Below him was a small canyon. With his army of clones, Naruto was handling himself quite well, giving the gang of thugs a hard time. His chakra reserves must be endless, Hatake thought, swaying slightly. He felt weak, not just from overusing his Sharingan and blood loss. He had a creeping suspicion that the enemy’s sword had introduced poison into his body, slowly draining his strength. He leaped onto the wall surrounding the enemy’s headquarters, trying to conserve energy and avoid further strikes. He shouted to Naruto:
“Retreat!”
But Naruto was still fiercely tearing through the horde of warriors. His eyes, burning with determination, were locked onto the gang leader, who was mocking his skills loudly. They had already clashed once before, but the leader had been swiftly shielded by dozens of ninja. Many still stood in Naruto’s path, and he was determined to put the leader in his place. Kakashi's next shout broke his trance:
“Naruto, retreat!”
“Just let me take care of this bastard first!” Naruto yelled back.
“No! The mission is complete, Naruto!” Hatake nearly tore his throat shouting over the chaos.
Inside the building where the official had been held, several explosions erupted—Tenzou must have planted explosive tags. According to plan, they were meant to distract the enemy from their escape. The Jounin glanced back towards the compound—a small group of ninja was chasing after Sakura and Tenzou, who were retreating with the hostage. But a much larger force was pouring out of the barracks and heading straight toward him. Their chances of escape were dwindling by the second. Kakashi turned back toward his student and repeated the order:
“Naruto! We’re leaving, now!”
Naruto didn’t even glance at his sensei; he simply lunged toward his chosen target. If only he had listened—if only he had even looked at Kakashi, he would have seen that his teacher was no longer fighting, merely dodging clumsily while clutching his bleeding side. He also failed to notice that Yamato-taichou and Sakura were moving farther away. His anger and desire to defeat that wretched shinobi clouded his judgment. The enemies had the numerical advantage from the start. Now, twice as many poured out from behind the walls—something Uzumaki also failed to realize until he found himself completely surrounded.
Suddenly, the leader of the gang shot forward from the circle of thugs, slashing Naruto’s right thigh in a flash. To his horror, Naruto felt a sudden, drastic loss of strength. Most of his clones engaged in combat instantly vanished.
Seeing this, Kakashi didn’t hesitate—he sprinted toward him. He assessed his chakra reserves critically. Time was running out. He had to break through to Naruto and get him out of there. He threw himself at the outer ring of ninja, dealing blows left and right, some of them fatal. He couldn’t avoid sustaining more injuries himself, but stopping was out of the question. He cut down a few more enemies before spotting Sai crashing to the ground right next to Naruto. An enemy’s arrow protruded from his shoulder. He had been covering his teammate from above, and when the circle around Naruto tightened, he must have flown too low—that’s when they got him.
Damn it , Kakashi thought, feeling the last of his reserved energy slip away. His blows were losing power, failing to reach his enemies. He began to doubt whether he could save both of his subordinates. Sai’s ink bird was still circling above, meaning the boy was still conscious. Good, at least Tenzou and Sakura might have managed to escape, he consoled himself. But he had no intention of giving up—he would still try to protect Sai and Naruto. He had to.
When Sai fell beside Naruto, the latter snapped out of his battle rage and took in his surroundings. His leg was injured, and it felt as if something was blocking his chakra flow and poisoning his body. His strength was waning rapidly. He heard the sounds of battle near the wall and spotted Kakashi-sensei approaching. He noticed with alarm that his teacher was moving unnaturally slowly. Uzumaki tried to summon more clones—only four appeared, and even that caused him pain from chakra exhaustion. The clones formed a defensive stance around the two boys. He lifted Sai in his arms, the dark-haired boy groaning in pain, his wound looking severe. Naruto suspected it was poisoned as well. He searched for Kakashi-sensei again—his teacher was closer now, but to Naruto’s horror, he was unsteady on his feet. Only now did he notice the large bloodstain on Kakashi’s left side, the blood trickling from his right temple, and the numerous wounds on his arms and legs. The young ninja began to realize how dire their situation was. He shouted toward the Copy Ninja:
“Kakashi-sensei, what should I do?!”
Kakashi heard him but didn’t look his way or respond. He was in the middle of forming a water style jutsu to push his attackers away. When he succeeded, he collapsed to his knees, struggling to breathe. He was utterly exhausted, his vision blurred, bleeding heavily, and on the verge of losing consciousness. Using Water Release had bought him only a few seconds, at the cost of more energy. Naruto called out again. Kakashi turned slightly—just for a second—to glance at the boys. They were trapped, just like him. If Naruto had obeyed the order, we’d be on our way home by now. He shook his head. That doesn’t matter now. We need to get out of here. Clenching his fists, he forced himself to stand and defend against another attack. Unlike him, their enemies seemed to regenerate at an alarming rate. Determined, he gritted his teeth, threw every ounce of strength into the fight, and finally broke the encirclement around Naruto and Sai.
Immediately, he turned his back to his wounded students. He had to hold off the attackers as long as possible and come up with a plan. Out of the corner of his right eye, he saw Tenzou returning. A few swift hand signals, a single understanding glance, and a nod—Hatake didn’t look back again. He created a shadow clone, which immediately ran toward the boys. Tenzou veered left and down, extending wooden tendrils to shield the teens from an incoming mass attack.
Naruto, weakened and confused, didn’t understand what was happening. He saw Kakashi’s clone form a Water Release seal with one hand while striking the ground with a Rasengan in the other, just a few meters away from him and Sai. In that same instant, the clone vanished, and a wave of water surged forward, breaking the ground beneath them. Only then did Naruto realize they were standing on the edge of a precipice. As he and Sai plunged down amidst crumbling earth and debris, he felt branches wrapping around them.
Yamato had headed straight for them from the start, intending to use the cover of the water impact wave to take them to safety. Sai, partially shielded by Naruto, managed to stay conscious. Meanwhile, the injured and badly battered Uzumaki fainted shortly after the commander placed them on the second ink bird. The wound on his thigh was bleeding profusely. As they left the canyon, Yamato glanced back. The foreign ninja were dragging Kakashi Hatake’s motionless body across the ground.