A Dead Man Walking
“Shisui, you godforsaken damned idiot.” Kakashi breathed out, “what the fuck is going on?”
Kakashi twitches as he looks on, the brightest Uchiha to come out of the clan since Obito himself. The boy, always quick with humour, restless with energy and speed, was floating down a river near the border of the ‘Land of Rivers’.
“Uh, taking a bath?” The Uchiha offered mutely.
Kakashi pointed a glare at him, though it would do no good. As before him lay an Uchiha with no eyes. No eyes. No fucking eyes.
“Where is your Sharingan you moron?” asked Kakashi, re-applying bandages to the boy’s face, the empty sockets in the boy’s face making him squirm. He looked so much like Obito at this moment.
“Ah, well. I… uh” Shisui actually shrugged, and Kakashi could just stare, “I don’t know to be honest.”
It takes a few moments for Kakashi to ground himself, he had just sent his team for a recon mission near the border, a few small-time missing-nin were spotted in the area, he had been dispatched to ensure they were gone.
‘I’m going to need Deer to come back soon with the body of the missing-nin, preferably with the eyes intact.’ He thought to himself, there was no giving Shisui another pair of Sharingan now, not unless someone willingly gave it up, he doubted the clan would much stand for it, especially for a second-liner.
“Shisui, what is the last thing you remember? Where’s Itachi, how did you end up in such a… sorry state?” Kakashi went through a thousand thoughts at a time, “We need to get you a field eye implant if you’re to move around at all, the landscape isn’t exactly conducive to being fucking blind.”
Shisui, had the gall to chuckle, “Yeah, I know, been here a few times, the rivers have a way of eroding a shit ton of land and the sand over from the Wind Country has a way of building up a small mound to redirect them. Huh, well, I remember that much at least.”
Kakashi over tightened a bandage on his face, earning a yelp from the boy.
“Ouch, fuck, okay. Okay!” Shisui squirmed, “The last thing I remember was meeting with Itachi, our plans in the ANBU and the clan.”
Kakashi knew how much the boy left out in that single sentence, but pushed no further, if this situation didn’t make him speak up, nothing would.
He sighed, “Understood, well, whatever the situation Shisui, we need to get you healed up, and I’m sorry to say but your Sharingan is gone, we will need to implant whatever becomes available the laws be damned. I’m not letting another Uchiha be blind if I can do something about it.”
Shisui stilled, he of course knew the history between Kakashi and his clan, an unfortunate incident during the war left the current ANBU captain without a teammate and an eye that wasn’t his.
“And we both know that this eye cannot be implanted into you, the Sharingan, for all of its damned power does not keep for more than one change of host, for whatever fucking reason.”
Shisui nodded, Kakashi wasn’t aware of the intricacies of the Dojutsu the Uchiha possessed. It made sense, not many inside the clan knew either.
“Kakashi…” he whispered, feeling the breath of the shinobi even under the mask he always wore, “don’t… don’t let me die, yeah?”
“Shisui, until we get to the bottom of this shitty pit, you’re going to be as far away from dying as the damned Biju.”
For all his bravado and light-heartedness earlier, Shisui’s lip quivered, “Thank you, captain.”
The mission was taking longer than expected, the missing-nin had an irritating skill of being absolutely impossible to find when one needed to. Kakashi had patched up Shisui as well as he could, and only at the end of the day did Deer come back and manage to heal the boy enough to receive an implant, when one would become available.
“It’s been two weeks already, Captain, should we return to base?” Ox mused out loud.
Kakashi, under his Dog mask, sighed, “No, it’s my fault we haven’t been able to catch them, I’m tired of the damned rivers and sand. You two, stay behind with Shisui for the day. I’m not about to lose the team's perfect record.” ‘And leave another Uchiha blind’ he muttered to himself.
It took only a few moments for Kakashi to summon his back, extend his senses and jolt off towards a northern-easterly direction. He smelled salty-air and earth. A tell-tale sign of nature affinities, and strong enough to be more than simple genin.
Kakashi’s mind was solely focused on a single task. Get in, kill the two annoyances, get the eyes in a tip-top shape, return to Konoha, and apologise extensively to the Uchiha clan. Okay, a few more than a single task, but his mind was quick, a single task was not enough to occupy him without falling into deep thoughts.
“Boss, thirty degrees north-west. Two people, crossed out village insignia, village unknown,” one of his companions, a foxhound, reported.
Kakashi took a quick turn on a jagged piece of rock he had just landed on and twisted his inertia towards the direction of the two shinobi.
It was easier than he’d expected, perhaps he was stronger than he expected, or they were weaker than anticipated, the Shinobi didn’t even manage to scream out a jutsu, a weakness to not be able to do it silently, but it mattered not. Kakashi got what he came for, and he just about sensed the team up ahead.
Coming onto the clearing between trees, and ‘why were they in a clearing? ’ his nose picked up a vile smell, of stomach acid, and blood.
He quickened the pace and soon appeared between Deer and Ox, who were alert and guarded around the sleeping Shisui. Something happened, of course something happened, he thought, this mission was a disaster from the beginning. Two defected Grass shinobi that somehow crossed into Konoha and managed to evade his team for two straight weeks and a half-dead Uchiha.
“Ox, report,” he barked out the order, his patience wearing thin with the wetness and the irritating sand lodged behind his ears.
“No danger from outside Captain, but…” he hesitated, before putting his kunai hand on his temple, “well, you better read this.”
He handed Kakashi a scroll. It bore the Hokage’s seal and was obviously authentic, his team would check that. Kakashi thought maybe they were getting reprimanded for the extended mission time, but why a seal with ‘Priority Level: Fire’?
“I don’t suppose this is about our mission?” he thought out loud, not expecting answers.
Kakashi unfolded the scroll.
‘Konohagakure Emergency Protocol F31-A1
All those stationed within 20 Ri of Konohagakure gates are to return to the village
All those stationed outside of 20 Ri of Konohagakure gates are to report back on their immediate location, expect mission scope expansion.
----
The Bingo-Book has been updated
Uchiha, Itachi - Age 13, Sharingan User, highly proficient in Combat, Evasion, Assassination.
S-Rank
Bounty: 55,000,000 Ryo
Flee on Sight
Crime - the slaying of 784 Uchiha Clan Members (Total: 786)
The village calls on its strongest to reinforce its walls.
May the Will of Fire Burn Within You
Sarutobi Hiruzen,
Sandaime Hokage’
The familiar face of his young squadron member stared out at him, his eyes black, his expression unmoving, uncaring, and fully unlike how Kakashi remembered him.
“What the fuck” he could only mutter out.
It took them just about two hours to get back to Konohagakure, around half an hour being spent on implanting the eyes into Shisui. Finally able to see the surrounding, the Uchiha wasted no time in taking off to Konohagakure, with the rest of the team quickly following him.
They wished to exchange comments, understand what happened, but none of them knew how to approach Shisui, none had gone through the loss of an entire clan, an entire family, the whole support system. Kakashi thought he understood, but even then, his losses were individual. Shisui had lost everyone .
What they did manage to decide was to go to the Hokage Tower immediately. They had an Uchiha survivor, and god's be damned, that was the most important thing right now, no matter what the Hokage was sorting out.
The moment they entered the village, they felt the disturbance, the absence of the Uchiha police on the rooftops, the quit mutterings of the village, even with the sun shining brightly, the village was dim, it’s fire flickering, waiting to be put out.
The Hokage Tower was unavailable to any unless explicit permission was given, but Kakashi cared little for permission at this moment. And pridefully, he understood that his team shared the sentiment.
Within two minutes of entering Konoha they appeared in front of the Hokage with a swirl of leaves. A Leaf Body-Flicker was a sure-fire way of being identified as Konoha shinobi, and Hatake didn’t care to have to fight off the Hokage’s personal detail just after sprinting like hell from the border of the country.
“Dog, what is the meaning of the intrusion? You must underst-“the Hokage muttered, his voice bordering on dangerous, not many had seen the Sandaime with this expression, or at least not many lived to see it. Very suddenly, his voiced softened, his gaze still sharp, but with amazement instead of anger, “Shisui-kun?”
The Uchiha nodded, “Hai, Hokage-sama,” he bowed.
Kakashi almost whistled to himself, even through the trauma, the boy kept his composure. He couldn’t imagine the strength necessary to pull that off.
“Shisui-kun, I’m so very sorry,” the aged, almost ancient-looking at this moment in time, Hokage muttered, “We… believed you to be deceased.”
At this, all members of the Anbu turned their eyes towards Shisui. Their eyes wide, the bingo book report made it out to seem as if Shisui and Itachi were the last of the Uchiha.
Shisui only bit his lower lip, his head still firmly held high, but his voice betraying his inner turmoil, “If-If I’m not the other Uchiha, Hokage-sama, who’s… who’s the…”
Hokage shook his head, his eyes sadder than any had seen, “The son of Fugaku and Mikoto, the brother of Itachi,” Shisui stilled, “Sasuke Uchiha lives.”
Shisui was frozen inside the office, the newly implanted eyes were glazed over, and no emotion was forthcoming. “May I leave Hokage-sama? I-I need to see Sasuke.”
The instant Hokage nodded his head, Shisui was gone from the office, his famous Body-Flicker technique sweeping him through the streets towards the hospital.
“Dog. Explain.” Hokage commanded, leaving no room for dissent.
“Hokage-sama, during mission ANBU A3-F842, I spotted the body of Shisui Uchiha floating down the Naka River. He was in critical condition, with both of his eyes being-“Kakashi caught himself, “replaced by an unknown third party.” His team managed to not even blink at his outright lie. He was a proud fucking captain at this moment.
“At the moment, Deer and Ox had been sent out to recon, the targets were elusive enough to avoid their senses. Once they returned, Deer healed Shisui to the best of their ability and situation. We regrouped, and in the following days continued our search.”
Hokage took a puff of his pipe, his eyes firmly planted on the silver-haired jounin, if not for the absolute confidence in his own abilities, Kakashi would’ve flinched.
“We managed to track down one of the missing-nin, ‘Kiribaru Jagawa,’” Kakashi took out the scroll from beneath his flack-jacket, “It appears the second missing-nin abandoned and fled the country as we were unable to locate him.”
Kakashi thought that the obvious lie and the flagrant violation of the law would be caught by the Sandaime, but whether through his ability in deception, or Sandaime’s willingness to put the matter aside, the Hokage simply nodded.
“Understood,” the Hokage stood up from behind his desk, “You have many questions regarding the events that transpired I suppose.”
Kakashi only nodded.
“Very well, it is our understanding at this moment in time that Itachi Uchiha in the middle of the night, approximately four hours before sunrise entered the Uchiha clan compound, having returned from a mission. This entrance was detected and recorded by the seals surrounding the compound. Over the course of the next three hours, he set about to murder each and every member of the Uchiha clan. Leaving only his brother alive.”
“It is lucky,” he continued, “that Shisui Uchiha was outside the village, with your team.”
Kakashi stared at the old Hokage. He knew when he was being left out critical information, and his brain knew exactly what to fixate on to get more answer. “Hokage-sama, is the compound still standing?”
The Hokage raised an eyebrow, “Yes, the fatalities were non-destructive.”
“That is,” Kakashi steeled himself, “783 clan members dead within 3 hours. That’s more than 4 people per minute. Hokage- sama” His tone didn’t go unnoticed. The ANBU captain was challenging the official accounts of the Hokage and that simply was not done.
“Are you doubting the official record of the Hokage Administration, Dog?” Hokage’s reply was not combative, but it did have an underlying tone. Do not push this.
Many people had preconceived notions of Kakashi Hatake, and almost all of them were false, he was not the student of the late Yondaime Hokage for nothing. “Of course, not Hokage-sama, I meant no offence, it seems I simply underestimated the strength of my own ex-ANBU, you must understand.”
“Quite.” The Hokage returned, his gaze now on the papers in front of him, “dismissed.”
Outside the Hokage tower, the three ANBU appeared on a rooftop, far away enough to not be overheard.
“Captain, you think…” Deer began.
“No, Deer. I know. Riddle me this. What the ever-loving fuck was every single Uchiha doing inside Konohagakure? Did we run out of missions?”
The two ANBU on his team widened their eyes, “Wait, yeah. Wasn’t Beaver serving under Dragon? Isn’t he on a mission in Kirigakure?” asked Deer.
“Dragon is,” Kakashi replied smoothly, “but Beaver it seems remained back in the clan compound. Where he hadn’t lived for the past two years.”
“Fuck.”
“Fuck, indeed.”
“How is Sasuke?” asked Kakashi.
“He’s, completely and utterly, destroyed Kakashi. Itachi… He used Tsukuyomi on the boy.”
Kakashi looked down at his bowl of rice. Sitting around with Shisui had become a regular occurrence this past two weeks. He would ask about Sasuke, ask about himself, then they would try to unfurl the memories that Shisui couldn’t conjure up, but every time it ended in failure.
“How are you holding up?”
“Ah, as well as I can, I guess. No Sharingan is weird, a silent compound even weirder.” Shisui sighed, “being the legal guardian of the severely traumatised heir of Uchiha, well. Not the best.”
Kakashi would chuckle if the moment wasn’t so painfully dire. “What are your plans? Returning to ANBU?”
Shisui looked murderous, “Fuck no. I’m sorry Kakashi, but there is no way in hell I’m returning there. Sasuke needs me, and frankly, I need him as well.” He sighed, “and don’t take it the wrong way Kakashi, but ANBU for all of its intentions, attracts people who want to run away from life. I-I don’t have that will. I don’t want to run away any more; I want to face it dead-on. Maybe help a couple of people out on the way. And now I have a duty to someone.”
Kakashi pondered, before nodding, “Maa, you’re right. I know you’re right. I’ve been running from my own demons far too long now, we all are. It makes a perfect weapon, you know.” He took a bite of the rice, “not having to worry about anything back home, with only your mission in front of you. It… destroys a bit of you, but at least you’re doing something productive.”
“Is that what you want?” asked Shisui, taking a bite of his own food. Not noticing the widened eyes of Kakashi.
“What-what do you mean?”
“Uh, well. I mean, Kakashi, I know the amount of shit you went through. ANBU is secretive but only for outsiders, you know? I know you lost your sensei, your teammates. Gai is the single healthy — if he can be called that — person left alive that you still care about outside ANBU.”
Kakashi remained silent.
“But, well. That’s not exactly true, is it?” Shisui asked, “there is one other person.”
Kakashi narrowed his eyes, what was he-
“It doesn’t take a fucking genius to know that the Yondaime sealed the Kyuubi in his own son. I mean, have you seen him? The boy is a spitting image of the guy.”
Kakashi almost choked on his own food, “That-that’s…”
“None of my business, I know.” Shisui shrugged, “but losing almost all of your clan has a way of giving you a new perspective on those that are left.”
Kakashi put his bowl down on the floor. Staring at the Uchiha in front of him. “Naruto-“he almost twitched at the name, “he’s… he’s better off without me.”
Shisui, to his credit, was not one to back down easily. “Uh, I don’t know what you’ve been told Kakashi, but as far as I’m aware, anything is better off than what he has right now.”
“What-do-you-mean?” Kakashi asked, growling.
Again, Shisui didn’t much care that the jounin in front of him was probably the single most skilled one in the country. “What I mean, captain, ” his words hurt, “is that the boy is living alone, barely scraping by on pickpocketing from the rich foreign merchants, and has the evasion abilities of a damned ANBU because he needs to.”
Kakashi took a few breaths to get his emotions under control, “And how do you know all of this Shisui? What’s your interest in-in Naruto?”
“The police have… had only three people under constant monitoring and protection, Kakashi. Naruto, the Hyuuga kid, and the Hokage”
Kakashi remembered the details of the Hyuuga affair, a spy within the ranks was a catalyst to an awful series of events, so the constant monitoring didn’t surprise him there. But Naruto? He was supposed to be watched by the ANBU, to protect from outside threats. Not the police. Not the force that sorted out internal affairs.
“I know you didn’t know. You’ve been so preoccupied with ANBU that not much registered with you outside of that,” Kakashi almost retorted, “But, you saved my life Kakashi. I want to save yours too.”
They ate the rest of their food in silence, they would meet again here, at his apartment, for many years to come.
“Hokage-sama, may I?”
“Yes, enter, Dog. Your team isn’t up for another mission for a few days, the new recruit has only had a month to settle into the team, and you have just come back from a suspension.”
“You don’t get to speak ill of someone in front of me like that” ANBU headquarters was in chaos.
“What is going on?” the ANBU commander stormed into the room.
“Dog seems to think that his team is un-fucking-touchable.” Cheetah answered back with a glare.
“Dog. Explain.”
“Sir, Cheetah insulted a member of my team due to the actions of Weasel. I do not take insults lightly.”
“Yeah? And what are you gonna do? Bark at me?” Cheetah replied before the commander had a chance.
In a blur of silver, Dog was upon Cheetah, fist cocked.
A loud sound, a grunt and a thud.
“Dog! Get out of here. You are suspended for a week. Do not let me see you anywhere near the headquarters, or I swear.”
Dog, simply raised his hand, “No need, commander. I need to cool off anyways.”
“I’m aware Hokage-sama, I’m not here for an additional mission.”
Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Sandaime smoked his pipe, the red and white hat sitting atop his head stopped the smoke from escaping fully, Kakashi could always smell the tobacco from the Land of the Waves when he entered the office.
“Well. Out with it.”
Kakashi sighed, better to get this over with quickly.
“I’m here to nominate Ox for the role of the ANBU captain. I’m handing in my resignation from the ANBU.”
The Hokage simply raised an eyebrow to the silver-haired jounin, “You are aware that the dismissal of the ANBU captain requires explicit permission of the Hokage, which I am not willing to give at these tumultuous times.”
Dog, took off his mask and placed it atop the desk, his eye piercing the gaze of the old Hokage.
“And I’m sure you’re aware that the Shinobi Council Appointment Bylaw Article 4, Clause 2.3.1 states ‘Any Heir Shinobi of Legal Age may take up the seat of a council member without the due approval of any legal body’ further the clause 2.4.1 states ‘Any member of council or a prospective member of the council may not be an active member of Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai’ and even further the Konohagakure Clan Membership bylaw clause 5.4 states ‘Any Konohagakure head of clan, may remove or dismiss a member of the Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai at their behest, with the approval of a shinobi council supermajority or Hokage approval.”
“I Hatake Kakashi heir of Hatake Sakumo, as a non-active member of the Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai have taken my rightful place at the shinobi council. I Hatake Kakashi, requested the removal of suspended ANBU member, Codename: Dog. By the decree of the Shinobi Council Supermajority, ruling 58-34, was approved two days ago — Hatake Kakashi is no longer a member of the Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai.”
Kakashi continued, “My resignation wasn’t a request Hokage-sama. It was simply me informing you. The Dog mask has already been safely stored in the ANBU headquarters, and that, on your desk, is only a kid’s toy.”
The Hokage had sat down and put his pipe on the table by the middle of Kakashi’s monologue. His hand was on his temples.
“And the nomination of Ox for the role of ANBU? A recommendation from the shinobi council member.” Kakashi finished.
Hiruzen Sarutobi looked up at the dark eye of his most capable shinobi. “Why go through all of this Kakashi? Why undermine me?”
“Because, Hokage-sama. I left someone in your care. And he needs me more than the ANBU ever did.”
Hiruzen sighed, “I see.”
‘I don’t think you do’ Kakashi wanted to say, but he didn’t want to antagonise the Hokage any more than he already had.
“You are dismissed Jounin Kakashi, we will be seeing each other in five days I assume?”
“We certainly will, Hokage-sama.”
Not many noticed the quiet meeting between Cheetah and Dog following their brawl at the ANBU headquarters.
“I hope I didn’t hit you too hard,” said Dog.
“ You’re getting soft, Kakashi, I barely even registered it.” Cheetah lied, the bruising on the side of his head apparent.
“Thank you, though, I couldn’t trust anyone else.” Dog was tense, his eyes skirting all around.
“Hey, relax. No problem, right? I can’t look at the boy without being reminded of my own failure. Help him out for the both of us.” Cheetah put a hand on Dog’s shoulder.
“Yeah…” Dog replied, “yeah, for sure. Thanks Genma.”
“Anytime. Now what about that pumpkin soup?”
“You’re aware that only you like that abomination, right?”
“Just because others are blind to the best food, doesn’t make them right, Kakashi.”