Disclaimer: The following story is a work of fanfiction. The author is not making any money off of it. Naruto belongs to Kishimoto.

Pairings: Gai/Kakashi, and OMCs/Kakashi (noncon)

Warnings: Violence, blood, swearing, yaoi and underage rape

AN: This story takes place about 12 years before the start of Naruto and during the time skip (yes both). Also, I don't know when Tsunade left the village, so if I am wrong, let's just pretend I'm right for the sake of the story. I don't know if they actually have videos in the Naruto world, but I am assuming they do because of that one filler episode.

There was something wrong with his teammate, Kakashi decided as he watched the man in a pig mask toy with his target. Kakashi had killed in cold blood before, but he'd never stood over a dying man, laughing as blood poured out of their chest. He never waited for a target to die slowly and painfully, nor had he ever mocked a dying man. Killing was never something he enjoyed. He may only be 15, but Kakashi new killing should never be something anyone enjoyed.

"Buta," he reprimanded the much older ninja. "There's no need to make him suffer."

"You're one to talk," the voice behind the pig mask scoffed at him. "Friend killer."

Kakashi refused to rise to the bait, Buta was nothing if not mentally unstable. Arguing with someone like that was pointless and he did not want to come to blows with a comrade over this.

Thankfully the third member of their cell stepped in and slit the dying shinobi's throat, ending his suffering. There was something akin to relief on the dying man's face as it was finally over. "There," Jiro said behind his bear mask. "Now let's go."

"You're no fun," the pig huffed, kicking the corpse.

Kakashi volunteered to dispose of the bodies. After Buta impaled one of his victims on a branch and carried the rotting, stinking corpse like a puppet for hours on their last mission, Kakashi was unwilling to let the man anywhere near these men and women. They deserved dignity in death, even if they did betray the village.

He set a punishing pace back to Konoha, determined to be rid of Buta's presence as quickly as possible. He was just waiting for his request to transfer to a different ANBU team to be approved before he could be rid of the man forever. Disappointment hit him harder than the tree he'd been thrown into during their last fight, when they could not make it back to Konoha before nightfall. They were too far from the village to risk running through the night, so they set up camp instead.

Kakashi woke up in the middle of the night feeling uneasy. Something had his instincts screaming in alarm. When he cracked his eye open, all he saw was Buta and Jiro sitting by the fire.

"We're doing it tomorrow, end of discussion," Buta hissed loudly enough for Kakashi to hear.

"I don't know about this," Jiro protested, but stopped when Buta grabbed his arm. They noticed he was awake.

The uneasy feeling in this stomach grew, and shinobi knew to always trust their instincts. He did not dare to fall back asleep again.

The next morning, he kept his distance as they ran the rest of the way back to Konoha. When they slowed, he slowed, and when they veered closer to his position, he quickly increased the distance between. He heaved a sigh of relief when the gates came into view, hoping this was the last time he ever saw these two outside of the ANBU locker room.

His relief was cut short when Buta dropped from the tree above him, standing directly in his path with a kunai held tightly in his hand.

Kakashi skidded to a halt on the branch, narrowly avoiding a collision with the older ANBU. "What are you doing?"

"Something I should have done a long time ago." Buta swiped the kunai at Kakashi. He back flipped off the tree and landed lightly on the ground. Not wanting to get involved in some idiotic showdown, Kakashi made a break for the gates.

That was his mistake. If he stood his ground, Kakashi might have been able to defeat the two of them. Instead he blocked the kunai Jiro aimed for his face with his sword and tried to sidestep his teammate only to run right into a show of weapons. He dodged the array of shuriken and senbon Buta threw his way, but not enough to avoid them all. One of them grazed his check. The effect of the poisoned shuriken was immediate. Within minutes, his vision grew bleary, his limbs heavy and numb. When Buta slapped cuffs with chakra blocking seals on his wrists, Kakashi was powerless to stop him.

(12 years later)

"Why do you have so many videos?" Gai asks as he none too gently piles Kakashi's massive Icha Icha movie collection into a box. After years of seeing each other, they finally made the decision to move in together. Gai already packed and moved his belongings into their new place. Kakashi had a plethora of excuses for why he never even started. Gai began to rant, when Kakashi proposed a new challenge: whoever could pack the most, won. By the 3rd box, Gai knows he's been had. Kakashi hasn't packed anything at all yet, he just wants Gai to do all the work. "You have two copies of these three movies alone."

"Sometimes they come out with an extended version after I've already purchased the movie," Kakashi replies with a shrug of his shoulders. "Is it too much work for you?" the younger shinobi leers.

He flings one of the movies at Kakashi's head. It's easily caught and set right back on the shelf. "Are you going to help at all?"

"Maybe."

He throws the movies into the box with a little more force than necessary, trying to get a rise out of the other jounin, but it's not working. There's something a little odd about his partner today, but he chalks it up to Kakashi being uncomfortable over moving. After all this had been his home for a very long time.

If Kakashi is not going to help him, Gai is fine with the easy win to this challenge. He continues to throw the movies into the box as quickly as possible, until one in the very back catches his eye. Unlike the others, it is not an Icha Icha movie and it has a layer of thick, sticky dust coating it. The movie looks homemade, the words 'having fun' messily scrawled on the side. "What's this?"

"I don't know," Kakashi says and shrugs again. "I'm going to go get us some dinner." He is gone before Gai can stop him.

"Hurry back!" he yells to thin air. "You lazy bastard," he mutters to himself.

He turns the video over in his hands, but there is nothing else to indicate what is on the video. Having fun? he thinks, and grins at that. Was someone stupid enough to video tape Kakashi in a humorously compromising position? Now that Gai needs to see. The video player hasn't been packed yet and the tv they were leaving behind. If Kakashi is going to flake on him, then Gai has every right to watch whatever is on the video. It couldn't hurt, right?

An ANBU mask shaped like a pig pops onto the screen as soon as Gai hit play. The mask is the only thing visible. "We're going to have a little fun," a voice Gai does not recognize emanates from behind the mask.

The guy steps back revealing a room Gai is unfamiliar with and…oh my god. His heart stops.

A teenage Kakashi is slung over the shoulder of another man in an ANBU mask shaped like a bear. Kakashi's hands are handcuffed in front of him, a stiff metal rod between the cuffs keeping his hands apart. Despite the grainy quality of the film, Gai can see seals covering the thick metal handcuffs. The Hound mask is laying discarded on the floor and without it Gai can tell just out how young Kakashi is in the video. Is he any older than 15, he wonders and subconsciously scouts closer to the tv as if trying to protect the teenager from whatever is about to happen next.

"Put him down," the pig orders. Kakashi is tossed to the ground like a sack of potatoes, a small oof escaping him as the air rushes out of his lung on impact. The camera adjusts to focus on the prone teen. With the camera zoomed in, he can see Kakashi's cheeks are flushed, his eyes are glazed over, and it's obvious he's not quite all there.

"I don't think this is a good idea," the bear says, and Gai hopes to God the man in the pig mask takes his advice.

He doesn't. "The brat deserves this," the pig says. Gai's heart is thundering in his chest. He doesn't know what is about to happen, but he does know he is about to witness something truly vile. It's okay, he tells himself. Kakashi survived this. But that isn't comforting at all.

The pig kicks Kakashi until he is lying on his stomach, arms spread out above his head, and grabs the waist of his pants yanking them down with one swift tug.

"Don't," Gai whispers to the tv. "Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't." His pleas fall on deaf ears as the pig pulls his pants down to his thighs, straddles the defenseless teen and…He tears his eyes away and squeezes them shut before he can watch the man violate his partner. He can still hear a loud moan and a soft cry of pain. He's afraid to open his eyes, but he's too shocked to get up and turn the video off. Instead Gai hears the sound of flesh hitting flesh, rough, ragged breathing and the occasional whimper that hits him in the gut like a chakra enforced punch.

With a long, low moan the slap of flesh against flesh comes to an end. He thinks it's okay to open his eyes now. It's not. He hears a sickeningly squelch as the man in the pig mask pulls his bloody dick free. "It's your turn," the pig says, wiping his dick off on the teen's pants.

"I don't think…" the other begins, but is violently interrupted as the pig grabs his arm and drags him over to the teen lying helpless on the ground.

"Do it," the pig demands, pushing the other man hard enough that he falls to his knees. "We agreed."

The bear hesitates and Gai could tell he was shaking and nervous. That did not stop him from pulling his dick free from his pants. The bear strokes himself until he his hard, lines up his dick and then with one rough shove sheathes himself in the defenseless ANBU.

Gai can't turn away this time as the man in the bear mask violates his partner. He watches as the man thrusts hesitantly at first before settling his weight and pounding his hips into the ass below him with a steady slap, slap, slap ringing through the tv. Kakashi whimpers again, a noise low in his throat, his fingernails scrapping against the floor. Despite his initial reservations, the man in the bear mask is enjoying himself. He moans in pleasure and as he comes closer to release, grabs the slim hips beneath him and thrusts harder and faster, his movements lubricated by Kakashi's own blood.

Kakashi cries out in pain as the man comes to a stop. There is another disturbing squelch before the bear stands to his feet, shoving his bloody dick into his pants.

The pig toes Kakashi onto this back and then kicks him hard in the stomach.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" The bear is nearly hysterical when the pig straddles Kakashi and punches him in the face twice.

"This is so very satisfying," the pig says, bringing his hand up to look at the blood on it. "And we have to make it look like he put up a fight."

"Why?" The bear whole body flinches, as does Gai, when the pig kicks Kakashi hard enough in the chest to make a dull crack echo throughout the room.

"They'll be suspicious at the hospital if it doesn't look like he put a fight." The pig kicks Kakashi in the face, before pulling the defenseless teen's pants up. The pig releases the cuffs, and throws Kakashi over his shoulder.

"What?! You can't take him to the hospital!"

"The guards at the gate saw us carry him home," the pig heatedly interrupts. "If we kill him, they'll know it was us."

"He'll turn us in."

"Don't worry, I gave him a lethal dose of poison. He won't survive."

"Buta," the name of the pig faced assailant slips from the started bear's lips, "You…you killed him?"

"What did you think I was going to do, you idiot! I was never going to let him live. Now clean this mess up, but leave the camera. I'll take care of that."

The pig leaves with Kakashi as the bear starts to clean up the blood on the floor. The sight of Kakashi's blood has his own blood boiling. His heart is pounding in his chest so fast, it hurts. Gai's up in an instant and before he can stop himself, his fist is in the tv. It shatters under his punch, sparks dancing around his fingers.

I was never going to let him live, rings through Gai's head. Only Kakashi survived, but as far as Gai knows never told anyone what the two ANBU did. Not even he knew, and Gai considered himself the closest thing to family Kakashi had. Did Kakashi truly not remember what happened?

That's impossible, he thought. He was conscious during the attack. Plus, a sinister voice in Gai's head adds, the first time Kakashi bottomed for him made a lot more sense now. The Copy-nin was borderline hyperventilating before they even began. After Gai promised not to hurt him, things went more smoothly, but it was rare to see such fear in the normally composed shinobi.

It's okay. Kakashi survived, repeats over and over in his head, but it doesn't calm the rage boiling under his skin like lava under a volcano.

He feels a familiar chakra behind him. Gai swings around to meet them, the glass cutting his hand as it's ripped from the tv.

Kakashi's standing in the doorway to the room, white-knuckling their dinner.

"You knew," Gai says and he's not trying to sound accusing, but that's exactly the way it comes out. "About the tape, you knew."

"No," Kakashi shakes his head and he's so different from the calm, and composed man he's known most of his life that Gai doesn't know what to say. "I knew he broke in, but I didn't know he left that," he waves his hand at the broken tv, voice less than confident.

"Who did this to you?" he seethes in an anger he knows his partner's never seen before. "Who did this to you!" he nearly screams in the quiet of the room, his hands balling into fists as he shakes in pure rage.

Kakashi takes a step back, their dinner dropping from his hands, as his feet automatically assume a fighting stance. His muscles are tense and ready for a fight, but he answers in a voice that is deceptively calm. "It doesn't matter."

"What does it…?" Gai begins, shakes his head, black hair flopping wildly. "It fucking matters, Kakashi," Gai yells. He doesn't miss the suppressed flinch, but he's far too pissed to be comforting. "Who did this to you?"

Kakashi turns his back on him. "It doesn't matter," he insists before walking out the front door, steps hesitant as if he expects to be stopped. Gai lets him go.

Never before has Gai wanted to tear apart another human being with his bare hands. And yet it's still seems like far too lenient a fate for these two. If Kakashi won't tell him who did it, he's just going to have figure out whom by himself.

He knows exactly where to start.

"Tenzou, I need to talk to you now," Gai demands, grabbing the ANBU by the arm and dragging him down an empty alley. He stalked the gate for three straight days and nights, waiting patiently, knowing the ANBU had to come or go at some point. Today is his lucky day. Tenzou does not protest to being dragged away. That means Kakashi warned him Gai was coming. Well shit, he thinks, but Gai is not to be deterred. He's not the kind of guy who gives up just because there are a few obstacles in the way.

"I don't care what Kakashi told you, I want to know."

"Want to know what?" the ANBU deadpans and it's hard to tell whether or not he's playing stupid or really doesn't know.

"Kakashi told you I'd track you down, ne?"

"Yes," he answers, pulling his arm from Gai's tight grip with a glare.

"Did he tell you not to tell me anything?"

"No," he deadpans again. Shadows fall across Tenzo's face in such a way to make him look terrifying. Gai refuses to back down.

"Then I need to know," he says and realizes he's not making any sense. "Did anyone in ANBU…" No, he thinks to himself. He doesn't know how much Tenzo may know on the matter and doesn't want to give Kakashi's secrets away. "Was there anyone in ANBU that ever gave you the creeps? That may have had some shared animosity with Kakashi?" he asks instead. There's no way his partner would have been able to work with the man again after what happened. "It's very important," he adds when Tenzo hesitates to answer.

"There was one," the ANBU says with an annoyed sigh. "A man named Buta. He's retired, but there was a lot of hatred between senpai and him."

The way Tenzo warily looks at him says he knows more on the matter than he is letting on, but Gai doesn't need to know more. He's already got his answer.

Buta. He recognizes the name from the video. This man robbed Kakashi of a very important part of his youth, and Gai is going to make sure they pay for it.

It takes him two days of subtly inquiring on the former ANBU, before he finds Buta in the same place he's spent pretty much every day since his retirement: in a bar.

"Let me buy you a drink," Gai says and that's all it takes to get into the man's good graces.

Five drinks later, the ex-ANBU is plastered, while Gai secretly dumped his drinks. He's had to listen to the man raucously laugh and share exaggerated stories of his ANBU missions for hours. While Kakashi never talked about the missing nin he hunted down and killed to protect Konoha, this man reveled in it, enjoyed every second of it.

"My friend was in ANBU," he steers the conversation, "Kakashi. You know him?"

Buta gives him a strange, condescending look as he takes a long drag of his beer. "Yeah, I know that brat. Used to be on his team," he readily offers, alcohol making his tongue loose. "Hated that fucking kid and his damn attitude."

"Did you fuck him?" Gai asks, a bright smile on his face as. He purposefully lets his beer slosh all over the table as if he's too drunk to hold his cup. Inside the rage is tearing him apart.

"Who Kakashi?" the man says, equally as drunk as Gai is pretending to be.

Gai doesn't reply, just stares at the other man with too bright eyes and a dopy smile.

"Of course I fucked that tight little ass," he boasts, a Chesire grin spreading across his twisted face. "How's it feel being third to fuck that used piece of ass."

"You sick son of a bitch!" Gai roars and launches himself over the table, full body tackling the dick that dared to hurt his Kakashi to the ground. "Who was the other one?" he demands to know, crushing the man's throat in his fist when there is no answer.

The second Gate is open in a flash and he doesn't know when that happened, but he does know that the way the man gasps for air as Gai crushes his windpipe feels like the greatest thing he's ever done. Buta's lips turn blue, but Guy holds on, patiently waiting for him to just die like the pig he is.

"Gai, stop!" someone commands before two strong arms wrap around his waist, tearing him away.

"Let me go," he thrashes, fighting like a caged animal to get back to the bastard that hurt his love.

He hears a grunt as his elbow connects with his assailant's solar plexus, but the arms don't loosen as Gai is unwillingly dragged from the bar, kicking to get free.

"Enough," the voice orders and this time Gai recognizes who it belongs to.

"Kakashi," he exhales in a shaky breath, the Gates slamming shut so hard it hurts and he staggers into his partner. Desperately, Gai crushes the other man to his chest.

"He raped you," he says knowing all the questions swimming around his head are asked in that one simple sentence.

"I know," Kakashi confirms.

Gai really just cannot help it when he starts to sob on Kakashi's chest.

"I need revenge," he demands of Tsunade after storming into her office. "No one should be able to commit such a vile crime and get away with it." He strikes his good guy pose, but points his finger at Tsunade instead of a thumbs up, rage twisting his face instead of his trademark smile.

Shizune and the Hokage stare at him as if he's just declared to give up the shinobi life for good.

"Okay," Tsunade says shaking herself from her startled stupor. "I'll bite. Why?"

He throws a medical file, Kakashi's medical file from the day of the rape, onto her desk. He doesn't even feel the least bit bad about having it considering he wasn't the one to steal the file in the first place. Nor was he the least bit surprised when Kakashi let him have it. Tsunade glances over it, but doesn't look shocked.

She knew, he thinks and hates her just a little for that.

"It's a little late for revenge," she says, peering at Gai over her folded hands. "Both these missing nins have long since been dead."

"They're not the ones who are responsible," he says, stealing a quick glance at the ANBU still hovering in the room. "His teammates are. I don't know who the second was, but I know one goes by the name of Buta."

Shizune gasps, Tonton squealing in her arms as she squeezes too tightly. To her credit, Tsunade's expression remains neutral. "You have proof?" she asks.

He throws the despicable tape onto her desk glad for the first time it was not destroyed in his rage. It takes Kotetsu and Izumo half an hour to find something to play the damn tape on. Gai remains standing in the exact same spot, arms crossed, refusing to remove until he gets what he came here for. The ANBU are wary when the Hokage orders them to leave the room, but they obey.

Buta's pig mask swims to life on the screen, up close and staring directly into the camera. The bile rises in his throat when he hears the words "We're going to have a little fun." Gai doesn't want to watch this again, this atrocity committed against his partner. He feels nauseous and disgusted and swallows hard to avoid puking at the sick sounds of flesh hitting flesh, moaning and whimpering.

Tsunade stops the video just as Buta finishes and the second one climbs atop Kakashi.

"Get the ANBU back in here," she demands and Shizune immediately runs out of the room glad to be free from the revolting video and the stifling atmosphere that had settled on the room.

"Go arrest Buta," she orders the two ANBU, "as a traitor to Konoha. Take him directly to Ibiki." She pulls the bottom drawer to her desk open with so much force that the whole drawer falls to the ground, contents spilling over the edge. She grabs the alcohol, takes a huge gulp and then turns the drawer to splinters beneath her fist. "Someone get me Ibiki in here now!" she bellows loud enough to make her desk vibrate.

She sends a quick glance towards Gai, but doesn't ask him to leave.

Tsunade's finished the bottle by the time Ibiki shows up. He looks at Gai standing stiffly in the corner of the room before asking Tsunade what she wants.

"Buta is a traitor to Konoha," she insists, he words only slightly colored with a slur. "I want you to tear a confession from him by any means necessary."

Only then does Gai finally leave, satisfied that at the very least Kakashi will get justice.

News travels fast in the village, faster than Gai expected. By the time he's run 100 laps around the village to vent his frustration, he comes home to find Kakashi sitting in the kitchen, back turned to him.

"She believed you?" Kakashi asks, not turning to face Gai.

"I showed her the tape."

"Oh." There's something in that voice that worries Gai, that sounds so unlike the man he's known for most of his life. It not's just the darkness and defeat that consumed Kakashi in the years after Rin's death. It's sound like hopelessness.

"Why didn't you say anything to someone?" he implores, staring at his partner's back. His arms are still folded across his chest and he doesn't know if he can move them.

Kakashi finally turns around to face him, trying to maintain the bored casual look that usually inhabits his visible eye. Gai can see right through the façade. Caught in the act, Kakashi stares at the floor instead. "Minato was dead," he finally responds. "So was Obito, and Rin. And I almost betrayed Konoha and Sondaime to Root. People still hated my father. I just, I thought…"

Gai knows what he is trying to say. It's not just that he simply did not have anyone in his life that he could tell, he did not know anyone would believe him.

"If I hadn't seen the video," Gai says uncurling his stiff arms from across his chest to fist the lapels of Kakashi's flack jacket and drag the other shinobi closer to him. Kakashi's hands wrap around his wrists on instinct, loosely enough to tell Gai he still trusts him, but tight enough to tell Gai he could and would snap both of his wrists if he had to. "If I hadn't seen the video, I still would have believed you."

He crushes the startled man to his chest. One arm wraps around Kakahi's back holding on with more vigor than necessary, but his other hand rests tenderly on the back of the head buried in his shoulder.

"It's not your fault," he says the words he knows no one has ever said to Kakashi before.

If Kakashi's hands fist into the fabric on the back of Gai's shirt, there is no one there but them to feel it.

"I believe you. It's not your fault."

But when he really starts to think about it, maybe it was Gai's fault for not noticing. Maybe Kakashi had tried to tell him and he just didn't notice.

(5 years earlier)

"I have done this before," Kakashi insisted. He was lying naked face down on the sheets, Gai resting between his legs.

"Then why are you so nervous?" Gai asked, resting on his haunches, giving Kakashi the space it was clear he wanted no matter what he said.

"I'm not nervous," Kakashi contested, but his body betrayed him. There was tremble in his limbs and the way he clenched the sheets in his hands looked almost like fear.

"It's okay if you don't want to do this," Gai soothed, running a hand over the tense muscles beneath him.

"I'm fine," Kakashi growled.

No your not, he thought and to prove his point he circled Kakashi's anus with one lubed slicked finger before pushing it in. Kakashi jerked, eyes squeezing shut, his whole body stiffening beneath Gai.

"Does it hurt?"

"No," Kakashi replied, his voice just a little bit higher than usual.

"Liar," Gai persisted, "pulling his finger free and collapsing forward, covering Kakashi's entire body with his own. He did not miss the flinch the Copy-nin could not hide when Gai's weight settled on him. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Kakashi lied again.

He slid both arms under the body beneath him in an awkward hug. He nuzzled his nose into Kakashi's neck.

"Kakashi," he reprimanded, "you don't have to lie, not to me."

Kakashi tensed, and Gai felt his chest heave beneath. "Last time I did this," he whispered into the sheets, "it wasn't exactly the most pleasant of experiences." He felt the shiver that went through the man he was embracing and wondered just how bad that experience was to make Kakashi react like this.

"You know I'd never hurt you, right?" he whispered into his neck, tightening his hold on his partner as if to protect him from his memories.

"I know."

(Present time)

Ibiki strolls into her office and sets the report on her desk. There's blood still drying on his clothes and his knuckles are swollen and bruised.

"Already?" she asks, picking up the report and glancing at it. Along with the report, Ibiki places seven pictures on her desk of both male and female shinobi of various ages and ranks. Kakashi's picture is staring accusingly at her from the top of the pile.

"He cracked rather quickly like most cowards."

"I expected there to be other victims," she says, spreading the photos out on her desk. "But not this many."

"These are just the people he knew the names of."

She fists her hands in anger, disgusted that something like this could have been going on for so long and happened to so many people without anyone knowing.

"Buta killed every single one of them after raping them," he continues. "Except Kakashi, but he never intended for Kakashi to survive. The only reason he's alive is…"

"Me," she cuts him off, remembering that night well. "I saved him. No one else could have."

"This person right here, Jiro," Ibiki says pulling another picture from the folder, "helped him assault Kakashi. Buta killed him when the guy freaked and threatened to turn them both in."

"This is…this is…" Tsunade's at a loss for words. Disgusting, revolting, horrifying, doesn't even begin to cover the atrocities this one man committed.

"The attacks stopped six years ago. It appears the man became arrogant, or just plain foolish, and tried to assault one of Kakashi's kohais, Tenzou. Buta wouldn't go into details, but the two of them terrified him so much he was physically unable to hurt anyone else."

"Where is he now?" Tsunade asks, gently setting the pictures down.

"Experiencing what he put his victims through over and over and over again."

"How did you manage that genjutsu?"

"Kakashi volunteered his services."

"Learned it from Itachi, did he? Good boy," she proudly exclaims.

"You know," Ibiki says, "Buta isn't technically a traitor."

She looks at the faces in every picture on her desk. They were all promising shinobi, who's lives were cut short not on the battlefield, but because of one disgusting man and his perverted fantasies. "Anyone who does this to their comrades is a traitor." She gathers the pictures and the files into a neat little pile and hands it back to Ibiki. "Burn this," she orders. "No one but us can ever know. And put Buta in the deepest cell we have, where no one will ever find him."

(12 years ago)

Tsunade wasn't startled when a member of ANBU teleported into the hospital directly in front of her with another ANBU slung over their shoulder. She's too good for that and too used to injured and dying shinobi being tossed into her care.

"What happened?" she tersely asked, motioning for a gurney from one of the shocked nurses to lay the injured man on.

The ANBU flopped his burden down on the gurney. The Hound mask slipped off the prone form and for the first time she noticed just how young her new patient was. Well damn.

"Don't know," the other ANBU said with a flippant attitude, clearly not caring about the condition of his comrade.

"Got separated, found him like this. Think it's poison."

She focused the chakra in her hand and placed it on the teenager's chest. She could feel the poison coursing through his veins.

"Do you know what kind?" she didn't try to hide the anger in her voice.

The ANBU just shrugged before teleporting from the room.

"Asshole," she muttered before turning her full attention to the injured teen. She felt something else with her chakra, something deeper and more sinister than the poison in the boy's body and bruises on the surface. This close up she could see the blood soaking through his pants. She pulled her hand away feeling sick to her stomach.

"Akemi, prepare Exam Room 117," she ordered the nurse closest to her. It was the room at the end of the hallway, private with a curtain that went around the bed. No one, but her needed to know what happened to the poor boy.

The teenager knit his eyebrows, whether in pain or nightmare, she did not know. She placed a soothing hand on his forehead, calming him.

Something about the wild, silver hair tickled at her memory. She saw a flash of a little boy, no older than 5 years old with a mask much like the one the teen was wearing standing stiffly next to Sakumo who was laughing uproariously at whatever Jairya was saying.

This, she realized sadly, was the White Fang's son.

"Oh sweetie," she whispered brushing a few errant strands of unruly hair back from his forehead. "I'm sorry."

The poison was a nasty one. If anyone else was treating the teen he would have died, but to Tsuande, poison was a familiar enemy. The damage she healed privately as best as she could, but it was going to hurt still and be sore for a few days. She knew there were certain pains that would linger much longer than that.

Tsunade did't know why at the time, but she sat with the teen after her shift ended and all through the night and into morning.

He's surprised to see her there when his eyes crack open at the break of dawn.

The boy insisted he didn't remember what happened and he lied so convincingly she almost believed him. She didn't push and it's one of the many things she regretted for the rest of her life.

Two months later the report from Kakashi's stay in the hospital that night disappeared. She didn't report it missing and didn't ream out anybody for misplacing it. Tsunade already knew where it was.