Chapter 15

Home Sweet Home

It had been over nine months since Kakashi had been rescued by Jiraiya, and he was still waking up in a cold sweat at all hours of the night. Most of the time he would have no clear recollection of just what he'd been dreaming. But other times, like tonight, he would remember every gruesome detail, leaving him on edge and unable to fall back asleep. He pushed himself up in his bed and yanked his mask down, gasping for a full breath to clear his head. The metallic taste of blood coated his tongue, and he couldn't be certain if it was just a memory from the dream, or if he had somehow bitten down on his cheek in his sleep. He pushed himself off of his bed and made his way to his bathroom in the hopes of discovering the truth.

Once he was standing in front of the sink, Kakashi ran his fingers through his hair, frowning at the fact it was soaked by sweat. His heart still raced as the images of his latest dream replayed within his mind, and he cursed himself for reacting in such a way. After all, it wasn't like he'd never had nightmares before. Hell, with everything that he'd experienced in his lifetime it would have been a miracle if he didn't have them. But even the worst of those dreams from his past couldn't hold a candle to what he'd been experiencing since he'd been taken away from that mountain fortress. Tonight's included scenes of horrific massacres, where he was being used against his will to wipe out every soul in Konoha. Each dream was more detailed than the ones before, and each left him fearing a bit more for his sanity.

He drew a slow breath in through his nose as he opened his mouth to inspect it. There was no blood. Kakashi furrowed his brow, even as the taste within his mouth contradicted what he saw with his own eye. He even went so far as to open the sharingan to confirm the findings, and knew that there wasn't a speck of blood there. Frowning, he turned the tap on and cupped his hand under the ice cold stream of water. Perhaps, if he rinsed his mouth out, it might just convince his brain that the foul liquid was no longer there. By the time he'd finished, his sense of taste and his brain had finally caught up to reality. He sighed and sat down on the edge of his tub. Any hopes of returning to sleep were long gone, and he was far too worked up for Icha Icha to have any calming effects on him. Which left just one thing...training.

The moment that Kakashi had been cleared to leave the hospital after his trials in Snow Country, he had thrown himself completely into one of the most complex and grueling training regimes that he could think up. His time with Omoikiru had done much to open his eyes to just how outclassed he had been by that man and his fanatical followers. And he had made himself the promise that he'd never be caught so off-guard again. So he pushed himself to his limits every chance he had in the hopes of making sure he never felt so outmatched again.

His mind made up, Kakashi pulled his shirt off and performed what had now become a regular part of his life since his return. He reached for a small jar of salve that was perched on the shelf above the sink, and opened it to reveal a foul-smelling dark green concoction. Lady Tsunade had worked side by side with Zensho to make the stuff, and instructed him to smear it over each of the open cuts that still surrounded his neck. Once it made contact with those wounds, a small chemical reaction occurred that transformed the salve into an odor-free, breathable liquid bandage. It eliminated the risk of infection from dirt or sweat, while it still allowed the wound to think it was wide open, thus removing the fear of the toxins worming their way any farther into his bloodstream. Still, he hoped that the two would continue to work on the salve a bit more to remove the stench that greeted him every time his opened the jar.

But the main thing was that Kakashi had been able to resume his duties as a shinobi much quicker than any of them had expected. This was exactly what he had needed to start to push his abilities beyond what he'd always thought were his limits. Which was why he'd initially wanted to get back to running solo missions. Of course, when he had requested just that a month ago, the Hokage had refused to even consider it, threatening to tie him up, toss him into an ANBU cell, and throw away the key.

Kakashi chuckled at the memory. Tsunade's face turned a shade of red that reminded him so much of the last time he'd riled Iruka-sensei up, that he'd nearly laughed in her face. Thankfully his self-preservation instincts had kicked in, and he didn't have to be thrown against the wall for good measure. Instead, she'd agreed to let him return to full training schedules, but made sure that the only missions he'd be assigned would be those within the confines of the Village, or within a limited radius of Konoha with a full jonin team backing him up.

The most frustrating part of these 'outside missions' was that they were never higher than an A-rank. Which made him annoyed, as it meant the Village's elite shinobi were not being utilized for the riskier, and therefore more financially lucrative, assignments. Because of this, Kakashi had stopped asking for out of village assignments. It wouldn't do anyone any good to have a decrease in Village funds. And if word got out that Konoha was no longer taking high level missions, it would only be a matter of time before the other Villages saw it as a sign of weakness and thought that they might be weak enough to risk attacking them. And the way his luck was going lately, they'd probably join up with other misguided Villages out there and make this a lot messier than it needed to be.

He'd been involved in the Third Great Shinobi War, and he knew that nothing good ever truly came from such conflicts. Even the winning side would be far less than it was at the start of the war, and all of the villages involved would take years to regain any semblance of normality...if they ever did. Kakashi's own experiences during that time had taught him one certainty; in times of war nothing was sacred. Evil men lived, honorable ones were sacrificed, and even the purest of people could be turned against all they held dear. No, the last thing any of them needed right now was another war. He'd lost far too many precious people to such things already.

Pushing thoughts of things he couldn't change out of his mind, Kakashi concentrated on putting a fresh uniform before heading out for one of the more isolated training fields. His latest training routines were far too loud and messy to practice closer to where the civilians had their homes, and if he could keep off the radar of other concerned shinobi at the same time, then it would be all the better. After all, today he was planning to focus on finding a way to trigger whatever it was that Jiraiya insisted had happened with his sharingan during their time at the mountain. But nothing during his captivity felt any different to him when it came to Obito's eye. So the question was, how could he trigger something when he had no idea what it was in the first place?

He sighed as the same thoughts he'd been battling with since he'd returned to Konoha threatened to overwhelm him. A part of him knew that he'd need this new skill in his arsenal down the road, but a larger part of him felt like he couldn't afford to wait any longer. That thought alone was enough to bolster his purpose, and without wasting another moment, Kakashi formed the needed hand-sign and disappeared from his room.

Genma skidded to a stop, one hand on the ground to keep himself from toppling over. It had been a long time since he'd been caught so completely off guard during a mission, but one quick glance around the clearing showed him that he wasn't alone in that thought. The look on his teammates' faces showed their minds coming to the same conclusion; the intel on the strengths of this rogue group of shinobi was vastly understated. But that didn't mean that they would tuck tail and run away. Nope. It just meant they'd need to get a bit more serious in how they fought them. His other hand moved to his weapons pouch and removed another round of senbon.

There was something truly spooky in how their opponents worked together. Each one of them always seemed to know when one of the others needed an extra hand, and would show up to stop what might have otherwise been a killing blow. Of course, the same could be said about his own team. Years of doing missions together made him and his three teammates act like one. But they had over a decade together to form such a bond. This group of rogue ninja didn't look old enough to have such a past behind them. In fact, by the height and body size, Genma figured that they were probably no older than fifteen or sixteen at most.

Perhaps he could verify that guess once they had finished this battle. Then he would be able to remove the odd, green head-cloth that covered the left half of each of their faces. Between that, and the way all of them wore their bangs long enough to fall over the rest of their faces, it made it impossible to truly see much about the shinobi themselves. But the unknown was not something that would scare away Genma, so he flashed a quick series of hand-signs, knowing that his teammates caught there meaning, before charging forward while letting loose a barrage of senbon laced with one of the stronger sedatives in his arsenal, targeting two of the largest shinobi in the group.

At the same instant that he had rushed forward, the rest of his team went into motion as well. Aoba summoned his swarm of crows and sent them to weave in and out of the field of battle, in an attempt to keep the unknown shinobi from having clear lines of view to each other. Meanwhile, Izuma moved like a shadow within the mass of birds until he was close enough to activate his signature syrup-field jutsu. Genma knew his teammates had succeeded when a string of curses came from the mouths of those shinobi who were unfortunate enough to become ensnared in the sticky goo that covered the immediate area.

Those curses, however, ended as quickly as they had begun, and it wasn't until Aoba recalled his crows that Genma could fathom just why it had gone silent so suddenly. Stuck to Izuma's sticky field of syrup was a cluster of the unknown shinobi. The unnatural bend of their bodies was the first hint that somehow those caught within the goo were now lifeless. A quick glance at Aoba and Izuma made it clear that neither of them had used lethal force in their jutsu, knowing that they needed to take them alive for Ibiki to get to the bottom of all this. This left them all cautious as they approached, wondering if perhaps it was all just an elaborate ruse to catch them off-guard. But as Izuma reversed his jutsu, and the syrup-field disappeared, the cluster of bodies remained unmoving.

A quick count showed Genma that all the enemy that they'd been fighting seemed to be accounted for. Now all that they needed to discover was just who their adversaries were and what might have killed them off. He rolled over the first one he came to, brushed back the long brown bangs hiding half his face, and frowned. It was a kid. Hell, by the looks of it he wasn't much older than his youngest brother; fifteen years old at the most. There was a strange tint to the kid's lips that gave him his first clue of just how he'd died. He'd seen this kind of thing once or twice before when he was on teams that were tasked with tracking down spies.

A simple capsule in one of the back teeth was enough to send a lethal dose of a quick-acting drug into a shinobi's system. Then all that was left was cleaning up the bodies. But he'd never known any of the spy networks in the Five Countries to use kids like this. One or two, yes...but never this many in such an organized crew. Something about this whole mess just felt wrong. And that feeling doubled when he pulled the swath of cloth away from the other side of the kid's face. Staring back at him was a barely healed scar that ran from just above his left eyebrow, through the eye itself, and then ended a good inch and a half under his cheekbone. A frown settled on Genma's face.

"Hey! We've got a live one over here!"

He walked over to join Izuma and noted that there was one of his senbon sticking out of the young girl's neck. Sure enough, he could see the gentle rising and falling of her chest which was a sure sign that he'd managed to hit the mark before she'd had a chance to bite done on the poison which had claims her teammates' lives. Not willing to take a chance that the girl would wake up any time soon, Genma quickly added another laced senbon to the mix. He then pushed her hair and facecloth to the side, confirming once more that they were dealing with a bunch of kids. But more disturbing than that was the fact that this kid had an identical scar bisecting her left eye as well. This was just getting weirder and weirder.

He looked up to see that the others had placed the kids in a row. Each one seemed to be of similar build, and now, with the face cloths pulled to the side, it was easy to see that they all were scarred in exactly the same way. What the hell was going on? He turned his attention back to the girl in front of him. Like all the others, she didn't look a day over fifteen. He bent over her and pried the scarred lid open. What he saw sent a chill down his spine. Within the eye socket sat a blood red gem that was giving off a subtle glow. Genma's heart raced a bit at the eerie resemblance to Kakashi's sharingan.

He'd heard rumors about what had happened to his friend during his last mission. Well, as much as anyone heard rumors relating to ANBU missions, and he couldn't help but wonder if some other psycho out there was targeting the man. He shook his head and moved over to the line of bodies. Once there, Genma pried open one of the other kid's scarred lid, expecting to see another red gem, confirming that Kakashi was the subject of another sharingan obsessed nut. He breathed a sigh of relief when it didn't hold a red gem. Instead, a bright green emerald sat within the socket.

Checking the remaining bodies revealed a total of five differently colored stones; red, green, blue, orange, and a silvery white. There was nothing on any of them that might show where they came from, which made it appear that this truly was just a random bunch of rogues. But something about the ritualistic scarring, and the strange glow in the gems, still bugged Genma. Enough so that he decided that they needed to take them all back to T & I...not just the one that was still breathing. Between Ibiki's interrogation of the survivor, and Shizune's autopsies of the dead, they were sure to find out every secret this strange band of kids held.

To an outside observer, the large crater two-thirds of the way across the field would likely be impressive. To an outside observer, the fact that circular sections of wood had been eviscerated from several of the trees bordering the crater may seem amazing. But to Kakashi, all he could see was the fact that the small target fifty feet to the right of the smoldering crater had been left completely untouched. And that alone made him sigh in frustration, even as he pulled his headband down over his throbbing sharingan.

After figuring out that what Jiraiya had described to him had to be an advanced form of Obito's sharingan eye, Kakashi had scoured every last shred of documentation he could find on the subject. Unfortunately, without access to any of the secret Uchiha family scrolls, there were only four vague references to the Mangekyo state from others who had witnessed it over two generations ago. And even then, there had been only one passage of any real use. It had mentioned that the Uchiha that had apparently held the advanced stage had also been found to have killed his best friend in some unknown encounter. So, when Kakashi took the time to meditate on what he'd experienced just prior to his unintentional use of his advanced sharingan back in Snow Country, he'd realized that it had been just after he'd pushed his Chidori through Raido's heart. After that revelation, it had been a matter of trial and error to find the exact memory, combined with a precise hand-sign, that would help him tap into this new skill.

The first time that he'd intentionally triggered the technique, Kakashi had nearly lost it when he saw the air in front of him ripple and blur around the edges, and he had felt his chakra rapidly drain to feed what he'd realized was a spacial distortion. But he refocused his attention and managed to regain control of it long enough to figure out the basics...whatever he managed to center the distortion on would phase out of existence when he cut off the chakra flow. It seemed easy enough, in theory. Unfortunately, the distortion was nearly impossible to aim effectively with only one sharingan. And because it was such a high chakra drainer, he was very limited on the number of times that he could actually practice with it in a given day.

Kakashi ran his fingers through his sweat-dampened hair and moved to the entrance of the training field. He reached for his uniform shirt and frowned when he noted that his hand shook with the movement. This new technique was definitely taking more out of him than he'd prefer, but he could only hope that, the more he practiced, the less taxing it would be. He shrugged into his shirt and was just about to put on his vest when he felt a flare of familiar chakra just beyond the tree-line. By the time Asuma Sarutobi stepped in front of him, Kakashi had finished fastening his vest and had shoved his hands deep into his pants pockets.

His friend's dark eyes met his, and it was clear that there was something on his mind. After a moment, Asuma pulled out his pack of cigarettes and, after slipping one in between his own teeth, he offered the pack to Kakashi. Now, he'd known this man pretty much his entire life, so he still found the fact that he would always offer him a cigarette when he needed to tell him something important rather amusing. Of course, the only reaction he showed outwardly was to raise his one visible eyebrow at the man's actions. Asuma frowned and replaced his cigarette pack to his pocket. But instead of saying what he'd obviously come to talk about, the man took a step to the side and gave an low whistle.

"Who the hell have you been training with, Kakashi?"

That brought a frown to his face. "No one."

"Ahh, right. So then how many shadow clones did you use? Five?"

"I didn't use any clones."

Asuma scratched behind his ear and turned back to face him. "You expect me to believe that you did this...on your own?"

Taking another look at the practice field, all Kakashi came away with was his failure. He sighed. "I know. I just can't seem to get it right."

His friend jerked a thumb toward the training ground. "That's not getting it right?"

Kakashi let loose a long sigh and shrugged. "It's off by fifty feet."

Asuma took a drag on his cigarette, allowing the wisps of smoke to escape back out through his nose. "Off or not, I'm glad you're on our side."

Kakashi chuckled. "I'm sure that's why you went out of your way to track me down."

That was enough to refocus Asuma to whatever reason he was there for. A strangely pensive look crossed the man's face, and it looked like he was struggling to find the right words. The silence stretched on long enough for the man to finish his cigarette. But, at last, Asuma cleared his throat and rubbed at the back of his neck, avoiding Kakashi's eyes altogether.

"So, yeah...I wanted to ask you something."

The man fell silent, evidently deciding that studying the back of his hand was more urgent than asking Kakashi whatever the hell it was that he meant to ask him.

"Really, Asuma. I'd like to take a shower some time today."

"Right. So, I was wondering..."

But before another word could be said, an ANBU appeared between them. The mask was instantly recognized by Kakashi as one of the Hokage's personal guards.

"You are needed."

He sighed. "So much for my shower. Asuma, can what you need to ask wait a bit longer?"

His friend's face took on a look somewhere between relief and concern. "Yeah, sure. It can wait."

The feel of the ANBU's hand on his shoulder was the only warning he had that they wouldn't be walking to the Hokage Tower, and the next thing he knew, they had arrived. But, rather than appearing in Tsunade's office like he'd presumed, they were in the bowels of T & I's medical wing. Kakashi frowned. He was pretty sure that he hadn't missed any of his scheduled check ups, so he was confused over why he was being brought here. That confusion grew tenfold when they entered the morgue.

Standing in the center of the room were Tsunade, Shizune, Genma, along with a full compliment of ANBU. Along one wall was a line of examination tables, each with a body on them. The tension in the room was thick, and the look in Tsunade's golden eyes made it clear that this wasn't going to be good news. A kernel of apprehension settled into his stomach as he noticed Genma continually glancing between him and the bodies.

Kakashi shoved his hands into his pockets and slouched. "This place is a bit morbid for a party, isn't it?"

He watched the senbon in Genma's mouth dip as a frown settled on his friend's face. Shizune clutched her clipboard tight enough to turn her knuckles white before looking away from him. Meanwhile Tsunade's eyes narrowed dangerously. She took a step toward him, her arms at her side, and her hands clenched.

"This is serious, Brat! Based on what Genma and his squad found, it looks like you might have another psychotic fan out there."

Kakashi sighed and took another glance around the room. The only reason he could think of that they'd meet in this room was that there was something peculiar about those laid out on the tables. He ran one hand over the back of his neck and moved to the first of ten tables. A cursory glance down the row showed him that every one of these bodies was much shorter than the average shinobi, with their feet a good two feet from the end of the metal tables. He turned his attention to the nearest body and found that he was looking at a young girl, no more than thirteen years old. Her face looked so peaceful that it was tempting to think that she had simply fallen asleep, but the tint of her lips was off, making it clear to him that she'd been a victim of poison.

He stepped closer and noticed the prominent scar crossing through her left eyelid in what appeared to be a mockery of his own. And, as he moved from one table to the next, he found that all of these kids bore the same disfigurement. He walked back to the first table. By the looks of them, it was clear to see just why the Hokage had thought he was being targeted again. After all, he was the only person he knew of that was scarred in such an easily identifiable way at such a young age.

Tsunade crossed the room to stand at his side. "The scars alone are enough to make me worried, Kakashi. But they were encountered inside Fire Country's borders, and I don't ever remember hearing reports of this many kids being quite this organized."

Genma leaned against the next table and crossed his arms. "It was weird. None of them had anything on them showing where they're from, and they didn't even talk until we had them caught in the syrup jutsu. Even then it was just a few curses before they took there own lives. Before that, they just seemed to know what the others were doing, no matter how we changed things up."

Kakashi frowned and leaned closer to inspect the eyelid of the girl on the table. He could tell that the socket behind the lid was not empty. So he carefully pried it open, and was a bit surprised to see a red gemstone set within. Perhaps, within their warped viewpoint, these kids thought that this was as close to the sharingan as they could get.

He released his hold on the eyelid and turned to face the others. "Do they all have the red gemstone hidden behind the scar?"

Tsunade started biting on the edge of thumb, while Genma answered his question. "Not exactly. They all have gems...but only a few of them are red."

"Only a few?" He scanned the row of bodies again. "What about the others?"

Shizune stepped up, flipping through the papers on her clipboard. "Several had emeralds. A few had sapphires. Two had topaz. And one had...hmmm...here it is...an opal."

Kakashi closed his eye and thought through everything he'd learned. That kernel of apprehension in his stomach had officially turned into something much worse. He opened his eye and saw that everyone was staring at him, as though waiting for him to speak. He shoved his hands back into his pockets and sighed.

"Well, the good news is that I don't think I have a new psychopath after me."

The look of confusion all around him nearly made him laugh. Genma, however, didn't miss a beat. "And what's the bad news, Kakashi?"

"I think Omoikiru isn't quite out of my life yet."

Genma scratched along the edge of his bandana. "Who the hell is Omoikiru?"

Meanwhile, Tsunade's face lost all color. "How can you be sure?"

He gave a humorless chuckle. "Because, aside from the Yamanaka, his followers are the only ones I've ever met who can communicate that flawlessly in the midst of a battle."

The Hokage frowned. "That's not much to go by."

He sighed again. "Okay, how about the fact that those gems match the colors of that bastard's sash-bearers...including the color he assigned to me."

Kakashi watched her eyes go wide at his words. "I never should have sent you on that mission."

He met her eyes steadily. "It's a little late for that now. All we can do is make sure we're ready for when he makes his next move."

"What makes you so sure that he'll make another move?"

He glanced back toward the body on the table. "Because this was his way of letting me know that he could reach me wherever I go. Even here. I imagine he's a bit pissed off about how we left things."

Genma pushed away from the table he'd been leaning on. "And just how did you leave things?"

Kakashi shrugged. "Jiraiya blew up Omoikiru's mountain hideout...with him still in it."

"That's gotta hurt." His friend pulled the senbon out from between his lips and smirked at him. "Guess it's a good thing we managed to catch a live one, huh?"

He spun toward Tsunade, barely able to keep the anger and fear out of his voice. "Where are you keeping them?"

She snarled at him. "Give me some credit, Brat! The girl is in maximum security, in an isolation cell, blindfolded and being kept sedated until I figure out how best to deal with her."

Kakashi let out a long breath. "Right. I take it I don't need to remind you that the bastard can communicate with her?"

Tsunade rolled her eyes at him. "What part of blindfolded and unconscious didn't you get?"

He shrugged and made his way toward the door.

"Where the hell do you think you're going, Brat?"

Kakashi turned back to face her. "To get a shower, some food, and some much needed sleep."

"I'm serious, Kakashi."

He ran a hand through his hair. "So am I. I'm not going to be any use in what's to come until I get my chakra back up. After all, it's supposed to be my destiny to kill that bastard, and I what to make sure I'm up to the task."

Without waiting for her to respond, Kakashi made his way out of the morgue and back to his apartment. He was going to need to accelerate his training and find some way to tighten up his aiming of his Mangekyo sharingan before it was too late.

Zensho made his way through the busy streets of Konoha after his latest shift at the Hospital. His life had settled into quite the routine over the past months and he found himself feeling happier than he knew he had any right to be. He'd been allowed to use his medical skills on the civilian population, under the watchful eyes of Shizune or other medical-ninja of course. They'd even set him up in an apartment near the Hospital and let him more or less live a normal life.

He knew that he was still being watched. But somehow, as he walked through the streets, watching children playing in the late afternoon sun, and storefronts full of eager customers, he didn't really mind that fact. Zensho had never thought he'd enjoy the feel of the sun on his face again, and he sighed in contentment as he pulled out the key to his apartment. He chuckled at the action, knowing full well that even the least trained of the Konoha shinobi could opened a locked door. But he appreciated the sense of normalcy it gave him under the situation. A quick turn of the lock and he was home for the night.

The moment he stepped over his threshold, and shut the door, he was nearly brought to his knees as his mind was filled with a sensation he hadn't felt in months. It nearly made him cry out, but he bit back on the urge, knowing it would have brought his Konoha guards running in an instant. He steadied himself by placing a hand against the door and then quickly focused on the tug on his mind. It felt like a piece of him that he hadn't realized was gone had suddenly been returned to him, and when the sensation grew stronger yet, he couldn't keep the grin from stretching across his mouth. The feel of his Lord's palm against his cheek reassured him farther. He knew that if his services had been less than exemplary then he would already be dead.

"I trust that everything is prepared, my pet."

He'd leaned into his Lord's hand. "As you required, Lord Omoikiru."