Inheritance

CHAPTER 16

The three Genin, Naruto in particular, looked shellshocked by the claims of the former Iwa shinobi. Of course none of them had experienced shinobi warfare, nor had they felt the tempestuous fury caused by the loss of comrades, friends, and even lovers. Of course, none of them would fully understand. God willing, none of them would ever have to, although given that the existence of shinobi revolved around the art of killing, Kakashi somewhat doubted that as a possibility.

"And the Konoha nija that committed the massacre? None other than the famous Hatake Kakashi." Eiji enunciated Kakashi's name with the same viciousness that Hitoshi had been speaking with moments earlier, unable to prevent the vitriol from creeping into his voice, momentarily losing the emotional control that most ninja strive to keep.

Kakashi found himself wincing once more at the tone of the Iwa shinobi's voice. He supposed that he could of tried to stop the man from revealing that the perpetrator of the massacre was himself, and avoided tarnishing how the Genin under his command saw him; however, it was likely that them finding out about it was inevitable now that the details of the mission were out in the open. Either way, he was pretty sure their views of him would have been coloured by the way the enemy ninja spoke of him.

"K-Kakashi-sensei, that's not true, is it?"

Again it was Naruto who was first to make himself known, his voice shakily betraying his shock at what he had heard. Out of the all the Genin he had seen that had graduated this year, Kakashi was certain Naruto was the most naive. It was hardly surprising that his sensei's son was so shocked. All Kakashi could do was explain himself the best he could, and hope that Naruto would eventually come to understand.

"I'm afraid so." Kakashi replied steadily, carefully keeping his emotion out of his voice. "It was during a war that had already been going on for such a long time, and so many had died. I-" Kakashi stopped dead, midway through his sentance.

Several eerily silent seconds went by, until Kakashi managed to lock onto what had distracted him. A deep rumbling sound coming from the top of the canyon, that had been so quiet that it was nigh on inaudible, was slowly increasing in volume, almost as if it was coming close and closer to the edges of the canyon. A few more seconds passed and the Jonin noticed that all three of the Genin had noticed the sound too. Kakashi could feel the vibrations in the ground now, growing ever stronger as the seconds passed.

"Kakashi-sensei, look at the top of the canyon. What the hell is that?" It was Shikamaru who spotted the source of the noise first, as Kakashi hadn't dared to take his eyes off of the pair of shinobi in front of him. Still keeping his senses sharp for movement from the enemies to his front, the Jonin turned his head just enough to get a good look at what was causing the growing vibrations and sounds, that were now loud enough to seemingly shake the entire canyon, causing the looser rocks on the canyon walls to loosen and fall.

And as Kakashi's eyes fell upon the object of Shikamaru's question, he felt his hand instinctively reach for his Hitai-ate that was covering his left eye, and one his greatest assets as a shinobi, and lifted it, revealing his pupil to be a deep red, with three tomoe within the iris.

The rumbling had stopped. And standing faceless, silhouetted against a skyline lit up by the moon light, were the stone figures the group had passed on their way through the canyon; their swords now aimed threateningly towards the group of Genin and the Jonin they stood protectively around.

The statues were leaner than they were before, Kakashi noted, probably adapted by whatever justu the pair of Iwa shinobi had used in order to animate them in order to allow for faster movement. Of course, it was impossible to be able to tell exactly how mobile these things were just by their size, but it was foolish to rule out the idea that they may well be as mobile as an actual person, and it wasn't totally uncommon to see objects animated in such a way by some kind of jutsu. However, how shinobi such as these were able to come by such techniques, given that jutsu such as these tended to be incredibly complex, as well as chakra intensive. The men in front of him were definitely Jonin, judging by their chakra reserves, but one would have to have reached a level Kakashi was not sure even he himself had reached in order to use such a technique to the scale being displayed.

Which, he deduced in the split second he had been pondering this, indicated that they were working for a considerable more powerful enemy. The possible consequences of that particular realisation would have to wait, however, as Kakashi had more pressing concerns. The statues were moving again, one by one crouching, bending at the knees. He was on the move in the same moment that he realised what they were about to do, determined to get back closer to his team, and into a better defensive position.

Unfortunately, it was not to be. Distracted by the arrival of the stone figures, he hadn't noticed Eiji slip back into the rocky ground. Kakashi ground to a halt, only having made it a few metres back, as the missing-nin emerged from the ground in front of him.

"Come now, Hatake. You're fight is with us. There's no getting past me, I can move faster in the earth than even that vile eye of yours can follow."

Kakashi glared at the man standing between him and the comrades it was his job to protect.

"No getting past you, hm?" Kakashi asked, in the nonchalant tone he had perfected over the years. "In that case, looks like I'll have to go through you then." Kakashi retorted, his glare not receding as he bought a kunai to bare.

"And on another day, you might well achieve that goal, Hatake." The man began, the smirk on his face becoming larger at Kakashi's response. "But, today the question is not whether you can get past me. It's 'can you make it past me before those Genin standing behind me have been ground into dust?"

And, as Eiji finished, the very first statue impacted with the ground behind him, after jumping from the very top of the canyon, splintering the earth beneath it. The statue turned to the group of Genin, even as the others followed, shaking the entire canyon as they hit the ground and causing a cloud of dust to almost totally covering their considerable presence, and once again raised it's stone sword towards the shell-shocked Genin.

Naruto was the first of Genin to recover, and had instinctively reached for his weapon, maneuvering himself so that he was between the statues and Hana and Baki, whilst waiting for the dust to clear.

He had never expected his very first mission to turn out like this, especially as he had already done a fair amount of reading into how missions were ranked so that he would have some idea of what to expect when he started taking missions outside the village. But now, he found himself, a totally inexperienced Genin in the midst of what was a certain A-rank. He knew that, given what himself and Shikamaru were about to face, at least until Kakashi-sensei could reach them, there was an incredibly high risk of getting seriously injured, or worse.

Yet, he couldn't find a trace of fear within himself. All worries were replaced, partly, by a combination of surging adrenaline, and the will to survive. But most importantly, he was filled with the realisation that, given his team-mates' abilities, the chances of them surviving, at least until the Jonin made it past the missing-nin, relied totally on him.

He absolutely couldn't fail. And that didn't scare him. He wouldn't allow his team-mates to die. He wouldn't allow the people he now considered friends to be hurt, even if it cost him his life. That was a promise.

And no matter how much he had matured since the days he would proclaim his promise to be Hokage from the rooftops of the village, Uzumaki Naruto never, ever broke a promise.