Will of Fire: Kakashi Hatake

Chapter 29

They ran for a few hours under the moonlight, moving swiftly through the trees from branch to branch. When they finally reached the dedicated meeting area, a small outpost at the top of a hill overlooking a rolling forest, they were greeted by Bear, Juke, and Mink. Seek quickly lead them up the stairs to an upper room of the outpost, a map room with no windows. A lantern hung from the ceiling, casting eerie shadows across the room.

The other team was already there. To her surprise, Akira recognized one of the other shinobi. 

It was Somaru. 

Her jaw dropped. She realized after a moment and quickly shut her mouth, grateful for her mask. But that gratitude didn't last long. The door was shut and everyone started taking off their masks. Akira begrudgingly removed hers and hooked it on her hip. Seek strode up to the circular table in the middle of the room, and the rest of Team Ky filed up behind him, standing at attention. The other captain's team did the same.

Once the noise in the room ceased, the other captain started speaking. He introduced himself as Lynx, then he relayed the information that he had been given from the four teams in the attack position. All four teams were ready and had eyes and ears spread out between each outpost. Some of the members of the Aburame clan were assisting in the mission and had their insects everywhere in the forest, effectively creating a barrier through which if anything crossed, the ANBU would know.

Seek then relayed the information that their team had gathered. They had been the team in charge of gathering intel in the northwest part of the region. Another team was in charge of gathering intel from the northeast.

His speech was interrupted by a knock on the door. Frog, who was closest, reached over and turned the handle to pull it open.

The person who had knocked stepped into the room, and Akira's heart fell. It was Kakashi. He shut the door behind him and walked up to the round table. He removed his mask.

"Dog, good, you're here," Lynx said.

"My apologies for arriving late, I'm afraid we had a mishap that needed attending to."

"Mishap?"

"Ran into some rogue shinobi on the road."

"I see. Well, Seek, would you mind starting from the beginning? I'll give my report after yours."

Seek nodded and started over from the beginning. Akira refused to look Kakashi in the eye the entire time Seek spoke. When Lynx went, she noticed Kakashi's eyes flicker to her for a quick second. It annoyed her. But for some reason, it also made her hopeful. Kakashi gave his report after Lynx finished.

When all of the reports were given, the captains hashed out the plan for the next twenty-four hours. Seek and Kakashi's teams would bunk there at the outpost and rest for the night, then leave by midmorning. They would head to the west side of the blockade. Lynx's team would leave immediately and head to the next meeting point, then move into the village the rogue was rumored to have been heading toward.

Eventually, they finished the meeting, and Seek dismissed them for the night. Lynx's team filed out of the room quickly, much to Akira's relief. She hung toward the back of the crowd, looking at the maps on the table. She was nervous, and her stomach was doing flips so she wasn't really reading them. She had seen Kakashi glance at her several times during the meeting. He had found an excuse to hang back as well, and she suspected he wanted to talk to her. For some reason she wanted that to happen.

Everyone else exited the room, leaving just Akira and Kakashi in the room. Kakashi closed the door and crossed back to the table where Akira was standing. She tried to read over papers on the table, but her hands were shaking slightly due to her being so on edge so it wasn't as easy as she would have liked. The writing on the maps was incredibly small.