Never Forget

Plan Five-Four-Four

Chapter 16

"You know what the enemy would never expect?"

"What?"

"For you to go right at them."

"What do you mean? We do that all the time."

"No, not that way. I mean really going right at them, like running into them."

"Well, for good reason. You'd have to be an idiot to do something like that. Wouldn't it be a little too easy for them to kill you when you're two centimeters away?"

"Yeah, but that would give you the advantage, too, right?"

"But you'd be the one running at them. That gives them a lot of time to prepare and fend you off. Defense is easier than offense, remember?"

"I know that." Kira pouted at her companion. "But like I said, it'd be completely unexpected."

"Especially from you," said Kakashi. "Imagine – a tactician throwing herself on death's doorstep."

"And that's exactly why we should do it," the golden-haired girl announced. The library was silent, mostly empty except for the two of them, and so the librarian didn't bother to tell them to shut up. They weren't being loud, but they weren't exactly whispering, either.

Kakashi gripped her shoulders. "That's ridiculous. I won't let you."

The smile slipped from her face, and her silvery eyes darkened. "What if you don't have a choice? What if we're facing a really, really strong enemy?"

He shook his head. "I don't care. You're not leaving me."

"And you're not leaving me, either," she said. "That's why I would do it – so that we'll all be okay. So that you'll be okay."

"What's the point of me being okay if you're not?" There was a note of desperation in his usually monotonic voice. "Kira, you're my best friend."

"And you're mine." She smiled again, patting his lowered head. "How about this? We'll form a plan with this, but we'll never use it unless we need to. Unless we absolutely need to."

He looked up. "I don't like it."

"Just in case," she pleaded, and he finally relented, looking away.

"Fine. What would happen next?"

"Well," she mused, staring at the paper in front of her and absentmindedly doodling on it, "what if you cast a Genjutsu just as the enemy's distracted by me? It'll probably be broken almost immediately if we're facing such a strong guy, but that should be enough time. I'll make a clone, who'll attack from the back with a Rasengan. But there probably wouldn't be enough time for the Rasengan to be formed, huh?"

"Maybe you could stab him as soon as he breaks the Genjutsu," Kakashi suggested, despite his initial reluctance to form the plan at all. Kira brightened, nodding.

"And if I stab him hard enough, he'll probably be in too much pain to think about it and he'll just smack me away instead. Or something. So I won't get hurt, after all."