But she hadn't been the one that was hit.
Kakashi had intercepted Orochimaru, sharingan blazing red, his own killing intent radiating out from him. He had knocked Orochimaru's arm and kunai away at the last possible second, causing the tip to just barely graze the front of Akira's right shoulder. His chidori had gone straight through Orochimaru's shoulder. He pulled his arm out, and Akira was shocked to see the amount of blood that was on it. His hand and forearm were quite literally dripping Orochimaru's blood onto the ground.
Orochimaru leaped backward, seething.
"I'll make you pay for that, Hatake." Then he was gone. Akira searched with her sensory ability, but he was far away, and then his chakra signature disappeared completely.
Her knees felt weak, and Akira fought against her body to avoid dropping to her knees right then and there. In front of her, Kakashi lowered his hand to his side, still dripping blood.
Nobody said a word for a moment, everyone in utter shock from the confrontation.
"We need to head back to the leaf village," Kakashi demanded, his tone icy and unwavering. "Blight and Trig, attend to Sparrow and Fly. Fox, stay on high alert. I want to know immediately if anyone comes within five hundred meters of this area."
"Yes sir!" Two of Kakashi's team members said loudly. They ran over to where Akira had put Sparrow and Fly.
"Yes sir," Akira said quietly. Kakashi didn't even look back at her. He walked away, over to where Seek and Bat were standing. Akira raised her hand to the wound on her shoulder and covered it. It stung a bit, but not so much as to warrant any healing jutsu or a bandage. It wasn't bleeding much either.
"Let's get out of the open to a safer location."
The two teams of ANBU retreated into the forest and into a small cave nearby where they set up camp. Akira took up a position above the cave in the shadows, while Juke, Bear, Bat, and three of Kakashi's teammates took up positions in the surrounding forest. Everyone else remained in the cave. Sparrow and Fly were both in critical condition, and the medical ninjas were hard at work trying to save them.
Akira focused hard on keeping her sensory range as far and wide as it could go. She was able to track all of the ANBU shinobi easily and didn't sense anyone else in the area for a while. The lull in action allowed her to finally try and steady her shaky breathing.
The scrape on her shoulder had scabbed over, so it didn't hurt anymore. But it didn't change the fact that she kept seeing Orochimaru's eyes every time she closed hers. The amount of power he possessed had been astonishing. It chilled her to her bones. She suppressed a shudder.
Soon came nightfall, and the six shinobi in the trees withdrew to closer ones, decreasing the perimeter of defense. Akira popped a food pill, trying to fight off the exhaustion she felt. No one had spoken to her in hours, and she stayed sitting in the shadows of a rock. There was no natural light within the forest, other than that of the crescent moon and stars above them. They didn't dare light a fire in the cave so as to avoid being spotted from afar. The only life Akira could sense beyond their makeshift border was of forest wildlife.
When darkness truly fell, three of the guard shinobi retreated into the cave, leaving herself, one of Kakashi's men, Bat, and Juke outside to stand guard. Akira could sense the healers below her still working to stabilize Sparrow and Fly. From what she could tell, Sparrow was out of the danger zone, but Fly was not yet there. Both of the healers now worked on Fly.
When the moon was about halfway through its path in the sky, marking the time to be about one in the morning, Akira was fighting hard to keep herself from falling asleep. She shifted her sitting position multiple times, purposely keeping herself uncomfortable and refusing to lean against anything. She had drained her chakra to well below half in the fight earlier, and after being awake for so long and traveling so far she was exhausted. It was about another thirty minutes before anyone exited the cave again.
The three shinobi that had gone inside earlier came back out and relieved their companions in the trees. Akira was briefly hopeful that she would get relieved too, but no such relief came. Until a few minutes later, when one of Kakashi's shinobi climbed the rock to sit next to her.
"Hey, I'm your relief. Go get some sleep," they whispered. Akira nodded, though she knew he probably couldn't see her. Then she stood and walked to the edge of the rock. She dropped down into the cave opening below, landing silently on her toes. She could sense where the others were in the cave, and made her way toward them.
She rounded a bend and was surprised to see that the ground had lit a small fire to boil a pot of water. Sparrow and Fly were laying on sleeping pads close to it, with Kakashi and Seek kneeling over them. The two healers were sleeping further back in the cave. The other three shinobi who had previously been guarding were already asleep on the floor near the cave wall.
Neither Kakashi nor Seek had their masks on, and Akira removed hers when she reached the edge of the fire. Kakashi glanced up at her from where he was kneeling, dabbing a wet cloth on Fly's forehead. Without his mask on Fly looked young, only a few years older than herself.
Akira knelt down next to Kakashi. Her thigh brushed his, but she was too tired to care. It took a lot of effort not to slump into his side and go to sleep right there. He was a source of comfort for her in that moment. But she resisted, and instead put her hands over Fly's chest. She started to use medical ninjutsu to attempt to help heal him. He had suffered a severe wound to his chest, so she focused her healing on the areas that she could feel most needed it. The wound had been packed with bandages, so Akira focused her efforts internally. She worked to repair the wounds he had received to some of his veins, trying to stop the internal bleeding. She was able to repair four of them and started to help heal one of his ribs before she had to stop from a lack of chakra.
Akira pulled her hands away and wiped her forehead with her sleeve. She could barely keep her eyes open.
"Go get some rest, Akira," Kakashi whispered. "You've done enough. It's okay."
She didn't argue. Akira was too tired. She stood using Kakashi's shoulder as leverage, and crossed the cave to where Bat was sleeping on his sleeping bag. He had it unzipped fully so that it was twice as big as it normally was. He sleepily opened his eyes at her approach and shifted slightly so that he wasn't taking up as much room. He rolled onto his side to face the wall. Akira took the hint and laid down on the other half of the bag, facing the opposite way. She fell asleep almost right after cradling her head with her arm.
+++
Akira was awoken a few hours later by Bat shaking her shoulder. She blinked a few times, wishing she could go back to sleep. She rolled off the sleeping bag so that he could zip it up and put it away, then sat upright and rubbed her face. She pulled a food pill out of her bag and ate it, then looked around to see what was going on.
Dawn had just started to break, and the sky had lightened ever so slightly outside. She could hear birds chirping. Akira extended her chakra to sense where the group was. They were still in the same positions. She didn't sense any foreign chakra signatures.
She climbed to her feet and stretched, looking around the cave. Kakashi and Seek had hardly moved from where they sat, tending to Sparrow and Fly. Sparrow looked to be in better shape, but Fly was about the same. The two medical ninjas were kneeling over him with their hands above his chest, doing another round of healing. Bat, Juke, and one of Kakashi's men were cleaning up their makeshift beds from the night before.
Akira walked over to kneel next to Seek over Sparrow. Since the other two were healing Fly, she figured she might as well try to help Sparrow. It was hard to balance the medical ninjutsu and her sensory ability, so she had to narrow down the scale that she was sensing. She was still able to cover a large area though.
"As soon as they're able to get Fly a little more stabilized we're moving out. We will head straight for the leaf village, we should be able to get there in a little over half a day's time if we don't stop," Seek said. He sounded exhausted.
"Captain, have you slept at all?" Akira asked, keeping her voice low so the others wouldn't hear.
He nodded. "A bit. Kakashi and I have been trading off every once in a while."
Akira pulled a food pill out of her pocket and handed it to Seek. "Eat this, it'll help a bit."
Seek smirked. "Thanks, Fox." He swallowed the food pill.
Akira worked to heal Sparrow's more minor wounds. The other two had already taken care of the major one. She healed several cuts and bruises, decreasing the amount of blood leaving her body.
After a little bit, Seek sent her back outside to trade spots with the shinobi who had taken up her role last night. She walked out of the cave and took a deep breath of fresh air, then put her mask on and jumped up to the rock she had been sitting on last night.
The shinobi that had replaced her was staring at a bird in a nearby tree. He looked over as Akira approached, and rose to his feet.
"Morning," he greeted her quietly.
"Morning. It's my turn to relieve you," she responded.
They bowed their head slightly. "I'm Goat. Nice to meet you."
Akira bowed slightly. "Fox. Nice to meet you too."
Goat walked past her and jumped down to the ground below. He disappeared into the cave. Akira settled into her position, sticking to the shadows again. She expanded her sensory ability as far as it could go but didn't sense anything out of the ordinary.
She felt a bit better after getting some rest but was still tired. Her chakra had mostly recovered, and she credited the fast recovery to Kishi's training. She hoped they would be able to leave soon. She hated the feeling of constantly being on edge. The fight with Orochimaru had left her very shaken.
A couple of hours passed before Goat came back.
"Dog has requested your assistance with Fly." He informed her.
Akira nodded and stood. She hurried back into the cave and rushed over to where Kakashi and the two medical ninjas were kneeling over Fly.
"We need your help. We almost have him out of danger, but could use an extra pair of hands to make sure we aren't missing anything vital. Can you do that?" One of the medical ninjas asked her.
"Yes sir."
Akira placed her hands next to theirs over Fly's chest. His wound was no longer packed with bandages and was instead wrapped with clean ones. She took that as a good sign. She began the jutsu, searching for areas that had not yet been touched by medical ninjutsu. She was able to find a couple, but they were minor. After addressing them with her jutsu, she turned her attention to helping the other two. She mostly just supplied them with extra chakra. They were very good healers, and eventually, the three of them sat back on their heels, and Fly's eyes fluttered open.
Akira sighed in relief as Fly sat up and looked around, the blanket falling away from his stomach.
The other two collapsed backward to properly sit down, looking exhausted.
"How do you feel?" Kakashi asked him.
"Like I was bitten by a snake." Fly retorted weakly. Seek handed him a glass of water. Fly drank the whole thing.
"You're lucky to make it out alive," Kakashi said.
"Damn."
"What do you think, thirty then move out?" Seek asked, addressing the question to Kakashi.
Kakashi nodded in agreement. "Is Sparrow ready to move?"
"Yes, she's just resting right now." One of the healers said.
"Alright, then let's get ready."
Akira slowly got to her feet, feeling very tired again, but not as much as last night. She wouldn't be of much use in a fight right now due to how much chakra she had given the two healers to get Fly into better shape. He would still have to go to the hospital when they got back, but at least he was ready to move.
The journey back seemed longer than the journey there. Akira stayed toward the back of the group, carefully sensing behind them to make sure they weren't being followed. Goat, who she had learned was also a sensory type, just not as adept at it, was toward the front with Bat, Juke, Bear, and one of Kakashi's other men. Kakashi and Seek carried Fly and Sparrow on their backs, with the healers close by in case something went wrong. The remaining two members of Kakashi's team and Akira followed close behind.
They made it back to the village around nightfall. Seek had been right. Without stopping for breaks, it had taken them a little over half a day to get back.
Seek and Kakashi beelined for the hospital, the healers still with them. The rest of them made their way back to ANBU headquarters.
Akira put on a long sleeve shirt and changed from her ANBU vest into her green flak jacket. She stored her sword, vest, and mask in her locker, then left the room. They had not been given orders, and most of the rest of the two teams had already filed out of the room. She was hungry for actual food and desperately wanted to go to sleep in her bed.
She slowly made her way across town, in the direction of Ichiraku's. She kept her head lowered, bangs hanging in her face to hide it. She didn't want to have a conversation with anyone at that moment. Before long, she was standing outside the building. Akira brushed a curtain aside and sat down at the counter.
"Good evening, Akira! How are you doing? Just back from a mission?" The old man greeted her with a wide smile.
Akira nodded and set her elbow on the counter, resting her chin in her palm.
"You look like you've been through the wringer. How 'bout I fix you up my special tonight, sound good?"
"Yes please," she said with a small smile. She could barely muster the energy to twist her lips upward. The old man set to work, tossing noodles in the air in a show, which encouraged Akira's smile to get a little bit bigger.
In a few moments, a giant steaming bowl of ramen was set in front of her. "On the house tonight." The old man offered.
Akira looked up in shock. "Really? Thank you!" She broke apart a set of chopsticks and dug in. It was absolutely amazing.
The old man leaned on the upper counter in front of her. "So what kinds of missions do they have you going on now that's got you this beat up?"
Akira slurped some noodles before responding. "I joined the ANBU a couple of days ago, I just got back from my first mission. But I can't talk about it, I'm sorry."
"Hey, that's great though! Congratulations on the promotion!" The old man knew that Akira had wanted to join the ANBU for a long time. Ever since she and her parents used to come here to get ramen.
"Thank you! So far it's been a bit different than what I expected, but my team is cool."
"Are you on Kakashi's team?"
Akira smirked. "No, it would have been a conflict of interest."
Even though the old man was always squinting, Akira swore he rolled his eyes. "Those old geezers in the higher-ups."
That made Akira laugh, which brought a smile to the old man's face. "Yeah, they're something else."
The curtain rustled behind her. The old man turned his attention to the newcomer. "Well speak of the devil, welcome in, Kakashi!"
Akira looked over her shoulder halfway through a bite of noodles. She slurped them up as Kakashi sat down on the stool to her left.
"Wow, you look rough too. Another special, on the house!" He turned back to his kitchen to start making another bowl.
Kakashi didn't say anything to Akira. He ruffled her hair, then crossed his arms on the counter and waited patiently. When the old man set the big bowl down in front of him, Kakashi thanked him and began to eat.
Akira finished her bowl and set it on the upper counter. "Thank you so much, Teuchi. That was delicious."
He smiled at her. "Of course, Akira. Would you like another?"
"Yes please!"
He chuckled and began making her a second bowl.
"Is everyone okay?" Akira quietly asked Kakashi.
"Yeah, they're all going to be fine."
"Good."
The old man set her bowl down and Akira dug in. Kakashi also got a second bowl and finished it almost at the same time that Akira did.
Teuchi took both of their bowls from them and bid them goodnight with a big smile as they left. Kakashi and Akira walked in the general direction of her apartment, albeit slowly. She could tell he wanted to talk to her, but was waiting until there was no one else around. She was grateful that he had come to talk. She had a lot of questions.
"I want to go to the frog pond," Akira said. Kakashi nodded in agreement and they changed course to head that way. Despite how tired they both were, they recognized that the mission they had just finished was one that was better spoken about now than left for later.
They reached the pond and collapsed into the grass. Kakashi laid down on his back with his arms under his head and closed his eye. Akira hugged her knees to her chest and stared into the water, wishing she could see Mount Myoboku. Eventually, Kakashi broke the silence.
"Are you okay?"
"Can I be honest with you?" She asked. Kakashi hummed in affirmation. She turned her head to look at him. "Kakashi, that was really scary."
He opened his eye to look at her. His eye held pity in it. His chakra told her he understood.
"I was scared too," he admitted.
"Really?"
He nodded and closed his eye again. "That wasn't the first time I've faced Orochimaru. The first time, I was alone. I don't know why he spared me. He could have easily killed me."
Akira's jaw dropped. "When was that?"
"A couple of years ago now. A little after your chunin exams actually. I haven't had to face him like that since. But it was still scary."
Akira turned back to stare into the water again. "I thought I was going to die. When he charged at me, I couldn't move, I couldn't do anything. I was frozen."
"He has that effect." Kakashi suddenly sat up and leaned forward to look into Akira's eyes. His deep onyx eye was full of sincerity. "Akira, listen to me."
She nodded, showing he had her full attention.
"I will not let you die on a mission. If I am there, I will not let you get killed. I promise."
Akira's eyes filled with tears. She wiped them away with her sleeve before looking back up at him. "Thank you, Kashi."
He nodded.
"Why did Orochimaru call you friend-killer?" She asked.
He sighed and looked at the water. "It's one of my nicknames in the ANBU. Some people think I killed Rin on purpose."
"But you didn't. Uncle Minato said you didn't. He said something bad happened to her and she did it to save the village."
"How much of that story do you know?"
Akira shrugged. "Only a little."
He closed his eye and clenched his right hand into a fist. "The mist village had put the three tails in her. They planned on releasing it in our village. Rin knew something was wrong, and she wanted me to kill her. I told her no, and that I promised Obito that I would protect her. She threw herself in front of my attack. I couldn't stop myself."
"When you came home and everyone was whispering about you, Uncle Minato brought me to his office one day and told me the basics. He said that Rin was a hero. But so were you. He said it wasn't your fault, and that I shouldn't blame you for Rin not coming home, despite what I heard from the village. He told me that you needed to be shown kindness because you blamed yourself." She sniffled at the memory, tears threatening to flow down her cheeks. "I used to yell at anyone who spoke badly about you. I got in trouble with a shopkeeper once. I threw a toy at her."
"Did you really?" Kakashi asked, a smile on his face.
"Yeah. She smacked me and kicked me out. She was a mean old lady." Akira laughed a little bit.
The lady had been saying that Kakashi was a nasty child who killed comrades. Akira had been looking for a toy to give to him, and that had angered her. She had yelled at the lady and thrown a stuffed animal at her. The lady had slapped her across the face, then pushed her out the door and slammed it behind her. Akira never went back to that store.
"I miss Minato-sensei. He was a great man."
Akira nodded in agreement. "He was."
They were silent for a few minutes before Akira asked another question that had been bothering her.
"Kashi, what did he mean when he said that I would've made a good test subject?"
Kakashi rubbed his hands over his face, moving his forehead protector around in the process. He set his hands down in his lap and started to play with the blades of grass between his crisscrossed legs.
"Orochimaru used to experiment on people. I can't tell you exactly what he was doing because it's classified information. But what I can tell you is that because of your kekkei genkai he wanted to use you as one of his main test subjects for what he was working on."
Akira gasped in shock.
"There was a big scandal about it. I can't tell you most of what I know. Not until all the people involved are dead and gone. It's for your own safety, okay?" Akira nodded. She wouldn't pry. "Kishi and I got involved, and we were able to prevent him from getting his hands on you. You remember the time we were practicing shuriken sets and you fell asleep and woke up thinking you were in danger?"
"Yeah. I felt like I was in danger for a couple of days after that. Though eventually, it went away."
"That was when it was going on. That's one of the reasons Kishi was so set on working with you and pushing you so hard. It was so that he could prevent Orochimaru from getting to you."
"So that day at the training ground when I kept sensing someone else around..."
"That was me. I was tracking someone."
"Did you find them?"
Kakashi gave her a side-eyed look. "Who do you think I am? Guy? Of course I did."
Akira stifled a laugh. "I was just asking, geez. Touchy."
Kakashi shook his head but smiled.
"Am I safe now?" She asked.
He reached up and ruffled her hair. "Oh yeah. No one would dare mess with you now. Not since you're in the ANBU."
She laughed for real this time and swatted at his hand. But her smile quickly faded as another question came to mind.
"Are all of my missions going to be like that?"
Kakashi shook his head. "No, normally we don't face sannins in battle. That was a strange one for sure."
"What happened? I thought we were just going after some random rogue ninja?"
"Technically you were. It just happened to be a very powerful random rogue ninja. But our intel wasn't certain. We had a couple of conflicting reports. Hence why my team was sent along after you guys as a backup. Lord Third was concerned that if the bad reports were true, you guys would end up in much more trouble than you bargained for."
Akira sighed in relief and Kakashi gave her a strange look. "Whew. I was worried that was the normal tier of missions."
Kakashi chuckled. "No, your normal tier of missions is going to be wall duty for the next week or so."
Akira threw her fists against the ground and kicked her feet out. "Oh come on, are you serious? After all that excitement, I have to sit on the wall?!"
"Yes, so we can get you properly trained for future missions. It won't be all day, just half the day. You'll be learning protocols in the other half, and training with your team. But you had way too much excitement for an initiate." Kakashi threw a blade of grass at Akira's face. She caught it out of the air and spun it back and forth between her thumb and forefinger.
"I killed one of his snakes on my own," she said proudly.
"So I heard. Good job."
She grinned. "And then Bat and I killed another one."
Kakashi smirked at her and gave her shoulder a little shove. "Don't get cocky now. Just because you killed a couple of snakes doesn't mean you are the best ANBU member to ever walk the planet," he teased.
"Oh yeah? Then who's the best?"
He scoffed. "Me, of course."
Akira rolled her eyes. "I think Kishi could beat you any day. Maybe even Seek."
"Kishi, maybe. Seek, definitely not."
"Bet."
He raised an eyebrow. "You're asking for it you know."
She gave him a big smile. He smiled back.
"You feel better?" He asked.
Akira nodded. Then yawned. "Yeah. I think it's bedtime." The moon was starting to peek out over the trees.
"Agreed." He got to his feet, Akira following suit. Then he paused for a second. "Oh yeah, Seek said you can have tomorrow off. Your whole team gets the day off."
"Oh thank goodness." Akira sighed. "I can sleep in." They started making their way back through the forest toward town.
"Don't sleep too late, or I won't teach you wind style."
"Really?" Akira said, excited. They had hardly had any time to practice wind style lately. She still sucked at it.
"Yes, really. I'll meet you at training ground three at ten, okay?"
"Deal!" She said happily.
They walked back through town, both of their moods a little lighter. The mission had been a terrible experience for Akira, but at least now she had something to look forward to again.