Reference: Chapters 22 and 23
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"She's gotten worse, Kakashi," Seek said under his breath.
Kakashi nodded. He had picked up the fact that Akira was slowly pulling away from him over the last few months. Seek had kept him in the loop about her progress in training and on missions, and he was shocked to hear that her torture methods were becoming more and more brutal.
"I'll try and talk to her."
Seek shook his head. "We've been sent on more and more missions like this. But the problem is, Fox is really good at what she does. It's a little scary."
Kakashi ran that information through his head. Seek was right. Akira was extremely good at what she did. She was as good at interrogating people and getting information out of them as he was at assassinating people. But one was much darker than the other. And this time, Seek was really shaken.
"What did she do?"
Seek formed a fist with his right hand. "She crushed a man's genitals. He had it coming, he was assaulting young girls and keeping them locked in cages. But then she made him explode. He was still alive when she did it."
Kakashi's eyes widened. Tenzo gasped. Kakashi had forgotten the younger ninja was there. A ghost of pain arched through his own nether region in sympathy with the man. Then he became nauseous as the realization of what Seek had said set in.
"He was alive?" Kakashi hissed.
Seek nodded. "She suffocated him with her quicksand, then made him explode. I've never seen anything like it, Kakashi."
Had she really fallen so far?
Seek walked away, leaving Kakashi to his thoughts. Akira had changed drastically in the last year. She never smiled. They barely saw each other, due to them both now being in the ANBU and constantly being pulled away for missions. He had started to miss her being around and bothering him. But he could tell that she had fallen into a deep depression. Maybe she had always been depressed, and he just didn't notice. That only made him feel worse.
"Sir?"
Tenzo broke Kakashi out of his thoughts.
"Yeah."
"That girl that was with Seek, that's who you were talking about right?"
Kakashi nodded.
Tenzo cocked his head to the side. "She doesn't look like much."
Kakashi scoffed before he could catch himself. Sure Akira was still short, she only came up to about his chin, and she had a slight build. But she was strong after years of intense training. He had to break out his sharingan the last time they had really fought, and that was over a year ago.
"Appearances can be deceiving. She's a hell of a lot stronger than she looks."
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"The red demon of the leaf?"
Kakashi's blood ran cold. He tightened his grip on his kunai and grit his teeth, anger contorting his facial features beneath his mask.
Red demon?
Akira removed the grate and dropped down into the room before he could stop her. She straightened and faced the two guards, who were staring at her with fear etched all over their faces. The amount of bloodlust emanating from her chakra even made Kakashi a bit nervous.
"It was." Her voice was stone cold. Akira drew a second kunai, then she ran at the guards.
In one swift movement, she slashed the men's throats so deeply that their heads fell backward onto their shoulders and they dropped to the ground. Blood gushed from the wounds. As they died, they made wet choking noises and their hands contorted strangely at their necks. Thankfully, death came quickly.
Kakashi dropped to the ground behind Akira, completely stunned. He couldn't even speak. He felt like he was looking at himself after Rin died. The ruthlessness of her kills were astonishing. And not in a good way.
Akira moved forward toward the door, stepping over one of the bodies. Blood dripped from her kunai and her forearm protectors onto the ground.
"Akira," Kakashi breathed, still overcome with shock.
She stopped and turned her head slightly so he could see the side of her mask. Blood was spattered across it, and dripped from the chin.
Neither one of them said anything, and after a moment, Akira turned back to the door and crossed the room.
He had never seen this side of her before. What in the world had she become? She reminded him of himself when he first joined the ANBU years ago. Ruthless and cold-blooded.
Kakashi followed Akira through the mansion, killing any guards that they came across. Some of her kills were way more brutal than was necessary, and it brought back memories for him. Kakashi felt like he was in a daze, and was merely watching the chaos happen in front of him. Each slice of Akira's blades sent blood spraying across the walls of the mansion. The servants' eyes bulged as they grasped at their necks while dying. Akira's forearms were covered in their blood, as well as her mask. The glimpses he caught of her front were enough for him to know exactly what the front of her vest looked like.
What happened to you, Akira?
She was nothing like the sweet little girl she had been when he'd first met her. Hell, she wasn't even the same as six months ago. That was when Bat and Sparrow had died. Seek had said it had been an ambush. Something bad must've happened that day. Even when Akira's parents died she hadn't changed this much.
Kakashi almost regretted telling Seek that he would try to talk to Akira. What could he possible do to help her? He couldn't even help himself. At least for now, he could only focus on the mission. He wouldn't be able to even try to find a chance to talk to her until the target had been eliminated.
They came to a staircase and jumped to the bottom of it, landing in a large kitchen. Two more guards were in there cooking. They turned upon hearing their entrance, and one of them dropped a pan. Kakashi leaped forward and stabbed the guard who had dropped the pan through the chest with his kunai. He held the man's arm and covered his mouth, slowly lowering the body to the ground, while the other guard stared in horror at him. He pulled his kunai out of the man's chest and slit his throat, silencing him.
Just then, another guard entered the kitchen. "What was that? You guys oka–"
Akira threw three shuriken into the man's chest, cutting off his question. They sunk in with solid thunks, and blood dribbled out of the wounds. Then she leaped forward and sliced through his neck, preventing him from making anymore noise. He grabbed the counter in shock then slid to the ground, where he slumped against the closed door, effectively pinning it shut.
"You-you–"
Kakashi straightened and cut the remaining guard off by pointing his kunai directly at the man's throat. The tip barely pricked him, but it drew a drop of blood.
"How many of you are involved in the drug operation?" He asked, his voice deep and menacing. His sharingan glowed, sending a shiver down the man's spine.
"A-all of us."
"Are there any more of you that are not currently here?"
The man shook his head slightly, trying to avoid cutting his own neck on Kakashi's blade. "No, just us."
"Good." Then Kakashi killed him. He flicked some of the man's blood off his blade as the man sank to the ground, a hole straight through his jugular.
He bled out in under a minute.
"The rest of them are with the noble. They're down the hall from here, through the door at the end on the left." Akira said. She shifted the body of the guard that was blocking the door.
She was about to open the door but Kakashi grabbed her wrist and stopped her. "I'm taking the lead on this one." He said sternly.
Judging by her approach through the rest of the mansion, he knew letting her go in first would be detrimental to the operation. She would likely kill the target noble before they could get any information out of him. He didn't want to watch her kill anybody else that day.
"But–"
"No arguments," he said, cutting her off. "I'm still your superior." His tone was cold. He was not in the mood to discuss anything. Akira had already overstepped when she had jumped into action earlier without making a plan with him. That and he had to admit that her attitude was getting on his nerves. On a mission he expected her to respect his rank as she does Seek's. Regardless of emotions.
But as her friend, he was hurt too. She had been brushing him off all day, barely acknowledging him.
Akira didn't break eye contact, but she did step back from the door. He let go of her wrist and opened the door slightly to peek down the hall. Upon seeing it was empty, he pulled the door open wide enough for them to slip through. Akira followed right behind him.
They crept down the hall, and when they reached the door they stood on either side of it, listening intently.
"We need to move our operation quickly. The leaf knows, and the mist has already pulled funding from us. There's no way we will be able to continue here. However, the mist has offered us refuge amongst their citizens. If we leave promptly, we may be able to escape before the leaf comes knocking at our door."
Kakashi and Akira exchanged a look. They had already confirmed their target to be involved in the operation, but this was just icing on the cake.
He reached out and turned the doorhandle. He pushed it ajar, just enough to let a little light from the room beyond into the hallway.
"Oh good, Kamaru, you're back." The noble called out. But when he didn't get an answer, his voice became a little more uncertain. "Kamaru?"
Kakashi burst threw the door, throwing shuriken as he entered. They found their marks in two of the guards' throats, plunging into the exposed skin with ease. Akira was right behind him, and charged at the guard standing to the noble's left. She unsheathed her sword and decapitated the man as Kakashi did the other guard. Then she turned to the noble and raised her sword, pointing it at his neck.
The noble had risen from his seat at their entrance, knocking his chair over backward. Kakashi stepped in front of him and held a kunai to the man's throat.
"The red demon, and the copy ninja..." the man said under his breath, glancing between the two ANBU members with wide eyes.
"You know us? That means you know our village, right?" Kakashi asked him, voice low and almost a growl.
"Yes I do." The noble swallowed hard and straightened a bit, raising his chin in defiance. "But I will not cower to the likes of you assassins."
"We don't care if you cower or not," Kakashi said coldly. "But you will give us the information we want."
The noble spat on Kakashi's mask. Anger coursed through his veins, but he kept calm. Akira, however, did not.
A tendril of quicksand ripped open the carpet, drawing the noble's attention downward. His eyes widened slightly, but he did a good job of covering the fear that Kakashi knew he felt.
"That was a mistake." Akira snarled. The quicksand tendril lashed itself around the man's throat, choking him and raising him into the air. He kicked his legs back and forth and clawed desperately at the quicksand.
"Fox." Kakashi snapped, turning his head to glare at her. He couldn't see her eyes, but could feel her anger, her bloodlust. He could see her raging chakra with his sharingan. His anger was now redirected at her. If she couldn't control her emotions, the mission was bust.
What the hell was she thinking?
She looked over at Kakashi and seemed to come to her senses. Akira lowered the man back to the ground and took a step backward. She lowered her hand and the quicksand receded.
The man sunk to his knees upon being released, coughing. He rubbed his neck, then raised his eyes to glare at Akira.
"Stupid demon, you don't scare me!" He croaked out.
Kakashi sheathed his katana and kunai, then formed three hand signs. Lightning crackled to life covering his hand. He grabbed the man by the collar of his robes and dragged him into a standing position. The man clawed at Kakashi's hand, but his fingers uselessly scratched the metal guard on the back of Kakashi's glove.
"It's me you should be scared of right now." Kakashi growled. He pulled his right arm back, the one currently wielding a chidori. "How many others are involved in your operation?"
The man clamped his mouth shut. Kakashi clenched his jaw in frustration. Thanks to Akira's outburst, they would be lucky to get any information out of him now.
Kakashi moved his hand closer to the man's chest. The lightning started to strike the man, sending small shivers throughout his body in response to the electricity. The robe covering his chest burned away in a circular pattern, and the skin underneath it started to turn black.
"You're going to kill me anyways. What's the point of telling you anything?" The man snarled.
"You have a choice here. You can give me the information I want and have a painless death by my hand, or I will let my comrade torture it out of you, and your death will last much longer, and be much more painful. What will you choose?"
The man glanced over at Akira. At the blood on her mask. Bloodlust was seeping out of both Akira and Kakashi now, and it was no doubt overwhelming the squirming noble. Kakashi hoped the noble would just tell him what he wanted. He had no interest in letting Akira torture him.
"Alright fine!" He snapped. "There are three others involved. But one went missing yesterday. And two businesses in the north end of town. We run our operation out of their basements."
Kakashi pulled his hand back slightly. The noble seemed to relax a bit. But then his mouth and eyes shot open as Kakashi plunged his hand through the man's chest and out his back, sending a spray of blood onto the wall behind him. Kakashi let go of the man's collar and pulled his hand out from the man's chest. He slumped to the ground, dead from having his heart literally blown out of his body.
He turned and faced Akira straight on. Kakashi removed his mask and glared at her. "What the hell was that?" He snapped, his voice coming out louder than he meant it to. He was furious with her now. She had disobeyed a direct order from him.
Akira took off her mask as well, but didn't meet Kakashi's eyes. "He spat on you."
"That does not give you excuse to overstep. We're lucky we got any information out of him at all after the stunt you pulled!"
Akira closed her eyes and formed a fist with her free hand. She turned her head to the side, hiding her face from Kakashi with her bangs.
"You're out of line, Akira. Get it together."
Kakashi strode past her and out the door into the hallway. He clipped his mask to his belt as he went, fuming. Both of his hands were clenched into fists, and blood dripped off of his right one. He looked down at it and shook his hand in disgust, sending droplets of blood flying across the velvet carpet. He made his way into the study across the hall, determined to find the intel they had been instructed to gather. He would wait until Akira had calmed down, then he would try and talk to her.
After a couple minutes, Akira entered the room. Kakashi had already started sifting through piles of papers on the desk, and looked up at her when she entered. She had put her mask back on, but her body language gave her away. Her shoulders were rolled back and stiff, showing she was still angry. He dropped his eyes back to the file in his hands.
"Start looking for intel on the operation. Gather as much as you can."
"Yes sir." Akira snapped.
Kakashi paused what he was doing and looked up at her again, eyes narrowed and jaw clenched tight.
"If you don't drop the attitude, I'll send you back to the leaf village right now. If you have a problem with your superiors, you can voice it to Lord Third. I will not have you jeopardizing the mission because you can't control your emotions."
Akira stood as still as a board, staring at Kakashi. He glared back at her, unwavering. After a moment of standstill, Akira dropped her eyes.
"My apologies, captain." She said in a low voice.
"Go search the other rooms."
"Yes captain." She turned and made her way out the door.
Kakashi took a deep breath and resisted the urge to punch the table in front of him. As much as she was irritating him right now, he knew that this was not her. It didn't matter if she was in a clear state of mind or not.
Kakashi heard her walk up the stairs and decided to follow her. There wasn't any intel in the room that he had seen anyways. He used his sense of smell to track her through the large mansion, following her trail up to the third floor.
She had found another study, this one connected to the master bedroom. Akira was standing over the table, staring at a scroll rolled out on the table. Kakashi was about to step into the room when suddenly she spun and threw her fist into the brick wall behind her.
The crack resonated around the room.
Kakashi jumped forward when she reeled back again, and caught her wrist as she sent her fist flying once more. He had stopped her cold, and she froze.
"Enough," he said quietly. He glanced at the scroll on the table, and understood why she was so upset. The scroll detailed the human trafficking ring the nobles ran. "That's enough, Akira."
"Yes captain." She said through her gritted teeth. She straightened upright, but Kakashi didn't let go of her wrist. He reached up and removed her mask. Akira turned her head away from him, hiding her face. But he didn't miss the tears that were starting to form in her eyes.
"Drop the 'captain' for now." Kakashi set her mask down on the table and gently grabbed Akira's chin with his free hand, forcing her to look up at him. He studied her face, staring deep into her eyes. Her emerald green eyes that reminded him of the leaves around the village, of home. Though right now they looked more black than green. "What is going on? I've never seen you snap like this. Talk to me."
Akira couldn't help the tears that continued to flow down her face. She pulled her chin from his grasp and looked back down at the ground. She pulled her wrist away and turned away from him.
"I'm fine."
"Akira," Kakashi said in a warning tone. He would get her to talk if she wanted to or not.
"Seek did this on purpose, didn't he?" She asked. It was a rhetorical question. They both knew the answer. "So you would have a chance to corner me."
Kakashi didn't respond, because she was right.
"He gave us the task with the lowest stakes, and no time limit. The others will easily take care of the businesses, and he requested Goat to come along so they could find the girls being held captive. So they wouldn't need my help."
"Yes, he did."
"We didn't need two captains on this mission. He set me up," she spat.
"He's worried about you. And so am I."
"Are we even expected to return with the team?"
"They will come get us if we don't rendezvous with them in the morning."
Akira wiped the tears away, smearing blood from her sleeve across her face in the process. "I thought the mission was supposed to come first, and emotions didn't have a place on the battlefield."
Kakashi put his hand on her shoulder, and gently pulled on it. Akira turned her body so she was partially facing him. "I told you earlier. Protecting your friends comes before the mission."
"I don't need protection, Kakashi. I'm fine."
"I beg to differ."
Akira scoffed and raised her eyes to meet his. Her glare faded when she saw that he was genuinely concerned about her. He took her hand and raised it to show her. One of her knuckles was clearly broken.
"This is not fine. You can't tell me you're fine when I just watched you break your hand on a wall."
Akira raised her left hand over her right and began a medical jutsu. Green chakra glowed for a minute, allowing her to identify where the break was. She stopped it to push her knuckled back into place, wincing at the pain. Then she started the jutsu again. After a couple minutes of healing herself, she flexed her hand without wincing. She pulled it from Kakashi's.
"Why are you so determined to get me to talk?" She asked him, eyes on the ground.
"Because that's what friends do. They don't leave each other to drown in their own darkness. Like I said earlier. I'm returning the favor." She hadn't let him drown after Rin had died. He wasn't about to let her succumb to the same thing that he had. She didn't deserve that.
Akira sank to the ground, sitting down and leaning against the brick wall. She rested her forearms on bent knees and closed her eyes. Kakashi knelt down next to her, studying her face intently.
"It was my fault."
"What was your fault?" He asked.
"It was my fault they died. Sparrow and Bat. I got them killed."
His heart sank. The guilt of a comrade dying weighed heavily on any shinobi. But it was exponentially worse when they died because of their own comrade's mistake. He knew that all too well.
Kakashi listened quietly as Akira told him what happened that day. Most of what she told him lined up with what Seek had told him. But what he didn't know was that she had missed the trap entirely, and then Bat and Sparrow were killed because she had attempted to free all of them. He understood why she blamed herself.
By the time she had finished, tears were steadily making their way down her cheeks.
Kakashi felt sick to his stomach. It was worse than he had initially thought. But the thing that hurt him the most was that Akira was blaming herself for their deaths.
"Why didn't you tell me this before?" Kakashi finally asked. Hurt was evident in his voice.
"I couldn't. I never even told Seek the whole story. Though I'm sure they know. It wasn't hard to tell what had happened from the scene." Akira balled her hands into fists. "It was my fault they died. I was reckless, and it was my fault."
Kakashi was silent for a long time. He didn't know how to tell her that she shouldn't blame herself. He wasn't good at that sort of thing. At comforting people. She had made a mistake, but unfortunately that mistake cost two of her comrades their lives. It wasn't all that different than what happened to Obito and Rin. But he didn't blame her. Not in the slightest. It wasn't her fault that there were people in the world hell bent on destruction.
Kakashi finally reached out and placed a hand on Akira's.
"It wasn't your fault, Akira. You shouldn't blame yourself for their deaths. You were trying to get them out of a bad situation to the best of your ability."
"It was my fault we ended up in the situation in the first place. I didn't sense the trap coming, I was too focused on tracking them. If only I had just–"
"No. Don't do that to yourself."
Akira looked up at Kakashi. His eyebrows were furrowed, but this time it was out of concern and not anger.
"Did you know Bat had a son?" She asked quietly. Kakashi didn't respond, but his heart fell. "I was there when his mom told him dad wasn't coming home. I felt awful, so I went myself to tell Bat and Sparrow's families that they were gone. That their loved one wasn't coming back. I thought screams on the battlefield were bad. But they are nothing compared to a child screaming for his father." She lowered her head and squeezed her eyes shut.
Kakashi sighed. He hadn't wanted to play this card. "If Sparrow and Bat's deaths were your fault, then Rin was mine."
"Rin was not your fault, Kakashi. You know that."
"What's the difference? I could've done a million things differently. I could've gotten to her faster, to prevent the Mist from putting the three tails in her. I could've protected her better." He said. He squeezed his right hand into a fist. "But that doesn't change what happened. If I keep losing myself in the past, I can't protect the comrades I have now, and I can't protect the future."
Akira frowned, deep in thought. Kakashi bit his lip as he saw Rin's dying expression flash across his vision for a second. He still blamed himself, but he knew now that she had done what she deemed best for the village. It was her choice.
"What if I can't protect the people I care about?" Akira asked. "What do I do then?"
Kakashi's face tightened, grief stricken. He closed his eyes and lowered his chin. "You have to learn from your mistakes. And swear that the next time, you'll be stronger."
"What happens if I lose everyone?"
He reached up and took hold of her right hand with his right. He raised his eyes to look at her.
"You find someone else to protect. There will always be people that need you, Akira. Don't lose sight of what you fight for."
After a second, Akira nodded.
Kakashi stood and pulled Akira to her feet. Then he handed her her mask. She held it in both of her hands, staring at it. The red markings, the blood spatter.
"If you're going to be a demon, do it for the village. Not for revenge. Fight for the future. Fight because of the past, but not for it." It was something he had to remind himself of every day. But slowly he was pushing through his faults, overcoming his past. It had been six years since Rin had died, and almost seven since Obito had died. And their deaths still haunted him. But now he tried to look out more for others, instead of only caring about himself.
Fight because of the past, but not for it.
She raised her head to look up and Kakashi. She nodded.
He gave her a small smile. "Let's go help somebody else find a better future, yeah?"
The corner of her mouth lifted the slightest bit. "Yeah. Let's go."