Yo! I'm alive, again, just this once, just for you! ;3

Thanks to everyone who read, followed, fav'ed and reviewed this hopping plot-bunny! I swear I'm not dead, I was just skipping the Stages of Grief and that just wouldn't do, hence the loooooong wait. Gomen ':)

I don't think there is much to warn you about, because people are doing usual/unusual stuff but nothing worse than last Chapter, sooo... here you go, I guess :D

Chapter 8: On The Run, Again

Kakashi woke up to scent of his own blood.

But he didn't open his eyes yet. When confronted with an unknown and possibly hostile environment upon awakening, a good shinobi didn't show he was awake. People talk when they think their prisoners are asleep.

Prisoner. He almost curled his lips. Of course.

Kakashi, Kumiko and the Terumi Clan had been overwhelmed by the Hounin. How many were there? More than a hundred? Kakashi got glimpses here and there with his Sharingan, but to stop and think in the middle of a battle as bloody as that one was just asking to be brutally killed.

There was no room for thoughts outside of kill-dodge-block-kill.

He quietly checked himself starting from his head.

Headband missing. Something else – gauze? – wrapped around the Sharingan eye. Mask missing. Headache, presumably because of overuse of the Sharingan.

Scarf, jacket, chestplate, shirt and undershirt missing. Gauze – why would they heal me – wrapped around his lower ribs and abdomen. Various cuts bandaged, a deeper gash on his abdomen cauterized without him noticing. Not the work of a medic-nin. One of the gauzes on his ribs was sticky with blood.

His arms were bandaged as well. His forearms weren't, and they lacked his forearms protectors.

His boxers were still on, but his shinobi pants and various pockets were missing. The item of clothing felt clean though – someone had taken it off him. Well, no one became ANBU if they were squeamish when confronted with blood or anatomy belonging to the other sex. It just unsettled him that he didn't notice it.

His legs were covered in bandages, even his feet. At least twenty different places stung faintly.

Chakra levels: not good. No weapons within reach.

But he wasn't bound and his chakra wasn't restrained, which was always a good thing. For whatever reason, he'd been underestimated and he'd make them pay for their mistake.

Then another smell hit his nose – roasted salmon.

What.

Kakashi hesitantly opened his right eye.

A plain wooden ceiling greeted him. What the fuck.

"Hatake-san!" an annoyingly cheerful voice called him. "I see you're awake!"

Nosumi Kiiroisuna hovered over him with… were those mittens on his hands? And was that a plate of roasted salmon? What just happened? What did Kakashi miss? Why was this puppeteer here? Where was here?!

Nosumi chuckled and put the dish by Kakashi's side. He sat down on his right. "I couldn't possibly leave my two drinking buddies out there with those big bad Hounin, now, could I?"

The Konohan raised an eyebrow at him.

"Fiiiiiine," he groaned, "just kidding. But you're cool, Hatake-san. Always keep that in mind. I just wanted to get some information for myself, you see – there are lots of people who pay lots of ryo to know if their village would be raided next, or if they could get on a boat to Nami, Yu or even Kaminari no Kuni."

The Suna nukenin hovered closer to Kakashi's bare face. "Then I hear a kunoichi had been stupid enough to serve as decoy in the Hounin's attack to the Terumi Clan. And what does my friend tell me?" Nosumi took to his side a huge black lizard-like puppet with his chakra strings. "'Oh, 'Sumi-kun!'" he recited with a high-pitched voice as he moved its jaw, "'Did you know that Kumo kunoichi that sticks with the Copy-nin? It was her! They're in for a big surprise, those whippersnappers!'"

Kakashi's right eyelid twitched.

"Then I said, no way!" Nosumi waved his arms, 'dismissing' his puppet. "My friends are in danger! And then I get there, find the bloodshed and you and Kumiko-san getting a ride to Kiri. I thought – damn! My friends! And whiskered you away in the night. I may have poisoned their food, but eh, they won't notice a difference."

Someone moaned behind Nosumi. "Oh, she's recovering!" he cheered, turning briefly to look at her. "You see, those Kiri bastards were also taking a little girl with them! Who knows what they would've done to her!"

He turned to the futon near Kakashi, giving him a glimpse of the little girl.

She looked awfully like the one he had saved during the battle. Auburn colored long hair, sprawled around her pillow. She was also too little for the futon in which she was lying. Kakashi could see bandages wrapped around her head and his blood boiled.

Who dared to do this to little kid?

Nosumi hurried to some shelves out of Kakashi's sight and returned with a bowl full of something. It smelled strange, but not dangerous-strange – rather, it smelled like some kind of medicine. The Suna nukenin mumbled both to himself and the little girl as he fed her the contents of the bowl.

Kakashi slowly turned his head to his right and saw Kumiko.

Her clothes had been taken off and she was covered in bandages as well. She was pale, but she was breathing and she was alive. That was enough for Kakashi.

"Are you good to move around, Hatake-san?"

He tested his muscles and joints. They were stiff and sore and would probably take a while to heal completely, his injuries stretched his skin uncomfortably when he moved and he felt like someone had stuck a few senbon in his brain. But he'll live.

Kakashi nodded.

"Wonderful!" Nosumi clapped his hands and helped Kakashi on his feet. He shoved the plate of roasted salmon in his hands and steered him to the table in the middle of the room. "Ittadekimasu!" He said cheerfully and left him to his own devices.

He poked and sniffed the food, but couldn't find any poison. Besides, why would Nosumi kill him with poison after healing him up.

Things were… good. Better than he had hoped.

But how much longer would his luck last?

Minato looked at the three – three – different lists of names Team Wolf had provided him.

Yugao had titled hers 'Old Assholes'.

There were thirty-six names and Minato knew that half of them were civilians. The most they could do was giving false witness or allowing themselves to be controlled by a shinobi. That left other eighteen names as suspects to be the Mastermind.

Sakumo's teammates, Sazama Hiro and Inuzuka Kemichi, were already dead. Minato crossed them out.

Obi Soetsu, Hatake Kayama's first lover, was a retired shinobi who preferred fishing to fighting. Minato knew that he'd always been jealous of Sakumo, but the death in childbirth of Kayama had turned that jealousy into pure hatred.

Takamoto Shigeru and his crew of five other unknowns – Kakashi's files didn't include their names – were the most forward in… manifesting their hatred toward Kakashi. They were down three members because of the five murders that had begun everything in the first place.

The other two victims, Imada Yoshida and Nishi Sachiko, had barely returned from a mission before they were killed.

Since Minato had lived those dark moments of Kakashi's ruined childhood, side by side with his student, listening to the venomous whispers and reminding Kakashi he wasn't alone in this, he could cross out the names without checking more than twice the scrolls he had on his desk.

The remaining names were ten.

He took Genma's scroll, titled 'Worthless Scumbags'.

There were lots of Uchiha. Friends, relatives, friends of relatives and relatives of friends of one and only Uchiha Obito. Some were dead, others busy on missions during the investigations, a couple others were in hospital or crippled.

Uchiha Tashiro, Satoshi, Atsui, Koichi and Tohaku were the main suspects, but there were also ten of their relatives who – Minato remembered – were present when Kakashi was put on trial because of Obito's sharingan. They were screaming at him, accusing him, demanding his execution.

Koichi and Tohaku had actually tried to beat his student under the guise of 'training the sharingan'.

Minato's lips curled in disgust. Fifteen suspects among the Uchiha as far as the files went.

The next files included seven iryo-nin close to Rin. Minato crossed three of them out – they were dead – and kept the other four names. Since they worked in the Konoha Hospital, they weren't on missions and could have easily gotten their hands on some kind of dangerous substance or, as Genma had scribbled, they could have planted false evidence during the autopsy.

Under the eyes of the ANBU.

He crossed out two chuunin-level iryo-nin.

Seventeen names remained, making twenty-seven with Yugao's files.

Actually, twenty-six. Shimura Danzo was repeated two times.

Minato took Raido's list, titled 'Soon-to-be-dead Bastards'.

Six recruits, three captains, three full-fledged operatives, Ibiki of T&I, Sorai Yamanaka… and Danzo.

Minato could give Team Wolf the files of Tiger, Jackal and Snake. Otter, Tortoise, Jay, Wasp, Canary and Lemur as well, since the others had died recently. He crossed out Ibiki and Sorai, since they were interrogating a Kumo prisoner when the investigations took place.

The Hokage leaned back into his chair. Team Wolf had given him thirty-five names checking only Kakashi's files. How many others would be added when he gave them the other files they had asked for? How many would be crossed out?

Also, it couldn't be a coincidence that all three of them had added Shimura Danzo.

He was a shady character. He kept to himself, but always claimed he had 'Konoha's best interests' in mind. The problem was, what did he think were Konoha's best interests? How far would he go to achieve them?

Minato shook his head. He didn't have enough information about him other than what Sandaime-sama had told him. Homura and Koharu had no interest in talking about Danzo, except that Minato would have to deal with all three of them being usually on the same page.

For Sandaime-sama, Danzo was his friend, the darkness to his light, the yin to his yang – ruthless and coldblooded, but necessary in order to balance the Sandaime's peaceful approach. Harmony could be achieved only if there were both opposites working together.

The Mastermind was accused of killing five Konoha shinobi, obstructing – it was too mild a term for Minato – the investigations by erasing any true evidence in favor of planting false clues and driving away an ANBU captain.

This was not an accusation Minato could make lightly.

And even if Danzo was the culprit, Team Wolf needed to catch his accomplices before they did further damage to Konoha's forces. If the Elder caught them snooping or realized he was their prime suspect, he would try even harder to cover his tracks and then he'd be untouchable.

No physical evidence meant that the Mastermind was in the clear, after all, and for all his political power Minato couldn't start killing members of the Council without presenting evidence.

Minato dragged a hand over his face, sighing. Being Hokage was more a burden than anything else, but it was necessary. He couldn't exactly pass it on, now that there were no candidates and the one he had considered was on the run.

It was a tradition, really, to pass the hat to the closest person to the Hokage. The Shodaime passed it to his brother; the Nidaime passed it to his student; the Sandaime passed it to his grand-student once Orochimaru showed his true colors, Tsunade left Konoha and Jiraya refused. The Yondaime thought he could so something like that with his student, or his future students.

Then this happened.

A toad puffed to existence on his desk, snapping him out of his thoughts.

Minato took Jiraya's scroll from its mouth and thanked it. The toad croaked and disappeared.

The Yondaime read the letter and blood promptly left his face.

'I followed his trail to the north of Suminikui Island and came across a massacre. Hounin had tossed the corpses in the ocean. He was not there. I suspected he'd been taken. I followed the Hounin's trail and found a campfire with many corpses strewn about. They've been poisoned, but his chakra left with other three. He's not the dominant one.'

Kakashi had been kidnapped three times in a month and a half. First by a nukenin, then by Kiri's Hounin and an unknown group of shinobi.

…Minato might have lost a few years of his life with Jiraya's message.

When Kumiko woke up, she wasn't happy at all.

Relieved that she wasn't going to die a slow messy death, yes. Happy, no.

After checking her own injuries – she had just added two new scars on her back, yay – and eating her share of roasted salmon – which Kakashi had deemed not poisonous – Nosumi left the little Terumi girl sleep on her futon and sat in front of them.

"Now that you're awake," the puppeteer said cheerily, "I hope you know you're both in my debt."

Kakashi hummed and Kumiko narrowed her eyes.

Nosumi smirked and entwined his fingers together, resting his cheek on them. "And what a debt it is – I've saved you from the Hounin, offered you medical care, shelter, food and water. What I prefer as payment are money and information but, you see, many people have already paid me in money. Civilians, shinobi and Kekkei Genkai users who sought a way out of Mizu no Kuni have turned to me, so I'm quite rich as of now. What I ask of you is relevant information." He leaned forward. "I wonder, what will you tell me?"

The other two nukenin exchanged a glance. They were in Nosumi's debt and he was currently stronger than them. For all his talent in espionage and puppetry, his medical knowledge was limited and the most they could do was wait for their chakra reserves to build up once more – they were in no shape to fight their way out. But what could they tell him?

Kumiko could see Kakashi's gears spinning double time to come up with something relevant enough to repay Nosumi but not so much as to endanger him… or them. She knew something about Kumogakure that would cover her part.

"Yugito Nii of Kumogakure is the Jinchuuriki of the Nibi. She's fifteen now and I assume she's already a jonin."

Nosumi turned to her with a wide, threatening smile. "Oh, village secrets! I love them!" he clapped his hands in delight, looking more like a kid with candy instead of a nukenin with information. "There are quite a few people who target Jinchuuriki, you know? More than is healthy for them. They want to prove themselves, or maybe they just want the bijuu. Who knows?" The puppeteer turned to Kakashi. "And you, Hatake-san? You've been part of ANBU, if I'm not wrong – what will you tell me?"

Kumiko didn't miss the way Kakashi subtly flinched at the mention of his former role.

Then his face seemed to clear. He had an idea. "There have been rumors before… I left…" the once-ANBU-captain whispered, "that someone inside Konoha was trying to overthrow the Yondaime by disposing of his supporters."

The Suna nukenin gasped dramatically. "Oh, high treason! Remind me to save you more often!" he chortled, his face now split by a large grin. "A village secret of Kumo and a very real rumor of high treason in Konoha! You've had quite the clearance to know about them!"

Kumiko nodded. "They should be more than enough to cover our debt."

Nosumi hummed contently. "Of course, 'Miko-san. To even the ground, I can even offer you a way into Kaminari no Kuni or Yu no Kuni if you wish to leave Mizu. Which is a course of action I'd take in your place, since the Hounin will hunt you down with even more… persistence, shall we say."

Both nukenin nodded. "We'll take your offer, Nosumi-san," Kakashi answered.

"Of course! Then I should-"

"But I have two requests first."

Kumiko turned to him with a raised eyebrow. Nosumi looked interested. "What requests?"

Kakashi held up one finger. "First, you have to spread news of our death. That will throw many Hounin off our tail for quite a while, if you could do it."

Nosumi traced the edge of his cup of water with his finger, thinking. "Hmm. I can. First favor's free – the second?"

"As for my second request," the Konohan continued, raising another finger, "I want to know what will become of the girl you've taken here."

"Oh, her." Nosumi's eyes widened – not many nukenin cared for little children. "Well. I can't take her with me. She's not old enough to keep secrets and she's too easy to get to if she were to get captured. I think her parents are dead, or have forgotten about her – which is unlikely. I thought to give her to the nearest orphanage. She'd have shelter and food, at least."

Kakashi scoffed. "She'd get killed the moment anyone sees she's of the Terumi clan. She's hardly in the right state of mind to blend in with the other children and, as you've said, she's not old enough to keep secrets. She doesn't know why the Hounin have attacked her clan, but I doubt she'd keep quiet if she were to meet a Kiri-nin. If you leave her in an orphanage here, it'd be the same as letting her die."

Both Nosumi and Kumiko raised an eyebrow. "You want to take her with us?" the Kumo nukenin slowly asked.

Kakashi nodded and crossed his arms, staring at her with such conviction that Kumiko wondered why anyone would stand in his path. "Our mission is not over until everyone of the Terumi Clan is safe outside of Kiri's radar. If we try to track down the Terumi survivors, we'll just lead the Hounin to them. We can't risk it. She'll be safer with us."

The Suna nukenin looked between the two of them. "…On second thought, I can make space for her on your boat and leave her in your care. But you do know that, if you are to follow through with your plan, the Mizukage will add 'Bloodline Theft' to your… ahhhh…!" He snapped his fingers. "That's why you want to be declared dead, you sneaky bastard!"

Kakashi's eye twitched at the form of address. "…Yes."

Nosumi clapped his hands once more, laughing. "The first time I've heard of you, you had saved a kidnapped child and now you help another! You're a cool guy, Hatake – honor is something rare to find in shinobi, much less in nukenin. The girl's all yours!"

Kumiko threw a sideways glance at her 'comrade' before turning her attention to Nosumi. "Where and when can we leave for Yu no Kuni?" she asked. "I'd rather avoid another shinobi nation if we'll travel with a civilian child."

"Oh, tomorrow evening from Furao's port. It's a quiet little town north-east from here. Half a day's walk from here, really. I'll take a token of mine, if you'll excuse me…" Nosumi rose from his seat to rummage through a cupboard in the kitchen. His chakra buzzed before he finally returned with a black and red necklace.

"This is very special, you see. The exact replica of my ex-team's necklace. We'd keep it hidden under our uniforms and, if one of us was in trouble, it'd buzz. Of course, this one doesn't. It's just to show my… ship accomplice… that you're with me."

Kumiko looked at its pendant. It was an oval an inch wide and two inches long. There was the head of a red-eyed lizard engraved on it, its teeth bared and tongue out.

The Suna nukenin gave the necklace to Kakashi. "You keep it, you give it to a beefy guy with a cross-like scar on his chest and sandy-blonde hair, he asks where you've gotten it and you answer 'from the lizard's bloody nest'. He lets you on the little boat and ta dah! You have your way out of Mizu and into Yu no Kuni!"

The Konohan nodded. "We'll leave tonight."

Nosumi just nodded and grinned.

The young Yugito Nii was the Jinchuuriki of the Nibi? Good to know.

Tobi almost laughed at the information Kakashi gave. 'Rumors of someone trying to overthrow the Yondaime Hokage'? Ha! They were far more real than he knew. He probably thought he was giving out false intel, when instead he had given insight into Konoha's hidden politics.

Of course the Hatake would say anything to 'repay' their debt to that Suna puppeteer.

The masked man thought back to what he knew. The Ichibi had been sealed with a pathetic seal inside the Yondaime Kazekage's son. Yugito Nii was the Jinchuuriki of the Nibi. The Sanbi – the fucking Sanbi with which Rin had died – was still 'dead'. The Yonbi's Jinchuuriki and Han of the Gobi were somewhere in Tsuchi no Kuni, technically nukenin as well. The Rokubi was still somewhere in Mizu under the 'Mizukage's control. The Nanabi was still in Takigakure in someone's gut, soon to be sealed into someone else. Killer Bee of Kumo had the Hachibi and the Hokage's son had the Kyuubi.

But Tobi knew he had to recruit more people than just Sasori to hunt the Jinchuuriki down.

There was a certain Hoshigaki Kisame in Kirigakure that had piqued his interest… who was investigating his own superior and suspected he was selling information…

A Zetsu clone appeared at his feet. "I fear Jiraya of the Sannin is getting near the Hatake," it murmured. "What do we do?"

Tobi glared at the sentient white goo in front of him. "Get the Hatake's chakra, copy it and lead the Sannin away. It isn't so hard to do, is it?"

"…The other Zetsu will do it," it said, nodding. "Any orders for the others?"

"Tell one of them to leave a trail of clues to Fuguki Suikazan's illicit activities," Tobi ordered. "Make it so that Hoshigaki Kisame finds it and doesn't suspect our involvement."

The clone nodded. "It shall be done," it murmured and disappeared.

The next day

Nanako Terumi woke up on an unknown shinobi's back.

The only thing she remembered was her mother's blood on her blue kimono and masked ninja surrounding her. Her first reaction?

She screamed.

"Shit!" a feminine voice cursed, popping into her sight behind a bush of silver hair and clamping a gloved hand on her mouth. "Hush, little girl, the bad masked-nin are gone! You're safe!"

Nanako begged to differ and squirmed. Where were they carrying her? Where was her mother? The other shinobi's arm tightened slightly around her legs.

"Shhh… they might hear you," he whispered.

The girl fell silent because no, they couldn't hear her if they did she'd die and mother will be so sad-

The male shinobi slowly put her down on the grassy side of the road, with the woman behind Nanako and he in front of her. She was subtly surrounded, but they didn't seem as openly hostile as the white-masked nin had been. There were also a couple of spots where she could see bandages poking through their clothes.

Another scream was building up in her throat. Shinobi were great liars, mother told her, and they could not trust them. Especially ones wearing white masks.

Nanako watched as the male shinobi – wild white or gray hair, a swirly leaf on his tilted headband, a skintight dark blue mask, a soft black eye, didn't she know him from somewhere – slowly crouched until they could see eye to eye. Was he afraid to startle her, or was he injured on his back? The white-masked nin instead always seemed to raise to their full height before they struck mother down-

"I am Kakashi Hatake," the… boy? or man? said. "What's your name?"

"I'm…" should she answer? He did tell her his name, or what he wanted to be called by. She guessed it couldn't hurt – if they wanted her dead, they'd have already done it. "I'm… Nanako… Terumi."

Kakashi nodded minutely and his right eye crinkled happily. Nanako could see the way his mask stretched in a smile. "It's my pleasure to know you, Nanako."

Shinobi were great liars, she reminded herself.

"Now, Nanako," Kakashi turned serious and oh shit, that was fast. "You already know what has happened three days ago, right?"

She pressed her lips together to stop her scream from leaving, her body trembling, and nodded.

"There's… more to it," he hesitantly told her, "than you might think. We – Kumiko over here and I – have tried to help your clan, but those masked shinobi had been too many. We don't know where your clan is now, but if we look for them so soon we risk leading the masked shinobi to them. Do you understand?"

"If you found us before, you can find them now." They had, and then set their home on fire. Nanako clenched her tiny fists as her sight blurred with tears. "You destroyed everything! Mother's dead because you came and led the-"

Kumiko slapped her hand on her mouth. Oh no, she didn't.

Nanako bit down on the offending limb, but the kunoichi just hissed. Her glove was thick enough to protect her skin from her teeth, and the young Terumi didn't know how to do those cool (useful) jutsu her cousins could do.

"Kakashi, we're dumping her in an orphanage now." She was gritting her teeth, glaring at the other shinobi. "She's biting me, for Kami's sake. We can't take her with us."

The silver-haired nin shook his head. "They'll kill her."

Kill her? Why? What did she do? What did her Clan do?

Kumiko scowled at him. "You're not guilt-tripping me into taking this brat with us."

"If the Hounin get their hands on her – and they will, if people find out she's part of the Terumi Clan – they will kill her and dissect her to get every bit of information about her potential Kekkei Genkai." His voice was so matter-of-fact that Nanako couldn't help but believe his every word. "They'll destroy her body as if she had never existed in the first place."

Nanako was shaking. Was that what they did to her mother, too? What they did to Ayaka-chan and Aunt Mei and Gyumori-sama and everyone else?

The woman looked around them, annoyance written plainly on her face. But there was also worry as well. Maybe those masked-nin were closer than they thought? Maybe they were about to get them and dissect them, just as Kakashi said? Her stomach churned at the thought and she curled into herself. She was shaking and she could not stop.

Kakashi didn't look like he knew what to do. "Nanako, we're taking you with us to another country so that they can't hunt us, but-"

"Doesn't look like we have a choice now," Kumiko muttered, and Nanako was again in the man's arms. "The ship is leaving soon."

Nanako didn't remember agreeing to travel with the two shinobi, but Kakashi's arms and his unchanging step lulled her like mother used to do, and she fell into a fitful sleep.

Jiraya was pissed.

He had followed five dead ends, two off a cliff, one to the top of an ancient tree, another going south from where Jiraya had just come from and the last one going east over to a distant mountain.

What the actual fuck.

So the Toad Sage wandered around the area until he felt the chakra of a genjutsu, spread like a blanket just under a small hill. He wasted no time in jumping there and was relieved to feel Kakashi's presence lingering there.

Henge-ing himself into a random traveler – though with a little shinobi touch, there was no way a civilian could have seen through the genjutsu – he knocked on the small shack that appeared under the genjutsu.

Someone yelped. "What is it, shinobi-san?" a young voice answered, but didn't open the door.

"I thought this place was abandoned," Jiraya 'mused' loudly to himself. "I didn't think I'd hear someone was still living here after what happened down the road."

"Well, there must be someone keeping this genjutsu up, right?" the voice chuckled. "Now, really, what is it? Do you need supplies, are you a nukenin, a Hounin…?"

Jiraya needed to see this individual face to face. "I'm just looking for a person in particular."

"Are you?" the voice drawled. "Aren't we all? You could be a psychopath looking for someone to murder for all I know. Are you going to answer my question or are you going to stand there like a creep?"

"I'm looking for a friend of mine, I'm sure you've heard of him – does Kakashi Hatake ring a bell?"

There was a pause. "Looking for Hatake-san? What for?"

Jiraya narrowed his eyes at the door. It would be so easy to knock it down… "I've heard he had a run-in with Hounin around here and wanted to check up on my friend's son. Did you see him?"

"…Wasn't he dead?"

The Toad Sage felt his blood turning into ice. Was he too late? "Dead?"

The boy on the other side seemed to nod, then realize Jiraya couldn't see him and answered, "Yeah. Last time I've heard of Hatake-san some Hounin got him. Life as a nukenin seems to be dangerous business, doesn't it?"

He was a slip of control away from kicking that damned door in. "When was this?" he hissed, hoping to hide the tremor in his voice.

"A few days ago, maybe. Look, what is your business with Hatake-san? Nukenin don't have friends who check up on them. Either you say what the hell you want to do with him or you get lost, because those salmons ain't gonna fish themselves."

Oh, that voice had just snapped whatever self-restraint Jiraya had.

The Toad Sage kicked the door in with a burst of chakra, shattering it and making the owner of that voice squeak and scramble for a weapon – but Jiraya had already released his Henge and he had no time to waste playing games with this ninja.

It was a young man, a few years older than Kakashi, with black paint on his face and a Suna headband on his forehead. His reddish hair made him think of an Uzumaki, but what would an Uzumaki do in an arid area like Suna or even Kaze no Kuni in general?

A black lizard was draped over the shinobi – no, a puppet, this was a Suna puppeteer – in a defensive position, and the puppeteer's fingers were ready to unleash it on Jiraya. Not that it'd be dangerous – he had faced much worse opponents in his life.

"J-Jiraya of the Sannin!" the shinobi squeaked. "W-Why are you-"

The Toad Sage glared at him and he wilted. "What did you do to Kakashi?!" he thundered, looming over the younger man.

The shinobi huddled into his lizard puppet. "I did nothing!"

"You have his chakra all over you, nukenin."

"I did nothing bad to him, ok?" the puppeteer said, almost scathingly, challenging him. "I found him. I helped him, for Kami's sake, I deserve a bit of recognition!"

Helping Kakashi? "How did you help him?"

"He asked me to spread news of his death," the nukenin said, raising his chin a bit. Jiraya glared at him and he lowered it again. "He did. He tried to help the Terumi Clan and got caught by the Hounin, but I got him back."

That was good, but not enough. Jiraya wanted – needed – to find Kakashi and talk to him. "Where is he now?" he demanded.

The nukenin shrugged. He shrugged. "Who knows."

"You know."

The puppeteer seemed about to say something stupid to him, then he considered just who he was stalling and how close he was to getting killed and he said, "Furao, if you hurry."

He wasn't lying. Jiraya nodded and knocked him out before running in the town's direction.

There were many, many people on their little boat.

Nosumi's 'ship-accomplice' silently steered the small motor – there was a silencing seal on it, luckily, though it did exude a tiny sliver of chakra every now and then – towards north, towards Yu no Kuni. Their boat had a maximum capacity of twelve people, and Kakashi counted twenty-two.

Sweat trickled down his face and onto his mask. A small movement from either of them, and the boat would capsize into the ocean. Staring at the other passengers, he doubted they could walk on water. Excluding Kakashi and Kumiko, only four of them looked like shinobi.

There were ten kids on board. Six of them were squashed by the nearest adults; the other four were being held by a parent, or close relative. Kakashi mimicked their arms' position to hold Nanako.

According to the Accomplice – the blond man didn't tell them his name, nor some kind of nickname to call him by – they would travel for two days, stop at Itorei Port to get a larger boat and spend the next eight days sailing to Yu no Kuni.

It was a long, silent, smelly ride, and Kakashi had not seen any food being loaded on the boat.

"Kaachan, where're we?" a boy, probably no older than six, asked.

The woman holding him smiled softly – sadly – at him. "On our way… to a better place."

"Like Touchan?" was the boy's immediate question.

Shock overtook her features for an instant, then she clenched her eyes shut and shook her head. "No. He had… things left to do, back home."

"Like what?"

The mother was silent, and people around her just looked on. They all lost something – everything – and were in no mood to tell their story. Kakashi wouldn't know what to say, anyway: even when he was a child himself he had no experience dealing with them.

He looked down at the girl in his arms. Her auburn hair reached her shoulders in curls, framing her closed eyelashes and her young and soft face. Her blue kimono still had some bloodstains on its lower edge. She was curled tight on herself and a hand gripped his black jacket tightly.

They were doing the right thing. Nanako deserved more than dying at the hands of those Hounin. And if her family was not there to help her, Kakashi and Kumiko would have to be enough.

The Kumo kunoichi was dozing off, pressed to Kakashi's right side so he could 'watch over' her rest. He figured that was his 'punishment' for sort-of dragging an orphan with Kekkei Genkai with them, but he honestly didn't mind. Kakashi was rather tired, mind you, but maybe taking care of someone else would take his mind off… things.

Kumiko would have the next guard shift anyway.

There was something very wrong with suspecting his subordinates of high treason, but there wasn't much else Minato could do.

His house had never felt quite this empty.

There was the stove where he usually found Kushina after a tiring day at the Hokage office. There was the locked-and-sealed cabinet in which Jiraya-sensei would try sneak either alcohol or his recently written erotica novels. There was the table on which Sandaime-sama would drink tea with him to discuss new troubling developments. There was the couch on which Kakashi often crashed after a hard mission as ANBU.

All those memories scattered all over the place, but no one to speak of. They were all gone.

It was night, and Minato was rocking Naruto's crib. It did not creak – the ANBU he had tasked with building the crib had oiled it well – but the silence of his home was suffocating. It was a presence surrounding him, choking him, staring at him as if waiting who will break first.

Kushina was dead. Sandaime-sama was dead. Kakashi had left. Jiraya was chasing after him.

But Naruto, almost seven-months-old, was there… along with the Yang chakra of the Kyuubi.

The whole bijuu would have been too much for his son to bear. Sandaime-sama knew that, and split its chakra to give Minato's son a much better chance of survival. Kushina… Kushina had lost too much blood, too much (Kyuubi) chakra…

Minato lost his wife, his grand-teacher and previous Hokage and advisor, and now his student and his sensei – and still, he was expected to suck it up and keep being Hokage for the sake of Konoha. Did no one realize he, too, had lost too much?

But Kakashi could not avoid them forever. He… he must have questions, and Jiraya was right behind him to answer every single one. Whoever dared to harm him and keep him away from Konoha will die, horribly, and Kakashi would finally have the chance to come back. Even if he returned to him lonely and cracked and broken beyond repair, Minato would still want him by his side.

Was that so hard for Kakashi to believe?

So, here I introduce another OC (Nanako Terumi) because, it seems, either my knowledge in Kiri Civil War is seriously lacking or Kishimoto had left that time to our imagination.

Zabusa was probably busy with Haku. People are dying. Kakashi, Kumiko and now Nanako leave because damn, I would get the hell outta dodge if scary ruthless shinobi were hunting me down because of genetics. Tobito is still a stalker. Zetsu gets to do all the dirty work. Kisame... well, he has his sensei (?) to kill and his Samehada to claim, so... eh.

I hope it all made sense! ':D

(If it did not, just tell me. I can't change the past *wink wink* but I shall endeavor to fix any mistakes :D)

Beware of the Kitsune's rage!

Shiiroi Kitsune21