'Run, stupid legs! Run, bitch! Run!' My internal monologue was a screaming loop of profanity as my chakra-flooded legs propelled me through the forest like my life depended on it, because it fucking did. Behind me, Kakashi's killing intent crashed over the clearing in waves so thick they felt physical, pressing against my back like invisible hands trying to drag me down. The air itself seemed to curdle with his rage, and every survival instinct I possessed was shrieking at me to move faster, go farther, and don't stop.
The smut book, that precious, unreleased, advance-copy piece of literary pornography, was clutched against my chest like it was the most valuable thing in the world. To Kakashi, it probably was. To me? It was bait. Expensive, irreplaceable bait that I'd just stolen from a man who could kill me six ways before breakfast.
What the hell was I thinking?
My Sharingan burned hot in my skull as I vaulted over a fallen log, the world rendered in a crystalline clarity; every branch, every root, every potential obstacle was mapped out in my vision. My right eye, with its three tomoe spinning frantically, picked apart the terrain ahead while my peripheral vision tracked the murder hobo bearing down on me from behind.
I shouldn't have looked back. I knew I shouldn't have looked back. Every fiber of my being screamed that looking back was a terrible idea, that it would only slow me down, that ignorance was bliss when a legendary jonin wanted you dead.
But I was a glutton for punishment. Always had been, even if I'd never admit it out loud. And I was apparently a bigger dumbass than even Naruko, which was saying something.
So I glanced over my shoulder.
Big. Fucking. Mistake.
The image seared itself into my brain with perfect, indelible clarity thanks to my Sharingan: Kakashi, silver hair plastered flat against his skull from the sheer velocity of his pursuit, visible eye bulged wide with what I could only describe as homicidal mania. The shadow of a feral snarl twisted his mask, and in his right hand—
Holy shit.
That wasn't a Chidori. That was a goddamn Raikiri, the blade of concentrated lightning chakra extending a full meter from his palm, crackling and screeching like all the demons from hell howling. Trees exploded as he tore through them without bothering to dodge, the lightning blade shearing through trunks like they were made of wet paper. Splinters and smoking chunks of wood erupted in his wake, the forest itself seeming to recoil from the raw destruction.
He wasn't even trying to avoid obstacles. He was just destroying everything in his path to get to me.
Fuuuuuuuck!
'Stupid, stupid, STUPID!' I repeated in my mind, my lungs burning as I pushed more chakra into my legs. I hadn't trained to Shunshin this often and this long, it was a burst movement technique, not a marathon sprint, but I didn't have a choice. Kakashi was closing the distance, maybe thirty yards at most, and that gap was shrinking with every heartbeat.
My mind raced faster than my feet. The traps. We'd laid traps throughout this entire training ground. Naruko's clones had spent hours yesterday planting explosive tags, tripwires, and fuinjutsu surprises all over the forest. Neji had mapped them with his Byakugan. I'd memorized the positions on the map we had with my Sharingan during our final walkthrough this morning.
I just needed to lead Kakashi into them without getting myself killed first.
Banking hard to the left, I adjusted my trajectory mid-stride, my sandals barely touching down before launching off again. The forest blurred past me in streaks of green and brown, my Sharingan picking out the nearly invisible tripwire strung between two trees about fifteen meters ahead.
I leaped.
My body sailed over the wire in a clean arc, and I heard the faint click as Kakashi's foot caught it a split second later. The explosion erupted behind me, not one of Naruko's massive chakra bombs, but a cluster of standard military-grade tags, and the concussive blast sent a wave of heat washing over my back. Debris pelted my shoulders and legs, but I didn't slow down, tucking into a roll as I hit the ground and immediately springing back into a sprint.
Through the smoke and fire, I caught a glimpse of Kakashi veering right at the last possible second, his body twisting with inhuman agility to avoid the worst of the blast. He emerged from the explosion covered in soot and small cuts, his visible eye narrowed with cold fury, but he'd barely lost a step.
Of course he didn't.
"Come on, come on," I muttered under my breath, my fingers fumbling at the seal on my chest where I'd tucked the book. My hands blurred through the sign and the storage seal activated with a puff of smoke. The precious orange book disappeared into the pocket dimension, replaced by a decoy I'd prepared earlier: same cover, same size, but filled with explosive tags and a flashbang seal designed to go off the moment someone opened it.
Another trap ahead. I could see the faint shimmer of a tripwire at ankle height, stretched taut between a pair of saplings. This one was deeper, more complex, layered with a secondary explosion.
I jumped again, clearing it by inches, and heard the telltale snap as Kakashi triggered it behind me.
This time, the explosion was bigger. Fire and smoke billowed up in a roaring column, and I felt the shockwave slam into my back hard enough to knock the air from my lungs. I stumbled, nearly faceplanting into a tree root, but caught myself with a desperate burst of chakra to my feet. My sandals stuck to the trunk for a fraction of a second, just long enough for me to push off and continue running.
Behind me, through the chaos, I heard Kakashi snarl, an actual, audible snarl like a rabid dog, and the sound sent ice shooting down my spine.
He was slowing down, though. Just a little. The traps were working, forcing him to adjust, to waste precious split-seconds avoiding or tanking the explosions. But it wasn't enough. Not nearly enough. I needed more distance. I needed—
The dummy book. Right.
Still sprinting, I unsealed the decoy with one hand, my fingers gripping the fake cover as I plotted my next move. Timing was everything here. If I threw it too early, he'd see through the trick. Too late, and he'd catch me before I could even try.
Another explosion behind me, this one probably from Kakashi destroying a trap before it could trigger, and I made my decision.
Now.
I skidded to a halt, my momentum carrying me sideways as I spun on my heel and hurled the book back toward Kakashi with every ounce of strength I could muster. It tumbled end over end through the air, the orange cover flashing in the dappled sunlight, and for a single, breathless moment, I saw Kakashi's eye widen.
His hand shot out, faster than I could track even with my Sharingan, and snatched the book mid-flight.
Gotcha.
The flashbang seal activated the instant his fingers closed around the cover.
The world turned white.
The explosion wasn't loud so much as it was bright, a supernova of blinding light that painted every shadow in stark relief. Even with my eyes squeezed shut and my head turned away, I saw the afterimage burning through my eyelids, felt the searing heat wash over me in a wave. My Sharingan twitched at the abrupt sensory overload, and I bit back a curse.
Behind me, I heard Kakashi's roar of rage—pure, unfiltered fury—and the sound was enough to make my blood run cold.
Move. MOVE!
My hands were already flying to my ear, fumbling with the storage seal where I'd tucked my comms headset earlier. Another puff of smoke, and the device materialized in my palm, a simple black earpiece with a mic attachment that Neji had supplied from the Hyuga clan's stores. I jammed it into my ear, flicked the switch on, and barked into the mic as I resumed my desperate sprint.
"Naruko! Spring the traps! Now!"
Static crackled for a split second before her voice came through, breathless and manic with adrenaline. "Got it! Where are you?!"
"Neji!" I shouted, vaulting over a boulder and nearly losing my footing on the loose soil. "Guide me! Byakugan! Tell me where the traps are!"
Neji's calm, clipped voice cut through the chaos like a knife. "Forty meters ahead, eleven o'clock. Tripwire cluster at the base of the oak tree. Jump now."
I didn't question it. I kicked off the ground with a burst of chakra, my body arcing high over the indicated spot, and sure enough, I saw the glint of wire below me as I sailed overhead. The moment my feet touched down on the far side, Neji's voice came again.
"Kakashi's twenty meters behind you. He's compensating for the flashbang. You have seconds."
Seconds. Great. Fantastic.
Another explosion behind me, Kakashi must have triggered another trap, and I heard the shriek of his Raikiri flaring back to life, that unmistakable roar that meant death was coming.
"Naruko!" I screamed into the comms. "Tell me when to jump! I need an opening!"
"Working on it!" she shouted back, and I could hear the strain in her voice, the frantic edge that meant she was pushing herself hard. "Clones are setting up the combo now! Just keep him busy!"
"Keep him busy?!" I nearly tripped over my own feet in disbelief. "He's trying to murder me!"
"Then don't die, -ttebayo!"
I wanted to strangle her. I wanted to strangle myself for thinking this plan was a good idea.
Neji's voice cut in again, sharp and urgent. "Jump. Now."
I didn't hesitate. My legs coiled like springs, chakra flooding my muscles, and I launched myself skyward just as Neji's command registered. Mid-flight, I twisted my body, spinning to face the direction I'd just come from, and my hands were already forming seals.
Tiger. Rat. Dog. Tiger.
Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!
Chakra surged from my core, traveling up through my chest and into my throat in a searing rush. I inhaled deep, pulling in air until my lungs felt like they'd burst, then exhaled in a violent explosion of fire. The fireball erupted from my mouth, a massive sphere of roiling flames that painted the forest orange and red, scorching the air as it hurtled toward Kakashi's position.
For a split second, I saw him, silver hair disheveled, eye wide with a mixture of rage and surprise, his Raikiri still crackling in his hand, and then the fireball was upon him.
But I wasn't done.
"Naruko! Hit it!" I roared into the comms, my voice hoarse and ragged.
And she delivered.
From the treeline, from every direction, gale-force wind jutsu erupted in a coordinated barrage. I counted at least twenty distinct blasts of Futon chakra, each one screaming through the air like a hurricane condensed into a spear. They converged on my fireball from all sides, feeding the flames, supercharging them into something monstrous.
The effect was immediate and catastrophic.
My C-rank Gokakyu swelled into an inferno, the fireball expanding from the size of a boulder to a raging sphere of destruction at least 100 meters wide. The combined wind jutsu didn't just amplify the fire, it compressed it, shaping it into a focused blast that devoured everything in its path. Trees exploded into splinters, their trunks flash-incinerated as the firestorm rolled over them. The ground blackened and cracked, superheated earth splitting open like the maw of hell itself.
And Kakashi was at the center of it, though it would probably only annoy him.
I hit the ground hard, my legs buckling under the impact, and rolled to absorb the momentum. My Sharingan was locked on the explosion, mapping every detail, searching for any sign of movement through the smoke and flames. My chest heaved, lungs burning as I sucked in air, and for a brief, stupid moment, I let myself hope.
Did we get him?
The smoke began to clear, carried away by the residual wind currents, and my stomach dropped.
In the center of the blast zone, surrounded by a perfect circle of untouched ground, stood Kakashi.
His flak jacket was scorched, his silver hair standing on end from the heat, and his visible eye was narrowed into a slit of pure, unadulterated fury. The Raikiri was gone, dispelled, probably, but he didn't need it. The sheer force of his killing intent was enough to make my knees weak.
He took a step forward.
Then another.
And his eye locked onto mine with the promise of pain.
"Oh," I croaked, my voice barely above a whisper. "Shit."
Kakashi took a step forward.
Then he paused.
I watched, my Sharingan tracking every micro-movement, as the fury radiating from him... retreated. Not vanished, oh no, it was still there, simmering beneath the surface like a fire ready to burst out, but it pulled back, leashed by something. His visible eye narrowed, and he just... stared at me.
My hand moved on instinct, fingers sliding into my pouch and withdrawing the paper seal tag where I'd stored his precious book. I held it up between two fingers, letting it catch the dappled sunlight filtering through the canopy, and tilted my head in what I hoped was a threatening gesture.
The message was clear: Don't come any closer, or I'll destroy it.
Kakashi's breathing was faintly labored, barely noticeable, but my Sharingan caught the slight rise and fall of his chest, the way his diaphragm worked just a fraction harder than normal. Smoke still curled up from his scorched flak jacket in thin wisps, and there were splinters embedded in his silver hair, tiny shards of wood that glinted like needles. We'd actually hurt him, even if only superficially.
It should have felt like a victory. Instead, it felt like I'd just poked a sleeping dragon with a very sharp stick.
He shrugged, the gesture casual, almost lazy. "You know what destroying that will do, right? Destroy all your leverage." His tone was conversational, like we were discussing the weather and not the fact that I'd just stolen his porn and nearly blown him up. "And that leaves you with an angry jonin who still hasn't used his Sharingan."
My grip on the seal tightened involuntarily. He was right, of course. The moment I destroyed the book, I had nothing. No bargaining chip, no distraction, nothing to keep him from absolutely demolishing me. But I could still tell, could see it in the way his eye flickered to the seal, the minute tensing of his jaw, that he didn't want me to destroy it. That book mattered to him, and not just because it was smut.
My mind raced through possibilities, each one more horrifying than the last. What would Kakashi do to me if I pushed him too far? What could he get away with, as my jonin sensei, that wouldn't technically be "crossing a line"? The images that flashed through my head made me want to curl up and die.
I was not going to be subject to the Thousand Years of Death.
That technique, that abomination of a jutsu, haunted my nightmares. The thought of Kakashi's fingers anywhere near my ass made my skin crawl and my chakra nearly recoil in horror. I'd rather fight Orochimaru naked and covered in honey.
"Keep him talking," Neji's voice crackled through the comms, calm and measured as always. "The wire trap is nearly ready."
I shifted my weight from side to side, a deliberate movement designed to look like I was weighing my options. In reality, I was buying time, stalling while Neji and Naruko set up the next phase of our plan. My fingers tightened around the seal, and I made a show of looking uncertain.
Kakashi's eye tracked my movements, and I saw the gears turning behind that lazy facade. "I'm curious, though," he said, his tone shifting to something more conversational. "How did you know what pocket to check and grab?" He tilted his head slightly, the gesture almost owl-like. "Either you remembered from the time I pulled it out during training, or you had your pet Hyuga check." A pause. "Or, hmmm, did you ask Gai?"
Not bad.
I had to give him credit; those were all plausible theories. And if I'd been less paranoid, he might have been right. But I'd planned this heist with the precision of a surgeon and the paranoia of someone who'd read too many spy novels and thought the frogs were being made gay.
"One of those is correct," I replied, keeping my tone neutral. I needed to delay more, needed to give Neji time to finish setting up. "I'll be honest that I forgot and had Neji play the part of a voyeur to remember. He wasn't amused."
That earned me a raised eyebrow. "Too uptight?"
"Worse than you were at that age."
"I don't remember sharing."
I almost grinned despite the situation. "Remember who my mom had been friends with." The words came out before I could stop them, and immediately I saw his posture soften, just a fraction. Pain flickered across his visible eye, there and gone in an instant. "She talked about the student of her..."
I froze.
My brain screeched to a halt as I realized what I'd been about to say. And Naruko and Neji were on the comms, listening to every word I said.
Dumbass. You absolute dumbass.
My mouth snapped shut so fast I nearly bit my tongue. Kakashi's entire body tensed, his eye widening fractionally as he caught the implication, and I could see the dawning realization on his face. He knew I'd almost fucked up. He knew I knew something I shouldn't.
And now he was going to want answers.
I tried to salvage it, shifting my weight awkwardly and adopting what I hoped was a sheepish expression. "Sorry," I said, forcing a note of embarrassment into my voice. "Be having a talk after this?"
"Yeah." Kakashi's response was flat, devoid of inflection, but his eye was still locked onto mine with laser focus. "So, resume this charade, or is another trap going to be sprung?"
I let out a breath I didn't realize I'd been holding. At least he wasn't pressing the issue right now. Small mercies. "Well," I said, glancing down at the seal in my hand, "you were supposed to be hurt a bit more by the blast, and that fell through. And me destroying this," I held up the seal and popped it open with a pulse of chakra, depositing the book into my hand in a puff of smoke, "will have you making me wish I had never been born."
Kakashi's visible eye narrowed, but there was a hint of amusement lurking beneath the irritation. "Do you really think I'm so petty that I'd torment an innocent gaki over a burnt book?"
"Mostly innocent," I corrected, unable to help myself, "and yes."
That earned me a slight eye-smile, the corners of his visible eye crinkling in a way that would have been reassuring if I didn't know better. "Fair enough."
I took a breath, steeling myself for what I was about to do. "So, good faith: I'm throwing this thing back at you without a bomb on it, and you won't do the finger-up-the-ass jutsu on me."
There was a beat of silence.
Then Naruko's voice exploded through the comms, shrill and horrified. "The WHAT?!"
I didn't have time to explain. My arm was already moving, winding back and hurling the book toward Kakashi in a smooth arc. The orange cover spun end over end, and I saw his hand twitch, saw the moment his carefully maintained guard slipped just a fraction as his eyes tracked the precious cargo.
He wanted it. Badly enough to reach for it.
His hand shot out, fingers extending to catch the book mid-flight, and I saw the exact moment he realized his mistake. His eye widened, but it was too late, he was committed to the motion, his weight shifted forward, his guard open.
And that was when the trap sprung.
The metal wire we'd strung up earlier, so thin it was nearly invisible, positioned at precise intervals throughout the clearing, suddenly yanked taut. Neji had been holding the other end this entire time, waiting for my signal, and the moment Kakashi's fingers brushed the book's cover, he pulled.
The wire closed in from multiple directions, a web of steel thread converging on Kakashi's position like a spider's trap snapping shut. His eye widened in genuine surprise, and I saw him tuck his limbs instinctively, a kunai flashing into his off-hand as the wire wrapped around him. It caught his arms, his legs, his torso, binding him in place for just a split second—
—and a split second was all we needed.
I was already moving, my sword back in my hand, chakra flooding my legs as I launched forward in a burst of speed. Around me, Naruko's clones erupted from the treeline, a wave of orange and blonde descending on Kakashi like a swarm of angry wasps. But hidden among them, disguised by a henge, was Neji.
Our ace in the hole.
My blade flashed in the sunlight as I drove it toward Kakashi's exposed flank, my left hand forming a seal even as my right gripped the hilt. Kakashi's kunai came up to intercept, steel clashing against steel with a sharp ring, and he used the momentum to rip through most of the wire binding him, the threads snapping with audible twangs.
But I was already adjusting, leaning in close, my fingers shifting from the sword hilt to form the technique I'd been saving for this exact moment. Blue chakra coalesced around my fingertips, sharpening into scalpels of pure energy that would bypass his mesh armor and cut directly into muscle and tendon.
Chakra Scalpels.
Kakashi's eye widened, and he twisted out of the way with inhuman speed. My Sharingan barely caught the movement, a shift of his hips and a pivot of his feet, and instinct screamed at me to move. I jerked my head to the side, and Kakashi's left leg scythed through the space where my face had been a heartbeat earlier like a blade through wheat, the wind of the kick ruffling my hair.
Then the clones poured in.
Kakashi became a blur, his movements so fast they left afterimages in my Sharingan's vision. Fists and feet struck with surgical precision, each impact dispersing a clone in a puff of smoke. He moved like water, flowing from one strike to the next without pause, a whirlwind of silver and black and green. A few superficial hits slipped through, like a punch that glanced off his shoulder and a kick that scraped his shin, but he tanked them without flinching at all.
I hung back, defending when I had to but mostly watching, my Sharingan drinking in every detail of his style. I forced him to engage with my chakra-enhanced strikes, each one strong enough that he had to actually block instead of just deflecting. I was buying time, creating openings, waiting for—
There.
Neji, still disguised as one of Naruko's clones, dove in low, his body language subtly different from the others. His fingers brushed across Kakashi's thigh for just an instant, and even through the henge, I saw the blue glow of chakra as he targeted a tenketsu point.
Kakashi pivoted on the limb immediately, his leg whipping up in a vicious kick that caught Neji square in the chest and sent him tumbling across the ground. The henge disrupted from the impact, revealing brown hair and pale eyes as the Hyuga rolled to a stop.
But the damage was done.
Kakashi's posture seized up, his leg almost giving out beneath him as the blocked tenketsu disrupted the chakra flow to his muscles. He stumbled, just for a second, and I lunged along with the remaining clones.
This was it. Our opening.
We'd lamed him. Temporarily, sure, but it was enough. We could corner him, overwhelm him, grab the bell and—
He was gone.
I saw it with my Sharingan, every agonizing detail burned into my memory. Three hand seals, executed so fast they blurred even to my enhanced vision. The kunai in his hand dropped, forgotten, and a blast of blue lightning engulfed him. His entire body vibrated, the outline shimmering like a mirage, and then he simply... vanished.
Not a substitution. Not a shunshin. He just disappeared, moving so fast that even my Sharingan couldn't track him.
What. The shit. Was that.
I whirled around, my sword raised defensively as I scanned the clearing with my dojutsu. Nothing. No chakra signature. No displaced air. No footprints. He was just... gone.
The silence was deafening.
"Neji!" I barked at him, my voice sharp with urgency. "Eyes! Where is he?!"
There was a pause, too long for my liking, and then Neji's voice came out strained and breathless. "Where we started. Out in the open."
I scowled, my jaw clenching hard enough to make my teeth ache. Of course he'd gone back to the starting point. Of course he'd make us come to him. I formed a quick hand seal, spawning a shadow clone in a puff of smoke, and barked an order at it. "Henge. Look like Neji. Move."
The clone complied without hesitation, its features rippling and shifting until it was a perfect copy of the Hyuga. I gripped my sword tighter, knuckles white against the hilt, and turned to the nearest Naruko clone.
"Oi, goldy," I said, jerking my chin toward the treeline. "Follow us. All the others too. Be in a circle around us in the trees, ready to attack." I scanned the group until I spotted the tell-tale signs of the original slightly more chakra. "Where's prime, you?"
"Here!" Naruko called out, eight clones back, her hair bouncing as she waved. Her grin was wide and manic, the kind that meant she was having way too much fun.
"Be on standby in the trees too," I ordered, my tone leaving no room for argument.
She gave me a cheeky salute, her fingers snapping up to her forehead in a mock-military gesture, and then leaped up into the branches with her clones in tow. Within seconds, they'd disappeared into the canopy, their chakra signatures blending into the background noise of the forest.
I turned to my clone-Neji, and jerked my head toward the clearing. "Let's go."
We moved quickly, slipping through the forest in a loose triangle formation. My Sharingan was active, scanning for traps, for ambushes, for anything that might indicate Kakashi was planning another surprise. But the forest was eerily quiet, the only sounds the crunch of leaves under our feet and the distant rustle of wind through the canopy.
We reached the clearing, and there he was.
Kakashi stood in the exact spot where we'd started this whole mess, one hand casually holding his precious Icha Icha book, the other tucked into his pocket. He was favoring his left leg, Neji's strike had definitely landed decently, but he was trying to look unfazed, his posture lazy and relaxed.
The scorched jacket and splinters in his hair broke the illusion, though.
"Yo," he said, his visible eye curving in that infuriating smile. "I have to say, the henge and trap was inspired. An actual glancing blow I didn't want."
I didn't respond immediately. My mind was still reeling, still trying to process what the hell I'd just witnessed. That technique, that impossible burst of speed, was unlike anything I'd ever seen. It wasn't a shunshin. It wasn't a substitution. It was something else, and I needed to know what it was.
"What in the hell was that technique you used?" I demanded, my voice sharp enough to cut glass. I didn't even care about winning anymore. I needed to know.
Kakashi tilted his head, his visible eye crinkling with amusement. "Walking?" he said innocently. "It's something most babies learn right after they're weene—"
"The lightning one!" I interrupted, my patience fraying like a rope under tension. "What the fuck was that?!"
"Language," Kakashi chided, his eye flicking back down to his book for a split second. "And I don't reveal secrets to enemies. Or gakis. Or Uchiha. Or gaki Uchiha enemies."
I wanted. To kill. This asshole.
My fingers tightened around my sword hilt, and I forced myself to take a breath, to rein in the fury threatening to boil over. "You're not going to win, Kakashi," I said, my voice low and steady.
He glanced up from his book, his visible eye meeting mine. "Going to take more than a few traps and a clever disguise to beat me, Sasuke." His tone was amused, almost teasing, but then his eye narrowed. He glanced around the clearing, his gaze sweeping over the trees, then the underbrush, and the scorched earth. "You rigged the entire forest, didn't you?"
I grinned. I couldn't help it, and the bastard had figured it out too late. "You should never have given me Naruko and a Hyuga," I said, my voice dripping with satisfaction. "I know where every trap is. As do these two." I gestured at Neji and my clone. "My Ninjutsu mixed with Naruko's will keep you moving, not staying in the open here. We can herd you to the forest. And we both know even one misstep will have you in the hospital getting the shreds of your toes pieced back together."
Prep time. That was our edge. Hours of planning, mapping, coordinating. And I was proud of it.
For just a fraction of a second, I saw something flicker across Kakashi's face. Pride, maybe. Or approval. But it sank back beneath his wall of bored professionalism almost instantly.
"Maa, Konoha really is producing scarier kids these days," he said, his tone light. "But I do love to disappoint you."
He formed a single hand seal and sank into the ground like it was water.
Then the earth around him exploded.
Spikes of compressed dirt and rock erupted outward in a starburst pattern, each one as thick as my arm and sharp as a kunai. I Shunshined out of the way on instinct, my body flickering several meters to the left, and my clone did the same. Naruko's clone wasn't fast enough, a spike tagged it in the leg, and it popped in a puff of smoke.
"Neji, track him!" I barked into the comms, my Sharingan scanning the ground for any sign of movement.
But instead of Neji's calm voice, I got a scream from Naruko.
It cut through the comms like a knife, high-pitched and furious, and my entire body almost locked up. Everything tunnel-visioned, my vision narrowing to a pinpoint as the sound tore through my head. For a split second, just a split second, I was back there, in that apartment, with blood and explosions and—
"Stupid dog!" Naruko shouted, and the sheer indignation in her voice snapped me back to reality. "My traps are blowing up!"
I sucked in a breath, forcing myself to stay calm. She's fine. She's not hurt. Focus.
"Neji, status!" I demanded, retreating back into the woods and sticking myself to a tree trunk with chakra. I climbed quickly, ascending to a higher vantage point where I could see more of the battlefield.
"Dogs," Neji's voice came through, strained and breathless. "Dogs with chakra networks are setting off the traps. They're evading the blasts."
Kakashi, you motherfucker.
I caught a glimpse of movement through the trees, a small, squat shape bounding through the underbrush. The pug one. Kakashi's summons were systematically triggering every trap we'd laid, and they were fast, darting away from the explosions with practiced ease.
"His stupid summons," I growled into the comms, watching as another wire trap detonated in a burst of fire and smoke. The pug responsible leaped clear, landing on a branch and bounding away without missing a beat.
It took only a couple of minutes. Two minutes of explosions, of Naruko's clones getting killed as they tried to intercept the dogs, of our hours of work being systematically dismantled. By the time the last trap detonated, entire chunks of the forest were smoking ruins, trees reduced to charred stumps and the ground marred with craters.
I just stood there, clinging to my tree branch, stunned.
Goddamn Kakashi.
A whistle cut through the air, sharp and piercing. I turned my head and there he was, back in the clearing, standing in the exact spot where he'd been at the start of our confrontation. His visible eye curved in a lazy smile, and he gave me a little wave.
My fists clenched around the tree bark hard enough to leave grooves.
I spoke into the comms, my voice utterly devoid of emotion. Calm. Cold. The kind of calm that came right before a storm.
"Naruko," I said slowly, each word deliberate, "you have permission to use every ounce of chakra you have."