The village remained exactly as war had left it. Smoke billowed endlessly into the sky. ANBU forces stationed there stripped every corner of value bare and destroyed everything they could. Places once filled with warmth and laughter had become ruins.
Those who died from hunger, thirst, or illness were burned where they lay, to prevent plague, to erase evidence, and to make room for more corpses elsewhere. Kakashi could not stop any of it. The dead were already dead. The living were the ones who still needed saving.
The prison remained crowded, damp, filthy, and suffocating. Disease spread freely there. Every day, bodies were carried out and thrown into the crematorium, where the fires never seemed to die. Only now did Kakashi understand why men and women had been separated. Not to prevent unrest. But for convenience.
The ANBU operative wearing the dog mask was someone Kakashi did not recognize. But he recognized the behavior. He had once served in ANBU himself. They were the first sent into danger, and the least restrained.
I'm sorry. Kakashi thought it, his nose turning sour and his eyes beginning to itch with discomfort. He raised a hand, stopping the man wearing the dog-faced ANBU mask, and at the same time, he saw the hatred burning in the woman's eyes.
"Hey, you bastard." The voice came out rough. Kakashi himself didn't even know what position he was standing in to interfere with something like this. In the past, when he saw subordinates doing similar things, he would only warn them not to "make things messy," nothing more.
The man, his mood interrupted, swung back angrily. Kakashi caught the strike with one hand, pivoted, and threw him across the room.
"Bastard, which damn." The voice cut off abruptly. The man had seen Kakashi's face. He wasn't the same "dog mask" senior, but within the ANBU, Kakashi's name was still a legend. They said he once wore that same mask. They said his Chidori was so unpredictable that countless juniors never dared to challenge him.
"Se-se-senpai." "Get lost." Kakashi said it flatly. The dog-mask scrambled away in panic.
The humiliated woman lay there, her face smeared with blood, her body covered in wounds. And yet, faintly, Kakashi could still recognize her, she was the girl who once won the flower arrangement competition, the loud, fiery woman who always spoke with sharp confidence.
I'm sorry. Kakashi thought as his black cloak slipped from his arm and covered her body.
"Spit." A mouthful of blood landed on his mask. Kakashi felt it was appropriate. I'm sorry. He thought again. But he said nothing.
ANBU never treated people as human. Kakashi knew that better than anyone, especially Konoha's ANBU. It affected missions. That was why, years ago, when he retrieved the girl as part of a mission, he also brought back the bodies of the four siblings. It felt normal. Natural.
So in a place like this, a dog-mask acting out such violence in front of all these women didn't feel "wrong" to him either. Because, in their eyes, these people weren't really people at all. Maybe just mice passing by. Just like humans during sex don't care about a monkey watching curiously from a distance.
Kakashi didn't touch the girl. He didn't meet the accusing eyes around him. He didn't even look at the furious, gritted-teeth gaze of the prison warden.
Then he noticed Karin. She was in terrible shape, secretly using her healing ability to save those on the brink of death. Beneath her torn sleeves, bite marks had already covered her skin.
Kakashi finally understood. When an enemy cannot be defeated, the hatred of the victims turns toward betrayal, and in their eyes, the one they hated most right now was him. Even if he brought medicine worth his entire savings, no one here would use it. The injured would remain untreated.
Kakashi stopped walking forward. Then he turned away. Behind him were those resentful eyes.
At the end of the corridor stood a familiar figure watching the scene, Mitarashi Anko. "Yo, since when did you become so spineless?" Her voice was bright and casual, completely out of place here, cheerful, even carefree.
For a moment, Kakashi remembered that the girl once spoke just like Anko. On the day she won the flower arrangement championship, she had shouted: "Damn it, can't you at least give me third place?!"
"Don't mess around." Kakashi tried to leave, but Anko blocked the doorway with her leg, smirking. "I heard you rushed back here like crazy. What's the emergency? If you beg me, I might even help you, you know."
Mitarashi Anko had always been like this, no sense of timing, constantly causing chaos. The only one who could clean up her mess was Ibiki. Even if he complained endlessly, every time she caused trouble, he was the one who fixed it. But Ibiki was dead. He died in the Hyuga tragedy. He died during Akatsuki's attack on Konoha.
Kakashi glanced at the leg blocking his path and forced a faint crescent-shaped smile. "Been a while. You've gotten fat. Those legs are thick now." "You bastard, wanna die?!" The leg retracted instantly.
But a moment later, a snake shot out from her sleeve. BOOM! Kakashi twisted his body and dodged, landing lightly.
"Please, spare me. I still have things to do." Anko huffed and crossed her arms. "So you can just interrupt my mission whenever you want? This is my assigned post, you just barged in without asking!" "I'm sorry. I won't do it again." "Hmph. You better not."
She glanced at the woman wrapped in Kakashi's cloak. "Not bad-looking. Kakashi, you can pick whoever you want, huh?" "Stop it." Kakashi slipped past her the moment she turned slightly. He couldn't stay there any longer. Those eyes were stabbing into his back like needles.
Anko watched him practically flee, then chuckled. Her gaze shifted to the beautiful prisoner woman, whose eyes burned with hatred like wildfire. Then she turned toward the corridor and shouted: "KA-KA-SHI!!! You want me to do you a favor or what?!"
Kakashi didn't stop. Anko shouted again. "ANY REQUEST IS FINE!! I SWEAR!!"
That finally made him stop. And then, he turned back. This time, he held a kunai.
Toki didn't know what he was going to do. But she wasn't afraid. She was Toki of Amegakure, the "Toki-sama" of Sixth Street. She didn't fear enemies. And she definitely didn't fear a traitor. Because of this traitor, she remembered his face. For the first time in her life, her severe face blindness had remembered someone. So she glared at him with pure hatred, refusing to back down.
Kakashi forced himself to harden his resolve. He couldn't hesitate. If he hesitated, he couldn't do it. Compared to Toki's eyes, the lives of those imprisoned were more important. Without medicine, people would die. Karin couldn't keep healing others. She had already been sealed with suppression needles. If she continued, she would die.
He had promised Kita he would protect Karin. He had promised Konan he would protect this village. So compared to the medicine they needed, Toki's eyes didn't matter. He convinced himself of that. But his hand holding the kunai was still trembling.
Kakashi held his breath. He needed something, something to steady him.
"YOU BASTARD! KAKASHI, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Karin's voice exploded. She was exhausted, injured, barely conscious. Kakashi saw her, and the bite marks. Right. Toki's eyes meant nothing compared to their survival.
Under his mask, his lips tightened. Then, he moved his hand. BOOM. A spray of blood filled the room. Curses erupted. Laughter followed.
Kakashi didn't stay. He turned and fled.
Anko laughed softly, leaning against the doorframe. Inside the room, she looked at the aftermath, then at the stack of medicine and bandages just beyond the wall. There was enough. Enough for everyone inside. Enough to treat all their wounds.