Marriage of Convenience

Chapter 1

YEAR 66 since Konoha Established
May 31st

It's never easy. And yet he pushed onward. Even as his body screamed and his muscles creaked in protest of every movement, he moved. The putrid smell of human remains in the middle of horrific decomposition surrounded him as he slowly swam through the chest deep swamp. He pushed past bodies of his comrades that had been killed not five days ago. A huge battle had taken place here, and they not only pushed Kumo to the border of the northeastern area of the Land of Fire, but they took more than half their troops in a single battle that hadn't even lasted a day. Kakashi shivered violently from the mix of cold weather and freezing, dirty water, but remained quiet and emotionless as he swam slowly. He moved past uprooted logs and remains of jutsu that had destroyed large portions of the swamp. His mission was simple. Find the enemy camp, locate the general leading, and assassinate him.

His superiors suspected their forces to be around 60 or so, more than enough for a Shinobi of his caliber to infiltrate and assassinate without it being a suicide mission. They would be scrambling, hungry, and disorganized. Perfect for infiltration, but it wouldn't be easy. They would be paranoid and twitchy, and anything could and would set them off. He had to be careful.

It wasn't much longer before he spotted two Kumo Shinobi. Both men stood on a high branch of a tree that seemed the tallest in the area. Kakashi dipped lower into the water, barely allowing his chin above water. He swam slow, pushing himself into against what remained of a tree and peaked from behind it. The Shinobi were rather vigilant. Their eyes constantly scanned the surrounding area as the stood back to back. But they were tired, obviously drained from being out here for so long. He didn't know how long, but he would.

He took a breath and dove underneath the surface. Moss and foliage would cover him, so he swam as fast he could without using chakra so it wouldn't be easy to spot him. He swam until he was directly underneath the branch and his Sharingan blazed to life to confirm his targets hadn't moved.

A Kunai sprang from underneath the water and hit the part of the branch directly between them from underneath. The explosive tag began sizzling as the Shinobi panicked and looked down to see just what they heard, but they either smelled gunpowder or heard the sizzling because both jumped out of the way right before the explosion. No matter if they did either he sprung out of the water and stabbed the one that had jumped to the right through his chest.

His partner was faster than Kakashi had anticipated. He landed on the side of a nearby tree and pushed off it like a bullet, anger gripping his features. He grabbed the dead Shinobi and spun them around as gravity began taking ahold once more. The man's anger fizzled out and he sheathe his sword to grab ahold of his teammate. Kakashi let him, he had no choice. Gravity had kicked in and he was losing control. He nearly smacked into the tree with his back, but turned around and stabbed it with a Kunai to break some of his momentum.

"You tree hugging bastard!" The Shinobi held his partner in his arms, tears streaming down his face and his anger was back. He set his friend down, unsheathe his sword and ran for what seemed as fast as he could. Kakashi couldn't have known the man could move so fast that he appeared as a blur. But it didn't matter. He was faster. He leaped back to avoid being sliced in half. The tree took the hit for him, and he sliced nearly half the dense tree that hadn't so much as shook. The tree stood sturdy and strong, and he was grateful for it because of what followed next.

The man rushed him with a war cry and swung his sword with dizzying fury, each attack meant to destroy.  Kakashi dodged, ducked, and blocked but was unable to strike back himself. The man had so many weak spots, so many openings from wide swings. He was too angry to focus on defending himself but he was too fast for Kakashi to get a strike in without taking a hit himself. Instead of rushing to finish him quickly, he waited. Metal clashed against metal, and sliced through the air. Each clash made his bones rattle and each missed slash felt like a wind Jutsu. But, even anger fizzled out, and it wasn't long before his movements began to slow.