Impossible to Forget

Chapter 26: Returning?

As Kakashi and I walked out of the Cloud after the two day long summit, I was grinning from ear to ear.

"Kakashi, you are going to have to take me to this next year! Two days of just discussing strategies, security measures, and missions; it's like it was made for me!"

He laughed and placed a hand on my shoulder, "Sure, since you seem to have enjoyed yourself so much, the next one is at the Sand Village. Put it on your calendar."

It was like Christmas came early, very early.

"Thank you!"

Kakashi shook his head slowly, "You'd think that I told you that you had just won the lottery, not that I'd invited you to two days of boring discussions."

I scowled, "It's not boring."

"Whatever you say, Kaiyo."

"Why do I get the feeling that you're making fun of me?"

Instead of answering, Kakashi just ruffled my hair and walked over to discuss the return journey with the head of the ANBU squad.

After a very brief discussion, Kakashi returned to my side.

"We will be taking a slightly different route back just in case we were followed on our way here. Same pace, though."

"Okay."

Without further ado, the six of us set off southwest.

It takes about as much time to go from the Leaf to the Sand as it does to go from the Leaf to the Cloud. Even though the Sand Village is technically closer, traveling through the desert slows things down considerably. The journey home from the summit would take us southwest down the Land of Lightning, then west through the Land of Frost, south through the Land of Hot Water, and then southwest again through the Land of Fire to the Hidden Leaf.

After spending the last two days doing lots of talking, we ran in comfortable silence. There was no reason the to disturb the peace.

I winced a couple of times as we passed sights that I remembered from the Fourth Great Ninja War. The last time that I ran through this area in this direction, I had had a Shinobi Alliance forehead protector and a heavy heart as the war with the Akatsuki began. That had also been the last time that I'd seen Toukuro. I felt my chest constrict at just the thought of it. It had also been the last time that I had seen Shikaku Nara. I immediately forced my thoughts back to things that had been discussed at the summit before Kakashi could notice the drop in my mood.

About two hours out as we began to near the border with the Land of Frost, I felt more than I saw Kakashi tense up.

A chill ran down my spine, and my heart rate picked up with the influx of adrenaline.

I watched the ANBU draw their short swords (this part of Lightning has very little in the way of cover that they could use to remain concealed so they were visible as they took a defensive position behind us), and I pulled a kunai out of the holster on my left thigh. The next bend of the road around a large, rocky spire made me come to a complete stop and my heart jump up into my throat.

Dust was kicked up as Kakashi stopped along with me, and four people that I never expected to see there were standing in a line across our path, blocking the narrow gap between spires that we needed to traverse.

Sadao.

Bijonko.

Tadao.

Anzu.

Some part me was quite happy that they were standing in descending height order, but the rest me had alarm bells ringing. That's when I noticed that Sadao had a firm grip on Bijonko's upper arm and Tadao was holding onto Anzu, who had her arms bound behind her back.

Shit.

Double shit. There was no way that this could end positively. Especially after my parting words to Sadao...

I turned around to see what the ANBU positioned behind us were doing.

Triple shit!

Two were bleeding into the dirt with deep gashes in their necks, gaping like second mouths. The third was hanging limply as his throat was also being cut by the fourth.

"Fuck."

Kakashi whipped around at my curse and mumbled something under his breath that was probably not child friendly.

The dog-like mask of the ANBU with the bloody sword was removed, revealing the face of a very pretty young girl with auburn hair and blue eyes, but the transformation jutsu slowly dissolved, leaving brown hair pulled back into a utilitarian bun, a cruel smirk, and dark eyes like voids.

"Kaiyo, Kakashi," she regarded us with mock politeness.

I bit the word out around a tongue that no longer seemed able to form words.

"Mother."

A/N: Sorry about the mean cliff hanger... I'm going to get out the next chapter as soon as I can.