Grave of the Dragon / Kakashi x OC (CURRENTLY EDITING)

Chapter 5- Kakashi

As the Hokage had said, the mission was quick. It was easy too, but I supposed that was to be expected since I was leading a team of new Genin. All we'd had to do was deliver a scroll and, even though it had taken a while for my ninja pupils to assemble, we had made up for the lost time during our journey- I was hopeful that we would manage to return home before nightfall. Behind me, Naruto was picking a fight with Sasuke, as he always was, and I was about to ask them to stop, when I froze. I strained my ears for another tell-tale noise and heard a barely audible snapping coming from behind me as if somebody had stood on a twig.

I looked over at my students, trying to get they're attention without alerting whoever was on our trail, but Sakura had just joined the argument, punching Naruto before shouting at him to be quiet. I sighed with annoyance. It was hard not to compare my current team to Sayuri. She had worked so well with me, always noticing immediately whenever I sensed something.

"Guys!" I raised my voice slightly, getting their attention. "Please would you stop arguing?" While I was telling them off, I turned to Sasuke, who I guessed would be the only one who would understand my sign language. As soon as he saw the conspicuous look on my face, he frowned, concentrating on the slight moves I made with my hands. He nodded at me slightly, signalling he'd understood, then turned to Naruto and gave him a severe look. To my surprise, Naruto seemed to understand something was off. I turned to Sakura, but didn't manage to make eye contact with her as she had her back to the group, still angry at Naruto. I hesitated, but eventually decided to make my move anyways- whether she was prepared or not wouldn't really make a difference. 

I focused again on my surroundings. Crack! In a second, I jumped towards the undergrowth I had heard the noise from, and threw a kunai knife into one of the bushes. There was loud rustling, and three dark shapes jumped from their cover- two heading towards Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura, one staying behind to distract me. Crap! I thought. I hope they'll be able to manage themselves. I looked at my opponent's forehead protector and recognised Amegakure's sign with a deep cut across it. Another missing-nin, huh? I raised a kunai knife and charged.

I won against the missing-nin with ease, although I hadn't expected our small battle to take quite as long, and pinned him down, pressing a kunai knife to his throat. 

"Why did you attack us?" I asked in a dangerous voice, hoping he'd be more talkative than all the other attackers I'd dealt with so far. He reacted in a way I didn't expect: he laughed.
"If you think I'm gonna tell you that, you're either really stupid or much too optimistic." He grinned. I frowned at him.
"I'll give you one last chance," I growled. "Who or what are you after?" The man looked behind me, then smiled.

"Too late."

I turned back to my team, when I heard a cry cut through the air followed by Naruto's exclamation of "Sakura-chan!"

A second later, I registered what was going on- Sasuke was standing over his oponent, victorious while Naruto was running towards the other attacker, who was standing before Sakura with a kunai knife in his hand. She had a foot-shaped bruise on her cheek, but I was relieved that she didn't appear to be wounded anywhere else. My heart beat escalated as I saw the missing-nin raise his kunai knife over his head, ready to strike. With one quick movement, I managed to push Sakura out of harms way, the kunai only just catching at her arm. The missing-nin above me let out an annoyed grunt and stabbed my arm before I had a chance to regain my balance.

I growled, but ignored the pain spiking through my arm. I lunged back at the man, throwing a shuriken with lightning speed. It whizzed towards its target, but missed the missing-nin by a hair's breadth. I missed. I looked down at my hand in confusion and my vision blurred. My thoughts became sluggish, and it took me a while to realise what had happened.

...Poison? I looked back at Sakura, who was slumped in Naruto's arms, a tiny trickle of blood flowing from the scratch I didn't have enough time to save her from. I felt my mind slipping away. I touched the wound on my arm, making my thumb bloody and, almost subconsciously, formed the hand seals for my summoning jutsu. A small, brown, ninja dog appeared in front of me, startled as I thumped to the ground next to him.

"Sakura's been... poisoned..." I murmured. "Please take her... to... Sayuri..." Then I blacked out.

***

Something wet and cold landed on my cheek, chasing away the numbness that had spread all over my body. I slowly prised my eyes open, but continued to see only black. I squinted a little and managed to make out the dim outlines of my surroundings. Just like the floor, the walls were damp and rocky. I guessed that I was inside a cave. A tiny bit of light filtered through a barred window in a thick wooden door just in front of me. Not a cave, I corrected myself. A cell.

I tried to prop myself up with my arm, but found that I couldn't move it- my wrists and ankles were tied up firmly with some thick, rough rope. My movement caused a jolt of pain to make it's way from my upper arm into my shoulder. The stab wound I had received was bandaged and the bleeding had stopped, but it still hurt. I wondered about the poison. Was it still in my blood? Maybe it hadn't been poison after all and only a sedative. As I thought about Sakura who had fainted from her small scratch I could only hope that was the case.

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Sorry this chapter was short, but that's all that Kakashi experienced for now! I hope you read the next chapter once it's published.

-Yours Truly