Chapter Text
There was a common saying among the hidden villages: “The best shinobi collect skills; ANBU collect scars.”
For the most part, Itachi would agree that this was true. He’d gotten more scars in his six months in ANBU service than he’d gotten in any of the years prior while serving as a genin or standard shinobi. ANBU was bloody and merciless. Victims often went out with the mindset that if they were going to die, they might as well take their killer down with them. Within the first month, Itachi had learned the importance of either killing from a distance or killing when the target least expected it. The fewer scars he went home with, the less their deaths haunted his conscience.
So yes, the saying was true. However, Itachi believed it was missing a piece. In his opinion, the saying should be: “The best shinobi collect skills, ANBU collect scars, but the best ANBU collect jutsu.”
That lesson took much longer to learn. No one ever said it aloud or expressly indicated that in order to survive in ANBU, you had to constantly learn, but the message was there. It was present in the way other operatives envied those with Sharingan eyes, or the way the training board for Team Ro was always stacked with requests to spar against them, or in the moments of silence held for those who didn’t improve fast enough.
It was present in the way Shisui knocked his elbow into Itachi’s side on his first day and looked in Hatake Kakashi’s direction, whispering quietly, “watch him.”
Itachi was a fast learner. It was why his clan coveted him the way they did. Even then, he often felt out of his league in ANBU, surrounded by shinobi older and smarter than him, who knew that one jutsu, one skill, one piece of knowledge could be the difference between living and dying.
He watched them all closely. Especially on missions, when the stakes were higher than in the salles, when adrenaline and the threat of a blade to the artery forced shinobi to fight like wolves in a challenge for dominance.
There was little he could say to outsiders about his ANBU service, but if asked by one of his older clan members, Itachi’s response was always this:
“Team Ro’s record is flawless.”
ANBU Hound had long since established himself as the strongest wolf in the pack. Everyone else fought for second—Itachi included. That was how Team Ro operated. That was what kept them alive.
Itachi flanked left as Tenzo flanked right, the two of them cutting off the target’s escape routes, leaving her with only one remaining path. Forward. The woman knew she was cornered, pushing chakra into her legs to run as fast as she could, hoping to escape the two ANBU agents hunting her down.
Itachi prepared for the killing strike, palming shuriken and calculating the trajectory he’d need. It was the middle of the night, and the trees above were blocking out all light from the moon, but were also blocking most of the wind, which meant he only needed to account for the distance—
A body dropped from above, lightning igniting the darkness of the forest. A hand pierced straight through the woman’s chest, her last moments immortalized under the white-hot glow of plasma. Then, just as fast as it appeared, the lightning cut off, plunging the forest back into darkness. The only evidence of Hound’s presence was the smoking corpse laid haphazardly on the forest floor, her eyes lifeless as her blood began to pool into the cracks between the leaves.
Itachi pivoted, immediately redirecting his attention to the next target. There was no time to hesitate. He found his target in a matter of seconds, leaping off the ground and calculating the trajectory yet again. He released several shuriken, only for the enemy to sense them at the last second, dodging and firing back with jets of high-pressure water. Itachi created a clone and let the attacks hit it while he rushed in from behind. He turned the man’s attack against him, having copied it just moments prior. The water pierced straight through the enemy’s heart and lungs, leaving them to crumple to the ground as their organs stuttered to a stop. Itachi rushed away not a moment after landing the hit, onto the next opponent.
He found Shisui taking on three shinobi in the higher boughs of a tree. Itachi rushed upwards and activated a genjutsu, trapping two of them in an illusion of an endless free fall—until his blade pierced their skin. Shisui took the moment of reprieve without hesitation, finishing off the third without turning to check on what Itachi was doing.
Landing on a tree branch, Itachi tuned out the sound of three bodies dropping to the ground, instead finding Tenzo’s position not far away, his mokuton having trapped four more opponents, killing them swiftly. Their bodies fell to the ground with the rest.
The call of chirping birds sounded through the forest once more before extinguishing. Itachi turned towards where it came from, but found nothing except inky darkness.
Shisui landed next to him.
How many? Itachi signed.
I’ve killed four, Shisui replied. Itachi did the rough mental math—Shisui had taken care of four opponents, Itachi himself had three, Tenzo had another four or more, and Kakashi…
The forest was silent. Tenzo turned his attention to where Shisui and Itachi stood, signing, Remaining targets?
“None,” Hound confirmed. Itachi’s gaze snapped over to where the elder shinobi was hanging upside down from a tree to his left, halfway between his location and Tenzo’s. Blood dripped from his arms down the length of a shinobi wire, which held the corpses of three more people, bound tightly. Itachi recognized them as the primary targets of the mission.
“You know the drill,” Hound ordered. His commands were implicit at this point—clean up the bodies, leave no trace. Team Ro doesn’t get caught.
Itachi followed Shisui down the tree and began the process of cleaning up. Bodies were to be looted and stored inside scrolls, blood was to be washed away, tracks erased and covered. Tenzo’s mokuton made it easy to restore the forest to its exact state prior to the silent massacre, sweeping leaves over their paths and healing the trees that had been damaged in the fight.
Itachi rooted through the belongings of one of Hound’s kills, finding several kunai and shuriken that he then tucked away into his own pouches. He also took the woman’s medkit and Bingo Book.
Out of curiosity, he opened the book and flipped through it. Plenty of names and faces stood out to him. He paused on one page, curiosity getting the better of him when he spotted a sketch of a familiar face.
Name: Hatake Kakashi (The Copy Ninja; Kakashi of the Sharingan)
Affiliation: Konohagakure
Classification: A Rank
Rank: Jounin
Age: 15-19
Chakra nature: Earth (Unconfirmed), Lightning (Unconfirmed), Water (Unconfirmed)
Skillset: Sharingan; ninjutsu, kenjutsu, canine summons
Confirmed or estimated kills above B-rank: 75+ nin
Notes: Demonstrates notable mastery of the Sharingan despite non-Uchiha heritage.
Order: Engage with caution. Eliminate on sight.
Itachi raised a brow at the page and moved on. He found a scratched-out page for Lord Fourth, a few packed-full pages for the Sannin, and even a page for Shisui.
He made to close the book, but a page at the very back caught his eye before he could. There was no sketch attached to this one.
Name: Unknown
Affiliation: Unknown
Classification: S Rank (Unconfirmed)
Rank: Unknown
Age: Unknown
Chakra nature: Lightning (Unconfirmed)
Skillset: High velocity lightning strikes (Unconfirmed)
Confirmed kills: None (Eight bodies recovered with similar causes of death)
Order: Prioritize intelligence collection over direct confrontation. Flee if engaged.
Additional Notes: Bodies recovered show trauma consistent with high-velocity lightning strikes concentrated into a singular, piercing blow to the chest or head. No known survivors. Suspected to have been dealt by the same operative; operative suspected to be ANBU or nukenin; most likely from Kumogakure.
Itachi glanced up from the book to where Kakashi was efficiently painting sealing scrolls. They hadn’t brought enough for the number of people they’d wound up fighting, therefore more had to be made.
He closed the book, placed it back in the woman’s vest, and continued on with what he was doing. Both her and her Bingo Book would be burned once they were far enough away to safely do so. Itachi pulled one of the three sealing scrolls he had on his person out and placed her body inside, then moved on to the next one.
Team Ro worked efficiently, quickly, and silently. No one needed to speak, because they knew what their jobs were. Itachi finished clearing two more bodies, then moved on to the last—a man laden with sealing ink supplies and tattoos all over his skin.
He began pulling supplies off of him, setting them aside for future use. Kakashi would likely want them, seeing as he was perhaps the closest thing to a sealing master Konohagakure had left. If he didn’t, Itachi was sure he could find a plethora of other ANBU who’d want them.
It was while he was removing the scrolls strapped to the man’s torso that Itachi accidentally lifted a portion of his clothing, revealing an expansive tattoo beneath it. That wasn’t what caught his eye, however. What caught his eye was that the tattoo looked… active. He pulled back more of the clothing, seeing that what he assumed was a tattoo was actually a seal—an activated one. Not only that, but it was slowly spreading. A delayed activation seal.
“Taichō,” he called, breaking one of ANBU’s many unspoken rules—stay silent during cleanup. Kakashi immediately turned towards him.
“What is it?” The Captain gestured for Shisui and Tenzo to quickly finish what they were doing as he joined Itachi over at the body.
Itachi didn’t need to say anything. Kakashi’s shoulders stilled upon seeing the active seal, the glowing ink continuing to slowly creep along its path. The sharingan eye of the older shinobi flashed open.
“Is it a suicide bomb?” Itachi asked, unable to hold his tongue any longer. The words immediately caught Shisui and Tenzo’s attention, who paused what they were doing and stared at them with open-mouthed shock.
“No,” Kakashi said. The two relaxed marginally and returned to what they were doing with renewed vigor, removing what little remained of the evidence before joining them at the body.
“That doesn’t look good,” Shisui joked.
“It’s not.” Kakashi stood. “We can’t seal this body. Pushing any more chakra into this seal will speed up the activation.”
“And what exactly will the seal do?”
Kakashi hesitated. Not exactly a good sign, especially coming from him. “It reads like a teleportation seal, though far more complicated.”
“Okay… and?” Shisui leaned to one side to look at it. The seal was halfway through burning now.
Kakashi hesitated again. “I’m not sure. My best guess is that the seal was designed as a last-ditch retreat option should they get captured—instead of being caught and brought to T&I, they would be able to teleport back home. Either that, or it’s meant to teleport us somewhere upon his death.”
Tenzo tilted his head to one side. “What do we do with the body? The assignment was very clear that we leave no traces.”
Instead of answering, Kakashi pulled a kunai and knelt down, shooing Tenzo off with his free hand. “I’ll remove all identifying features and see what I can do about altering the seal. Hand me those,” Kakashi instructed, pointing to the sealing supplies Itachi had removed from the body.
Just as he passed them over, the glowing ink reached a node in the seal and exploded, rushing through the rest of its path in a matter of seconds. Shisui was the first to move, stepping in between Tenzo and the body, deftly pushing him away from the blast, followed by Kakashi, who grabbed Itachi by the collar and flung him back as well, attempting to protect him from the attack.
The effort was fruitless. The light engulfed them all.
“Dude, are you like… alive?”
Kakashi’s eyes snapped open. The person leaning over him—if they could be called that—had raccoon-like features, their face covered in fur and distinctive patterns, while the rest of their body was humanoid. He’d scared them with how quickly he’d woken up, if the way they jumped back was any indication. Kakashi moved to his feet and quickly catalogued his surroundings, finding that it was suddenly the middle of the day, and he was in a completely unfamiliar environment. Large buildings stretched high above his head, the ground was concrete, and everything stank. He instinctively made to cover his nose, but his ANBU mask was in the way.
“So… you good?” The raccoon-person asked.
Kakashi stared at them blankly.
“I’m… assuming that’s a yes?” Their accent was strange and hard to follow, and their clothing was also odd. Where was he? Far from the forest he was meant to be in, that’s for sure.
“Where am I?” Kakashi asked first, though he really wanted to ask ‘What is wrong with your face?’. That was hardly the most pressing question at the moment.
They shifted and looked at him dubiously, muscles tense as though ready to run. “Uh… Musutafu. You don’t remember?”
“How did I get here?”
They gulped. Glanced upwards. “Dunno. You fell from the rooftop. Do you need a hospital? Or… a hero?”
Kakashi’s brows furrowed at the suggestion. A hero?
“No.” He looked around again, taking in more of his surroundings. He was in an alleyway between two buildings, with trash cans lining one wall and a staircase leading to windows on the other. The raccoon-person wasn’t the only one staring at him. There were five others, each watching with varying expressions of horror and intrigue. Each of their features were wildly different—one was human-like, another had blue skin, another had scales and lizard-like features, another had odd protrusions coming from her head shaped like pitchforks, and the last had a large bubble of water around his head and a fish-like face.
“Kai,” Kakashi muttered, flashing his chakra to break any genjutsu. Nothing changed.
“What?” The raccoon-thing asked. “Is that your name?”
Kakashi stared at them again. He was out of his depth here—wherever here was, assuming this wasn’t a strong genjutsu. He needed to leave.
One shunshin later, he was on the rooftop he’d supposedly fallen from, leaving the strange people to gasp in shock below him, looking around wildly for the man who’d been in front of them just a moment before.
Kakashi pulled a knife and sliced his thumb, pulsing his chakra several more times. Neither broke the genjutsu.
He turned and walked along the rooftop. It didn’t have a sloping roof like the ones he was used to, but instead seemed to be designed for people to walk on, with doors leading to the area as well as sitting spaces and small gardens. He was, thankfully, alone for the moment.
Which was yet another strange part of his circumstances. He was alone. Just a moment prior, he’d had his entire team with him. Where were they? Was it possible the seal had only transported him?
Kakashi shook his head. It was possible, but it was more likely they had been transported as well, but to another location. Hopefully, one nearby. Casting out his senses, Kakashi searched for the familiar chakra signatures of his teammates, feeling for the earthen, woody signature of Tenzo’s, the brilliant flame of Itachi’s, or the gentle warmth of Shisui’s. Nothing.
He wasn’t a powerful sensor. It wasn’t surprising. Instead, he walked to the far edge of the roof and gazed out at his surroundings, eyes widening in shock at the sight before him.
The village he was in—if it could even be called that—was huge. Expansive. It stretched on as far as the eye could see, with buildings made of metal and glass that towered high above his head. It was like nothing he’d ever seen before. It was loud, too. Loud, stinky, and overwhelming. He pulled back from the edge, turning his focus towards himself instead.
He hadn’t lost any of his supplies in the trip. He was equipped with all of his weapons, as well as the ones he’d looted from the dead, and even had the sealing supplies Itachi had passed to him moments prior to the transport.
He could get home. He had the supplies he needed and had seen the seal with the Sharingan. It was memorized in perfect detail. He could replicate it and go home immediately.
He glanced back at the expansive, unfamiliar village. The mere sight of it made him uncomfortable. The people here were strange, their accents were off, the infrastructure was all wrong, and even the air was rancid. He needed to leave, he should leave, finish his mission, but…
If his teammates were trapped here too, they wouldn’t be able to get home without him.
Kakashi was many things. Trash, yes, a failure, yes, but he refused to be the sort of person who left his comrades behind. He wouldn’t be worse than trash. He wouldn’t be someone Obito hated. Not anymore.
He rolled the sealing supplies up and tucked them away. He’d go home, but only once he found his team.
And if he never found them… well, he’d burn that bridge when he got to it.