Chapter Text
Ryoko finally lost her patience and decided to address the issue head-on. It was June already and it felt like not long ago the whole drama perspired, yet it has been over a year now. It was time. She stopped by Kakashi’s apartment and knocked.
No answer.
Casually she opened the door to check in case the idiot was avoiding her, but inside she found only a layer of dust. He was probably on a longer mission. This seemed like a divine intervention giving a sign - the time is not now.
The woman didn’t know if she should be relieved or annoyed by it. Something in her urged to settle the matter faster, but now Ryoko will just have to wait for Kakashi’s return.
Looking around the empty apartment she checked the fridge from habit… There was a box of dango inside. “Don’t mind if I do…” she smirked already munching on the sweets. Young Uchiha settled on the couch with one of his books in hand. It looked like a new issue of the Icha Icha series.
The dango was finished before she flipped the last page of the book. She didn’t think too much about the plot of the story as it was a mere distraction for her. One thing did surprise her. Unlike other books from these series, the main heroine for once was portrayed as a strong and capable character.
“Maybe the pervert was finally influenced by Tsunade,” she muttered, placing the book back on the shelf. She didn’t have anything against Jiraiya per se. Only his loud and boisterous character was what annoyed her the most. It reminded her far too much of that little blond Naruto actually.
Finally, she left and thankfully didn’t run into Genma outside. Luck was on her side today. And it continued to smile at her as Ryoko shortly after felt a pull to her ANBU tattoo. She is being summoned! FUCKIN’ FINALLY! I was getting so bored.. Ryoko thought to herself as she flickered to the HQ for her uniform.
With her mask in place, Ryoko appeared in the Hokage Tower kneeling on one knee. “Hokage-sama!” she greeted the imposing blond, who looked uncharacteristically serious.
“Fox. This will be a high-ranking mission for your team. It is time-sensitive so I am counting on you to complete it with utmost urgency in mind.”
Ryoko straightened up to take the scroll extended to her by Minato. “Yes, Hokage-sama.”
“Fox… This is a rescue mission. I know that it is not the type of mission your team usually takes, but I cannot entrust it with anyone else but you.”
Her heart would have started to race from the praise and trust if she weren’t a cold-blooded killer. Yet, when she opened the scroll her heart did miss a beat.
“A team was sent to investigate an underground mercenary group. Their last message indicated the location of the hideout, but it also included a distress call. Two of the three shinobi sent were captured. They need to be extracted ASAP!” Hokage’s voice betrayed just how concerned the man was.
Anko… Genma… Kakashi… She read their names to herself. “Understood, Hokage-sama.”
“I don’t say this often, but… Fox. No discretion this time. Not a single enemy to be spared on this mission.”
“Yes, Hokage-sama. You can count on me. I will bring them back,” Ryoko said sternly with her resolve clear. She just got a green light to raise hell and boy did she have plenty of reasons to do so. Three reasons to be exact. Three very important reasons…
“Also..” before Hokage continued a knock was heard on the door. Another masked shinobi entered. “Just in time. Beatle, you’ll be joining team Shi for this mission. Fox is taking the lead.”
The tall masked man nodded at Minato then at her with respect. By the unsettling buzzing of his chakra and the name, it was clear to her that it was an Aburame. Perfect. She didn’t get a chance to work with this clan before, but they sure seemed like someone Ryoko would get along with just fine.
Not even ten minutes later, her team gathered and they were off. The trip took a while. It was actually completely dark by the time they reached their destination.
“Beatle, please investigate,” she ordered the man as they hid between the trees observing a very inconspicuous-looking building. There were civilian-looking people milling around outside with a few shinobi standing on guard.
Aburame’s pets took the queue and dispersed. “Alright,” she turned to her team for the final briefing. “Distress message was sent by Genma-san. He is probably hiding not too far away, but he is injured. The two that were captured… I trust that neither will give out any information even when tortured, but that does not mean that we will find them in the right state of mind, so, be cautious.”
“Yes, captain,” four men in front of her nodded.
“Kill anyone and everyone in sight. No exceptions,” her words were cold and final. They could not risk any person to survive and leak anything about Konoha’s elite shinobi.
“Yes, captain!”
The wait was excruciating, but it was inevitable. They had only one chance to do it and mistakes were not acceptable. Finally, Beatle returned to them with a single insect perched on his finger.
“What’s the matter?” she asked, sensing the uneasy circling of chakra in the man before her.
“The hideout is completely filled with poison in the air. Most of my insects died before they could even get inside. Surprisingly, the people out there are not affected or immune to it,” he reported. Of course. There had to be something like that if jonins like Kakashi were captured.
“Cobra, Lynx, find the source of it!”
“Yes, Taicho!” both men vanished. She could trust Lynx to use his big head and lack of presence, while Cobra could deal with the poison itself. She didn't hope, the woman knew they could do it.
“Have you found Shiranui-san?” she turned back to the Aburame.
“Yes, two hundred meters in the north. Follow me.”
They reached a cliff and Ryoko instantly noticed a genjutsu placed on the side of it. “Send your pets first, Beatle. Let him know that it’s not the enemy,” Ryoko was using high levels of caution as she approached this mission. From her bitter experience with Obito, you can never know what you will find, when an enemy gets involved with your comrade.
After a minute Beatle nodded giving a green light for them to approach. Panda stayed outside, while the two of them stepped inside the hidden cave. “Genma-san!” she called for the man that was on the ground. His eye opened carefully. A smirk appeared on his chapped lips.
“What a sight for my sore eyes,” he choked out.
“What happened? What powers does the enemy have?” she quickly asked while her hands weaved signs for the medical diagnostic jutsu. That one at least she could do to assess the situation.
“Poison. The one in the air around the base, the invisible one, it paralyzes intruders.”
“The invisible one… there are more?” Ryoko quickly asked as her face grew more serious by the minute. At least it didn’t look like the man was injured. Or she just couldn’t tell with her limited capabilities.
“Yeah… The blue one takes your chakra. The red one… it brings out illusions, but you cannot dispel them like genjutsu… That’s what got us...” he coughed as Ryoko helped him sit up. “Argh… I was in the back of formation… Hatake… he pushed me away just in time… but he got caught instead… I had no choice but to call for backup…”
“Right. They are using kekkei genkai, aren’t they?” Ryoko deducted and Genma gave a nod of confirmation. “Were you injured? I couldn’t find any traces.”
“No… but the blue mist… it did something to my chakra coils. I can feel the chakra, but I cannot use it… like some Byakugan bullshit.”
“Understood. Beatle, can you inspect Shiranui-san with your insects?”
The masked man nodded as a swarm of his pets flew from the cloak towards not at all enthusiastically looking Genma. Ryoko walked outside with a plan taking form in her head. She trusted her team to have already figured out at least a part of it.
An hour later, Lynx and Cobra returned and she was not disappointed. Just like Ryoko expected, the two figured out about the shinobi using a kekkei genkai. They even determined which one was responsible for the invisible mist surrounding the base and managed to capture the woman in question!
She laid bound and paralyzed by Ryoko’s feet. Ha. It felt like her kittens brought her a present. And it was ironic, that the one responsible for the paralyzing mist now was paralyzed herself. “Good job, prepare, we will be out in five,” Ryoko said to the men in masks as she herself crouched next to the woman.
“Behave, scum. You are living on borrowed time,” her voice was cold as sharingan activated. It didn’t take long for Ryoko to mess with the woman's brain enough to convince her that five of them were new members of the gang.
It appeared that they used chakra seals to mark people that should be immune to the paralyzing mist. The woman marked Ryoko and her team. “Genma-san,” Ryoko finally turned to the man who at least could walk now. “Kill her when you hear the commotion start in the base. Her mist should disappear when she dies, but we will use our factor of surprise as long as we can.”
“Understood,” he smirked, taking out a kunai. The two were left in the shadows of the forest, while Ryoko left to infiltrate the base and shed some blood. If not for the mask, others would have seen her maniacal smile. Although, by now, at least her team probably already guessed that Ryoko was brimming with excitement.
As Beatle’s insects were infused with his own chakra, it turned out that they were too now immune to the invisible mist. In no time at all, they got a rough plan of the base. Very obviously, the prisoners were kept in the basement rooms. How cliche Ryoko thought as she sliced a throat of one unsuspecting shinobi in her way.
“Hatake is down there. Mitarashi is actually upstairs on the top floor,” Beatle whispered as they stopped by the stairs.
“Alright. Beatle, Cobra, Panda, you go up. Lynx, with me,” just as her last word left the woman's lips, the sound of a bell started ringing. A moment later, they all felt the seal placed before vanish. “Let’s get this party started,” she nodded at the men and the two groups split up.
Ryoko sprinted through the dungeon following Beatle’s insect. It was like a little tracker saving them time and energy. As they went deeper, there were more and more enemies in sight. They even faced one shinobi that used the red mist technique Genma mentioned.
Here is where the power of knowledge shined. Because they knew of the mist's effects, Ryoko and her shadow easily evaded its effects and killed everyone in sight from a long distance. Team Shi was an assassination squad for a reason. There was nothing they did better than murder.
Finally, her eyes spotted the insect settling on a door in the distance. This was it. I swear! If you’re not alive, I’m gonna mutilate your corpse, Kakashi! the woman growled in her mind as the few last meters melted away.
She stopped by the door and took a breath. With Sharingan, she could clearly see three chakra signatures inside. “Lynx, stay here, watch for anyone approaching,” Ryoko whispered. The masked man nodded, turning his back to her, ready to guard this area.
With one kick Ryoko got the door open and off its hinges. At the same time, her palm flung three senbon into the room. Thud. Thud. Thud. Silence. The targets were not so scary anymore when their poisonous gas was not around.
She stepped inside towards her target. Her hand didn’t shiver as she extended it to check the pulse of the man bound to a chair. We’re not too late… he’s alive… she thought to herself, while the full extent of the situation before her trickled into her mind.
“First things first,” she whispered as her hand weaved a simple water jutsu. Lukewarm liquid appeared from her palm and washed over unconscious-looking Kakashi. Now that old blood, dirt, and vomit were gone, she could evaluate his condition.
It was bad.
There were some clear wounds on his arms and legs, but the worst one was in his torso. There was still a knife impaled deeply into him with blood slowly trickling down from the cut.
“TAICHO! We got Anko!” Panda ran towards their location. She straightened up.
“Don’t come in!” Ryoko ordered as she leaned in towards Kakashi. Her hand gently pulled his mask back up to cover the lower part of his face.
“Yo,” she heard a low croak from him then.
“Bakashi… stay still, now,” Ryoko replied as her hands engulfed in green healing chakra after the hand signs she made. It was just a diagnostic technique to check the extent of the wound. The first and golden rule when impaled was to never pull the object out, after all.
Her face scrunched. It was worse than she expected. The knife was clearly twisted when it was lodged in, slightly nicking the vein next to it. If she were to pull the knife out now… If she were to move Kakashi now…
“...”
“Leave me. Just burn everything,” his voice rasped, clearly aware of the circumstances. But Ryoko was having none of that! She pulled back and gave him a harsh slap to the face.
“TAICHO!” both Lynx and Panda rushed inside after hearing the commotion.
“Stand down. Hatake is clearly delusional if he thinks we’ll leave him behind,” she scoffed.
“Taicho…” Panda whispered as he too realized what position they were in.
“There’s nothing you can do for me now, Fox, so just…” another slap echoed in the small room.
“Lynx! Stay on the lookout. Panda, I need you to keep Hatake steady for me. Hold down to his shoulders,” she ordered.
Her young kohai approached slightly hesitantly. “Taicho… shouldn’t we take off his chakra suppressing bounds?” he asked.
“No. It will be better this way for what I am about to do…” she said while staring at the knife like it personally offended her clan. This will be tricky and Ryoko could not afford Kakashi resisting with the instincts he has deeply ingrained in him.
“Taicho, if you pull it out then…”
“Yes, he can bleed out. I will have to cauterize the wound before he does,” she looked around and pulled a belt from one of the fallen enemy's pants. “Panda, close your eyes,” she ordered. Only then did she lower Kakashi’s mask back down. “This is gonna hurt like a bitch, so bite on unless you want to lose that sharp tongue of yours in the process.”
Kakashi’s eyes were slightly dazed but clear enough to comprehend what she was asking for. His mouth opened and the belt was now securely bitten down on. She placed her hand over the knife handle and took a couple of deep breaths.
“Panda, hold him down. The pressure in veins is high, so we cannot afford him moving even an inch,” Ryoko spoke while her other palm started to heat up. Slow wapper trickled from her glove as the temperature rose.
Three fingers folded down, while two remained ready to replace the knife. Even with gloves, her fingers looked like they were red superheated steel. This was a bastardized version of a Katon jutsu.
One last breath and she pulled the knife out quickly replacing the blade with her fingers. Kakashi squealed like a pig being marked. His body shook under Panda's iron grip. The air was quickly filled with the smell of burned flesh.
Slowly she pulled her fingers out and now once more her hands glowed green to remedy the situation even a tiny bit. There is no telling how effective this will be, but it has to last until they reach Konoha…
Ryoko took the belt out and pulled Kakashi’s mask back in place. His skin looked pale and beaded with cold sweat. “Oy, you still with us?” she tried to catch Kakashi’s eyes. Now she noticed, that he had a contact lens over his Sharingan. Thank Kami, or that eye would have been taken before anything else.
“Peachy,” he muttered vaguely, but hey, he was still alive! And the wound was no longer bleeding, so she will take this as a win.
“Good. Panda, you can look now. Take off the restraints,” she ordered while still making eye contact with Kakashi in case he decided to faint on her. “Kakashi, who did this to you?”
“Mmm… some… gorilla looking oaf…” he replied after a while.
Ryoko gave a nod and stood up. She brushed the remains of Kakashi’s dried blood from her hand. “Let’s move out to rendezvous with others. It’s time to wipe this place out of existence.”
Panda slung Kakashi’s arm over his shoulder and the four of them raced outside, where distant sounds of fighting could still be heard. Their insect companion led the way directly to the fighting.
“Report!” Ryoko yelled out as she landed beside Cobra. With one kick she sent an enemy away from her kohai, while the other two got hit by Lynx.
“Taicho! Anko was taken by Beatle to safety with Genma,” looks like their plan was going well. All that was left, was to kill everyone else.
“POISON MIST!” she heard Lynx yell out. Ryoko quickly turned around and spotted the incoming black fog. It was moving far faster than your regular mist. They clearly won’t be able to outrun it. And the black color of it was ominous to say the least.
“Stay close!!” Ryoko shouted as she sent chakra towards her eyes. The familiar feeling of her head splitting in two appeared the moment her sharingan pattern changed into mangekyo.
Fuck… I really hate to use this… but… she cursed aloud while visible chakra leaked from her engulfing the team and Kakashi. Just as the mist reached the group, they were completely covered by what looked like a huge translucent set of ribs. Slowly muscle materialized and then skin and…
“Kushinada jutsu,” Ryoko whispered to herself with contempt. Gods were truly misogynistic in this world. Instead of a grand Susanoo, she got this… His wife Kushinada. That is one of the reasons why she hated to ever use the technique. It was embarrassing. Despite the fact that technically it had the same grand defensive abilities as Susanoo.
“Woooouw,” Panda awed as he looked around from the inside of the chakra monster she summoned. It looked like a female goddess with ceremonial robes made out of chakra.
Finally, their enemy appeared as the mist split in two. He was a bulky hairy man with a wild grin on his face. The darkness like steam came directly out of his hands. The man whistled and laughed as he gazed upon her creation. The ultimate defense would not be penetrated by such a measly thing as a mist.
“Taicho… what do we do?” Panda asked quickly as it looked like the mist was not going anywhere. She sighed. As it always goes, to get rid of annoying things like this poison, you have to get rid of its source first.
“Just stay here and be pretty, you three, I’ll take care of the trash.”
Ryoko extended her hands to the sides and her Kushinada mirrored the action. More chakra seeped from her body to the side. It swirled and shifted until a huge scythe materialized as the weapon of her Kushinada. The blade was perfectly curved with kanji ingrained in it.
‘Death to the fallen in the name of Susanoo’ is what it said. Very fitting.
It didn’t look like the enemy was stupid enough to approach. He clearly wanted to keep the distance taking advantage of the poison's long-distance capabilities. Ryoko could see that he was speaking something to them. Probably taunting them, but she was not that interested to hear him. Fuck him.
The stupid gorilla forced her to use this degrading technique and if Ryoko was livid before, now she was positively murderous. “Know your place,” she said coldly as her hand moved with Kushinada's scythe.
One swish of the blade and it felt like the air itself was cut to shreds. The wave of the aftershock washed over their surroundings splitting even the chakra mist into clear halves. The smile on the man’s face froze. He choked on blood and slowly… the top part of his body slid down. His other half of the body left standing for a minute longer before it too fell to the ground.
Ryoko was not satisfied just yet. She started to weave her hand signs one after another in record speed. “Homusubi jutsu!” a fire bullet slipped from her mask and there it was. Explosions. Thunder.
Her trustworthy fire dragon emerged leaving destruction out of the former hideout. When the last roar echoed over the sky, only rubble was left in front of them with human bones sticking out of it all black and splintered.
Kushinada faded and they were engulfed with a blazing hot gust of wind. Ryoko exhaled feeling as her anger finally got a proper outlet. She turned to the group of stunned men. “Let’s go, we need to hurry,” she said dryly. Not for a second did she forget about Kakashi’s state. That is one of the reasons why she decided to end the whole thing quickly.
At this point, their split-up team regrouped with Genma, Anko, and Beatle. Shiranui thankfully already could travel on his own, while Anko was carried by Lynx. Ryoko looked over their group considering the formation.
“Beatle, scout ahead with your pets. Cobra, Panda, you guard the back,” she ordered around taking Kakashi from her worried underling. “I’m running low on chakra, so I need you to have my back, kohai,” she explained while Kakashi didn’t even resist her manhandling him.
And they were off.
“A bit overkill, don’t you think?” Kakashi whispered as they jumped from one branch to the other. It didn’t really matter if her actions were too much or not. Ryoko did what she had to do. Her revenge on Konoha’s enemies had no bounds. Besides, she got permission from Hokage himself, so how could she not go full out?
“Shut it, fatass,” she grumbled as the position Ryoko was in was not the most comfortable one. Ryoko sighed, clutching the man’s waist tighter. His weight on her shoulder was nothing compared to the pain she felt from mangekyo. Even now she kept the sharingan active just to be able to run without stumbling. After about twenty minutes of travel, she finally gave up and…
“Kami no… please, kill me now…” Kakashi whimpered as she picked him up bridal style.
“Shhh, my damsel, not so feisty now, are we?” she smirked under her mask and it almost felt like they were back in time when the two could playfully make fun of each other like this. But they weren’t. Ryoko knew that even after a mission like this nothing has changed between them.
For now, the only thing that mattered was to get back home in one piece. To make sure that everyone lives. To protect her people. There would be time to fix things if they are all alive...
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