Chapter 57 (5/5)

Half an Hour Later, Kakashi's Cabin

Kakashi is greedily reading his book while sprawled out on his bed. He's giggling every once in awhile when he reads an extra good part. It's been a long time since he's had new reading material, especially one from Jiraiya-sama himself.

Then two sharp knocks on his door interrupt him.

"What?" He irritably barks out.

"I need thirty seconds of your time." His wayward students says from the other side of the door. "Or potentially five minutes."

"Fine. Get in here." Kakashi says just a little bit too eagerly. This will be the first time that he has been alone with me.

I meekly open the door and walk in then close it behind me.

"So… uh… hi?" I weakly attempt to open up conversation.

"Hello." He just as awkwardly says back to me. "How have you been… nevermind. That's a bad question to ask."

"Yeah…" This is terribly awkward. Alright I came here with a purpose, just do it. "Kakashi do you trust me still?"

I hold out a sealing tag to him.

"Do you trust me enough to take this seal and keep it with you? Or potentially let me draw it on your body?"

"What does it do?" He stand up and takes off his jonin vest. He still trusts me. He's going to let me place a seal on him.

"I've added an… let's say explosive surprise to my minions. This seal will make sure they don't go off near you." I pull out a brush and some ink.

"You always did take everything too far." He fondly smiles back on his memories. "When you first asked me about chakra strings I admit I was disappointed. But the things you've done with them are phenomenal. Now you've taken up fuinjutsu. I don't know whether to be excited or terrified of what you'll do with that."

"Probably best to be terrified." I admit. "Any particular spot you want it?"

"Above the right shoulder blade." He takes off his shirt next to give me access. "Just… please tell me you're not going to cause any crazy chain explosions to go off?"

"Why does everyone assume I'm going to do that?" I exasperatedly ask. "This is going to be cold."

"Won't be as cold as the Land of Snow." He points out. "And it's you. You'd have a field day with explosive tags."

"Sad thing is everyone is right. I've set up a base and a half of Orochimaru's to blow." I being to draw the seal on him. "They're going to have one hell of a boom."

"Wow. How many seals did that take?" He's impressed.

"A few thousand. No big deal." I nonchalantly reply.

He lets out an appreciative whistle. "That's a lot of seals."

"Yes it is. Best part is Orochimaru gave me all the blank sealing tags. He gave me the tools to destroy the bases."

"Orochimaru." Kakashi turns bitter. "He's not hurting you, is he?"

"Kakashi. He hurt me long before I went to him. Do you really think he'd stop? If anything it's gotten worse. He's made me do things that would get me executed on the spot in Konoha. He's warped me as a person. I've changed. I'm not the innocent genin I once was."

"Alvarcus I'm so sorry." Kakashi's head droops in shame. "You shouldn't have to do any of this. None of this is your responsibility."

"I made it my responsibility."

"What has he made you do?" Kakashi hoarsely asks.

"Are you sure you want to know?" I ask him, this is his one chance to reconsider. "You will never be able to look at me the same again. I'll give you a teaser, a mere taste of what I've done. Murder. Straight up, cold blooded murder."

"I'm so sorry." Kakashi apologizes again. "It's all my fault. If I had just been a better sensei. If I had done more then maybe I wouldn't have pushed you both away. Maybe Sakura wouldn't have died. I should have done more."

"You didn't push me away." I assure him. "I left because I didn't want Sasuke to become twisted by Orochimaru. I left because I had to protect my best friend. Sasuke is… a different story. I won't sugar coat this, you might have had a hand in him deciding to leave but by no means were you the reason he left. Orochimaru offered him the one thing he dedicated his entire life to: training to kill Itachi. Sasuke left for his own reasons. And Sakura… she's dead because of me."

"Alvarcus it wasn't your fault. We never figured out-"

"I know who killed her." I force out. "Kakashi I know everything about her death. I know who ordered it, I know why they ordered it and I know who held the blade that slit her throat. She's dead because of me. Because I didn't go to Orochimaru sooner. Did you know that on the night I left it was the third time I've been asked to go to him? I turned him down twice. He didn't like that, so he took it into his own hands to change my mind. He figured that the best way for me to go to him was to sever my ties to Konoha. Orochimaru is the reason Sakura is dead. Orochimaru is the reason my parents are dead. Because in his sick and twisted mind he thought that would push me to him."

He's stunned into silence. He can't form a single word.

"It's not you who should be apologizing to me. Kakashi I am sorry. I got one of your student's killed. I abandoned Konoha with the other one. I became everything that I thought I would stand against when I first got my headband. I've been kicked out of my home. I've become a dark and violent person. I've become everything that I was taught to hate. And when this mission is over and I've fulfilled my debt to Shikamaru, I'm going back to that place. The place where my humanity is at risk. Or what's left of it."

"You don't have to. You can come back with us." Kakashi offers. "I can convince Tsunade to go easy on you. She will listen to reason, she knows what you've done for Konoha! What you're doing for Konoha! We can get you a public trial and use that to explain everything you've done to the public! You don't have to go back there!"

"The only place in Konoha for me is a prison cell. Even if we convince every single resident of Konoha of my spying on Orochimaru I'd also have to admit everything I've done while being gone. Those acts would far outweigh the good I've done."

"I do not want to lose everyone!" Kakashi shouts and slams his fist into the mattress.

"You haven't lost me." I calmly assure him. "I'm just… not as close as I used to be. You could accept letters from Shirokumo. Tsunade never has to know. We don't even have to talk about anything important, just be penpals. A way for both of us to know the other is alright."

"I can't." Kakashi forces out under great strain. "I think she has me under watch to make sure we don't communicate. I cheated when Shirokumo came the last time, I spun it as me luring him into a false sense of security. It won't work again. I'm even under orders to bring you in should we ever meet. She said to use any means necessary."

"I'll be sure to slip away before you have the opportunity to capture me." I assure him. "I can't do much good in a jail cell. Plus Sasuke does need me."

"How is Sasuke?" Kakashi asks, steering the conversation to a new direction.

"Well… his mental state is better than mine." I admit to my former sensei. "Probably due to Orochimaru focusing on me more. It's kinda ironic, lately he's been reining me in instead of me reining him in. He's doing well though, it's good for him to escape from all of his fangirls. Though he did just get one at this new base we're at. Hell I got one too. It's weird, she won't leave me alone."

"You've got a fangirl?" Kakashi asks in bewilderment. "Orochimaru has shinobi like that?"

"Otogakure and the rest of Orochimaru's bases are full of normal shinobi." I supply. "They're actually not all weird. Though some of them have extra parts or strange powers. I've yet to meet someone weirder than me though."

"You're not weird. Just unusual." Kakashi corrects me.

"I meant physically. I'm literally made of threads. That's pretty fucking strange."

"Fair point." Kakashi concedes.

"Yeah." I agree. "So you out of that funk now? Cuz I've still got to give this seal to everyone else."

"I'm good now." He assures me. "Or as good as I'm going to be."

"That's all I ask for." I put away my brush and ink.

"You took a lot longer on the seal than I thought you would." He points out. "Figured someone capable of making thousands would be a quick worker. You've been here for half an hour."

"I can't be amazing at everything." I get up and move to the door. "We can't all be you, Kakashi-sensei."

"Cheeky brat." He fondly says as I shut the door.

I only spent five minutes on the seal.

"Oi." I poke my head into Shikamaru and Naruto's cabin. "You two busy?"

Shikamaru is lazing about on his bed while Naruto is pestering him. No doubt Naruto is bored and wants Shikamaru to entertain him. You couldn't find two more different people.

"Alvarcus!" Naruto beams up at me. "No! Come in! Do you want to hang out? Maybe play a game? Or spar? Or anything! Whatever you want to do I'm willing!"

"Are you willing to let me place a seal on you?" I bluntly ask. "If not I've got a tag for you both to carry around."

"A seal?" I've piqued Shikamaru's interest. "What does it do?"

"Potentially stops you from dying in a very painful way." I offer up an innocent shrug.

"What?" Shikamaru dully responds. "I didn't hear you right."

"Okay, long version it is." I've got both of their attention. "I've got this variant of a technique that is pretty indiscriminatory so I made this seal to make it not go off near people or things I'd like to not have ripped into tiny shreds."

"What the hell have you been learning?" Naruto lets slip out in awe.

"A little of this and a lot of that." I shrug again. "Nothing too interesting."

"Way to downplay your skills. Severely downplay." Shikamaru holds out a hand. "I'll take a tag. I don't want a seal on my body."

"I should probably take a tag to." Naruto glances nervously at Shikamaru.

Ah. Right. He's already got a very impressive seal on him. We don't want this one to interfere with that.

"Cool." I pull out two premade tags and hand them out. "Let me know if they get damaged or need to be replaced. You really don't want to get caught up in this technique."

"I wish my Sannin taught me cool stuff like yours." Naruto pouts.

"No." I turn and leave the room. "You don't."

The door closes behind me.

"You." Anko hisses at me.

"Me." I wiggle a tag at her. "I've got something for you."

I've gone to her and Ino's room. It's just Anko in this one though.

"I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that's not a detailed plan about Orochimaru and the best spots to set up an ambush on him." Akno glances at the paper. "Is that a seal?"

"Yep. I want you to keep it on you until we part ways again." I wiggle the tag again.

"And why the hell would I do that?" She sneers at the paper. "I'm not a fan of seals."

"It'll make sure that one of my techniques doesn't rip you out of this dimension and into a void of pure darkness for all eternity?"

"Holy shit." Anko regards me in a new light. "You've got a jutsu that will do that?"

"Well… sorta. It's not a jutsu per say, more of a failsafe. A whole bunch of stuff has to happen then the techniques activates and bam! You're in a new dimension."

"Never would have guessed you as a person for a suicide technique." Anko snatches the seal out of my hand. "Alright, I'll hang onto this for a bit."

"Cool." I pause halfway out the door. "Do you know where Ino is? She's the only one who doesn't have one."

"I thought she was with you?" Anko says in confusion. "Speaking of Ino… what do you think of her?"

"She's a nice girl." I honestly reply. "Still a bit too innocent and knows way too much about me, but nice."

"And…" Anko drags the word out, making it stretch for several seconds. "Do you think she's cute?"

"Considering that last night I called her hot to her face, yes. I do think she's cute. Why do you care?"

"No reason!" Anko grins deviously to herself. "No reason at all."

"Right, I'm going to walk away from whatever the hell that was."

"Hello Alvarcus." Ino warmly greets me. "Long time no see."

"Hey Ino. It's only been a few hours." Suddenly the boat lurches beneath us. "What do you know, we've finally set sail. About damn time too, I want this mission over with."

"And I want it to take forever. Or at least as long as it takes for me to convince you to come back home." Ino seriously tells me. She means every word of it, she's going to spend as much time possible trying to get me to go back.

"Is there any particular reason you're in my hammock?" I ignore what she just said and ask this instead.

"I got tired of standing around waiting for you to come up here." She runs a hand along the soft material. "So I hopped in. I see why you slept here, this is freakishly nice."

"I know right?" Murasakino your hammocks are amazing. Simply the best. "I rarely sleep on anything else even when on missions, sometimes it's a toss up if I should keep my bed or just switch over to hammocks full time. That being said I have very nice sheets and there's something about a mattress and crawling into a cocoon of blankets that's amazing."

"You'll have to get me a set of those with my clothes then." She runs a hand over the material again. "If they're anything like this then I'll be ecstatic."

"They'll probably be better. The Weavers tend to go overboard when I ask them to do something. There was this one time that I asked for a set of clothes and they came back with twenty five sets of everything. Seriously what the hell am I supposed to do with twenty five different sets of bed sheets?"

"The Weavers?" Ino questions from her reclined position on her back. It's a good thing she has my coat over hers, otherwise I'd be getting quite the eyeful. Gravity would help pull it open to expose even more skin than usual.

Well not like it would change anything, it would just be harder to focus. That was a poor choice of words, maybe Naruto is onto something. Every once in awhile I phrase things strangely.

"They're a group of Spiders that make clothes and stuff for other summon creatures. They also made my entire wardrobe, my bed sheets, and the hammock you're on. They'll also be the ones making your clothes. Fair warning, expect a lot."

"I'm strangely okay with that." Sure Ino. There's nothing strange about that. If anything you're even more excited about it now.

"How're you not cold?" Ino asks out of the blue. "There's a chilly wind up here. At least in the hammock it's a bit sheltered from the wind but standing up like you are? You must be getting a faceful of it. And… I have your coat."

"Meh." I dismissively wave off her concern. "My body temp is higher than average. Not really sure why, but it does come in handy. It takes more to get me cold."

"That explains why your coat was so warm last night." Ino reflects back on that moment. Then she focuses on me again. "Maybe you would make a good personal heater."

"It was part of our deal." I shrug.

"I'll have to keep that in mind." Ino wiggles around in the hammock for a bit, finding a new position. "So… you're not running away right now. Maybe taking over the hammock was a good idea if it forces you to stay here."

"Actually I was looking for you." I pull out another tag. "If you're willing to I'd like to place this seal on you. If not then keep this tag on you instead."

Ino takes the tag from me and intently looks over it. "Wow this is pretty. You made this?"

"Yep." That's a new reaction. I've never had someone call a seal pretty before.

"What's it do?" She asks as she continues to look at the intricate parts.

"I have this technique that can activate on its own. It kinda swallows up everything in a five meter radius whole. Not even air is spared." I explain. "Having this seal makes it not activate next to you. It's a failsafe so the things and people I care about don't get swallowed."

"You can put it on me." She hands the seal back to me. "Is there a particular spot it should go?"

Huh. Didn't expect her to let me put it on her. Honestly I'm still a little surprised Kakashi did. It takes a great amount of trust to let someone place a seal on you.

"It doesn't matter. Kakashi let me put one on his shoulder blade." I throw him out as an example. "I can put it wherever you want."

"The shoulder blade sounds good to me." Ino says. "If Kakashi thinks it should go there then I'll follow suit. He knows his stuff."

"Right. So there's just one problem with that." I didn't see this coming. "That means the coats have to come off. You're okay with that?"

"Oh. That would have to happen." She debates something in her mind for a moment, then settles on one of them. "I'll lay face down on the hammock. Not like it'll be any more revealing than what Anko stuffed me into."

She hops out of the hammock and takes off my coat. She's just in her purple one now.

"You'll have to turn around for this part." A pink tint blossoms on her cheeks. "I'm not giving you a show."

"Here." I unwarp my scarf from around my neck and toss it to her. "You can use that to tie around your chest. You never know when something crazy will happen. Like Anko randomly popping up here for some unknown reason."

"Thanks." She takes the scarf. "Now turn around."

"Of course." I turn around like a gentleman. It would be so easy to spawn an eye or two on the back of my head with Eyes of the Damned. Hell I could even spawn one on a string! NO! BAD ALVARCUS! BAD!

"Done." Ino calls out. She's laying face down on the hammock. "So how long is this going to take? It's even colder up here without anything on."

"I don't know, I've never gotten a girl topless before. I might have performance anxiety." I tease her.

"Shut up and get this over with!" Ino buries her face into the soft hammock. "It's embarrassing enough the way it is."

"Alright, alright I'll quit teasing you." I pull out my brush and ink. "This is going to be cold."

"Colder than it already is?" Ino points out. "Now hurry up!"

"You're going to have a terrible time in the Land of Snow if you're already bitching about the cold." I start to draw the seal and she shivers as the brush touches her.

"Hey Alvarcus?" Ino softly asks me with a lot of apprehension. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure." I say as I continue to work on the seal. "Can't promise I'll answer though."

"What's that scar on your neck from?" She hesitantly asks. "If you don't want to talk about it that's fine, I've just always wondered."

"Oh that?" That's not what I expected. I was prepared for something like 'why won't you come back?' "It's from my first decapitation."

"First decapitation?"

"Yep. Crazy nutjob with a big ass sword."

"I feel like that was an oversimplification." Ino fishes for more information.

"That's because it was." I don't give in.

We fall into a silence for about twenty seconds before she speaks again.

"How many scars do you have?"

"So many that I've lost count. At this point I only remember the most severe ones or those that were given to me under unique circumstances." I conversationally reply despite the rather personal question. "What about you? Any scars to talk about?"

"Nothing like yours." She mumbles under her breath. "There's one on my left thigh. I didn't dodge a kunai from an enemy. I've never seen Asuma that angry before."

"I bet. I've only seen Kakashi pissed one time, that was when I had my first kill. We were on a mission and the client purposefully left out some key details, like there being shinobi after his head. They attacked, I killed one of them on accident. Kakashi was pissed at the client."

"You've been on the craziest missions ever." Ino sighs in forlornness. "You're always right in the middle of something crazy. You have to lead such an exciting life full of adventure. It makes me feel… well inadequate. We're the same age and I'm from a prominent clan. You're from a civilian family. You've done so much, you're so skilled, you're so untouchable. You stand leagues above everyone else. I ask myself a question every now and again, how can I possibly catch up?"

"I am not someone you want to compare yourself to." I calmly tell her. "My life is definitely full of crazy adventures but I would not call them exciting. Exciting sounds like they're good adventures and I assure you most of them aren't. Eventful would be more accurate. I'm done, you can put the coats back on."

I step away from her and turn my back once more as she redresses.

"I'm decent again." She gives me permission to turn around. "Hey Alvarcus?"

"Yes Ino?" I ask. She didn't hop back into the hammock, instead she walked over to stand next to me.

"There's more to you leaving than just spying on Orochimaru and protecting Sasuke, isn't there?" She asks me. "I have this feeling that you're doing more than that. I think that if it was just spying and protecting Sasuke you wouldn't have refused Tsunade's offer to come back. It was such a good offer, a clean slate, total forgiveness and Orochimaru would be dead. You could have come home. But you didn't. Why not?"

"I'm also going to single handedly destroy Otogakure and every single base of Orochimaru's I can find." I admit to her. Why not? It's not like it's going to change anything. I truly can't go back to Konoha now.

"See what I mean! You're always doing something exciting!" Ino lightly smack me on the arm. "That's not what I meant. When we last saw each other you said that everyone needs something to push them to improve. That they need to get better. You made it sound like something terrible is going to happen that we'll all be involved in. Why does everyone need to improve? What do you think is going to happen?"

"I hope nothing happens." I truthfully share with her. "If I have anything to say about it, it will never happen. I just don't know how to go about stopping it. I have a few ideas, each more crazy than the last, but I don't have a plan. At best I can plan to counter some things that might happen. That's it, I don't even know if those things will even happen at all." Too much could have changed from canon. I could have ruined my future knowledge completely. I may have to rely purely on my own skills now.

"What are you talking about? What's coming? What are you trying to stop?"

"War." I turn to look her in her wide shocked eyes. "I'm trying to stop the Fourth Shinobi World War."

"Why you?" She asks with a mix of pity and fear of what I've said is to come. "Tell the Kages! Surely they can take action!"

"I'm the only one who knows what's happening. I'm the only person besides the other mastermind trying to force the Fourth Shinobi World War to happen that has all of the pieces of the puzzle. That is part of the reason I've gone to Orochimaru. Orochimaru is investing a huge amount of his time and resources into my training and thanks to him I might be ready in time. Even if it is at the expense of my humanity. My dream is no longer just a dream, it is a necessity. I must become S-rank at the minimum if I want to stand a chance against the people I have to stop."

"I do not have the luxury of kicking back in Konoha. I have a war to stop at any cost. I will do whatever I have to do to make sure that it doesn't happen. If by damning myself I can save thousands upon thousand of lives I will gladly throw myself into Hell with a smile on my face."

"How can I help?" Ino has a fire blazing behind her eyes. She's brimming with determination and sheer willpower. She truly wants to help me.

"Become better." My words don't negatively impact her resolve. If anything they've only stoked the flames inside her. "Do not settle for above average. Strive to be the best you possibly can. Learn every clan technique you can. Push everyone else to reach a new level then surpass it. And until you can stand on an equal playing field with the most deadly shinobi of this world, until you think you can easily beat me at my own game, run away from the red clouds."

"The red clouds?" She repeats, not truly as a question, but to make sure she heard me correctly. She's taken every word I've said to heart.

"Yes. If you see red clouds abandon whatever you're doing and run. Run as if your life and the lives of everyone you care about depend on how fast you move. Run away from the red clouds."

"Okay. I can do that." She confidently assures me. "You don't have to do everything alone. I will make sure everyone in Konoha improves so much that they'll all be better than you. Don't worry about us, I'll keep everyone in line for you while you're gone. On one condition."

"What is it?" I ask her.

"Once you've stopped the war, once you've defeated Orochimaru, once it's all over come home. Come back to Konoha where you belong. Promise me that. Promise me that once it's done you'll come home. I want to hear you say it."

"Okay Ino. I promise. Once it's all over I will go back. Whether it's as a hero or villain, I don't know. But I will go back."