章 16: Kakashi-III

Most days, Kakashi hated his life. This was one such day. He should have turned around once they found out that the client was faking the details. Even if the village was on lockdown, he should have turned around and gone back. Waiting outside wouldn't have been bad.

He didn't have time to waste on self-pity. Naruto was crouched before him, three tails proudly on display. Killing intent and corrosive chakra clouded the air as his student had gone berserk. His other two students were kidnapped, and his ninken had gone after them. All in all, this was a disastrous situation.

It had been a long time since he was this angry. If they made it out of this alive, he was going to put the fear of god into the geriatric bridge builder who was the cause of this whole mess.

"Uchiha scum…" growled Naruto… no, it was the beast within that spoke. Just by the voice alone, he could tell that Naruto was not the one in control. Moreover, its entire malice was currently targeted at him. Given that it was staring at his eye with hate.

His Sharingan easily told him what was wrong with Naruto. He could see the genjutsu deeply rooted in his chakra.

This was a problem. If Naruto was rampaging on his own, then Kakashi could have used his Sharingan to place him in a genjutsu. But given that he already was under a very strong genjutsu, that avenue was quite blocked.

Naruto roared, and the shockwave of it alone was enough to topple over genin and fresh chunin. Thankfully, Kakashi had surpassed that level in his childhood.

"Haku," he heard Zabuza say. The next moment, the final chakra signature that Kakashi had been aware of, appeared in front of them. It was a shinobi clad in the mist hunter uniform. But given that they were answering to Zabuza, it was clear that this shinobi was not really a mist shinobi. Or maybe they were, and Zabuza's missing-nin status was only a ruse. He couldn't tell for sure.

He had already been aware of someone waiting in the wings, but he had to hold off both Zabuza and Raiga at that point, so he couldn't do everything at the same time. His eye flicked to the foliage and he hoped that the polar bear had called for reinforcements. Only Ichigo would be able to come through reverse summoning since he was their contractor. But that alone was enough.

"Master," said a feminine voice behind the mask. Although, all the body language and the proportions that his Sharingan automatically captured told him that the person was male.

"Use your mirrors. See if we can trap it," ordered Zabuza.

The shinobi called Haku complied and ran through a set of seals with one hand, and molded chakra. Immediately, Kakashi realized that it was not a jutsu he could replicate. He could see Haku molding two elements together. It was a Kekkei Genkai. Specifically, Hyoton.

This told him that Zabuza and his minion were not working for Kiri for sure. Their anti-bloodline stance would not allow for a Yuki clan member to be in the hunter corps.

"Why are you helping?" asked Kakashi curtly. Even though Zabuza seemed to be willing to subdue Naruto, Kakashi didn't really trust the missing-nin. Especially when Raiga had just kidnapped his other two students. Given that Raiga initially said that he wanted to kidnap Naruto, this whole situation was very fishy.

"I'm not helping you. I'm helping myself," said Zabuza as Haku unleashed an intricate jutsu that formed ice mirrors around Naruto. But with the sheer difference in chakra that his eye pointed out, Kakashi could say that it was useless.

And his thoughts were vindicated, as Naruto barreled through the mirrors, shattering them in the process, and gunning towards Kakashi.

Kakashi easily dodged the clawed swipe and hit Naruto's torso with a palm strike laden with chakra. He aimed to inject his chakra and disrupt the genjutsu. But it was pointless, as the corrosive nature of the fox's chakra burned through his in an instant.

If this was an enemy, he could have killed him anytime. But this was his student. Kakashi was strong. But with that strength came responsibilities. Naruto right now under the foxes' influence was stronger than experienced chunin. But a three-tailed cloak was not enough for Naruto to make Kakashi go all out. At least not at Naruto's current base strength.

He disengaged and glanced at his palm, which was now laden with corrosive burns. A side effect of tangling with the fox's chakra.

As Zabuza engaged Naruto, he followed suit, to intercept the missing-nin. Just in case his attack accidentally killed Naruto.

To his surprise, Zabuza held back his attack. He kicked Naruto back towards the broken mirrors, as the ice reformed into large chains that tried to constrain Naruto. This immediately put him on edge, since Zabuza had no reason to hold back. Unless…

"What do you mean, helping yourself?" asked Kakashi, as he dodged the splinters that got launched due to Naruto breaking through those ice constraints with ease.

"A monster can only be felled by another monster. I don't know what the chucklefuck was thinking, leaving the Jinchuriki behind. But I am not letting the opportunity go," said Zabuza as he tried to dismember Kakashi while his partner was getting thrashed by Naruto.

"You think I will let you do that?" asked Kakashi as he parried Zabuza's sword and tried to impale the missing-nin with a kunai laden with chakra flow.

He couldn't afford to throw around Raikiris now. He had already used a lot of chakra and the constant use of his Sharingan was draining him. He didn't want to mess with Obito's eye, but it looked like he should acquiesce to what Lord Hokage was saying.

Although, he wasn't completely confident in this situation. His Sharingan was not working on Naruto due to whatever Ranmaru had done. And as long as Naruto was rampaging, he was on a timer. His Evil Sealing Technique wouldn't work on Naruto as well. So, he was at a loss for what to do. The prudent thing to do would be to kill Zabuza and his minion, and then knock down Naruto before he sprouted more tails.

"Tell me you wouldn't do the same in my position," grumbled Zabuza.

"True, but-" whatever Kakashi was about to say got cut off by a massive roar, which was followed by an enormous spike in chakra and killing intent.

Both jonin turned towards Naruto, only to see a fourth tail forming, and his skin beginning to flake off. This was bad. He had heard about this. The version two cloak. And Naruto's chakra levels kept spiking, reaching Kakashi's level easily and it still kept increasing. The chakra around Naruto darkened and took on a blackish hue with how dark red it was. His blood from the flaying skin was mixing with the aura and making it even worse.

"Idiot. We could have worked together and stopped this if you weren't such a moron," swore Kakashi uncharacteristically as he glanced at Zabuza.

It looked like the missing-nin was having unpleasant flashbacks. He was looking at Naruto like he had seen a ghost.

Not like Kakashi was any better. The level of chakra and the malice in the air reminded him of the night his sensei died.

Before anything could happen though, four pillars of light went up and rapidly formed a large rectangular barrier, trapping all of them within.

He immediately let out a breath of relief, as his reinforcement was here.

Right on cue, a familiar pink-haired shinobi walked out of the forest. The first thing Kakashi noticed was a small offshoot of Lady Katsuyu perched atop Ichigo's shoulder. The second thing he noticed was the entire demeanor of Ichigo. Kakashi had seen people behaving like that in his long tenure as a shinobi. It never spelled well for anyone. He had never expected to see Strawberry like this though. There was a heavy bloodlust radiating off of him. And his facial expressions were carved like stone.

Given that Lady Katsuyu was with him, Kakashi was sure that Ichigo knew about his sister getting kidnapped.

Haku had stopped engaging Naruto as well, and Naruto was now snarling at all of them.

"Uchia. Senju. Uzumaki. Namikaze. I will kill you all," the beast roared, only to get interrupted by a giant fireball sent towards it by Ichigo.

"Pink Butcher-" Zabuza began, but was immediately cut off.

"Shut up. Kakashi, what is the situation?" he asked in a cold tone, eying Naruto.

"Raiga had a helper with a dojutsu. Put Naruto in a genjutsu that caught the fox as well. I'm sure the physical strain of it must have snapped Naruto out of it. But the fox is still trapped," said Kakashi, eyeing an irate Zabuza.

"And these two?" asked Ichigo.

"Want to capture Naruto to use against Yagura," he said.

"I see," was the frosty response.

"You have any way to stop Naruto?" he asked, as he saw Naruto running for the barrier and clashing harmlessly against it.

"Yes. Please handle these two. Lord Third wants them alive," said Ichigo as he dashed at Naruto.

"Pretty confident, isn't he?" drawled Zabuza as he sized up Kakashi. Realizing that their numerical advantage was shot, Haku regrouped with Zabuza as well.

Kakashi still didn't understand what their plan was. But it didn't matter. Now that Strawberry was here, he didn't need to conserve chakra.

The tomoe in his eye began spinning, as he immediately trapped the both of them in a genjutsu. It was nothing noticeable. Large-scale genjutsu had the negative effect of letting the victims know that they were in a genjutsu. The smaller and more subtle ones were the ones that were hard to notice until it was too late. And that was what his genjutsu did. He just wanted to throw off their perception of time by a mere fraction of a second. It was nothing spectacular. But with the speeds Kakashi was comfortable operating in, it was more than enough.

He dashed towards Zabuza, narrowly dodging a strike from the massive sword. It might look narrow, but it was timed well with the help of his eye and the genjutsu. The same pattern followed in his subsequent exchange with the two shinobi. It was made to look like he was narrowly escaping. But everything was orchestrated on his end.

Which paid off, as he saw an opening and struck Haku with a lightning jutsu. Haku convulsed as Kakashi's palm connected with him and dumped a large amount of lightning nature chakra into Haku's system. That electrocuted the weaker shinobi and instantly put him to sleep. The price was steep, and he had used a lot of chakra with that jutsu, but it was worth it. Lord Third had asked for them alive, and he would deliver them alive.

Zabuza had not let the opportunity go to waste and had brought down the Kubikiribocho in a vicious downward slash. He had not hesitated to kill his minion along with Kakashi.

Thankfully, Kakashi managed to drag the unconscious shinobi away as he moved out of the way. He didn't escape unscathed though.

Wincing at the vertical cut on his back, Kakashi straightened up as Zabuza was upon him once more.

"You have already lost," said Kakashi as he moved with a burst of speed and jabbed at Zabuza's throat with two fingers.

Generally, in an exchange like this, such a maneuver would not have worked. But he had Obito's eye to thank. The advantages it gave were enough for Kakashi to land a debilitating strike that temporarily impeded Zabuza's ability to breathe.

Zabuza fought through the pain and tried to unleash a water jutsu to unclog his windpipe and attack Kakashi in the same motion. Once again, the predictive nature of the eye was far greater than what people thought.

Right as Zabuza's torso swelled, ready to unleash the jutsu, Kakashi's earth clone which was lying in wait underground, jumped out from behind. Zabuza immediately aimed to disengage, but Kakashi knew what he was doing. He was always two steps ahead.

While Zabuza bisected his clone, Kakashi struck from a blind spot and decked Zabuza in the temple. As the missing-nin fell to the ground, Kakashi utilized the opportunity to put him in a stronger genjutsu that immediately put him to sleep. It wouldn't have worked if Zabuza was up and kicking. But Kakashi's attacks were made to put stress on Zabuza's body by attacking critical spots like the throat and the temple.

Once his eye confirmed that his foe was unconscious, Kakashi pulled down his headband over his Sharingan.

He almost stumbled, as he realized that his reserves were almost spent. He knew that he would not be awake for long. So he quickly removed the weapons from his two captives and tied them down. He then slapped some of Ichigo's seals on them, which were designed to hold down subdued foes.

Only when he was done, did he look in the direction where Ichigo and Naruto had been fighting.

He was right on time too, as he saw Ichigo swinging his sword and cutting off a clawed limb that seemed to extend out of the cloak.

Several such claws then launched at him, and Ichigo unleashed a getsuga that carved through the attacks and dissipated before it hit Naruto. Kakashi realized that Ichigo was in complete control of it. Neither of them wanted to seriously harm Naruto.

He would have gone to help Ichigo, but he was tapped for chakra at the moment. It was a miracle that he was standing at all.

It seemed like the Kyuubi had grown impatient with how its attacks haven't been working. So, it took a posture and opened its maw out wide while looking upwards.

Kakshi's eye widened, as he realized what it was doing. But it didn't even get the time to form a small pebble of chakra.

Not giving it the opportunity, Ichigo exploded with his Fire Release Chakra Mode for a brief second and instantly appeared in front of Naruto. He immediately slammed five glowing fingers into Naruto's gut. The way the cloak immediately started receding, he realized what the jutsu was. It was the Five Elements Seal. It was a very advanced technique, but Ichigo seemed to be using it with ease. Then again, his specialty was fuinjutsu.

The Five Elements Seal disrupted the Four Symbols Seal on Naruto that contained the fox. As a result, it immediately cut access to the fox's chakra.

"I will perform the Five Elements Unseal when we are in the clear. For now, let him be," said Ichigo as he carried Naruto and brought him to Kakashi. Who, by this point had sat on the ground, breathing deeply. The barrier surrounding the clearing also disappeared with a hand seal. It seemed like Ichigo was ready to head out.

"I'm all out of chakra. My ninken are out there though. They are following Sakura and Sasuke. I will try to summon one of them so that they can lead you to the others," said Kakashi.

"No need. I am always aware of where my sister is. She isn't far off. I could get the bears to reverse summon her. But we'd then lose the Uchiha, wouldn't we?" asked Ichigo.

"Yes. Please save them both," said Kakashi, worried for a second whether Ichigo would take the safe way out.

"The only reason why I am not immediately getting Sakura summoned is that I know for a fact that she is not harmed yet," said Ichigo as he swiftly ran through a few seals and slammed his palms on the ground.

"Ichigo. What do you need me to do?" asked Shirokuma once he appeared.

"Look after these lot. Kakashi is out of chakra. I am going after the kidnapper," Ichigo spat as his body once more ignited with the chakra mode, and he instantly disappeared from the spot with a boom.

The entire time, his face was lacking any emotion, and his bloodlust was only growing.

"Raiga is dead, then," said Kakashi.

"Indeed," rumbled the bear, which seemed plenty agitated itself.

Kakashi could get behind that emotion. If he was not drained, he'd go out and gut the lunatic himself.

"Now where is Tazuna?" groaned Kakashi.

"Here," squeaked a voice from the foliage, and he watched as Saya lead Tazuna out of the foliage. "I kept him hidden," said the bear cub.

"Good job, young one," rumbled the larger bear.

"Now come here Tazuna, let's have a chat," said Kakashi with a fake cheer. He might be out of chakra, but he was not completely done in yet. He had enough in him to put the fear of god into a civvy.

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A.N: Final battle in my Harry Potter fic just kicked off! Before it comes to an end, I will put out a new story mostly. I don't want to have more than two stories ongoing at a time.

We don't have a specific time when Yagura was killed. So, I am taking a few liberties with it.

If you want to talk to me on discord, please find the invite in the auxiliary chapter.