Chapter Text
Kakashi Hatake had carefully spent the last 10 years in the Anbu Black ops. As his time in the unit ended, he thought about all the death, dangerous missions, and more importantly the dark thoughts he held during this period in his life. His friends he grew up with had all taken notice in his lack of interest in anything and worried over him constantly. Recently the 3rd Hokage’s offer of becoming a Jonin Sensei touched his mind, but never fully planted itself into his heart.
Would he be able to be the Sensei his Genin teams would need him to be? Or would this cycle of torment continue in his life no matter what path in life he took?
These thoughts echoed in his mind as he waited in the tree line near one of Orochimaru’s secret bases. He took a deep breath and focused his mind on the task at hand.
There had been some unusual activity in the area: massive earthquakes of unknown origins, outrageous thunderstorms causing landslides, and unexplained warps in gravity. All causes for these occurrences pointed back to this place.
A task force was sent out a few weeks ago to canvas the area. They ended up discovering the hidden base on sheer luck, but a landslide forced them down the mountain into the forest below, injuring several operatives critically. Kakashi was the one they called when others failed, and unfortunately, it happened often enough to fill up his schedule during the week.
This mission seemed to be pretty cut and dry – get in the base, search for anything of importance on Orochimaru’s work, and bring it back to the leaf.
Simple. Easy. Maybe he’d have enough time for some make-out paradise when he got home later that evening.
He looked dully down at the cave opening and decided it was alright to proceed forward as he detected no movement or chakra presence inside.
As he crept into the narrow mouth of the cave, he angled his body to reach the opening and could feel a cool breeze on his face. He pushed past the crevasse and was immediately hit with the scent of decay. He crinkled his nose thankful for his mask and continued down until the passageway opened wider and he was able to walk comfortably.
He came upon an empty laboratory of some sort. The place was an utter disaster.
There was a large tube-like structure in the middle of the room that looked like whatever was held inside had escaped. Off to the side, there was a type of reclining chair with large metal restraints and a spotlight shining on the headrest. Kakashi had noticed that the restraints had been burned through and sighed to himself expecting to meet another of Orochimaru's monsters soon. He looked over at the throw-over table to see various bloodied tools scattered on the floor along with emptied syringes. He could hear the glass cracking from under his ninja boots and felt the hair on the back of his neck standing as his eyes adjusted to the dimmed lighting.
The room surrounding him was filled with large wooden spikes protruding throughout the room. He climbed up one spike to reveal they were full-grown trees, the roots were wrapped together into sharp points and Kakashi watched as the water was dripping from the opening. How curious.
There were a few bodies impaled by the wood explaining the stench in the room and Kakashi tried to identify a village or anything about the individuals but was unable to. These must have been Orochimaru’s lackeys, but what was their purpose there?
He wandered over to a large desk with various screens sitting on the table, the area was well surveillance from what he could tell meaning whatever was here was important. He searched through the various documents on the table and found pictures of the 1st and 2nd Hokages and various information about their abilities/family lineage but one document in particular caught his eye.
Female Senju: Name unknown
Age: 6-7 years
Chakra nature: Lightning/unknown
Kekkei Genkai: Wood release
Subject was found in the Land of Snow frozen.
Family lineages expect to be close to the main Senju branch from indicated markings.
Was this the person who broke through the glass and burned through the restraints? A little girl?
Kakashi flipped through more documents showing procedures done to the said child and felt sick as he came upon a picture of her. She seemed to be wincing in pain and it looked like a metal collar hung around her neck, maybe some type of control device? Her hair was long and white, and her eyes were a bright red as two distinctive red markings ran down the contour of her high cheekbones
The tears staining her face clearly in the photo made Kakashi’s stomach churn as he remembered his previous encounters with Tenzo. He was made aware of the child experiments done on him in the same type of tube found in this place. If this child truly had the wood release, then that means that the damage done to these people manifested through her.
He started gathering up the documents that were scattered and sealed them into a scroll for easier transport back to the Hokage and froze when he heard small sniffles. While scanning the room amongst the wreckage he spotted some long white strands of hair and two red eyes peering out at him from under a tree.
He paused. He did not expect anyone to be here, so he was taken back for a moment. While stepped closer to where she was and he stopped when a small whimper escaped from her throat
She retreated further into her hiding place. He noticed that the tree began to wrap itself around her protectively and his suspicion was confirmed that this was another one of Orochimaru’s test subjects injected with the wood release. Kakashi sighed running a hand through his hair and began thinking of various scenarios playing out in his mind. He would have to bring this girl with him back to Konoha, but how exactly was he going to do that? He thought for a moment and realized he probably looked scary with his Anbu mask on. So, he removed it letting his different colored eyes be revealed and he bent down to be at the child’s eye level.
“I know you must be scared. It seems like this is a scary place to be…” he trailed off and looked towards the girl while tilting his head. She hadn’t even bothered to look at him. “My name is Kakashi Hatake, and I am from Konohagakure, I was sent here to retrieve you.” He waited for a response and saw the glint of a single red eye peeking at him from the shadow.
Kakashi sighed and tilted his head up slightly, the light reflecting off of his Sharingan eye. His attention was brought back to the child as a small pale hand poked out from the darkness of the tree root and signed out the word ‘Uchiha’. The tree opened more to reveal her small dirty face as she waited for his response.
“Um…no not quite an Uchiha…it’s a long story…” Kakashi trailed off not wanting to explain to a 7-year-old child why he had the Sharingan. “Why don’t you tell me your name?” Kakashi smiled trying to keep the focus on her.
She opened the tree more to were Kakashi was able to see more of her. The dirty gown stained with blood clung to her small frame quite loosely making her look skinny and frail. She brought her arms up again to sign the name, ‘Yu’ and pointed to herself. ‘I want to go home’ she signed again, small tears running down her face.
Kakashi’s heart hurt for this poor innocent being and knew she had been through a lot in this place. “Come with me then Yu. I will take you to my village. I will protect you, and we can take you home.” Kakashi offered letting a smile touch his lips trying to be as warm and inviting as he could muster.
This feeling was foreign to him, showing kindness out of desperation, he knew if she didn’t go with him there is no telling how long she would last on her own. She hugged her knees to her chest weakly and seemed to think over the offer. She looked around and studied the roots that she killed the men with after they hurt her, and she knew she needed to get out of there if she ever expected her family to find her.
She opened the roots with her chakra and stepped out. She tried to stand, but as quickly as she gained her footing, she began to fall completely exhausted and Kakashi lunged forward to catch her.
Yu’s eyes were shut tight almost as if she expected Kakashi to hurt her in some way. Kakashi expected that her reaction stemmed from the torture and pitied the girl even further.
“Your safe now Yu. Just rest.” Kakashi cooed down to the small framed child in his arms watched her as she nuzzled into the warmth of his chest.
She looked through half lidded eyes up at him and he could feel little hot tears on his arm as he carried her bridal style out of the horrid place. Yu closed her eyes and felt safe for once she since she was woken up from her sleeping time. She cuddle into Kakashi’s stomach and drifted off into some well-deserved sleep.