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Tenzo still remembered that fateful mission clearly. It was just after Itachi joined Team Ro. Probably the last time all original members were participating: Salamander (Genma), Bull (Gai), Tiger (Hayate), Lynx (Yugao), Weasel (Itachi), himself as Cat, and Kakashi as Hound. However, the mission was so large that they brought on extra players. Obito, Rin, Shisui, Raido, Asuma, Kurenai, Aoba, Ebisu, Ibiki, and Anko tagged along. Basically their whole class, sans Shizune. Sandaime-sama thought it would be a good “bonding” experience. This mission was mask off, and everyone knew who was in ANBU from their generation anyway. Genma was getting ready to rejoin Raido on the Hokage Guard Squad and Gai realized that ANBU was starting to lessen his “youthfulness”. Guess he wasn’t wearing enough green. Hayate had another year in him before his cough forced him to leave.
They were assigned a gangbuster mission in Tanzaku Quarters, one of the sleaziest villages in Hi no Kuni. He, Anko and Genma, the big flirts, were supposed to go to the bars and try to pick up some information while Kakashi, Itachi, and Shisui did patrols. Within an hour, Genma was drunk off his ass hanging around the girls (and guys), Anko wasn’t much better, and Tenzo was slowly sipping his sake, mulling over his luck. The warmth was starting to let some memories slip into the foreground.
Every night that he spent at home always brought back the botched mission to capture Orochimaru. The first friend he ever made, the first time meeting his senpai. He missed Yukimi dearly and wondered where she was now.
Since the alcohol was starting to wear on him, he’d have to go soon, to make sure he wouldn’t give something away involuntarily. Then somebody sat next to him, and he froze at the cheerful voice saying “I’ll have what he’s having.” He turned his head slowly and gazed at his wish come true.
Yukimi had changed a lot since childhood. He was finally taller than her, but she still looked the same. The biggest change was in her physique. She put on a lot of muscle since they separated. Tenzo could tell she was a lot stronger than she looked, and coupled with the shinobi gear on her person meant that his old friend was training hard since she left. She must’ve noticed him staring, because she turned to look at him with that same smile that shattered his ROOT conditioning when they were kids.
“Hi Tenzo-kun! It’s been a long time! How are you?” The teen could feel the blush rising on his face
Tenzo stumbled over his words. “Um-I-Uh-I’m doing fine. Uh, how’re you? Where you’ve been?”
Yukimi chuckled at her friend’s flustered expression. “I’ve been traveling around Hi no Kuni, helping people, solving problems, training, that sorta thing.”
Tenzo hummed. “So you’re a mercenary?”
She frowned at that. “No. I’m a do-gooder. I help people and stop the bad guys. Like you’re trying to do now.”
Tenzo raised an eyebrow at that, unconsciously adopting a playful edge to his voice. “Oh? What makes you say that?”
His friend scoffed. “There is no way that you would be in Tanzaku Quarters on personal business.”
Tenzo smirked lightly. “Maybe I am. Maybe I just came here to look for you.” He frowned again. “I missed you, a lot. You were my first friend.” He saw a pink tint grace her cheeks, but she didn’t drink enough to make her flushed, that he knew.
She sighed, looking down as she stirred her drink. “I missed you too, but I had to find my own way, away from that mess.”
A glimmer of hope filled his chest. “You could always come back. Things have calmed down now, there haven’t been any major incidents in years.”
She smiled again, but was interrupted by a hand smacking the bar. “Hey sweetheart, why ya talking to that gloomy guy, huh?” Tenzo groaned. Of course Genma had to ruin the moment. With the amount of color on his cheeks, he was clearly inebriated enough to not be able to walk straight. “I’m a much better conversationalist.”
Yukimi smirked mirthlessly. “I don’t know, we were doing just fine.” She turned her head to the senbon user, a challenging glint in her eye. “You sure you can do better tough guy?”
Genma froze when she saw her face. The number of times Tenzo had described when either depressed or drunk or both had etched her description into his mind, not to mention their friends. He started laughing hysterically. “OH! MY! GOD! This is her??!” He somehow laughed even harder when he saw his friend scowl, and turned his head in the direction of his purple-haired drinking buddy. “ANKO! GET OVER HERE!”
Yukimi raised an eyebrow. “So, I take it he talks about me.”
“A lot, when he’s drunk.” A high--pitched voice stated out of thin air, and Tenzo turned around to find his purple-haired teammate grinning at him. “Tenzo-kun always gets depressed when he thinks about you and it is the FUNNIEST thing to watch at the bar.”
The young ANBU groaned. “Stop bullying me guys.” He was met with two very amused “NO”s, then the door to the bar slammed open, and all patrons stopped.
In stepped four very burly-looking men, wielding everything from clubs to swords to pitchforks WTF? The three Konoha shinobi stayed at the bar and turned away as the men began accosting the other patrons and kicking them out. Tenzo picked up something about business and made a side glance at Genma, flashing the hand signs for leader and then hostage. Their information source had finally arrived.
The leader finally walked to their corner of the bar and stood behind them. “We got business here. Clear out!” None of them moved. “You deaf? I said leave!” He put a hand on Genma’s shoulder, and Tenzo heard a scream in pain as the hulking man was probably stabbed in said hand with a senbon. That was their cue then.
Tenzo whirled and threw a kunai that intentionally missed his target, its intent to shock. He saw Genma reverse jump into a spin kick to the back of the head as Anko lunged with a snake coming out of her right arm, a manic grin on her face. Tenzo went after his opponent with a speed that belied his appearance, sending the man stumbling backward before having his leg swept out from under him, hitting the back of his. The sound of coughing caused Tenzo to turn and see smoke enveloping the last target behind him, before seeing the haze materialize into Yukimi??? choking the man out with her thighs (Tenzo thought that was kinda hot) and dropping a hard elbow on the top of his skull.
With all targets on the ground, the four shinobi caught a breather. Tenzo had oh so many questions after seeing the skill with which Yukimi utilized her kekkei genkai. How did she know how to fight? Did she have any other tricks up her sleeves? She looked at him with an apologetic smile that said later, so he shook his head and began stacking their opponents’ unconscious bodies on top of a sealing scroll. Activating the scroll, he watched as the bodies were sucked in before Anko tucked it into her sleeve. It was time to go.
They walked slowly towards the front door as they heard some commotion going on outside. Genma gave the sign to stop, suddenly completely sober. Out of the corner of his eye, Tenzo could see Yukimi weaving through familiar hand signs that he’s seen Asuma do during spars. The door burst open as multiple thugs crashed through, and a strong gust of wind sent them flying back out again.
Without thinking any further, the four shinobi rushed out of the bar…only to be greeted by a large group of very angry thugs.
Genma groaned. “Of course they brought friends.”
***
Kakashi was having a very bad day.
It started during his investigations with Itachi and Shisui around Tanzaku Quarters. Itachi called in something strange about a warehouse on the outskirts of the city, so he and Shisui rendezvoused with their partner and took a look.
What they found damn near made Kakashi throw up.
He took part in the investigation of the labs found after Orochimaru fled the village. He found tubes full of dead children and gruesome lab reports but it was fairly clean. Whatever happened here was the total opposite.
Bloodstains were everywhere. Discarded gore surrounded surgical tables. Mutilated corpses were rampant around the building. Jars filled with eyes and other…things…littered the shelves. Kakashi stepped in Kami-knows-what. Everything in the warehouse reeked of the Snake Sannin. Kakashi knew had to pull his infiltration team out of Tanzaku before Orochimaru returned.
So imagine his surprise when he sees said team fighting off wave after wave of ugly thugs in the streets outside a bar.
Imagine his further surprise when his eyes spot a female straight out of his memories.
The two Uchiha sent in a flock of crows as a distraction before he ordered any moves, but he didn’t complain. They had to go.
Kakashi led the way back to the camp, arriving in the midst of a lackadaisical environment that he resolved to change very quickly.
He removed his Hound mask. “CODE BLACK, I REPEAT CODE BLACK, everyone get prepped and arm all security measures!”
“Kakashi!” The prodigy turned his head to meet Obito’s onyx eyes. “Kakashi what the fuck happened?”
Kakashi turned away from him, facing straight back towards the warehouse. All Obito could hear was the whispered name every shinobi in Konoha dreaded hearing. “Orochimaru…”
***
Tenzo sat underneath a tree in the center of camp, eyes fixed on the horizon. Around him, the camp was in a buzz. The ANBU members minus himself were on patrol and Anko and Ibiki were working over the prisoners they brought back. He was left all by his lonesome, pondering the events of the past few hours as the sun began to set.
“Listening to the trees?” a joking voice asked.
He turned to see Yukimi walking toward him. He frowned. “They have feelings too, ya know.”
She laughed and sat down next to him. Tenzo receded into the depths of his mind, content to just sit there with her as comfort. He thought back to the mission when they first met. He was sent on his current path, away from ROOT, because of her. But he wanted to know just what she was doing during all those years apart.
“So,” he began, turning to face her, “you clearly received some shinobi training during your travels.”
She smiled a little in response. “Yeah…I trained with the monks of the Fire Temple for a time, then went over to Wind, and trained a little out there to try and perfect my transformation. Came back and started working as a wandering nin” She sighed. “It’s nice helping people out, but I wish I just came right back to the village. I missed you, all the time.”
Tenzo smirked “Well you’re back now. You can be a full-fledged shinobi. You can finally be in my life again after so many years.” He felt the heat rise to his cheeks as he saw her blush.
She looked at the ground. “You really…feel that way about me?”
Tenzo stared ahead again. “Anko said I talked about you a lot. For good reason, though. I thought about who you are to me. I didn’t have a lot of good days back then, but that day at the carnival was the best day of my life. It was the first time actually being…happy. You taught me fun, happiness, kindness, friendship…” he chuckles. “You even taught me love. Thinking about you always brightened up my day. I wished for you to come walking through those gates every damn day after you left. I have friends now, best friends, teammates, and mentors but you were always missing. I need you back, Yukimi.”
Tenzo finished his little monologue and waited for a reply. He kept waiting for what felt like hours, before he finally faced his first friend again.
She was…crying? Fuck, did he do something wrong? Tenzo started to panic. He must’ve dropped everything too soon and too fast. Shit, he had to apologize before he ruined the relationship he just got back. Then he felt hands grab the sides of his head and lips smash onto his own.
Tenzo had always dreamed of what his first kiss would be like. Could be like an explosion of passion like in that book Kakashi lent him? Or would it be bland and leave him wanting more?
Needless to say, he was pleased to have such a mind-blowing experience. The kiss wasn’t long by any means, but he learned that she smelled like smoked off a bonfire. It was nice. He closed his eyes and let himself be drawn into that scent, wrapping his left hand around the back of her head to bring her closer. A few seconds later and she pulled away, gazing into his eyes with a small smile.
He felt the heat rise to his cranium as he rubbed the back of his neck. “So…um…is that a yes?”
She was about to answer when he tensed, eyes widening. A flock of crows flew out of the trees far away, and Tenzo wasn’t taking any chances. He grabbed a root of one of the trees and focused. There was some presumed bullshit in Danzo’s records about Hashirama being able to communicate with trees and now was the perfect time to test it. He heard screams of pain as he felt trees die where the crows were leaving. Something was coming their way.
“Shit…Yukimi, go alert Kakash.I gotta be ready to help the defense.”
Tenzo ran to the center of their camp as Yukimi transformed into smoke and flew off to find Kakashi. Tenzo started gathering as much chakra as he could to prepare for the size of the jutsu he was going to use. He heard a shrill whistle, the single to recall all operatives, and saw everyone gather around him. Kakashi began yelling out orders to the others as the Crow Summoners reported.
“Orochimaru is a couple hundred meters out.” Shisui stated, running a hand through his curly hair. “Whatever we’re gonna do we gotta do it now.”
Itachi frowned. “He’s also trying to pick our summons out of the sky.” Aoba nodded, cringing as he pushed his glasses up. “I had to recall mine because they were right in his path.”
Kakashi groaned. “There goes our overwatch. Anko!”
The purple-haired kunoichi nodded. “On it!” She weaved a familiar set of hand seals. “Summoning Jutsu!” A puff of smoke and snakes appeared on the ground, already moving to intercept Orochimaru.
“Alright, everybody be ready to go all out to stall him. We have to keep him in this trap. Tenzo, now!”
Tenzo quickly ran through hand seals and slammed them on the ground. “Mokuton: Wood Locking Dome!”
Immediately, a large wooden dome appeared around the campsite, enclosing them all, and almost immediately it was attacked by something.
Tenzo was basically exhausted. He pushed almost all of his chakra into that dome s his comrades had enough time to prepare. He could see it already: eyes whirling, hand seals flashing, hell was about to break loose.
Then the dome was smashed in and crumbled, and the biggest fucking snake he had ever seen appeared out of the dust, with a smirking Orochimaru perched atop his head.
Tenzo remembered the monster. He saw him countless times through the glass of his pod, that evil smile forever meshed into his mind. He had a sudden urge to wipe it off the planet, but that snake had to go. He heard Kakashi’s story about facing Manda. They needed to even the playing field. Or so they thought. To everyone’s surprise, Orochimaru dispelled Manda???
Bastard must be confident. They could use that to their advantage.
First the ninjutsu specialists went to work. Obito ran through some hand seals, ending in Horse, and channeled almost all of his chakra into fire. “Eat flames, snakebreath! Katon: Great Fire Annihilation!” Ebisu pushed up his glasses and ran through some hand seals of his own, Aoba following suit. “Katon: Fire Dragon Bullet!” Immediately, the Snake Sannin and the area surrounding him were engulfed in flames.
Tenzo knew better than to think was the end of it though. The earth cracked, and stalagmites appeared where some of the group was standing. Kakashi signaled the ninjutsu and genjutsu specialists (Kurenai, Itachi, and Ibiki) to fall back, as the taijutsu and kenjutsu specialists jumped in to fight the enemy as he appeared in front of the flames. You would think that with 10 vs 1 of some of the best Konoha had to offer, Orochimaru would be a little outgunned, but the man showed his prodigal skills and was holding them off with relative ease. If Hayate, Yugao, and Raido teamed up with their blades, he would dodge, weave, and strike. If Rin, and Genma and Gai tried to fight him hand to hand, he’d win. If Asuma tried his chakra blades or Anko joined in with snakes, he’d disappear and knock them down. He even anticipated Shisui. Kakashi was having a harder time than normal. They didn’t have a choice; they needed to fall back.
Tenzo had the perfect distraction, but it would be a little costly. Ram, Ox, Boar, Snake, please work! “Mokuton: Four Pillar Prison!”
A cage appeared around Orochimaru, but he kept that stupid smirk on his face. Kakashi gave the signal to retreat. Obito began charging chakra into the barrier seal he set up, but with the large area it was going to take a while for the barrier to appear. They had to keep stalling, especially since Tenzo’s cage was just destroyed shit!
Obito gritted his teeth. “Keep stalling him!”
Kurenai and Ibiki weaved hand seals of their own, launching genjutsu after genjutsu at their opponent, but Orochimaru was breaking them easily. Itachi joined in as well, trying some Sharingan genjutsu, to limited success, but success nonetheless. Everyone knew it wouldn’t be enough, though.
Tenzo gritted his teeth. They needed something, anything. Just one more. The barrier was coming around but not fast enough. The fear was radiating.
Suddenly he heard that horrible raspiness. “Good try, I must say. Your generation has extreme potential. Unfortunately, it will never be realized.”
Everyone felt it, then. The killing intent slowly but surely climbed higher and higher, and the Snake Sannin just walked slowly towards them. Obito lost concentration and the barrier fell. There was nothing they could do. The most promising members of Konoha’s sixth generation would be snuffed out. Maybe the nuclear option?
Better than nothing, he decided. “Asuma, can you use the Ash Pile Burning to get us out of here?”
The Sarutobi spare shook his head. “The bastard would just blow it back at us. Besides, it wouldn’t cover large enough ground.”
Obito’s eyes lit up. “I have a different idea. We may even be able to Hey, new girl!” He turned towards Yukimi. “I’m gonna need your help with this.” He concentrated chakra in his lungs. “Katon: Hiding in Ash Jutsu!”
The Uchiha breathed a large cloud of ash out of his mouth, but did not ignite it yet. Yukimi, seeing the trick, transformed into smoke and entered the ash cloud. The ultimate technique of the Iburi Clan allowed them to manipulate the smoke they were surrounded by, and she intended to use this to her full advantage. The large cloud moved as one on Orochimaru, faster than he thought possible. He chuckled, until he felt it entering his lungs and started to hack. She was going to make this man suffer while she had the chance.
Tenzo was worried. “Yukimi, we’re clear, get out of there!”
But she didn’t appear. Instead, her face materialized at the back of the cloud. “I have to keep him occupied or he’ll dispel this! One of you, light this thing already!”
Kakashi's eyes widened. “You’ll die! That’s not worth the risk!”
She frowned. “I’m sorry, guys. I’ll reconstitute myself from the smoke of the explosion. Obito, do it.”
Tenzo couldn’t hear anything, not Obito’s voice, not the roar of the Great Dragon Fire Jutsu, not the resulting explosion, only the words that were meant for his soul. “I love you, Tenzo.”
Then…
There was nothing.
Silence
And Tenzo fell to his knees, waiting. He waited for movement in the smoke.
For her to reappear.
For it all to be right again.
He waited, but nothing came.
They had to leave.
Kakashi placed a hand on his kouhai’s shoulder, tears in his own eyes. “I’m sorry Tenzo.”
Tenzo couldn’t take it anymore. He openly sobbed. “Why…why did this happen to me? I just got her back…”
Kakashi looked at the scorched earth, hoping to whatever god out there that they got the Snake Sannin, but knew it was probably too good to be true. “I don’t know. This is…the reality of being a shinobi. Sometimes, we lose the one care about the most.” He turned to walk away. “Come on. We have to go back to the village.”
Tenzo just stayed there, mourning, unknowing of the almost imperceptible movement of the smoke in front of him.