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English
Series:
Part 12 of IntoThineHands' Whumptober 2022
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Whumptober 2022
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Published:
2022-10-17
Words:
777
Chapters:
1/1
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2
Kudos:
37
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my precious

Summary:

Kakashi has been taken captive. But this isn't some foreign village's interrogation corps... But might it be worse?

For Whumptober Day 12 (What Could Go Wrong?): “Mayday, mayday!” | Cave In | Rusty Nail

Notes:

I got completely writer's-blocked on Whumptober, so have an offbeat AU. Doesn't quite fit the prompt, but I'm abusing the vagueness of the "cave-in" reference.

Was supposed to be slashy, but I didn't quite manage. Hence it's tagged as gen.

Work Text:

"Oi, Kakashi."

Kakashi came back to consciousness unsteadily, feeling his body fighting off the effects of a drug. An attempt to check his chakra flow met immediate resistance; his captor must have sealed off his chakra points somehow. He tried to shake his head, but it did little good. In his blindfolded state, he could sense nothing but the ropes around his limbs and that oddly familiar voice...

"Don't recognize me?" A dry laugh. "It has been a while. I suppose my voice has deepened..."

A hand stroked his cheek. Kakashi instinctively flinched away from the touch; the flesh felt cold and oddly ridged. "Poor Kakashi," the voice continued. "Losing one friend, having to kill the other, and then losing your mentor too. That's the life of a shinobi, eh?" A long, cackling laugh. "That's all life is in this rotten disaster we call a world..."

Kakashi set his jaw. It occurred to him that his captor had removed his mask; he struggled not to feel suddenly naked without it. "Poor, poor Kakashi." The hand deliberately rubbed its thumb in slow circles over where his face would ordinarily be covered by his mask; it felt oddly obscene. "But, you know -- poor me, too. I don't have anyone else, either." A scoffing sound. "And after I've been such a good boy."

Had... Had he been taken prisoner by an ordinary stalker? Probably not 'ordinary', considering that he had taken measures to nullify Kakashi's chakra, but... after countless S-ranked missions, would he meet his end at the hands of some deranged random ninja who had simply snapped after one too many nights of coming back to an empty house? He prayed he would find some way to escape his captivity, or, when his mortality released him from his torments, he would have to apologize in the next life to his father and his mentor for disgracing his ninja lineage. A stalker? Honestly? Maybe he was hallucinating under the influence of some drug or genjutsu, and he had nothing to blame for his current predicament but too many seedy volumes of Icha Icha...

"So I think we can help each other out, eh?" his captor went on, running his thumb over Kakashi's lips. Having a ninja's reflexes, he flicked it away before Kakashi could attempt to bite it off. "Aw, Kakashi, that's no way to treat someone who cares about you. I mean, you still have all your body parts, don't you?" A pause, as the captor withdrew his hand -- then Kakashi flinched as the unknown man tapped his Sharingan through the blindfold. "Except this one. But you can't blame me for that. After all, I mean..."

He gave a dry chuckle.

"...not quite the same as waking up in a dark cave with half your body gone, eh?"

"What?"

His captor cupped Kakashi's face in his hands: the left side warm, human flesh, and the right... that unnatural substitute. "Oh, I got a replacement. Just like you did, eh, Kakashi?" The ridged thumb stroked the scar trailing down from his Sharingan. "Except mine's a bit different... Then again, the price for me was much higher..."

"You... You're..." Inwardly, Kakashi cursed the first wild conclusion to which his mind jumped. Nothing but classic ninja headgames -- the only possible answer. The enemy had conducted a basic psychological profile and constructed an absurd scenario to re-activate old traumas and break down his perception of reality. Nothing more. Nothing more, nothing...

Hot breath warmed his face. "But I can't be, silly Kakashi. Because I'm dead, right?" Genjutsu, genjutsu, he was under genjutsu, he had to break the genjutsu -- "Well, I've got news for you!" His captor laughed in his face. "So are you, in the eyes of Konoha -- your comrades saw you die. You even gave a moving little speech... It's really wonderful what Tsukuyomi can do to the unaware, isn't it? Oh, do you even know what Tsukuyomi is? See, Kakashi, that's the problem with using an ability you haven't earned... All the prodigious intelligence in the world can't substitute for a bloodline's true instincts...

"And mine? Well... they've always said the Uchiha are a little mad, aren't they?" His captor leaned in, touching foreheads with him. Kakashi flinched at the feeling of bristly hair against his skin, and tried to fight down the irresistible conviction that it would be colored black. "So, see, as one dead man to another... I decided to protect the only thing I had left. The only way I knew how."

Kakashi could hear the mad smile in the man's voice.

"Get used to being 'dead', Kakashi. Because you're going to be here for a long time..."

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