Hana's heart ached as she listened to the heart-wrenching wails of the Kunoichi whom Enma had just freed from Hiruko's Puppet Curse.
Pakura, on the other hand, was very quiet, and Enma was still holding her fast in his chains, which meant he considered her a threat.
The Uzumaki suddenly blurred from his position and seized the Ice Kunoichi's hand, who was on the verge of taking her own life.
"Kill yourself after you have helped us deal with that man."
At his words, she froze, and her dark grey eyes grew cold.
"What's your name?" he asked gently, and she raised her head to look up at him.
She continued to stare at his blindfolded eyes, then lowered her gaze.
"Kahyo. Yuki Kahyo..."
"You are from Kiri?" Pakura's cold voice broke the silence, and she fixed her gaze on Kahyo as if she were a mortal enemy.
"No. I ran from the village that murdered my family because of our powers," she said sadly, fresh tears streaming from her eyes.
At her words, Pakura frowned and lowered her head again.
"That man..." Kahyo's voice broke, "he killed my brother, and he... devoured my child."
Hana felt chills race up her spine, and even Kakashi froze.
"Devoured?" Enma inquired quietly, and Yuki began to cry again.
"Hiruko devours people to gain their Kekkei Genkai. He wanted Ice Release. I offered myself, but he killed my brother and took my son instead. He took my son!" she screamed.
"Is he..."
"He's dead." It was Pakura who answered. "The person he devours dies. He recently filled the last spot in his body with a child named Ranmaru, who possessed a peculiar Dōjutsu. The boy was with one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, Raiga. We captured them near a gold mine in the Land of Rivers."
"What does that Dōjutsu do?" Kakashi asked.
"I do not know."
"And how are you alive? Didn't Kiri kill you?" he pressed, intently studying the powerful Kunoichi once seen as the Kazekage's successor.
Pakura frowned, remaining silent, but as the chains tightened around her, she winced in pain.
"I was betrayed by my village. Suna handed me over to Kiri so they could take their revenge on me, and the two villages could bury their differences and sign a treaty. Twenty-seven kunai. That's how many stabbed me in the back," she said with a rueful smile. "Hiruko found me on my last breath, and he saved me."
"And you are grateful to him for saving you?" Enma questioned, and Hana was surprised by the flatness in his voice.
It was the first time she had heard him speak with such indifference, and she knew Pakura could lose her life if the Uzumaki did not accept her answer.
"Should I be grateful to someone who saved my life just to use me as a test subject and to eventually devour me for my Kekkei Genkai?" Pakura smirked.
"No." The Uzumaki shook his head and loosened his chains around her. "You are free to go."
Pakura looked at him in surprise and then frowned.
"Are you going to kill Hiruko?"
"Yes."
"I will go with you. But Raiga is mine. I will kill him with my own hands, and I do not care if he is being controlled as well," she said, standing up. Hana and Kakashi exchanged a look.
"If she was loyal to Hiruko, he would not have needed the Puppet Curse on her," Enma said, and the others finally lowered their guard a little.
"Let's go." Hana, a little worried for everyone else, took the lead, and Enma soon caught up.
Kakashi remained behind Kahyo and Pakura, keeping his eyes on both.
He would never entirely trust two foreign Shinobi, especially such dangerous ones.
However, in his mind, he was also already analysing the abilities of Enma's Chakra Chains.
What he had observed was that those chains seemed to have nullifying properties, as well as purification and Chakra absorption. When Enma had broken the curse on him, he had helped him recover his Chakra as well, and Kakashi was certain the boy had shared some of his own Chakra too. He had never felt so strong in his life.
These Chakra Chains were unlike those of his father, whose chains were lethally destructive and could melt anything. Nor were they the same as his Sensei's wife's chains, which had powerful sealing properties.
The memory of the Fourth Hokage and his wife blurred his vision momentarily, but he brushed it aside and focused on the present.
As they entered Akagahara Forest, Hana's three Haimaru Brothers transformed into small puppies and clambered over her.
Enma took the lead, and everyone followed, stepping only where he stepped.
Against all odds, they managed to cross the twenty-kilometre forest without setting off a single trap. But when they emerged out of it, they froze at the sight of Team 3 and Team 10, led by Asuma, engaged in a desperate struggle against a monstrous chimera.
Yugao was on a platform atop a hill, duelling Raiga of the Mist, who wielded the Kiba Swords.
Karin and Shizuka were locked in combat with a Shinobi who possessed the Explosive Release.
Guy himself was fighting an opponent with a strange Kekkei Genkai, which seemed to neutralise his Taijutsu.
"Kahyo, help the others with that creature," Enma instructed the Yuki, who obeyed without hesitation. Hana rushed to clear the swarms of puppets closing in on Tenten and Choji.
Pakura, without a word, charged at Raiga, while Kakashi dashed to aid Anko, who was fighting in the hills, away from the eyes.
However, as he hurried, he heard a familiar sound behind him. Turning, he saw the Uzumaki using his signature Jutsu.
"Chidori!"
He was stunned as he watched Enma rush to assist his sister, and before Gari, the Shinobi, could react, he was impaled through the chest. The boy made no effort to break him out of the mind control; he simply ended his life.
The Copy Ninja did not know how to feel, seeing his own unique Jutsu copied and used so casually. Enma had not even asked permission to use it, and, more than that, he wielded it as though he had mastered it long ago.
Kakashi sighed inwardly, putting aside his thoughts to focus on aiding Anko, and Enma joined him.
"When did you copy that Jutsu?"
"When you used it against Zabuza, then against me today. I figured out how it worked when you killed that Chimera Bird," Enma replied. "It is an exceptionally unique and powerful technique."
"I created it." Kakashi felt compelled to remind the boy it was his own Jutsu, and sighed when Enma looked at him.
"Nice."
"Is that all?"
"You do not expect me to ask permission to use it, do you?" Enma grinned. "We are Shinobi, Kakashi-sensei. And must I remind you what people call you?"
Kakashi audibly sighed.
"You may use it, but just do not use it against friends. It is meant to kill."
"I understand," Enma nodded and stamped hard on the ground before leaping high into the air.
"Wind Style: Great Blade of Wind!"
Anko broke away from her opponent, the mummy-like man in bandages, and Kakashi paused as he witnessed a colossal blade crash down upon Hiruko.
The power of the Jutsu stunned him, but what happened next was even more shocking.
"Dark Release: Void Gate."
The Missing-Nin conjured a large, arched gate of darkness, which simply devoured the Wind Blade.
"Ninjutsu does not work on him, gaki!" Anko called out to the Uzumaki, who landed again.
Somehow, Hiruko understood Enma's intentions and leapt high, using Swift Release to dodge the Chakra Chains erupting from the ground.
"He's fast as well..." Anko observed, and Kakashi tensed, opening his Sharingan only to find he could not see within Hiruko's body. "And his strange Dōjutsu nullified Neji's Byakugan."
"My Sharingan too..."
They were distracted by a sudden sound behind them.
Looking back, Enma had enveloped himself in a spherical cage of Chakra Chains, and both Jonin froze as Hiruko appeared and began forming hand seals at dizzying speed.
"Steel Release: The Steel Tomb."
In an instant, the Uzumaki, already caged by his own white chains, was also enclosed in a steel sphere. Even when Anko attacked Hiruko, she could not stop the Jutsu.
The Missing-Nin used Swift Release once more to evade her kick.
"Oh, Kakashi, my old friend. I am saddened that you refuse to join my army."
The Copy Ninja moved at once to cover Anko's back, watching as a blur circled them.
"Am I not perfect now? Taijutsu is useless against me. Ninjutsu does not work. And your Sharingan is worthless too," Hiruko laughed, and then their instincts screamed as spears of ice shot from the ground, aimed to impale them.
They dodged for a minute before the technique ended, both staring solemnly at the forest of ice spears.
"Ice Release, Steel Release, Dark Release, Swift Release... and look up..."
They heard his words and saw a tremendous cyclone descending upon them from above.
They both used the Substitution Jutsu, but Hiruko saw where they reappeared and delivered two punishing kicks to their abdomens, knocking out the air from their lungs.
Kakashi instinctively ran through hand seals, attempting to entomb Hiruko in earth, but the man used Swift Release again.
"How did you cope with the Chakra consumption?" Kakashi tried to distract his enemy.
"I am still working on it. The toll is severe. That is why I activated the Puppet Seal on you and made you retrieve that briefcase. So tell me, where is it?"
"I do not know. Enma had it." He pointed to the steel sphere, and Hiruko paused, staring at the tomb he had crafted for the Uzumaki.
"I see. Care to tell me how you managed to break my Puppet Curse? I seem to have lost control over Pakura and Kahyo as well."
"I do not know," Kakashi replied, readying for another attack. But suddenly, the bandages on Hiruko's body rushed at him and Anko.
The Hebi-sensei evaded them and landed a punch on the enemy, only to be impaled by a Wind Blade.
Kakashi froze at the sight, but then Anko's body melted into sticky mud that shot at Hiruko and enveloped him.
In the next moment, she used the Headhunter Jutsu and pulled the Missing-Nin into the ground, leaving only his head exposed.
Kakashi quickly hurled a kunai, aiming for the head, but Hiruko released a wave of Dark Release, which blocked it and also consumed the earth and mud restraining him.
Seeing he was about to escape, Anko and Kakashi attacked as soon as the darkness lifted, and as Anko's Shadow Snakes bound him, Kakashi pierced the man's heart with his Raikiri.
However, the sense of relief did not come. Instead, both were horrified as Hiruko used the Mud Shadow Clone technique Anko had employed earlier, coating their bodies with sticky mud.
The restrained Anko was revealed to be a clone again, and the real one swiftly pulled Kakashi clear of Hiruko's bandages.
Both panted, staring at their terrifying foe, and noted with relief that he was visibly tiring as well.
"How did you manage to hold on against him for so long?" Kakashi asked his colleague, who chuckled.
Hiruko took a deep breath and lunged at him, but immediately had to use Swift Release to evade Chakra Chains and the Steel Tomb erupting behind him.
Seeing this, both Anko and Kakashi felt immense relief.
But it was short-lived.
Enma burst free from the tomb, panting, looking utterly exhausted, and a moment later, he lost his head as an invisible Wind Blade decapitated him.
Everything happened so fast that neither of the Jonin even got the time to react.
They just watched as his head fell to the ground with a thud, and a fountain of blood erupted from his headless body as it collapsed like a sack.
Hiruko's mad cackles resounding next, and their hearts skipped a few beats...