Chapter 42: Mission Complete
"After you were taken, Obito wanted to go after you right away. I wanted to keep pushing forward with the mission. We argued… and in the end, we went our separate ways."
Kakashi raised his hand to cover his left eye. The searing pain from the wound still ran through every nerve in his body.
"I don't even know if I was being crazy, or if Obito's words got to me, but in the end… I decided to come look for you."
"Obito found a hidden entrance to the cave behind a cliff wall. But the one tied up inside wasn't you. It was Captain Inuzuka Ago, badly wounded."
"When I arrived, Obito was already fighting Iwagakure ninja. My left eye was injured during that battle, and that's when Obito awakened his Sharingan."
"Then the Iwagakure ninja used ninjutsu to collapse the cave, trying to bury us alive. Obito pushed me away, and the entire right side of his body was crushed under the falling rocks."
Kakashi's voice caught slightly.
"He said…" His throat tightened before the words finally came out. " 'Kakashi, this Sharingan… consider it a gift for your promotion to Jōnin.' Then he asked me to make sure I protected Rin properly."
Rin covered her mouth. Tears fell like a broken string of pearls, hot drops landing in her trembling palm.
"How is Captain Inuzuka Ago?" Izumo broke the heavy silence, pulling both of them back from their grief and into reality.
Kakashi took a deep breath, forcing his voice to steady. "He's still unconscious. I hid him in the vines and bushes on the western side."
He looked up at Izumo, gratitude clear in his eyes. "If you hadn't saved Rin… I honestly don't know how I would have faced Obito." As he spoke, he bowed deeply. "Thank you, Izumo Kamizuki."
"We're teammates." Izumo reached out and helped him straighten up, his tone calm and firm like solid stone. "Treat your wounds first. This mission isn't over yet."
Rin snapped back to herself. She quickly pulled out her medical kit, pale green medical chakra gathering at her fingertips, its soft glow standing out against the deepening dusk.
First, she carefully removed the bandage over Kakashi's left eye and wiped around the wound with disinfectant. As she slowly began to channel her chakra into it, Kakashi couldn't help but let out a restrained groan—but he clenched his teeth and forced himself not to make another sound.
After finishing with Kakashi, Rin followed him into the bushes on the western side.
Captain Inuzuka Ago's face was deathly pale, his forehead slick with cold sweat. Rin immediately knelt down, sending calming chakra into his temples while cleaning away the bloodstains and bits of grass clinging to his body.
Half an hour later, Inuzuka Ago's breathing finally evened out, and Kakashi's left eye was wrapped once more in a clean bandage.
"Kakashi, let's go finish the mission together," Izumo said, looking straight at him. "Let Rin take Captain Inuzuka back to camp first so he can recover."
Kakashi nodded and adjusted his ninja pack, signaling that he was ready.
Izumo turned his gaze toward the forest, which was growing darker by the minute. "Rin, be careful to erase your tracks. If you run into Iwagakure ninja, turn back immediately and avoid them."
Rin nodded, her eyes filled with worry. "Both of you, be careful. Kakashi, my medical ninjutsu can only help you this much. That Sharingan was just transplanted—don't overuse it. Once you get back to the village, find other medical ninja to help stabilize it properly."
She hoisted Inuzuka Ago onto her back and quickly disappeared into the depths of the forest.
Izumo and Kakashi exchanged a glance. Then, at the same time, they pushed off the ground and vanished in a flash of chakra, launching themselves toward Kannabi Bridge with the Body Flicker Technique.
At the edge of the forest, Kannabi Bridge lay like a silent, giant serpent stretched across the darkness, spanning a deep ravine under the night sky.
Kakashi lowered his body. His Sharingan mapped out the positions of the guards clearly in his mind.
"There's one Jōnin guarding the east side and one on the west. The Chūnin are split into three patrol teams, about ten steps apart from each other."
"I'll take care of the Jōnin on the west and draw the one on the east's attention to keep them busy. You use that chance to wipe out the Chūnin patrols. After that, we blow up the bridge together."
His fingers tightened around his kunai. The Sharingan glowed a deep red in the darkness, his voice steady and carefully calculated. To him, this was the safest plan. The security around Kannabi Bridge was far heavier than expected—and even though Izumo had saved Rin, he was still, on paper, just a Chūnin.
Izumo slowly shook his head.
His eyes locked onto the Jōnin's stable chakra presence behind the rock wall on the eastern side. "No need to split it like that. I'll handle the east. You take the west. We meet at the detonation point in three minutes."
Before the words could even fade, his figure had already shot out like a ghost. Even the chakra fluctuation from his Body Flicker Technique was so faint it was nearly undetectable.
Kakashi felt a flicker of irritation at Izumo ignoring his plan—but in the very next second, his pupils shrank.
He instinctively tried to follow that afterimage.
His Sharingan spun rapidly, but it could only catch a blurred trace of Izumo weaving through the shadows between the trees.
That speed… even the Sharingan was struggling to keep up with it!
The Iwagakure ninja on the eastern side was leaning against the rock wall, whispering softly. His ninja pouch was packed—clearly, he was already on high alert.
He sensed a shift in the air.
Just as he lifted his hand to form a hand seal, a cold kunai pierced straight through his throat.
The blood that burst out didn't even have time to hit the ground before Izumo used the falling body as a shield and charged straight toward the first patrol team.
All of this was reflected clearly in Kakashi's eyes.
His grip on his kunai tightened.
That clean, efficient killing technique. The flawless use of momentum. The perfect suppression of killing intent and chakra…
That wasn't the kind of strength an ordinary Chūnin could possibly have.
The Jōnin on the western side seemed to sense something wrong. He suddenly turned toward the east, Earth Release chakra already gathering in his hands.
"Who's there?!"
Seeing the western Jōnin's attention drawn east by Izumo's movements, Kakashi immediately formed hand seals.
A blinding burst of blue lightning erupted in his right hand.
"Chidori!"
With the two of them working in perfect sync, every guard on Kannabi Bridge was wiped out in a short span of time.
"You…" Kakashi opened his mouth, but found himself at a loss for words.
He had thought Izumo was, at most, an elite Chūnin.
He never expected his strength to be this overwhelming—no, not just not weaker than him… but possibly even stronger.
"Don't space out. Help me place the Explosive Tags."
Izumo spoke without looking up, handing a stack of tags to Kakashi.
"There are three main support pillars on this bridge. They all have to go at the same time if we want it completely destroyed."
Kakashi snapped back to himself and quickly crouched down to help. Three minutes later, every Explosive Tag was in place.
The two of them retreated to the edge of the ravine.
The night split apart with a thunderous roar.
The bridge collapsed in a sea of fire. Broken sections of the structure and massive chunks of stone plunged into the depths below, sending clouds of dust and debris spiraling into the sky.
Staring at the burning, severed remains of Kannabi Bridge, Kakashi let out a long, heavy breath.
Izumo reached out and gave his shoulder a steady pat.
"The mission's done. Time to fall back."
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