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Kakashi slammed to the rocky ground hard. He coughed up another mouthful of blood, once again soaking his mask with the salty liquid. He struggled to get his breathing under control, jerky and ragged as it was. He painfully lifted his head to look at his captor in contempt, his Sharingan eye blazing, though completely useless. Without warning, the cloaked figured crashed his knee into Kakashi’s stomach, sending him into the air. As he hit the wall at full speed, he gasped in pain and shock, and then fell down to the ground. Right as Kakashi hit, he once again felt the presence of the man in front of him, and grimaced.
“You’re pathetic.” The man whispered.
Kakashi struggled to his knees, blood dripping off of his mask and onto the floor. The long cloak of the man never swayed as he moved forward towards Kakashi. Kakashi drew his vision to the face of the black-haired youth.
“All you have to do is tell us what we want to know. Everything.”
Kakashi looked at the seven other transparent figures standing in a wide circle, waiting expectantly for his voice. He said nothing. He suddenly felt another hard kick in his gut, and doubled over in shock and pain.
“Tell. Then there may not be anymore pain.”
Kakashi’s courage faltered and he cast his eyes downward. Why was he resisting? It would be so much easier to just give up right now…..so much easier just to let it go….
DON’T DO IT.
Kakashi’s eyes snapped open.
What?
Ok, sorry for yelling. But don’t. It’s not worth it.
Great. Now he was hearing things.
“Well?” the man asked, with just a hint of impatience in his voice. Kakashi closed his eyes. Anko. He hadn’t had a chance yet to tell her he loved her. Damn it. But…..Would she have given up? He had been through more torture than he could ever imagine, and he knew there was worse to come. Was it all really worth it?
Light came back into his eyes, and he slowly raised his head to look the man in the eyes. A small look of shock and surprise passed through the Sharingan eyes of the cloaked figure, and was gone in an instant. Keeping his breath steady, Kakashi painfully stood up to the man’s full height.
“You’ll have a long time to wait, Itachi.”


Asuma sighed as he pulled out his pack of cigarettes. As usual, sitting on the roof beside Kurenai’s house was a typical day. Kakashi and Shikamaru accused him of being a pervert and a stalker, but then again, who was it that read books like “Make-Out Paradise”? Who was it that every time his girlfriend came over from the Sand, he followed her around like a lost puppy? He smirked. Frikin hypocrites. He shook the carton three times, and plucked the cigarette from it. Placing it between his lips, Asuma reached into his pocket, rustled a bit, and brought out his lighter. Flicking it, he watched the little flame dance back and forth in the wind before bringing it to the smoke and lighting it. But instead of breathing it in, he paused. He took it out of his mouth, and looked at it thoughtfully, before stubbing it out on the shingle next to him.
“Asuma,” came a voice from behind him. Asuma didn’t have to turn around to recognize the lazy pattern in the speech tone.
“Shikamaru,” he replied simply. Shikamaru sat down on the roof beside him, and leaned back to face the clouds.
“So, what’s up?” Shikamaru asked after a bit.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” answered Asuma.
Ignoring the cuss word, Shikamaru sat up and stared straight ahead of him.
“You know what I mean. I can totally read you like a book. You are the biggest chain smoker I know, and every time you have something on your mind, you stop, just like that. So, once again, what’s up?”
Asuma’s mouth twitched into a grin.
“Not worth it keeping anything from you, huh?” he murmured. He strove for words to explain why, but nothing was coming to mind.
“Kakashi, huh.” Shikamaru saved Asuma the breath. He nodded.
“Yeah. He’s been on the mission for a week and a half now. Look, I know he’s late for everything, but not this late.” Asuma admitted.
“You think something happened?”
“Maybe.”
Asuma sat on the roof, thinking. Kakashi’s mission was just to exterminate a small group of rebel waterfall chunin that were attacking the outer towns of the Fire Country. Nothing major. Three other chunin had gone with him as the cell leader, and none of them had returned, either. Coincidence? He didn’t think so.
“We can talk to the Hokage about this, since I only came up here to tell you we have a mission. And then it turns into a huge sob story. What a drag….” Shikamaru’s yawn broke into Asuma’s thoughts.
“Well then, that’s what we’d better get doing, huh?” laughed Asuma, getting up. Shikamaru grinned a bit, and followed his lead.