Will of Fire: Kakashi Hatake

Chapter 29

It had been a month since Akira was released from the hospital, and in that time, she hadn't spoken or even looked at Kakashi a single time. The world felt wrong. The words they had exchanged in the hospital had hurt her. But the anger she felt toward him overwhelmed that pain. After thinking over their fight for the last couple of weeks, Akira knew the real reason why she was angry. She was angry and hurt that Kakashi would accuse her of throwing her life away in the face of a failed mission as his father had done. That, and she was tired of him treating her like a child. She'd been through as much as he had. It wasn't fair.

But still, she missed him. The entire month it felt like there was a hole in her chest that she couldn't fill, no matter how many times she hung out with Yuhi, Ranka, or Guy.

She had been stuck in the hospital for four days after Lord Third and Danzo had come to talk to her. Two weeks after Akira had been released from the hospital, she was training again. She wasn't able to do many of her harder exercises since most involved using her left arm. But she did her best to keep the rest of her body in shape. Eventually, she was able to start using her left arm more, after spending much of her chakra on healing herself. And now, a month after her release she was going on a mission.

Seek had welcomed her back the day prior for training, but now she was finally leaving the village again, much to her relief. The air in the village had become stale over the last few weeks, ever since she and Kakashi had argued. It was as if his anger was weighing her whole world down. But now that she was leaving the village she felt like she could breathe.

Seek ran next to her through the trees, and Frog was hot on their heels. They were on an intel collection mission. There was a powerful rogue ninja traveling across the Land of Fire, and they were part of the task force assigned to track his whereabouts. Unfortunately for Akira, Kakashi's team was also part of the task force.

"Remember, we will meet at the rendezvous at sundown, so we can meet the other team by midnight. Split up when we get to the village. Got it?"

"Got it," Akira and Frog echoed.

When they reached the village they each went their separate ways, sneaking through the streets and listening in on people's conversations. The rogue ninja had been making quite a fuss but had so far been able to stay ahead of the ANBU. He had left the Leaf Village months ago on good terms but was now causing so much damage to small villages that he had been labeled a rogue and the ANBU were sent to eliminate him.

Akira was able to find out where he was last seen both in the current village, as well as one to the north that had been hit just before it. Her team had slowly been able to put together a timeline of the rogue's travels and was catching up to him quickly. They were only about two days behind him now. This was their last step before they would pass the information they had gathered along to the next team.

Four ANBU teams were farther south at various outposts, waiting for the intel to reach them. The ninja had utterly destroyed a village earlier that week, so Lord Third deemed him a major threat to the Land of Fire. Every free team was sent after the rogue as the task force.

While patrolling the streets of the small village they had come to, Akira was able to learn which direction the rogue was believed to be traveling. When dusk was fast approaching, she left the village and made her way to the rendezvous point.

Frog was there when she got there, and Seek joined them just a moment later.

"Get anything good?" Seek asked Akira. Seek seemed to have a newfound respect for Akira's opinion now, and had been treating her as more of an equal than a subordinate.

She nodded. "Information on this attack and the last, as well as where he's rumored to have been seen going next."

"Great. Let's get going."