Picture is ANBU Miyoshi
"We've been assigned a mission." Kakashi walked into the locker room, not looking up from a mission file that he held in his hands. "It's an assassination. A group of rogue Hidden Mist ninja who have been sighted on Fire Nation land. I want everyone ready to leave as soon as possible."
"Yes captain"s echoed through the room, and the sound of lockers opening and closing joined the cacophony of the low buzz of murmured predictions about the mission.
I strapped up my armour and put on my mask. It was simpler than everyone else's; wolf shaped with a single red stripe on the chin and a red cross on the forehead, symbolising my position as a medic. This would be my first mission as an ANBU and I was excited, though I didn't show it, as I'd long since gathered that the ANBU was not exactly a happy place to hang out.
Tenzō was nice, as far as I could tell. I really knew nothing about him, except that he used wood style and that he was friends with Kakashi. According to Tenzō, Kakashi was actually fairly calm around the ANBU. I had begun to wonder if he had something personal against me and our classmates. Maybe we reminded him of Rin and Obito. Either way, Tenzō told me that he had been acting extra grumpy since I'd been assigned to Team Ro.
"Miyoshi." Kakashi approached me separately. "I want you to keep up to us. The ANBU travel quickly and we complete missions in as little time as possible. Also, I expect you to fight when attacked. Medic or not, you're still an ANBU, so you have to act like it."
"I didn't ask to be here, but if Lord Third appointed me to the ANBU, he obviously thinks I'm good enough," I snapped. "Just because I'm a medic doesn't mean I'm hopeless at everything else." I strapped my twin blades to my back.
"Just don't drag us down."
Tenzō looked genuinely surprised at Kakashi.
"I call him 'salty with a chance of attitude'." I told him. "It's probably the most accurate nickname so far. Although, I used to call him Kaka-baka. That one's pretty good, too."
"Did something happen between the two of you that I should know about? You seem to really hate each other," Tenzō observed.
"We don't hate each other," I said. "Well, actually, I can't speak for Kakashi. But I don't hate him. We actually used to be pretty good friends."
"What happened?" Tenzō asked.
"He hasn't exactly had a pleasant life experience. If you don't already know, it's not my business to tell you, but he's been pretty miserable since we were young. He's been antisocial and none of our classmates have seen him in forever. A word of advice, don't be friends with a medic unless you don't mind being molested every time you look even a tiny bit not-okay. I've made a bet with Lord Fourth that I'll make him happy no matter what, and since he's died, I can't exactly lose, can I?"
"So he's getting annoyed that you're trying to help him."
"Pretty much," I admitted. "But he seems to have made a friend in you, at least. Maybe I'll lay off him a little."
"Lay off him?" Tenzō asked.
"Yeah. Maybe fighting in the streets is a bit too much," I commented absently, not noticing Tenzo's deadpanned reaction.
"Are you ready yet?" Kakashi asked. "I always thought it was a bad idea to have someone like you on the team. Fiddling around with everything until it's perfectly to your liking. Let's go."
Tenzō grabbed my hand quickly, as it was halfway up to the handle of my blade. "Don't let him provoke you. Just do so well on this mission that he's forced to admit that you're useful, right?"
"Okay," I grumbled, pulling my hand out of his grip and following the rest of Team Ro.
I shouldn't have been surprised that they didn't leave any time for preparation, yet somehow I was. They shot off the second they set foot outside, and I stumbled a little trying to keep up. Kakashi took the lead, jumping from branch to branch through the trees at top speed. The others seemed to think nothing of it, so I assumed that this was normal.
It was midday when we set off, but we ran for so long that I noticed it getting gradually darker, and caught a glimpse of the sunset when we passed through a wide clearing. I wasn't used to such long sprints, so I had to pause every now and again to take some vitality from the trees.
"Hurry up!" Kakashi yelled from further ahead. "If you can't keep up, we'll leave you behind!"
"Keep your hair on, I'm just trying to gather information about the terrain!" I snapped, face burning beneath my mask.
We travelled for a while longer, and I was careful to take the tree chakra as I ran, so that it didn't look like I was lagging behind. I'd show Kakashi!
"Hey, let's stop here and eat," one ANBU called. "There's a ton of berries here. I haven't had anything but food pills all day!"
"Fine. We'll rest for a few minutes." Kakashi sat down and pulled out a map.
The ANBU guy reached out to a bush, and plucked off a handful of blackberries. The scent drifted towards me, and even through my mask I knew what it was.
"Stop!" I called out urgently, and snatched the berries out of his hand.
"Hey!" He protested.
"These have been poisoned." I inspected their chakra. They were regular blackberries alright, but they'd been manually poisoned. It had to have been the rogue ninja we were following.
"Poisoned?" Kakashi glanced up from his map.
"Yeah, watch." I carefully squeezed the juice from the blackberry onto a dandelion, which instantly shrivelled and crumbled into a pile of dirt.
The others stared at it in horror.
"This is worse than I thought." I mumbled, half to myself. "It must have been the mask muffling the scent. You." I called to the guy who had first plucked the berries. "Go wash your hands, immediately. Don't touch anything."
"Yes, ma'am." He hurried away.
"Can you tell who did it?" Kakashi asked.
"I don't need to," I replied. "I'm not sure if they know we're tailing them or if they did it on the off-chance, but it was definitely them. Do we have any background information on them?"
"Only what's in the bingo book." Kakashi turned back to his map and started comparing it with the surroundings. I opened my bingo book and flipped through it.
Please, not him. Anyone but him!
I came to a page that showed a Hidden Mist ninja with a slash through his forehead protector. It wasn't him. The book mentioned that he was known to be travelling with some others, and I examined their pages, too.
He wasn't with them. I allowed myself to be relieved for a moment; there was a poison expert among them, which explained the poisoned berries, but that could easily be evaded by using an anti-poison.
I began preparing one immediately, using the poison in the berries to examine the ingredients and the blending ratio. It was surprisingly simple, but the few ingredients used were all deadly. I began to blend antidotes in the same ratio, hoping that it would all balance out properly. Poisons were not my area of expertise.
"What are you doing?" Kakashi asked exasperatedly.
"I'm actually blending an antidote to this poison so you don't all die in battle," I replied sharply.
"You can tell the ingredients and the blending ratio just by looking at the berries?"
"I'm not just looking at them. I can feel the chakra and where it's been disturbed. It's only study and familiarity with poisons that allows me to tell what the ingredients are," I responded, not looking up from my work.
Kakashi seemed to have an internal battle for a moment. "Well... how long do you need?"
"Not long," I replied, adding a strikingly green leaf to the paste I'd ground up and mixing it in. "Actually, I think I'm just about done."
Kakashi addressed the rest of the team. "I think we're close to the spot. Let's go."
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✔️Heal My Heart {Kakashi Hatake}
Fanfiction"I don't give up on a patient until they're dead." ~~~ Kakashi Hatake has had a rough life, and that's putting it lightly. Losing everyone he loved has torn a hole deep in his heart. Lucky for him, there's someone waiting around who's good fixing st...
