Secrets (Kakashi x Reader)

Chapter 25

I focused on the passing scenery as I traveled through the trees, shifting into my mission mindset. We're nearing our destination, which means it's time to turn off all emotions and let the mission be my sole focus.

"Let's go over our plan one last time." Yūgao called out to me and our two other teammates. We all gathered around where she was standing.

We had been given an assassination mission. A new leader, a man named Tatsuo, has taken power in a village in the Land of Bears, and has been making threats to attack Konoha. He's persuaded ninja from the Land of Bears to aide him in the attack, and we are taking this threat to Konoha's safety seriously. The Hokage originally sent a team of ninja to visit this new leader to talk about the possibility of peace, but they were all killed upon arrival. Our only choice now is to make sure Tatsuo can no longer be in power.

Yūgao looked at one of our teammates, a male wearing a mask that resembled a bird. "Robin, you'll go on ahead of the rest of us to scout out the area. Figure out the best way to sneak in undetected, so when the rest of us catch up to you we can get in and out as quickly as possible."

She then looked back and forth between Robin and the fourth member of our team, a guy wearing a tiger mask. "Once we're in, Tiger and Robin will both act as lookout. I don't want anybody aware that we're there."

Yūgao finally turns to me. "You'll be with me, we're taking on Tatsuo. I'll handle the assassination, I want you to watch my back. If you see anyone, trap them in your genjutsu before they can raise any alarm."

"I want us to get out of there before they even realize their leader is dead. Is everyone clear on what needs to happen?" We all nodded our understanding, and Robin took off to scout ahead.

Tiger left not too long after, but Yūgao stopped me before we followed too. "You've been distracted the whole way here. I've left you alone these last few days to let you sort through whatever is going on with you, but I need to know that it's not going to get in the way of the mission. We can't screw this up, you have to be completely focused."

She was right, I had been distracted on the way here. At one point I did attempt to socialize with my teammates to keep myself from thinking about Kakashi. I was fine, until Yūgao started talking about her boyfriend Hayate. I've met him before, and they're so cute together, but I was still suffering from heartbreak and I couldn't handle her romance talk. I remained distant after that.

I didn't want to think about Kakashi, but he wouldn't leave my mind. I missed him, I couldn't deny that. He had become one of my best friends, had become something more than that to me, and it's not easy to get over losing a person that close to you. I still can't believe I ended up being so wrong, I don't understand why Kakashi pushed me away so suddenly.

All this distance from Kakashi did give me time to decide what I want to do though. I have to move on from Kakashi. He had so many chances to come after me and explain what happened, but instead he remained silent. No point in fighting for a guy who won't fight for me.

Looking back at Yūgao, I answered, "I'm ready. The mission always comes first."

She nodded, and we caught up to Tiger. It wasn't long before we reached the edge of the village, where Robin was waiting for us.

He pointed towards a building near the middle of the village. "That's where our target is. The front is heavily guarded, but there is a back entrance that is left unattended every couple of minutes. If we time it right, we can get in and out without any alarm."

"Good job Robin," Yūgao said, and then motioned for us to get into position around the building. The ninja working for Tatsuo were patrolling around the building, but Robin was right, every couple of minutes the path of the patrols didn't line up and the back entrance was momentarily unguarded. After observing their pattern a few times, we figured out how much time we had, and were able to sneak in undetected.