Getting Lost on the Roads of Life - a KakaSaku Story [CONCLUDED]

The Tattoo

"Kakashi?"

He was trapped. Trapped in a vortex of quicksand, his limbs impossibly heavy and useless, his broken fingers frantically but pointlessly trying to find something to hold on to. He was sinking rapidly, the pressure around him mounting, crushing his bones, the sound of their breaking momentarily drowning out the grating song of the incessantly slithering sand particles. There was no more air. There was sand, only sand, it was entering his mouth, it was finding its way into his lungs. As he suffocated, he had one last thought: He had not ...

"Hatake Kakashi! Breathe!"

Somebody was shaking him. Shaking him very roughly.

If somebody was shaking him, he was probably not really trapped in a vortex of quicksand. He dared to gasp for air.

Air. There was air. No sand. Air. Precious air, lots of it. His eyes sprang open.

He lay there drawing it into his lung in large gulps until he was convinced he was not dying. But when he tried to move, he couldn't. He was flat on his back on a soft surface, with something holding him down with considerable force. There was pain. A lot of it, but he had learned to push that away until it no longer bothered him.

"Kakashi? Can you hear me?"

A female head appeared in his field of vision. A fair-skinned person with brown eyes and straight blonde hair that parted above the diamond-shaped mark on her forehead. Kakashi blinked in confusion. It was a very beautiful face that he should recognize. They eyes narrowed as they came closer. Without a warning, a light was shone into both his eyes, instantly making a massive headache flare up.

"Dammit," the woman growled, "I feel like beating you to a pulp! I need you out there, not in here!"

Tsunade. That was her name. Hokage. That's what she was.

"Godaime Hokage," Kakashi said or rather, wanted to say, but all he managed was a raspy whisper and a cough that didn't want to end.

His Hokage briefly disappeared, then came back with a large glass of water. Sliding her hand underneath his head, she lifted it up enough for him to drink. Not water, medicine. Kakashi pulled a disgusted face as the bitter substance assaulted his taste buds, but refrained from spitting it out, thinking that his Hokage already looked enraged enough, he better not provoke her any further unless she would make good on her threat to beat him to a pulp.

"Why... why am I chained?" Kakashi managed to say after the cold liquid had soothed his vocal cords somewhat.

"Ha!" Tsunade exclaimed, "you were in their hands for three days. Three days! Of course we have to make sure you were not compromised."

Kakashi blinked again. What was this woman talking about?

"What did you find out?" Tsunade asked him next, bending forward in visible excitement. The movement almost made her large bust spill out and Kakashi wavered between staring in fascination at the round, jiggly globes or closing his eyes again because he felt very confused. What was going on? He had no recollection, not recollection at all how he had gotten here.

"I...," Kakashi realized that the ceiling above him looked vaguely familiar, but not in a good way.

"Yes?" Tsunade asked, "do you know how we can beat them?"

Beat whom? Carefully, Kakashi pulled against the strong sealing chains wrapped around his limbs, but it was useless. He could not even move a finger. His chakra was depleted, only the faintest of force stirred within him.

"I... do not seem to recall," he confessed. Was that bad? It had to be. He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head in small, rapid movements, trying to jolt his memory into action, but it only served to worsen his headache. There was nothing. Just a vague feeling of... danger. Of frustration. Of... things he should be glad not to remember.