Will of Fire: Kakashi Hatake

Chapter 34

The thing Akira was attempting to do was an abomination. She knew that. So it didn't surprise her when the normally green chakra the medical jutsu emitted was a deep, crimson red. Dead mice littered the ground around where she sat, and sweat ran down her face under the heat of the afternoon sun. Despite the exhaustion she felt, Akira pushed through.

A hawk swooped down nearby and grabbed one of the dead mice, flying away with a powerful flap of its wings.

"Come on, just a little bit more..." she muttered to herself. The hawk, now sitting in a tree nearby, ignored her.

Below her, the mouse gave a squeak, then collapsed. Akira sat back on her heels and wiped the sweat from her forehead. She had been at it for hours. She held a hand over the mouse's tiny body and started a normal medical jutsu, searching for the reason it had died. When she found it, a smile stretched across her face. The hawk let out a screech.

Success.

+++

"Are you sure that's going to work?" Seek asked her as they jumped through the trees. They were on their way back to the outpost they had left just three days prior.

"Yes. And even if it doesn't, I have backup plans."

"Those being?"

"Drunk drowning, fall from a high place, air embolism, choking, hell we could even strangle him and I could heal the bruises as we did it."

"Air embolism?" Kakashi asked from behind her.

Akira glanced over her shoulder and nodded. "I have a couple of syringes, if we inject enough air into a major artery it will induce cardiac arrest or a stroke."

Neither of the men said anything for a bit, processing the information she had just given them. Akira knew it was a shock to hear what she had figured out how to do. But hopefully, it would be useful and she wouldn't have to do it ever again.

Seek dropped back to run next to Kakashi. "Remind me not to ever get on her bad side," he said quietly.

"Shit, me too," Kakashi breathed.

Akira smirked. As nasty as her new technique was, some part of her felt prideful that she had caught the boys by surprise.

They had left in the afternoon and were about halfway to the outpost when they stopped for the night. Akira took the first watch while the boys slept until the stars reached a point in the sky that signaled her it was time to trade out. They made it to the outpost by noon the following day. There they changed into the disguises that each of them had brought. Each of them had multiple alongside their main one, in case they had to disappear at any point.

Kakashi and Akira both had features that made them stand out amongst others. Kakashi's silver hair and mask made him easily recognizable, and Akira's red hair labeled her as an Uzumaki at first glance. Thus, their disguises also involved wigs. Which quickly became a challenge for Akira.

She was in the bathroom, trying to work her long hair into tight cornrow braids so she could successfully style a wig over it. She carefully picked up each strand in the first cornrow that she was braiding down the middle of her head. Akira had never done cornrows before. She had experimented with braids every once in a while when she had a bit more energy than usual, but never to this extent.

Another strand slipped from the cornrow, and Akira groaned in frustration. She dropped her hands in defeat and shook her head to undo her horrible attempt at the braid.

She flipped her hair back and slapped her hands onto the counter. She leaned forward over the sink with her head down and eyes closed. Akira hated the dumb disguises. Changing the appearance of her hair was incredibly hard. And she couldn't use a transformation jutsu to change her hair because they had to lay low and limit the use of their chakra as much as they could. Her hair was just too long to deal with. It was quickly becoming the bane of her existence at that moment.