In the Forest of Konoha...
"S-so strong... just what you'd expect from Captain Kakashi."
"Domon, Inoue, there's no need to keep fighting, is there? The person you're protecting has already escaped."
Holding a sword in one hand and a kunai in the other, Kakashi held the two of them at bay, watching their battered, wounded bodies.
"Enough talk, Kakashi. Die!"
Yet they paid no heed to their own lives and charged straight at Kakashi's blade, leaving him no choice but to pull it back.
Both were fighting him with their eyes closed beneath their masks, leaving him no good opportunity to subdue them with genjutsu.
They were elite Anbu he had once known well, men he had even carried out numerous missions with. In Kakashi's eyes, they were fellow comrades of Konoha.
Now, however, they were fighting him with their lives on the line, leaving Kakashi utterly helpless.
As blades flashed back and forth, lightning erupted from the ninja sword in Kakashi's hand!
His opponents clearly had formidable techniques of their own, and both were fighting without regard for their lives. But now, Kakashi faced the same problem Naruto had.
The two of them knew full well that continuing this fight would only end in their deaths.
Although Anbu would pay any price to complete a mission, and Kakashi had initially assumed this was some assignment, the contradictions in their exchanges made it clear that something was wrong.
Kakashi therefore realized they were being controlled, solely to allow that fellow with half his body pitch-black to escape.
He had already tried releasing them from genjutsu, but it had had no effect.
Sealing jutsu, or perhaps...
By now, Kakashi was no longer thinking about pursuing the escapee, because he had a pretty good guess as to his identity.
Earlier, when he