To Fell the Fel [Great]

[Kakashi Hatake]

Kakashi and his chain-smoking companion strode silently into the Morikage’s office, closing the heavy door behind them. Tsunade sat before her desk, shuffling through the sea of reports and official documents. She looked up as the two entered, offering a weak smirk in reply.

“I’m sorry to call on you so soon, Kakashi,” the Morikage confessed, shuffling through the mound of papers atop her desk. “I’d like nothing more than to offer you some time to get your bearings, but it’s not looking like that will be possible.”

The silver-haired shinobi took a knee, bowing his head in respect. “Whatever you need, Lady First.”

“On your feet, Kakashi. I never really liked the whole curtsying tradition. Besides, we don’t have the time for it. Our scouts have noted a large attack force gathering just south of here.” She unfurled a large scroll with one hand, grabbing a handful of wooden pins with another. On the scroll there looked to be a rough map of the village and the surrounding area.

“Already?!” Sarutobi sputtered, putting out his cigarette on his sleeve. “But they were here just hours ago!”

“These aren’t the White Hand,” Tsunade muttered darkly, pinning the scroll to the desk.

“You can’t mean…” the olive-skinned jonin began, worry etched in his face.

“The scouts report that their banners display the Bonechewer emblem,” the blonde kunoichi responded wearily, placing a paper beside the map scroll. On it was a rough sketch of a set of jagged fangs clamping down on a bone.

“Bonechewers?” Kakashi inquired, raising an eyebrow.

“So-named for their brutal and cannibalistic nature,” Asuma muttered, his brow knitted. “This is not good. They call themselves orcs, but they’re nothing like what we just tangled with.”

“The odds of this village surviving an all-out attack from the Bonechewer clan are lower than I’d like to admit,” the Slug princess stated flatly, staring intently at the duo. “We need to put a stop to this before it starts. These monsters are smarter than the other orcs and goblins we’ve encountered, but just barely. They have a very loose chain of command, essentially relying on their chieftain for orders. I think this can be how we save ourselves.”

“We target their leader,” the scarecrow offered, nodding in agreement.

“Exactly. That’s why I need you, Kakashi. This is something of a specialty for you.” Tsunade met the captain’s gaze for a moment before returning to the map. “You are to assassinate Tagar Spinebreaker WITHOUT alerting his subordinates. Without his iron fist keeping them in line, they’ll dissolve into chaos and hopefully do more damage to each other than us. I will assign you two of the most competent warriors we can spare. Asuma, you’re to stay here and defend on the chance the assassination fails and they attack. Any questions?” Silence hung for a moment before the Morikage spoke once more. “Good. Move out.”

-     -

“Why couldn’t it just be goblins or something…”

Kakashi and his pair of escorts stood at the village gate, re-checking their respective supplies. As he counted his remaining shuriken, scrolls and various other tools he felt a feeling of deja vu, reminded for a moment of his last moments with the rest of Team Ro before entering the Omniverse. The two escorts he had been afforded did not quite inspire confidence in the silver-haired jonin, though they would have to do.

“The Morikage said they were to the south,” the first of the two, Sofia, began. She looked to be around Kakashi’s age, standing not quite six feet tall. She was dressed in rough leather armor pulled over the attire of what he expected was a smith of some variety. Her ivory skin contrasted the inky black hair she had pulled back into a tight bun. Her eyes, a clear blue, squinted at a map she held extended between her hands. “Do we know where, exactly?”

“No,” the silver-haired captain responded. “Unfortunately the last time they were spotted was a few hours ago and even then they were on the move.”

“So, what, are we just going to wander around until we find them?” questioned Dack, their third member. He was somewhat younger than his comrades and nearly a foot shorter, approximately 16 if Kakashi had to guess. His strawberry blonde hair framed his youthful face, falling just short of his shoulders. He too looked to have just thrown simple armor over his day attire; the dirt on his elbows and knees told the captain that he was likely a farmer or something similar.

“Hopefully I can solve that problem for us,” the copy ninja replied.

The scarecrow retrieved a scroll from a pouch on his belt, unfurling it with a flick of his wrist and rested it on the ground before him. As he gazed upon the familiar sigil and signature he bit down hard on the inside of his lip, tasting the metallic tang of blood. After dabbing a small amount of this on his gloved thumb, he began rapidly weaving the appropriate hand seals. He paused as he finished, hoping silently that his technique would work. “Summoning Jutsu!” he asserted, pressing his hand to the scroll.

The scroll’s glyph glowed for a brief moment as Kakashi mentally called forth the image of his intended summon. Suddenly a plume of smoke poured from the point of contact, followed immediately by the familiar deep voice of his old friend. “How’s it going, Kakashi?”

The sharingan wielder smiled underneath his mask as the smoke cleared. “Well, it’s complicated.” He cast a gaze at his comrades, smiling wider at their confused looks. “This is Pakkun,” he replied, gesturing at the small brown pug at his feet. The canine wore forehead protector etched with the symbol of Konoha and a blue vest emblazoned with a henohenomoheji. “Pakkun, this is Sofia and Dack. Pakkun will be our nose.”

The pup chuckled. “Always calling on me to sniff for you. You owe me a belly rub.” He glanced up at the two forest villagers first, then back to Kakashi. “So, what are we looking for?”

“Orcs,” the Anbu captain responded. “Somewhere due south.”

The canine sniffed the air for a moment. “Well, I’m not sure what an ‘orc’ is but I can tell you that there is a strong scent of blood in that direction.”

Dack nodded. “That’ll be them. Those bastards can’t go longer than twenty minutes without gutting something.”

“Alright,” Pakkun responded, turning toward the scent. “Let’s go.”

[Kakashi Hatake]

“Kakashi, where are we? I can’t sense Konoha at all,” the miniature pug inquired, easily keeping pace with the sprinting shinobi at his side.

“A long way from home,” Kakashi replied, donning his Anbu mask. “I’m told it’s called the ‘Omniverse’. Specifically we seem to be in a province called the ‘Tangled Green’. One of Lord Third’s former pupils also wound up here somehow and has founded a village.”

“So we’re not in the Land of Fire…” the canine muttered, a puzzled look on his face.

“No. An entirely different dimension, if you can believe it,” the scarecrow responded, vaulting over a downed log. His companions followed suit, breathing heavily as they struggled to keep up with their captain and his ninken.

“That’s a lot to swallow all at once,” Pakkun said, glancing at the silver-haired ninja. “What did you do to wind up here?”

Hatake thought for a moment back to what the God of this land had said on his arrival. “Apparently what I did was ‘be interesting’. I was more or less teleported here. And because of our contract, so were you and the rest of the pack. Sorry about that.”

The tiny ninken nodded. “That makes sense. The guys and I were wondering why we were summoned to the middle of nowhere without a summoner in sight.” He smirked, looking up at the scarecrow, “We were going to reverse-summon you, but ya’ know...we don’t get out much.”

Kakashi chuckled, picturing his motley crew of canines chasing goblins through the woods.

“Uh, Captain?” Dack appear beside the shinobi, holding out a bunched-up map for his superior. “We should stop for a second. We’re headed for trouble.”

“He’s right,” Sofia affirmed. “We need to divert course.”

Kakashi slowed to a stop, eyeing his comrades with curiosity. “Why? We should be hurrying toward the orcs.”

“Well, that’s...the thing,” Dack responded between shallow breaths. He was bent double, gasping as he tried to catch his breath. “We’re...headed toward...a camp.”

“A hill-giant camp to be precise,” Sofia offered, unfurling the map and placing on a nearby tree stump. “Just over this ridge there’s a massive encampment of giants. At least two dozen that we know of. At the rate we’re going, we’ll run right through it.”

“Hill-giants?” Pakkun asked, sniffing the air quizzically.

“Ten feet tall, dumber than a box of rocks. Normally they don’t cause us any problems if we just avoid them but if we run right into their home we’re in for some trouble,” Dack finished, having finally caught his breath.

“The smell I caught isn’t coming from that camp,” the ninken replied, looking at Kakashi. “But they’re right. I can definitely smell a pungent aroma nearby. And there are a lot of them.”

“If we veer east a bit and come back around we should avoid them,” Sofia stated, dragging her finger along the topography. “Might cost us a few minutes, but I don’t want to piss off 24 2-ton simpletons.”

“Got it,” Kakashi answered, glancing over his shoulder to the east. “You two lead, Pakkun and I will follow you.”

The quartet continued through the forest, taking to the canopy as the trees began to grow closer together, making passage on foot nearly impossible at any decent pace. The silver-haired shinobi was used to this method of movement, his sandaled feet finding footholds on the rough bark of the strange trees with ease. For their somewhat lackluster appearances, Dack and Sofia made no complaint of diving from bough to bough before their captain. Kakashi supposed it ought not to have come as a surprise that warriors that dwelled in the forest might be at home among the trees.

“We should be fine to return to our normal course, now,” Sofia called over her shoulder, slowing her pace somewhat.

“Sounds good,” the copy-ninja retorted, “Return to normal formation. Pakkun will take the lead now.”

Though this forest was not the glade that he called home and his teammates were not the children he grew up with, he felt oddly comfortable. Perhaps it was the familiarity of an assignment, the feeling of the wind whipping past as he dove headlong into the lion’s den the calmed his shinobi heart. He couldn’t explain it, but he did feel somewhat more relaxed than he’d have expected in this strange new world. Where others might be gripped with xenophobia and homesickness upon being dumped into an entirely new dimension, Kakashi did not feel this. The only negative emotion he had felt since his arrival (other than confusion which, frankly, was to be expected) was the apprehension and shame under the judgemental glares in Mokugakure. Ironically enough, the only fault that he could find with this land was that some of the people already knew him for what he was.

In the years following the death of his two closest friends, Konoha had felt less and less like home to Kakashi. His old sensei, Minato, had chalked up these notions to worrying too much, to him over-analyzing. The copy ninja was not so sure. He certainly wished it were this simple, but the simple fact remained that his peers knew what he had done and it repulsed them. In an attempt to distance himself from the hateful glares of the people for whom he routinely put his life on the line, Kakashi readily took any assignment from the Kage that meant leaving the village. He took on missions far below his pay grade if it meant putting miles between him and Konoha. Though definitionally the Hidden Leaf village was his home, he truly resented it. The fact that he now found himself as far from there as possible made him strangely happy. Asuma’s words came back to him: “A second chance,”.

“I smell someone ahead,” Pakkun shouted abruptly, stopping in his tracks.

Kakashi and his escorts followed suit, the quartet perching on a single large limb, gazing down at the ground below.

“Not down there,” the ninja hound replied, glancing toward the bows above. “Up there.”

Before the group could turn their attention skyward, an unfamiliar voice called out. “Halt! You must turn back!”

Sofia brought a hand to her eyes, squinting through the bright sunlight at the source of the call. The silver-haired shinobi followed her line of sight, spotting the source of the command some 20 yards ahead. The figure stood skillfully on a thin limb, gripping a shortbow. Tall and lean, she was dressed in light-colored scale armor over a navy blue tunic. Thin, pointy ears poked through long dark purple hair that fell over lighter fuschia skin.

“Night elf,” Dack muttered, eyeing the newcomer suspiciously.

“Turn back!” she repeated. “A Fel Orc encampment lies ahead!”

Kakashi glanced quickly back at his comrades for confirmation.

Dack and Sofia nodded without meeting his gaze. “Bonechewers. We've arrived.”

[Kakashi Hatake]

“Do you not hear me?” The lilac-skinned woman inquired, her tone unsteady. “You must turn back!” Kakashi could sense desperation in the night elf’s words.

“We don’t have a choice, we have to get to that camp before they assault our village.” Sofia asserted, staring intently at the kaldorei. Her hand strayed to the hilt of a dagger fastened to her belt.

“You musn’t!” the night elf pleaded. “We must run!”

“She smells of fear,” Pakkun muttered, just low enough for his shinobi companion to hear.

“We?” Kakashi inquired, cocking his head. “Are you running from them?”

The dark-skinned woman leapt nimbly through the branches, landing mere feet from the quartet. Kakashi sized the woman up as she approached, taking note of what looked to be a large laceration on her forehead. Her silver eyes were unfocused, wild. Despite her disheveled state, the scarecrow noted that she was strikingly beautiful and a good deal taller than he expected. At around 6’ 5’’, she towered over the group.

“Y-you’re bleeding…” Dack stammered.

“My scouting group was attacked as we were returning to our glade,” the kaldorei explained, ignoring the tawny-haired boy’s concerns. “My sisters were captured...my lover is holding them off so that I may escape and seek help.”

“Well, since we’re on our way there anyway, we’ll see if we can help out with that,” Hatake replied, raising a hand as she made to protest. “Look, our mission is clear. We will not abandon it. You should return to your village; we'll look into your orc problem.”

The night elf sighed, slumping somewhat against a tree bough. “If you insist on entering the encampment, I will accompany you. I would not forgive myself if I ran like a coward while humans did my dirty work.”

“Fine by me,” the copy ninja replied, “we could use the help. What’s your name?”

“Larea,” the night elf replied. “Larea Darkdew.”

“Well Ms. Darkdew, as you seem to know where we’re headed, would you like to lead the way?”

She nodded, turning toward the south. “This way!” With remarkable grace she lunged forward, skipping across the increasingly dense limbs.

“Do you really think we can trust her?” Sofia inquired of the silver-haired shinobi as the newcomer vanished into the forest.

“That look in her eyes...I’ve seen it before,” Kakashi replied quietly. “Desperation, but not out of a desire to save her own skin...to save her friends.” Rin’s face suddenly appeared before the copy ninja’s mind’s eye, blood dribbling down her soft cheeks. The night elf wore the same desperation that Rin wore that night as he ran her through.

“At your orders, we’ll foll-,” Sofia began; before she could finish her thought, their captain made chase into the forest.

- - -

“We’re very close. The smell of blood is so strong...so much death.” Pakkun rasped, springing from limb to limb abreast his summoner.

The sharingan wielder nodded, but did not truly hear. He was focused on Larea, on the pain that her eyes held. He was used to the idea of pain; hell, causing pain was practically his job. Something about the kaldorei woman, however, had struck a nerve with him.

“Not to be a killjoy,” Dack called, speeding up to match Kakashi’s pace, “but how are we going to assassinate Spinebreaker and free her friends? They’re bound to be on alert at this point.”

“Kid’s got a point,” Pakkun interjected. “What’s our plan?”

Truthfully the scarecrow had not given this much thought. When the mission had been to pick off one enemy, it could have been accomplished with a simple blade to the throat. This new development now meant the task would require a bit more finesse. All things considered, there was also a strong possibility that the captured elves could all have been killed already. Whatever complications it would bring to their assignment, Kakashi hoped Larea’s people were still alive.

“We’re near the clearing,” Larea called, slowing to meet the pace of the rest of her entourage. “Everyone keep quiet. These brutes aren’t known for their keen senses, but nonetheless.”

“Agreed. Now would be a good time to discuss our pl-”

An ear-piercing scream echoed through the forest, coming from not 50 yards in front of them, followed by the sound of splintering wood.

“Tor ilisar'thera'nal!” Larea bellowed. Before the group could make a move to stop her, she dove headlong toward the commotion.

[Kakashi Hatake]

The copy ninja swore loudly, tearing off through the dense foliage after the raging kaldorei, companions in tow. Dashing at top speed, Kakashi was having difficulty keeping pace with Larea who was clearly more at home within the canopy than he. As the silver-haired shinobi heard the crashing of branches and stamping of the feet of his comrades behind him begin to fade, he knew he would have to make a decision.

The sharingan wielder's mind spun quickly through his mental catalogue of jutsu, attempting to find one that would give him an edge. None came to mind that would not create sizable damage to his comrade or the environment. He had only one option; he would have to only use it for a few seconds, lest he drain himself dry before the mission was even complete. He closed his eyes, bringing his right hand before his chest, forming the half-ram sign. His brow furrowed in concentration as his legs continued to churn rhythmically beneath him, finding footing without need of vision. Kakashi mentally slowed his heartbeat, allowing his chakra network to work at a faster rate. With a final push, he allowed the full strength of his energy to flow forward.

“I must reach him,” Larea spoke aloud, rage and worry mixing equally in her blood. As a child of the moon, she felt an emotional link between herself and her loved ones, strongest of all her lover Davian Riversong. If she knew the druid at all, the rage that burned in her was likely his influence. She would need to reach him fast, before he got himself killed. Before she could make to increase her speed, a pair of strong hands gripped her shoulders.

“Larea!” Kakashi urged, pulling the night elf to a stop.

The violet-skinned woman turned to face her captor, pulling against his strong grip. His fingers held like stone, digging painfully into her bony shoulders. “What?! You’re hurting me!”

The scarecrow consciously stalled his chakra flow, allowing the Kaimon to close and his chakra to return to its normal flow. “Sorry,” the Anbu replied. “It was the only way to get you to slow down. We really need to give this some thought before we barge in there.”

“There’s no time! Did you not hear the screams? My people are dying!” The elf’s silver eyes pleaded with the masked shinobi.

“If we run in now, we can add our lives to the count,” the captain replied bluntly.

“He’s right,” Dack replied. “These things are monsters. We’ll need all of the advantages we can get.”

Larea glared at the team for a moment, mentally weighing her options. “Fine,” she said, finally. “What is our plan?”

“Orcs are basically walls of muscle and anger,” Sofia offered. “So I think we should distract them and try to outrun them. Fighting them head-on is suicide.”

Kakashi nodded. “Good idea. Larea, I think when we get to the edge of the clearing it would be a good idea to distract them with a few of your arrows. Draw them away from the survivors if possible.”

The elf shuddered at the mention of ‘survivors’. “Okay,” she responded. “I may even be able to pick some of them off. I am a fair shot.”

“Good to hear. While you’re drawing them away, Dack and Sofia can head in and free your friends.”

The violet-skinned woman shot a sideways glance at her shinobi partner. “Where will you be?”

“I’m going to find Tagar,” the copy ninja said, casting his gaze in the direction of the camp.

“I do not have to tell you that that is a horrible idea, do I?”

“I’m well aware,” Hatake responded, nodding. “But if something isn’t done, Mokugakure could be destroyed before morning."

Larea nodded, concern etched in her soft features. “I understand. Let’s get moving.”

[Kakashi Hatake]

The quintet made their way closer to the orc encampment, the sounds of strife growing ever louder as they closed the distance. As the din grew louder, so too did a strong, pungent stench. Kakashi presumed this was the aroma that Pakkun had picked up back at Mokugakure, a mixture of equal parts burning and rotting flesh. The group continued their feverish pursuit, keeping their nose on the nauseating smell, the ears on the screams and the crashes.

“Ahead!” Pakkun uttered, slowing to a stop. The rest of the group followed suit, peering through the thinning trees into a clearing.

The clearing was staggering in size, nearly 100 x 40 meters if the shinobi had to guess. The trees that once swallowed the glade had been torn asunder, a multitude of holes marking where the noble trunks once stood. The trees themselves had been re-purposed, some cobbled together to form makeshift huts, others stacked in the enormous pyre that stood in the center of the camp, some 30 meters from where the squad now stood. The immediate vicinity seemed vacant; Kakashi’s sharingan confirmed that the huts nearest the group were indeed empty. The camp’s denizens were likely located at the other end, the copy ninja reasoned, where the clamor seemed to be emanating from. Wordlessly the group skimmed the edge of the clearing, nearing the clamor. The sounds of screaming had ceased, replaced with what sounded like the snarl of some type of beast.

“We must hurry!” Larea commanded, quickening her pace. Anxiety crawled up the back of her neck as the sound of the beast’s roar grew louder. The beast’s call was not indicative of impending victory.

“Is that…” Sofia began, squinting through the brush as the group closed in on the scuffle.

At the far end of the camp, a group of around 20 figures stood encircled around what Kakashi could only assume was the source of the commotion. The humanoids stood shoulder-to-shoulder, forming a veritable wall of crimson muscle. 300 pounds of muscle hung from their 7-foot frames, adorn in every manner of armor from nearly nude to heavy plate mail. At their sides hung armaments as varied as their armor, from pieces of lumber up to enormous battle axes and claymores. Though their equipment was diverse, their lust for carnage unified them as they snarled and cheered at the melee that they were spectating.

“Those are Fel Orcs alright,” Dack replied gravely, drawing a pair of daggers from his belt.

“I was referring to the bear,” Sofia retorted snarkily, pointing a finger toward the center of the Orc ring.

“Davian!” the night elf uttered, drawing her bow. With a glance over her shoulder and a nod, she took off toward the makeshift arena.

“Over there!” Dack said, pointing across the clearing. Kakashi’s eyes narrowed as he followed the boy’s gesture, barely making out the shapes of crumpled bodies near the edge of the glade.

“That’ll be our prisoners. Let’s hope that they’re still alive,” the raven-haired woman responded, drawing a shortsword from her side.

“Alright Pakkun, go with them.” The sharingan wielder commanded. “You all should be able to stay out of sight if you cut through the middle, it seems like everyone’s occupied at the moment.”

“Kakashi,” the miniature pug said, looking up at his master. “Might not be a bad idea to call in the canine cavalry. We might need the help.”

The silver-haired shinobi nodded, pulling a kunai from his belt. He gently drew it across his exposed deltoid, blood beginning to trickle from the laceration. Quickly, he dabbed a few fingers in the ichor and began to form the requisite seals. “Summoning Jutsu!”

“About time you called us, eh Kakashi?”

On the sturdy tree limb beside Pakkun now stood the rest of Kakashi’s ninken pack, seven additional canines of varying sizes and breeds. The closest hound to him, a Shiba Inu wearing a small pair of sunglasses, smirked at the summoner.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, Akino.” The copy ninja replied, smiling beneath his mask.

“Whattya need then?” a smaller pup inquired, this one a Jack Russell terrier with the kanji for ‘shinobi’ stamped on his forehead.

“I need you to escort my friends here to the far end of the clearing and help them retrieve any survivors. After that, head back toward Mokugakure.”

“Is that what they’re calling themselves?” the tattooed canine chuckled. “Clever.”

“Bisuke, we don’t have time to chat,” Pakkun snapped, hopping onto the head of an enormous black bulldog.

“Yeah yeah...” Bisuke replied. “Let’s go I guess.”

The scarecrow glanced at Sofia and Dack, both of whom seemed decidedly concerned with the caliber of their escorts. “They’re stronger than they look,” he assured them.

Dack nodded, shooting a quick gaze at Larea. The kaldorei woman had taken roost in the upper branches of a nearby oak, standing gracefully on a spindly limb overlooking the clearing. Her bow was drawn taut, an arrow leveled at the group of spectating orcs. Without a word, he leapt into the clearing, Sofia and the ninken in tow. With his companions at work with their own tasks, the silver-haired shinobi began his scan of the area, pouring chakra into his sharingan as he searched for his mark.

[Kakashi Hatake]

“Lak’tuk! Our Chieftain demand flesh, kill invaders!”

Tagar Spinebreaker sat upon his rough-hewn throne in his personal quarters, staring down at a piece of paper he had recently acquired: a detailed map of the forest he had found himself in not long ago. A savage grin spread across the warlord’s face as he heard the frenzied cries of his minions making battle with what few Elvish scum had survived their last attack. He made no move to assist his underlings; it didn’t matter much to him, no matter who the battle claimed, there would be fresh meat tonight.

Tagar’s attention was drawn away from the diagram as one of his many peons entered. “Chieftain Spinebreaker,” the Fel orc croaked, dragging a large club in his wake.

“What you want?!” the Chieftain snarled, leaning forward in his throne aggressively. At nearly four hundred pounds and 8 feet tall, he dwarfed the underling.

“We find other elves,” the smaller orc replied, eying the dirt at his feet. “We kill?”

The Fel orc chief rose from his throne, his heavy frame barely contained by the small hut. “KILL!” the leader roared, slamming his fist on the arm of his throne. Spinebreaker was not known for his kindness.

It had been nearly a month since he and his battalion had arrived in this realm from their home in Outland. Since then, they had commenced doing what they did best: killing and destroying. The blood curse that warped their minds and augmented their abilities seemed to have only grown stronger since leaving Draenor. The bloodlust the orcs normally felt seemed nearly insatiable in this locale. Tagar vaguely remembered his Warchief telling him that their strength came from the fountain in the Hellfire peninsula; the orc wondered why the separation from the fount had stirred such rage in his body.

Presently the warlord returned to his seat on the now-splintered throne, spreading the map over his knees. Before he could return his dim mind to puzzling through what the elvish lettering meant, his attention was drawn to a slim silhouette darkening his doorway. The figure bore spiky silver hair behind a porcelain mask. “Who you?!” Tagar growled, getting to his feet.

The man did not respond, instead dashing toward the battle-ready orc. The warlord’s meaty paw fell to his side, gripping the familiar handle of his massive battleaxe. He swung the blade horizontally toward the newcomer, bloodlust pounding in his head as the blade glided through the air unimpeded. The orc growled as the man avoided his attack, ducking low to avoid the implement.

“I ASK WHO YOU ARE, ELF SCUM!” The warlord bounded forward, his massive thigh muscles propelling him forward with unreal speed. He heaved his weapon high over his head, bringing the blade down toward the interloper. Again he was met with the heavy thud of his blade meeting something non-fleshy, this time the dense forest soil. His opponent seemed to have vanished. “I kill you, I eat your flesh!” Tagar roared at nothingness, pulling his ax free from the dirt. With a snarl of frustration he began frantically scanning the small hut, attempting to locate the elf. He finally leveled his burning gaze on the intruder in time to see a fist flying toward his face.

“Grah!” the Fel orc groaned as the strike impacted, the figure’s small frame belying the strength of his blows. Rage tore through the warlord’s veins as he shook off the impact, lifting his battleaxe once more. Without a second thought he leapt forward toward the masked man, bringing the ax down with all of his might. His silver-haired foe was taken aback by the orc’s sudden recovery, hesitating for just a moment too long. Tagar cackled with glee as the blade made contact with his foe, cleaving him at the shoulder and slamming into the ground.

“I eat your bones!” Spinebreaker roared, glancing upon the fallen corpse of his foe. He let go of his ax, striding forward to better examine his kill. Before he could make a reasonable assessment, the body vanished in a puff of smoke. His tusked jaw fell agape as the smoke cleared, blinking purposefully in an attempt to make sense of what he had seen. As he leaned forward to examine the dirt where the body had lain, a blade pierced his back.

“I love a good Shadow Clone,” Kakashi muttered lazily from behind the behemoth, his sword buried in the orc’s muscled back. “No one ever sees it coming,” he said, forcing the blade through the warlord. His foe made a retching noise as the sharingan-wielder's chokuto slid through the other side.

“YOU-” Tagar snarled, his meaty hands wrapping around the shinobi’s blade. The tainted orc ignored the piercing pain, holding tight to the instrument. Roaring with rage, he clamored to his feet and turned to face the ninja. As his hand made to grasp his battle axe, the man once more vanished. The warlord heard the words and felt the excruciating pain in the same instant as the blade was wrenched from the crimson flesh.

“You really should have seen that coming,” Kakashi muttered darkly from behind his mask. Larea’s pleading eyes appeared in the shinobi’s mind as he stared at the demonic humanoid. As the orc turned once more to meet him, the copy ninja brought the saber across the beast’s throat.

[Kakashi Hatake]

Kakashi wiped the orc’s dark, viscous ichor from his blade, eyeing the beast with contempt. The shinobi was impressed by Tagar’s tenacity; the warlord was still sputtering curses even as blood gushed from the gaping slash wound. In the end, though, he passed much the same as every other foe the scarecrow had felled. Despite their legendary brutality and lust for war, they could be killed just the same as a meager human. Silently, the silver-haired man sheathed his blade, making ready to silently slip out of the hut. Though Tagar had made quite a fuss in their altercation, Kakashi was reasonably sure the din of the battle outside the hut had drowned out their noise.

“DIE, FOUL BEASTS!” The shinobi winced at the sound of a familiar voice echoing through the clearing; Larea had found her tongue. The raucous sound of of battle-ready orcs confirmed his suspicions.

The Anbu captain made his way to the door of the hut, cautiously looking into the clearing. A dull ache awoke at the base of his head as he examined the battle. His chakra reserves were running dangerously low; he now seriously questioned the logic of summoning two clones AND opening the Kaimon for the second time. He had nearly depleted his reserves with that little exhibition. He continued to mentally chide himself as he surveyed the area, searching for his comrades.

“Smash the elf scum!” a combatant roared, not 5 feet from the shinobi. He sat astride an enormous dark gray wolf, brandishing a pair of axes at the air. The orc seemed oblivious to the ninja, instead concentrating on the enraged Night Elf slinging arrows rapidly from above.

As if in response to the orc’s comments, a guttural roar met Kakashi’s ears. Seconds later the bear that his squad had sighted when they arrived had appeared before the lusting orc, rearing on its hind legs and sinking its teeth into the rider’s beefy shoulder. The victim could scarcely let out a yelp before the ursid ripped him from atop his mount, slashing at his chest with his clawed paws. As the bear tore through the orc’s light armor, the silver-haired shinobi saw a twinkle in the beast unusually bright, amber-colored eyes. The now rider-less dire wolf snarled aggressively at the bear before stalking away to nibble at the flesh of another downed fel orc.

“I will defend you until my final breath, my love!” Larea called from the treetop, pulling another arrow taut and picking off a nearby orc.

“Larea,” the bear growled, gazing up at the kaldorei woman. Kakashi could only look on dumbfounded as the beast uttered his reply. “Flee!”

“I will not leave you!” the night elf archer called, taking aim at an orc that was attempting clumsily to scale the tree upon which she stood. “The others have been taken to safety, I will die here if it means saving you!”

Before the anthropomorphic bear could respond, a dark mist enveloped him, wrapping tightly to his large frame. Kakashi spied the source of the magic cowering in a nearby hut, in his hand a glowing glass orb. The warlock continued muttering his incantation, waving his clawed hand over the instrument. The Anbu captain watched with equal parts curiosity and shock as the bear began to gasp for air, the black mist pouring into his mouth and nose. The orc’s ball began to glow a bright shade of green as the bear fell to its knees, his rotund mass withering away beneath the spell.

“Davian!” Larea shrieked from her perch, quickly pulling an arrow from her quiver and firing it at the mage. The conjurer quickly ducked into the hut, avoiding the projectile as he continued his incantation.

With that, it finally clicked. Kakashi shot a look at the subdued ursid, now withered to barely the size of a human. The amber eyes made sense at once, as did the beast’s speech. Thinking quickly, the shinobi darted from Tagar’s hut, drawing a handful of shuriken from his belt pouch and flinging it into the doorway of the warlock’s hut. A muffled cry and the sound of shattering glass informed the scarecrow that he had found his mark. He returned his gaze to the bear, now more closely resembled a night elf clad in furs. His long, matted beard and flyaway hair hung loosely over his torso. The druid met the ninja’s gaze, nodding in appreciation as he attempted to catch his breath.

“Gaahh!” the kaldorei woman screamed from her perch, drawing the attention of the two men amid the orcs. A pair of marauders had managed to scale the trees and were now standing amid the lower branches, hacking haphazardly at the upper tree limbs with their battleaxes. As the seconds ticked by, the jeering orcs got closer to the limb on which she stood.

Kakashi cursed aloud, glancing quickly around the area. The orcs had taken note of the downed druid, now approaching him with evident malice. Larea seemed to be out of ammunition and had taken to batting at the approaching orcs with her bow, slinging screamed obscenities in darnassian. With no alternative, the sharingan wielder stepped back into the hut, taking hold of the only thing that could save them.

“Hey!” the scarecrow called out, drawing the attention of nearby hellspawn. Behind him he dragged his trophy. “I don’t mean to interrupt, but take a look at this!” Hatake hefted the limp corpse of the tribe’s chieftain, armor gleaming with inky orc blood. “Maybe I’ll mount his head on my mantle!”

All at once the group of fel orcs dropped their current task, attention firmly leveled at the newcomer. A few seconds ticked by as their tiny brains pieced together what had happened. The warrior nearest the shinobi, some twenty feet away, seemed to be the smartest of the pack, shoulders squaring as rage brewed in his eyes. “You...KILL TAGAR.”

Kakashi did not wait for the rest of the battalion to catch on, instead turning on his heel and sprinting for the treeline. He hadn’t a doubt in his mind that Larea and Davian had been completely forgotten as the enraged orcs stampeded toward the shinobi. The sharingan wielder ignored the sound of roaring orcs and clashing armor as he he ran full-tilt toward the forest. His heart pounded in his chest, his vision beginning to blur as he made haste away from his pursuers. His chakra was far too low, his strength sapped to nearly nothing. He mentally willed his limbs to move despite their evident disagreement with his orders.

The Anbu captain felt himself beginning to slow as he ran, his headache growing steadily worse. As he pondered his short list of choices, the universe announced its disdain for the warrior as the enormous, now-riderless, wolf strode into his path. What happened next was perhaps due to the ninja’s keen instincts operating subconsciously, or else possibly delirium setting in. Either way, Hatake rolled the dice and dove onto the back of the beast. The worg let loose an intimidating howl, rearing as a bucking horse might. With no other option, the shinobi grabbed a fistful of the beast’s fur and tugged, clamping his thighs against the beast’s back.

Kakashi could scarcely catch his breath as the dire wolf miraculously ceased its disobedience, taking off toward the pursuing crowd. The shinobi quickly leaned right, laying low over the wolf’s back. His mount responded appropriately, turning sharply and bounding into the woods. The canid bobbed and weaved expertly, avoiding the densely packed tree boughs. The copy ninja marveled at his luck as the wolf sprinted through the forest, the sounds of the pursuing orcs growing quieter.

A familiar, gravelly voice from behind him drew the mounted ninja’s attention as the tiny pug bounded into view at his side. “Kakashi!”

“Pakkun!” the scarecrow exclaimed breathlessly. “Are the elves safe?”

The pup paused for a moment to examine the ninja’s new mount before finally speaking. “Yes; Dack, Sofia and the rest of the pack managed to grab them while Larea and her bear got the orcs’ attention. They should be on their way back to Mokugakure by now.”

The copy ninja smiled beneath his mask. “Excellent. We should head there too.”

Pakkun shook his head. “We can’t head back to the village right now. These orcs are still on your tail. We’ll trigger what we came here to prevent.”

Kakashi bit his lip, cursing his stupidity. The enraged fel orcs would follow his scent until they found him and slay anyone that got in their way. His only chance was to fight them off, though his rock-bottom chakra reserves prohibited this course of action.

“I can run back to the village and warn them, maybe they can send some help?” Pakkun offered, giving a doggy-shrug.

“Some help…” Kakashi muttered, the gears turning in his head. Suddenly, it came to him. “I’ve got a better idea.” he finished, steering his worg back toward the encampment.

- -

“Slay the assassin!” the Fel warlock roared as the shinobi raced in front of them. The interloper had suddenly pulled an about-face moments ago, sprinting around the squadron of frothing orcs. He had made a wide berth around their encampment, racing due north. “We will slay him where he lives!”

The Fel orcs continued their chase, their tireless bodies moved by fel magic. Rage and bloodlust grew as the the assassin’s worg began to slow, coming closer and closer to striking distance. The warlock smirked as his target dove through the trees and into a clearing. This would be his final mistake.

“Lak’tuk!” the shinobi mimicked, racing into the clearing. His hands plunged into his pockets, returning with a handful of shuriken in each.

The bewildered group of mountain giants took notice of the intruder, clamoring to their feet. As they clumsily groped for their clubs, a rain of sharp fist blades fell upon them, courtesy of the copy ninja. The sharp disks buried into their calloused flesh, enraging the tremendous simpletons. The giant nearest the shinobi caught sight of the worg for a brief moment before the rider exited the clearing from the other side. He sniffed the air, his mind settling on a conclusion. “ORC.” A moment later, his thoughts were confirmed as the battalion of angry orcs met the tribe of equally angry mountain giants. The now-armed hulks bore down on the startled orcs, roaring with rage.

Elsewhere, the copy ninja goaded his steed toward Mokugakure, a smile on his face. “Many angry birds with many angry stones.”

“Looks like that did it,” Pakkun confirmed a few minutes later, bounding beside his summoner. “From the sounds of it, the giants are winning. That should at the very least send any survivors limping home.”

Kakashi nodded, “Perfect. Let’s get back to Lady Tsunade and fill her in.”