Sexy no Omake

Kakashi was not in a good state. He'd just returned from a solo mission and was looking forward to some relaxation when he heard word that Gai and his charge had gotten attacked. Gai's team was already on the case, apparently, and Kakashi 'volunteered' as well. If by 'volunteered' you meant consulted no one and just went to help. The fact that 'Gai ran away' didn't sit well with Kakashi OR with Gai's team, frankly. Gai-sensei never ran away from anything. Even if he SHOULD run away.

ESPECIALLY if he should run away.

Something had to be horribly wrong, and Kakashi was one of the first on the scene to investigate and look for any sign of Gai.

Yukio had curled up in a far corner of the room, his arms wrapped around his legs, which were tightly pressed to his chest. The temperature inside the cellar was even colder than outside, and the young man was shivering quietly while praying for somebody to come and find him soon.

It was just as he was walking by that Kakashi noticed something off about the area around Yukio's hiding place. Genjutsu. Clearly, there was something important there. Kakashi quickly dispelled it and yanked the window open to peer inside after checking for traps. In the corner, there was... the princeling? But the witness had said he'd been dragged off?

Kakashi was starting to get a sick feeling in his stomach.

"Yo," he said, revealing nothing of his current emotions.

"Kakashi!!" Yukio almost fell over himself in his hurry to scramble to the window. He was pale and his body temperature was somewhat low but he was uninjured and none the worse for wear. Clearly he had not been placed in a fight of any kind. "Is Gai back? He said I should stay here until he told me I could come out again." The poor youth was shaking, his nerves a raw mess as he looked with hopeful eyes to Kakashi. Surely now everything would be okay.

"No, we don't know where Gai is. I need to know if you saw anything," Kakashi said, holding out his hands for Yukio to take so he could pull the boy out from his hiding place and get him somewhere warm.

Taking Kakashi's hand, Yukio's face fell at those words. Once he was safely on the pavement outside he avoided meeting Kakashi's eye, looking at the spatters of dry blood several yards away. "He told me to hide and then he made this copy of himself...and then he suddenly looked like me.." Sure, he had HEARD about the skills of ninja, but this was different than just hearing rumours at court. Yukio wiped at his eyes as they started to tear over, the shock of all he had seen that day finally catching up to him.

Kakashi put a comforting arm around Yukio, waving over one of the medic-nin with his other hand. "I know this is difficult to talk about, Yukio, but you need to tell me, what happened next? And how long ago did this happen?"

Clinging to Kakashi, Yukio hid his head against the Jounin's chest. "He fought them," he choked out, shoulders shaking. "...But there were so many of them...." He peeked at the bloodstains on the ground again. "And then they stabbed him and took him away...." The last words were almost drowned out by the boy's sobs. Sure he had disliked Gai for having with Kakashi what Yukio had always dreamed of, but he had never wanted harm to befall the other man for his sake.

Kakashi nodded. There was no need to ask what direction they'd headed in, they had left enough obvious tracks. Probably from Gai struggling. That man knew how to leave tracks if tracks needed to be left. When a medic-nin came over, Kakashi rubbed Yukio's back for a moment before passing him off to the woman. "He's unharmed, but in shock, and probably isn't in good shape from the cold." he said, mostly for Yukio's benefit so he could know Kakashi was passing him off to someone who could help. After stepping back while the medic-nin put a blanket around Yukio, he snapped his fingers. "LEE! NEJI! TENTEN! You're with me!" he yelled, heading off on the trail after Gai, the students following close after.

The trail led out of the village and into the forest, making it somewhat more difficult to track since the group seemed to have taken to the trees.

The team searched for hours and hours, long after any other ninja had returned to Konoha to report to Tsunade about their findings, or lack thereof. Even as Neji and Tenten began to tire, Kakashi and Lee pressed on, searching for any sign, following anything that looked even slightly like a clue. In the end, nearly twenty-four hours later, the two had to be almost forcibly dragged back to Konoha to make sure they hadn’t gotten frostbite between the the cold weather and the strain.

After a briefing with Tsunade, Kakashi resolved to leave again as soon as he was dismissed from his hospital check-up. He would find Gai, and then kick his ass for making him worry so much.