Orbs - Beckoning

He felt it almost immediately, but kept his cool. The only clear indicator that Kakashi had felt the gentle tug at his mind was the brief moment he paused between mouthfuls of food, chopsticks hovering over a half-eaten bowl of noodles like a bird waiting to spear a fish in the river below. The moment seemed to stretch on even as it ended, and afterwards, Kakashi simply ate.

Still, the cook seemed to notice. His eyes narrowed, he grunted in acknowledgement. "Something wrong?"

Kakashi paused again, this time to acknowledge the cook in return. "No, it's... it's nothing."

The cook wasn't convinced, but at the same time, Kakashi ate here frequently. There was an understood silence between them, rarely broken for conversation if at all. He wasn't about to breach it any further if his gray-haired patron didn't seem keen to share what was on his mind. "Hmph. Alright. Let me know if you need anything."

Kakashi nodded and went back to his food. It was as if nothing had happened at all. Still, his mind was as awake and alert as if he'd spotted a fire blazing around him. Sensations like that never simply happen. There had to be a cause, no matter how miniscule or benign it might be. The food? No, poisons don't work in such subtle ways, and the cook had no good reason, no motive. Genjutsu? Possibly, but until he felt it again- there! Another tug, like being brushed across the cheek by a wisp of cool air. It tracked... in no particular direction, and yet it implied one. West, towards the entrance to the village. No, not an implication. A beckoning.

The second sensation set Kakashi's deduction in stone. Something was up. Something was calling for him, and from the looks of the cook and the other patrons, it hadn't affected anyone else. A specific target was almost never a good thing. He finished his food quickly (paying careful attention to the subtle balance of flavors, just in case) and paid his bill with equal haste, yet not so quick that he missed his manners.

Truth be told, since Naruto had left to train with Jiraiya, Kakashi had been at a loss for ways to pass the time. With Sakura training under Tsunade and Sasuke... off following his own path, Kakashi's beloved Team 7 had fallen apart. The missions helped keep Kakashi occupied, but even they weren't enough to draw his mind away from idle thoughts and dark places. This was none of these, but a small part of him still felt a bit of glee. A mystery to solve. A strange phenomenon to investigate. Something about the anonymity of it all made it perversely exciting.

There it was again, a third tug. Definitely towards the gates of the village. Kakashi kept a low profile as he walked to the gates, but once he'd left the walls he picked up speed. After a few minutes of darting through trees with fluid speed, he stopped on a branch. He knew these forests better than many, and the way the sensation beckoned would drag him further and further into the heart of the Fire Country, a maze of forests and undergrowth that proved impenetrable to the less-experienced among the Leaf village.

In the moment he'd taken to think, Kakashi saw fit to unveil his left eye, hidden under his headband. The red iris and three tomoe of the Sharingan glistened with a hungry glow in the light that fought its way through the treetops into the undergrowth of the forest floor, and with the eye revealed he searched about for the source of the Genjutsu.

...Nothing. That was... unexpected. If it wasn't genjutsu... what could it be?

His curiosity only growing with the new unknown, Kakashi followed the signal as quickly and quietly and carefully as only he could manage. He followed it like a dog follows a scent, deeper and deeper into the woods. In the back of his mind Kakashi kept close track of his position in his mental map of the forests, and the direction he was heading... he knew this place, where the sensations seemed to be guiding him. A bounding step took him past a shallow creek, his reflection dancing in the turbulent eddies surrounding the rocks before a large drop. He was only a mile or so away now.

Sure enough, as the sensations grew stronger and stronger, he found himself at the edge of a grassy clearing, an old practice ground he'd used back when he'd practice his jutsu in secrecy or ask Minato for one-on-one training. It was a secluded place, perfect to hide things from prying eyes, and in the very center of the clearing, hung from a rope between two trees where a gap in the canopy lent it an almost angelic ray of sunshine, was a briefcase.

(...)

Rage set Venom's mind alight with murderous thoughts, but even as he charged, Kakashi's attention was on the swirling smoke inside the glass globe he had found in the briefcase. It had been the source of the beckoning the whole time, and now that he'd gotten ahold of it he could see... things inside of it. Promises, prophecies... power. More than he could imagine, more than he could use.

***

Sign ups, Season 6, FreestyleKneepad