"Cashile? Are you sure you brought us to the right place?" Kakashi asked, staring at the unrecognizable destruction that surrounded us.

I mutely pointed at the Hokage Mount, where the face of Tsunade looked out to the world alongside the past Hokage. At a first glance, there was nobody to be seen, only splintered wood and concrete and destruction. "I..." I studied my surroundings for another long moment before setting my mind to the next task. "I need to find my team."

My heart pounded against my chest as I took in the newly sculpted landscape of the village. So this is what the akatsuki were capable of. Not the akatsuki. Just one of them. I breathed quick, shallow breaths, recognizing the signs of an active sympathetic system. The normal physiological response of my body as my mind tried to wrap around what I was looking at, and who I was thinking about.

A grip on my arm disrupted my thoughts. "Cashile," Kakashi spoke, voice sharp but understanding.

I pulled my arm back and replied. "I know. I know. The villagers are safe, for now." Most of them. "I'm going to find my team. I'm assuming that you'll be able to rendezvous with Sakura and the others in your current condition."

Kakashi nodded, so I took off with not a moment to spare, searching for Aisa's chakra signature. I stepped over a bloodied, outstretched limb, the rest of the body hidden under rubble, and took a split second to verify that it was no one I knew. I continued running, footsteps echoing in the eerie silence that was only just beginning to be pierced by the wails of survivors.

"Cashile-sensei!"

I turned abruptly, pivoting on the spot as I heard the familiar voice of one of my students ring out. Michiko stood on top of a pile of rubble, waving to me and I relaxed slightly, making my way over to her.

"We were so worried!" Michiko exclaimed as I picked my way through the rubble to her. "As soon as the blast was over I tried searching for you, but I couldn't sense your chakra anywhere, and we thought maybe..."

"I reversed summoned myself to a secure location before returning," I informed her. "Where are the others?"

"Kento hurt his leg, so Aisa stayed with him when I went out to find you after your chakra reappeared. What's going on?"

We finally caught sight of the other two, Aisa wrapping a bandage around Kento's calf. They both looked up as we drew into sight, and Aisa hurriedly tied off the bandage before hurtling toward me.

"What happened? Where were you? Michiko passed out because of all the chakra from whatever jutsu did this and so by the time she woke up, which was only a few minutes, don't worry, she said she couldn't sense you and everyone got worried except I knew you'd be fine, of course, you are fine, right? Kento hurt his leg and so it was being healed by a slug but the slug like swallowed us and when it let us go again the village was like this, and--"

"I'm fine," I cut his rambling off. "Now can you three give me a succinct report on your conditions?"

"I have a mostly healed injury to my calf from debris. It might cause some mobility issues but I should be fine otherwise," Kento told me.

"I passed out from the blast of chakra but wasn't out for more than a couple of minutes, according to Aisa and Kento. Sorry, sensei, I wasn't prepared for the sudden blast so my shields were down because I was about to look for you. So now I have a headache and all our chakra is low, but we should be fine for a while more."

I nodded toward Michiko, silently holding out the last of my water which the genin took eagerly, sharing it among themselves. "Aisa?"

"I'm mostly fine," he informed me between sips of water. "Bruised from some falling debris, and this one girl we were extracting dug her nails into my skin and almost choked me, but I guess that's understandable, because she was scared, obviously, and I'm tired, too, but like Michiko said, we'll be fine."

"Good." I took the empty canteen back. "We should probably--"

"Cashile?" Aisa interrupted.

I sighed, irritated at the interruption, but allowing it. "Yes?"

"Can we go check on the civilians? Make sure they're all alright?"

I frowned. "There are several different evacuation points; we can't check on them all. It would be better to see what else we can do to help the fight or extracting those caught in the rubble."

"We could just check one, and if everything is fine there, we can assume the other extraction points are fine, too," Kento offered.

"What extraction point were you thinking?"

The genin each listed a different one, and I realized they were naming the ones their own families would have gone to. I sighed. "Listen," I informed them gently. "Your families are either fine or dead. If they're dead, there's nothing you can do, and if they're fine, we'll have wasted that time that could've been spent helping people who aren't fine or fighting the enemy that's going to make even more people not fine."

"But," Aisa pointed out, "if we don't check them out, we'll probably be distracted because we're worrying. Besides, that's where people will be going, so that's where we can help the most."

I sighed, then nodded. "Fine. We'll go to the closest extraction point. If that one is fine, then the others should be safe and if your families got to them, they'll also be safe. Aisa, I know Aiden got to an extraction point. Kento, your sister will have been evacuated with the hospital. Michiko, I don't know where your mother would have been, but if she was home, she would have been fairly safe at the edge of town. So don't go off looking for your family once we reach the first evacuation point. Got it?"

"Yes sensei," the three replied in unison, not without lacking enthusiasm. I decided not to mention that I was planning on immediately dumping them there so I could go to the real fight.

"Great. To my knowledge, the closest extraction point is in that direction," I said, indicating to my left, their right. "We'll see what the situation is..." I trailed off as my attention shifted towards the giant purple frog soaring quite gracefully through the air.

I cleared my throat to grab my students' attention. Their attention snapped back to me, listening intently for further directions. "As I was saying, we'll see what the situation is from there and I will decide the next best course of action. Let's move," I finished, starting into a run with my three little ducklings following closely behind. Most likely I would leave them at the evacuation point to help out the citizens, and go off on my own to take care of other business.

I've no doubt that the other jonin are attempting to find the puppet master's actual location at this very moment. At least I wouldn't have to worry about that. Other than me, no one would be better suited for that task than Shikamaru and Shikaku.

We stopped briskly in front of the extraction just as a loud explosion shook the atmosphere. The genin turned their heads towards the blast. "Focus on your primary objective," I snapped, causing their hands to turn back immediately.

This chakra... Whatever training Naruto had done with those frogs had resulted in something powerful.

We stopped briskly in front of the chunin in charge of the evacuation point. "What's the situation been at this point?" I asked. The ignorant chunin looked me up and down, as if to question my authority based off of how old I looked. I rolled my eyes and was about to make a not so pleasant comment, when he eyed the three genin behind me and came to his senses, deciding to answer my question. "Most citizens have been evacuated, and taken care of. We're dividing citizens up right now per the medical attention needed. We received word about five minutes ago that the other evacuation points are doing similarly."

"Good," I pushed my three genin forward. "These three will help divide citizens. They're very capable, but keep an eye on them until the threat dies. I have other matters to take care of."

"Of course." He nodded sharply, and I disappeared before the genin could begin to form their protests.

I made my way back through the rubble, ignoring spreading blood and dismembered limbs, trying to find Shikamaru or Kakashi or Ibiki or someone who would have more information about the next plan of attack. I happened to stumble across Shikamaru and Shikaku, first.

"What's going on?" I asked, eyeing how Shikamaru clutched at his leg.

"Broken." He nodded toward his leg in answer to my unspoken concern. "Naruto is fighting the enemy."

"All of them?" I asked, incredulous.

Shikamaru nodded grimly, while his dad added, "We just have to rely on Naruto, now."

I stared. "Are you shitting me?" I questioned. "All the puppets managed to kill the Toad Sage, and Kakashi nearly died fighting just one. What makes you think Naruto can handle all of them alone better than with help?"

"We would just get in the way, at this point," Shikaku murmured.

I stared at him, shook my head, and turned on my heel. "Well, I'm going to try to find some people with actual fucking brains, which will be hard, seeing as you two are supposed to be our top strategists. I guess it's just me, now."

"Cashile—"

"Shikamaru," I cut him off, and my tone softened without my permission. "You're injured. I understand why you're not helping Naruto right now."

He hesitated, shifted as though he was going to stand, and screwed his face up in pain. "Careful, okay?"

I rolled my eyes. "I'm not about to die for Naruto. I already proved that, today."

He opened his mouth, eyebrows furrowed in confusion, but before he could question anything, I left. The last thing I needed was for someone else to get mad at me for making the completely logical decision of giving up Naruto's location. Though, admittedly, Shikamaru would be one of the few I would expect to understand almost immediately, even if he found it distasteful.

I sensed the violent clashing of powerful energies emanating from what used to the center of the village, and did exactly the opposite of what Shikaku had told me to do -- I sprinted towards the fight. That was where I belonged after all, right? That was what I was good for. I was most skilled in combat, should I not be fighting the enemy?

Naruto came into my line of sight. He seemed to be alone, aside from the two frogs that accompanied him from Mount Myoboku. Out of the six Akatsuki members, one remained. He stood tall, with bright orange hair and identical piercings all over his body. I instantly knew that of all the clones, this one was the most dangerous.

"This is the enemy that almost killed Kakashi," a meek voice spoke. I jumped, startled, breathing out a quick "Holy fuck," when I saw that it was Katsuya, who made her way up to my shoulder. She was probably connected with Naruto as well, she could give me all the details of the fight.

"Naruto wanted everyone to stay out of this area," she chided. "He wants to protect everyone."

I rolled my eyes. "Never mind that idiocy; I won't let myself die out there. But I'm not gonna sit around and wait for another blast like the last one to take me out. So tell me what I need to know," I demanded. I could go gather help, force people into a plan, but judging from previous Akatsuki clashes and Shikaku's reaction, they would only stop me from getting involved. Better to lead by example and hope some people joined in. "This is the one that almost killed Kakashi, right?"

"His power is gravitation. He can use force to draw everything to him instantly, and he can use force to push anything away from his center."

It only took me a moment to piece it together. "He must have been the one that destroyed Konoha..." I observed aloud. In other words, this one was powerful. "There has to be a weakness to his power," I noted.

"Yes," Katsuyu continued, " once he uses his power, there is a five second gap between then and when he can use his power again."

I swung out my twin blades, ignoring the tremors that still wanted to run through my muscles and how low my chakra still was. Now wasn't the time for that; now was the time to complete the mission.

"And that is a weakness I can take advantage of."

__________________________________________

Hi guys!

Wow wow wow have we been busy holy crap a lot has happened college and soccer and life just hit me right in the face it was a party

So I got my ten page paper turned in yesterday morning, and last week I turned in my workshop piece (which gets workshopped today--basically I sit silent in the classroom while everyone discusses my writing and what they think it was about and what they like and don't like about it FUN TIMES) and I have an exam this morning and test friday and had two papers due last week and it's basically been midterm MONTH AND A HALF not week and I had soccer reffing all day all weekend for the last three weekends and work and also bills to pay and also cooking and cleaning and shit and also time for e x i s t e n t i a l  b r e a k d o w n s so yeah! Fun times!

ANYHOW how did you like this chapter? So sorry it took this long! Please comment long and beautifully inspiring comments to get me through exams and workshop (which I'm actually excited for it's nerve-wracking but I actually do love being workshopped because I love seeing people's reactions to my writing)!

Also long beautiful comments for inspiration to write more!

comment comment comment!

gaara119

welp. it's 3AM and I am d-r-u-n-k. In my defense, I had an exam so I didn't sleep at all all night. I got a parking citation for 300 $ by a BLIND COP who TOOK A PICTURE OF MY CAR WITH THE HANDICAP PARKING PERMIT PLACED EXACTLY WHERE IT WAS SUPPOSED TO ME. if y'all didn't know, I had hip surgery for an injury I sustained in the army *lucky me*. So yeah, had to waste time with a fucking appeal that I should NOT have had to waste my time on. Fuck parking services ya'll. college parking services only exist to bleed you dry of your money. Apparently even when you have your own problems to deal with like, idk fucking hip surgery.

If you can't tell, I'm bitter and sleep deprived.

but YEAH so, stayed up all night, studied for my exam, took my exam, attended all my classes, worked right after my class ended (till 10PM) and then I TRIED to sleep early after a night of no sleep but NO my body doesn't like to sleep before midnight apparently no matter how much melatonin I take or how hard I try (hence I a sleep deprived and drunk and writing this AN). Then I had work at 5 in the morning so I think I deserved that drink tonight haha.

life has been hard, but what's new? I'm sure ya'll are well acquainted with similar struggles. Hope you enjoy the chapter!

-Supes

Also, if you could take the time to check out our archiveofourown version of the Frailty of Genius and leave kudos/reviews that would mean a lot!!

Comment, Vote, and Fan!

Ja ne!

Insomniac_Lullabies