TRAP
for Sammie (6 days and counting)
...
"I swear this is a bad idea," Sakura murmured, her fingers gripped into the loose fabric of his sleeve as they crouched, moving as one to peer beneath the stairs.
"Quiet, Sakura. Or they'll run."
Anyone standing on the streets was likely to be watching with a mild sense of disbelief, just as they were likely to tell someone about what they had seen; that person would tell someone, and that person would tell someone else, and no doubt it would eventually reach Ino through the grapevine, and she would be absolutely merciless with her jibes. 'Forehead, you called Kakashi-sensei?'
The voice in her head that sounded horrifically like her childhood rival was enough to warrant a second thought on her hasty decision, "I should ask someone else."
She probably had enough money left in her account to buy a few things; maybe she could do this herself with a few kunai and plenty of hand-sanitizer. Sakura took a step forward, a hair-raising shudder running through her as something scurried over her boot.
Maybe not.
"Why?" Kakashi glanced down at her, feigning disappointment, even as his eye twinkled in barely concealed merriment, "You called me."
Maybe her parents shouldn't have left for cooler climates and Piña coladas; whatever those were. She didn't want their house. Or whatever came with it. And, maybe Kakashi shouldn't have insisted that she show him herself.
Tossing a look at the rodents eyeing them from underneath her house, Sakura valiantly resisted the idea of cowering under their beady little gazes. Kakashi, for his part, pretended not to notice how her grasp on his sleeve moved to encompass as much of his arm as her hands could cover, tight; almost to the point of cutting off his circulation.
Cute, and slightly painful; but still cute.
"I know. But... you're not an exterminator."
"Perhaps not," he admitted, amusement lingering in his voice, "but, I've got the right equipment, in any case."
Before she could ask what he meant, he used his free hand to lift his headband, revealing his sharingan while gently pulling his other arm to his side, away from her fingers.
Sakura sensed his movements, and reluctantly released his bicep, watching him proceed deeper into the shadows. After scanning his surroundings with a careful eye, his fingers moved quickly through the signs for a jutsu. Just a burst of chakra later and suddenly, a cage rose from the ground, capturing everything that crawled, darted, slithered and crept, in the blink of an eye.
The man of a thousand jutsu had one for vermin.
Rising from her kneel on the dirt, Sakura was ready to sing his praises as he drug the jailed creatures from under the house. Apparently her relief and gratitude showed clearly, because upon turning to face her, he chuckled.
"All done."
Kakashi stood, holding the cage in his arms, eyes crinkling in a pleasant smile. Sakura was sure if either of his hands were free, they would be ruffling her hair.
The thought didn't annoy her as much as it usually did.
When Naruto visited the next day, full of complaints about Kakashi, his lack of punctuality and the excuses that followed, Sakura listened obligingly, chin planted in the palms of her hands as she watched him devour his lunch.
"'A pretty lady called me' blah blah blah." Naruto paused over the steaming bowl of ramen for a minute, looking at Sakura with something akin to confusion in his cerulean eyes, "Who the hell would call Kakashi-sensei to exterminate rats?"
Sakura found herself laughing.