Author's note: I'm having a little trouble finding Kakashi's voice, and alignining how he's feeling properly... but I hope I'm doing alright so far. Thanks for reading!

"So when are you going to explain the mission to me?" Sakura asked, aggravated. She walked next to Kakashi, arms crossed, body tight. Her backpack was at least twice her body weight, but she gave no indication of its drag. She kept up with Kakashi with ease, and even had breath to spare for complaining. Not in the Yamanaka girl's sense of complaining. Sakura's complaints were all directed at Kakashi, and all perfectly valid. Case in point: her previous question.

Flipping to the next page of his Itcha Itcha, Kakashi hummed. "When you need to know."

Her cheeks turn a slight red. "I think I need to know now. I should have known a while ago, considering this is an A-ranked mission. You always preached the importance of teamwork—how can we be a team if I don't know the whole picture? I need to be prepared. Also, Shizune told me I would be briefed by you on the way over. For the last two days, that has proven to be false. All you've done is read Itcha Itcha and eat."

Kakashi held back the urge to laugh. It was pure fun to see the small ninja get so worked up and go on her little monologue. In all honesty, that might have been the reason he did not disclose the details of the mission, if he didn't have a sealed envelope with the final details. If he did tell her, that would have been the end of it, and they would have nothing else to talk about. Or perhaps he didn't trust himself with other topics of conversation. Gai told him constantly that he needed to work on his social skills, and so Kakashi did that by simply making the other person talk enough for the two of them. And they had a week before they arrived at their destination. It wasn't even the correct time to tell her about the mission.

"I quite enjoy those two things." Kakashi's eyes crinkled at the sides. "So if you don't mind, I'll resume the latter of the pair."

And so they travelled in silence once more, Sakura trudging alongside Kakashi as he sensed out with his chakra as a guide in order to remain fixed in his book. It was just getting interesting, and he couldn't spare a cell in his eye on anything else. He was eternally grateful to have two normal eyes once again, so he didn't need to spend chakra subduing the sharingan, as well as energy in fixing his skewed depth perception.

Fingers were slipping below the protection of clothes, Kakashi's heart started racing—

And a blur of ink flashed before his eyes, and before he could process what had happened, Sakura tucked his precious orange book in her flak jacket front pocket.

Sputtering, Kakashi froze in place. He was completely caught off guard, completely lost without his story. "Wha-what? Give that back!"

"Nope," she said, popping the 'p.'

"Sakura, I swear, if you don't give that back—"

"If you want it, just take it back yourself," she stated, puffing out her chest towards Kakashi. The book peeked open slightly from the pocket's cover, exposed from its confines near her breast. His hand instinctively reached for the treasure, but skill made him pause. He could never touch her near there; it was too intimate, he hadn't earned the right. He wasn't even a good friend of hers anymore, much less a partner. When was the last time they had really even talked? Probably not for months. Sakura obviously knew he wouldn't cross that personal boundary. Since when did she get so bold, anyways?

From the triumphant look of Sakura's face, she saw the acceptance in Kakashi's eyes of losing his book. He hoped she didn't notice the red blush that made its way passed his mask.

"It was giving you an excuse to ignore me," she explained. "Now you have to talk to me."

"I can entertain myself perfectly well with just my own mind," Kakashi rebutted. Drowning out Sakura's objection with his thoughts, Kakashi dove into his head. Without his erotica, there was nothing to really take his mind off of the ninja next to him, flailing in attempt after attempt to reconnect, to rekindle their old friendship. And here he was, again, distancing himself.

Topic after topic skirted this thoughts, and Kakashi analyzed each one for its worth. Which would earn the gift of his brain power?

Of course, the practical thing to do would have been to go over jutsu that might be necessary once they reached their destination. Without his Sharingan, Kakashi had to rely purely on his memory of the copied jutsu, or he would forget them forever. Each of the hundreds of jutsu he had copied he now needed to recall hand signs for.

He could think about the events leading up to the climax in his novel, but that just made his hands itch for the book itself, and that was a dangerous path to take.

But as usual, leaving Kakashi's mind to wander lead him to Rin and Obito.

Therefore he simply recited the alphabet. The path of life which he was accustomed on getting lost on was not within his reach, with the distraction of Sakura beside him. She kept trying to poke at him, get a response, engage him. It was like she reverted to her twelve-year-old self when Team 7 was still together, when she was just a genin. He knew this wasn't her anymore; he was a respectable woman, with an inspiring job as a shinobi.

And eventually, she gave up.

Arms folded, mouth in a slight pouted shape, Sakura looked to the ground in dismay. Silence stretched out, and all Kakashi could do was watch her with sadness as she wrapped her arms around her thin figure, making herself smaller.

"What did I do wrong?" She whispered to herself. Kakashi slowed down, and Sakura walked by him, not noticing his change of pace. He reached out after her, but with her head down, she didn't see.

What does she think happened?


The next leg of the journey was solemn, but professional.

With Kakashi still leading the way as the senior ninja, Sakura went around conducting perimeter checks and awarenesses. Her reports were always short and succinct, perfectly describing what she saw. Usually there is nothing of note. Once, Sakura noticed a pack of bandits following them. They threw them off their trail quickly.

Then one day, two ninja tried to launch a surprise attack on her when she sped ahead of Kakashi for a quick survey. She heard them from a mile away, dodging their shuriken and attacks with ease. But they were quick too, and massive in size. Sakura could only focus on one as the other decided to go for Kakashi.

With her comrade now in danger, Sakura summoned more chakra and delivered a decimating blow to her opponent, leaving him in the dust as she ran after the other rouge ninja.

She arrived to see the two men in a standoff, the fight becoming a verbal one. They threw insults at each other like men do, puffing out their feathers in an attempt to establish dominance.

From far away, Sakura threw a kunai. It struck the rogue ninja right in a pressure point in his back. He scrunched up, let out a frail squeal, and fell at Sakura's feet.

Kakashi, still in his stance with hand signs at the ready, felt his mouth open as Sakura walked forward with her hands at her hips. She kicked the ninja over, scanning his injuries. Not much, so she just induced a coma to last for the next few hours.

Brushing off dust from her shoulder, she looked to Kakashi. "Shall we continue?" So quick, so efficient, and so nonchalant. She'd been like that for a while now, but when had she become like that, Kakashi wondered. He wasn't brave enough to ask the question out loud.

Now, a few minutes after sundown, Sakura sharpened her weapons as Kakashi crouched in front of the fire preparing dinner. No words had been spoken since their little attack, and the silence was getting to him. He was used to her being joyful and talkative, to a slightly above normal degree. Before she had been overcompensating—for what, Kakashi still could not understand—but this completely 180 flip threw him off. He wanted the old Sakura back, the one that would greet him with a soft smile when he delivered items from the Hokage, the one that would tsk when he came in with another blow to the face from an off-put suitor. That was so long ago; maybe she'd changed since then. It's not like Kakashi would have noticed, being so busy as of late, and Sakura diving deeper into her studies. And then Sasuke left once again after the war, and their paths diverged along with their team member... was there a way to reconnect with his former student?

Although he had to admit it to himself, he was never that open with her to begin with. Besides, he didn't know how to explain how he felt. Kakashi kept his feelings bottled up, as all Hatake do. And he knew this, since he was the only Hatake.

Instead, as they were drawing ever closer to their destination, and Kakashi thought it was best to tell her about the mission now.

"We're going to see if the Land of Mountain Streams is really planning an attack on our village," Kakashi told her over the crackle of a campfire.

He expected her to look up, to meet his eyes, but Sakura just stared at the flames. The light illuminates her face partially, casting an ominous shadow over her features.

"I know that already. What I don't know is where or how we plan to infiltrate this Land."

"Oh." Kakashi scratched his chin. "Well, I haven't thought about that at all."

"What?" Sakura straightened on her log.

Arms in the air in surrender, Kakashi explained. "Tsunade gave me some details, but the rest are in this letter, explaining why we were paired up." He pulled out a letter from his pocket. "Since I didn't know all of the details of the mission, I didn't want to waste time thinking about to something that might be meaningless."

Putting her kunai to the side, Sakura slid off her log to sit next to Kakashi. "I swear, Shishou is so extra. Can we open it now?"

With another shrug, Kakashi said, "I guess we're close enough now. Here," he passed it to Sakura.

She stared at him, agast. "Really? Shouldn't you be the one to open it, Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi cringed over his cooking, rotating the rations over the fire. "No. Sakura, we're equals now, equals on this mission." Her using the formality stung him.

"But you were my—"

"I told you," he interrupted her. "That was long ago, before the Fourth Shinobi World War. Please." He fixed all his attention onto her. "Just call me Kakashi."

Hand hovering over the envelope, Sakura matched Kakashi's intense stare. What she was thinking, Kakashi wished he could know.

"Are you sure?" She asked finally.

Cocking his head to the side, Kakashi responded, "Of course. Why wouldn't I be?" He was genuinely asking; he wanted to know why she was resisting this transition so strongly, even more so now than before.

But Sakura looked down to the envelope, and ripped it open. "Let's see what Lady Tsunade said," she dodged the question in true Kakashi fashion. She would make a good Hatake, he snidely thought.

"All right…" Sakura trailed off, reading first piece of paper. "What? No. That can't be correct."

"What? Is something wrong?" Kakashi asked.

"Read it yourself," she shoved the instructions to him, then set off away from the fire, pacing.

In the main town of the Land, there's a festival going on celebrating new life and young love. You two are to pose a newly engaged couple as you gain information and snoop around. Kakashi flipped the piece of paper over. And yes, the assignment would have been the same if you had been sent with Naruto. Don't argue with me, he would have loved it.

"Damn Sage," Kakashi grumbled as he flipped through the other letters in the envelope. The old ninja knew he would have argued had he known this would be an aspect of the mission. But they're too far in now to turn around, and he had no choice but to continue.

There was one bright side to this particular assignment.

"I suppose you'll really have to get used to just calling me Kakashi," he joked with a glint in his eyes

Sakura just rolled her eyes back, not amused.


KibouNoKuro: thank you! I appreciate it :)