Chapter 3: Fishing and Flash Storms

Over the course of the next few days Kakashi came to two conclusions: firstly, that if he ever heard the relentless cadence of a horse on the move again it would be too soon, and secondly, that while Sakura definitely knew of his impending Hokagedom she didn't realise quite how tight the noose was. Drawing on all his experience in the Torture & Interrogation Squad he'd managed to coax what she thought she knew out of her unsuspecting lips without giving anything away, though if the unsubtle looks she'd been throwing in his direction over the last day were any indication the conversation was becoming perilous. Mostly, she seemed relieved he had given up trying to figure out what had happened between her and Sasuke, but that was only on the back burner while he toyed with this latest line of investigation.

By the same token Kakashi had figured out that Naruto was as blessedly oblivious as ever while Sasuke either didn't know or had improved his cool-don't-care facade to ANBU-fooling levels. Sai and Tenzou were much harder reads - in fact, the soon-to-be Kage would not be surprised if Sai was already drawing up the rough sketches for his relief on the Hokage Monument - but at the moment the secret appeared to be safe.

It was a good feeling to be able to just relax and pretend it wasn't happening, so most of his downtime since they had left the nameless little village a few days ago had largely consisted of lying in the caravan with his hands behind his head, trying semi-successfully to drown out the droning of hooves on the dirt.

The hooked end of a large fishing pole thwacked suddenly across the jounin's lap, startling him out of his reverie. Naruto crouched at the entrance to the caravan, the other end of the rod held in a loose grasp while he grinned in unexpected pleasure at taking the older man by surprise. Raising pale eyebrows and tilting his head in an expression that would've looked annoyed if it weren't for the amusement dancing in his grey eyes, Kakashi waited for an explanation.

"There's a nice, deep river just off the road," Naruto offered, shaking a can of bait invitingly. "What d'you say we convince Sakura-chan into her grilled fish special?"

Kakashi didn't need to be asked twice: the medic refused to cook for them unless absolutely necessary, citing her already significant contributions towards team upkeep while in the field, but she couldn't hide her weakness for freshly grilled fish and could usually be goaded into making enough to share. General ninja-related nosiness as well as his own sharp olfactory senses had already told Kakashi that she'd packed her special herb mix for the mission so the idea was clearly on the menu at some point.

"Where did you pick up the rod?" The shinobi asked, shooing his younger comrade ahead of him in his eagerness to escape the persistent rocking of their transport.

"Oh, Toma-san gave it to me before we left the village the other day: said we had to take some form of payment that wasn't just food."

"And Toma-san was…?" Kakashi frowned questioningly; the village where Sakura had performed her little miracle had been full of nondescript civilians and he'd been too keen to leave and get back on track to pay attention to who they were unless en masse.

"Sakura-chan's latest suitor," Naruto replied with a snort, "you know, the one who threw pebbles at our windows all night in case he caught a glimpse of her face."

Kakashi laughed, remembering the man now as the recipient of their medic's healing skills. They both knew that if the civilian hadn't been recuperating from his brush with death he'd have been recuperating from a brush with Sakura's temper: something infinitely more dangerous that only rose to a crescendo when she was interrupted in sleep.

Still chuckling, the two ninja made their way down the embankment off the road to where the river gurgled busily past them. The spring melt made for a fast current, and already Kakashi could see the fat, silvery bodies of trout hiding amongst the reeds on the far shore. He hummed in anticipation, feeling a little of what his dogs liked to call the thrill of the hunt while he watched as the caravans trundled to a halt and Sasuke busied himself with securing the cavalcade and the others milled around chatting.

"Sasuke really likes those ponies, huh?" Kakashi observed, prompting a laugh from the blonde man in front of him who was wrestling bait onto the rod's hook.

Naruto spared a glance over his shoulder at his best friend, the whisker marks on his cheeks quivering with mirth. "Don't let him hear you, sensei." The jinchuuriki warned. "I caught him stroking the one leading our caravan last night and he's been, sort of, vibrating with built-up annoyance all day because of it."

"Ah," Kakashi replied. "That's what today's killing aura is all about, then?"

"You'd better believe it," Naruto replied with a short laugh. He sobered suddenly. "Thanks for letting him back on the team, Kakashi-sensei." His voice was serious enough that Kakashi looked him directly in the eyes. "I know you weren't keen at first."

It was true: he hadn't been. In fact he'd argued long and hard against it - privately to Tsunade of course - citing everything from the harmonious dynamic of the current Team Kakashi to the unfortunate past between the teammates to his own inability to remain objective in his dealings with the Uchiha. He'd only given in when Tsunade asked him to draw up a list of alternative options and there hadn't been a single soul who jumped into mind.

"Maa…" the silver haired shinobi replied noncommittally, hand reaching to scratch the back of his head.

"I mean it, really," Naruto pressed as he secured the fishing pole in the water, eyeing up the trout who were moving languidly on the opposite bank. "You're probably the only person in the entire world he respects."

Kakashi blinked, considering.

"He might love Sakura-chan and I," Naruto continued, "but you're the only person he'd actually consider listening to on any kind of regular basis."

And there it was, his opportunity.

"So he loves you and Sakura-chan, huh?" Kakashi repeated, drawing on every ounce of his famous nonchalance. "Sure doesn't seem like there's a lot of love going around at the moment."

Unfortunately he'd worked with Naruto too long and the younger man knew him too well.

"Wait, wait wait wait," the blonde replied. "Oh no you don't, Kakashi-sensei! That's a completely different conver-that is unfair!"

Kakashi shrugged, palms up. "Ninja!" He said teasingly. "Being unfair is in the job description."

His teammate deflated. "I swear I'm not telling you," he muttered, turning his attention to the rod which remained unfortunately slack. "Sakura-chan would seriously kill me for this one."

Kakashi didn't mind his rebuttal. After all, shinobi warfare was either a quick and dirty battle or a long, drawn out war filled with riddles and traps and outmaneuvering. He had patience; now he'd opened the playing field they both knew the younger ninja didn't stand a chance.

"Fish are coming," he replied instead, pointing a gloved hand towards the river. Shooting his slightly sulking companion a lazy smile, Kakashi lay down contentedly on the comfortable grass of the bank. This mission was shaping up to be quite the send-off.

As much as she liked to grouse about it Sakura didn't truly mind cooking for the rest of her team. Her fairly consistent refusal to actually stemmed from Hinata of all people, who'd spoken fairly snappishly once when Kurenai had had a stand-in team leader who thought kunoichi were largely only good for scouting, sex and stews. Kiba and Shino probably hadn't helped matters with their surprising lack of confrontational spirit, and Hinata had returned to Konoha looking surprisingly frazzled and with a lot to say about fair treatment for the kunoichi that resided in the village.

So it was with her shy friend's words ringing in her ears - it's all about taking turns, Sakura-chan - the medic set about marinating and spearing the fish Kakashi and Naruto had caught earlier into a tempting row above the cracking fire. They'd pulled the caravans into a triangle around the firepit and Tenzou had obligingly drawn comfortable stumps out of the ground; the whole campsite reminding Sakura more of a jolly family outing than a group of the world's most dangerous ninja on the hunt. She supposed that was the point: but anyone looking closer at their current motley troupe could barely mistake them for anything less than mercenaries, civilian clothes and all.

Settling back on her heels to let the fish cook, Sakura flicked her eyes towards her designated stump and contemplated it for a few moments, chin in hand.

"Tenzou-san," she called out eventually, disturbing the man from his game of Go with Naruto.

"Yeah?" He answered evenly. "Need more firewood?"

"Mm, not yet," she replied, green eyes giving the merry fire an assessing look. "It's about my chair, actually…"

Kakashi immediately glanced up from his book, a suspicious gleam in his eyes. "Sakura…" he said warningly, and she could hear him putting just a touch of his 'my word is the law here' authority in his voice.

The medic simply fixed him with an innocent smile that was all teeth and no warmth before turning back to Tenzou expectantly. Who, unlike her, was watching their team leader in his usual obedient manner, game forgotten in front of him. Sakura huffed. While she and Naruto - and to a lesser extent Sai - liked to joke around and play with Kakashi's status as the head of their team, Tenzou never did. In a relationship borne from the long partnership in their ANBU days the younger man was almost unquestioningly obedient when it came to her former sensei, and it leached into their everyday interactions in a way that generally fascinated the analyst in her.

What had they been through together to forge such an unshakeable chain of command? She'd never been able to get Tsunade to show her Kakashi's ANBU records and when the man himself finally got around to taking up the mantle of Hokage she suspected the chance would be gone forever. The part of her that wasn't nosy didn't mind in the slightest, but the greater majority would undertake some serious bribing if it would shed light on why Tenzou currently felt the need to get permission from Kakashi before he answered her.

Kakashi sighed, no doubt worn down by all the eyes on him. "Oh, fine…" he muttered, waving a hand in a lazily authoritative manner that was so like Tsunade Sakura nearly chuckled out loud. As much as he hated to admit it Kakashi had the Hokage presence down to a T. And judging by the way his gaze sharpened on her at the hastily muffled chuckle, he knew exactly what she was laughing at, and he really hated it.

Tenzou relaxed, permission apparently granted. "What can I do for you, Sakura-chan?"

"Could you please add a bit of a back to my seat? My back's a little worn out."

"Sure thing," he said easily, ambling over to her side of the fire. Through the flames she could see Naruto rolling his eyes as he started to pick up the abandoned Go pieces scattered in front of him, so she stuck out a cheeky tongue at her friend before throwing Tenzou a sweet smile.

"Just tell me when's good enough," the wood ninja continued, his arms already moving in the required forms to draw out his energy.

The next few moments were spent with Sakura directing and Tenzou shaping the wood of her rapidly-forming chair when they were once again interrupted by Kakashi.

"Are you making Tenzou make you a throne, Sakura-chan? Surely that's enough." He pointed to the high back she'd coaxed the brown hair ninja into drawing out of the wood.

"You caught me," she replied unrepentantly, shooting Tenzou a grin. He just shook his head in a mockery of exasperation before finishing what did indeed look like a throne, releasing his chakra and moving back towards the other side of the fire, giving the fish a tentative poke on his way.

"You shouldn't look to waste a teammate's strength like that," Kakashi scolded lightly, putting his open book down across one knee.

"Tire out the man who single-handedly made most of our village? More like I'm encouraging a creative spirit." Dropping down into her now much more luxurious seat, Sakura stretched out languorously, popping her spine as she did so. "Sorry," she said, more sincerely. "My back really does hurt."

"Fix it then," Kakashi replied relentlessly, ignoring her pout.

"What's that about encouraging teammates to waste their energy?"

"Come on, Sakura, it's not like that would take you more than a snap of your fingers to do."

Mollified at this testament to her strength as well as the no-nonsense way in which he said her name, she settled back into the ornately styled chair, content to watch the flames licking at the darkness above their campsite. Her eyes were close to drifting shut when a sudden movement from the man to her right focused her attention again. Kakashi had sat up abruptly in his chair, two fingers hooked in the scarf he was currently draping in an imitation of his mask over his lower face. His shoulders were pitched back and the snapping shut of his book made the whole team freeze in place, ready.

Nobody spoke for the fraction of a second it took for him to blink, sniff, and let out a harsh breath. "We'll have a flash storm tonight," he supplied, sliding his eyes over the team but not relaxing. "Smells like a bad one."

Sakura let out the breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding. While they had all known it couldn't be an enemy presence he was sensing the way he'd went on high alert had raised her adrenaline levels to an uncomfortable height for this time of the evening. He really did sometimes display canine behaviours; but while Kiba had all the boisterousness of a puppy Kakashi's actions were that of a hunting dog, a working dog, an alpha. The thought skittered across Sakura's mind somewhat uncomfortably before she shrugged off the image of him displaying, ahem, alpha behaviours and asked, "what do you need us to do?"

Fire country flash storms were nothing to take lightly and that was only truer the further you moved from temperate Konoha; there'd be lighting and rain and wind on an almost dangerous scale.

Now that she'd been told about the storm, Sakura could see that Sasuke sensed it too: the young man had been sitting pensively on his stump all evening, but now his hair stood as though it was electrified and his attitude seemed more woe is me than usual, eliciting a grin from the medic despite their current non-speaking status.

Chakra natures were a fascinating thing, she thought briefly, before rushing to follow the instructions that were falling rapid-fire from Kakashi's mouth.

"I'm sorry!" Tenzou shouted about the rapidly rising winds. "I'm afraid I'm running a little low on chakra to finish this!"

Sakura felt a split second of guilt as she heard the wood user shout to Kakashi; that had been partially her fault with her chair stunt before dinner, but there wasn't time to dwell on it.

"Just do what you can, Tenzou!" Kakashi replied, the wind violently tearing the words from his mouth so they had to strain to hear him. "Sakura - tie this rope to yourself and see if you can fix the wheels a little further into the ground."

"Got it!"

"Sasuke - get the horses. And Naruto - put that fire out!"

It was shaping up to be a long, wet, miserable night, and as Sakura tied off the sturdy rope and braved the driving rain that was howling outside of their makeshift shelter, she knew she was going to end the night colder and wetter than anyone short of a Wave Country fisherman should humanly be.

Several hours later, Sakura sneezed herself awake, coming to her senses immediately with a grimace as her frozen muscles protested the sharp movement. Tenzou had tried his hardest to mould the wood of their caravans into a canopy over their heads - the wind was so strong that they'd had to move into the centre of the protective circle offered by the small vehicles rather than risk separating - and without ventilation as well as the fact they'd moved the horses under the roof it had become clear a fire was no longer an option. The freezing wind found little difficulty in plaguing them through the gaps in their hasty shelter, leaving a huddle of cold, sodden ninja curled up on a raised platform above the horses' heads.

At least there was no need to hold a watch: nobody in their right minds would venture out in a storm of this magnitude. On the other hand, the cramped space and nervousness of their transport meant Kakashi couldn't summon his ninken, a prime source of heat on many a night of forced darkness in enemy territory, so the mood of the group had gradually simmered into a dark sulk that ended in an uncharacteristically early night.

It was difficult to tell what time it was due to the chaos that still reigned outside, and though Sakura's body clock was as accurate as any ninja's she found herself wanting nothing more than to be slightly warmer, slightly drier and definitely less awake. Her earlier forced march into the storm to secure the wheels of the carts into earth that had been rapidly muddying had left her soaked from head to toe as well as covered in the muck blown back from her Earth Wall jutsu: a bit of revenge on Kakashi's part, she thought, for making Tenzou cater to her whims. Though the worst of the mud had been sloughed off in the unforgiving rain she hadn't been able to get dry in the rush to secure their shelter and calm the horses.

She heaved a sigh, thinking longingly of the dry clothes that were currently inaccessible in the main body of the caravans. Though Tenzou had done a brave job his quick woodworking had essentially blocked off most of their gear in his haste to make their clearing rainproof, and if she wanted access it was either smash her way through the wood (unacceptable in such close quarters) or coax him awake and see whether his chakra had replenished enough to help.

Neither option was possible - and a brief glance to her left showed that neither was cuddling into Naruto, her third favourite option for cold nights on a mission after the warmth of a fire or the cosy nest of Kakashi's dogs. The jinchuuriki was a permanent source of heat due to the bubbling of the nine tails' chakra under his skin, heat which was currently being unfairly hoarded by the definite blackmail-worthy sight of Sasuke and Sai stuck like burrs to either side of their blonde teammate.

The medic was sorely tempted to shove Sasuke out of her way to get close to Team Kakashi's personal furnace but to her tired mind that was far too much effort, and would likely end in an awkward tangle of limbs with the Uchiha come morning, something she'd very much like to avoid at the present time.

No, right now she needed a heat source that was less fraught with tension and didn't require moving, but it didn't seem forthcoming as the haze of sleep began to creep across her consciousness once more. Sighing again, Sakura let her head fall back to the hard wooden floor as she cursed the storm that was doing its best to rob her of a good night's sleep.

Someone had been conditioning his dogs' hair. There was no way any self respecting ninken would allow themselves to feel so silky soft, not even Bisuke, and although Kakashi was a hair's breadth away from the dreamless grip of deep sleep he knew that something wasn't quite right.

Pakkun. Had he summoned Pakkun? The subtle minty scent that currently filled his senses was awfully familiar to the shampoo he knew the pug indulged in, a fact that was trying to set off alarm bells in a mind that was still clawing itself back into the land of the thinking. He burrowed a little deeper into the mystery fur, gradually coming to realise that although it certainly felt soft and smelled nice it was actually rather uncomfortably damp and chilly.

He cracked open an eye curiously. Pink. Through the blur of sleep that dulled his vision the shinobi felt rather than saw the delicate shade that filled his vision, a colour that dimly reminded him of delicate petals and his favourite sweets from the teahouse back home. Huh. Did he have a pink ninken?

Come to think of it, did he have a big pink ninken? While Kakashi wasn't averse to sharing his bed with his dogs he generally regretfully excluded Bull from the arrangement due to his massive size and tendency to pin Kakashi's legs to the bed as he slept. Something which wasn't currently happening because he himself, he gradually realised, was trapping the as-of-yet unidentified canine under one of his own legs, which also felt relatively soaked now that he was becoming aware of it.

The warning that had been clamouring in his subconscious was suddenly a lot clearer as the shape in his arms shifted and he realised that it didn't have fur, it had hair, and it was soft in a far pleasanter way than a dog and it was in fact his very volatile, very human, and definitely very female teammate Sakura.

Shit.

Instincts honed from a lifetime on the battlefield stopped his body from stiffening in a way that would have woken her up and made the situation infinitely more dangerous than it already was. Unable to control the sudden hammering of his heartbeat Kakashi instead willed his body to hold the same relaxed position it had been in for presumably some time, taking stock of what could very well be his last few moments if he didn't put all his famed extraction skills into practice.

They were pressed together in a hold that would be intimate if they were wearing less, Sakura curled against his front with his arms around her and one leg haphazardly woven together with her own. One of her slender arms was pushed forward in a motion that indicated she'd moved backwards into him in her sleep seeking his body heat while the other rested on top of the arm he suddenly realised ended with a hand possessively splayed over her hip. With his face buried into her hair and the unoccupied arm cradling her neck and hovering dangerously close to her chest it was a position he'd found himself in with women before: but generally unaccompanied by clothing and certainly never with a subordinate, let alone not in a makeshift shelter in the middle of a high priority mission.

Compromising, definitely compromising, and even though he felt the same inner tension as with any high risk situation Kakashi spared a moment's amusement at Sakura's clear exposure to sleeping in a man's arms. Naruto and Sai liked to tease her prudishness but he knew nobody could sleep like this, exhausted and cold or not, unless they'd done it before and while his mind worked on a plan to remove himself without the removal of any limbs he idly wondered who'd managed to share her bed on what had to be a semi-regular basis. Perhaps that was the answer to her mystery fall out with Sasuke; but no - the jounin could make out the hazy form of the Uchiha on her other side, and instinct would surely have edged her towards him if they had a history of sleeping in each other's arms.

He was still contemplating how best to slide his arm from under her head when she shifted with the slow grace of deep sleep, his hand on her hip sliding from its already precarious position to skate further across her curves, coming to rest in the spot between her belly button and the waistband of her shorts. Now touching impossibly smooth skin, the ninja's fingers twitched in a purely instinctual flutter of fingers across the hard planes of her stomach and he felt his breathing hitch when she sighed in unconscious content.

He was so very dead, but while the team leader in him was coaching him on how he could move her without incident his currently much louder male side was coaxing him into simply enjoying the feel of a woman in his arms. He sighed into her pastel pink hair. As ways to die went it was far, far pleasanter than how he thought he'd eventually meet his end, and if Sakura would do him the honour of killing him before Tsunade forced those robes over his head then, well, this relatively innocent pleasure was more than worth it.

Mind made up, he tightened his hold on the kunoichi with the practiced sneakiness of a light sleeper, drawing her small, lithe body closer to his in an attempt to impart some of his warmth into her chilled skin. Lulled into sleep once more, Kakashi took a deep breath of the minty shampoo that couldn't quite override her own more subtle scent, and slipped into dreams where she rolled over in his arms and pressed a cold nose into the warm hollow of his collarbone.

The next time he awoke - and he was vaguely surprised that he had awoken - Kakashi's vision was no longer filled with delicate pink, although he needed only to tilt his eyes downward to see that the blush under his chin was in fact the now-dried hair of his bad tempered subordinate. Instead he found himself looking into twin pools of cornflower blue that looked terribly wide in the dull light of dawn, a sparkling set of sharp teeth accompanying the eyes in an expression that was part grin and part growl.

Ah. Naruto. Kakashi braced himself for the inevitable explosion as he took stock of the way Sakura was now leaning into his chest, her arms burrowed under his shirt as though possessively laying claim to his heat. Her face was pressed into the bare skin of his neck, her soft sleeping breaths shivering over his pulse in a way that felt so good he almost physically heard the doors slamming shut on his assessment of her as one of the 'strictly sexless' people of his acquaintance. Distracted from this realisation by his awareness that Naruto was possibly the only person more protective of Sakura than she was of herself, Kakashi schooled his expression into what he hoped was a convincing bemused mien.

"Help?" He mouthed, unable to avoid inhaling a few strands of pink as he opened his mouth. The edge dropped away from Naruto's grin and it became teasing; the younger ninja moved with impressive silence across the floor, arms held out in a strange pincer grip that evaded Kakashi's tired guessing.

He maybe couldn't predict what was about to happen but it appeared Sakura's prankster senses were sharper, because the jinchuuriki had barely begun to descend upon her sleeping form before an arm suddenly snaked out from under Kakashi's shirt - causing him to gasp a little breathlessly - and fisted into the blonde's t-shirt with a deadly kind of accuracy.

"Don't." The single word was laced with such caution that Naruto froze on the spot, his helpful demeanour taking on Kakashi's own harrowed look as both ninja waited helplessly for whatever hell she was going to rain on them. Stuck together as they were Kakashi could almost feel the wheels of her mind turning, and he held himself unnaturally still as her breathing changed from asleep to angered to confused in just a few halting breaths. With her hand still firmly planted in the fabric of Naruto's shirt Kakashi felt the exact, torturous moment she opened her eyes, long eyelashes fluttering against his pulse point as she re-adjusted her world.

"What's going on?" She mumbled, warning tone lost in her confusion. Kakashi swallowed and felt rather than saw her eyes draw to the motion.

"I think," he began slowly, feeling her body copy his rigid posture at the utter close proximity of his voice. "Someone maybe got cold while they were asleep." He thought that was relatively smooth - blameless, yet at the same time protesting his innocence. Naruto's cautious thumbs up seemed to agree, but the older ninja still held his breath when the medic shifted on the arm under her and drew herself onto her elbow. Eyes a deep green with tiredness stared unflinchingly into his for a moment beyond what he'd potentially consider acceptable, and when she broke eye contact to slide her gaze down towards the hand that was still buried under her shirt (which was probably going to be listed as his cause of death) Kakashi resisted the urge to close his own in defeat. Even worse, a blush crept onto his face at the rather obvious effect her proximity was having on his early morning body.

"I see," was all she remarked, before pulling back with the practiced ease of a medic prying themselves away from the grasp of a needy patient.

Kakashi didn't know if it was a blessing or a curse that she didn't look back once as she exited the hollow wooden confines of their shelter, but he wasn't going to bite the hand that fed (or in this case, had rested carelessly between his shoulder blades).

Sakura managed ten steps away from the caravans before she had to turn back and lean against the nearest wall. Sliding her hands over her cheeks to rest cool fingers at her temples, the kunoichi let the blush that had been threatening blaze its way shamelessly across her face while her mouth hung open in an embarrassed O shape.

Okay. So she'd woken up tangled like a lover in Kakashi's arms. That wasn't too bad, was it? They'd been paired up continuously for months in missions that sometimes saw them share an inn room, but never before had they shared a bed without the comforting huddle of at least two of his ever-present dogs. And never before had she opened her eyes to be confronted with the sight of his pulse beating anxiously over the muscles of his shoulder and neck, a neglected area of admiration on their fellow shinobi that she and Ino had spent many a night appraising. Never mind that he'd somehow managed to absorb the clean smell of the storm and that his hands seemed to be incredibly warm on her skin and that - she stopped her train of thought with an exertion of the will that had made her Tsunade's second apprentice.

It would only be awkward if she made it so and that wasn't something she could afford right now, mission or not. Kakashi made a fantastic unwitting ally in her efforts to avoid the inevitable follow up discussion with Sasuke and if the atmosphere between them became strained she'd be forced to confront her other mysterious teammate before she was ready, as well as completely lose her nerve when it came to dancing in front of the team. They were scheduled to reach the next border town by evening and if she made a scene now it'd not only throw off their timing but negatively affect their team work and ability to maintain their cover.

Decision made, Sakura carefully schooled her expression into something more reminiscent of her usual early morning temperament before striding back into the makeshift room with an attitude just short of her habitual determination.

The fact that there would now probably be two pairs of dark eyes trying to burn a hole into her back on the journey only added to her silent prayers that Tsunade's secret hot springs lived up to their recommendation.