Chapter 4

Kakashi was now laying in Tsunade's office chewing on the handle of a kunai. Only one thing went through his mind.

Bored.

Naruto had to go off on a mission with Sakura and Sasuke. Jiraiya was also off somewhere (probably doing "research") and Tsunade was stuck in the office with paper work. He watched as she stamped paper after paper after paper. He looked away, his eyes hurting from going back and forth. Why he had to stay here, he didn't know. He let out a whine.

"Would you be quiet, I told you, unless you have someone to be with I don't want you out alone," Tsunade said as she stamped another piece of paper.

"I know you care so much for me mom but I think I'm old enough to be out on my own," Kakashi said in an annoyed tone. Tsunade glared at Kakashi and he glared right back. "Wish I had the Sharingan," Kakashi mumbled as he placed his head back on the ground and began chewing the kunai again. A few minutes later the door opened and Shikamaru walked in.

"You wanted to see me, Tsunade-sama?" Shikamaru looked around and spotted Kakashi, he nodded towards him. "Kakashi." Kakashi nodded back.

"Yes, as you might have heard, a few of the merchants and stores have been getting robbed in the town about an a day away. I want you to find and arrest the robber. Use any means necessary, this is a solo C-ranked mission." Tsunade said as she handed the scroll to Shikamaru, but before he could leave Kakashi chimed in.

"Can I go?" He asked like a little kid. He really wanted to get out and do something. "Come on Tsunade." Tsunade looked as if she was about to shout no, but then she sighed.

"Is that alright with you, Shikamaru?" she asked.

"Huh, oh, yeah, that's fine with me. Makes my job easier," he said.

'Yes!' Kakashi thought as he walked towards Shikamaru.

"Kakashi, before you leave," Tsunade said as she reached in her drawer. She tossed something to Shikamaru. It was a headband. "It's not your headband, considering you slashed it, Naruto has that, we found it while we were cleaning up the village."

"Naruto has it?" Kakashi asked.

"Yeah, he wanted it." Shikamaru bent down and tied the headband around Kakashi's neck. "Can we go now?"

"Yea, you stay out of trouble Kakashi and try not to draw attention to yourself, you're dismissed."

- - - - - - - - - -

Shikamaru and Kakashi had walked to a town that was a famous selling or trading spot. It was quite big and busy.

"So, you haven't seen anyone looking suspicious?" Shikamaru asked a store clerk. Kakashi sat on the ground and scratched his ear.

"Nope, not recently." The owner said and looked towards Kakashi who was now yawning. "Hey, your dog there has nice fur, how muc–"

"He's not for sale and neither is his fur," Shikamaru said as he walked away from the disappointed sales man. "These people can only see things for sale! How troublesome."

"That's like the third guy who wants me, it's kinda creepy," Kakashi said staying close to Shikamaru, feeling like someone might snatch him.

"Lets go get a room, it's getting dark," Shikamaru said. They went to three different hotels before they found one that allowed pets.

"This place annoys me," Shikamaru said as he laid his futon out on the ground. He got up and folded a blanket for Kakashi at the head of his bed. They soon went to sleep. It was still dark out when Kakashi awoke. His ears twitched, listening closely. He nudged Shikamaru.

"Shikamaru," he whispered, "wake up." Shikamaru opened his eyes groggily. Kakashi told him there was someone outside. Shikamaru slowly and quietly opened the window. Like Kakashi had said, there was defiantly someone in the store across the way. They slipped out, but before they could approach the store, they had to dodge kunai. They saw the man slip out and run.

"You think we came unprepared?" Shikamaru said as he cut a wire, a net that was hidden fell onto the man, trapping him.

Shikamaru walked over to the trapped man. His eyes widened. Before he could even move, the man reached out, his hands glowing with chakara, gripped Shikamaru's ankles. Shikamaru felt a sharp pain and fell to the floor. The man in the trap was none other then Kabuto, who easily got out. He threw a senbon towards Kakashi, who dodged, but got a nicked on the leg. Kakashi went to stand near Shikamaru.

"Well, well," he said, "so it is true, Kakashi lives," He looked over at the wolf who was growling at him, standing in front of Shikamaru.

"I am rather curious of how you're alive, but unfortunately I have to go," he said and disappeared.

Towns people, who had heard the noise ran over to help Shikamaru. Kakashi followed, rambling his brain on what Kabuto was doing here, robbing simple merchants.

It was about a week before Shikamaru could walk again. He wasn't fully healed, he was still limping, but he wanted to get back to Konoha and talk to Tsunade face-to-face. He had sent a bird with the scroll the day they encountered Kabuto. Kakashi had been scouting around the town, finding nothing that could help them. Nothing was stolen from the store and they had no information on what was stolen, so they had no idea what Kabuto was after. They walked slowly back to Konoha, for Shikamaru couldn't go any faster. As the sun set, they stopped to make camp.

Shikamaru threw a twig into the fire. They sat in silence and Kakashi stared at the fire. He began to feel warm, so he turned away from the fire and placed his head down. Kakashi wasn't sure when he had fallen asleep, but if he did, it feels as if he hasn't slept at all. He felt Shikamaru shaking him slightly, he didn't want to get up, but he did, only to result in falling over.

"Kakashi, are you ok?" Shikamaru said as he placed a hand on Kakashi, he looked down and saw where the senbon had nicked him was red and swollen.

'Was the needle poisoned?' he thought. Shikamaru, knowing he couldn't carry Kakashi back due to his injury, called for a bird and wrote a quick note asking for backup and noting where they were. They weren't far from the village, maybe an hours walk, hour and a half most. Shikamaru sat down next to Kakashi and took out his canteen out and poured water on the small cut. Kakashi whined as it stung. Shikamaru then wrapped his leg in gauze. He wasn't sure how long it was before he saw Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, and Hana, Kiba's sister coming towards him. He tried to stand up but was told not to.

"Kakashi sensei!" Naruto shouted as he knelt down. Hana immediately began to examine Kakashi.

"He's definitely been poisoned. I only have medicine to suppress it for a short while, we have to get him back to the village," she said as she gave Kakashi a needle and looked over to Shikamaru, "you too, Shikamaru."

Shikamaru wasn't sure what she meant but then noticed his own ankles were swollen. The town medics did their best, but he knew he needed a medic-nin to take care of him. Sakura and Sasuke lifted him up, Sakura figuring it was better to get him to the hospital, and Naruto picked up Kakashi. Naruto and Hana went on ahead.

- - - - - - - -

"Is Kakashi gonna be ok?" Sasuke asked as he sat down across from Naruto and Sakura.

"Yea, Hana is still working on him, but she said he's gonna be ok. How's Shikamaru?" Sakura said.

"He got the tendons in his ankles cut, but Tsunade was able to help him. He'll have to stay off his feet for a while."

"Heh, Shikamaru being Shikamaru, I'm sure he was happy to hear that!" Naruto said.

Hana poked her head out of the door.

"You guys can come in if you'd like."

Kakashi lay on a table in the middle of the room with his head down, he was up, but looked exhausted.

"Kakashi sensei," Naruto said with relief in his voice.

"Can't even go on a simple mission with almost getting killed?" Sakura said as she rubbed his head.

"Shut up," he said playfully.

"So what happened?" Sasuke asked. Kakashi hesitated before answering.

"We ran into Kabuto."

As Naruto's and Sakura's eyes widened, Sasuke's narrowed.

- - - - - - - - -

DON'T POINT OUT MISTAKES!!! THEY'RE HURTING MY BRAIN!!!

I actually re-read this and made some corrections, but knowing me I probably missed like.......OBVIOUS STUFF!!!......o well and I know I over use commas and such and do mistakes like hear instead of here. What can I say, IM HUMAN!!! (well, like 50% human at least)

and I'm to lazy to deal with a beta. So, im sorry for those who are haunted by these mistakes and trust me, things like that bother me sometimes, I have a shelf of all my anime merchandise (Naruto music, Bleach imported movie, Naruto and Bleach art books, all my manga, etc.) and my dad had to take everything off and move the shelf and he put everything back wrong (I was at school when he did this) and I couldn't even do my HW knowing it wasn't how it should be..........yea, LIFE STORY!!! lol sorry, now I'm just rambling