Chapter 4

Don't Go There

"Yes, Tsunade-sama," Sai responded professionally, opening the door to her office.

He stepped in quietly and made a formal bow, black tresses hiding his tired eyes.

"Where is the rest of your team, Sai," she demanded immediately. Tsunade was never one to warm hearts with small talk.

He straightened up and rubbed his forehead with his hand. If even Sai was showing signs of despondency, there had to be something wrong.

"In fact, where is the rest of you?"

She gestured disgustedly at the sickening, yellowish purple stump of a pinkie on his right hand. He concluded that he must be feeling the beginning of what people call 'self consciousness.'

"We were ambushed by the target at the Village of Wheat," he said monotonously, "I was placed under genjutsu, most likely, and the next time I was conscious, they had me bound and in a small cell, underground."

"You-"

Porcelain continued quickly before she threw her tantrum, "I don't know why they released me so soon. Also, they seemed to have taken my finger as...a souvenir."

Tsunade swallowed back her fiery flames and proceeded to question Sai civilly instead.

"Do you have any idea where the rest of your team is? Or where their old camp is? And who the hell is 'they' exactly? We are only after Sasuke."

He closed his eyes and began to recite, "I do not know the whereabouts of my team, but they are likely either killed or have escaped for I was the only one held captive. I was drugged once again after waking in the cell, but this time, I woke about 200 meters from Konoha. I am estimating that there are about 5 new people Sasuke managed to recruit; all of them have some sort of skill or weapon. I recgonized Jugo and Hōzuki Suigetsu , but the rest are unknown to me."

"Damn it!" Tsunade pounded on her desk. "7 more fucking people? That changes everything. How the hell were we suppose to know that Uchiha actually liked company."

"Well actually, considering how-"

Tsunade shot him a glare.

"Yes indeed, it is a mystery." Sai nodded.

"If Naruto, Kakashi and Sakura survived, they'll be in such imminent danger if they face Sasuke like that. All they know is that they had to bring Sasuke home, not deal with 7 more enemies before bringing Sasuke home."

"Actually," Sai began uncomfortably, "They don't exactly know that either."

Tsunade stopped rubbing her neck. Her hazel eyes locked with Sai's reluctant ones.

"What?"

Sai edged farther as Tsunade suddenly burst out of her chair and slammed her hands onto her table. She looked like she was about to climb over the desk to strangle Sai.

"Kakashi-san thought it was for the best if we didn't tell Naruto-kun or Sakura-chan because of their previous and complicated ties to Sasuke. We agreed that it would only obstruct the efficiency of our squad and-"

"Their 'previous and complicated ties' are the reason they got chosen IN THE FIRST PLACE. Why else did those dusty old elders choose this specific team? Force certainly didn't work so they insisted that making those two go along would pull the nonexistent heartstrings of the Uchiha, no matter how many times I explained that he just doesn't FEEL REMORSE!"

"I agree, Tsunade-sama."

"So you're telling me that Kakashi is leading Naruto and Sakura towards a bandit of 7 ungodly criminals ASSOCIATED WITH SASUKE without even MENTIONING IT? Then why the fuck would those two idiots even agree to follow him?"

"He-"

"No, LET ME GUESS," she roared, "He spewed out some crap about going to save some dogs from a pile of rubble that fell on them!"

"...I believe so, Tsunade-sama."

"If I could choose, of course I wouldn't put my apprentice through that hell again. She already suffered enough when the boy she thought she loved did not come back, even after the war. BUT THOSE ELDERS! Ugh. My god," she started pacing, " I told Kakashi that I was entrusting her in his hands, that..."

She turned sharply to Sai. Her cloudy eyes seemed to finally realize that he was still there.

"Get out of here. I don't need you anymore. Take a nap and go get a look at that finger. It's repulsive. I've got decisions to make and things to sort out. Go."

He fidgeted for a second and when Tsunade raised a brow impatiently, he finally sputtered out, "What about my team? What are you going to do about them?"

She paused and gazed at Sai intently. It was genuine concern he was showing here.

"Though thick-headed and surely the devil's spawn himself, Kakashi isn't one to give up on his team easily. He hasn't sent back any messages yet so I'll assume he's doing alright...and not dead. I have to trust him for now and give him some time before sending people out. Our numbers are already so low and its too soon to send people out again.

"Besides," she continued quietly, "No matter how important these people are to us, they are still only 3 people out of our whole village."

Sai's shoulders sagged and after a hasty bow, he left the room briskly, shutting the door behind him. Outside he was greeted by a worried Shizune who gave him a 'you survived' thumbs up. He shivered as he recalled Tsunade's abrupt and short flares of angers, switching from a concerned, motherly mode, to hellish rage and then back to the orderly Kage persona.

The grey haired nin sneezed.

"That's twice now," he exclaimed merrily, "I think someone's talking about me. Praising my legendary skills, no doubt."

Sakura snorted. After a full night's recovery (and delay), the two were back on their feet and making their way towards the ocean. A close study of them would show that their cheeks have sunken in a little and their stomachs flattened up. Muscles were more tense and hard and various, coarsely treated blisters covered their feet and hands.

Kakashi was certainly prepared for this, since he always down played everything; as if getting dehydration, because he thought carrying an extra bout of water didn't seem cool, was worth the cost. Sakura though, even as an excellent packer, only planned for a three day trip. Today was the 6th day and she had but a bundle of raisins left in her right pocket that she hasn't told Kakashi about yet. The forests were no more and the duo were traveling on rocky grounds so without the fertility of the forest, raisins were like caviar right then. They'll have to live on roots and reptiles until they've reached nicer lands or civilization.

"You actually believe in that kind of stuff? You know, how one sneeze is an itch, two sneezes means someone is talking about you and three-"

"Is when you have a cold," Kakashi finished for her.

The two of them were walking and climbing around the rocks instead of their usually flitting about. The slower pace was a nice change for once.

She looked skeptically at him. "So old man Kakashi actually believes. Who would have thought."

"Of course I do. Do you know how hard it is for a human to go through life without having something to hold on to?"

She smiled and hugged her newly washed sweater to her chest. They had enough time this morning to rinse their clothes by a small stream in between crevices of rocks. Her sweater didn't dry as fast as Kakashi's so he let her don his long sleeve while she waited for her sweater to dry. It was, actually, dry, but his shirt smelled so much like him that she didn't want to take it off yet.

"I guess."

"Contemplate it. You'll have until we get to the Naruto Bridge. We'll be there pretty soon"

They traveled in a comfortable silence for a bit, something that was difficult to achieve with just anyone. She looked up and admired the teal-ness of the sky. It was hard to believe that just a few days ago had Sakura hated every fibre of Kakashi's being. It's like she doesn't even know if it's love or hate.

Love. Just the thought of it's possibility frightens her.

15 days later, Kakashi decided that tomorrow morning, they were going Kirigakure. That is 21 days from when they first stepped out of Konoha.

When they first arrived at the land of water, they were both dirt ridden and honestly, looked a bit too ragged to walk into another village as representatives of Konoha. Kakashi then decided to pull out some bills from their small mission budget to book a room at a rundown hotel at the edge of the land of water.

"I thought we had to be seen and everything," Sakura had said to Kakashi when he lead them towards towards the old hotel.

"Uh, yes, but only Kirigakure knows. They didn't want to startle the whole country for a couple of shinobi," Kakashi had responded.

The room they were given was small, but unexpectedly cozy with one bed, a desk with a chair and a lamp, a bedside table, armchair, small bathroom and a couple of shelves for a closet. At least there were two complimentary chocolates placed neatly on the crisp and folded bed sheets.

It was certainly strange for Sakura to share a single room with her teacher, even without knowing that they were going to stay there for more than a week. Originally, Sakura was suppose to hog the bed, but after a few guilty nights, they rotated sleeping spots daily. The most experience the pink haired girl had of living with a male was with her dad, who slept two doors down the hallway from her own bedroom. It was hard to think that your teacher had a life outside lessons. Like grocery shopping. Like using the bathroom.

"Oh my god!" Sakura had exclaimed on their first night together. "Is that pee?"

She was staring at the otherwise pristine toilet seat.

"Uhh," Kakashi said, popping a sheepish head in the washroom, "Kind of. Yes."

The following few nights lead to various other incidents as well.

"KAKASHI?" screeched a cry from the shower the fourth evening.

"Hmmm?" was the lazy response.

"Towel?"

Kakashi got up uncomfortably from the armchair and scouted the room for said towel. It was sprawled on the wooden chair beside the desk.

'Hurry, the steams fading; I'm getting cold."

He knocked the door and it creaked open a few centimetres, revealing a single jade eye and a set of wrinkly fingers. She grabbed the towel, but had to open the door farther to even fit it through the tiny slit. Both of them pretended that the 3 long seconds that Sakura and Kakashi made eye contact via the mirror inside the bathroom never happened.

In her head though, Sakura played the moment over and over again in her mind, that night. Like how she was still dripping wet and completely nude when he saw her. And how much of her he saw. And if he liked it.

When she woke up, she found herself warm and damp between the legs. Pakkun was summoned once again to stay on watch during the night so the first thing she saw was his smug face on her bed in the morning. It felt like he could actually smell the arousal on her.

Though a few more, 'Ughh, my eyes are burning! Lock the door, for crying out loud' and 'Jesus! Knock first!' happened, both of them remained unscathed on the early evening of the 15th day.

"So tomorrow?" Sakura asked again, spreading the things she bought today on the bed.

"Yes. We will go to Kiri first thing in the morning. After breakfast, of course."

She stared at the little sack of jelly beans, bunch of hair pins and the new shirt she bought. After they made the visit tomorrow, they'll head back to Konoha and that will be that. No more light teasing and companionable silence. Sakura couldn't keep Kakashi all to herself anymore.

"Well, what about Sai and Naruto?" she said, brightening up, "We've got to look for them before we head home, right?"

"It's best if we report it back to Konoha first. It'll be more efficient."

"Send your dogs." She glared at the sleeping heaps of fur. Every since Sakura's awkward moment after waking up from her stimulating dream, Pakkun brought along at least two more bodies every night he was summoned, like bringing along friends to see a movie.

Kakashi shook his head and sat down on the bed beside Sakura. She hugged her legs closer to her chest.

"We should go back anyways. You've done a great job taking care of us, but we need to rest and hand things over to others too," he said kindly, patting her shoulder.

She shrugged away and brashly stood up. She grabbed a few coins from their budget purse and said, "I'm hungry. I'm going out."

The kuniochi hoped he was going to stop her, but he only lied back tiredly on the bed and made a half-hearted wave.

"Come back soon."

Sakura closed the door behind her with disappointment. She had her coins jingling in her hands, her sweater and leggings from Konoha, but her forehead protector was left in the hotel; it was part of Kakashi's shady 'do not be seen' plan. He always seemed to be changing his tactics to complete opposites yet manage to fabricate some reason to make it plausible.

She stopped at a small but lively takoyaki stand. There were scattered, makeshift tables and chairs set out in front of it where people laughed and chewed down their freshly made orders. Sakura stepped closer and watched as a middle-aged women in a peach apron poured batter into small semi circles, adding the octopus pieces on it. She could here the oil and batter sizzling on the outside. When the takoyakis were finished, saliva gathered at the tip of Sakura's tongue as she watched the women squeeze unagi sauce and mayo on it, finishing the delicacy by sprinkling bonito and dried seaweed on top. The bonito flakes curled as steam rolled off it and that was enough to compel Sakura forward.

"Two orders please," she said, smiling.

Sakura sat down on a chair, snapped her chopsticks apart and clasped her hands together in a delighted, "Itadaki-masu!"

She ate her first one in one bite, savouring the taste and the biting heat.

"Yeah, I know, it's weird, right?" said a nearby table.

Sakura turned her chewing head towards the source. It was a group of young girls, whom recently became chunins most likely, gossiping as they devoured their own servings of takoyaki.

"I mean, isn't Leaf pretty far away? It's so weird for one of them to show up out of the blue like that. Especially since he was alone and stuff," said another.

"Maybe he's a missing-nin," giggled the third.

Sakura stopped her fervent chewing and pricked her ears up.

"He's kind of hot though. For a Konoha guy." The table burst out laughing.

Damn it Kakashi. Wasn't he the one who said to keep a low profile? No doubt he was actually out here flirting with school girls. Sakura growled under her breath. She was going to eat his share of takoyaki too then.

"Meh," continued a fourth, "He's too loud for my taste. And his hair...it's such an odd colour."

The girls giggle again.

Sakura frowned. Loud? Kakashi must have some sort of multiple personality disorder. Or maybe he's just loud when flirting to attract girls. Maybe he naturally is loud, but keeps stoic around her because he is her teacher.

She groaned and lied her head on the table, feeling it tremble every time someone walked by. He was getting to her head.

She decided to bring him the take out anyways and hold it hostage until he told her the truth. She veered right, back to the direction of the hotel.

"Hey! Open up!" she banged loudly on the door.

She counted to 6 before footsteps could be heard approaching her. The door opened to reveal a bare-chested Kakashi with a towel thrown over his shoulder and pants resting lightly on his hips. She could see the pelvic lines trailing down to where his pants covered the rest. Religiously, he still donned his mask.

"You know, we don't even need a password or a peephole because that voice of yours is like-"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it, it's beautiful," she said, pushing past him.

Even though Kakashi has become comfortable with showing Sakura more of him now, it never fails to hitch her breath when she sees his skin.

"How nice, you brought dinner for me?" Kakashi said, eyeing the little takeout paper bag in her hand.

"After you tell me why you went parading around town declaring your name."

Kakashi looked confused, "What? I didn't tell-"

"Um, yeah, you did. There was a bunch of squealing girls at the next table gushing how...ugly the konoha male ninja was. So obviously, it wasn't me."

"I didn't wear my forehead protector or my vest. I bought a frickin' eyepatch too remember?"

"But..." Sakura insisted stubbornly.

"They must have mistaken you for a boy. You've got a strong Konoha accent and an equally strong personality," Kakashi chuckled at his own joke.

She rolled her eyes and said, "Whatever. We are going to be exposed tomorrow anyways so I guess it doesn't matter,"

Kakashi avoided her eyes. "Yeah."

"Well, I'm going to take a shower. I hope you didn't use up all the soap."

Kakashi already fell asleep on his makeshift bed (nest of extra bed sheets and blankets) at the foot of Sakura's bed when she tiptoed out of the washroom. She ended up soaking in a long bath instead. The way the moonlight fell on the curve of his spine made him seem so soft and warm; he didn't bother putting a shirt back on. Sakura sighed and plopped down on her bed. To her surprise, Kakashi turned around to lie on his back. His contrasting eyes met her questioning ones. Kakashi acted very comfortable around Sakura, but the mask was one boundary she hasn't managed to break yet.

"Can't sleep," came his raspy voice.

She laughed quietly and turned on her back as well, eyes lifted towards the ceiling. She hated moments like these when she had nothing to do and it was quiet enough for her to actually think. She use to love it, but all she could recall right now was how Naruto and Sai were missing.

"I'm miserable, Kakashi."

Her quiet voice seemed so small in the dark room. Sakura heard a groan and a few rustles. She turned her head just in time to see Kakashi climb onto her bed.

"Move over."

Numbly, she obeyed him. Instead of picking up her covers and diving right in, He lied on them, using his own blankets. Even on the same bed, there was a barrier between them.

"Sleep."

She turned her body completely now and smiled at his side profile.

"I'll sleep only if you do something for me. It'll make me really happy."

He tilted his head suspiciously towards her. "Do what?"

She snaked out a hand from her blanket and gently skimmed her fingertips against his cheek. Feeling around, she found the rim of his mask and made a timid tug.

"It's dark anyways. I won't stare."

"Why can't I keep it on? The mask makes me really happy."

"Because I always feel that you get less oxygen with that mask on then you should...and that it'll give you some ugly skin disease because you don't allow your face enough air."

"My mask is very breathable and light weight."

"You owe it to me, Kakashi. I lied, I didn't really get to see your face that time."

Kakashi sighed at her blatant fib.

When Kakashi didn't say anything and Sakura's arm began to feel a little numb from waiting, she grasped the material between her fingers and pulled it down, letting her knuckles brush against his stubbles. The skin beneath was surprisingly still the same shade of pale as the rest of his face. It first revealed a straight nose and a pair of full, opened lips. He didn't have dimples like she always imagined, but a strong jaw line and narrow chin. He had an inch-long white scar on one side of it that seemed at least a decade old. Without his mask, he looked older, more masculine and more human.

"You shaved," she mused, index finger poking his cheek.

He scoffed and swatted her hand away. "My mask is breathable, but it gets stuffy with hair in the way."

With his face unabashedly facing hers, full view, Sakura was mesmerized.

"You should take it off more."

"But it takes away the fun of hiding my face behind a mask."

Sakura kissed him. She didn't inch forward slowly nor explore his lips gently. Her mouth moved forcefully and it wasn't long before she caught Kakashi up in her feverish moves. She clutched onto the collar of his shirt and savoured as much of him as she could. Sakura's been waiting, fantasizing about this so long that it didn't even feel like it was really happening. Watching his lips move was all too much. She groaned at the back her throat as his tongue swerved across her teeth.

"My god," Kakashi broke away, gasping, "Jesus, I can't..." he trailed off. He sounded scared and uneasy.

"Sorry," Sakura whispered with a small voice, her hands faltering.

She was losing her sudden high; the adrenaline was leaving her veins all too soon. Her previous boost of confidence was starting to leak out as soon as she fully realized what she had just done.

"Sakura," He said earnestly. His hands quivered around her waist, as if unsure what to do with them. His eyes met hers guiltily.

"Don't do that," she said quietly. "I won't tell anyone."

He shook his head as she reached out hesitant hands to him. Kakashi looked at Sakura full in the eyes and for once Sakura could see them bright and alive. It's like they both didn't know what to do with themselves. They couldn't simply jump out the window and never turn back.

Kakashi wouldn't say anything to Sakura. She knew he felt obliged to stay, but could tell he wanted to run. She just screwed this whole thing up.

He turned back onto his back and closed his eyes. She almost believed he actually fell asleep.

Then, finally, his reply, "Alright."

That was the last thing he said all night. It didn't reassure Sakura anymore, but it managed to loosen the noose around her neck just a tad bit.