Chapter 9

Kakashi kept his eyes trained on the scene in front of him and tried not to yell out in frustration. After an hour of following Sakura's chakra trail, the markers abruptly disappeared. Since there was no sign of a fight, he feared the worst. Sasuke finally introduced the possibility that somehow the enemy poisoned Sakura in the earlier fight. The possibility turned into a fact when Akamaru circled a particular patch of ground and whined to his partner.

"Akamaru says that she fell here. Her sweat smells off…like it's been tainted," Kiba translated. "It's definitely some kind of poison. Someone picked her up and headed off."

"Track them," Sasuke demanded. The tattooed man had a brief discussion with his dog and sadly shook his head.

"They must have realized that we're using their scents to track them," he explained. "Akamaru senses a jutsu of some sort. I can't tell where they went."

"They can't be that far ahead of us," Naruto growled. "They're carrying Sakura and trying to stay hidden. Hinata…"

Hinata, already two steps ahead of her boyfriend, had her bloodline limit activated. She felt Neji's presence next to her and nodded. Both Hyuuga were sure that whoever knocked the medic nin unconscious couldn't be far away and searched the area with their Byakugan. It didn't take the two long before Hinata muttered a curse and they both leapt away from the rest of the group. Kiba and Akamaru followed a second behind the two Hyuuga with the men of Team 7 a breath after them.

"What do you see?" Kakashi asked.

"A cabin," Hinata replied curtly. She was afraid how the man would react if she told him exactly what she saw. Neji understood the reason for his cousin's brief reply and remained silent. The group sped up and ran for a few more meters before someone spoke again.

"Kiba, what's with the stupid expression on your face?" Naruto asked.

"It's disgust, baka," the dog-nin answered. "The smell of blood is pretty strong here."

"Sakura's?" Sasuke questioned.

"I'm not sure. There's just too much too tell," Kiba said. He looked over at Kakashi and frowned. "Your sense of smell is just as good as mine. What do you sense?"

"Blood—lots of it," the Copy-nin answered. His next sentence caused everyone to shudder in fear. "Some of it belongs to Sakura."

The group landed in front of a cabin and paused. Naruto and Sasuke didn't wait for the Hyuuga's signal before breaking down the door and running into the structure. The sounds of fighting began immediately and angry curses fell from the young men's lips. Neji and Kiba were just behind the duo, but Hinata grabbed Kakashi's arm before he could follow.

"Whatever you see in there, you have to keep your head," she whispered. Kakashi was about to ask why when two voices cut through the air.

"CHIDORI!"

"RESENGAN!"

Lightning and wild blue light illuminated the clearing for a few moments before the front wall of the cabin crumbled from the attacks of two very pissed off shinobi. Hinata ran when she saw two bodies in the rubble. She bypassed the charred body of Sasuke's victim and checked the pulse of the other man. He was alive, but barely. The Hyuuga Heiress quickly formed some hand signs and bent down to talk to the man.

"Naruto! Sasuke! I told you guys not to do anything stupid!" Kiba yelled. "How are we supposed to question them now?"

Sasuke merely turned around and began searching the bodies—or more accurately, body parts—of the dead men littering the interior of the cabin. The young Uchiha kept his eyes averted from the far corner of the room and the sight that caused his and Naruto's angry outbursts. If Kakashi expected his blonde student to scratch his head in embarrassment, then he was wrong when a harsh look entered Naruto's eyes and a tanned hand slashed in front of him in a negative motion.

"I don't fucking care about questioning him!" he yelled. "We don't need to ask him a thing. You can see what they did!" The blonde swept his arm toward the back corner of the room and Kakashi stilled. He couldn't tell if it was because of all of the blood or if his vision really did turn red.

Son of a bitch…Kakashi thought viciously.

"We're leaving," Hinata announced, much to the surprise of the men around her.

"Agreed," Neji said. "We can catch up to Sakura and the last of her pursuers if we go now."

"We're going back to Konoha," the white-eyed woman corrected.

"But Hinata, we're close," Kiba said. "I can smell her nearby."

"Not to mention that she's hurt," Naruto added. "We can get her back now. And she needs us. Look at what—"

"We're leaving, now," Hinata repeated. The blue-haired woman turned to the silent man next to her and offered what comfort she could. "Kakashi, that isn't her blood…not all of it anyway."

"I know that," he answered in a monotone. "But we're going after her."

"No we are not," Hinata looked for the first time at the bloodied mess in the corner. Her Byakugan picked up what the others—even Neji—couldn't and her voice held complete conviction of her actions. "We are going to burn this cabin down to the ground, forget about finding Sakura, and head right home to Konoha."

"Our mission is to get Sakura back," Sasuke began.

"I'm well aware of our mission, Uchiha," Hinata uncharacteristically interrupted the dark-haired man. "But now I'm aborting it."

"With what authority?" Kakashi asked lazily. Everyone in the cabin knew that his lazy tone of voice hid the anger he felt and that his poor posture indicated how close he was to jumping out of the room to find his lover. "In case you forgot, Tsunade put me in charge of this mission."

Hinata spent too many years cowering under the power of her father and being loved by Naruto to not recognize the signs of an aggravated male. But her shinobi training and her loyalty to her village won over the need to give in to Kakashi's subtle pressure. Raising herself to her full height, she used every inch of her being to outstare the Copy-nin in front of her.

"I am the Head of ANBU's SRD unit. And in case you've forgotten, SRD stands for Search, Rescue, and Destroy," she began. "The only reason Tsunade-sama gave you the role of mission leader is because of your close relationship with the target. In any other scenario, I would be the mission leader. Now that I know what the situation is, I'm pulling rank. We're going home."

"But Kiba's a SRD Captain, too," Sasuke said, matching Kakashi's monotone. "Can't he decide to go after Sakura?"

"Hinata outranks me," Kiba admitted ruefully. "When she says that she's the Head of the SRD, it means that she runs the whole unit, not just her own squad."

"We're leaving and that's final," the elegant woman stood amidst the blood, gore, and rubble of the cabin and raised a thin eyebrow. "If you resist, I'll be forced to close your tenketsu and drag you back to the village."

All four men felt their eyes widen at Hinata's threat and warily walked past her to exit the cabin. She watched their progress and slowly followed, leaving several exploding tags in the interior of the room. Once outside, she ordered Sasuke and Kakashi to use their Katon jutsus to burn the house down. That done, the men left the clearing one by one to head home in silence. Hinata tracked their progress with her Byakugan, but stayed silent until all that remained of the cabin was ash and soot.

"You can come out now, Neji-niisan," Hinata whispered. The longhaired man jumped down from his hiding place and stood next to his cousin. They remained quiet for the next few moments until he decided to state the obvious.

"You're acting different."

"I'm acting like a jounin kunoichi. You haven't had a mission with me for a while, Neji-niisan. I've grown up."

"They're mad at you."

"I know."

"They don't understand."

"They wouldn't."

"I don't understand."

"You wouldn't either."

"Did you get any information from the man Naruto attacked?"

"Yes."

"What did he tell you? Anything about Sakura?"

"Nothing that you need to know about, Kakashi-senpai," Hinata turned her head and smirked when a cloud appeared over her cousin's body to reveal Kakashi's instead. "The others are waiting 100 meters away, senpai. We should get going."

"That smirk doesn't suit you," Kakashi voiced.

"Oh," Hinata immediately wiped the smirk off of her face but regained her composure enough to reply. "I forgot that I wasn't wearing my ANBU mask. Sorry."

"You really are different now."

"We need to get going," Hinata said, jumping into the trees. "I have a report to give to the Hokage."


"You did WHAT!"

"Ah, Baa-chan, it wasn't our idea!" Naruto yelled back, matching the Hokage's volume with no problem. "Hinata-chan made us go back!"

"It's true, Hokage-sama," Sasuke added. "Hyuuga Hinata used her rank as Head of SRD to order the team back to Konoha."

"As I understand things, Hatake," Tsunade growled at the gray-haired nin. "No one can make you do anything you don't want to do. Why did you follow Hinata's orders?"

"Because I threatened to close their tenketsu if they disobeyed, Tsunade-sama," Hinata informed. The blonde Hokage's eyes widened at this. The gentle Hyuuga didn't threaten other people often or close off their chakra circulatory systems without good cause.

"Does this have to do with Inuzuka Hana?" Tsunade asked.

"Yes, Hokage-sama," Hinata answered, avoiding Kiba's questioning eyes. The dog nin's interest grew at the mention of his sister, who was out of town on a four-month long mission, but he refrained from asking anything.

"You all are dismissed," Tsunade ordered despite the complaints from Naruto. "Hyuuga Hinata will stay and complete the mission report. Shizune show them out and make sure no one bothers us until Hinata sends for you."

Hinata refused to meet the confused stares she got and simply looked straight ahead. When she was sure all of the males were gone, her shoulders slumped a bit and she gladly accepted the small cup of sake the Hokage offered her. Tsunade waited patiently for the woman to drink the alcohol and tapped her nails on her desk when Hinata sat on the edge of it, facing the Hokage.

Hinata gazed out the window and sighed. It was only 10 o'clock in the morning. Not many people would have heard about Sakura's disappearance yet and she was dead tired. The sake helped give her the courage to say what she needed to say and she'd given reports like this to Tsunade before, but it didn't make the experience any easier. Tsunade almost jumped in her chair when the woman finally spoke.

"I need to call the Yamanakas," she sighed.

"Why?" Tsunade asked. "If it's to tell Ino that Sakura's missing, don't bother. She has the morning shift at the hospital and probably already knows the basics from the staff there." She had a good idea why the Hyuuga needed to talk to the owners of Kohoha's best flower shop, but she didn't want to admit it to herself until she absolutely had to.

The dark-haired woman shook her head. "I need to have them make a flower arrangement for me."

"What flowers do you need?" Tsunade's hand shook as she poured two more cups of sake for them both.

"A Crimson Rose will do as the centerpiece," Hinata whispered, downing her sake. She gestured for more of the alcohol. "I'm sure of it…and a Blue Dahlia wouldn't be too much to add either, as a side focus for the bouquet." Tsunade sat shocked and sadly poured more sake into the shallow cup.

"If you're positive those are the flowers you want, then just tell me where to send the arrangement…" Hinata frowned and tilted her head toward one bank of windows to Tsunade's left. The older woman noticed and realized that, despite her orders to Shizune, someone was definitely listening in on the conversation.

"In that case, go and contact Yamanaka Ino when you have the time. Give her the destination of the bouquet and she'll send me the bill. And Hinata…" Hinata looked up from her contemplation of the sake cup to see Tsunade's face crumpled in sorrow—although none of that sorrow made its way into her voice.

"…you might want to ask her to add some Apple Blossoms to the arrangement."

"B-but…WHAT? I-I mean…Apple Blossoms might be a little too much, Godaime-sama." Hinata, composure completely broken, dropped the sake cup and barely managed to catch it before it broke on the floor. "They're not necessary. It's too early in the season for them in any case."

"No…it's not," Tsunade countered. The look of sorrow grew on the Hokage's face until Hinata was sure she was going to cry. Tsunade patted her jacket over her heart and Hinata thought she saw a scroll there. "You haven't noticed, but they've been blooming for a while now."

"Oh…" Hinata couldn't take it anymore and let a few tears fall onto her cheeks. She grabbed the sake bottle off of the table and drank the rest of the liquid. "Well, I should have known. I'm going to find Ino now, Hokage-sama."

Tsunade nodded and laid her head down on the table after the young woman left. She didn't know what was worse: not knowing what was going to happen or not knowing what to say to Kakashi when it did.

Damn it all to hell, Sakura…


"Why were they talking about flowers?" Naruto asked no one in particular. He, Sasuke, Kakashi, and Kiba just landed onto the Academy's rooftop after listening in on Hinata's conversation with Tsunade. "I don't get it…Sakura's missing and hurt and alone. They're in there talking about sending bouquets and flowers?"

"It might be a code," Sasuke murmured.

Kakashi nodded. "I've heard a few rumors lately about a separate code that female ninjas are starting to use. It could use flowers as code words." Silence descended on the four males as they tried to think of the different meanings behind flowers.

"The day after my sister left for her mission, a bouquet of flowers arrived for my mother," Kiba whispered suddenly. He looked up at the others as the memory came back to him. "When she saw it, she broke down crying…I don't know why."

"Was a crimson rose in it?" Kakashi asked worriedly. If the sight of the bouquet alone could make a hardened kunoichi like Inuzuka Tsume break down, then the odds that the bouquets signified bad news were high.

"No…" Kiba replied after a while. He closed his eyes and tried to remember the smells of the flowers that made his mother cry so hard. "There were lilies in the arrangement—the kind we put on Sandaime-sama's grave every year. At first I thought she was crying because someone she knew just died. There were tulips too; big yellow ones."

"So what do these flowers mean?" Sasuke wondered.

"We're going to have to ask a kunoichi," Kakashi said as he turned so that he could head towards Kurenai's house.

"You will do no such thing," a soft voice called out behind them.

"Gah!" Naruto and Kiba yelled in surprise. Sasuke and Kakashi were just as shocked as the other two, but flatly refused to show any emotion. Neither Sharingan wielder flinched when three more people appeared to place heavy hands on the shoulders of each of the men except Kakashi.

"When did you get so good at sneaking up on people?" Sasuke asked lazily.

"She's an SRD ANBU Captain, teme," Naruto reminded the other man.

"Good of you to notice, Naruto," Hinata said, sarcasm light in her voice. This surprised most of the males, but Naruto only held back a grin. Watching his girlfriend in "ANBU Mode" never failed to amaze him—or turn him on.

"Anko," Kakashi murmured, nodding at the sadistic kunoichi holding Sasuke's shoulder. He nodded again at the kunoichi holding Naruto in much the same fashion. "Kurenai."

"Nee-san!" Kiba said, finally recognizing the face of his sister. "You're back from your mission! What do the flowers mean?"

Inuzuka Hana raised tired and haunted eyes to her brother and frowned. "Flowers?" she asked. "What are you talking about?"

"The flowers mom got," he said with his usual bluntness. "There were lilies and tulips—" The rest of Kiba's sentence was cut off when a pale hand covered his mouth. Hana waited until her brother stopped making noise and Hinata nodded at her before removing her hand. When it looked like he was going to say something, it only took a stare from Hana to keep him quiet.

"You will not say a word to any kunoichi about any type of code," Hinata began.

"But Hinata-chan…"

"I am swearing you four to secrecy. For the safety of every female ninja in this village, you should know that discussion of the so-called 'Code' with anyone is off limits. If you disobey this mandate, the punishment is detention in an ANBU cell. The Godaime, the top kunoichi in ANBU's Interrogations Office, or I will act as officers for as long as the detention lasts."

"Detention?" Kiba and Naruto echoed.

"Torture," Sasuke translated.

"If you want to call it that…" came the soft reply. Hinata tilted her head and Anko chuckled evilly. Kurenai's red eyes narrowed at Sasuke while Hana simply growled low in her throat at her brother. Kakashi alone seemed unfazed. He shifted his weight onto his left hip and placed his hands in his pockets.

"Is this mandate yours or the Hokage's?" he asked.

"This much about the Code I can tell you," Hinata acceded. "Godaime-sama has placed the execution of the Code to three people and I am one of them. In this instance, my word is as good as hers."

"So you helped create the Code," Kakashi concluded. Hinata ignored that and answered the one question she could see he desperately needed the answer for.

"I'll tell you this about Sakura-chan, Kakashi-senpai," she said as she nodded to the other women. "She's safe."

"That's all?" the silver-haired man demanded. He didn't notice when the other kunoichi left, each one dragging a disgruntled male with her. The two shinobi stood facing each other as they silently engaged in a battle of wills. "That's all you'll tell me?"

"That's all you need to know," was the cold answer.

Hinata broke their staring contest and jumped to the top of the chain link fence that surrounded the rooftop. Images of crimson roses and apple blossoms ran through her mind—along with the meanings behind each flower—and she sighed. It wasn't her place to tell him anything and it went against her loyalty to her fellow kunoichi to say another word. She stayed there; perched on the metal wires; long after the smoke from Kakashi's teleportation jutsu disappeared.

Apple Blossoms…she thought sadly. She couldn't remember the number of times she had to tell Tsunade to add a Crimson Rose to an arrangement, but she could count the number of times Apple Blossoms were sent on one hand.

Oh, Kami, Sakura…why?


A/N: I'm so sorry it took so long to update…first I was just busy with school. Then I had the brilliant stupid idea to give up writing fanfiction for Lent! Damn Catholosism...spelling sucks... Gah! Now I'm all rusty and weird with writing. I hope it doesn't show too badly and I hope that you guys haven't abandoned this fic.

Don't worry, Spring Break's coming up and I'll have more time to write things! Again, please don't give up on this fic. And please review! Tell me what you like and what I can do to improve:D

Ja ne!

P.S.

Did anyone else have trouble uploading anything the past few days? Or is my Internet so retarded that it won't let me put my stories up?