Chapter 9
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A/N: I don't own Naruto. This is a future fic where the characters are approximately ten years older. This means it's more or less an AU, with the timeline breaking off around issue 300 of the manga.
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Coughing and clutching at his throat, Sasuke threw the nin-dog across the room as he tried to scramble back up, Zasshu's teeth leaving gouges in his neck.
He turned to face his enemy, the fire of the Sharingan in his eyes, but it was too late.
Glass shattered and flew outwards.
Kabuto was gone.
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By the time the group of enemy nin had drawn their weapons to attack, Kakashi's body was already moving, twisting, getting the high ground. Four kunai left his hands in a blur, each carrying explosive tags. He tracked the scattered figures with the Sharingan to loose another strike with blades, while trying to avoid incoming shuriken.
Registering Naruto to his right, he withdrew slightly. The other man jumped in close with the remaining targets, only to shred them with his one-million wind kunai jutsu.
It was over quickly. Between Kakashi's incredible speed and Naruto's destructive power, the fight seemed to have happened between the drawing of one breath to the next. Only one of the eight had been skilled enough to even touch Kakashi, and admittedly a kunai to the back of his knee had been more than enough to slow him down a bit, but that didn't make the attacking kunoichi any less dead.
There were five other members of the group who wouldn't be going back to their families, one who might not live through the night, and another shuddering on the ground who would never walk normally again, due to the lack of half of his foot.
There was still no sign of Sasuke, nor had he turned on his two-way radio but that wasn't surprising. Kakashi had a feeling Kabuto would head for the fortress first, and the two were most likely fighting by now. He wasn't too worried. Zasshu hadn't returned requesting backup, and he'd know it if the nin-dog had been injured.
Surveying the scene, he sat down on a low wooden crate and made a tourniquet above his knee. Once he was fairly certain he wasn't going to bleed to death, he wrapped a makeshift bandage around the deep stab wound. The kunai had been scarce millimeters from completely severing the left ligament behind his left knee, and had likely cut an artery since it was bleeding so liberally.
The pain was fierce, but there was still plenty to be done before he could rest his leg. He could see the warehouse workers fearfully peeking around the edges of the wide doors to the immense white-washed building.
Naruto was dealing with the surviving nin, binding them with a jutsu and looking at their wounds. He was almost completely unscathed, his bunshins once again taking the brunt of the attacks.
Wincing as his leg twitched a little, Kakashi wondered if Sakura would be strong enough to look at it. Even if he saw a local doctor, they didn't have time to wait for him to heal on his own and the injury would curtail his speed any which way he looked at it. He couldn't put any weight on it at all without falling over.
How could he have been so careless? Blood soaked his trouser leg and had run into the top of his boot. It was a shame this wasn't sandal weather. Getting blood out of his sandals was always so much easier.
Sigh. The stupid things he'd think about when trying to ignore his own discomfort.
He hopped over to the cart where three of the fallen shinobi lay sprawled in an ungainly 'u'. A search of the corpses would have to wait. He couldn't crouch without a great deal of pain at the moment, so he'd have to leave that to Naruto.
Instead he pulled the tarp back from the bed of the cart, revealing two immense scrolls suspended from a wooden rack. They were secured to the bottom of the cart via thick black chains. He couldn't tell from the exterior what the scrolls sealed, but Morokawa had claimed that he expected a sizable payment, as well as some trade goods.
The advantage of sealing large or valuable objects into scrolls like this lay in the fact that they could be transported much faster and far more securely than with a normal trade caravan. It occurred to Kakashi that Kabuto was capable of making this kind of sealing scroll, but he would probably be the only one who could extract the contents. Now Kabuto's presence made a bit more sense.
Naruto came over to him, his face cool and grim, wearing an expression similar to the one Minato-sensei had worn often in the last year of his life. Killing always deeply upset Naruto, as it had the Yondaime. The Yondaime had been better at hiding it, though. "Those two are taken care of for now; the others are dead. I think the one with the neck injury will be fine if we can get him to one of the village doctors," he said.
"Good. We should move inside then," Kakashi said, wincing and taking a sharp breath as he accidentally put weight on his leg while moving to face Naruto. Kakashi was willing to suffer bravely until Sakura could look at his leg. He hadn't lost too much blood, he rationalized. He'd been injured worse.
"Into the warehouse?" he asked, gesturing with his thumb over his shoulder at the building.
"Yeah, I doubt there's a pub that's open at this hour." It was after midnight, and in any case, he doubted a bunch of blood-drenched ninja would be very welcome at any hour.
"Want some help?" Naruto said, offering his arm.
"I don't – Well yeah, I do," he admitted, and his friend helped him limp inside where the few additional degrees of warmth were quite welcome.
Kakashi asked one of the workers if there might be a table and chairs about, and the man along with another one of his nervous fellows peeled off to fill his request. He should have asked for hot tea while he was at it.
Someone had already gone to get a doctor and also to call in a few guards from the fortress, which was good since they would need to gather the bodies. Naruto went outside to bring in their captives, assisted by one of the burlier workers, and Kakashi sat down gladly as soon as a chair was put in front of him. He was already dreading the thought of standing up again.
The interior of the warehouse was a dark cavern, though one of the men had been kind enough to gather a few lanterns around the area where they had congregated.
He could see the glow of a lamp towards the back of the building too, highlighting the rear wall, a making the body of the barrels and crates into a black-silhouetted mass. It looked rather like a great humped animal. The entire place smelled of rotten cardboard, dry wood, oil and straw; it was dank and dusty and cold. A good place for an interrogation really, as an unpleasant atmosphere helped to intimidate the subject.
Returning, Naruto plopped the enemy nin with the half-amputated foot in the rickety chair directly across from where Kakashi waited and undid the jutsu that had bound him. The ruddy-haired, freckle-faced man was clearly terrified, staring at the silver-haired shinobi across from him, like a child cornered by a wolf. He was probably in quite a bit of pain from his severe and hastily treated wounds, too. This wouldn't take long.
The other nin was left laying on the floor, though one of the workers kindly covered him with a tarp. Naruto went back outside, likely to go search the bodies. Sasuke still hadn't returned. Kakashi leaned forward, grinning falsely behind his mask, while the other man leaned back uncomfortably.
"So what do you say, care to tell me who you are and why you were helping to transport contraband through the Fire Country?" he said.
"I-I- ah- I don't- I can't-" the man stammered. Considering how cold it was, the nin was sweating like it was mid-day in summer.
"Surely you can. You'll be in protective custody for quite some time. They won't be able to come after you." Or at least they'd have to visit him in prison to do so. It could happen, but it was unlikely.
"You- you're the Copy-nin-" the man began to stutter again, and he looked like he might cry. Man? No, he realized that this person couldn't be much older than sixteen. Though, by thirteen, most shinobi were considered adults. Kakashi had been through two wars and had joined the ANBU by the time he'd reached this boy's age. He didn't get the sense his prisoner had a comparative level of experience.
Seeing comrades die was never an easy thing to deal with. Being helplessly confronted by their killers was even more shock-inducing. Kakashi had been through both situations more times than he liked to consider, so he could sympathize.
"Hatake Kakashi," he finished for the youth. "And you are?"
"Sakashima Taiyo," he mumbled.
Kakashi's eyebrows rose. What a stroke of luck. "Sakashima, eh? Are you related to Sakashima Risomu?" In Hidden Rain village, the Sakashima Clan was currently the second most politically powerful family, even though they weren't known for producing particularly strong shinobi. If Taiyo was their clan leader's relation, he'd make a great bargaining piece later.
"What makes you think that?" the boy bristled at the mention of the name, and seemed surprised that Kakashi had heard it before. Rain village was small, but it wasn't that small.
"Well, very simply, he might want to see you again, if you are part of his Clan. There is that possibility if you cooperate. I had hoped your friends might be willing to talk when we arrived, but it would seem your orders were very specific. I gather from your team's reaction you were to kill any Konoha nin you met on sight, while protecting the cargo. That is part of what you were hired for, am I right?"
Taiyo remained silent, his face a mix of fury and terror. Kakashi looked away from the boy momentarily, hearing the sound of someone running towards the warehouse.
A rumpled-looking older gentleman with a white medical case shuffled in, Naruto following closely behind at a more relaxed pace. He took the doctor over to the injured shinobi, and then looked around with concern. Sasuke hadn't returned yet.
The doctor immediately knelt down next to the prone figure, who was breathing raggedly under the grimy tarp, and started to work. Even if the man lived, he wouldn't be going anywhere very fast. Just like his teammate, the nature of his injuries prevented fast movement. They'd still have to be held as dangerous prisoners. Kakashi had on occasion, crawled home himself with some exceedingly severe wounds; he had no intention of letting these two do so.
Naruto came over to the table and pulled something out of his pocket. He unwound a band of grayish cloth, until the attatched curved steel plate was revealed. He dropped the hitai-ate with four lines engraved across the face in front of Kakashi with a clatter. Well, solid evidence was always a nice inducement in these sort of situations. And it made him remember something.
"I found it on one of the bodies. I guess that means they're from Rain Country, huh?" Naruto said, glancing at the boy, his eyebrow quirking up. Taiyo had curled in on himself, arms crossed, clutching his elbows in his hands tightly.
Kakashi nodded and looked back to his captive. He pulled out a black shuriken from the holster at his leg, stuck his finger in the hole at the center, and spun it idly.
"The fellow who left this behind seems to be dead," he said, more to Naruto than the boy. He looked back to the Rain nin. "I guess I'll have to keep it then. We found this in the forest before the lot of you arrived, Taiyo. It seems like you and your friends have been here in Itsumidori previously. I wonder how long you've been working for Yamimaki?"
The Rain Country was far enough to the east that they could benefit economically from a conflict between the Earth and Fire Countries, by selling supplies and weapons. Still, that didn't seem quite right.
Something deeper was going on here; otherwise why send a member of one of their more powerful clans? How did Kabuto tie in with them? Maybe this boy was expendable, or maybe they had thought he'd be safe with a shinobi of Kabuto's caliber in their party. He hoped Sasuke had managed to pin down their old enemy by now.
"I don't see why that matters. I- I don't have to tell you anything. You know where we're from, so why don't you just kill me already," said the boy.
He shook his head. "Why would I kill you? I'm sure you're aware that even if you resist, I will find out what we need to know. We're going send a message to Konoha in the morning, and it's likely your village will receive a ransom notice within the next week," Kakashi said. "You aren't going to get out of this the easy way."
"They won't send anyone. Don't bother, I'm not going to tell you anything else." His voice quivered, high with fear.
"Yes, I think you will," Kakashi said, closing his right eye and directing chakra into his left. This would speed things up a bit as he needed to get his leg looked at as soon as possible - even if it was just by a normal doctor.
Unable to resist the hypnosis jutsu, the Rain-nin stared forward, his mouth slightly slack.
"So, tell me Taiyo, is this just a contract mission, or is what's left of your government actively trying to stir up trouble?"
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Walking into the daylit hall, Sakura immediately picked up on a vibe of agitation within Morokawa's household. Men and women were scurrying to their duties with anxious faces and red-rimmed eyes. A rush of alarm shot through her.
Had Sengaku had a relapse and died in the night while she was asleep? Why hadn't anyone woken her?
She went back and grabbed her medical bag, deciding to make for the boy's room first, but one of the servants stopped her in the stairwell.
"Haruno-san, should you be out of bed?" asked the brown-smocked woman.
Sakura didn't recognize her, but it was likely the staff was aware of the kunoichi who had saved their lord's son.
"I'll be fine," she reassured her. "Is Sengaku alright?"
The woman nodded. "He's sleeping yet. We haven't told him."
"Told him what?" Sakura frowned. Something had to have happened..
"My goodness, I suppose no one's been able to tell you either. Morokawa-sama was murdered last night."
Sakura grasped at the stone wall for purchase, to keep her knees from buckling. Why the hell wasn't there a railing? Konoha had railings everywhere. "What? Is the rest of my team still here?" she asked, trying to dispel her instant panic.
"They are. Hatake-san and Uchiha-san were injured, and I believe they are resting now. Uzumaki-san is with Tegara-sama," said the woman.
Tegara? Oh, yes, the fancy old steward. "Take me to them," Sakura insisted.
Just how strong of a force had they come up against last night? And why did she always miss out on the action? Too many questions and she was still feeling too groggy to make much sense of it. She wondered just how badly Sasuke and Kakashi had been injured. Hopefully this wouldn't tap her out again.
The servant led her up into a different part of the building and let her into Morokawa's chamber, a cold rush of air striking her as the door swung in. The lord lay unmoving in his lush bed directly across from the door, a towel draped over his face. A woman was weeping, kneeling beside him, gripping what was likely now a cold, stiff hand.
Sakura felt her heart sink, faced with cold reality. There was definitely nothing she could do at this point. She could see no blood on the sheets, nor any obvious injury.
From her right she could hear a voice. It wasn't Naruto or the others, but she recognized it – Tegara, the steward. "...within the fortress we can maintain a defense at least until late summer. Not an ideal outcome, but it can be done with our current supplies and troops. We don't know how well-prepared his brothers are, but if it comes to that, we are ready," he explained.
"I don't want it to get that far," said Naruto. His eyes flicked from the steward's face to Sakura's as she moved towards him. His face was so serious. Who had he learned that expression from? Tsunade? Sandaime? She felt a chill as she looked around the rich apartment.
"And that still doesn't account for Yamimaki trying to take his daughter-in-law's land. You can't defend on both fronts. We're going to stop this even if I have to go myself and tell them all to back off," he said. Typical bravado coming from the loudest ninja of Konoha. As if he could do the same thing himself, going north and south at the same time.
The large picture window that was set in the wall to her left had been smashed out. No wonder the room was so cold.
Then she saw Sasuke.
He had just looked up, frowning, sitting in a chair almost underneath the broken panes. His arms were crossed tightly, and his neck was wrapped in bandages. She could see blood seeping through. Hadn't the woman said he was resting?
Kakashi wasn't present, which led Sakura to believe he'd been injured badly enough to be stuck in bed. The Copy-nin seldom allowed injuries to stop him from working. She noticed one of his nin-dogs waiting there, not pug-faced Pakkun, but big furry Zasshu instead. Kakashi didn't usually call on the other dogs except for support, as Pakkun was his favorite; there must have been special circumstances. Maybe he was just here to listen in and then relay the discussion to Kakashi later.
She left Naruto to talk to the steward, and swooped down on Sasuke instead. The look in his eyes was odd. He uncrossed his arms, leaning back as she reached out, touching his face. She felt him flinch, though his body didn't move. Sakura tried to keep her expression blank as she sent out winding tendrils of chakra, to probe his injury.
"Tell me what happened," she said as she gauged her chakra, trying to decide whether or not to spend it on what seemed to be some severe bruising and long gouges in his neck. An animal bite? "What bit you?" she asked.
"That creature," he said, and gestured with his chin.
She let her hand fall from his cold cheek. "You can't be serious. Why would he-"
Sasuke's eyes flashed in the lamplight as he looked up at her, though his Sharingan weren't visible. "Apparently, so he could let Kabuto kill Morokawa."
"Kabuto?" Sakura was taken aback. Yakushi Kabuto? But-
"I had him," Sasuke said, his lip curling in anger.
"What do you mean Kabuto?"
"Just what I said. He's still alive, and he's working with these people." He glared murderously at the dog again, who seemed content to ignore him, scratching behind his ear with his back paw.
"So Zasshu attacked you, then Kabuto escaped?" Well, that explained the broken window, if nothing else.
She touched his neck, carefully unwrapping the bandage, sensing for signs of an imminent infection, and worked a low-level jutsu that would speed up the healing. The bite was ugly and swollen, but he had at least gotten some minor first aid. There was a sticky salve smeared over the bandages, which looked like it was helping at least a little.
Sakura finished the jutsu and dug out fresh bandages from her pack, and Sasuke frowned intently while she re-wrapped his neck. "You're sure it was Kabuto?" asked said.
"I'd know it even if I couldn't see his face."
"Sasuke, you're not still concerned about that, are you?" she said, hearing something familiar and undesirable in his tone. It would be too much to hope that Sasuke had learned anything from his first disastrous attempt at revenge, Sakura supposed. The look in his eyes was worrisome, but also made her feel somewhat disgusted. "We don't have time for you to act like this. There's a job to do."
He looked up at her, slightly surprised. A younger, less confident Sakura would never have called him on his behavior. "Why couldn't he have just stayed dead?" he murmured, just loud enough for Sakura to hear. "I just can't leave that sort of thing alone."
"You can, you just don't want to," she said quietly, resisting the urge to smooth a stray lock of hair out of his eyes. He said nothing, but looked away, wearing an expression that seemed suspiciously close to a pout, and she shook her head.
"You've come a long way. Don't go backwards, just let it go," she advised as she dug around in her medical bag. "I'm going to go check on Kakashi. You should get some rest, I can tell that you're over-exhausted. Here's something for the pain," she said, handing him a packet with a couple of pills in it. "I'll heal that more completely when I've got my energy back."
No reason to let scars mar that handsome neck. Though Sakura wasn't sure whether to smack him or to hug him as she stalked away.
She asked a male servant to lead her to where Kakashi was resting, feeling tense, since she didn't know what to expect. She could have asked Sasuke the nature of the injury, but she'd been so cross with him that it hadn't occurred to her. Taken back to the hall where her room was, she saw that Kakashi's door was diagonally across from her own.
Sakura knocked, hoping he was awake.
"Come in." Kakashi's voice was muffled through the door. He looked up at her, his heavy-lidded eyes looking vaguely bored, as she entered. "Yo," he said. "You're up."
He was laying on his stomach on the bed, propped up on his elbows reading one of his Icha Icha books. She couldn't see the cover so she didn't know which one.
Probably the first, since she knew he thought that was the best out of the whole series. He carried it with him wherever he went.
Actually, it was kind of cute that he was into these romantic fairy tales. Romantic? Okay, so they were fairly smutty and escapist, but they weren't much worse than the romance novels that Ino read.
The black robe he was wearing wasn't his and looked heavier and much nicer than the one she'd worn out of the bath yesterday, so she imagined his uniform must be ruined or being cleaned. Kakashi's long narrow body was covered to mid-calf, and she couldn't see any bandages.
He wasn't wearing his hitai-ate either and his hair was flopping into his eyes, making him look a bit younger. Sakura blushed as the thought crossed her mind that it wouldn't be that hard to get him out of that robe.
Really, this was not the time for these sort of thoughts. Even less than before.
"You don't look injured," she said, trying to keep her embarrassment out of her voice - though it was apparent by his poorly hidden grin, that Kakashi was very amused at her red face. He looked more like he was on vacation. All he needed was a sunny beach and a bit of rum punch with a tiny pink umbrella in it. "Where did you get hit?"
He sighed and rucked up his robe a little to expose his left leg up to the knee, which was wrapped tightly and looked like it had a healthy amount of gauze padding the back. "You don't have to work on it if you're not strong enough. The doctor wasn't too bad," he said, giving her a warning look that she wasn't to exhaust herself further.
"I'd like to at least find out how bad it is," she said. She pulled a chair over and sat down at his bedside.
He looked at her over his shoulder. "Really, I mean it. Don't wear yourself out again. It's bad enough that I got hit. I'm actually considering sending the three of you ahead, and staying here while my one of my dogs brings back reinforcements," he said, sucking in his breath sharply as he moved it a little. "This has got to be one of the more painful ones I've gotten in a while."
"Didn't you take any painkillers?" she asked. It was just like him to let himself suffer unnecessarily. Sakura took a pair of scissors out of her medical bag and cut off the bandage carefully, exposing the bloody gash. The doctor had put in stitches, stanching most of the bleeding, but hadn't been able to do much else.
"I can't. I want to have my thinking clear if anything else comes up," he said, turning back to his book.
"You'll heal faster if you give yourself a bit of downtime you know." She shook her head and focused on the task at hand, delving the wound with her chakra.
She could tell he'd been stabbed with a kunai by the shape of the hole in his leg. It wasn't large, but it was deep, intersecting two ligaments and completely severing the posterior cruciate ligament inside. It had also hit a major artery and had done damage to the meniscus down to the bone, chipping the top of his tibia.
All of this meant that Sakura would have to be at full strength to repair it, whereas a normal doctor wouldn't be able to do it at all without leaving Kakashi with a permanent limp.
"I've got something that will numb it locally, while I do some minor work," she said. She was at less than half strength, and would need at least another night's rest along with a couple of big meals to have enough power to be able to fix this. Maybe she'd enlist Naruto again.
"I know, that's another reason I didn't take anything. No need to be over-medicated."
"Yes, but it will only last a few hours. Will you take something if I give it to you?" She hated it when she had to wheedle a shinobi to take his medicine, but it happened so often she was used to their stubbornness by now.
At the hospital they all used the same excuses as Kakashi when prescribed something stronger than aspirin, even when they didn't have a mission immediately lined up. Thinking about it threatened to give her a headache. Was it a man thing or a ninja thing? Like they needed to prove how much pain they could take. She couldn't recall any of the kunoichi she'd treated fighting her over something like that.
"Let me see how bad it hurts tonight, and I'll know if I'll need it," he said finally.
"Fine. So tell me what happened. Sasuke told me a little. He and one of your nin-dogs seem to have had a disagreement," she said, as she prepared a syringe of anesthetic. Sakura wasn't going to play games. As tempted as she was to give him less than the standard dose for the region, she disliked the idea of him being in pain even more.
"Oh yes, that. The way Zasshu tells it, he lost his temper," Kakashi said, unflinching as she stuck the needle into the back his swollen knee.
"Why did you send him after Kabuto of all people?" Sakura saw his shoulders tighten at her comment. She shook her head and covered the needle, setting aside the syringe. She would have to wait for the anesthetic to soak in, and then she could do some more intrusive work.
"I decided to try to trust him, and it turned out to be an error on my part," he said, and she could practically hear him add 'again', to the end of his words. "The best thing to do now would be to-" he cut off his sentence, looking over at the door. A moment later someone knocked. She knew his senses were that sharp, but every once in a while it surprised her.
It was Naruto; she could tell even before he entered, just by the way that he knocked – vigorously and loudly. Zasshu and Sasuke followed him in, the Uchiha positioning himself against the wall, the nin-dog sitting where Kakashi could see him.
Naruto pulled over the other chair and set it down facing the wrong way, so he could lean his arms on the back. Kakashi stayed put but closed his book. Sakura decided she'd keep working, but she could divide her attention enough to at least listen.
"You know how Shikamaru says plans only last as long as they take to write out?" said Naruto.
Kakashi chuckled dryly, leaning on his elbow. "I suppose, but we do have some idea of how to progress. Since everyone is here, we might as well make what plans we can. Zasshu, you can go," he said. The nin-dog disappeared in a swirl of smoke.
Filling in the momentary silence almost immediately, Naruto laid out what he'd learned from the steward. "Tegara says that he believes Morokawa's brothers will move as soon as they find out about what's happened. Sengaku has military training, but he's not strong enough to lead, and obviously we can't stay here to help."
"Yeah, and he also mentioned that he thinks one of the brothers might have more support with the local populace and in other parts of the province," said Sasuke.
"And if that weren't enough, all of the communications that Morokawa had with the troops he sent north to Yamimaki are encoded. Morokawa was the only one who knew how to break them. Tegara knows he sent at least one pigeon out a week, and a message has already arrived by the same method, but no one can read it." Naruto said, shaking his head.
Sakura thought that she might be able to decode it if she had the time and energy to devote to it. She used to work on Tsunade's correspondence, which was always coded.
Kakashi nodded. "So for the time being we have to assume that Yamimaki has full control of those men. The neighboring province should be willing to support Sengaku if the Hokage and the Daimyo put some pressure on them. I've already sent home a detailed message to that effect with one of my dogs, so I'm not too worried. As long as Tegara can hold together a skeleton defense of the southern border for a few weeks, while the rest of their troops move north into Yamimaki's territory, things should be fine."
"I'll tell him what you said," said Naruto. "He doesn't want to try and fill in for his master."
"So what are we going to do about Kabuto?" asked Sasuke.
"I'm not concerned about him right now. You shouldn't be either unless it comes to a direct confrontation," Kakashi said.
Sakura couldn't see his face, but by Kakashi's flat and pointed tone she imagined his annoyed expression. "I managed to get a good deal of information out of that Rain-nin. I don't think the kid had any training at all against the jutsu I used against him - he didn't even think to try to close his eyes. Has he recovered enough yet to corroborate?"
"Nope, the other guy's still out," said Naruto.
Kakashi nodded. "Apparently, Kabuto is working directly for Yamimaki, who is our original concern. Most likely he gave the orders to Kabuto which resulted in Sengaku's health problems - probably to distract Morokawa and add to the political instability in this area," he said. Sakura's eyes went wide. It made a great deal of sense. "Hidden Rain's involvement seems to be only based around a contract, but that doesn't change the fact that they're breaking our treaty with them."
"Yeah, something doesn't check out – why would they risk it? Do you think there could be some sort of under the table thing that that guy didn't know about?" Naruto said, squirming a little in his chair.
Shrugging a little, Kakashi continued. "Maybe, he was pretty knowledgeable. His father is the head of the Sakashima Clan in Rain. I don't think he'd have been left in the dark about it.
"They were hired specifically to guard convoys between Grass and Fire country for Yamimaki, and there are at least thirty other nin from Rain, possibly more working for him. He's not prodding at the borders anymore. With Morokawa's troops, his own men and the conscripts he's gotten in Grass, Yamimaki is set to invade the southernmost province of Earth Country within the week."
"And we still don't know where that bastard is getting all the money to pay for this," said Sasuke. Financing war efforts over the years had bankrupted Konoha in funds as well as men several times in the past.
"Morokawa didn't know who else was supporting him and Sakashima only knew of the leaders in Rain and in Grass – none of them have the sort of wealth that he's been displaying.
"At this point, guessing isn't going to help, but there are only three people who I know of that would be willing and capable of it, and they're all good at covering their tracks. One of them is in Earth Country, one of them is in Fire Country and one of them is in Lightning Country." Kakashi scratched his head. He seemed completely oblivious to the fact that Sakura was currently reconnecting one of his ligaments.
"And how can we go after this guy now? Sakura's out, and you obviously can't fight," the Uchiha said, and Sakura felt the muscles Kakashi's upper leg tighten under her hand, as he bristled at Sasuke's tone.
Naruto half-jumped out of his chair at Sasuke. "You're one to talk, asshole."
Sakura nearly lost her concentration to her shock, and was glad that Kakashi's knee was so numb that he couldn't feel it when her hand touched down near the injury. She quickly pulled back, glad that the jutsu hadn't been broken.
"Calm down, you two." Kakashi said. "I've already decided to send both of you ahead of us today. Sakura and I will meet up with you once we can travel. I'm estimating we'll catch up with you in four days. I want the pair of you to stop any further advancement by Yamimaki's army into Earth country. In the meantime, don't hesitate to use any ability at your disposal – your summons, elemental attacks, the Kyuubi - and yes Sasuke, I do mean that too." The Mangekyou Sharingan was the only thing he could be talking about - something Sasuke had been banned from utilizing by Tsunade.
This time Sakura did lose her concentration completely. Sending him out with only one jounin to watch him and with permission to use his most powerful attack? Right after saying he didn't know if he could trust him - what was Kakashi thinking?
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" she piped in, looking at Sasuke coolly as she said it. His eyes widened a little at her, and then he looked away from them all.
Kakashi looked back at her. "We don't have any choice. Somebody has to get up there and slow down the invasion, until the rest of Morokawa's troops arrive. Between Naruto and Sasuke it's still possible."
"Tsunade's not going to like it."
"She didn't send Sasuke because she wanted to, Sakura. She sent him because she had to. With him our team hits the hardest and the fastest, and that is what the situation demands, regardless of what the rest of the village thinks," he said calmly.
Sakura was taken aback, but it didn't seem to surprise either Naruto or Sasuke. Her mouth opened and closed a few times, probably making her look like a fish. She looked back to his injury, frowning. They were rediculously outnumbered, neither Sasuke or Naruto were as good at strategy as Kakashi, and the enemy had at least one Kage-level nin on their side. How could this be a good plan?
"We'll meet up on the border between Waterfall and Grass, at the fork of the two rivers on the edge of the Great Bamboo Forest in five days. Head out whenever you're ready," Kakashi finished.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
For having spent most of the day in bed, Kakashi was exhausted. It was probably a result of Sakura's healing, since it utilized his own energy to a certain extent as well as hers. That and he hadn't slept much since the night before.
Naruto had been kind enough to drop off a platter food for them, before he left for the border. They'd eaten together more or less silently.
Now, Sasuke and Naruto had been gone for the better part of an hour, but Sakura still was sitting over him, working on the wound he never should have gotten in the first place. She had to be near to passing out again.
He argued internally between telling her to stop for the night and wanting her to do as much as possible for him as fast as possible. They had at least a little time to recover - well, two days of recovery, two days of travel.
"Sakura," he said.
"Hmm?" she looked up, but her eyes took a moment to focus on him.
"You should stop and rest before you can't get out of that chair," he said, frowning at himself for not stopping her sooner.
Sakura seemed to look at her hands a little, and then sighed. "Too late," she said.
He couldn't help but laugh at her expression. "Silly girl."
Kakashi sat up, careful of his knee, which was still thankfully numb. He got his balance with one leg, half-sitting, and hooking his hands under her arms he pulled her over onto the narrow bed with him. "I guess that means you'll have to sleep here."