Ferengi Rule of Acquisition no. 190 - lol, why yes I am a trekkie, too! [Really, is it such a surprise? Really? You already knew I was a complete nerd, Star Trek just completes the 'outfit' as it were XD]

Picard beats Kirk~! XD Tho Janeway rules too! In fact, all the series were awesome in their own ways!

Anyway, on to the chapter ~

Just as a warning: there is hinting at sex acts in this, it isn't full sex neither is particularly explicit – I tried to use as few words as possible to merely give you the gist of what is going on – I think it's quite tame and nothing is really mentioned (compared to some stuff I've written lol XD) but just a warning in case you're sensitive to stuff like that ~

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Go No Further

Part 10: Hear All, Trust Nothing

A month had passed very quickly and Sakura was already away again on another mission; she'd trained extensively with Kakashi over the past month and her progress had been excellent.

Kakashi too, seemed to gain a lot from their regular discussions and training sessions – it was something she'd always known, but had managed to forget, just what an insightful and intelligent man he was. It was probably the near-permanent state of disinterest he wore which threw most off track.

Sakura wasn't sure how to interpret the fact that whenever they trained and got close to making a breakthrough, Kakashi was more actively interested and engaging than she had ever known him to be.

She found herself quite liking and enjoying the company of him when he was a little more fascinated by the mechanics of space-time and had become, somehow, more tangible.

Before, when Kakashi had always seemed so aloof, it was almost as though he didn't really exist, not really – that he was one of the mystery figures of untouchable authority, which came with an unbridgeable gulf.

But whenever they were both engrossed in analysing the mechanics of a jutsu (it had taken a few days for them to get used to each other and that they were there to help – instincts aren't easy to overcome), he was easy to talk to and readily offered his thoughts and thought processes.

Sakura didn't think that it was really him opening up to her – more that, it was just an already present side to the man, which he had no issue in displaying, but for the fact it had probably been decades since anyone had taught the Copy Nin anything – or shared a likewise level of knowledge and skill so that he couldn't occupy the role of 'sensei'.

Apparently, the excitement which shot through Sakura whenever she leant a new snippet of information, wasn't something one necessary had to grow out of.

The book Kakashi produced, when he popped over for an evening of tea drinking and research reading – which Sakura found significantly less stressful than she'd anticipated. Kakashi was the perfect guest and didn't take his presence there for granted; their silence was amiable and conducive to reading, thankfully, (how nice and quiet it was after the boisterousness of Gai and Lee the evening before).

Still, the book itself was something really special, and it was no wonder Kakashi was so secretive of it – it had some exceptionally detailed notes on how the Yondaime manipulated his chakra. Unfortunately, the Fourth only ever moved his body as a whole and wasn't able move or remove parts of his body.

Sakura remembered when she battled with Madara, way back, even before Pein invaded Konoha and before the fourth ninja world war – Madara probably had the most advanced space-time technique of anyone, ever, and Sakura knew most of the ability would be down to the sharingan.

The sharingan, however, like many things, was, in a sense, a short-cut – an ability afforded which enabled one to gain insight and ability, otherwise, would probably have taken longer than what an average life-span would allow.

There was no way she would ever be able to obtain a sharingan – not realistically, and even if she had the means of use vicariously, through Kakashi, the limitations that sharingan had on him, meant it couldn't be used to its full potential.

Also extremely irritating.

Unfortunately, it seemed, Sakura was just going to have to continue with her current method in the hopes that she would be able to create and control barriers properly, so that she could make her body as a whole and parts of it tangible and intangible at will.

Still, right now, Sakura was on a mission and desperately needed to concentrate; her target was an old warlord – he was quite an old man, his reign of power had been back in the previous era – before Sakura's generation had been born.

She was present on only a two man mission for this one – herself and Taiki; it should have been an easy mission for Sakura (with herself in the primary role), but they discovered that her target had a certain…liking for men rather than women.

This not only screwed up her plans to get close to the man before killing him, but he was also a shinobi – which mean using a genjutsu (to fool him into thinking she was male) or a henge for the same purpose was rendered moot.

The target wasn't able to sense chakra (nor was he, apparently, the brightest soul alive) – although it would be obvious Taiki was shinobi as soon as his clothes were off (Sakura assured him she step in and deal a killing blow before anything physical could happen, but he wasn't happy; well, Sakura couldn't really blame him, she wouldn't be either).

It gave Taiki time to come in and distract the target (read: seduce) and Sakura would be able to search his home for any evidence of actions or support for enemies of the Fire Country and later, as Taiki was brought back, wait for an opportunity to kill him.

A generally simple mission, but a classic example where 'customary digression' must be used, still, here Sakura was riffling through an old chest full of documents on her search for evidence as her eye caught one sheet of paper with the word 'sharingan' written on it. What exactly would this guy know about the Uchiha or the sharingan?

Sakura scanned her eyes carefully over the document conscious she didn't have much time; her eyes caught more references to doujutsu types and capabilities of a three-tomoe sharingan (although little mention was made of the mangekyou).

Doubtlessly, back in this guy's era, he would have had to contend with the Uchiha if he was carrying out shady deals either against them or Konoha.

Sakura eyes ran over the back page as she kept spotting references to the 'Naka Shrine' and 'hidden Uchiha abilities' – she assumed this must be a reference to the mangekyou; there were so many vague references to the Uchiha and their kekkei genkai and how 'the information is so closely guarded, the Leafs themselves are blind to the power of the Uchiha; perhaps if Hashirama himself had possessed the longevity of the Uchiha's leader, then he too would have been able to glide through walls as M does,'

This took a moment to decipher – how could this old geezer have known that Madara was still alive then, when no one, no one – bar Itachi, it seemed, knew of his existence? And why would (arguably) the most powerful shinobi to have lived, have allowed some lowlife like Yuuh to have known about him?

True, Yuuh was powerful and had a finger in every pie, but the Uchiha massacre? If Yuuh profited from the massacre, then he would have held rapt attention to what was happening with the clan…but Madara? That's way out of his league…of anyone's league.

Folding the paper carefully and stuffing it in her pouch, Sakura decided that she would have to study it later and returned her attention to looking for evidence useful to her mission.

…

Some three hours later, Sakura had gathered everything she needed too and was currently hiding in the shadows of a small room towards the back of Yuuh's extensive house; he and Taiki had returned not long ago and were currently sat in the significantly larger room next door.

Sakura had already knocked out some of the guards with a genjutsu, but they were soon due to wake up; the kuniochi pulled out a kunai and made an almost imperceptible slit in the paper wall adjoining the rooms and peered through.

She found she had to stifle a laugh at the fact that Yuuh was sat with his yukata wide open (apparently the man didn't believe in the use of underwear) and was substantially aroused; Taiki (thanks to his exceptional acting skills) was looking as though he was 'enjoying' slowly smoothing a hand down their target's oversized stomach towards an obvious destination.

Sakura pulled out her three, specially poisoned (it broke down to harmless, innocuous proteins a few minutes after deployment, the lethal effects taking slightly less time) sebon and took aim, just as Taiki slowly lowered his head, to save her teammate from the imminent unpleasant touching, Sakura threw the sebon straight through the rice paper.

Taiki's timing and dedication to his work was admirable; just as Sakura released the needles, the younger ANBU gripped their targets arousal in his fist, blanking Yuuh's mind to anything other than – no doubt – the pleasure bolting through him.

As a direct result, the sebon hit their mark on his neck and Yuuh had only time to allow a short groan (but whether of pleasure or pain, was hard to tell) before his weight tumbled backwards and his life left him.

Taiki wasted no time in releasing the fat old man he'd been forced get way too close to over the past few hours and furiously wiped his now contaminated hand on the edge of his own yukata before quickly securing the garment around himself again.

Sakura appeared in the room, and plucked the sebon out of Yuuh's corpse before turning to Taiki who'd found his feet, but looked disgusted with himself,

"Come on, let's get back to Konoha, I've got what we need; good work, Taiki,"

"Ugh, if I never so much as shake another man's hand it'll be too soon…ugh, I never want to be that close to another guy again," Taiki whispered harshly as Sakura grinned,

"I'll buy you the strongest sake there is, when we get back,"

"Report," Tsunade didn't even look up from her scroll,

"Target was successfully and discreetly eliminated; the information requested has been salvaged and already passed on to the intelligence department for analysis,"

"Excellent," She looked up for a split second, "You don't look injured,"

"We're not,"

"Then you're dismissed, I'll call for you in a few days," Taiki bowed and was halfway out of the door before he noticed that Sakura hadn't budged an inch, she looked at him in a silent gesture to keep moving; the Godaime spoke up after the door was closed,

"What is it?"

"Tsunade-sama, there's something else I'd like to bring to your attention," The Hokage looked up at her once-apprentice, "It is some information I located at Yuuh's compound,"

"Is it urgent?"

"More like interesting,"

"Hmm, well, I'm afraid it'll have to wait, I've got a meeting in a few moments, lord knows why at this time of night, but I'll have to see you tomorrow – check with Shizune but I should have time around three," Sakura bowed,

"Thank you, Tsunade-sama," The Godaime offered one last smile and Sakura turned and was out of the door, closing it quietly behind her, looking up, Taiki was still stood leaning against the curved wall of the corridor;

"Right, I owe you sake," He nodded as they both traced the halls down until they reached street level; although the night air was chilly, there were still plenty of lanterns lit to line the streets, giving a wonderfully ethereal feel to the streets,

"A-are you really going to join us for sake?" Taiki's tentative voice reached her ears and attracted her attention,

"Sure…unless you'd rather I leave, I won't be offended if you do,"

"No! No way! It's just that you never join us and…"

"Have you already managed to rope Akihiko and Raiden in on this?" He grinned sheepishly, she rolled her eyes as they approached the Shushuya,

"Haa…fine then, but it isn't an open bar, you know,"

"Hai, hai Taichou," They pushed open the doors and the grinning features of Akihiko greeted them across the room,

"Hey, so you did manage to get Captain to join us!" Sakura couldn't resist a frown as she took a seat next to Raiden and opposite Taiki,

"Why is this so weird to you guys?"

"Probably because we've never socialised,"

"Aa," Yea, that could be a reason,

"So how did the mission go?" Raiden – despite being cool headed and an excellent ninjutsu user, was a surprising sucker for gossip,

"Disgustingly! Ugh!" Taiki's face immediately turned sour and made small movements with his mouth as though he'd tasted something foul; a waitress walked up, looking nervous at Taiki weird expression,

"Three warm sakes, medium sized bottles, four cups and some bōkun habanero [spicy potato rings] and some ebi senbei [prawn crackers (equivalent of, I think)], please,"

"Hai," The waitress then scurried away,

"Alright, captain!"

"Stay cool, Taiki, you did well on the last mission and I'm not certain what my schedule will be like over the next day or two, so you guys can relax a little. Besides, maybe I don't let you guys know how much I rely on you and can trust you to follow through on my orders, often enough,"

Sakura had been looking around the room, feeling a touch uncomfortable at her words, but as she looked back over the table, she found all three men were staring at her – Akihiko and Taiki both seemed to have tears in their eyes, whilst Raiden looked as though she'd just begun dancing on the table,

"What?"

"C-captain, did you hit your head?"

"No, baka! I just want to let you guys know that you are appreciated, I know I can come down on you pretty hard sometimes," The waitress returned with their drinks and snacks as Raiden poured her a cupful of sake, which she nursed for about the time it took the boys to drink four cups; she didn't stay long at the Shushuya, feeling uncomfortable in such a crowded place and drank only three or four cups of sake.

This was enough to look as though she was participating, but nowhere near enough to get drunk; the rest of her team were steadily getting worse but Sakura's mind kept drifting back to the paper she found reference, who must be Madara.

The more Sakura thought about what the paper meant, the more convinced she was that there would be the key to giving her more information on space-time ninjutsu. After all, the most powerful space-time user was a sharingan wielding Uchiha and if there was some information hidden away on the sharingan, maybe an eye wouldn't quite be as necessary as she'd first thought…

"Ah, Sakura, the Godaime was called to an emergency at the hospital, it'll probably be a little before she returns, so you might as well wait in the Jounin lounge,"

"Hai, Shizune-sampai," The brunette gave a rueful smile, at the once vibrant kuniochi – now cool and calculating, Shizune often wonders if Naruto ever returned, whether he'd recognise his old friend; the lean, slender frame of Sakura's belies her strength, even without chakra.

She's able to fool even the most perceptive of enemies into thinking they know her strengths and weaknesses. Sakura rounds the corner and pushes open the door to the usually quiet Jounin lounge; she flicks her eyes over the room seeing only the tuft of dark hair, belonging to Yamato, sat on the seat around the central pillar.

She ignore him for the moment, he isn't looking at her anyway, whilst she locates a map of Konoha and tugs it down off the shelf to look at;

"Yamato-sampai," She offered a small smile and a nod before she sits down as Yamato finally looks up,

"Ah, Sakura, how are you?" She scanned her eyes over him, quickly discerning that he's injured;

"Well, thank you… Yamato, where are you injures?"

"Hmm? Oh, uh, they're not serious, I just need to see the Godaime and then I'll go to hospital," He offers his signature placating smile, but Sakura wasn't buying, the medic in her is insatiable, it seems;

"It's no trouble, Yamato, please?" She stepped closer to him as he pulled a hand away from his ribs, he lifted his shirt slightly allowing Sakura to see the rather nasty bruising over his left side; "Aa, how long have you had this injury?" Her hands began to glow a soft green as she held them millimetres above his skin; he allowed a few sharp breaths out in relief at the fact he could again breathe normally,

"Aaah," The bruising began to fade as Sakura had healed the three cracked ribs he was sporting, "About two days, my return journey was rather halting,"

"Mmh, well you'll still be a bit tender for a day or two so take it easy, but they'll heal just fine,"

"Thank you, Sakura, that feels so much better!" Sakura rose to her feet and turned around to find Kakashi stood in front of her his book open but his eye trained upon her, with what she assumed to be one eyebrow raised,

"Kakashi," She nodded as Yamato seemed to sit up a little more and drag his shirt back down; said silver-haired Jounin nodded back as he turned his attention to the man behind her; Sakura, deciding to ignore what she could imagining Kakashi had thought the situation was, picked up her map again and settled herself at a table.

The door suddenly opened as Shizune stuck her head around the door,

"Yamato-san, Tsunade-sama is ready for your report,"

"H-hai…arigatou, Sakura," The Jounin was quick to find his feet and follow Shizune out the door, leaving Sakura and her long-ago sensei alone; without looking up from her map, she addressed him;

"Kakashi, are you about to leave on a mission?"

"Hmm, iie, Tsunade just had a little job for me to do and I'm reporting back,"

"Aah,"

"Why do you ask?" He took a step or two closer, eyeing the map she was pouring over, noting where her eyes glanced to the most,

"During my previous mission, I stumbled across some very interesting information on the Uchiha, specifically, and a few other things relevant to our current training," She flashed her eyes over to him, noting how his head cocked to the side slightly in unspoken interest, "It also suggested where some more information on the sharingan or the Uchiha may be found – I'm going to speak to the Hokage about what we've been doing and, hopefully, she'll agree to send us on a mini-mission,"

"Wh-" The door opened again and Shizune appeared,

"Apologies for the interruption, but Tsunade-sama is ready to see you, Sakura," Said kuniochi rose to her feet and gathered the map, curling it up and sliding it back into place on the shelf before nodding at Kakashi,

"I'll come and find you when things are a little more certain," Kakashi only had time to nod before she was out of the door.

…

A few hours later, Kakashi was sat on the smooth, wide slab of stone in front of the carving in his family's garden; he was surprised, after Sakura had come and found him little under an hour ago, at how juxtaposed he felt with himself.

His curiosity had nearly been tearing him apart by the time Sakura had found him and briefly explained what her plan was (approved of by Tsunade) and what the information she'd found – giving him the slip of paper to look over.

'Very interesting' wasn't exactly the wording Kakashi would have chosen, to think that scum like Yuuh had some connection to Madara back in the days preceding the massacre and had knowledge about the sharingan was worrying indeed.

Sakura's plan had been to go, with himself, into the Uchiha complex to try and find any remaining documents on the sharingan and its associated jutsus. Kakashi couldn't deny that he was fascinated by the prospect of being able to snoop around the complex, but there was some instinct in him which warned something wasn't right.

What do you think, Obito? There are no Uchiha left now – they've all been killed…but thanks to you, I hold the last vestige of that noble, although arrogant, clan. I wonder what you'd think of all their deaths, their betrayal of Konoha?

Of me, years later, with an old student of mine, entering your clan's compound to glean whatever information we possibly can about the sharingan? I wonder if you would have ever developed space-time ninjutsu or Kamui had this eye still been in your socket – had you still been alive…

You were so un-typical of an Uchiha – I bet you would have fought against the coup d'état had you lived to see it. I have no idea what to expect in walking into that environment; would you?

I know that after the massacre, the intelligence department cleaned out the compound and took any and all valuable information with them, but my gut tells me more is there than just decaying buildings.

Maybe I feel it's a betrayal of you and your clan to go snooping where I'm not welcome…even though anyone who may object is long dead; maybe it's enough that Sakura and I are going.

I know that I will respect the compound as much as I can and I sense Sakura would do the same – we're on a search for more information on space-time ninjutsu, hence we're going there in the first place. Still, there really is something nagging me – despite my incredible curiosity.

I wonder where you lived, Obito, I wonder if I see your home? Sakura and I will be heading in there tomorrow to find what we can – I promise I'll do my best not to disturb any ghosts.

Kakashi rose to his feet, taking a deep, calming breath in, holding it for a few seconds before smoothly exhaling in one long breath. Raising his eye to the cloudless sky, he wondered what he'd find tomorrow – his concerns weren't enough to make him not (want to) go but just enough to put him on edge.

Feeling slightly eased by verbalising this thoughts – even in his mind – he turned and darted into the trees; the best he could do now, was face tomorrow fully rested.