Chapter 11
The next morning, Sakura woke feeling warmer than she had the last couple nights, but something else was different too. Pulling herself from the depths of her sleep she noticed a tightness in her chest that was preventing her from taking a deep breath in. Starting to crack open her eyes, she reached to lay a hand to her chest where the tightness was sourced, and quickly looked down when her hand met something warm...and furry.
"Mornin'," said the gruff voice of the pug who had apparently decided her chest was as good a place as any to lie down for the night.
In her state of waking she had forgotten the pug had stayed with her during the night. She didn't exactly mind his choice of bed, however. He was surprisingly light for such a muscular little dog, and he was certainly the reason she had slept so soundly, not having to fend off the chill of the night with him there. He also didn't smell like a dog. He smelled like her, or rather, her shampoo.
"Good morning, Pakkun," she yawned as the dog did the same, jumping down from his spot. "I hope you slept well?"
The dog let out a soft snort. "You're a much better human to sleep with than Kakashi. He moves too much. Not to mention if he has a real doozy of a nightmare. You ever wake up to a chidori at 3 AM?"
Sakura giggled at the thought of such a sight, before her face fell at what Pakkun had just let slip. He had nightmares that bad? She stared off for a moment in contemplation before Pakkun brought her back to the present with a soft gruff.
"Sorry Pinkie. Ya' mind? There's a tree callin' me, and then I gotta check in with the guys who were on watch."
Apologizing, Sakura unzipped the tent for him to dash out, before closing the tent again to change for the day of travel that would begin soon. She was still lost in thought as she came back from washing her face, to find the others gathering around the fire again.
Breakfast this morning consisted of oatcakes that were part of their provisions with some fresh berries foraged by the suspected Aburame, as well as some honey from a hive they had located overnight, still in the comb. The honey was exceptional, and both Anko and Sakura expressed their extreme appreciation for it as they finished up their meals.
Taking another cup of tea from the kettle, Sakura was surprised when Kakashi offered his own chunk of the honeycomb to her for her tea. He wasn't overly fond of such sweet things, he reminded her quietly, it might as well go to someone who would appreciate it. Sakura happily accepted the treat and let the honey melt into her tea for a moment before discarding the comb before it could melt as well. She didn't notice the smug look of the pug that watched the exchange from nearby. She also didn't notice the Copy Ninja catch said dog's eye with a small glare and gesture of the chin to summon him to follow into the trees. A certain dark haired Nara did though.
Interesting.
The Nara had been watching the pair closely over the last few weeks whenever he found them together, which was slightly more often than he would have expected. He had also been noticing the glances his hokage had been sneaking at the medic as they traveled. It was easy to catch these things when you were well-known for not paying attention. True, Shikamaru was still lazy, but being the hokage's apprentice for some time now, he had learned to take advantage of the assumptions people made about his disinterest. He frequently found that by actually paying attention when people weren't expecting him to, he could eliminate some of the more troublesome things that may interfere with his day if he took note of the signs and took care of the issue before it became a bigger issue.
Yes, Shikamaru had learned how to even make being proactive help him be lazy. It might seem like an oxymoron, but he had perfected the art of proactive laziness, as Temari called it. The key to it was knowing when being proactive was more work than the issue would be, and only taking action when it would actually save him trouble in the long run. But in the mean time, he had learned to make a bit of a strategy game out of the behaviors of people. By listening and watching, he could guess what each player might do, what their own strategy might be, and he could then formulate the best way in which to give him the least amount of trouble as possible while getting his job done. It was rather like playing shogi with nearly every person in the village. Games with some players might only get through a move or two in a week; whereas entire games with others, like Kakashi, could take place in mere minutes.
Truthfully, Kakashi had dozens of games going with at a time, and not all with Shikamaru. Some were larger political strategies where Shikamaru was more of a sounding board than an opponent, but it was still helpful to try to anticipate Kakashi's moves in order to best support him…and if he sometimes slipped an extra piece onto the board in Kakashi's favor, so be it. Some of the silver-head's games were quick stealth attacks, which usually ending with the hokage making a break for it to skive off of meetings for the day in favor of a tree branch and a book. And still other games were simply distractions to keep Shikamaru from noticing the latter stealth attacks until it was too late.
This particular game, though...the Nara clan head wasn't sure Kakashi even knew he was playing this one, and if he did, perhaps not that someone else (Shikamaru) had noticed that pieces were being moved around the board.
He was certain, however that Sakura didn't know she was Kakashi's current main opponent, and had been for some weeks now.
The morning had passed by fairly quickly. Shortly after Shikamaru's observations, Kakashi had returned from his private conversation with Pakkun, made a show of dismissing all of his ninken but the latter, and the group had set out as soon as Naruto could be pushed back onto his feet after he had tried to fall asleep after breakfast. In the end it had been a bee sent by an annoyed ANBU member that had gotten the jinchuriki on his feet.
Naruto was now beginning to complain that it was well past time for lunch and that the silver-haired slave driver was going to kill them all through starvation. In truth, they had been traveling along at a pretty quick pace. Quicker than they had been the day or two before; not a desperate sprint, but not a pace that would have been more fitting to the fact that they would be arriving tomorrow by mid-morning, almost a full day ahead of schedule. Kakashi and the ANBU seemed to want to try to get to Kumo tonight.
Pondering over this, Sakura casually started circulating through the group to pass out some of the energy bars she had developed. They weren't as potent as her food pills, but they tasted significantly better and were quite a bit easier to make since the ingredients didn't take as much preparation and weren't as rare. If the ANBU weren't going to stop right now there was probably a good reason. She knew better than to question them, unlike the loudmouth.
She approached Kakashi under the same pretext, a bar in hand.
"Thank you, Sakura-chan," he said meaningfully, casting her a small glance. He saw her nod at him and take out a bar of her own. He smirked under his mask. She was always a clever one.
Under the guise of eating her bar, she muttered, "how many?"
"Sixteen. Maybe seventeen," he replied from behind the hand that pulled away his mask as he slipped a piece of his own bar into his mouth. Knowing what her next question was he gave her the answer before she could ask, back in his normal volume. "How was your tea this morning?"
Hmmm…that answers that. He must have noticed when he went to talk to Pakkun. Or maybe the ninken had noticed. That was probably why he had dismissed most of them so strangely.
"I was thinking," Kakashi continued, "we could stop for some more in a little while. I didn't really get to enjoy mine."
He's heading for better ground. He's obviously been here before, he must know there's a spot ahead that will provide us an advantage against our pursuers.
"That sounds great, Kakashi-sama," she replied. Smiling at him to show she understood, she glanced over only to see a small frown in his eyes.
Does he think I didn't understand?
His frown vanished as he saw her brows twitch ever so slightly in question, giving her a reassuring eye-crinkle.
No. He knows I understood…why the frown?
"Well then, Sakura-sama, we should arrive shortly. Don't let Naruto take off by himself for a nap when we do though. We don't need to lose more of ANBU-san's bees."
She rolled her eyes, recognizing what had caused his displeasure now. "Hai, Kakashi-san." She heard him chuckle in reply.
Impossible man.
Impossible woman.
A few minutes later Sakura saw what Kakashi was waiting for. Ahead was a far stretch of flat land before the mountains truly started jutting from the landscape. Kakashi was going to draw those pursuing them out where they could no longer hide.
The ANBU seemed to know exactly what was going on as well, as they came to a halt at the same time as Kakashi, conveniently out of range of most attacks that could be launched from the tree line. From where she stood Sakura saw a brief glimmer of movement as Anko released snakes from her sleeves under the guise of being tired and sitting on the ground in some taller grass. Shikamaru sat as well, hands together in a circle as if he was meditating. Everyone was simply milling around like they were truly going to take a break.
Sakura was caught unaware when Naruto scooped her up in a tight hug, arching his back to lift her above him, thanking her for 'whatever she had said to Kaka-sensei' because it was time for a break and a proper lunch.
Encased in the blonde's crushing grasp, Sakura felt her anxiety spike. Held as she was she could not move, and the blonde hadn't noticed what everyone else had in the last bit of their journey. He was carefree and his back was to the trees. She stiffened in his arms, looking for the tell-tale flash of metal flying toward them.
"What's wrong, Sakura-chan?" he asked of the squirming pinkette in his arms.
Breaking her gaze to look up at him she glared. "Let me go! Baka!"
As she glared at him, she heard it. The faint whisper of something - several somethings! - flying toward them. Panic struck her as she saw in her mind's eye the kunai pierce through her friend's back.
In the next instant she found herself falling from Naruto's arms as he spun around, lighting up in yellow-orange chakra as he reacted, deflecting the volley of weapons sent toward them. But there were too many for him to deflect, and several senbon and kunai whizzed by toward the pinkette who still had yet to land on her feet. She wouldn't be able to get to a kunai in time.
Deciding she'd rather obtain some minor injuries, she moved to block the projectiles with her forearms. She could always heal her arms, but those injuries wouldn't be so bad as if they hit an organ. Sakura braced herself for the sting of senbon as her toes came into contact with the grass.
Only to feel a faint breeze, followed by a tickle in her face and the gentle 'tinks' of metal on metal.
She opened her eyes to see only silver.
The fine silver mop in front of her shifted and brushed against her cheek before she realized what had happened. Kakashi, in the speed known by few shinobi had squeezed in between herself and Naruto and had parried the attack that would have otherwise hit her as she landed. He was now crouched in front of her, on guard for any more rogue weaponry.
Time stood still for a moment as everyone waited with baited breath for the next attack that was surely coming.
And then they heard it. A distant, quick rumble, and a chorus of moving blades of grass, though there was no wind. After a moment, screams overpowered these noises, and sixteen shinobi burst from the trees, followed by swarms of bees. They could see snakes wrapping their way up the legs of several unfortunate souls.
And with that the field burst to life. The ANBU scattered into teams of 2, their captain hanging back with Kakashi, Shikamaru, and Sakura. Naruto of course took off shouting challenges to any that could hear him. Anko sprinted in with her normal exuberant fierceness. All while Sai started drawing his attack beasts and snakes to join in the charge.
All-in-all, it was an uneven match and wasn't really a fair fight. Sixteen rogue ninja simply weren't a match for the nine ninja that into the battle. It was only a matter of minutes before they were all subdued and restrained.
"What was that?!" Anko demanded. "I thought it might at least be a fun fight! That was pathetic!" She leaned over in front of one of the larger men and licked her lips. "What do you say…want to try again? I won't use my snakes this time…"
The man shuddered in response and Anko sighed in boredom before she settled down to clean her knives. Her snakes had disappeared to who knows where. And really…Sakura didn't want to think about where. Anko had always made her a little uncomfortable. She was an amazing kunoichi and had unquestionable loyalty, but the influence of Orochimaru was evident, and to say the man was "creepy" was a horrible understatement.
Behind her, Sakura heard Shikamaru muttering to Kakashi.
"That was a little too easy, Hokage-sama."
"You may be correct, as usual, Shikamaru. Pakkun mentioned the scent wasn't quite right from what they caught wind of this morning. He's out looking around now."
As if summoned, Pakkun trotted up to the men and sat down, ready to report. The moment the pug was certain he had the attention of the men and with a wink to Sakura, which didn't escape Kakashi's notice, he confirmed that someone was missing.
"A powerful someone. Woman by the smell. She left a couple miles back. Scent just disappeared, boss. I have a couple of the boys out sniffing around to see if they can pick up anybody nearby. I ran across the scent of a few similar sized groups, gone a day or two in most cases. Probably fifty people in total, but none as powerful as the woman."
Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at that. "Fifty other rogues in this area? Troublesome."
"Troublesome indeed," agreed Kakashi. He rubbed his chin through his mask. "Seems like an awfully large number of people. I know I'm handsome, but this is a little excessive…"
Sakura snorted.
"Baka-sensei," called the blonde nearby, "what makes you think it's about you? I'm the future hokage! Oi!"
Sakura had smacked the back of his head for the 'baka-sensei' comment. "And Kakashi-san is the current hokage. Why would they care about you, loudmouth?"
"Hmmm…," Kakashi rubbed his chin again. "Sasuke mentioned he was being tracked. He didn't say it was this many people…"
"Teme would leave that out…," Naruto mumbled. "Show off. He always gets to have all the fun…" It occurred to Naruto exactly what Kakashi had said. "Wait! Teme? You heard from him? Is he coming here? How long is he staying? What has he been doing? Can I help? Is it a mission? What? Why are you all rolling your eyes at me?"
At this point the ANBU captain approached their little group and saved them all from having to answer the onslaught of queries. "Hokage-sama, it would be wise for us to get moving again. Most of the rogues are just there because they were instructed to by their leaders, but those identified as the leaders couldn't remember why they were pursuing us. Bear-san tried to probe the big one's memories, but they were tampered with. It was just like all of a sudden the need to intercept us popped into his head, but with no rationale."
"If we leave now, we could probably make it to Kumo by night, Hokage-sama. It's troublesome, but with that many in the vicinity the last couple of days, it may be wise to push on."
Kakashi sighed. "I think that's wise, Shikamaru-san, Cat-san. If this is related to Sasuke, he's likely waiting for us there."
"Would someone tell me what the Teme has to do with this? What's he been doing, Kakashi-sensei?!"
Ignoring the rambunctious blonde, two ANBU members began casting genjustu to subdue the captured rogues, and then to hide them. Once the party reached Kumogakure a retrieval group would come back to bring them in, but for now their priority was getting the hokage and his staff to the village safely, and while their group was powerful, fifty unknown shinobi was enough to keep them from separating.
Within minutes the group was set to go again. Naruto was still asking questions of anyone that would listen, not that he was getting any answers from anyone. They all knew he was just excited at the thought of seeing Sasuke, and potentially a mission. He always got a bit ridiculous when Sasuke came back into town, but being out in the field with the rest of Team 7 seemed to have increased his antics tenfold. In fact, his questions persisted until they were nearly to Kumogakure, though eventually the questions changed from what Sasuke had been doing and where, to when they would be able to eat dinner.
