GR's Note: Once again, thank you so much to my beta-ers, you are angels! I totally mean it, you guys are saints to help me with my messed-up writing. ^_^ To everyone who reads and reviews, thank you all as well, you inspire me to keep it up! Enjoy!

Prompt: Duty

Time to Finish: 3 ¾ hours

Listened to: Faber Drive – Seven Second Surgery

Part 12: Rationality

It was so easy for Kakashi to completely lose track of time on their mission. They'd been there for nearly a month before he finally got it into his head to send an update back to Konoha. Even then, it was only because Sakura had finally written out an abbreviated update on her condition for Tsunade, and both were very much overdue. Between the long awaited comfort both had with each other and the lack of anything actually happening, for the mission or otherwise, both of them had just sort of... forgotten about the updates they should have been sending.

"Kakashi, we're nowhere near the house and there's nobody around. Get this damned thing off of me!" Kakashi watched in pointed amusement while Pakkun rolled and struggled in the damp grass, trying his hardest to wriggle his way free of the collar that had been forced upon him. After having his laugh, kakashi took pity on the small dog and removed the restraint, which Sakura had insisted be colored pink since she was the one Pakkun was nearly constantly tagging along with and she had felt particularly spiteful after some choice comments the mutt had made about her. Even after every word of caution Kakashi had impressed upon the dog, Pakkun still didn't realize when it would be most prudent to keep his big mouth shut.

"Want me to remove the ribbons too?" The dog glared and growled simultaneously at Kakashi while trying to remove the pink ribbons that had been tied to his neck and tail after he had been particularly blunt to Sakura that morning. He managed to shred one and partially undo the bow on the other before Kakahsi decided that he really did need help and simply cut the knotted loops off of the poor pug, to his visible relief.

"That woman's a sadist, she has it in for me!" Kakashi chuckled, kneeling down to scratch the dog behind the ears. He knew that Pakkun's assessment was completely biased and almost totally untrue, but he could see at least a little bit where he was coming from.

Today, it had been the surprising information about how long Pakkun had known about Sakura's pregnancy that had set her off. Kakashi had taken the news far better than the hormonal woman and had been able to quell her temper just before she had decided that Pakkun would look good in a pink and white polka dot sweater, but unfortunately not before she'd tied bows in his fur. He might have felt bad for the dog, if he didn't think Pakkun deserved everything he got.

"It's your own fault, you know. You can't seem to keep your mouth shut normally, so why wouldn't you have just said something when you found out in the first place?" The dog snarled and grabbed one ribbon in his mouth and paws, intent upon shredding the accursed thing so it could never be worn again.

"And make her freak out without you there to clean her up? No thanks, I'd like to live to see my grandpups someday." Kakashi rolled his eyes, almost having expected an answer like that and so was fairly unfazed by it. Between Sakura and Pakkun, Kakashi had an odd feeling that he was going to be stuck in the middle for a very long time.

"You're impossible. Do you actually enjoy seeing her mad at you? Because you certainly act like it." The pug broke into his own creepy rendition of a snicker, irritating Kakashi. He had had some real damage control to do earlier that morning because the pug didn't have an ounce of sense about him, which had been even more difficult to do because Kakashi himself would have liked to know a bit sooner.

Apparently, Pakkun had known that Sakura was pregnant less than two weeks into it, and also knew the entire time that Kakashi was at the same time, it somehow slipped his mind to say anything about it, even when Kakashi returned from his mission and the first thing he asked about was Sakura. The pug had told him that she was pregnant, he just selectively failed to mention the most important part. Kakashi knew he shouldn't have trusted his mutt's smug smirk.

"It has its moments... She's just so easy! She's a hormonal, bi-polar, nearly obsessive-compulsive schizophrenic with insecurity issues, which makes her gold to pick on," Playfully, Kakashi swatted at the dog, who readily evaded it and continued on. "And the fact that she's got the oh-so-awesome copy-nin Kakashi trailing after her like a lost puppy and actually showing that he has a human side while he placates her demonic temper is just the dog treat on top."

This time when Kakashi swatted at the dog, he was less playful about it now that he realized that Pakkun not only did it to bait her, but him as well. He wasn't any more successful with catching the dog the second time though, which irked him slightly and caused the pug to start with his unnerving chuckling again.

"You're exaggerating, Pakkun, you make her sound like she belongs in a psyche ward." The pug nodded in agreement before Kakashi withdrew two slim scrolls from his pockets, the mission updates that the dog was going to transport back to Tsunade. Seeing them, Pakkun bolted to attention and sat up like the obedient pup he could be when he wanted too, eager to be given the scrolls that were his ticket out of this damp and drearily frigid locale.

"Well, she treats me like I'm her therapist, so maybe she does... which brings me to a little problem I've been meaning to bring up with you about her stupid insecurities..." The dog relaxed only to bound up onto Kakashi's knees and plant his muddy front paws on his chest to glare at him from eye level.

"Do me a favor while I'm gone and reassure her that she's not getting fat! I don't care if you think it's true or not, but I'm really getting tired of hearing her worry about whether you think she's still attractive or not! She's driving me insane!" The dog was quick to steal the scrolls right from Kakashi's hand and bound off before he could be asked any questions, leaving his master feeling stupefied as he sat alone in the grass of a deserted field, somewhere out of sight and earshot of the mansion.

Kakashi couldn't really think of any reason he could have given Sakura to think that he didn't find her attractive, so he simply rationalized that it was just her getting uncomfortable and self-conscious about how quickly the babies were growing. She seemed to be getting bigger at an amazing pace and showing a little more every day, so he could only imagine that she was getting uneasy about it, especially since as a kunoichi, she had never gained more than a couple pounds at a time. Personally, he found it completely fascinating, even if she didn't.

"What did you want to show me all the way out here? We're an awfully long way from the house, won't we be missed?"

"What, afraid that your husband's going to catch you? Relax, I promise you'll like where I'm taking you, it's only a little farther."

Kakashi didn't even need to look to know either of the voices, the first being his favorite; a sweet, feminine voice that he always loved hearing, while the second was the voice of their target and not nearly as welcome in Kakashi's ears. The man had been an irritation since he had shown up, taking immediate interest in Sakura as soon as he saw her. He had been fixated on her, and nothing Sakura had done had successfully redirected that fixation onto somebody else. They were never going to get the mission finished if he kept it up.

"I don't know if I should be here... Those woods don't look very safe, and I should get back to the house... I mean, what if somebody gets hurt? I'm the only qualified nurse here‒–—eek!" Kakashi cast a glance in the direction of Sakura's surprised yelp, even though he suspected it to be faked, only to be 'treated' by the sight of their target holding his furiously blushing wife bridal-style and looking about as trustworthy as a snake watching a nest full of broken-winged birds. Not exactly pleased and highly suspicious, Kakashi hid well out of sight but close enough to hear and follow the two just fine.

"Relax, there's nothing in these woods that can hurt you, and you really want to see this. You'll thank me later."

"You're going to get me in trouble!"

"What he doesn't know won't hurt him."

"Where are you taking me, really?!"

"You're really impatient, you know that? Alright, you should be safe to walk from here, it's all soft and mossy. Really easy to walk on."

"Oh, wow! It's so pretty!"

Wow, indeed. He had led Sakura to some sort of natural spring, completely isolated in an enclosed clearing and difficult enough to find that Kakashi might not have been able to on his own. Sakura sure looked excited as she ran around, looking into the spring and taking in the completely green, moss-covered scenery. Even the ground was a thick, spongy layer of moss under their feet.

"You like it? The dry season's coming, so I thought you might like coming here once in a while to relax. You seem awfully... tense, and that's not good for someone in your condition."

"I-I'm not tense..."

Kakashi noted her blush and avoid eye contact with their target, because it was different than her typical nervous behavior. She was faking it, acting like the timid civilian nurse she was supposed to be. She was obviously trying to bait him, and Kakashi couldn't bring himself to believe that she wouldn't have told him she was going to do this.

"Don't get nervous, it's alright..."

"D-don't! I'm married, I can't..."

"You're married to a man who doesn't appreciate you as much as he should."

Kakashi balked as he watched her hand being taken and kissed, then her wrist, her fingers, her fingertips. More striking than even that was her very real trepidation underlying her forced blush. She was getting in over her head, like... she hadn't expected this.

She hadn't expected him to drag her out there, but she was trying to take advantage of an already bad situation, to complete their mission. Kakashi wouldn't be doing any good by stepping in, but he knew she'd never been sent on a 'pink' mission before, as missions tended to be dubbed when they got to this point, so he needed to stay and make sure nothing happened to her. While this might be the perfect out-of-the-way place for sneaking off with another man's wife, it was also perfect for a lot of other things. Here... nobody would ever hear her scream if she got in trouble.

"M-my husband cares about me very much!"

"Oh, I don't doubt that he loves you, Hana-chii... but does he still want you? ...Being cared for just isn't enough sometimes, is it?"

Kakashi watched Sakura freeze at the poisonous words, while some very obvious and very real doubt flashed behind her amber contacts. He... didn't know exactly what he should be feeling, he just knew that Sakura hadn't ever showed any interest, and so he had assumed that it wasn't safe. Now... he had to believe that there was some other reason for it.

"It's such a shame how some men can overlook the natural healthy beauty of a woman with child... when, in fact, most women never look more gorgeous."

Kakashi's nails bit into the bark of the tree that was serving as his hiding place while he listened to what was happening and only occasionally seeing what was going on. He was torn between saving everyone the trouble of the mission by snapping the creep's neck like a twig and knowing that if he did, he'd be straining relations between Fire and Wind country too much for Konoha and Suna to repair. He couldn't interfere... and it was like watching Sakura walk into a wolves' den.

"Hana-chii... You are the sweetest, purest girl I have ever met... and though we're both married... Could you possibly indulge my selfishness for wanting you, just this once?"

Kakashi wanted to gag at the man's blatant abuse of a line of Jiraiya's literary genius, while at the same time wondering how many girls actually fell for it. Sakura wasn't buying the line, but it didn't matter; the seeds of doubt had already been sowed, and that in itself was doing more for the target's cause than any line he could say. Kakashi could see that the fight had already gone out of Sakura, the internal struggle between her own m,oral code and her duty to the village already over. The guilt was written all over her face; the mission had won out over morality, no matter how much he wished it weren't true.

"I'm sorry, I can't―"

"Please, Hana-chii..."

Kakashi wanted to break every bone in the guy's body for even daring to touch Sakura. He wanted to mangle him just for his similarities to Sasuke... But he wanted to cause himself liberal amounts of pain for ever making Sakura doubt him, even more than he wanted to use his Raikiri to wipe the sly smirk from their target's face.

"...Just once. No names, and... no kisses, please. I care about my husband too much to betray him that much."

Knowing what she was going to do made her confession bittersweet in Kakashi's ears, and he retreated out of range a bit, unable to watch or listen to what he knew was going on. He couldn't make himself leave outright though; He just knew better than to leave her all by herself, in case she were to get in trouble.

Later, when she walked right past his hiding place to leave the woods, mercifully alone, he saw the tears running freely down her face as she adjusted her sweater; he saw the guilt ripping her to shreds as she wiped a streak of what looked suspiciously like blood off of her neck with the cuff of her sleeve.

As much as it gnawed at him, he knew and could accept that she hadn't necessarily wanted to do it, it was just her job. She did it so that they could leave, mission completed in full. He didn't even need to forgive her, because there was nothing to forgive. He was as much at fault as she was, for not realizing earlier that the mission could very well end this way and for ever giving her reason to doubt him. She wasn't one to see things as they were, though; she would more likely let her guilt lead her because she knew it wasn't something she'd do normally.

Pakkun was right about one thing; Kakashi was always right there to clean up the mess, figuratively speaking, and to help Sakura regain or keep her sanity when she started breaking down. Now would be no different except that, this time, he had a whole lot to apologize and make up for in addition to making Sakura think rationally.

He wasn't good at articulating his feelings, and he'd be the first to admit it. He never had been one for vocalizing his emotions, only this time it was Sakura feeling the repercussions. She actually doubted that he still wanted her now that she was pregnant... He hadn't thought it needed to be said, it was on his mind so often, but now....he needed to say it. He needed to dispel the doubt brought on by his thoughtless inaction and the toxic logic whispered into her ears by a snake on the hunt for his next prey. He needed to set things straight, but first...

His wife had been made to bleed, and he was here. Wouldn't it only be fair to return the favor?