Disclaimer: I have made plenty of these, you know. You should have gotten the idea by now.
Kakashi was standing by the door when the panting duo of Sasuke and Sakura arrived. He had been waiting for a very long time, but held no expectations for their mission. Not knowing the situation, if anything, he didn't even know if they would return. Still, there they were.
The Hatake put his hand to his chin while he took them in. The two students were a little roughed up and dirty, but not too much worse for the wear. The thing that disturbed the teacher wasn't what he saw, then. It what he didn't see.
"Where's Naruto?" he asked grimly, using his visible eye to peer at his remaining students with a vague expression of displeasure under which Sasuke's monumental confidence began to quiver. The lack of reply last for a short span of time, so Kakashi asked again, but this time with more force.
"Where is Naruto?"
Sakura trembled, now, unsure of how to put all that had happened. She was eloquent enough, but placating an adult in a position of power was something she had never attempted outside of a schoolhouse setting. Many things had changed since then, including the intensity of her instructors. The sensei standing before her now was a killer and a genius.
"He's still out there." she said simply, causing Kakashi to groan audibly.
"I am aware that he is still out there, Sakura. What I am asking for is more of a specific location or state of being… You don't expect me to believe he's having a tea party, do you?" the man deadpanned, straightening his body from the slouch it had been occupying. In a flash, the jonin turned to Sasuke.
"Well…?" he asked again, finding a sparkle of recognition in the Uchiha's eyes.
"He followed the masked kid into the forest." the young ninja responded monotonously, "-he then found Gato's hideout and infiltrated it under the guise of a common lowlife."
At this point in the explanation, Kakashi's fingers were drumming on his kunai. "You know this because you ran into him?"
"Y-yes." Sakura nodded.
"Under what circumstances?" the teacher pressed, noting the shame when he saw it on Sakura's face.
"Bad ones." Sasuke saved her the trouble of explaining. To Sakura's surprise, this was enough for the teacher, and he prodded it no further. He did, however, start to pace.
"Did he pass along any information to you, then?" came the continued inquisition after a brief pause.
Sasuke and Sakura looked to one another apprehensively before Sakura spoke again.
"He said that Gato intends to turn on Zabuza."
Kakashi stopped dead in his tracks. "…What?"
Though the genin could only see his back, they could tell this new little anecdote caught him off-guard. The teacher pulled his hands out of his pockets and regarded his students eyelessly(if there really was such a thing) from the side. The pose in itself would probably intimidate most people.
"Can he prove it?" the gray-haired sensei asked tersely. The cogs in his mind were working overtime, and they weren't slackers to begin with. If Naruto could really get a hold of such information, then the assassination attempt would be terminated. It was a bold move, really, and something he shouldn't have attempted alone. If and when Naruto returned, Kakashi was probably going to need to have a nice long chat with the boy.
"No, he can't prove it! That's why he's still out there. He said all he needed was twelve hours. I… I think he intends to present the evidence to Zabuza himself." Sakura spoke as calmly as possible, though the concern could hardly be masked by her tone. Despite her own best efforts, her voice shook.
Kakashi's body stiffened, and his visible eye immediately traveled to his female pupil. Even with the incredible level of tension building in his body, however, he kept the glance passive after a brief flash of intensity.
"How long ago did this happen?" Kakashi now asked cooly.
"About two hours ago." Sasuke deduced from the shadows of the trees.
"Then we wait ten more." he ordered, easing his body into a relaxed posture again..
Sakura clenched her fists, biting her objections down before they flew from her lips. A jonin's order was a jonin's order. She didn't know where Naruto was now, so she didn't have much of an alternative, either.
"What are we supposed to do for ten hours?" she asked with a false sweetness.
Kakashi looked around for a moment and sat down where he was , asking if anyone wanted to play checkers.
Sakura took an extreme position of 'not amused'.
Henging himself into Yoriiji once again, Naruto approached the hideout to be stopped by one of the sentries who had relieved him. The man was scrawny, but Naruto could see some vague outlines through the delinquent's clothing. The amount of weaponry was probably enough to arm an entire ninja squadron.
"What the heck, Urinator?! Aren't you supposed to be looking for the intruders with everyone else?" the unkempt guard demanded, irked beyond all reason. "Did you piss on one of them or something?!"
"I need to see Gato immediately." Naruto replied, keeping his voice as deep as he had heard it come from Yoriiji. The sentry in question didn't look like he was about to budge, however, so 'Yoriiji' shoved him out of the way, not surprised to feel metal edges on contact.
"It's about the intruders, asshole!" he shouted in his defense before walking into the building to realize something very important; he didn't know what area Gato or his files were kept. It wouldn't go over very well, he imagined, to walk up to one of the boarish man and casually ask where the top-secret documents were kept. The mercenaries weren't very bright, but he didn't think very many were so stupid as that.
I probably should have thought this through a little better, he chided himself, but what's done is done. The building isn't too impossibly large, anyway. Maybe if I just turn here… There we go.
A pair of eyes regarded him from a sofa, the owner of said peepers grimacing behind his bandaged face. Zabuza Momochi was not to be disturbed. It had been a rule enforced over the last few days quite diligently. No one that wasn't Haku had dared wander into his quarters without Gato until now.
"You shouldn't be here." the Momochi growled, narrowing his eyes at the uninvited houseguest. Though the ANBU was bedridden, his killer gaze had no less effect. "What do you want?"
The henged Naruto gaped like a landed fish before the recuperating death-dealer, fighting the urge to run like a hunted animal on crack.
Before he could make up any sort of answer, however, a new figure entered the room.
"Master Zabuza, should I dispose of him?"
Oh, shit. Wrong room.
A/N: It's my birthday today! It's my birthday and I can't write anymore right now. My feet are asleep.