A/N: If you haven't already heard, one of the great Kakasaku authors, Serenanna, passed away this February. Her fics were among the first I read that pulled me into the fandom, so I probably wouldn't be here if not for her. I only had the pleasure of speaking to her a few times, but she was always without a doubt one of the sweetest, kindest people I've ever met and now I wish there was still all the time left in the world to get to know her. I hope you will read her fics, if you haven't already, and remember her and her talented contributions to this fandom and others.
www. fanfiction. net /~ serenanna
It feels like a meagre offering, but I'd like to dedicate this story to her. She was a wonderful person, and a wonderful writer, and she will be missed.
House of Crows
Chapter Twenty: An Old Friend Returns
For a long time, I was in love
Not only in love, I was obsessed
With a friendship that no one else could touch.
It didn't work out, I'm covered in shells.
She'd always liked the mews back in Konoha, but that had been cleaner than this place. Sakura was forced to hold the sleeve of her yukata over her delicate nose to protect it from the offensive smells coming up off the floor. Old straw, tiny animal bones, and not just a little excrement, among other things. But if she knew one thing from the bird loft back home, it was that these places were usually quiet, which was why she wasn't quite prepared for the sudden chorus of angry squawking the moment she stepped into the main aviary. With her sleeve still clamped firmly over her face, she turned to give the noisy rows of birds a look of deep consternation.
"What's with all the crows?" she asked the boy who was listlessly feeding a couple of squashed looking mice to a very large hawk.
He looked at her blankly. She remembered his name was something like 'Haru'. "Uh… they belong to the Hatake clan. They seem to do a lot of messaging, but they won't use ours."
"Who'd use crows?" Sakura wondered aloud as the flock of angry black ravens cackled and scolded her. "A whole lot of them together are called something creepy, right? What's the collective noun?"
The boy didn't seem that keen on them either. "A murder," he said flatly. "Is there something you want?"
Sakura held out a folded note to him. "The seamstress wants to place an order for new fabrics," she said.
"Ah… no problem," he took the note and took care to read the contents. Sakura watched him carefully. If he did that with every message he was told to send, there was little chance of slipping something by him unless it was written in impenetrable code. Or else she would just have to try a time when he wasn't here. "Where do you need it sending?"
Sakura twirled a finger through her hair innocently. "Um… do you have any that go to Konoha?" she asked lightly.
"Konoha?" he repeated disbelievingly.
"Yah, Konoha," she said, meeting his gaze unflinchingly.
"Are you… sure that's where you want the order sent?" His eyes narrowed at her. "Fabric orders normally go to Ame."
"I'm sure she said Konoha," Sakura persisted. "Do you have any birds trained to fly there?"
"N-No…"
Damn. "Well, maybe you have some that fly to another fire country town or village that will pass on the message?"
"Why would we have any connections in the fire country?" the boy asked. "We're at war with them."
"Are we?" Sakura's hopes were fading fast. She looked around at the perches of hawks and kites and even some dozing owls. None of them were trained to fly to Konoha… but this was nothing more than what she'd expected. The family had probably never needed to contact Konoha before, and likely never would.
Sakura glanced at the crows. If this lot were the neural pathways of the Syndicate's communication network, a few may have travelled to Konoha to contact Kakashi. Did she dare ask or even try it? They weren't sentient creatures, but there was a gleam of uncanny intelligence in their eyes, and Sakura didn't think it wise to entrust any message to the Hokage with one of the Syndicate's very own birds.
"You're right," she sighed finally. "It was probably Ame. My mistake."
As she watched the boy fit the seamstress's order into a tube around the leg of one hawk, Sakura thought she heard someone yelling outside. That wasn't unusual. People yelled a lot of things around the courtyard to one another, sometimes it was the only way to be heard. But then someone else yelled, and then another person joined in… and it didn't seem to be the casual kind of "Who's run off with my hammer?!" yell. More the "Get on the ground and put your hands up!" kind.
Something thudded against the outside wall of the mews, ruffling more than a few feathers. Sakura forgot the message and the bird boy and immediately hurried outside to see what the commotion was.
It was a monk.
She recognised his encompassing black and purple robes and the wide-brimmed bamboo kasa covering his head. He was a little odd though; not half because in one hand he was holding a very un-monk-like sword, and in the other an unconscious man by the scruff of his neck. There were a few more unconscious bodies littering the courtyard, most of them Zuru guards, but at least one was a Hatake. Sakura noted that with secret glee.
"Drop our man!" shouted one Zuru guard as he and a dozen other men attempted to encircle the monk.
"He attacked me," the monk replied evenly. There was something horribly familiar about that voice. A wave of panic and excitement left Sakura's whole body tingling in shock and acute awareness. Her knees threatened to buckle.
It couldn't be…
"You're surrounded! Lay down your weapon!" the same guard bellowed.
But someone else was approaching from the entrance of the main house, at a brisk, confident walk of a man who feared nothing, when perhaps he really should have, Sakura thought. Without breaking his stride, Karasu broke through the circle of guards and confiscated one of their swords as he passed, and in the next second he was swinging at the monk.
The man dropped his hostage and spun to avoid it. Electrical sparks flew as sword met sword, again and again like, and Sakura's heart lodged firmly in her throat. She knew that fighting style, and those deliberate, heavy swings and such minimal footwork it was almost mocking. It was certainly no monk.
The fight was interrupted by a sharp flash of light and a crackle of electricity, and in that same moment one of the swords split and shattered on the cobbles.
Karasu regarded what remained of his broken hilt with blank dismay. "Ah," he said. "I suspected it might be you, but I had to be sure. I hope you're not here to cause trouble or I'll really have to get serious."
"I am only here because we have a common enemy," the monk said, sheathing his weapon in its black and white scabbard. "I have information to sell you."
Karasu waved the other men to stand down. "It better be worth a lot or I might just try to sell you back to Konoha myself for the reward money, Uchiha-san."
The monk drew off his wide hat and bowed. His hair had grown a little since Sakura had cut it, but Sakura knew that face so well he could have been wearing a pink wig for all she cared. She knew Sasuke when she saw him.
He, however, could not see her.
"I can see fear in that old eye of yours, Kakashi."
Water was dripping down the cold, stone walls, built so thick that no scream could penetrate them. All sorts of terrible things took place within these dank underground chambers far below the mountain, the evidence of which were the numerous dark stains open the floor and the stinking drain in the corner. Sometimes just sitting in these rooms was enough to break someone's spirit. Sable, however, remained bright-eyed and defiant. Her arm may have been broken in three different places and she may have been bound completely to a bolted down iron chair, but she still grinned at him, knowing exactly who had the upper hand now.
Kakashi stood stiffly against the wall with his arms tightly folded and his jaw locked. ANBU guards he hadn't quite been able to shake off had helped escort her here, but they'd departed now to summon Ibiki. He would arrive soon and then the interrogation would begin.
"Some of us suspected, and we all wondered," she continued, her voice echoing around the small room. "You've been fostered by these people for too long. You've grown soft. You're as schizophrenic as that mad daddy of yours. One minute ordering me to kill the Hokage, the next you're jumping in to save her life!"
"I had no idea what the order meant," he ground out. "If I'd known, I would never have given it you."
"Don't you want to be Hokage?" she hissed.
"No. And certainly not like this."
"You should have just let me kill her… because now you're dead!" Sable laughed almost joyfully. "What are you going to do, Kakashi?! You've betrayed your own clan! When Karasu hears this, we won't have to suffer the likes of a bastard brat like you anymore! They'll be screaming for your blood and they'll get it in the end. Not everyone enjoys the original heir hanging around, you know. Things like this... this is just the kind of excuse they need to be rid of you for good."
Kakashi glared at her.
"I can see what you're thinking," she snickered softly. "You're thinking… Karasu doesn't have to find out if I keep her locked in here. You're so stupid. The moment that scumbag Ibiki arrives, I'm telling him everything. I'm telling him who the syndicate is and why we do this, and I'll delight in telling him exactly who you are! I'm just sad I'll never get to see that old hag's face when she learns her most trusted jonin has been playing for the other team all this time!"
Kakashi rose away from the wall and circled behind her chair to begin pacing. He could no longer keep still.
"So you see, brother, you have no choice," Sable told him airily. "Keep me here, and soon the whole village will know of your betrayal and you'll be sitting right alongside me when they start tapping shunts through our skulls to pry out our secrets. Your only chance is to free me this very second. It would appear to be in both our interests if neither of us mentioned what you did today."
Kakashi stopped to kneel down before her. "You won't tell Karasu that I intervened?"
"I'll just tell him that some stupid asshole with shit for brains got in the way and I barely escaped by the skin of my teeth," she said coyly. "I don't even have to lie, you see? I'll protect you. No one has to know you betrayed the clan."
"Sable…" he murmured, placing a hand on her shoulder. "My betrayal? What about yours?"
Her face hardened.
"The second you get out of here you'll inform Karasu straight away," he said heavily. "I know how you feel about me, and I know you're wetting yourself at the thought alone of selling me out. I could let you go, but I know I'd be handing over my own life. So you see, for my own sake I can't let you leave here."
She snarled at him. "And when Ibiki-"
"When he arrives… perhaps three minutes from now, you will tell him everything, won't you?" Kakashi agreed. "If I let you go down, you'll take me with you. In fact, you're willing to take the whole clan down with you to ensure I meet a sticky end, and I can't allow that. My betrayal of your mission pales in comparison to the betrayal you just admitted to. For the sake of the clan, I can't let you stay here either."
"Kakashi!" she hissed in warning, before immediately switching to a more simpering tone. "Brother, think about this."
"You're no sister of mine, Sable," he rebuked evenly, reaching out to pluck at the small locket resting against her clavicle. It was the kind of locket people used to carry around pictures of their parents of their kids, or their beloved partners. Kakashi knew Sable had none of these.
"Don't you dare!" she shrieked, struggling against her bonds as he tore the locket from her throat and opened it in his palm.
"A little predictable, Sable," he said softly, holding up a tiny glass capsule between his fingers. "Better to keep these things in the lining of your clothes."
"Like you?" she spat.
"I don't carry cyanide pills. Suicide is for the weak," he said flatly, as he snapped the capsule in his palm and poured out the poison inside. "Looks like sugar, don't you think? It probably doesn't taste quite as sweet though. You may want to hold your nose."
"You're filth," she rasped at him. "You're filth, your mother was a whore, and your father was the biggest disgrace ever to be born into the clan! You'll rot in hell alone for how you've dragged our great name through the mud!"
"Be quiet now," he said, moving to stand behind her as his palm covered her mouth. Her lips remained firmly shut, refusing to submit to the poison pressed against them, but she wouldn't be able to resist for long. Not when Kakashi pinched her nose shut and her body began to silently thrash. She could suffocate or she could open her mouth; it was her choice now. Her entire frame quiver in his arms.
After a few seconds her mouth tore open with a great gasp. Kakashi pulled his hand away and stepped back to watch her pant eagerly for air, even as her eyes started to roll around madly in her head. "Y… you're nothing but…a…"
She shuddered and twitched as her brain began to shut down. Kakashi watched dispassionately, waiting to feel something as her body went through the death roes he'd seen so many times in his life. He expected something like guilt. A little regret. Perhaps a little heartache.
All he felt was relief.
"I'm sorry," he told her emptily as he reached down to loose her ties.
By the time Ibiki pulled open the heavy lock and walked in, Sable was slumped forward in her chair, the broken locket in her hand. He frowned at Kakashi who was once again standing at the wall. "What happened?" he demanded, coming forward to press his hand against her neck for a pulse, but that had stopped minutes ago.
"She had a pill in her locket. I couldn't stop her," Kakashi said with a shrug.
Ibiki gave him a thunderous glare. "She was a syndicate spy and you let her die?! This was the only lead we had!"
"It was never going to be that easy anyway," Kakashi murmured. "Maybe the autopsy will turn up something?"
"I doubt it," Ibiki said as he stood. "These people are meticulous."
Kakashi pushed away from the wall and walked towards the door. "Then we're back where we started," he said simply.
"Kakashi," Ibiki interrupted, making him pause in the doorway. "Tsunade wants to see you."
"She's ok then?" he asked dimly.
"You ever doubted it?"
Kakashi smiled softly and shook his head. "I'm just relieved."
"Who is he?" Kaoru pressed closer to the gap in the screens, trying to get a better look at the dining room below. They were one floor up, at the perfect vantage point to look down at the people gathered around the table below, and at one newcomer in particular. Sakura didn't feel entirely comfortable spying from here. This was a room full of ninja… and while their confab around the table wasn't supposed to be in secrecy, they might not appreciate being spied on from the upper galleries. Sakura was sure Karasu had glanced their way at least once.
Yet they probably weren't the only servants peeking through the walls. There was a little excitement buzzing around the house right now.
It was odd how even this far out, the name Uchiha still held deep respect and meaning to many people.
Well… apart from Kaoru, that is.
"What is he, a monk?" the girl in question demanded quietly. "What kind of freaky monk carries a sword anyway?"
"He's not a monk, Kaoru," Aki whispered back. "He's obviously in disguise. He's a wanted criminal, you know."
"So's Karasu, but you don't see him dressing up as a priestess."
"I don't know, maybe he likes to dress up?" Aki guessed. "Everyone says he's a bit mad anyway."
"Yes, but who is he?" Kaoru hissed again.
"Don't tell me you've never heard of the Uchiha," Aki sighed.
"What's the Uchiha?"
"Sakura, you tell her."
Sakura balked. "Why me?"
"You're from the fire country, you probably know more than I do anyway," Aki said.
She probably knew a little too much at that. Sakura swallowed and glanced down at the top of Sasuke's head, watching him calmly sipping a glass of water while Karasu spoke to him in a voice too low for her to make out. "Well," she began, attempting to generalise her knowledge, "the Uchiha was a famous ninja clan a long time ago. They had special abilities that put them above everyone else, you see, and they were one of the founding clans of Konoha."
"Doesn't that make him the enemy of the Hatake clan?" Kaoru pointed out.
"There was a power struggle between the founding clans," Sakura said quietly. "The ruling class marginalized the Uchiha clan, and when there was an uprising, they decided to have them all slaughtered. Young and old, male and female; they were all murdered in one night. Only one of them remains alive to this day and he's sitting down there."
"Konoha would pay a lot of money to get him back," Aki said. "Probably so they can snuff out the last one."
Sakura bit her tongue. She wanted to say it wasn't like that, that he was sought after because he was loved. Her heart ached to correct the other girl, but once again she was reminded of just how others saw Konoha. She'd always thought it was a wonderful village of kindness and freedom and had never been able to understand how others couldn't see that. Then she was told of genocides and conspiracies… and she could begin to see why Sasuke had done the things he'd done.
But unlike him, she couldn't abandon the village. If there was something sick and corrupting within Konoha, it wouldn't be changed by running away. What had Naruto said? Konoha's next era would belong to him, and when that time came, a whole new way of the ninja would dawn and he'd be leading it. Sakura would be part of that, even if Sasuke wouldn't.
…even if she would have to explain to Naruto that Kakashi wouldn't either.
"He's got weird eyes," Kaoru remarked distrustfully.
Sakura sat back on her heels, no longer able to watch. "He's blind," she sighed.
Kaoru stared at her. "You're kidding! But he just beat up six men on his way in!" Then she gasped. "Oh, I see! Blind swordsmen are always elite fighters whose other senses become supernaturally sharp!" she looked down at the dining room again. "Or maybe not. He just tried to take a bite out of his drink coaster."
"He's cute though, don't you think?" Aki whispered.
"Scary. I wouldn't want to bump into him in a dark alley," Kaoru admitted.
Sasuke's face could be a little severe sometimes…
"Yeah, we all know who you want to fumble into in a dark alley," Aki said drolly.
"I don't," Sakura chirped. "Who? I've not heard about this."
"Oh – they're ringing the bell!" Kaoru gasped, surging back onto her feet one of the most obviously exuberant attempts to change the subject Sakura had ever seen. "One of us has to go down and see what they want."
"Go on then," Aki nudged her.
"No way! I can't face that many terrifying people in one room – you go!" Kaoru hissed back.
Instead Aki began looking around. "Where's Yui? She's brave."
"She won't show her face since her lip was split…" Both girls glanced at Sakura but quickly looked away. The fact that Yui and Sakura had finally had a blazing row in the undercroft was all over the household, as was the news that Yui had stated her outright support for any assassination attempts made against Sakura. Also, in the way of all news spread by word of mouth, this had somewhere along the line become the rumour that Yui planned to kill to Sakura herself.
And frankly, Sakura wouldn't put it past the girl. But it seemed that for now, at least, Aki had managed to warn Yui away for a while by informing her that one Hatake Kakashi had a vested interest in Sakura's safety. It wasn't something Sakura wanted to get out, but if it could scare Yui off, she supposed there was some merit in having a heartless villain whose name alone inspired fear as the father of one's child.
However, bad as Kakashi was, she didn't think he had anything on the young man sitting at the table in the room below.
"I'll go," Sakura volunteered with a sigh.
As she was on a mission, it was still her implicit duty to get as close to the Syndicate and their contacts – especially if one of those contacts was already an infamous missing-nin. As she hurriedly descended the stairs, she knew she was going to have to count on Sasuke's blindness in order to remain undetected. Back when she'd last met him by the river he hadn't been able to recognise her until she'd spoken, and that at least was something she wouldn't have to worry about. Maids, after all, were only supposed to be seen, never heard.
With quiet reverence she slipped into the dining chamber and kowtowed deeply to the table of 'honoured' guests. There was not a Zuru among them, she noticed, and she wondered how long it would be until they gave up all pretence and officially made Karasu the head of the estate. He was certainly acting King of the Castle, sat at the head of the table like that while surrounded by all his little subjects.
Sakura waited for her orders.
"Our friend here is weary from his travel and would like to retire," Karasu told her. "Please escort him to one of the guestrooms… miss."
The long pause before the generalised 'miss' reassured her. If he couldn't remember her name, she clearly hadn't managed to stick out much in his mind even after all that had happened. His request, on the other hand, left a little to be desired. She'd expected to be sent for another bottle of wine… not to escort Sasuke all the way to the guest wing on her own.
Sakura tried to force a little flem into her throat. "This way, sir," she said to Sasuke's back, forcing a slightly hoarser version of her own voice, as if she had a cold. She didn't want Sasuke to recognise her, but she didn't want to fake a voice so obviously that Karasu would notice either.
It seemed to work. Karasu went back to his drink as both Sakura and Sasuke stood… although when Sasuke held out his hand, Sakura froze, stymied. She stared at it, wondering what on earth he wanted.
"I can navigate from the grass village to the rain village by the feel of the sun on my face, but small corridors are more difficult," he said. "Lend me your shoulder."
Oh, dear. Without realising, she glanced at Karasu as if asking him what to do, but he only took one look at her expression and laughed. "Blindness isn't contagious. Give him your shoulder."
It wasn't the possibility of contracting near-sightedness from him that caused her concern. In actuality, it was the fact that last time she'd met him, she'd left with a concussion. As she reached out to take his hand and guide it to her shoulder, she was perfectly aware that there was a tremor she couldn't hide. He probably felt it, but he gave no outward sign of any interest. She supposed when you happened to be Uchiha Sasuke, you were used to girls trembling around you for one reason or another. Hopefully he wouldn't be able to recognise her from the shape of her shoulder alone, and so Sakura felt somewhat confident that she could guide him to his room without complete disaster.
Leading him out from under Karasu's nose without discovery proved to be the least nerve-wracking stage. It was as they walked silently through the empty corridors that Sakura felt the most on edge. Sasuke's hand seemed to weigh half a ton on her shoulder, and it burned away at her through the fabric of her yukata as if it was a branding iron. He said nothing to her as they walked, and in turn Sakura kept her lips firmly sealed.
She supposed it was up to her to select a room for him. There were still a few spare rooms in the guest wing that weren't occupied by members of the Hatake clan, but Sakura knew automatically that he wouldn't appreciate this. It could get quite noisy down there in the evening, and Sasuke had always been one who hated unnecessary noise, so instead Sakura lead him up the stairs to one of the overflow guest rooms. They were smaller, but he was blind vagabond, so what did he care?
She made sure to pick one of the rooms she knew had been cleaned and dusted recently and paused to push open the door for him. "Here you are, sir," she said, perhaps laying on a thicker, deeper rain country accent than she had back in the dining room.
To her enormous relief, his hand finally slid off her shoulder as he stepped into the room and paused a moment as if examining its worth. Sakura waited for him to dismiss her, unconsciously sucking on the tips of her hair as she watched his back.
"Where's the tea?" he asked her.
"Over there." Sakura pointed.
The look he shot in her direction may very well have killed her if it had landed. It took her a moment to realise why he was glaring like that, until she remembered blind men couldn't see pointed fingers all that well. "Oh, sorry," she mumbled. "I-I'll get it for you."
Carefully giving him a wide berth, she slipped around Sasuke to hurry over to the selection of low cupboards against the far wall where each room's tea set was always stored. She loaded everything he needed onto a tray and turned to lay it down on the sitting table beneath the window. A polite maid worth her wages would have stayed and done more than just plug the kettle in, but Sakura seriously wanted out. "Is there anything else you need, sir?" she said in a quite discouraging tone as she turned back to where he stood before the door.
"No. You may go," he said indifferently.
Aki was right; he was rather easy on the eyes. But then Kaoru was right as well; this wasn't a person you wanted to be caught alone with.
"Thank you, sir." She didn't bother to bow, he wouldn't see it anyway – she just fixed her sights on the gap between him and the door and made a beeline to freedom.
The moment she passed him his hand snagged hers with remarkable accuracy, jerking her to a halt. Sakura didn't dare move. While his fingers rubbed along her palms, Sakura felt herself beginning to break out in a cold sweat.
"You have extraordinarily rough hands for a girl," he said, continuing to squeeze her fingers. "I noticed that when you first touched my hand."
Was he referring to when she'd picked up his hand back in the dining room? Or when she'd grabbed it by the river a few months ago?
"And you're still using the same shampoo, Sakura."
That tore it. Sakura surged towards the door, intending to make a clean getaway. Sasuke's grip only tightened, and with a swift tug she was pulled back into the room and all but thrown against the wall. The impact knocked the air from her lungs. For a moment all Sakura could do was gasp and hold onto a shelf for dear life as Sasuke calmly pushed the door shut and locked it.
Had he ever really needed escorting to his room? Perhaps from the very moment she'd walked into the dining room he'd recognised her? She hadn't realised her shampoo was that distinctive…
"I won't ask what you're doing here," he said, pulling off his hat to let it drop on the floor before reaching to slowly unsheathe his sword. "The answer to that's pretty obvious, and I'm certainly not conceited enough to think it has anything to do with me."
Her lungs were finally beginning to expand with air again, though she remained panting against the wall. She needed an escape. She needed a weapon. Discreetly her hand began reaching into her sleeve where she'd hidden the tourne knife in the lining of her dress. If she could just get it in her hand, she might stand a chance of taking him by surprise.
"Keep your hands out," Sasuke said suddenly, grabbing the hand that was reaching into her sleeve to shove it hard against the wall.
Sakura groped around desperately with her free hand. She didn't look at whatever it was her fingers landed on, but instinctively she picked it up and smacked it as hard as she could over Sasuke's head. The knife he'd sensed; it was the heavy tome of "Things to See Before You Die" that caught him by surprise.
As the book clattered to the ground, Sasuke's grip on her arm loosened just a fraction. That was all Sakura needed. She tore herself away from the wall and dove once more for the door, her fingers scrambling desperately for the lock. Precious seconds seemed to pass ever so slowly until the door clicked open…
And that was when Sasuke's sword appeared under her chin.
She heard him sigh behind her. "Don't move."
She didn't. He'd only cut her head off whichever way she tried to run now.
"Close the door and lock it. Or do you want the people here to see you like this?"
Sakura did as she was told, and snapped the lock in place again a little harder and angrier than necessary. There was no getting out of this one, that was obvious enough. When someone had a blade to your throat, you did as they said, and when he directed her to set down beside the table, she did so, and sat stiff and bolt upright while he took a seat opposite her and laid the sword down upon the table. It was a taunt. She could grab for it and hope for the best, but she knew from experience that his speed was insane. He could grab the sword and slice her to ribbons the second she so much as twitched her finger.
"You're definitely more gutsy than you used to be," he said, his hands feeling patiently over the tea set to learn cup from kettle. "Still pretty dumb though."
Sakura ground her teeth and glared at her lap. She wouldn't rise to the insult.
"I suppose you're here to infiltrate the Syndicate," he went on. "Which means you know now."
"Know what?" she asked in a low voice.
"You know the truth about the Syndicate's identity." His hands moved dextrously over the teapot as he spoke. "Now you also know why your mission around Jonan failed," he told her. "I did try to warn you, to spare your feelings. I told you that you didn't know who you were up against. Your mission had no chance of succeeding when you were up against your own partner without even realising. Where is he, anyway? I assume you've reported back to Konoha about his real identity by now."
Sakura said nothing. She didn't want to admit that Kakashi was free and she was essentially trapped here against her will. That would be pretty embarrassing.
At her silence, he just shrugged. "That's alright. I don't expect you to tell me anything. I did come here to sell information anyway."
"What information could you possibly sell to the Syndicate?" she asked incredulously. "You left the village seven years ago as a genin; any info you have is seriously outdated and low-ranking."
"You know that," he said. "They don't."
"If you cheat these guys, they'll come after you," she warned.
"Do you think that concerns me?" he asked. "And why would you be worried for me anyway? You tried to kill me."
"It was you who tried to kill me! I did nothing for the sort!" she hissed passionately. "We had a... misunderstanding, that's all."
"You should thank Kakashi for being there. Or maybe I should?" he said softly as he poured the tea. "Did you know what he did?"
"Yes," she said stonily.
"And did he tell you why he did it?"
Sakura frowned deeply at him. Back then, Sasuke had known so much more than her about Kakashi's true nature despite not having seen him in four years. It galled Sakura to think back on it, but she was much wiser these days. "I can pretty much guess why he did it, thanks."
"Our teacher is a more selfish man than we ever realised, Sakura," he went on. "You have to appreciate that kind of ruthlessness. But I knew the truth then, and I expected it from him... but from you? I won't say something uncool like 'I trusted you', because I didn't. I just didn't think you had it in you, so I let my guard down. It's a mistake I won't be making again."
She shook her head. "I can't do anything to you here," she sighed. "If you decided to kill me, you could do it easily."
"Don't say that," he chided. "It might actually make me feel bad about killing you."
A horrible shudder ran through Sakura's body as she clenched her eyes shut. "You can't kill me," she told him firmly.
"Didn't you just say I could?" he pointed out. "Very easily at that."
Sakura glared at him testily. "Alright. You could kill me. But I think you really shouldn't."
"Why would that be?" he inquired politely.
She had to pick her words very carefully and say them just right. It would be very easy for him to just think she was lying… as even in her head she knew it sounded like a bad joke. "Because I'm pregnant," she told him quietly.
A tiny little cross appeared between his eyebrows in his otherwise flawlessly smooth face. "You're lying," he said.
"Are you sure? You said you could tell when I'm lying."
"Since when…?" That tiny little frown deepened. His hand suddenly flew out to bump against her chest – making her squeak and push at his groping fingers – before brushing down over the not-so-flat span of her belly. The undeniable proof of her claim was there before him. "Who's the-?"
"That's none of your business," she said shortly. "I'm just telling you all you need to know. I'm stuck in this place with a brat on the way, I have some stupid mother-foetus incompatibility syndrome so my chakra has been totally neutralised, and so if you're going to threaten to kill me, you should know you're threatening two."
"It's Naruto, isn't it?" Ignoring the whole part where it was none of his business. "You really did it with him."
"Even if I had, I wouldn't tell you!" she snapped.
"What could you possiby see in a moron like that?" Sasuke looked outright repulsed.
That comment was too rich for Sakura to let lie. "For a start, he's never tried to kill me!"
"So you admit you slept with him?"
"No - I'm admitting I'll never sleep with you!"
"We're off the subject," he dodged swiftly, picking up his tea cup to take an enormous swig. As he put it down he frowned again. "The tea's very milky in this place."
"That's because you just drank the milk," she pointed out, slightly horrified.
"Listen, the point is," he carried on as if he hadn't heard her, "that you need to leave this house. This is no place for you in that condition."
Sakura folded her arms. "I can't leave here," she said stubbornly. "I told you, I'm stuck. As long as I have no chakra, I can't hold my own against the people who would try to stop me, and thanks to this baby, I'll probably be killed if I attempt to leave." And that was saying nothing about how Kakashi had assigned his own summons to keep her exactly where she was. She wouldn't be surprised if Pakkun was nearby at this very moment, listening in on this conversation.
"Why would you be killed if you leave?" he asked. "Have you been discovered as a spy?"
"No. But as long as they believe the one who impregnated me is the heir of the estate, I'm going nowhere," she said.
"The heir?" he repeated. His face smoothed out again. "I'm surprised they haven't tried to kill you."
"There's already been an attempt on my life," she said. "Perhaps the only reason there hasn't been another is because everyone would know. They're going to wait until the child is born, and depending on its gender, they might try to kill it. Or me. Or both."
"All the more reason to get out of here," he pointed out.
"Are you worried for me?" She almost smirked at him. "Even after I tried to kill you?"
"I'm just pointing out the obvious course of action for you," he said, shrugging.
She watched him closely as he located his actual cup of tea and drank it carefully. He could try to hide it, but he was concerned for her, even if it was only a little bit. The news of her pregnancy had shocked him, she could see that, and Uchiha Sasuke wasn't as heartless as he wished he was. His soft spots were few and far between, but evidently one was babies.
"I could get out of here if you helped me," she suggested, not at all casually. "You'd only have to help me as far as Amegakure. From there I'd be able to contact Konoha and get out of this mess."
He caught on quickly. "You can't contact them from here?"
"No…" she said slowly, realising she was digging herself a hole.
"Sakura, do they even know the Syndicate is here? Do they even know who the Syndicate is?"
She scratched the back of her neck uncomfortably. "It's not my fault – I tried to contact them but he intercepted-"
"Who?"
She shouldn't tell him. She shouldn't tell him. But he was her only ticket out of here… "Kakashi-sensei. He found out I was here and took away my only means of communication and left me," she said, and then added for dramatic effect, "to die."
"He obviously didn't. If he left you here to die, he would have told his clan exactly who you are, and if that was the case you'd be dead by now."
"Are you going to help me out of here or not?" she demanded. "The longer I stay here, the more danger I'm in. Kakashi's bastard 'cousin' will kill me the second I slip up, the Zuru family will kill me the second I give birth to the wrong gender, and there's this psychotic crazy girl called Yui who plans to piss on my grave – so seriously – I'm begging you – I need to get out of here."
Sasuke set down his tea cup and gazed off towards the window. She wondered if he could at least still see the semblance of light, however bad his eyesight was. "If I do that, you'll report back to Konoha. The Syndicate will be dealt a terrible blow and Kakashi may well be executed."
The Syndicate's destruction was something she was perfectly fine with. She told herself heartlessly she would be glad if Kakashi went down with them… but she couldn't lie to herself. Even if he had betrayed her and the village, and all but ripped her metaphorical heart from her metaphorical chest, it couldn't erase eight years of fond memories. She could no more wish harm on him than she could on Naruto.
However, if it came down to a matter of her life or his, she knew she would have to be selfish. At least now that her life counted for two these days. "I'm aware of what will happen," she said stiffly.
"And you're also aware that I have no intention of helping Konoha," he returned. He lifted the sword from the table and quietly sheathed it once more.
Sakura just gaped at him. "You'd risk my life just to stick it to Konoha?!" she cried.
"Yes," he said simply, once more calmly sipping his tea. "But your chances of survival aren't that abysmal. If the Syndicate don't find out you're a spy, you won't be harmed by them. If the baby is female, the Zuru family stand to lose nothing and have no reason to harm you either. So optimistically, you have a fifty percent chance of getting out of here alive by yourself. Maybe twenty-five, given your bad acting skills."
Sakura wondered whether she should tip the whole pot over his head. "You bastard…"
"We're enemies, Sakura. Don't ever forget that," he told her. "I may have idle concern for your condition, and even some sympathy on a personal level. However, if the Syndicate can destroy Konoha, I will gladly assist them-"
"By selling false information-"
"At the very least I won't stand in their way," he corrected himself. "You and I are on different sides in this war. I won't expose you to Hatake Karasu and the others, but my cooperation with you ends there. From what you say, your life is not in any immediate danger, so I have no reason to help you."
Sakura stood up sharply. "Bastard," she hissed.
He shrugged. "You can go now."
Gladly. Sakura whirled in place and slammed the door in her wake as she stormed from the room. But as she marched blindly through the corridors with no particular destination in mind, she wondered why she was so angry. She couldn't have hoped for help off this particular person. She should have been grateful he was willing to leave her alive.
A faint skitter of claws on floorboards in the corridor behind her almost made her stop. Pakkun was nearby, just as she'd suspected. But at the end of the day, he was just a dog, and she would find a way out of here with or without Sasuke's help.
"… and that's how I became ANBU captain."
"But… if you lost your arm, what is that?" the woman asked, pointing to Tenzou's left arm that was leaning on the table between them.
"Oh, that? It grew back."
Whether the woman believed him or not didn't matter. Her face turned white either way and her eyes started inching towards the entrance of the bar. "I… I think I'll just go visit the ladies' room," she said weakly.
"I'll go get us another drink," Tenzou declared happily, heading back towards the bar to refill their order. But of course, by the time he returned to the table, his date had yet to return from the restroom, though sitting in her seat was Konoha's resident White-Haired Deadbeat, as Tenzou had recently decided to dub him.
"Go away, I'm working here," Tenzou tried to make shooing gestures at him.
"Red hair, black dress?" Kakashi guessed.
"Yes…"
"I think I saw her climbing out the window." Kakashi picked up the cocktail glass Tenzou had brought over and took a dainty sip. "You weren't doing 'wood' puns again, were you?"
"I don't know where you get off trying to criticising my seduction techniques given your record as a drunken fiend who knocks up poor innocent virgins and then goes chasing other women with flowers when her back's turned. Some guy you are, sempai," Tenzou began gulping down his beer. "No. Not sempai. You're dead to me now."
"Don't fall out with me, Tenzou," Kakashi said, plucking at his friend's ear.
"Someone has to," the younger man grumbled. "Everyone around here thinks you're wonderful and perfect and such a gentlemen. Only I know the truth. Tenzou alone knows the real darkness hiding inside Hatake Kakashi's heart."
Kakashi sighed. "Exactly why I need you of all people to still be my friend," he said. "When everything comes out, I'll be lucky to have a single friend standing beside me. I'll be lucky if I'm not forced to commit seppuku ."
"Can I be your second?" Tenzou asked without missing a beat.
"You'd just love cutting my head off, wouldn't you?"
"Just out of curiosity to confirm my suspicion that you are completely hollow inside." Tenzou propped his chin on his fist. "You're exaggerating anyway. No one's going to make you kill yourself over a girl."
"Was that what we were talking about?" Kakashi wondered distantly.
"Unless there's some other shame you're hiding in the closet?" Tenzou set down his beer with a thump. "There better not be, because the only thing you should be worrying about right now is that poor girl! Why are you even here anyway? Haven't you got sympathetic leave yet?"
"This afternoon, yes."
"And you haven't left yet? If you were a real man you'd be halfway to wherever Sakura is right this minute in order to provide your care and support and your hand in marriage," Tenzou lectured. "Asshole."
Kakashi ignored that last word. "I can't go anywhere," he moaned, putting his face in his hands again. "The hokage wants me to stay and investigate the assassination attempt made on her today."
"Oh, hey. What?" Tenzou blinked. "Assassination attempt?"
"It's being kept quiet... we don't want enemies knowing they almost succeeded. She's fine now. However, Sable is dead and her secrets probably died with her, but I'm apparently the only person the Hokage 'trusts' enough to perform an adequate investigation at Sable's apartment and her workplace." Kakashi's head got closer to the table. "Can you imagine that? She trusts me more than any other person in this village right now. What kind of sick joke is this to play on a man?"
Tenzou gazed around the dark, crowded bar as he thought hard. "Sable… Sable… the one who worked at the administration office? She was an assassin?"
"Did you know her?" Kakashi asked curiously.
"No," the ANBU captain replied honestly. "But she was sort of hot. How come you can't shift the investigation though? Isn't Sakura more important?"
"Yes… but this is important too." Kakashi dragged his finger around the lip of his cocktail glass and stuck the sugary digit in his mouth. "I need to oversee Sable's case myself. Sakura may have to wait a while longer… but it's not like she's dying to see me again any time soon anyway."
"That's for sure," Tenzou grunted. "After what you did to her."
"You have no idea what I did to her." Kakashi grunted back, taking another sip of his drink. "What is this anyway?"
Tenzou glanced at the tall glass his sempai was drinking from and said, "It's a Pink Pussy."
Kakashi rather quickly put it down and leant over sideways to spit out the mouthful on the floor. The woman unfortunate enough to be standing there gasped and stumbled away to glare him from a safer distance. Ignoring her, Kakashi turned back to Tenzou. "That's disgusting and offensive to women."
"You're disgusting and offensive to women."
"What happened to the cute, sensible names…? Like Peach-tini, or Summer Fruits, or Plum Cordials and Cherry… Cherry Blossom… blossoms."
Kakashi was staring rather glumly at the table, and for once Tenzou began to wonder if he was being a little hard on his sempai. The man was inflicted with an eternally passionless face and an even less emotive voice, but it would be a mistake to think he didn't care. He kept his feelings close to his chest at the best of times, and if Tenzou could already see through the cracks in his uncaring façade, he knew it was bad.
The beer bottle shuddered as he pushed it towards Kakashi. "It's ok. You can have mine, sempai."
Kakashi looked at it. "It's got your spit on it."
With wonderful patience, even for Tenzou, he restrained himself from smashing the bottle over Kakashi's head. "Cheer up. There's plenty of time before the baby's born, I'm sure you'll manage to patch it up with her before then."
"I told you, we don't have that kind of relationship."
"Then why the hell did you sleep with her?" Tenzou blurted out. "You must care for her at least a little."
"The circumstances leading up to that moment were… mitigating." Kakashi said thickly, picking the Pink Pussy up again to take another drink anyway.
"Explain it to me then."
"You wouldn't understand."
"It's not like we're going anywhere. We're going to drink until we can't read the drinks menu anymore and then we're going to go back to your place and fall asleep in another embarrassing position on your bed and wake up tomorrow with a hangover and maybe even a curiously sore ass, so we have time."
Kakashi shook his head and made an effort to down the rest of the drink in one go, apparently forgetting his previous aversion to its name. "Let's not lament over past regrets. When something goes wrong, you shouldn't ask how it happened but instead how you can fix it."
"Asking how it happened is usually the only way to fix anything…" Tenzou muttered.
"You're drunk, sir," Kakashi said dismissively, rising to his feet. "And I'm going home alone. Don't stay up too late, Tenzou."
"Goodnight, sempai."
Kakashi weaved and bumped his way out of the bar and set off on his way home. That pink drink was remarkably strong stuff, although it was always possible his kohai had spiked it to punish him. As he let himself into his apartment he kicked on his electric heater and went almost immediately to his desk drawers in search of cigarettes. He'd had at least two packets here, he was sure of it. Where on earth had they gone?
Rubbing a hand through his hair in frustration, Kakashi sat down on his desk chair and let his head drop into his arms.
A rough day; he could say that much at least. It wasn't every day you killed one of your own family members to assure their silence, and he wondered if it had been worth it. He would be discovered one day… that was for sure, although whether it would be by someone else's error or the discovery of the trail of bodies he was beginning to leave was still an unknown. If he hadn't had someone to protect over there, he might have been able to leave her alive and let her say whatever the hell she wanted.
But how on earth did you go about protecting all those you cared for when they insisted on declaring international war with each other? Was it too much to ask for a cigarette? Why of all times did the universe choose to deprive him now?
Beside him the heater continued to rotate slowly in small arcs, squeaking softly every time it bumped the edge of the desk. The sound annoyed him. It reminded him of another time he'd rather forget, and with another well aimed kick he knocked it over and heard it click as it switched itself off automatically. The room turned a fraction colder and darker. But he'd rather put up with cold November evenings than remember the hot summer ones of a few months ago. Too hot. The heat still burned him.
As Kakashi moved his arm across the desk, he heard something skitter against his sleeve. Lifting his head, he realised it was just a folded piece of paper on his otherwise empty worktop. He frowned at it. Was that still here?
The lamp beside him flickered to life as he opened the note and began to read it all over again.
Kakashi-sensei,
I'm in a bit of trouble right now, and I need your help. I have to leave on a mission today so I suppose I won't be able to see you for a while, but I need you to contact me as I have something very urgent to tell you. I know Pakkun can contact my summon Dokko, and he'll be able to give you a time and a frequency. I only have a long-range radio, I'm afraid. I wish I could speak to you face to face, but under the circumstances that won't be possible, and perhaps it's better this way anyhow.
Please contact me as soon as you can. You're the only one I trust to speak to.
Much love, Sakura.
There was that dreadful sentiment again. You're the only one I trust.
Kakashi slipped the note in with the other letters in his drawer and quietly reached out to turn off the lamp again.
One night's madness was finally beginning to snowball. One small act had been a tiny stone bouncing against the window of a glass house, and now the cracks kept spreading wider and wider and it was only a matter of time before a million murderous shards began raining down on his head. On Konoha's head. On his own family's heads.
But he wouldn't let it touch Sakura. Even if it killed him, he would protect her. Not just because she was pregnant and it was his fault and she was now mixing with dangerous people… but because it had meant something. He wasn't just 'a guy' as he'd told on the rainy walkway outside his apartment and Tenzou was often more perceptive than even he realised. He couldn't sleep with a girl he didn't care about.
So far he'd tried not to think about what had taken place on that mission, not when it marked the end of a relationship he'd valued and now feared he'd never get back. He'd almost felt until now that he just didn't have the right to remember. But now in the darkness of his apartment he could think of nothing else.
Next Chapter: One Night in July