For the one I love 25.
I looked at Kakashi-sensei. He had that impassive, aloof look on his face again. His eye was half lidded.
I simply stared incredulously. He had such control of his emotions, it was almost unbelievable.
"Answer me, dammit. Where did you two disappear to?" she growled, getting more and more irritated as the seconds ticked by.
The side of Kakashi-sensei's mask very subtly lifted, and I immediately knew he was smirking.
"Around," he said, nonchalantly, his tone not betraying the mocking smirk under his mask.
Shihsou eyed him with a mixture of annoyance, curiosity and amazement at his subtle rudeness. He could get away with it. He was kage-level after all.
"Just get back to your posts." She growled, knowing full well she was never gonna get any explanation from any of us.
We returned to our respective posts, and we found a very...interesting, for lack of a better word, scene in front of us.
Katsuyu-sama was in between Manda and Gamabunta, who were eyeballing each other extremely suspiciously. She was exuding a very slight, yet very sinisterly dangerous aura. Manda was stiff, judging by how straight the tip of his tail was. He also raised his mouth into what would be equivalent to a snarl, as he very intently and suspiciously eyed Gamabunta. The toad king, on the other hand, had one hand fisted very tightly on his sword on his back, the other hand on his pipe, and he was inhaling furiously. He was also in a stance that showed he was ready to pounce at any moment, keeping an equally suspicious and intent eye contact with Manda.
Around both giant summons were haphazardly burned areas, and they did not look like they were inflicted by a jutsu. In fact they had a strong pungent smell around them, and despite the fact that they weren't exactly fresh, they were still smoking.
Acid.
That explained Katsuyu-sama's aura. Naruto and Sasuke-kun were seated on their respective summons' heads, with smirks on their faces.
I raised an eyebrow. "What's going on?"
"These two idiots here," Katsuyu-sama began, the soft spoken voice in her tone gone, "were intending on starting a fight."
She was all out growling now. She sounded worse than Shihsou when she was pissed.
"He started it." Manda all but hissed, literally.
"Hell no, reptile. You started it." Gamabunta hissed back.
"Shut up, both of you." Katsuyu-sama barked sharply. "For goodness sake you're both kage-level summons. We are supposed to be protecting Konohagakure, not fighting like overgrown idiot children. Act like your apparent ages and wisdom." She said, slowly moving away.
"And if I hear as much as a sound from either of you, I am going to see to it that you get ANBU tattoos as well, from acid, regardless of who started anything." She looked at them, her ki getting more and more sinister.
Gamabunta very visibly shuddered and Manda looked extremely appalled. It was a hilarious sight. I smirked.
"I hope I'm clear on that." Katsuyu-sama snarled as she left.
She suddenly stopped, making both the toad and snake summons nearly take off.
"I will be at our normal position, Sakura," she said, back to her soft-spoken voice. "Please come whenever you're ready so that we may continue our watch."
She promptly left, everyone gaping at her. It was amazing how she could suddenly change moods. Not that I was one to talk, but I wasn't the point of discussion in this matter. The glare I gave my teammates was enough to get their raised eyebrows down.
"You know," Gamabunta said in a low voice, puffing on his pipe, "I think she's even worse than Tsunade, yet Tsunade has that inhuman strength."
Manda nodded vigorously, forgetting Sasuke-kun was on his head, therefore making him use chakra to attempt to stay on said head.
"She is worse than Tsunade," Manda added, also in a low tone. "As much as Tsunade can beat us up to a pulp, she can burn us up, and her acid will not be good for my skin at all." He continued, shuddering.
Kakashi-sensei looked up at the giant toad and giant snake, extremely amused at their antics. He suddenly hopped onto Manda's head, propping himself next to Sasuke, who was brooding at how Manda was nodding his head earlier.
I just shook my head, smiling slightly despite myself and went to find Katsuyu-sama. I found her and and hopped till I got to the top of her head.
"Those two," she huffed in irritation. "I just do not comprehend how they can just be so childish."
I laughed softly. "That's exactly how my teammates are. They only stop when I threaten to pummel them into the depths of hell." I replied.
"Have they always been like this?" I asked her, curious.
"Always. Even during the wars, they'd stop fighting the enemy to bicker." I laughed again, this time much louder than before.
"Perhaps it's a male thing?" I said, slowly, amused.
She sighed. "It probably is." She recollected herself again, before asking "So, Sakura, where did you and Kakashi-san go last night?"
I could hear the mischievous amusement in her voice.
I sighed inwardly. Nobody was gonna let this rest, obviously.
"We were at his house." I said slowly.
"I see. He's your mate, is he not?" she asked bluntly, in dark amusement.
My face went beet red. Who knew Katsuyu-sama had such a cheeky side to her? Must have been all those years in Shishou's company. As much people found it very hard to believe, Shihsou had a rather perverted side to her that rivalled Kakashi-sensei. (Not Jiraiya-sama. No one had a perversion that rivalled his.) She very rarely showed it, but you could almost see than overly-mischievous gleam in her amber eyes whenever she'd remember her war days when the late Sandaime would send her on seduction missions and the like.
Maybe that's where some of my perversion came from as well.
"Oh, Kami-sama," I groaned out aloud as I realised all my ninja life I'd been surrounded by either closet perverts (Shishou and Sasuke-kun) or all out obvious perverts (Kakashi-sensei, Naruto, Jiraiya-sama and Ino-pig).
Now Katsuyu-sama was on that list as well. I didn't even wanna think about Gamabunta and Manda.
Suddenly, I recognised a faint chakra signal. It was weak, but I knew it belonged to a rather powerful shinobi, but that rather powerful shinobi did not belong to the Leaf.
Katsuyu-sama under me tensed immediately.
"Behind us," I whipered urgently.
Immediately, quietly she turned. The chakra was already accumulating on my fists, ready to inflict damage on whatever pranks that were going to be pulled. This was war, and absolutely nothing was to be taken lightly.
I saw a black hood, then shuffling of leaves, before someone fell out of the trees, someone I could recognise only too well.
My eyes widened with a combination of shock and fear, as he rasped "help...us..." before finally blacking out.
Immediately, Katsuyu-sama made about four miniature forms of herself and barked sharply, "Go. Inform Tsunade-sama first, then act on her orders from then."
Her fifth miniature went and carried the shinobi and brought him to me. I was still in shock. "Heal him. I'll keep watch as we see what happens next."
I really must hand it to myself, I'm really getting amazing at cliffys. I can already see the glares you're all directing at me and some of you are even almost ripping your hair off your heads in frustration.
Well, I gats two words for ya, BITE ME! *cackling with the most malicious glee* Oooooooohhh, the power I hold over you guys...simply magnificent.
And thus, ladies and the occasional gentleman, you know what to do, ne?
Ja na. *disappearing in a pouf of smoke*.