House Calls

Chapter 25

"I'm grateful to you for arriving on such short notice. Please understand that you have my full cooperation even though it seems that I have tied your hands."

Sakura smiled. "We understand the reasons for the conditions you have placed upon us," she said. Their proximity, their low tones, and the volume of the musicians playing ensured no one would overhear them, although she doubted if anyone present was a security risk. "Besides, you've hardly tied our hands. People tend to have their guard up when they know they are being observed. We stand a better chance of being effective this way."

Harada nodded, but even then his gaze had wandered to somewhere over her shoulder. To Kakashi, she realized. "Your friend seems…?"

The loss for words was completely understandable.

"He's a little eccentric, but he's very, very good at what he does ," Sakura said. "Trust me." She offered him another smile, this one more reassuring before she swiftly changed the subject. "So, what do you know of this syndicate?"

"Not very much," he admitted and right then she knew that there was something else that was troubling him. "They have been running a protection racket. They threaten the businesses and families working on our island with 'consequences' if they are not paid. They are credible enough as a threat to frighten most of their chosen victims into silence and those who have seen them can't seem to properly describe them. We have hired mercenaries with hopes of driving them off, but as you must have heard they've been very effective in… ridding themselves of that hassle. I… I am afraid this is where we come to the crux of it."

"Which is?"

Harada took a breath as he glanced about at the couples close to them, making certain that they were to near as to overhear what he was going to say. "Two nights ago, my niece was taken."

Sakura really should have seen that coming. "By the syndicate?"

"Yes."

"How?"

"She was taken from an onsen at the hotel my family owns. A note was left in her place explaining the consequences of being uncooperative." His tone was even and calm. She could tell that he was distressed by the tension in his shoulder beneath her palm and the way he gripped her hand, but his step never faltered as he continued to lead her around the dance floor. This was a level of composure that even some ninja could only dream of achieving. "It stipulated that she will be returned to us for a certain price."

Sakura let this sink in as they turned a few more rotations, her feet moving in sync to his with the same unconscious anticipatory movements that aided her during a spar. "Are you able to pay this amount?"

"Easily."

"And you are willing to make the exchange?"

"Absolutely."

She glanced back at Kakashi and he perked, watching her now with a particular sort of intensity as if he could sense her unease. "It would be best if either I or my partner were the ones to perform the transaction," she said. "It could be our only opportunity to observe these men up close. We'll go from there."

Harada nodded. "Very well."

The song ended and Sakura stepped away from the man, politely bowing before turning away, moving toward the bar to rejoin Kakashi. To her surprise however, the man met her half-way across the floor and without a word exchanged between them she accepted the hand he offered her and laid her other upon his shoulder as his cupped the dip of her waist. They fell into step with the slow waltz and she made a mental note: Kakashi could dance. That was a thousand things at once... a thousand things she really, really shouldn't have been thinking about him.

"You should know," she began, her forehead just level with his collarbones, "That we are going to finish what we started before Harada-san interrupted us."

After a prolonged moment of contemplating this, she felt Kakashi nod. "Fine, but business first," he agreed. "Fill me in. What are we dealing with here?"

"Missing-nin, I think," she replied, laying her head against his shoulder. Funny. Even on this sort of mission he didn't wear any kind of cologne. Must have been a force of habit. "It explains the secrecy they manage to operate under, how they've managed to remove so many mercenaries without much trouble at all, and, according to Harada-san, no one can remember how to describe them even when they've met face-to-face."

"A genjutsu," Kakashi murmured, sounding intrigued. "Anything else?"

"Well, things are a little more complicated than we initially thought."

"Ah. Of course they are."

The island itself was beautiful, covered in the same lush greenery seen throughout Fire country. The streets were lined with resorts, shops, and casinos that ascended the slope of the island and even though the sun had long set, the streets and storefronts were all lit and packed with people. This was fortunate as it allowed them to simply disappear in the crowd.

Kakashi admired the view from the balcony of his room while calculating how far down of a drop that was, which was the nearest rooftop to escape to should the need arise, and so on while he sipped at a glass of rice wine. A bottle of the stuff and a gift basket of fresh fruit had been waiting on the sideboard in the kitchenette upon his arrival in the suite. He had no doubt that Sakura had found something similar in hers. The odds were good that this would top her "Best Missions Ever" list for a long time. It was certainly the nicest place he had stayed in recent memory.

He took a slow breath. Sakura. His first intentions had been to use this time with her to refocus on the fact that she was his friend, someone he saw as an equal, and a person he respected and admired. If he could just remind himself of his priorities, he could straighten this out and forget it.

Except that plan was backfiring in a really spectacular way.

Sakura was his highly intelligent, skilled, and revered friend, who he didn't need to babysit in a fight, who he could trust with everything, who he genuinely enjoyed being around because she made him really and truly happy in a way he hadn't been for some time. Or, possibly, ever.

Yeah, definitely backfiring.

Kakashi rubbed tiredly at his forehead. He wasn't sure how much longer this could keep up before he did something stupid, because try as he might to convince himself that he was delusional, Sakura was… well, there were "vibes".

The Copy-nin had been all over the world, had known women who threw themselves at the chance to have a shinobi for the night, and had been with a few of them as well. He knew what it felt like when a woman wanted him and Sakura was making more than a few signals. Whether she knew this or not was the real question. A kunoichi she might be, but a seductress? He had watched her stumble through seductions in the past in order to isolate individual targets and found it fortunate that their marks always thought she was just being demure.

He took another sip, willing the alcohol to burn that all away.

Several minutes passed before the soft shuffle of feet on the carpet inside and the quiet click of the door as it shut alerted him. He looked to the sliding door as he replaced his mask and a moment later, Sakura peeked out. "What are you doing out here?" she asked with a frown

He shrugged. "It's a nice view."

The woman hummed in agreement and moved to perch herself on the railing. She had changed, trading her cocktail dress for a white bathrobe while her hair had been taken down from its extravagant knot and was now pulled over one shoulder in a messy braid.

"I was just talking to Harada-san. Another note was left at the front desk about ten minutes ago."

Kakashi hummed. "They knew he was back then? So they have eyes on the dock."

"On the dock, but not the boat?"

"They wouldn't risk getting caught. There'd be no where for them to run out there on the water. What did the note say?"

"They set the time for the exchange," she replied, looking down at her lap and then reaching out to him.

Without questioning it, he handed her his glass. "Tonight?"

"Two hours." She took an experimental sip and then licked her lips appreciatively. "I should go alone, shouldn't I?"

Kakashi nodded. "We don't know anything about them except that they're careful. It's probably safe to assume they'll be watching," he replied. "Where is the exchange happening?"

"There's a park on the island's North side between the downtown and the residential areas."

"Secluded?"

"At that time of night? Yes."

He grimaced and held a hand out to take his glass back. "I won't be able to go with you," he said, "But I will be as close as I can be. If anything happens, I'll be there."

Sakura nodded. "Sounds good."

He glanced at her as he brought the drink to his lips again. She was staring thoughtfully down at the street below them, the lights reflecting in her eyes. He took a hesitant step closer and lowered himself to sit on the rail opposite of her. "I..." He hesitated, really not wanting to say it, because the words were all wrong. "There's testing before you enter ANBU. I can help you prep. Ibiki probably has a tutor in mind, but I... wouldn't mind." He shot her a quick look and just as quickly averted his eyes again as he shrugged. "Whatever you want."

She smiled, but it wasn't quite as sincere as he was used to. "Thanks," she replied. She pushed a lock of hair behind her ear and looked down at her hands, inspecting her manicure. "I suppose now wouldn't be the time to talk about that."

Kakashi shrugged. "There isn't anything to talk about."

"Except that you didn't really say what you wanted to say." The medic shot him a sideways look, her smile widening a little. "Kakashi, I tell you everything that's on my mind sometimes whether your want me to or not, especially where it concerns your business… feel free to return the favor."

"I meant it," he protested, squeezing an eye at her.

Sakura spared him that same bored look that Tsunade frequently employed when he started making excuses. "I didn't say you didn't mean it. I said it wasn't what you wanted to say." She looked back to the crowded streets below. "How are we going to approach the rest of this mission? The usual method of investigation won't work; we'd give our identities away."

He took a breath, glad that she had opted to change the subject to something he was infinitely more comfortable with—work. "We'll deal with the situation at hand first. After tonight we'll know what we're dealing with."

"All right, but let's say we manage to find one of these guys… then what?"

Kakashi looked upward thoughtfully. "Well, one of us should probably approach them and since I've never really taken to shaving my legs…"

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Where would we be if I didn't have breasts?"

This dragged a chuckle out of him and he returned the playfulness by lifting his glass toward her. "To breasts."

"Ugh, men."

Sakura dressed as inconspicuously as she could manage for the exchange, looking as civilian as possible in a plain, gray yukata and sensible sandals. The small knife tucked out of sight into a garter around her right thigh wasn't important. And the heavy travel bag of money hanging from her left shoulder could be ignored. Kind of.

Fine, she looked civilian-ish at best, but that was good enough.

The medic scanned the tree line on either side of the stone path carefully. It definitely wasn't a bad location for this. The possible escape routes were numerous and with so many places to hide, it was difficult to tell just how alone she was.

"Who are you?"

The voice didn't startle Sakura—she had heard the approach a second before—but she stiffened at the strong whiff of blood that reached her nose. Anxious, she bit at the inside of her cheek as she slowly lifted her hands into the air. "Sasaki Mai," she said as coolly as possible. "I'm a nurse."

"I don't care what you are. What the hell are you doing here?"

She took a breath and glanced heavenward for patience. A part of her couldn't help but wonder how much easier this would be if she could just knock him out cold and then threaten to throw him out a window if he didn't tell her everything. It was probably a part that would really enjoy ANBU, actually. "I'm on retainer for the Harada family," she began instead. "Given the emotional strain situations such as this place upon the people closest to them, I advised Harada-san that it would be better for an impartial party to come tonight. Being that I'm also a medical professional, my immediate presence will allow for a quicker assessment of Eri-san's possible injuries."

"My feelings are a little hurt that the old man didn't trust us." He chuckled at this, clearly anything but hurt. "Whatever. Turn around."

She did so, slowly so as to not startle, and, to her confusion, found herself facing a man maybe Kakashi's age. He was tallish and handsome if rather generically so with dark hair and rows of straight, white teeth that he bared at her in an overly pleased sort of smirk.

Sakura did not smile back. He was holding the slender, red-headed Harada Eri in front of him like a shield, one his arms around her waist and the other twirling a serrated butterfly knife deftly between his fingers. The front of her plain yukata was covered in blood as was the rag she held wrapped around her right hand. She looked perhaps a year or two younger than Sakura herself, an effect exaggerated by her tear-stained cheeks and the way she was anxiously chewing her lip.

"You have the payment then?" he asked.

The medic shifted her eyes to him again and then pointed down at the bag resting against her hip. "It's here," she said. "Eri-san, is your hand all right?"

"It won't kill her," the man cut in before Eri could reply. "It's just a small reminder to the old man. We don't like having to hurt pretty girls but sometimes you got to get a point across." He shrugged easily and then gestured with the knife. "You put the money down, I'll let go of the girl. We circle each other. Sound good?"

Sakura nodded slowly and shrugged the strap off her shoulder, letting the heavy bag fall to the sidewalk. The man stepped away from Eri, whispering something to the girl and winking and taking a step to Sakura's right, prompting her to move left.

"So, I don't suppose you're single?" he wondered aloud with a sideways glance. "A gorgeous thing like you couldn't be."

She hoped that it was too dark for him to see the way she clenched her fists. "Don't even try it."

"Aw, c'mon. It isn't the whole kidnapper thing, is it? That's just business. I'm a nice guy when you get to know me."

She had the feeling that he meant "know" in that more archaic and skeezy sense and her fist tightened. "Your presence is no longer needed here," Sakura replied as she reached Eri and wrapped a firm arm around the girl's shoulders. "Take your money and leave."

He lifted his hands in surrender. "All right, all right. I can take a hint," he bent down to pick up the bag and then grinned at her as he was turning away. "Later, beautiful."

Sakura watched him as he deviated from the footpath and then disappeared into the shadows of the trees. She waited for several moments to ensure that he was gone before finally turning to Eri, guiding the girl to the ground as she began to unravel the rag from around her hand. "Tell me what happened," she began. "Are you hurt anywhere else? Did they touch you"

"No." Eri stared at the medic. "Who are you really?"

"A friend," Sakura said simply as she pulled the towel away at last and pursed her lips at the realization that the girl's ring and pinkie fingers had been severed at the first knuckle. She glanced at the girl. "Did they do this?" She indicated the long strip of cloth wrapped tightly around her wrist and hand to compress and restrain the bleeding.

Eri let out a rough sounding laugh. "I did," she whispered. With her other, shaking hand she reached into the fold of her yukata and removed a folded and blood-soaked kerchief, which she held out to Sakura. "Can you fix it?"

Sakura took the handkerchief with some hesitation and unfolded it, revealing the dismembered appendages. She blinked, first at the disembodied fingers and then at the girl in front of her. "I think so, yes," she replied. She folded the kerchief again and then helped Eri to her feet. "C'mon. It'll be more sanitary if we do this at the hotel."

Sakura couldn't honestly say that she had ever had a nice chat with someone while reattaching their fingers. Or while reattaching anything for that matter. It was usually a pretty grisly process that didn't give itself to casual conversation. Then again, when the subject was the sort of person who could pick up their own amputated fingers, wrap their own tourniquet, and was high on three different high-potency pain-killers, maybe that's exactly what the situation was given to.

"My grandmother was the doctor in a small village in Wind Country before she met my grandfather," Eri was saying as she reclined in the lounge chair, her head turned away from the sight of Sakura prepping her hand to reattach the fingers. "He was the wealthy one." She smiled sleepily. "They were a strange couple. Grandmother hated how he lived, hated being some rich man's wife, but she loved him. I suppose she taught me what she knew as a means of passing the time."

"That's how you knew to stop the bleeding?"

"Mm-hmm." She let out a high, sleepy giggle as she closed her eyes, but a moment later they popped open wide again. "It was very wise of my uncle to send you."

"Yes," Sakura agreed, patting the girl's arm. "Eri-san, the shot I gave you is just doing its job so go ahead and sleep. I'll wake you when I'm done."

The girl barely managed to nod before her eyes rolled back into her skull and her head slump against the back of the chaise. Sakura reached then for the ice bucket on her right and removed the first carefully cleaned and prepped phalange that was wrapped separately from the other in a thick washcloth.

"That just looks wrong."

She smiled faintly but didn't turn to acknowledge Kakashi as he slipped into the room. "I hope you're not telling me this grosses you out."

"I'm not, but it does," he replied. He drew closer until he stood just a few paces behind her, apparently not letting what little squeamishness he felt about the situation keep him at bay. "I talked to Harada-san. The family will want to see her when you're done, but I made it clear that you'd need a few hours just for appearances. You can reattach them, can't you?"

Sakura spared him a wry look over her shoulder. "As many times as I've shoved yours and Naruto's intestines back into place, a few amputated fingers shouldn't be a problem."

Kakashi rolled his eyes. "I wasn't questioning your capability; I was questioning how salvageable they were."

"Fingers are actually remarkably durable." A green glow ignited around her hands as she began to align the bone. "You lose a larger appendage and it has to be reattached as soon as possible because the larger the muscle involved the quicker it dies… well, assuming you don't die of blood loss first. Fingers can be reattached even after a few days, though."

He nodded slowly and went quiet.

Sakura frowned a little as she felt the first beginnings of the bone knitting together. "Are you worried about something?"

"Just thinking," he replied.

She looked to him skeptically but then shook her head, turning her attention back onto her work. "How did you explain how we got involved?"

"I didn't. Harada-san said that we were involved friends from Fire Country; that we had experience in 'security'. They didn't question it."

The medic scoffed softly. "They will later."

"I don't know about that. They're scared so they're not thinking right. Just like these men want them to be."

"Can you blame them? We're clearly dealing with something a little more serious than the average group of thugs and they've been living with this for how long?"

"I know." A pause and Sakura felt his attention turn on her. "What's on your mind?"

Sakura chewed her lips anxiously, her eyes focused on her work even as she spoke. "If I'm face-to-face with one of those men again, I don't think I'll be able to let him walk away. You know they're targeting this place just because they can. They're abusing their power as shinobi. I mean, I know that's what missing-nin do, but it just… I can't stand it."

"I know," he murmured, rubbing at his temples as he took up a chair in her line of sight. "Speaking of missing-nin… you can't give a description either, can you?

She sighed, wanting so break something. Actually, it made her want to break a lot of things. Eri had been similarly frustrated as they raced her back to the hotel, unable to give them even the vaguest of details about any of the men she had seen. "You know what the worst part is?" she asked, letting a breath hiss out from between her teeth. "It's like trying to find the right word and you know what it is and it's just sitting at the very tip of your tongue and you just can't remember it. I know that I know what he looks like. I could tell you what he was wearing, I just… I'd never know him if I saw him again. It's just gone."

"Must have been a part of the genjutsu," Kakashi murmured.

"It seems to affect the brain's ability to recognize faces." She glanced over at him. "It's a little more subtle of a trick, that way; I didn't even really realize it until after we got back. It's probably even pretty simple to pull off."

The Copy-nin scrubbed a hand through his hair as he leaned back into the seat, his head tipped so he could stare at the ceiling. A moment later he lifted his head again to look at her directly. "All right, since we're certain that we're up against ninja, we'll have to work fast. The longer we're here, the more likely it is that we'll be exposed."

Sakura nodded. "We already know that Harada-san is being watched. Is it possible that they're close enough to the family to be the reason for the information leak as well?"

"It's possible, but if they are I have to wonder if it's someone in the family," Kakashi replied.

"No way," the medic argued. "Who would let this happen to their own relative?"

"Don't play naïve, Sakura." He shrugged as she spared him a dark look. "Maybe they were threatened too and they didn't have a choice or maybe they underestimated who they were working with and didn't anticipate this. But it is worth keeping in mind that this family is sitting on a fortune that would make some daimyo envious and money does strange things to people."

Sakura glanced over at him and then let out a long breath. "Fine, but how are we going to look into that without tipping them off?"

Kakashi hummed as he spared a speculative look around the room with its opulent furniture and high ceilings. "I suspect that we're going to get very acquainted with the cleaning crew soon."

"Oh, wonderful."

Sakura had some pretty humorous little anecdotes to go along with most of the medicinal mixtures she carried with her on a regular basis, as they were her own personal brews. She had select few willing guinea pigs anymore (Naruto, Kiba, and Lee for the most part), but there were others she had gotten to go along with her once or twice.

A couple of the more memorable occasions had been when she made Kankuro's legs go numb (a sedative she had concocted for Gaara in the testing phases) and the time Ino had lost her voice for almost a week (a really botched antihistamine). Although neither, in retrospect, had been so bad. Watching Kankuro make death threats from the floor had made an otherwise really boring day in Suna bearable and Shikamaru had bought her flowers out of gratitude in the latter case (to Ino's very quiet rage).

But analgesics were trickier to figure out. Not only did pain tolerance vary widely, especially among shinobi, but so did definitions of pain. One of her most potent personal mixtures that bordered on an anesthetic and that seemed to treat just about every ache imaginable, had a few… well, consequences. One being a certain degree of retro and anterograde amnesia.

In the shinobi world this tended to present a few problems, especially with ninja returning home and needing debriefing but also requiring medical attention. However, in Eri's case it was probably something of a blessing.

Sakura took some comfort in the fact that Eri wouldn't remember much of her experience or the surgery that followed. She would possibly remember being taken but everything that else would be lost. This worked in hers and Kakashi's favors to a degree as well because there wasn't a doctor on the planet who could reattach anything in a hotel room (without medical ninjutsu at least). But her family didn't know the extent of her injuries and if Eri couldn't remember, well, stitching together a few lacerations only required a bit of know-how and a needle. The bandage wrapped snugly around her hand would hide the fact that there weren't any stitches to be seen and the girl herself would be healthier not remembering the gory details.

"Eri?"

Sakura glanced up from where she was seated beside the young woman's bedside, closing her orange, paperback and sliding it under her thigh. She had moved the girl after finishing with her hand to her own bedroom, dressed her in a clean robe provided by a maid, and then laid her down to rest.

A girl, maybe fifteen or sixteen, was peeking in through the door, her white-blond hair falling in curls around her round face and large, doe-eyes. Sakura smiled. "You can come in, if you'd like, but she'll be asleep for some time yet."

She took this invitation immediately, pushing through the door and rushing to Eri's bedside. Sakura looked to the doorway again as a young man stepped in a moment later. He had similarly colored hair cropped close to his head and was wearing a pair of thick-rimmed glasses that made his narrow, green eyes appear all the more-so. Handsome, but stiff and, if the condescending look he gave Sakura was anything to go by, more than a little haughty.

"I'm Harada Aika; it was my father that hired you," the girl said, drawing the medic's attention. "You must be Sasaki-san?"

"Yes." Sakura smiled back. "It's good to meet you."

"Is Eri going to be all right?" Aika wondered, lifting her cousin's bandaged and delicately kissing the back of it.

Sakura's gaze had drifted back to the young man, who was still eyeing her. "Yes. Her injuries weren't severe." She narrowed her eyes a little and tipped her head to the side. "I'm sorry. We haven't been introduced. I'm Sasaki Mai."

He nodded. "I'm aware of that."

"Don't be so rude, Jin!" Aika scolded. She huffed irritably. "This is my brother. Ignore him."

Jin shot his sister an annoyed look and then moved closer to stand over Eri's bed. "If you don't mind my asking, what qualifications do you have as a doctor?"

A muscle twitched in Sakura's jaw. "Plenty, I assure you."

"Hn." He lowered himself onto the edge of Eri's bed. "I hope you don't mind, but in the morning one of our family's doctors will be in to examine her. They're more familiar with her."

Seeing as there was no possible way to be more familiar with the human body than Sakura (barring all implications made by perverting that phrase), she got the distinct feeling that she was being snubbed. Oh yes, she decided as her eyes narrowed, she wasn't going to like Harada Jin.

"Harada-san, I've attended to all of her wounds and I intend to continue attending to her until she is fit." All said through the most pleasant smile imaginable. Tsunade would have been proud.

Jin sneered at her. "Sasaki-san. May we speak in the hallway?"

"Yes. Let's."

Aika was oblivious to the tenseness in the exchange or the way the pair rose from their respective seats and walked to the doorway.

Sakura's smile fell immediately as she turned to face the young man, who was pulling the door shut behind him even as he glared at her in turn. "I hope there isn't a problem," she began, placing her hands on her hips.

"Not at all. I'm sure you're very... competent." He shrugged easily and looked away. "I just would prefer to call one of our family doctors as I intend to have you and your partner off this island by morning."

"Oh?"

Jin leveled her with a bored look. "My father is a fool. He could pay these men to leave, but instead he refuses to swallow his pride and keeps hiring people like you clear out this problem all the while ignoring the fact that this might eventually get one of us killed. I should have thought Eri's capture would have convinced him of that, but you must understand that the Harada skull is amazingly thick."

Hm… yeah, suspicious much? If Kakashi was determined to look into the family, Sakura knew where she was going to start. "First of all, I believe your father hired us before Eri-san was taken. It was just luck that we arrived when we did. Secondly, I appreciate where you're coming from, but my partner and I will not be leaving until we've finished our business here." She raised an eyebrow at him. "Unless, of course, you'd like me to discuss this little problem with your father and I'd be more than happy to do so."

Jin stared back at her blankly. "There will be no need for you to go. I intend to talk to him myself."

"Oh good," Sakura replied. "Will you be staying with Eri-san tonight?"

"Most likely, as Aika will be staying with her."

"Very well. I'll see you in the morning."

"He really rubbed you the wrong way."

"What tipped you off?"

"It's three in the morning, you should be exhausted from that healing, but you want to spar instead?"

"Just wondering. Sometimes you can be so obtuse I wonder if it's really an act."

Kakashi opened his mouth to retort, but found himself cut off when Sakura lifted him up (something that always felt pretty emasculating until he reminded himself that thiswas his teammate and that her ability to lift men twice her size was a good thing) and suplexed him into the floor. He coughed and cracked open an eye to look at her as she leaned over him. "Feel better?"

Sakura huffed and swiped a stray lock out of her face before letting her head come to rest against his chest. "Yeah, I think."

"Good." He took a breath and closed his eyes again. "So, what did he say that got you so riled up?" Because he planned to damn well avoid it in the future if he could. Although, this was kind of nice. Kind of really nice.

She shook her head. "He's just a snotty rich boy who doesn't understand that money can't buy him out of this sort of trouble. It's just frustrating that I can't tell him that." She paused and Kakashi heard the distinct sound of teeth grinding. "That and he questioned how fit I was to treat Eri-san."

"Ah," he murmured with understanding. "I'm sure if he knew that you just reattached two of her fingers, he'd take that back."

Sakura hummed back noncommittally.

With her just a few inches away, he could smell her perfume and wondered if he really should get on her for that one of these days. "You usually don't let that kind of thing get under your skin."

"I know. I'm just… stressed." She sat up and swept her bangs to the side again and offered him a tired smile. "I'm sorry."

Kakashi waved a hand as he sat up as well, facing her. "It's better you get it out of your system now rather than later, when it might not be so convenient," he replied. "You all right?"

Sakura nodded, her chin coming to rest on one raised knee. "Thanks." She stared contemplatively at the dimly lit far wall and, after a prolonged moment, her eyes slid back to him, narrowing a little. "Will you tell me what you were going to say?"

"Sakura, we—"

"We talked about this. I know. But I still don't get why you won't tell me."

He shook his head. "I don't want to influence your decision."

"Isn't the fact that I'm asking you for your opinion on this sort of asking you to influence it?" she wondered with a scowl.

"Maybe, but that doesn't change the fact that you have to make this particular choice on your own." He smiled a little at the slight furrow of her brow, trying to reassure her even when he felt just as exasperated as she was by it all.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Giving me input doesn't mean you're tainting my opinion, but fine," she grumbled, hooking her chin over her knee so she could examine her foot and pick at her pedicure.

Kakashi watched her for a moment and then shut his eye, opting to enjoy the comfortable silence that had fallen over them. She wasn't eager to leave, it seemed, and Kakashi wasn't about to kick her out. Although, he told himself, he should. He should because this was just tempting fate. This was just tempting himself to say and do so many stupid things all at once. What was worse was the chance, the very slight and nagging chance, that she wouldn't immediately break his jaw for it either.

"What if I make the wrong choice?"

"You won't." He opened his eye again to meet hers. "It doesn't concern anyone but you, Sakura. Whatever choice you make will be yours and you don't have to account for it to anyone else—not even me or Naruto or Sai."

Sakura said nothing for some time, her expression (for once) unreadable. At length, she smiled at him. "I should go."

He nodded and sat up, taking the hand she offered out and letting her pull him to his feet. "I'll see you in the morning," he said. "I'll talk to Harada when you're checking on Eri."

"Sounds like a plan," she agreed. She paused to pick at her fingernails and then looked up at him, letting out a short huff of air. "Okay, just for the record: it does concern you. You're one of the most important people in my life, Hatake. Got that?"

Kakashi nodded, smiling despite the stern look on her face and the way his own heart was slamming into his ribs. "Got it."

1. Hello! I'm alive! I'm posting! I HAS FANART! Yes that totally deserves mention in note 1. Please, direct your attention to the link provided in my profile to the picture "No Peeking" by the lovely Kimeko-28. It is awesome!

2. Oh so many notes to make. Given that it's almost 5am, I'll make them brief (sorry, I know). First, Sakura mentioned then genjutsu messing with the brain's ability to recognize faces. There is a special area of the brain dedicated to recognizing faces. This is the same area that enables us to recognize faces even in inanimate objects. Note the disorder "Face-blindness", which is literally the inability to recognize faces. It's a bit like someone who's color-blind being unable to tell colors apart (or so I've heard it described).

3. Second, (already not in order) Kakashi dances. One, because this is sexy and I say so. Two, because dancing really isn't that hard.

4. I believe even larger limbs can be separated for a day-ish before being reattached, but they have to be kept cold. Fingers can be reattached even after several days in a warm climate. Eri's moment of being hardcore here is mostly because I planned for her to be originally kind of a badass, but that got scrapped. Also, I tired to shuffle her grandmother in as an excuse for how she knew to treat her own hand, but actually I knew how to stop bleeding and save all detached body parts since I was twelve and no one in my family is a doctor, so yeah.

5. Oh and for as very little screen time as she gets here, Aika will be important for the rest of this arc. And Jin is just around...to be an ass, I guess. I really don't know.

6. Hate this chapter. Had to edit it nine billion times and wanted to scrap it even then.

7. NEXT CHAPTER SPOILER: STUFF WILL HAPPEN! Because, seriously, this was a boring 'setting things up' chapter. Sorry, it's kind of a let down of an update.

8. Yes, I researched reattaching amputated fingers. I could have done without the pictures.

9. I have a series of drabbles posted under the title "And Love" and sooner or later I will be posting the final chapter to Blithe Spirits. Also, for those of you who have read Blithe Spirits and are curious, go back and read it assuming that Sakura's greasy neighbor is the fan-version of Hidan (you know, where's he's kind of charming rather than just a baby-strangling psychopath with no redeeming qualities and a smile that could make the Joker nervous). Oh and in the future I plan to post an Ino/Genma one-shot because I am an unrepentant crack-pairing whore and I think they're two of the most severely abused characters.

10. Oh chapter related: Sakura testing her concoctions on her friends. Please note that this would only be after rigorous testing elsewhere (like on rats-OHNOESCALLPETA!) and that these would be more like drug trials to test efficiency (with the drugs being logically applied of course: testing a sedative for Gaara on Kankuro, his protective older brother, and an antihistamine on Ino, who works with flowers). I don't know why I'm noting this other than I had the brief vision of Sakura randomly drugging people, laughed, and then felt compelled to clear it up.

11. Also chapter related: Retrograde amnesia is not being able to remember past events and anterograde amnesia is not being able to acquire NEW memories. Usually both are temporary conditions where concerning drugs and trauma, but the memories lost are usually lost for good.

12. Also also chapter related: I mention Sakura "suplexing" Kakashi. You'll hear that term used a lot in regard to wrestling (the word "suplay" is also used, but more in reference to Greco-Roman wrestling), most especially in show wrestling (aka Pro-wrestling), but envision this as more the kind of suplex sometimes referenced in Judo, where it's actually, ya know, practical. I note this because there's actually a huge difference between them, with the word suplex being used in Judo to refer to certain kinds of take-downs whereas the suplex in pro-wrestling is much more about lifting your opponent more or less completely up over your head followed by a dramatic fall to the mat (impractical and really not very elegant). YouTube search "Judo suplex" for references if you want. (I figure as much as Sakura would know the standard hand-to-hand, she'd probably know some grappling moves as well because sometimes punching someone just isn't physical enough).

(All right, that's it for notes. Sorry about the chapter, guys. It's late and it sucks. Will try to do better in both areas next time. Also, my sister is having a boy and they've almost settled on the name Max. WHEE!)