Chapter Thirty Two:
"Tsunade-sama?" Sakura poked her head around the open door. Shizune was knelt on the floor next to the desk, sweeping up a broken plant pot. "You asked to see me?"
"2 hours ago." Came the voice behind the desk, the clinking of bottle evident that she was not in a good mood. The door closing behind her just seemed to seal her into whatever fate lay ahead.
"Gomen I was at finishing up at the hospital and then at the Academy before I got the message."
"And how are things?" Tsunade asked, earning a glare from the woman knelt on the carpet.
A beat passed as Sakura looked from Shizune back to her Shishui.
"Good." Was the best summary. But Tsunade's face demanded more. "There been a bit of difficulty regulating the acidity of the soil for 2 of the plants, the others we have managed to establish the perfect climate for and are growing steadily. We should be able to look to harvesting them for medical uses within a few months. If they are successful, then we can look into expanding to more plants, genetically adapting them for their uses."
"And the actual work at the hospital? I trust you are still keeping away from the critical care unit as per my instructions."
"Well…" Sakura shuffled from one foot to the other. "I was pulled into a case the other week, they said they had a staff shortage and I wasn't going to say no when there was a nin dying on the table. So I may have been working there for a bit."
"For a full shift." Shizune corrected from her position on the floor.
"They were short staffed." Sakura argued defensively. "But otherwise, basic clinical duties and assisting with the notekeeping."
"Hm. The Academy?"
"I've worked a balance with Hinata to assist with the practical sessions when I am available and I've covered one of her theory classes whilst she was on the recovery mission last week. The kids are looking forward to the Chunin exams, but… they need some more work. Intelligence with other villages suggest their practical levels in comparison are much more intensive."
"Iruka-sensei is aware?"
"He's reviewing the programmes and considering utilising additional training grounds and teachers."
"Good." Tsunade nodded. "Things good with Kakashi?"
"He's only just returned."
"Hm. But good?"
"I guess. Nothing to mention." Sakura hooked her hair behind her ears, it was like telling her mother she was still dating the same boy after a week. Had they expected it to fizzle out?
"Mentally?"
"I feel capable, I feel strong. I feel like I want to be back in theatre. And back on missions."
There was silence again, and a look passed between Shizune and Tsunade.
Tsunade coded with a hand signal and the shimmer of chakra was the cloaked ANBU leaving the room. Shizune stood and activated a seal on the windows to secure the room.
Sakura felt her blood pressure spike. Something was wrong.
Something was happening.
"The woman you brought back with Kakashi." Tsunade started, her bottle of sake lifted from the desk and poured into the cup. Cup singular, as in, not for sharing.
That only served to alarm the pinkette further.
"The ex of Kabuto." As Sakura knew her. Well, or snake lady.
"She described the route she took whilst travelling and there were a few things that I'm going to bring to your attention. You don't have the luxury of breaking down so I need you to tell me now if you want to hear them or not."
"I'm ready to serve the village, however that is required." Sakura vowed, serious and honest. She lived for the village. It had supported her when she fell, and she would support it to ensure it never fell.
"At the moment, I am not deploying you, let me make that clear. I am going to send another agent out to investigate. But, I need to know you are ready to go should we get confirmation of the source."
"Tsunade, I'm ready. Kakashi has returned and he will be there to accompany me."
"It's not Kakashi's mind I need on this one." Sake cup down the hatch. "She came across a village, a small one, barely known to the shinobi world by their own request. The entire village had been massacred." It wasn't uncommon for villages to request to stay nin free, it was very uncommon for those ones to end in death though. "There were clear signs of an epicentre to the trauma. Information suggest they had recently come across a bronze idol."
Sakura felt the cold wave shred through her body, from head to toe. It curled into her stomach and dragged her tearducts back to the moment she witnessed that for herself.
"There's another one out there." Sakura answered, trying to keep her voice strong when it just wanted to waiver.
"I'm sending someone out to research and validate the information, and if so, to trace the idol." Tsunade learned forward. "As your mentor, I want you as far from this as possible. As the Hokage, I want this idol gone and you are the only one who has survived facing one."
"I'm willing." Sakura nodded firmly, showing support for her leader, her town, the ones she wanted to protect. Though she had no idea how to stop another massacre, or how she escaped with her life the first time. She felt the burden of this curse rested on her shoulders. To finish it, to close the chapter, to come back with a feeling of closure and safety.
And yet there was the rising panic, the fearful grip of ice on her heart, the whisper in her ear that she might not be coming back.
But the Hokage was right, she was the only one who had even a modicum of knowledge or experience on this. To step aside and ask someone else to do this was stupidity.
Half of her wanted Kakashi by her side. Half of her wanted to keep him as far from this risk as possible.
He made her promise to take him on missions and yes, she wanted him there. But if things went sideways, it was walking direct into his death.
Not that he'd let her go alone…
The clink of the sake cup onto the desk lifted her wet eyes back to her leader, the one that looked like she was awaiting another mental breakdown of her student.
Not today.
By stubborn will alone.
The will of fire burned bright. It had eclipsed her before, but now she had a better grip on it.
"I'm ready when you give the word, Hokage-sama." Sakura bowed before her mentor. It sealed the strength of her vow, and it hid the tears that wanted to slide free.
"You won't be alone. You have the full force of Konoha behind you should you need it."
After all, if it was possible to wipe an entire village out, an entire ANBU level squadron, it was a threat to life and could absolutely be weaponised in the wrong hands to destroy the world as they knew it.
"Gomen, I got caught up at the hospital." Sakura whispered to Hinata as she stepped late into Friday classroom.
The one and only Kakashi Hatake was front and centre, perched atop the desk like he'd rather be anywhere else weaving a story. Whatever topic it was, the kids were on the edge of their seats.
Wide eyed and amazed at the prowess before them.
"He's incredible." Hinata replied to her in hushed tones. "He's had their attention the whole time. All of their attentions." She inclined her head at the usual trouble-makers who had left their eternal rivalry alone to pay attention to the nin before them.
"Did he threaten them?" Sakura asked, concerned as to why there was no hair braiding or elbow nudging happening in the class as was per the usual. No-one was even messing with their chakra either.
"He's just been answering their questions, telling stories of his old missions."
"-And that's why we don't hold treaty with the land of Ghosts." Kakashi finished, sounding like he had just finished another tournament with Gai and was ready to put as much distance between him and social responsibility as was possible.
"Did your partner escape?"
"Did you have to save them?"
Land of ghosts? Sakura had only ever been there once and that was with Kakashi. They had been intending to skirt the borders of the territory on intelligence of a missing nin. They stumbled onto something else and they'd been ambushed. They'd taken a few down immediately but one had managed to capture her with a kunai against her throat. The captor had tried to bargain with Kakashi to release the one he had caught in a genjutsu. He'd barely got a sentence out before Sakura had extended a hidden blade through the man's throat as he held her. It cost her a scar down the back of her neck, but she saved her life without creating a situation for hostages or negotiations.
"Mah, my partner was in danger. I had to single handedly rescue her." And Kakashi began describing a very similar story to the one Sakura had, only this story painted him as the hero- saving his comrades.
And then followed a tale about an escort mission to the village of Doves, which Sakura was fairly sure was a direct copy of an escort mission to the village of Crows which they had done 4 years ago and Kakashi had almost blown every blood vessel in his eye.
After that came an ode to the first time he 'saved a life' with a copy of healing techniques from his accompanying medic.
Again, very close to the truth, but the honest answer was that she had threatened him if he didn't copy her technique and help her save the Feudal Lord's life, she was never going to heal a single one of his injuries every again.
An encounter with a 10 foot Venomous Void Viper whilst travelling in Rock was a bit of an overexaggeration on the actual size of the non-venomous snake that crawled into their bedrolls to keep warm.
And then came his piece de resistance.
"You won't have heard of the terror of the 5 hunters of the waterfall. They could track anyone, infiltrate any room with any lock. If they set their sights on you, they would find you." The children were drawn in completely, each story woven spectacularly. Sakura tried to keep the shaking of her head to a minimum. Such barefaced lies. There were not 5 hunters of the waterfall. There 3 shadow hunters of waterfall. And they came across them half dead after a battle with their latest target. And they collected the price on their heads for Konoha very easily. "You haven't heard of them, because I sought them out after they set sights on my partner and put her life in danger. I lured them into a trap and single handedly best them in combat. Five against one."
The noises of amazement and adoration crept around the room.
Sakura rose an eyebrow as his eyeline caught her. A question of 'do you want me to correct you?'
"Mah, but my memory is not what it used to be." he continued.
Sakura covered her laugh with a cough but the children were too raptured to care about their old sensei coughing up a lung.
"Kakashi-Sensei has been generous enough to lend his time to your physical training as well." Hinata took over. "We'll pick back up after break outside. Don't forget your protective armour and trained weapons."
"But, what trap did you use?"
"How did you defeat them?"
"Why didn't your partner help?"
"Now!" Sakura's voice covered over all of them. "Or you'll be inside whilst the rest of the class are training with a legendary ANBU agent." And the kids scattered as per Hinata's instructions.
Which left Sakura to lean against the desks and shake her head slowly at her partner.
"I was stipulated to attend, I believe." he smartly replied.
"Hm. I didn't realise you intended to lie." Sakura contested, catching Hinata follow the last of the children out. "Or I would have added another sentence or two to our deal."
"Would you rather I break the confidential ranking of all of these missions?" he challenged, crossing the desks to her.
"I expect you to tell the stories that are not confidential."
"I don't take any of those kinds of missions." He put his hands on either side of her hips on the desk. She didn't feel intimidated though. Just a meeting of an even field competition.
"Then edit details."
"I did."
"You invented an entire village." There was no village of Doves. Not that the children knew that yet. "You made your partner out to be a waste of space and incapable of holding her own." That bit stung.
"I didn't want them to steal her away from me."
"Hm, that's the answer you're sticking to?"
"Does it work?"
"Did you read my lesson plan for the outdoor training?" she changed subject, ducking out from his caging arms and heading straight to the teacher desk where Hinata kept a binder of her lesson plan, including todays for Kakashi.
"I skimmed it."
"You can just say no." she laughed.
"Sensory deprivation weapons targeting." Kakashi's voice came from behind her and she paused. He'd read the lesson plan. She smiled widely, feeling the warmth as his hands settled on her hips gently.
"You can just say yes." The smile was heard clearly in her voice. "I really didn't think you would have." She turned to face him, the curve of her lips angled towards his. "I'm impressed. Proud even." she allowed. "But, it's only 12 so let's see how you do for the rest of the day." She pressed a hand to his chest firmly. "You can help me set up."
Sakura's training was a step by step practical assessment following the principles of combat and the katas they had learned whilst experiencing the difficulties posed from unknown engagement of battle, for example, the removal of senses.
Kakashi's adaption of that was a simple game that required minimum to none effort on his behalf.
But… as much as Sakura hated to admit it, his way was more fun.
He stole the powder paints from the nursery and had the children use their chakra to make pellets of the individual colours. He then had them hide them all around the training area. The kids were divided into groups, as per the colours available and the winning team would get a training day with his ninken.
The conditions for winning were simple, the kids had to find their assigned colour pellets and throw them at Kakashi.
There were five rounds. For each one, Kakashi would cast a jutsu to remove a sense from them. He gave them 20 minutes per round.
First, he took their sense of touch and he stood in plain sight in the clearing reading Icha Icha whilst the children had trouble finding their feet, barely three of them were even capable of picking up the pellet, of those three none managed to keep them in their grip long enough to throw them with any kind of aim.
Second, he took their sight. Whilst they had their touch sense back, very few managed to get further than a few trees, those who did find a pellet often picked up the wrong colour and missed him by miles.
Third, he removed their hearing. Over confident, the children believed there would be no way they could lose on this one, rushing the trees. So they missed the four clones he made, the four that stood with him and re-enacted one of the fight scenes from Icha Icha with himself.
Some children made attempts to lip read, anticipating a jutsu from his bad overacting hand symbols, but the lines he spoke were foreign and the movement, as slow as it was, moved past them without a sound.
Fourth, he took their taste, again, the children cockily rushed in without thought. Kakashi opened a packet of seasoning from his pocket, the kind you get at the ramen stand when you ask for their super spice sachet and he cast a wind to scatter it in the air. The children were coughing against the spice of nothingness, eyes watering before they could approach him. It didn't help that he taunted them with another slow turn of his Icha Icha. The smarter stayed back and launched their pellets from long distance but without perfect chakra control, they lost momentum and fell before they reached him.
So by the last round, when he stole their sense of smell, the children were worked up and desperate for a win. So when he body flickered away from the clearing and sat himself in the top tree, it didn't matter how many pellets the children found, they could not locate their target to launch them.
All in all, he stood after the last round without a single bit of paint on him. He declared the children unfit to take the exam and told them they needed to train a lot harder if they planned to ever reach him level.
For most it was disheartening, for some it was a fire of enthusiasm lit under their lazy asses.
This was where Hinata blossomed, she took them into the classroom and dissected what had happened and how they could have found workarounds, how teamwork could have changed things, how a different approach could have turned these situations around.
Sakura stood under the tree he remained sat in and turned her head up at him.
"Not exactly my lesson plan."
"I think I covered your points." he retorted. An orange projectile was incoming and she automatically caught it identifying it as his Icha Icha. She looked up and he was stood before her, having dropped silently in the second when she caught the object. Misdirect. "You want to try your luck with sensory deprivation?" he asked.
"Been there. Got the permanent injury thank you." She pressed the book back to his chest.
"Shoulder still trouble then?" He fell into step beside her.
"Tsunade did a few scans… I've ruptured the chakra nerve. She's tried some techniques, but it's unlikely it will go back to how it was before."
"You can still fight though?"
"Of course" She pushed at his arm, offended he would even ask that. "It's just like your eye, hurts with too much use."
"I'm sure there's a hot springs somewhere in our next mission." he spoke, head tilted as if he was mapping all of the areas he could pass through to enable her to relax it.
She slowed herself, smiling at him like a fool.
"Thank you." He shrugged, like it was nothing he wouldn't have done for anyone else. But they both knew the truth. "And for today. The kids had fun, and learned a lot."
"Well, I was responsible for quite a few mentionable students." His eye pointedly told her it was her he was referring to.
"Hm. Just remember there's another few hours left of your teaching day." She nodded back to the classroom. "You've got a tracking masterclass and if your sharingan is up for it, we were hoping you would give the kids a few nudges with their chakra mastering, give them some pointers for controlling their flow?"
"You're not staying?"
"I've got called to the hospital." she said, head cast down, eyes anywhere but him. Like she was terrified of him breaking their deal because she wasn't there to supervise him, like she said she would be.
"I suppose its for the best." Her head clicked up at his thoughtful tone. "You wouldn't want to see me find out how badly you've been teaching them chakra control."
She grinned at him.
"Tell me all about it afterwards?" she offered, a hand to his vest. "And, I owe you a date." Her smile was infectious as she walked back before turning to leave out the training field.
Kakashi headed begrudgingly back to the classroom, at least tracking would be an easy class for him. The ninken could teach it.
"Surprised you didn't take the out." The voice to greet him at the doors was Iruka. Protective Iruka who saved his Sakura when she needed a place to hide from the world.
"Mah, Sakura asked me to finish the day."
"Hm. She's a good influence on you at least." Iruka allowed. "but, you might just be losing your edge." Iruka smirked as he nodded at Kakashi's chest.
Kakashi cast his sight down and noted the bright orange powder paint handprint on his vest. Delicate lines of digits that fit the very same woman who had made her mark there before. Just another way of her laying her claim. "Just for the record, you are smiling like Naruto does when he hears the word 'ramen'." But even Iruka's comment and shoulder clasp didn't clear the spinning delight he felt in his chest.