A/N: More spiders this week for the people who were curious about them, and apologies for the people who wish I'd picked literally any other summon, haha! Sakura's two largest spiders, Kin and Gin, are named after Kinsan Ginsan, a set of famous identical twins from Japan who were known, among other things, to be the oldest living twins.

When Sakura woke the morning after her showdown with Kakashi, she felt hungover—not physically, but emotionally. Losing her temper like that always seemed to leave her drained afterward. It had been much worse before Ibiki had come into her life and taught her to try and harness her anger, but she'd yet to be able to control it completely. However, in addition to teaching her control, Ibiki had also said, "Never completely lose your anger. Let it make you strong." She did her best to follow his advice.

It was still dark outside as she made her way into the kitchen to brew coffee. Team Ro always started training at six o'clock sharp, but Sakura wasn't a morning person, so she tended to try and rise earlier than necessary so that she had time to sit quietly and wake up. She was yawning as she scooped coffee into the coffee machine, when there was a scratching sound at her door. She pressed the button to start the coffee before walking over to the door.

Opening it, she blinked. One of Kakashi's dogs—a strange-looking dog with bandages wrapped around his neck and head—stepped forward to nose at her hand, obviously trying to give her the scroll he was holding in his mouth. Accepting it, Sakura looked at the dog and said, "I'm sorry, I don't have any treats for you."

The dog just let his tongue loll out in a canine grin before vanishing in a puff of smoke. Sakura stepped back and kicked the door shut as she unrolled the scroll, scanning over the scratchy handwriting that she recognized from the day she'd received her mask from Kakashi.

Take the day off.

She rolled her eyes a little at his typically terse and unsigned note, leaving the scroll on the table as she returned to making coffee. So, she had the day off. What would she do? She could go back to sleep, of course, but the brewing coffee smelled too delicious to abandon, and she knew once she had some, she wouldn't be able to fall asleep again. Accepting her fate, Sakura perched on her kitchen counter to wait for the coffee to finish brewing, mulling over her options for the day.

By the time the coffee was ready, she'd made up her mind. Since she was already awake and used to working at this hour, she'd just go back to the training grounds and work on her sword forms. She'd been getting much better, but she could always use the extra practice.

Her decision made, Sakura poured herself a cup of coffee and took it to her room. One cup of coffee and one shower later, she felt much more awake. She didn't bother with her ANBU gear, deciding instead to go with the dark blue pants and long-sleeved shirt that came with being a jonin. After wrapping bandages around her calves, she slid on her sandals, grabbed her sword and water bottle, and stepped outside. Locking the door behind her, she took off in the direction of Training Ground 3.

Sakura had arrived at the grounds and was heading through the trees toward the clearing in the center when she heard the distinct sounds of dogs yipping and barking. Reaching the clearing, she stopped at the edge to observe.

Kakashi sat slouched against a tree, focused on the orange-jacketed book that he was reading. Sakura could just barely see the eighteen-and-older label printed on the cover, which made her grin a little. It was the same "adult" novel that she'd seen him reading at the bar, and it never failed to amuse her that Captain Hardass read something so racy.

Beside him lay one of the biggest dogs she'd ever seen, and the rest of his dogs were running and playing in the clearing. One of them ran over and dropped a stick by Kakashi's leg, and he reached out to grab and then throw it without ever looking away from his book.

Sakura cleared her throat politely—it was never a smart idea to sneak up on a shinobi, particularly an ANBU operative—and Kakashi lifted one grey eye to her. He was dressed similarly to her in jonin blues, but he'd foregone his hitae-ate that day and was simply keeping his left eye closed.

"You're supposed to be taking the day off," he said, slight amusement coloring his tone as his eye flicked from the sheathed sword in her hand to her face. "You do know how to do that, right?"

"Different people have different ways of relaxing," she said defensively. Her lips twitched a little as she followed it up with, "Not all of us have porn to read and dogs to play with."

"You sound jealous," Kakashi mused as he lifted the book and began to read again. It seemed like he'd decided to ignore her, but when Sakura put her bottle down to begin her sword forms, he whistled sharply and called out, "Uhei. Disarm."

The same bandaged dog that had brought her the scroll that morning suddenly bolted toward her, leaping through the air to catch her sheathed sword in his mouth. Startled, Sakura managed to release the hilt—she didn't want to pull the sword from its sheath and risk hurting the dog. Landing neatly on the ground, Uhei trotted over to Kakashi and dropped the sword at his feet, giving a short bark. One of Kakashi's hands left his book and patted the dog's head.

"Really?" Sakura asked, exasperated.

"Day off," he reminded, lifting his hand again to slowly turn a page.

Sakura huffed and then plopped limply down on the ground. "What the hell am I supposed to do now?" she sulked.

Kakashi hummed behind his book. "Play with the dogs. Get something to eat. Visit a friend. Go on a date. Figure it the fuck out, Sakura."

She scowled and made a face at him that she knew he wouldn't see behind his book. Sighing, she looked back toward the dogs, watching them play. That was about the only thing on Kakashi's list that appealed to her. She wasn't hungry, and as for friends—well, she didn't really have any of those. Her anger when she was younger, and her tendency to lash out at anyone close to her, had driven away her classmates a long time ago. She definitely didn't want to go on a date. The last time she'd attempted to do that, she'd overheard the guy boasting about "bagging the Black Widow" when he thought she wasn't listening. She'd beaten the snot out of him—and then bawled to Ibiki for an hour.

Watching the dogs play definitely seemed like the best option.

A dog with an unruly shock of fur that sprouted out from the top of his head slid to a stop in front of her and dropped a stick. Grabbing it, she threw it, smiling as the dog raced off to fetch it. It was nice that Kakashi gave his ninken recreational time. Most ninja didn't care about whether their summons ever enjoyed themselves.

That made a pang of guilt go through her, and before she could fully think about it, she'd lifted her hand and bitten into her thumb. In moments she'd completed the summoning jutsu, and there were several loud pops in front of her. The smoke dissipated to reveal two large spiders, about the length and weight of medium-sized dogs, complete with red capes and hitae-ate tied around their heads. At their feet was an array of smaller spiders, all wearing matching red capes.

Kakashi had lowered his book and was watching as the two largest spiders executed the arachnid version of a bow. They chorused, "Lady Sakura, how can we help?"

Sakura smiled. "I don't need anything. Why don't you all just enjoy yourselves?"

The smaller spiders immediately began skittering away, apparently having no problem with spending the day exploring, but the two largest spiders hesitated. As they looked around, presumably trying to decide what to do, Kakashi spoke up. "How many do you have?"

Sakura folded her legs underneath her as she leaned forward, sticking out a finger to let one of the palm-sized spiders climb onto her hand. "Four of these. They each have about twenty spiderlings," she said, lifting up the spider's cape to show that its body was covered with tiny baby spiders. "They're the ones that used their silk to heal Tenzo and Genma. Then there are ten of the smallest ones."

"Like the one you poisoned me with?" he asked, resting his book in his lap, clearly interested.

"Right," she answered. Nodding her head toward the two largest spiders, she added, "Kin and Gin are the hunters."

The twin spiders in question were now tentatively interacting with two of the dogs, who playfully nipped at their legs while the spiders tried to pounce on them. Kakashi tilted his head slightly as he regarded her, asking, "Why did you decide on the spider summons? You were taught by both Ibiki and Tsunade—why didn't you sign onto one of their summon contracts?"

"Ibiki's summons are pretty much all torture devices, and I don't really have the temperament to work in Torture & Interrogation," she said dryly. "Since I wanted to go into ANBU, I needed a summon that had more offensive capability than Tsunade's slugs. I don't think she would have let me sign with them, anyway." She didn't mention that Tsunade wasn't the biggest fan of her anger management issues—she didn't think she had to.

Kakashi hummed thoughtfully but didn't say anything else. As Sakura watched the spiders and dogs play, she noticed that one of the dogs had a pair of sunglasses on, of all things, and curiosity rose in her. "Captain... were the little outfits the dogs' idea, or yours?"

She turned to look at him. He had one of the smallest spiders on his index finger and was looking at it with his Sharingan. Finally, he lifted his mismatched gaze to hers in a pointed stare. "Sakura. It's an unspoken rule that no shinobi asks another shinobi about their summons' clothing."

Sakura bit her lip, but the grin broke through. After all, she'd made all of her spiders' capes—first for Kin and Gin, and then for all the smaller ones when they'd all gotten jealous. She imagined Kakashi painstakingly dressing each one of his dogs, and a warm thread of affection wove through her thoughts. She was starting to see why Genma and Tenzo liked him—even if he could be a jerk sometimes. She turned away to hide her grin.

"Yes, Captain."

Kakashi watched as Sakura stood and went out to play with the unruly mob of dogs and spiders, his brow furrowing slightly. That was strange. When Sakura had talked to him about the summons, calling him captain, he'd had his mouth open to tell her she could call him by his name when they weren't working—but then he'd held back. The words had just died on his tongue while she'd been teasing him about dog outfits.

Why? He'd long since told Tenzo and Genma not to call him captain outside of work, so why should Sakura be any different? The idea that he might view her differently than his other teammates gave him pause.

Perhaps it was the tenuous balance of power between them. Tsunade had given Sakura the ability to veto him in the field, a fact that completely undermined him as a captain. Maybe letting her call him by name was just too much familiarity when she had already so upset his authority. That had to be it.

His frown deepened, hidden by his mask. He couldn't treat her differently than his other subordinates just because he felt threatened. She deserved more than that—and Kakashi was better than that. The moment had passed now, but he would tell her to call him by name—soon. It wasn't that big of a deal.

...Right?

"Are you done reading?" Sakura asked, interrupting his thoughts as she approached. He saw one of the spiders grasping her wrist, and a peek from his Sharingan told him that precisely twenty-three baby spiders rode on its back. Sakura looked like Genma's waking nightmare, a thought that made him smile slightly.

"It's about time I go in to headquarters. There's a captain's meeting today, and I have to pick up our new orders." He stood slowly, sliding his copy of Icha Icha into his hip pouch. He took a moment to stretch his back before he bent to pick up her sword from where Uhei had dropped it. "Here," he said, holding it out.

Sakura stepped forward, reaching out to take it—but at the last second, he twitched it up out of her reach. "Hey!" she exclaimed.

"What day is today?" Kakashi said, keeping the sheathed weapon just out of reach.

Sakura stopped trying to grab for it and just stood glaring at him. He stared back, hiding his amusement. Finally, she huffed and answered, "My day off."

"Right. Don't forget it," he said, finally handing her the sword.

"You're a real hardass," she muttered.

"You'll get used to it," he answered in a pleasant voice, and the surprised look she gave him mirrored his own inner shock. He hadn't meant that to sound so... playful. Clearing his throat, he continued, "The dogs will leave when they're done, or when you tell them to go." Turning, he offered a lazy wave over his shoulder and leapt off through the trees, not waiting for her to answer him.

As he headed toward ANBU headquarters at an easy run, the thoughtful frown returned to Kakashi's face. He and Sakura had gotten along fine today, but there was no telling how things would go the next time they were in the field. Why couldn't dealing with Sakura be as easy as dealing with Tenzo and Genma? Sure, his relationship with Tenzo hadn't always been easy when they were young, but once they'd been on the same team they'd gotten along fine. And Genma could be a pain in the ass sometimes, but it was easy to be around him, and he always followed orders in the field. Both of them were known quantities—people who he could rely on to do the same things, follow the same patterns.

By contrast, Sakura was a rogue element—and that made her hard to plan for. It left Kakashi at a loss as to how to handle her.

As he approached ANBU headquarters, Kakashi pushed those thoughts from his mind, nodding at the sentry operative as he passed through the door. Walking through the building, he only stopped briefly at each security checkpoint—while he may have been an aloof, mysterious figure to the village at large, his reputation was well-known amongst the secretive ranks of ANBU. He rarely had to actually give his password at checkpoints anymore; they would see his Sharingan, or sense his chakra, and let him pass through.

Kakashi reached the door of the meeting room and walked through it, taking an empty seat at the table as the other assembled ANBU captains talked quietly amongst themselves. He was barely on time. Kakashi was never late for ANBU business, and the fact that talking to Sakura had caused him to come so close to being tardy just added to his reasons to frown.

"Our first order of business is the restructuring of guard rotations," the operative leading the meeting said.

Kakashi did his best to listen, but his mind kept straying back to the problem of Sakura. Her mercurial moods and his occasionally unexpected reactions to them weren't just confusing—they could be deadly in the field. They both needed each other to be dependable, and right now... well, the only thing that could be depended on was that they'd probably argue at some point.

Brow furrowing, Kakashi thought back over all their interactions. Maybe the problem was that they'd been forced together too much, too soon. He'd had a similar thought this morning when he'd decided to give the team a day off—the day before had been so confrontational that he'd thought a day away from each other would be good for all of them. He hadn't anticipated running into Sakura on the training grounds, and he definitely hadn't anticipated a mostly pleasant conversation about summons. He'd been joking when he'd suggested that she could play with the dogs. He hadn't expected her to actually do it.

His frown lightened a little when he thought of that. The dogs had liked her. They'd even liked her spiders. It had been nice to see his ninken having so much fun. But it had been strange—very strange—for his enjoyment to be because of his new teammate.

"Are there any other questions or concerns that need to be dealt with right now?" the nin leading the meaning asked, and when nobody spoke up, he continued, "Good. Meeting adjourned."

Kakashi blinked as he stood, realizing he'd missed pretty much all of the short meeting because he'd been so deep in thought. From what he'd heard, most of it hadn't applied to him or his team anyway, but it was unlike him to shirk his duty. The fact that he'd done so because he'd been too busy thinking about Sakura made his frown return.

His first intuition had to be right—he and Sakura had been forced together too much, too soon. He'd already ruined the whole point of having a day off from each other by interacting with her at the grounds, but he could fix that by making sure he avoided her for a little while. He couldn't completely stop their training sessions, of course, but maybe he could mitigate their time together by having Genma train her for a while. That should work.

Kakashi shoved his hands in his pockets as he ambled back toward the front of the building, turning his thoughts to the rest of the day. Talking to Sakura had interrupted one of his favorite parts of the Icha Icha book he was reading—and his lack of a reaction to that was surprising. Generally, being interrupted during his precious reading time left him very irritable.

Finally reaching the main lobby of headquarters, he walked over to the large desk that stood at the back. This was where ANBU captains came to pick up their orders—although there were some missions that Tsunade preferred to disclose personally, there were too many of them for her to be able to do it that often, and most simply came in the form of coded scrolls left in each captain's mailbox. Any additional information that was required would be provided at headquarters as well, usually on the second floor where the in-house library was stored.

Kakashi nodded at the bird-masked operative manning the desk, who immediately turned to retrieve Kakashi's orders. The operative soon returned from the cubby-filled wall and handed Kakashi a scroll, which he took. Moving over toward the wall and out of the way of anyone else who was picking up orders, Kakashi unrolled the scroll and scanned its contents. His stomach dropped.

He wasn't sure which was worse—the fact that he was getting sent on an assassination mission, or the fact that that meant he'd be spending a lot of time with Sakura. Alone. Which was the exact opposite of what he wanted right now.

Add to that the fact that he definitely recognized the target's name from his Bingo Book—meaning the target was a highly-trained, and very dangerous, shinobi—and this mission was shaping up to be a tough one. Taking on a dangerous mission when he wasn't even sure how to work with his partner was unwise at best, and lethal at worst.

Clenching his jaw, Kakashi sent a burst of chakra through the small seal at the bottom of the scroll, watching it as it dissolved into ash before his eyes. There was nothing he could do about it—Tsunade knew the current state of his team, and she had decided to send them out regardless. While she definitely had an ulterior motive in the form of her desire to get Kakashi to quit, she wouldn't put two of her shinobi at risk just to get her way, so she had to believe that they were capable of pulling off the mission.

Turning, Kakashi headed toward the stairs, ready to head to the library and do some preliminary research on the target. Afterward, he'd need to send a scroll to Sakura letting her know about the mission and what she needed to pack. The rest he'd tell her on the trip… the three-day trip that they would be taking together. Completely and utterly alone.

Sighing, he decided that he was definitely going to spend the night at home reading Icha Icha.

He needed to enjoy his solitude… while he still could.

A/N: For those curious about what Sakura's summons look like, Kin and Gin look like common jumping spiders, the small, venomous ones look like black widows (of course), and the mother spiders are wolf spiders, who do actually carry their young around on their backs. I've played fast and loose with some other spider facts, but at least visually speaking, that's what these guys look like.

Next week: the assassination mission begins!