A/N: Happy Tuesday! Who's up for an assassination mention? Now, back to the story Nyxako says is "like a slow burn but for converting people to thinking spiders aren't that bad"!

Sakura's breath came in an even, slow rhythm as she followed Kakashi through the edges of Konoha's forests. They were nearing the end of the first day of their mission, and Sakura was grateful for all the miles of running she had put in after Team Ro's morning practices. Of course, any ninja worth their salt was able to keep up a ground-eating lope when necessary, but not all of them could do it without breathing hard.

She was especially glad that she was able to keep up with Kakashi. He was running faster than he had when they'd been traveling with all of Team Ro—she wasn't sure if he was trying to test her, or if he just thought that this mission required a faster pace. It was still very difficult for her to read him.

The day before, he'd seemed like a completely normal person. When they'd talked about their summons together while the dogs and spiders had played, it had felt... easy. Even friendly. But that night she'd received another terse missive from him, this one telling her what to pack for their new mission. And this morning, when she'd met him at the gates of Konoha, he'd been all business—cold and professional beneath his hound mask, and completely silent as they began to run the first leg of their trip.

Sakura focused back on the present as Kakashi lifted a hand. She came to a halt as he did, glancing around the small clearing they were in. She was surprised when Kakashi pushed his ANBU mask up to the top of his head and addressed her aloud. "We'll be staying inside Fire Country's borders tonight, so there are no special rules. Enjoy it while you can—we'll be sticking to stealth protocol once we enter the Land of Hot Water tomorrow."

Since 'no special rules' meant they could have a fire, Sakura began to gather wood. In the center of the clearing, Kakashi summoned his dogs, murmuring orders to the pug that she'd learned was named Pakkun. It would seem that he'd decided that it was worth it to use his chakra to summon the ninken, and Sakura privately agreed—it meant that the dogs could keep watch and let them both get a full night's sleep. Sakura was grateful; using stealth protocol when they left Fire Country was going to be rough, especially since it meant they couldn't build a fire or summon the dogs when they stopped for the night.

When he was done, Kakashi took a seat against a fallen log, taking out his worn orange-jacketed book and angling it to catch the moonlight. Sakura sat cross-legged by the fire once she'd gotten it started, pulling a packet of rations out of her hip pouch. As she slowly chewed on a piece of dried beef, she stole a glance at Kakashi—verifying that he was still engrossed in his book—and then slowly slid her own novel out of her hip pouch, flipping it open to the last page she'd read. The romance wasn't exactly her style, but she'd figured she'd give it a try instead of her usual medical texts.

She frowned a little at the latest silly thing the heroine had done. Sometimes these romance books irritated her so much—it was why she didn't read them often, though she somehow always ended up finding her way back to them. It was possible she just liked being angry. But at least the books passed the time.

They passed a good half hour that way until the wind picked up and the temperature dropped, which caused Kakashi to get up and slouch closer to the fire. Sakura glanced up at the movement, still mentally lost in the world of her book, and was thus a little caught off-guard when Kakashi mused, "Looks like a real bodice-ripper."

Sakura blinked at him and then frowned as she looked down at the cover of her book, which did feature the heroine being embraced by a strapping, shirtless man—and the bodice of her dress did look like it was being threatened by the generosity of her chest. Maybe no actual bodice-ripping had occurred in the book—yet—but it was still exactly the kind of book Kakashi was implying: silly, romantic fluff. Sakura could feel heat rising to her cheeks.

Sputtering a little, she retorted, "Well, what about the book you're reading? At least mine doesn't require one of those," she said, pointing to the '18 and over' warning label.

"That's the best part." He sniffed as he sat down on the other side of the fire, lifting his book and waving it slightly. "This is much better than anything you'll find in the romance section. You should really give it a try sometime."

Sakura rolled her eyes and popped another piece of dried meat in her mouth, putting her book down with her other hand. The novel wasn't really holding her interest anymore, but she wasn't really sure what, if anything, to say to Kakashi—and he seemed more than happy to bury himself in his smut.

After chewing thoughtfully for a while, Sakura finally spoke again. "Are we going to go over the plan?"

Kakashi lowered his book, one deep grey eye focusing on her from across the fire. "I suppose now is as good a time as any. Here," he said, reaching into his hip pouch for a scroll and tossing it to her.

Catching and opening the scroll, Sakura found it to be a map of the northernmost reaches of the Land of Fire, as well as the neighboring Land of Hot Water and Land of Frost. Her eyes traced the marked path and reached a highlighted portion of Frost.

"Hot Water is mostly a tourist destination now, so we shouldn't have too much trouble moving through it—but as I mentioned, we'll be following stealth protocol once we leave Fire," Kakashi said as he pulled his own ration pack out of his pouch.

Sakura wrinkled her nose. She really wasn't looking forward to camping without a fire in the frigid Land of Frost.

"The highlighted portion of the map is Intelligence's best guess as to where the target will be. He's S-class, former ANBU," Kakashi continued, his tone darkening. "He was off the radar for a while, but I guess they picked up his trail again."

Sakura straightened. "Wait, he's former ANBU... as in, former Konoha ANBU?" When Kakashi nodded confirmation, she exclaimed, "You're kidding! Why did he go rogue?"

Kakashi's brows furrowed slightly. "It doesn't matter why. The 'why' isn't part of our job."

She frowned but didn't respond, her gaze returning to the fire as she thought about what he'd said.

"The Land of Frost is intensely political," Kakashi continued. "If they find out that Konoha nin are active within their borders without permission, it'll likely turn into an international incident. And if they find out that we're there chasing a rogue ANBU operative—" he paused, staring at her seriously.

"They'll probably try to recruit him, right?" Sakura asked, sure she was correct. Black ops agents carried a lot of secrets, both in the form of the information held in their minds and in the jutsu housed in their bodies. If Frost nin were able to recruit a Konoha ANBU operative, they'd be gaining untold advantages against Konoha. Sakura lifted her eyes to Kakashi again, noticing his jaw moving beneath his mask and wondering when he'd pulled his mask down long enough to pop some of his rations in his mouth. He really was sneaky—even for a ninja.

Kakashi nodded in response to her statement, adding, "We need to make sure that doesn't happen. Our orders are to eliminate the target, destroy the body, and do so without attracting any local attention." He paused for a moment in thought, then continued. "I'll need to assess the situation once we find the target, but for now assume that we'll fight him as a team, the way we've been practicing with Genma and Tenzo. I think you're ready."

His approval made her heart race, and she told herself it was because she was finally being recognized by her captain, whom she had grown to have a lot of respect for—even if he was a hardass. She beamed at him and he looked away, nodding toward the map.

"We'll spend our second night just outside of Frost's borders, and then we'll engage the target at dawn the next day." When she didn't do anything besides nod, he raised his brows at her. "Not going to question my orders this time?"

She lifted her chin willfully. "See how easy things go when you don't try to sideline me?"

Kakashi snorted and then stood. "I'm going to go check on the dogs. Memorize the map and then burn it."

"Yes, Captain."

The next morning Kakashi woke Sakura early and they moved off soon after, making their swift and silent way through the Land of Hot Water. Like Kakashi had told her, it was mostly a tourist trap at this point—with no real ninja presence to speak of, they stayed alert, but they didn't worry too much. That night they camped just outside the border of the Land of Frost. Though they had no fire because of stealth protocol, they camped near one of the hot springs that gave Hot Water its name, and the warmth of the ground beneath them kept the evening chill at bay.

When they woke the next morning, an hour before dawn, their silence felt more serious. They both removed their winter cloaks from their packs and put them on, grateful for the thick white fabric that would warm them and help them blend in to Frost's snowy landscape.

After they both double-checked their equipment, Sakura signed to him using ANBU sign language, asking permission to summon her spiders. When he looked doubtful, she clarified that she only wanted to summon two of the kind she called wound-closers. He debated for a moment—using summons or ninjutsu of any kind generally went against stealth protocol—but he finally relented.

Completing the summons, she approached him holding a spider—one of the same mother spiders she'd previously used to heal Genma and Tenzo. It was roughly the size of her palm, and on its abdomen rode the twenty-odd spiderlings that would use their silk to close any wounds he incurred. Sakura reached up toward the neck hole of his cloak, and he jerked back slightly, giving her a dubious look.

She scowled at him, slowly signing with the hand that wasn't holding a spider, They get cold.

Kakashi narrowed his one open eye at her. Unlike Genma, he didn't really have a problem with spiders, but that didn't mean he went around welcoming them into his clothes. Sighing, he nodded, and Sakura reached her hand out to let the spider skitter under his cloak. Thankfully, it must've stayed on the outside of his flak jacket, because he didn't feel it as it disappeared under the thick white wool.

Once Sakura had placed the other mother spider and all of her spiderlings under her own cloak, they both left their camp and crossed the border into the Land of Frost. The terrain definitely reflected its name, with a thick layer of snow blanketing the evergreen forest they ran through. Beneath the snow was a layer of ice that occasionally made running treacherous, and it was slick enough that Kakashi used a small amount of chakra in his feet to give himself traction. Since Sakura wasn't having any problems running, he assumed she was doing the same.

After a good hour of travel inside of Frost's borders, they finally approached the area that had been highlighted on their map—the area where the target was expected to be hiding. Kakashi made a signal to get Sakura's attention as he came to a stop beneath a large conifer. As she landed beside him, he pointed to her and signaled, Wait. Then he pointed to himself and signed, Scout. She nodded, showing him that she understood that he was scouting ahead, and she was to wait behind. Kakashi turned and took off at a run, moving through the woods on silent feet.

It took him only a few minutes to find the target's camp, and Kakashi said a silent thank you for good intel. The camp was right where the map had said it would be, and the target appeared to be completely unaware and wrapped in his bedroll. He considered taking out the target right then, by himself, but he decided to go back for Sakura. After all, the plan he'd given her was for them to attack the target together, and it would be silly for him to undermine his own plan. Besides, she'd probably lose it if he sidelined her again.

Deciding not to examine why he cared so much whether Sakura lost it, he made his way back toward her. When he reached her again, he signed, Target asleep at camp.

She nodded, and then stood there watching him from behind her impassive spider mask, waiting for his orders. After a moment's thought, he signed, You attack from the front. I'll flank.

She tilted her head at him, and he assumed that she was probably a little surprised that he'd given her the forward position. But her skillset made her well-suited for leading the charge, and she'd provide a nice, big distraction while Kakashi snuck up to finish the job. When Sakura nodded to show her agreement, he signed to tell her that she was to give him a three-minute head start, and then he left her behind, cutting diagonally across the forest to get himself into position.

As he reached the perfect position to flank the target from, he paused momentarily, knowing from his own innate sense of timing that he had about one minute left of the head start Sakura was giving him. He quietly eased his sword out of its sheath, taking a deep breath. This fight was probably going to be fast and ugly. He expected that his and Sakura's combined presence would allow them to overcome the target quickly.

Just as the minute ran out, a twig snapped softly behind him, and Kakashi spun and managed to get his sword up in time to block a kunai with a loud clang. The enemy nin behind it came forward with his full weight behind the weapon, and Kakashi had just enough time to recognize the man's Frost headband before he threw him back.

He was immediately engaged by a second Frost ninja, and a third darted out from the trees to his right, flinging several shuriken. Kakashi did his best to block them, but felt one get through his defenses and leave a gash on the edge of his shoulder.

Kakashi's mind raced. This wasn't a random guard detail—these ninja had been waiting for him. That could only mean one thing. He and Sakura were too late—the target from Konoha had clearly already made a deal with the shinobi from Frost Country. What was worse, they must've expected an attack and had laid a trap for them. With Kakashi and Sakura separated, as well as outnumbered, it was an extremely deadly trap.

As he analyzed the situation, Kakashi quickly arrived at a conclusion, and he leaped upward into the tree above him, buying himself a precious few seconds. In those moments, he shoved his hand up beneath his ANBU mask, ripped down his fabric mask, put his fingers in his mouth and let out three ear-splitting whistles—two long, one short with loud blast at the end. It was an old code, but if Sakura had been studying the materials he'd given her, she'd know what it meant.

It meant the plan was abandoned. It meant that, in the face of possible death, their new mission was to rain down as much destruction as they could. Most literally, the whistled code meant: Cover blown. Destroy with extreme prejudice.

In the distance, from the direction that Kakashi had left Sakura in, he heard an explosion, and hoped it was the sound of her wreaking havoc. He spared a brief moment to regret that she'd been paired with him—and to regret that he probably wouldn't be able to get to her before the enemy did.

And then he stopped thinking, and all that was left was the fight.

When Sakura heard Kakashi's harsh whistles piercing through the snowy forest, her stomach dropped, and she immediately started running in the direction he'd disappeared in. She knew what that whistle meant. It meant that Kakashi had encountered an enemy outside the mission objective—probably a lot of enemies—and that he was overwhelmed enough to break stealth protocol.

It also meant he thought he probably wasn't going to survive the fight—and that he planned to take down as many enemies with him as he could.

Before she left the clearing she was in, Sakura brought her foot down in a chakra-powered stomp that thoroughly destroyed the ground beneath her, the sound echoing in the wake of the ringing whistle. She didn't yet know what kind of enemy they would be facing, but she hoped the loud sound of the explosive stomp would send some of them looking in this direction—and away from Kakashi.

There were no attacking enemies as she sprinted in Kakashi's direction, however, only the crackle of blueish-purple lightning in the distance. As she grew closer to the light show that Kakashi was creating, she drew her sword, running hard until she finally came upon the clearing that all of the noise and light were coming from.

Sakura slid to a stop as Kakashi came into view. Her eyes darted over the scene as she swiftly took in the situation. There were already two dead nin on the ground, both marked by what she suspected where lightning burns. A third lay against a nearby tree, struggling to staunch the flow of blood from a deep slash through his abdomen. Three more Frost nin were engaging Kakashi, one staying in the trees and firing kunai while the other two attempted to take him on with their swords.

Sakura bit her thumb and painted a streak of blood across her palm, slamming it into the ground, and when Kin and Gin appeared, she barked, "Clean up!"

Both of the dog-sized spiders immediately leaped toward the heavily wounded man. Knowing they would easily finish him off with their fangs and venom, Sakura ran ahead of them and jumped up into the trees. The man who had been flinging kunai at Kakashi was now forming hand signals in preparation to release some sort of jutsu.

The man's eyes widened as she landed on the branch beside him, and he tried to turn himself toward her in time, but he wasn't fast enough. Sakura's fist connected with his head, his skull crushed in beneath her chakra-infused knuckles. As his now-lifeless body hurtled off the branch to the ground below, Sakura followed it, landing neatly behind Kakashi.

"Spider," Kakashi said by way of greeting, his voice strained, and Sakura thought there was a thread of relief there as well. She could see a few bloody places where the enemy nin had gotten through his defenses and hoped that the spiderlings she'd given him were doing a good job of holding him together. The fact that the wounds looked relatively minor was a good sign.

"Where's the target?" she hissed, catching sight of two silhouettes coming out of the forest in front of her. A glance behind her showed two more ninja had joined the pair Kakashi already faced, but none of them were who she was really worried about. She could tell from their chakra signatures that most of them weren't higher than chunin level, and none of them were higher than jonin. Now that she and Kakashi were together, she was confident they could handle them. The target, however, was an S-class ninja, and had warranted both of their skills even before they'd known that he also had a veritable platoon of Frost nin.

"I'm sure he'll be along soon," Kakashi mused in a deceptively calm voice. "I want you to execute attack pattern epsilon."

Sakura drew a deep breath and said, "Yes, Captain," and then they both flew into action.

Epsilon was the two-man strategy that she'd been learning to use with Kakashi. It required a lot of skill on the part of both swordsmen, but more importantly, it required trust. In order to allow Kakashi the ability to exert more forward force, he had to leave his flank completely unguarded. He had to trust not only that Sakura would protect his back, but when it came time for them to exchange places and attack their foes from an unexpected angle, he had to trust that Sakura wouldn't fail in the maneuver—like she had so many times during practice.

But Sakura didn't fail. Her blood singing in her ears, she hit all of her marks perfectly, and as she and Kakashi fought together it felt like a dance. Sakura played defense as Kakashi took down one enemy nin, only to spin under his arm to spear a nin on his other side as he stopped a slash to her back. As their enemies fell, their bodies were descended upon by Kin and Gin, who were quick to finish them off.

The way all of their training had resulted in what felt like a perfect display of teamwork made Sakura's heart sing, and she felt a small laugh bubble from her lips. But her joy was short-lived as she stepped wrong and faltered long enough to allow the last nin to get in a deep slash along her thigh. Kakashi spun around her wounded side and dispatched her final opponent with a brutal slash across his throat, biting out, "Damn it, Spider!"

"I'm sorry, Captain," Sakura rasped as she staggered, a wince crossing her features as the first of the spiderlings that had been hidden beneath her cloak found her wound and went to work knitting it closed.

Kakashi spun to face her, Sharingan glowing from behind his mask, and she was surprised to hear real anger in his voice as he said in a hushed growl, "Next time you want to start laughing in the middle of a sword fight, I suggest you restrain yourself and stay focused on—"

"Still a bastard, huh Hound?" A male voice rang through the clearing, interrupting Kakashi. Sakura and tensed and turned her head to face their newest opponent.

She didn't have to ask to know that this was their target. She could easily feel his chakra from across the clearing, and the murderous intent that roiled beneath it. Locking his mismatched eyes onto the man, Kakashi murmured in a voice low enough that only she could hear it. "You're injured. Stay out of it this time. I mean it, Spider."

Something in the tone of his voice made it impossible to argue, no matter how much she wanted to. For one thing, her wound was deep, and she knew it would slow her down—and there was no way she could heal it before Bear attacked. But perhaps more importantly, the tone of Kakashi's voice gave her the feeling that this was personal. That feeling only got stronger when Kakashi raised his voice and said, "I'm here to take you out, Bear."

Bear laughed, apparently amused to hear his ANBU code name. "It's been a while since anybody called me that."

"No one's ever going to call you that again," Kakashi said in a softer, darker voice as he slowly slid his sword back into its sheath. Dropping his hands, there was a moment where he paused, and then he was silhouetted against the bright flare of lightning in his fist, and he launched into action so fast that Sakura could barely follow it.

For the first time, Sakura understood something—she'd been holding him back. They all had. Watching him fight was incredible; the awe she felt was similar to what she'd felt all those years ago, watching Sasuke and Naruto battle like gods in the Valley of the End. She'd seen a lot more since then, though, and she was a lot harder to impress. But Kakashi was incandescent in his blazing fury, and Sakura was moved by his skill—and his ruthlessness.

Lightning licked across the clearing, and Bear met it with a tunnel of fire that Kakashi only barely managed to evade. Both of their hands flew in a blur of hand signals, each man targeting each other in a succession of jutsu, but Bear was outclassed. When he used fire, Kakashi countered with water. When he switched to earth, Kakashi stole his jutsu with the Sharingan and met his flying chakra boulders with his own.

As Sakura watched the fight, she was careful to heal her leg just enough to get it functioning again, letting the spiderlings do most of the heavy lifting. She knew that Kakashi would need healing after the fight, and conserving chakra was important during a mission—although she was beginning to think that Kakashi had forgotten that. He was using his chakra at an alarming clip, being much more excessive with it than he'd ever been in practice, and if he didn't end the fight soon Sakura feared that Bear would outlast him.

Kakashi must have been thinking the same thing, because this time when Bear rushed him Kakashi held his ground, his fist blooming with electricity. A strangled sound left Sakura's mouth as Bear's kunai slid into Kakashi's side at the same moment that Kakashi's electrified fist punched through his chest.

Before she could even think about it, Sakura was moving, ignoring the pain from her injured leg. Bear choked out blood and then slumped forward against Kakashi, who pulled his bloodied fist back and let him fall lifelessly to the ground. Staggering but keeping his feet, Kakashi raised his hand to the wound in his side, but Sakura was already there, slapping it away. "Sit down. Let me—"

"Heal yourself," he argued, but his voice was a little shaky as he sank to his knees, his blood hot as it seeped between her fingers.

"I'm fine!" she snapped, her hand humming with chakra as she pressed it firmly to his wound, ignoring his hiss of pain. As her chakra entered his body and assessed the damage, Sakura could feel how much the blood loss and growing chakra exhaustion had weakened him, and a frisson of panic went through her. She never should have let him fight alone, whether she was wounded or not, especially when he had the tendency to put himself in danger in order to finish the mission. Gritting her teeth, she growled, "You're the one who's trying to die on me! Again! Idiot!"

"Good thing..." Kakashi coughed and then gave a pained, humorless laugh as he tried again. "Good thing I have a medic..."

And then, before she could respond or yell at him again for how stupid he was, his Sharingan winked out from behind his mask, and he went limp in her arms.