Jakuten: Bingo Book Bash
Kakashi stood watch over his two sleeping students.
To think Itachi had been lurking in the forests around the village... Itachi had clearly let them go for his own reasons.
He ruminated on that, idly watching the low flame flicker along the pale pink strands that veiled Sakura's sleeping face.
She'd acted like a true shinobi through the encounter with Itachi. They'd both grown in leaps and bounds, they'd shown him that in the second bell test, but Sakura's changes struck him differently.
She had grown up right there in the village and Kakashi had not been witness, or even a contributing factor to her growth in that time.
And yet there she was, wordlessly working with him in tandem, precisely the kind of shinobi he'd pick to be by his side for the worst missions. The Chidori-esque strike through the Itachi-clone's heart had been something to behold. It wasn't often that Kakashi was caught by surprise.
She shifted a bit in her sleep, a frown wrinkling her brow briefly, twisting her burned lip as it did so. He frowned a little in turn, remembering afresh how half that lip had been torn away just hours before.
The smell of burned meat seemed to fill the air again.
He tore his eyes away and stared into the forest.
Sakura, to her surprise, woke to sunlight hitting her face. The sun was high enough that it had to be almost 9.
She sat up immediately, almost expecting Sensei to have left her behind to teach her a lesson about oversleeping.
He was nowhere to be found, Naruto's still-sleeping, still-trussed up form the only living thing around the campfire. She turned in bewilderment, looking for him.
"Good morning." He approached from the riverbank, adjusting his mask. He shook still-wet hair out like an oversized dog, then eye-smiled down at her as his silver bangs flopped back down. "How'd you sleep?"
"You didn't wake me for my watch," she accused.
"But I did, Sakura, I did," A mock-mournful tone entered his voice. "For hours and hours, but you punched a couple of my ribs out in your sleep so I had to suffer through the night."
"Liar!"
The commotion woke Naruto up. Yawning, he attempted a stretch but was impeded by his bindings.
"Hey, are you really going to keep me tied up?"
"Yes, Naruto, and Sakura here is really going to carry you back, now that she has the full night's beauty sleep that she fought so valiantly for."
"You're a stinking liar, sensei."
"Nevertheless." He hoisted Naruto up and dumped him in Sakura's lap.
Grumbling, she gathered him up in her arms.
Naruto looked away shyly, a cartoonish blush coming to his cheeks.
"..Please take good care of me.."
She dropped him back on the ground unceremoniously.
"Senseeeeei-"
"Now, now. Be good." Kakashi-sensei smothered over the remains of the campfire and kicked away the log. Soon there was no sign that anyone had ever camped there. He glanced to the sky.
"We should be back in Konoha by noon. Let's go!"
Knowing better than to continue protesting, she slung Naruto over her shoulder and kicked off after him.
Noon was a pretty conservative pace given the distance they had to travel, and that coupled with his leniency with the nightwatch confirmed Sakura's suspicions.
Sensei had been scared shitless yesterday.
She could tell from how he'd immediately fumed killing intent the moment Itachi had entered the field, frantically trying to intimidate him away from Naruto. And how he'd held her, shaking, not even knowing he was shaking her with the strength of his tremors, when Naruto had given into the Kyuubi. And now all this, with keeping Naruto in a tight little tied up ball and letting her sleep the whole night.
Sensei was still treating them like children. After all the effort she'd put into getting stronger, and the excitement she'd had when it looked like Sensei was starting to respect them after the bell test, one little village traitor and kyuubi tail to the face had Sensei tucking them all under his arm and running back to Konoha.
She made a face at his back. I killed Sasori, you know.
She decided to stress that point later. For now, she was distracted by Naruto's breathing in her ear.
"Hah, hah..."
"Naruto! You're not even the one running, what're you breathing so hard for!" she snapped.
"You're not, hah, exactly, *hurgh, being gentle," He gasped, as her shoulder drove into his diaphragm with every bound.
"Don't be a baby." She adjusted him on her shoulder anyway and started taking her jumps more smoothly.
They arrived ahead of time, landing in front of the gate neatly.
She let Naruto slide to the ground and stretched her back. Strong though she was, Naruto had magically seemed to get heavier with each passing mile.
Kakashi-sensei, clearly expecting an earful from Shishou, shooed her off, hoisting Naruto up on his own shoulder.
"I'll make the report to Tsunade-sama with Naruto. You go get some rest."
Any resentment at being coddled like a child was overwhelmed by the desire to really wash up and put her feet up. She threw him a cheeky salute, and walked off into the village.
She'd barely healed up the last of her lingering burns when a blond head poked through her window.
"You're back! I came by yesterday night and didn't see you, I thought yesterday was supposed to be just training?"
"Oh man, Ino, it's a loooong story."
"Did something happen with Naaaarutoo~?" Ino waggled her eyebrows.
Sakura rolled her eyes at her. "Yes, in fact, Ino, something did. But not in the way you're implying."
Ino's eyebrows shot up. "No way, I was half joking, you actually like him now?"
"No!" Sakura shook her head. "I mean actually not in the way you're thinking. Kyuubi stuff."
Ino scrunched her face. "Oh, that's no fun." She eyed her up and down. "Sounds like everything's okay now though? I haven't heard of any nearby countries disappearing."
Sakura gestured for Ino to enter the room fully. "Yeah, Sensei got it under control. All good."
"Mmmm, Kakashi-sensei~" she dodged Sakura's swing with a giggling shriek. "Okay, okay, but we have bigger things to talk about now."
"What's bigger than that?"
"My dick." Ino easily caught the pillow Sakura hurled at her face and tossed it aside. "Just kidding, your Bash!"
"My what?" Sakura grimaced. "Ino, why are you so gross?"
"No, your Bingo Book Bash!" Ino threw her arms out and spun. "You killed Sasori of the Red Sands for your first bingo kill! Don't tell me you weren't going to do it!"
"That's sooo dumb, Ino." When Konoha had settled into relative prosperity after the war, it had become a trend for young ninja to throw a party with the bounty money from their first bingo kill. A way of giving back to the Konoha economy, if you will, in the most fun way possible. "Besides, it might be disrespectful to Suna now?"
"They wanted him gone anyway, Sakura. Come on, you've got to! You've collected your bounty already, right? I'll plan it for you, just gimme the budget. I'm thinking Rusted Kunai for the venue, open bar, get everyone from our year in."
Sakura scratched her head. "I can't possibly spend all my bounty money on one party."
Ino drew close. "How much?"
She whispered it in Ino's ear. Her blue eyes widened.
"We're going to have to get a bigger venue."
"Ino, I don't know any of these people."
"Yeah, but they all want to get to know you." Ino threw a vodka shot back and looked around, satisfied. The princess of T/I didn't need even a full day to pull a village together for a party.
The embassy ballroom was packed. A place that usually held receptions for visiting royalty and kages, it was the only place in the small village that had a space large enough to accommodate a party of this magnitude.
And what a party it was. Sakura was willing to bet most of Konoha's military force was concentrated in this building tonight, though only a few wore their uniforms. She grinned as one of the few proved to be Kakashi-sensei, stubbornly sticking to his flak jacket despite the festive atmosphere. He seemed to still be in the middle of getting yelled at by Shishou, an impressive feat seeing as it was now late evening and Ino had needed to interrupt to get Shishou's permission to use the embassy.
She was downing sake between bouts of yelling though, so Sensei was getting plenty of breaks.
Old, young, ninja, civilian, there wasn't a single slice of Konoha that wasn't represented in the building that night. Sakura eyed a short little thing she was almost positive was an Academy student, but shrugged and went for another drink at one of the bar stands. The group milling around it welcomed her with a cheer.
"Saaa-ku-ra, the Sasori Killer!" Coming out of a crew of young chunin she didn't know, Kiba slung an arm around her and raised his drink high, grinning loosely. The unfamiliar faces brightened up.
"You're Sakura? That's awesome! You're Tsunade-sama's apprentice too, right?" The crowd drew eagerly near.
She grinned, bashful at all the attention. "Just here to grab a drink, don't mind me."
Kiba shook her playfully. "You've got to tell us all about it, this is what that's for!"
At their urging, perhaps aided by the few drinks she'd had already, she launched into the tale.
With maybe a little dramatization.
"And he kneeled and looked up. With his last breath, he said, "I'm honored that my last battle was with such a fearsome warrior. I'll tell you what you want to know." just like that. It was such important information that it's going to be our next mission, straight from Tsunade-sama."
"Woaaahhh.."
She grinned and finally got her drink, reveling a little in the awe of the group of younger chunin, wondering if perhaps this feeling was why Kakashi-sensei sometimes put little unnecessary flourishes in his moves. At that point, a pulsing, driving beat added fresh energy to the already exuberant party.
Kiba immediately started bouncing to the beat "You want to dance?"
She waved the suggestion away, pointing to her glass. "Gotta finish this."
He shrugged, and whooping, he jumped into the mass of young ninjas starting to move on the dance floor, leading the rest of the young chunin group out with him.
Ino popped up next to her as if by magic. "Finally they showed up, I was about to send for the back up band," she fussed.
"It was already going great, Ino, thanks so much for putting this together."
Ino brushed off the thanks, still fussing. "You were right though, I couldn't use the full budget, that bounty was insane. Trust me, I tried."
Laughing, Sakura leaned back with Ino, basking in the warm glow that alcohol lent and smiled at how everything was going.
"Oooh, look at that."
Three newcomers approached the bar stand. They were still in their Anbu gear, and walked like they knew it was drawing the attention of the younger ninjas around them.
The tallest one noticed her first, his eyes flicking up to the pink hair.
"Heyyy, the kunoichi of the hour!"
The other two turned to her as well, interested.
One lit up in a big, mischievous grin that reminded her of Naruto in a pranking mood."Congrats, your first bounty already? What are you, like 14?"
"16, actually," Ino snipped at the joker. He held up his hands.
"Hey, no disrespect, I don't even have one yet. That's wild, Sasori's a big name too."
Sakura narrowed her eyes at him, trying to figure him out. But she'd had enough drinks that she was in a generous mood. "Thanks.."
The tall one snickered. "Yeah, maybe you'd get to tick that box if you actually did stuff on missions, slacker."
The joker elbowed him playfully. "Hey, don't shit on me in front of the prodigy! How old were you?"
"Big 1 and 8, man, way ahead of you here." The joker turned to the other one, who spoke up shyly.
"I was actually 16 too, nowhere as big a name as Sasori though." He shot her a small smile.
The tall one jostled him. "Yeah right!"
"I did!" Shy Boy protested. "It was a Dog mission."
Sakura cocked a head. "A dog mission?"
The others pshhed.
"No way you were on a Dog mission. You would have told us that wayy before this."
Shy Boy held his ground, glancing at Sakura quickly. "I don't like to brag. It was before you guys joined.."
The joker snickered. "Hey, hey, I was on a Dog mission too, that was when I killed Madara Uchiha, remember that, guys?"
"Not that one, but I do think I remember the other one. It was good work."
The group immediately went silent as Kakashi-sensei joined the conversation.
"And trust me, I never forget a Dog mission."
Sakura turned to him, trying to make sense of this. "Sensei, what's a dog mission?"
"I might tell you when you're older." The three Anbu slinked away during the back and forth, the louder two beating a fast retreat that Sakura was amused to see.
"I'm plenty old now, sensei. Wanna see? " She threw her arms out wide, playfully inviting him to fight, but he laughed and pulled away.
"No Sakura, I don't think I'll ever want to see."
She took a drunken jab at his arm, which he batted away easily. "Coward!"
With a grinning shrug, he started to leave. Her memory threw up a reminder through the haze of alcohol.
"I killed Sasori, you know!"
He laughed again, strange because he usually never laughed out loud. Sakura decided she liked the sound, but he melted away back into the crowd before she could tell him so.
Ino whipped her back towards her, turning her back to more important things.
"Shy Boy likes you."
Refocusing, she took a moment to figure out what she was talking about and nodded. "Shy Boy definitely likes me."
"You going to go for it?"
Sakura shook her head, laughing. "I've talked to him like twice, Ino. Plus, I'm not going to start something at my own party."
"If not your own, then whose?" Ino looked back over her shoulder slyly at the boy. "I bet you he's cool, and you'll probably make his life if you do."
She paused and pursed her lips.
"Unless you're holding out for Narutooooo~"
In the corner, Naruto had pulled a strand of ramen through both his nostrils and was chasing a drunken Rock Lee around the bar. Judging by Lee's cries, he believed he was being pursued by a new species of orange carp.
She snorted, and joined Ino in looking at Shy Boy sidelong. He was cute...
Buoyed by Ino's giggling, she made up her mind and started to make her way towards him.
She was almost there when a strong, large, masculine hand caught her wrist and pulled her back.
"Don't."
She whirled back to face the man obstructing her way to a good time.
Their eyes locked, and held.
Hope you enjoyed! You might already know what the reference to a Dog mission is if you read Small Leaves.
~Withered Pages~