Chapter 12

Edited 18.12.2015

Journey

Getting rid of Naruto when leaving on a mission was probably the hardest part of said mission. In his opinion, being away for a week was "forever" and anything more than that equaled "eternity".

So telling Naruto that she was going to be away for a month was sure to end up badly.

After revealing that she was going to be away for four weeks, getting out of Narutos bear hug was a mission in itself. His hugs could be called S-class hug –death- traps that were impossible to escape.

When Sakura finally made it to their meeting point, after freeing herself from the hug-Of-Death, she was already 30 minutes late, her hair was sticking up in every direction, she was out of breath AND she was pretty sure that Naruto had bruised at least three of her ribs. Seeing Tachi standing there quietly, as if he had waited for her this whole time made her flinch, this was the 2nd time she had made him wait for her.

"Oh God! I'm so sorry Tachi! It took me forever to pack!" Itachi didn't mention that she had packed earlier when he was still at her house. "And then I had to say bye to my friends." there was a friend yes, and he didn't know how to keep his hands to himself.

"Sakura-San, it's fine," Itachi said quietly, calmly. He had been following her after all, so he knew why she was late and it wasn't her fault.

Sakura smiled brightly, clearly happy that he wasn't mad at her and turned to walk towards the gates with Itachi right next to her. Neither of them felt the need to break the comfortable silence and the fact pleased Itachi.

When traveling with Kisame, The Mist nin felt the constant need for needles chatter.

'It seems there will not be such a problem with Sakura,' Itachi thought with a smirk.

"It should take us about two days to reach our destination, as there is no need to hurry," Sakura said calmly as they reached the gates. Itachi nodded, knowing this. They were in no hurry after all.

"Aa," Itachi agreed quietly as they passed the gates.

…

"This is just my luck," Sakura grumped as they tried to find a cave to hide from the pouring rain. The 1st part of their journey went smoothly enough, their pace was steady and comfortable, but it was when the 1st drop of water hit Sakuras face that she knew their journey would be cut short soon enough.

"I think there should be a cave nearby," Tachi said quietly and pointed to the caves direction.

"Thank god!" Sakura sighed and followed his lead.

The cave was small, but could easily enough fit the both of them if they sat close enough. Sakura crawled in first, wanting to get out of the pouring, cold rain as fast as possible. Tachi came in after her, much more leisurely.

There wasn't enough room to build a fire as the smoke would fill the small cave fast enough, but Sakura didn't mind. She took of her drenched travel coat, glad to find that her clothes under the cloak had stayed dry enough. She looked up to find Tachi taking of his cloak as well, noticing that he wasn't that wet either.

"We should stay here till the rain stops, the trees are too slippery to travel safely in this weather," Sakura said and tried to squeeze some water out of her hair.

"Aa," Tachi agreed quietly and sat down next to her.

There was a comfortable silence that was broken by Sakuras shivers.

"You are cold," Tachi noted.

"Eh, it's ok, I can just use chakra to warm myself up! Tsunade showed me thi-"

"Come here," Tachi ordered quietly and lifted his left arm up, as if inviting her to sit closer to him. Sakura blushed at the bold invitation, but reasoned with herself that it was logical to share body heat. After all, you never knew if they were attacked and she would need her chakra.

So with a small blush she crawled to sit next to the quiet Anbu and almost flinched as he laid his arm on her shoulder to pull her closer. But as soon as she felt how warm he was, she relaxed,

'How can he be so warm?' Sakura thought in wonder and snuggled closer to his side, making the quiet ninja chuckle. She decided to ask him as much.

"I have an affinity to fire," he answered smoothly and shrugged.

Sakura humned, not really listening to more as she found a comfortable position with her head pillowed on his chest. Traveling the most part of a day in pouring rain could drain even the best of them. It escaped her notice that Tachi didn't seem tired at all.

"Sleep, Sakura, I will keep watch," Tachi said quietly.

She was asleep before he finished his sentence.

…

"Sakura," this was the fifth time he had tried to wake her, but it seemed like she slept like the dead after getting comfortable. And it seemed she was comfortable enough, as she had squirmed her way onto his lap. He didn't mind it in the least, but he did mind about the awfully familiar chakra signature that was closing in on them.

"Nee, Tachi-Kun, five more minutes," Sakura whined in his ear and snuggled her face into his neck.

If they had the time, he wouldn't deny her plea, but they had to leave before he found them like this.

"Sakura, wake up, we need to go," Itachi said, firmer this time.

Sakura opened her eyes slowly and yawned. She looked around, her mind still foggy, but when she realized where she was, and how, she blushed brightly. She tried to scramble off of his lap, but Tachi held her down and covered her mouth before she could say anything.

"Quiet, someone has found us," Tachi whispered and removed his hand slowly in case she would yell out.

Sakura seemed to understand the situation as she nodded and stayed quiet. She looked around warily, clearly trying to sense who was following them. She could sense that the signature was large and powerful, but she couldn't place yet who it was.

"Who is it?" Sakura asked quietly, reaching for her cloak in case they would have to leave.

"Akatsuki," he answered, making Sakura gulp.

"How many?" Sakura asked carefully.

"Only one," Tachi said and got up when Sakura got off of him fully. He knew it would be risky to meet Kisame. He was not the smartest fish in the sea and he could blow his cover faster than he could say "hn". The best way was to send Sakura ahead while he took care of the problem.

"I want you to go ahead, I can hold him back and then follow you," Tachi said and put on his own cloak.

"I will not leave you here to fight him off alone!"

"Sakura listen-," he started, but she cut him off.

"No, you listen here mister! We're in this together," she said stubbornly, making Itachi sigh.

"You do not unde-"

"What a touching reunion between Konoha nin, eeeh?"

…

And as always, thank you for reading and have a nice day!

R&R

TY

-Hana