Fire: Welcome to chapter six of Wait for Me: Following.

Kakashi: We're finally getting to the interesting part.

Fire: All the parts are interesting parts.

Kakashi: No! This part is interesting because there's more of me in it.

Fire: Okay…

Kakashi: (reaches into the Bag of Reviews and pulls out a window) Have a review.

Fire: Yay! (reads the review)

Kakashi: What does it say?

Fire: They think Sakura's become evil too quickly. I replied to the sender, but I'll explain it to anyone else out there with the same thoughts. Sakura's not really evil right now. She's still in the transitional stage. Sakura is acting this way because she's cranky from lack of sleep, Orochimaru's giving her a hard time by not teaching her anything worth learning--like powerful jutsu since he's a crazy power monger--and he's getting her confused with Tsunade whom she wanted to forget along with everything about Konoha, especially all her memories about Team Seven, Naruto and Sasuke. A girl with strength like Sakura, in a bad mood, will look evil to anyone. All this will become a lot more clear in the next few chapters, so don't worry too much if you read this and say: that's not what I read!

Kakashi: That's long.

Fire: Oh! And Sakura's treating Orochimaru like he's Naruto--when Naruto's being stupid and annoying--since he's acting stupid and annoying right now. Orochimaru is mistaking Sakura for Tsunade and he sort of reacts like he did back in his childhood when Tsunade used to hit him. This awkward stage between them won't last though. I just thought that it was funny and decided to put it in. I hope that explained a little about their strange behaviour.

Kakashi: Uh...aren't you going to stop?

Fire: And for the KakaSaku fans, the KakaSaku pairing won't come up until near the end of the story. Gomen nasai. But, the next book in the series will focus more on that pairing.

Kakashi: Nani! I'm her sensei! I can't fall in love with my student! That is completely against the rules! I could get killed for--

Fire: And for anyone reviewing, I don't understand a lot of the net abbreviations, so please don't write them. I might understand English, but net abbreviations are a whole new language on its own and is completely confusing to me. Now, on with the chapter!

Kakashi: Hey! I'm not done yet!

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Chapter 6: Glimpses of the Sakura

Anko was worried when Kakashi and his party hadn't returned. In fact, they had gone over the two hour limit that the grey-haired jounin had set for the team. For a moment, she thought about leaving Kabuto and going after Kakashi, but...

Her hand rose subconsciously to the cursed seal on her shoulder.

...Orochimaru will know that she was here.

If she was in Konoha...if she had someone with her who could take over for her and watch Kabuto, she would have been her usual impulsive self and just taken off for Orochimaru. But she didn't, so she didn't go. Right now, she couldn't just leave Kabuto alone. She just had to trust that Kakashi could handle it on his own...that his team was competent enough to handle this. They were all high class ninja...although she couldn't help but worry about them.

For two minutes, she paced worriedly around the cave. Back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth. Like a caged animal. Kabuto...the cave entrance...Kabuto...the cave entrance...Kabuto...the cave entrance...

'I have to see what's keeping them so long!'

Anko turned to the cave entrance once more, only to see a shadow blocking the exit. "O–Orochimaru!"

A small smile creased the face shrouded in shadow before her visitor walked forwards. "No." A female voice. "Not Orochimaru."

Momentary darkness engulfed the kunoichi who stood at the entrance, but Anko had seen her enough times at the Hokage tower during this particular kunoichi's training to know whom it was. "S–Sakura-chan!"

Sakura walked slowly toward the jounin. She and Orochimaru had split up to cover more ground. However, she had never thought that she would actually find Kabuto...and with a 'prime example of how the seal works' too, although she was sure this wasn't what Orochimaru had meant.

Mild elation crossed over Anko's face. She had agreed to come on this mission, but she had no real attachments to Sakura. Besides, Kakashi had said that he had seen her walk willingly to Orochimaru. Sakura had wanted to see Orochimaru. "Sakura-chan...we've found you!" Her voice was filled with cautious joy. But Anko's face fell again as she looked at the girl. She could see that something was wrong. Sakura wasn't happy to see her. "I'm not letting you take Kabuto," and this next phrase was dark, heavy with warning.

Sakura waved it aside with a sweet smile, the same smile that used to hold some sense of peace. There was only malice in it now. "Why Anko-san..." she said slowly as she walked forwards, her hands testing out the fit of her dark gloves. They still fit comfortably, but she hadn't expected it to change. She just wanted to make sure that her hands were ready for the shock of impact. "...I didn't come here to negotiate."

The old Sakura would never have been able to do this...but for Sasuke, for Naruto, she would endure. "Just hand me the boy, and you won't–" She was about to tell Anko that she wouldn't get hurt, but Sakura wasn't going to say anything like that. That was a lie, and no matter what Sakura had become, she had morals.

But, Anko had understood the pink-haired girl even with the unfinished sentence. The purple-haired woman fell back into a defensive stance as she tried to decide whether to run or fight. Her mind ran around inside her head in circles, trying to remember what Kakashi had said to her.

Sakura had left the village back at the end of June, spotted entering Otogakure at the end of August. It was mid-September now. That meant that she has had about a month of training from Orochimaru...if he had decided to train her.

'Chikusho!' The woman took a wary step back, a cold sweat breaking out across her back. If she understood this correctly, a month was all Sakura needed to learn some very powerful kinjutsu. Anko had heard Tsunade talk about her genius apprentice more than once.

It was best that she abandon this fight, as much as she hated to admit it. This pink-haired girl who was once a chuunin of Konoha, was a much more powerful shinobi of Oto now.

Anko vanished before Sakura could think of launching a strike with one of her gloved hands.

The tokubetsu jounin fell against a tree outside the cave, her heart pounding loudly in her ears. She pressed her palm against her chest in an effort to stop her heart from leaping out across the canopy, her eyes fixed on the cave below. It was going to be a little while longer before Sakura left the cave, and it wasn't safe to stay to go back there, but they weren't going to use it anymore anyway. When Kakashi returns, Anko would tell him what she had learned. Sakura was here. Now it was time to bring her home.

Sakura stood, her hands flexing in their gloves. Her feet shifted from side to side as her mind registered what had just happened. Of all people, Mitarashi Anko-san had run away from her. Mitarashi Anko-san had avoided her. Mitarashi Anko-san didn't want to fight her!

The pink-haired kunoichi was shaking all over. She was more powerful than the purple-haired tokubetsu jounin. Anko wasn't a baka. She knew how to assess the situation, how to assess her opponent...and the woman had thought that she–that Haruno Sakura–was stronger. That was the only reason why she would run away like that.

But, even as elation ran through the kunoichi's body, realization chased after it...realization that Anko was here, and that she might not be alone...realization that there was probably a reconnaissance team of four people out there, looking for her...realization that her sensei might very well be one of the people on that team. Kakashi-sensei. She had disappointed him enough. She really didn't want to see him right now.

"Kabuto-san," Sakura said as she turned to look at the spectacled man. Kabuto tilted his head up a little to look at the girl, a questioning expression on his face. "If you're done being held hostage, I would like an explanation of what was going on." Her face was beaming with a bright smile in Kabuto's direction, but the man couldn't help but feel an ominous pressure on his chest. There was venom in that smile, and if he didn't answer her question, she was bound to poison him with that venom.

But he had to tell her later anyway, so he complied.

"There was a reconnaissance team here," he said as he disentangled the loose ropes from his legs. Sakura had already cut him free, but she wasn't going to help him toss the rope aside. "A team of five: Mitarashi Anko-san, Hatake Kakashi-san, Yuuhi Kurenai-san, Sarutobi Asuma-san, and the Legendary Sannin Jiraiya." He held his glasses in place with his index and middle fingers as he rose to his feet. "They've come for you."

Sakura's eyes flashed in his direction for a moment, all semblance of amity gone for a split second as her mind registered what he had said. Five people, not four, on a reconnaissance team to find her. With five such powerful shinobi, this wasn't just an ordinary passing mission. Tsunade-shishou knew exactly what she was doing, where they were going, and what they were likely to encounter.

"Chikusho," she swore under her breath as she turned away from Kabuto. "Kabuto!" She called out more loudly to the man behind her, "get going. I'm going back to the compound." And she walked away before Kabuto could even think of beginning after her. His feet were still tangled in rope.

It was a little while before Kakashi sensed something amiss in the air. He couldn't see it. He couldn't hear it. He certainly couldn't smell it. But he could feel something tugging at the edge of his mind. Something was wrong.

They were already on their way back after their final sweep of the compound to make sure that Sakura really wasn't there. They wanted to make sure they weren't missing any important clues, especially if those clues might say that Sakura was in Oto. But they had found nothing.

The premonition had come as a surprise, but Kakashi didn't have to stop the group to tell them that they were heading back to the cave. They were already doing that. They were already over halfway back.

Kakashi threw his hand up, a kunai in his clenched fist as he felt a purple whirlwind fall on him. For a moment, he thought that it was an ambush...until he heard Asuma and Kurenai call out "Anko," and Jiraiya call out, "Oh...! The girl with the big chest! What are you doing out here?" It took another moment before Kakashi fully realized that Anko had fallen onto him from the tree above.

"Anko," Kakashi said as he looked up at the purple-headed woman. "What are you doing out here?"

The woman thought for a moment before grinning down at Kakashi playfully. "Well...I think you will be happy about this, Kakashi-taisho. We can go home now."

Kakashi blinked up at the woman with his one visible eye and pushed her off him with a forceful shove. He sat up, staring at Anko. "You mean..." He could already hear what she was going to say. "...you've seen Sakura!" He knew that he might have only been optimistic, but there would have been no other reason for Anko to say they were all going to go home if she hadn't seen Sakura.

Anko grinned.

And Kakashi instantly knew that he was right. Anko had seen Sakura.

"We need a verbal confirmation, Anko," Asuma said, rolling his cigarette from one side of his mouth to the other. "We can't just rely on our intuition."

Anko turned to the man with a freakish grin on her face. "Of course I saw her, Asuma," she said as she pushed herself from the ground. "It was Sakura-chan alright. No mistaking that face. And those gloves!" She shivered for a moment. "She's definitely working for Orochimaru too." Her voice was dark as she said the name of the evil Sannin. "She rescued Kabuto."

Kakashi stared at the woman. His mind refused to believe what she had said, although there really was no reason for Anko to lie about Sakura...especially to lie about something like that. Those words had such a sense of finality to it. Anko had lost against Sakura. There was no way that the woman would have left her post without a fight. And Anko would never really admit that she had lost just like that. There was nothing that the purple-haired woman could gain from lying like that!

"Sakura...and Orochimaru." The sharingan user mumbled to himself under his breath. "She's...working for him." His mind was slowly trying to accept it...but something just didn't seem right! There was no reason why Sakura would want to go to such an evil man. She hated Orochimaru!

But he had a mission to do, and no matter what his inclination was–which would be to barge right into the compound and drag Sakura out and back to Konoha–he had to finish his mission. He could–and he would–come back for her later, with people more suited to fight whatever might come their way. This ragtag team of shinobi he put together on a whim, just a group of people he thought might be useful in this mission, wasn't really here to infiltrate a hidden village and retrieve a nukenin.

"We..." His mind screamed at him to give the order, to just go on and tell them to go into Oto, to bring Sakura back. They had Jiraiya with them. That was enough to take on Orochimaru and whatever minions he might want to send after them...but he couldn't do it. The old Kakashi who loved the rules refused to allow him to do it. And the new Kakashi who thought about his team refused to allow him to do it either. If he gave such an order, he knew that they wouldn't all return alive. Sure, Jiraiya would be alright, and he would probably be fine, but Anko was under the spell of the cursed seal, and Kurenai and Asuma were just regular jounin. It wasn't as if either Kurenai or Asuma had ever been ANBU like him. If they had been, it would at least have worried Kakashi less. "...should go back to Konoha and report this to Hokage-sama."

Silence.

Kakashi looked around at the four shinobi that surrounded him, and noticed that they were all staring at him. "What?" And he was self-conscious. "Is there something wrong with my face?" His mask was still on. His hitai-ate was still on straight.

Anko looked away, not sure what to say. She had to admire someone who could take the mission into perspective like that...but she wouldn't have expected anything less from an ex-ANBU.

Asuma and Kurenai both continued staring at Kakashi with mild admiration on their faces. Even Asuma's cigarette almost fell from his mouth. They both knew that it must be difficult to hold back. Sakura was here. They were here. Kakashi was so close to bringing her home. They knew that if any one of them were in Kakashi's place, they would have rushed right in and hauled her out.

And Jiraiya...

...the white-haired Sannin walked up to Kakashi with a huge grin on his face, draped his arm over one of Kakashi's shoulders and led him slowly away. "Kakashi," he said slowly, with the same tinge of perversion that was always in his voice, "when we get back to Konoha, I'm going to allow you to do some 'data-gathering' for my newest book." And he could see the reluctance that had contorted the grey-haired jounin's face slowly rise at the thought of helping with a book of the Icha Icha series.

'Am I a genius, or am I a genius?' Jiraiya thought as they walked away.

But everyone there only thought of Jiraiya as a pervert...a very, very big pervert.

End Chapter 6

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Fire's English tidbits for those who care:

Anyone who has read the reviews will notice that there is one debating the use of "…" otherwise as the three dots—or as said in the English community, ellipses—in the story. I have replied to that message, but I realize that a lot of people think that there should be four dots at the end of a sentence, and three in the middle of sentences. This assumption is false. The reason why people think there should be four dots is because there is an extra dot for the period at the end of the sentence. However, the only reason why there would be "…" at the end of a sentence is if the sentence is incomplete. It denotes a trailing of the voice because the speaker has chosen to leave something out. Even if the sentence sounds complete, if the ending is with "…" there is something missing. The three dots denote that there is something missing when used at the end of the sentence, an incomplete sentence, but what about the middle? The three dots in the middle of a sentence cannot possibly mean that there is something missing! But, "…" in the middle of a sentence denotes an exceptionally long pause, even longer than with a "," (comma). It denotes a place where the sentence might end if the speaker had actually decided to change the subject, or if the speaker had decided to just stop. After "…" in the middle of a sentence, the words that come after it might not necessarily be a part of the sentence before it. Think of it as a Frankenstein—monster pieced together from different parts—of sentences. The "…" are stitches holding different parts of a sentence together; however, the different parts of a sentence might not necessarily be from the same sentence. For example, a person thinking about many things at once might speak in broken language. Of course you'll have thought between those broken phrases so that the reader will understand what you're saying, but what other characters hear will only be the broken words, and the "…" comes in handy then to create confusion, apprehension and tension between characters. "…" is a device like irony or personification. Don't overuse it because it will lose its effect. It's not just for a character's voice trailing off. There's a reason why it's there.

Fire's babbling:

Sakura: Waah! Make him go away!

Orochimaru: Who?

Kakashi: She means you.

Fire: Why?

Sakura: (hugging herself) What are you all blind! He's still trying to rape me!

Orochimaru: O.o What!

Fire: I'm sure he's not trying anything like that.

Sakura: He's still trying to give me that stupid cursed seal!

Orochimaru: But you want the cursed seal!

Sakura: He's confusing me with Tsunade-shishou!

Fire: Uh…can't you work something out?

Orochimaru: I'm going to go find Kabuto.

Kakashi: (smiling inconspicuously) I didn't know he was missing.

Fire: Good luck!

Sakura: (shivers) Good riddance.

Fire: If you were wondering if you read right, the answer is yes. That is OrochiSaku. There's just a hint of it, and I'm not going to go any further than what is already there so she's not going to fall in love with him or anything like that. Don't worry if you're screaming in horror.

Sakura: (shivering) I'm still screaming in horror.

Kakashi: Thank goodness. I didn't want to have to kill Sakura's boyfriend.

Sakura: He's not my boyfriend! He's old enough to be my grandfather!

Fire: I wish you'd all just work out these problems somewhere else. The readers don't want to hear you argue.

Kakashi: And why did I bring Anko! She's not doing anything important! She's probably planning to kill me for teasing her like this!

Fire: You thought that it was a good idea at the time. I'm sure she'll come in handy. She does know Orochimaru and how he thinks. That must be an advantage.

Kakashi: (slumping in defeat) Yeah, I guess.

Fire: (turning to the audience) I better ask you to review before they start arguing again, or go off into another crisis about things they're doing in the story. So, review! Review! Review!

Kakashi: Didn't I tell you not to brainwash the reader?

Fire: That was in the other story.

Kakashi: Oh, yeah.

Sasuke: (running up, out of breath) I'm…here! I'm here! Now we can begin. (looks up at the dialogue) You already started without me!

Fire: Uh…we didn't know you were going to come today.

Sasuke: Arrgh!

Fire: Well, review. I'm sure you don't want to see Sasuke's tantrum.

Sasuke: I'm going to kill you all!

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