Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. (Though I wish I did cause there is no WAY Sakura and Sauske belong together at the end. But that just ME! :)

Enjoy!


Chapter 8:

Kakashi wasn't able to find Sakura that night, or any of time for that matter. She was better at avoiding everyone than Kakashi was. Sometimes you would catch a glance of her somewhere and if you blinked or turned away for a second she was gone. Naruto and Sasuke had also been looking for her but they never came close. Though, Kakashi wasn't surprised that she wouldn't show herself to those two. Her blessing the night at the bar also sounded like a farewell.

It had been two months and Kakashi figured Tsunade had already put her to work for the village. Or if it wasn't Tsunade, it would be the Elders unwilling to waste Sakura's talent. An ANBU popped up on the roof where Kakashi was enjoying the sun and handed him a scroll. He sighed. No rest for the wicked. The scroll didn't detail a mission, just to meet in the Hokage's office in an hour. Kakashi put his book back over his face and fell back asleep.

Kakashi knocked on the door to the Hokage's office and entered. He was two hours late and he scratched his head, giving his usual eye crinkle to Tsunade. She looked like she was going to pop a vein. Kenshi gave a small wave to Kakashi. He was sitting in a chair next to Yamato who gave Kakashi a smile.

"Sorry I'm late Hokage-sama. You see, there was this bird being chased by…"

Tsunade waved him off. "I expected this from you. But we are still waiting on one more." She tapped her pencil against the desk. "I sent six ANBU already. Not a single one had come back."

Kakashi looked from Yamato to Tsunade. What was going on? As if reading his mind, Kenshi shrugged and shook his head.

"I don't like being hunted down in my own village." Sakura walked into the room and everyone stood a little straighter.

"Maybe if you didn't make it so hard to find you, I wouldn't need to hunt you."

Sakura sighed. "I have been home all day."

Tsunade looked at her and threw her hands up. Kenshi and Yamato stood next to Kakashi, giving Sakura a wide area. Sakura was still wearing a keikogi and hakama, the uniform for kendo. Her hair was pulled up in a high ponytail again, but her hair was so long. Kakashi wondered if she took the ponytail out if it reached the floor. It seemed like it would get in the way if she were to use taijutsu. She wore her hitai across her bandaged eyes, giving her the look of one eye in the center. All in all, Sakura was a force to behold.

"I have a mission for all four of you. Since you have been taking a couple months, I'm setting you up with an A-class mission. That should be a good enough warm up for you."

She was trying to insult but the only one who still showed any type of emotion was Kenshi and he crossed his arms over his chest but didn't say a word.

"What's the mission?" Yamato asked.

"It's a simple information gather. There are reports of an uprising in Earth country. They want someone outside Earth Country to look at it. They don't know who to trust and who might be part of the rebellion. We don't have much to go on so I expect you to be gone for a couple months at least. Once you gather as much information, you are to leave, immediately." Tsunade emphasized the last word, but she was looking at Sakura. "This is an inter-country dispute. You are not to take any action while you are on this mission. Is that understood?"

Everyone but Sakura replied with yes. Tsunade sighed and leaned back in her chair. "You leave tomorrow. Get out of here."

She handed Kakashi the scroll with the mission details and they all turned to leave. Kenshi turned into the first available room and Yamato after him. It looked like Sakura was going past the door and Kakashi put a hand on her shoulder. She turned her head towards him.

"Mission planning."

"You can debrief me on the way. We have days of travel time."

Kakashi narrowed his eyes. That was definitely not like Sakura to skip any part of a mission. "You know we need to set up our plans and roads to take and avoid."

She signed and then turned into the room. Taking a chair, she turned it around and sat in it backwards, her chin resting on her arms that were crossed over the back of the chair. Kakashi closed the door behind him and released the scroll. He laid it out on the table and Kenshi scooted closer to the table.

"That's a big area to search."

"That isn't even a guarantee. It's just based off of rumors. We might have to comb through all of Earth in order to find these guys. We don't know how big the gathering might be. They could be tiny and be a small little camp or it could be a whole army. So we should start with that area, and then expand our search."

Sakura got up and everyone moved away a little bit. She put her hand on the map. "Show me."

Kakashi looked at other two ninja and they shrugged, confused as he was.

She signed. "Take my finger, run it along the edge of the map of Earth, then run my finger over the circle that they have put in the map. Then touch where the hidden village is."

Kakashi nodded and then signed. She couldn't see his motion. So he just gently placed his hand on top of hers. It was soft, a lot softer than he would think considering the type of jutus that she used. Sakura curled back her fingers except her pointer finger and Kakashi guided it along the ink lines that were Earth country. He placed her finger on the page where the hidden village was and quickly took his hand off of hers. He didn't realize he was holding his breath until he let go. He took a couple steps back and leaned against the wall. Both Kenshi and Yamato were staring intently at Sakura.

"They are wrong."

Kakashi furrowed his brow. "Wrong? You mean the placement of the map?"

She shook her head. "Where the rebellion is. That circle is actually full of traps. They let rumors drop that they were in the southern part of the country so that if anyone tried to look for them, they would be caught and killed without seeing anything."

She moved her finger from the hidden village up to the northeast. "They are here. There was only about two hundred of them but that was years ago."

"How would you know that?" Kenshi was eyeing her suspiciously.

"Because my command was the ones who put in the traps. We were hired because we had so many different types of missing-nin that all the traps are from almost every country. After that, we took our payment up in the northeast." Sakura leaned back and crossed her arms over her chest. "They may have moved but we know for sure, they aren't in the place with the circle."

All three of them just looked at her, jaws dropped. Kakashi leaned over the map again and cleared his throat.

"If that's the case, then we will take the road that goes north, up the western boarder of Fire, and keep west of Waterfall as well. And make our way into Earth that way." Kakashi traced the map of the line they would be taking.

"Do we need to wear anything special?"

Kakashi shook his head. "You should wear normal civilian clothes. We don't want to be spotted as Leaf-nin. That would involve our country. Bring your hitai though, incase we run into anything in Fire Country."

Sakura opened the door and took her leave. Kenshi was about to call her but Kakashi shook his head.

"Do you trust her Kakashi?" Yamato asked.

"Yes, I trust her. I trust that she wouldn't want her teammates to be hurt. I trust that her information is good."

Yamato nodded. "Good enough."

"How is that good enough? I mean her hitai was slashed. She was half dead in a compound of missing-nin. How can you trust her?"

Kakashi gave an eye crinkle to Kenshi. "Because she has been through more than anyone you or I will ever meet and she survived."

He looked at the door she walked out of moments before. He didn't know if he was trying to convince himself of the fact but it sounded good. Kakashi knew all too well exactly what a person was capable of when broken.