Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. LE SIGH.
This one I also struggled with a little. 3 But, enjoy! :D
Chapter 11:
Kakashi woke up to an empty room. Sakura's blankets were folded up on the floor and there was no sign of her. She had also taken the book again. He had fallen asleep halfway through. He didn't realize how tired he was until he laid back completely while reading. It also was straining using Sharingan so much. But it was worth it. Jiriaya had really outdone himself this time. The plot was spot on and the description was fantastic. He wondered if Sakura had an input for the characters. A strong female protagonist pitted against an antagonist who couldn't be defined as evil, just misguided.
Getting fully dressed, mask and eye patch, Kakashi ventured downstairs with his bag in tow. Sakura was sitting in the restaurant section of the inn, drinking tea. She seemed lost in though, the book open but face down on the table.
"You could have woken me up."
Sakura shrugged and took another sip of tea. "Maybe you should have gone to sleep earlier."
Kakashi chuckled. "We need to stock up on supplies today."
"I ran a few hours back towards the mountain but didn't spot them. You may be right and they took a different way down the mountain. Let's hope so."
She seemed upset still. Not at Kakashi though. He knew she understood why he made the decision he did.
"You shouldn't have wasted your energy. They will meet up with us soon enough."
"I do what I want with my free time and energy Kakashi."
The tone she used when she took command. Reminding everyone that she was fully committed to the mission, and nothing more. Kakashi leaned his elbows on the table and rested his chin on his hands. He thought for a second but shrugged.
"What did the Elders say?" Kakashi asked as nonchalantly as possible.
Sakura's head jerked to look at him. He hit the nail on the head. She didn't say anything for a while, her lips turned white as she pursed them together.
"It's none of your business Kakashi."
He leaned back. "Frankly, I think your wrong about that. You were my student and then counted you as one of my friends before you left. I would like an apology for leaving me alone with those two numbskulls…" Sakura looked like she wanted to kill him. "But I know I won't get one. But you would think running away would be something you would want to talk to your friends about first."
"You think you know more than you do." Her voice was very low.
"Enlighten me Sakura."
She stood, her hands planted firmly on the table. "You have crossed a line Kakashi. If you wish to know, why don't you just ask the Elders themselves? Since your so fascinated." Her voice completely changed. Instead of a low simmering anger it was just moments before it seemed to ebb into simple annoyance.
Sakura stormed out and Kakashi scratched his head. It was probably not the best time to confront her about that. Considering they still needed to finish the mission, and part of it they were going to have to part of it was just going to be them. He thanked the woman at the inn and made his way through town. Kakashi gathered some supplies and headed to the end of the village. Sakura was leaning against a tree, waiting for him. They continued to walk down the path until the path veered north. The forest was already ahead of them so they walked in the grass before they took to the trees.
Midday came and went but a few hours after midday Sakura stopped and motioned Kakashi over. He had tried to keep up with her but she refused to let him. Jumping on the branch with her, Kakashi gingerly scooted closer.
"Do you smell that?"
Kakashi sniffed the air. It smelled like the forest with maybe a little rain. But there was a hint of... "Smoke?"
She nodded. "More than that. Death and smoke. Mission starts now. What should we do?"
Kakashi lowed himself on the tree. "Mask your presence. Let's get closer. I didn't think we would find them so soon. Looks like you were correct."
She nodded. They masked their chakra signatures and quietly made their way further into the forest. Not too far, there was a large encampment. They had cut many of the trees to make more room. Tents, makeshift guard towers, and a couple other buildings made up the clearing. Kakashi was about to make a sign to start taking notes but realized she wouldn't see them. He started to make his way over but watched as she sat down and took out her book and pen. She already knew what to do. Mildly he thought back to her perfect drawings of the compound and wondered just how she got such a good bearing about where everything was.
While she was doing that, Kakashi wanted a closer look. He jumped down and made his way through the camp. It was for the most part empty. But Kakashi still made an extra effort not to be spotted. A couple of men walked out of one of the better-looking buildings. They looked important and so Kakashi ventured to guess it was the captain's office.
Making sure there was no one inside, Kakakshi made his way into building. Sure enough, there were plans, supply routes, strode over a couple of different tables. He lifted his eye patched and went through the papers one by one with sharingan, a guarantee that he could reproduce the pictures exactly. Making his way out of the building, he made it back to the spot where they had come in but there was no sign of Sakura. Where was she?
Then he saw a blur of pink hair on the other side of the camp. He jumped around the trees to see the pit that was in the corner away from the rest of the camp. The pit was full of bodies of the young, old, male, female. Kakashi jumped on the branch that Sakura was perched on.
"I can smell it."
"It doesn't look much better."
Her shoulders were shaking. Kakashi put a hand on her shoulder. "You know our orders. Leave this to the Hidden Valley. They will destroy this place."
"We could just do it ourselves and save them the hassle." She was angry.
"Yes, but that means we would be attacking Earth. We don't want a war on our hands." Kakashi turned. "I think we have enough information. They aren't worried about infiltration."
"Large mountains give them a false sense of security."
Sakura put her finger to her lips. Kakashi looked around and then saw it, a large group of soldiers marching back to the camp. There had to be around a thousand of them. They were trained and then there were a few ninja in the trees. Sakura and Kakashi took cover, hiding from the ninja who were jumping in the trees. They waited until the all went into the camp before the moved from their spots and ran further away from the encampment.
"Well, the mountain and a over a thousand soldiers. We could take them out tonight. No one would know."
Kakashi shook his head. "It's not our fight Sakura." He scanned the area they stopped in. "I think we should move into the denser part forest for the evening. In the morning we can skirt the mountainside. See if we can find Yamato and Kenshi."
Sakura didn't say a word but followed Kakashi when he moved from the branch he had been crouched on. It turned dark before Kakashi found a suitable spot for them to sleep. Far enough away from the camp not to be bothered by patrols but still near the area where they were supposed to meet the other half of the team.
Kakashi settled down on a branch and leaned against the trunk of a tree. Sakura had found a nook within the roots of a tree and was curled up into it. With her blanket over her, you wouldn't even notice her. As long as her bright pink hair stayed under the blanket as well. At the moment it was spread over one of the trunks of the tree. Closing his eyes, Kakashi listened to the sound of the forest, finding it oddly comforting.
Kakashi opened his eyes to Sakura leaning over her. Her body straddling him and her face was within inches of Kakash's face.
"I smell something." Her nose wrinkled. "It smells like a mixture of sweat, blood, and compost."
Without another word, Sakura turned and jumped down from the tree. Kakashi blinked, still reeling from being woken up with Sakura being in his face so much. He jumped down after her and she headed south until they hit the foot of the mountain. They ran along the side of the mountain for a good hour and then Sakura stopped. There was a cave and Yamato was waving from the mouth of it. Kakashi gave a small wave and an eye crinkle. Sakura was trying to smirk.
"You thought that they were part of the rebellion didn't you?" Kakashi asked Sakura quietly as they walked towards the cave.
"They smell like they belong in the rebellion."
Kakashi chuckled.
"I'm glad you found us. I figured we could go out and look for you but we didn't know where to start. We also ran into their training grounds earlier today so we thought we would gather some information there. How did you find us?" Yamato let Sakura to see Kenshi was sitting down in the cave.
Kakashi patted Yamato on the back. "You guys stink."
Color rose to Yamato's cheeks.
"How are you doing Kenshi?" Sakura was sitting next to Kenshi who was leaning against the wall. "Did you start trying to heal yourself?"
"I'm okay. We made the trip down the mountain and that took a while. I told Yamato just to make a sled and we could use that but he said that would be illogical. I have been a little but I mostly get dizzy sometimes when I walk for too long."
Sakura nodded as her hands glowed green and she worked on Kenshi. Once she finished, she sat back. She flicked Kenshi on his forehead again.
"Baka."
Kenshi smiled and chuckled.
"Well, I think it's time for us to go. We got a lot of information yesterday. I think it's enough for what we were asked to get. I'm glad we didn't have to search high and low for these guys." Kakashi helped Kenshi stand up.
"Good. I miss home. Too many rocks." Kenshi smiled.
"We found one of their routes through the mountain. I don't know if you saw that group of soldiers but they all came through yesterday but I doubt anyone will be coming through that way anymore today." Yamato pointed to another cave on the mountains face.
Kakashi nodded. "Good work. Lets go home." He looked over at Sakura but she was completely preoccupied with helping Kenshi.
Guess it was good that they found them quickly. He didn't know if could take being alone with Sakura for much longer.
