Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto!

This one is a bit of a long one but I didn't really want to break it up anywhere so here you go! :) Enjoy!


Chapter 16:

Sakura leaned against the pillar of an arch she assumed was to welcome visitors. Kakashi was in the forest still. She knew his chakra signature and the moment after he left out the window, he had wandered the forest. Frankly, it was an overreaction to say the least. Sakura shifted her weight onto her other foot. It had been a muscle memory, a reaction that had started long ago in the compound. Had Kakashi stuck around to ask what the hell was going on, maybe he would have realized that. But was she really that repulsive? Had she not caught him a couple days before ogling her during her bath?

A chakra signature from the other side of the forest brought Sakura's attention away from Kakashi and she turned her head slightly to listen. The signature ran and then slowed its pace to a walk when it reached the edge of the forest. It kept a leisurely pace until the man stood next to her. Sakura pursed her lips.

"Musashi is happy you are alive."

Sakura growled. "I'm sure he is."

"What happened at the compound?"

"Frankly, its none of your business. If Musashi wants to know, maybe he should ask me himself. How do I know you are trustworthy?" Sakura was aware that Kakashi was now watching her from the forest.

The man touched her arm and Sakura jumped slightly. She looked down at the touch and then realized he was showing her something. Lightly, she ran her hands over his forearm. The skin was raised and Sakura knew what it was. It was a brand, Musashi's signature, and a way to say that you were trustworthy, burned into your skin as apart of you initiation into the inner circle. Sakura had one too. She was surprised Musashi would send someone from the inner circle but he must have guessed her reaction. He had her attention now.

Standing up, making sure her back was facing Kakashi and shielding the man's face from Kakashi's prying eyes, Sakura spoke.

"What does he want?"

"Who was is that betrayed the group?"

"It was a new recruit. A Sand-nin. He was caught sending detailed messages via bird courier back to his country."

The man nodded, and Sakura assumed in his current position he was jotting down notes.

"Who started it?"

"I don't know who did. There were three guys who found him. Then two guys came up to defend him. All hell broke loose. No one trusted anyone anymore."

"Who ended it?"

Sakura smirked. "I did, with one punch. But if Musashi saw the aftermath of the compound, he would already know that."

The man was nodding. Sakura could have rolled her eyes. She was blind, her eyes were wrapped in bandages. Did they think that she could see that? She could, of course, considering what she was really looking at was the chakra veins. They glowed, showing the full body and casting a light shadow of what size the body was. It was part of her training to learn and its how she got by with everything. It irked her sometimes when people thought she could just understand them. Naruto was the best. As annoying as he was, it was nice to hear someone be ridiculously dense. Thinking that she couldn't do anything because she was blind. Kakashi did it too sometimes. He would stop mid-act or he would sigh right after he did something.

"Musashi said to stay put. At the moment he must reorganize and regroup. He knows you are loyal and that when the time comes for you to come back, you will. He also says that you will know where to find him when that time comes."

Sakura sighed. "Well, isn't that poetic." Kakasha had started to make his way out of the forest towards her. She must have been talking too long. "You will leave now. You will turn around and wave five paces out with a goofy grin on your face. Otherwise I will kill you right here and right now."

He didn't wait a moment. The man turned and left, walking down the road opposite of the forest. Sakura turned around and Kakashi walked up, standing next to her.

"What was that about?" His words were barely more than a growl.

Sakura watched as the man waved. "He was wondering how to get out of this valley. I just gave him directions." Sakura relied in a flat tone.

"You know he is going the wrong way."

Sakura shrugged. "Then they shouldn't ask a blind person for directions."

Kakashi waited for a moment, as if he was waiting for her to say something else but when she didn't, he cleared his throat. "Well, if we are going to go back, we could take a chance that one of the tunnels didn't collapse and head of one of those. Or we could go through the giant hole you made in the mountain, or we can go the way you're supposed to and take a ferry down to the other side of the mountain."

"You're the boss." Sakura crossed her arms over her chest. She wasn't going to make it easy for Kakashi. She still hadn't forgiven him.

"We could try the tunnels."

Sakura straighten up and put her hand out for Kakashi, mock bowing like a servant and master. She heard the very quite click of his tongue. He didn't say anything to her, just walked past her and trudged back towards the mountain. They walked and Sakura kept pace but further back from him. They had to buy civilian clothes with the little money Sakura had left in her pouch after paying for the night at the inn. It was nice though, to be in pants that were a little closer to her and a shirt. She felt like she was in her ANBU uniform again. It felt good. It always did. But maybe part of that was the anonymity of it all. She was just another ninja in a mask. Faceless and she could do the mission without the hassle of being cordial.

There was a brush against her hand and she felt the tall grass in her hands. The sun burned bright and it felt warm against her skin. She put her palms out and let the grass glide over her skin. The old Sakura would probably complain about the heat or the pace or the lack of path. But now, every feeling with different and she treasure them. It felt normal. If she closed her eyes, in her minds eye she could see the grass meadow stretch out and the mountains in the background. The slight sway of the wind, the bright blue sky.

"Sakura, what are you…"

She had stopped and let herself fall back onto the ground, crushing the grass behind her. But the tall grass shielded her now and it was so much cooler lying against the ground. Sighing, she put her palms down to the earth. Sakura could see for miles when she did this; the terrain, the people who walked on it, the trees, and anything that was connected to the earth at that moment.

"Are you hurt?" Kakashi had backtracked to her and was leaning over her, casting a shadow.

"Today is too nice of a day to just spend it walking."

"Sakura, we need to go home. No one has any idea if we are dead or alive."

How could he know? Why had Tsunade chosen him of all people to "watch over her"? He was the last person who would understand her. Sure, maybe at one point he hated the village. But she didn't hate the village. Not really. She just hated everything about the village. He had reason to, with all the ninja way had taken everything from him. Sakura had read his file one night. His mother, father, friends, teacher all had been taken from him. The ninja way had taken them all. But, it wasn't the same for Sakura. It was the opposite.

"Sakura, we need to go."

"Kakashi, seriously. An hour or so won't hurt." She took a deep breath, the wind blowing and bringing the smell of clean air. It was so nice. Not the stench of too many people cramped into one area like the village.

"Would you like me to turn in a report that you have been insubordinate and shouldn't be taking missions?"

She sighed. His threat was hollow. She knew that if that happened, she would just be issued a mission alone. Sakura was too strong to be cooped up in the village. But she stood up anyways. He voice grated on her nerves when he tried to put an edge of authority in it.

"Killjoy. You don't even know the beauty surrounding you because all you're doing is staring straight ahead."

She walked past him and continued through the meadow. When she was lying down, she had found one of the tunnels that hadn't collapsed and she was heading in the direction of it. Kakashi walked behind her a ways, silent.

"It was reflex, by the way. I didn't realize it was you or I would have stopped. I was still half delirious. So don't think anything of it." Before he could acknowledge that he heard her she continued but changed the subject. "There is a tunnel straight ahead, it's still open, if you would like to take lead since you are the captain." She made the same motion as before but this time he just stood where they had stopped.

"Does it happen often? The…"

"Nightmares?" Sakura offered up a word before he could think of anything else. "They happen as often as the nightmares themselves happen. Now, if you won't take lead you will need to rely on my sense of direction and we could end up in Waterfall country."

He nodded and then sighed again, this time going so far as putting his hand through his hair. Sakura did her best not to smirk.

"Got it." Kakashi brushed passed her and took the lead, allowing Sakura to match the pace a little behind him.

She stared at his back, the chakra veins creating a shadowy outline. It was all she could see of him. Other than the contours of some of his face. When she had kissed him, his mask was down. It had cleared the fog in her mind. He wasn't Kenichi. Kenichi didn't have such angular facial features. It was Kenichi who was there for her when the nightmares would come to claim Sakura. His room was next to hers and he would hear her cries or screams. He would rush over and calm her, stop her from doing anything further.

The first few times, it was just him coming to her side and holding her hands. But one time, it was too much. He had to get on top of her to stop her from thrashing. Even after she had woken up, he didn't move. Then he leaned down and kissed her. That was the first time she had had sex that was consensual. From then on, Kenichi would save her from her nightmares and they would have sex. Sakura wrinkled her nose. They didn't make love because they weren't in love. They just were, companions.

She ran into Kakashi's back. Sakura stumbled back, started that he had stopped. Her own thoughts had distracted her.

"Warn me when you stop abruptly. I can't see you stop." Sakura rubbed her nose; happy to be able to use an excuse other than she had drifted off.

"Sorry. We are at the tunnel." Kakashi sounded like he had also been lost in thought.

"Well, what are we waiting for, lets go." Sakura put her hand on her hip and waited but Kakashi took his sweet time moving. "Kakashi?"

He cleared his throat. "I'm sorry I overreacted. I should have…not."

Sakura pursed her lips together. Had he been that aggravated by it? Kami, she must really be ugly for him to go so far as to still be overreacting over the situation.

"Look, Kakashi. Forget it. Can we just go?" The hint of irritation in her voice finally made him move and he nodded. This time he forgot that she couldn't see and made his way to the tunnel.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto hit her, full force as soon as she exited out of the tunnel.

"You guys were supposed to go back to Konoha." Kakashi was clearly annoyed.

"We thought it might be weird that we arrived and not you guys. So we searched for the nearest tunnel that was open and figured we would camp out until then. Though we didn't think you guys would take you sweet time." Naruto had his hands on his hips.

"What if we had taken the ferry?"

"Sasuke remembered that you hate the ferry because you get sea-sick and since Sakura doesn't really care and would have let you take lead, you would have chosen the tunnel. Sakura would have chosen the ferry." Naruto put a hand on her shoulder but Sakura couldn't help but smirk.

"The ferry is faster and would have carried us closer to Konoha cutting our time down by at least four, six if we run." Sakura didn't let the amusement into her voice. It would ruin the fun.

Kakashi's chakra flared up and Sakura heard his heart hammering in his chest. He was angry. "Why didn't you say something?" His voice was almost a growl but she could hear Sasuke and Naruto chuckling in the background.

She shrugged. "As Sasuke said, you get sea sick." Leaving Kakashi to stand by the entrance, she joined Naruto and Sasuke at the fire.

Naruto leaned over. "He just kicked a rock and stormed off."

She swallowed the urge to hit him. "Well, he has been annoying the whole damn day. Serves him right. Let him take first watch. Here." Sakura took Naruto's hand and placed three nutrient bars. She held out three more for Sasuke and he took them.

Sakura had pulled out her book and was two pages from where she had left off earlier that day before Naruto, who was into his second bar, spoke.

"How long are you going to act like you don't care Sakura?" His voice was much deeper than it was before.

She looked up from her book, still out of habit. "So, are we finally done playing around?"

"He does actually forget you are blind though." Sasuke added, crumping the paper as he polished off the second nutrient bar.

"Why are you putting on an act with me?"

Naruto sighed. "We were hoping you would play along. Sometimes you do but most of the time you don't. For Kakashi-sensei's sake."

"Kakashi can take care of himself Naruto. You don't need to pretend. I'm not the same. Neither are you or Sasuke. All of us, we have been through too much. I was an idiot before to think I was even close to you guys. But after all this has happened…" Sakura curled her hands into fists, pausing for a moment. "I can never go back. But I am stronger for it and I would do it all again if this was the result."

"You wouldn't say that if you saw Kakashi after you left." Sasuke was the one who said it and that surprised Sakura.

"It's true. He was like an empty shell. He was worried that it wasn't a mission. The longer you were gone, the worse he got. More than a handful of times Sasuke and I had to peel him off the streets drunk out of his mind. Before he drowned in his own vomit or caught pneumonia." Naruto sighed. "You weren't there to take care of him anymore. And he just, let himself go. He didn't care anymore. It was sad. Even Gai started to alienate him."

Sakura leaned back. "What does you acting like the dobe you were before I left? Wouldn't that just harm him? Isn't that the same as lying to him?"

"But if we are all back together, happy, like we used to be. Then maybe, just maybe, he won't go back to that. If you wouldn't stop disappearing all the time and pretend to be who you were before…"

She stood up, her hands clenched into fists again. "No."

"Sakura, please. He needs someone. Anyone." Naruto's pleading voice irked her more.

"Why can't you Naruto? Or you Sasuke? The bright and shinning model students of his. He laid the foundation for you guys to grow powerful. Why don't you be his friend? Why don't you try?"

"We were never able to get close to him like you did. You turned into a friend in his eyes." Sasuke chimed in.

"Because you never tried!" Sakura rolled her shoulders. "I will not act as though I didn't go through five years of shit because of a man who only sticks around because Tsunade asked him to. I barely even remember who I was before. I was stripped down to nothing. I will not try to go back. And don't you dare ask me that ever again." She turned on them and walked into the forest, leaving both Naruto and Sasuke at the fire, staring back at her.

Kakashi was headed towards her. "Sakura, what are you…"

"Get out of my fucking way."

Kakashi got in her way and she looked up at his face, the chakra pooling around one eye, continuously feeding it chakra and casting a brighter shadow of his face.

"Sakura, lets go back to camp and we will head out in the morning." He used his leadership voice.

She didn't answer; instead, she put her hand on his shoulder. The air around her got think and sticky. Kakashi started to make wheezing noises and she was whirling his precious oxygen around her. But she let his shoulder go just as his knees buckled. He fell onto all fours coughing and taking deep haggard breaths.

"Never, get in my way again Kakashi. Or next time, I will truly show you how weak you really are compared to me."

She left him there on all fours, disappearing into the forest.

"What took you guys so long? Were you doing extra training?"

Tsunade's question made Kakashi look at Naruto and Sasuke, who were equally confused. They looked back at Tsunade whose eyebrow had risen slightly.

"Sakura turned in her mission report over two days ago. She said you were going to follow in the next day or so. I just figured you were doing a bit of training together."

Naruto's mouth dropped open and Sasuke was even slightly alarmed. Kakashi was glad for his mask that he had bought at the vendor back in earth. Otherwise he would have looked just like Naruto. They had been running at top speed back to Konoha to tell Tsunade that they had lost Sakura somewhere in Earth country.

"Anyways, you reports are all due tomorrow. Since you decided to lollygag for so long. Get out. I have things to do." Tsunade looked down at the paperwork that they had interrupted.

All three of them walked out of her office, dumbstruck.

"That's…" Naruto didn't know and looked at Sasuke, who shrugged.

"We were going at full speed." Kakashi ran his hand through his hair. He wanted a shower. "Apparently, in the race for strength, I have a feeling we were the ones left behind."

"Well, she did almost kill you." Sasuke shrugged again and walked after Naruto who was clearly unhappy.

Kakashi waved to them and took off to his apartment. He took a shower and laid on his bed. Frowning, he reached under his pillow and took out a brand new copy of Icha Icha Chaos. There was a little card in it. Sorry.