A week after his spar with Sakura and throwing Shin at an unsuspecting Hayate, Kakashi is still riding the high of well-executed meddling.
(it helped that Sakura had caught onto the reason for him involving Hayate almost immediately, and, when her brother had gone off to spar with the tokujo, had shuffled over to Kakashi and laid her head against his shoulder, a point of heat against his side. she didn't say anything. she didn't have to. Kakashi understood the instinct to help and protect even if he no longer had a pack to apply it to.)
Two weeks later, Sasuke finally gets the Hosenka down, and Kakashi's given a front-row seat to the Uchiha smiling.
A month after the spar, and a little over a month and a half after getting his team, Naruto starts whining about a C-Rank.
(Kakashi panics. he goes looking for Gai first, but the man is on a mission. Genma's out of the Village as well, and Yugao in the hospital, recovering from an Earth jutsu to the leg. Bear, when Kakashi stalks into ANBU HQ in full uniform, tells him that Mongoose is on a mission with her new team and he needs to 'get the fuck out of HQ or he'll be benched permanently', so Kakashi goes.)
(not before slamming the door to the Commander's office, though.)
The next day, he accepts five D-Ranks in one day, and by the end of it, Naruto is too tired to so much as think about a C-Rank.
That only lasts him another week.
The next time Naruto asks, he goes to Genma, who's visibly tired and hungover when he opens the door, but still eyes him with that assessing gaze, then laughs in his face. Kakashi flips him off and heads to find Yugao, but when he gets to the window by her room in the hospital, he spies Hayate already in there with her, and decides against disturbing them.
He's not expecting Shin to find him as he's making his way to HQ again, after demolishing a training ground in a fit of frustrated helplessness in an attempt to work off some of his anxiety.
"Sakura is on a mission." The teen informs him, pushing away from his seat in one of the outdoor cafes closest to the hidden entrance into HQ Kakashi favours. How the teen knows about that though, he has no idea.
"She got home two days ago and I told her to go see you when she could, but she got called out this morning again."
"Why such a short turn-around?" Kakashi asks tensely, trying not to show his surprise when Shin falls into step with him. "And why would you tell her that?"
Shin shrugs.
"Apparently, there's a high demand for infiltrators." He answers lightly, and Kakashi fills in the gaps: because most of them have an expiration date before they're identified and eliminated. "And I felt you storm by my apartment, not to mention that Hayate-shishou told me you're panicking."
"I am not panicking-!"
"-I really don't care." Shin cuts him off, frowning up at him, though his pace doesn't slow in the least. "You're obstinate, but you're rational. If you're this worried about assigning your team a C-Rank, you must have a reason. So? What is it?"
Kakashi studies the teen, feeling more than a little thrown, but Shin doesn't so much as blink in the face of his scrutiny, and Kakashi gives in.
"…They're fragile." He confesses after a few seconds, using the same explanation he'd given Sakura over a month ago, surprisingly not feeling too embarrassed about admitting the same to her brother. "And I don't exactly have a good track record with the simple missions. A and S-Ranks I can do, but I've never had a C-Rank go according to plan."
"That's dumb." Shin comments mercilessly, though he holds up a hand before Kakashi can snap at him. "I just mean, nobody says you have to go to enemy territory. You could request a mission within the Land of Fire, minimise risk as much as possible, and if something still goes wrong, then at least you'll know that you did the best you could to prepare for it."
When Kakashi merely stares at the teen in a somewhat startled silence, Shin scoffs, finally looking away.
"The Hokage is your Uzumaki student's ward, somewhere down the line, if you go by the old laws pertaining to orphans. If you frame your hesitance for going above D-Rank as a concern for your students' safety, and request a fairly local mission, I don't see a reason why the Hokage should deny you."
Kakashi blinks, shocked to realise that he actually feels…somewhat better.
Reassured.
He debates thanking the teen, but realises that any show of gratitude would cross the invisible line in the sand between them, so he just raises a hand and tugs on Shin's ponytail, flickering away before the senbon the teen grabs in retaliation can touch him.
He's got a Hokage to accost.
Wolf appreciates that their new teammate fits into the team without much issue. After that first meeting when he'd been almost certain Mongoose would ask to be reassigned before running a single mission, the kid surprised him by sticking around, and somehow managing to wrangle Bat and Crow into a far less reluctant compliance than Wolf had come to expect from the two.
It helped that his newest teammate didn't lag behind even with the pace he would set, didn't need to be coddled on missions despite their obvious youth, and was able to hold their own in spars – barring he avoided using his more unpleasant genjutsu – and did surprisingly well in the two skirmishes they'd gotten into over the four missions they'd ran.
It also helped that their tiny teammate always had spare rations and a full plastic water bottle on top of their usual canteen, as well as more medical supplies than Wolf, Bat, and Crow combined, and the kid seemed more than willing to hand them out freely.
He'd gone through the effort of tracking down Mongoose's file after their first mission though, because he didn't make the connection between the fact that the kid's prior assignment had been to Team Ro with the type of missions and leadership Mongoose was probably used to as a result.
Wolf knew Hatake the way most Yamanaka did; through the irate grumblings of whatever unfortunate Clan member was tasked with carrying out the man's Psych Eval every year. The grumblings were mostly about the man himself, as it was generally well-known that Hatake was an obstinate bastard, though a few of his clansmen also dared voice their annoyance with the abject refusal from on-high to heed their warnings that the Copy-nin was not fit for fieldwork.
The man was twenty years of trauma in a flak jacket; he likely shouldn't have been field-approved since even before the Yondaime's death.
Those in ANBU that didn't have the Yamanaka insight into the man's psyche still knew Hatake by sight, even if they'd never ran missions together. Hound was one of the few operatives for whom the mask was rather redundant, so people still made the connection between Hound the ANBU Captain and Hatake Kakashi, bastard extraordinaire.
Due to the man's history, anyone who actually worked with Hound long-term was both, lauded for their survival, and watched with the same scrutiny as Hound himself.
The Uchiha Massacre only made that worse. It was no secret who Weasel had been to those who'd been in the forces at that time. Naturally, one of their own killing almost the entire Clan then going rogue didn't exactly help Hatake's infamy in ANBU either.
So, Wolf deemed his caution justified, and went on a hunt for Mongoose's file in the short downtime between their missions.
What he found was...standard. Almost alarmingly so, considering the team the kid had belonged to, and very much in-line with what Mongoose had divulged when he'd asked. There was one intriguing report about a poison extraction performed on a teammate in the field, but the write-up seemed to imply it was due to a familiarity with the poison used more than anything else.
The file painted Mongoose as a decently well-rounded agent: solid taijutsu despite their comment about needing to improve it, decent mastery of ninjutsu, knack for spotting genjutsu if not casting them, which Wolf had to grudgingly concede, some familiarity with the kodachi of all things, above-average speed and a surprising number of successful infiltrations and assassinations under their belt.
All in all, it sounded like the file of someone who'd spent most of their life in the shadows and had picked up enough in every field to not have whatever specialisation they'd started out with stand out on paper.
It would've all been fine - nothing to scoff at, but nothing spectacular, either - if only the operative it described wasn't eleven years old.
Still, Wolf wasn't exactly a people-person by anybody's standards, either inside the ANBU or out. Since the kid had proved she could handle herself, he wasn't going to treat her any differently.
Though the fact that she'd survived over a year in ANBU despite being, for all intents and purposes, a civilian child...complicated things.
What complicated things even more was their second mission with Mongoose, where Bat had gotten injured - like an idiot, because who in their right mind doesn't expect explosions from Iwa missing-nin? - and, after the fighting was over, all the enemies dead, Mongoose had approached the man with a hand encased in a familiar green glow, a question in the tilt of her head.
Bat had gratefully accepted the offer, but Crow had shot Wolf a sharp look.
Medics in ANBU were coveted. Wolf could count on the fingers of one hand the number of fully qualified med-nin in the ranks, and because of that, they were on a rotation system, assigned to whatever team's mission was most likely to go to shit. Hatake not writing the kid down as a med-nin in her file had likely been done so that he wouldn't have to share, and since Team Ro's missions tended to go to shit more often than not from what Wolf knew, it made sense.
It was still a dick move, though.
There were few capable medical ninja who could hold their own on the field, especially on the level ANBU required, and fewer still who came to ANBU from the hospital or any formal training. Most 'medics' that ran missions were simply shinobi who'd survived long enough to pick up the bare essentials over the years, and made do with the rest.
Yet, after watching Mongoose heal the vicious burn on Bat's arm in a couple of minutes, it was abundantly clear that she'd had training.
Which raised the question of when? And from whom? As far as he was aware, the kid didn't exist outside of the shadow ranks.
Still, Wolf decided keep his mouth shut and observe from a distance. He mentions that the kid was proficient in field first-aid in his report of that mission, covering his ass as it were, but he doesn't do anything beyond that.
He's starting to like the kid, goddamn him.
Three weeks after his talk with Shin, Kakashi is sure the gods are laughing at him.
And, perhaps, he muses idly, even as oxygen deprivation makes his vision go dark around the edges, it is high time to have a talk with his quietest student.
While Naruto was hiding unexpected intellect, as well as the Shadow Clone technique beneath the veneer of loudmouth dead-last, Kakashi is almost certain he has the boy figured out by now.
Sasuke, for all the trauma and brooding and above-par competence, is also just a twelve-year-old boy, and once Kakashi realises that – once he realised that, for all that he sees a reflection of himself in the boy, Sasuke is not yet as far gone as he had been at his age – he decides he could probably write a 95% reliable manual on how to handle his sourpuss Uchiha.
Sai, he'd thought, was the easiest. Consistent, yet only marginally above-average Academy scores, solid mastery of the Academy Three, mastery of throwing weapons on par with Sasuke's, and speed that Gai wouldn't have scoffed at for a genin. His only noteworthy attribute had been his skill with the tanto, but the weapon had been so generic yet also so specific that Kakashi had decided to give the boy the benefit of the doubt and dismissed it.
Only now, stuck in Zabuza's Water Prison, does he realise what had rubbed him the wrong way about Sai's perfectly average scores across the board, and his mind goes back to his sensei's words when he'd first joined ANBU, after he'd voiced his shock at recognising his then-teammate as a boy from his graduating class who'd disappeared from the Academy even before Kakashi had.
"Deception is a shinobi skill just as much as ninjutsu and taijutsu are, Kakashi-kun. Those who fooled their instructors within a certain degree of error as to the extent of their abilities were recruited directly from the Academy into Intelligence or Black Ops. Back when the graduation age was lower, Tobirama-sama made an unspoken guidebook of criteria for those wanting to go directly into specific branches of our society."
Sai had been aiming for an ANBU candidate, then, though as far as Kakashi was aware, the practise had been discontinued around the time Sarutobi returned for his second term, by which point, Sai shouldn't have even known about its existence.
Subterfuge being Sai's goal from the start would certainly explain what he's seeing now, though.
The student he'd dismissed as self-sufficient and a bit of an airhead is now crouched at the head of the triangle formation his genin have fallen into, one that he had taught them during one of his let's-treat-fresh-genin-as-ANBU-recruits training sessions, with Tazuna at the centre, passably-ambidextrous Sasuke on the bridge-builder's left, and Naruto on his right.
There's a focused look on the part of Sai's face he can see, no sign of the light-hearted boy always ready to pull out a notepad and coloured pencils to capture the colours of the setting sun, or run his fingers over the soft petals of a blooming flower, or spend just a little too long for a shinobi eating every hot meal, because all food that is not rations should be treasured, sensei.
No, instead, Sai radiates cool focus, his tanto clutched confidently in his left hand, even though, to Kakashi's knowledge, he prefers his right hand in combat. But his right hand is busy, flying across the scroll spread over his bent leg, seemingly heedless of the Zabuza clone heading for them with waves of Killing Intent radiating from him.
Then, when the clone is within twenty feet of them, there is a pulse of chakra and four cartoon beasts peel themselves off the scroll on Sai's lap and lunge.
One heads straight for the clone, jumping high, and Kakashi belatedly realises that the creature is a large saber-toothed tiger. Zabuza's clone raises the Executioner's Blade and slashes directly at the underbelly of the tiger, yet instead of guts, ink spills out, drenching the blade and its wielder alike. Disoriented, the clone doesn't dodge in time, and the second tiger bowls it over, fierce jaws snapping over its head until the clone turns into a puddle of water, effectively dispelled.
In the three seconds that it took two of the beasts to dispatch the clone, the other two covered the distance between Sai and Kakashi.
The two tigers jump at Zabuza, a split-second's difference in their tempo, yet while Zabuza easily slashes through the one that lunges for his sword-arm, Kubikiribocho is far too heavy and unwieldy for him to manage to bring the blade across his body and dispatch the one that targets the arm holding Kakashi prisoner.
Sharp-toothed jaws close around Zabuza's arm, and Kakashi gets his answer as to the damage the apparently sentient cartoons can deal out when the swordsman curses and drops his blade, a kunai appearing in his hand instead, yet even as the tiger erupts into a fountain of ink, a liberal spray of crimson joins it and Zabuza is forced to wrench his arm free from Kakashi's prison or risk losing the limb.
(Out of the corner of his eye, Kakashi sees the single tiger that had stayed on shore toss something suspiciously shark-looking into the water, and he thinks he sees a dark shape head for Zabuza's sunken sword, but he keeps his attention on the swordsman.)
He uses the unexpected window of opportunity when Zabuza leaves himself open to reflexively protect his wounded arm and delivers a punishing side-kick to the man's ribcage, sending him flying back-!
-straight onto the tusk of the cartoon sea creature that emerges from the water, Zabuza's sword clutched in its toothless maw, and Kakashi watches with alarming detachment as the tusk pierces straight through Zabuza's back and ends up just an inch or two south of the swordsman's heart.
Zabuza looks down, surprise clear in his eyes as blood begins to trickle down from the wound, the horn solid enough to act almost as a cork for most of the blood. Yet the swordsman doesn't appear to see it as the good it is, because he uses the kunai still in his left hand to slash blindly downwards and the creature bursts into ink and Zabuza falls, but before he can break the surface of the water, three senbon glint through the air and embed themselves in his neck. A hunter-nin materialises from seemingly thin air and catches his body, bent knee under his back, one arm around his neck – mindful of the needles, Kakashi's dazed mind supplies – and another pulling his damaged arm over their shoulders.
"Thank you for your assistance, Hatake-san." An soft, androgynous voice filters through the mask, and Kakashi wants to object, his brain calling up a protest but unable to focus enough to decide what it's protesting against, and then, between one blink and the next, the hunter-nin disappears, Zabuza in tow.
Kakashi makes his way to shore, body heavy with chakra-drain and the remaining adrenaline from the oxygen deprivation coursing through his veins, and shoots his students a crinkled eye-smile.
"We're going to have a talk about hiding skills from your commanding officers." He announces cheerfully, mentally adds again, then, his world spins for the final time and his vision goes black.
Sai sits in the field a bit away from Tazuna's house, a day and a half after their encounter with Zabuza. Kakashi is still unconscious, Sasuke asleep at the house, and Naruto out cold in the meadow where he'd been practising tree-walking until he passed out.
But while Sasuke had had the common sense to head back to the relative safety of their temporary accommodation when exhaustion caught up to him, Naruto was either too stubborn or too ignorant of his own body's signs. Something Sai is going to rip into him for once he wakes up, because having to go looking for his teammate past midnight in an unfamiliar land because the idiot hadn't come home had assured that Sai wouldn't be getting any sleep that night.
Not that he has been anyway, but that was beside the point.
He could've carried Naruto back to the house, but he trusted Sasuke's instincts enough to know that the Uchiha would wake up if he registered any threat, and if at all possible, Sai preferred to avoid Tazuna's house, especially if his daughter and grandson were also present.
Seeing the disparate family reminds Sai of all the families like their client's that he'd killed while under Danzo's thumb. Defenceless civilians whose throats he'd cut in their sleep, or whose water supply he'd poisoned with one of Sakura's toxins, or whose children he'd held at knifepoint until they surrendered.
Yeah, no, holding vigil over Naruto while the boy sleeps peacefully under the canopy of trees sounds like a much better option than being confronted with just how different he is from his teammates.
When the sky begins to clear though, pre-dawn light bathing the meadow in a soft, foggy glow, Sai takes out his sketchbook and decides to keep busy however he can, even if it means drawing the various flowers and herbs around them. He spreads out his chakra sense like Shin taught him, and makes sure he doesn't let himself become fully distracted even as he makes himself comfortable.
He plays with shading and switches between styles, then tries to label every herb he's drawn once he no longer feels like sketching. Trying to remember all the many times Sakura had tried to drill at least basic first-aid into him is a good memory exercise, and it keeps him busy and awake when exhaustion starts weighing his limbs down in a way that's becoming progressively harder to ignore.
"Ah, that's actually calendula, not arnica, though I understand the confusion."
Sai throws the charcoal stick like it's a senbon before he quite realises he's moved.
There was chakra in the throw, so it covers the distance between him and the mysterious speaker in a split-second, but his exhaustion makes the throw sail wide, and it doesn't hit the newcomer as he'd intended, instead striking the bark of the tree behind them, crumbling into dust.
"My apologies." The newcomer says, holding their free hand up in a placating manner, "I didn't mean to startle you."
Sai frowns, his exhaustion pushed momentarily aside in favour of hyper-awareness. He shouldn't have been startled, because his chakra-sense is still spread out in a ten-metre radius. Which means the newcomer, despite the civilian attire, is definitely a shinobi, and a good one at that.
"…It happens." He accepts the apology, after far too long for it to not be rude or awkward, but the other teen just smiles.
"I mean you no harm." They assure him in a quiet, strangely soothing voice, gesturing at the basket cradled in the crook of their elbow. "I'm merely here for the herbs." And they smile again, slowly getting to their feet, and Sai lets his shoulders relax fractionally.
He doesn't drop his guard completely, even as he finally takes in the other shinobi fully and sees the carefully-constructed façade of innocent civilian. The other person is dressed in a short-sleeved, pale pink kimono, their dark hair long and loose, their sandals completely unsuited for combat, and Sai can't detect any obvious weapons hidden around their body.
Of course, that doesn't mean anything for shinobi of a certain level. He himself is far more dangerous with some ink and paper than he is with a kunai. And, he can acknowledge that he would be far more convinced by the – arguably well-constructed – façade, if not for the fact that he also goes for the guileless genin mien around Kakashi, when in reality he's anything but.
"I apologise for attacking you." he says at length, when the other shinobi seems to stay true to their claim to only be there for the herbs, wondering whether Sakura and Shin would approve of his quest to find out more information, or sigh at him for his curiosity.
"It's alright." The other raven replies, shooting him another small smile. "You didn't actually hurt me, and I did startle you."
Sai hums, not sure what to say to that, and considers the herbs the teen has gathered. He recognises chamomile, echinacea and goldenseal, but there are a few others, and Sai frowns, considering their applications.
"There's some burdock and comfrey under that tree." He offers, mostly to see the other teen's reaction, and catches the minute tensing of the other's back before they turn to him, curious now.
"…Thank you." there's an intelligent glint behind the wide brown eyes, and Sai realises that he isn't the only one observing and calculating. "I'd thought to ask you, but being able to recognise medicinal herbs doesn't actually mean knowing their use."
There's an open question in the idle phrase, though it's said with no expectation nor inflection to make it official, but Sai has spent more than half his life deciphering Shin; he hears it anyway.
"My sister studies medicine." He replies, somewhat grateful for Shin's endless lessons about coded language and how to hold entire conversations without giving away anything of value.
"She enjoys reading aloud, and was insistent I knew at least basic first-aid." He shrugs, carefully careless. "I suppose some of the lessons stuck."
"Your sister sounds wise." The teen murmurs, heading in the direction Sai has indicated, gaze falling almost absently on the still-slumbering Naruto. "Your friend?"
Sai sees the dig for information for what it is, as well as the double-edged sword hidden beneath the idle words; his reaction to the other teen's presence had betrayed him as a shinobi, and Naruto is, fortunately and unfortunately at the same time, wearing all his holsters. Seeing as he's about 95% sure the other teen is a shinobi, this is a very easy way to find out whether Sai will lie to him. He sighs.
"Teammate." He offers, aiming for that same carefully-neutral tone the other employed. "He didn't come back to camp for the night so I went looking for him."
"That's considerate of you." the other teen returns, turning to face Sai, though he doesn't move to stand up just yet. There's a small, almost playful smile playing around the corners of their lips now, and their eyes, when they glance at Sai, are bright. "You never know what strange folk lurk about these lands."
Sai can't help his snort at the words, nor his intrigue at the new dimension of the battle of wits the other teen has offered.
"You're hardly the strangest I've seen." He shoots back, watching as the teen tips their head and laughs quietly, eyeing the black choker around their neck. It's placed in such a way that it would rather strategically hide any protruding cartilage that could betray their gender either way, if androgyny, not femininity, is the goal.
"Ah, excuse my manners." The raven demurs, sweeping their hair behind one ear, though it's a futile endeavour. "I'm Haku." Their eyes, when they meet Sai's gaze, are amused, making him realise the other is likely aware of his contemplations from moments earlier. "I'm a boy."
"I'm Sai." He replies, opting against a fake name. He already doesn't have a surname, and, if this boy is who he's starting to suspect he is, then he already knows who Sai is. Instead, he says the next thing that comes to mind, sleep-deprived as he is, which is; "You're very beautiful. Would you let me draw you?"
Pure shock colours Haku's face, followed almost immediately by a rather endearing blush. "I- ah, um- thank you?"
"It was a fact more than a compliment, but you're welcome nonetheless." Sai shoots back, unable to quite bite back the smile that's pulling at the corners of his lips, and the other boy huffs, though it appears mostly in good humour.
"Why do you want to draw me?" Haku asks, confusion, suspicion, and slight bashfulness evident, and Sai realises with a start that the boy isn't being as careful to hide his reactions as he was at the beginning, though Sai doesn't even try to capitalise on the fact; he's enjoying their back-and-forth far too much.
"Like I said: you're beautiful, I'm an artist. Beauty is something I like to appreciate." He considers the sketchbook in his lap, then offers it to the other boy. "Here. Have a look."
He knows every sketch that's in there inside and out, and there's nothing incriminating, nor anything that could be used against his family. Haku stares at him for a minute, then shuffles closer. He takes the sketchbook like he expects it to turn into an explosive tag, then eyes Sai again before carefully settling opposite him, closer than before, and opening it.
Instead of watching his sketches, Sai watches Haku's face. Watches the simple joy in his eyes when he flicks through Sai's many drawings of flowers, the awe at Sai's attempt at capturing the sunset over the river that cuts through training ground 7, the way his lips tick up when he finds the sketch of Sakura's summon, little Tamaki-chan, back when she was small enough to pass for a house cat, lounging in the spot of sunshine on Sakura's bed.
Haku spends the longest on one of Sai's only attempts at slice-of-life: a scene from a few weeks earlier, with Shin's lungs healed and Sakura back from her sabotaged mission, her arm in a sling. It had been sunset; Shin sat in the alcove by the window, one knee raised, straight arm resting against it, head tilted to look out the window and watch the people passing by on the street below. Sakura was perched on the floor by the sofa, legs crossed, a scroll spread on the floor before her, and though Sai only drew her profile, he'd still caught the thoughtful frown on her face.
Sai watches as Haku traces carefully over his siblings' figures, his fingers fluttering above the paper, as if not daring to touch.
"You care for these people. A lot." He murmurs, glancing up at Sai, expression unreadable.
"They're my siblings. Aneue and aniki." He replies, feeling his own lips quirk up in a fond smile. "They're precious to me."
"Precious." Haku echoes, gazing at the drawing again, before he looks at Sai. "Like beauty is precious?"
Sai's smile turns wry, because- well. There wasn't really a reason he shouldn't have expected another test from the teen.
"Not quite." He admits, and Haku gifts him with a smile when he doesn't even try to lie. "I wouldn't kill for beauty."
Haku's eyes are sharp when they snap to him, but when he realises that it's a statement and not a threat, something almost…relieved replaces the wariness.
"I understand the sentiment." The other boy murmurs, surprising Sai. "Though I'm afraid I must raincheck being your model. The person these herbs are for can't afford for me to dawdle much longer."
Sai tries not to let his disappointment show, accepting the sketchbook back, silently appreciating the care with which Haku handles it.
"I understand." He manages, though he's aware his voice has lost its earlier warmth. "I wish you well."
Haku smiles, and it's sadder now, tinged with something Sai doesn't dare put a finger on. The other boy sighs and gets to his feet, picking up his abandoned basket like he'd almost forgotten it was there.
When he's almost at the treeline, Sai speaks, unable to let the question go unvoiced.
"Haku," he calls, and the other boy pauses, turning indulgently, "is Zabuza after Tazuna for his own agenda, or because Gato is paying him for it?"
The air around them drops in temperature by a good ten degrees. Then, Haku is suddenly in front of him, basket abandoned, face a blank mask, the earlier softness gone, senbon pressing dangerously against Sai's trachea.
"You should be," the boy murmurs, his breath fanning over Sai's face, his face closed off and eyes narrowed, "very careful with your next words."
"I said my piece." Sai replies, feeling the senbon pierce skin when he speaks. "Which is it?"
Haku studies him narrowly, not lowering his weapon, and Sai absently realises that the other boy is almost in his lap, his knee resting rather uncomfortably on Sai's crossed shins.
"Gato pays well." Haku says at last, drawing back slightly, though keeping his needle against Sai's throat, and Sai appreciates the caution, even if it's misplaced.
"…But he's a means to an end." He fills in the blank, watching as something bitter twists Haku's face for a split-second. Carefully, telegraphing his every move, Sai brings his hand up and wraps his fingers around the other boy's wrist, though he doesn't so much as try to push Haku's hand away from his throat.
"And if he were to be…removed?" he asks, feels Haku's pulse jump beneath his fingers as the other boy considers his words.
"Then Zabuza-san would have no reason to do his bidding." Haku admits, eyes boring into Sai's. Or pursue Tazuna and your team, remains unspoken between them, but Sai still hears it.
Sai licks his lips, a nervous tick he can't quite shake, and the other boy tracks the movement before his gaze snaps back to Sai's eyes.
"Will you tell me where he is?" Sai pushes, carefully not smiling when Haku lowers his senbon, though the raven makes no move to remove Sai's fingers from his wrist.
"He has a shinobi guard." Haku warns him, and Sai smiles wryly.
"That's okay." He replies, squeezing Haku's wrist. "You may have realised I'm not exactly a normal genin."
Haku smiles too at that, a quicksilver thing, there and gone again, and rattles off the location, along with an approximation of Gato's schedule.
"Thank you." Sai murmurs, releasing the other boy's wrist with a final squeeze, and dropping his eyes, letting the other teen disappear if he wishes.
"No, Sai-kun. Thank you." and Sai is startled by the hand that cups his cheek, tilting his head up briefly to meet the other boy's gaze. "I hope we meet again, though I dread that it'll be as enemies."
And then Haku is gone, not so much as a breeze to betray his departure, and a quick glance around proves that he's taken his basket with him.
Sai smiles, wide and determined, and he resolves not breathe a word of this encounter to Shin or Sakura.
Still, he pulls out a scroll and sets to writing a message in their favoured shorthand. He has a mobster to kill, and for that, he'll need to secure some protection for his team and some sleep for himself.
Wolf's decision to keep his mouth shut and observe from afar changes a month and a half into having the kid on the team, on their fifth mission outside the Village. They're in the Land of Rivers, circling back from Hidden Valleys after a successful infiltration-assassination where the kid took centre-stage, when a white shape flies overhead, then dips, heading unerringly for their newest teammate.
Mongoose freezes, jerking the rest of them to a halt, and holds her arm out for the messenger bird to land on.
Only, upon closer inspection, it's not a messenger bird at all, but a black and white three-dimensional drawing of a bird, a scrap of fabric in its beak. Then, it shifts before their eyes, becoming a slip of paper, the fabric falling at Mongoose's feet.
There's a moment of silence, then-
"Shit."
Wolf eyes the girl sharply, less due to the language used and more because of who it comes from.
Then, he nearly startles when the kid is suddenly right in front of him, head tilted up to stare at him, giving him a glimpse of vibrant green eyes beneath her mask.
"Taicho, I have a request." she says, and despite the mask muffling her words, he can clearly hear the desperation in her voice, though the determination in her eyes tells him that it's a request only in name.
He inclines his head, willing to listen, even if that turns out to be as far as his acquiesce goes.
"I just got a distress signal from my brother. He's on Hound-taicho's genin team. They were attacked by Kiri missing-nin. Hound is-" she pauses, swallows, barrels on, "team leader's down."
Despite the urgency to her tone, Wolf has to appreciate the thought in her wording; not a single name, no identifiers, no location. Even if any undesirables are within hearing range, they won't be able to gleam anything from what she says.
"And the request?" he pushes, because he has an inkling, judging by the fact that she's personally involved with at least two people on the team, but he wants to hear her say it.
"We're ahead of schedule for our mission. I know their location, and we're close. Can I-" she cuts off the question before it has a chance to fully form. Pauses. Breathes. Rewords. "Requesting permission to detour to survey the situation and offer whatever assistance needed?"
Wolf studies the girl, then holds his hand out for the note. Mongoose hesitates, but obligingly passes the paper over, and Wolf studies her for a moment longer before turning his attention to the note.
He feels his eyebrow climb up despite himself.
CIV.ESC. LoW. 4HOS, , TL OoC. 2HOS X, 1HOS M.Z, 1 UNK. ASS.REQ.
It's...the shortest of shorthands, almost incomprehensible at first glance. Either made with no Intelligence training, relying on familiarity of the receiver to convey meaning, or with so much Intelligence training as to know that the hardest to break ciphers are often the most straightforward ones.
He reviews what Mongoose had told him, considering the note again.
CIV.ESC is the easiest to decipher, especially considering genin: civilian escort. Judging by the fact that Mongoose had said they're close, LoW is definitely Land of Waves. 4HOS...4 hostiles, likely, the crudely-drawn, crossed out slashes a mockery of the Kiri hitai-ate, missing-nin at that. TL OoC gives him pause, but then he remembers the wording Mongoose used: team leader. Team leader...out of commission? Probably. Two hostiles dead, one whose identity is known, M.Z, one unknown? Then, assistance required, or requested, doesn't matter really.
M.Z gives him pause, though.
Wordlessly, as if sensing his confusion, Mongoose reaches for his belt, digging into his pack. Wolf freezes, Bat and Crow along with him. Him at the fact that the kid doesn't show even a flicker of fear, them likely at the girl's sheer nerve; Wolf knows seasoned jounin who'd pause before going within three feet of him. After a moment though, Mongoose pulls out his Bingo Book, flipping through the pages until she stops at the one she's looking for, and turns it over so he can see.
Momochi Zabuza's profile stares back at him.
...'Shit' indeed.
"Do you trust the information?" he checks, because he's not about to go gallivanting off to civilian-land and risk coming across an S-Rank missing-nin on false info of all things.
"The technique is unique to my brother. Only he could've sent it, and the message was coded to my chakra: it wouldn't have opened for anyone else."
The words are reassuring, but the tone they're said in makes them sound more like 'fucking duh'.
"...Bat, Crow, make camp somewhere. We'll meet you at the border by the ocean three days from now. If we're not back then, assume we need extraction."
He can feel his teammates' disbelief the moment he finishes speaking, but he's more focused on the child in front of him. She sags with relief at his words, making it clear that while she would've likely gone anyway, not having to do it with the accusation of insubordination hanging over her head is a welcome development.
Wolf almost smiles behind his mask.
"Alright, Mongoose." he orders, and the kid straightens, snapping to attention. "Lead the way."
And, just as he's thinking that this is probably the weirdest situation he's had happen on a mission in a good five years, it gets weirder.
Because Mongoose bends down, picking up the scrap of fabric she'd dropped, then crouches and goes through a sequence of very familiar hand seals before slamming her palm against the ground.
When the smoke clears, a...cat? appears, up to around Wolf's knees, white with pale grey markings all over its body.
"Sabotage, hime? Again?" The tiny summon chirps, looking exasperated. "You need a desk job."
"Ah, not this time, Tamaki-chan." Mongoose demurs, making a move as if to scratch at her cheek, before realising that her mask is in the way and letting her hand drop, offering the scrap of fabric to the tiger instead. "Otouto's in trouble, though."
"You should've led with that!" The tiger chastises, then looks over Mongoose's shoulder at the rest of Wolf's team, before focusing on him, as if only just noticing them.
The pale blue eyes that drill into him are too intelligent by half for that to be the case though, and there's an unexpected weight behind the feline's gaze when Wolf holds it.
Sabotage. he belatedly realises the summon had said. 'Again', at that.
Something in Wolf's stomach twists uncomfortably. He doesn't care. He can't care. Mongoose is just a temporary addition. She'll go back to Team Ro as soon as Hatake gets his brats through the Chunin Exams.
She doesn't need him.
Yet, Mongoose turns to him for guidance, and despite her clear haste, waits for his nod of approval before she gives the go-ahead to the summon.
Then they're running, and Wolf has an excuse to not think about anything for a while.
The Land of Fire is prosperous. The most prosperous out of the other Nations, barring perhaps Lightning, but that's because they trade in diamonds and precious gems.
Land of Waves...doesn't reflect that prosperity.
It's been a few years since the last time Wolf was anywhere near the area, but he doesn't remember the poverty and malnutrition being quite so bad, or far-spread. A recent development, then.
Mongoose is quiet beside him, grim, and Wolf figures he'll wait until after they make sure Hatake and his brats are alright before he asks for an explanation.
He can be considerate like that, sometimes.
Despite running at shinobi speed, it's still night-time by the time the tiger slows down.
"They're in the house about two hundred metres ahead." the summon informs them as they stop at the treeline. "I count three civilians and four shinobi. Sai-chan is on the roof."
"Thank you, Tamaki-chan." Mongoose sighs, bending down to scratch the tiger under its chin.
"Always a pleasure, hime." the summon purrs, tilting its head to get a better angle for the scratches.
"Be sure you introduce my brothers to your new team soon. Hopefully in better circumstances than the last time." it adds meaningfully and Mongoose huffs, making the tiger laugh before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.
"Thank you, taicho." The girl says suddenly, a propos nothing. "This means a lot to me."
"You realise I'll want an explanation after this, don't you?" he shoots back flatly, but to his surprise, the girl just laughs quietly.
"That's fair." she agrees, adding under her breath, "I figure I owe you one."
Then, as if she's said what she wanted, she sets off again, and Wolf has no choice but to follow.
When they reach the roof, he almost doesn't notice the genin at first, and it takes him a moment to realise that the boy is stifling his chakra and scent-blocking.
Mongoose turns her back on Wolf without a care, and that, too, is novel, heading straight for the boy, pushing her mask aside the moment he spots her, and Wolf watches the genin's whole body go tense before he relaxes and gets to his feet with surprising grace, letting Mongoose pull him into a desperate hug.
"You came." comes the quiet, relieved whisper from the boy, followed immediately by a fierce 'of course' from Wolf's subordinate. He can't see her face given that her back is to him, but the hand she has on her brother's neck moves, her fingers tapping an odd rhythm against the boy's skin.
Wolf sees the teen tense again, then flat, onyx eyes flash to him, and he disables the stealth jutsu he'd unconsciously activated, the technique second nature by now, and makes sure the boy can see his hands.
"That's Wolf-taicho." Mongoose murmurs, though her fingers don't stop tapping, and the boy relaxes. "He allowed this detour."
"Thank you." Mongoose's brother - Sai, if he remembers what the tiger had said right - says after a beat, making as close to eye-contact as he can through Wolf's mask.
Foolish, he muses, or fearless.
"For not making my sister have to do something stupid to get here." The boy adds.
...Fearless, then.
"You seem certain that she would." Wolf can't help but point out, and he gets an odd smile from the boy for his words.
"Oh, absolutely." Mongoose replies, and though her words are light, Wolf can hear the weight behind them. Can hear the threat.
Her fingers finally stop moving, and Wolf realises belatedly why the pattern had seemed weird. Why he even noticed a pattern at all.
Morse code.
He almost laughs again.
The hand that had been tapping whatever message Mongoose couldn't say out loud stills, then glows green, checking for injuries. "Teammates?"
"Sleeping below. Only scratches and fatigue." the genin reports, sagging slightly in his sister's hold, and Wolf wonders when was the last time the kid had slept. "They were scared, though. Didn't help that sensei collapsed right after the battle and hasn't woken up since."
"I'll make sure Kakashi books them an appointment with Psych, when you get back." Mongoose mutters, smoothing back her brother's hair. "When was the last time you slept?" she asks, voicing Wolf's thoughts from a moment earlier.
"Sensei used his Sharingan most of the battle, so I think it's just chakra depletion, but he was also held underwater for a while, so I don't..." the boy swallows, pulls back from the hug, and pauses in the same way his sister had, mere hours earlier. "Haven't been able to since the fight. Naruto and Sasuke are good for genin, but they wouldn't be able to sense Zabuza approach, and he's not exactly subtle. With sensei out of commission, I just...couldn't."
There's...a lot to unpack there, Wolf muses, but Mongoose speaks before he can get into it.
"I'll take a look at Kakashi. If there's anything other than chakra exhaustion, I'll fix it." She kisses her brother on the forehead, then slips her mask back over her face as she turns away from him.
'Give me a moment', she signs to Wolf, then hops off the roof, leaving him alone with the genin.
Once his sister disappears, whatever fatigue the boy might've been feeling is wiped away, and his eyes affix themselves to Wolf, his posture tight. Ready.
"You're a Konoha-nin." Wolf placates, wondering why a fresh genin has the instincts of a war veteran. "And a child. I won't harm you."
The boy just smiles humourlessly and doesn't relax in the least, and Wolf thinks back to the summon's words again: sabotage.
"You mentioned an 'unknown' in your message." he speaks up again when a few seconds pass in silence, and the boy narrows his eyes. "Anything you can tell me about them?"
The boy studies him for a moment, that same contemplative air around him that his sister had displayed, then nods sharply.
"They were dressed like Kiri hunter-nin." he says, and Wolf absently wonders whether it's normal for genin to know what Kiri hunter-nin dress like.
"They hit Momochi on the neck with senbon, here, here, and here." he continues, pointing to the spots on his neck as he says them. "And they hit their target from up in a tree, at least fifteen metres away."
That's impressive, almost worrying marksmanship, but Wolf is almost more worried by the fact that the kid knows that.
"It would've all been fine, if not for the fact that the hunter-nin then took Momochi's body away." he pauses, frowns. "The whole body."
...Definitely too familiar with Kiri hunter-nin protocols for a normal genin, Wolf decides.
"Not a real hunter-nin, then." Mongoose's voice floats over to them as she reappears, voicing what they're all thinking. "Likely an accomplice."
"Naruto and Sasuke were too keyed up on adrenaline to be of much use, sensei was weakened and unconscious, and someone had to protect the client." the boy rattles off, something fragile in his tone, even if his face is impassive. "Pursuit seemed...unwise."
Mongoose must read something else in her brother's voice though, because she sweeps over to him and pulls his head to her shoulder.
"Nobody's blaming you, Sai." she says fiercely, and, ah. That makes sense. "You considered the circumstances, made a decision in the absence of your team leader, and got all of your team as well as the client to safety. You did good. You can sleep now."
The boy fully sags then, letting his body fall against his sister's, who braces for the added weight with chakra in her feet, then slowly sinks to the ground, stretching her legs out in front of her and guiding her brother's head to rest on her thigh.
The boy is out like a light in a matter of seconds.
Mongoose sighs, then turns her head to look at Wolf, before patting the spot on the roof next to her meaningfully. After a moment, once she sees him start moving, she carefully reaches up and takes off her mask and the attached hood, and Wolf almost misses a step.
Though the features are still child-like, with big green eyes and smooth, unblemished skin, the expression on the girl's face makes her look old. And not just old but tired. Weary. Like she's seen too much.
Carefully, Wolf takes a seat next to her, though he doesn't move to remove his mask just yet.
"You told Bat and Crow three days." she murmurs, licking her lips absently, then that keen green gaze slides to him. "I figure we can wait till the morning, then head off. There was nothing wrong with Kakashi beyond a few cuts and bruises and a bad case of chakra exhaustion, but the Sharingan is a goddamn leech. He'll be unconscious for at least another day without a chakra transfusion."
Wolf doesn't say anything, and the girl takes a deep breath.
"If Momochi comes between now and the morning, I'll take him." she pronounces shortly, and Wolf stills at that declaration. "I don't expect you to get involved in the fight for me, taicho."
"...You think you can take the Demon of the Mist by yourself?" he asks, not sure if he's actually incredulous or once again merely needs to hear her say it.
Mongoose looks at him, licks her lips again, a nervous tick, then nods, not dropping eye-contact. "Yes."
"Alright." Wolf sighs, then reaches up and wrenches his ANBU mask off, tugging off his hood while he's at it. "I'd like that explanation now."
Sakura stares up at her captain, completely thrown.
He's a Yamanaka.
…She's fucked.