Sakura heads to the Psych building, stopping briefly in one of the shadowed alleyways to don her ANBU mask and shrug off her sweatshirt, dropping it between the dumpster and a random wooden box in the alley. She's left in a sleeveless black undershirt and her charcoal pants, close enough to the standard ANBU uniform that she hopes no one will comment on it.
She steps up to the reception, keeping to the shadows until she's in front of the desk, and she bites back a snort when the receptionist does a double take upon seeing her suddenly appear in front of them.
"Have you got an appointment?" the man asks, seemingly recovered, and Sakura shakes her head.
"I was summoned." She explains. "Agent Mongoose, ANBU Team 4."
"Agent Mongoose?" A new voice calls, and a man Sakura doesn't recognise, with short-cropped, almost ginger hair and green eyes steps out. He's probably in his thirties, and there's a severe frown marring his brow. "Come with me."
Sakura does, leaving the confused receptionist staring after them. The corridor the new man leads her down is a lot more sterile than the reception area, and Sakura's willing to bet that she's being led to the more secure wing.
She'd never been in Psych for herself in the before, only when Tsunade wanted her to study some of the worst cases of what shinobi life can do to people so she'd know what to look out for in her patients. Tsunade wasn't keen on sharing her apprentices or trusting others with Sakura or Shizune's wellbeing, so Sakura never had to experience the wonders of Psych treatments first-hand, trusting her shisho to watch out for her.
Finally, the man leading her pushes open one of the thickest doors Sakura's ever seen and gestures for her to step in.
She does, looking around warily, and is more than a little thrown when she spots Inoichi in the corner, a clipboard on his lap and a pinched expression on his face Sakura is unfortunately familiar with.
Sakura resigns herself to the fact that she's likely only going to add to the man's headache.
"Take a seat." her guide orders, closing the door behind them and taking his own seat behind the solitary desk in the room. "My name is Yamanaka Kaede. I suppose you've guessed why you're here?"
"Bat's case." Sakura offers quietly, obligingly sitting down, though she turns so she can keep both men in her periphery. She can hear Inoichi scribbling something on his clipboard, but she pays it no mind.
"Correct." Kaede nods, an unreadable look crossing his face when he notes the way she's positioned herself. "According to the ANBU Commander, you were the one who requested a Psych evaluation for your teammate. Can you explain why you did that?"
"He intentionally endangered the well-being of my team-leader." Sakura says, clearly, and perhaps a little too bluntly, but she's finally getting somewhere.
Inoichi's pen stops its quiet scribbling, though it's Kaede who speaks. "That is a heavy accusation."
"So I've been told." Sakura mutters, grateful for the voice-modulating seals on the inside of her mask that manage to take away some of the snark in her voice.
"Can you walk us through the mission that prompted this?" Kaede asks, and Sakura barely bites back a sigh, then launches into her report.
"I would've been able to write it off as an accident, perhaps something to absently mention to taicho or the Commander, if not for the fact that Bat had introduced himself as a bodyguard." She concludes a few minutes later, then pauses, reconsidering. "And if I hadn't witnessed the obvious, albeit one-sided, tension between him and our captain."
"Tension?" Kaede echoes, his tone making it clear he wants her to elaborate, which Sakura does, though she can't help but shrug.
"Tension, distrust, apprehension – whatever you want to call it, he definitely wasn't happy to be on Team Four."
"Why report him to Psych?" Kaede presses, and Sakura frowns behind the safety of her mask, confused. "Why not keep it internal, let ANBU deal with it?"
Sakura blinks, almost unable to believe the man has actually just asked her that.
"Because it's unacceptable." She says as soon as her brain turns back on. "Because we are taught to leave any personal grievances at the door the moment we put on the ANBU masks. Because there's nothing to prove that he wouldn't do the same thing to another member of another squad if he were simply reassigned. Because he still goes on missions outside of ANBU, and doing nothing could endanger his other potential teammates. Because, at the end of the day, mask or no mask, we are still Konoha shinobi, and one of Konoha's dogmas is teamwork, and he failed to uphold it."
As she lists off the reasons on her list titled Why Bat is Actual Scum, a voice in the back of her mind pipes up, and she's voicing the thought before she quite realises what she's doing, "Because, if I can't trust my teammate to watch my back, what use does he have?"
Both Inoichi and Kaede still briefly at the last question, then Inoichi puts his clipboard aside and stands up.
"Would you object to consolidating your account of the mission through a Mind-Walk?" he asks quietly, and though it's not as gentle as Sakura remembers from before, from her time as Ino's best friend and calling the man 'Inoichi-oji', it's still far kinder than she expected the man to be towards her in this life.
Sakura watches Inoichi for a beat, considering his question, absently aware that Kaede is still in the room but not paying the man much attention in favour of wondering whether Inoichi has somehow recognised her despite the mask. It has been over two years since they met, but then again, there aren't many ANBU as small as her.
That is to say, there are none.
"Go for it." she allows, because, justified or not in this life, she trusts Inoichi.
He does, quietly explaining the process as he comes closer, though Sakura tunes him out in favour of concentrating on the memory of the mission, letting it play out in her mind despite how much it makes her grip the edges of her seat to stop the tremble in her hands and how the memory of the poison makes her nauseous.
Inoichi's presence also isn't as unobtrusive as Inosuke's had been nor half as comforting, and Sakura absently muses on the differences while Inoichi watches her account of the moment Bat stepped aside.
She isn't sure what Inoichi makes of what he sees, but he draws back after the memory runs its course some five minutes later, reaching for what she belatedly realises is her file and paging through it as if searching for something. After a few seconds, he sighs.
"Kaede-san, please update the ANBU Commander and whoever's overseeing Bat's evaluation that it is the recommendation of Yamanaka Inoichi that Agent Bat should be permanently removed from ANBU Team Four and demoted." Inoichi orders, and Kaede pauses, visibly surprised.
"Sir?" He asks, seemingly unable to help himself.
"If Shikaku has issues with the demotion, he can come to me." Inoichi dismisses, then waits until the man leaves the room before he turns to her, his expression is the most serious she's ever seen it.
"Sakura-san, I'm aware I'm breaking several protocols right now, please forgive me." he begins, startling her both by the use of her first name and the note of unexpected urgency in his voice, "But there is another Yamanaka's trace on your mind, yet there is nothing about it in your file. I don't want to assume, but this could be a serious problem if you're unaware of it."
Sakura blinks, moreso at the news that the Mind-Walk leaves a trace than at Inoichi's words.
Then, she realises that Inoichi is genuinely worried, despite everything, despite the shitshow she'd dropped on his head, so she hastens to reassure him, taking her mask and hood off as she goes, seeing as it's mostly redundant at this point.
"I was aware of it. And I consented, if that's what you're worried about, Inoichi-san." she informs him, then adds: "It's not in my file because I wasn't aware it should be. The Mind-Walk wasn't for a medical reason or anything, I just wanted to show taicho something I thought he'd find funny."
Inoichi stares at the girl, more than a little stupefied.
The fact that she'd reported a teammate and her rather apt assessment of the scale of Bat's fuck-up aside, he can't quite wrap his head around what he's just heard.
"You consented to a Mind-Walk...to make someone laugh?" he checks, and he's not entirely successful in hiding his incredulous tone, if the way the girl frowns at him is any indication.
"...Yes." she says slowly, narrowing her eyes at him, the shrewd expression painfully familiar, even if her face has exchanged the baby-fat he remembers from their first meeting for permanent frown lines at the tender age of twelve.
Inoichi bites back a sigh.
He's not sure whether it's the ROOT conditioning, the girl's apparent lack of any sort of self-preservation, or Kakashi's influence, but the fact that she doesn't realise why he's shocked is rather worrying.
"Sakura-chan, most people don't volunteer for a Mind-Walk." He informs her, the familiar honorific slipping out without conscious input. "They see it as an invasion of privacy, even in the therapeutic context." he explains patiently, but if anything, the girl's frown only deepens.
"I'd say that's because most people go to Psych after they've gone through a traumatic event, so they don't have the time to build a positive rapport with their therapist." She points out, and Inoichi blinks, not having expected the turn in conversation.
"Considering the lack of a trust foundation, it's no wonder they find the notion of having someone who's essentially a stranger rifling through their mind violating." she adds, showing more wisdom than her age would imply. "The difference between that and my case is that I trust taicho."
Inoichi pushes aside the unexpectedly astute observation on the problem with Konoha's approach to mental health in favour of focusing on the title the girl used.
He knew, absently, who Bat's captain was. He also knew that Agent Mongoose was Bat's teammate, and Wolf's subordinate.
It just hadn't clicked that Mongoose was Sakura, and Sakura was a little pink-haired girl his daughter's age.
She must sense the way his attention on her sharpens because she straightens unconsciously.
"I was under the impression that the mission we just witnessed was a temporary reassignment and Hound was your captain?" Inoichi checks, his tone mild even if his question is probing, and the girl appears to relax, rolling her shoulders idly.
"He was." she agrees easily. "But until his students make chunin, I plan to remain on Team Four."
"There aren't many Yamanaka in ANBU." Inoichi pushes when the girl doesn't rise to the bait, almost morbidly curious. He needs to hear her say it. Sakura girl scrutinises him at his remark, so he adds, almost amused, "I'm the Clan Head, Sakura-chan. I have the clearance to know that."
She nods, though the assessing glint in her eyes doesn't fade, and Inoichi does his best to weather her scrutiny patiently.
"You know, Inosuke-senpai said the same thing."
Inoichi chokes on air at the title. 'Inosuke-senpai'?!
An odd smile appears on the girl's face at his reaction, part amused, part wry, and Inoichi has no idea what could've provoked such an expression.
"Actually, since we're on the subject," She adds, her gaze never leaving his, and Inoichi gets the impression he's being challenged, "could you please add him to my file as my designated shrink?"
"To clarify," Inoichi says once he gets over his momentary surprise, "you want Yamanaka Inosuke as your therapist?"
"Yessir." the girl agrees, not dropping eye-contact, and, yeah, she's definitely testing him.
"Sakura-chan, are you sure-?" He can't help but ask, because he wouldn't wish Inosuke in a bad mood on his worst enemies, but this girl is the same age as Ino and a part of Inoichi can't let that go.
In another life, perhaps, this girl and his daughter could've been friends. In this one, however, they're worlds apart, but Inoichi can at least try.
Well, at least until the girl interrupts him.
"- I don't care, Inoichi-san." she snaps, her eyes colder than the situation calls for. "I trust 'Friend-Killer Kakashi' with my life because I know the man beneath the moniker. I trust Inosuke-senpai too, and I will continue to do so until he does something to betray that trust, so you can save your 'warnings', however well-meaning they may be."
Silence falls between them, and Sakura relaxes gradually with every second that he doesn't move to try and dissuade her from her decision. Inoichi studies her, pushing down his slight ire at the sharp, defensive tone and far too aggressive response when he realises that he is likely not the intended recipient of the girl's sharp tongue.
Sighing, Inoichi nods curtly, the only acceptance of her choice he's willing to offer, and moves to jot Yamanaka Inosuke on the required line. He's long since learned from Ino that trying to argue with someone so dead-set on a decision is a futile endeavour.
And, deep down, he also can't help but admire the girl's stubbornness. Maybe that's part of the reason why she seems to have gelled with Inosuke of all people.
Why he let her.
Though, as he runs through a quick psychological evaluation with the girl, absently comparing her current answers and mental state to the ones she had given when they'd first met, he can't help the rather morbid thought that takes root in his mind:
With the Friend-Killer and the Nightmare-Walker as her immediate role models, what sort of monster will she turn into?
After Psych, Sakura stops by the alleyway to pick up her sweater, seals her mask back up, then heads back to the training grounds, wondering whether she'll find all members of Team Seven still alive, or whether Shin would have lost his patience in the short time she was gone.
When she arrives at the training grounds, Shin is nowhere to be found, nor, curiously, is Sasuke. Naruto is standing on top of the stream towards the back of the training grounds, brow creased in concentration and tongue between his teeth. Around him are four water columns, each reaching to around knee-height, and Sakura turns away before she thinks too hard about the sheer size of Naruto's reserves even without Kurama's input.
Because in the middle of the grounds, Sai is playing whack-a-mole with senbon and a good score of Naruto's clones, all of them offensively orange and darting all over the place, trying not to get hit, to various success.
And Kakashi- Kakashi's in the middle of what looks like a puppy-pile, his ninken gathered around him, though a moment later Sakura realises that they seem to be poring over a scroll rather than playing.
She steps over to Kakashi, whose head snaps up when she gets within thirty feet, his dogs following suit.
"Had fun?" Kakashi asks, gesturing to the spot next to him, and Sakura smiles and heeds the wordless request.
"Depends on your definition of 'fun', I suppose." She offers, stepping over the dog-pile, and Kakashi nods sagely.
"Ruined anyone's day?" he asks, tone serious, though Sakura knows from the glint in his eye that he's only messing around. Still, she can't help the snort that escapes her.
"Oh, yeah, definitely did that." she grins, and she knows it's not a nice smile. "Doubt Bat'll be too pleased."
Before Kakashi can comment on that, though, his ninken suddenly start growling. Even Pakkun, and Sakura had never been all too close with the summon, but she doubted she merited that reaction. Kakashi appears comparably taken aback, as he swats one of his summon's ears, visible eye wide.
"Hey, cut it out." He orders, audibly surprised, a frown creasing his brow when the dogs ignore him.
"She smells of cat." One of the summons, one that looks somewhat like a greyhound and one which Sakura had never met in the before, snarls.
Ah. Sakura thinks, realisation dawning. That would explain it.
Something mean flashes through her, an impulse entirely foreign to her yet irresistible and she smiles, eyes creasing, and the ninken's hackles rise and-
"Not cat, puppy." She coos, saccharine sweet, phony smile in place as her hands flash through seals. "Tiger."
And she presses her hand to the ground between the dogs, barely noticing the chakra drain from summoning Ryu and Yu together in favour of the burst of satisfaction that sparks down her spine when the dogs whine and growl as her summons appear.
"Hime," Yu sniffs, rising to his full height the moment the smoke clears, eyeing the dogs disdainfully, "what reason could you have for bringing us to this kennel?"
"I was defending your honour." She grins, obligingly scratching Yu's chin when he tilts his head up. "The 'kennel' over there said I smell of cat."
"Like owner, like ninken." Ryu grumbles, though Sakura can tell he's enjoying himself, especially when Kakashi's dogs start growling even louder.
"What's that supposed to mean?" one of them, a large bulldog, demands.
"That your noses are awful." Yu informs the dog regally, opening his eyes to stare imperiously at the ninken. "Mistaking a common housecat with a Noble Summon?"
The growls grow in volume, and one of the ninken snaps its jaws, and that, it seems, is the cue Yu was waiting for, because he bares his teeth and roars.
"Kouhai, please tell your cats not to permanently damage my pack." Kakashi comments idly when two of his ninken unsummon themselves, eyes still trained on the scroll, though they both know he's not really reading it.
Sakura shoots Yu and Ryu a look. "You heard him."
They nod, mischief sparkling in their eyes, then turn to the dogs, teeth bared. "Run."
Kakashi's remaining dogs, rather wisely, do.
When they're officially free of the assorted summons, Sakura sits down in the spot Kakashi had originally indicated and leans back on her hands, face tilted up at the sky.
"Where did Shin and Sasuke go?" she asks after a few seconds of silence, and Kakashi hums absently, finally rolling up the scroll he'd been studying.
"Your brother is chaos personified, I'll have you know." He informs her, a propos nothing, not even pretending to answer her question.
Sakura rolls her eyes, then turns her head to slant Kakashi a look. "I'll need a bit more of an explanation than that, taicho." She tells him dryly, and he, surprisingly, obliges.
"Not your taicho anymore." Kakashi repeats, though they both know she's not about to stop calling him that. "Sasuke noticed the uchiwa on Shin's sword sheath and started asking questions. Then Shin realised that Sasuke can barely hold a blade much less wield it." he explains, mirroring her earlier position and staring up at the sky. "Shin seemed to take personal offence to that."
Sakura snorts. "That sounds like something he would do, yeah."
Kakashi nods, then adds, his tone still bland, as if he's giving a report. "So he took Sasuke to the Uchiha smithy."
Sakura blinks, wondering what Kakashi's building up to. "Well, that's not too bad-"
Kakashi cuts her off as if she hadn't spoken, "Before that, he introduced Naruto and Sasuke to chakra paper and lectured me for not telling Sasuke that his main affinity is actually lightning, not fire."
Sakura stares at Kakashi openly now, her mind processing the information. "Which is why he was having trouble with Hosenka." She concludes slowly, putting the pieces together.
Beneath his mask, Kakashi grins. "Precisely."
Sakura laughs, bright and startled. "How long were you planning to keep that a secret?"
"Until Sasuke learnt to stop relying on appearances." Kakashi says immediately, and despite the humorous tone the words are said in, Sakura can tell it bothers him. "He just assumed he'd have fire."
Instead of commenting on that development, she shifts topics. "And Naruto?"
"Wind and water."
Sakura blinks, genuinely surprised. "I didn't think he had good enough chakra control to manifest two elements."
Because the Naruto from before had shitty chakra control as a trademark – even after mastering Sage mode and the mother of all power-ups, his chakra control was non-existent.
"He didn't." Kakashi agrees, and now he sounds wryly amused. "But he did shove a fifth of his reserves into the poor paper."
Sakura considers the implications of that, then- "...ouch."
"Mmhm. And then Sai suggested that Naruto work on his focus by training on water, working on his jutsu and having a literal army of clones leeching his chakra." Kakashi continues, and yeah, that's definitely wry amusement underlining his words.
"And?" Sakura pushes, curious despite herself.
"And it's the longest Naruto's stayed focused on one task since he was assigned to me."
Sakura can't tell whether Kakashi's mad or impressed at that fact, but it appears that he said what he wanted to say, so she lets the subject drop. They lapse into comfortable silence after that, time passing slowly, interspersed with the sound of clones popping and Naruto's quiet grumblings from the stream.
When she glances at him, Kakashi's sprawled on the ground on his back, hands tucked beneath his head, all pretence of working abandoned. Sakura thinks Kakashi's about thirty seconds away from falling asleep, but he surprises her by speaking up, as if having sensed her gaze, and his voice is much quieter than before.
"Performed any medical miracles recently?" he asks, and Sakura hopes the way she freezes isn't too obvious.
"Maybe." She allows after a beat, giving Kakashi her full attention. "Why?"
"Jounin HQ is raving about Hayate's 'magic ANBU medic'."
"ANBU?!" Sakura demands, surprised.
"Less chance of getting to you that way, according to Yugao." Kakashi explains, though it does little to actually explain anything.
"Yugao is running damage control?" Sakura checks, still baffled, and Kakashi sighs.
"She was less than pleased with Shin after she realised the stunt he pulled." Kakashi tells her quietly, opening his eye to peer at her, "Grateful, obviously, but guilty at the danger she'd unknowingly helped place you in."
Sakura sighs, dropping her hands and letting herself fall onto her back next to Kakashi, staring at the sky with a tired smile on her lips.
"I was more angry at Shin than at the situation. I've been in some form of danger since joining ROOT." She mumbles, and they both know it's not even an exaggeration. "At least something good came out of it this time."
"I don't think you should be so blasé about that." Kakashi points out, and though his voice is devoid of judgement, Sakura can't help but snort bitterly.
"As if you're any better." She bites out, more defensive than upset, and Kakashi surprises her again by simply rolling with it.
"Ouch, kouhai." He mutters, his voice even quieter than before, the words lazy around the vowels. "But fair, I guess."
When she concentrates on it, Sakura notes that Kakashi's chakra has slowed down considerably, not quite like it would with deep sleep, but definitely more relaxed than usual.
She tries to ignore the warmth that builds in her chest at the thought that Kakashi trusts her enough to doze next to her, to let his guard down and relax out in the open like this.
She sighs, closing her eyes as well and falling into herself, reaching for the chakra links that tie her to her summons to try and see whether she can still feel Ryu and Yu, or whether they've gotten too far out of her range on their quest to terrorise Kakashi's pack.
She doesn't realise that she, too, has begun to doze off, until Kakashi's voice jars her to consciousness.
"Do you think they're ready for the Chunin Exams?" he asks, and it sounds almost rhetorical, like he doesn't think she's awake or that she'll answer.
"Why ask?" Sakura mumbles, forcing herself back to full awareness and cracking her eyes open, relieved to note that she'd been dozing for under half an hour.
"I value your insight, kouhai." Kakashi says simply, still in that quiet, even voice, and the warmth that had been in her chest before spreads to her eyes and Sakura has to screw them shut to ward off the tears that would have otherwise fallen at the simple confession. "And you genuinely care for Naruto and Sasuke. Despite seemingly not being able to look them in the eye."
Sakura stills, cursing herself for not realising that Kakashi would definitely notice her weird behaviour.
"They remind me of-" Rasengan through her lung, Chidori through her heart, red eyes with slitted pupils, spinning tomoe, never being good enough-! "-of things I'd rather forget."
"Hm." Kakashi hums, and she knows he's not satisfied with her answer, will likely press again at some point, though he seems pacified for now, at least. "Anyway, Chunin Exams?"
"How long do we have?" Sakura checks, mentally doing the maths as well.
"Little under a month." Kakashi confirms her rough approximation, and she sighs.
"They could be ready." She offers, a concession freely given, because her Team Seven had definitely not been ready for the Exams, but this one, with Sai, a slightly better-adjusted Sasuke, and a Kakashi who's not afraid of asking for help is already leaps and bounds better than her team had been.
But this one also worries her a lot more, because she knows what they'll find in that Forest.
"But I'd want to put them through ANBU bootcamp: 'team-building edition' beforehand." She informs Kakashi, a compromise this time, and she sees the shadow of his smile beneath the mask. "Orienteering, foraging, tracking, the lot."
"...I almost pity whatever kids you get assigned when you're old enough to have your own team." Kakashi remarks after a beat, so deadpan that she can't help but laugh, though he sounds like he approves of her request.
"Thanks, taicho." She snorts.
"Alright. I'll ask the Hokage for a fortnight free from D-Ranks so we can do bootcamp." Kakashi concedes, pushing himself into a sitting position, his eye sweeping the training grounds with far more alertness than she would've expected from a man who'd been half-way to dreamland for almost an hour. "The two of us might end up running some minor assassinations around the Land of Fire, though."
"Sounds good."
At Kakashi's blank stare, she scowls, feeling her ears grow hot.
"You know what I meant." She grumbles, raising a hand to rub at her eye and hide her embarrassment.
Kakashi just laughs though, reaching over to pat her head. "There, there, kouhai." He pacifies, patronising to the extreme, though she can hear the amusement in his voice so she knows it's not malicious. "We'll indulge your mean streak, don't worry."
The day after Sakura's stint in Psych, she gets a summon from ANBU. She snags Sai before he leaves for their D-Ranks to tell him to inform Kakashi, then gets changed into her uniform and slinks out of the house, keeping to the shadows and heading for the closest entrance into HQ.
Once there, she heads for Team Four's old training grounds, both excited and dreading what she'll find. When she pushes open the door to the training room, she scans the room – Wolf is there, going through some stretches, and while he's moving slower and more carefully than he had been when she was first assigned to his team, he's still moving, and that's enough for Sakura to almost sag against the door with relief. Crow is there too, doing her own katas in the corner and appearing to be chatting absently with-
Sakura almost squeals, a startled, giddy sound escaping her as she slams the door shut behind her and barrels into Yugao, almost knocking the other kunoichi off her feet as she wraps her arms around her waist in a tight hug.
"Are you really getting assigned to our team?!" she demands, her smile so large under her mask that her cheeks are starting to hurt.
"Yeah, I am." Yugao laughs once she gets her breath back, wrapping her own arms around Sakura's shoulders and spinning her around gently, and Sakura feels more like a kid in that moment than she'd felt in decades. "Bear-sama seemed to imply it would be fairly long-term, too."
"This is the best day ever." Sakura sighs, melting into Yugao and letting the top of her mask rest against the older kunoichi's sternum for a few seconds.
"You make it really easy to forget your age, Mongoose." Crow observes from the side, and Sakura pulls away from Yugao long enough to shoot the other kunoichi a quizzical look, for all that she likely can't see it because of her mask. "A little too easy."
It's the most upfront the other kunoichi has ever been, her voice sounding almost...wistful, even with the mask muffling most of it, and Sakura frowns.
But, before she can speak, Yugao beats her to it, setting her fully down but not releasing her from the hug. "Mongoose's mask should've been Chameleon. She adapts to whatever situation she finds herself in. She went five months with Hound-taicho before we even heard her properly speak."
Yugao's voice is perfectly even, but Sakura can hear the note of defensiveness beneath it and feel the tension in her senpai's back.
"I meant no offense." Crow assures, and Sakura can believe that, even though the kunoichi still sounds bizarrely melancholy. "I just…forgot you're a child."
"Alright," Inosuke cuts in before Sakura can think about how to reply to something like that. "Fox, Crow, you're up. No permanent maiming, I only just got out of the hospital, I don't wish it on anyone."
When the kunoichi take their places in the middle of the training ground, Sakura sidles up to Inosuke's side, content to soak in the man's presence and the proof that he's out of the hospital in silence.
A few seconds go by, Fox and Crow fully getting into the spar, before Inosuke speaks.
"Inoichi told me I've got a new assignment." He tells her absently, or he wants her to think it's merely an idle observation, and Sakura is immediately fully alert. "Something about some chunin brat demanding I be her shrink."
Despite herself, Sakura huffs a quiet laugh. "You all but volunteered, taicho."
"Didn't think you'd actually go for it." Inosuke grunts, sounding amused and disbelieving at once, and Sakura shrugs.
"You said I needed a shrink. I happened to agree. It also happens I don't trust anyone else with my head. Seemed simple enough of a solution." She explains, and she gets the distinct expression that Inosuke is laughing at her, even though he remains perfectly still.
A few seconds tick by, during which he turns his masked face to look at her, then he huffs. "Yeah. You're definitely crazy."
A week after Sakura's brief trip to Psych, Kakashi puts their Bootcamp plan into motion.
Between him, Sakura, and Shin, kidnapping three genin from their beds and dumping them, unconscious, in a clearing half-way between Konoha and Tanzaku-gai, is almost laughingly easy. Shin leaves not long after getting the details of their plans for the kids out of them, an unreadable look exchanged between him and Sakura, and when he leaves, he heads in the direction that is decidedly not Konoha. Kakashi tries to catch Sakura's eye at that, but she busies herself finding food they can use to supplement their ration bars that won't require a fire.
Him and Sakura do end up running assassinations, taking turns with hunting down the targets on the literal list the head of Intel had shoved at them. In downtime, or, rather, the time spent watching the free cabaret show that is Team Seven sans Kakashi attempting to navigate the forests of the Land of Fire, Kakashi takes great joy in randomly pelting the boys with acorns, covering them with genjutsu, or, on the memorable occasion, casting a thunderbolt directly at the makeshift campsite the boys had erected.
Sakura hadn't been most impressed by that, her judgemental eyebrow making an appearance, though Kakashi could tell she was also trying really hard to bite back her laughter.
Sakura isn't here now, though, what with it being her turn to slink away into the night while he keeps guard over their shared ducklings, and his kouhai's absence is at least 45% responsible for Kakashi's boredom.
Still, he's made himself as comfortable as possible, perched high up in a tree a good few dozen metres from their team's campground, close enough to intervene should need be, but not close enough to overhear every snippet of conversation or risk being discovered.
He's almost dozing, Icha Icha open on his thigh, though he's long stopped pretending to read it.
It's been an interesting few days, half spent watching their team try to figure out where, exactly, they've been dumped, half finding entertainment by making himself into a nuisance for his genin with the random 'challenges' he and Sakura decide to throw at them.
Watching their kids come together, look out for each other, develop a wordless system of communication and settle into the dynamic that had been growing between them since Wave had eased both his and Sakura's ruffled feathers, for all that she hadn't been with the team from the start.
After the first week, the prospect of throwing their kids at the Chunin Exams doesn't seem as daunting.
Just as he's almost ready to admit he's dozing, he startles awake, suddenly on full-alert, kunai drawn, eyes wide and muscles tense.
Only he has no idea what startled him. The forest is still quiet around him, the silence of the night broken only by the ambient noise of the assorted critters and creatures who call the forest a home. His kids' chakra is a steady thrum at the edges of his senses, two in deep sleep while one keeps watch.
It's peaceful.
Yet Kakashi can't shake off the creeping feeling down his spine that tells him he's no longer alone.
A sharp glance to his left reveals that Sakura's somehow suddenly there, curled up, knees pulled up to her chest and chin tucked into the space between them, eyes glassy and staring unseeingly ahead. For all intents and purposes, she looks like she's been here for hours.
He hadn't felt her approach.
Not so much as a snap of a twig or a displacement of air from a shunshin, or, hell, even a breath had betrayed her appearance. He wonders how he had managed to notice her, because Sakura's presence is so stifled, he's not sure she's actually breathing, and then, as he opens his mouth to ask, he feels it.
Or rather, smells it.
He smells the gore that radiates from Sakura's form, the metallic tang of blood, iron and copper unmistakeable in the back of his throat, and the sharp, acrid stench of vomit burning his nose.
And yet, despite smelling like she bathed in a bloodbath, Sakura's clothes are spotless.
"You ought to wear a bell." He huffs, his heart hammering in his chest, and he's only half-joking as he studies Sakura out of the corner of his eye.
No reaction.
It's like she hadn't heard him, not so much as twitching at his voice.
"Kouhai?" He tries, growing somewhat worried.
Still no reaction.
"Sakura." And, because he's no stranger to dissociation, he reaches out to touch Sakura's shoulder, hoping to ground her to the now, not whatever is clearly happening in her head.
Only he doesn't manage to reach her. Quicker than he would've expected, Sakura's hand snaps out, deceptively strong fingers wrapping around his wrist before he can make contact with her skin, and those flat, empty eyes finally focus on him.
"Kouhai." He says again, not addressing the fact that his fingers are starting to go numb. "What happened?"
Those flat, dead eyes never leave his, but there's no recognition in them, so Kakashi ignores his apprehension and shoves his emotions to the back of his mind, letting his voice become the cold, soulless drone he uses only on S-Rank missions. "Report."
Finally, he gets a reaction.
Sakura's gaze drops from his, not to hide, but simply to return to her earlier contemplation of the empty space ahead of them, and her fingers slowly release Kakashi's wrist, though he can tell she's more aware of him than before, waiting for him to misstep.
"Mission objective fulfilled." Oh, Kakashi never wants to hear that tone of voice from Sakura again. Or any of his kids. Not at their age, not in peacetime. For all her unique circumstances, Sakura's still a twelve-year-old kid. She should not sound the same as he had after the Kyuubi attack. "Target eliminated successfully."
This time, he matches her soulless tone intentionally, because he knows that whatever state she's in right now, Sakura is unlikely to understand the reason for the rage he can feel beneath his skin.
"Complications?" he asks sharply, and that green gaze flickers to him for the briefest of seconds, then away again.
"Target had a shinobi guard." She says slowly, though her voice doesn't betray the jolt of apprehension that shoots down Kakashi's spine at that fact, because there was nothing in the mission specs. "Elite jounin. Ex-Kiri."
She digs through her pack, one-handed, and she doesn't even have to look at the Bingo Book to open it to the page she needs. "Once the target and the guard's apprentice were eliminated, the Kiri-nin fled."
She holds the book out for him, though Kakashi only barely glances at it – once he catches sight of the name and brief bio at the top of the page, his insides turn to ice and he looks away, clenching his jaw.
Kurosuki Raiga
Affiliation: Seven Swordsmen of the Mist; Kurosuki Family; ex-Kirigakure ANBU
Rank: Jounin
Status: A-Rank missing-nin
Wanted: dead or alive.
Another Swordsman encounter on a mission that should've been simple. He's pretty sure none of the assassinations on their list is higher than B-Rank, yet the mere presence of a Swordsman raises the rank.
"You did well not to pursue." He offers once he can speak in a relatively level voice, the anger boiling in his veins cooling to a slow simmer. "Any injuries?"
Sakura just stares at him, eyes sharp and flinty, and suddenly, despite their different colouring, he can see the resemblance between her and Shin. Only he never expected to see Shin's calculative, distrustful expression on Sakura's face, particularly not when directed at him.
"You can trust me, kouhai." He feels the need to reassure, because the girl before him is more like a spooked animal, licking its wounds than the kunoichi he has gotten to know over the last almost two years.
"I," the girl says, and her voice is colder than before, "am not your kouhai."
Despite how much the statement stings, Kakashi nods. This is an…extreme form of dissociation, even by his standards, but he had figured something of the sort when there was no recognition in Sakura's eyes when she looked at him.
"I figured." He admits, then takes a deep breath. "But it doesn't change the fact that I care about your wellbeing."
Sakura scrutinises him in silence for a few more seconds, then turns away, back to staring ahead. He almost thinks she's going to ignore him, then she speaks.
"The target and Kurosuki's apprentice were children." She says, and Kakashi's stomach sinks. "Your kouhai isn't equipped to process that."
Yeah, no, this is so much more than dissociation.
"And you are?" Kakashi checks, torn between confused and horrified, and he's proud that his voice doesn't waver.
"I completed the mission." Sakura says, and it sounds less like a response and more like she's quoting someone else. "Everything else is irrelevant."
The words feel like a bucket of cold water has been dumped over Kakashi's head, and he can think of only one thing: Tenzo.
The way Sakura is talking, the cold detachment in her entire demeanour, the mentality of mission-above-all-else, it all reminds him too much of Tenzo in his first few months out of ROOT.
He remembers their description of Sai – 'as normal as you can get being an ex-ROOT agent with the remnants of a failed conditioning program rattling around your brain' – and he wonders how he forgot that all three of them had been exposed to the conditioning.
And then, just as he can tell that he allowed the silence to stretch for too long, there's movement on their branch and Sai is suddenly there, hand snapping out quicker than Kakashi has ever seen him move, batting away Sakura's instinctive block, then smashing Sakura's head against the tree trunk.
Kakashi flies to his feet, kunai in his hand without conscious input, and he stares, wide-eyed, at his student and subordinate.
"What," he begins once Sai straightens, apparently satisfied with the way Sakura groans and raises a green-glowing hand to her temple once she recovers from the hit, "the fuck, Sai?"
"Cognitive recalibration." Sai states simply, cool as could be, though the way he angles his body reminds Kakashi that he's still tense and holding a knife, so he stashes it in his pouch and makes a conscious effort to relax his posture.
"I'm going to need more detail than that." he deadpans, turning the words over in his mind, and Sai shifts, glancing briefly at Sakura as she blinks repeatedly, eyes much clearer and far livelier than before.
"Aniki's theory is that aneue wasn't immune to the conditioning – she isolated it." Sai begins quietly, seemingly not wanting to be overheard. "It still comes up when she's scared, or anxious, or unable to process things."
Like a defence mechanism. Kakashi realises with a start, and he looks at Sakura with newfound worry.
"So, the hit to the head was, what? A reset?" he asks, rather than wondering how on earth nobody had picked up on the fact that Sakura's psyche was apparently split in two.
"Aniki used it before and it worked." Sai offers, shrugging absently, though still holding Kakashi's gaze. "I admit there are probably better ways, but it's effective."
"What the hell, Sai-chan?" Sakura grumbles, heaving herself to her feet and shooting Sai a glare. "That was uncalled for."
"What's the last thing you remember?" Sai asks instead of answering the – frankly, justified – question.
Sakura blinks, thrown by the non-sequitur, dropping her hand from her head as she frowns. There's a small, drying dribble of blood on her temple, where the thin skin had been cut by the bark of the tree, but her eyes are clearer and her face far more expressive than it had been mere minutes ago.
"…killing the target." She says, face paling and twisting in a grimace Kakashi recognises immediately, because he's seen the expression on his own face many times; self-loathing. "I- there was a shinobi guard, too."
"I know." Kakashi cuts her off before she spirals any further, which, judging by the look in her eyes, is quite likely. Then, aiming for his usual teasing but likely missing by a mile, he adds, "You should rest. And maybe find somewhere to wash – you stink, kouhai."
Sakura startles, visibly jerked out of her thoughts, then shoots him an annoyed look, though he can read the amusement in her eyes just fine. "Ha, ha, taicho. But yeah, sure. Want me to fill up your canteen, too?"
Wordlessly, he unclips his waterskin from his belt, deciding against grabbing his big bottle from his pack – this is more to give Sakura a task than for actual need for water, and he knows they both recognise it. Still, Sakura salutes and jumps off the branch, and Kakashi turns back to Sai.
"How did you know?" he asks, unable to hold the question back, not sure how to feel about the fact that even after two years, there are still some things he doesn't know.
"Unlike my teammates, I try to listen to what's going on in the Village, so I can guess at the reasons behind this 'adventure'." Sai explains, the corner of his lips twitching up. "And I also know how to sense chakra."
"I suppose you told your teammates, then?" Kakashi asks, torn between amused and resigned, and Sai's tiny smile grows.
"No." he shakes his head, and when he looks at Kakashi, it's with the 'guileless genin' look he'd been using in the first few months of Team Seven's formation. "I have, however, taught Sasuke to meditate to clear his mind and expand his chakra coils, and he sensed you."
"And then he told Naruto?" Kakashi concludes, this time definitely amused, even though his voice still sounds long-suffering.
"And then he told Naruto." Sai confirms, and this time, his smile is undeniable.
"Brat." Kakashi chuckles, then reaches out to ruffle Sai's hair, the action so instinctual that he doesn't question it until he feels Sai freeze under his hand and sees his eyes go wide. But then, he relaxes, and his smile gains a wistful edge, before he turns his face away and steps out from under Kakashi's hand.
"Good night, sensei." He throws over his shoulder, voice oddly tight, and hops down to the ground, crawling into the tent. There's a few seconds of stillness before Naruto crawls out, rubbing sleep from his eyes, and diligently takes his guard position.
Kakashi sighs, an odd sensation that feels bizarrely like fondness curling in his gut, and settles down on his branch to resume his watch.
A week later, they're back in Konoha, and he's handing his kids out the forms for the Chunin Exams.
"Remember," Sakura says, back to her usual self, no trace left of the soulless shell of a girl he'd met that night, "this is entirely up to you. Neither me nor taicho are going to judge you if you decide you're not ready yet, or if you don't ever wish to become chunin."
"You've been genin less than half a year." Kakashi agrees, though he also knows, judging from the looks on Sasuke and Naruto's faces as they scan the agreement, that their words are falling on deaf ears. "The average time between Academy graduation and Chunin promotion is about two years."
"Hey, Sai?" Naruto asks, a grin on his face as he finally lifts his gaze from the paper, "You got a pen?"
Wordlessly, Sai holds out the pen he'd just used to sign his own contract, and Kakashi watches Naruto as he scribbles something Kakashi assumes is meant to be his name, offers the pen to Sasuke who takes it with a quiet grunt, and proceeds to bite his thumb.
"Okay!" Naruto cheers once he's stamped his bloodied thumb at the bottom of the page and watched Sasuke do the same. "Where do we take this stuff?"
"Dobe." Sasuke groans, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Did you even read it?!"
"Nope!" Naruto shoots back, completely shameless. "But we're doing it anyway, so why should I bother?"
"Because you could die, Naruto." Kakashi sighs, sharing a long-suffering look with Sakura who, damn her, looks like she's barely holding back laughter. "That's what the form is for. It's a release of liability between you and the Village should you get seriously hurt or killed during the Exams."
Naruto blinks, and he actually looks somewhat worried before he brightens again. "We'll be fine! Sasuke and Sai won't let me die."
Sasuke snorts.
"We'd never be so lucky." He grumbles under his breath, but unlike what it would've been like when they were first put on the team together, it's teasing, rather than mean-spirited.
"Still." Sakura says, drawing all the boys' attention, and she smiles encouragingly, though there's a hint of worry in her eyes. "Be careful, okay? Stick together."
She gets three nods in response, and Kakashi starts heading home with a cheery 'see you tomorrow brats!' thrown over his shoulder. He dawdles long enough to see Sakura hand each of the boys something he's too far away to see, then, as the kids also disperse, he lets out the breath he'd been holding and goes to hunt down Gai.
The next day, Kakashi and Sakura see their team off in front of the Academy, not sure whether they're trying to reassure the kids or themselves. At least it looks like Sasuke and Sai took the 'you have no idea what you'll find, so prepare for everything' advice to heart and have come with hefty packs to the exam, though Naruto is still in his ever-present orange jumpsuit and weapons pouches.
Despite everything, they pass the first stage, somehow managing not to draw too much attention to themselves despite Naruto being on their team and Sasuke's eternal competitiveness.
As Anko returns from opening the second stage, the Konoha jounin sensei, under unanimous and unspoken agreement, gather in the second-floor meeting room of the Jounin HQ. The room is unusually quiet as they wait for their teams to get through the second stage, nobody seemingly feeling brave enough to break the silence.
Then, three things happen at once:
An enormous ink eagle peals itself free from Sakura's bare forearm and heads unerringly for the open balcony, beak pointed in the direction where a sudden burst of red sparks appears above the treetops. Sakura doesn't hesitate, jumping on the eagle's back and shooting off in the direction of what Kakashi realises is an emergency call. The grim determination and panic he briefly glimpses on Sakura's face assure him of just whose team had called for aid, and his stomach turns.
The other jounin sensei jump to their feet, and something in Kakashi wants to offer a scathing remark at the delayed response, but instead, he whirls on Anko, knowing from experience that few things can cause his kouhai to actually show her worry.
"Mitarashi." he snaps, and Anko jerks from where she's staring wide-eyed after Sakura's hasty exit. "What aren't you telling us?"
Immediately, the wide-eyed shock is wiped clean off Anko's face and she narrows her eyes, guarded and defensive.
"That's above your pay-grade, Hatake." she hisses back, then her face pinches with pain while her hand makes an aborted motion to her shoulder, and Kakashi blanches.
"Orochimaru?!" he demands incredulously as Anko staggers, Kurenai moving to stabilise the tokujo and help her onto a chair before she falls over.
Anko's expression is pained and angry, and Kakashi has no doubt that she wasn't supposed to tell them, but he is fresh out of fucks to give because those are his kids in the forest.
"We found Grass-nin bearing signs of his Shoshagan before the second stage." she bites out, and Kakashi's heart skips a beat.
Vanishing Facial Copy. His kids might not even realise they're battling a Sannin and oh god-!
He doesn't bother with waiting to see what the others decide - he takes a leaf out of his kouhai's book and jumps straight off the balcony, ignoring Anko's calls of his name and runs faster than he can remember running in a long time in the direction the flare had come from.
He only hopes he won't be too late.