21. Dreams

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Kakashi-san,

Do you really think we wouldn't notice? You both have agitated a lot of people without being aware of it.

Guess what! Your little plaything is with us now.

She's alive, so don't worry. It would be no fun to kill her right now anyway.

Come and find us and make your decision.

Will it be her life or yours?

Sakura, where are you?

You have to cross a country or two.

Follow your instincts to the bridge of life and death,

where water drops and flows onto a bank of sand.

In 4 days it will all be over.

Be quick or be dead.

One life will come to an end.

The decision is yours to make.

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Those sentences hammered through his head and he was sure that every member of the team felt it too. Sakura, the one who eased their silly joustings and quarrels, the one who always managed to hold the team together somehow, the voice of reason next to Kakashi. The silverhead looked up to the stars, it was getting late and he knew they should take a rest. With an unambigous sigh he stopped the group and the boys started to set camp. The silverhead sat down on a rock and listened to his surroundings.

"He looks so lost," Sai noted, surprisingly empathic.

Naruto nodded and prepared some instant ramen. The blonde future hokage brought the first cup to Kakashi.

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The silverhead held up his hand to signal he didn't want to eat a single bite.

The jinchurikii sat down next to him. "Long time ago my sensei told me you need to fuel your body for the fight." Naruto smiled at him and handed him the steaming cup.

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Kakashi gave in to his offer and took the ramen. "Must be one wise man."

"He is." The blonde former student smiled acknowledgingly at him. "We will rescue her, I promise! You two will be happily together soon!"

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"You know this could end very bad for one of us. I want you to stay out of the fight, for the future of Konoha." The silverhead had already eaten half of his cup and Naruto couldn't remember seeing him taking one single bite.

"Every fight could have a bad ending. I'm sure we are going to win and we all are going to be alive and well. We have survived so many crucial situations before and we have always overcome as a team. They don't have an idea how to handle the full force of a wrathy team seven." The blonde slapped his former sensei on the shoulder. "Come on, you need to rest. I'll take the first watch."

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As Naruto went back to the fireplace a dark figure walked up to him.

"I need to talk with you."

The current hokage sighed.

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"Did the ninken find a promising track?"

"I'm in high hopes, but it seems very difficult. We have the direction according to the written information. Pakkun could gather some further hints." Kakashi ruffled his hair like he had a headache.

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The last Uchiha sat down to continue barely audible: "What I have to tell you is classified information that could be useful according to our situation."

"Go on."

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"Have you ever heard about chakra bonds?"

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Meanwhile Sakura was still without any vision. Her biorhythm told her it had to be nighttime, she could also feel humidity and the smell of rocks. To keep her mind focussed she decided to keep her mind occupied.

The pinkette reflected on the past, back to the time when distance had been boiling in between her and a certain copy-nin, when simple touches had never failed to set fire and when stolen glances had lasted longer than intended. There had been an electricity prickling between them that had become unbearable. It had been like a magnetic draw.

It still is!

She remembered when they had little by little stopped to fight against being drawn together and had taken advantage of it instead. When they had started a dangerous game, an addicting dance of will and fire, a longing play of resistance and reluctance. At that time dreams had been the only thing that had kept her focused and it had been the only way to live out her secret longing.

In her dreams Tatsuo the anbu and or the silverheaded sensei had always been there to give her exactly what she needed. Those dreams had kept her going, they had kept her alive.

Comfort, reassurance, encouragement, emotion, relief, fun and hell, a lot of sex and satisfaction, with the same intensity and sense of reality that she had barely be able to distinguish imagination from truth. When she had felt safe in his arms, when she had relished in the feeling of his touches, his incredible, incomparable scent and his comforting, leading masculinity.

She didn't know if it was the cocktail of drugs or the aftermath of their recent private experiences, but she was dearly hoping for one of those dreams.

Oh how do I miss him!

He is already on his way to save us, I'm sure.

Sakura felt herself calming down. Nobody will take her dreams from her, that she was sure of. She drifts off with a smile.

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Warm strong arms hugged her from behind, she could feel his unique scent and instantly knew it was him. He gave her a brief kiss on the curve of her neck.

"Kakashi." She moaned sweetly.

"I'm here." The pinkette turned around to hug him even closer.

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"Trust me, I'm almost here to get you out."

Sakura tried to kiss him eagerly, but he stopped her.

"Sakura, I..."

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She wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled him closer. "I want you, now"

"Sakura, I need your help to find you."

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Her eyes went wide. "Are you contacting me in my dreams?"

He looked guiltily and nodded.

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At that moment she realised he had done that before…

Many , many times!

Over years!

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As Tatsuo and as Kakashi…

That's why…

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It felt so real.

DAMMIT!

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"You sneaky bastard!" She fumed and he knew he was in the worst position possible to deal with a raging Sakura.

Quickly he put some space in between them. "It happened by accident! "

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"Stop talking bullshit!"

"Sakura, it wasn't in my hands! The genjutsu in Suna happened to melt some of our chakra together."

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"You've done it before when we had our training phase back in Konoha!"

He sighed… "I have to admit that it was an accident first, as I said. I was strolling through the rooftops of Konoha and then I… I heard you. I started watching you sleep, because I thought you were in danger, but you were obviously not."

Her eyebrow rose in dangerous hight. "I'm sorry, somehow it became a habit for Tatsuo to check on you and I have no idea why, but that idiot of an independent clone thought it would be a great idea to slip into your dream once. He felt like being drawn into your strong fantasies."

The medic-nin was rubbing her forehead, she felt vulnerable and bare.

"Afterwards he did it willingly and sometimes even I got drawn into your imagination. It's an anomaly we had never experienced before and I'm sure it has something to do with my sharingan. After our multiple sharingan illusions in Suna it got even worse, especially when the clone was involved too."

He tried to make eye contact with her and she allowed it. "Whenever you dream of me and it happens I dream of you at the same time our astral bodies will find together. To be honest I tried hard to find a way to end it, but I couldn't."

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Then she did something unpredictable, she smiled. "Hmm… Let me guess, you perfected it instead so you can control it?"

He returned her smile. "It happened during my confession process. My subconscious couldn't let you go, that's why it clinched to the last straw that it had. I've sworn to myself I will never let you get harmed, Sakura." At that moment he took her hand into his. "I promise to get you out. But first I need you to help me find you."

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"What should I do?"

"Please tell me where you are, Sakura. Imagine your surroundings, let every sense detect, show me everything you can remember."

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And she did. The medic-nin closed her eyes and so did he, their hands still connected as she showed him everything. They would not have to talk, he could feel every single impression that she had gathered through her kidnapping.

The last vision she could remember was when the copy-nin had kissed her Goodbye on the forehead as she had stirred in bed, then she had been drifting off to sleep again. Next thing was the sound of breaking glass, a scream and a sharp pain in the neck. She had been poisoned the moment she had woken up. She could only detect a scent of juniper and the color black. The poison had been repressing her chakra and had put her to sleep for what felt like a whole day. Sakura had heard people talking and she had felt herself being carried.

Without talking he asked her about other impressions and she mentioned the sound of a river, the sound of a waterfall and the smell of woods, but it was all gone now. The earthy smell had vanished and was followed by a feeling of a hot, windy and sandy area. She thought they had entered the sand country and the people had mentioned a cave as the perfect hideout. It was neither hot nor cold at the moment and she could feel humidity around her, which was normal for the caves in the Sand. The people had talked about wanting to meet him at another place, a bridge and to lure him into a trap. She could detect at least five different voices that sounded female to her, but she was not sure.

Kakashi remembered a bridge with a huge waterfall nearby where he had been as Tatsuo before, he definitely did not like that memory and nor the fact that she would have to see it. It had been many years ago on a mission with a woman involved, that he could vaguely remember. The bridge had been at the border of three countries: rain, river and sand.

You have to cross a country or two.

Follow your instincts to the bridge of life and death, where water drops spray until it flows onto a bank of sand.

The woman had not been able to deal with Tatsuo returning to his own village, she had lost everything a few weeks before due to a raid. Only some juniper bushes had remained behind her father's distillery, which had been completely burnt down. On the day that Tatsuo had to leave they had met at the bridge, she had begged him to stay, but he had been on duty and had to go back to Konoha.

Kakashi tensed and Sakura shrieked as she saw his memory of the woman falling. He had been sure the woman had been dead after she had deliberately jumped off the high bridge. It had been the last time he had let someone get close and one of the reasons why he had tried to avoid it before Sakura came.

Wide emerald met anguished mismatching eyes, Kakashi quickly withdrew his hand. "I'm sorry."

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The pinkette laid her hand on his cramped fist and let her head rest on his shoulder. "Kakashi, I'm afraid. Something really bad is going to happen. I know it."

The current hokage forced himself to ease up. "Ssshhh, keep calm. Everything will be fine." He kissed her softly on the forehead.

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"But I'm sure, I have this strange feeling." A tear dripped down her beautiful face.

"I promise we'll get you out of there soon."

I love you, Kakashi.

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He chuckled. "You know in this state I can hear your thoughts, right?"

Sakura's eyes went wide.

Omg… NO!

Just say it!

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Could you please stop talking? He can hear us for fucks sake!

His amused chuckle was still present.

Then you should better find the damn courage to tell him!

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He embraced her and pressed her close to his hard chest, she could hear his heartbeat. Well, actually it was just an imagination, but it was what he showed her.

"Can you hear that?"

She nodded.

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"My heart belongs to you, Sakura and nothing will ever change that."

The forceful medic-nin recovered her poise to breathe the most wonderful words that could leave her lips: "I love you, Kakashi."

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He captured her lips in a demanding kiss, then he answered "I love you too."

The pinkette deepened their kiss and straddled him which he welcomed with a passionate groan that resonated with her core.

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Sasuke smirked, it was his turn to take the nightwatch and by the barely audible moans from sleeping Kakashi he knew exactly what was going on.

Chakra bonding was a rare occurrence nowadays, but whenever it did happen, it was meant to last forever. Wielders of the sharingan had a natural predisposition for chakra bonds.

With slowly spinning tomoe Kakashi unwittingly had not only copied memories with Sakura into his mind, he had set the seed for their chakra bond and with every time he had done so, it had started to grow even more. In their current situation it was a very effective advantage to help them locate her and to assess the situation she was in, before they could get her out of danger and eliminate the enemies. Each sharingan held its own mysteries, but Sasuke was sure that someday he would have to give his former sensei "the talk", as it was called by the Uchihas.

Sharingans have a lot of other practicable options for use.

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