Happy Fire Friday!
I still have exactly ten minutes of Friday over here so, yep, we're all just gonna collectively pretend this was uploaded earlier in the day. Lol, I'm sorry this is coming out so late, I was having some super weird dissociations throughout the beginning of the week and basically just finished this 10k word chapter in the past couple of days. I think I'm halfway dead at this point xD Thanks, A, for holding my hand and keeping my head above water, as per ush.
Anyway, enjoy our slowburn as it starts to burn a bit hotter ;)
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Sakura woke up the next day with an irritating headache pounding away at her sinus. Her chakra seemed to already be working at getting rid of it even as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes with a quiet yawn.
The closed window in the room kept her from checking the position of the sun but by how tired she still felt, Sakura didn't think it was too long after dawn. The others around her had just woken up as well and their moving had cut through her sleep.
Usually in Konoha she was never one to wake up too early if she didn't have any training to do but during missions it had become second nature to be instantly awake as soon as she opened her eyes. It only happened that the cold wasn't something she had experience in waking up to.
Sakura sighed discontentedly and set about tidying up her things.
Her teammates knew her well enough not to engage her too much first thing and she only got a brief squeeze on the shoulder from Genma as they all moved around the room before filtering out either for the showers or the mess hall.
Sakura chose food.
Boar was already downstairs sitting on the table with Snail while Starling slaved away in the kitchen. Sakura shot them a tiny wave and moved towards the unfortunate member of their team to see if she could help him with breakfast. It was a surprisingly full breakfast with miso soup, rice, eggs and fish. She supposed there was an upside to having a decent sized outpost like this one. They were well stocked.
Genma made plates for both of them and held them with one hand as he steered her with the other towards their table.
"You should eat double today, Pinky," he said as they scarfed down their meal. Sakura rolled her eyes at him.
"I don't need those extra calories, Jiji, we'll be walking most days and not spending chakra." Sakura smirked at him. "Besides, I already robbed you guys of all your chocolate last night."
"You sure did," Yugao said, dropping next to Sakura with her arm heavy around her shoulders. "But you won't actually take away our chocolate will you, Wolfie-chan? Not when your poor teammates won't have any access to more chocolate for the foreseeable future."
Sakura laughed at her senpai's puppy dog eyes and conceded defeat when Genma joined in. A few moments later, Keiichi, Tenzo and Kakashi joined them.
Kakashi raised an eyebrow at her when she blinked stupidly at him for a few seconds when he sat down. He had already showered, his freshly cut hair still damp as it fell over his eyepatch covered Sharingan.
She had looked at his face enough the night before to have completely committed it to memory but it was still somehow jarring in the daylight to see him. The straight line of his nose, the slightly more supple bottom lip, the beauty spot on his chin.
The man had a beauty spot, Inner still raved inside her head, how unfair is that.
The answer was, pretty unfair. Inner smiled ruefully before scoffing and Sakura went back to observing her teammate.
He was already wearing Kato's clothes consisting of ANBU pants that seemed outdated and slightly more snug and worn down than the ones he had been using the day before, a dark green kimono-style vest with fingerless leather gloves that covered his forearms and black boots.
He had on a few pouches and a katana strapped to his back and Sakura had to marvel at just how different he looked. She wondered just how thorough Usui's lessons on disguise had been and then remembered the masterful way he had worn Sukea, Sakura figured he really would have no problem with this mission.
Sakura was no beginner in undercover missions herself. Very early on with Team Ro, her ability to create her shishou's untraceable genjutsu that could change any aspect of her appearance had been capitalized on. Lying and subterfuge had come scarily easy for her after being raised like she did and with Inner's help.
She felt her confidence in this mission boost.
Having more sustenance and her morning dose of green tea, Sakura felt marginally better. Enough to engage in the conversation around her as she finished eating.
"You should get ready, Sakura," Kakashi said quietly from the other side of the table and Sakura had to consciously fight the urge to look down at his mouth to see how the words formed there. She had to get over seeing his face. Soon. "Asuma should be here soon."
Sakura nodded and quickly got up to take her plate to the kitchen were Snail was slaving away washing the dishes.
"You're right." She smiled slightly. "I'll be back soon."
She moved easily through her normal routine of getting ready for a mission; she took a relaxing shower but didn't wet her hair, dried herself up and moved to put on her clothes.
She was wearing her favourite black pants, the hakama-style one that she usually wore around the village on her days off, and a black bra that she felt was more suited for an almost civilian doctor instead of chest wrappings. She stood in the changing room, bare feet with her hair loose down her back as she carefully applied makeup in the mirror and barely paid any attention when the door opened.
Asuma and Yugao walked in, the woman talking with a more subdued smile than what was normal for her since Asuma wasn't exactly someone she knew well. They seemed to be talking about Asuma's disguise but stopped when they noticed her.
"Oh, sorry, kid," Asuma said, averting his eyes to the ceiling. "I can come back later."
Sakura huffed a laugh as she turned back to the mirror to continue applying her carmine red lipstick.
"How cute of you, Asuma-san." Sakura exchanged a look with Yugao through the mirror and fought back a smirk when the man cleared his throat, clearly uncomfortable. "I'd never taken you for a prude."
It was a comeback she would have used with someone she was more familiar with but she had to break him out of the mentality that she was a kid and fast. She knew he had referred to her as that more as a reflex than him thinking she was a child but still. He'd have to get used to some things pretty quickly for this mission to work the way they wanted to.
"I can help you with shaving your head, if you want, Sarutobi-san," Yugao offered, already moving towards the cabinet that contained most of the supplies for undercover missions.
"Asuma is just fine, you two." Asuma scratched the back of his head as he reluctantly made eye contact with Sakura through the mirror. "Though I guess you should start calling me Asao. Shirotori Asao."
"Ah, Asao-kun!" Sakura turned around to smile brightly at him, barely registering Genma and Kakashi entering. "The best man at my wedding. My best friend."
She came to stand in front of him and lightly patted his chest, her happy smile still in place. A part of her wanted to laugh at his dumbstruck look but she squished it down.
"Stop playing with the poor bastard, Princess," Genma laughed as he passed them, clapping a heavy hand on Asuma's shoulder as he went to sit on the bench behind him.
"I'm not playing," Sakura said, dropping the smile and shrugging unapologetically. "He needs to be comfortable around me if we're to pull this off. We don't really know what we'll be walking into, our disguises have to be perfect."
"Kid's—uh, I mean," Asuma looked contrite at her but soon moved past his blunder. "Sakura is right. There isn't any room for error here."
Sakura nodded approvingly at him and moved to the locker that held her pack to select her clothes. From behind her, Asuma was already divesting himself of his jounin uniform to properly shave his beard and pass an electric hair clipper through his hair. She was happy to see he barely hesitated before doing so in front of her.
Kakashi was on her side, selecting things he would take and things he'd leave behind on the locker. It was weird that she could see her approval reflected on his features so plainly but Sakura didn't let herself linger on it for too long.
She pulled on a tight long sleeved black shirt over her head and reached for the simple grey hoodie she had packed. She'd probably have to put it away around midday when the sun would be at its peak but for now, she'd been chilly ever since she parted ways with her warm bedroll and she didn't want to feel any more cold.
Sakura pulled her hair up in a ponytail, secured her medical pouch around her hips and turned to sit at the bench so she could pull on her boots. Asuma was almost ready and they continued talking about their covers and different strategies until they were all looking at each other expectantly.
Sakura took a deep breath and put the fake wedding band on her left ring finger. Kakashi pulled the cutoff finger of his glove back until she could see his own shining there. Sakura nodded. Asuma put his hitai-ate inside his locker.
Asuma had completely changed from his jounin self, with no beard and hair in a short buzz cut. There was a fang dangling on his pierced ear and a dark blue get up similar to Kakashi's, only he was carrying a few pouches of kunai instead of a katana.
"Let's move out." Her tone was slightly too commanding for someone who wouldn't be captaining the mission but it couldn't be helped.
Even though, ultimately, Kakashi had both the rank and experience to get the title instead of her, she couldn't exactly turn off four years of giving orders to her teams. She'd have to temper it down a notch, though Kakashi didn't look miffed at her slight overstep.
They went downstairs with their bags and their friends trailing behind them and stepped outside where Sakura paused in the tiny clearing in front of the double doors of the outpost. Without flourish, Sakura bit into her finger, performed the seals—Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey, Ram—then smacked her hand on the forest floor.
The small space was instantly filled with smoke and when it cleared, her pack stood in the middle.
Hotaka trotted forward from the circle the wolves made and nudged his snout to the hand she extended in greeting. He sat back on his haunches and waited for instructions.
After Sakura explained the situation to them, Hotaka and Kimi stepped forward to greet Kakashi while Kaede came to stand by her side. Sakura rested a hand on the back of his head and scratched his fur.
"Maybe you should call Pakkun, Kakashi," Sakura said to him while the others talked quietly among themselves. "We can have him and Chika undercover in the village and picking up whatever gossip they can on the streets."
The village they were heading towards that morning was about a two-hour track north in a civilian pace. It was small but according to reports had at least an inn and a bar and it was the closest place to where the thieves had set up camp a little further north. Any recruiting they were doing would surely be done there.
With a plan in place, the pack took to the trees, Pakkun and Chika looking like normal strays and heading straight north while the others dispersed around them, ready to track and gather intel. Kaede was the last to leave and not before Sakura bumped her forehead to his.
"You take care of each other out there," Genma said, his senbon bobbing nervously on his mouth as he crossed his arms in front of his chest. "We'll be around for backup."
"See you soon, Jiji." Sakura smiled warmly at him while Asuma and Kakashi waved. And then they moved in unison towards the tree line.
It took them about fifteen minutes of painstakingly walking through the thick foliage to reach the dirt road that would lead them straight to the village. They kept a casual string of conversations between them, carefully flashing out their cover story by sharing information about their characters disguised as familiar conversation.
"Remember that udon we had at that tiny town in Wave? Ooh, what I wouldn't give to have some of that right now."
"Asao-kun, maybe you could find some work on a fishing boat. Surely your wind nature would help with that."
"Our priority should be finding a place that will value a medic like you, Akari-chan. Me and Kato will find whatever work we can."
"Kato and I. Stupid."
"What did you say, mono-eye?"
By the time they could see the small village of Sairyu in the distance, a small trickle of rain had begun to fall, making their clothes and hair slightly damp. They had to duck under the canopy of a roadside tea shop just before they entered the village because the rain started picking up.
It was a cosy place, not exactly small but filled to the brim with travellers looking to get out of the rain. Asuma and Kakashi sat with their bags on a small round booth and Sakura went to the counter to order for them.
When she sat back down, Asuma and Kakashi were sharing a smoke while deep in conversation about whether green tea or coffee was better and Sakura smiled. She turned the snort she wanted to let out into a feminine giggle and passed the cups of tea around the table.
"I knew there was a reason I married you," Kakashi said, putting his arm on the back of the booth behind her with a smile.
A smile that she could see. Fuck, she needed to get over his face. Faster.
It was with an embarrassingly little amount of effort that she blushed and slid closer to him. She could keep up with this almost sweet side of Akari that giggled and blushed prettily but, in the end, they were trying to find a job as thieves in the beginnings of a crime syndicate and she couldn't seem too innocent.
Sakura fit herself against Kakashi's side snugly, revelling in his warmth after a couple of hours walking in the cold, and stretched her neck so she could kiss his cheek.
"I hope that's not the only reason, husband," she said, her lips still brushing his warm cheek. Asuma choked on his next inhale of cigarette smoke.
Sakura could also admit to herself that she was doing that because she felt Kakashi deserved a little payback. Sure, it wasn't his fault that his face looked like that, but it was kind of unfair of him to have kept his pretty boy face hidden from her all these years while the other members of Team Ro had all seen it. And Asuma. She wondered who else had seen his face but figured ultimately she did not want to dig deep into that particular train of thought.
"Of course not, Akari-chan," Kakashi replied, not one to be outdone. He let the arm that had been resting on the back of the booth fall around her shoulders and used it to bring her closer, his fingers tracing a warm path on her upper arm over her quickly drying hoodie. He turned his face to look at her then, close enough that she could feel his breath on her face. "You can cook like no other."
Kakashi was grinning at her, a private teasing one that sent heat to her cheeks, but his eye, although crinkled in the corner, was steely. He was caught off guard by her attempt at flirting and did not appreciate it. Well, tough.
"There's no need to rub it in that I have absolutely no skill in the kitchen," Sakura pouted and forced herself to say.
As a matter of fact, she wasn't a half bad cook. The reason Kakashi was teasing her about it was because in one of Team 7's earlier missions, she had been tasked with cooking dinner and had gotten distracted by Sasuke who had been cleaning himself up on the river nearby. She accidentally put half the content of the package of salt into their soup that night and was never tasked again with cooking. It had been a fortunate turn of events seeing as Ino and Tenten had often complained about always being put for the task.
Still, Asuma couldn't know he was being sarcastic and if the—granted, unlikely—event came up that she needed to cook, Asuma could possibly praise her a little too much and… well. Sakura was no chef, despite being a better cook than Kakashi probably expected.
They bantered between them for a while as they drank their tea. Slowly, Asuma started to take longer between each drag of his ever present cigarette and Sakura and Kakashi managed to relax against the other, trying casual touches from time to time.
It was a weird position to be in, all of them. Sakura, while having developed ANBU's disregard for personal space, wasn't exactly used to being this close to Kakashi and the man himself seemed to alternate between tense and twitchy to relaxed and open. That they had to try drawing their personal lines in the sand and experimenting having this type of interaction in front of Asuma didn't help any. Especially because the older jounin seemed equal parts alarmed and amused by their interaction.
Still, they managed to come to some kind of understanding while they drank their tea.
"There's a couple of gentlemen near the counter who seemed to be talking about a job nearby," Sakura said when they were done. She raised an eyebrow at Asuma. "Maybe you can check out if they had something for us?"
The two men she had been talking about were ninja but didn't seem to be higher then genin-level. To tell the truth, Sakura hadn't really heard them talk about a job, but she had observed that despite their haggard clothes they were wearing gold jewellery. There were few options where they could have gotten those and her money was on the fact that they were thieves.
It had been wishful thinking that they could have found their way into the camp with the first establishment they tried. Asuma had come back from talking to the guys with a simple, "They're locals, not hiring anyone at the moment." Which sucked, because the rain had only lessened in intensity, not completely stopped, and they couldn't stay in that tea shop forever, especially if their objective couldn't be fulfilled there.
They walked quickly and in silence towards the village. Unfortunately, the inn was in the middle of the village and the walk there gave the rain time to pick up again. They were almost completely drenched by the time they got there and the heavy sheets of water kept them from being able to carefully catalogue the village and its citizens. It also made it almost impossible for Kakashi and Sakura to pick up any scent.
The Sairyu Inn was a relatively big two-story building. It looked more like an izakaya that had suddenly decided to build a second floor and rent out rooms for the night than a proper inn, but they weren't complaining. The innkeeper/bartender was a serious looking old man that didn't bat an eye when they asked for just one room with two beds.
Their room was small with a rickety table with only two chairs on one side and the beds that could barely be called double on the other, separated by a short bedside table with a rusty looking window behind them. Still, Sakura was happy that it came with a private bathroom and they wouldn't have to go to the local bathhouse. It wasn't like they intended on staying there long, either way.
They were simply there to root out any whispers about the thieves' camp and see if they could get recruited. If there was nothing, they would move on to a village that was further north of the camp and wait there. Sakura just hoped their intel was good and the rogues were actually looking to recruit more people.
Before Asuma and Sakura could do anything, Kakashi was pushing forward towards the bathroom and announcing, "I call first shower," before closing the door on their faces.
"No chivalry with that one," Sakura scoffed before rolling her eyes and moving to discard her bag on the floor next to one of the beds.
"Shouldn't you jump in there with him, Akari-chan?" Asuma asked and Sakura turned to see him wiggle his eyebrows at her. He seemed to have grown used to seeing Kato and Akari as a couple and looked much more relaxed than earlier in the day.
Sakura giggled. Asuma looked so funny then, with his drenched clothes and wiggling brows, his face devoid of a beard and hair buzzed short. With him teasing her like that, it was easy to see how Genma and him had been best friends. She could easily imagine a much younger version of the man in front of her, stealing cigarettes and tempting a twelve-year-old Genma with one.
"Not with you in here, idiot!" Sakura put her hands on her hips but there was still an amused grin on her face.
"Alright, alright!" Asuma raised his hands in surrender and pointed towards the door. "I'll see if I can find us some lunch downstairs. Take your time."
Sakura had to give it to him. It was a very smooth way of getting downstairs to interact with the customers they'd seen on the bar and the innkeeper himself. With a small chuckle, Sakura riffled through her backpack until she found the book she was looking for and then sat down on one of the wooden chairs to read.
To anyone else, the book looked to be about medium level iryo-ninjutsu but it was much more than that. Sakura had always been an avid reader and in the many nights she had found herself awake because of nightmares, she had taken to reading. At first she had used books on chakra to practice and when those became trivial, iryo-ninjutsu books. Soon she had read everything there was to read about that subject and moved on to genjutsu.
Tsunade, after having given her her jounin gift, had offhandedly mentioned that she might be interested in the books and scrolls they had on fuinjutsu. It had been the perfect pet project for Sakura. It wasn't something she would consider herself to be an expert on, but she had learned quite a lot and it was a nice way of distracting herself from her thoughts whenever she had down time.
She had learned how to create a seal to disguise whatever it was she was reading. The only people who could read what was really in the book was someone who had their chakra infused in the seal, to the rest of the world, it looked like an exact copy of First Aid: Intermediate.
Sakura had just finished the chapter she was reading of Fuinjutsu in Uzushiogakure when Kakashi came out of the bathroom.
"You took forever," Sakura complained in an almost whine. She moved to the bed to get her things and pouted when Kakashi chuckled and moved to lie back on the bed, a familiar book on his hands. "Really?" Sakura raised an eyebrow at him.
When he only shrugged at her and lifted Icha Icha Paradise higher to cover his face, Sakura shook her head and moved to the bathroom. She wondered how he would make the book fit his cover but had not a shadow of doubt that he would twist it and manage to do just that.
Sakura relished the feeling of hot water on her chilled skin while washing her makeup away. She wished she had splurged on water resistant mascara, annoyed that some had run and smudged and neither of the men in her company had seen fit to inform her. The rain raged on outside.
A while later, Kakashi and Sakura were eating the food Asuma had brought back on the rickety table while the man took his shower. It was a simple meal of oden but it was hot and it warmed her significantly. Their window didn't seem to close completely and while the awning outside it made sure no water got inside, it was still pretty drafty. Sakura wished she had packed warmer clothes now that she couldn't rely on circling her chakra faster to keep her warm.
There wasn't much they could do with the rain still going strong outside, so Sakura and Kakashi settled on their bed while Asuma pulled up one of the chairs towards them and they decided it was okay to play some cards.
Asuma carefully told them what he had managed to get out of the customers downstairs which admittedly wasn't much. The innkeeper, however, had already been informed that they were looking for work and that Sakura was a medic, so hopefully it wouldn't take long for someone to catch that particular bait.
They played until it was dark then decided to have dinner downstairs and call it a day. The rain had stopped but all the shops had already closed so there was little to no point in going out that night. Dinner was good, if a little too greasy, and when Asuma excused himself to smoke outside, Sakura followed him while Kakashi went to pay the tab.
Asuma and Sakura shot him amused looks when he announced he would head to the counter to pay but one curt, "Shut up," from him had been enough for them to not say anything about it.
They stood just outside the inn and Asuma lit one cigarette for himself before offering Sakura one from the pack. She accepted it, ignoring the amused tilt of his eyebrow, and leaned forward so he could light it for her.
"It finally stopped raining," Sakura said quietly with her next exhale, her eyes lazily scanning the streets in a pretence of looking around.
"Yeah," Asuma grunted.
She knew the main reason Asuma had gone outside was to smoke but it would be good to at least try and check in with Chika and Pakkun. It wasn't ideal that they didn't have a good enough reason to walk around the village but Sakura only needed to see Chika in the distance to be able to communicate with her through their bond.
She was down to the middle of her cigarette when she finally saw a spot of white in the distance, moving happily through the alleyway ahead of them.
Chika? Sakura asked.
Sakura-hime! This rain was so annoying, I took so long to find you! Chika's child-like voice sounded inside her head and Sakura gave Asuma an almost imperceptible nod.
Do you have anything to report? Sakura asked, straight to the point because her cigarette was almost over and she didn't want to light another one to find a reason to stay outside. We're staying in a room here.
I can smell it now, I'll come find you if I find anything, Chika answered. Pakkun-san said that he couldn't find any traces of the smell they had picked up yesterday while investigating the camp.
Because of the rain? Sakura asked, already getting annoyed that the stupid weather would make them stay longer than necessary.
No, we got here before it began, Sakura-hime! For now there's no sign of them but we'll keep looking! I won't let you down!
Good job, Chika, Sakura thought with a small smile on her face, you can rest now. Be safe, okay?
Don't worry about me, Sakura-hime! Pakkun and I will find somewhere to sleep.
"Well, I'm heading in." Sakura turned to snub out her cigarette against a bin near them before throwing it out and turning back to Asuma. "Are you staying here, Asao-kun?"
"Yeah, you head up ahead," Asuma spoke through the cigarette still in his mouth, a roguish grin on his lips. "I'll have a few more drinks. Give the two of you some time alone."
Sakura rolled her eyes in exasperation but it was only for show. While they had been out there, a few patrons had left and some had gone inside and it would make sense for him to stay down there to talk to them or at least hear their conversation.
Sakura pressed a peck to his cheek in goodnight and went back to their room. Kakashi was sprawled on their bed reading his book, one hand holding it in front of him and the other folded between his head and pillow. He had taken out his pouches and boots but was still in the same clothes he had changed into after his shower, eerily similar to what he'd been wearing before, only he had switched his vest for a dark green long sleeved shirt. The clothes they'd been wearing were drying on top of the chairs and table.
"Yo," Kakashi greeted her when she came in, eye lazily roving over her features to determine what she had found out outside.
"Hey," Sakura said with a warm grin and moved towards her bag. "I saw the cutest dog outside. Poor thing looked so disgruntled by the rain." Sakura let him know she had made contact with Chika and that the rain had been a problem. She picked up her bag and dropped a kiss on his forehead in greeting. The curtains were still open and they couldn't afford dropping the act.
"We can always go back outside and get it to come stay with us," Kakashi offered and hid behind his book when Sakura shot him a deadpan look. Not that she didn't want the poor things to be with them where it was at least dry, but it would kind of defeat the purpose of having them in the village.
"I'll pretend you didn't just say that." Sakura closed herself in the bathroom to complete her nightly routine.
She hadn't exactly brought pyjamas but she could do some things to make herself more comfortable for sleep, specially because this wasn't a mission that would require her to run in the middle of the night. She took off her bra, grabbed a black sweater from her pack that was slightly thicker than her hoodie and let her hair down. After finishing up, she came back outside only to find Kakashi had scooted over to one side of the bed to make room for her.
The outside, where the bed didn't connect with the wall.
Sakura blinked at him for a second before moving to place her bag on the floor and grab her book again. She fought the urge to show him how displeased she was and climbed through the foot of the bed so she didn't need to climb over him.
It was okay. So what that she would feel claustrophobic being squished between the wall and him. He had fourteen years of trauma on her. She could handle sleeping like that if he preferred the outside.
Sakura awkwardly settled on her back, one shoulder pressed against the cold wall and the other jostling Kakashi's and tried to open her book to read. It was uncomfortable. She sighed.
"C'mere." He gestured with his chin for her to come closer and it took her a while to understand what he wanted.
Hesitantly, Sakura moved to rest her head on the crook between the shoulder he had lifted and his chest. When he only moved Icha Icha to the side, Sakura brought her own book up and opened the page she had left off. It was small enough that she could rest it on his torso and after a while, she could focus enough on the words on the page to actually read.
His heartbeat was a steady, strong beat on her ear and it almost felt like he had used a calming genjutsu on her. Some of the cold she had felt all day was still nipping at her feet but Kakashi's warmth and steadiness made her relax.
"First Aid?" He asked quietly after she'd read a chapter. His voice had taken her out of her zone but it was so calm and low that it didn't startle her.
Sakura huffed a quiet laugh.
"Not exactly," she said, just as quiet. Then, while extending her senses to check for chakra signatures nearby, she took the hand holding Icha Icha into her own, making him drop it open beside her head. There was only Asuma's signature downstairs and another one besides him that wasn't even strong enough to be a genin so she figured they were safe enough.
Sakura directed a small zap of chakra into his hand, willing him to do the same when she placed it over her book. When he fed the seal some of his chakra, she brought it up for him to read again. Kakashi hummed quietly and used his newly freed hand to trace some writings on the margins of the book.
"This is my sensei's handwriting," he said.
"Really?" Sakura asked. She aborted a movement to turn her head to look at him in surprise at the last minute, knowing that their faces would be extremely close in this position.
Kakashi only hummed again and nodded his head. Sakura felt his chin moving up and down against the top of her head, some of her auburn hair catching on the beginnings of a beard. Somehow, in all her recent realisations about Kakashi, she had never expected him to have something as mundanely male as a five o'clock shadow.
The sudden knowledge of it sent her heart beating faster and Sakura swallowed drily. It was a normal reaction, of course. Despite what she had with Neji not being strictly exclusive, in the last six months or so they had come to an unspoken agreement that they would only be with the other if only because they simply did not have the time to look for other partners when being with each other was so much easier.
Still, he had been the last man she had been this close to and it felt somewhat weird that these types of reactions were happening without him being present. Weirder still that behind the new hair and freshly shown face it was Kakashi.
"Can I read with you?" He asked and Sakura mentaly chastised herself for tensing up. They would be close like this all throughout this mission and she had never had a problem with it before in some of the similar ones she had taken. This would not be the first mission that she would completely fail only because it was weird. It would get easier.
Sakura cleared her throat.
"Of course."
And that's how Asuma found them, laying in bed together, reading the same book with Icha Icha pushed away to the bedside table.
He entered the room with a polite knock before closing and locking the door behind him.
"Aren't you too cute," he said as he quickly moved towards the window to close the curtains. As soon as he did, he signed something that made both Kakashi and Sakura sit upright in bed.
Secrecy needed.
Sakura immediately jumped from the bed, careful not to make any sounds as she moved to her backpack. Asuma and Kakashi carried a casual conversation that she intermittently participated in as she rummaged through the contents until she found what she was looking for.
In the bottom of her medic kit, a small box that contained a few different seals. She took one and slapped it to the nearest surface before activating it.
"We're safe, the only thing someone can hear from outside is some muffled sounds," she said, moving to sit on the edge of the bed beside Kakashi as Asuma took a seat on his own bed.
"What happened?" Kakashi asked, carefully placing her book next to his on the bedside table.
"I talked to a guy downstairs, he looked like he had some training as a ninja but not anything significant." The lower than genin-level chakra signature she had felt before. "He says his brother works as an independent contractor around this area and that he's hiring people to work for him. Ninja only and he implied that a weak stomach would not be appreciated."
"That's great! We found our way in!" Sakura smiled at him but it fell when she noticed Asuma's annoyed grimace.
"Technically, yes. But the guy won't hire us without looking at us and he only comes around town on fridays to stock up on whatever his camp needs."
Ah, well. Okay. Four more days in this dank room it was.
"It can't be helped," Kakashi sighed and raked a hand through the hair falling over his eye.
"It's probably good that we have those few extra days to settle into our role, anyway," Sakura said, trying to see the bright side even though a shiver ran up her spine from the cold.
"You're right." Asuma nodded. "This seal is pretty useful, can we use it again?"
"We can't reuse it and it's best that we keep this from happening unless absolutely necessary," Sakura said. "But I have five more of those for emergencies and can draw up some more if needed."
"Good." Kakashi nodded his head approvingly. "Let's settle for the night. Since we already found our way in it makes no sense to keep looking but we should keep a schedule tomorrow that lets us have a look around all the same. Did you get a chance to tell this guy that Sakura is a medic?"
"Yes," Asuma replied, his fingers twitching like he was already desperate for a cigarette. "It's what really sold him. He looked thrilled by the prospect, actually. I think he cares a lot for his brother and doesn't entirely condone his hobbies."
"Hm, let's keep that in mind," Sakura hummed. "It might be useful leverage in the future."
It wasn't a particularly cold and calculating outtake on her part but Asuma and Kakashi still shot her somewhat surprised looks as she moved to deactivate the seal. At the last minute, she turned to Asuma.
"Did you hear anything about the Akatsuki?" Sakura asked, her voice serious.
"No…" he trailed off, unease clear in his tone.
"Since we already found the syndicate, it wouldn't hurt to keep our ears to the ground to see if we learn more about this duo." Sakura turned to raise her eyebrows at Kakashi, silently asking him what he thought.
"We have to be careful, it can't get back to them that we have been asking questions." Kakashi stared absentmindedly at the bedspread and scratched his jaw in thought. "No direct questions, just pay attention and make directed comments if they seem innocent enough."
"Agreed," Asuma nodded and then got up to head for the bathroom. Sakura destroyed the seal and put its remains back into her medic pouch.
Kakashi got up, stretched and pulled the covers back so Sakura could slide in bed first. With a quiet sigh, Sakura climbed beneath the covers and settled as close to the wall as she possibly could. The mattress moved and creaked as Kakashi climbed in after her.
Asuma came out of the bathroom then and turned off the lights and quiet 'goodnights' were exchanged.
For some reason, Sakura couldn't fall asleep. She was fairly tired, having only slept a handful of hours the night before, but she had a lot of pent up energy coursing through her veins, unable to find a release. The buildup for this mission had been tense and had kept her on high alert, ready for a fight, only for them to get to this tiny village and have nothing to do. Which would be the case for the next four days as well.
She was also cold, despite the covers and sweater, and it would be almost impossible for her to fall asleep with her teeth slightly chattering and her chest stuttering with the cold. Sakura released an annoyed breath and tried to focus on slowing down her heart rate.
"How are you this cold?" Kakashi murmured from his side of the bed. He was facing away from her and she could only feel his back on her shoulder. Asuma laughed.
"She's tiny, Hatanaka," Asuma teased and Sakura narrowed her eyes at the ceiling.
"Shut up, it's drafty," Sakura complained, making Kakashi chuckle.
He turned around then and Sakura held her breath, waiting for him to make his move. Slowly but not hesitantly, he reached for her arm and pulled her to him, her back to his front so she was facing the wall.
It wasn't exactly comfortable, if she was being honest. She would never have consciously decided to be trapped between a wall and somebody else and Sakura had never been a particularly cuddly person. Still, Kakashi felt like a furnace beneath the covers and his warmth and deep steady breaths quickly made her relax into his hold.
She fought hard not to sigh, quietly expelling a slightly harsher breath instead, then moved her legs to get as warm as possible.
"Do you have icicles for feet?" Kakashi hissed in her ear, making Asuma snicker sleepily from the other bed.
Sakura smiled tiredly, the few hours of sleep finally catching up to her.
"Stop squirming and be a good fucking husband," she ordered through a yawn. She fell asleep with Kakashi's grumbling in her ear and Asuma's snores on the other side of the room.
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Sakura woke up before the others. The rain had picked up again and the sound of it lightly hitting the awning just before dawn had been enough to rouse her from sleep. During missions, Sakura had conditioned herself to never be that far out of reach from consciousness, always ready to go at the slightest of sounds.
It was a defence mechanism she put in place to survive in the field but also to keep her from dreaming. Specifically to keep her from having nightmares. She had woken up one too many times with kunai in her hands, waiting for a fight.
Things had gotten better and at the same time worse as the years had gone by. While real life had given more fodder for her nightmares to be especially gruesome and terrifying, she had enough experience in dealing with them now that her reaction time had lessened. She would wake up in the middle of the night sometimes when she slept over at Neji's with her hand around his neck but she could recognise what was happening before her fingers even tightened around his throat. Most of the time, he slept through it.
That morning Sakura woke up from a dreamless sleep facing the wall. She could identify Kakashi's quiet breaths and Asumas' light snores from behind her and it was instantly clear that Kakashi's arm was beneath her head.
One of her feet was jammed beneath his calf while her other leg was pulled up towards her chest and her nose was just a few centimetres away from the wall. Seeing the peeling white paint so close to her made something in her stomach tighten, her heartbeat immediately doubling in speed.
The sudden rush of blood through her body made her head swim for a few seconds and it took a beat longer for Sakura to realise her breathing was fast. Too fast.
Sakura swallowed hard and tried to focus her attention on her chakra, trying to use it to slow down her heartbeat. She slowly began turning to look at the ceiling, profoundly glad Kakashi had been facing up as well instead of hugging her from behind like they had gone to sleep. It allowed her a little room to breathe.
She took a few deep breaths, her head clearing a little in the process, but her heartbeat was still way faster than she wanted it to be. Forcing herself not to over analyse the action, Sakura turned towards Kakashi, her head easily falling on his chest.
His heartbeat was strong and steady in her ear and it was easy to let herself focus on only that sound. In her mind's eye, she could see the muscle clenching and pumping life through his body, the swirls of chakra running through his pathways lazily. Sakura unconsciously clenched her hand around his shirt where it was resting right above his heart.
Of course it didn't take much more than that for Kakashi to wake up. For a second, Sakura tried to ignore him, just feeling relieved that she had avoided a full out panic attack on a mission. But then he turned his head slightly towards her, his chin just brushing the top of her head like the night before.
"You okay?" He asked, his voice deep and scratchy from sleep. Sakura could hear it rumbling in his chest. He had certainly noticed her increased heartbeat and accelerated breathing, the slight sheen of cold sweat on the back of her neck and the anxious way her chakra was settling down from. Kakashi brought the arm she had been sleeping on to her shoulder so he could squeeze her upper arm.
It was such an intimate moment. The significance of what was happening making her breath stutter out of her chest. Sakura nodded quickly and pushed herself up and away from him.
"Sorry," she mumbled, halfway out of the bed. "The shops will be opening soon, we should get a move on."
And with that she quickly made her way across the room towards the bathroom where she promptly locked the door. Feeling stupid and insecure, Sakura stripped and got inside the small shower.
She washed herself quickly, determined to move past her slight overreaction. She didn't particularly like the fact that Kakashi had been the one to calm her down—even if inadvertently—and it was plain dumb to feel that way. Kakashi was a part of her pack, her teammate not only in this mission but from her first team ever. It was okay for him to offer her comfort like that and it didn't make Sakura suddenly retrocede into that foolish young girl who had been woefully inconsolable by her sensei's heavy hand on her shoulder while the world as she knew it started to crumble around her.
Sakura tsked in annoyance. She'd forgotten to bring her bag inside the bathroom with her. She brushed her long hair, quickly using her towel to dry it enough so it wouldn't drip everywhere, then wrapped it around herself.
Sakura sent herself a glare in the misted mirror, Inner telling her to get a fucking grip, then stepped outside.
"Sorry, boys, I need a few minutes for my makeup, still." Sakura moved towards her bag while Asuma sent her a thumbs up from beneath the mountain of covers around him and Kakashi grumbled into his pillow.
Waking up at dawn with a light rain pattering against their roof really wasn't an activity inspiring reality, she could agree with them, especially when this part of their mission was practically done with. If she hadn't been suddenly overcome with anxiety, she would surely be the one having to be wrestled out of bed.
Sakura got dressed in her clothes that had been drying from the day before and put on her makeup, then waited for her hair to dry while the others got ready. They decided to have breakfast on a stand on the other side of the square and lazily made their way there.
The rain had thankfully stopped and didn't pick up throughout the days that they stayed there, only a few minutes of it during the night.
Sakura kept her eyes peeled and her ears to the ground, making sure to do activities without the boys to see if someone slipped up. It had been in the women's bathhouse, of all places, that she heard a few women gushing about a tall man with a long cloak opened in the front and the 'delicious shinobi muscles' showing.
The women hadn't been much help, more focused on the rogue's physique than anything else but they had confirmed what everybody had been dreading to hear. Two men, black cloaks with red clouds, dangerous looking. According to the women they had passed through town the week before and had not been seen since but when carefully questioned, they couldn't even tell which of the exits they had taken.
Still, Sakura relayed her information to her team and to Chika so she could pass if forward to Team Ro and the rest of the pack and on that Friday, they met with the leader of the thieves.
Yamamoto Yuuto was a tall man in his mid thirties that clearly had some experience as a shinobi but mostly carried himself as a civilian. He wore kunai pouches that looked full but his clothes were distinctively civvies. He had lean muscles but didn't check for exits on his way inside their izakaya, nor did he sit facing any of the windows or doors.
Sakura's guess by the amount of chakra he seemed to have was that he was a genin when he deserted whatever village he was from. He didn't seem particularly threatening but that didn't deter Sakura from being on high alert near him.
He had some crow's feet and expression lines, but his head was fully dark and his dark eyes were keen and charming. Yuuto was the type of guy to flirt and mean nothing by it and he had clearly gotten used to getting what he wanted.
The way his eyes had shinned when Sakura talked about her experience as a medic was enough confirmation that she had been right in choosing that particular trait for Akari.
Overall, the four days they spent in Sairyu were enough that Sakura, Asuma and Kakashi had grown closer and more comfortable with each other. Yuuto easily bought their stories and soon enough they were heading towards the northern entrance of the village, bags in hand.
The thieves had set camp in a large clearing a few minutes off the road and it was with no amount of relief that Sakura noticed they didn't have intricate genjutsu and traps surrounding them. That meant that despite their numbers, they didn't have a genjutsu specialist among them and possibly no one that was an Akatsuki-level ninja.
The tents were set in a circular formation around a firepit surrounded by logs for sitting. There was a larger tent than the others that Yuuto pointed as his own and a wooden structure that housed three showers and two toilets.
Yuuto explained that the place was slowly being built back up and that soon they'd have tables and more space for showering and shitting. His words.
During their brief tour of the place, Sakura catalogued everything about their operation. They had two sentinels on the trees surrounding them and two working patrol around the perimeter of the camp. Fifteen thieves in total, three of them women and only eleven tents.
She had spotted three ninja that looked to be jounin-level—two guys, one woman—and two others could pass as chunin while the rest were genin at best.
It wouldn't exactly be easy to subdue every single one of them, but with the element of surprise they could do a lot. Still, they needed to blend in well with them until they had more data on their operation and on the Akatsuki duo they seemed to have connections with.
"You're in luck," Yuuto said as they made their way to his huge tent where he kept a few chests at the entrance. "Kenji and Yukio finally decided to man the fuck up and share a tent together, if you know what I mean, so we have exactly two extra tents. Here you go, grab these and a couple of lanterns. Towels are in the bathroom, we'll set you up with a guard shift and a cooking and cleaning shift, everyone does it."
Yuuto guided them across the fire to a place where they could set their tents and said that when they were done they should join them for dinner so he could introduce them to everyone and talk about their 'missions'.
The people were… surprisingly okay. Kenji and Yukio were the male jounin she had sensed earlier and while Kenji wasn't much for talk, Yukio was friendly and quickly took a liking to Sakura. The others were equally as distant, wary of newcomers but no one had been openly antagonistic in the first two nights they stayed in the camp.
Sakura had a bit of a struggle with getting used to sharing such a small space with Kakashi at first and she could notice that it was the same for him. The tent was tall enough that Sakura could easily stand up and Kakashi only had to stoop a little but there was only a tiny space for their joint sleeping bags. Their backpacks stood on either side of the sleeping bags, cramped so they could easily get in and out of the tent.
While in Sairyu Kakashi and Sakura had come to an easy routine of casual touches that were innocent enough not to make either of them uncomfortable, things had seemed to change since they arrived at the camp. They had spent six nights sharing a sleeping space and quite often going to sleep and waking up tangled in each other.
That was fine by Sakura, she had slept like that with plenty of men before without being uncomfortable or tempted in any way. It was just that while in Sairyu, they often had a bit of space after a night spent like that. They would go to different places, sometimes sit on opposite sides of the table and most importantly, change clothes separately.
Now in the camp, they were constantly bumping against each other in the tent, trying to divest themselves of outer layers and weapons or even changing shirts and pants in the morning. Sakura was somewhat comfortable with Kakashi and she knew that he had adopted the same attitude he had with Team Ro with her, but...
She began to wonder if she was being a bit too comfortable with him.
Sakura tried to create a bit of distance wherever she could, asking for the cleaning and cooking shifts whenever she knew he would be on guard shift, coming into their tent after he had already gone in. It helped a bit, but she couldn't do it too much or the other people around camp would start to get suspicious.
It didn't help that, while she knew this would be a longer mission, they had made absolutely no advances as they neared the end of their third day there. The people around camp were pretty closed off into their own little groups and they were pretty much seen as outsiders.
No specific talk of missions went on around them, not anything that would give them any clues to their abilities and connections inside the Land of Fire, anyway. Whenever they were drawn into conversations, they were mostly aimed at them or something that had happened in the camp. Yukio was perhaps the only one who was completely open with Sakura.
And maybe that's why when she was coming out of the showers on their third night there and she heard his voice outside, she stopped to listen.
"I don't know if it's any of our business, Aya…" he said, sounding uncertain.
Aya was the third jounin in the camp and she was dating Mitsuo, a burly man in his late twenties that could pass as a chunin. Sakura stayed behind the opened door as the two talked and smoked on the log used as a bench outside.
"A lil' harmless gossip never killed anyone, Yuki-kun,'' Aya teased. "I'm just sayin', don't ya think it's… weird?"
Yukio sighed.
"They could just be a private couple," he said. "Not everyone has to be all over each other all the time."
"If they were civilians, sure. But they're ninja." Aya gave a little laugh. "And that man is a stud, I'd be all over him all day long if I were her."
"Aya-chan!" Yukio chastised but there was laughter in his voice. Aya continued as if she hadn't heard him.
"And the same goes for the girl! Holy shit, she is hot. That man must be a saint to be able to keep his hands to himself."
"We'll be late for our shift," Yukio said and chuckled a bit, sounding like he was getting up, before adding, "And don't you let Mitsuo hear you! He's hot too, you know. You gotta appreciate what you have."
Their voices were starting to sound further and further away.
"I know! Don't get me wrong, I love my stupid beefcake but there is a certain charm to a man that looks like he would gladly spank—"
They were too far away to be heard then and Sakura released an irritated breath before continuing on her way to her tent.
Well, fuck.
She unceremoniously opened the flap of the tent and was greeted with a seminaked Kakashi, on his way to changing shirts.
Fuck.
Sakura stepped further inside instead of giving him space and hurriedly put her backpack down so she could reach for a privacy seal. As soon as Kakashi realised what she was doing, he quickly dimmed the light of their lantern so their shadows wouldn't cast as much on the walls of the tent.
Sakura dropped on top of their sleeping bags with a huff and started taking off her boots, a frustrated frown on her face.
"We're gonna have to step up our game," she said when he sat down next to her, thankfully with his new shirt on now, and began the same process as her.
"What do you mean?" Kakashi asked, a confused crease between his eyebrows.
Sakura sighed and explained the conversation she had overheard while they settled on their respective sides. She ran her hands through her slightly damp hair while he scratched the back of his neck.
"Shit," he said with a grimace. "I heard some of the others talking about it too. One of the guys on guard shift earlier today asked me about it, even."
"What did you say?" Sakura asked, crossing her legs beneath her and turning to look at him.
"I said we had a fight." Kakashi shrugged his grimace still in place on his uncovered face. "We need to blend in better. Especially now that we finally got an opportunity to get closer to them."
"What do you mean?" Sakura asked. "What happened?"
"Yuuto asked me to join the team that's gonna rob a caravan tomorrow," Kakashi replied. "I might have an opportunity to access their operation better, see what the team has in terms of abilities."
Sakura sighed in relief. At least they had made some headway. They only needed to make their cover more believable now. They couldn't screw this up just because they were afraid of crossing some imaginary line in the sand.
Sakura had never backed down from doing whatever was necessary during missions. She had slaughtered, stolen, kidnapped and tortured in the name of her village. She could handle being closer to a man she trusted in order to complete the mission.
"We'll have to do whatever it takes, Kakashi." Sakura looked at him then, briefly noticing how familiar his face and the lines of his body had become to her in the past week. She hoped he could see in her eyes how seriously she was taking this. "For the sake of the mission."
Kakashi looked at her then and she saw reflected in his eye the same determination that made her jaw set. Kakashi was just like her, in the end, self-sacrificing and diligent during missions, completing them as thoroughly and efficiently as possible. He wouldn't back down.
"What do you have in mind?"
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SO. WHAT DO YOU THINK?
God, I'm getting soooo excited to FINALLY. FINALLY be getting closer to this part of the fic. This arc is so much fun, fuck. Sorry not sorry I just HAD to put all of those wonderful, wonderful cliches that I love (the fake marriage, the oops they have to share a bed and consequently the oops they have to share a tent). Also, Asuma, as promised :) I was honestly pretty nervous about writing him bc he's so underexplored in canon (and really became a plot device at the end but we'll talk more about that later) and I just don't know if I actually did him justice? Also, juggling so many characters is so fkn hard, omg.
I have a bit of bad news? For the past three months I have been delivering these long-ish chapters every week for you guys and I'm super happy and proud of myself that I managed to stick with that so far, honestly. It's just that, fuck, I need a break. Burnout is so close I can fkn taste it, y'all, ngl. So far I managed to come up with chapters that I'm satisfied with but it's getting harder and harder to be completely happy with them and I hate to think that I'd let the quality of this fic drop just for the sake of updating every week. Now, I'm STOKED that having Fire Fridays made you guys sooo much more participative and excited for the next chapters so I'm definitely NOT gonna stop with that. I'm just gonna take a quick break so I can write ahead without having to worry about deadlines. Next Fire Friday will be the last for a short while (I still haven't decided on a date to come back but I'll let you guys know next chapter the exact day to expect a new chapter! It shouldn't be longer than a month) and the next chapter will be a bit shorter than usual but I wanted to stop in a place that you guys wouldn't be too mad about having to wait about a month for the next part lol.
I hope you guys can understand that while this fic means the world to me, I need to prioritize my mental health for a bit in order to keep going. I'm exhausted, life is exhausting. You have no idea how much I cherish each and everyone of you and how much you make my life better. Don't worry about me abandoning this and never coming back, okay? That is NOT going to happen. A, bless her heart, would kick my ass and she can get to my house in about two minutes so I wouldn't risk it.
Love you, see you next week :)