Sakura and Kakashi traveled quickly through the trees, making their way to the hideout that had already been set up for them. They would slow speed occasionally then pick back up to top speed shortly after, never stopping for a break until they were about two miles out from their destination.
When Kakashi jumped down out of the trees and came to a stop in a small clearing, Sakura followed suit. She knew that they must be close given the distance they had covered already and the approximate distance to their destination.
"We are not supposed to give away that we are shinobi unless absolutely necessary; we are supposed to be civilians renting the small cabin a couple miles up ahead. We'll stop here to change out of our Leaf Uniforms and into our civilian clothes before showing up at the cabin," Kakashi explained.
He glanced up at Sakura to make sure she was paying attention; she nodded to show that she understood. Un-shouldering her travel pack, she ducked behind a large tree to change. Kakashi took the opportunity to strip out of his pants and overshirt, quickly throwing on a pair of dark jeans and plain black long sleeve shirt.
Moments later Sakura emerged from behind her tree also dressed in her civilian clothing. She had on a pair of tight black pants that showed off her lean legs and a fitted red top. Above the collar of her shirt, Kakashi could see the thin chain of a necklace around her neck. He couldn't see the pendant, though, since it was tucked underneath the shirt she was wearing.
"Do you think that shirt was really the best choice for this mission?" he asked as she approached him.
She frowned. "Yeah, why not? What's wrong with my shirt?"
He would need to be careful with his words; Sakura was clearly offended by his question. "It's just that, it stands out. We are supposed to be fitting in with the crowd, not standing out," he explained, hoping that it would defuse her a bit.
"Most civilians do wear things like this Kakashi-sensei. It's also December now, the month of Christmas. Most people will be wearing red or green to show their Christmas spirit," she told him, a smile growing on her face. She was obviously fond of this holiday. "Besides, red is my favorite color."
"Is that so." The detail made Kakashi think of Saki—her favorite color was red as well. A small smile came to his face at the thought of his beloved Saki.
"Yep," Why is he making that face? Kakashi had an unusual expression on his face, one that Sakura had never seen from him before. It looked like content.
Was Kakashi-sensei happy? Sakura frowned. What did he have to make him smile like that?
"Uh, Kakashi-sensei, we should get going," she called out to him, breaking him from his thoughts.
"Right. Let's go. We need to travel a normal pace on foot from here on out. "
She nodded and they were off.
When they reached the small cabin that was to be their stakeout point for the next few days, Sakura realized that 'small' was an understatement. It was nothing more than a single room with a couple of old chairs and a small area for their bedrolls.
"There is an outhouse in the back, there is not a kitchen so we will have to go into town a few times to get food." Kakashi pointed out even though it was obvious.
"It's a good thing we didn't bring much." Sakura mumbled to herself.
"Hmm?"
"Nothing, I was just thinking out loud." she told him.
"Well, we should get our equipment and bedding set up. Then we can go into town and get some food." Kakashi said.
Sakura nodded, setting her travel pack down on the floor she began unpacking her mission equipment. Once done she then rolled out her bedroll in the small area provided. Kakashi had already finished. It never failed to amaze her how fast he was when he wanted to be.
"All done?" he asked.
"Yeah," she responded.
"Alright, let's go get some food and go over the details of what exactly we are supposed to be doing here."
It was only about a fifteen minute walk into town. The town was pretty much all businesses, there were no apartments or houses in sight. Just factories, warehouses, and restaurants. They quickly came upon a small building that simply had a window with a cashier in the front.
Walking up to the window, they both did a quick scan of the menu behind the woman at the register.
"Do you see anything you like?" the woman asked in a sultry voice. She was only speaking to Kakashi—she hadn't taken her eyes off him since they approached the window.
Kakashi was oblivious to the woman's innuendo. "Do you serve Miso soup?" he asked her.
"No, but I could make you some myself if you would like?" She practically purred the offer to him. Kakashi finally met the woman's eyes and instantly recognized the look she was giving him.
He tried to defuse the situation with as little of a scene as possible. "No thank you. What do you have that isn't fried?"
"Tsukune, but I think mine is better," she suggested, still batting her eyelashes at him.
She obviously wasn't used to being turned down. Kakashi decided that something a little more blunt would need to be done to get the point across. "Ah, my favorite is when my girlfriend makes it for me." Hopefully the mention of Saki was enough to make his point.
Sakura was still looking up at the menu when she overheard the exchange of words between Kakashi and the woman. When she looked down from the menu to the woman taking her order, she noticed the woman behind the window staring at her. Her expression quickly turned into a nasty look. Jealous much?
"Sakura, have you decided what you want?" Kakashi asked her.
Sakura realized that Kakashi was trying to recruit her help in deterring the flirtatious woman. She decided it would be a good opportunity to play with Kakashi a little and have some fun. She smiled sweetly at him and stepped up to his side, wrapping her arms around one of his. "Oh, anything is fine. As long as it isn't spicy. I'll just get whatever you're getting, dear."
"Ehh, haha, Two Tsukune, please," he told the cashier.
"Hmph, it will take about ten minutes. You can wait over there," she told them, pointing at a nearby bench.
Once she had disappeared into the back towards the kitchen, Kakashi instantly felt the discomfort between him and Sakura. He immediately began pulling away from her as fast as he could without making it seem too obvious.
Sakura thought that it was a funny joke until Kakashi started trying to pry himself away from her like she had an infectious disease. She instantly started to regret her actions and now felt rather silly. She hadn't expected him to react that way,; he was the one who started it, after all.
She began to think that maybe she had taken it too far, or that she may have just misread the situation. She felt a little hurt, and a little guilty as well for putting him in an awkward position. She started to try to think of how to apologize for her behavior when Kakashi beat her to it.
Kakashi thought that his hint about having a girlfriend would be enough to deter the flirtatious woman; he had not expected Sakura to play along the way that she did. He couldn't help tensing up when she had wrapped her arms around him the same way that Saki liked to.
To make matters worse, he didn't have a good relationship with Sakura. They weren't close enough to do things like that without it being awkward for them both.
"Sakura," he started. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean for you to get pulled into that."
"No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have thrown myself at you like that." Sakura realized that Sukea would be hurt if he knew what she'd done. It didn't help that Kakashi was someone who barely tolerated her. "I didn't think about how it would make you feel if I pushed things the way I did.
"I know you like your personal space; I don't know what I was thinking. I mean, what if you actually do have a girlfriend or something?" She was rambling now. "I didn't think about how uncomfortable that would make you."
Kakashi did have a girlfriend, and he was uncomfortable. But he had started it; she didn't need to beat herself up about it anymore. It was an innocent mistake. "It's fine, Sakura. I started it with that comment. I didn't mean for things to happen like that. Let's just forget about it, okay?"
It hit Sakura then that he hadn't been pretending that she was his girlfriend at all. The way he shrugged the woman off, telling her he had a girlfriend, his discomfort when she wrapped her arms around him… "You actually do have a girlfriend, don't you, Kakashi-sensei?"
He nodded. "I do; she is waiting for me back in Konoha."
Sakura was a little surprised. She had never seen Kakashi show interest in anyone romantically and had definitely never heard of him being in a relationship. She must be some woman to have kind of a hold on Kakashi.
Sakura knew that most women found Kakashi attractive and alluring. She herself could see that Kakashi was indeed an attractive man, though she had never thought of Kakashi in a romantic way or as a potential partner.
Maybe it was because she was blinded by Sasuke for so long. Or because she was young when she met him; they were on completely different levels back then. Now that they were both equals, with her being an adult and seasoned war veteran, it was a little easier to see Kakashi as a man.
"Order up!" the woman behind the window called out to them.
"That's us," Kakashi declared. Walking over to the window, he paid the woman and grabbed their bag of food.
They made their way back to the small cabin in silence, both a little uncomfortable about the earlier events. They reached the cabin and went about eating their food in continued silence. Once finished, Kakashi knew they had to discuss the mission before going to sleep, though he wanted to keep things as professional as possible with Sakura.
"Did you see that building down there, the one just on the edge of town?" Kakashi asked her.
"The one with the red roof?" she asked.
He nodded. "That's the one we are watching. It's a medical herb laboratory, but there are rumors that they aren't just making healing herbs in there. Apparently they have some late night activities going on as well. Our job is to watch the facility and find out if there are any after-hours activities and if so, what it is that they are doing," he explained.
"Simple enough. What do we do when we find out?" she asked.
"We are to gather information, then report back to Tsunade with any findings. We are not to engage in any way, and we are not to disclose that we are shinobi unless absolutely necessary. Do you understand?" he asked in his commanding voice.
Sakura resisted the urge to roll her eyes; she wasn't a child. He didn't need to use the same tone he did when she was a Genin. "Yeah, I get it. I'm not a child anymore, Kakashi-sensei."
"Good. We will have to sleep during the day, and we will swap out taking breaks watching throughout the nights. The sun is coming up now so we should get to bed." He knew she wasn't a Genin anymore, but she hadn't spent much time in the field since the war. He just wanted the mission to go smoothly.
"Yes, Sensei," she said. She knew how to adapt to a strange sleep schedule while in the field; He didn't have to send her to bed like a child. Hopefully he isn't like this the entire mission, or it was going to be a long few days.
Hopefully she isn't too rusty from being held up in the village all this time. Hopefully I don't have to baby her the entire mission, either. I need to be back in the village by Friday night. He didn't want to leave Saki without any word or reason; she would surely wonder where he was if he didn't show up.
When they woke up the next day it was about 2:00 pm. The lab closed at 5:00, so they wanted to be up for a couple of hours before then to eat and wake up fully before the factory closed and their stakeout began.
Sakura and Kakashi were walking through town to get food and water for the night. It was a general rule that when on a two man mission like this, you weren't to leave your partner unless it was unavoidable and never for a long period of time.
They had filled both of their water jugs and one spare jug, purchased some non perishable snack foods, and now they were looking for somewhere to grab dinner before heading back. Neither wanted to go to the same place that they had the night before, so they were searching for something quick and easy to grab before heading back to the cabin.
Neither had said a word to the other that didn't pertain to the mission; neither knew what to say and both were walking on eggshells around the other. Kakashi was determined to keep his distance from Sakura for the remainder of the mission. He just wanted to finish this mission and get back home without any more issues with his partner.
Sakura, on the other hand, was determined to make use of having Kakashi stuck with her. She wanted to use this opportunity to bridge things between her and her former team leader. They had been through so much together; they knew each other's pain better than anyone else.
She knew he had never been fond of her, but she was sure that something happened in the war that was making him push her away as hard as he was. She just hoped that she could get him to open up and talk to her about it while they were out there. If they went back home, he would go back to avoiding her and would make sure he was never put on another mission with her again.
She had to get this straightened out while on this mission. It was her only chance.
"So tell me about your girlfriend, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura said, interrupting the uneasy silence between them.
Kakashi was a little caught off guard by her sudden question. Why the hell does she want to hear about Saki?
"Is she the one you were making those googly eyes about yesterday?" she teased.
"I do not make googly eyes," he insisted.
"Well, whatever face you want to call it, were you thinking about her?"
Kakashi never liked talking about his personal life, especially not with teammates while on missions. Not to mention that he couldn't just tell anyone about Saki because she didn't know him as Kakashi. To Saki, he was Sukea.
Then there was the little fact that she worked at the hospital and knew Ino. The chances of her meeting and or knowing Sakura were very high. Sakura was second in command of the hospital, answering only to Tsunade herself. It would be incredibly odd for someone to not know her if they worked at the hospital.
He would just have to dodge her curiosity like he normally did, then continue to avoid her the best that he could until this mission was over.
"Ah, this looks like a good place," he declared as he stopped in front of a small food truck.
He was avoiding her question. She had been trying to make conversation and he dodged her attempts and just carried on. She thought that the topic of his relationship was something that they could make pleasant smalltalk about. She could even tell him about Sukea, but, as usual, he was ignoring her.
"Yeah, sure. Let's eat here," she said rather unenthusiastically.
Great, now she was sulking. Honestly, could he do just one thing right when it came to Sakura? The mission was only meant to be about four days long, but Kakashi was starting to feel like it was going to feel a lot longer than that.
Kakashi and Sakura made it back to their small cabin, finished their dinner, and began discussing the shift schedules for keeping watch on the lab. They would do four hour shifts; Kakashi would take the first shift and then Sakura next, then Kakashi would pick up again after her shift. It was now 4:45 p.m., and all the employees should have been getting ready to head home.
Kakashi pulled his chair up to the empty spot in front of the small window. Sitting his water jug on the floor by his feet, he settled in for his first shift. Sakura had thought that she would be able to talk to him without him being able to run away or change the subject. She was wrong about that, apparently.
"What do you think it is they are doing in there? I mean, there are only two things you can do in an herbal lab. You can either make medicine, or you can make poisons. They are supposed to be making medicine, so I doubt that they would be sneaking into the lab in the middle of the night to do that. So I'm thinking it must be poison," Sakura said, hoping he would actually participate in the conversation if it was mission related.
"Is that so?" he asked. "How do you know so much about herbal labs to come up with that theory?"
"I've been studying plants and herbs for a few years now, Kakashi-sensei," she said, a little down. "It's part of my medical training to know about healing plants and poisons. Tsunade has even put me on a very important project analyzing a rare plant and its properties."
Sakura was very proud of herself for her achievements in the medical field, and justifiably so. She had worked really hard to get to where she was, and a small part of her wanted Kakashi-sensei's approval of her growth. She had always admired him as a shinobi, and he had been her first teacher outside of the academy.
Kakashi blinked in surprise. "Huh, really? Aren't you a little… I don't know, young, for something like that?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sakura asked defensively. Really, did he have to doubt her every ability?
He hadn't meant it as an insult, but she was definitely taking it as one. "I just thought that something like that went to someone with a little more experience, like Shizune," he tried to explain.
Of course he would compare her to the only medic that has served under Tsunade longer than her. Sakura had more than surpassed Shizune during the war.
"I do have experience; I was in the war with you remember? I'm second in command at the hospital; the only one above me is Tsunade herself, who is currently training me to become head of the hospital when she retires next year," she seethed at him.
"Oh, sorry. I didn't know," he told her. He really hadn't known about any of that. That's likely due to the fact that you have avoided her since the war. He told himself. Now she was upset with him again. He just couldn't say anything to her without somehow causing problems. He really needed to get this mission over with before he continued to make things worse.
"Of course you didn't; how could you when you don't even try?" she mumbled to herself.
"What?" She had said something, but Kakashi had missed it.
"Nothing, forget it." This whole thing was not going the way she had wanted to, not at all.
"Alright, talk to me. What's going on in that pretty little head of yours," Genma said to a spaced out Ino. She had been distracted all night, and even spaced out several times in the middle of a conversation.
They were laying on the couch at Genma's house talking casually when Ino had got that thoughtful look on her face again.
"Sorry, Genma. I was just thinking."
"Yeah, I know. I'm asking what you were thinking about so hard."
Ino sighed. "I can't stop thinking about Kakashi and Sakura. They never had a great bond before the war, and they've hardly acknowledged each other's existence since the war ended. I mean Kakashi always looked out for Sakura when she was on his team and during the war, so I know he does care about her. He just…"
"Never let her in?" Genma finished for her.
"Yeah."
"He's like that with everyone. He has a painful past; it's hard for him to let people get close to him."
"What happened?" she asked.
"It's not my place to tell that story."
She frowned at him.
"But what I can tell you is that he did look out for Sakura because he cares about her well being, and he does love Saki. Who is also Sakura, which is why I'm on board with all this. She has gotten to him with that henge in a way that nobody else ever has. He let her in deeper than he ever did anyone else. That says something for a man like Kakashi."
Ino didn't look fully convinced.
"Look, Kakashi doesn't show that he cares for people the way that we do. He doesn't go to birthday parties or send gifts. He shows it by being there when it counts. When Sasuke and Naruto had it out in the war, Kakashi went for Sakura. Out of the three of them, he could only pick one, and he picked her."
"So you think that Sakura and Kakashi had a deeper bond than they realized even back then?" Ino asked.
Genma nodded. "Looking at his feelings for Saki; he probably would have fallen in love with Sakura if he ever would have given himself the chance. Now I'm not saying he was in love with Sakura back then or anything; I'm just saying that he only would have done that for someone special to him."
"I guess that makes sense," Ino said. "They never would have thought about each other that way if they weren't using the henges have given them the ability to see each other without their history. "
"Right. Looking at each other with another's face on lets them get to know each other for who they are on the inside, something they never would have allowed themselves to do in their real bodies," Genma explained further.
"So, they really do have a chance then. huh?"
Genma nodded. "If they don't freak out too badly when they find out who each other really are."
"I wonder how their mission is going?"
"Well, they won't solve anything by avoiding each other. That's the whole point of getting them put on this mission together. As long as they are willing to talk, everything should be fine." Genma tells her.
