The Bank II
"A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it." - Jean de La Fontaine
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or the characters contained therein, they belong to Masashi Kishimoto who is kind enough to let fans write fiction. I make no profit from this nor do I intend to.
A/N: Unbeta'd. I will attempt to post every other week. I think I'm going to need to do more rewrites on the remaining chapters than in previous chapters so I can't make any guarantees.
Enjoy.
Chapter XV
Sakura sighed for what felt like the millionth time. She'd been spending far too much time cooped up in her office – trying to catch up from her medical leave… and to bury her grief. Though, since she had only made it a few weeks past the three-month mark – and had only learned the gender two days prior – the fact that she was pregnant had not really had a chance to settle and take root in her mind before she lost the baby. She suspected that a part of her just refused to truly believe it until she'd told Kakashi that she was going through with the pregnancy. Consequently, Sakura was well aware that she should be thankful for that at least. She knew it would have been much harder on her if she had been further along and if other people had known that she had been expecting. She didn't think she could cope with other people's pity.
Still, even so, she knew she was lucky to have the Kunoichi Affairs Office as a resource – it was a lifesaver, in so many ways to so many kunoichi. Due to the often physically demanding nature of a kunoichi's career, miscarriages were sadly a common occurrence. Because of this, the KAO kept several miscarriage specialists on the payroll. In fact, they kept an entire floor devoted to mental health care professionals: counselors and therapists who specialized in nearly all the issues many kunoichi were expected to cope with throughout the course of their careers and beyond. The mental wellness center was a relatively recent and incredibly necessary addition to the KAO – thanks to near-constant lobbying by the KAO itself combined with the full support of Tsunade. It had been hard for the village to deny the increase in the KAO's budget in order to pay for the necessary renovations and new staff with such a powerful alliance behind the request.
Now, all kunoichi were encouraged to make use of all the services offered by the mental wellness center as often as necessary. Consequently, Sakura had no qualms booking an appointment whenever she felt the need – the counselor she'd seen before signing up for the bank program had been incredibly helpful as had the one she'd been seeing more recently. Thanks to her current counselor, Sakura was feeling far better than she had been – worlds better than when she'd told Kakashi she'd lost their child. That whole conversation had been something of a setback – her counselor had wisely refrained from commenting on that episode – but now she was back on track. Sakura still had sudden moments of pain, loss, grief, guilt, and regret but those were becoming easier to cope with and were happening less often. Now, all she really needed was time. Something she, fortunately, had in equal abundance as she had work to catch up on – in other words, far too much.
Unfortunately, with Kakashi out of the village for an undetermined amount of time she didn't even have his company to make the hours go by just a little faster or the papers be dealt with a little more easily. She was fairly certain that things would probably go back to normal between them. He had handled the whole thing admirably, at least in stride at any rate. That he had been sent out almost immediately had been for the best – she was able to work through her grief without him, as she had wanted. Having to try and do so with him around, or even just the possibility of having him around would have been too much, too triggering. No, it was good that he had been gone but now… Sakura was now just looking forward to seeing Kakashi again.
Her stomach growled, surprising her. A quick glance up to the clock on her wall informed her that she had worked through lunch. Sakura groaned realizing that the cafeteria was likely only serving snacks as they cleaned up from lunch and got ready to prep and serve dinner. With another sigh, she pushed herself up from her desk, grabbing her wallet from her drawer, and wandered out of her office, hoping that the vending machine would have something vaguely meal-like if the cafeteria had run out of snacks. As much as she wanted to hit up one of the quick eats places around the hospital she just couldn't quite justify the time it would take for her to do so.
Returning to her office a short while later, with a bag of chips and a packet of chocolates in hand, Sakura was surprised to find Kakashi, in full if slightly scruffy ANBU gear, sitting in his seat.
"Kakashi!" she exclaimed, feeling color crawl up her cheeks. She hadn't seen him since the evening she had told him that she'd lost the baby… their daughter. An overwhelming sensation of regret mingled with guilt unexpectedly flared deep within her. Sakura had thought she would be fine just falling back into their usual routine but actually seeing him again made her question that for just a moment. To her relief, the unexpected and entirely unwanted feelings passed quickly and without her having to try one of the exercises she'd been using to ease these increasingly infrequent episodes.
Kakashi glanced up from his book and raised a hand in greeting, doing his best not to react to the flash of raw emotion he'd briefly observed in Sakura's expression before she'd gotten it under control. Guilt suddenly clawed at his stomach and he had to wonder if he shouldn't have come. The possibility that she may not want him back in her life had haunted him while he was out of the village. But as he didn't want to have to cope with it he had ignored it in the faint hope that it would turn out to be a bridge he wouldn't have to cross.
"Yo."
"You just get back?" she asked, somewhat stupidly since it was clear that he had given that he was still wearing his ANBU uniform.
"Yeah."
"Oh," she paused, uncertain what else to say.
"Brought coffee," he nodded at her desk and then eyed the chips and chocolate in her hands. "And, a couple of those meat buns you like."
Her eyes widened in surprise as she made her way to her desk and found the hot coffee and a steaming little waxed paper bag. "How did you know?"
He shrugged. Sakura didn't need to know that he'd stopped by earlier to test the waters so to speak, and she'd been so focused on her work that she had failed to notice him poking his head into her office. It hadn't taken a huge leap of logic to guess that she would likely work through lunch. Going out to get some of the special coffee they both enjoyed had been child's play considering that he was wearing his ANBU uniform. And it had only taken him slightly out of his way to stop by the little street cart vendor who sold the meat buns she favored.
She studied him for a moment, uncertain how to take his offering. After a few beats, she found that the rich aroma of the coffee, as well as the enticing scents emanating from the steaming waxed paper bag, demanded her full attention.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome."
Happily dropping the packets of chips and chocolate into a desk drawer she dug into the bag with the buns as she took a seat. A slow wide smile spread across her face as she took her first bite.
"Mmmm. So good!"
He chuckled. The time in line was more than worth the expression of enjoyment on her face, especially considering her mental state the last time he had seen her. A weight partially lifted from him as he observed her delighted expression. Seeing him had caused her pain but he wasn't unwelcome… he could work with this.
Once the buns were taken care of and the coffee sipped she returned her attention to her visitor. Kakashi had gone back to his book while she enjoyed her late lunch. He had clearly come straight to her office after reporting in on his latest mission – his uniform was slightly battered showing that he had recently fought in it. That he hadn't thought to return to this apartment to change before stopping by spoke volumes.
"Kakashi?"
"Hmm?"
"You're not in need of any medical attention are you?"
Startled by the question, he glanced up. "What?"
She nodded at his uniform. "You are okay, aren't you?"
"Oh," his hand went to his armor, realizing what she must have thought. "I'm fine."
She narrowed her eyes speculatively. "You would tell me if you were in need of medical attention, wouldn't you?"
He chuckled at her mistrust and allowed a grin to spread across his face as he tilted his head slightly to the side and raised an eyebrow. Might as well test the waters a little further and see what happened – if he was lucky, things could go back to how they were before Sakura's pregnancy. If not, he'd just have to put the work in to see that things between them improved.
"Well, if you're really that concerned, maybe you would consent to perform a little private exam later?"
Sakura felt her cheeks heat.
Still chuckling he stood. "I'll take that as a solid maybe."
"Kakashi!"
"How about after dinner?"
"Dinner?"
"Yes, dinner. That's why I stopped by on my way home. I wanted to ask you to dinner tonight, that is if you don't already have plans?"
Sakura sat back in surprise. He'd never come out and actually asked her to dinner. They had always just ended up going out together. A small but important distinction as otherwise, they might have actually been dating rather than friends with, admittedly frequent, benefits.
Slowly she shook her head. "I don't have any plans for tonight, no."
"Good. I'll pick you up at seven-thirty then." He stepped toward the office door, keeping his amusement at her reaction to himself.
"Wait, Kakashi, pick me up at seven-thirty?"
"Yes, that should give you plenty of time to get home and get changed."
"Changed?" she asked still feeling supremely off-balance.
"Yes, changed. What you're wearing now, though quite nice, won't pass muster where we're going."
She felt her cheeks burn once again. There had been rumors before he left, she was sure that he must have heard them. If they were to actually be seen dressed up and out together that would likely lend all those rumors credence. She didn't care but she had to wonder if he did. Never in her memory had he ever been seen in any kind of romantic relationship, or even casually dating a woman for that matter.
"Kakashi… if we go out, properly go out… you do know people will talk, right?"
He shrugged. "They were already talking before."
"Yes, I know. But… now they'll… know. Or, rather they'll think they know."
"Let them think what they want to."
"Kakashi… after what you did…" she trailed off not exactly able to finish the thought, a crushing feeling of loss sweeping over her before she was able to get a handle on it.
He sighed, knowing exactly where she was going and figured an explanation was in order. Classified mission or not, he should have told her sooner. He'd intended on telling her the last time he saw her but… the timing clearly hadn't been right.
"They had it coming in more ways than one. No one who was there that day can say they didn't. They picked a fight with me. They went berserk when they realized that I was the one who had gotten them demoted, not Minako." He paused in thought for a moment before continuing, "certainly took them long enough to figure that one out – someone must have told them."
"You got them demoted?"
He nodded. "Now that it's more or less out I suppose I can tell you, I was sent out to investigate them – or rather to observe them on a mission. They treated Minako poorly and nearly blew the mission to pursue some foolish personal competition, grudge, or some other sort of stupid nonsense. Put Minako in direct danger while she was trying to heal their client. Because they left her alone with the client no one was there to watch her back."
A lightbulb went off in Sakura's head. "That's why you had those injuries!"
He nodded. "I stepped in to prevent her from getting hurt. I wasn't supposed to but… I knew she had a kid and it wasn't right to just watch her get hurt."
He left unsaid that her eyes had been so much like Sakura's that he'd had a hard time not remembering Sakura in a similar situation when she'd been on his team – Naruto and Sasuke off pursuing some personal grudge, leaving Sakura open to attack. He'd jumped right in to save her that time. This time his body had almost moved without his conscious direction, almost. That hesitation had directly lead to his injuries – if he'd have acted without hesitation, as he had for Sakura, there wouldn't have been a problem but the hesitation had cost precious seconds and allowed the enemy to get in a few good blows when he finally did intervene.
Sakura's mouth fell open. She'd never have guessed that Kakashi had willingly stepped into the line of fire to prevent a mother from getting injured.
Kakashi realized he'd said too much and cleared his throat. "You'll need to wear something nice tonight."
Shaking her head at the sudden change of subject, or rather the sudden return to the topic they'd started on, Sakura refocused on Kakashi's statement. "What sort of nice?"
Kakashi pretended to think for a moment before smiling. "A little black dress seems like a safe bet."
Not bothering to wait for a reaction, it could easily go either way, he raised a hand to wave as he turned and wandered out of her office.
Sakura sat for a moment at her desk, her hands still wrapped around the warm coffee Kakashi had so thoughtfully brought. She couldn't help but wonder at his behavior. Especially the comment about having a 'private exam' – that implied that he wanted to pick things up from where they had left off… but, with the added wrinkle of him actually wanting to take her out, properly, first.
Feeling suddenly nervous, she knew for no good reason, Sakura spent a little extra time on her makeup, remembering the time when Kakashi had watched her get ready for her date with Itsuki and feeling the need to put in more effort than she had for Itsuki. With her makeup complete, she let her robe fall from her shoulders as she returned to her bedroom. She already knew which perfume she wanted, the one Kakashi had shown a preference for, of course.
As she was finishing up with her earrings, about to do her necklace she was interrupted by a knock on her front door. Surprised, she took her necklace and her wrap and went to see who was there. Sakura knew it couldn't be Kakashi, he always came via her balcony.
Upon opening the door she was surprised again to find Kakashi standing there awkwardly. For a moment she just stood and stared. Not only was he actually using her front door, but he cut quite the striking figure in his civvies. Granted, she already knew he was an attractive man, despite his apparent disinterest in actual relationships with women, quite a few kunoichi had developed crushes on him over the years, herself included. Still, it was quite a pleasant surprise to see him in something other than his usual jonin or ANBU uniforms.
Hastily she shook the suddenly unwanted thoughts from her mind, sternly reminding herself that she'd seen him in considerably less and of course, nothing, many times. Hell, things had progressed to the point where he had even gotten her pregnant – she had no reason to be reacting as she was… and yet… this time around it felt subtly different. How, she couldn't quite say, but definitely different nonetheless.
Feeling awkward, Kakashi stepped into Sakura's apartment, taking her moment of obvious appraisal to make an assessment of his own. Sakura was stunning. She was wearing, as he had suggested, a little black dress. But, the dress she was wearing was a far cry from the one she had worn for Itsuki. Compared to the one she was wearing now, the one she'd worn for Itsuki was prim and proper – maybe even a little dowdy. This one was shorter, lower cut, and fit her like a glove and yet still somehow managed to stay classy rather than cross the line into the realm of trashy.
Suddenly feeling shy, Sakura held her hand out to him with her necklace, silently asking him to fasten it for her.
Feeling better for having already had some practice with this, he gingerly took the necklace, fumbling only a little with the clasp before managing to maneuver it around her neck and fasten it. An errant thought, one he suppressed immediately, wanted to pull her back into him, to let his fingers find the scars he knew she had from the accident at the hospital, to then see them with his own eyes, touch them just to understand that they did indeed exist… and, to reaffirm that he still knew every inch of her, intimately... Never had he regretted having restaurant reservations more in his life.
Unaware of Kakashi's wayward thoughts, Sakura stepped away, turned, and smiled up at him. "Thanks." Enjoying his somewhat bemused expression, she moved away to grab her wrap and purse. "Where are we going?"
He shook his head slightly to clear the sudden thoughts of what an actual relationship might be like from his mind – he'd decided long ago not to go there and she'd never asked him to.
"You'll see when we get there." To soften his statement he took her wrap from her and held it open.
Automatically, Sakura backed into the wrap, enjoying the sensation of Kakashi's arms easing the ends of it around her shoulders – briefly pulling her back into him before somewhat reluctantly letting her go.
She turned and shot him an inquiring glance. "I'll see when we get where?"
He chuckled. "You'll see when we get to the restaurant where I've made reservations." To hopefully prevent any further questions, he held out an arm to her with a quirky little smile.
"Kakashi!" She laughed as she took his arm. "You're really not going to tell me?"
"Nope. That would spoil the surprise." He pretended to look at his non-existent watch. "Oh, look at the time. We'll be late if we don't get going."
Sakura laughed again, enjoying this playful side of Kakashi. "Okay, okay, lead on!"
Tsunade glanced up upon hearing the whisper of someone quietly entering – the telltale sounds of an ANBU waiting for an assignment. She blinked in surprise when she noted that it was Kakashi.
"Kakashi, this is a surprise."
He shrugged. "I got word you were looking for me?"
She stared at him for a moment before remembering. "Oh, right, yes. Yes, I was." She rummaged around in her desk for a moment before pulling out a serious-looking scroll. "This is for you," she told him as she tossed the scroll his way.
Deftly, Kakashi caught the scroll, broke the seal, and started to read. His eyes only made it a few sentences in before hitting a snag. He glanced up, carefully keeping his expression neutral. "This is-"
Hastily Tsunade waved a hand, dismissing his unvoiced concern. "I'm not officially assigning you to this yet. I have a couple of days to assemble a support team for you. I just wanted to give you a heads up, a warning that this mission was coming to you."
He raised an eyebrow questioningly. "A support team?"
"Though that mission is important enough for the risk to one of our elites to be acceptable, our current resources allow for a support team to be sent to ensure you return."
He studied her face for a moment, looking for something, some sort of telltale sign of what he was supposed to be reading between the lines. He knew very well that they were stretched wafer-thin – they definitely did not have enough manpower available for him to be able to take such a team with him when he went.
Tsunade sighed. "Kakashi, I need you to come back from this one."
Surprised, his eyes widened slightly and his eyebrows raised.
"You still have two more missions to complete after that," she gestured to the scroll he was holding, "one." She studied him for a moment, realizing that she would need to continue. "Or, have you forgotten?"
Suddenly, several things snapped into focus, he had nearly forgotten that he was only in ANBU until he hit the mission requirement for promotion. Once he hit that requirement, he'd be returned to the regular ranks. His chance for dying in action diminishing greatly once he left ANBU for the second time.
"No, no, I haven't forgotten."
"Good. It's important to you, I'm sure." She looked at him carefully for a moment, making sure he remembered his original intent. "You're so close at this point that I'd hate to lose you before you achieved this particular goal."
"Especially since it will help Sakura in the end?"
She chuckled. "That doesn't hurt, no…" Tsunade trailed off, turning serious. "She's going to need all the help she can get, you know."
"I know," he responded quietly.
"You do know that you're also dangerously close to your mission cap, don't you?"
"What?"
"Your mission cap."
"I can't be all that close to it?"
She nodded. "I'd have to check the exact figures but you probably only have a few interesting missions left in you anyway. After that, it will be semi-retirement for you, unless we can find you a desk job or something… or, of course, the village needs you."
With mixed feelings, Kakashi hastily tried to run the calculations in his head. He couldn't possibly be nearing the mission cap. Shinobi didn't hit their caps until they were retirement age, 50s at their earliest. Not in their mid to late thirties.
He shook his head. "That still can't be right."
"Kakashi, you were added to the village's payroll far younger than a lot of your remaining contemporaries. You never request time off or turn down missions. On top of that, you've been trying to achieve the highest promotable rank possible before you hit your forties. You've been steadily racking up the missions throughout your career and added to the super boost you've been doing as of late… well, you're rapidly approaching the career of someone fifteen or twenty years your senior."
Unsure how to respond, he only nodded, his mind still trying to make the math work out in his favor.
After a moment's thought, Tsunade shook her head. "But, that's neither here nor there, no sense worrying about that bridge until we have to cross it." She eyed him skeptically. "There may never be any call to cross it in the first place."
Kakashi nodded. Tsunade had told him that she wasn't going to help him commit suicide by mission but that didn't mean that she wouldn't send him out on a mission from which he was not expected to return if it was what needed to be done.
"Anyway, that's getting a bit far afield. Go over that scroll and come back in the morning. Let me know if you have any preferences as to who you want on your support team – you might have a better insight into who will work best for what you need to be done. I can really only spare five people at most, four would be better though."
Kakashi nodded, re-rolling the scroll and stuffing it into his hip-pouch.
"Good. I'll see you in the morning then."
Kakashi nodded and took his leave, his mind already going over his next challenge. It wasn't exactly unheard of, but it was rare for the Hokage to offer an operative their choice of teammates for a mission. Granted, this one was going to be very, very difficult. He would be happy to take all the advantages he could get – and he knew of one already that Tsunade seemed to have forgotten.
Kakashi slowly made his way to the hospital with two cups of coffee and a small fancy bag with two of the tea cakes Sakura especially enjoyed. He had spent more than enough time in line that afternoon but thought that the end result would be more than worth it.
With a smile on his face, he slipped into the hospital and quietly made his way to Sakura's office. Stealthily, he managed to open the door and slide into his seat, slipping both the coffee and the bag of treats on her desk, without her noticing.
Smile firmly in place he cracked open his newest book, the sequel to The Coffee Shop, he was certain Sakura would notice the coffee he'd brought before she noticed him. She was so focused on the papers in front of her that he almost was concerned that she had been letting her shinobi skills get rusty. Or, rather, he would be concerned if the person able to slip into her office without her noticing was someone other than himself. He knew that on some level he had managed to become a part of the background of her life, a part whose presence or absence needn't be questioned, ever.
A few moments later, Sakura glanced up from her paperwork to find Kakashi in his usual seat with a delicious smelling coffee sitting in front of her along with a fancy bag.
"Kakashi! This is a surprise." She exclaimed as she eyed the unopened bag sitting next to her coffee. "I thought I heard you were heading out again soon?"
Unsurprised that she had heard, he simply nodded.
"Kakashi…" she started with a growl to her voice. She would not be a part of his procrastination techniques if he was expected to be on the road, even if he did bring her some very tasty coffee and some sort of baked treat if the aroma of sugar coming from the fancy bag was anything to go by.
Startled at her shift in mood and guessing what it was likely in response to, he chuckled. "Relax, Sakura. I've learned my lesson, this is not an acceptable place to while away the hours when people are waiting for me elsewhere."
She eyed him, clearly unconvinced.
He sighed. "I'm not due to leave until tomorrow afternoon."
Surprised that he gave her any details, she blinked. "Oh, okay then."
"Now that that is sorted, why don't you drink your coffee and have one of the cakes I brought?"
"Cakes?" she asked, suspicion once again entering her tone of voice.
"Mmm-hmm, tea cakes. They had them at the tea shop near Ichiraku. I thought they'd pair nicely with the coffee – I had them do caramel in yours this time, by the way."
Sakura's eyes widened, those particular tea cakes were nearly impossible to get, the shop only made a supremely limited quantity due to the fact that the baker who made them was over ninety and showing no signs of ever passing on her prized recipes. Carefully she opened the bag to find a pair of the legendary tea cakes, well wrapped in fancy packaging befitting their legendary status. Sakura looked up again at Kakashi, between getting the coffee and tea cakes, he must have spent at the very least seventy-five minutes, more like ninety-five minutes, in line.
"Kakashi…" she started, uncertain how to ask, or if she even should.
"I was hoping you didn't have plans this evening?" He asked, ignoring the question he knew she wanted to ask.
"What?" she responded, momentarily thrown off balance. "Oh, uh, no. No plans for tonight."
He let a slow smile spread across his face. "Good. I was thinking some take out on the way back to your apartment and a nice cozy evening in. How does that sound?"
Sakura felt her cheeks slowly tint. She knew exactly what he was asking and it didn't take a genius to guess why. Not with a mission big enough for her to have heard of it set to leave the next day. Hastily, she swallowed a sudden lump in her throat and nodded her agreement, buying herself a few seconds to ensure her voice would be steady.
"Sounds like a very nice evening indeed."
Kakashi idly flipped another page of his book, his attention only half focused on the pages. Since he'd read it enough times to have memorized nearly the entire thing, it was useful to have when he found himself in situations like this one. A handy distraction for part of his brain while the rest worked on or worked out a problem.
Once again his mind went over the details of his plan, looking for the holes, the unexpected potential complications, and unplanned for possibilities. He'd spent a very careful two weeks lining things up, laying out groundwork, and doing piecemeal dry-runs in preparation for doing the assassination for real. Even with a support team, this was an incredibly risky mission to try and pull-off and he knew it would take every single skill of his to do so and survive. It was the second part of that that caused the most difficulty. If he didn't need to make it out alive, it was a much easier mission, but, since Kakashi didn't want to not return this time, he knew he would have to do the near-impossible.
Idly, he flipped another page, still looking for issues with his plan and doing his best not to think about Sakura. He'd left her, as he always did, asleep or nearly asleep, after spending an incredibly pleasurable evening with her. Never once, in all the evenings they'd spent together, had it even occurred to him to spend the night with her. Instead, he'd grab a quick shower and head back to his apartment – always. Sakura had never questioned this or even tried to ask him to stay. Rather, she'd cleared a shelf in her linen closet for him to keep several changes of clothes and towels – Kakashi was free to drop his stuff in her laundry basket so it would be there the next time he needed something. Sakura had even picked up some shower stuff for him once she realized that it wouldn't do for him to be smelled around the village with the same scent as her.
All of a sudden, the door to the safe house flew open and a harried ANBU stepped in, clearly out of breath. All activity in the common room came to a halt as everyone focused their attention on their newest arrival.
The newly arrived ANBU paused, after closing the door behind himself, doubled over to place his hands on his knees for a moment, breathing deeply before finally straightening to address the assembled ANBU.
"Everyone, pack it up, you're leaving – going back to the village in ten."
"What?!" Daishi exclaimed with clear surprise.
"Says who?" Gin asked more calmly.
The ANBU raised a hand to stop the protests and held out a sealed official notice in the other. "There's been a suspected attack on the hospital, two explosions – the source of which was yet to be determined when they sent me out. All able-bodied ANBU and medics are required back at the village as soon as possible."
Kakashi's second in command, Gin, took unsealed and examined the notice, nodding as he read through the official document. "It's legit – all here as he says."
"What?" Junnosuke asked in disbelief.
"Why are they calling us back for that?" Masanari chimed in.
The ANBU raised his hand again for silence. "The second blast came only after all the first responders had entered the blast zone."
The room went entirely silent.
The ANBU hung his head for a moment before answering the unasked question. "There were no survivors." He inhaled and exhaled slowly before continuing. "The first blast was in a less-used wing of the hospital, there shouldn't have been many – if any – people there at that time. But, the second blast got the responders – all of them – two teams of combat medics went in with the other first responders. It's currently being treated as a suspected act of terrorism… or war."
After a few moments of silence, the room suddenly erupted in quick, efficient activity as the rest of the ANBU scrambled to ready themselves to leave.
Kakashi stayed put. He already knew. The directive to recall all able-bodied ANBU didn't apply to him. A moment later his suspicion was confirmed.
The new arrival made his way over to Kakashi. "Old Hound Leader," he inclined his head. "See you already know, or have guessed."
Kakashi simply nodded.
The ANBU, having nothing else to say, silently pulled a second sealed scroll out from one of his pouches and handed it to Kakashi.
Kakashi accepted the scroll with a nod of thanks. Quietly unsealing and reading the contents, wanting to be sure of what it said before the team left, on the off chance that he was wrong.
Kakashi-
As you've likely guessed, you're staying behind. The mission is too important to abandon. Because you're losing your support team, the difficulty rating has been bumped up. This will be the last mission you will need for your promotion. Complete it successfully and the promotion will be yours. Incidentally, you will also hit your mission cap once this mission is complete.
Konoha thanks you for your service,
Tsunade, Fifth Hokage, The Village Hidden in the Leaves
Kakashi re-read the scroll again, looking for what she wasn't saying. Finally, with a nod, he resealed and then pocketed the scroll. For only a moment he watched the other ANBU continue to scramble about trying to get everything packed so they could be out the door before returning his attention to his book.
Suddenly, all the activity around him stopped, curious, Kakashi glanced up again to see that everyone had packed and was ready to go.
"Old Hound Leader!" Daishi exclaimed upon realizing that Kakashi had not packed. "Aren't you coming?"
Gin sighed, the rest of them had already guessed, and the fact that Old Hound Leader had not so much as moved a muscle after receiving a scroll from the messenger, had pretty much confirmed it. "He's staying behind."
"But-"
"Someone has to finish the mission."
The young ANBU shook his head and tried again. "But, that's-"
Kakashi rose from his seat and walked over to the now silent group. "It was a pleasure working with you," he directed his comments to Gin, including Junnosuke, Masanari, and Daishi with brief glances.
"An honor." Gin inclined his head respectfully. The others followed suit.
"Right," the messenger ANBU started, breaking the awkward silence, "let's go, the faster we're back at the village, the better."
Kakashi watched from a window as the team left and remained by the window long after they'd faded into the distance, his mind occupied with his upcoming mission.