WARNINGS: sexual references including innuendo, lovers' quarrels, a teenager's perspective on dealing with jealousy about loved ones developing new connections
Kakashi doesn't lose himself, but he does… somewhat try to.
He's back on an even keel, more or less, but the waters are still rocky. Gai is helpful, always, and Tenzō offers to stay over for a few nights, though Kakashi doesn't take him up on the offer. Kakashi can't afford to run a field mission while the Suna contingent is in town, so he's not getting any distractions there. Still, Suna contingent.
Kazekage.
Kakashi has a bet to win.
#
It takes another week, one filled with 'accidental' meetings and brushing hands and heavy-lidded gazes, interspersed with avoiding the Hokage and a little blond girl who's determined to keep her dad from getting any action. Everyone knows what Kakashi is doing, and he's not being subtle, but the Kazekage is ambiguous about it. He doesn't reject Kakashi, flirts back just enough that it's not quite plausible deniability, but doesn't do anything about it. Like he hasn't made up his mind yet.
Kakashi can work with that, and so he does, and ends up in Rasa's room with his flak jacket off and his mouth full of an older man's tongue.
The whole situation is just… a success. Kakashi's the one to push towards the bed, because he knows what he wants out of tonight, and that's just easier if—
Wait.
Informed consent.
"I should mention," Kakashi says, after breaking the kiss that keeps him hovering above Rasa on his hands and knees. "That while I am genuinely attracted to you and looking forward to this, I wouldn't have been this determined in my pursuit if not for the intent to win a bet that was made about me."
"So I heard," Rasa responds, voice dry. "Shinobi like to gossip."
"That's a relief," Kakashi sighs, and leans down to press his nose into Rasa's neck. "Wouldn't want to cause an international incident by offending a Kage when he found out he was part of a bet."
"I assure you, an international incident wouldn't stem from a one-night stand," Rasa grumbles, and his hands come up to start pulling at Kakashi's shirt. "Off. Now."
"Demanding," Kakashi teases, but he does it.
It's a good night.
#
"You bitch," Anko hisses with delight. "I can't believe you actually did it!"
Kakashi raises a glass, and half the bar cheers. The other half boos him, because his success has cost them money.
He drinks through his mask, purely for the way Raidō rolls his eyes.
"Your winnings, good sir," Asuma says, slapping a wad of bills into Kakashi's hands. "That's a couple month's rent right there."
Kakashi blinks. "The odds were fifty to one. That's pretty big, but how much did you bet?"
Asuma grins and doesn't meet his eyes. "I had faith."
"In me," Kakashi says drily.
"In your skills as a master ho," Asuma corrects, and Anko cackles so hard she starts coughing.
"I am a master ho," Kakashi says, pressing a hand to his chest. "Thank you for noticing."
Genma's giving him a stink eye from the other side of the bar, and Kakashi curls his fingers in a sarcastic wave. Genma flips him off.
Kakashi eye-smiles a bit harder.
"Was it even any good?" Anko presses. "Like, was it worth it?"
Kakashi considers this for a moment, and then says, as casually as he can manage, "It was a fun ride."
It takes her a moment, but the claps a hand to her mouth and falls to the side with gleeful giggles, headfirst into Kurenai's flak jacket.
"You're all so stupid," Kurenai laments.
"Didn't you make money off of this?" Raidō asks.
"That doesn't mean I think it was smart," Kurenai says. "At all."
Kakashi isn't actually offended by this, because he agrees with her. The entire bet was stupid as hell, and he's pretty sure he's going to have to watch out for a stabby preteen with a fan the size of her entire body soon. Still, some of Kakashi's friends made good money off of this, and the ones who lost money didn't lose that much, and also were jerks who didn't think he could do it.
Like Genma.
Kakashi grins and drinks a bit more.
Today is a good day.
#
Kurama's sitting on the porch, playing a game of go with Sai. He looks up when Kakashi's shunshin lands midway up the path to the house, and shakes his head.
"You might not want to go in there."
Kakashi blinks. "And why's that?"
"Ever seen two S-Rank kunoichi get into a screaming match about which of them needs to take on all the risk and go on an incredibly dangerous mission because they're that worried about the other one?" Kurama asks.
"No," Kakashi says. He remembers Kushina and Minato, one afternoon, and if there was ever an S-rank kunoichi in his life before these two, she'd be it. "I can imagine, though."
"Sakura-san doesn't usually yell," Sai says quietly. Kakashi can barely hear them. "But Kurama-san said that she used to 'screech like a banshee.' They made us all leave the house when they started raising their voices. Karin said that it was because they don't want to scare us because this is a problem for just the two of them."
"Do you agree?" Kakashi asks, unable to skip past his curiosity.
Sai shrugs. "I am a child, technically, and I was not told what the mission is, or why it is dangerous. I think I am happy that they made us leave. Sometimes Naruto cries if he hears someone shout, even if it is not at him. Juugo can feel it when people are unhappy, sometimes, and it makes him nervous."
Kakashi catches Kurama's eye, and is met with a grimace.
It's all true, of course. That's why, on the rare occasions something like this happens, it's private and sequestered from the kids.
"What are my chances if I go inside?" Kakashi asks, looking directly at Kurama for his answer.
Kurama shrugs. "The hell would I know?"
Ah. Right. Kurama's kind of a dick.
Kakashi had somehow forgotten that.
He ruffles Sai's hair on the way to the door, opens it just enough to slip in, and—well, he hesitates.
Because the yelling actually is really loud.
He sidles in and shuts the door behind him so the privacy seals take effect and don't let the argument outside, and then follows the noise.
Sakura stops yelling before Kakashi gets to the room, before he can really parse any of the words, and he finds the two of them in the living room, red-faced and, in Sakura's case, with tears streaming. The curtains are closed over the windows.
"Right," Kakashi says. "Kurama told me the basics."
"Get out," Sakura says, and her voice is the kind of hoarse that only comes from screaming one's heart out.
"Any chance I can actually help?" Kakashi asks. He keeps his tone as even and low as he can. He tucks his hands into his pockets. "You two have done a lot for me, and I don't want to see my friends dealing with this sort of thing alone, yeah?"
The two women glare at each other for a moment, tension in every line, and then Sakura turns on her heel and stalks to the kitchen. "I'm making some tea."
Kakashi doesn't comment on that. She clinks in the background, ceramic and metal and rustling bags, and there is no wall to muffle the wet little hiccup and sniffle.
Kakashi takes a seat on the ottoman. Kanna drops onto the couch, heavy and with a massive, gusting sigh.
"Kurama said something about a mission?" Kakashi prompts.
Kanna looks up, lips twisted into a grimace from a horror novel, and says, "Yeah."
"Tea," Sakura says. "Or we don't talk."
Sakura's temper has a longer fuse than Kanna's, but Kakashi's pretty sure that when it finally lights up, it's so much worse.
He's not sure if this is the temper, but it's terrifying all the same.
The tea is made in silence, and Kakashi accepts his mug in silence. Sakura sits on the armchair, and her grip on her own mug is deceptively light. For all that Kakashi is mostly calm if he ignores the knot of anxiety hiding behind his lower right ribs, and Kanna is white-knuckled around her own mug, Sakura is… liable to shatter the ceramic if she forgets herself.
"Okay," Kakashi says. "I want to help. Tell me what the argument is."
They look at each other again, and it's one of those wordless conversations that Kakashi always knows are about how much they should tell him, how many secrets to share of the things they hide from all but the select few that Kakashi only sort of knows.
"There's someone in Ame that has massive reason to hate Konoha," Sakura says. "And it's Danzō's fault. We want to send them Danzō's head, and along with it, an invitation to pass along to the true ringleader of their operation to meet with us. That's what the Tobi seal is for, the ringleader. But the person in Ame is… incredibly powerful. Once they get the head, though, they might be mollified, at least enough to listen to us."
"Okay," Kakashi says. "When you say powerful…"
"S-rank, on the level where you'd need all three of the Sandaime's students, and even then it wouldn't be a sure bet," Kanna says. "That said, he's an Uzumaki. I can play the family card. I can go and meet him and say 'hey, we're related, did you know?' and it won't absolutely work, but it's a damn sight better than—"
"He is hunting Jinchuuriki," Sakura snaps, and the air snaps with her. "You are not going to Amegakure with a Bijuu in you."
Ah.
Yes, that would… that would do it.
Kakashi sips his tea.
"I can play the family card," Kanna argues back. "I've got my chains, I've got my seals, I am an S-rank in my own right and I am very, very good at escaping."
Sakura clenches her jaw. Kakashi worries for her teeth. "You. Are. A Jinchuuriki. You cannot walk into the lions' den."
"And you can?" Kanna asks softly. "With what Zetsu will want of you, to bring Madara back?"
"They have seals to detect Jinchuuriki," Sakura argues. "Not—not what I have."
"They could."
"They couldn't," Sakura argues. "They wouldn't. Not when it's inactive. They don't even know to look for it, they don't know that anyone other than Nagato could have it."
"Have what?" Kakashi asks, and they freeze.
A breath.
Two.
"Have what?" Kakashi asks, and Sakura crumples in on herself, pressing the heels of her palms into her eye sockets, and the backs of her palms to her knees.
Her shoulders shake.
"We should have had this conversation years ago," Kanna says, bitter and gazing into the space past her tea mug. "We didn't think it would come to this point this soon, so we put it off, and now we're dealing with the fallout."
Delightful.
"Who else is going?" Kakashi asks instead. "Is it a solo mission, or…?"
"We can't both go," Kanna says. "There's just—there's too much in Konoha. Too many worst-case scenarios. It's too far to send a clone. We know Jiraiya's coming, thought about asking you. Not sure who else, yet, but my vote is Maito Gai."
That's refreshing.
"I… think Sakura should go," Kakashi admits, and Kanna turns a betrayed glare on him. Sakura's head snaps up, staring at him in surprise.
"If what you said is correct, about what they can sense and what they can't, then I think you're more likely to get the diplomatic resolution you're hoping for with Sakura going," Kakashi says. "You're both incredibly powerful, but between that and the likelihood that we'll need at least one skilled healer if it goes sour, with a preference of not having to violate Kanna's bodily autonomy…"
The full-body flinch makes him feel a bit guilty, but it's not like he's talking about something unlikely. Kakashi's been a ninja for almost twenty years. He knows the worth of a medic, and he knows that Karin and Kanna hate the idea of sharing their bodies for healing.
He's not going to suggesting putting her through that.
"Did you ask the Hokage?" Kakashi asks carefully.
"He told us he'd let us sort it out," Kanna says, bitter as hell and twice as obvious about it. "Because we know the situation better."
Kakashi's not sure if that's true or if Hiruzen just didn't want to get in the middle of this particular fight.
Which… Kakashi has taken the initiative to involve himself in instead, because he makes great decisions.
"Could you make use of the emergency summoning seals?" Kakashi asks.
"We've talked about it," Sakura says, stiff as a board.
"Ah," Kakashi says, because of course. "Okay, then."
He's regretting.
"I still vote on the side of not sending a Jinchuuriki to the people hunting bijuu," Kakashi says. "Family or not. Besides, Sakura said she's been missing field work, right?"
She sends him a grateful, pained smile. The stakes are so much higher.
"That said, does it have to be one of you?" Kakashi prods. "Er, could it just be Jiraiya? If Zetsu wants something from Sakura as well, then—"
"It has to be one of us," Sakura says, shaking her head. "There are… if the meeting goes in certain directions, it has to be. It might not be necessary, but the odds aren't great, and they have a grudge against Jiraiya, who is unfortunately the only person that can and would go, and actually knows the whole story."
"Then why is he going at all?" Kakashi asks.
"Because for all that they have a grudge, he was also their teacher," Kanna says grimly. "He's the backup plan."
There's a whole lot in that statement. Kakashi's not sure he wants to touch it, as much as he wants to poke fun at one of the Densetsu no Sannin being a backup plan.
"Do you mind leaving us alone for a bit?" Sakura asks, and for all that she looks tired and sad and fond, there is no room for give this time. "Thanks for trying to help, but this is really something we need to figure out between the two of us."
He hesitates.
"Aa," Kakashi finally acquiesces. "Do you mind if I hang out with the kids? I can help Naruto with his Taijutsu again."
"I'm sure he'd appreciate it," Sakura says. "Out back, there you go."
#
"Treat me to dinner."
"Senpai, get off."
"Tenzō," Kakashi whines, dropping even more of his weight onto his precious kohai's back. "I'm so hungry. Would you leave a poor wolf to starve?"
"Yes."
Kakashi lets himself get heavier, and Tenzō flails while trying to push him off.
"You are covered in blood," Tenzō groans. "We've barely finished debrief!"
"Tenzō," Kakashi says again, drawing out the 'o' as far as he can. "It's been so long since we hung out."
"I want to sleep," Tenzō complains. "And shower. And catch up on that house remodeling show that started coming out of Earth Country last summer."
"But… dinner," Kakashi presses. "You are a growing boy—"
"I'm twenty," Tenzō grumbles.
"—and you need all your nutrients!"
Yamato sends a desperate look at Yuugao, who ignores him.
"Kakashi-senpaaaaaaaaai," Tenzō whines.
Kakashi's about to badger him a little more, because Tenzō is nothing if not fun to tease, but he gets cut off by the arrival of an unfamiliar face.
"Hatake-san," the woman says. The look on her face is… distinctive. Former Root. "Hokage-sama requests your presence."
Debrief had been with ANBU command, but there had been nothing unusual about the mission. Not enough to warrant a meeting with the Hokage. "Just me?"
"Just you," the woman confirms. She turns around, and Kakashi gets hit by a sudden wave of realization as he see her hair.
"Hinoto?" He asks, and the woman pauses. Tenzō makes a noise of recognition behind him.
"I go by Mariko, now," the woman says softly. She does not look back at them. "Shall we away?"
"Ah, yes," Kakashi says. "Tenzō, I'll cash in on that dinner later."
"I never promised—"
"Bye bye~!" Kakashi teases, hopping off after Mariko. "So, this is where you ended up after… the incident?"
Mariko doesn't shoot him a look, but it's a near thing. Maybe. Her face is hard to read. "I have completed my mental reconditioning. Hokage-sama has cleared me for light active duty within the village."
One step of many, he's sure. He remembers her skill with the tantō and her staff. It would be a shame to waste that on internal missions if she's open to running proper ones. "Are you enjoying being back in the ranks?"
She blinks, staring straight ahead as they make their way to the administration building. "I have no positive or negative feelings regarding my duty as a kunoichi, but I am relieved to be given something to do. The rehabilitation process was not very mentally stimulating, and the boredom proved… frustrating."
Kakashi has no idea if that was intentional or not, but he wouldn't put it past the Root rehab team to try to use the boredom of forced leave as a way to induce emotions.
"Picked up any hobbies?" he tries.
"No," Mariko says. "Not as of yet."
Better than 'no, and I'm not planning on it,' which is what Kakashi gets with half of the former Root shinobi.
"Well, I hope you find something that brings you happiness," he says, going for compassion and mostly hitting the target. "Or fulfillment, at least?"
"Mm," Mariko responds, and her voice is as flat as it has been the entire conversation. "I thank you for your well wishes."
Cool, cool, cool.
Kakashi's not great at this whole smalltalk thing.
He's trying!
But also, like. His conversation partner is former Root. They're both terrible at this.
Technically, Kakashi's former Root too, but he was only there for a short bit, on account of doing things like 'reporting his incredibly illegal assignment directly to the Hokage' and 'having emotions that made him super late to things.'
There aren't any more words exchanged between them until they stand before the Hokage, and then Mariko bows out and leaves Kakashi alone.
Kakashi waits in silence.
"How much," the Sandaime says, hesitant, and then shakes his head. "How much have the Uzumaki told you about the trip to Ame?"
"Some," Kakashi says, which he thinks is a pretty great summary. "Definitely not everything. They still haven't told me what it is that Sakura's got that Zetsu would be interested in."
"No, they wouldn't…" the Sandaime says, deep in thought. "You are aware of the fact that we planned on attaching you to the team being sent out on that mission?"
"Hai."
The Sandaime eyes him for another moment, more shrewd than tired, and then sets a mission scroll on the edge of his desk. "You leave the day after tomorrow. Seven in the morning, village gates, do not be late."
Kakashi picks up the scroll, and there's an itch at the back of his neck.
"Familiarize yourself with the contents in private, then burn the scroll," the Sandaime says. "The rest of the team for the Ame mission has already received their information, but yours was delayed for obvious reasons."
Kakashi nods.
"Dismissed."
#
Kakashi doesn't immediately read the scroll. For all that he'd bugged Tenzō about going out for dinner, Kakashi does want a nap and a shower. Also the dinner, but ultimately that's just one element of many, when it comes to the process of winding down from a mission. So Kakashi showers, tucks the scroll down his shirt for safekeeping, and collapses into his bed with aplomb. The scrabble of nails on tile warns him of the dogs that crawl into bed with him a few seconds later, and he drifts off surrounded by some of the most constant companions of his life.
Surprisingly, he sleeps until late into the morning, getting his full eight hours and then some. He makes himself breakfast, sets his privacy seals, unrolls the scroll, and gets to reading.
An hour and a half later, as he's burning the damn thing, he wishes he hadn't.
The list of possible backup shinobi that 'Pein' might send is largely made up of S-Rank criminals, including Uchiha Itachi and a guy running around claiming to be Madara, as well as the infamous-among-this-small-circle Zetsu.
It's a headache and Kakashi's starting to regret suggesting that Sakura was a better choice than Kanna, because he's thinking that it might be a good idea to bring a sensor to this shindig.
But no, it's going to be Kakashi, Jiraiya, Sakura, and Gai.
A great team. A really great team.
But no sensors.
And Kakashi's… pretty sure that's at least partly his fault.
He cleans up the ashes of the scroll as he muses on its contents, and this obviously intense process is interrupted by the noise of a knock on his window.
He looks up.
It's Shin.
That's unexpected.
Huh.
Kakashi holds up a hand to request a moment, and finishes clearing the ashes. He disarms the window, and Shin rolls in with skill and smoothness beyond any normal genin.
"Kakashi-san," Shin says, with a small bow.
Kakashi blinks at him. "Shin. You know you can just call me Kakashi-nii, right? I know I've told you this before."
"And I've told you that I am not comfortable with that," Shin responds.
"You know Kanna-chan cried after she realized you called her Aneki?" Kakashi prompts. "Sakura told me about it. Apparently they were that happy that you were finally letting some walls down."
Shin looks away, a faint blush appearing above his adorable little mask. "That's not what I'm here about."
Kakashi sighs. "Alright, then. I don't really have a couch or anything, but if you want to grab a chair…"
Shin looks at the spare kitchen chair, and then looks at Kakashi and asks, "Can… can we have to dogs for this?"
Kakashi would quirk an eyebrow if that sort of thing was actually visible, but it's not, so he just whistles lowly for the dogs to come in from the bedroom.
"We'll sit on the floor," Kakashi declares, taking a seat against the wall, between the windows. His arms come up to cuddle Pakkun and Bisuke as they both climb into his lap and attempt to lick at him, the others already scrambling to press in as close as they can. Kakashi pats the floor next to him, and Shin slowly takes his own spot.
Kakashi waits. Pakkun climbs over to Shin's lap instead of Kakashi's, and Shin carefully runs a hand along the tiny summon's back.
"Sai made another friend," Shin finally says. "A girl from Naruto's class. Yamanaka Ino."
"Good for them," Kakashi says. He's pretty sure Naruto doesn't like Ino, but Naruto doesn't seem to have set up any actual friendships with the girls in his class.
Shin nods, oddly careful about the motion. He pauses in petting Pakkun, and pulls the summon to his chest. "Juugo's friend from Orochimaru's army, Kimimaro, he was finally released from medical custody. He hates Kanna, so they have him staying with some of the other kids from there, but Juugo's been really happy to see him, and have him visit."
"Aa," Kakashi says. "I know he was having some trouble making friends. It's good for him to have someone outside of the family."
"I know," Shin says, voice quiet. "It's a good thing. I know it is. So… so why do I feel so angry about it?"
Ah.
Kakashi reaches over and scratches Pakkun's head. "Angry about which part?"
Shin makes a low noise, something Kakashi would have called a whine if it had come from one of his dogs. "I—it feels like someone is stealing my family from me? And it shouldn't. Sai having friends is a good thing. Juugo having friends is good. If I could keep it from showing when Sai befriended Hyūga Neji, then I should be able to keep it from showing now, but I'm home less than I was, and I see them all less often, and I can't seem to connect with my genin team, and my only friend is Hana but she's busy training for the Chuunin exams, and I just—why? Why am I angry that my siblings are happy? Why am I upset that they're making friends when it's a good thing?"
Oh hell. Kakashi isn't qualified for this.
"Because your emotions are still messed up by what Danzō put you through, and because you're still working on forming a support network," Kakashi says. "And you're jealous, maybe, because you're having so much trouble with your genin squad. Have you talked to your Jounin-sensei about it?"
Shin shakes his head. "I brought it up with Murasaki-sensei, though."
His Root rehab team therapist. Better than expected, all things considered.
"That's good," Kakashi says, because praise for healthy initiative is a good thing. "And it's a hard situation. Sai is managing to make new friends partly because they have Karin, and a wider range of people to interact with. Your social circle just shrank a lot, and you don't have someone to break the ice for you. So there's a whole mix of emotions there, some of which stem because of how difficult it is for you to widen your own support network with your team, and some of which stem from how Root forced you to get rid of all your connections except Sai. You…"
"I don't know how to make friends," Shin says, wrapping his arms around his knees and burying his face into Pakkun's back. "Sai is my sibling, and our friendship stemmed from me protecting them, and teaching them. Our siblings, and Kanna and Sakura, and Hana, all of them… they took initiative first. I don't know… how to do that. I can make friends as an infiltrator, but…"
Kakashi bends to his instincts and wraps an arm around Shin's shoulders, pulling the kid closer. "Making friends is hard."
"How did you do it?" Shin asks. "You—you were Root, just like me. You have friends, though, Sakura-san and Maito-san and some of the other Jounin."
Kakashi's wondered that a fair few times himself. Luck, mostly, and Gai being so outgoing that Kakashi kind of got dragged along in his wake.
"There's a certain camaraderie," he finally settles on saying, "That springs up with Konoha shinobi who risk their lives together. A lot of my friends these days are people that I was on teams with in ANBU or during the Third War. With people like that, you form bonds no matter how different your hobbies and interests are. That… might take a bit longer with you, though."
Shin looks at him, eyes wide.
"Maa, how do I put this…" Kakashi lets his head fall back against the wall, staring at his pebbled ceiling. "You're easily chuunin-level. For all that you're the same rank as your teammates, you're leagues ahead of them in terms of experience. It might mean that they look up to you, or they might resent you for making them look bad by virtue of being better than them."
"Mostly the latter," Shin admits, voice quiet.
"Aa," Kakashi says. "That's how it was for me."
Shin presses his head into the little patch of flesh below Kakashi's shoulder, and plucks at the fabric of his pants. "Yeah?"
"Yeah," Kakashi says. "It took years for me to really become friends with my teammates, and… one of them died before I managed to get my head out of my own ass long enough to actually pay attention to the idea of making friends. I was kind of a fucked up kid, you know. You're already doing better than I am, on that front. You actually want to make friends."
Shin stays quiet for a moment as Guruko wriggles halfway onto the kid's lap in search of further scritches.
"Why is being a person so much harder than being a ninja?" Shin finally asks, voice so low that even Kakashi can barely hear him.
Kakashi shrugs. "I wish I could answer that."
#
It strikes Kakashi, on sight, that he's never caught so much as a glimpse of Sakura in mission gear before.
He's seen her in her hospital uniform. He's seen her in her casual clothes. He's even seen her dressed up for date nights with Kanna, because he'd been the one tagging in for babysitting duty.
He's never actually seen her dressed for a mission before, and part of him is deeply confused and maybe a little embarrassingly attracted. There's a bunch of red, including the non-standard field medic skirt, but it's all decidedly practical. He isn't close enough to hear what it is that Jiraiya says for Sakura to smack him on the head hard enough to crater the ground, but… well, it's Jiraiya. Kakashi loves the man almost as much as he loves the man's writing, but he's not going to say Jiraiya didn't deserve it.
Gai looks so damn excited to be going on this mission, but Gai looks that excited for every mission, so that's not saying much. Maybe a tad more than usual, but Kakashi's pretty sure that's mostly because he's going on a mission with his Eternal Rival.
They also aren't alone. There isn't exactly a whole crowd waiting to see them off, but the one person that is there is…
"Just promise me you'll use the—"
"I'll use the seal," Sakura says, and squeezes Kanna's hands with a smile that is equal parts fond and annoyed. "I will absolutely summon myself back if we run into trouble."
"And if Tobi—"
"Kanna," Sakura says, almost laughing with the stress of the word. "I'll be fine. I know what I'm doing. I don't freak out at you over your missions to Orochimaru's bases, do I?"
"I know, but—"
Sakura cuts her off with a kiss, and pulls back with that same sad, frustrated, loving smile. "I'm an S-rank. I'm one of the scariest bitches on the continent, and I've got three stupidly-powerful idiots as backup. Pein and Konan ain't got shit on me."
Kanna bites her lip, bounces on her toes, and throws herself forward to hug Sakura. "Don't you dare leave me."
"I won't," Sakura promises. "We're all we've got, ne?"
Kanna pulls back, blushing furiously and adjusting her glasses. "Yeah, well, I don't like the idea of being a single mom or whatever, okay?"
"Okay, babe," Sakura says, ever indulgent.
Kakashi is, like, eighty percent sure that Gai is about to start crying at how Youthfully Adoring their relationship is.
Jiraiya would probably be taking notes if he were any less respectful of Kanna's background.
(Yeah, Kakashi had finally gotten the story on the 'rules' that Sakura had mentioned last year. Turned out that while Sakura didn't mind Jiraiya's flirtations so long as she got to smack him, Kanna was liable to freak out on account of a little thing called Massive Fucking Trauma.)
(Kakashi knew Jiraiya well enough to know he'd have backed off at the first sign of that sort of thing anyway, but the rules were Sakura's way of protecting her wife, and Kakashi could respect that.)
(Ah, the life of a ninja. Always a minefield, whether emotionally or literally.)
"Right!" Sakura declares. "Let's head out!"
And so they do.
A/N: For some reason, I feel like there's not enough going on in this chapter? But it's 5k, so...
Also, I was looking for a Root lady to put in that one scene, and there's only two canon women in Root other than Nonou. Three women total. That's wild. (I picked the one with the pretty hair.)