I don't own any of the characters within this work of fiction, they all belong to Masashi Kishimoto. :)
The trio are in their early twenties, hovering somewhere around 22 years old. This, of course, makes Kakashi's age somewhere around 36.
**Please read the below note**
I have obviously taken some creative liberties within this story, so it's not going to be 100% accurate to the anime or the manga.
Leave a review if you'd like. Enjoy!
Sasuke was annoyed. They had been traveling almost nonstop for two days, and they had another two and a half days to go. It wasn't the traveling that irked him; hell, he and Naruto had literally gone on a three-year trek. No, it absolutely wasn't the traveling that was pissing him off.
It was the flirting; that wasn't even the worst of the situation.
Yes, the flirting made him feel a little… off. The first time he noticed and was one hundred percent sure that was what was transpiring, he was dumbfounded. He quickly got over it though, the idea just made too much sense for him to disapprove.
No. What Sasuke found completely infuriating was the fact that both parties involved were supposed to be two of the smartest shinobi in Kohona, yet they were acting like complete and total morons. And, of course, his idiotic (though loveable) boyfriend had no more of an idea of what was going on than the two pinning fools.
Sasuke groaned, pressing his thumbs into the side of his temple, and mumbled to himself.
"This is gonna be a long fucking mission."
The end of day three found the four shinobi a little worse for wear. It had started lightly raining somewhere around midday, which, if Kakashi was honest, wasn't such a terrible thing since it had caused the blindingly hot sun to retreat behind the storm clouds. At the time the group decided that continuing their trek wouldn't be an issue, especially if it granted them a few blissful hours of cooler weather.
What they weren't expecting was a torrential downpour. Or the proceeding three hours of wandering in the raging storm before they found any semblance of shelter.
With the help of his dual Sharingan, Sasuke managed to spot an alcove within a large rock formation and determine its relative safety. Kakashi caught Naruto's inquisitive look and shrugged his shoulders. Making a run for the cave seemed like the best solution, after all, they were already soaked to the bone.
Panting and sopping wet, but happy to at least be out of the rain, Kakashi gave his team a quick once-over. Naruto and Sasuke looked like drowned rats. Their hair was stuck to their faces, and they were leaving large puddles where they stood, but the blonde was chortling at his raven-haired companion's exasperated expression. They seem fine.
A quick glance to his left told Kakashi that Sakura was digging through the med kit, ensuring that the supplies weren't ruined beyond use. Her usually light pink hair was dark, dripping with water, and stuck to her face. Kakashi's eye moved beyond her face, assessing the kunoichi's physical well-being, before stopping dead in his tracks.
He hadn't meant to stare, but he was too caught off guard to get his mind functional again. Kakashi's assumption of the medical kit being Sakura's first concern was correct. However, he was not expecting her to be kneeling in front of the med kit in a form-fitting tank top and shorts combo, having rid herself of the drenched Jonin uniform.
Someone clearing their throat broke Kakashi out of his daze. He could feel daggers being stared into his back and turned to face the shinobi that obviously wanted him dead, or at least mangled. His eyes met Sasuke Uchiha's unreadable scowl. Heat rushed to his face, and, once again, he was grateful for the mask obscuring his face.
Thankfully, Naruto (unknowingly) came to Kakashi's rescue.
"Oy, Sasuke!"
The Uchiha's black eyes let him go and instead focused on Naruto.
"Sakura says that we can't stay in our wet clothes and need to strip."
Sasuke's eyebrows shot up into his hair, his mouth hanging open as if to respond, but Sakura cut him off.
"Naruto, really?" Kakashi noticed that she had tied her hair back out of her face.
She sighed heavily before continuing.
"We can't stay in those clothes. They'll get cold as they start to dry, and we can't afford for one of us to get sick. So, my suggestion," her green eyes snapped to Naruto, "was that we remove as many wet layers of clothes as we're comfortable with and let them dry out overnight."
Kakashi's eye looked everywhere else except for their medic, but when he spoke, his question was addressed to her.
"How's the med kit?"
"Perfectly fine!" He could hear the smile in her voice as she continued.
"That water sealing Jutsu I found in the library actually worked. And not just on the med kit, but on my rucksack and the pockets of my flak jacket!" Kakashi smiled under his mask at her excitement.
Sasuke's voice interrupted the silence.
"Which means..."
"Which means that we not only have dry medical supplies, but that the scrolls that I used to store our sleeping bags, fire kindling, and other such necessities are also dry. Which means that we'll be able to stay warm and not have to sleep directly on the ground." She huffed, face flushed and hands on her hips.
"Now, get out of those damn clothes and hang them on the trip wire that mine are on."
Naruto and Sasuke didn't have to be told twice, they immediately began peeling off still dripping clothes until they were also in a similar state as the kunoichi – wearing form-fitting tank tops and knee-length shorts. Sakura turned to Kakashi expectantly, her eyebrows knitting into a scowl.
"I'll take the flak jacket and jonin sweater off." Kakashi held his hands up, attempting a placating gesture in hopes that the medic would accept the compromise.
It didn't work.
"You're going to get out of those soaking wet clothes one way or another. Don't test me, Kakashi."
He could hear Naruto snickering behind him, the little brat, and he was also certain he caught a snort from Sasuke too. Kakashi threw his hands in the air, defeated.
"Fine, fine."
He grumbled to himself as he removed layer upon layer of drenched clothing until he was wearing a similar outfit as the two traitors laughing behind him – a form-fitting tank top, knee-length shorts, and his ever-present mask.
Kakashi focused his eye on the pink-haired kunoichi and asked incredulously, "There, happy now?"
He expected a smart-ass remark to leave her parted lips, but that was far from the case. Her green eyes grew wide as her cheeks flushed scarlet; a small, almost inaudible squeak escaped her lips. The sight of his medic so flustered squashed any annoyance he was harboring. Kakashi quietly chuckled to himself, surprisingly amused with her reaction. Sakura recovered quickly; although the scowl on her face really didn't match her still flushed cheeks.
"Put them over there. And next time, don't argue with a med nin."
She cut him a look before returning to dig through her rucksack. More cackling reached Kakashi's ears, and he turned just in time to catch Naruto covering his mouth and clutching at his side, clearly thoroughly enjoying Kakashi's embarrassment.
Naruto couldn't help but laugh at Kakashi-sensei. You'd think the guy would know by now that when it comes down to it, what Sakura says goes - especially if it's medical-related.
And they say I'm the stupid one. Thought Naruto shaking his head.
Picking his way across the mildly flooded cave floor, Naruto figured he could use some more amusement at his sensei's expense. The white-haired Jonin was rummaging through his rucksack and, from the muttering, the blonde could catch, was presumably searching for spare pants.
Kakashi didn't seem to care that Naruto was standing just an arm's length away. In fact, the blonde was sure that he was deliberately being ignored. An impish grin spread across his face.
"Ya, ya! Bakashi-sense!"
The Jonin whipped his head around like he had just been stabbed. For a fraction of a second, the man's one visible dark grey eye was wide and unfocused. It then snapped quickly to Naruto's face, the look cold, and his eyebrow pulled into a scowl, but otherwise unreadable.
"Do not call me that."
Kakashi's voice was icy, and his words clipped as if they were forced from gritted teeth.
"Awe, come on Kakashi-sensei! I know technically we're your former students but -"
A petite but steady hand fastened itself across Naruto's mouth, cutting off his teasing.
"If you have time to chat, you can help Sasuke."
It was Sakura; her other hand gestured toward Naruto's partner, who appeared to be extracting various items from some of Sakura's storage scrolls. Naruto had to look down slightly at the pink-haired medic to assess whether there was any potential that he had ended up on the wrong side of her disapproval. Except, there was no hint of anger in Sakura's face.
Her eyebrows were slightly scrunched, and her mouth pressed into a hard line, providing a faint impression of concern. Naruto could see the fervent plea burning in her green eyes. And, although he didn't really grasp what was going on, Naruto offered a cooperative shrug of his shoulders. Once Sakura was certain of his compliance she let go of his face. Naruto thanked the stars that he healed relatively quickly, because he was fairly certain he'd have a bruise shaped in the form of Sakura's hand.
Not terribly keen on receiving any further bruises (or worse), Naruto did as he was told and joined Sasuke in his scroll extraction.
She had never seen Kakashi react that way. The man was generally aloof and detached or amused at someone's expense. Even in combat with enemy nin literally attempting to kill him, the Jonin was disgruntled at best. But that reaction was genuine fury. Her former sensei may have appeared to be calm and collected on the outside, but she had felt the torrent of anguish and rage that flared in Kakashi's chakra.
The sensation was so off-putting and foreign that Sakura believed their group to be in danger from an external source. Yet when she turned around there was only Kakashi and Naruto, and the ever-growing presence of rage. She had no idea what was transpiring between the two shinobi, but she knew, without a doubt, that she needed to step in. Quickly.
Sakura hadn't meant to grip Naruto's face so hard (or force him back a few feet from where he had been standing) but being in such close proximity to Kakashi's unstable chakra made her feel dizzy and nauseous. And inconceivably terrified. Every hair on the back of Sakura's neck was standing on end, and her kunoichi instincts screamed at her to not have her back facing the source of danger.
Sakura watched her orange-clad companion walk away unperturbed, yet it took everything in her, every ounce of strength that she possessed, to forcibly slow her racing heart and shallow breathing.
This is Kakashi, she insisted to her frazzled nerves, he wouldn't hurt the boys or you.
With that thought in mind, Sakura turned to the man in question, determined to console him (or at least mildly calm him down). Kakashi was still squatting in front of his rucksack but no longer searching through it. Instead, his eye was closed, and his fingers were pressed into his forehead, elbows resting on his thighs. A few steps toward the Jonin brought her within range to hear him muttering, though she couldn't decipher what exactly he was saying.
"Kakashi?" She reached out, lightly touching him on the shoulder.
It was a mistake.
Before her brain could process what was happening, it was already over.
Sakura's back was pressed hard into the cave floor, the small rock formations digging into her body. There was a heaviness on her chest that made it difficult for her to take a deep breath. That in combination with the vice grip around her throat, all she could manage was short gasps of air. Her arms weren't entirely pinned, she could manage to move them slightly, but it would just be a waste of her energy.
Sakura knew she wasn't strong enough to move the weight from her body. Being caught entirely off guard, she hadn't prepared a single ounce of chakra for a fight. So now here she was pinned to the ground by a fellow elite ninja, being partially strangled, barely able to catch her breath, and, to top it all off, the point of a kunai was digging into the underside of her jaw. Exactly where her jugular pulsed erratically. She stared up into the offender's face, into Kakashi's face, and saw nothing there of the man she knew.
Startled and angry shouting reached her ringing ears, and she knew it was Naruto and Sasuke. Sakura couldn't allow them to come closer, she knew that they would get physically involved and that the situation would only get worse because of it. She used her left hand, the one closer to the approaching nin, to sign at them.
Stand down. Only make worse. Can handle.
It was Sasuke who caught her repeated, frenzied nonverbal communication. It didn't surprise Sakura that he had seen it before the other, after all, both of his Sharingan were activated. He held out an arm, stopping a furious Naruto in his tracks, to lean in close and urgently whisper what she had asked of them. The blonde was clearly livid. Sakura could see his clenched jaw from where she lay, but he stayed put, his hand clenched tightly around Sasuke's.
Sakura diverted her attention from her two teammates and focused on the man holding her hostage. His chest moved rapidly, his breathing heavy and erratic. Kakashi's dark grey eye was intense yet unfocused, almost like he wasn't here with them but lost somewhere else in his memories.
The kunai in his hand pressed further into her neck.
"Where are they?!" Kakashi hissed, too low for anyone other than Sakura to hear. "Where's Obito and Rin? Tell me and your death'll be quick. Otherwise, I'll make you beg for death."
Sakura really didn't know the shinobi who was currently threatening her, but she knew her Kakashi was in there. She tried to speak, but the man's hand was sort of crushing her throat. He noticed and moved his grip from her neck to her hair, exposing her jugular even more. He never removed the kunai. Sakura cleared her throat.
"Kakashi."
Sakura reached for his face to reassure the ninja but instead earned a vicious yank on her hair. A trickle of blood ran from the point of the kunai pressed into the tender skin of her neck. She settled for placing her hand lightly, nonthreateningly, in the middle of his chest. Kakashi's heart raced under her palm.
She tried again, speaking gently despite the ache in her chest.
"Kakashi, it's me. It's Sakura. Remember?"
The man glared down at her, no sign of recognition in his eye. Sakura's eyes stung, the tears she had been trying to hold back threatening their escape.
"Kashi, please," her traitorous eyes spilled their contents, "Look at me, really look at me. I'm Sakura – your medic. The only person who can get you to cooperate when you're sick or injured. I'm your favorite student." She let out a broken laugh, and then a sob.
Sakura could see it clearly on his face; Kakashi had no idea who she was and was fully prepared to kill her. She knew that he had spent a large portion of his childhood on the frontlines of the Third Great Ninja War, and then the proceeding years in ANBU as an assassin. She knew he was an effective and efficient killer. She also knew that Kakashi experienced an enormous amount of trauma in his life and presumed that he was stuck in some sort of flashback.
Sakura needed him to know that it was going to be okay, even if the outcome is her death at his hands. She gripped the fabric of Kakashi's tank top, coaxing him closer, so she could quietly whisper her parting words.
"It's okay Kakashi. It's okay. It's not your fault, and I don't blame you."
Sakura squeezed her eyes shut and let go of his shirt, feeling the man's weight shift back to its original position on her chest. She was really crying now, the sobs racking her body making it impossible for her to speak further. But there was one last thing she needed him to know, she couldn't go not telling him. So, she mouthed the three words between sobs and resigned herself to her fate.