Scarlet Scroll

Embers


Kakashi didn't sleep much that night, but he rarely did. Usually he was woken up by the two idiots who stumbled in at around four or five in the morning to fill the room with a boozy stench and colossal snores that kept even the neighbouring guests awake. But Kakashi's insomnia that night had another cause entirely.

Sakura had asked him to father a child with her.

She wasn't thinking clearly, obviously, or she never would have suggested it. She would have to be pretty desperate to...

But, of course, she was desperate. Kakashi had witnessed how she'd slowly been ground down over the passing days and weeks. That was why he'd been throwing himself so devotedly into finding something fun and interesting to do each day so she never lost that cheeky, carefree smile that was becoming an increasingly rare sight. Each day it seemed a little harder for her to forget herself and join in the fun he showed her – whether it was at theatres, pubs, karaoke clubs, buffet bars, bathhouses, or massage parlours. Did she know how much effort it took to find places like these that didn't involve strippers and 'happy endings'? One day soon he feared with a palpability that squeezed the heart in his chest that she would fall completely and irrevocably into despair, and there would be nothing he or anyone could do to repair the damage that this mission had done to her.

To have been so desperate that she asked him for help this way... Kakashi was scared she had already passed the point of no return.

He'd already thought of the option of arranging for someone else other than Hiroshi to give her a child, but he'd discounted it long ago. It seemed like it would only add to Sakura's misery, to share her body out to even more men when just one was enough to kill her spirit, not to mention how risky it would be if she was caught, and just how generally dangerous it was to have unprotected sex with men who they couldn't give a thorough background check.

But perhaps that had been his own selfish view? He'd thought such a proposal would be too much for Sakura to handle, that however difficult it was to keep returning to Hiroshi, it would be worse to start whoring herself out to multiple men just to get the mission over with sooner.

What if that was exactly what she needed? Would she be better off getting the mission over and done with as quickly as possible, however risky the stunt, instead of playing it safe and waiting to be reassigned in a few months time?

Ultimately he had to trust Sakura's own judgement, and by the time soft morning light was streaming through the shutters of the window he was lying beneath, he'd resolved some of the shocked confusion he'd taken to bed with him. True to his word, he would discuss it with Sakura this morning and they would come to an arrangement that best suited her.

It would not, however, be him.

As the first up at the ungodly hour of six o'clock, when the most hardcore revellers were only just beginning to stumble home through the streets, Kakashi went to the inn's bathroom to perform his daily ablutions, then headed down to the tea shop around the block to scrounge a copy of yesterday's paper from the owner and have something resembling liquid adrenalin in a tea cup to stave off the fatigue from the long, wakeful night. In a few hours, Sakura would appear, as she always did, and then they would talk.

But Sakura didn't come. Kakashi was beginning to resign himself to the possibility that he would have to go back and knock on her door when he saw Jin and Ari coming down the sloping street towards him. Kakashi pretended not to notice that they were heading towards him with purpose in their stride, and that could never bode well. As he sipped his tea and forced his eyes to follow the words on his paper, his mind raced.

Jin stopped short beside him, blocking out the sun. "Where is she?" he demanded.

Which meant Sakura wasn't in her room at all. She had disappeared.

Without missing a beat, Kakashi said quite blandly, "She's having a bath, I imagine."

"We checked the bathroom," snapped Ari. "Where is she? You're supposed to be keeping an eye on her."

"Gentlemen, please take note that there are fifty-six bathhouses in this town," he sighed. "Sakura is at the Jasmine Court. I took her there myself this morning."

The lie was seamless, but Jin still looked incredulous. "And you just left her there? Unsupervised?"

"It's a women-only bathhouse. I figured she was safe from being impregnated for an hour or so," Kakashi said dryly, setting his tea cup down. "You're welcome to pick her up. I said I'd meet up with her but since you're obviously worried-"

"No," said Jin, rather predictably, who didn't want to be stuck with a glum girl cramping his style. Neither would admit it, but the two men were almost grateful that Kakashi was doing most of the 'babysitting'. "Just keep her out of trouble."

He gestured at Ari and the two men slunk off, heading only god knew where to do only god knew what. Kakashi wasn't interested in their day's plans... he just waited until both men were safely out of sight around the corner before jumping out of his seat and racing back to the inn.

Sakura really was gone. Kakashi scanned her room and noted the duvet on the futon had been turned back neatly. Her clothes were in order, her bags were still there. She wouldn't have done a runner without those at least... unless she'd been smart and picked up new supplies so no one would notice her missing gear.

He strode up to her wardrobe and jerked a random dress off its hanger. A moment later when Pakkun appeared, he held it out to the dog. "Find Sakura," he said. "This is an emergency."

Without a word, the dog scampered off on her most recent trail.

She couldn't have gotten far. Kakashi had checked on her that very morning, stopping outside her door on the way to the teahouse to peer through an old tear in the shoji door to make sure... well, he wasn't sure what he'd been trying to find out. If she was still there? Still alive? Still sitting with that haunted look he'd left her with last night? Maybe he'd just been seeking reassurance in the sight of her curled beneath her covers, asleep and untroubled for once.

But what if that had been a trick? What if she'd taken his rejection last night to heart and decided she wouldn't rely on his help at all.

The quiet streets opened up before him as he followed Pakkun's stumpy tail through piss-soaked alleys and bleached concrete plateaus. Occasionally the dog's little legs would slow at busy junctions, but never once did he lose the scent, and Kakashi didn't have to suffer too many heart palpitations before his little legs went scampering off decisively in a new direction.

If Sakura had left the town, this was a rather roundabout route. He began to doubt his initial fears when it became evident that Sakura's trail led to the heart of the town and meandered back and forth across the streets, as if she had been in no particular rush. Yet this introduced a new fear? Why was she wandering the streets alone so early in the morning without telling him? A lack of explanation for such strange behaviour was just as worrying.

Finally, Pakkun trailed to a stop, snuffling his way to a white-painted doorway. "She's in there," he said with finality.

Kakashi looked up. The windows of this shop were lined with headless mannequins of fashionably slim angles, demonstrating clothing that was too fancy to pass for casual, but far cheaper than the clothing stores on the next street over. This was the very shop he had come to several times with Sakura to stock her wardrobe. What the hell was she doing here?

"Are you sure?" he asked the dog.

"Definitely," Pakkun said. "I'd go in there, but there's that sign…" His sad, inky eyes turned to the poster tacked to the door which said, 'No Dogs.'

Kakashi didn't care. He dismissed his summon and stepped into the shop, his sharp gaze scanning the length and breadth of the room, looking for that head of distinctive hair. A few women could be seen – truly dedicated shoppers to be here so soon after the doors had opened, but Kakashi saw nothing pink that wasn't part of some display.

The shop assistant spotted him and made her way over. Perhaps it was because he was clearly not here for dresses, or because she remembered him from previous visits, she already knew what he was after. "If you're looking for the pink-haired lady," she said, "she's in the changing rooms."

Oh, thank god. Kakashi released a tense sigh he hadn't known he'd been holding in, softly thanked the woman and headed towards the archway at the back of the store that led to a short corridor of curtained booths.

"Sakura?" he called out gently, spotting the one booth whose curtains were pulled shut. "You there?"

No answer. He approached the curtain warily, knowing that if he was about to walk in on some middle-aged woman in her underwear, he was bound for a slap. Never mind that – if this was Sakura, he could be punched through the wall.

With great bravery, he slipped his hand behind the curtain and eased it aside, giving anyone on the other side ample time to react and shriek if he'd made a mistake. But he heard not a peep, until the rings on the curtain pole clacked together and he was presented with the sight of his teammate sitting on the bench inside, staring sideways at her reflection. The only acknowledgement of his presence was when her gaze flicked briefly to meet his through the mirror, before turning back on herself. Her clothes lay in a heap on the floor. The cheap, white dress she wore had a price tag sticking out beneath her arm.

Kakashi hadn't known what to expect when he'd found her. It certainly wasn't this, and suddenly his concern for her was joined by the memory of their last conversation, and he didn't know what to say.

"You shouldn't go off like that on your own," he scolded quietly. "Jin and Ari were suspicious."

"I needed a new dress," she explained steadily.

Kakashi didn't know why. She had more outfits back at the inn than he'd had in his entire life. "Then you should have said-"

"Why? What does it matter?" Her hand dropped limply against the crisp skirts of her borrowed dress. "I just wanted a new dress. There's no need for a drama."

"I didn't know where you'd gone," he said reproachfully. "I thought…"

Her head rolled back, hitting the wall of her booth with a hollow thud. "You thought I'd gone off to find an easy lay since you turned me down?"

He shifted uneasily. "I thought you'd run away," he said.

Dull green eyes darted to him once more, then away. "Shows what you know. Should have assumed I was trying to get lucky."

"Seems you were shopping for dresses."

"What do you think the new dress is for?" she asked, woodenly spreading the pleated skirts. "But I'm such an idiot. Where do I even start looking for a guy, and how am I supposed to open that conversation? The more I think about it, the more I just want to do nothing... just sit here... I don't think I can leave."

"You can't sit in here forever," he pointed out, reaching to grasp her elbow and encourage her to stand. But Sakura flinched her arm away from him the moment his fingers brushed her bare skin.

"Don't act like you care," snapped sullenly, gaze fixed resolutely on the opposite wall, even as her vision began to swim with tears. "You play nice and you take me to shows and force me into stupid dances, but you don't really understand. You promised me I could talk to you and you'd do anything I asked, but the first thing I ever ask of you, you throw your promise back at my face. You make me feel like a stupid child! Do you know how humiliating it was to ask you?"

Kakashi had been hoping to talk it over with her, but he had not planned on this kind of setting. If the changing room was empty except for themselves right now, that could soon change, and he didn't fancy having this conversation overheard. "Maybe we should go somewhere quieter?" he suggested.

Her jaw clenched. "Yes, fine. I can see you don't want to talk about it. Let's sweep it under the rug and pretend it never happened if that makes you feel better, but I think I'll stay here if it's all the same to you." She reached out to grab the curtain, jerking it closed between them.

Kakashi swept it back open and stepped inside and before she could eject him again, he sat down on the low tuffet in front of her knees; a position that forced him to look up at her. "Ok, we can talk here," he said, stretching out his legs as best he could to try and show her he wasn't going anywhere until this was sorted. "You gave me a shock last night... you can't blame me for that. But I thought about everything you said..."

"And what have you decided?" she asked stiffly.

He sighed. "I still believe I'm not the appropriate person to... help you," he said, noting this didn't seem to surprise her. "But if you really think it's what you want, I can help you find someone else. Someone considerate, and discreet, and... clean."

Her eyes seemed unusually dark as they surveyed him. What did the mind behind them think of him now? Did she still believe he was hopelessly letting her down?

"If this is what you want, I'll do it," he said again. "I won't patronise you, and I think you know the risks even better than I do. But I have to be sure you want this."

"I don't have a choice," she whispered harshly. "Nothing I do here is what I 'want'. But if this is the only way to end this mission, and the only way I can get back control of my life, I'll do it. I'll do whatever it takes."

"Ok, ok." His heart felt awfully heavy as he resolved himself to the task he now faced. "I'll start looking today if you go back to the inn. You'll have to keep seeing Hiroshi in the mean time, but give or take a few days-"

Sakura was shaking her head. "No. No."

"No, what?" he asked, staring at her.

"I told you I'm not going back to him." She avoided his gaze, looking instead to the reflection of her dress.

"We need to keep up appearances," he said.

"I would rather die," she replied with such assurance that it frightened him a little.

Something had changed yesterday. Her grim resolve has always been a little closer to cracking each night she spent with their target, but this was such a sudden revolt that he knew there had to be something she wasn't telling him. "What happened with Hiroshi last night?" he asked. "Why are you suddenly so determined to do this?"

"Suddenly?" she repeated flatly. "I've been thinking of this for weeks. I was hoping I would be able to tolerate Hiroshi until the next client, but taking multiple partners on the side was always my contingency whether you would help me or not."

That explained nothing of why she'd suddenly decided to switch to such a contingency plan last night. "What happened?" he asked again, more softly.

Her lower lip might have trembled, but it was too brief to be sure. She'd gotten very good at controlling her emotions around him lately. "You wouldn't believe me," she breathed, her voice hoarse.

"I'm not Ari," he said. "I'm not Jin."

She took a deep breath, still refusing to look at him. "Hiroshi used his bloodline limit on me. He must have hit my heart just enough to give my hypertension. I got a nosebleed."

"A nosebleed?" He couldn't help from sounding a little incredulous. He'd had his fair share of nosebleeds in his life, and he didn't see how that translated to heart damage.

"I know what he did! I don't care if you think I'm making it up or I'm hysterically paranoid, I'm not going back to him. Next time he might just outright kill me!"

"I believe you," Kakashi said quickly. "You're the medic-nin, not me. I just don't understand why he'd want to hurt you."

"Why wouldn't he? He gets off on it."

His heart went out to her, and so did his hand before he even realised it. But before he could lay it on her shoulder, she brushed it away, almost casually, as if she'd expected nothing less from him. "I don't need comfort," she said, scorn narrowing her eyes. "I need to get out of here."

Kakashi sighed and sat back. "Fine," he said softly, "If you promise to go back to the inn and stop giving me panic attacks, I'll find someone."

Sakura's head dropped a fraction before she nodded. "I should be able to do this myself," she said thickly.

"Well, that's what I'm here for, isn't it?" Kakashi murmured, "because you shouldn't have to do this."

"Thank you, Kakashi," she whispered.

"Let's just get you back to the inn before Jin and Ari start to get any more suspicious," he said.

Sakura sighed. "Idiots."

Kakashi nodded. "Exactly."


The day had moved slowly. After her shower she had dressed in one of the dark blue sleeping yukata that the inn provided its patrons, and had sat by the window. The rest of the inn was quiet. The street outside could have passed for any of Konoha's alleys. Even the brothel opposite was in a sluggish malaise. A prostitute was sitting in one of the upstairs rooms, patiently combing the hair of a young girl, most likely her daughter. Children were known to prostitutes as an 'occupational hazard', though the one over there didn't appear to be an unwelcome one. The way the woman touched and stroked the child's hair reminded Sakura of the days when her own mother had groomed her.

Somehow, Sakura doubted she would be able to show affection for the child she planned to have, whoever Kakashi found to father it. She doubted she would hold affection for anyone ever again. Right now her heart felt like a heavy, starved lump in her chest that laboured with every beat. What did it work for? What did she have to live for? Perhaps once there had been a thin hope that danced like a little light on the horizon, that Danzou couldn't live forever, and that it was only a matter of time before Naruto began to move and rally support and take back the village that had been stolen by radicals. She couldn't even see that hope anymore. How could she look to the future when just the thought of the coming night made her hands shake and sweat with anxiety?

The door scraped open behind her. Sakura turned guardedly, expecting Kakashi to have arrived with news of some nubile young man who would be willing to fuck her without questions. She didn't think she would have been happy to receive such news, but receiving Jin and Ari was far worse.

"What are you lazing around for?" Jin asked, his mask doing nothing to disguise the way his gaze critically swept her yukata. "You should be getting ready."

When Kakashi wasn't here, these two were incredibly difficult to deal with. Sakura had learnt the best way to deflect attention was to ignore them, and make herself small and unassuming. Without a reaction, they bored easily. Rather than meet their eyes she turned her gaze out the window and gave a stiff-shouldered shrug.

"That wasn't a suggestion," Ari said slowly, like she was simple. "Suda Hiroshi expects you tonight. Get dressed."

"I'm not going," Sakura said flatly.

"What did you say?" Jin barked.

Sakura didn't repeat herself. They'd heard her perfectly well, but when Sakura didn't respond, Jin crossed the room in four strides and grabbed her arm hard enough to pull her from the window. "You don't get to decide when and where you do it, slut." His mask loomed close to her face, eerie, white, and smiling. The pale eyes behind it were quite different. "Don't give me that shit about being on your period again. You used that excuse last week."

Sakura's went cold with fury, contempt twisting her mouth down. "What happened to all that fabled Root training, huh?" she hissed. "You have no more control of your emotions of your temper than a five year-old. This is Danzou's great division, is it? His standards must have dropped pretty sharply the day they thought you two qualified-"

Jin's hand cracked across her face. It stung, and coppery blood seeped across her tongue, but Sakura felt satisfaction like she hadn't felt in a long time. Perhaps he didn't know it, but if she'd slapped him, his head would be embedded in the far wall.

"Easy, Jin," said Ari. "We're not allowed to mess her up."

"As long as it doesn't show, who cares?" Jin retorted, grabbing her by the front of her yukata to slam her back to the floor. "How else will a treasonous bitch know her place?"

"Treason?" she spat, blood flecking her chin. "You people are destroying Konoha and you talk about treason!"

"Listen to yourself, Sakura," cautioned Ari. He'd stepped into the room and slid the door shut behind him. "People have been executed for saying things like that."

"Then do it," she breathed, unable to stop herself. "Kill me right now before I say what I really think of you."

It might have all ended right there, in that small inn at Otafuku Gai, with the prostitute across the street showing her daughter how to hold a fan, and the inn's maid sweeping the staircase just metres away in the hall. Sakura knew it and accepted it, and if the final blow came right then she would have embraced it.

But Jin just laughed at her. "I have better things to sink my blade into," he jeered. "You fancy yourself as a tragic martyr, don't you? Everyone can see you're gagging for it like a little whore when you go over there. So get the fuck over yourself and get dressed."

"I'd rather die!" she shouted.

"That would be a real waste," said Jin, as his hand wandered over her breasts, pushing down on them and squeezing her painfully. "You're such a fresh little thing too."

"If you harm me, Danzou will have your head!" It was a weak threat since she didn't think Danzou cared too much about her wellbeing, only her uterus, but she would give them fair warning before she kicked seven bells out of them.

"What are you going to do? Run home and complain to the Hokage?" Jin was moved to laughter again. "We'll just tell him you're a lying little slut. Better yet, what do you think he would do if we were to tell him your dear sensei had attempted to smuggle you out of the country?"

Sakura blanched. "He hasn't. You're a liar."

"Who is he going to believe, I wonder?" Ari said loftily. "Hatake Kakashi would be hung, drawn and quartered before you could blink."

"Why would you do that?" Sakura demanded, bewildered that such unrepentant cruelty could come from anyone of Konoha.

"Why would you be so selfish?" Jin rebuked. "If you refuse to do the mission, it's our neck you'll be putting on the line. And in turn... your poor sensei will suffer."

So it all came down to blackmail? Sakura grabbed Jin's hand and wrenched it off her. "You're both pathetic," she spat at them. "You're twisted."

"We have our own interests to look out for. Do your job, and we'll say no more about what Kakashi has been up to."

They had her over a barrel. If she refused to proceed with the mission, to cover their own backsides the two idiots would start accusing Kakashi of treason. Perhaps they weren't quite so idiotic as she liked to think. There was a cold, calculating kind of cruelty behind their actions. They didn't care about her, or Kakashi. They didn't even care about Danzou or this mission. First and foremost they looked out for themselves, and woe betide Sakura if she presented a bump in their cruise.

These weren't empty threats they were making, and while Sakura didn't mind risking her own life, it wasn't fair to land Kakashi in hot water for her own foibles. "Just leave Kakashi out of this," she said.

"We're all in this together," said Jin, in his utmost slimiest voice. "What'll it be?"

Sakura squeezed her eyes shut and prayed Kakashi would be back soon.


"A man?"

"Yes. I want a man."

"My, my, haven't our tastes changed," quipped Madame Wisteria. She beckoned Kakashi forward, away from the prying ears of her girls to a more private room in the back of her abode. It was as luridly decorated as any other room, but it didn't seem quite so seedy when she had to move a half-finished knitted scarf in order to sit down. "I hope you have money."

"A bit. The man's not really for me, you know," he told her.

"You know how we do business around here." Wisteria opened her palm and waggled her fingers. "Money talks first."

Kakashi had expected nothing less. With a contrived sigh, he reached into his vest pocket and produced the precious opal necklace that Sakura had thrown into his hand the previous night. The chain may have been a little damaged, but the pendant was perfect. Wisteria's naturally narrow eyes grew a little rounder. "Now where would someone on your wages find a thing like that?"

"An heirloom from my mother," Kakashi lied boldly. "It's very valuable, and not just for its sentimental value."

Wisteria cocked an eyebrow. "Alright, I shan't ask. But with this you could buy my best girl for a whole weekend."

"I'd rather have your best boy," Kakashi corrected her.

"You may be sorry to hear I only have the two. There are other places that give more variety for male pleasure, so I'm wondering why you came to me...?"

"I trust your judgment."

Wisteria made a soft throaty sound that had probably once driven her clients wild – and maybe still did. "And now I'm wondering why you would need to trust my judgement...?"

"Do you remember the girl I was with a few days ago?" he asked her.

"The little thing with strange hair?" She tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Your lover, is she?"

"Just a friend. A very good friend."

"Oh, don't tell me this man is for her!" Wisteria tittered.

"That's why I need your judgement," he said. "I need a man who would be good for someone who could be a little timid of men."

"It would be my judgement that someone who is timid of men has no business going anywhere near male prostitutes," Wisteria said dryly. "This sounds like a recipe for disaster."

Kakashi winced, knowing how ridiculous it sounded. "The situation is a little complicated, but I assure you, this is what she wants."

"Well, it's not like I don't want the business," Wisteria sighed dramatically, looking quite appreciatively at the opal in her hand. "Haku will probably do best. He's the gentler of the two, so he'll be good to your girl."

"And... about contraceptives...?" Kakashi began awkwardly.

"What do you take me for?" Wisteria asked, as if offended he even had to ask. "All my boys and girls are as clean as a whistle, and use every kind of contraception available. No exceptions."

That hadn't exactly been what Kakashi had been hoping to hear. "No exceptions?"

"This is a dangerous town, Kakashi. No one in their right mind does business without protection. I've had countless men coming to me, swearing blind they're as clean as virgins just so they can do it raw with my girls, but how many do you think persuaded me?"

"Not many, I imagine," Kakashi sighed.

"None," she corrected sharply.

"Well, I guess as a contingent, do you know any clients who might suit?"

"Obviously I can't vouch for them the same way I can vouch for my boys, but there might be one or two who I would recommend to my own daughter. Whether or not they're even in town is another matter. And then there's the fact that anonymity is highly prized as part of the package I offer. If I start giving out names, I wouldn't be a particularly good businesswoman, would I?" She perched her round chin upon two fingers, looking at him pointedly. "I might lose business."

And yes, Kakashi got the point.

"That necklace is very expensive," he mentioned again. "I'll have to ask for it back if you can't help me."

It disappeared very quickly down Wisteria's rather ample cleavage. She smirked at him. "No need to be so hasty. You're welcome to retrieve it, although I suppose I could spare at least one name."

"I'm listening."

"Although, like I said, I can't guarantee men I don't own," Wisteria repeated. "And before I tell you his name, can I at least ask why this is so very important?"

Kakashi tugged awkwardly on his ear, trying to think of a way to phrase it without giving away too much information or sounding like he was insane. "She... ah... wants a baby."

"Then she should find herself a man the old fashioned way." Wisteria seemed unimpressed.

"She doesn't want a man," he explained weakly. "I think she'd prefer not to have a man ever again after some of the things she's been through, but a child is... important. So I have to help her find a man who can be trusted with her and who'll understand the need for privacy."

Madame Wisteria nodded. "Yes, I have an old client who meets those requirements perfectly."

"What's his name?" Kakashi leaned forward. If he had to go a long way to track this man down, he would have to begin soon.

A smile split across Wisteria's face. "His name is Hatake Kakashi."


The first words out of Hiroshi's mouth when he saw her were, "I told you, you'd be back."

The gloating sneer on his face was almost too much for Sakura. She nearly turned and walked away, and it was only the threat against Kakashi and herself that forced a cold, perfunctory smile on her face as she stepped into Hiroshi's room. It wasn't anger she felt, or even fear. A genuine numbness had claimed her since she'd left the Jin and Ari at the inn, and now she wasn't sure she had even felt the rain that had pelted her face on the way over.

How was it that she'd ended up here once more, after being so certain last night that one way or another it was over? Why was it that when Hiroshi gestured for her to sit on the bed, she sat, and when dragged his fingers down her face, she couldn't feel it enough to shiver anymore?

"I'll forgive you your funny moods," he said to her, looking at her the way hunters looked at a prize catch. "I know it's a tough time for you, what with the things your village puts you through."

"Puts me though?" she echoed uncertainly.

"Isn't that why you left? Because you don't think Konoha gives you the respect you deserve." He made it sound like the indignity of being stripped of her rank and told she could no longer go on missions with her team was an offence that only existed in her head. She wondered if there was more to his comment than that. What if he actually knew about the mission she had undertaken?

"I manage," she said tersely.

His fingers slid through her hair. Sakura would happily have cut it all off if it meant he could never to it again. Better yet, she would happily cut his fingers off. "You know, once upon a time, it was normal for all villages to prohibit women from their fighting forces," he said. "And I can understand with the way the modern world decays how some wish to recapture those traditional values that have been lost. A warrior's life is harsh, and a woman's life is precious."

A muscle in Sakura's jaw twitched. "You don't think I could handle the 'warrior's life'?" she asked evenly.

"I'm sure you could handle anything you put your mind to, my dear Sakura," he said, like a patronising adult to a child who wanted to fly to the moon. "But you must admit, it's never really been a good place for women."

Danzou would love to have a beer with this guy. "Well, what do you think a good place is then?" she asked heavily. "The kitchen?"

"You're a funny girl." Hiroshi snorted. "My village is at the forefront of gender equality - I'm a strong believer in equal rights."

"Yes... you're practically Neolithic," she deadpanned.

Disappointingly, Hiroshi took this as a compliment judging by the witless smirk on his face. "Thank you. Perhaps you should defect and join Kumo then?"

"And be your mistress at home and away?" She found that prospect horrifying. "Would your wife like that?"

"That dumb bitch can't see past the end of her nose. We could do it right in front of her and she'd carry on fixing the tea."

Nice. "I'll have to decline," Sakura said in a steady tone. "My place is here."

"You want to where your place is?" Hiroshi asked, leaning close till his foul breath tickled her ear. "Right here, sucking my cock."

Sakura's mouth went dry, as it might right before she was about to vomit. "No, thanks," she said without thinking.

Even Hiroshi was surprised. "What did you say to me?"

Everyone seemed to be asking her to repeat herself today. The words bubbled from her mouth, unchecked, making more sense than anything else had in her life recently. "I don't think I want to be your mistress anymore. We shouldn't see each other again."

Hiroshi's hand seized her wrist, squeezing hard. "You better be joking," he hissed at her.

She regarded his whitening knuckles calmly. "I'm not joking," she said, her tone low. "So let go of me."

"You take my money and my gifts and then you spit in my face like this?" he demanded. "Get on the bed and take your panties down, and I might be generous enough to forgive you your bad sense of humour."

A mild kind of hysteria which had long been raging inside Sakura's cold shell was threatening to finally break loose. Perhaps it was because she was inviting a quarrel with a man who could kill her with his voice, or perhaps it was because if she got out of this alive, her chaperones were going to report her and Kakashi to the Hokage and they'd face the death penalty. But right then, Sakura only cared about getting out, and getting out right now. "Go fuck yourself," she spit, beginning to stand. "I'm leaving."

"No – you – don't!" Hiroshi threw her down the bed and held her there by the throat. "How dare you talk to me like that! I was willing to tolerate you fucking other men behind my back, but you don't play me! And we end things when I say, not you! Do you understand?"

Each sentence was punctuated by a jerk about her neck that threatened to cut off Sakura's air. "Let me up," she ground out, staring at the ceiling.

"No. You're a whore and you'll take it like a whore until I say otherwise," Hiroshi grunted as he released her wrist to reach down and unfasten his pants.

But Sakura had reached her limit. No more.

"Get off me or I'll kill you," she said.

Her threat only produced an amused snort. Hiroshi shoved her skirt up and grabbed her panties.

Sakura's chakra-charged foot connected with his ribs, and she kicked out with all her might. The hand slipped from her throat as Hiroshi flew away from her and hit the opposite wall with a teriffic crash of decorative shrapnel as ornaments fell and lamps smashed. In these traditional rooms where the rooms were divided by screens of wood and paper, when a body hit the wall, he disappeared right through it. Screams on the other side indicated it hadn't been an empty room.

Sakura shot a nervous glance at the window. The curtains were half drawn... it was possible the idiots hadn't just seen that. She scrambled to her feet and tugged her skirt straight as she made a beeline for the door. She saw the handle – reached for it –

A sudden pain lanced up her arm. Dimly she was aware that she'd collided with a hard, warm body, not the door, and Hiroshi had seized her wrist again. Agony radiated from his touch like a white hot blade had severed her hand. It was still there, she could see it, but it had to be broken.

"You want to die, huh?" Hiroshi was saying, through the pain roaring in her ears. "That's the only reason I can think you'd pull a stupid stunt like that. No one attack me and lives. Do you hear me? Are you listening, Sakura?"

She was listening, and as she listened a new pain was developing. Quite different from the hot pain searing her right arm, a sharp pain had started to jump in her left, like burst of electricity. Her heart felt funny, like it was caught in a vice that was steadily winding tighter. She couldn't breathe. She tried to clutch it, futilely grabbing at her clothes and clawing the impenetrable cage of ribs.

Her pulse jumped one last time. And then it stopped.


Kakashi looked around the small, dark room of the inn. Sakura's wardrobe lay heaped in the corner and her futon was folded away, but the girl herself was nowhere to be seen. Uneasily, Kakashi made his way down the corridor to the shared bathroom at the end and knocked politely on the door. "Sakura?"

"No," replied a deep baritone.

"Sorry," he mumbled, turning to head back towards his own room, his unease beginning to mount. Sakura had already pulled one disappearing act today, he didn't need another. As long as Jin and Ari didn't get back from the bars till later, he might just have time to locate her before they realised. Though what if she wasn't just hiding in a changing room down the road, this time? What if she'd changed her mind about running and was halfway to Suna?

A warning would have been nice.

When he swept into his room, the hope that Jin and Ari would still be out drinking was immediately dashed. He found the two of them, sitting by the window in their usual position, camera dangling from Jin's hand. They were both guffawing over something that had been said before Kakashi entered.

"Is that true?" Ari gasped through his laughter.

"Like a flamingo, it was." Jin wiped away tears of mirth and looked round at Kakashi. "Nice of you to join the party. Where've you been?"

"Finally caved and dipped his dick at last," Ari chuckled. "Told you. Not even Saint Kakashi can remain celibate in this place for too long."

Jin laughed. "Hah. Yeah..."

Kakashi looked between them and the window. "What are you doing?" he asked shortly. If he didn't know any better, this scene looked like every other night... but Sakura had sworn she would never do it again. That she would rather die.

"What do you think we're doing?" Jin's contemptuous tone slurred through his mask. "Watching our little minx get her game on."

"Sakura's over there?" he blurted, hating to betray the fact that he'd lost track of her.

"Where else?"

Kakashi snatched the camera out of Jin's eyes and sought the window of the room Suda Hiroshi rented. It hadn't been a lie. He could see them, almost out of sight, sitting on the bed with their backs to the window and conversing as far as he could tell. He dropped the camera back to Jin. "We need to pull her out. She's in danger?"

"Says who?" Ari was focusing his own pair of binoculars. "They're cuddling up like two little lovebirds."

Only if one lovebird sat as stiff as death while the other pecked and molested it. "Sakura didn't want to go over there. You shouldn't have forced her."

"What makes you think we forced her?" Jin demanded. "She was dying to get over there. He must have a big cock or something."

Kakashi was a breath away from punching the masked idiot. "You're a terrible liar," Kakashi said, as someone who lied a lot himself. "And you have no idea what kind of situation you've put her in."

"She chose to do it," Jin replied staunchly. "She knows the consequences of defiance. Unlike you, she did the sensible thing. Rude nails get hammered down otherwise, don't you know?"

Kakashi clenched his fist. Absolutely ready to deck this man.

Until Ari spoke up. "Something's happening over there," he said, twiddling the dial on his binoculars.

Kakashi jerked up his hitai-ate to expose the sharingan. It snapped into focus on the window, and right then Kakashi forgot everything else. All he saw was Sakura on that bed, pinned by the throat beneath a man with a poisonous expression. He didn't need to hear what he was shouting at her. He began to move forward, about to launch himself through the open window.

Jin and Ari reacted like lightning, one blocking him while the other grabbed his arm. "Whoa, whoa – where do you think you're going?" Jin asked, staring him down.

"He's hurting her," he barked. That was all they needed to know.

"A little rough play, we've seen it before," Ari said dismissively, keeping a tight hold of Kakashi's shoulder.

Kakashi shoved him away "He's choking her!"

Neither men regarded this with any expression. He might as well have been speaking in a foreign language for how bemused they looked. "What are you here for, watching her every night, if not to protect her?" he raged. Their indifference was staggering. It had him rooted to the spot, momentarily waiting for something human to flicker behind their cold, white masks... but he was only wasting his time.

When he looked back to the window, both Sakura and Hiroshi were nowhere to be seen. "Where've they gone?" he asked aloud.

"They do it on the floor occasionally," Ari said, unconcerned.

Kakashi noticed something else. "The door's open..." He was sure it had been shut a moment ago. "I'm going over there."

Ari tried to grab him again but Kakashi had already slipped between them and dropped from the window. Jin leaned out to bellow after him. "If you jeopardise the mission, Danzou will know of it by morning! We'll be dragging your sorry carcass before him very soon!" He didn't seem to care who else heard him, but he wasn't bothered about giving chase either. Kakashi left him to stew, and raced through the narrow maze of alleys between buildings till he came out directly before the hotel.

The staff were loitering about the entrance again. Kakashi pushed past them and ran for the stairs, startling a smartly dressed woman on the bottom step as he charged past her. Three flights passed in the blink of an eye, and when he crashed through the doors of the third floor, he had the honour of seeing Hiroshi's profile as the man stepped into the elevator ahead. He didn't see Kakashi. Perhaps that was a good thing. Kakashi felt that later this would be regarded as a sorely missed opportunity to beat the man to a bloody snot. Sakura came first at that moment, however, and he raced on till he came to the only open door on that level.

And was immediately confronted with the sight of a small, crumpled body in the doorway.

"Sakura!" He swooped down, drawing her onto her back. Her pallid face and blue lips presented a frightening picture. He reached for a pulse but there was no life beneath his fingers. "No... not like this. You can't give up here."

Without medic-nins, shinobi like him could only rely on the old physical methods of first aid. Kakashi quickly straddled her body and began to compressed her chest in quick, short bursts, counting each push under his breath, and knew that each moment longer it took was another odd stacked against her. He tipped her chin back, ripped his mask down and blew into her lungs.

Feet thundered down the hall. "What's going on?" A hotel staffer, and another guest. "What's happened?"

Kakashi was too focused on his task to even register their arrival. He was counting each compression more loudly, as if he hoped the sound of his voice might reach her. "Don't give up, Sakura," he pleaded. "Not after all this."

"Get a doctor," a man said. More people had arrived. "Someone's collapsed."

"Is that a working girl?"

"This is Suda's room, isn't it?"

"Why's there a hole in the wall?"

They were no use to Kakashi, so he ignored them. He had to get Sakura's heart started, even though he couldn't banish the thought that he'd seen what happened to people who got in the way of Suda Hiroshi's jutsu. He'd seen the autopsy reports and the bingo book description, and knew that when the morticians opened up the bodies of his victims, there was nothing to salvage. Their hearts didn't just stop, they were torn to shreds.

And CPR would not mend a shredded heart.

"Come on, Sakura," he begged, pushing down on her chest as hard as he dared. "You're still there. I know you are."

He crouched to seal his mouth to hers once more. That was when he felt it – a weak flutter beneath his hand like a tiny, struggling bird. He paused, not sure he could believe it. The heart was beating, but not as it should. If he didn't so something quickly it would give up again.

"Sorry about this, Sakura," he whispered, ripping the glove of his right hand off with his teeth as the other tugged down the neckline of the dress to expose an expanse of bare skin between her breasts. "You can shout at me tomorrow."

The pads of his fingers splayed across her exposed flesh and began to gather a little chakra at each point of contact. This was a jutsu he'd used countless times to kill countless people, and if Sakura heard he'd used it for medical purposes she would most likely defenestrate him. He didn't even know himself if this was a sensible idea. If this killed her he would never forgive himself, and yet if he did nothing she would be dead in a matter of minutes. Possibly seconds.

He had to try.

A burst of pure electrical chakra jumped from his fingers and straight into Sakura's heart. Her body spasmed and rocked. Their small but growing band of spectators recoiled uncertainly, finally falling silent.

Kakashi felt for her pulse desperately, worried that just that small shock might have irreparably damaged her heart. He was half relieved that it was still beating, though it was an arrhythmic taboo that tapped beneath her skin. He pressed his hand to her once again and pushed another gentle shock through her heart.

This time when he slipped his fingers against her throat to feel her pulse, he found an answering thrum as steady and reassuring as his own. Kakashi closed his eyes and fell tiredly against the doorway. It was ok, he told himself. Her heart was beating again and the blue tinge was beginning to fade from her lips as her chest expanded, unaided, as she breathed once more. But his hand was still shaking against his knee. For a moment, he had really feared that he'd lost her.

Such a close brush with death almost stripped him of his own life. It had only taken moments to revive her, and yet he was now physically and emotionally fatigued as if he'd been engaged in a prolonged fight for his own life. Perhaps that was because Sakura's was just as important to him these days?

"You should get her to a hospital right away," someone said. From the way he was dressed, he looked like a bellboy.

Kakashi looked at him blankly, having almost entirely forgotten where he was. The bell-end or whatever was right, of course. Sakura needed more than his woefully inadequate care. "Yes, I'll take her," he said.

He tucked his arms underneath Sakura and gently lifted her like she was made of thin fragile glass. Her right hand sagged beneath her, mottled red and purple – probably broken. Kakashi made especially sure not to knock it as he stood and edged out though the door, past the milling band of concerned guests and staff. The elevator took them down to the foyer, where he endured double-takes and astonished stares as he carried the bedraggled girl out into the street.

Maybe it was the cold rain that pattered down on her face, for that was when Sakura finally stirred and opened her eyes sluggishly. "Kakashi..." she whispered.

"Don't talk," he ordered. "I'm taking you to the hospital."

"No... no..." Her head rolled fretfully against his shoulder. "I want to go home."

Did she mean Konoha, or...? "You want to go to the inn?" he asked.

"Please," she said quietly, her voice hoarse and dry. "Take me home..."

She was the medic-nin, so he supposed what she decided was gospel. He changed course and headed back through the alleys to the small, plain inn that had been their home for over a month now. Sakura said nothing else on the journey. Her head just sagged and rolled like she was fighting for consciousness. Kakashi quickly took her up to her room, opened the door with his foot, and laid her down as gently as he could against the rolled up futon.

Propped there, dizzy and wet and unmoving, she looked like a drowned animal. Kakashi hovered cautiously for a moment, before remembering her medical kit would be stashed with her wardrobe. He tore himself from her side to dig it out, but he was back in a flash. "What do you need?" he asked, rummaging through the contents.

"Just water," she whispered. She looked down at her arms, assessing their functionality, before pressing her left hand to her breast. The soft blue glow that lit around her fingers like tongues of a fire meant she was healing herself. Kakashi sat back on his heels, a fraction of the tenseness beginning to ease in his shoulders. If she was strong enough to perform medical jutsu on herself, she was going to be ok.

Her dead, staring eyes said otherwise. "He turned so quickly this time," she croaked. "I only wanted to leave... so I kicked him away. I don't remember what happened after that."

"If I'd gotten back sooner," Kakashi began wretchedly, but he quickly cut himself off. "Why did you go back to him after what he did last night? We knew he was getting dangerous."

Her eyes finally met his, and they were full of pity. "Jin and Ari were going to turn you in to Danzou if I didn't obey."

He gave an incredulous shake of the head. "Turn me in for what?"

"Whatever they could think of." The blue light licking at her skin began to fade, and when her hand dropped to her lap she took a deep breath as if it were her very first. "Not bad for my first heart attack."

"Will there be any lasting damage?" he asked, worried.

"I shouldn't think so," she said slowly. "The cause wasn't natural so it's easy to repair. Don't look so worried, Sensei."

A few minutes ago he'd found her on the floor of a hotel room with no pulse. Kakashi felt he had the right to look as stressed as he liked. He was about to retort as much when two pale, ghostly masked appeared in the open doorway that Kakashi had neglected to shut.

"What's going on?" Jin demanded, entering the room without permission. "What happened?"

Kakashi rose to his feet, instinctively trying to put himself between the two men and Sakura. "Hiroshi tried to kill her."

"A perfectly understandable reaction," Jin said indifferently. "She is pretty annoying, and she did just fuck up our mission."

Kakashi's shoulders squared up, about to lunge.

Ari slipped between them. "A set-back," he said smoothly, "but we can work around this."

"Work around it?" Kakashi repeated disbelievingly. "Did you hear me? He just tried to kill her!"

"Says you. She looks fine to me," Jin observed.

"If he'd really wanted to kill her, she would be dead by now," Ari insisted. "Perhaps this was just a lover's tiff? With a little damage control, it's nothing that can't be fixed."

Kakashi stared at him for a moment, speechless. "You must be joking."

"We'll talk about this in the morning when everyone's a little calmer," said Ari. "There's no need for any rash decisions before we know what happened-"

"I just told you what happened-"

Jin waved him off. "And if we go home without completing the job, we have to deal with Danzou's displeasure before we all get carted off to the next target where we'll have to enjoy each other's company once again."

"Like you give a damn!" Sakura exploded, thin-lipped and stiff with pain as she clutched her wrist. Her coils of wet hair shivered around her face. "All you do is screw around with whores! You'd love it if we stayed here forever-"

Jin looked at her derisively. "The grown-ups are talking, dear."

"Don't speak to her like that – you have no idea what she's going through!" Kakashi snapped

Sakura turned her glare on him as well. "I can speak for myself!"

"We'll talk about this tomorrow," Ari repeated again. "Me and Jin will investigate what happened, and if Hiroshi is too dangerous to approach again, so be it. We'll start making preparations for the next target."

Sakura didn't look angry now. She just looked ill.

"If we're done?" Kakashi asked icily, spreading his arms slightly. "You can get out now and leave her in peace."

Ari shrugged and walked out. Jin followed, a little more reluctantly, and he couldn't resist turning in the doorway to point a finger at Sakura. "And fix that bone. No one's going to touch a bird with a messed up arm."

Kakashi quite gladly slammed the door shut after him, but it wasn't nearly as satisfying as he'd hoped. A high class Kumo nin almost succeeded in killing Sakura tonight, and yet he wasn't even their biggest opponent – that honour went to their own teammates. He looked back at Sakura, still leaning heavily on the futon. She was looking irritably at her injured arm like she was debating if she should leave it as it was, just to spite Jin.

"I can take a look at it if you like," he offered.

"I've got it," she sighed, letting her blue chakra spread over the angry bruising. But even though a medic nin of her calibre was unparalleled in the medical field, not even she could mend bone fractures overnight. "It'll need a cast. There's some bandages in the medical kit."

Glad to finally be of use, Kakashi complied, bringing out the gauze and rolls of white tape. Sakura's bandaging skills put his to shame, but since she couldn't do it one handed, it was up to Kakashi to strap her wrist up. She supervised of course.

What was unnerving was that as he worked she stared at his face quite openly. He had a feeling what was on her mind, and though he wanted to avoid it, he knew she didn't deserve to be ignored. "I should have gotten back sooner."

"It's not your fault," she said, wincing as the tape wound tightly around her raw injury. "And I know I've messed things up for us. I shouldn't have attacked him."

"No one could blame you," he murmured darkly.

"Jin and Ari could."

"Idiots."

"Idiots," she sighed in agreement.

They fell into a silence, both watching the progress of the bandage. The plaster strips needed hot water, so Kakashi left momentarily to coax the ancient taps in the bathroom into giving something more than lukewarm splutters. He passed the room he shared with Jin and Ari, but it was dark and silent in there. Either they were off investigating Hiroshi or they'd gone back to another strip club. Either way, it was far easier when they weren't around, and he returned to Sakura to find she'd changed from her mussed dress into her night-robe and had tied her hair back. She looked a little better that way. Not quite like a girl who had suffered a near-fatal heart attack.

Once more she held out her arm and Kakashi diligently began to plastered her wrist. She was still prone to stare at him.

"You were gone a long time today," she said quietly.

"I'm sorry," he apologised.

"No... I mean... did you find anything?"

Here it came. With the shock of tonight's events he had almost hoped it would be pushed from her mind, especially when the news he brought was particularly unhelpful. "I went to see Madame Wisteria," he told her, speaking more to her arm than to her. "She confirmed what I suspected. Male prostitutes aren't going to be of any use to us. Most of them use protection, obviously, and the ones who don't... you're not going to want to go anywhere near them."

Sakura contemplated this calmly. "I see," she said, sounding neither disappointed nor pleased.

"Our only other option is a random man picked out from the street basically, and that's too much of an unknown, especially in places like this," he continued. "There's no guarantee of health or discretion or fertility or even temperament. I wouldn't like you to resort to that."

"It's not your decision," she said sharply. "If you don't want to help me, that's fine, but you're not going to stop me. We talked about this. I'm not going to wait around for the next target either, if that's what you're going to suggest. Do you think it's a coincidence that Hiroshi, our first target, happens to be a scumbag? Danzou must have known. The next guy he picks will be just as bad or worse. I don't care if you bring home an eighty year old man with no teeth and a record of producing the most tragically ugly offspring in the world, I would happily bear his child if it meant not giving in to Danzou."

Kakashi swallowed, his fingers fumbling with the slick, sticky plaster cast. "Well, I don't know any eighty year old men... so perhaps you'll just have to settle."

"For what?" she asked, scowling at him.

"For me."

He didn't manage to look her in the eye when he said it, though he noticed that she may have stopped breathing before she finally turned her head away with a soft sound that may have been an "oh," or a "huh."

It was acutely embarrassing for both of them, he realised. For a long time neither of them said anything more, not until Kakashi felt he'd mummified her hand with enough bandages to keep it secure and had moved to throw the milky bowl of water from the window to join the rain, regardless of who he hit. Perhaps that was what betrayed his slightly unhinged state of mind, for it really was the bowl he threw from the window, not just its contents.

Locking the shutter up, he plunged the room into darkness save for the old orange lamp. This just made the whole atmosphere worse, but right then they needed a moment to shut out the world and come to terms with this insane deal they'd struck. What they contemplated was, in no uncertain terms, treason.

Treason, however, was the least of their worries.

"Do you mean it?" Sakura said at last, fiddling with her new cast. "You're going to help me?"

"If it's what you need," he said heavily. "I said I'd do anything."

"I thought you said you would rather die."

"That's not what I said," he rebuked gently. "I thought you were asking too much, but I've had time to think and... it's just not logical to force you to take a chance on a stranger when I can help you."

She lifted her chin, defiance flashing in her eyes. "What if I don't want you to?" she demanded.

"You've change your mind?" Already? Kakashi couldn't keep up with her.

"You're so unenthusiastic, I feel like I'm holding a kunai to your head," she retorted bitterly. "You'll probably just cry the whole time. Who'd want a guy like that?"

"Sorry if I'm not keen on rushing into something that will irrevocably change our relationship." The fact alone that they were talking about this meant things between them would never be the same again, but then it had been altered since the day she'd received the scarlet scroll. What they'd lived through these last few weeks would probably sour their relationship for the rest of their lives. There was no turning back.

Sakura nodded sadly, avoiding his gaze. "We might not be able to remian friends after this."

"I hope that isn't true," he said. "But I'll do it regardless."

"Thank you," she whispered. "I know this is troublesome for you, but you don't know how much it means to me that... you're one thing I don't have to worry about."

However he looked at it, it still seemed so wrong. Sakura was choosing to do this by her own accord, and yet he worried that her 'choice' may have been an illusion if she felt she had no alternative. Under normal circumstances, she would never sleep with him. She was being forced into this by a situation she shouldn't ever have had to experience... so what if he was no better than Hiroshi in some respect?

But if it was going to be either him or a toothless eighty-year old, Kakashi liked to think he was a marginally better catch.

"When do you...?" he began gruffly, letting the question hang.

Sakura tensed. "It needs to be soon. Tonight."

Kakashi sprang away from the window, already violently shaking his head. "No. No way. You have a broken arm and you died earlier-"

"I didn't die," she said tritely, gesturing to herself. "I'm still here." Even in the low light he could detect the heavy blush that had descended on her.

"Your heart stopped!" he protested.

"That's not likely," she corrected. "If my heart had depolarised, a goof like you could never have revived me. If I didn't have a pulse, it probably means I had ventricular tachycardia."

Kakashi wasn't even going to pretend he knew what that meant. "You nearly died," he said slowly, because he knew that much at least. "You need time to recover. I don't want you overexerting yourself doing... that."

"I'm not doing that for my health," she responded sullenly.

"Even so..."

"Alright. Tomorrow night then." When she saw he was about to protest all over again, she shot him a pleading look. "It has to be done."

He sagged. "Tomorrow night," he agreed.

They said no more after that. He helped her unfold the futon and then left her in peace, heading in the direction of his own bed. Kakashi hoped to catch some sleep before Jin and Ari returned, but he found himself once more unable to relax. A noise was keeping him awake, though it wasn't the typical sound of Otafuku Gai nightlife – that noise had blurred into the background, filtered out of Kakashi's perception.

Somewhere in the room a clock was ticking over.

It was counting down the seconds till tomorrow night.


TBC