Chapter 4
Early next morning, the duo set off on their mission, after having breakfast of course. Kakashi cannot help but think how wonderful it is to have someone make him breakfast every morning. Moreover, that person is Sakura, who he recently converted into an orange book reader. She likes those books. I can feel it.
They stopped at noon for lunch at a small stream nearby. It brought back some nostalgic moments, but Sakura shook them away quickly. She could not bring herself to think of the days when the whole team 7 was together like a family. It hurts too much to think that it all ended when Sasuke decided that revenge was more important than any part of this family.
"Hm, baka." She muttered as she continued to shake off those memories, tossing them away like Sasuke have once done to them.
The older jonin watched the younger one from the corner of his eye whilst reading lines of beautiful literature. It was a nice break for lunch beside a small stream where they once trained during a small mission years ago. Sakura had the best chakra control of the three of them leaving her the only one out of three to have dry feet at all times. He was proud of her.
"Kakashi-sensei, let's go." She said as she approached his resting spot.
"Sakura, you don't have to call me sensei anymore, I'm not your sensei." Kakashi insisted. It irks him that she still looks up to him even though he was never there to train her properly in her genin days.
"Kakashi-sempai, let's go." She repeated with a different suffix, only to give him even more creeps as a shiver crept from his feet to the very top of his head.
"You can call me sensei, but you can't call me sempai. You make me feel old Sakura."
"You're not old! You're young and energetic and…" She trailed off with his other qualities.
"And…?" He wanted to know just what she thought of him.
"Nevermind. Let's just go." Disappointment!
She leapt off to the trees followed by her companion. They were getting near Orochimaru's hideout. It was said that Sasuke walked out of the place without a single scratch, claiming that the snake sanin has been killed.
"According to Jiraiya's report, there has been a lot of activity in the hideout since Sasuke returned to Konoha. Our mission is to find out what is happening in there and take necessary actions." Sakura quickly briefed the man before her before bravely stepping into the dark tunnel.
She felt her surroundings light up and turned around abruptly, only to bump into Kakashi holding a match in his hand. His single visible eye crinkled up as he smiled beneath his mask.
"There isn't much to be afraid of in here, I'll always be behind you." He reassured her, before quickly putting out his match as scurrying sounds were heard from what seems to be straight ahead.
The two crept along the long dark tunnel and finally found themselves in a candlelit corridor, lined with door after door. Sakura noticed that one door was slightly ajar and could not suppress the curiosity that bubbled in her as she approached it to see what was inside it. As her eyes crept round the corner to see what was in the room, she felt a strong hand covering her mouth and an arm snaking around her waist, pulling her away from the door. She didn't even have the time to gasp, but she wasn't afraid, she knew who the scent of such a pair of arms belonged to.
"What is it?" She whispered as she freed herself from him.
"Kabuto." The man with the book whispered back, whilst summoning his trusty pug. "Pakkun, I need you to sniff out some information for us."
"Don't worry Kakashi, I'm on it." The little dog replied as he disappeared out of sight.
It was some time after the pug left the two jonin that a conversation sparked near the hiding place.
"Say, I hear that the Uchiha kid killed Orochimaru-sama."
"No way he can be that strong. He only stopped the process half way through. The other half of Orochimaru-sama is pretty alive. Kabuto is working on getting him into Sasuke fully."
On hearing that, Sakura's eyes widened. The Sasuke that bullied her for the past months was indeed not the Sasuke she knew. She looked at the jonin behind her and he simply nodded at her. Scurrying sounds could be heard near their hideout. Pakkun suddenly appeared between the two jonin.
"Did I interrupt?" He asked innocently as if he interrupted a staring contest.
"No." His owner stated simply. "What did you find?"
"Your suspicions were correct. Orochimaru lives, but is very weak. It will be easy to assassinate him when Kabuto leaves the room for his hourly break. As for Sasuke as a container, there is no doubt that that is true. Here is the scroll with some information on it." He said as he handed over a small scroll to Sakura, who read it immediately and rolled it back up afterwards.
"It's an easy seal. I just need something that belongs to him before Orochimaru entered his body…and lots of chakra." She added the last part uncertainly. Surely her chakra levels have improve dramatically over the past years, but is it enough? Is her stamina able to keep up with it?
She was brought out of her thoughts when Kakashi placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. It felt nice. Kakashi…she thought. What other qualities was she going to say back then? Handsome? Brave? A man like no other?
"Time to do some assassination." He said in a low voice as Pakkun disappeared in a small puff of smoke.
Masking their chakra and creeping down the corridor, the two jonin reached the door described by Pakkun. They nodded at each other. Kakashi transformed himself into Kabuto and Sakura transformed herself into one of the wandering people who were wandering around the corridor before they left their hiding place. They watched the weak Orochimaru sleeping in a bed full of tubes of rainbow coloured liquid. Quickly, Sakura used a medical jutsu to stop all the processes in the sanin's body. After silencing all machines, the two quickly left the room. They hurried out of the hideout as they attached explosive tags around the perimeter.
A small 'wow' escaped Sakura's lips as a large puff of gray smoke rose up in the sky. She could not believe that half of Orochimaru has been defeated along with all his evil subordinates. She could not wait to return to Konoha and feel more at ease.
When the two arrived back in Konoha, they were quickly escorted to the Hokage tower to report.
"Come in." Again, she beat them to knocking.
"Sakura, I have some grave news. Your parents…"
"I understand." She simply replied as if she expected it to happen. "We have found Orochimaru's hideout and have successfully assassinated him along with his subordinates."
"However, we have to exterminate the other half of Orochimaru inside Sasuke." Kakashi continued.
"I understand, I will call him to the hospital and have ANBU on guard at his ward. You two go and refresh yourselves and come to the ward tomorrow."
"Hai." The two replied and vanished in a puff of smoke. Tsunade could've sworn that she saw Sakura pulling out a small orange book before she disappear, but it could have been red. She dismissed the thought immediately.
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