Disclaimer, I have no rights to characters or setting. If I did Hinata's confession would have been remembered by that imbecile!
Chapter 6, Samurai
Sakura carefully jogged carrying a box she had been given by one of the medics. It was full of empty glass vials that had been placed in the wrong cart at the back of the caravan when it belonged over halfway to the front. Her arms were aching from having to hold such a constant weight. She wanted to get the job done faster, but she didn't dare use chakra enhanced running, lest the vials get damaged.
Since the caravan had crossed the Konoha border it had become considerably larger. On this one errand she had identified at least four different headbands, one of them being from the supposedly collapsed sound village. It was weird, this war was so terrible, yet at the same time it made nations that hated one another work together. But it was not just that. The mood was oddly joyous; people seemed, at the moment, sociable with their new comrades, truly an ironic situation.
Passing up another of the carts she just passed it up when she heard muffled laughing. She looked over just in time to have an armoured back bump into her knocking her over sideways.
Crap! I can't stop myself, she thought as she fell over, trying to use her body as a shield for her delicate cargo. But instead of making contact with the muddy road she fell into what felt like a hard futon, two gauntlet wielding hands wrapped around her waist to support her.
She looked up to get an upside down view at her saviour. Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw the concealed face of a very tall, armoured man. Iron village Samurai!
The man seemed to casually ignore the fact that there was a kunoichi in his arms as he yelled at two other, similarly attired warriors. "Hey idiots, watch where you rough house. He angled his concealed face down at Sakura, who hadn't been able to move from her leaning position because of his firm grasp on her waist.
"Sorry about that Miss," he said. From the sound of his voice, Sakura could tell he was smiling behind the all encompassing helmet.
"No problem," she replied, as he returned her to an upright position. "And thank you, I would have been in a lot of trouble if I broke these."
"I'm glad to keep a young lady out of trouble for sure!" he replied cheerily. Then he looked at the other two, "Now, idiots, give her a proper apology."
"Yes captain!" The two stood straight and bowed respectfully to her saying, "I'm very sorry miss."
Sakura was a little more then embarrassed, and she could tell she was blushing because she always got really hot in the ears when she did. "Umm, well, apology accepted, uh, I need to go." She smiled awkwardly and continued on her way.
The three samurai were silent as she left. The one in the middle, who had been pushed and bumped into Sakura, scratched the back of her helmet, "She was actually kinda cute… for a Konoha girl."
He was promptly whacked on his head by the captain.
"Hey listen, I did not do it on purpose, ok!" Raido pleaded his case to the irritated Ino marching in front of him.
"Of course!" she replied sarcastically. "If you had done it on purpose that would have meant that you had some level of skill. Why on earth would I assume you did it on purpose? I'm sorry Raido the clumsy."
Raido stopped and breathed heavily. He was just about at his edge. That morning he had decided he would try to be nice, but that blonde princess was impossible!
"Perhaps the problem is your air-headed girlishness." he muttered.
Ino stopped and turned.
Oh dear, he thought in panic, she heard that!
She stomped back towards him.
"Look, I was just thinking aloud about somethi-!"
"You said what about my weight?" Ino said raising a fist.
"What I said wa- huh?" Raido blinked in confusion. "I, I didn't say anything about your weight!"
"You sure?" she muttered dangerously.
"Yeah, I'm sure, because you would have heard me comment on your…"
Kakashi heard Raido let out of short, but agonising yelp of pain after a pounding noise. He sighed heavily, "They are not going to ruin my vacation. I'll deal with them when we head out on our own."
"Fancy running into you again,"
Kakashi looked up to see a Samurai of the iron village greeting Sakura.
Sakura laughed shyly and replied, "At least you didn't knock me over this time."
Kakashi raised an eyebrow in curiosity.
"Huh?" The Samurai replied, "No that was my buddy, he has guard duty up there, I was the other one."
"The one that pushed him into me you mean." Sakura softly scolded.
"Ha-ha, err well; anyway, as I was saying, he was the other guy."
"Sorry, I can't tell you all dress the same it seems." Sakura said, starting to walk to keep up with the caravan's movement.
The samurai fell into step next to her, "To the casual observer yes, but you see my shoulder patches, those denote my squad, green. Then this plate at the front of the armour skirt has my name."
Sakura glanced down, "Yamamoto?"
"Yep, name's Yamamoto, pleasure to meet you."
"Sakura Haruno,"
"That's very… flowery. We don't have names like that in the Iron village."
"Really? It's unusual?" Sakura asked. At home and on missions she had actually run into a lot of Sakuras, she figured it a universal name.
"Yeah, very unusual, but pretty, it fits you."
Sakura blushed. She knew what the guy was up to; even she was not that blind. "Well, tha-" just as she was running out of things to say Kakashi came into view.
"Oh Kaka-sensei!" Sakura called out.
Kakashi turned around, and lowered his omnipresent book. "Ah, good day Sakura, yo Yamamoto," He plastered on a smile, wiping away the frown of irritation.
The Samurai was taken aback the sudden informality, then he recognised, "You- you're the copy-nin Hatake right?" his voice and stature oozed a sense of awe.
"One and the same!" Sakura announced boastfully. "He was my sensei too when I made genin!" If she had been a peacock, her tail would have been on full display.
Kakashi was taken aback by the pride filled response of his student. He was actually really flattered. "Yes I ar- am." Drats, I stuttered, he scolded inwardly. He had not done that ever.
"Wow!" Yamamoto exclaimed. "I've always wanted to meet you sir. Up in the Iron village you are a real hero, many of us have wanted to see you in combat someday, but with us being neutral and all that didn't seem possible."
The fuzzy feelings of flattery vanished and were replaced by irritation as soon as Kakashi was reminded of the samurai's presence and pulled back into the real world. "Well glad I could obl-" he stopped when he noticed Yamamoto wasn't even looking at him.
"So I guess that must mean you have a lot of in depth jutsu from such a master. You're probably better then some of our captains."
Kakashi's eye twitched. So all the hero worship was just so you could flirt more? Fire burned angrily in Kakashi's chest, though he maintained his bored expression valiantly.
"Well," Sakura began.
Kakashi and Yamamoto's attentions were immediately captured by her voice, though for different reasons.
"Actually Kakashi-sensei only taught me basic chakra control and genjutsu resistance. Other than that he focused on the other two students. But really early on I became the personal apprentice to the Fifth Hokage Tsunade."
If Kakashi had less control, his shoulders would have gone limp. She was right, he bemoaned. I did focus on the boys… so in reality, I don't have much claim on her current ability!
"However…"
Kakashi perked up again, though still kept his outer display of interest minimal.
"Kakashi-sensei did start teaching me again recently, and I'm really glade we naturally have the same chakra." she turned and smiled a truly golden grin.
Kakashi's smile widened just a bit more.
Sakura continued, making Kakashi's pride grow evermore inflated. "It makes me feel like I'm in an exclusive club, and kind of special."
"That's great," Yamamoto replied, "But you seem like a pretty special person just by yourself."
And that was it; the line in the sand had been crossed. "Sakura," Kakashi spoke up. "We need to meet up with the old married couple back there."
"So the fighting has gotten that bad?" Sakura asked.
"Yeah, anyway, nice meeting you Yamamoto," Kakashi accidentally permitted a hint of hostility, but he hoped the young man was as oblivious as he was irritating.
Sakura followed suit, saying a polite farewell.
"Well, see you again Sakura-san… and Kakashi-dono."
The silver haired nin rolled his eyes, both at Yamamoto's obvious flirtation, and at how 'Kakashi' was tossed in as an after thought.
Once they were a distance away, Sakura chuckled.
"What's so funny?"
"Oh he was just so adorable. Though I must say, it can be fun to get attention like that now and again. Though if he got any fresher, I was going to pound him one,"
Kakashi felt like heaving a sigh. He was pretty sure Sakura was more sensible than to be affected by flirtation, but the confirmation put him at complete ease.
"Indeed," he replied. "He's just a kid. I hate to think what he'll be like in a few years."
"He'll probably get a nice girl and settle down." Sakura replied.
"Hah, I doubt it."
"Says the man who reads porn… that's a real turnoff to ladies you know."
Kakashi was surprised at the comeback. However he showed the cover of the book he was holding to plead his defence. "I'll have you know I am reading historical fiction! See, it's about the Edo period!"
Sakura blinked, "Well, that's-"
Raido's loud voice cut her off, "You know, the forehead wrinkle might not make you look twice your age if you weren't such a pouting princess!"
"So, trying to excuse your grabbing my butt by saying I look your age?" Ino retorted, "I don't think so you perv."
"My hand just grazed your hip. You were the one walking too close!" Raido yelled in his defence.
Sakura and Kakashi slumped wearily at the thought of camping tonight.
"Is it just me or are they getting worse?" Sakura asked.
"They're getting worse." Kakashi replied.
"I kind of want to set up camp without them…" Sakura said. "If Ino sleeps next to me, all she is going to tell me all her woes, 'Raido this' 'Raido that' 'Raido is such a' and so on. I will not get a moment's rest."
"You know, I have an idea." Kakashi said.
"Huh?"
Kakashi seemed to enter teacher mode, "Just let them fight it out. If we try to split them up it's not going to work, they are just getting worse."
"Yes! Have them use the same shelter; after all, it's going to rain so they wouldn't be able to escape each other." Sakura smiled in self-satisfaction.
"Then we can get a good night's rest in the other shelter." Kakashi finished happily.
"Good, operation Silent Night is a go!" Sakura announced.
"Yeah… but first let's break them up." Kakashi replied, pointing at the two who were now quite literally at each other's throats. "Hey!" he barked harshly.
The two jumped in surprise.
"Is this really how shinobi act? We have gone out on a low profile easy mission and you two can't work as colleagues and just swallow your pride? Ino, you are a medic nin who can keep her cool in almost any situation. Raido, you're a jounin and body guard to the Hokage, I would expect a level head from you. Perhaps the problem is that this was an easy mission you two thought you could take it easy and cruise through it. The hokage is counting on use to complete this and then relax, if you can't do that, then what did your sensei labour over you for?"
Both of them looked down in shame.
"You don't have to like one another, but for the rest of the mission, you two are partners, inseparable to the end, got it?"
"Yes sir." they replied in unison.
"Good, let's set up camp." Kakashi lead the way towards a small gap in the trees.
The four shinobi worked on setting up the shelters and hurriedly ate their packed dinner. After that, Ino walked over towards Sakura. "Well time for bed."
"No Ino, you're going to share the shelter with Raido."
"What?" Raido and Ino exclaimed.
"Yes, it's up to you whether you get any decent sleep or not." Kakashi stated with a sharp glare.
Both of them did not argue further as they hurried to get out of the rain into the simple tarp shelters.
Sakura looked shocked that it had worked; the two were silent as the grave.
Kakashi rolled out his mat and kicked off his sandals. Then he proceeded to get tucked into his sleeping bag.
Sakura stood still for a moment.
"Something wrong?" Kakashi asked.
"Oh, nothing… it's just awkward?"
"How?"
"…"
"Look, it's a big space; we won't be any closer than when we normally camp out."
"Oh, never mind," she said dismissively as she crawled into her own bag. The rain pummelled down on the tarp, wiping out any outside noises.
"If you like we could put our packs between us?" Kakashi suggested.
"Ok,"
"…"
"I'm sorry, this is even more awkward." Sakura spoke up, moving her pack back to under her head.
"Alright," Kakashi replied and likewise returned his pack to its place under his head.
"Sensei?"
"Yes?"
"Do you think you could help me with Raiken sometime, on this mission?"
"I wouldn't be against it, perhaps after we arrive at the onsen."
"I wouldn't want to take up your time break time…" she said hesitantly.
"No, it wouldn't be a problem. Teaching is relaxing compared to almost anything else I have to do."
"That's a relief."
"…"
"Good night."
"Good night."
However, honestly Sakura stayed away a little longer than she should have. Kakashi was facing away from her, so she looked at his back. She remember another time when that back had protected her, when she was too weak to dodge Zabuza, when she was too weak to fight the sound ninja, and most recently when she was too weak to kill her friend, Sasuke. So many times Kakashi had been like a shield to her.
Someday, she vowed, I'm going to repay my debt to you. It doesn't matter how many years it takes, but I'm going to walk next to you rather than behind. But for now, all I can say is 'thanks.'
"Hmm?" Kakashi grunted.
Drats, he heard! How much did I say? "Oh sorry," she whispered, "I didn't mean to speak aloud."
Sakura closed her eyes and fell asleep to the sounds of pattering rain.
Ok, look forward to chapter 7 where they set out for the actual mission! Took me long enough, I'm a real sucker for prologue… and epilogue for that matter. The end of this story doesn't seem to be in sight, so please review and help me improve.
And to InARealPickle, I'm going to try to use the Japanese suffixes, I will, because there are tonnes of situations where they fit better, I just speak English so it's odd lol.