Disclaimer: Kishimoto owns everything!
Thank you quarterdark for the comments, I hope there are more quotes for you to enjoy! Also ImmaBeforever, awesome username, and thank you for reviewing.
Chapter 7: Kansou (Impressions)
Sakura opened her and blinked groggily. She was trying to decipher what the dark lump was in front of her until she finally realised. It was Kakashi's bedding, and her face was practically buried in it.
She gasped loudly as she sat up inside the shelter. She did not know whether to be relieved at Kakashi's absence or apprehensive of what he was going to think. He's probably going to think of me like a child… Of course, maybe I didn't move until after he left… maybe… GRRR, why do things have to get awkward? It's all because Ino and Raido couldn't act like mature adults.
The rain pounded heavier on the canvas above her. She sighed, Oh well, it's not like a snuggled intentionally. I was cold, and there was a source of heat and it smelled nice… Her eyes widened in horror at the thought, she shook her head and smacked her face. Grraw! You are such a weirdo Sakura, "he smells nice," only creepy, spazzy girls say stuff like that, and only about celebrities.
She grabbed her pack ready to head out, but at the sound of the rain, and realising that Kakashi hadn't packed up his bedding, obviously they weren't on the move. A caravan moves poorly in the rain. She felt a cylindrical shape in her pack. "Oh the scroll!" she exclaimed, reaching in to snatch it.
The scroll unrolled in her hand, once again revealing a batch of nonsense Hiragana. She was surprised when the ink moved before her eyes, reconstituting into a new shape. This time the first few lines were clear,
First stage completed, ocular alignment and mental modicum produced …
And then it returned to gibberish. "What was that?" Ocular alignment, was the shape of the kana meant to make my eyes focus? That doesn't make any sense.
She examined the next section of text, attempting to decipher what it meant…
"Sakura," she heard someone calling in the distance, "Sakura?" A hand rested on her shoulder and shook her, "Sakura!"
She jumped out of her trance, her pupils contracting and turned around to see Kakashi's quizzical face.
"Focused on your reading, I see." he said warmly.
"Huh?" she replied, "Oh sorry, there just wasn't anything else to do because of the rain."
Kakashi raised an eyebrow, "It stopped raining over a couple hours ago, and the road has dried out enough for the caravan to move."
"What?" Sakura replied. What's going on? I just woke up a few moments ago. She stuffed her pack hurriedly. "Sorry, I lost track of time!" she apologised.
They took down the shelter and packed it up.
"Ino and Raido are towards the front of the caravan by a large pine, I'll catch up." Kakashi replied.
"Yes sir!" she said, then dashed off.
Kakashi discretely activated his sharingan and examined her chakra network. It was disturbed as if she had just released herself from a weak genjutsu. He would have been on guard, had he not been perplex by the utter lack of foreign chakra, almost as if she had placed herself in an illusion.
Though, he considered, fatigue can also make a chakra system look like that, but she seemed like she got enough sleep, judging by how her face was pressed up against my arm… He did not like how that thought made him feel, happy, pleased? There was no reason to be. It was just a normal camp out. They had shared a tent before, granted, she was fourteen then, when they went on a mission together. He remembered that time for a moment. She had not acted at all nervous about it then, but alas, it seemed innocent girls grew up into self conscious women.
That was the last mission they went on together until Naruto returned from training. Between then they had seen each other a couple times a month, and talked even less. It seemed Naruto was the only real glue there.
And here I am reminiscing, Kakashi sighed, and all because I had a twisted happiness about her resting on my arm. I need a vacation… wait-
He leapt into the trees to hurry and regroup.
This… is weird. Sakura thought while looking at Raido and Ino cautiously. The two of them were laughing over a joke; and not a cleaver one either. Actually it was not just that, the two of them were being… nice.
"At least it stopped raining." Ino said, stretching, "Is it just me, or is it getting wetter the further north we go?"
"No, it's just the season. Now the village hidden in the waterfall; that is wet I tell you…" Raido began.
Oh dear heavens, they are talking about the weather! Sakura thought, nearing an emotion similar to horror. This was how it had been for the last hour.
She looked back at Kakashi, who was simply walking behind them at a steady pace. His face was hidden by the book, so she couldn't tell what he was thinking. But in afterthought, she realised she would not be able to tell his thoughts even if she could see the bored expression, or perhaps the all-too-innocently-smiling one.
She looked back ahead at the two. They had moved on to gossip… That was it! Sakura realised. Being stuck together forced them to either talk nicely or just be silent. Knowing Ino she has to speak she must have somehow patched it up, or at least tried to find some sort of common ground. Kaka-sensei is a genius. She complimented inwardly.
She almost thought Kakashi had read her mind, again, when he spoke up, "Hey, Sakura, could we talk?"
"Umm, yes," she turned to Ino, "We'll catch up, okay?"
"Alright," Ino replied then she and Raido continued on their tame argument about their preferred Hokage.
"What's the matter?" Sakura asked smiling.
"I…" Kakashi began, and then stopped… he had forgotten what he was going to say!
Sakura's smile turned grave, "What's wrong?"
Kakashi's memory reappeared as soon as her smile disappeared. "Well, it's not anything major, but would you show me that blank scroll you were staring at?"
Sakura's eyes widened and she shook her head, "Umm, I'm really sorry, I can't. It belongs to my grandmother, and she explicitly told me not to hand it to anyone."
"Did she tell you to keep what it is a secret?" Kakashi prodded.
"Well, not worded that way…" Sakura conceded.
"Tell me," Kakashi ordered.
Sakura surprised him by returning an equally commanding glare. "First tell me why you need to know?"
Kakashi smiled, her determined glare always forced him to grin. "Because, I believe it's affecting your chakra network, like a genjutsu. It's not safe to have on hand when we are on a mission if it can make you go into a daze like that."
"And how did you come to this conclusion?" Sakura challenged.
Kakashi just grinned behind the mask and pointed at his left eye.
I fell right into that one, Sakura grumbled. "Alright then, I promise not read it until we are at the onsen, and then you can watch. Since you have the sharingan, there's no point in hiding it."
"What happened to obeying your grandmother?" Kakashi asked.
"She handpicked you to teach me, so I'll take that she trusts you."
"Well, good to know your grandmother likes me, practically makes me kin doesn't it?" he said jokingly, resting his arm on her shoulder.
"Ha!" Sakura laughed, skipping ahead, "You might want to take that back, grandma makes Tsunade look nice!"
Kakashi smiled, She certainly-
"Hello Sakura-san!"
Kakashi frowned, Yamamoto… he grumbled.
Sakura smiled brightly at the fully armoured Samurai. She imagined that he had a goofy, nice smile, though with the helmet, she was stuck to supposition. "Oh hi! And hello captain, she looked down at his nameplate, "…Kawazoe, right?"
"Yes," the Capt. Kawazoe confirmed, "Good to see you again."
"My name's Ishida!" the other samurai piped up, eager not be left behind by his seniors.
"So how has it been going?" Sakura asked Kawazoe.
Ishida's shoulders slumped at the lack of acknowledgement.
"Actually we are going on a short errand." Kawazoe replied.
Kakashi walked up and stood next to Sakura, offering Yamamoto a threatening glare.
Yamamoto, for the first time, took the hint, shying away from stepping up close to the kunoichi.
"Well I would hate to keep you." Kakashi said, with forced pleasantry.
Kawazoe took the hint and waved his subordinates off, "Hurry to the back of the caravan you two, I'll follow in a bit." Then he turned to Kakashi, "I look forward to battling along side you, Copy Nin."
"As would I," Kakashi replied, "Now excuse us."
Sakura bowed politely and hurried onward, waving farewell. Kakashi turned to walk away when Kawazoe called after him. "Be careful with that flower of yours. In this war there's many ways her life could turn out. Tread carefully, Kakashi-san, your actions are what mean the most to her."
Kakashi squinted his eyes questioningly then hurried away. He didn't understand the last part of the statement. What was that man implying? He acted almost like I was going to get her hurt… He sighed; He shouldn't care what some random samurai's opinions could be.
He found the rest of his team.
"So, I guess it's time for us to change." Raido said, reaching into his pack.
"Yes," Kakashi replied. "From here on out, we aren't ninja, we four civilians on a peaceful getaway."
"Err…" Ino grumbled.
"What?" Kakashi asked.
"Well, how are we all related? I can tell you all right now that we look nothing alike. And some of us can't maintain a transformation for long periods." She said. "The story of use being vacationers, yes, that makes perfect sense, but why would our group of four be to each other?"
"I was just going to get to that…" Kakashi replied. "Raido and I will be-"
"Oh I know!" Ino exclaimed, "We'll be your newlyweds!"
Raido laughed uproariously, Kakashi sighed irritably, and Sakura's eyes popped open. "No!" she refused, her face turning red.
"Why not?" Ino said mischievously, "It'd be fun to have a man on your arm and tell everyone around 'hey, this is my hubby!'"
"No! No it would not!" Sakura insisted. "One, we look way too young and two, we could just as easily go as a group of casual friends."
"Aww, you spoil all the fun, you could have Raido here…"
Sakura was about to speak back when Kakashi interrupted.
"Relax, Sakura." Kakashi ordered gently. "Ino is on the right track though; we do need a reason to be together. So our back-story is thus: Sakura and I are siblings by the name of Sakura and Takeshi Inoue. Likewise Raido and Ino are siblings with the last name of Sawara. The reason we are all together is that Sakura and Ino are getting married and, being the close siblings we are, this is our special way to say goodbye.
"Sakura and I know each other well enough, we could probably pull this off," Kakashi continued. "But Ino and Raido, you two are likely going to need to find out as many useful details about each other as possible."
"Yes sir," Ino and Raido replied crisply.
"No objections?" Kakashi asked, looking to Sakura.
"No…" she replied, seeming hesitant for reasons Kakashi couldn't comprehend.
"Good, then everyone get changed."
A few minutes later Kakashi walked out, dressed in blue pants and a black short sleeved shirt and a dark grey mask covered his lower face. He also wore a plain eye patch and had his normally spiky and wild hair at least slightly tamed. The next person to come out was Raido, who wore black pants, a brown jacket, and a simple white shirt.
"How long do you think it's going to take the girls?" Raido asked playfully.
Before Kakashi could make a point of ignoring the question, Sakura appeared out of the bush. She had changed into a black, knee length skirt and a black shirt with a high neck and white sleeves. Her hair was tied back into a pony tail with a green ribbon which matched her eyes.
She blushed at their stares. "Umm, so do you think this will do?" she asked.
"Yes," Kakashi smiled. "You fit the role perfectly."
Sakura would have commented on his outfit, but for some reason, Sakura felt rather disappointed with the tame comment she received. She would have preferred a 'you look great!' or even just 'that looks nice on you.' But just addressing the fact that the clothes fit the role felt her feel rather insecure and worse yet, she didn't know why she should care.
A few impatiently waited minutes later, Ino emerged wearing a fashionable blue vest with a small, violet jacket.
"You look lovely madam," Raido said, bowing comically.
"You look swell too sir." Ino replied in mock formality.
Sakura wished Naruto was there to coo over her, and his cooing would be serious, unlike Raido. Despite everything she found annoying about the orange ninja, he was always sure to inform her that she was pretty.
"The town should be about a few hours walk from here," Kakashi informed them. "We should be there before sunset. So, move out, and act casual, there is no hurry."
The four walked up the trail leading into the brush and meadow coloured hills into the land of Hot Springs.
YAY! Completion of chapter seven! I kind of feel like this is some sort of landmark. I suppose this means it's the point of no return. I'm going to continue writing, it's too addictive and it helps hold me over while I wait for the next chapter/episode of Naruto to be released. On that note, why do y'all write/read fanfic? I would love to hear it if you care to review. And don't be shy about criticism!
Oh and I hope y'all enjoyed the developments… I also realised something… Kakashi hasn't moaned about his age for a while. Maybe it's because Raido is six years older (35) and still young, that's probably why, Kaka-sensei is counting his blessings.
The next chapter is in the works currently and will be called Kyoudai (look it up for a hint), hope y'all enjoy!