Title: Sand Stained Red
Rating: M
Summary: Once again forces are on the move. Who or what is threatening Konoha and her allies and can MABU forces discover and stop it? MABU is stretched thin with only Izumo on recon. Can he pull this mission off?
Main Characters: Kamizuki Izumo, Hagane Kotetsu, Hatake Kakashi, Umino Iruka, Kankurou, Gaara & Temari
Pairings: Too many to mention
Status: Chapter 8 of A LOT
Beta by: Roninlvr
Disclaimer: While the idea of MABU is mine, the characters are not my creation as much as I wish they were. I do not own Naruto.
Time Line / Spoilers: This takes place during the time skip and contains spoilers for events pre-time skip as well as a few just slightly post-time skip. The MABU universe diverges with canon events by not completely following post-time skip events. This fic does not contain spoilers for anyone up to date on the Japanese Anime.
Warnings: Language, Violence, Sexual situations, Sex of a probably Hentai and Yaoi nature. Same basic warnings as "Water Runs Red".
Chapter 8 --
Another day broke and sunlight streamed into the shoddy hotel room the four leaf nin occupied. Hanuro Sakura woke up. She had actually gotten a good night's sleep. As she sat up, the man in bed next to her moved and started to burrow under the covers. The medic took pity and pulled a blanket over the man's eyes since he looked more than a little hung over. She glanced over to the other bed to see that Kakashi was already awake. He was sitting up and reading his book. This was about as unsurprising as the sun rising in the morning. What was unexpected in a way was how Iruka was curled up against him, still appearing to be sound asleep.
Sakura slipped out of the bed to begin the process of getting ready for the day. She had no idea what was going to happen, but it seemed like a good idea to be completely ready as soon as possible. She had never been on a mission that had such a strange timeline. Normally, she was used to getting up at dawn -- but this mission was different. She gathered a change of clothes and the other items she would need to get ready for the day. When she stepped out of the bathroom a few minutes later, Kakashi was dressed in civilian clothes with the contact in place, looking completely normal, except for the scar over his eye of course. However, in a place as rough as this town, a scar was not the most identifying mark either.
Without a word, he gestured for her to follow him and the two walked out of the hotel room. Each bed had a vague lump that resembled a person, and it was obvious that they were letting those two sleep in. The girl followed her old sensei as they slipped out a back door and started to wander around the town. It seemed so different this early in the morning. The unsavory elements of the city were not to be seen and the two slipped into the crowd going about morning business without raising any suspicion.
They wandered around large portions of the city, seeming to not have a goal in mind but the young kunoichi quickly realized that they were casing the town. Without seeming to, they methodically walked through the town. They didn't do it in some sort of a grid pattern that a civilian would come up with, but more a random wandering that efficiently covered the entire area without seeming like that was what they set out to accomplish. The fact that her sensei was also picking up items for breakfast did not go unnoticed. Two hours had elapsed by the time that they snuck back into the hotel and returned to the room. Kotetsu was still a lump under the blankets, but the other bed was empty and the noises from the bathroom indicated that Iruka was getting ready. Not two minutes after the return, the bathroom door opened and Iruka stepped out clean and dressed.
Sakura was surprised to see that Iruka looked as if nothing had happened the night before. It made her think of the many times he had done missions and then been back at the academy when she was still his student and they had been none the wiser that the man had ever even left the village. "Good morning," she pleasantly chirped while Kakashi placed the food on the bed that Iruka had obviously made after waking up.
Iruka smiled back at his old student. Grabbing one of the bottles of juice that Kakashi had purchased, he answered, "A little later in the morning than I expected. Someone was supposed to wake me up about an hour ago." He didn't seem at all upset at the silver haired jounin, although in Kakashi's defense, he did have the decency to look properly chided for the offense. Iruka walked over to the bed that held Kotetsu and started to shove the other man with one hand. With Iruka sitting on the side of the bed, shoving about once a minute, it was obvious that he expected this to take some time.
Sakura walked over to the food and began to eat as she watched her old sensei nudge the other chuunin. "You know, you don't need to sneak off while I am out of the room to go looking for information." She didn't say it in an accusing tone, rather just a matter of fact, as if they should know that already.
Kakashi answered, "We just --"
"No, she is right." Some people might have found it strange that Iruka would have interrupted Kakashi, but strange seemed to be how things were on this mission. "Sakura, I'm sorry. You are right. You are part of this mission. However, we are under order to shield you as much as possible. Admittedly, that probably won't be much."
"Shield? Tsunade-shishou told you that?" Anger started to seep into her voice as she realized that all that Tsuande had said about her being ready for this was not the total truth.
"Sakura," Kakashi tried to reason. "She merely gave explicit orders that you were to act as medical backup on the mission to get information and not to go undercover."
"It isn't that she doesn't trust you, Sakura. This just … you're very young, even if you're capable." Iruka was trying his best to sound calm, but he knew he said something wrong when he saw Kakashi's look.
"With all due respect, Iruka," The lack of saying sensei was not missed by either man. "I have been a Kunoichi for several years now. I am no longer the thirteen year old girl you graduated. I am old enough to have risked my life how many times for Konoha?" Even if she had not been on the highest ranked missions, she was right. She had done C's and even an occasional B. She had been in danger and survived because of teammates and her own resilience and abilities.
Before Iruka could answer, the lump under the covers moved and Kotetsu finally made his appearance, "She's right." In the silence that followed, both sides were surprised that Kotetsu agreed with Sakura. He walked over to the other bed and started to dig through the food that Kakashi had brought back, finally finding a chocolate covered pastry and biting into it. "Kakashi, you were in ANBU by her age, and 'Ruke, be serious. At her age we had done how many of these missions?"
"'Tetsu, that isn't the point. Things were different back then." His eyes narrowed as he looked at his friend.
"How were they different? What the fuck was different. You're starting to sound like all those other assholes we put up with. Just 'cuz we missed the war with Rock, nothing we ever did was right because of that crap. Like things are different now. Know what? They aren't different. She saw how much of the village was taken out when Sound attacked? She was there when the old man died. Her fucking teammate left her like a piece of tra--."
"Kotetsu!" Kakashi was glaring at the chuunin. "Shut your mouth."
As Iruka put his hands to his forehead to try and hold back the headache, Sakura spoke up softly. "No, Kakashi. It's all right. He is right. I was lucky I was found by Izumo-san and Kotetsu-san before anything bad happened to me."
"It was the middle of Konoha." Iruka felt compelled to defend his old student, even if he had been furious when he had found out what the boy had done. He didn't notice Kotetsu's look when Sakura had mentioned Izumo. The recently woken up man dropped his chocolaty pastry and quickly walked to the bathroom. Iruka's eyes momentarily widened and he promptly shut up, hearing the bathroom door slam.
Sakura bit her lower lip while looking at the closed door. "That was my fault." She hadn't realized she had brought up the one thing they were not mentioning.
Iruka walked over to place a hand on the girl's shoulder. "It's OK. You didn't do anything wrong. He's just…"
"Worried about someone he loves." She looked up at Iruka. "Someone whom he doesn't know how they are and whethere they'll accept his apology if and when he sees him again." She saw how Iruka's eyes widened as she spoke, unsure of how the girl knew that. "He mumbles in his sleep, sensei."
In the silence that followed, the girl walked over to Kakashi. "Perhaps, we should figure out how to get this mission finished as soon as possible? The sooner we are all out of here, I think the better we will all be."
Kakashi nodded. "They found out a lot of information last night…" He continued to explain the information. It was obvious that Sound was on the move and were planning something. Izumo's information had been flawless, but then it normally was. Sound was extending its tendrils of information towards both Konoha and Suna. The questions that needed to be answered were who were their targets and which would be hit first.
During the day, Kakashi and Sakura wandered around town, at night Kotetsu and Iruka gathered information. For three days the pattern was followed before Sakura woke up in the middle of the night to arguing in hushed tones.
Kotetsu hissed, "I don't care what Tsuande said. It's our best option for getting this mission taken care of."
"She's not going in there, 'Tsu. We'll figure out some other way of getting this done."
"I could track him back to his base." Kakashi's voice was calm as he tried to settle things down between the two arguing men.
"Look, she's a fucking shinobi, tell her to just suck it up and do it."
Kakashi was between Iruka and Kotetsu before the first punch could land. "Why don't you just ask her yourself. Your arguing woke her up a while ago."
She sat up in bed, looking over at the three older men. "What is it I need to do for the mission?"
The arguing started up again between Kotetsu and Iruka, but Kakashi silenced them. "The man we have been looking for has been located, and we have figured out his schedule. However, it seems there is a problem in getting him alone." Kakashi's gaze drifted to Iruka. This part of the mission fell under MABU control, so his lover was the one responsible, and thus should explain.
"Kurimaki Kenjiro is in charge of Sounds operations in this city. We've been casing the places he goes to, and we've managed to talk to him occasionally. However, neither of us can get him alone." He glanced over to Iruka before continuing. "Most people, you get them a little drunk, a few drugs in their system and anyone with the skills can seduce them. Sure people have little kinks and such. This one likes dark hair, that one light hair, men, women, whatever… None of it really makes much of a difference. This guy is different."
"He's sick." The disgust in Iruka's voice was obvious. Whatever was different with this man, it repulsed him.
"He likes girls." Kotetsu didn't seem to be bothered by it. He simply stated it like any other thing.
She looked at the men, "But you said things like that were not an issue for you."
Kakashi spoke up, "No. He likes girls. Not women. Girls. Young girls in particular."
Iruka muttered something that Sakura was rather certain was unfit to be repeated.
"We've tried everything we can to see if he has any interest outside of that, but nothing worked." Kotetsu shot a look at Iruka, "Look. We have her with us. We dress her up a little. He acts stupid and suddenly we have him separated and we can get the truth out of him."
"She's too young!"
"Iruka! We've been doing this since we were twelve and just out of the academy. She's fifteen and about to be a chuunin. How can she be too young if we weren't?"
"Because we were too young, idiot." As Iruka let his temper show, Kakashi put a hand on his lover's shoulder. "Look at how we all turned out, every last one of us is screwed up and only now getting things straightened out."
Sakura glanced at Kakashi before speaking. "Iruka, it'll be all right." She gave him a smile. "I'll do it. I have you guys to help me, so I know I'll be safe." She knew that the man felt that he needed to protect her, so she was hoping to disarm some of his problems with her helping the mission by appealing to his need to protect her.
"Tsunade said not to even think about it. If she finds out Sakura went undercover…"
"And you started to feel the need to put everything down on mission reports since when?" Kotetsu gave Iruka a skeptical look.
"Look, we can't ask Kakashi to lie."
"I only need to report on the parts of the mission that apply to my area. This is not my area." He didn't like the idea of Sakura going undercover any more than Iruka did. However, it really was the best way.
"It's settled then. I will take her out shopping. I know what that asshole was staring at. Just wake me up in the morning and I'll go shopping with her." He crawled into bed, feeling better now there was finally a way out of this mission.
"Why should you take her shopping?" Iruka sounded a little miffed.
"Cuz you're gay."
"I am not. I'm Bi."
"Kakashi? Is Iruka gay?"
"He did date Anko."
"Anko doesn't count."
"Hey!" Iruka stood up. "Why doesn't Anko count?"
Kotestus sighed, "Sakura? Do you think Anko makes Iruka not gay?"
"Do I have to answer that?" She smiled, appreciating what Kotetsu was doing. He had taken such a serious mood and turned it into something much more relaxed.
"I am … Anko counts!" He continued to sputter as Kakashi pulled Iruka to bed.
Sakura relaxed as Kotesu crawled into bed. The sound of Kakashi and Iruka talking about whether Iruka was gay or not was lulling her to sleep. She wasn't worried about going undercover that evening. She had seen enough to know that Iruka and Kotetsu knew what they were doing. Sure they argued, but she also knew the two men had been friends since they were little. She drifted off to sleep, secure in the knowledge that things would go well tomorrow.
Sakura walked towards the bar, her forged Identification created perfectly. The true genius of it was that the forged document, showing her age as thirteen, was poorly altered to show eighteen. She walked down the street, in an outfit a perfect combination of cute enough to be picked out by a thirteen year old, but slutty enough for the girl to be trying to look older. The carefully crafted end result was that she looked young and that she was trouble.
She knew she was being watched by two of the three men in the team as she approached the man at the door to the bar. She even managed to look shocked as she wasn't let in. The fuss she made with the man about getting in was perfectly timed though. Just as she was walking away after being told how badly altered her ID was, the target walked up.
Kenjiro had two of his men on either side of him as he walked up to the beat up looking building. His eyes focused on the girl with her obviously fake pink colored hair. Iruka had taken some brown hair dye and made the most convincing 'roots' to make it seem a dye job. She stuttered as he took her arm and spoke a few words to the man at the door who then let them in.
When she got into the building, she saw Kotetsu at the bar talking to someone. Even though he seemed distracted, she knew he was watching her. There wouldn't be a second of the night that she was out of their sight.
She was led over to a table by the man and found herself sitting at a table. As expected, the man was quickly trying to get her drunk -- luckily Iruka had given her a drug that counteracted the alcohol so she didn't have to even use a jutsu. She seemed perfectly civilian. She played the part of drunk though and was hanging off the man. Occasionally she caught sight of Iruka. He had made his way into the building and did not look happy, but between him and Kotetsu, she knew she was safe. The plan called for Kakashi to remain outside and keep an eye out for any unexpected people loyal to Kenjiro showing up. She knew Kotetsu and Iruka both had radios on. All she had was a one way transmitter.
There was no sign from either man that they heard anything bad from Kakashi, so she didn't resist at all as the man started to lead her out of the building. She giggled and she hung off his arm. He didn't think anything of her babbling. Of course, most of her babbling was about how strong he was and how handsome and such. The clues she fit into the dialog about their room number did not cause him to be at all suspicious.
The ring that they had given her was brought up against the back of his neck, the contents hidden in the needle knocking the man unconscious on the bed in seconds. It seemed as if the three men appeared instantly, suddenly moving into action. Drugs were given and information extracted. Sakura sat and watched them work. It seemed to take such a short period of time. Names, locations, everything was revealed.
She sat on the chair in the hotel room, just listening as a plot to capture her friend and teammate was revealed. How Orochimaru wanted the Bijuu in him for some purpose this man didn't know and Iruka pressed him very hard to find out what Orochimaru was going to do. Locations of agents that had reported seeing Naruto with Jiraiya and that they knew the Jinchuuriki was returning to Konoha very soon. She couldn't believe how much Sound knew about her friend, no, how much this man knew. If a tool of the Sound village knew this much, than Orochimaru must know so much more.
When they left, the man had been stripped and shoved under blankets. He had been a given a drug to make him sweat and another to make him forget the recent events. He was left with every cause to believe he had had a very good time in that room instead of the interrogation he had really gone through.
That night, Sakura took a very long shower. She knew that when Iruka and Kotetsu went undercover they risked much more than she had. They would have to remain in town for a few more days to make sure that the plan worked and no one suspected anything. Part of her knew that was her fault. If she had been able to risk more, then there would be less chance of him knowing that something was wrong and they would have been able to leave that night instead of needing to wait those extra days. The reason that Kotetsu was anxiously waiting for the next three nights for the all clear so they could leave was because of her.
Kakashi had sent one of his summons back to Konoha to inform the Hokage that they had to delay Naruto's return. For him to show up in Konoha before they were able to take care of the sound threat was just too great. All the other information was also passed on. Hopefully, Jiraiya would be able to avoid detection better with more information.
Finally, they were able to leave that town and continue towards their destination, Suna. It seemed so far away, yet finally they were actually going there. The pace was fast and the girl could not complain. She had already delayed Kotetsu from seeing Izumo for too long,. She would endure exhaustion and sore muscles for that meeting to happen just a little bit sooner. Soon, she would be preparing for the chuunin exams too. Things were changing so fast.
A/N, I know a long awaited chapter, but woo hoo! Chapter. I know the primary POV in this probably surprised people, but … I think it worked,
