I hope everyone is enjoying this so far! Thank you to those who reviewed, and a BIG thank you to ShipperTrish for once again betaing for me!
Chapter 6:The Ghost of You.
Sakura gazed at the floor, fighting the overwhelming urge to cry. Why did this feel so bad? The hollow pounding of her heart against her ribcage and the steady rise and fall of her chest was the only indication that she was still alive. Her legs felt useless and heavy, and her mind was desperately grasping for coherent thought. She just felt so...empty. The sensation was similar to the come-down effects of soldier pills, a blistering high filled with unnatural energy followed by a body crushing low that left you fragile and depressed for hours, if not days. And the way Kakashi had touched her? She knew he had just been sealing the technique, putting the final touch to her impenetrable disguise, but it had stirred a reaction in her body that should have been impossible considering the circumstances. Now she wanted that back, the comforting warmth of his hands to sooth her, to eradicate this cloud of depression that felt so heavy on her shoulders. He should have warned her, but she would have only freaked out, probably making the situation a hundred times more embarrassing for the both of them. She looked down into her hands properly for the first time, noticing that the cut was completely healed as if nothing had happened.
She stood up slowly, flexing the weakness out of her knees and wandered back into the bathroom to collect her things. She paused at the mirror, stifling a cry of shock as she realized that this was her reflection. Soft fingers, smooth and longer than her own, reached up to touch the face of the stranger looking back at her. She stroked the unfamiliar contours of her high cheekbones and sharp upturned nose. She stared back at herself with deep sapphire eyes that could match Naruto's for brightness.
When she moved, the reflection moved. She worried her lip and fingered her hair in typical Sakura fashion, noting with interest that the body language she was exhibiting didn't look right on this girl. And she hated long hair. It made her feel like a child again. The overwhelming urge to hack it off to her jawline egged her on silently.
She spoke, testing out the new voice. It was slightly higher pitched than her own, closer to the voice she made when she was trying to get her own way. She rolled over vowels in her mouth, trying to get used to the sound of foreign inflections now present.
Shaking herself out of the trance, she slipped on the heavy black cloak, drawing the hood up over her head, and rammed her feet into the heeled black sandals. She hurriedly gathered her things together, stuffing them roughly into her backpack before running out the door, smacking off the light switch as she went.
As they walked through town to the northern gates of Taki, Naruto couldn't help sending nervous sideways glances at his female teammate. His jaw had hit the floor when she'd walked into the lobby, waving and smiling at him. Everything about the way she moved screamed Sakura, but nothing about her appearance gave her away.
Sai had stared with interest for all of five seconds and then returned to his normal stoic self, talking to her as if he was completely comfortable with the change.
Naruto, however, was not so collected. He stammered over his words, unsure of how to treat her.
She seemed to be tired and walked beside him mostly in silence, which was fine with him as he found her voice disturbing: too musical, too smooth. It was an odd balance similar to the way in which Granny Tsunade's voice betrayed her years slightly.
The bustle of the town soon gave way to acres and acres of training grounds, which seemed for the most part to be made up of large man-made lakes. The moon reflected perfectly in the eerily still surface of the water.
Kakashi had explained that the Land of Waterfall specialized, of course, in water based techniques, which was why the majority of training took place in or on water.
Sakura thought back to the night in the bar where she had only just escaped being crushed against the wall by a strong water technique. Those ninjas hadn't seemed to offer anything other than that as a form of attack. She wondered what happened to shinobi who were born here with a natural inclination towards other element types. Would they be encouraged for their diversity or excluded for not adhering to the Taki pedigree?
They'd passed through the northern gates with a polite wave to the guards who nodded tiredly, swatting gnats that swarmed around the reeds and bulrushes.
Small stony paths led them away from the light and relative safely of Taki and Sakura felt her shoulders getting heavier with every passing second, a cold nervousness settling in her belly when she looked back and couldn't even see the city lights any longer through the trees.
Kakashi drew them to an abrupt halt with the raise of a hand, his senses suddenly sharp as he scanned the area around them for possible threats. After a while he relaxed and turned to them.
"The base is just over the next rise. Pakkun scouted two entrances earlier. We'll be slipping in the front because, to the best of our knowledge, the place is fairly empty. Pakkun only sensed a handful of people in the actual base, but reported a vaster number had been through here recently, so it's best if we stay on guard."
They nodded.
"And once inside, Naruto, you and Sai are to look for a way down into the lower chambers. That's where I assume they'll keep archived files. I want the file on Konoha. Once you have that, get out and meet us back here. Sakura and I will be on the upper floor. She will go in and hand over the falsified documents." He patted his rucksack. "And I will scout around the rest of the floor to see if there is anything else we need to know. Sakura's transformation won't last very much longer, so we need to be in and out within the hour. Clear?"
Nod.
"Good. Now, Sakura, tell me your name."
"What?"
"Your name. Tell me, what is it?"
She frowned, searching his eyes in confusion. "Sakura?" she giggled timidly.
"No, tell me your name."
"Kakashi, what are you talking about?" Unease in her voice now.
Strong hands grabbed her roughly by the shoulders.
Naruto shot forward to object, but was silenced by a sharp, cold stare.
Kakashi turned his attention back to Sakura, his fingertips digging hard into her skin as he shook her roughly.
"Kakashi-sensei, you're hurting m-me…" A choked whimper.
"Your name. Now!" Hot breath hit her and she cringed back against his verbal assault, tears threatening to spill over at any second. "Come on! I asked you for your name! Tell me your name! Name! Now!"
She started to stammer something inaudible, squirming uncomfortably under his rough hands, her voice cracking in fear. Why was he doing this?
"I can't hear you!" Shaking her harder. "I said, tell me your name! Come on, you stupid little girl! Your name!!!"
Then, something snapped.
"What the fuck are you talking about, you stupid fucking idiot?! Fuck you!" she spat in his face, sending saliva dribbling down his nose onto his mask. Stepping back in shock, she clamped a hand over her mouth, shaking her head ferociously back and forth.
"Kakashi-sensei, I-I'm so sorry! Oh my G-god...I can't b-believe I just…"
He smiled, nodding slowly as if trying to encourage her, loosening his grip on her shoulders and rubbing the small red welts that had started to appear from his thumbs.
"Good. Now we're getting somewhere. What is your name?"
"S-Sak…Manami?" It just came out. "Manami." she said more confidently.
"There you go," he said in a quiet, soothing voice. "When we get inside just let these things come to you. I'm sorry if I hurt you."
He gave her arm a small squeeze before turning back and moving swiftly up the incline, dropping to his stomach and inching his way forward to the brow of the hill.
Sai, Naruto, and Sakura followed suit, dropping to their bellies and shimmying up to where Kakashi now lay.
The treeline stopped abruptly just feet in front of them, leaving an open sandy arena that stretched out toward a steep rock face, its surface dark and ominous rearing up before them. At first, it was difficult to discern anything in the dark although the moonlight flooded into the flat plain ahead more than they felt comfortable with.
Once she had spotted the entrance, Sakura could have kicked herself for missing it. Thick supporting pillars jutted out of the slate with deep decorative grooves traveling down their length. A grand looking arch crossed over them engraved in figurative patterns, which were picked out harshly by the blue floodlight of the moon.
"This hardly looks very secret base-like, does it?" she muttered in Sai's ear.
"It probably operates under the guise of something else."
"Like what? How could Taki not realize when it's only just outside their walls?"
"I don't know, but I doubt they know its true purpose. They would never risk a war with Konoha," he replied, not once averting his eyes from the less than obscure doorway.
A purposeful shift in weight bought their attention straight back to Kakashi who signaled Sai and Naruto to stay put, gesturing to Sakura and himself with two fingers and then at the doorway. He brought himself into a crouching position, bracing his splayed hands on the ground in front of him.
Sakura mimicked this and, gathering tension into the balls of her feet, shot forward with Kakashi in unison, sprinting across the open ground at breakneck speed. She looked around left to right, left to right, searching the surrounding treeline for hostile movement. Her rucksack bumped uncomfortably against her spine and she reached behind, holding it flat to her body to avoid making the extra noise. She drew up alongside Kakashi and hugged the wall, hoping to dissolve into the rough, stony surface. Her blood pounded in her ears. She once again searched the treeline, waiting for an attack that never came.
Kakashi moved into the entranceway, kneeling down against the pillars, cocking his head to the large wooden double doors. He listened patiently, feeling out for chakra signatures and mentally registered what little information he could: A barrier tag bridged the gap in the doors and a thin slit of light streaked out from behind it.
After a long painful silence in which Sakura had started to feel horrifically exposed, he drew his hands up to perform four hand seals. He whispered "release" under his breath and the tag immediately crumpled, floating silently onto the ground before him. He tensed, seeming to expect something else to happen, but was just met with the persistent chirping of crickets from behind them. His brow knitted into a concerned frown as he applied pressure onto the thick door which opened smoothly inwards, allowing bright white light to shaft through the crack, stretching out across the open ground towards the trees where Naruto and Sai still lay waiting. Again, he tensed and again, he frowned. He looked to Sakura with a questioning expression that read I don't like this, but she could only shrug, as puzzled about the eerie silence as he was. He slipped his rucksack off one shoulder and swung it around, removing a simple calico bag with a long strap and passed it over to Sakura, motioning silently for her rucksack which he stuffed into his own. Another gesture for her weapons pouch and cloak was met with a defiant stare, but she complied anyway, stuffing them in his hands grudgingly.
Skimpy outfit, strange place, no weapons. Fantastic.
She felt into the bag, pulling out several scrolls that were labelled with the official Konoha archives insignia.
No turning back now.
Placing them back in, she waved her hand over the crack in the door several times in quick succession, causing the strong streak of light across the ground to flicker.
Seconds later Naruto and Sai arrived next to her, their faces drawn and serious, peering into the brightness as Kakashi edged the door open further.
They stepped into the corridor beyond and shielded their eyes as they adjusted to the stark, white light. This was not what they had expected at all. Enemy bases were normally predictably uniform with dim lighting and grungy walls that smelled like soil. Countless missions had had them traipsing through grimy dungeons and jumping at flickering shadows and sinister noises, moving forward one foot at a time, looking out for tripwires and hidden switches.
This was completely different. The corridors were bright and white and clean...And silent.
There were no shadows to hide in and Kakashi resisted the urge to laugh at himself as he clung stealthily to the wall, moving forward with careful and deliberate steps.
If anyone had rounded the corner, there wasn't a chance in hell that they wouldn't see Naruto's gleaming orange and black jumpsuit.
Kakashi took comfort in the fact that for once in his life his hair made him the most inconspicuous out of the lot of them. Apart from Sakura, of course, who was someone else entirely.
They pressed forward, trying to limit the squeak of their shoes on the highly polished surface as much as possible, following passageway upon passageway, edging deeper and deeper into the unknown.
They passed a series of large rooms that had rows upon rows of simple bunk beds with grey metal frames and crisp white bedsheets. All were made neatly and uniformly. A thin film of dust covered the bedside lockers that were empty with no clue as to who the occupants had been or what they had been doing.
They surveyed the first three rooms carefully, looking for personal artifacts or some sort of clue, but after that they had moved on through, quickly feeling a little like they had stumbled into a ghost town.
The oppressive silence stretched on and they became more nervous to break it, communicating with nods and gestures as they explored further.
Sakura had startled them all when she had let out a long, hard breath that she had been holding for the last minute or so without noticing.
Naruto still shot her nervous glances, looking her up and down and frowning, once in a while giving her a disapproving headshake.
She felt strangely comforted by this, knowing that she was more appreciated looking like, well, her!
They passed kitchenettes and shower rooms all painted in the same clinical white: white fixtures, white fittings, white furniture with whiter ceilings and walls. The monotony of identical corridor after identical corridor led to a growing sense of disorientation. Finally, they came to a stairwell, one door leading off at a sharp right angle from the corridor they had been travelling down. A large set of stairs lead further down into the unknown.
Naruto mouthed a "good luck" in Sakura's direction before following Sai silently down the stairs, once again cautious as they made their wary decent into the unknown.
Kakashi pushed through the door ahead of them, leading Sakura into more of the same. His mind worked in overdrive as he recounted the twists and turns they had made to get to this point and hoped that Sai had been doing the same. If push came to shove, they wouldn't have time to be running around lost in this labyrinth.
It was several minutes later before the soft murmur of conversation reached their ears and Kakashi tugged Sakura into a small bathroom as he listened keenly to find the source of the noise.
Sakura started shaking again, adrenalin pumping through her body, and she searched frantically at her thigh for her weapons pouch, but only found fistfuls of the silky kimono fabric. She reached up to worry the canvas strap of the bag resting at her hip. Defenseless and aware of how quickly her task had arrived, she swallowed hard and repeated a reassuring mantra over in her head.
Soft music overrode the quiet drone of conversation and filled the restroom. Both of their gazes snapped up a ventilation grating running the length of the wall.
Moving silently over to the basins, Kakashi pulled himself up by his fingertips to look through the grating into the room beyond, his arm muscles quivering under the silent excursion as he steadily lowered himself back down. Walking back over to the door, he leaned in close to Sakura's ear and whispered, "We're in luck. You need to get a look at these girls: Look at their movements and how they're acting. Keep it in mind when you go in there."
He guided her back over to the basins and squatted down, interlacing his fingers into a basket.
She stepped into his palms and he hoisted her up, drawing her chin level with the grating.
The room was warm looking in contrast to the other areas of the complex. Although still painted white, it had a single bulb hanging from the ceiling, which bathed the room in a gentle glow. Two men sat at a table in the center of the room, mulling over paperwork. One man reclined lazily back in a chair, his hands folded behind his head, closing his eyes to the soft music.
Brightly colored cushions lined one corner and a young girl, who looked shockingly similar to herself at this time, sat plucking skilfully at a yamatogoto. Her hands moved up and down the fret, striking each string with graceful precision and muting others with her thumb. She sat with her eyes closed, swaying gently to and fro with the rhythm.
Another girl moved into view, carrying a tray of warm sake. She served it to the men silently, walking around them with a strong, confident roll of her hips.
The men stopped their conversation, taking time to look up and down her figure, obviously enraptured by her presence.
Sakura watched in interest as the more relaxed of the two men let his hand wander around under the girl's kimono, pushing hungrily up to caress a buttock. The girl didn't even flinch. She just stood there and smiled at him. A glimpse of a brown orchid flashed up at Sakura and she felt her mouth run dry. She tapped Kakashi's head lightly, signalling at him to lower her down.
Sakura paced the bathroom thoughtfully, adding a hip roll here and there, swaying her bottom as rhythmically as she could manage. She corrected her posture a couple of times in the mirror, stretching her neck up and pulling her face into an arrogant expression. She batted her eyelashes a few times.
Kakashi watched her in silence as she worked out the kinks in her performance.
She could do this. She'd practiced being sexy alone in her apartment, strutting around in her underwear when she had nothing better to do. When she was satisfied, she sauntered back over to him, keeping in character the whole way, sticking her chest out slightly for effect and pouting her lips.
"I won't be far," he whispered quietly, his lone eye slightly wider than normal before pushing her by the small of her back into the bright corridor once again.
Slipping past him, she stopped outside the next room where the conversation and music from inside abruptly halted.
"Who's there?" a low growl demanded.
Gathering her nerves, Sakura's hand reached out to turn the handle. She shook her shoulders and straightened her back, assuming a position of calm confidence and opened the door.
Naruto followed Sai down the stairs that had seemed to go on forever. When they had finally reached the bottom, they were both relieved to find themselves in relative darkness, the lower level of the complex hopefully abandoned. From this point, they felt secure enough to travel at significant speed.
The temperature at the lower level definitely felt colder and the corridors wider which would, if need be, give them much more room to maneuver.
The first adjoining rooms had been large arenas, circular rooms with seating stands lining the walls. Padded stages stood in their centers, the mats flecked with small brown stains, some with large dark burn marks.
Sai made quiet comments about how this was clearly a training area, but for what he didn't know.
These arenas led off into small medical labs. Jars and vials were stacked haphazardly on warped shelving, some containing recognizable ingredients such as deer antlers, some containing strange colored liquids and pale, coiled creatures that had petrified with age. The corridors down here smelled like iron.
The fifth room they came to looked like a library. Towering bookshelves full to the brim and overflowing with scrolls and loose parchments were arranged in rows with movable stepladders attached against the top shelves on cast iron rollers.
Sai motioned over to the far side of the room. "I'll check here, you start over there."
Naruto nodded and made his way over to the nearest shelf, scanning the jumble of papers for something relevant. In reality, he didn't really know what he was supposed to be looking for. He pulled out timetables, training manifestos, bills, and accounts. He felt his eyes glaze over in boredom. Reading had never really been his strong point.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu," he muttered quietly. Three Shadow Clones materialized beside him with a sucking poof.
"Find anything with the word 'Konoha' in it and put it in a pile here," the real Naruto said.
His clones nodded, separating out, taking a shelf each. They immediately started fumbling through the papers, pulling out scrolls and heavy books, laying them open on the floor and flicking through them. One clambered up a stepladder, reaching for the highest shelf and brought an avalanche of heavy documents tumbling down onto the floor with a loud clatter. They all sucked in their breath, waiting, but nothing happened other than Sai shooting them a dirty look. The Narutos shrugged an apology before turning back and rifling through the heap of paper on the floor.
Naruto picked up one green file and skimmed its contents briefly. More pie charts, graphs, something to do with funding, and God knows what else. Clutching it against his chest absentmindedly, he made his way over to where Sai was standing, staring up at the wall in front of him.
"Hey! You're supposed to be looking through this stuff, too!" Naruto whined.
Sai held up his hand to silence him, frowning deeply at the expanse of space in front of him.
"Stop looking into space like an idiot and get over here and help me!"
"Shut up, Naruto."
"This isn't the time to act like a bastard! Stop treating me like you're the leader! We have to find this…" his voice drifted into silence.
On the wall was a large aerial map of Konoha. Colored pins in green and red decorated its surface, clusters placed around several landmarks. The Hokage building, the civilian quarter, the hospital, and the Academy were heavily concentrated in red pins placed at uniform distances. Ripped pages from a bingo book were pinned along its border: Kakashi, Gai, Ibiki, Anko, Neji, and other jounin level ninjas were circled in bright red marker pen. Tsunade was in the top center with Shizune pinned next to her. Scrawled notes in messy handwriting were beside each name, some notes were more detailed than others.
"Oh, this doesn't look good." Naruto whispered.
"No, it doesn't." Came a dark reply as a jet of cold water hit Naruto square between the shoulder blades.