AN: Hey pretty readers, sorry about the terribly long wait, I had a holiday and then things were crazy and then things were changed…but finally here is the next chapter and it's a little longer than usual to make up for it. A humongous 'thank you' to moderndayportia for Betaing, putting up with me (I am The Queen of Mixed-Metaphor!) and generally investing so much time into making this all glorious and awesome.
Chapter 18: Painting by Numbers
A forest surrounding a wide expanse of meadow just north of Konoha was alive with the waking calls of birds and the sporadic cracking of twigs under hoof as its larger inhabitants emerged from dense woodland into pasture. The deer, leggy and skittish, wandered into the open with tails fanning and ears erect, alert and ready to bolt at the slightest break in the morning calm. The adolescent stags, inexperienced and impatient, bounded eagerly through the clearing, parading proudly through the herd of females and rubbing their velvet-covered antlers against the soil to dig for white-root.
The Nara lands surrounding Konoha were a patchwork of rocky fells, lush forest and small clear tarns, although in the baking summer heat before the coming rainy season, the later were more like muddy puddles, low and murky. Above the valley which cradled Konoha the air seemed cleaner, the moss-covered trees sprawled unhindered by agriculture or landscaping, and the natural paths were much less travelled. Only the Nara clan frequented this part of the forest to harvest antlers and monitor the herd.
So when a girl stepped into the clearing, only the deer noticed.
A red clipboard was thrust under Iruka's nose followed by a low unintelligible rumble.
"Thank you Konohamaru," he chirped brightly, giving the bleary eyed teen a wide appreciative smile.
He was answered with another groan as the boy slid down the rough stone and rested his forehead on his knees.
"So is that everyone?"
"Yes Iruka-sensei. The southwest district is clear," Konohamaru struggled out, gesturing limply at the long, snaking line of civilians that coiled down the full length of the Hokage Mountain and disappeared behind rocky outcrops. They all looked fearful and were clutching bundles of personal belonging's tightly to their chests.
"Brilliant! You can go and join Moegi in the market district; she's having trouble with some of the stallholders."
"Can't I have five minutes? Those elderly civvies pack a punch!" Konohamaru whined, rubbing his hand over a darkening bruise on his jaw.
"They hit you?"
"No one likes being woken up at this time sensei," he justified flatly.
Iruka bit his lip to stifle the chuckle threatening to escape. "The sooner we get this done, the sooner I can treat you to ramen. Besides, you don't want to be doing this when the suns gets high. It's going to be a scorcher."
"How are you going to treat me to ramen when we're evacuating all the restaurant owners?"
"Oh…err…"
"Shinobi rule number six: A shinobi does not question orders," interjected a prim voice from behind them.
"Ah, Hanabi, all done?" Iruka asked, turning to the pearly-eyed chuunin.
"Of course. All evacuees present and accounted for." She handed over her clipboard with an elegant bow.
"Great, Maybe you could take Konohamaru down to the markets and make sure he does some work?"
The boy-in-question's head shot up and panic filled eyes fixed on Iruka's. "Oh please gods no…not with…her."
"What's wrong with Hanabi?"
"She's a witch, a scary-eyed, militant witch."
"I'm standing right here you know," Hanabi retorted indignantly.
"Further evidence that this is all a nightmare and that, in reality, I am still tucked in bed where I should be, away from violent civilians and superior posers."
"Are you still holding a grudge against me for beating you in the chuunin exam?" she snipped, placing her hands firmly on her hips.
"You won on a technicality!"
"Knocking yourself out with your own clone is not a technicality. It's simple stupidity."
"See, you didn't beat me, I beat myself!"
"Shinobi rule number three: Always be aware of your surroundings…"
"Argh! You are such a…"
"STOP BICKERING!" Iruka's bellowing voice tumbled like an avalanche down the mountainside, causing many of the waiting villagers to drop their bundles of belongings in surprise. Iruka pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration as the worried sea of eyes staring up at him swelled with distrust and suspicion. A low murmur of disapproval ran through their ranks. The words "crazy ninja" drifted up to him on a warm breeze. A baby started crying.
"Will you two please just get to work?" he asked despairingly, grinding palms into eye sockets
"Yes sensei," Konohamaru and Hanabi muttered in unison.
"Thank you." And then redirecting his attention to the waiting villagers, Iruka cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled. "If you would all like to make your way up here in a calm, orderly fashion, we can get you settled into the barracks and someone will be along shortly to answer your questions. Come on. No need to be scared!"
Kakashi kept the group moving until they had crossed into home territory. With the threat of Kuma's brainwashed army looming over them, it was imperative that they return to Konoha as soon as possible. But as the sun climbed towards its zenith, so did the temperature and, subsequently, the exhaustion of the group.
Kakashi had kept his dogs with them as escorts for the journey, certain that their keen hearing and sense of smell would alert him to danger long before any of his team could in their current state. The dogs moved silently through the woodland in a practiced 'V' formation. Pakkun stuck close to his master's ankles and shot worried glances back at those lagging behind.
"They're getting tired."
"I know."
"You're tired."
"I know."
Travelling under the dense canopy of trees provided little respite from the increasing humidity, and swarms of tiny, biting insects were a constant irritation. It would only get worse as they neared Konoha because Fire Country had a naturally warmer climate than the Land of Waterfall.
Naruto and Genma seemed to be the only ones coping well with the gruelling pace. Even with Sai slung high over his shoulder, the Kyuubi container marched on as if he were merely carrying an oversized feather pillow.
Tenzou was struggling the most, helped along by Yugao, his face wet and pale as he tried to push through the burdens of chakra depletion and fatigue. His stifling ANBU mask had been relinquished and now hung forgotten from a loop on his belt. Sakura wasn't doing much better, having drained most of her reserves to enable her injured and tired teammates to at least move. Kakashi could feel his own pace slowing, a lack of nourishment followed by hours of torture had left his reactions sluggish and his head heavy. When his foot caught on an exposed tree root for the seventh time, he finally signalled a stop. The ninken fanned out into guard positions without being asked.
"We all need to rest," he addressed the swaying group. "Naruto, put Sai down and see about finding something to eat. We passed a river a few hundred yards back. If we're lucky there might be some fish. And fill up the canteens, too. Sakura, Owl, Yamato; rest up. Genma and I will take first watch."
"But what if by the time we get back…" Naruto started, brushing his sweat soaked hair away from his face. It was what they were all thinking.
"We can't travel in this condition or this heat. We'll rest for three hours, by which time the sun will have lost some of its intensity," Kakashi replied sharply.
Naruto nodded firmly before placing Sai on the moss cushioned ground and disappearing into the trees. The ink user stirred, blinking owlishly up at the dappled canopy.
"How is he?" Kakashi asked as Sakura knelt down next to him and ran her hands over his torso to assess his condition.
"The medication has almost worn off. He'll be lucid again soon," she answered tiredly, slumping down against a tree stump.
"You should rest too."
He reached forward to push the sweaty hair off of her forehead and noted her ashen complexion and the bruise-like marks forming around her eye sockets. She dazedly leaned into his palm and hummed against the touch.
"How come your fingers are cold? You should be a doctor…" She weakly made to stand up again, but his gloved hand slid up to the crown of her head and pushed down.
"Sakura."
"Hmm?"
"Get some rest."
"I will, I just need to check... everyone is okay..."
Before he could even reply, her chin hit her chest and she was fast asleep.
Twelve girls stood in a grassy glade.
As the sun crawled upward they were joined by a thirteenth, a fourteenth, a fifteenth.
Fifteen girls stood in a wide circle, which spanned the length and breadth of the clearing, unaffected by the blazing heat and buzzing insects. Moving their hands in perfect unity they flashed through a long and complicated series of seals.
Hare, Ram, Ox, Ram
At the centre of the circle a bright, spinning ball of chakra began to form, its surface shifting and writhing like mercury with each slow rotation.
Tiger, Hare, Boar, Serpent
The orb began to gain mass and spin faster, a shrill whine ringing from its core.
Rat, Dragon, Dragon
Fifteen pairs of eyes closed tightly in concentration as the chakra charged and the air twisted and whipped, the sound morphing into a deafening screech.
Dog, Horse, Monkey
Blades of grass bent flat against the pressure, tinted blue by the eerie glow building above them.
Bird
The final seal clapped into position and chakra burst outward, flooding the clearing with dazzling, silver light before disappearing.
The ear-splitting wail slowly tapered off and was replaced by the empty drone of the singing cicadas.
Fifteen girls stood in a grassy glade.
They made no conversation.
They just stood.
And waited.
"Hello? Anybody there?" Konohamaru called, rapping thunderously on the wooden door of a pastry shop. Only one more row of shops to go and then hopefully Iruka-sensei would let him go for lunch. He could see Hanabi on the other side of the street, guiding an elderly lady over to where Moegi was organizing another large group of citizens for the trek up the Hokage Mountain.
"Hello?" He pounded even harder.
Upon receiving no answer, he tried the handle. It turned and the door opened outward with a creaking sigh. Blinking into the relative darkness, he gingerly put a sandaled foot over the threshold.
"Anyone?"
Silence.
It seemed rather stupid to leave the door of any establishment unlocked when the owners were clearly not there, but then again Konoha was a ninja village, which made locks a little redundant.
The pastry shop was a modest affair, with only seven plastic-top-tables and a handful of rickety, wicker chairs crammed into its small interior, it was cosy though, and he knew Moegi often bought a selection of delicious cakes from here for their team picnics with Ebisu-sensei.
His gaze slid across the room and stalled on a counter where a pile of cinnamon buns looked back at him invitingly.
His stomach growled pathetically.
In his haste to stop Iruka-sensei's infuriatingly loud, Morse-coded knocking at five-thirty that morning, he had completely forgotten to eat breakfast…and now it was almost lunchtime. And someone had very kindly thought to leave a nice tray of honey coated cinnamon goodness for him…
Before he had even realised what he was doing, Konohamaru was across the room and wrapping his fingers around the topmost bun.
Gods did it smell amazing!
The sweet aroma wafted up to him as he gave the sticky ball of dough an experimental squeeze; the nutty, spicy scent had his toes curling down around the rubber soles of his sandals.
"Mmm…" he rumbled has he bought the delectable morsel up to his mouth.
A sharp, hard smack to the head had him screeching in shock, his fingers loosened their hold on the bun, which dropped to the wooden floor and rolled off under a plastic topped table.
"We're supposed to be evacuating the citizens, not robbing them blind." Hanabi's tight, precise voice dripped with disgust.
"What's wrong with you, sneaking up on people like that! And I wasn't stealing. I was sampling!"
"You were stealing and…hey!" she said snatching another bun out of his hand.
"Gods woman! You're so troublesome!"
"And you've been spending too much time with Shikamaru-san." The reproach in her voice was evident.
"What's wrong with Shikamaru, the guy's a genius!"
"He's lazy. Daddy said he has the potential to make Hokage but no ambition."
"Daddy?" scoffed Konohamaru, "You're too uptight, princess."
"Princess?" she said in confusion, whipping her long ebony hair over her shoulder haughtily.
"Yes, Miss I'm-from-an-elite-family-and-therefore-have-to-walk-'round-with-a-massive-stick-up-my-arse-Hyuuga."
Hanabi's face instantly darkened as she glared venomously at the boy in front of her.
"Well maybe you should try acting more like you are from an elite family. You're grandfather was one of our most respected and longest serving leaders, yet here you are, stealing cinnamon buns from little old ladies."
"Sampling. And acting like you're god's gift does not make you a better ninja than me."
"Yes, but being a chuunin while you're still a genin does make me a better ninja than you."
"Argh!" Konohamaru growled tugging his hair in frustration. "Will you just chill out?"
"Chill out," she repeated looking down intently at the cake in her hand.
"YES! Relax, have some fun, live a…"
The bun smacked him straight on the nose before sliding down his cheek and joining its companion on the floor. His hand reached up to wipe at the tacky trail it had left on his face.
"Did you just throw a bun at me?" he asked in bewilderment.
"Yes." Hanabi replied seriously, but with the shadow of a smirk tugging at her refined features.
Konohamaru recovered from the shock quickly, a lip-curling grin splitting his face. One arm wrapped around the tray of buns while the other started launching the sticky projectiles at the Hyuuga heiress. Immediately the Byakugan activated, Hanabi's temples rippling with the appearance of tiny veins, and the buns fell in halves to the floor.
"Hey, using your freaky eyes is cheating!" he cried, scooping up another handful.
"It's not cheating, it's utilising–"
Hanabi's sentence hung in the air unfinished and her eyes widened further. She spun on the spot, staring fixedly at the painting on the wall behind her. The buns hit the back of her head, splattering crumbs and honey into her hair.
"Shit, sorry Hanabi," Konohamaru said, wincing as three of the round balls hung from her long glossy locks like pendulous, orange hair-ornaments. "I know you're good but you don't have to try and show off…"
Her body was rigid, her shoulders quivering ever so slightly. Konohamaru swallowed down a lump of anxiety–because for all his teasing and posturing he really didn't want to be on the bad side of a Hyuuga–as he walked forward and placed a tentative hand on her shoulder. It stuck a little as it came in contact with the black fabric of her shirt.
"Look, I'm really sorry, I'll stand still so you can pummel me back." He waved the half decimated tray of sweets in front of her nose.
A small frown pulled her eyebrows together.
"Earth calling Hanabi-chan…what are you looking at?"
Her hand raised to gesture shakily at the wall.
"It's just a painting of a cat in a vase of flowers" he said in confusion, looking at the hideously vibrant canvas that still had the 'paint by numbers' guidelines visible. He couldn't blame her for being horrified. The 'artist' had rendered the cat a putrid shade of pink and the flowers had merged into the vase in a muddy brown swirl. Was that chewing gum sticking to the corner?
"There's someone next door," she whispered quietly, finely pulling her eyes away from the wall.
"Ohhhh, okay, you're doing your eye thing. I'll go get them!"
He saluted eagerly, then pressed the tray into her hands, wiping his own on his trousers.
"Konohamaru wait!" she hissed.
But he'd already shot out the door. Placing the tray down on the counter and muttering angrily to herself, Hanabi hurried after him.
The unit next door was a dilapidated shoe-shop which had obviously been out of business for some time. The windows were smeared with white paint and a heavy padlock hung on the chain grate over the door. Digging into his thigh holster, Konohamaru pulled out his trusty Academy-issued lock-pick set and quickly inserted the torsion-wrench into the keyhole, carefully selecting the half diamond shaped pick. He placed his ear close to the lock to listen to the sliding pins of the mechanism.
"Konohamaru, stop, something isn't right."
"Shh…I've almost got it," he whispered, running his tongue along his teeth.
"The chakra in there is erratic; it isn't civilian."
"We still need to evacuate everyone…Aha! Got it."
The padlock sprung open with a satisfying snap. Wrenching the grating apart, Konohamaru kicked open the door and stepped inside.
The scent of sweating leather and rubber mingled with stale air, making the store smell musky and sour. The sunlight poured through the doorway, highlighting the swirling motes of dust kicked up by their arrival.
"Are you sure someone's in here? It looks like this place hasn't been touched in a year," he wondered, dragging a finger across the surface of a display cabinet and revealing rich ochre timber under layers of grey dust.
Hanabi nodded stiffly, her puffy eyes darting to the stock cupboard door. Striding forward, Konohamaru put his hand on the brass knob.
"Be careful."
The store cupboard was long and thin, with cubbyholes still full of footwear running floor-to-ceiling up the walls. The farthest wall had a letterbox window inserted into it, letting a fair amount of light into the small room. The first thing they noticed was that the smell of leather was stronger in the small space, but there was another smell that had both Konohamaru and Hanabi covering their noses with their sleeves.
The stench of urine and faecal matter.
The second thing they noticed was fast staccato breathing trembling through the naked body hunkered under the window.
Hanabi's surprised gasp caused the shaking figure to jolt into a seated position, dim slate-grey eyes narrowing at the two shinobi. Waves of strong, muddy chakra rolled off of her. A warning.
She was so tiny and frail, her thin, willowy limbs tangled protectively around her torso. Her skin was pallid, tinged yellow through illness and the filth covering her lower body. A fine sheen of perspiration covered her whole body, and her long dark hair hung in tangled tails over her shoulders.
Konohamaru edged forward slowly, unzipping his jacket and holding it out in front of him. He coughed awkwardly to clear his throat.
"Here. You know, for the nakedness."
"I'm h-hot," the girl croaked out simply, her gaze hostile and wary, like a cornered animal.
"What's your name?"
"Konohamaru…" Hanabi warned close to his ear.
"Hey that's a nice tattoo. What's it mean?" he said, ignoring her and gesturing to the brown orchid sitting high on the girl's hip.
She frowned, shaking her head back and forth in agitation, another pulse of chakra jumped from her body, filling the room. The two ninja stepped back slowly.
"She's one of them. One of the girls we've been warned about. She's dangerous."
"I wonder how long she's been hiding here," he replied, nodding up at the letterbox window where the glass was smeared with fingerprints. "She can't be much older than us."
"She's dangerous."
The girl twitched in response.
"She's ill," he reasoned.
"She's the enemy."
"Hanabi, just go get Tsunade-sama."
The air seemed to shimmer and bow as another girl walked out of the forest to join the throng of young women in the meadow. She looked around at their upturned faces.
Some stood out as familiar, but most of them were strangers to her.
No pleasantries were exchanged when she took her position.
Genma stood and stretched, popping the joints along his shoulders that had grown stiff and sore from keeping watch in the awkward position crammed between the boughs of an ancient oak. Jumping down and using chakra to cushion his fall, he landed silently in the centre of the camp and ran his eyes over the group. Tenzou, Yugao, and Sakura were still sleeping, Sai had regained consciousness and was doodling quietly several metres away. He could see Naruto crouched in the bracken on the edge of their camp, his back leaning against the giant chocolate Bull-Mastiff as he kept watch.
"So…" Genma began, slinking over to park himself beside Kakashi on the log where the copy-nin sat cross-legged with his book open on his lap.
Kakashi turned over a well-thumbed page and continued to read.
"We're friends right?"
Another page turn.
"And friends confide in each other, yeah?"
"Mm."
"…So if you needed to discuss something…personal, you know you can come to me. I am your man…"
The copy-nin let out a light nasal sigh.
"I know you're not big on the caring, sharing stuff…but if you need to talk about anything, anything at all, you know you can…"
"What are you getting at Genma?" Kakashi asked with disinterest, keeping his gaze fixed on the small type of his favourite book.
Smirking lopsidedly, Genma pulled the bobbing senbon out of his mouth and flicked it up and down rhythmically between his thumb and index finger.
"What's going on with you and Nurse Pinkie?" he nodded his head over at the sleeping medic.
Kakashi snapped his book shut. His eye flickered over to Sakura briefly.
Well, that wasn't what he had been expecting…
"What makes you think there is anything going on?" the copy-nin answered calmly. The best way to respond to a question you didn't want to answer was with another question.
Genma scratched his chin in faux-contemplation. "Hmm, let's see: the way you greeted her at the compound, how reluctant you've been to let her out of your sight since, the way you're gravitating towards her–"
"I do not gravitate…and will you stop waving that thing around? I'd like to keep my good eye if I can help it."
Not to be deterred so easily Genma pressed on. "Then why are you sitting over here, with a perfectly good view of her backside, pretending to read?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
Genma snorted derisively.
After a long pause in which Kakashi stared resolutely at the front cover of his book, he finally spoke up. "She's my team-mate, my responsibility. I thought she had been killed, or brainwashed or worse. I'm concerned."
"She seems fine to me, just tired."
"Exactly."
"You thought Sai and Naruto had been killed. I don't see you paying any extra attention to them."
If the deepening crease between Kakashi's eyes was any indication, then Genma had definitely hit a nerve.
"Of course I was worried about them," he said quietly, squeezing the orange-jacketed book between his fingers.
Pakkun's broad, wrinkled head popped up between them. "You gave her your bag as a makeshift pillow," his gravelly voice intoned knowingly.
"I don't need it," Kakashi shrugged
"You were looking at her rump."
"Definitely," Genma agreed.
"And before she rolled over you were looking at her mouth, again," Pakkun added thoughtfully.
"Mouth, eh?"
"What's with the tag team interrogation?" Kakashi hissed, his composure slipping briefly. It had been a really long mission and he just wanted to lock himself away in his apartment for a good few days and forget all about torture sessions, female assassins and seventeen year-old medics whose noses twitched when they slept.
Looking back and forth between his so-called-friend and annoyingly observant dog, he could only despair inwardly at the expressions of smug satisfaction stretched across their faces. "You…" he said jabbing Genma in the chest with Icha Icha "…watch too many soap drama's, and you…" he continued frowning down at his panting summons, "…better remember who feeds you."
Genma and Pakkun exchanged their own personal versions of a cunning smiles, one so lopsided it was almost a toothy dimple and the other looking like a screwed up ball of tissue paper.
"You're secret is safe with us," Pakkun wheezed out in amusement.
"Yeah. We want to help."
"Help?" Kakashi did not like the sound of that…
"Pakkun tells me she tried to kiss you a few days ago."
"Telltale," Pakkun accused, flattening his ears against his head.
Kakashi's eyebrows shot up impossibly high before narrowing dangerously at the tubby dog. "You two are acting like pre-genin matchmakers. We are still on a mission and have information which could be crucial to the survival or our village, so cut it out and focus. I mean it."
Genma barrelled on regardless, "If you're worried about the age gap, you shouldn't be. Fourteen years isn't that bad and every girl secretly wants a sugar-daddy, and we all know that you are filthy rich even if you never pay for anything. That wasn't a crack about your age by the way…it's not like you're old enough to be her actual father."
"Well actually…" Pakkun interjected, raising a paw and preparing to launch into a lecture about reproduction.
"For the last time, there is nothing going on between me and Sakura, like I said, I am concerned. That's all." Kakashi snarled through clenched teeth.
"Sakura smells nice. I like her," Pakkun hummed happily.
"Yeah, Sakura definitely smells nice…" Genma said, grinning lecherously.
Kakashi pinched the bridge of his nose to fend off the growing tension headache spreading across his forehead. "Both of you just…leave me alone so I can pretend to read my book."
Sakura woke gradually from a dreamless sleep to find herself enveloped by a scent she associated with safety: the scent of evergreen mixed with nuts and spice with a subtle undertone of dog. Her eyelids fluttered drowsily open, a swath of blurry charcoal grey filled her vision. Rubbing her eyes to clear them of sleep Sakura slowly sat up to look down at the bag that had somehow found its way underneath her head.
Kakashi's bag.
Looking around the camp for her team leader she spotted him dozing against a log, his head supported by a hand propped up on its lichen-encrusted surface. She couldn't help grinning a little at the awkward position; he'd have a neck-ache when he woke up.
Then she realised, belatedly that if Kakashi was sleeping then she had slept through most of her shift.
"Crap," she groaned while slapping her forehead with her hand.
"It's fine, Kakashi-senpai said that as team medic, you needed the most rest. He let Yamato keep sleeping too."
Sakura looked up into the tree above her where Sai sat straddling a bough with his sketchbook in hand.
"Sai! You shouldn't be climbing up trees with a broken leg!" she chastised before leaping up to join him.
"You healed most of it," he defended with a blank smile.
"You still shouldn't aggravate it until I can heal you properly. How's the pain?" She sat opposite him and placed a hand on his shin, sending small bursts of healing chakra into the bone.
"Sore but bearable. I can walk on it without too much discomfort."
"Do you want a pain killer or an anti-inflammatory?"
Sai thought for a moment, his gaze settling on the open sketchbook pages. A look of slight confusion crossed his ghost-like features. "No, I think the strong medication you gave me before is still in effect," he replied while spinning the page around to show her.
"What the hell is that?" Sakura peered down at the abomination sketched out in pencil with horror.
"It appears to be a twenty headed dog with toasters for feet wearing a festival kimono."
"That's just disturbing."
"It seemed quite calming when I started it." He turned the page back around and began shading a bony projection coming from the dog-toaster's chest.
"Sai?"
"Hmm?"
"About Kuma…I, erm…I wanted to know if you were okay…you know…"
"I don't want to talk about it." His response wasn't aggressive or even defensive. In fact, Sai spoke so softly that Sakura almost couldn't hear him. He didn't even pause in his work, the gentle scraping of the lead whispered against the paper long after he'd finished his sentence.
"Okay."
Sakura could understand the need for privacy; she didn't know what had happened between Kuma and Sai, only that Sai and come out victorious. But what were they to each other?
"But," Sai continued, taking Sakura by surprise, "you will need my help with this right?"
He reached into his satchel to pack away his sketchbook, and, after groping blindly through the bowels of the bag, he withdrew a small leather-bound notebook and began leafing through its pages.
The old doctor's medical journal.
She snatched it from his hands and opened to the first page.
…Dysfunctions related to disease of the blood vessels supplying the brain. It's spongy and riddled with holes, just like cheese. Hypertension damages the blood vessel lining; degradation of endothelium, big balloons and anchors. Drip. Drip. Complete and perfect…
"Most of it looks like the nonsensical ramblings of a mad man, but Kuma would have chosen to work with the Doctor only if he was extremely talented. Also, I believe Kuma would have linked the reprogramming of the girls to the seal. I don't think the seal and the brainwashing are separate issues," Sai explained.
"What are you saying?"
"I will assist by telling you all that I am able to of Kuma's techniques: how he would have approached his objectives, holes he might have left in the programming. I might not want to talk about it…but if you can reverse this process…" Sai trailed off.
"Reverse it? How did you know that's what I was thinking?" Sakura asked with a grin, a sudden excitement swimming in her bottle-green eyes.
"The girls are innocent. They've been violated. It seems…wrong…to kill them without trying to help them. I don't know if anyone else will see it that way though. As soon as first blood is spilt they'll be seen as an enemy."
Sakura felt a sudden warmth expand in her chest. Sai really did understand her, and she understood him; to Sai this was deeply personal.
"We'll definitely help them."
"We'll try," he agreed.
Kakashi's commanding voice rose up to greet them.
"Sakura, before we get moving, can I have a word?"
Sakura looked over the edge of the bough to see him slipping his bag onto his shoulder, looking more dishevelled than usual and kneading his neck with one hand.
They both slipped out of the tree to land beside him.
"Thanks for the pillow Kakashi-sensei, I can give you a massage to iron out those kinks in return, if you'd like?"
It must have been a trick of the light, but she swore she saw Kakashi's ears turn pink.
He didn't answer her and instead grabbed onto her upper arm, none to gently, and pulled her through the undergrowth and away from the camp. He set a brutal pace, the ferns whipped against her legs as she stumbled to keep up, reluctant to use her newly recovered chakra reserves to match his long-legged stride.
"Where are we going sensei?" she asked, throwing a bemused look back over her shoulder in the direction of their group, which had long since become obscured by the greenery.
Kakashi kept marching, batting large papaya leaves away from his face with his free gloved hand. The grip on her arm tightened to the point of near painfulness as he tugged her onward.
"Kakashi, you're hurting me." Sakura said with a nervous, humourless giggle.
He ignored her completely. Suddenly feeling uneasy and awkward, Sakura found herself trying to subtly extricate herself from his vice-like hold. When a branch snapped back to slap her across the cheek, she finally lost her temper. Digging her heels into soft, dark topsoil, she placed her free hand on his offending limb and sent a short burst of chakra up his arm. Kakashi swore in surprise, relinquishing his grip on her and shaking out his hand as if burnt.
Liberally messaging her reddening arm, Sakura didn't even try to keep the annoyance out of her voice, "Where the hell are you taking me?"
Kakashi hitched his forehead protector up to expose the Sharingan eye, and his heavy-lidded, mismatched gaze scanned the forest around them briefly before settling back on her. The slow rotation of crimson iris always had the strangest effect on her; it was like standing in a tunnel, looking towards a pinprick of light and being unable to judge the distance between. It was unnerving. Sakura shivered involuntarily.
"This should be far enough."
"Far enough? You've been acting really bizarre since the compound, like, more so than normal…are you feeling…"
His thumb gently brushed along the thin pink welt dissecting her cheek.
"Are you feeling alright, Sakura?"
Her mind had suddenly become very foggy. When had he gotten so close?
"I-I'm fine…"
His nimble fingers ghosted across her parted lips before dipping down her chin to trace the sharp line of her jaw.
"Are you sure?" he coaxed, running his hand down her neck to rest on her shoulder. "We've been through a lot over the last few days, but you seem to be coping too well. I'm concerned."
"Really I'm fine, tired, but fine. I'm just anxious to get home and…" her voice died in her throat when his hands moved to hold her around the waist, his thumbs rubbing slow circular patterns against her hip bones.
A sudden prickling heat sparked to life low in her gut. She tried to swallow but her mouth seemed to have dried up completely. She tried to ignore the tingling sensation spreading outwards from where his fingers had dipped under the waistband of her medic apron to meet bare flesh, but it was almost impossible to focus. All she could see was the revolving tomoe of the Sharingan. It dominated her senses.
Was that her breath panting rhythmically in the background? She couldn't tell.
He leant forward, his masked mouth resting against the shell of her ear. His voice came out like a purr, its deep bass seeming to reverberate right through her body, his lips moving like a kiss against her skin.
"Are you sure you're feeling yourself?"
"What?" she shook her head in an attempt to clear it as a fresh wave of gooseflesh erupted across her arms. His fingers were working against the buckles on her medic-apron and somewhere in the back of her head alarm bells started ringing.
She wanted this, or she wanted him, or at least she thought she did.
When she thought about Kakashi she thought about feeling safe. When she thought about kissing him…which she seemed to think about a lot about these days, she would find herself fixated on the details. Would his mask feel smooth and silky against her lips or would the fabric be coarse and rough like his gloves? Would she have to stand on her tiptoes or would be bend down for her?
He had been watching her since the compound. She knew it. She could feel it. A quiet whispering prickle against the back of her neck letting her know he was there.
But now? Well this felt fantastic…his hands on her hips, squeezing and grabbing, the fabric of his mask, which as it turned out was actually quite soft, moving against her neck…but wasn't this all a little…random? Did he have four hands? They seemed to be everywhere…
When she felt the heavy cotton slide down her legs and his thumbs hook around her black shorts she reached out dazedly to grasp one of his wrists.
"What are you doing?" the slight panic in her breathless voice was clear as she drew back from him.
For a second, doubt flitted across Kakashi's eyes, but then his jaw seemed to set in determination.
"Are you yourself?" he questioned again without the caressing softness lining his voice.
Sakura balked a little at the question, shifting under his scrutiny.
"I've told you, I'm fine…"
Then it hit her.
Her eyes narrowed, her hands forming a single sign. "Kai!" The man standing directly in front of her shimmered briefly like a desert mirage before vanishing completely. Her eyes slid down to appraise the real Kakashi.
Kakashi groaned long and low as the words left her mouth and her focus readjusted to where he was kneeling with his fingers poised over the waistband of her shorts. A bright hot blush was quickly spreading across her cheeks. Lunging at her, he made a grab for the shorts intending to whip them down in one deft movement, but Sakura had recovered quicker than he had anticipated. Hissing like a feral cat backed into a corner, she threw her arm forward, her knuckles, covered with a gossamer veil of chakra, connected with his jaw with an ear-splitting crack. Kakashi spiralled backward, hitting a tree behind him and slumping brokenly to the ground.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" she shrieked.
Groaning and clutching his jaw with a shaky hand, Kakashi looked up balefully from his slumped position on the ground.
"I need to make sure that you're still yourself."
Sakura's brow knitted in confusion, and then slowly her eyes grew larger, and larger and larger as the understanding dawned on her.
"You think I've been brainwashed," her voice was so devoid of emotion it was chilling. "You don't trust me. You think I'm one of them. You think I would hurt my friends."
Kakashi winced at the accusation and nodded once, feeling suddenly very exposed.
"You used your eye on me?"
He gulped before answering. "Only a minor genjutsu to lower your inhibitions, I needed to check your other hip, to make sure you haven't been marked."
"YOU USED YOUR EYE ON ME!" her fist went though the trunk of the tree only millimetres from his head. Splinters rained down over his torso.
But Sakura wasn't finished, oh no. Kakashi had witnessed her wrath on many occasions, although normally it was more amusing because it was aimed at Naruto. Being the recipient wasn't quite so funny.
"I'm a genjutsu type you moron! What made you think I wouldn't see through a party trick like that!" she spat.
"Well…it did take you a while to realise…" Sakura's eyes burned brighter "…and, as your team leader you are my responsibility, I can't let you complete the mission until I know you won't try to assassinate the Hokage. You were out of my sight for at least an hour, anything could've happened in that time. You've remained completely calm and unphased by this whole experience and–" he tried to reason, but she cut him short.
"So you conjure up some perverted molestation jutsu to assess my condition?"
Kakashi honestly looked as though he had been slapped. "Erm…the genjutsu was supposed to provide you with a distraction of your choosing…"
Mortification. Complete and utter mortification. Sakura scrunched her eyes up in embarrassment, wishing she could melt into the forest floor.
"Great. Just great. That's amazing," her top hit the ground exposing a creamy expanse of toned stomach.
"…Sakura…what are you doing…" Kakashi coughed awkwardly.
"What? Just because I'm not having a complete nervous breakdown over this mission you think I'm a traitor," she said, her voice rising in pitch and volume. "I thought my two best friends were dead, I had to watch you get taken away from me to endure horrific torture while I was completely unable to help you…" she shimmied her black shorts down to her ankles then hopped about madly, trying to shake her boots off. "…I was so relived to find out they were alive, I've never been more grateful for anything in my life, and when I saw you walk out of that barn I just…I just…fuck…" her boots flew off one at a time, thunking into the tree on either side of Kakashi's head. "I just wanted to stay in that embrace forever! I've felt you watching me and I thought, stupidly, that it was because you were feeling this thing between us. But no." She lobbed her shorts as hard as she could as him, panting hard.
"Is this not enough!" she was shaking with outrage and screaming at near the top of her lungs.
Kakashi was sitting so still he could have been part of the tree; his hand clutched against his bruised jaw and his eyes almost bulging out of their sockets.
He couldn't remember how to blink.
In only her breast-bindings, panties and gloves stood Sakura, arms akimbo, glaring at him expectantly.
He couldn't remember how to speak…
"Well?" she glowered pacing towards him. "Fine! I suppose the tattoo's are quite small," she gestured at the mock-tattoo on her hip, "they could be hiding anywhere…" Her fingers were suddenly clawing at the bandages strapping her chest flat, pulling and stretching the fabric until it loosened. She impatiently tugged the mass of white down to her waist, exposing her small pert breasts to Kakashi's astonished stare.
His mouth was working up and down but no sound was coming out.
Her leather gloves landed in his lap.
She spun around and hitched the fabric of her panties up to expose her backside for his inspection.
"Trust me now? Or shall I gut myself so you can make sure they didn't tattoo my intestines!"
It was at that moment, when Sakura turned to pick up her clothes, the red haze of her anger slowly dissipating and a growing awareness of what she had just done creeping over her, that she noticed Kakashi's ninken amongst the foliage, their heads cocked to the side in curiosity.
Then she noticed the rest of the team.
Yamato was staring up at the tree-filtered sunlight as if trying to burn the image from his mind, his hand clapped firmly over Genma's mouth. Genma's hand was clapped over Naruto's eyes and Sai was busy sketching, looking up every now and then to check proportions. Owl, the purple haired ANBU, seemed to be sending out waves of karmic sympathy.
"Great. Just great. That's amazing," Sakura repeated glumly, gathering her clothes and stomping off bare foot into the forest in nothing but a faded pair of rather large 'Sunday morning' panties. She didn't look back.
The group moved cautiously toward Kakashi as he repeatedly pinched his own arm.
"Wake up…wake up…"